When Emily woke up she found herself alone in Serena's room. She hadn't been expecting this. She had so many friends in the house; she thought for sure one of them would be by her bed.

She remembered Serena explaining to her what happened. A seal had been put up as a trap which took all the power from the Samuraizers, stealing the Rangers of their symbols and weapons. But Kevin, Mia, and Emily had learned to summon their powers without the help of the Samuraizers. Of course, with the seal in place, their extra power came at a cost. Not only was it more draining to use their powers without the Samuraizers, but the seals hurt them.

And she remembered it hurt a lot.

She tried to push herself out of bed when the door finally opened and Mike walked in, hiding something behind his back. He saw her trying to get up and rushed to her side. With one hand he pushed her back down. The other continued to hide something behind his back.

"Sorry," he told her, "I thought I would be back before you woke up."

He pulled his hand out from behind his back, revealing a bouquet of sunflowers. He knew Emily loved them and wanted to get her something to cheer her up when she was awake. "I couldn't make them myself so I had to run to the florist."

Emily smiled at the gift and took them in her hands. She looked up at Mike.

"You didn't have to. I'm fine."

"I wanted to," Mike answered. He took a seat on the side of her bed.

"You're not trying to win me back," Emily reminded him. "We are still together, you know."

Mike smiled and leaned in for a kiss, "I know."

Emily gave him a kiss and then looked at her flowers happily. Mike always knew how to cheer her up. He always knew what to do to put a smile on her face. But then he took the flowers from her hands and set them on the night table beside the bed.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her as he took her hand. Emily shrugged her shoulders.

"Better, now."

"Are you still tired?" he asked. "If you want to sleep…?"

Emily nodded her head and as Mike was about to leave she grabbed him. She pulled him in and rested her head against his chest. She wrapped her arms loosely around his waist and shut her eyes.

Mike held her in his arms and rocked her, "Can I tell you something?" he asked and felt Emily nodding her head. He smiled, "You know I lost it. I let my anger get the better of me…"

"Mike, it's okay…"

"It's not okay," Mike shook his head, "I was scared of losing you and then I almost did. When I proposed in the kitchen, you were right to turn it down. We can't get married."

Emily pulled away and looked up at Mike, "No, that's not what I meant…"

"Em," Mike smiled and kissed her, then pulled her back into his arms, "Listen to me, okay. I don't want to marry you."

"Mike…" Emily tried to pull away again but Mike held onto her. She started to become upset and pulled more and more, but he just hugged her tight. "I'm sorry…" she whispered.

"Don't apologize, Em," Mike told her, "I don't want to marry you until I get my anger under control again. I never, ever, want to hurt you like I did. I want to love you, no matter what you do to me. No matter how mad you make me, I want to be able to treat you the way you deserve to be treated; the way everyone expects me to treat you."

He kissed her forehead and had her look up at him, "I've been seeing Dr. Fletcher. I've had two sessions with him already. He's been helping me out quite a bit."

"You've been seeing the doctor?"

Mike nodded his head, "If it means keeping you safe, I'll see him for the rest of my life."

"What did he say?"

"So far nothing I don't know," Mike said, "but he says we're going to work on relaxation techniques soon. I'll have new ways of calming myself down."

"That's good."

"He did say one thing, though. One thing I think we need to discuss."

"What?"

"Communication."

"We are communicating. We do communicate."

"Did you think I was really going to stop you, Em? When you went after Dekker to protect Serena and Terran, would I have really been able to stop you?"

"You couldn't," Emily shook her head, "Nothing could."

"So why didn't you tell me?"

"You would have tried to stop me…"

"How?" Mike asked, "Unless I tied you down, there would have been no way."

"You would have followed me out. I needed to be alone for Dekker to believe me."

Mike hugged Emily, "What you did worked, and I'm proud of you, but we're a team. If you do something, I at least need to know about it. Please, Em, help me keep calm by keeping me in the loop, okay?"

Emily nodded her head. She rested against Mike's chest.

"Deal."

Mike held her close until she fell asleep and then he still didn't let her go.

-Samurai-

Antonio had fallen asleep partway through the movie and Jayden couldn't take his eyes off him. It was creepy, he understood that, but he wasn't actually staring. He was just so lost in thought.

In his pocket was his cell phone. He remembered Amanda's orders not to contact her until the threat was gone, but he was starting to feel like he didn't have a choice. He never wanted to put her in danger, but he had to get this sorted. He was so conflicted, and as the red Ranger he had enough to worry about.

He shook his head clear of his thoughts and broke his gaze away from Antonio. He got up and walked into the hallway. He took a seat on the floor and leaned against the wall. He had Amanda's number memorized.

The phone rang several times before she picked up and said hello. Jayden was reminded just how much he loved her when he heard her voice.

"Amanda…"

"Jayden?" she was surprised. He wasn't. "I told you not to…"

"Something's come up. We need to talk."

As he explained all his confusion and all his feelings to Amanda, he didn't notice Ji had walked into the hall. Mentor was holding Terran in his arms, keeping the young boy out of his mother's way while Serena and James worked on figuring out what exactly their relationship was going to be. He found Terran liked to move around the house and explore all the different sights, and that led Mentor into Jayden's hallway.

He heard everything. He was a little hurt at first. Jayden had all these secrets that he never shared with him, but then hearing from Jayden's mouth just how confusing and how scary this was, Mentor could understand it was a big deal. He could understand why Jayden didn't want to talk about it to many people. From what he heard Jayden say, Mia and Serena had an idea of what he was facing, and Antonio knew almost everything, but no one else in the house even had a clue.

