Roses and Thorns

Chapter Eleven

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own it. Never have, never will

RedFox: -Looks at author- You know, you probably don't have to put a disclaimer at the top of every chapter

Me: I am not going to risk being sued. I don't have any money at all. -Is still waiting for her Jobseeker's Allowance to come through... Stupid Jobcentre-

Author's Note: I will get up the next chapter of Is Love For Real? but I really wanted to write this chapter first

Wow... Lots of reviews! -Huge grin- Well, they're a lot compared to how many reviews I usually get

Replies to reviews:

Jorgitosbabe: -Is deafened... Yet again- Lol. Glad you liked it

garnetred: Actually, I considered having Cally decide to leave anyway... Anything to be contrary to what people expect . Except then it wouldn't work with the whole storyline, so... -Shrugs-

BlueAngel07: Glad you liked it

CamFan4Ever: Ok, ok... I won't delete it. But you have to update Finding Your Love II. I really want to read more of that . Oh, and if you need a muse, DarkCat says that she'll come and help you out... Especially if you feed her

DarkCat: -Nods-

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Faye looked steadily at Cally, holding her hand over her communicator. "Well?" she asked.

"Shouldn't we... answer that?" Cally wanted to know.

"In a moment," Faye answered. "After all, Cal, if you want us to leave, there's not much point in us answering our communicators, is there?"

I can't make a decision like that, Cally thought to herself. She looked at Faye, and shrugged helplessly. "I... don't know," she admitted. "How can you expect me to make a decision like that?"

"Because you have to," Faye replied. "No one else can make that decision for you. It's quite simple, Cally. You can decide to leave, but that might be taking the coward's way out.. On the other hand, you can decide to stay, which, although it would mean that we'd probably end up being in constant danger, it would enable us to try and help David and the other Power Rangers."

"You're going all Zen on me," Cally muttered. She knew that Faye was right, though. She had to work out exactly where her loyalties lay.

"Well?" Faye asked.

Cally took a deep breath. There's only one decision I can really make. She gestured towards their communicators, which were still beeping. "Shouldn't we see who's trying to get hold of us?" And now, for better or worse, the decision has been made. There's no going back now. Not ever. And I guess I'll soon find out whether I made the right choice or not.

Faye smiled, and Cally knew that her friend had really wanted them to stay. That was good. At least someone felt that they should stay.

If we had left, would David had come after us? Cally wondered. Ordinarily, she would have said no... But after the darkness she had sensed inside her brother, she wasn't sure of anything anymore. That thought terrified her. She could come face-to-face with death a thousand times, and she would still never really get used to it.

It's like when I was a little kid, and I was scared of the dark because I thought that monsters lurked inside, Cally thought. Only this time, the monsters are real. And there's no escape from them. You can either stay and fight them, or you can run away screaming like a coward and hide somewhere safe.

I've now chosen to stay and fight.

The violet light ranger's thoughts were interrupted by Faye speaking into her communicator: "Hello. The orange violet ranger here."

"Oh, darn." Cally heard the mocking tones of the silver silk ranger, and winced. "I had really hoped that Cally would be the one to answer this call."

Faye glanced quickly at her friend. "What do you want?" she demanded, turning her attention back to the communicator.

Laughter echoed, raising the hairs on the back of Cally's neck. That laugh was not a nice laugh.

But why are the two silk rangers acting like this? Cally wondered. It seems rather... odd. I don't see why anyone would want to help Lothor. Unless, of course, the same thing that happened to David happened to those two... Which would be a very bad thing. If they are under Lothor's control, how the heck could they be brought back to their senses?

"Well, you two are obviously not going to leave town," the silver silk ranger answered. "Which means that you'll end up getting in our way. I gave Cally the chance to get away. I tried warning her. But she didn't listen."

If only she knew how close I really was to deciding to just give up and run away, taking the coward's way out.

Faye glanced at Cally. Clearly, she was waiting for the violet light ranger to decide what they were going to do.

"You expect us to fight you?" Cally asked.

"Well, duh," the silver silk ranger replied. "What else would I be wanting to do? Go out on a shopping trip? Not that the idea doesn't have its appeal, of course. Unfortunately, it's business before pleasure, as usual."

Faye looked at Cally, silently asking what they should do. Even with Cally fighting at full strength, they probably wouldn't stand much chance against the two silk rangers. They'd already seen how good those two were.

Cally covered her communicator. "Well, what do you think we should do?" she asked her friend in a low voice.

"That depends," Faye replied. "But I'd say that, based on the decision you've just made, we don't really have any other choice but to fight them. If we're going to get involved in this fight against Lothor and his aliens, now would be as good a chance as any to start."

Cally slowly shook her head. "But what if those two are not working for Lothor?" she asked. "That's always possible. They could just be... free agents."

