"Reia... get out of here, RUN!" Cye shouted, pushing her behind him, towards the dock.

"Are you insane?" She snapped. "This is no time to play at heroics!"

"You really should have listened to the boy," Persephone murmured, smiling ever so slightly as her eyes flashed. A shock wave ripped through the water, towards the unprotected Ronins.

"Watch it!" Reia screamed, moving in front of Cye before he could stop her, trying to create a shield. The brunt of the wave caught her, with enough force to throw her backwards, out of the water.

"REIA!" Cye made a move to jump out of the water, but a strong telekinetic yank pulled him back, dunking him under the deeper water.

"You're playing with me now, Torrent," Kaori murmured, her voice oddly calm.

"Don't break your toy too quickly, Kaori," Persephone rasped, as she began to float to where Reia laid on the shore, dazed.

The cold air that followed the Dark Ronin hit Reia's wet skin like a slap, shocking her to awareness.

"Who are you?" Reia demanded as her sub armor appeared over her body, and she managed to rise to her feet.

"I already told you, don't you pay attention?" Persephone shook her head.

"Well, what do you want, then, O Death Warrior?" Reia shot back, with venom in her voice. "You caught me at a really lousy time, you know!"

"Teenagers," Persephone sighed. "You superhero types always have to be bratty teenagers!" She pointed her crossbow at Reia, firing off a volley of red energy blasts.

"Ah!" Reia screamed in surprise as the blast caught her off guard, throwing her backwards, onto the ground.

Persephone moved downwards in a blindingly fast, steep swoop towards the stunned girl.

~...Crap!~ Somehow Reia managed to get her muscles and mind to cooperate at the same time, and she rolled sideways, the spiked heel aimed for her head barely missing. She jumped away, taking Persephone's temporary distraction to dare a glance back at the lake.

To her chagrin, a pea-soup fog had settled over the water, and the only sounds she could hear was the occasional explosion and splashing.

"Cye!" She cried, but turned back as she sensed Persephone approaching again.

The dark witch moved incredibly fast... too fast for Reia to get breathing room, much less call upon her armor and fight back more effectively. She could only dodge and block, but her defenses were wearing down and Persephone was landing more and more hits...

~ Where did he go? ~ Kaori wondered, flying low over the choppy surface of the lake. Anger tugged at the cool, calm corner of her mind, that perhaps he had somehow eluded her. ~ No, I can't have lost him... he's only hiding... ~

"Come out, now, Ronin scum!" She shouted, but the only answer she got was her voice echoing back.

Then, all of a sudden, a huge blast of water sprouted up from the lake, catching her off guard and hitting her from below.

"Aaahh!" She screamed out in shock as the blast pushed her back. She turned in the air, barely managing to steady herself. ~ Where is he?... THERE! ~

Her only clue was a flash of pale blue as Cye, now in sub armor, dove beneath the surface again.

"That trick won't work on me twice!" She shouted, twirling her staff in her hands. "ARCTIC TYPHOON!!!"

Kaori raised her staff above her head, as freezing cold wind and rain began to pelt the lake. Soon, snow was in the air, and within a matter of moments, the water was freezing solid.

"You enjoy the water so much, let it be your tomb!" She shouted. "I will enjoy watching you try to summon your armor when you are beneath a foot of ice, in such cold water... it would be a fitting end for Cye of Torrent to drown, wouldn't you think? Although I am afraid your weak human body will succumb to the cold first, armor or not!"

The brunette threw back her head, laughing as the ice continued to build...

"OK, yeah, so we sent Reia down there," Lys sighed, looking sideways, away from the now large group of males interrogating them.

"I swear to God, men can be so dense!" Kawai sighed. "Why don't you just ask us to write it in neon paint on Tokyo Tower? We wanted to find time alone for them, DUH!"

Both girls rolled their eyes at the shocked silence that followed.

"Um... why?" Xanthe asked slowly, but before the girls could make a sarcastic comment, Rowen let out a strangled gasped and stumbled sideways, falling into the coffee table and knocking a lamp over.

