Chapter Thirty Three

Ruby pushed her way past the dead bodies of Hecatones and de-posessed armors of the dynasty. She pried a yari from one of them and worked it into the door. She had spent of the battle looking through all her old haunts. She couldn't remember exactly where she put her armor, but she was sure it wasn't as obvious as shoving it in a locked vault but then again she was young. She sighed as the room she searched was empty, the castle must have changed hundreds of times since she left.

She walked out of the room and and sat down on one of the armors. She looked down the hall, it looked familiar, but her dad hadn't been an interior decorator. Probably the majority of the halls resembled this one.

She closed her eyes to think.

Daddy! Daddy!

Hey there my little fire bug, he told her softly as he scooped her little form up. Raleigh was kneeling close by, Did you and the wolf have fun?

She opened them again and looked down the hall. This had to be it. She looked at the archway of the door and saw claw marks on the panel.

Daddy, No! No, I don't want to!

She shivered as she ran her fingers across the scratches.

You won't hurt this child, Talpa, the wolf roared as she bit down his armored arm.

She shuttered, it was the room. The room where he tried to possess her with the dynasty. She felt bile raise up in her throat.

Run, Princess. Run and don't stop running.

She stood up slowly as she tried to remember which way she had run. She ran her hands along the hall way, it was so long ago. She placed a hand on her shoulder, there was a nasty scar there from a wound that was inflicted to her, and it burned like fire. She shook her head.

Run, my little bug...come to mee...

She stopped at something that could have been a torture room once a upon a time. She saw Raleigh's mouth hanging open in her memories, her father had cut open the wounds, and she finally had to barf. Some dynasty princess she was, the memories of this place made her sick. She fell to her knees, and wiped her mouth on her jacket sleeve. She had borrowed some of the guys clothing before they had left, because she was so much taller than either Leea or Hoshi in her relaxed form.

She sighed and kept on walking through the hallways. She was hoping that something would trigger her memory. She came to a large room at the end of one of the hallways. It was dark and smelled musty. She grabbed a candle and the room lit up instantly as soon as she lit one. There were paintings on the dark walls covered up, and she walked over to one and pulled the covering off. Dust made her cough, and she wiped it off the painting. It was a painting of a young woman with long black hair pulled up into a fancy bun. However as she wiped the dust off, she noticed the woman was wearing pearly armor with long sword in her hands. There was also a tiger and a wolf in the painting as well that she assumed to be White Blaze and Raleigh. She reminded herself that she needed to question that beast thoroughly when she met up with the Ronins next. Her armor was black as night on one side, and white on the other and one of her eyes was red while the other was blue. The helmet was resting next to the tiger, and it was shaped like a dragon's head.

She raised a hand to the painting.

Mommy, don't leave!

She looked down and remembered her mother walking away from her. She had started crying and buried her face into Raleigh's fur.

Why can't someone else find the light?

She had been so sad watching her mother leave her and her yojimbo. Had her mother known what her father would become, or did she even make it to Earth in the first place? She didn't know, but she did know her mother had left her that exact armor. She went to the next painting, and dusted it off. She shivered, it was her father before he had been enveloped by the armor. He had been a handsome man, with curly white hair and shining blue eyes. From the two paintings, she thought she looked more like her mom, but had her dad's features. She decided to look at the other paintings, but they were just simple paintings of the two of them together. She stopped at the last one though, it was three of them, of course she was baby in the picture. So soft and small, and tiny.

She looked leaned against the wall and slid down it holding her head. She could feel the nether spirits calling to her, but she would not listen to them. She slammed her hand against the wall with frustration. She had to go save her Hoshi, even if it meant the oracle would return to Rowen. She pulled up her knees against her chest. Why hadn't she confessed her feelings, instead of playing student. She could have had her to herself, and whisked her away before anything had even happened. Rowen was a lucky fellow to have won her heart so easily.

She remembered the day she met her professor, of course Hoshi would never remember it. Ruby had been trying out many ways of life in the mortal realm for millenniums. She had been doctors, warriors, nuns, bar maids, or pretty much anything that made the human life perfect. The new era of technology began and she found it harder and harder to live so many different lives within a small area. So after World War One, she ran from European union all the way to Japan. She felt something calling her there, it was always the Light she assumed that called her different places. The Light always chose a beautiful human woman to do its bidding: Hildegard, Joan of Ark, Athena and so many more. However, the maidens that came after Athena only held the light and all its potential but never bore its full glory. So she followed it once again, and World War Two began. She was in Hiroshima when the bomb dropped. The bomb was so strong it had put her to sleep only until the very most recent decade. She no longer felt the Light, but a new energy had appeared. What had happened to the lovely young mother who bore the Light she never knew, but it was gone. Just gone. It was her father who awakened her. The Japanese lands been built back up, and technology she only ever dreamed of existed, but she knew her father was awake. Being the coward she was, she let the ronins face him as she pursued a new life.

