House of Rangers

Chapter 7: Day Off

A/N: Here's the next ranger based chapter. I skipped "Deal With a Nighlok" because I couldn't find many places to put Nina in it. So this is going to be based on the Day Off episode. There are a couple ranger episodes I am planning to skip because there's not much places where Nina can be put in, but I will try to do a good chunk of them. So what'll happen on the day off?

For the sake of this story, instead of the samurai fighting for two years, it's going to be one, but I'm still going to squeeze all the episodes into this. I want it to be so that Nina isn't away too long and can go back for her final year of school at Anubis House.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Disclaimer: I only own things not originally in the shows.

It was a week or so later and the rangers were kind of doing their own thing. Since the attack from Rofer, they only had one more. A Nighlok had been trying to make a deal with a baseball loving kid, which caused Kevin to stakeout the kid's house. They had learned Mia can't cook very well, but none of them wanted to admit it. As usual, however, they managed to get the day back to normal by destroying the Nighlok. Now, they were all doing their own thing.

Kevin was practicing his sword work on a training dummy as Mia and Emily were sparring again. Nina, Jayden, and Mike were currently nowhere to be seen. "Hey guys!" the green ranger called as he walked in, helmet on his head and skateboard in his hands. "Guess what."

"You overslept?" Kevin snorted. "Again."

"Yeah, well, that's nothing new," Mike huffed.

"So what's up?" Emily asked.

Mike grinned. "Ji just told me he wanted us to take the day off."

"Really?"

"This isn't a joke?" Mia raised an eyebrow.

"But, we just started our workout," Kevin frowned.

"Dude," Mike began. "You're telling me you're gonna disobey a direct order from your samurai mentor?"

Kevin thought for a moment. "Well, I guess not."

"What to do?" Mia mused. "I could shop for shoes that aren't designed for fighting monsters, or I could catch a flick."

"But it's such a beautiful day," Emily pointed out. "It'd be a shame to stay cooped up inside."

"Em, I could teach you how to shred," Mike offered.

"Well," Emily bit her lip. "I was thinking Rainbow's End. I've never been on a roller coaster before."

Mike looked shocked. "What? Never?"

"They don't have amusement parks out where I'm from," Emily shrugged.

"Then it's settled," Mia smiled.

"Rainbow's End here we come!" Mike cheered. The four began to move out of the dojo, running into Nina as they reached the door to the room.

"Hey, Nina, we're going to the amusement park," Emily spoke. "Wanna come?"

Nina shook her head. "There's a few things I gotta do here first. I'll catch up with you guys later." She walked out of the room in the opposite direction of the other four, who ran into Jayden on their way out.

Not very long after Mia, Mike, Emily, and Kevin had left, Nina found herself sitting in her room, on her bed. Her laptop sat open on her lap as she checked out a few things. The first thing she wanted to check out was her school's online blog and see what was going on with that. She knew that the Jack Jackal thing was still going strong, despite the few incidents that had occurred with it. After she finished reading the latest news at the school, she decided on checking her email.

The minute she logged on she found a bunch of new messages, one from each of her housemates. She smiled, thanking god that Ji had caved and was now allowing them to email friends and family. The first email she opened was one from Mick, who had said that he had gone back to Australia for school. Nina sent a quick reply before moving on to Mara's message. After sending a reply to the bookworm, she read Jerome's email.

Nina sent him a reply before moving on to read Alfie's. She had to chuckle when he asked her if she met any aliens yet, causing her to reply to it. Following his, she read Joy's, who she was surprised to get one from. Nina gave a reply to her as well, asking the brunette to do something for her, and then proceeded to read the email from Patricia. Following that, she read the email from Amber, who was giving her all the latest gossip she had missed in the month she had been gone.

When she got to Eddie's email, she understood what he was talking about. She sent a reply assuring him that his cousin was fine and that she may or may not have mentioned to Emily that Eddie has a girlfriend, and she had also asked him to help Fabian learn the secret, emphasizing "help" and not telling him. After that was done, she moved onto Fabian's email. The dirty blonde couldn't help but smile when she read his. It was clear to her he was a bit confused about what they had discussed in their video chat session, but he was determined to figure it out.

After she sent a nice reply to him, she closed down her laptop. She got up and decided that she could try and catch up with the others, but hearing a thud from outside caused her to follow it. When she reached the source of the noise, she found Ji picking up Jayden's spin sword and Jayden sitting up on the gravel. "You're not ready to use the beetle just yet," Ji stated. "You're literally playing with fire."

