Disclaimer: I do not own anything that has anything even remotely to do
with the Ronin Warriors, although I wish I did. Anything that is original,
like the girls, are mine. Blah.
Note: -* words* - means shared thoughts between the girls.
Chapter 7 By: Soulful Gray
When Katrin woke up the next morning, she'd never thought Lin would have pulled another prank so closely behind her first one.
Of course, the screams down the hall led her to believe otherwise and she fell out of the bed.
"What the crap!" Robyn cried out when Katrin landed on top the unfortunate blonde. Lin snapped awake and looked around sleepily.
"What the-" Lin stopped what she began saying when the screams started up again and she smirked victoriously.
"Score!" She yelled out and Katrin turned wide eyes on her.
"What did you do!" she squeaked, wondering what her older sister could have done that caused such disturbing sounds down the hall. She figured it was Sage; Lin had said he woke up really, really early.
She heard footsteps pounding down the hall, and as one the three girls jumped up and grabbed their robes, their muscles and joints protesting loudly as they moved quicker than they should have.
They tumbled through the door and stared at Sage, who was in the hall surrounded by the other rooms' occupants. They were patting him on the back- his screams had stopped- and he was sucking air as though to cool off his mouth.
Eyes wide, Katrin looked up at Lin, who was hiding the devious evidence of her prank with a cold mask. She knew Lin had messed with Sage's hair gel, but she didn't know she'd do something like this. When she said "something spicy," Katrin hadn't realized it would be something sooooo spicy, from the signs Sage was giving off.
Mia ran downstairs for a moment and then came rushing back up with a glass of milk and shoved it in Sage's hand. He gulped it down at the speed of light and nearly choked in the process, but it seemed to have cooled the temperature of his mouth because he stopped breathing so hard.
"What happened!" Ryo asked in concern as he patted his friend on the back.
"Floss," the blond muttered in a cracked voice. "Burn."
"That's weird," Sekhmet said. "I borrowed it last night and it seemed fine to me." Sage turned a suspicious look on the reptilian Warlord, who threw up his hands in defense. "I didn't do it. Don't look at me like it was my fault."
"I used it last night, too," Sage growled. "It didn't burn my gums to a crisp last night, though." He was obviously pissed. Who wouldn't be, after having two, count'em TWO pranks pulled on him in a row!
Katrin felt sorry for the blonde; he seemed to have really pushed the wrong buttons with Lin, and he was bearing the whole of her schemes. She figured Lin had labeled him as the worst of them all and decided he would be her unfortunate victim forever.
"What time is it?" Robyn asked, yawning.
"About five-thirty," Mia answered.
"Five-freakin'-bloody-thirty..." the blonde muttered as she ambled back to the bedroom to her pallet on the floor. "Too early." They watched her sleepy, muttering form disappear in the door and heard the thunk of her landing on the floor.
"Sage, you gonna be okay, buddy?" Kentoe asked. The blonde Ronin looked okay, but nobody could be for certain with him.
"I'm perfectly fine," he answered crossly. Without another word, he marched into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.
"Well, that was interesting way to start the morning," Cye piped up in his adorable British accent.
While everyone scuttled back to their rooms, Katrin found her thoughts running from Lin's little pranks to her time in the Ronin world. The past few days had been trying for Katrin, but she found that she was adjusting well enough. She actually kind of liked it in the Ronin world.
It made it easier that Mia and Kayura were there, since she didn't think she could stand to live around just men. But the Ronins and Warlords were pretty nice, so she supposed she was comfortable enough around them. One of the only ones she had a problem with was Sekhmet, mostly because he liked snakes and she was terrified of them. She'd glimpsed into his room one time and seen an aquarium, and that was all it took before she'd gotten the heebie-jeebies and had to get out of there. Of course, she didn't really know if he had a bad personality or anything; she was just scared of him.
She had a few problems with Rowen; he wouldn't stop calling her a "chick" and it bugged the hell out of her. She wasn't sexist- she used the word sometimes herself- but with his accent, it was a deadly combination for annoyance. And his accent also reminded her of Joey Wheeler from Yu-Gi-Oh, so that was another strike against him.
Katrin was pretty comfortable around the rest of them, especially Kentoe and Cye. Kentoe struck her as the big-brother type; he was always watching out for her, and she disliked it when he would fill up her plate with more food than she could eat, she liked the thought of having someone watching out for her. Needless to say, she had tons of someones looking out for her, but she didn't mind one of them being a guy for once. He was a sweetheart, really. And then there was Cye. Cye was really nice to her; he wasn't pushy like Kentoe, but he had been helping her out a lot the day before, when they had shown the girls some regular warm-ups to do. And he was cute.
Blushing at the direction that particular thought had taken, she crept into the room she shared with her sisters and spotted Lin grabbing her stuff to get ready for the day. She wasn't surprised anymore. She'd gotten used to Lin waking up really early the last few days.
"So do you think we'll finally get the other rooms done today?" Lin asked as Katrin sat down on the bed.
"I hope so." After warm-ups the day before, Lin, Katrin, and Robyn had followed Mia and Kayura back up to the third floor where they were clearing out the two rooms. They'd started on the second junk-laden room and now both lay empty and clean. A trip to the attic had produced one twin bed- frame and two dressers, so Mia had called in an order for another bed-frame and some mattress sets, which would hopefully be there in the next couple of days. So, without anything to put in the rooms yet, they'd made a trip to a paint store and grabbed some cans of light blue and yellow, enough to give each room two coats each.
"I feel kind of bad," Robyn said from the floor, and Katrin jumped. She'd thought Robyn was asleep. "You know, we're basically living here for free and we've done nothing in return." She rose to a sitting position. "It makes me feel like a mooch."
"I'll admit that," Lin said and leaned against the dresser. "I don't like the guys, but Mia is being really great by letting us stay here."
"Yeah," Katrin conceded and pulled her legs under her. "I don't know what we could do though. It's not like we can pay her rent; we don't have jobs here, nor do we have ways of getting jobs."
"We'll figure something out," Lin said.
"Maybe we could assume daily chores for a while. Let them take a load off." Robyn jumped up. "We could commandeer the kitchen and be docile little women!" she said suddenly in an excited voice.
As one, Katrin and Lin smacked their heads.
"Okay then. Guess that's a no."
"Yeah, that's a no," Katrin confirmed in an exasperated tone.
"You two are just no fun." Robyn shot to her feet and flew out of the room. "I smell coffee!!" she cried as she sailed- more like fell- down the stairs.
"She's a psycho," Katrin said she watched her sister leave the room.
"Did you just now figure that out?" Lin mumbled dryly.
"No. But I felt like saying that just in case you didn't know yet."
"Oh I knew. Believe me, I knew." Lin chose that moment to escape to the bathroom, long since vacated by Sage.
