Revenance
By S. Arallion
Based on "Ronin Warriors"
(the English version of the anime series "Yoroiden Samurai Troopers")
Disclaimer: All characters in this story are owned by their respective copyright holders—namely, not myself. Anything you don't recognize is my fault. I make absolutely no profit from my use of these characters. ~~Arallion
Part 3: Dreams~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anubis remained motionless on the edge of the cliff for a time, his long, red hair and the edge of his robes fluttering in the astral breeze. Strange that the Ronin leader had sought him out, he mused, feeling the exhaustion from his earlier activities wash through his limbs just as it would had he been mortal, after a strenuous battle.
He had been floating in nothingness, too spent to even hold a recognizable form, still stinging from the Ancient One's gentle rebuke for expending so much to stay in their presence. Apparently a spirit such as he was horribly vulnerable to any spiritual attack while drained and still on the mortal plane. The Ancient, knowing his stubborn will, further drained his energy until he could barely move around the spirit realm, let alone return to the mortals. He knew it to be for his own well-being, but the feeling of loss was almost unbearable.
Then suddenly he was standing here, being approached by Ryo. The Ronin's energy must have strengthened him just enough to become visible on the astral plane. He was surprised, and uncertain of his welcome. But the Ronin leader seemed to think that he had willed himself there, into Ryo's meditation, and not the other way around. Anubis had carefully done nothing to disabuse him of that notion.
It had been… nice… to speak with Ryo, Anubis admitted to himself. Hearing the boy prattle on about his comrades' activities, their escapades, and about Mia… it had been pleasurable. A luxury that he had not been allowed for a very long time….
"Hello, my young friend."
The voice was chillingly familiar, with an eerily echoing resonance. Anubis froze in place, his eyes scanning quickly across the sky.
"I'm glad to see that you recognize me, and fear my power…" the voice commented with a self-satisfied chuckle.
The blue-green eyes narrowed. "I do not fear your power, Talpa. Nor do I fear you, or any of your puppets."
"Indeed." The voice seemed amused. "The Ancient should have taught you better. A pity that you won't have a second chance to learn this lesson."
Anubis planted the shakujo firmly in the ground, head thrown back in a defiant stance. "What do you think you can possibly do to me? I'm already dead." But a strange feeling was coming over him—almost like a strong wind was attempting to pull him off his feet. Too late, he realized that his spirit was being transferred to another plane, and that he didn't have the strength left to fight it.
There are worse things than death, he thought bitterly, as the world tipped out from beneath his feet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ryo awoke with a start from his dream. Sitting bolt upright, he looked around the simple room nervously. To his surprise, Rowan was sitting up as well.
"Did you hear—" they both started at the same time, and fell silent, staring at each other.
"Talpa?" Ryo finished the question.
"I thought so," Rowan answered, frowning thoughtfully.
"Something's happening," the Ronin of Wildfire scowled, hurriedly clambering out of the bed and into his street clothes. His nerves weren't helped by the worried growling of White Blaze, pacing at the doorway.
They found the other boys in the hallway, having also just awakened.
"Did you guys have a dream too?" Rowan asked quickly. Kento and Cye nodded sleepily, still too tired to focus.
"Yes, and I think it must be more than a dream," Sage replied. "If we all heard Talpa, I mean."
"We did," Ryo muttered. White Blaze growled in assent.
The doorbell rang, and they all froze, looking at each other.
Downstairs, the swift patter of Mia's footsteps could be heard in the entryway. The door creaked open, and a murmur of voices floated up to them. The tone of Mia's voice was welcoming, but worried. White Blaze's ears perked up in recognition.
"Guys? Are you awake? I think you'd better come down here," the clear voice called up to them.
With one last nervous look, the Ronins skittered down the stairs.
"Lady Kayura?"
The small, dark-haired woman was sitting down in a comfortable chair, accepting a cup of tea from Mia. She looked up at the young men with haunted eyes. "Hello, Ryo. Hello, all of you. I apologize for coming unannounced…"
"But there's an emergency," Ryo guessed, sitting on the couch next to her chair. White Blaze laid down watchfully at his feet.
"We all had a dream," Cye commented, finding a chair along with his friends.
"And I saw Anubis yesterday," Sage interjected. Kayura gave him a sharp glance.
"It is interesting that you bring up that name, Sage," she sighed. "That information may have something to bear on the news I bring." Her dark eyes looked fearful. "There have been stirrings in the Nether Realm. The Warlords and I have been tracking the disturbances, and we have uncovered some worrisome information." At their concerned expressions, she held up a hand. "It gets worse. The Armor of Loyalty is gone."
"What?" Collectively, the Ronins half-rose to their feet, accompanied by a muffled rumble from the white tiger.
"How did that happen?" Ryo exclaimed. "You were holding that armor."
"I know," Kayura replied with a look of embarrassment. "I haven't used it, but it was my responsibility. I haven't an excuse, but neither do I have an explanation for what happened. The orb simply disappeared. Unfortunately, I may now have a theory as to what happened to it, and it is not good news for us."
They looked at each other in dismay.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anubis floated in nothingness, waiting for something to happen. He stifled the anger he felt at himself, because it did no good. He wondered briefly what it was going to be like to encounter the Ankoku spirits as a spirit himself. Probably not pleasant, he shuddered, and tried to think about something—anything—else.
