Frozen in Time

By Pathfinder

Episode Three: Karissa

"AHHHHHHH!" screamed Kayura as she lay in her bed.

"Breath, Kayura, breath!" screamed Mya, Mia’s great-great-great-great-great-. . . you get the idea- granddaughter. Finally, after the nine-hundred year gestation period for immortals, Kayura was having her baby. And she was NOT enjoying herself one, little, bit. Random thoughts began to run through her mind, especially a very ANGRY thought directed on particular blue-haired Ronin Warrior.

"Damn, you, Rowen!" screamed Kayura. She’d like to see HIM try to push something the size of a watermelon out of a hole the size of a penny. Yes, that would be very entertaining indeed, after going through this! Now that I think about it, maybe exploring in Mia’s house wasn’t such a hot idea after all. . . well, at least going into Rowen’s room and bothering him like I did, although it was nice while it lasted. I wish he could be here. When Kayura first found out about the baby, she realized she’d either have to make Rowen immortal or find a way to lower the gestation to nine months like a normal human. Making Rowen immortal would be easier, though. All she had wanted was for him to be there with her. She was ready to cry when she thought about him trapped in that wretched black ice. Of course she had other things to worry about at the moment.

"She’s got a head, there’s an arm, there’s another arm- come on, Kayura, you can do it, just keep pushing, she’s almost out-"

"ARGHHHHHHHH!"

"And she’s out!" announced Mya. "Now, for the afterbirth."

"What do you mean afterbirth?!" asked Kayura, who was lying down to try and regain the strength she’d lost while giving birth.

"There’s a mass of blood and birth goo that has to come out," said Mya.

"Fun," wheezed Kayura.

After finishing the birth-goo stage, Kayura held the now washed up and umbilical cord free Karissa. She lightly stroked her daughter’s head. "Hello, Karissa. I’m Mommy," she said. "If you’re looking for your daddy, he, he can’t be with us right now. You have to wait fifteen years, but me, I had to wait nine hundred years, plus your fifteen. Someday soon you’ll meet him. And I know you’ll like him."

Karissa gurgled and opened her eyes. Kayura saw Rowen’s pale indigo eyes staring back at her. "You have your father’s eyes," she said. "I wish he could see you now. He’d be so proud." Kayura closed her eyes, reminiscing the past. Sometimes, she wondered if it was all worthwhile. Could this cursed black ice had been avoided if she and Warlords had found some other way to entertain themselves? But then Karissa might’ve not been born. Even though she was just an hour old, Kayura could still feel the motherly bond beginning to form. She and Rowen had created a small child, a new life form, and it was her responsibility to take care of her.

5 years later. . .

"Mommy!" scared little Karissa as she jumped into her mother’s waiting arms. Kayura laughed as she looked at her daughter. Her hair was deep blue, a perfect blend of hers and Rowen’s hair, cut just bellow her chin. Karissa looked just like Kayura when she was younger.

"Yes, sweetie?" asked Kayura.

"Look!" she said, and used telekinesis to bring a ball over to her. Kayura smiled. She was learning the ways of the Ancient’s clan quickly.

KA-BOOM!

"Mommy!" said Karissa, hiding behind her mother. Kayura called apon the Ancient’s Staff, then concentrated and Rowen’s old headband materialized in her hands. She placed the headband on her daughter. "Go to Mya. Give her these envelopes. The one in the pink envelope is for her, the one in the blue is for a man with blue hair named Rowen. In ten years, if I don’t come back, find him and his friends. They will protect you."

"But-"

"GO!" ordered Kayura and Karissa rushed off to find Mya’s underground apartment. Ever since the Ronins had been frozen in the black ice, the world had been over run by Shogun’s monsters. Kayura had been able to defeat the Nether Warlords early on, but after her pregnancy began to envelop, she had to give the staff to young Yuli, who was eighteen at the time. His descendants held the staff for the nine hundred years it took for Kayura’s baby to be born. Kayura, Karissa, White Blaze (Who was still alive and waiting patiently to be reunited with his pet human Ryo), Yamato (Yuli’s most recent descendant, who was 17), and Mya were what appeared to be the last force to stand against Shogun, who STILL hadn’t been defeated. They desperately needed the Ronin Warriors. Could the world last another ten years?

Kayura stood to face Shogun. Shogun was a dark, evil man with blood red hair and a pale white mask over his face. He wore a thick armor similar to Talpa’s but unlike Talpa’s, it was not magical. "So, Lady Kayura, you dare challenge me after nine-hundred years of exile?"
"Your doom lies with this staff and the return of the Ronin Warriors," said Kayura.

"No, I have sent many guards to destroy their tombs of ice, Kayura."

"And I put a field of sacred protection around the Ronins."

"What!? You ruined. . . I’ll fix your wagon, little missy! May the Ancient’s clan die in VAIN!" he said, delivering a devastating blow to Kayura. She fell to the ground, knowing that her hours were numbered. Shogun laughed and left.

"Growl!"

"White, Blaze," said Kayura as the great white tiger leapt over to her. Yamato, Mya, and Karissa shortly joined her.

"Kay!" said Yamato. He and Karissa each took a side.

"Mommy, don’t die!" said Karissa, who still wore Rowen’s headband.

Kayura reached up to touch her daughter’s face. "Karissa, you are very beautiful. You will grow up to be even more beautiful. I must leave you now, my wound is fatal. I love you very much, and when you are of age, you will take the Ancient’s Staff. NEVER remove that headband unless your father does first." Kayura turned to Yamato. "Your father trained you to take the Staff. You must use that skill once again, Yamato. Complete my daughter’s training. When she is ten, give her the staff."

