Ya, here it is. The one you die hard Touma fans have been waiting for. *dodges
their fans* Okay, enjoy! And happy Turkey Day!

           Before Dark Chapter 10
                  by
          SophiaChan aka TsukiChan

      "TOUMAAAAAA!!!" came the screams as Nasuti plunged the stake down into
his heart.
      
      He gasped for air as he choked on the blood rising in his mouth, clawing
at the stake impaled in his body. He felt his muscles twitch, his eyelids
getting heavy. He moaned in pain.

      Immortality is the most painful thing you can ever have.

     "Oh dear god no!!! Touma!!!" Seiji screamed as he leapt over the damaged
staircase, and dove straight at Nasuti, the ancient samurai sword gleaming
with the beauty of blood.

     Blood. The blood follows me everywhere.

    Nasuti screamed as the sword stabbed her in her right shouler, and she
rolled away from Seiji who glared at her with demonic eyes. Fire was within
them and she stood there, staring deep into them. To afraid to move. To afraid
to breathe. She saw something in them that made her mind click. Her hands flew
to her head and she screamed in pain, dropping to the floor unconcious.

     The truth hurts...
   
     "Touma!" Shin called to the body in his arms. The stake still in his
heart. "Touma, please. I can't help you again. Touma, hang on." He gasped.
"NO!"
    He saw in horror as the body of his friend began to turn into ashes.
    
      Ashes to ashes...
    
    A shadow came over him and he looked up to see a vampire with an axe,
swinging it down to chop off his head.
     "SHIN!"
     Shu lunged at the demon and tackled her down. She hissed and clawed at
his face with nails, but he blocked them with the axe.
     "I just had about enough of you little shitheads!" He growled, moving the
sharpend part towards her chest, seeing her eyes wild with annointed fear.
"And I am not going to get harassed by you anymore, you hear me?!!"
    He plunged the axe into her heart, and she burst into dust beneath to him,
screaming in pain. 
    
     Dust to dust....
     
     "BUSO....."
     "Touma..." Shin cried, the body now almost completely dust. His red tears
stained the black ashes.

    Palm to palm...

    "KOURIN!!!" 

     With Holy palms trust...

     The aura from the Kourin armor fell over Shin and Touma. And Shin gasped
seeing the yoroi orb Touma wore drop from the ashes and into his hands. Touma
had disappeared.

     "Akiko... my eyes...Look into them."

    "TOUMAAAAAA!!!!"

     Shu looked up and got a strong punch, square on the jaw. He fell
backwards and began to wrestle with a vampire. 
     
     Mio laughed as she charged outside, her fangs gleaming in the twisted
grin she wore. Her eyes flashed as they landed upon what she had hoped to
find. 
     "Get ready to burn baby."

    "Akiko!" Ryo seethed, grabbing hold of her arm. "Look at me!"
    "No!" She screamed, clencing her eyes shut, her face turned away. "I will
never give in... never.. "
     "Give it up! The clan of the eastern vampires will be mine Akiko,
Princess dear. So will your fiance."
    She gasped and turned her him, eyes wide in shock. "My fiance?"
    "Gotcha!!" 
    "NOOOOOOO!!!!!!"
     Akiko screamed as she stared into Ryos eyes. There was nothing there.
Nothing but darkness. An empty body. A souless creature that hunted and
feasted, caring for nothing. No humaness about this person. -wait. Not even a
person. 
    A vampire would have been considerd the most sub human thing on earth if
it wasn't for ....
   "Look into me Akiko...." Ryo whisperd. "I am the master...."

    "BUSO!!"

   "The....mas...." Akikos eyes dropped.
    
    "KONGO!!"

    He kissed her cheek softly, and held her in his arms. A calm embrace in
the feild of death. She fell unconcious, swirling into the darkness that gave
birth to her. Into the clamness of immortality, her death her life, and this
dark angel catching her in his arms, carrying her away from the fiery entrance
to the last shred of humanity to the dark world he had come to enjoy.

