Consequences of Capture

By Dixxy

Chapter Seventeen: Prelude to War

After several hours of reading, experimentation, and some pain of Sage's part, the trio were finally able to train the Flitteree how to better use his wings. The method was mostly based on will-power, but still required practice- Sage likened it to learning how to ride a bicycle, in that it was easy once the learner got the hang of it. They also guessed that it was possible Sage would've had an easier time learning had he grown up with the Flitteree. This made his heart pang, but he kept his emotions inside.

It was also decided that, like Dash, Sage's heritage should remain a secret. Cye remained quiet during that part of their discussion, nervously rubbing his wrist, which was covered by a long-sleeve shirt. Kento and Sage still had no idea Trulpa knew about Dash and, further more, had given him the magical equivalent to a LoJack. Cye wanted to tell them what had happened, but he realized that was probably a bad idea. Dash was just a baby, after all, and it wasn't fair to do that to a baby.

This didn't stop Sage from stretching his wings on occasion. Though he couldn't fly around, it wasn't strange to see him meditating or even sleeping with his wings fully spread, gently flapping as he breathed. And, despite the fact it made NO logical sense, the boys learned Sage could open his wings THROUGH clothing without damaging the clothing or hurting himself. Kento voiced the idea that the Flitteree was a magical species that allowed them to perform feats such as the one Sage was doing on a regular basis.

Furthermore, Sage's personality was being affected. Prior to his awakening, Sage had been somewhat reserved where he could be that way, grumpy, or even cold to his friends. While Kento and Cye understood his coolness towards them (and even Ryo, Mia, and Yuli, for that matter) was largely due to his identity crisis and the wars, it still bothered them. Now, however, he seemed a little more optimistic and friendly than he had been. Even in the conditions they were living under, Sage seemed to thrive with the small bittersweet comforts he'd found. This was the place of his birth, he had the name his father gave him, and his birth family had apparently loved him and wanted him. It was enough comfort to make him gain that much more hope and determination, which he was embracing.

And so, even though Sage was obviously changed quite a bit, life went on as it had for the past several months. Whenever Trulpa was mad, she took her aggressions out on them one at a time. The boys practiced their magic, slowly mastering different realms of their magic. Dash was slowly growing, and soon the Ronins began to wonder what they were going to do with the puppy once he was full grown.

It was now in the middle of February, and the boys had been Trulpa's captives for nearly six months. By now they'd given up on returning to Japan for the time being, especially when the issue of Sage's heritage came up- in addition to the amount of time they'd been missing, if someone discovered what Halo was, that would raise unwanted questions and attention. What if Sage was shipped off to a lab somewhere so scientists could run experiments on him? What if he was made into some sort of a media freak? Kento and Cye surely didn't want that for their friend. Still, they couldn't just stay in the Nether Realm. That left the Senshi. They realized Sage was STILL at risk, but if they went to the girls, they'd just be three new kids. In Japan they'd likely get head-to-toe physicals, in which case a doctor may find out Sage was different.

It was also becoming evident that leaving the Senshi to their own devices- Anubis or no Anubis- was a bad idea. They had no idea how well the Senshi were doing with training, but they had their list of concerns. Though Trulpa was bound by some magical laws relating to a first war with the Senshi, anything and everything was fair game for round two. THIS was what worried Sage and his friends. They doubted Trulpa was just having the Warlords and Talpa's old ranks just sitting around twiddling their thumbs- hardly! Most likely they were off training somewhere in preparation for a second assault. Those girls, if they defeated Trulpa, wouldn't be able to kill her, and once she bounced back it was going to be a living nightmare for all involved. Even with Anubis' assistance. No matter how hard they trained, they'd be slaughtered at the hands of the Warladies, Warlords, and, if she went to battle, Kayura.

That was where the Ronin Warriors came in- Sage, Kento, and Cye agreed that the first chance they got following the end of the war they'd pledge some sort of loyalty to the Wildfire girl and ally themselves with the Senshi. Granted there were only three of them, but they did know a LITTLE bit about what was going on inside the walls of Trulpa's castle. Plus, they had their own fighting and magical skills- three more Ronins nearly doubled the entire team, after all.

There was also the issue of something some people call "taking revenge against the God damn whore who's kept us caged like animals for half a year and smashing her face into a concrete wall". Or at least that's what Kento called the "watered-down" version of it. Cye referred to it as "giving Trulpa an ass kicking" and Sage called it "settling a long-standing dispute in Trulpa's life blood".

