Chapter 18
::July 24::
Rylea's emotionless blue eyes narrowed into a confused frown at the red clad, black haired man who stood before her. The same man she called father, same person she bore a striking resemblance to ---now her enemy and the last one who stood in her way. She stopped her restless twirling of her katanas as a chuckle escaped her, "I'm sorry, did I just hear you say you're not going to fight me?"
Ryo's vivid blue eyes bore into his daughter's, no, she wasn't his daughter anymore. This person, this imposter who stood before him was not his daughter. She may look like her, may talk like her, but she was a wolf in sheep's clothing. "Hai, you heard right," he replied to her with an unwavering voice.
"Why not?" she asked him back as confusion slid across her features. His refusal to fight perplexed her; she couldn't understand why he wouldn't want to take the chance to stop her. "Do you want to die? Is that it?" Rylea threw at him irritably and then a smirk curled around her lips as she chuckled slightly and added, "Or is it that you can't bring yourself to fight me?"
No response came from Ryo as he just silently stared her down. Leinto looked in-between the two warriors, trying to comprehend what Ryo was doing by denouncing Rylea's duel but was coming up clueless. "Listen to me Ryo," he started out to him, "You can't win this by refusing to fight her. You must fight her!"
Nothing came from Ryo as a reaction to his words. Rylea's cold blue eyes looked back and forth between her father and her charge as a thought occurred to her. With a wicked grin spread across her face, "If you won't fight me," she declared and then started over in the direction the old man stood. "Then I'll just take care of gramps over here."
Leinto's weathered face held no emotion as he watched the demonic girl walk towards him, a dangerous smile playing over her lips as she fixed her sights on him. He held his chin up, his gray eyes connecting with hers and didn't look away. "Killing me won't solve anything, Rylea," he told her calmly. "It will only leave you feeling less alive, less complete inside and craving more death."
"But you see that's where you're wrong," the girl started as she stopped her walking now, leaving only a short amount of distance between herself and her prey. "Killing you will solve a lot of my problems."
"And how do you figure that?"
"You ruined my life," she spat at him, hatred and anger now claiming her voice as her cold blue eyes narrowed at the old man. "You took away what little bit of a normal life I had when you appeared with your talk of armors and destinies. You forced me to accept something I didn't want to," her eyes now closed as her hands tightened their grip around the hilts of her katanas, "You awakened something I never wanted. Pushed responsibilities on me, took away my life and made me commit to a life of serving the poor, defenseless people of Earth."
Leinto remained quiet as his gentle gray eyes roamed over the face of the girl in front of him. A frown, however, had settled over Ryo's features as he listened and watched what the girl had to say to the charge. Subtle understanding flooded across his face, as it became clear to him whom she was really angry with. Who her hatred was really aimed at. What she was really mad about.
Her eyes snapped back open while she raised the katanas from her side. The brief sign of grief and anger had been masked once again, replaced with her mocking smirk as she looked back at the graying old man in front of her. "But I'm going to end that right now!" she shouted while closing in the gap between her and the old man, her katanas raised high over her head before she brought them down on him.
"No!" Ryo's voice cut into her rage filled mind as a blur of red flashed in front of her eyes and the sound of metal clanging against metal rang in her ears. Leinto stepped back as the warrior of Wildfire raced in front of him, deflecting Rylea's attack, keeping her from hurting him. His frowning face now watched as the two Wildfire's stood at a stand off.
Ryo's blue eyed gaze stared hard down into the face of Rylea as he held his katanas up, holding her own at bay. Her face now held a mask of confusion on it as she silently asked him why he was protecting Leinto. The Ronin leader merely smirked down at her as he said, "Leinto's not the one you're really mad at, Rylea. He's not the one you really blame ---I am."
Emotionless blue eyes searched her father's face and Ryo went on while he still held her attention, "I'm the one you blame for your life being ruined. I'm the one you blame for being forced into becoming a Lady Ronin and taking your normal life away from you. I'm the one you hate, not Leinto."
Rylea faltered back now, her katanas falling motionless to her sides as her eyes wearily flicked over his face. So many chaotic emotions were swarming around her now. The confidence she had once had was gone and in its leave left a confused child. Ryo wasn't done with her though. He advanced on her now while saying, "Admit it, Lea. You hate me because I'm the reason you even have that armor in the first place. I'm the reason that you had all these responsibilities placed on you."
