Terry and Serena managed to get back to the Shiba House, fortunately before Ji or the others did. Serena had genuinely enjoyed the visit to the hospital, something that she wasn't really expecting. She had hated hospitals for years, not without reason considering the fact that she had spent a couple of years in one, being used as a human pincushion back while she was ill, only to still be told that it was hopeless and sent home to live out her remaining time.

This time though, she found that the visit wasn't quite so intolerable. She had barely noticed the sterile smell that still triggered feelings of sickness in her when she smelled it, flooding her mind with memories of being bedridden and helpless. The kids they had seen were all in hospital for a reason, no one stayed in hospital particularly long if they could help it, but when they saw Terry, they had all lit up, and for a time, they forgot all about their illness and their pain.

She couldn't believe the change in Terry either. Their early relationship had been somewhat strained, largely coloured by his ill-considered joke putting Emily's life in danger. She had thought of him largely as an irresponsible idiot. She had made her feelings on the matter more than clear, but seeing the way he helped the kids, she was starting to see that there was another side to him that he didn't always show. He never took life too seriously, but once he had finished with his performance, she had seen him talking to a few of the kids, and could swear that he was even examining him.

He wasn't yet a doctor, indeed as a result of the time he had given up to take Mia's place, he would have to defer his medical training for another year, but he was clearly gifted. He knew a lot of things that the others clearly didn't.

They had gotten changed back into their training gear, and were heading back out to the training yard when Ji arrived back. He saw them coming out of the house, and furrowed his brows.

"You're not training." He commented.

"Yeah, we...uh..."

"I slipped and fell." Serena told him. "I guess I'm more like Emily than I thought. I tweaked my wrist; Terry was just checking it over."

"Really." He sighed, looking a little unconvinced. He looked between them, and just shook his head. He could see that he wasn't going to get any answers from either of them. They were clearly only going to cover for each other. He also doubted there was any way he could prove anything other than the story they had given him. He just made his way towards the house.

"Brenda's getting a check-up with her doctor." He informed them. "I just came to collect some things to make her dinner when she gets home."

"Well, let her know we're thinking about her." Serena told him.

"I will." He assured them as he went inside. He couldn't help smiling a little. Seeing Terry and Serena closing ranks and covering for each other was somewhat heartening. He was never completely happy when the others lied to him, but he had been hoping to see Serena and Terry finally agree on something for days. Now, it seemed they did have a common goal. It wasn't ideal, but it was a start, maybe his house wouldn't turn into a warzone after all.

"Think he bought it?" Terry asked her as Ji left. Serena shook her head.

"I sincerely doubt it." She answered. "I learned long ago nothing goes on here without Ji knowing about it."

"So, why didn't he bust us?" Terry asked her. She just shrugged.

"I'd guess he probably figures its more hassle than it's worth trying to get us to admit it." She answered him honestly. "Besides, this is the first time in a couple of days he hasn't seen us trying to kill each other."

"Each other?" Terry chuckled. "I'd say it's been pretty one-way up until now."

He handed her a shinai, and twirled one as he stepped onto the mat. Serena followed him.

"Yeah, I guess I have given you a rough time." She admitted. Terry just smirked.

"Was that...was that an apology I just heard?" He asked her. Serena just rushed forward, swinging for him, their shinai colliding with a loud crack as he parried.

"Don't push your luck!" She warned him as they spun away from each other.

Back at the beach, the others were having a whale of a time, enjoying the rare opportunity to relax. Now that Dekker appeared to have ended his campaign against them, they were no longer confined to the house, and it seemed that Serrator had exhausted a lot of his resources in the battle to save Dekker from being destroyed.

Emily had managed to find an ice-cream van passing on a nearby road, and so they were taking a break from their beach games to enjoy a little snack. Even Kevin didn't seem to object to the unscheduled snack, opting not to remind them that ice-cream wasn't part of a balanced, Samurai diet.

"It's been too long since we've been able to do this." Mike commented as he put his arm around Emily. "I wish Serrator and Xandred would square off more often. If we're lucky, maybe they can finish each other off."

"Well, we can hope." Jayden said with a shrug. "We know Xandred's power now. If there's someone in the Netherworld that can tackle him first, that can soften him up for us; it might not be a bad idea to let them start the hard work."