"Buffy needs to watch his back," Katrin said, grinning, as she dug into her suitcase.
Pulling out some clothes, she continued with her thoughts.
She wondered if she couldn't just conjure some official documents or some crap that would state them as legal citizens, but no; that would be too risky to do in front of the Ronins until they found out about their powers. Then she wondered about some sort of appreciation gift for Mia. It was her house and her money that was going into their welfare. Besides helping out with chores, she supposed a gift would be nice for the slightly older woman.
She decided she would run it by Robyn later and waited for Lin to get out of the bathroom.
Later, at breakfast, she was seated between Cye and Kentoe. Under normal circumstances, being stuck between two guys would have unnerved her, and she would have stuck close to Lin and Robyn, but she was feeling more and more comfortable with the Ronins every moment that went by.
"So are any of you guys going to help us paint those rooms today?" Mia asked from her place next to Ryo.
"I'll help," the Wildfire Ronin immediately volunteered, and Katrin stifled a giggle at the sappy look on his face.
"I can," Cye said as he rose to take his plate to the sink. "Besides training, none of us really have anything to do."
While they discussed this, Katrin looked down as White Blaze popped up next to her chair. With a love-struck look on her face, she reached down and began scratching the beast behind the ears.
A few moments of this, and White Blaze nudged his head against her hand and looked up at her, his beautiful crystalline eyes meeting her own, and Katrin was once-again struck with the intelligence that radiated in those orbs. It was as if he knew things about her even she didn't know. She scraped her fingers through the silky fur on his forehead.
"Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty." It took her a while to realize that Robyn was repeating her bothersome little nickname over and over again. Snapping out of her reverie, Katrin looked up in time to have something bounce off her nose.
She pursed her lips and glared at the older girl, who was grinning as if she had scored the winning touch down at the Super Bowl.
"Grrr," she muttered without thinking.
"GRUMPH!" the blonde yelled in response.
"Oh, shut up Birdie!" She picked up the thing- a piece of paper- that had bounced off her nose and threw it back at Robyn, smacking her between the eyes. Comically, the girl crossed her eyes.
"Oooh! I think it left a bruise!"
Glaring at her, Katrin crossed her arms over her chest and kicked the girl under the table.
"Holy spud-stuffins! Kitty's getting violent!"
The rest of the table, by now used to this, could only chuckle and try to ignore it.
When they were finally done with their spat, Katrin looked kitty-corner from her, where Buffy was seated, silently sipping his coffee and reading the news paper. He didn't seem any different than normal, his usual silent self, and Lin was across from him, doubtless thinking up new tricks to pull on the poor guy.
Katrin peeked all around the table a bit before something caught her eye, on the floor, at her feet.
"SHIT!" she screamed as the harmless little green snake slithered near her foot. "Get it away!!" she shrieked as she jumped into the nearest lap which happened to be Cye's.
The entire group had started at her exclamation, but she didn't bother to gauge their expressions. She just had to get away from the snake! Visions of thousands of the vicious little creepy-crawlies slithering over her flashed in her mind's eye, and she clung to Cye, terrified.
"Katrin!" Robyn, the ever-watchful sister, leapt down under the table and quickly got the snake into her hands, not worrying about what kind it was or whether it would bite her; all that mattered was getting her little sister's biggest fear out of plain sight.
Lin, not too thrilled about having a snake under foot, had shot from her chair and was standing behind Cye's chair, not really scared but not very happy to see such a reptile in her presence. Cye for the most part, seemed to know just what to do as he whispered softly consoling words to the girl in his lap.
Robyn crawled from under the table, talking quietly to the tiny snake before she looked at Sekhmet.
"I'm guessing she's yours?" she said softly.
"Yes." Sheepishly, Sekhmet reached down and took the snake from her hands. "She must have slipped out of her cage." Without another word, he left the room to return his errant pet to her cage.
Robyn walked around the table and crouched down so she was looking up at her little sister.
"You okay, Katrin?" she asked. When she didn't get an answer, she reached up and tucked a strand of Katrin's dark hair behind her ear. "Hey, it's okay sis. It's not there anymore. Besides, you know I wouldn't let any snake get you."
Katrin was hardly listening. Size, shape, color, type, venomous, non- venomous- it didn't matter to her. A snake was a snake. And she had just had a snake crawling dangerously close to her foot, something she didn't want to happen ever again till the day she died.
She wondered what they thought of her; probably snickering over what a baby she was, screaming when she saw the tiniest snake in the whole world. But she couldn't help it. The fear of the scaly creatures was innate, something she'd always had and could never get rid of. They had to think she was a whuss.
She wished she were back home right then, closed up in her huge room in her huge mansion, on her huge bed. It was a place that no snake would even think of going; she had the best resources available to make sure no snake would ever set scale on her property, let alone crawl at her feet. She wanted to be home so much right then, despite a few certain details, it hurt to think about it. All because of one tiny snake.
The Ronins didn't seem to know what to think as they stared at the petite girl sitting in Cye's lap and holding on for dear life. Her fear of snakes was more than obvious, but they had never seen somebody react so badly to one of the creatures; Katrin was literally petrified, not moving a muscle and she clung to Cye's shirt front. As they watched, Lin seemed to be trying not to let the snake get to her, and Robyn had just downright not minded its presence at all, aside from it scaring her friend.
It was a few minutes before Katrin was willing to open her eyes and remove herself from Cye's lap, and then without a word to anyone, she fled the room, her cheeks bright red with embarrassment, and locked herself in the three girls' room.
"Is she going to be okay?" Cye asked after she fled her spot on his lap. He was worried about the girl, and his heart ached to see such fear coming from her.
"Just let her sit for a while," Robyn said softly. "She just needs some breathing space."
And thus concluded their morning.
A few hours later, Lin had removed herself to the bathroom to scrub the paint off her hands and from under her finger nails. They'd been painting for about two hours, since Katrin had crept out of the bedroom to rejoin the living. No one said anything, just let her take up a brush and start on a wall.
They were done with the painting for now. They had opened the windows to get the smell of paint fumes out, and after an incident involving White Blaze, Yulie, a can of sky blue paint, and the grass outside, they'd called it quits.
Lin chuckled as she scrubbed at her hands. Yulie, deciding to be a little boy like he was, had wanted to balance a can of paint- which hadn't been tightly closed- on his head while he was sitting on White Blaze. He would have done well had White Blaze not decided it was time to jump out the window, and since he was a HUGE tiger, he could easily accomplish the feat with the boy on his back. However, as he made the leap, the can tipped over, cracked the tiger on the head and burst open. With streaks of blue paint running all over his face and fur- and Yulie's shorts- his land had been more than a little ungraceful, and he'd clumsily slammed into the lovely freshly mowed grass that hadn't yet been bagged. At least no one was hurt.
