RW: Nothing Can Last Forever
Chapter 1
Note: This is after OAV 3 and does not have a happy ending. Mecha familiarity is recommended.
RONIN WARRIORS DO NOT BELONG TO ME. THEY BELONG TO NAGOYA AND SUNRISE INC.
* * *
When we got our armor the first time, we didn't know what we were doing.
We were making sacrifices along the way,
But we didn't know that. When Talpa invaded our world,
It was a battle and a war that we would never forget.
Close friends of ours died in that epic battle and we remember them to this day.
But we only thought that the battles could only be effective on us, not the real world.
It was then when the second time Talpa came back, he breached the shield and almost took over the real world.
But as everyone says, we defeated Talpa.
We never knew that we were this close to losing the city.
This close.
Little did we know that after the battle against Talpa, the forces of evil would touch the real world again.
This time, there is no mercy,
No almost,
No hope,
For every life on this planet will be affected by the darkness.
Because our time of passing is near,
And there is no one to stop it once we enter the event horizon.
* * *
"My lord," Sorceress Phoenix said in to the darkness, "Tolbleto Dimension has been eliminated."
"Good, my young apprentice," an icy voice said to her in the echoing room. "I have an urgent mission for you. One that cannot be delayed." A bright portal opened up and the red-gold-haired sorceress could see a blue-green-white world surrounded by the blanket of dark, unforgiving space.
"But, my lord, I've already destroyed the Earth Dimension!" she exclaimed, her blue-green eyes flashing in surprise.
"This is a new Earth Dimension that rose up after the last one was destroyed," the voice told her. "They have five protectors of the planet, unlike the other dimension that had many."
"Do these five protectors use the earthen machines called Mecha?" she asked.
"No, these are five warriors that use special mystical armors, much like magic. They are called Ronin Warriors," the voice said.
"I understand my lord; I will hunt them down and destroy them, then destroy their world," Sorceress Phoenix cut in, knowing the basic objectives.
"Yes, but beware, this world is not easy to conquer," the voice cautioned.
"I will take caution, but if things down there are rough, can I count on you to help me?" she asked.
"Yes, I will help you to the fullest of my extent, my apprentice."
"Thank you," she bowed and flashed out.
* * *
"What was the math homework last night?" Kento asked.
"Page 114, examples 1-50 even," Rowen answered.
"Thanks, man, your the greatest," Kento said and flipped opened a book and began working on the problems.
"Just let me eat in peace," Rowen said and took a bite out of his food.
"Has anyone seen Ryo?" Sage asked from across the table.
"Nmmp," Kento said as he continued to eat his lunch while working on his homework. A few minutes later he slammed the book closed and said, "Done!"
"That fast, Kento? It took me an hour and a half to finish all the problems!" Rowen said.
"It's called cheat sheet," Kento said, holding up a paper that wasn't his.
"Hey! That's my homework!" Sage exclaimed. He reached over the table and snatched it away from Kento.
"Lunch is almost over," Rowen told them.
"But I've only eaten half of my lunch!" Kento complained.
"That's what you get for not completing your homework," Sage said.
"Where is Ryo?" Rowen wondered out loud.
"I don't know, but I'm getting out of here before the Freshmen start showing up around the halls," Sage said.
"Okay, see you after school!" Rowen said. They gathered up their books and went their separate ways.
* * *
"Hi, I'm the exchange student from Switzerland," Pyrene Cavanaugh said to a black-haired-blue-eyed-eighteen-year-old.
"Oh, so you're the exchange student that the principal said for me to give a tour," the eighteen-year-old said.
"What's your name?" Pyrene asked.
"Oh, I'm Ryo Sanada," the eighteen-year-old told her. "What's yours?"
"I'm Pyrene Cavanaugh," Pyrene said. Mentally she added, also known as Sorceress Phoenix, your worst nightmare in a few days, give or take.
"All right, let's go this way," he started to walk towards the gym with Pyrene following him.
* * *
"Mia, are you ready?" Cye asked at the doorway to Mia's lecture room in the college.
