The Ronin Warriors' Dilemma: Part One

by SAW458

"No, I don't know. All right, thank you." Ryo hung up the phone with a click and slumped into a chair. He regarded his friends who were seated around the table with a helpless expression. "They haven't heard anything yet."

Kento slammed his fist onto the table surface, a loud bang emitting from the blow. "Dammit!" he cursed in obvious frustration. "We should be out there looking for him!"

"And what good would that do?" Cye asked in his gentle voice. "Where would we even begin to start searching?"

"Well, we can't just sit here and do nothing!" Kento argued insistently.

Ryo leaned forward and rested his chin in his hands. "We may have to accept the facts. It could be that...that Rowen isn't coming back."

"No way, Ryo!" Kento jumped to his feet and shouted angrily at his leader. "Rowen's a Ronin Warrior! He wouldn't go down that easy! He's still alive, I know it!" Cye tugged Kento's sleeve and motioned for him to be calm. Kento reluctantly sat back down, but added stubbornly, "We have to keep looking for him!"

"It's best if we just leave this to the police," Sage said in a quiet tone.

Kento glared daggers at Sage. "What?! How can you say that? You of all people should be agreeing with me!"

"I'm only trying to be logical," Sage replied coolly. "If Rowen's alive, he'll know how to get back by himself. He's not a baby."

"But what if he's hurt? He could be dying for all we know! And all you can do is sit there!" Kento suddenly reached over and took hold of the front of Sage's shirt, shaking the blond. "How can you be so damn calm?" Kento should have thought twice about what he was going to say, but his rage was obstructing his better judgement. "It's all YOUR fault this happened!"

Sage's visible eye widened slightly, an uncharacteristic expression of despair crossing his features. His hands tightened into clenched, shaking fists. For a moment, it seemed as though Sage might slug Kento. Then his face hardened and he whispered furiously, "You don't know anything, Kento!" He jerked himself out of Kento's grip and silently stalked out of the room.

"Kento, that was uncalled for," Ryo said angrily. "You know that Sage is taking this the hardest of all of us."

Kento scoffed with a huff, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Could have fooled me."

"You have no right to say those things to him, Kento! Sage has lost his best friend in the whole world. He's probably torn up inside!" Ryo's voice rose in volume as he scolded Kento. "You know that Sage can't show his emotions about this to us because it's hurting him so much. And you have the nerve to accuse him of not caring! What the hell were you thinking?!"

"I was thinking of Rowen! And Sage should be a little more concerned!" Kento shouted back at Ryo.

"Just stop it both of you!" Cye stood up so fast it made his chair skid across the floor loudly. Kento and Ryo looked at him in surprise. "We can't afford to fight amongst ourselves!" Cye's voice caught in his throat, but he didn't stop yelling. "Don't you two see that we're all we have now?! We have to stick together!" He stood there with his shoulders trembling and his hands balled up at his sides, tears threatening to emerge.

"I...I..." Kento fumbled for his words awkwardly. Deep down, he knew he shouldn't have said those things to Sage. But he didn't know how to deal with Rowen being gone, or even dead. He would give anything to see Rowen shaking his head in a hopeless manner at him whenever Kento did something stupid. Or to hear his friend playfully call him an idiot.

Ryo just stayed silent, covering his face with his hands. Despite what Cye had said, he could feel his team falling apart around him. His leadership wasn't worth squat now. What was going to happen to them now?

Sage shut the door and headed away from the house. The sun was beginning to set, but he could easily find his way back if needed. He walked through the woods, not really picking any specific direction. His hands were shoved into his pockets, and his mind was jumbled.

It's all YOUR fault this happened!

Shaking his head, Sage sighed miserably as he trudged along. My fault...yeah, Kento had hit the nail right on the head, though he probably hadn't meant to. The other boy had just been upset at the time. Kento, Ryo, and Cye would all say otherwise, but their words wouldn't convince Sage. Rowen was gone because of him, plain and simple. His best friend in the whole world.

Sage suddenly found himself at the edge of a cliff that overlooked the ocean. He stared down at the crashing waves as they slammed into the rocky wall, sending up a spray of salty mist. The sea looked angry, but Sage couldn't verify that unless he asked Cye about it later. Maybe it was condemning him too.

Sage wondered if Rowen had seen it coming. If he had been afraid when it had happened. If his blue-haired friend had felt any pain...Stop it, stop it! His mind scolded him angrily. You're only torturing yourself. Then again, why shouldn't I? The blond-haired boy squeezed his eyes shut, tears trickling out from the closed corners. He didn't want to think about it. But he couldn't stop himself from recalling that horrible battle.

