Courting The Jester
Chapter Fifteen
Mia had never been the type of girl that was able to hide her feelings. Her face had been an open book to the few that knew her and a movie screen to those who knew her well. She lost at poker every hand and she couldn't tell a lie if her life depended on it. But that was the difference. It wasn't her life that depended on this lie, it was someone else's. Several someone else's actually. And when push came to shove involving those she cared about, Mia could deal a nasty hand of cards with the best of them.
It had been a near miss, what they had done. They had taken a risk much greater than even they had realized, and when it was done only barely could they say that they had come out on top. Barely. Cassie was still dead, wasn't she?
Mia could still see the blood when she closed her eyes. She would lie awake at night and stare at her ceiling in a hopeless effort to keep her mind clear. She had even tried to use some of the meditation techniques that Sage had taught her. But even if she was able clear her mind momentarily, the images and sounds and tastes always came back. The devil might not be the only thing emerging from the dark, but it certainly had made its place in her soul. The devil that she had betrayed everything to.
It made her sick.
Up until now Mia had always maintained that they had made the right decisions. Not even Cassie would have said otherwise. They knew what might happen. They knew…but to protect the others it had been worth it. Kayura's words still rang in her ears, Kayura's warnings about the future of the world without the protection of the Ronin Warriors, Kayura's plead to help her find a way to get rid of him. They had too, and it had been worth it. That is until now. Now as Mia stared up at the creature lounging indolently on the throne in front of her, tapping its long fingertips against the carved stone, its eyes never leaving hers for a second, she was finally believing otherwise.
Nikki was right. They were fucked.
Damian shifted and let his eyes drift down her body, taking her in like a piece of meat. He wasn't looking at her as if he wanted to devour her, just chop her into little pieces. Mia inwardly shivered but held her body at rest where she knelt before the dais. He would not kill her. Not yet. There were other things to be done and others to make do them. But he would get around to it eventually, of that Mia was certain.
From his vantage point above her Damian grinned that too-wide grin, letting her know that for this time at least, she was right.
******************
Rowen was starting to feel claustrophobic. It seemed like with each step the corridors narrowed a barely perceptible bit, and that the ceiling was just a touch closer to his head. For a man in love with the vast openness of the night sky, the feeling was a little…confining. So to try to keep his mind off of that and the plain creepiness of their passage, Rowen decided to play a game.
"Okay Sage," Rowen tried for the third time. "Work with me here. I spy with my little eye something that's…grey."
Sage rolled his eyes at his best friend, saying, "That wouldn't happen to be the stone would it Rowen? Being different then when you saw rock and slate?"
Rowen managed to look a bit hurt.
"How about something that's tired of hearing Rowen talk?" Kento muttered sourly, earning a glare from Strata and a concerned look from Halo. Kento ignored Rowen's look and stalked on, the muscles underneath his armor obviously bunched up by the way the warrior held himself. Every once in a while he would flip the broken off spear end in his hand, handling it as deftly as Sage would have nunchuks. It reminded the group that Kento was just as trained as any of them, and as able to do damage. That and he looked like he really wanted to do some damage right now.
"Easy Kento," Sage murmured. "We're not going to help ourselves if we start fighting again. You know Rowen hates being enclosed and it makes him irritating. You get the same way on airplanes high above the ground, so cut him some slack."
Kento just grunted. Ryo seemed oblivious to the conversation surrounding him, intent on studying their surroundings, not that they had changed much.
"Do you guys have any idea how long these halls go?" Ryo asked, trailing his hand across the stone. "I didn't think this building was this long."
"Don't forget this guy likes to play with illusions, Ryo," Rowen warned seriously. "We might end up just going in circles."
"Why don't we just blast our way through?" Kento grumped. The others looked at him. Rash or not, the idea had merit and was better than wandering around aimlessly. Even Sage shrugged, not really against it.
"It couldn't be much worse than what we've done so far," Sage admitted. "I think Rowen's right about us moving in circles. Don't look so smug. You might be wrong," he added after seeing Rowen's face. They all stood there for a moment, looking at each other. Finally Ryo nodded at Kento.
"You have the most control in these kind of places, Kento," Ryo said firmly. "The rest of us would have a greater risk of bringing the place down on us." Kento grinned tightly, obviously pleased that he would get to do something proactive. He stepped away from the others, waiting until they had backed up a distance. Kento narrowed his eyes, and from behind him the group began to feel pressure build up around them. It felt like the air itself was squeezing in tighter, and Rowen's expression was pained. The pressure built heavier and heavier, making the Ronins shift uncomfortably. The walls rumbled and groaned, and the ground beneath their feet started shaking.
"Kento!" Sage snapped out as he reached to grab onto Rowen for balance, "Don't destroy this place!" Ryo staggered as the corridor seemed to tilt to the left, then back to the right. The pressure forcing down on every inch of their armor had reached the point of physical pain.
"Kento!" Ryo echoed Sage, worry filling his voice. In front of them, Hardrock opened his arms, then brought them down sharply. The air suddenly thrust away from them in one huge swoosh, slamming into the corridor walls. Heavy chunks of rock burst in every direction, causing the Ronins to hit the ground to avoid being struck. Everything shook and rumbled and roared as debris thumped down on armored backs and heads. Finally the shaking stopped.
