Ronin Warriors: Next Generation: Forever You Will Know Me

Ronin Warriors: Next Generation: Forever You Will Know Me

By: Shadow Chaser

Chapter 10

Kareyn crept along the edges of the wall, hoping that no soldier or warlord could see her as she made her way towards Rowen's confident area that Sanjuro had pointed out. Her armor made little creaks and squeaks as she moved stealthily towards the prison area.

"What's with the slow progress," Kayura's voice hissed into her ear, making her jump slightly in surprise. She turned around and glared at the last of the Ancient's clan.

"Shut up, will ya. You're gonna scare the willies out of me!" Kareyn hissed back slightly pissed at her. She continued and slowly opened the door to the prison where Rowen was held. It was dark in the surrounding area; the only light was illuminated into the pool. Kareyn stifled back a cry of horror as she saw the warrior of Strata suspended above the pool, hanging limply. Scars and dried blood caked his sub-armor, which gave off a faint dark blue glow.

She glanced behind her and faintly heard the hum of displeasure from Sanjuro. Creeping forward, she drew out her katana wary of any soldier or dark-warlord that wanted to ambush her. Seeing none, she sheathed her sword and put her hands together, forming a black sphere that levitated her. She flew up to his height and reached out to untie him from his bonds.

"Watch out Elements! The Nether spirits are still around!" she heard Kayura warn and a black tendril of lightning erupted from the pool and shot towards her.

Kareyn raised a hand and countered the black lightning with a blast of lightning from her palm. She smiled grimly as she heard the chains holding up Rowen snap apart and grunted with effort as she tried to hold him up while concentrating on her bubble. She landed on the ground and laid Rowen down onto the ground, slightly away from the pool.

"He looks bad, can your armor heal him?" Sanjuro asked, and Kareyn nodded, caressing a strand of blue hair that fell in the middle of his face, between his eyes. She closed her eyes and placed a hand underneath his head and one held onto his right hand. Her armor began to glow and pulsate a white-gray color while Rowen's sub-armor glowed brightly a deep blue color.

Lady Kayura and Sanjuro looked on as the wounds Rowen had began to seal together on their own and the scars flaked off to reveal healed skin. Kareyn sat back after a few moments exhausted from extending her healing powers.

"You okay, Elements?" Kayura asked, as Kareyn swayed when she stood up.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Kareyn replied, waving her off as she took out her katana and pointed it towards the Nether Pool. "Earth's Fury Attack!" she yelled and the pool was destroyed in a giant blast of energy, incinerating the water and Nether spirits.

"Kareyn!" Kayura and Sanjuro echoed out as she wavered in a step then fell onto her knees.

"I'll be fine!" Kareyn snarled, waving them back as she build up her strength, "just leave me alone for a few minutes." She glanced into the distance and saw a shimmering form hovering where the Nether Pool was. The form smiled at her and gave her thumbs up sign. Thank you Onyx, for protecting me all you can, Kareyn thought to the spirit and a warm glow enveloped her, renewing her energy.

* * *

It was a tingling sensation at first, then an occasional zap of pain. Ryo slowly awoke and realized that his whole body seemed to be in pain and burning like the heat of a volcano. Where am I? He wondered to himself when suddenly a surge of pain jolted his memory back.

"So glad that you are awake, Wildfire. How do you like the sting I added to the Nether pool?" Sekhmet's voice taunted echoed inside the chamber where the pool was.

Ryo cleared his throat and coughed out flecks of blood. His throat hurt and it was raw. I must have screamed all my energy out, Ryo thought to himself as he tried to speak, but only a whisper came out.

"You…you're a traitor," Ryo rasped out, painfully lifting his head to face Sekhemet who had appeared in front of him.

"Ah, but the Nether World has made me stronger, stronger than before!" Sekhemet cackled and Ryo looked deep into the future-warlord's beady black eyes and saw an amount of fear and Sekhemet's soul crying out, trying to be free.

"Fight it…Fight IT!" Ryo whispered harshly as he finally knew that the future-warlords weren't controlled by their own will. Shadow Lord had Nether spirits possess them.

"It is too late. You think that the real Sekhemet can hear you?" Ryo heard Sekhemet's voice being overlapped with an echoey distinctive voice of a Nether spirit.

"Sekhemet, warlord of Venom! Master Shadow Lord wishes to see you!" Blackfire-Ryo's voice boomed through Ryo's prison.

"What did he want?" Sekhemet asked, his gaze not leaving Ryo's.

"I do not know. But he is impatient," Blackfire-Ryo replied and Ryo blinked against the harsh light of the future-warlord teleporting away.

When Ryo opened his eyes again, his mouth fell open at the sight of his evil future-clone releasing Mia from her chains.

