Roses and Thorns

Chapter Twenty-Five

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 or wizards

Replies to reviews:

Jorgitosbabe: Glad you liked it, and thanks for reviewing

CamFan4Ever: Darn... That idea didn't even occur to me. Never mind. No, this person is yet another original character. Thanks for reviewing

BlueAngel07: Glad you liked it, and thanks for reviewing

garnetred: I think I explained this earlier in the fic, but the forest was what brought Cally there early so that she could stop the wizard. Thanks for reviewing the last chapter

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Faye and Cam stared at the screen as they found themselves face-to-face with a young man with shoulder-length black hair, cruel brown eyes, and hawk-like features dressed in a long black robe.

"I really wish there was sound on this thing," Cam muttered. "We don't have any idea of who that guy might be."

"Well, we know that he's not someone good," Faye commented. "Just look at the way the unicorns are acting."

The unicorns had shied away, their heads lowered, pawing nervously at the ground with their hooves. From their reaction, the two Power Rangers guessed that this man scared the two mythical beasts.

"Yeah, you're right," Cam agreed. Watching this gives me the creeps, the green samurai ranger thought with a shudder. I can't help thinking about all the people stuck in psychiatric hospitals. If what's happening with Cally is any indication, some of those people don't actually belong in mental hospitals. It appears that other worlds really do exist.

But who'd use that argument with a psychiatrist? Anyone who tried would risk a high chance of being thought insane themselves.

Cam removed his glasses, and rubbed at his eyes with a tired sigh. The computer screen was still on the man, but his lips were now moving. He was apparently saying something to Cally and whoever else was with her.

Faye glanced at the green samurai ranger. "Are you all right?" she wanted to know.

"I'm fine," Cam muttered, painfully aware of the fact that it was still possible that Faye could be the murderer. There hadn't been any evidence which pointed to the contrary. So Cam didn't want to admit the fact that he was feeling weak and tired to the orange light ranger. He felt that he'd probably be able to hold his own in a fight against her... But, then again, Blake and Hunter had been murdered, and they were both much better fighters than he was.

Faye looked down. "Whatever happened to the whole innocent until proven guilty?" she wondered.

Cam shrugged slightly. "Just trying to be careful," he replied. "I don't want to drop any theory just yet. Not until I have more evidence."

Faye opened her mouth to say more, but their attention was drawn once more to the computer screen as the man turned and started walking towards the hut. From the way the distance behind him remained the same, Cam guessed that Cally was following him.

"Idiot," Faye muttered under her breath, clearly talking about, or to, the violet light ranger. "She'd have to be crazy to trust him."

"I thought she already was crazy," Cam responded before he really thought about what he was going to say. "Or at least partially, anyway. After all, trying to kill yourself isn't exactly the action of a totally sane person."

The orange light ranger shrugged. "A lot of people wish they were dead at some point or another in their lives," she said. "Statistically, not many actually act on it... But it doesn't necessarily mean that those that do are insane. Just that they've gotten too depressed to want to carry on with their lives. The bad in their life outweighs the good. It's like having dug yourself into a huge pit and not having any way to get out. Depression is a disease rather than a sign of insanity."

"That sounds like you repeated it from somewhere," Cam frowned.

"I did," Faye replied. "After Cal got out of the hospital, she had counseling. She didn't want to go on her own, and David wasn't really up to going with her, so I ended up keeping her company for most of the time."

Cam nodded slowly. "I see." He wasn't sure what else he could say. He'd never had a friend try to commit suicide, so he had no idea what Faye had gone through while her friend had been in hospital. It did actually serve to make him up her motive for murder in his mind, though. He said nothing out loud, though. Even with his father there, he wasn't entirely sure that Faye wouldn't try to kill him if it turned out that she was the murderer.

Cam glanced again at the screen, and frowned. Cally and the others were in the hut... And it was filled with bottles. The bottles seemed to be filled with different coloured mists, as strange as that sounded.

Cam felt rather odd as he looked at them. He somehow got the nagging feeling that there was more to these bottles than just a collection of a strange man.

"Odd," Faye murmured, her attention caught by the bottles.

"Yeah..." Cam agreed.

Every bottle was identical except for the different coloured mists inside each of them. They were all small and delicate-looking with clear glass and gold tops. The mists inside seemed to be moving, which wasn't totally strange, but Cam got the feeling that the mists were trying to escape, but couldn't because something much stronger than they were was holding them trapped.

