Chapter Twenty-Four:
"One Step Closer…"
-Akemliek's Domain-
It was hard to say that Kali was disappointed with how things were turning out; on the contrary, she was delighted and mildly amused that the Ronins had lasted near as long as they had. They wouldn't last much longer though; she had plans to take down the Ronin of Hardrock which would undoubtedly lessen the armors ability to protect their bearers from the spell.
She had figured out that the inflicted Ronins were being somewhat shielded by the uninflected ones' armor. It seemed that the bond between armor and bearer spanned to each member of the team.
When one member was in trouble the other four armors immediately jumped in to protect and shield that member, so basically the armor of Hardrock and Wildfire were protecting Cye, Rowen, and Sage since their respective armor's could not.
Kali had also learned from the Raikken, and just by a new set of energies alone, that Kayura and the Seasonal warriors had arrived; this also helped to offset the spell somewhat.
However, the ice demonness had the perfect plan, and it would more than cause a problem for all the warriors tonight. An evil grin now claimed her features, as she also had plans for after the battle as well. Not directly after, no she was waiting for one certain thing to happen and with the way things were currently going it wouldn't be much longer now.
It was cool out, yet he continued to perform his exercises anyway; many things were running through his head right now, and certain things stood out more so than others.
The Hardrock Ronin let out an aggravated sigh, it was perhaps an hour or two before supper, and this was most often the time he took to train by himself. Kirstin, his elemental counterpart watched from the porch; ever since the attack on the other three Ronin, she had figured it best to stick within reach of her partner.
The Earth Scout had a hunch that having two of the same element present might further deter Kali from making any moves; and so far it had. She had caught glimpses of the ice demonness over the past week or so, the creature had halted in any attack when seeing her.
Kayura had also supported this idea saying that since both warriors were linked to the same element, the armor had a better chance of protecting it's bearer from whatever spell the demonness had used.
Kento paused at his ninetieth push-up, a frown on his face, as he mulled over his thoughts. It was an understatement to say that he was worried over the current happenings, he was panicked. It was all too obvious to him, that while he was being minimally affected by Sage, Cye and Rowen's current conditions, that Ryo was suffering the worst.
The Ronin leader, though he wasn't complaining out loud, seemed to be in pain and a good deal of it, but he was doing a good job in hiding it from everyone, except for Hardrock. It was just one of those things that Kento knew, it was rather hard to explain, but he was just so good at reading people and what they were feeling that he knew when something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong with Wildfire's bearer; the young man was wearing out quickly in battles, and he was in prime health!
Kento grunted, now on his ninety-fifth push-up, it had to be the armors or so was his thinking at least. With three warriors out of commission, didn't it make sense that they would be putting strain on the other two? And wouldn't it fall more on Ryo because he had wielded the Armor of Inferno for so long, and for so many times?
Well it made sense to Hardrock's bearer, and when he had offered up the explanation to Kayura and the Seasonals (after their initial shock at him for having deduced such a thing) had readily agreed saying that it was the most logical explanation available.
However, that didn't solve what was wrong with the bearers of Strata, Halo and Torrent, nor did it help bring the matter any closer to a close.
The Seasonals of Winter and Summer had found the volume they were looking for, but it was around four-hundred pages, with no 'table of contents' readily available so it was taking time to go through it.
He pulled himself up after finishing his hundredth push up, and stretched out his muscles, looking up at the woman leaning against the railing, "What's up?"
"We have patrol duty tonight," Kirstin answered rather solemnly.
"That's great!" Kento happily responded, saying with a grin, "I need out of here. The place is driving me crazy."
The Earth Warrior smirked, "Are you sure it isn't the occupants?"
The Hardrock Ronin chortled out his reply, "Probably both." He had a smile on, but it faltered, "Oh brother."
Kirstin heard it too, and rolled her eyes at the exact same time he did, "Inner Scouts versus Outer Scouts, Round Two."
"You think they'd get tired of screeching after so many weeks of it," Kento commented as he walked up the porch steps.
Kirstin snorted back a laugh, "You'd think so."
"I've about had it with you!" Rei yelled at Michelle.
What this latest 'bickering match' was about Ryo didn't have a clue, he probably didn't want one either. All he knew for certain was that Rei was actually pissed this time around, which meant they were sunk.
If anyone had displayed a temper close to his own, it was the hot-headed stubborn Fire Senshi of Mars. With the look she was giving to Neptune, Ryo was glad to be on the girl's good side.
