Disclaimer: The usual stuff. And I don't own Shakespeare. There is a line from one of his sonnets in here.

"Ai… Look at them, circling the place like a pack of wolves," Opal was looking out the window, waiting for Touma to get his lazy ass out of bed.

"And I am personally very insulted that you used that term." Said Jett, fingering the arrow to the crossbow.

"Sorry." Replied Opal. "How long do you think it's gonna be until we can get back to our semi-normal lives?"

"Probably never, at this rate," grumbled Jett. She walked to the stairway. "Touma! Get your lazy ass out of bed so we can get moving!" she yelled.

There was a loud growl as the door opened. The other Ronins had already eaten breakfast and were devising ways of getting rid of Talpa again. There were votes on the White Inferno again, but it was unlikely Talpa would fall for the same trick and they didn't have the Jewel of Life with them this time. Then there was just beating him to a bloody pulp, which was Kento's idea.

Lilith stood in the corner of the room; quietly observing what was going on. She had been in this form all night to keep watch over the energies she was now controlling. As long as she lasted, the Warlords could get in. Even Talpa would have some trouble. She turned her gaze from the Ronins to Opal and Jett. They had indeed come a long way. How long ago was it when she had first met up with Opal this life? Lilith couldn't remember. To her, time was something that held little importance in the flow of things.

She made sure Touma had eaten and was ready before calling the two groups together. She studied each youth in turn, turning her eyes only. "The time of tests have come," she said finally. "You must work as a team to keep Talpa from reviving completely. Ignore you differences or pasts arguments. If you don't… this world is lost. The reason why Talpa keeps returning is because of negative Human emotions. Your emotions toward each other in the past made him stronger. He will be stronger still if you don't put the past behind you. Don't let him win this fight."

Opal bowed her head. "I will do my best not to disappoint you, Lilith."

Jett nodded. "Likewise."

"We'll kick his ass again she make him go back to the hole he came from!" said Kento.

Lilith smiled. "Then go, warriors. Free this realm from its folly."

A moment later the candles went out simultaneously and Lilith had turned back to cat form, mewing at them to hurry it up. Opal scratched Lilith's ears and led the way out.

***

The barrier was down. Sehkmet could feel it dissipate. He smiled evilly in his armor. The timing was just right. He waited for all seven of them to step into the open. The Ronins were in sub-armor. The Warriors were in no armor but carried weapons other then their athames. Interesting. Did they really expect to win the battle this time? The Warlord of Venom drew two of his sword quickly and threw them, just missing Shin's head and Opal's hand. Where the swords struck a hissing sound was made and the stone and wood began to melt. He laughed.

"Ok, that so not funny," said Opal, glancing at the sword that would have impaled her hand. She drew her sword off her back.

"Agreed," said Jett. She was glaring at Sehkmet as she hefted the crossbow onto her arm and aimed it at him. "If he so much as hurts a hair on Shin's head his nuts are coming off."

Shin blushed but got his kanji orb ready. "Do you really think you can take all seven of us?" asked Shin.

Sehkmet laughed. "Of course I can. SNAKE FANG STRIKE!"

His attack flew at the group. They dodged out of reach, now separated. Ryu looked as his fellow Ronins. "Ronins to arms! Armor of Wildfire, Dao Djin!"

"Armor of Strata, Dao Inoachi!"

"Armor of Hard Rock, Dao Gi!"

"Armor of Torrent, Dao Shin!"

"Armor of Halo, Dao Chi!"

A flash of light and a lot of flower petals later the five were in armor. Shin readied his trident to spear Sehkmet. Jett shot an arrow from the crossbow at him. Opal was about to strike with her sword when Ryo was suddenly flung at her and landed on her. Pain exploded through her. That armor was not light. Ryu quickly got up. "Opal, are you ok?"

"No, I just got whacked with your armor!" She said, allowing him to help her up.

As Ryo was apologizing, there was the sound of Kale calling out his sure kill. Seiji was countering it. Ryu went after Sehkmet. After the two attacks died down, Opal charged after Kale, her sword horizontal and ready to impale him. She was knocked aside. Anger surged through her. "That's it! I've had enough! EARTHLY—"

Jett's shriek stopped her. Opal turned around and saw that Dais had her friend. Jett was kicking backwards to get at Dais, but her attacks weren't penetrating the armor. He grinned as he held one arm by Jett's throat and drew blood with his free hand. Jett gritted her teeth, refusing to scream. Opal glowered, but couldn't move in fear of bringing harm to Jett. Shin was shaking visibly with anger. After he collected enough, Jett was dropped and rolled out of the way.

"Now Master Talpa will be revived!"

Shin let out a really strange noise in the back of his throat. "Let those whom nature hath not made for store harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish!" He leapt after Dais, knocking the vial of Jett's blood Dais held out of his hands. He took his trident and just started beating the living hell out of the Warlord of Illusion.

Everyone just looked at the fight. The Ronins expected Shin to speak in Shakespeare. They've never seen him pissed. Well, pissed off enough for him to use Shakespeare in anger. The other two warlords seemed almost amused at seeing Dais getting his ass kicked by the weakest Ronin on land. Opal used this opportunity to drag Jett out of the way and motioned for Ryu to get moving. Ryu nodded, motioned to the other Ronins, and started attacking the other warlords again. They kept out of Shin's way though. When he did get pissed, it was uncontrollable and it was best to let him handle it his own way. He was handling Dais pretty well on his own.

Opal started working on healing Jetts arm. "Holy Earth…" she chanted. "Heal my friend's wound." It began to heal up.

Jett flexed her arm when she was finished. "Wow… that was unexpected." She was watching Shin fight with the old look in her eyes. "I didn't know he was a Shakespeare freak."