The girl stepped back from his advancing form. The tips of her katanas drug against the marbled floor as she walked, creating a scraping sound. Her arms hung uselessly at her sides as his words flooded into her mind, almost paralyzing her from fighting. A smirk now curled around Ryo's face as he went on still, not going to let up on her. "Ne, Rylea?" he asked her, his voice holding a certain amount of cheeriness to it, "I'm really the one all your anger and hatred is aimed at, right?"
The dark haired girl's face took on a far away look as she just silently shook her head, her shaggy hair flying around her face as she continued to back away from him. She refused to accept that he was the one she really hated. Ryo just kept right on walking towards her though. "Say it, Rylea," he ordered her, "Tell me you hate me, Lea. Say it!"
Rylea shook her head again, tears starting to form around the corners of her eyes but she held them back. Ryo saw them though, the first signs that he was maybe gaining some ground with her. He had her backed up into a corner and wasn't going to let her go. "Say it!" he screamed at her angrily, his blue eyes narrowing at her like daggers, "Tell me you hate me!"
"I hate you!" the girl screamed back at him, tears streaming down her face and the katana in her hand came up from her side in a slicing arch, the tip of the blade stopping just barely an inch from his face. Rylea held it there, her arm trembling slightly as hot, angry tears fell down her cheeks.
Stunned, Ryo just stared back at her, not counting on the fact that she'd actually come that close to doing him physical harm. His vivid blues looked back at her from over the tip of the blade, staring down the katana that was held to his face, as he stood frozen to the floor. Astonishment slid across his face as he watched her eyes beginning to waver ---her true, vivid blue eye color was beginning to fade in and out of the cold, emotionless color that now held her eyes.
Sirous watched the events unfold from a far, a frown beginning to form on his face as he watched his demoness being turned right in front of him. Already the demonic hold on her was beginning to waver and he couldn't afford to lose her this soon. He needed her to full fill the prophecy of the Goddess. Needed Rylea to awaken her, to be the carrier for the Goddess. Growling he shouted out to the girl, "Kill him Rylea! Do it now while you have the chance!"
Rylea didn't move, she almost looked to be in a battle with herself. The blade she held to her father's face wavered, but stayed where it had been pointed. An emotionless expression had now cloaked her face in its mask, making it hard to distinguish what she was thinking. Ryo's warm blue eyes stared back at her though, never once backing down or looking away from her. They just held her eyes, silently asking her to come back to him. A slight smile slid over his face as he declared, "You can't kill me, can you?"
"Yes, I can," she replied back stubbornly but no longer did she herself sound so confident of it. Her fingers trembled on the hilt of the blade as the inner battle for control raged on inside her.
"Then do it."
His reply caught her completely off guard. Blinking, she peered at him questioningly, scanning his stern looking face for something, anything that would tell her that he was kidding ---she found nothing. The unwavering, almost unnerving blue eyed gaze that looked back at her was enough assurance for her that he wasn't lying or just kidding around. Ryo meant what he had said to her. "Why?" came her almost whispered, unsure question back.
A chuckle came from the bearer of Wildfire as he sheathed his katanas back into the sheaths on his sides and then looked her dead in the eyes. "Because I want you to put me out of my misery," he plainly stated back to her, "It's killing me to see you tormented like this. To watch as you're being corrupted and turned against your family. Just kill me now, Rylea, do it so that I don't have to watch you being used like this anymore."
Confusion and disbelief melted across the girl's face as the blade she held in her hand dropped silently back at her side. Her wide, unbelieving eyes stared back at him, unable to say anything back at his request. He wanted her to kill him? Wanted her to end his suffering that she was bringing on him? He wasn't going to put up a fight like the other's had? Why would someone want that? Why would he want that, why would he want her to kill him just because she was a demon now?
Her mouth opened and closed a few times as no words came out. Swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, the girl piped out, "Why would you want that? Why would you want me to kill you just because of that?"