"It is possible," Faye agreed. "But very unlikely. At least, in my opinion it's very unlikely. Think about it, Cal. It's too much of a coincidence for them to just show up out of the blue, and then for evil David to show up the day after."

Evil David? Cally thought. I guess that's a good description for how he's been acting at the moment.

"Well?" Faye asked. "What do you think we should do? I'll support whatever decision you make, but you need to decide quickly."

Cally sighed a little. "I guess it... makes sense for us to answer the challenge," she muttered. "I don't particularly want to, though. There's something odd about the silk they use, Faye. It's certainly not ordinary silk. They must have done something to it to make it burn like it does. I've still got the bruises around my neck from when the silver silk ranger nearly strangled me. Even with the accelerated healing we get as Power Rangers, the bruises are still there. What if someone gets suspicious? Hunter doesn't seem to know our true identities... But I could have sworn that he was conscious when David showed up. Which means that he could remember our identities later, and then, of course, he'd tell the other Power Rangers."

"Is that such a bad idea?" Faye wanted to know. "It would be easier to help each other if we all knew each other's true identities. Our identities are the biggest secret we have. If we tell them, that means that we trust them."

"Exactly," Cally replied. "I guess I... don't want to give away our identities until we know for sure that we can trust them. And, well, Hunter knows who I am. He knows that I cheated on Dustin. What if he refuses to help us because of what I did?" Cally glanced down at the scars she would always have around her wrists. A permanent reminder of what she had done, what she had become.

"You have a point," Faye noted. "Ok. We'll keep our identities from the other Power Rangers. For now, at least. But, Cal, we will need to tell them at some point."

"I know," Cally whispered. She removed her hand from the communicator. "All right," she spoke into it. "We're on our way."

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Hunter, Blake, and Dustin came into NinjaOps to find Cam, as always, sitting in front of the computer.

"Hey, dude, what are you doing?" Dustin asked Cam, walking over to peer over the green samurai ranger's shoulder at writing on the computer screen that made no sense to him at all.

"I'm trying to find out about catalysts," Cam replied absently, forgetting exactly who it was he was talking to.

"Catalysts?" Dustin frowned. "Hey, dude, I don't mean to sound ignorant or anything... But what exactly are catalysts?"

"Well, it's rather complicated," Cam answered slowly.

"Um, aren't catalysts objects which speed up the reaction of experiments or whatever while remaining unchanged itself?" Blake asked.

"Well, technically..." Cam began.

"See, that wasn't so hard to explain, was it?" Hunter put in as he practiced some of his fighting moves.

Cam turned in his chair to glare at the crimson thunder ranger. "You didn't let me finish!" he snapped. "True, Blake just said the definition of a catalyst... But that's assuming that the catalyst is an inanimate object."

"So, dude, what you're trying to say is that a catalyst can be a living thing?" Dustin wanted to know. His expression registered confusion. "Wouldn't that be, like, impossible?"

"It should be," Cam said. "But it's not totally impossible. Haven't you heard any of those reports of people who can make electrical appliances go wild just by being near them?"

"Yeah, but aren't most of those, like, fake?" Hunter questioned.

"Most of them," Cam nodded. "But not all of them. According to my father, a very small amount of ninjas in the Light Ninja Academy are born with abilities similar to that of a catalyst - they can draw energy from others and add that energy to their own to destroy an enemy."

"Whoa. That would be a useful ability for someone to have," Blake commented.

"Well, yes and no. You see, according to my father, those who have their energy drained end up really weak," Cam explained. "They'd probably end up really useless in another fight directly afterwards, and, in some cases, depending on how much energy is actually used, they could even end up in a coma."

"Sounds kind of harsh," Dustin noted. "How long would the energy drain last for?"

Cam shrugged. "I can't find anything to tell me that," he answered. "None of the sources I've found are very clear. I would say that it probably depends on a variety of different factors."

"And you think that one, or possibly both, of these light rangers could have the abilities of a catalyst?" Blake wanted to know.

"It's possible," Cam admitted. "If either of them do have those abilities, though, I would assume that they don't know about it. Neither strikes me as the type to keep special abilities hidden if using them could aid in any way in a fight."

"You got all of this just by meeting them on one occasion?" Blake asked.

Cam shrugged a little. "Obviously, we'd have to get to know them better before we can formulate any true opinions of what their true personalities might be," he said.

"Well, dude, what about that third light ranger you saw?" Dustin questioned Hunter. "You know. The white one."

Hunter shrugged a little. "I told you, I don't remember much of the conversation that passed between those three," he replied. "No, scratch that. I don't remember any of the conversation that passed between those three."

"Did they seem like friends?" Cam wanted to know.

Hunter thought for a long moment, and then slowly shook his head. "No," he answered, his tone sounding troubled. "It seemed like the white light ranger didn't care much for the other two... And I know that there was something important about their conversation. Something which I told myself that I really had to remember... But it seems to be buried in the back of my mind, where I can't get to it."

