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, is mine. Blah. So yeah, if the people that DO own them
would like to sell them for every thing that's in my pocket- fifty
cents... NO Fifty-two cents! a stick of gum... some lint- I'd happily take
them off their hands! **wink-wink, nudge-nudge** See! Special signal wink!
Surrender to the subliminal wink! (Ooooh. I changed my disclaimer a bit!)
Note: -* words* - means shared thoughts between the girls.
Chapter 9 By: Soulful Gray
Robyn stared down at her latest Blessed Realm outfit and blinked. It was tad bit more revealing than most of the others she had worn in the past. It was a dress that flowed loosely down her body without any certain shape to it. It was almost like a nightgown with a neck cut down between her breasts, almost to her stomach. It was cinched at her waist with a silken green belt, and the sleeves were like billowing tents on her arms. The back was as low-cut as the front and her long blonde hair covered much of her exposed back. On her feet were a favored pair of green slippers that she almost always wore in her Blessed Realm.
She looked over and caught Anubis staring at his surroundings in amazement. The night sky was so bright with stars it was almost daylight, and her cheeks reddened when she realized he was still unclothed. Of course he was! On her way into the Blessed Realm, she had failed to specify that he should be clad as well.
A cool breeze blew past Anubis and he glanced down at himself, for the first time realizing that he was nude. And then he noticed that as the breeze went by, riding on it were strands of cloth that surrounded him and formed a set of robes so familiar to him that it almost pained him to look upon them. The robes he had worn in his roll as the Ancient. He had missed those robes in a way; they reminded him of his life before he had given it up to save another.
"How did you know?"
"It's kind of a long story." Robyn picked at her finger nails as she settled herself on the root of the tree. Anubis eyed the tree warily. She was right to say that it appeared dead, but it was still alive; he could feel it. But its presence unnerved him.
"Begin with your name then."
"Bossy," she muttered as she sat up straighter. "My name's Robyn."
"And how is it that you've brought us here?"
"Some special powers of mine." She swung her legs back and forth like a child.
"How do you know who I am?" Anubis finally moved under the umbrella the tree created and felt something akin to a feeling of safety wash over him.
She started popping her knuckles. "Well, I'll try to make this short. I'm from another world than that of your friends, the Ronins. In my world, you all, including Talpa and all those bad guys and such, are part of a really cool cartoon show."
"Cartoon show?" He'd once heard Yulie mention something about cartoons when they were battling against Talpa and he nodded a bit. "Yes. Those things in that box Mia has."
"Exactly!" She grinned broadly, glad she didn't have to explain more than she had to.
"That still doesn't explain how you came to be here."
"Well, I don't really understand it myself. Just that I and two of my friends got pulled over here and we were staying with Mia and the guys and Kayura. Well, a little while ago, I got kidnapped by Kaiden, and I've little doubt that Lin and Katrin have already spilled our little secret. And now... we're here. In the Blessed Realm!" She jumped off the root and came to stand in front of him.
"Now aside from that, are you okay?" She had a genuinely worried look on her face, but Anubis really didn't want her to change to subject.
"Tell me of these powers you possess." He took a step to the side and walked as if to look at the sky.
"Not much. Magic. Foresight. My meditative skills are pretty complex- I created this place after all."
"That's another thing. How are we here? How is it that I feel no pain as I did in Lasheen's cell?"
"That thing has a name?" she asked, disgusted. "Nasty." She took a deep breath. "Well, I mixed meditation with some of my magic and created this place. I call it the Blessed Realm for bizarre reason. The reason that we are here is that... Lasheen... was smothering my magic somehow, aside from a few special things, and this is the only thing I could think of to get us out of there in a flash. Well, this place is connected with my magic, but it was also predominately a meditative aspect, so I had no problem getting in here. And I brought you along for the ride. Like I said earlier, our bodies were left behind. These are... I guess the representations of our souls." She spoke rather quickly and things kind of came out in a jumble, but Anubis wasn't sure he wanted her to explain it anymore.
"Meditation. Strange. I was never able to meditate the whole time I was there." He thought for a while. "How did you escape?"
