A/N: So...trying something new...Mystic Force for once. And in second person. I don't know what the hell spurred this on but well, here you go. As for my Spirit Riders series; new episode coming next week. I finally finished the damn thing...now to upload it. :)
This is it. This is the end. You can hardly believe it. After all this time, all the battles, all the struggles, the fighting for leadership, the falling outs and reconciliations, all the revelations and life changing decisions. You've destroyed the Master – together – beaten back evil and made Rootcore safe. You half don't know whether to laugh in celebration or sag in relief.
There are so many people in the store; you don't know what to do. For once, you don't want to be in the centre of attention. You've had enough of it after the big battle with the Master. You don't want to flirt, you don't want to pretend to supervise and you don't want to just hang out. Instead, you find yourself wishing, almost desperately, for the company of four people. Your best friends, your team mates, your fellow rangers.
You manage to battle – because it is a battle, what with the crowds of people packing the place – out of RockPorium, in time to see Nick kick his bike to life and roar out of yours. You see Madison, her back to you, just standing there. You're almost afraid to approach her, because you're not so good with tears. You can make people laugh, you can annoy Vida any time of the day, you can tease Chip like there's no tomorrows but tears, anyone's tears, destroy you.
But you gather the courage, because Madison's one of your best friends and you really don't want to just stand there and see her hurt when you might, just might, be able to comfort her, and walk forward. "Maddie?" You ask, reaching out to touch her shoulder.
She turns at your Australian accented voice and you see that though her eyes are near brimming with tears, she doesn't look sad. Instead, she is biting her bottom lip while a smile trembles. She is clutching a familiar red blanket to her chest. "He's coming back," she says in a soft voice.
You look at the blanket which, for a long time, has been Nick's most precious possession and he's given it to Madison. You grin, even though you've just lost that bet you made with Vida, and nod. "Looks it, eh?"
She laughs and hugs the blanket tighter. "Where're Vida and Chip?"
"That's what I came out here for. Can't find them anywhere inside."
Madison looks over your shoulder, at the teeming music shop, and makes a face. "I'd be surprised if you can find anyone in there."
You chuckle, glancing over your shoulder and then you see something flashing in the corner of your eye. It's bright yellow. Chip.
You turn and there they are, walking towards you and Madison with identical wide grins on their faces. Usually, those grins spell trouble and you stiffen slightly, waiting for whatever it is.
But Vida just holds out her hands and in them you see your and her morphers. "Look familiar?" She asked. "We found them in the back room. I think they're a present from Udonna."
"Do they still work?" Madison ask, taking hers from Chip and inspecting it.
You take yours as well, and look it over. It looks the same but when you flip your wrist in a well practiced movement, nothing happens. There is no sudden rush of magic or power. "Nope," Vida says even though you've just confirmed it. "But I'm still keeping mine. For memory's sakes."
"Me too," Chip said, his friendly face bright and eager. "And I'll use it when I'm telling everyone about all our adventures as superheroes. It'll be so cool."
Everyone laughs, because it is such a Chip thing to say. You sling your arm over his shoulder, hug him close like you always do. "And what about the cape, mate?" You asked, teasingly, even as his eyes light up. "No tale will be complete without the cape."
"Hey, you're right! Maddie, do you think you can make me something like I used to wear when I was a ranger. With the cape. Because I really do miss the cape." Chip added with that endearing tone that always makes you smile.
Madison laughs. "I'll see what I can come up with Chip. Well, I'm going to put this away, somewhere safe," she adds, holding up the blanket. "Vida, can I have the keys?"
Vida nods, hands her twin the keys to her precious jeep. Madison walks off and Chip, surprisingly, follows, saying something about capes and helmets and, suddenly, you're alone with Vida.
She smiles up at you, and the pink in her hair is such a contrast to the rest of it and her dye jobs has always fascinated you because they're just so shocking and the pink in her hair in even more because she's always professed she hates pink. You touch that pink streak, let your fingers play in the soft strands, remembering the time she'd dyed it green and how happy that had made you, though you no way admitted it and you're not admitting it now. She raised her brows. "Any reason you're playing with my hair, Xander?"