"Cally shouldn't have gone into that hut," Faye said in a firm tone. "I get the feeling that something bad is going to happen there."

"You don't need to be a fortune teller to notice that," Cam responded absently. "That man is bad news."

The orange light ranger sighed. "If only there was sound," she muttered. "This is like watching a silent movie. Only much worse, because silent movies make more allowances for people not hearing exactly what's going on."

"Hey, Cam, are you in here?" Shane's voice suddenly yelled from the main room of NinjaOps.

The green samurai ranger sighed, and straightened from the chair he had been sitting on to watch the computer screen. "I'd better go and see what he wants," he told Faye. "Come and get me if you notice anything unusual, or if that man does anything even stranger than what he's done already."

Faye nodded slowly, shifting into the seat Cam had just vacated, her eyes fixed on the screen.

Cam walked into the main room of NinjaOps. "There something wrong, Shane?" he asked the red wind ranger.

"You could say that," Shane replied a little more sharply than was usual for him. "Where were you?"

"I was conducting an... experiment in the rec. room," Cam answered after a moment's hesitation. "It might help us to work out what's going on with all of these murders."

"Well, I've got news for you," Shane responded. "We've now got a huge problem. The dead aren't staying dead."

"What do you mean?" Cam questioned. He felt that he knew already, though. The last thing he wanted was for those suspicions to be confirmed... But if they were, then there was no way that Faye could be the murderer.

"Well, remember how the victims had always been drained of blood?" Shane asked. "Well, me, Tori, and Dustin ran into Vampire Blake. We managed to get away from him, but it was a pretty close call."

Vampires? Cam thought to himself. Great. Then again, we have everything else in Blue Bay Harbour. Why not vampires? Out loud, Cam said, "I thought that vampires couldn't exist outside in daylight."

"Apparently, that's just a myth," Shane replied. "Blake was standing just fine in sunlight earlier. No bursting into flames or anything like that. Also, there's been another victim," he added.

"Anyone we know?" Cam questioned.

"It was Peter Kenring," Shane answered.

Cam blinked. "Peter Kenring?" he repeated, an incomprehensible look on his face.

"Peter Kenring is Lila Kenring's brother," Shane explained. "Lila is, was, Hunter's girlfriend."

"So Lila has been killed too?" Cam wanted to know.

Shane slowly shook his head. "It doesn't look that way," he said. "There's been no sign of Lila's body around. I'd guess that that means that she escaped while her brother was being killed."

Cam turned pale. "How many murders does that make?" he whispered.

"Around twenty three, unless the police have missed some," Shane answered.

Cam grabbed onto the back of one of the chairs, feeling sick. "So we have twenty three possible vampires," he whispered. He raised his head to look at Sensei, who had just entered the room. "Dad, how can we stop this?" he asked.

"Your best chance lies with what you are doing in the rec. room, son," Sensei answered.

Cam nodded slowly, realising that his father was right. Their best chance of stopping this did lie with Cally and what the violet light ranger might or might not know. The very fact that Cally had cheated on Dustin made things even more complicated.

"Are you going to let us know what you've got going on in the rec. room?" Shane wanted to know. "What's the big secret, Cam?"

The green samurai ranger hesitated for a long moment, but he knew that he couldn't tell Shane the truth. He had given his word, after all.

"I can't tell you that," Cam told Shane. "Suffice to say that this is the only chance we have of stopping this spread of vampires. And this is a very slim chance as it is."

Shane nodded slowly. "All right," he said. "But if you change your mind about being able to tell someone, I'll be at the skate park." With those words, the red wind ranger headed back out of NinjaOps.

With a sigh, Cam entered the rec. room again. Faye was exactly where he had left her - staring at the computer screen, which hadn't changed much since he had been gone.

"You owe me an apology," Faye commented without looking away from the screen.

"Yeah, I know," the green samurai ranger responded, not very surprised that Faye knew what Shane had said to him. She probably eavesdropped outside the door. "I'm sorry that I thought you were the murderer," he added. "You may have had a motive, but it wasn't a very strong one. Especially not after Blake's and Hunter's murders."

Faye flashed Cam a bright smile. "That's all right," she replied. Then, she frowned. "I would have thought that receiving an apology when I know that I was right would be much more... thrilling, I guess."

Cam just shrugged, and came over to stand at Faye's shoulder. "Anything happened?" he wanted to know.

Faye shook her head. "Nope. Just more bottles."

Suddenly, the sound came on.