She giggled a bit at that one. "Quite fun. You know that stupid crystal ball... it has on it's chair arm? By "it" I mean Lasheen, 'cause it's definitely not a guy or a girl. Anyway, Lasheen handed me the ball so I could get a look at you and forgot to take it back. Then it said something about 'body snatching' and the like and touched me." She shuddered. "It touched me on the shoulder. I've got to remember do disinfect that shoulder later." She composed herself again. "Anyway, that thing's pretty frail, physically, and I punched it and knocked it out. Did you know that that little ball is how Lasheen controls Kaiden? While it was in my hands, Kaiden didn't follow us... I dropped it in that damned lake. That could have been useful too! Grumph." She pouted a bit and Anubis wondered what the hell was wrong with the girl before him.
"So how does our being in this... Blessed Realm, as you call it, aide our escape back to the mortal realm?"
"Honestly?"
"Yes."
"Hell if I know."
Anubis felt a twitch starting under his eye.
"I sort of have a plan. Wanna hear it?" She hopped back up on a root and started before he could answer. "I was thinking that maybe I could transfer the essence of Lasheen's physical world into this realm and traverse it that way until we found a doorway or something. In Lasheen's world- maybe- our spirits would be traveling about unaided by our bodies."
"And how would you do this?"
She stayed silent for a moment.
"I dunno."
The twitch got bigger.
Mortal Realm (Dun dun-dun dun!)
Ryo watched intently as the two suddenly non-powerless girls sat out on the back deck, talking quietly. He was in the kitchen sitting at the table with Mia and White Blaze, discussing a few things.
"Ryo, just staring at them like they're going to sprout new heads isn't going to help anything," Mia said gently from beside him and he turned his head back to her, smiling sheepishly.
"Can't help it. It's just weird that we've all just instantly come to trust them."
"I know." Mia smiled. "But it's hard not to do. They're such nice girls. And you can't really blame them for not telling us."
"But Mia, they knew we had armors. Them having powers is nearly the same thing and-"
"But do you think you'd have accepted them any faster had they told you sooner?" Mia was propping her head on her hand and for the bazillionth time, Ryo noticed how her new hair style framed her face so nicely. He fought a blush.
"Probably not."
"You see? It doesn't matter any more." She stood and went to the fridge to grab a couple of sodas. She handed one to him and took her seat again. "What does matter is finding a way to get Robyn back from Kaiden and finding out just what he wants. Besides that, Lin and Katrin said Robyn was their teacher, and if she's powerful enough to be a teacher, she could very well be a valuable ally."
Ryo was amazed that Mia could always be so calm during situations like the one they were in at the moment. She almost never panicked and it was such an endearing trait he couldn't help but let his thoughts wonder for a moment.
"Ryo?" He snapped out of it and blushed when he realized she was repeating his name and staring at him with concern.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Just spacing out." He stood and walked over to the kitchen window. It was nearly sunset and Lin and Katrin were still talking, about what, he couldn't say, but he guessed their words probably concerned Robyn.
He took a deep breath and sighed. It was moments like this when he wished with all his might things could be different. They'd had peace for a while and then this. He wished that things had ended completely after the Warlords and Kayura crossed to the side of good, that he could have retired his armor.
It seemed like things were just coming unglued around him. He felt helpless. Kaiden was like a rock; he had no visible weaknesses and their blows just glanced off him like they were nothing. He had no idea why things were happening. Kayura had tried to find out, but even the staff and the Ancients' spirits were silent. He had no idea what he was facing, and he wished things could be different.
His deepest wish was that he could finally confess a few things to Mia.
Before he got deeper into his thoughts, Lin and Katrin opened the sliding glass door and stepped past him. The looked a bit uncertain as they walked in.
"Sage meditates doesn't he? And Kayura?" Lin asked.
"Yes." Mia stood. "All the guys do, but those two are the most serious about it."
"We have an idea." Katrin had her arms crossed over her stomach and she looked hesitant. "Do you think, if we asked, they would help us try to contact Robyn?"
Ryo thought about it. They'd told him of their connection to their "older sister" as they called Robyn.
"Sure. I don't see why not." Mia nodded when he said this.
"At the moment it seems like it's the only chance we've got outside of waiting."
Outside, Katrin and Lin had been discussing what they could do. The only thing they'd been able to come up with was contacting Robyn through meditation. They'd already tried telepathy, but it hadn't worked; they couldn't feel her. The only thing they could think of was something deeper. They were going to try and enter her Blessed Realm.
