Frozen in Time

By Pathfinder

Episode Four: Awakening

It’s. . . so cold, wh, where, where am I? Rowen thought to himself. His brain was in some short of shutdown and he was having trouble remembering what happened. He tried to move, but found even blinking an impossibility. His muscles ached from a lack of use. It felt as if he’d been standing still for almost a thousand years.

Kayura. . . the ice. . . the baby. . . DEAR LORD! I’M A FATHER! Rowen thought to himself. If he was awake and his muscles were this stiff, could the time have passed? Would Kayura be freeing him and the others from their icy prisons?

Suddenly, he felt a strange warmth begin to penetrate through the ice. Kayura. . . you’ve finally come. . . I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you and the baby. . . I’m so sorry. . . were the thoughts running through his heads. Finally, he could feel his limp body free and fell over, a few shards of ice frozen to his hair. His lips were shivering and he knew he was probably paler than usual. He looked up, but he couldn’t tell who had caught him. All he knew is that it WASN’T Kayura.

Rowen closed his eyes before he could try to figure out who it was. . .

Karissa yawned and stretched. Morning. Although she couldn’t see the light of the sun, she knew what time of day it was. She just knew these kind of things, especially after taking the Staff of the Ancient One. Karissa was now fifteen years old.

Mya stood in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Yamato was asleep on the couch as Karissa entered the dinning room clad in the robes her mother always used to wear. Her mother. . . Karissa found the memories were getting further and further away from her. . but why? She desperately wanted to remember her mother more clearly, but found that no matter how hard she tried, she could not.

The Staff began to glow and Mya smiled. "Finally, they can be awaken. Yamato!" Yamato yawned from his place on the couch and staggered towards Mya. "Go get dressed, the armors are ready to be reawakened."

Karissa happily skipped through the woods. So what if she was fifteen years old, she still liked skipping, and she felt joyous knowing that one of these men could be her father, and she was even MORE excited that at least eight of them were single. She smiled; she enjoyed the thought of eight single men. Well, actually, if Yamato was right and one of them was her father, then they’d all be single, but, he would be her father.

Karissa gasped as she entered the field. "Yamato-kun! One of the ice blocks is missing!" Sure enough, one of the nine pedestals was lacking a block of black ice (Pathfinder: Tongue twister!).

Yamato gasped. "You’re kidding! That’s impossible!"

"Shogun!" screamed Karissa. "That son of a-"

"Karissa! What have I told you about swearing?" asked Mya.

"What’s more important, a cuss word or the fact that Shogun has one of the Ronins or Warlords locked up somewhere? What if it’s the one who’s my father?" said Karissa, sensing the tears flowing from her eyes.

Karissa looked over to one of the blocks of ice. It was glowing a bright red color. Yamato blinked. "Looks like Wildfire’s defrosting himself." Sure enough, the ice broke and a boy in red and white subarmor fell over onto his knees, gasping and choking for air.

"Cold. . . so cold. . .*cough* *hack* way too cold. . ."

"Mya, get him one of those blankets and a cup of tea, pronto!" said Yamato. "Karissa, you know what to do."

Karissa walked over to the closest ice and placed the staff in front. She began to chant and the ice cracked, revealing a tall blonde young man in green and white. Ooo la, la! What a hot ticket! Thank GOD he’s not my dad. . . Karissa caught the young man as he legs gave way.

The young man opened his eyes. "Kayura?"

"No, sorry, I’m Karissa, the new last of the Ancient’s Clan. Uh, long story, I gotta go help your friends. Yamato! Take this guy over to the warm up station!" said Karissa, dubbing the tree Wildfire sat up against the "warm-up station".

Mya fingered the blue letter. She’d told Karissa her father was indeed Rowen of the Strata a year ago, which was in accordance to Kayura’s pink letter. The blue letter, she assumed, was one final love letter to the man who had fathered her child. She wondered who the missing person was, and sincerely hoped it wasn’t this Rowen person. Shogun would easily have a hold on Karissa. She desperately wanted to meet her father.

Karissa dragged over a man with green hair, purple eyelids, and brown subarmor. "Here’s another one," she said, then rushed over to free the next Ronin/Warlord. Yamato was taking care of Halo, getting him to take in some of the hot tea. Wildfire, who was now somewhat stable, went to help with the one in brown. Mya guessed that this one was Venom, especially after his eyes flashed open to reveal two very serpent like eyes.

Five minutes later, Karissa came over with Torrent, who had deep auburn hair and was smaller than the other three had been. Mya guessed that he wasn’t from anywhere near Japan, possibly England before Shogun had it destroyed. Maybe America? It was hard to tell. Nor did it matter. He seemed to be taking it fairly well, considering that his element was related to ice.

"Ahh. . . I needed that," said a voice with a bit of a raspy lisp. Mya and Yamato looked up to see a scared man in red (and pink) subarmor with blue hair stretching his arms. Karissa looked surprised at the man, then shook her head. "Hey! Who are you!? You look like Kayura but you’re not Kayura! Who are you?"

"Karissa, daughter of Lady Kayura," said Karissa.

"Daughter!? Who scored on Kayura?" asked Cale.

"You really are from nine-hundred years back, aren’t you-" Karissa started.

"NINE HUNDRED YEARS!?" came the panic-stricken voice of Wildfire. "We’ve been in that ice for NINE HUNDRED FLIPPIN’ YEARS!"

"Yes," replied Karissa. "Enjoy the nap?"

"Oh man. . . yes! I don’t have to take that test with Sensei Yamaguchi!" said Wildfire. "She’s DEAD!"

"Roar!"

