Into the Beginning of the End
By Quiet Chaos
Chapter Three A/N- ~ Thanks for the reviews. Hopefully I'll be getting to 'the good stuff soon. Oh yeah, apparently ff.net doesn't see italics, so thoughts are placed within single quotation marks. Enjoy! ~
"There you go, White Blaze," Mia said triumphantly as she snipped off the excess bandage. "That should heal in no time." The Siberian tiger purred and licked her hand in a show of gratitude. She smiled at the oversized house cat and put away the first aid supplies.
Ryo was leaning against the cabin window, quietly watching Mia work, but his mind was elsewhere. Rowen stood on the opposite side of the cabin, also lost in his own thoughts. The other Ronins were up at the house, choosing breakfast over cramming themselves into the lakeside cabin. Mia stood, ready to leave.
"Ryo?" She gazed into his unfocused blue eyes. He jumped at the sight of her face so close to his.
"What, Mia?" he said a little more irritably than he meant to. He winced inwardly at the pained look that crossed her face. He didn't mean to act so cranky to his friends.
"White Blaze will be fine. That bullet missed the bone and major arteries so it's nothing more than a flesh wound." She glanced at the tiger. "You shouldn't worry so much." Ryo simply nodded so Mia took her leave.
As soon as she was gone, Wildfire sank down beside White Blaze, gently stroking the silky fur. He smiled as the tiger contentedly purred, then frowned when Rowen cleared his throat. "Now what, Rowen?"
"About last night..." he began tentatively.
"We already talked about it on the way back here." Ryo sighed annoyingly. "That girl is an assassin and is after me." He looked Strata straight in the eye. "What more is there to talk about?"
"I'm not talking about the girl," Rowen said plainly. "I'm more concerned about you." Ryo raised his eyebrow. "When White Blaze was shot, you looked madder than I've ever seen you before. Madder than when he'd died." Ryo turned away from him; his bangs covered his blue eyes. When he didn't say anything, Rowen cautiously continued on. "It seemed like your armor reacted to your anger too. It was glowing, and the air around you was boiling."
Ryo let out another tired sigh and nuzzled his face into White Blaze's fur. "I don't know what happened, Rowen. Something about her just pissed me off." He closed his eyes, not wanting to hear Strata's reaction.
"Well I don't think she's one to miss," he said noting Wildfire's shortening temper. "I'm gonna head up to the house for breakfast." He started for the door. "You coming?"
Silence.
"Ryo?" He turned back around to see Wildfire slumped on top of White Blaze. Concerned, he ventured closer. White Blaze watched the blue-haired youth with his quiet brown eyes. Rowen relaxed when he saw that his leader had slipped into slumber. Strata shrugged and left.
'Something's up with Ryo,' he thought to himself as he made his way to the mansion. 'I wonder if the others have noticed it too.' His stomach took the moment to complain about not being fed as he opened the front door. He grumbled to himself about the early morning wake up when he walked into Sage.
"Where's Ryo?" the blonde asked after Rowen had mumbled a quick apology.
"Oh, he's sleeping over in the cabin with White Blaze." He yawned, "I think I'll follow his lead after some breakfast."
"Cye managed to save you something, but you owe him for keeping Kento off of it." Sage smirked and went into the living room where Kento sat in front of the television, playing another video game. He watched uninterested as he waited for Cye and Rowen to join them.
"Aaah! No!" The controller went flying into the air. "Not again!" Kento moaned; he scratched the back of his head in frustration. Sage grinned at his friend's antics. Cye and Rowen entered, eying Kento who now lay flat on the floor like a corpse.
"Everything all right here?" Cye asked while taking a seat next to Sage.
Kento abruptly sat up and lamely pointed at the television set, which was flashing 'Loser' across the screen. Rowen smiled and sat in the armchair with his plate of pancakes. Kento finally snapped out of his trance and asked: "Where's our fearless leader at?"
"He's over in the cabin with White Blaze, sleeping," Sage answered.
