TheWhiteWanderer: Yeah! My 100th review! Thank you so much. It's okay about the guy. I've come to have accepted it. Thanks for the comment on the Spanish. That's why I had the translations listed, too.

jrzgrl02: Well, I guess you can read some more now because here's the new chapter. Lol As for what's at the temple, wouldn't you like to know? It's something I thought about a while back when I was working on the first fan fic. I'm predicting I'll wind up with either 39 or 40 chapters, depending on how I stretch the story ending out. I'm already halfway through the next chapter. Enjoy!

Vampire Ronin: Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy! By the way, checked out some of your stories. Nice. Very nice.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

The path had narrowed over time. Anubis and Sekhmet were walking up ahead of them while Cale trailed behind them. Dais was walking even closer to Emily which made her skin want to crawl. A thick fog had set in low to the ground. It was so thick Emily couldn't see anything below her shins except a barely visible path.

This has to be the craziest thing they have ever dragged me into, Emily thought.

They had been traveling the majority of the day and dusk would be upon them soon. Emily was starting to get weirded out. The Shadows were being overly cautious, repeatedly telling her she needed to turn around and go back to the crossroads. She heard a loud creaking noise, but couldn't detect where it had come from.

She heard another creaking noise before a whoosh and small breeze blew from behind.

warlord behind

disappear gone

caution

Emily turned her head slightly to look over her shoulder before gasping and turning her head back around.

"Afraid of the dark, Emily?" Dais chuckled.

"No. I'm just wondering where your fourth warlord just went to," she answered.

Dais made her stop and looked over his shoulder while Sekhmet and Anubis continued forward. Dais narrowed his gaze and glanced around. He couldn't sense his brother-in-arms anywhere.

[Where did Cale go?]

A loud creaking sound echoed through the area when the two stopped. They had a good amount of space between the two pairs on the path. Anubis and Sekhmet turned around to look over in their direction. Anubis frowned.

[What the He-]

Anubis suddenly dropped downwards into the fog as if the Earth itself had opened up and swallowed him. Another creaking sound then C-C-CRACK! Sekhmet disappeared down, too. Emily let out a quiet gasp in surprise.

Dais abruptly let go of her hand and the webbing around their wrists disappeared. He threw an arm around her waist and yanked her into a protective embrace. Without warning, something cracked and creaked beneath their feet before giving out.

They plummeted down through the darkness. Everything around them was pitch black. After what felt like a short yet long drop, they touched down roughly into freezing cold water. The rough waves pushed and pulled them all over, keeping them under the water. Emily focused on the power of the Torrent armor to maintain breathing underwater.

She felt the both of them slam into a hard surface. The hit forced the two of them to separate abruptly. The water forced her further down, but Emily remained surprisingly calm. She swept the currents around her to build a small force field of sorts around her. Then she closed her eyes and focused the power of Halo to the forefront of her mind.

When she reopened her eyes, her eyes were translucent green and she could see clearly through the dark waters. She couldn't see any of the warlords above her or to the side. She looked all around and down yet she still couldn't see them. Suddenly, she remembered what her brother had told her during training over New Year's.

"The most common light sources are thermal. A body at a given temperature emits a characteristic spectrum of black-body radiation. Close your eyes and use the armor power to detect us."

Emily closed her eyes again as she called forth more power from Halo. She stuck out her hands as invisible waves of light bounced from her hands. They struck objects all around and bounced back, giving her all the information she needed. Three of the warlords were down the ways from her yet she couldn't locate the fourth.

She reached out further, sending the light out even further. A shock ran through her when she sensed a body sinking below her. She sensed the body was slowly losing energy.

warlord hurt

bleeding

protected half-Shadow

Emily's eyes shot open before she dove down and surged towards the warlord. It had to be Dais. The man had been holding her when they had collided into that rock formation. Call it clearing a guilty conscience or whatever, but she wasn't about to let the man drown. Especially when he had been shielding her.