You flash that brilliant smile that has garnered you so many girls, even though it's never worked on this particular one, and shrug, dropping your hand. "It's just so…pink," you say in a tone that you know will annoy her because you're good at doing that and it does and she hits you in the belly.
You pretend to 'oof' even though the knock was gentle and you hardly felt it – so you tell yourself because even though she was a ranger, the male in you still refuses to admit being hurt by a girl. "Come on Vida. It's the truth." You, discreetly you hope, rub your belly and slip your free hand in your back pocket. You pull out your wallet, and with her warily watching – and why does she look so suspicious, what dangerous thing could you possibly pull from your wallet, except perhaps the one condom you've had since forever but to pull that out in front of her would be suicide and you've survived enough battles to actually like life a lot so you don't. Instead, you take out a ten and two fives because you spent the other ten on a milkshake and give them to her.
She looks at them. "What's that for?"
"You win," you say with a wide grin because, hey, for once you're happy that you've lost a bet because it means that Madison is happy and, cliché as it is, when your friends are happy, you're happy but there's no way you're spreading that around because it would just ruin the image you have going for you. "You're right; Nick likes Maddie back."
She grins, that quick impish grin that always makes you grin back even if you'll never admit it and nips the money out of your fingers, making a big show of counting the three bills before sliding them into her back pocket. You laugh and make a comment on her being able to buy those new speakers she wants and she hits you because you're being sarcastic and annoying again and somehow it turns into an upright wrestling match and your arms are around her and her hands are on your sides, tickling you and you're laughing so badly that you need to lean on her and suddenly your faces are way too close together and she looks startled and her lips part ever so slightly and you know it's probably a mistake – make that it is a mistake – but it's just too tempting and you take it for the invitation it probably isn't and kiss her.
She tastes sweet. Maybe it's the candy you saw her eating before, maybe it's just her but it's a revelation, that sharp tongued acerbic Vida tastes sweet and you want more and you deepen the kiss almost without meaning to and now she's kissing you back which just blows you away because, really, you were expecting a short armed punch to the gut. But she's kissing you back and it knocks the wind out of you as surely as that punch would have.
You don't know how long you would have gone on kissing her – forever, maybe, if you didn't need air to breathe – except you hear whoops and you drag your mouth from hers even though she's clinging and you'd never expect that from Vida of all people and it just about blows your mind but those whoops sound suspiciously like…
And there they are; Madison and Chip are standing on the opposite side of the road, grinning like idiots and clapping wildly and Chip is going so far as to punch his arms in the air like you're just scored a goal or something, which maybe you might have because you're just kissed Vida, which you've been wanting to do since almost the first moment you saw her, and, even better, she's just kissed you back.
Vida stumbles back, pink faced and you can't help but grin because it matches your hair and you say so and she punches you, just like you expected her to but sooner and you're bending over double because that really did hurt, damnit and then you hear her yell at Chip and Madison and you look up to see the show in time to see Chip give Madison money.
And now you're outraged because did they make a bet on you guys?
"No," Madison laughs, pocketing her winnings. "We made a bet on you."
"You bet that I'd kiss Vida?" You asked, half torn between amazed and outrage and that makes Madison and Chip laugh even harder.
"Yep. I said by the end of this month, Chip said by the end of this year. So I win." Madison sounds entirely too smug and way too much like Vida except Vida now sounds like Madison as she sputters, outraged.
So you decided to help her out and kiss her again, keeping it fast but hard because this is Vida and you think that maybe she likes it that way and she seems to because she looks sort of dazed when you pull away.
You smirk, which, as it turns out, was the wrong thing to do because she punches you, again, and storms away, into the mass teeming in and around Rock Porium.
And even though Madison and Chip are still laughing at you, and usually you don't like people laughing at you, you smile and laugh along with them because you've destroyed the Master, beaten back evil, made Rootcore safe, lost a bet to Vida, kissed said girl twice and it looks like – no matter how much she might protest and you know she will protest because she's Vida – you'll get the opportunity to kiss her again, many times.
This is it. This is the end and it couldn't be a better beginning.