Chapter Six: Explanation

(Cye)

Once we got home, I pulled Ariel aside into her room. Skye and Starr remained downstairs with everyone else. "Why did you lie to me?" she asked.

I ushered her over to her bed and sat down. I sat down next to her. "Ariel, it's a very, very hard story for me to tell you and I can't even give you all the details. But I promise you'll hear the whole thing when you're older, all right?"

"Okay," said Ariel. "But I want to know why you lied to me."

I swallowed hard. "When I was younger, fifteen, I met your mother. She's a year older than I am, so she was sixteen. I thought she was pretty and she asked me to meet her after school. I was in high school at the time. When we met, she asked me out on a date and we started dating."

"Like boyfriend and girlfriend?" asked Ariel.

"Yes," I said, "like boyfriend and girlfriend. I thought I was in love, I guess. I would've followed her off the end of the world. Then I began to notice things were, odd, in our relationship. She seemed to be controlling me. Now I have to have some control over you since you're only six years old, that's a part of raising a child, but you have some freedom, right?"

"Uh huh," said Ariel, nodding her head.

"Well, she sort of, I don't know, bossed me around a lot. Then one night I went over to the place she was staying. We planned on watching a movie and having dinner. Neither of those things happened. Your mother instead did something very, very, very bad to me. You remember the 'Good Touch, Bad Touch' videos you saw last year in Kindergarten that you watched?" I said.

Ariel gawked. "You mean she did that kind of stuff to you?" she said.

"On a higher level, but yes," I said. "I'll tell you exactly what that was in a few years."

"Well, where was I when all this happened?" I asked.

"Well, although I didn't know it, you were in your mother's tummy," I said. She left a month after the incident. I ran into her nearly a year later, just a few days after you were born."

"You mean that you didn't know about me until after I was born?" said Ariel.

I nodded. "You see, we were young when you were born. Your mother was seventeen and I was sixteen when you were born. She wanted to place you in an orphanage, the one Ryo talks about."

"There?" said Ariel fearfully.

I held her tightly. "I was scared for you. I hardly knew you, but, I couldn't let you go," I said. "I took you in, and then she left us."

"You saved me?" she said.

"Yes, I did," I said softly. Ariel started to sob quietly. "Shh, it's okay, it's okay."

"I love you, Daddy," said Ariel.

"I love you, too," I said softly.

(Kojiro)

I had a funny feeling that Cye had been raped again. Sheila, while I hadn't actually met her, seemed to have some serious mental problems. If she'd do something once, what would stop her from repeating it? Obviously we couldn't. Cye had been in her clutches. I wanted to ask him. He seemed okay, but, still, it bothered me to think it might've happened again.

Ariel came downstairs and started talking to her friends. The conversation seemed pretty solemn. Cye same down soon after. "Cye," I said. "Can you come over here?"

"Sure," said Cye. The two of us sat down in the kitchen at the big island in the center. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Did she-"

"Again?" said Cye. "Yes. Robyn shielded my memories. It's only temporary so I don't wig out in the middle of a battle or something."

"Are you okay?"

"I'll tell you when the binding is gone."

"Oh," I said. "Well, what do you want to do about Sheila?"

Cye blinked. "What do you mean?"

I winced. "You know, what do you want to happen? Kill her? Leave her in the Dynasty to rot?"

"Well, I don't want to kill her," said Cye. "I mean, I don't want Ariel to know me as a killer. Especially the killer of her mother, no matter how sick and sadistic she is."

"I see," I said.

"She knows her mother is a bad person. I just told her SOME of the details," said Cye.

My eyes widened. "You didn't tell her about-"

"No, no, of course not!" said Cye. "I can't explain the rape to her. She doesn't know about the birds and the bees yet, you know that. I can't explain too much, but she knows that there is a good reason I didn't talk to her about her mother."

"Are you sure you did the right thing?" I asked. "Don't you think she's too young?"
"Yes, I do. But she's seen a war. She's seen the Dynasty. There's not much else I can shield from her," said Cye. "And call me crazy, but I have a funny feeling she's next in line to inherit the Armor of the Torrent."

"You're kidding," I said. Cye shook his head. "But how can you tell?"

"How long can we fight?" said Cye. "We're getting older. Not OLD older, but right now we're past our prime for the fight. We keep in shape, but soon we're going to be going into our late twenties and early thirties. We're going to all start settling down. I've already begun that. I have a daughter, we're close to graduation, and it can't go on forever. And we'll eventually need to stop, you know that as well as I do."

"I see," I said. "But how soon?"
"I don't know," he said. "I just don't know."

(Anubis)

It was very evident that the Ronins and Mia were struggling to put a plan together. We all spent the majority of the night at the kitchen table and several pots of coffee. Ariel, Starr, and Skye had all been sent to bed. Once again Talpa had managed to take the entire city captive, minus Mia, who always seems to avoid capture. Basically, we couldn't come in contact with Starr or Skye's parents. To say the least it was a long night.

Robyn, surprisingly, shot out some very interesting ideas. None of them would work but she was a very active participant. She sat next to Cye and periodically seemed to be check on him.

When we finally did give it up with no plan, I pulled my son aside. "Kojiro told me what you told him," I said.

"I know," said Cye.

"Are you all right?"

"I've been better," he said.

I sighed. "There was something else I noticed."

"What, Dad?" asked Cye.

"Robyn, the Maiden of Crystal, seems to have taken a special interest in you. What kind of an interest?" I asked.

"I don't know," said Cye. "She seems to be protective of me and seems to really care, but, I don't know why."

"She may have her reasons. One of them might be love," I said. With that, I walked away.