Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers: (Super) Samurai. This is purely fan-made.

Since they had rediscovered all the pools of water that had surfaced in the forest and in the city while they had been away, the Samurai knew they needed to cover them all up. They couldn't have another accident like the one they had with Storm, and they couldn't risk people stumbling into the poisonous water and getting hurt or killed because of it.

The city had discovered some of the puddles and they knew it was bad, so they did their best to cover it up themselves. Serena and Emily still went on a walk to make sure they were hidden away properly, but for the most part, the city knew how to take care of itself.

They were in a construction zone, just the two of them. Deciding they would make a day of it, and try to get as much sister bonding as they could, they left the others to take care of the house. Antonio was feeling better, but still needed someone to help with day to day tasks. Storm needed to be looked after. Terran always needed a watchful eye looking over him. Just that did require an entire team of Samurai on alert.

Like a lot of other places in town, the construction zone had been abandoned. With Nighlok attack destroying the city, and Megazord battles not doing much to help, getting new buildings up was pointless and a giant waste of money. And with so many people fleeing the city for safety, there was really no demand for the city to continue growing. The population had taken such a nosedive, and tourists were less and less common, it was any wonder there were still people around. A few brave souls kept this place from turning into a complete ghost town.

Though, really, with Nighlok attacks occurring frequently, most people couldn't afford to sell their homes and move away.

Emily walked across a long wooden board, terrified to even think about what would happen if the board dipped too much, or were to just snap. The city had used it to cover up a pool of water, but the wooden board could easily be destroyed by the Sanzu Water. One touch, and the entire thing could light up in flames.

Despite that, there were wooden boards everywhere. Avoiding them would be like trying to avoid walking on the ground. Because not many people came to old construction zones, the city didn't need to do much to cover up the waters, but Serena and Emily thought differently. Nighlok could feed on this water and live for ages without ever drying up and returning to the Netherworld. Given how many times Nighlok dehydration had saved them, the Samurai didn't want to take away that one flaw the Nighlok all had in common. They needed these pools to be covered completely.

"Symbol power: rock," it was Emily's turn to trace a symbol while Serena kept an eye on the surroundings and the Samuraizer, which was littered in little red dots, indicating pools. Serena couldn't see anything but red.

After Emily buried one of the pools, she got off the wooden board and lifted it up, revealing another. Standing on her new ground, she turned to Serena, "Your turn."

"Symbol power: rock," Serena dropped a pile of rocks on the puddle somewhat carelessly which caused the water to splash up. Emily jumped away.

"Watch it."

"Sorry."

"Do you need another rest?"

Serena nodded her head, "Do you?"

Emily nodded and dropped to the new ground, confident it wouldn't give out and dunk her into the Sanzu Water. Serena sat down beside her, took off the backpack and handed a bottle of water to Emily.

"We should think about going home soon," she said, "We can do some more work tomorrow."

Emily had a look at her Samuraizer and sighed, "We haven't even made a dent. I think there's more pools than when we started."

"You know what happens when the Nighlok get stronger," Serena shrugged. Emily huffed loudly.

"The Nighlok are getting stronger, Xandred's already kicked all our asses, Serrator's up to no good, Dekker wants Terran and he wants you dead. Dayu wants you dead. Octoroo's just a pain in the butt…"

"We can beat them all," Serena wrapped her arm around her sister's shoulder and gave her a gentle squeeze, "Hell, you just defeated a werewolf by yourself. Xandred should be no problem."

"I'll bet mom didn't have this much to worry about. She just had Xandred. And by himself, he almost killed her."

"They had a tough fight," Serena nodded and remembered the condition her mother had been in when she had come home. She knew that had only been after several days of recovery and that she hadn't even seen the worst of it. Since then, Xandred had grown stronger, and there was a lot more weighing against the Samurai. But Serena knew they had the strength to end the war.

"My heart tells me we'll win," Emily sighed, "But my head and my gut say differently. My head says it's not possible…"

"I've always told you," Serena smirked, "listen to your heart. It's gotten you this far, squirt."

"You think we'll make it?"

"No doubt."

Emily smiled and looked up to her sister. Her grin was quickly replaced by a look of horror. Serena saw this and glanced over her shoulder. Her eyes widened and she shifted her position to cover her sister as Serrator walked into view.

"We'll make this quick," Serrator said, "I'm guessing I only have a few minutes before the others turn up."

"What do you want, Serrator?" Serena asked with her hand on her Samuraizer.

Serrator laughed, "You won't need that."

"Like we're taking fighting advice from you," Serena scoffed.

Serrator shook his head, "I'm here to offer you a deal. One of you come with me, I'll let the other live another day."

"Or, we both go home," Serena said.

"That wasn't one of the options. You see, slowly, things are falling into place for me, but even with all this luck, I can't guarantee everything I have planned will go off without a hitch. So…"

"Kiss my ass," Serena growled.