A kind, caring, understanding smile slid across Ryo's face now as he replied back, "Its simple. I love you, Rylea, and I'd rather die then see my little girl corrupted and changed, made into this demon that they all want you to be." The shock that came over her face at his words only gave Ryo more hope that maybe he was getting somewhere with her. Continuing on he said, "This isn't who you are. This isn't, and never will be who my Rylea is supposed to be. She's better then all of this, wouldn't let herself become someone else's puppet. She's too strong to let that happen to her."
The dark haired girl's eyes now searched his face as his words flowed into her mind, connecting with her somewhere. She could hear Sirous shouting from somewhere behind her, ordering her to kill him but for some reason she couldn't make her self follow out his command. Her body wouldn't let her do it even if her mind wanted to. So many emotions whirled around her, pulling her into their grasp as she fought to free herself from the place she had found her self trapped in. The girl faltered, taking a step back from him, no longer wanting to hear what he had to say to her. He was the enemy. She was supposed to be fighting him, killing him and yet she couldn't force herself to. Couldn't bring herself to left a hand to him.
Ryo's armored hand came up from his side, reaching out to her in silent understanding. His caring blue eyes urged her to take his hand, take a hold of it and come back to him. She eyed the hand wearily, wanting to take a hold of it but couldn't make herself. Her body was frozen, paralyzed now and she couldn't move. "Just take my hand," he told her and Rylea's shaking eyes looked up at him. She was so confused now and didn't know what she was supposed to do.
Ryo smiled reassuringly to her as he took one small step towards his daughter, holding his hand out to her more now as he said, "Come on, Lea, just take my hand and everything will be ok. I promise."
His comforting words swirled around her, reaching out to Rylea like his outstretched hand did ---silently asking the girl to take it. The katanas she held in her hands slipped from her grasp and clattered to the cold ground beneath her, the sound of them connecting with the floor ricocheted off the walls and echoed eerily in the room. No longer was there a confidant, mocking glow on her pretty face ---now confusion was the only thing that held her features. Confidence was now replaced with the consuming feeling of being lost.
Rylea blinked several times as if coming out of a daze as she stared at the man she bore a striking resemblance to and it was almost as if you could see her change right before your eyes. Her once clouded blue eyes became vivid again and the almost other worldly beauty she had melted away. Her mouth now moved several times without a sound coming from it until she finally managed a weak, "Daddy?"
A relieved, happy smile spread over Ryo's face as he said back, "Yeah baby, it's me."
The girl only blinked more as she tried to remember what had happened to her. Everything felt as if she had been on the outside, watching from another's point of view, unable to do anything. Furrowing her brows in confusion she started to say, "What hap-" before the clock behind her chimed midnight and a searing pain ripped through her body, causing her to scream out in agony.
Ryo could only watch helplessly as his daughter fell to her knees with head down, grasping at her chest and crying in pain as something happened to her. Whipping his head around, Ryo's eyes connected with Leinto's and silently asked him what was going on. Leinto's answer never came. An immense, dark power began to build around Ryo, choking him under its weight. Taking a staggering step back, the warrior of virtue stared wide eyed as his daughter once again grasped the katanas, then stood slowly, in one fluid movement from the floor where she had been kneeling.
Throwing her head back to knock the shaggy hair that hung around and off her shoulders, Rylea then took in a deep breath of the air around her, filling her lungs to their capacity before then exhaling it. A soft, almost hypnotic laugh flowed from her now as the girl brought her head back up, revealing what they all had feared to be true. A cold, mocking smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she said, "Hmm, does it ever feel good to be back again," and then laughed that soft, hypnotic laugh again.
Ryo just stared, awe struck at what had just happened. First she'd been back, she had, then all of a sudden the clock chimes and he loses his daughter again for her to become this.... this.... He didn't even know what she was. All he knew was that once again his daughter was lost to them and this new person who now held control over her held a great deal of power. So much power that it almost seemed to radiate from her, choking out everything and anything around it; consuming it in its dark grasp.
The charge now walked slowly up to stand next to Ryo, leaning heavily on his staff while he stared at the girl standing before them. He was awe struck. He'd heard of the prophecy of the Goddess of Night, had heard stories of her try to rule the mortal and demon worlds ---but never thought that they'd actually be able to resurrect her again. But yet here she was, standing before them and now they all had a very big problem on their hands.
