Chapter Nine – The Sacrifices We Make

Chapter Nine – The Sacrifices We Make

No, Miri, no! What are you doing? Trying to get yourself killed? You can't possibly face her when Ryo and I can't even get deal out a lasting punishment. It's suicide!

Rowen was in a state of panic. Mirichu was fighting Lady Kayura by herself, and if she were to get into trouble there was nothing he could do. Both Ryo and he were paralyzed, motionless masses of metal and weapons against the crags of the Great Mountains. There could only be one outcome to this fight, and Rowen hated to think what it could be.

"So you must be the woman about which Dais spoke so highly. Yes, you have to be. He told me of your great beauty, your unending spunk and your fighting skills. However, I have yet to be truly impressed. And what might be this little flower's virtue: companionship, kindness, patience?"

"Try love."

"No thanks, makes me gag. Welcome to my arena, Armor of the Eclipse. Now let's see just how good of a samurai you really are." Kayura stood there scrutinizing the young woman mercilessly from head to toe, admiring her armor as well as the points on her formidable Bo. Lady Kayura waited long enough without making a single move so that Miri would be lured into thinking that she was not as vicious as she actually was. When nothing came from the golden goddess, the general was forced to launch an attack.

Swords flashed like lightning as they sliced the air on their murderous pathway to Miri's innocent flesh. The speed at which they were sailing was unthinkable. But Miri, anticipating this move, thrust her staff into the course of the jitte in time to stop their bombardment upon her. Kayura stood with a countenance of amazement on her face. No one had ever been fast enough before to defer the path of her Starlight Swords. Exactly who was this woman?

Quickly, the general yanked back her jitte and swung them into a position that formed an X across her chest. "You'll have to be faster than that, Lady Kayura, if you ever want to see my blood spilled," taunted Miri with a devilish twinkle in her emerald eyes.

"This fast enough for you?" she retorted, responding with a shower of well-placed slashes upon her enemy from her Starlight Swords.

As Miri hopped effortlessly from one precipice to another, all the while dodging the arcs of the silver lightning, she insulted Kayura in the worst possible way – by calling her sluggish. "Not nearly enough. Perhaps if you were to spend more time on concentrating where I'm going to land than where I really am, then maybe you'll actually score a hit or two."

On the ledge almost directly across from Miri and only a few feet away, Kayura halted her attack, placing one hand sternly on her hip. "Who is this fast and agile creature I see looming before me? She moves with the speed of a cheetah and the grace of a gazelle. She is far too quick to be a true Ronin." While Miri glared down at Rowen, as if advising him to pay attention to what the mad woman was mumbling, she lost her necessary concentration on her opponent. It was the stupidest move she could have made. "However, she is just as dumb as they are, I'm afraid." With that, Kayura lunged at the new warrior of the Eclipse, slashing the area of tender meat right above Miri's left eye with the extreme tip of her jitte.

Blood gushed sickeningly from the horrific wound, sanguine red fluid stinging her eyes and temporarily blinding her. Miri's hand instinctually touched the gash above her eyebrow to cease the bleeding, but when she fingered it, she felt something squishy and wet underneath all the blood – exposed muscle. It quivered violently at the foreign touch of her hands, and Miri felt intensely nauseous. It felt like a fat, writhing earthworm beneath the surface of her skin.

Then abruptly, her eyelids jammed shut as a sharp, biting pain gnawed hungrily at her gut. Mirichu groaned, her arms shooting out and groping blindly for what had caused the tortuous agony. Kayura merely cackled evilly as she retracted the butt of one of her swords from the unyielding abdomen of Miri's shining armor, now slick with her own blood diluted by the rains.

Knowing that she could not win fighting blind, Mirichu leapt backwards, believing her armor to protect her. She landed on ledge high above the gleeful general and immediately wiped the scarlet liquid from her eyes only to discover that she did not want to see after all.

Below in the valley were three of the Ronin Warriors and the former Dark Warlord Anubis. They were buffeting the Dynasty soldiers' attacks as best they could, but they were so severely out numbered that they were easily being defeated. Each warrior had at least one hundred troopers closing in on him, ever tightening their circle to constrict his fighting capabilities. Mirichu wanted to scream to them to not give up, that there was still a hidden hope that they had yet to see. She wanted to remind them about their Awakenings and their secret strengths that they could not remember they could manipulate. But her throat wouldn't let her squeak out one word. The carnage around her was unbelievable, and it choked her with its gore-covered fingers.

