Roses and Thorns

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Power Rangers, Ninja Storm, and I'm not making any money from this fic

Replies to reviews:

garnetred: Well, I figured that I'd write a scene where Lila becomes jealous, and came up with that. Lol. As for Cally? Well, you'll have to see

CamFan4Ever: Something surprise or shock you? Lol...

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

BlueAngel07: Glad you liked it -Smiles-

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Cally stared at the unicorn. "What... Are you talking about?" she demanded.

"You're here for a reason," the unicorn repeated.

"But... How is that possible?" Cally asked, thinking, I must be going mad. Something like this wouldn't exist in real life. Or maybe I'm just so ill that I'm getting delirious.

"This is the Forest of Feelings," the unicorn explained. "You are here because you have become trapped within your feelings, which have grown too strong for you to handle."

"I don't know what you mean," Cally frowned.

"Yes, you do," the unicorn told the violet ranger. "You just don't want to understand what I'm talking about."

My feelings of guilt for cheating on Dustin? Cally wondered. I suppose that's possible... Out loud, the violet ranger asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm one of the unicorns who live in the forest," the unicorn answered. "We unicorns act as guides for those like you who get trapped here. The other animals cannot necessarily be trusted."

"How do I get out of here?" Cally wanted to know.

"You have to find the gate that leads back to your body," the unicorn replied.

"You mean there's more than one gate?"

"Of course," the unicorn said. "Whenever someone gets trapped here, a gate is created for them to get back to their body which they have to find."

"So all I have to do is find the gate that leads back to my body?" Well, it sounds easy... But since when has anything in my life been easy?

"It's not that simple," the unicorn told Cally.

Oh, there's a surprise, Cally thought to herself. She looked at the unicorn. "No, I didn't think it would be," she replied. "What else do I have to do?"

"Certain challenges," the unicorn explained. "If you fail one, it will cost you your life."

"Cheery thought," Cally muttered. "Can I use my morphing abilities here?"

"Morphing abilities?" The unicorn sounded confused.

"Well, I'm a Power Ranger," Cally said slowly.

"Ah." The unicorn nodded slowly. "There are quite a few Power Rangers who come here."

"There have been other Power Rangers come here?" It was Cally's turn to be surprised.

"Of course," the unicorn answered. "Power Rangers seem particularly susceptible to having their feelings overwhelm them. It's because of all the responsibility they have despite the fact that they're so young."

"Well, that makes sense," Cally said slowly. "I'm really glad I'm not the only Power Ranger to get trapped here... So, can I use my morphing abilities in this place?"

"You may use anything that might give you an advantage," the unicorn replied. "But abilities like morphing, because you weren't born with them or acquired them on your own, as long as you stay morphed, you will use up a lot of your energy."

Cally nodded slowly. "I understand," she said. "Are you to be my guide in this forest, then?"

"Yes. But I may not aid you in the challenges."

"Ok. Then let's go," Cally said. She wanted to get out of this place as quickly as possible.

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Blake walked into NinjaOps, an angry look on his face.

Cam looked up, a tired expression on his face. "Something wrong, Blake?" he asked the navy thunder ranger wearily.

"Yes!" Blake snapped.

"Blake, whatever is wrong, you are not going to be able to deal with it by snapping at people," Sensei told him.

"Sorry, Sensei," Blake muttered. "It's just... Lila and Hunter."

"Why, what's wrong with them?" Cam wanted to know.

"Well, that's the problem," Blake answered. "There probably isn't going to be a them. Lila seems to think that Hunter just brings girls home all the time and doesn't truly care about her." He shrugged a little. "They got into a huge fight, and Lila stormed out of the house, leaving my brother feeling completely miserable."

Cam blinked. "Wait a moment," he said slowly. "Lila stayed round your house last night?"

"She slept in the guest room," Blake replied quickly. "It was just that it was quite late when she was ready to leave, so Hunter suggested that she stay the night."

"Perhaps she is frightened of commitment?" Sensei suggested, reminding the two Power Rangers of his presence.

"That's one possibility," Cam agreed.

"That's still no excuse for her to treat my brother like that!" Blake said sharply. "It was cruel and unnecessary."

