Chapter Twenty:

"The Strike Against Strata and Torrent"

"So do you think this 'Lady Kayura' protected him then?" Amara asked a scowl on her face, watching the Inner Senshi go through their practice session.

She was having a 'rare' conversation with the Ronin of Wildfire; the Sailor of Uranus had a thing about men…She tended to hate them with a passion. So to find her talking with the Ronin like this was unusual, but something had unnerved her, and got her to thinking.

"I don't know, Sage says he can't clearly remember what happened after Kali struck him," There was worry and confusion in Ryo's face, apparently his friend's current condition was starting to weigh on him quite heavily, "Somehow I don't think it was her."

"Why not?" Here she was genuinely curious.

A tight frown was on the Wildfire Ronin's face, as he carefully responded, "If it were Kayura she would've contacted me by now, or shown up, or something. I have a feeling that maybe the elders are holding her back, and have been since we defeated Talpa. Or at least the Ancient has been holding her back since then, because for the three issues we had, I couldn't get in touch with her at all. Even now I haven't been able to get through to the Nether Realm, and it should work. She's the one who taught me how to communicate with the realm in the first place!"

'Could it be possible?' Amara wondered idly, 'Could she still be alive? From what I know her function was the same as this Lady Kayura's, except for who they protect. And didn't the elders say they made Universe the Ronins protector as well?'

"Amara?" Ryo curiously inquired, raising a darkened eyebrow at her.

She blinked coming out of her thoughts, "Sorry, just trying to figure out whom else there could be, and whether or not they are on our side. Just because whoever it is saved your friend doesn't necessarily…"

"Make them a good guy, ya I know," The Ronin leader gave a nod, "But I hope they're on our side."

"Ya," Hearing her name being called the Sailor of Uranus excused herself, "Later, Ryo."

"Same to you," He responded letting out a frustrated sigh; three days had passed since the attack on Sage and in that short time the swordsman had become a stranger to him.

Ryo rubbed the point in-between his eyebrows, he was worrying too much about this it was really getting to him; "I hope this doesn't last too much longer."

Unfortunately, as always things get worse before they get better, and things were about to get much worse.

"Thank goodness the work-day is over," Lita grumbled in complaint, leaving her shoes by the door.

Cye gave a nod of his head in agreement, both had taken up temporary jobs at the Restaurant operated by the Estate…It was far better than lying around the mansion doing nothing.

It had been the Elemental Senshis' suggestion earlier in the month that anyone who couldn't find a job outside the Shinwako grounds could undoubtedly get a paying job at the place. So after searching elsewhere and coming up with nothing, the two had taken on the cooking job.

The Water Ronin figured if he couldn't work with sea-life he might as well cook in the meantime, there would be plenty of time to work in his field later…After things had become steadier in the fight, right now he just couldn't take the chance…None of them could really.

Kento was continuing to manage the restaurant's finances; he found it even easier to do so away from the clutter and noise of his family's home. Darien had never left his job, he had been balancing work and fighting for a long time, that and he was the type of person who took everything in stride.

Rei and Mina emerged from the basement, the Elemental Senshi not far behind them.

"Much better you two," Aurora said in approving tone, "Just keep up with the practices and by next week we can try something else."

"Thank you for your help," Mina chimed brightly; then frowned looking up the stairs, "Do you think the genius club is finished with their session yet?"

"No telling," Kento answered, coming out from what served as the laundry room, "They convened about two hours ago."

The 'genius club' or 'book-worm club' was what the other warriors had taken to calling their resident geniuses and avid researchers (Rowen, Ami, Michelle, and Callista), the four had made it a daily ritually to look through all the information available to them (and even some that wasn't) in order to gather anything useful about the enemy.

So far they hadn't had too much luck, but it was taking them a long time to go through the volumes that were available to them. Not only did the Mogami family have extensive information on myths and things of the like, but Mia had also sent over some of her Grandfather's data, in the hopes to aide the warriors in some small way.

"Looks like they're done," Kirstin commented seeing Ami walk out of the study, followed by the other three.

Rowen let out an irritated sigh, "It's impossible to tell what language that book is in, it's so worn."

"Agreed," Michelle murmured, giving a toss of her head, "But we've managed to narrow it down a little bit more. We've ruled out another fifty books."

"Fifty?" Serena asked, mouth open rather wide, "In two hours, you all have gone through that many volumes!"