They'd also found a pair of fake angel wings, somewhat dusty, hidden up in the corner of the closet, previously unseen by the girls when they'd cleaned. When they found them, Lin and Katrin had attacked Robyn and shoved her into the harness that held the cute feathery wings to the body. She'd squawked in an amusing way, but hadn't been able to remove them, and nobody was about to part with humor to rid her of the burdensome wings.
She'd finally scrubbed her hands free of the paint when Robyn knocked on the door. It was cracked open a bit and Robyn poked her head in, a serious look in her darkening eyes. Instantly, Lin knew something was up.
"Hey, just want to you be on the look-out. I've got funny vibes," the blonde said softly.
"Funny as in 'bad' or funny as in 'not sure'?" she asked.
"I don't know yet. I'm leaning towards bad." She leaned against the doorframe- or tried to with the annoying pair of wings she couldn't get off- her voice low. "I don't know. It's sort of the same feeling I got with the vision the other day, but it doesn't hurt this time."
"Have you looked into the cards?" Lin asked, thought she already knew it had to be a definite no. Robyn almost never used the green card to see what was up.
"Nah. I think I'll just let it play out." A usual thing. "Just wanted to let you know."
"Thanks," Lin said softly. "Have you told Katrin yet?"
"Yes. I got it while we were in our room, and I told her first."
"Okay. We can talk about it in a bit. Just let me put on some lotion."
"No problem." Robyn skipped out of the bathroom and back to the room.
Lin reached into her bag, not bothering to close the door this time, and dug around for her bottle of lotion. Her hands felt dry after the beating they'd taken with the paint and she wanted to give them some relief.
However, what she encountered with her hand, was not a bottle of lotion, nor a glob of it, but rather a pile of something cold, wet, and very sticky.
Jerking her hand of her bag with the open bottle, she exclaimed, a little too loudly, "Shit!" The gel was already beginning to dry and she shoved it under the tap to wash it off. The gel, though, had other ideas, and she accidentally clenched her hand into a fist under the water. She realized her mistake when she couldn't open her fist.
"Problems?" came a voice from the doorway and she whipped around to see Sage standing there with a cold look on his face. He looked pointedly at her hand and raised an eyebrow. "I probably should have guessed it was you. What were you doing? Planning to put Vaseline in my gel bottle again and something went wrong?" He smirked. "Looks like the joke's on you."
"Piss off," she snapped as she continued trying to scrub the gel off her fingers.
She heard him do something behind her and before she could react he had reached around and pulled her hand from under the water. She stiffened and would have thrown back her foot to kick him where it counts, but he had predicted the action and locked her legs in place with one of his own.
"The water makes it worse," he said softly in her ear. She glanced up in the mirror and met his eyes, her own were flashing with anger, and his were cool with amusement. "Just pour a little of this on it." He had a bottle of some sort of liquid in his hand and he poured a little of it over her hand and began scrubbing her fingers with his. It was only a few moments before the gel had been broken down and he dipped her hand under the flowing tap to wash it away.
"Thanks," she muttered stiffly and tried to scoot away from him, but he seemed to have other ideas as he twisted her around and pressed her up against the counter.
"Where do you think you're going?" he inquired softly, dangerously.
"To my room," she snapped.
"Not yet. Not until we've... discussed a few things." He kicked the door closed and locked it. He leaned forward until their noses were almost touching, but Lin refused to back down from him.
"You like pulling pranks on people, don't you Lin?" It was more of a statement than a question.
"So?" she said snidely.
"So, I'm just letting you know that I don't appreciate what you've done so far." He pressed his body close to hers, and had she been any other girl she would have cried sexual harassment, but she wouldn't be afraid. However, the fact that he was sexy as hell and knew what he was about when it came to girls, made it a little hard not to notice that it wasn't an unpleasant feeling, being so close to him.
"Really. I didn't get that vibe from you," she whispered silkily, mocking him.
He ran a finger down her cheek, and she was tempted to bite it. It tickled a little and the temptation to bit it slowly turned into the temptation to graze it with her lips.
"I'd be willing to forgive you, if you did something for me?" This time his voice was soft with request, and Lin could feel something inside her just wanting to melt, a brick in her wall.
"And what would that be?" she ground out through clenched teeth, reprimanding herself for the crazy feeling.
"Nothing much." He played with a tiny lock of her hair, and he was staring at her mouth intently. "Tell me a little about yourself." It was a simple request. "What are you hiding about yourself that makes you... unwilling to open up to any of us. What makes you pull your little stunts."
"I really don't think that's any of your business." Lin wanted to shake herself. Her voice had come out waaaaay too soft for her taste, as though she were almost... breathy.
"Okay then... I'll change my request." He smiled softly. "Go out with me tonight."
"I don't think so."
"My, you're just not a very agreeable female, are you?" He "tsked" once. "How can I get you to give me a chance?"
Lin wondered how this had shifted from his "forgiveness" to wheedling a date out of her. She suspected that had probably been his intent when he stepped into the bathroom. It was unnerving, also, that she was curious to see what a date with him would be like.
"Leave... me... alone," she said forcefully, trying to make herself see reason.
"Not until you say yes." As if to give force behind his ultimatum, he pressed closer, and Lin found she couldn't stand it anymore and boosted herself on to the counter to put some space between them.
"Say yes and I'll leave you alone until our date," he promised.
God, anything to get the hottie out of her sight so she could breathe and repair her mask of ice!
"Fine," she snapped. She turned her head away, and was appalled to feel her cheeks reddening.
Immediately he back away, smirking. "I found something that unnerves you, at least. Tonight at eight," he warned and then he left the bathroom.
After he closed the door, Lin numbly dumped everything from her bag into the sink and tossed the gel bottle into the trash can, careful not to get any of the cement-like stuff on her hands. Then, mechanically, she began washing off anything that had been touched by the offensive gel.
When she was through with her task, she finally put some lotion on her hands and escaped the bathroom.
"I've got a date with Sage," she snarled when she got into the bedroom where her sisters were already waiting.
"What!" Robyn gasped and stared at the redhead before her. If the wings, still stuck on her, had been real, she probably would have been flapping them in a combination of awe, excitement, amusement and other such states that Lin was definitely not feeling. "Are you feeling okay Lin? I could have sworn you hated him!"
"I do!" Lin snapped. "But he wouldn't leave me alone!" She left out the fact that he'd had her pinned against the bathroom sink, and she especially left out that she had begun thinking it wasn't such a bad thing. "And he found out that I pulled those pranks, so it was the only way he'd not harp on me about it! God the guy knows how to hold a grudge and make you pay!"
"My, my this is a turn of events," Robyn said, amazed. "Who'd have thought, Lin and Sage. Dating. Oiy! You work fast Lin! I didn't know you could be such a temptress!"
"Birdie... piss off..."
