Rhea ran for a while before acknowledging her friends' presence. When she finally turned to address her companions, she noticed there was only she and Liriel. Worry crossed her delicate features. "Where's Dae?"

"Shit!" Liriel fumed, then glanced to Rhea, composing her features. A lock of hair swirled into her face, the black ribbon having fallen out in their dash. "Plan. You go back and get her, and I'll go on alone."

"What the hell kind of plan is that? Splitting up equals 'bad'."

"One of us has to."

With a resigned sigh, Rhea nodded. "I suppose. But wouldn't it be better if you went back? I mean, if they notice you, you've got a better chance at fighting them off than I would..."

The redhead's shoulders hopped up in a shrug. "Fine with me. Just keep ahead, and leave out the trail for us to follow."

"Be careful, Lir."

Liriel grinned, crossing her fingers over her heart in reply. Rhea pursed her lips annoyedly, watching her sprint back the way they came. The brunette was left to jog along by herself, and soon heard commotion behind her, her pursuers having noticed Lir's departure. Muttering a prayer to anyone who'd listen, she kept moving, sharp ears listening for the sounds of hunters. Every so often, she dropped a tiny pebble, unnoticeable to casual glance, but to Liriel's eyes they would glow silver.

* * * * *

Sage scrambled over the carpet of fallen leaves, trying for silence as he trailed the redhead. Positive she was headed for the house, he had sent Kento on ahead, where he would sit waiting to ambush. A twig snapping under his foot made him jump. A few paces ahead of him, the girl stopped, tensing. When she continued her quick steps without looking back, he let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. His assumption proved true when the line of trees suddenly came to a halt, revealing a sprawling house. He could see the girl gaining distance from him, so he picked up his pace, sprinting over the flat grassy lawn. She entered the house through the kitchen door, and a larger shadow came around the corner, giving a wave to Sage before slipping through the entrance behind the girl. A few moments later, and Sage was in the house as well, closing the door gently behind him. He could hear the stairs creaking over the den. Flitting through shadowed areas to the steps, he placed each foot carefully in rhythm to hers, making his way slowly. Kento was nowhere to be seen, and Sage had to stop himself from grinding his teeth in frustration. She reached the top well ahead of him, but the moment her foot touched the landing, he rushed up.

He threw his weight against her, pinning her to the ground. She writhed underneath him, her yells muffled in the plush carpeting. Kento, crouching over the form of another female, raised an eyebrow at what few remarks could be understood. The girl was cursing like a drunken sailor.

* * * * *

Rhea ran on, not aware of the three figures following her. She was concentrating on dropping her pebbles and worrying about Daeya. Sometimes Dae had flashbacks to their worst battles, and they left her completely subdued. She hadn't talked for days after one, it had been so bad. Her thoughts shifted to Liriel then. Liriel had always been braver than she. Both of them were, and far bolder, too. Rhea felt inferior in battle situations, but she was always needed in the aftermath as the healer that she was. She wondered if she'd injured "Blue Boy" with her arrow. It'd stuck between the armor plates, so it probably hadn't, but she'd noticed him wince when it struck its target. Were it not for the blue and white sub armor, the fool would have been dead at that moment.

A root she had failed to notice snagged her boot and she went down, supressing a scream. She squeaked when she hit the ground, searching for signs that anyone was around. She sensed the presence of six of the enemy's "ragdolls" on almost all sides of her, and three humans. The humans were behind her, and she knew they were the boys from the house following her. All nine figures were drawing near to her, and she couldn't fire an arrow or stab with a dagger without fear of hitting one of the human males. When she sensed that the six were closer to her than the three, she dragged herself into the branches of the nearest tree. She was badly outnumbered and could easily be overpowered by just two of the boys. The one she'd been fighting had been extremely good. She'd been pushed almost to her limit, and she knew that if there were three, she'd be doomed. Hoping to be over the males, using them as a kind of safeguard, she leapt back down and started running, looking for the pebbles she'd dropped. Unfortunately for Rhea, when she'd tripped, all her pebbles had fallen and scattered in a million different directions.