Callista blinked, not understanding why the Moon Princess was so surprised about that…They had gone through only a short amount of information or at least the four of them considered it to be poor on their parts.

Mina let out a small laugh, "You all may think of it as just a smidge, but to those of us…"

"That ended up taking every make-up exam in high school, that's something," Lita brought in with a slight smirk.

The Sailor of Venus made a face at her friend, and gave a huff, "That's mean!"

"It's the truth," Rei brought in grabbing Serena and Mina by their arms, "Come on I want to go check on Grandpa already."

Lita shrugged her shoulders and walked after her friends, "We'll be back in an hour or so."

"Bye!" Rowen called out after them, and let out an annoyed sigh, "I wish we could actually read that book. It might be important."

Michelle nodded her head in agreement, "It isn't in any form of Japanese, or English that I know of. We'll have to find a linguist…"

"Call Elayne," Cye said from the kitchen as he put the dishes in the dishwasher away.

The room went quiet, as those remaining stared at him in confusion, to this he rolled his eyes, "She took several other foreign languages at her guardian's prodding. Maybe she can read it?"

"Oh! Good idea, thank you Cye," Ami was a bit embarrassed she hadn't thought of it first, she quickly went to the hall phone, for a bit of privacy to make the call.

"Anyone seen Sage?" The blue-haired archer asked all of a sudden, the thought coming to him.

Cye shook his head to the negative, and the WannaBe's murmured that they hadn't seen him at all today; Michelle had already left the room, probably to find the other Outer Senshi. More likely just to find Amara.

With this response, Rowen quickly jogged back up the stairs, but instead of going to the study he knocked and entered what was serving as the Ronin room. He was relieved to see that his friend was in fact there, but was disturbed as well. This was the third day in the row that Sage had isolated himself in the room…It just wasn't like him at all.

The swordsman of Halo briefly looked up from what he was doing then went right back to it; there was a pencil in his hand and papers strewn around him. He scribbled something down, and then punched a few numbers on the calculator he had with him.

Rowen stared at his friend quizzically, raising a blue-eyebrow, "What are you doing?"

"It's for the dojo; I need to go over the finances and make sure everything is in order," He murmured in reply without pausing in his task, "Grandfather sent it all over, at my request."

"Oh, so you're going to take over as head of the family after all?" The Strata Ronin inquired, though he was trying to hide it worry shown on his face. He just couldn't accept how distant and cold the Warrior of Wisdom had become in these past few days; it was really starting to bother him.

"Perhaps one day; for right now I am helping by doing this," Sage answered making no inquiry as to why his best friend was here.

The archer let out a sigh, opting to go straight for the point, "You going to tell me what's bothering you?"

"There's nothing bothering me," the Halo Ronin answered in a finite tone, as if the archer didn't know what he was talking about.

Rowen slightly bristled at the way the comment was stated, "You know, for someone who hates liars…"

"Don't finish that sentence, Rowen," the swordsman stated in an icy tone of voice, looking up now, abandoning the task he was performing, "If I knew what had happened that night, I would have told you. But I don't, now get out!"

The Ronin of Strata balked, asking in confusion, "What?"

"You heard me, leave," Sage gritted out angrily, eyes narrowing at the man, "I'm tired of you hounding me, now go!"

"All right Sage," Rowen murmured out, "If you want to be an ass, you're entitled." He walked out and slammed the door behind him.

A sigh escaped the archer's lips; it was just as he thought…The swordsman of Halo was becoming an entirely different person. It seemed as though something else was controlling his best friend's actions, but what?

The real answer to that question the Strata Ronin could not even begin to fathom…Nor would he had ever guessed that he would be Kali's next victim.

"Remind me again, we patrol the forest because?" Rowen asked as he trudged along in his sub-armor.

Cye gave a light shrug of his shoulders, "Kali and the Raikken only seem interested in us and not civilians. Besides those first few fights, the larger portions have been carried out here. The enemy has to have their base of operations nearby."

The archer said nothing in reply to this, merely kicking at a stone with his foot, causing it to bounce off a nearby tree and then land on the ground.

It had been his turn for patrol duty, and the Water Ronin had come along citing the need for fresh air and a decent walk as the reasons.

In truth, the Torrent Ronin had an uneasy feeling, and this had prompted him to come along more so than anything else…He had learned to trust his instincts and when the armor hinted that something was up he tended not to question the warnings given.

Several minutes of silence passed between them, before the Strata Ronin inquired, "What are we going to do about Sage?"

