DISCLAIMER: All rights to the rightful owner. I own nothing but the brain I used to write this piece (and sometimes I wonder if I'm owning even that much!)
Message from the author: Okay, so chapter 4… Vida, for me, has always been the hardest one to tell the exact moment when she realized that Nick had a soft spot for her sister, because I thinking she was kinda flirting with him herself throughout the show. I'm still not sure whether or not she is truly happy for Madison in the final scene, when Madison returns to the store with the blanket in her hands after saying goodbye to Nick, or if she simply puts on a brave face to hide her hurt from Madison.
Chapter 4
Episode: Mystic Fate - Part 2
Point of view: Vida
We scramble to our feet. Shocked. Scared. Not really sure of what just happened. The Master destroyed our Zord..! I try not to panic as my head tries to figure out the meaning of that very sentence.
"Come on!"
A voice yells behind me. I see Xander gestures towards a cave entrance, some distance away and we make a run for it. My chest hurts and I can barely feel my legs, yet I keep running. Praying to whatever god there is that I won't trip on the treacherous sand underneath my feet. I'm not sure if I could get back up again if I'd fall. I am so tired.
Shepherded by the Master's laughter, we finally reach the cave. Madison is the first to enter, leading the way for the rest of us into the darkness inside. We reach an open space and stop to catch our breaths. Bent forward, with my hands on my knees, I try to take slow deep breaths, but it hurts. Pain rips through me. My lungs aches for much needed oxygen. At every intake pain shots through my body. All I want to do is to collapse onto the ground, never to rise again.
Around me I hear the others struggle to regain a controlled breathing as well.
"Alright, we're safe," Chip says after awhile from somewhere to my right.
"Safe?" The resentful retort comes almost immediately. Nick's face is grim. "Are you kidding me?"
There is something harsh and unfriendly in his voice as he says those words. Like he is the older brother and we are the ignorant younger siblings. I don't like the sound of it and I certainly don't like the dark shadow surrounding him.
"That thing just destroyed our Zord," he continues. "Not to mention Daggeron and my dad."
He is about to say something more, but it never comes over his lips. I straighten, not believing what I hear. It can't end like this. We've come to far, achieved too much. That thing in his voice, I hate it - failure!
"So that's it," I blurt out angrily. "The great Nick - the Red Ranger - is calling it quits?"
I feel the others stare at me in shock. I don't care. The only one I have eyes for is Nick. I can see in his eyes that he knows that I am challenging him and how a part of him wants to erase me from the face of the earth, but he doesn't do it. Instead he does the unthinkable, he starts to walk away.
Xander stop him before he takes a second step though.
"Oh, no... Don't walk away," he says with his thick Australian accent. "Answer her."
The look Nick gives him could even make the dead fear for their lives, but Xander stays put.
"Get out my way," Nick growls.
"No, Nick," Chip cuts in from my right. "You answer that."
He faces us all and I can tell by the dark expression that he's had it. There is nothing but shadows surrounding him. He starts to back away from us. Defeat oozing from every inch of his body.
"Guys, wake up and smell the darkness! We've done our best, we failed..."
He turns to the cave entrance. Somewhere out there is the Master, just waiting for us to come out and meet our dome.
"We're no match for that thing." Nick sighs heavily. His shoulders sinks a whole inch. "Fine, yes, I've given up."
Nothing could have prepared me for hearing him say those words. My heart sinks to somewhere deep below me. It's like everything comes off and there is nothing but a big black emptiness inside me. So this is it, I think for myself. This is the part where we give up. It was all for nothing.
"Don't you say that!"
The voice pierces the silence. For a split second I almost believe the words come from my mouth, but Xander and Chip turn to look at something behind me. It's... Madison!
"Don't you say that, not you!" She starts walking towards us, eyes locked on Nick. My sweet, innocent, shy sister. As she brush pass me, I see nothing shy in her eyes. Or innocent. Or sweet. Only a forceful determination.
"You have held us together through all of this. You will not give up!"
I never expected... this out of Madison. Lashing out like this... I am amazed. Stunned even. Such fury. It's like... like she's on fire. No, not on fire. She is fire!
Nick is as surprised by her out-lash as any of us, but his dark mood makes him recover quickly. I think he glares at her before making a new attempt to walk away. Madison is not gentle when she tugs at his arm, forcing him to turn back and face her.
