Disclaimer: Still property of Disney.

Warning: I am fiddling with the timeline here. Just pretend that (as like all other incarnations), SPD takes place the year following Dino Thunder. I know that that is bad form, but I wanted to make sure all yellows get mentioned. It would be otherwise impossible to include everyone. Sorry to the people who already reviewed this chapter and commented on it! (I did forget this warning when I initially posted this chapter!)

RESTLESS WARRIORS

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Thirteen: Web of Dreams

Kira traced the barely visible outline of the trapdoor. Well, trapdoor wasn't the correct term. It was more like a very archaic looking sewer cover. 'Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles, here I come,' she thought wryly. She located the buttons her and Dustin had found last night. Running her fingers over certain symbols, a grinding noise came and handles slowly raised up from the otherwise smooth surface of the stone. Kelsey was standing next to her, holding a backpack that contained flashlights, extra batteries and food among other things. Neither of them knew how long this was going to take. She would have brought the others, but that thing about the ancient bonds had her thinking and she didn't want them stuck in a maze or something like that because not all of them had the ancient bonds with the present company.

"Weird," Kelsey muttered, as they each grabbed one of the handles and hauled the heavy stone up and away. The Lightspeed Ranger pulled a flashlight out of the backpack, clicked it on and shone it down into the blackness of that hole.

"At least there's a ladder," Kira said.

Kelsey nodded in agreement and turned off the flashlight. She handed Kira the flashlight and the backpack, before lowering herself onto the ladder. In a moment, she heard the 'thud' of Kelsey landing on her feet. She handed the flashlight down.

"See anything?"

"It looks like a tunnel," came the reply.

Kira shook her head. She handed the backpack down to Kelsey and then lowered herself down the ladder. The dim light of the flashlight did indeed reveal a tunnel—and it went in both directions, like they were in the middle of it.

"Great, which way?" she muttered.

"Well," Kelsey started. "We've got everything except the last two lines."

Kira nodded and pulled a folded piece of paper out of her jacket pocket. Kelsey shone the flashlight on it. Follow the old demon's laugh and there you shall find your path. Everything else had added up to this tunnel. Now where to go?

"We could always just pick a direction," Kelsey suggested.

She shook her head. The riddles had led them in the correct direction so far. It had to tell them where to go next. Something on the wall caught her eye. Grabbing the flashlight from Kelsey, she shone it on the wall. There, clear as day, was a carving of a demon. It had its head thrown back in fiendish laughter and one of its outstretched arms pointed to the right.

She and Kelsey exchanged a glance. "Follow the old demon's laugh," Kira whispered.

"Let's go," Kelsey said.

They started down the tunnel. It reminded Kira of a large sewage pipe. And it seemed to go on for miles. Soon, the shaft of light from the porthole was distant and their flashlight did little to penetrate the blackness ahead.

Without warning, a torch ignited on its own.

They both jumped. Kira gasped. "That is just creepy," she muttered. Kelsey nodded in agreement as they continued to walk. Just as the first torch came on by itself, the next torches came on as well. Soon, they reached a section where the torches were already lit.

"I'd say someone is living here," Kelsey whispered.

Kira nodded. Ahead of them, a section of the tunnel seemed to open up into a balcony that overlooked something. Strangely, the tunnel they were in was devoid of life other than the torches. Kelsey motioned to her to get down and they crawled to the balcony. Kira slowly raised her head and peeked over the ledge.

The balcony looked down onto a huge underground temple complete with the altar and other necessities that made a temple. A man—no, fairy—that looked almost identical to Arval was standing at attention by a doorway. Two people were standing near the altar and arguing in loud voice. One of them was a man, tall and thin with slicked back blonde hair. The other had Asian features.

"Vypra," Kelsey hissed.

"I don't see a human here," Vypra was saying.

"How many times must I tell you that a human will be here?" The man sounded bored, although dangerous. Kira would not want to be the one on the receiving end of his anger or his boredom for that matter.

"If you are so intent on using that boy, then why haven't you set the bait yet?"

The man smiled. "I will lower the bait tomorrow morning. By night tomorrow, that boy will be in our lair and you can do all the damned prep work that you need to on him." He paused and began to stroke Vypra's arm with his long fingernails. "Imagine the residual power coming off of him, our plan will be sure to succeed if he is the one under the knife."

"A human sacrifice," Kira whispered. Kelsey shrugged, her blue eyes wide.

Vypra appeared to be hypnotized under the man's words. "A ninja," she said in a crooning tone. "He carries much power aside from his ranger powers."

Kira and Kelsey sank down to the cold stone floor and exchanged identical looks of horror. Who was Vypra planning on plotting with to get… "Dustin?" they both hissed at once.

"Who?" Kira whispered. "Who is she planning on betraying us?"

"Taylor," Kelsey responded flatly.

