A/N: Hey look two chapters! That makes three chapters this month! Please R&R.

Power

Chapter Twenty One

Rachel sat at the desk in her room, school books for her final exams on one side while her blank sheet of paper sat there in front of her. Mocking her for the distraction that plagued her mind.

"Where are they?" She asked the paper and pen as if they would give her an answer. A part of her wanted to cry, to scream, to hit something. A month had passed by since they had gone missing… no they had been captured. That was more than obvious by now.

She groaned and put her head on her desk. I can't focus! Where are you guys?!

The tiger beside her stirred and looked up at her. He could tell she was tired and furious. It's times like this I wish I could talk to you, little cub. Black Blaze stood and nudged his head against her arm.

Rachel turned her head and looked down at him, "What should we do?" She stroked the top of his head, "I want them back."

Golden eyes looked back at her, he moved back and licked her hand softly. He knew it would comfort her.

She saw him go still abruptly and watched his nose flair. "Black Blaze?" Rachel sat up straight.

Is that…? He turned on a dime and darted from the room.

"Hey! Wait!" The girl stood up and chased after him. "Black Blaze!"

He leapt down the light of stairs, rounded the corner and skidded into the kitchen.

"What the hell?" Sileny looked up from her spot on the sofa.

Rachel ran down the stairs, "Black Blaze what on earth has you…" She trailed off when she entered the kitchen and saw the sight out the sliding glass door. "White Blaze!"

"What?!" Sileny flew into the kitchen and stared at the sight in the backyard. "Oh my gods!" She ran forward and opened the door.

Black Blaze ran out ahead of them, stopping beside the mass of white and red fur. Byakuen! He nudged at the tiger's head.

Rachel skidded and nearly fell down beside him, "He's covered in blood."

"How did he get here?" Sileny knelt down and carefully lifted the head up. "He's breathing," She said.

White Blaze found the strength to open his eyes and was never so happy to see a human or smell Black Blaze's scent in his long life. I made it... he tried to lift his head on his own, to stand, to sit even, but his body refused to move.

"White Blaze," Sileny was not an emotional girl still it was all she could do not to cry.

Rachel moved around to look at him, her sky blue eyes wide as ever, she kept her hand on his fur and began to pet him softly. "Blaze what happened to you?"

White Blaze partly closed his eyes at the soft touch and in hailed deeply, enjoying the smells of the yard and the humans next to him. He managed a soft grunt and opened his mouth, licking Sileny's arm softly. The tiger could feel Black Blaze trying to clean the clotted blood off his shoulder.

How did you escape? Black Blaze asked.

I don't remember, Was his answer, They've all been taken… he growled and closed his eyes when a sudden rush of pain filled him.

Sileny looked at the younger girl, "Go call Cale and tell him to get his ass over here."

Rachel stood, "I'll get some hot water and towels, and the wraps," she ran back into the house.

The older girl gently put the head of the tiger on her lap, it took up almost her whole lap plus a little extra, but his head wasn't as large as Black Blaze's head. She moved one of her hands and found blood on it, when she leaned around she saw blood on his jaw.

If White Blaze is hurt this badly… her stomach began to do summersaults when she started to think what might be happening to her other friends. She heard the footsteps behind her and turned, expecting to see Rachel but was surprised to see Kayura landing on the ground beside her, staring at the mass of fur and blood.

"What… when?"

"We don't know the what," Sileny looked at her, "As for the when he's been out here maybe five or ten minutes."

Kayura reached out and touched the blood stained fur, "My gods…"

White Blaze opened his eyes and looked at the blue-haired girl, Kayura.

She looked at him, I can hear you White Blaze. She saw the joy and relief in his eyes. Can you tell me what happened?

They have all five of them. He confirmed and began to tell her everything that happened during the capture, leaving nothing out. Where he found the strength to talk he couldn't say. It didn't take as long as he thought it would have, by the time he was done the blood had been washed off him by Black Blaze and Rachel.

"Do you think we can move him?" Rachel asked looking at the black tiger.

He nodded and turned his head to Kayura, If we are careful we should take him to the living room, it's the warmest place in the house.

"I can hear them talking in my head," Kayura finally said to her two friends, "I'll tell you what White Blaze told me in a minute. Black Blaze say's we can move him if we are careful and we should take him into the living room since it's warm. Once we do that then I'll tell you what he told me."

Moving the 500 plus pound tiger had taken nearly a half hour between the three of them. None of the girls were really strong and it would have been much easier with another person, or three. Black Blaze had stayed out of their way the whole time, he couldn't have helped move the other tiger no matter how much he wanted.

When they finally got into the living room they helped White Blaze onto the sofa by the window, Rachel had put a pillow under the tigers head for support. Black Blaze had taken a blanket from the clean laundry and bought it over.

Sileny put the large blanket over the injured tiger, it was a thick blanket her grandmother had sent her from Sweden for her birthday last year.

