Again a shout out to pinksakura 271 for the monster ideas and helping with this plotline.
"So how do you propose ridding Ben of whatever influence Sermaya has over him?" Audrey asked Mal as she settled into one of the stools by the table, still a little shaken over Chad's harsh reaction towards her and Lonnie, followed by him shoving her. She still wasn't sure what that might have damaged if Jay hadn't been behind her at the time.
"I'm hoping that the enchanted lake will wash the effect away." Mal revealed. She had moved Ben to sit at one of the tables a bit further away from the group so he didn't perceive any threat from Jay, Carlos or Doug. Her arms were wrapped around him, her hands lightly on his chest. "We just have to get him there."
"I'm not under any influences." Ben tried to assure Mal, not really getting that his possessive behavior over the last couple of hours was a result of that influence they were speaking about.
"Should be simple enough." Jay admitted. "But, why not just go out and get rid of Sermaya? I mean we're going to have to do that anyway."
"Remember we're not talking about some random monster that was created." Lonnie reminded him solemnly. "We're talking about something that is probably older than anyone in world, good or evil. Not even your father or Maleficent knew about this beast after all."
"Even Uncle Doc's knowledge of him was kind of on the low side." Doug agreed. "The odds of any of being able to destroy him right now are slim to none. If we could even find him."
"So Mal is right." Evie said from her place by Doug. "Let's worry about getting rid of this influence that Sermaya has over him and then we can worry about what to do about the beast king himself." She waved her magic mirror in her right hand a bit. "If it comes down to it we can just figure out how to trap him or seal him away or something."
"That would be easier if we knew how that happened in the first place." Jane said with a small shrug of her shoulders. Carlos sat by her. "I can ask my mom about it tonight though, see if she has any insights."
"Which is all fine and good." Mal agreed. "But we can't wait around for it. This needs to be taken care of now before something happens that isn't reversible by bandages and a little spell."
"You better get going then." Carlos said to Mal. "The sooner the better."
"We aren't going with?" Lonnie asked.
"You can if you want to." Carlos told the Asian girl. "But it might be safer for Jay and I not to. He's liable to tear us to shreds if we get too close to Mal."
"You can count on that one." Ben remarked.
"He might tear you to shreds." Jay said with a smirk to Carlos and looked to Ben. "I can handle it."
"Enough with the testosterone overload." Mal said with a pointed look at Jay and a squeeze of warning to Ben. Lonnie found it kind of ironic that Mal could give someone reassurance and warning with a touch. "Look, if it were a simple trip I'd agree that you two could stay here, or even let it just be Ben and I."
"But you can't." Audrey saw where Mal was going with this statement. "Because if Paradias doesn't do something against you guys first, Sermaya just might. He started this for a reason and unlike Nerissa I don't think it was just to make our lives miserable."
"It would actually be nice to know why Sermaya did that in the first place." Jane mused. She wondered if that had anything to do with why the red morpher didn't bond with Ben in the first place. As much of an asset as Audrey was proving to be to the team the fact was both she and her mother had planned it for their future king.
"Well if we have to go we're still going to have to maintain a little bit of distance." Carlos reminded them all. He wasn't too keen on his friend tearing into him and even though Jay might have been able to handle it, it wasn't something they cared to test out.
"Well it's a good thing we have four girls who can keep the distance between you two and Ben then." Audrey stated.
"You're volunteering yourself as a shield?" Jay said jokingly.
Audrey rolled her eyes. "Don't think of it like that. Think of it as a barrier. Unlike you two Ben doesn't see us a threat to Mal." She replied. She had to actually find that a bit ironic considering the fact she was one of those most opposed to Mal and her friends not too long ago.
Lonnie too saw the irony in that, and the further irony in the fact only ten minutes ago she was all but sure that Audrey and Jay were flirting, in the middle of a combat situation no less. "Audrey's right. It's the only way to travel."
