Part 10

A/N: We're back to Rowen! The url to the side fic is at the end of this chapter.

Uber later side note: Sorry for the delay, my computer got wormy (viruses and the like) started to crash, tried reformatting, didn't work, had to reformat again, that worked.

Remember words in are in Japanese, unless it the Ronins in Japan talking to eachother.

Rowen woke up the next afternoon and found a girl looking at him, her hands where wrapped around a coffee cup and every once in a while she would take a sip of the steaming liquid.

"Hey Ash!" She suddenly cried out, causing Rowen to jump, "Oh sorry."

"What?" Ashley called down.

"He's awake."

A few seconds later Ashley walked down the stairs and into the living room.

"Morning sleeping beauty."

Rowen glanced around the room, confused for a second, then what happened that night came to his mind.

"Here." Ashley said and threw something at him.

He caught it and looked at the bundle. It was his shirt and jeans, cleaned and dried.

"I did 'em while you were sleeping."

"Thanks." Rowen told her and left the blankets. He made his way to the stairs and paused, then looked back to the two girls who where still standing in the room. "Why?"

"Why, what?" Ashley asked him. She had moved so she could get his blanket and pillow.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Cause you need it." She told him.

Rowen hadn't expected that answer but didn't want to push, so he finished his accent up the stairs and went into the bathroom to get changed.

Once dressed he glanced at his watch. It was 2 so he still had enough time to get to at least one class that day. As he passed outside of the bathroom, he found himself looking in a mirror, and almost had to do a double take. He looked horrible, granted his clothes were clean. However, he had bags under his eyes, and the look in his eyes carried fear, along with a kind of dread. In all of his past, even with Talpa he had never remember having such a look. The look of the hunted. One he knew was seen in the eyes of an animal about to be killed.

But why was it there? That answer he didn't know. He tried to make it go away and was only partially successful. Fear again went through his body for no reason, and as Rowen stared at his reflection. He noticed suddenly, ever so faintly his virtue began to glow.

'Why,' he wondered 'would it be glowing now?'

Jenny...

The name made him shutter and dread danced through his body. In the mirror he watched as his virtue intensified, in a sudden flash which caused him to close his eyes. For one fleeting second he feared his eyes may have been damaged by the force of the light. He opened his eyes, fearing the unknown. Nothing was wrong. The virtue was gone, and his eyes were fine. A second thought came to his mind, did Ashley or her roommate see the light? He stopped breathing and tried to hear their conversation. The little snippets he could hear from them seemed to the normal stuff, classes, what they were doing this weekend, no sign of questioning about the flash of blue light.

Hesitating a second longer he shifted the jeans and barrowed shirt he needed to give back, then left the sinks and went back downstairs.

The girls were sitting in the living room, talking. The blanket and pillow he had used the night before where gone.

"Oh good, your done." Ashley told him.

"I almost thought he fell in." her friend joked.

"Oh yeah, Rowen this is Cera."

Rowen nodded to the girl who smiled at him.

"Anyway, as I was saying," Ashley continued.

"Um, Ash?" Cera asked cutting her off.

"Yeah?"

"Don't you have a test in an hour?"

Ashley did a double take at a clock and jumped, "Yeah, um I do."

Rowen had by now placed the jeans and shirt on the couch and was waiting on the girls.

"Um, let me grab my stuff, and sign Rowen out." Ashley said as she ran upstairs.

"Nice girl, bad grasp of time." Cera told him.

Rowen didn't respond.

Ashley ran down the stairs, carrying a book bag and paused looking at Rowen. "Will you be ok?"

"I'll be fine."

"Are you sure, cause Cera can sign you in if you want to stay here."

"I'll be fine." Rowen repeated, he could take care of himself; he was a warrior after all.

"If you're sure."

A warrior who got the shit beaten out of him by a girl. Kinda depressing if you thought about it.

"I'm sure." He told and went out the door.

"Hey wait up!" Ashley cried and followed him.

He had paused, waiting for her.

"Something wrong?" Ashley asked.

"I'm um... lost." Rowen told her looking at the maze.

"Just follow me." She told him, "You know, I don't know why you're so hard on yourself. It's not like you need to try to save the world or anything."

He almost paused, 'It's just an analogy Rowen.' he told himself.

He put his hand into his pocket and felt his orb brush against it. For some reason it felt warm, almost hot. He quickly took his hand out of his pocket.

"Looking for your ID?" Ashley asked him.

"No." Rowen told her, still following the woman.

They made it down to the security desk and Ashley signed him out, then passed him a piece of paper.

"That's my cell number if you need me." She told him.

He glanced at it once then put it in his pocket. He would of course have to find a phone to call her from. Unlike Sage and Cye he didn't have a cell phone. He really couldn't afford one, even though Mia had offered to get him one, but he didn't want to burden her anymore then they already were doing.

Ashley left the building and Rowen followed.

"Ok, test, fun." She muttered and began to walk to the Business Building.

Rowen crossed the street as soon as he had a chance and made his way across the park. Since it had rained the previous night the air temperature was colder then normal, and due to this hardly anyone was in the park.

He quickly made his way to Johnson and went up to his room.

Thankfully no one, not even Tom was there. So he collapsed on his bed. While he had been planning on going to class that day, after he had seen how bad he looked he decided maybe it would be a good idea to just stay there.

After all he had to pull himself together before Sage got here. Sage could under no conditions see him this way, he was Rowen of Strata, he needed to be that warrior of life again.

Silence.

Then he thought he heard Jenny talking in the hallway. And that one sound made him almost break down. Men may not cry, however, there were situations where they would find out the truth.

Rowen and the rest of the Ronins had found out the truth men did cry. Crying was one way to express yourself, the same as yelling or fighting. And in some situations you had to cry, as he had in battle before. This however was not the time, there was no demon trying to take over earth, no warlords who wanted his friend and himself dead, therefore tears where not needed.

The phone suddenly rang, startling him out of his mood.

"Hello" he muttered, answering the phone.

"Rowen?" The voice of Ryo drifted to his ears.

"Ryo?" Rowen asked in complete astonishment.

"Rowen what's the matter?"

"Ryo... I... I..." Rowen broke down and began to cry. He couldn't take it anymore. One day their dead and he's ready to kill himself, now they were alive.

"Rowen calm down, Sage will be there tomorrow."

Rowen tried to get himself under control.

"Will you be ok until Sage gets there?"

"Yes Ryo, I'll be fine. Rowen told him and hung up."

Ryo hung up the phone and glanced at everyone in the room.

"It's a good think Sage is going there."

"It's that bad?" Cye asked.

"Something's really wrong." Ryo said.