   Get the armor... get the armor.

   Mio laughed wickedly as she raised a giant stone over the propane gas tank
just outside the house.

   Tenku yoroi orb pulsed viciously in Shins hand. Suddenly, another soft glow
whisped from the orb and appeard another yoroi orb.
   "Suiko?" Shin gasped and then looked up to see a vampire swing down a bat
and hit a homerun right on his shoulder blades.

   His footsteps echoing on the dark ground. The black sky and the dark earth,
one couldn't tell where they ended and started. Rain slowly pattered over
them, as the made their way from the house.

  Shu expected to be stronger in full armor but was surprisingly kocked down
by four vampires. They hissed at him, mocking his strength, and finally one
went to him and gave him the sweet kiss of unconciousness.

  "Look at her! She's pathetic!" A vampire pointed to Nasuti. "She has no
right to be called a vampire, especially a western one for that matter. Kill
her now!"
   "NO!" Seiji swung his sword and barely missed slicing the vampire in half.
"She may be a demon like you, but I know I can help her."
    It chuckled at him, like any demon would to it's next victim, and grinned,
revealing the glimmering fangs. "No mortal, even one in the mystical armor,
can 'help' a western vampire. Esxpecially if he or she belongs to the master."
     He held up a sword himself and twirled it.
    "It's party time!"
    The two charged towards each other, their weapons clashing. The whirled
around and again their weapons met face to face, their eyes glaring at one
another. They leapt away from each other and stood there, waiting for the
other to move. and Seiji did. He charged.

    Seiji.... help me..... please help me.....

    His eyes widended and stopped in the middle of his attack. "Touma?? AHHH!"
He screamed as his felt a sword slice across the back of his armor, and then a
powerful blow to the head.
    Blood. 
    He saw his blood  fly from his wound, wobbled dizzily on the support of
his sword, glaring hiderously at the demons.
    "He's still up?"
    "Wow, I wonder if the master will let me keep him once he's through with
him."
    "Hardly."
    Their faces blurred, the room went upside down. The floor felt so nice.
And then the darkness he so hated took him in it's arms and carried him away.

   "BURN!!" Mio screamed and threw down the stone at the propane tank.
    It cracked.
    It exploded.
    The house went up in flames, and Mio flew through the air screaming and
laughing like a mad witch on a burning broom, then suddenly stopped her
insanity as she saw a dead tree with dozens of dead branches coming straight
towards her.
    "Uh oh. That don't look good."
    She braced herself for the blow, but not the tremendous pain that
followed.

    "Open your eyes..."
    She faintly heard the voice. Who was he?  What did he want with her? 
    "Open your eyes Princess."
    Oh, now she realized who it was. Goddess, why couldn't he leave her alone.
     "Okay, if you're not going to wake up to my kindess, then your gonna wake
up to something more painful."
     Akiko gasped and shot up, her hand flying to her cheek. It stung from
Ryos hand. She turned and glared at him, bearing her perfectly shaped fangs.
    "Why you little sonofa-"
    "Now now now, no bad language. We might have children in close range."
    "Shut up." 
     She glanced around at her surroundings. It was dark, only candles danced
in it to light the room. Above and around her where stalagtites and
stalagmites, so she figured she was in a cave. Chained to a rock. Her eyes
caught others that stared at her from the darkness. 
    She hitched a thumb at them. "All these stooges for a little plain ol
vampire like me?"
    Ryo laughed as he came around the rock she sat on. "Really now Princess.
Is there a reason for being saracastic? I openly brought you here to my,
excuse the word, castle, and you dishonor my kindness by this cocky adittude?"
    "Ha! You call this a castle? It's more like a god damn-"
    Ryo grabbed her head and brought her face close to his, their eyes
meeting. He smiled slightly and whispered in her ear.
    "You have want I want and need. You will give it to me even if I have to
open your veins with force."
    "What? ....You...you want to get the goblet...don't you?"
    "Got that right. And with you blood and mine mixed in that mystical thing,
I will drink it and command everything on this planet and beyond."
    "Your crazy Ryo."
    He laughed, and pulled away from her, staring at her with a gleam in his
dark eyes.
    "I see you don't want to do this Ryo. Let me go. I can give you the chance
to be human again."
    "HUMAN?" He growled. "HUMAN? Be weak and pathetic as them?" He said it
with such distast that Akiko had back away in shock. "I DO NOT want to be
human again. Being a Western vampire like so many centuries ago, is the best
thing I can have!"
    "Even more than a soul?"
     Ryo stopped. He stared at her slightly and then turned away. "My soul was
destroyed long ago Princess. And so was your fiances."
     He slowly walked away from her and she gasped, her eyes narrowing, trying
with all her immortal strength to break free so she could tackle him. 
    "Tell me! What about my fiance!!! Where is he!? What have you done to
him?!"
    "He has already died at my hands again Princess," Ryo called back. "Sleep
well this day. The sun is rising and you know how much us vampires like to be
dormant through this day."
    "I do not sleep in the day!!"
    "Then your more human then your own clan Akiko. Pardon me, but I must meet
a few colleagues of mine. They need to awaken at this moment."
     With that Akiko was cast into total darkness, the candles dying just like
her hope to ever see the beautiful sun again.
    
