A/N: I apologize for the late update, so you get two chapters this month instead of the one I was planning on. Please, if you see that I haven't updated by the end of the month shoot me a private message or just leave a review asking if I'm going to update. I know a lot of authors out there dislike those kind of messages, but most of the time their stories are unfinished. Book 2 is complete, and I tend to forget to update it here because of that. Anyway enjoy your two chapter update.

LG

Chapter Twenty:

The Ronin Leader was faced with a potential question, that he was not quite sure how to answer. Did he risk calling and using the Wildfire swords, knowing that the strain could break them? Or, did he channel the energy of the Inferno through himself, even though he was certain doing that would kill him?

The roar that came from behind Ryo startled Kali as much as it surprised him. The Ronin turned his head just enough so that he could see the coal black tiger standing there with the swords looking at him.

"I'm kinda surprised you're here," he admitted, knowing immediately that the tiger was separate from White Blaze...Had been since the White and Black armor fought each other.

'You might not be my master, Rekka, but I would not abandon you,' Black Blaze rumbled out, he figured the human couldn't understand him but he made the statement anyway.

"The fact she'd have your hide, has absolutely nothing to do with it right?" Ryo joked as he took the swords into his hands.

'Oh, so you have your memories. That's amusing,' the tiger chuckled out, before letting out a roar at Kali. He tried not to smirk at her little twitch of fear, good she ought to be afraid especially after fighting the girl like she had. The tiger bowed his head to Wildfire's bearer and then dropped back.

Ryo now turned his attention back to the ice demonness, querying, "What? Are you going to stand there and gape all day?"

"I thought I'd be a sport and let you have the first shot," Kali commented with a light sneer, "But since you're complaining, I've changed my mind!"

She lunged at him, and the Ronin Leader brought up the one Soul Sword to block her blow, before using the other to cut into her arm. Immediately she let out a hiss, and then growled in irritation.

Great, the large advantage she had over him before was practically gone now...Somehow this armor had managed to give him strength anew, and a lot of it.

Of course, that meant if she fought him long enough he would burn out quicker, and, hopefully, their plan would work. All she needed to do was get him angry enough and worn out enough to call Inferno's power, and shoot it at her. She could slip out of the way, and then the Wildfire Ronin would loose his strength.

Akemliek would be free once more, and then he could deal with these annoying pests, because really? She was kind of tired of dealing with them at this point; they had long ago stopped amusing her.

"This the best you got Kali?" Ryo asked of her, before slamming her into the cavern wall.

She let out a grunt, and then slipped out of the box he had placed her in, kicking him in the gut with her foot. The demonness backed up from him, saying haughtily, "You're a fool to think this will be easy. And naïve as to how your friends currently are."

Ryo's heart sank at her confirmation of what he had feared that his worry had become a reality. He took a quick glance around and the blood in his veins went cold, Inferno had taken all their strength not just that of their armor power.

They had fallen into unconsciousness, and were now vulnerable to whatever the enemy decided to throw in their direction. The Raikken were gone, but they wouldn't be for long, he knew that. He just didn't know what to do, because at this moment he couldn't call forth Inferno's power. It was fighting against him too badly, if he used that power and missed Kali, there was no telling what the armor would do.

'Do not worry about them,' Black Blaze rumbled loudly, 'Kayura-tachi are no more than a few seconds away. Leave the other Ronin for the Seasonals to fret over; you concern yourself with getting rid of her.'

The Ronin Leader gave a nod, though anger was very much present in his face as he turned all of his attention towards Kali. Ryo would have rather the energy drain on his friends had never taken place, but he couldn't change that now.

With a resigned sigh, he went after the ice demonness, soon becoming completely lost in the fight that was upon him and tuning the world around him out.

Kayura let out a slight gasp instead of a breath, bewilderment clearly shown in her face, "What on Earth happened?"

The four Ronin had fallen where they had earlier stood the loss of that much energy, and at such a rapid pace, had forced their bodies to shut down. They looked dead, but the only reason the Lady Ancient knew this wasn't fact was because she could sense their energy...Though it was barely there.

"We shall have to debate that later," Anubis looked to his comrades saying, "We need to hurry and get to them, before the Raikken return."

