Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers, House of Anubis or Big Time Rush
House of Power Rangers
Chapter 25: House of Revelations
"Whatcha doing?" Nina asks, seeing Mia standing slightly behind the open front door. The pink ranger flinches, before turning to see the purple ranger approaching. "You look suspicious."
"Ji just gave Jayden a letter with the Shiba family crest on in," she admits.
"Do you know what it's about?" Nina asks, following as Mia begins walking.
"No, I couldn't hear what they said."
"Hmm," Nina sighs.
"You must be hungry, you've been training all morning," Mia says as they enter the kitchen, opening the fridge. Nina had been training inside since she finished her work earlier that morning and she was hungry but certainly not for whatever Mia was going to whip up so she places her hand on it before it can open too wide and shuts it instead.
"No. I'm actually gonna go shower first," she says, backing out of the room but before she can reach the threshold, the gap sensor blares. Rushing to the living room, they find everyone already there.
"Nighlok attack at the park," Jayden says, no letter in his hand. He must've already put it in his room. "Let's go."
"These moogers get uglier every time I see them," Antonio says as he slashes at a couple.
"Yo, moogers have cornered the market on ugly," Mike laughs. "It's what they do best."
"Stay focused," Jayden instructs, taking down some moogers behind him. "Pick your targets."
"I've picked mine," a new voice says behind him, shocking him but before can react, a blast is sent his way, knocking him back.
"Whoa!" Jayden gasps.
"Jayden!" Kevin calls.
"Are you okay?" Emily asks, neither able to reach him just yet, due to the moogers.
"Yeah I – ah!" Jayden cries out, falling to a knee, just as something that looks like blue flames lights up where he was just hit before fading.
"What's that smoke?" Antonio questions, the other rangers now noticing the smoking red ranger.
"It feels like my insides are burning up," Jayden groans.
"Let me get you even more fired up!" The Nighlok yells, causing Jayden to move, blocking her attacks. However, once the rangers hear their leader cry out again Kevin points out,
"She's singling out Jayden," he says, defeating the majority of moogers around him. "We have to protect him!" He yells, diving in front of him, just in time to take a hit.
"Ugh! That would've finished him!"
"Careful," Jayden warns. "Those blast are powerful."
"I feel okay," Kevin says, after a moment, once the power of the blast wears off. Jayden steps forwards, trying to hit the Nighlok but it disappears in a wave of blue butterflies.
"That blast didn't affect me much," Kevin admits.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I'm barely scratched. I think we can block her shots, rangers." And just as the Nighlok reappears, the rangers manage to surround their leader but the shot she fires, hits them all. Jayden included, who's put into more pain.
"Jayden!" Nina yells, feeling herself warm up with anger.
"Why's that just happening to him?" Emily asks.
"I'll tell you why," the Nighlok says approaching. "The head of the Shiba family has massive fire symbol power. My heat flashers simply ignite the flames already inside him. And you can't stop me," she says disappearing in a wave of the butterflies. "You can't even see me," she cackles.
"Guys, we have to protect Jayden and the sealing power," Kevin tells them. As the rangers stand guard around the fallen ranger the Nighlok suddenly appears in flashes and takes shot at each of them.
"You guys, stop taking hits for me!" Jayden pleads.
"We have to protect you!" Mike says. "Besides, her hits aren't that strong. We're a team, Jayden."
"He's right," Emily nods. "If they want you, they'll have to go through us first."
"Exactly," Nina adds. "We're – whoa!" She gasps as where the Nighlok hit her before suddenly starts sparking.
"Nina!" Jayden gasps as she falls to her knees.
"What's happening?" Kevin asks.
"I'm fine," she says, standing back up, feeling slightly warmer than before. Maybe the heat wasn't completely from anger.
"Nina…" Jayden sighs.
"Seriously, no burning inside sensation. I've got your back," she says, just as the Nighlok reappears.
"Ready to have a blast?" She cackles before going blast crazy on the team. However, this time, when Nina falls to the ground, she sparks more violently than before crying out in pain as smoke begins coming from her suit.
"Nina!" The rangers yell.
