NEVER GET ONTO A PLANE UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHERE YOU'RE GOING Chapter Ten

Rain kicked at a stone.
Cye cleared his throat.
Ryo scratched at the back of his neck.
Again.
"WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY???!!" Rain screamed, unable to contain herself anymore. They had waited nearly a day for their companions to show up. "I'll bet you that stupid bitch is getting a pedicure..."
"Simmer down woman!" Cye retorted. Yes, he was annoyed at the wait, but complaining wasn't going to help the situation.
Ryo laid down on the grass and White Blaze went sniffing off in the bushes for god-knows-what while the Brit and Bitch argued.
Rain rolled her eyes at Cye's latest comeback. "K, screw this I'm going to sleep. Wake me when the millennia is over with," she quickly threw in before falling backwards onto the soft grass.
Cye sighed, walked a few paces, and plopped himself ceremoniously onto the grass as well. Ryo stole a glance between the two and went back to scratching his neck. Rain began secretly daydreaming about an anonymous red-haired warlord until a small whack was heard, followed by soreness on her cheek. "Ryo I swear to god you need a hobby," she growled, not bothering to open her eyes. Ryo wasn't worth breaking the yummy daydream.
Ryo blinked as he tried to figure out how he pissed off Rain this time. After a few moment, he figured out he actually didn't do anything this time. "Uh, Rain..that's not me."
Rain rolled over to bitch out Ryo, but once she opened her mouth, more little stones came flying her way. Trying to shield herself, she, along with the other bewildered two, stood up and tried to figure out the source of them. Cye turned his head towards a small hill they had relaxed next to. A gasp escaped his lips as he noticed a small, black figure standing on the top. Without warning, Cye began running full speed towards the top with Ryo, who also noticed it, right behind him.

Rain was left in their dust quite confused. She squinted her eyes at the figures atop the hill, but the sunlight refused to let her see anything. Deciding to let the boys handle the situation, Rain found a nice thick tree to lean against. White Blaze trotted up next to her, begging her to scratch him behind his neck.
A few moments later, Ryo, Cye, and a bloody man came slowly down the hill. Rain's eyes widened slowly as she recognized him, the blue tint was a giveaway.
"Rowen?!" Rain blurted out as Ryo carefully laid him across a soft patch of grass.

Rowen painfully raised his eyes towards Rain. A glint of sunlight reflected off of his blue irises. "Hey Rain," he said lowly as he cracked a smile at her. "Hope I'm not too late."
Rain smirked at him. "Well of course you are! We were about to get to the good stuff without ya." She turned to pet White Blaze, but he was in a defense stance and growling angrily towards Rowen.
Ryo slapped his knee. "White Blaze! Stop that, it's Rowen!"
Rain looked at Rowen as he narrowed his eyes slightly. Suddenly, White Blaze turned tail and ran off into the bushes.
"Dumb cat," Ryo said under his breath.
Cye kneeled next to him and gave him an overlook. "Ye gods, Ro. What the hell happened?"
Rowen breathed in a deep breath and avoided Cye's eyes. "They got to me first. I don't know how they found me but they did. And when they did... I was made a prisoner in Talpa's castle. For days I was tortured endlessly, I don't remember most of it."
Ryo nearly had tears in his eyes as he listened to his friend.
Rain raised an eyebrow. "Uh, buddy, if they did all this stuff to you, then how'd you get here?"
Rowen glanced at her silver green eyes for a moment, as Ryo gave her a warning growl.
"Rain, he's been through a lot and you're going to accuse him of lying?"
Cye cleared his throat at Ryo, telling him to quit it.
Rowen continued. "The Ancient One. He came to me and somehow got me free. I appeared a few miles from here. I started walking in one direction and I found you three, thank god."
Rain nodded her head as Ryo took Rowen's hand. "Ro, we will get vengeance for what they've done to you." He paused for a moment, to take a glance at Rowen's countless wounds. Appearing pale, he turned to Rain. "Um...Rain here will take care of your injuries."
Rain blinked. "I will?"
Ryo nodded furiously. "Yeah, I hate blood. I pass out easily..heh.."
"Wimp." Rain smiled a bit. "OH MY GOD RYO YOU'RE BLEEDING!!!" She screamed as she pointed to a small mark on his neck where a thorned plant scratched him.
Ryo turned veeery pale. "WHAAAAAAAT?!?!!" He felt his neck. "EEEEE!!!"
:thump:
Cye snickered at the scene of Ryo passing out.

