Surf hit the sand with a dull roar. Setsuna yawned as they watched the sun come over the horizon. They had left the hotel a few hours ago and had gotten down to the beach early to begin training. Kotaro had only said that she should keep her guard up at all times. Setsuna was sitting on the sand watching the sunrise and the waves, almost being put back to sleep by the sound of the surf. Kaede suddenly came out of nowhere and attacked. Setsuna reflexively reacted with hand to hand combat. Kaede was already a step ahead of her and used the Bunshin technique to trap Setsuna among several of her shadow selves.

Setsuna felt at a disadvantage fighting five of Kaede all at once. She was holding her own until Kotaro joined Kaede in the attack. Setsuna gritted her teeth and fought back as hard as she could. A few well placed punches and kicks took out a few of Kaede's clones but a kick to her blindside by Kotaro sent her flying across the sand. Setsuna skipped a couple of times before skidding to a halt. Setsuna let herself go and let her wings out, using them to propel her across the sand. She quickly took out the remainder of Kaede's clones and was now defending herself against just the two of them. She was winning but just barely.

Kotaro was surprised by how well Setsuna was doing. He had thought for sure that the surprise assault would work and they would have beaten her quickly. Yet Setsuna had turned it right back at them and was beating them. The shift in how the battle flowed had happened when he had kicked her across the sand. He mentally checked himself to ask her if that was what had given her enough time to recover and retaliate. He grunted in surprise as Setsuna hit him, sending him to the sand. He hadn't seen her move, which surprised him. He had no idea she was that fast.

Kaede suddenly found herself alone against Setsuna. From where she had stood it had looked like Setsuna had used a partial shundo to move her fist faster than Kotaro could see. He dropped and then suddenly Setsuna was right in front of her, battle light in her eyes. Despite this being a sparring match, Kaede could sense that Setsuna was treating it as an actual fight. 'At least she can do that much', Kaede thought to herself as Setsuna tried her hardest to land a hit on her.

Setsuna moved at such speed that Kaede barely reacted to it. The kick landed square and threw Kaede for distance. Setsuna stood there on the beach breathing heavily. She had won the first sparring match of the day. She smiled as Kotaro spoke to her, "Geez ne-chan go easy on us next time. I think you knocked Kaede out. Where'd you learn shukuchi and how did you get it that close to perfect? I couldn't even see you move. Even Negi can't move that fast and he's fairly quick on his feet."

Setsuna said, "I learned it at the Shinmei Ryu School. That is the first time, however, that I have gotten it near perfect. Fate can do that technique perfectly and without fail at any moment. I fear Shundo may no longer be enough to deal with his speed. Last time we fought it barely saved my life by mere inches. I need to be able to use shukuchi without fail as well. I may not be able to match his speed but I'll be better equipped to dodge. He can see right through a shundo and I suspect he may be able to see through shukuchi as well but it is worth making use of if the need arises. You never know what he's going to use and I could just barely keep up with him. While I was only one step ahead of him, he was dozens of steps ahead of me. That gap needs to be shortened a bit." She sat down for a second and yelled down the beach to Kaede who was beginning to stand up. "You okay Kaede-chan? I tried not to break anything."

Kaede slowly got to her feet and nodded. She walked to where they were and was about to speak when sand exploded around them. Setsuna and Kotaro jumped back. "I'm sorry for the interruption but I'm going to have to reschedule our meeting for right now." Came Fate's sinister voice from out of the cloud of settling sand.

"What? What do you mean? Fate we had a deal." Setsuna yelled.

"Don't you know better than to make deals with an evil person? I hold all the cards today. Your loved ones are in a barrier field up on the boardwalk and this place is shielded so don't worry about holding back for fear of destroying the town. You can attack me with everythi..." His speech was interrupted by Setsuna who had slammed a flat palm into his chest.

"Fine then Fate. Today you lose." Setsuna said with a smile.

Kotaro and Kaede immediately followed Setsuna into the fray. Fate seemed to be bored with their skills and was easily keeping them at a distance. Kotaro managed to land some solid hits on Fate and as he did so was sent flying by an unseen attack. Fate wasn't going to be pulling punches. Setsuna knew exactly how to deal with this fight. She was finally ready for it. The only hitch in her plan was that she hadn't anticipated Fate attacking early.

