Disclaimer: The Ronin characters belong to Sunrise and Co. The Lady Guardians belong to Winter Peacecraft-Yuy. The Warriors belong to Firestorm. Any questions?
Unexpected Consequences
Chapter 17


Sage was feeling very upset. Why couldn’t he get Hana to understand? He hadn’t meant for any of this to ever happen. He lowered his head and turned away. "Excuse me," he said softly and left the room, going into the living room where he sat down on the couch, staring at the floor as tears threatened the corner of his eyes.

Rowen frowned at his best friend wishing he could help him. He didn’t see why Hana had to be that way. With a sigh he went to talk to Sage.

"Okay, now what do we do?" Shades demanded.

Ryo was thinking. Flash was gone, Hana went out to fight out of anger, and Rekino went after her. He knew they had to fight as well, but someone needed to stay here as well. "We’re going to have to fight," he said at last. "But someone is going to need to stay here with the royals. Thunder looks too messed up to be doing any protecting at all."

Indeed Thunder had slumped against his mother, eyes closed, his breaths coming out in short gasps. He had fallen asleep, but it was clear he wasn’t resting peacefully. Scorpio looked at his friend with sadness in his eyes. "I’ll stay," he said. "Thunder’s my best friend, and I don’t plan on leaving him in his time of need."

"Great," Ryo nodded. He glanced quickly at Thaitus as if daring him to say anything against it. Thaitus, however, was too busy staring at his son sadly, a deep pain filling his heart. No one knew the inner battle he was having with himself that very moment.

In the end Rowen had also agreed to stay behind as Sage was too upset to even think about fighting, so that left Ryo and Shades to go. The two of them quickly armored up, and headed off, determined to help out with the battle, and to find their other comrades.

<><><><><>

Rekino ran out the door and jumped down onto the streets. She saw Hana running to hide behind a rock. Rekino looked towards the west and saw Flash heading towards Alina’s castle. She gasped when she noticed that any Roman soldier coming within five feet of Flash spontaneously combusted. She let out a low whistle and saw her comrade head for Borya’s castle. She sighed, “Hana! Hey! Wait up!”

Hana turned around and saw Rekino running towards her. She smiled a little knowing Rekino wouldn’t of let her go on her own, “Hey.”

”And just where in the hell do you think you’re going? And without me at that!” Rekino said. She smiled and hugged her friend, “We have to go with Flash. I need my swords.”

Hana shook her head violently, “No. We’re going to get Borya. That’s final. You can fight without your swords.”

”I just can’t walk around using my non-armor magic! It’ll use up my armor’s strength!” Rekino protested. She heard a barking noise and turned around to see Hawk running towards her with swords in his mouth, “Hawk! Aw, thanks buddy!”

”That’s Hawk?” Hana asked. She looked down at the wolf and noticed the scar. She cringed, “He reminds me of Cale. That’s scary.”

The Lady of Wildfire bent down and petted Hawk’s head, getting his swords from his mouth, “I don’t know how you managed to get them, but thanks!” She saw the wolf nod and run off back towards the battlefield, “He’s a good wolf. Maybe I can talk Blaze into letting me have him! White Blaze needs a friend anyways.”

”Okay, we need to get going,” Hana spoke up. She turned around and took off in a run towards the German castle with Rekino behind her.

<><><><><>

Flash had finally reached Alina’s castle after blowing up at least a thousand of her soldiers that dared to stop her. She entered the castle and right away felt a presence coming closer to her, causing her to whirl around. The moment the Roman soldier went to attack her; the heat from her body suddenly caused his to explode. He didn’t have a chance to scream. It was that quick. She turned around again and began to walk, a trail of fire footsteps leading away from her. As she passed statues of knights and Roman soldiers they disintegrated before her. The floors and walls seemed to crackle and melt, and wax candles adorning the wall burned to ashes.

Flash stopped at a wide-open corridor, glancing this way and that. Her fists clenched angrily. "ALINA! COME OUT HERE!" Her voice echoed off the walls and seemed to bounce throughout the castle. There was a moment of silence, and then finally there was a harsh laughter from behind Flash. The leader of the Warriors whirled around just as Alina appeared before her, hovering for a few seconds in mid-air. The queen of Rome touched the ground with her feet and looked at Flash with a cold smirk on her face.

"Well, if it isn’t the baby commoner!" she laughed.

Flash’s eyes narrowed. "Save it, you cheap excuse for a whore. I heard what you did to my friend and that pissed me off."

