Cam hurried through the forest at a reckless speed. A few minutes ago, he had arrived at the Thunder Academy's infirmary, only to be informed that Sensei Bradley had checked himself out about an hour earlier against his physician's advice. When Cam had asked the doctor whether he knew where Hunter was headed, he was told that their head teacher had mumbled something about 'checking out the accident scene'. Cam was given directions and had turned to go, but the doctor's parting words had made him stop in his tracks.
"Strange that Sensei Bradley has had hardly any visitors except his brother since he was brought in and suddenly, two on the same day, and you both just missed him."
His curiosity piqued, Cam had asked about the other visitor and the moment the Thunder Academy physician had described the mysterious female visitor that had arrived literally minutes before he had, Cam knew it was Kami. But what was she doing here? Why was she asking after Hunter? She had obviously hurried here to get to the infirmary before Cam, and that worried him. And why had she never told him about Hunter's accident in the first place? Things weren't adding up for him and his fear was growing as he sped deeper into the forest.

He didn't think for one moment that she had simply forgotten to pass the message on.

Suddenly, Hunter's earlier assessment of her didn't seem so far-fetched at all anymore. Cam mentally kicked himself for dismissing his partner's concerns so quickly as jealousy. A dark premonition as well as concern for Hunter drove him on as he leapt over a gurgling brook towards the accident site the physician had mapped out for him. He knew it vaguely as Hunter told him once how he took his advanced students there for element training. Streaking through such dense woods was too risky, so Cam simply ran, although at the speed he was going, the alternating bands of sunlight and shade between the trees had an almost strobe-like effect on his vision. But he was still quite a distance away and although he didn't know what to expect once he got there, he hoped he wasn't too late for…whatever.

When the slate-coloured portal was about six feet across, Kami apparently deemed it ready, for she grabbed Hunter by the front of his crimson t-shirt and hurled him to his feet. The Thunder ninja's head felt like it was going to explode from the sudden motion. He also couldn't help but cough once the pressure on his windpipe suddenly eased off.

A blurry movement and Kami was now behind him, yanking his arms onto his back and holding them in place with a vice-like grip. She leaned over his shoulder, whispering in his ear, "By tomorrow, just about every Wind and Thunder ninja will be looking for you, Sensei Bradley, and I'll make sure that all they'll find is your torn jacket hanging from a branch halfway down the cliff by the edge of the forest. Maybe I'll even sprinkle some blood over it for a better effect." All this she murmured in his ear with the silky voice a lover would use to whisper endearments to her boyfriend. It sent a cold shiver down Hunter's spine. Her hold around his wrists tightened, making him cringe as she nudged him forward. "Let's go. It's time for a little trip."

Hunter threw his head back, felt it connect with her forehead and used the moment of surprise to try to wrestle his wrists free of her hold. He felt her grip loosen, but before he could turn to throw a punch he was suddenly and unmercifully brought down to one knee by a blinding pain shooting through his injured shoulder. It felt like his shoulder was being torn out of its socket. He cried out, his eyes involuntarily watering from the agony. Aware of his only half-healed injury, Kami had brutally yanked his shoulder up and backwards and his still healing muscles screamed in protest.

An instant later, Kami had his wrists firmly back in her hold. "Bad move, Human," she hissed, all traces of her silky voice gone. "Now I'm of a mind to break your shoulder before I throw you through the portal, but damaged you wouldn't last a minute in there and that would deprive me of some of my fun, so you're lucky." With that, she pulled him back to his feet and towards the portal

Cam's head jerked up as he heard Hunter's cry. He'd heard that often enough when they were Rangers to know it instinctively. His heart leapt to his throat and throwing caution to the wind he began to streak towards the training grounds. What he saw when he got there made his blood freeze as he came to a sudden halt. There was a grey, swirlingportal in the air just in front of Hunter. Kami had Hunter in some sort of hold and was pushing him towards it. Cam couldn't believe his eyes but he just reacted, the time for thinking was over. Hunter was in danger and he wasn't going to let anything happen to him if he could help it.

"Kami, let him go." Cam raced forward, coming closer to them both.

Kami whirled around, dragging Hunter with her, her expression almost animalistic as she realised her entire plan to win Cam over had just crumbled to dust. The loathing in his eyes for her had just completely ruined her plans. "No! If I can't have you, no one will! This Thunder Ninja will never grace the face of this planet again!"

Cam's eyes met Hunters, seeing love and fear in them, and Cam knew that the same was reflected in his. Suddenly, Kami dragged Hunter back around and as Cam raced towards them, he instinctively knew he'd be too late. With a shove that caused Hunter to call out in pain from his injured shoulder, he was thrown through the portal.

