Rowen sat there, no longer happy and was beginning to feel depressed. He couldn’t understand why Rekino had yelled at him. What did he do? Was it because he wasn’t moping around? He felt bad for Mia, but what could he do? Mia wouldn’t let any guy near her really. Or was it something else she yelled at him for? He sighed a long sigh as he turned over onto his bed and tried not to let the tears fall down his cheeks.

Josephine had expected to hear a pleasant talk with her father, but then her face changed into disbelief, anger, sadness, all rolled into one. Her emotions stuck a high chord, and all she wanted to do was drop the phone and start beating something to shreds.

Kento wondered what was wrong as he could sense the emotions from his partner in armor. Something bad must have happened. What, he didn’t know, but he was sure he would find out soon.

Hana was staring at Josephine, wondering what in the world was going on. Why did Josephine look like she was going to cry for? Finally she watched as Josephine struggled with a good-bye and hung up. It was there Josephine collapsed to her knees and sobbed loudly.

Ryo was heading down the stairs when he heard crying. Now what was wrong? he wondered. He came to the bottom of the stairs and saw Hana hugging Josephine, and looked toward Kento, and Amaya for an explanation.

Kento returned his gaze with a shrug. He didn’t know what was going on. All he knew was that Josephine had been talking on the phone, then after hanging up she sobbed violently on the floor.

Amaya was frowning deeply, hoping Hana could calm the girl down enough to talk to them. It pained her to see her friends crying, sad, hurt, angry, depressed. And she could almost feel the tears coming to the corners of her eyes as she watched Josephine.

“Josephine, please tell us what happened?” Hana spoke to her softly. Josephine kept on crying though. Never before had she felt like a piece of her soul was ripped from her. All she wanted was to keep crying, cry a river, no an ocean of tears, and then drown in them. Vaguely, she could hear the gentle voice of her fellow Guardian calling to her. She sobbed more, took a shuddering breath, then finally spoke with a quavering voice.

“M…m…m..my.. Gr..Gr…Grand…Gr..Grandfather is…is.. dead!!!!”

The entire room froze with utter shock. Surely this was some practical joke. But as they watched Josephine sob on Hana’s shoulder, they knew it was more true than they would want to imagine. Josephine’s grandfather was gone.

Mesu was more than pleased. He had made sure everything was going according to his plans, and had been the one who had killed Josephine’s grandfather. It had been so easy giving that man his heart attack that automatically took his life. With the Guardian of Hardrock grieving she would be too upset to fight against him when he next attack. Now if he could just get rid of Rekino and Flash. The question was how?

He sat there on his throne, contemplating of what he would do about his current situation.

He rose up from his throne and began to pace just a bit before it, his hands folded behind his back, his head down, his brows furrowed deeply. He was thinking hard. Surely there was a way to kill anyone right? He began to go over of what he learned about the two new comers who were helping the Ronins and Lady Guardians. The girl Flash could not be controlled by magic nor possessed, nor turned into evil. The boy, Storm, could not die from force nor be possessed, nor turned to evil either. So what to do about it? He already knew their weaknesses. And then suddenly, his head snapped up. That was it. He would cause chaos inside their home, capture Flash by heavily drugging her again, then go after Thunder and lock him away, then go after the Ronins and Lady Guardians and kill them all. It seemed like a good plan. Now he would just need the proper soldiers to carry his deed out.

Everyone in the house now knew about Josephine’s grandfather. They tried to comfort her the best they could, but it didn’t seem to work very well. Finally Josephine had locked herself away in her room to cry alone.

Ryo sadly shook his head, staring at the floor. He would have to wait to tell his dreams to the others, but he was worried though. Just how much time did they have left? We can’t keep doing this, he thought to himself. How much more pain and suffering will we have to face from Mesu and from our own conflicts. I wish this whole war would have never even started. With a sigh he walked out of the living room and back up the stairs to his room.

That evening, Thunder was in the woods, waiting for Mia to arrive. He felt more than nervous, and he kept on shifting his position every five minutes. He checked his watch, then looked toward the sky. The stars were few just starting to come out. The moon was in the eastern sky, shining it’s small light on a few leaves.

Thunder shifted and tried to see if Mia was coming, but so far she hadn’t shown up. He hoped she’d be okay when she came, or someone came with her. He checked his watch again. She should be coming soon, he thought. He just hoped she would be willing to let Blaze heal her.

He heard someone walking toward him from behind and turned around. There was Mia, standing there like a fawn, ready to run at the slightest moment of danger. Mia quavered as she spoke. “Are you sure Blaze can help me?” She stared into his visible eye as she waited for an answer. His eye seemed full of fear, but also of concern as well. Then he spoke. “Blaze can help you, Mia, but you must be willing to be helped.”

