Chapter Twenty-Two

"And I thought it'd take longer for them to fall asleep than that," Nova mused as she sat down. It'd taken no more than fifteen minutes for the others to fall asleep.

White Blaze gave a soft snort to that, curling up next to his cub to offer the young man some warmth, as well as protection if it came to be needed. The black tiger gave a low rumble as the armor he wore vanished, before settling down not too far from the small campfire the Senshi of Air had managed to start.

Elayne gave a light cough to Nova's comment, before sitting around the fire with the older girls. She crossed her arms in front of her; the windbreaker she had been wearing had restricted her movement as much as she thought, so she had gotten rid of it.

It left her in nothing more than a long sleeve t-shirt, and Blaze had been sure to complain about that earlier. She let out a sigh, pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Oh," Aarde had caught onto the cough, "Did something about that, did you?"

"Not me, per se," the girl admitted in complete honesty, "The crystal. It's able to negate the negative energy for a certain radius. It put them at ease quicker. Plus, they are all wiped out."

"We know," Empyrean murmured, "We've been monitoring their situations, or Glacia has at any rate."

Hearing her name being mentioned, the Water Scout stopped trying to scan and turned her attention to her teammates, "Yeah, it's been hard to move around down here, but pretty easy for me to sense what's going on."

Elayne rubbed at her arm, sighed again and closed her eyes. This was oddly familiar to her, sitting around a campfire with the four Senshi talking things over. Yet, this was far different from what had happened in America…She had never been around the other warriors during such fights and none of them knew what she could do.

"So what brought you here?" Nova queried, she was not irritated, just curious.

The Elemental Leader had learned that Elayne only became involved in such things when she felt she had no other choice. The girl was wise enough to know when her powers could be of use, and when they couldn't and she'd be a liability.

Elayne immediately stiffened at hearing the question, and sighed out, "Do you have to ask?"

Glacia gave her a sympathetic smile, "Ah, I see. It was getting to be too much, huh?"

"Yeah," she mumbled out. "I can't block it, never have been able to. It's just worse this time since I'm so close to where they are fighting. I was having a hard time."

"Sitting there and doing nothing was also irking you, I bet," the Senshi of Air chuckled. "You know, An-chan, you really do act like the Ronin sometimes."

Aarde gave a snort, "She was practically raised by them. What did you expect?"

The girl merely rolled her eyes at the two of them, turning her head to study Glacia who simply chuckled in amusement, and then made a remark.

"I'm going to go see where the exit to this tunnel is."

"Not alone you won't," Nova told her. "That's reckless, Ryo kind of reckless."

"Hold up, Glac, I'm coming," the Senshi of Earth said getting to her feet, and following her best friend.

Empyrean wrinkled her nose a little, "Now what?"

"We wait for the others to recover some of their energy. They'll wake up when they are ready," the Senshi of Light commented. "We can't go anywhere with them as they are now, you know that. And while the enemy has the energy required, they still have to break the seal binding Akemliek. Hopefully, that'll give us enough time to get out of here. We can't take the risk he'll get free and fight with us; we're not in any shape for that."

The Air Scout sighed through her nose, "Don't remind me."

The Leader of the Elemental Senshi simply shook her head, before turning her attention to Elayne, "You should probably get some rest too. We're kinda aware you used that energy spell, and you look ready to crash."

"I'm just too obvious," the girl said with a shrug, getting to her feet and stretching. "I'll follow your order though, no worries." She casually strode over to where the black tiger was laying.

She kneeled down and gave him a poke in the side, grinning when he cracked open one eye to look at her.

'Yes?'

"Mind if I use you as a pillow?" the girl queried.

Black Blaze let out an amused chuckle, 'Of course not. Make yourself comfortable.'

The girl gave a thank-you as she sat down and then leaned her head against his side, giving him an affectionate scratch behind the ears. Elayne let out a sigh and closed her eyes; there was no way she was going to sleep, not down here. But, she might be able to pull off a bit of meditating.

The black tiger gave a yawn, and then drifted back off to sleep.

Not That Much Later

Things were blurry at first, objects had no real defining lines at all…And the colors were more or less meshed together. A low groan escaped from his lips, as he shifted his weight, and tried to move his left hand.

His blue eyes slowly started to come into focus, allowing him the chance to see the dark and dank cavern he was currently in. He continued to warily evaluate his surroundings, as he tried to sit up…Only to fall back against the ground with a muffled thud.