"Hunter!" Cam's heart froze in his chest and without thinking, he attacked her. Her slight inattention as she threw Hunter in the portal was the opening he needed and she fell back, falling into a defensive pattern.

Cam hadn't taught her all his tricks and he soon had the upper hand. But out of the corner of his eye he could see the portal slowly closing. Torn between wanting revengefor the attack against Hunter or saving him, he chose to save him. He flipped backwards twice, landing near the portal.

Kami glared at him, reaching into her pocket and taking out a device. She growled, her gentle voice nothing more than a harsh guttural sound now. "You'll never save him, Watanabe. The dimension I have sent him to has no escape." She held the device. "Without this, you'll never free him. Now, I might be inclined to give you this control for something in return."

Cam refrained from stating the obvious; there was nothing he would give her. He'd learnt his lesson from facing his Uncle. And beside, Hunter would never forgive him for doing anything for anyone evil. "I will never give you anything that you want."

"Not even to save your precious Thunder Ninja?" Cam didn't answer and she just grinned evilly at him. "If you give me the Amulet, I'll give you the remote."

Cam blinked in surprise. The Amulet? Why would she want that, of all things? Cam shook his head. "No."

Kami held the remote up. "Last chance Cameron. You are running out of time here, and so do I. I have business to conduct on this planet and the Amulet is a vital part of it. Now hand it over!"

Cam was torn and glanced to one side. The portal was closing, it was only about a metre across now and closing fast. He had to make his choice. Growling as he knew he didn't have one, he relaxed from his fighting stance and reached up to take the Amulet from around his neck.

Suddenly, an idea, desperate as it was, occurred to him.

He held the Amulet out to her, readying himself as he did so. He'd have to time this so carefully. Kami reached with one hand and the Amulet began floating towards her.

"You've got what you want, give me the remote."

Kami just laughed, sending shivers up Cam's spine and bringing back bad memories. "I'm sorry, but I don't think so. My competition for your affections is gone,and with some of my powers, he'll soon be a distant memory of yours. And then not only will I have completed my mission, I'll have the perk of having you by my side."

Cam knew that he'd have to act now otherwise he'd loose his chance to save Hunter and keep his Amulet. "I don't think so Kami. The Amulet belonged to my mother, and Hunter has my heart. You have nothing, except failure." And with that, Cam acted.

Reaching out with his hands, reminiscent of a certain Red Wind Ranger, suddenly the Amulet flew back to his hands and he tried to rip the remote from her hands. She cried out in surprise and anguish but just managed to keep her hold on the remote, not realizing that Cam was able to do this. As Head Teacher of the Wind Academy and a Samurai, Cam could do many things most ordinary Senseis couldn't do. His hand closed around the Amulet, feeling its familiar presence, even though it wasn't empowered anymore. He stared hard at her before he began moving towards the portal, hoping to stop it closing before she could react. But she reacted faster than he thought and threw her hands out towards him, catching him with yellow beams of energy that caught him off guard and suddenly he was thrown backwards, his world suddenly filling with swirls of purple and grey energy.

Hunter couldn't stifle a cry as he sailed through purplish air, but the fall was shorter than expected. He was fortunate to land on his good shoulder, but the impact with the hard ground nevertheless knocked the wind out of him. He rolled onto his back, gasping, eyes closed as he tried to get his breath back quickly. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was
mist. It seemed to envelope him, curling around his body and obscuring the view of the ground he lay on. He scrambled to his feet, instinctively putting up his fists as he turned in a circle, surveying his surroundings.

To say that it was dreary was an understatement; a grey, twilight-like darkness was all around him. There was no sun, but some light source filtered through the low-hanging, anthracite clouds in the slate-coloured sky and he could make out vague shapes that seemed to be predominantly boulders and tree stumps. Through some breaks in the mist on the ground he spotted pools of stagnant, black water. A swamp of some kind... There was no sign of the portal he had come though, no doorway of any kind nor any visible way out, and suddenly, dread gripped Hunter's chest with an iron fist. CAM! He was still out there somewhere, with that woman - no, that THING! Hunter yelled his partner's name out loud. A faint echo of his own voice was his only answer.

"Crap!" he muttered to himself. "Can this day get any worse?" Other than the lazy rolling of the mist at his feet, there was no movement anywhere. The silence all around him was deafening, but Hunter sensed instinctively that he was not alone, and belatedly he realized that yelling Cam's name might not have been the brightest idea. Who knows what might already be coming this way by now.

Suddenly, the air several feet above him moved. A purple vortex appeared, spinning wildly, and a moment later a familiar body was flying towards him. Cam dropped to the ground, rolled over his shoulder and leapt back up in one smooth motion. The vortex disappeared again before the samurai even reached the ground. Cam was at Hunter's side and gripped Hunter's arm, dark eyes filled with concern.
"Are you okay?"

