Silver Millennium Life Bonds
Rocky Oberlin
Chapter 18
Disclaimer: No one gave me Ronin Warriors or Sailor Moon for my birthday in October and I don't see it in my mail when I get it. I guess that Sunrise and Cloverwave haven't moved to my house.
Sorry it took so long to write, but I had something else to do and it got crazy at the hospital. I think the doctors were making up for the low census during October.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Seckmet scowled as he watched the person next to him put down the trump card on the strange game he was asked to play. "How did I let you talk me into playing this game?" he asked petulantly.
"Because you said that you were bored," said his partner sitting across the table from him. "Windy just offered to help you relieve that boredom."
"It is your own fault for being here," added Hotaru. She watched as her partner in the game, Windy, threw out the first card for the next hand. It was an ace of hearts and she had no hearts to throw; she studied the cards left in her hand to see what she could give up easily.
"What is the name of this game again?" asked Anubis as he watched the three others give disgusted looks at the silent ghost. She just sat in her place between Seckmet and Cye to see if she would be trumped in this hand.
"It's called Euchre. It was popular when I went to college in the upper peninsula of Michigan."
"When did you go to college?" asked Rowen as he read on the couch. He was alone for once as his life bond was with Mia and Lady Kayura in town shopping. He smiled at the memory of Sage finding out that it was his turn to go with the ladies on this trip. If it wasn't for Lita going, Rowen thought that he would have hit the ceiling. The smile grew wider at the thought of the Jovian princess finally getting to his best friend.
"After I died. I figured that it would be good if I got some outside skills before I really started to do my assignments. I have a license to practice as a register nurse in the state of Michigan actually. It took awhile to pay back my debts though." Windy frowned as she lost the hand to Cye when he pulled the opposite jack to the trump suit.
"I don't know if I would want you to take care of me then," muttered Seckmet. "Your bedside manner is terrible."
"That's because you are a troublesome patient," shot back Windy. "I am very nice to my patients when I work. I have even gotten compliments on my care for them."
"They must have been high on the morphine," returned Seckmet.
Windy snickered at him. "Naw, they were quite aware of person, place, and time. It was after I gave them their pain shots that they started to propose marriage. (An: It doesn't really happen, I'm trying to be funny here.)"
"Now there's a picture for you," laughed Rowen. "Windy in one of those white dresses and cap. How do you work in them?"
Windy wrinkled her nose. "I don't. The dress code is relaxed so nurses can wear colored scrubs. I kinda enjoy it."
Anubis looked over at the clock. "When are they supposed to come back?"
"This is suppose therapy for Mia and Serena; it could take a while."
"In other words, we're going to owe Sage for this, aren't we?" asked Rowen.
Windy looked at the cards in the current hand. "Yes, we will. Big time." She threw a higher card on the current suit playing and won that hand. "We won this trick Hotaru." The small girl marked the point on her scoreboard while Cye started to shuffle the cards for the next game.
Anubis shook his head as he joined Rowen on the couch. "I don't think that I'll ever understand that game," he groused.
"As my parents told me, 'You have to play the game to understand it'," said Windy. "How about in the next game I'll have you play while I watch you."
"How about you come and help us bring all these bags in," called Sage from the door. "There are several more waiting in the car."
Rowen and Anubis stood up from the couch. Seckmet and Cye joined the two to help with the migration of the bags from Mia's car into the house. Hotaru gathered the cards together to put them away and Windy went to see how the rest of the unwilling participants were doing on getting through the door.
"That is the last time I let any woman talk me into coming shopping with them," complained Dais.
"Here, here," said Cale as he stumbled into the house with a large package. "Where do they get that energy?"
"I think it has something to do with being a woman in a mall," said Ryo as he carried a few more bags.
"Are you sorry that you came?" asked Mia as she followed him in.
Ryo is a survivor; he knows when to keep his mouth shut even if it gets him ragged on by his other friends. He just shook his head and went to put the bags away. He knew there were grins on a few of his friends' faces and that he will be sorry for that later. Right now, he didn't want Mia upset.
"I think the Mars prince will do well with the Lady Mia," noted Artimas as he sat on the stairs watching the goings on in the living room.
"Yes, I think that he knows the careful art of diplomacy; the best defense against irritable people," agreed Windy.
"Talking from experience?" asked Luna.
"Yep. Can you imagine how hard it is to work in a "man's world" when women don't really go around in leather armor and fight in mercenary companies?"
"No and we don't think we want to," said the two Lunar Guardians.
