Attack From the Shadows Chapter 1, a ronin warriors fanfic

Attack From the Shadows

Chapter One

Disclaimer: Uh, yeah, so I don't own the Ronin Warriors, but if you don't recognize the character they're mine so ask permission if you want to use them. Thanks:)

A young man sat bound to a chair by his ankles, wrists, elbows, torso, and neck. He was badly injured with a blood stain growing ever larger on his torn, green kimono from a stab through his shoulder and other wounds on his body. He just sat on the brink of unconsciousness. He was beginning to pass out when the room he was in began to fill with smoke and became increasingly hot.

"Damnit," he thought to himself, "How did it ever come to this? I thought I could handle this on my own…" He began to struggle against his bonds weakly as the room began to fill with tongues of flame that were crawling towards his location. He heard the door get broken down, but by that time he was incoherant and as he felt himself cut free from his bonds, he passed into total darkness.

This darkness gave him no peace however. He was continually plagued by the faces of close friends accompanied by their voices. "Why did you do it?..." one asked while another said, "Come back to us…" and yet another asked, "Who did this to you?" Their remarks were accentuated by stabs of pain throughout his entire body. He almost wished he would just die to end the pain, but, no, he had too much to live for to die now.

Finally, the darkness ended. He found himself standing in the opening of a cave, looking at a forest filled with light and life. "Do you wish to live?" a raspy, old voice croaked from his left side. The question was repeated all around and inside of him in familiar voices and increasing volume until he threw his hands over his ears, closed his eyes, and knelt defensively. The voices suddenly stopped and the yound man looked up to see a familiar figure approaching. He asked curiously, "Ancient, what are you doing in my mind?"

"I am here to ask you a question, Sage," the Ancient answered in his calm voice and continued, "Do you desire to continue living or to pass into the world beyond?"

sat bound to a chair by his ankles, wrists, elbows, torso, and neck. He was badly injured with a blood stain growing ever larger on his torn, green kimono from a stab through his shoulder and other wounds on his body. He just sat on the brink of unconsciousness. He was beginning to pass out when the room he was in began to fill with smoke and became increasingly hot.

"I am here to ask you a question, Sage," the Ancient answered in his calm voice and continued, "Do you desire to continue living or to pass into the world beyond?"

"I have too much to live for to stop living now, Ancient," Sage answered without a pause.

"To live you must pass through the cave at your back. The going will be treacherous but your abilities will guide you," the Ancient explained. "Listen to the voices of your true friends, they will guide you." With that the Ancient faded from sight, leaving Sage alone with his thoughts.

Why was this happening to him? He had just been trying to help one of his best friends…

With his thoughts swirling, he turned and walked determinedly into the cave and was once again swamped by darkness.

He walked forward slowly to give his eyes time to adjust, but soon realized there was no light for his eyes to adjust to. He continued to walk forward when he began to hear the soft, gentle voice with a slight English accent that belonged to his friend Cye.

"Hey, Sage. Just thought I'd check to see how you were doing……Not that much has changed. You haven't moved, not a twitch, not even blinked a bloody eye." Cye's voice was upset, but while he was talking Sage could see where he was going and began running. "The doctors say that you probably can't hear me, but I don't believe that. You always have listened to me before." Sage heard a lengthy pause where it seemed that Cye had just run out of things to say, or his sentiments were too difficult to express verbally, but Sage continued to sprint through the caves. "We all miss you Sage, come back soon…Anyway, I'm cooking tonight so I'd better go before Rowan blows up the kitchen again…I'll come back soon. See ya." With that Cye stopped talking and Sage saw he had reached a fork in the road. He could go no further without light.

He sat on the ground and began to meditate to pass the time. He cleared his mind of all thoughts and questions and started to focus on healing himself. After what seemed only like a few minutes, he opened his eyes and began running through the lit tunnel as he heard the booming, full voice of Kento, now hushed and broken with emotion.