White Blaze stirred hearing Ryo move, and he let out a low whine. The Tiger hauled himself to his feet and moved closer, nuzzling the young man's cheek. Worry was etched deep into the tiger's face, as he rumbled, 'How do you feel?'

"Awful," the Ronin Leader said in a strained voice, wincing slightly as he tried to move. He let out a frustrated sigh, and then smiled when the tiger butted against him.

Ryo scratched underneath the tiger's chin, querying in a voice barely above that of a whisper, "Did I get her? The others, are they all right?"

'Yes to all of those,' the cat responded, tilting his head and letting out a low huff.

Black Blaze had only slept for about a half-hour, before waking up to find the remaining two Elementals bickering. He had sighed through his nose, and grumbled about the idiocy of humans.

Seeing that he'd been awake, the blonde had queried if he could keep watch. Knowing that she couldn't understand him word for word, he had simply nodded.

Granted, Empyrean had given him a few more test questions, and when they got to the last one which was utterly ridiculous, he had simply glared at her. Nova had wisely grabbed her best friend and hauled her off down the tunnel.

That had been hours ago, and he had been keeping watch ever since then. For the most part it had been quiet, aside from those in the tunnel that happened to snore…And snore quite loudly.

Now the tiger swiveled his right ear to listen closer, having heard movement, and then he caught the noise coming from his counterpart. Understanding that the Ronin of Wildfire was awake, the black tiger turned his head to the right and nuzzled the girl's cheek.

A hazel-violet eye peered at him curiously, as the girl murmured, "What's the matter?"

'Rekka is awake,' Black Blaze answered in a low grunt, swiveling his head back to the tunnel before him to keep watch once more.

Both eyes were now wide open, as the girl slowly got to her feet, making sure to give the tiger a pat as she did so. She stretched…Well the meditation had certainly helped to clear her mind, if nothing else.

Her body had gotten in some rest, and a little of the energy she had expended earlier had come back. She was just going to have to hope that she wouldn't need to do anything more than what she had. But at this point, she knew that'd never happen.

It was not that she didn't want to help, she was just aware of the limits, as well as the rules. There was only so much she could do, something she had accepted as fact a very long time ago.

"Hey," she greeted the Ronin of Wildfire, having been quiet as she walked over.

Even though, she probably could have come in with a jamboree and not a one of them would have stirred. That was how exhausted all the warriors were, and how she knew things were only going to get worse now.

Ryo gave a grin, murmuring out, "Hi." He had managed to get into a sitting position, but his muscles were screaming at him for doing it, he did his best to ignore them.

"I'm impressed," Elayne smiled at him, ruffling his hair. "Mia said the first time you used Inferno it knocked you out for a good 24 hours, the times after that about 12."

"How long have I been out?" the Wildfire Ronin asked with a frown.

"Seven hours, give or take a few minutes," the girl offered with a light shrug of her shoulders. She tilted her head at him, "You want to stand up?"

"No, that's why I'm floundering like a fish here," Ryo irately bit out.

Elayne scoffed at him, "You don't have to be crabby, and you could ask for help."

She extended her hand to him and he took it, the girl then gave a quick, but firm, yank that pulled him upward.

Oh if his muscles were irritated before, they were now cursing at him…They were as strained as his speaking voice was, and twice as sore as he had ever remembered them being after a fight. That fight had put too much on him, way too much.

He managed to walk, without aide, to the campfire and sat down with a sigh. White Blaze followed discreetly behind him, and then flopped down next to him, keeping a worried eye on his cub.

Elayne bit down a yawn, as she went over and sat down on the other side of the fire with the black tiger. Who acknowledged her presence with a low rumble; and then a small purr when she stroked him.

Ryo looked around the cavern, noting that his friends were fast asleep, the Inner and Outer Senshi were as well…And the Seasonals, and Elementals were gone. He turned his gaze to Elayne the question clearly present in his face, where had they gone?

"They went to see where we ended up, and if there was a way out of this tunnel," Elayne answered in a quiet tone. "Apparently, Universe sent us out of the one that was collapsing."

"She didn't?" the Ronin of Wildfire queried, it was the way Elayne had said it that made him question. His eyes on the dying fire in front of him. He could feel the warmth, as well as the small amount of strength that slowly crept back into him from it.

The girl shrugged, stirring up the flames, and adding another dead root to it, "Neo did. And before you ask, Aarde's the one that found the "wood"."

"Ah I see," Ryo murmured letting out a sigh. "We were lucky, that could've been worse than what it was. Thanks, Elayne, for helping them…Us."

