As they approached the palace, on the way back from the training ring, Reika turned to the guys and Mia.

"Uh, would you guys mind telling the others I’ll be late?" She asked. "I want to take a shower before coming down to dinner." She explained.

"No problem." Touma shrugged.

"Yeah, we’ll save you something to eat." Shin grinned

"There’d better be some food left." She said, leveling a glare at both Kento and Shu, who flushed.

"Hey, we couldn’t eat everything!" Kento protested, then exchanged a glance with Shu. "Could we?"

"I dunno, how much do you eat?"

Reika rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Just save me a seat." She begged, then turned and made her way through the halls to her room.

Rowen narrowed his eyes as he watched her go. Something was tugging at the back of his mind, and trying to figure it out was driving him nuts. Suddenly, he could hear Alera’s voice in the back of his mind. "Why couldn’t you have just gone back to the past and stayed there, the way everyone expected you to?"

"Hey," He spoke up. "Could one of you explain something to me?" He asked the other boys.

"We’ll try." Seiji replied.

"Why is everyone so surprised to see Reika?" He frowned. "So far, everyone we’ve met, you four, our future selves, even the little kids and especially Alera seemed to think that she wasn’t going to return."

"Yeah." Kento narrowed his eyes. "The little girl, Kina, she said that she was afraid Reika had ‘gone away forever, like Uncle Ryo’, meaning they thought she was dead. Sorry bud." He apologized to Ryo.

"No problem, but you’ve got a point." Ryo chewed on his lower lip.

The four teens exchanged a significant glance. Touma, Shu and Seiji all looked at Shin, who sighed dejectedly.

"Why me?" He shook his head, and then turned to the Ronins.

"Well, it’s got something to do with time traveling," He began as they continued towards the palace. "You see, traveling forward through time is perfectly safe, but traveling backwards is extremely dangerous. People have gotten lost in the time stream before, and were never heard from again."

"And you actually let Reika go knowing she might never come back?" Ryo demanded, sounding outraged.

"NO!" Touma looked horrified. "You don’t understand! We needed someone to go, and she volunteered."

"Yeah, and since her dad died, Reika’s been a little, uh, over the edge." Shu explained.

"You mean she went crazy?" Sai asked in a hushed tone of voice.

"Not really, but she saw him die, and she feels really bad that she can’t use the armor."

"Anyway," Shin continued. "There was also another small problem."

"Why do I get the feeling it’s anything but small?" Mia muttered.

"And that would be?" Sage raised an eyebrow.

Yet another glance was exchanged. By this time, the group had drawn close to the dining room, and they needed to wrap up the discussion.

"Look," Shin lowered his voice, trying not to draw any attention. "After Reika inherited the armor of Wildfire, the Dynasty had not yet attacked the city, or taken anyone hostage. The people found out that she had the armor, and that she couldn’t use it. A lot of people wanted her to will it to someone else, someone who could wield the power." He paused for breath here. "But we discovered that she couldn’t, not without actually wearing the armor, and if she could do that, there wouldn’t be much point in her getting rid of it anyway."

"So those creeps decided to get rid of it for her." Shu hissed, clenching his hands into fists. "There were three assassination attempts."

"WHAT!" Ryo, Rowen, Sai, Sage, Kento and Mia all gasped.

"Assassinations?!" Mia blinked.

"Yeah, she took care of the first one, they attacked during a training session when she was by herself, but the other two times they tried at night, until it was getting so we were thinking about posting a guard at her door."

"This is serious." Sai commented. "If people were that desperate before, when the city was still free, think about what lengths they’d go to now."

"Yes, we know." Seiji nodded.

"So when Reika went back in time to find us," Rowen said slowly, "Most people expected her to either die and let the armor go to someone else, or to stay lost in time to escape the attempts on her life."

The four boys nodded. "Yeah, that’s about it." Touma sighed. "But Reika’s too stubborn for her own good, now she’s in big trouble."

"Oh?" Another voice asked, "And why’s that?"

All ten of them turned to see a woman standing at the door to the dining room, outside which they’d been standing. She was short and rather petite, with flaming red hair that poured down her back in tight ringlets. Emerald green eyes peered at them suspiciously.

"Uh, no reason mother." Shin managed to squeak out.

Mother! Sai thought. He was aware that the others were all shooting glances at him. No wonder Reika hadn’t wanted them to know about their wives, if this was how they were all going to react.

The woman apparently realized who the five familiar looking teens were. "Oh my!" She exclaimed, hand flying up to cover her mouth. "It’s you, isn’t it?" She asked. "Reika brought you from the past, didn’t she?"

"That’s right miss." Sage nodded.

"Well, you don’t know me yet, but my name’s Christa McLynn." She smiled slyly at Sai. "Or at least, it used to be, now it’s Christa Mouri."

"Uh, uh huh." He managed to stammer.

"Don’t worry about it." She smiled gently at all of them. "It must be a shock for you all to see us, quite a shock. But it was very good of you to come." She turned back to the door and gestured over her shoulder for them to follow. "Come along, dinner’s ready." She beckoned.

"Better do as she says guys." Touma murmured to the Ronins. "Aunt Christa may look fragile, but she’s got a temper that rivals even Reika’s."

"Yeah, let’s just say it goes with her hair, not to mention her Irish roots." Shu chuckled.