"Rowen!?" Sage was the first one close at hand, followed by the others. "What's the matter?"

"...Something... is very wrong," Rowen hissed, clutching at his shoulder as if it was in terrible pain. Brilliant blue, the kanji of life force flashed on his forehead, in time to his racing pulse. "...Reia... and Cye, they're in big trouble... They're dying!..."

"DEATH SPIRAL!" Reia screamed, as the last bolt fired from Persephone's crossbow, backed by some kind of black magic, hit her. She heard a sickening crack and felt a surge of horror just before the terrible pain as it penetrated her sub armor, actually going through her shoulder and lodging itself there.

A kick to her chest only made the pain worse. When she flew backwards and slammed into a tree, it became too great and she collapsed against the ground, feebly clutching at her shoulder. Her breath came out in small, shallow gasps, each one a labor of agony.

"This is really sad, I was hoping you would be more of a challenge," Persephone remarked as she watched Reia try to get up and fail.

The blue haired girl coughed, and tried to ignore the blood in her mouth, and said nothing.

"I suppose I should just put you out of your misery," She said, lazily, as if she'd simply suggested lending her money instead of killing her.

~ Oh... God, this is it...~ Reia thought, burying her head in her arms. ~ I... can't... I don't have energy left to fight anymore... Kasukio, Lys... Kawai, Xanthe, Junichi... guys, I'm sorry... Cye...Rowen... ~

"ARROW SHOCK WAVE!!!"

~ !! ~

"What?" Persephone's head whipped sideways, her mouth hanging open in surprise, a half a moment before the full force of the shock wave slammed into her, directly from the front, blasting her completely out of sight, for the moment.

Rowen, from his position in a tree, had a bird's eye view of the situation. Many yards back, Persephone was picking herself out of the shattered remains of a tree. He looked around frantically for some sign of Cye or Reia, and a spot of blue and red against the brown and green forest floor caught his eyes.

~ Oh my God...~ Horror spread through him like poison as he ran towards the fallen girl.

Reia was laying on her stomach, unconscious, and barely breathing. Blood smeared around her in a pool, and he could see that a good portion of the upper part of her sub armor was cracked, almost completely shattered at her right shoulder where the evil arrow had hit it.

When she'd fallen, it only drove the arrow in deeper, and at a nasty angle.

Rowen cursed under his breath as his probing fingers finally managed to locate a pulse in her neck, but it was very weak. Sage and Lys were out there... somewhere, in the darkness, he had somehow lost track of the others. But he knew, if he didn't find a way to have Reia healed SOON, she would die.

~ No freakin' way, ~ He thought, sourly, as he tried to figure out a way to move her without killing her. "SAGE! LYS! I DON'T CARE WHO, BUT SOMEONE WITH HEALING POWERS BETTER GET THEIR GREEN-CLAD BUTT OVER HERE!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

A hoarse scream snapped him back to reality as he turned to see Persephone, bleeding and battered, standing about 20 feet away.

"You... how... dare... you..." She snarled. "...Attacking me from behind..."

"I'd sure like to know which direction you attacked Reia from!" Rowen shouted back, drawing his bow. "Come any closer and I'll adjust it so you won't have to worry about attacks from any direction!"

Persephone's cloudy yellow eyes turned a shade closer to red. "Bold words, boy," She said. "Bold words..."

There was a sound of running feet, and shouting voices, and she flinched.

"Another time, then, Strata..." Persephone said. "And, by the way, I think she's dead."

Rowen loosed the arrow he'd been holding steady, but the woman vanished, and it flew through dead air before embedding itself into a tree.

His attention back to Reia, he leaned down, praying to find some evidence of breath. There was none. He cursed again, but this time he was yelling.

"If you die, I'll kill you," He muttered, tipping the girl's head back and taking a deep breath before covering her mouth with his own, trying to force air into her lungs.

"Man, why in heck is it so cold out here?" Kento gasped, his breath coming out in white puffs.

"The lake!" Junichi yelled, pointing. There appeared to be some sort of blizzard going on in the center, and thick ice had spread out even over the shore.

