Standard disclaimer: I don't own the series.

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AN: hello :) Yet another chapter. Yeah, I know that the last chapter was a little... wierd. And I know that Ryu's party wasn't even featured. Ah well. See, that little chapter was setting up the remaining parts of the story, as well as give a little background info on a certain character :) I wonder if anyone was able to get what I was trying to say? Anyway.

Okay, Manna and Troy have found out that Aaron has revived Valerie and has placed the Light Key within her. Aaron is able to retreat before Manna is able to deliver the smack down the bastard deserves, Valerie in tow. They two of them are forced to leave, but not before Troy finds the Dragon Blade ^_~ Meanwhile, Garr has a little chat with Deis and Yuki in spirit form about upcoming events.

Heh, and there's still the little problem that Ryu's group has with a Holy Sword possibly invading Worent and Momo has told Wyatt that she might know how to get one of the Goddess Keys.

Sounds like the characters are all having fun, eh? Lol

Here are the reviews!

ZoharKnight: Ah, that would rock! Can you just imagine the graphics??? Hehe :) glad you caught the references! I can’t say what’s up with Jin right now. Doing that would be a spoiler for the later chapters of the story. Hehe, I can say that I am the type of writer that does not like to kill of her favorite characters ^_^ (I guess that counts as a spoiler? Maybe?) Thanks for reading!!!

Meeerf: Hello! Hehe. Remember, it’s one of my stories. There’s no telling what’s gonna happen :) seriously though, do I look like the person that would kill of a character at the very end of the story? Hehe! That makes me think, though. When I do post the final chapter and the epilog, maybe I should post them together… Hehehe. Wait til you see what I have in store for her. Yeah, Manna and Deis go way back. Hehe. I guess their personalities have rubbed off on each other. ^_~ Heh, Saria’s grandmother is a goddess and she um… mated with a fairy… and their daughter mated with a dragon ^_^ more to come on this. That will be interesting. Ah, you didn’t miss what happened to Jin. The sword itself is present in the games. It’s called the Dragon Blade and it’s part of a set of armor and such that Ryu can equip at the last of the games. In the first game, it was required to get the set before you could even get the dragon forms. O.o; Heh, this might be an easter egg or there might be more to it ^_^

Anyway, here's the next chapter. Enjoy ^_^

Jin knew that it was not going to end well.

Jin was one of those people that were skilled at inductive reasoning, as well as having keen intuition. Jin was considered a genius among his colleagues and to those who knew him, he was a really shrewd man.

But it really didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that War-Queen Mardeia of the Woren, ruler of flames, and Avatar of Tora the Huntress and Princess Nina de Wyndia, heiress to the throne of Wyndia did NOT like each other.

Jin figured that out even before Mara had gone up to Ryu and made out with him. Like Ryu, Jin understood that the universal rule about women was that they hate other women. Jin knew that it really wasn’t a real hatred that womenkind held for each other. He just knew how… catty… some women could be.

After all, he had to deal with Miyuki and Yui both at the same time during that… special time of the month. In a funny, yet suicidal way, it almost made sense to how and why Myria had acted the way she did. Assuming that a goddess dealt with that… special time of the month. Maybe Ladon had pissed her off when she was being bipolar or something.

Jin managed to keep a straight face as he, Ryu, Saria, Nina, Cyrus, and Mara were gathered in what was supposed to be the ruler’s hut. Jin figured that because it was the largest hut in the surprisingly large village.

Mara and the others were kneeling on pillows around a low centered table that was in the middle of the room. Mara was seated at the head of the table, Cyrus at her right. Ryu was seated directly right in front of Mara, with Nina on his left and Sari on his right. Jin was seated next to Nina… in case she decided to do anything that would cause a national incident.