"Almost, just have to file the papers from last class's lecture," she said. She grabbed some papers off of her desk and put them in a file cabinet. "Okay, lets get going," she said.
"So how was your day?" Cye asked as they walked quickly to the front entrance.
"Not really good. I had the whole lecture planned out but some one took some parts of the plan away. How was yours?" she said.
"Same as always," Cye replied.
"That bad, huh?"
"Not really. I just nearly fell asleep during one of the biology lectures. The professor kept droning on and on about the aspects and facts of a starfish," Cye told her.
Mia laughed. "Hey! There they are!" she pointed to four boys standing around the front entrance of the university.
"Hey Kento!" Cye shouted. They turned around and waved at the two friends coming down the steps.
"How was your day?" Mia asked them when they got to where the group was.
"We got a new exchange student from Switzerland," Ryo said.
"What's his name?" Cye asked.
"Her name is Pyrene Cavanaugh," Kento said.
"Oh. Who is hosting her?" Mia asked.
"She didn't tell me when I took her on a tour. She seemed very distant," Ryo said.
"Hmm, maybe I could talk to her about the mythology and ancient archives of Switzerland," Mia said. They started to walk towards their homes, with the exception of Cye who was living in the dorm.
* * *
"My lord, I have been sent to a city called Tokyo, in a country called Japan. It seems that this new Earth Dimension has no large form of government uniting them," she said into the portal. She was in a forest where she hid and carried out her plans. The real Pyrene Cavanaugh was tied to a tree with the sharp end of a really large icicle protruding through her midsection.
"I told you it was different. What else have you found out?" her master asked.
"There are lots of governments and leaders in this dimension and they also have something called a United Nations. Perhaps they are trying to rebuild the old Earth Dimension," she told her master.
"Destroy the main vital cities to these nations and chaos will ensue. Then you can start eliminating the world."
"My lord, may I have permission to destroy this city of Tokyo first because the humans there are very detestable to me. They are all good and friendly it makes me incredibly sick!" she cried out.
"Yes, you have my permission, but I advise you. Once you destroy the city, all of this Dimension will be alerted to the destruction. They will send in whatever they have if you are too be seen, so take caution," the master said.
"Yes, my lord, thank you," she replied and closed the portal and began to make plans. She waltzed over to the lifeless body tied to the tree and said, "Well now, since you are victim number one, Tokyo is victim number two and your country of Switzerland will be victim of number three." She grinned, her plan already formulating on its own.
* * *
"Class, I have just received news from an unknown source about an exchange student," Instructor Yamaguchi said to her class. The door to the classroom opened and four police officers walked in. The class burst into a whispered frenzy. The only exchange student they had was Pyrene.
In that instant when the police entered the classroom which housed Instructor Yamaguchi, Pyrene and the class, Pyrene knew her cover had been blown. Immediately, her red-gold hair flared up and her eyes became black orbs. The students screamed out in terror and scattered away from her.
"Who are you, really?" Instructor Yamaguchi said.
"You could say that I'm a terrorist, bomber, insane psycho, or the four horsemen of apocalypse, but I'm none of those," she said, her sorceress voice taking over. "I'm a sorceress sent by my master to destroy all living things!" Phoenix said.
"Ma'am, calm down," one of the officers approached her. She built up an energy surge and threw the blue surge at the officer, killing him instantly. His dead body impacted against the wall and went through it. It sailed through the sky, leaving a massive trail of blood on the pavement below. She then killed the other three officers, their bodies twitching and breaking off into separate pieces.
"Make a call over the intercom and have everyone gathered in the gym or else your students die," she threatened. To go with that threat, she built up a massive energy plasma in her hands and aimed at a group of students huddled behind a bookcase.
"A…att…attention please!" the instructor nervously said over the intercom which was located in her room, "would everyone please report to the gym for a special announcement!"
"Very good, you will last a few more minutes. But should you and your students tell anyone about my little demonstration, you will be dead, like the officers," Phoenix purred. "Now go to the gym like you said over the intercom." The students and instructor filled out into the halls and into the flooded crowd surging to the gym.