"Rowen, you're gonna have to take your stinkin armor off."
"Raain...I don't wanna."
"Oh shut up you big baby. It'll hurt worse when I rip it off."
:clunk:
"WAIT! I didn't think you'd actually DO it. Ok Ok, fine." Rowen finished, laughing at his companion. Rain giggled as she playfully shoved Rowen a bit, as to not hurt him. They held conversation for a while, about the trees, about different books, about how tortilla chips are flammable. After half an hour, Rain remembered the task at hand. In a flash of light, the armor was gone, leaving Rowen in a his original sweater and jeans, which were quickly being soaked in blood.
"Ok what hurts," Rain asked quickly. Amariie would KILL to be here to nurture Rowen.
"Um..everything?"
"Gee that helps."
"Good."
:WHACK:
Rowen glared sharply at Rain. "HEY. Watch it, girl."
Noticing that he wasn't kidding, Rain raised an eyebrow. "Ok, ok sorry," she said softly as she pressed a piece of cloth on an open wound. "There, that better?"
Rowen looked off into the woods nearby, not replying. Rain noticed something was different about Rowen. Yeah, she knew him for like two seconds before, but something was astray. She watched his eyes for a moment. His dark blue...wait..light blue? Rowen's eyes were a deep royal blue. Why were his eyes an icy blue? He must have felt her staring, because he had turned around to face her. His eyes had returned to their normal state. Rain internally shrugged, guessing it was the angle of the sun.

That night, when Rowen was covered in strips of cloth like a mummy, the stars didn't shine as brightly as they used to. Rain laid near Ryo, gazing up at Jupiter. It was flickering terribly, as if it was warning her. She tried to think of reasons as to why it would be a bad omen, yet the harder she thought, the more tired she felt. A soft voice entered her mind, telling her to sleep and she could not refuse. The last thing she saw was a smiling figure standing over her. The warning in her heart told her to move but the voice in her head told her to sleep. Sleep was good. So very good.
"Whaaat?" she murmured groggily, fighting the protest her eyelids were giving her.
Ryo rolled over, his back turned towards Rain. His eyes creaked the slightest bit open at her soft groan, but then snapped wide. A few feet away lay a metal-clad monstrosity! He jumped to his feet.
Trying to become more aware, Rain craned her neck towards the figure hovering above her. The recognition flooded through her brain from a few days ago. "Ryo! It's Dais, one of Talpa's Warlords!"
"I know!" Ryo called back, not bothering to turn to her, but creeping towards the sleeping form of the warlord a few feet away. Rain wondered for a brief moment why Ryo was going in the opposite direction of the eerie warlord standing next to her.
Cye snuggled closer into the ground until a forceful arm ripped him from slumber and threw his across the grass. Looking up at his attacker, he noticed it was the ice-blue eyed warlord of Illusion. "How dare you attack me at unawares!" he yelled, struggling to his feet and calling upon his armour.
Ryo donned his armour and charged full speed towards his opponent while Cye parried the blow, stepping back to nail his enemy with a full swing from his trident.
Rain's muffled scream went unnoticed as the two Ronin's fought each other. She tried to wriggle her arm out of the cocoon that was quickly strung about her as she was drifting off to sleep, but to no avail.
Ryo pushed Dais towards the ground with one of his katanas. He breathed hard and yelled, "You have no chance with me, Dais! Now where's Rain?"
Cye was pushed towards the ground with Dais' scythe. Dais grinned at the sea warrior and said lowly, "You have no chance with ME, Cye. I'm sure your friend, Rain, can see that." He then motioned with his head towards a bigass spider web strung out across several trees a ways to their side. In the middle was a limp Rain, bound within a webby cocoon.

