New Blood
by Saber Alexander McConnell
Rated PG13

CHAPTER 38: Fighting the Torrent

For at least fifteen minutes, the young warriors' presence went unnoticed as they skulked around the shadows and took cover behind rocks and trees and other various "decorations". Of course they couldn't get through completely undetected, Nohano would think later. That would have been way too easy. They were spotted by one of the several soldier patrols, bringing down at least two dozen of the evil things on them—easily fought, but all the time increasing their risk of being seen by worse foes.

But luck seemed to be with them—if one could call it luck. Nohano's group met several more patrols of soldiers, but were able to destroy them with little expenditure of energy, and they saw neither hide nor hair of the warlords. Or Talpa.

Each step took them closer to the palace, to the evil that radiated out like heat from an unclean, obscene sun, and Nohano hated every spire.

"Talpa can't be killed, can he?" asked Nohano dispiritedly as they slowly, relentlessly approached. They were so close now that the palace blotted out nearly everything else. They traveled alongside a lake that had Nohano a little nervous, but luckily they did not have to get very close.

"No," said Amaya quietly. "He is a demon. He cannot die. Only to be defeat. Defeated."

"Well that sucks," said Xander, sounding gruffer than ever. "Asshole—what did the last group of Ronin do to him last time to send him into hiding so long?"

"They fought him," said Amaya. "Reduced his power. He must be strong to break into the mortal world."

"So the worse he gets his ass kicked, the longer he stays away?"

Amaya nodded. "Yes."

"Guess we just have to kick his ass all over again then, huh?"

"It will not be so easy," said Amaya, frowning a little at Xan's seeming overconfidence.

Xan sighed, his mouth twisting into a look of irritation—not at Amaya, Nohano realized, but at Talpa. "No, guess not, huh? Won't stop me trying, though."

"I think we all will do a little of that," said Suisei. "Or more than a little."

The little group stood before the palace in late afternoon, gazing in dismay at the malevolent structure. Nohano, on the other hand, gazed in dismay at the moat that surrounded the fortress, with only a few bridges here and there leading towards the inner grounds. "That's just perfect," Nohano hissed. Already he was too close to it; he couldn't imagine walking out onto the bridges, with only flimsy wood beneath his feet, keeping him from plunging into the waters.

I think we may be attacked when we step foot on those bridges, commenting Rashida dourly. It would be a perfect spot for an ambush.

Great. That's just what he needed to hear.

Will you be all right, Nohano?

At Amaya's concerned voice, Nohano looked quickly around, suddenly aware he'd not moved for about five minutes, just staring at the water. He bit his lip briefly, then nodded. "Yes," he said, though he wasn't all that certain. "I'll live. Let's...let's just get this over with."

Amaya grasped his arm for a moment then turned back to the palace, stepping out onto the first of the bridges. Nohano winced, expecting the bridge to collapse, or for Kale and his warlords to descend upon them, or for the water to rise up and swallow her. Of course none of these things happened, even when Xan, Rashida, and Suisei followed. Nohano took a big breath and took a shaky step onto the bridge.

It held just fine under his weight, though that fact did not stop the rush of panic that threatened to blank his mind. He closed his eyes, feeling his way along the bridge, clutching the handrails and following the clattering footfalls of his friends. It helped, a little.

"Look," said Suisei suddenly, making him jump. "This water's not more than knee-deep. How odd."

Nohano didn't care how deep it was. There was a lot of it, and that was all that mattered. It would be nearly impossible to avoid it. However he did manage to open his eyes, looking up at Talpa's palace, which was, ironically enough, a more pleasant sight than the strange moat. At least the pagoda was kind of cool looking.

I'm proud of you, Nohano, said Amaya with a sort of mental smile several minutes later.

Nohano blinked and looked at her, managing a sort of sick grin at her sincere praise, then looked back at their destination,. His smiled fading. They had arrived. There stood before them a large, ornate set of doors that led into Talpa's palace, standing on a strange sort of dock that rose from the shallow water.

"So now what?" asked Xan, then shrugged and answered his own question, walking to the door and giving it a tug. As was to be expected, it didn't budge.

