Is Love For Real?
Chapter Twelve - Air
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Power Rangers, Ninja Storm, and I'm not making any money from this fic. I do, however, own the cat
Author's Note: Hi, sorry it's taken me so long to update. I was trying to finish Roses and Thorns, so that at least I had one fic finished. But I'm starting work on this one again!
Replies to reviews:
BloriConra 4ever: Ok, here's the next chapter. Hope you like it
jj-monster: It's probably not quite what you think...
mysterious-muse: Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you liked it
YellowCrimsonforever: Well, I can't tell you that outside of the fic... You're going to have to read this chapter to find out more
garnetred: Again, you're going to have to wait and see
BlueAngel07: I'm glad you liked it, and thanks for reviewing
CamFan4Ever: We-el... I'm sure if you really want one of them to visit, they will
Apollo: Not me!
RedFox: You are so annoying!
DarkAngel: Yeah
Me: Wow... They actually agreed on something
DarkCat: -Doesn't think it can last-
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Dustin slowly stirred, and found himself in blackness.
Suffocating blackness. Blackness which seemed to press in on him, making him feel claustrophobic. Funny. He hadn't been aware that he could feel claustrophobic.
For some reason, the thoughts going through Dustin's mind at that particular moment were of the first day he had become a Power Ranger, along with Shane and Tori. He remembered how excited he had been. But it had become much harder when he had realised that he couldn't actually tell anyone that he was the yellow wind Power Ranger.
Dustin could remember everything with startling clarity. He wondered if this was what it felt like to be dead. He just felt numb. He didn't hurt anymore. But something kept on tugging at his mind, something that was really important. Something that he had to do.
But when he tried to chase the thought and track it down, it escaped his grasp.
Dustin remembered the first day he had met Blake and Hunter. He had shown quite bad judgment in trusting them. He had never been very good at seeing what people were really like on the inside. Shane had known, but when the red wind ranger had tried to warn him, Dustin had just brushed him off, thinking that Shane was just looking for any excuse to have a go at him and pick a fight.
The yellow wind ranger regretted that. He regretted all of the mistakes he had made while he was alive.
Dustin was certain that he was dying, if he was not already dead. After all, how else could he explain this sudden blackness he was in, with nothing else around that he could see?
The yellow wind ranger had always heard people say that your whole life flashed before your eyes when you were about to die, but he had never really believed it until now.
I wonder if there really is a heaven? Dustin thought. It would be nice if he went to heaven, if there was one. He felt that he really deserved to go there, after all of the times he and the others had saved the Earth from Lothor's aliens.
But what was it that he had to remember to do?
-FLASH- Dustin first going to the wind ninja academy, how excited he had felt when he had realised that he was going.
-FLASH- Dustin first meeting Shane and Tori, the way the three had instantly become friends with barely an effort made on the yellow wind ranger's part.
-FLASH- A little boy running in the playground, and falling down and crying. A young girl, a little older than him, coming over to help with a kind of grave quietness around her. Looking up into green eyes, like a cat's.
-FLASH- A white cat, a stray that Dustin brought home. She was hurt badly, stuck in a trap a cruel person had put out.
-FLASH- Meeting the young girl again a short while after he had joined the wind ninja academy, thinking about how catlike she looked, with her long white-blonde hair and bright green eyes.
-FLASH- Hunter taking the bullet for Dustin.
-FLASH- Hunter dead.
Hunter's dead.
Hunter's dead... And it's my fault...
Then, a voice. A voice in the darkness. "Wake up, wake up Dustin. It's not time for you to die yet."
A white light in the darkness.
"Yeah, go into the light," Dustin muttered as he felt himself pulled towards it.
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Cam shook his head as he watched his computer screen. He had tried everything he could think of, but the barrier was still there, preventing the other Power Rangers from being able to enter the cave.
"Dad, why do you think this might be?" Cam asked the guinea pig. "Why do you think I can't break open the barrier?"
"Something may be preventing you from doing so for some reason or another," Sensei responded after a moment's thought. "Perhaps if the other rangers were to enter the cave, then they would endanger whatever is happening to Dustin."
"Yeah, or they could help Dustin," Cam muttered. From what his father had just said, he guessed that whatever had closed off the cave was an entity of some sort, but whether good or evil, he didn't know.
