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Do you walk in the valley of kings?
Gravel crunches underfoot.
The quarry.
A cornerstone of Sentai. Ever-enduring and ever-important. The site of numerous battles. The graveyard of many. The nightmare backdrop of many more.
The quarry's stones hold memories. Of being blown apart by the customary explosions. Of being awash with blood as the tide of a battle was no longer in a Sentai's favour. Of being crunched underfoot as the warriors rose once more anyways. Of cries bouncing off them. Cries of surprise, of fear, of anguish. Cries of victory.
The stones there hold memories of generations of heroes standing up to fight for justice. Over and over and over again.
A time will come again when a Sentai needs to fight. And the quarry will stand, waiting.
Do you walk in the shadow of men who sold their lives to a dream?
That's all there is to it, really. Hundreds of bright young people who wanted to make a change. Bring peace. Justice. Unity. Kindness. Hope. And they sold their pasts, presents, and futures for that alluring dream.
Those people didn't fail in their missions, of course. The Earth still stands, protected by her saviours. But the ideals that these “men” stood for were never realized. The warriors continued to reach and reach for an unattainable goal. The impossibility won't ever stop them. A prerequisite skill for being a hero is stubbornness. An inability to give up what they want. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it isn't.
The fact remains that once a person accepts the power and responsibility offered by a Sentai, their fate is sealed. A person is no longer a person. They are a symbol. And symbols are eternal - immortal - where people are not. Not exactly selling one's soul to the devil. In that case, one gets something in return.
The quarry sees it all. Sees how many young people turn into young heroes. And eventually, they age into just heroes. The quarry sees them burn bright. It sees them rise, and it sees them fall. The quarry sees them reduced to what they stand for - stripped of their humanity.
The quarry waits. It watches. And it accepts each sacrifice to the Valley of Kings with open arms.