"Hey Sage. Man, I hate seeing you like this. You're just laying there, not moving at all. I mean, you kinda do that when you're meditating, but I know you can stop that whenever you want. You can't snap out of this as easily." Here Kento's voice stopped for a moment and Sage felt tears running down his cheeks. "I'm trying Kento, I'm trying" was running through his thoughts. He felt something grab his hand gently and was pulled even faster through the tunnel. "Your hand is so cold. There's nothing of your usual energy or warmth. Though, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were sleeping…" Kento's voice broke and he lost complete control of his emotions and began talking angrily. "Why, Sage? Why were you at that warehouse by yourself? Why were you hurt so badly that you slipped into a coma? Why am I asking you these questions? It's not like you're gonna answer them. Can you even hear me, Sage? What's the point…"

The lights went out once again. Sage found himself wiping his eyes. "I'm trying, Kento," he found himself saying, his voice echoing off the walls of the cave, "I'm trying to come home…"

He once again began to meditate, recognizing the futility of trying to continue his jouney while his friends were not talking to him. He just sat there until he felt someone grab his hand and he stood as he began to hear another friend's voice, this time it was Rowan's.

"Hey, Sage. It's been awhile. Sorry I haven't been here sooner, I've been helping your grandfather at the dojo. Let me tell you, your students and grandfather are ready for you to come back. I can't wait either. I'm not that great at kendo, let alone helping to teach it…Everyone else is ready for you to come back too. This has been really hard on Ryo especially and no one knows how to help him…Anyway, the doctors say you're healing quickly. No surprises there. You're probably helping that along knowing your healing abilities. You're starting to look more like yourself again…You're starting to look more like yourself again, kind of. Your hair is starting to grow back again. Oh! You probably don't know about that, do you? They had to cut your hair really short to make it easier to hook you up to an EEG to monitor your brain activity. The good thing is that at times when one of us Ronins are here, you show brain activity. Maybe one of these days you'll wake up for us…" With that Sage felt his hand placed gently back down and the lights dimmed. He just kept running as he heard Rowan add, "Goodbye Sage," and the lights went out completely leaving Sage with his thoughts about what Rowan had told him.

He once again sat on the ground, this time to think not meditate. He pulled his knees to his chest, wrapped his arms around his legs, and placed his chin upon his knees. They had cut his hair! "I guess it will eventually grow back…But they cut my hair!" But what hit him hardest was Ryo. Ryo had a habit of feeling guilty for things that weren't under his control. This was probably one of those times, but in a round about way, this was Ryo's fault.

It had all started a week ago (counting from then until when he got hurt), when a guy named Kyle had started school at Hana High, the same high school Sage and his friends attended. Ryo had been put in charge of catching Kyle up in Biology by the teacher, Mr. Okashi. After a couple 'study' sessions with Kyle, Ryo had started acting weird, so Sage joined in on a session to see what had been happening. During the middle of the session, Ryo went into a sort of trance and Kyle's protruded menacingly into Sage's mind. "Why do you insist on interrupting me?"

Sage replied in the same manner cooly, "To stop you from hurting my friend."

Kyle locked eyes with Sage, saying into his mind, "If you want to stop me so badly, you and Ryo meet me at the abandoned meat warehouse tonight at 7:00 Bring your power orbs." With that Kyle faded from view and Ryo woke from his trance.

"Where'd Kyle go?" Ryo questioned, not remembering anything that had just happened.

"He had something important he had to do," Sage replied cooly thinking quickly, "He gave me an address we could go to at 7 to make it up."

"Sweet! Let's go home then!" The two got up and went home.

Sage's thoughts were interrupted by someone grabbing his hand. He opened his eyes to see a light at the end of the tunnel and started towards it while he began to hear Ryo's voice.