     "Shin." Came the soft voice. "Shin wake up please. I'm scared. The sun is
coming and we have no place to hide."
     Shin moaned and slowly opened his eyes. What he saw made him scream and
quickly scoot away in shock.
     "Stay away! You demon!!"
      Nasuti stared at him with worried eyes. "Please. Shin, we got to get to
the darkness. The sun is coming."
      He gawked at her. "You.. you ask for my help when you killed Touma?! How
dare you!! Demon!"
     She bowed her head, and began to cry. He gasped seeing bloody tears come
streaming down her cheeks. Her shoulders shook. 
     "I... I didn't know... I was lost. My master... Ryo... he took away my
soul..."
     "Ya, what else is new?" 
      "You don't understand Shin! I didn't mean to kill Touma!! He controlled
me! The master is evil! He controls all of us! We have got to stop him! He is
planning to find the sacred goblet and use the powers of the Kikoutei to get
it!"
     "And why do you want my help now? What makes you diffrent from last
night?"
     "I regained my soul."
     Shins jaw dropped and looked at Nasuti. She in turn stared at him. He saw
his reflection in her eyes. "How?"
    "Seiji."
    "How?"
    "I do not know. All I know is that I saw myself in his eyes. He hated me
for what I did. I sense you hate me too. But I can help. I know what the
master is planning and where he is."
    "We need to find the others."
    "There are no others Shin."
    "What?"
    "Look around you. Does this seem familar?"
    Shin slowly stood and gasped, his eyes falling on the rubble around him.
The once beautiful estate that he had resided in for a few weeks of his mortal
life was destroyed. Flames still kindled in the soft pitter patter of the
rain. Around him were the remains of what used to be the kitchen. Odd, he
didn't remember getting konocked unconcious in the kitchen. 
   "How did this happen?"
   "Mio destroyed the propane tank. It blew the whole house up. Shin, we must
go. Sun is up and the firemen or policemen will come to investigate the
explosion."
   He nodded and pulled her up. He noticed that the stab wound from the sword
Seiji plunged into her was gone. 
   "Where's Seiji? Shu?"
   "Taken. Along with your yoroi orbs."
   "WHAT? Why?"
   "He wanted their armors and yours. That is why he attacked other then
getting the Princess."
    "But how did he get Touma and my armor?"
    "The yoroi, remember, goes to those with the good souls. Spirits of love,
justice, faith, etc. Being vampires we have no souls, and you could only get
the sub armor, but not the full." 
    "Damn it. Then we have lost."
    "No, Shin you haven't. He has yet to find the goblet. He doesn't know that
we survived the blast."
    "But how did we survive the blast?"
    Nasuti was about to reply when a roar from a giant wild cat cut her off.
The two looked towards the undamged woods and saw Byakuen sitting under a pine
tree, staring at them, his ears twitching and tail swishing. He seemed to
smile at them.  
    "What in the world?" 
    Byakuen then purred and moved his head as the see through hand petted his
head. Shuten looked up at the two and smiled. 
    "Hello."