"You may call me Goddess," Rylea's hypnotic voice said over in Ryo's direction before her mocking eyes fell on him and she added in a sultry voice, "or Goddess Rylea. Which ever suits you better is fine."
"Neither do," Ryo spat back at the demonic Goddess he once knew to be his daughter.
The Goddess Rylea ignored Ryo's words as her eyes then came to rest upon the new people who had just awakened from their slumber. A smirk curled around her pouty lips as she surveyed their power and auras, trying to get a feel as to how much of a problem they might be for her. "Well, well, well," she said and licked her lips before then laying her index finger on her bottom lip as if in a pondering manner. "who all do we have here?"
"My Goddess," Sirous greeted as he appeared at her side, kneeling to her in respect of her authority before then standing before her again. He waited for her nod towards him before beginning to talk again, "These armored nuisances would be the Ronins and Lady Ronins."
"Hm, really?" she replied as if mildly intrigued and then added, "Well, you'll have to fill me in about these people. I haven't had enough time to tap into this girl's memories yet."
"This girl?" Ryo repeated with growing anger, "'This girl' you're referring to happens to by my daughter and I demand you let her go!"
The Goddess only stared at him with an almost oh-please kind of expression. His anger towards her amused her, gave her strength and only fueled her power more. Chuckling in slight mirth she turned to Sirous and asked, "Who would he be?"
"He's Ryo of the Wildfire and Rylea's father. Also the leader of the Ronins," Sirous replied with an almost sneering smirk thrown over at them. He was enjoying the glory of his triumph more than anything.
"Is he now?" she said sweetly before then turning a smiling face onto the glaring Ryo, "Well, I'm sorry to inform you of this but your daughter is gone. She's never coming back."
"You lie!" Ryo shouted back, his hands balling into fists at his sides as his eyes narrowed dangerously at her. His temper was rocketing out of control and fast.
The hypnotic laugh came from her before she replied, "I never lie."
"I know you're lying! Lea wouldn't just give up like that! She can't be gone! She's not, you're lying!" the teary, determined voice of Rona cut into the conversation. She stood in a half circle, the rest of her friends banded together around her. Dried blood caked a cut on her cheek and she looked worn out from all the fighting she had been doing.
The Goddess', sharp, vivid blue eyes flicked from Ryo's red armored form then and onto the blue armored girl who had spoken to her. She quietly sized her up for a moment before narrowing her eyes and demanding, "Who is she?"
"She is-"
"I'm Rona of Strata, Rylea's cousin," Rona proclaimed in a stern, unwavering voice as she cut Sirous off, "And the three standing beside me are Keish of Hardrock, Kami of Torrent and Heather of Halo."
"Is that so," she retorted with a smirk before chuckling as if she were beginning to find their antics humorous and flicked at the wild bangs that hung in her eyes, "And tell me something, Rona of Strata, what makes you so certain that this Rylea is not gone?"
"Because I know my cousin and she isn't a quitter. Even if all odds were against her she'd still stand her ground and fight," Rona informed her hotly, her purple-blue eyes blazing with heated emotion now as she glared the girl in front of her down and three helmet bearing heads nodded in agreement behind her.
"You may have control of Lea for now lady, but she'll come around sooner or later. She's not one to take being controlled easily," Keish proclaimed hotly in defense of her best friend as she stepped up to stand beside Rona, holding her side in pain but her face showed no sign of it.
Ryo's eyes were now narrowed and his face held no smile as he finished up with, "I'm going to get my daughter back even if it's the last thing I do."
"And it may very well be," the Goddess told him smugly before smirking more at his glaring face. Chuckling slightly she reached up and yanked off the fire pendant that hung around her neck, then pulled Rylea's yori orb from her pocket. Smirking sweetly at them all she said, "I doubt she'll be needing these anymore," then tossed the red orb onto the floor before bringing her foot down upon it ---shattering the orb into pieces. A gasp sounded around the room at her actions and it only made the Goddess smile more.
She looked over the fire pendant a minute before tossing it disinterestedly down onto the remnants of the Wildfire orb and pronounced threateningly, "I'll be seeing you all very soon. Until then, enjoy the rest of your pathetic lives, adeo." With a shimmer of air, Rylea's form melted into a shadow and was gone. Her haunting smile, though, lingered in the air before finally disappearing along with her. Sirous smiled at all of them while pulling a necklace from his pocket. Tossing it onto the pile of other things he then disappeared from the room as well.
