Chapter Twenty-Three:
The minute the Elemental Senshi showed up, was the minute Elayne took the chance to move far enough away from the others before they started to pry for information. She had no desire, at this point, to be harassed about her real reasons for being here.
Unfortunately, the Ronin had stood up when the Senshi had approached, and then noticed she was trying to slink away. They didn't let her get very far before following her.
"As amusing as that was mei mei," Kento said, "That didn't answer the question which needed to be asked."
"What are you doing here?" Cye added in, with a frown.
Elayne momentarily cringed and cursed her bad luck, before turning around to face them. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, and stared at them a scowl on her face.
Rowen snorted and jabbed the Halo Ronin in the side, "Looks like you when she does that." The girl's eyes flickered, and Rowen cried, "See! She even does the creepy eye-thing!"
The blond swordsman had just about had enough of being called creepy, scary, and all other words synonymous with those two. He reached up, and nonchalantly smacked Strata's bearer in the back of his head.
"Ouch! Would you guys quit doing that?" the blue-haired archer demanded in annoyance, rubbing at the sore spot. Getting smacked with a subarmored hand happened to hurt a lot.
The girl rolled her eyes at the antics, before saying, "I'm here, because I felt like coming."
"Stop being hostile," Rowen told her, still rubbing at the spot.
"Bah! You guys are hopeless. You want to know why I'm here fine," Elayne sighed through her nose, "Ask Sage."
The Ronin Warriors were all dumbfounded, and that included the Ronin of Halo…The girl let out a low moan, brother they could be so embarrassing!
"Ugh," she pinched at the bridge of her nose. "Nii-chan, do you remember what you made me promise?"
Sage thought about it, though it took him a moment, "Yes. If you got in too deep to come to us-" He left his sentence half finished, as she gave a nod, and moved to pull the shirt she was wearing off.
The girl heard them squeak out protests, and paused, "Get over yourselves would you please? I'm wearing a freakin' tank top underneath." They were hopeless, they really were.
Elayne pulled off the shirt, and tossed it onto the ground…Angry bruises, and only now scarred over wounds were easily visible on her arms. The tank top itself, barely covered a slightly healed over gash on her stomach.
"What the-" the ending to Ryo's sentence was lost as he was unable to finish it, completely taken aback by what he was seeing.
The girl bent over and picked back up her shirt, putting it back on, "You were putting up more of a fight than what they had counted on. I was a loose end that needed tying up."
"Sorry you guys," Elayne rolled her shoulders as they had started to stiffen up, "But I'd rather be an inconvenience, than a pawn to be used against you."
Sage gave a nod in understanding, quick to query, "Are you okay?"
"Fine," the girl waved off his concern, saying with a grin. "Hell of a lot better off than you guys."
The five young men rolled their eyes at that, before diverting their attention back to the conversation still taking place behind them.
"So, basically, no one can find a way out of here?" Mars inquired in an annoyed tone.
Neptune was frowning, "Looks that way."
"Kayura, what about the staff?" Sekhmet spoke to the Lady Ancient, "Might it be of some use?"
The woman shook her head, "It hasn't responded to any of my calls since we've been down here. It probably wouldn't do well in this atmosphere anyway; it's far heavier than the Nether Realm."
"Guess we haven't missed anything important," Kento remarked, as he and the others had finished walking back over.
Uranus gave a snort, "You haven't missed anything."
"Comforting," the Ronin of Torrent quipped, trying to alleviate some of the tension.
Nova cleared her throat, "You know, there might be a solution to this problem."
'Uh oh, here it comes,' the black tiger rolled his eyes to the cavern ceiling, remembering the Elemental Leader all too well. 'She's going to point out we can be useful.'
White Blaze gave a snort, 'Oh this should be good, and then they're going to debate over whether or not it's feasible.'
Elayne heard the tigers' exasperated conversation, and queried, "Think you can find where the manipulation is?"
'Certainly, without time being distorted like it was before they can't mask it,' White Blaze answered.
"Then would you please locate it?" she asked them, with a bow of her head, "I'm sure they'd be grateful."
Black Blaze gave a chuckle at the formality, and bowed back, 'We'll be back shortly.'
"Well, the tigers should be able-" Nova began and then watched as the two animals darted off. She had a disgruntled look on her face, as she finished, "To see past any illusion."
Elayne felt that there were now quite a few eyes on her, and she gave a snort, "What? By the time you all finished discussing it I'd be buried in the family plot."
"Mei mei," Kento chuckled at her comment and shook his head.
"It's true!" the girl protested, adding further, "Instead of having a United States Congress meeting, you need decisive action."
The Elementals were chortling, as they were the only ones fully capable of appreciating that statement. Elayne sighed through her nose a little, she was doing her best to keep the mood light, but it was rather hard.
