The Armor of the Soul

By Dixxy

Chapter Five: Keisha's Vision

(Ria)

The four of us searched for close to an hour for our runaway friend until we finally found her, crying her eyes out at the Charles River. She wore her street clothes, not seeming to care whether or not she was attacked. Sam was ready to give her a tongue lashing for leaving, but I held her back. Something was wrong with Hardrock and yelling at her wasn't going to make it better. Sara walked over instead- she'd gently talk whatever was bothering her out into the open.

Rona, Sam and I watched them exchange a few words, Sara taking on a few interesting looks. She finally signaled us over to where they sat. "Well?" asked Rona. "What's troubling you, Keisha?"

"When Keisha was fighting Kaze, she said she felt hurt, and she could sense a few spirits. Most of them were trying to hold Kaze back from the inside," said Sara.

The dark skinned psychic shook her head, clenching her eyes shut. "They were trapped in that horrible monster. If I killed it, they might be killed, too," said Keisha. "I don't want to be a killer."

"But what about all the Tin Heads we've-" started Sam.

"The Dynasty soldiers and Trulpa are different. The Tin Cans are dead souls that need to be freed from their prisons. And, and Trulpa's just evil. I don't feel like a killer then. But Kaze is so. . . different," said Keisha.

"Maybe that has to do with the 'we' thing," said Rona. We all turned to her to see what she was getting at. "If Keisha felt numerous spirits coming from him, maybe that's because there's more than one in that thing. Several souls jammed into one body."

I went wide eyed. "Is that possible?" I asked.

"Yes. Unfortunately that body can only be stable for so long before the souls combust," said Rona. She bit her bottom lip. "If Keisha's right. . ."

"That would kill them. What if they're innocent people?" said Sara, going wide eyed. "Maybe Trulpa manipulated them with Nether Spirits. Keisha had good reason to run away. We can't harm innocent victims."

"So we've got to find a way to free the souls and destroy Kaze, if possible," said Keisha.

"Question is, how?" asked Rona.

I sighed. "We're going to ask Anubis first thing in the morning."

~

Anubis, when we talked to him, was considerably angry that we'd tried to face something we didn't understand without telling him about it. "That was a very foolish and stupid thing to do," he said. "I understand that you don't want me to walk you through every war we face but this Kaze character sounds dangerous."

"We think it's several souls that have been manipulated by the Dynasty to do Trulpa's bidding," said Sam. "So we want to destroy Kaze and save the souls trapped inside."

Anubis' eyes widened. "Where did you come up with that?"

"I felt more than one spirit in that thing, and I could tell they were fighting it. Or trying to, at least," said Keisha. "They were in pain."

"The souls are going to combust eventually and then we haven't a clue as to what will happen to Kaze, then," said Rona. "That's why we've got to act fast."

"This sounds possible," said Anubis. "If your description of him is right, he is probably something known as a tri-mutantal. Basically, that means someone- probably Trulpa- crammed three beings into one and took over it.

"All right, you do that, we go and look for Kaze," said Sam.

"What!? Are you nuts?" asked Sara.

"Some of those attacks didn't affect us, remember?" said Sam. "A lightning based attack had no affect on me. An earth attack had no effect on Keisha." She slammed her first into her palm. "I bet Kaze is a cheap rip-off of our powers. She must've taken samples of our powers to fuel him!"

"What's this about being immune to some of his attacks?" asked Anubis.

I sighed. "When Kaze attacked us, he let loose three different attacks of a somewhat element base. One of the attacks hit us all. The second attack was a lightening storm that jolted everyone but Sam. She jolted him back. Then an earth attack shook us up, except for Keisha," I replied.

"I didn't want to hurt him," said Keisha.

Sara sighed heavily. "Keisha. . . look, we understand how you feel but if it gets to the point where there isn't any other way, we might have to destroy Kaze, especially if the spirit particles had combusted."

Keisha openly frowned at the thought. "We can't let that happen!"

I sighed heavily. "Keisha, I know how we all feel about killings but this could be the-"

"We have to act fast!" said Keisha. "They're hurting in there! I want them to be free!"

Sam snorted. "Who cares if the world looses a few pig-headed men," she said.

Keisha shot the head-strung Halo a dirty look. "How. DARE. You!" she said. "Sam, we all know your opinion on the other sex, but that gives you no right to let them die because they are more than likely guys!"

Rona, Sara, and I exchanged an uncomfortable look. When Keisha and Sam fought, they fought like wildcats. Anubis knew it too, but he kept his eyes locked on the fighters.

Sara finally decided to stop it. "Look, Keisha's right. We can't let possibly innocent prisoners die because of our carelessness. We need a definite way to free them. Besides, they may have information we can use when we face Trulpa again," she said.

Anubis nodded. "Good inference, Sara. But why are you two so sure that Kaze is made of innocent souls?" he asked.

Sara smiled. "Innocent souls? Hardly. I am no longer completely innocent. None of us are. For what we know about each other we only have our virginity and the fact that none of us have killed anyone. We know about wars and the basics of violence, sex, and I won't ask about drug usage. We've fought a war, and while we have yet to kill anything, we know the spoils of it. I'm not saying three sweet little girls that have spent their whole lives playing with dollies and kitties. I'm saying three souls of an undetermined sex or age that probably know about the violence in a war, taking away at least some of their innocence," she said.

"Good call, Sara!" said Rona. "Nicely put to shove it down Sam's throat."

"Shove it," said Sam.

"So why don't we all stop wasting time arguing about it and try to figure out how in the world we're gonna save whatever made up Kaze?" I said.

"Right, we have no idea how much time we have left," said Rona.

"They were still fighting fairly strong against whatever is controlling Kaze, if it helps," said Keisha.

"Good, we have time," said Anubis. While we were talking he'd been searching through his computer files. "It says here that they gradually begin to weaken before they combust. It also says that the only way to free them is a strong force with a pure heart."

"The heck does that mean?" said Sam.

"It means Ria needs to use the Inferna against this guy," said Anubis.

"That would kill him!" I said.

Anubis smacked his forehead. "No, no, no! You aren't going to fry him! You need to focus strong healing magic through the Inferna."

"How?" I asked. "Wildfire has no healing magic what so ever."

Sara's eyes lit up. "Well, this is just a guess but. . . never mind."

I turned to our smallest member. "What? Tell us!"

The Hawaiian native sighed heavily. "All right. Sam can physically heal someone. Keisha, with her psychic powers, can probably mentally heal someone. I can free people from the control of evil spirits. If we could figure out a way so that you don't need to absorb me, Sam, and Keisha, than we could send our healing powers to you and you can channel those. But we-"

"BRILLIANT!" said Anubis. "I can use the staff to substitute your powers, so only Rona would need to donate! Sara, that was wondrous!"

Rona grinned. "Let's go for it!"