Poison

Chapter Five

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Power Rangers, Ninja Storm, and I'm not making any money from this fic

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garnetred: Oooh, idea . You'll have to wait to find out what's really happening, though. -Evil grin-. Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you liked it

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Blake frowned to himself as he left NinjaOps. Now where would Tori be? The beach would be the most obvious place for him to look. The only trouble was, if she was safe at the beach, then why hadn't she turned up at NinjaOps?

Blake half-considered driving to the beach, but decided that streaking there would be much quicker. If Tori was hurt, he wanted to find her as quickly as possible.

The navy thunder ranger streaked towards the beach, hoping against hope that the blue wind ranger was all right. He didn't want to lose Tori.

Blake froze when he saw the limp figure lying still on the sand. The rest of the beach was deserted. A bad sign.

Please don't let it be Tori, Blake silently begged as he slowly approached the limp form. He wasn't sure exactly who the silent plea was addressed to - he didn't really believe in God.

In any case, the plea was not answered. As soon as the navy thunder ranger got close enough, he saw that it was his girlfriend lying there.

Blake crouched down next to Tori's prone form, pushing away the urge to call someone to come and help. Fighting the sense of panic, the navy thunder ranger reached out to lightly touch two fingers to Tori's neck.

There was a pulse. Faint, but it was there.

Blake sat back on his heels, wondering just what had harmed his girlfriend. It was probably the same virus that had struck down Dustin and all of those other people, but what could have caused it?

An examination of Tori's body revealed a small bite mark on her inner wrist. Blake didn't know if that had any relevance or not, but he made a mental note to himself to mention it to Cam. There could easily be similar marks on some of the other victims.

Blake pressed a few buttons on his morpher, and spoke into the communicator:

"Cam, Tori seems to have succumbed."

Cally stood outside the hospital room, peering in at Dustin's limp form wired up to the life support machine. She bit her lip slightly, unwilling to walk in and disturb the older woman sitting next to Dustin's bed who was obviously his mother.

Finally, Cally made up her mind. She pushed open the door, and walked in.

Immediately, the woman looked up. This close, Cally could clearly see the resemblance between her and Dustin, though the woman had dark circles under her eyes, and looked like she hadn't slept for ages.

"Hello, I'm Cally," the violet light ranger said softly. She wondered if Dustin had mentioned her to his family - she hadn't actually met them yet, not really.

Apparently, Dustin had mentioned her. The woman tried to smile, though it didn't really look like one. "Dustin's told me about you," she said. "I'm Gladys." She started to hold her hand out to shake Cally's, then paused, her eyes falling on the sling Cally was wearing.

"I fell over and broke my arm," the violet light ranger explained, seeing the question in the older woman's eyes. Well, it was more or less the truth. She just couldn't say that she'd had help falling over.

Gladys nodded slowly, accepting this answer. She gestured towards Dustin's still form. "I assume you heard about this? His father was here, but he went to get some rest."

She looks like she needs to get some rest herself, Cally thought sympathetically. She didn't say that out loud, though. Instead, she offered, "I could stay with him for a while if you wanted to get something to eat or drink."

Gladys hesitated for a moment, then gave a soft sigh and nodded. "I'll go and get a coffee or something. Let one of the doctors know if there's any change, and tell them to come and find me."

"I will," Cally responded.

"Thank you." Gladys stood up, and then left the hospital room after a last glance back towards the bed her son was lying on.

When the woman was gone, Cally sat on the chair she had just vacated, and took Dustin's cold hand in her good one.

The violet light ranger remembered reading somewhere that it was a good idea to talk to people who were in comas, and she guessed that that was what Dustin was in. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. What on earth could she say to an unconscious Dustin?

