Summit
of the
Dark Hero’s 2: Age of Darkness

Displacement

Prologue:

The streets of the ruined city were deserted, even the homeless that never sought out refuge at any United Alliance base. The storm had gathered quickly and attacked the area with such force that it was nothing short of a large cyclone. The clouds pitch black and the rain fell heavily over the city and forest at the cities outskirts, gale force winds swept the area, bending tree’s to breaking point and throwing abandoned car wreckages about like a child throwing a toy across a floor.

Sitting idly on top of the ruins of an old skyscraper a lone figure watched the storm, legs crossed with one knee on top of the other and leaning back slightly. Though the figure wore a black cloaked, it was without a doubt a woman, the legs were slim and the fingers delicate.

She slid forward and slipped off the building, and landed, then stepped to the side as the wreckage of a motorcycle rushed past her and slammed into the building. Calmly, she made her way through the empty streets, casually side stepping anything the wind threw at her. As she continued on she couldn’t help but think about how the city had once been full of people, all going about their daily lives each day with not a single consideration towards unforeseeable events. Though, who could have foreseen X-day without knowing about Chronos, she thought.

She reached the outskirts of the city a short while later, staring into the forest, a shiver going up her spine as she did. The glanced up as she saw a streak of red light shoot across the sky in the distance. She didn’t linger long and moved into the forest, moving a steady pace as she got closer and closer, the sound of an explosion echoing throughout the area. Finally she came to the spot she wanted, a spot where a patch of trees had been vaporized by an explosion, and stood in the shadows of one of the tree’s still standing.

She watched the dark green guyver with demonic looking wings fly back and forth watching as he battled the Zoalord.

“Finally” she breathed. “Its time.”

Some Days Earlier

Had it not been for the air conditioning, everyone sitting at the conference room table would have killed each other, most likely. Positioned without order around the table the Australian Guyvers and Sakura sat around the table with folders and files in front of them with bored and almost strangled looks on their faces. They wanted to get through with their official duties so they could go back to doing their own things. The only one that wasn’t concerned about it was Rune, who was lazing back in his chair, asleep.

Oni looked at him every now and then with a murderous glance but said nothing, it was one less source of complaints. Although now she could watch him and see how much she had changed since she had been turned into a girl. She really couldn’t believe she had been this lazy before, it shocking to observe really..

“Ok, so its been confirmed that Chronos have managed to take back five percent of what originally took as nearly five years to take from them in less then a couple of weeks with the help of Demios and Phobos” Oni said, and promptly put the report down, and had a look on frustration on her face. “We are screwed. At this rate, Chronos are going to reacquire all the territory we took back from them, and take what little territory we had to begin with.”

“Thanks not sugar coating it for us” Anthony said dryly.

“She’s right though” Jason sighed. “Its not just Demios and Phobos that are the problem, it’s Chronos’s increasing number of Elite Overlords that popping up. There’s simply not enough processing plants on Earth to produce the amount we’ve seen so quickly, and I don’t think the Ark would have all that much room either. We have to figure out how they’re producing so many Elite Overlords and stop it, that should be our most important concerns at the moment.”

Oni nodded and they all fell into silence as they contemplated this, Rune’s snores finally becoming too much for Oni, who then tipped his seat backwards her powers just enough for it to fall backwards, causing Rune to fall out of the chair and crash to the ground with a startled scream. He got up and instantly shot a death glance at Oni who looked pleased with herself and shook the glance off.

“Pleasant sleep I hope?” she said with an innocent smile.

“It was” he growled irritably as he pick his seat up and sat back down, put his feet up on the table and went back to sleep again, much to Oni’s annoyance.

“I give up” she said, and all the reports promptly burst into flames. “Meeting closed, go have some fun or whatever it is you all do.”

No one wasted much time leaving the room, eager to go off an do their own thing, but Sakura lingered behind and waited as Oni was having a look through the bag she kept at her side. Sakura waited patiently, though with a hesitant look on her face.

“What is it?” Oni asked calmly, without looking up.

“Um…….. I wanted to talk…. About something in important” she started.

Oni looked up this time and gestured for her to sit down, there was some concern in her eyes as her friend sat down next to her.

“What’s wrong? No body tried to hurt you did they?” Oni asked, suddenly ready to smash some heads in. “Just tell me who they are and I’ll rip them apart and spread their remains from here to Timbuktu, if there’s anything left that is.”

“No its not that” Sakura said quickly.

Oni looked puzzled. “Well what is then?”

Sakura sighed. “I’m not sure I really have any purpose with on this team anymore. I don’t mean to seem ungrateful, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, you and Kelly have been like the older sisters I never had, but I don’t think I serve any real purpose here anymore. I was thinking about returning to Japan and helping with the fight against Chronos there, where I can actually be of use” she explained slowly and quietly.

Oni was troubled by this, she couldn’t say that it wasn’t true, because realistically it was. There was silence between them for the longest time while Oni processed what she had just heard and tried to think of the best way to respond.

“I can see where you’re coming from” she admitted finally and reluctantly. “But I don’t want you to think that you have to leave, but if its really what you want then I wont stop you from doing so, but at least take a couple of days to think about this before you do ok? Because you are also like the little sister I never had, so you’re like family to me. But like I said, if you really feel that this is something you have to do, then I wont stand in your way, just think about it first please.”

Sakura was silent for a few seconds before she replied. “I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and I really believe this is the right thing to do. Japan is my homeland, and I should be there trying to help liberate it. Sho and Agito may have the Gigantic unit, but as Agito told me, there’s only two of them in the end and I think I should use all the experience I’ve gained in the last six years and the stuff you’ve taught me about martial arts and help them as best I can. I owe it to my grandfather, and my parents, you understand right?”

“Yeah, I understand” she almost had to force herself to speak. “When did Agito talk to you?”

“It was last week… why?” Sakura asked.

“No reason” she replied through clenched teeth.

“I’m gonna talk with Sho and Mizuki and the others and see if I can stay with them for awhile. I don’t really like Agito so I don’t want to have to ask if I can use one his safe houses, and I don’t really want to stay on my own either” Sakura continued.

“Sakura, for your own sake, never turn to Agito for help” Oni said darkly. “He’s never to be trusted, remember that. He’s only fighting against Chronos because he has his own agenda to take care of, and I have a pretty goo idea what that is. And he’s only allied with the United Alliance because for now its in his own best interest.”

“That's a little harsh don’t you think?” Sakura asked carefully.

“No, not really” she answered sincerely.

“I’d better go talk with Sho and the others, thank you for understanding Oni” Sakura said after a short silence between the two, the quietly she stood up and left.

* * *

Agito never even had the chance to summon his unit as Oni came out of nowhere and picked him up by the throat and slammed him against the wall of the private lab, the scientist present cowering in the corner as the woman held their leader in a death grip. Agito had learnt long ago that to show fear to a person attack you was a mistake, to show fear was to show weakness, though he didn’t feel fear at this moment, only slight weariness as the woman snarled angrily.

“How dare you Agito!” she shouted.