She moved fluidly through the water like a jet cutting across the sky. Finally, she caught up to him. She didn't need the Shadows or Halo's power to tell her he was unconscious. Emily darted under him then straight up in front of him. She wrapped his arms around her over her shoulders and pulled him up against her back.

Emily expanded the force field to shield him as well. She had never used the combined efforts of the ronin armors like this before. It was very taxing on her body, but if she let the power go, she would end up drowning them both.

While using Torrent to shield their bodies from the current and Halo to guide the way, Emily called forth Hardrock to ease the burden of carrying another body. They reached the surface in no time. Emily let out a loud gasp when they broke the surface. Now that they were above the surface, Emily could see much better all around them.

Keeping the unconscious warlord onto her back like a heavy sack of potatoes, she swam towards a rock formation. She pulled their bodies up onto the flat surface. Waves splashed water over them so it was difficult to identify where Dais' injury was. The sun had set now and there was only a half moon out. Glancing up, Emily saw a cliff up where the fog was.

Deciding to take a serious chance, the blonde teenager wrapped the Shadows around herself and Dais. She shifted through them to bring the two of them to the top of the cliff. She laid his body down on the grass and immediately started looking over for injuries. She found heavy bruising that was already forming on his upper back and along his side. He had a knot the size of a softball on the side of his head.

It was bleeding quite heavily which led to Emily laying a hand over his injury. Her palm started glowing green, forcing the wound to close. Aside from that, he seemed fine; except for the fact he was unconscious. She even checked his breathing and heart rate to make sure they were at a normal level.

Convincing herself that all he needed was a little rest, Emily gathered wood and made a fire. She made the fire close to Dais but not close enough for the embers to burn him. She sat a short distance away and leaned her back up against a tree. She used the power of Wildfire to keep the fire burning as she allowed herself to drift off to sleep.

It was late, the warlord was healed, and she really didn't give a hoot and holler over where the other three were. She would worry about them after Dais woke up.

/…/

"So we have no idea where Emily is?"

Cye glared at his best friend for stating the obvious, but nodded all the same. The two of them had just finished cleaning up the apartment and Cye was now working on dinner. Tom was to be released from the hospital tomorrow and Elizabeth Ann was going to be taking care of him at the apartment. Sage was meditating in Emily's room, trying to reach her through their link.

Rowen and Ryo were out looking for any clues as to where the warlords or Emily could be. They had heard descriptions of men matching the warlords' descriptions possibly staying at a local hotel. They had gone there to find out as much as they could.

Kento let out a loud huff from his seated place on the kitchen counter above the dishwasher.

"I can't believe this is happening again!" Kento exclaimed.

Cye couldn't help but agree with his best friend. It seemed like there was a dark cloud following Emily. She certainly seemed to be having a Hell of a year. Granted, not all of it was bad. In this school year alone, Emily had moved to another country and started college, been proposed to by her longtime boyfriend, found out she was adopted, discovered the warlords had returned, and her best friend and her roommate had both been attacked by said warlords.

It's enough to make your head spin off like a top, Cye thought.

Meanwhile, Sage was in a deep state of meditation, trying his hardest to contact his sister. Instead the spirit of the Ancient One appeared before him as Emily's room was thrown into complete darkness.

"Sage of Halo, this will be the greatest struggle for you. Many lives hang in the balance, including that of your sister Emily. This battle will lead you back into the Nether Realm and into battle with the dark warlords," the Ancient One said.

Sage kept his eyes closed while speaking.

"How are we to get there? I can't even reach Emily right now," he said.

The Ancient One reached forward to place a hand down on top of his bowed head.

"I will help you, Sage of Halo. Concentrate on me and the crest Emily wears."

Sage thought of the necklace the Ancient One had given Emily so long ago. He thought of its design and how Emily hid it from view.

[Emily? Emily, if you can hear me, please say something.]

Sage was happy and worried when he heard a pained groan.

[Sage? Ooh, my head hurts.]

