Bridge woke up to find he couldn't budge an inch. He wasn't even able to turn his head the slightest, twitch, and could barely breath. He knew it was a psychic who was holding him down, but he wasn't sure he really knew who it was. He was just wondering if he was going to die when he heard a craggy voice. He stiffened and felt his body come lose from the gripping hold.
"Hi, hi! Welcome!" It was a girl's voice.
"Mora, shut up." Grumm came into veiw. "Hello, Cadet Carson. Do you know why your here?"
"You want something." Bridge said it so bluntly he was suprised a bit by what he'd said. "I don't mean that in a rude way! It's just that, usually, the evil person wants something so he or she kidnaps someone important, although, I don't find myself very important. Why am I so, so, so important to someone like you when most of the people I know are much, MUCH more important than I? Where is here?"
"Shush." Grumm held a finger up to Bridge's forehead. "I do want something. I'm going to probe your mind for what I want. I want that power you have. I want to see what makes you tick, then I'm going to use that to manipulate you to become my slave. Thanks to Rain, here, I can hold you here and she'll pretend to be looking for you."
Rain stepped out of the shadows, her eyes down-cast. "I'm sorry, Bridge. I really wanted it to go down without a hitch, but I wasn't expecting Sky to have the amulet this soon. If he had it later, Howard would have been able to grab you and go, and not cause such a scene." She smiled weakly. "Why? Why do I do this? I don't want to hide in Squee's shadow anymore! I want to be my own Ranger, I want to take her place... Then she decided to train the B-Squad so early, so I really had to adjust my plan around you five so that Squee still falls, but the she gave away the amulet without my knowing. The Samurai is about to awaken in her and she can't stop him! I want her head on a silver plater before that happens!" Rain's fist slammed hard into the wall, vibrating it off the walls and sending a huge blast of sound echo coming back. "I'm sick of the whole Samurai Squee! I trained most of my life to become better than little missy, and all I can do is watch from the side!"
"But Squee thinks of you as her best friend!"
"Like I care!" Rain's hand closed around Bridge's throat. "I made Kat warn you of Howard so you'd be on your toes! I made that huge explosion! I made the lessons you fifve trained in! I worked my butt off to get you to be the best! I was the one who woke Tommy to the life of you! I did that! I set this up for Grumm! I've put a tracker on Squee's cloths so we know where she is at all times! You are going to cooperate, or I will see to it that your best friend dies of a horrible car crash!"
Bridge almost fell back, but managed to stand straight and strong. "So, what do you want from me?"
---
Squee was seated akwardly on the couch, her eyes shimmering with tears. Her hibernation wasn't that far away now. She was reaching for a destiny that was already set the day her mother saw Mr. Watanabe training at the dojo in the middle of the forest. This was the impossible abyss that she'd never wake from again. Her body would go into an eternal slumber that would eventually kill her as she slept in her icy coffin down in the lower levels along-side Tommy and the other two aliens that had been the King and Queen of her planet.
She whipped her tears away when she heard the door hiss open. Sky stood there, his fists clenched. Jack, Syd, and Z were yelling at him and he didn't even seem to listen. He charged up to her and his fist smashed into her face, knocking her off the couch. By instinct, she slapped him across the face with her boot and rolled away. "What!"
"Rain kidnapped him! She was seen on the survalence tapes dragging him out of the hospital ward!" He threw the table that sat in the middle of the room out of his way in rage. "Your 'friend' took him to Grumm! Your 'friend' took my best friend away! Your 'friend did this to Bridge!" He charged her and slammed her back against the wall and she felt a soft pounding in her head. "I will kill your 'friend'! Where'd she take Bridge! WHERE!"
Squee simply stared at him with a blank stare. "The amulet will tell you."
"Screw the amulet!" Sky's fist came incontact with her flesh again and blood splattered along the wall. It had splattered out of her mouth and made a gracefull arch on the wall, to everyone suprise, it was red blood. "I want to know! Tell me, right NOW!"
"I don't know." Squee felt the life drain out of her. She wasn't sure what was going on, she just knew that she couldn't move anymore, Sky's voice was fading, the color spectrum was loosing it's vibrant shades. She realized, at the last moment, her, Squee McKnight, mental mind, was going into hibernation, the Samurai was awake and she was finally able to take the rest she needed. "S-Sky..." She reached out and touched Sky's jacket, but she smiled throughout her struggle to stay consious. "...The Samurai is awake... He'll find Bridge... and bring him... back... Safe and... and sound... It's... it's ok... now, Sk-Sky." She smiled softly and leaned forward and and gently kissed Sky on the cheek as her body began to glow. "I'm-m so s-sorr-ry... for wh-what R-Rain has..." Her words fell short of their target as her eyes slid shut and her body became a glowing orb that was just suspended in the air for a moment. Slowly, she unfurrled to reveal her true form, the Samurai.
"You!" Jack jumped back. "You... Your Cam!"
"Ha ha!" It was indeed Cameron Watanabe. "I'm what's left, in this world, of his spirit. My daughter can finally rest after nearly twenty years of no sleep. She won't be forgotten entirely. Ah! The new Samurai Ranger..." He smiled widely. "Squee did choose greatly for this prediciment! The strongest of souls and the hardest of hearts to crack! Alas, Bridge could have taken it as well, but she chose wisely for someone your age." He tapped Sky on the head. "I'm the inner spirit of that." He jabbed the amulet. "I've been there for the last... oh, I don't know, twenty-five years, perhaps? Cam and Cyber Cam locked me inside to give insight to the youngun that I was to lead to the light of a Samurai's world. Now, where can I find a sword?"