As promised, here’s chapter seven. I know, it’s a little shorter than 6 but it asked to be cut short. Chapter 8 should be about the same length. I would like to say that all additional Ronin personality quirks are mine. I am solely responsible for Sage being an artist and for any new Mia characteristics. Please don’t hate me, that’s just the way they turned out. I kind of like them.

Happy Reading!

Chapter 7

Rhiannon looked up and opened her mouth to say something but he beat her to it.

"I wanted to apologize for the way I acted earlier," Sage said as he lowered himself to the ground next to Rhiannon. "I was totally obnoxious. I don’t know what got into me. No matter how many times I told myself that I shouldn’t hit on you because you were older, I kept telling myself that you couldn’t be that old. And then I got it into my head that it would be ‘cool’ to ‘conquer’ an older woman so everything just worked in reverse and that’s what made me so persistent. I feel really bad and I just wanted to let you know I’m really sorry." Sage rose to leave.

"Sage, stay."

"You’ve relented?"

"No, I still won’t go out with you."

"You’ve decided to give me my film back?"

"No, but I never said you couldn’t take any with my permission.

"Can I shoot you? You really are photogenic."

"If you stay and talk to me. And as long as you don’t touch me, and promise not to do anything sick with those photos, you can take as many as you want."

Sage looked like a kid in a candy shop as he loaded new film into the camera. He went wild, shooting pictures of Rhiannon in all kinds of poses. After he had exhausted his extensive supply of film they simply sat and talked for almost two more hours. When they finally went home for dinner and Sage was unpacking his photo materials, he couldn’t believe he had used so much film. It was late, but he was charged and didn’t feel like sleeping so he decided to start developing some of the film.

Sage picked up one of the pictures in utter shock. He stared at it for a full minute. It was absolutely incredible. At first he wanted to attribute it to his wonderful talent, but as he looked at it more closely he realized that it was Rhiannon who made the picture. It was at a strange angle, sort of a cross between a front view and profile. Rhiannon was walking along the shore in the bright blue afternoon sunlight, her toes just barely at the water’s edge. But it was far enough. The water and the sky blended perfectly, it looked as though Rhiannon was floating in mid air. Strange though, to him, it seemed a natural place for her to be. He glanced at the other pictures as they finished developing. Sage grabbed one more he liked. In this one Rhiannon’s full profile was set against the pinks and purples of the setting sun. He rooted around in his box of frames for suitable ones for the two pictures and set to work.

When he finished he walked up the stairs to the sitting room and placed the framed pictures on the mantle with the others. He leaned back to admire his handiwork. He’d been taking pictures since he was little, never did he imagine he’d have ones that turned out like these did. There were pictures of all of them, group shots where he’d set the camera on a time-delay. There were pictures of each warrior individually, except him. Sage had never been one to take pictures of himself. For some reason, that surprised the other guys. There were a few candids, they were his favorite type of photo. There was one where he had caught Sai shoving Kento out of the kitchen after Kento had spilled flour all over Sai. There was another of Sai in the kitchen. He was in the process of creating some meal for all of them and Sage had caught the utter joy on Sai’s face as he prepared their meal. There was one of Uli on his skateboard, racing White Blaze. That was a more recent picture. The little boy had just begun to smile again after loosing his parents to Talpa. There was one of his favorites, Rowen sitting in the chair by the window, reading, as usual. But this was different. The sun was setting and it threw gold and pink hues across Rowen’s form. He looked like something ethereal. It was scary. And then his favorite until he developed the ones of Rhiannon. Ryo and Mia were both petting White Blaze. Sage had captured the exact moment when they both looked up and realized that each felt something for the other. That picture was priceless. Sage would treasure it always. He would have to make a copy of it so he could take it with him after this whole Dynasty thing was over. Sage sighed and placed the two pictures of Rhiannon next to the one of Ryo and Mia.

Slowly he climbed the stairs and let himself into the room he shared with Rowen. Sage thanked his god that Rowen slept like the dead, it was after two a.m. when Sage finally slipped between the covers of his bed and fell asleep.

***

By the time Rowen woke the next morning, it was almost noon and he had missed breakfast—again. There was a note taped to the inside of the bedroom door. Rowen took it down and held it close to his face, his contacts were in the bathroom and he couldn’t find his glasses—again. He could just barely make out Sage’s scrawl.

Ro—

Sage always put the time on everything he wrote and according to this note the guys hadn’t been out there very long. If he hurried he could still get in enough of a warm-up to train with the other guys. Rowen put it in gear. If there was one thing he hated more than fighting Dynasty goons it was training alone. After he finished dressing, Rowen ran into the bathroom he shared with Sage to pop his contacts in and brush his teeth. Leave it to Mr. Hygienic to remind him to do something he did every morning.

Rowen was in luck. They guys were still stretching when he got out. After they had stretched, Ryo announced that today they would work on hand to hand combat.

"Wonderful," Sage muttered.

"We all need to work on that," Ryo replied.

"I’m an archer, not a goon. Why should I be working on hand to hand?" Rowen asked.

"There will come a time when your arrows will do you no good. What are you gonna do? Beat the enemy with your bow? Now there’s a pretty picture."

"I’m not a goon," Kento cried. "I just like to hit things."

"Kento, calm down. No one thinks you’re a goon," Sai reassured him.

"I don’t want to hear about it. Let’s get a move on. We don’t have all day. We’ve been lucky these past few days, the Dynasty’s been giving us a break. And what have we done? Tried to impress Rhiannon, who’s already got a guy she loves."

"Speak for yourself," Kento said.

"Let’s go, guys," Ryo said and began aerobics, effectively ending the argument.