"Okay then." Mal said. "Let's get going." She looked to Doug and Jane. "We need some sort of alternative in case this idea fails, plus I don't know if doing this will be a permanent solution or a stop gap one. You guys need to find a solution that will be easier to use."
Both of them nodded. "We'll get right on it." Doug promised.
Carlos briefly touched Jane's shoulder as Evie squeezed Doug's hand. Then the other two rangers followed their team mates and Ben out of the room.
"The rangers destroyed our monster and they broke the love spell." Paradias summed up. "And it was the wrong ranger to boot." He shook his head. "Ah well, no matter. What's done is done. But all is not lost."
"You have a plan?" Nerissa asked.
"I don't know where that beast warrior came from but he was able to tear down those rangers rather easily. Perhaps he'll be able to get it done." Paradias answered. He turned to Nerissa. "If that fails, we will need to have another plan ready to set in motion to destroy those meddlesome children."
Originally Ben had taken Mal to the enchanted lake on their first date with a combination of motorbike and walking. The latter was unavoidable at a certain point but with seven of them a small motorbike wasn't going to do it. They settled on a small car that Audrey drove. Jay sat up front with her in an attempt to distance him from Ben.
In the back seat were Carlos, Lonnie, Evie, Mal and Ben. It was a bit crowded but that was alright as it limited anyone's ability to 'get to close' to Mal and as an added bonus the purple haired girl's closeness also kept the currently possessed king from overreacting .
At what point did I become completely okay with seeing my ex-boyfriend with the girl whose mother tried to destroy my family? Whose very plot would have made sure I was never born if it had worked? Audrey couldn't help but wonder. But she found she could immediately answer those questions. The crime against her family was made by Maleficent and not her daughter, who had become a reluctant friend in the last few months, and she and Ben had never really fit, not in that sense. The truth was they knew each other very well, but as a couple it felt a lot like they were doing what was expected of them more than anything else. It as a thought Audrey didn't like but was clear enough to acknowledge. She just hoped then that she could find the one she was truly meant to be with, just as Ben had.
Then Jay's voice conveniently interrupted her. "You do know where you're going Audrey, right?" he asked.
The jolt out of her thoughts and the direction they were headed in, combined with who spoke to her, caused a small reddening in her cheeks. "Pretty sure I know where we're going." She promised him. "We're going to have to get out and walk in a few minutes though."
"Fine with me." Carlos voiced. "I could use some fresh air." Audrey figured what he really meant was that he wanted more distance from the possessive Ben. She couldn't entirely blame him, even if it wasn't really his fault.
A few minutes later Audrey pulled over and they got out of the car. "Hey, this is so neat." Ben said as he squeezed his hand with Mal's. "This is where we went out our first date."
"Yeah, it is." Mal said with a small smile in her voice. "I wish we were here for another one but this visit isn't as nice of an occasion." The other rangers let their leader and her boyfriend get a little ahead before following them.
As Mal and Ben walked hand in hand toward the bridge she couldn't help but recall their conversation on the bridge that first time. He'd asked her to reveal something she had never told anyone else. That was a hard one as once she had gotten over despising Evie instead of tormenting her they had shared almost everything together, the two of them defining friendship without fully realizing what that was. Then she came up with something.
She had told him that her middle name was Bertha. That was such an embarrassment to her she wasn't even sure she should have shared that one. It was just her mom being evil, as she had put it. Ben had told her his middle name was Florian. Mal had laughed at that one but she thought it was better than Bertha, which Ben had said as well but the purple haired girl hadn't want to let him in on the fact she agreed with him.
"I suppose you have nothing like this on the isle of the lost." Audrey said to Jay as they walked behind the two lovers. She was beside him while Lonnie and Evie were in front of them, Carlos was bringing up the rear.
"Not that I've seen." Jay answered with a small shrug. "It's pretty quiet here."
"That's a bad thing?" Audrey asked. She wasn't keen on the quiet either but every now and again the quiet was nice and she could appreciate the beauty surrounding them.
