Roses and Thorns
Chapter Twenty
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 vampires, though I do lay claim to the slight modifications that may or may not have been made
RedFox: -Grumbles- Vampires? Vampires?! Of all of the possible supernatural creatures she could have chosen... Why vampires?
Apollo: -Says calmly- Because werewolves would have been difficult to do with the whole turning into werewolves once a month...
RedFox: -Glares- This is all your fault! –Tries to leap at him, but is forcibly restrained by DarkAngel- GRRR! Let me at him!
DarkAngel: Do you really want to give him the satisfaction?
RedFox: -Subsides, but continues to glare at Apollo-
Replies to reviews:
garnetred: Well, Storm Chargers will probably end up closing. And as for the little boy. Well... I can't really tell you anything. –Looks apologetic-. Thanks for reviewing!
BlueAngel07: Glad you liked it
CamFan4Ever: Shocked again? Lol... Sometimes, with too many muses, you have too many ideas floating around your head, and you can't write any of them down, so you have to take a break from writing for a while... Anyways, glad you liked it
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"Well?" Andros repeated.
The two unicorns exchanged glances, which neither Andros or Cally could interpret, but didn't say anything immediately.
Cally squirmed, uncomfortably aware of the fire burning behind her. She was a little surprised that the fire didn't seem to be spreading, but she wasn't going to complain about it. She was still feeling the beginnings of panic, though.
"Could you please hurry up?" Cally begged.
Andros shot her a quick glance. "Why don't you stand behind the unicorns?" he suggested. He then looked at the two mythical animals again. "What's taking so long?" he wanted to know.
"We had to find out if we were allowed to help you or not," Andros' unicorn explained after a moment.
"And are you?" Andros demanded.
The unicorns exchanged glances again, then Cally's unicorn answered, "We can help you... But only to find a suitable water source."
"That's better than nothing, I suppose," Andros muttered. He glanced at Cally, his expression concerned. "You gonna be all right?"
Cally nodded, and tried to smile. "As long as we can get this over with as quickly as possible."
"Well, we can certainly try," Andros replied. It'll probably be better if Cally stays near the water source, considering her fear of fire. Out loud, Andros asked, "Can you take Cally to the water sources, as long as it's nearby?"
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"Something wrong, Dustin?" Cam asked as the yellow wind ranger stumbled into NinjaOps, his expression dazed.
Dustin glanced around, noting that all of the Power Rangers, plus Sensei, were there. Good. At least that means I won't have to repeat what I'm about to say.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be helping Kelly out at Storm Chargers today?" Blake questioned.
"Well, see, that's, like, the problem," Dustin answered.
"What do you mean?" Shane frowned. "Has something happened to Kelly?"
"You could say that," Dustin responded, sounding worried. He hesitated for a moment, then, "Kelly's dead."
Hunter stared, his expression clearly shocked. "What?"
"Dustin, are you sure?" Tori wanted to know. "I mean, have you actually seen her body?"
The yellow wind ranger slowly nodded. "When I arrived at Storm Chargers, there was a huge crowd outside," he explained. "I managed to get through the crowd to see Kelly... And she was obviously dead."
"Was there any sign of what could have killed her?" Sensei asked.
"Well... It was like she was drained completely of blood," Dustin admitted. Ok, I know it sounds crazy... But I know what I saw.
"You mean like a vampire?" Cam frowned. "Dustin, vampires don't exist."
"Not necessarily," Sensei said. "After all, the legends of vampires had to come from somewhere."
"Well, whatever," Dustin muttered. "All I know is that someone, or something, murdered Kelly."
"But if it was something like a vampire, then maybe Kelly will come back as a vampire?" Hunter suggested.
"I don't see how that would help us," Cam replied. "We'd probably end up having to stake her or something like that."
"Could we please stop talking about Kelly's death?" Dustin begged. "It's bad enough having to think about it."
"Just one more thing," Shane said, frowning slightly. "With Kelly dead, who's going to be running Storm Chargers?"
"It'll probably close," Hunter commented. He exchanged a worried glance with his brother. That means that Blake, Dustin, and me will be out of work...
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Cally looked at the river the two unicorns had brought her to, and frowned. This was all very well, but she realised that both she and Andros had forgotten something really important.
What were they going to carry the water in?
Cally looked at the two unicorns. "Look, I know that you're not allowed to help us," she said. "But it's silly to design a challenge like this. We need something to put the water in, like buckets, or something like that... We also need some way of carrying them to and fro. With only two of us, how are we going to work fast enough to put out this fire?"
The two unicorns hesitated for a moment, then Cally's unicorn replied, "We're allowed to help you with this... Seeing as you've figured out everything else on your own." The unicorn nodded once, and a stack of buckets appeared close to Cally's feet.
