So... I got a dark idea after rewatching Pushed To The Edge from Jungle Fury, and here it is. Basically, the premise is: what if the abuse she's been suffering got to Camille? Made her... Unstable? And what if, when Carnisoar told her to fade away... She almost did? Power Rangers Jungle Fury doesn't belong to me, you know the drill by now though. Also this is rated T since there is a bit of gore, although not too much.
Camille sighed as she stormed out of the temple, her eyes not looking up from the floor she walked on. There were no beasts, no RinShi around either. She walked alone. Just herself and her animal spirit. Flit would have been there too, but she left him fly and free roam before she had gone to the throne room. But she knew he didn't care anyway. Nobody did. Not even her Master cared for her anymore.
Carnisoar's words haunted her, stuck in her head. Naja's words stuck in her head too. They hadn't gone away. Had he been right all along? Did Dai Shi really not care about her life? The one who had been there for her, who accepted her and gave her a home... Did he hate her? Was he just using her? Putting up with her being around and using her skills when he saw fit to use them?
"No, there's no way that's true!" She muttered to herself as she left the temple grounds. "He cares about me! H-He loves me! I know he does! I'm just thinking about it too much, haha!" She laughed a little to herself, but her laugh sounded shaky, like she was fighting back tears.
Camille had been a lot more emotional since Dai Shi's return. At first, she was fine, she felt love and happiness and joy. But he began to hurt her. Kicks and punches. Blasting her across the room. Claw marks left on her skin. She hated the abuse. But she couldn't stop it. He did as he pleased. She had a lot of boot marks and scratches and bruises on her body, but she hid them so nobody could know the pain she was in. Even if her joints were in agony, even if every time she got thrown to the floor she felt like she was dying, nobody could know.
'That would only make him hate you more.'
"He doesn't hate me!" Camille shouted to the voice, holding onto her head. But it didn't stop. 'Hate, hate, hate...' It kept taunting, kept laughing. She shouted again angrily. "Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up!" She began to run to the city, and her body began to tremble. The voice kept laughing at her still, it wouldn't shut up. 'Useless, useless, useless... He hates you, he hates you...'
Camille ended up on the outskirts of the city, in a quiet area with no people around. The voice in her head was still going on, even if she begged it to stop, it wouldn't. 'You're useless! Pathetic and useless!' It shouted to her, and she screamed to block it out, falling to her knees. Nobody was there to hear her scream. Nobody was there to care. No people. No beasts. No Flit. No Dai Shi.
She was alone, with the voices in her head.
Frantic, Camille grabbed one of her sai from underneath her skirt. She had sharpened and polished them recently. It shone with an almost heavenly glow to her. But there was no sun. It was cloudy. It was even beginning to rain a little. Yet it still shone.
'Go on. Do it. Nobody will care if you do. He won't care. He will be glad to rid of you...'
Camille began to laugh a little as she grabbed the sai tight in her right hand, and pushed her dress sleeve up her arm, revealing her soft skin. Once fair and spotless, there was now marks that dotted her body. Some from fights with the Power Rangers, others from... Him. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "No one... No one cares..."
'Nobody cares.'
She placed the blade to her other wrist. "Nobody... Cares..." Tears trickled down her pale cheeks. She continued to laugh. Finally, she would be free from this pain. Free from having to put on a face for the sake of intimidation or to hide her weakness.
'Go on and fade away. You're completely useless.'
The lizard kept laughing as the blade slit her wrist. It didn't even hurt. She was used to pain now. "Fade away..."
'Good girl.'
The alarm on the TV signalled to the rangers that something was going on in Ocean Bluff. RJ was the first to the TV, as usual, but as he looked, he saw something which shocked him. He watched Camille talking to herself, screaming to herself, stumbling then falling to her knees.
"What's the alarm RJ? Where's the beast at?" Lily asked as she ran over, with Theo and Casey behind her.
"It's Camille, but... Well, just watch," responded RJ, before pointing to the screen. The four of them watched as the chameleon grabbed one of her sai from under her skirt. "She's not even in the main area of town. What's she doing there?" The group watch as Camille began to laugh. "No one... No one cares..." As soon as she placed the dagger at her wrist, they clicked onto what she was doing, what she was trying to accomplished. Lily gasped as Camille kept talking, kept laughing... Then slit her wrist.
"Oh my god! She's hurting herself!" The cheetah yelped as she stared at the screen in horror.
"What the hell... That's so messed up..." Theo said in disbelief as he too watched in horror as Camille began to damage her own body.
Casey clenched his fists. He was disturbed and shocked, but... "We can't just stand here! We need to go stop her, before she causes too much harm to herself!
Wth a nod of agreement from the other three, they grabbed a vine and swung their way into the tubes that sent them directly into Ocean Bluff. RJ led the charge, he recognised where Camille was, so he knew where to go to reach her. But it was quite far away from the restaurant. He could only hope they were running fast enough to reach her in time. Even if she was an enemy, it was clear she was more mentally and emotionally unstable than actually evil... Maybe she could be saved...