“How dare I what? You’re the one who came here uninvited and acting violent” he replied calmly.

Her eyes glowed crimson red and she tightened her grip a little more until he winced and clenched his teeth from the pain of her sharp nails cutting his skin, but he refused to mutter a signal sound of pain, even if the scientist hadn’t been in the room he wouldn’t have.

“Listen snake because I’m only going to say it once! I don’t know what you hope to archive from putting the notion in Sakura’s head that she needs to return home to help fight Chronos, but if anything happens to Sakura, if she so much as gets a scraped knee because of you, I will find you and you will not live to see another day. I will rip out your control medal and I will crush it, you got that?” she snarled dangerously.

“Sakura is a big girl, she can make her own decisions without you interfering” he told her, again he sounded calm and that only seemed to piss Oni off even more.

“I’m warning you Agito” she said coldly, then disappeared.

Agito rubbed his neck slightly. “That girl has a temper” he said, then smirked silently. “We’re going to have to do something about that….”

* * *

As he sat there, Rivenous reflected on the past couple of weeks since Phobos and Demios had received their Oni Units. Chronos was once again back in control thanks to the two Elite Overlord Guyvers and the ever growing army of clone Elite Overlords. Already they were setting up several new colony stations to house their giant army. Though, Chronos regaining control had come with its price of course. Since the event at the Tibetan temple Stephanie had barely said two words to him and he was starting to wonder if Chronos regaining control had been worth it.

“I say we use the Elite Overlord army and storm every United Alliance and Zeus Thunderbolt base on earth” Luggnagg said.

“No, too many lives would be lost in the resulting battle” Alkanphel said almost immediately.

“What does it really matter?” Jearvill asked calmly. “We don’t need the pathetic humans that refuse to bow down to us, we should wipe them all out, and then we can replace them with our own race of human followers.”

“I am in agreement” Cablarl Khan added.

Alkanphel stared at the three with narrowed eyes, he knew perfectly well about their little alliance, although he let them go on thinking that he didn’t and that they were safe. They were only safe until they had outlived their usefulness.

“We’re not going to destroy the humans, that was never part of my plan and it never will be. The whole point of taking over the earth was to prepare them for war against the Creators, and that's how it will remain. We need only to concern ourselves with the problem of defeating our three most dangerous adversaries. Shadow Guyver, Fallen and Oni Guyver” he told them all firmly.

* * *

Back on board the Triton, Oni suddenly sneezed.

* * *

“The Oni Guyver, her brother and Shadow Guyver are of no concern to us” Cablarl Khan said arrogantly. “With Phobos and Demios Guyver, us and the army we have amassed no one can stand against us.”

“I’ll be sure to tell Oni you said when she’s ripping your wrinkled old head off by that beard of yours” Rivenous said with a dark look in his eyes. He had been quiet open about his feelings towards the Chinese zoalord since his father processed the little bastard, and had it not been for his father warning him against it in the past, he probably would have killed him by now.

“We could always use your beautiful young wife to neutralize Oni Guyver and Fallen” Jearvill suggested casually.

Rivenous leveled a dangerous look at the Zoalord.

“I think that is brilliant idea” Cablarl nodded. “While she keeps the two busy we could easily take Shadow Guyver down and take their friends hostage, then they’d have no choice but to agree to stop fighting us, or do whatever we want them to.”

“You’re both morons” Rivenous told them bluntly. “If we leave them with no options, they’ll come at us with everything they have, they’ll destroy everything within a matter of days and when they’re near exhaustion, they’ll self destruct and take us with them, including their friends if they have to, who I know would all rather die then become our slaves.”

“You just don’t want to put your wench in danger” Luggnagg said.

Rivenous had Luggnagg pinned against a wall with one hand and his other hand bury deep in the tall Zoalord’s gut, blood spilling on to the floor. Rivenous snapped his head around to look at the other Zoalord’s gathered, his eyes glowing dangerously at them.

“Does anyone else want to say something about my wife?” he demanded, twisting an internal organ around inside of Luggnagg causing him to howl in agony. When none of the Zoalords said a thing Rivenous threw Luggnagg across the room and return to his seat, his hand covered in blood. “Now, we’re all in agreement that we’re not using my wife for a suicidal plan?”

They all nodded, Cablarl Khan though nodded reluctantly and gave Rivenous a look of pure hatred, he would have loved nothing more then to kill the Prince of Chronos, but he couldn’t afford to have Alkanphel kill him. He had to wait for the right moment to strike at Rivenous.

The meeting barely progressed from then on and soon they were dismissed, leaving only Rivenous and Alkanphel in the conference room, Rivenous still fuming over Luggnagg’s remark about Stephanie, he was almost of half a mind to find and kill the bastard.

“Let it go” Alkanphel told him.

“I should have ripped his head off” Rivenous growled. “Give me the order to kill him the other two, please father.”

“Those three will get what they deserve in time” his father assured him. “Besides, they are unimportant at this moment. They are at the bottom of the food chain. Concentrate on current projects.”

“I’m trying father, I really am” the prince said wearily. “I just want this blasted war to be over with. If Oni and her band of Guyvers would just listen to reason we would be able to focus on the most important part of our operations without having to worry about them all the time. And if she wasn’t enough, I have to sit back and watch those three bastards sneaking behind our backs trying to get away with god only knows what.”

“Calm yourself” Alkanphel told him with a frown. “Getting yourself all worked up like this is not going to help anyone. Forget about those three, they aren’t going to get away with anything, I’m only keeping them around for the time being because they still have some usefulness, they’ll be dead the second that usefulness has ended. As for the Oni Guyver, don’t worry about her, she cant hurt us and in time she and her group will see that they have no choice but to join us. She can keep chipping away at the clone Elite Overlords we keep throwing at them, but she’ll never be able to deal enough damage against us, we just have to give them time to realize this. We’re playing a waiting game now son, patience is the key here.”

“That is something I’m running out of quickly” Rivenous said with a sigh of frustration. “Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if no one had found those six units.”

“You’d be dead” his father replied simply. “And the Earth would probably be ours already.”

Rivenous was silent for a moment, thinking to himself as he leaned back in his chair, then a few seconds later he looked over to his father.

“What do you think my chances are of getting Oni to sit down hear me out?” he asked.

“Before or after she rips your head off?” his father asked with a faint smile of amusement.

“I could always take Phobos and Demios for protection” Rivenous said thoughtfully, then he shook his head. “There’s no way she’ll listen to anything I have to say after what happened at the Tibetan Temple. I wish I had never forced Stephanie do that, I think it was stupidest thing I have ever done in my life.”

“She might not be willing to talk to you, but she might talk to me” Alkanphel pointed out rather calmly.

Rivenous couldn’t help but laugh “She thinks worse of you then she does me. To her you might as well eat children for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

“We’ll go back to the drawing boards on peace talks with her then. For now, go get some sleep, you look like you haven’t slept in days” his father told him.

“I haven’t” Rivenous replied honestly. “Your right though, I do need some sleep. Might try and patch things up with Stephanie again before I do though.”

