Author's Note: Guy's, I am really sorry for not updating this on Monday. It took a lot longer to plan/write than I expected it too. I hope was worth it in the end.
Dedications: Thank you to: I'm-not-your-savior and Phantom- of- light for adding this story to their favourites. I appreciate it a lot. :)
Rating: T for safety
I don't own Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. But I do own any original characters that are of my own creation.
Title: A Dire Situation
Summary: When Nuala Archer moved to Angel Grove to escape her past she never expected the chain of events that would soon follow. With the power of a morpher bestowed upon her, and the fate of the world hanging in the balance, a difficult choice must be made. One that might result in Nuala doing all that she can to keep her head above water.
"This place is starting to freak me out," Tommy said as he and Nuala continued their trek across the tropical rainforest.
Nuala jumped as a bush ruffled and a large dragon-like lizard crawled out. It flicked its tongue like a snake and crawled towards her and Tommy. "What is that thing?" she asked, clutching the green Ranger's arm.
"I dunno," Tommy said. "But we better get out of here before it thinks we're lunch or something."
"But how do we get passed?"
"Jump."
"Are you kidding, I'm not going to jump!"
Tommy squeezed her hand, and then untangled himself from her hold. He took a deep breath and jumped over, landing safely on the other side of the creature. "Come on," he said, waving Nuala over.
Nuala whimpered and jumped over the creature. She screamed as it raised its head to look at her, flicking its tongue to taste the air. It was obvious that the creature could taste her fear and was probably preparing for an attack.
"Gotcha!" Tommy said, catching Nuala around the waist and stopping her from stumbling backwards on top of the creature. If she had landed on it then it was sure enough to attack her. The lizard hissed and Nuala jumped away again.
"Oh! Let's get out of here!" Nuala said, tugging him away.
Tommy chuckled and followed her down the trail. The lizard watched them, and then slowly slunk away into the bushes again.
~*A Dire Situation*~
"I guess we're on our own," Trini said, clutching herself closer to Jason. The others crowded around too. Although Jason was nervous about where they were himself, he was still their leader and felt honour bound to protect them.
"Let's have a look around," said Jason.
"Yeah," Kim agreed, "and figure out where we are."
They walked along the trail in silence. Kim and Trini almost glued to Jason, while Zack and Billy kept close to the two girls'. Kim gasped as she brushed against a bush, the leaves tickling her arm and causing her to jump almost a foot into the air.
"This is weird," Kim said, looking around at the large spider's webs that covered most of the trees. "It feels like these bushes have eyes."
"Hey, isn't that -?" Zack started, pointing at something disappearing into the trees.
"What?" Kim asked, looking around. She couldn't see anything.
Zack frowned and lowered his hand. "I could've sworn I just saw this... this..." he gestured with his hand, but then shook his head. It must've been his imagination playing tricks on him. "Forget it."
A high-pitched squeal lingered in the air, causing the five Rangers to cringe and cover their ears. "Oh, what is that noise?" Kim asked.
"Whatever it is, it is seriously out of tune," Trini answered, turning in a complete circle. She looked in every direction, hoping to find whatever was making the noise. But she couldn't see anything save for trees and foliage.
Zack, meanwhile, pulled away from the group and peered through the trees nearby. "I knew I saw something," he said, pointing at a little person sitting at the base of a tree near the lake. "Hey, you guys look," he said, waving his friends over.
"Hello?" Kim called. The little person jumped in surprise and brandished his flute at them. "Um, do... do you think you could help us? You see, Rita..."
The little person pulled down his hood and took a hesitant step backwards. "Rita!" he gasped. "Stay away and don't come near. That wicked witch has sent you here. No friend of hers is a friend to me, you can't fool Quagmire, no, siree." He turned on the spot and disappeared in a puff of white smoke.
Kim sighed and edged through the trees. She stopped at the side of the lake and looked back to her friends. "Was it something I said?" she asked, confused.
"Wait, do you hear that?" Billy asked, listening hard. He could hear a faint call of a human voice. At first he had thought it was getting nearer, but now he could hear it was getting further and further away. "What if it's Nuala and Tommy?"
"Let's follow it," Jason said, leading the others towards the voice. It was almost unbearable and he hoped that somehow the last two members of the team would stop or turn back. As they walked away from where they had seen Quagmire, Jason noticed a holographic image of Goldar in the sky. He pointed it out to the others and they all stopped short.
Goldar laughed at them. "Did you lose your precious power coins?" he taunted. "You'll soon lose more than that."
"Look!" Kim exclaimed pointing down the path ahead.
"Oh, great," Zack complained. "No coins, a tone-deaf little person, and now we've got an island full of monsters."
"That we thought we'd destroyed," Trini said, looking from each individual monster to the next.
The monsters growled and charged forwards.
"Look out!" Jason called to his friends. Each fell into a defensive position, ready to fight back when the time came, but as the monsters grew closer they instantly disappeared.
Billy frowned and looked around at the others. "That's weird," he said. "They... disappeared."
"Man, what kind of place is this?" Zack asked, growing more and more nervous by the second.
