Author's note: This is basically a short story.  **Warning** may be a tear jerker for some.  Also, for those of you who have read The Jaded One, the Cora in that story and the Cora in this story have absolutely nothing to do with one another.  This is a totally different storyline all together.  Please do not mix the two.  Thank you.  On to the4 story!
 

    Cora opened her eyes, the pale gray-green of the iris just barely visible in the darkness.  A few rays of moonlight formed the distorted outline of the window across the floor.  She lifted up her head from the pillow of her arms to look out the window.  Surrounded by a circle of clouds, the moon cast a milky white halo light on them.  A few stars peeked out from behind some clouds, but were eventually hidden again.  She looked up at the moon and lowered her eyebrows into a thoughtful expression as a single tear slid down her cheek.  It ran down the side of her face, over the cut below her eye and finally falling off of her chin and onto her scratched and bruised arms.  She hadn’t been able to sleep.  She kept asking herself over and over, why.  Why was the drunken driver of car that had rammed them off of the road able to get up and walk away with barely a scratch on him?  The other people who had been in the car with him, one was in critical condition and the other had a broken arm and leg.  She had come out with a broken arm and many cuts and bruises all over her, each one stung with pain, sadness and anger.  For the millionth time she went over how this tragedy had happened, and how she would never forget…
***
    They had been heading home after visiting Cora’s sister.  Cora was driving, and Ryo was in the passenger’s seat, listening to the local radio station.  Cora and the other’s tried to make Ryo feel apart of their families because he had no big family of his own.  Cora had taken Ryo along to her sister’s house because it was her niece’s birthday.  They had stayed for a few hours, and then decided that it was getting late and time to head home.  They were driving along the highway when suddenly from out of nowhere a black car rear-ended them.  Not much damage was done there; except for maybe a tiny case of whiplash and a vicious wake up call, but soon, the black car had sped up and forced them off of the road.  Their car had hit the guardrail hard on the passenger’s side.  That was when everything had gone black, and the next thing Cora knew was waking up with Sage and a doctor standing by her hospitable bed talking about her condition.  Her right arm was in a sling, and she had suddenly become aware of the pain from her cuts and broken arm.
    The doctor looked down at her and smiled.
    "Hello, glad you’re awake, how are you feeling?" he asked.
    Cora looked at Sage, his expression told her that something was wrong, and it was very serious.
    "I feel like I’m being ripped in every direction at once," she replied tiredly.
    "You were in a car crash, you have many minor cuts and bruises, the most serious of your injuries is your arm," the doctor reported to her.
    Cora struggled to sit up with the help of only one arm. "What about my friend? Who was in the car with me? Where is he?"
    "Cora, you can see Ryo later, but now you need to rest," Sage managed to say.  She could tell something was definitely wrong, and she was frightened for her friend’s life.
    "Sage, is he okay?  Please, I have to know, please Sage," she pleaded.
    Sage shook his head sadly.  "No Cora, not right now, when you’ve rested, then the others will come in and you can see Ryo."
    The doctor came over to her bed and handed her a glass of water and some aspirin.
    "This will help with the pain, since you’re awake and aware now, you can feel pain," he said.
    Cora took the aspirin and the water and lay down, a troubled look on her face.
    Sage looked down at her.
    "I promise, if something happens, I’ll come get you right away," he said, taking her hand gently.
    Cora squeezed his hand. "Thank you."
    Sage left the room, looking back at the doorway, and the doctor followed, shooing him away.  Cora sighed and slipped into sleep.
 

    "Cora…." Someone called her name, calling her to the waking world, the terrible awful real world.
    She cracked one eye opened, at first she thought that it was Ryo smiling down at her because of the black hair, but when she opened her eyes all the way, she saw that it was only a doctor or a nurse.  Whichever it was, she didn’t care.
    "Good morning, did you have a good rest?" the nurse asked in a cheery tone of voice.
    Cora rubbed her eyes with her free arm.  Her stomach rumbled in complaint that it had had nothing to eat in the last 14 hours.
    "Yes, I suppose, if you call a dreamless sleep a good rest," her reply managed to escape her lips.
    The nurse brought over her clothes and put them at the end of the bed.  "There you are dearie, you can go home today, I hope you feel better soon.  But please don’t leave until the doctor has had a chance to talk with you first."