Silently Rivenous left the conference room feeling a little better now that he gotten some things off his chest. He made his way to his living quarters and was hoping to find Stephanie there, but the room was empty, and eerily silent. Rivenous sighed and figured his wife had taken their son somewhere or gone to get some air, he wasn’t overly concerned as he collapsed on the bed in a tired heap.

If only he had known…

* * *

Deep within a forest the stood an old abandoned shack that looked as if a sneeze could knock it over. It was dark and uninviting, but for Stephanie who sat staring pensively out the broken window as her son sat on the ground and played with some of the few toys she had brought along. As it was she had barely brought anything with them, to have brought more then a spare change of clothes for each of them and only a few toys for Zeptha would have alerted Rivenous to what she was up to.

She rubbed her eyes with one hand in frustration. She didn’t have much time. Twelve hours at most was all she had left to figure out what she was going to do. After that she could hide herself from the combined minds of the other Zoalords, but that would only buy her an extra two or so hours, then they’d pin point her location in a matter of seconds.

She considered her options carefully, which there weren’t many of.

She knew going to Oni was probably the most dangerous thing she could do, but it was also her best option, and the safest when concerning her son, she wouldn’t let them take him away from her, they’d have to kill her first, which they were likely to do in any case. Another option was to hide inside the temple in the Tibetan Mountains, the shielding around that temple would probably hide her from the mental powers of the Zoalords, until they figured out that she was there, that would buy her another day at least. A third option would be to go directly to the United Alliance HQ in Washington and surrender herself as a prisoner of war under certain conditions, that way she could wrangle some protection out of Oni, even if she had to leave her no choice. She knew she couldn’t force Oni to be her friend again or to trust her again, but at this point she didn’t care, she just wanted to protect her son.

Her last option was also the less desirable of the four. She could ask Zeus Thunderbolts for protection, but that was being held in reserve as a last resort.

“What am I going to do?” she quietly.

* * *

Cablarl Khan was sitting in his office at Chronos China branch, cursing Alkanphel’s son in a wide range and variety of colorful words and phrases. He had hated that brat from the moment he had seen him. At every turn the so called Prince of Chronos had always been there and stopped him from carrying out any plans he had formed. In some part of the Chinese zoalord’s mind, he wished Guyot was still alive, Guyot hadn’t been strong enough to best Alkanphel in battle, but the Chinese zoalord was sure he could have defeated Rivenous in battle.

“And now I’m stuck trying to think of a way to get rid of both of them” Khan grumbled under his breath.

“If you think you could ever kill either Alkanphel or his son then you are sorely mistaken” came a cold voice.

Cablarl looked up as three people appeared in his office, each wearing cloaks with strange looking shoulder guards. Two were men, one was a woman. Khan looked at them all calmly.

“If I have my reprocessed again I can be upgraded with more power, and I’ll be able to kill Rivenous” Cablarl said ambitiously. He frowned angrily when the woman started to laugh in genuine amusement. “Don’t laugh at me wench!”

The woman fixed an icy glare on the little zoalord. “How dare you call me that you wrinkled up little….”

The dark haired man put his arm in front of the woman as she went to move forward and in all likely hood kill the old man. She stopped and gave the man an look irritation but she said nothing.

“Have you made any progress at all?” the dark haired man asked him calmly.

“No” Cablarl said sourly.

“Your starting to irritate me Cablarl. You have brought me nothing of use and you failed to deliver the Oni Units to me. Why should I keep you around?” the dark haired man asked seriously.

“It was not my fault that Rivenous got to those units first” Cablarl protested quickly.

“I don’t want to hear excuses! I want to see results!!” the dark haired man snapped angrily, causing the Chinese zoalord to flinch and tremble a little. The dark haired man recomposed himself and stared the zoalord straight in the eye. “I want to see results Cablarl, and you had better have some by the time we meet next or you’ll see how angry I can become, understand?”

“Yes” Cablarl said quietly, then the three disappeared.

* * *

Oni spun on the ball of her foot and executed the spinning heel kick, Anthony blocked with his forearm and moved forward with a punch but she slapped the punch away and delivered a round house kick to his other side. Anthony took the attack, absorbing most of the attack as he had braced himself to and grabbed her leg and threw her over him. He watched her sail through the air, flipping gracefully and landing in a crouch on the other side of the room.

“So what do you think Agito hopes to gain from having Sakura join him and Sho?” he asked as wiped a sheet of sweat from his forehead and waited for Oni’s next attack.

She dashed back across the room, launched herself into the air and flipped over him, landing in a crouch and went to sweep his legs out from under him, but he was already moving, jumping over the attack and then aiming his own foot down at her head. She rolled back on to her shoulders and caught his foot between her ankles, then twisted herself to the side suddenly and pulled him down to the ground, before jumping up into a crouch and scooting backwards from him, before she spoke.

“Well he’s made it quiet obvious that he doesn’t like the fact that there’s already five Australian Guyvers and he hates even more that we work for the United Alliance, most of missions are centered around protecting America. By getting Sakura to join them, he’s taking away a small part of our power and that's some kind of victory for him. I know Sho will be grateful for the extra help though, and I know that if he had asked Sakura the same thing Agito had I wouldn’t have a problem with this, but Sho’s too……” she struggled to find the right word.

“I get what you mean” Anthony nodded.

Oni nodded. “Yeah, but Agito’s the exact the opposite. He doesn’t really need Sakura to help them, because with the Gigantic unit on, Agito can handle his own in a battle with even an Overlord. I really hate to admit it, but he is an excellent warrior. I hate to think what would have happened if he had gotten the Oni or Attack Unit” she said with a shudder.

“I know what you mean” Anthony agreed, then he laughed. “Could have been worse though, could have been Trey that got either of our units.”

Oni couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Yeah, I suppose your right. Still though, I cant figure out what Agito is up to, there’s just no point to getting Sakura to join them, unless he’s just trying to get her away….” Oni’s face suddenly went pale.

“What?” Anthony asked in concern.

“Unless he’s trying to get her away from me so he can try and remove her unit, then he could activate the unit on Shizu” she said, she started shaking at the thought of another Guyver Zoalord, especially one that answered to Agito.

“He doesn’t have a remover though” Anthony said, feeling a little relieved.

“How do we know he doesn’t? For all we know he could have hidden it away somewhere. Or he could have had his scientist working on away to remove it without a remover” she pointed out.

“We cant know that for sure, and besides, Sho will tell us if Agito tries anything” he assured her calmly, knowing it was a farfetched idea, Agito could never get away with doing anything like that, even if he had the means to do it. “Besides, how do we know Shizu is even still alive? Nobody’s seen her for almost three years now.”

Oni was still a little unsure though.

At that moment though the door to the recreational area slid open and Rune walked in and saw them.

“I was starting to think you had all left me on the ship by myself. Kelly and Trey are god only knows where, Jason and Saraid have gone off somewhere too and so has Sakura” he explained calmly, pretending Anthony wasn’t even there as he spoke to Oni. “So what are you doing huh?”