"A place where nothing is real except the danger," Goldar answered. "Welcome to the Island of Illusion."
"Oh, man, this... this..." said Zack, shaking his head and backing away. "I don't think I can handle this." He stumbled back away from his friends, and then took off through the trees. He stopped short of the tree line and let out a blood-curdling scream as a giant green snake curled its way around a low-hanging branch.
~*A Dire Situation*~
They walked a little further in silence, occasionally one or the other would break the tranquility by calling out one of their friend's names. Tommy noted that Nuala always seemed to call for Billy.
"You like him, huh?"
"Like who?" Nuala asked, blinking in confusion.
"Billy."
"Why would you say that?"
"Because that's the fourth time you've called his name since we landed here," Tommy replied. "You called Jason once or twice, but the most frequent one is Billy."
Nuala shrugged and looked back to the trees. She was hoping she'd catch a glimpse of her friends, given they were in the same dimension as she and Tommy. "He's my best friend," she answered Tommy. "Why wouldn't I call him frequently?"
"So you don't like him?" Tommy asked.
"Like I said, he's my best friend," Nuala said. "Of course I like him."
Tommy shook his head. "No, I mean, 'like him' like him."
Nuala bit the inside of her cheek and wrapped her arms around herself. She wasn't sure how she felt about Billy, granted she blushed every time he paid her a compliment, or she was eager to see him every day, and if anything happened to him she always showed traits of nervousness and then happiness when things worked out.
"It's OK if you don't want to tell me," Tommy said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "But, I think he likes you too."
"He does?" Nuala asked. "How do you know?"
"The way he stares at you for one," Tommy said, chuckling. "Especially when he thinks no one is looking. Like this morning, when you were on the ice and the rest of us were talking to Ciaran about you, Billy pulled away and watched you."
"Maybe he just likes watching me skate?" Nuala suggested.
"It's not the fact that he was watching you," Tommy said, "but the way he was watching you. He wasn't being discreet about it."
Nuala looked down and shrugged. "What does it matter, anyway?" she asked. "Why would he want me?"
"You're a beautiful girl, Nuala," Tommy said. "Why wouldn't he want you? If you were my type, I'd probably want you too."
Nuala blushed and then shook her head. "I'm broken, Tommy," she said. "Why would Billy want something that has been used and broken?"
"Is that how you really see yourself? As broken and used?"
"I'm only seventeen, and already I have a kid."
"Ellis is in this world because of circumstances that were out of your control," Tommy said. "What happened to you in the past as influenced your future, yes, but it influenced it for better."
"How did it influence it for the better?"
"Because if you hadn't have had Ellis, you wouldn't have moved to Angel Grove. You never would've become a Power Ranger... you never would've met Billy," Tommy said, wrapping his arm around her, "or the rest of us. Having Ellis showed you who your true friends were."
"Yeah, I guess," Nuala sighed.
"The only thing that sucks is the way you had him," Tommy added, seeing as his words were having no effect on the silver Ranger. "Look, I'm not condoning what happened to you. In truth, I think what happened to you reeks, it should never have happened, and while I don't know the full story, I know that it has hurt you beyond belief. But if it hadn't have happened then you wouldn't have the life you have now."
Nuala nodded. She knew that Tommy was right, but she still couldn't feel confident in herself. She still felt used and broken, and what half-decent guy would want someone that has a child with another guy?
"Hey, what's that?" Tommy asked, stopping short as he heard someone screaming.
"It sounds like Zack," Nuala said, looking around her person. She turned in a complete 360 circle and then ran forward, taking off through the trees.
"Nuala, wait!" Tommy yelled, chasing after her.
Nuala ran as fast as she could. She was a pretty strong when it came to running, and could run for miles. She had grown up on a farm, so running was usually a needed exercise to keep up with most of the animals, plus she needed strong legs to hold her when it came to figure skating. Nuala had been into in figure skating from the first moment she had touched the ice on the lake behind her farm house, she'd only been about three years old and her father had taken up there on the horses; she could vaguely remember him chasing her out on the ice and her slipping onto her butt. She'd never cried over it, only got back up and slipped away.
Her father, Richard, and stopped dead in the centre watching her skate away, after that he had enrolled her in roller-skating lessons. He had always told her 'Nuala, if you can roller skate then you can figure skate' and he had been right. The only difference between the two was what was beneath the shoe. The following December, for her fourth birthday, Nuala had received a pair of white figure skates; they had cost her parents a lot of money, but it had been worth every penny just to see her smile.
"Nuala, where are you going?"
"Look," Nuala said, slowing to a halt and pointing through a gap in the trees. A little person in native green and grey clothing sat at the base of a tree, playing a flute. "Hello?"
The little person jumped up, and turned wildly to face her. He looked surprised to see another human. "Who goes there?" he asked.
"My name's Nuala," the silver Ranger answered, "and this is Tommy. We were sent here by Rita."
"Rita! That wicked witch is here?"
"I hope not," Nuala sighed, looking to Tommy. If Rita was on the island then that meant trouble for both of them and the other Rangers.
"Can you help us?" Tommy asked. "We're looking for our friends."