Slowly the Ronins stood up, lurching a little as they did. Rowen's face was decidedly queasy. Thick dust filled the air, but as it settled they found that the corridor walls still held firm. Thick cracks run up and down the now chunked out stone, but they seemed as heavy and solid as ever.
"Damn, Kento!" Rowen said, spitting dirt out of his mouth. "Subtlety just isn't your strong point, is it. Ugh, I think I'm going to puke." Rowen spat again and glared at the Ronin of Hardrock. Kento had turned around and had a slightly confused expression on his face.
"I don't understand," Kento said, scratching his neck idly. "I threw everything I had at those things and it didn't budge. But it should've."
"When did you start using air in your attacks?" Ryo asked him. Kento shrugged.
"I didn't. That came from the surroundings. They didn't want to change the shape they were in, and they fought me over it causing a pressure build up. Finally they gave in, and that should have torn out a clear path to either side of us. Instead all I got was a few rocks falling down."
"Oh, is that all?" Rowen asked in an acidic tone. Kento ignored him completely, eyes scanning the walls.
"Kento?" Sage asked in that soft controlled tone he always got when he was figuring out something very complicated. "Why did you say ‘should have'?"
Kento looked at Sage, and they could see his mind turning over the question as well.
"Well, as far as I can tell, this place is normal. As normal as any freaky city under a mountain can be, but still…It should follow the same rules as everything else. I tell the earth to crack, it cracks. But this earth is fighting itself and me. It was angry I even tried. I don't understand that. It's like fire telling Ryo ‘no'." Kento looked even more confused.
A funny expression had come to Sage's face, almost as if he was embarrassed about something.
"Kento? Can I ask you something else?" Sage looked at Kento. Hardrock nodded, curious. "Does…does the earth guide you? I can't believe I never thought to ask you before, but does it…talk to you?"
A small smile came to Kento's face and he looked fondly at the dirt underneath his feet. "Yeah, Sage. It does. Sometimes it helps me know what I should do when I use it. But it's not like I could've said, hey guys I talk to dirt, you know? I have a reputation to maintain." Ryo smiled despite himself at that.
"Then if the earth was telling you that we can't go through the walls, what do you think that means?" Sage asked. Kento just shook his head, not knowing. Ryo looked around, eyes narrowed. But it was Rowen that finally figured it out.
"Umm, guys?" he said, toeing the dirt beneath his feet. "The earth didn't want us going through it, but it never said anything about underneath it." Eyes widened, then Kento reached over his back and swung his weapon down to smash into the ground in front of him. The result was instantaneous. A tremendous crack sounded and then the floor fell out from beneath their feet, causing all four men to crash down through the hole. Sage was able to take one startled breath before he slammed down face first into something much too hard. For a moment he lay there dazed.
"Bad idea, Kento," Sage finally snarled, "Really bad idea." He rolled over to find his friends but couldn't see them in the hazy fog that was creeping up around him. Everything else was dark.
"Hey guys!" Sage called out. "Where are you? I can't see a thing in all this."
No one answered. Sage started to get a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He watched as tendrils of thick haze wound their way up his arms to lightly brush his face. After that, thing's became…confusing.
------
There was a moment of darkness, then the temperature became very cold.
Sage stood deathly still, letting the snowflakes settle against his long lashes. He knew this place, it was where he and Mia had faced Cale. Only this time it was different, he knew it in his bones. For the woman dangling inside the freezing cold waterfall was not Mia, but Cassie. Sage's heart missed a beat, yet he still didn't move.
Cassie was bound with her arms behind her back, her long blonde hair plastered to her head as icy water rushed over her. He could hear her gasping and sputtering. He knew this wasn't right, that it hadn't happened like this, and that he should not fall for the trap.
But Cassie…
She was trying to be brave but the blind girl had started crying softly, panic overriding her natural strength as water continued to plug her nostrils and fill her mouth. Sage shuddered, trying to force himself back. It was a trap, this wasn't Cassie. It wasn't her. He knew it but…Sage held frozen in indecision until her sweet voice weakly cried out his name, her words laced with fear. She was dying. He couldn't…he had to…there was no other choice!
With a snarl Sage leapt into the waterfall, catching Cassie's slim body in his left arm even as Halo's sword severed the cord that bound her. His momentum took them all the way to the rocky ledge and he twisted so that he hit shoulder first. Sage grunted in pain at the jolt but locked his arms protectively around the girl as they skidded to a stop. He sat up and held her shaking body to his, casting around for the attack he knew would come. Sage waited and waited. Nothing happened.
Sage kept one eye on their surroundings while letting the other slip down to Cassie. The blind girl had stopped coughing up water but was shivering violently and had locked on to Sage's arm.
"You're okay, Cass," Sage whispered, rocking her closer even as he scanned the area. He didn't understand why the attack hadn't come.
"Sage," Cassie whispered, her voice weak and shaken. Sage rested his chin on her half frozen hair, gripping his sword.
"I'm here baby."