Jay thought a moment. "I guess not." He relented. "I've never really known. The streets of the isle were always so full and crowded. There's not much distinction between suburban and urban."
"Sometimes I've wondered why we weren't at least exiled to a bigger island." Evie admitted. "I mean there are so many of us after all."
"Far more than was expected I'd bet." Lonnie agreed.
"Not to play devil's advocate here," Audrey replied. "But what's supposed to happen? We can't exactly relocate everyone from island to island constantly. Most of the people on that island would escape and cause trouble again in the rest of the world if they could. It'd be too easy for those who should be there to slip away in the chaos."
"And not everyone is like you guys." Lonnie added hesitantly. "Not everyone there is secretly a good person in a bad situation."
"But there are others who could be just like us if given that chance." Carlos pointed out.
"I'm sure there are." Audrey agreed simply. "And judging by how things have gone with the four of you there will be another chance for another group somewhere down the line."
"Of which we'll no doubt get to be the ambassadors for the program." Mal drawled with amusement.
Evie hesitated a moment before asking, "What about those like Chad? Those who aren't happy about us being there and will probably never accept it?"
"He's going to have to accept it sometime." Audrey said as if it were a matter of fact with no alternatives. "Even if he'll never like it."
"And to be fair he's really the only one I've met who hasn't come around to it." Lonnie said.
Privately each of the isle kids thought that probably wasn't true. There was no way Lonnie, Audrey or even Ben could have known every single person in the land and what their thoughts were about their presence. It was just a matter of no one had been that vocal about it.
As they came across the bridge they heard a large crashing sound behind them. They could almost guess what it was. They turned to find themselves face to face with Sermaya himself. "Don't you have some bananas to go pick?" Carlos asked him.
Sermaya let out a guttural laugh. "I let you go once so that my brother could start to become who he was meant to be." He answered. "But now I'm going to make sure you kids won't be getting in my way again."
"Who he's meant to be?" Lonnie echoed. "What does that mean?"
"Mal, get Ben to the lake." Audrey said to her leader and friend. "We'll keep this guy busy."
"What she said." Evie agreed. "Just…hurry back."
"On it." Mal said and took Ben's hand. "Come on Bennie-boo, time to take a swim." With that the purple haired girl took off with Ben right next to her.
"As for us, it's time to get to work." Audrey said and the five teens pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers, and morphed.
Sermaya let out a roar and charged at the five rangers. All five of them braced for impact…
Mal felt torn. On one hand she knew that if she had stayed behind to fight Ben would have done the same thing. Even though it seemed as if Sermaya wasn't interested in killing her boyfriend, more like some sort of recruitment thing, accidents could happen and Ben didn't have the protection she and her team did. On the flips side of the coin not only did she hate abandoning her friends in a fight but between being under the stupid love spell for that jerk Chad resulting in her not being able to help fight against Heartwrecker and her not being able to help with the megazord quest she was starting to feel a bit useless.
Of course that was a far from fair analysis as she had single handedly brought that strange knight that kept opposing them to his knees while her friends had been zord hunting and that they were relying on her to help free their friend from this weird curse thing, but that was beside the point to the purple haired teen right now.
As if Ben knew what his girlfriend was thinking he said, "Mal, we can go back and help fight that thing with them."
Mal took a deep breath and stopped, twirling around to face her boyfriend. "Ben, first off you are not in any shape to be fighting, your just as likely to turn on Jay or Carlos as help us right now." She realized what she was saying and shook her head. "Second off, you shouldn't be fighting at all." She felt tears brimming her eyes. "Look, I'm sorry that for whatever reason you couldn't bond with any of the morphers, but in this instance there cannot be an us here. I can take the kind of hits those monsters tend to bring, so can Audrey and Lonnie and all of my siblings. But you can't." She felt a few of those tears fall. "You can get hurt, you can die, so much easier than we can. And if that were to happen…I think it would crush me."
