Chapter 20

::July 25::

Darkness was everywhere. It covered the streets, the buildings and even the ground they walked on. The sky its self was even black, pitch black like everything else around them. The little light they had came from the streetlights they passed under now and again. An eerie, still feeling seemed to hang in the air, consuming everything around it within its grasp. The clanking sound of their feet stepping on the pavement echoed around them as Ryo, Sage and Rowen walked down the silent back streets leading into the city.

"It's quiet," Rowen's voice finally broke the silence that clung to everything around them with his observation. His eyes wearily flicked over the surrounding area, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

"Yeah," Sage's voice replied back, his head focused away from Rowen as he added, "A little too quiet if you ask me."

Ryo rolled his tiger blue eyes at the two, a slight chuckle escaping the Ronin leader as he said, "Guys, maybe that's because it's a little after one in the morning."

A thoughtful look fell over the two Ronin's faces as they took in what he said in retort. True it was early in the morning and all normal people would be asleep, but this was no ordinary night. A demonic Goddess roamed these streets, wearing the face of a familiar person, hell bent on taking over the mortal world. With that little tid bit of knowledge wearing heavily on your mind, you didn't take anything too lightly.

"So," Rowen started up a conversation once again as they walked along the back pathway. "You think Leinto and Tadin found the answer to our problem yet?"

Sage sighed heavily before he replied, "I hope so. I mean, we've fought just demonic Rylea and it wasn't easy, the girl was near to impossible to land a hit on.....Makes you wonder just how strong she is now that the Goddess has control of her."

"The girl wasn't just strong, Sage, she was fearless and didn't really care what happened to herself or to anyone else. She stared down my arrow for heaven sake and actually ordered me to let it go on her! The girl was just scary!"

"Would you two stop referring to her in the past tense!" Ryo's angered and yet emotional outburst stopped Rowen and Sage in their tracks. Both Ronins now stared at their leader, regarding him cautiously, the look on his face making them both question whether he was about to break down into tears or go psycho on them. Ryo did neither. The Ronin leader simply sighed as he ran a hand through his wild black hair and looked down at the pavement below him while saying, "I'm sorry you guys, it's just-"

A small smile spread over Sage's face as he replied while laying a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry about it, Ryo. We understand, we're fathers too after all."

"Yeah, but we didn't mean to refer to her in that manner.... We, we were just meaning how she was before, well....You know," Rowen stammered out, trying to smooth things over on the touchy subject with the hot headed man.

Ryo shook his head, a smile now coming to his face as he waved the two off. "It's ok guys," he said while now turning to continue on down the alleyway. "Let's just get moving." The warrior of Wildfire stopped dead in his tracks as he turned around and his eyes came to rest on the one person he thought he wouldn't see, had hoped he wouldn't have to see ---Rylea.

The demonic Goddess chuckled lightly as she uncrossed her legs from in front of her and pushed herself away from the wall of the building she had been leaning on. Her head swayed from side to side to knock the long, shaggy hair off her shoulders as she walked towards them, a dangerous smile playing on her lips. "Well hello Ronins," she said to them pleasantly and then opened her eyes to reveal the luminescent, almost cat like, eyes instead of her carrier's vivid blue ones. "So nice to you see all again."

He couldn't move. It was almost as if she had paralyzed him to the ground he stood on by just looking at him, even though Ryo knew that wasn't the case. He could now feel his friends come up on either side of him, but he couldn't make himself look over at them ---his eyes were now glued to the form approaching them. Ryo wasn't prepared for all the chaotic emotions that were running through him now, grief, anger, happiness --- the sudden urge to run and grab his daughter up into his arms and tell her how sorry he was while telling her over and over again that everything was going to be fine. He couldn't though and Ryo knew that.

A slow, sadistic, almost gleeful smirk spread its way across the Goddess' lips as Ryo's grief filled thoughts ran through her mind. She chuckled lightly and said while fixing her eyes on Ryo, "Everything isn't going to be ok, Ryo of Wildfire." The Goddess laughed more now, that slow, hypnotic laugh, seemingly thinking that what she had told him was funny in someway or another.

Ryo growled now at the mocking demoness, his hands balling into fists at his side to keep his temper at bay. "What did you do to my daughter?" he asked from behind gritted teeth.

"Oh, let me think here for a minute," the Goddess replied as she began to tap her finger against her lips as if she were thinking about something. Snapping her fingers she then said, "Oh yes, I remember what I did with her now. I locked her away, far away, in a cold, dark place for all eternity."