Quagmire looked thoughtful and then jumped to his feet. "You must travel back upon once you came," he said, pointing south of their current position, "because it is at the beginning where you start a game."
He disappeared again in a puff of white smoke.
"A game?" Nuala repeated. "What game?"
Tommy shrugged and shook his head. "I dunno," he said. "But come on. We asked for help and he gave it to us."
"How do we know we can trust him?"
"He seemed fearful when you mentioned Rita," Tommy said. "I reckon and enemy of her's is a friend of ours."
Nuala sighed and nodded. "OK," she said. "Let's head back to the beginning, wherever that is."
"I think it means where we landed when we were transported here," Tommy said, leading the way back through the trees. "Maybe there is a clue that we missed, or maybe the others are back there, who knows, let's just go."
Jogging to keep up, Nuala fell into step beside Tommy and the two walked in silence again. Unaware that they were walking away from their friends.
~*A Dire Situation*~
The snake, a reptile that only Zack could see, hissed and flicked its tongue at the terrified black Ranger.
"Oh, man, get it away from me!" Zack said, brushing past his friends and running as far as the lake. He stopped short of the shoreline and turned back to see his friends had followed him. "How could you not see that snake?" he asked them.
"I think Rita's trying to make us doubt ourselves," Billy said, "and is doing so by using our own fears against us."
"Then we're screwed," said Zack. "We can't fight something like that." He pointed behind the others, and then run his hand over his chest and stomach. "Oh, I don't feel so good."
"Zack, you're fading!" Kim gasped.
"What's happening?" Trini asked, taking a step towards Zack. She stopped as Jason held out an arm and stopped her. The team was already down two Rangers, if what was happening to Zack passed to Trini, then they would be in real hot water.
Within a puff of white smoke, the little person Quagmire reappeared. "If Rita makes you doubt and fear soon you're going to disappear," he said, before disappearing again.
"He means your loss of confidence is causing your body to dematerialize," Billy explained.
"Come on, Zack, fight it!" Jason encouraged his best friend. "I'm trying," Zack replied.
Goldar laughed from the sky. "It's no use, Power Rangers," he said. "You can't fight your own worst fears. It won't be long now before you all fade away... forever."
"Don't let Rita get you, Zack," Jason said. He was determined to reach his best friend through the sea of doubt. If he could get Zack to believe in himself then his confidence levels would increase and his body would start to reappear.
"I can't help it," Zack said, shaking his head. "What's happening to me?" he added, as his body flickered between visible and invisible.
"Your molecular integrity is fluctuating in an inverse ratio to your level of self-esteem," Billy explained.
"Where's Nuala when you need her?" Kim asked.
"The more Zack doubts himself the less there is of Zack," Trini translated.
"He's getting fainter," Kim panicked.
"It's no use," Zack said, shaking his head sadly. "I can't beat Rita's magic."
"If only we could contact Zordon," Trini said, tears brimming in her eyes.
"Hey, wait, what about that weird little dude we saw?" Jason asked. "He lives here, right? He might know what Rita's plan is. What was his name? Quincy..."
"Quasimodo?" Kim suggested.
"Quagmire," Trini said, snapping her fingers. There was puff of smoke high up in the trees and Quagmire appeared again.
"Speak my name and I appear," he said. "Now why did you call Quagmire here?"
Rushing over the tree, Kim looked up at the little person. She knew that she had to choose her next words carefully, if she scared him off again then Zack was lost for good. "It's my friend Zack," she said, pointing behind her. "Rita's making him disappear."
"You're no friend of Rita's?" Quagmire asked, jumping down from the tree and landing in front of Kim. "Then Quagmire's glad to greet ya." He shook Kim's hand and run back to the others with her, he nodded at each in turn and turned to face Zack. "To keep from getting caught, think a positive thought."
The Rangers exchanged looks, but Billy seemed to understand exactly what Quagmire was saying.
"If the lack of confidence is the operative factor," said the blue Ranger. "It just might work, Zack."
"Just try it," Jason said.
Zack sighed and looked down. It was to think of a positive thought with all the negative feelings running around inside him. He closed his eyes and thought about the day of his birthday. He'd been caught up in a battle with the Dark Knight, and for one fleeting moment had thought he was going to lose. But he had persevered and managed to hold the knight off until his friends got there. In the end he had been triumphant against Rita, and he had received a surprise birthday party to boot.
Kim, Trini, Jason and Billy gasped as Zack reappeared before their eyes.
"It worked!" Zack grinned as he opened his eyes and looked down. "I'm here. Hey man, thanks for the pep talk," he said to Quagmire as his friends run forward to hug him.
"My pleasure and welcome back," Quagmire said. "But the key was there inside you, Zack."
"Yeah, maybe," Zack agreed. "But we're still stuck here, and our friends are still missing."
"Your friends are actually quite near," said Quagmire. "They are heading south from here." He pointed in the direction Nuala and Tommy had disappeared.
~*A Dire Situation*~
They had left the woodland area and were walking back down the trail leading to their starting point on the beach. As they walked Nuala couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, she glanced over her shoulder to see if there was actually someone there but found no one to be seen.