"Hey, Cam, any luck?" Shane's voice came from the green samurai ranger's morpher, but the red wind ranger didn't really sound very hopeful.
"No, not yet," Cam answered, trying to keep his own feeling of hopelessness out of his voice. The last thing he wanted was to cause the other Power Rangers, especially Shane, to give up hope.
Because there had to be hope. There just had to be. Dustin had entered the Cavern of Lost Souls for a specific reason, and that reason could well be something to do with Hunter.
Which meant that the crimson thunder ranger could well be brought back to life.
Cam slowly shook his head as he turned his attention back to his computer, struggling to find the right sequence to open the barrier. There was just one thing he wanted to know.
Why Dustin? Of all of the people to be able to bring the crimson thunder ranger back to life, why had the one who was the most air headed been chosen?
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Dustin groaned as his eyes fluttered open. His whole body felt like it was bruised, which was odd because he only remembered that huge boulder striking his back.
Why wasn't he dead?
Dustin attempted to move, and found, to his utter surprise, that nothing seemed to be broken. That was even stranger. That boulder had hit him with enough force to break his spine, but he could move fine, with only the feeling of being bruised. And that feeling was quickly fading as well.
I should be dead.
The thought intruded, unwelcome, on Dustin's awareness. He had a vague recollection of being in blackness, and the only thing that had brought him back was a voice calling him. He somehow had the feeling that he should have known the voice, but he couldn't put a name or a face to the owner of the voice.
For some reason, Dustin was remembering two things that he had originally pushed to the back of his mind - a strange girl, and the cat he had saved from a trap.
The girl had originally come first. Dustin had been running in the playground when he was quite little, and had fallen and hurt himself. The girl, with her long white-blonde hair and bright green eyes which were a little slanted and lithe body, had hurried over to him, and had picked him up, brushing him off and regarding him gravely, which had made Dustin stop crying, as he had been a little in awe of her, as well as feeling a little scared.
Of course, the other children had all denied seeing her, and Dustin had eventually pushed her to the back of his mind.
Then, when the yellow wind ranger had been a little older, he had found a small white cat stuck in a trap, badly injured and struggling to get free. He had carefully freed the tiny animal, and had taken her home to nurse her back to health. Then, when she had been healed, the cat had disappeared one day, never to return. Dustin had been unhappy for ages after her disappearance.
And then, Dustin had seen the young girl across the street when he had been returning from the wind ninja academy. Of course, it hadn't been the same girl - she didn't look a day older. But he had still watched her, fascinated, until she had turned a corner and gone.
"Are you just going to stand there staring into space forever?"
Alessa's voice intruded on Dustin's thoughts. The yellow wind ranger sighed, and turned to look at the cat. "I failed, didn't I?"
The cat blinked slowly. "What do you mean, you failed?" she asked.
"The test."
Alessa shook her head from side to side. "No, you succeeded," she answered. "Just that the boulder almost killing you wasn't planned. Your next test is the element of air," she added, nodding to the prone figure lying on the ground a short distance away. "She cannot breathe. You must find out what is preventing her from breathing, and then place her into the recovery position, before her heart stops beating."
The yellow wind ranger wasn't very surprised to see that it was Tori lying on the ground.
Dustin slowly made his way over to the blue wind ranger, and crouched down beside her. He looked at her for a moment, trying to work out what could possibly be wrong.
Darn. I wish I'd paid more attention in first aid lessons.
Dustin took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself. Panicking wasn't going to help any. But he just couldn't think of what he had to do. And, all the while, the seconds were ticking away.
Suddenly, an image of Hunter came to Dustin's mind. The yellow wind ranger knew that he couldn't let the man he loved down. He had to rescue the crimson thunder ranger. He couldn't just give up.
What if there's something blocking her airway?
Dustin made a slight face, then slipped his fingers down Tori's throat. He found a small piece of plastic, and pulled it out.
Dustin sat in thought for a moment, then started shifting Tori's position, following directions he hadn't even known he could remember.
When he was finished, everything swirled around the yellow wind ranger.
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Read and review, please!
Does it seem rushed? I'm sorry.
Apollo: Stop apologising!