"What the…" Ryo started then felt himself falling through the air as Blackfire-Ryo's twin katanas slashed through the chains that were holding him above the Nether Pool. He fell into the pool with a splash and immediately Nether Spirits surrounded him. Ryo glared at them as he gritted his teeth.

"ARMOR OF WILDFIRE! DAO JI!" Ryo yelled with the force of a volcano exploding. Cherry blossom petals floated around him and after two flashes, he found himself back in the Nether Pool, in his Wildfire armor. The Nether Spirits were still trying to break him with their power and Ryo decided he had enough.

"Enough is enough! You guys need to take a long trip!" Ryo said angrily as he summoned the power of the Wildfire armor. He took his twin katanas and stuck the ends together, "FLARE UP NOW!" A wave of energy and fire ripped through the pool, sending millions of shards away as his sure-kill demolished the pool. Ryo stood in the middle of the now dry pool, panting with exhaustion.

"I congratulate you, Wildfire," Blackfire-Ryo's voice said from behind him and Ryo spun around to face his future-clone.

"Why did you free me?" Ryo asked, narrowing his tiger-blue eyes to slits. He didn't trust him for one second and held his katanas in a battle stance, ready for any tricks his clone was going to throw at him.

"You just don't get it do you, Wildfire, well you never do. Here, take this," Blackfire-Ryo said and threw him a small black orb at Ryo, who caught it.

"What's this?" Ryo asked as he carefully examined the orb. His breath caught in his throat as he saw the kanji of Bravery flare up a bit in the black orb. He glanced up at Blackfire with surprise.

Blackfire nodded, "That's the Element's orb. Kaira's mother, Kareyn is still in there, alive. Give it to her, and tell her that only shout her mother's armor when she is back in her own timeline. If she summons the Elements, then the consequences of your Kareyn of now, will be disastrous."

Ryo blinked as Blackfire abruptly teleported away to who knows where then glanced back at the Elements orb. Its shiny black color glowed a bit, and Ryo thought the orb gave its human equivalent of a contented sigh. He glanced tentatively at Mia who was smiling as she leaned against a wall.

"You all right, Mia?" Ryo asked coming over to her as he tucked the Elemental orb in a safe place underneath his armor.

"Yeah," Mia replied weakly and Ryo winced a bit as he felt pain shoot throughout him, "let's go get the others."

"Yeah," Ryo replied and rescued-carried her out of the prison.

* * *

Sayli suddenly felt as if her strength was replenished as she took a protective stance in front of her injured teammate, Sama. Glad you're all right dad, mom, she mentally thought to them, but realized that they couldn't hear her since they were the past, and she was from the future. She looked darkly towards Cale, and felt a red glowing power form on her fists.

"Cale, future-warlord of Darkness…eat this!" Sayli shouted and blasted energy and fire towards the future-warlord.

"What!? How could you…" Cale started as he saw power and energy return to the C-Ronin leader.

"Looks like my father is free, and you are one dead warlord," Sayli said, giving him a smug smile. She lifted her hands up and shouted, "Armor of Wildfire! Rekka!" The last thing she saw before engulfed in the flames of her alternate armor, was Hiro's surprised face, and Sama's amazed one. She smiled grimly to herself as she felt like she was in a whirlpool of magma and forest fires. Flames danced around her, licking her sub-armor.

There was only once when she summoned her alternate armor, but that had ended by almost killing herself by the intense flames. Inside, she felt as if her whole body was an oven and she started to feel faint. Don't faint, you need to do this. Wildfire conjunction armor is not enough, you have to do this, she told herself confidently. She closed her eyes and concentrated, as from her right hand was a glowing ball of power. She felt ribbons of flames wrap around her in a cocoon then suddenly release into the open. Sayli opened her eyes and glanced at herself, fully decked in the C-Wildfire Alternate Armor. She then glared at Cale, who took a slight step back.

"Now, we end this warlord of Darkness," Sayli said her voice slightly muffed by her faceplate as she took out her twin masuame.

* * *

Sama could feel heat flowing from Sayli's armor. She actually did it; she transformed without killing herself! He thought excitedly, glad at their leader. In a slight way, Sama was jealous of her. She stood in a battle stance and the dim lights of the prison made her black-red armor mysterious. Rekka, a nickname for the Alternate Armor, was angular and crystalline, almost in a way, like the Black Armor of Inferno. But instead of looking malicious, the armor looked sleek and pristine. Two things that did change when Sama looked at Sayli, were her hair color and her eye color. Her hair, once jet-black was now, a dark red and her eye color was pure black.

He winced slightly as he felt pain erupt from his abdomen. Father, what's going on, he thought to his dad, and through their empathic connection, he could sense that he was in a lot of pain, but his resilience and strength still held through. Suddenly a shadow was cast over him and he glanced up to see a Shadow soldier, smiling at him through teeth.