They'd both been there before, but it was at her invitation. That's the only way anybody could get in there, by her permission. They didn't know if they just needed to knock, or if they could even reach her since they couldn't feel her. Despite the empty feeling they got where her link once was, they knew something still had to be there.
First though, they needed to meditate, and they were horrible at meditating.
Lin watched as Sage and Kayura entered the room. Her eyes stayed glued on Sage for a moment before dropping away as she hid everything behind her mask. The day before she'd managed to humiliate herself by breaking down in front of him and before that, she'd actually apologized! She'd meant the apologies, sure, but she still couldn't believe that she'd gone through with them. What did that do for the reputation she presented?!
"We need to ask you a favor," she said calmly once they stood before her and Katrin. "We need to learn how to meditate, and fast."
Sage's eyebrow rose as he took in the firmly placed mask that covered the emotions of the willowy redhead before him. A little bit of anger welled up inside of him as he thought about the day before. He'd finally thought he was getting somewhere with her, and now she was back to square one.
"I don't think there will be a problem with that," he said coolly. "Why do you suddenly feel the urge to learn?"
"Because it's the only thing we can think of that might help us get Robyn back," Katrin said softly.
"The telepathy didn't work-" Kayura started to say but Lin interrupted.
"The telepathy was a result of our link. We don't know yet if meditation would be part of that link for what we have in mind." She went on to briefly describe the Blessed Realm and that they might be able to get to her that way.
"So if we just tap at her door or something, we might get her to answer," Katrin said, wringing her hands desperately. "Please!"
"Okay." Sage looked outside, noting how dark it was. "It's easier outside. I hope you like the dark." He and Kayura led the two girls outside and onto the soft grass of the backyard.
They sort of gathered into a circle and sat in the grass. Katrin and Lin sat patiently as Kayura and Sage explained breathing and posture and other such stuff. When they were through yapping, they started.
Lin took a deep breath and despite their instructions on posture, she found herself relaxing way too much and slumping a bit. She couldn't help it. When she had watched Robyn meditate in the past, she was always in some weird position or another, and she supposed she had copied the habit without realizing it.
She breathed deeply and let herself relax even more.
Katrin was having the same problem as Lin. She wasn't following the precise instructions Sage and Kayura had given, and simply felt like she was falling into slumber. Then she had problems keeping her eyes closed. Every little sound made her crack them open a bit. Then she just gave up and opened them fully. She watched Sage and Kayura. They, of course, were having no problem at all, sitting in what looked like practiced and painful positions. She knew she ought to copy those positions for the sake of Robyn, but she couldn't help it. She figured it wouldn't hurt to break the rules and go by Robyn's standards.
She looked over at Lin, who had the same idea and they scooted so they were back to back, leaning against each other comfortably, breathing deeply.
"Do you think it will work?" she asked softly. Sage and Kayura didn't seem to notice.
"I hope so," Lin whispered. "I don't see why it shouldn't."
"Do you wanna try it Birdie style?"
"Sure." Lin untucked her legs and straightened them out on the ground. "What's Birdie style though? She just does whatever. She could be sitting on the toilet and start zoning."
Katrin let a little giggle slip and then relaxed even more. "We're not even trying."
"Nope." Lin yawned and stretched. "You don't have to when you zone. That's always what Birdie says."
"Yeah." She sighed and stretched as well. Then she glanced up at the moon. "The Blessed Realm doesn't have a moon, does it."
"No. Just the stars. You know how she is about the stars."
"Yeah. I'm all for the moon. She's for the stars. You're for the sun." Katrin felt something slipping inside her. "The tree though. That thing was so... peaceful." She felt her vision start glazing over.
Lin felt the same thing. "Yeah. I never have figured out what kind it was. It was like a million trees put together." Her vision was getting a bit foggy. "Kitty?"
"Yeah Weasel?"
"I think we're zoning."
"I know." And then they just kind of froze in that position, their eyes remaining open for a while before they finally shut of their own will.
A small breeze blew by after a while, and Sage decided he'd better check on his two pupils. When he opened his eyes, he scowled when he found the two girls sleeping with their backs together.
However, closer inspection made him realize two things.
One, they were, in fact, meditating.
And two, they weren't breathing.
He reached over in alarm and felt Lin's neck; a faint pulse met his fingers, but her skin was so cold. It was as if she was a vegetable. Like her soul was gone. He shook her, and nothing happened. He did the same to Katrin and found her the same. They were like to rag dolls with heart beats.
"Kayura!" She snapped out of her state of calm and was soon trying as hard as she could to wake the two girls, but to no avail. They would not snap out of it! She willed the staff to her side and the moment she wrapped her fingers around it, it began clanging wildly. She stared up at it as it began glowing brightly. Something like a wall of light began spreading out from the top of it, catching Sage and herself under its glow. And then she was falling, they both were.
Then, blackness.
Back to Anubis And Robby
"Some plan," Robyn berated herself. She'd tried as hard as she could to actually do what she'd thought up- the whole traversing Lasheen's world as floaty-soul thingies. Hah.
She grumbled and called down a star. She held it in her hand and tossed it around.
"I feel like a moron now," she muttered.
"So you've said many times now," Anubis said from beside her on the ground. She was propped up on a root again. Her constant complaints about her little plan not working had been annoying since she'd first opened her mouth to utter the first words. "So what do you have in mind now?"
"I don't know." She tossed the star back up in the sky.
"Great," he said snidely. She really was an annoying girl.
"Hey, I never said it would work," she snapped.
"I never said I expected it to. However, your constant complaining leads me to believe you really thought it might have. It didn't though. Kindly get over it."
Robyn snapped her mouth shut and glared at him. Prissy, bitchy redhead. She was aggravated and the fact that she couldn't complain without being snapped on by a certain ex-warlord was really adding to the feeling of aggravation.
"Well excuse me if maybe I did think it would work. Excuse me if I'm the only one who thought of anything to do about this situation!"
"Need I point out that I hardly have any idea as to the situation at hand and that I am not responsible for our being in this realm! You are the one who can get us out!"
Robyn growled petulantly and grabbed another star out of the sky. She resumed her tossing and pondered.
She wanted to cry right then. Secretly, Anubis was her favorite character in the whole wide world, absolutely gorgeous, and she'd love to grab on with both hands- she wouldn't say where- and run for the door. Then when she thought about it, she blanched.
Was it possible that she was thinking like a Mary-Sue? Was she hoping for the instant love that came with the title MS, love that was offered by the hottest and most beloved male characters to the MS who was absolutely perfect in every way including beauty, brains, and body?
"Ewwwww," she shuddered. "I cannot be a Mary-Sue!" Maybe if she said that enough times, it would be true. She wasn't sure what she was at the moment.
"What's wrong now? Having more problems with your supposed powers?" Anubis asked darkly.
"Piss off," she snapped. She couldn't help it. On screen, she absolutely adored the guy; face-to-face, she found herself nervous and unable to stand him. Grrr.
Robyn continued her tossing, up until the moment she felt something knocking at her head.
"What in the name of the Naked Arabic Monkeys?" she muttered. "And Holy," she added for good measure.
"What is-"
"Swiffer!" she squeaked, slapping her hand down over his mouth. "Hush red!" She stood up on her perch and reached up into the sky. The stars began falling at her command, much like her vision from a few days before, and the fireflies came as well, bundling closely around them.
"Don't step outside the tree," she warned once before she prepared for a possible onslaught against her Blessed Realm. "Enter," she commanded softly. She wasn't sure if whomever was asking entrance was doing so in favor of destroying the Blessed Realm or for something beneficial to Robyn. So she would let them enter while she was on guard.
Something about it felt familiar, felt like it was feeling something up inside her. Her eyebrows rose in surprise as a picture began forming before her, and she squeaked loudly as familiar faces popped up.
"WEASEL! KITTY! HOW THE HELL!" she screamed as her two sisters, Sage, and Kayura suddenly appeared before her.
************************************************************************
Mwahahaha. Finished! The chapter is complete! Hoo-rah! Lalalala. This one took me a while to get into. It was hard for me to write this chapter for some reason. Oh well, I got it done! I'm so happy! I'm sleepy... I need food. This chapter made me starve myself.
Also, don't forget to head to my fan art web-site! I have absolutely no art there! It should be a blast! And in order to give you the URL I'm going to be confusing and challenge you to write this down. Okay. Here goes. Typical World Wide Web stuff. Dot. Next word begins with a "G" ends with an "S" has and "EO" and a "CITIE" in there somewhere. Dot. That Com thing. Slash. Not as in a male/male thingy. And actual Slash. Insert my pen name here. But instead of a - you should have an _ between the words that form my name... Or you could just go to my bio-page and click on the link there. Either way, it's not much of a challenge... maybe reading the stuff. Dunno. It confuses me!
-Gray
Note: -* words* - means shared thoughts between the girls.
Chapter 9 By: Soulful Gray
Robyn stared down at her latest Blessed Realm outfit and blinked. It was tad bit more revealing than most of the others she had worn in the past. It was a dress that flowed loosely down her body without any certain shape to it. It was almost like a nightgown with a neck cut down between her breasts, almost to her stomach. It was cinched at her waist with a silken green belt, and the sleeves were like billowing tents on her arms. The back was as low-cut as the front and her long blonde hair covered much of her exposed back. On her feet were a favored pair of green slippers that she almost always wore in her Blessed Realm.
She looked over and caught Anubis staring at his surroundings in amazement. The night sky was so bright with stars it was almost daylight, and her cheeks reddened when she realized he was still unclothed. Of course he was! On her way into the Blessed Realm, she had failed to specify that he should be clad as well.
A cool breeze blew past Anubis and he glanced down at himself, for the first time realizing that he was nude. And then he noticed that as the breeze went by, riding on it were strands of cloth that surrounded him and formed a set of robes so familiar to him that it almost pained him to look upon them. The robes he had worn in his roll as the Ancient. He had missed those robes in a way; they reminded him of his life before he had given it up to save another.
"How did you know?"
"It's kind of a long story." Robyn picked at her finger nails as she settled herself on the root of the tree. Anubis eyed the tree warily. She was right to say that it appeared dead, but it was still alive; he could feel it. But its presence unnerved him.
"Begin with your name then."
"Bossy," she muttered as she sat up straighter. "My name's Robyn."
"And how is it that you've brought us here?"
"Some special powers of mine." She swung her legs back and forth like a child.
"How do you know who I am?" Anubis finally moved under the umbrella the tree created and felt something akin to a feeling of safety wash over him.
She started popping her knuckles. "Well, I'll try to make this short. I'm from another world than that of your friends, the Ronins. In my world, you all, including Talpa and all those bad guys and such, are part of a really cool cartoon show."
"Cartoon show?" He'd once heard Yulie mention something about cartoons when they were battling against Talpa and he nodded a bit. "Yes. Those things in that box Mia has."
"Exactly!" She grinned broadly, glad she didn't have to explain more than she had to.
"That still doesn't explain how you came to be here."
"Well, I don't really understand it myself. Just that I and two of my friends got pulled over here and we were staying with Mia and the guys and Kayura. Well, a little while ago, I got kidnapped by Kaiden, and I've little doubt that Lin and Katrin have already spilled our little secret. And now... we're here. In the Blessed Realm!" She jumped off the root and came to stand in front of him.
"Now aside from that, are you okay?" She had a genuinely worried look on her face, but Anubis really didn't want her to change to subject.
"Tell me of these powers you possess." He took a step to the side and walked as if to look at the sky.
"Not much. Magic. Foresight. My meditative skills are pretty complex- I created this place after all."
"That's another thing. How are we here? How is it that I feel no pain as I did in Lasheen's cell?"
"That thing has a name?" she asked, disgusted. "Nasty." She took a deep breath. "Well, I mixed meditation with some of my magic and created this place. I call it the Blessed Realm for bizarre reason. The reason that we are here is that... Lasheen... was smothering my magic somehow, aside from a few special things, and this is the only thing I could think of to get us out of there in a flash. Well, this place is connected with my magic, but it was also predominately a meditative aspect, so I had no problem getting in here. And I brought you along for the ride. Like I said earlier, our bodies were left behind. These are... I guess the representations of our souls." She spoke rather quickly and things kind of came out in a jumble, but Anubis wasn't sure he wanted her to explain it anymore.
"Meditation. Strange. I was never able to meditate the whole time I was there." He thought for a while. "How did you escape?"
She giggled a bit at that one. "Quite fun. You know that stupid crystal ball... it has on it's chair arm? By "it" I mean Lasheen, 'cause it's definitely not a guy or a girl. Anyway, Lasheen handed me the ball so I could get a look at you and forgot to take it back. Then it said something about 'body snatching' and the like and touched me." She shuddered. "It touched me on the shoulder. I've got to remember do disinfect that shoulder later." She composed herself again. "Anyway, that thing's pretty frail, physically, and I punched it and knocked it out. Did you know that that little ball is how Lasheen controls Kaiden? While it was in my hands, Kaiden didn't follow us... I dropped it in that damned lake. That could have been useful too! Grumph." She pouted a bit and Anubis wondered what the hell was wrong with the girl before him.
"So how does our being in this... Blessed Realm, as you call it, aide our escape back to the mortal realm?"
"Honestly?"
"Yes."
"Hell if I know."
Anubis felt a twitch starting under his eye.
"I sort of have a plan. Wanna hear it?" She hopped back up on a root and started before he could answer. "I was thinking that maybe I could transfer the essence of Lasheen's physical world into this realm and traverse it that way until we found a doorway or something. In Lasheen's world- maybe- our spirits would be traveling about unaided by our bodies."
"And how would you do this?"
She stayed silent for a moment.
"I dunno."
The twitch got bigger.
Mortal Realm (Dun dun-dun dun!)
Ryo watched intently as the two suddenly non-powerless girls sat out on the back deck, talking quietly. He was in the kitchen sitting at the table with Mia and White Blaze, discussing a few things.
"Ryo, just staring at them like they're going to sprout new heads isn't going to help anything," Mia said gently from beside him and he turned his head back to her, smiling sheepishly.
"Can't help it. It's just weird that we've all just instantly come to trust them."
"I know." Mia smiled. "But it's hard not to do. They're such nice girls. And you can't really blame them for not telling us."
"But Mia, they knew we had armors. Them having powers is nearly the same thing and-"
"But do you think you'd have accepted them any faster had they told you sooner?" Mia was propping her head on her hand and for the bazillionth time, Ryo noticed how her new hair style framed her face so nicely. He fought a blush.
"Probably not."
"You see? It doesn't matter any more." She stood and went to the fridge to grab a couple of sodas. She handed one to him and took her seat again. "What does matter is finding a way to get Robyn back from Kaiden and finding out just what he wants. Besides that, Lin and Katrin said Robyn was their teacher, and if she's powerful enough to be a teacher, she could very well be a valuable ally."
Ryo was amazed that Mia could always be so calm during situations like the one they were in at the moment. She almost never panicked and it was such an endearing trait he couldn't help but let his thoughts wonder for a moment.
"Ryo?" He snapped out of it and blushed when he realized she was repeating his name and staring at him with concern.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Just spacing out." He stood and walked over to the kitchen window. It was nearly sunset and Lin and Katrin were still talking, about what, he couldn't say, but he guessed their words probably concerned Robyn.
He took a deep breath and sighed. It was moments like this when he wished with all his might things could be different. They'd had peace for a while and then this. He wished that things had ended completely after the Warlords and Kayura crossed to the side of good, that he could have retired his armor.
It seemed like things were just coming unglued around him. He felt helpless. Kaiden was like a rock; he had no visible weaknesses and their blows just glanced off him like they were nothing. He had no idea why things were happening. Kayura had tried to find out, but even the staff and the Ancients' spirits were silent. He had no idea what he was facing, and he wished things could be different.
His deepest wish was that he could finally confess a few things to Mia.
Before he got deeper into his thoughts, Lin and Katrin opened the sliding glass door and stepped past him. The looked a bit uncertain as they walked in.
"Sage meditates doesn't he? And Kayura?" Lin asked.
"Yes." Mia stood. "All the guys do, but those two are the most serious about it."
"We have an idea." Katrin had her arms crossed over her stomach and she looked hesitant. "Do you think, if we asked, they would help us try to contact Robyn?"
Ryo thought about it. They'd told him of their connection to their "older sister" as they called Robyn.
"Sure. I don't see why not." Mia nodded when he said this.
"At the moment it seems like it's the only chance we've got outside of waiting."
Outside, Katrin and Lin had been discussing what they could do. The only thing they'd been able to come up with was contacting Robyn through meditation. They'd already tried telepathy, but it hadn't worked; they couldn't feel her. The only thing they could think of was something deeper. They were going to try and enter her Blessed Realm.
They'd both been there before, but it was at her invitation. That's the only way anybody could get in there, by her permission. They didn't know if they just needed to knock, or if they could even reach her since they couldn't feel her. Despite the empty feeling they got where her link once was, they knew something still had to be there.
First though, they needed to meditate, and they were horrible at meditating.
Lin watched as Sage and Kayura entered the room. Her eyes stayed glued on Sage for a moment before dropping away as she hid everything behind her mask. The day before she'd managed to humiliate herself by breaking down in front of him and before that, she'd actually apologized! She'd meant the apologies, sure, but she still couldn't believe that she'd gone through with them. What did that do for the reputation she presented?!
"We need to ask you a favor," she said calmly once they stood before her and Katrin. "We need to learn how to meditate, and fast."
Sage's eyebrow rose as he took in the firmly placed mask that covered the emotions of the willowy redhead before him. A little bit of anger welled up inside of him as he thought about the day before. He'd finally thought he was getting somewhere with her, and now she was back to square one.
"I don't think there will be a problem with that," he said coolly. "Why do you suddenly feel the urge to learn?"
"Because it's the only thing we can think of that might help us get Robyn back," Katrin said softly.
"The telepathy didn't work-" Kayura started to say but Lin interrupted.
"The telepathy was a result of our link. We don't know yet if meditation would be part of that link for what we have in mind." She went on to briefly describe the Blessed Realm and that they might be able to get to her that way.
"So if we just tap at her door or something, we might get her to answer," Katrin said, wringing her hands desperately. "Please!"
"Okay." Sage looked outside, noting how dark it was. "It's easier outside. I hope you like the dark." He and Kayura led the two girls outside and onto the soft grass of the backyard.
They sort of gathered into a circle and sat in the grass. Katrin and Lin sat patiently as Kayura and Sage explained breathing and posture and other such stuff. When they were through yapping, they started.
Lin took a deep breath and despite their instructions on posture, she found herself relaxing way too much and slumping a bit. She couldn't help it. When she had watched Robyn meditate in the past, she was always in some weird position or another, and she supposed she had copied the habit without realizing it.
She breathed deeply and let herself relax even more.
Katrin was having the same problem as Lin. She wasn't following the precise instructions Sage and Kayura had given, and simply felt like she was falling into slumber. Then she had problems keeping her eyes closed. Every little sound made her crack them open a bit. Then she just gave up and opened them fully. She watched Sage and Kayura. They, of course, were having no problem at all, sitting in what looked like practiced and painful positions. She knew she ought to copy those positions for the sake of Robyn, but she couldn't help it. She figured it wouldn't hurt to break the rules and go by Robyn's standards.
She looked over at Lin, who had the same idea and they scooted so they were back to back, leaning against each other comfortably, breathing deeply.
"Do you think it will work?" she asked softly. Sage and Kayura didn't seem to notice.
"I hope so," Lin whispered. "I don't see why it shouldn't."
"Do you wanna try it Birdie style?"
"Sure." Lin untucked her legs and straightened them out on the ground. "What's Birdie style though? She just does whatever. She could be sitting on the toilet and start zoning."
Katrin let a little giggle slip and then relaxed even more. "We're not even trying."
"Nope." Lin yawned and stretched. "You don't have to when you zone. That's always what Birdie says."
"Yeah." She sighed and stretched as well. Then she glanced up at the moon. "The Blessed Realm doesn't have a moon, does it."
"No. Just the stars. You know how she is about the stars."
"Yeah. I'm all for the moon. She's for the stars. You're for the sun." Katrin felt something slipping inside her. "The tree though. That thing was so... peaceful." She felt her vision start glazing over.
Lin felt the same thing. "Yeah. I never have figured out what kind it was. It was like a million trees put together." Her vision was getting a bit foggy. "Kitty?"
"Yeah Weasel?"
"I think we're zoning."
"I know." And then they just kind of froze in that position, their eyes remaining open for a while before they finally shut of their own will.
A small breeze blew by after a while, and Sage decided he'd better check on his two pupils. When he opened his eyes, he scowled when he found the two girls sleeping with their backs together.
However, closer inspection made him realize two things.
One, they were, in fact, meditating.
And two, they weren't breathing.
He reached over in alarm and felt Lin's neck; a faint pulse met his fingers, but her skin was so cold. It was as if she was a vegetable. Like her soul was gone. He shook her, and nothing happened. He did the same to Katrin and found her the same. They were like to rag dolls with heart beats.
"Kayura!" She snapped out of her state of calm and was soon trying as hard as she could to wake the two girls, but to no avail. They would not snap out of it! She willed the staff to her side and the moment she wrapped her fingers around it, it began clanging wildly. She stared up at it as it began glowing brightly. Something like a wall of light began spreading out from the top of it, catching Sage and herself under its glow. And then she was falling, they both were.
Then, blackness.
Back to Anubis And Robby
"Some plan," Robyn berated herself. She'd tried as hard as she could to actually do what she'd thought up- the whole traversing Lasheen's world as floaty-soul thingies. Hah.
She grumbled and called down a star. She held it in her hand and tossed it around.
"I feel like a moron now," she muttered.
"So you've said many times now," Anubis said from beside her on the ground. She was propped up on a root again. Her constant complaints about her little plan not working had been annoying since she'd first opened her mouth to utter the first words. "So what do you have in mind now?"
"I don't know." She tossed the star back up in the sky.
"Great," he said snidely. She really was an annoying girl.
"Hey, I never said it would work," she snapped.
"I never said I expected it to. However, your constant complaining leads me to believe you really thought it might have. It didn't though. Kindly get over it."
Robyn snapped her mouth shut and glared at him. Prissy, bitchy redhead. She was aggravated and the fact that she couldn't complain without being snapped on by a certain ex-warlord was really adding to the feeling of aggravation.
"Well excuse me if maybe I did think it would work. Excuse me if I'm the only one who thought of anything to do about this situation!"
"Need I point out that I hardly have any idea as to the situation at hand and that I am not responsible for our being in this realm! You are the one who can get us out!"
Robyn growled petulantly and grabbed another star out of the sky. She resumed her tossing and pondered.
She wanted to cry right then. Secretly, Anubis was her favorite character in the whole wide world, absolutely gorgeous, and she'd love to grab on with both hands- she wouldn't say where- and run for the door. Then when she thought about it, she blanched.
Was it possible that she was thinking like a Mary-Sue? Was she hoping for the instant love that came with the title MS, love that was offered by the hottest and most beloved male characters to the MS who was absolutely perfect in every way including beauty, brains, and body?
"Ewwwww," she shuddered. "I cannot be a Mary-Sue!" Maybe if she said that enough times, it would be true. She wasn't sure what she was at the moment.
"What's wrong now? Having more problems with your supposed powers?" Anubis asked darkly.
"Piss off," she snapped. She couldn't help it. On screen, she absolutely adored the guy; face-to-face, she found herself nervous and unable to stand him. Grrr.
Robyn continued her tossing, up until the moment she felt something knocking at her head.
"What in the name of the Naked Arabic Monkeys?" she muttered. "And Holy," she added for good measure.
"What is-"
"Swiffer!" she squeaked, slapping her hand down over his mouth. "Hush red!" She stood up on her perch and reached up into the sky. The stars began falling at her command, much like her vision from a few days before, and the fireflies came as well, bundling closely around them.
"Don't step outside the tree," she warned once before she prepared for a possible onslaught against her Blessed Realm. "Enter," she commanded softly. She wasn't sure if whomever was asking entrance was doing so in favor of destroying the Blessed Realm or for something beneficial to Robyn. So she would let them enter while she was on guard.
Something about it felt familiar, felt like it was feeling something up inside her. Her eyebrows rose in surprise as a picture began forming before her, and she squeaked loudly as familiar faces popped up.
"WEASEL! KITTY! HOW THE HELL!" she screamed as her two sisters, Sage, and Kayura suddenly appeared before her.
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Mwahahaha. Finished! The chapter is complete! Hoo-rah! Lalalala. This one took me a while to get into. It was hard for me to write this chapter for some reason. Oh well, I got it done! I'm so happy! I'm sleepy... I need food. This chapter made me starve myself.
Also, don't forget to head to my fan art web-site! I have absolutely no art there! It should be a blast! And in order to give you the URL I'm going to be confusing and challenge you to write this down. Okay. Here goes. Typical World Wide Web stuff. Dot. Next word begins with a "G" ends with an "S" has and "EO" and a "CITIE" in there somewhere. Dot. That Com thing. Slash. Not as in a male/male thingy. And actual Slash. Insert my pen name here. But instead of a - you should have an _ between the words that form my name... Or you could just go to my bio-page and click on the link there. Either way, it's not much of a challenge... maybe reading the stuff. Dunno. It confuses me!
-Gray