Rowen and Ryo lay immobile on the rocky mountainside, helplessly watching as Mirichu lost the battle with Lady Kayura and their friends lost their battle with the sentinels. Hard rain battered their faces, which were red with the embarrassment of being useless and the tears that the water had washed away. And Miri wanted to cry out to them, too. She wanted to tell them that there was one chance left to destroy Kayura and her goons and one more time that they could take Talpa down with her. She wanted to sweetly kiss them both and swear that, although Fate seemed like a cruel bitch, she always had the right idea in mind and that all things happen for a greater purpose. But once again, Mirichu found it impossible to even move her mouth to form a single word.

And finally, Miri looked down at herself. She saw her sparkling armor, as fantastic and beautiful as the Ancient One had told her it would be. The gold appeared lustrous and new, as if never worn before, and except for the remaining streaks of crimson, it was perfect. Her Bo was deadly looking from whichever perspective someone chose to see it. Mirichu could feel her strength returning, the spark within her that she had thought she had never possessed igniting from the flick of a long forgotten match. And she wanted to remind herself that this feeling would not last much longer and that the moment this war was over, it would die again – she would die again. She wanted to promise herself that she would always cherish this sudden faith she had in herself, and she would never forget the love she had for her friends. But again Miri could not even assemble the words in her head, and Kayura was going to see to it that Mirichu never did.

The beautiful Dynasty general vaulted upwards, arching her back and raising her Starlight Swords above her head to strike down Eclipse. At the last possible millisecond, Mirichu stepped out of the way of the descending danger, barely missing the pointed end to the sword. Shards of stone splintered from the body of the granite giant, rebounding off of the saffron armor.

As Mirichu lay face down, lips pressed against the rock, Kayura descended upon her, grabbing her roughly by the arm and twisting it cruelly. "I'll fix you, you little bitch. Call me slow!" The lady yanked viciously, listening for the delicious pop of a dislocated bone. Miri pleaded for help, but neither Rowen nor Ryo could lift a finger to save her.

"Sage! For the love of god, save Miri now!" Rowen screamed at the top of his lungs in sheer panic. His breathing was out of control, and he was sweating bullets. Mirichu was so close to death and there was nothing he could do but wait for someone else to rescue his fair maiden.

Meanwhile, Sage was preoccupied with nearly one hundred soldiers. They crowded him until he could barely gasp at the air. His only hope to at least make a dent in them was his special attack. Only problem was, ironically, there wasn't enough room for him to get his Datchi into attack mode. He was going to be swallowed up by these soldiers very shortly, and then he would miss what he'd been waiting for since the beginning: a chance to defeat Talpa.

"Never!" Sage turned his face skyward at this incredible shriek of defiance. It sounded like, no, it was – it was Mirichu's voice! Jesus! yelped Sage to himself. Mirichu's in trouble. What could he do? What was there for him to do? He had no where to maneuver, no way he could break free of this deadly circle. Unless…

"Cye! Hey, man, if I can make you enough room, can you try to use your Awakening to get these bastard Dynasty goons out of our way?"

Cye shoved back a guard as he craned his head to stare at Sage with curious eyes. "I suppose I could, but I haven't had much of a chance to work with my power. I might only end up making things worse for us, and then where would we be?"

"Hey, you're our only hope right now. Rowen and Ryo can't move, Anubis and Kento are being squashed with troopers, and Miri's been captured by Lady Kayura."

With those last words, Cye spun in a wild circle, knocking away practically fifteen sentinels in his fury. "Miri's in trouble? Why didn't you say so in the first place? I'll do anything if it means saving her life!"

Sage nodded eagerly, drawing his huge, trembling sword close to his body in order to transfer some of his strength into it. The Datchi filled with a green light – the light of wisdom – as the warrior of Halo closed his eyes and trusted his heart to do all the fighting for him. Momentarily the troopers were caught off guard, leaving Sage enough time to thrust the sword sharply forward through two of them blocking his way. Then he whipped the sword wildly left and right, dispatching more and more of the demon men as he prepared to launch his patented attack. "Thunderbolt…" Suddenly, he swung the Datchi directly over his head – ripping apart the body of the nearest unfortunate soldier – and the verdant light sprayed down upon his opponents with a quiet wrath. "Cut!"

Screeches of terror filled the air as their meaningless lives shriveled and fizzed away, leaving nothing but gray smoke to occupy the spaces they once had. "Do it now, Cye! I'll ward as many off as I can until you finish the rites to activate your power."