“We’re trying to figure out what Agito is up to” Anthony said.

Rune reluctantly acknowledged him and gave them both a puzzled look. “What do you mean? What else could he possibly be up to?”

Oni realized Rune hadn’t heard yet. “Agito subtly convinced Sakura into joining him and Sho in the fight against Chronos in Japan.”

“What?” Rune suddenly had a dark look in his eyes.

“Yeah, Sakura wants to go home though, I think its something she’s been wanting to do for a long time but was too scared that we would all be upset of something. I can understand why she’d want to go back, but what we cant figure out is what Agito’s going to do.”

“I’ll kill him first” Rune promised.

“Get in line” Oni told him. “Its her decision though Rune, we cant stop her.”

“Like hell we cant” he said and went to storm off, but Oni was in front of him before he could get to the door.

“Rune, she is free to go and do as she pleases. We’re going to keep an eye on Agito though. He’s the one we need to focus our attention on, not Sakura. If she wants to go home, we cant keep her locked up here and we’re going to respect her decision you got that?” she told him firmly, and let it known that it wasn’t open for debate. “If Agito tries anything, we’ll be there before he gets the chance to do it ok?”

“Fine, but I don’t like it” he grumbled.

“Yeah, well your not the only one” she said.

“I’m gonna go vent my anger on some unfortunate zoa’s” Rune said and disappeared.

“Should we let the others know we might have a battle to attend soon?” Anthony asked, Oni looked at him questioningly. “Well if he’s going to go and cause trouble for Chronos, they’re going to send Demios and Phobos and force of Elites after him, right?”

“Oh great” Oni said with a frown as it sunk in. “Spread the word around for everyone to be on stand by.”

“No problem” he replied, then he seemed to stare off into space, deep in thought before he finally turned back to Oni, who stood there looking him in puzzlement. “I think its about time I went and took care of something I should have done a long time ago. If all goes well I shouldn’t be all that long, Rune’s anger venting might actually help me considerably.”

“What are you planning?” Oni asked suspiciously.

“Like I said, something I should have done five years ago” he said calmly, then he disappeared.

* * *

The punch came out of nowhere, sending Rivenous crashing into a wall slightly dazed. He shook off the punch and turned around just in time from Shadow Guyver to grab him and slam him against a wall. Rivenous was more then shocked by this sudden attack and he couldn’t keep that hidden, no matter how hard he tried. Even Oni had never gone so far as to attack him without warning , let alone when he was sleep.

“What is the meaning of this!” Rivenous demanded in outrage.

“Where are they you monster?!” Anthony demanded.

“Who!?” Rivenous snarled pushing the black armored Guyver away from him.

“You know damn well who! My sisters you ass! Where are they?!” Anthony demanded again.

It all suddenly fell into place for the Prince of Chronos and he calmed down considerably, and without replying he walked into the next room and went straight to the bar, pouring a glass of whisky. Shadow Guyver followed him, his blades extended ready for a fight.

“I asked you a question Zoalord and I want an answer” Anthony said darkly.

Rivenous sat down in his chair not far from the bar and looked at Anthony a genuine look of regret and bitterness.

“I’m surprised it’s taken you this long” the zoalord said.

“Save your snide remarks for someone who cares and answer me!” Anthony growled.

“Very well, but you will hear the whole thing first. It was not long after you betray us and went back to your ‘friends.’ I was over seeing a construction of a new processing facility at the time and didn’t find out what had happened until a week or later. That bastard Cablarl Khan was running tests on some new Overlord types that my father and I knew nothing about and hadn’t given authorization for. From what I could gather, he heard about your betrayal and thought he dish out his own kind of punishment, and when I wasn’t around to stop him, he took your sisters and used them as test subjects” Rivenous explained, his tone growing dark. Then he looked straight into Anthony’s eyes and said. “They’re dead Anthony. Their bodies rejected whatever the hell it was that asshole did to them, but he kept trying, until finally their bodies couldn’t take it anymore and gave out in the end. I don’t know if it was painless or not, or if it was quick when it did come, I only know that it was caused by whatever Cablarl did to them.”

Anthony staggered back and sagged into another chair. His mind absorbed everything Rivenous had just told him, but he couldn’t believe it. He didn’t want to believe it. But he knew it was true. Since he had defected he knew, somehow, deep inside of him that they were gone, perhaps that was why he had taken so long to come and rescue them, but the not knowing had become to much for him and he had to know.

“I should have taken them with me when I left” he quietly. “Its my fault.”

“No” Rivenous shook his head. “You did what you thought was right. You knew that if you tried to escape with them they would have been killed and you captured.”

“I still should have come back sooner” Anthony insisted.

Suddenly a thought came to Rivenous. “Then I propose a solution to both our problems then.”

Shadow Guyver looked at him. “What would that be? What common problem do we have.”

“That’s simply answered. Cablarl Khan is our common problem. I can give you the coordinates of his location and you can go and kill him. You can get revenge for your sisters, and I’ll be rid of sorry excuse for an intelligent being.”

“Why don’t you kill him?” Anthony asked suspiciously.

“Because I’ve been forbidden to kill him, yet. Now that may seem comical to you, but remember I’m not the Guyver Zoalord anymore, I can’t guarantee any kind of success if I fight him myself, though its very likely that I would kill him quickly enough. Still I’ve been forbidden from killing the little cockroach until he’s outlived his usefulness, but my father doesn’t understand that there are plenty of candidates out there much more intelligent and loyal to Chronos then Cablarl Khan has ever been” the Prince of Chronos explained to him.

“So this is more political then anything for you?” Anthony said dryly.

“No, its something that's been brewing between him and me for over three and a half hundred years. And now, he needs to die. He crossed too many boundaries and while I believe my father knows what he’s doing, I don’t want to leave anything to chance and Cablarl is a risk to everyone as far I’m concerned” Rivenous said. He took a sip from glass and when he lowered it, he looked at Anthony again. “So do you want to kill him or not?”

Shadow Guyver didn’t need long to think about it though, he had already made his decision. And without saying a word he just nodded. Rivenous smiled, finally he would be rid of the three and a half hundred year old thorn in his side..

* * *

Fallen dodged to the side as the pisonic blast missed his head by mere inches. He aimed and fired his head laser and blew out the Elite Overlord’s eye and the back of his head, the body dissolving already before it hit the ground. The dark green guyver executed a spinning heel kick that connected with another Elite Overlord’s face and knocked it to the side before he extended his wrist blades and morphed them into whips.

He spun this way and that with his whips slicing through anything they touched, the momentum behind them was enough to even cut through the shielding the Elite’s had erected around themselves. It was almost like a dance of death really, the graceful movements that he and Oni had perfected when using weighted chain weapon so many years ago. This was their style and no one could beat it, save for each other.

He dropped into a crouch as an Enzyme 3 came out of no where and took a swipe at him. He shot back up, slamming his head up into the Guyver Killer and knocked it back from the shook and force of the attack and followed through with a wide arch punch that tore right through the bone and muscles. The walls and floor hissed as the acid blood splattered across them, but it dripped harmlessly from Fallen’s armor.

