O.K. This is very beta. Let me know what you think.

Laters!

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Sohryuden: Dragon Dreams



	Elenora continued her vigil, Jasmine's limp hand clutched in her own. 
She glanced at the monitor for the umpteenth time and sighed. Still no 
brain wave activity. Where had her sister fled to and why hadn't she 
come back to her body? It had been three days. Three very, very long 
days. She rubbed at her eyes with her free hand, stifled a yawn. The 
alarm on her watched buzzed.

	"I'm going to try to call Tsuzuku again Jasmine. So you'd better wake 
up."

	Nothing. She put her sisters hand on the sheet and picked up the phone 
and dialed the number she had been calling every hour on the hour. She 
had the hope that hearing Tsuzuku's voice would call Jasmine back from 
where ever she was. *Please answer! Please, please, pretty please...*

	Nothing. The phone on the other end just continued to ring. She scowled 
as she disconnected then stabbed in the number for the cel phone that 
Matsuri had taken with her. Nothing. She was getting real tired of 
nothing. She reset the alarm then picked up her sisters hand in her left 
one and played absentmindedly with the end of the ridiculously large bow 
that she had made with the scarf on the end of Jasmine's braid with the 
other. Where were they? Catherine had told her that the Ryudo's had 
gotten home safely and then they just disappeared. She sighed once more. 
Well, they'd show up. She knew Catherine had set the Order looking for 
them and would pass on anything, no matter how tentative.

**********************************************************

	*Child, it is time for you to start waking up.*
	Jasmine sighed sadly. It had been so nice to just rest here on the warm 
sand and listen to the voice that wove it's soothing lullaby in and out 
of the sibilant song of the ocean. The tune changed and she frowned as 
the sand pushed against her back. She was rising towards the shaft of 
golden light that had been waiting patiently.

**********************************************************

	Jen-lei studied the game tiles arranged in front of her, made her 
choice and placed it in the middle of the table. She turned to the 
silver haired girl who would soon be a young woman next to her.

	"Kimiko. It's your turn." She gave the girl a smile as Kimiko focused 
on them, startled. She hoped it would offset the scowl that Kimiko's 
game partner threw at her.

	"Oh, I'm sorry Shanti!" Kimiko apologized to the woman sitting across 
from her. "I was thinking about something else."

	*Yes. Aren't we all!* Jen-lei thought darkly as Kimiko's accompanying 
blush put some needed color into her pale face. Kimiko glanced at her 
tiles, put one out.

	Shanti's scowl deepened as she saw the tile her partner had played and 
brought the palm of her hand down on the table with enough force to send 
their carefully balanced pieces tumbling.

	Eyanna sighed as she hurriedly turned her up-facing tiles over as 
Shanti hissed, "If you are not going to pay attention why did you agree 
to play!"

	"Shanti!" Jen-lei snapped as Kimiko shrank back from the older woman's 
wrath.

	Shanti glared at her as Kimiko lowered her head and chewed on her 
bottom lip, obviously fighting tears. Jen-lei took a firm hold of her 
temper as she glared back. She understood and sympathized with Shanti's 
difficult situation here in the Crystal Palace. Always before, that had 
made it easy to forgive Hakkei's wife her tempers and sharp-edged words. 
Yet today she had no patience with her. "Apologize to Shukukei's 
fiancee."

	"Apologize for what? Her stupidity?" Shanti answered with a sweet 
smile.

	Jen-lei barely resisted the urge to slap her. She saw her sister take 
Kimiko's hand and pull her from the table as the two women got ready to 
begin a battle of wills. Why couldn't Shanti just accept the fact? 
Hakkei honored her and treated her as wife. That his heart was with 
another was something that neither of them could change.

	"You are being cruel for no reason." It was hard to keep her tone 
civil.

	Shanti took a breath, her honey colored eyes glinting as she prepared 
to lash out at Jen-lei with a volley of venom-filled frustration. She 
never got a chance to deliver it. Their guards came into the garden 
escorting the Gyushu noble who was in charge of their House arrest.

