Aaron had to sit on the back of my motor cycle, so we left his in the forest. He simply wasn’t able to drive by himself.

I felt awkward as the situation was completely reversed from our last mission. This time it was me driving the bike, and Aaron who kept talking. With a weak voice and many pauses, but still talking.

As we drove, he told me about his life. How he had grown up training to become a top Coder, how his father had taught him to fight and use his Skills, how he had learned to be cold-hearted and distant.

“But every time I looked at you, I… felt warmth. At first I didn’t like it, but… then I came to love it. It was so… different from what I was used to. But you… were so innocent. And I knew this would… spoil it. Spoil your pure mind. I didn’t want that, but I… couldn’t tell you. But you… told me to show concern for… other people. I didn’t understand it before I started to observe every single of… your reactions to happenings.”

He held a longer pause while thinking. I was listening intensely while driving. We’d be home soon. I could feel that he got weaker for every minute, like he couldn’t hold on much longer.

“But when you got engaged… to that guy, I didn’t know what… you were thinking. It didn’t seem like you at all. Now I know why…”

“Gui Gui! Finally!” Jolin, Hebe, Ella and Selina ran towards us when I parked in front of the head quarter.

“What the hell happened?” Selina anxiously exclaimed when they saw how Aaron nearly fell down when I helped him off after quickly jumping off myself.

“I’ll explain later, we gotta get him to the hospital ward…”

“Selina, you run ahead and get the doctors, he’s almost fainting, make them get a bed ready for him. Hebe, you go to Master Na, and I’ll get Z2. Jolin, you help Even.” Ella, being the highest ranking Coder, gave the orders which we followed. Even though I still felt strange when people used my English name, which they tended to do a lot here.

Jolin and I each took one of Aaron’s arms over our shoulder to support him, and we slowly walked inside. It looked like every single step was a huge pain for him, but he didn’t complain.

“So? Did you get it?” Jolin suddenly asked.

“Get what?”

“The Ring?”

“Oh… yeah…”

“Good.”

End of conversation. I didn’t feel like speaking right now. Not until I knew Aaron was going to be okay…

“Lay him here, quickly…” Nurses and doctors helped us place Aaron in a hospital bed. Selina had prepared them, so she and Jolin were watching by the side, while I couldn’t stand still in anxiousness.

“Will you three please go out now, we’ll have to examine him,” one of the doctors said, “apart from you Miss Y8, we need to know what happened.”

I gave them a short version of the story, only the part concerning Aaron, and they looked very worried when they told me to go out of the room.

I squatted down, leaning my back against the wall. Jolin and Selina looked at me.

“Gui Gui, you… Well, a lot of things have happened when you were gone, but I think Master Na will tell you,” Jolin said. I just nodded.

Right then, Ella and Hebe returned, followed by Jack and a man I didn’t know. Jolin and Selina tensed up, bowed and Selina reported:

“Master Na, Mr. Z2, Mr. Z9 is currently being examined by the doctors.”

Z2?

So this was Aaron’s father?

It was dark in the corridor, but I could still see his face. It was covered in scars, but underneath them, I could see some resemblance to Aaron. They had the same nose, and the eyes were shaped alike…

“Miss Y8, I want you to report your mission now, and in my office. I also have something to tell you,” Jack commanded.
“But…” I wanted to stay by Aaron.

“Now!”

When I sat down in the chair in Jack’s office, I suddenly felt how tired I was. Jack sat down across the table.

“You’ve never made a report before, right?” he asked while flipping through some papers. I shook my head.

“Good. Place your finger here,” he instructed, and laid a piece of paper in front of me. I placed my finger in the corner as he showed me.

“And now tell me exactly what happened from you left this place until you came back.”

I started talking monotonously, telling about the mission from start to end. I was too tired to be surprised to see that my words showed up as text on the paper as soon as I said them. Jack just leaned back in his chair and listened.

When I had finished speaking, I took the Sun Ring out of my pocket. It glowed when I placed it on my index finger, but then cooled down and nearly became invisible; it came to look like a faint, transparent glass ring.

I sighed.

“Can I go back now?” I asked. Jack smiled in a mysterious way.

“No, I have something I need to talk to you about. You see, a lot of things have happened while you were gone…”

“Jolin – I mean, Miss Y12 told me that.”

“Hmm. Well, at first, the facts. Two of our Coders were murdered yesterday. We got the messages in the evening.”
I gaped. Three?!

“W-who?” I stammered.

“Z6 and Z8. They were found together – there was a note, look…”

I looked at the note he shoved over the table. It said: “Love from BB No. 5, 6 & 7. Prepare. It starts soon.”

“What starts soon?” I asked, completely confused.

“This is what we should talk about. You probably know that all five Rings were made a long time ago by a very powerful, but also very wise Skilled.”

“Yes, I read that,” I said.

“Have you also read about what happened after he died?”

“Maybe, but I don’t quite remember. Genie was the one to remember those things,” I admitted with sadness in my voice. I still missed her.