"Where and when?" she asked innocently and Lin wanted to slap her. "So when is the lucky night?"
"Tonight. Thank God. I don't want to ruin my days dreading the day I have to date that.. that... jerk!"
"You like him don't you?" Katrin asked and Lin whirled on her.
"Are you crazy?! How could I like such a pig-headed, cock-sure, egotistical prick!"
"Easy. He's hot," Katrin answered, grinning.
"Hotness has nothing to do with a personality, and regardless of every sexy bone in his de-bitched body, I do not like him!"
"Lin and Sage, sittin' in a tree!" Robyn started to sing but was slapped by a pillow, hastily grabbed and flung by the outraged redhead.
"Can we just discuss what we were here to bloody discuss?!"
"Did you say 'de-bitched'?" Katrin asked.
Lin closed her eyes and counted to ten.
Cye looked over as Sage stepped out onto the back porch with an extremely smug look on his face. The Ronin of Trust sat up a bit.
"What's that look about?" he asked.
"I've got a date with Lin," Sage said in a calm manner that belied the smugness that showed in his visible eye.
"But I thought she didn't like you?" Cye asked, confused.
"She does. She just doesn't want to admit it."
"Are you so sure? Sage, you might be in over your head."
"It'll be fine. I'll take her out for dinner, maybe some dancing." The Ronin of Wisdom sure as hell wasn't being wise at the moment, and Cye's brow drew down in concern.
"It wouldn't be very good if either of you got hurt. Just because you like her, Sage, doesn't mean she likes you, whether you want to admit it or not."
Sage nodded. "Good words, Cye. But I have a feeling where she's concerned."
"You always have a feeling where girls are concerned," the Brit muttered.
"Well, considering-"
Whatever he had been about to say was cut short as a loud explosion shook the earth.
Lin, Katrin and Robyn all jumped from their seats on the floor of the bedroom, where they'd all been trying to concentrate, when the explosion sounded.
"Robyn, sometimes I hate it when you're right," Katrin mumbled as they made a hurried exit and headed down stairs.
"So do I, Kitty."
Lin's breath hitched as they came to the door that led from the kitchen to the back porch, and her grip on her travel potions tightened. Outside, they could see the nine warriors and White Blaze, standing in a semi-circle and facing what looked like a hugely muscular man with dirty blond hair. Aside from his huge stature, he didn't seem like he'd be all that powerful.
"Kaiden," Robyn whispered beside her and Lin looked over. "That's got to be him. Look at that sword."
Lin looked over, but couldn't see anything.
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't you see it?" Robyn asked. "It's glowing..." Lin knew that Robyn was seeing the unseen with her special sight, what wasn't contained by her cards. "They can't take him. He's much too strong, even against all of them."
"Should we help them?" Katrin asked.
"I don't think we can," Robyn whispered. "We won't have to." She rubbed at her temples. "I hate this... Something... he's here for something..."
"Look at your cards..." Lin urged gently. Sometimes when Robyn got a vision, she didn't think to use her cards to lessen the pain.
She conjured the red card and peered into it. Her gray eyes widened and she almost dropped the card.
"He's here for me... but..."
And as if those words were the detonator for a bomb, the glass of the door was shattered as another explosion shook the earth. Screaming, Katrin and Lin both dove out of the way, but Robyn must have used her powers, because the glass swerved around her, missing her completely. She then flicked her wrist and the glass reformed and melted together in a long spear of sorts and she hurtled at Kaiden's form.
"Hey! Back off buddy!" Ryo yelled. "Your fight's with us!" His eyes widened as he watched the glass spear fly past him, aimed for Kaiden. Where the hell had that come from?!
"I am not here to fight with you. I'm here for the Angel." Kaiden's voice was monotone, as if he didn't really have much of anything for a personality, or emotions for that matter.
"Heh." Kentoe smirked. "You've got the wrong address, bud. This ain't exactly heaven!"
"The location is correct." Kaiden let loose another of his little explosions, enough to throw the Ronins off their feet.
"That's it!" Ryo yelled. "Flare-"
Kaiden leapt forward with a speed that belied his bulk, and what looked like blackish tentacles shot out of an area in his back, and the long lengths sped ahead of him, aiming straight for Robyn. Sage, no-datchi handy, leapt as well and brought the blade down on a number of the writhing masses, but the moment his blade cut through them, they disappeared and were replaced with the same number. Following Sage's example the other warriors began hacking away at the lengths of flesh.
Ryo swung his sure kill in the other direction, following Kaiden, hoping Robyn knew enough about his sure kill to get out of the way.
"-Up-!"
Robyn didn't look like she was moving and Lin and Katrin had gotten to their feet when the tentacles shot inside the kitchen and wrapped around an unresisting Robyn, who was then lifted from her feet while the other two were knocked aside.
"-NOW!" Ryo finished.
What should have been an inferno of flame did not appear, and Ryo stood dumfounded as Kaiden stilled, staring at the girl he was holding, not minding the tentacles that were being wildly severed behind him as the Ronins fought to get nearer to Robyn.
Ryo's eyes narrowed suspiciously as he noticed something different about the girl, a sort of calmness she had rarely displayed in the few days he and his friends had known her. It was almost as if she wanted to be taken away.
But not before she got the last word in.
The flame previously not coming at his call suddenly appeared, smaller, but feeling hundreds of times more powerful. It shot from his armor, echoing his earlier cry and something else, a screaming noise that he couldn't place. And it shot at Kaiden's back and pierced him moments before he disappeared, Robyn and all, leaving behind only a ball of red light that began floating away to an unknown point. Kayura, staff in hand, stepped forward and tried to control it with the power of the staff, but to no avail. The ball was much to powerful as it became brighter and brighter.
"Robyn!" Lin shrieked from inside the kitchen as she sailed out the door and headed towards the light. God, she could feel Robyn's spirit becoming weaker, fading out of the world. An empty spot had opened up inside her and was steadily growing larger as the ball of light got brighter. She knew Robyn was leaving this world for another, but she had to stop it! She had to save her sister!
A hand grabbed her and held her back and she kicked and bit and struggled with someone's green armored hands. No! They couldn't hold her back! She had to reach Robyn! Without thinking, she reached into her pack and snatched up a bottle, which turned out to be one of her defense potions, and shattered it over her captor's hands.
Sage froze, quite literally, as the freezing liquid spread across him quickly and turned him in to a block of ice. The expression on his face normally would have pleased her, but it only made her realize with more certainty that their cover was blown. His face was frozen in an expression of amazement and something that looked like protectiveness. Then his statue form fell over and landed in the soft grass. Lin, breathing harshly, felt her sister completely leave the world and fell down to her knees and gripped her stomach. She was going to be sick. ***************************************************************************
Hello readers. I do hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was pretty long, the longest yet! But, anyway, yeah, please review!
