The bronze saints stared at Shina as if she were growing a new head next to her own.
"What do you mean she's not human?" Shiryu asked her.
"She isn't a human, it is that simple. She is a demon and she is very powerful at that. She has the ability to protect and heal as well as destroy her enemies. She can use magick and the pope is trying very hard to get her back because she can easily destroy him if she realizes how to use her powers properly. The real reason that I arrived here today is because there is a great danger now. Ares has spoken with a female saint named Satsuki. She is, without a doubt, the most powerful saint in the entire sanctuary and if she is sent on a mission she will die before coming back empty-handed."
"She was sent to kill me?" Tenshi asked, frightened.
"Actually, no. She was sent after someone else. I'm sure you will find this very interesting, but in order to prevent this one from destroying sanctuary, Satsuki was sent to obliterate Peggi."
The boys gasped, jaws dropping.
"You mean my brother could be in danger?" Ikki questioned, very angry.
Ikki did not like Peggi in the first place, but because of her, his little brother would possibly up against the most powerful female in sanctuary.
"So what should we do now? We have no idea where Shun and Peggi are in China. For all we know, Roshi could have taken them out of China all together for the healing," Seiya pointed out.
"We have to protect Tenshi above anything else," Hyoga began, "and I think that we should go straight for sanctuary and go now. If Tenshi is such a threat to sanctuary and this Satsuki person is on a mission to kill Peggi and Shun, she will not be there to cause us trouble. I say we go now and after we've destroyed sanctuary we figure out what to do about Peggi and Shun."
"You're right, Hyoga. They are both very good fighters and can protect themselves for the time being. We have just as much knowledge of their whereabouts as Satsuki does, so they should be safe for now," Shiryu noted, "my only concern is what Ares has waiting to challenge us at sanctuary. Something else we haven't thought about is what happened with Muso. We thought that he was working for sanctuary, but what if they are holding him prisoner with Saori? We have two people we need to rescue, so we will need a plan."
Shina laughed, "Muso? Muso is nothing but a flesh puppet. He was once a man but his soul was destroyed by a powerful demon named Naraku. Naraku traded your little 'Tenshi' girl to Ares and after she escaped somehow, they teamed up to try and locate her."
"Well, I guess that leaves Muso out of the rescue then, if he is merely a puppet. If there is any way we can save him, we can give it a try, but when someone loses their soul they usually can never be more than a robot," Seiya sighed.
The bronze saints, along with Tenshi and Shina, headed towards their ride arranged by Seiya and Tatsumi. They were all worried about how their battle would end, but they knew that somehow they would succeed.
Satsuki and seven of her strongest trainees had already arrived in China and were already on the prowl. Satsuki could not immediately sense the two they sought after, and so some sort of cloaking powers must've been used. Satsuki stood still, breathing very softly, eyes closed. She was concentrating very hard on something.
"Girls, if you were weak and needed to heal, where would you hide from the rest of the world?" Satsuki asked the girls.
One of the female saints lowered herself onto one knee, "A secluded cabin or hut by a body of water."
"Exactly. We must look on the map to locate any secluded areas near bodies of water. Kahna?"
One of the saints handed Satsuki a map and the girls all watched at she observed it. She used one of her sharp nails to tear the skin on her left arm and used the blood on her nail as a pen to circle four areas on the map.
"They will be in one of these four areas. Each of these areas is secluded and next to some sort of body of water. Now, think, girls. If you had to walk to a secluded area, on foot the whole way, wouldn't you rest at the closest secluded area possible?"
The girls all nodded, knowing that she would find out the exact location of the two very soon.
"Yujiro found the two in this area right here," she pointed to an area, "and so logically, they would hide at one of these three locations," she pointed to the three circles.
"How will we know which cabin they are staying at?" one of the saints asked her.
"Don't doubt me, Atiera. Now, demons energize their powers by collecting energy off of certain plants. These plants can only be found near lakes, not large ponds. Only two of these cabins are near lakes," Satsuki explained.
The girl named Kahna spoke, "Isn't it also true that certain demons need minerals from certain types of rocks to gain back strength?"
"Very good, Kahna. You girls are learning so quickly. Yes, most demons need minerals to gain physical strength, however, the specific demon that we are looking for does not need these minerals. Our best bet is to take our chances and hope that we find them today."
