Stolen Virtue

Author’s Note: This game that is mentioned is called “Go.” It’s originally from China, but is more widely known in Japan, where it’s now recognized as coming from. I got sucked into it when I started reading “Hikaru No Go” a while back. It’s a fast-moving tile game that’s kinda like checkers and kinda like Othello, but really, it isn’t like either of those two games at all. I try to explain it as best as I can, but really, look it up on the web and see for yourself. You can also play it on Yahoo Games. *grins* I’ll play you some time! Onegaishimasu!

Part Six: Regaining Part of a Stolen Time

“Will you get off of my blanket?!”

“Make me! Mine’s wet!”

“You’re the one who didn’t roll it up right!”

“So?!”

“So get off of mine!”

“Try and make me!”

“Oh, you’re so dead.”

“Miss Special and Dannn? Will you two keep it down, please?” Nurannoniel asked. “And Dannn, your blanket is nearly dry.”

Miss Special roughly pushed Dannn away from her, then pulled the deer-fur blanket around her shoulders, almost two full weeks since they had left the Maximal base. Sinead, Sharpshot, and Lady Venom walked into the cave and went straight over to the fire, each shivering. Starath looked at them. “Well?”

“We think that Blackarachnia’s dead, as well as Quickstrike. Either that, or they’re smart enough to stay away from the Maximals,” Sharpshot said.

“And at the base?”

“Quiet. Dinobot, Megatron and Rattrap are out hunting Inferno and Waspinator in one direction, and Rampage is off in another direction with Miss Special’s Inferno as backup,” Lady Venom chattered out.

Sinead rose and started pulling off her outer layers. When she had one layer of clothing on, she hung the rest up to dry then sat in front of the fire again, holding shaking hands out. “I hate the rain when it’s chilly like this. Any venison left?”

“Yeah; here.” Skyfire tossed a chunk over to her, and she started chewing on it immediately. Skyfire sighed, then asked, “When will we be able to return?”

“To the base? About–”

“No. I mean return home. Back in our own time.”

That silenced everyone, and caused them to look at him. Sinead bowed her head, swallowed, then replied, “I don’t know. We never knew, remember?”

“We just . . . came,” Miss Special said softly. “We had the feeling that we were going somewhere, and so we packed stuff into the largest bag that we could carry without it being cumbersome.”

“We found our weapons in our hands the moment we woke up, too, and knew exactly how to use them,” Nurannoniel said, smiling. “And we found each other.”

“But still . . . I want to go home,” Skyfire said quietly.

A chorus of agreements followed that statement.

Sapphire knew that the day could only get worse if they continued to think like they were. She drew lines in the dirt, then tugged on Sinead’s sleeve. “Pull out those round tile-things that you play that game with. Teach me.”

“Huh?”

“You know, the Japanese game? Like Othello?”

“Oh!” She ran over and pulled the two small leather bag of stones and a folded board out of her traveling bag, and then sat back down by Sapphire and next to the fire. “I’ll take out a handful. You have to guess if I have an even amount or an odd amount of white stones in my hand. If you get it right, then you’re black.”

“So all I say is ‘even’ or ‘odd’?”

“Yep.”

“Okay . . . odd!”

Sinead dropped the stones on the opened board, counted them, then smiled. “Sorry. Even. Eight.”

“Oh. Okay. So that means that I’m white?”

“Yep.”

“Hey! I wanna watch you play Go!”

The two laughed. Sinead handed Sapphire the bag of white stones, then pulled a single black stone out of her bag, held between the tips of her first and second fingers. With a snapping motion, she set it upon the 4,7 point upon the Go board. “Okay. That’s point 4,7. Remember to always count the outermost line as the number one. This is a nineteen-by-nineteen board. You can go anywhere, but the point of the game is to gain as much territory as is possible. There’s also a way of gaining points in a way called ‘capturing stones.’ I’ll show that to you when it comes up.”

“Do I have to put the stone down like the way that you just did?”

Sinead ginned. “That took me over a month to figure out how to do.”

Starath peeked over Sinead’s shoulder. “That’s the game that you played with Dinobot.”

“And got my butt whipped in when I taught him only that morning? Yeah.”