"Well, tough girl. He was just begging for me to touch him. He had such an incredible body and he filled my inner needs and desires. He was better than my husband." Alina laughed again, oblivious to the fact that Flash was surrounded by powerful energy, or the fact that her hair colored had changed. Then again, perhaps she didn’t care if she did saw it.

"You are pathetic!" Flash snapped. "And because of the harm you’ve done to him, I’ll make you pay. Both you and your husband are going down as of RIGHT NOW!"

Alina’s eyes suddenly widened as Flash’s hair began to blow behind her in a fierce manner, the heat increased itself so that it was like they were inside one of the hottest volcanoes on the planet. A long golden sword with a golden handle designed of a wolf’s head and a unicorn’s head suddenly appeared in Flash’s right hand. Its power seemed to cut through the air, trailing a trail of sparkling fire particles after it.

"So you want a battle?" Alina said as she summoned her staff. "Very well, I can oblige you on that. Remember one thing before I kill you though, my husband and I will have the German empire, and the German prince will be mine, and the warrior in green will be on our side once again, serving us loyally!"

Flash’s eyes narrowed as she charged at the queen and attacked her with the speed of a comet.

<><><><><>

The two Lady Guardians fought their way to the castle. The called their sure kills and magic dozens of times before finally reaching their destination. Rekino sheathed her swords and Hana put away her no-datchi. They jumped up and started scaling the walls of the castle. Opening a window, Hana went in first followed by Rekino, who fell into the castle.

”Shit!” Rekino complained, “I think I twisted my ankle!” She held her left foot in her hand, “Gadammit!”

”You’ll be okay. We have a mission to accomplish,” Hana whispered. She helped Rekino stand up and they walked down the endless stretch of halls. Not a single soldier was in sight. They finally came upon the throne room. Hana wasted no time and barged in with her no-datchi ready.

Rekino sighed. She’s gonna get herself killed. She unsheathed her katanas and limped into the throne room. No one was in sight. It was all dark, “Come out Borya! We know you’re here!”

A wicked laughter filled the air which made the Lady Guardians tense up, “How very perceptive of you, girl.”

Hana snorted, “You’re going down, Borya! We’re going to free this country and you’re going to die a horrible death!”

Borya materialized in front of the two ladies, “Is that so?” He smirked. He held out his hands and two energy balls appeared, “Well, we’ll see about that!” He disappeared and reappeared behind the two guardians. They didn’t have enough time to move before Borya sent the energy inside of them.

Rekino and Hana screamed as the dark energy pumped through their veins. In seconds, their armor and subarmor was shed and they were left in their street clothes. Rekino fell to her knees. Due to the state she was in, the energy completely drained her physically. She felt a sharp kick in the head and flew back and hit the wall.

Hana growled and readied herself for a fight, “You bastard!” She heard a grunt and turned around to see Rekino struggling to get up, “Rekino! Hold on!” She wasn’t fast enough. Borya grabbed Hana by her arm and the Lady Halo had to watch as her leader and best friend was shot with an energy ball, “Asshole!” Hana got out of Borya’s grip and ran to her friend’s side, “Rekino! Rekino, please get up!”

”No use in trying, Lady Halo,” Borya smirked, “She’s out cold.”

Hana growled and stood up in front of Rekino. She was ready to defend her friend even if it meant her death. Her eyes clouded with tears at the thought of never seeing Thunder or anyone else again, “Why are you doing this?” She received no response, “Answer me!”

”Well, I want this war to end, so, I took it upon myself to end it,” Borya turned around and sat down on the throne, “You see, I wanted total power. While I was in my garden, a dying sorceress approached and gave me her powers. With that, I put my whole country under my control, even my wife.”

Hana’s eyes widened, “So she wasn’t the one who caused all the suffering. You were!”

”Correct, young warrior, but now, my power over my people has been lost. That’s why no soldier attacked you when you entered the castle,” Borya snapped his fingers and a goblet appeared in his hands, “Now, with my green armored warrior gone, I have to take care of you two.”

”Why did you use Sage?”

”Simple,” He took a drink of his wine, “The boy had mixed emotions. He was jealous of the fact that you were falling in love with the young prince, but he was started to fall in love with the other girl, Flash. By the time he arrived at Thaitus’s ball, he had put everything aside. I sensed his emotions deep within him, and used them against his will. He was an easy capture.”

”You will suffer for all of the pain you have caused, Borya!”

”Hahaha, is that what you really think?” He stood up, “You have no chance against me. My powers have sealed your ability to summon your mystical armor. What will you fight with? Your heart?”

