Disclaimer: I don't own the Ronin Warriors or Yoroiden Samurai Troopers. If I did, I'd be the happiest damned computer/anime geek out there now wouldn't I?. They belong to Sunrise Inc., etc. etc. I am not making any money off of this so please don't sue me. I am a broke college student and besides, you'd never find me in Teeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnaaaaaaa hehehe. Oops, I shouldn't have told you that. I am just using these characters for a pure love of the series and artistic creativity.

Summary: The evil sorcerer Avalon wishes to see anyone that fights for good brought down. Now he's got his sights on Rowen and Sage. Can the Ronin Warriors figure out what's going on before Avalon has his way and Rowen and Sage are sent to a mental institution?

Heroes' Plight

By Rekkanotara

Chapter One: A Rough Night

Velvety blue hair blew across his face, sweeping over his tired eyes. Rowen hugged himself tighter as yet another breeze caused him to shiver. The weird thing about it was that he didn't even think it was supposed to be this cold in the middle of June. Of course he was out at 3am in the night with nothing but his thin constellation flannel pajamas on. As he stood out on the balcony of his and Sage's room, he allowed himself to relax as his low blood sugar problem was preventing him from falling asleep again and causing him to shake uncontrollably. None of the other ronins knew with the exception of his roommate and best friend Sage, that his health problems were increasing in severity for about a month now. But one only needed a keen eye to see that his skin was a tad lighter than it had been and that he hadn't eaten much at any of their meals. The ronin of Strata had been through several rough spells like this as a child and refused to allow any of the others to worry about him. He couldn't bear it if he knew that he was the reason of someone else's pain; whether it be due to worry or something else. He came out onto the balcony in the first place to keep from waking Sage up and to gain strength from the moon and the stars. Leaning against the railing with his eyes closed and head tilted up to the sky, Rowen could feel the light of the moon and the stars starting to warm him some and calm his trembling form.

Rowen just wanted to forget the pain and began to think of the more amusing events that occurred earlier in the week. Mia had come up to each of the ronins wanting to be trained to fight as she and Yule were always being used against them and backed into a rock and a hard place at one point or another. Luckily, Yule was off at Summer camp and couldn't bother them. Strata didn't think he could deal with the kid in the condition he was in now. Besides, the others were more patient with kids and other people than he was; he was a book worm and kept to himself a lot. First Mia had come up to Cye feeling as though he would be more understanding of her situation. Which he was; the auburn haired warrior of torrent had taken her out to the lake to start her training. Neither Mia nor Cye had spoken about what happened at the lake that afternoon, but Rowen couldn't help but smile as both of them came back to the Koji mansion soaking wet. Albeit only Cye's hair was wet whereas Mia's entire outfit and hair were soaked. Determined, Mia decided that Kento would be the next logical one to ask. So the next day, Kento took her into one of his lopsided bear hugs as he semi dragged/carried her into the kitchen. The warrior of hardrock had convinced Mia that one of the basic things to learn before you start with anything else is to build up your strength through eating and weight lifting for nutrients and muscles. The only incident that had occurred that day was the pure terrified screams the boys heard coming from Mia's room that night. They feared the worst as they headed to her room, but upon arriving in the master bedroom, they found Mia on the scale with tears in her eyes as she had gained ten pounds from her session with Kento. There wasn't a dry eye in the house after that moment as everyone had warned Mia that once you're in Kento's company, it's hard to think that eating anything could make you gain any unwanted weight. Kento, of course, didn't show it because he wore the armor of hardrock which corresponded to the earth and food which naturally grows from the earth, making him stronger every time he eats.

The blue haired archer had to give the woman credit for not giving up so easily even though she probably should've. Rowen and the other ronin warriors had trained since early childhood and each of them had magical abilities which is why the armors of wildfire, torrent, strata, hardrock, and halo had chosen them out of all the people in the world to wear them. On what would be the third day of trying, Mia asked Ryo to teach her how to use a sword. Being a little naïve at the time, Ryo thought it would be a good idea not to try and coddle her and let her practice with one of his spare katana. Whiteblaze was also around as he never left Ryo's side for too long if at all. Mia had thought it would be a great idea to show off the moves she thought she knew from watching all those samurai movies with the guys and came so close to giving Whiteblaze a permanent sex change. To this day, the large white tiger still wont go near her when she had anything in her hands. He could take on over a dozen Dynasty soldiers with their own deadly weapons, but something about Mia scared the tiger. After that incident, Ryo had immediately grabbed the sword from her possession and scolded her for her reckless actions. Depressed but still not down, Mia thought she could use some focus and centering so she followed Sage off to one of his many beautiful meditation spots in the forest around the mansion. After hearing what had happened with the ronin of wildfire earlier in the day, Sage also believed that meditation would do her some good. Everything had gone off without a hitch, then after about an hour into the meditation, Sage was interrupted from his calm and serene mood by the sounds of snoring coming from his companion leaning on a nearby tree. "Mia! You're supposed to be finding your center and not sleeping around!!" Sage yelled as he discovered her. The warrior of halo was indeed patient, but one thing you don't want to do is make light or disrespect his training methods as he came from a strict yet fair dojo and the very respected Date family. Luckily, several people had scattered memories of the events which occurred with Tulpa and the boys' families all agreed that it would be better if the team did not break up and were stronger together than divided. Rowen was the only one of the five to stay clear of the close friend who had helped them out so much during the war with Tulpa because he knew full well that nothing good could come from giving Mia or any other inexperienced person for that matter a bow and arrow to practice with.