"You don't have to thank me Ryo, but you know that by now," the girl commented eyeing him with a look of suspicion, "Don't you?"

It had been bugging her ever since he had made the comment he had faith in her, she could have sworn he was implying something there. But she hadn't been sure; now she was certain…Well, nearly certain anyway.

The Ronin of Wildfire gave her an amused grin; he wasn't going to offer a direct answer to that one, "Like I said, I have faith in you."

"Jerk," she told him in a flat tone, and he merely chuckled. After that, the two of them sat in silence…It didn't last very long.

Black Blaze's ear's twitched back and forth once more, having felt something brush past him. He let out his claws, and emitted a low growl of warning to the anomaly.

Elayne came out of her thoughts and gave a bored roll of her eyes, "Unless you want to be tiger chow, I'd stop hiding behind me Cale."

The Seasonal of Winter chuckled as he stepped out of the shadows, "Seems you have improved."

"Yeah," Elayne stared at a spot directly behind Ryo, "I've gotten to the point where I can now pick out where you and Dais are. Who's trying to eavesdrop as well; ne?"

The man dropped his illusion and smirked at the girl, "If you can call it that."

"Any luck?" Ryo asked the two of them curiously. His tired and sore body was starting to feel better; being close to the fire was helping return some of his depleted strength.

"We didn't happen to have any," Dais replied, quickly seating himself on the ground. "I am unsure about the Elemental Senshi, Elayne hasn't heard back from them?"

"Nope, not yet," the girl answered. Once the Seasonals had learned the girl was capable of slipping past the enemy's block on telepathy, they had implored her to use it to keep in contact with the Elementals which she had done, rather begrudgingly. "But, if anyone of them can find a way out, it'd be Empyrean or Aarde."

Cale gave a slight nod, then queried with a bemused grin, "So tell me doctor, do you think we should try and wake up the others?"

Elayne rolled her eyes at him, knowing the joke all too well by this point. The Winter Seasonal found it highly amusing that she was in the medical field, and was quick to make references to it whenever he could.

"I wouldn't bother, I tried an hour ago just to see if I'd get a response, nada," She shrugged, "Besides it's better to let them wake up on their own. I get that if they sleep too long their going to stiffen up, and their reaction time will be off…But, if they don't get enough rest their time'll be off anyway."

"Ha, they're just sound sleepers," Dais chuckled lightly, taking a twig and stirring the fire.

"You've got no room to talk," here Elayne pointed a finger at him and the other at Cale, "You two are the worst one's to try and wake up."

Before either Seasonal could make a protest, Ryo interjected with a smirk, "She does have a point."

Ryo had become used to the silence of the cavern, and was slightly startled when he heard movement. He was quick to relax though, upon seeing that is was simply Kayura, Anubis and Sekhmet coming back from their walk

"Back so soon?" Cale directed his comment to the Lady Ancient with a half-smirk.

Kayura looked prepared to rip his throat out, but decided to mind her manners. Instead, she completely ignored the inquiry, and took note of the Ronin Leader's presence, "Glad to see you're awake, Ryo."

"Well, it's nice to see that you haven't killed Cale in my absence," the Wildfire Ronin chuckled, having seen the look on her face but moments before.

Sekhmet snickered, "Only because Elayne wouldn't permit it," He turned and looked to Dais, "Anything?"

"No, and still no contact from the Senshi," the Seasonal replied, casting a side-ways glance at Elayne.

"Hey, no looks. They're ignoring me," the girl grumbled out in slight annoyance, "When they get into a determined mode they're completely unreachable."

Ryo let out a chuckle of amusement, "Aw, don't like being disregarded?"

Elayne glowered at Ryo and proceeded to give him the one finger salute, and his eyes widened in surprise. Kayura chortled and she exchanged a quick high-five with the girl, who was now grinning smugly at Wildfire's bearer.

"What time is it?" Sekhmet queried of the girl…The warriors had also come to the realization that the distorted time energy had been negated, simply because Elayne had spit out a time before…When her watch shouldn't have worked if that distortion had still been present.

"Eight at night," Elayne answered letting out a long drawn out sigh at the pointed look Cale gave her. "Okay, okay! I'll try and wake them up again; I'll press the envelope this time."

Kayura gave a shake of her head, "They still haven't woken up?"

"No, and Mr. Annoying over here has had me bug them on the hour for the past two hours," the girl grumbled out, jerking her thumb at the Winter Seasonal. "He doesn't want to wake them up himself, he wants me to do it."

