Disclaimer: The usual- no infringement intended.
RESTLESS WARRIORS
By Etcetera Kit
Chapter Eighteen: Blood On the Moon
It was still that pre-dawn gray haze. Soon enough, the sun would rise and burn off the gloom, calling people to wake up. Maya stepped out of the tent. It was still so early that she could make out the fading stars and the moon. Their camp site was unnaturally quiet with the others gone. A part of her wished that she could see some of her friends on Mirinoi, but it was fleeting. It was impractical. She had often been accused of being an aimless dreamer, but she knew where the line between dreams and reality was. She would not see any of her friends from Mirinoi until this mission was over. Perhaps the others were doing well and coming up with some ideas. She still thought their best bet was to try to switch out the herbs. Even if they just managed to dilute them, it might be enough to thwart the ceremony. And then there was Dustin… they needed to keep him out of the clutches of the demons.
The walk to the bathroom was uneventful. No one in the camp was stirring, despite the inflated weekend numbers. She quickly brushed her teeth and tied her hair back. Kendrix had insisted a while ago that she get her hair cut and styled, so she didn't resemble a shaggy dog. Her hair was still long, but now had some shape and was easier to tie back. It looked neater when she took the time to brush it and do something with it.
Leaving the bathroom, the world around her slept.
She went back to the camp site and put up her things. Coming out of the tent, she realized that the sun had not started to come up yet. It had to be even earlier than she thought it was. Smiling, she looked up at the just visible stars. The moon was large and round, not quite a full moon yet. Something wasn't right about it though… she squinted and studied the large orb, trying to figure out what was wrong. It was tinted red.
Blood on the moon…
Her heart leapt into her throat. That was a bad omen. Instinctively, her hands went to the amulet around her neck, holding it tight and letting the good energy from it flow into her being. She hoped that the others had their amulets either on or near them. This was not good, not good at all. Blood on the moon usually meant the worst was coming. When it happened on Mirinoi, the people would start stockpiling food and expecting the worst that could happen. Here, she wasn't sure that anyone paid attention to the sky or the stars.
She had a feeling that this meant the web of dreams would be awakened. Blood sings to blood… The other yellow rangers would be coming and it was only a matter of time. She thought to the other yellow rangers who weren't part of the scroll. They would come, if called. No… she needed the others to come back. They had to get to work on their plan and do strategic things that had been neglected until now. Kira had left Maya her cell phone with all the contact numbers programmed in. They had to get back.
Locating the cell phone, she dialed the first person in the phone book—Dustin.
He sounded sleepy when he answered, but promised to get there immediately. Kelsey was next and she sounded much the same way. Taylor didn't answer, but Maya left a voicemail message for her. Finally, she called Kira at Conner's apartment.
A man, presumably Conner, answered the phone. "Hello?"
"May I speak to Kira?" she asked, trying to be polite despite her panic.
"Sure." There was some shuffling, before Kira came on the line.
"Maya?" she asked.
"There's blood on the moon," Maya whispered. "I need you back here."
"I'm on my way," Kira promised before disconnecting the call.
Maya sank down onto the picnic table, all previous thoughts of finding breakfast gone. Her stomach was tied into knots. For the first time, she wished that Kai or Damon were here. They would scoff at her superstitions and tell her there was nothing to worry about. A red tint on the moon would not hurt anyone. Sometimes, she needed to hear that. Her people were so immersed into myth and legend that everything out of the ordinary was taken as a sign. First the Quasar Sabers and now this… Her eyes went to her morpher and held her hands out, making her saber appear.
She studied the saber. The hilt of each one featured a carving of the animal that would become that ranger's Galacta-Beast. Hers was the wolf. In many ways it was appropriate. She was the lone wolf most of the time, going her own way and doing her own thing. She also had a fierce loyalty when it came to her pack, her friends. But she was now also the Phoenix. Their new animal spirits described them as did their previous zords. Taylor had been the Eagle. Dustin had been the Lion. Kira had been the Pterodactyl.
The writing on the blade was an ancient language, long forgotten by the time that she and the other Galaxy Rangers had been gifted with the sabers. Sighing, she vanished the saber and looked up at the sky. Gold was streaking the distant horizon and putting the stars and moon into their daytime slumber.
"We're in deep water," she whispered. "We don't know the entirety of what is happening and we don't know how to stop it. We're drowning."