***

Rhiannon trained alone, as she always had. She went though first warm-up, then meditation to regain her focus. Calming her breath, centering her being. She could feel the heat flow through her veins, was aware of each muscle in her body. Then she shifted into aerobics to get her heart pumping and her blood flowing. After an hour of aerobics, she shifted back into meditation. When she had sufficiently centered her being, she stood and faced a large boulder. Elbows out, palms together in front of her chest, Rhiannon thought. The boulder exploded.

"Not bad," she said to no one in particular.

Next she tried something she hadn’t done in a while. Her arms spread, palms upward, she thought once again. Slowly, she rose from the ground. Six inches, a foot, two feet. She looked down.

"Goddess, I’m good." Slowly she lowered herself back to the ground.

Suddenly, the sky went dark. Rhiannon’s mental shield went up. Her physical shield molded to her body. She prepared for battle. Maniacal laughter filled the air. Dais materialized in front of her.

"You will come Goddess. The master decrees it."

"Not without a fight," she replied. Onyx was at her side in a split second and she could sense the guys coming to her aid.

"As you wish," Dais said. He gestured in the air and an army of Dynasty soldiers appeared around him.

"I will never return. I made it out of there once, I intend to never go back." Rhiannon jumped into battle, directly attacking Dais.

"Rhi! Get out of there! We’re here, we’ll take care of it!" she heard Ryo call, but Rhiannon was already engaged in combat with Dais. She dimly heard the boys armor up to full armor, but she did notice a significant decrease in the number of soldiers.

"My dear Warlord of Illusion, you have me at a disadvantage," she announced to Dais as she swiped at a strand of hair that had come loose from the tight bun she had wrapped it in.

"That was my plan, but I didn’t think I had already succeeded," he replied.

"Well, love, you’re wearing armor, and I am not. I believe that is an unfair advantage to begin with." She delivered a swift punch to his jaw.

Dais’ head snapped back with the force of her punch. "I do believe you’re holding your own. I have dearly missed our sparing sessions, sweet Goddess." His fist shot out.

"See, Rhi’s able to use hand to hand combat quite well," Ryo said without even thinking about it.

"Oh, my God!" Sage cried, as he realized that Rhiannon was alone against a warlord.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I am not a goddess!" Rhiannon screamed as she blocked Dais’ fist to her stomach.

"You may not have been one then, I’ll admit, I was wrong, but you certainly are one now. I know it for a fact."

"How?" Rhiannon queried as she spun around to kick him.

"Talpa. When you first arrived with theses Ronin whelps, they are pathetic, I might add, they haven’t even come around to help a lady, the good master noticed you. At first none of us could recognize you. It has been several centuries, after all." This time Dais’ fist did connect with Rhiannon’s jaw.

"How could you not have recognized me?" Rhiannon asked as she spat out a mouthful of blood. "I haven’t changed in all this time."

"Our minds were filled with other things. Taking over this pathetic world, was one. Fortunately, after Master Talpa informed me I was to go on this away mission, but before I left, I went to speak with our fourth warlord."

"You did not!" Rhiannon cried as she lunged for Dais.

"I found out many interesting things. Pity he’s no longer available for comment. The Master had several things planned for the two of you."

"NO!" Rhiannon shrieked. She went after Dais with everything she had, using all of her powers.

"Rhiannon! Get out of there! Let us take care of him!" Rowen cried. By now all of the soldiers had been destroyed, but the boys were a bit worse for the wear. They could barely take on a Warlord when they were all at top performance, Sai shuddered to imagine how badly they’d be defeated now. But they couldn’t just leave Rhiannon. None of them had any idea how she’d managed to last as long as she did, she was, after all, just a girl with no defensive training. The guys moved in to attack Dais.

"WEB OF DECEPTION!!" Dais cried. Suddenly there were seven Daises, all holding a Rhiannon captive. "Which one of us is real and which are simply illusions, Ronin whelps?" each Dais asked. The Ronins jumped into action but each Dais attacked. None of them seemed hampered by the Rhiannon in his arms. "WEB OF DECEPTION!!" Dais cried again. This time the attack did more than just create illusion. Chains shot out of the ground, ensnaring the Ronins. The Daises merged into one. "Ah, my dear Ronins, Talpa will triumph. And you’ve lost your little goddess guardian. What will you do now?"
"I am not a goddess!"
"That’s enough out of you. I believe it’s time we left. Rest assured, you will be seeing more of me. The goddess, well, that’s another matter. But I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting to see her." And with that, both Dais and Rhiannon were gone. The chains disappeared and the boys fell to the ground.

"Where is she!" Rowen cried.

"Dais took her," Ryo said simply.

"NO! I refuse to believe that. We’ve got to get her back."

"How? We can’t just knock on one of those huge gates Talpa’s got floating around in the city. And forget about the ancient making us another bridge. He’s gone. What do you propose to do, oh fearless leader?" Kento asked.

"I think you all should come in and get fixed up," Mia said, tears threatening to overflow her eyes.

Ryo limped up to the back door where Mia stood. "We’ll get her back, I promise," he said as he put his arm around her shoulder. She leaned into him and began to sob quietly.

"Well, if nothing good ever comes of this, at least those two have gotten together," Sai sighed.

"We have to get Rhiannon back. We have to get her fiancé back. They deserve to be as happy as Ryo and Mia will be," Sage said as the rest of them filed into the house.

***

A flash of light and a thud and a man was deposited on the ground, close to Mia’s mansion.

"Raine…" he half moaned, half whispered before he passed out from the excruciating pain he was in. A man in long blue robes wearing a wide brimmed hat concealing his eyes appeared out of thin air. He bent down to heft the man into his arms. Slowly he began walking into the forest behind Mia’s property.

***