Dais gave a nod in agreement already starting to move, "I'll go for Hardrock."

"He's furthest away, I'll come with you," the Spring Seasonal told him, quickly following.

"The black tiger is guarding Halo," Cale remarked in amusement, adding, "I'll go join him."

"I guess that leaves me with Torrent, joy," the green-haired Fall Seasonal rolled his eyes and Elayne bit down a laugh.

"All right, White Blaze go with Sekhmet," Kayura said to the tiger, "That way we have two to a Ronin. Elayne, you're with me."

"Yes ma'am," the girl quipped offering the cat a shrug of her shoulders to his unasked question. She didn't know why Kayura always got bossy during battles, either. But if anyone could keep people in line when they stepped out, it was the Lady Ancient. White Blaze merely shook his head and bounded after the Fall Seasonal.

Kayura glanced back over her shoulder once to make sure the girl was still there, before they reached the Ronin of Strata. The woman kneeled down, querying, "Rowen?"

She placed a hand to his cheek, and her eyes widened, "He's like ice! Inferno must have drained them of all their energy." The Lady Ancient bit her lip, before closing her eyes, she tried to use a healing spell Kaosu had taught her...But it did nothing.

The bewilderment in Kayura's face now shone through all too clearly her eyes full of shock. What was she supposed to do? They were not injured in a way she knew how to deal with and could help them out of.

"Kay, they're coming back," Elayne said in warning taking up a fighting stance, her eyes nervously scanning around the cavern. She landed on where Ryo and Kali were fighting, and swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat. Wow, she would not want to be fighting against Wildfire's bearer right now, he was peeved. The girl relaxed a little, seeing that the Seasonals had reached the Ronin.

Kayura quickly leapt up to her feet, drawing her jitte and twirling them, before stabbing at the first Raikken dumb enough to show itself. A minute later the cavern was full of them, and the fighting began anew.

"I don't know what to do," Kayura told the girl, a bit of helplessness leaking into her tone. "They're drained, and I don't know how to fix that because we aren't going to have time for them to recover that much energy naturally."

Elayne gave a nod in acknowledgement to that, immediately understanding the Lady Ancient's frustration. Since the two were good friends, much to the Ronin's chagrin, whenever Kayura had a problem they tended to talk about it. Especially, problems like this.

The girl was aware of what really infuriated the young woman, that while she was older she had practically no knowledge of things she needed to know and comprehend. Kayura had spent most of her life brainwashed by Talpa, once free from that influence she had still had the nightmares and memories of her past to contend with.

All the while trying to follow the will of her clan that she knew relatively nothing about, and with the added stress of not knowing how to use the powers and strengths she was born with. Kayura might have been in contact with the Ancient, but it had not been for very long, and while Anubis had been back for a while...Well, to be honest neither man was very helpful.

Elayne hesitated a moment, before saying, "I might be able to do something. I just don't know if it'll work."

"What did you have in mind?" Kayura queried dropping back a moment to listen to the girl as she spoke.

"Mm," Elayne ducked a strike, and kicked the Raikken's legs out. Kayura followed up by slicing it. "Once, a while ago, Nova-tachi got smashed around pretty bad. It was to the point where Glacia was the only one still standing, the other girls were out cold having exhausted their power."

The girl paused a moment, before continuing, "I had read weeks earlier on how to transfer energy from one person to another. So, with barely any options left I took a chance, and it worked. I just don't know if it'll have any effect on them or not."

"Why? Don't the Elementals have remnants of the armors powers?" the Lady Ancient queried.

Elayne gave a nod, "Ya, but even without taking extra power into consideration, the guys are a lot stronger than they are. I can try, and we can hope it works on them too."

"Go ahead, I'll handle these things," Kayura said to her.

The girl gave a nod, and moved back to Rowen's side, quickly kneeling down next to his form, and gently removing the helmet. Blinking in surprised when it vanished seconds later...Okay, that was bizarre.

She was taking a risk here, and a big one. It was not the danger to herself that bothered her, but the danger to the Ronin if this did not work. It had to work, if it didn't...She was not going to think like that, and she shoved the thought from her mind before it could start to unravel.