"What's wrong?" Tommy asked.
"I get this weird feeling that we're being watched," Nuala answered.
"It's probably that weird little dude."
"Quagmire?" Nuala asked. Tommy nodded. "No, this feeling is giving me the shivers. Like... like it's a cold stare, you know?"
"No," Tommy admitted.
Nuala sighed and looked around again. She couldn't see anything, and decided that it must've been the island just playing tricks on her imagination. "I'd love to know where we are," she said.
"The island of Illusion," said a familiar voice.
Nuala stopped in her tracks and turned around. Her heart hammered painfully against her rib cage, and she gripped Tommy's arm even tighter than she had done so before. Tommy frowned at her, looking between her personally, and the area that had caught her attention.
"What is it?" he asked. "What's wrong?"
"What are you doing here?" Nuala asked.
"What are you talking about?" Tommy asked. "Rita sent us, remember?"
Nuala shook her head, her breathing coming in short gasps of panic. "You can't be here," she said, taking a quick step backwards. "No, stay away from me! Tommy, keep him away from me, please, don't let him hurt me!"
Tommy frowned and looked around. Whatever Nuala was seeing was something that was happening for her eyes only.
"You're lying!" Nuala snapped. "You're always lying. He wouldn't do that. Billy's not like that..."
"Billy?" Tommy muttered.
Nuala shook her head, turned tail, and sprinted across the beach. She disappeared into the shadows of the forest area causing Tommy to sigh and chase after her. He had already chased her before, and knew that she was fast. If he was intending to catch her then he needed to get ahead of her.
Jumping over a fallen log, Tommy burst out of the trees and turned around. He waited no less than five seconds before Nuala crashed into him. He wrapped his arms around her to steady her, but she thrashed around like a wild animal, kicking and punching at him.
"Let me go!" Nuala screamed. "Let me go... let me go!"
"Nuala! Nuala, it's me, it's Tommy!" the green Ranger shouted, but his voice was drowned out by her terrified screams. She punched him hard in chest with the balls of her hands, and tried to kick him away from her. But he held fast. He was scared that if he let her go then she'd run off again, or worse.
Soon Nuala stopped crying and fell to her knees. She leaned forward and buried her face into his chest, sobbing into her hands. "He lied to me," she said through her tears. "He said he cared, but he doesn't. No one cares. They're all the same."
"Nuala," said Tommy, gently. "What happened? Who doesn't care?"
"Everyone. They all say that they care about me, that they don't care that I'm a teenage mother, but they do. They do care. They talk about me, behind my back, they think I can't hear the cruel words they say, but I do, I hear everything. They call me school slut. They say that I deserved what happened to me. Even Adam... and Billy."
Tommy, caught off guard by the addition of another name, frowned and stared down at the red head. He cradled her in his arms, slowly rocking her back and forth. Her hands were now clapped around her ears and she had her head bent down, her chin practically level with her chest. He didn't want what she was seeing or hearing, but he could tell by her reactions that they were freaking her out.
"Nuala," he said, softly. "We don't care that you're a teenage mother, we adore you the way you are. You're so compassionate, trustworthy and loyal. You're protective of your baby, and of your family. Whoever says otherwise is seeing the wrong side of the picture."
"Lies."
"While I have a vague idea of what happened to you, I don't know the whole story," Tommy continued, not deterred by her whispers. He still ploughed on. He needed her to hear what he had to say, he needed her to realize that whatever trick was being played on her was just a part of Rita's evil plan. "No one does."
"Adam does," Nuala replied. "Adam knows. He was there. He helped me... but he shouldn't have. He shouldn't have helped me. He says I deserved it. I deserved everything Chris did to me. Kim's right, I'm a bad mother. Ellis would be better off without me."
"That's not true," Tommy interrupted, quickly. "Kim loves you and Ellis. You're like a sister to her; she tells me that she worships your son. She's an only child, and therefore doesn't have brothers or sisters, but she's told me that she loves Ellis like a nephew, and that she'd do anything for him and you."
Nuala shook her head and pulled away from him. "You hate me too," she said. "You told Billy what happened to me. You called me broken and used, and told him that he'd be better off looking for someone else. Someone that is more pure. You told him that I... had asked Chris to hurt me."
"I would never do something like that," Tommy assured her. "I know how much you like him, and how much he likes you. Nuala, I want to see you happy. I can't stand seeing you so upset, so scared. You were the first friend I had when I first came to Angel Grove, I've moved around a lot during my childhood, and I never stayed in one place long enough to have any friends, and then I met you. Nuala, please, believe me when I say that whatever you are saying is not true. It's in your head. Rita wants you to feel this way; she wants you to doubt your abilities... I just don't know why."
She didn't answer him. She didn't even look at him. Fresh tears cascaded down her cheeks and fell on to the sand. Tommy reached out and touched her shoulder, but Nuala flinched away like she had been burned. Tommy sighed and grabbed his head. What could he do? What could he say? Without knowing the whole story, he was at a loss on what to do next.