"Um, excuse me?" a female voice said hesitatingly.

Blake and Cam glanced towards the entrance of NinjaOps, and saw a blonde-haired girl half-carrying half-supporting another dark-haired girl who appeared to be unconscious and seemed to have a glowing crystal pressed against her chest.

"Who are you?" Blake demanded.

"The two light rangers," the teenager explained. "I'm Faye, and this is Cally." She indicated the one she was holding.

Blake frowned. "The same Cally who cheated on Dustin?"

Faye glared. "She is sorry for it!"

"There is no need to get annoyed," Sensei told Faye. "He was merely asking a question."

"Well, I don't have time for questions," Faye replied. "Cally's in trouble."

"And you brought her here?" Cam asked.

"It was the only possible way," Faye explained. "She has this... thing inside her chest that's really harming her."

"Put her in the same place you put Hunter," Cam said to Faye. "I'll take a look at her in a little while."

"She doesn't have a little while," Faye told the green samurai ranger. "She's in a coma."

Blake immediately thought of just leaving Cally alone and letting her suffer. After all, he had seen how her actions had affected Dustin. But Blake couldn't in all honesty condone doing something like that. After all, the other Power Rangers had forgiven him and Hunter for working for Lothor... He knew full well how feeling bad for something you had done felt. But what Cally had done hadn't been because she had been deceived or anything. She had simply decided to hurt Dustin like that.

"Why haven't you taken her into the hospital?" Cam asked.

"With that thing sticking out of her chest?" Faye gestured towards the crystal which Blake and Cam could now see seemed to be embedded in Cally's chest. "Don't be silly. The doctors would ask all sorts of awkward questions, and I'm no good at fielding questions like that. Cally was conscious last night, though she was really ill, and she talked about coming here to see if anything could be done. Only then, this morning..." Faye's teeth clamped hard on her lower lip in an attempt to stop it from trembling.

"How did it get stuck in her chest?" Cam wanted to know.

"The silk rangers called us," Faye explained. "The brown one was talking to us... And then, the silver ranger shot that thing at Cal. Almost immediately, she started feeling really ill and weak. According to the silk ranger, she couldn't morph because it would kill her." Faye looked steadily at Cam. "The third member of our group appears to have been turned evil somehow... I can't lose Cally as well. You have to help her!" The last words were a plea.

Cam remembered Dustin's words about Cally's brother. Could David be the third light ranger? Dustin himself had said that David wasn't acting like himself.

"Please?" Faye begged.

"We should tell the others," Blake told Cam. "See what they think. We should really make this decision as a group."

"You can't tell the others!" Faye cried.

"What is your reason for saying that?" Sensei asked the light ranger.

Faye looked down. "It's something that we'd only reveal if we really trusted a person," she murmured. "We've been forced to reveal our identities to you... But you can't ask us to reveal our true identities to others."

"Dad, what should we do?" Cam asked the guinea pig.

"That is for you to decide," Sensei told his son. "I cannot tell you what you must do."

"It's only for a short time," Faye pleaded. "Just give us until we have this thing sorted out with the third member of our group... Please?"

"What do you think?" Cam asked Blake.

The navy thunder ranger shrugged. "They brought my brother back here when they could have just left him," he said slowly. "We probably owe them. I say that we keep their identities secret, at least for the time being." I'm not used to keeping secrets from my brother, though. This had better be worth it.

Cam nodded, and looked at Faye. "We'll keep your identities secret," he told her. "But you have to keep our identities secret as well."

"Who would we tell?" Faye indicated Cally's limp form. "Where can I put her?" she wanted to know. "She's kind of heavy."

Cam shrugged. "The rec. room," he answered. "At least that means that if any of the others come in here, they won't immediately know about you two."

Faye nodded, and Blake came to help her move Cally into the rec. room and place her carefully on the bed, his expression unreadable.

Cam followed them in, holding a metal scanner. He moved it over the light ranger's body, and then examined the readings with a frown.

"What's wrong?" Faye asked worriedly.