"Sage…" Cassie repeated. Finally he looked down at her, her beautiful blue eyes staring unseeing past his shoulder. Sage couldn't help himself and brushed a light kiss across her temple, cradling her gently despite his death-grip around her.
"Yes, Cass? What is it?" Cassie touched his face and turned hers up in his direction, chattering lips seeking his. Unable to deny her, Sage lowered his mouth to hers even as she whispered,
"Sage, look at me."
He went cold.
Suddenly those beautiful blind blue eyes could see right through him, and they glittered darkly as she yanked his head down into the kiss. Sage jerked away, pushing at the thing that he knew wasn't Cassie. She laughed deep in her throat and looked behind his shoulder. That was all the warning Sage got before something struck him heavily in the back of the head and the world went black.
------
Rowen sat quietly trying to decide if he should say something. Nikki remained on the other side of the room, her brown eyes glazed over as she stared at nothing. She had been like this more and more lately and it worried him. It seemed like every day a little piece of her slipped out of his reach. Not that Rowen had any delusions about them…well not too many anyway. He just hated to see her like this, lethargic and dazed. He'd rather face her scathing tongue any day of the week than this silence. Whatever it was that Rowen and Nikki had between them, silence wasn't it.
Nikki hadn't been sleeping well, he could tell, even though she had left his bed and forced him out of hers long ago. There were dark circles under her eyes that grew darker by the day. She would occasionally drift off when they were all together, but she would always wake quickly with a start, panic in her eyes. He didn't blame her for being scared. Each battle took its toll on all of them, even the girls. The Ronins had always fought in spurts; even the crusades against Talpa measured in days. This fight had stretched out for months. Rowen's mind was weary and his body was exhausted. He had drawn his bow so many times that heavy calluses had split, re-grown and ripped open again. He had lost weight; they all had. It wasn't that they weren't eating, but they spent so much of their time running and fighting and worrying that what they did consume vanished as if it had never been there.
Their main problems weren't physical, however. They were strained to the limit emotionally and mentally. Each time they faced off with Damian he seemed to grow stronger, to be able to identify weakness even they didn't know they had and use them against the warriors. He wasn't just content to battle them and beat them, he insisted on taunting them and confusing them, twisting reality and illusion, truth and lies, until everything had become so tangled they didn't know what to believe anymore. Rowen struggled within himself, trying to believe that they were still okay. That they were close to finding the key to defeat this enemy. But each time his comrades stumbled underneath the weight of their burden, every head that bowed and shoulder that slumped took sliced at his confidence in them and himself. He tried to believe, god how he tried. But Damian was wearing them down…
Nikki brought her knees up to her chest and she looked out the window. Once more Rowen wondered if he should say something but he just didn't know what to say. He wasn't sure there were any comforting words left in him. All he knew was that she couldn't go away, where Damian could follow without their protection. If Rowen knew with any certainty she'd be safe, he'd have put her on a plane months ago. Nikki didn't want the comfort of his arms anymore or even just one more embrace, so there wasn't much else Rowen could offer her.
Dark hair fell over one shoulder as she turned her head to look at him. Brown eyes caught his, and once more it struck Rowen how much Nikki had changed. A fire that had burned so bright was dimming.
"You can't beat him Rowen," Nikki whispered. Rowen frowned and looked over her shoulder.
"Don't talk like that, Nikki. You don't know that for certain. We hurt him today." Rowen wasn't sure of he was trying to reassure her or himself. It cut deeper than it should have when Nikki laughed coldly.
"You don't get it, Rowen. You can't beat him. You can't. We made sure of that." Those brown eyes were bitter and self-mocking, making Rowen's heart jump up into his chest. Softly he whispered to her.
"Nikki? What do you mean?" She just closed her eyes and shook her head, face twisted harshly. Rowen stood and moved to her, kneeling down in front of her. He laid his hand on her knee, their first contact in over two weeks.
"Nikki? What did you do?" Rowen whispered, a sick feeling twisting his guts and making him shiver despite the warmth of the room. When she opened her eyes and looked directly at him, Rowen realized that he had missed something very very important. They all had.
Nikki reached forward and placed her hand over Rowen's heart, leaning over until her words brushed his ear as she spoke.
"We…told…him…everything."
Rowen stared at her, opening his mouth to reply when something came crashing through the window. He instinctively rolled, pulling Nikki underneath him as glass shards slammed down on his back and shoulders. As soon as the last tinkle of broken glass rang out, Rowen rose up on his elbows and looked at what had smashed through the window. Four feet away from him, bleeding from gashes on her arms and face, lay Nikki. Her eyes were wild and with a cry she reached for him, trying to crawl towards him.
Rowen went cold.
Long fingers with sharp nails gripped Rowen's jaw and forced his head back down. Glittering black eyes smiled insanely up at him, but all Rowen saw before everything went black was the teeth.
------
Up to his elbows in hot soapy water with sweat beading on his neck and rolling slowly down between his shoulder blades, a muscled young man in a white tee-shirt scrubbed vigorously at a dirty saucepan. Kento was frustrated. Hell, he'd been frustrated for a long time now. His entire life had always been one step forward and three steps back, watching while everyone else zoomed past him on the road of life.
