Chapter Thirteen

The going was anything but easy…The further they went down these tunnels the more her skin crawled. Jupiter's eyes rapidly moved from side to side, inspecting every nook and crevice waiting for more of the Raikken to appear.

She hated being put on edge like this, what she hated even more than that was aimlessly walking in enemy territory. But, really they had little choice in the matter. All they could do was fight the lousy Raikken when they bothered to show up, and continue down the tunnel they'd ended up in.

Her legs were starting to kill her, and so was her head…Sailor Galaxy had started trying to make idle chatter before, and now the woman was practically rambling. It wasn't just her nerves this was grating on, Cale looked pretty annoyed himself.

Cye? The Senshi of Jupiter cast a side-ways glance at the Ronin of Torrent, to gauge him as they continued this seemingly pointless march. He had been relatively quiet, bringing only in bits of humor when he felt they needed it. She knew, having been around him for so long now, that out of all the other Ronin he disliked fighting the most.

It had nothing to do with the fact he was poor at it, on the contrary he was exceedingly skilled. Perhaps as much of a perfectionist when it came to the yari as Sage was with the sword. He just did not like the thought, had never liked the thought he had told her once, of spending all his life fighting evil without getting the chance to actually live.

She felt bad for him, actually of all of them, Ronin and Senshi alike. They had never gotten a choice in any of this. Over three-millennia ago, definitely, and perhaps more than four, they had ended up picking up a task their 'elders' had not been able to complete. Their powers had been inherited, the same with all the baggage that went with it.

It continued to come back to them with each passing life, a sharp reminder that all unfinished business needs to be finished eventually…This lifetime represented the time for it to be finished. Either they would win this, or lose it completely. There would no longer be any more chances, time had finally run out.

However, what none of them could know, or probably ever would, was the fact that these events had happened before…Far more than just twice. A burdensome secret that not even the Guardian of Time herself laid claim to.

"Ugh," Jupiter let out a low moan and stopped to lean against the wall. "I need a break, my legs are killing me…We've been walking for hours!"

"Energy's giving me a migraine," Cale commented…He didn't happen to be referring to the negative energy surrounding them. Nope, he was commenting on the energy Sailor Galaxy seemed to have.

It didn't go unnoticed by her at all, "Mr. Doom-and-Gloom over there, ya gotta problem with me? Huh, Fido?"

"Kids," Cye broke the fighting before it could begin, "Let's take a fifteen minute breather, all right?"

Jupiter snorted, shaking her head, "If you can figure out what fifteen minutes is down here."

"Fine," Galaxy and Cale both grumbled sitting down, shooting ugly looks at one another. The Ronin of Torrent rolled his eyes, no matter where he went he always seemed to get stuck with the immature ones…Sad, actually.

Even Later

"This is hopeless," Sailor Moon's voice was laced with despair, as she more or less fell against the ground.

Sekhmet stood up straight, gave a huff and rolled his eyes, "One would come to that conclusion considering how much luck we've had thus far."

"It doesn't feel right to me," Neptune murmured quietly, having briefly taken out her mirror…But there was nothing revealed in its cold glass surface. She let out a sigh, sat down to rest as well…"What are we on? Tenth Raikken skirmish, and twenty or less?"

"Sounds about right," the Fall Seasonal grumbled in complaint, "They're wearing us down."

"And running us in near circles, no doubt," Sage remarked…In the face of these kinds of problems, the swordsman was calm….He had been raised to act that way in the face of adversity, and time had not been able to change that about him.

He shifted his weight ever so slightly, and leaned back against the cavern wall, to get some pressure off his legs, "I don't know if I'm the only one coming to this conclusion, but we know they had to mess with time in order to separate us like they have. And according to what we know time doesn't work correctly down here, because it took them so long to figure out when our battles were over. Meaning, they can manipulate it to do what they need it to do."

"Great," Sailor Moon groused. "That makes me feel a whole lot better Sage."

"It's not supposed to make you feel better," the Ronin of Halo bluntly stated. "But you're giving up when we've probably barely even started, isn't going to solve anything."

Neptune smiled wryly, "Oh, you give pep talks now?"

"I thought that was Strata's job," Sekhmet added in with a snigger.

Sage gave a snort to that, "Oh yeah, the last time Rowen gave a "pep talk" it almost ended with Ryo dying, and with Blaze dead. We tend to avoid letting him "rally the troops" now."