”Yes!” Hana shouted, “I am the Warrioress of Wisdom and I will not allow you to hurt anymore of the innocent people than you already have!”

Borya sighed and lifted his hand, “I guess I have no choice then. You’re a beautiful woman, Miss Halo, but your beauty cannot save you from me,” With a flick of his wrist, he sent a deadly energy ball towards Hana. She had no time to dodge to ball. Her clothes were torn and she fell face first into unconsciousness. Thunder…I’m sorry… were her last thoughts.

The Roman king smirked at his victory. Unlike his wife, he didn’t plan on taking advantage of the young warriors, but, he did have a plan for them. With a snap of his fingers, Rekino and Hana were lifted into the air and hung from the room by their hands. His plan was already starting to fall into action.

<><><><><>

Alina roared in pain the moment Flash had knocked her on her back. The searing heat was burning her skin, but it did not set her on fire. The pain was unbearable though, and Alina tried her hardest to get Flash off her.

Finally she managed to strike at Flash with her staff, but was shocked when it had no effect on the girl. "How?" she quivered, her eyes widening as Flash’s power seemed to cackle all around them.

"That’s for me to know and you to find out," Flash said coldly. She stood up, holding the front of Alina’s dress tightly in her palm as she lifted the older woman up a few feet off the floor, glaring up at her in a rage of terrifying anger.

"I promised my friends that if anyone harmed them in any way I would personally deal with that person. And now because of what you did to my friend, I’m going to carry that act out."

Alina’s eyes widened. "Y...you’re not going to kill me are you?"

Flash glared at her even more. "No, Alina. You don’t deserve death. You deserve a punishment far worse than death for the crimes you have done."

Alina’s eyes widened more in terror. What was this child going to do? Wait! Child. That was all this girl was. Surely, she had no higher power than she herself. She could easily knock her down with her magic. She closed her eyes and began to summon up her dark arts. They swirled around her body and shot out toward Flash.

But to her surprise, they had no effect on the girl. Before she could think of anything else, Flash raised her other hand, and a pulsating fireball appeared. It hovered in mid air for a few seconds, and then suddenly it slammed right into Alina’s chest. The queen of Rome choked several times, her eyes went wide, and then suddenly she went limp in Flash’s hand, as though she were dead. Flash let her drop to the floor and found some chains to bind the queen up. She stood up, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. She had to get to Rekino and Hana.

<><><><><>

Thunder awoke in an unfamiliar bed, in a strange room. He looked around, wondering where he was, and then he remembered as he heard voices. He could hear his friend talking to someone, but who? He sat up, rubbing his eyes and looked toward the closed door.

Outside in the hall, Scorpio was talking with Blaze. The giant white wolf had appeared just moments ago, and Scorpio was telling him what had gone on with Thunder.

‘Yes, I know Storm has suffered much, but I can do nothing unless he permits me to, Current. You know this as well as he does.’

"I know, Blaze," Scorpio said with a sigh as he ran his fingers through his tangle of his orange brown locks. "It’s just so hard to see him suffering. His father put so much on him with making him come back here, and then with the prearranged marriage, and the war with Rome, and then with the rape."

Inside the room, Thunder’s eyes welled up with tears. He remembered how Alina had taunted his body, trying to get a reaction out of him, and how she had bit him in quite a few places. He wiped his eyes and drew his knees up to his chin as he continued to listen.

'Yes, I know about all of this. However, if Storm agrees for me to help heal his soul, I will do that. But it is not up to me to change the way his life is going. He is of royalty and must accept responsibility.’

Scorpio let out a long sigh. "I knew you would say that."

Blaze suddenly cocked his head and his ears twitched. ‘Someone is coming. I must go.’  And before Scorpio could ask anything anymore, the wolf had vanished from sight just Lila had rounded the corner.

Lila smiled warmly at him. "Scorpio, is it?" He nodded. "Scorpio, I want to thank you for being there for my son at his time of need."

"You’re welcome. He’s helped me through a lot. I’m just sorry I couldn’t have been there when that happened to him," Scorpio said modestly. He glanced toward the close door with pained sky blue eyes.

"It is not your fault," Lila said.. "I know he is strong. We have to keep him strong too. I must see him now."

Scorpio stepped out of her way as he opened the door for her. The queen went in and shut the door behind her, leaving Scorpio out in the hall again by himself.

Thunder looked up the moment he heard his mother come in the room. He sniffled and rubbed an arm across his eyes. "Mother."