    Cora sat up and looked towards the door, she couldn’t see anyone there.  She nodded.  After the nurse had left, she changed into her clothes, which she supposed someone had brought down for her, and left the room.  She wandered down the hall, looking in the windows of the patient rooms looking for Ryo, but could not find where he was.  She finally made her way to the waiting room, where her sister, Mia, and the other Ronins were sitting with very anxious and worried looks on their faces.  Terra, Cora’s sister, was the first to see her.
    "Cora!  Thank god you’re okay!" she exclaimed as she went quickly to her sister and gave her a hug.
    Cora hugged her sister back, and hugged each of the Ronins in turn.  When she got to Sage, she asked him, "Is Ryo okay?"
    Sage looked away.  "I don’t know Cora, they won’t let us see him."
    "But you said that I could see him!"
    "Cora, I’m sorry, I thought that they would let you, but they’ll only let family see him."
    Cora’s eyes filled with tears, as she looked from Sage, to Kento, to Rowen, then Cye, and finally back to Sage.
    "But the only family he has is us!  Is the four of you!  His parents are dead, there is no blood relative close enough to come and see him…" she trailed off as she collapsed in a chair, the tears threatening to overflow.  She wiped her eyes and sniffed.
    Just then, a doctor approached Cora.
    "Cora Zabata?" he asked.
    Cora looked up.  "Yes?"
    "We will need to see you back here in about 6 weeks, at that time, we’ll check to make sure that your arm has healed completely.  Other than that, you’re free to go home."
    "I want to see my friend." Cora demanded.
    "Who is your friend?"
    "Ryo Sanada, he should have been brought in about the same time I was."
    The doctor looked down at his clipboard.
    "Oh yes, Ryo, are you a relative of his?"
    "No, he has no blood relatives alive close enough to here."
    The doctor put on a grave expression.  "I’m sorry, only family is allowed to see him at this time."
    "But we are his family!  Please!  Please let us see him."
    "What is his condition?"  Rowen asked.
    "Ryo suffered a severe blow to the head, he is in a coma right now, he also suffered many other minor injuries as well," the doctor relayed the information back to the group.
    Mia put her hand over her mouth in astonishment.
    "Do you know when he’ll wake up?"  Kento asked.
    The doctor shook his head.  "It’s hard to determine when someone will wake up from a coma."
    "Please…" Cora begged again.
    "I told you miss…" the doctor began.
    "Doctor, can I please talk to you for a moment?" Terra cut in, guiding away the doctor to talk with him privately.
    Cora looked at her sister, and Terra smiled back.  Cora put her hand to her forehead.  A coma, how…how could everything change in just a matter of less than two seconds?  Everyone was shocked.  People have been reported about being in comas for years.  Would this fate happen to Ryo?
    Terra and the doctor came back.  The doctor had an exasperated look on his face, as if he had finally given in to someone he knew wouldn’t take no for an answer.
    "Terra has convinced me to allow you to see your friend, since apparently it seems to matter so much to you."
    Cora looked up, and glanced at the doctor, and then at her sister, a question in her eyes.  She got up and hugged her sister.
    "Thank you Terra," she whispered.
    "With all my heart little sister," Terra whispered back.
    Cora stepped back and then looked back at the Ronins, who nodded to her.
    "Are you coming or not?" the doctor asked impatiently.
    She turned back toward the doctor, and followed Sage, who had started to follow the doctor down the hallway to  Ryo’s hospital room.  Cye walked beside Cora, and Rowen and Kento followed.
    The doctor took what seemed the long way, turning here and there, right left, left again, then right, down this hall, up that one, through this room.  Finally after walking through the labyrinth of hallways, the doctor came to stop outside of a room where the lights were off and was dimly lit by the small amount of natural light shining through the curtains.
    "Now, not too many of you at a time, don’t take too long, and when you are done, go down that hallway and take a left, that will take you back to the waiting room," he instructed.
    "If you had taken us that way we would have had more time," Kento commented.
    The doctor stiffened and got a slightly haughty and annoyed expression on his face, then he turned on his heel, and walked away.