~*A Dire Situation*~
"If we don't find our power coins, we don't stand a chance," Jason said, folding his arms and looking to his friends. They were still a little shaken after the whole ordeal with Zack, and knew that one-by-one they were all next.
"Hey, maybe Quagmire knows where they are," Zack said, turning to the little dude beside him.
"With my technique you might get home," Quagmire answered. "But the coins you see you must find on your own."
He played his flute and disappeared.
"On our own?" Trini repeated. "Where do we even start?"
Billy held his finger up in the air and moved it around, as if checking the breeze. "My calculations would suggest a 98% probability that our coins are in... this direction," he pointed over his shoulder to the trail leading behind them.
"That's the same direction that Quagmire said Nuala and Tommy had gone," Kim said.
"Alright then," Jason said. "Let's get started.
"Yes," Goldar called down from the sky. "Let's get started with an illusion for Kimberly's confusion."
"No way," Kim said, looking out towards the lake. "I don't believe this."
"What is it, Kim?" Trini asked her best friend. "What do you see?"
"Skull and Bulk? Being nice?" Kim asked, uncertainly.
"What are you talking about?" Jason asked. "There's no on there, Kim."
"Are you OK?" Zack asked. He knew exactly how she felt, having gone through the same ordeal as she was. He knew what it like was to be seeing things that weren't really there.
"Um... I don't know," Kim said, shaking her head. "If Rita can make them act like that, then she can make anything happen!"
Trini clapped her hand over her mouth as she looked down to see her best friend was starting to disappear. "Quagmire! Quick! Please help Kimberly!"
"A toad might fight you to the marrow," Quagmire said, as he appeared playing his flute. "But stay your course straight as an arrow."
He disappeared again.
"Oh, man, not the toad creature," Kim said, thinking back to the day that she, Billy and Nuala had been spiked by Baboo's punk potion. "That was way to gross. I don't know if I want to remember that."
"You've got too," Jason called. "Kimberly, try."
"Alright. If I have to," Kim said, closing her eyes. She remembered the day as if it was yesterday. She, Nuala and Billy had been spiked by Baboo at the park, and after the spell had been reversed by Alpha, Zordon and Ciaran, she and Billy had gone to stop the toad monster that was terrorizing Angel Grove. It had already demolished her friends, and had captured Billy too. "He was big and he was ugly, but I was the only one whose weapon could destroy him. So I just did what I had to do."
Kim smiled and looked down at herself as she started to reappear. She sighed and hugged Trini back as the yellow Ranger rushed forward.
"You did it," said Trini. "You beat the illusion."
"Thanks," Kim said. She looked around to see that Goldar's head had disappeared from the sky. "We should get out of here, before something else goes wrong."
Jason nodded and started to walk back towards the trail that Quagmire had said Nuala and Tommy had gone. "Come on, let's go find the others," he said.
"And our power coins," Zack agreed.
Clutching one another tightly, Kim and Trini followed after the three guys.
~*A Dire Situation*~
Tommy continued to watch as Nuala rocked back and forth. He was at a loss of what to do and say. He had said pretty much everything that he could have to snap her out of her depressive state, but he figured she must've heard it all before. There was no way she could've gone through a sexual assault without having to undergo some sort of treatment after it.
"N -" he started, but broke off as he heard the sound of someone garbling. He gasped, jumped to his feet and spun around to see a horde of Putties swarming towards him. He panicked and went straight in to defense mode.
He blocked a punch and the hit back with one of his own. The putties fell, one-by-one like flies as Tommy jumped at them, kicking and punching wildly. Jumping up, Tommy kicked another putty in the stomach, knocking over onto its back. But the fight wasn't over; several more putties appeared through the trees, running towards him.
Tommy glanced around to look for Nuala, but she wasn't anywhere to be seen, instead putty knelt where she had once been. The putty wasn't moving, but Tommy wasn't taking any chances and rushed at it. He jumped up and aimed a kick for the putty's head, but was knocked back as another putty barreled into him.
"Ganging up on me now, huh?" Tommy asked, aiming a kick for putty's head. The creature ducked and grabbed at him, but he pulled back and rounded on the others that had surrounded him. The one on its knees in the sand had moved by now, it was scrambling away from another putty, screaming to be left alone.
"What's wrong with her?"
"Look, it's happening to the both of them!"
"Oh man, what do we do?"
"Billy, can you deal with Nuala?"
"I can try."
"We'll deal with Tommy."
"OK!"
"Come on, Tommy, snap out of it!"
Tommy looked from one putty to the next and shook his head. There were hundreds of them. All surrounding him. He needed to get away, get far away from here as possible. But there was one thing that was bothering him - why weren't they attacking. He needed to get away. He needed to find out where Nuala went she wasn't in the right state of mind to go running off alone. She could get hurt. He could get hurt.
Backing away, Tommy raised his fists as the Putties followed him.
"Hey, hey, Tommy, chill, dude, it's us."
"I'll take you all on," Tommy said. "I won't... I won't let you get me. But there's too many, I can't win."
"Tommy, it's us!"
"Oh no. Look!"
"He's fading."
Tommy looked down at himself, confused as to what was happening to him. He'd never seen anything like this before. Why was he disappearing?