"No," Cye ordered firmly, "you must run as far up the mountain as you can, and get the others to do the same as well. If you remain down here you will die with them. Now go, and hurry! Save Mirichu. I'll be there as soon as I get rid of these guys."

Sage naturally protested, but he suspected that Cye knew what he was doing and that he would be fine. He fought the others free from their prisons made of troopers and raced with them up the side of the mountain as fast as his legs could carry him. They reached the roadway just as the warrior of the Torrent had completed his rites.

The rain began to fall harder and faster, like a typhoon was coming. It poured until the Ronins could no longer see the man he was standing next to or even his own hand. A curtain of shimmering silver had surrounded them, driving harder and harder into their bodies until their muscles ached with the pain of a billion needles pounding into them at once.

Down in the Valley of the Dead, Cye kneeled with his hands clasped together, his thumbs and index fingers forming an L. He touched his thumbs to his lips and hummed a bizarre tune that even he had never even heard, letting the soft vibrations tingle his hands. The rain clouds shivered in response to his music and obeyed his silent commands. Upon the Earth they spewed every drop of water within their bellies, with a loud belch of thunder accompanying the rain. It pervaded the gorge, turning it into a giant bowl of a soup made of Dynasty soldiers. The growing pool submerged Cye while sweeping the army away on its strong currents. They washed out of the basin through the tiny slit between one Great Mountain and another, leading them down toward the dead Toyama.

When most of the water had drained away, only a few trees and Cye remained. The ground had been transformed into a marsh, but at least they were free of the brainless soldiers. The aqua warrior ascended the rocky stairs to join his friends' sides.

The troop separated quickly, each one rushing off to help another. Kento hastened off to Rowen's side just as he shook off most of the lingering effects of Kayura's Star Attack. Strata clambered hastily to his feet, extending and contracting his fingers to work his sore muscles. "You okay, buddy? We saw that you received most of the brunt of the attack."

"I'm fine," Rowen barked curtly, dusting off his now brown armor. "Where's Miri? Is she all right? Did you finish off Lady Kayura yet?"

"Whoa, whoa! Slow down. Miri's still with Kayura – or in her possession I should say – so I don't know if she's okay or not."

"What do you mean you don't know! She could be dying and you don't even care!" Rowen lunged at Kento, grabbing him roughly by the base of his neck and shaking him with fury. Hardrock was thrown completely off guard by the attack, and he stumbled backwards, falling beneath Strata's body, which was heavy with the weight of his armor. "What kind of a friend are you anyway?"

"Let go, Rowen," Kento grunted out, his chest heaving with all its might just to get air into his lungs. "Don't make me hurt you. You're my friend."

"And Miri's not?" He squeezed tighter, and Kento was forced to knock Rowen's weak and shaking hands away harshly.

The rain had lessened to a gentle drizzle – the clouds having emptied themselves on the land already – barely enough to mask Rowen's cascading tears. "Oh god, Kento, I'm so sorry. This whole war has been such a complete disaster. I don't— I don't know how to handle all of this!" He collapsed to his knees again, choking on his sobs as he tried to swallow his fears and his sorrows.

Rowen had never felt more vulnerable, more susceptible in his entire life. There he sat – under the mourning sky – weak and useless, humble beneath the shadow of a scornful Fate. He could do nothing for Mirichu, nothing for his friends, nothing for the Earth. Kento sat down beside him and looked his friend straight in the face. "Sage is going to rescue Mirichu. She'll be fine. Sage loves Miri, too, and he would risk everything to save her and keep her from harm."

"I know that, Kento, but the point is that I can't do anything to help. I can't assist Sage because I can barely even move my damn fingers! I just sit here on my sorry, debilitated ass as I watch someone else carry out the mission I should have completed!" Strata was breathing hard, his frustrated wrath wheezing in his gasps as he stared on at the snow-capped mountain top.

"Rowen! Rowen! How're you feeling, man?"

"Ryo?" he shouted excitedly. "You can move?"

"Just give it a few more minutes, man, and it'll all wear off in a jiffy. You'll be as good as new, except maybe a little stiff in the joints."

"Thank god! Then we can finish this unending nightmare!" Kento exclaimed gleefully.