"Oh," Kento nodded.
Rowen swallowed the last of his pancakes with a huge gulp, before wondering aloud: "Has anyone else noticed that Ryo's been acting a little weird lately?"
"Kind of," Cye said quietly. "Why do you ask?"
"I don't know," Rowen sighed, leaning back into the comfy armchair. "He just seems to be...different."
"I've noticed it too," Sage chirped in. "But I'm sure Ryo will tell us if he feels he should."
"What makes you think that?" Mia asked when she walked into the room. She plopped herself down beside Sage. "We've seen it before that he keeps things to himself, things that he shouldn't bear alone." An uneasy silence filled the room as everyone acknowledged Wildfire's habitual guilt-trips and secret keeping.
"There's nothing we can really do about it," Cye said, breaking the tense silence. "If we confront him, he'll just hide it or not tell us the whole truth. We can't force anything out of him."
"Yeah, he's too stubborn," Kento suddenly said with a smirk.
"The best thing we can do is give him space and time," said Sage. "He'll come around when he's ready."
***
It was cold, so cold that it burned. His blood was on fire, burning away at the frozen flesh that had once confined it. Now the crimson liquid was running wild and free, seeping out of war scars and staining the white armor a sickening mud-red color.
He was alone on this side of the battlefield. His army had smashed into the demons with all it had to offer, but by the time the sun had set, the two great sides had succeeded in only obliterating one another. All that remained was a corpse littered field and the demon emperor himself: Talpa.
"So, my foolish opponent," rang the demon's voice. The soulless armor began to make its way across the field towards the wounded warrior. "How does it feel to lose against me?"
He gripped the Ferver Swords harder in an effort to steady himself. He could feel life leaving him with every heartbeat. Talpa laughed. "Do you know how pitiful you look?" he taunted. "I bet you're wondering how I bested you and your Inferno with my lesser armor." He was swinging his spear now, letting the blade twirl before his audience, who was only partly listening.
'I can't beat him in my condition, no matter how long he talks,' the warrior thought as he watched the spear swinging like a pendulum. 'Talpa will want this armor for its power, but I mustn't let him have it.'
"Well," the demon lord boasted, "you can thank all those who you fought to protect for granting me so much power." The warrior looked up at this. Talpa's smile was obvious even though his physical mouth had disintegrated long ago. "Yes, they gave me this power; it was their fear, their hatred; their humanity that fed the sleeping armor, and then it was sent down the lineage to mine."
The warrior's knees gave out, and he sank to the ground. 'Concentrate!' he yelled at himself. Very soon he'd be ready, 'Please let him ramble on a little longer.'
"Do not worry too much. Now that I have the Inferno armor, I'll have no need of your precious humans. With that armor I'll be greater that the gods!" The demon's eyes glowed a horrible red in his excitement. "Give it to me!"
"You can have the armor!" he yelled back; angry adrenaline surged through his body allowing him to stand one last time. "But you will never have its power!" He threw the Ferver Swords high into the air where they melted together into a flaming bird. It shimmered for a moment in the sky before bolting away.
"Damn you!" Talpa roared and charged. The warrior didn't resist at all as the spear was thrust through his chest, piercing the white breastplate and shattering the true blue heart. "Give me the armor!"
The warrior smiled. The white helmet slowly dissolved into sparks of energy, which floated above the battle. "This armor follows its virtue, Talpa. Though I die, my spirit will always be with it, and you shall never touch its power." The rest of the armor dissolved, leaving the dead warrior bare. The energy formed itself into one mass before launching itself into Talpa's chest.
As the light faded, only the demon lord remained. He kicked the corpse that was still propped up by his spear. "Damn you, Hariel. I will unseal and command the power of the Inferno."
***
Ryo snapped awake, the last words ringing through his head. He rubbed his eyes and pushed himself off of White Blaze's warm belly fur. 'That dream again.' He groaned when pins and needles ran up and down his legs, but he tried to ignore it. His chest was bothering him the most, but the pain residing there was rapidly vanishing.