Mia nodded, then watched as he turned around and called to Blaze letting the wolf know they were waiting for him. A few minutes of silence passed, then the sound of rustling of leaves, then finally the gigantic wolf appeared before them on the large boulder.

They stared at the wolf, and Thunder spoke. “Blaze, you said you’d help Mia with her emotional scars.”

Mia was a bit surprised. He was talking to the wolf as if it could understand every word he was saying. Then the wolf spoke.

Thunder looked back at Mia.

Now Mia was stunned. The wolf had just spoken! She had no idea the animal was capable of such an ability. “You.. you can talk..”

“Yes, I can,” Blaze answered back calmly.

Mia continued to be stunned as she stared at him. She had never known any animal that was capable of even having such an ability.

“Mia,” Thunder spoke quietly, “do you want to be helped?”

Mia’s gaze slowly drifted from Blaze back to Thunder. She thought deeply about it, then she nodded her head, turning back to Blaze. “Yes, I wish to be healed, Blaze.”

The wolf nodded and then walked toward her. His head came up to her face, and she could now see just how large this wolf really was. He closed his eyes standing just inches from her. A pale light blue light began to glow deep within his chest, then seemed to flare brighter still. She felt this light surrounded her, embracing her, then going right through her. Instantly she felt as she was in a spa. She could feel herself healing, the anger, the fear, the nervous breakdown, the guilt, the self hating, the thoughts to commit suicide, the sickness she had felt, all seemed to melt away, leaving her behind as if it had never been there at all, and in its place was tranquility and peace.

Moments later, the wolf stepped away, and the light faded as he slightly bowed his head. “It is done. Now go home quickly. Someone is approaching this area now.”

Mia wondered who that someone could have been, but she didn’t dare ask. She nodded her head, and thanked Blaze, then left with Thunder as quickly as possible.

Blaze turned his head and saw the single soldier appear. It stood looking around, searching for clues. The wolf called upon his powers silently and suddenly the soldier was no longer a soldier. Instead it was a squirrel, worrying more about acorns and nuts then looking for the Ronins, Lady Guardians, and the two Warriors. Blaze nodded his head once, satisfied, then he faded from view as if he were a ghost.

Flash had fallen asleep on her bed after pouring out so many tears. Rekino watched her sadly, knowing how she felt. She wished she could help the girl, but all she could do was offer comfort. With a sigh she left the room, letting the older girl sleep. She walked down the hall and heard someone else crying. Now who was upset? she wondered. She walked up to the door and knocked. She recognized the voice of the tears as she listened more closely to the sobs. But why was Josephine crying? she wondered. There was no answer, and she bit her lip. Finally she decided to just go in. As she opened the door, she saw Josephine’s face buried into her pillow, sniveling loudly as if something atrocious had happened. Little did the Wildfire Guardian know that something had happened. She walked up to her friend, determined to find out what was wrong.

"Jo, what's wrong?" Rekino asked as she took a seat next to her friend on the bed. Immediately, Josephine latched onto Rekino, "Jo?"

"Oh Rekino! He's gone!! I'm never going to get to see him again!" Josephine said as she cried harder.

"Who's gone, Jo? What the hell happened?" Rekino asked again. Before Josephine could answer, a soldier came through the window and jumped the two Lady Guardians, "Hey! Get the hell off of me!" Rekino screamed and tried to kick the soldier back.

Josephine tried to get up but she was physically and mentally too tired, "Rekino, I can't do this right now!" She screamed and tried to push the soldiers off of her.

"Come on! You have to try! Now, Lady of Wildfire, Toa Jin!" Rekino said and transformed into subarmor while she was under the soldier.

"Lady of Hardrock, Tao Gi!" Josephine screamed and transformed herself.

By the time the two transformed, the soldiers had grabbed them by the arms. The others had

heard the voices and were trying to get the door down, but one of the soldiers had bolted it shut. Rekino and Josephine were still trying to fight them off when the soldier that had Rekino started to chant something.

"What the hell is he saying?" Josephine asked.

"How should I know?!" Rekino said angrily, "Guys! WE COULD USE A LITTLE HELP HERE!"

"We're trying! The door is budged!" Ryo screamed, "Kento, put your back into it!"

"I'm trying, man! It's not working! Shit, my shoulder is going to ache for weeks!" Kento complained and rammed the door again.

Suddenly, the floor started to glow. Rekino and Josephine were both held to the ground by some force. They both struggled, but they were stuck.

"Ah! Don't tell me this is some big ass magnet! I can easily get out of subarmor!" Rekino said.

"It's not a magnet, Lady, it's a magical device that holds all magic users to the ground," A voice said before them.

"MESU!" Rekino and Josephine screamed in unison. Sure enough, Mesu appeared before them with an evil look on his face.

"Glad you can recognize me, Lady Guardians. As for now, this device will hold all creatures with magical abilities to the ground. I'm the only one who can control it!" Mesu boasted on his achievements.

