"I swear, if one more of those annoying car commercials come on, I'm going to snap." Rowen tossed a sofa pillow across the room at the TV, wincing only slightly as he moved.
"Ooh, a psychotic Rowen- I can just see the headlines." Cye grinned, striking a pose. "Teenage boy goes berserk- nine car dealerships a smoking rubble."
"Who says I'll stop at nine?" Rowen grumbled. "I figure I could take out at least twenty before they call in the reserves." He smiled then, and pushed himself up to a sitting position on the couch. "How's Mia doing?"
Cye rolled his eyes. "Still locked in with her computer."
"She hasn't come out yet? It's been two days!"
"She says she 'hasn't found all the information she wants' yet. Don't worry, Sage and Ryo have been forcing meals down her every six hours. How 'bout you? You feeling better?"
"Who, me?" Rowen smiled with ironic arrogance. "I could run the Indy-500, no sweat."
"Oh, good. Then we can address the little matter of all the chores you've been skipping," Cye smirked.
Rowen immediately flung himself prostrate on the couch again. "I feel a sudden relapse coming on. I may linger on the brink of death for months."
"Should I take out an insurance policy?" Kento commented, entering the room. "Then I could get one of those new Fords they're advertising on TV…" He ducked, as another sofa-pillow projectile hurtled across the room.
"Beware the wrath of the invalid," Rowen commented dryly. "Could someone bring me a pillow? I seem to have run out."
"There's a surprise." Sage picked up a pillow as he walked in, followed by Ryo, and passed it to Rowen. "Every time I come in here they seem to have mysteriously scattered about the room."
"It's not my fault," Rowen said with assumed innocence, pointing at Kento and Cye. "They're picking on me 'cause I'm sick." He ducked laughing behind his pillow as Kento and Cye tried to tackle him. "See what I mean?"
"Well. Excuse me, I seem to have wandered into the local zoo. Have you seen five would-be warriors?" Mia stood in the doorway, eyes gleaming with hidden amusement, as the scene before her froze, and five faces turned towards her in surprise.
"Mia!" Rowen cleared his throat, and sat up on the couch, making room for Cye and Kento to take seats. "So- umm… glad to see you're out and about. Find what you wanted?"
Mia made a face. "I found about all I'm going to get. Not near as much as I'd like." With a sigh, she sat down in a chair, and adjusted the papers she was holding.
Sage switched off the TV, and he and Ryo also found seats. "So what did you find?"
"Well, it all goes back to the forging of the armors. Long ago, the clan of the Ancient One forged nine armors, each linked to a facet of the human character. Somehow, they fell into Talpa's hands, and he was able to use these links to his advantage, by merging them into one armor. It's not all that different from the way Ryo creates the Inferno armor." Mia shuffled through the papers as she spoke. "But we pretty much knew all this, and how the Ancient One shattered Talpa's armor, and each armor bonded itself to a single human soul which best embodied the quality it represented. What we didn't know was the reason the Ancient One was able to split Talpa's armor.
"You see," she continued, "if the armor had been complete, it would have been impossible for any force in the universe to ever divide the armors again, just as it would be impossible to divide a human soul. No one knew that the Ancient's clan had not completed their work when Talpa began his first reign of terror. Now here-" Mia indicated a place on her paper, "- it mentions two armors forged from a single piece; and over here there's a reference to the 'forgotten parts of the soul.' And it says something- that 'work left unfinished will finish itself.'" Mia stopped, shaking her head. The frustration of a dead end after two days work was apparent. "That's it. I can't decode any of the other information. It's all gibberish."
"Well that's not very helpf-" Kento broke off as an elbow from Rowen doubled him over.
"It's more than we had before," Ryo put in. "Thanks, Mia. We appreciate all your help."
Mia smiled wanly. "Yeah. Well, you're welcome to it. I do what I can." The doorbell rang. "That'll be-" she started, but was cut off by a loud smashing noise that jerked everyone in the room to their feet. Moments later, a hysterically laughing Yuli rode in on an equally exuberant White Blaze, glad to see his small playmate. Mia left the room for a few minutes, and returned with a carefully controlled expression on her face. The Ronins glanced at each other.
