Realm Remix
Chapter 16
"Well, you can't say I didn't try."
As one, the three Warlords folded their arms across their chests and glared at Tigermoon. She threw her hands in the air. "At least Mia's house is better than that creepy place..."
"Guys!" Kayura came out of the house and flung her arms around Cale's neck. Mia followed, but at a more leisurely pace, and she didn't glomp any Warlords. The only one she would ever consider glomping was Anubis, and... there was no need to go into that now.
"Remember Ikari, from the Dynasty?" Kayura was saying. When the men looked blank, she sighed. "She was the spirit trainer for the Netherspirits. She hated Talpa but she wasn't allowed to leave because nobody else could handle the spirits. But when the Ronins showed up the second time and it looked like Talpa was going to lose, she ran off?"
"Oh, her."
"Yes, her. Well, do you remember where she came from? I think it's important that we know," Kayura asked them.
Dais looked at Sekhmet, who shrugged. They both turned to Cale, who was still rubbing his neck. "The Lost realm," Dais said finally. "I remember her saying something about it."
"Good, that clears up a major plothole," Kayura sighed. "I thought she was just obsessed with revenge, but it's good to know she has a motive..."
"Well, while you're clearing things up, why don't you solve the mystery of Hariel mysteriously resurrecting himself?" Cale asked.
"What?" Kayura asked in utter confusion.
"Well, it isn't that confusing... we thought he was dead, but we saw him again, so obviously not," Dais tried to explain.
"Great. Just when I thought I had everything figured out." Kayura sighed and scuffed the dirt with her toe.
"And the Ronin Warriors and Kaye are where?" Mia interrupted when Kayura had calmed down somewhat.
"Um." Tigermoon winced as the others looked at her. "About that..."
--------------------
"Look, for this plan to succeed, we need to be very inconspicuous. Do you understand?" Sage cautioned the Ronins. There were nods all around the huddle of messy-haired heads.
"Quiet, inconspicuous, yeah, I got it," Rowen affirmed.
Sage narrowed his eyes, looking over at the one member of the group he wasn't sure of. " Kento. You will be able to do this, right?"
Kento glared at him.
Sage raised an eyebrow. Unfortunately, it was the eyebrow hidden by his massive hair, so nobody really noticed. "Right?"
"Oh, yeah, sure, fine. I mean, Kaye's just being tortured right now, and Cye--" he jerked a thumb at the smallest Ronin, whose eyes were beginning to look glassy (like a fish out of water!) "--Is just having, like, a *wonderful* time here, you know, writhing in pain, and here *we* get to play ninjas and stalk around *spying* on people instead of *destroying* them because oh yeah, you're the one with the *wisdom* kanji, and of *course* you know what you're doing with all this *inconspicuous* bullsh--"
"!" went Cye, clutching his forehead, falling to his knees, and effectively cutting off the rest of Kento's rant.
"Cye? You okay?" Ryo knelt down to him.
"Yeah. I think it's just the battle getting to me, and now Kaye," Cye replied as several hands helped him up.
"Well, can you hang in there?" Ryo asked.
"I think I can make it."
"Good, because we're going to need you to find Kaye," Sage reminded him. "Theoretically, you have the best chance of any of us at finding her."
"Yeah," Rowen chipped in cheerfully, "Like those canaries in the coal mines. If you die, we know we're in trouble!"
"Oh," Cye glared at him. "This makes me feel so much better."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Exactly how safe is this?" Mia asked nervously as she sat herself down on White Blaze's back.
"Safe?" Dais snorted. "We're relying on *Tigermoon* to transport five other people --- and a tiger -- to a realm we barely know anything about, in order to rescue some armorless Ronins from a group of crazed, homicidal fanatics. Not only that, but once we get there, we're relying on fighting without armor, and Kaye is being tortured as we speak. Miss Koji, I think it's safe to say that you missed the whole 'safe' train entirely."
"What're fanatics?" Cale murmured.
"You know; sort of like crazy stalker people..." Mia answered.
"Oh, like on the Internet!"
"Ah... nevermind." Mia gave up.