"We could always try using hypnosis?" Cam suggested.

Before Hunter could reply, Blake cut in. "No," the navy thunder ranger said firmly. "You are not going to try putting Hunter under hypnosis."

"Calm down, Blake," Cam told the navy thunder ranger. "I wasn't seriously considering hypnosis as an option. But, Hunter, it would be a really good idea to try and remember everything about that conversation."

"That's what I've been trying to do," the crimson thunder ranger muttered.

"So... When are you seeing Lila next?" Blake asked his brother with a grin.

"Hm? Oh... Tomorrow night. We're going to go out for a meal."

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Peter and Lila were waiting in the last place they had fought the two light rangers, both in their Power Ranger forms. However, the silver silk ranger was beginning to have some serious doubts which she could no longer keep hidden from her brother.

"Peter, I really don't want to hurt the two light rangers," Lila finally burst out. "I don't know why. I just don't."

Peter turned his helmeted head towards his sister. "We don't have a choice, Lila," he told the silver silk ranger. "We have to put them out of action. They didn't leave town when you gave them the chance."

"But maybe there's another way to put them out of action?" Lila suggested. "I'm worried about you, Peter. You're not acting yourself. Remember what we're really in this fight for? It's the only way to free our parents." And why am I starting to think that Lothor can't be trusted?

"I know," Peter said finally, his tone flat. That was one of the things he didn't like about his sister. She could always manage to bring him down to earth again. Though he was in fact the older of the two, sometimes Lila acted the more mature one.

"And we still have to spar together so that I can get those trousers I wanted," Lila added, looking away from her brother.

And now it's back to less mature than me, Peter thought. He slowly shook his head. "We compete with each other too much," he told his sister.

Though the brown silk ranger couldn't see his sister's expression, he could just imagine the grin that spread across her face at his words as Lila said, "You're only saying that because most of the time I win our bets."

"Probably," Peter agreed. He was beginning to worry about him and his sister. It seemed like the more time the two silk rangers spent with Lothor, the more they started to act like the space ninja.

And that's probably not really a good thing, Peter knew. Neither Lila or I are naturally evil. At the moment, we're going against our true natures. But we truly have no other choice. And it's not a large price to pay. The Power Rangers for the lives of our parents. Peter kept trying to tell himself that. But he wondered just how long it would take before the price got too much for him and Lila to pay.

"So... About the other way of taking the two light rangers out of action?" Peter gently prodded his sister.

Lila told him, and, once she had finished, a grin spread across Peter's face beneath the helmet he wore.

"All right," Peter told Lila in a low voice. "I'll distract them."

"Hey, are you just going to stand around talking?" a familiar female voice yelled. "I thought you wanted us to fight?!"

Peter glanced in the direction of the voice, and saw the violet and orange rangers standing there, close beside each other. He shot his sister a quick glance, hoping that this plan she had come up with would actually work. Lila had been right. They didn't need to destroy the two light Power Rangers. Lothor hadn't really mentioned them at all.

"Well, we don't have to fight just yet," Peter said in an oily tone. "Why don't you two tell me about yourselves?"

The two light rangers exchanged glances, and Peter knew that they were both confused. Both wondering exactly what was going on. What the two silk rangers were up to. But Peter knew that they would not realise until Lila had carried out her part of the plan. And, of course, by then it would be too late.

"No thanks," the violet ranger replied.

Peter put a hand over his heart. "Oh, I'm hurt," he said mockingly. "Just because we're enemies, it's no call for us to be rude to each other."

"Just fight!" the violet ranger snapped.

Peter looked towards the orange ranger. "Don't you want there to be a peaceful situation to this whole conflict?" he asked mockingly.

"Sometimes, fighting is the only way," the orange ranger replied softly. "I may prefer peace... But it does not mean that I am not willing to fight alongside my friends if the need arises."

Friends. She said friends. Clearly, that means that there is at least one other light Power Ranger. Wonder what happened to them.

Behind Peter, Lila slowly raised her blaster. This felt wrong. Shooting them while they were defenceless wasn't right. But it was either that or destroy the two light rangers outright... And, for some reason, Lila was no longer willing to do that.

Lila fired.

The shot caught the violet ranger in the chest, sending her hurtling backwards. As soon as the smoke faded, Lila and Peter saw that she was unmorphed and that there was a large crystal ball attached to her chest, pulsating with a sickly green light.

Faye demorphed too, and ran over to Cally. "What did you do to her?" she yelled at the two silk rangers.

Lila gave a small shrug. "Put her out of action," she replied, coming to stand next to Peter. "That ball will suck energy out of Cally the moment she morphs. The next time she uses her Power Ranger form will be her last. It will kill her." With those words, the two silk rangers streaked off.

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Read and review, please!

Whew... I can actually see an end in sight for this. I apologise to anyone who might think that I've rambled a bit with this. I wanted to explain about the whole catalyst thing