Easy chuckles echoed kindly in the cave, and Sapphire placed her stone in the opposite corner from Sinead, looking up to see if she had done the right thing. Sinead nodded, then put her stone in another corner, and the game moved on. Then, with one swift stroke, she put one black stone down, and pointed to a group of three stones that were surrounded by black. “See that? Those are captured stones. They count for one point each.”

“What happens with them?”

“I take them, and put them over here, away from the game.”

“Like checkers?”

“Almost, except that you can’t get them back. That’s why you have a large amount of stones. There’s enough to cover fully half of the board, and then some. Now. See here? This one stone is surrounded on three sides by your white stones. If you cut that last way of escape, as it were, off, then you capture the stone.”

Sapphire did so, then picked up the black stone. “This is a captured stone?”

“Yep. But look at that corner. Remember how we kinda started to ignore that area, since no more moves could be made? Those are ‘dead’ stones. They have no more moves left. These over here, with outlets all over the place, are ‘live’ stones. You can still move with them, and try to capture both them and more territory.”

“Uh . . . okay.”

“Here, it’s my turn, so . . .”

Sinead put another stone down, and Skyfire pointed, saying, “Go here!”

“No helping!” Sinead said, slapping his hand away playfully. Then, plain as day, she heard a soft call in her mind, her soul. She looked away from the game, then stood and ran out of the caves and into Dinobot’s arms. He brought her back in, followed by Inferno and Rattrap. Miss Special and Sapphire both ran to their Bonded, and the group were soon brought back to the Axalon.

Three sharp sneezes followed one right after the other, and Dinobot tossed another blanket over Sinead before toweling her hair again. He smiled at her weary groan, and said, “You exhausted yourself. And now you’re sick.”

“Am not. Take care to notice those yellow flowers blooming out there? I’m allergic to pollen.”

“It’s downpouring.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Right.”

Sinead glared up at him, then sighed and pulled the blankets tighter around her. Finally, Dinobot pulled the towel away from her head, and crouched to look at her eyes. Neither said anything or moved for a long while, until Sinead rested her forehead against his. He picked her up and gently deposited her upon a soft-mattress bed, piling even more blankets and a fur upon her. She swallowed, then reached up to touch his cheek. Dinobot smiled, and whispered, “I have watch, but the door will be locked.”

“Wait.”

“What is it?”

“Did you get them? Inferno, Waspinator, Blackarachnia and Quickstrike?”

Dinobot nodded slowly. “Blackarachnia was the last one to be killed. We had gotten to all the others within three days, but she was the hardest to track down and kill.” He rested his hand upon her neck lightly, then said, “But don’t trouble your mind over that. Everyone’s safe, now.”

“Wake up.”

Sinead started awake, blinking around to try to get her bearings. She was in a cream-colored room, with posters . . . anime posters . . . what?!

She looked at the door. Her mother called through it, “School?”

“Oh. Yeah. I’m . . . I’m up.”

Was it all a dream?

Study. Sinead typed like a madgirl into the computer, opening an instant messenger service, seeing Sapphire on. Hey, Sapph.

Sinead! I had the strangest dream.

It wasn’t a dream.

For one long minute, Sapphire stared at the words. Then, quickly, she typed out, How do you know that we had the same dream?

Sinead swallowed, then replied, I have two long, diagonal scars upon my back. And I’m slightly more tanned than I should be in the winter.

It really happened?

Yeah. Can’t you feel the Bond?

Sapphire rested one hand upon her chest and closed her eyes. Yes. She could. And her Bonded was crying somewhere. He was lonely. He had no will to go on, but . . .

He could feel her, too. She sent him a mental “I love you,” and typed back to Sinead, Yeah. I can feel it.

Sinead looked at the time, then typed, I don’t know where they are, or even if they’re still in the past. Dinobot’s . . . he’s losing his temper a lot more than he should, and he’s angry. I want to go to him, wherever he is.

Sapphire nodded. We’ll find them. Don’t worry.

Bell just rang. I have to go to lunch.

Right. Take care, sis.

You too. Later.

Sapphire watched Sinead’s online status change, and then sighed. So it hadn’t been a dream after all.

“Yo, sis! There’s a phone call for you!”

The girl picked the extension in the den up, and then said, “Hello?”

“Starath?”

“Nurann.”

“I just got an email from Sapphire.”

