Silver Millennium Life Bonds
Rocky Oberlin
Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Unless Sailor Moon or Ronin Warriors have something to do with my new ceiling fan, I still don't own them. Ya know, that might be a good thing; look at all the hype and problems they are having with dubbing them.


At the "ungodly" hour of five in the morning, everyone was pulled out of their comfortable beds and told to get ready for practice. Cye wasn't excused to make breakfast and Serena was handed a cup of instant coffee to wake her up. Windy cracked a few large yawns that matched the two Guardians and White Blaze's yawns. Sage looked disgustingly awake and was receiving dirty looks from his blue-haired roommate. The Seasonals were somewhat awake and the Outer Sailors were watching everything like they expected an attack. Lita stood with Cye and wished that she could have been helping out in the kitchen.

"Good morning everyone," yawned Windy.

"What's so good about it?" muttered Kento. "And why do you look so awake?"

"Practice," smirked Windy. "Besides, it's a new day and who knows what will happen." That was greeted with snorts of laughter from different parties in the group.

"What if we wanted to eat breakfast first? Cye and Lita will be out practicing with us and no one will be fixing breakfast," complained Kento.

"I don't think that you will fade away if you have to wait for breakfast, Hardrock," said Dais. A fight was going to start in the kitchen when Mia looked over at Ryo and Anubis. They got the general idea and pulled the two warring parties away from each other.

"That is why I'm up, Kento. I will be making breakfast while you will be practicing," said Mia.

"And we will be helping," stated Luna.

Seckmet raised an eyebrow. "How?"

Artimas looked affronted. "We can change our shape for a while. We just become human for a bit to help out the Lady Mia and then we change back."

Serena snickered. "Just don't leave cat hair in the food." Windy chuckled at the sally and her own memories of pulling cat hair from her dinners.

"Switching partners again?" asked Cale.

"You got it," affirmed Ryo. "You don't get to beat up on Cale today, Sage." This time Ryo was given the dirty look from Sage and a look that said 'be careful' from Rowen.

"Ryo, don't pick on Sage," said Mia. "He has enough on his mind without you picking on him too." Sage flashed a thanking smile at Mia, but frowned when she continued. "Although Sage, you should do something about that problem that you're agonizing over. May be talk it out with the other party..." Sage scowled and left the house in a huff.

"I've never seen Halo act like that before," commented Dais.

"That's because he has something on his chest he should get off, but won't," said Rowen.

"And when he finally does, may be there will more peace in this house," added Serena.

The discussion was suspended for the interim and everyone went out after the angry Sun Prince. Cye and Kento were paired up with Serena to help her with her glaive more and Hotaru went with Lady Kayura to work more on the staff. Setsuna followed the pair to add her knowledge and experience. Sage paired up with Sailor Uranus and the others found different partners of their own. Ryo asked Windy if she wanted to practice with him and they started to work on their sword fighting.

"Okay, Princess, you have to have a good grip on your staff, but have to have it loose enough to adjust for changes in your opponent's attack," Kento was drilling. Serena and Cye were faced off with each other while the unexpected help came from the larger Ronin.

"Is there a reason why you are fighting me and not Kento?" asked Serena.

"Because Kento sometimes forgets who he's fighting and could and will beat them into the ground. Besides, you are trying to remember what you learned in the Silver Millennium, not trying to attack Kento in a mock battle," replied Cye.

"If you two are done, let's get started," groused Kento.

Cye and Serena bowed, tapped their weapons, and then they started to fight. Serena remembered some of what Hotaru and Windy showed her the other time, but was slow in the timing. Cye adjusted for it and helped her get through some of the forms. Once he was sure she remembered, he started to speed up the timing, forcing Serena to work harder. By the time break was announced, Serena was up to half the speed Cye usually fought at.

"So, how is Kitten doing?" asked Haruka.

"She's doing well," said Kento. "Cye has enough patience to get her to speed up."

"May be by the end of this practice, Serena will be quicker then she was yesterday," said Cye.

"Just be careful," said Michiru. "She's just remembering skills from a thousand years ago. Queen Serenity didn't want her daughter to remember how to fight."

"But I had to anyway," said Serena.

"And you did a good job when you had to," said Lita quietly.

