Roses and Thorns
Chapter Nineteen
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Power Rangers, Ninja Storm, or Power Rangers in Space, and I'm not making any money from this fic. I also don't own the original concept of the creature in this fic, but I do own its modifications
Author's Note: Woo-hoo! Chapter Nineteen already! If anyone's read any of my other stories, they'll know how bad I am at stopping writing a fic in the middle of it. (I will get back to work on Is Love for Real? I promise).
56 reviews! Wow, that's great! Way more than I expected to get. Oh, if someone would like me to put one of their characters in this story, then just ask, and I'll see what I can do. (It's not anywhere near completion yet)
DarkAngel: -Grumbles- It was...
RedFox: Until he came along. -Glares at Apollo-
Apollo: -Just sits there with a smug look on his face-
DarkAngel: Anyway... There's yet another twist in this. Thanks to him -Also glares at Apollo-
Apollo: -Raises his eyebrows at DarkAngel- Have you got a problem?
DarkAngel: Um, no!
Replies to reviews:
garnetred: You're partly right... -Smiles- Thanks for reviewing!
CamFan4Ever: Aww -Hugs you- I'm sure he'll be on soon. Anyways, thank you for reviewing
BlueAngel07: Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you liked it!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hey."
Dustin glanced dejectedly up at Tori, then returned to staring into the forest. "Oh, hey."
Tori sat down next to the yellow wind ranger. "You ok?" she asked.
"Yes." Dustin paused, then admitted, "No, not really. Tor, I'd quite like to be left alone right now."
"Dustin, I'm worried about you," Tori told him. "Shane said that you left Storm Chargers really upset."
Dustin shrugged slightly, looking down. "I'm fine," he muttered. "Honestly, Tori. There's nothing wrong. You don't need to worry about me."
"Dustin, you're obviously not fine," Tori replied. "Kelly's worried about you as well. She thinks that she might have said something to upset you."
"Yeah? Well, it wasn't her fault. Please just leave me alone, Tori."
"Is it Cally?" Tori questioned.
"I don't want to talk about it," Dustin responded. "It hurts too much."
"Do you hate her?" Tori wanted to know.
The yellow wind ranger hesitated for a long moment. "I don't know," he admitted finally. "I feel like I should... But I don't know if I do or not. I hate what she did to me... But I don't hate her as a person."
"You still love her." It wasn't a question.
Dustin nodded slowly. "I guess you must think that I'm an idiot," he muttered.
"No, Dustin, I don't," Tori replied. "It's not your fault if you still love her. But what you have to ask yourself is, if she apologises to you, whether or not you're going to accept it."
"No, I probably won't," Dustin said immediately.
"Dustin, you don't have to pretend to me," Tori told him. "I'm your friend. I won't get mad at you for telling me how you feel you'd act towards Cally. It is, after all, your own decision."
"I don't know," Dustin whispered. "I just don't know, Tori. But if I accepted her apology, would she immediately do it again?"
"Even if you do accept her apology, then you don't have to start dating her again," Tori replied. "At least, not straight away. Get to know her again as a person rather than your girlfriend. After all, you haven't seen her for quite some time. She could have changed quite a lot."
"I suppose you're right," Dustin mumbled. "But I find it hard to believe that she could have changed."
Tori tilted her head to the side. "We've all changed," she reminded him. "Remember when Shane thought that he had to do it all on his own? He changed then. Cally could have changed from how you knew her then... But, then again, she might not have."
Dustin scowled a little. "That really tells me a lot about what I should do," he mumbled.
"You have to do what you feel is right," Tori told him. "Not what someone else thinks that you should do."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Faye walked into NinjaOps to find Blake and Cam there. Sensei was standing on a small table.
The orange light ranger glanced around, then looked at Cam. "You said that you'd managed to find something?"
Cam nodded. "I know a little bit of what's happened to the violet ranger," he told her.
"What is it?" Faye demanded, looking from Cam to Blake and back again.
"It's a place called the Forest of Feelings," Blake explained before Cam could say anything.
The green samurai ranger shot Blake an annoyed look, and then nodded to Faye. "He's right, actually."
"What's the Forest of Feelings?" Faye looked confused.
Cam quickly explained what he had found out from reading the Ninja Scrolls.
"Ah." Faye nodded. "That makes sense. Cal's been feeling guilty about cheating on Dustin for ages. I guess she's been so busy lately that she hasn't had time to think about how she feels."
"And now the crystal's lowered her defenses," Cam noted thoughtfully. "But didn't you say that it made her sick?"
"How do you know that Cally's feeling guilty about having cheated on Dustin?" Blake demanded of Faye.