But they knew it was no longer a matter of what they wanted, but what their duty as Ronin Warriors had them do. No matter how much they missed their friends, families, and homes, they knew that they simply COULDN'T leave the Senshi at Trulpa's mercy. If the Senshi were defeated, Trulpa would gain that much more powerful. . . possibly even enough to destroy the Ronin Warriors, too. It was a hard sacrifice to make, but with the safety of the world at stake they had no choice in the matter.

None the less, that didn't make it any easier.

As the half-year mark drew closer, the boys found themselves getting more and more depressed. Sage's newly found optimism was replaced by sulking as every part of his being- even his hair and wings- seemed to be wilting like a dying flower. Kento was eating less- even going so far as to skip the occasional meal- and not talking nearly as much as he used to.

As for Cye. . .

For Sage and Kento, the answer was one thing and one thing only- at least when they went to see the Senshi, they'd have a second chance. They could start over. They had a chance to go to school and pursue careers. They'd probably become friends with the Senshi and get the chance to reunite with Anubis, and maybe even Ryo and the others someday. They knew that the chance of that was slim, but they had that chance, and it was all they had to cling to.

Cye didn't have that chance. No matter how far he ran, Trulpa could pull him back on a whim. He'd be trapped there forever, unless someone found out about it and was able to get it off of him. Somehow, he found that to be unlikely, and had basically given up on getting out. That gave him an unnatural optimism that he tried his hardest to use to at least keep the spirits of his two friends up. He didn't want his friends last memories of him to be upset and weak- let them remember him as being at the very least cheerful. After all. . . it would be similar to him DYING.

Or, possibly his actual death. . .

Dash, it seemed, was the only one who had any sort of idea what had happened to Cye. True he'd been a witness to the events, but Dash was still just a baby, really, and didn't understand the full extent of what was going on. However, the Gruff seemed to know enough to see that his master was upset and he should help him try and feel better. Cye was somewhat grateful for this, as Dash was the only one he could really talk to about it.

"What am I going to do, Dash?" he asked one night. He was certain Sage and Kento were asleep, and he was lying belly down on his bed, rubbing Dash behind his ears as the puppy snuggled close to his chest. "I feel like I'm going to cause more trouble over this than anything else I've ever done."

Dash whined and pushed his nose into Cye's cheek.

"I know, I know," he said. "You want me to be happy, but I'm really not. I don't think I have been for a very long time. Oh sure I rescued you, and Sage and Kento have been here for me this whole time. . . but even though nothing has happened yet, I still feel like they're already gone and I'm totally alone." He gently began to scratch the side of the dog's face, sighing to himself. "I don't even think I'll want you to stay with me, boy. I want you to escape with them. Sage and Kento will take care of you- I'm sure of it. And I'm sure if you met the Senshi they'll like you, too- I mean, they're girls and girls like animals, right? Especially a baby like you who's obviously been injured pretty badly." He laughed. "Lucky bastard- you're going to be living the high life, aren't you?"
Dash didn't hear any of this- he was fast asleep.

"I suppose that's just as well," Cye said, closing his eyes to try and sleep.

~

"CYE!!! SAGE!!!"

Sage jumped a good foot or so out of his chair at the sudden outburst from Kento, while Cye nearly dropped a tray of food. Kento had wide, frightened eyes and seemed to be in a great deal of distressed. Sage and Cye went to their friend's aide (though Torrent made sure he put the food down on a nearby table to avoid a mess- no sense in adding to the trouble, after all).

"Troops!" he said. "Tons of them!"

"Troops?" Sage asked.

"Trulpa's?" Cye asked. "Something about her Tin Heads?"

Kento nodded. "They're organizing," he said. "I was in one of the libraries looking up more information on my abilities and I saw them outside the window." He gulped. "The Warladies were with them and were trying to get them lined up and in some sort of marching positions."

Cye's eyes widened. "They're preparing for the battle," he said.

"It's a matter of days now, isn't it?" said Sage. He lowered his eyes. "Trulpa hasn't paid much attention to us late, and I've noticed a severe drop in punishments. Quite frankly we're just an inconvenience if she's going to laugh an attack. Since Trulpa's preparing to mobilize, then I REALLY hope Anubis is preparing the Senshi to mobilize as well."

"What can we do!?" Kento asked.

"Nothing," said Cye. "Our hands are tied, remember? All we can do is sit and watch."