'Was it just a dream?' he wondered. 'Or was it something else. A memory perhaps?' He gazed thoughtfully out the cabin window to the lake. 'Why now? Why do I dream of memories that aren't mine?' He sighed deeply. In the dream, he hadn't been Hariel. He'd felt more like he had been the armor itself, especially when it had lifted away from the warrior.
He ran a hand through his tousled black hair. The scenic view of the lake helped to calm him down a little. It was picture perfect: the lake was sparkling gold beneath a flaming sky.
Wildfire jumped to attention. "What time is it?" he desperately asked, but no one answered. 'Did I really sleep that long?' He ran out of the cabin towards the mansion. White Blaze lazily hobbled behind him.
He skidded through the door, hoping to find everyone in the living room waiting for him. But no one was there. He sighed heavily. 'You baka!' he thought angrily at himself. He meandered into the kitchen and found a solitary plate with a sandwich on it. Beside it was a note. He slumped into the chair and read the letter:
'Good afternoon, sleepyhead! We got tired of waiting for you, so we went downtown to get our school supplies. Don't worry; we'll get you your stuff too. Saved you a sandwich to hold you over until we get back for dinner. We left Cye behind to watch your back. If you don't see him right away, he said he'd be upstairs, cleaning. Later!'
Ryo sighed, glad to know that the house wasn't as empty as he had first thought. As if on cue, Cye called to him from the stairs. "Ryo? Is that you?"
"Yeah, I'm here, Cye," he yelled back.
"Good. Can you bring up the vacuum? We should clean up your room."
Ryo groaned. He'd forgotten about the mess leftover in his room: the broken door, the shattered glass, and the unmade bed. He sighed one last time, smirking at the realization that he'd been sighing quite a bit lately, before getting up to help Cye.
Apparently, with the messy room, school, and the assassin topping the list of things to worry about, this week wasn't going to be the best he'd ever have.
By Quiet Chaos
Chapter Three A/N- ~ Thanks for the reviews. Hopefully I'll be getting to 'the good stuff soon. Oh yeah, apparently ff.net doesn't see italics, so thoughts are placed within single quotation marks. Enjoy! ~
"There you go, White Blaze," Mia said triumphantly as she snipped off the excess bandage. "That should heal in no time." The Siberian tiger purred and licked her hand in a show of gratitude. She smiled at the oversized house cat and put away the first aid supplies.
Ryo was leaning against the cabin window, quietly watching Mia work, but his mind was elsewhere. Rowen stood on the opposite side of the cabin, also lost in his own thoughts. The other Ronins were up at the house, choosing breakfast over cramming themselves into the lakeside cabin. Mia stood, ready to leave.
"Ryo?" She gazed into his unfocused blue eyes. He jumped at the sight of her face so close to his.
"What, Mia?" he said a little more irritably than he meant to. He winced inwardly at the pained look that crossed her face. He didn't mean to act so cranky to his friends.
"White Blaze will be fine. That bullet missed the bone and major arteries so it's nothing more than a flesh wound." She glanced at the tiger. "You shouldn't worry so much." Ryo simply nodded so Mia took her leave.
As soon as she was gone, Wildfire sank down beside White Blaze, gently stroking the silky fur. He smiled as the tiger contentedly purred, then frowned when Rowen cleared his throat. "Now what, Rowen?"
"About last night..." he began tentatively.
"We already talked about it on the way back here." Ryo sighed annoyingly. "That girl is an assassin and is after me." He looked Strata straight in the eye. "What more is there to talk about?"
"I'm not talking about the girl," Rowen said plainly. "I'm more concerned about you." Ryo raised his eyebrow. "When White Blaze was shot, you looked madder than I've ever seen you before. Madder than when he'd died." Ryo turned away from him; his bangs covered his blue eyes. When he didn't say anything, Rowen cautiously continued on. "It seemed like your armor reacted to your anger too. It was glowing, and the air around you was boiling."
