Part 18: Aftermath

 

Mia found everyone a place to sleep. She imagined that’s what they all wanted to do—sleep for a week at least. With as many guests as she had, and as often as they stayed over, Mia decided she was going to have to renovate. She had plenty of rooms, but not bedrooms. Mia yawned. A project for another time. The others had been asleep for hours. She wanted to go to bed, but she was still worried about…

"Hey, there. Miss me?"

"RYO!" He was leaning against the doorway, arms casually folded. The other Ronins stood behind him in the moonlight. Mia ran and threw herself into his arms. "Does this answer your question?" They all came in, talking at once. "Wait, guys. Shhhh. Everyone’s asleep. Let me guess. It was a trick. And once you got to the Dynasty, you couldn’t get back. Right?"

Sage was puzzled. "Umm. Yes. That’s it exactly."

Kento shook his head. "That’s just spooky."

Ryo chuckled softly, but then quickly became serious. "We got back as soon as we could. What’s been going on here? Are you guys okay?"

Mia couldn’t resist. In a kind of off-hand way she said, "We’re all fine. A few things did happen while you were gone, though. Let’s see. The city was attacked, we saved the world, Anubis got a new armor, and the woman he was going to marry centuries ago tried to kill us. She’s asleep upstairs. But everything’s fine now." They were all staring at her with their mouths open. "I’ll give you all the details tomorrow because it’s a long story and I don’t want to wake up the others. And I really need some sleep myself! Make yourselves at home—but I can’t guarantee you’ll find a choice spot to sleep. They’re already taken."

Ryo got her solemn promise that she’d tell them everything, first thing in the morning. Everyone quietly found a chair or a cot and tried to sleep. With a mischievous smile on her face, Mia nodded off fairly fast.

 

The following week was quiet, a little too quiet. Trace and Gilgamesh were talking again, but there was always a seriousness to their conversations. Mia could see that Astarte was upset about it. She hoped they could make their way back to the easy friendship they had before. Zane and Zoe had had a few serious conversations themselves, but they seemed to have worked things out.

Anubis and Oshay were the problem. Mia and Astarte had been working with her, showing her how the Children of Nyx had controlled her and used her. They were going slow because she had been under their influence for some time. During her convalescence, Oshay stayed in Mia’s room. She never asked for Anubis, nor did he ever visit her. It was like they didn’t even know each other existed. But Mia knew it was a lie. She often saw Oshay listening to the sound of Anubis’s voice as it carried from downstairs. Just as she often found Anubis standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking up.

There was nothing physically wrong with Oshay—she was just mentally and emotionally exhausted. Mia let her have her seclusion, but she urged her to come down and socialize. The Ronins hadn’t even met her because she refused to come downstairs. She wouldn’t even leave the room except to use the facilities. Mia had finally convinced her to come down, but she didn’t want her to be too overwhelmed by people. Since Oshay didn’t know the Ronins, Mia had asked them to hang out in the kitchen for a while. The Sentinels needed to talk alone anyway.

A lot of heavy discussion went down—mostly about the fears that had immobilized them as a team. Mia felt like they’d all been through an emotional ringer, but it felt good to have it all out. The atmosphere was lighter. "Now that we don’t have any secrets from one another, let’s keep it that way." Mia stuck out her hand, palm down. They all placed their hands on top of hers until they had all joined the circle except one. "Oshay? Would you like to join us?" Mia’s face was hopeful, but Anubis’s betrayed nothing.

"I…I cannot. I’m sorry." She turned and ran outside. Anubis silently followed her. She had stopped a little ways down the drive. Oshay was looking out over the water, her hair blowing free in the breeze. Anubis remembered a day long ago when the two of them had snuck away from their villages to go to the lake. Her beautiful green hair had come free of its braid as she ran along the shore. That was the moment he’d known for sure that he loved her. Anubis reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but stopped just short. He let his hand drop to his side. He didn’t say a word, but somehow she knew he was there.

"I wish I could stay, Anubis. You don’t know how much. But I can’t. Not yet, anyway. Mia may have shown me the truth and freed me from the Children of Nyx’s influence, but my emotions aren’t free. I know the truth, but it doesn’t change the feelings they stirred up inside me. I still burn with anger. I still hate." Her fists were clenched at her side. "Until I can purge myself of these emotions, I’m a danger to you and your friends." She started to walk away.

Anubis bowed his head. "Then may the Ancients protect you. And know that…" He said nothing for a moment. When he spoke again, it was almost a whisper. "…that my heart goes with you."

She didn’t turn to look at him, just kept walking. Green tears misted her eyes. "Thank you."

Mia went into the kitchen to get a drink of water and found the Ronins watching Anubis and Oshay out the window. They didn’t hear her come in.

"So that’s her, huh?" Sai said to the others. "Anubis’s mysterious ex-fiancee."

Rowen was trying to get a better look. "Mia said she did a pretty good job trying to kill them all."

Sage whistled softly. "Man! Anubis sure knows how to pick ‘em. Mysterious, dangerous, and…"

Kento finished the thought. "Totally incredible."

He hadn’t noticed that Zoe had just entered the room with the morning paper. She rolled up the paper and hit him in the back of the head with it. "Down, boy! You’re taken, remember?"

"Zoe! Aw, jeez. I was just…you know. Umm. Help me out here guys." They all started laughing at him.

Ryo said, "Hey, man. You’re on your own."

Zoe stalked out of the room, Kento right behind her.

Mia went over to the window and shut the curtain. "I think they’d like some privacy."

"The show’s over anyway. Oshay’s leaving."

Mia was disappointed, but not surprised.

Anubis walked in. Mia thought he looked so haggard. She put a hand on his shoulder. "Do you think she’ll come back?"

"Perhaps." He pulled the curtain back slightly, watching Oshay walk away. His voice was rough with emotion. "Perhaps not."

In the den, Kento was trying to get Zoe to talk to him. "Zoe! I didn’t mean anything by it!"

Zoe turned her back to Kento so he couldn’t see her smiling. "So she wasn’t incredible?"

"Yes. No! Aaargh! You know what I mean!"

"And I’m not forgetting that you stood me up for our date."

"Aw, come on! I was trapped in another dimension!"

"Sure. That’s what all the other guys I dated said."

"What other guys?"

"I don’t remember them all. There were a lot of them, you know."

"Just as long as there aren’t a lot of them now!"

"Well…I could be persuaded to forget them. It’ll take some work, though."

Kento spun her around and kissed her. "How’s that?"

"It’ll do…for a start."

That’s when Kento noticed Sage and Sai making kissy-faces behind Zoe. "You guys are so dead!" He ran after the other two, threatening them with bodily harm. They took off outside, laughing all the way.

Zoe stood there with her hands on her hips. She sighed. "Men!"