Rowen, Kento, and Cye burst into the battle, their weapons at the ready. They wasted no time in joining Sage and Ryo, who were already greatly weakened.

"Mia and Yuli are safe!" Cye cried out over the din of battle as he slashed and blocked his opponents. Anubis lay nearby, presumably unconscious, hit by the full force of Ryo's ultimate move. Across his chest and right side, his armor was blackened by the blow and smoke rose from his cloth covering, which smoldered on. "They got out already!"

"What about Dani?" Sage yelled back, spinning around to kick a goon hard in the chest.

"Still in here!"

"Guys… Our friends are here!" Kento called out. Sage looked up to see both Sekhmet and Cale, clad in their armor, appearing at the edge of battle from somewhere deeper within the fortress.

"We gotta get out!" Ryo shouted, his voice, reaching them even over the grunts of pain and calls of fury from the soliders. "Move!"

"No! We can't leave without Dani!" Sage responded hotly. He grunted as he took a hard blow to the chest from a soldier's blade, stumbling back a step. His breath was becoming increasingly labored, his reflexes and attacks slowing considerably.

"We'll need to split up and look for her!" came Ryo's voice again, "Kento, Cye, you guys-"

"Wait! Look!" This was Rowen's voice. Sage looked around desperately to see what Rowen was speaking about. He caught sight of the dark blue armored arm, flung out to point towards the gates.

He saw it. A flash of dark purple climbing over the wreckage of the great doors, fleeing from the fortress. "Dani!" he cried. He turned, abandoning his opponent and weaving through the soldiers, trying to reach the girl. "Dani!" She didn't turn.

"Let's get outta here!" Kento screamed. Sage turned back towards the battle. Sekhmet and Cale stood watching, not moving to help the minions, but their weapons were ready. Following Kento's sage advice, the five warriors began battling their way back towards the gates.

Cye thrust his trident forward, penetrating the armor of a green solider. Immediately, the light faded from the creature's eyes and the armor went limp. Cye shook the metal free from his trident. "Where'd she go?" he wondered aloud. By this time, the Ronin Warriors were backed up together, nearly at the gate. They stood in a circle, facing out, fighting together. "Why did she leave without us?"

Sage shook his head, stepping backwards with his friends, inching towards the doors. "I don't know. We need to make sure she is all right. She might be hurt."

"Agh!" Kento cried out in pain as he took a blow to the face. A solider moved to take advantage of his moment of weakness, but Cye intercepted, blocking the blow with his trident. "Thanks, man," Kento grunted.

"Go!" Ryo shouted. Together, the five Ronin turned and leapt over the rubble of the entrance doors, fleeing the battle. Still, Sekhmet and Cale watched, not moving to attack or stop the warriors.

Rowen looked over his shoulder as they ran. "They don't seem to be following," he reported, relief apparent in his tone.

"Once again, Talpa's twerps can't take the heat!" Kento said with a grin. "Hey! There's Dani!" He waved and motioned. Sure enough, there stood the purple Armor of the Tempest about two blocks away. The figure was still, but clearly looking in their direction as the Ronin turned and sprinted towards her. Sage squinted, but her face was masked entirely in shadow. Without a word or any other form of acknowledgement, she turned and disappeared down the street that formed a junction with the road the Ronin were on.

"Dani! Hey! Wait!" Sage called after her in confusion, hurrying to the intersection. He reached it a second before his comrades and stopped still, looking around. He could not see Dani anywhere.

"Where'd she go?" Rowen asked in surprise as he reached his friend.

"Why did she run?" Kento demanded. He looked over his shoulder, just to make sure there wasn't a terrible enemy behind him.

"Something must be wrong. We need to go after her," Sage said.

"Where are Mia and Yuli?" Ryo asked his teammates. "We need to make sure they are safe!"

After a minute of discussion, the warriors decided to split up. Ryo, Kento, and Cye went back to collect Mia and Yuli, while Rowen and Sage tried to find Dani. They decided to meet back at the United Bank building two blocks away from their apartment. The apartments were clearly no longer safe, but they wanted to be nearby in case that's where Dani went.

Two guards issued Dani into Talpa's inner chambers, one latched onto either arm. Though she was quaking on the inside, feeling fear rush through her mind and body, she refused to show it. She resolutely kept her head up, looking in front of her.

The majority of the chamber was pitch black, lit only by a few candles halfway between Dani and Talpa himself. The sight of Talpa turned Dani's knees to jelly. In that moment, she was grateful for the two soldiers carrying her weight. If they had not been, she would have fallen to her knees.

