The wounded were many, for the Crab lands were the first to fall. Though they could afford no time for relaxing, many of the bushi did. The Crab, he felt, were resigned to their fate.

"Gaijin-o! Drink up!"

The woman through a cask of sake to him. O-Ushi, the traitor Crab's daughter. Here she was, headbutting her fellow bushi like they'd won the war. He pitied her, in his way.

Still, it would be rude to refuse her, Crab daimyo as she was. The night would be long and eventful, and though he was quite drunk, he enjoyed her as much as she enjoyed him.

And, as he rode off in the morning, he silently wished they would have another moment again.

Still, he thinks, I'll be able to get a horse of of the deal.

Taka leaned back, tired. It had been six months since the Dark Lord defeated the Thunders. Already he was poorer for it.

"Yes, yes... what is it you seek?"

"A very old, very potent weapon."

Taka narrowed his eyes. The man did not *look* tainted, but it was so hard to tell sometimes. Perhaps forty, strong in the healthy sense. Deep, black eyes...

"What kind of weapon?"

"You know which one, peddler."

Taka frowned, inwardly. He'd already been found out... a pity.

"Yes, yes... certainly... it's right here..." the old Crab mumbled, pulling the small pistol from his obi as he feigned searching under his desk.

Pulling the gun on the man, Taka immediately realized his mistake. Standing before him was Togashi Yokuni.

"Kami-sama. I apologize. I heard you dead."

You hear many things in your line, Taka. You know what I am here for.

"Of course, sama, of course. Just a moment."

Kage said Togashi was dead, but, then, Kage thought Taka was on his side. More the fool him.

The box was of pitiful make, but with five scraps of paper over its lock. He'd paid Shidachi well for them, but they opened for Togashi quickly enough.

Good. The Hand is safe. You have done well.

"Thank you, sama..."

Later, Hoshi would feel some small shame for his deception, but the Crab Thunder was safe.

"You are not the Crab," Hoshi says.

Kisada's pain arches through his body as the Hand neutralizes the taint within him.

"The Hand bears the souls of both men who wore it before. It, and you, are now the Thunder."

Shinsei's body lies smoldering in ash, the Thunders surrounding her in terror. Her husband, not twenty feet away, holds her killer.

Hoshi's arms pins Agasha Dorai, the Phoenix. He can not kill the man, no matter how much he wants to. His death means the death of an Empire.

"If you are not responsible, then who?" Hoshi squeezes.

"I... am... the Hantei... I.. am... Iuchiban..."

Hoshi is not his father. The prison of his body will hold Iuchiban, but not for long...

The Dark Lord broods. Every hour for the last day, one of the simpleton Seppun had been tortured to death for his amusement. Tsume and Yori had not failed in skill, but still Fu Leng feels wronged by fate.

"My lord." The court, seeing relief for themselves in Kachiko's form, sighs.

"Kachiko. Did you find the Thunders?"

"Yes, my lord."

"And?"

"I delivered to them the Black Scrolls."

"You did WHAT?!" Angered, truly angered, for the first time in generations, Fu Leng's shout peels the flesh of the courtiers sitting too close to him. The rest merely cover their bleeding ears.

"Hold your tongue, you insignificant whelp." Kachiko's disgust mark her words. "I'm not done with you yet."

"How dare you?"

Kachiko smiles. "I dare because I know who the Scorpion Thunder is. Only one of Shosuro's children remains, and you cannot strike a Thunder down until they are gathered before you."

Fu Leng pauses. Was she really so stupid? No... her arrogance has finally outdone her...

"You are right, Kachiko. I cannot." Fu Leng nods to Tsume, who draws the black blade that cuts Kachiko's back.

The court cheers. "He's won!" "The Thunders die before their day!"

"Heh..." Kachiko, bloodied, mortally wounded, laughs. "You are a fool, Fu Leng.

"You have murdered the last of Shosuro's children. Bayushi's Daughter yet lives."

As prophesied, the Seven Thunders have returned.

Kisada, who has born the marks and corruptions of the Dark Lord, has been purified by the Jade Hand. Now he stands to face the force who killed its two previous bearers as the Crab Thunder.

A Crane ronin, nameless and silent, bears the sword and soul of his fallen Clan. He, like it, is the Crane Thunder.

The Daini Ashaqar, the Naga leader and Dragon Thunder, readies herself to face the woman who betrayed her role a millenium before.

Keiko, a former shugenja-turned-bushi, who bears the malice of her clan even as Toturi did before her. Wearing Matsu Hitomi's mempo, she must decide whether the Lion Thunder shall be shugenja or bushi this third time.

Agasha Dorai, free of Iuchiban's influence, is nevertheless the traitor foretold. With Shinsei's blood on his hands and Tadaka's blood in his veins, can he redeem himself? Does he want to?

Shosuro, the first and final Scorpion Thunder, has returned. Long thought to be Kitsuki Kaagiko, and entrusted with the Twelve Scrolls, she once again plots the destruction of the man she gave up her soul to fight before.

Yasuki Sarosa, heir to the thrones of both Crab and Unicorn, and Thunder to the latter, watches as his soul erodes under the grip of an evil predating Fu Leng...

The time has come for the Thunders to fight Fu Leng for the fate of Rokugan. Bereft of Shinsei's Tao, can they possibly win?