“Is this the best you freaks can do?!” he demanded

“Perhaps you’d like to face me?” Fallen turned around and found Purgstall standing behind him, electricity crackling around him.

“That's more like it” Fallen replied, cracking his knuckles.

* * *

Cablarl Khan was still sitting at his desk, deep in thought, so deep that he never noticed the new presences in the room with him. Shadow Guyver stepped out from the shadows silently, and stared down at the Zoalord with a deep a hatred forming inside him.

“Thinking about the next people your gonna torture to death?” he asked coldly.

Khan looked up in alarm and pushed his chair back and stood up quickly.

“How the hell did you get in here?!” Khan demanded in anger.

Shadow Guyver grabbed the edge of the desk and with one hand he send it flying through the wall of the building.

“You killed my sisters Khan, and now I’m going to tear you apart, bit by bit and very slowly” Shadow Guyver said icily.

“You’re the one that sealed their fate when you betrayed Chronos” Khan hissed, changing into his Zoalord form as he did. “Now bow down to your god and I’ll kill you quickly.”

Shadow Guyver crossed the gap between them within a mirco second and picked Khan up by his throat and slammed him into a wall which fell away under the tremendous impact. Shadow Guyver started to punch Cablarl savagely before throwing him across the room again and threw another wall.

“You made three mistakes. Your first mistake, you killed my sisters” Shadow guyver said as he walked slowly towards the Chinese zoalord who was feeling all the hits he had taken. “Your second was insulting me with that god dribble and your third mistake” he continued, pausing when Khan suddenly had a look of concentration of his face, which broke a second or two later and he looked at Shadow Guyver in horror. “That’s right, you cant teleport.”

Shadow Guyver rushed forward and kicked Khan in the face.

“It’s the last mistake you’ll ever mistake” he snorted angrily.

* * *

The area Fallen and Purgstall had teleported to looked the every part of a battle field, clearings in the forests had been made by stray energy blasts, and the cyclone Purgstall had brewed up was devastating the area, trees being ripped out of the ground and lightning blowing apart some tree’s.

Fallen flew through the sky at top speed with volley’s of electrical blasts nipping at his heels as he did, the gathering storm over head bothered him little and he returned fire with his Sonic Buster and pressure cannons. Purgstall raised barrier combination of concentrated electrical energy and pisonic powers and stopped the blasts effortlessly.

“These new upgrades of theirs are good” Fallen muttered quietly.

“Not giving up so soon are you?” Purgstall smirked.

“You stop a couple of my attacks and you already think you’ve won” Fallen replied in amusement. “You Zoalord’s never cease to amaze me with your over confidences. You should have learned by now, that we Guyver’s never give up!”

He shot down out of the air, racing towards Purgstall, spiraling out of the way of the Zoalord’s attacks and delivering a flying side kick that caught Purgstall in the side of his head and sent him flying to the side. The master of lightning and storms bounced across the ground, rolled and came back up in a crouch before immediately attacking Fallen again, this time it was with a right hook punch. The speed of the attack and the agility of the Zoalord caught Fallen off guard and he didn’t have enough time to dodge or block the attack. He staggered back a couple of steps and brought his attention back to Zoalord, only to find him gone.

“Oho! Now looks who’s running away!’ Fallen pointed out.

There was a sudden burst of light behind him and he spun around just in time to receive a kick to the face. Purgstall disappeared again, reappearing a second later and striking Fallen from the side, only to disappear again. This process was repeated over and over again, Fallen being thrown back and forth and from side to side by the attacks. Each attack wasn’t exactly enough to seriously hurt him, but they were enough to faze him and the accumulated effect was certainly doing a good job of him.

Purgstall finally reappeared in front of Fallen and delivered an uppercut that slammed into Fallen’s chin and knocked him into the air. He fell the ground like a sack of bricks and tried to get his bearings. Purgstall stood over him with a triumphant smirk and his cape flapping dramatically in the wind, Fallen looked up at him and snarled, he rolled backwards up on to his hands and spun around, his legs catching Purgstall in the gut.

“You can wipe the grin off your face you sorry excuse for a night light! You haven’t beaten me yet you piece of shit!” Fallen growled. He was about to go after the zoalord again when Demios and Phobos guyver appeared on either side of Purgstall. Fallen jerked to a stop and suddenly groaned. “Come on, this was a private fight!”

* * *

Shadow Guyver avoided a psionic blast and powered on and slammed his fist into Khan’s stomach. It was pretty much one sided the fight, Khan may have been a warrior in his younger days, but he had grown lazy and Shadow Guyver doubted the zoalord had had a real fight since he had been turned into a zoalord.

He executed a spinning kick connecting with Khan’s face and sent him sailing through the air and then teleported behind him, delivering another punch that send Khan plummeting into the ground below.

They had taken their fight outside and so far Rivenous had kept up his role by keeping any of Khan’s people from coming to his aid and keeping the Zoalord from teleporting. Shadow Guyver hated knowing that he would effectively owe Rivenous one, but under circumstances he didn’t really give a damn, it was a bridge he’d cross when he came to it, for now he just wanted to focus on hurting Khan as much as he possibly could before Alkanphel caught onto what was happening, as Rivenous pointed out, he was the only one that could stop him from killing Cablarl Khan.

He cupped his hands together and fired of a volley of pressure cannons. They impacted with the ground around the fallen Zoalord and several black domes sprung up, some over lapping each other as they exploded with tremendous force, blowing dirt and the likes in every directions. Shadow Guyver was suddenly worried that the attack may of ripped the zoalord apart and ended his revenge prematurely.

As the blasts subsided and the massive cloud of dirt dissipated, he could see the figure standing up below and he smiled under his armor, good, he thought, the game hasn’t ended yet.

Khan stood there, staring up at him, holding one arm that appeared to have gone limp, and was covered in a patches of blood all over from scratches and small gashes, which were already almost completely healed. Shadow Guyver planned on wearing the Zoalord down until he had no more strength left, then he would kill him, unless he suddenly had to kill him quickly.

He landed across from the weaken Zoalord and slowly walked towards him, venting stale air as he did, he suddenly wished he had Oni’s uncanny ability to sense her opponents emotions. What he wouldn’t have given to have sense what Khan was feeling right now, watching him walking towards him. Shadow Guyver extended his blades as he got within a few feet of Khan and lunged to strike at him, only to have Khan launch a point blank gravity bomb that blasted Shadow Guyver across the land.

Shadow Guyver sat up, shaking his head slightly, he had been caught unprepared and cursed himself for letting it happen so easily. He sensed damage to himself and looked at his right arm, it was a mangled mess as it had taken most of the blast because he’d had it extended in front of him ready to stab Khan.

<Anthony, where are you?> Came Oni’s voice suddenly.

<Taking care of some business> he replied shortly.