The scrolls of destiny were not wrong. That much she knew. However, the scrolls rarely said who would come out victorious. Theirs didn't. She wanted to know that they would win, that they could do this, but there were no guarantees.
"It's just a natural phenomenon," she said to herself.
But that didn't stop her from being spooked. She had grown up believing that all these things had a higher meaning and didn't learn until being stranded on Terra Venture that these things had a natural and logical explanation. Even then, it had been hard for her to believe that everything she had grown up with was a myth. Blood on the moon didn't mean anything. But they were dealing with the supernatural here. It could mean everything.
On Mirinoi, they had a saying—grounded angels, your wings are broken, time to mend and learn to fly. Well, they were in deep water. Maybe it was time to learn how to swim. Something had to give here.
Dustin was the preferred human sacrifice.
Mike seemed to reciprocate her feelings.
Reaching down on the ground, she picked a dandelion. Its bright yellow petals had faded to the white seeds that would be spread in the wind. She stared at the dying flower for a moment. Words had power.
"Mike," she whispered to the flower. "If I don't come back from this mission, I want you to know that I love you. I have for a long time now. If I come back, we can make it work. We'll find a way to bridge the gap between our worlds."
She gently blew the seeds loose from the flower, before tossing the stem in the breeze after the seeds. He would feel those words and understand.
Dustin was trying to take a shower in record time. He didn't take much time in the shower as is, but he was trying to go even faster than normal. Maya's tone when she called had not been good and he knew she needed the rest of them back as soon as possible. He would have liked to spend more time with Tori, letting both of them wake up on their own. And there was still so much in unknown territory here. But duty called… he had always tried to weigh what was important in his life and this was important. They had been called upon to take up their positions as rangers once more.
He shook his head and quickly washed the soap out of his hair. Turning off the water, he jumped out of the shower, toweled off and put on his now-clean clothes. His hair was still damp and dripping, but there was nothing to be done for it.
Double-checking to make sure he had everything he had brought with him, he pulled on his backpack and went out into the main part of the apartment. Tori was just taking waffles out of the toaster. He went over to her and kissed her cheek.
"Eat something," she said before he could open his mouth.
"I don't have time," he protested.
She gave him a look that would have made a guerilla warfare enthusiast start crying. He obediently sat down in one of the chairs and started shoveling down waffles at warp speed.
"How do you do that and not get sick?" Tori asked.
"I was late for school a lot," he replied.
"I think I just skipped breakfast when I was late."
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."
"And who was just about to try to skip breakfast?"
He glowered at her and continued eating. Soon enough, his plate was empty. He stood up and gave Tori a firm, but quick kiss on the lips. "We'll talk as soon as this is all over," he said softly, before leaving the apartment.
Kira got out of the shower and located her hairbrush. Conner didn't have a hairdryer, no surprise, so she would just have to deal with damp hair. She brushed her hair and put it into pigtails, before getting dressed in her still-damp albeit clean jeans and Conner's shirt from last night. He had forgotten to put her clothes in the dryer before they went to bed last night, so all her clothes were now half-dry. She didn't mind. She could hang them up somewhere at camp to let them dry completely.
Conner was at the stove when she came out into the living room. "What are you doing?" she asked as she opened the front door to the apartment and tried to knock some of the dirt off her sneakers.
"Making you breakfast," he replied.
"I hope I can eat this in the car," she called back. "Because I need to get going."
"Of course!"
She got as much dirt off her sneakers as she was going to and then went back into the apartment. Conner was putting scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese in a biscuit.
"Conner does McDonald's at home?" she asked with a smile.
"It's cheaper." He wrapped the creation in foil and stuck it in a paper bag with an apple and banana. He handed it to her along with a thermos. "Orange juice in the thermos," he explained.
"I didn't know you could be this sweet," she said.
He shrugged. "I can if I want to."
Kira smiled and reached out, giving him a tight hug which he returned with equal intensity. He then eased her back from him before planting a kiss on her forehead.
"You look good in my shirt," he said softly with a wide grin.
"Is that a compliment?" she whispered.
He didn't reply. His hands were on her upper arms, rubbing gently. "Just be careful," he said. "You know where I am if you need me."
"I know."
"Besides, you owe me a date!"
Kira smiled and gently smacked his chest. "At least it's not a slot-car race," she replied.
"Give me a call when you get back there."
"I will."