The Thunder ninja met his gaze. "Yeah, I'll be all right."

"Hunter, listen, I had no idea you were in the hospital..."

Hunter waved it off. "Don't worry about it, I figured that much as soon as I found out that she had shown up at the accident site."

"This wasn't an accident, was it?" It was more of a statement than a question, but Hunter shook his head anyway. "No."

Cam's gaze dropped to the ground. "God, I can't believe I fell for her ruse..."

Hunter put a firm hand on Cam's shoulder, using the other to raise Cam's face up; he could clearly see the guilt in Cam's eyes. "Hey, don't beat yourself up about it, okay? She tricked us both. Let's first find a way out of here, and then we can deal with her."

Suddenly Cam couldn't help it; he pulled Hunter into a gentle hug. They stood there, holding each other for what felt like ages when finally Cam gave a soft sigh and released his strangle hold on Hunter, but he didn't take his hands off Hunter's arms.

"Just how were you hurt?" Hunter saw the concern and love in Cam's eyes in the dim light and suddenly he knew in his heart that Cam's absence wasn't deliberate, he really and truly hadn't known.

"I was taking my Advanced Element class. Sarah was attempting her first use of harnessing the power of Lightning as a weapon and she threw a bolt at a tree. Somehow, it slipped her control and bounced around the clearing like it was after me or something. I was unable to control it and then next thing I knew was that there was an explosion and I woke two days later in the Academy's infirmary." Hunter paused and frowned. "The students all had varying accounts but the one thing they all agreed on was a few moments after the accident, Kami showed up, asking what was going on and saying she'd tell you that I was hurt. When I left the Thunder infirmary I went back to the clearing. I examined the branch it was quite clear that it hadn't been damaged by only an elemental blast." Hunter looked at Cam, knowing that if their relationship was to continue, he'd have to be honest with Cam. "I'll be honest, Cam. Not finding you by my side when I woke up, that hurt. And then the silence from you for the rest of this week, that really hurt."

Cam stared at Hunter, knowing how he felt. Cam nodded and sighed softly. "I thought you weren't talking to me because of our disagreement about her. She practically never left my side these past few days when I wasn't teaching. I should have figured something was going on. She did everything she could to try and separate us didn't she? If it wasn't for Dustin, she might have succeeded."

Cam raised his hand, which was still gripping the samurai amulet. He slipped the pendant around his neck, and then carefully touched the skin around Hunter's injured cheek. The blood from the cut had coagulated and needed cleaning and disinfecting. "First we have to take care of this." He looked around, but the stagnant swamp water all around them clearly could not be used for that purpose. Cam motioned for Hunter to sit on a tree stump; then pulled out his shirt tail to dab at the wound with it as best as he could. It was pathetically inadequate, but it was all they had. Hunter patiently sat through the ministration, trying not to flinch. Cam had a gentle touch, sometimes, but if you did something stupid in battle or class, he wasn't that gentle. Sometimes Hunter didn't know what was worse, Cam's ministrations or his sarcastic remarks while he was patching you up. Hunter finally broke the silence.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd be so embarrassed right now that I got beat by a girl," the blonde ninja said, grinning weakly, but a too-deep swab from Cam's caused a sudden flash of pain that burned the grin off his face.

"Sorry!"

" 's okay."

"She's probably not even a girl," Cam growled. "Who knows what she is." The samurai suddenly paused, staring at his partner's wound with blazing eyes. "When I get my hands on her..."

"Yeah, well, before you can do that, we gotta find a way out of here," Hunter said. "And then you'll have to take a number and get in line, 'cause I get first pick on her." The ex-Crimson Ranger curled his hand into a fist.

Cam stayed silent, tending the wound for a few more moments until there was nothing else more to do for it. Then he slumped down next to his partner on the log. "So, are we...cool?" he asked, deliberately using one of Hunter's preferred words.

Hunter smiled. "Yeah, we're cool." They hugged again, a quick, comforting embrace, then rose and set out, carefully treading their way through the swirling bottom mist to find a way out of their precarious situation.

Kami growled in frustration and anger. Cam had taken her completely by surprise with his mastery of the Air element. No Amulet and a slightly damaged remote to gain access to the portal through to the dimension she had sent them to. Shaking her head at her underestimation of the Samurai teacher she put away the remote in her pocket and then she shook her hands, the spikes disappearing. Looking around one last time she took off at a jog towards where she had hidden her ship. She would have to repair the remote to access to the portal and then she could go into that dimension, finish them both off and get the Amulet finally.

