***Thanks for all the reviews... And thank you for bearing with me. You knew I had to make sure you all knew it wasn't a Mary Sue cause there is a main character in the plot that is a girl. Someone said maybe if she didn't like Sage then it wouldn't seem so Mary Sue-is... but the thing is she's never known a boy before, so she does like him... but the thing that keeps it from being true love is... When that spell breaks, it's not going to be very pretty for Sylvia... and the aftermath of that is interesting.... Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing!***


Chapter 7

Sylvia smiled as she felt her mother gripping her hand. She was finally starting to get a response from the comatose woman. She noted the color returning to her face with excitement. It was happening, and not soon enough. She gazed, worried, out the window at the darkness.. A sun that rises too late and a moon that rised too early... They were here. She could feel them, she could smell them.. But they still hadn't located them yet. They still had a chance... she just needed her Mom to get better, to wake up, so they could be on their way. Soon, it would be soon, she thought with a nod. It had to be soon...

"Mia's been gone forever, I kinda feel bad about sending her out again, alone," Ryo looked guilty, "Maybe one of us should have gone.."
"Maybe you should have gone Ryo, Mia would have liked that," Cye snickered. He had noted Mia's growing passion for Ryo, even though Ryo himself hadn't yet.
"Mia's got a crush on Ryo," Kento sang coming into the room with a sandwich between his palms, he took a hefty bite.
"She does not!" Ryo insisted, he lie back on the couch and then jumped up and stood all at once, "I'm going upstairs."
"Wait up, we'll come too, lover boy," Kento squealed like a girl, he cackled wildly after Ryo's ascending form.
Ryo was still muttering to himself as he walked to his room. He stopped by Rowen's and Sage's room first and peeked in. Rowen was reading, no surprise there, and Sage was at his desk doing homework. Homework of all things! Free sick days, and he spends his time trying to catch up! Ryo entered the room and approached Sage to make a comment on his studious behavior, but, "Hello, what's this? A poem? Sage, you're writing poetry? Dragons?" Ryo looked at Sage who was flushing with embarrassment, "Give me that!" he snapped snatching away his poem and lying it back down on his desk. He shot Ryo a glare and continued on with his sonnets. Ryo blinked and glanced over to see Rowen's reaction. Rowen did nothing.. So Sage writing poetry was not a one time event. Hmmn.. Strangely, Ryo could see Sage writing poetry.. Just not about dragons.
"Shouldn't you be in bed, Sage?" Ryo asked after watching Sage for a few moments.
"No," Sage said carefully as he erased a line and started again. He ducked as he felt Ryo's probing hand on his forehead, "You're still plenty hot Sage, I say you need to get in bed."
"Ease up Ryo, letting him sit up at his desk and write is the only thing keeping him from fighting me to go outside and meditate."
Sage looked vaguely interested in that, "It would be nice. It's a nice day out."
"It's cold," Ryo said simply.
"I'd wear a jacket," Sage said just as simply.
Ryo wanted to strangle the blond sitting before him. He glanced over at Rowen who sat with an "I told you so" grin on his face.
"Rowen it still doesn't sound right!" Sage moaned erasing the same line again. Ryo raised an eyebrow at the whinning quality in Sage's voice.
"Sage, maybe if you took a little nap it'll freshen up your mind," Rowen said in a light tone, his patience wearing thin.
Sage sighed and set his pencil down and massaged his aching temples, "Only toddlers take naps."
"Toddlers and people with temperatures of 101E,"Rowen said closing his book and sliding off his own bed, "You need rest if you wanna get better."
"He's telling you the truth Sage," Ryo said, "now stop acting like a baby and get in bed!"
Sage's visible grey eyes went wide, "Did you just call me a baby?"
"Yes!" Ryo yelled, "Now get into that bed!"
"You can't..."
"Yes I can!" Ryo grabbed Sage firmly around the waist and stood him up, he then proceeded to drag him to his bed while Sage protested weakly, "STOP IT!"
Rowen found the entire situation amusing, he laughed out loud while he helped out Ryo by pulling the covers back on Sage's bed. Ryo tossed Sage onto the bed and Rowen held him down while Ryo pulled up the blankets, "There.. Now isn't that nice?"
Sage lie on his back seething with anger. He said nothing.
"Now sleep," Ryo said, then stepped away from the bed, "Geez, I am never having kids!"