	The Ladies of the Crystal Palace stood to face their enemy, their spat 
forgotten. He smiled and bowed mockingly as Eyanna and Kimiko came to 
stand beside Jen-lei.

	"Word has come. The Dragon Kings have been found guilty."

	*NO!* Jen-lei felt light headed. How could that have happened? The Go 
Clan has always been loyal to the Emperor! We are his right hand! Hadn't 
the Assembly seen through the Gyushu lies? Rankei had shared his worry 
with her when the rumors had started. That Hakkei would even consider 
rebelling against the Heavenly Throne for the love of a woman was 
ridiculous! It was the Gyushu, not their husbands and their brothers who 
were responsible for the disappearance of the Emperor.

	"Impossible." Shanti said at her regal best as Eyanna gave her sister a 
frightened look. The tears that Kimiko had been fighting so hard finally 
had started to come.


**********************************************************

	*Impossible!* The word echoed through Jasmine's mind as she reached up 
to rub the tickle under her nose. What a strange dream. She tried to 
swallow, grimaced at the sweet metallic taste that clung to the back of 
her throat. She knew that taste. It was an after-effect from one of the 
major pain killers. What had happened? Dragons. Something about dragons. 
Elenora! Elenora had been in trouble! She forced open her eyelids, tried 
to blink the blur out of them.

	"It's O.K. Sis." Elenora. She turned her head, saw the familiar outline 
of sister through the blur.

	"You're O.K. Here. Hold still."

	No, she wasn't. She knew that. There was pain, dulled by drugs, but 
there none the less. Chill moisture hit the corner of her left eye, 
making her twitch. But she held still for Elenora to do the other, then 
blinked and sighed in relief as her vision cleared.

	"Elenora?" She looked her sister over.

	Elenora grinned back. "I'm fine. Jeez, took you long enough to wake 
up!"

	"I've been asleep a long time?" Jasmine frowned as she hunted for 
memory.

	"Four days!"

	"Four days?" What had happened? It came back to her in one big flash.

	"Tsuzuku and Matsuri! Elenora, where are they?" She struggled to sit 
up, sank back with a groan as her body informed her of all it's hurts.

	"They're fine, Sis." Elenora soothed as the Doctor and two nurses came 
in followed by a slightly out of breath Catherine. She gave up her place 
as the medical crew came to fuss with her sister and went to the offered 
cuddle against her mothers side.

	"Any word?" She asked hopefully.

	Catherine nodded. Elenora's pleased grin faded at her mothers tense 
expression.

	"It isn't good. They've been accused of blowing up the Tokyo Police 
HQ."

	"What?" Elenora used volume to express her disbelief.

	"El!" Catherine scolded and motioned with her chin at Jasmine. "Let's 
not upset her, O.K.?"

	Elenora looked sheepish.

	"I'll fill you in later." Elenora nodded as Catherine seemed to focused 
on the activity around Jasmine's bed.

	She was watching the Doctor but most of her mind was on the report that 
she had just read. The Tokyo HQ had been totally demolished and the 
casualty list was staggering. At the moment the Ryudo's were the most 
wanted terrorists on the planet. Shubata was truly annoyed. He didn't 
believe one word of it even though there were over two dozen eye 
witnesses to Hajime Ryudo's statement that he had set the bombs. 
Catherine was inclined to believe him. She had spent the last three days 
immersed in Dragon mythos and the records of the Ryudo family trying to 
figure out how they fit into the reports of the unprecedented wave of 
high paranormal activity that was sweeping across the world. Chinese 
dragons, unlike their western counterparts, were creatures who served 
law and justice. The Ryudo's had continued in that tradition. She had 
found herself impressed by their family history despite her 
determination not to be.