    Cora watched him go, her eyes slightly narrowed from resentment.  What had they done to deserve to be treated like this?  This was a hospital for God’s sake; they couldn’t show some compassion because those that they cared about were in pain?  She was sickened at the thought.  Then she turned to the others.
    "Go ahead, I can wait," she said to them.
    The Ronins exchanged glances, and then nodded.
    "Kento and I will go in," Cye said, and then he and Kento entered the room.
    Sage took the chair across the hall, and Rowen leaned against the wall next to the door.  Cora dropped her eyes to the ground, fiddling with her necklace and thinking.  Then she turned her back and leaned against the wall, hands covering her face, she slid down to the floor.  A few minutes later, Cye and Kento exited the room.
    "How is he?" Sage asked.
    Cora looked up.
    Kento shook his head.  "He looks terrible, I just can’t believe…." He trailed off.
    Cye had his hands in his pockets and was staring at the floor, a sorrowful expression on his face.  Cora saw his sorrow and got up and gave him a hug for comfort.  Cye sadly hugged her back.  He could feel tears coming to his eyes, but he blinked them away.  Sage concentrated on a floor tile while his mind wandered off somewhere.  Rowen had a lost expression on his face.
    Cora let go of Cye and then turned toward Rowen and Sage.  "Rowen, Sage."
    They looked up at her.
    Cora sighed slowly, closing her eyes, then opening them, and dropped her gaze to the floor.  "Go on, go in."
    Simultaneously they stood and walked to the door, Rowen went in first, and then Sage.
    Cora closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  Kento put a hand on her shoulder.  Cora looked up, and then gave him a hug, hoping that this problem would fix itself soon, and this pain would go away.  After a few moments, she began to pace like a caged animal.  Cora needed something to do; she couldn’t just sit.  She was too restless, and trying to fight the anxiety and anxiousness that was trying to overcome her sense of stability.  More and more frustrated she became.  She felt like punching a wall.  Suddenly she felt like getting rid of all this extra energy that was coming from her anger and anxiety.
    About two seconds later, Rowen came out of the room quickly.  His eyes were tightly shut and his eyebrows were furrowed together.  His fists were clenched so tightly the knuckles were turning white.  It was almost as if he refused to accept the truth.  Cora went over and touched his arm.  Rowen opened his eyes slowly and blinked once, one silent tear trickled down his cheek.  He made no move to wipe it away.  Cora looked at him calmly, and then hugged his arm.  He lowered his head, staring at the floor, another silent tear fell from his cheek, and she hugged his arm tighter.
    Sage came out another minute later slowly.  When he opened his lavender eyes they were filled with overwhelming sadness.   Cora went to him and he hugged her tightly.  She was scared, though it hardly showed on her face.
    "Is he really that bad?" she whispered.
    Sage just closed his eyes and lowered his head.  Cora could feel the beginning of more tears in her eyes.
    "Go in Cora, talk to him, even if he can’t hear you, it’ll make you feel better…" he trailed off.
    Cora sniffed and looked around at all of them, then silently opened the door, and let it fall noiselessly shut behind her.
    There was the gentle hum of the respirator machine, and the soft beat of the beep from the machine.  Most of the lights were off.  Soft sunlight was struggling to get in through the curtains of the windows casting a soft golden glow about the room.  The tears pushed harder as she saw Ryo lying on the hospital bed.  His deep black hair was a dark contrast to the white sheets.  His normally tanned skin was almost as white as the sheets themselves.  There was a bandage around his head, which was spotted with small dots of scarlet blood.  There were scratches all up and down his arms.  There was one scratch that started a centimeter away from the corner of his left eye that went down to the side of his chin.
    Cora clenched her left fist, since her other arm was causing her pain already.  She walked to the window and opened the curtains.
    "You always did love the sunlight," she said, almost to herself.
    She looked out the window.  There was nothing interesting to look at, except the view of the hospital parking lot.  Cora walked slowly over to the chair next to the bed.  She touched his hand; it was cold.  She held it, hoping that it would bring some comfort.