"We all walk very carefully around mother." Shin told them. "The only one who can possibly calm her down is Dad."

"Yep!" Seiji nodded. "He keeps her quiet and she keeps him on his toes. It’s a good match."

"Better hurry, or Kento’ll eat everything and we’ll all go hungry!" Mia urged them, reminded them all that there was more than one bottomless pit around this place.

The dining room was jammed with people. As soon as the past Ronins entered the room, everyone gathered there stopped eating, talking, etc., to stare.

Sitting at the head of the table was Kayura. She wore a traditional kimono, ivory in color; her blue eyes went wide at the sight of them.

On Kayura’s right was the elder version of Rowen they’d all met in the library earlier. He smiled wryly at them. Next to Rowen was, naturally, Sage.
He nodded at the warriors, and Lady Ashal, who was seated next to him, waved cheerily. Alera was seated next to her mother, and she pretended she didn’t even realize they were there.

Kento was seated next to Ashal, he waved a fork laden down with something or other and managed to smile around a mouthful. Despite the rather shocked looks they were receiving from everyone else, the Ronins attempted to smother grins at his behavior. The woman sitting next to him, a short, slim woman with dark curly hair about chin-length, elbowed him in the side and shook her head in exasperation.

Lady Christa crossed over to a seat right next to the as-yet-to-be-named woman. She sat herself regally. On her right was Sai, who smiled at his wife before giving Kento (the future one) a glare for his bad manners.

Seated a few seats down from Sai (there were a couple empty chairs) in order, were the Dark Warlords. Cale, then Seckmett, then Dais. Their eyes went wide as they caught sight of the Ronins.

"Reika did it." Cale gasped.

"Oh lord!" Seckmett buried his face in his hands. "There’s double the amount of Ronins now." He moaned.

"Oh hah hah." Kento swallowed his food and stabbed his fork menacingly in the Warlord of Venom’s general direction. "My, aren’t we witty?"

Kayura stood and smiled serenely at the warriors who stood awkwardly in the doorway. "Thank you for coming." She said warmly. "Won’t you please take a seat?" She gestured at the empty seats between Sai and Cale. There were enough there for all those standing, including the Ronins and the other four boys.

"Where’s Reika?" Sage asked.

"Oh yeah!" Shu replied. "She said to tell you that she was gonna be kinda late since she had to take a shower."

"She sure did need one." Alera murmured.

"Lera!" Seiji hissed. Glaring at his sister, who merely shrugged in return.

"It’s not my fault." Alera sniffed. "I’m just stating the facts."

"Facts my-" Touma began to shout.

"Touma!" Kayura said sharply. "After dinner, if you please."

"Yes mother." He muttered.

"Mother!" Ryo, Sage, Rowen Sai and Kento all choked.

"Y-you and, and Kayura!" Sai wasn’t sure if Kento was laughing or on the verge of passing out.

"Oh my god." Rowen buried his face in his hands, much to the amusement of everyone else, including Kayura and the older Rowen. "I’m never going to be able to look her in the face again." His friend’s snickered evilly.

"You’ll have too now, won’t you?" Touma said pointedly. "Unless you want to officially wipe Tannin, Kina and myself out of existence."

"Speaking of which, where are they?" Rowen’s eyes flickered around the room, but he didn’t catch any sight of Tannin, Kina or Graham.

"They were sent to the nursery," Lady Christa explained. "They already ate."

"I’d hate to be responsible for keeping those kids from ever being born." Sai said quietly, keeping his eyes away from Christa at all costs.

Kayura heaved a sigh. "This is why it’s so hazardous to time travel, the risk that thing might change is so great, that there is actually a chance that people might even be eliminated."

"If it’s so dangerous, then why risk it at all?" Sage raised an eyebrow.

"Because we are growing very desperate." His older counterpart confessed. "There’s no way we can even hope to win under these circumstances, with the Wildfire armor out of commission at the time."

"Yeah, we heard it all from Reika." Kento nodded.

"But why won’t it work for her?" Sai asked.

Dais shrugged. "We don’t know, but it can’t be the fact that she’s a girl, Kayura has the armor of Cruelty after all."

Kayura heaved a sigh. "It’s so complicated, we’ve run tests, using the other armors, to try and draw out the Wildfire, but every time…"

Shu picked up where she stopped. "Every time we give it a shot, she passes out. It must be painful or something, there’s always a lot of screaming."

"When is there a lot of screaming?" Came Reika’s voice from the doorway.

"Uh, never mind."

She chuckled, shook her head and slipped between Touma and Shin. "Well, whatever you were talking about, it must have been pretty bad to make you forget about your dinner." She gestured at his barely touched food.

"Um, it wasn’t bad, nothing really." He was rapidly turning red.

Seiji rolled his eyes and elbowed Shu in the side. "You are such a terrible liar."

He smirked. "It must run in the family, Reika’s no good at it either."

"Family?" Ryo gaped.

"That’s right, you did call him ‘cuz’, before, didn’t you?" Sai cocked his head at Reika.

"Yep." She nodded. "He’s my cousin. I think we’re related on my mother’s side." She looked to Shu’s dad for confirmation.

"That’s right." He agreed.

