Disclaimer: I think you can guess.
Note: This story takes place about one year after Talpa's defeat. Due to instances of graphic violence, language, and sexual innuendos, I'm rating it PG13, so don't say I didn't warn ya.

Mia, Manda, Chris, and Randi were sitting at the dining room table nursing cups of instant coffee early the next morning after their shopping adventures in the city. Everyone was a bit sleepy still, except Manda, who was naturally alert at all times of day and night. Randi was in a zombie-like, vegitative state due to the hour, and it had taken her fifteen minutes to remember she hated coffee. She was still sipping it when the boys tramped into the room.

"Mia, we're going off to school now!" Kento announced as he stopped in to grab a couple pieces of toast and an apple from the table.

"You're coming home right after school, right?" she asked in a mothering tone.

"Yep, of course," Cye said, snatching a kaiser roll for himself.

"Don't worry so much, Mia. It's not like we can get into too much trouble at school," Sage grinned.

Randi looked over at him and was immediately captured by the divine creature standing behind him near the doorway. Rowen was leaning casually against the frame of the door, wearing a crisp, navy blue and white school uniform and sporting a classic quiet, brooding-young-man pose. Randi met his eyes for just a moment, and she knew she was hopeless.

"Ri," Chris hissed in her ear, "you're drooling."

"Shut up!" she hissed back, nudging her friend in the ribs.

Not having noticed the exchange, the others went on, "Yeah, Mia. We wouldn't get into trouble!" Ryo grinned at his own joke as he leaned over to kiss Mia on the cheek in farewell. "Bye," he said sweetly.

"Bye, Ryo," Mia smiled back.

"Bye, Ryo, my love!" Cye teased as the crowd pushed out of the room again. Ryo slugged him on the arm and Cye yelped out an ouch while he and the others laughed at Ryo's expense.

Randi watched them leave carefully with her cup poised at her lips. The moment they had shut the front door, she jumped up, abandoning her coffee and sprinting from the room like there was a rabid dog at her heels. She returned five minutes later, now wearing an outfit of bright red capris and a yellow shirt with red elbow-length sleeves, a red dragon and blue Chinese characters saying 'Year of the Dragon' on the front, and a red 12-gon with the Chinese zodiac written in blue Chinese characters on the back . She paused at the table, setting a knit black knapsack on her abandoned chair as she quickly slipped two small silver clips into her hair and snapped them in place. She grabbed an apple and held it in her teeth as she did a quick check of the knapsack and slipped on her shoes at the same time. "Do you have the directions I gave you?" Mia asked.

"Yup, right here!" Randi said hurriedly as she waved a piece of white paper in the air. Finishing her check and throwing the bag over her right shoulder, she called a brief farewell to them all and ran from the room.

"Bye! Good luck!" Mia said.

"She'll need it..." Manda muttered as they heard the front door open and close.

Randi tried to steady herself as she caught her breath at the office door of Hana High, the school the boys attended. She had run the entire way there and just made it. As she slipped into the office and unceremoniously presented a slip of paper to the clerk at the counter, the bell for the beginning of homeroom sounded in the halls. The clerk took a quick glance at Randi's attire, then at the paper, took it to her desk and typed a few keys into a computer. Randi saw a new screen come up on the monitor, which the clerk printed and grabbed from the printer tray. She then took a glossy black handbook from a pile on top of a file cabinet, wrote a quick note on a piece of paper, and handed it all to the girl.

"Arigatou," Randi thanked with a slight bow as she exited the office and studied the papers she'd been given. Homeroom was pretty short and partway over, so she figured she could skip that. Her first class after that was chemistry with a Suzuki-sensei in room 216. She found the map of the school on the inside cover of the handbook and studied it for her class. She found it and determined her route, and reached it - way on the other side of the impressively large school - just before the bell signalling first hour's begin rang.

The door closed noisily behind her, and a few curious heads turned in her direction. One of them was Sage's, and he leaned back, whispering, "Hey, Rowen, look who followed us."

Rowen turned and saw Randi standing there uncertainly as half the room examined the foreigner like so much ground beef. She looked stunning, and Rowen felt his pulse quicken just a little as she walked confidently over to the teacher at the front of the room. She caught him looking at her and winked at him as she got the teacher's attention, showing him the note from the office clerk.

"Wonder what she's up to..." he heard Sage say distantly.

"Ohayo, class," Suzuki-sensei addressed in Japanese, standing in front of the class.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, sensei," the students straightened up and repeated automatically.