[Em, where are you?]

Another groan. It was less pained and more annoyance.

[In the Nether Realm. I'm with the damn warlords. *bleep* That hurts.]

Sage's concern heightened as he felt Emily's pain. It seemed to be emanating from her head.

[Hold on, Emily! We'll find a way to the Nether Realm. We're coming!]

He heard a muffled response and called to Emily to repeat.

[Cooper. Get…Coop. …call…name.]

Sage snapped out of his meditation, breaking the connection to both the Ancient One and Emily. Sage scrambled to his feet and hurried out of the room. He found Kento setting the table and Cye pulling a pot off the stove. He quickly told them about the connection he had made. About this time, Ryo and Rowen had returned from the hotel.

The two ronins reported the sighting at the hotel to be unfounded. None of the security tapes showed any of them and no one could remember seeing any of the warlords. Sage got them caught up on what had happened with him.

"So we just call the canine?" Kento asked, clearly confused.

Sage nodded. Rowen shrugged. "Let's give it a try, then."

"Cooper," Sage called in a calm voice.

To their utter surprise, the large white canine suddenly appeared from behind Kento. It was almost as if he had been standing there the entire time. He made Kento jump out of his skin. The dog grinned as if laughing at the ronin's misfortune. Sage smiled.

"Good boy, Coop."

/…/

When morning came, Emily woke up to bright light and a semi-conscious warlord. She absentmindedly extinguished the fire before kneeling down. Dais blinked his eye but didn't seem able to focus on anything. She put a hand on his chest to keep him from rising.

She held up two fingers in front of his face, well in his line of sight.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Emily asked.

"…four," he croaked.

Emily lifted an eyebrow as she dropped her hand.

"Oh, that's very reassuring," Emily mumbled.

She placed her hand on the side of his head where she felt for the bump. She was pleased to find the wound hadn't reopened and it had reduced in size a little bit. Then she had him partially sit up so she could take a closer look at his bruising. Emily was somewhat pleased to see it had all disappeared. Now his skin was only light pink in color where the bruises had been.

She stood up with him and helped him trudge over to a tree which she leaned him against the bark. He mumbled something which Emily had to strain to hear. She let out a snort.

"I'm not going far, you nut. I'm just going to get some wood to start a new fire," she told him.

His gaze told her of his belief or lack thereof of what she had said. She flashed him a smirk before walking away. She managed to find a good collection of twigs that would make a decent fire. Emily returned to the wounded warrior where she set up the fire closer to where he was leaning. She stood facing him when she used Wildfire to summon fire into a ball in her hand.

Emily moved to turn and throw the fireball into the neatly put together stack when a sudden force struck in the side of the head. She went tumbling across the grass and rolled to a stop next to a rock. She wasn't able to move her head away fast enough to avoid another blow to the same spot. The blow covered the top part of her outer ear and the side of her head where the temporal lobe was.

She could hear shouting from far away but the ringing in her ears was covering over the voices.

"We need her alive!"

"Get off her!"

"Stop!"

Emily finally managed to reach up and block a blow. She twisted the arm and threw the heavy body off her. Despite the ringing pain in her hand, Emily forced herself up.

She bent her elbows so that her fingers were pointing towards her shoulders with palms resting on the ground by her head. She swung her knees up to her chest, while rolling back a little bit. Emily swung her legs up and forward while pushing off with her hands. Arching her back, Emily used her abdominal strength and leg muscles to pull herself up into an upright position.

Despite the sharp dizziness that attacked her head, she raised her arms up in defense while glaring at her attacker. Unfortunately, neither one of them had a chance for a fight. Dais yanked Emily backwards while Sekhmet and Dais grabbed ahold of Cale. Dais held the side of Emily's head, inspecting the damage done to it. There was a serious bruise forming where Cale had struck her.

She was surprised to hear Dais speak in a foreign language to the others. His tone of voice made her think he was upset or irritated with Cale.

"What the Hell were you thinking?" Dais snarled.