The orange light ranger turned her gaze towards the navy thunder ranger. "I did tell you about when she went into a meditative trance, didn't I?" she asked.
Both Blake and Cam nodded.
"When she took the energy from me, we were both filled up with light," Faye explained. "It was like we were glowing from within. My light was orange, and Cally's was violet... Except I could see a darkness inside my friend that the light was trying to contain. Once Cal slipped into a meditative state, she reached out to the nearest source of power - that was me - to get more energy to aid her."
"What's the darkness inside her?" Cam questioned.
Faye shrugged slightly. "Depression, despair, guilt, whatever you want to call it. It's like a disease, and she's trying to fight it."
Blake shook his head. "I don't believe it," he said.
"Why not?" Faye asked him.
"Because if Cally really cared about Dustin, she would never have cheated on him," Blake responded. He looked at Cam. "Isn't that right?" he asked the green samurai ranger.
Cam remained silent. He felt so weak... It was like his energy was being taken from him. Was it possible that it really was? Could Lothor had found a way of stealing his energy for some diabolical plan? Was it another reason altogether? Or was it just a natural tiredness, and he was just being paranoid?
"Oh, you don't know anything!" Faye snapped at Blake, tearing Cam's thoughts back to them. "Have you never made a mistake? Are you just totally perfect?!"
"No, but I'd never hurt someone that I loved!" Blake retorted.
"But people do!" Faye protested. "If we're hurt, or angry, then we lash out at the people closest to our heart. Everyone does it."
Blake opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, a thoughtful expression on his face.
A part of Cam noted this exchange, and experienced mixed feelings about it. This could either cause Faye and Blake to become enemies, or it could cause them to be able to work together more easily. But the rest of the green samurai ranger didn't care. He was too busy worrying about his own problem. His father kept on telling him that he had been spending too much time on his computer, but, truthfully, the green samurai ranger didn't believe that that was the case. How could working on a computer make him exhausted? Computers didn't suck the life energy out of people.
"Blake, Faye, now is not the time for fighting," Sensei told the two Power Rangers. "Now is the time where you must try to work together."
"Yes, Sensei," Blake muttered.
Faye folded her arms across her chest. "I refuse to try and work together with someone who talks like that about my friend!"
"Well, then, we just won't work together at all!" Blake retorted.
"Fine by me," Faye replied.
"Stop it, you two," Cam told them. "I have a headache, and neither of you are helping it by shouting at each other."
Both Faye and Blake subsided, though they continued to glare at each other.
Cam sighed. Well, he supposed that a partial peace was better than an all-out fight. It was quite clear that Faye and Blake had taken an immediate dislike to each other.
"Now, I believe that I can't remove the crystal from Cally's chest until she wakes up," Cam told Faye.
"Why not?" the orange light ranger asked.
"Because I don't know what effect it would have on her spirit in the Forest of Feelings," Cam answered, relieved that it was now much more peaceful. "It could have no effect at all on her... Or, it could cause her to be trapped there, as the crystal seems to be the catalyst for her entering the Forest of Feelings."
Faye nodded slowly. "Well, that makes sense," she said. "But I'm worried as the crystal caused her to feel quite ill. It could still cause some quite serious damage. Is there any possible way of lessening the effects of it at all?"
Cam thought for a long moment, and then slowly shook his head. "I don't know enough about it to risk doing something to it at the moment," he replied. "I really wish I could help more."
"That's all right," Faye sighed. "At least I know that she's safe. For the moment, anyway," the orange light ranger quickly added.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was late evening, and very dark, by the time Kelly finally got round to locking up Storm Chargers. There didn't seem to be anyone else around, and, despite herself, Kelly shivered as she locked the front door.
Don't be silly, Kelly told herself. You're a grown woman now. You're not scared of the dark anymore.
Still, Kelly's nervousness caused her to fumble with the keys and to drop them onto the ground with a loud clatter.
Wincing a little at the sound, the woman bent to pick them up. When she straightened, she let out a tiny scream.
There was a little boy standing there, probably about ten or eleven, twelve at the most. He had white-blond hair, really pale skin, and huge blue eyes. For an instant, Kelly thought that she saw something dark and evil peering out of those eyes, but the feeling was quickly gone, leaving only a scared little child who had clearly lost his mummy.
Kelly gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "Hello," she said. "What are you doing here at this time of night?"
The boy stuck his thumb in his mouth and didn't answer, only stared at Kelly with wide eyes.
Kelly wondered if the boy couldn't talk. She looked around, but couldn't see any signs of any adults around. Turning her attention back to the child, Kelly asked, "Where's your mummy?"