"Dunno," Cye answered a slight frown on his face, "It'd be a tad helpful if we knew what was wrong with him."

"He won't say, even Ryo's tried to coax something out of him," Rowen closed his eyes for a moment, "Earlier he told me to leave, when I began to pry…It just isn't like him to be acting this way. What is the enemy playing at?"

This last part he nearly roared out, startling some birds that had been resting in the trees.

The Ronin of Trust winced slightly, "It is odd, they attacked the Senshi, and then us. There was no definite plan to any of it; it is as though they didn't quite have everything figured out from their end. Everything was done at such random intervals, but now…"

"It's almost as though they're trying to take us out as individuals!" the Strata Ronin whirled and faced his companion, "What if what is happening to Sage is just a test?"

"'Was' a test, if you must know," Kali cheerfully interrupted appearing before them both, a sly grin on her face, "So who wants to become my next casualty?"

"Dream on lady!" Rowen spat out at her.

In moments the two Ronin Warriors were fully armored, quickly slipping over to the offensive, in the hopes to take the demonness by surprise.

"What did you do to our friend?" The Strata Ronin snapped, as he let an arrow fly.

To this action Kali merely jumped over top of him, then slammed her sword into his back; lucky for him the armor prevented the blow from becoming a fatal injury.

She chuckled lightly, "Oh you'll find out soon enough, Strata!"

Cye quickly acted, using his yari to knock her off balance, "What makes you think we're going to let you win?"

"It has nothing to do with winning," Kali gave another chuckle, easily dodging the next several rounds of Rowen's arrows.

The blue-haired archer gritted his teeth, 'She's too fast, we have to slow her down!'

'Any suggestions as to how we do that? I'm open to ideas,' The Water Ronin responded, sounding slightly aggravated.

Kali was a bit annoyed that she had to deal with two Ronins, she had only been planning on having to take care of Strata; but it mattered little she could make her plan work on two…It wouldn't be that hard to pull it off.

While the two tried to regain their breath, she hissed something causing the area to darken slightly.

She did a count-down in her head when she got to zero vines sprang up from the ground, and wrapped around her preys' ankles all the way up to their torsos.

Kali gave a gleeful chuckle as the two men struggled, "Careful boys, the more you fight the less chance you've got of getting loose."

Rowen managed to get his hand back to his quiver, grasped an arrow, and then proceeded to summon up his sure-kill, "Arrow Shockwave!"

'That's two down,' Kali thought happily, as she collected the Strata Ronin's energy by using the same spell she had implemented on Halo.

The energy from the attacks was absorbed into the small bracelet that she wore, and then later transferred to containers to be used when the time came to free her master.

There was only one difference, when fighting with the Senshi Kali had only gathered the attack energy and nothing more…However; in the case of the Ronins she was completely draining the armor of its power, Akemliek had told her and Thanos that much more than the weaponry energy would be required from the Ronins.

A small frown was now on her face; did she try and gather Torrent's energy too, or wait for later? No, she could not risk destroying the bracelet, nor could she afford to loose the energy she had just collected. But she was going to have to damage the Torrent Ronin a bit more, that way he wouldn't raise question as to why she had left so suddenly.

"Rowen!" The Ronin of Trust struggled harder against his bonds, having watched what had happened to his friend. Worry rose within him, as he realized that Strata's bearer had fallen unconscious.

Cye glared heatedly at the ice demonness, growling out, "What did you do?"

"Oh it's your turn now, so you can find out," Kali cackled evilly, with a snap of her fingers the vines withdrew, leaving the unconscious Rowen to fall to the ground and the Water Ronin left to fight freely.

She launched herself against him, but the Torrent Ronin was prepared having braced himself for the attack; once having completely regained his balance, he applied force to his yari causing her to nearly topple over.

Kali scrambled to get herself back together in time to take the offensive against the Ronin, which she quickly lost. She was fuming now, the Ronins were definitely better than her when it came to close-combat; she couldn't win playing this game fairly.

She smirked, oh well, there was always cheating, and she happened to be quite the professional at that.

As Cye made move to strike against her, Kali slipped into the growing darkness around them.

The Water Ronin stopped on a dime, sea-green eyes anxiously scanning his surroundings; trying to detect the presence of negative energy was of no use to him, since he understood that this 'darkness' was distorting that perception.

"Where are you?" He demanded loudly, in the hopes that if she commented, he'd be able to locate her by sound alone.