	Tita's assurances that the Ryudo's were linked to the coming of The 
Nemesis and that Jasmine and Elenora's destinies were bound to the 
Ryudo's were something that hung over her like an evil cloud. The more 
she thought about it, the less sure she was that her chosen course of 
action was wise. This was the curse of foreknowledge. And she had been 
stupid enough to ask for it. Would her interference keep her daughters 
safe or put them in harms way? Well, it was too late now. She had taken 
the first step by telling the Ryudo's that Jasmine was dead. Besides, it 
was her duty as an Elder to keep the Order and it's members safe. She 
was going to do everything in her power to fulfill that duty and the 
best way she could do that was to keep her daughters; no, the Orders 
only dragons, away from the Ryudo's until the time of The Nemesis had 
passed.

	At the moment it wasn't proving difficult. She had put a block on any 
outgoing calls to the Ryudo and Toba home numbers. The Ryudo's were on 
the run now so there was no danger of contact.  She hadn't had to filter 
any of their intelligence yet, but she knew that would change soon. The 
Doctor came over with a pleased smile.

	"She's fine. Healing nicely, though she's going to be uncomfortable for 
a while. Now, don't overtire her." He waited until they nodded then left 
with his nurses in tow.

	They both went and sat on either side of the bed. Jasmine gave them a 
tired smile.

	"Can I see him?" Jasmine asked with shy hope after she sipped from the 
cup Catherine offered.

	She frowned as Elenora shook her head.

	"They're not here, Honey. We had to send them home." Catherine answered 
gently.

	"Why?" She sounded just like a petulant four year old. Catherine sighed 
with a fond smile.

	"You'll have to ask Tita." She answered as she smoothed a few pieces of 
hair that had strayed out of Jasmine's braid back behind her ear.

	"I hate it when you're cryptic, Catherine." Jasmine grumbled.

	Catherine shrugged.

	"Is Tamanji O.K.?" Elenora picked up on and began to worry around the 
reasons as to why her sister had that guarded expression on her face.

	"I guess so. She was gone when we found you." Catherine raised one 
eyebrow. "Why?"

	"There was something wrong with her. Something wrong with her power." 
Jasmine's words began to slur as the fresh drug filled patch against the 
skin of her shoulder started to work. "You need to find her, Catherine."

	"O.K., Honey. I will. Now you just rest a little more." She patted the 
back of Jasmine's hand as her daughter's eyelids slid shut. She had been 
looking for any trace of Tamanji or the Dragon Ops. So far, they were 
the ones who had dropped off the face of the earth.

	"I had a really weird dream." Jasmine mumbled as she fought the drugs. 
She wanted to tell it to Elenora before it faded.

	"It's probably just from the drugs, Honey." Catherine said quietly. 
"Now, rest. You can tell us when you wake back up, O.K.?"

	*O.K.* She wondered if she had managed to say that out loud as she let 
herself slip back into sleep.

**********************************************************

	Jasmine winced as she used both hands to move her leg from it's propped 
up position on the foot stool by her computer. She glared at the brace, 
cursed the wretched thing and the knee that it supported. Though that it 
was forming itself back into a working joint from nothing but crushed 
bits of bone and cartilage was a miracle gift from her dragon blood. She 
pushed herself up out of the chair and grabbed for the desk edge as she 
wobbled. Catherine was right. She was in no shape to go charging off to 
Japan. She just wished that she knew more of what was going on with 
Tsuzuku and Matsuri.

	Catherine had brought her the reports of the bombing and the updates of 
the Tokyo Police attempts to capture them. So far, they had eluded the 
police. But others were hunting them and that's what had her worried. 
She grabbed the cane and limped over to lean against the door frame that 
joined her room to Elenora's and listened to her sister sleep. She 
hadn't been able to do it herself. After thirty minutes of staring at 
the ceiling she had gotten back up and found herself unable to focus on 
anything for long. She left the door, headed for the window and frowned 
out at the darkened grounds. Dawn was still an hour off. That meant the 
sun was just starting to set in Japan. So far away. Was he all right? 
What if they didn't like each other when they finally met? It had 
happened before. Not very often, but it had happened. There was a rap on 
her door followed by a very tense Catherine.

