A/N: Been awhile, but I'm back. Here we go!
JAYDEN's POV
"Heads we go, tails we don't." I said. I hated doing this. Putting a life to the flip of a coin, but I could think of no better option. It was simply too dangerous to go after him, yet I couldn't rest knowing I hadn't even given the idea a chance. Everyone understood. Everyone nodded.
I flipped the coin. My throat clenched.
"Tails. We don't go."
"So basically we're just down a ranger?" Kevin asked.
"Unless he figures out how to get back on his own, then yes."
MIKE'S POV
It was Dad. It was really him. But - how?
"But..." I began, "You were a samurai. Why did you switch sides?"
"I suppose I had less patience than you." Dad answered, "The old team treated me the same way the new one treats you. I eventually got sick of it. I ran away, and Serrator found me. Offered me a deal, and I took it. The nighlock treat me a whole lot better than the team ever did." I thought about it a moment. It made a lot more sense than I would have liked it to.
"Let's get out of the gap." Dad stood. "I've never liked it in here, it gets creepy after a bit."
He gave me a hand up. I couldn't remember the last time one of the rangers had done that.
I followed Dad through a red portal, and next thing I knew, I was looking at the netherworld. For a moment, I was alarmed, but then everything fell into place. The timeline, Dad must have turned nighlock before I was born, which meant by extension -
"No way."
"What?" Dad asked, glancing at me.
"I- I'm half nighlock," I stuttered, "aren't I?"
"You are pretty quick." Dad smirked. "Yes, you're what we call a halfling. Very rare, and very powerful."
I ran my hand through some of the Sanzu water on a hunch.
"That's why the water doesn't hurt me." I thought aloud, "Same thing with the air."
"That's correct, you're immune to it, just as nighlock." Dad nodded, "And believe it or not, it tastes surprisingly like fruit punch."
I knelt and took a sip. It did. The Hawaiian brand.
"Weird."
"Very," Dad agreed.
A thought occurred to me.
"To become nighlock, you would have had to give up your symbol power." I said, "And I was born after you turned nighlock. So how do I have symbol power?"
"Any symbol power you have is purely through your own energy. You have very little connection to the bloodline." Dad answered. "I'm actually 999/1000ths nighlock, but for all intents and purposes, I'm full. That 1/1000 human, that's what makes it possible for you to possess symbol power. The other rangers got their symbol power hand-me-down from their parents. Their strength is added to their parent's strength. Your symbol power is nearly equal, but it's all from you."
Dad led me down the roads, and what I saw surprised me. I saw a basketball court, a playground, and a school. It had never occurred to me that nighlock had to be children at one time. I watched them play basketball, and to my surprise, baby nighlocks were actually kind of cute.
Dad led me into what looked like a forest, but I didn't recognize a single one of the plants.
"I didn't know they had forests in the Netherworld."
"Yep, there's a few forests here and there." Dad answered, "I liked it here, so this is where I built my house."
We walked through aways and eventually came to a house that, even I had to admit, was pretty awesome. Tree houses are always awesome.
It looked like a relatively normal house, but the style was strange. Not something I would have chosen for myself, but hey, to each his own. We took a seat on the couch.
"Question and answer time?" I asked.
Dad nodded. "I'm sure there's a lot of them."
"How many halflings are there?" I asked.
"As far as we know, you're the first natural." Dad answered, "Dekker chose to be half, and was made so through a spell. You're the only to have ever been born by a human and a nighlock."
"Why does Xandred attack?" I asked, "What is he wanting?"
"It's Master Xandred around here, kiddo." Dad said, but continued, "We're running out of room. There's getting to be more nighlock than will fit. He wants more land. He doesn't wish to harm the humans, but that's necessary to get the land."
Again, this made way more sense than I would have liked it to.
"So, why do they need the Sanzu to rise?"
"Only if the Sanzu rises will we be able to survive out there." Dad answered, "We don't like tears or screams any more than any human, but it's the only way to make the river rise."
"So... They've had it wrong, all these years?"
"Yep," Dad nodded, "Now we can catch up later. Master Xandred wanted to see you as soon as I managed to get you here. I'm pushing it taking long as I have. I didn't want you going in there clueless though."
Dad led me through the doors of what looked like a palace. The color scheme was a little darker than was normal in the human world, but it actually looked pretty nice. I didn't' know what I had been expecting it to look like, but it looked relatively normal. Well, medieval type normal, anyway. Most of the passage ways were torch lit, but I could see that there was a way to use electrical lights as well. The colors red, black, and brown were used in abundance, with a bit of silver sprinkled here ant there throughout. All and all, beautiful, really.
'Xandred must have good interior decorators.' I thought.
We walked into a throne room, and I could see Xandred from a distance. Strangely enough, I didn't feel fear in his presence. Instead, I felt comfortable, relaxed. I found that fact, in and of itself, quite disturbing. As we moved closer, I sensed an aura of power radiating from him, just as I had felt when first meeting Jayden. I instinctively bowed. My father did the same.
"My son, Master Xandred." Dad said, rising from his bow, "You called for him."
"So I did." Master Xandred said, in a surprisingly pleasant voice, "Please, come closer."
I inched forward until I was about seven feet away.
"Master," I said, bowing again. It was then I realized what I had done. I had called Xandred Master. But it just felt right.
"Rise." Master Xandred said, "Such respect for the enemy is not common."
"I'm not so sure we're enemies."
The words were wet like silver on my tongue.
A/N: Woah! Didn't see that coming, he's changing sides so easily... Or is he? Even if he is, can you really blame him? The rangers are flipping a coin over his life. If ONLY he could read their thoughts and see the processes going through their minds, Jayden's specifically, really, then maybe he would understand. Or maybe not. It's still a jerk move, Jayden, sorry, but man up and make a decision yourself for once.