Fate was surprised by everyone. He hadn't expected they would find this much courage to fight in such a short time. He had decided the moment after Setsuna had left that he would go meet her during training and finish the fight. He had suddenly decided he wasn't about to give his opponent more time. His mind suddenly went back to the current fight. He couldn't afford to be distracted today. He knew that the combined skills of those three were something to be wary of. He was surprised by their ability to break his magic barriers with such ease. He was being forced to rely almost solely on his hand to hand skills. He was fine without most of his longer range spells but it was his close range ones he needed. A sealing charm he hadn't reversed in time had cost him a good portion of his magic and this enraged him.

Setsuna, Kotaro and Kaede were fighting as a fluid team. They were slowly winning against Fate. Kotaro was bleeding though and could barely stand on one leg. Kaede was fine save for a few broken ribs. Setsuna was the worst of them, having absorbed a good majority of Fate's attacks. A broken arm and several cuts made it hard for her to keep going. She could only hope Fate would give up and they could go rescue Konoka.

Fate was losing and he knew it. It was one of only two fights in his life that he knew he stood no chance to win. The other he had tried to forget. He knew that his only way out of this fight was to tell Setsuna Where her beloved Konoka was. He knew Tsukuyomi would be standing guard and that he wouldn't have to personally be there to defend his capture. However he did want to be there to tell Setsuna his reason for doing so. Fate smiled as he let the dust of the fight settle.

"I'll tell you where she is if you stop the fight. In my book, you've won the fight. I promise you both of them if you agree to this. Be warned though. I will not stop Tsukuyomi from doing what I have ordered her to do." Fate said with one of his secretive smiles.

Setsuna thought for a moment and then said, "How can we trust you? You said you were going to give us four days to train and yet here you are not one day later attacking. How can we trust a liar like you? Hell, why should we trust you Fate?"

Fate smiled and said, "Because I am the one holding all the cards. You have to trust me because you have no other choice. You don't have to completely trust me, just enough to get your wife back Sakurazaki-san and your girlfriend Inugami. I'll let you make the decision. My death and no lead as to where your loved ones are or let me live and I tell you exactly where they are. All you have to do is beat Tsukuyomi and listen to my reason for all of this chaos."

Setsuna and Kotaro thought about it and spoke quietly to one another. "I think we have no choice Ne-chan." Kotaro said. "If we kill him we may never find Konoka or Chizuru. If we let him live he leads us right to them. I know that we can beat Tsukuyomi but I don't know if we could do so in our current condition. We will have to try though. I say we let him live, as much as I don't want to."

Setsuna nodded and spoke directly to Fate. "Our answer is that we will let you live this day. Now tell me where Ojou-sama is. No lies this time Fate."

Fate smiled and said, "They are up in the foothills north of town. It should take you about one day to get there. Now then I will take leave of you. I have important matters to attend to." With that he turned and used a gate spell to teleport away after Kaede released the sealing spell.

They all collapsed in the sand tired, broken and bruised. They would have to recover from this fight before taking on Tsukuyomi but they couldn't afford to waste any more time than they already had. Setsuna wanted Konoka back more than anything.

They slowly made their way to the local hospital, knowing that they needed their injuries treated. The medical staff at the hospital were surprised by the condition they were in and remarked how they should all be unconscious let alone alert and standing. Several hours later and more lectures than they cared to remember they walked out of the hospital sporting varying types of bandages. Setsuna's right arm had been broken and was now in a cast.

They made their way to the hotel to spend the night. They were going to head out first thing in the morning. The final battle to get Konoka and Chizuru back could not come fast enough for the three of them. Sitting in their hotel room they all thought about Fate's words. Setsuna wondered to herself about what he had meant by 'his reason for all of this chaos.' Was he trying to say that he did this on purpose as some sort of test or had he done this for some other reason? Setsuna shook her head as she tried to get some sleep. She wouldn't have her answer until tomorrow and she prepared herself for everything.

Kotaro also found himself mulling over Fate's words as he laid there. He simply wondered if Chizuru was right and if that had also been in Fate's plan. Kotaro hated the fact that his girlfriend was trapped by an enemy of his. He knew tomorrow would decide everything.

Kaede sat on the balcony rail looking at the stars and wondering what tomorrow would bring. She knew that Fate always had some other motive for what he did. This was just another of his plans and she could only guess at his reasons why. She walked back into the room and laid on the bed Setsuna was in. She sighed as she tried to sleep. This had to be so hard on the both of them and she felt helpless to help them. Tomorrow, she knew would change them all, for better or worse.

(Author's note: So sorry this took so long to be put up here. Story kind of took a hiatus as I was writing other stories for a class of mine. Still, hope this will be a surprising twist to everything. I hope you read and enjoy this.)

Shinobi of the Onyx Sands