Disclaimer: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers is the property of Sunrise. Ronin Warriors is the property of Bandai Entertainment.
Author's Note: Fun fact — the past few updates, I've been catching up on Days of Our Lives on Peacock while doing the copy-paste thing to upload the new chapter. It's either that or the Big Brother 24 live feeds, and there's only so much of those people I can stand in a single sitting.
Anyway, time to ramp up the drama. This chapter's title is a play on "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific.
Enjoy, and please review!
The Wicked Knights
by Jake the Fearless Leader
Chapter Seven
"Some Wicked Evening"
The Western Lands had always been the most desolate sector of the Nether Realm, still and silent. No one had lived in this region for thousands of years, so it was a bit disturbing to see the strange wrought iron fence that stood tall at the edge of the barren field. Kayura knew for a fact that it had not been there as of the last patrol. It only increased her suspicions that they were on the right track.
Ryo approached the fence to try and see if anything lay beyond, but it was no use. There weren't any signs of life, let alone any clues as to what had happened to Sage and Cye. Frustrated, Ryo clenched his fist tightly around one of the metal posts. He was more determined than ever to find them.
He turned back to the others. "Anything?"
"No. I don't think there's anything to find here," said Rowen, crossing over to join the Ronin leader at the barricade.
"Have any of you tried linking your armors?" called Kayura.
"Yeah, but so far, no luck," said Kento. He and White Blaze were standing closest to her.
"We can't give up. Sage and Cye are counting on us. We can't let them down," Ryo said as his gaze fell upon a dark shadow along the twilit horizon. He squinted his tiger blue eyes, trying to make it out. It was some kind of tall structure, like a… castle?
"Lost something, Ronin Warriors?"
Startled, Wildfire and Strata quickly jumped back towards Hardrock and Kayura as White Blaze growled threateningly, crouching into a defensive stance in front of the four. Four armored girls sporting black translucent wings appeared, hovering in the air just above the iron defenses of the Western Lands.
"Who are you? More Warlords?" demanded Ryo.
"Warlords? Hardly," answered the one clad in olive green and copper. Her voice was hard and cruel in tone. "We're known as the Sinister Fae."
"I'm Clara, Sinister Fae of Disaster." This was the shortest girl in violet and pink armor.
"How do! Y'all can call me Melaina, the Sinister Fae of Miasma," said the southern drawl of the teal and coral armored warrior.
"Aviva. Sinister Fae of Oblivion," the black and burgundy armored one told them, her intonation emphasizing her title.
"And I am Rochelle, the Sinister Fae of Sadism." She sneered down at them. "We were sent by Lord Zankoku to stop you from crossing our borders."
"Lord Zankoku?" questioned Kayura, exchanging a glance with Rowen.
"Is he the one who captured our friends?" demanded Ryo.
"Maybe yes, maybe no," Melaina purred.
"That's for you to figure out," Aviva stated bluntly.
"Tell us where they are, or I'll -"
"You'll what, Wildfire? Make a pitiful attempt to destroy us?" Clara chimed, snickering. For someone so evil, her laughter rang in the air like bells.
"We better not catch you snooping around here again," Rochelle warned. "Oh, and don't try to storm the castle because you'll never get past the guards."
Simultaneously, the four touched a spot on their wrists with their pointer and middle fingers. The air around them suddenly seemed to shimmer. And suddenly, just as mysteriously as they'd appeared, the Sinister Fae vanished.
"Okay. Safe to say we just found the bitches who grabbed Sage and Cye," quipped Kento. "Now what?"
"We head back and see what the Warlords managed to get out of the Nether Spirits. With any luck, we'll have enough to start putting together some kind of plan," said Rowen.
"We can't just leave Sage and Cye in there!" Ryo exlaimed.
"We won't be able to help them if we get caught ourselves, which is what's going to happen unless we retreat and find out more about this Lord Zankoku. We'll come back for your friends as soon as we're ready," Kayura added, seeing the look of displeasure on the Ronin leader's face.
Ryo sighed, gazing back at the distant structure he now knew was Zankoku's stronghold. White Blaze rubbed his head against the Ronin comfortingly, something for which he was grateful for. Wildfire knew Rowen and Kayura were right, but that didn't mean he had to like it.