<Yeah, well drop whatever your doing> she told him. <Rune’s fighting Purgstall and Demios and Phobos all by himself and he need’s our help, as usual.>

<Damn that fucking idiot> Anthony swore. He clenched his good fist in anger but finally conceded that he had drawn this out long enough, if he drew it out any longer he ran the risk of Alkanphel finding out and stopping him. <Alright, I’ll be there soon.>

<Don’t take too bloody long> she warned him.

He looked over to where Khan was still standing, he could see that the Chinese zoalord was breathing heavily, the last attack having used up a great deal of his energy obviously. Good enough, he thought and started walking towards him again, this time he was ready for any sudden attacks.

“This is it Khan” he said dangerously as his Distortion Orbs started to glow. “Time to kiss your ass good bye.”

“You can not kill me!!” Khan shouted defiantly, unable to accept his mortality.

“By the way Khan” Shadow Guyver said again, his voice as hard as steel. “Rivenous said to say good bye.”

Khan’s eyes went wide. Shadow Guyver fired his Distortion Smasher at full charge and watched as the dark pinkish purple light closed the gap between the two swallowed Cablarl Khan up like a killer wale swallowing a gold fish. Shadow Guyver listened with great satisfaction as the Zoalord screamed out in pain and defeat, the scream echoing long after he was forced to kill the attack. There was nothing left of Khan.

Shadow Guyver stood there for a few seconds. “I have avenged you, my sisters.”

He then disappeared.

* * *

Rivenous sat back in his chair with a triumphant smile spreading across his face as he felt Cablarl Khan’s death. Relief flooded through him at the knowledge that the most dangerous and annoying of the three traitors was now dead, the other two he could afford to let swim for now. But when the time finally arrived, he would personally kill both of the traitorous ingrates.

Then quiet suddenly his thoughts turned to his wife, and he wondered where she could be.

* * *

When Oni Guyver and the others appeared, Fallen was being pounded by Demios and Phobos who were synchronizing their attacks and attacking from opposites sides to cause more damage. Oni was of sound mind to let her brother suffer a little while longer and let him think about what he had done, but in the end her sensibility won out and she dove into battle.

She was to tackle Demios when out of nowhere Purgstall appeared and fired a concentrated blast of electricity at her. She stopped and threw the shield up around her and the blast crashed against it, the force pushing her back across the ground. Finally it stopped and she looked up to where the Zoalord hovered.

“Jason, help Rune” she told her brother. “This one’s mine.”

Before anyone could argue with her she shot up into the air, avoiding Purgstall’s attacks and slammed her fist into his shield which flared up around him at the last second, but still Oni pressed forward, the shield warping around her fist with electricity crackling angrily at her, which her own shield protected her from.

“Your as pathetic as your brother” Purgstall sneered.

“And your as ugly as your mother” Oni shot back.

Her fist broke through the shield and slammed into the Zoalord’s chest with enough force to cause him to cry out in pain. Without stopping Oni brought her knee up into his stomach, forcing all the air from his lungs and executed an axe kick to his exposed back and sent him crashing straight down into the ground.

She was about to follow after Zoalord and continue beating the crap of him when Shadow Guyver suddenly appeared next to her.

“Where have you been?!” she demanded.

“I just killed Cablarl Khan” he told her calmly. Everyone went still with shock and all turned to look at him, not sure if he was joking or not.

“You what?” she asked him again, not sure she had heard correctly.

“I killed Cablarl Khan” he said again, then he seemed to shake with rage. “That little fucking bastard killed my sisters, tried to turn them into a zoaform, but their bodies kept rejecting the changes, and eventually their bodies gave out and they died. So I thought it was only fair that I go and avenge them.”

Oni was silent for a long time, staring at him, trying to determine whether or not he should be here for this battle, she wasn’t sure if he was up to it, but he had no choice really, he had to help, Jason and the others couldn’t handle Demios and Phobos alone and she doubted Fallen had any strength left to be much help to Jason either.

“Go help Jason and Rune” she told him. “With any luck we might add another Zoalord to the list by tonight’s end.”

“Right” he nodded and went off to help the others.

Oni turned back to the Zoalord that was starting to get up. “You hear that sparky? Another Zoalord bites the dust!”

“I’m going to enjoy removing that Control Medal of yours you mouthy little bitch!” he growled, his anger not really from hearing about Khan’s end, but primarily from being called sparky, he hated that nickname.

“I’d like to see you try!” she hissed.

She flew down at the Zoalord with her fist drawn back and her forward swords extended out, Purgstall just floated there without any signs of concern, he just smirked confidently, this pissed her off even more and she started to gather energy around her body, but even this didn’t seem to faze him. Never once did she consider he might have a reason to be unfazed.

She was within a meter of him when he suddenly snarled.

“DIE!!” he screamed and before she could teleport out of the way or raise a shield, a gigantic blast of electrical energy slammed into her full on.

“Aaaiieeeyyyy!!” Oni’s screams of agony echoed for miles and miles as she floated in mid air with her body being racked by the electricity, convulsing from electrocution.

“ONI!!” Kelly screamed.

Then, from above lighting shot of the thick clouds that covered the area and seemingly attacked Oni’s Control Medal. Countless arcs of lightning shooting out of the clouds, all of them attracted to the Control Medal as if it were a lightning rod. Even as the arcs lightning moved closer to one another from the clouds, Oni continued to scream, but now her cries of pain were unlike anyone had ever heard, even Purgstall was taken aback by this. Suddenly all the arcs of lightning met above Oni and combined into one gigantic column of lightning, pulses of energy riding down into the crimson colored guyver. Her Control Medal was flashing rapidly and her armor was glowing as her cries continued.

Another pulse raced down through the lightning and into her Control Medal, then she exploded in a blast of crimson and silver energy that could be seen from thousands of miles away as it seemed to try to cover the earth. The very fabric of reality seemed to pulse around the spot where she had been.

As the light disappeared, everyone stood there in shook, even Purgstall and the Chronos Oni Guyvers couldn’t believe what had just happened, but it sunk a few seconds later and the Zoalord laughed triumphantly.

“Oni” Kelly said quietly, staggering back a couple of steps, she felt numb. She felt like she about to fall, but before she could, Combat Guyver was there, stopping her.

“At last we are rid of the Oni Guyver!” Purgstall laughed.

“You son of a bitch!” Shadow Guyver snarled.

Rune, barely able to stand looked at where Oni had been, the only indication that she had been there was the scorched earth and the slowly fading light from her explosion. He was breathing heavily, rage flowing through out his body unrestricted, his energy burning around him. Then all at once he felt his rage restoring his lost energy and screamed out in anger, light exploding around him and his eye plates glowing brightly along with his Control Medal.

“I’m going to kill you!!!” he screamed at the Zoalord.

At the same time both Shadow Guyver and Fallen charged at Purgstall, not considering once that he may be able to do the same thing to them. They never got close enough though, as they both slammed into an invisible wall and bounced off of it, and then the shield seemed to expand, pushing all the guyvers, including the Chronos Oni Guyvers back. Purgstall looked around in confusion and slight concern, this obviously wasn’t his doing.

“So, we meet again Purgstall” the Zoalord spun around and standing there was a cloaked figure, for a second he was confused, then suddenly an expression of recognition crossed his face and he stepped back with a startled cry.