"Get off of her!" The anguished scream resonated from high above the soldiers' heads, in the chilly peaks of the Great Mountains. They squinted their eyes to see three glimmering figures in a sharp cleft amongst some boulders. Sage, in his brilliant green armor, waited anxiously with the edge of his Datchi sparkling happily with the thought of shredding through the Dynasty general's neck to slice the artery pulsing with her life blood.

Kayura leaned over Miri's slumped figure, her jitte poised over her chest, ready like a cobra to strike the fatal wound at long last. "Make a move, and Eclipse is as dead as those under this valley. Even her amazing armor cannot withstand the blade of my Starlight Sword."

Sage had to think very fast. If he didn't design a scheme quickly, Mirichu would die and the world would lose hope. He could feel an out-of-place stirring within his bones, an unmatched tingle he had never experienced before. But somehow he knew exactly what was beckoning to him. Sage closed his eyes and waited for it to speak to him, to tell him how to use it to its fullest advantage. And, sure enough, it spoke. And he listened.

Halo closed his eyes, letting his Awakening do all of the work for him. His hands drifted straight up in front of him, and his palms opened as the moon to Lady Kayura. "What are you doing, Halo?" she questioned nervously as she watched the ghostly figure's ballet. He didn't reply; he simply tensed his muscles and squeezed his eyes shut tighter.

His hands began to glow with an odd light and his fingers became translucent – a milky yellow luminescence devouring half of his arms – as he absorbed all the light around them. Steadily the world grew darker, bleaker as Sage consumed every speck of light into himself until there was nothing left for him to take. Mirichu's Eclipse armor had its golden sheen drained away as the Halo armor eagerly drank it in. The surrounding world became blacker than the darkest shadow in Hell, and all that could be seen was Sage's liquid white body, rippling with the waves of condensed sun and electricity. Sage of Halo became a human star, but unfortunately for Lady Kayura, he was about to super nova.

When her ocean blue eyes had zoomed in as tightly as possible, Sage screamed for the Ronin Warriors to close their eyes. Kayura was so preoccupied with the shining warrior that she never heard one word. His armor exploded – the light of the world bursting from his body into the eyes of the general – an amazing sight heretofore unseen on the planet. The white-gold glow seared her retinas, blinding her permanently. The woman squealed with terror and surprise, covering her face uselessly as she tumbled over her feet and slammed into the rock wall.

Slowly, color came back to the Earth, filling every orifice and every blackened crevice. Once again Kayura lay whining in pain, begging on her knees for her Master Talpa to heal her. "I just need my vision returned. I was so close; I almost beat them. Now that the Ronin Warriors have revealed all their secrets to me, I can know what to expect. I cannot lose!"

"Kayura," the wind whistled, "if you fail me again, I cannot let you live."

"Please, Master Talpa, just one last chance. If I must die, then I will die to bring you glory."

The sky shook with an evil laughter. "What good would glory do for me? Do not lose, or your afterlife will be an eternal torturing worse than the hottest flame in Hell! Do not waste this chance!" With that, the voice left and Lady Kayura gathered herself. Six more Nether Spirits descended like the Valkaries from the clouds, scooping up her body and waving their wispy arms before her eyes. The lids fluttered open, and Kayura drifted down heavenly.

"You heard the Master; I must not lose. So who wants to die first?" Kayura stared directly at her nemesis Sage. Her arm shot out in front of her. "You!"

"No!" Mirichu cried, standing proudly from behind. "Me!"

@~~`~~~

"What's going on?" Rowen demanded, jumping up and down excitedly as he tried to see over Ryo's helmeted head.

"Oh god," Kento mumbled over and over with the monotony of shock.

"What? What, dammit, tell me!"

Ryo turned, with extreme fear quivering on his lips. "She's going to do it! She's going to do it!"

"Who? Kayura? Miri? What's happening up there?"

Wildfire looked Strata dead on, his eyes never wavering from his friend's as he broke the news. "Miri wants to fight Lady Kayura again!"

There was a strain of silence, and then Rowen burst with anger. "What in the name of God is happening? Why hasn't Sage stopped her?"

"Because he's too weak from his attack," Anubis informed. "He never practiced his Awakening, at least not on that grand a scale. He has no fight left in him."

"Great," Rowen snapped. "Well, somebody has to stop her!" Suddenly, Rowen leaped into the air, letting his Strata armor carry upward with alarming speed. When he reached the cleft on which the three stood, he analyzed the situation immediately. I have to get Miri out of here, but I can't take Sage with me, too! They can't escape fast enough! Oh god… Lord, help me.

