Chapter 1

This story is a sequel to Captured and I suggest you read that story first.

It had been a month since Blake had been captured by Lothor. He had been healing during that time. After two weeks, he returned to work at Storm Chargers. After three weeks, Hunter let him motocross again. Today was the first time that the team was letting him do any ninja training again. They were doing their ninja training for the day by the lake that has the waterfall with the entrance to Ninja Ops. He was sparring with Hunter and could tell that his brother was going easy on him. "Don't hold back," Blake said.

"Are you sure?" Hunter asked. "I don't want you to get hurt again."

"I'm fine. You don't need to hold back."

Hunter wasn't sure about going full strength on Blake since he hadn't been training for a while, but he also knew that his brother was going to be furious with him if he continued to hold back like this. Mentally debating what to do, he decided that he wanted to please his brother because he didn't want to deal with Blake being mad at him for a week. (Yes, it probably would've been a week). Blake always got mad at Hunter when he got overprotective. He started going harder on Blake and it didn't take long for Hunter to knock him down. "Are you ok?" Hunter asked and held out a hand to help Blake up.

Blake pushed Hunter's hand away. "I'm fine," he grumbled and stood up by himself.

Hunter put his hands up in defense. "You told me not to go easy on you."

Blake didn't say anything. He just stormed off. Truth be told, he wasn't actually mad at Hunter. He knew his brother was just looking out for him after everything that happened. He was mad at the whole situation that he got put in. He was mad that he wasn't strong enough to fight off Lothor and his goons. He felt that if he was stronger, he wouldn't have been captured and tortured. Everyone else has told him that it was their fault that he got captured, but he doesn't believe them. He put the blame solely on himself, but he didn't tell the others that. He knew they would tell him that it wasn't his fault.

Over the past few weeks, he grew tired of the way the team has been treating him. He's tired of them looking at him being guilty about what happened. He's tired of them looking at him with pity from what happened. He's tired of them looking at him like he would break from one hit. He's just so tired. He hadn't gotten a good night's sleep since it happened either. He's been plagued by nightmares from the whole thing. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw himself back on Lothor's ship. He also didn't tell the others about that. He was also lucky that none of them, not ever Hunter, noticed that he started eating less. He started taking smaller portions for his meals and more recently, he started skipping meals. At this point, he was probably only actually eating one meal a day. Maybe less sometimes. Ok. There were a few days where he didn't eat anything. He didn't want any of them knowing how he was feeling because it would make him seem more fragile.

The others watched Blake storm off.

"What's up with him?" Dustin asked.

"I don't know," Hunter said. He didn't understand why Blake stormed off like that. He had noticed changes in his brother's attitude since he got captured by Lothor. He had seemed more withdrawn, and he wanted to be alone a lot more. Tori had also noticed and the two of them had talked about it a few times. Both were concerned about Blake's well-being. It just didn't seem like him. Hunter was always the more introverted one while Blake was more extroverted, but right now, the roles seemed reverse.

"Maybe we should just give him some space," Shane said. "He went through a lot."

After watching that happen, Cam was mentally planning how to ask Blake about it later. Since Blake was resuming ninja training, they were going to resume their secret sparring sessions (also resuming their secret motocross lessons). As long as Blake showed up (Cam wasn't 100% sure he would at this point), he would have Blake alone without the others around. The perfect opportunity to talk to him. Blake was more open than Hunter was about what's going on with him, but the younger brother will keep to himself when he doesn't want to seem weak. Cam was thinking that if it was just them, then he wouldn't seem weak in front of the others, especially Hunter and Tori. One could only hope.

Cam was more observant than the others. Sure, Hunter is Blake's brother and Tori is Blake's girlfriend, but Cam learned everyone's tells when something was wrong from all his time being behind the computer in Ninja Ops. Shane trains more. Tori blames herself for whatever happened and tries to make it up to everyone. Dustin starts moping around. Hunter gets angry. And Blake starts distancing himself. He knows that the navy thunder ranger is closer to Hunter and Tori, but he was also thinking that might've been the problem. He might not want to open up to them because he especially doesn't want to seem weak in front of them.

Hunter's voice shook Cam out of his thoughts. "He's been acting weird for weeks now and I have no idea what to do about it anymore! He won't talk to me!" The green samurai ranger had never heard the crimson thunder ranger sound so desperate before. It was obvious that the older brother was at a total loss for what to do.

"It's not just you, Hunter," Tori tried to comfort him. "Blake just doesn't seem like he wants to open up right now. We'll figure out what's going on with him."

"Why don't we call it for today?" Cam suggested. The mood had clearly shifted since Blake stormed off. "We can train more tomorrow."

"Cam's right," Shane said. "Let's call it for today."

The five rangers walked back into Ninja Ops.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed!