Author's note: Wow! I got FOUR reviews for the last chapter! I'm the happiest girl in all England! Thanks Guys (and girls) Anyway Tashayarna I don't think the author of 'a future rewritten' is coming back, or she would have write something by now… By the Ryu Gunslinger I reviewed your story, though I don't think using reviews for advertising is very nice… well never mind, I gotta write the story.

Disclaimer: What do you think? I no own.

Paths of the Heart

Chapter X: Reunion

"Eeep… where do you think we are Ryu?" Erma said quietly as they sidestepped though the dark passageway (seeing as it was not wide enough to walk)

"…" Nothing was said.

"Indeed I do agree with Erma, Ryu where are we?" Steve piped in.

"If I knew then I would tell you wouldn't I?" Ryu hissed in annoyance,

They both shut up.

And so they continued in silence, until of course Erma fell into a giant pit.

"Ah! Help!"

"Erma!" said Steve and Ryu simultaneously as she continued to scream,

"Hold on!" Steve said throwing out his hand for her to grab, which luckily she did. "Got you…" he said lifting her up.

"You all right?" Ryu asked, leaning down next to her

"I-I-I am O-okay… I t-think…" She stuttered, hands shaking.

"I think we should rest for a while…" Ryu said, they both nodded agreeing that that would be a good course of action for that moment, and sat down, though Erma's eyes kept darting nervously back to the pit, as though it would swallow then all up.

"W-why do you think there is a pit there anyway?" She asked still rather shaken.

"Who knows, more likely than not it crumbled from use and instead of fixing it, they just closed this route." Ryu said shrugging, as he stood up, dusting his butt, from the dirt on the ground.

"Eakkk!" Erma screamed, both Ryu and Steve (who had been surprisingly quiet for the last few minutes) turned to her again.

"What's wrong? Did you fall down that pit again!" Steve shouted sounding worried.

"N-no… It- It's much worse than that…" Said Erma, absolutely terrified.

"Then what is it!" Ryu then said, frustrated.

"It's- It's- It's! -"Erma stuttered.

"It's what!" Ryu shouted.

"A spider!"

Ryu and Steve were not impressed at the sound of the 'terrible' creature.

Steve sighed and pulled a torch from his backpack, and shone it on the spider, picked it up and stuck on a spider web.

Ryu gasped, "A stick that shines light! Amazing!"

Steve looked at him "It's called a torch, mate." Ryu scratched the back of his head.

"Uh… I knew that." He said.

"Hello, anyone going to pay any attention to me? I could be scarred for life," Erma piped in, as Steve whispered into Ryu's ear.

"She's terrified of spider's she is, very shy too, when she meets someone she doesn't know."

Ryu rolled his eyes.

"I could tell that," Said Ryu quietly, and then out loud "Can we please go now? Enough pits and spiders."

Erma moaned, "But… can't we stay here for a bit longer, I want to rest." Ryu looked at her, deep in thought for anyway to get her to hurry up.

"… What about him?" he said pointing to the spider "Don't want to get eaten do we?" Erma's eyes widened, and she quickly hurried up, though slowing down slightly when passing the spider.

"What's this…" Ryu murmured as they came to something solid, "Steve, give me your glowing stick." He said holding out his hand, beckoning for Steve to give him the torch, which he did. "How do you work this contraption?" he asked handing back to Steve.

Steve flipped the switch, "Like this," no light came out, "Uh… out of power…" Ryu rubbed his forehead in frustration, he would have to…"

"BURN!"

A flame shot up, blinding both Steve and Erma, setting fire to a stick lying dormant on the ground.

"Wha?" was all Steve's mouth could muster.

Ryu shot him a look that said 'ask and die' so he said nothing, Ryu then picked up the burning stick from the ground, and explored the wall, "It's…"

"A lift…" Erma finished for him.

"But why would there be a lift here?" Steve asked, Ryu shook his head.

"Let's just go up." Said Erma pressing the 'open' button.

"I hope it works…" Said Steve, and to all their delight the Lift opened revealing (the very rusty) inside. They all stepped in, Ryu discarding the flaming torch just outside before he burnt his fingers.

Steve pressed the up button.

"So… this 'lift' takes you up the building, right?" he asked, Steve nodded.

"Say, Ryu where do you come from anyway? I can tell you aren't certainly from around here." Steve asked, his curiosity now at a dangerously high point from walking around with the blue haired dragon.

"I'm from… a very far away place…"

Steve said nothing thinking his answer very suspicious, so instead Erma asked, "Do you miss your home?"

"…Yeah."

'Bing'

the lift remarked, Ryu glanced to the side where the words 'top floor' were now highlighted.

'We're here." He thought happily.

The lift slid noisily open, not used to being used as they stepped out at what seemed an abandoned corridor. Note the 'seemed' in my sentence readers, as it usually means a fight of some sort, as indeed it will incur in a short time.

