Everyone’s eyes widened with horror, shock, and anger. The air grew very silent around them. Rekino’s eyes were flashing, she was ready to kill Sage. Ryo and Rowen had heard the scream from outside, and they left Flash, Shades, and Scorpio and headed back into the castle. Their eyes widened at what they saw. But there was one who screamed out for Hana..

Thunder had watched in horror as Sage had thrust his sword into Hana. All at once, the memories and the feelings he had been dealing with unleashed their full fury.. He let out a violent scream that made immediately made his parents and the soldiers look at him in shock. Ryo and Rowen had tackled Sage to the floor, Rekino was trying to help Hana. The girl was in shock and breathing heavily. Queen Alina was laughing insanely. This is what she and her husband had wanted. But then, the scream of the German prince caught her attention..

Thunder was glowing a brilliant red, his symbol flashed brightly on his head. His German Shepherd Disani whined and backed up some from him.. He cried out… “HANA!!!” At once he was engulfed in the light, unable to be seen. Lightning flashed around, making everyone shield their eyes. And then the light suddenly vanished, and a red panther with light blue eyes was suddenly standing where Thunder had stood before.

Everyone’s mouths dropped. Rekino swore, Queen Lila fainted into her husband’s arms, King Thaitus’ eyes were so widened, they looked as if they would come right out of their sockets, there was screams of fear.

“The.. The prince! He’s… he’s… transformed!” a soldier cried out.

Rekino looked toward the panther now, as she continued to help Hana. She knew Hana’s armor would heal her in time, but she didn’t want Hana to go into shock.. Blood poured out of Hana’s wound, and she tried her best to keep the flow of blood back, while studying the panther at the same time. Her eyes widened in shock. The panther had the same color eyes Thunder did. It was him.

“Rekino, it hurts so much,” Hana said quietly.

“Shh, don’t talk! Save your strength!” Rekino said, looking back at her.

Hana became silent, but the tears flowed down her cheeks. She was crying, not only for the pain she was enduring, but also for Sage. What had happened to him?

Sage was struggling to get free from Rowen and Ryo, cursing at the top of his lungs. The two Ronins held onto him tightly. He thrashed and kicked, nearly knocking them off, but they continued to hold him tightly. Finally he let out a scream and threw them both off, sending them flying back where they both hit a column pillar each and slumped to the floor.

“Ryo!” Rekino screamed.

Sage stood up just then and was about to approach the Lady Wildfire who was still covering Hana. And then suddenly, Thunder in his panther form, leapt through the air and tackled him down. Sage struggled violently to get the heavy animal off him, but Thunder kept him pinned to the floor. With one strike of his paw to his head, he knocked Sage’s helmet off, then struck again at his head, this time knocking Sage out.

Queen Alina was seething. She would not let anyone ruin her husband’s plans.. She raised her staff toward Thunder. Rekino saw it immediately and cried out, “Thunder, watch out!”

Thunder saw the attack in time and backflipped out of the way. He landed on the ground and quickly turned, crouching, tail twitching, his eyes gleaming with a predatory look at the queen of Rome.

Outside, Flash continued to destroy soldiers using her pyrokinesis. She was separated from Shades and Scorpio, how that happened no one knew, but they would rejoin together later. An arrow flew toward her heart and she quickly dodged it, and set the responsible soldier’s feet on fire, and then suddenly engulfed him in flames. His screams were heard until he had died. She moved on, sending her power where she could. She really hated to kill people, but she had no choice. It was either kill or be killed in this situation.

Flash suddenly saw a tank rolling into the streets. The driver was firing at German civilians who were running for their lives. Some were killed by the machine. Flash increased her powers and sent three fireballs after it, destroying it. She felt someone shooting near her and quickly turned and sent an inferno after five Roman soldiers, engulfing them.. Their screams lasted for only several minutes before they were silenced.

And then the wind picked up, and the sound of a machine gun was heard overhead. She looked up. An army fighter pilot was in the air, circling the area and firing at anyone not of Roman blood. She increased her powers once again, and then with a jerk of her head, the plane suddenly exploded in mid-air..

Flash turned away from the plane. The moment she did she felt a fiery pain enter through her back. She let out a pain filled scream, and tried to desperately grab for the arrow the had struck in the middle of her back..

On opposite sides of the city, both Shades and Scorpio had heard their leader scream out in pain.. Shades was on the west side of the city, several soldiers were on the ground, crawling around as if they were babies. She kicked another soldier out of her way and suddenly ran in the direction of Flash, knocking down soldiers as she did so.