Kento punched his open palm. "I can't do that! How can we just sit around twiddling our thumbs while the Senshi are out there fighting? What if it gets so bad out there that one of them runs the risk of getting killed?! I can't sit back and watch that happen!"

"One, even if a situation like that arose, how would you help them from here?" said Sage. "SHE has our armor orbes and I doubt we'll be allowed to roam the grounds during this battle- she's probably going to lock us in here somehow. If not, we're going to be severely restricted. However, we should try to dissect the Law of Dependency."

"What good is that gonna do us?" Kento whined.

Cye smirked, getting at what Sage had been hinting at. "Undoubtedly, we cannot battle with the Senshi at this time. Sage is saying their might be a loop-hole that allows us to possibly sabotage Trulpa from the inside. After all, Anubis is helping the Senshi to some extent. If he can do that, there must be some sort of loophole, and there could be others. If it says 'battle' specifically, then we can do whatever we want from the inside."

"AND we should be working on an escape plan, too," said Kento. "My bet is that things are gonna be tight around here for a while, but once the Ronin Senshi beat Trulpa, this place is gonna fall apart like a house of cards in an earthquake. If the security is down, we can find our armor orbes and get the hell out of here, find the Senshi, and tell them what's been going on. Sure they might think we're crazy, but I bet Anubis will confirm we're good guys."

You two escape. . . but bring my armor orbe with you, Cye thought.

"Right," said Sage. "But even in that chaos, Trulpa knows that'll be the first place we go. She might have some sort of back-up security guards or something in the event we try that stunt. Trulpa's not going to let us go easily. We should lay low for a while, then have our tell-all with Anubis and the Senshi. Even if we're just loitering around homeless shelters for a month that'll be better than nothing."

"Homeless shelters!?" said Kento.

"The Ronin Senshi live in Boston, Massachusetts. It's no New York or Los Angeles, but it's a pretty big city none the less," said Sage. He frowned. "A lot of major cities have large homeless populations in the United States, but because of that there's a ton of shelters. As long as the three of us stick together we'll be fine, but it's something we'll have to live with for a while." He looked around. "It'll sure take some adjusting."

"How so?" asked Cye. "I've love to get the hell out of here."

"We might be prisoners here, but take a look around you," said Sage, gesturing to the room they sat in. "This apartment and our old rooms. . . they're absolutely beautiful! All of the wood is finely carved, we eat with what appears to be real silver, and admit it- the beds are warm, comfy, and soft. We probably have better amenities than some of the richest people in the world!"

"Do you think she's trying to spoil us?" asked Cye.

"More like bribing, really," said Sage. "She probably figures that if and when we escape, we'll miss the high life and come back on our own." The bearer of Halo laughed. "The Nether Realm may be my place of birth, but it's not my home. I could care less about all this. I'd much rather sleep on a cot in a crowded room with drug addicts, runaway prostitutes, and bums than here."

"Sounds like one hell of a party," Kento joked under his breath.

Sage either ignored him or didn't hear him. "Here, I'm still a caged bird," he said. "All my life I've felt like I've been trapped in a cage. It's always a very pretty cage, but the outside is always better. In the cage I'm confined and held down. When I was a kid it was my family constantly making me practice and learn to be the heir to a clan I'm not even a part of. Sometimes I was set free whenever Rowen came to visit, but once he was gone I was shoved back in." He looked down into his lap. "Mia's mansion for me was like paradise- I was FREE. I didn't have to be put in a cage anymore. Here, I've just been placed in a prettier, smaller cage." He closed his eyes. "I don't want to be a caged bird anymore."

"Be patient, Sage," said Cye. "Your time will come. You'll get out of here."

"We ALL will," Kento joined in, moving behind Cye. Cye blushed sheepishly, unable to tell his friends the truth. Sage's words held quite a bit of truth- they were all caged birds waiting for the door to be opened. But unlike Halo and Hardrock, Torrent feared he would never fly again.

"Now what we need is a plan," said Sage.

Kento laughed lightly. "You remember how many times I got mad at you when you said that during the fight with Talpa?" he joked. Sage gave him a light elbow before getting up to go to his bedroom. The other two Ronins decided to follow to see what he was up to. Dash, who'd been sleeping in a corner, woke up and followed the other two for the sake of following them.

Now that all three (four if you count Dash) were in Sage's room, they saw he was sitting down at his desk, a writing implement in hand. He was staring at the paper in disgust, tapping the instrument in his hand. "Okay, Sage, now that Kento's agreed to a plan, it doesn't look like you even have one," Cye commented.