* * *
This doesn't feel right
," Ryo thought as he moved with the crowd to the gym. He spotted Sage and Rowen in the crowd and fought to move up and join them."Sage, Rowen," he called out.
"What, Ryo," Sage said without turning his head back.
"This doesn't feel right," Ryo said.
"Yeah, my kanji isn't glowing or am I getting any warning hunches," Rowen said.
"Where's Kento?" Ryo asked.
"He has gym this period so he's already there," Sage told him.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Ryo wondered out loud. The continued along with the surge of people until the entered the massive gym. When all the students were in the gym, the doors were shut on their own and locked.
"Welcome to Japan! Glad you can join us today!" a voice cried out. A spotlight was centered on the voice. "Will you be staying long?" Phoenix asked gleefully, "no, I think not."
"Just who the hell do you think you are?!" a voice cried out in the midst of silence.
"Good question. Who am I? Well, you can call me Pyrene Cavanaugh, but then, you'll be addressing to the dead one, so you can also call me Sorceress Phoenix," she laughed.
"Sorceress my ass!" the same student cried out.
"Well now, I see you need a little convincing. So, Instructor Yamaguchi, your precious life is up!" she said. She summoned a ball of energy and threw it at the instructor. The instructor was immediately turned to dust. There was also generalized screams everywhere then complete silence as Phoenix killed the faculty one by one, leaving them vaporized and shoes smoking.
When she had completed her rampage she asked, "Any last comments before total annihilation?"
"Yeah, go to hell!" a voice cried out. And four boys in sub-armor with the colors of red, green, orange, and dark blue leaped over the students and tackled the sorceress.
"I've already been there. And who might you be?" she asked, not worried about the four boys advancing to attack her.
"Oh, my God! They're the Ronin Warriors!" a student cried out.
"It was them all along!" another said.
"My Sagey-poo is a Ronin!" one of the freshmen girls cried.
"Yours?! He's mine!" a senior girl said.
"So, you are the defenders of the world," Phoenix observed, "but there are only four of you whereas there should be five of you." She narrowed her blue-green eyes and said, "Where is the other?"
There was a blinding flash emitting from the Ronins as they summoned their armors.
"Armor of Halo!"
"Armor of Hardrock!"
"Armor of Strata!"
"Armor of Wildfire!"
The flash lasted less than one second and the four Ronins were in their full armors. Phoenix smiled and threw four large balls of plasma magic all over the gym. She wanted to test out the power of her adversaries, knowing that they wouldn't let any harm come to the other humans. Just as she had predicted, the Ronins each went after a ball of plasma and intercepted it. Each was thrown back to the hard floor, making an impact. The students crowded around each of the Ronins, wondering and at awe, if they were all right.
Let your armor go
, Ryo communicated to them, via the psychic link they all had within their armors, let her think she has injured us enough.Sage willed his armor off, including his sub-armor. He was left in his school uniform, and crashed to the floor. As he skidded backwards, the wooden floor, which made an impact, let dozens of splintered wood rush up, stabbing into his back, drawing blood. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth against the immense pain.
"Sage are you all right?" one of the students asked. Sage knew that there were lots of people crowded around him. Go away, idiots. You'll get killed if you stay with me. Go away! he thought.
"I can see through your deceptions, Ronins. Your tricks will not fool me, so ta ta!" Phoenix said and levitated/flew to the ceiling and made a hole in it and shot to the sky. Rowen called back his armor and went after her. The others followed suit. They also heard exclamations and cheers from the students gathered.
"Where's the sorceress, Rowen?" Ryo called out when they got to the sky, encased in their little floating bubbles.
"Don't know. She just disappeared when I got here," Rowen said. He was the only one, since getting their new armors that didn't need a bubble to stay afloat, since his element was the sky.
"Looking for me?" a voice called out. Phoenix materialized in front of the gathered Ronins and flames emitted from her fingertips and spiraled towards them. They cleared out, except for Ryo, who was going to absorb the fire. Instead of absorbing it, the fire-magic ate away at Ryo's sleek armor. Ryo screamed as the acidic magic chewed towards his skin. He immediately flew out of harm's way. There were holes where patches of skin were missing as well as the armor.
