Disclaimer: I don't own the Ronin Warriors. (blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Even I'm getting sick of this thing.)
"So, her family treasure is made from Dragon scales. Big deal." Ryo said.
"It is a big deal. If Rowen really is a demon then just one touch could turn him into anything, or nothing at all." Kayura sighed. "What's worse is this message in blood that we found at the end of the scroll."
"In blood?" Mia turned a little green.
"'The last is the final key.' What do you suppose that means?"
"Deliver the Ten Warriors to end the era of secret samurai." Cye mumbled. "There's nine warriors, and ten armors."
"So then, who's the tenth?" Sage asked. "Is there any way to tell?"
Kento stood. "The last is the final key." Everyone looked at him. "It's Hannah."
"Hannah? Is she the owner of the pendant?" Kayura asked.
"Yeah, and that thing, Senai, is convinced that she's the last of this royal family which started with Herial's granddaughter." Sage sipped his tea.
"Herial is Kaos' first name." Kayura said flatly. She heard surprised sounds and a thud of someone falling onto the floor. "I suggest you take care of this girl. If she is the last of Kaos' line……"
"…She's the key." The guys said as one.
Hannah looked at the writing on the dagger. "I wonder." She looked through some language files on Mia's computer. "Hey there's the third character, and the first one is in Sanskrit." She pulled out a paper and copied down the translations. "I can't believe I figured this out, before Rowen did."
Just as she was putting the message together she felt a shadow over her shoulder. "Well, well." Hannah swung around in the chair. "Clever as your wretched father." The guy backhanded her and knocked her out.
Down in the backyard, White Blaze turned to the window of Mia's study and roared with rage. "Worked like a charm." The woman laughed triumphantly and blended with the shadows.
Rowen growled and turned to a man with black hair and red eyes with Hanaku over his shoulder. "Akuma!"
"Eighteen years later and you're dumb as ever." Akuma laughed. He jumped into the trees with Rowen in hot pursuit. When he arrived at the lake he stopped at the end of the dock and turned to his younger brother.
"The last is the key to the gate." Akuma said. "Bring the other four with you to the Dragons' grave. We'll be waiting for you."
Rowen jumped for Akuma. As he leaped he changed from human to wolf. Akuma chuckled and disappeared. Rowen skidded on the dock and into the lake. Once he dragged himself ashore, he shook himself dry. "Akuma, you bastard." He growled deep in his throat and then raised his head to the sky to let out a howl of utter rage.
Mia gasped at Rowen's howl. "He really doesn't sound happy." Ryo wasn't joking. He looked to Kento and Sage coming back from the study upstairs. "What's the news?"
"There's no sign of Hannah." Kento said. "We even checked all the rooms."
Sage held out the sheath to Hannah's dagger with the leather belt still attached. "This was all we found in the study. She must have the dagger with her."
"She doesn't." Rowen said from the back porch making everyone jump out of their skin. He threw something in his jacket on the floor. "Akuma took her to the Dragons' grave. Without that she won't be able to defend herself." He slumped into a chair.
Mia undid Rowen's jacket from around the shimmering weapon. "Rowen, did you—" she saw that he had no other marks on his hands. "It must only hurt when it touches your skin. By the way, while you were busy upstairs, Kayura called."
"By Akuma's orders no doubt." Rowen snapped. Mia turned to him. "He has her and the Warlords. He just needs us to open the gate."
"Gate? What gate?" Sage set some herbal tea before Rowen.
Rowen took a sip before answering. "A gate to limbo. I remember that her mother told me of the Dragons. They're in limbo because they're immortal spirits that cannot be entirely separated from this world."
"Wait." Ryo leaned over the table across from Rowen. "You knew her mother? How, and since when?"
Rowen saw himself in a corner. A corner he wasn't getting out of. So, he sighed and just told them. "I was captured by the monks of a secret temple up in Hokkaido. Their policy with demons is to kill them by sacrificing them to the Beloved White Mother, or something. Queen Matsuno, Hannah's mother, took pity on me for some reason. So I became her personal servant for almost the next nine months. I ran away a week before Hanaku—" He cleared his throat.
"Hanaku?" Cye raised a brow.
"Hannah's real name." Rowen just chugged down the last of the tea. "Anyways, I was coming back on the day she was born and I come across Matsuno in labor in the woods. She didn't seem to notice me, but I was going back to beg for her forgiveness, so I helped her.
"Hanaku was born right into my arms, but her mother…" He hung his head a moment. Mia covered her mouth and her eyes teared up. "I promised to take care of Hanaku for her. When I found out she was pregnant, she said she had my life spared because she just knew my destiny and hers were entertwined."
Ryo sat back. "That's why you were so protective of her."
"I had her for only two months. She was taken away by Akuma and sent somewhere with her powers sealed away." Everyone looked at each other. "What is it?"
"Powers?" Rowen nodded slowly to Sage's shocked face. "She's it."
"Not the last of her family, but the last one." Mia said thoughtfully. Rowen looked around at them wondering what the hell they were talking about.
"She's the tenth warrior." Kento said.
Rowen stood up. "Would somebody mind clueing me here?"
(ThE OtherS ArE ApproachinG.)
Hannah moaned in her sleep. She was resting on the middle roof of the Shinjuku Towers (that's what I call the building where they encountered Suzunagi) on a star between two circles. Akuma and the four shadow people were all standing around her at the points.
ThE TimE OF JudgemenT IS NeaR. A new much softer voice said in Hannah's dream. KeeP ThE LighT IN YouR HearT ShininG. ShoulD ThE WronG OnE EscapE, ThE WorlD WilL BE ForeveR CasT IntO DarknesS.
"Soon the Black Dragon will rise and rule forever." Akuma said to himself. His wicked smile made the other four smile just as wicked.
Hannah was so knocked out that she was beyond dreaming, beyond the voices. She was in a world that was beyond reach of, well, just about everything around her. Even the oncoming storm in the real world.
A/N: (comes galloping in on a palomino stallion and ringing a hand bell) The end is coming! The end is coming! (disappears in the distance still calling the same thing out)