Kento's worries centered around one key issue: that he wasn't smart enough. It wasn't that he believed he wasn't smart; any of his friends would attest to the fact that he never had been the blockheaded beefcake he looked. But there was a fine line between being smart and being smart enough to get what you wanted out of life. Kento knew he could run a business. He knew that he could have a restaurant that served great food and had a friendly desirable atmosphere. He'd been watching his parents do it his entire life. But was he smart enough to pull it off on his own without being in over his head? Kento really didn't know.
The problem was that Kento had reached and passed that age where you were supposed to go out on your own and make something of yourself. Not that his parents minded the extra help around the restaurant. His mother would die a happy woman if her eldest never left the nest. But that wasn't what Kento wanted for his life. He didn't want to depend on his parents for his livelihood, he wanted to be his own man. He couldn't imagine taking his future wife home to his upstairs bedroom every night, with the sounds of his siblings running down the hall. He couldn't imagine the embarrassment of asking his parents for his salary so he could take his wife out to dinner. Kento figured he had two options. He could either breakout on his own and risk failure, along with every extra bit of money he had saved up over the years, or he could take the safe route and kiss his personal life goodbye forever. Both options were equally distressing.
Despite his preoccupied musings, Kento was still able to hear the light tapping at the restaurant's front door. Kento dried his hands off on a towel and stuffed it into his back pocket, running one hand through his messy dark hair as he made his way to the front door. The figure that he saw through the glass made him grin. He turned the lock and opened the door, holding it open with a foot.
"About time you showed up here, buddy. I thought you'd leave me cleaning dishes all night," Kento joked. Cye grinned and stepped through the door, shoving his hands deeper into his jacket pockets.
"I know how you like dirt, Kento," Cye quipped back, "I just thought I'd give you a chance to enjoy yourself before we went out." Kento chuckled as he let the door shut, following his friend back into the darkened restaurant.
"Give me a sec to clean up," Kento said as he walked past Cye, pulling off his shirt and tossing it over his shoulder. He disappeared into the back, then reemerged in a clean shirt with slightly damp hair. Cye chuckled quietly as Kento turned off the last remaining lights.
"It's kind of funny how different we all are," Cye remarked. "Sage and I spend forever getting cleaned up, but you just stick your head under a faucet and you're ready to go." Kento arched an eyebrow at Torrent.
"Maybe there's a reason you guys spend so much time in the bathroom primping," Kento said mock-suggestively. Cye laughed then thumped Kento on the back of his head, following him outside and watching him lock the door behind hem.
"Shut up! I like girls as much as you do buddy. And unlike you I actually take them out every once in a while." Cye smirked at his friend. Kento just grunted and stuck his hands into his pockets, matching strides with Cye.
"Why is that, Kento?" Cye asked curiously. "I've been meaning to bring it up. Ever since high school ended you seem to be doing nothing but work. You don't ever take time to relax unless it's with us. Why don't you go on a date or two? Have a little fun?"
"It's hard to have fun without any money, Cye. Most girls don't like dates that center around eating at your parent's place for free. There's only so many walks in the park before they start catching on." Kento kept his eyes on the street ahead of him and away from Cye's piercing gaze.
"Not all girls care about money," Cye said quietly. "There's more to some of them than that."
"It's not about them," Kento muttered under his breath. "It's about me. I'm not approaching someone with nothing to give."
Cye just gave his friend a knowing look and let the subject drop. They walked down the sidewalk, quiet but comfortable in the silence. Some friendships were like that. The passing cars kicked up droplets of water from that morning's rainfall, but neither man seemed too concerned about getting wet. They were almost to the movie theatre when something in a store window caught Kento's eye. He paused and gazed at it thoughtfully. Cye could see the wheels turning in his friend's mind and the wishful look on his face. Kento weighed out the cost in his head, knowing that it would be ridiculous. Yet the longer he looked in the window the more he wanted what he saw. He was about to say so to Cye when a feeling hit him. He looked at his friend's reflection in the window, his eyes meeting Cye's. Kento went cold as understanding dawned.
"Cye," Kento whispered softly, "I didn't buy this with you here. No one knew I bought this." Cye looked at him in surprise, his eyes widening as Kento turned his head around.
Neither one of them saw the truck that slammed into them.
The impact of it threw Kento deep into the store as the truck smashed through glass and wood. Fuzzily he realized that he was lying on his back, staring up at overly bright fluorescent lighting. With cold detachment he realized that he couldn't move. Someone was screaming near him, and the link that had always seemed to exist between him and Cye was gone. Cye was gone from him. It was with quiet regret that Kento realized he would never have that chance to choose his own path, and that the man he was today would have to be enough. Ironically the item that had caught his eye had been thrown with him, landing just out of his reach.
Figures, Kento thought to himself as everything dimmed to black.
------
Rowen had blood running down his neck from a huge gash in his throat. Mia had fought the urge to turn and retch when she'd realized that a chunk of flesh had been torn away. Crimson pooled on the ground at his feet and Mia feared that he was bleeding too heavily. Even a Ronin Warrior could only go through so much. Off to her left Sage was still unconscious, his skin so sickly pale it was translucent. Only tiny bits of dried blood matted his now dirty blonde hair, but she could guess at the kind of blow to the head it would have taken to keep Sage out this long. He had always been the quickest to heal. Yet when Damian appeared once more, winking at her as he drug Kento behind him by one armored foot, Mia turned away. She couldn't watch this anymore.