"Watch your back!" Ryo sliced his sword through a dynasty soldier about to stab Kento.

"Thanks!" he said distractedly as he slammed two other enemies.

Cye super-wave smashed a horde of soldiers. "There's too many! We have to get out of here!"

"Very wise, but none of you will be leaving alive!" Cale spoke smugly as he watched the Ronins fight against the demon soldiers.

Sage clenched his teeth in rage as he slashed a dynasty creep. For some reason, he was extremely off today. He had taken several painful hits and was taking longer than he usually would have to defeat the soldiers. Added to his stress over the battle, Sage was having difficulty maintaining his anger. He faced Cale and shouted furiously, "You coward! Why don't you fight like a real warrior?"

Cale laughed haughtily and drew his sword. "That sounds like a challenge, Halo!"

"You bet your ass it is," Sage replied in a seething tone.

"As you wish!" Cale suddenly charged forward and a loud clang was heard as his and Sage's swords met. The two began battling, sparks actually flying off their weapons off as they relentlessly slammed into each other.

Sage swung his sword in a slashing arc, but Cale jumped out of the way. Halo was tired of playing around with the warlord. He raised his no-datchi above his head and electricity swarmed along the blade. Storm clouds furiously built up in the sky. "Thunder Bolt Cut!" Sage launched the energy at Cale with deadly accuracy. The Warlord of Corruption smiled cunningly before leaping into the air above the attack...and revealing that Rowen of Strata had been standing behind him. The Ronin was now in the path of the sure-kill.

Sage did the worst possible thing he could do at that moment. He froze. He stared in horror at his electricity racing toward his friend for a few, brief seconds. Three to be exact. Then Sage yelled, "Look out!"

Rowen was busy finishing off a dynasty soldier with an arrow when he heard the warning. He whirled around and had a split instant to see the energy barreling at him. He was fast enough that he could have escaped the onslaught, but he wasn't given the opportunity. That moment of time when Sage had paused would have made all the difference to Rowen.

The electricity rammed into Rowen mercilessly, and his whole body convulsed violently as he screamed in agony. He couldn't think, couldn't breathe, couldn't do anything but scream. It was the only function his now distorted mind would allow him to do. All he felt was pain, a searing, burning pain that seemed to attack his entire being. His body was thrown through the air and disappeared over the cliff that the Ronins had the misfortune of fighting so close to.

"ROWEN!!!" Four voices shouted in unison. The remaining Ronins rushed to the edge of the precipice and looked over. The impact of Sage's lightning had flung Rowen far out over the ocean, and they all saw the splash he made as he hit the water. Without even thinking about it twice, Cye dropped his trident and quickly backed up a few feet before taking a running leap off the cliff.

"Cye!" Kento yelled after his friend. Cye would kill himself if he landed too close to the cliff bottom; the waterline wasn't high enough. But Cye had taken a jump that would have rivaled any other. He dove into the water a relatively safe distance away.

Sage had gone totally numb, collapsing to his knees and his sword clunking to the ground as he let it fall from his limp grasp. For him, reality seemed to have taken a drastic plunge into insanity. "What have I done?" he whispered in horror.

Cale laughed cruelly at Halo, reveling in the Ronin's pain. "Bravo, Ronin! I couldn't have done a better job myself!"

"You..." Ryo turned in fury and rammed the ends of his katanas together, heat building up from his armor. He was in the air faster than Cale could see. "Flare Up, NOW!" he yelled. Ryo's fire blasted all the dynasty soldiers and the warlord relentlessly. Cale howled in pain before disappearing back to the Nether-realm.

Ryo landed nimbly, briefly observing the burnt hunks of armors that were left. However, it gave him no comfort as his shoulders sagged, now feeling the full weight of the ended battle. They had won, but his team had payed a price that Ryo hadn't ever wanted. Ever since this had started, he had sworn he would never lose any of his friends to the Dynasty. He should have known that sooner or later, one of them would go down. He just wished that it had been him instead.

It took Ryo, Kento, and a now desensitized Sage a long time to climb down the cliff side. They searched for Cye for hours; none of them were going to leave until they found him. Thankfully, they finally came across the boy a few miles up the shoreline, passed out on the sand. He was exhausted and half-drowned, something that never should have happened to Cye of the Torrent under normal circumstances.

"Cye?" Ryo shook his friend worriedly.