Ryo let out another tired sigh and nuzzled his face into White Blaze's fur. "I don't know what happened, Rowen. Something about her just pissed me off." He closed his eyes, not wanting to hear Strata's reaction.
"Well I don't think she's one to miss," he said noting Wildfire's shortening temper. "I'm gonna head up to the house for breakfast." He started for the door. "You coming?"
Silence.
"Ryo?" He turned back around to see Wildfire slumped on top of White Blaze. Concerned, he ventured closer. White Blaze watched the blue-haired youth with his quiet brown eyes. Rowen relaxed when he saw that his leader had slipped into slumber. Strata shrugged and left.
'Something's up with Ryo,' he thought to himself as he made his way to the mansion. 'I wonder if the others have noticed it too.' His stomach took the moment to complain about not being fed as he opened the front door. He grumbled to himself about the early morning wake up when he walked into Sage.
"Where's Ryo?" the blonde asked after Rowen had mumbled a quick apology.
"Oh, he's sleeping over in the cabin with White Blaze." He yawned, "I think I'll follow his lead after some breakfast."
"Cye managed to save you something, but you owe him for keeping Kento off of it." Sage smirked and went into the living room where Kento sat in front of the television, playing another video game. He watched uninterested as he waited for Cye and Rowen to join them.
"Aaah! No!" The controller went flying into the air. "Not again!" Kento moaned; he scratched the back of his head in frustration. Sage grinned at his friend's antics. Cye and Rowen entered, eying Kento who now lay flat on the floor like a corpse.
"Everything all right here?" Cye asked while taking a seat next to Sage.
Kento abruptly sat up and lamely pointed at the television set, which was flashing 'Loser' across the screen. Rowen smiled and sat in the armchair with his plate of pancakes. Kento finally snapped out of his trance and asked: "Where's our fearless leader at?"
"He's over in the cabin with White Blaze, sleeping," Sage answered.
"Oh," Kento nodded.
Rowen swallowed the last of his pancakes with a huge gulp, before wondering aloud: "Has anyone else noticed that Ryo's been acting a little weird lately?"
"Kind of," Cye said quietly. "Why do you ask?"
"I don't know," Rowen sighed, leaning back into the comfy armchair. "He just seems to be...different."
"I've noticed it too," Sage chirped in. "But I'm sure Ryo will tell us if he feels he should."
"What makes you think that?" Mia asked when she walked into the room. She plopped herself down beside Sage. "We've seen it before that he keeps things to himself, things that he shouldn't bear alone." An uneasy silence filled the room as everyone acknowledged Wildfire's habitual guilt-trips and secret keeping.
"There's nothing we can really do about it," Cye said, breaking the tense silence. "If we confront him, he'll just hide it or not tell us the whole truth. We can't force anything out of him."
"Yeah, he's too stubborn," Kento suddenly said with a smirk.
"The best thing we can do is give him space and time," said Sage. "He'll come around when he's ready."
***
It was cold, so cold that it burned. His blood was on fire, burning away at the frozen flesh that had once confined it. Now the crimson liquid was running wild and free, seeping out of war scars and staining the white armor a sickening mud-red color.
He was alone on this side of the battlefield. His army had smashed into the demons with all it had to offer, but by the time the sun had set, the two great sides had succeeded in only obliterating one another. All that remained was a corpse littered field and the demon emperor himself: Talpa.
"So, my foolish opponent," rang the demon's voice. The soulless armor began to make its way across the field towards the wounded warrior. "How does it feel to lose against me?"
He gripped the Ferver Swords harder in an effort to steady himself. He could feel life leaving him with every heartbeat. Talpa laughed. "Do you know how pitiful you look?" he taunted. "I bet you're wondering how I bested you and your Inferno with my lesser armor." He was swinging his spear now, letting the blade twirl before his audience, who was only partly listening.