"You're sick," Mia softly spoke to her capturer, the chains that bound her wrists to the floor jingling behind a voice full of scorn. "It wasn't enough to take them all like this; you had to leave your mark on them too. What you did to Rowen was disgusting."
Damian didn't answer her; instead he contented himself with humming softly as he strung up Kento upside down by his heels, using heavier metal chains to bind him to the wall near Rowen.
"You're missing a couple, demon," Mia said mockingly. Damian turned and moved towards her, the edges of his body rippling and he passed a certain spot on the floor. Mia's breath caught in her throat, but she had to focus on the creature that had squatted down on its heels in front of her. He leaned forward until his nose almost touched hers. Inside she screamed at the proximity but outwardly Mia remained calm.
"Are you bored?" Damian asked her, chuckling. He reached out one long finger to lightly scratch her cheek, causing her to inadvertently flinch. "Would you like to participate in the fun? I'd hate for you to think of me as a poor host."
Mia just glared at him, trying to not look too deep into the glittering black eyes. There were things there she definitely didn't want to see. Mia shook her head no, but Damian seemed to have made up his mind already. With a click the lock on her wrists fell open and he rose, gripping her hair firmly and yanking her forcibly up to her feet. He loomed over her, staring down. Mia spat in his face, only to have him jerk her closer to him, grinning. His countenance shifted, even though Mia knew it was only an illusion, changing his face and eyes into something more beautiful and horrible than his essence could ever be. Mia turned her face away.
"Come now, you don't want to finish what we've started?" Damian murmured against her neck. Mia flinched again, a tremor rippling through her body. He just laughed, the sound echoing about them as he drug her kicking and fighting past the unconscious Ronins and out of the room.
------
The fire raged.
A young man moved around it, letting the heat soak into him as he fed the bonfire larger pieces of brush. In the distance the sun had almost set, and the night sky had begun twinkling. Being someone who was forced to spend much of his time in the city, normally he would've stared at the stars for hours, enjoying the lack of light pollution. Normally he would have breathed in the crisp air and shivered as the darkness settled around him, and he would have reflected on what that day's work had meant to him and done for him. Not tonight. Tonight Ryo was building a fire and everything else was inconsequential.
His heavy boots crunched the twigs underneath his feet as he paced uneasily around the growing flame. The heat was growing more intense by the moment and tendrils leapt out to caress Ryo's arms and legs. Fire was drawn to him, even as he was drawn to it. The stiff fabric of his jeans protected legs that would not have been injured anyway, and where his thick flannel shirt left off and toughened hands were revealed, the skin was cool.
The fire raged and inside himself, Ryo raged with it. There were things out in the darkness, things that should never have been there, things that the creature had brought with him when he entered Ryo's precious world. Wildfire could feel their presence as easily as he felt the pull of his friends' armors. Not too far away Rowen and Sage were conversing with Cye, trying to come up with a plan. Further out, Kento was doing sweeps around the small clearing. Occasionally Ryo would feel a surge through his armor, and he knew that Kento had dispatched of one more of the…things. Kento was the best at it. Something about the element of earth frightened them and made his attacks more deadly. But Kento could do sweeps all day and night long, and still they kept coming. It was a price Ryo's friends paid for being out in the open, and the fact that they were driven from the place Ryo had come to call his home filled Ryo with a white-hot fury.
The girls were huddled together between the fire and the Ronins, in the safest place they could be. The reason that they only sent one Ronin at a time out to do sweeps was because the attacks seemed to center around the girls. It amused the enemy to hurt them, but it seemed to amuse him even more to make them watch the girls get hurt. If Ryo hadn't already been furious, the thought would have sent him into a rage. Ryo shoved another branch into the fire, causing sparks to jump up, hissing and crackling. This was their second line of defense. While Damian wasn't affected at all by the fire, the creatures prowling around steered clear of it. As if sensing its importance, the flame burst up higher, flicking out lick Ryo's face and reflecting in his eyes. The eyes burned brighter than the flames.
A quiet cough came from behind him, and Ryo turned around. Mia was standing there, looking at him with concern in her eyes. She glanced at the growing char marks on his clothes and lifted her hand, as if to reach out and pull him away from the fire. Then she let her hand drop back down again.
"I need to go to the bathroom," Mia said softly, a trace of embarrassment on her face. "I…I kind of felt weird asking the other guys to go with me, and you told us not to go anywhere by ourselves." Ryo nodded, leaning down to pull out a flaming ember.
"Yeah, no problem, Mia," Ryo said, trying to sound nonchalant. He didn't want to embarrass her any more than she was, although he knew she wouldn't like it that he wasn't going to let her out of his sight once out of the relative safety of the camp.
Ryo motioned to Sage that he would be right back, and lightly took Mia's arm, guiding her into the surrounding darkness. How quick the light from the fire faded, and the burning ember in Ryo's hand seemed scant protection in the face of what they both knew was out here. Ryo could be in his subarmor in a second if he had to be, but that didn't keep him from being extremely cautious.