Cye stirred and opened his cloudy eyes, coughing weakly. "Huh...?" Then his expression became panicked and he struggled to his feet. "Rowen!" Kento had to grab him and physically restrain Cye to prevent him from rushing back out into the surf. "Let me go! Rowen's still out there!" he shouted frantically as he fought Kento's grip, a thoroughly useless thing to do considering Hardrock's strength. Kento did his best to hold onto Cye without hurting him, but his English friend was making it surprisingly difficult for him.

"Cye," Ryo said softly. Cye stopped and looked at him in despair, almost seeming to know what his leader was about to say but at the same time not wanting him to. "There's nothing more we can do here. It's over."

"No..." Cye sagged against Kento, his muscles abruptly giving out. Tears of sorrow and regret spilled down his cheeks. "I couldn't find him," he whispered, his voice shaking with grief. "I couldn't find him. Why...?"

"You did your best," Kento consoled, trying hard not to cry himself. He could see that Cye was too weak to walk himself, so he picked the worn-out boy up and prepared to carry him back to Mia's house. Then he heard someone speak.

"Let me." Sage stepped up and held out his arms for Cye. He seemed to have finally snapped out of his dazed state. His face showed no emotion; it was hard to tell if he was upset or not by looking at him.

Ryo immediately recognized what Sage was doing. The leader knew full well that Sage was blaming himself for what had happened. This was all the blond could do right now to make up for it. Ryo didn't condemn Sage, yet he didn't forgive him either. He simply motioned for Kento to give Cye to Sage.

Kento was undecided for a moment, but he reluctantly transferred the tired English boy to Sage. Cye peered up miserably at Sage before he passed out again from exhaustion. Sage looked at the person in his arms briefly before turning and walking away silently. Kento and Ryo followed, not a word spoken between any of them...

That had been three days ago. Three days, and still no word. It was affecting everyone. Mia was doing her best to help. She regularly hacked into police files and called the hospital every day to find out if anyone had seen Rowen. Yuli, just a small boy, stayed in his room most of the time now. Whiteblaze was only a tiger, but even he knew something was amiss.

It was all because of him. Sage had caused it as surely as though he had put a gun to Rowen's head and pulled the trigger himself. In a sense, that's exactly what he had done. Murdered his teammate and best friend. I'm no better than Talpa and the Warlords, Sage thought. He felt like a part of him had been torn away, leaving him only half a person.

"Rowen..." The name escaped his mouth before he could catch himself. As soon as it did, Sage could just not hold back any longer. The tears came freely as he sank to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. He drew his knees up to his chest and hugged them, rocking back and forth. His unbreakable composure and cool demeanor had been shattered to pieces. He felt he had no right to even utter Rowen's name; he was only befouling his dear friend's memory. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he whispered over and over, his heart wrenching. He silently begged forgiveness from Rowen, from the other Ronins, and from God. But he knew he didn't deserve it. His sin had stained his soul a dark shade. And Sage didn't think it would ever wash away...

The young man found himself on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The wind was blowing violently from all sides, almost as though it was trying to push him over the precipice. The sky was an angry gray and black, but he heard no thunder and saw no lightning. Actually, he would have welcomed the added noise and light. Anything was better than just listening to the howling wind. He didn't know how he had gotten here. He did know that he was frightened, even downright scared. What was going on?

He heard a noise behind him and whirled around. "Who's there?!" His sight came to rest on a blond boy standing there, looking at him steadily. His pale, indigo eyes were filled with sadness. The lock of hair covering his right eye was brushed away by the wind. The other boy relaxed; something about this person was strangely familiar and comforting to him. "Oh, it's you," he said in relief.

"I'm sorry, Rowen," the blond said softly.

"Sorry?" Rowen was confused. "For what?"

"For this." The other boy lifted his hand and a long sword suddenly materialized in his grasp. His eyes glowed a dark green as the no-datchi became charged with electricity. Wordlessly, he drew back and launched the energy at Rowen.

Rowen tried to run, to dodge out of the way. But to his horror, he found he couldn't move. "No, please don't! You're my friend!" He begged in terror, unable to budge an inch. Rowen tried to search for some kind of mercy in the blond's eyes, but they showed nothing except a shadowy emerald light in them. Then he could only watch as the electricity raced toward him...

"No, no, no..." he moaned, his sleeping face becoming agonized. His cries got louder as he thrashed around.

The old woman looked up from her book and an expression of sympathy crossed her features. She set her novel down on the chair she had been sitting on and stood up, walking over to the bed. Reaching over, she gently took hold of the boy's shoulders and tried to quiet him down. "Hey, it's okay," she said soothingly.