Windy nodded her head in agreement to what they said as she closed the door behind that last person bringing in shopping bags from the grocery store. "Time to get to work on putting all this away," she sighed. "I'll see you later." The ghost followed the group into the kitchen and started the long process. She thought that sometimes she should get Kento to do the shopping with supervision to show him what everyone else went through.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It was late evening when Haruka and Michiru found the ghost after they had returned from their time alone. Windy was pacing around the outside of the house, muttering something under her breath. The duo waited until she was done before starting to talk to her.
"Making sure we don't get unexpected visitors in the night?" asked Michiru.
"Hopefully," said Windy. "I don't know what would happen if Chaos decided to come."
"Give you a reason to allow us to push it back for the last time," said Haruka.
"I would be careful about that if I were you," said Windy. "You do remember what happened the last time you faced Chaos, don't you?"
The pair winced at the memory. That wasn't one of their shining moments in their past. They were fortunate that their princess forgave them for that deception and Setsuna and Hotaru forgave them for the attack they had to do on them.
"Chaos will do anything to twist what is going around to use it to its own designs. If it thinks that it could use you again, then it will do anything. You must trust in your prince and princess as well as the others. I can't do anything but help you after this." Windy looked up into the night sky and sighed. "It has been taken out of my hands and isn't considered my fight now. I'm just the representative of the force Chaos opposes."
"But you will at least help," said Haruka. "You can help us keep our perspective on what we have to do."
Windy smiled. "That I can do. Expect large boards to be applied to your heads if necessary."
Haruka and Michiru gave the ghost startled looks, but returned the smile that was spread across Windy's face. They still had to get used to her sense of humor.
"We should go in. The others are probably getting worried about where we are," said Michiru.
"Too bad they couldn't survive for a little while longer," said Haruka in a silky voice. She looked over Michiru's shoulder to smirk at Seckmet. He stood on the porch with a mouth hanging open at the innuendo. Michiru saw the look and turned to see the now blushing warlord on the porch looking uncomfortable.
"You should stop teasing them, Haruka," she chided. "It's not nice to bait our fellow tenants." She followed the chuckling Windy into the house and smiled at the unfortunate butt of Haruka's joke.
"That will be the day, Michiru," said Windy. "I think that she likes to bait them." The two laughed and closed the door to the outside.
"Are you really..?"
"That is none of your business," said Haruka.
Seckmet shrugged and went back in. Left alone, Haruka stared into the sky. She planned to keep Chaos from doing what it did last time. Her princess deserved happiness. She finally followed the others into the house for the night.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The night was still and the residents of the Koji mansion slept the sleep of the just. Inside the ghost who raised the protections around the house slept, but shifted when her unconscious mind felt a brush against the ward around the house. When it didn't feel it again, the ghost settled again.
In the kitchen White Blaze raised his head at the familiar smell coming from beyond the house. He debated on whether to wake his human to let him out, but the accompanying smell of a known enemy who held his human's chosen mate as hostage floated in with the sent. White Blaze slowly rose to his feet and paced through the house. He didn't want a repeat of what happened before.
The white tiger saw that the house was secure on the inside on the main floor so he padded up the stairs to see if there were any places for the challenger to get into. When he passed the door to the Windwalker's, Time Guardian's, and Ancient's room. Inside he heard the stirring of a body and saw the door open.
"So you were warned too?" The quiet voice floated in the darkness, but the cat saw the ghost walk quietly down the hall. She paused at the door where his human and his friends were sleeping then at the next door where the blonde new comer slept. When the ghost was satisfied that all were safe, she crept down the stairs to the kitchen. White Blaze followed her to see what was going to happen next.
Windy opened the door and stepped out on the back porch. The moon brightened night showed a dark heap just outside of the ward she had cast earlier in the evening. Fifty yards away and closer to the woods another dark figure was standing. A quick flare showed a smirking smile on the dark prince's face as he watched the ghost walk down the steps toward the heap.
Windy saw that the heap was a dead body. White Blaze licked his chops at the thought of venison, but stayed where he was. Windy had raised her hand to warn him back and he wasn't sure if it was safe to eat.
"Is this a warning, oh dark prince? If it is, then it is a poor one," mocked the Windwalker quietly. "A better warning would have been a bigger deer, not one that looks like a Florida Key Deer."
"And you would know of such things?" sneered Endymion. "I have no time to argue with you now. My Master wants me to give you the warning and return. Do what you see fit with it."
"How about shoving it-" muttered Windy as she watched the prince disappear. Windy looked back down at the deer carcass. She didn't trust the prince and she knew that White Blaze wanted to tear into the body, but she didn't know if it was poisoned with anything. Windy looked back at the tiger. "How about I get you one that I _know_ is safe and we burn this one?"