"I understand, Kayura," said Yamato, bowing respectfully to the dying girl (Note: Kayura aged to be about fourteen to make her birth easier on her).

"Mya," said Kayura. Mya had teary eyes. "Take care of my daughter. Please. The pink letter will explain Karissa’s heritage and her father to you. The blue letter is not to be opened by anyone but Rowen of the Strata."

"Yes, Kayura," said Mya through her tears.

Kayura turned to Yamato one last time. "In ten years, take Kayura to the ground that I sanctioned to protect the Ronins. She will know what to do from there," she said. Finally, with her last strength, she turned to her daughter. "My baby, good bye. I love you-" Kayura’s eyes closed.

"NOOOOO!"

5 years after Kayura’s death. . .

Karissa fought furiously with Yamato, the sparring match going well. Before she gained the staff, she had to pass this training procedure to prove she was a worthy priestess, monk, and warrior. So Yamato was in his twenties and she was ten, she had him nearly defeated.

"YA!" cried Karissa, forcing Yamato to his knees. Yamato smiled as he stood up.

"You’ve done well, Karissa," he said. He concentrated and the Ancient’s Staff appeared in his hands. "You’ve earned it. Come, I must show you something." Yamato walked off, and Karissa wondered if Yamato was going to give her a treat.

"Is it ice cream?" she asked curiously.

Yamato laughed. "Not quite, but, yeah, I can get you a cone. This, I think you’ll find it much more important."

"Aw, important stuff is always boring!" said Karissa as she trudged along through the woods. She looks down to see a daisy growing in the woods. Daisies and other flowers were rare, so she concentrated, cloned it, and placed the clone in her hair.

Yamato had led her to a big, gold, bubble. Well, the top half of a bubble. "Use the staff to unlock the bubble, but when we leave you have to put the bubble back up," said Yamato. Karissa nodded and placed the Ancient’s Staff in a space. The bubble disappeared and she saw a clearing with nine multi-colored pedestals, all with a pillar of black ice on top of them.

"What is this place?" asked Karissa.

"Nine hundred ten years ago, this world was protected by the Ronin Warriors. Shogun froze them all in this ice. It will be ready to melt in five years, which is when we’ll be returning. The one called Rowen of the Strata is supposedly your father."

"My. . . father?" she said. "But I’ve never had a father before!" Karissa then remembered before her mother’s final moments, she had mentioned a blue-haired man named Rowen. Could that be why she named him?

"Yes," said Yamato. "Your father may be Rowen of the Strata, but it’s not certain. Mya will be able to tell that one. She was your mother’s most trusted friend from the Koji family line."

"Oh," said Karissa. "Five years is a long time. I bet they’re all itching to get out."

"They’re all in a deep sleep and can’t be awakened until five years from now. The procedure involves the Staff, but I don’t quite remember the whole thing. Of course, it is written somewhere, but I’m not sure where it is. I believe the procedure was recorded on Mia Koji’s computer soon after they were frozen, but no one knows where it is. There are rumors it’s in the wreckage of Mia’s old mansion, but-"

"Well then let’s go there!" said Karissa, dragging Yamato out of the grounds so she could re-seal it. "Where is it?"
"That way," said Yamato.

Mia’s old mansion was still erect after all those years. Now to find the old computer. Karissa and Yamato carefully opened the door. The inside was filled with cobwebs and dust. Karissa found an old picture frame and saw five boys she didn’t recognize, one small boy who resembled Yamato, and a woman who resembled Mya. "The five boys are the Ronin Warriors."

"I thought there were nine," said Karissa. "And who’re the other people?"

"Mia Koji and my ancestor, Yuli," replied Yamato. "The last four are former Dark Warlords and aren’t usually considered full Ronins."

"Oh," she said, putting down the picture. They began to search the house and found many ancient toys, books, music devices called CDs, and finally, a computer room.

Yamato worked with the computer and finally managed to turn it on. The two began to work quietly and found the files they needed. Karissa flipped on the printer and printed the file on paper they’d brought with them. Stuffing the papers into her kimono, the two left the old house.

Mya was furious when she discovered that Yamato had brought Karissa to her ancestor’s house. "YOU IDIOT! YOU COULD’VE BEEN KILLED!"

"We ran into no trouble," replied Yamato. "Why are you so mad?"

"Because there are rumors that there are Nether Warlords living there!" said Mya.

"Didn’t they all die?" asked Karissa, wide eyed with shock.

Mya sighed heavily. "Sadly, no. Badamon remains alive. At this point, I assume that he has drained the powers of his fallen comrades to survive."

"That’s cruel," said Karissa.

"They were destroyed at your mother’s hands, and they were cruel to the people of this world."

Karissa nodded. She’d been to the underground metropolis near their apartment. That’s where the free rebels lived. There were other colonies in other parts of the world, but this was the Japanese one. People called it "Sub Tokyo", after the old capital of Ancient Japan. Of course to the Ronin Warriors it wouldn’t be so much old, they probably didn’t realize how much time had passed. The Warlords, maybe, but the Ronins were young at the time. Mya told her that the youngest Ronin was just barely16 years old. The oldest (her supposed father) was 17. Karissa frowned. They’d never see their family again, their non-Ronin friends, their high-school graduations, favorite pets (Well, except for whoever owned White Blaze), nothing of their old lives. They may even be devastated to see Mia’s old mansion, is Yamato took them there. The aspect of them now being close to a thousand years old may shock them as well. It wouldn’t be bad for the Warlords, seeing as they really only had each other and her mother as friends, and they were already will over 400 when they were frozen. Karissa assumed them to be like her mother. Old, but still young-looking.

Karissa sighed heavily. She had much to do in the coming five years. Then, maybe shed’ be able to meet her father. . .

If her mother was right. . .