"Help us, Quagmire!"
There was a puff of white smoke and Tommy saw the same little dude that had helped him and Nuala a while back. "Dude, don't let Rita steer you wrong," he said. "Think strong thoughts. You'll be strong." He disappeared again.
"Right," Tommy muttered. "Got it. Got to be strong. I was all on my own," he said, thinking back to the day of the Halloween party. The others had been called into battle, and he had been late to the party. As he was about to enter the Youth Centre had been attacked by Putties; he had fought them as hard as he could, but they still kept coming. But he had found the strength he needed to defeat the clay heads, and he didn't it just in time to help his friends against Frankenstein.
Kim laughed victoriously as Tommy reappeared before her eyes. She called his name and run towards him, throwing her arms around his shoulders and hugging him. Tommy chuckled and hugged her back, glad to finally see her.
"What took you guys so long?" he asked, teasingly. "Nuala and I -" he gasped and looked around. "Nuala! Nuala, where are you?"
"Guys, I could use a little help over here!" Billy called from the other end of the beach. Nuala was huddled up at the base of a palm tree, her face buried in her knees and her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. She was rocking back and forth and muttering over and over again to herself.
"What's wrong with her?" Kim asked.
Jason and the others looked to Tommy, expectantly.
"She's fading," Trini said, pointing at Nuala's demolecularizing body.
"Nuala, come on, snap out of it," Jason said, kneeling down beside the silver Ranger. He touched her shoulder and quickly pulled back as Nuala let out a horrifying and alarming scream.
"Please," Nuala whispered. Her voice sounded broken and scared. Jason hesitated and looked up at the others; he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what was scaring Nuala so badly, and for that reason he didn't know how to help her.
"Quagmaire, how do we help Nuala?" Kim called.
Quagmire appeared in a puff of smoke alongside the silver Ranger. He played his flute for the silver Ranger and then touched her shoulder as he addressed the others. "Nuala faces the worst nightmare of all, but now she must accept that she's not alone," he said, before disappearing again.
"Worst nightmare of all?" Trini asked. "What did he mean?"
Jason sighed and sat beside Nuala. He reached out to take her hand, and this time she let him without flinching or screaming. "I don't know what you've been through, but I know that you feel scared and lonely. But I promise you, you're not alone this time. You have friends, friends that'll be here for you when you need them. Come on, he can't hurt you anymore."
The Rangers waited with bated breath.
Soon Nuala's breathing evened out, and she lifted her head from her knees. Her gaze met Jason's, her eyes were rimmed red from crying and there were fresh tear marks on her cheeks. She smiled weakly and rubbed them away.
"Atta girl," Jason said, pulling her close and hugging her tightly. He helped her back to her feet and then left her go to hug Billy. The blue Ranger looked almost as terrified as Nuala had done, and now Nuala looked almost relieved to have someone to hold on too. As soon as Billy's arms wrapped around Nuala, the fading disappeared and Nuala was whole again.
~*A Dire Situation*~
Leaving Billy and Nuala alone for a moment, Jason returned to Tommy but stopped short as Kim pulled away to check on Trini. The yellow Ranger had wandered over to a sand dune and sat down, the look on her face was fright and she was rubbing her hands up and down her arms.
"Hey, Trini, are you OK?" Kim asked, sitting beside her best friend.
"I'm afraid that Rita's going to come after me next," Trini admitted.
"That's just what she wants you to think," Jason said.
"Oh no," Kim said, as she watched her friend start to disappear. "What do we do?" she asked the others.
They looked lost. All of them knew that Trini's biggest fear was that of heights, but they had each thought she had it under control. She had to have it under control, she somehow managed to defeat many monsters during a 30ft Megazord battle, if her fear of heights was really really bad, then there was no way she'd being to stand that.
"No, No! I'm too high!" Trini suddenly screamed. She clasped her hands over her head, squeezed her eyes shut tightly and screamed to be let down. "I want to get down! I need to get down! What if I fall?"
"Trini," Kim shouted, grabbing at her friend's hands. "Trini, you're OK."
"Trini, it's Rita's illusions," Jason said. "Quick, think positive."
"Yeah, remember what Quagmire said," Tommy added in.
But Trini felt too scared to remember anything of what had happened that day.
"Trini had to conquer heights, although that was her greatest fright," Quagmire said, appearing behind Kim and causing her to jump. "Now, my child, do your best to pass this part of Rita's test."
Drawing in by the screaming, Nuala and Billy joined the others. The silver Ranger still held herself close to the blue Ranger, in fear that if she strayed too far she'd slip again into a dangerous state of depression.
"Come on, Trini," Nuala said. "You've got nothing to fear but fear itself."
With her breathing slowing down, Trini closed her eyes and remembered back to the day after they'd become Power Rangers. It was their very first battle in the Megazords, the first time she'd ever had to face her fear of heights head on. She could remember gripping the controls of the Sabre-Toothed Tiger Zord with such force that she was afraid she's break them. But then she'd combined with the Megazord and joined her friends in the cockpit. They had defeated the monster with ease, combing their weapons and strengths together and obliterating him.