“I’ll tell you then. Or at least what we know, we can’t be sure of all the details. Anyway, he had five sons who got a Ring each. But the owners of the Air Ring, Gold Ring and Silver Ring soon became greedy and wanted more power, causing them to fight, and also fight the younger brothers with the Sun and Flower Rings. These two Rings have the qualities that they keep your mind clear and pure to a certain extend, so these brothers originally only sought new powers within themselves and their own Skills. But soon all the brothers were enemies and it came to a huge fight between them. All being very powerful and having a Ring each, the fight was horrible. Watching on the side was their little sister. At that time, she was only 15 years old, but was the only child to inherit the father’s wisdom, thus she was cleverer than any of the brothers. Her Skills weren’t suited for fighting, so she stayed out of it.

In the end, after fighting for a day and a night straight, the brothers killed each other. The sister cried a single tear for each of them, but knew that it was their own fault. The only thing she could do was to prevent this from happening again.
She wouldn’t take the Rings and keep them to herself; instead, he gave the Rings knew conditions. Each of the Rings now required something from the owner before he or she could fully control it.

I think you might have found out already; The Silver Ring has to be found, and will stay by its owner until the end. Thus, the wise sister threw it deep into the forest.

The Flower Ring requires its owner to have love for every living thing on Earth, have mercy and pity and always think of others before his- or herself. Because this Ring’s power doesn’t show in attack skills or any kind of fighting skills, it shows up when you understand life and nature and helps you do it. The sister gave this Ring to a squirrel.

To truly own the Gold Ring, you must give up something for it. Something that means a lot to you. Only when you’ve sacrificed something like that, you can use its incredible power. The girl kept this Ring because it was pretty, and she knew it was safe with her, as she couldn’t use its power. As she married an Unskilled man, she thought of it as safe to let the Gold Ring pass down through generations.

The Sun Ring she placed in a temple where it had been since, until you now took it. To get it, you have to be pure-minded, innocent and have a clean soul. If not – well, you saw what happened to Z9. He would’ve been insane and maybe dead by now if you hadn’t used the Flower Ring to take away the pain.

The Air Ring requires determination, willpower and strength, and it’s a very powerful Ring. The youngest sister didn’t know what to do about this Ring, and we don’t know what she ended up doing.

These are the conditions to own and control the Rings, but there is one ultimate exception that applies to all of them; if you kill the previous owner of a Ring, you get the power of it. If you do this, none of the other requirements are valid. If you kill the owner of a Ring, it’s yours.”

Jack stared deep into my eyes, and I stared back. Throughout his long explanation, I had been listening very closely, and I could check yes by every of the conditions – maybe except for the Air Ring.

Jack continued:

“So. All organizations believe that if one person has the power of all the Rings, he or she should also have the respect of and power over all Skilled people. They have all sought for the Rings. Since the death of the five brothers, we have been fighting against each other, and we all have alliances between us. Our organization, the Blazing Soldiers, is one of the oldest. We have archenemies, but have also shared friendship to some extend with some organizations.

And now this brand new organization comes in; BB. We don’t even know what it stands for. We don’t know who they are. We only know they are ranked after numbers and numbers only. We know that they are very powerful and don’t stand back from killing. I’ve contacted other organizations, and they’ve all been attacked – though not as badly as us. They don’t have any allies, bloody rascals that don’t have sense for traditions. They’re just against everybody.

In the later years, there haven’t been open wars, but it seems that one is coming up soon. Unless…”

“Unless?”

“Unless you find the last Ring in time.”

I kept silent. At least I had gotten a lot of my questions answered. But also gotten a great new bunch of worries and pressure.

I ran back down the corridor to the hospital wing, but was stopped because I bumped into someone.

“Sorry, but I’m in a hurry, I have to see if Aaron is alri…” I stopped when I saw who I had bumped into. I looked down in embarrassment. What was he doing here?

“Gui Gui. I seriously have to talk to you.”

I froze and looked up at Alien with surprise in my eyes.

***
I gave myself a present yesterday <3 A new background for my laptop! Home-made! http://i56.tinypic.com/vzd46b.jpg

Thanks, me <3 LOL I sound lonely xD

Hehehe. SHINee & Show. LOVE.

Gawd I’m in random-mood -.-‘’’

Well, sorry for not updating last week :/ I had a block. AND I have two fanfics to write – if you haven’t checked my new collaboration with Gril4Life, Matter of Taste, out yet, I here give you the link: Winglin.net/fanfic/MatterOfTaste :]

Some readers might also know a secret. Hehehe. Very secret…

Well, I’d be very happy to chat with you :D Just contact me if you’re bored or something.

*drumroll* I’M GOING TO BEIJING IN A WEEK!!!

Actually, at this time in 7 days, I AM in Beijing :DDD With Gril and our friend Natti, and 15 other random people. I can’t wait :D
But this unfortunately means that I can’t update next weekend and maybe also the weekend after due to being tired :( I’ll see if I can find time to write again before the weekend, but it seems I can’t find inspiration during school days.

But I WILL be back after the holiday, so subscribe to know immediately when I update again ^^,

T H A N K S for the comments :D I really can’t say how much I love you guys <3 And I love you for bearing with me updating sloooowly ^^,

Please leave a comment before you leave the page ! :P

- Blitz