Hoshi had just gotten the job as a professor as Ruby made her way through school again. She liked this new era of enlightenment, and she fell for her at first sight. She didn't even know she could love like that, even though many people had known her body through the millenia. She remembered how she walked with a cane, and limped in. The class was in a silent uproar, their professor was almost as young as they were, and in such a horrible state at that. She was intrigued with the young woman who stood defiantly in front of them. Her white hair soft as snow, and her one good eye was as blue as a winter's sky. The scars never bothered her, she lived through the plague after all, but she was strong none the less. Maybe it was because she was so strong with so little given to her.

Ruby pulled her knees tight. She felt so miserable. She felt so weak with all the power she had in her hands, but that's all she could feel at the moment.

"Hey, Ruby."

She looked up and saw Ryo starring down at her. He had those same blue eyes her father had, gentle but so young and naive. She wondered if telling him that would be an insult. She said, "sorry for leaving you, Wildfire, but this place brings me no great pleasure. How did you find me by the way?"

"I was out for evening stroll, and heard someone bang on a wall," he answered as he pointed to the dent she had made just a few moments ago. "We were worried about you!"

"Really," she answered as he looked around at the surrounding paintings.

"Of course," he answered with a soft smile. He held out a hand to her and she stood up. He wiped away her tears with his hand, "the warlords are worried that you might want to snatch the throne for yourself."

"I could care less," she uttered as she looked at him. "This place is too many bad memories for me to even consider staying, I just want to get Hoshi back to Earth and seal this place up for good."

He smiled at her, "see, I told them as such."

She shook her head, "well, you want to help me look since you're here anyways? This place is terribly lonely with all the dead bodies around."

"Sure," he answered with a smile as he walked with her. "Do you know where you hid it?"

"Nope, I was like five," she chuckled as she brushed her hair at her face. "Do you remember what you put away when you were five?"

He shook his head, "but that was like millenium ago too!"

"Are you calling me old," she jested and he shook his head with a laugh.

"I'm sorry, Ryo," she said softly and he looked at her questionably.

"For?"

She sighed, "I felt when my father woke up the dynasty...I didn't come to help you when you and friends were fighting him."

"Could you have helped us in any way?"

She shook her head, "no, I'm just a big coward."

He stopped and looked at her fervently, "would a coward go all this way to save a girl who she's never confessed her heart to?"

"...I suppose not..."

"Would a coward being walking through an abandoned castle where her father committed so many atrocities?"

"...no...I guess..."

"Would a coward push past a blockade of dead bodies to find something she hid when she was five?"

"...no?"

"Exactly, a coward would have run at any one point," he told her enthusiastically and she starred at his smiling face.

She closed her eyes and laughed, "well...then...wildfire...you sure have a way with words."

"Do I," he laughed, "tell that to Rowen."

She chuckled as they came to a stop at another dead end. There was a painting on the wall of tiger and wolf in battle. The wolf held chains in its mouth and the tiger had several sets of limbs instead of just four. She looked at Ryo, "who is White Blaze?"

He looked at her solemnly, "I have no clue. A few years ago, I would have said a stupid tiger, but now...but now I don't know. I have heard him speak once, but mostly he just talked to Hoshi."

"Oracles," she sighed softly. "Them an their 'animal' friends."

"Have you met other Oracles," he asked as she ran her hands on the painted wall.

"A few in Delphi when I first came to Earth," she paused to consider her words. She remembered what happened at Pompeii too, and that was partially her fault. "They were much more aware of their powers in the past though...something happened in the middle ages where they were lost to them."

They started head back the way they had come, and she noticed a small drawing near the wolf and tiger painting.

Daddy, can I be an artist one day?

She bent down as she remembered falling down this path as soldiers chased her. How did she get out?

She placed her hand on the drawing, and remembered the panel of wood moved. She shoved it aside and two orbs rolled out, both looked like giant pearls but one was white and the other was black.

Ryo looked at her, "two?"

"The armor of Onyx, and the armor of Opalescence," she said holding them both in her palms. "They make the armor of Balance and Neutrality, or the immortal Sword and Shield, but apart they are Rage and Passion. The only one I can use is the Opal."

"I'm starting to think the designers had a theme for each set," he paused to look at his sub-armor. "We're the elements, the warlords are seasons, and you and Raleigh are rare metals and gems."

"No one said the designers weren't artistic," she smiled. "Especially, Suzunagi's new choice for you."