Kira peeked up over the ledge again. Vypra shook her head and appeared to snap out of whatever trance the other had put her in. "Jareth," she hissed. "We have to have a back-up plan. We cannot count on using that boy. It doesn't matter whether or not the human has been a ranger. We need someone and we need them soon!"

Vypra was standing over a table full of herbs. Kelsey eased the backpack off her back and pulled a digital camera out of the backpack. The camera actually belonged to Kelsey and had made its way into the backpack out of habit. She turned it on and peered over the ledge, zooming in on the table of herbs. The camera clicked and flashed.

The two demons snapped their heads in their direction.

"Shit," Kelsey muttered.

"What was that?" Vypra asked.

Jareth motioned to the fairy. "Owling," he snapped. "Get them."

Owling bowed and left through the doorway he had been guarding. Kira and Kelsey exchanged horrified glances before crawling as quickly as possible down the hallway before standing up and flat-out running. Distant footsteps could be heard behind them, but they kept going. Kira was almost afraid to turn around and see what was behind her. It seemed like an eternity before they saw a shaft of daylight and the ladder that had led them into this labyrinth to begin with.

Kira scrambled up the ladder with Kelsey on her heels. They hefted the cover back into place and Kira quickly depressed the button that hid the handles once more. They didn't stop running until they got back to the camp site.

"That was way too close," Kelsey panted as they came to a stop.

"Well, at least we know where they're hiding now."


Maya smiled to herself as Kira and Kelsey charged back into the campsite like the very apocalypse was on their heels. Dustin had been sitting at the table, doodling on a spare piece of paper that someone had brought. She had been glancing periodically at his drawings—they weren't too bad, all things considered. It wasn't like she had been paying much attention—she had been weaving ribbons into a piece of cardboard for a web of dreams she had been creating. The pair had spent a few seconds talking before they came over to the picnic table and pulled some bottles of water out of the cooler.

"Find anything?" she asked pleasantly.

"Hell, yeah," Kira replied. "Try their hiding spot plus their altar." She paused and sucked in a deep breath. "Plus Kelsey got a picture of all the herbs they were using."

Kelsey rummaged through her backpack for a moment before pulling out her digital camera. She turned it on and looked at the picture, before handing it to Maya. "Do you recognize any of these herbs?"

She studied the picture. It was surprisingly clear, considering what the pair of them had to go through to get it. She did indeed recognize most of the herbs, but had never before heard of them being used in that particular combination. Together, those herbs put an ominous ring in her mind. Their combination was evil. She looked up to Kelsey and Kira. "We might be able to use this to our advantage."

"Good," Kira said.

"We also found Owling," Kelsey added.

"That fairy dude's brother?" Dustin asked.

"If that guy wasn't his brother, then I'm Mickey Mouse," Kira replied.

"That complicates things," Maya muttered. "We should contact Trini in a few nights, just to see if the fairies want something particular done about that."

The others nodded their consent, but didn't reply. She began to weave a thread clockwise around the five 'wheel spokes' she had created. When that task was done, she tied a small trinket to each of the spokes.

"What are you doing?" Kelsey asked.

"It's a web of dreams," she replied. "Should our blood be spilt, the other yellow rangers will come to our aide."

No one looked like that idea had crossed his or her mind.

"What are the trinkets for?" Dustin asked.

"Each represents the other five yellow rangers," she said. She gently touched a small bear charm. "This one is for Aisha Campbell, the Yellow Ninjetti Ranger." Her brown eyes went to a yellow plastic number '2'. "This is for Tanya Sloane, Zeo Ranger 2." The next charm was a small yellow car with a small planet tied to it. "Ashley Hammond," she continued. "The Yellow Space Ranger." The next charm was a small clock. "Katie Walker, the Yellow Time Force Ranger." The final charm was a small police badge with a space ship tied to it. "Elizabeth Delgado, the Yellow Space Patrol Delta Ranger."

"How does it protect us?" Kira whispered.

"We need Taylor to resurface, but each of us will contribute a drop of blood on the very center of the web. It will be activated if our blood is spilt."

"I'll just give you a whole gallon," came a sarcastic voice from behind her.

Maya turned around and mustered up her best smile for Taylor. "Hi Taylor," she said. "We need to complete this web of dreams."

"What?"

Inwardly sighing, she launched into the entire tale about the web, what the trinkets stood for and how it would summon reinforcements if one of them should start bleeding profusely. Taylor did not look happy, but consented to contributing a drop of blood along with the others. She smiled as each gave a drop of blood at the center of the web. Finally, she cut her own finger and added her blood to the web.

"Our dreams will be sweet," she intoned. "And as we sleep, the powers of blessing will find us." She paused. "If our rest should be disturbed by the shedding of blood, call upon the others woven into this web, the others that share our legacy and our color. In slumber's arms, all shall fall behind us as they come to our aide. So may this be."

