~~~~ So I'd like some more review peeps! Especially on how you think the plot is going. ^^;

~In other news, I don't really do fanfiction as full time hobby, I mostly do art on DA under TBRae.

~Speaking of which, is wrong of me want to make ronin warrior art based on boy bands from the nineties? XD hahah backstreet boys or Nsync? Lmao

~~On a side note, I have an idea for RW and DW crossover. LMAO

Chapter Forty One

Rowen followed Sage as they went around the building. It literally looked like half of it vanished. Rowen sighed as the found a way to slip into the building, he didn't like being around so many people with this sort of stuff. He was afraid some people would get hurt if there was something lurking around. He shivered a bit, he hated not having his armor.

Sage looked back, "I think we need to start training to be prepared in case we have to fight without them."

"We really have relied too much on them," Rowen agreed. It looked liked it normally would, except the hallway ending abruptly a few hundred feet away. He saw the stair well, "hey, let's go up."

Sage nodded and followed the blue haired man up the stairs to the second floor. They weren't really expecting to find anything, but they saw a shadow move through the hallway. Rowen stopped as the thing hissed at them and bolted up the stairs again.

"Dammit, the nether realm is involved," Sage growled, but Rowen said nothing. If the nether realm was involved, then was still chance to go back and find Hoshi. He kept that thought to himself though as they ran after the shadow creature. It went up and up and up, until they came to the top of the stairs and the roof entrance.

Rowen sighed, "this feels like a trap."

Sage nodded, "too bad Mia's office is gone, we could have had swords at least."

They opened the roof access and the creature sat there looking at them. It looked like some sort of wolf, but built like a bear. It sat there swishing a long shadowy tail and its eyes glowed a deep yellow as it hissed at them like a very angry cat.

"On second thought, maybe we shouldn't have chased it up here," Rowen said solemnly as he took a step back.

Sage nodded every so slightly, and started to move as well, "not our best idea in the least."

The creature paced back and forth, assessing them for their abilities. 'Or lunch,' Rowen thought mildly as they slowly inched towards the roof access. The creature bolted and the two boys jumped sideways from and rolled back onto their feet. Rowen thumbed the orb in his pocket, it was still stone though, and he looked at Sage as the creature looked between them. It was deciding who to go after. Rowen gulped and took off running towards the edge, he was hoping that Sage would be able to go through the access and that he could still use some of his abilities from his armor to jump below. He didn't have the faintest idea though if he was going to end up a pancake. He hoped not.

The beast skid in front of him and he slid underneath it as it snapped its jaws at him. He felt the edge coming, and he gulped. However, he didn't fall. He felt someone grab him by his sweater's hood and pull him from the ledge. He was thrown a little ways over, and he looked over to see a young girl maybe fourteen or fifteen standing behind the crazed shadow wolf. She was short, almost as short as Hoshi, with long pale blue hair and the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen. She wore goggles on her head, and her whole outfit seemed to match with it. Rowen remembered the fashion was called steam punk in America, but he was sure that she wore it all the time. She wore a loose fitting button up shirt with a corset done up over it. Her pants were pin striped and had several chains as belt and were tucked into knee high military books. She wore gloves on her hands that were made of some sort of leather that had a rabbit emblem pressed into it, but the only thing that didn't fit with her outfit was the crystal bunny pendant on her choker. He remembered Mia mentioning the necklace and realized that this was Cerule.

She grinned big and said to him, "are you alright, Old Man?"

Sage ran up as Rowen got to his feet, "old man?"

"Oh, oops, shouldn't say stuff like that," she beamed as the beast turned its attention to her. She rubbed the back of her head, her long locks falling perfectly back into place.

Sage said to the girl, "don't be foolish!"

"I'll be fine," she grinned as the beast leaped at her, she almost seemed excited that it did. She held out a hand and a large hammer appeared in it. She smashed it against the beast and sent it flying, and it vanished. She twirled the hammer once and it vanished as well. She seemed to skip over to them and she beamed, "HI!"

Sage sighed suspecting that this was the girl Mia had told them about, "who are you?"

"I'm Cerule," she said sticking her hand out enthusiastically and shake their hands quickly. "That nether shadow is no joke, why would you chase it and not use your armors?"