Rhea did what any self-respecting healer without her allies would do: she panicked. She wasn't good at hand-to-hand combat, she didn't know where to go, and if she shot arrows, she'd claim an innocent life. Her healing nature forbid her to kill unless her life or the life of a friend was endanger, and she couldn't bring herself to do it this time. As she was turning about to flee, a searing pain ripped through her side. She just had time to feel leaves beneath her face before everything went black.

* * * * *

Liriel gasped through clenched teeth just as Rowen pulled the spearhead from Rhea's side. Daeya took the opportunity of the two Ronins' concern for her friend to try had bolting down the stairs. She tripped, however, on the blonde man's suddenly-protruding leg, and the darker-haired fellow secured her arms behind her back, holding her wrists together in one hand and pressing her against a wall. The girl's face was smashed into the cream plaster, but both men could hear the colorful expletives coming from her mouth. She was worse then her comrade!
Kento couldn't believe the strength hidden in the slim figure fighting his grasp. She was flailing and trying mighty hard to get him away from her. His large hand clenched the back of her neck and squeezed a bit, trying to show her that he wasn't about to let her go. This only made her struggle more, which ensured her being held in an ever-tighter grip.
Sage sat almost comfortably on the redhead's back. In realization that no observers were there at the moment--Kento was far too busy restraining that girl with the curls--Sage took amusement in the view he got; he was facing her posterior, after all. After musing over fraternization with the enemy, he decided he'd let her sit up, at least. He was sure he could get some answers to their many questions out of her. He moved so that he was crouching directly behind her, and hauled her up to a sitting position, her arms still twisted in his grasp.
"Dammit, what the HELL do you think you're doing?!" the girl raged, kicking her legs at him and trying to get her hands free.

* * * * *

The six enemies were disposed of rather quickly, but as Rowen traded his armor for street clothes, the three men heard soft laughter surrounding them. Cye and Ryo flanked Rowen, weapons drawn. Rowen tugged his shirt over his head then pressed it hard to Rhea's side. He hoisted her into his arms and kept his shirt crushed to her open wound. The three trekked back to their house, Rowen shivering by the time they reached home.

* * * * *

As soon as the black-haired man opened the front door, the massive tiger was on him, smelling Rhea's blood and sniffing his master to be sure he was alright. The cat growled curiously at the girl, but went away with a small kick from the one with the British accent. Liriel could see the door from her position on the floor, and she gasped, struggling with her captor, when she saw her friend.
"Rhea! Fuckin' a, what'd you do to her? There's a damned hole in her side!" Liriel pulled and forced herself into a wobbly stance, but the blonde stood behind her and grabbed her in a bear hug. He shoved her down to her knees, making her stay still.
Rowen carefully laid the wounded girl out on the living room floor while Ryo went to take Sage's place holding her friend. Sometime in the process of the switch, the young woman got free. She flew down the stairs, all the while chanting in a monotone. She flashed before the Ronins' eyes and was no longer wearing her armor. She was in civilian clothing now, and she shoved Rowen out of her way to get to her friend. The girl was in the middle of chanting over her friend when Sage grabbed her and pulled her away. She backhanded him, and waved her arms over her companion's prone form, making her armor, too, fade into normal clothes. The blue tanktop the brunette sported was now a deep purple where her red lifeblood was oozing out of the wound.
Rowen pulled her away from the wounded one, giving Sage some space to look her over. Sage knelt next to the girl and shut his eyes, putting his hands over her abdomen. The green healing light flowed from his fingertips and into her body. The wound closed and the skin sealed together, but the girl whimpered in her unconscious state. She wouldn't come out of it. Sweat beaded the foreheads of both healers, and the girl on the floor whimpered.
One cried out from where Kento had let her watch, shaking a golden-maned head, hazel eyes shimmering wetly. "She's in pain! Fix her, healer! Something's terribly wrong, she's DYING!" Her eyes pleaded with Sage, but he could do no more at the moment, his power sapped from the earlier attempts with Mia.