"Sorry to bust your happy bubble, but wouldn't you be stuck down here too? I mean, you are a magic user!" Rekino smiled, "You said all creatures with magical abilities fall under control of the device. Why haven't you?"

"Because, Ronin bitch, I'm the one who invented this wonderful device. It wouldn't back out on me," Mesu replied.

"Wanna bet?" Rekino raised an eyebrow as she saw Mesu start to glow. Her smile turned into laughter.

"What are you laughing at?" Mesu asked. He suddenly noticed that his body had attracted a strange glow. His eyes widened in disbelief, "Whoa!" He fell to the floor held by the power of the 'magnet', "Dammit!"

Rekino was dying with laughter, "Seems your contraption backfired, huh?"

Josephine was actually smiling for the first time that night. She was laughing so hard that she had tears streaming down her face. Rekino was laughing with her friend at the demons lack of knowledge. Mesu, on the other hand, was pouting like a little baby. His face was all puffed up and he looked like he was about to cry.

"Rekino!" Rowen's voice called from the other side of the door, "What the hell is going on in there?"

"Nothing!" Rekino said between laughter. Something suddenly hit her hand and the force of the device was increased. She felt like her body was going to snap it two. There's got to be a way I can get out of this. Think Rekino, think! She closed her eyes and her kanji flashed brightly on her forehead.

"What are you concocting, Lady Wildfire?" Mesu asked inattentively.

Rekino didn't answer. She kept her eyes closed and her kanji kept getting brighter and brighter. Come on Rekino! You can do this! She thought to herself. She tried moving her right hand up. She felt the magic barrier giving away. Her index and middle finger of her right hand were pointed straight at Mesu. An intense heat started to surround the room.

Josephine suddenly got worried about something, "Whatever you're planning to do Rekino, I hope it doesn't have to do with scorching my bedroom!"

"Don't worry, it doesn't," Rekino said with her eye still closed. She circle of fire surrounded her hand and her two fingers, "Now!" She opened her eyes and looked straight at Mesu, "Wildfire's Flame!" A single line of fire shot out of Rekino's two fingers and hit Mesu straight on. The blast was so intense, that Mesu flew out of the window and into the yard. The magic shield was broken and Rekino and Josephine stood up.

"Way to go girl!" Josephine said and gave her friend a high five. She turned around when her bedroom door was knocked down and everyone tumbled in on top of each other. Josephine sighed, "Damn! Now I've got a door to fix!"

Rekino, in the mean time, was staring down at her hand, which was still on fire. She gave an evil smiled and jumped out the window right where Mesu had landed. The others followed her move and met up with her. The Lady of Wildfire turned to her friends, "Let's get it on!" She started her summoning, "Symbol of Virtue, shine forth and envelope me in the Lady Ronin Armor of Wildfire, Jin!"

Mia shouted grabbed her necklace. "Lady of Strata! Inochi!" Then she called forth her full armor. "Symbol of Life, shine forth and envelope me in the Lady Ronin Armor of Strata, Inochi!"

Amaya grabbed her necklace and shouted, "Lady of Torrent! Shin! Symbol of Trust, shine forth and envelope me in the Lady Ronin Armor of Torrent, Shin!"

Hana grabbed a hold of her necklace. "Lady of Halo! Chi! Symbol of Wisdom, shine forth and envelope me in the Lady Ronin Armor of Halo, Chi!"

"Symbol of Justice, shine forth and envelope me in the Lady Ronin Armor of Hardrock, Gi!" Josephine shouted.

Ryo stood beside his sister, "Ronin Warriors…to ARMS!" Ryo shouted, "Armor of Wildfire! Dao Jin!" Ryo yelled.

"Armor of Torrent! Dao Shin!" Cye cried.

"Armor of Halo! Dao Chi!" Sage yelled.

"Armor of Strata! Dao Inochi!" Rowen shouted.

"Armor of Hardrock! Dao Gi!" Kento cried.

Thunder spoke next, "Armor of the Warrior, Now Come!" A huge red lightning bolt suddenly appeared out of the sky and struck the tall blond, engulfing him in a spectral bright red light, his symbol, a lightning bolt shined brilliantly on his forehead, covering him completely. Seconds later, the German Prince was dressed in his red and black armor holding his no datchi expertly.

"This is what I like to see," Mesu started, "Eleven brave warriors ready to die!" He raised his hand, "Dynasty soldiers…ATTACK!"

With a flash of light, thousands of the dynasty zombie soldiers surrounded the Koji household. All of the guys got back to back with their weapons drawn and in a defensive position. All of their eyes narrowed and ready for the upcoming fight. Before any of them could counter, a soldier threw a small object up into the air. The eleven warriors screamed and tried to shield their eyes from the light.