Her eyes turned hard and seemed to flicker in the darkness as she added in a cold, stony voice, "Just like you Ronin Warriors did to me."

"Look Lady, we had nothing to do with that. We don't even wear the same armor as they had when you were stopped from creating chaos on Earth the first time!" Ryo shouted angrily back at her and Sage and Rowen nodded their heads firmly in agreement with their leader from either side of Ryo.

A chuckle shook the Goddess' shoulders as she laughed at their words. She shook her head like a parent does when they're exasperated with explaining things to a child, her unruly dark hair swinging around her shoulders and smiled wickedly. "Doesn't matter," the Goddess Rylea stated to them in a conversational way. "Doesn't matter whether you have the same armor or not, you all still look the same as you did when I first tried to take over the mortal world." Looking directly at Ryo now she added, "Especially you, Hariel. You and your white armor were what sealed me away."

"I'm sorry?" Sage chuckled out as he looked from his leader to the demonic girl standing before them. "You think Ryo is Hariel?"

"Non inquit?" the Goddess asked in her native tongue then repeated in their language, "Is he not?"

Rowen blinked several times as he cautiously surveyed the enemy standing just a few feet in front of them. She had been brought back from where ever she had been sealed away to and now thought that not only were they the same Ronin Warriors who had once before locked her away, but that Ryo was Hariel himself? "Look, Ryo isn't Hariel and we are not the same Ronin Warriors who defeated you the first time. Those guys are dead now and have been for some time."

"Praeter insidior ut servo ipsmet," she spat at them angrily once again in her own language and then replied in a language they would understand, "I tire of your lies so I'll just get down to the real reason why I decided to show myself to you all."

"And that would be why?" the warrior of Halo asked of the Goddess, an uneasy feeling now starting to settle in the pit of his stomach.

The Goddess smiled wickedly over in his direction as she replied, "I have your friends Hardrock and Torrent."

"What?!" all three warriors replied in unison with a startled and yet surprised gasp.

Her smile grew even more now. Their reactions thrilled her. Beginning to slowly walk backwards away from the three Ronin Warriors, the Goddess said, "I'll be waiting in the park in Toyama. Find your other little friends and meet me there before 2:15 or I'll kill them both. Adeo, Ronin Warriors." With her speech to them finished, the Goddess then melted into the shadows surrounding her, leaving no trace that she was ever there as she left.

"Wait! Don't go yet!" Ryo shouted after her but the Goddess was already gone. He cursed and swore angrily as Sage and Rowen watched him with a weary eye.

"Dad!" someone shouted from behind them, footsteps now clanging down the alleyway towards them and alerted the three warriors to another's presence. Turning around, they found the four Lady Ronins running towards them and immediately a sense of relief washed over Rowen and Sage at the sight of them.

"Hey, you four ok?" Sage asked as they stopped before them, panting as if they had just run from half way across town.

"The...Goddess...." Rona panted out as she tried to catch her breath.

"She...took...uncle Kento...and uncle Cye," Heather finished for her as she took in huge gulps of air to fill her lungs with.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Ryo now said soothingly to the four girls as he walked up to them, a frown covering his face. "Take it easy you guys, we already know."

"How?" Keish now put in as she stood up straight, her breathing now back to its regular rhythm.

A smirk consumed Rowen's face as he replied, "We just had our own little run in with her," then a frown replaced his smirk as he got a look at the, what appeared to be, claw marks on Kami's neck. Walking over to the small girl he tipped her head gently to the side and surveyed her neck better while saying, "What happened, Kami?"

"That witch got her," Keish growled out, tightening her hands at her sides as the memory of what just recently had happened to herself and her two other friends burned brightly in her mind. She hated the fact that she had been totally helpless to do anything for Kami.

Rowen nodded his head absently as he continued to survey them, making sure that there was no real damage done to anything. "Well she should be fine," he replied finally while letting go of Kami's chin and glanced over at the other two adults over his shoulder. "No real damage was done so you don't have to heal her, Sage."

The blond nodded absently to him. A deep frown now had crossed its way over Ryo's face as he thought and contemplated their options. They had to save Kento and Cye even if they could be and probably was, walking right into a trap set by the Goddess. There was no other choice. Time was running out and they still had the added pressure of stopping and saving Rylea. The warrior of virtue sighed as he finally came to a decision. "Come on guys," he said while turning and beginning to jog in the direction the park, centered in the heart of Toyama City was. "We have three people to save."