* * * * *

Sage returned from the kitchen with two steaming cups of tea, and plopped with a lack of his usual grace onto the floor. Liriel--he'd forced her name out of her a few minutes before--took the cup offered her, then followed suit, sitting cross-legged in front of him. Eyes the color of a summer sky studied her, taking in every detail, from the stray wisp of red escaping her hastily fixed hair, down to the chipped pink lacquer adorning her short nails. Her shirt was covered in tiny colorful flowers and wrinkled as if she'd slept in it. The glitter he'd seen in her eyes before, hinting that she knew a joke no one else understood, was missing, replaced by a dull sheen in the steely gray pair; she was sulking.

Red waves tumbled recklessly from a black ribbon, a few strands falling about in a disorderly fashion. The slim fingers of her left hand tapped in a syncopated rhythm on her torn, baggy jeans. Her careless appearance contrasted sharply with his own. Sage sat comfortably in khakis, his upper half covered in a dark green sweater, the sleeves of it and the white button-up shirt beneath rolled up to his elbows. Each lock of golden hair was combed carefully into place, spilling into his face to cover his right eye. The other crystal blue orb gazed coolly at the young woman seated before him.
"I want to know how you get into other people's dreams." He stated it expectantly, as if she had no choice but to answer.

"I go to sleep." She met his gaze levelly, daringly.
"The longer this takes, the longer that pretty little friend of yours..."
"Rhea," she snapped.
"...has to lie there sick." He paid her interruption no heed. She stared defiantly at him, a scowl fixed on her face. "No answer? It's your choice. Don't grunt at me. Just answer the question, and we can move onto the next, giving that gi-...Rhea..." He gave a particularly nasty little smirk, watching a snarl sprout on her face. "...a better chance. Until then, though..." he trailed off, leaving her to fill the silence with her own thoughts. As if to back up his statement, Rhea whimpered softly in her state of unconsciousness.
"I go to sleep. It's that simple. I fall asleep, then I find a dream and enter it."
"Why did you enter ours? What were you looking for? Can this be taught?"
"One question at a time, if you don't mind," she muttered in false meekness, through gritted teeth.
"Alright. Why?"
"Why what?"
His mouth twisted angrily before he continued. "Why did you enter our dreams?"
"Oh. That. We thought you would be helpful. You were worthless and time-consuming, though." She failed to mention it was they who had brought pain to her friend, though the look she shot him gave Sage a pang of guilt, nonetheless.
"You said I didn't have something. What were you looking for?"
"An artifact. One we could use against our enemy."
"Did you consider us your enemy?"
"No, we considered you foolish little boys who had no idea what they might have had their hands on."
The session continued much the same long into the night, and farther, both of them trying not to nod off as the rosy fingers of dawn crept through the window panes. Sage ground his teeth, and she spat defiance at him every chance she got. It finally ended, though, at about nine o' clock the following morning, heavy bags under his eyes the only thing Sage gained for all his efforts.

He padded up the stairs to his room, leaving the exhausted girl curled in a pile of pillows next to her unconcious friend. He smiled sleepily upon entering his room, musing that he was beginning to act like Rowen. Climbing into crisp, white linen, he fell asleep almost immediately, dozing peacefully.