	"You're going to want to see this." Her second mother stalked for the 
remote on her bed side table and aimed it at the TV. She turned it to 
CNN as Jasmine limped over to the bed, wondering what had upset 
Catherine so much. The picture that came up was astounding. She sank 
down on the end of her bed in shock as Catherine picked up the phone 
receiver and snapped orders, her eyes on the TV screen also.

	"I repeat, a dragon has just appeared in the sky high over Washington 
D.C." Catherine muted the shaky voice of the anchor as they watched the 
Blue Dragon come lower and lower and get bigger and bigger.

	"Is that an aircraft carrier?" Jasmine tried to place the ship that 
Hajime carried in two coils of his body.

	"Yes. The question is, what is he going to do with it?" Catherine 
muttered as she sat next to her.

	"The NORAD observer just confirmed, M'am." The voice came from the 
intercom. Jasmine realized that Catherine had connected them with the 
monitoring room.

	"Confirmed what?" Jasmine asked as Catherine's scowl deepened.

	"The Blue Dragon destroyed it."

	*What?* She didn't believe it!

	"We're still getting confirmations from bases all over the world of 
massive loses of fighter aircraft." The intercom continued.

	The Blue Dragon stopped and hovered just short of the White House. They 
both tensed as he let go of the ship, expecting it to fall. It floated 
slowly down to settle with it's bow overshadowing the tall building.

	The camera angle shifted to focus on the knot of men that huddled 
before those famous front doors as Elenora wandered out of her room 
rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

	"What's going on?" She grouched as she came and plunked herself down 
beside her sister. Jasmine pointed at the TV. The camera had gone back 
to the Blue Dragon.

	"Oh crap!" Elenora got out around a gasp.

	"Elenora!" Catherine scolded out of habit.

	Then they and the whole world heard him.

	"This is the nuclear aircraft carrier Dynasty, the pride of the United 
States military forces. I now return the greatest weapon that mankind 
has ever built. How many brave men and women did you send to their 
deaths tonight because you feared me? I, who had no intentions of 
harming you. Yet you made me defend myself and so men died." The voice 
that rang through their heads was full of regret, then it got harsh as 
the Blue Dragon King continued.

	 "Yet such is the way of leaders who have forgotten that they are to 
serve their people, not the other way around. You spend your peoples 
lives without thought, without need. Some of you would sacrifice your 
entire nation for nothing more than wounded pride. A nation only exists 
to serve it's people. Never forget that! This weapon of war should be 
preserved as a memorial. A memorial to Man's foolishness."

	"Ma'm? There are reports of three more dragons closing on D.C."

	"Show it to future generations so they will remember the mistakes of 
their forefathers." Then the Blue Dragon moved so fast he was a barely 
perceived streak of blue light. The camera that had been relaying the 
pictures showed the streets as the chopper carrying it banked to follow. 
A flare of white/blue light blinded the camera as it closed on the 
dragon hovering over the Pentagon.

	When they got image again, the building was gone.

	"NO!" Catherine surged off the bed her hands clenched into fists at her 
side. "Oh, lord! Doesn't he see?"

	"See what?" Elenora asked as the chopper labored to chase the Blue 
Dragon once more.

	"Confirmed report. The Pentagon is," the intercom voice paused and 
swallowed, "gone."

	Catherine put her hand over her eyes as the reports continued to come 
in. The CIA HQ. The NAS building. A series of chemical plants.

	"Catherine, what's going on?" Jasmine asked as the chopper gave up 
trying to stay with the dragon and just followed to focus on the path of 
destruction he was leaving. Yet it was only the buildings he aimed for. 
The ones around them were left untouched.

	"He's 'killing' the last superpower. God! They knew exactly how to play 
him."