"Eat electricity Shadow," Sama managed through clench teeth as he summoned an electric ball of lightning and shot it straight up the Shadow soldier's face.

He grinned as the soldier fell back, dead, but suddenly doubled over in pain. "Arrgh," Sama grunted as the pain continued and he felt waves and waves of psychic pain pour through his mind. He weakly glanced up and saw Sayli ready for her sure-kill; he noted that Hiro had taken a couple of steps backwards, avoiding Sayli's sure-kill.

"Rekka! VOLCANO FLARE!" Sayli yelled as she crossed her masuame together and fire-energy burst from the ends of the blades, incinerating Shadow and Nether soldiers alike.

Sama saw Cale thrown up into the hole where Shino and Kaira made their escape and out into the air. Suddenly a pair or strong hands grabbed onto his arms and he glanced to his right to see Hiro's grim face.

"Can you make it?" Hiro asked him and he nodded.

"Yeah, I think I can," Sama replied as Hiro followed Sayli out of their prison and into the vast palace of the Shadow Realm.

* * *

Sekhemet bowed down in front of Shadow Lord, slightly angry that he had summoned him when he was just in the middle of torturing Ryo of Wildfire. "You summoned me my lord?" he asked.

"Stand up future-warlord…I did not summon you," Shadow Lord said and Sekhemet stood up, confused.

"But, Blackfire told me that you did," he stated and saw anger blaze in Shadow Lord's voided eyes.

Shadow Lord held up a hand and a viewing portal appeared. "It would seem that we have a traitor in our mist," he growled and Sekhemet saw Blackfire free Wildfire and the young woman named Mia.

"My lord, let me go and destroy this vile creature!" Sekhemet shouted.

"No, we'll deal with him later," Shadow Lord said waving a hand and the portal disappeared. Sekhemet noted that his eyes had a far away look then focused sharply on him.

"Go, gather the army and the rest of the warlords, we have a battle coming our way," Shadow Lord said gravely and Sekhemet saw an unreal hunger in the depths of his eyes. He shuddered as he teleported away.

* * *

Rowen slowly cracked open his eyes, and noted that no part of his body felt pain and nothing was holding him up. He turned his head to the side looking around and saw that he was staring up at some stalatices. Feeling began to creep back into his senses and he felt himself laying on a hard, cold, stone ground. He raised a hand and felt his sub-armor. There was no whip marks, or claw marks, not even a single scratch was on the sub-armor of Strata. What the hell happened? He wondered as he slowly lifted himself up, feeling slightly dizzy and disoriented. His eyes reverted to a slight waning glow. Debris and splotches of water coated the glowing area and he realized that it was the Nether Pool.

"Strata, you okay?" a voice said behind him and he turned slightly to see Lady Kayura kneeling down next to him.

"But…you're a traitor," Rowen said, narrowing his blue eyes.

"Was, my successor, was," another voice said and Rowen could make out a faint shimmering object that was floating near a person with black-silver sub-armor.

Rowen's jaw dropped open as he recognized the first wearer of the armor of Strata, his ancestor Sanjuro. "Ah…ah…you're…a spirit," Rowen said dumbly as he found himself a lost for words. He suddenly noticed the black-silver sub-armored person was Kareyn. "Kareyn!" Rowen cried out and saw her snap her eyes open and gave him a sunny smile.

"Glad your awake Space Case!" Kareyn teased getting up from her meditating position. "You feeling alright?" she asked frowning at him in concern when he stumbled a bit.

"Yeah, just fine. I just need to get my bearings," Rowen said shaking his head a bit trying to get the dizziness away. "Where are the others?" he asked.

"Captured, tortured, who knows," Kareyn said grimly then suddenly glanced at the door as three figures stepped through, one of them looked like he was going to collapse any second.

"Whoa, who did this?" she heard one of them comment and Kareyn recognized the voice as Hiro.

"Looks like the place got some decorations," another voice commented in an authoritative voice.

"Sayli? Hiro?" Rowen asked tentatively as he leaned against his collapsible bow.

"Who's there?" Sayli's sharp voice said and Rowen heard the soft grinding of her armor rubbing against each other.

"It's just us, Rowen, Kareyn, Kayura and Sanjuro," Rowen said and he reeled back a bit as the daughter of Ryo stepped into the dim light of their little group. He stared at her in shock and almost didn't recognize the leader of the C-Ronins.

"What happened to you?" Kareyn snorted as she made a cautious circle around the leader of the C-Ronins.

"Remember how she told you that she can summon the Inferno Armor only when Ryo is koed or something. Well truth is, she can't," Hiro started then received a sharp jab in the stomach by Sayli who glared at him with her black eyes.

"This is the C-Wildfire's Alternate Armor, or we just dubbed it Rekka," Sayli inputted then glanced behind her.