"Hmmm." Rowen looked thoughtful. Could that be why she can’t use her armor? Because she’s a blood relation of the bearer of the armor of Hardrock?

"Rowen?" Ryo looked at his friend. "Is something up? You’ve got that look on your face again. Like you know something we don’t."

"Oh, it’s nothing, just a theory, that’s all."

Everyone at the table, all the Ronins, past present and the Dark warlords, exchanged a glance. They knew what that meant.

"OW!!!" Reika’s sudden yelp startled them out of their puzzlement. She glared balefully at Alera. "You’re pushing it ‘Lera, I’m seriously tempted to deck you."

"Why, whatever did I do?" The blonde girl asked with an air of injured innocence.

"You kicked me in the shin!" Reika began to stand up. Touma and Shin each grabbed one of her arms. They were unfazed by the dark glares she shot at them, apparently used to it.

"Take it outside, after dinner." Kayura told the two girls sternly. Each glared furiously at the other.

"You can count on it." Reika hissed. She‘d had enough of Alera’s attitude.

"Calm down." Shin muttered, tugging his friend back into her seat. She reluctantly sat back down, turning back to her dinner.

"That’s better." Kayura sounded satisfied. "Now then, Reika, I wanted to congratulate you. You made it to the past and back without any hassle, and you completed your mission by bringing the, ahem, younger Ronins back with you."

"HEY!" The older Kento protested. "We’re not useless or anything."

The dark-haired woman sitting next to him patted his arm gently. "Nobody said that dear." She murmured. "But you must admit, that ever since we lost Ryo…"
Her voice trailed off and her gaze darted to Reika.

The girl smiled. "It’s okay Aunt Evey. You don’t have to tiptoe around me anymore."

"If you’re sure…"

"I’m sure."

"Uh," Kento cleared his throat nervously. "This is probably going to sound really rude, but how did it happen anyway?"

Silence fell, but was broken when Dais cleared his throat. "I could show you." He offered.

"What are you saying Dais?!" Kento demanded. "You weren’t there, you didn’t see what happened."

"I’ve pulled the information from all of your minds, I can key the illusion only to wearers of the armor, that way not everyone will have to see it." Thought he didn’t look at Reika, they all knew that was whom he meant.

"Pulled it from our minds?" Rowen blinked.

Dais just shrugged. "None of you speaking coherently, we had to get some answers."

"Very well Dais," Kayura nodded. "Go ahead and show them."

For Ryo, it was almost as if he had fallen asleep and was dreaming. The peculiar, disoriented feeling that comes with a dream was there, and it was rather disturbing.

The scene flickered into focus and he saw himself, and the other Ronins too. He wondered if the others were seeing this…

Then he totally lost himself in the vision, almost as if he wasn’t real any longer.

All five of the Ronin Warriors were seated in what appeared to be a garden, wearing kimonos in their own signature colors. It had to have been late spring, for the Sakura blossoms were drifting down and landing on the grass, bushes, and floating on the surface of a small pond. White Blaze lounged beneath a stone bench.

"Damn, but this feels weird." Kento was saying. "Why did our armors stop working? I just don’t understand."

"It’s definitely disturbing to wake up one morning and see that you’ve aged overnight." Sai agreed.

"I never expected to see gray hair, at least not after we found out that our armors were capable of keeping us young." Rowen said.

"Hah! Speak for yourself Ro," Sage smirked. "You might have gray hairs, but…"

"Oh cut it out before we throw you into the fish pond!" Rowen snapped.

Ryo was seated quietly, not caring to enter his friends’ good-natured argument. He was frowning slightly, apparently lost in thought.

"Hey Ryo, what’s wrong?" Kento leaned over in concern.

"I’m just wondering why the armors lost their ability to keep us young now. There’s just no good reason I can think of." He replied, sighing heavily.

"Maybe the world just won’t be needing the Ronin Warriors anymore." Sai suggested. "So the armors stopped keeping us immortal, and went back to wherever they were before we found them."

"That can’t be it." Ryo shook his head. "Why would we still have the ability to summon the armor and use the sure-kills if our world is going to be at peace from now on? And why wouldn’t it have vanished two centuries ago, that was the last uprising, I believe."

"Still, Sai’s got a point." Sage pointed out.

"Yeah, at least a theory is better than not knowing at all." Rowen shrugged.

"I just get this feeling…" Ryo said darkly. "Like something terrible is about to happen to us."

"You always were the optimistic one." Sage snorted.

"You should listen to Wildfire, Halo…" A dry voice, rattling like the wind through a dead tree’s branches hissed. "You’ll never know just how right he is."

"HUH?!" The five warriors were on their feet, summoning their sub-armor with a moment’s thought. They didn’t even need to be in physical contact with their kanji orbs any more, they could just will the orbs to them. White Blaze had sprung to his paws and crouched down next to Ryo.

"Who’s out there?" Ryo demanded, eyes sweeping the garden, flickering to each bush and tree.

A terrible laughter, sounding more like someone with a case of Turburculosis trying hack up their lungs, drifted by on a breeze. "You wish to see me?" The voice wheedled. "Very well then."

The atmosphere chilled noticeably. White Blaze growled menacingly at a shadow cast by a huge gnarled Sakura tree. Having learned a long time ago to trust the tiger’s instincts, the Ronins turned to face it. The shadow seemed to solidify, until a figure could be seen within it. This figure took a step outward, revealing a truly revolting ‘person’.

