Hi everyone. I have to admit life's not been good for me at the moment but I finally decided to update this story for you all. I hope it answers a few questions and feeds your interest. Can't guarantee when I will update again!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and my OCs.

Chapter Eight

Something alerted Isamu Akari to the arrival of something odd to the makeshift headquarters he had been using for the past few months but he couldn't be sure just what made him poke his head around the corner of the wall to see what it was. He leant back on the wooden chair so that he was haphazardly balanced on two legs, a sandwich half crammed into his mouth. A little way down the thin hall, round another corner, he heard a gaggling of visitors.

One of them seemed to be telling someone off, another seemed to be complaining of aches and pains, a third was wanting ice cream while a fourth was slowly losing patience as he tried to calm down the situation. Isamu craned back further on his chair, wobbling uncertainly as his older brother emerged from around the corner.

"You're back?" Isamu grunted. "Where have you been?"

Arashi stepped to the side to reveal the group of guests he had picked up. Isamu forgot that he was balancing on two legs of his chair and fell backwards off it with a mighty crash.

"Smooth, Mu," said Mamoru from the back of the group.

Isamu propped himself up, choking on his sandwich as he stared up at the various faces he had left behind a while ago. His eyes washed over Dawn's interested expression to Drew's gobsmacked one further along to a relieved looking Misty and finally onto an enraged Suzume.

"I can explain," he croaked.

"You're alive!" Suzume yelled loudly. Isamu remained silent, looking rather worried. Before Sparrow could open her mouth to say anything else, Isamu disappeared from the room, leaving behind a faint trace of black fog. "Come back you coward!"

"Who's yelling?" came another male voice. A man with long blue hair poked his head through the door, looking unimpressed at Arashi before staring at the group of teens. "Care to explain this, Shi?"

"We rescued them," Arashi said proudly.

"Yeah, like we don't have enough room already," the man moaned. His expression changed when he noticed Dawn stood close to Arashi. He hopped forwards, brushing Arashi out of the way and checking Dawn's injury. He let out a sigh. "Let's get you cleaned up, OK?"

"Can I have ice cream?" Dawn asked, carelessly allowing herself to be ushered from the room by the man.

"Sure, why not," the man replied.

"Careful with her, Suo," Arashi told him moments before the pair disappeared round a corner. Arashi turned to Mamoru, pulling a face. "Is he mad at me?"

"Probably," Mamoru replied with a shrug. "I'll go after them and make sure she's alright."

"Can you get Mu back?" Arashi asked. "And the others too?"

Mamoru turned slightly to give Arashi a knowing look, saying: "Even –"

"No," Arashi snapped. "Leave them two from it for the time being."

"Your funeral," Mamoru said leaving the room too. Arashi now returned his attention to his guests, leading them after Mamoru then turning right. Misty looked around the small corridors, noticing that the few people who were there seemed to jump back into the shadows.

"Who are these people?" she asked Arashi. Arashi gave a short laugh.

"I'll tell you everything in time," Arashi told her. "First of all, I would like to know about you. How has a former priestess, a prince, an apprentice and three normal children managed to get caught up in all this mess?"

"It's your mess," Yukito mumbled under his breath from the back of the group. Ash and Kenny smirked at this but quickly turned to look at Arashi once more.

"We need to get back to Headquarters," Suzume told him. "Silver, Kiboji and May are still trapped there."

"Yeah, not to mention Himeko," Drew added. "They completely over ran the headquarters, they could be being tortured or worse."

"Kiboji can handle himself," Arashi said.

"But he's your son," Misty said. "You can't leave him there."

"I never said I was," Arashi said with a small shrug. He made a sharp left and led the group into a large room where an oval table was set out. He pointed for them to take a seat before taking up one for himself. Misty hurried to take the seat on his left with Drew next to her. Suzume cam next with the remaining boys sitting themselves comfortably away from Arashi.

Arashi shuffled his chair closer to the table, wiping the table top mindlessly as if a handful of invisible crumbs had been scattered in his place. A poof of smoke signalled the arrival of Isamu once again, the former Akari Champion slumping in his chair like he didn't want to be there. He refused to look at Suzume upon fear of getting killed by her glare. Then there was another poof smoke and a young woman with blonde hair appeared, looking quite peaceful.