"I just hope he never figures out how to break that curse." Antonio said as he noticeably shuddered at the thought. "He stomped the crap out of us, and he was only able to stay about five minutes."

"Yeah, we lucked out there." Kevin agreed. "I don't think we can rely on having that kind of luck again."

"What do you think Mia?" Emily asked, seeing that Mia was sitting reading. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. With the exception of Mentor Ji and Kevin, she was the one that spent most of her time poring over the books dedicated to their history, but since Dekker had broken her wrist, she seemed to spend all her time either playing chess with Serena, or with her nose in a book. Emily waved her hand between Mia's face and the book. "Hello...Earth to Mia, come in Mia!"

"What?" She asked, looking to them.

"We were talking about Xandred." Emily told her. "I know we're working a lot harder now, and now we've got this breathing space, we're just trying to figure out where we all stand."

"Well, Serena's still working hard trying to get that power disk working." Mike commented. "I know we've said this before, but I just get this feeling in my gut that if she can do this, then that'll deal with Dekker once and for all."

"Well, after last time, I'm not wanting to take any chances." Jayden told them. "I broke Urumasa before, and that didn't get the job done. We need to destroy it completely."

"Well, with any luck, taking care of Dekker will also take care of Dayu." Kevin suggested. "I mean, she's all about releasing Dekker right? If he's not cursed anymore, what would she have left to fight for?"

"That still leaves Xandred, Serrator and Octoroo." Jayden reminded them. "Not to mention that presumes there's no other ambitious Nighlock waiting to rise to take their place."

"Octoroo's too much of a coward to make any moves." Mike reminded them. "I think he's probably going to do the same as us, bide his time and hope that Serrator and Xandred do each other in."

"Not to mention he probably hopes we finish off the dirty work." Emily added. "He might be the one to watch in all of this."

"You still haven't told us what you're thinking about Mia." Kevin stated, nudging his fiancée gently. Mia just sighed and turned the book around, showing them something.

"What are you reading?" Jayden asked her. She just shook her head.

"It's probably nothing." She told them. She then looked to her and smiled. "Anyway, I thought we were taking a break? What's with all this Xandred talk?"

"I guess it's been so long since we could relax, none of us know what to do with ourselves anymore." Jayden commented.

"Well, we've still got a couple of hours before we need to be back." Mike reminded them, slurping the last of his ice cream. "Who's up for helping me with a sandcastle?"

With that, Emily, Antonio and Jayden ran off after him. Kevin just looked back to Mia, looking a little concerned. She was still clearly distracted by it. She was very quiet about whatever she was thinking about, it had clearly gotten to her.

"Aren't you going with them?" She asked him. He just shook his head.

"I think I'd rather stay here with you." He told her. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine Kevin, really." She assured him. "Go on, I'm not kidding. I'll be fine here."

Kevin was reluctant to go, but he eventually did, making his way to the others. Mia just turned her attention back to the book, and continued reading.

In another part of town, Spike, Bulk, Kimberly and Skull made their way into the city after dropping Spike's friends all back home. None of them felt especially much like cooking, and it was starting to get late, so Bulk had suggested they go into the city for something. Spike had suggested a steakhouse in the city that had a great reputation.

"This seems like a nice place." Skull complimented his son, taking a look around. It was a reasonably high-end place, likely the reason Spike had chosen it. It had been a long time since he had seen Kim, and even longer since he had seen his dad. He obviously wanted them to have a good time, and wanted everything to be right for them.

"I've only been here once, for my last birthday." He told them. "I just thought you'd like it."

"The menu looks great." Kimberly stated. "I always did like surf and turf."

"Could we have a bottle of the house red and a couple of colas?" Bulk asked the waiter. "We'll just take a couple of minutes to decide."

The waiter went to go and collect their order, leaving them alone. Skull just looked to Spike and smiled.

"I can't believe how much you've changed." He commented. "You've grown."

"The city really seems to agree with you." Kimberly agreed. "Your friends seem really nice."

"They really are great." Spike answered. "Cody's transferring to Central next year. It'll be great to have him at our school."

"You know, Vicky seemed to be really nice." Kimberly said as the drinks arrived. "Is there anything going on there?"

"Mom, please!" Spike groaned, taking a sip of his cola. Skull just got a little smirk on his face as he saw his son squirming.

