sigelphoenix

Title: At the Beginning
Characters: everyone I could fit!
Warmakers Adventure: 1-26
Word Count: ~1700 (plus lyrics)
Summary: This is a "script" for the AMV I wish I could make, if Warmakers were an actual anime, as a retrospective of the campaign. The song is "At the Beginning" by Donna Lewis and Richard Marx, which I already used in a previous fic. Apparently I just can't get enough of this song.
Notes: I recommend listening to the song while reading the fic, to get an idea of how the "music video" would work.


[opening music]

During the quiet piano notes, we see a woman of indeterminate age and nationality walking slowly. With each step takes, she is in a different site, but each one is familiar to us - such as Ise Shrine, the Great Temple in the Yucatan, and St. Peter's Square. Gaia Earth is wandering her realm.

We were strangers
Starting out on a journey

We see brief shots of each member of Team Alpha, from the very first episode: Nariko clutching her bow in the helicopter; Sae crouching over Reika after they crash-land, and Reika poking her head out from behind her; Gunnar moving ahead to protect the others; Rex reading aloud an excerpt from Father Pierre's letter; Kyoko calling down a bird in the jungle.

Never dreaming
What we'd have to go through

After the individual shots, we see the kids in a group on the roof of the Mayan temple, performing the ritual to move the moon but looking uncertain about what to do. This image quickly transitions to Stonehenge, where the camera pans close to show Ichiro and Miya for the first time as they walk up to the green dragon. The other Guardians stand close by, and they all look a little more in control of themselves, and perhaps a little more cynical.

Now here we are
And I'm suddenly standing

The image of Stonehenge blends into another one from several months in the future. This time there is a large military force, but only a few of the Guardians: Gunnar, Reika, and Sae watching the portal open for their final battle to save the Earth.

At the beginning with you

Just as the head of the Mother of All Dragons appears through the portal, and Gunnar opens his mouth in a battle cry we cannot hear, the image freezes and fades.

No one told me
I was going to find you

As the Guardians exit the stalled train outside of Belarus, Gunnar immediately takes the lead. Sae glares at him; but as he keeps walking, the camera remains on Sae, still watching Gunnar's back. We see her frown soften as her gaze becomes uncertain.

Unexpected
What you did to my heart

On the second shuttle to the moon, Ichiro and Reika teleport into a dark room, sharing secret smiles and quick kisses in their hideaway. But after we see them disappear behind one door, the next shot shows another door opening, as Ichiro emerges from a room by himself. Reika is outside, and it is clear from their different clothing that this is a scene from much later. Reika's and Ichiro's eyes meet, and then Reika walks into her room alone, closing her door. Her face is blank.

When I lost hope
You were there to remind me

Kyoko emerges in kirin form for the first time among the Guardians, head bowed and looking away from her friends. She looks up as Ichiro talks and gestures emphatically. We cannot hear what he says, but as he keeps talking, Kyoko's body relaxes.

This is the start

Nariko and Miya lay in beds next to each other in Vietnam, wrapped in blankets and bandages after Miya's fire trial. Though both of them look sunburned and weary, they reach across to hold hands.

Life is a road and I want to keep going
Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road, now and forever
Wonderful journey

We see Miya, still sunburned, being presented with her robes. The images then shift according to the quick pace of the chorus, showing Kyoko retrieving Ameterasu's sword underwater, Cyrus the Great twirling his scimitar and handing it to Sae, Gunnar drawing Balmung out of Sigurd's tomb, Rex putting on Abraham Lincoln's glasses and grinning, Nariko firing Yamakaze into a devil with explosive results, and Ichiro wrapping his hand around Merlin's staff. The final image is of Reika unleashing the Dead Sea Scrolls. They spin around her, blurring the image.

I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through

When the camera refocuses, the glow from the Scrolls resolves into the lights Ichiro used in his performance at the Okinawa hot springs, which flicker around him as he plays.

In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

The scene switches to that night in their rooms: Sae sleeps next to Reika; Miya sleeps between Kyoko and Nariko, each one holding one of her hands; in the boys' room, Rex is cuddling with Ichiro, who is deeply unconscious.

We were strangers
On a crazy adventure

A shot of the outside of the love hotel in Osaka. After that, general chaos in the BDSM room, followed by Badger-dono emerging from a pile of gear wearing a gimp mask.

Never dreaming
How our dreams would come true

We see Kyoko gesturing at a television playing German porn and talking casually, while the other girls watch with wide eyes. Their openly curious faces look very young.

Now here we stand

Miya stands atop a simulated Burj Dubai, her new dragon wings spread wide to the sky. The camera pans down her body. Her shyness is gone, and she is fearless as she looks down at the ground below.

Unafraid of the future

Sae stands on the hunting grounds of T-Kormias, over the inert body of the tarrasque. The camera pans up her body, inhumanly cat-like and covered with blood. Her uncertainty is gone, and she is proud as she looks up at the khar before her.

At the beginning with you

With a feral grin, Sae crouches and breaks into a sprint. As the music builds, she runs toward the camera, a blur of motion that ends up covering the screen.