"What? Ryo are you joking?" Rowen's startled and confused reply rang in the air as he and the rest of the small group began to follow their leader. "Shouldn't we wait for Leinto and Tadin?"

"There's no time for that," the Ronin leader replied from over his shoulder as he continued on. His sights were set on the park where he knew his daughter and his two friends were waiting for him to help them and nothing was going to stop him now.

Sage and Rowen glanced at each other, sighing as they both knew what was running through their leader's mind and followed after him. The girls followed after the Ronins, not sure what was going on but figured that sticking with them was better then being left alone. They weren't sure how they were supposed to save their two uncles without the help of Leinto and Tadin but trusted that their uncle Ryo would think of something.

The trees swayed silently in the light breeze that kicked up, sending leaves to fall onto the eerily black ground below them. The sweet smell of sakura petals and flowers filled the air as the breeze blew over the gardens in the park. Swings swung lightly without an occupant, the chains holding them up creaking shrilly. Blackness had incased everything. Street lamps surrounding the area had suddenly gone black as if the bulbs had either burned out or been turned off, the shadows that were now sent free crawled and covered everything around it.

The streets surrounding the park were deserted ---no cars, no people, no animals, nothing. It almost had the feeling of a ghost town. The only thing that separated it from a ghost town was the fact that the city its self still had power and seemed to be alive. The lights coming from signs, street lights, or a few passing cars now and again cast an eerie glow over the dark park; illuminating the contents within it briefly.

"Foolish humans," the Goddess proclaimed as she looked out at the city before her, a smirk seeming to tug at the corner of her mouth the more she stared. A slight chuckle escaped her now, "Soon, very soon, my dream will become reality and no longer will these stupid humans inhabit this world."

The Goddess turned then from the gleaming city before her, her eyes luminescent and looming as she walked towards her two captives. Hardrock and Torrent hung by their wrists from the monkey bars of the jungle gym, pointlessly trying to free themselves from their bonds. She had to laugh at how stupid they were. Humans. Stupid humans who would go to any lengths to save there own pointless lives no matter what. "Save your strength," she said to them in her sultry, hypnotic voice. "You'll need it, trust me on that."

"Go to hell bitch!" Kento shouted out angrily at the female demon. He now twisted and waggled, trying to get himself free with not much luck. Giving up he growled in aggravation and set glaring eyes on her.

Goddess Rylea merely closed her eyes and chuckled lightly, almost mockingly, at Kento while she stepped slowly over in his direction. Now in front of him she reached up and grabbed a hand full of his hair, painfully pulling it to make his head come down level with hers. She smiled in glee as he gasped in pain. "You see here's the thing," she started and then snapped her glowing, and luminescent eyes open and stared into his blue ones. "I've already been to hell. Want me to show you what it's like?"

Kento tried to shake his head no but couldn't with success because her hand was still grasping tightly onto his hair. Grinning now, the Goddess released him and watched as Kento leaned his head as far away from her as possible now. "You humans," Goddess Rylea started with a mocking tone, "You may be stupid and inferior to us, but at least you know when to obey your master like the good dogs you all are."

"Dogs?!" the warrior of Hardrock snarled out at her, now infuriated once again with this demoness. "We ain't dogs!"

Goddess Rylea simply smirked back at Kento as she then turned her gaze onto the warrior of Torrent who quietly was taking everything in. A smile captured her lips as she stepped over to him now, "Well what's the matter, Torrent? You haven't said a word the whole time you've been here."

Cye only glared back at the demoness with the most hatred filled glare that he could. Opening his mouth now, he finally spat at her, "Ryo will come for us. Him and the others will find us and when they get here, you'd better hope for a quick death Lady."

The Goddess erupted into a fit of chilling laugher at Cye's proclaim. Having to actually lay her hand on his shoulder while she laid her head against his chest as she laughed to keep herself standing. Cye and Kento exchanged glances now, not sure what to take of her sudden outburst. Her laughter finally fell to simple chuckling as she brought her head up, wiping at the corners of her eyes and looked directly into Cye's eyes. "I'm counting on Hariel coming for me," she told him and then added as she got closer up in his face. "I want him to."

Cye leaned back from the sheer fierceness of her eyes while saying, "What do you have planned?"

"You'll just have to wait and find out," she replied and then her eyes darted over her shoulder, a smirk curling its way over her lips as she added, "Looks like you'll find out sooner than you think."