Elayne took the dagger back out from her boot, it was actually a yoroidoshi, a form of the tanto made for the purpose of piercing through armor. Not long after the Raikken had started coming after her, she had purchased it and it had been with her ever since. The blade came in exceedingly handy.

She took the knife, and pricked the tip of her finger with it, before wiping the miniscule amount of blood onto her pant leg and then returned the blade to it's sheath that she kept in her boot.

The girl calmly traced the Ronin of Strata's kanji with her bloodied finger, biting her lip in part concentration and part thought. No, the symbol was not visible, but she knew it quite well.

Elayne let out a loose breath, before pulling her hand back, and then clasping it together with her other. She then tightly shut her eyes, pulling at what energy she could and praying this worked the way she needed it to.

Kayura cast a brief glance over her shoulder, a little surprised to see the kanji symbol on Strata's forehead flickering in, and out. She could not reflect on this long though, there were just way too many Raikken for that.

Elayne's eyes snapped open just as Rowen's kanji flared up, and remained for a moment before fading back out. The blood she had placed over it, now gone. She let out a relieved sigh, the energy transfer had worked. Now it was just a matter of getting Rowen to wake up, something she knew was easier said then done.

"To?" the girl queried, shaking his shoulder a little. "Touma-kun?" She paused a moment, then let out an irritated groan, "Bah! You have me so worried I'm calling you by the name you hate."

That ploy didn't work either and finally she gave a roll of her eyes...So much for trying to be nice about this, oh well she had tried. Elayne finally bellowed, "OI Rowen!"

This attempt worked quite well, his body jerked slightly and his eyes opened, before he quickly shut them. The blue-haired archer let out a low moan, his entire body hurt and he had a migraine.

Strata's bearer shifted slightly, and opened his eyes once more, this time he left them open, "Elayne?"

The girl let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, "It did work." She grinned, "Score another one for me. Nice of ya to wake up Ro."

He frowned at her, not quite sure what was going on, and then a thought struck him, "Ryo!"

"Easy," Elayne prevented him from leaping up, but just barely. "You'll hurt yourself if you move like that. I restored energy to you, but I don't know how much so don't try and move that fast. He's fine, holding his own against Kali and Inferno itself."

"What happened?" Rowen queried sounding completely lost. His mind was still disorientated after having such a thing happen to it, and he was only slowly starting to pick up on what was going on around him. He noticed Kayura was fighting the Raikken...Suddenly he went pale, sensing the others current states, "He was right, it drained us so badly because we waited too long."

"Do you always answer your own questions?" the girl teased she had gotten up, and offered him a hand, which he gladly took.

The archer was relieved to find he hadn't stiffened up, though his armor felt a little heavier than normal, "Not all the time."

"Ro?" the Lady Ancient queried having seen out of the corner of her eye that he was awake, "You okay?"

"I'm good for now, Kay," the archer answered with a small smile.

Elayne's eyebrows sharply went up, and she tilted her head at the two of them, "Since when did you start calling each other by nicknames? Wait, since when did you start talking to each other?"

"Heh this little venture was good for something," Rowen offered up, calling up his bow, and reaching for an arrow, quickly grasping one.

Kayura gave a nod to this, saying, "We had a conversation over a few things."

"Wow, I'm impressed you guys," Elayne said, and added with a mischievous grin, "Before you know it, there'll be wedding bells."

"Elayne!" Rowen's ears went slightly pink due to his embarrassment, and Kayura quickly turned her head, her cheeks having a rose tinge to them.

The girl permitted herself a snigger, before becoming silent and looking around the cavern again. She could feel that the Senshi were approaching, but they were still a way off. And Ryo? He was still fighting with Kali, holding back because he didn't want to use the Inferno's power until he knew he could control it.

"Any ideas about what we're supposed to do for the other guys?" Rowen queried, as he let several arrows fly destroying a handful of Raikken. "'Cause I take it you aren't sure if you can get a repeat performance." This he directed at Elayne, who got slightly annoyed.

"I can! I just can't get three repeats; I don't have that kind of energy to splice," the girl said with a frown. "I can't tap in the crystal for it, because it hasn't worked since I got down here. I think the only thing you could use if for would be teleporting if you knew how to do it." Well, that wasn't exactly the whole truth, but most of it...The rest they didn't need to know, not at this point in time.

