Past Present and Future Confusion
Loki Weasley
Part One: The Old Flame
Ryo watched silently as Rowen went about work. The Ronins had grown up. Now they were Twenty-three, all about even, and living normal lives as if Talpa had never occurred. As if Mukura, Luna, Suzanagi never occurred. Rowen became one of the youngest astronomers to Toyama, Ryo a Wild-life photographer like his father, Cye a marine biologist, Kento went on to own the family business, and Sage to own Kendo dojos Japan-wide, care of his family. Ryo was here because some archeology dig down by the farmlands had produced some great pictures of animals on walls, even a few remnants of past creatures. He was only in Japan for that reason... That... and a reunion with old friends. Without much adieu Ryo walked out of Rowen's less-than-tidy apartment and headed for the dig. It was supposed to be good money. And Dr. Osirus was one of the best in her field...
Ryo reached the dig about an hour after he left Rowen's. The ride was rather menial. He just sort of twiddled his thumbs through the ride listening to the radio, which was having a Michael Jackson Weekend thing... He would probably never get 'Billie Jean' out of his head. Once arrived, he waited not-so patiently in a trailer for Dr. Osirus to enter. Didn't take her very long. While Ryo was examining an Egyptian cat statue the door to the trailer opened and someone walked in, bathed in sunlight. He turned to her. Slim form, young, about his age, slim blue jeans, tight white tank-top, long black hair tied back haphazardly in a pony tail, tan skin... way too familiar blue eyes... Ryo stared, trying to remember where he had seen such endlessly abandoned, starry-night eyes before...
The woman also stared back. After a moment she smiled. "Hello, Ryo. Good to see you again." she said, walking up to him so she was maybe half a foot away. "How have you been?"
"..." Ryo stared. Suddenly it hit him like a ton of bricks. Where had he seen this woman before? When he had seen her last, she was a girl, maybe fifteen, attending Hana High with him and the other Ronin Warriors. "Astraea?" he asked cautiously. "Astraea Yuki?"
The woman nodded slowly, sadly. "The one and only. My... my mother remarried, took on a new last name." she shrugged. She turned to the door, clasping her hands behind her back. "So how have you and the guys been?" she asked curiously. "What's changed in Toyama since I left?"
"Without a trace, no less, Astraea. Why'd you leave so suddenly? Without telling us. Without telling Rowen?" Ryo asked, coming to stand beside the woman. He shifted his gaze to her; her eyes were pretending to be interested in the door. Her mouth was moving but no sound escaped it. She looked on the verge of tears... Ryo sighed. "What's wrong, what happened, Astraea?" he demanded forcefully. Something was obviously up. Back then Astraea never showed negative emotions. She was a lot like Kento and Cye in that way; rather unable to see the down-side of things.
"I...I..." Astraea turned to him, smiling falsely. "It doesn't matter anymore, Ryo. Come on, let's go to the site..." she brushed it all off and walked outside into the daylight. Ryo simply sighed and followed. She wasn't talking... He followed her to a large cylinder-like hole in the ground and followed her. They dropped down inside, about a seven foot drop, and stood on hard stone floor. Around the walls were nine animals perfectly preserved in picture. Ryo lifted his camera and started taking pictures. The click and grinding was all that made any noise in the open-roof room. Astraea seemed to be examining the large silver Pegasus. Ryo had never seen anything like it. It was a realistic picture complete with a set of stars in its mane.
A phoenix, a Pegasus, a unicorn, a sea serpent, a sphinx. A spider, an anaconda, a jackal, and wolf. Ryo took pictures of all the creatures, circling around where he stood, then thought a moment. "It's rather odd. Magical creatures... but then.... normal ones.... What do you make of it, Dr. Osirus?" Ryo asked, pushing any familiarity with the woman out of his mind. She wasn't going to even try to be friends, tell him anything, so he'll keep it professional.