"You're crazy," the Senshi of Mars remarked with an amused shake of her head.
"Hey what can I say? I'm just the cheerleader," Elayne said with a loose shrug of her shoulders.
Rowen perked up as he now had the perfect opening to make a sly comment, and he smirked, "Oh really? When you going to put on the mini-skirt?"
The girl simply reached over and whacked him in the back of the head, dryly responding, "I'd rather wear your banana-helmeted armor first."
The Ronin of Strata just gaped at her, while everyone else burst into laughter.
"How long do we-" Jupiter began, blinking in surprise when a roar sounded and the two tigers emerged from the darkness.
Kento was quite impressed, "That was fast, they've been gone for fifteen minutes at most."
"Good boys," Elayne cooed at them, having sunk down to give out well-earned strokes and scratches as well as to better listen to what they had to tell her.
She was thoughtful as Black Blaze rumbled out the information, and was quick to relay it, "There's one not more than forty feet up ahead on the left, another sixty feet from that there's one on the right. The left leads upward, the right down. They know exactly where we are." She paused and then nodded, the tiger having added something, "We're up exactly twenty feet from the last tunnel, and half a mile from the collapse. This was one of the main tunnels until the fighting in it caused it to fall; the enemy haven't used it in ages."
"We all walked up and down these tunnels and couldn't find anything," the Senshi of Earth muttered. "I couldn't find a break, and neither could Empyrean."
"Nor could I see any illusions, and that's my forte," the Summer Seasonal brought in. "How did they manage it?"
Elayne wrinkled her nose, but paused as White Blaze rumbled something. She let out a chuckle in amusement, "He says you were looking too hard. You all were looking for something complex, when in fact it was nothing more than a simple light refraction."
"That'd do it then, I never thought to look for that."
Sekhmet let out an exasperated sigh at hearing this from the white-haired man, "Well? Shall we move on then, take the left up back towards the surface?"
"Do you think moving now is such a good idea?" Neptune inquired with a frown. "They're sure to have patrols looking for us."
"And if we stay here we're sitting ducks," the Ronin of Strata pointed out. "More so if Akemliek gets free."
'Oh brother, here we go again,' White Blaze moaned out. 'I can understand it from before, but they're adults now, not seventeen-year-olds!'
'You so sure about that? Anyway, let's just get out of here,' the black tiger grumbled, turning around.
Elayne got back to her feet, "Not without me you two don't."
"Or me," Ryo added in.
The Ronin of Wildfire fell into step with the tigers and the girl, "They can debate about it all they want. I don't want to be in this dead end tunnel when the enemy shows up, or in this domain when Akemliek gets loose."
Kayura had been listening to their conversation, and was quick to join them, "Count me in."
Sage, being Sage, had simply listened to everything going on around him, barely offering input because he felt it was unnecessary, and easily trailed after the five of them.
He was kind enough to call back over his shoulder, "Are you guys coming, or what?"
"Hey, Ry, Sage, wait up!" the Ronin of Hardrock needed no further pushing than that, as he was quick to jog to catch up.
Rowen and Cye exchanged looks with each other, shrugged, and followed.
"Hey! Wait a minute you guys," the Senshi of Mars made a face, grumbling out, "Impulsive people."
Saturn gave a snort, saying as she started to walk off, "We can plan our escape, and how to avoid large enemy numbers, as we walk. It's called multi-tasking."
"And if we don't come up with anything?" Sailor Moon inquired with a frown.
Cale gave a snort; he and the other Seasonals had simply started after the Ronin Elementals. The four older warriors had no desire to stand around and become stationary enemy targets.
"Ever heard of the term 'winging it'?" the Winter Seasonal queried from over his shoulder.
Anubis rolled his eyes, "You're staying away from the dictionary from here on out."
"I can't sense any Raikken," Kayura murmured as they stood before what looked like a normal wall, but was where the tiger's said the illusion was.
"What are we waiting for then, Golden Week?" Ryo joked as he moved to walk through, but the swordsman of Halo held him back. "Huh, Sage?"
"You holding up all right?" the violet eyes flickered slightly, as if trying to scan him to make sure.
Ryo gave a grin, "Ya, I'm fine, the Jewel's doing wonders. Even if I wasn't, we don't have time to sit around while I get 'better.' So let's just go."
"All right," Sage left it at that, allowing his Leader and the tigers to walk through followed by the Lady Ancient. He saw Elayne smiling at him, "What?"
"Nothing, just enjoying you acting all protective older-brother on someone other than me," she quipped as they walked through the illusion at the same time.
Sage snorted in response to that, but did not bother to make a return comment to it.
There was no need for one to be made, especially when the girl at his side knew him well enough to know the retort that would have been made. But as he looked at her now, his thoughts from before came back to bother him yet again.