"Class, I would like to introduce to you Miss Randi Tomasi. Miss Tomasi is joining us at Hana High from America, and I want you all to make her feel welcome here. Randi, you may join Mr. Date's lab group. Sage, please raise your hand for Miss Tomasi to see."

Randi nodded, saying in flowing Japanese, "Thank you, sir, but that isn't necessary. Sage and I are already acquainted." She strode to the empty chair next to Sage, ignoring the looks she recieved from the other students. The boys seemed to be appreciating her foreign flavor, while the girls' looks were primarily jealous, most likely due to her comment about Sage, who was well-known as the most sought-after guy in school.

"Now, class, today..." Mr. Suzuki said, beginning a never-ending spiel about the electron clouds or some such nonsense.

"Randi, what are you doing?" Sage whispered covertly as soon as sensei's attention was away from them.

"Trying to listen to a very fascinating speech about electrons," Randi said smartly, not looking at the blond.

"I mean, why are you here? You were supposed to stay at the house with everyone else," Sage said, slightly annoyed.

"I wanted to check out the famed Japanese public school system," she said, maintaining her composure.

"Why? And how?" asked Rowen seriously, wanting to cut to the chase.

Randi turned a bright grin on them, her eyes laughing but not really bragging, "Didn't I tell you? I have an IQ of one ninety-something and I spend a minimum of two hours a day on the computer. I could hack my way into the Pentagon in the time it took you to realize what I was doing. B'sides," she shrugged, "someone has to keep an eye on you guys."

She turned back to the front of the class, where Mr. Suzuki had made little progress in his lecture, and none of them spoke again for the rest of class.

Rowen leaned back against a wide oak tree in the school courtyard at lunchtime. It's shade provided him with a cool, soothing atmosphere, and he let out a deep sigh as he let it wash over him.

He had a mild migraine, and his body felt tired and a little weak, but he wasn't about to tell anyone. All he'd heard all morning were people's concerned questions and assurances that he could leave if he wanted to. It seemed like every five minutes Sage or one of the Ronins was hovering over him, seeing if he was okay and if he wanted to skip the rest of the day and go home. On top of that, they had told everyone that the reason he had missed so much school was due to a family emergency back in the states and a car accident he'd been in there, which meant nothing but more questions and more lying.

He didn't have much of an appetite, so he didn't bother getting any lunch. Instead, he milled over his thoughts as he scanned the large, open courtyard in front of him. It was a pretty warm day, so most of the students had been shooed out here instead of sitting in the cafeteria indoors. As he looked over the crowd of munching, talkative teens, he spotted one group of girls that interested him particularly.

There were more than half a dozen, and among the navy blue skirts and jumpers stood out one young girl dressed in bright yellow and red. The others were questioning her like she had committed a crime, but Randi just stood there calmly and confidently. This was the group termed the Date Date Wannabes, titled for the fact that every one of them wanted to date Sage more than anything else. They were ruthless but naive and ditzy, and poor Sage could never get any peace when they were around.

From where he was, Rowen couldn't quite hear what they were saying, but he could tell enough to know that they were interrogating Randi about her relations with Sage, and they would be less than pleased to know that she was living under the same roof as him at the moment. By Randi's expression, he knew he was right, and he watched with concern as she tried to brush past them with a curt remark but was spun back to face one angry young snot named Yuka Hongo. She was one of the biggest brats in school, and a fight usually awaited anyone who dared to cross her. Yuka was also Sage's most rabid fanatic, and she was all over him whenever she got the chance.

Yuka spoke harshly to Randi and looked ready to attack her, but Randi wasn't the type to be intimidated. She fired one right back at the girl, and a wave of heat overcame Rowen as he suddenly felt her emotions take over his senses. He felt her anger, pride and passion flare up, and he knew instantly that she would fight anyone in a second if the situation got serious enough. Luckily, Yuka sensed it too, and she quickly backed down and retreated with her friends, her glare lingering on Randi until she was far away. Randi turned her back on them, and Rowen sighed in relief as he felt her emotions ebb into a more relaxed attitude once again before losing the link with her completely.

Rowen didn't have the chance to wonder about the brief psychic phenomenon as she spotted him across the courtyard and made her way to him. She settled down on the grass at the tree's roots a couple feet away from Rowen and said, "Hey, stranger. Long time no see." This was said with a smile and a bit of teasing, seeing as Randi had taken the care to schedule all of her classes with Rowen while she had been in the school system's computers.

"Hey," Rowen said unceremoniously, still watching the on-goings of his classmates.

Randi did the same, but it didn't hold her interest, and after a minute or so, she asked, "Rowen, can I ask you something?" Rowen turned to her and nodded. "What's really going on here?"