Lila frowned deeply as she walked over to him and sat down beside him, drawing him into a comforting hug. "Oh, my son, I am ever so sorry this happened to you. I wish I could take it away for you, but I can do little."

"I…I know. It’s not your fault. I should have been stronger, but I wasn’t. I was weak, and she…she overpowered me!" Tears ran down his cheeks, but it was plain to see he had been crying earlier.

"Shh," Lila soothed as she rocked him back and forth. "Never think you are weak, my son. You are not weak. You are the strongest human being I’ve seen. Most people would have cracked by now, but you held strong."

Thunder sniffled, his tears dripping on her shoulder. "I don’t feel strong though. Every time I think about what happened, it pains me even more."

"I know my son, I know. But you’ll always have me here with you, and you have your friends too, despite what your father says."

Thunder let out a tiny smile. "Yeah, they’re the greatest." He suddenly frowned. "Um…did dad say anything about…about earlier?"

Lila sighed a little as though she was too pained to tell him. She looked him straight in the face. "He was a bit disturbed about it. He didn’t think it was right for a commoner to be in love with you. However, I think he’s changing for some reason. He doesn’t seem to be acting like his normal self. When I left, he was talking to King Damien."

Thunder’s head lowered. "Probably trying to see what date would be best for my prearranged marriage," he said bitterly.

The door suddenly opened and Thaitus stepped in, looking grim. Thunder cringed slightly afraid he was going to be smacked again. The king closed the door and walked over to them, and stared down at his son, frowning slightly. "On the contrary," he said softly. "I haven’t been thinking of a date for your marriage."

Thunder blinked and stared up at him, intrigued. The king continued. "King Damien and I have been talking. With everything happening, and with what happened to you, and with the way Bianca felt, we decided…it was best to call of the wedding."

"What?" Thunder asked. He didn’t want to get his hopes up high, nor did he want to act immaturely before them by doing back flips in the room.

"We’ve called the wedding off. Princess Bianca had spoken to her father earlier. She feels she doesn’t deserve you."

This surprised Thunder greatly. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. And then all the sudden, before he could celebrate any further, he had a strange feeling that something terrible was about to happen.

<><><><><>

Shades and Ryo were searching everywhere for their comrades. They noticed right away the Roman soldiers were no longer attacking them, and that the animals that had been bloodthirsty were back to normal. Ryo saw thousands of wolves heading away back to the forests where they had come from. Blaze nor the mysterious black wolf Rekino had spoke of, were nowhere to be seen.

"Where could they be?" Ryo muttered.

"Flash is close by," Shades spoke up, as her symbol, a question mark appeared in her forehead.

"How can you tell?" Ryo asked her.

"I can sense her," the Warrior of Ataxia replied. "This way." She stepped carefully through some broken debris, and then leapt over a fallen car. Ryo followed suit. Once they got out into the middle of the deserted street, they heard the voice of the enemy they were fighting.

<><><><><>

A half-mile away from the castle was Flash, still in her transformed appearance. At her right side was Blaze, and on her left side was Hawk. Blaze’s crystal was glowing madly, and Hawk’s eyes had changed from yellow to blood red. They could all hear the announcement, and that fueled Flash’s anger even more as she listened to it.

“May I have your attention, citizens of Germany?”

Everyone in the hotel room gasped when they heard the voice of Borya. Flash stopped on the outskirts of the city and growled. Ryo and Shades looked towards the German castle. Out of instinct, all of them closed their eyes. What they saw was the Roman king standing in the throne room with a whip held in his hands. His face with in a permanent smile of a mad man.

”As some of you might have known, my forces have stopped attacking you. It is due to the fact that my powers have been…demolished, you could say,” The Roman king frowned, “I’m making a proposition as of now. In this room, I hold two prized gems that could destroy or save many lives.” Borya snapped his fingers and the images of Hana and Rekino tied up appeared in everyone’s mind.

”Rekino!” Ryo screamed out.

Rekino was hanging from the ceiling of the throne room by her hands. Hana was right beside her, in the same position. They weren’t in any kind of armor or sub-armor, just their regular clothes, which seemed to be hanging onto their bodies like little pieces of fabric. If one was to look closely, you could see that both were bleeding profusely. The bone in Rekino’s ankle had made its way through her skin. Blood poured from the wound on Hana’s head.

”Now, you have one of two option, brave mystical warriors,” Borya announced, “One, you can either stop fighting and spare your friends life, in turn giving me complete rule over Germany and Rome. Or two, keep fighting, which will result in the torture and or death of,” He strode over to Hana and rose her head up by the chin and used his other hand to do the same with Rekino, “these two lovely ladies.”