The violet light ranger looked down. Ok... That's one problem sorted out, at least. She looked at the two unicorns, biting her lip, thinking. Then, she asked, "If I fill up the buckets with water, can you carry them out to Andros?" Providing that we move quickly enough, we should be able to put this fire...
Andros' unicorn blinked, then slowly nodded. "I guess we can," it responded. "Once you fill up the buckets, we can take them over to Andros, then return for another one."
Cally nodded, and immediately bent to work. Filled, the buckets were really heavy. She put the first one on the ground, and was dimly aware of Andros' unicorn moving to take the handle into its mouth as she filled up the second bucket for her own unicorn to take.
After that, Cally's movements became mechanical, almost like a robot. Ignoring the steadily growing pain in her arms, the violet light ranger filled the buckets with water, hardly noticing when the two unicorns returned to get newly-filled buckets.
Because Cally's mind was completely on the task she was doing, she had no idea of her danger until it was too late.
Caught up in the task of filling up buckets, Cally didn't hear anyone approach. She didn't even realise anything was wrong until someone grabbed her round the waist. The violet light ranger struggled, but whoever was holding her was too strong.
The person lifted her easily, and pushed her into the water, holding her head under, ignoring her struggles.
Panicked, Cally fought as hard as she could. But she was gradually growing weaker and weaker. She was drowning.
Cally's vision went black, and, in her own world, her body stopped breathing.
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Cam blinked as he felt someone shaking him awake, and he looked up into the frightened eyes of the orange light ranger.
The green samurai ranger frowned, and reached for his glasses, which he put on. Great... I fell asleep at the computer again. Dad's not going to be impressed. "Faye, what is it?" he asked.
"It's Cally!" Faye replied, her eyes wide with terror. "She's... She's stopped breathing!"
Instantly, Cam felt wide-awake. He stared at Faye. "What?"
"Cally's stopped breathing," Faye repeated, managing to calm down, though with obvious effort.
Oh, great, Cam thought to himself with a sigh. First Kelly, and now Cally. Is the death never going to end?
"Cam, what's wrong?" Faye questioned.
Cam looked at Faye. "You've been to Storm Chargers, right?"
The orange light ranger blinked, then slowly nodded.
Cam paused for a moment, then said, "Well, Kelly, that's the owner of the shop, she's... well... She's been murdered."
"Oh, no!" Faye recoiled sharply, her hand to her mouth, a look of horror on her face. "What happened? Does anyone have any idea who did it?"
"It's not a who so much as a what," Cam replied. "Dustin saw Kelly's body, and says that it appeared to be drained completely of blood."
Faye stared. "You mean like a... vampire?"
The green samurai ranger nodded slowly. "It's a possibility that can't really be dismissed," he commented, even though he himself had actually said that vampires didn't exist... Then again, his father had been right. The stories of vampires had to come from somewhere.
Faye bit her lip. "That's... really bad," she said softly. "According to Cally, Kelly was quite nice to her the other day."
Oh, yeah. Cam had forgotten about why Faye had come. Which was strange, because Cam didn't usually forget things like that. Then again, he had been under a lot of stress lately. Not to mention suddenly becoming really exhausted.
"What exactly happened?" Cam wanted to know.
"Well, I was sitting on the chair next to Cally's bed," Faye explained. "And then she suddenly stopped breathing. I tried CPR for a couple of minutes, but it wasn't having any effect. So, I decided to come see you."
Cam took a deep breath. "I warned you that this might happen," he told Faye in a soft tone.
"Could you please at least come and look?" Faye begged.
Cam hesitated for a long moment, and then sighed. "All right," he muttered. "It's not like I have anything better to do." Other than sleep and try to regain some of my energy, the green samurai ranger added silently.
Faye gave a small smile. "Oh, thank you!" With those words, she grabbed Cam's hand, and dragged him out of NinjaOps.
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It was quite late by the time Lila finally started home. Really, she shouldn't have been out so late... But she'd seen a really great sale in one of the shops, and started buying loads of stuff. Then, of course, she'd had to go and have something to eat. And as it was near to wintertime, it was getting dark really quickly.
I should really call Peter to come and pick me up, Lila knew. But she also knew that Peter would gloat over her being scared of the dark and tease her about it for ages. He'd never let her live it down.
I'm not going to ring Peter, Lila decided. I can take care of myself. I'm a Power Ranger, after all. I'm not going to let a silly little thing like the dark scare me. I'm stronger than that. So, the silver silk ranger started out for her home.
Not far into the journey, and Lila was beginning to wish that she was safe back at home. But she was still too proud to ring Peter and ask him to come and get her, so she just carried on walking.
Lila had been scared of the dark ever since she was quite little. She didn't care that people were insistent about there being no such thing as monsters. She was still scared. Houses were especially creepy at night. They made so many scary noises that could be anything, though they inevitably turned out to be noises that were relatively harmless, like the boiler and other things.