Drew gave a gasp of recognition as the girl smiled pleasantly at all of them.

"Natsuko?" Drew spluttered.

"Hello Shu," she replied. "How are you keeping?"

"Don't be so alarmed," Arashi told all of them before Drew could reply. "Let me start from the beginning."

Mamoru and the other blue haired man entered the room, each looking as pensive and scared as the other. Isamu sat up straight, leaning on the table in front of him and smiling widely.

"What's wrong with you two?" he asked.

"Dawn is settled and well," Mamoru explained. "But we bumped into your wife."

"Sucks to be you," Isamu laughed. He fell back against the back of his chair, carelessly whooping with laughter as the other two men took their seats at the table. Once he had finished laughing, Isamu merely grinned at the pair, propping his head up with his finger and thumb.

Arashi let out a sigh, before gesturing towards Mamoru to begin the explanation. The warrior closed his eyes, folding his arms over his chest. There was an air of mysteriousness hanging around him. Misty's eyes never left his battle worn face, his lips tightly pushed together into a grimace. There was something familiar in the way he looked when he thought but Misty couldn't put her finger on it. Suddenly his head flew up, his eyes opened and he spoke.

"We died," he said simply. "Then we came back."

"You died," Isamu added. "I saved my own ass, thank you very much."

"Yes, because jumping off a cliff with your half dead wife is a perfect example of saving yourself," the other blue haired man snapped.

"Oh, like you're an expert, Etsuo," Isamu retorted childishly.

"I didn't die either," Natsuko said pleasantly. "I merely went for a walk and bumped into Arashi here."

"It was more you fell onto me than a bump, Natsuko," Arashi said.

"I said I was sorry," Natsuko replied.

"Are you still complaining about that?" Mamoru laughed. "You're such a baby, Arashi."

"Says you, Cry-moru," Arashi teased.

"Way to be mature, Shi," Etsuo remarked, rolling his eyes.

Misty turned to Drew as the adults broke down into a large argument, each one pitching in against the other. Drew let out a sigh, leaning back into his chair and looking round the table at his friends.

"We're doomed," he told them.

"How did the Akari become a clan power with these lot running it?" Ash asked Yukito who could only shrug as he stared at the former heads of his clan.

"No clue," he replied. Misty looked between the squabbling group of adults, her patience slowly wearing thin as they got increasingly louder. Finally she got to her feet, bringing her fist down onto the table loudly.

"Will all of you shut up!" she roared at them. The adults fell silent immediately, turning to stare at Misty in pure shock. She banged her fist on the table once more. "If you're just going to waste our time with pointless squabbles then we'll go. We have things to do, people to save."

"Oh I like her."

Misty's attention flew to a new person entering the room. He was a tall man, healthy looking with blonde hair tied into a high ponytail. Unlike the others he was dressed in normal clothes: black jeans and a black sweatshirt. Instead of walking over to a seat and taking a place, the man walked towards Misty, his eyes never leaving her face.

"I can't recall anyone who has ever managed to shut the three Akari brothers up," he said. "I thought it was impossible to do."

"I can believe that," Misty retorted angrily. "Now just who are you?"

"Have you been formally introduced to all of these good people?" the man asked the group. "You have got Arashi, twenty-eighth ruler of the Akari – the leader who never wanted to be a leader and the man who never got the woman he loved. Beside him is Natsuko, the youngest daughter of the Churitsu Lord and Lady – renowned seer and forgotten girl, left by her father to linger in a darkened room. Then you know Isamu, the former Akari Champion and teacher-less warrior; his brother Etsuo, the former Akari Adviser; then finally Mamoru Niayga, the rebellious boy who fathered your friend, Dawn."

Misty looked around at the adults across the table before returning her gaze onto the man stood beside her.

"And you are?" she asked.

"This is a place where lines blur," he went on, now walking past Arashi and making his way to a seat next to Mamoru. "Friends are enemies and enemies are friends. We are the last defence against the Shadows and we all know the final battle will lead us back to the one place where you want to return to."

