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We think by feeling.
What else is there to know?
I hear my being dance
from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my
waking slow.

--Theodore Roehtke
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"Okay...that went well..." Shiro said as he leaned against a wall, trying to catch his breath. "...not."
"Were...were those really them? Were they really the last line of Ronin Warriors?" Kei asked, his eyes full of curiousity and wonder.
"Yep...get a good look? Because you won't see them again."Arren said bluntly, not even bothering to see at the surprised look on the others faces. "We can't make contact with them or we might mess up the timestream even more than it already is..."
"But--"
"Arren's right...none of you are to make face to face confrontataions with them. Do you understand? Now let's split into groups and find out what the hell is going on..."
" Listen up 'Guardian' ..." Shiro said as he walked up to the man." I don't goddamn care if Our parents put you in charge of protecting us when they went off to battle that last time...We can take care of ourselves now and we don't need you rprotection anymore!!!" Shiro yelled, staring defiantly at the older man. "I think we can--" Shiro was interrupted as hoards of Dynasty soldiers began to surround them."Aw shit..not these guys again..."
"Who the hell were they?! Thought you said only people of Dynasty blood could make portals to the Dynasty!!!"
"I did, Hardrock..."
"Well they sure looked human to me!!!"
"Kento..calm down..." Cye said to his friend.Kento had been going on like this ever since those others people has shown up in front of them... as if things hadn't already been bad enough...
"Um...guys?" Cye suddenly said, interrupting the fight scene. "I think we're in trouble." The other warriors glanced in the same direction as Cye to see Dynasty soldiers galore. They were everywhere. They had been completely surrounded without even knowing it.
"What the.....how did they......why didn't we...." Ryo stuttered, trying to find some sort of explanation as to why they hadn't sensed the soldiers approaching. "Ah hell..."

"Hmm...you are truly stubborn...you haven't changed a bit Sage." Shinosuke stated, content with watching Sage's agony. It stopped suddenly and he grinned, waiting for Sage to recover.
"May ..the gods ...damn you, ...whoever.. you are." Sage whispered between gasps for air.
"Now, now...that's not very nice! You know perfectly well who I am." Shinosuke answered, still grinning.He ran his hand through the short, golden blond hair as he watched Sage with blood red eyes. He laughed to himself at the sight. "You aren't being very helpful Sage. All we want is your power. It's not even the Halo's power."
"If...you..want...it so..bad...you can...use...your own..."Sage said,wincing.
"Very well. If you still refuse, than you must be given more...persuasion." He said as the energy bagan to flare once more and enter Sage's battered body. Sage screamed. The energy seemed to increase each time they subjected him to it. It felt as if his insides were burning up.

