Disclaimer: Same as previous chapters.

Chapter 11

Xander ducked another kick from Carnisoar, who looked at him with a bemused look on his face and said, "You show a lot of promise human, we shall be training harder and more brutally I think."

Carnisoar looked at him and laughed inwardly; truthfully the few weeks he had been here the training was starting to harden Xander's heart, he would suit Dai Shi's needs.

After Carnisoar had left him alone Xander collapsed in a pile of tears as this was getting to him; his training was horrible and he felt horrible, it was almost preferable to being starved and having Dai Shi blasting him with dark energy, he could hear Surana whisper quiet things into his ear to comfort him but it wasn't working.

Meanwhile Dai Shi was in one of the ruins near his temple as he mediated upon the Abyss of Evil looking for Lothor's spirit so he could bring him out and train Xander in the arts of the dark ninja.

He sat waiting; he heard the wailing spirits of the Abyss scream for freedom and Dai Shi wondered idly if Lothor was even here?

Finally he felt Lothor's presence, he looked up and said, "Greetings Lothor, how are you this fine day?"

Lothor snorted and said, "You know how it is; trapped in a dark void for eternity, it's not pleasant but at least I don't have to worry about solicitors coming to ask me for donations."

Dai Shi smiled with a bit of amusement and thought, 'Lothor's imprisonment had done little to get rid of his sarcastic nature.'

As Lothor kept talking Dai Shi held his hand up and said, "Enough, I'm asking if you would like to have your freedom back? And also, how would you like to hurt your brother?"

"What?" Lothor said, "Freedom and I get to hurt my brother, what's the catch?"

"No catch," Dai Shi said with a smile on his face, "I just wish to hurt some Power Rangers that I'm fighting."

"Power Rangers?" Lothor snorted, "Lovely, but of course I'll help you."

"Indeed," Dai Shi said as he pulled Lothor out and gestured towards the exit.

Lothor smiled and said, "You know how to treat a bad guy don't you?"

Dai Shi nodded and whispered into Lothor's ear, "Betray me and I shall make your death incredibly unpleasant."

"Yeah, yeah," Lothor said, "I've done the whole evil team up thing before," and shook his head, "So what are you doing to hurt the Power Rangers? Standing around and sounding like one of the aliens from Stargate? You know what I'm talking about right? The snake things."

"Hmm," Dai Shi muttered, "You might just get along with Xander," and he wondered if that was a good thing or bad thing?

"Who the hell is Xander?" Lothor asked curiously, "And hey, do your eyes glow like in Stargate? I've been wanting to learn how to do that, thought it would make me look more menacing."

Dai Shi started to plot on how he was going to kill Lothor after Xander's dark ninja training was completed; no one compares him to a sci fi alien.

Lothor looked at Dai Shi, "But still, who is Xander?"

"Very well," Dai Shi said and began to tell Lothor the story and reason who Xander was and his plans for him.

Lothor looked odd and shook his head, 'Young people these days, they didn't know how to make plans,' he looked at Dai Shi and muttered, "Jeez, can't you just use the internet like the rest of us?"

Dai Shi looked back with a look of fury on his face and said, "Xander's spirit compliments my own; the Hyena will be mine and so will Xander, they'll belong to me."

"Wow!" Lothor muttered, "Someone's obsessed with a teenage boy," he looked back at the Abyss of Evil and wondered, 'Can I go back to the eternal void?"

At the Wind Ninja Academy RJ was pleased that Theo and Lily had responded so quickly as they were worried about Xander too.

But RJ was worried about Casey; he was pacing around in his quarters lost in self blame, RJ had tried to bring him out of his depression but it wasn't working.

Lily came by, looking worried and said, "Casey's taking this really hard, he doesn't eat or sleep."

RJ nodded and said, "He feels like he failed Xander and now he and his spirit are wallowing in self despair and feeling bad."

Lily glared at the closed door and waited until RJ left; she kicked the door down and screamed, "Casey Rhodes! Stop feeling sorry for yourself and start worrying about Xander!" as Casey snarled at her, she looked back at him unafraid and continued, "While you're here feeling sorry for yourself Xander needs you, he needs all of us!"

Casey growled, "I know that but I failed him, I couldn't protect him and Dai Shi took him,"

"Okay Casey," Lily said, "It's hurting me and the others seeing you like this and what's Xander going to think of you when we rescue him? Is he going to be happy that you sat here moaning and making a scene?"

As Casey looked down Lily looked at him sadly and walked out, Casey heard a whisper, "She's right you know."

Casey looked around and wondered, 'Who's talking? Why couldn't they just leave me alone?'