Rowen narrowed his eyes slightly. "What do you mean?"

Randi tried not to come off wrong, sensing how sensitive Rowen was to the whole thing. "Well, I may not know you very well, but I'd like to think that I have a decent sense of intuition, and it's telling me that you're holding out on us. Alex said you would tell us when you're ready, but I'd really like to know. It's obvious you're hurting, and I know from experience that holding things back causes more trouble than its worth." Randi paused, looking at Rowen's cold expression sympathetically. Softly, she said, "I'll shut up about it if you want, but I promise you can talk to me about anything you want and I won't judge you or tell anyone else unless you want me to."

Rowen looked at her long and hard. "What would you do if your friends' lives were in danger?"

Randi blinked. "I'd protect them. I'd give my life for them. They know it."

"So would I," Rowen said. "What if there was a way to protect them so the danger was less for them, but it put you in pain and a different kind of danger? Would you do it?"

Randi hesitated. "Yeah, of course. But...why do you have to suffer?"

"Because telling them the details of my imprisonment in the Dynasty would hurt them more right now. They already know, on some level, but the details would kill them. If I tell them, and they handle it like I know they would, it would affect their ability to fight and it could jeopardize this whole war we're in. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I guess." Randi looked at him sadly, wishing he would just tell her so she could help him. She hated seeing others in pain and not being able to help, having felt her fair share of it herself. Oh, well. I just hope he'll tell me when he's ready. I can feel how much it's eating him up... His emotional turmoil's almost unbrearable, and I'm hardly picking up on it at all psychically.

Rowen slipped over the top of the five-foot brick wall and lowered himself to the soft, grassy earth beneath. Once there, he peeked out from a bunch of bushes, making sure the coast was clear, and breathed a small sigh of relief as he emerged and started walking along the sidewalk.

He'd been smothered by concerned friends and classmates wondering where he had been, what had happened, how he was all day long, and he had just about had his share of smothering. So, as soon as his last class of the day was over, he lost them in the crowds, made a quick stop at his locker, and snuck out of a back entrance of the school. Now here he was, with his freedom as his reward.

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate their concern or anything, he was just a bit tired of feeling like he was being baby-sat or mothered constantly like he had been all day. So, as he walked in a roundabout route to the house, he felt a little more relieved than guilty that his friends would be waiting to walk home with him like they always did.

He had finally begun to feel a little more at ease when he had turned into an alley that passed between a couple apartment complexes in an iffy part of residential Tokyo. He'd purposely chosen that way to go because he knew it wasn't somewhere he was likely to run into anyone he knew, but he didn't know how wrong he was about that assumption.

All of a sudden, he felt something like a cold, biting breeze against his spine, and he stopped abruptly and spun to face whatever had caused it. It was shady and cool in the alley, and even his keen vision couldn't see anything more than a stray cat picking at the contents of a tipped trash can nearby, but he knew something was there.

"Whoever you are, show yourself," he called in a low, threatening tone that echoed back to him slightly as it bounced off the slick brick walls.

"Is that any way to treat a fellow warrior, Rowen of the Strata?" a by-now familiar voice chided him teasingly. Cat stepped out from the shadows, her body seeming to melt out of them like an ice cube melting under the sun in rewind. She was as stunning as ever, and her face was cold and evil like the master she served. Her bo staff was out and held at her side, reminding him oddly of Kayura and the Staff of the Ancients. There was a length of rope at one hip, hanging there in coils with her bronze ring.

Rowen remained impassive to her, saying coolly, "I think we both know by now that I'm not exactly the Warrior of Strata anymore, don't we?"

"Touche," Catelyn said with a smirk. "Fine then, Empyrean it is. And now that we've straightened out our addresses, perhaps you'd care to continue where we left off the other day. I have a score to settle with you, Ronin."

Rowen shifted his weight to better prepare for an attack, but Cat just laughed at him as if his actions were comical to her. "I didn't mean we were going to settle it in battle, silly boy. I'm here to prove a point to you. Shall we say, make you see the light and the error of your ways."

Rowen didn't bat an eye. "Let's just get this over with," was all he said in reply.

Cat leapt, and for a split second Rowen felt as if the ground had shifted. A moment of disorientation was all it took for her to be on him. She held him from behind, her staff pressed tight against his throat and cutting off the air to his brain. He coughed and fought her off with all his strength, but she had him in a deathgrip and he couldn't get a hold on her.