    "You’ll be okay, I know you will…you’re strong…you won’t…leave…us…" Cora stuttered through her tears, "p-please…you…can’t…leave us…you can’t leave them, the others, your friends…please don’t leave…please…" she fell to her knees on the floor and cried on the bedside, "no Ryo…don’t leave…don’t die…don’t die…"
    Someone put a hand on her shoulder.  Cora turned her head and blinked through her tears to see who it was.  Cye was standing behind her, along with the others.  She slowly stood, turning as she did so.  Cye pulled her into a hug.  Cora grasped him with her left arm, and cried onto his shoulder.  He held her for a couple minutes before pulling her away and drying her tears.  She sniffed, and looked over her shoulder at Ryo’s still form.  She turned back and hung her head with grief.  Sage put a hand on her shoulder.
    "Cora, we have to leave now," he said quietly.
    "But…" she started.  Sage and Cye gently guided her toward the doorway.  At the door she hesitated, and glanced back over her shoulder.  "Ryo…" she whispered, and then went back to the waiting room with the others.  Their eyes wet with tears.
    Terra got up and went to them as soon as she saw them, with Mia not too far behind.
    "Cora?" she asked, "what’s wrong?"
    Cora grasped her right shoulder and looked at the ground, her eyes staring off into space, and said nothing.
    Terra looked at her younger sister with concern, and looked around at the other four as well.  None of them would meet anyone’s gaze.  Silent tears sparkled in their eyes.
    A nurse paused by them to tell them that visiting hours were over and that they would please leave so that the doctors could get on with their work.  Terra had arranged for the hospital to call them should Ryo’s condition change.  Cora only nodded her thanks to her sister.  Terra offered to drive one of the Ronins back to their home in her car.  Cye went with Cora and Terra and the rest went with Mia.  Cora fell asleep on Cye’s shoulder on the way there.  When they arrived Cye carried her inside and up to her room for her to sleep.  The rest of the Ronins were tired and had gone to sleep as well.  Mia and Terra talked for a while.  Terra said that the hospital would call should anything happen – for better or for worse – and that she would call them right away after she found out the news.  Mia had offered for Terra to stay, but Terra had to get home to her daughter.

~*~

    Ring……Ring……Ring……
    It was 3AM when the phone rang.  Mia dragged herself out of bed to answer it.
    "Hello?" she asked.
    "Mia?" a voice questioned.
    "Yes, who’s speaking?"
    "This is Terra…" she sounded serious.
    "Terra…what’s wrong…oh no…don’t…oh my god…" Mia’s mind started flooding with horrible thoughts.
    "Mia…just calm down please, could you bring everyone back down to the hospital please?  I know it’s early, but it’s important, Ryo’s life depends on it…please."
    "I understand," she whispered, and then hung up the phone.  Noiselessly she went and changed into more comfortable and presentable clothes, and went to wake the Ronins.  She first went to wake Sage.  Even in the pale silvery moonlight she could make out a golden mop of hair on the pillow.  She went quietly to the bedside and gently shook his shoulder.
    "Sage…come on, you have to wake up now.  I know it’s early, but it’s important…"
    Sage squinted his eye slightly and then opened it and looked at the clock.  "But it’s three in the morning…"
    "Sage we…" she paused, "we have to go to the hospital, hurry up, I’ll wake Kento and Cye if you can get Rowen."
    At this Sage’s eyes flashed open.  Mia left the room.  He changed quickly and went to get Rowen.
    Mia quietly opened the door to Cye’s room.  She laid a hand on his shoulder.
    "Cye."
    He woke up instantly.  "What’s wrong Mia?"
    Mia sighed as she closed her eyes, and then opened them again.  "I’ll explain after we have everyone, don’t wake Cora yet though.  Get Kento up first."
    Cye nodded silently and Mia left.  He already had an idea what was up, and hoped to god that he was wrong.  He prodded Kento awake, and they all met down by the front door.  Rowen should have looked like he was sleeping on his feet, but he was just as awake as the rest of them.  He probably couldn’t sleep.
    "We’re going back to the hospital," Mia stated.
    "Is Ryo okay?" Kento asked worriedly.
    "I don’t know Kento, Terra didn’t say, she just requested that we go down there.  Someone has to go get Cora.  You don’t have to wake her, just bring her down to the car and we can wake her up when we get there, I don’t want her to get too hysterical about anything, or get her hopes up, which would be worse than anything if…" she let the sentence hang.
    "I’ll go get her," Rowen volunteered, and then left to do so.  The rest of them got in the car and waited.