"Well, you’re an ugly one." Rowen growled.

He hadn’t been exaggerating. Their newest opponent reeked of decay. A cloak of rotting leather was wrapped around it, its face thrown into shadow by the cowl. And ‘it’ was truly the only term to put to the thing. There was no way to tell what gender it was, for in the places where the cloak had rotted way, only bones, yellowed by time and faintly green with mold, were visible.

The thing lifted a skeletal hand and pushed back the cowl. A gasp of revulsion ripped from five throats. The face was, if possible, even more hideous than the rest of he thing. Black fire flickered in the eyeless sockets, rotting scraps of flesh and muscle hung limply off the skull. The skull’ grinning mouth exposed stained tumps of teeth. It clutched a wickedly sharp scythe in one bony hand, and bore a startling resemblance to the grim reaper.

"After this fight is over, I think I’ll go lose my lunch somewhere." Kento muttered.

"Let’s get this over with." Ryo said calmly. After three thousand years of surviving the worst types of adversaries, he had every reason to be confident.

"ARMOR OF WILDFIRE, DAO JIN!"

"ARMOR OF HALO, DAO CHI!"

"ARMOR OF TORRENT, DAO SHIN!"

"ARMOR OF STRATA, DAO INOCHI!"

"ARMOR OF HARDROCK, DAO GI!"

A few flashes of light and swirls of Sakura petals later, the Ronin Warriors stood garbed in their full battle armor, holding their weapons with the ease of a person who knew how to use them.

"Now you’re in for it." Sage threatened.

"Let’s get rid of this guy, or this whole garden is going to smell like old garbage." Sai wrinkled his nose.

"Should I be frightened?" It hissed. It became apparent that the strange clicking noise that punctuated the thing’s speech was due to the clacking together of its teeth.

"You bet your spinal cord, you should."

"We shall see." Suddenly the thing disappeared, and a brief shadow flitted across the ground, re-solidifying next to Kento. A downward slash of that scythe left a deep gouge in the orange metal of his breastplate.

"We can’t see it move!" Rowen cried.

"Urrgh, how do we fight it then?" Sai gripped his yari tighter in frustration.

"We wait for it to stop to hit one of us, then take it out." Ryo called.

"But we could hurt whoever its target is!" Sage reminded him.

Kento was growling in rage. "That’s it, the grim reaper over there is in for it now!"

Their enemy disappeared again, only to reappear perched in the top branches of a Sakura tree.

"You’re beginning to bore me Ronins." It rattled.

There came the sound of pounding footsteps, and Reika was standing at the open garden gate.

"Father?" She asked, obviously puzzled by the fact that he and her uncles were all wearing their armor.

"Reika!" Ryo shouted. "Run, now! Get away from here! Get Kayura and the Warlords, quickly!"

Reika blinked, but then noticed the cloaked form in the treetops. "Right dad, I’ll be right back."

She turned to run for her life, but a rasping chuckle came from the tree. "I think not, little girl." It reached out a fleshless hand, and made a curious gesture. Red fire, the color of clotted blood, flew from its ‘hands’, heading straight for Reika.

And earsplitting roar tore through the air, and White Blaze seemed to appear as if by magic in front of the girl. The bolts connected with the tiger’s side, sending him flying into the wall. He slid down it leaving a bright red smear behind him.

"NO!!" All six of the horrified onlookers screamed.

"The fun is just beginning." The thing chortled. It made another gesture, this time snapping and rotating its wrist in a way that would have been impossible if there had been any tendons attached to it. A bubble of that same corrupted red formed around Reika, and hurled her up through the air, leaving her hovering about fifty feet above the ground.

"Let me down!" She screamed, pounding her fists helplessly against the walls of the bubble.

Flare Up Now! The cry of Ryo’s sure-kill echoed around the garden, sending a column of intense flames roaring towards the demon.

It leaped easily out of the way, letting the power rip through the garden, and blow up part of a nearby building.

"Damn!" Rowen gasped. "We can’t use our sure-kills, or we’ll end up destroying the whole city."

"Put her down you compost heap!" Kento demanded, outraged by the whole thing.

"As you wish."

The bubble went smashing to the ground with a bone-shattering crunch!

Ryo was over at his daughter’s side so quickly it was nearly impossible. He gently pulled her into a sit-up position.

"Reika, are you all right?" He asked, eyes anxious.

"Uh huh." She nodded groggily. "I don’t think anything’s broken."

Ryo heaved a sigh of relief. "God, you scared me."

"What about White Blaze?" She still sounded out of it. She tried to turn to see the broken body, but her father pulled her back.

"Don’t look." Was all he could say around the terrible lump in his throat.

"RYO!" He heard Sai shout.

"WATCH OUT!!" Rowen cried.

A shadow appeared at his side, there was a terrible, agonizing pain in his back.

All Reika saw was her father’s eyes growing wide, and his mouth moving without him actually saying anything. She pulled herself up onto her knees and was only barely able to catch him as he fell forward. She saw the terrible wound in his back, and the blood a mere shade darker than his armor pooling on the grass.

"Ryo!" Suddenly her uncles were there, and they were pulling him away from her. Sage leaned over and his armor began to glow.