"Are you trying to tell us you haven't thought about it?" He asked him. "I saw the way you were looking at her at that paintball game."

"Can we not do this?" Spike begged them. "Vicky's just a friend."

"If you say so." Kimberly answered with a wink as the waiter came back. "What's tonight's soup?"

Spike just shook his head in defeat, trying in vain to hide behind his menu. He knew he liked Vicky, and clearly they had picked up on it too. He knew they didn't mean to embarrass him, but sometimes because they hadn't seen him in a while, they had a habit of trying to overcompensate. He had to remind his dad that it would be another couple of months until his sixteenth birthday when his dad wrote to him to suggest he might buy him a car. He wouldn't be able to legally learn to drive it until the beginning of the next term. Now that they knew about his feelings for Vicky, he could only hope that they wouldn't be too obvious in trying to push them together.

Back at the Shiba House, Serena and Terry were still training when the others came back from the beach. Sereana just laughed as she managed to score a strike across his back. Terry let out a little grunt, before turning back to her, preparing for another round.

"That was tricky." He told her with a little grin. "I'll give you that. It was tricky."

"There's nothing tricky about being better!" She chuckled as they started again. The others all took a seat on the benches nearby to watch them. They always found it funny to watch them punish each other on the sparring mats. Both of them seemed to be coming round to enjoying the competition. They were both becoming used to each others' style, and they were not being caught by each other's tricks and moves as often.

Serena lunged for him, only for him to parry it, and seize her wrist, looking to throw her. Unfortunately though, she was a lot quicker and reversed it, throwing him onto the ground. She landed on top of him, her shinai across his chest as she leaned in closely.

"See what I mean?" She asked him. "Better."

"Maybe." He replied, grapevining her leg with his, and grabbing her wrist. He bridged up, rolling both of them over. He laughed as he held his shinai across her throat, throwing hers aside, leaving her unarmed. "But I'm stronger."

"That's what you think!" She answered, beginning to struggle against him. He managed to grab her wrists, pinning her down. She struggled a little while longer, both of them laughing until eventually, she breathlessly just submitted.

"So, my point?" He asked her. She just nodded. She was breathing heavily, spent by her exertions. She just looked up to him.

"Could you get off me now?" She said, starting to settle down a little.

"I thought you didn't need my help?" He asked her, leaning in. "I thought you were better than me."

She just laughed, looking up to him. She tried to remove his hands, but he had the leverage on his side, so he kept her pinned down. It was then that she saw something out the corner of her eye, and turned, seeing the others staring at them. Terry started to back off a little, giving Serena enough room to move around. Looking back down to her, she saw her face turn to a look of disgust.

"What the... are you...?" She got a foot up onto his chest, and shoved him off aggressively, sending him tumbling to the floor, smacking the back of his head off the mat. She started to scramble away from him, rolling back to her feet as she glared at him. "Were you trying to cop a feel?"

She looked to the others, and then back to Terry, looking more than a little angry.

"What?" Terry half-laughed, looking to the others, and then back to her. "You're...you're serious aren't you? Serena, we were just messing around!"

"We were supposed to be training!" She screamed at him, shoving him roughly, putting him back on his ass.

Just then, before any of them could say anything, Serena stormed off, leaving the Shiba House behind her.

"Serena!" He called out as he ran after her, but stopped at the gate as he saw her disappearing in the distance; resigning himself to the fact he was never going to catch her now.

"What...what was that about?" He asked the others. "We were working, but we've been working hard all day, so we just messed around a bit...What did I do now?"

"Come on, let's just get inside." Mia told her brother, guiding him back towards the house. "Serena will come back when she's ready."

"I'll go after her." Emily told them, heading out of the house after her sister. Jayden just looked to Kevin, Mike and Antonio and just shrugged.

"At least she didn't beat the crap out of him this time." He stated, putting his arm around the Gold Ranger, holding his boyfriend closely. "Come on, I set the TiVo to record Kill Bill last night."

"Uma Thurman in tight clothing?" Mike said with a shrug. "What's not to love?"

"Emily if I tell her you like perving on other women wearing her colour?" Kevin teased him. Mike just laughed.

"OK, I guess that would suck." He admitted. "Of course, then I might have to tell Mia the real reason you've seen the film 'Dead or Alive' like seven hundred times."

"Shutting up now." Kevin agreed with a fist bump as they went inside.