"Hm," the archer was thoughtful for a moment, and he pondered it over in his head, before remarking aloud, "What about using a healing ability to boost it?"

"I'd do that, but there's not enough light down here for me to try it with Nii-chan's armor," Elayne said with a shake of her head, but then she asked, "Hey! Didn't you tell me that during the stint in Africa, when you got tore up and the split between the armors and virtues made you ill that Cye healed you?"

"Ya," the Ronin of Strata gave a nod, "All four of us. Do you think you could boost his ability instead? Kali kept blabbing on about how there was water all around this place; his armor's at a better advantage."

"I can try, I just don't know if Torrent'll take the suggestion. All I can do is press it upon the armor, doesn't mean it'll do it," the girl answered.

"I'd say go for it," Kayura brought in to their conversation. "Except how are you going to get to him?"

"Oh," the girl took her prize blade back out, and flashed them both a grin, before rushing through the horde of Raikken, "Like this."

"Are you crazy?" Rowen called after her, quickly moving in to help Kayura who was starting to get overrun.

The Lady Ancient was amused by this, and teased, "Who's saving whom here?"

"Let's leave it at, we're helping one another out of a sticky situation," the Strata Ronin chuckled.

"That works," Kayura said.

"Hi guys," Elayne greeted, as she slipped behind Sekhmet having managed to get there within a few minutes without getting killed. Really, she considered that one a miracle. Of course, the warriors would probably wring her neck later, but she had more important things to worry about now. "Miss me?"

"Always," Sekhmet chuckled at her comment, querying with a grin, "And to what do we owe the honor of your presence?"

"I managed to get Rowen's energy level back up enough that he's awake. I'm hoping that through Torrent, I can help Cye, Gege and Nii-chan. I don't have the capacity to do it separately three more times."

'Ah, I think I know what you are talking about,' White Blaze rumbled to her, 'It should work.'

"Let's hope so," Elayne murmured, looking to the Fall Seasonal, "Think you can keep them off of one more person?"

The green-haired man gave a nod, "Yep, quite easily. This is child's play!"

"You're a goof Sekky," the girl shook her head in amusement, before walking over to Cye, and kneeling down next to him. Her yoroidoshi was still out, and she laid the weapon in her lap before removing the Ronin's helmet and laying it aside.

It too vanished, and she let out a sigh that time it had startled her slightly...Talk about your quirky mystical gear.

Elayne put a hand on her dagger, and then pricked the same finger, but a little deeper this time. Again, she wiped the blade off, before putting it away and then traced the symbol she knew was there.

She steeled herself, waited to see if the Torrent armor would recognize what she was trying to do and accept the chance to do it. It wasn't an acknowledgement, just a feeling that she knew it understood what she was trying to accomplish.

The girl broke her concentration just as she felt the three Ronin's normal energy levels come back up. By the time she caught her breath, and finally opened her eyes, Cye was already getting to his feet.

The Ronin of Trust offered her a kind smile, and a hand back up, which she took without giving a protest.

"Thanks Elayne," he told her, sea-green eyes searching Sage and Kento out and finding they were all right now as well. "Did a good job."

Elayne gave a wry grin, "No problem. Now, think you guys can avoid a near-death experience for the next half-hour?"

Cye rolled his eyes at this, but did not bother to make a return comment. He happened to know better than to do something as foolish as that. Torrent's bearer took pause though, and quickly searched for his leader, having felt a rather quick shift in energy. The battle between the two was about to come to an end.

The Ronin Leader let out a sigh of relied when he felt the other four were back to a slightly normal state. He had not permitted his attention to be diverted anywhere during all that time, yet he could easily tell they were okay.

He gave a chuckle, "So much for your great plan, Kali. They're awake, the Seasonals are here, and the Senshi are closer than they were."

"Naïve of you Wildfire, very naïve," the ice demonness tsked him. "Do you really think you can win at this point? You are all going to die, and you can trust me on that."

Ryo sucked in a breath, having forced himself to exert enough control of the Armor of Inferno that he was now comfortable enough to use it's power. He still had to be careful though, one miscalculation and he could bring the cavern down too.

