"You have so much to learn."
She was not repeating the same mistakes, she was making new ones. She afflicted Kuro with the same condition she suffered from, an Ancient heritage. Yes, his was only in part but that was all that was necessary for him to know the driving hunger, the desire and affinity as subscribed by their element. He would not be beholden to the dictates of an Ancient's nature, unlike herself where choices were nonexistent. "I know what I am doing brother," she claimed but that statement was a lie. She had an ultimate goal, yes but she did not know how she was going to get there. Time was on her side, this was nothing more than trial and error and if it failed like so many others things did before then so be it, she would try something else and eventually she would succeed even if her victories were more the result of her long life than actual successes. "I just want--" her voice trailed off. To survive. To not be alone. To be understood. She shook her head, "...nothing"[/b] she muttered as she followed the Ancient-demon hybrid onto a hovering stone.
The camp that the Toraono and Senju occupied was broken down, the presence of their union was destroyed leaving not even their footprints in the sand. She watched with idle interest, she certainly was a source of shame but she knew it already but there was a more 'human-like' part of her was hurt. She knew that she was judged for what she was, what she might do, and what she could do and she was reviled for that. Up until that point she had led a rather irrelevant human life, but the moment that her true origins were known she was the enemy. The deceiver. Decades of relationships, friendships and choices forgotten because of what she was and because she disagreed, It is easy to be indifferent to the plight of another when they are simply considered 'bad.' When they are considered to be the 'enemy' and when you are told tales that their destruction was necessary for your continued survival. These concerns then become a bit muddled when you remember that you are what they are, then you see the tethers not as 'precautions' but rather as a 'prison.' You develop a sense of empathy for the monsters you reviled and feared because in the end that was her sin. She ignored her voracious hunger for decades and could have done so for longer, after all Ancients predated man by a great margin - Ancients did not always eat souls. She ate to survive, to escape that limbo she was reduced to in death and more recently for power as she sought to regain all of the things she had lost.
The boulder shifted beneath her as it took flight, the desert expanse a distant vista to behold. Most would consider the desert to be something mundane, those rolling gilded hills dotted with the rare twisted thorny plant or verdant xerophilous vegetation that could be found in the distance. A veil of beatles took flight as they crested over the edge of a stony ledge, their rainbow-colored carapaces and gossamer wings obscured their vision. The thrumming of their wings was near deafening as she was left momentarily 'blind' in more than one sense. She swayed before she lowered herself to a crouching position on the earth she occupied, her fingers coiled tightly around the edge. She waited, like all things this too would pass. This could be a trap, in fact she assumed it would be. Two Sennins meeting her in the desert, she understood one having Ancient sympathies considering his bloodline lineage but the other had no reason. If they thought they could take her to the furthest reaches of the desert to kill her, they would be in for a surprise. She remained silent for their journey as the reached a near forgotten and remote rocky region. She did not know this place nor did she know the Genbu Clan but apparently they knew her.
The stones had stopped in building that took her back several centuries, to a time when buildings were carved not erected. The Earth Court stood in this precarious place between the depths and the sky, slivers of natural light filtered in from the open roof and the building was chiseled from the side of a mountain and did not burrow into the spaces below. She could feel a pain deep within, she felt homesick. She had been displaced from time and her former life by centuries. She should have died with them but instead of doing so she sacrificed herself in a failed attempt to resurrect Ancient's greatest warriors Homura and Fuujin. There was nothing for her in this world but she knew that she would somehow endure, she did not have a deathwish but she had a yearning for more than the lonesome existence she had. Her heel echoed loudly as it tapped on the cool stone floor. They were met with a group of thirty-odd and Shiori cupped her hands in front of her. The hollowed stone walls started to groan with an unspoken intent as she stook several brisk steps forward. "Rangers?" She exhaled, expecting confirmation to be at the end of a blade as she tensed herself and prepared herself to fight.
Imagine her surprise when they took to their knee. Her glower fell away and was replaced with a mask of confusion while she waited for the other shoe to drop. Her ears twitched as she waited for Kazuki and Kuro to stab her in the back.
“Greetings Mistress of the Sands, I am Elder Mukabe, a Genbu clan guardian of the Earth Court Ancients. My clan and I have maintained this sanctuary for nearly two hundred years. We welcome you to peace, bliss, and pampering for as long as you want to stay. Master Kuro is now under your watch so he may enter the sacred chambers along with your Deep Court Sage as only Earth Court royalty may allow access into their Sanctuary. We welcome you all… behold.”
His hoarse voice mimicked the sound of crumbling stone seemed to escape his throat. Her eyes darted to where Kazuki stood -- Deep Court Sage? Her attention was quickly diverted when the elder proved his intent beyond all doubt and twelve tombs were revealed. She could feel them, the dull hum of their aura. It seemed surreal to be in the presence of another and she felt numb. Her arms and her legs were still, her lips had a numb tingle. The only thing she could feel was this pain in her core, it was as if someone has punched her in the gut and all of her air ran off. She did not know them, their names or their histories and she did not care. The only thing she knew with utter certainty was that she was not alone for the first time in centuries.
The walls were suddenly eerily silent.
"Alive?" She attempted to confirm, although their continued 'life' was irrelevant as long as she had the body. She could weave the threads of life and fate in her favor when it was necessary. "Thank you good and faithful ally." She chose her words carefully, she was not their Queen or anyone's. Who was the Queen over a realm of a dozen or a score? "The days of old were thought to be no more," a truth determined by the fact that humanity had won with the advent of the Rangers and Primus' victory that demoralized the Great Courts. "The previous generation has indeed failed to pass away," her voice started to rumble as she approached one of the tombs.
"Ironic," she would announce as she planted her hand on the first, whichever tomb that was. "The lived by... waiting," her eyes glazed over and widened as if she made a revelation just then. How could she have been so foolish to not realize! She gestured for whatever Genbu who were capable to do so to open these relics. Her fingers gripped the sides of the stone capsule that encased her brethren and the beautifully carved stonework cracked in her grip before she attempted to rip away the face. "And you existed alongside them without incident." Was it possible for man and Ancient to coexist? No, of course not. That was a fool's want, but for now she was going to take the role of humbled regent and multiply her allies. Their final days could be accomplished, happy days. "Perhaps there is hope yet for peace between the tribes of man and the courts of Ancients in a sort of symbiosis or synergistic relationship."
She did not trust Kazuki. When he entered it took everything she had to stay her hand and not start a fight in this sanctuary. She did not look at the Deep Court Ancient, she did not need to because she could see him better without looking. Eyes lied in ways her ears would not. Still she focused a majority of her attentions on him. Don't trust that one, she mouthed to the Ancient before her as she nodded her head in Kazuki's direction. Beyond that she said and did little more until he stood. She laced her fingers with Onniksu and her fingers melted away becoming nothing more than sand when she came into contact with her fellow Ancient. 