Oh! And my Fan Art site is ready for submission! You can find the URL on my bio-Page! Toodles!
-Gray
Note: -* words* - means shared thoughts between the girls.
Chapter 7 By: Soulful Gray
When Katrin woke up the next morning, she'd never thought Lin would have pulled another prank so closely behind her first one.
Of course, the screams down the hall led her to believe otherwise and she fell out of the bed.
"What the crap!" Robyn cried out when Katrin landed on top the unfortunate blonde. Lin snapped awake and looked around sleepily.
"What the-" Lin stopped what she began saying when the screams started up again and she smirked victoriously.
"Score!" She yelled out and Katrin turned wide eyes on her.
"What did you do!" she squeaked, wondering what her older sister could have done that caused such disturbing sounds down the hall. She figured it was Sage; Lin had said he woke up really, really early.
She heard footsteps pounding down the hall, and as one the three girls jumped up and grabbed their robes, their muscles and joints protesting loudly as they moved quicker than they should have.
They tumbled through the door and stared at Sage, who was in the hall surrounded by the other rooms' occupants. They were patting him on the back- his screams had stopped- and he was sucking air as though to cool off his mouth.
Eyes wide, Katrin looked up at Lin, who was hiding the devious evidence of her prank with a cold mask. She knew Lin had messed with Sage's hair gel, but she didn't know she'd do something like this. When she said "something spicy," Katrin hadn't realized it would be something sooooo spicy, from the signs Sage was giving off.
Mia ran downstairs for a moment and then came rushing back up with a glass of milk and shoved it in Sage's hand. He gulped it down at the speed of light and nearly choked in the process, but it seemed to have cooled the temperature of his mouth because he stopped breathing so hard.
"What happened!" Ryo asked in concern as he patted his friend on the back.
"Floss," the blond muttered in a cracked voice. "Burn."
"That's weird," Sekhmet said. "I borrowed it last night and it seemed fine to me." Sage turned a suspicious look on the reptilian Warlord, who threw up his hands in defense. "I didn't do it. Don't look at me like it was my fault."
"I used it last night, too," Sage growled. "It didn't burn my gums to a crisp last night, though." He was obviously pissed. Who wouldn't be, after having two, count'em TWO pranks pulled on him in a row!
Katrin felt sorry for the blonde; he seemed to have really pushed the wrong buttons with Lin, and he was bearing the whole of her schemes. She figured Lin had labeled him as the worst of them all and decided he would be her unfortunate victim forever.
"What time is it?" Robyn asked, yawning.
"About five-thirty," Mia answered.
"Five-freakin'-bloody-thirty..." the blonde muttered as she ambled back to the bedroom to her pallet on the floor. "Too early." They watched her sleepy, muttering form disappear in the door and heard the thunk of her landing on the floor.
"Sage, you gonna be okay, buddy?" Kentoe asked. The blonde Ronin looked okay, but nobody could be for certain with him.
"I'm perfectly fine," he answered crossly. Without another word, he marched into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.
"Well, that was interesting way to start the morning," Cye piped up in his adorable British accent.
While everyone scuttled back to their rooms, Katrin found her thoughts running from Lin's little pranks to her time in the Ronin world. The past few days had been trying for Katrin, but she found that she was adjusting well enough. She actually kind of liked it in the Ronin world.
It made it easier that Mia and Kayura were there, since she didn't think she could stand to live around just men. But the Ronins and Warlords were pretty nice, so she supposed she was comfortable enough around them. One of the only ones she had a problem with was Sekhmet, mostly because he liked snakes and she was terrified of them. She'd glimpsed into his room one time and seen an aquarium, and that was all it took before she'd gotten the heebie-jeebies and had to get out of there. Of course, she didn't really know if he had a bad personality or anything; she was just scared of him.
She had a few problems with Rowen; he wouldn't stop calling her a "chick" and it bugged the hell out of her. She wasn't sexist- she used the word sometimes herself- but with his accent, it was a deadly combination for annoyance. And his accent also reminded her of Joey Wheeler from Yu-Gi-Oh, so that was another strike against him.
Katrin was pretty comfortable around the rest of them, especially Kentoe and Cye. Kentoe struck her as the big-brother type; he was always watching out for her, and she disliked it when he would fill up her plate with more food than she could eat, she liked the thought of having someone watching out for her. Needless to say, she had tons of someones looking out for her, but she didn't mind one of them being a guy for once. He was a sweetheart, really. And then there was Cye. Cye was really nice to her; he wasn't pushy like Kentoe, but he had been helping her out a lot the day before, when they had shown the girls some regular warm-ups to do. And he was cute.
Blushing at the direction that particular thought had taken, she crept into the room she shared with her sisters and spotted Lin grabbing her stuff to get ready for the day. She wasn't surprised anymore. She'd gotten used to Lin waking up really early the last few days.
"So do you think we'll finally get the other rooms done today?" Lin asked as Katrin sat down on the bed.
"I hope so." After warm-ups the day before, Lin, Katrin, and Robyn had followed Mia and Kayura back up to the third floor where they were clearing out the two rooms. They'd started on the second junk-laden room and now both lay empty and clean. A trip to the attic had produced one twin bed- frame and two dressers, so Mia had called in an order for another bed-frame and some mattress sets, which would hopefully be there in the next couple of days. So, without anything to put in the rooms yet, they'd made a trip to a paint store and grabbed some cans of light blue and yellow, enough to give each room two coats each.
"I feel kind of bad," Robyn said from the floor, and Katrin jumped. She'd thought Robyn was asleep. "You know, we're basically living here for free and we've done nothing in return." She rose to a sitting position. "It makes me feel like a mooch."
"I'll admit that," Lin said and leaned against the dresser. "I don't like the guys, but Mia is being really great by letting us stay here."
"Yeah," Katrin conceded and pulled her legs under her. "I don't know what we could do though. It's not like we can pay her rent; we don't have jobs here, nor do we have ways of getting jobs."
"We'll figure something out," Lin said.
"Maybe we could assume daily chores for a while. Let them take a load off." Robyn jumped up. "We could commandeer the kitchen and be docile little women!" she said suddenly in an excited voice.
As one, Katrin and Lin smacked their heads.
"Okay then. Guess that's a no."
"Yeah, that's a no," Katrin confirmed in an exasperated tone.
"You two are just no fun." Robyn shot to her feet and flew out of the room. "I smell coffee!!" she cried as she sailed- more like fell- down the stairs.
"She's a psycho," Katrin said she watched her sister leave the room.
"Did you just now figure that out?" Lin mumbled dryly.
"No. But I felt like saying that just in case you didn't know yet."
"Oh I knew. Believe me, I knew." Lin chose that moment to escape to the bathroom, long since vacated by Sage.
"Buffy needs to watch his back," Katrin said, grinning, as she dug into her suitcase.