"You haven't spent a week at my house when he's yelling it in his sleep," grumbled Opal. "Ready to fight?"

"Yeah, let's get these asses."

Jett and Opal took stances besides each other. "Wait a minute." Said Opal "I got an idea. Remember the Witch's Warning Jay gave to us?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

Opal grinned and pointed her left pointer finger at Sehkmet. Jett got the hint and pointed her right pointer at Kale. Together, they chanted:

"Blood turn black and flesh turn blue,

I'll curse you if you force me to

By the left hand and unclean food.

I'll curse your eyes, I'll curse you eyes.

I'll call down a plague of flies.

Blood go black and flesh go blue

Evil from me back to you.

My soul is clean and yours on fire

You fuck with a witch

You get burned, Liar!"

Out of Jett's hand came a ball of fire, her element, and she shot it freely at Kale. It wouldn't harm Seiji or Ryu. Opal let the Earth Mother give her power as she charged up and centered a ball of energy in her hands. Then with a yell she sent it towards Sehkmet. Hers also wouldn't hurt the Ronins.

The energy connected. Sehkmet went flying backwards and into her neighbor's house. Opal groaned. He left a big hole in the side of the house. Kale smashed into the metal clothes liner, totally deforming it. The four Ronins turned to look at the girls with open jaws. The girls shrugged and looked towards Shin. He had him by the throat and was preparing to make a Dais shish kabob.

"Shin!" called Jett. "We're leaving without you!"

Shin looked over his shoulder. The anger was replaced with relief and her let Dais go. He jogged over to her. "Are you ok?"

She nodded, smiling at him. "Let's move before these guys regain their senses."

Shin now looked over at Sehkmet and Kale. "Wow… what did you guys do to them?"

"Explain later, move now," said Opal. "Hope you guys don't mind a eleven mile hike seeming the car won't work."

Everyone groaned. "Opal, you need to move into the city."

"Parent's choice, not mine." She started to lead the way to town.

***

"Finally! Civilization!" Shuu kissed the ground beneath him.

"You know, I never thought I'd be coming here willing," said Jett as she broke open the school window to open the door.

"Heh heh heh," giggled Opal. "Perhaps we should do something to the boilers or something so we can't have school after this is finished."

"Now why would you do that?" asked Touma. "School is supposed to be fun."

Ryu looked at him as he opened the door. "You're the genius. You don't need to go to school. You should go straight to college instead."

"And miss out on my classes and you guys making a fool of yourselves? Naw, I think I'll stick around."

"Why are we here?" asked Seiji.

Opal was currently breaking into locked doors to find the right room. "One: We have more of a place to hide if necessary. Two: We have the upper hand in that we know this place better then they do at the moment. And three: Schools have hidden weapons." Opal gave up on trying to picklock the damn door open and gave it a few quick sidekicks to break it down. "Hey! It's the boilers!"

"Oh no…" groaned Ryu and Jett and Opal went to check it out.

"I light the fire if you get the buckets." Said Jett.

Opal pushed through the guys and raced off to the janitors' area. Jett stood back from the boilers and pointed at it. "Fire." The area beneath the boilers lit up in flame to do its work. Opal returned with several buckets.

"Can we help any?" asked Ryu.

Jett thought for a moment. "Yeah. See if you can find me a hose, Ryu. Touma, I want you to check out the perimeter. Shuu there should be some wire and stuff in the art rooms. Shin, you can stay with me. Seiji, check out the cafeteria for something we can use. Opal-"

"I'll check out the janitors' tools."

"Ok."

They separated. In the janitors' area, she started breaking into chests and stuff to find to use. She pulled out some weird tool she had never seen in her life. "What the hell is this? Oh well." She tossed it back into the chest and moved on. After a few minutes, she had a few useful tools and headed back to the boiler room. She peeked her head in to see what was up, then shook her head. There was Jett and Shin making out. She cleared her throat loudly. "Hey, virgin eyes are watching this!"

The jumped back, blushing furiously. "Opal, I know where you sleep, remember that." Jett took the tools from her. "Um… What do you plan to use these for?"

Opal picked up one. "See how heavy it is? Remember Home Alone? I say dump a whole bunch of these on top of their heads."

Jett smiled. "Ok. You and your ideas sometimes."

Shin was still blushing like mad hell. "I'll- err- go help Seiji." And he ran off. Opal laughed as she started to set up the trap, loosening some of the hot water boiler bolts.

****

Dais shook his head clear, finally getting the ringing out of his head. He looked around for the vial, his first concern. He found it practically buried in the snow. He retrieved it and smiled. "Sehkmet, Kale! Get up, we're going to revive Master Talpa."

They got up groaning. "Wait until I get my hands on them…" muttered Sehkmet.

"Never mind them, we're going to hurry and do the ritual." Dais led the two back to the clearing in the woods. He was preparing the vial of blood when Kale jumped back in shock. Dais turned, annoyed. "What is going on?"

"T-the symbol j-just moved." He stammered.

"Kale's scared," taunted Sehkmet. "Mayhap he hasn't been loyal to Talpa?"

Kale turned on the Warlord of Venom, glaring and ready to pounce on him. "Shut up! I have been more loyal to Talpa then you have! Who was it that found the way to bring him back, and found out where?"

"Shut up, the both of you!" yelled Dais. He had almost completed the ritual of pouring the goblet of blood onto the symbol. Kale and Sehkmet shut up and watched as Dais finished. Sehkmet poured the blood onto the symbol.

After a few moments, the Nether Spirits began to chant and swirl around the symbol. The symbol began to glow and pulse with the rhythm of the chants. The warlords waited expectantly. This is what they had been waiting for. The ground shook slightly and there was a groan. A few minutes later, a Nether gate appeared.

Talpa had been revived.