Rowen was suddenly jolted from his musings as he felt a steady warm hand on his shoulder. "Couldn't sleep?" Sage asked as he walked out onto the balcony with the other boy. "Something like that." Rowen replied, feeling himself sway a little. "How long have you been out here Rowen? You're shivering. Not to mention that you look dead tired." Sage queried, upset to find his best friend out in the middle of the night trembling. What upset him the most was that it was 77 degrees out and even in his white t-shirt and gray cotton shorts, he was sweating. But Rowen seemed to be in a world of his own and a cold one at that. Sage then proceeded to usher his friend into their room and lock the balcony door behind them. Moving Rowen over to his bed, Sage began to ask, "Is your low blood sugar giving you problems still? You're going to have to see a doctor or at least tell the rest of the guys." Rowen knew this was important to Sage, keeping his health problems secret were starting to take their toll on him. But he didn't want to be pitied or held with kid gloves; throughout the entire fight with Tulpa and even into his childhood, he had to try and prove he was strong to fight and didn't need anyone's help to kick some major butt. He could still remember what Ryo had told him what Kento had said when he was still floating in his little bubble up in space. Kento had said that they didn't need him to defeat Tulpa; that they could probably go on without the warrior of the heavens, or something to that effect. Rowen had pretended that it didn't bother him at all, but he had just pushed it deep into his emotional psyche with everything else, bringing him that much more closer to breaking whether he liked it or not. "Rowen? Hello...." Sage said waving his hand in front of the archer; he had become concerned when Rowen seemed to stare off into nothing in particular and left his concerns unanswered. Becoming aware of his surroundings again, Rowen blinked and looked over at the swordsman at the side of his bed. "I'm alright Sage. Please don't worry, I've dealt with this all my life. The others don't need to know and at any rate, I'm not ready to tell them much of anything right now." Rowen replied stifling a yawn as it escaped his mouth. Sage sighed and walked over to his own bed where he proceeded to lay back down. Before he knew it, Rowen seemed to be sleeping, snuggled under his fluffy blankets. Sage smiled at the sight before him; Rowen seemed so calm and relaxed at which point he decided to try and get more sleep himself.

....A few seconds later....

"Sage?" came Rowen's muffled voice. "Yeah Ro?" Sage replied with a tone that sounded as equally tired. "Where did you put my Centurion?" Rowen questioned. "He's under your pillow." Sage replied again as he began to chuckle to himself. Ever since he first watched the cartoon, The Centurions, Rowen had taken a liking to the blue centurion of the sky, Ace McCloud for obvious reasons as they both wore blue suits of armor sort of and fought the bad guys. He had given Rowen the toy for Christmas a couple of years ago and now he never seemed to sleep without it nearby. Sage on the other hand didn't care too much for the show; he couldn't see why a guy who fought in the water would wear green and why there was no centurion of light, he had been a little peeved when Rowen tried to compare him slightly to one of the other characters (i.e., John Thunder). He was about to fall asleep when he heard Rowen again. "And Sage?...." Rowen whispered. "Yes Rowen?" Sage answered through a yawn. "I know you were sleeping and all and lying in your bed, but....." Rowen said. Wanting desperately to get back to sleep, Sage replied a little curious as to where this was leading, "Yes? But what?" Rowen muttered under his blankets clearly falling asleep now; "How come your hair is still perfect?....." Sage merely replied, "It takes focus and dedication." That and a half a bottle of hair gel each day he thought to himself as he drifted to sleep to join the rest of the ronins in the mansion in the land of sleep along with Mia and Whiteblaze. Little did they know that Rowen of the Strata and Sage of the Halo were being watched by an evil sorcerer named Avalon.

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Ok Ok, I actually typed a whole chapter albeit a small one (Yippeee). I am leaving it at this point so that I can see how all of you like the story or don't. I don't care if I get flames; it's a part of creative writing and I'm not a freakin English major, I just wanted to tell my story so yes there will be some grammatical errors. I did however use the spell checker. Yes this is my very first fanfic. Posted at all, I usually scribble em down for Stargate SG-1 and leave them on paper as I am so lazy. I had to start my story as I've read all of the other fics for Ronin Warriors by all the other gifted fanfic writers. Now I leave it to you the reader to tell me if I should continue with this story. Please review and thank you for your interest in my story:)