"Save it Rei," Trista gave the girl a warning look. She was getting very tired of this nonsense between the younger Senshi; being close to three thousand she saw little point to argue with anyone let alone her fellow Scouts.
"You're not in charge of us, Trista," Lita icily stated, "You can't keep your own Scouts in line."
"There's a laugh, Serena can't even…" Amara started with a snort, but she stopped short upon seeing the death glare Hotaru was giving her. One thing about it, while the Senshi of Saturn might be an Outer, she was fiercely defensive of the Inner.
The Outer Senshi all knew this, but sometimes they forgot that their youngest was loyal to both sides.
Mina snapped back in aggravation, "Serena may be a klutz, but at least she isn't a traitor."
"Traitor?" Michelle hissed out, eyes narrowing venomously "Were you really willing to sacrifice this planet…"
"LADIES!" Kento bellowed upon entering the house, and all eyes snapped to his direction.
"Keep it down would you, we just got a call from America complaining about the racket," he and Kirstin then brushed past the quarreling sides, grabbing Ryo as they did so.
The Ronin of Wildfire blinked a handful of times, and then started to struggle, "Wait…"
"Let them duke it out, it'd probably get them to quit," Kento cheerily said, "'Sides I want to see what Ness is cooking."
'Leave it to him to try and get me to think about anything besides the fate of the world,' Ryo chuckled and shook his head in mirth, "What would we do without you, eh Kento?"
Hardrock's bearer beamed, "For one thing, you wouldn't have to guard your plates."
Kirstin had remained silent until that statement, and when she heard it she started to laugh.
"But that's half the fun," Ryo retorted with a grin.
Kento smirked at his friend, "And twice the effort!"
Supper had been quiet, and uneventful, not a word was spoken to or from anyone. That was rather unusual, but having a table of complete silence was a rather nice change as far as some of the warriors were concerned. Rini had come back only a few minutes before the last plate had been set down.
Since Elayne was unable to work, she had been taking the younger girl out of the house for the past four days, saying that it was no good for someone Rini's age to be stuck in a house twenty-four seven. More often than not, Hotaru would accompany them; being Rini's friend she normally went wherever the small girl did.
For the most part, Elayne was keeping well out of the warriors' ways, only bothering to hang around if and when she was asked. It had normally been due to the two younger Senshis pressuring, that the girl had remained around the house after dropping them off.
However tonight had been different as Kayura had more or less begged her not to leave, this had surprised almost everyone in the house. Apparently, Kayura and the girl were quite decent friends having had to meet on a constant basis since August. Since in October all outside communication to the mortal realm had to be cut off (for that is when they were in the process of reviving Anubis), the Lady Ancient wanted to 'catch up' on things.
"You still don't believe it?" Kirstin queried of the Hardrock Ronin.
A shake of purple-ash hair was her response, as the man mumbled, "More like trying to believe it. Who would've thought that Elayne would be friends with Kayura? It was hard enough to swallow that she knew the Seasonals, but she's on good terms with them!"
The Earth Senshi frowned a little, "They were on Talpa's side in this lifetime, but weren't in the others."
"Ya, but Layne didn't know that till Callista explained it to her," Kento pointed out, kicking a rock with the toe of his sub armor.
"Well no offense, but didn't you guys teach her that it is wrong to hold a grudge against someone? I know we did. You can't expect her to hold the same view as you do, Kento. You're her family and all, but they never attacked her."
"Yeah? Well," The Hardrock Ronin protested, "They could have."
Kirstin shook her head and sighed, "I give up you're never going to see it from an outside perspective."
Kento shrugged and looked ahead, "Raikken."
"Yes perfect timing, I need something to vent my frustration on!" The Earth Scout cheerfully stated, as she pulled out her pendant, and transformed.
He had just finished crushing the last soldier, and it had no sooner faded into ash then he felt it. Quickly the Hardrock Ronin leapt out of the way of a negative energy blast, a frown on his face. Kali had not struck in weeks, and now all of a sudden she was here? That wasn't a good sign at all.
'Hey Ryo, we've got company!' Kento shouted out over the Ronin link, 'Seems someone got tired of playing cat and mouse.'
"Hang on Kento, we're coming," The Ronin leader was instantly on his feet, giving a pointed look to the few warriors with him, "Trouble decided to show up. Let's go."
In no time at all, each Scout had finished alerting their teammates, and everyone was out of the house in an instant, leaving behind a fuming Rini and bewildered Elayne.