Rowen let out a violent sneeze, and then rubbed at his nose a small frown coming to his face. He let out a loose shrug of his shoulders to the question Venus posed about whether or not he was all right.

"M'fine," the archer reiterated after letting out another sneeze, and getting a concerned look from the blonde.

Saturn let out a giggle, "Someone's talking about you, I bet."

"Heh yeah, and it's all bad too I'm sure," the Ronin of Strata commented with a grumble.

Kayura's eyes scanned the surrounding cavern and she slowed her pace, saying to Saturn, "Further we go, the darker this place gets."

"I know," the Senshi admitted with a nod, "It's bothersome."

"Creepy's more like it," Venus mumbled out, hands instinctively going to her arms as she tried to rub some warmth back into them.

The Ronin of Strata was largely silent, thoughtful as he weighed the situation at hand…They were going to need a more permanent break, and soon. They'd been at this for more than just a few hours…A whole day could have passed by now without them really knowing it. They were going to burn out if they were not careful.

"Look," he broke the sudden silence that had occurred while he'd been in his own thoughts, "We're all tired; we should call it a night for now."

All three women stopped dead in their tracks and turned to look at him…It was easy to see it in their faces, they were trying to come up with some reason as to why it would have been a bad idea. Yet, in the end they could find none as they gave nods in agreement.

"Take turns in shifts?" Sailor Venus queried curiously.

"Mhm," Saturn gave a nod, and was prepared to pose a question, but Rowen beat her to it.

"Good, since it was my idea I'll take first watch," the archer stated in a calm tone, saying to the looks of protest, "No arguments ladies."

The Senshi of Saturn gave him a look before shaking her head a little and rolling her eyes. She gave a sigh and sat down, leaning her glaive against the wall, and then she closed her eyes. Well, there was no point in arguing over it really, she was pretty wiped.

Sailor Venus gave a huff of probably indignation, but she too flopped down on the unforgiving ground, and was out cold only a few minutes later.

Rowen let out a chuckle in amusement, his midnight blue-eyes suddenly shifting to Kayura who was watching him. He saw it before she squelched it, the nervousness in her face…Nor could he ignore the apprehension in her stature. Almost immediately the guilt swelled up within him, and he made sure to say in as soft a tone as possible, "That goes for you too Kayura."

The Lady Ancient pursed her lips together, a look crossing her face that instantly reminded him of the hardened warrior that had on more than one occasion nearly killed him. But instead of angering him, like it would have before, or set him into the defensive, now it simply came across as amusing.

"I'm fine thank-you very much," she told him curtly.

"A'ight," the archer murmured as he started to walk away. Well, if she was going to stay awake then maybe he could gather a little information while the two Senshi slept.

Kayura's eyes slightly widened, and her brows furrowed, "Where are you going?"

"S'long as you're going to stay up, I'll go scout ahead a little," He took a pause and grimaced. "The pun was unintended."

"Sure it was," she gave a snort…She should have let it go at that, but something compelled her to follow the Ronin of Strata and that is what she did.

Rowen walked in silence for several minutes, he knew she was back there…It was kind of hard not to hear someone following you especially when you were expecting to get jumped by Raikken at any moment. Finally he cast a glance over his shoulder, raised an eyebrow, "What are you following me for?"

He could see she was going to shrug him off, so he added with a sly grin, "Stalking me now?"

The archer tried not to chuckle at the look of annoyance that crossed her face, or the loathing her eyes now held…It was very hard for him though.

"Splitting up is a bad idea," Kayura tartly stated, hands almost going for her jitter but she pulled them back. She had seen nothing more than their shadows, how she hated being jumpy like this. But, the Strata Ronin still had her on edge.

All of a sudden Rowen stopped walking, "Ya, you're right. It's a dumb idea." He still was glancing at her from over his shoulder, now he looked past her to the two sleeping Senshi, "Well, I guess this is far enough then."

"Far enough for what?" Kayura hesitantly asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Strata's bearer ran an armored hand through his blue locks, before turning around so that he could face her, "I need to talk to you."

At hearing that her mind quickly brought to the front the memory of the fight…But no surprise showed in her face, or fear, she simply said, "No, I-"

"Kayura please," Rowen had heard the nervousness in her tone, it was buried deep, but he knew it was still there…And again the guilt stabbed at him. "This is important."

After mentally berating herself into calming down, she queried, "What?"

"The other day," the archer's voice was soft now, riddled with remorse. "What I did? Kayura, I-"

Now she was irritated, that warrior pride of hers burst up in order to protect that weaker part of her…The part of her she could not stand, that or she was afraid to understand it. "Don't, all right? You meant it."