Rowen ran a hand over his face in annoyance, "are you the girl whose claiming to be related to me?"

"Claiming? Oh you talked to that stupid detective from the UN," she paused to look over the edge of the building. "I am though."

Sage heard the door open and Kento ran through to see the three. He said, "guys, that girl did this to the building!"

"I did," she paused as the defensive man came to his friends side. She just sort of starred at them with an unblinking smile that chilled them to the bone. "I suppose that sort of thing happens when you use a sure kill on a nether shadow in an enclosed space...I guess I won't do that again..."

"How are you related to me," he asked, he had never seen the girl before.

She beamed, but Rowen could see she was just trying to find an excuse, "I'm you half sister, silly..."

"Nope, try again," Rowen replied crossing his arms. He could see her grow nervous.

She paused and she said softly, "I can't tell you."

Sage groaned, "why?"

"Because it could distort things," she paused and they had no clue what she was talking about. She looked around nervously, "you have to protect me from the crazy detective though! She wants to drag me back to the dungeons!"

"After you destroyed half a building, I can see why," Kento replied.

"You guys have done worse," she replied quickly and they were silent. It was true, there were plenty of buildings that just vanished off of city maps because of their interactions with the dynasty. "Besides that, I'm just a kid! I just turned fourteen last week!"

There was something in the way she moved that Rowen thought she was lying, there was no way that this girl was fourteen. Her defensive movements were too subtle, even if she had been learning martial arts for a long time, these were movements of someone has seen a lot of battle. There was no way, she was just fourteen. Sage seemed to notice it too and said, "that's a lot of lies for one day..."

She frowned angrily and there was a soft sparkle around her and almost seemed as if she grew up in front of them. She was almost as tall as Rowen, and her figure had become much more full. She crossed her arms, "leave it to Halo and Strata to see right through my charm."

Kento was frowning though, he almost seemed in love and said, "hot damn!"

She rolled her eyes, her childish demeanor seemed to disappear as quickly as it took for her to be her real self, "fine, but I'm still not telling you who I am."

"You should really stop playing games, Cerule," said a soft sweet voice from the door roof. They turned to see a young women with long curly brown hair and light blue eyes, she was was shorter than Ryo and Cye who walked with her.

"Look who we found," Ryo grinned.

Sage looked at them, "who?"

The woman curtsied in her full length dress, "I am Lynn."

Cerule made a face that looked extremely unpleasant, "I'm not going back."

The woman walked forward gracefully, she wore a long white dress that blew gently in the wind. Ryo and Cye ran over. Rowen asked quickly, "who is she?"

"She's Detective Stell's sister," Cye said, he didn't seem to happy. "We found her wandering around the building, she escaped her sister. Apparently the detective is a very over protective of her baby sister."

Kento smiled, "she's cute too!"

Sage elbowed him again, "not the time buddy!"

Cerule was defensively standing as Lynn came closer to her, "don't you come near me, freak."

"That's harsh," the girl smiled softly. "Why don't you come back with me and Stell, you know that your presence here is only going to cause the distortions to get worse."

"The distortions began to happen even with me here," Cerule said as she glanced at the boys, and pointed. "It's not me, it's them. They messed something up."

"We'll fix it, but you can't be running around this era..."

Ryo heard what she said, "is that the Cerule girl everyone is talking about?"

Sage nodded, and silently asked, "yeah, she saved us from some shadow creature."

"Shadow," Cye replied and they nodded. "But those are from the nether realm right?"

"Ugh, I'll kick butt with or without armors," Kento asserted and Sage just shook his head and glanced at the girls who seemed to be stuck in a stale mate.

Rowen decided to ask, "what did we mess up?"

Cerule grinned at Lynn who said, "don't you dare tell him who you really are."

"Well, you said you were gonna fix it," she shrugged and ran at Rowen. She wrapped her arms around him a great big hug, he almost fell from the force and shock of it, and whispered in his ear, "don't worry about me, Dad."

She winked at Lynn and bolted for the edge of the roof and vanished into the moon light.

Lynn's eyes glowed briefly and she turned to the boys, "welcome to the dark side of the moon boys, it only gets weirder from here."