She jogged quickly through the forest, ignoring the beautiful surroundings and sounds of the local fauna. The whole planet was too green for her tastes, but she supposed that the Humans liked it. She was just eager to complete her mission and get back home. If she completed the mission quickly and returned home triumphant with the Amulet and the lost Generals, then perhaps the Emperor would finally let her have some time for herself, or even let her out of duties entirely. But she couldn't focus on that now; she had to focus on getting the Amulet, and paying back a certain Thunder Ninja.

Cam sighed as he leaned against Hunter. They had examined the small area around the swamp and had come up with nothing. The only thing in this place was a soft glow, a dank swamp and themselves. He and Hunter were currently sitting back to back next to the log, keeping watch as they knew that any moment now Kami could be coming to get them. They had both been trying to sense anything about this dimension but both weren't having much luck.

"Not exactly Fiji, is it?"

"You can say that again," Cam murmured, his eyes never wavering from scanning the area. The swamp all around them seemed to be going on and on. Nothing but rank water, dead and defoliated trees and that thin, ghostly mist for as far as the eye could see. There was no breeze, but the air itself seemed to be whispering, an incessant ebb and flow of unintelligible susurrations that seemed to follow them. It was a plain out creepy place.

"I wonder what time it is," Cam thought out loud and Hunter shrugged.

"Saturday." Hunter could hear Cam's chuckle behind him. It didn't cheer him up. He expanded his senses some more to their surroundings, but he felt nothing whatsoever.

"So…nothing?" he asked Cam without much hope.

"Not a thing. This dimension has got no windows, doors, exits or anything of any kind. Just that strange soft glow; that misty fog and a stinky swamp."

Hunter gave a soft smile, one that he knew Cam would sense in the dark, as his voice was warm. "In other words, you have no idea where we are and how we're getting out of here." There was a pause from Cam and then another soft sign as he leaned his head back against Hunter's head.

"Yes. I have no idea and it's frustrating as hell."

Hunter gave a soft laugh and a comfortable silence fell between them. Cam took his Amulet out and looked at it as it glowed a little bit. He studied it for a while, holding it in his hand. It was warm and he could feel the connection to it once more, like he did when it was fully powered. The only times it had felt warm was when he had been feeling happy or something good had happened to him.

"Well, I know you, Cam and you'll figure something out, eventually."

Cam smiled at Hunter's words. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

Hunter grinned. "You know me, always happy to give a vote of confidence Cam." Cam grinned back, even though they were sitting back to back they knew each other well enough to know what each was doing.

Silence fell again between them and after a long moment Cam lowered his head slightly, staring at the Amulet once more. He knew he had to say what was in his heart. He had to clear the air between them both.

"Hunter, I owe you an apology."

Hunter frowned, cocking his head sideways slightly. "What for, Cam?"

Cam sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "For having doubts about everything. About you and your feelings for me. For doubting us, together, as a couple. For thinking that you could ever just cut me off like I thought you did. I'm sorry, so sorry for even thinking that. This has been a strange experience for me and this is the first time I've ever felt this way about anyone. I mean, I love my father, and loved my mother. But I've never loved anyone the way I love you, Hunter, and it frightens me sometimes." Cam's voice was soft but sure.
Hunter jerked his head up as he took in Cam's words. Cam loved him? Hunter turned around to face Cam, his own face surprised but it was a good surprise. Cam had turned to face him as well.

"You love me?"

Cam looked him in the eyes and suddenly knew that in his heart of hearts, he did love Hunter, even though they had never said it before now. Cam nodded and smiled a tiny smile. "Yes, I love you, strange as that may seem."

Hunter was touched to the core and reaching up, he cupped his hand against Cam's cheek. "I love you too, Cam. I never thought that you felt the same way and you don't owe me an apology. Things were made difficult by her, but they are okay now, right?"

Cam nodded. "Never better, Hunter."

Hunter smiled and leaned over, pressing his lips against Cam's again. His heart soared with Cam's declaration and for a moment, just a moment, he allowed himself to forget everything that had happened and just feel joy at being in Cam's presence. Cam deepened the kiss and pulled Hunter closer, wrapping his arms around him. Hunter wrapped his arms around Cam as well.

After what felt like an eternity but was only a few moments they broke apart and Cam rested his head against Hunter's. "I love you."

Hunter's heart soared even higher. "I love you."

Cam smiled gently at him, his own heart soaring in joy. "Now that we've got that sorted out, let's get the hell out of here, Hunter. I intend to explore these new feelings of ours completely when we get back home."

Hunter raised his eyebrow at this more forceful and in control of his feelings Cam. But it was a good thing and he found he didn't mind one bit. He grinned. "Oh I like that idea, come on, let's find our way home."

A/N: One more chapter to go! Thank you all for reading and reviewing so far and stay tuned for the heart-stopping conclusion (literally).