"Please, you guys need to stop protecting me!" Jayden pleads, as Nina begins pushing herself back up, although it's clear the task is very laborious. "I can handle this," Jayden mutters, forcing himself up too. "You want me? Then fight me, not them!"
"Jayden, no," Nina groans.
"Super samurai mode!"
"Nice vest," the Nighlok says, appearing before blasting him again. "Trying to run won't help. Are you sparking because of this?" She asks, turning to the purple ranger.
"It's your weapon. You tell me," Nina replies.
"Well," the Nighlok shrugs. "I guess lightning has a heated spark inside too!" She cackles as she blasts Nina again.
"Ugh, petty!" Nina grunts, the other rangers calling her name as she begins sparking again.
"Go help, Jayden," she pants. "I'll be fine in a minute."
"You guys go. I'll wait with her," Mike says, kneeling down next to her. The rangers nod,
"We can't let Jayden do this alone," Kevin says.
"That's just who Jayden is," Mike mutters as they run to help him. "He'll do anything to protect us."
"And it works both ways," Nina says, breathing heavily, as she sits up. Mike offers her a hand as she begins to stand up.
"Are you sure, you're okay?"
"I won't be if Jayden gets hurt," she replies, her suit still smoking. "Come on!"
The two of them run through the forest, looking for the rangers but find Jayden de-morphed on the floor and the Nighlok turning to ashes.
"Jayden!" Nina exclaims, running straight for him. "You're gonna be okay."
"Just hang on," Kevin tells him.
"You got to lead, Kevin," Jayden says, handing him the black box.
"You can count on me," he nods, taking it.
"He's toast," the Nighlok says, appearing in her mega mode. "And the rest of you will be next."
They morph into the claw armour megazord. However, try as they may the Nighlok (they still don't actually know her name) is just too fast, especially with her disappearing act. That – combined with her strength – is enough to separate the zords! However, separating the zords, brings something new to the rangers' attention.
"Who's in the lion zord?" Mike asks as it jumps to attack the Nighlok, taking even her by surprise.
"It can't be Jayden," Antonio points out, "He's still on the ground."
"Then who's in his zord?" Emily asks, very confused. Meanwhile, whoever it was in the zord, it looked like they had the same enemy as they wasted time kicking the Nighlok's butt!
"Samurai rangers," a female voice says, shocking all the rangers. "Victory is ours."
"This doesn't make any sense," Mia says.
"We have to help Jayden," Emily reminds them. They exit their zords, demorphing before going to their leader on the ground.
"Jayden!" Emily calls out as they near him as the red ranger seems to be losing consciousness but hearing his name revives him just a bit.
"I'm okay," he says as the rangers begin helping him up.
"We need to get him to the Shiba house," Kevin says as he and Antonio put Jayden's arms around their shoulders. However, as they begin walking Nina feels a sense of vertigo and stumbles forwards, the ground getting closer to her face.
"Whoa, Nina!" Mike exclaims, catching her before she can hit the ground.
"It's okay," she gasps, realising what just happened. "I'm okay, it was just a moment."
"You and Jayden are exactly the same," Emily sighs, wrapping an arm around Nina. "Let's get you back to the house. We'll see if you're really okay then." They only take a few steps before the sound of someone landing on the ground behind them catches their attention. The sight they see however was incredibly unexpected… it's a red ranger… but Jayden was still with them and this one was a girl! After a moment, she drops her morph and a blonde girl with green-grey eyes standing before them.
"What's going on here?" Mia asks.
"Who are you?" Antonio asks the blonde girl… but it's not her who answers.
"She's my big sister," Jayden says. A series of 'huh' sounds through the group.
"She's your big sister?" Nina asks, looking at him, eyes wide. Looking back at her, he nods.
"Yeah. Lauren."
"What?" Antonio exclaims. "You didn't tell us you had a sister."
"Hi Jayden," she smiles, walking towards him. She stops in front of him, before hesitantly bringing her hand up to his cheek which Jayden leans into.
"Why didn't we know about you?" Emily asks. "And where have you been?"
"Why weren't you with Jayden- "Mike begins before Mia cuts him off.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't just throw a million questions at her, why don't we start with this: Lauren, welcome to the samurai rangers."