I could break it down, perhaps, with my lightning cut, said Rashida. Though if we could get in without using so much energy it would be better.

"I wonder if I can make a lock-pick with these shields," muttered Xan, looking down at his hands for a moment.

"It would not matter," said Amaya. "This palace would not have a lock—too modern in technology. It will be barred from inside.

"Oh. Well in that case--" Xan formed a long, thin shield and held it in his hands. No matter how many times Xander did it, Nohano always enjoyed watching it. It was like Xander held a shaft of light, or a string of lightning in his hands. It wasn't something that should be solid.

Xander slid the shield in between the two doors, grunting with effort as he attempt to feel the bar that might be holding the doors shut. Rashida stepped forward to help, grasping the shield and lending her strength. Nohano and the others watched several steps behind, their weapons drawn, in case of trouble.

When trouble came, it was not in a form that anyone suspected. A sudden laugh from above startled them all; Nohano took a hasty step back, then screamed as the heel of his foot slipped off the pier towards the water, frantically pinwheeling his arms for balance. He dropped hastily to his knees, his hands on the dock, his swords dropped before him on the pier. He froze, trembling, unable to move for several moments, while Talpa cackled above. Nohano looked up finally, clenching the edge of the dock with one hand.

There he was. Standing on one of the many pagoda platforms of the fortress, clad head to foot in dark armor, laughing down at them, stood the demon, the horrid creature Nohano had dreamt of. His blood-red mask seemed to stand out in the gloom of the realm, its vacant eyes boring through Nohano's mind. "Ah, welcome to my palace, Ronin Warriors!" he cried, mock hospitality in his voice. He looked down at Nohano and chuckled. "Ah, the mighty leader of the Ronin Warrior, frozen, terrified, by a children's pool. How pathetic."

Nohano's face grew hot, and his eyes narrowed. "Asshole!" he growled. He was grateful for the anger; it gave him the strength to break through his paralysis, giving him something besides the water to focus on. He grabbed his katana and stood, taking several steps away from the edge of the pier.

"Is this how a guest greets his host?" called Talpa, laughing again. "Ah, but perhaps you do not come in peace."

"Damn right we don't come in peace, you pukepot!" Xander called, shaking a fist up at the specter. "Come down here and face us!"

"Ah, but that would spoil the effect—you come here after your friends, I assume?"

Nohano frowned, not liking the smirk that he could sense even all the way from the ground. It wasn't even a physical smirk, for Talpa's mask was rigid, but it was something he could feel. A horrible coldness swept over him. Had he already killed the others? "What did you do with them?" Nohano called. "Damn it, let them go!"

"Why don't you ask the lads yourself?" Talpa called. "Dark warlords! Come and greet our guests!"

It was obvious they had been waiting for this signal. The great doors began to open, and Xan and Rashida sprang away from it, Rashida grabbing up her longsword and Xander forming a spear of energy. Nohano felt his gut twist as Kale strode out of the doors, followed by several others, all clad in armor. But they were not all warlords.

The clench in Nohano's stomach tightened painfully when he saw the flash of bright yellow, then orange and aqua blue. "Killian..." But Killian was not bound, nor was he held at weapon point. He stood beside Tai Shuang, as if they were old friends, and Demetrius and Tarun stood also by the warlords' side. Shuang leered at Nohano from behind his mask, as Nohano stared, horrified.

"What have you done to them?" Rashida demanded, furiously. Nohano rarely saw the girl lose her temper, but when she did, it was a force to be reckoned with.

"I've done nothing!" Talpa answered, laughing. "They have simply succumbed to the power of their armor! You must know that their armor once belonged to me, Halo, as did yours! And these new armors, designed to connect intimately with the original armors, have fallen easily under my influence!"

"No," Nohano whispered, looking into Killian's eyes. Killian—Killian, it can't be you! But there was no connection at all, and Nohano was close enough that he should be able to reach him. He began to panic, thinking Talpa really had brainwashed them.

"Our master is right," said Kale softly, looking right at Nohano. "We were destined to be one, our armor was connected hundreds of years ago. It is time it was reunited under one master."

