House of Rangers

Chapter 21: Team Spirit

A/N: Last time, Antonio and Nina did a little bonding and helped stop the Nighlok from using a well to flood the earth. Nina is still getting used to Antonio being on the team, but she does accept the help he's been giving them. I am going to include HOA point of views in chapters involving rangers, whether the two sides interact or not. So what'll happen now that there's a Nighlok stealing spirits running loose?

Also, I know it's Emily supposed to be getting her spirit stolen, but because of something I have planned that deals with Sibuna, I have to have it be Nina whose spirit is stolen.

I have a poll up on my profile based on which pair of episodes I should write, since they lead into each other: Tengen Gate and Boxed In, or Broken Dreams and The Ultimate Duel. Leave a review on which pair I should do or vote in my poll. Whichever one has the highest vote by Tuesday will be the pair of episodes I write.

I may make this more than forty chapters so I can have rangers from other seasons appear and stuff. Just thought I would let you know.

Italics are dreams.

Disclaimer: I only own things not originally in either show.

About a week later, most of the rangers were hiding in the house, setting up for a surprise birthday party for Emily. Nina and Antonio were on good terms with each other now, and Nina was still getting used to having him on the team. Emily had no idea the others were setting up a surprise party for her. She was confused as to why she couldn't find anyone around when she went looking for them. No one was training; no one was in the kitchen, bedrooms, or living room. It confused the yellow ranger as to why no one was around.

To the four in the room connected to the living room, they sat silent, waiting for the yellow ranger to leave. Once they heard footsteps disappearing, the four let out a sigh of relief, glad Emily hadn't decided to walk toward them. Kevin opened the door and peeked his head out, making sure the coast was clear. When it was, he shut the door and turned back to the others. "This is gonna be tough to pull off," Kevin sighed.

"Have a little faith, Kev," Mia advised. "Once we get this stuff ready, all we have to do is hide it."

"Which is always easier said than done," Nina commented, helping the pink ranger sort through a box of decorations.

"Tomorrow's gonna be great," Mike stepped back from the poster and looked at his masterpiece. "It's Emily's first birthday without her sister, but it's so cool we're doing something special for her." A knocking sound stopped their actions and they all turned to the door. Jayden slid it open and looked in, causing them all to let out another sigh of relief. "You should have seen your faces. It looked like Master Xandred was at the door."

"Ha ha," Kevin rolled his eyes. "We just didn't want Emily to find us."

Jayden chuckled. "The coast is clear. Emily went outside. What about the cake?"

"I've got all the ingredients for an awesome cake," Mia spoke. "I just need to make it without her noticing."

"No!" everyone shouted, Mia looked surprised.

"I mean, we don't wanna risk it," Kevin quickly covered up.

"Besides," Nina added. "Antonio already ordered the cake from the bakery."

"Oh," Mia smiled. "Okay."

Over in England, it was another normal day for the Anubis House students. It had been almost a month since Nina had visited, and it was still only Eddie and Fabian who knew she was there. They all shrugged off Eddie's cousin visiting as something they didn't need to worry about. Most of the Sibuna members were still curious as to what really happened to cause Nina to leave, but none of them were saying anything and keeping those thoughts way in the back of their mind. Nina had been keeping in touch with them through emails, but they still felt there was something more.

It was just a normal, bright sunny day. School was over for the day, and everyone was heading back to their houses to get started on homework. With summer quickly approaching, everyone was eager for the school year to end. They still had a couple of months left to it, but they were getting by one day at a time. The group of eight Anubis House students found themselves walking as a giant group back to the house, enjoying each other's company.

It wasn't until a monster with multiple mouths making up his entire body appeared in front of them. The group of eight stopped short, all of them looking terrified. They wanted to scream, but nothing came out. They wanted to run, but their feet wouldn't move. "No need to panic," the Nighlok spoke, scaring them further. "All I want is your spirit!"

Without another word, he aimed his arm at Fabian and a giant, glowing yellow ball came out of the boy's mouth and went into the monster's hand. Fabian fell limp and unconscious as he hit the ground. The others found their voice and let out startled yelps as they stepped back so they wouldn't be hit. A couple of the girls and guys knelt down next to Fabian to check on him.

"What did you do to him?" Eddie glared at the Nighlok.

Before he could get an answer, the Nighlok left.