White Blaze was not happy either; he angrily flicked his tail back and forth, and growled to himself.
"They have a point, someone has to wait for Darien," Elayne offered with a shrug, she wasn't as offended as the other two at being told to stay out of harm's way.
The tiger shot the girl a nasty look, and she bristled saying tartly, "Just because you're mad at Ryo doesn't mean you can take it out on me. I'll take you to a vet."
He glared at her for a moment, then thought better of it, and went back to angrily pacing.
Rini was scowling, "I can't believe them."
"Hey munch," Elayne lowered herself so she was eye-level with the small child, "They just don't want you to get hurt. 'Cause they'd have a heck of a time trying to explain that to your Mom and Dad."
The child giggled a little, "You're right."
"Course I am," Elayne grinned, and ruffled Rini's hair, looking up when the door opened.
"Tadaima," Darien announced, as he hung up his coat, frowning when he saw that the house was basically empty.
"Welcome back, you've got interesting timing, everyone's out fighting," Elayne said with a smirk, "Better be careful Dare, minna might start thinking you're in league with the bad guys."
He snorted deeply, "Sure, the day they start thinking you're a reincarnation."
She rolled her eyes skyward, "I was supposed to be a reincarnation. I was going to be one of the two Universes, but since they got slain by Raikken, the soul transfer didn't occur."
"Oh yeah forgot that part," He smiled weakly, frowning as she made her way upstairs, "Where are you going?"
"To take a nap," she replied with a large yawn, "Your kid is wearing me out." With that she made her way into the upstairs hallway, before disappearing from view.
Darien heard her door open and shut and then looked at his future daughter who merely shrugged in response.
Her plan was rather simple; briefly engaged the Hardrock Ronin and when he called for back-up, have the Raikken separate the rushing warriors into groups of three or less. Then re-appear, and take Hardrock's energy, after placing the young man into a situation where he would have no choice but to call on the full power of his armor.
Currently, Kali was merely in phase one of her three part plan, but she refused to let Aarde and the Ronin of Hardrock know that their fate was already planned out. All she had to do was wait for the Elemental Senshi to arrive, and naturally the Earth Scout would go by her team, and then have the Raikken further execute their part in this scheme.
At that moment, they were inconspicuously separating the Inner and Outer Senshi; the thick fog that had rolled in was aiding them rather well.
Kento blocked Kali's sword swipe managing to knock her off balance, and get in a hit with the naginata blade.
The demonness snarled enraged, and used her free hand to punch the Hardrock Ronin, in return for the stab. Her evil mind was already on a set train of thought, and a smirk crossed her features.
The Ronins were rather pathetic due to the fact that they were so self-sacrificing. That was their weakness that was how she had managed to inflict them. Sage, when he had shoved Ryo out of the way so he took the majority of the hit. Cye and Rowen when they had been fighting with her, Cye had taken a blow for Rowen, and Rowen took one for Cye.
Yes, Kali smiled cruelly now, the Ronins were stunning and talented warriors, but still tainted with feeble human emotions. Pain and agony were pure music and delight to her, to know that three of the five were suffering mercilessly was a symphony, and soon, and very soon it would be four.
Kento growled low in his throat, he didn't like the smile on the demonness' face at all, she was up to no good, and he knew it.
As the Raikken started to come in greater numbers in the small clearing, greater than Sailor Aarde could handle, the Sailor Elementals and Ronin Seasonals showed up with the Wildfire Ronin not too far behind them watching the rear.
"Hey the Calvary is usually late," the Earth Sailor commented with a grin, sliding into formation with her comrades, "We luck out Kento, they're a few minutes early."
Kento's bo now connected with Kali's side, and she emitted a painful howl of rage, but instead of retaliating she vanished appearing to be gravely wounded (when in fact she was suffering from a five inch cut and nothing more than that) letting the warriors think they had the upper hand.
"Told ya I was lucky Aarde," Hardrock's bearer beamed, frowning slightly, "Where's everyone else?"
Kayura shrugged, the light-weight lilac armor she was wearing moving along with the movement; she twirled the twin jitte in her hands in a bored fashion, "Not quite sure."
While more or less the 'new Ancient,' Kaosu and Suzunagi had decided it might be safer to permit Kayura to continue fighting along the others; after all she did have more than enough training.
So, they had devised what she was currently wearing, it was quite similar to what she had worn under Talpa, except (besides it being lilac) that it was in fact a form of metal, just light enough for her to move without hindrance and correctly proportioned to her small frame.