"I couldn't find anything that could help us find a Witch...we'd have to have power, supernatural ones... But the Darklings... the Darklings we can find," Mia was saying sitting at the dinner table.
"But we don't wanna find the evil destructive ones!" Rowen was saying, "That familiar was enough of a battle for me, I don't think I want to find its masters."
"But Rowen, it seems the Darklings know how to find the Witches, and maybe through them, we can find out how too," Cye said.
"The only way we'll find out how the Darklings are tracking the Witches is if we catch them in the act... and who's to say that act won't lead them to the Witches? Then what good would we do in protecting them if the Darklings know where they are?" Kento was wondering.
"We'll fight them, we'll try to hold them at bay and get to the Witches first," Ryo said with a shrug, like it was that easy.
"Hold them at bay? With what might I ask?" Kento demanded, "I mean remember Ryo, they're be the Darklings who are Lord knows how strong, and then there's bound to be more familiars!"
"I know..." Ryo sighed, "I hate to say this guys. But we don't have much of a plan at all. Our best hope... which really isn't a hope at all, is for another familiar to show up. If we capture it, what will happen Mia?"
"Its master would be summoned of course to come and... fetch it..."
"And to catch a Darkling?" Ryo pursued.
"To do what?" Cye choked on his drink and Kento pounded him on the back.
Mia shook her head, "It's never been done."
"It's never been done, or never been noted?" Ryo asked.
Mia looked at Ryo, "It's never been done. Darklings cannot be contained."
Ryo struck the table with his fist making everyone jump, "Dammit! So you're telling us there's nothing we can do? All we can do is sit back and watch the Darklings destroy the last of a race and take over the world?"
Mia was shaking her head, "I don't know Ryo..."
"Ok," Ryo rubbed his face wearily, "I guess this is over." Ryo rose from the table followed by the others, and went into the living room. He angrily stalked towards the front door snatching his coat off the hook, "I'm going for a walk."
The door slammed after him, "I guess he wasn't inviting any of us to join him," Kento remarked, "Scoot over Sage, two people can sit on that couch and one of them will be me!" Sage groaned and sat up, he has been lying down curled on his side. Kento flopped down and swiped the remote just as Cye was reaching for it, "Got it first! Now lets see what's on."
"Kento, I am not watching cartoons," Cye said flatly coming to attempt to wrestle the remote from Kento. Kento gave Cye a tug that sent him into Sage's lap, Sage yelped and shoved Cye away holding his stomach, "Watch it!"
"Sorry," Kento said, tossing the remote to Cye, who glared at him and straighened himself up. Kento stuck out his tongue and looked to Sage, "Still feel like shit?"
Sage made a face at him and lie his head on the arm of the sofa, "Guess that's a yes."
"Sage, why don't you come back into the kitchen so I can take your temperature?" Mia was standing and nodding to Sage. Sage rolled his eyes, "I just took it an hour ago."
"Sage," Mia sounded very firm and full of reproach.
"Ok," Sage followed her into the kitchen.

"Open," Mia gently placed the thermometer in his mouth. She placed her hand on his forehead and sighed, "The other night Sage... what you said..."
Sage blinked and shook his head, "I was upset," his words were slightly slurred from the cylinder in his mouth.
Mia gave him a small smile, "I could tell. Sage, those things you said.... well those were some of the things that I thought about you."
"I know," Sage said.
"I'm the only one who didn't apologize, and I didn't because I didn't want to interfere with you and the other guys bonding. You are all the closest you have ever been now, since your outburst. And now, I want us to be the closest we've ever been. Sage, I misjudged you. I never disliked you, in fact I like you very much and always have. I just didn't feel a connection with you like I had with all the others guys. You were always so guarded, and I understand that maybe you were brought up to be that way, but it made me uncomfortable sometimes. But I realize how uncomfortable I must have made you feel, and I'm sorry."
"Nothing's as uncomfortable to me as standing here in a freezing cold kitchen trying to talk with this thing in my mouth," Sage was muttering. Mia laughed and pulled it from his lips, she glanced at it and frowned, "Back to bed, kiddo, you're still burning up."
"Aww. Come on Mia, I was in bed all day," Sage was whining. Mia knew he was really sick then, Sage never whined, "Bed now. Do I have to get Ryo in here?" Mia had been told about what had happened earlier that day.
Sage narrowed his eyes, "No..." he began to retreat from the kitchen, but he turned, "Hey Mia?"
"Yes Sage?"
"Thanks."
"You're welcome," she smiled, "Hold on, I'll walk with you upstairs."
Mia joined Sage at the bottom of the stairway, the two of them began the venture up only to stop halfway, "Sage? What's wrong?"
Sage had stopped ascending suddenly, and gone completely still. His eyes were unfocused and he seemed in a trance, at hearing Mia's voice he slowly came back to reality and shook his head, "Something's not right.... Something's outside, something dark..."
"Ryo!" Mia immediately said as a dim flourescent light began to gleam from the depths of Sage's golden hair casting an odd green glow on his pale face, "My kanji?"
"Ryo's in trouble!" Mia was frantic, She and Sage ran back down the stairs to find Cye, Kento, and Rowen all standing with looks of panic on their faces, their kanji's shining bright on their foreheads too.
"What's going on?" Kento asked looking a window in the living room, it was dark outside, abnormally dark.
"Guys, we better get out there," Sage said, shaken from the vast amounts of dark energy he felt emitting from outdoors, "Ryo needs us!"
They all nodded and in a flash they had abandoned their ordinary street clothes and were adorned in their colorful subarmors. "Lets go!"