The rangers had heard the gap sensors go off, alerting them to a Nighlok attack in the middle of the city. As usual, they morphed on their way to the fight. Jayden had called Antonio to tell him to join them. When they got to the city, they noticed people in groups running away and screaming. The seven rangers shot back the Nighlok and stood together in their formation. "Snack time is over for you, Nighlok," Jayden began.

"The samurai rangers?" Splitface stood and faced them. Mike and Antonio drew their swords and charged. However, the Nighlok was quicker and split his body into the multiple balls that made it up and swarmed the two boys.

"It's like dodge ball with teeth," Mike commented. After knocking the boys down, he moved over to the other five. He was able to knock Mia and Jayden away first before knocking the other three. Nina was quick to recover, only to be struck down again.

"You'll make a fine dessert," the Nighlok looked at her. He outstretched his arm, the mouth on it opening to steal her spirit. Before Nina could do anything, her suit vanished and she fell limp and unconscious, her spirit going into the Nighlok.

"Nina!" The girls and Jayden shouted. Jayden angrily charged the Nighlok, only for the monster to split into pieces again. Mia ran in to help him as Emily went to check on Nina.

"Nina, are you okay?" she asked, sitting on her knees and holding Nina's head in her lap. "Wake up!"

The four boys and Mia crouched down near the Nighlok, looking ready to attack once more. The Nighlok spoke up. "I have to say it. Her spirit was delicious, just like her boyfriend's. And in twenty four hours, it'll be mine forever."

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Forever?"

"Of course," the Nighlok continued. "If you defeat me, you could have all their spirits back. But you won't have the chance because I'm heading back to the netherworld where no mortal can follow."

The guys and Mia stood, the latter speaking. "Guys, we've got to stop this creep."

"All of you try to enjoy your one last day with your friend," The Nighlok smirked. "Because I'm leaving and I won't be coming back."

"No," Jayden growled. "We won't let that happen!" The four guys and Mia charged the Nighlok as he took off, hoping to get him before he vanished.

By nightfall, most of the rangers were back at the Shiba house. Jayden had been able to carry Nina back, and Ji had gotten her set up in the room they used as an infirmary. Nina was still breathing, which was a good sign. The girls sat on stools beside Nina's bed, watching her and waiting for something to happen. Mike and Kevin and Ji stood at the foot of the bed. "Fifty four people including Nina had their spirits stolen. Official hospital reports say that the patients are resting comfortably, but we know better."

"I can't believe that by tomorrow night," Kevin began. "Nina and all those people could stay asleep forever. We have to defeat that Nighlok before that happens." Jayden entered the room.

"But he said he won't leave the Netherworld," Mia reminded them. "What can we do?"

"We have to do something," Jayden stated. "No matter what it takes, we have to save her." The room fell silent, no one knowing what to say or do.

The silence was broken by the sound of a cell phone ringing. It was surprising to hear one ringing, since none of them really used their phones anymore. Ji had lifted the contact rule to no physical contact with friends and family aside from those in the house due to what happened to Mike's friends a while back. He made the rule change after realizing that letting them be able to get in touch with their families and friends would help keep suspicions off about them being rangers and realizing it was good for them all to keep their social life.

Emily, being brave, looked at Nina's cell phone on the nightstand, which was sitting next to Nina's folding zord. She saw the name flashing across the screen. "It's Eddie, my cousin."

"Should we answer it?" Mike wondered. "I mean, he does know about us, right?"

"He does," Emily nodded.

Ji sighed. "Answer it, and see what he wants. Put it on speaker." Emily nodded and answered the call, leaving the phone on the nightstand and hitting the speaker button so everyone could hear.

"Hello?" she called out.

"Emily?" Eddie's voice floated in, sounding confused. "Why are you answering Nina's phone?"

"Doesn't matter," Emily replied. "Why are you calling?"

"One of those Nighlok things attacked Fabian," Eddie sighed. Aside from Mike and Emily, everyone else frowned in confusion, having not met Fabian before. "We don't know why, but we also don't know what happened."

"He must've had his spirit stolen like Nina did," Emily realized. Everyone else remained quiet, listening to the conversation.

Eddie didn't like the sound of that. "I knew something as wrong with Nina, which is the other reason why I'm calling."

"How did you know something was wrong?" Emily frowned.

"She told you about the Egyptian thing with the cup and whatnot, right?" Eddie asked. Emily confirmed it. "Well, I'm the Osirion, which means I'm her protector. Not sure how exactly it works out, but she's connected to me and I'm connected to her, so if one of us gets hurt or something, the other feels it."