"Listen to me!" This time, it's Madison doing the growling. She is as fierce as any hellfire. Her eyes impales Nick to the spot. "Giving up is not an option for you. We are a team you are this team's leader. We go on no matter what!"
Speechless doesn't come anywhere near to what I am feeling at this moment. My sister... I didn't know fire came in the shade of blue.
Before any of us has a chance to say anything, or even move a muscle, lightning strucks all around us and we are thrown down on the ground. Pure energy surges through my body and I think I scream of pain. I hear the Master laugh.
"It is time to finish this meal!"
I am barely aware of the others. I know Madison lies next to me, crunching in pain just as much as I do. Her voice echoes with mine. We're drained on the last bit of magic we had left. Now there is no more, nothing to fight the Master with. We're done for. A moment from now there will be nothing left of us. I pray to myself that the bitter end will relieve me of the pain. It is more than I can bare...
"Not here..." A whisper suddenly breaks through to my ears. Someone scrambles to its feet. I open my eyes and I see Nick rising. "Not now. This is not our end."
A weak smile comes to my lips. He believes... He has come back to protect us.
I open my eyes a little further and that's when I notice he isn't protecting us. Standing slightly to the side at my feet, he is only protecting one of us with his body – Madison! I almost ask myself why he is only protecting her before it hits me. Nick loves Madison!
I stare dumbfound between them. How... when?
A memory suddenly rushes to surface my conscious, a dialogue that took place what feels like ages ago, yet I remember every single word like it was yesterday. Madison had just regained her human form after some time being turned into stone. We were all back at Rock Porium, trying to catch up on the work we'd missed while fighting Necrolai and that… bird-thing!
I was making some sweet music behind the turn-tables, while being recorded by my sister on her camera, when a handsome young fellow approached Madison from behind. What they said to each other, I do not recall and it's of little importance. The dialogue that's surfaced in my mind is the one taking place between Nick and I when Madison left to show the young man around.
"Looks like Madison is really trying to come out of her shell."
Nick has approached me from the back room, where he has spent the last hour stocking goods. His hands are shoved deeply into the pockets of his jeans. From where I am standing I cannot see the expression on his face as he watches the pair walk away.
I remove my headphones just enough so I can hear my cocky reply.
"Yeah, but if that guy is messing with my sister, he has to deal with me."
Nick picks up a magazine and sits down on the speaker in front of the turn-table.
"Don't worry," he says with another look at the couple heading towards the front of the store, "she can take care of herself!"
Up until today, I always thought he meant those words as a compliment towards Madison, but now I realize that they were really a kick in the butt to himself for hurting her. Seeing Madison talk with Ben… Nick had been jealous!
Outside the cave the Master laughs again. The rumbling interrupts my thoughts and forces me to push back the memory for my mind.
"You are only one!" The large creature points out to Nick.
"And unfortunately for you... the wrong one!"
I see Nick take a firm grip around his sword and lion staff, crossing them in front of him.
"I call forth the powers of good magic left in the world!" He lifts the sword and staff over his head. "Off all the good magic still left in my body. Come to me now!"
The ground, the air, my body... everything starts to vibrate as magic rushes to him from all directions, charging him until he is ready to burst. Goosebumps rise on my arms.
"MAGICAL SOURCE, MYSTIC FORCE!"
The words reverberate over and over again in my ears as I watch him transform. Its a powerful sight, like watching a phoenix take flight and the image of it will be stuck in my head for eternity. The Red Ranger stands before us,once again ready to fight evil.
Outside the cave the Master snickers in delight.
"The Light will be most delectable!"
The fight is tough and brutal. The Master launches himself after Nick, time after time. I watch in horror how Nick fights the long poisonous tentacles. Every time I think he'll get caught, Nick manages to wiggle free. He is smooth and swift, fierce and forceful as fire when he decides to make his attack. With his lion staff he hits the Master in the head, knocking down the heavy iron plate that covered it.
"Nooo, my armour!" the Master cries.
Nick doesn't wait for the Master to retrieve it. With the roar of a lion, he takes a plunge, throwing himself forward to bury the sword deep in the Master's heart.
It must have cut some magical vein or something, for suddenly bright light hits us and we feel, rather than see that a portal has opened a way back to our own world.
"Return us now!" Nick demands. Turned to us he adds: "Take my hand!"
We get onto our feet and run toward him. As we take each others hands, all I can think to myself is to make sure to hold at tight grip on Madison. For Nick's sake!