"You first Kali," he said in a cold voice, the anger within him suddenly boiling over. His eyes narrowed into thin slits as he called for what had been lying just out of his reach, what the armor had been begging him to call. And Ryo turned it all loose on her, "Rage of Inferno!"

The large wave of flame came out through the swords the minute he called for it, fueled by his strong emotions that of his irritation and anger. There was no room for Kali to escape it, and no way she could survive the intensity of that kind of power.

Her screams of agony and horror echoed around the walls before stopping, and the ice demonness herself was reduced to nothing more than ask, like that of a Raikken.

The force of his attack knocked down the wall, revealing another tunnel, as well as an odd-shaped crystal just sitting there, out of place.

Ryo's eyes widened in shock as he instantly recognized what that way, he tried to break the swords off from the attack, but found that he was unable to move.

The Ronin Leader vainly struggled against this, however it was too late to stop what was now occurring and the Inferno armor was slowly drained of it's power.

"Ry!" Rowen yelled out at him, having seen what had happened. His stomach gave an uneasy lurch, as the scene was vaguely reminiscent of something that had happened long ago.

Kayura looked ill as well, recalling the same incident as Rowen was...She quickly pushed the thoughts from her head by giving it a vigorous shake. They needed to get to him, and quickly. The minute she tried to get past the Raikken, more showed up to block her path.

"Oh no," Sage murmured, leaping over top of Cale and coming down hard on the Raikken behind the one the Winter Seasonal was fighting.

The Halo Ronin's violet eyes were narrowed, and he began to increase the rate at which he was fighting. Somehow, the rest of his strength was starting to come back, and he was taking full advantage of that.

Cale took notice, "Careful Sage, it might be returning, but you shouldn't push."

"We need to get to Ryo, Cale," the swordsman said lips pressed into a thin line. "That thing is draining him, if the Raikken go after him once he's out of that trap, he's as good as dead."

The fact was something Cye was trying to get into Sekhmet's thick skull at the same exact moment. But his logic seemed to be completely wasted on the Seasonal of Fall.

"Look Torrent," Sekhmet was so annoyed with the young man by this point he was using the armor title, "I get it, but the fact of the matter is we have to get through these first. If you have a suggestion on how to get around them, spit it out."

The Ronin of Torrent glared at his once rival, saying, "Stop fighting with them, and move it."

"Brilliant," the Seasonal snorted out, pointing one sword to where Kayura and Rowen were, "They tried that, it didn't work."

"Any ideas spider-eye?" Kento queried, he was starting to realize how hopeless this all seemed. Especially when, with every Raikken they got rid of three more seemed to pop up.

Dais shook his white head, "My illusions don't work on these things, they're too dumb to get they're being tricked."

"One would think that'd be an advantage," the Spring Seasonal remarked.

The Summer Seasonal again shook his head, "No, not when something is this dumb. We're just going to have to trust that Wildfire can hold his own and that the drain won't be too bad."

The Hardrock Ronin let out an irritated sigh, there had to be something...He paused noticing the light produced by the armor's attack was starting to die down.

"Oh man..."

Ryo staggered back a step or two, fighting to keep himself upright and conscious...He lost his hold on the swords and they clattered to the ground. The Ronin Leader sank to one knee, his normal method of blocking out pain and fatigue was no longer working. His body had fully realized what had happened to it, and there was nothing he could do.

The white armor quickly faded, leaving him once more in Wildfire, but that too left him leaving him in no more than his subarmor. That last line of defense also failed, and he was back in his street clothes.

He was on his hands and knees, trying to force himself back up...Ryo had detected the presence of the energy not far from him, knew it was Thanos. But, the last of his strength finally evaporated and he collapsed.

Ryo heard the sound of a blade being drawn, but he could not even get his body to stir...It was worn out as much as he was mentally exhausted, and knowing this the young man accepted the fate that now awaited him.

The others were alive, and that was all that really mattered. They didn't need him to defeat Akemliek a truth which he had long ago accepted. Knowing his part in all of this was over, the Ronin of Wildfire waited for the blow to come.

...Only...It never came.