Lila crossed the road. Not long now, and she would be nice and safe in her own home.
Of course, it didn't quite work out like that.
Lila suddenly caught sight of a small, solitary figure, possibly a child, standing alone on the street.
The silver silk ranger hesitated. Shoot. Supposing it is a child, and they're lost? In all honesty, I can't just leave them. Suppose something were to happen to them? It would be my fault.
Lila hesitated, and then started walking towards the figure. As she got nearer, she could see that it was a child. A little boy with slightly long white-blond hair.
Lila smiled, and crouched down so that she was of a height with the boy. "Hello," she said. "Are you lost?"
The boy hesitated, and then slowly nodded. After a moment, he put out his hand.
Lila took the boy's hand, touched that he apparently trusted her. She noticed the strange coldness, but, then again, it was a cold night. This child must have been here some time. Obviously, no one else had wanted to help him.
"Shall we see if we can find your house?" Lila smiled.
The boy nodded, and pointed along the street. Lila smiled again, and started walking with him.
Suddenly, the silver silk ranger heard the sound of adult laughter. She shuddered. The laugh sounded evil. Cold.
Lila looked down, and found herself caught up in the little boy's eyes. They suddenly seemed so big... And Lila felt so tired...
Lila began to sway. She forgot everything. She forgot getting home, she forgot her brother, she forgot the mission against the Power Rangers. All that existed for her was the boy's eyes, which seemed to be getting bigger and bigger.
"Lila?"
Abruptly, the spell was broken, and the silver silk ranger blinked, glancing around in surprise. Where's the boy gone? She didn't have time to worry, though, because Hunter was striding towards her, his arms sliding around her and cradling her gently.
"Gosh, you're so cold," Hunter murmured, rubbing at Lila's arms. "How long have you been out here for?"
"What?" Lila blinked, looking confused. "Where did you come from? What happened to the boy?"
Hunter blinked. What boy? I didn't see any boy. Only Lila, who was standing there with such a dazed look on her face... "I popped out to get something," the crimson thunder ranger explained out loud. "And I noticed you standing here, as though in a trance. You need to be careful. Haven't you heard the news? There's a murderer on the loose."
Lila stared at him, all of the colour draining from her face. "A... murderer? I didn't know that..."
"Clearly, or you wouldn't have been out this late," Hunter responded. "Come on. I'll take you back to your home."
Lila looked up at him, a small smile tugging at her lips as she pushed the image of the boy to the back of her mind. It must have just been a hallucination. "Can't I come back to your house?" she asked.
Hunter blinked. "I... I'm not sure that's wise," he admitted.
He's remembering what happened the last time I stayed over. Lila reached out to touch his hand. "I promise that I won't freak out this time."
"It isn't that," Hunter told her. "I just don't think that it would be a good idea. We can see each other tomorrow, though."
Lila sighed, but nodded. "Ok," she said. "But I get to pick where we go," she added.
Hunter laughed. "Deal," he agreed, lowering his head to kiss her lightly on the mouth.
After a few moments, Hunter reluctantly pulled away, and then took Lila's hand. "Come on. We'd better get going."
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Andros tipped the last bucket of water over the fire, and watched as it finally went out. He then breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness for that," he murmured.
Next to him, the two unicorns collapsed to the ground, both obviously exhausted. But Andros wasn't worried about them. His main concern was Cally. Shouldn't she have come back by now?
After a moment's hesitation, the red space ranger made his way into the clearing where the water source the unicorns had been using was. It was very pretty, but Andros didn't notice its beauty. He stopped dead as he saw a familiar figure in the water.
It was Cally, lying face down in the pool. And she wasn't moving.
Without wasting a moment, Andros raced forward, and dragged Cally out of the water. Her eyes were closed.
Andros knew straight away that she wasn't breathing. He had to try and get any water out of her lungs.
Carefully, the red space ranger turned her over, and pressed hard on her back. A whole flood of water came out of her mouth, but she still wasn't breathing.
Andros turned her back over, and breathed into her mouth, two breaths. Then, he started doing chest compressions.
"Come on, you can't die," Andros muttered. "You have to live." He continued working on Cally, praying that it wasn't too late. "Come on! How are you supposed to tell Dustin how sorry you are if you're dead?!"
After what seemed like forever, Cally began coughing violently. She turned her head to the side and was sick. Then, she started crying weakly.
But she was alive.
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After taking Lila back to her house, Hunter went back to his. He wasn't surprised that Blake hadn't returned. He and Tori were probably still with Dustin, trying to cheer the yellow wind ranger up.
After a few moments, there was a soft knock on the door.
Hunter got up to open it, and gasped.
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