The fierce young warrior leaned in close, so her cheek just about brushed against his hair, and whispered in his ear, "I bet you're wondering how much longer you have to live right about now, aren't you, oh mighty Warrior of the Armor of Empyrean? Your blood is running quick and thin in your veins, your heart's pounding in your head, you have to struggle just to see straight. You can't breath, and soon you won't be able to fight." Catelyn paused dramatically, lowering her voice. "Get used to this feeling, Rowen. You may have the title, but you haven't earned it. You won't get the chance. If you resist Talpa, you'll be dead before this mortal week is out. But first your friends and loved ones will die, and you'll have to watch them suffer and beg. And you know why you'll be watching? Listen up, this is important." Cat paused again, her voice barely a whisper, but filled with scorn and pity. "...Because you're going to kill them, that's why!"

Rowen felt himself beginning to fade into the darkness that was clouding his vision. His head felt heavy and throbbed, and he could no longer support his own weight. On his knees with Cat over him, helpless and completely at her mercy, he tried to struggle but found it to be a losing battle. His mind and heart screamed out in protest, somehow triggering a violent psychic outburst that threw Cat backwards and released him from her grasp even as he lost consciousness and hit the ground like so much dead weight.

Randi readjusted the bag on her shoulder and sighed slightly as she scanned the thinning crowd of students milling around the sidewalk as they caught their rides home or said their goodbyes and left on foot. Of course the first thing she looked for was a shaggy crop of electric blue, but that unyielding, she searched for one of the others and spotted them together near some bushes. She slipped in between groups of teenagers in uniform and made her way over to the Ronins, calling out with a smile, "Hey, guys! What's up?"

The four Ronin Warriors turned to her. Kento smiled and greeted, "Hey! I heard you were around. You seen Rowen? We've been waiting for him. We always meet here to walk home together."

"No, I haven-" Randi started to say, but was cut off by a brilliant flash of light in her mind and a sudden choking feeling that almost made her legs buckle. Her heart raced and her head pounded as she felt the oxygen drain from her face. She felt a steadying grip hold her up as she swooned, and in another second the spell had passed.

"Randi, are you alright?" Kento asked with concern as he held her by the shoulders.

"It's Rowen, isn't it?" Sage demanded fearfully, one hand tenderly massaging his throat as if it was hurting him badly.

Randi nodded weakly, still shaking. Her hands went to her throat, which felt bruised and tender, making it feel like she'd been strangled. Finding her voice, she rasped, "He's hurt. He needs our help. Follow me!" With that, she took off at a shaky run, dodging between other Hana High students and tearing down the sidewalk to a destination she knew only in the depths of her mind. Sage and the others followed suit closely, unsure where she was going, but knowing they had to get there as quickly as possible, lest they should lose Rowen again.

Lady Catelyn sat there, stunned, for a few seconds, but grinned with satisfication and quickly got back to her feet and checked to make sure the Ronin was out cold. Satisfied that he was, she grabbed the length of rope and deftly bound his arms behind his back and leaned him up against the cold, dirty wall of the alley. She stood in front of him near the opposite wall, waiting patiently for the oxygen flow to return to his brain and wake him up. Luckily, she didn't have to wait long.

After less than a minute, Rowen groaned softly and woozily began to come to. He tried to move but found his arms tied up, his vision blurry, his throat swollen and painful, and a full-blown migraine taking hold of his head, none of which made him too happy. "Welcome back," Cat said coldly. "How are you feeling?"

Rowen glared at her silently and wondered exactly what it would take to trigger another psychic reaction to choke her with that bo.

"Not well, I see. That's too bad." Cat strode forward and stood over him, looking down as if he were a kindergarten student who had pulled the pigtails of the girl in front of him and had to be taught a lessen. "So now, Rowen, you know it's rude to use your telekinetic abilities against me if you don't intend on going all the way. So what should I do to punish you?" Her eyes lit up with a dark spark in them. "I know, I'll show you what you're missing! You do want to know the full extent of your powers, don't you?"

Rowen just glared, knowing better than to encourage her. Cat watched him and returned the glare with a sour look of her own. Then it disappeared, and her serious, all-business look took over. She stood over him, held her hands out in front of her, and rubbed them together in a circular motion. An amber-colored glow with flecks of gold light interspersed within began to accumulate around and between her hands, casting an eery light over the alley. Cat reached out with both hands and placed them at his temples, gripping his head so he couldn't jerk away.

Rowen jerked violently as the light seeped into his mind and spread through his body with a burning sensation that made him cry out. The light grew around him and threw gusts of wind outward with enough force to blow around the trash that lay on the ground in the alley. A garbage can rolled and the stray cat got spooked and darted away into the shadows. Rowen's muscles went taut and he strained against his restraints as if an electric current was jolting through him, which it very well looked like.