"It is foggy, they must've gotten lost," Glacia rolled her eyes, how typical.
"I don't think it's as simple as that," Sekhmet commented, eyes and ears trying to detect anything out of the ordinary.
The Seasonal armor was not all that different; though it had lost the evil look and feel to it…The colors were lighter, and the overall build of the armor less menacing than the proceeding set. The weapons, however, and attacks had remained the same…After four hundred some-odd years; it would have been rather hard for the four men to learn to fight with some other form of weaponry.
Why had the attacks remained the same? The same basic component applied to these armors as with the newer Ronin armors…The links between bearer and armor had not changed nor had the requirement of channeling a sure-kill's energy through the body, therefore the way of calling said energy out, had not changed either.
Wildfire's bearer nodded in agreement, "I have a feeling we walked straight into a trap."
"Nah, that's not…" Nova ducked down, and rolled out of the way of an arrow, "Okay I take it back."
The hiding Raikken came out of the shadows, and as they did so the fog thickened to the point where one could not see in front of their own face. The warriors had sprung Kali's well-laid trap, and now all that could be done was to fight without ceasing until they won, or until Kali got what she was after.
Kayura gritted her teeth, as she slashed through another Raikken, rebounded and got through another. She had more or less 'lost' the other Seasonals, and everyone else…Mental communication was out of the question, she had already tried only to receive a headache in response. Whatever this fog was it was definitely unnatural and Kali had called it up not only to separate them but to also leave them without the chance of contacting one another.
In other words, Kayura was pissed…Beyond pissed, and a stark raving mad Lady Ancient was not the prettiest thing in either realm.
She let out a low growl, jumping into the air and then twisting around to catch an archer hiding in the tree, when she landed she barely avoided getting speared. A short time later the woman was alone again, having dealt with more Raikken than she wanted to count.
She sheathed her jitte, slightly uncertain about what her next move should be…A frown formed on her face, as a stray thought towards the back of her mind surfaced.
Kali's had been attacking the Ronins, so wasn't this just a plot to get at Hardrock or Wildfire, if not both?
Kayura sucked in a deep breath, focusing and calling the staff to her, in a moment the shakujo was in front of its current owner.
The staff was oddly silent, but that did not necessarily mean all was well, it seemed to only react violently when one of the Ronins was in grave danger (as in the life-threatening variety). So someone could possibly be in danger, but not enough to warrant a strong reaction from the staff of the Ancients.
Kayura went back to scowling as she tried to focus as much energy as she could, without losing complete awareness of her current surroundings, into the connection between her and the staff. The rings started to move slowly, and then the quiet chiming-sound picked up abruptly.
The Lady Ancient swore under her breath, grasping the shakujo tightly in one hand she tore off permitting the ancient treasure to guide her to where her charges were.
Soon she could hear the sounds of battle not that far ahead, and Kayura lengthened her stride further…Blue-eyes widening in panic after hearing Hardrock call his sure-kill…For that is when the staff stopped it's frantic dance, and went silent.
Her breath caught slightly, when she heard Kali's cool statement, "Well now, I'll kill all four of you."
So the demonness had managed to catch three others? It was probably the three afflicted Ronins with Kayura's luck, the reason for her nervousness? There was no way she could get there in time, she was already moving at a speed far past her usual limit. Even if she could put more energy into running, her strength and body would be completely spent by the time she reached what was left of the fight.
Kento's breathing was labored, and he lay mainly unmoving up against a tree, the fight that had just occurred replaying itself in his head.
'How could I have been so stupid?' He wanted to know, but stopped cussing himself out once he realized what a migraine that was giving him.
Metal against metal, good versus evil, the sounds of battle always managed to get his blood pumping to a certain degree. Sometimes the Hardrock Ronin would reach critical mass in adrenaline, but he had kept a lid on it for this fight, knowing that one wrong move could and would cost him big.
Hardrock's bearer had met up with the other three Ronin, not more than fifteen minutes before the fight, they had been relieved to find out it was one another and not more Raikken.
Kento had to be honest, Sage, Cye, and Rowen looked exhausted, he didn't need his armor to let him know that. As they had walked along he could see how slow their movements were, granted it wasn't anything major, but the Ronin of Hardrock knew how his friends normally moved; how they were moving now was not normal.