"No Sage." Ryo protested weakly. "You’ve got to save your power and defeat this thing."

"NO, you need healing, right now." The blonde said stubbornly.

"You have to. If it wins, it’ll kill everyone here." Ryo’s voice was fading quickly. He reached over and touched his daughter’s arm.

"Reika?"

"Y-yes Dad?" She managed to choke out around a sob.

"Listen to me." She leaned forward. "I never wanted you to have to use this, but we have no choice now. The Dynasty’s back, and we’re going to need everything to stop it." The outline of his armor began to glow, and the kanji of virtue appeared on his forehead. "Use the armor well."

"NO!" She gasped, "You need the armor, it can heal you."

"That’s not important right now." They could barely hear him. "What’s important is keeping our world safe, that was always our responsibility."

"You can’t leave me alone." She begged.

"Please Ryo, let Sage heal you." Sai tried to convince his friend.

"Not this time, my friends." He managed a shaky smile and lifted his hand to brush his daughter’s cheek. "Make me proud Reika."

Tears were pouring down her face in floods. The armor of Wildfire blurred out and suddenly disappeared from around Ryo. Reika began to glow intense red and then the glow died, the armor was nowhere in sight. The kanji flared brightly on her forehead, and her father’s eyes closed, and the breath left his body with an audible sigh.

"Oh god, no." Kento sobbed. Rowen clenched his eyes shut and bit his lip in an effort to keep from crying out loud.

"Muhahahahaha!" Maniacal laughter rang around. The Ronins turned back to glare balefully through tear-filled eyes at their horrific opponent.

"And he was supposed to be the strongest of the Ronins? How pitiful." It laughed again, even more evil than before, if possible. "And do you know what the truly pitiful thing is?"

"Keep your jaw shut or do I have to shut it for you?" Kento shouted, surging to his feet and looking as if he really wanted to tear something (or someone) apart with his bare hands.

"The pitiful side to this story is that the new Wildfire will never be able to use the armor."

The four men stared blankly at the demon. Reika was still crouched, unaware, over her father’s still form.

"What do you mean?" Rowen demanded. "Why not?"

"Because no woman can ever use that armor, it is meant for men alone."

"Why should we believe you?" Sai yelled.

"You’re lying through what’ s left of your teeth." Sage growled in a dangerous voice.

"Why would I lie? The girl is useless now, a failure. How truly sad that she will not be able to fulfill her father’s dying wish." There was a mocking tone in that ghostly voice.

"Shut UP!" Reika screamed. She leapt to her feet, snatched the sword of Halo out of a stunned Sage’s hand and rushed the demon. It must have been just as surprised as the Ronins by her sudden rage, for it was caught completely off guard. She brought the razor-sharp blade down in a diagonal slash that started at the thing’s left eye, and went all the way down to the right side of its chin. Then she brought it back across the demon’s rotting throat, slashing a wide grin into what was left of the skin.

The thing brought its hands up to cover its face and clutch at its throat. What appeared to be black puss oozed from the terrible wounds Reika had inflicted upon it. It glared at Reika with intense hatred.

"You have not seen the last of me, girl." It rasped. "And you shall never use the armor." Its broken voice took on a singsong quality. "And when we meet again, you will lose, for the Armor of Wildfire is lost forever to the Ronins, or until such time as you die."

Then the demon dissolved. It literally fell apart into a pile of dust and ashes. Even its rotting leather cloak went up in a puff of smoke, to be swirled away on the wind.

The Ronins stared in shock at Reika’s back. They’d never seen anyone, short of Sage himself, handle the Sword of Halo like that.

The Sword fell from nerveless fingers, to land softly on the grass, forgotten. Reika’s shoulder started to shake. Her fingers moved towards her belt and she slipped a dagger from its sheath. The only thing on her mind was to end the terrible anguish eating away at her soul. She’d never been so alone.

She set the tip of the dagger above her heart and was just readying herself to push it home when a hand snatched her wrist.

"Reika." Sage said in an undeniably calm voice. "I just lost your father, I won’t let you kill yourself, I won’t let the Sanada clan die away that easily."

She just stared at him for a moment, and he feared that she may have lost her mind; there was such blankness in her eyes. Her fingers lost their grip on the dagger and it fell to the ground next to the Sword of Halo.

"Oh Uncle Sage." She wailed, tears coursing down her cheeks. She threw her arms around his neck and he banished his armor and sub-armor quick as thought.
Reika sobbed into his shirt, completely inconsolable.

Sai, Kento and Rowen exchanged anguish-filled glances. It just didn’t seem real. Ryo couldn’t be dead. Nothing could kill him.

The sound of pounding footsteps drew the attention of everyone but Reika. Shu, Touma, Shin and Seiji appeared at the garden gate. Their eyes widened when they saw Sai, Rowen and Kento in their armor, and Reika sobbing in Sage’s arms.

"Father, what-?" Seiji asked just as Shin grabbed his arm and gestured frantically in the direction of the wall. White Blaze laid there, his body a ruined wreck. From the position he was sprawled in, he must have broken his back on impact. They saw the Ronin Warriors of Torrent, Hardrock and Strata standing over the body of their fallen leader, and everything became clear.

"Oh God." Touma gasped.

