A/N: First off, real life is a pain in the ass. I am so sorry that I haven't updated in, like, forever. Graduate school and real life have kicked my ass quite nicely. Secondly, this theme was fun to write as one of my sub-goals was to get into the minds of almost every main character in one way or another; Nick's turn is here. This, like Theme 22, is one of those missing scenes that we as authors are privy to know. Enjoy!
"…": characters talking to each other
'…': characters talking to themselves
(…): extra facts about something in the story
(Takes place during "Hard Heads")
Theme 49:Truth
Rock Porium, March 2, 2007, 4:30 pm – Briarwood, CA, USA
Nick's POV
"We have to rescue them!" Vida declared marching up and down the stockroom at Rock Porium. I rolled my eyes, knowing that saying anything at this moment in time was likely to get me castrated or something even worse. Still, knowing that Madison would want me to try to calm her sister down, I braced myself for "Hurricane Vida".
"We will rescue them, Vida," I said only to feel like daggers were being sent into every part of my body.
"This is your fault!" she snarled getting into my face. My temper exploded.
"It is not just my fault, but yours as well!" I glared at her, eyes snapping. "If we hadn't been arguing over something stupid, we wouldn't have been caught in Hekatoid's slime, thereby losing the ability to Morph and then losing the rest of our teammates to Serpentina!"
Vida's eyes hardened before she dropped her gaze and walked over to a chair, plopping herself in it, arms crossed. I blinked; that had gone a lot smoother than I anticipated.
"You're right," she admitted softly after a minute or two. "The blame does, in part, lay with me." She looked at me sideways. "I'm sorry."
"V, the only thing we can do right now is figure out how to work together to get them back," I responded moving so that I was sitting in a chair opposite my teammate. "That's what we need to do, what they've been trying to teach us for months now."
She took a deep breath. "I know that. I just hope that we're not too late."
I shook my head; where in the hell had this reticent, subdued and guilt-ridden Vida come from? "V, what is wrong with you?"
Vida didn't respond for a moment, but when she did it was nothing like I expected. "I'm worried, Nick. I'm worried that Maddie's going to be mentally scarred, that Chip won't be Chip anymore, that Daggeron and Jenji won't make it back and, and that Xander, that he'll," She began to choke up, alarming me.
"Wait, wait. You're saying that they're being tortured in there?" Fear rose in my chest for my friends, for Maddie, the person who had convinced me to stay in Briarwood in the first place, who was always there for me if I needed someone to vent to, who was compassionate, kind, caring...
Vida violently shook her head. "Not that I know of, but the winds are telling me that we need to hurry and save them before it's too late." A faint trail of tears made its way down her face. "Xander's in the most danger because he went first, trying to save the rest of us." She looked at me and I know that the anguished look she gave me will remain forever scarred in my head forever. "What if he doesn't make it?"
"He will, Vida!" I shook her shoulders to try and bring her to see reason. "Don't you get it? We're the Power Rangers, the good guys, and evil never wins against us!" Her eyes remained clouded, not believing me. I growled and, hoping that Xander would forgive me for shouting out his secret I continued, "Vida, he loves you! He will come back to you because he wants to tell you himself; don't you get it?"
Vida's eyes suddenly cleared and she freed herself from me, looking at me oddly. "He, he loves me? Xander, the skirt-chaser, playboy Aussie loves me?"
I nodded, praying that one of my best friends would forgive me for telling the girl of his dreams his secret. "It's the truth, V. Trust me." She looked at me for a second, expression unreadable before nodding. I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, we could get back to figuring out how to rescue our friends... and I could figure out a way to ensure that Xander didn't massacre me for letting the cat out of the bag.