To break up the uncomfortable silence as Mia headed behind a tree, the red haired woman started talking half to him and half to herself.
"You know, they never talk about this part in the movies. The good guys never have to pee when it's an inopportune time," Mia mumbled. Ryo smiled slightly, making sure he could still see the glint of her hair. He meant it. Not out of his sight, not even for privacy.
"They never deal with the whole food thing either," Ryo added, feeling his stomach rumble. It had been awhile since they had eaten. Ryo thought that the armor was helping him keep his strength longer despite the lack of sustenance. The girls were starting to show signs of going too long without food, and Ryo knew that pretty soon here they would have to break down and risk going back to try to get to town. Thus far no one wanted to take that chance…too many things could go wrong. But Ryo would be damned if he let any of them get sick or hurt because of this. If he had to, he would go for food himself.
"There's nothing we can do about that right now, Ryo," Mia soft reasonable voice said from behind the tree. "If you guys lead the creatures back into town, then there's no telling how many people are going to get hurt. This way we're keeping them contained and focused on us. We have to."
Ryo grunted, scanning the darkness. He knew what she said was true, but there were more things to being a leader than she realized. He would eventually have to pick them versus the rest of the people he protected, and Ryo wasn't sure he was capable of sacrificing someone he loved for the greater good. The other Ronins had made a pact to do what they had to, to themselves and each other, to win this battle. But to Ryo the girls were victims of this fight, caught between things that they weren't really involved in. He would protect them. He would.
Mia stepped out from behind the tree, adjusting her shirt. She smiled at Ryo gently, then to his surprise seemed to flicker momentarily. Something slammed into her from the side and she went down with a cry. Roaring, Ryo sprang forward and thrust the burning branch directly into the back of the thing on top of Mia, grabbing onto it and trying to tear it off of her. The creature slid right through his grasp and went back to clawing at the girl underneath it. Mia was yelling his name, sounding terrified, and Ryo instinctively called his armor.
Knowing that it had a dangerous adversary at its back, the creature spun around and faced Ryo, its ugly face twisted into a grinning snarl.
"Ryo! Don't!" Mia shrieked, just as Wildfire launched himself at the creature. It met him halfway through the air, clawing and ripping at his armor. Ryo sliced at it with his sword, but the sharp blade barely pierced the thick skin. The creature leapt away, backing up so that there was space between it and the swords. Ryo sidestepped, eyes trained on the creatures, trying to predict its next move. Mia had struggled to a kneeling position, blood running down her face, and she looked at Ryo in desperation.
"Ryo! Stop! Please, it's a trap!" Mia shrieked. The sound of her voice must have alerted the creature to her presence once more, for instead of going again for the warrior, the creature launched itself at Mia. The girl on the ground didn't scream, but looked at Ryo in despair right as the creature hit her. Ryo lunged forward with a cry, raising his swords. Everything flickered again, causing him to lose his bearings. Then Ryo shoved his body at the creature, sending it sprawling to the side. Mia sat up with cold eyes and said to him in a icy voice
"Kill it, Ryo."
The creature twisted, turning back to him, and for the first time backed up. Ryo stared at it waiting for it to make a move. It just looked at him with huge eyes, making noises low in its throat. Mia made a noise of fear, and Ryo jumped forward at the creature. It backed up again, crying out when his sword scraped down its shoulder. It shrunk back, still making the same odd noises. Ryo pulled back, confused now that it had stopped fighting.
Mia stood up and looked at it, her eyes glittering in the darkness.
"Ryo, kill it. It will come after us again. If you won't do it then I will!" Mia pulled out the small hunting knife Kento had given to her and leapt towards Ryo and the creature. This time the creature roared and jumped forward, thrusting Ryo over as it threw itself into Mia. Mia had started laughing, even as the pair tumbled to the ground. Ryo jumped up and grabbed the creature off of Mia, throwing it as hard as he could into the tree behind him. The creature hit the ground with a deadening thud. Ryo moved forward, lifting his swords to finally finish it off. He stood over it as the creature moaned, poised to run it through, but just then the creature looked up at him with scared green eyes. Familiar eyes. Ryo hesitated.
Mia stepped up behind him and grabbed his arms, pushing down on them with incredible strength.
"Do it," she whispered. "Kill it." There was joy in her voice, and it chilled him. The creature whimpered as the blades were pressed lower, hovering right over its skin. Such familiar eyes…Ryo's own widened and he started to pull away and that was when the illusion melted off of him.
Ryo looked down and went cold. He was back in the caves.
Mia lay beneath him on the stone floor, her hands pushing with all her strength up on his swords, tears in her eyes as she pleaded with him that it was her. Damian stood behind him, gripping down in his arms with inhuman strength, forcing his weapons down at the woman.
"Kill her Ryo," Damian chuckled in his ear. Ryo met Mia's eyes and for one moment they connected. Then with a cry Ryo wrenched himself sideways, throwing all his weight back against Damain's hold. Mia heard the bone pop as it tore out of its socket. Ryo gasped, turning white, eyes going back to Mia as she rolled out from under the descending swords. Damain turned, one arm still gripping Ryo's bad one, and he frowned.