A sibilant whispering began, just above the silence. Gradually increasing in intensity, the murmur of voices began to congeal into words, and the words were full of emptiness and despair.
He tried to still his mind with the serenity taught by the Ancient, but the insistent moaning of the Ankoku shattered his concentration. He could feel their cold touch on his thoughts, molding him to Talpa's demands, and felt unbidden anger rise with his sense of helplessness.
Shaking with the effort, he stifled the anger. He was trapped by his own foolishness, and the only person he had to blame for it would be himself. The only question to focus on now was why he had been captured in the first place. The blue-green eyes narrowed in thought, as the shrieking threats of the Ankoku faded into the background.
He wasn't of any use as a warrior, of course. Talpa's methods of control were all physical, and as a ghost, physical things had no hold on him. He didn't command the Armor of Loyalty either, as it should have passed to Kayura, the Ancient's descendant, upon his death.
Perhaps knowledge made him valuable? That didn't make sense either, he thought wryly. Everything he knew could be easily discovered if one was persistent and looked in the right places. Admittedly, he had an advantage in the form of the Ancient, who often assisted him in finding those "right places"… but that information wouldn't be available if he were in the clutches of the Dynasty.
The concept of using him as a hostage didn't quite work either—he hoped. He knew with a grim satisfaction that those tactics wouldn't work with the Ancient. However, the Ronins and Warlords might be another story. It was a shaky proposition, though, and he'd never known Talpa to expend much effort on something that tenuous.
He finally decided that Talpa had a major attack planned, and that he was being kept out of the way so as to leave the Ronins unwarned. There were still flaws in that view, but at least it made some amount of sense. Growling in frustration, Anubis settled down to bide his time, conserving his energy in hopes of finding some way to break free.
The Ankoku continued to howl at him, creating their own wind that tore at his form and set his hair streaming behind him like a red banner. He shuddered despite himself, trying to ignore the dizzying feeling that swept over him.
An environment began to come slowly into focus around him. Squinting in the wind, he tried to make out where he was forming. Grey stone walls appeared slowly, followed by a slate flagstone floor, and steps. Ankoku spirits lined the walls, blank, eerily staring eyes oddly solid in their ethereal faces. Anubis tore his gaze away from them, chilled, and stared down at the floor, and the raised dais to which he seemed to be floating.
His eyes widened in shock. This can't be happening…
"Relax, Anubis. This will only take a moment. Just think, you will be alive again!" The echoing voice rang in his ears uncomfortably. Below him on a stone slab lay what he could only assume to be his former body, encased by the familiar contours of the Armor of Loyalty. The figure was uncorrupted, still and silent as if asleep.
"You can't do this!" he gasped in reply, but the inexorable pull on his spirit was telling him otherwise. "I won't submit to you, even if you somehow manage to bring me back."
"Yes, I'm sure," the voice chuckled. "Not that you will have a choice, of course. You, my young friend, are going to be instrumental in my plan to destroy the Ronin Warriors and take over the mortal realm."
Anubis bit back the cry of anger and frustration that rose in his throat, and channeled it into a desperate effort to break free. The Ankoku held him fast, not even faltering at the force he pulled away from them with, and slammed his ghostly form down towards the waiting shell with such power that he was overwhelmed. Everything went black.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Mia's sitting room, the Ronin Warriors listened as Kayura told them of her suspicions. A deathly silence fell, and then they all began shouting at once.
"That's impossible!" Rowan blurted, eyes wide with horror.
"Can Talpa really manage such a thing?" Sage questioned.
"What a terrifying idea," Cye muttered, shuddering.
Yuli and Mia said nothing, but the young boy stood very close to her side, and she wrapped an arm around his small shoulders.
"Can we do anything about it?" Kento said fiercely.
Ryo watched Kayura closely. She was turning quite pale. "It's happening now, isn't it," he asked rhetorically. When she blinked at him distractedly, he sighed. "So what happens to us, if Talpa brings back Anubis and somehow manages to gain control of him and the Armor of Loyalty again?"
Kayura dropped her head miserably. "I don't know, Wildfire. It could simply put us back in the position we were in before, with the armors separated across sides. Or, it could be much worse."
"How?" Ryo pressed.
She looked at him steadily. "If Talpa has succeeded in altering the Armor of Loyalty to the extent that it could control Anubis' mind, he could very well have altered it so that it would take the place of the Armor of Wildfire in calling the Inferno Armor, or perhaps a warped facsimile of it."
The Warriors exchanged worried looks.
"That would be bad," Cye grunted, stating what everyone was thinking.
"Kayura, don't the Warlords need to know about this?" Rowan said thoughtfully.
"They already do," the woman assured him. "I am concerned though… I feel that something may have happened already, even as we speak. I should return to the Nether Realm." She hesitated for a moment. "Ronins—I hate even to think of this, but should we fail to hold the Nether Realm against Talpa—may we take refuge with you here to take our stand?"
"Of course," Ryo said solemnly, rising as she did. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
"Let's hope," Kayura agreed with a very small smile. She held up a hand, made a strange gesture, and disappeared.
"What did I tell you?" Sage growled. "Anubis shows up, and something bad happens."
Mia thumped him gently, but meaningfully, on the head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~