Pulling out some clothes, she continued with her thoughts.
She wondered if she couldn't just conjure some official documents or some crap that would state them as legal citizens, but no; that would be too risky to do in front of the Ronins until they found out about their powers. Then she wondered about some sort of appreciation gift for Mia. It was her house and her money that was going into their welfare. Besides helping out with chores, she supposed a gift would be nice for the slightly older woman.
She decided she would run it by Robyn later and waited for Lin to get out of the bathroom.
Later, at breakfast, she was seated between Cye and Kentoe. Under normal circumstances, being stuck between two guys would have unnerved her, and she would have stuck close to Lin and Robyn, but she was feeling more and more comfortable with the Ronins every moment that went by.
"So are any of you guys going to help us paint those rooms today?" Mia asked from her place next to Ryo.
"I'll help," the Wildfire Ronin immediately volunteered, and Katrin stifled a giggle at the sappy look on his face.
"I can," Cye said as he rose to take his plate to the sink. "Besides training, none of us really have anything to do."
While they discussed this, Katrin looked down as White Blaze popped up next to her chair. With a love-struck look on her face, she reached down and began scratching the beast behind the ears.
A few moments of this, and White Blaze nudged his head against her hand and looked up at her, his beautiful crystalline eyes meeting her own, and Katrin was once-again struck with the intelligence that radiated in those orbs. It was as if he knew things about her even she didn't know. She scraped her fingers through the silky fur on his forehead.
"Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty." It took her a while to realize that Robyn was repeating her bothersome little nickname over and over again. Snapping out of her reverie, Katrin looked up in time to have something bounce off her nose.
She pursed her lips and glared at the older girl, who was grinning as if she had scored the winning touch down at the Super Bowl.
"Grrr," she muttered without thinking.
"GRUMPH!" the blonde yelled in response.
"Oh, shut up Birdie!" She picked up the thing- a piece of paper- that had bounced off her nose and threw it back at Robyn, smacking her between the eyes. Comically, the girl crossed her eyes.
"Oooh! I think it left a bruise!"
Glaring at her, Katrin crossed her arms over her chest and kicked the girl under the table.
"Holy spud-stuffins! Kitty's getting violent!"
The rest of the table, by now used to this, could only chuckle and try to ignore it.
When they were finally done with their spat, Katrin looked kitty-corner from her, where Buffy was seated, silently sipping his coffee and reading the news paper. He didn't seem any different than normal, his usual silent self, and Lin was across from him, doubtless thinking up new tricks to pull on the poor guy.
Katrin peeked all around the table a bit before something caught her eye, on the floor, at her feet.
"SHIT!" she screamed as the harmless little green snake slithered near her foot. "Get it away!!" she shrieked as she jumped into the nearest lap which happened to be Cye's.
The entire group had started at her exclamation, but she didn't bother to gauge their expressions. She just had to get away from the snake! Visions of thousands of the vicious little creepy-crawlies slithering over her flashed in her mind's eye, and she clung to Cye, terrified.
"Katrin!" Robyn, the ever-watchful sister, leapt down under the table and quickly got the snake into her hands, not worrying about what kind it was or whether it would bite her; all that mattered was getting her little sister's biggest fear out of plain sight.
Lin, not too thrilled about having a snake under foot, had shot from her chair and was standing behind Cye's chair, not really scared but not very happy to see such a reptile in her presence. Cye for the most part, seemed to know just what to do as he whispered softly consoling words to the girl in his lap.
Robyn crawled from under the table, talking quietly to the tiny snake before she looked at Sekhmet.
"I'm guessing she's yours?" she said softly.
"Yes." Sheepishly, Sekhmet reached down and took the snake from her hands. "She must have slipped out of her cage." Without another word, he left the room to return his errant pet to her cage.
Robyn walked around the table and crouched down so she was looking up at her little sister.
"You okay, Katrin?" she asked. When she didn't get an answer, she reached up and tucked a strand of Katrin's dark hair behind her ear. "Hey, it's okay sis. It's not there anymore. Besides, you know I wouldn't let any snake get you."
Katrin was hardly listening. Size, shape, color, type, venomous, non- venomous- it didn't matter to her. A snake was a snake. And she had just had a snake crawling dangerously close to her foot, something she didn't want to happen ever again till the day she died.
She wondered what they thought of her; probably snickering over what a baby she was, screaming when she saw the tiniest snake in the whole world. But she couldn't help it. The fear of the scaly creatures was innate, something she'd always had and could never get rid of. They had to think she was a whuss.
She wished she were back home right then, closed up in her huge room in her huge mansion, on her huge bed. It was a place that no snake would even think of going; she had the best resources available to make sure no snake would ever set scale on her property, let alone crawl at her feet. She wanted to be home so much right then, despite a few certain details, it hurt to think about it. All because of one tiny snake.
The Ronins didn't seem to know what to think as they stared at the petite girl sitting in Cye's lap and holding on for dear life. Her fear of snakes was more than obvious, but they had never seen somebody react so badly to one of the creatures; Katrin was literally petrified, not moving a muscle and she clung to Cye's shirt front. As they watched, Lin seemed to be trying not to let the snake get to her, and Robyn had just downright not minded its presence at all, aside from it scaring her friend.
It was a few minutes before Katrin was willing to open her eyes and remove herself from Cye's lap, and then without a word to anyone, she fled the room, her cheeks bright red with embarrassment, and locked herself in the three girls' room.
"Is she going to be okay?" Cye asked after she fled her spot on his lap. He was worried about the girl, and his heart ached to see such fear coming from her.
"Just let her sit for a while," Robyn said softly. "She just needs some breathing space."
And thus concluded their morning.
A few hours later, Lin had removed herself to the bathroom to scrub the paint off her hands and from under her finger nails. They'd been painting for about two hours, since Katrin had crept out of the bedroom to rejoin the living. No one said anything, just let her take up a brush and start on a wall.
They were done with the painting for now. They had opened the windows to get the smell of paint fumes out, and after an incident involving White Blaze, Yulie, a can of sky blue paint, and the grass outside, they'd called it quits.
Lin chuckled as she scrubbed at her hands. Yulie, deciding to be a little boy like he was, had wanted to balance a can of paint- which hadn't been tightly closed- on his head while he was sitting on White Blaze. He would have done well had White Blaze not decided it was time to jump out the window, and since he was a HUGE tiger, he could easily accomplish the feat with the boy on his back. However, as he made the leap, the can tipped over, cracked the tiger on the head and burst open. With streaks of blue paint running all over his face and fur- and Yulie's shorts- his land had been more than a little ungraceful, and he'd clumsily slammed into the lovely freshly mowed grass that hadn't yet been bagged. At least no one was hurt.