In the streets of the Dynasty, Rowen jerked around suddenly and stared at the former palace of Talpa. In the streets of the Dynasty, Krystal fell to the ground, clutching her stomach, and let out an earpiercing scream as she felt an unbearable pain cut through her body like a hot knife. "Krystal?!" Shiro yelled as he dropped to his knees next to her. He grabbed her shaking form as the rest of the young warriors stared, a look of shock mixed with confusion on their faces, all of them had this look. All of them...except Taro.
"...may the gods protect you, Sage of Halo..." he whispered.
"There's just too many of them!!!" Rowen yelled to his friends. They'd been seperated and he could only hear muffled answers from far of corners of the Dynasty courtyard. "Oh great....they have us just where they want us." He grumbled, dodging the numerous swords being swung at his body. 'This is not good...not good at all....' he thought as he dropped three of the soldiers with his arrows. 'The moment we take one down...three more show up to take its place!' Rowen's thoughts were interuppted as he was hit by the dull side of a sword. He pulled himself onto his hands and knees, trying to regain his balance before they had a chance to strike again. He tasted blood in his mouth as he looked up to see that he was surrounded by soldiers. "This is not my day..." He said as he was lost site of in the pile of soldiers.
" Rowen?!" Ryo yelled as he heard his friend scream. "Oh no..." Ryo gasped as he realized that he could no longer sense his friend."ROWEN!!!" He yelled as he began to slash at the soldiers, trying to make his way to where he had last sensed Rowen. It took him awhile, but he finally was able to break through the soldiers to find his friend. "...Rowen..." He whispered as he kneeled next to Rowen's lifeless body. "..not you too..."
"Man this sucks....I thought we were here to stop the Dark Dimwits, not battle it out with these pathetic bozo's!" Joe yelled as he slammed a soldier against a surrounding wall, crushing its head.
"I thought you liked fighting." Kei retorted as he jumped out of the way of a soldier, allowing Joe to kick his way through the soldier's stomach area.
"I do! It's just that these guys don't even make me break a sweat! I mean, c'mon! I've seen three year olds fight better than these guys!" Joe yelled, slamming a few other soldiers.
"Well that's only because you can fight so well! I'm still learning!" Kei answered as he roundhouse kicked two of the dynasty soldiers at once. "I wish we didn't have to fight so much.." Kei said to himself as he avoided a few slashes of swords.
"You say something Kei?" Jo yelled back at him. Kei turned to see that the two of them and had been seperated during the battle. "Oh no....what's next?"
"This is impossible!! How the hell are we supposed to find Sage if we can't get past these bozo's?! " Kento yelled as he thrusted his staff through two dynasty soldiers at once.
"I know! We have to find the others and get out of here! " Cye yelled over the noise of battle.He hated this. Why couldn't have things gone back to normal after the defeat of Talpa? Were they destined to fight for the rest of their lives? Would they ever be able to simply settle down and have kids of their own, live normal lives, like everyone else? If only the Dynasty would have remained silent, if only they hadn't taken Sage...Why had they taken him in the first place? Cye's thoughts were interrupted as he realized that a soldier had been able to creep up behind him without him sensing it.
Kei turned and saw him. He was incredible! He'd never been able to get this close to him. He jumped onto one of the rooftops surrounding the courtyard that they were all fighting in. He looked down at the battle scene below. Taro and Joe were still fighting alone, having been seperated from the rest of the team like him. Krystal and Shiro were fighting back to back...though they would deny it later on, they always seemed to get along during a fight. Joe had dubbed them the perfect couple since they fought in total synch with one another. He saw Arren and the man they called Guardian fighting together.
Ever since he could remember, they had been there. They had been protecting them. He had always wondered who they really were and why they did what they did, but they had always refused to tell them, always saying that they would know when the time was right. It had always annoyed Shiro to no end. Kei shifted his gaze to the Ronin Warriors of this time. They were as good as they had been said to be...better even! He stared in awe at their fighting abilities, the way they fought alone and together...and at that moment he felt more alone than ever.
Cye grabbed the soldier, flipping it to the ground in front of him and stabbing it with his spear with such ferocity that the other soldiers backed up for a moment before continuing their attack. Cye turned to block an upcoming soldier but was too late...
He stared at the protruding sword his right shoulder, causing him to drop his spear. The sword had stopped halfway through his shoulder, making a clean cut straight through the armor. The blood was beginning to seap over the armor around the wound. "How...." he said, bearing down his teeth against the pain. He could no longer fend nor defend himself against the onslaught of soldiers. He fell to the ground, a last cry of pain was heard as the soldiers tackled him.
"White...Water..SPLASH!!!" Cye looked and stared. The soldiers, all the soldiers that had been attacking him were lifted up off of him at once as the water slammed them. The soldiers flapped their arms one final and then went motionless.
"Wha...." Cye stared in awe. Whatever had hit them had been at least ten times more powerful then his super wave smasher.
He jumped as he sensed someone behind him. He grabbed his spear but before he could turn around two hands held his head in place so as not to see who his savior was. "Stay still...Let me check your wound." was all that the stranger said. Cye sat there, bewildered as he felt two small hands probe his wound. He gave a cry of pain as the spear was ripped out of his shoulder without the least warning. "What the bloody hell do you think you're--"
"I think I'm saving your arm." Cye stopped short and stared. It had been obvious from the start that this stranger was english...the accent was the same as his. But he'd never in his wildest dreams expected this!!! He stared at the young boy. He was maybe two or three years younger than him but the difference stopped there.
The boy stood there, two spears in his hand. One was a more intricate design of Torrents and the other was the one that had been pulled from his shoulder. The boy wore a more detailed version of the Torrent armor, though without the helmut, letting the short reddish brown hair float in the wind.He had two locks of white hair that seemed to fall over his bright sea-blue eyes on purpose, as if they refused to leave. Though for some reason Cye could still see those large blue eyes, full of innocence. "W..who're..you?"
"My name's Kei Mouri!" he stated smiling. "I'm from your future...see...I'm the next bearer of Torrent, as well as your son!"

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Ah...isn't it wonderful? I finally finished chapter four after many death threats from Saendie... But I'm sure you found it worth the wait my friend! Oi! This was a long one....

($Not long enough.$)

And what happened to you guys?! No more comments or feedback??? Saendie..I do believe you'll have to yell at them again....

($Why do *I* have to do all the yelling? Oh. I own the Page. Ah heh.$)

Well....this is a good cliffhanger...hows this...everyone that writes feedback to me will get a spoiler?

($Sounds fair. But I'd prefer that you'd write more chapters.$)

Come on!! Thats a good deal!!

Ami Mizuno

^_~

Ja Ne and until the next chapter!