Scorpio was on the east side, fighting as hard as he could. He knocked three soldiers into a building with his weapon, and ducked from a fierce blow, and then used his spear staff to gut into the soldier behind him. The soldier fell down, and Scorpio ran for it, heading for Flash.

Suddenly, everything stopped. The Roman army all back away, holding their weapons down. With the blink of an eye, they were all gone. Flash, Scorpio, and Shades all looked around, confusion written all over their faces.

"What happened?" Scorpio asked.

"I guess they chickened out! If I were them, I would've left too!" Shades said.

Flash looked at her friend, "Don't get too cocky. They may have been asked to come back. Besides, the ones in the castle are still there," She nodded back towards the castle, "Hey Shades, get that arrow out, will ya. It hurts just a little bit."

"Uh…sure," Shades put one of her hands on Flash's shoulder and the other on the arrow. She drew in a deep breath and pulled it out.

Flash bit her lip to keep from screaming, "Thanks. Now, let's go back to the castle," Flash leaned on her friends for a little support. The three warriors took off and went inside to find Queen Alina fight some kind of panther and Sage staggering to get up. They noticed that Hana, who had been stabbed, and Rekino. Ryo and Rowen had been knocked out from the throw, "What's going on?" Flash asked. Before anyone could answer, Alina and Sage disappeared from sight, "Not again."

Rekino threw her arms up, which were covered in blood, "Well damn, there goes the neighborhood!"

"Please Rekino, don't make me laugh," Hana moaned. Her armor was helping her, but it wasn't fast enough. Blood continued to pour from her wound. It seemed endless.

Rekino frowned deeply and stared at her friend’s wound.. Never before had she thought this would ever happen. Tears flowed down her cheeks and she didn’t bother to wipe them away.

“Rekino,” Hana said softly. “Don’t cry.”

Flash frowned as well, looking toward her friends. She saw Shades and Scorpio taking care of Rowen and Ryo, and then there was the panther. Where had it come from? And where was Thunder?

Then suddenly, the panther was surrounded by a red glow.. Her eyes widened as the light engulfed the panther. When it faded, there was Thunder, standing up shakily, a hand to his head.

Thaitus shouted. “Son!”

The queen came to, groaning softly. “What happened.. where’s our son?”

Thunder looked toward her over his shoulder. “I’m right here, mother.” He said nothing more, but approached Hana instead. By now, Hana was having an extremely difficult time healing herself. It was if the powers of Halo left her.

“Rekino.. Halo.. they’re not working!” Hana moaned in pain.

Rekino bit her lip. She had a feeling she knew why they weren’t working. Flash was getting angrier by the minute, but she forced herself to remain calm. Thunder reached Hana, and frowned at her, his emotions still washing over him.

“Rekino, please?” he asked quietly.

Rekino knew what he was going to do, and she nodded.. She let go of Hana and stepped back, watching him kneel down to her.

“Thunder!” Thaitus shouted. “What are you doing?! Don’t touch her! We’ll call for help!”

Thunder ignored his father’s commands. Instead, he laid his hands upon Hana’s stomach and closed his eyes. A glow surrounded him, and his symbol appeared in his forehead. The light transferred to Hana, and her wound began to heal from the inside out.

Queen Lila gasped as she saw everything.. Her son had healing powers?! And then she suddenly began to remember. It had been a week before they had to give their son up to protect him. She had been sewing his tiny little pants which had gotten a hole in them somehow. Normally she would have had servants to do it, but she wanted to do it herself. She ended up jabbing her finger with the needle, making it bleed. Thunder who was so small, everyone had to tiptoe around the castle to avoid stepping on him, had looked up from his spot on the floor. He had been playing with a bright ball, and he saw his mother nursing her wounded finger.. And he had healed her with just a touch. Her thoughts came back to the present. The girl Thunder had healed, stood up with the help of the two other girls, the long dark haired one, and the brown haired girl.

King Thaitus was watching in shock, not knowing what to say. He was angry though, that the damned Romans had ruined everything. But yet there was still hope.. He could have servants clean the mess up, and start the ball up again…

“Hana, are you okay?” Flash asked in concerned.

Hana shook her head. “No, we need to get Sage.”

Rekino nodded as Thunder stared at Hana for a few moments, before going over to Ryo and Rowen and healing them.

Scorpio frowned. “Why did she take Sage with her?”