"So the doorbell-?"
"Was Yuli," she answered.
"And the smashing noise-?"
"White Blaze letting him in."
Yuli looked up long enough to smile guiltily at Mia. "Sorry about your door, Mia."
She held her expression for a moment longer, and then started laughing, and shrugged. "Oh, well. I thought we should let a little more light into the entry hall anyway."
"But it's nighttime," a smooth voice put in. The woman of the black armor entered the room, flanked by four soldiers. Each wore a simplified black armor tunic and helmet, devoid of any insignia or marking, and a long sword. Their faces were each different, and one looked younger than the rest, but their eyes… each were a blank, darkened red, like dried blood. "It's nighttime," the woman continued, "And only the dark will enter." The face plate on her helmet was drawn up, to reveal an eerily pretty face, pale as moonlight. Glittering green, her eyes shone like cold fires.
"What do you want?" Ryo asked, calling up his subarmor in preparation.
"My lord Tenebras has commanded that I retrieve the Jewel of Life. It is in your possession, is it not?"
Yuli, who was uncomfortably aware of the lump underneath his shirt, shrunk ever so slightly behind White Blaze, who was eyeing the stranger, hackles raised, and a snarl on his lips.
The female warrior, perhaps attracted by the movement, turned calmly to the young boy, emerald gaze keenly perceptive. "A child. But none are spared by the Red Death." She spoke to all of them, but her eyes remained focused on Yuli. "I suggest you give me what I look for, and avoid a great deal of suffering."
Glancing at Ryo, the Ronin Warriors summoned their armors, and a sudden blaze of energy filled the room. Crossing his twin datchis in front of him Ryo faced the woman. "Even if we had such a thing, we would never surrender it to the likes of you!"
Several things happened at once. The soldiers, who had stood like inanimate dolls behind the woman since she entered the room, flickered suddenly to life, and moved with brutal swiftness to attack the Ronins. Rowen, still recovering, found himself hard-pressed to fight off the flashing sword in front of him. Cye guarded his back, but was equally distracted by his own soldier to fight. Sage cut a third soldier off on its path to Mia, blocking blow for blow with his own fearsome blade. Ryo, aided by a snarling White Blaze, drove another soldier away from Yuli.
Kento found himself facing the glittering sword of the black warrior, and he grinned a challenge at her, his eyes bright with battle-fire. Her face betrayed no emotion as she flicked her sword tip in his direction. Kento felt himself lashed with indescribable pain from within, and he dropped his weapon as red sparks danced before his eyes. Crying out, screaming, he sank to his knees, battling wave after wave of pain.
"Kento!" Cye cried, "Hang on, mate!" lunging forwards, he managed to catch a glancing blow to the soldier he was fighting, knocking the man's helmet flying. With a quick movement, he blacked another sword strike, and then caught him in the forehead with the butt off his spear, dropping him.
Rowen employed a more blunt method. Entangling the soldier's sword in his bow, he wrenched it from his grip, then struck him solidly in the gut. Sage and Ryo both managed to disarm and subdue their opponents only seconds later. They turned as one towards their friend, and froze.
Kento was suddenly quiet, but torment could be seen on his face. The woman, staring coldly at him, made a quiet noise, which could have been a laugh or a sigh. Sage took a step, and the woman made a tiny motion with her sword. Kento doubled over again, rocked by pain.
"How is she doing that?" Ryo cried helplessly.
"It's that- energy she put into him before," Mia guessed, her voice quiet with powerlessness.
"Correct." The woman's eyes seemed abruptly dark, and there was a quiet irony in her voice as she spoke. "The Red Death of Tenebras has a peculiar effect. It dwells in the body, and can be called upon to eat away at the very soul. Thus, all falls to my Lord, eventually."