He cringed and gasped in pain, then his blue eyes flew open, shining with fear. "NO!!!" He bolted upright; the elderly woman's touch seemed to panic him even more, and he struggled to get away. "Help me!"

"Snap out of it!" the lady shouted sternly, giving the boy a hard shake. "You're all right!" His fighting died down abruptly; he didn't have the strength to maintain it. However, it was still several seconds more before he stopped trying to escape. But the old lady was surprisingly tough for her age, so she was able to hold him at bay.

Finally, he woke up totally and blinked, puzzlement entering his eyes. A few sweat beads dripped down his face, his breathing rapid. "Huh...what?" he said, bewildered. Several sets of his muscles all over him suddenly contracted painfully, causing him to collapse forward. Luckily, the old lady was able to prevent him from falling off the bed.

She laid his wiry form back down onto the mattress, clucking her tongue. "That must have been one whopper of a dream! But at least you're awake now," she said in mild amusement.

He winced as his head touched the pillow; his entire body was sore. His vision was still a little cloudy, but it finally cleared and he looked at his surroundings. He was in a small bedroom with light tan walls and a shaggy green carpet. An old chestnut bureau was sitting against the wall across from him and a rocking chair was in the corner. A door was off to the right of the bed, apparently a bathroom. Then he turned his head and saw the person in the room with him.

The old woman had shoulder length gray light-blueish hair. Her face was moderately wrinkled and her hands had a few liver spots on them as she clasped them in front of her. But her sapphire-blue eyes sparkled with kindness and laughter. The boy was struck with the idea that she must have grandchildren; grandmothers seemed to have that caring demeanor about them like she did.

"Where am I?" he asked.

The lady smiled as she went to the window and pulled open the shades, letting in the sunlight. "My home."

"How did I get here?"

She frowned slightly as she sat back down in her rocking chair. "I was taking my walk along the beach when I found you washed up on the shore. I swear, you looked worse than a drowned cat. The only difference was you were still alive, so I carried you back here."

"You did?" the boy asked in stunned surprise.

She chuckled. "An old lady living alone has to be able to take care of herself. I'm stronger than I look."

"Ok." He settled back onto the mattress, sighing wearily.

The woman scrutinized him a moment before asking, "What's your name?"

"Oh, it's..." he began, then he stopped. His face became shocked as he searched his mind and then finally said in disbelief, "I don't know."

"What?" She sat up in astonishment and peered at his confused expression. "Do you know where you live? About your family? Anything?"

He thought hard, but shook his head as he came up with nothing. Past memories, friends, relatives, who he was...he couldn't remember anything. If he hadn't been sitting there, breathing and his heart beating inside his chest, he wouldn't have known he even existed.

"This is worse than I thought." The old woman stood again and walked over, placing her wrinkled hand on his forehead. "Hmm...you don't seem to have any bumps on the head. I wonder if..." She crinkled her brow in deep thought. "I don't even know what to call you."

The boy was baffled right then as well, but something finally came to him.

I'm sorry, Rowen...

"I think my name is Rowen," he said slowly and unsurely.

"It is?" the lady asked. "But you just said you didn't know."

"I heard it in my dream. There was a guy, with blond hair. He called me that..." Rowen's voice became drowsy and he couldn't help but yawn.

"Well, Rowen," the woman said, "I think you should get some more sleep now. We can figure out who you are later." She brushed his bangs out of his eyes and smiled nostalgically. "Your hair is just amazing," she commented, ruffling it.

"Really?" Her hand felt slightly rough and calloused, but it was warm on his forehead. It was like aspirin to his aching head. "Thank you," he mumbled contentedly. If she answered to that, he didn't hear because he fell asleep right then.

"Poor kid." The woman tucked the covers over Rowen in a motherly manner. She paused, then reached into the pocket of her slacks and pulled out a small, round object. After a few seconds of deciding, she placed the glass orb onto the night-stand next to the bed. "Sleep well, Rowen." She went back to her chair and picked up her knitting. As the needles softly clicked together, she didn't notice that on the night-stand, the orb suddenly glowed briefly. A blue kanji lit up in the center of the crystal. On Rowen's forehead, the same symbol blazed forth dimly, responding in kind to the orb. The boy smiled faintly in his sleep, his face becoming peaceful. For now, he would not be having any more nightmares.

Hi! Remember me? Well, if this is the first thing of mine you've read, I guess you wouldn't. Anyway, don't be too mad at me for what I've done to Rowen. I have nothing against him. He's my second favorite character, next to Cye. It's just how the story came out. And don't worry, I may maim, torture, beat-up, and bring the characters close to death, but they always come out all right in the end. So, see ya next time!