“I’m thinking she cast a spell on Sage,” Hana explained. “He wasn’t acting like himself.”

Rowen and Ryo soon came over to them, and were relieved to see Hana was all right, but in dismay that their comrade was missing.

“You know what this means,” Flash said.

“We go after him,” Ryo said.

Just then, Commander of the king’s army marched in, obviously shocked at how the Romans had fled. He headed for the king and queen, but got a good look at the true heroes of the kingdom. These had to be the prince’s friends. Yes, there was the brown haired girl that had been seeing running after the limo when they had first picked him up. She was speaking to the others about something, about a rescue mission. He let out a sigh and approached the king.

“My liege, all of the Roman soldiers have fled the city. There are numerous damages and many deaths, totaling at least two hundred German Civilians.”

The king frowned. “Send out a cleanup crew to get the cost of damages so we can start rebuilding. I have to fix the event I lost tonight.”

Immediately Harry knew he was speaking of the ball. “Sir, I don’t think now is a good time to host the ball. There have been major damages here, and that’s all you can think of!”

The king glared at him. “Do you dare question my order?!”

“Yes, as a matter fact I do! Well, you were worried about the damn ball of yours, those children over there saved us! No one else could! Our young and most experienced soldiers were brutally slaughtered, and you did nothing, but give out orders to protect the castle, while worrying about this event and for Prince Thunder’s arranged marriage!”

Ryo, Rowen, Rekino, Hana, Shades, Flash, Scorpio, and Thunder all looked toward them now, overhearing the entire thing. Disani came to stand beside Thunder’s left side, also watching. He cocked his head.

The king was shocked, and the queen was frowning. Never before had the commander been so vulgar to them. At first he didn’t know what to say, and then finally he did. “That is my concern, and my concern alone.”

“You’re right,” Harry agreed with a shake of his head. “It is your concern, because I now quit!” And with that he took of his commander slash and dropped it on the floor, and walked out of the room.

Rekino was tempted to start clapping right there, until Ryo grabbed her by the shoulder and hissed in her ear. “Don’t you dare!”

Rekino gave him her best evil eye, but this time it didn’t work. She sighed and muttered in Japanese. Ryo heard her though. He would get back at her later for that.

Thaitus sighed. “Just great.”

“Dear, perhaps he was…”

“No! I am the king! What I say goes!” Thaitus said firmly. Lila frowned deeply and lowered her head. Then Thaitus looked toward Thunder.

“So we’re going after Sage now, right?” Rowen asked.

Ryo nodded. “Yes, we…” He was suddenly interrupted by Cye speaking to his mind. ‘Yeah, Cye, what is it?’

Ryo frowned deeply. ‘When she wakes up, tell her we’re going to save Sage, and we’ll beat this new evil! You can count on it.’

Ryo sighed as the connection was broken. “That was Cye,” he explained.. “Anyway, let’s go and rescue Sage.”

“Thunder!” Thaitus called.

Thunder cringed and looked toward him. The king wanted him to come over, but he wanted to go with the others to save Sage. He looked back and forth between them, frowning deeply.

Shades mentally rolled her eyes. If she was Thunder she would have flipped the king off and walked off.

Flash gave her tall friend a pity look. She knew this was difficult on him, but he had to make his own choice. Scorpio was watching him sadly, feeling bad for him.

Rekino was about to tell the king off when Thunder lowered his head more.

“I’m sorry,” he told them.. “I want to come with you.. but.. but I can’t.. “

Hana frowned. “We understand, Thunder,” she said softly.

“Well, I don’t,” Rekino said crossing her arms.

Ryo shook his head. “This isn’t the time, sis.”

“Let’s make time!” Rekino declared.

Thunder frowned at her. “Rekino, please,” he said, his eyes quivering.. (oh yeah, for those who don’t know this.. Thunder actually only has just his right eye showing, the other eye is hidden by his hair. And yes there’s a reason for it, which will be explained later in the fic!)

Rekino stared at him, and sighed. She hated it when this happened. She nodded. “Alright, fine. I can respect your desire to obey your…. father even if I don’t understand.”

Thunder nodded unable to smile a thanks. He looked at Hana for a moment, staring into her eyes, and then turned and slowly walked toward his parents, unwillingly.

Hana watched him. Why had he been staring at her like that? There was no time to ponder over it. Ryo suddenly gave the order to move out, and the eight of them, headed out of the castle, each one taking one last glance at Thunder.