The girls all set out to find the two they were looking for, heading towards the closets cabin to them.
The bronze saints arrived at the plane that would take them to sanctuary, all of them dressed in their cloths and ready for battle. They didn't even bother to say hi to Tatsumi, who was waiting outside of the plane, tapping his foot, when they arrived. They sat down in the seats and Tatsumi alerted the pilot that they were ready to take off. Once Tatsumi sat down, he realized that Shina was on the plane with them.
"What's she doing here?" he asked, sneering at the green-haired girl.
"I am here to help with the rescue attempts. I knew that I would be of assistance to Seiya and the others. As for you, what are you coming along for? Planning on getting yourself taken, or killed for that matter?"
"I will be of great use to the bronze saints! I want to help rescue Miss Saori as well!" Tatsumi all but whined his statements.
"I'm glad you're with us, Ikki," Hyoga began, "having you along will make the fight a lot easier. Usually you come in right when we need you the most, but I feel that it will be better to have you along the whole time in this case. I'm glad you're here too, Shina."
Shiryu nodded, "Yeah, the more people on our side the better."
Tenshi tried to fall asleep to pass the time but she was too nervous about what was about to come. She wasn't sure exactly who they were dealing with, but if some of the people she had seen were just minions of the person they were going up against, she was worried. She also had her concerns for the two who had been mentioned earlier. The girl, Peggi and the other bronze saint, Shun were all alone somewhere in the middle of no-where, possibly about to fight for their lives, all because she posed a threat to sanctuary. Suddenly, something occurred to her.
"Guys," she began, "if that pendant that you fought for with the silver saints is so powerful, why can't you use it against the pope? I mean, when you were telling me about its powers you said it could even control human beings, so why can't you just use it?"
Shiryu sighed, "Well, the problem with the pendant is that it is to be protected by the good and used for evil by the bad. We can't use it because we are good. It is our job to keep it from getting into the hands of the wrong people, which is why Hyoga is wearing it around his neck under his cloth. We can't let it out of our charge, and more importantly, we must destroy it."
"Yeah," Hyoga explained, "when we showed up at Saori's, she was already taken by the pope. Well, she is the only one who knows how to destroy it and so until she can tell us how to destroy it, we need to keep it safe and hidden."
"Well, you've done a good job. I didn't even know you had it," Tenshi exclaimed.
"Pendant? You managed to take the other piece?" Shina's eyes widened.
"Does it surprise you that we're not pathetic?" Ikki asked, dryly.
Shina simply laughed at the fact that she had struck a nerve. Tenshi looked out the window as they flew, noticing that they were above the water. Shiryu thought about how he would manage to protect Tenshi if the need ever came about, worrying if it really was too soon to put her in the position that she would need to fight for her life. Seiya tried to ignore the fact that Shina was making little googly eyes at him, while contemplating their options for fighting sanctuary. Hyoga was stuck on a really awesome video game move that he'd managed to use, trying not to think about the fact that he was very worried about their upcoming fight. Ikki couldn't get the feeling out of the back of his mind that something might happen to Shun and Peggi. He didn't really like Peggi, but he also didn't want any harm to come to the girl.
Finding only a family in the first cabin, Satsuki and her following girls were heading towards the second cabin, sure that they would find the two they sought after.
In sanctuary, Naraku's patience was wearing very thin. He had journeyed from one era to another to find out that a threat had been unleashed. Pope Ares, while concerned, could do much more to find the girl than Naraku thought he was. The whole situation needed to be resolved as soon as possible.
A guard burst into the throne room of the pope, out of breath, "Sir," the man bowed down to the pope, "there is word the bronze saints are on their way here right now! They will be here in only a few hours. Should we begin the plan now?"
Ares simply nodded and the man took off running, hoping that they would have time for their plan to work; the bronze saints were already very close to them.
END OF CHAPTER SIXTEENPeggi-I know this chapter is shorter than some of my others, but I just wanted to get this up as soon as I could. I'm starting to focus more of some of the other characters because we know so little about them and soon enough, they will be more relevant to the story. Hopefully this story is picking up. I have so many ideas for what should happen and its so difficult to figure out how to write it! Okay, well review and I'll have 17 up as soon as I can!