He laughed, "speaking of which..."

"Did I know her? No, I knew of her though and that stupid play her father wrote. She was one of the last Oracles, I think."

"Look, we have a small dinner going on at camp, why don't you come back," he asked as they walked along.

"I don't think your warlords would like that very much..."

She heard something stirring, and she saw Ryo look around too. They both stopped as they heard a slithering, Ryo smirked nervously, "Hey, Sekhmet this isn't funny..."

"SSSSSSeeeeeekmmmmmett," they heard his behind them and they whipped around to see a serpentine creature with the body of an armored man slithering behind them.

"Uh, gotta give this prince an applause, his bucket brains sure are nasty."

She couldn't help but laugh, "bucket brains?"

The creature rattled its tail, "helloooooo roninnnnnsth."

"He's the only ronin here, Naaga," she corrected as she gripped the orbs in her hand. She gripped Opal and Onyx tight, and the orb lit up. Ryo saw a pearl whit sub-armor appear in a glitter of light.

"Hey, you make that sound like a bad thing," Ryo laughed as he smiled at her.

She winked, "it cramps my style."

The creature hissed and rattle as it circled them. Ruby shifted uneasily as she moved in the sub armor. She felt heavy in it, but she had worn armors made of inferior metals during the mideivil ages that weren't half as easy to walk in. Her uneasiness was partly because she had never really worn it, just somehow she knew it was hers. Ryo smiled at her halfway, and she wondered how a such a young man defeated her father.

The naaga like creature lunged at them, and she rolled right as he rolled left. The creature flared up between them and decided to lunge at Ruby, she assumed because she looked small and weak but she was hardly so. She jumped as the beast lunged at her, and rolled again. She saw Ryo jump at the creature back and plant a kick in its back. It shook Ryo off, who crashed into the wall behind him. The creature turned towards the fallen warrior. She grabbed the creatures tail as it lunged, and held it in place.

"Hey, hey," Ryo said pulling himself out of the rubble. "You're not half bad."

She winked again, "oh, if only you knew Wildfire."

"I wish, I did," he grinned as the beast thrashed. She threw it to the side as he said, "let's finish this!"

"Armor of the Opal," she grinned and he answered her with, "Armor of the Wildfire!"

Her armor appeared in a glittering light while his full armor appeared in a gush of cherry blossoms. Her armor had a long white cape draped over her left shoulder. Her helmet was shaped like a dragon's head, and her eyes glowed deep read. The armor was opalescent all over with a crest of dragon on the link of the cape, the dragon crest was roaring painfully with a sword penetrating a ruby like gem in its throat. She looked over him, his armor was very vintage. It reminded her of old feudal armors, but in white and red with a coat that had a flaming symbol on the back. He put his swords together and summoned a circular shield with a razor sharp edge.

"Flare up now," he said as he charged the creature.

She met his attack by throwing her shield, it lit up with a bright glittering force, "Opal Dynasty!"

The creature fell, and the two smiled at each other. She was proud of herself, she didn't falter at all during the battle. Maybe she wasn't as much of a coward as she thought of herself as.

"A shield as a weapon, huh," he asked as they let their armors disappeared.

"This armor is supposed to be a defense armor, strategy not brutishness," she answered as he was walking over to her. She held up Onyx, "this one though...I don't want to know what it holds."

"See you are no coward," he said to her grabbing her hand and dragging her along with him. "Don't worry, if anyone gives you a hard time, they have to go through me."

She blushed as he pulled her along, she pulled her hand out suddenly and stopped to look at him. She shook her head blushing, "wildfire..."

"Ruby, knock it off," he smiled and held out his hand again. "I don't mean anything but platonic."

She took and looked down and walked along with him, "sorry, its just... I'm not used to this era's men or women."

He draped an arm over shoulders, "look, all I'm offering is friendship. I know you have your thing for Hoshi, hell, even I think she's pretty cute."

"You do," she blushed.

"Yes'sum," he said with a shake of the head. "Rowen was so worried we would freak out over her scars, but I figured anyone who make White Blaze purr like a kitten isn't so bad. I don't care how beat up she is. I spent a couple days with her, I think you stopped in once, and she was riot. You students drove her nuts, but she loves each and everyone of you."

"That's right, you were there after she gave me another blasted A!"

"You and Rowen are lucky to have her," he said hugging her shoulder softly with the one arm. "Not everyone can get A because the teacher wants to annoy the student!"

"Rowen more than I and yeah..."

He nodded in agreement, "yeah...the lucky guy. I don't even want to know about their dates."

She blushed and shook her head, "I heard her and Leea talking once..."

He laughed and mussed up her hair, "you naughty girl you."