Rowen looked over to what Sayli was staring at and saw someone in an almost replica Halo armor stumbling towards them. "Sama," Rowen whispered as he recognized Sage's future son. His mind began to churn all the worst case scenarios Sage was in. Stop it, he told himself as he tried to shut out the images.

"He's hurt bad. And that means Halo isn't doing too well," Kayura stated as she managed to catch Sama before he hit the ground.

Suddenly there was a yell then an explosion that rumbled through the walls of the prison. Rowen glanced towards the door and frowned, "That sounded like Ryo."

"Dad," Sayli whispered then took off.

"Sayli! Wait! You don't know what you're getting into!" Kayura said in protest then stopped in the middle of her sentence as Sayli's black eyes were drilled into hers.

"I know that my father needs help, so get out of my way Ancient," Sayli said in a deadly quiet voice.

"I'm coming with you," Rowen said and nodded to Kareyn who was leaning over Sama trying to ease his pain. He felt a little better as he started after Sayli and only glanced once behind him to see Kareyn giving him a sad smile. Don't worry, I'll be safe, he thought to her as he followed Sayli to where Ryo was. He had a feeling that Ryo was trying to free Sage, but had a tough time. Sage, I'm coming buddy.

* * *

Cye ran, his energy renewed as he felt that some of the other Ronin Warriors were safe and healing. This battle is going to be tough, he thought as he glanced over to his future son who looked like a fish in his sleek scaly sub-armor. He suddenly skidded to a stop as an army of Nether Soldiers and Shadow Soldiers blocked the path in front of them.

"Oh, great the Calvary has arrived," Kaira commented sarcastically as she held her position.

"Come on, let's just take care of these tin cans and get going," Kento said and Cye nodded. He crouched down then sprang at a group of them with impossible speed. Cye lashed out with his right foot and caught one off guard and sent the soldier back into a couple, making them fall like bowling pins.

"Cye! Duck!" he heard Shino cry and he instinctively ducked as the scythe of one of the soldiers passed over where his head was.

Cye punched the Shadow soldier in the gut and slammed his elbow on the soldier's neck making him fall. He glanced over to his right and saw Shino forming light blue energy on his hands. The blue energy blasted at some of the soldiers and froze each of them into ice.

"Hey look! A new way to eat in the summer," Kento commented and Cye grinned. He flipped back to avoid the stab of one of the soldiers then scissors kicked the soldier sending him into a wall and smoke of the dead spirit poured out of the openings of the soldier.

"Armor of Torrent! Dao Shin!" Cye called out his armor and saw cherry blossoms roll around him. After two flashes he found himself back in the battlefield decked out in his armor.

"Super Wave Smasher!" he yelled launching a high intensity powered jet of water and energy at the Shadow/Nether soldier army. When he ended his sure kill he saw puddles of water around the dead bodies of the Nether soldiers. Suddenly a piercing wailing of a Shadow Soldier filled the air and Cye grimaced against the sound. He looked over to see Kaira decked out in her C-Strata armor; one of her fan swords stuck deep in the Shadow soldier's body. Cye winced a bit as Kaira pushed a small button and the sword spread out like a fan, cutting through the soldier like scissors and paper. The piercing wailing ended abruptly as the soldier fell to the ground, dead.

"Care not to do that? I just had my lunch," Kento said making gagging noises as he pretended to throw up.

"You never had lunch Kento," Cye said giving him a sideways look.

"Oh yeah, so when is it? I'm starving," Kento replied and Cye shook his head in exasperation.

"Let's go, the team needs us and I can feel that the final battle is drawing near," Shino ordered and Cye nodded in agreement.

"You guys, there's something I feel, I'll check with you later," Kaira said and she hurried away from the main group not looking back. She could feel something stirring and was very familiar. Is this the path to my battle? She thought as she walked away. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Cye and Kento look at her oddly, but her blood brother only had an expression of understanding.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Okay, okay…I'm slacking; but then again I can't help it if Gundam Wing has taken over my life. Chapter 11 will be coming out in about a month to a month and a half cause my finals are coming up and I need to study major! Well next chapter is about: Everyone has been freed and is gearing up for their biggest battle against Shadow Lord and his minions. But, something is up for Kaira as she gets the Elements orb, which holds her mother.

Dedications:

Bunny for previewing and beta reading my C-Ronins fics for a long time, you are the best girl! Caroline, for helping me on my Gundam Wing fics and for copying the OAVs of Yoroiden Samurai Troopers. Onyx, you should already know what my grasshopper…aw hell; you're also the best supporter and beta reader. My sister, Chibi Shadow Chaser, hey sis, don't forget to work on "Crazy Day"!

Comments:

For all of you peoples, who love Gundam Wing, I have a few fics on www.fanfiction.net in the category of Gundam. Please review this chapter and email me on any comments, flames, etc. I thrive on your input!