    Rowen walked slowly up to Cora’s room.  His head was spinning, his mind was screaming for some kind of organization from the chaos that his thoughts were creating.  Was Ryo okay?  What had happened?  What was going to happen?  What could he do?  Rowen shook his head to try and clear it.  He reached the top of the stairs and walked down the hallway to the last room on the right.  Quietly he opened it and stepped inside.  Cora was sleeping on her side, dried tears showed on her face illuminated by the moonlight.  Her blonde hair spilled down her back and her bangs fell in her face.  Rowen gently picked her up.  She moaned slightly, but did not wake up.  He carried her carefully down the stairs and out to the car.  He was still holding her when he got in, and continued to do so on the way down to the hospital.
    When they got to the hospital, she was still sleeping.  Kento took her from Rowen and they went up to the hospital waiting room where Terra had said she’d meet them.  Terra ran to them as soon as she saw them.  Her eyes were bloodshot and red around the edges.  It looked like she hadn’t gotten any sleep.
    "Thank god you’re here," she said, her voice seemed like it was wavering.  She saw Cora still asleep.  "She’s okay isn’t she?"
    Kento nodded.  "She’s fine, we just didn’t wake her to bring her down here, we’ll wake her in a minute."
    "That was a good idea," Terra said quietly.
    "Terra, what’s the news about Ryo?" Cye asked.
    "Is he all right?" Sage inquired.
    "What happened?" Mia questioned.
    Terra closed her eyes and nodded as she put her hand to her head out of stress.  "I’ll explain everything in a moment, could you wake Cora?  It’ll be easier to settle her down if I explain it to you all at once."
    Mia and the Ronins exchanged a combination of worried and confused glances.  Kento put Cora down in a chair gently, and then proceeded to calmly awaken her.
    "Cora…wake up…it’s important, you need to wake up…" he said, gently shaking her shoulder.
    Cora moved her arm up to her eyes and rubbed them, blinking them open.  She looked up at Kento, and then at her surroundings and panicked.
    "Wh-where am I?  Kento?  Guys?  What’s going on?" she asked slightly alarmed.
    "Cora, you’re at the hospital," Terra told her younger sister.
    Cora’s eyes flickered and she blinked twice rapidly.  "Terra…what…what happened…is Ryo okay?  What happened?  Tell me!  Please!" she pleaded.
    "Cora, calm down…" Terra started.
    "HOW CAN I CALM DOWN?!  You won’t even tell me what’s wrong!!!"  Cora screamed at her sister.
    A hush fell over the waiting area as people in the near vicinity of Cora’s voice stopped what they were doing and looked in her direction.
    Terra, Mia, Kento, Cye, Sage, and Rowen all looked back at the other people, who went back to doing what they had been doing about two seconds later.  Terra grabbed hold of her sister’s shoulders.
    "Listen to me Cora, I need you to calm down.  This will be easier for everyone if you just calm down," she said quietly but forcefully.
    Cora loosened her tense shoulders, making an effort to calm herself, and lowered her head.  "I understand."
    Terra sighed.  "Would you all please…take a seat…"
    Everyone now had a horrible feeling of foreboding, and none of them liked it, they all sat and waited for the news.
    Terra took a deep breath and then slowly let it out.
    "This is what the doctor told me when I arrived:  Ryo’s condition…has taken a turn for the worse…"
    Cora felt her heart go up to her throat, threatening to choke her, her eyes watered, her tears already starting to form at the corners of her eyes.
    "The doctor said that…" Terra choked, "that he has gone literally brain dead, and the only way that he is being kept alive is by life support.  He will never wake up, his heart doesn’t even beat on it’s own anymore, it’s just the machine keeping the blood pumping through his veins and oxygen going into his lungs…." By this time, her voice was cracking and tears were rolling down her cheeks.
    Everyone was silent for a moment…the shock was so great.
    Terra regained most of her composure.  "They said that they usually leave it up to the family to decide whether or not to take someone off life support.  In Ryo’s case, he doesn’t have any immediate family, so they’re letting you decide, and if they don’t get an answer within the next 24 hours, they decide."  Now the tears started flowing again on her face.  She had known Ryo as well, and he had been a friend to her, but Terra knew that her pain was nothing compared to what the other Ronins and Cora were feeling, even how Mia would feel.
