Chapter Seventeen: Forgiveness

"Yes?" said Ryo. "I remember that. You were weirded out beyond belief."

"Well, that was Sheila's fault. That night, well, I, I," I started.

Sage looked at my with concern. "What happened? What did she do to you that got you like that?"

I began to tell them everything. They were all enraged when I told them that Sheila had taken advantage of me. There were quite a few mentions of her slow and painful death, especially by Kento. They believed that much. It all fit together.

Sage asked the major question. "But what does that have to do with you leaving?" he asked.

I gulped. I took a deep breath, preparing my answer carefully. "Sheila got pregnant that night."
The room fell silent, save the bubbling of the acid. "What?" asked Sage, his eyes getting wide.

"Whatever she was on, if she was anything, it failed. She left because she didn't want to show, or else she'd be found out. When I went on that walk that night, I met up with Sheila. Our baby had already been born. She wanted to put her in the orphanage. I wouldn't let her. I'd heard too many stories, especially from you, Ryo. I took her. But, I was too frightened to go back to you guys. She threatened to kill me. She threatened the baby. I was frightened, so I fled to Tokyo. I've been living there with Ariel ever since."
"Ariel?" said Rowen. "That sweet little girl? So that's why they wanted her so badly. She's yours."
"Yes," I said. "If you guys want to disown me after all this-"

"No, never in a million years," said Kento. "You've been my best friend since we were twelve. And we can still be best friends. We would have understood. And we would have killed Sheila."

Ryo lowered his eyes. "I understand your reasoning for leaving. I forgive you."

"So do I," said Rowen.

"As do I," said Sage. "How'd you know to come after us?"

"Anubis is alive again, if you guys don't know."

Kento snorted. "Talpa raved about that for a long time, we know."

"Well, he came to me in a 'dream'. It was after a double nightmare. The first one was about the torture session. The second one was about, the rape. Then, he told me you guys were captured, he was alive, there were three other armors, one already evil, and two more to be found. Then I told him about the rape and he asked if Ariel was my weak spot. He told me to wake up, but by the time I did she was already gone. She's okay now, but, I was so frightened. I got up and ran into my friend, Kojiro. I met him at the Teen Crisis Center I went to. Poor guy was in his pajamas and half asleep when a Tin Can attacked us in the hallway of our apartment building," I said.

"We've heard about these armors, find their bearers?" asked Rowen. "We already know about Kioko, she's the one that caught us all."

"Kojiro is the bearer of Icefire. He was a little wussy at first but he suddenly toughened up when Kioko challenged him. Yuli has the Armor of the Chrono. Weird, isn't it?" I said.

"Yuli?!" said the others in unison. I nodded.

"He got his powers around the time Kayura showed up with Ariel. Poor kid was terrified of me. I was in armor and she didn't know who I was. I'm only hoping she's with Anubis and Mia and White Blaze. . . Sehkment! He said he was going to go after her!" I said, suddenly panicked.

"No he won't, let's go," said Ryo.

It felt good to be back with the guys. I felt like a piece of my heart had been replaced, or at least patched up. After we made it outside into the blinding light (well, to everyone but Sage), and once my eyes adjusted, I noticed Sage looked a little green, and it wasn't from his armor. His eyes were directed at something lying on the ground. I looked down an almost regretted it immediately.

There, laying on the ground, was the body of Sehkment, Dark Warlord of Venom. Something had ripped his throat open, his eye permanently fixed in that of pure, anguishing pain. His jaw was also ripped off, located in a pile of blood and teeth a few feet away. Blood was everywhere, the smell of it somewhat strong. His hair was stained red with blood. One way or another, he was dead. (Note: This is in no way directed as an insult towards any Sehky fans. This was just to add something to the story- Dixxy)

"Oh my God," said Ryo. "I have a feeling that White Blaze did that, but why?"
"He probably ran into White Blaze, Anubis, Mia, and Ariel. Sehkment probably gave his little Ariel speech and angered White Blaze," I said. "Still, it's sickening."

"There's got to be a better way around this," said Kento. One by one we leapt over it, careful to avoid the jaw. We ran away from the spot as fast as possible.

Not even a minute later we came apon a lake, where, sure enough, White Blaze was rinsing the blood from his face and Anubis was assisting him. I saw Mia, Ariel, and miraculously, Yuli, a short distance away.

"He really is alive," said Rowen.

Anubis looked up and waved us over. Mia, Yuli, and especially Ariel ran over. Ariel jumped up into my arms. "Daddy!" she cried. "That man said he was going to-"

"I know, I know," I said.

"She really is your kid," said Rowen.

"You know, I thought she looked familiar, now I know why," said Kento, shaking his head. "She looks just like her daddy."

"Everyone says that," I said blushing.

Ryo was looking at Yuli in pure amazement. "I don't believe this," he said.

"Believe it," said Yuli.

Mia smiled. "He held himself much better than Kojiro did. Speaking of which, where is he?"

"Last I saw of him he was picking a fight with Kioko, Dark Warlady of Flora. She gets mad if you call her Shung Le," I said.

"She's sometimes called Shung Le since she strongly resembles a former Dynasty priestess named Shung Le whose power were drawn from plants," said Anubis. "That woman knew how to have a good time."

"How would you know that?" asked Mia suspiciously.

"We went out before her execution," said Anubis. "She was the only person I knew who could tie a cherry stem into a knot using only her tongue. It was fascinating."

"Someone had a little too much free time on their hands if you ask me," Kento mumbled.

Anubis either ignored Kento or didn't hear him. "Now we need to find Kojiro and defeat Talpa."

"Easier said than done," I said.

"Well," started Mia, "where was Kioko's lair?"
"Down in the underground caverns, but I'm not sure if I could get there again," I said.

"Then we improvise and see what we can do about hunting him down," said Anubis. "If he won the battle, which we should hope he did, he logically went to search for the rest of us."

"Is Koji gonna be okay?" asked Ariel. "Are we all gonna be okay?"
I looked at my daughter. "I hope so, sweetheart, I hope so."