Dying of the Light

Ch 3

"Talpa, you coward! Come back and fight!" Sage yelled out angrily.

"Unfortunately, master Talpa is busy at the moment, but will we do?" a sand striker asked as they cut off their escape route.

"Oh man, not these guys again?" Sian replied in annoyance, as he and the others got into defensive positions.

"It looks like the only way out of here is through them." Ryo said as he took a quick look around.

"Humph, seven against four, seems kinda unfair odds, doesn't it?" Kento asked with light amusement.

"We'll see who's laughing when this fight is over, Hardrock." a sand striker replied as they were starting to come at them.

"If I had my armor, then I could just blow them away." Kento said as he jumped up to avoid getting tangled in the bolas.

"I know what you mean, Kento, it looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way." Rowen replied as he did a jump kick towards one of the sand strikers. Rowen sent the sand striker flying back a few feet until it crashed into one of the metal support beams, making it disintegrate into nothing but sand.

"You think it's that easy to destroy us? Think again." the sand striker said as it started to reform itself.

In Talpa's throne room...

"We should be out there fighting, not them." Anubis said in a huff as he and the other warlords were watching the fight.

"Are you jealous, Anubis?" Dais asked with a smirk.

"There's no reason for me to be jealous, Dais. But I'm willing to bet that your sand strikers will fail, and then those blasted Ronins will get away." Anubis replied as he turned to face him.

"Don't make the mistake of underestimating my sand strikers, Anubis. They'll get the job done." Dais warned as he glared at him.

"Dais, call back your sand strikers!" Talpa ordered.

"Master Talpa, what's the meaning of this?" Dais asked as he suddenly turned to face him.

"Don't question me, just do it!" Talpa replied as his eyes glowed red.

"Yes my lord." Dais said as he bowed.

Back on the streets of Toyama...

"These guys just keep coming," Cye said as he kicked a sand striker, making it spin as it flew through the air. "We can't keep this up for long."

"Keep fighting, they're blocking our only exit. Besides, the only way to escape is through them." Ryo replied as he blocked an attack that was coming towards his head.

Suddenly, "sand strikers, return to the throne room." Dais said as his voice boomed overhead.

"But lord Dais, what about the Ronins?" one of the sand strikers asked in confusion.

"Do as your told, and return to the throne room at once!" Dais replied angrily.

"Yes, lord Dais, whatever you say." the other sand striker said as all four of them disappeared.

"Ok, now is it only me, or was that just more than a little too weird?" Kaye asked in confusion.

"I don't think that weird is the best word to describe it." Sage replied as he started to feel a little uneasy about the situation.

"I think that we better get going. I don't want to stand around here and wait to see what Talpa is going to do next." Rowen suggested.

"Good idea, Rowen, let's get going." Ryo replied as he led them out of the city.

As they ran, Sian started to wince from the pain of Dante's poison. He knew that with each passing minute that the pain would intensify until the person that was infected would wish that they were already dead. Sian seen what Dante's poison did to people in his own time. He saw people even with the strongest of will, do the most unthinkable to people that they cared about. Their minds no longer theirs, they became heartless, wild beasts with no will of their own. Everything and everyone that they once knew erased with the snap of the fingers. And then when they thought that the worst has happened, something much worse takes place. Sian shook his head, trying to get the images out, at a side-glance; Sage noticed that something was definitely wrong with him. Sage decided that now wouldn't be a really good time to confront him about it.

"Over there, that's where we can take refuge." Rowen said as they were coming close to a small house that had a lake in the back of it. As they were getting closer to it, they started to slow down and take a look around to make sure that there weren't any Dynasty "surprises" waiting for them.

"Looks like no one's around. Let's get inside before any Dynasty soldiers see us." Cye replied as they headed in.

"I think that it'll be a good idea to try and get some rest. I have a feeling that we're going to need it." Ryo said as he looked around the room. They were all hesitant about Ryo's suggestion, but then they knew that he was right. They did need to get as much rest as possible, because they wouldn't know when the next time that they'll get the chance.