Catelyn struggled to hold onto him as an immense surge of power nearly flung her back. She watched the Ronin in awe, realizing that the power was his reacting with a tiny prompt from hers, and it was growing in strength at an amazing rate as she forced him to call it up.

A crack of thunder boomed overhead and a streak of lightning lit the sky, tearing it open and unleashing a torrential downpour. The winds has grown in speed and strength now, and even Cat felt like she might get blown away by them. Suddenly a bolt of lightning jutted down from the pitch black clouds that had appeared and came down between Cat and Rowen. Catelyn was thrown back with the shock of it and slammed hard into the brick wall of one apartment building. She looked up groggily and saw something that would remain in her mind for a long time afterward.

Rowen was standing in mid-air, his arms and legs spread wide, amber-gold light emanating from his body, living cords of electricity like snakes weaving in, out and around his form. His blue hair stood on end and blew around with the wind, and his stunning silver-blue eyes had flooded to blood red and were glowing darkly. He stared ahead, his expression contorted as if in an excrutiating pain that brought about a sadistic pleasure, but he was without emotion or conscious thought.

Cat watched in awe, feeling a powerful surge of adrenalin course through her veins. She was exhilerated and wide-eyed, but simply the sight of him frightened her. She had never witnessed such a pure source of power, so raw, so complete. Talpa did not possess this much power in his whole empire.

Then suddenly Rowen threw his head back and howled at the heavens. His voice was deafeningly loud and inhuman, and it shook the ground under Cat. The orb of power around his body exploded and shattered like shards of glass, and a blinding starburst of white enveloped him briefly before eveything went black. A split second later the skies cleared, the rain stopped, and the sun shone bright once more.

Lady Catelyn moved her arm away from her eyes and looked up cautiously. A few yards away, Rowen lay on the ground, the light and electricity all gone and his body apparently very weak. He was barely conscious, but his eyes flickered on her long enough for her to see that their cold silver color had returned.

She climbed to her feet, stood over him and stared down at him blankly for a few seconds, but had no time to ponder what had happened or her next action before she heard some very familiar voices around the corner. She looked to her right and saw five of the Ronin Warriors running at full speed to their friend's aid. They saw her standing over his half-conscious body and their faces all took on looks of fear, anger, and hatred. Deciding that little would be accomplished by her staying, Cat opted to make a run for it. She sprinted away down the alley away from them, abandoning her victim for now.

The others reached Rowen's side and checked to see if he was alright, but Sage kept going, giving chase to Catelyn. He sprinted down the street and rounded the corner in record time, but when he got there, she was nowhere to be seen. Cursing angrily with barely contained rage, he gave up and turned back. He came up behind Randi and Ryo, and saw Rowen being helped up by their friends. He was weak and silent, but he sent Sage a look that conveyed more than words ever could. Sage was trapped in his gaze for only a second, but what it made him feel sent a shiver down his spine. That look was cold, empty, filled with so much rage and pain it was indescribable. But most of all it was an expression of the true, inconsolable terror that filled Rowen's soul.

Sage stared back helplessly, fearing that he knew what that look meant. Rowen as he knew him was dead. The person who was left in his place had the ability to change the course of the universe. He only hoped that this other person would have the strength and desire to change it for the better, not the eternal hell it could become.

Dark Cryptic Creepy Girl's Notes

Well, here's chapter 18! 18 already, and still so much to go... Well, I made everyone wait forever, but you got not one, not two, but THREE - count 'em, THREE - chapters out of me this time! Really sorry about that. I have a very good excuse for making you wait so long, but I doubt you want to hear it. And I had no idea what I planned to be one chapter would stretch on for three, so I would've at least released chapter 16 awhile back if I'd realized it would end up this way.

I'm out of school for summer!!! You have no idea how relieved I am! All that stress and work and torture gone for three whole months! Damn, I'm only going to be a sophomore next year... Oh well, someday I'll really be done with school and you can all congratulate me. But if you think rambling that I'm out of school has no point, it does. You see, no school means *way* more time to work on my writing and other anime-related issues, provided the other aspects of my life allow me to. Zehr gut, ja? I thought you'd think so.

Well I'd better get going. I'll try to get working on the next chapter ASAP, but you aren't allowed to nag me for awhile since I gave you three chapters to read this time. The readers who annoy the writer are the readers who don't get what they want. Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and has some fun things planned. I've got a lot of cool things planned myself. The only problem is having the money, getting a summer job, and convincing my parents to let me do it all. ^_~

Until next time,
Aleksa ~~~<~~@
Quote of the day: "Those of you who think you know it all are damned annoying to those of us who do."