Kali let out a chuckle, as she slammed him in the back, "Behind you!"

Cye spun around, but before his yari connected with her, she gave the low hiss she used for spell-casting; this caused electricity to surge throughout the Ronin's body.

The Warrior of Trust collapsed to his knees, as he tried to fight off the effects of the spell, just when he thought he had lost, the pain stopped all together.

He now tried to calm his aching head; his mind was a muddle, as thoughts and memories flashed before him…He had momentarily forgotten what was going on, and he let out a low groan. Then something clicked in place, he remembered exactly where he was, but…Rowen!

Cye made a vain attempt to call out to his friend, but found he lacked the breath to do so. He grounded his teeth together, a sudden fear over-taking him why had it gone so quiet, and why couldn't he see anything?

"Rowen?" He coughed out, and when he got no response he gained the strength to open his eyes, but quickly closed them from the pain still riddling his body.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and some of his strength leave and then come back…Yet it was stronger somehow.

"Relax, you're injuries aren't too bad. Strata will be fine, he's just out cold right now," a voice murmured softly, it was somewhat worn and her speech was slightly forced; as though it had been a long time since she had employed use of it.

The Ronin of Torrent breathed in deeply, regaining his calm as the pain fully receded; he felt the hand pull away just before he opened his eyes.

A frown framed his face, as he could not see the person who helped him; he asked curiously, "Who are you?"

The warrior jumped out and halted near Rowen's unconscious form, though the shadows were still wrapped about her form. But even with that cover, a dark blue-light could be seen vibrantly flashing, illuminating the silver tiara she was wearing.

The Warrior of Trust was able to discern that there were five jewels in it, four star-shaped, while the center jewel was moon-shaped. What got to him was the fact the stars were colored according to the Ronin armor, green, dark blue, light-sea blue, and orange; the center stone was a mixture of white and red.

The Scout hesitated before responding slowly with, "Right now, who I am is not important. What is important is that you and Touma get out of here before Kali returns."

The Warrior of Trust's eyes widened slightly, she knew Rowen's real name? So either she was an ally, or a foe, but which was she? He stood up the frown deepening, but if she were a foe, why had she helped him?

"Yes, and I know yours too, Mouri Shin," She responded hearing his thoughts, kneeling down and trying to heal the injured Strata a bit better, "And so long as you do not cross my path, I can be an ally. I helped you because you needed it."

Cye somehow wasn't too surprised that she could read minds, "What about Sage?"

The Scout finished doing what she could for the archer, and he noticed that the dark-blue star stopped flowing. She then somehow pulled the sub-armored Ronin to his feet. A frown was on her face, though he could not see it, she didn't recognize the name right away.

"Sage…" The warrior murmured out loud, until she placed it, "Oh Seiji! Yes, I did aide him. I luckily managed to avoid Strata from detecting me, well just barely."

The Torrent Ronin noticed the note of amusement in her voice, but was a bit thrown off as to why she would use their names like she was, "You're someone we know, aren't you?"

The warrior let out a chuckle, "Perhaps, but for right now it is best I remain nothing more than a dream or a figment of your imagination. If the enemy realizes that it is not Kayura helping you, and my identity is revealed too soon; you could be in far more danger than you are right now."

"What, why?" Cye asked in slight alarm, and also in puzzlement.

"The enemy will do anything to obtain their goals. With me around, they'll move twice as fast and hit twice as hard," She replied in a grave voice then said anxiously, "Come on, let's get going, I'll get you two as far as I can."

"Do you want me to take him?" Torrent's bearer inquired, prepared to take his friend off her hands.

She gave a laugh, it sounded like a child's though it was a bit softer than that, "I can most certainly bear Touma for a bit, I used to lug Shuu around just for the fun of it."

Here he couldn't help but grin, "For some odd reason that doesn't surprise me and for another I actually feel like I can trust you."

"I would hope you could trust me," She looked around her nervously, "Come, we need to move. I don't think Kali is quite done."

The Ronin of Torrent also had the same feeling, so he wasted little time in taking the lead in order to serve as protection.

He should've been protesting this help! A total and complete stranger that was wrapped completely in shadow was aiding them; he knew nothing about her, not her name, her purpose, what she was or whether she was working for someone or doing this of her own accord.

Cye's head should have been screaming at him, that this was a big mistake and it was a perfect trap…However, he knew that she was telling the truth, he had a natural ability, and then of course the armor boosted it, allowing him to see past lies. The Torrent Ronin could also detect nothing evil or negative with her 'presence,' the only thing that bothered him was how much at ease he was with her being there.