A throbbing pain seared through her head as consciousness came back. Rain's vision swirled and thought for a moment she was delusional. Surely, she couldn't be levitating twenty feet in the air...could she? Wondering if her head was bleeding, she tried to lift an arm...but she couldn't. "What the frick?" she muttered, still not completely alert yet. The loud clanging of a battle struck her hearing and she squinted to see in the distance two figures fighting. She tried to become more aware when she noticed who it was. Ryo...and Cye were...dueling?
"Ok, I need to stop sniffing gasoline," she mumbled beneath her breath.
A soft chuckle to her side caught her attention. "What you see, my dear, is not an illusion, contrary to what you may think," a livid voice purred.
Pulling her head to the side, she saw that freakish warlord, Dais, standing casually with arms crossed on a tree branch next to her.
"YOU," Rain said, trying to sound threatening but failing miserably. The pounding in her head came back.
He smiled at her. "I see my effects have not worn off yet. They won't for a while."
"You FUCKING WHORE. You deceived us! I outta kick your ass right now," Rain growled, narrowing her eyes dangerously.
Dais must have found this quite amusing since he began laughing at her. "I doubt you can do that, my dear." He then moved closer to her and took her silver hair in his palm, letting some of it sift through his metal clad fingers.
She felt so tired that she could fall asleep, yet she wouldn't let herself. Not while her friends were down their getting their dumbass asses kicked by one another. Suddenly, Dais tightened his grip tremendously, causing Rain to gasp. He pulled her hair sharply, making her face point towards her friends. Quickly and deadly he said, "See how they are so weak? They cannot even break a simple spell I cast. You and your friends WILL perish and so will this world. So what's the use of fighting?"
Rain was about to open her mouth to argue, despite the pressure Dais was putting on her head, but a huge blast of red and blue made her stop. A large smoke cloud filled the air and then silence ensued. The only thing she heard was Dais.
"Hope cannot last long, Rain. Death will."
Rain cast her gaze towards two motionless bodies on the ground. "NOOO!! RYO! CYE!"
Then all she knew was black.

Dais' laughter was cut short as he heard the screeching of tires. "Must be the others," he chuckled to himself, not surprised that his wimpy comrade of corruption couldn't finish off a pretty boy, measly girl and fat momma's boy. Leaving the two defeated Ronins and the silver-haired pinata, he slipped through the shadows to find his next prey.
"I wonder what that smoke was all about?" Kento mused, ruffling his hair.
"Do you think the others are nearby?" Amariie asked aloud to no one in particular.
Sage donned his armour, "Most likely. Get ready for anything."
Kento followed suit and told Amariie to stay behind with the Mercedes.
The two young men split up and searched around. Kento came across the bodies of his two friends first and let out a cry. Sage bolted over to where he heard the sound to see a Warlord in purple armour standing over Ryo and Cye.
"You are so going down for this!" Kento shouted at Dais as he ran into view.

Amariie scoffed, insulted at being left behind and wandered off towards where she saw the smoke. "As if they could do anything without my guidance anyways! Boys are so stupid..." she muttered as she went to fling her hair over her shoulder. Her hand caught on something sticky. Wincing, her eyes darted around madly for the source of the crap in her hair. "Ugh.. just spider webs.... wait..." her eyes widened "SPIDERS!!!! HOOLLLLYYY SHIIIITTTTTTTT!!!!!!" she shrieked, breaking into a run in some random direction, which was unfortunately into more of the of arachnids threads. Wriggling like mad, she slammed into a large, sticky, solid object. She tore at the silver strands clinging to her skin, and nearly jumped out of her boots when the bundle moved. Amariie leaned closer and noticed the "bundle" was the owner to the strands of silver... and wearing a green shirt?! "Rain?!"

Rain opened her eyes sleepily. This was certainly a dream. "Amariie?" she asked slowly.
Amariie's eyes widened. "Holy crap, Rain. Why the hell are you in a spider web?? Must have been a bigass spider...HOLY CRAP IT COULD COME BACK!"
Rain snorted in frustration. "It's the spider monkey, Dais. Why are you in my dream? What happened to Anubis?"
Amariie blinked hard. "Girl, you're getting weirder every freaking day."
"But if you're in this dream, then Antonio should appear in a top hat soon," Rain said while closing her eyes.
Amariie grabbed Rain's face. "Rainey. Wake up, come on," she said while slapping Rain's face.
Rain's eyes danced angrily. "You did NOT just slap me. Get me outta here, quick so I can kick your ass."
Amariie opened her mouth to say some choice words, but she immediately felt a presence behind her. Turning slowly, she looked up into a single frighteningly ice colored eye. "Um..hi." Amariie held up the one thing in her hand: lip gloss. "Care for Strawberry Slush? Heh..."
Dais stood still, his arms crossed. The girls could feel him grin maliciously. "Well, what do we have here? A girl? You made a mistake coming here," he said angrily.
Just as he was about to grab her by the neck, large, galloping steps were heard following by Dais howl in pain.
White Blaze stood defensively in front of a fallen Amariie and a trapped Rain. Dais was on his knee, holding his right arm. "Damn beast!" he yelled. "You'll pay for that!"
Dais pulled out a scythe and threw it at White Blaze. Knowing that he was standing right in front of Amariie and if he moved, it'd kill her, he stood his ground as they scythe slashed his shoulder. The fearsome tiger slumped to the ground, Amariie hugging him around the neck.
"White Blaze!" she cried. Amariie looked up to tell Dais to go shove a cactus up his ass, but he had vanished.