Talpa was not a man, as she had supposed. He was not some high and mighty king on a throne. Instead, he appeared as a huge apparition, towering above her even from across the room. Only his head appeared, from the base of his neck to the top of his great, wrought iron headdress. His face – Dani shuddered as she looked upon it – contained no trace of humanity. It appeared to be made out of solid metal somehow, his great mouth gaping open in a frozen growl. His eyes were empty, devoid of all life. Like his mouth, they were only pools of darkness. His hair, ghastly white, flowed thickly to where his shoulders should have been.

The soldiers let go of her suddenly as they reached the candles. Dani collapsed to her knees and could not find the willpower or courage to climb to her feet. She did, however, turn her gaze upwards to meet the empty gaze of the apparition before her. The soldiers stepped back into the darkness.

"I have been waiting for you, girl." Talpa's voice seemed to come not from the gaping mouth, but instead from all around her.

Dani swallowed hard. Act confident, she told herself. Pretend. Just pretend. "What do you want from me?"

"I have waited for you so that you could join me."

Dani almost spat with shock. "What?"

"It is destiny, child. You will join me."

"No way am I joining you!"

"You will."

Dani felt tempted to scream 'Will not!' but realized that would seem childish. "What makes you think I would ever join you?"

"I am a part of you."

Dani felt fury surge through her system. She leapt to her feet and glared at the giant head floating before her. "You, little man behind the curtain, are definitely not a part of me!"

"But I am. Tell me, why have you not fully bonded with the Ronin Warriors? Why did you not join them as soon as you arrived?"

Dani felt the fight exit her system in a rush, leaving her feeling suddenly empty. She sank back to her knees. That question. Why that question? Why the one she could not seem to answer herself. "I… I wanted to earn their trust first."

"No. You did not join them because you did not want to. You knew you did not belong with them."

Dani stared blankly forward, her eyes glazing, the lines of Talpa's cruel metal face blurring in her vision. She did not answer him. She could not answer him. Was he right?

"Five Ronin Warriors, Five Warlords. The balance between the sides of light and darkness always have a way of balancing themselves."

"No," Dani whispered, almost to herself. Then, louder, "No. It doesn't matter. I've joined them now."

"And do they accept you?"

"Of… Of course!" she said, not entirely convinced.

Before her, suddenly, a large vision appeared, just as it had in the hallway when she was with Mia and Yuli. In this vision, she could see the five Ronin Warriors, their backs almost together, fighting off soldiers. Then, all together, they turned and fled he castle. The vision continued as they ran down the street, putting more and more distance between themselves and the fortress. Dani could only watch, feeling helpless and alone, as a green-clad figure pulled ahead of the others, sprinting faster down the street. He did not look back.

"They left you." Talpa's words echoed in the empty chamber.

"I would have told them to," Dani said, speaking around a large lump in her throat. "They shouldn't be in danger for me. I would have told them to leave."

"Do you truly believe that if it were Ryo of the Wildfire standing before me that his friends would have left?"

No. The resolute answer screamed itself in her brain. No. No. They never would have left Ryo. Or Kento. Or Cye. Or Rowen. Or Sage. But they left me. She could not find the words to answer Talpa. Her mouth felt dry. Her confidence, even fake, had left her.

"Answer me now. Are you ready to join the Dynasty?"

"Dani!"

"Dani! Where are you?"

Sage and Rowen searched for over an hour, but found no trace of the Tempest warrior. The first rays of the morning light pierced the dark sky, beginning to illuminate the streets. The lights showed nothing except for abandoned cars, an overturned trash bin, and rotten bags of groceries that had been dropped when Talpa's forces descended.

Finally, Rowen turned to his friend. "Hey, man, I think we need to go back. She probably went back to the apartments." Sage faced Rowen. Red veins had appeared in his eyes, along with dark circles. The night's events had wiped him of every last ounce of energy.

"Something's not right. We have to find her."

Rowen shrugged. "I mean, she did kinda yank our chains for weeks, hiding and all. Maybe she's just pulling that again, you know?"

Sage felt a rush of fury and opened his mouth to respond, but bit back his retort. He took in a deep breath, then let it out in a sigh. "Yeah. Maybe."

"I don't understand, my lord. Why did we let the Ronin escape?"

"You question me, Cale?"

"No, my lord. Of course not, my lord. I just wonder why we let the perfect opportunity to smash our enemies slip through our fingers."

"Dais' illusion and the departure of the Ronin did everything I wanted it to do. You are incapable of grasping the greater plan."

"No, my lord."

"Trust me, Cale. Everything is going according to plan."