They'd also found a pair of fake angel wings, somewhat dusty, hidden up in the corner of the closet, previously unseen by the girls when they'd cleaned. When they found them, Lin and Katrin had attacked Robyn and shoved her into the harness that held the cute feathery wings to the body. She'd squawked in an amusing way, but hadn't been able to remove them, and nobody was about to part with humor to rid her of the burdensome wings.
She'd finally scrubbed her hands free of the paint when Robyn knocked on the door. It was cracked open a bit and Robyn poked her head in, a serious look in her darkening eyes. Instantly, Lin knew something was up.
"Hey, just want to you be on the look-out. I've got funny vibes," the blonde said softly.
"Funny as in 'bad' or funny as in 'not sure'?" she asked.
"I don't know yet. I'm leaning towards bad." She leaned against the doorframe- or tried to with the annoying pair of wings she couldn't get off- her voice low. "I don't know. It's sort of the same feeling I got with the vision the other day, but it doesn't hurt this time."
"Have you looked into the cards?" Lin asked, thought she already knew it had to be a definite no. Robyn almost never used the green card to see what was up.
"Nah. I think I'll just let it play out." A usual thing. "Just wanted to let you know."
"Thanks," Lin said softly. "Have you told Katrin yet?"
"Yes. I got it while we were in our room, and I told her first."
"Okay. We can talk about it in a bit. Just let me put on some lotion."
"No problem." Robyn skipped out of the bathroom and back to the room.
Lin reached into her bag, not bothering to close the door this time, and dug around for her bottle of lotion. Her hands felt dry after the beating they'd taken with the paint and she wanted to give them some relief.
However, what she encountered with her hand, was not a bottle of lotion, nor a glob of it, but rather a pile of something cold, wet, and very sticky.
Jerking her hand of her bag with the open bottle, she exclaimed, a little too loudly, "Shit!" The gel was already beginning to dry and she shoved it under the tap to wash it off. The gel, though, had other ideas, and she accidentally clenched her hand into a fist under the water. She realized her mistake when she couldn't open her fist.
"Problems?" came a voice from the doorway and she whipped around to see Sage standing there with a cold look on his face. He looked pointedly at her hand and raised an eyebrow. "I probably should have guessed it was you. What were you doing? Planning to put Vaseline in my gel bottle again and something went wrong?" He smirked. "Looks like the joke's on you."
"Piss off," she snapped as she continued trying to scrub the gel off her fingers.
She heard him do something behind her and before she could react he had reached around and pulled her hand from under the water. She stiffened and would have thrown back her foot to kick him where it counts, but he had predicted the action and locked her legs in place with one of his own.
"The water makes it worse," he said softly in her ear. She glanced up in the mirror and met his eyes, her own were flashing with anger, and his were cool with amusement. "Just pour a little of this on it." He had a bottle of some sort of liquid in his hand and he poured a little of it over her hand and began scrubbing her fingers with his. It was only a few moments before the gel had been broken down and he dipped her hand under the flowing tap to wash it away.
"Thanks," she muttered stiffly and tried to scoot away from him, but he seemed to have other ideas as he twisted her around and pressed her up against the counter.
"Where do you think you're going?" he inquired softly, dangerously.
"To my room," she snapped.
"Not yet. Not until we've... discussed a few things." He kicked the door closed and locked it. He leaned forward until their noses were almost touching, but Lin refused to back down from him.
"You like pulling pranks on people, don't you Lin?" It was more of a statement than a question.
"So?" she said snidely.
"So, I'm just letting you know that I don't appreciate what you've done so far." He pressed his body close to hers, and had she been any other girl she would have cried sexual harassment, but she wouldn't be afraid. However, the fact that he was sexy as hell and knew what he was about when it came to girls, made it a little hard not to notice that it wasn't an unpleasant feeling, being so close to him.
"Really. I didn't get that vibe from you," she whispered silkily, mocking him.
He ran a finger down her cheek, and she was tempted to bite it. It tickled a little and the temptation to bit it slowly turned into the temptation to graze it with her lips.
"I'd be willing to forgive you, if you did something for me?" This time his voice was soft with request, and Lin could feel something inside her just wanting to melt, a brick in her wall.
"And what would that be?" she ground out through clenched teeth, reprimanding herself for the crazy feeling.
"Nothing much." He played with a tiny lock of her hair, and he was staring at her mouth intently. "Tell me a little about yourself." It was a simple request. "What are you hiding about yourself that makes you... unwilling to open up to any of us. What makes you pull your little stunts."
"I really don't think that's any of your business." Lin wanted to shake herself. Her voice had come out waaaaay too soft for her taste, as though she were almost... breathy.
"Okay then... I'll change my request." He smiled softly. "Go out with me tonight."
"I don't think so."
"My, you're just not a very agreeable female, are you?" He "tsked" once. "How can I get you to give me a chance?"
Lin wondered how this had shifted from his "forgiveness" to wheedling a date out of her. She suspected that had probably been his intent when he stepped into the bathroom. It was unnerving, also, that she was curious to see what a date with him would be like.
"Leave... me... alone," she said forcefully, trying to make herself see reason.
"Not until you say yes." As if to give force behind his ultimatum, he pressed closer, and Lin found she couldn't stand it anymore and boosted herself on to the counter to put some space between them.
"Say yes and I'll leave you alone until our date," he promised.
God, anything to get the hottie out of her sight so she could breathe and repair her mask of ice!
"Fine," she snapped. She turned her head away, and was appalled to feel her cheeks reddening.
Immediately he back away, smirking. "I found something that unnerves you, at least. Tonight at eight," he warned and then he left the bathroom.
After he closed the door, Lin numbly dumped everything from her bag into the sink and tossed the gel bottle into the trash can, careful not to get any of the cement-like stuff on her hands. Then, mechanically, she began washing off anything that had been touched by the offensive gel.
When she was through with her task, she finally put some lotion on her hands and escaped the bathroom.
"I've got a date with Sage," she snarled when she got into the bedroom where her sisters were already waiting.
"What!" Robyn gasped and stared at the redhead before her. If the wings, still stuck on her, had been real, she probably would have been flapping them in a combination of awe, excitement, amusement and other such states that Lin was definitely not feeling. "Are you feeling okay Lin? I could have sworn you hated him!"
"I do!" Lin snapped. "But he wouldn't leave me alone!" She left out the fact that he'd had her pinned against the bathroom sink, and she especially left out that she had begun thinking it wasn't such a bad thing. "And he found out that I pulled those pranks, so it was the only way he'd not harp on me about it! God the guy knows how to hold a grudge and make you pay!"
"My, my this is a turn of events," Robyn said, amazed. "Who'd have thought, Lin and Sage. Dating. Oiy! You work fast Lin! I didn't know you could be such a temptress!"
"Birdie... piss off..."
"Where and when?" she asked innocently and Lin wanted to slap her. "So when is the lucky night?"
