I’m back! Aren’t you all glad? I realized I had written myself into a conflict. So these past few chapters have been trying to fix all that. I hope you all don’t mind. And if you didn’t even notice, then just ignore the third and fourth sentences in this opening. A definite personality quirk warning for this one, I’m the authoress, I’m allowed to play with the characters somewhat. Second, I’m working on the assumption that Talpa’s first invasion occurred roughly 500 years ago. I’m the authoress, I’m allowed to make executive decisions. I’d also like to tell you that it appears that I’ll never be able to fit this into the show’s time frame, so let’s pretend for a moment. There has been a slip in the space-time continuum and this is an alternate dimension of RW/YST. Some things might happen the same way, probably many of the battle scenes. But the rest of it will take place only in my completely skewed imagination. So, I’ll let you know when you should get out your show synopsis and follow along and when you should just lock it away in a safe box so you don’t get confused. Right now, lock the synopsis away. I’ll shut up now and let you get to the good part.

Happy Reading!

Standard disclaimer: I don’t own the Ronins & Co. I do, however, own everyone else, including the plot. If you desire to borrow the characters or certain plot elements, chances are I’ll be more than willing to let you, just please ask me first. Thanks!

Chapter 9

Rhiannon sighed as she began to prepare for her bath. The servant had come and gone, and drawn a hot bath for her. Rhiannon stripped the soiled practice suit she had worn when she was battling Dais. She allowed it to fall into a pile around her feet. She stepped out of the pile, and began to remove the rest of her clothing. She stepped into the bathing room and allowed the steam from her bath to begin to work on her aches and pains. It had been a long time since she had actually fought another person and her body was paying the price. She slowly began to pull the pins out of her hair, releasing it from the prison the bun confined it to. Her hair cascaded down her back and hugged her hips.

"Ew, this is rather disgusting," she said to herself. She stepped into the huge tub and allowed the hot water to just ease away the kinks in her muscles.

***

"She will be guarded, night and day. She will also resume training with the three of you. When you are training together, all three of you will be there. I want no repeats of what happened last time," Talpa said with a pointed look at Cale. "It is enough that I could not recognize her, those few weeks ago, I do not trust her. I would rather kill her and send her to be with her dear fiancé, but I cannot do that. I need her for my plan; her sister cannot accomplish what I wish. And if she dares to don her armor, destroy her. I will just have to devise another devious plan to destroy the world. She is to arrive soon. The three of you will train, now." And with that Talpa dismissed the three remaining warlords.

"So, what’s she like after almost 400 years?" Sekhmet asked.

"She hasn’t changed, well, aside from the fact that she no longer enjoys killing people," Cale replied.

"And this dipstick is still in love with her," Dais added.

"You’re kidding. After all this time! After what she did to you? How could you?" Sekhmet all but shrieked.

"You, my dear Warlord of Illusion, are going to die a slow and painful death," Cale glowered at Dais.

"You haven’t answered my question," Sekhmet persisted.

"Have you ever tried to forget the only woman you’ve ever loved?"

"I was never stupid enough to fall in love with the fiancée of one of my brothers in arms."

"I don’t understand why she remained faithful to him all that time she was with us. They both knew Talpa would never let them continue their relationship."

"Why did he do that?" Dais asked.

"Do what?" Cale replied

"Refuse to allow them to continue their relationship? He let all of us, the two of them included, engage in any kind of ‘relationship’ behavior we chose. It was only the two of them who were not allowed to see each other. Talpa never had a problem with any of us seeing Raine or Kayura," Dais clarified.

"Like Raine would ever let any of us into her room after dark," Sekhmet remarked.

"Talpa never let Raine anywhere near Kayura either."

"So they were having an illicit incestuous relationship?" Dais questioned.

"Ew, goddess, no, I hope not," Cale replied. "But think about it. Raine is incredibly powerful. Neither she nor Kayura can be brainwashed. Talpa had to control them through devices. What if Talpa was afraid that if Raine and Kayura would get together and throw off his evil and destroy him?"

"What does that have to do with him not allowing her to see her fiancé?" Dais asked.

"What if he thought that by seeing her love, she would be able to remember what kind of life they had together, and then she would remember everything else and then they would go get Kayura and destroy Talpa," Sekhmet suggested.

"It makes sense. It really does," Cale concluded.

"What are we going to do now? I, for one, do not want to end up the way Anubis did. But I refuse to stay under Talpa’s control," Dais stated.

"The only way to get out is to have Raine get out with us. We couldn’t make it through Talpa’s barriers alone. She’s done it once, she can do it again."

"But Talpa’s upped the security level. Don’t you think he’ll be watching for her to make a break again?" Dais said.