"You ruined it," he said, irritation in his voice. Then Ryo's enemy snarled at him and yanked him upwards violently into the air by his arm. Ryo only screamed once before darkness overcame him.
------
Cye staggered so hard he almost fell. Nikki reached for his armored arm and tried to support him, even though his weight made her stumble as well. She looked up at the auburn haired man in concern. Cye had gone pale and was clutching at his head.
"What? What is it, Cye?" Nikki demanded. Cye just pulled away, rubbing his temples gingerly. His face was pained.
"Something…something bad just happened. Sage. Rowen…" Cye drifted off, turning his back to her. Nikki followed him, her eyes growing wide.
"What happened to Sage and Rowen? Cye? What happened to Rowen!" Nikki's voice rose an octave, but Cye just flapped his hand at her irritably. He leaned against the corridor wall heavily. Thus far they had not made much progress, and no matter how far they walked only more endless corridors stretched out in front of them. The flickering torches lining the walls gave Cye's face an eerie cast as he slumped forward.
"They just got hurt. Something just hurt them badly," Cye finally said, his voice strained.
"How badly?" Nikki asked in a small voice. Cye shook his head again.
"They're still alive, but whatever attacked them knocked them out. I can barely feel them. All I got was a sharp jolt of pain and then nothing."
Nikki pursed her lips unhappily, looking around. They needed to get out of there. The others were falling, and she knew who was taking them out. They needed their combined strength to fight this enemy and the worst thing that could have happened was for them to get separated. Of course, that had been the plan all along. Nikki narrowed her eyes as she thought about the situation at hand. She had been in the actual palace in Damian's realm and as long as those corridors were, they hadn't been this long. This wasn't an illusion, but it definitely was a trap. The corridor had a slight curve to it and Nikki wouldn't be surprised to find that they had been going in a huge circle this entire time. She walked over to the wall opposite of Cye and laid her palm flat against it. The stone felt real, but at the same time she had a hunch.
"Cye," Nikki said quietly, "Do you think you can break through this?" Cye looked up at her through narrowed eyes.
"I already tried, Nikki. The only other thing I could do would be to use my Super Wave Smasher. But it'll most likely come right back at us and hurt you. I won't do it." Nikki nodded thoughtfully, then she stepped into the center of the corridor. She pointed one finger upwards.
"How about up there?" Nikki suggested, her face twisted into an expression of self mocking. Cye looked up at the ceiling and felt his stomach drop.
"You're serious? It took us this long to figure this out?" Cye snarled angrily, clenching his fists. "Right above our freaking heads…" Cye straightened and reached for his weapon. He crouched down, getting his feet underneath him, and thrust upwards. The head of his weapon struck first, punching through the rock ceiling like it was paper. The armored man followed and was instantly lost from sight. Staring up at the dark hole, Nikki didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She bet that Rowen had figured this out ages ago, and for a split second was unreasonably angry at him because of it. She hated it when he made her feel stupid. Then Nikki remembered what Cye had said about Rowen and Sage being hurt, and she shuddered. She didn't want to know how Damian had managed to get to them. Cye's head popped back down through the hole, and he lowered the staff end down to her.
"Grab on," Cye said. Nikki did as he asked, and with one easy pull the slim young man lifted her up though the hole above her. Cye caught her around the waist and drew her safely away from the hole. Nikki looked around in shock.
Nothing was what she had expected. Her feet rested firmly on wooden boards, and around her stretched one huge open room. Heavy wooden support beams reached like trees from the floor to the ceiling, a forest of architecture. The ground seemed to glow with a kind of odd luminescence, and at first Nikki didn't understand. That is until she took a step and almost fell back through the corridor's ceiling to the dirt below. Cye reached out quickly and yanked her back.
"Careful," he warned. "Stay on the boards. Nothing else is substantial."
Nikki looked at the floor more closely and gasped. Where the board underneath her feet left off, there was only a thin paper-like material stretching across the gap to the next board. Nikki realized that the light was actually coming from a series of lit corridors beneath them, and that through the paper she could actually see down into the halls below. And if she could see down there…Nikki looked at Cye in horror. He had knelt next to her, his handsome face strained. Neither one of them needed to bring up the obvious: that it was probable Damian had been watching them unseen the entire time. Nikki shuddered and stood up.
"What do we do now?" she asked Cye. The Ronin of Torrent gestured to the rows of corridors stretching past them.
"You see they all curve in the same direction?" he noted. Nikki nodded.
"They're a big circle," she said. "Which means they'll all end up in a little circle."
"Which means if we want to find the little circle, we head that way." Cye pointed to his right. Nikki sighed as she looked around.
"There's no door number two, is there?" she asked under her breath. Cye just gave her a tight smile and stepped carefully over to the next wooden plank. Nikki followed, letting him help her across the distance since her shorter legs didn't reach as far. They had only made it over a few corridors when Cye bowled over, gasping out loud as he hit one knee. The young man knelt there bent over, his face lost from sight. Nikki almost didn't want to know what had happened now. She didn't have to ask. Cye's barely audible whimper of Hardrock's name was all she needed to know.