Ji stood and the two began to walk over to the red ranger. "Jayden, you must be prepared to give one hundred percent of yourself," their mentor continued. "Not just physically, but mentally."

"But I'm giving a hundred and ten percent," Jayden breathed as he began getting to his feet.

"Yes," Ji nodded. "But you're lacking balance in your life. You're pushing yourself too hard. And that's not letting you be at your best."

"Yeah, maybe I am pushing myself too hard," Jayden shrugged. "But I'm the red ranger now. I have to be the best and keep getting better." He took the spin sword from Ji. The older man sighed and headed back for the house.

Nina, however, looked at the red ranger. "I understand why you stayed behind today. But from what I can remember, there was a time when you were younger when we both trained hard. But we still allowed ourselves to have fun. I know you wanted to go with the others."

"The Nighlok grow stronger," Jayden huffed. "I must master the beetle disk before it's too late."

"The responsibility we bear is great," Nina continued. "But while you need to master the disk, you also need to master balance in your life as a samurai."

"Where did you learn that?" Jayden wondered, as he moved to begin practicing again.

"Gran taught me that," Nina stated. "You've changed a lot more than I thought you had. It's like you're not the Jayden I know anymore."

She left him alone, wanting to give him privacy.

"That was fun," Mia commented as the four other rangers sat down at a table in the amusement park. All four had ice cream cones in their hands and sodas in front of them. They had gone on quite a few rides and played a few games, but they had yet to go on a roller coaster. They were all hoping Jayden and Nina would join them before the day's end so all six could enjoy it, but at the moment, it didn't seem like either ranger was coming.

"Anyone wonder what's going on between Jayden and Nina?" Mike asked, looking at the other three. He had noticed a few things about the orange and red rangers that made him wonder what was going on between them.

"What do you mean, Mike?" Kevin wondered. Unlike the green ranger, he hadn't noticed anything unusual.

Mike shrugged. "I mean, anyone notice how they both don't always train when we do, yet they still kick ass? Or even the fact that Jayden really only seems to talk to her more than he does the rest of us, and Nina seems to talk to him a bit more than she does us. And today, when she declined to come with us it didn't seem like something she would do. I mean, I kind of expected from Jayden since the guy practically doesn't sleep, but I thought Nina would join us."

"So…what are you trying to get to?" Emily frowned.

"I think they're secretly dating," Mike theorized. Emily and Mia shared looks before giggling as Kevin just rolled his eyes and shook his head. "What? What's so wrong with that idea?"

"Nothing," Emily bit her lip. "But they aren't dating. Nina said she had broken up with her boyfriend just before she got here."

"Plus she also grew up here, in the city," Mia added. "It wouldn't surprise me if she and Jayden were childhood friends or something. It's possible that because they're both fire elements, they may have trained together when they were little. I doubt they're dating."

"Well, where's the proof of it?" Mike challenged.

Mia replied. "She has a scrapbook filled of pictures of her and her ex that her former roommate created for them. She showed it to us."

"I'm still sticking with my theory," Mike surrendered. "Something's going on between them, and I'm going to find out what it is."

"Whatever you say, Mike," Kevin chuckled. "But I believe the girls. They know Nina better than your or I do, and it makes sense that what they said is true."

"Whatever," Mike mumbled, right before the group of four heard screams.

After the fight against the Nighlok the first time, all the rangers were sitting in the common room. The chairs were set up in a circle so they could all talk and face each other at the same time. The fight hadn't gone too well, considering none of their attacks did anything to hurt the Nighlok. The only time they got damage done to the enemy was when they attacked at the same time. The others had noticed the new disk Jayden had, but only Nina knew what it really was.

"Man," Mike sighed. "That monster was working some bad mojo."

"I don't mean to sound like that Nighlok," Mia spoke. "But our spin swords and symbol power were, well, useless."

"It's scary to think what he could've done to us if he hadn't dried out," Kevin muttered.

"No thanks," Emily frowned. "I'd rather think about how we can beat him."

"Exactly, Emily," Ji nodded. "Fear is the enemy. If you believe in yourselves, you can win any battle. Confidence is what brings power."

Where were these pep talks when Sibuna needed them? Nina mused as she once again got lost in her memory.