Jin really had to wonder if the girl had lost her ever-loving mind. Jin somewhat viewed Nina like a daughter and seen her grow up. Despite the long distance between Ceres and Wyndia, Yuki and Nina had remained friends during their teen years. He had been somewhat glad that Yuki had learned to teleport on her own; he didn’t have to be her mode of transportation anymore after that.

It had been Nina’s request that Yuki become a Ranger of Wyndia back when Yuki was thinking about enrolling. Jin had not liked the idea of Yuki moving to another country, but it was something that he just had to get over. He knew that Yuki would move heaven and earth if she thought that it would have helped find Ryu faster back then.

He still couldn’t get over the fact that Yuki was dead. He had failed to protect her once again…

Jin flinched slightly. That blasted pain in his stomach was back. He merely gritted his teeth and tried to focus on what Mara was saying.

Mara gave the group a look of confidence and held her head up high. “As it stands, there have been rumors of one of Gideon’s Holy Swords looking at invading Worent.”

“Why do you think that it’s a Holy Sword?” Ryu asked. “I mean no disrespect or anything, but it could be anyone.”

Cyrus crossed his arms and nodded. “We understand that. However, it was a Sword that invaded the Wyndian capital,” Cyrus said.

Nina flinched. “Yes, we know all about that. Now, the question remains why would a Sword attack Worent? You no longer have a Key… so why?”

Mara growled slightly. “The Dragon King doesn’t need a reason. He has become corrupted by his own immense powers. He has made a vow to conquer any nation that is not allied with him.”

Ryu nodded in agreement. “Gideon is a crafty bastard that is not above using his own children to get what he wants.” Ryu frown as he thought of what Nunnally had to go through at the hands of that man. Ryu refused to refer to him as “father.” Even if Nunnally tried to explain to him that he was still good.

If he had just known that Nunnally existed, he would have done everything in his power to get to her… to save her.

“I thought that Gideon’s heirs were both dead,” Cyrus mused. Ryu’s head snapped up. Cyrus caught the look and grinned slightly. “You speak using the present tense. As if his heirs were still a live.”

The color drained from Ryu’s face, but Jin managed to save the situation yet again. “The boy sometimes confuses past and present tense.”

Sari grinned slightly. “Yeah, he’s special.”

Ryu glared at both of them, but let the matter drop nonetheless.

Jin cleared his throat. “So, you’re highness. What is it that you would like us to do?”

Mara looked thoughtful as she closed her eyes. Jin frowned slightly. He glanced over at the others. None, save Sari, seemed to notice the air shift around the Woren queen. Jin slowly realized that the only reason that Sari noticed the shift was because of Yuki’s powers. Yellow-green eyes glanced over in Jin’s direction.

Jin could only tilt his head slightly. His hand tightened slightly around the hilt of his katana. Sari fingered her chakrams that were sitting on her lap, under the table. Both knew something was about to go down.

The queen’s eyes suddenly snapped open. She quickly jerked to her feet and glared at Ryu and his companions. With lightning reflexes befitting that of a war-queen, Mara grabbed her staff and pointed it at Ryu.

“Siegfreid!” Mara screamed suddenly. Her eyes flashed. “GUARDS! Seize them!”

Ryu yelled as two Woren warriors that had quickly suddenly jerked him to his feet. Several more warriors ran into the hut and seized up Jin and the others. Cyrus jumped to his feet and glared at Mara.

“What are you doing?!” Cyrus yelled.

Mara’s face was that of pure anger. “These… humans have been lying to us!” Mara growled. “That man is Siegfreid Griffith! He was probably sent here on Gideon’s orders to raze Worent.”

Ryu growled. “Mardeia?! That’s crazy! I am NOT Siegfreid! I am NOT working for Gideon!”

Mara’s body spasm as her grip tightened on her staff. “Get them out of here, NOW!”

The warriors complied as they forcefully dragged Ryu and his party off to the prisons. Ryu knew that he could just Ascend and stop them, but that would defeat the purpose and certainly label them as traitors.