Astraea, who was still gazing at the Pegasus, stroking its stone mane, turned to him. She looked a little hurt at the 'Dr.' comment, but shook it off. "I haven't figured that out yet, Mr. Sanada." she replied, folding her arms and leaning against the wall, giving him a look. But she looked to Ryo like she understood. "You see, this is the first of its kind anyone's ever come across. No-one's ever seen anything like it. Animals, yes, but never these specific in one place..." she shrugged. Suddenly she toppled backwards, yelling in surprise as she did so. A trap door had opened behind her. She was rather unbecomingly sprawled out on her behind on the stone floor, rubbing her head. "What on earth..." she muttered, looking around her curiously. Ryo stepped around her, holding a lantern up to get a better view of the entire room. It was just a room. Dark, empty. Simply a room. Astraea was at his side, running her hands along the walls, perhaps looking for another trap door. After a moment, she sighed. She turned to Ryo. "You have your pictures, yes?" he nodded. "Good. With this discovery I have a lot of work to do. Do me a favor and leave your number in my trailer. I'll call if I find anything along your lines." she dismissed him rather stiffly and continued to examine to room.
Ryo went back to Rowen's. Rowen mindlessly asked the obvious: how was it. Ryo hesitated. If he told Rowen that Astraea was back in Japan... It could be drastic. Those two had been in deep before she just disappeared without a trace. Moved. Gone. Goodbye. If the war had never occurred, Rowen probably would have turned into a basket case. But Talpa was a distraction. So was school. So was work. He was running, Ryo assumed. He had never gotten over Astraea... He told Rowen about Dr. Osirus' discovery. Saying absolutely nothing about who Dr. Osirus really was. When the other three showed up later that night for a dinner get together, Ryo did the same thing. Astraea's return was between him and Astraea, simply. It would be drastic, he assumed, if they found out that their old friend, the first to know about them being Ronin Warriors, was back in town.
Astraea had been around on the first attack by Talpa. The six teens had gone to the movies after school to see the Star Wars showing. During the movie Dynasty Soldier appeared out of nowhere. Ruined the movie. Everyone in the theater but the Ronins and Astraea, who Rowen had protected with a vengeance, disappeared into Talpa's Nether Realm.
At dusk Ryo's cell phone started ringing. He walked over, putting the technology to his ear. "Hello?" he asked calmly, wondering who would be calling him. That thing never went off.
"Ryo, I think you should come back..." Astraea's voice was distant. Amazed. A little tense.
"What do you mean?" Asked Ryo doubtfully. He really didn't like this keeping secrets thing. And she wasn't helping by calling.
"I mean the Ronin Warriors have just become involved in archeology." Astraea snapped. She sighed. "Sorry. Just... Just... come here and bring the guys... as soon as you can." she hung up.
Ryo's eyes had gone wide at the words Ronin Warriors and now four puzzled men were staring at him. Ryo stared another moment, blinked, shook his head, and prepared to tell the tale on the way to the dig site. Yet again avoiding the whole Astraea thing. He made up a lie. "Dr. Osirus said that she found something involving our kanji. Warlords too." Which was why he had Cye calling the Warlord's apartment and telling them where to go and fast.
After about an hour of guilty pressure, Ryo stepped out of his car and the Ronins and Warlords (who had just gotten there themselves) were all staring at Astraea. She was in return staring at them. Pointedly, avoiding Rowen's eyes. She frowned, sad. She pushed her glasses back up her nose at the exact same time Rowen did. Ryo still wondered, after so many years, how they would be so timed to do that. Sure, after about two months of dating they had figured out that they could do that without realizing... everyone thought it was funny. Now it was just creepy.
"As?" Kento asked doubtfully after a moment of awkward silence. She nodded. "Where've you been, babs?"
Astraea giggled. Nervously. "Well... I've been…er… places... I couldn't bring myself to say goodbye... to tell you... I didn't know how... But I've found these caves in there..." She jerked her thumb in the direction of the caves Ryo had earlier been in. "And a lot of things I remember seeing the Ronin Warriors involved with..." She cast her eyes down again. She looked near tears and avoiding Rowen's gaze with a passion.