"Man Sage…I'm so sorry I'm so sorry this all happened. I feel so guilty about this. I don't even know why…I just keep having these dreams where we are fighting each other and I cause you all these injuries because you won't fight me…But I don't remember that happening for real. In fact, I don't remember much from that week except saving you from the fire…" Here Ryo's voice stopped for a moment and Sage ran into the light.

He blinked a few times to clear his vision and found himself looking at Ryo. "Ry…Ryo…" he managed to whisper, finding his throat dry, and feeling very weak.

"Sage! You're awake!"

Sage could feel himself tiring quickly so he squeezed Ryo's hand as much as possible and whispered, "This isn't…your fault Ryo." At this point he felt himself passing out once again, but he managed to whisper, "Blame…Ky…le…." Before going under.

He immediately began to dream. He found himself once again in the abandoned meat warehouse in his subarmor preparing to fight Kyle. "You'll never win Kyle!"

"I won't have to, Halo, Wildfire will win for me," he said menacingly. He then snapped his fingers and Ryo appeared next to him wearing the Armor of Wildfire. "Now, Halo, how will it feel to be defeated by your friend?"

"He will not best me…" Sage concentrated and was once more wearing the green and black kimono he wore while at his grandfather's dojo, "because I refuse to fight him. You are my only enemy here, Kyle, I will not fight my friend."

Kyle shrugged, carelessly saying, "Have it your way, Halo." He then maliciously ordered, "Kill him."

Ryo immediately sprang into action, attacking viciously with both his katanas. His eyes were glazed and unfocused, the tell-tale signs of a magic spell. Sage did his best to avoid the attacks, and though he avoided most of them, he still obtained multiple injuries.

"Ryo! Listen to me! You've got to snap out of this! I'm not the enemy, I'm your friend!" Sage yelled to Ryo as he was dodging the flashing swords. A burning heat scorched his forehead as Ryo's swords began to smoke with their hidden power, and blood ran freely down his face. "Damnit Ryo! You've got to stop this! I won't fight you, but I need your help to fight Kyle." Sage lost his footing for a moment and Ryo took the opening to plunge one of his katana through Sage's right shoulder, causing him to yell in agony. Ryo removed the sword from Sage and he fell forward onto him as the Armor of Wildfire disappeared and Ryo's eyes cleared.

"Oh my God! Sage! What have I done?!?" He gently laid Sage on the floor face up and turned to find Kyle laughing at him. "You'll pay for this, bastard," he snarled, finding an outlet for his rage.

"Why will I pay Wildfire? You're the one who did this..."he let his voice trail off for a moment then continued, "I wanted you to see what you had done. You ARE still under my spell afterall." He held out his hand, palm extended towards Ryo with fingers extended. Ryo's eyes once again glazed over, proving he was still under Kyle's spell. "Now, Wildfire, drag him over, and tie him to this chair. Let's have some fun with him before I kill him."

Ryo drug Sage by his feet across the floor leaving a smear of blood trailing behind. This trip sent Sage spinning into a world of bright lights and birds as pain rushed through his body. As he was roughly manhandled into the chair he lost consciousness.

Kyle woke him by slapping him across the face with the back of his hand hard enough that Sage tasted the coppery tang of his own blood. "Good morning, Halo!" Kyle said cheerily with a smile on his face. "Are you ready for some fun before you die?" As Sage slowly began to sink back into unconsciousness, he heard Kyle say joyfully, "Destru" and his world shattered. It felt like red hot needles were being shoved under his nails, like he was being skinned, and like he was being branded at the same time. Pain had taken on a new meaning in his life. Suddenly the pain stopped and he was wracked with uncontrollable trembling. He vaguely heard Kyle instruct Ryo downstairs and heard a mention of starting a fire.

He woke to find himself strapped to a bed with shadows falling across his body. He began struggling with the straps holding him down as best he could in his weakened state. While struggling, he heard a male voice say, "Quickly, sedate him." Sage felt a needle inserted into his arm followed by a rush of new fluid through his veins. He began to calm down at once and in a few moments he fell into a forced sleep.