"No!" Ryo shouted as he fell to his knees and punched the stone floor, leaving a dent in its leave. He squeezed his eyes shut as tears streamed from them and shouted in agony, "Rylea!"
Leinto walked up to the glinting pieces of the Wildfire orb, bending slightly to pick them up and stopped when the fire pendant laying on top of them began to crackle and glow as if it would if it were hanging around its owner's neck. The pieces began to glow then before a bright red light engulfed them and the pieces pulled themselves back together ---forming the Wildfire yori orb with its kanji burning brightly in the center of it. The aging charge smiled as he picked the orb, fire pendant and silver pendant up from the floor and turned to the others, holding out the three things in the palm of his hands for all to see. "We still have a chance at saving Rylea. The orb repaired its self because the bearer of the Wildfire armor is not gone. Rylea is still alive."
Firm nods came as a response from the others as they stared at the things in Leinto's palms. If Rylea was still alive then that meant they could still save her. They just needed to figure out how to do that now. Tadin walked up to the group now, White Blaze beside him. The blond young man held no emotion on his face as he said, "Come on, we can go to my place. She's not going to be coming back here and most likely will be heading for the mortal world now."
Leinto nodded to him, signaling that he was right in his accusations. Turning from the group the blond hybrid headed for the doors they had come through, saying over his shoulder, "Follow me," and then was gone, the others trudging along after him.
-There was a celebration of rejoice that night in the demon realm. Their Goddess had returned to them finally, but not all in the demon world were rejoicing the return of the Goddess of Night. Some shuddered at the thought and only hoped that she'd be stopped once again before it was too late for the mortal world ---but would anyone be able to stop her this time? Will the Ronins and Lady Ronins pull themselves together in time to save Rylea, along with mankind? Or will the Goddess finally have her dream become reality?-
A dreary, depressed mood hung over the room they all sat in now. Even Tadin seemed to be sharing the same feelings as the rest of the Ronins and Lady Ronins. A deafening silence clung to the whole penthouse it seemed and only added to the dismal mood. Confused, hurt, afraid and guilt were only a few of the many feelings that could clearly be seen in the expressions on their faces. They had lost a teammate, a friend, a family member and none had even the slightest idea as to how they were going to stop her let alone get her back.
Ryo sat alone, huddled as far away from the rest of the group as possible. Thoughts raced through his mind a mile a minute. Thoughts of what was going to happen ---would they win and how was he going to get his daughter back. His daughter. Rylea. Ryo squeezed his eyes shut tight against the thoughts of her and covered his face with his hands in shame. It's all my fault. I was supposed to protect her and I failed in doing that. Nice going Ryo, some father you are. He patronized himself. That little voice in the back of his mind kept blaming him, criticizing Ryo for what had happened to Rylea.
A hand clamped down on Ryo's shoulder, gently squeezing him in silent comfort. Ryo opened his eyes, removing his hands from his face and stared up into one violet eye. Sage's concerned face looked down at him, asking Ryo without saying a word if he was ok. "Sage?" was all Ryo could muster up to say while he stared up at the bruised and battered face of Sage. The beating he'd taken from Rylea could still be clearly seen on his face even though the man had healed most of the wounds.
"You ok, Ryo?" Sage asked back while settling himself down next to the dark haired leader, wincing slightly as his ribs protested against the way he was bent over before leaning his back against the wall behind him.
Ryo chuckled bitterly and laid his head back against the wall behind him, "What do you think?"
"I think you've been better," the blond half joked with a light, whimsical smile before becoming serious again. "Ryo, we're going to get her back. Like hell am I going to let my niece be taken like this."
"No, but I did," Ryo replied with a heavy sigh and closed his eyes once again. "I did nothing to help her, Sage. I let her be taken like this. She was right in front of me, right there, and I couldn't do anything but watch that demonic witch take control of my little girl. What kind of a father does that, Sage?"
A frown passed over Sage's features at Ryo's spiel. He had no idea, well guessed that he was probably blaming himself, but didn't know that he felt this way. "Ryo," Sage started in his tone that meant a lecture was coming. "There was nothing you or any of us could have done for her, you know that right? We weren't prepared for it nor did we know it would happen like this. You did what you knew you could and that's all."