White Blaze shrugged. He didn't mind as long as he got venison; the ghost had better keep her promise though.
The two white beings watched as fire started to lick around the dead animal then flash into a raging inferno for a minute. The inferno died down, leaving the grass charred and ashes where the deer had been. "I'll get you that deer tomorrow, I promise."
White Blaze nodded his head and the two returned to the house.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The next morning, cooler heads were told of the midnight visit.
"Endymion is getting to be a royal pain in the-"
"Language, Sage," cautioned Michiru. "There are children present."
Hotaru looked up from the table. "I've heard worse from Haruka-papa, Michiru-mama."
Michiru raised an eyebrow. She and Setsuna traded a look that promised dire consequences for their friend after everything was said and done.
"It probably was a good thing you did put those wards up," commented Mia as she wove her fingers with Ryo's. "I don't think I want to know what would happen if he got in again."
"Take Serena," muttered Rowen bitterly. "He's not going to stop just because of a ward, no matter how powerful it is."
Windy nodded her head. "He does have a point. He could have used his power to force his way in."
"But that would have had you up and armed the first time he tried," said Lady Kayura. "Why did he even kill that deer?"
"To give us a warning, probably," said Cye.
"Or to scare using psychological warfare," added Anubis.
"So what do we do about it?" asked Ryo.
"We go on as if nothing happened," said Setsuna. "He may come again and try to scare us some more."
"Or try to take Serena," commented Sage. "One way or the other, he will be coming back."
"When is the key though. And what will he be doing when he gets here," said Hotaru.
"Is there any way either of you could see when he was going to pop up next?" asked Cye to Windy and Setsuna.
Setsuna shook her head and Windy frowned. "I don't think so. At best I get warning before something happens or on a need to know basis. The Powers That Be don't like to let the future be seen too much."
"So we warn the others and stay on guard," said Sage.
"Just like in the wars with Tulpa," added Ryo.
"Or in our wars," said Hotaru.
"God help us," muttered Mia.
"He is, Mia, He is."
The meeting was adjourned and the members went out to talk with the absent friends. Windy looked out the kitchen window and sighed. Now they had to start the worst part of war. The waiting; always the waiting.
Rocky Oberlin
Chapter 18
Disclaimer: No one gave me Ronin Warriors or Sailor Moon for my birthday in October and I don't see it in my mail when I get it. I guess that Sunrise and Cloverwave haven't moved to my house.
Sorry it took so long to write, but I had something else to do and it got crazy at the hospital. I think the doctors were making up for the low census during October.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Seckmet scowled as he watched the person next to him put down the trump card on the strange game he was asked to play. "How did I let you talk me into playing this game?" he asked petulantly.
"Because you said that you were bored," said his partner sitting across the table from him. "Windy just offered to help you relieve that boredom."
"It is your own fault for being here," added Hotaru. She watched as her partner in the game, Windy, threw out the first card for the next hand. It was an ace of hearts and she had no hearts to throw; she studied the cards left in her hand to see what she could give up easily.
"What is the name of this game again?" asked Anubis as he watched the three others give disgusted looks at the silent ghost. She just sat in her place between Seckmet and Cye to see if she would be trumped in this hand.
"It's called Euchre. It was popular when I went to college in the upper peninsula of Michigan."
"When did you go to college?" asked Rowen as he read on the couch. He was alone for once as his life bond was with Mia and Lady Kayura in town shopping. He smiled at the memory of Sage finding out that it was his turn to go with the ladies on this trip. If it wasn't for Lita going, Rowen thought that he would have hit the ceiling. The smile grew wider at the thought of the Jovian princess finally getting to his best friend.
"After I died. I figured that it would be good if I got some outside skills before I really started to do my assignments. I have a license to practice as a register nurse in the state of Michigan actually. It took awhile to pay back my debts though." Windy frowned as she lost the hand to Cye when he pulled the opposite jack to the trump suit.
"I don't know if I would want you to take care of me then," muttered Seckmet. "Your bedside manner is terrible."
"That's because you are a troublesome patient," shot back Windy. "I am very nice to my patients when I work. I have even gotten compliments on my care for them."
"They must have been high on the morphine," returned Seckmet.
Windy snickered at him. "Naw, they were quite aware of person, place, and time. It was after I gave them their pain shots that they started to propose marriage. (An: It doesn't really happen, I'm trying to be funny here.)"
"Now there's a picture for you," laughed Rowen. "Windy in one of those white dresses and cap. How do you work in them?"