Ben hesitated as he saw those tears and reached out to stroke her hair. "Mal." He whispered to her gently. For the first time since that Sermaya had…done whatever he did he was seeing beyond the fact he wanted desperately to protect Mal and keep her close.
"I can't see you fight like this." Mal said softly. "I can't see you die because you threw yourself out there when we're better off for this. It wouldn't crush me. It would kill me."
Ben waited for a second and then laughed a little.
Mal looked shocked and upset. "Ben…" She started.
"And you once told me you didn't know what love is." He said with a smile. He cupped her face in his hands and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. "But what you said proves that you do know what love is."
Mal's shock disappeared and a small smile crossed her lips. "It does?" She asked shyly.
Ben nodded and smiled. "Yeah." He reaffirmed. He stepped back a bit but still kept her hands in his. "Come on, if you think it's so important to get to the lake before helping the others, then let's get going."
Mal nodded and they quickly made their way to the spot they had their first date at. For just an instant Mal wished she had some strawberries but forced the random thought away.
"So how are we supposed to do this?" Ben asked her.
"Pushing you in come to mind." Mal teased him with a small smile. "But I think just some contact should do it."
Ben nodded and leaned down, brushing his hands through the water, collecting some and then splashing his face with it. There was no immediate sign of change like there was when Mal was starting to fight the love potions effects. Still, Mal almost felt as if something were changing, or really going back to the way it should be. "Mal." He said. "You know after this is over we're going to have to apologize to Chad."
"What for?" She couldn't help but ask. "He was the one who attacked you. If anything he should be facing some serious charges. Patricide or assassination or something like that."
"Because none of that would have happened if it weren't for the love potion Nerissa used, if that Sermaya thing hadn't done whatever he did to me." Ben reminded his girlfriend softly. "He was as much of a pawn in their plans as we were."
"And those things he said?" Mal asked. "Those weren't just a result of those schemes. Those were there for months."
"We can't charge a man for his words Mal." Ben replied simply. "He's entitled to his own thoughts and feelings."
"No matter how wrong they are." Mal muttered. "But…he did shove Audrey for no good reason. That wasn't part of the spell or the scheme. That was him losing his temper at a girl for something and didn't require a physical attack."
Ben bit his lip. The young king had to admit that was something he wasn't sure he could justify himself. Even in the possessed state he had known it was wrong to lay a hand on either of the girls. "You're right." He admitted. "But that's up to Audrey to deal with."
Mal blew out an annoyed sigh, not at Ben necessarily but the situation. "I think Audrey is right, sometimes you are too trusting." She commented.
"Luckily for you and your friends." Ben reminded her gently but seriously. He stood up to face her, stroking her cheek gently. "Go. The team needs you. I'll catch up."
Mal nodded and found herself almost ready to say the l word to him but felt the normal something hold her back at the last moment. "See you soon." She said instead gently before she turned and left. Luckily for her Ben could see what her eyes wanted to say even if she couldn't give voice to it yet.
Sermaya slammed his way through all five of the rangers. He then turned around and tried to bring his massive fist down on Carlos. Jay and Lonnie just barely had the strength to stop the impact and the yellow ranger quickly scrambled out of the way.
Audrey moved in to try to slash the creature with her bow only to find it didn't do much more than scratch him. With an angry roar he slammed his other fist into the red ranger hard and she crashed hard against Evie.
He then moved very quickly and tossed Jay and Lonnie away. They had the sense to roll with the flow and were able to get up quickly but it didn't change the very outnumbered fact. "How are we supposed to beat this thing?" Lonnie asked.
"Good question." Audrey replied. "Even with Mal I don't know if we can beat this thing." She took a deep breath. "Come on monkey brains. We're still standing."
"Not for long little girl." Sermaya responded and then ran straight at her, fists raised to try to smash her into the ground. Evie stepped up and directed her mirror shield at him. It caught the attack and sent him flying backwards hard, straight past and through some of the trees.