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Nina growled as they were stripped of their weapons and forced into what appeared to be a large cage. Two warriors stood by the prison as Nina crouched down on the ground. Sari was standing in the middle of the cage, her eyes closed. Jin merely took to leaning up against the bars with his arms crossed.

Ryu, on the other hand, was kicking and banging against the bars trying to bust them down. Ryu growled in annoyance and clenched his fists and closed his eyes. A gold light spun up around him, as his breathing became rapid.

Jin glanced up and walked over and grabbed Nina up from the ground. They headed over to the far end of the cage. Ryu was attempting to Ascend. The light engulfed Ryu, but was suddenly canceled out when the bars lit up and blasted Ryu back against the far end of the cage.

Jin caught Ryu before he hit the bars. Jin laid Ryu down on the ground and grabbed his wrist, checking his pulse. Nina looked slightly confused over the whole thing. The warriors jerked around and glared at the group. Ryu moaned and opened his eyes. Jin helped him into a sitting position.

“Null magic…” Ryu managed to sputter out. He ran a gloved hand through his spiky blue hair and with Jin’s help, managed to stagger to his feet.

Jin frowned slightly. He glanced over at Nina and said something in Wyndian. Nina blinked and slowly nodded her head in agreement. Sari grinned slightly. Ryu sighed and leaned up against the bars, trying to catch his breath.

“Speak in Common human,” one of the Worens growled. “We will not let you conspire against our queen.”

Jin smiled and said something else to Nina in her native language. Nina had a hard time keeping that smile off of her face. She nodded and turned her attention to the warriors.

“I, Princess Nina Ashelia de Wyndia, heir to the throne of Wyndia, child of the Great Bird, issue a challenge to War-Queen Mardeia of the Woren, ruler of flames, Avatar of Tora the Huntress!”

Ryu blinked once. What the hell was Nina doing?

He then remembered hearing something about how one royal could issue a challenge of honor against the ruler of the Worens. Of course, this challenge had to be carried out in the name of honor. The Woren were honor-bound, if anything and if their honor was being called to question, they must act.

The two warriors looked appalled if anything. One of them growled something to the other in the Woren’s native tongue, then turned his attention to Nina.

“We will relay your… challenge to our queen.”

And with that, the warrior left. Ryu turned his attention to Nina.

“Are you out of your ever loving mind?!” Ryu demanded.

“I don’t think we really have a choice in the matter,” Nina said as she looked down at her boots.

Jin nodded and turned his attention to Ryu. Jin gave Ryu a grim smile and said something to Ryu in Draconic. Ryu’s eyes widened slightly. He could only nod.

“So, Jin?” Ryu asked in disbelief. “How many other languages do you know?” Ryu then grinned. “You do realize that your punctuation was off, right? And you should have put accents of some of those words…”

Jin rolled his eyes. Ryu looked slightly smug. The language of the Dragon Clan was one that was not easy to master, let alone understand. Of course, Jin basically butchered what he was saying, but Ryu understood enough of it to get what Jin was trying to say.

With the way that the Worens had reacted to them speaking in Wyndian, he figured that they knew a little of what they were saying. Draconic was a whole other story. Sari could understand, of course, but Nina and the Woren would be left clueless.

Besides, Jin was basically telling Ryu why he had Nina issue the challenge. The queen was either being possessed or controlled. Jin explained that he and Sari had felt something… wrong with the Woren queen. It had been someone else that had recognized Ryu has his mercenary persona, not the queen.

Jin had told Ryu that he wanted to test his theory out about the queen being controlled or whatnot. He said that second she activated her powers, he and Sari would be able to tell. Ryu could only hope that Jin knew what he was doing. Nina was a very good fighter, but even she would have a time against a battle borne queen of a warrior nation.

Especially if their enemy was controlling that that battle borne warrior queen.

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Mara was not impressed by Nina’s challenge. In fact, she was down right pissed off. To think that a mere human, a HUMAN, was challenging her to a fight of honor? It was inconceivable!