"She didn't tell us that part," Emily sighed.

"Is there a way to fix this?" Eddie wondered.

Emily bit her lip. "We're working on it." She hung up on Eddie and looked to the others, all of who wanted to find the Nighlok and destroy it even more.

By morning in England, the Anubis students were excused from having to go to school that day, after telling Trudy what had happened. They were all a bit shaken up by it, and only Eddie knew what really happened. After breakfast, the Sibuna members who could do anything met up in Patricia and Joy's room, needing to discuss this. It was clear something was going on if the school was attacked twice by the same type of creatures.

"Okay, something is definitely going on," Patricia summed up. "None of this weird stuff with those monster things started happening until after Nina left."

"Way to state the obvious," Alfie rolled his eyes.

"Maybe this has something to do with why Nina had to leave," Joy suggested. "I mean, it would kind of make sense."

Amber changed the subject a bit. "That's not all. People have been in the tunnels recently."

"How can you tell?" Alfie questioned.

"A few weeks ago, I kind of saw Fabian sneaking back into the kitchen," Amber admitted. "There were people with him, and I could hear them talking, but I couldn't tell who they were. So when I went down to look, four amulets were warm."

"Warm?" Joy raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Amber nodded. "They get warm after the beacon light."

Patricia got an idea. "Does this mean we have another mystery on our hands?"

All of them looked around at each other.

"Sibuna!"

Nina had no idea where she was or why she was where she was. All she knew was that one minute, she was fighting on the battle field with the others, and the next, she was in a strange room with at least fifty other people she didn't know. The room had no walls, and there was hardly a floor, if it could be called that. She still knew that the Nighlok had done something to her, but she wasn't sure what. She just felt…empty.

"Nina?" she heard someone call, and she turned around to find Fabian standing behind her. Not caring why he was here, she hugged him. Fabian returned the hug, confused like she was. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," she shrugged, pulling away. "My team and I were battling a Nighlok, he hit me with something, and next thing I know, I'm here."

"Did it have a bunch of mouths on different balls to make up its body?" Fabian wondered.

"Yeah," Nina frowned. "How did you know?"

Fabian bit his lip. "He showed up in front of us on our way back to the house. He only got me, and I don't know why he was there or why he attacked us."

"They shouldn't be," Nina stated. "The cup and elixir aren't there, so there's no reason why they should be attacking you guys."

"Any idea what happened to us?" Fabian asked.

"None," Nina sighed. "All I know is that I feel…empty."

The next morning, Mia had gone into the infirmary to check on Nina. She saw the girl was still out cold, but her zord seemed to be freaking out. The pink ranger wasn't sure what to do about that. She wet a facecloth in a bowl of water and squeezed it out. She dabbed it across Nina's forehead, and the girl began to stir. Emily, who was in the room with Mia, saw this as well. She called out to the others. "Nina's awake!" the two girls helped Nina sit up as the boys came in.

"Sorry guys," she apologized. She could tell she was back in the house, but it didn't feel like she was. "I let him get me."

"Don't be silly," Mike advised. "We're just glad you're okay."

"Thanks for putting on the brave face, but I know I'm not okay," Nina looked around the room. "I feel empty."

"Don't worry," Mia assured. "We'll figure it out."

"We're not gonna let you down," Jayden added. "We'll save you. Just hold on till then." Nina's only response was letting out a quiet breath before drifting back off into sleep.

Emily became worried. "She's falling back to sleep."

"Nina," Jayden shook her, becoming worried. Of course, knowing that Nina was his sister, they figured this would affect him more than everyone else. He wasted no time in getting up and running out the door, determined to find the Nighlok. Sharing a look, the other four followed him.

With the rangers out fighting and Nina still in bed being looked after by Ji, Evelyn decided this would be the best time to go visit. She had sensed something was wrong with her granddaughter, and she knew it was time to do something about it. The old woman figured something like this would happen eventually, but she was hoping it wouldn't be for a while longer.

When she approached the house, she dug out her key to it. She walked through the gate and up to the door, unlocking it with the key. She had the key in case there was ever an emergency or something important to discuss about Nina and Jayden, but she rarely used it. Knowing where her granddaughter would be, Evelyn made her way toward the infirmary. She looked inside and saw Ji sitting on the bed beside a sleeping Nina. The ocelot zord was stressing out, or so it appeared to be.

"What happened to her?"