"Nice." Carlos said.
"Think you got some more of those in there?" Audrey asked the blue ranger.
Evie shook her head. "Sure, but I don't know if Sermaya will be so reckless about his attacks now that he knows I can do that." She answered.
The five rangers followed him to find the beast creature already getting up. "Nice move." He acknowledged the blue ranger. "But the question you should ask yourself is how many of those things can I take before you wear out?" He then started to charge the five rangers again.
Several blasts struck all around him and he was sent flying back again. The five rangers turned and let loose with joyful comments of, "Mal!"
"You guys miss me?" The purple ranger asked as she stepped up beside her team mates. "Or are you guys just slacking off without me to lead you?"
"Oh please." Audrey said with a delighted laugh. "I was leading these guys just fine while you went on your little sabbatical."
"Yeah, I could see." Mal smirked. Then something about her posture turned serious. "Really Audrey, you did great. Thanks for stepping up when I can't…or are unable too." She offered her hand.
The red ranger took the purple rangers hand. "Anytime." She responded. "But that being said, you care to lead us to victory over this big ape?"
Mal nodded. "My pleasure." She responded as the two girls turned to face the Sermaya with their team mates. "Alright ape man, you are going down."
Sermaya laughed. "Five of you, six of you." He stated. "There could be twenty of you and I could tear right through you puny little beings."
The other five rangers pulled out their blasters and then all six of them aimed their blasters at him and fired. A lot of the shots didn't seem to do much more than annoy him or distract him but at least it stopped any attempts at charging them.
"This isn't enough." Carlos said. "We have to get him to leave or defeat him somehow."
Mal remembered Doug speculating that they couldn't be able to defeat something as old Sermaya now, if at all. But then she realized she was hearing the rushing of water too and realized they were near the bridge and had a thought. "Maybe nature can do what we can't." She stated.
"How do we make that happen?" Lonnie asked her."
"We have to get him over the edge and into the water." Jay said. "Maybe the rapid current will take care of him or something. Or the fall itself."
"He's pretty hefty." Audrey pointed out. "Even if that plan works how do we get over the edge? He's twice as big and muscular as any of us, even you Jay."
"True." Mal agreed. "So we're going to have to hope we can use our combined might to surpass his edge." She looked to Carlos and Evie, arguably the lightest weight members of the team. "Take my laser." She instructed the blue ranger and looked to Jay, who gave Carlos his. "Keep him distracted as best as you can."
"Right." Carlos agreed as Evie replied, "Yes, ma'am."
Mal looked to Audrey and Lonnie. "You two strike him first, do your very best to get him off balance. Then Jay and I will try to finish this up." Both the red and pink ranger nodded in understanding. She looked at them all seriously as best she could with the helmet on, though her voice would convey the same sense of urgency. "We're going to get one shot at this before he realizes what we're doing and I have a feeling we won't get another one."
The blue ranger looked at the yellow ranger. "Let's give it all we've got." She said and the two of them increased their fire power by using their friend's laser guns as well. Audrey and Lonnie moved around the blasts. Lonnie leapt in the air and kicked Sermaya in the chest as hard as she could while Audrey slid on her knees to strike at the back of the beast's right leg.
"Nice idea." Jay noted as he saw the beast start to lose his balance a little.
Mal nodded. "Not at all." She agreed. "Let's capitalize on that quickly." The purple and black ranger leapt up in the air and both of them planted both feet as firmly as they could on Sermaya's chest. It was convenient that one of the laser ricochet's also helped to blind the ancient beast as he lost his footing and tumbled right off the cliff's edge. Moments later they heard a splashing sound.
"Is it over?" Audrey asked.
Mal and Jay looked over the cliff. Of Sermaya they saw no sign. There was no way to know rather their attempt to destroy him was successful or whether they would find themselves going up against him one day in the future. "I don't know." Mal answered simply. "But he's gone for now if nothing else."