While she had been ultimately terrified of being 30ft off the floor, she still felt victorious at her hand in defeating the monster; and not only that, but she'd also faced her fear.
"Way to go, Trini," Kim said, hugging her best friend tightly after she had rematerialized and Jason had helped her back to her feet.
"Thanks, guys," Trini said, hugging Nuala next. "Thanks for the pep talk."
"Thanks for mine," Nuala said with a smile. She pulled away from the yellow Ranger, giving her space to hug Jason, Zack and Tommy, and turned to Billy, only to find him starting to disappear. "Billy?"
Billy stared at her. His left arm elevated out in front of him, but instead of being solid, like it should've been, it was becoming translucent. "It's no use," he said. "Even all my scientific knowledge can't get us out of this one. It failed."
"No, Billy, it's not your fault," Jason said. "Don't let Rita get to you."
"Quagmire, Rita's after Billy!" Trini yelled, desperately.
"I sense a fight in a land of dreams," Quagmire said, his fingers pressing against his temples. "Where Billy searches for his missing Queen."
Nuala frowned and looked from Quagmire to Billy. "You're missing Queen?" she asked. "What's he mean, Billy?"
"I failed her," the Blue Ranger said. "I promised her I'd look out for her, and I failed."
"That's not what Quagmire means by 'thinking positive,' Billy," said Trini. "I'm sure whoever you've supposed to have failed will forgive you."
"If it's a subconscious battle, Billy, then you're the one in control," Nuala said. "Your dream world is what you make it. Whatever happens there happens because you want it too."
"Come on, Billy, fight it."
"I can see her, but I can't reach her."
"Yes you can, Billy," Nuala said. "Come back to us. Come back to me."
Billy closed his eyes.
He could see Nuala standing in the distance. He had been chasing her for what seemed like forever, but every time he got close enough to touch her she would disappear again. It was like he wasn't meant to have her. Reaching for her the hundredth time, Billy reached out to touch her and expected her to disappear.
Instead Nuala turned to face him, a small smile on her lips. When their gazes met, her smile grew. "I've been waiting for you," she said.
"I failed you," he said.
"No, you didn't," Nuala said, kissing his cheek. "You saved me. Now it's time to come back... come back to me."
Nuala exchanged looks with Trini, Kim and the others. Neither one of them was sure what was going on inside Billy's head, but the end result was simple enough to understand. Whatever he had been so afraid of had obviously worked itself out because he was no fully normal again.
"Wow! Prodigious!" Billy grinned, looking down at himself.
"Yay, Billy!" Trini said, as Nuala all-but fell into his arms again. The two hugged tighter than before, both seemingly afraid to let the other go in case they started to disappear again.
"Morphenomenal, you did it," Kim said, skipping forward and coming in to hug Billy from the side. Trini caught round them from the opposite side and Nuala laughed as she crushed between the two girls's.
Jason smiled as he high-fived Billy. "Maybe now we can find our power coins and get out of here," he said, looking around the deserted beach. He walked away towards the shore line, and stopped dead as Goldar called down to him from the sky.
Nuala and Tommy jumped, and looked up.
"Ha! I knew it," Nuala said, nudging the green Ranger. "I told you we were being watched."
"Hey, you didn't know he was there either," Tommy defended, rubbing his chest.
Nuala stuck her tongue out at him, and turned back to Jason as Goldar berated him about being a bad leader to the Power Rangers.
"He's right. I should have figured a way out," Jason said as his friends looked on in fear.
"Don't listen to her, Jase," Zack called. "Rita's just trying to make you doubt yourself."
"No. I should have done something," Jason said, shaking his head as he started to disappear.
"Quagmire, quickly, we need your assistance," Billy called out.
Quagmire appeared not that far from the Rangers and shook his head at Jason. "Dear, oh dear, nasty magic happening here," he said, clocking himself on the head with his flute before disappearing.
"It's not real, Jase," Nuala called. "Whatever you're seeing. It's not real."
"No! They're gone!" Jason yelled, staring directly at his friends. "They were depending on me and I let them all down."
"He can't see or hear us," Zack said.
"And it's making him disappear," Kim said, frightened.
Jason fell to his knees and looked down at his transparent hands. Inside, you know your power's great. You can win, just concentrate, he heard Quagmire say inside his head.
"That's it," Jason said, falling on to his hands. He closed his eyes and focused all of his might on the sheer determination of his own free will that burned inside. As long as he was still breathing he would never let anything happen to his friends, and he would never give up as a Power Ranger, not to Rita, not to anybody. "You haven't won yet, Rita!" he shouted to the skies.
"You did it, Jase!" Nuala called as she run ahead of the others, and hugged the red Ranger. Kim and Trini joined her shortly after with Tommy, Zack and Billy following behind.
"All right!" Jason said, hugging the three girls back.
Nuala grinned and pulled away from her friend, her almost brother and showed him her wrist. "Check it out," she said. Jason looked down to see her communicator resting at the base of her hand. He looked down at his own wrist to see his own communicator there.
"Our communicators," Jason chuckled.
"And our power coins," Kim agreed, reaching behind her.