"Thank you," Lauren smiles. "I've imagined this day for a long time. I can't get to know each other of you," she says looking around at all of them. "And especially my little brother."
Later at the Shiba house, Jayden is in the hospital room with Lauren and Shaylee. Nina was there only for a few minutes while Shaylee checked on her but then she figured she'd give them space to catch up and join the other rangers in the living room as Ji told them about Lauren before going to rest in her room.
"The Nighlok never even knew Lauren existed. It was all part of their father's secret plan. You see, in the last invasion Master Xandred's forces were waging an intense battle. They were overwhelming the samurai rangers. So, their father put all his faith in his children. Lauren was sent off and put into hiding so she could fully master the sealing power. But while his sister practiced the sealing symbol, someone had to continue to battle the Nighlok. That's where Jayden came in."
"But Jayden was only a little boy then," Mia points out.
Ji nods, continuing, "His father feared he himself hadn't mastered the sealing power, but he was determined to try. He hoped, even an imperfect seal would be strong enough to at least send Master Xandred to the bottom of the Sanzu river. Long enough to allow his daughter to truly master the symbol herself and his son to grow strong enough to protect the world until she did. To deceive the Nighlok, Jayden had to do one of the hardest things in the whole world; hide it from his best friends."
"He must have felt like his whole life was a secret," Mike sighs.
"And he's being carrying that around inside himself all this time," Mia adds.
"So," Emily asks. "Does this mean she's ready?"
"Yes," Ji nods, clearly proud. "She has finally mastered the sealing power, the only power capable of sealing Master Xandred away forever. This is the day we've been waiting for."
After Ji explained what had happened with Jayden and Lauren, Nina had planned to go straight to her room, but the sound of her name stopped her.
"Nina, hold on," Lauren calls, behind her.
"Hey Lauren, how's Jayden?" Nina asks.
"He's still slightly out of it but Shaylee said he'll be fine," she says. "You know, you really didn't have to leave the room."
"I know," Nina sighs. "But I know if it was any of the other rangers, they would have left to give you guys time to catch up. Why wouldn't I?"
"Still," Lauren sighs. She'd felt bad that the purple ranger felt the need to leave.
"Besides, my bed is a lot more comfortable," Nina only half jokes. The beds in the hospital room were pretty comfortable but she'd pick her bed over those any day.
"Right and I should let you get back to that. You do need to rest but before you go, I wanted to give you this." She holds out a letter with the Shiba family crest on it. Nina's eyes widen as she takes it.
"It's a letter from the red ranger. The previous one," she explains.
"For me?"
"You are the purple ranger, aren't you?" she teases. "I was instructed only to give it to you once I arrived."
"Thank you," Nina replies.
"You must be tired, so I'll let you get to your bed," Lauren says, beginning to walk away.
"Lauren," Nina says after a moment.
"Yeah?" She replies turning around, just missing bumping into Mia as she exits from her room.
"After seeing you in the megazord yesterday, I'm glad to have you on the team."
"Thank you."
Once Nina got to her room, she couldn't help but open the letter immediately. It's not every day you get a letter from such a legendary ranger. Reading the content though was shocking, as while she understood it, she couldn't bring herself to believe it. Believing that maybe a good night's sleep (even though it was only 4:30pm) would help her concentration Nina put the letter in her bottom drawer then went to sleep. She didn't realise just how exhausted she was until she woke up. It was 6:30am when she next checked the time. She had essentially slept the day away, even slept through her alarm. Looking over and seeing the assistant mentor in the other bed she realised she had no idea when she had even come in although she vaguely remembered her pulling her duvet over her. Stretching in the bed, she realised how sore her muscles actually were, but she couldn't let that keep her down. She had already woken up much later than usual so she figured she might as well switch her routine a bit for the day.
Instead of doing her schoolwork first, she decided to go and train first a bit, just to warm up her muscles and slowly ease herself back in before heading inside to shower just as the other rangers came outside. After her shower, she went to grab some breakfast and check in on Jayden who was still asleep before heading back to her now empty room to do some schoolwork. Essentially all her coursework for her subjects was in so at this point she was on the final topic section for each of the classes from talking with Eddie though, she was getting through it all a lot faster than they were over there. Luckily, that meant more time for her to revise if she was going to make it to her exams.