But there Nina was, standing on a makeshift battle field, short swords in her hands, staring down the Woren queen. Jin made a casual comment about the swords to Nina that she just didn’t really get. He said that they would protect her when she needed it the most.

She knew little of the swords’ origins. What she did know was that the swords Oathkeeper and Oblivion were ancient swords that based their powers off of order and chaos, respectively.

One ancient text stated that the swords were the embodiment of the powers of light and darkness. They were suppose to be as ancient as the Dragon Blade was. The swords were supposed to also belong to Lucien, the original Overseer and God of Balance.

Nina wasn’t sure what she was dealing with. She didn’t even know if those twin short swords were the swords from those ancient fairy tales. She didn’t have time to find out, though. She was going to have to fight Mara now.

Nina smiled at the thought. She would at least get to kick her ass for hitting on Ryu.

Cyrus was not thrilled, Nina knew. He had tried to talk both parties out of the fight, but neither woman would back down. So, as it stood, Cyrus and several heavily armed Woren stood on one side of the arena, while Jin, Sari, and Ryu stood on the other.

Cyrus had also warned Ryu and his party not to interfere. He said that since it was a fight of honor, any aid that they were thinking about giving Nina from the sidelines would automatically disqualify her. And the penalty of that was death.

So, they were not going to be able to help her this time.

Nina readied her short swords as Mara swung her staff into position. Cyrus gave the call and yelled at them to fight. Nina swallowed hard as the queen ran right at her. Nina jumped back and in a surprise twist, was able to parry each blow that Mara was giving her.

It was almost as if the swords were guiding Nina’s strikes. Nina spared a precious second and realized that the swords were glowing. She took that as a good sign and pressed her attack. Mara growled and lunged at Nina. Nina dodged the attack and spun right back around and parried another blow.

Mara growled and was about to make another strike, but stopped in the middle of her act. She stumbled back slightly and her body spasm once again. Nina stood at the ready, not really sure if it was a trick, or if there really was something wrong with Mara.

Mara howled in pain as she clutched her chest. Nina looked confused and finally decided that something really was wrong with Mara and ran over to her to see if she could help. Mara’s body shuttered and she dropped her staff, Nina catching her before she collapsed to the ground.

Nina watched as Mara’s body convulsed in her arms. The other Worens assembled were about to run over to aid their queen, but Jin yelled at Cyrus to tell them to stand down. Nina placed her hand over Mara’s and realized that the queen was in extreme pain. Nina looked up at Jin and tried to call him over, but Mara screaming caused Jin to stop in his tracks.

Mara’s body tensed up. Nina immediately jumped to her feet, swords at the ready. She remembered a similar incident when she had to fight that creep back in Wyndia. The one that had killed those kids.

Nina immediately tensed. This was not going to end well. The queen was suddenly jerked to her feet. She glowed with an unreal light. The light completely engulfed her. Nina was expecting some sort of demon, not was she saw next.

She looked wilder, more aggressive. Mara’s fur had become long and coarse, the stripes wider and more pronounced. She stood on all fours, long claws digging into the dirt, her tail wailing wildly. The feral look in her eyes almost made Nina shrink back. Almost.

“A… weretiger?” Ryu questioned. He turned his attention to Nina as he started to run towards her.

Nina held her hand out, causing him to stop. “No! This is MY fight! I will see this through with honor!”

And with that, Nina’s wings burst from her shoulder blades. The gold and green light surrounded them, causing them to grow into a full wingspan. The short swords flashed and also grew in length, to about four feet each. Nina’s eyes flashed gold as she beat her wings once, hovering in the air.

“COME AND GET ME MARDEIA!” Nina yelled.

The weretiger pounced and clawed at the air. Nina beat her wings once more and gained a little altitude. She didn’t want to hurt the queen, despite the lip locking she had given Ryu a little while ago. Nina glanced over at Jin and Sari. Their looks said it all. She was being controlled.