Kayura got onto White Blaze's back, sitting with her arms locked around Mia's waist. The tiger didn't seem to object to being used as a pony again, and stared serenely into the distance.
The Warlords all took hold of White Blaze, and Tigermoon got down and put her arms around his neck. "The things I do..." she muttered as the group vanished.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ronins? What did she mean by that?" Hariel wondered.
Kaye screamed out and fell back against her restraints. Slowly her body relaxed and she went limp. A tiny bit of blood was at the corner of her mouth.
Hariel and Doste promptly fell silent and stared in horror. Ikari turned, shrugged, and went back to washing her hands.
"Cosa, you didn't have to kill her!" Shiree scolded.
Cosa blinked, stepping forward and leaning towards Kaye. He studied her for a few moments. "I don't hear any breath--"
SNAP. Kaye's head cannoned into his, knocking him to the floor. She looked up defiantly and spat blood in his face. Cosa's eyes glowed again as he staggered to his feet.
"Hmn, so she's showing some spirit after all," Shiree mused. "Oh well. I hate killing heroes." She noticed the looks that Doste and Hariel were wearing as they stared at Kaye. "Get over it, kids... you know what it takes."
Furious, Cosa pulled his arm back to strike at Kaye again, but another hand caught his. Hariel looked at him calmly. "What did she mean by the Ronins, Cosa?"
"You're Japanese, figure it out for yourself!" Cosa snarled, struggling to free his hand.
"Ronins, that means 'masterless warriors.' Who are they? What are you hiding from me?!" Hariel demanded, getting a tighter grip on Cosa's arms.
"Boys, boys, we're all on the same side," Shiree shouted in exasperation. She turned andstarted commanding her troops. "Doste, where are those armor spheres? Ikari, go find a bowl or something, this girl is getting blood all over the floor. Siren, pull yourself together, man. We can't have you passing out in the middle of the ceremony. Why aren't you people moving?!"
"Who died and made you boss?" Doste sneered as he started picking up the armors.
"Talpa and the Ancient did. When those old lunatics were feuding and ignoring us, our lives were so much easier... Hey! You two! You're fighting like dogs in an alley. Do you want me to get a hose and hose you down?" Shiree shouted as she noticed that she wasn't being obeyed.
Cosa and Hariel reluctantly released each other, a glare of disgust and dislike passing between them. "Okay, what is it you need me to do?" Hariel asked.
"Just summon your armor again," Shiree sighed. "Fix what Talpa and the Ancient messed up."
======================================
Freezing wind blew snow across an empty, white landscape. Which suddenly became un-empty as six people and a tiger appeared in it.
"Oops."
"Tigermoon!"
"I'm trying, I'm trying!" the girl protested, wiping her streaked bangs out of her face. "I did my best, I really did! It just spat us out back here!" The icy cold wind promptly blew her bangs back into her face and she struggled to see.
"Well, try it again!"
"Hey, I'm not in control here! We might end up in a volcano for all I know!"
"If you can get us to the Netherworld, I can try to raise a Gate." Kayura screamed to be heard over the wind.
"Yeah, but the Lost realm is between Earth and the Netherworld! We'd have to go through it anyway!"
"Could you raise a Gate here?" Mia shouted. Kayura shook her head.
"I don't think so! Besides, we don't know where 'here' is!"
Mia looked around the chill, freezing land. She couldn't see anything except snow. And snow. And more snow... The wind was so loud it sounded like screaming.
"Uh, guys?" Dais yelled. "Sekhmet just collapsed..."
Kayura swore. "Damn, that's right... he's cold-blooded. All right, Tigermoon, I don't care where you land us this time, just get us out of here!"
Tigermoon seemed to have lost whatever scrap of sanity she had. She was frantically leafing through her clothes, turning out her pockets.
"Ha!" she shouted finally, holding something up. "I found this when I came from the Netherworld. I think we can get a fix on it..."
Kayura strained to see the object Tigermoon was holding through the blinding snow.
It was a tattered black feather.
=============================================================
Hariel passed his hands over the armor spheres. The nine orbs glowed, their colors blending to sheer white. The only one unaffected was a silver/blue kanji sphere.