"Cye, get up," Nikki snapped. The auburn haired man glared up at her, but Nikki had already grabbed his arm and yanked on it. "You can't help them like this. Keep moving!" Cye continued to glare at her, then stood up, weaving slightly. She steadied him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Come on," Cye said to her, voice harsh as he turned away. Nikki tried not to take it personal. If the others were in pain, it would affect Cye the most. His empathy was rarely a gift. Nikki silently followed him deeper into the endless room, hoping that they were right about where to go. She didn't want to think about the implication if they weren't.
Neither Nikki or Cye could have said how long they had traveled or how far, but the curvature of the halls below slowly became tighter and tighter. Finally Cye paused in front of her and motioned her to be still. He hunched down and pointed ahead of them. Not twenty feet away, the floor suddenly dropped off. Below was a large round room, identical to the one that they had first entered, only this one had no decoration to it. The only thing in the room they could see was a large stone chair sitting up on a dais that wrapped one part of the curved wall, with a large door beside it. As quietly as he could, Cye crept forward. Nikki followed, trying her best to not step through the flooring as she navigated them without Cye's help. Cye had reached the edge and was peering over when he lurched once more, this time falling sideways with his hand clutching his right shoulder in agony.
"Ryo!" Cye cried out, voice piercing the silence as he lurched again.
"Cye!" Nikki gasped, reaching out to him but she was too late. Torrent had stopped paying attention to where he was, and in his pain he stepped too close to the edge.
He dropped like a stone.
Nikki saw Cye topple over and screamed, trying to grab at him. Moments later she heard the heavy crash of armor hitting hard ground, followed by a low groaning noise.
"Cye!" Nikki whispered over the edge, looking down at where the young man had fallen. "Cye, are you alright---" She drifted off as she saw what was hanging on the wall beneath her. It was the other Ronins, minus Ryo. Mia and White Blaze were no where to be found. Something clicked and in a panicked voice Nikki whispered down to Cye.
"Get up! Look around Cye! Damian has the others here and he just got Ryo! Get back up here now!" Cye rolled over slowly, rising to his knees to look at the wall across from the dais. Hanging there in chains were Sage, Rowen, and Kento, all unconscious and bleeding. Cye's eyes went wide as he stared at his comrades. He jerked when the sounds of doors opening and slamming closed reached his ears, growing louder and louder. He was coming.
"Cye!" Nikki whispered, tears coming to her eyes as she tried to get him to realize what was about to happen. If Damian took them all, then they were worse than dead. "Cye, please!"
Cye leapt to his feet, torn between trying to free his friends and risk facing Damian by himself or getting back up to Nikki to protect her and find a plan to save his friends. He took a step, towards which we'll never know, because at that moment one huge crash of a door echoed behind him, and Cye spun, gripping his weapon tightly as he positioned his body between the Ronins and Nikki and the final door his enemy was coming through. Nikki went pale as she stared down at Cye in horror. What could she do? Nikki racked her brain and came up with nothing. Short of jumping down there and throwing herself in front of Cye, anything she could do would be useless. So she watched, shaking, as the door slid open heavily. Cye tensed and crouched down to strike.
Neither one of them expected to see Mia walk through the door. The redhead took one look at the warrior in front of her, and her blood streaked face turned sadly upwards, directly to where Nikki remained hidden. Their eyes met, and Nikki knew that her luck had run out. Slowly Nikki stood and straightened, her eyes never leaving Mia's.
"Well?" Nikki said softly to the creature that stood behind her. "Are you ready for round two?" Damian rumbled a low deep laugh as Nikki turned around, adjusting his grip on Wildfire's good arm. The other had fallen limply at an unnatural angle beneath his armored body and Ryo looked like he was passing in and out. Damian walked closer, dragging Ryo carelessly behind him.
"Sweeting," Damian purred. "Did you forget that I won round two?" Then he stepped forward and with a negligent movement of his hand shoved Nikki off the edge. He watched her fall with mild curiosity, seeming amused that the remaining Ronin heard her gasp, and spun away from where he had been staring at Mia. Cye tried to leap to her rescue but just failed to reach her in time. Damian moved to the edge and kicked Ryo off after her. This time Cye managed to get there in time, catching Ryo's heavy body before his armor smashed down on the dark haired girl's limp form. Cye held Ryo to his side, turning his body so that he was between Damian and his leader.
"You piece of shit," Cye snarled up at the figure above him. Nikki had not stirred and an overwhelming rush of pain ripped through Cye. Another woman might have died, another that he had failed to protect. Eyes blinded by tears of rage, Cye backed up until he could place Ryo beneath Rowen's feet. The moment he had dropped his burden, Cye didn't wait. He thrust off the ground and directly into Damian. For the first time he connected with solid weight and both went crashing backwards through the flooring. Cye prayed that in the few moments he was able to occupy Damian that Mia might have a chance to rescue the others. Cye had no delusions that he could defeat his enemy, but maybe before he fell he could buy his friends some time.
The last thought Cye had as wood splintered and burst around him was that he hoped Mia was still on their side.