Haruka gave the Jovian Sailor a hard look and Lita was just about to leave when Serena stopped her. "What do you mean?" asked Serena. "I let Rini die," she ended quietly.

Lita looked at her princess sadly. "If I hadn't let my emotions run out of control, I would have realized that she was putting herself and us all at risk. I should have remembered how many times she managed to put us in danger in the first place. This time she couldn't be rescued in the nick of time."

"But I put us in danger too," said Serena.

"And you got us out of danger," returned Lita. "We put ourselves in trouble just as much as you with our stubborn ways." Lita knelt to her princess. "I hope that one day you will forgive me my errors against you, Princess."

Everyone stopped what he or she were doing and watched what the Moon Princess would do. On the porch, Luna and Artimas watched with intense interest. Now would make or break the Jovian Princess and may be even the whole situation.

Serena straightened her back and took on the courtly airs of the lost Silver Millennium. "You have asked for my forgiveness. You have started to earn it, but you must continue. Then may be one day you will have my trust again."

Sailor Jupiter, Princess Lita of Jupiter, guard to Princess Serenity of the Moon, bowed her head to her princess. "As you command." Lita rose to her feet and bowed before her princess again before turning to walk away.

Sage took a swift glance at his- what? Beloved? Companion? Guard? Whatever she was, he saw the beginning of peace on the Amazon's troubled face. A look at Windy and Setsuna showed a small smile on each of their faces, like the smile on the painting of Mona Lisa. What did they know? What were they pushing?

'Now is not the time to reason, now is the time to do and die.' The thought slipped into Sage's mind sounding faintly like the meddling ghost's voice. The Mona Lisa smile had grown on the Windwalker's face to an outright grin. Sage pulled a face at the grinning ghost and turned his back to her. He would figure out everything in his own way.

"That boy could be the death of me," muttered Windy.

Ryo, standing next to her, nodded. Sage needed to be kicked in the pants to help his thinking process a little. This wasn't his friend; this was a confused boy trying to figure things out for himself. Not a good combination with the trouble brewing.


The group stayed out until ten in the morning before going in for a true breakfast. Around eight, Mia had brought out rolls for the warriors to snack on to keep their strength up while practicing. When practice was deemed over, everyone went to wash up and promised the owner of the house they were staying at that they would shower after breakfast.

"Although how we are going to have enough hot water will be a mystery to me," said Kento. "Sage uses most of it for his showers."

"Wildfire could always heat water outside for us to bathe in," snickered Kale.

"And you would have a very cold bath," retorted Ryo.

"Don't worry," said Windy. "I'll look at the water heater. May be I can convince it to work a little harder."

"That will be a trick," muttered Lady Kayura.

Windy winked. "You got it."

"Too bad the lovebirds couldn't share the shower," teased Seckmet.

Haruka turned the joke around though. "I'm sure that Michiru and I would love to share the shower, but then you would loose more hot water." Seckmet shut his mouth while the Outer Sailors and Serena snickered.

"Are you really..." Cye didn't know how to finish his question.

"That, little Ronin, is none of your business," stated Haruka.

The matter was dropped. Quickly.


It was much later, everyone had their showers, and Mia took a group to do some more grocery shopping while the rest lounged around the house after helping clean. Windy was out on the porch reading a book while Sage meditated on the opposite end. They were to only ones who felt the wind change and felt danger approach the quiet house. Windy closed her book quickly and readied a small knife. Sage broke away from his trance and stood.

All of the sudden two black roses flew through the air toward the pair. Sage leaned to the left to dodge one and it landed in the siding of the house. Windy caught the other and effortlessly changed the magic in the rose, turning it from iridescent black to blaring white.

"Very good," congratulated a voice in the woods. "That was nice how you managed to turn chaos into something good. And you, Prince Sage, able to avoid being hit by the other. That takes some talent."

"Why don't you step out of the woods, coward prince, and face us," challenged Sage.

"Because I'm not interested in you or the ones in the house at the moment. My interest is being settled by a friend of mine on the other half of the residents. May be I will see you again, brother." Then the voice was gone, leaving a cold feeling running down two precognitive's backs.

"Where's Serena?" asked Sage.

"She went with Mia and Ryo to go grocery shopping. Rowen went with the group."