Even though he could sense nothing from her, it unnerved him that he was this comfortable with a total stranger that he couldn't even see clearly! But, he knew that voice…That soft and low tone, and that innocent yet care-worn laugh.

"Shin!"

The shout brought him back to reality, and his reflexes moved on automatic in order to avoid the beam of negative energy that Kali had sent his way.

The Torrent Ronin then swung around, using his yari to rip the demonness from her hiding spot in a nearby tree; "Back so soon?"

Kali let out a chuckle in mirth, eyeing the Ronin with a gleam in her eyes of both malice and mischief, "Did you miss me?"

"Loads," Cye snapped in return, quickly engaging her in combat.

The warrior could do nothing but watch as this took place; with the archer being unconscious she could not just place him aside for she detected the presence of Raikken lingering about. Kali would no doubt call on them, the minute the Ronin was defenseless.

But as she continued to watch this match of skill, her blood began to boil over, for the ice demonness was using all the tricks in the book and then some. The minute Cye made an advance; she'd slip back into the shadows and pop out behind him ramming the Torrent Ronin in the back with her sword.

'His armor can't keep taking such a beating,' Then something hit the soldier, and she came close to cussing herself out, 'You idiot, why didn't you just do that in the first place?"

"Strata protect your bearer!'" She commanded softly, as she carefully propped Rowen up against a tree, a blue barrier shimmering around his form.

Hey eyes went back to the fight, and the minute Kali slipped into the shadows, she leapt forward and used a kick to throw the demonness back into Cye's line of sight.

With an opportunity presented to him, the Ronin of Torrent used it to summon and release his special ability; however, he gave Kali exactly what she wanted.

Once more the bearer of Torrent's head was spinning, and every breath was painful to take. Yet, his mysterious helper was still there for he could still detect her energy.

"You'll be fine in a moment, relax a bit," She said in a re-assuring tone that masked what she was truly feeling. 'They're draining the armors of all power! I must talk with the elders, this is not good news.'

She removed her hand from his forehead when the kanji appeared, "Better?"

"Yes, thank you," Cye blinked a few times to clear his sight, adding as an afterthought, "Again."

"Can you stand, Shin?" The warrior asked, offering her hand to him.

The young man paused a moment, and frowned slightly noting he could not clearly see her face, but he grasped her hand firmly and hauled himself up.

"Please stop calling me 'Shin' it sounds like you're scolding me. My name is 'Cye.'"

"I can scold if you would like," The soldier chuckled a little, "All right then, Cye. Now let us see if, 'Rowen' will be co-operative in waking up."

She let her gaze rest on the shimmering form and murmured, "Thank-you Tenku-san, the danger is gone for the moment."

In response the shield died away, and she cleared her throat exclaiming in annoyance, "Touma, you lazy mule! Get up!"

"Don't call me that," Rowen grumbled out in response, letting out a grunt. In a minute from him saying this, both his eyes were suddenly wide open, "Cye, what's going on, where am I? And who the heck are you?"

The warrior could only helplessly laugh, "Oh too much, he still hasn't changed."

Cye chuckled a little, "He's always been a bad morning-person, ne?"

"Yes," She managed to calm herself rather quickly, but whirled a frown on her face, "Can you two make it back by yourselves?"

Rowen was now on his feet, just a tad wobbly, "I think so, why? And are you ever going to answer my question?"

"I'll leave your questions for Cye to answer, right now I'm being called," She halted a moment or two, "If you are in need of me, please do not hesitate to ask for help. The armors aren't always able to alert me to what is going on, until it's already too late."

She waited for no further response or inquiries; she jumped into a tree and then proceeded to vanish from view.

Cye watched her go, a small frown on his face, when he had grasped her hand before, images had filtered through his head, but he didn't understand any of them.

"Uhh, you gonna clue me in sometime this year?" The Strata Ronin asked, tapping the man on the shoulder.

"Sorry," Torrent's bearer responded, "Let's head back to the mansion, I'll fill you in as we go along."

Rowen didn't even have to think this over, "Good enough for me."

A/n: Yep, yet another update. Another two chapters for ya'll to read...If anyone is still reading this thing. If so, you should be pleased to know that I am working on Chapter 20 of Book 3, and much of Book 4 is already plotted out.

See ya at the next update

LG