In a fight, being slow by even a mere fraction of a second could cost much, as much as one's life. When Kali had shown up, it was almost as if she knew the three were weaker and slower; which only confirmed in Kento's mind that she was the cause of this…She had been the one to affect his three friends and brothers-in-arms so terribly, and she was going to suffer the consequences for that.
She had engaged the four of them, all at once, she would dodge and spin out and in among them, treating this more as a game than a life-or-death match; that had succeeded to only anger Kento more.
After ten minutes had passed, Kali had successfully beaten Sage to the point where he could not move, and was no longer of any use to his friends for this fight. The fact that the Armor of Halo was still trying to recover from the complete drain on its power even after so many weeks had passed aided her greatly.
The four Ronin Warriors had already figured out, the minute she appeared, that Kento would be her next target, and each had decided to fight as hard as they could to prevent that from happening. So when she had started to increase how often she was combating against Kento, Strata and Torrent had reacted the way the demonness had predicted they would. The two young men had immediately stepped up how often they were connecting weapons with her.
She ended up making a move to go for Kento, but as Torrent prepared to get in a strike, she swerved around and clipped Strata…Head-on. Cye had recovered quick enough to block the rebounding attack, and managed to shove the ice demonness to the ground with his yari.
He and Kento then backed off to catch their breath, and formulate some plan of attack…Their break did not last long, as Kali quickly picked herself up, and gone back on the offensive once more…But those few minutes had been more than enough for the two.
When she came at them, the two put their plan into action…Kento had switched over to his nunchuku momentarily catching Kali off-guard. In the time it took her to dodge, Cye had slipped around behind her prepared to get in a decent hit…However, a lurking Raikken managed to prevent him from attacking by seeping out of the shadows and ramming a sword against the Torrent Ronin.
Kali had then jumped over Kento, and slammed him in the back with her sword, knocking him to the ground. She then made her way over to the Torrent Ronin, taking the blunt end of her sword and smashing it against his head…Even though he was wearing full armor, the force of the blow was enough to knock Cye out cold.
She then moved away from the unconscious form, and smirked at the Hardrock Ronin, "Now what will you do Hardrock?"
Kento sucked in a breath; he had no choice if he didn't use his power she would most assuredly kill one of the others, if not all of them at once…But if he did use it, he risked becoming a victim himself…He closed his eyes, maybe if he did become like the other three there was a better chance of solving the problem.
It hadn't worked, though he had put as much effort into his 'Iron Rock Crusher' as humanly possible, Kali had succeeded in draining his armor. And now she was undoubtedly leering at him…His eyes were closed because his head was pounding so badly.
"Well now, I'll kill all four of you," The ice demonness chuckled out, merrily.
That was when Kento tried to open his eyes, only to hastily shut them, he growled low in his throat, if only he had enough strength to move his hands!
"Not today you won't," a voice declared, as its owner tackled Kali to the ground.
The ice demonness hissed trying to make for her sword, but the female fighter quickly unsheathed it and tossed it aside. The shadowed attacker managed to get in a good punch, and then released her prey; jumping back into the safety of the surrounding darkness.
Kali hissed enraged, holding her cheek, she recognized the warriors scent; "You again! Answer me this time, who are you?"
"One of the few remaining members of the Great Council; I was told to bring you a message. So listen carefully demon I shall only say it once," the woman said, before continuing, "Know this Akemliek, we shall not sit idly by and let you do as you wish. If and when you break free, we will be prepared to handle the matter accordingly. You have not only the elements chosen to fear, but us as well."
Kayura had stopped, having easily recognized the voice and who it belonged to; but this message, what did it mean? Hadn't Kaosu and Serenity said the Great Council had long ago been disbanded? She frowned, and clutched the staff, prepared to help the warrior if need be. There was no need to reveal her position now…No it was safer to wait.
The ice demonness hissed again, eyes narrowing into tiny slits, trying to search for this would-be attacker. How could this warrior move around so fast? It wasn't possible, and why was a member of the Great Council using shadows to conceal herself? She would have to talk to her master about this; it made no sense at all.
"What pretty prose," Kali scoffed, and then spit, "You must be joking I am no message girl."
She heard the sound of a dagger or some small weapon being drawn, and before she knew it, the sharp object had embedded itself into her arm. Kali whined in pain, as liquid blue-blood spilled from her arm, and she tried to wrench the object out.
The shadowed warrior chuckled in mirth, "Do not try my patience, demon. That was just a small display of what I can do. I am one of the Council's best assassins, and am not ashamed to put my talents to good use."