A few hours later...

A sudden sound of footsteps made the wearer of the Halo armor quickly open his eyes. Sage staying where he was scanned the room. He could see that everyone was still sleeping, or so he thought, but then when he was about to go back to sleep, the sound came back. This time Sage quietly got up and carefully walked around, trying not to wake the others. Sage knew that he could handle whoever it was without waking the others. Again, the sounds of footsteps made Sage quickly turn his attention to somewhere in the back room. He started to sneak his way there, as he got closer, he could see that someone was actually moving around in there. Just as Sage was going to attack the intruder, the person quickly turned around, and as he did, he almost dropped the candle that he was holding. "Sage?" Ryo asked as he quickly caught the candle.

"Ryo? What are you doing up?" Sage asked as they both finally relaxed.

"I couldn't sleep. Why are you up?" Ryo asked back.

"I heard someone walking around, and I decided to see who it was." Sage replied.

"Sorry about that." Ryo said as he sat down.

"Ryo, what's on your mind? You're still not thinking that it's your fault that the merge between the Dynasty and our world, are you," Sage asked as he crossed his arms and leaned against the mantle. "You are, Ryo, it's not your fault. Why can't you see that?"

"Sage, it is my fault. If I didn't use the Inferno, then none of this would of happened, and we would still have our full armors." Ryo replied.

"That's crazy talk, and you know it, Ryo. It's like I said before, no one could have known that would have happened." Sage replied as he started at him.

"I'm supposed to be the leader. I'm supposed to protect everyone, I'm suppose to make sure that everything is safe. I'm suppose to..." Ryo said as he clenched his fists.

"Then start acting like a leader, Ryo. But don't do it by blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong. You have to have faith that the rest of us will know what to do when the time comes." Sage replied as he was trying to reason with him.

"Sage..." Ryo started to say as he looked up at him.

"Yea?" Sage asked as he looked back.

"Thanks, I guess that I just needed to hear someone say that." Ryo replied with a small smile.

"Well, I guess that someone had to set you straight." Sage said as he returned a small smile of his own.

"I think that I'm going to get some sleep," Ryo replied as he headed back to where he was sleeping. "Sage, aren't you going back to sleep?"

"Yea, in a minute. Night, Ryo." Sage said as he looked out the window.

"Night, Sage." Ryo replied as he looked at him in confusion before he went back to sleep.

As Sage stared out the window, he began to wonder if he should of told Ryo about Sian. How he noticed that Sian seemed to be in some kind of pain, and that he was hiding it from everyone else. What really happened with the fight between him and Dais? What was Sian not telling them? After a few minutes of thinking, Sage decided not to tell everyone just yet, he wanted to wait until Sian would tell them himself, and if he didn't, should he confront him on it? Sage gave a heavy sigh, as he shook his head, he knew that it was useless to try and figure anything out unless he got some sleep. So then he finally gave one last look outside of the window and decided to finally turn in for the night. If Sage stared a bit longer out the window, he would of noticed that Cale and the other warlords were outside watching them this whole time.

"I don't see why we don't attack them now. They are completely unaware of our presence." Sekhmet asked as he was starting to get impatient.

"No, master Talpa said to wait." Anubis replied as they continued to watch the small house.

"What exactly are we waiting for, Anubis?" Cale asked as he glanced over at him.

"Master Talpa didn't say, all he said was to wait and watch, and then we'll attack when the time is right. Besides, they can't exactly do much damage when they are only in their sub armors." Anubis replied with a cruel smile.

"what about Dante and Jakobe?" Dais asked.

"What about them?" Anubis asked back.

"Why aren't they here with us, keeping an eye on them as well?" Dais asked.

"Master Talpa didn't say, but he wanted them to stay behind. He said that he had special plans for them." Anubis replied.

"But what if they don't do what master Talpa says, what if they have plans of their own?" Cale asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. It's time for us to return to master Talpa." Anubis replied as he and the other warlords vanished from where they were standing.