"Fools!" Phoenix shouted. "You underestimate me and now your time has come!" The elements of the earth lanced out of her fingertips, intended for the Ronins. They tried their best to dodge and weave the deadly attacks but some hit their armors and began to eat away.
Suddenly there was a large explosion beneath them, as they saw their high school blow up. The force of the explosion sent them scattering all over the sky.
"NNNNOOOOO!" Sage cried as they felt the death of their school and classmates disintegrate under the violent onslaught. All their friends, gone, forever, and not a single chance for them to get away and save themselves.
"DAMN! You son of a… no, I take that back! You never had a mother. You were born a detestable-tube-testing-raised-inhuman thing!" Ryo shouted at her. He placed both swords end to end and yelled, "ARMOR OF WILDFIRE! FLARE UP NOW!" The bright energy surged towards the unprotected back of the sorceress, who was watching her created explosion. The energy sure-kill suddenly impacted a bluish sphereish shield and fanned out.
"Such petty attacks, Ronins. It's a wonder why my master cautioned me about your dimension," Phoenix said, letting a grin slip in. "Oh well, one down, millions more to go." She fired another plasma energy at the university, then flashed out.
"MIA!" Ryo cried, as the ball of energy flew towards the university. Using all his will, he raced across the sky with the other Ronins as they tried to catch up with the weapon of destruction. But it was too late. The energy impacted, creating a gigantic explosion. The explosion caused a cloud to form up into a mushroom with the condensed energy shooting upwards. The Ronins shielded their eyes against the bright light generated by the explosion and felt the death of many people.
"CYE! MIA!" Kento cried.
"That murderous bitch will pay!" Sage angrily said.
* * *
Cye felt an odd buzz inside of his head. He dismissed it as a headache from studying too much for the tests. The buzzing sound continued to grow louder and louder as the minutes passed. Finally Cye couldn't take it anymore and said, "Professor Hadaki?"
"Yes, Mr. Mouri?" the professor replied.
"Permission to be excused for a few minutes of fresh air?"
"Granted but come back quickly," he replied.
Cye burst out of the lecture hall and took a deep breath. The buzzing sound just only increased bit by bit. What's going on? he thought.
Suddenly, he felt his kanji burning like a hot coal on skin. He clutched his head in pain and fell to his knees. Squeezing his eyes shut and trying to suppress the pain lancing everywhere through him, he tried to figure out what had happen. When the pain lessened, Cye opened his eyes and took a look down the long hallway and out the window. He saw in the distance a large explosion and then the ground shook. He also saw a bright white light coming strait towards him.
* * *
"CYE! MIA! Where are you?!" Ryo shouted as they stumbled on the remains of the beautiful university. There was not one wall left standing and part of the foundation had been ripped off. The rubble around them was piled incredible high and there were pieces of bodies hanging around. They also saw dead bodies of students, teachers, instructors, and professors lying strewn about, as if some giant had picked up the earth and flipped it. Some had faces or other parts of their body ripped off and some were still bleeding.
"MIA!" Sage cried out.
"CYE! WHERE ARE YOU?" Rowen also said. They flipped some rocks away, which revealed more dead bodies and went in further.
Ryo flipped over a large slab of rock and immediately screamed, "NNNNNNOOOOOOO!"
The other Ronins alerted by Ryo's scream hurried over to see what was wrong. What they saw under the slab of rock was something they never wanted to see again.
Half of Mia's face was blown away and her blood created a puddle around her. She was also missing some parts of her body. The thing that most frightened them was the expression that Mia carried with her to her death. Her right eye was glazed, but wide with fear and her mouth was opened as if she was screaming at her last moments before her end.
The ground shook again violently again with the onslaught of attacks and explosions from the sorceress that was destroying the whole city, but Ryo didn't care. He hung his head down and with all of his strength, threw the slab across the sky. The slab of concrete impacted some many yards away, creating a giant dust cloud. He then knelt down next to the remains of what was once the person that he care most about and gently closed her eye and mouth. Ryo then started to shake violently and his tears came down quietly. The other Ronins didn't make a move to comfort him, but they knew he needed time alone.