Windy wrinkled her nose. "I don't. The dress code is relaxed so nurses can wear colored scrubs. I kinda enjoy it."
Anubis looked over at the clock. "When are they supposed to come back?"
"This is suppose therapy for Mia and Serena; it could take a while."
"In other words, we're going to owe Sage for this, aren't we?" asked Rowen.
Windy looked at the cards in the current hand. "Yes, we will. Big time." She threw a higher card on the current suit playing and won that hand. "We won this trick Hotaru." The small girl marked the point on her scoreboard while Cye started to shuffle the cards for the next game.
Anubis shook his head as he joined Rowen on the couch. "I don't think that I'll ever understand that game," he groused.
"As my parents told me, 'You have to play the game to understand it'," said Windy. "How about in the next game I'll have you play while I watch you."
"How about you come and help us bring all these bags in," called Sage from the door. "There are several more waiting in the car."
Rowen and Anubis stood up from the couch. Seckmet and Cye joined the two to help with the migration of the bags from Mia's car into the house. Hotaru gathered the cards together to put them away and Windy went to see how the rest of the unwilling participants were doing on getting through the door.
"That is the last time I let any woman talk me into coming shopping with them," complained Dais.
"Here, here," said Cale as he stumbled into the house with a large package. "Where do they get that energy?"
"I think it has something to do with being a woman in a mall," said Ryo as he carried a few more bags.
"Are you sorry that you came?" asked Mia as she followed him in.
Ryo is a survivor; he knows when to keep his mouth shut even if it gets him ragged on by his other friends. He just shook his head and went to put the bags away. He knew there were grins on a few of his friends' faces and that he will be sorry for that later. Right now, he didn't want Mia upset.
"I think the Mars prince will do well with the Lady Mia," noted Artimas as he sat on the stairs watching the goings on in the living room.
"Yes, I think that he knows the careful art of diplomacy; the best defense against irritable people," agreed Windy.
"Talking from experience?" asked Luna.
"Yep. Can you imagine how hard it is to work in a "man's world" when women don't really go around in leather armor and fight in mercenary companies?"
"No and we don't think we want to," said the two Lunar Guardians.
Windy nodded her head in agreement to what they said as she closed the door behind that last person bringing in shopping bags from the grocery store. "Time to get to work on putting all this away," she sighed. "I'll see you later." The ghost followed the group into the kitchen and started the long process. She thought that sometimes she should get Kento to do the shopping with supervision to show him what everyone else went through.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It was late evening when Haruka and Michiru found the ghost after they had returned from their time alone. Windy was pacing around the outside of the house, muttering something under her breath. The duo waited until she was done before starting to talk to her.
"Making sure we don't get unexpected visitors in the night?" asked Michiru.
"Hopefully," said Windy. "I don't know what would happen if Chaos decided to come."
"Give you a reason to allow us to push it back for the last time," said Haruka.
"I would be careful about that if I were you," said Windy. "You do remember what happened the last time you faced Chaos, don't you?"
The pair winced at the memory. That wasn't one of their shining moments in their past. They were fortunate that their princess forgave them for that deception and Setsuna and Hotaru forgave them for the attack they had to do on them.
"Chaos will do anything to twist what is going around to use it to its own designs. If it thinks that it could use you again, then it will do anything. You must trust in your prince and princess as well as the others. I can't do anything but help you after this." Windy looked up into the night sky and sighed. "It has been taken out of my hands and isn't considered my fight now. I'm just the representative of the force Chaos opposes."
"But you will at least help," said Haruka. "You can help us keep our perspective on what we have to do."
Windy smiled. "That I can do. Expect large boards to be applied to your heads if necessary."
Haruka and Michiru gave the ghost startled looks, but returned the smile that was spread across Windy's face. They still had to get used to her sense of humor.
"We should go in. The others are probably getting worried about where we are," said Michiru.
"Too bad they couldn't survive for a little while longer," said Haruka in a silky voice. She looked over Michiru's shoulder to smirk at Seckmet. He stood on the porch with a mouth hanging open at the innuendo. Michiru saw the look and turned to see the now blushing warlord on the porch looking uncomfortable.
"You should stop teasing them, Haruka," she chided. "It's not nice to bait our fellow tenants." She followed the chuckling Windy into the house and smiled at the unfortunate butt of Haruka's joke.
"That will be the day, Michiru," said Windy. "I think that she likes to bait them." The two laughed and closed the door to the outside.
"Are you really..?"
"That is none of your business," said Haruka.