The Warlords hadn't known about the existence of the Nether Spirits for very long. Talpa had created them as an extension of his dark power, or so they were lead to believe. As it turned out, there were different variations of Nether Spirit. The ones created by Talpa and ruled over by Badamon were essentially mindless minions. That variety had vanished when the Ronins defeated the demon. It was only after returning to the Nether Realm to begin their restoration project that Kayura and the Warlords discovered the second variety of Nether Spirits. This group wasn't mindless. No, they were quite the opposite. Intelligent, manipulative, conniving — exactly as Badamon had been. It wasn't hard to see these spirits signing up to work with this new power. That was why the Warlords decided to interrogate them. If anyone knew what was going on over in the western territory, it would be them.
To find the Nether Spirits, the three men headed straight to Akuma City, the largest of the four cities found in the Nether Realm. Luck was on their side, as the Warlords were able to ambush a couple of the spirits just outside the city limits. Of course, that was the easy part. The trick was getting them to talk.
"What do you know of the new power that's appeared in the Western Lands?" demanded Kale, threatening the beings with his sword.
One of the spirits snickered. "Why do you ask, Warlord? Fear of the unknown, perhaps? No, it's more than that, isn't it? You seek Lord Zankoku's prisoners."
"Lord Zankoku?" repeated Sekhmet.
"So the new power has a name. And we were right — he is the one responsible for kidnapping Torrent and Halo," noted the Warlord of Illusion.
Kale concentrated, calling forth the darkness born from his armor and willing it to power his blade.
"Where are they?" he said with a low growl.
"Hidden away in our lord's castle," responded the other Nether Spirit. "None of you will ever be able to find them."
"Sounds like you know where it is, so either you tell us, or we'll torture it out of you," Sekhmet sneered, removing one of his own swords from it's sheath across his back. "I'm curious to see what happens to Nether Spirits when they come into contact with my venom."
A single drop of liquid dripped from the tip of the blade and hit the ground with a sizzling hiss. The two spirits eyed the sword warily.
"You have one more chance to answer my question. I suggest you take it," warned Kale.
The Nether Spirits snarled and glanced at each other, but didn't say anything. They were well aware of their fates if they were to give the Warlords any information on Zankoku.
"Suit yourselves." Kale glanced over at Sekhmet. "Do it."
The Warlord of Venom grinned as he raised his sword and brought it down with a quick strike. His venom sprayed out from the sword, hitting the faces of the spirits. They cried out in pain and threw their arms over their heads.
"Interesting. They feel the pain of your venom, Sekhmet, though there is no physical damage done to them," noted Dais.
"It won't make a difference. I'm not looking to scar them," shrugged Sekhmet.
Kale ignored the agony of the Nether Spirits and continued on with the interrogation. "Where are Sage of the Halo and Cye of the Torrent?"
"Behind you."
Startled, the three Warlords turned around quickly, failing to see the relieved expressions of the Nether Spirits. Standing just a few feet away, clad in their full armors, were the two missing Ronin Warriors.
"Torrent, Halo. Glad to see you both in one piece," Dais greeted.
"How did you manage to escape? Did anyone spot you?" asked Sekhmet as he set his gaze beyond the teens, looking to see if they were in for a fight.
"Escape?" Cye grinned, amused. "We didn't escape. We didn't have to."
"What do you mean? You're not saying they just let you go," Kale inquired, slightly confused.
"That's exactly what they did," responded Sage.
"You're not serious? Zankoku didn't even want to use you two as leverage to ensure we didn't interfere with whatever he's got planned?"
Sage narrowed his pale purple eyes at Dais' words. "So, you know about Lord Zankoku."
"Figures those bastards would squeal," said Cye. His gaze fell upon the suddenly fleeing Nether Spirits, watching the two beings disappear into Akuma City.
Sekhmet raised his eyebrow, perplexed. "Didn't think you even knew that kind of language, Torrent," he remarked.
"Call me that one more time, Warlord, and you won't like which hole I stick my spear into, if you catch my drift."
Dais and Kale stared at the boy in shock, even as their comrade stammered in outrage. The Warlord of Illusion's eyes flickered over to Sage as the blonde snickered. The change in the demeanor of the two Ronins was startling, to say the least.
"What's happened to you?" asked Dais.