	She looked at her daughters confused faces. "Don't you see, Jasmine? 
Now war is feasible again! There is no 'one' power to fear. No one to 
step in with the big stick to settle little spats. Spats that now can 
escalate into full fledged confrontations without the fear of reprisal."

	She winced mentally as she saw all the implications of what the Blue 
Dragon was doing show as fear in her daughters expressions as it sank 
in.

	"Who are 'they', Catherine?" Jasmine asked, her face turning hard.

	Catherine pressed her lips together and her face looked old and drawn. 
"It's too complicated to explain right now."

	"Look!" Elenora drew their attention back to the TV.

	The Blue Dragon had coiled himself around one of the skyscrapers, the 
chopper circling him and the building to get the camera out of the glare 
of the just risen sun. He cocked his head and stared south. The camera 
followed his focus and three more dragons formed out of the haze of the 
horizon. Black, White and Red, they roared and chimed at each other and 
the Blue Dragon as they went to curl around nearby buildings. The Blue 
Dragon looked up at the sky and all of the dragons fell silent as the 
dark swirl started. Then the screen went dark. Catherine pointed the 
remote and brought the volume back up as a static picture of the dragons 
came back up.

	"We've just lost our feed but we have contact with one of our reporters 
on the ground. Go ahead."

	"This is incredible! A huge black cloud has just formed in the shape of 
a skull. The dragons are going towards it...they've entered it! I can't 
really tell what's going on, there is a lot of movement in 
there...people are panicking all around me...wait! The dragons have 
stopped moving. Is the cloud getting bigger? What is that? Um...there is 
a light heading for the cloud. It's entered it. Wow! That was 
incredible! The light just shot out of it and tore it to shreds. The 
cloud is gone and so are the dragons. Did anyone see where they went?" 
The reporter was cut off to be replaced with the anchor. He started to 
recap what had just happened so Catherine muted him.

	Catherine frowned, one short fingernail tapping the remote as she 
narrowed her eyes in thought.

	"Where did they go?" Elenora asked softly. She traded a worried look 
with her sister.

	"M'am?" The intercom voice choked for a moment then resumed. "We've got 
positive confirmation of ICBM launch from both US and Russian silos." 
They heard muttered oaths and the beginning of prayers. "Lord God 
Almighty...all of them!"

	Catherine closed her eyes. The nukes were the last thing that needed to 
be taken care of. Would the Dragon Kings be able to do it or would the 
world die today? Either way, the forces of Darkness would win this 
round.

	Jasmine looked at her watch to mark the time. She hugged Elenora 
against her. Catherine went to the window and opened it, letting in the 
morning breeze and the sounds of the earth waking up. She came and sat 
next to Elenora, the shaky voices from the intercom silent as they too 
waited, reached so she could hug both her daughters. She brought the 
volume on the TV back up just enough to understand the words. 

	The anchor was rehashing the 'amazing events of this morning'. Not one 
mention of the death that soared through the skies.

	The anxious wiggle of Elenora's foot started to vibrate the bed. "Do 
you think they can stop them?" Elenora whispered.

	Catherine shrugged. "We'll find out soon enough."

	"They'll stop them." Jasmine said with no doubt. They had to.

	They sat together in silence as the seconds crawled by. The gasp from 
the intercom made them all jump.

	"M'am? They're gone! The missiles are gone! They just disappeared!" 
They could hear muffled cheers from other parts of the Chapter House.

	Catherine took a deep breath and flopped back on the bed, her whole 
body trembling. There was no trace of it in her voice, though, as she 
addressed the intercom. "Thank-you Jason. You did a good job. Now you 
and your crew are relieved 'till next shift. Call the back-up team."

	"Yes M'am! Thank-you!"

	"I knew they would do it!" Elenora grinned as she bounced on the bed.

	"Elenora, don't! It makes my knee hurt!" Jasmine growled back. But her 
smile was huge.


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