* * * * *

And then the peace was disturbed. Someone was shaking him, and barking his name. He turned a hazy-eyed gaze to a newly-familiar face. It was Liriel, poking him in the side now, her face a mask of stubborn concentration.
"Mornin' sunshine." Her voice dripped in sarcasm, but she had a strange grin on her face. He grunted in reply, a little bewildered.
"Why're you here?"
"Hmm...Mia said you were the charming one, too." She smirked, though her eyes seemed a little strained to pull off the same emotion.
"Go away. I wanna sleep." That's really all he wanted. So why was she laughing at him now?
"C'mon, it's 6 now. Get up!" She poked him just at his short ribs, and he yelped, squirming. A glance cast to his clock showed she meant evening…he'd slept all day. He berated himself, unbelieving at how much he was turning into Rowen.
"Stop that!" A level glare from her made him wriggle uncomfortably. "Fine," he mumbled, "I'll get up." She beamed triumphantly, and he couldn't help but think how much prettier she was when she wasn't ready to spit on him. He followed her orders grudgingly, but was rewarded by her wide-eyed expression when he climbed out of bed, clad only in boxers.
"Gah! Christ, put some clothes on!" She was shaking her head, pointedly looking at anything buy him. He snickered to himself as he tugged on a crisp white shirt and black slacks. A part of Sage wondered how he could get such amusement out of bothering her; it wasn't very characteristic of him.
He turned back to her, buttoning his shirt, his face serene, though he still laughed inwardly. She raised an annoyed eyebrow, then herded him downstairs to the other as he tried to check his hair in his dresser's mirror. She was muttering under her breath; all he caught was something about "acting like a five year-old" and assumed it was meant for him.

Upon reaching the dining room, Sage could smell supper already cooking, and could hear Cye rushing about, banging pots and pans. Kento was seated at the table, having a pre-dinner snack: two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with some chips. Opposite him sat the blonde girl, whose name Sage had yet to learn, her booted heels propped on the table top as she leaned her chair back onto its hind legs, slender arms folded under her breasts. She had a scowl on her face, but Sage was becoming certain that was almost always the case. Mia was working at her laptop at the foot of the table, having already recovered from her little incident. Ryo fretted over her, asking whether she needed this or that.
The blonde girl, the being a cook herself, was having a great time telling Cye how to prepare his food. Cye looked at the food he was preparing rather intensely, obviously trying to think of something other than violence toward the girl.
"Don't put pepper in the soup. Use salt, it makes it get warm faster and it makes it taste better. Use cayenne pepper for flavoring. It's better."
Liriel stalked to the table, brushing her friend's legs aside, causing a loud thump when the girl's feet hit the ground. She slid up onto the table top, folding her legs under her. The blonde girl gave Liriel a glare that could have melted ice, then promptly put her feet right where they had been, resuming her position, though now her scowl was resting on Liriel. Sage remeasured the two, seeing the strain between them.
"Damn it, Daeya, have some manners. We're not at our house, and we have a hell of a lot more freedom here than we could have had. So let's keep it that way."
"Fuck off, Liriel, I'm tired of you always trying to be the big cheese. We're a damn team, and you're the one who doesn't act like it, being all fucking leadery."
"Just because you're pissed right now doesn't mean you have to attack our system. If you want to be the 'big cheese' you can damn well earn it!" At this, Daeya stormed out of the kitchen and shoved the kitchen door out of her way, angrily stomping onto the back porch. Sage glanced at Cye, who was still rushing around in his kitchen, trying to decide whether he should use salt or pepper or cayenne. Cye was a no-go to follow the girl, Daeya. Kento wolfed down the last of his remaining sandwich and licked his fingers happily. He looked up at Sage, who nodded toward the blonde. Kento pushed his chair back from the table and ambled out to watch over her.
Liriel stayed here she was, seated on the table. The Ronins had decided to keep an eye on each of the females at all times to make sure they didn't try anything sneaky. He wouldn't put it past them, either, except that at this moment the only sneaky thing they might try would be killing each other.
Rowen was watching over the wounded girl--Rhea--in the room they'd placed her in. It was their guestroom, usually used as a junk room. Rhea would moan or whimper or shift occasionally, but they'd stopped calling to each other whenever she did it; she wasn't waking up, just reminding everyone of her ailment.