“No, not you!” he said, fear was evident in his voice.

“Oh yes Purgstall, you remember me well don’t you?” the cloaked figure purred, in a tone of dark satisfaction. It was the voice of a woman.

Without hesitating the Zoalord fired a psionic blast at the woman, but the blast past straight through her, before she herself disappeared.

“You missed” came a whisper at Purgstall’s ear. “After images are a bitch aren’t they?”

Purgstall gave a startled scream and jumped back, sharking as he stared at the woman, everyone watching found this quiet amusing, even Demios and Phobos could suppress their amusement at watching one of their lords running away from this woman, whoever she was. The others however, even though they found is amusing, they wanted to bust through the shield and kill him, but the shield seemed to be impenetrable.

“What’s wrong Purgstall, your not scared of little old me are you?” the mysterious woman asked.

“What are you!?” Purgstall demanded, shaking noticeably.

“Your worst nightmare” she replied calmly.

Purgstall managed to find enough courage somewhere inside of him to attack the woman, but as he did, she appeared in front of him and punched him twice in the chest and finished with a kick that sent the zoalord flying backwards into a tree, that snapped under the tremendous pressure of the Zoalord slamming into it.

“In a hundred and fifty years you have still yet to improve” the woman said sighed.

Purgstall jumped up and flew at her at top speed. Nobody saw what happened next, but Purgstall flew straight past the woman, who continue to stand there calmly, a katana having, magically appeared in her hand. Purgstall stopped and continued to stare straight ahead, his eyes wide with shock and pain, a few seconds later both of his arms fell off, and an ‘X’ shape crack appeared in his Zoacrystal. Purgstall reared back with a howl of pain, lightning crashing all around him.

Suddenly, a rush of blood exploded from his chest. He looked down and saw the katana sticking through his chest, and sensed the woman standing straight behind him.

“This is for all the suffering you caused me” she said coldly, then she ripped her katana up through the top of his body and then slammed it straight back down, cutting him clean in half.

The two halves fell away from one another, a horrified look frozen on both half’s of the Zoalords face before he started to dissolve into nothing. The woman looked over towards the two Chronos Oni Guyvers and her eyes glowed dangerously, both of them got the message and immediately disappeared, knowing that anything that kill a zoalord as easily as she had, was not something they would want to mess with, not without more reinforcements at least. When Demios and Phobos disappeared, so did the shield and the woman looked over to the other guyvers, who took a few hesitant steps forward.

“Who are you?” Fallen demanded angrily, still wanting to have killed the Zoalord himself

“I’m known by many names. Nayoko, Yuya, Ryoko, Akemi are just some of many names I’ve used” she said, reaching up to the neck of her cloak, then she pulled it away and the others gasped in confusion. “But you all know me as Oni.”

The other’s stood there in silence, not sure what they were staring at was real or not, as there seemed to be something very different about her. Kelly however couldn’t restrain herself, she deactivated her armor and ran forward, grabbing Oni in a tight hug, tears or relief streaming down her face, just glad that her sister wasn’t dead. Oni though, stood there stiffly, not making a single move.

“What happened? What were you talking about before?” Kelly asked quickly.

“It’s a long story” Oni sighed. “I have to take care of something first, but I’ll meet you all back at the ship in a bout five or ten minutes or so.”

Before they could argue with her, she disappeared.

* * *

Stephanie was moving quickly through the forests, not game enough to teleport incase they sensed her moving from place to another. She held Zeptha tightly in her arms as she weaved in and out of trees, trying to figure what she was going to do next.

“Going somewhere?” She skidded to a stop as Rivenous appeared in front of her, he had a calm look on his face.

“Rivenous” she said, taking a step back.

Rivenous had a sad frown. “I knew one day this might happen. I knew one day you would want to leave because you wouldn’t be able to handle the reality of the conflict between Chronos and the United Alliance. I don’t blame you though, you have every reason to hate me.”

“I don’t hate you Rivenous” she said slowly. “I still love you, I do, but until this war is over, I cant be around you, or Chronos.”

Rivenous exhaled angrily, restraining his hurt and anger. “Fine, do what you want Stephanie, but you’re not taking Zeptha with you, give him here.”

“He’s staying with me” Stephanie said, tightening her hold on her son.

“Do not try my patience Stephanie. I have no doubt you still love me and I still love you, but we both know that Zeptha will be safer with me then he will with you” Rivenous said coldly

“Do you want to make a bet on that?” they both looked to the side as Oni stepped out from behind a tree, a hard look in her eyes.

“Oni” Stephanie said in both confusion and a little fear. “How did you know I was here?”

“I sensed you teleport to this area hours ago” she shrugged.

“This has nothing to with you” Rivenous hissed dangerously. “This is between me and my wife.”

Oni leveled an equally dangerous glare at him. “Two Zoalord’s have died tonight, don’t make it three Rivenous, I’d rather not Zeptha grow up without his father.”

“What are you talking about? The only zoalord that died tonight was Khan” Rivenous replied.

“So you haven’t heard yet. I killed Purgstall a couple of minutes ago, with this” she said, gesturing to her katana. “Not that he didn’t deserve it mind you. Now I’ll give you one last chance to back off, then I’ll make you leave, in how ever many pieces I need to.”

“Your over confidence will be your undoing” Rivenous growled.

“Your lack of intelligence will be yours” she replied dryly.

Rivenous snarled and charged at her, but slammed into an invisible shield and bounced off it, falling to the ground. Oni’s eyes glowed dangerous as she looked down at him, her Zoacrystal appearing as she shifted into her zoa battle form.

“Try that again and I’ll remove something that wont grow back” she threatened as she put her hand on the hilt of her katana. Then she turned to Stephanie. “You can stay on the Triton, you wont have to worry about the United Alliance guys trying to press you for information. How’s that sound Rivenous, your wife and son in a perfectly safe environment from both Chronos and the United Alliance? Well doesn’t really matter if you like it or not because the decision is up to Stephanie, not you. So what do you say Steph?”

Stephanie stared at Rivenous for the longest time, then she looked down at her feet and moved to Oni’s side. “I’m sorry Rivenous, but this is for the best.”

Without another word, the two disappeared.

* * *

After returning to the Triton and making sure Stephanie was resting comfortably, Oni walked into their meeting room where the others were waiting patiently, Rune didn’t look all that impressed about Stephanie being on board, but Oni didn’t really care if he was or not. They all looked at her expectantly, wanting some answers obviously.

“Why did you bring Stephanie on board?” Rune asked.

“Because she needs immunity from Chronos and this is the only place that's safe. We don’t ask her for information on Chronos and she doesn’t join in any battles against them, that way they wont have grounds to take her and Zeptha back forcibly” she told him.

“You were ready to kill her a week ago if she came near you” he pointed out.

“Things have changed” she replied. “Deal with it. Stephanie had to what she did at the temple, she had no other choice at the time. Its in the past now and that's where’s going to remain.”