The Ancient's armors returned to their original, purified, incredibly dangerous state as they solidified into one white crystal.
Hariel held it in his hands and summoned a black subarmor. He brought up his hands, said something in Japanese, then began "Armor of Inferno--"
"DON'T!" Kaye screamed, snapping to life so suddenly that Doste fell over backwards in surprise.
"--The hell? If she keeps doing this I'm going to murder her myself," Shiree muttered.
"Look, Hariel, I don't know how you got here, or what you're doing alive," Kaye said, talking very fast, her energy nearly gone. "But you've got to listen to me. The Ancient made Inferno into a lot of smaller armors..." Great, she thought, I've got to give this guy over a thousand years of history in under a minute. Less, if my strength doesn't give out. "Five of them were given to the Ronin Warriors so they could defend our-- AI!"
Cosa slammed her back against her bonds. He looked into her eyes with his furious, slightly bloodshot ones. Kaye could see the madness in them. "Shut up," he suggested calmly.
"Ignore her, Hariel," Shiree said coldly. She took off the headband that was holding back her long, pale hair. "All right, Tigress... I still don't want to kill you, so I'll just gag you instead." She stepped forward and got ready to tie her headband over Kaye's mouth.
"No, Hariel, seriously, you've got to listen," Kaye said, dodging as far as her chains were allowed. "Really! It's your duty to fight with the armor bearers. It's not our fault that your world got messed up -- if we'd known, we'd have tried to stop it!"
"Hold her still, Cosa."
"HEY!" Kaye shouted as he pinned her back roughly, causing her injuries to hurt worse then ever. Shiree almost managed to gag her but Kaye jerked her head away.
"Hariel, you've got to believe me! You can't betray us!"
"I can't betray my home, either," he said firmly, but he kept his eyes on her. They were almost exactly like Ryo's eyes.
"Maybe you don't have to," Kaye said softly. She stopped struggling to lock him with her gaze. "Isn't there always another way?"
Shiree jammed her headband into Kaye's mouth and tied it tightly, but Kaye was done talking. For now.
And then all hell broke loose.
Chapter 16
"Well, you can't say I didn't try."
As one, the three Warlords folded their arms across their chests and glared at Tigermoon. She threw her hands in the air. "At least Mia's house is better than that creepy place..."
"Guys!" Kayura came out of the house and flung her arms around Cale's neck. Mia followed, but at a more leisurely pace, and she didn't glomp any Warlords. The only one she would ever consider glomping was Anubis, and... there was no need to go into that now.
"Remember Ikari, from the Dynasty?" Kayura was saying. When the men looked blank, she sighed. "She was the spirit trainer for the Netherspirits. She hated Talpa but she wasn't allowed to leave because nobody else could handle the spirits. But when the Ronins showed up the second time and it looked like Talpa was going to lose, she ran off?"
"Oh, her."
"Yes, her. Well, do you remember where she came from? I think it's important that we know," Kayura asked them.
Dais looked at Sekhmet, who shrugged. They both turned to Cale, who was still rubbing his neck. "The Lost realm," Dais said finally. "I remember her saying something about it."
"Good, that clears up a major plothole," Kayura sighed. "I thought she was just obsessed with revenge, but it's good to know she has a motive..."
"Well, while you're clearing things up, why don't you solve the mystery of Hariel mysteriously resurrecting himself?" Cale asked.
"What?" Kayura asked in utter confusion.
"Well, it isn't that confusing... we thought he was dead, but we saw him again, so obviously not," Dais tried to explain.
"Great. Just when I thought I had everything figured out." Kayura sighed and scuffed the dirt with her toe.
"And the Ronin Warriors and Kaye are where?" Mia interrupted when Kayura had calmed down somewhat.
"Um." Tigermoon winced as the others looked at her. "About that..."
--------------------
"Look, for this plan to succeed, we need to be very inconspicuous. Do you understand?" Sage cautioned the Ronins. There were nods all around the huddle of messy-haired heads.
"Quiet, inconspicuous, yeah, I got it," Rowen affirmed.
Sage narrowed his eyes, looking over at the one member of the group he wasn't sure of. " Kento. You will be able to do this, right?"