"She was about to set you on fire. Didn't look like you could have done much to stop her. Nether Spirits forbid I save you," Cale growled back.

Emily hissed as Dais' hand touched a tender spot. The ringing was dampening but it was still there.

"She was making a fire, you idiot!" Dais yelled back.

Despite having to hold his fellow warlord back, Sekhmet chuckled. Dais was a tad concerned since the side of her head where Cale had hit was the same side Sekhmet had dropped her earlier. He tilted her head up to make sure she wasn't suffering from a concussion.

"Worried about the 'little light,' brother?" Cale taunted.

Dais turned his head to glare at the other warlord.

"You're fortunate she doesn't appear to have a concussion. Those can lead to more serious problems like her dead on the ground. Like it or not, we need Halo's sister. Lay off her until we get to the temple."

Cale grudgingly agreed with him. The three were silent as Dais finished checking Emily over. Getting her bearings right, Emily pulled away with the shake of her head. He was surprised to see a fireball form in her hand again while her gaze focused on Cale whom the other warlords had immediately moved away from.

Dais stepped up beside her and dropped his voice to a murmur.

"Don't start something you don't intend to finish," he told her.

She smirked without looking at him.

"Never said I wouldn't," Emily said in a clear, strong voice.

Cale raised an eyebrow challengingly.

"Go ahead, little light." He smirked. "Do your worst."

Through the thin veil of rage, Emily knew that was exactly what the warlord wanted. He had been itching for a fight with her for a while. Truthfully, she wanted nothing more than to fry his ass. Then again Emily knew there was greater power in numbers and four to one wasn't exactly even.

Emily flashed him another glare before pulling the fire back through her hand. Cale's gaze narrowed. She could tell he had wanted her to take that chance; he was ready to fight. She surprised him even more by winking.

"You're not worth it," she murmured.

He tried to lunge at her again but Sekhmet and Anubis grabbed his arms, holding him back. Dais questioned her again.

"How's your head?"

Truth be told, her head was pounding like Ryo had used it for soccer practice. Plus, she wanted nothing more than to pound Cale into the ground, take a Tylenol, and call it a day.

[Emily? Emily, if you can hear me, please say something.]

/…/

It was a good thing the ronins had called their subarmors. It was the only way they could keep up with Cooper. Sage had asked Cooper to take them to Emily. The canine had led them outside before bolting through the trees. It was a good thing they were all moving so quickly; it wouldn't have been easy to explain their attire.

They followed Cooper through the woods, over fallen trees, and all the way to an open meadow. He stopped near the ground where the last dynasty gate had been standing. The ronins came to a stop and watched Cooper as he straightened up and threw his head back. The canine let out a chilling howl that went from low to high as he held it out long.

The ronins were surprised beyond utter belief when a dynasty gate appeared before them. It seemed as though the strange dog had called forth the gate. They approached the gate as it opened inward.

"Cooper?"

The spirit ghost wolf turned his head to look at Sage.

"Can you lead us to Emily?" Sage asked.

Cooper nodded his head once. Rowen stepped forward with a determined look on his face.

"Then let's go."

/…/

It was nearing sunset when they reached an old abandoned city. At the very back of the city were several stories of stairs leading up to what appeared to be an enormous temple. Anubis and Cale walked ahead of Emily while Sekhmet and Dais walked behind her. It reminded Emily of a team of security guards but she certainly felt far from safe with them.

As she walked, she had tried re-connecting to her brother through their mental link, but had been unsuccessful thus far. Dais had wrapped tight webbing around her wrists, bounding her hands together in front of her. She had landed a successful kick in his gut for that stunt. He had almost raised a hand against her yet had restrained himself.

Emily still didn't have a clue what was in the temple, but every step she took caused more worry within. The Shadows were whispering concerns to her, which caused Cale to glance around every few steps.

temple old

magic sacred

dangerous

That certainly didn't sit well with Emily. She would have to be blind to not see that the temple was ancient. At the top of the stairs was a large courtyard with an empty fountain. They walked around the fountain and into the temple building. The setting sun filtered light through stained glass windows along a long hallway.