She moved to stalk past him, however, he reached out and grabbed her by the arm, gently pulling her back to him but moving her just enough that her back was to the wall and he was blocking her only escape route. That was when her eyes widened in shock.

Rowen's tone had a note of frustration in it, "This is hard enough for me, as it is. Just give me five minutes, and then you can make this more difficult."

He did not wait for an acknowledgement, he merely said what he felt he needed to…He knew, knew there was no way he could undo what he did…But Rowen could at least try and explain himself…He needed it for his own peace of mind, now.

"Yes, I meant what I said. I just didn't mean for it to come out the way it did…I sure as hell didn't mean for it to go that far."

Kayura remained silent, her nerves were starting to smooth out…Her apprehension was starting to fade with each moment that they stood there. Once her mind accepted the fact he wasn't going to raise a hand to her, or verbally strike again she calmed.

"I was angry," Rowen murmured, eyes downcast…Slightly faraway. "I earned it, after all the fights you and I had. So what if I was holding a grudge? They'd be hypocrites to say they never held grudges against the Warlords. Out of all the fights, me and the guys, ever had the ones with you are the only ones that still haunt me and plague my dreams."

His voice lowered, came down to almost a whisper, "I hated you as much as I feared you'd kill me and get to Ryo…But, you had no control over who you were back then."

The Ronin of Strata relinquished his hold on her, dropped his hands to his sides, and slightly clenched them, "You were as much a victim as any of us…I can't, Kayura, I can't hold it against you anymore. I had no right to throw it in your face about who you used to be, because it was never you to begin with."

He let out a breath now, one he'd been holding for what he felt was an eternity, and then gave a humble bow of his head, "I hope one day you can forgive me for my thoughtless words. I am truly sorry for having hurt you, because I know I did."

The Lady Ancient could only helplessly stare at the young man in front of her.

She just could not, her mind was not quite sure if it could wrap around the fact that the Ronin of Strata had just apologized to her. What really got to her, more than that, was the fact that he meant it.

The emotion behind the words he had spoken was real; no one could fake that… Rowen was being completely sincere. She had seen it in his face as well, and those things were just enough to convince her.

She finally placed a hand on his shoulder, startling him slightly for he quickly looked up…The guilt reflected in those starry-depths served only to reiterate what she had seen before.

"It's okay Rowen, it was necessary," Kayura murmured out, placing a finger to his lips when he opened his mouth to protest. "I accept your apology, though you had nothing to apologize for. But, let's have apologies accepted on both sides…We need to be able to move past this."

"I accepted yours, a long time ago," the archer admitted once she'd removed her hand. "You had no reason to apologize either. According to some people though, I was just being a "silent snappy archer" whatever that was supposed to mean."

Kayura let out a giggle, "I do so love An-chan's titles."

"You two get along way too well," the archer remarked stepping aside so that she was no longer pinned to the wall. "What are you doin'? Plotting our demises?"

"Oh, we haven't yet," the Lady Ancient gave a devilish grin. "But, thanks for giving me the idea."

"We're doomed," Rowen moaned out with a playful grin following behind the woman, as she had started to make her way back to the two Senshi.

Kayura gave a soft smile, saying quietly, "Elayne's right though, you know? You are a good man, Rowen."

The blue-haired archer came to a complete stop and could only blink in confusion…The girl had actually said that about him? 'Nah, she couldn't have.'

Somewhere Else...Sometime Later

"So," the Ronin of Hardrock drawled out, taking his first break that morning…Er, well if it was morning. Time was exceedingly hard to gauge down here, especially when they were fighting small bands of Raikken. It certainly helped to break up the monotony, but did not help in figuring out how much time was passing.

Kento was not letting it bother him though, he considered it morning anytime after he'd woken up, and night anytime before he went to sleep for more than fifteen minutes. It made life a lot simpler that way, besides there were more important things to worry about.

At this point they'd slept, anything more than an hour, twice…Meaning at least two days had passed by this point.

"Anyone aside from me think we're getting nowhere fast?"

Sailor Mars gave a light sigh, her body was sore and achy, "I agree with you Kento. We've been walking forever, and this tunnel hasn't even branched out yet."

"It might have earlier; we simply did not see it because it was cloaked with an illusion," Pluto offered leaning lightly against her staff now. Seeing as how everyone else was taking a break she figured she would take one as well.

