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

Phantom Rogue: Haha! I made you hungry again!

Arwennicole: Here's the next.

DizneeDol: No need to wait any longer.

Star Fata: Yeah… maybe I should.

The-power-of-love: Enjoy!

As The Battle Rages

Chapter 31

The moment they opened their eyes, Ray groaned.

"Not again."

Those were all the words spoken before the group of rangers plunged into the ring of minions surrounding what they suspected to be Anlon. Abby and Kagan broke through first and were soon supporting their older brother while the other rangers kept the footsoldiers away from them.

"Please leave." Anlon whispered softly, head hung in despair. "I'm not worthy of your help…. I- I'm weak."

"Anlon, the whole point of a team is making each other strong." Dakota yelled from over where he was fighting, grunting as he received a punch to his stomach in his lapse of concentration.

"Yeah, we're filling in for each others weaknesses." Ray cut in as he threw a minion over his shoulder.

"And none of us can take on this many of them." Kagan assured.

"Cover me!" Kayla called out suddenly and without a question, Ray and Murtagh moved in to watch her back, the others pausing their individual battles.

Kayla took a few steps away from the fight and closed her eyes, her hands starting to sparkle with a bright purple light inherited from her mother. It took her a few minutes to build up enough power, but then suddenly all the minions glowed briefly with the same light and collapsed into dust.

"None of us?" Anlon asked his brother with a raised eyebrow.

"She needed cover to do that." Abby pointed out. "We can all be strong alone, but we're so much stronger together." She cried, a tear of frustration pooling in her eye. Voice softening, she added, "Please, believe us Anlon… please…"

"I should have listened to you a little more." Anlon admitted in shame, hanging his head. "You were right about our team's situation and I was wrong. Forgive me?"

"Always." Abby smiled and hugged her brother close.

The light around them brightened and soon every of the awoken rangers were looking at Anlon for the next. Anlon opened his mouth to reply, but then closed it again, a slight blush appearing on his cheeks as he looked at the four rangers still asleep.

"Eshla." He replied a moment later.

Ray looked at him sceptically, but walked over to Eshla anyway and soon invaded her fear illusion. A quick glance again and Kayla immediately started protesting.

"We're in the wrong illusion." She declared firmly

"How can you be so sure?" Abby asked.

Kayla pointed over to where Eshla lay.

"She's sick, or at least the illusion makes her feel like she's sick. Chaitlin has healing powers. I think Chaitlin is the key to Eshla." Kayla explained.

"Anlon, what was your first impulse to say?" Dakota asked, almost wearily.

"Eshla." Anlon replied stubbornly.

"Eshla doesn't make you blush." Ray pointed out and received a dark glare from Anlon.

Ray just stared back coolly until Anlon hung his head in defeat. His lips were whispering a new name, so softly no one could hear.

"I didn't catch that." Murtagh said in a singsong voice, cupping a hand to his ear.

"Dymphna." Anlon replied a little louder, the blush returning to his cheeks.

Abby giggled at her brother's reaction to the name and Kayla and Megan looked faintly amused. Moments later they had pulled out of the illusion and Ray quickly got them into Dymphna's mind.

Dymphna sat huddled in a corner of the room they appeared in. Twelve large TV screens were placed on each wall, all displaying the illusion around the other rangers. Nine screens on each wall had gone blank already, but Dymphna didn't seem to notice, mumbling to herself.

"My fault." She muttered softly. "If I hadn't lost track of him this wouldn't have happened. If my powers had just been a little stronger I could have found them and they wouldn't be going through this." Her voice choked and she let out a dismal little sob.

Murtagh made a move to run over to his sister, but Dakota stopped him and gave Anlon a slight push in her direction.

"You're the only one who should be able to get through to her." He informed him with a small smile on his face. "So go and do whatever feels right."

Anlon sighed and looked he wanted to protest very badly, but kept his mouth shut and walked over to Dymphna. Once he reached her, he crouched down and placed a hand on her arms.

"Hey, don't blame yourself so much." He whispered soothingly, at least, as much as he could. "None of this is your fault. You couldn't have stopped it."

He glanced back at the rangers for a moment and then back at Dymphna.

"Even if you had been able to locate them all, we couldn't have helped them. We needed Ray to start rescuing us. This is all an illusion, Dymphna… everything you see on those screens, those are illusions too. If this is anyone's fault… it's Blaecleah's."

Dymphna looked up at him, tears rolling down her cheeks. She nodded slowly and Anlon reached out, wrapping her into a big bear hug.

"It's going to be okay." He promised softly, whispering the words into her ear.

Somehow that was all it took. Dymphna relaxed and the room brightened around them, much to everyone's relief.

'Only three more rangers to go.' Ray thought, smiling brightly. 'And next on our list is Aurora. Now I finally get my sister back.'

A/N: Hope you liked it. Don't be shy… hit that button… and: REVIEW! Okay… I finally stopped being lazy and looked it up… I made a mistake… It's not Moorage Mage… it's Mirage Mage… I changed it in the past chapters and from now on, it'll be that.