"We could've had these all along," Trini said.
"Yeah, and we each had the power to break Rita's spell," Tommy added.
"All we needed was a little self-confidence," Zack said, patting Kim's shoulder. Suddenly the ground started to shake, an indication that either an earthquake was occurring or Rita was up to something bad again.
"We gotta get out of here," Kim said, struggling to maintain her balance.
"It's morphin' time!" Jason commanded.
"Dragonzord!"
"Mastodon!"
"Pterodactyl!"
"Triceratops!"
"Sabre-Toothed Tiger!"
"Dire Wolf!"
"Tyrannosaurus!"
~*A Dire Situation*~
Returning to the respective Megazords - or Zord in Nuala's case - the Rangers combined both the Power Megazord and the Dragonzord to create the Megadragonzord, and used Nuala's now fully-charged Zord as the arsenal.
"Mutitis, attack!" Rita ordered, unable to believe that the Rangers had attacked her island of illusion. The monster snarled and charged forward.
"Megadragonzord, fight!" Jason shouted, pushing forward on his controls. He wielded the dire spear and stabbed it through the monster, causing him to howl in agony and step backwards, clutching its side. The creature roared and fired a round of lasers back at the rangers, but the Megazord merely walked through unscratched.
"We're going to need a little more fire power," Tommy said.
Nuala nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's bring his worst nightmare to life," she said.
"You heard her, Rangers, full power!" Jason said firing up every laser port he had access too. The others followed his lead and Tommy hit the fire bottom from his console. A bright sphere shot out of the Megazord chest, hit Mutitis and caused him disintegrate.
Rita watched, slack-jawed from her side of the building. She couldn't believe it. Another plan foiled by the meddlesome power brats.
"Alright, Lokar, you're next!" Jason said, pointing at the giant floating head. "We call on the power of titanus and the ultrazord."
Titanus was a Zord that the Rangers had received from Zordon for freeing Tommy from the Rita's evil hold, and completing an apparent prophecy that had been written years ago. One that spoke of a seventh Ranger that would start off Evil, but soon be guided back to the light side where he belonged.
"Let's do it, Rangers!"
Combining with Titanus, the Rangers rolled forward in their magnificent ultrazord and fired every ounce of energy they had at the floating head in the sky. It glowed a bright white, before transforming into a fireball and escaping into the night.
"Oh, no, you guys, Lokar got away," Kim said.
"Forget him," Jason said. "We'll get him next time."
~*A Dire Situation*~
With the battle over and Rita back on the moon where she belonged. The Rangers returned to the Youth Centre to find Ciaran talking with David Jonathan and Ernie. He looked up as they entered and shot off his stool, barreling into the arms of his older sister and hugging her tightly.
"I thought I had lost you," he said, quietly.
"Take more than that to get rid of me," Nuala said, leading him back over the bar. Ciaran clambered back up onto his stool, and Nuala leaned beside him on the counter.
David smiled at her, finished his drink and then started to address the silver Ranger. "I made a few calls," he said, "and I think I may have found more than just a spotter for you."
"Oh?"
"You ever done pair figure skating?"
Nuala nodded. "Yeah, but I don't do it anymore," she said. Ever since Chris, who had been her partner for many years had attacked her, she had put aside all hopes of returning to the world of figure skating; but she now knew that whatever Chris had put her through was in the past, she needed to look past it and move on. But that didn't mean she had to accept another partner, and put her complete and utter trust in him.
"Oh, OK," David said. "Well, you don't have pair skate. I have plenty of girls for that stage of the competition. But if you're still up for training with a spotter, then I'd like you to meet Chris Anderson."
Ciaran, who was drinking his smoothie, choked and spat the thick liquid in his mouth back out over the counter. Kim cringed and Ernie grabbed a cloth to clean up the mess. He stared at Ciaran, curious as to why the young lad would spit out what he was drinking. But Ciaran wasn't paying attention to anything going on around him, neither was Nuala for that matter.
"Nuala?" Billy asked, touching the silver Ranger's shoulder. "Are you OK?"
Nuala didn't answer. She didn't even look at him. She did, however, grip onto the counter as her legs nearly gave out from underneath her. Billy's arms wrapped around her waist instantly, and held her up.
The person introduced as Chris Anderson smirked and stepped closer. "Hello, precious," he said, leering at Nuala in a manner that caused the other Rangers to become protective, and crowd around their friend. "Been a long time."
"Apparently not long enough," Ciaran said. "What are you doing here, Anderson?"
"What's it look like, Pipsqueak?" Chris snapped. "I'm here to regain what is mine, and then some. Tell me, Nuala, where is the bastard child that you call your - I mean, our son."
Copyrighted ©
This has to be the longest chapter I have written so far for this series. I don't know when the next update will be posted – it might be Friday, but I can't promise anything atm, seeing as it is my birthday (3rd of July here in the UK), I doubt I will be doing any writing throughout the day. If I don't update Friday, you can guarantee and update on Saturday. I promise.
Chapter written by xXxKaraBeckerCutterxXx
Chapter updated Thursday, July 03, 2014 at 2:41am