“So did I.”

“She said that Sinead has those scars on her back.”

“I’m reading it now.”

Both paused for a moment, then asked each other at the same time, “You think that it’s real?”

“Yeah,” Starath replied.

“Me too.”

Dannn read the email, and the looked at the date and time it had been sent. Yesterday at three-PM. Cursing, he grabbed his wallet and keys, then locked the door after him as he left the apartment. He ran to a subway, taking the yellow line into southern Manhattan, then into Times Square. He walked into the McDonald’s, and saw Sinead with another girl there, eating. Sinead jumped up and hugged him, swallowing the bite of burger she had just taken, before ruffling his hair. “Dannn!”

He grinned, and said, “Why didn’t you give me more notice that you were coming?”

“Just found out yesterday that I was being dragged in here.”

“Gee, dunno why you’d want to be here.”

Sinead laughed, and introduced him to StarGazer. She nodded to him, then looked to Sinead. “So you gonna tell me why you haven’t worn that tank-top that I got you, and are only wearing those bulky, ugly t-shirts?”

Dannn looked at the girl he had often annoyed in the Beast Wars. She rolled her eyes at StarGazer, and replied, “Because I don’t want to right now.”

“Really.”

“Yes, really!”

“It’s like, what, ninety out there, and you’re wearing that thing with shorts!”

“So?!”

Dannn grinned. “So that’s how you knew how to deal with me, huh?”

“Yeah, kinda.”

“What?” SatrGazer asked, shoving a few more fries into her mouth. “What, now?”

“He’s one of the Beast Wars authors.”

“Ohh. Okay. So. What’s next?”

“Dunno. What do you want to do?”

“Can we go to that park?”

“Whatever. Hey, I’m going to get a Flurry. You want one?” Sinead replied, looking at Dannn then StarGazer.

Dannn caught the glance, then said, “I’m actually going to get a burger first.”

“I want an M&M one!” StarGazer said, irrepressible as always.

Sinead nodded and followed Dannn down the stairs to get in line. He looked at her, then rested his hand upon her shoulder. “How are things going? I heard that the other girls want to go back and somehow bring their Bonded back with them.”

“How can we when we don’t even really know for sure how we got there in the first place? Or back, for that matter.” Sinead replied quietly. “I mean, I’m about ready to cry at any given time. Everything that I do, I remembered how Dinobot would do something else. I eat at one of these places, and I remember having a fire in some woods and smoking venison. I remember the hunt. I remember so many things that seem so right, and then I look around me, and . . .”

“You wonder why we’ve made our lives so complex.”

“Exactly.” Sinead looked up at Dannn, then away again. “And seeing you in actual street clothes are kinda of a shock. We all wore jeans, camouflage and furs while we were there.”

Dannn sighed and said, “I miss seeing you all every day. I miss annoying Miss Special. I miss making fun of you girls when you got really sappy with your Bonded. I miss the life that we had gotten used to.”

Sinead nodded, agreeing silently. Dinobot was preparing for sleep, wherever he was, and was thinking of her. She reassured him as best as she could, and felt him curl up around her favorite deerskin. She tried the best that she could to comfort him, but jumped when Dannn touched her elbow. “Hey, your turn.”

“O-oh. Sorry. Hi, yes, um, I’ll have two M&M flurries, please.”

“Anything else?” the lady asked.

“No, that’s it, thanks.”

Sinead payed for the two ice-cream desserts, then went back up to the second level to sit across from StarGazer. Dannn came up a moment later, and sat next to Sinead. StarGazer looked from one to the other, and then leaned forward, teasing, “Did you two kiss?”

Dannn choked on his burger. Sinead hit his back until he could breathe normally again. “Star, that’s not right.”

“Hey, only wondering. You gave him one of those ‘follow me’ looks, and then left me all on my onesies.”

“That’s because I wanted to ask her something,” Dannn said. “She looked at me because I looked at her. That’s all.” He blinked. “Oh, and have you heard anything from Sharp lately?”

“Nah,” Sinead replied, leaning back in her chair. “Sapph said that she was getting in touch with those of us who . . . uh . . . yeah. That group.”

“Right, right.”

“Why?”

“I haven’t heard from him since about two weeks ago.”

“For online authors, two weeks isn’t that long of a time,” StarGazer pointed out.