To everyone’s surprise, it was Rowen who took charge. On the battlefield, he usually served as Ryo’s second in command, but not at home, not when it wasn’t needed.

"Touma, go get your mother, and the Warlords, we need to talk with them." He said quietly, but firmly, and his voice was steady, something the others hadn’t managed yet.

Touma nodded and vanished around the corner. Shin walked over to where Sage was attempting to comfort Reika, and took the girl into his own arms. He wasn’t sure if she realized that he had done that. He sensed Shu coming up behind them and wrapping them both in his arms. Seiji laid a hand on her shoulder, it was rather awkward, but he was trying at least.

Sai and Kento exchanged glances and looked down at Ryo’s still form. "We should try to give him a little more dignity." Sai said quietly. Kento nodded in agreement and they both bent over to do so. Rowen and Sage went to try to do the same for White Blaze.

Kento looked over at the three boys trying to comfort Reika. "God Ryo, why? She needs you, we need you."

Shin was still trying to quell the flood of Reika’s tears. He rubbed the small of her back. "Shhh, it’ll be okay Rei." He murmured into her ear.

To his surprise, she pulled her face out of his shirt and looked up at him, eyes watery and red.

"No Shin, it’ll never be okay again."

The Ronins came back to themselves with a shock. For a moment, they just stared blankly at one another, and then at Ryo. He was visibly shaken, and blinked rapidly as if to clear his vision.

"What a way to go." Kento whispered.

"Ryo?" Mia leaned over and gently touched his wrist, bringing him back to the ‘real world’. "Are you all right?"

He smiled at her reassuringly. "Yeah, I’m fine, just a little, uh, surprised." He explained.

"Um, were we supposed to see that?" Shu asked tentatively

"No, why?" Dais frowned.

"Cuz we did." Seiji finished.

"What! How?" Kayura blinked

"It must be because of their blood link to the armors." Lady Ashal explained calmly.

"And if we saw it, then…" Shin trailed off and his eyes widened.

A racking sob came from Reika’s direction. Her shoulders were shaking and she was staring at her hands, which were clenched into fists in her lap.

"H-How could you?" She managed to say, turning an accusing gaze at Dais.

"I don’t know how you managed to see the illusion." He tried to explain. "It must be because the armor is strong inside you."

"Damn the armor!" She screamed. "I just want my dad back!" She stood up so fast that her chair toppled backwards, but she didn’t seem to notice. Tears pouring down her face, Reika turned and ran from the room, leaving an awkward silence behind her.

"You did it again, Spider boy." Cale growled, slapping Dais upside his head.

"It’s hardly my fault." He glared back.

"It’s no one’s fault." Kayura spoke up, heading off an argument. "What happened that day was no one’s fault."

Exchanging a glance, Shu, Seiji Touma and Shin all pushed back their chairs and stood as well.

"And where do you think you’re going?" Mia asked them, an eyebrow lifted in amusement. Everyone turned to blink at her in surprise. She hadn’t done much talking, after all.

"To find Reika." Touma replied. "She’s our friend, we’re not going to let her go through this alone."

Mia smiled at them. "I understand, you wouldn’t be true friends if you didn’t try to help her, but any sympathy you could possibly offer would be false."

"Hey lady, I don’t know who you really are, but you didn’t see what we did." Shu sounded angry.

"Look, none of you have ever really lost anyone before, have you?"

Uncomfortable looks were exchanged between the four boys. She had a point.

"And you have?" Seiji asked.

Mia nodded and Seckhmet cleared his throat. She smiled at him. "It’s all right, it was a long time ago, at least by your standards."

He still looked embarrassed, but nodded anyway.

"Anyway, I think I should go talk to her, girl-to-girl."

Lady Christa looked thoughtful. "I think that’s a good idea." She said. "Reika’s room is on the third floor, left wing, fourth door down."

Mia looked a little confused, but stood. "I’ll be right back."

It took her a few minutes, but eventually Mia found the door. She paused at the entrance, beginning to wonder if this had been such a good idea.

Come one Mia, Reika could use your help. She told herself. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open, wondering why it wasn’t locked, not to mention whether or not Reika would turn her into toast.

She didn’t see what she’d expected. It was more like a sitting room, with a door, which must have led off into the bedroom, and another which probably was the bathroom, but then again, she was guessing.

Mia knocked on one of the doors, when there was no answer, she opened it.

Reika was curled up on her four-poster bed, knees drawn up to her chest and face buried in her arms.

"Reika?" Mia sat next to her and laid a hand on the girl’s slim shoulder. "I know this is going to sound stupid, and it’s a really bad question to ask, but, are you okay?"

There came a sniffling noise. "I-I don’t know really." Her muffled voice came from behind her arms.

"Care to explain that?"

She sniffled again. "It’s just because, I’m alone now. None of the others understand, but it’s scary being on my own."

"I understand."

Reika peeked out from under the elbow, then unwound herself from the ball. "What do you mean?"

Mia took a deep breath. "I lost what was left of my family, my grandfather, a long time ago, during the war with Talpa."

Reika sat up and looked curiously at Mia from reddened eyes. "How did it happen."

She managed a smile. "Truth to be told, your Uncle Seckhmet had a nether spirit posses him, and he died of soul-poisoning."

"I’m so sorry." Reika said sympathetically.