Kento lunged at Dais with full force. Laughing confidently, he whipped around to hit him in the back. "You're going down, my man!"
Sage picked himself up from being beat to the ground. Giving a quick glance around, he noticed that Kento wasn't anywhere in sight.
"You're going to die, Ronin!" Dais laughed at Sage.
'He fights like Kento. Wait. Dais is the warlord of...illusion!' Sage thought quickly as he dodged his opponent's new blow. He jumped back a few feet and held up his sword. Focusing the light towards the other, he saw in the reflection of the blade not Dais, but the warrior of justice.
"Kento!" Sage called. "You are Kento, right?"
Kento laughed heartily at whom he thought was Dais. "Well, duh! You warlords are pretty dumb."
Sage then threw down his sword and put up his hands. "Kento! It's me, Sage! Don't do anything!"
Kento took a look around casually to see if Sage was around: he wasn't. Kento raised an eyebrow. "You can't be Sage. You're Dais."
Sage wondered why the spell was weakening. He could hear exactly what Kento was saying; it wasn't warped by Dais. 'What if he's doing another mind game?' Sage could now make out Kento's outline.
Kento didn't want to be tricked by Dais, so he readied himself for a deadly blow. He looked down at Dais' feet to see his fallen nunchuku. Right before he charged, Kento remembered suddenly that when Dais threw down his nunchuku, it made a loud clanging, like throwing down a sword. Looking up, he began to see Sage through the mist of Dais' image.
"Sage! It is you!" Kento cried happily. "Almost kicked your ass there."
Sage smiled, relieved. "You wish."
Suddenly a cry to their left caught their focus. Spinning around, they saw Amariie, standing there alone and scared. "Guys! Help! He's right behind me!" she yelled.
Kento tried to run forward to help her, but Sage grabbed his wrist. "It's not her. It's Dais, playing a trick on us," Sage said steadily.
Kento looked at Sage, then at Amariie. "Are you sure?"
"Very sure," Said murmured, readying himself for a final blow to the dark warlord. "Stay with me, Kento. We go together." Giving a gaze into her fake eyes, he whispered, "I trust you, Amariie."
They ran towards her, screaming their sure-kills simultaneously.

Using her nail file, Amariie successfully freed Rain from the webs.
::WHACK::
"Bitch!" the blonde groaned, "what the hell did you do that for?!"
Rain gave a satisfied smirk, "I told you I would kick you ass when I got free."
"I didn't think you were serious though!!"
A loud boom and more smoke, accompanied by a holler. The girls ran towards the direction to see Kento and Sage standing in front of a charred patch of grass.
Rain raised an eyebrow, "Care to share what the hell just happened?"
Sage sighed.

Cye was busy floating in a near-by lake while Rain patched up Ryo and White Blaze. Sage, Amariie and Kento were sitting on the shore.
"I can't believe we almost toasted each other!" Kento exclaimed again, still in disbelief.
"Yeah, you guys are pretty dumb," Sage admitted with a chuckle, only to greet a large splash of water in the face. "I was kidding.."
Amariie smiled and stared out in the distance at the water. The smooth midnight blue glittered with a thousand diamonds. Reflecting the stars. Almost like...
"Guys, do you think..." she cut off, shifting her gaze upwards. White Blaze gave growl in approval.
Ryo, fully healed, followed her gaze. Rain's eyes widened in realization. "Unmoored in the stream of the sky!"
They all stared up and noticed a deep blue light travelling across the star-studded blackness.