With a snarl, Kali vanished, not desiring to receive anymore unnecessary injuries.
The warrior let out a breath, quickly re-appearing next to Hardrock; she placed a hand on his forehead, closed her eyes and concentrated.
Kayura was debating whether or not to show herself, when the Scout commented, "You can stop hiding, she left the area completely."
The Lady Ancient then walked into the clearing, tilted her head and inquired, "What's with the shadows?"
This was in reference to the fact that though she was completely out of the line of the trees shadow, her figure still appeared to be covered by them.
"This way the enemy can't see me, to figure out who I am," She answered quietly, "Something I learned from combining Cale and Dais' training some thousand-or-so years ago."
Kayura knelt down beside the Halo Ronin, letting out a soft sigh, before concentrating on healing the wounded young man. Granted she had been no more than eight when captured by Talpa, but her parents had taught her several basic healing spells. Plus, Kaosu had been training her in the ways of the clan ever since Talpa's defeat.
Kento stirred first, moaning out, "Oh my head."
"You're lucky you still have a head, Shuu," the warrior commented, before moving on to Cye.
The Hardrock Ronin was prepared to go for his weapon, but when he saw that she was not moving in a malicious way, and when he couldn't detect an evil presence about her, he relaxed. Then he noticed that Kayura seemed to be concerned little with the shadowed figure's presence.
"Uh," he began uncertainly, to be cut off by a loud swear from Sage. He then blinked in astonishment, the Halo Ronin very rarely ever cursed, and he had never done so that loudly.
Kayura was slightly taken aback, and had also moved back a little, not having expected the Ronin to react like that.
The Scout meanwhile was chuckling, "Good morning Seiji-san. Have a nice nap?"
"Sorry Kayura," Sage apologized seeing her bewildered look, he had slowly pulled himself to a sitting position, and upon hearing the strange voice he snapped his head to the left, "What?"
"It's okay, she's on our side," Kayura smiled slightly, moving over to where Rowen lay, and went through the motions of preparing to heal him…But to her surprise, he reached out and grabbed her hand, "Don't bother, I'm fine."
She scowled at him, "No you're not. I'm going to at least heal you a little bit. No 'buts'."
Rowen swallowed his protest after hearing the last sentence, and let out an annoyed sigh.
Though Kayura said this shadowed figure was on their side, and though his armor and instinct were telling him she could be trusted, Sage was scowling anyway. She called him by his name…But then again her voice sounded familiar…He wondered…
The Scout shook her head in amusement, "If I wished you harm, I would've let Kali finish you off during your meditation, Sage."
"You! It was you?" He demanded, pulling himself to his feet now, violet eyes narrowing at her.
Cye opened both his eyes, asking curiously, "What's with all the racket?"
"Oh nothing, Halo's had an 'enlightening' of sorts," She chuckled to herself, offering Torrent's bearer her hand.
He shook his head at her in amusement, "You again?" The Ronin of Trust took her hand and hauled himself up, happy when he did not receive any strange and sudden images.
"I just can't stay away," she tossed back at him smirking behind her mask of shadows.
Rowen rolled his eyes skyward, having gotten to his feet and quickly thanking Kayura…If he hadn't said it somehow now, he'd never say it later. It wasn't that easy for him, considering she had once been his rival.
"Well," the warrior paused looking around, "You'll be fine, your guardian can keep an eye on you from here on in." She walked back towards the tree line, "See you around maybe."
"Hey hang on!" Kento protested angrily, having changed back into his everyday attire, "You help us out, and don't leave your name? You know ours, and I mean the ones we were born with. Not the ones we use with our friends and sometimes our family."
"If you had been listening, well if you had actually been conscious," she corrected herself, but was cut off by an irritated Strata Ronin.
"A member of the Great Council, what the heck is that? That only tells us part of what you are, not who," Rowen stated, he hated having to play guessing games.
"The Great Council was once the governing assembly of this world, many things were carried out there; rules, laws, how to handle outside threats to this galaxy," The warrior answered, "I am a member, though I had the least amount of influential power."
"But the elders said it was disbanded," Kayura said, with a frown, "So which is it?"
"They are correct, the Council did dissolve, but many members of it remain. They are the ones who wished for that message to be delivered. Just doing as I was told," She carelessly shrugged, noting now all four Ronin were back in their normal clothing.
"Why won't you show your face?" Sage demanded still glaring at her retreating form, "I have a hard time accepting people I can't see."