Mia shook her head. "Actually, I’ve forgiven him for it." She said simply.

"What!" Reika blinked in surprise. "How could you? I could never forgive that, that, thing for what it did to my father."

"It’s because he apologized. After the Warlords and Kayura realized that Talpa had been controlling them, they became good guys, I’m sure you’ve heard the stories." The other girl nodded, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "I forgave him because he, well, reformed, I guess you could say, and fought for the same things my grandfather fought for originally."

"I think I understand." Reika said. "Tell me about your grandfather."

For a while, the two young women sat and traded stories. Mia found that telling Reika these things seemed to ease the ache she’d been carrying inside her for so long. She also heard some rather amusing incidents involving Ryo. She only wished that she could have been there, the blackmail possibilities would have been endless.

"So why don’t you go back down to dinner?"

A stunned look appeared on her face. "I couldn’t! Not after that, and besides," Her voice dropped low, "I know I remind my Uncles of my father, we just look too much alike, it’s painful for them. Now you see what I mean by ‘being alone’." She sounded glum.

Mia draped an arm around the girl’s shoulder. "Look, they really care about you, it’s not painful for them, maybe it’s even a relief to know that some part of your father is still alive. And besides, you are not alone. Shu’s your cousin right? You still have blood relatives in him and Kento, and Shin, Seiji, and Touma were very worried when you left the table. I had to convince them not to come up here."

Reika looked puzzled. "But why?"

"Because they’re your friends, and friends are supposed to care about each other." Mia told her.

Reika shook her head. "No, that’s not what I mean. Why did you tell them not to come?"

Mia smiled. "Because sometimes it’s easier to talk to another girl than to a guy, and you and I have something in common in that our family is our friends now."

A slow smile spread across Reika’s face. "You’re right Mia, I probably should have seen that earlier. It still hurts, but not so bad anymore."

The two girls exchanged a hug and Mia stood. "So, are you coming back down to dinner?"

"Uh, I don’t think so, I’ll stay up here, if that’s all right with you."

"It’s fine by me, either way, I’ll tell them you’re fine."

"Thank you."

Conversation in the dining room had dropped to a minimum. Quiet talks were all that could be heard. The low buzz of people conversing in voices barely above a whisper filled the air. The Ronins of the past stayed out of all the discussions, listening instead to what was being said, hoping to gain some idea of what they were getting into.

"I didn’t know that Reika was suicidal." Touma frowned.

"We didn’t think it would be a good thing to tell you." His father admitted.

"But why’s that?" Shu demanded. "Why wouldn’t we want to know?"

"Because we might have treated her differently." Shin said in a low voice. "What Reika needed was to be treated normally, so at least something would have been the same."

"You act like you knew all along that she had tried to kill herself." Shu accused.

Shin just shrugged. "I did actually."

"WHAT!!" His three friends, his father, mother and various aunts and uncles glanced at him in surprise ranging from mild to intense.

"Okay, two questions," Seiji raised two fingers. "One, when did you find out? And two, why didn’t you tell us?"

Shin actually looked embarrassed. "Do you guys remember that time, about two days after her father died, when we sort of drew straws to see who’d have to go talk to her…"

Flashback

The four teens stood awkwardly outside the door to Reika’s room.

"Uh, why don’t you go, Touma?" Shu suggested.

"Me? Why me? Why not Seiji?"

Seiji gulped and glanced nervously at the door. "Uh, no thanks, I think Shin should go."

"Huh?" Shin blinked.

"Seiji’s right Shin." Shu nodded. "You’re definitely the right choice. Reika trusts you the most, you have to talk to her."

"No way! My element’s water, remember?" The sacrificial lamb shook his head violently. "She’d fry me, I’ll be toast!"

"Aw come on."

A few minutes later, he’d been forcibly pushed through the door, which had been closed behind him with an ominous click.

"Oh boy." He muttered under his breath. But they’d been right; he was the logical choice to talk to her. She’d been locked in her room for two days without speaking to anyone. All of the food they’d left had been found untouched and cold.

"Reika, you in there?" He knocked softly on her door. There was no answer. Frowning a little to himself, he pushed past it and stopped to stare in shock at what he saw.

Reika was seated on her bed, a dagger in one hand. She quite calmly stared at the glittering point as she held it against her wrist.

"Oh, hi Shin." She said as casually as if she’d just run into him in the hallway.

"Reika, what are you doing with that thing?" He asked, trying not to let the panic he was feeling creep into his voice. She had totally lost it.

"I was just wondering whether or not to use this thing." She said, almost as if asking him what the weather was like outside.

"What do you mean?" He hesitantly took a seat next to her.

She turned to look at him. Her eyes were red from lack of sleep, but dry, she hadn’t been crying. "Do you think I should kill myself?" Reika asked matter-of-factly.

He blinked in surprise. "Of course not Rei!" He gasped. "How can you even ask that?"

Her eyes welled with tears. "Why would I want to live Shin?" She sobbed turning away and gripping the dagger even tighter, he wondered briefly why it hadn’t been taken away from her. "I’ve got nothing left to live for! My father’s dead. DEAD!! It’s my fault too, if I hadn’t shown up, hadn’t distracted him…" Her voice trailed away and her shoulders began to shake with suppressed sobs.