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Cally still wasn't sure that following this person, who was obviously the feared wizard, into the hut was such a good idea. But she couldn't see any other option that was available to her. She probably wouldn't be able to fight the wizard. She didn't exactly have much in the way of magical abilities. Aside from her Power Ranger abilities, of course.

Andros wasn't sure that this was a good idea either. But the way the wizard had worded asking them to follow him inside hadn't sounded like an invitation at all. It sounded more like an order, or even a threat.

Andros assumed that the bottles stacked on the shelves were what held the souls of the people from Cally's world. He felt the violet light ranger stiffen slightly beside him, and gripped her upper arm lightly in an attempt to keep her calm. The last thing they needed was for Cally to attack the wizard. Andros would help her, sure, but he guessed that even with two Power Rangers, it would be a pretty uneven battle, with the advantage being on the wizard's side.

Cally took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. Then, she took several more. The first hadn't helped much.

"Why have you done this?" Cally asked, gesturing with the arm that Andros wasn't holding to indicate the bottles.

"Power, my dear child," the wizard answered in a flat voice, almost as though he was merely discussing the weather. "When you get to my age, you will learn that power is the most important thing in the world."

"But you don't look that much older than us," Andros commented with a frown.

"My magic is what keeps me looking this age," the wizard replied. "I could, of course, look any age I wish. I could change my form to whatever I wish."

He's bluffing, Andros thought to himself. His magic might keep him young, but I'm sure that it doesn't give him that sort of power. At least, not yet. That's why he's trying to get all of this extra power from the goodness in people's souls.

Andros guessed that the same thing had probably occurred to Cally, and he tightened his grip on the violet light ranger's arm, silently warning her against doing something stupid.

The wizard's eyes flickered towards Andros' hand on Cally's arm, and he sneered. "You may as well release her," he told the red space ranger. "She will not try anything against me."

Andros frowned slightly. "What do you mean?" he asked, feeling suddenly worried.

"The power sings to her," the wizard murmured. "She would make a fine partner for me. Magic flows through her veins. A particular magic that has not been heard of for some time..."

"Leave her alone!" Andros yelled, seeing Cally's eyes suddenly go blank. He seized Cally's other arm, and turned her to face him, shaking her slightly. "Cally! Don't listen to him. Whatever he's offering you, it's not worth it."

"She cannot hear you."

I won't believe that! Andros thought to himself. There has to be some way of getting through to her!

"Well, Cally, what do you want?" the wizard smiled. "If you join with me, you will not have to face Dustin's hatred of you any longer."

Cally glanced at the wizard. Andros could see from the expression on her face that the violet light ranger was tempted. Who wouldn't be? Cally had been driven to attempted suicide because of how bad she felt over what she had done to Dustin. As far as she knew, he hated her. And how could she go on living in her own world when the person she was in love with hated her?

Andros shook Cally hard. "Get a grip!" he shouted at her. "Dustin doesn't hate you! Sure, he might be mad at you. But that's because you hurt him. If you try apologising to him, he will forgive you." At least, Andros hoped he would forgive Cally.

Still, Andros' words seemed to get through to the violet light ranger. Cally blinked several times, and then shrank back against the red space ranger. "No," she whispered. "I don't want power. I don't want to be corrupted like you obviously are."

The wizard's face suffused with rage, and he clenched one fist hard and muttered a few words under his breath.

Cally suddenly started choking, her hands clutching at her throat, her eyes wide with shock.

"Leave her alone!" Andros cried to the wizard.

Ignoring him, the wizard clenched his fingers even tighter.

Cally's eyes bulged, and then, she collapsed.

Andros cursed, and fell to his knees beside the violet light ranger, not even noticing the wizard leave the room, apparently deciding that the red space ranger wasn't worth the effort of destroying.

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Lila was just getting changed into her new clothes when she suddenly heard a commotion.

Peeking out into the street, the silver silk ranger's face blanched as she saw three Power Rangers standing opposite a group of people who looked very much like vampires. What helped that conclusion was the fact that Hunter and Peter were leading the group.

"Oh, shoot," Lila whispered. "What can I do? I can't very well help my brother... But I can't help the Power Rangers, either. Peter and I are supposed to destroy them to get our parents back!"

Could Lothor have something to do with this? Lila wondered. She discarded that idea as quickly as it had come. Lothor wouldn't be as subtle as to use vampire-like creatures.

Lila pressed a few buttons on her morpher, remembering the frequency her brother had used to call the light Power Rangers to them. One more person to help was better than none.

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