Anubis had been following behind the three of them, trying to check for those illusions the Senshi had hinted at might be there. If they were present though, they were cloaked well enough that he could not even detect the disturbance of energy like he normally could.

Now the Spring Seasonal came to a stop as well, commenting, "It would seem as though they are far from done with wearing us down."

"Can't last forever though," Kento remarked getting back to his feet and starting to walk once more. "They have to make a move sooner or later."

"Let's hope it happens sooner," Mars remarked with a grumble, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Pluto gave a soft snort but refrained from making a comment aloud, there really was nothing to be said on the matter. Whatever happened would happen, that was just the way things went.

Anubis shook his head a little, and then curled a hand around his kusari-gama, "More Raikken."

Elsewhere

Ryo had dropped back from the others, his brows were furrowed and his breathing was uneven. He paused a moment, steadied himself by placing a hand against the stone cavern wall. The Ronin Leader shook himself in a vain attempt to clear his muddled thoughts, he just could not focus.

Ahead of him the Senshi of Uranus and Mercury were kicking around ideas as to what they could do, that might potentially put a crack into the enemy's place. Of course, the more ideas they kicked around to help find the others, the more they refuted them as being useless.

Nothing seemed plausible, and they had no idea where they were in relation to the other warriors…Plus, Mercury's computer still refused to cooperate, every time she tried to input any data it returned an error message.

'Pull yourself together,' Wildfire's bearer ridiculed himself before removing his hand from the wall and forcing his body to walk onward. His eyes went back to the Senshi, and then a frown crossed his face. Where was?

"You're getting worse," the Summer Seasonal supplied, now standing right next to him.

Ryo had not bothered to draw his katana, knowing full well it was the Seasonal that had been lurking in the shadows right next to him, "Starting to sound like Ro, Dais. With that whole state the obvious thing."

"Not necessarily," Dais commented. "I hadn't realized there was anything seriously wrong with you, till we started out again. You hide it well."

"Thanks for the compliment," the bearer of Wildfire snorted out, immediately drawing to a halt…Eyes widening in surprise.

Mercury and Uranus had already come to a stop…There had finally been a split in the cavern…Now it was just a matter of deciding what to do about it.

"Obviously," Uranus dryly commented, "We have to go our separate ways, two and two."

Dais gave a nod in agreement, "You two take the one, and we will handle the other."

"Fair enough see you guys when we see you," Mercury commented before she and Uranus vanished down the tunnel on the left.

Ryo sighed through his nose as he and Dais started their trek, "I just hope we run into the others. Being separated like this is starting to bother me."

"I am certain they are fine," the white-haired man brought in.

"Ya, I'd just like to know for a fact," Ryo mumbled.

Elsewhere

"Slinking around has its benefits," Aarde mused as she stretched out her tightening muscles.

The Sailor Elementals had managed to avoid a large number of the Raikken sent after them by side-stepping the trap the enemy had specifically laid out for them. It mattered little though; Kali was not concerned because everything else was going according to plan and Akemliek was not that bothered by it either.

"Ya, things get heavy and we'll probably be the only ones at almost full strength," Empyrean commented getting to her feet.

Glacia was silent, her eyes half-lidded as she reached out with her senses…It was how they'd been able to avoid so many of the Raikken. With all the water around them, she could sense where disturbances were and thus keep them out of most of the trouble.

"Mm," the Scout of Water and Ice finally came back to the world around her, quickly jumping to her feet and starting to walk. "They're starting to make their move now."

"Oh, how so?" Nova turned her head to look at the Scout.

"The other Senshi are starting to meet up," Glacia picked up her pace, "They are finding each other and their way out of these mazes."

"Meaning," Empyrean broke into a jog when realization dawned on her. "The same for the Ronin."

Aarde and Nova had broken into sprints themselves, Glacia had gotten further ahead of her comrades though; a gap which they were quick to close.

"Certainly has taken them long enough," Nova remarked, adding, "The others might be more worn down then we think."

"No telling exactly how much time has passed outside of here either," Aarde brought in, casting a glance to her leader. "Or, how many Raikken fights they have had to go through."

"The Ronin are better at these types of situations than the Scouts," Glacia admitted. "Just not the type of battle."

Empyrean gave a shake of her head, "Let's just hope we can prevent anything terrible from happening." The other three gave nods in agreement.

A/N: So what will happen now? Will the warriors meet up without a problem? Or does this all seem to good to be true? Stay tuned.

*always wanted to say that* xD Neway, hope you enjoyed your two chapter update.