A Twisted Destiny
By: Kallie
Chapter 4
Mia rushed over to Ryo's side. He was back in street clothes. He was clutching his ribs and sweat had broken out on his forehead. Mia moved his hands and saw his clothes were stained with blood. He had a small but deep cut. Mia moved Ryo to her old bed as quickly as she could.
She grabbed a spare blanket and pressed it to his cut. Ryo was floating in and out of consciousness. Mia set about fixing him up. She wasn't a doctor, but she knew enough to stop the bleeding and keep it from getting infected. Next she got a washcloth and wet it down. She wiped his forehead and covered him up.
Mia sat back somewhat relieved. No awkward questions would be asked for a while now. She pulled a chair up next to the bed. Since she had nothing else to do she stared at Ryo. He really is good looking she thought. Wait. Where did that come from! To keep herself from having anymore thoughts along that line, she went into one of the adjoining rooms and grabbed a book. She brought it back to her chair and started to read. Throughout the night Mia's schedule was reading, and tending Ryo.
As the mourning light filtered into the room Ryo opened his eyes. He looked around, and a second later sat bolt upright. He gasped in pain, and clutched his side. He slowly turned his head and took in the details of the room. His eyes fell on Mia, who had fallen asleep in her chair. She was using her book as a pillow, and had the rag one hand.
Feeling someone's eyes on her, Mia groggily blinked her eyes open. She turned to see Ryo staring at her. "Oh, You're awake." He nodded. "How ya feeling?"
"OK."
"Good." And they lapsed into a somewhat uncomfortable silence. Mia stood up after a while and put her book back in its' spot. She returned to see Ryo trying to stand up.
"What are you doing?"
Startled Ryo lost his grip on the bedpost and started to fall. Mia was at his side in a flash. "You need to rest yet." She reprimanded. Ryo grunted, so taking that as an answer she helped him back into bed.
"Are you hungry?"
"Yeah."
"All right. I'll try to get you something."
The Ronins . . .
The Ronins had slowly but steadily made their way towards the castle.
"So guys, what's the plan?" Kento asked.
"Umm, Sage you tell him." Rowen said.
"Me? You tell him Cye."
"But I don't have a plan."
"We're screwed." Kento muttered. "So maybe we should come up with a plan then?"
"Sure, OK. We'll sneak into the castle, find Ryo, Mia, and her friend, then sneak back out."
"Gee Rowen, that's a brilliant plan. Did you use your super high IQ on that one?" Sage replied.
"Shut up Sage! I don't hear you coming up with a better one."
"OK guys! That's enough." Cye interrupted. "We'll use Rowens' plan. We'll just modify it a little."
So the guys continued in silence until they got close to the castle. They sent Sage to check it out, and scope out possible points of ambush. After a few minutes he came back.
"There's a some kind of an entrance around that corner. It's not heavily guarded, we could take it."
So Sage led the guys to the entrance. They made quick work of the guards, and crept down the hall. They came to a corner, and voices alerted them o stay hidden. They pressed close to the corner and listened in. A male voice was arguing with a female voice.
"Would you just listen to me and go give them their food?!"
"No! I'm not going anywhere near that traitor."
"Traitor? She's your best friend! Hell Kayura, she's practically your sister!"
" I don't care Sekhemet. I hate her!"
"Why? What did she do to be branded a traitor?"
"Well . . . she . . . I don't know. But Master Talpa said. ."
"Since when do you listen to Talpa?"
"Shut up!"
"Kayura, if Talpa's right, then why do doubt him?"
A minute of silence passed before she answered, "Because deep down, I don't hate her, I hate him."
"Just go talk to her. What can it hurt?"
"Thanks Sekhemet. Your almost nice."
"Yeah, well, don't let anyone else find out. I have my image to uphold you know."
The guys looked at each other and waited until the footsteps had receded. They turned the corner to find the corridor split off into three separate hallways. "So which one do we take?" Cye asked.
"That one." Kento pointed to the middle one.
"Why that one?"
"Dunno. But it's as good as any other." Kento shrugged. So the guys followed that one.
They continued down that hallway for a ways. They stopped when they once again heard voices. This time they immediately recognized one of them.
"Badamon, why isn't it working?"
"She's too stubborn, Lord Talpa."
"She is essential to my plan. But she's beginning to doubt us."
"Well I warned you that her real memories would resurface."
"This would all be so simple if Alligar hadn't brought them here! But why can't I control her?"
"Your forgetting that she's part of the Ancient clan, plus Alligar taught her how to make very powerful shields. It took me that whole first week just to block her memories so we could alter them. I guaranty you that I can't do it again."
"How did Alligar get her to control her without magic?"
"He got her to trust him, plus he gave her free reign of the palace. He also didn't try to control her."
"Why can't we do that?"
"Because she'd kill you the instant we got rid of the spell."
"Good point. So what do I do with her? I need to make my move soon. Alligar is due home soon."
"I suggest, My Lord, since she's getting too unpredictable, that we use her energy along with the Armors' and Mia's to help us."