"Can’t you sense how much stronger she is now? I don’t know what she did over the past 400 years, but none of us could even recognize her—"

"Wait, wait, none of us was ever close enough to sense her ki," Sekhmet interjected.

"Do you remember the night we first showed ourselves to the Ronins?" Cale asked.

"What?"

"That night, on the rooftop. Anubis and Kayura were there too."

"Yeah, I remember," Dais said.

"What about it?" Sekhmet asked.

"She was there."

"WHAT!!" was the reply Cale received from his two companions.

"You’ve got to be kidding me," Dais said. "He didn’t even notice. She must not have been in close enough vicinity to project on us."

"Can you feel her now?" Cale asked. Dais and Sekhmet closed their eyes.

"Yes," Sekhmet hissed.

"She was in the next building over, that night," Cale stated simply. "She couldn’t sense us either."

"How do you think that happened?" Dais inquired.

"The kis. They’ve changed so much that we, we who spent nearly 100 years together, couldn’t sense each other. They, who were so in love when we were first brought to Talpa it was sickening, couldn’t tell that the other, the one each has spent the last 4 centuries searching for, was only a few meager feet away. She said she was staring right at us, yet she couldn’t sense us," Cale continued.

"If the kis have changed, why can we sense her now? Maybe we couldn’t sense her that night because we didn’t even know she still existed," Dais interjected.

"No, you can’t turn off sensing a companion’s ki. We were tuned to her for almost a century. That’s long enough to ensure that the same ki would be recognized for the rest of our lives. Even if we couldn’t place the ki, we still would have sensed another presence. And even if you are right, she knew we were still around, why couldn’t she sense us?" Cale queried.

"Ok, so some things have changed. How does that help us? I agree that we all have to get out at once, but how do we do that? And I do know that Talpa’s changed things around after she managed to get out once. And don’t you think that he’ll try to put her under some mind control again? There’s no guarantee that she won’t try to kill us the next time she sees us."

"I don’t think he’ll try that route again. He’ll just have her guarded. And even if he did, I don’t think he’d be successful, she’s too powerful."

"How do you know how powerful she is?" Sekhmet asked.

"I can just sense it," Cale replied.

"I’ve witnessed it," Dais said.

"What?" Cale and Sekhmet asked.

"When we were fighting, and even before. She was training, her power level is higher than Talpa’s. And then when we were fighting, she would have destroyed me if she had bothered to don her armor, or if I had removed mine. And she wasn’t even trying! I shudder to imagine what she’d be able to do if she put her mind to it. She could shield all of us and we could be out of here before Talpa even noticed," Dais remarked.

"But when are we going to be able to get the three of us together with her without Talpa thinking we’re up to something?" Cale asked.

"Training session," Sekhmet said simply.

"Perfect," the three warlords said in unison. "This one is for you, Anubis," Cale said before they began their practice.

***

"What was that?" Mia half whispered.

"I’ll go check, you stay here," Ryo said, his red and white sub-armor already protecting his body.

"I’m coming with you."

"No, you stay. I don’t want you to get hurt."

"I can take care of myself, I’m not some weakling."

"Fine, just stay behind me." They walked to the front, where they heard the noise again.

"It sounds like someone knocking on the door," Ryo said. "But who would be knocking on your door at this time of night? And Talpa’s already got the people locked away somewhere."

"Master of the Obvious," Mia said sarcastically. She went to open the front door.

"Wait, shouldn’t I get the other guys? What if it’s a trap? It could be one of the warlords."

"Using the door? And it’s almost 11 o’clock at night."

"Dais showed up in the middle of the night that one time."

"Did he knock at the door? Come on Ryo, get with it." Mia swung the door open and screamed.

"I told you so!" Ryo yelled as he jumped in front of her. He was treated to a vision of the Ancient holding Anubis in his arms.

"Well, can I come in?" he asked.

"Kaos, please, what can we do for you?" Mia asked.

"Wait, drop the warlord at the door before you come in."

"Ryo! He’s hurt! We can’t just leave him!"

"He’s evil. Or have you forgotten that he’s a warlord and he’s trying to kill us?"

"Don’t listen to Ryo, please, come in."

Kaos walked past Ryo and laid the fallen warlord on Mia’s couch.

"What do you think you’re doing!"

"He needs to be taken care of."

"Why can’t you do that?"

"I’m dead, remember?"

"Ryo, take a long walk, I’ll take care of him."

"You think I’m going to leave you here with a dead guy and a warlord?"

"Wildfire, please, you must trust me. Anubis needs your help. He’s relented, he brings you no harm, of that I can assure you."

