Kaze: Rebels

The Sacrifices

Kaze POV

Meanwhile, Ariel had told us all that had transpired, and we were on our way back to Dr. Xebic's base. His new base, the other one blew up.

He had just been taking a nap. 'What an odd quest to wake up to!' I thought. 'Hey, can we use your time machine to chase an old friend of the guy you imprisoned? Apparently, she's kinda dangerous...'

He took it like a champ, though, God bless him. Soon enough, we were piled into the world's first attempt at a time machine. "Is this safe?" I asked as Lily climbed over my lap.

Seth grinned. "Nope!"

"Then why are we doing it?"

"Because someone couldn't wait to let a dangerous super-powered teenage Guardian come into the world and kidnap one of our teammates." He frowned.

"I did ask if you were ready..." I muttered.

With that, Seth told us to shut our eyes and off we went! When we opened our eyes, we realized from the burning wreckage that the date Jackson had told us was miraculously correct! While they celebrated, I jumped off of the machine and started wandering the decimated streets of Hima again.

***

I decided to take another route through the business sector of Hima. I didn't get to explore that area before. The marketplace was teeming with a different kind of energy than I remembered. I passed faces, but none of them had names I could recall. The people who were still alive wandered listlessly, as if they didn't want to be there, but had no other place to go. They numbly kicked corpses and aura stones alike to the side as they walked. What are these people gonna do now? I thought. I bent down and picked up an aura stone. It was red, with little streaks of pink. A Guardian I would never get to meet. I looked around and saw them everywhere. Dozens of aura stones littered the marketplace. Some of them were in the open, but I also noticed a line of them underneath an overturned barricade. Five stones of various colors. I picked them up and put them in a knapsack for safekeeping, since it didn't look like anyone else was going to. It looks like they crawled out of the woodwork for a final stand. Wait... Did the people in the prison make it out?

No. No, they did not. After freeing the hostages, I went back towards the colosseum. I picked up more aura stones along the way. Apparently, there had been dozens of these makeshift barricades. I decided to spend time helping the survivors. Luckily, from what I could tell, we weren't controlled by the invaders, just completely ransacked. I meandered into the colosseum, only to find Kasumi there. She was crouching, her back turned to me. I heard a scream and a mangled corpse fell at her feet.

"Kasumi...?" I stopped as she ripped the aura stone from the Guardian's lifeless body. Her head snapped back to look at me.

Oh, hey! You're just in time to see my masterpiece! You'll love it, I can guarantee!

"What have you done?" I asked, backing away.

I got a brilliant idea from your friend! You don't give him enough credit, you know. Sadly though, he couldn't commit when it mattered, so he had to go. She held a black and gold aura stone in her hand.

"Kage!!" I ran towards her, but she used her magic to shield herself. "What have you done?!?" I repeated, clutching the collar of my jacket.

Come on, Kaze. You didn't actually care about these people, did you? You were only with them for a few days.

"Kage was my friend for a thousand years!" I cried.

I didn't want to kill them, but I needed their combined power! The ends justify the means! And it looks like you brought more power with you, anyway!

"What exactly are the ends?"

I forgot to tell you that. I'm going to use this power to reset time to the moment we met! We can leave this place like Papa told us and live happily together! Are you ready?

"No!" I yelled.

... No...? She looked confused.

"No! I can't let you do this!" I stated again. "I know you hated being trapped, but this isn't the answer! We need to move on!"

I see...

'Finally.' I thought. I smiled and went to hug her.

I see that your 'friends' have weakened you. That's okay. I can still save you. She brought out the aura stones, lost memories of fallen Guardians. The other Balance Rebels. Here we go!

"No! Wait!" I grabbed the aura stones I had acquired. "You guys have to help me stop this!" They glowed and I was bathed in light.