"That's because he's a coward," Dais snorted out with a laugh.

Cale rolled his eyes, "No, I happen to have self-preservation instincts, unlike the rest of you."

Elayne tuned their bickering out, focusing on the warriors that were still asleep and giving a sharp yank on the connection she had with them. The result was the same as before, she got nothing in response.

"Stubborn mules," she let out a growl of frustration, before focusing solely on the Ronin Warriors.

'Hey guys?' She reached out, somewhat tentatively, 'Guys?'

Still she received nothing in the form of a response, so she then shouted aloud, giving an extra hard yank on the mental lines, "Oi! Wake up already!"

'Go away Elayne!' Rowen's voice snapped in annoyance.

Cye had a thought rather similar to the archer's, 'Bugger off.'

'Cye!' Kento reprimanded rather quickly, 'If I can't swear, you can't either. Anyway An, be a loving little sister and let us sleep.'

'Her be loving?' Sage asked, mirth in his voice, 'You're crazy Kento. Layne, give us a break. We're entitled to rest.'

"Hey the communication lines are back up," the girl remarked, blinking in surprise, before becoming annoyed with the four young men. "For your information, oh mighty and wise Ronin of Halo, you have been asleep for ten hours now."

The girl rechecked her watch, and decided to bait them, hoping that would work, "But if you guys don't want to wake up I'll understand."

A few sarcastic "thank you's" were sent her way, and a smirk appeared on her face as she added, "Of course, I don't know how I'm going to explain it to Ryo. But, I should be able…"

"What?" Four pairs of eyes shot open, as they came reeling back to consciousness.

The Seasonals couldn't help it, and succumbed to their laughter almost immediately.

Elayne felt oddly pleased, and crossed her arms in front of her chest, a smile on her face, "I knew that would work."

"So you did," The Ronin of Wildfire chuckled, turning his attention to his friends, "Hey guys, nice of you to join the rest of us."

Kento made his way over first, a scowl on his face, "Like you've got room to talk?"

"The next time you suggest something that utterly stupid," Cye snapped in annoyance, sitting down beside Anubis, "I'll promptly knock your lights out."

"I second the motion," Sage said, sitting on the other side of the Spring Seasonal. He thought about it a moment, and corrected himself, "Actually, we'll do that the next time you even try to make a suggestion."

Rowen gave a nod, sitting on the opposite side of the fire so that he was facing Ryo, "Agreed. I hope you enjoyed the fact you almost got yourself killed again."

"Hey!" The Ronin Leader glared at the archer, "What would you have liked for me to do? The Scouts were too far away, the Seasonals had been purposely separated from us before I called Inferno, and you yourself said you were out of ideas."

"Doesn't matter! Ryo have you no care about your own life?" the blond swordsman shot, violet-eyes narrowing at his friend, "Because I'm seriously starting to wonder."

Immediately, Ryo's vivid-blue eyes were ablaze with anger, "This coming from you?"

"Not fair Ryo," Kento murmured out, before stating in annoyance, "There is always another option!"

"Not this time Kento," Ryo spat back, "If there had been, I think between the five of us, we would've come up with it."

"Well then we should've looked harder," Cye angrily retorted, arms crossed in front of his chest.

The Seasonals were deathly quiet and all more than a little taken aback by the bickering. Certainly, they did not want to intrude in this match in the slightest.

Mainly it had to do with the fact they were stunned it was even occurring, and if the Ronins were acting like this with one another? Well, they certainly did not want to start an all out war.

Elayne blinked at the five young men, as the arguing continued, before her brows furrowed. What had gotten into them? It had to have been the energy; it was just a wonder as to why it hadn't gotten to them before this point…It might have been the armors allowing them protection from it.

The Ronins continued the argument, their voices starting to raise in volume…The Senshi were easily awake by then; there was no way anyone could sleep with that going on. Finally, the girl had just about had it.

She had been stuck worrying about them, knowing most of what they were going through and unable to do anything…So by this point her short temper had shortened a great deal. And with the five of them arguing like that, negative energy influenced or not?

…Well, she was a little less worried, and an awful lot pissed off. And her being completely pissed off was never a good thing.

The girl took a very deep breath, stood up, and then shouted over top of the din, "Hashiba Touma, Shu Rei Faun, Mouri Shin, Date Seiji, and Sanada Ryo. Shut the hell up!"

Whatever retorts might have been coming out of their mouths next died on their lips, as each young man paused to stare at the girl. She had screeched at them, and called them by their formal names. They were toast.