"Gone." The boy spoke around his thumb, but his voice sounded almost like an adult's.
Kelly gave herself a mental shake. Of course the boy didn't sound like an adult. She mentally scolded herself for acting so stupidly. She was probably scaring the child.
"Did your mummy leave you on your own?" Kelly asked gently.
The child paused a moment, as though processing the question, and then solemnly nodded his head up and down.
Stupid woman, Kelly thought to herself. The child's clearly frightened. As soon as I find his mother, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind!
"Shall I come with you to help you find your mummy?" Kelly asked the boy.
Again, the boy hesitated. Clearly, he had been told not to talk to strangers. But then, he nodded his head up and down.
Kelly came over to him and held out her hand. The boy took it, and Kelly was surprised at how cold his skin felt. He must have been wandering around for quite a long time for his skin to get that cold.
"Now, where can you last remember seeing your mummy?" As Kelly asked this, she made the mistake of looking into the child's eyes.
They were like pools drowning her. Kelly suddenly felt as though she couldn't breathe. She felt all feeling leave her body, leaving her paralyzed. The keys dropped from her hands once more to land with a clatter that seemed all at once deafeningly loud but also hollow, like she was listening underwater.
Distantly, Kelly could hear the screams of tortured souls. She felt suddenly cold, and was sure that the child's teeth had suddenly grown longer and sharper, like a vampire's.
But there are no such thing as vampires!
Kelly had no idea if she had spoken, or someone else had.
Kelly suddenly felt a tearing pain, as though her soul was being ripped from her living body. She screamed, but there was no one around to hear her.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cally stared at the fire blocking their path. "Oh, no," she murmured, closing her eyes. She was terrified of fire. Just the thought of it eating away at her body was enough to give her nightmares for weeks.
"Is this another challenge?" Andros demanded of the two unicorns, seemingly unaware of Cally's distress.
"We cannot tell you that," Cally's unicorn responded.
"Oh, there's a surprise," Andros muttered.
Cally whimpered, and shrank back. She could feel the heat of the fire. Could feel the flames reaching hungrily for her. They wanted to burn her, she was sure of it. She fought the feeling of panic - to just run screaming, not looking back.
"Cally, are you all right?" Andros asked the violet light ranger.
"No." Cally shook her head firmly. "The fire... Andros... I don't like it!"
The red space ranger blinked. "You're scared of fire?" he asked.
Cally nodded, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. She could still feel the heat from the flames, though. Could just imagine the flames licking up her legs...
The violet light ranger shuddered. "Can't we go another way?" she whimpered.
Andros looked enquiringly at the unicorns.
"No, you may not," Andros' unicorn replied. "You must go this way. You must figure out a way of getting past the fire."
Cally trembled, and moved as far back as was humanly possible.
So... Obviously, this must be a challenge, Andros thought to himself with narrowed eyes. But do they know about Cally's fear of fire? Is this why it's a challenge? And, if so, does that mean that I will have to face one of my own fears?
"Cally, do you have any ideas?" Andros asked the violet light ranger.
Cally shook her head firmly, her eyes now open. She had discovered that it was worse with her eyes closed.
Andros narrowed his eyes in thought. Then, after a moment, he said to Cally, "The whole point of us teaming up together was so that we could help each other. Do you not want us to do this together any more?"
"No!" Cally protested. "It's not that at all. It's just that... Fire's practically my biggest fear."
"Then this will be a true challenge for you," Andros told her. "And just think. When you finally get out of here, you'll be able to tell your friends that you managed to overcome your fear of fire, even if only for a short time."
Cally positioned herself so that her back was to the fire, and tried to smile, though it wasn't a very good one. At least it was an attempt, though. "Why don't we try and find a supply of water?" she suggested, her voice trembling a little.
Andros frowned a little. "There doesn't seem to be any supplies of water around..." he began. Then, his eyes widened. "Oh. What if there are more of those clearings around?"
Cally nodded.
Andros looked at the two unicorns. "Well?" he asked.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Dustin arrived at Storm Chargers, he was surprised to see a huge crowd apparently gathered around something.
What's going on? the yellow wind ranger wondered.
Dustin pushed his way through the crowd, and found a policeman crouched over something. "Hey, what's going on?" Dustin demanded.
The policeman straightened, and Dustin's eyes got very wide.
Kelly was lying on the ground, clearly dead. Her eyes were wide and staring, and there was an expression of pure terror on her face.
But that wasn't all.
Kelly's skin was dead white, almost as though all of the blood had been drained from her body...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read and review, please!