"I'm not entirely sure," Cam answered. He folded Cally's top up in order to examine the glowing crystal more carefully, feeling slightly nauseous. He wasn't a lot better himself. The feeling of weakness had actually gotten worse. A part of him wondered if it was somehow connected to Cally's coma, but he pushed that idea aside. It probably wasn't very likely.

The crystal appeared to be about half-embedded into Cally's skin, but it wasn't a very big crystal. The skin around it wasn't swollen or red or anything like that either. It looked very much like a piercing, only people weren't pierced there.

"Well, what do you think?" Faye demanded.

"I'd be able to concentrate much better if you didn't keep on distracting me," Cam muttered. The crystal was hard, and the portions of glow that fell on flesh seemed almost to sink into the skin.

Blake's eyes traveled towards Cally's wrists, and then he stiffened slightly. "What are those marks on Cally's wrists?" he asked Faye.

Faye followed the navy thunder ranger's gaze, and then looked away. "She tried to kill herself," she replied in a small voice. "It was just after we'd received our morphing abilities... David was treating her really badly because of her cheating on Dustin, and Cally kind of just snapped. She ran upstairs and locked herself in the bathroom... And then I realised that she'd taken one of the kitchen knives with her."

"What did you do?" Blake wanted to know. He was curious. From what he had heard of her, Faye seemed to prefer peace to violence. Probably because she had been taught that way, though Cally seemed to be more anxious to get on with fights.

"I morphed," Faye answered simply. "I then broke the bathroom door down. I wasn't quick enough to stop her from actually slitting her wrists, but I was able to get her to hospital on time." She frowned a little. "David showed that he still cared about her then... He was worried, more worried than I've ever seen him before. The whole time she was in hospital, he just paced the area. He couldn't keep still."

"Which is why you find it so hard to believe that he's trying to hurt you and Cally?" Blake asked.

Faye nodded.

Cam frowned to himself. Hm... The coma doesn't seem to be directly related to the crystal in Cally. But then what could be causing the coma she's in? Could it be a self-inflicted one, or is it one that she's been forced into by something? Lothor, perhaps? Then again, Cam couldn't imagine his uncle being able to do something like that. So, self-inflicted seemed to be the more likely answer.

"So... Are either of you two catalysts?" Cam asked absently while he studied Cally.

Faye blinked. "What?" she asked.

Quickly, Cam explained about the catalysts.

When he had finished, Faye started to shake her head. Then, she frowned.

So... Hunter technically knows the identity of these three light rangers, Blake thought to himself. Apart from the fact that he doesn't actually remember them. But could he have heard anything else important? Blake would have asked Faye... But he didn't think that she would remember the conversation, especially after seeing how worried she was about Cally. Blake was pretty sure that he would be in the same state if something like that happened to Hunter.

Cam turned to Faye when she didn't answer. "No?"

"I..." Faye began. She closed her eyes for a moment. "Ordinarily, I would have said no... But the other day, Cally slipped into meditation, and pulled energy out of me."

"Why would she do that?" Cam frowned.

"I... don't think I should say," Faye replied. "It's something that's quite... private." She gave an apologetic shrug.

Blake frowned, knowing that if he leaned on Faye to tell them, she would... But he decided that it wasn't really that important.

"So, it's possible," Cam said slowly.

Faye shook her head. "It's highly unlikely," she insisted. "This was in a meditative state. Chances are, someone with a catalyst ability would be able to do it without being in a meditative state. Even if Cal does have the capacity for that ability, she probably won't be able to learn how to do something like that. Not quickly, anyway."

Cam nodded. "You're probably right," he said.

"What have you found out?" Faye demanded, indicating Cally's still form.

"The coma seems to be almost self-inflicted," Cam explained. "We'll have to wait for her to come out of it on her own. And I'll need to find out how to go about removing the crystal from her. The best thing you can do is to take her back to your house and make her as comfortable as possible. I'll contact you on your morpher if and when I find out anything."

Faye nodded slowly. "Thank you," she replied sincerely. Grasping Cally's body, she streaked out of NinjaOps.

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David was leaning against the counter, talking to Kelly, when Dustin came out of the storeroom.