"Kaos, we trust you," Mia said. "What can we do for him?"

"Take him to one of you spare rooms and let him sleep. He needs to rest more than anything. Talpa was excruciatingly cruel to him before he attempted to kill him. I was successful in teleporting him out before Talpa could succeed in killing him. He may be disoriented when he regains consciousness but he should recover. Just don’t push him into revealing anything."

"What do we feed him?" Ryo asked.

"Whatever Sai cooks will be fine," Mia answered for him. "Now help me get him up to the room next to Rhiannon’s," she continued with a note of sadness in her voice.

"Thank you, Wildfire, Mia. He will be grateful, as am I," and with that, the Ancient was gone, he simply faded out of existence.

***

"The Master will see you now," a servant said to Rhiannon as she finished dressing.

"Oh, how kind of him," she answered and dismissed the girl. ‘Poor thing, goddess only knows how long she’s been here,’ Rhiannon thought as she stood and prepared to teleport. She closed her eyes and felt the welcoming rush of power as the particles that made up her body separated and reformed in Talpa’s audience chamber.

"You wished to see me, Lord?" she asked not without a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"It has been many centuries since you stood in my chambers, Goddess," Talpa replied. He was more than just a huge head this time. He was as Rhiannon had always seen him, in a body, but he did not wear his armor now. He wore a simple gray kimono, his long white hair flowed down behind the mask he never removed. "Or should I return to referring to you as my Empress?"

"I am ready and willing to serve you again, my Lord."

"Such a change of heart in such a short time?"

"I have had hours to ponder my situation."

"And centuries to allow your hate to fester."

"I weighed all of my options and I have come to the conclusion that it would be easier on us all if I simply returned to my former position as your Empress. The warlords will accept it. You obviously want me to return to where I was, and Kayura will not get any ideas about dispatching me if I am once again at your right hand."

"And how do you know the warlords will accept your decision?"

"They have no choice. I am their Empress, they must obey me."

"And how do you know that I desire you to return to your former position?"

"Why else would you have ordered Dais to bring me to your chambers and not kill me first? Why would I have the most luxurious chambers in the entire palace? Why would I be standing before you in silken robes? Why would you appear to me in your body? Why would there be a second throne next to yours? My Lord, why would all of these things take place if you did not want me to become Empress once again?"

"Why would you wish to return here after you have had so much time in the human realm?"

"The human realm is pathetic. I’ve lived through more wars than I care to count. If we rule the human realm, there will be no more wars. We could control it all," Rhiannon looked like a lioness on the prowl, she was the perfect huntress. Her mane shivered as if alive, her eyes sparkled with hatred, she ran her tongue over her lips, making them gleam in the low light of Talpa’s chambers. "The humans would have no reason to fight amongst themselves, they would have us as their ultimate rulers. And if they got out of hand, we could just kill them."

"You are so eager to betray your own kind? You were once a human."

"I am human no longer. I am Empress and Goddess in one."

"What makes you think that I would share my conquest with you even if you were my Empress?"

"You have no choice. You need me to conquer the human realm. You can’t do it without my powers."

"Then if I am to allow you to rule next to me, you will do one thing I want of you."

"Enlighten me, my Lord."

"You will provide me with an heir. I had hopes that you and the fourth warlord would provide me with both an heir and a new line of warriors. Females, like you, strong, swift, petite, with your powers to match. But unfortunately, by the time you returned to me, I had to do away with said warlord. No matter, you may have your choice of the three remaining warlords to father my child."

"Your child? The child would be more mine than yours."

"The child will be my heir. It will be mine from the moment it is able to live on its own."

Rhiannon smiled. ‘If he only knew. The one thing he wants most, I cannot give any man. Or demon, for that matter.’ "It will be as you say, my Lord."

"Dais, Cale, Sekhmet! My chambers, immediately!" Talpa bellowed. He had once again shifted into the amorphous head form. The warlords teleported in within seconds.

"Yes, my Lord," Dais said.

"Gather all the lords and demons of the Neatherrealm. I have an announcement that cannot wait. You have one minute."

One minute later all of the nobles, if one could call them that, of the Neatherrealm gathered in Talpa’s audience chamber.

"As you all know, the Goddess has returned to us. I would like to introduce both Empress and Goddess, my Queen and Lady, the female who will provide me with an heir, the Lady Empress Raine. You will obey her as you obey me, or one of us will kill you. Dismissed." With that, the head was gone, leaving Rhiannon staring at the Warlords, one of whom would have the futile task of fathering her child.

*And the two of you said she wouldn’t return to serving the Master.* Sekhmet sent to the other two warlords.

***

Toodles!