They jumped at a sound and turned only to see Ben coming out of the woods and walking toward them. The six of them powered down and Mal ran over and threw her arms around her boyfriend, kissing him on the lips. After a moment she pulled back. "I am so glad that you're okay now." She breathed.
Ben laughed gently. "Well, it seems that way." He agreed. He turned to look at the team and hesitated only a moment. "Look Jay, Carlos. I'm sorry about what happened." He said.
"It wasn't your fault man." Carlos replied.
"Yeah, it wasn't you. It was the effect that damn beast creature had on you." Jay added. Ben exchanged high fives with the two guys.
"Are you okay?" Audrey asked her former flame and best friend now. "You got banged up pretty bad."
Ben gave her a small smile. "Yeah, I'll be fine." He replied. "How about you? I remember Chad giving you a pretty nasty shove, something Mal confirmed for me."
"He was just angry." Audrey said. "It's no big deal." She didn't see the look on the purple haired girl's face that showed she didn't agree with that.
"Let's get back to the campus." Ben said.
A day had passed. No one had seen Chad at that point. After classes Ben and Mal were walking down one of the halls. He had his arm around the purple haired girl as she kept that hand in both of hers. "Doug can't be sure that the effect has been removed completely." She was saying to her boyfriend. "He's working to come up with some way to guarantee a way to take care of it. Evie's been helping him out."
Ben smiled a little. "Those two are certainly something to see." He mused.
Mal nodded a bit. "If those two were to get together I have to say I'd be surprised, given what I remember of her growing up." She said with amusement. "Still, I never thought I'd be dating a goody two shoes prince…sorry, king." She shrugged. "So there you go."
Ben laughed a bit too. "I never thought I'd be dating the daughter of one of the most reviled villains in our history either." He teased and gave his own non-committal shrug. "So there you go."
They stepped outside and found themselves in the moment they both knew had to be dealt with but dreaded at the same time. They found Chad sitting on a picnic table. He saw the two of them and glared at them before starting to walk away.
The couple separated and started after him. "Hey, Chad. Wait up." Ben requested as they moved to catch up with them.
He turned to glare at them. "What do you want Ben?" He asked rudely.
It was on Mal's tongue to remind him he attacked a king and should be facing some serious charges but held off on it since it was not going to help them repair the damage that Paradias and Sermaya had ended up making them cause.
"Look man, I just wanted to apologize for what happened." Ben started to explain. "I wish I could say that it was all out of my hands but the truth is some of that was my fault, regardless of what happened. I'm sorry about the fight."
"I'm sorry about what happened too." Mal said to him, trying to sound as sincere as she could. It was kind of hard since, unlike Audrey, Chad had not only made no effort to make amends for prematurely judging them and had in fact only gone out of his way to make things worse. "I wasn't thinking clearly that day and I let my…my careless side get out and hurt you."
Chad snorted derisively. "You didn't hurt me, Mal. That would mean you meant enough to me to be able to have that kind of effect on me." He stated coldly. "You being 'careless' just proves how evil you and yours really are."
"Hey, come on man…" Ben started.
Chad turned back to him. "At least they have a reason for how they are, even though it's a pretty pathetic reason." Chad said coldly to the young king. "But you, and Lonnie, and Audrey. You have no reason to be so blind, so stupid to what they represent." He pointed at Mal. "They're going to be our downfall and you're not only embracing it you're in the same bed with it."
"That's uncalled for." Ben said pointedly.
"Is it?" Chad asked. "I don't think so." From the other side Audrey and Lonnie were coming over, also presumably to try to talk to Chad but the prince turned around abruptly and started to walk off. Lonnie barely sidestepped him but his shoulder slammed into Audrey's hard enough that she let out an, "Ow." As she dropped her books. He just walked away, giving both princesses the same cold look.
"I see that went well." Lonnie noted as she helped her friend retrieve her books.
"So well." Mal drawled. "I don't know what we're supposed to do to change things."