"A volunteer, I see," Kayura cooed.

Mirichu's eyes narrowed into predatory slits. "You're lucky you can. If Talpa hadn't interfered, you'd be dead on this rock by now!"

"That's Master Talpa to you, bitch. And you've been nothing but a nuisance to me since you arrived here. It's time for me to finish you off! Hii-yaah!" Lady Kayura sprang into the air, her Starlight Swords glistening dangerously above her head.

"Miri, no!" Rowen yelped out of helplessness.

"Rowen!" she cried. "Get Sage out of here, and you go, too!" The swords came down on Eclipse, but she managed to block them with her staff. "Go now!" She threw Kayura backwards, sending her reeling into a mountain wall.

"I can't leave you here and watch you die!"

He would have protested some more, but Mirichu turned her face – twisted with sadness – to him and said in her softest, most knowing voice, "Then don't watch."

"Miri…" he whispered in shame, lifting the exhausted Sage from his mountain perch. "Come back to me when you're finished trashing this bitch!"

Miri merely nodded slightly, concentrating more on the battle than the two of them. "And tell the others to run as far and as fast as their feet can carry them. I don't want you guys hurt, too, when the blast goes."

"What blast…" he started to ask, but the moment she got a clear shot to punch Kayura away, she dove at Rowen and shoved him off of the edge. "Mirichu…" As the two plummeted to the road below, Strata "clicked" on his armor, easing them to the roadway softly. "Go, we have to go now!"

"Are you crazy?" Ryo questioned incredulously, hitting his friend on his helmet as he tried to knock some sense into him. "You said yourself that we can't leave her fight Kayura alone!"

"Just do as I say! Get White Blaze and have him carry Sage. I can't run with him on my back." So, what else could the warriors do but listen to their stern, distraught friend and obey his relayed commands? Ryo heaved Sage off of Rowen's shoulders and carefully rested him on White Blaze. Then the troop raced off, each head twisting every so often to check on how the battle was going and if his Mirichu Tenku of the Armor of the Eclipse was winning.

And for a time it appeared as though she was.

@~~`~~~

"Come on, bitch, make a move toward me. You seem pretty good at the defensive, so let's see how you fair on the offensive." Kayura went on taunting Miri like this for some time, but Miri never made a single motion toward the general. Instead, she kept her eyes level on her friends, racing away down the mountain road to only God-knew where. "A piece of chickenshit, I see. I was afraid of that much. Looks like I'm going to have to do all the work around here."

Lady Kayura spun fast, swinging her leg out and swivel-kicking Mirichu. She stumbled, but only slightly before she regained her balance and stood straight again to smile at the general's shocked face. "Bring it on, Lady."

The blue-haired woman growled and dove into a front flip, her right leg snapping up lightning-quick to try to strike Miri in the face and break her jaw. But Miri had other plans, and instead of taking the kick, she caught Kayura's leg, jerking the ankle hard in the opposite direction and listening to the disabling crack rumble like music in her ears. The general yelped in pain, retracting her foot instantly to rub it gently. "You slut! You're mistake!" Kayura informed as she abruptly released her ankle, pulling back her arm to let an unanticipated punch go whizzing into Miri's unprotected face.

Eclipse hissed with wrath as she almost reciprocated the hit with one of her own. But Miri forced the urge down into her belly; instead, she drew her body up tight and focused her eyes on her prey. Her lips curled into a taut smirk. "Come on, doesn't the little armored whore want to play anymore, now that her friends are gone?"

Miri did not respond. She kept right on grinning, always grinning until her face stung with the fire of her stressed muscles. Her hand tightened its grip on her Bo, and her head drooped like the bowed flower of a dying tulip. Kayura seized the chance to attack, but the moment she proceeded to bring down her jitte upon Eclipse's unmoving form, her whole body froze, unwilling to listen to her mind ordering her to make the kill. "What have you done to me, you little witch!"

Mirichu forced all her thoughts on Kayura, feeling her Awakening take control of her body and soul. And with every ounce of love her body held, Eclipse was able to combat the hatred seething within the Lady, using her overwhelming good to freeze the Dynasty's surprising feeble evil. "Look at you," Miri taunted, circling the motionless general like a hungry vulture, "weak, defenseless, totally vulnerable. How does it feel? Do you savor the wrath filling your veins, empowering your body, or do you loathe the painful stirring of your Master inside you? Does it feel good to know you are as powerless as an infant is without Talpa to assist you? No? Then you are in luck, for perhaps I can help you. Prepare to receive what you've got coming, Lady Kayura. The Day of Reckoning is on hand for the both of us. But at least I know that my afterlife will be sweeter than what I have experienced on this Earth; can't say the same for you unfortunately. Meet your Fate, Dynasty tramp!"