Life is a road and I want to keep going

The blur of movement resolves into an image of Sae, this time in her human form, spinning to deliver a strike at Gunnar during a sparring session.

Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing

Gunnar counterattacks, barehanded, and he and Sae both go down to the mat. We see a glimpse of their eyes widening as he lands on top of her, before the image changes.

Life is a road, now and forever

Miya pilots her dwarven mecha outside the devil city in North Africa, making the bulky machine look impossibly graceful in its flight.

Wonderful journey

After Miya maneuvers the mecha to line up a perfect shot for Nariko, the two look at each other and grin.

I'll be there when the world stops turning

The image blinks into one of Miya bedridden. Reika holds her hand, while Rex sits on her other side, telling stories with an eager expression and sweeping gestures to get Miya's mind off of the pain of her emerging wings.

I'll be there when the storm is through

The next shot is from later that night, when Miya, Rex, and Reika are all exhausted and asleep, Miya now looking peaceful.

In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

The camera pans down in a blur, indicating that we are switching to a scene on the planet below. Nariko, Kyoko, and Ichiro are slumped on the floor, exhausted, but smiling triumphantly at the seedling sprouting from the Heartwood of Quarran.

I knew there was somebody somewhere

As the chorus ends and we move to the bridge, the image fades to black. When it fades in again, we are on a completely different scene. A young boy in a suit and glasses sits in an unfamiliar dark room, books open on a table and obscure symbols drawn on the floor.

Like me alone in the dark

The boy looks up, as if at a sudden noise, and though his face has none of the characteristic smirk or glower we're used to seeing, we recognize Ichiro. His eyes are wide and waiting.

Now I know my dream will live on

We see Gunnar and Father Raballo's first meeting in the Vatican. Father Raballo hands Gunnar a rosary, and Gunnar looks down, closing his hand around it.

I've been waiting so long

When he looks up again, the image of his face is superimposed with his face from the final battle, wearing the helmet of a crusader.

Nothing's gonna tear us apart

We see the final image broadcast to Earth prior to the arrival of the Mother of All Dragons: a photo of the Guardians from their first visit to Stonehenge, making obscene gestures at the camera and grinning in defiance. As the music builds toward the chorus, we can faintly hear some discordant sounds, and realize that they are the sounds of the Guardians, laughing and yelling taunts at the camera.

Life is a road and I want to keep going

Nariko fires a succession of arrows into Asmodeus, her face implacable and her arrows unerring.

Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing

Beside her, Miya moves among the innocent people on the train with them, healing them with her aura.

Life is a road, now and forever

Kyoko, bloodied after her battle with her mother, leaps to hug Sei, who drops her sword with a stunned look of relief.

Wonderful journey

Shin flees from Rex, disappearing behind a doorway. Rex skips in the air after him.

I'll be there when the world stops turning

Gunnar swings Balmung, both boy and sword larger than they have any right to be, severing one of the heads from the Mother of All Dragons.

I'll be there when the storm is through

Ichiro seals his father's sword into his staff, creating a scythe. His face looks utterly peaceful as he does so, before it transforms into a wicked grin.

In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

Sae and Reika fight in Hell, barely visible: Sae is a flash of movement and blood; Reika is nearly obscured by the blinding brilliance of her holy power. But when they both pause for a moment, they are standing together.

[guitar solo]

We see a quick succession of images from Yanagisawa Otonashi on his raid, and Uncle BB and Yanagisawa Mizuki in their command center. The images are rapid and confusing, mimicking the chaos of the two scenes. At the end of the solo, an explosion caves in the wall of the command center, obscuring the screen with smoke.

Life is a road and I wanna keep going
Love is a river, I wanna keep going on ...

Nariko rises as a goddess in her temple. The camera closes in on her rainbow-colored eyes. When the camera pans out again, she is holding Otonashi's hand and pulling him to his feet, while he looks down in wonder at his undamaged body. Fade to black.

Starting out on a journey

During this quiet phrase, we fade back in to an image of Team Alpha exploring hesitantly in the Yucatan jungle. The image is black and white, and looks grainy like old film.

Life is a road and I wanna keep going
Love is river, I wanna keep flowing

We see a series of images from earlier in the series. Reika and Rex work together under President Garrick Cross' desk. Kyoko takes Nariko and Badger-dono on a whirlwind shopping tour in Rome. Miya and Sae chat in the hot springs, Sae looking relieved and relaxed as Miya smiles at her. Ichiro opens his arms, looking impatient, and Gunnar receives his hug.

In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning ...

We switch to the scene inside the Cathedral of Blades, with the Guardians, their Protectors, familiars, family, and other allies, celebrating their victory with an ice cream party in Hell. The Guardians look markedly different from the images we just saw: more mature, more armed, more confident, or more inhuman. But then Rex walks by with devil loot falling out of his bulging coat pockets, and things don't seem that different after all.

With you

When the music pauses for a beat, the image turns to black and white and slowly begins to fade. The activity continues, however, and the Guardians show no sign of slowing down.

[ending music]

As the vocals end, the image of the party fades completely. During the final piano notes, we return to Gaia Earth, this time secluded in a chamber deep inside the earth. She is curled up asleep, looking pale and battered, but on her lips is a faint smile.