Legends Die Hard

By: Moonglow

Chapter 8: Ready To Go

Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising, which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mia's hands sped rapidly over the letters on her keyboard. Her grandfather's disks had been of no help so far, and she had only one cassette left. All the previous savings had spoke of was Torak, the Ancient One and the warlords. The wasn't even a mentioning of Aeaea, or anyone from there, any other Ronins or any of what had happened in the last few days. Discouraged, the boys had all left the room after only two disks had been read over. One by one, Lily, Circe, and Adela had left leaving Mia alone with Whiteblaze. As good as a listener Whiteblaze was, he wasn't very good at giving answers. The last disk proved to be about everything the others had been about, and Mia turned of the computer. She glanced silently at the grandfather clock in the study and groaned as she read one thirty seven in the morning. Picking up her coffee walking out she make her way down the hall to the stairs to dump out her cold java with Whiteblaze close entail. Although that day had been full of surprises, her nerves were shot and she was glad of the tigers' company. After dumping the coffee out, she went into her room she now shared with Adela. The brunette girl had strewn her covers over the bed and she lay with one leg over the side of the bed and her arms over her head. Part of her nightshirt was pushed up to reveal her pale stomach and one of her socks was missing. Mia stifled a giggle and opened the drawer to her vanity to put in her disks. As she opened it, a small gray floppy disk fell from the desk. She picked it up, and to her surprise, it wasn't numbered like the others. And on the label it read: AEAEA.

"Oh my God." Mia whispered. "Where did this come from?" She made her way quickly out of the room and down into Rowen and Sage's room.

"Rowen," She whispered, "Wake up."

"Number flechernimus snckm." Rowen mumbled and rolled over.

"Rowen," She said louder. "Get up." And with that she pushed him.

"What?" He asked groggily.

"I found a disk about Aeaea."

Rowen was no longer half asleep; he bolted upright and grabbed his glasses."Let's go look at it then!" He said quietly. They silently walked down to the study and popped in the disk. The screen flashed a few times, but nothing came up.

"Darn." Rowen mumbled. "Oh well, we tried."

"Yea, but it seems like such a waste of excitement. I really thought we had something there."

"Had what?" A voice mumbled from behind the two of them. Both of the Ronins spun around to find Ryo groggily rubbing his left eye.

"We found a disk labeled Aeaea and we thought it may have info on it." Mia explained to him.

"Well, let's see it then." He told her. She popped out the disk and handed it to him. As his hand touched the disk, a strange jerk ran through his hand into the disk and for a fleeting moment it flashed red. The diskette fell from his hands unto the floor. It flickered a few times, then fell to the same gray it was before Ryo had touched it. He picked it up and it felt warm to his touch.

"Put it back in the drive."

"What?" Ryo asked aloud, not knowing who was talking to him.

"Hast thou forgotten what has happened this day already, Wildfire? Do not question what I have told thee. Just do as I say. Place the diskette back into the drive if you so desire to see the information on Aeaea." The Ancient One told him in a sultry tone.

"Alright, alright. You don't have to be insulting." Ryo popped the disk into the hard drive and the flashing screen changed from black and white to just white. Black letters showed up on the screen. They read:

Hasten, Children of Aeaea, for after the fourth comes to you, shall your journey begin. Thou shalt have one changing of the moon until the portal to Aeaea closes, and if thou and thy companions don't make it to Aeaea by the appointed time, all shall be lost. When thou makest thy way to the land of thy birth, thou shalt have the amount of time a babe lays under it's mother's breast until the appointed time comes to pass. Be guided by the Ancient One, for through him, the Voice of the Ages speaks. Be well in thy quest, for if one of thine companions shalt die, all will perish with them.

"That gets to the point doesn't it?" A voice said from behind them. They turned to find everyone looking at them. Circe was the one who had spoken.

"How do you suppose that?" Rowen asked her. "It makes no sense to me."

"Look," She explained. "A changing of the moon is the time when it changes from something like a crescent to a half, or so, a week. We have one week to make it to Aeaea and then 9 more months to get whatever we need to get done, done."

"Oh No!" Adela yelled in anguish. "What am I going to do?"

"What are you talking about?" Lily asked her.

"My leg!" She yelled. "I'm not going to be able to walk very much let alone fight with my leg like this!!!"

"I can help." Sage told her in his quiet voice. "I'll use my healing energy every night and hopefully by the end of this week, you can be able to do everything you could before."

"We're all going to have to take off work and quit school." Mia said.

"Oh, that's right! We're going to be gone for a long time! And I've got that gig at the Sin Drome too!" Circe murmured.

"And my job at Johnson's Café." Lily said.

"We've all got jobs. We'll just have to quit." Kento said.

*~*~*~*

King Anubis had not seen the Ronin Warriors for almost 4 years. After he had died under the hand of Talpa, he wasn't taken to the World Of The Dead. Instead, he was taken to Aeaea. He was surprised to find that the world was much like Earth was a long time ago. It was still primarily agricultural and women still wore dresses. The 14 kingdoms were as different from each other as the 9 Ronin Warriors were. It was in Aeaea that he learned about the Children of Aeaea and the other FEMALE Ronin Warriors. To his surprise, he found out that he was a king here and that he was the ruler of the kingdom Loyalty. His mother and father were dead and he had no brother to rule for his, so for as long as The Ancient One had taken them away, Loyalty had been ruled by a Regent, a distant cousin of his.

About 3 years later, Kale, his new wife Kayura, Sechmet and Dais somehow found a portal to Aeaea, and gained their thrones. Sechmet's parents were still alive, so he had no throne to take, which made him a bit surly. His future kingdom was called Piety. Kale and Kayura ruled jointly over the kingdom of Obedience. And lastly, Dais's father was still alive, so his future kingdom was Serenity. Kayura gave Anubis back his armor and all was well again.

But, the tranquility that had settled over Aeaea did not last long. There were rumors that a woman was stirring trouble in small rural communities in Virtue. King Ryko VII sent many men to see what was going on, but none of them returned. Then came the news that Princess Vanessa, daughter of King Hiro and Queen Yua, had run away or kidnapped. Tales began to circulate that the girl was really Princess Vanessa, who was using her hereditary Armor of Friendship to win people over and make them her troops. It seemed that the woman everyone called "Mistress" was getting ready to do war over the kingdoms of Aeaea. And to make matters worse, she could use the ancient art of sorcery.

Nothing seemed to be going right now. The whole country was collapsing, not out of not having any strength, but from terror. This "Mistress" was powerful, powerful enough to take thousands at a time. King Ryko seemed confident that the army could take her, but Anubis wasn't so sure. They needed the Ronin Warriors and the mystical armors to fight, and soon.

The Ancient One had come to him a few days before, telling him that they would be coming, but he neglected to tell him when. If it wasn't soon, then all would be lost. He, Dais, Kale and Sechmet were no match for Vanessa alone. He needed the other Ronins now!!

*~*~*~*

"How many days do we have left?" Kento asked.

"I think we have 2 days left now." Rowen answered.

"Well, what are we going to do? We can't just sit for two days." Circe asked.

"We could go now and get a head start on this thing." Ryo told them. "But then again, we could spend it saving our energy, or perfecting this sorcery thing."

"I think we should go now." Adela said.

"Me too." Mia agreed.

"I agree. We don't need that much time to rest." Cye said.

"Are we all in agreement then? Do we all want to go know?" Ryo asked.

Glancing around the room, no one objected.

"Okay then. Lily, get ready to send us to Aeaea."