"Hey, David," Dustin smiled, pleased to see his friend again even if he was acting strangely.

"Hiya Dustin," David replied, pushing himself away from the counter, flashing a smile at Kelly who didn't look very impressed.

"What's up?" Dustin asked.

"Oh, not much," David smiled, but it wasn't a particularly nice smile. "Spoken to my sister at all?"

"Not since the last time," Dustin answered. "She hasn't been near here."

"Good." David stretched a little. "Tell me if she does, all right?"

"David, don't you think that you're taking this a little too far?" Dustin asked tentatively. "I know that Cally cheated on me... But you're acting like you don't even care about what happens to her anymore. No, scratch that. You're acting like you want me to hurt her."

"I'm not acting," David responded.

Dustin slowly shook his head. "I'm not in the habit of beating up people," he said. "Especially not girls."

David shrugged a little. "I could do it for you," he offered.

Dustin frowned. "No, I'd really rather you didn't," he told David. "She seems to be sorry for what she did to me."

David tilted his head to the side. "And is that enough?" he wanted to know.

"Not at the moment," Dustin admitted. "But that's because what she did to me still hurts. Give it time, and I'll maybe be able to forgive her."

As Dustin turned to tidy one of the shelves, David's face suddenly blanched. One hand went to his forehead as images flashed through his mind.

But, as suddenly as they had appeared, the images vanished again. When Dustin turned back to David, the latter's face was completely composed.

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Cally and the unicorn walked through the forest side by side.

"Always look in front of you, no matter what happens," the unicorn warned the violet light ranger. "Once you start looking away from the path, you risk becoming lost here forever, a mere wraith unable to escape and forced to drag others into your hellish existence."

Cally nodded slowly. "I understand," she replied. "I'll try to keep my eyes on the path ahead of me."

"Don't try," the unicorn responded. "Do

Inwardly, Cally sighed. She somehow got the feeling that her guide didn't particularly care much for people, especially when the unicorn had heard about the fact that she was a Power Ranger. "Yes, I will," she said dully.

"Good."

The two continued walking in silence, each apparently caught up in their own thoughts. Well, Cally was. She didn't know about the unicorn.

I wonder what's going on where my body is? Cally thought. I wonder if Faye's all right. And what about the two silk rangers? Could they have attacked Faye? Could David have? She won't stand a chance against any of them. I know her weaknesses. Faye isn't a fighter. She prefers to find a peaceful solution to anything.

Actually, if Cally was honest, she didn't think that the silk rangers, at least, would attack Faye. They had seemed to just want to take the two light rangers out of action. And Faye wasn't likely to go looking for them.

Cally gave a soft sigh, and looked down at the morpher on her wrist. She wondered, not for the first time, if she was truly worthy of the powers of the violet light ranger. It was not lost on her that her zord and emblem was a unicorn. Unicorns were pure creatures, and Cally wasn't actually pure. She wasn't pure at all, in fact. The fact that she had cheated on Dustin was proof of that.

It took Cally a few moments to realise that the unicorn was starting to head towards the trees. Somehow, she knew that the moment the unicorn left the path, the lovely creature would be lost forever... And Cally would fail.

"STOP!" Cally yelled.

But the unicorn didn't turn.

Cally tried to work out how to get the unicorn to turn back. She ran dozens of different scenarios through her mind, discarding all of them.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to the violet light ranger. "Light Storm, Ranger Form!"

Cally morphed to her ranger form, and, almost immediately, felt a wave of weakness spread through her body. But she ignored it as she yelled, "STOP! I command you as the violet light ranger, holder of the unicorn zord." She could not say how she knew the words to say. She just somehow knew them.

Instantly, the unicorn halted. After a moment, it turned and trotted back to Cally, then butted its head gently against her chest.

"Ninja Form," Cally gasped into her morpher. She then all but collapsed against the unicorn. "Please tell me that was one of the challenges?" she begged.

"It wasn't, unfortunately," the unicorn replied. "It was me being careless. Come. We should resume our journey." The two set off again.

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Read and review, please!

Also, could reviewers please come up with ideas for challenges that Cally could complete? -Pleading look-