All Ryu knew at first was they were surrounded. Suddenly he saw Nina pull out some sort of feathered item, mutter some words and then the rush began. He felt his body seemingly disintegrate, being pulled by some unknown force to some unknown destination. All his senses except hearing were unavailable, and all he could sense was wind whipping around him. He almost panicked, except he heard a voice say to him, "relax, everything will be ok…" and then, the rush stopped, and he found he was himself again, his body whole, his senses restored. Looking around he saw Kray and Nina next to him, brushing them selves off. The only thing that had changed was their surroundings, and blinking a bit he rubbed his eyes. They were no longer in Wyndia! In fact they were in a rather large, tropical oasis!

Ryu blinked again and stammered, "W…what happened?"

Nina giggled a bit, her face no longer contorted in rage as it had been earlier, and said, "A teleportation item called a Roc's Feather, limited range, but it did the job by getting us away from current EVENTS in Wyndia."

Ryu blinked replying, "talking about what happened in Wyndia, what exactly DID happen?"

Nina blinked, and then sighed, "I'm not exactly sure, I've never seen my dad act like he did today, it was really strange, not to mention very creepy…it was as if he wasn't himself…"

She frowned a bit, "I mean daddy was never the type to blow up first then ask questions later. He was always more analytical and never jumped the gun, what happened in the palace a couple of hours ago was totally out of character even for him…"

Ryu nodded a bit, "Well from what I take it so far he's the exact opposite of what you say… but something tells me if we want answers we're going have to go into the Empire to find out…"

Nina frowned and looked at Ryu, "The Empire? I guess we really don't have any choice…"

Ryu nodded, "Indeed, plus we all have debts to pay to the scum…" as he said this he narrowed his eyes and Nina could see the fury and pain in them that collided and controlled the being that was Ryu. She visibly shivered, and wondered if he was really that cold on the inside as he was on the outside.

She had to test the water eventually so, leaning up close to him she said, "Well, I'm going with you no matter what you say…" and with that linked her arm through the young Broodling's.

Ryu gave a start, a look of helplessness on his face; nobody had gotten this close to him since Kira.

Then his expression changed to that vacant, far away, and forlorn face and he pushed Nina away, completely ignoring the act of affection muttering, "I guess we don't have a choice…right Kray?"

Kray nodded a folded his arms, "Indeed, seems that you're pretty much one of us for right now…an outcast…" Nina sighed, the Woren was right; as long as he father acted strangely she was no longer welcome in Wyndia, especially after her act of open defiance. Scanning the horizon Nina smiled a bit, hiding her sorrow at Ryu's rejection and ignoring the ache in her heart.

Ryu looked at her quizzically, snapping, "what's so funny! I swear you grin at the most inopportune of times!"

Nina ignored the snap saying while smiling impishly, "Well, the good news is father hasn't sent any troops after us yet…"

Kray raised an eyebrow, noticing the smile on Nina's face and said, smirking, "and the bad news? There's ALWAYS bad news with good news…"

Nina took a breath and said, "the bad news is Ryu's in a bad mood and needs cheering up!"

Before Ryu could blink Nina had her arms around his neck and had placed a kiss on his cheek. Ryu looked her squarely in the eyes, confusion again washing over his features, then anger.

"W…what the! I don't have time for your foolish games girl!"

With that he gave Nina a vicious shove that sent the Wyndian princess sprawling, and stalked off.

Nina had landed hard on her butt, a look of utter shook and disbelief on her features.

Kray seeing all this muttered, "Another of Nina's advances shot down…oh Ryu, why can't you let Kira go."

With that he quietly walked over to Nina, extending his hand to her. Nina took it and as Kray pulled her up, and as he did so he could see the look of hurt in her eyes, and even the beginning of some tears.

Quietly he said to her, "wait here I'll be right back…"

She nodded and choked, "Ok…"

Padding off the Woren found Ryu a short walk later throwing stones into the oasis' water pool.

Looking up as he heard the Woren approach he growled, "what do YOU want?"

Kray frowned replying, "you treated Nina pretty badly back there, and you should go apologize."

Ryu looked him squarely in the eyes, his own dangerously narrowed, "and who's going to make me? YOU? Hah! Don't make me laugh!"

Kray growled, "Do it Ryu, and don't make me have to hurt you…"

Ryu simply smirked, his eyes glittering dangerously.

"Bring it…"

Kray brought it all right, in the form of a swift roundhouse, unfortunately for him Ryu saw it coming from a mile away and ducked where the punch was supposed to connect. Kray was too slow to recover and quickly received an uppercut to the gut from Ryu. Gasping Kray felt as if his bones would break from the force of the punch, but ignoring the blow and the urge to double over Kray brought his fists down on top of Ryu's back. This the young Broodling could not avoid in time. With a dull thud, Kray's blow connected and Ryu crumpled to a knee, but like Kray he quickly recovered, swinging a sweep at the Woren's legs. Kray jumped in time to avoid it, but this gave Ryu time to get up and slide over to where Kray landed. Kray landed all right, but not where he intended for as he did come down from the jump a roundhouse to the head from Ryu sent him sprawling. The force of the blow was incredible and Kray had to fight off unconsciousness. Succeeding, he turned; wiping a trickle of blood from his mouth, then sprang again at Ryu, grabbing him in a full lock and dragging him to the ground. Ryu struggled, but this was an area Kray knew well and he quickly restrained the struggling Ryu.

"Look," he hissed into his friend's ear, "you're getting out of control! You really hurt Nina a couple of minutes ago, you shouldn't be so violent, or more people will get hurt!"

Ryu at this point had stopped thrashing enough to listen to his friend.

Sighing Kray continued, "we're helping the Imperials by fighting amongst ourselves, do YOU really want that?!"

Ryu shook his head murmuring, "no…"

Kray nodded and stood, then grinned a bit; "glad to see you got that through your thick skull. Now, go apologize to Nina, you've hurt her feelings while moping over Kira…"

Ryu was about to say something as he got up, but Kray put up a hand saying, "I don't want to hear it, go apologize to Nina, please, she cares for you and wants only the best for us all AND you, don't hurt her like you just did, she's really more sensitive than you think…"

Ryu nodded, "I know, I'm sorry, I've just had a lot of things on my mind lately…"

Kray nodded, "we all have, now GO."

Obeying Kray Ryu started to head back toward where Nina was.

As he walked along he thought, "Kira…I didn't want it to end the way it did…what should I do…" his thoughts were immediately interrupted by a scream.

It was Nina's.