"Hi, Dustin," Cally said eventually, trying to force a cheerful note into her voice. "It's me, Cally." The violet light ranger hesitated a moment, feeling a sudden lump in her throat, but she swallowed hard, and rushed on, "You've missed quite a bit. My morpher got smashed up just after gymnastics club. I got attacked by a strange black ranger, who disappeared after I smashed my head against one of those balancing bars and lost consciousness. I think I was unusually clumsy then. I kept on falling into things, I couldn't remember where anything was. I couldn't picture the inside of the room at all."

Dustin's fingers flexed slightly in Cally's hand. Probably a reflex action.

"I broke my arm," Cally continued, squeezing Dustin's hand slightly. "Our accelerated healing probably doesn't work on broken bones. Cam's looking at my morpher, but I probably won't be able to fight until my arm's healed."

The violet light ranger hesitated for a moment. Then, with a slight shrug, she leaned forward, and kissed Dustin lightly on the forehead. As she did so, she felt the lump in her throat return, and was unable to stop the tears from forcing themselves out of her eyes. With a choked gasp that was almost a sob, she pulled away, her hand coming down to hit lightly on Dustin's chest, as though that would be able to bring him back.

"You can't die!" Cally whispered, her voice trembling. "It's not fair! I can't lose you again." More tears trickled out of her eyes to stream down her cheeks, and her shoulders began shaking with the force of her sobs. She didn't bother trying to stop. She couldn't begrudge Dustin her tears.

Suddenly, Cally's head jerked up, an idea occurring to her.

It was so beautiful and peaceful. He knew that he was dead, or something close to it, but the thought held no fear for him.

There was no bright light, no pain. Just a sense of a gentle tugging on his soul, and a feeling of being welcomed. He felt like there was nothing holding him to life.

Then, his parents walked in.

His mother was crying, and his father didn't look much better. He hadn't really paid much attention to what they had been saying. Just the fact that they were there was the most important thing. He still couldn't get back into his body, but he felt a slight link to life beginning to form.

Dustin watched Cally walk in after his father had left to get some rest with only a feeling of mild surprise. He felt a faint stab of concern when Cally talked about the fight she had been in, but it wasn't very strong. He was light, now. She was still half-and-half, like everyone else. He should not care about her. Or any others like her.

Something tugged at his soul. Another one.

Dustin drifted lightly out of the room, through the door, with barely a backwards glance, to answer the other's call.

Lothor watched the scene in front of him, his expression faintly annoyed. He looked towards Zurgane and his nieces, Kapri and Marah.

"Is something wrong, uncle?" Marah asked.

"I never authorised a monster to go around infecting the people of earth with some strange disease!" Lothor snapped. He glared at Zurgane. "General Zurgane, did you authorise this?" he demanded.

"No, sir," Zurgane responded.

"He didn't," a voice said. "But I did."

"Lia, wait." Cam followed the neko, ignoring Riana, who had a smug expression on her face. He wasn't really sure why he was following her, though. No matter what Lia believed, he didn't owe her anything.

Lia paused just outside the village, leaning against a tree with her arms folded across her chest. She probably hadn't stopped because she was getting worn out - she looked fine.

"Lia?" Cam asked softly.

The neko glanced at him, then looked away with a sigh. "She doesn't really care about you, you know."

That brought Cam up short. Whatever he had been expecting her to say, it wasn't that.

"I can't keep you bound to me against your own will," Lia continued, still not looking at him. "Much as I'd like to. If it was anyone else other than Riana, I wouldn't stand in your way."

The green samurai ranger opened his mouth, then closed it again, struggling to find something to say. Finally, he commented, "You don't like Riana."

"And she doesn't like me," Lia replied. "It goes much deeper than that, though. Even I'm not sure how deep it goes."

She's not going to say anything else about it, Cam realised. At least, not at the moment. Out loud, he began, "Lia, I... I'm not actually from this world..."

Suddenly, Cam became aware of a loud buzzing noise, and realised that Lia wasn't looking at him. She appeared to be listening to something, then she abruptly turned and ran back into the village, screaming, "We're under attack!"

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