Ji looked up and was surprised to see Evelyn there. "Evelyn, what are you doing here?"

"My granddaughter is in trouble and you expect me to sit back and do nothing?" the woman raised an eyebrow, walking in. she held her hand out for the zord, which bounced over to her. "I felt her spirit be stolen. Why do you think this little guy is freaking out?"

"What are you saying?" Ji was confused.

"Nina has more power than anyone realizes," Evelyn stated. "Including herself. She only thinks her samurai powers and being the Chosen One is all she has, but it's not."

"She has more power?" Ji raised an eyebrow. "Why weren't we told this sooner?"

Evelyn sighed. "The reason why they wanted the kids to be kept separate is so they could harness their powers separately. We Martin women have always had more power than people thought, other than just our samurai powers. Why do you think it's Lauren and Nina that are the ones who have to master the sealing symbol?"

"They have more power than Jayden does," Ji realized.

"And if Master Xandred knew about it," Evelyn continued. "It would make the situation worse."

"So what is this extra power the girls have?" the mentor asked. This was the first he was hearing of this.

"All Martin women belong to the Pai Zhuq," Evelyn sighed, looking at her granddaughter. When her granddaughters had been born, she was hoping that one of them would've been skipped over when it came to the Pai Zhuq powers. It didn't seem to be the case, since when each girl was around four, they were showing signs of having animal spirits. When Lauren was seven and showed signs of having it again, she had been sent to live near the Pai Zhuq academy to master her animal spirit and practice the sealing symbol. Nina only showed signs of it shortly after she had gone to live with her grandmother, showing that there was no escaping it.

Evelyn hadn't sent Nina to the Pai Zhuq academy because she had only shown signs of activating her animal spirit that once. She didn't think it would make much of a difference. However, she knew that it would cause a problem now, since Nina's spirit was stolen. Evelyn knew what could possibly happen if Nina got her spirit back and complications arose, and she had a plan in mind for what should happen if something happened to Nina.

"Our animal spirits are what helped us connect to our zords," Evelyn explained. "And to our other powers. For Nina, though, it was different. Her powers started off with her samurai ones, and because of her birthday, she had the powers of the Chosen One. She only showed signs of the Pai Zhuq powers once, but this could cause problems with that."

"What do you suggest we do, then?" Ji looked up at the woman.

A bright light entering from the window caught their eye. They saw a ball of light float in and down into Nina, who let out a sharp gasp and sat upright. She opened her eyes and looked around, feeling much better than she had been.

"Welcome back," the two adults greeted, hugging her.

When the rangers had returned and saw Nina was okay, the orange and pink rangers took Emily out of the house for a while, letting the guys finish setting up for the party. Evelyn had left before the others got back and had managed to talk to Ji about what to do with Nina should something regarding her spirit come up. By the time night fell, Mia and Nina were dragging Emily back inside and toward the living room. "Guys, what's up?" Emily wondered. "Nina's fine now, and we're all back to normal."

"I know," Nina smiled. "But you're about to feel better." They arrived in the living room, and Emily's face lit up with a smile, seeing the decorations."

"What is all this?" she wondered.

"Surprise!" the guys jumped out. Emily laughed, shocked that they had done this. Mike handed her a card from her sister. After she read it, Antonio covered her eyes and led her toward the table.

"And what's a birthday without a cake?" he uncovered her eyes, showing her the cake that Ji had just set on the table.

Kevin frowned as he read the message on it. "Clawzord?"

"It's his birthday too," Antonio pointed out.

"You guys are the best," Emily smiled.

"Who wants cake?" Mia held up the cake knife.

"Oh, uh, you baked me a cake?" Emily questioned, trying to seem happy about it.

Mia shook her head. "No, sorry. We got this cake at the bakery."

"I understand," Emily lied. "You were busy. Let's dig in."

A/N: So here's this chapter. I just want to say that I never expected this story to have so many reviews or anything like that and such enthusiastic ones as well. Thank you!

Okay, now, onto serious stuff.

Would you guys like to see a sequel, maybe one that takes place during Megaforce where Nina becomes a ranger again? I will only do it if you guys want me to, and only if the Megaforce season is done airing soon. I mean, how long has it been since the last episode was released (I don't watch them on Saturdays, so if one aired this past Saturday, then let me know)?

Also, I couldn't not write this story without having Sibuna come together again to figure out why Nina left.

Please vote in the poll because it will help with the next two chapters in this story!