Kelly was the next one to ask a question. “Oni, what happened when that lightning struck your Control Medal? We thought you were dead, then you appear a minute or so later? So what exactly happened?”

Oni was silent for awhile. “The combination of Purgstall’s attack, the immense energy generated by the natural lightning and the power of my Control Medal, caused a time rift and threw me back four hundred years into the past, I ended up back in feudal Japan, beginning of the 1598.”

“You what?!” was the combined reply of shock, she didn’t bother repeating what she had just said though.

“How do you know it was the beginning of the 1598?” Jason asked, slightly confused.

“Because Hideoshi Toyotomi died a few months after I landed in the past” she replied. “Although at the time, I didn’t realize I had gone back in time. When I landed back in the past I must of hit the ground too hard or something like that because I ended up with amnesia, and for six years I didn’t know who I really was. Luckily this elderly couple, Hiroyuki Eichiro and Hiroyuki Noriko had found and took me, told me I was their daughter, treated me as such, I hold nothing against them though, they were good hearted people. Anyway, I ended up getting my memory back after a horse kicked me in the head, that fucking hurt. So after that I just eventually came to terms with the fact that I had no choice but wait for today to roll around again.”

“Why was Purgstall so scared of you?” Sakura asked.

“Because I tracked him down not long after he was turned into a Zoalord and I terrorized him for almost a year, told him that if he told Alkanphel or anyone else about me I would kill him, of course I used some object lesson’s to cause him to be absolutely terrified of me. I never showed him what I looked like and he never knew when I was going to appear next, but I left many, gory messages for him so he’d never forget me” she explained, leaning back in her chair, then laughed slightly. “You should of seen him when he woke up to find five hundred dead cows outside his home, all their guts hanging out and everything.”

“That's sick” Trey said, looking a little green.

“But it was effective” she pointed out, before yawning and then standing up. “Well, I’m tired, I need to get some sleep, so I’ll see you all in the morning.”

With that she got up and left the meeting room, Kelly though stared after her with concerned look. Something wasn’t right with Oni, she could feel it and then she too got up and went after her sister.

* * *

Oni sat in a chair on the other side of her quarters, sitting in the shadows watching her sleeping children, watching their chests rise and fall with each inhale and exhale of breath. Her eyes were distant as she sat there, now staring past her children and looking back into the past. Her eyes were no longer the same as they once were, at least they didn’t seem it, they were still silver with red flecks, but they didn’t seem to sparkle as they once had, they now appeared dull and lifeless.

She was happy to be back amongst her friends and family again, even a little happy to have Anthony around again, but for them, she had been gone for only a few seconds. She however, had been more or less alone for four hundred years and knew that they wouldn’t be able to understand how she was feeling, or what it was like to be cut off from everything you knew for that long. It had been rough, she would admit that, even with her powers, it had been rough. Waiting through out the seemingly endless years for this very night to be with those she cared about. She had been forced to squash her impatience or else she would have surely gone insane.

She closed her eyes and she was back in Japan again, in 1600, staring out from the house over the farmland, the place where now a city stood. She could almost remember every smell, sound and sight around her. A tear rolled down her cheek and slowly she opened her eyes, pulling herself back from the past and into the present again, though she couldn’t help but think what was installed for the other Oni that was now in the past, her heart felt like a knife had gone through it.

The hardest part for her was to have to sit back and watch Alex die, and to not be able to stop herself from merging with the Oni unit, or stop Wesley and Cleaver from rapping her. She didn’t know how things would be affected if she prevented any of this from happening, though she had almost gone to track Alkanphel down and kill him and stop everything from happening. There was too many unknowns though and so she had to force herself from doing anything except wait.

She was pulled from her thoughts as she heard the door slide open and she sense Kelly walk in. She had wondered how long it would take her sister.

“Are you ok Oni?” Kelly asked carefully.

“I’ll be fine” she replied quietly. “I just need some time to adjust.”

“You know you can talk to me about anything right?” Kelly told her.

Oni said nothing, there was a silence for a long time between them as Kelly waited for an answer, but she finally saw that she wasn’t going to get one and slowly turned around to leave.

“Four hundred years is a long time” Oni started, causing Kelly to stop. “I spent six years believing I was someone that never existed and further three more years trying to convince myself that I was that person. Three years, it felt like eternity that I lived in denial. I think I was happier then I’ve ever been in those nine years, even when I married for the first time…”

Kelly looked around in shock at her sister, her eyes wide and her mind trying to comprehend that information.

“…Togami Keito his name was” Oni continued. “We lived happily for two years, he was a highly respected Shogun at the time and money was never a problem… Don’t look at me like that Kelly, like I said, four hundred years is a long time, and I had no real memory of who I was at the time. I was lonely, I needed companionship and love and I found both many times in the last four centuries. I was able to move on, I don’t regret that, and I don’t think Alex would hate me for it either. My last husband, Akashi, he was my favorite, and the kindest of the nine. The love I had him could never have been as stronger as the love I had for Alex, but that didn’t change the fact that I loved him all the same…”

Kelly didn’t know what to say.

“Must be strange for you to hear me talk about loving a man I suppose. I had female lovers too, nothing ever really came of those to be honest though. Akashi and I, we were together for twenty six years. He ran a dojo with me as assistant teacher, and I ran a successful restaurant and Inn. We lived in Kyoto…” Oni trailed off, remembering the past again, clenching her fist tightly.

Kelly said down across from her and asked her very carefully. “Oni, did you any more kids?”

Oni didn’t answer her though, she just sat there, staring off into her own little world….

Epilogue

Days passed and life seemed to return to some resemblance of normalcy aboard the Triton, things were different of course, there was no denying that. Rune and the others eventually grew to trust Stephanie again, and it almost felt like the old group was together again, save of course for one. The more significant change that came about and the one that everyone had to grow use to was Oni’s new attitude, and that was the hardest thing for them, considering she was now acting more feminine, more then once she had arrived somewhere wearing a kimono, nobody said anything, aside that it suited her.

Then the day came, inevitably as it were, when Sakura was ready to leave the Triton.

Sho arrived using the Gigantic unit after receiving word from Sakura, and Oni and Kelly helped the youngest member of their group pack, never saying a word as they did, they didn’t need to, they knew that. The Triton was surfaced and they met Sho on the outer deck, already Rune and the others were there, including Saraid who had formed a close friendship with Sakura over the last four years. Sakura went to each of them, saying her goodbyes, then she finally came to Oni.

She went to say something, but Oni held her hand up, stopping her. “You don’t have to say anything Sakura, just remember that if you ever need us, for anything, big or small, we’re always here for you, you need only to ask us. You’ll always have a place with us if you ever decide you want to come back to us” she told the girl, then gave her a tight hug. “You keep yourself out of trouble you got that.”

Sakura nodded and walked over to Sho’s side, they all watched her with both happy and sad smiles, they had all taught her one thing or another and she had been a good student, unable to speak a word of English when she first came to them she now able to speak it perfectly, it was just one of many things she had learned.

Sakura smiled at them. “Thank you all”

Then she was gone.

The End……
…… For Now