The Seasonals exchanged glances with one another, and Kayura bit down a laugh knowing it would have been inappropriate to do so. This ought to be good.

"I said to shut it, Touma," the girl hissed to the Strata Ronin, her eyes flashed in warning as she had clearly picked up on the fact he was prepared to make a retort.

Immediately he backed off, shut his mouth with a firm snap as his midnight-blue eyes blinked several times in surprise…Obviously they had hit the wrong nerve in her with their argument.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, a darkened scowl upon her face, eyes narrowed into slits as she spoke coldly, "I would like to know, what has possessed each of you to turn into morons! You're screaming and shouting at one another isn't going to change anything. And you guys know that better than anybody else."

"What in the Ancient's name is the matter with the five of you?" Elayne threw up her hands in exasperation, and let out a frustrated sigh eyeing each man carefully.

They made no move to respond to her question, not really knowing the answer to it themselves. Why were they getting so worked up like that? Sure they were annoyed at what had happened, but since when did they get into fights over such things?

"You mean you are fighting like this for no reason?" Kayura brought in now, trying to help them realize the foolishness of such things. She was starting to think, and to feel, that the negative energy had done more than minimally affect them all.

The five young men stayed silent, before offering slight apologies to one another…Slight in the fact all the apologies were mumbled out, and barely discernable.

"Negative energy's really getting to you guys," the Lady Ancient remarked, getting to her feet.

"What leads you to believe that?" Sekhmet inquired a tad curious.

"Isn't it obvious?" Elayne then snorted out, "The fact that the five of them were ready to rip each other's throats out says it all."

Kayura giggled at the analogy, but gave a nod of her head in agreement, "The longer one is exposed to negative energy, and the more likely the person will be affected by it. We've been down here for too long, and the Ronin did suffer a tremendous loss of energy. Whatever protection the armors were offering is now down."

"Shame, cause they're noisy when they fight," Venus remarked, rubbing at her forehead. Boy, did she have a headache now!

"Wonder how long it's been though," Neptune commented. "Time seems to be moving normally now."

Mars had her eyes on Elayne, "Mhm, I wonder."

Elayne scowled immediately, getting where they were trying to steer this conversation, "Oh well, you've only been gone for a week-and-a-half. Of course now, it's closer to two weeks." She ignored their surprised looks and got to her feet, dusting off her jeans.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, and scowled, "I've gotten more calls from worried families, disgruntled employers, and concerned coworkers that I felt the need to shoot somebody. Unfortunately, all my targets happen to be right here. So walla, here I am. Now, who wants to be my first volunteer?"

"You don't even know how to use a gun," Rowen said with a snort and roll of his eyes.

"Yeah, I do, you can ask your elemental partner. Her father taught me, we used to go out to the range and practice. In fact, my carry-permit is still valid," Elayne responded coolly.

"Do you have one with you?" Uranus dryly queried. She was certainly amused by the statement, but still and all.

"My Magnum is back at the Griffith's," the girl admitted with a sigh. "Oh well, guess I'll just have to do this the old fashioned way." Elayne held out her hand to Sage, "Summon your sword, and fork over the no-datchi Nii-chan. I need to stab someone with it."

The Ronin of Halo blinked, and leaned back a little, "No, that's okay imouto. Leave the murdering to the enemy, all right?"

"Kill joy," the girl groused in disappointment. "Ruin all my fun, why don't you? Must I resort to using my own sharp-pointy object of death for this?"

Now everybody was staring at her, and she offered a wry grin, "Hey I distracted you for more than five minutes, didn't I?"

The warriors all rolled their eyes, now understanding that they had been had…Though, all were rather appreciative for the interruption. That's when the Elemental Senshi returned, and brought grim news with them.

"We have a problem," Empyrean was quick to get straight to the point.

"Both ends of this tunnel are closed off, the one naturally, the other caved in centuries ago," Aarde said with a frown. "I can't find a way out because the rock layers down here are all wrong."

Dais added in, "And I was unable to find where an illusion might be used."

"Oh great, we're trapped," Sage rolled his eyes skyward.

A/N: Yep, Sage has taken on Rowen's role of stating the painfully obvious xD Anyway, hi folks! Hope you're ready to enjoy summer. This month you get three chapters! Bad news is, I'm only going to give you one in July. Why? Because I put lots of effort and thought into my cliffhangers, and want to get some enjoyment out of them. Even if it does succeed in driving you nuts. xD

Enjoy the update!

-LG