As Jayden finished up the conversation with Amanda, Ji slipped out of the hallway. Jayden would tell him when he was ready. Until then, he was going to respect his son's wishes.

He bounced Terran in his arms, "Why don't we go find Scruffy?" he asked the young boy, "Where's doggie? Do you see doggie?"

-Samurai-

After talking with Amanda, Jayden had a better idea of what he needed to do.

But first, before he could do anything in his personal life, he needed to make sure Arachnitor was defeated and the Sanzu Water was covered up.

And, most importantly, he needed to get his powers back.

He paced in the common room, back and forth. Occasionally he would look up at the Gap Sensor. As much as he hated Nighlok attacks, he was hoping it would go off. Powers or not, he was going to find a way to defeat Arachnitor.

"Antonio can summon up two swords for us," Mike suggested. "His powers haven't been stripped."

"He's tired," Jayden shook his head, "Just like the others. And when he recovers his energy…"

"What's the point in opening up the Black Box if we don't have our Ranger Powers back?" Mike asked. He took a seat on the stool and pulled up the map, "We need Antonio's help."

"So it's fine asking Antonio to drain himself and run into a battle knowing he'll be defeated, but when it comes to Mia, Kevin, and Emily, they need to stay home to stay safe?"

"We know where the seals are…"

"There could be hundreds of seals all around the city…"

"So Antonio will end up just like us," Mike said. "Powerless. He won't have to suffer miserable headaches, exhaustion, and pain. He's like us, Jay. He's got no idea how to tap into his Symbol Power without the Samuraizers."

Jayden clenched his fist tightly, "Don't remind me…"

"Dude, our lack of knowledge saved us. Sometimes, being in last place isn't a bad thing," Mike said and then he looked down at the map. There were still dozens of signals, but there was one that stuck out. "Jay, the Nighlok's in the city again."

"We have to go after him," Jayden said and he raced to the dojo, "We've got a few swords in here."

Mike followed him with an uncertain look, "Training swords?"

Suddenly, a katana was thrown at him and he caught it. It didn't seem as powerful as the Spin Swords, but it was definitely better than bringing a training sword into battle. He shrugged his shoulder, "Alright, it'll do."

"We've got no back-up, no Ranger powers, no symbols, and we're not backing down."

"Do it or die?"

"This Nighlok needs to be stopped. The seals need to be broken. It's always do or die."

Mike nodded his head and followed Jayden out the door.

Around the corner at the other end of the hallway, Serena and James stepped out. Serena turned to James.

"And that's our life," she said and gestured to the spot where Mike and Jayden had just been standing. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop on their conversation, but she and James had been passing by when they heard the boys talking.

James nodded his head, "I don't know how you do it."

Serena shrugged her shoulder, "We're raised with it. Since I could understand what my mother was telling me, I always knew I would be a Samurai. I always thought I was going to be the yellow Ranger."

"Then you got sick…"

Serena nodded, "I could have taken her place," she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the wall. "The Ape Zord chose her the day they met. I knew it, but I couldn't let her do this. She was just a kid, just a baby. I felt myself getting sick and ignored it. I thought it would go away. It didn't."

James placed his hand on her shoulder, "I'm serious, Serena. If there's anything I can do to help, I want to do it. You Samurai do so much for us, it's about time someone returns the favour."

"I can't ask you to risk it," Serena shook her head, "The Nighlok are dangerous."

"They don't seem to scare you."

"They try," Serena said and then sighed, "Unless you know how to program the Black Box…"

"I programmed my grandmother's VCR a while back."

Serena chuckled, "Cute."

"It couldn't hurt to have a look," James said, "Where is it?"

Serena had James follow her to Jayden and Antonio's bedroom. She signalled for him to be quiet so Antonio could sleep while she searched the room for the Box. When she found it, she gave it to James and pulled out her Samuraizer.

"I can analyze it," she said, "but I can't program it. I don't know how."

James looked at the screen on her Samuraizer, "It's interrupted?"

The Rangers don't have their powers. They aren't connected so the Black Box won't connect either."

"So they need to get their powers back?"

"A seal's stopping them from doing so. Unfortunately, I think they need this to break the seal."

"There's always a way to get in," James said.

Antonio suddenly sat up in bed, "What are you doing?"

James held out the Black Box, "You're the tech guy, right?"

"Yeah," Antonio held out his hand, "I've been working on this on and off for months."

"Mostly off," Serena said with a slight smirk, "This Box has been quite the bitch, from what I hear."

"It's interrupted. It can't completely the programming until the others get their powers back."

"Can't you hack into it or something?"

Antonio shook his head, "I don't think so. I mean, I've already had to hack into it… You're a genius!"

"What?"

"All the powers are already programmed inside," Antonio jumped out of bed and set the Black Box on the night table. "It doesn't need to connect. I've just got to get it started again."

"What?"

"Just let me work," Antonio said. He pulled out his morpher but just before he started a connection Serena placed her hand on top of his.

"Jayden doesn't want you to…"

"Then help me."

"What?"

"I can do all the technical stuff," Antonio put his Samurai Morpher away and gestured to Serena's, "I can guide you through it."

"You want me to do it?"

"It's draining and someone's gotta give it to the Rangers. There are no seals around here. If you can get it programmed I'll be fine for when the Nighlok attacks."

"He's already attacking," James said. "Mike and Jayden just left."

"Then someone will have to deliver it to them," Antonio smirked, "There are no seals here. I can morph in the house, give Jayden the box, destroy the seals that stole their powers and BAM, baby, we're back!"

"Alright," Serena said and held up her Samuraizer, "I hope you're right. What do I do?"