"Er. . . well, I'm not sure how we're going to go about this," said Sage. "Trulpa can restrict out teleportation to a limited area." Kento and Cye nodded in agreement. "We can call that Plan A, since we think it's possible everything will go to pieces during a battle. Now we need a Plan B."

"Dash is supposed to be able to breathe fire, right?" said Kento. "Could he-?"

"I don't think he'd old enough for that yet," said Cye.

"Scratch that," said Kento. "All right, what about somehow finding a way to contact Anubis during the battle? He probably won't be involved- I don't know how he's gotten around the Law of Dependency considering he's. . . HEY! Does that mean anything to either of you?"

". . . no," said Cye. "Recall that Osiris has his armor. Maybe being an-"

"Actually he has only LIMITED power to help them- as it stands he's mostly a coach right now," said Sage. "He can step in once in a while, but his association with his armor is too strong." Kento and Cye looked at him in curiosity. "'found another book on the Law of Dependency crap." He pointed to a green volume on his desk. "Read it if you want, but it has a chapter on how it works for former armor bearers. Either way, he probably won't be involved in the final battle."

"Then maybe he can help us then," said Kento. "We contact him, he bails us out, and we do the whole 'laying low' thing for a while. We could periodically feed him information or something for him and the Senshi as 'payment'. I mean, think about it. He was friends with Ryo and Rowen, Yuli worshipped him like he did us, and I STILL think he and Mia did THE DEED. If anything, we're his least favorites. Heck Sage, you pissed him off a few times AFTER he was a good guy."

"The whole killing Kayura thing? He knows she was trying to kill us first!"

"That isn't the point! What I'm saying is-"

"But we're still on his side," said Cye, interrupting. "And the night we were rescued he and I did have a long conversation. He seemed generally concerned about our welfare. I told him I was surprised at that considering he didn't know us very well, but he said that sometimes he has these very strong paternal instincts."

"Paternal?" Sage asked.

"Like parents?" asked Kento. "Why?"

"He wants to be a father, but he's afraid to be one," said Cye. He sighed heavily, looking down at Dash. "He wouldn't tell me why, but highly suggested that none of us have children either. None the less, it sounds like he's afraid something God-awful would happen if he became a father."

Sage shrugged. "He's probably afraid that a child would be used against him- you know, for ransom or something. I don't think the Ancient would do that. . . but now that he's a good guy, well, Talpa would've done it and Trulpa. . . that or kill the kid. I don't blame him for hesitating on fatherhood."

"What does that mean for us?" asked Kento. "Even after all this crap happened, well, I still want to get married and have kids someday. I never thought about the Dynasty going after them like that. Hell, if I ever got married my wife would probably kill me for that one."

"No," said Cye. "It seemed like it was more than that." He glanced down at Dash, and rubbed the Gruff behind the ears. "Something much worse than that. Anubis sounded generally. . . afraid, but it was almost like he was afraid for the entire world. Not just the child."

The three friends exchanged a worried glance.

"Something doesn't seem quite right here," said Kento. "I'd bet my left arm that at least TWO of the Warlords have had sex in their centuries alive- be it hookers, one-night stands, or maybe even lovers they had before they got their armors. And birth control hasn't been around quite that long. Isn't it possible that one of them has a child they don't know about running around? Or if it was a while ago, one that ran around?"

"It's possible, I guess," said Cye. "But-"

"I highly, highly, highly doubt it," Sage said. While Kento and Cye had been talking, Sage had opened another book. "I thought I saw something about children in this book, and here it is." He pointed at a paragraph. "No armor bearer, as of this writing, has ever fathered or given birth to a child. The child would be known as the Child of Destiny. This child would bring forth a prophecy known as the Age of Legends."

"What the hell is the Age of Legends?" Kento asked,

"I dunno, that's what the book says," said Sage. He sighed. "I haven't ever seen anything else on it, and I've gone through these books plenty of times. Sounds to me like that might've been what was worrying Anubis." He frowned. "When we get back home we should ask Anubis about this more in-depth."

"Right," said Cye. "I wonder what the Child of Destiny is?"

"Who knows? That's why we're going to ask him about it," said Kento. He yawned, shaking his head. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to bed. All this weird thinking and stuff is giving me a headache and I'm gonna go lie down. If you need me, be weary of anything I might throw and then come in."

"We'll be careful," said Sage, standing up. "I'm gonna go take a bath."