"Tonight. Thank God. I don't want to ruin my days dreading the day I have to date that.. that... jerk!"
"You like him don't you?" Katrin asked and Lin whirled on her.
"Are you crazy?! How could I like such a pig-headed, cock-sure, egotistical prick!"
"Easy. He's hot," Katrin answered, grinning.
"Hotness has nothing to do with a personality, and regardless of every sexy bone in his de-bitched body, I do not like him!"
"Lin and Sage, sittin' in a tree!" Robyn started to sing but was slapped by a pillow, hastily grabbed and flung by the outraged redhead.
"Can we just discuss what we were here to bloody discuss?!"
"Did you say 'de-bitched'?" Katrin asked.
Lin closed her eyes and counted to ten.
Cye looked over as Sage stepped out onto the back porch with an extremely smug look on his face. The Ronin of Trust sat up a bit.
"What's that look about?" he asked.
"I've got a date with Lin," Sage said in a calm manner that belied the smugness that showed in his visible eye.
"But I thought she didn't like you?" Cye asked, confused.
"She does. She just doesn't want to admit it."
"Are you so sure? Sage, you might be in over your head."
"It'll be fine. I'll take her out for dinner, maybe some dancing." The Ronin of Wisdom sure as hell wasn't being wise at the moment, and Cye's brow drew down in concern.
"It wouldn't be very good if either of you got hurt. Just because you like her, Sage, doesn't mean she likes you, whether you want to admit it or not."
Sage nodded. "Good words, Cye. But I have a feeling where she's concerned."
"You always have a feeling where girls are concerned," the Brit muttered.
"Well, considering-"
Whatever he had been about to say was cut short as a loud explosion shook the earth.
Lin, Katrin and Robyn all jumped from their seats on the floor of the bedroom, where they'd all been trying to concentrate, when the explosion sounded.
"Robyn, sometimes I hate it when you're right," Katrin mumbled as they made a hurried exit and headed down stairs.
"So do I, Kitty."
Lin's breath hitched as they came to the door that led from the kitchen to the back porch, and her grip on her travel potions tightened. Outside, they could see the nine warriors and White Blaze, standing in a semi-circle and facing what looked like a hugely muscular man with dirty blond hair. Aside from his huge stature, he didn't seem like he'd be all that powerful.
"Kaiden," Robyn whispered beside her and Lin looked over. "That's got to be him. Look at that sword."
Lin looked over, but couldn't see anything.
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't you see it?" Robyn asked. "It's glowing..." Lin knew that Robyn was seeing the unseen with her special sight, what wasn't contained by her cards. "They can't take him. He's much too strong, even against all of them."
"Should we help them?" Katrin asked.
"I don't think we can," Robyn whispered. "We won't have to." She rubbed at her temples. "I hate this... Something... he's here for something..."
"Look at your cards..." Lin urged gently. Sometimes when Robyn got a vision, she didn't think to use her cards to lessen the pain.
She conjured the red card and peered into it. Her gray eyes widened and she almost dropped the card.
"He's here for me... but..."
And as if those words were the detonator for a bomb, the glass of the door was shattered as another explosion shook the earth. Screaming, Katrin and Lin both dove out of the way, but Robyn must have used her powers, because the glass swerved around her, missing her completely. She then flicked her wrist and the glass reformed and melted together in a long spear of sorts and she hurtled at Kaiden's form.
"Hey! Back off buddy!" Ryo yelled. "Your fight's with us!" His eyes widened as he watched the glass spear fly past him, aimed for Kaiden. Where the hell had that come from?!
"I am not here to fight with you. I'm here for the Angel." Kaiden's voice was monotone, as if he didn't really have much of anything for a personality, or emotions for that matter.
"Heh." Kentoe smirked. "You've got the wrong address, bud. This ain't exactly heaven!"
"The location is correct." Kaiden let loose another of his little explosions, enough to throw the Ronins off their feet.
"That's it!" Ryo yelled. "Flare-"
Kaiden leapt forward with a speed that belied his bulk, and what looked like blackish tentacles shot out of an area in his back, and the long lengths sped ahead of him, aiming straight for Robyn. Sage, no-datchi handy, leapt as well and brought the blade down on a number of the writhing masses, but the moment his blade cut through them, they disappeared and were replaced with the same number. Following Sage's example the other warriors began hacking away at the lengths of flesh.
Ryo swung his sure kill in the other direction, following Kaiden, hoping Robyn knew enough about his sure kill to get out of the way.
"-Up-!"
Robyn didn't look like she was moving and Lin and Katrin had gotten to their feet when the tentacles shot inside the kitchen and wrapped around an unresisting Robyn, who was then lifted from her feet while the other two were knocked aside.
"-NOW!" Ryo finished.
What should have been an inferno of flame did not appear, and Ryo stood dumfounded as Kaiden stilled, staring at the girl he was holding, not minding the tentacles that were being wildly severed behind him as the Ronins fought to get nearer to Robyn.
Ryo's eyes narrowed suspiciously as he noticed something different about the girl, a sort of calmness she had rarely displayed in the few days he and his friends had known her. It was almost as if she wanted to be taken away.
But not before she got the last word in.
The flame previously not coming at his call suddenly appeared, smaller, but feeling hundreds of times more powerful. It shot from his armor, echoing his earlier cry and something else, a screaming noise that he couldn't place. And it shot at Kaiden's back and pierced him moments before he disappeared, Robyn and all, leaving behind only a ball of red light that began floating away to an unknown point. Kayura, staff in hand, stepped forward and tried to control it with the power of the staff, but to no avail. The ball was much to powerful as it became brighter and brighter.
"Robyn!" Lin shrieked from inside the kitchen as she sailed out the door and headed towards the light. God, she could feel Robyn's spirit becoming weaker, fading out of the world. An empty spot had opened up inside her and was steadily growing larger as the ball of light got brighter. She knew Robyn was leaving this world for another, but she had to stop it! She had to save her sister!
A hand grabbed her and held her back and she kicked and bit and struggled with someone's green armored hands. No! They couldn't hold her back! She had to reach Robyn! Without thinking, she reached into her pack and snatched up a bottle, which turned out to be one of her defense potions, and shattered it over her captor's hands.
Sage froze, quite literally, as the freezing liquid spread across him quickly and turned him in to a block of ice. The expression on his face normally would have pleased her, but it only made her realize with more certainty that their cover was blown. His face was frozen in an expression of amazement and something that looked like protectiveness. Then his statue form fell over and landed in the soft grass. Lin, breathing harshly, felt her sister completely leave the world and fell down to her knees and gripped her stomach. She was going to be sick. ***************************************************************************
Hello readers. I do hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was pretty long, the longest yet! But, anyway, yeah, please review!
Oh! And my Fan Art site is ready for submission! You can find the URL on my bio-Page! Toodles!
-Gray