Kento glared at him.
Sage raised an eyebrow. Unfortunately, it was the eyebrow hidden by his massive hair, so nobody really noticed. "Right?"
"Oh, yeah, sure, fine. I mean, Kaye's just being tortured right now, and Cye--" he jerked a thumb at the smallest Ronin, whose eyes were beginning to look glassy (like a fish out of water!) "--Is just having, like, a *wonderful* time here, you know, writhing in pain, and here *we* get to play ninjas and stalk around *spying* on people instead of *destroying* them because oh yeah, you're the one with the *wisdom* kanji, and of *course* you know what you're doing with all this *inconspicuous* bullsh--"
"!" went Cye, clutching his forehead, falling to his knees, and effectively cutting off the rest of Kento's rant.
"Cye? You okay?" Ryo knelt down to him.
"Yeah. I think it's just the battle getting to me, and now Kaye," Cye replied as several hands helped him up.
"Well, can you hang in there?" Ryo asked.
"I think I can make it."
"Good, because we're going to need you to find Kaye," Sage reminded him. "Theoretically, you have the best chance of any of us at finding her."
"Yeah," Rowen chipped in cheerfully, "Like those canaries in the coal mines. If you die, we know we're in trouble!"
"Oh," Cye glared at him. "This makes me feel so much better."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Exactly how safe is this?" Mia asked nervously as she sat herself down on White Blaze's back.
"Safe?" Dais snorted. "We're relying on *Tigermoon* to transport five other people --- and a tiger -- to a realm we barely know anything about, in order to rescue some armorless Ronins from a group of crazed, homicidal fanatics. Not only that, but once we get there, we're relying on fighting without armor, and Kaye is being tortured as we speak. Miss Koji, I think it's safe to say that you missed the whole 'safe' train entirely."
"What're fanatics?" Cale murmured.
"You know; sort of like crazy stalker people..." Mia answered.
"Oh, like on the Internet!"
"Ah... nevermind." Mia gave up.
Kayura got onto White Blaze's back, sitting with her arms locked around Mia's waist. The tiger didn't seem to object to being used as a pony again, and stared serenely into the distance.
The Warlords all took hold of White Blaze, and Tigermoon got down and put her arms around his neck. "The things I do..." she muttered as the group vanished.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ronins? What did she mean by that?" Hariel wondered.
Kaye screamed out and fell back against her restraints. Slowly her body relaxed and she went limp. A tiny bit of blood was at the corner of her mouth.
Hariel and Doste promptly fell silent and stared in horror. Ikari turned, shrugged, and went back to washing her hands.
"Cosa, you didn't have to kill her!" Shiree scolded.
Cosa blinked, stepping forward and leaning towards Kaye. He studied her for a few moments. "I don't hear any breath--"
SNAP. Kaye's head cannoned into his, knocking him to the floor. She looked up defiantly and spat blood in his face. Cosa's eyes glowed again as he staggered to his feet.
"Hmn, so she's showing some spirit after all," Shiree mused. "Oh well. I hate killing heroes." She noticed the looks that Doste and Hariel were wearing as they stared at Kaye. "Get over it, kids... you know what it takes."
Furious, Cosa pulled his arm back to strike at Kaye again, but another hand caught his. Hariel looked at him calmly. "What did she mean by the Ronins, Cosa?"
"You're Japanese, figure it out for yourself!" Cosa snarled, struggling to free his hand.
"Ronins, that means 'masterless warriors.' Who are they? What are you hiding from me?!" Hariel demanded, getting a tighter grip on Cosa's arms.
"Boys, boys, we're all on the same side," Shiree shouted in exasperation. She turned andstarted commanding her troops. "Doste, where are those armor spheres? Ikari, go find a bowl or something, this girl is getting blood all over the floor. Siren, pull yourself together, man. We can't have you passing out in the middle of the ceremony. Why aren't you people moving?!"
"Who died and made you boss?" Doste sneered as he started picking up the armors.
"Talpa and the Ancient did. When those old lunatics were feuding and ignoring us, our lives were so much easier... Hey! You two! You're fighting like dogs in an alley. Do you want me to get a hose and hose you down?" Shiree shouted as she noticed that she wasn't being obeyed.