Seven figures walked through the darkness incased park, heading towards where they could not only sense their friends but also barely see the outline of them thanks to the lights coming from the city all around them. Ryo led the small group, his face now hard and emotionless as he came up into the clearing of the park where the playground equipment was situated. Sage walked close behind him on his left side with Rowen walking close behind on his right side. The Lady Ronins tagged along behind the adults.

"So glad you all could make it," the Goddess said pleasantly to the warriors behind her before she chuckled and turned around to face them all now. "Too bad you won't be staying around for long."

"This ends now," Ryo replied in a stony voice that matched the look on his face. His vivid blues stood out oddly in the darkness all around him.

"Yes it does," Goddess Rylea replied almost un amused and her eyes narrowed as her attack came out of no where.

The darkness that had covered them all now closed in around them, wrapping themselves around the warriors tightly and binding their arms at their sides. With a flick of her hand she had pulled the Lady Ronins from behind the Ronins and thrown them heedlessly to the side. Next both her arms came up, going to either side of her as both the Ronins were thrown from beside Ryo, almost as if she were parting the rest aside to get to who she really wanted. Ryo didn't move though, he didn't even make an effort to loosen himself from what imprisoned him. The Ronin leader simply stood where he had been, with the same stony look on his face.

The Goddess laughed happily as she clasped her hands together, "This is just so much fun!" Then her expression became somewhat serious as she stepped toward the Ronin leader. Her eyes flicked momentarily to the darkness behind him before a smile came to her face and she got right up in Ryo's face. "There's someone I'm just dying to introduce you to, Hariel," she said happily while grabbing a hold of Ryo's chin and turned his head in the direction a breathless Tadin had now come up in. "Our little traitor, Tadin."

The hybrid regarded the Goddess uneasily now as he straightened himself back up to his full height. His steely blue eyes had now gone luminescent as well in the darkness. Goddess Rylea put on a serious face as she turned back to Ryo, looking him dead in the eyes now as she talked, her hand still gripping his chin to keep him eye level with her, "You see, there's something you need to know about our little buddy, Tadin." Her eyes now turned out to look onto the hybrid while shaking here head from side to side as she said, "He's been a bad, bad, boy."

Tadin remained quiet as the Goddess went on, "You see, Tadin here, was the one who was sent by Sirous to capture Rylea. Supposed to bring her back to Sirous and gain a wealthy prize and glory for it." Her eyes now flicked upon Ryo's face, wanting to see what kind of emotion was showing there. A smile came to her face as she found the man's eyes narrowing more and more at the blond demon. "He was working to bring about your daughter's demise the whole time," the Goddess whispered to Ryo as she leaned her face in close to his ear. A growl came from the Ronin leader as his eyes narrowed even more at the hybrid.

Tadin said nothing still in either is own defense or to confirm what the Goddess was saying. Goddess Rylea now let go of Ryo's chin to begin walking out towards the hybrid. A thoughtful look claiming her face as she began to tap her lip while she talked, "You see, what I don't understand, is why you didn't follow through with it. I mean, you had a great plan and even had her right where you wanted her and still.....You didn't do it." She now stopped walking, her gaze falling upon Tadin's form as she said, "Then I understood everything once I had gotten a look into the girl's memories. You had fallen for her. You let yourself become emotionally involved with her and you fell for the girl."

All eyes turned on Tadin now, waiting for him to say something, but still the hybrid stood where he was, not saying a word. The goddess chuckled as she walked up to him, looking up into Tadin's eyes as she goaded him, "Tell me, what was it about her that made you fall for her? Was it the eyes? What about her could have possibly made you turn traitor on us? On your own people!" Tadin again remained quiet and this only irritated the Goddess more. A frown fell over her face as she began to circle around the young man like an animal does its prey while saying, "You know, it was really stupid to turn traitor, Tadin. I really could have used someone like you at my side when I take over this world, but.... Now I'll have to kill you instead."

"They will stop you," Tadin now said, his silence finally broken as he glared down at the Goddess who had finally stopped once again in front of him.

"I doubt that very highly," she retorted with a mocking smile. "They can't beat me, isn't that right, Sirous?"

The purebred's towering form materialized behind the Goddess as if beckoned by her, a mocking smile on his looming features. His gray eyes now turned luminescent bore into Tadin's own as he replied, "That's right, my Goddess."

"How could you, Tadin?!" Rona now shouted out at the blond hybrid, but he didn't even look over at her. "Lea trusted you! We all did! And you were really against her, all of us all this time?"

Keish's eyes narrowed as she added, "I don't know how you can live with yourself."