Wildfire looked over to see White Blaze bounding over. "White Blaze! Good too see you boy!" White Blaze knocked over Wildfire and began to lick his old master. "Hey, cut it out!"

Karissa smiled and went to the next ice.

A little over an hour later, everyone was out, but much to her disappointment and worry, Strata was the missing Ronin. Her father.

They brought the group back to the Mya’s apartment, where everyone sat in on the floor of the living room. After getting to know everyone’s name, they began to ask her questions of what had happened during their long sleep.

"So the Nether Spirits came from Badamon’s leftovers?" said the one called Kento.

"In a way, yes," said Karissa. "My mother destroyed them all, though, except for Badamon II."

"Who was your mother?" asked Cye of the Torrent.

"Lady Kayura."

"I could’ve told you that!" said Cale.

"YOU slept with Kayura!?" said Anubis, looking ready to kill.

"No way!" said Cale. "She’s not my type!"

"It was Rowen of the Strata," said Karissa. "That’s why I’m so worried about his absence-"

"Heh, go Rowen," said Ryo. Karissa whacked Ryo with the Staff. "Ow!"

"You deserved that. Do NOT speak of my mother like again!" said Karissa, looking deeply offended.

"Then how do you have his headband?" asked Sehkment of Venom.

Karissa took the headband. "Before the ice enclosed the last of you, my mother slowed down the ice of my father to tell him of my coming existence. My mother told him I was to be a girl and asked him to name me. He gave the name Karissa."

"That was the name of his twin sister that died at birth," said Sage.

"Exactly," said Karissa. "He gave my mother this headband so that if something were to happen to her than my father would know who I am and protect me."

Cye wiped a tear from his eyes. "That’s so sad!"

"Wimp," said Cale, who got a punch in the stomach from Kento.

"Do NOT call Cye a wimp! He’s my BEST friend, and unless you want to talk to Master Fist-"

SMACK! SMACK!

"Knock it off you two!" said Karissa, backhanding both Kento and Cale. Dais just back further into the corner of the room. "Dais, I’m not mad at you, you don’t need to hide from me."

Dais just nodded and started to slowly come out. Karissa smiled. It was nice to know that some of them were shy.

"So now what? We charge in and rescue Rowen or what?" asked Ryo.

Karissa shook her head. "We need a plan first."

"You sure you’re Rowen’s daughter and not Sage’s daughter?" said Kento, getting another smack in the process, this time from Sage.

"You bull-headed idiot!" said Sage. "I always mention a plan because they’re something INTELLEGENT to make up!"

"You’re mean!" said Kento, rubbing the side of his face. Now both cheeks had red hand marks.

"Let’s just settle down and figure out a way to rescue Rowen," said Anubis, Cye agreeing with him.

"But how? Do we even know where Shogun’s keeping him?" asked Sehkment.

Karissa sighed. "I just hope he’s okay." Her lip began to quiver and Sage jumped to her side, letting her cry on his shoulder.

Rowen awoke feeling somewhat sick to his stomach. He felt tired, queasy, and his vision was swirling around like some sort of an ugly tie-dye T-shirt. When he senses finally returned, he deduced that he had been placed in a tube filled with a thick, green goo that made movement impossible. "Ooblick," said Rowen. Sure enough, he was up to his shoulders in the green starch/water mixture. "Who’d fill a contained with Ooblick and then stick a person inside?"

"Me," said a voice that sounded a little like Talpa. Rowen looked off to the side of his clear glass prison. He gasped as he saw a figure that looked strangely like. . .

"Talpa! It can’t be you!" said Rowen, struggling even harder to free himself.

"No, I am not Talpa. I am his brother, Shogun," said the white-masked demon. "I, as you have probably guessed, am working on taking over this pathetic world."

"Not while the Ronin Warriors are around!" said Rowen.

"I hardly think you and your Ronin Warriors pose a challenge. Kayura didn’t."

"Kayura. . . where is she!? What have you done with her!?" Rowen demanded, the fear and worry in his heart beginning to increase.

"Dead," said Shogun. "I killed her."

"No," whispered Rowen, tears beginning to flow from his eyes. He could picture Kayura’s sweet smile in the back of his head. He could remember from the time she’d first "abducted" him to the cloud, the battles, after she became good, when she’d woken him up and they made love that one morning, when she told him that she was going to have their baby. Could she really be. . . dead? "You didn’t!"

"Yes I did. Now all I have to do is get rid of that brat Karissa-"

"Leave my daughter alone!" yelled Rowen, knowing that Karissa was his daughter and probably his only living relative.

"Ah, so I was right, you are her father," said Shogun.

"Kayura and I decided on the name before I was frozen, you scum," said Rowen, eyeing his love’s murderer.

"Now that I have you, the father of the last of the Ancient’s clan, she’ll most certainly risk her life to save you," said Shogun.

Rowen’s eyes widened. "No. . . you, you CAN’T!"

"Yes I can, Rowen of the Strata," said Shogun, "yes I can, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Once I’ve got her out of the way, then I’ll just have to take the sacred treasures for myself."

"Sacred treasures?" asked Rowen.

"The White Armor, the Nine Mystical Armors, the Soul Swords of Fervor, the Ancient’s Staff, and the Jewel of Life," said Shogun.

"What are you gonna use THOSE for?" asked Rowen.

"You’ll see in time, Strata, you’ll see in time," said Shogun. "Now, how can I make the wait as painful as possible. I know!" Shogun called forth Badamon II and several Nether Spirits. "You all know what to do."

Rowen looked around nervously. The Nether Spirits circled the glass cylinder and began their monotone chants. The Ooblick disappeared from the cylinder and Rowen fell over, his muscles still not used to being able to move about.

His screams could be heard throughout the castle.

Part Five