'I can't beat him in my condition, no matter how long he talks,' the warrior thought as he watched the spear swinging like a pendulum. 'Talpa will want this armor for its power, but I mustn't let him have it.'
"Well," the demon lord boasted, "you can thank all those who you fought to protect for granting me so much power." The warrior looked up at this. Talpa's smile was obvious even though his physical mouth had disintegrated long ago. "Yes, they gave me this power; it was their fear, their hatred; their humanity that fed the sleeping armor, and then it was sent down the lineage to mine."
The warrior's knees gave out, and he sank to the ground. 'Concentrate!' he yelled at himself. Very soon he'd be ready, 'Please let him ramble on a little longer.'
"Do not worry too much. Now that I have the Inferno armor, I'll have no need of your precious humans. With that armor I'll be greater that the gods!" The demon's eyes glowed a horrible red in his excitement. "Give it to me!"
"You can have the armor!" he yelled back; angry adrenaline surged through his body allowing him to stand one last time. "But you will never have its power!" He threw the Ferver Swords high into the air where they melted together into a flaming bird. It shimmered for a moment in the sky before bolting away.
"Damn you!" Talpa roared and charged. The warrior didn't resist at all as the spear was thrust through his chest, piercing the white breastplate and shattering the true blue heart. "Give me the armor!"
The warrior smiled. The white helmet slowly dissolved into sparks of energy, which floated above the battle. "This armor follows its virtue, Talpa. Though I die, my spirit will always be with it, and you shall never touch its power." The rest of the armor dissolved, leaving the dead warrior bare. The energy formed itself into one mass before launching itself into Talpa's chest.
As the light faded, only the demon lord remained. He kicked the corpse that was still propped up by his spear. "Damn you, Hariel. I will unseal and command the power of the Inferno."
***
Ryo snapped awake, the last words ringing through his head. He rubbed his eyes and pushed himself off of White Blaze's warm belly fur. 'That dream again.' He groaned when pins and needles ran up and down his legs, but he tried to ignore it. His chest was bothering him the most, but the pain residing there was rapidly vanishing.
'Was it just a dream?' he wondered. 'Or was it something else. A memory perhaps?' He gazed thoughtfully out the cabin window to the lake. 'Why now? Why do I dream of memories that aren't mine?' He sighed deeply. In the dream, he hadn't been Hariel. He'd felt more like he had been the armor itself, especially when it had lifted away from the warrior.
He ran a hand through his tousled black hair. The scenic view of the lake helped to calm him down a little. It was picture perfect: the lake was sparkling gold beneath a flaming sky.
Wildfire jumped to attention. "What time is it?" he desperately asked, but no one answered. 'Did I really sleep that long?' He ran out of the cabin towards the mansion. White Blaze lazily hobbled behind him.
He skidded through the door, hoping to find everyone in the living room waiting for him. But no one was there. He sighed heavily. 'You baka!' he thought angrily at himself. He meandered into the kitchen and found a solitary plate with a sandwich on it. Beside it was a note. He slumped into the chair and read the letter:
'Good afternoon, sleepyhead! We got tired of waiting for you, so we went downtown to get our school supplies. Don't worry; we'll get you your stuff too. Saved you a sandwich to hold you over until we get back for dinner. We left Cye behind to watch your back. If you don't see him right away, he said he'd be upstairs, cleaning. Later!'
Ryo sighed, glad to know that the house wasn't as empty as he had first thought. As if on cue, Cye called to him from the stairs. "Ryo? Is that you?"
"Yeah, I'm here, Cye," he yelled back.
"Good. Can you bring up the vacuum? We should clean up your room."
Ryo groaned. He'd forgotten about the mess leftover in his room: the broken door, the shattered glass, and the unmade bed. He sighed one last time, smirking at the realization that he'd been sighing quite a bit lately, before getting up to help Cye.
Apparently, with the messy room, school, and the assassin topping the list of things to worry about, this week wasn't going to be the best he'd ever have.