The weretiger in question lunged at Nina once more. Memories of another weretiger echoed throughout her mind. She had no idea how to make the queen revert. She only knew that the queen was berserk and there was no way to reach her in the state she was in.

Nina knew she was going to have to end this fast. For once, Nina was glad that she was a lover of ancient history. Jin’s study provided her with more than enough material to read. She readied the sword Oblivion and lunged at the queen.

The weretiger clawed into Nina’s wing, causing blood and feathers to splay everywhere. Nina’s eyes bulged as she screamed in pain. Her heart started to throb in her chest. If anything, the fastest way to disable a Wing clansman was to do major damage to their wings. There was a large nerve cluster where wing met skin. In other words, major damage done to the wings would cause a Wing Clansman to go into cardiac arrest.

Another attack to the wings might do just that to Nina. She gritted her teeth and glared at the beast. She had to end the battle NOW.

Nina didn’t have time to react. The weretiger was right on top of her. Nina shielded herself from the attack, but the blow never came. Nina lowered her arms to see Mary standing in front of the beast, an intense look on her youthful face. She looked at Nina and nodded. Mary had stopped the attack. Nina smiled slightly and nodded back.

She drew Oathkeeper this time and slammed it into the chest of the weretiger, just missing the heart by a few inches. The sword flashed and somehow managed the queen to revert back to her normal form.

The legends said that while Oblivion could absorb attacks, Oathkeeper reflected or rejected them. The queen’s eyes glazed over and she collapsed to the ground. Mary smiled and vanished. Nina’s wings reverted back to their normal size. Nina moaned as she started to collapse to the ground. Ryu ran over and caught her, Jin Cyrus, and Sari right behind him.

Sari and Jin knelt down next to the fallen queen while Cyrus stood in front of her. Sari placed her hands over the wounds and somehow managed to reject the damage done. Nina groaned and looked up at Ryu, who was still holding her in a cradle position. He smiled as a white and blue light engulfed Nina’s damaged wing. A second later, the wound was completely healed.

Ryu let Nina down on the ground. Jin stood up and walked over to Ryu and Nina. He didn’t even look at them; it was more like he was looking past them. Ryu and Nina turned their attention to see what Jin was looking at.

Behind them was a young, beautiful woman with long blond hair, dressed in a sectioned black dress that fell to her ankles, black boots and gloves. She smiled as she looked at the assembled crowed.

Ryu frowned. “Who are you?”

The woman smiled. “I am Iris Dante, Holy Sword of Water,” she said in a silky voice. “You have done well, defeating the Avatar of Tora. Her energy has made my god that much stronger.”

“What are you talking about?!” Nina demanded.

“You will see soon enough, Destined Princess.”

And with that, Iris vanished.

Cyrus stood up, holding Mara in the cradle position. Sari stood up as well. Ryu frowned and glanced over at the two of them. Cyrus merely smiled and shook his head.

“No, do not worry about us. You must stop that Sword at all costs,” Cyrus said.

“She took control of the queen, once she discovered that there was no Goddess Key here,” Sari rationalized. She sighed and crossed her arms. “What are we going to do now?”

Ryu frowned. He turned his attention back to Cyrus. “You sure you don’t need any help?”

Cyrus shook his head. “No, we will handle this. I am truly sorry for what has happened here. Please don’t think ill of Mardeia.”

“She was being controlled. No worries,” Ryu smiled and waved Cyrus off. “So, are you going to stay here?”

Cyrus nodded. “Have to. Someone must stay here and protect Worent, now that the queen is out of commission.”

Jin hummed in agreement. “She should be fine in a few days. In any case, we need to plan our next move.”

Ryu nodded. “I say we head back to Shevat and regroup. Then we can go pay our old friends Karn and Navare a visit and find out if he really does have the Dark Key.”

 

To be continued…