He had made his way to the chair now. He sat on it regally, placing his arms on the table top and smirking across at Misty. She seemed put off by this and looked at Drew to see if he knew just who this man was. His confused expression told her that he had no clue, nor did Yukito or Suzume.

"As for who I am, that in itself is a completely different question," he said finally. He turned to Arashi grinning. "Who am I Arashi?"

"You were right," Arashi let out a sigh. The man grinned even wider this time as the others nodded slowly.

"Thank you for clearing up so much, Mr Right," Misty said, feeling her frustration rising again. The vein in her head throbbed as she tried to make sense of all of this. "However, it doesn't really help us does it?"

"You said the final battle will take place in the one place we want to go. Where is that?" Kenny asked.

"Home," Yukito replied before any of the adults could open their mouths. "He means at headquarters."

"So we can't go home," Ash said. "Not yet at least."

"We need to build an army," Kenny went on. "Maybe we could go to the other clans?"

"Where would we start though?" Drew asked. "Look, the Akari are one of the clan powers. Them falling is not going to help us. It will scare the smaller clans so they won't help us."

"We could unite them all, just like Kiboji did last time," Ash suggested.

"But the battle last time was a complete failure," Kenny said. "Even Akiko and Isamu were defeated last time."

"We weren't defeated, it was a tactical retreat," Isamu piped up but no one listened to him.

Misty glanced across at the blonde haired man to find that he was still grinning across at her. Her eyes narrowed at him as Suzume now attempted to suggest a good plan, only to be shot down once again. Misty locked eyes with the blonde man's dark eyes, something familiar about these too but once again she couldn't think where she'd seen it before. She half glanced at Mamoru to his right and something odd hit her. When Dawn would think she would often close her eyes, wrinkle up her nose and clamp her lips tightly. That was it! That's where she had seen that thoughtful expression before – not on Mamoru but on Dawn's face.

She stared at the man once again, thinking of anyone who she knew who had blonde hair and dark eyes. It took her a few minutes but finally she recalled one person.

"Tatsu," she said aloud. The man's grin disappeared instantly. "Tatsu will help us."

"The Kurai Champion?" Suzume asked.

"Yes," Misty replied. She pointed across at the blonde haired man. "And you are going to help us persuade him."

"How could I do that?" he asked.

"Because he's your son," Misty replied, now sounding triumphant. She straightened up, folding her arms across her chest, smirking across at him. "I've heard about you. Kiboji told me all about you, Lord Kuro."

There was a shocked intake of breath from Drew and Suzume, who were suddenly on their feet. Drew's chair clattered to the floor with the force of him shooting upwards.

"No way," Suzume gasped. "But Paul and Dawn defeated you."

"He killed me," Arashi reminded them. "And here we are."

"I told you that lines blur here," Kuro said airily. "Enemies are now friends."

"But can you help us?" Misty asked. "If we go to the Kurai then maybe we could convince them to fight for the Akari."

Arashi and Kuro looked across the table at each other before nodding once. Isamu too nodded as did Etsuo.

"Fine then," Kuro replied, causing Misty to smile widely. "I will get you to the Kurai and force them to listen to you. I'm not looking forward to it, however."

"Out of curiosity," Drew said. "Is there any one else here who we should know about?"

"No," Arashi replied evenly. "There is no one else here who will make you stand and gasp."

~O~

Dawn looked around the narrow corridor as she wandered around the strange new place. People she passed barely looked at her, merely jumping out of her way then continuing on their own. But the people we coming far a few between now as she continued down her current route.

Eventually she came to a large open door and she stepped through it, looking around again in wonder. This room was just like the training room at the headquarters, she thought, but there were no mats or equipment laying around. Painted lines on the rough wooden floor signalled the end of training areas. A few wooden benches were lined up against the far wall.

Dawn continued into the room, staring at the only occupant stood in the centre. Then she sat down, cross legged on the floor, waiting for them to turn round and see her.

Her heart pounded in her chest with an unknown reason, her breath was caught in her throat. She couldn't speak even after he eventually turned round to look at her. When her eyes met him, she smiled uncontrollably and even he grinned back at her.

The only problem was: they didn't know why.

Thanks for reading. Please review and tell me just how shocking this was!

RSx