Cosa and Hariel reluctantly released each other, a glare of disgust and dislike passing between them. "Okay, what is it you need me to do?" Hariel asked.
"Just summon your armor again," Shiree sighed. "Fix what Talpa and the Ancient messed up."
======================================
Freezing wind blew snow across an empty, white landscape. Which suddenly became un-empty as six people and a tiger appeared in it.
"Oops."
"Tigermoon!"
"I'm trying, I'm trying!" the girl protested, wiping her streaked bangs out of her face. "I did my best, I really did! It just spat us out back here!" The icy cold wind promptly blew her bangs back into her face and she struggled to see.
"Well, try it again!"
"Hey, I'm not in control here! We might end up in a volcano for all I know!"
"If you can get us to the Netherworld, I can try to raise a Gate." Kayura screamed to be heard over the wind.
"Yeah, but the Lost realm is between Earth and the Netherworld! We'd have to go through it anyway!"
"Could you raise a Gate here?" Mia shouted. Kayura shook her head.
"I don't think so! Besides, we don't know where 'here' is!"
Mia looked around the chill, freezing land. She couldn't see anything except snow. And snow. And more snow... The wind was so loud it sounded like screaming.
"Uh, guys?" Dais yelled. "Sekhmet just collapsed..."
Kayura swore. "Damn, that's right... he's cold-blooded. All right, Tigermoon, I don't care where you land us this time, just get us out of here!"
Tigermoon seemed to have lost whatever scrap of sanity she had. She was frantically leafing through her clothes, turning out her pockets.
"Ha!" she shouted finally, holding something up. "I found this when I came from the Netherworld. I think we can get a fix on it..."
Kayura strained to see the object Tigermoon was holding through the blinding snow.
It was a tattered black feather.
=============================================================
Hariel passed his hands over the armor spheres. The nine orbs glowed, their colors blending to sheer white. The only one unaffected was a silver/blue kanji sphere.
The Ancient's armors returned to their original, purified, incredibly dangerous state as they solidified into one white crystal.
Hariel held it in his hands and summoned a black subarmor. He brought up his hands, said something in Japanese, then began "Armor of Inferno--"
"DON'T!" Kaye screamed, snapping to life so suddenly that Doste fell over backwards in surprise.
"--The hell? If she keeps doing this I'm going to murder her myself," Shiree muttered.
"Look, Hariel, I don't know how you got here, or what you're doing alive," Kaye said, talking very fast, her energy nearly gone. "But you've got to listen to me. The Ancient made Inferno into a lot of smaller armors..." Great, she thought, I've got to give this guy over a thousand years of history in under a minute. Less, if my strength doesn't give out. "Five of them were given to the Ronin Warriors so they could defend our-- AI!"
Cosa slammed her back against her bonds. He looked into her eyes with his furious, slightly bloodshot ones. Kaye could see the madness in them. "Shut up," he suggested calmly.
"Ignore her, Hariel," Shiree said coldly. She took off the headband that was holding back her long, pale hair. "All right, Tigress... I still don't want to kill you, so I'll just gag you instead." She stepped forward and got ready to tie her headband over Kaye's mouth.
"No, Hariel, seriously, you've got to listen," Kaye said, dodging as far as her chains were allowed. "Really! It's your duty to fight with the armor bearers. It's not our fault that your world got messed up -- if we'd known, we'd have tried to stop it!"
"Hold her still, Cosa."
"HEY!" Kaye shouted as he pinned her back roughly, causing her injuries to hurt worse then ever. Shiree almost managed to gag her but Kaye jerked her head away.
"Hariel, you've got to believe me! You can't betray us!"
"I can't betray my home, either," he said firmly, but he kept his eyes on her. They were almost exactly like Ryo's eyes.
"Maybe you don't have to," Kaye said softly. She stopped struggling to lock him with her gaze. "Isn't there always another way?"
Shiree jammed her headband into Kaye's mouth and tied it tightly, but Kaye was done talking. For now.
And then all hell broke loose.