The Ronins kept quiet themselves. This was more of a Rowen/Astraea issue than theirs. The Warlords and Kayura gave them strange looks for the goings on but seemed to read the situation between Strata and the woman and kept their silence as well. Astraea lead them through the first two rooms and then down a tunnel. It was silent. It was a heavy silence. Astraea wanted to scream. Everyone wanted to scream. The Warlords to know what was going on, the other Ronins to get the old couple to talk, and Rowen to demand what she was thinking when she just up and disappeared.
"You could have told us." Rowen finally muttered. It was dark, rather bitter. Depressed.
"I know." Astraea could barely be heard over the silence.
"A note, call, anything but just going."
"I didn't know what to say."
"'I-have-to-leave.'" Rowen replied curtly. His voice was rising steadily as the things he's wanted to say all these years finally got their chance. "That seems to work well."
"I'm sorry, okay?" Astraea snapped. "I left, I said nothing, I came back to do my job, and you got involved. I didn't want you to be because one: my friends are the Ronin Warriors. They fight evil. They hate their job. I know this well. And Two: because I didn't want to put you through my coming back."
"Oh THAT'S such a wonderful excuse..."
Astraea whirled around. She glared at him. "Oh-kay, I deserved that..." she said after a moment and stalked forward again.
"You'd think that a girl with an IQ higher than mine, however, could at least find four words to put on a piece of paper..."
Again, the woman whirled around. Everyone else was ignored. "THAT I didn't deserve, Rowen! YOU try having my life! You have NO idea what I've been through these last years... You don't know what I've been through AT ALL."
"Today on The Young and the Restless." Cale muttered. "We're here on Ronin business, remember, children? Not to fulfill the soap-lover's daily fill of love-difficulties and betrayal." He gave the arguing pair a look of 'no kidding' and waited for them to go back to life before the 'Young and the Restless' started. (oh, so ya know. I don't like soap operas. They're boring. Cale does. He's just weird like that. It's what the Mortal Realm does to men...)
Astraea stared at the floor a moment. "I'm sorry..." she muttered.
"You already said that." Rowen replied darkly.
Astraea sent him The Look. He flinched. "Not about that!... About.... About...." She bit her lip, shaking. She looked like she really didn't like the way things were going.
"Well spit it out, child." Dais said. He glanced around the room. This place was giving him the creeps.
"This." Astraea waved her arms in front of her and started backing up. The room changed. It looked like some sort of strange throne room. And in the throne sat some man in a bad suit and cape swirling champagne. Astraea backed up towards him, head bowed. She fidgeted, entwining her fingers and refusing to look up from the floor. She was still chewing her lip.
The Ronins all looked around in mass confusion. There were armored soldiers framing the room, poised and ready to kill them. They stared at the ringleader. He tipped his glass at them and suddenly the nine fighters found themselves suspended from the ceiling by a web of chains…..
`~~~
Loki: Ahhh left it at a bit of a cliffhanger… Yay me! Anyways… Reviews are greatly appreciated and please-please-PLEASE note that I do not own the Ronins. I do own Astraea, however. As well as a few characters soon to come… I own Hariel, but not the name. Because I'm going by the dubbed version so you get to meet the alleged creator of the Inferno Armor! Yay you! The name Hariel belongs to the dubbing people who forced Rowen to say the line that he'll never live down ("You… you're a man!"… And let's not forget! "Lady Kayura! She's a girl!" I mean, I get what he was saying but he could have chosen better words to put his point through…. Oh. And Niji'll kill me should she ever read this. She's a big Ro-chan Fan. So am I… but I find the line quite entertaining… I'm babbling…). Oh, and if this seems a bit Mary Sue to you, sorry… It'll get kookier and hopefully not so Mary Sue as it goes along… Now if you'll excuse me… I have a bit of insanity to develop (mainly my own…) while listening to the kookie sounds of the King Of Pop Music… ::walks away singing 'Thriller' to herself::
~'~@ Toodles!!