Seckmet shrugged and went back in. Left alone, Haruka stared into the sky. She planned to keep Chaos from doing what it did last time. Her princess deserved happiness. She finally followed the others into the house for the night.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The night was still and the residents of the Koji mansion slept the sleep of the just. Inside the ghost who raised the protections around the house slept, but shifted when her unconscious mind felt a brush against the ward around the house. When it didn't feel it again, the ghost settled again.
In the kitchen White Blaze raised his head at the familiar smell coming from beyond the house. He debated on whether to wake his human to let him out, but the accompanying smell of a known enemy who held his human's chosen mate as hostage floated in with the sent. White Blaze slowly rose to his feet and paced through the house. He didn't want a repeat of what happened before.
The white tiger saw that the house was secure on the inside on the main floor so he padded up the stairs to see if there were any places for the challenger to get into. When he passed the door to the Windwalker's, Time Guardian's, and Ancient's room. Inside he heard the stirring of a body and saw the door open.
"So you were warned too?" The quiet voice floated in the darkness, but the cat saw the ghost walk quietly down the hall. She paused at the door where his human and his friends were sleeping then at the next door where the blonde new comer slept. When the ghost was satisfied that all were safe, she crept down the stairs to the kitchen. White Blaze followed her to see what was going to happen next.
Windy opened the door and stepped out on the back porch. The moon brightened night showed a dark heap just outside of the ward she had cast earlier in the evening. Fifty yards away and closer to the woods another dark figure was standing. A quick flare showed a smirking smile on the dark prince's face as he watched the ghost walk down the steps toward the heap.
Windy saw that the heap was a dead body. White Blaze licked his chops at the thought of venison, but stayed where he was. Windy had raised her hand to warn him back and he wasn't sure if it was safe to eat.
"Is this a warning, oh dark prince? If it is, then it is a poor one," mocked the Windwalker quietly. "A better warning would have been a bigger deer, not one that looks like a Florida Key Deer."
"And you would know of such things?" sneered Endymion. "I have no time to argue with you now. My Master wants me to give you the warning and return. Do what you see fit with it."
"How about shoving it-" muttered Windy as she watched the prince disappear. Windy looked back down at the deer carcass. She didn't trust the prince and she knew that White Blaze wanted to tear into the body, but she didn't know if it was poisoned with anything. Windy looked back at the tiger. "How about I get you one that I _know_ is safe and we burn this one?"
White Blaze shrugged. He didn't mind as long as he got venison; the ghost had better keep her promise though.
The two white beings watched as fire started to lick around the dead animal then flash into a raging inferno for a minute. The inferno died down, leaving the grass charred and ashes where the deer had been. "I'll get you that deer tomorrow, I promise."
White Blaze nodded his head and the two returned to the house.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The next morning, cooler heads were told of the midnight visit.
"Endymion is getting to be a royal pain in the-"
"Language, Sage," cautioned Michiru. "There are children present."
Hotaru looked up from the table. "I've heard worse from Haruka-papa, Michiru-mama."
Michiru raised an eyebrow. She and Setsuna traded a look that promised dire consequences for their friend after everything was said and done.
"It probably was a good thing you did put those wards up," commented Mia as she wove her fingers with Ryo's. "I don't think I want to know what would happen if he got in again."
"Take Serena," muttered Rowen bitterly. "He's not going to stop just because of a ward, no matter how powerful it is."
Windy nodded her head. "He does have a point. He could have used his power to force his way in."
"But that would have had you up and armed the first time he tried," said Lady Kayura. "Why did he even kill that deer?"
"To give us a warning, probably," said Cye.
"Or to scare using psychological warfare," added Anubis.
"So what do we do about it?" asked Ryo.
"We go on as if nothing happened," said Setsuna. "He may come again and try to scare us some more."
"Or try to take Serena," commented Sage. "One way or the other, he will be coming back."
"When is the key though. And what will he be doing when he gets here," said Hotaru.
"Is there any way either of you could see when he was going to pop up next?" asked Cye to Windy and Setsuna.
Setsuna shook her head and Windy frowned. "I don't think so. At best I get warning before something happens or on a need to know basis. The Powers That Be don't like to let the future be seen too much."
"So we warn the others and stay on guard," said Sage.
"Just like in the wars with Tulpa," added Ryo.
"Or in our wars," said Hotaru.
"God help us," muttered Mia.
"He is, Mia, He is."
The meeting was adjourned and the members went out to talk with the absent friends. Windy looked out the kitchen window and sighed. Now they had to start the worst part of war. The waiting; always the waiting.