“Shorty, you have ice-cream on your chin. And Sharpshot has been going through some rough times lately.”

“You still haven’t given me an answer about the shirt, Oh Fearless Leader,” StarGazer prodded.

Sinead sighed, turned around slightly, and pulled the right sleeve up just that bit to show one end of one of the scars on her back. “That’s why.”

“When . . . when did you get that,” StarGazer asked, unable to really add a questioning lilt to the sentence.

“Two weeks ago. I’ll explain in a while, where there aren’t as many people around.”

“That’s one nasty, scar, Choppuhface.”

“I know. It’s about a foot long, and about a quarter of an inch wide. The second one parallels it about four, maybe five inches away to its left.”

Dannn was walking on Sinead’s left side, while StarGazer was on her right. The blonde looked at Sinead’s face, then asked, “How did you get it? And how has it healed in only two weeks?”

“I can’t answer everything, StarGazer. But I got it while protecting someone. I was knocked into something, and the scabbard I had been wearing upon my back dug in.”

“She did a rather brave thing. I would-a peed myself if I had seen who she had seen and fought against,” Dannn said, paling slightly.

“No you wouldn’t have,” Sinead said, laughing. “You would have shoved that information to the back of your mind and unleashed that nasty gun of yours upon him.”

“Well, yeah. But I’m just that kinda guy. You know, the heroic type that gets all the beautiful ladies who will fawn over my every word.”

Sinead pushed him into a puddle.

Miss Special and Nurannoniel met up with Starath a week later. They were in Boston, as well as all the other authors. The catch? Nobody knew where each other was. They sat on a bench, and looked at Nurannoniel’s watch. Starath sighed. “Do either of you have a cell phone?”

Miss Special pulled hers out and dialed the number that Starath gave her. A familiar voice answered. “Hello?”

“Sinead, where in heck are you?”

“Actually, I’m in heaven, so . . .”

“Smart alec.”

“I’m at Quincy Market.”

“Where’s that?”

“Where are you?” Sinead countered.

“Ahm . . . there’s Borders right behind us . . .”

“Awesome. It’s like three stories tall?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“We’ll be right there.”

“Who’s ‘we’?”

“Who else? Everyone but Sharpshot.”

“Still can’t find him?”

“Actually, he just arrived at Logan. It’ll take him about three hours to get to his hotel. He’ll give me a call from there, and then we’ll be going back there.”

“Where’s he staying?”

“Hotel 8 in Weymouth, like the rest of you. It’s right down the street from me.”

“’Kay.”

“Don’t move. We’ll be right there.”

Miss Special turned the phone off and then sighed and slouched in the bench. The first person to run over was Lady Venom, and she plopped herself in Nurannoniel’s lap. Sapphire hugged Starath, and Sinead sat next to Miss Special, who unexpectedly hugged the other author. Skyfire and Dannn both stood behind the bench and ruffled the hair of all the girls, mussing it up. They were nearly all together again.

<> Ancient Earth <>

Dinobot and Megatron were watching each other silently. Megatron shook his head, and said, “I don’t know. Starath’s awfully happy about something, but I can’t seem to get what it is.”

“Hah! Lame-o’s! Rattrap said, sitting on a stool. “I know what it is.”

“And that would be?” Rampage asked testily.

“Dey’re all back t’gether. Member how dey said dat dey all lived in different parts o’ da world? Dey reunited.”

Inferno sighed, and rubbed at his forehead. “I feel as if a part of me were missing . . .”

“We all feel like that,” Optimus said wearily.

Dinobot stood abruptly and left the group. Rattrap watched him, then waited until he heard the distant closure of a door. “He’s never gonna be da same unless we get Sinead back t’ ’im. An’ Sapphire’s noticin’ da same about Sinead.”

“The question is, Rattrap, how?” Megatron implored, spreading his hands in helplessness. “They know not how they came, and they know not how they returned, no.”

Rampage sighed and shook his head. “I know that I’m going to go back to old habits if I am not in close contact with Lady Venom soon. I do not want to hurt any of you, since that would hurt my Lady.”

“We’re all gonna do thin’s we’ll regret if we don’t get our Bonded back to us.”

“Or,” Inferno said, optics distant, “unless they get us back to them.”