Back at the castle of Rome, Borya sat on his throne. His wife Alina sat next to him, and Sage stood to the right of his throne, stiff and staring straight ahead, still under the spell he had been put under. At the present moment, Borya wasn’t really too happy. Everything had been going well, until those mysterious teenagers had shown up and ruined everything, including his enemy’s son! No, he was not planning to back down. He would make the Germans suffer and would take over their kingdom, destroying every German there was, and he would destroy those teenagers that stood in his way.

Alina looked toward him. “My lord, I grow bored waiting to strike again.”

Borya was about to answer her, when he saw a vision again. In it, the same teenagers he had seen in armor were coming to his castle. A wicked grin spread across his face. “You may soon get your chance to exonerate yourself of your boredom, my dear.”

Alina stared at him, wondering what he was planning, but then she smiled evilly and nodded. Whatever it was, it would most definitely be good.

Meanwhile, the two Ronins, the two lady Guardians, and the three Warriors had all reached their destination, but they went under ground, through the sewers. They would come up inside the castle itself.

“EW!” Hana said, disgusted. “I swear when we rescue Sage, and he’s back to his normal self, he better thank me, for ruining my hair in this stuff!”

“It can always be washed,” Shades said with a shrug.

“Let’s keep going,” Ryo said. “I think we’re almost there.”

They continued on, creeping through the sewers. They were completely silent, listening for any signs of danger. So far nothing had come. Finally they reached a ladder. Flash was the first to climb up it. She got halfway up, when they suddenly heard a man speaking in their Romanic language. She began to think and then an idea she had seen from a movie with her younger siblings popped in her head. “Meow,” she said, imitating a perfect cat.

Ryo frowned. What was she doing? His eyes widened as Flash meowed again.. Suddenly someone from above shouted curses at Flash, or at the cat they thought they were hearing. Flash smirked and just meowed more. And then the cover of the hole opened up. Flash suddenly reached up and grabbed the man by his shirt and tossed him over her shoulder. “Look out below!”

Everyone scattered as the heavy man fell to the ground. They watched him carefully. When he didn’t get up, they immediately followed Flash out of the sewer, and found themselves in one of the Roman castle’s dark hallways.

Immediately they were surrounded by Roman soldiers, holding weapons against them.

“Surrender!” the one who seemed to be in charged ordered.

“Surrender?!” Ryo said. “Not on your life!”

“Let’s kick their asses!” Shades shouted.

“You will surrender or be killed in the name of the king!” another soldier shouted.

“Surrender this!” Rekino shouted back as she suddenly punched the soldier hard in the face. The impact from her fist knocked him out.

“Damn, Rekino,” Rowen said, his eyes widening.

Rekino ignored Rowen.

The soldiers attacked just then. Ryo ducked and side kicked a soldier out of his way. He threw another over his shoulder and punched another down the hall. Rowen did his famous flying kick and slammed against a soldier, knocking him down, he then flipped into the air, and gave a front snap kick to another soldier knocking him back.

Shades ducked down, allowing two soldiers to run into each other. Both fell, wounded. She got up and did a somersault kick to another, knocking him down, then punched one that had been sneaking behind her.

Hana punched two soldiers out of her way, did a double back flip, kicked a soldier into the ceiling, and gave an elbow smash to another.

Rekino took two soldiers suddenly and cracked them against each other, then tossed them in opposite directions. She leapt to avoid a spear, and suddenly did a round house kick to the owner, sending him crashing into the wall.

Scorpio grabbed one soldier and threw him over his shoulder, punched another shoulder, ducked down to avoid getting hit with an arrow, and then gave an upper cut to the soldier’s chin, knocking him backward. A soldier came at him from the side, and a quick left hook took care of him.

Flash was eying her opponents. All three had her surrounded, weapons pointed at her. She was not worried. Actually she was worried, but not of them. The wound in her back was killing her now and it was bleeding. She had ignored it as long as she could, but the pain was increasing. She had no choice. She had to fight.. She suddenly did a roundhouse kick, kicking one of them down the hall, then quickly avoided a shaved head, and threw another over her shoulder. She punched the last one into the opposite wall, knocking him out.

The battle continued relentlessly as more and more soldiers appeared out of nowhere. They continued to fight, and then eventually they resorted to their surekills, having no choice. After what seemed like an eternity, the soldiers were finally gone..

Flash collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily.

“Flash!” Shades cried in alarm, as she hurried to her friend.