Tadin said nothing, simply swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and kept his eyes pointed on anything but the faces of the people who surrounded him. He couldn't bring himself to look at any of them. He knew that what he had done was wrong and he hated himself for it. Hated the fact that he had hurt Rylea the way he had, the one true friend he had ever had. The one person who he had ever really cared about, but this was his way of making up for it. This was what he had to do to make up for all the wrongdoing he had done. Helping the enemy, the Ronins and Lady Ronins, was the way to redemption for his wrongs.

"You're all going to die," the Goddess said cheerily around to everyone, Ronin or Lady, her smile enough to make them all sick. Their feelings only made her stronger. She chuckled sweetly as she now bounced happily over to Ryo, grabbing a hold of the shaggy hair of his head and pulling him down eye level with her once again. Silently she just looked at him, stared him down like a dog while a gleeful smile played over her face. "How does it feel?" she finally asked him in a voice barely above a whisper. "How does it feel to be looking into the face of someone you love dearly and know that that person is gone? How does it feel to know that your life is about to be ended by this same person? How does it feel to know that you've failed?! You failed, you failed your daughter, your friends, everyone!"

Straining against the pain that shot through his head at his hair being pulled down sharply, Ryo looked into the luminescent eyes of the Goddess who hid behind his daughter's face. His daughter's smiling, once happy face, now corrupted and being used as a mask for someone to hide behind. Anger ran through Ryo, griped his every fiber of his being within its grasp. Fueled him, burned within him like a raging fire. From behind gritted teeth he replied with dangerously narrowed eyes, "I haven't failed anyone, not yet. You haven't won."

A wicked smile spread its way over the Goddess' face as she replied, "Oh yes I have," and then pulled a small dagger from the back of her dress, the dagger extending into a sword at her touch. "Goodbye, Wildfire," she said to him before plunging the blade of the sword deep into his stomach, through the metal of his subarmor and almost all the way out the other end.

Gasps and screams of no came from all around the park as everyone watched with wide eyes as the leader of the Ronins was stabbed, his eyes becoming large as the blade ran through him and he coughed, blood coming from his mouth. The Goddess grinned more as she extracted the blade from Ryo and watched as he sank to his knees before falling face first into the ground. Dropping the sword beside his fallen form she then turned and smiled out at everyone else. "The leader of the Ronins is dead and soon you all will follow him," she told them all, her tone cheerful and yet mocking them all at the same time.

Angry, hot tears gripped the eyes of everyone around the Goddess as they tore them from the fallen form of their comrade, uncle and brother in arms. The thumping sound of a staff hitting the ground brought everyone's attention over to the last person who had yet to show. Leinto now stood at the edge of everyone, his wrinkled face looking flushed from all the running he had been doing. His gray eyes flicked upon Ryo's fallen form and then up onto the Goddess. "Your time is up, Goddess. Rylea will be set free and you will go back to the dark depths of which you came from!"

Reaching into the pocket of his robe he hurriedly pulled from it Rylea's fire pendant and armor orb ---dropping a silver pendant onto the ground in his rush. Immediately the fire pendant began to glow a bright red while it came to life, crackling and thrumming like a real fire. The pendant now soared through the air, connected around Rylea's neck and began to glow even more. The Goddess gasped, as she became frozen to the ground, unable to move or do anything. Her captives were then freed, being let fall back to the ground from whatever had been holding them. Immediately Sage and the rest of the Ronins ran to Ryo's fallen form, trying to save him before he was truly gone.

Now with the fire pendant clasped around Rylea's neck the Wildfire armor orb began to glow and then shot from Leinto's hand, aiming its self at Rylea. Without stopping it ran right into her, disappearing within her body its self. Instantly the girl began to glow a bright red color as the Goddess screamed in agony. With his task now done, Leinto now started for the fallen body of Ryo. He had to save the Ronin leader before it was too late and he was the only one who could now. A dark form moved in front of Leinto, cutting him off before he could go for Ryo.

"Where do you think you're going old man?" the cold voice of Sirous asked of the charge.

"Get away from him Sirous!" Tadin shouted as he ran towards the purebred, sword already unsheathed from his back and being aimed down at him. Sirous simply moved out of the way as the hybrid now stood protectively in front of the charge. "Move it, Leinto! Get to Ryo, go!" he shouted back at him as his eyes stayed focused on Sirous. The charge nodded and took off for Ryo.