Continuing on he said, "Ryo, you're a good father. You had to take on the responsibility of becoming a single parent and raise two kids by yourself and as far as I'm concerned you did one hell of a job." The slight chuckle he gained from the black haired man seated beside him made a small smile form on Sage's face as he went on, "That little girl loves you more than anything and right now she's depending on you to save her, Ryo. Now get your ass up, get off the guilt trip and pull yourself together. We need you as a leader and Rylea needs you to be strong and not lose hope for her. She's counting on you Ryo, now get up and start figuring something out because I know you can. I know, I've seen what you can do when you set your mind to it."
Ryo just gaped at Sage for the longest time after his speech. He didn't know what to say in return to him. Finally a light, almost renewed smile spread over his face and Ryo said, "You're right, Sage. Lea needs me and I'm not going to let her down."
"Now that's the Ryo I know," Sage replied and stood, extending his hand down to him for Ryo to take. The raven haired leader took Sage's hand and the blond pulled him to his feet, "So, what do we do leader?"
"I'll tell you what we need to do," Kento's heated voice came from somewhere over their shoulders. The warrior of Hardrock sat on the couch, Rowen looking over the gash on his head to make sure that he hadn't obtained a concussion from it. "We need to find that demonic bitch and take her ass out!"
"It's not that simple, Kento," Cye's almost weak sounding voice retorted as he came back over to him with an ice pack in his hand for his head. Handing it to him he sat back down beside him and sighed while continuing, "We don't know what we're up against, not to mention what her plans are and there's still Rylea we have to keep in mind."
Kento growled in aggravation while placing the ice pack to the back of his head, "I know that Cye, but what are we getting done by just sitting around here? For all we know that psychotic witch could be out terrorizing the people of the city!"
"And what exactly are we supposed to do, Kento? We're all still just recovering from the fight we had with Rylea," Rowen now added as he moved on to look over the girls' wounds and make sure they were ok. "We at least need enough time to do that before we just rush off into another battle."
"Time is not on our side though," Leinto's quiet voice broke into the conversation. He looked about ready to drop over from all the stress and worry that had been placed on him in the last day. He sighed heavily while walking into the room they all were congregated in.
Ryo smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest and leveled the charge with a stony gaze, "Why do I get the feeling that there's something that you yet again have neglected to tell us, Leinto?"
"Maybe because the dude always waits til the last minute to tell us things that we prolly should have known about to begin with," Kento's sarcastic comment cut into the conversation.
Leinto sighed, closing his eyes briefly as he let his head drop. There were some many things that he could have done differently. He could have told them about his suspicions before they became true and it was too late. Maybe if he had then all of this could have been prevented. He didn't know that though, maybe even if they had known then it still would have happened ---no one would ever know. Bringing his head back up he looked out at everyone and said, "We only have until the time that Rylea was born."
"2:15," Ryo replied almost instantly, a sudden feeling of dread creeping to his voice, "She was born at 2:15."
"Why would we only have until then?" Sage's confused voice asked the question that was on everyone's mind.
The graying charge hesitated a minute, almost trying to decide on how to explain it to them so that it would make sense. Hashing out word for word on what he was going to say, he opened his mouth and replied, "Because after that time there will be no turning her back. Every newly awakened hybrid has a time limit, a window you could say, for them to decide to not go the full demon route or to. The only thing that is keeping the Goddess sustained in Rylea is the fact that she is still a hybrid. We take that control away and the Goddess will be forced to let go."
"And we do that how?" came Rowen's question.
"I don't know," the charge admitted sadly. "If she were still just a full hybrid then I would say that Ryo had that almost done, but now that the Goddess has control of her.....I don't know how to."
"Well that's just great!" exploded Kento as he stood only to have to sit back down as he swayed slightly from the hit to his head.
"Dad please," Keish pleaded as she sat beside him, placing one hand on her father's shoulder. "Try to stay calm, ok?"
"It's kinda hard to, Keish, when the guy who's supposed to be the greatest help to us isn't helping us out in the least bit," he raged on while putting the ice pack back against his head. "I mean, we've got a prophesized Goddess running around town doing only God knows what and we don't even know what to do about it!"