Kayura shook her head, giving a small smile, "I think he has a point. You can show yourself to them, you know."
"I can't, you know the rules Lady Kayura," she murmured having slightly picked up her walk now.
"Fine, I give you my permission," the Ancient smirked happily, knowing the terms and conditions that bound the Scout to this certain rule.
She chuckled despite herself, "I thank you, but now is not the time. Perhaps later on."
"What are you afraid of?" Rowen called out, adding in a lower tone, "Universe."
The warrior halted completely, rather surprised not having expected them to catch onto her this soon…Then again, perhaps she should have, after all they had accomplished much more in this lifetime than any of the others...Meaning their abilities were far along, and perhaps further along than she had at first thought.
"I thought you were alive," Cye commented softly, "The headpiece you wear gave you away."
"The only thing I fear is having the past repeat itself once more," she answered stonily, thinking to herself, 'Of course the jewels would give it away, they normally do.' Universe then added, "Yes I live, but no one else must know. If the enemy realizes I am alive…"
"We know we know, the whole planet will be in even more danger," Kento rolled his eyes, "That's always the way it goes."
Sailor Universe bit her lip in thought, and then scanned the surrounding area, sensing no evil presence, she permitted her guise to fall away.
The four young men could do nothing more than gape at her, violet eyes took in their reaction with mirth and the woman crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"You wanted to see me, so pick your jaws up off the floor gentlemen," she chided them with a grin, briefly running a hand through her black-silver hair.
"You…You can't be more than eighteen!" Rowen sputtered out, "How is that possible, you looked twelve in that photo!"
For the first time in a while, she laughed, "You should know by now that even the impossible is possible Strata. Those gifted with the ability to use the elements do not age normally. I appear as this age because that is when my power was at its greatest; once a warrior reaches that point, what was termed their 'peak of power' they stop aging physically."
"That's why Cale and Dais stopped aging," Kayura murmured to herself, not having meant to be heard.
"Yes, and you all should expect the same thing to occur," Universe said.
"You mean," Kento paused a moment before blurting out, "We're immortal!"
She nodded, frowning slightly, "Yes, honestly haven't you learned anything at all yet? What are the elders telling you?"
"Absolutely nothing is what," Cye snorted in annoyance, "They skip around issues and when they get confronted deny anything has happened. They are also implying things that are untruthful."
"Wonderful, they've turned into a mortal government institution," Universe muttered under her breath, saying louder, "I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about that. They will tell you things when they can, and when they think you're ready for it."
"We're ready now!" Rowen snapped in aggravation, taking a step forward, "We have the right to know who we were, and what we were fighting for."
Kayura was surprised at this outburst, not as surprised as she was when Sage and Cye both nodded in agreement.
Universe's heart sank a little, so that was what Kali was using to cause them to doubt themselves like this? She walked back towards them, placing her hand on Strata's shoulder, "Listen to me well, I have known you all, each of you as individuals, for every lifetime. Never once have you changed from the way you are now. You have always been kind and good-hearted people. Don't listen to that poor excuse for an ice sorceress!"
She snorted back a laugh, "She and Thanos haven't even been around before this lifetime! So how would they know anything? The fact is they don't, because if they did, they wouldn't be messing with you now. All of you are much stronger than in the past, and if and when you do acquire the knowledge of your past…Akemliek is going to be very sorry he came here."
"How…," Sage murmured out, looking up at her, "How can you know?"
"I wasn't a stranger before," Universe answered, sighing slightly, removing her grip on Rowen's shoulder, "This lifetime I was not allowed to introduce myself as early as I had in the past ones. Mainly because the evils came later in your lives this time, and the Council was disbanded thus leaving my fate with the elders."
"Since Serenity and Kaosu had no memory of the past, I was forced to leave you to yourselves, and just perform my duty as guardian of the Senshi. Even at that, after Serenity died, and I was presumed dead, she decided to have me stay out of all the Senshi's fights. I think it was perhaps the right call, you all did the fighting without any outside interference; even though, I still feel guilty for not being able to help."
"Not your fault," Kento shrugged slightly, "Maybe because we did all the fighting this time, we are better prepared to fight this Akemliek character."
"I hope so," Universe murmured quietly, "You should probably go now. The others are worried; I can sense their distress from here. You can tell them what I have told you; just leave the parts about me and where you got the information out of the discussion."
"Thanks," Torrent's bearer acknowledged.
The Scout merely gave a slight inclination of her head and then gave a bow, before turning around slowly walking away.