Rekino frowned and immediately headed over to them, with the others right behind her. Flash was sweating profusely, and the back of her shirt was covered in blood.

“Oh god,” Hana whispered.

After everyone had left, Thunder got yelled at by his father; furthermore, Thunder tried to defend himself. He wanted so badly to go and help his friends, but his father wouldn't let him. There was nothing he could do except stand there and listen to his father's mouth going on and on and on. To add to it, the Italian royals had to watch.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself, son?" Thaitus asked.

"I've already told you, father! They…" Thunder stopped. Thaitus and Lila looked at him strangely and wondered what he was doing. Then, they saw it. A symbol of a thunderbolt appeared on his forehead, "Mom, dad, get behind me," Thunder looked towards Bianca and her family, "Same goes for you three."

Lila frowned, "Son, what is it?"

Thunder closed his eyes, "The Romans…they're coming back…"

"WHAT?!" Thaitus shouted. He turned his head towards a noise and saw a Roman soldier coming in through the wall followed by many more, "Guards!"

A wicked laughter got the royals attention. They all looked towards the entrance and saw the Roman king, "How lovely. The prince gallantly tries to save his family. How noble of you."

"King Borya, what's the meaning of this?!" Thaitus demanded.

Borya smirked, "As you know, Thaitus, this war has gone on long enough and it's time to end it. There are no more of your soldiers. So, you might as well give up and surrender your kingdom to me."

Thunder held up his nodatchi, "You'll have to get through me to get to them, Borya. I won't let you touch my family!" Thunder charged at him, taking the upper hand.

Borya drew his sword and blocked against Thunder's attack. He motioned towards his soldier not to do anything unless needed, "Your are a cunning one, young prince, but getting through you will be easy."

Thunder smirked, "We'll see about that!" He back flipped and went towards Borya again. The clashing sounds of the metal caused sparks to fly. The battle went on for minutes. Borya just kept defending while Thunder kept charging, "Why won't you fight back?"

Borya laughed, "It's not my job to fight you, prince."

"What?" Thunder asked. Before he could make another move, a familiar voice caught his attention.

"Thunder Bolt Cut!"

Thunder didn't have time to block that attack. He was sent crashing into the wall with a great force. His mind was wondering. How come he couldn't absorb that attack? 'Oh yeah, it's dark magic.' Thunder thought to himself. He stood and looked around, "Sage! Come out!" He felt a presence behind him and he did a front flip just in time to miss getting hit by Sage's no datchi.

"Hey Thunder," Sage said evilly, "How've you been? Or better yet, how's Hana?"

Thunder spat at him, "She's fine."

"Glad to hear it," Sage said. He readied his weapon and charged at Thunder.

The Storm warrior held up his weapon and tried to block the attack, but Sage disappeared before he could do anything. He looked around quizzically and heard a scream. It was Bianca. He turned around and saw Sage holding his nodatchi to Bianca's throat.

"Now, you have two choices Thunder. One, you keep fighting and the little princess dies," Sage pressed the nodatchi harder against the Italian princess's neck, "Or two, you surrender and let her and her family and your family live. You have five seconds. What's it gonna be?" He looked evilly at Thunder, "One…"

Thunder frowned. He was about to tell Sage to go ahead and kill her, he didn't care, but then again, his father would murder him if that happened.

"Two…"

Damien, Thaitus, Lila, and Annelise kept staring back at Thunder and Sage. One of them was going to do something, and they hoped it was Thunder making the right decision. Borya was on the other side of the room, looking quite entertained.

"Three…"

"Thunder!" Annelise screamed, "You can't let her die! She's my baby and I don't want her taken away from me! Do something!"

"Four…"

Borya was laughing uncontrollably now, "We're down to the last, thrilling second. What will the prince do? Let the princess die or surrender?"

"Five!" Sage screamed, "Time's up, pretty boy! The princess dies!"

"NOOO!" Annelise struggled under her husband’s grip.

"Wait!" Thunder shouted. Everything stopped and they all looked at him. He clinched his fists at his side and slowly dropped his sword. "I surrender."

Sage smiled triumphantly, "Good," He pushed Bianca back to her parents, "Soldiers, restrain them!"

In a matter of minutes, the Roman soldiers had the royal families restrained. Sage took it upon himself to help the others with Thunder, all the while, shooting dirty looks at one another, "Oh, did I piss the prince off?"

Thunder gave Sage the worst glare he could've ever given anyone, "I'll get you. Next time it'll be different."

Sage just laughed and tied the ropes harder.