Chapter Nineteen

New Plan

In the next room, the angels conversed about their confrontation with Dimitri. Megan stands behind the paper room divider and rips off the clothes that she has been wearing. She throws them over the other side and grunts.

"I still can't believe it," she says frustratingly.

"Tell me about it!" Rachel replies. "We wasted our time and didn't even get a step closer to figuring out what we needed to put a stop to all of this!".

Megan steps out from behind the cherry blossom-patterned divider. She has changed into a light grey kimono decorated with white streaks shaped to look like clouds and has her blonde hair in a mess. The brown streaks of her hair drape past her ears as she attempts to twist the rest of the blonde locks into a bun. Rachel swaps places with Megan and goes behind the divider to change into her dark blue kimono. She rips off the shirt she had worn all day and changes while muttering.

"Why. Is. This. So. Hard!" she grunts.

She slams her used clothes onto the ground. Amari is seated in the corner of the room, watching Megan make her way over to the window seat and sit down to bury her head in her hands. Megan shakes her head and lets out a sigh.

"He gave us the answer," Amari whispered.

Rachel stopped and looked over the edge of the dark cherry wood to Amari, "What are you talking about?".

"He totally gave it away!" she exclaimed. "Don't you get it?".

Megan still has her head in her hands, "Now is not the time to be silly".

Amari continued, "It's not something we're after, it's something that's after us, after them".

"Care to elaborate?" asked Megan.

Amari starts to pace around the room, "The last time we fought these suckers, it was because Dimitri was trying to take out the ultimate source of good, a.k.a., us and the ninja. We get sent down here to help those who can't see the spiritual side of evil working on this planet, but the ninjas are here to protect everyone from the evil they can see and touch".

"Okay?" Megan responded.

Sensing she was going to have to explain further, Amari stood and faced the two. She raised her arms and signaled to herself, then to them, and continued, "If we keep fighting them, they'll just find another way to come back even harder than before, and the cycle will continue forever, but if they take out the group that's posing as a threat to them on Earth, they can continue their destruction to greater extents because there will be no one here to protect the people".

Megan's jaw dropped, "Oh my God".

"How did we not notice this?" Rachel asked.

Amari frowned, "'Cause you were too busy getting mad at me for being a stupid kid".

Megan and Rachel froze. They had always seen Amari as being the goofy, immature one out of the group; it came as a surprise to them that, despite her bubbly personality, she was the only one able to crack the code both of them had a difficult time trying to figure out. Amari was right: Rachel and Megan had been treating her like she was stupid this entire time. It had been her who found the note and then took the trip into the village to see how to resolve the problem they faced. She was also the one who had persuaded Misako to give them the traveling powder they needed to make it to 'The Unknown', and it was she who confronted Dimitri, all while maintaining her composure. Megan immediately felt a deep pang of guilt. Being the oldest out of the group meant that she had always served as everyone's role model, a source of trust. Never did she stop to think how she had been fulfilling her responsibility, and now she was getting an understanding of how someone else was feeling because of her neglect.

She straightens her body and rests her hands at her sides, "I want to personally apologize to you. It was wrong of me-of us-to think less of you. We never wanted you to feel like you were ignorant".

Rachel tried to find the words, then finally gave in with an exhausted sigh, "I wanna say sorry, too".

"You already apologized," Amari said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well," Rachel began, "I want to apologize again. I never wanted to make you feel like you were stupid or make you feel like what happened to us was your fault".

She steps out from behind her changing area to reveal the indigo kimono she has changed into. Silver star constellations are embroidered on the hems, and she has finished tying a blue sash around her waist to secure it in place. Rachel reached for Amari and took her hands. She locked eyes with her, making sure she never broke her gaze, "You are my sister. I-".

Just say it. Rachel thought. It's not that hard.

She swallowed hard, "I-love-you".

Amari's eyes widened, and her solid gaze shifted to a look of shock, "Really?".

She giggled and threw her arms around Rachel's neck, nearly knocking her over in the process.

"You've never said that to me before!" she squealed.

"Don't make me say it again," Rachel moaned awkwardly.

Megan smiled and moved closer to them, wrapping her arm around the two. Rachel stays locked in Amari's grasp as she continues to squeal and giggle with glee. It was hard for Rachel to conceal her cringed face, though she forced a smile on her face.

#

Jay remained wide awake in the next room. He and the rest of his team could not erase the images from their minds, and they all struggled to relax for the next few hours. Nobody had wanted to discuss the events they faced earlier, yet he was bursting to get so many things off of his chest. What made things worse was that he could not even vent to his love, Nya, who suggested they all try to get some rest, to "just forget about it". She had left hurriedly to wash up and get ready for whatever bit of the day she could still salvage for herself. Jay lay on the cot that had been set out for him and stared at the ceiling, hoping to distract himself from the cries of pain still booming in his mind. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he sat up in bed and stared across the room. He couldn't tell because of the darkness of the room, but it looked like Cole, Kai, Zane, and Lloyd were gone. Anxiety swelled in his throat, and reactively, he threw off the blanket he had been covered with and slipped out the sliding paper door into the darkness of the evening.