Since Lauren hadn't really had a proper welcome for Lauren given all the drama with the fire flashers, they figured they'd have a barbeque for her today. Nina knew they were supposed to start at twelve (it was now quarter past) and it sounded like the others were already outside so she assumed the knock at her ajar door (Shaylee had come in earlier and had failed to shut the door and while it had been annoying Nina this whole time she still couldn't bring herself up to shut it herself) was going to be one of the others telling her to hurry up.
"Sorry, I didn't tell you about Lauren earlier," she hears Jayden say which shocks her; she didn't know he was up yet.
"It's okay. I get it," she says, not turning around as she finishes typing her sentence. "I mean, a little warning would've been nice…" she trails off as she turns around and takes in his appearance. She sees his duffel bag. She knows exactly what's going on. "Jayden, no. Don't do this. Don't leave. Not now."
"I have to," he sighs.
"No, you don't," Nina replies, getting up.
"I do," he tells her, putting his bag down. "You guys are too loyal to me. Lauren's the one with the sealing power. She's supposed to be the red ranger. She's supposed to be your leader. If I stay, dangerous mistakes could be made."
"Lauren, just got here and you're gonna leave?"
"Nina," he sighs. He doesn't want to leave. Of course, he doesn't. But matter how much he wants to stay, it's not about what he wants, or what the team wants. It's about keeping the world safe, regardless of what it does to them.
"You could stay," she whispers, tears welling up. "You could stay and be- "He cuts her off, knowing exactly what she's going to say.
"Nina, listen okay," he says, placing his hands on her shoulders to look her in the eyes. "You are the purple samurai ranger. That is no mistake. You have a duty to protect this world. I was always just standing in until Lauren was ready. And now she is so I'm stepping back. That was always the plan."
"Well, the plan sucks," she mutters, stepping forwards to give him a hug, which he returns, laughing a little.
"Yeah, just a bit."
"This is an 'I'll see you later,' by the way," Nina says, pulling away. "And for the record, you are not just a stand in ranger." Jayden just smiles picking up his bag again.
"Are you coming?" He says but she shakes her head. "Okay, I'll see you later then."
"See you later," Nina repeats, as he steps out of her room. "Jayden," she says before he can shut the door. He opens it widen again, waiting for her to speak. "Don't forget to give Emily a 'see you later' hug too." The (old? No. Original) red ranger rolls his eyes, but she sees his smile before he shuts the door. She leans against it as she hears him walk away, inhaling deeply as tears begin forming again.
It's only a couple of minutes later than Nina decides to step out as she hears the other rangers' protests. He must've told them. She stops in the doorway just as Kevin says, "I'm going with you."
"You're a samurai ranger. I'm counting on you to stay and fight by my sister's side," Jayden says. "I know you'll make her as proud of you as you've made me."
"This can't be happening," Emily mutters as he walks away.
"It was Jayden who brought us altogether," Emily says, tearily as the rangers sit in the living room, it's evening now and the mood had shifted greatly from how it was at the beginning of the barbeque. "Somehow, fighting next to him made me a stronger warrior."
"So, what are we supposed to do?" Mike asks. "Just forget about him like he never existed?"
"Of course not!" Lauren says.
"Mike, you remember what Jayden said. We have a duty as samurai." Kevin reminds him.
"Well, he my best friend," Antonio says, standing up, walking out of the room. "And technically, I'm not a true samurai like all of you are. So, I'm going after him."
"I'm sorry Lauren," Mike says, after a moment. "I'm sure you're a great samurai. But it's just not the same without Jayden."
Oh, chapter twenty-five! Lauren Shiba hello! But Jayden… why did you have to leave? Drama. Drama. Drama! It's beginning to reach it's ending climax! Oh, also I know I said BTR left for their tour around the 23rd of March but I've updated the chapter and pushed it back to the 13th so they're back earlier. I also remembered that I said I'd upload Nina's necklace (imagine it without the star though) as the photo ages ago but I forgot until now! Sorry! It's done now though :) Anyways, I hope you guys are enjoying this. The plot is thickening! See you on Friday!