Conner gently leaned down and gave her a soft open-mouthed kiss. He then playfully tugged on one of her pigtails. She smiled. They said their goodbyes and she went out to her car. If Conner let his gentler, compassionate side out more often, their relationship would be great.
Kelsey looked at the long-sleeved pink shirt and pair of jeans Dana had loaned her. It wasn't something she would normally wear, much more feminine and girly, but it fit and that was all that mattered at this point in time. She quickly tied her hair back into a ponytail. Maya had called early that morning. Kelsey had gotten up and ready to go, not wanting to wake Dana up at five-thirty on a Saturday morning.
She quickly went through her wallet. She had enough cash to pick up some food somewhere on her way back to camp. That would work. She needed to get back and see exactly what about 'blood on the moon' had scared Maya so much. Maya was a rock. Nothing seemed to scare her or send her into a panic. If something could, then it was serious. She went downstairs.
And the living room was not empty when she got there.
Joel and Dana were sitting in the living room and looked up when she came in. "What are you guys doing up?" she asked.
"You didn't think you could sneak away?" Dana asked.
"Yeah," Joel added. "And besides, my dear wife is making me loan you my car."
Joel was married to the former Miss Fairweather. She had been one of their commanding officer types when they had been active rangers. She also now ran Joel's life down to making him loan someone his car.
"Why?"
"Because your car's a piece of junk," he replied succinctly.
Well, there was that. "Fine," she agreed, giving Joel a glare.
Kira pulled her car up to the camp site. Dustin and Kelsey were already there—Kelsey traded in her station wagon for someone's truck. Who was she borrowing a car from? Kelsey was sitting with Maya, talking to her in soft tones. Dustin was crushing herbs with a mortar and pestle that Maya had brought with her from Mirinoi.
She got out of her car and went up to them.
"What's going on?"
"We've got part of an attack plan," Dustin said.
"We're going to switch the herbs out," Kelsey added.
"Didn't we decide that was too risky," she asked.
"Do we have another choice?" the Lightspeed Ranger responded.
Kira shook her head. They really didn't. It was the easiest way to disassemble the ceremony without having a full-out battle against the demons. They would have to destroy the herbs somehow and search the whole lair for extra supplies of the things. It would take careful planning and more knowledge of the lair than they had right now. That meant sending more scouting expeditions to the lair to explore and get crude maps.
"Where's Taylor?" she asked.
Maya shook her head as she handed Kira her cell phone. "I couldn't get through to her. I left her a voicemail message."
"She went to see Eric," Kira said slowly. "Does anyone have Eric's number?"
Kelsey sighed. "He was the one person we didn't get to know when we helped out the Time Force Rangers."
"Let's just hope she checks her voicemail," Dustin said, the grinding slowing down more and more as he kept on doing that. Maya leaned over and looked at the progress he had made. She then picked up Kelsey's digital camera and studied the picture of the herbs, presumably.
"Just a little finer," she told Dustin. "She won't notice the difference."
Kira leaned towards Dustin and got a whiff of the smashed up herb. No wonder Dustin had a pinched look on his face. The thing smelt horrible. "What is that?" she asked.
"I don't want to know," Dustin replied.
A black SUV pulled up to their camp site. That had to be Taylor, but what was with the car? That was not the little blue rental car she used to have. Taylor got out of the passenger's seat, while a man Kira didn't recognize got out of the driver's seat. He had Asian features, but it looked like one of his parents had been Caucasian. He was solidly built, muscles evident even from under the long-sleeved black shirt and red button-up shirt he was wearing.
"Sorry I'm late," Taylor said, not really sounding sorry. "This is Eric," she added, indicating the guy that had come with her. Eric nodded and gave them all appraising looks.
Oh boy.
Dustin tried to keep his jaw from dropping open as Taylor introduced Eric to them. The pestle slowly came to a halt. This was the guy that Taylor was going to see, who she hated, who was going to be her boss? He was confused. What was the guy doing here with Taylor? He thought about shrinking down into the table, since Eric didn't look like he had any problems beating people up or using the laser gun strapped to his thigh on someone. Dustin noticed the morpher on his left wrist. So he had ranger powers like they did. Or still had his ranger powers. He was pretty sure that this guy had been a ranger before, if he remembered the history correctly.
"Kelsey, Kira, Maya and Dustin," Taylor said, pointing at each person as she introduced them to Eric.
"I know Kelsey," Eric said shortly.