"Not- quite- all…" a harsh voice grated. Kento put a shaky hand on the ground to steady himself, rising into a crouch to regard the dark warrior with defiance.
The woman looked past him as if he did not exist. "If your friend wants save himself from futile pain and suffering, he will surrender himself early- while he can still pick up the fragments of his soul."
"I will never-!"
The protest was cut short as the silver sword moved a fraction. As Kento cried out, another voice joined his.
"Sayuri!"
Every head turned. "You again!" Cye exclaimed, recognizing the indigo armor of the young man from the park.
"I wondered when the rest of you goonies would come crawling around," Rowen sneered readying his bow.
As the Ronins turned angrily to confront this new enemy, and Kento struggled painfully to catch his breath, Mia was the only one who noticed the way the black-armored woman had frozen.
The newcomer ignored them all, fixing his attention on the startled green eyes that stared out of the ebony face mask. "Sayuri... please speak to me."
The woman stood transfixed for an instant longer. When she spoke it was with cool detachment. "Sayuri is gone. This body is the vessel of Tenebras now."
Rowen looked from the blond youth to the back of the woman, both focused on each other. He looked at Kento. I've had enough of this. Silently he took aim, and fired. "Arrow Shock Wave!" His arrow flew unerringly towards the dark figure that was its target.
"No!" A streak of black and gold rose to meet the projectile, and even as the woman turned in alarm, arrow and trident clattered to the ground at her feet.
"He- blocked it?" Rowen gaped in dismay.
"Only fools throw their weapons away." The cold voice broke into the surprise of the group. The woman leaned down, and her hand closed around the trident. Abruptly her body arced and spasmed as if a current had run through it. Something gleamed on the young man's forehead, growing in brightness until the kanji was visible. Honor.
A symbol glowed on Ryo's forehead. Virtue. One by one the others lit up. Life. Wisdom. Trust. Justice. The Ronin's eyes widened as another symbol appeared shining vividly even through the black faceplate that should have concealed it. Compassion.
The woman's startled expression mirrored that of the Ronins. With an angry growl she raised the trident to cast it away. The whole room seemed to flicker and tremble. Before anyone could respond, or even catch a breath, a ray of white light lanced from the trident, into Kento. It hovered in the air between them, humming with tension. Crackles of red energy licked across it flowing steadily along the length of the white beam- out of Kento and into the trident.
As the current of crimson lightning trickled to an end, the beam faded. Kento blinked and stood up, looking only a few shades too pale. "Huh?"
The young man called again to the dark fighter. "Sayuri, please, come with me! Please stop this, Sayuri."
The woman stared at him for an instant with conflicted emerald eyes, something dark and light warring within them. Then her face turned towards the trident, which she still brandished above her head, pulsing now, with scarlet energy. Her demeanor hardened, turning icy cold again. "Those who defy Tenebras… cannot suceed!" In a blaze of movement, she launched the crackling trident at him.
Dodging smoothly to the side, the armored youth reached out and snatched his weapon out of the air, flinching as the 'Red Death' fled the trident for his body. He wavered slightly, but remained standing. "I ask again, Sayuri…"
"Don't use that name!" Control shattered, the dark warrior swung her sword in a wide circle. "Sayuri is dead! And so will you be!" She slashed the silver blade down to point at him. "Darkness Annihilation!"
A surge of blood-red lightning shot through the air. The young man stood his ground, crying out only as the bulk of the attack hit him. He staggered, and struggled to face her. "-Kill me maybe-" he rasped with difficulty, "-but should know- by know- you- can't- turn me!"
"It's time for me to go now," the woman snarled. She raised her sword and the figures of her unconscious guards darkened. "But sleep lightly." The forms of the woman and guards turned to inky black shadow, and faded away.
The young man swayed, then slumped to the floor, his armor disappearing as he fell.
~*~*~
A/N: So, what do you think? I'm pretty attatched to this storyline, but if no one reviews I'll probably just work on other things. It's amazing what a little response does for one's motivation! ^_~
*Li-Cat*