Nohano looked frantically at Amaya, who gazed at Kale with the utmost loathing. What the hell is he talking about? That stupid jerk's trying to pull us to the dark side!

What he says is true, in essence, said Amaya. But we are not destined to join him. The armors were once Arago's. You know that. But the Ancient once changed the armors he had, gave them virtues. The warlords corrupted them. Keep your heart pure, Nohano, and the armor cannot be corrupted. Your virtue cannot be tainted except by your own self.

Amaya's words were grim and frightening, but they were somehow a comfort. He looked back at Killian, who was nodding in agreement with Kale, and felt a surge of fury. He didn't know if Killian had been tricked into succumbing, or if they had done something to his friend, but he was going to find out.

Nohano looked back at Kale, raising his katana. "Forget it, dogbreath," he said, being as rude as he could possibly manage. "Maybe you weren't strong enough to resist Talpa's corruption, but I am—let our friends go, and we'll leave in peace!"

Above them, Talpa began to laugh again, and it was a horrible sound—several of the warlords laughed as well, though Kale only gazed at Nohano with an expression Nohano could not read behind the mask. Hatred, maybe, or even regret. 'He really wants us to join him!' he thought, astonished. 'And I don't think it's just the power the armor will give his master! He really thinks the armors belong together!'

"Warlords—attack!"

All hell broke loose at Talpa's command. The ten warlords ran at the little group with weapons blazing, flashing, and flying. Nohano leapt into the air, landing clumsily in the middle of the pier, striking out with his katana at the nearest warlords, his eyes darting back and forth for the sight of his friends' armor. He could not harm them, no matter what; he had to find out what was wrong with them! Just seeing his best friends raising their weapons against Nohano, to see them standing with the enemy, made Nohano want to cry.

"Super Wave Smasher!"

Nohano spun around at Killian's voice, a chill going through him at the wave of watery energy that flew at him from Killian's yari. Nohano yelled and threw himself flat on the pier, barely avoiding the powerful energy. He ducked behind the warlord Tai Shuang as Killian cried a second attack, and the startled Shuang took the brunt of the attack, flying several meters away. Nohano faced Killian once again. "Killian, no!" he cried. "Fight it—you aren't one of them! Look at me, you've got to fight it! Please!"

He cursed as Killian flew at him, leaping up and aiming for his head with his metal boots. Killian's foot grazed Nohano's shoulder as he dodged, knocking him onto the pier. He had to duck a second attack from one of the others, not even seeing who it was that had attacked him, only that it was someone who wielded a sword. Nohano darted away from the main fighters, trying to ignore the clash of steel and the furious cries of the fighters. They'd never been so badly outnumbered in their lives.

He looked once more at Killian, whose expression briefly flashed into one of pain, and Nohano suddenly realized that Killian was in there somewhere, that he was being influenced by something out of his control. Talpa. Talpa did this to him—and he stands there above everything like a coward! 'He doesn't even have to fight,' Nohano realized with growing terror. 'All he has to do is watch us die.'

A cry of pain from Rashida distracted him, and he saw that both Demetrius and Tai Shuang had ganged up on her. "Damn it," Nohano hissed, sprinting at them with his katana drawn. But he never reached them. As his foot came down on the wooden dock, there was suddenly nothing beneath him, and he was falling with a cry of shock. He heard someone laugh from above, before the dock closed back up, and Nohano fell through the blackness.

He heard himself screaming, more a reflex than anything else, before he landed, hard. Water splashed around him, and he screamed again, this time in terror, as he scrambled to his feet. Frozen again with fear, he looked frantically around, his breath coming in short gasps. Knee-high. It was okay, the water was only knee-high. But the chamber was covered in it-- Blue flamed candles lit the little room and glinted threateningly off the surface of the water. The room was not much more than a little cave with a natural support beam in the middle and three chutes that led, he realized, above. There were a couple of larger openings, ones that he might be able to escape from, but they were sealed up. But it was wood. If he could set fire to them...