"I guess I'll be in my room," said Cye, shrugging. He left Sage's room, his mind still buzzing about the concept of the Child of Destiny. To think that such a person had never existed before. Had none of the armor bearers ever had any children? Was he doomed to never have any himself?

"Isn't it possible that one of them has a child they don't know about running around?"

Cye stopped.

"But. . . I'm. . . illegitimate. . . nah!"

~

Irony, irony, oh how I love thou, irony!

Dark Knight Gafgar: No comment.

Harry: Yup. Well, I'm still working out the bugs with Dash. I ultimately know where he ends up- it's just a matter of figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B. Hey, I have a life, you know! I got lots of stuff I gotta do.

Crystal Cat-chan: Yes, Sage's situation is pretty peculiar. He has a big burden to bear for the rest of his life unless he finds a pocket or refugee Flitteree somewhere (don't count on that, though). He has to deal with the fact that he could very well be the last of his species, and the continuation of said species depends entirely on whether or not he has children. It seems like the easier answer is to have Sage have children, but it isn't quite that easy- does he really want his children to deal with the same burden? And unless you have icky incest going on, the Flitteree DNA will eventually be so far back in the gene pool that they're literally fade out of existence. There's more I could go into but I won't for now. I love Cye torture as long as it isn't excessive. For example, I'm not a big fan of the fifth Harry Potter book. Now I don't wanna see wizard boy on easy street, but I just think it's a bit much. Yup, they're green and yellow. I have some drawings of them- I MIGHT have one on my website but I'm not sure. Cye is Cye? That cracks me up! ^.~ Ryo's power is forthcoming. Initially I was gonna do something completely different, but I came up with a much better idea.

Sakura123: You wanna mortgage your house on that? Yes, this is a very "eep" story and will probably be the closest I write to a full-out horror fanfic. I'm not saying this is horror, but it's certainly got some creepy stuff in it. I'm not a horror movie fan. I could barely handle The Mummy (the newer one from a few years ago)- I was hiding under my jacket on at least one occasion.

Bunch-o-Nuts: Readers who've been with me for a while already knew that one- this is a re-write, but Sage found out what he was MUCH later in the original version. Dash and Sage might get a little closer now that Sage knows he's from the same place Dash is from. They are the only two good characters (as of yet) who were born in the Nether Realm. Most of the key characters were born in the Mortal Realm- including nine of the ten Ronins. The nine Ronins born in the Mortal Realm are going to stay born in the Mortal Realm, but friends and family are subject to change at my whim. I like writing character analysis type things, so I'm working on a big-ass character guide for fun. Won't be released for a while as it will contain spoilers for things that haven't happened yet that will severely affect the way some characters act. I have some SERIOUS plans for screwing with the heads of several characters- remember Dark Chocolate, White Diamonds and how many spoilers and bombs I had go off in that? That was only the beginning. I have just begun to write!

Rogue Ronin: That's okay. And thank you.

Kar-chan: Life happens- do not sweat it. Yes, Cye really loves Dash- and we all know I love screwing Cye over, don't I? That was Dash's original name! The Butt Monster! I swear, out of everything in this entire series Dash is the most random creature I've created. I don't know. . . the fact Sage knows doesn't change the Amazons story in that sense. All of the stories will be different and broken up to some degree and major changes will be made. I love drunk Rowen.

Narijima: Thanks! I'm happy you're enjoying the story! Well, here's the next chapter!

Lady Wildfire: It happens to me, too. Sometimes I look at a story and go "wow, I left such an awesome review for them", then realize I didn't. Oh well. Glad you're enjoying the story.

Ileana Dubaer: There was no way in hell I was gonna spell that name without copy and paste. Wow, am I really that exciting? Dashy? That. . . is. . . AWESOME. The Senshi are involved in another story entitled "Ronin Senshi Routes v2", which can be found on my account. So far all I have is a five-part prologue that talks about the Senshi's pasts, but I do have a few chapters off-line that I'm not 100% sure I'm happy with but are definitely forth-coming. That story will probably be a few chapters longer than this one, but both stories end at the beginning of the Senshi's first war with Trulpa- that will begin a new story that views the war from all standpoints. I'm doing that because the first time I wrote this series I wrote and basically completed Consequences before I began Legends- this was a bad idea, because I realized not all the events matched up. This gives me more freedom, to really flesh out the battle rather than try to get it to match up to events from another story. THAT can be a real pain! I'm still playing around with ideas pertaining to the bracelet, but we'll see what happens.

Shadowcat: Thanks! I will!

~Dixxy