* * * * *

Kento swung the door to the back porch open and closed it silently behind him. Daeya knew she had a tracker, but she didn't care at the moment. She needed to get away from everyone and everything for a while. The stress of her flashback, Rhea's injury, her lack of sleep, the males following her everywhere she went, was all too much for her. She leaned over the railing and put her arms around herself, closing her eyes. Her eyes squeezed shut and silent tears fell from them.
Kento cocked his head to one side, watching the petite blonde. She leaned out over the balcony and wrapped her arms around herself. His eyes squinted a little and he noticed a slight shake in her body. She was crying from his guess. He was baffled. What was he supposed to do? He felt sorry for her, for whatever was wrong in her life, and tapped her on her shoulder. She turned around and wiped tears from her eyes quickly, then brushed past him back through the doorway.

* * * * *

Sage raised an inquisitive brow as Daeya stormed back through the kitchen, glaring sullenly. Kento followed her through and made the motions of tears falling down his face with his index fingers. Daeya continued to storm through the house and up the stairs until she entered Rhea's room.
"Move it, Blue Boy, I've got a pair of eyes on me, they can watch her, too." Her tone surprised Rowen, who wasn't used to females speaking like that. When he didn't move from his place in a chair by Rhea's bed, Daeya glared at him stonily. "I said, move it, Blue Boy. I mean it, move it or lose it, I'm not in a fucking mood to deal with two of you hulking idiots right now. One's enough." She plopped down in the chair next to Rowen's and pointed to the door, her face a mask of anger. Rowen took his cue and exited, leaving Kento with a sympathetic pat. He then trotted down the stairs to get some dinner.
Daeya stared at Rhea's prone form for a while, not moving. Kento sat in the chair next to hers and hoped he would get to leave and eat soon. He was very hungry.

"Damn it, Rhea, why did you get hurt? Things were already so complicated…now it's worse…we need you, please get better. Please…" her voice drifted off and she bit her lips to the point of bleeding to hold back the tears she knew were close to spilling over. Rhea shifted in her feverish unconsciousness, gave a small moan, and then was still.

* * * * *

Liriel slumped on her seat, resting her elbows on her knees. She let her eyes drift closed a moment; she was positively exhausted. A poke to her side set her into a fit of flailing her arms, scowling at Sage. He stepped back a moment, that serene face showing about as much emotion as a rock.

"Because they," she motioned to Cye, then to Ryo, "told me to." She sniffed, propping her chin up on her knuckles. Almost as an afterthought, she spoke again. "I'm not some sort of serving girl, you know, and you and your friends treating me as one really--" Sage cut her off.

"We treat you like a serving girl? If I remember correctly, you're the...'guest' here. You've got a nice clean place to stay, and you're better off than could be, as you pointed out to your friend earlier."

"Correction. I had a nice clean place to stay, and I left it to come here." That brought an irritated rebuttal from Cye, whose voice couldn't really be heard over the clanging of pots.

The blue-haired man came sauntering in from upstairs, hands shoved into his pockets. He flashed a sleepy little grin to Liriel, who gave a sneer in return. He grunted, slinking into the kitchen, only to be thrown immediately back out by Cye.

"And the Kitchen Nazi strikes again," Liriel mumbled. She meant it for herself, but she had apparently misjudged Sage's hearing. He chuckled lightly, sliding smoothly into a chair.

In strolled another person, wavering slightly with each step, a little grin on her face. Liriel's eyes widened in shock, taking in the sight of Rhea, up and about. Her little cry of joy was drowned out by Daeya stampeding down the stairs.

"Lir! Lir! I dozed off, then when I woke back up, she was go--" Daeya choked off her words upon entering the room, her gaze snapping immediately to Rhea.

* * * * *

Sage blinked. How had the girl healed that quickly? Something seemed a little off, here. One moment she'd been laying there, writhing in a poisoned fever, and now she was concious, and healthy as far as her appearance told. He was sure Liriel and her blond friend sensed it, too. They were staring at Rhea the same way they'd stare at a strange dog.

A moment or two after the blond girl rushed in, Kento scrambled into the room, looking a bit disgruntled.

To be continued...