"Language, please," Serrator flicked his hand out and a black substance shot out and hit Serena right in the face, covering her mouth, effectively gagging her. Serrator shook his head, seemingly in disappointment, "You kiss your son with that mouth?"

"What is that?" Emily asked while Serena tried to pull the black gag off her mouth, only to realize it was stuck there.

"My own creation," Serrator said, "What do you think?"

"Get it off her!"

"She's always been a bit mouthy," Serrator chuckled, "I thought this would ease the process. Save me a couple headaches, should she choose to come with me, of course."

"Why would she choose that?" Emily asked. Serrator smirked wickedly as his hand grew into a larger hand, with sharper and longer claws.

"Because, if she doesn't I'll kill you both. And I'll start with you."

Emily shook her head and pulled out her Samuraizer, morphing instantly while Serena still wrestled with the gag covering her mouth. When she saw her little sister jump into battle against Serrator, she had to help. Forgetting about the gag, she traced her symbol in the air and morphed. She got her sword out and swung it at Serrator just in time to stop his giant claw from swiping at Emily.

Serrator grinned, seeing he had a real fight now. As he evaded every one of Serena's attacks, he kept a watchful eye on both girls. In a perfect world he would take them both. In a perfect world, though, his plan would work perfectly and he wouldn't need either of them. Unfortunately, this world wasn't yet perfect for him and he knew that if he pushed his luck and stole both girls away, he would have a very angry team of Rangers coming after in. He didn't need that. Not now. He just needed to kick them down.

As soon as he could, he grabbed Serena by the neck. He knew of Dekker and Dayu's plans to use her to take him out, so if he got her on his side, not only would he have a guarantee his plan would work, but he would take away an ally from the Rangers and from Dekker and Dayu. She clearly was the better choice. But the moment his fingers wrapped around her neck he felt a sharp pain in his back which forced him to let go. Turning around he saw the other Rangers, minus gold, had arrived.

"Maybe next time," he sighed as he eyed the team, "For now, I guess I leave you with a gift. Enjoy the silence, Rangers."

A Gap opened up and sucked him back into the Netherworld.

Mike held his hand out to Emily as she powered down and he helped her to her feet, "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Emily nodded, "He didn't have time to do much."

"What did he mean by 'enjoy the silence'?" Mia asked.

Serena powered down and was sad to see the gag was still covering her mouth, silencing her completely. But her curse seemed to be Mike's blessing. As soon as he saw his sister in-law couldn't speak, he couldn't help himself.

"Thank you, Serrator!"

Serena shot him a look.

Mike chuckled, "If you want me to be sensitive about this, just say so, Serena."

He cupped his hand around his ear to listen for her word. Serena knew exactly what he was doing and knew she couldn't say a word.

However, one thing Mike hadn't accounted for was her sister. Though it didn't need to happen often, Serena and Emily could converse without using words. Mia had seen it happen once when the girls were teasing her and said it was like telepathy existed between the two. When Serena knew she couldn't speak to Mike herself, she turned to her sister. Emily nodded her head and then shouted in Mike's ear.

"Be sensitive!"

"OW!" Mike covered his ear and had a look of pain on his face. He could hear the ringing start and was sure he had temporarily lost the ability to hear from that ear, "Emily?"

"It wasn't me," she shook her head and pointed to her sister, "It was Serena."

Mike looked to the older girl and saw she had her arms crossed and an angry look on her face, "What is Serena saying now?"

"There's an ice-cream shop not too far from here and that's she's willing to buy everyone a sundae," Serena's eyes widened and Emily giggled. "What's that? Two sundaes each? Maybe another time, Serena. We wouldn't want to get fat."

Jayden rolled his eyes but couldn't stop a smile from forming on his lips, "Alright, we'll get the ice-cream and then we'll head home and talk about what just happened. Serrator's got to be up to something if he's back."

As the Samurai headed off towards the ice-cream shop, Serena stayed where she was with her arms crossed over her chest. Not only had she not offered to buy ice-cream, but she couldn't eat it. Not with the gag covering her entire mouth. She couldn't eat or drink anything. She didn't know how she could last like this. It was funny for the others now, but sooner or later they were going to have to realize how much trouble she was in.

And to make matters worse, Serrator had practically told her he wanted either her or Emily. He had made it clear he preferred to take her, but he would gladly settle for Emily if Serena was, for some reason, unavailable.

"Serena, you coming?" James noticed she wasn't walking with him and turned to see what was keeping her. He saw the gag and smirked, "Aw, I guess this means no ice-cream for you."

Serena nodded her head and was hoping he could make the connection. No ice-cream, no food. Nothing could go in or come out of her mouth.

"We'll save you some for later," James promised her and grabbed her hand, pulling her along. Serena groaned, it was all she really could do at this point. It seemed she was going to have to find a way to tell the others once she got home.