Nohano looked down again, his chest clenching at the sight of all the water below him. He closed his eyes and looked upwards, taking in a big breath. He could barely feel it against his legs, the armor shielding him from most of it, which helped. He cursed himself for his fear, and cursed Talpa for his rotten, insidious realm!

It took several minutes and the horrible mental image of his friends being ruthlessly slain to get Nohano moving. He could only hope that Talpa aimed to capture them, not kill them, as he sloshed slowly towards the large openings, trying to ignore the pull of the water on his feet, and the nerve-wracking, echoing splashes. He tried to remember Talpa's mocking laugh, his comment about being afraid of a kiddy pool, which helped a little bit. If he could only hold on to that anger!

The mental flashes from his friends were not encouraging. Everyone was trying their best not to hurt Killian, Demetrius, and Tarun, but those three were at least as fierce as the warlords were. The rest of the Ronins were trying to retreat, to find a place to regroup, but they were being chased down, across the bridges, through the shallow waters...

Nohano took a big breath and faced one of the wood-sealed opening, combining his katana for his flare attack, crying the words and directing a powerful beam of fire at the wood. He realized a moment later he had made a dire mistake when the wood splintered, and splashes of water spurted through the damaged floodgate. Nohano shrieked as the wood broke through, unleashing a torrent of water on him, knocking him over, washing over him with suffocating force. His cry was lost in the rush, as he flailed around for purchase, terror overcoming everything else. His mental contact with his friends was broken as he choked down a mouthful of water, washed helplessly away from the support pillar, the only thing he could have grabbed onto.

The Wildfire swords were lost as Nohano bashed against the far wall, gasping in a breath of air as the wave receded for just a moment, giving him time only to gasp in another breath. Suddenly he was six years old again, screaming from his nightmares, dreams where water would come and wash him away, down into the abyss, or out to sea, where there was no land in sight. All he could do was shriek with childish, mindless terror.

Not even in his most vivid dreams, though, was the terror this sharp—he could never have imagined how it felt to choke down water, to breathe and have no air, to feel his throat burned as he tried to clear his airways.

But then...his airways were clear. His panic-stricken mind had taken several moments to realize it, but even as Nohano was forced screaming underwater, even as he was tossed helplessly around the tiny chamber—he was breathing. The mask—the same mask that had extended in the tundra to shield him from the deadly cold, was doing the same now, keeping the water away from his mouth. Nohano choked on a relieved sob, gasping in a lungful of air, glad even for the burning of his throat. It meant he was breathing.

There was another rending crack of wood, and Nohano realized that the second of the large chutes had been cleared. With a jolt of panic, he was swept towards the opening, wondering wildly if he would land in water or on stone. His hands grabbed blindly at the walls, the floor, but there was no purchase there. Screaming again, he was swept out with the water, his stomach clenching into a knot as he fell through the air.

And then he hit something solid. His front slammed into something uneven, knocking the breath from his lungs, smashing his mask against his face. He felt hot blood run from his nose as he struggled to regain his breath, grabbing at the thing he'd landed on. The water was gone, falling below him to the ground, which seemed like it was a mile down. He looked, catching a glimpse of his katana, falling also, and swore viciously. The mask retreated from his face, and cool air wafted across his blood-streaked face.

Nohano clung to an impossibly giant tree, dead, gnarled, and black. It seemed to be the support for the entire, huge chamber—he didn't know what was at the bottom, only that if he let go, he'd be killed when he hit, armor or not. He suddenly felt as it the warlord Cade had shot one of his arrows into him, despair overcoming his mind. He shut his eyes, leaning his forehead against the tree, gripping its gnarled trunk, his feet gaining only the most precarious hold. He tasted blood and tears both as he wept, unable to do anything else.

'I can't do it,' he thought desperately. He'd tried so long, had overcome so much, but now—there was nothing more left in him! He feared his friends dead or taken over by Talpa, and images of the destruction of San Francisco swam before his eyes. How could eight kids fight that? How had the original group done it with only five? How had they fought against such impossible odds? How had Sanada borne the awful responsibility? "I wish you were here to bear this armor, Sanada Ryo, because I...just...can't."