"That's a pretty blanket," Kayura broke the silence.

"Thanks," Sileny looked at her, "It's the warmest one in the house."

"What did White Blaze tell you?" Rachel asked.

Before she could answer the doorbell rang, "That's Dais, Cale, and Sekhmet."

"It's unlocked!" Rachel shouted.

They came in and saw the tiger on the sofa. It was Cale who spoke first, "It takes a dying tiger to get you out of your room?" He looked at Kayura.

"He is not dying!" She glared swords at him, "He's been beaten by that vampire bitch and a pack of hellhounds. They didn't try to kill him, just to torture him."

Cale stared at her saying nothing, the surprise on his face spoke for him.

Dais strode past him and walked round to the tiger on the sofa, ignoring the soft rumbles that came from the other tiger. "How did he get here?"

"We don't know," Rachel said, "He was just in the back yard all of the sudden covered in blood."

Sekhmet studied the scene, "Kayura how do you know he isn't dying?"

"I can hear him and Black Blaze talking," she explained, "It's like when the four of us talk and don't want the others to hear us. He told me what they did to him," her face darkened. "He's also told me about the guys."

Rachel sat on the floor beside the white tiger, she began to pet his head softly, "What did he say?"

White Blaze made his eyes stay open, enjoying the gentle touch from the young girl. All this comfort felt good and it was luring him to sleep, which he needed desperately. But he wanted to stay awake at least long enough for Kayura to relay the story, correct her or add in where he could. This would be hard.

Kayura sat down on the other sofa, "They have been captured like we suspected," she began, "Haytie took them alive and he's keeping them alive somehow but unable to move. Probably the same way Talpa did once that brief moment when he had all the armors right where he wanted them."

Cale sat beside her, "Why would he keep them alive when he wanted their armors so badly?"

"Because the armors only enhance the power; Ryo, Sage, Cye, Kento, and Rowen are the power that brought Haytie here in the first place. He just now realized it. And he can't take the armors away from them, it's become a part of them and their powers if he had taken the armors from them by force like he was trying it would kill them."

"So he took them alive," Sekhmet crossed his arms, "And what he plans to keep them in a... what's the word?" He thought.

Sileny answered, "I think the term you want is suspended animation."

"Yes, thank you Sileny, suspended animation is what he plans to keep them in until the ends of time?"

Kayura nodded, "Haytie is a collector of powerful thing. He goes all over the world looking for powerful creatures and object and collects them the way a person collects dolls or stamps. Without a care for what he does to the people who need these object for protection, or the chaos it might bring. White Blaze said he was here once before that he knows of and took the cloth that once covered the three sacred treasures. He also got the treasures too, but the seals protecting them is still too strong and gets stronger as the centuries pass."

"He's been here before?" Dais found that interesting, "Must have just been that one time we found out about in the records."

Black Blaze gave a nod and looked at Kayura.

She stared at him then turned to the men, "Black Blaze says that both he and Saber Strike fought against Haytie's forces. It was several centuries ago, before the Sengoku. None of us had been born yet."

Sekhmet took a seat on the floor beside Rachel, "He met no other opposition?"

Blue eyes looked at the tiger, "No he did meet opposition. A group of young warriors and some good yokai stood against him. Saber Strike had to pull out of the fight early for personal reasons, and was the only real survivor. One other lived through the bloody war but…" she trailed off, "He hung himself in Aokigahara out of shame because he lost the woman he loved in the fighting."

"How…" Rachel looked at the ground then from the tiger to the ancient, "How did he capture our friends?"

Kayura had known this would be the hard part, she would have to leave out a few things for the sakes of her two girlfriends. White Blaze told her about Ryo's nightmare and that was the last thing she was going to convey. "Marijke found a way to use a sleep spell on them with their blood that she collected when the hell hounds attacked them. She was also using the same spell to give them nightmares about the people they loved dying at the hands of a ghost."

"What ghost?" Cale asked, though he had a sneaking suspicion.

"Inferno."

"Wait a minute," Sileny spoke out, "I thought they couldn't create that berserking thing again?"

"They can't," Kayura nodded, "Inferno was an act of desperation and the merging of armors that had been one once before. Yes that child forged them new armors to create a new Inferno but both White Blaze and Black Blaze don't think she knew what she was doing. Ryo and the others created that armor and when they destroyed it in Africa they did so for good."

"Then why are they so scared of it?"

"You two have been lucky enough to meet them after it was gone," she looked at them, "You two didn't see just what that berserking weapon did to them. It almost killed them twice."

"Would Haytie know it's gone for good? Or do you think he'd try to make it?" Dais asked.

"If he wanted that armor he would have come long ago," Kayura answered, "No he wants them as they are now."

A silence filled the room for a few minutes, Sileny broke it, "White Blaze is there a way for them," she gestured to the Warlord and Kayura, "To perform a rescue mission?"