The warning had hit her senses the moment Universe had prepared to depart; Kayura quickly leapt in the air, knocking down one of the Raikken that had suddenly materialized.
Her eyes widened in shock as she saw one of the archer's had already released his arrow, "Rowen!"
The Ronin of Strata turned around, surprise in his face as he saw the projectile streaming towards him…There was no way he could outrun it, he didn't have the strength to move that fast.
"Get down!" Universe hauled the young man to the ground with her, placing herself in the object's projected path. She swore under her breath when it rammed into her arm, she eyed Strata's bearer with a frown, "You okay?"
"Ya, thanks," Rowen murmured slightly stunned that she had taken the arrow for him.
She smirked, "Good, just don't get used to this 'royal treatment.'" In an instant she was on her feet, scowling, "Hey Kayura, I'll handle these. You're tired from healing the two Ronin."
"And you're not?" The Lady Ancient snapped back, landing on the ground after jumping down from the tree.
"Of course I'm not," She commented sarcastically as she yanked out the arrow in her arm, and closed her eyes; she had to get rid of the Raikken before they could vanish and alert Thanos and Kali as to what they had seen.
The air around her crackled with energy, and the temperature slowly rose to a point where Cye could sense it even though he was fifteen feet away.
"Aleutian," Her eyes snapped open, as shards of ice started to form around her small form, "Silver…" The ice had finished forming, and one could see that what appeared to be fire and molten rock contained within each shard, while electricity cracked around each one.
"Shards!" Universe released the attack by a mere wave of her hand, but kept her concentration up making sure that each projectile hit their intended target and not one of the Ronins by accident.
Once being struck by a shard, the object detonated taking the Raikken with it.
"You didn't miss a single one!" The Hardrock Ronin gaped at the Scout.
Universe got her breathing under control, her body shaking from just using that basic attack…She wasn't supposed to use her abilities, but it had been necessary and she could deal with the side-effect later on.
"That's because my attack isn't a stationary one," She drew herself up, saying quietly; "I can move it as the enemy moves. After ten years I got pretty good at it, and after the first thousand…Well it became much easier to pull off."
They all blinked at her, and she let out a sigh, before turning to her left and glaring into the darkness.
"Who is it?" Kayura asked, jitte already withdrawn and poised for attack.
Universe relaxed slightly, "Wildfire, the other Seasonals, and a handful of the Senshi. Here's where I take my leave. Please, if you are ever in need of me…Just ask for help, or say my name. I'll be there if I can."
With this stated she jumped into the shadow of the nearest tree and vanished from their sight.
The four Ronin Warriors exchanged glances with one another, trying to digest some of what their 'ally' had just told them, and also the fact that she had moved and handled the enemy so expertly. Then again, she had told Kali she was an assassin, and some how none of them could deny it. It was the way she had carried herself, spoken and in the way she had fought that convinced them she was indeed speaking the truth about that.
"Strange character," The Halo Ronin murmured to himself, 'But I am glad she is on our side. Having more enemies would make this ordeal even more tiresome.'
Rowen was frowning still trying to accept that the Scout had placed herself in harms way for him… 'She is a guardian, so she's supposed to protect, but she's supposed to be the Senshi's guardian and only acts as ours when Kayura needs her too. So why is she helping us so much?'
He would probably not get an answer to that question for some time to come, but for right now he was glad to know that it was the Sailor helping them out.
Cye held in a yawn, as the others approached; a frown crossing his face upon seeing how labored Ryo's breathing was.
"Are you all okay?" Wildfire's bearer inquired, worry present in his eyes.
The Hardrock Ronin gave a nod, "Kali beat us up pretty good, but we'll live."
Ryo's heart sank, so he hadn't imagined her presence in this area after all; noting the fact that his four friends were back in their regular clothing (they had powered down after Universe finished off the Raikken) just did further to confirm his fears.
When he looked at Kayura looking for a definitive answer, she gave a nod…Yes; Kali had succeeded in getting to the bearer of Hardrock as well.
The Ronin of Wildfire hung his head, and returned his weapons to the sheaths upon his back. This nightmare just wouldn't end, would it?
Little did he know that from here on in, things were only going to get worse…So much so that it would test the Ronins friendship…One could only hope that the bond would hold through this trial. But, would it?
A/N: Yeah, you're getting extra chapters. Mainly to make up for my lack of updating on a set schedule. Also because I want to get the other books up on ffnet soon. :)