Shin pulled her in to cry into his chest, much the way he had the day her father had died. "Shh, Rei, it’s not your fault. That thing was so powerful, and yet you managed to destroy it."

"I didn’t." A faint whisper of her voice reached his ears. "It’ll come back, and we’ll all die."

"Then we’ll die." Shin said simply, "But you won’t be alone when we do."

Reika pulled back and stared at him in shock.

"Don’t you get it Reika?" He asked gently. "The guys and I, we’re all worried about you, they’re outside even now, waiting for word about how you’re doing. My father and your other uncles, and aunts, they’re all concerned because you haven’t been eating, and they haven’t seen you. You are surrounded by people who love you, if they didn’t why would Uncle Sage have kept you from killing yourself?"

She blinked in surprise as if she had never thought of that.

"You have to live Rei, for all of us, for your father, because I know he wouldn’t want you to die on his behalf." His words opened a floodgate and he held her and waited until she’d cried herself out.

"Come down soon and get something to eat, okay?" Shin stood to leave, but was pulled back down as Reika grabbed his wrist.

"Please don’t tell anyone about this, okay?" She pleaded, gesturing at the dagger, lying forgotten on the bedspread between them. "I don’t want them to think I’ve gone off the deep end."

Shin himself wasn’t too sure of her sanity, but nodded anyway. "I promise, it’ll be our secret for now." As a sign of how much he trusted her, he left the dagger in her possession when he left.

"So you see, she really has tried to kill herself before." Shin finished, taking a sip from his glass to ease his dry throat.

"I don’t think she’ll try again though." Mia’s quiet voice came from the doorway. Every head in the room swiveled to look at her. She dropped into her chair, between Ryo and Sage. She looked tired, but satisfied. There was a rather distant look on her face.

"Mia? What happened?" Ryo asked, curious as to how she could be so sure of that.

"We talked Ryo. What she needed was for someone who didn’t know her to listen to her. Sometimes it’s easier to tell a stranger things, they can’t judge because they don’t know you."

"And what did you talk about?" Kayura asked.

Mia shrugged. "Things, her father, my grandfather.  She told me a lot of, ahem, amusing stories."

"It’s good to know she’ll be all right." Cale said, sounding very relieved.

"EEEKK!" Alera’s screech echoed around the room as she leaped out of her chair.

"What? What is it?" Her mother demanded.

"S-something’s under there!" She squealed, pointing under the tablecloth.

A striped white head poked out and blinked innocently at the enraged girl.

"White Blaze?" Ryo exclaimed. It was his tiger. This one had brown eyes, not the blue of Orion.

"I guess he and Reika’s pet got to know each other and then he was lying in wait for us here." Rowen chuckled.

"But where’s Orion?" Shu raised an eyebrow.

"I’ll bet I know." A soft smile flickered across the face of the woman Reika had called Evey. She made a beckoning gesture and, shrugging, everyone rose to follow, leaving dirty dishes behind.

She led them through a twisted maze of passages, much the way Reika had, until they ended up in a tower room. She then pushed open the door to reveal a truly touching sight.

Orion was sprawled on the floor, serving as a pillow for Reika, Tannin, Kina and Graham. Reika was wedged between Tannin and Kina. The little girl hugged to her chest, the little boy behind her, arm thrown over the older girl’s waist. Graham was curled up on Orion’s forepaws, snuggled in against the tiger’s chest. A matronly old woman was seated in a rocking chair near the window, watching everything with an expression of benevolence on her face.

"Reika came in here, she said she wanted to be with the littles for a while, said she missed them." The woman explained.

"This is Marina Toreni, the children’s nanny." Kayura explained.

Soft smiles appeared on everyone’s face. It was nice to see such a peaceful scene during such turmoil.

Christa crossed to a crib behind the slumbering foursome and lifted a bundle from inside it. She walked back over to Sai (the younger one) and gently deposited whatever it was into his arms.

"This is Sonya." She said softly, flipping back a fold of cloth to reveal the peacefully sleeping face of a baby. Reddish fuzz on the infant’s forehead was sticking up in all directions, but she was amazingly cute.

The other Ronins from the past also pressed in to get a look.

"Hmm, so when she grows up we’ll know what Sai would look like if he’d been born a girl." Kento joked.

"If I wasn’t holding this baby, I’d hit you." Sai glared at him.

"Quiet now you two." Sage scolded them. "Let’s go."

Everyone turned to file out the door, but Ryo stopped and turned back to regard the sleeping children.

"What do we do with Reika?" He asked quietly.

"Leave her there." Kayura said simply.

"She spends many nights in the nursery." Lady Ashal said. "Sonya has frequent nightmares, and Reika’s talent of creating images in one’s mind is useful in quieting the baby and allowing us all some sleep."

"Sonya inherited her mother’s piercing voice." The older Rowen said wryly, earning himself a dark glare from Christa and an exasperated look from Sai’s counterpart.

"Come now." Kayura gestured. "We have dishes to clean up, and then I’ll show you to your rooms."

"Dishes?" Kento asked plaintively.

"Yes, dishes." Kayura replied firmly. "All of the staff is currently occupied in the other wings, helping refugees."

"Then you must all get some sleep." The future Sage said. "Tomorrow we plan, and train, and the next day, we attack."