He looked up and saw a man wearing a leather jacket and was looking down at him, the man said, "Well, to feel really bad all we need is good whiskey or wine."

"Who're you?" Casey snarled out angrily.

"Name's Whistler and the PTBs sent me here with a message, again violating a deal we made with Zordon," he walked down and slapped Casey upside the head and said, "What the hell's the matter with you kid! I mean, Jeez, I've seen some people in bad form before but this sucks!"

"Leave me alone!" Casey said, "I want to be left alone!"

"No, I'm not going to leave you alone!" Whistler said as he slapped Casey again, "Do you think feeling sorry for yourself is going to help Xander! Let me tell you something: feeling sorry for yourself doesn't do shit for anyone!"

Casey rubbed his stinging cheek and muttered, "Leave me alone! I failed Xander, I couldn't protect him."

"It's not your damned fault!" Whistler moaned, "Dai Shi is more powerful than you are right now. What were you going to do? Fight and have Xander see you die? Yeah, that's a great plan. Why are you here when the armies of the light need such a cunning strategist!"

"So," Whistler screamed, "Get off your ass and realize that there are other people hurting other than you; think about his big brother and his father. And if you go back to brooding like Ratbreath I'll come back down and kick your ass again and next time I'll bring a damn sledgehammer!"

Whistler disappeared and Casey looked odd as he got out of his room and walked in where everyone else was discussing on how to help Xander, RJ looked at him and smiled and said, "Come and join us, we're going save Xander, I promise."

Casey nodded; he would save Xander even if it killed him.

Meanwhile Xander was doing his best to rest, he was in a deep sleep, dreaming. He saw Surana look at him and say, [We shall do our best to resist Dai Shi's influence but it's going to be hard.]

Xander looked at her and said, "I'm sorry about giving in to the meat like that, I was so hungry."

She shook her head and said, [You chose to live and no one can blame you for that, it was horrible as you were starving.]

"What's this Dai Shi's problem with you anyways?"

[In ages past Dai Shi was my mate back then; he was noble and pure,] Surana said, [But he began to grow annoyed at the humans covering the world and at night he would explain to me that we animals had to destroy the humans.]

"Wow," Xander muttered, "Nothing about this history lesson from Giles."

[Anyways,] Surana said, [He amassed a great army and began to make war on the humans, the following wars were brutal and I didn't want my children to get involved but it was going badly for the humans, some other spirits and I grew upset with the war.]

Surana changed the dream to a massive battle, Xander observed the battle between humans and the phantom beast army: he saw and heard the roars of the beast army and he felt fear. Surana calmed him down and he saw a younger version of Surana, along with some other spirits, teaching humans on how to fight the beasts: the first members of the order of Pai Zhuq.

[I didn't want to go against my mate at the time but the world was suffering and we had to fight,] Surana said, [The fight was horrible but our students managed to finally seal Dai Shi away and I went into a long sleep, until that idiot woke me up with that spell to merge him and I together.]

Xander just sat there shaking his head; he had learned more than he ever had in years.

[But Pup I am sorry, I had no idea that Dai Shi was free,] Surana whispered.

Before Xander could say anything a sharp pain woke him up and Xander saw Dai Shi look at him and smile, "No more rest."

Xander growled angrily, "I'm tired, let me sleep damn it!"

"You will not sleep unless I say you can," Dai Shi said as he looked at Xander's defiant look, he shook his head and laughed.

Lothor walked in and said, "So you're the little tyke I took from Kanoi?"

Xander's eyes flashed green for a moment and he snarled, "You took me from a loving family and placed me with my abusive family! Why the hell did you do that?"

"Umm; I'm evil, I hate my brother and I love watching him get upset," Lothor laughed, "And besides what did you expect me to do? Put you with a happy stable family?"

Dai Shi smiled and said, "I'll leave you two to get to know each other and," he looked at Xander, "Lothor is going to teach you more martial arts, like Carnisoar has been doing."

Lothor rubbed his hands together and said, "Xander, lets consider this family bonding time, we'll get to know each other pretty well."

Xander glared at Lothor and yelled, "I hope you choke on your bile and die!"

"This will be fun," Lothor said and sat down across from Xander, who still glared at him.

"Just don't kill each other," Dai Shi said as he walked out.

"Don't worry," Lothor said, "I won't kill him."

"He was talking to me," Xander growled, "I'm going to kill you!"

"Awww, don't be like that," Lothor said, "I'm personally happy to meet my beloved nephew."

"DIE!"Xander screamed and turned away from him.

"Oooh," Lothor said, "This is going to be fun."

TBC

Poll question: Will Xander kill Lothor? And what will Xander do when he finally breaks free if Dai Shi's control?

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