"I never liked the top floor, it's too clean compared to the rest of the building…" whispered Erma "It's too quiet… this floor is usually the busiest, there should be someone here…"

"Should. Would. Could. Is." Sneered a voice, echoing round the corridor.

"Who's there?" Ryu asked bravely stepping in front of Erma and Steve, drawing his sword, the Dragonslayer.

"I've been watching you for quite a while now 'Ryu' and I think it's time I put an end to this game, don't you think."

"What Game? Who are you!" Ryu shouted.

"This game." Something silver shot towards Ryu and he sidestepped barely missing it by inches, he turned and his eyes widened as he saw a single silver shiny dagger embedded in the wall.

"Okay guys, I've got good and bad news," Deis said casually as she warped back right in front of Ursula, frightening the living daylights out of her, "Which news do you want first?"

"Hey! Don't just warp right in front of me! I thought you were Fou-Lu! You should say when you are about to do that!" Ursula shouted, Deis and Cray completely ignored her.

"Good first." Said Cray.

"OI! I'm talking to you don't ignore me!" Ursula shouted again.

"Well the good news is that I found how to get Ryu and Nina back," Deis said, still not listening to Ursula's Ranting in the background.

"DON'T YOU DARE NOT LISTEN TO ME, I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Ursula voice reached a verrrry high point, but still they ignored her.

"And w-whats the bad ne-news?" asked Scais.

"The bad news is that we need Fou-Lu to do it…. And Ursula is about to explode." She said, and indeed, Ursula seemed a bit more purple than usual.

"Don't be a coward! Show yourself!" Ryu shouted snapping back from his bout of shock.

"Very well." Said the voice as a man dropped from the ceiling like a bat, he did not look very friendly thought Ryu, almost everything he wore was black and silver, from his boots to his earrings, which thought Ryu made him look like a woman.

"I'll help you Ryu." Said Steve also stepping forward,

"Here!" said Ryu throwing a scramsax from his item list that had just magically appeared to Steve.

The man smirked "Lovely, I get to kill two birds with one stone, or rather dagger!" He smirked letting out a rather insane laugh.

"By the way my name is 'Bolt'." He added.

"And why would you tell us that?" Steve asked.

"So you can tell everyone about how I beat you… Everyone in hell that is, cause that's where you're going!"

Ryu's eyes narrowed,

"Buy a joke book." He said before he launched himself at Bolt.

Ryu quickly dodged all the daggers that Bolt threw at him as he rammed towards him.

SLICE

Ryu had stabbed him in the shoulder, Bolt glared at him clutching his wound, aiming another dagger and shouting, "Get another hair style!"

Ryu smirked, "No thanks." Dodging it. However unfortunately he didn't notice the other dagger.

Time seemed to slow down as the dagger approached Ryu, he stood there frozen to the spot as if Scais had cast Ice blast, there was not much time left now, he closed his eyes…

CRASH

Then opened them, then blinked, Steve stood there, he had miraculously deflected the dagger with his own sword, even though he had never used one in his life. And the dagger… it was deflected right back, to Bolt, there was sickening crunch, and everyone knew what that meant, Bolt fell to his knees, "I… have failed… you win… Boy." He said as he slumped to the ground.

Ryu smiled "No one makes fun of my hair. Thanks Steve, now let's go rescue Nina."

Steve nodded mutely stunned by his own skill, walking towards Ryu, Erma following, the same expression on her face.

They walked towards a massive door saying:

Test Lab

Staff only

"This is most likely where your friend is Ryu." Erma said, Ryu nodded happily pushing the door open to find…

"RYU!" Squeaked a happy familiar voice, Ryu turned to the source to see Nina in a glass cylinder looking well… very excited.

Ryu ran over to her, and they both stared into each other's eyes for minutes though to them it was like seconds until Steve called out.

"Aren't you going to let her out then?"

Ryu blinked and blushed "oh… yeah." He said walking over to a control panel and pressing the open button, and it seemed as soon as he did that he was smothered by a mass of blonde hair.

"Oh Ryu my hero! I thought I was stuck there forever!" she only let go of him when he started coughing from lack of air. "Sorry…" she muttered letting go.

"No it's me who should be sorry Nina, I should have got here yesterday."

"Well… actually I'm kind of glad you came today." Nina said.

Ryu blinked "Why?"

"They were strip-searching me yesterday for anything I could use to escape. Ummm… I don't think you'd want to see that." The notorious blush had returned.

From the back Steve snickered "Ah, young love…" he said placing both his hands over his heart.

Now both of them were blushing.

"Oh, come on it is so obvious, admit It." said Steve eagerly.

They turned to each other, looked into the other's eyes, then simultaneously turned round with their arms folded and said:

"Nahhh…"