The way she had fought had been different, different than when he and the others had first seen her take out a Raikken. The hesitance that was sometimes in her step was completely gone now, but Sage did realize she was on guard right now.
Her hazel-violet eyes kept scanning the cavern, uneasily darting back and forth. Elayne's entire body was tensed, ready for anything that might possibly come.
"Nii-chan, stop analyzing me like that," she finally sighed out. "You're making me jumpy."
The Ronin of Halo blinked a little, offered a small smile in apology, "Sorry, I'm just trying to figure something out."
"Why my fighting seems to be a bit more," the girl tried to think of the right word, and failed to come up with one.
"Aggressive?" Kento offered up, being right behind them.
Elayne chuckled, "Ya, maybe that Gege. I guess you noticed too, huh?"
"Kinda hard not to mei mei," the Ronin of Hardrock murmured. "I've never seen you fight like that before."
"You both are, number one, way too protective of me, and number two, read into things too much," the girl told them with a slight eye roll. "The last time you saw me fight was when you clearly had the upper hand, you didn't have that here. I change my tactics depending on the situation, you taught me to do that. You all did."
"Yes, but the look in your eyes," Sage murmured quietly, "And added to the way you were moving, it just seemed…" The ending to his sentence he left up in the air, unsure how to finish it, and doubting if he even should.
A pained look crossed her face for a moment, but was gone as quickly as it had appeared, "Nii-chan, we talked about this already. There's things I want to tell you, but I can't. Gege," she turned her attention to Kento now, "You and I had a talk too, you know I'm more capable than how I act…And that there are things I can do, and have been able to do for a long time, that I just couldn't explain to you if I tried."
"I wish I could," Elayne let out a strangled sigh, closed her eyes a moment, and then reopened them. "You've still got your secrets, and I have to have mine. I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do about it."
Kento placed a subarmored hand on her shoulder, "Don't sweat it mei mei, okay? Everything'll be fine. "
The girl gave a small smile, and placed her hand over top of his, "I hope so, Gege." She didn't sound convinced, and that bothered the Warrior of Strength quite a bit.
Normally, if he told her something like that, she would have believed him instantly, not bothered to question it. Or, at least, sounded more reassured than what she did right then.
Sage was inwardly frowning, turning it all over in his head. He just couldn't understand it, why couldn't she tell them? The Ronin of Halo was frustrated; he knew she wanted to tell them what was going on, and knew it was tearing her up that she couldn't.
It just didn't answer the question of why, and he had a sinking feeling he was soon going to find out the answer…And that he was not at all going to like it.
The blond swordsman suddenly snapped back to the world around him, and came to an abrupt halt. In an instant the armor of Halo had formed around him, and he withdrew his no-datchi.
His acute senses were once more working, and he had felt the small shift in energy before the other's had. Soon, they too were fully armored up. Sage turned his violet eyes to Elayne, "I understand imouto, and you know that. Also, Kento's right it'll be fine. Now you might want to fall back."
"All right, Nii-chan," the girl murmured quietly, starting to take his advice.
"Elayne?" he tentatively called after her.
The girl halted, turned her head to stare back at him, "Hm?"
"Stay out of trouble," the Ronin of Halo said with a wry grin, it had always been his way of telling her to be careful.
Elayne let out a light laugh at hearing this, before saying, "Same to you, Seiji-nii-chan."
"I'll try, no promises," the swordsman told her, watching as she fell back, once content she was far enough away he turned his attention back to the others.
Kento let out a chuckle in amusement, "She brings out the softy in you Sage."
"Guess that makes you a slushy," the swordsman said in retort, before his amusement faded, and his violet eyes narrowed. "Here they come."
The warriors had come closer to the exit, and with that knowledge well known to Akemliek, he had sent a force to delay them. The Raikken would keep the warriors preoccupied long enough for Thanos to finish reciting the incantation that would break the seal, and join in the fighting to potentially avenge his sister.
Once the seal shattered completely, Akemliek fully planned on joining him and disposing of as many of the warriors as he could. The Elders could not help because they had no way to reach into his domain, and the only being that could potentially bail out the Senshi and Ronin?
The seal on Universe's powers might have been broken, but the fact of the matter was her connection to that energy had to be restored before she could use any of the power. This was knowledge Akemliek had known for quite some time, knowledge he stored far too much confidence in.
He knew she had abused the powers the Council had left her with…Her excessive use of them over time had left her absolutely nothing left to fight with. As far as Akemliek was concerned, she was the only one that could help and she was now useless.
…He should have known better. The warriors luck had never once failed them even after all this time…
A/N: For those who don't know "Golden Week" in Japan is centered around several public holidays. Golden Week, (or Ōgata renkyū, or Ōgon shūkan as it is also called) is used to describe the period the holidays take place in, the first week of May. Also, Golden Week is said to have been the week that Arago/Talpa first started his invasion of the mortal realm.