After a quick check to make sure the Ronin Warriors were far enough away, Mirichu stopped back at where she had started her speech, and then she lifted her Eclipse Bo directly before the breastplate of her armor. Beginning an intricate set of twirls and whirls, the warrior spun the elongated baton so expertly that it became nothing but a whipping blur around her body. Abruptly Miri halted it when it was exactly dividing her body in half, leaving one wickedly curled, metal finger pointing directly to the heavens. "Sun Arise!" she ululated in her most proud, defiant tone. The Great Mountains rang with her anger and love.

At first, there was a silence responding to the call. But then the onyx clouds parted to reveal a shining blue empyrean, with the buttery sun in the precise center. A beam of sunlight illuminated the pair, caressing Miri's face with a motherly touch. Her body warmed, and she heard comforting words relayed through the supernatural gesture. It would all be okay. She needn't fear what was to come next…

The ruby and the topaz radiated a glow from within their cores, twinkling with anxiety. Crimson and saffron energy erupted from them, their streams of colors combining and striking Lady Kayura's heart with a fatal blow. The general cursed Mirichu, but to that she replied, "You cannot curse what is already cursed, foolish woman." This only made Eclipse drive harder into the Lady, until she heard her bones melt and her blood whistle as it came to a rolling boil. Miri, too, heard her own body break down, and she felt her heart bake, not from her attack, but from the Evil that had been prophesized so long ago.

A ochroid dome formed around the doomed two, eating away at half of the mountain, as well, with its acidic energy. Their screams were enveloped within the bubble, their voices useless. Miri bit her lip as hard as she could and wailed for savior from the pain, but she knew only death or turning evil was imminent. Lady Kayura slumped to the ground limp, her limbs and heart dead and her breathing aborted, even as the yellow hue ceaselessly lapped over her.

Eventually, the power of the attack died down and the golden bulge disappeared into the stones of the Eclipse's staff. It fell to the ground with its user, a hushed thump echoing in the mountains from their falls.

From a mile away, on the peak of another mountain, the Ronin Warriors watched the battle come to its dramatic conclusion. Even from his distance, Rowen felt the life force in Miri burst from inside her the moment of her attack, then, the second it ended, it dwindled into nothingness. "My god, Miri!" Strata raced along the paved path as fast as he ever had, his adrenaline fed by his terror and shock. He bounded over every obstacle and bit of debris left by "Sun Arise", uncaring of all the ruin. Rowen ran and ran until he reached the foot of the pinnacle of the Great Mountain where the two women had bitterly fought.

Using all the strength he had inside of him, Rowen sped up the face and clambered over the edge of the cleft to Miri's side. He lifted her into his burning hot arms, rocking her body next to his own. "Mirichu? Oh, Mirichu, can you hear me?"

Her eyelids fluttered open, the green irises looking through him. "Rowen? I didn't die."

"Thank heaven above for that, too, Miri!"

"No! No!" she sat up in protest, ignoring the flaming agony in her spine and all throughout her body. "I can't live! You have to kill me! 'Sun Arise' was my only chance for me to do it myself, and I even failed at that! You have to finish what I started!"

Rowen couldn't believe what he was hearing. What was all this about wanting to die? His precious Mirichu Tenku was gone from his life, and this imposter, this quitter, was lying in his arms instead. "What in the name of God are you talking about? What would possess you to say something that terrible? Is it your intention to hurt me because if it is, it's working!"

"No, Rowen, you don't understand! Prophesy says that 'Once her great battle has ended, the armor of Eclipse will return to the Dynasty and become the most powerful nemesis of good, unbeatable by all means.' Don't you see that if you don't kill me, I will become that evil? This is the only way. When I asked the Ancient if there was another path for me to take to escape this, you know what he said?" Miri paused to catch her breath and fight the blackness, swelling in the basin of her soul. "He said, 'Death is your only sure release.'"

"Then he lied to me, that old bastard! He said he would never lead any of his Ronin Warriors to destruction! So it can't be true, understand? You can fight it! You-"

"No!" she blared, tears flinging off of her beautiful face as she violently shook her head. "There is no way! I have to die! I have already excepted this, so why won't you?"