Borya drew out his whip, “Let me give you a small demonstration with will happen if you don’t meet with my demands, young fighters.”

The air around the others grew stale. Borya smirked and cracked his whip. It broke into two pieces, each one wrapping around Rekino and Hana’s body. A pulse of dark energy came out of the ends and started electrocuting Hana and Rekino. The Lady of Wildfire clinched her teeth from the pain, not able to let out a scream. Hana’s head flew back as her shrill of pain bounced in their minds. Her hair flying in all different directions made it seem like the girls were wearing capes.

Thunder’s head snapped up immediately as his eyes suddenly darkened. Lila had a hand to her mouth, and Thaitus’ fists were clenched at his sides. But no one in that room was angrier than Thunder. He was breathing deeply, his symbol of a lightning bolt glowing brightly in his forehead, flashing on and off, and increasing in luminance. He could barely see or think straight. Outside, dark storm clouds had suddenly gathered, lightning flashed and cracked through the air, sometimes coming out in bolts, causing the people to scream and seek shelter, if there was any shelter left.

King Thaitus and Queen Lila stared in horror at their son. They had seen him like this once before, and remembered what had happened then. Would it happen again?

In the hallway, Scorpio was also pissed. His symbol, water droplets was pulsating through his forehead, nearly giving him a headache, but he didn’t care. His powers seemed to mix with Thunder’s and it started to rain outside heavily, creating a deadly thunderstorm outside.

Sage was feeling everything that was happening to Hana, and he could barely hold off the pain as his kanji of Wisdom flashed brightly across his head. He had to get to her, even though she was pissed at him, he had to help her, and set things right. There was no way in hell that Borya was taking her away from him. He might not be able to have her as a girlfriend, but Thunder didn’t deserve to lose her either, and he would damned if that happened. He left the room, and ran into Rowen, whose own eyes were flashing angrily.

"Rowen."

"We have to get to them!" Rowen said angrily as his kanji of Life shined on his forehead.

Scorpio met them out in the hall. "I can’t believe that son of a bitch would do that to them!"

"Believe it," Sage said dryly. "We need to get there to them! Hana and Rekino need our help."

"Right," Scorpio agreed. But he frowned. Who would stay with the royals? And then suddenly they heard a loud roar in Thunder’s room, and a startled cry from the queen. The three of them threw the door opened and watched with widened eyes as a large red panther leapt out the window, leaving the king and queen holding onto each other, staring wide-eyed out the broken window.

<><><><><>

Ryo and Shades were also pissed now. Ryo had summoned his full armor, and the heat built up so much around him, that Shades had to back away a few feet. If she hadn’t been so angry, she would have felt like she was next to Flash who was getting ready to start a campfire. Her brown eyes were narrowed with anger, and she hurried along toward the castle, not caring if Ryo was keeping up or not. She was going to strangle the king of Rome with her bare hands.

Ryo was beyond pissed. No one hurt his little sister and got away with it. He leapt over cars like a deer, nearly knocking down people who scrambled to get out of his way. Little did he realize, that a red panther was running before him, heading toward the castle, before it suddenly disappeared.

<><><><><>

Borya was smirking as he laughed at the two Guardians. "Soon, it’ll be all over for you, Warrioress, your friends will abandon you, and I will reclaim this kingdom as my own!"

Rekino cracked open an eye and glared at him. "Fuck you!"

Borya chuckled. "Such ill language for one so young. You need to be taught a lesson!"

"Fuck off!" Rekino snapped at him.

"Insolent girl!" Borya raged in anger. He drew his whip, and cracked it in the air, and held it up, reading to strike her. And then suddenly he let out a scream of pain and dropped the burning whip to the floor, his eyes widened. "What the…?"

"Touch one part on their body, or even a hair on their head, and I’ll fuck you up so badly, you’ll wish you had died the moment you were born," said a cold voice laced with anger.

The two Guardians weakly lifted their heads to see past the evil king, as he turned around, and stared in horror at Flash.

"Y...you!" he managed to spit out. "You…changed…but how?!"

Flash’s eyes narrowed even more. Her blondish white hair still continued to blow behind her, her eyes were flashing ice blue, and her symbol flashed almost too brightly on her forehead. Fire danced around her feet, but it did not harm her, in fact it looked as if it was protecting her.

"Never mind that!" Flash snapped. "Now, you have two choices. One: you release my friends and don’t suffer, or Two: I let a couple of hungry wolves torture you, before my friends and I finish you off!"