Ryo stopped crying in a few minutes and slowly got up. He turned and faced his friends whose faces showed scores of cuts and bruises mixed with blood and tears. He knew that he didn't look good either but now wasn't the time to clean up.
Ryo took a deep breath and said in a deadly whisper, "From now until the end, we give her no mercy."
* * *
"The destruction of the first city is complete, my lord," Phoenix said into a communication portal. She was back in her hiding place in a forest. It had only taken her minutes to completely decimate the whole city of Tokyo.
"Did the other humans that reside here see you, my young sorceress?" her master, asked.
"No, they did not, but I'm sure they will respond very quickly. I also found the protectors of the dimension, but there were only four of them," she said.
"The fifth one was in the university that you destroyed, so he could be dead, but take caution because the fifth one may yet be alive," her master once again cautioned her.
"Yes, my lord, I understand. What target is next?" she asked.
"All the major cities of the world." The portal warped into a map of the world with red dots pinpointing the major cities of the world. "With these gone, as I said before, chaos will ensue and you then can take your leisurely time. The Ronin Warriors have felt just a bit of your power, yes?" the master said.
"Yes, and they are pathetic weaklings. They are no match for my full power!" she cried.
"Then you can finish them off at your leisure. Should you need help, I will be there."
"Thank you, my lord. This will be better than destroying the other dimensions that stand no chance. It's like a challenge to me, but one that the defenders of the dimension will not survive," she laughed.
* * *
Ryo carried Mia to a spot where there wasn't a lot of debris and set her gently down. Then, after finding a torn cloth, he placed it over her mangled head, so no one else saw the gore. He then went back to the remains of the university, where the others were, to see if they could find Cye. No one said a word as they lifted, flipped, and shuffled through the concrete and rocks.
Ryo didn't have any more tears left, whereas the others were silently mourning and letting their tears stream down. His heart had become a cold, diamond hard lump after seeing Mia. He could no longer feel the pain when he lifted the rocks, no longer had the person that he cared most of, no longer had a purpose in life other than to destroy the sorceress. Yes, that was his mission now.
"I think I've found him!" Rowen cried from Ryo's far left. They scrambled from where they were looking and went to where Rowen was.
"Help, I need help," Cye's barely audible voice came through a giant rock pile.
"Cye, can you move your legs?" Sage asked.
"No," he answered.
"Okay, we're going to lift this rock up and Kento will pull you out, got it," Ryo said.
"One…two…THREE!" Sage said. He, Ryo, and Rowen lifted the rock and Kento reached under and dragged Cye out. Cye screamed at the pain. The rock was dropped after he had been dragged out. He was in his sub-armor but it was pretty mangled and some of it was ripped off, along with his clothes and skin, leaving bloody patches.
"He's got some broken bones and probably some internal bleeding," Sage gave the prognosis after he checked his friend. "Stay in your sub-armor, it will hold as a cast to some of your broken bones."
"Is the bleeding bad?" Kento asked.
"I'm not sure," Sage answered. His armor began to glow green as he tried to heal Cye's injuries.
Some aircraft flew over the decimated city, causing the Ronins to look up. "Well, at least some of the survivors will have hope, if we find them," Rowen said.
Ryo laughed bitterly, "What hope is there? I mean, come on, we're fighting a damn near impossible enemy with incredibly strong powers that we are almost no match for. So how can you say we have hope when the destruction of a city takes place in less than five minutes and we can't stop it?!"
"Nothing's impossible Ryo," Sage said, his armor still pulsating with the healing power, "the world needs us. We are their last hope."
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Special thanks to Onyx who gave me her opinions on this chapter and to Shadow Chaser for telling me to send it to Onyx for her opinions and nagging me about the grammar. Thanks guys, without your opinions, this wouldn't have been an incredibly good chapter! Okay, now that that's over, I'm sorry if I was a little too sadistic, but the idea that nothing can survive forever just popped into my head, which is also the title. Flame me if you want but flames with swears go automatically to the trash bin. My e-mail is
x_winglover@hotmail.comChibi Shadow Chaser