The cardboard web glowed with a yellow aura before settling back down to its previous state.

"Let us hope no one awakens the web," she whispered.


Vypra glared at Jareth. He was a trusting fool and now someone had found their lair. His damn demons had not caught them and Owling, who he was forever bragging about, had come back with nothing but bumbling apologies. She was working with complete and utter idiots! Now she understood why Queen Banshera would get annoyed with them day after day—they had managed to botch things pretty well most of the time. Between her being new at this and the Queen's stupid son and bogus bargains with large insects… nothing ever tended to go their way for very long.

"Nothing will stop us," he said in his smooth, oily voice. He was straightening the cuffs on his shirt—they were white with ruffles and peeks out underneath his skintight leather jacket. She might have taken a moment to appreciate how good he looked if she wasn't so angry with him all the time.

"Nothing?" she screeched, her temper and her emotions getting the better of her. Humans might think that demons didn't have emotions. How wrong they were. "One of those damn humans has found us!"

"Now, now," he replied, moving from his cuffs to smooth back his hair that was already perfectly in place. She wanted to scream and then bash her head against something. Sometimes she wished she could die like the humans could. "We don't know that it was one of them. It could have been a human lost on a camping trip."

"No one could have found this place without the help of someone in the spirit realm and they are the only ones we know with the spirit realm on their side!" That was true. Someone had broken through her cloaking spell on the mirrors in order to find this place, plus they had to have the ancient bonds in place. The spells could only be broken by someone in the spirit realm or a fairy and the humans with the ancient bonds… well, she could only think of one group that fit that description.

"I'll triple the guard," he said.

Was he serious? "Not good enough." She paused. "We need to attack. If we eliminate those humans, we'll have nothing more to fear." Aside from the combined wrath of all in the spirit realm, who would come down in arms if something happened to those rangers. They would ignore the scroll and do things their way. Hopefully… she didn't want to think about that. Most of the spirit realm was still unaware of what they were doing and where they were.

"Attack five insignificant humans? Really Vypra, have you no sense of how to be sporting. If they come here again, Owling and my goblins will eliminate him." He was comparing eliminating rangers to… hunting like a proper English gentleman? She would have laughed had she not noticed the evil glint in his eyes.

"Let's hope they do," she snapped, settling for that response.

"And I'll lower the bait tomorrow. The Wild Force Ranger should be so annoyed with the others by that time that she'll take any excuse to get rid of one of them." Or the plan would backfire and the Wild Force Ranger would go kung-fu on him for even suggesting that she would betray a teammate and hand him over to demons to be mutilated and eventually killed.

Vypra only glared.

"You can't do this without me," he reminded her. He turned and stalked out of the temple with Owling and some of his demons on his tail. Yes, he never went anywhere without his entourage. He was just like that fool of a fairy king. Something about being surrounded by minions made them feel powerful.

Vypra felt a sinking sensation. She looked at her amulet. It had been constantly warm for days now. Lucivar must really want to talk to her. Should be assuage her arrogant brother's fears and tell him that she was being a good little demon? No. She needed to steer clear of Lucivar because he probably had half the spirit realm behind him by now.

She should not have brought Jareth into this. He would be the downfall of their plan with his arrogance.


Dustin carefully cut the thin leather cording to the exact lengths that she had requested. Maya had asked him to take her out earlier that day, when Kira and Kelsey had gone to investigate that trapdoor and Taylor had been off in one of her snits. He had obliged her and his car actually worked the entire time they were out. First she had gone to a craft store where she bought ribbons, cardboard, trinkets… all in all, a strange assortment of things. And Dustin said a silent thank-you to Sensei for providing them with that school credit card. If Sensei asked, he could explain all the charges at seemingly strange stores. Maya said they needed these things and, in the few days he had known her, he had learned not to question Maya.

Maya was carefully crushing a mixture of herbs that smelt vaguely like mint. He wasn't about to ask what was in that concoction—he had just driven her to a health food store that sold that junk. Then they went on a wild goose chase looking for a store that sold the kinds of oil and incense Maya was looking for. He didn't know Mariner Bay, but after asking around at a few gas stations, they found a hole-in-the-wall occult store that had what Maya was looking for.

She had cut five circles from some red flannel. The flannel was plaid and had yellow stripes running through it. He wondered if that had been done on purpose or if that had just been the fabric that had been in their budget of next to nothing. He watched as she carefully divided the strange herb mixture into the center of each circle. He knew some of the stuff that was in that mixture—some shredded corn husks and bits of white feathers.

Okay, now he felt like asking questions.

"All right, what are those things?"

Maya looked up, nonplussed by his question. "Protection amulets," she replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh." He was still confused. "How are those things going to protect us?"