"I don't like that threat. I think they may be in danger."

"Go tell the others we're going out, then meet me in front. If Endymion does attack, hopefully Lita, Rowen, Cale, Anubis, and Ryo can hold him off."

"What if it's Badamon?"

"Then you best hurry, shouldn't you?"

Sage ran into the house to let the inhabitants know he and Windy were leaving. When he raced out the front door, Windy was waiting for him on an American motorcycle. He raised an eyebrow, but slid on behind her. Windy opened the throttle and let the bike go with a roar. If she had to, Windy was going to bend a few rules and break a few speed laws to get the their friends.


"Rage of Inferno!"

"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"

"Arrow Shock Wave!"

Rowen stood by his love and Mia while Ryo and Lita edged out further away to fight off the Dynasty soldiers. On the other side, Kale and Anubis fought off more that tried attacking from behind. They had everything well in hand until the familiar bass humming started. The warriors familiar with the sound felt the hair on the backs of their necks raise as the Nether Spirits started to make their appearance with Badamon grinning in the center.

"I think that you have something my Lord and the Prince would like to have," he sneered.

"And I would go with you because..?" asked Serena.

"Because you would have no choice."

Between the soldiers and the spirits, the sphere of safety was growing smaller and smaller by the second. The Nether Realm spirits didn't affect Sailors Jupiter and Moon, but the two Ronins and Seasonals felt the strain from the dark forces. Rowen stood by his Life Bond in an effort to keep her safe, but soon it would be a challenged to even fight hand to hand in such close quarters.

"Thunder Bolt Cut!"

A welcome reprieve came with Sage's voice, but it didn't affect the Nether soldiers much. Some of the tin cans backed off to fight the new threat, but they were a few compared to the majority still closing in on the group.

"If you were given the power from Cale's and my armor, would you be able to form the Inferno armor with Sage and Rowen?" asked Anubis.

"May be, but it's going to be difficult with the Nether Spirits here. Last time I tried that, Badamon tried to possess me."

"Is that your only worry, Ryo of Wildfire?" came a questioning breeze.

Ryo nodded his head, but didn't answer, unsure of where the breeze came from and whom he was answering. He got his answer a few minutes later.

A bright light started to glow from the area of where Sage was fighting and took to the air. One by one it grew and came closer to the floating Nether Spirits. Whenever it brushed the evil ghost, the Nether Spirit faded with a painful look on its usually expressionless face. Badamon noticed that he was loosing Nether Spirits and that the light was getting closer to him.

"You won't get me that easily, undead witch," he mocked. The Lord of the Nether Spirits disappeared with his remaining Spirits just before the bright light touched the outside of his sphere of magic.

Cale, Anubis, Sage, and Rowen glowed their respective armor colors before the power flew to Ryo. His Wildfire armor fled to be replaced with the white armor of Inferno. Even with White Blaze not in the area, the Soul Swords of Fervor came to Ryo's hands. The chaos controlled soldiers fell before the power of the white armor. When the armor wasn't needed any more, the four other armor powers returned to their bearers.

"Ryo how did you get the Soul Swords?" asked Mia.

"Never mind that," said Cale. "Who scared off Badamon?"

"How did you know that we needed your help, Sage?" asked Serena.

The others looked to see Sage and a cloaked figure approaching them. Sage answered his sister, "Prince Endymion came to threaten. Windy got us here as fast as she could without breaking a few laws."

"It looks like we managed to get here just in time too," said the hidden figure.

"Why are you covering yourself, Lady?" asked Anubis.

"I had to do something to the Nether Spirits so Ryo could form the Inferno armor safely. They don't like the polar opposite of evil and for me to do that I had to "light up". It will take some time before I can fade down to a respectable level so I can take this off," said the cloaked Windy.

"Why can't you just turn it on and off like a switch?" asked Ryo.

"Because of the intensity. To get rid of them, I had to show a lot of the Creator's might. It's bit different then looking like lightening. Sage, I'm going to let you take the bike back. I want to allow myself to fade a bit before I come back into "polite" company."

"Sage, thank you for coming to help us," said Serena.

"I had to. You're my sister and they're my friends, I wasn't going to let some coward do anything to my family."