Mike interrupted Ji's speech. "You weren't there. Our weapons couldn't touch him."

"That's not true," Nina snapped back to reality, having realized something. "We did injure him."

"I've been working on mastering a new power," Jayden stood up. He pulled out the disk from earlier and held it up.

"So that's what you've been doing today," Mia realized.

"A new disk," Kevin gasped in awe. "What is it?"

Ji decided to explain. "There are secret disks passed down from previous generations of samurai."

"Most of them have been lost in battle," Jayden continued. "This may be the only one left. With this, we at least stand a chance of beating the Nighlok."

"However," Ji finished up. "In order to master this disk, one needs double the samurai power they already have."

"Don't worry," Jayden assured. "You all focus on recovery."

"But twice as much power?" Mike raised an eyebrow. "Can you really handle that?"

Jayden nodded. "Thanks to Ji, I've been trained to believe I can do anything I put my mind to."

"So why didn't you use it earlier?" Mike asked.

"Next time," Jayden answered, before walking out of the room.

"So, Nina," Mia began as the girls were trying to fall asleep. None of them could seem to get any sleep, and they figured that maybe talking about random things could help them start to feel the least bit tired. Mia and Emily decided to see if they could find out if Mike's idea from earlier was true. "What's going on between you and Jayden?"

"Nothing, why?" Nina frowned. She was wondering where that came from.

"Well, you two seem to be awfully close," Emily pointed out. "And you both seem to talk to each other more than you talk to the rest of us. Mike thought it was because you two were secretly dating."

Upon hearing that, Nina couldn't help but laugh. Of course, she kept her laughter down, not wanting to wake the others in the house. "What's so funny?" Mia wondered.

"Me and Jayden dating?" Nina started to calm her laughter. "Yeah right! That would be completely disgusting!"

"Why?" Emily sat up, even more curious.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Nina sighed. "I mean, I just can't picture myself dating him in a million years. Besides, I love Fabian, even if we aren't together anymore."

"That's what we thought," Mia stated. "Mike thinks you and Jayden are dating, so he was curious."

"I think he has a bet going on with Kevin about whether or not you two are," Emily added.

Nina shook her head before lying down. "Then Mike's going to be out of luck."

It wasn't until afternoon the next day that everything was back to normal. Jayden had spent the previous night training to master the new disc, only for Ji to find him passed out in the yard in the morning. The others had gone to fight off the Nighlok when Ji went to get Jayden. After the red ranger joined the fight, the rangers combined their discs with Jayden's weapon, and they were able to take down the Nighlok, even when it grew back.

Now, as a reward for the efforts and since the previous one was ruined, Ji gave them the rest of the day off. The team, Nina and Jayden included this time, found themselves back at Rainbow's End, hoping to finally ride the rollercoaster. Nina and Jayden had gone over to the snack stand, grabbing food for everyone. "Next time," Nina looked to her brother. "Don't train yourself to the point of exhaustion. It's not good for your health."

"Another thing Gran told you?" Jayden raised an eyebrow as they headed back over to the group, each carrying three sticks of cotton candy.

"What do you think?" Nina rolled her eyes. "Half the things I know like that I got from things she's told me."

"Thought so," Jayden shook his head, slightly amused. The two reached the other four rangers, who had been standing waiting for them.

"I'm so glad that Mentor gave us another day off," Mia commented as the two approached.

"It's only fair," Mike added. "Since our last one involved scrapping with a Nighlok."

Kevin spoke his piece. "Well, if Mentor felt it was all right, I guess I shouldn't argue."

"Who is gonna argue with cotton candy?" Emily asked as she saw Nina and Jayden holding the snack. Nina and Jayden handed them out to the others once they reached them.

"This isn't really in line with my training diet," Kevin remarked as he took his.

"That's true," Jayden shrugged. "But it's okay. Cotton candy or a day off from training can be good for you. Ji reminded me that keeping balance in life is important. It lets us be at our best." Kevin took a giant bite of the treat.

"Come on you stick in the mud," Mike grinned. "The rides are this way!"

"Gosh, my first rollercoaster!" Emily smiled as the three girls followed the two boys, Jayden following them.

A/N: Well, here's this chapter. The next episode after this is "Sticks and Stones."

Also, the others won't know Nina and Jayden are brother and sister until "Test of the Leader."