With one last desperate burst of energy, the group ran into the area where Camille was. It was raining, and the pavement was damp. Damp with blood mixed with water. There was a lovely view of the sea, but it was ruined by the body of the woman they ran to save, lying next to the edge of the pier. Her injuries she his were now on full display for all to see. For all to see the abuse she suffered.
"No... No no no we can't be too late! We can't be!" Lily shrieked, running over to Camille's body. The others all ran over too, and quickly began to look her over. "W-Wait.. She's breathing... She isn't dead. Sh-She's just passed out!"
"I can see why. Look at her... She's really beat up. How did she do this much damage to herself...?" Said Theo in almost a whisper.
RJ shook his head and looked at her wrists. Three neat and bloody slits on each wrist. The blade was on the floor beside her, her dark crimson blood just upon the edges of it. She was certainly clean and efficient, which would be impressive, if not for the fact that she had attempted to commit suicide. "She only hurt her wrists. There's no way she did all of this other stuff by herself."
"W-We did it, didn't we? Every time we fought her... We hurt her even more. Oh gosh..." Lily whimpered.
Casey looked at some of the markings on Camille's arm, after carefully lifting up the rest of her sleeves. Scratches. Red hand marks. "W-We did... But look at some of these. Big bruises, claw marks... Hand marks where it looks like she's been slapped... We didn't do any of those. No way."
Suddenly, Theo got an idea. One that made him shudder, despite it making a lot of sense, at least to him. "Do you think... Dai Shi did this? I-I mean, it's certainly not out of the question. We all know that Dai Shi isn't good. I'm sure he wouldn't hesitate to harm her."
"That's true. Then guess the next thing that needs answering is... Why did she try to commit suicide?" Casey asked.
"Well, given she was screaming to herself, and talking to herself as well," started RJ, as he used her other blade to cut off some material from his jacket, to make do as bandages so she didn't bleed out, "Something tells me she's not exactly in the fittest of mental states. Then again, if she's being abused like we think she is... Then that would explain why she's not exactly well."
Lily raised her hand a little. "Question: should we take her back to the restaurant? Will that be a good idea? I mean, she can't go back to Dai Shi, right?"
"She needs to be diagnosed and given some medication before she goes anywhere Lil. So she doesn't attempt to kill herself again." RJ sighed and looked at Camille. Her cheeks were stained with tears, she looks distressed even in her sleep. At least her crazy yet strained laughter had stopped. "We'll need to call an ambulance or a doctor."
Before the team could do anything else, a sudden blast of dark energy is sent flying at them, and everyone shrieked as they were sent flying across the pier, landing roughly on the soaked pavement. They looked up quickly, and weren't surprised to see Dai Shi himself. But something wasn't right. He was shaking. He looked mad, yet at the same time looked like he might cry. Flit was with him too, frantically buzzing around. Before any of them could try to reason with him, the beast ran over to Camille, and knelt beside her, now in shock "Oh... Oh my God..." Flit buzzed, terrified.
Dai Shi looked briefly at his unconscious companion, at the amount of blood on the floor, and he went pale. "W-What the hell did you freaks do to her?!" He yelled demandingly, trying to ignore the faint trembling of his body.
"What we did was come to save her! You're the freak who's been abusing her! She cut herself because of you! Because she couldn't take it! She couldn't take your hatred!" Lily shouted angrily.
Dai Shi stopped growling and looked at Camille. Her pale skin, peppered with bruises and scratches and marks from not just him, but other beasts too. 'This... This WAS all my fault... Wasn't it...?'
Carefully, the warrior picked up his comrade, and looked at the rangers. With one last terrified glance, he fled, with Flit following him, leaving the rangers both confused and very concerned.
Dai Shi ran into the temple, Flit still following him as fast as possible. Carnisoar was still there, and was surprised, or at least he seemed to be, when he saw his student rush in carrying the still unconscious and wounded Camille. "What on earth happened?"
"Master Carnisoar... I found Camille... In the city..." Dai Shi panted, "She hurt herself... Badly... I need the healer fast..." Next time, he decided, he was going to teleport back, no matter how much energy it took out of him.
"I'll go get them, you should take her to her room. Though I can't understand why you care so much about that lizard."
"She's been loyal to me for ten thousand years! I have every right to care!" With that, he ran to Camille's room, not stopping until he got there.
'I treated her so badly... Using her as my own personal punching bag, what the hell is wrong with me...?' He thought as he carefully laid down his companion on her bed. 'What's wrong with me...? Why was I so cruel? She failed, that's why... She failed a lot. She deserved your cruelty, to whip her into shape. So she does better. But... She's still loyal. She still keeps on trying, despite her failures. But that trying gets her nowhere. She's too weak to do anything useful. We should have just let her go.' Dai Shi argued with Jarrod in his head as he grabbed the stool by Camille's dresser and moved it over to the bed. As he sat down beside her, looked again at the beautiful, loyal, broken woman lying in the bed, Jarrod made a choice. 'I will make sure she gets the medicine she needs to recover. I won't hurt her again. NEVER again.'
Jarrod sighed and gently stroked Camille's tear-stained cheek. "I'm sorry... This is all my fault. I-I shouldn't have been so horrible to you... I'll try to be better. I promise."
In her sleep, Camille smiled weakly.
'He DOES care...'