"Sorry. That would be telling," Sage replied.
"Your friends are here. They've been worried about you," Kale informed the two.
"Sounds about right. They always were kind of clingy." Sage leveled the Warlords with a hard glare. "Tell those losers they can stop looking. We're not going back to the Mortal Realm."
"But the Mortal Realm is your home. Why would you want to stay in a place like this?" wondered Dais.
"Because here, we're free," explained Cye simply. "Free to do whatever we want, whenever we want, without having to worry about the consequences."
"You make it sound like you've decided to become evil," Sekhmet pointed out.
"Because they have."
That wasn't what Kale had intended to say, but the moment he said it aloud, he knew it was true.
"Knew you'd get there eventually," said Sage. "So now that you geniuses have put two-and-two together, you'd better start referring to us properly. The name is Sage, Wicked Knight of Dawn."
"And Cye, Wicked Knight of Tsunami."
"No, this isn't right," Dais said. "You're Ronin Warriors. You have to resist whatever it is that Zankoku's done to you."
Cye rolled his eyes. "The only thing we're gonna resist is the desire to send you back to whatever pit you crawled out."
"I suppose his lordship wouldn't mind if we had a little bit of fun with these three stooges," Sage sneered cruelly, lifting his sword over his head. "Lightning Strike!"
An orb of light surrounded the Warlords, causing the three men to scream as it electrocuted them.
"Lord Zankoku was right," said Cye. "We really have been missing out."
"And this is just the beginning," Sage declared as his partner lifted up his spear, readying his own attack.
Upon their return to Talpa's castle (or Headquarters, as Kento was now calling it), Kayura insisted that they start combing the library for any reference they could find to the Sinister Fae and their Lord Zankoku. Unfortunately, they weren't having much luck. It was as if they didn't exist. Still, Rowen and Kayura continued to look, trying not to be discouraged by the number of times they came up blank. And while those two were hitting the books, Kento decided to try again to break through whatever barrier was preventing him from sensing Sage and Cye. As for Ryo, he was doing what he did best in these situations.
"Did you get through? Can you tell if they're hurt? Or if they're being tortured?" he desperately asked for what must have been the hundredth time.
"Not yet," Kento sighed.
"Damn it," Ryo groaned, slamming his hand on the nearest table top.
"Relax, Ryo. There's no reason to worry right now. I'm sure they're fine," said Kento. He opened his eyes and looked over at the researchers. "Rowen, Kayura, what've you got?"
"Still nothing on my end," said Rowen, not looking up from the book he was currently skimming.
"Okay, so, maybe there is a reason to worry."
Rowen's head shot up, and he gave Kento a disbelieving look. The last thing they needed right now was a paranoid Wildfire on their hands.
"So, the Ancient One never wrote down anything about the Fae or Zankoku?" asked Ryo as he looked over at the others.
"It doesn't look like it. They're not mentioned in any of the records on the Nether Realm," said Kayura.
"But that doesn't mean we don't know anything. No matter what kind of barrier Kozuko's using to block our armor link, we'd still be able to sense it if Sage and Cye were dead. There's still time to save them," Rowen reassured, hoping it would work to calm their leader down.
"Yeah, but how much time?" asked Kento. "It's not like we really know what we're up against here."
"Someone powerful enough to cut themselves off and stop us from finding our friends," sighed Ryo, running a hand through his messy black hair.
A loud crash came from the corridor, which startled them all. Without saying a word to each other, they ran out of the library. Collapsed at the end of the hall were the Warlords, each looking as though they'd just escaped from some sort of hell dimension.
"Sekhmet! Kale! Dais!" Kayura exclaimed as the four skidded to a stop in front of them. She knelt down to check the men for injuries.
"What happened? Did the Nether Spirits do this to you?" asked Ryo.
"No… they don't… have the power…" panted Dais. "It was… your friends…"
"Sage and Cye? You found them?" said Kento excitedly.
Rowen did not like the tone he heard coming from the Warlord of Illusion. "Wait, Cye and Sage know you're not evil anymore. Why would they attack you?" he asked.
"Kozuko got to them… turned them against us…" said Kale, struggling to stand against the wall.
Sekhmet looked directly into Kayura's eyes, seeing that she, at least, was beginning to understand. "They called themselves the Wicked Knights."