"How's Wes?" Kelsey asked.
"He's fine. He's the co-commander of the Silver Guardians now." Eric didn't look like he was here for the small talk.
"So what brings you here?" Kelsey continued.
"I'm here to help you guys out." He paused. "You need a battle plan."
"We've got one," Kira spoke up.
"Oh?" Eric looked mildly interested now.
"We're going to switch out some of the herbs they use for the ceremony," Maya said softly, her brown eyes giving Eric a defiant stare. "We'll need to explore their lair more to get an idea of where all the herbs are, but it should work."
Eric shrugged. "It's a decent plan, if executed properly." He paused. "All of you need to do laundry and we need to get this map together as soon as possible."
"Uh, who died and left you in charge?" Kira asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"How many of you have experience in the Marines and the Silver Guardians? Any of you ever had to infiltrate a terrorist building?" Stunned silence met that. "I didn't think so," Eric murmured. He looked around at the people gathered around the picnic table. "Kira, Winslow and you," he said pointing lastly at Taylor. "You're on laundry detail."
"Excuse me?" Kira asked.
At the same time, Taylor growled, "You sexist pig."
Eric ignored her. "Maya, you just continue with the herbs." He pointed at Dustin. "You're with me." Dustin didn't like the sound of that.
"Eric!" Taylor said loudly. She launched herself at him, looking like she was going to beat him severely for taking over her position. Eric turned around and caught her as she ran at him. He flipped her over his shoulder so that she landed on her back and twisted at the last moment to catch her so she didn't hit the ground full-force. "Okay," Taylor said, blinking. "We'll go do laundry."
Dustin's jaw dropped. Someone who could make Taylor go along with his plan that easily was not someone to be reckoned with. Taylor pushed herself to her feet and mouthed something at Eric. He narrowed his eyes at her.
The next thing Dustin knew, Eric had grabbed the shoulder of his shirt and was dragging him towards the SUV, with a quick, "Come on," prefacing the incident.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to leave the girls behind?" he asked as he was deposited near the back door of the SUV.
"No," Eric responded.
"Then why are we leaving them?"
Eric didn't answer, just opened the tailgate of the SUV. He lifted up a carpet with the faint tear of Velcro, revealing a secret compartment in the back. He opened it and Dustin stared at the mass amounts of guns in there—both laser guns and real guns.
"What do you do in your spare time?" Dustin sputtered. "Provide weapons for revolutions in small South American countries?"
He ignored that. "Look, Dustin," Eric said as he pulled out a shoulder weapons' harness and threw it at him. "I would take the girls, but we don't know anything about this lair. You can retreat into the earth if something untoward happens." Dustin wasn't going to ask how Eric knew about his special ninja power. "I've done infiltrations before and can normally get in and out without being detected. The girls can't do either. Until we know more about the lair, we go in there, but they don't."
"Is that why you took over?" he asked, as he adjusted the weapons' harness. "So that the girls wouldn't be hurt?"
"In a manner of speaking," was the evasive reply.To Be Continued...
Author's Note: There were obvious mixed reactions to the Eric/Taylor thing from the last chapter. Interesting... I will be doing reviewer responses for this chapter. I don't actually have a paper, poem or something else of that ilk due. (Not to mention personal memoirs...) Thanks for sticking with me here and for giving great comments. It makes me happy to know I have smart reviewers:) With that... reviewer responses...
CamFan4Ever- Thanks! I actually swiped that line from a Janet Evanovich book... :)
cmar- Thanks for your sweet comments! I see your point about the Eric/Taylor and Tori/Dustin parts. Hopefully, those sorts of things will be explained or resolved in coming chapters. (I hope...) But thanks for taking time to read this piece- I appreciate it lots:)
fenestrae- I'm glad you think so:)
Funky In Fishnet- I'm glad you liked the chapter and thanks for your kind words. And of course, I'll go check out your story. I'm always looking for something decent to read. :)
Hagar- I think Eric and Taylor deserve each other too. :) Glad you liked it! I didn't realize I was beating another subject to death... hmmm... I shall have to work to make sure that doesn't happen anymore. Thanks for pointing it out!
Leslie- I'm glad you liked it! I'm not entirely Lightspeed savvy so I wasn't sure about a love interest for Kelsey and opted to go the friendship route with her. (However, Lightspeed Rescue starts next week on ABC Family...) :)
Samurai-Nashie- Thanks, I think... :)