The Goddess Rylea screamed more as the bright red color surrounding her body intensified, the outline of the Wildfire armor now surrounding her body. Without warning the subarmored girls then became clad in full armor without having to call upon it before then beginning to glow the color of their armor. Surprised and now not knowing what to do the girls simply stood where they were, letting the armors do whatever they had to do. With a burst of energy then, power from their own armor was dispersed and headed for the body of Rylea. Each brightly glowing ball of energy sank into her one at a time and then an even brighter flash of light occurred, blinding all of them temporarily. When they looked back, the outline of the Wildfire armor had been replaced with the outline of the Inferno armor. The girl screamed more as the power filled her body, forcing the entity within her out. The burning power of the Inferno ripped throughout her whole body until finally the Goddess had been forced from her. A black cloud of smoke seemed to seep from Rylea's body now, disappearing into the darkness of the night.

Leinto rushed to the side of Ryo, pushing everyone else around him away as he rolled him onto his back. Ignoring their shouts and questions as to what he thought he was doing, the charge laid his hands upon Ryo's wound and began to glow a golden color. Closing his eyes he focused his powers onto the wound and Ryo himself, the golden color surrounding him flowing from around Leinto's body and into and around Ryo's body and wounds. Everyone standing around the charge watched in awe as to what he was doing. The glowing had stopped now as Leinto opened his eyes and stood, looking out now at what was going on with the girls he was charge over.

The glowing now stopped as Rylea's body returned to its normal state. The Wildfire orb appeared from out of her body and hovered in front of her before falling to the ground below the girl. Her eyes now weakly fluttered open, blinking a few times to clear her vision as she looked around at her surroundings and the people around her. "Where- .... Where am I?" she asked in complete confusion and then her eyes fell upon her father's fallen form. Gasping she ran to him, dropping to her knees beside her father, tears coming to her eyes when she found his still form laying on the ground. Fear gripped every part of her being as she looked at him. The last person she had, the last parent she had left, the one person she loved more than anyone else in this world she feared now was gone. Gone forever just like her mother.

With tears falling from her eyes and hitting the metal of his subarmor she leaned over him and croaked out, "Dad?" No response came from him and already some of the people standing around her were beginning to lower their heads in respect to him or turn away with tears in their eyes. She refused to give up. Rylea wasn't going to lose her father, not him, not like she lost her mother. "Daddy wake up! Wake up!" she shouted at him, shaking him roughly to try and rouse him but no response came.

"Come on Lea," she heard her uncle Sage say quietly from behind her as he tried to pull her away from her father but she knocked his hands away from her as she continued to shake her father, tears falling freely down her face.

"No!" Rylea shouted in agony, now banging her hands on the chest of his subarmor. She began to shake him again while yelling, "You can't leave me! You can't! Don't leave me! Please daddy don't!"

Sage's near to tears face looked up at his best friend Rowen for help, but Rowen didn't know what to do. Rylea now laid her face down in the crook of her father's neck, latching her arms tightly around him in way of showing that she wasn't going to leave him. Heart wrenching sobs came from the poor girl as she cried into her father's neck. "You promised," she sobbed into his neck, hiccupping now to keep breathing. "You promised you'd never leave me like mommy did. You promised."

"And I always keep my promises."

Rylea pulled back, her red and puffy eyes staring down into her father's face as his voice rang in her ears. A happy gasp and cheers began to ring around them as Rylea broke into a smile at the sight of her father's mirror image eyes looking back up at her. "Daddy!" she cried happily while enveloping him into a tight hug.

Ryo sat up now, wrapping his arms tightly around his daughter as he kissed the side of her head again and again while tears of joy slid down his face. He had his daughter back, he hadn't failed her, and now she was back. A clock somewhere chimed 2:15 as everyone else around them, including Leinto, now joined in, hugging both Wildfire's or patting their shoulders with happy smiles all of their own. Relief flowed through everyone, Ryo had been saved and Rylea had been set free from the Goddess' control. It was over, finally, it was all over and now they could go on living their lives knowing that they had survived their first battle. The hardest battle either party had ever been in, they had survived. The Goddess was gone, sent back to where she came from and the threat was gone...... Or was it?

A/N: Wow....finally, I have almost finished this thing. One more short chapter and this whole thing will be over! Yey! Heh, and I don't know about all of you guys who read this....But I actually started crying while I was writing this chapter. :: And I'm the author! I know what's going to happen and I started crying! But yeah, anyway, Special thanks time once again. Thanks go out to LG, MorganRay and a double thanks to Rogue who helped me also with the latin. Thanks you guys!