Summary: As the fight continues, the rangers try to keep their lives as normal as possible while learning about their full powers.

Phantom Rogue: Nope, all rangers are captured now. This soon enough for ya?

Arwennicole: You're falling for it too even with this chapter, I can predict… you'll still be falling for it until I decide to throw in the chapter where it's explained… It's truly not what you're thinking.

Star Fata: Kill school… do a science experiment and blow the whole thing up! You actually got me figured out. Believe it or not… talking food is one of them.

Jenny: Pop up blockers are definitely stupid… lucky me it's my browser killing the pop ups and not some stupid blocker. Yes, all the rangers are now captured. We are already never going to die because we keep getting new ideas… so join the club. YAY! Stupid summer school!

The-power-of-love: Glad you liked it.

As The Battle Rages

Chapter 26

Ray passed through the kitchen, trying to think through Ciana's persistent crying. He needed to get down there and see what was wrong with her, since obviously, no one else was around to do it. The only problem was, he was terrified to go down there.

It was Aurora's fault. He had been five when it happened, Aurora had been twelve. Ashley had an emergency and had had to leave for a few hours. Without any time to find a babysitter, she had reluctantly allowed Aurora to watch her brother. It had gone all right for the first few hours, but then they got into one of their rare fights. Aurora had locked him in the basement for a full two hours before Ashley had returned home. The lights had been off and when he finally gave up banging the door and settled himself down in a good spot until the door opened, a rat had walked over his hands and feet. Needless to say, rats had never been his favourite animal since then.

Ashley had been furious at Aurora and wouldn't leave her alone with him until the then-teenager had practically threatened to set the next babysitter on fire unless their mom let her sit for Ray. Everything had worked out, but his fear for the basement stayed if there was no light.

Yet now Ciana appeared to be down there somehow and he needed to overcome his fear, but his body didn't really seem to be cooperating. He shuddered at the mere thought of having to go down there. If his mother or Aurora had been around they'd have understood, they knew. Then his thoughts coursed on to his father.

How would Andros handle this? Would he laugh at knowing his son was afraid of a smelly old basement? Or would he understand? And what would he do in his place? Go down or find some other way to get his baby sister out?

He knew the answer almost immediately. His father had snuck unto the Dark Fortress, the most dangerous place for a ranger to be next to Dark Spector's ship, twice to get his sister back, once with Zhane and the second time alone. So if his father wasn't afraid of the Dark Fortress, or at least, not enough to steer clear from it… Why should he be afraid of a dark basement with a few rats?

Taking a deep breath to calm his raging nerves, Ray put a few steps towards the open basement door.

"Don't cry Ciana." He called down, desperately trying to keep his voice steady. "I'm coming."

He closed his eyes and put his right foot on the top of the stairs, blindly grabbing for the railing before continuing to descent. Half way down the stairs he dared to crack open an eye.

He was surrounded by darkness and he almost stopped and ran back up to the kitchen, but Ciana's wails forced him to continue. Shivers were travelling up and down his spine and his legs felt like they would protest and refuse to support his weight for much longer, but he kept on going.

When he finally reached the bottom of the stairs, Ciana's crying stopped. He held his breath and peered around in the dark, trying to find out where she was and why she had stopped crying.

He spotted something moving from the corner of his eyes and quickly made his way to it.

"Ciana?" He asked. "Ciana, this isn't funny."

He pushed some boxes out of the way and suddenly his eyes were assaulted by a bright light. He squeezed his eyes tight shut to protect them from the light.

After a while he dared to open them again. He was laying flat on his back in utterly white surroundings. His vision was blurred by a faint mist hovering above him. It stung at his eyes and burned in his lungs and he quickly sat up coughing and rubbing his eyes.

He looked around as he staggered to his feet, trying to determine where he was. There were no obvious walls and he wasn't sure that the pure whiteness was caused by a room or… am I dead? Shaking his head violently, he pushed that thought away and continued studying his surroundings.

When he looked down in the mist, he gasped. All the other rangers were lying around him, unconscious and deadly pale. He quickly ran over to Aurora and tried to shake her awake, but his sister remained limp despite his attempts.

He held her hand as he tried to mentally reach out to her and shake her awake through that.

The feeling of being sucked through a very tiny hole assaulted his senses and he tried to pull back, but it was too late.

He opened his eyes at the sound of a heart-monitor flat lining and felt the blood drain from his face when he saw who was lying in the patient bed.
Then he shook his head, realising what was going on.

"Just an illusion of our fears." He muttered softly, while the doctors called the time of death.

Quickly he looked around for his sister and ran over to her.

"Rora, it's not real." He muttered as he crouched down next to her. "It's just an illusion."

Aurora didn't react and kept her hands pressed to her ears while rocking back and forth, moaning.

"Rora…" Ray insisted as the monitor flat lined again. "How many times can a person die? It's not real!"

Aurora still didn't react and Ray realised it was useless; his sister just wouldn't listen to him. With a sigh he closed his eyes and pulled back. The sensation of being sucked through a tiny hole assaulted him again and then he felt himself fall backwards, right on top of someone else.

He quickly pushed himself back up and looked behind him at the person he had fallen on.

"Chaitlin." He murmured in inspiration. "Of course - she might get through to Aurora…"

Taking Chaitlin's hand, he invaded her illusion, hoping to have more luck this time.

A/N: So now you kinda know what's going on… Hope you enjoyed it. Ray will be stuck with this for a while. Review.