The guys edged away and retraced their steps back to where the corridor split off. They chose the left hand one this time. They walked a ways in silence, thinking over everything they'd just heard.
Back at Mia's rooms . . .
Mia was waiting by the door to her rooms. She told the guards outside that they needed food. That had been over half an hour ago. Ryo had refused to stay in bed, so she'd helped him move out to the table in her waiting room. They'd passed the time by discussing ways to escape.
A knock came, then the door was thrown open. Kayura came striding in, a try of food in her arms.
"Here." She thrust the food at Mia. Mia stood up and walked to the table. She set it down near Ryo. Then turned back toward Kayura. They stared at each other in silence for a few minutes.
"So, how's your head?" Mia asked, breaking the silence.
"Fine."
"Well, that's good." Mia noticed the necklace around Kayura's neck. "Where'd you get that necklace?"
"Talpa gave it to me."
"May I see it?"
"No."
"Why not? I mean, it's not like you never taken it off before."
Kayura gave her a funny look. "Actually, I haven't taken it off before."
Mia's eyes widened, and then she stared at the necklace for awhile. Finally, understanding dawned on her face. "Kayura take the necklace off."
"I don't think so."
"Kayura just trust me and take off the necklace."
Kayura hesitated a moment, then nodded and reached for the necklace. Her head was screaming not to, but for some reason she trusted Mia. She grabbed the necklace and started to lift it off her head. She got it to her ears before she started to moan in pain. She couldn't lift it past her eyes, it was too painful. So Mia ran over and quickly pulled it off her head.
Kayura screamed in pain, and blacked out. Mia watched in amazement as the necklace turned from a shiny gold to a dull brass, and finally to dust. Just then the guard burst in. He looked at Kayura, who was on the ground groaning. He briskly walked to her but she waved him off.
"It's all right. You can leave." He nodded and left.
Kayura stood up shakily. She looked at Mia with tears in her eyes. She ran over and gave Mia a hug. "I'm so sorry." Kayura sobbed. Mia just returned the hug. When Kayura was all done crying Mia briefed her on their situation.
"Oh, by the way, this is Ryo." Mia introduced. Kayura smiled at him. "Nice to meet you."
Ryo nodded back at her. But Kayura turned back to Mia. "We have to get hold of Alligar. He needs to come back."
"Your right he does. But until then we can give Talpa hell." Mia grinned. "It'll be just like old days."
Kayura laughed. "Yes!" She stood up and moved towards the door. "Come on, let's go."
"Umm, Kayura? We have to take Ryo with us. And he's injured."
"So? Just help him along. Once we get close to the throne room we'll stick him somewhere till we can come back and get him."
"What! You're not stashing me anywhere! I can still fight! I'm Wildfire, I'll just armor up."
"Mia, dear, you neglected to mention he was a Ronin."
"Must have slipped my mind."
"How convenient." Kayura commented dryly. She opened the door and motioned them in front of her. "Come on let's move it." Mia walked in front of Kayura, while she (Mia) was helping Ryo. Once they were out of sight and hearing of the guards, they dropped the pretense of Kayura escorting them anywhere. They headed toward the throne room.
On the way there they turned a corner and bumped into someone. Actually four someones. They picked themselves up and once they realized they knew each other, relaxed.
"Man, we've been looking all over for you." Kento stated.
"Mia, do you know them?" Kayura asked.
"Somewhat. They're the "big bad Ronins" Talpa's so scared of."
"But I'm not scared of them Mia." Talpa's voice boomed at them. The next thing they knew, they were transported to the throne room. "Welcome, guests. I hope you've enjoyed your stay."
The group of allies remained silent. Sigh. "If that's the way you're going to be let's just fight and get it over with. But you're no match for me."
"Wrong!" Mia's voice rang out in the room. "We're more than a match for you. You're tyranny is at an end Talpa. You've disobeyed orders, enslaved the true rulers granddaughters, unjustly invaded the Mortal realm, and have been a royal jackass. " Mia stood panting after her triad. You could tell she was pissed.
Kayura came up and stood beside her. Ryo followed her example, and the others soon followed. During Mia's little speech she had started to softly glow. While she stood there glaring at Talpa the glow got stronger. Soon she was giving off an extremely strong reddish-gold light. The jewel of life responded to it. It floated from under Rowen's sub-armor and over to Mia. It rested around her neck and formed a sort of armor around her.
Her "armor" consisted of an off the shoulders, fitted top, that was a deep green color. It also included black pants and boots. She had a sword scabbard around her waist, but the weapon was in her hands. Mia expertly twirled the sword around.
"We will defeat you Talpa." Her voice rang out again, but this time due to the power flowing through it. "You don't even stand a chance."
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Hey all! I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOO Sorry that it took me this long to get this chapter out. But I had a MAJOR case of writer's block. I hope you like this chapter; I'm kinda iffy about, so any feed back would be great. Thanks. Oh and the same disclaimer as before.