They passed through the center of the temple. It was a large open area with thick pillars and a high roof with many beams. She was led down another hallway. This hall had many windows as well. There were weird markings on the walls which seemed familiar to Emily.

Suddenly, her eyes grew big and she almost gave herself away to the warlords. Now she realized where she recognized the markings from. They were almost identical to the markings on her arms.

old Shadow sanctuary

once home

abandoned now

half-child welcome

warlords outsiders

keep out

Emily was very grateful she was wearing a jacket. She could feel a slight heat emitting from her arms. She could feel the markings appear and sincerely hoped her jacket wouldn't become see-through. The blonde woman wasn't sure if the warlords knew about Shadows and she didn't want them to discover her true lineage.

At least not when things aren't in my favor, Emily said to herself.

The warlords led her deep within the temple. The deeper they went, the more nervous Emily became. More than once, either Dais or Sekhmet were forced to lay a hand on her lower back to push her forward so she would keep moving.

Finally, they arrived at a stop in a room about half the size of the center of the temple. There was a large circle with Shadow-like symbols carved into the ground. There were books on the floor over to the side where markings covered the walls like hieroglyphics in the pyramids.

Candles were placed in seemingly random places within the circle. Emily was forced to stand in the center and the webbing removed before the entire room was thrown into darkness. Emily frowned. She glanced around but couldn't see or sense any of the warlords.

She grew even more nervous. The Shadows had suddenly gone quiet in mid-speech. All they had managed to say was "use light must no-." Emily wondering what light had to do with it. Perhaps, though, they had detected the oncoming darkness and wanted her to find the warlords using Halo's power.

Emily closed her eyes called forth Halo's power. The kanji symbol for Spirit began to glow green on her forehead. She started to send out wavelengths of light to bounce against objects to help her detect where they went.

All the sudden, Emily's blood ran cold and she felt all the energy in her body leave all at once. Her head was thrown back and her body arched backwards painfully. Her mouth opened in a silent scream and her eyes rolled back, revealing the empty white of her eyeballs. There was a voice chanting something yet she heard not a single word.

Four different colored lights swirled around her in a vortex of unimaginable power. A light mist of green light fled from her hands to join the other colors. As the last of the green light left her hands, the kanji of Spirit disappeared from her forehead. Her eyes closed and her body slumped to the floor.

Ba-bum.

Ba-bum.

Emily's eyes were barely opened yet she saw nothing. Her heart rate was slowing down with every slow, deep breath she took. The candles lit themselves and a lone figure appeared.

The person walked over to her where they crouched down beside her. An armored hand reached out to pull a few strands of hair behind her ear. Then they stroked her cheek with a finger.

Ba-bum.

Ba-bum.

"You have served a great purpose, young Emily. We could not have done this without you," he told her.

Ba…bum.

Ba…bum.

"The ronins will come. We predicted they would. It's a pity they won't reach you in time."

Ba…bum.

Ba…bum.

Ba…bum.

A hand covered her eyes and moved downward, forcing her eyes to close. She could feel herself drifting off as her entire body grew cold. Her arms shook violently as she took a shaky breath. Her breathing slowed down to the point of almost not breathing at all.

"We will be certain to tell your brother of the role you played in bringing us into our full power."

Ba…bum.

The figure leaned down to press a cold kiss onto her cheek.

"Goodbye, little light."

Ba…bum.

Ba…bum.

Ba…

END OF CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

*fans herself* WOO! This chapter got pretty intense for me. I had to take a couple of breaks and work out the parts out loud to make it work. I'm sure I have now caused mass chaos and panic. You must have so many questions. The next chapter will take me a bit of time to write. This chapter has actually been done for a few days so I've been working on the next chapter for at least three or four days now.

So please review! Much thanks, everyone.