     We…we have to decide whether or not to end his life?  Ryo…no…he can’t possibly…NO!!!! Cora’s body became wracked with sobs of sorrow as the reality of Ryo’s fate set in.  Ryo was going to die.  She knew that it wasn’t really worth anything to keep him on the life support, because for one thing, it would cost too much money to prolong it, and he would never move from the hospital bed.  Never open his eyes again.  Never.
    There were tears going down everyone’s faces.  None of them could hold it back.  None of them wanted to.  They knew that Ryo would be leaving them.  Nothing could stop that.  You can’t keep a person on life support forever.  Everyone eventually dies, but why did Ryo have to die so soon?
    It’s just not fair, Mia thought, after everything he did for the world, and he has to die so soon…it’s not fair…
    Tears were slipping down from Rowen’s eyes.  He didn’t want it to be real.  He prayed that it was just a dream, even though he knew that this was reality.  A reality… that bit hard and cold.
    Sage wiped his eyes.  The greatest sorrow was knowing that there wasn’t anything that they could do to help Ryo.  He knew that there wasn’t anything that they could do, and wished that he could change it.
    There were no words to describe the expression on Cye’s face as the tears trickled down.  He didn’t know what to think.  Ryo…he was gone.  He had pulled them all through the long and terrible fight with Tulpa, and this was how the world thanked him.
    Kento slammed his fist into the floor next to where he was sitting.
    "Damn the world!"  He cried.
    Terra wiped her eyes.  She had had her time to cry already.
    "Y-you must decide soon.  I’ll take you to his room."
    Mia stood, wiping her eyes with the back of her shirtsleeve.  Cye stood slowly, then Kento, with his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles were going white.  Rowen kept a far off look in his eyes.  Sage put a hand on Cora’s shoulder.  Cora simply blinked and more tears fell.
    "Come on Cora-kay," he said, his voice wavering.
    Sniffing, Cora pushed herself out of the chair.  Sage hugged her, and then they all followed Terra to Ryo’s room. There was a doctor outside the door, looking over some forms and papers.  It was not the same doctor as before, the one who had been so rude earlier; this doctor was instead a woman.  She looked in their direction as they approached.  She smiled a soft smile, knowing that this was hard on all of them.
    "I’m Doctor O’Lera, I was the doctor originally put in charge of Ryo, but I was on an emergency call when you were here earlier and understand that the doctor on duty was disrespectful to you.  I apologize, that was uncalled for of him," she stopped and looked at the group assembled in front of her.  "I know that this must be very hard on all of you.  Deciding your friend’s fate.  It shouldn’t be anyone’s decision, but if you decide not to give an answer, the hospital will decide, and I am sorry to say, that 9 out of 10 times, they take a person off of life support, especially for a case such as Ryo."
    Cora looked at the doctor.  She could tell that she was trying to be as sympathetic as she could, and was only telling them as it was, and that it was up to them to decide…

~*~

    They all stood in the room, looking at Ryo’s still form.  The only noise was the occasional sniff, and the beep of the life support machine.  Doctor O’Lera was getting ready to turn the machine off.  They all knew that Ryo wouldn’t want to be kept on a life support machine.  Each of them had held his hand for a second; they wanted him to know that he wasn’t alone.  Cora was sure that even if he didn’t know that they were there, his spirit, his soul, did.  They held each other’s hand.  Cora held Terra and Sage’s hands tightly.
    "Are you ready?" O’Lera asked quietly.
    Cora looked at the Ronins.  Their glances told her yes.  Cora nodded.
    "Yes," Terra said for them.
    Doctor O’Lera gently turned off the machine with a soft click.  There were two more beeps, and then, just a monotone note.
    Once again, the tears came, only more quickly, and fell more freely.  Nothing would stop the sorrow, the pain.
    We’ll never forget you… Never.
 

Epilogue

    A week later, they had a small funeral for Ryo.  Sage, Kento, Cye, and Rowen’s parents came, as did Terra.  The funeral was held down at the lake.  At the end of the service, Ryo’s ashes were sprinkled over the lake, and scarlet rose petals were thrown in as a memorial as well.  A small polished marble headstone was placed near the lake.