"Dustin," she replied. "You know that ninjas honor the old way simply because they have existed for thousands of years." She paused. "Time is a powerful thing."

"Yeah, but you're, like, not a ninja."

"My people believe the same thing. My people have made these amulets in pretty much the same manner for thousands of years and they have always brought protection to the wearers. Why should it be any different now?"

"I don't know."

She didn't reply, just began adding several drops of oil to the herb mixtures on each piece of flannel. He would really like to know how that… mess… protected anything. After she added the oil to each one, she tied each piece into a neat sack with some ribbon left over from that web of dreams. Then, she tied each one to one of the cords to make a necklace. He stared at them. She had made them… jewelry?

"Husk of corn, feather white," she whispered, holding all the amulets in her hands. "Holds the image on Hunter's Night. Angels called for protection. Safeguard spell with perfection. Blessed spirits surround in blue. Safe and sound Heaven's view. Husk of corn, feather white. Protect these people on Hunter's Night. So mote it be."

"Hunter's Night?" This was just getting creepy.

"The first full moon in November," she replied.

"Uh… it's not November."

"I know. This spell is traditionally performed then, but can be done at any time of the year if protection is needed." She separated one of the amulets from the others and handed it to him. Not knowing what else to do with it, he put it around his neck.

"How does this spell work?" he asked.

"It holds a brand of good. Something evil will be warded off long enough for someone else to come to your aid."

"Oh." He still didn't understand it.

"Just… have faith," she whispered before getting up and heading into the rest of their campsite, probably to give the amulets to the others.

He looked down at the amulet. Something radiated from it, but he could not identify it with words. It was more like a feeling… Maya's people had existed on Mirinoi long before Terra Venture ever landed there. It made him wonder how steeped in magic and mystery their culture really was, how much of this Maya took for granted while the rest of them were scratching their heads and wondering if she really believed this.

He glanced to the others. Kelsey and Kira were discussing various ways to infiltrate the temple and different strategies they could use. He also had a feeling that they were not telling him something, but he didn't know what it could even possibly be. Taylor was buried in a book, ignoring the world for all intents and purposes. She looked up from the book and her blue eyes burned with something… hate… for him?

Looking back down at the debris on the picnic table, he tried not to think of the fact that Taylor seemed to have a grudge against him.

To Be Continued...


Author's Note: I know I promised to not do any more shout-outs at the end of chapters, but... (the ominous 'but)... the number of reviews from the last chapter completely blew me away! (In a good way!) And I have tons of homework this weekend (papers, readings, workshop stories etc. etc.) So this is actually more time efficient than looking up e-mail addresses and doing it that way. Before I go on to shout-outs, I just want to thank everyone who has reviewed recently! You guys are awesome! On to shout-outs:

Aria Fox- I do know what (and where) Moira is. (Love those books!) Not too much more will be done on Taylor's background for a while yet, but I do understand what you're saying and it makes perfect sense. Glad you like Arval and thanks for reviewing!

CamFan4Ever- Thanks! Dusty? lol I think he has a point too, but it won't be expounded on for a while. Glad you like the little tidbit about getting Cam drunk.

fenestrae- Too bad on the coffee... As to the tale of Hunter getting Cam drunk, I can write that if there's any interest. As for Taylor, you'll be getting answers in the next few chapters. Thanks!

Funky In Fishnet- Thanks! I'm glad you're liking it!

Hagar- As far as I know, the Magna Defender himself (not Mike with those powers) does not have a name. I do own all of LG so I can go back and check, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't. Taylor will come around soon. I promise. :) Thanks for reviewing!

MagCat- Wow! A lot of individual reviews there- let me see if I can hit your major points. Taylor will eventually become part of the team, but that is coming in the next chapter or two. I figure Zordon can restore powers temporarily, even though he had nothing to do with those powers, because he's, well, Zordon. No one really knows the extent of his power. As for Tori/Dustin, just know that things are not as they always appear to be. (Including the next few chapters.) As for everything else, I think it's answered in the text somewhere. Thanks for reviewing!

Samurai-Nashie- Thanks! Sugar cookies... where? I LOVE sugar cookies!

Satori Blackthorn- Thanks! I commiserate with you about the net time- used to happen all the time when I was at home. I'm glad you like the story.

Sryem- I know you're only up to chapter 7, but hopefully you'll get to chapter 13 and see this. Thanks!

Warstock-Leonhart- Thanks! Coffee... well, I don't drink as much of it as I make it sound like. Same level of scholarship? Really? You're a sophomore in college too?

Weesta- I'm glad someone seems to reading closely. lol! As for the Taylor/Dustin thing, you shall see. Glad you like Arval! As for the bonds, blood and passion can be forced (the latter) or something one cannot control (the former). Friendship gives a choice as does love, so they tend to be stronger. Thanks for reviewing!