"And we all hear you on that Kento, but getting all upset and hot headed about it isn't going to change anything. Neither is rushing headfirst into a fight with her without even having a plan to begin with," Sage told him, a frown starting to pinch his forehead.
"Well I'm sorry my idea doesn't appeal to ya, blondie! How bout we do things your way and meditate on this for a while, meanwhile the city is being destroyed!" the warrior of Hardrock yelled back at the blond swordsman.
"Yeah and if we rush in then we're just going to end up getting ourselves killed, which means the city is destroyed anyway! Gee, your idea is just sounding better and better, Kento!"
"Better than what I'm hearing coming from you!"
"Come on you two, would you both just stop," Cye pleaded with them.
"Neither one of you are being very productive here!" Ryo's angered voice shot into the conversation.
"Yeah well I don't see you doing anything and she's your daughter, Ryo!" Kento's blazing eyes retorted accusingly over in their leader's direction.
"Why you-" Ryo growled out as he reached to grab Kento up by the shirt, clenching his hands tightly onto the fabric of it and balled one fist up behind him, pulling it back as he got ready to let it loose on him. Rowen grabbed a hold of Ryo before he could hit Kento, him and Sage both dragging the angered man off of a stunned and still angered looking Kento.
"Stop it!"
Everyone went quiet, so silent that you could have heard a pin drop. No one moved. The glaring face of Rona stared them all down, almost daring the adults to say something else to each other. They didn't though; all five of them just silently gaped at the girl. Clenching her hands into fists at her sides she criticized them, "Look at you guys. You're supposed to be our role models, the seniors of this whole armor business, supposed to be showing us what we're supposed to be doing and instead of doing that you're acting like children! Fighting over pettily little things instead of putting your heads together and coming up with a plan!"
Swallowing the lump in her throat she continued on with eyes blazing, "My cousin needs our help and what are we doing? What are any of you doing? Nothing! You're the Ronin Warriors who defeated Talpa, have survived against all odds and yet you're all fighting like little kids."
The Ronins hung their heads in shame or looked away from the young bearer of Strata. She was right, they weren't being very mature at the moment and it wasn't helping anyone out because of it. They were on a time limit and time, unfortunately, was not on their side at the moment.
She breathed in the cool, crisp night air while walking down the sidewalks of the mortal world. Her exquisite red and gold dress ran down to her mid thigh before tapering off to the side, the light breeze ruffling it as it blew. Her black, lace up, knee length high heeled boots clicked as she walked along on the cement, the sound echoing around her. Gold bracelets hung from her wrists, clanging together as she moved her arms. A feral grin played on her lips as she walked along the deserted street by herself. The sky was pitch black, no moon hung in the sky tonight, giving everything around her an eerie, dark appearance to it. Her eyes burned a luminescent yellowish green color in the darkness that surrounded her. The darkness didn't bother her. She loved it, lived for it. The shadows held nothing from her, she could see everything even in this darkest of night.
For too long she had been locked away. Sentenced to a life of misery and exile ---but now she was back. Things had changed since the last time she had tried to take over the mortal world, but the humans were still the inferior race, easily taken advantage of and easily conquered. This time her dreams were going to be seen though, were going to be followed through with and nothing was going to stop her.
A smirk curled around her lips as she thought of the pathetic fools who thought they could stop her. A chuckle escaped her. They had no idea what was in store for them. She wasn't the same as before. This time she was stronger and it was all thanks to the girl who she now possessed. The girl's powers only added to her own, making her twice the demon she had been before.
Brushing her bangs from her eyes, she set her luminescent eyes onto the unaware city before her. Smirking she declared in Latin, "Vos mos cunctus morior," before repeating in Japanese, "You will all die." Then turned and melted into a shadow, melding into the darkness around her.
A/N: Ok, here ya go. I finally got this done and I think in probably record time. Anyway, bear with me on the Latin. It's not my native language so if it is yours, or you speak it and any of my Latin is not correct, just let me know and I'll change it. On the same topic, Latin is the native language to the demon's so, if you do speak the language and would like to become my official translator, let me know. Thanks go out to MorganRay, and another good friend of mine, Rogue.