Lys skidded to a stop, nearly falling on the ice. "Reia..." She mumbled. "Oh, no... Sage! Sage!"

"What is it?" The blond asked, stopping beside her, wondering why she was calling him.

"It's Reia, I can feel it... you have to come with me," She begged, grabbing his arm.

"Where is she, Lys?" Kasukio asked, blatantly interposing himself between Lys and Sage, ignoring the annoyed look from the latter.

"That way..." She said, just as Rowen's voice, faint and strained from the distance, called something.

"We'd better hurry," Kasukio said. "I'll go with you guys..."

"Me, too, I can help your healing powers," Kawai spoke up, appearing from the frigid fog.

"Reia..." Xanthe began to say, but Junichi grabbed his arm.

"You help us, there's still an evil presence out there," Junichi said, pointing. "You won't be able to help Reia, but we can help Cye!"

~ Maybe I don't want to help him... ~ A tiny voice inside of Xanthe growled. Appalled by it, he forced it down and slowly nodded.

As Lys, Kawai, Sage, and Kasukio faded into the fog, Junichi, Kento, Ryo, and Xanthe approached the icy lake at a sprint, in full armor.

"I... I can feel it... Cye's..." Ryo gasped as they skidded out onto the ice.

"He hasn't much time," Junichi nodded. "We have to break this ice!" He plunged the prongs of the trident into the ice at his feet with all his strength. "I'm going to bring up the water from under it..."

"I'll help you break the ice," Xanthe nodded.

"I want a piece of that Dynasty bimbo," Kento jerked a thumb at Kaori, still floating in the center of the blizzard.

"You and me both, Kento," Ryo turned at charge at Kaori, and Kento followed.

"On three," Junichi murmured, watching the two warriors as they grew closer to the target. "One..." He forced his weight on the trident, driving it farther into the ice.

"Two," Xanthe raised his staff above his head, and waited.

Ryo jumped into the air, preparing to attack...

"Three! SUPER WAVE SMASHER!"

"IRON ROCK CRUSHER!" As Xanthe's attack weakened, then shattered the ice, the water in the lake rose to Junichi's bidding, exploding upwards in a gigantic, icy fountain.

Explosions of red, and heat that cut through the chilling fog signaled Ryo's strike, even if his voice was lost in the noise.

From the mess of fire and flying ice, Kento emerged, hopping and splashing from ice block to ice block, carrying a pale, soaking bundle in light blue and white sub armor.

"I got him!" Kento yelled. "But he's in bad shape!"

Junichi shuddered slightly, feeling the energy of the lake trying to cope with the black magic that had been cast upon it, and the destruction all about. "Xanthe, get back to the house and get Mia and Kayura ready to receive wounded!"

"What about you?" Xanthe demanded.

"This Dynasty bitch is on my turf, now, I'll help Ryo. Just go, the others are probably back there with Reia by now!"

That seemed to snap Xanthe into sense, and he turned to follow Kento, who was already halfway back to the house.

Junichi was in the water, and off like a torpedo. Ryo was strong, he knew that, but by now the lake had returned to liquid, which would hamper Ryo, but not him. And, this attacker, whoever she was, needed to be stopped before she could cast that ice spell again...

Lys bit her tongue to keep from screaming as Reia's grisly situation came into view.

Rowen was crouched over her, a small bubble of blue energy around them as he desperately attempted CPR on her.

Upon their arrival, the shield automatically dropped. Lys threw her sword to the ground, Sage sheathed his as the two catapulted to Rowen's side.

"We have to get back inside," Kawai exclaimed as she arrived.

"No time, we'd never be able to move her back," Lys snapped, trying to force herself to concentrate.

Kawai flung her hands into the air. "DAO AI!!!" She cried, as purple energy began to spread out from her, forming a dome around the group. In a twinkling of pink light, they were gone...

...Only to arrive in the living room of Mia's home, adding to the mass chaos already reigning there. People running about frantically, trying to keep Cye warm, gasped in horror at the unexpected arrival of their comrades.