"Because," Rowen began, joining her tears, "you are my best friend. My life is connected with yours forever. If one dies, so does the other."

"It isn't true. You, Sage, Ryo and the others will go on without me because that's what you have to do. The Ronin Warriors were only meant to have five armors; this tenth armor to the set was never supposed to be revealed. You must go on to defeat the Dynasty and subdue Talpa. This is my Fate! You and I cannot fight this Destiny, no matter how much we want to stay together. Fate doesn't give a damn whether we are best friends or whether we are strangers. She just wants to keep the Tapestry of Life moving along."

Mirichu shivered visibly, and that's when Rowen noticed it: the blackness, the course evil, making its way up from the boots of her armor. It rotted the pure color of her outfit, eating away at the goodness like a child would a lollipop. "Can you see it already?" she inquired nervously, knowing the deadly look in his eyes. "I can't hold it off much longer, can't you understand that? It doesn't matter how much I love you and the others because nothing can fight this contemptuous rage. Please, I beg you, take Kayura's sword and kill the evil inside me. Don't let me become what I've spent my life fighting; I don't want to be like those dead soldiers, attacking everyone I used to value! Don't make me suffer like that!"

Rowen could feel himself dying, yet also he could feel the hatred for the Ancient, burning within his soul. And he knew that if he kept these thoughts going, his armor would turn black with rot, too, but he couldn't suppress the raging madness. How could someone of such greatness – someone who's virtue was love – become an evil Warlord? It just wasn't right. Rowen knew that if in Miri's position, he would be asking the same of her, but how could he extinguish the life of someone he loved? "I won't, Miri, I can't. I don't want to make you suffer, but there's no way I can plunge a sword into your body!"

"Damn you!" Eclipse belted out, slamming her fists as hard as she could into his chest. "I hate you! I hate you! I'll never forgive for your pitiful weakness! You selfish asshole! All you think is you, you, you! Well what about your 'best friend'? Can't you even grant her her last wish?" Miri pounded into him until all her human strength was exhausted. "I hate you," she whispered feebly.

Strata scooped her into his arms in his tightest embrace, as though he could squeeze the building evil – now up to her neck – right out of her. "Oh, Mirichu! I'm so sorry! Please-"

But before he could finish his sentence, Miri had changed to the Dynasty – her pure heart now beating black blood instead of red – and was upon him, bearing down with all her weight and preparing to stab him through the heart with Eclipse's Bo.

The instant prior to the skewering, however, a kantana pierced through her back, protruding through her abdomen. The inky blood spewed brutally from the gaping hole in her stomach, and she dropped her staff to cover it futilely with her hands. With the accompaniment of an inhuman growl, an ebony vapor billowed from her mouth, the smell of decay and death seeping out with it. Her body collapsed onto Rowen's, heavy with the weight of death. Standing where the evil Mirichu once had was Ryo of the Wildfire, his hands shaking and his lip shuddering in revulsion of his betrayal. His breaths were irregular and wheezy, and his knees clanked against each other. "Miri…" he uttered, as if the name were divine and he were too lowly to speak it. "My love, Miri. I'm so sorry…"

Rowen just laid there, agony in his eyes as he looked between his live friend and his dying one murdered by the other. He could still feel the last strains of life breathing out of Mirichu whilst she lay atop him. "Miri, before you go," he choked, finally acknowledging what was happening, "you must know that I lo-"

Her eyes glazed over as she spoke her last words in a raspy voice not her own, but Death's instead. "Shh… I already know…" And she said nothing else as her body gave out its last, her soul escaping through her soft, relaxed lips – lips Rowen had never and would never get a chance to kiss. So tragic for Earth. She had never gotten to live the life she deserved. All of her wonderfulness would go unseen by the rest of the world. Two parents would be without their daughter when they returned from Talpa's Dynasty. Where was the fairness in it all? Fate may have been cruel to him, Rowen realized, but he never had had to deal with what Mirichu Tenku had.

Ryo and Rowen said nothing; they heard nothing; they saw nothing; and they certainly felt nothing. There was no pain, no anger, no fear anymore, just a void, bottomless and all encompassing. Rowen could not even tell what he was doing anymore. He quietly lifted her body and stepped off the edge, trusting that his armor would save him, or even hoping that it didn't. But he landed safely on the highway amidst his friends he could not see, and he just kept walking, all the way into the sun.