   "Seiji.. you Seiji... wake up!"
   Seiji felt a rough object hit the side of his face. He opened his eyes and
stared up at the roof of a cave. 
    "What the hell?"
    "Yo, Seiji. Sleeping Beauty over here."
     Seiji looked towards the voice and saw Shu ready to chuck another rock at
him. He would have laughed at Shu if the situation hadn't been so serious. Shu
was trapped in a very giant hanging bird cage.
    "Shu."
    "Hey Seiji so glad you can join me."
    He sat up. "What are you doing in that silly thing?"
    Shu shrugged. "Beats me. I clonked out and woke up here. Saw you and threw
about seven rocks at you, until you woke up." He paused. "Toumas dead."
   Seiji nodded. "I know."
   "What do you suppose happend to Shin?"
   "I do not know."
   "I think.... I think the house exploded."
   "Nani?"
    "Ya. Don't really know. But Seiji, we got to get out of here. We got to
stop Ryo. Remember the legend of the gobelt??"
   "Yes. I understand Shu, but how do we get out of here? We're stuck in these
cages, no doubt in Ryos lair, in a cave somewhere, and he's planning to use us
in getting that damn gobelt."
   "Correct as always Seiji."
   Shu and Seiji gasped as they turned to see a blinding flash of light, and
Ryos slioute standing in the doorway. 
   "Well I hope you enjoy the comforts of home my dear Troopers," Ryo grinned
as he walked towards them, showing off his fangs. 
    Shu growled. "Ryo, what the hell do you want?"
    Ryo cocked his head to the side. "What an easy question to answer Shu.
Your armor." He pointed towards three other cages that hung empty. "You see
those over there? They carry the Tenku, Rekka and Suiko yoroi. Vampires have
no souls and therefore can't where the armor, but with the power of the
darkness, i can draw their power out along with yours, which may be a tad bit
painful, and create the Kikoutei."
    He's mad, Seiji thought. He's going to kill us doing this!
    "Wow, looks like you got it all figured out, Ryo," Shu grinned. "Now can
you let us out of here?!?!?!?!?!"
    "Touchy..." He laughed. "Shu be paticent. You'll have your fun as soon as
I get that goblet. But for now, enjoy the tad painfulness of the torture."
    Ryo snapped his fingers and Seiji and Shu looked up at a whirring sound,
and screamed. Black claws grabbed their arms and hung them in the cages, their
armor flashing wildly.
   "You... bastard!!" shu screamed, as the dark power burned them inside out.
    Seiji threw back his head screaming as the darkness pulsed even faster,
drawing out their power. He gasped, and stared through the evil energy at the
caages across from him. The yoroi orbs began to glow and slowly the armors
appeard. But something else caught his eyes. Familar faces began to appear
within the helmets. One opened his eyes and stared towards the two guys.
    "Touma?????" Shu and Seiji gasped...
     Touma grinned from within his hemlet and closed his eyes again... letting
the darkness take them all......

To be Continued....
   
Sophia: AYE finally done with that! hahahaha
Touma: okay, what do you have planned for the next chapter?
Seiji: Ya. The power is going to mess up me hair...
Sophia: You'll see after my thanksgiving party,.. 
Shu: oooh can i have a thigh? I love turkey! hey where is it anwways?
Sophia: Ryo is... eh.. well...
*flames come from the kitchen and the house shakes*
Ryo: *in rekka yoroi* Turkey's ready!! 
Sophia: Happy Thanksgiving minna!

~SophiaChan