Sanada…

Rekka…

Jin…

Ryo…

Ryo… I know that you can hear me… this will sting a bit, but if I don't, you'll die and I think that would make Dakota cry… he seems to have taken a liking to you, fire-boy. Ryo's consciousness was floating all of it's own accord. It and of itself distinctly remembered dying… or at least, it thought it had died. It was connected to nothing and the words that encircled it had very little effect on it. The names that were mixed in with the jumble sparked some recognition, but not enough for it to chase them. It liked the quiet, the unending quiet, marred only by distant calls from the its past.

Then, it felt something new, a slight twinge at the edge of a place it had decided to forget about. What was that place… oh, yes, its body. The one that had been ravaged by the poison that had caused it to die. But… if it was dead, why was it beginning to burn? Like the flame of a candle, the feeling started small and, without any warning that it could remember, the flame exploded, ripping into that long forgotten body and racing through it, pouring like liquid metal into every crevice it could find. The numbness that had killed the body was reduced to nothing but the ashes of memory and, with a gasp, the consciousness once again became Ryo and Ryo once again became to breath of his own accord. A pressure he had been unaware of was lifted from his chest and warm wind curled across his skin, teasing his hair. He was aware of these sensations and so many more, as well as a presence that had never been there before, hiding in the back corner of his mind like a secret. As his mind settled into its proper position and began to sort what it missed, he opened his eyes and bombarded it with a load of new information - endless blue above, tinged with a shimmer of red orange, and, when he turned his head, someone altogether as new as the place.

She knelt near him, dressed in black pants and a fern-green tank top. Her brown hair was streaked with mottled blond and fell to pool on the ground around her. She was lean, and fit, and held a worried look that tarnished the brilliant blue of her eyes as she leaned over him.

"Sanada Ryo?" she inquired. The proper Japanese use of his name set off something in his head and before he could stop himself, he started babbling in Japanese, stringing together words and syllables that had no meaning in any translation. The girl's eyes went wide and her lips twitched, but she laid a gentle hand over his mouth and didn't laugh.

"English, please," she said quietly. "My Japanese isn't as up to par as it should be." Ryo blinked up at her as she removed her hand and took in a shaky breath. She was ethereal, this girl, and nothing like what he had imagined she would be.

"I thought you said you were studying Japanese up here," interjected a voice nearby.

"I was," argued the girl, lifting her head. "Until I realized that I couldn't manifest a decent text book, or a decent Internet connection. I gave up." There was a snort.

"I'm not surprised," said the voice again, a familiar voice that seemed… different. "Hey, Sanada, are you coherent? We need to talk." Ryo wanted to turn his head, but she looked down at him again and he was suddenly trapped in her gaze, which was cool and calming to his poor, very confused state of consciousness.

"Well?" she asked. "Are you?" Ryo's mind gave him something witty to reply, something about his general well being compared to that of the snake people, but somewhere along the lines, it got befuddled and what came out was nowhere near the original.

"You have really long hair," he said weakly. Her eyes widened and the twitching of her lips was uncontrollable now. It dawned on Ryo the words that had fallen from his lips and he scowled. "I mean… what the hell is going on here? Where are we?" She did laugh now, a bright cheerful sound that resonated around them.

"Look down, Sanada," Dakota encouraged, chuckling. "You'll figure it out, hopefully." Ryo narrowed his eyes at the boy, then rolled over onto his front and looked down. Far below, people the size of small dolls milled around on an observation deck, colors dots of hair mottled with the occasional glint of bald skin. Ryo gaped and jerked up so fast that his bruised head spun. Strong hands caught his shoulders and held him upright while he regained his balance.

"And with that much said, gentlemen, I think it's time we moved on," said Belisma. "Mom will be worried, especially since the door, hm, melted shut and she can't get into the room."

"Only you would melt the door shut," said Dakota, rolling his eyes. "Mom's gonna have a fit. I'm surprised the cops aren't down there already."

"Cops, the FBI, Interpol," listed Belisma, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, we had better get home, before she causes an international freak out." She stood, gathering her hair and sweeping it over her shoulder so that it fell in front of her, stopping just short of her waist. "I'll be glad to get my hands on a pair of scissors, so I can cut this mane and be done with it. Here, Sanada, let me help you up." She offered her hand and he took it, pulling himself up using her as leverage. When he stood, he came to directly her height, her eyes level with his. She smiled warmly. "Let's go, shall we?"

"Go where?" asked Ryo, looking around them. "There's no where to go from here, except down." Her smiled softened slightly and she winked at him.

"That's what you think. Up here, this place is mine. I can manifest anything I need to remain comfortable, even ways out. Don't look at me like that, Sanada. I haven't had real reason to leave this place completely behind." Her voice dropped and she narrowed her eyes. "Until those snakes showed up. There's something very wrong going on down there, Sanada Ryo and I'll not sit up here and do nothing while it takes apart the planet I was sacrificed to save." Her eyes hardened to vibrant crystals and her hair seemed to shimmer in the red light of the shell around them. Something inside of Ryo flickered to life, then faded.

"The time has come," announced Belisma, in a strong, clear voice that seemed to resonate out from the edges of her cage. "We who were called duty will now answer that call!" She spread her arms wide and was instantly engulfed in the light that had grown ever stronger with every word she had spoken. The light formed, twisted and condensed into a globe of power that hovered level with the middle of her chest. It pulsed in a strong, even rhythm that seemed to Ryo like the beating of a heart. Then it stopped, froze in the air, and released a thin ring of red tinged white light. The ring passed through both Dakota and Ryo, directly through their chests and out the other side, as if they were of no consequence to it. That which had flickered to life only moments earlier, was awoken again and it forced itself into the same rhythm as the light that he had just witnessed - in time with its heart, it spread itself into his blood stream and settled into every muscle fiber, every bone and every blood cell it could find. His vision burned and became focused on the only thing it could see now - the light engulfed Belisma, standing tall and proud. She looked the part of the goddess that so many had named her on the earth below, her hair fanning out from the force of the power she controlled, her eyes brilliant in the reflected light of the fire orb. His breath came in shorter and shorter gasps, until he found it would not come at all. The heat, the pulse, flowed through him and would not stop, not even to the confused begging of his inner self.

"This is my gift to you, Rekka no Ryo," came Belisma's voice from somewhere beyond the edges of it all. "Use it wisely, for there may be a time when I will reclaim it."

"Hey! Sanada!" The pulse snapped, stopped, and vanished somewhere inside of him. He sucked in a deep, relieving breath, then coughed most of it back out as his lungs protested the intrusion. A few hearty thwacks on the back later and he was breathing relatively normally again. Dakota grinned up at him. "Welcome back, Ryo. You missed the trip."

"I did?" asked Ryo uncertainly. He looked around him and felt the joints of his jaw come unhinged. From up in the sky above hot sands, to down to the ground under a canopy of thick green branches, he now stood on soft black dirt that was littered with pine needles. The air was heavy, not dry like the air of the desert, and clung to him with icy fingers against the skin bared by his tank top. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered.

"Where in the world are we?" he asked, looking around. Belisma grinned broadly, and spread her hands out in front of her, palms up.

"Home," she answered simply. "Home, where we belong."