I know it seems strange to end a chapter where I did last chapter, but I wanted to leave it on a cliffhanger. While the last one dealt with self-doubt and anxiety, this chapter...well, I'll let you see for yourselves

Thanks to JTWAS1994 for reviewing as usual. It's nice to have another person's reaction to what I write, so reviews are always welcome.

On with the story!

Myth 8: Red Ranger Rising

"What just happened?" Nate said as he and Mera ended their discussion suddenly. "Did our Red Ranger just quit?"

Valerie looked at him, her eyes still red from crying.

"Yes," she said simply.

Nate whirled around and walked up to Hermes, who had just been standing there the entire time, before starting to speak again.

"And you did nothing!" he shouted. "What sort of mentor are you? You haven't been very helpful or informative. The last important thing you did was give us our powers! Powers that our leader just rejected! What do you have to say for yourself?"

Hermes just gave a playful smile.

"Who says I haven't been helping?" he asked. "I'm the one who activated all of the Zords. I helped out Victor in his time of need. I would say I've been a good mentor."

"Not exactly," Victor said bluntly as he walked up to the two. "You never told us about these Gold and Silver Rangers at all."

"Additionally, Valerie, Jay and I have all had some strange people come up to us and give us advice. Can you explain that for us?" Mera said.

"Rangers," Hermes said, "the gods of Olympus have certain rules of non-interference in the lives of mortals. I already break some of them with me even being here, but I cannot break more. I am sorry, but I can't tell you anything about either of those things. What I can do is recommend you find a way to convince Jay to rejoin you, and quickly. I do not know when the next attack will be, and you will need to be at full strength."


It was the next day, and all of the teens minus Jay were at their table. Jay started to walk to the table before turning around and sitting down at the table next to them, sitting alone.

"Let's go," Nate said as he grabbed his tray and stood up. The rest of the teens grabbed their trays and walked over to the table.

"Mind if we join you?" Nate joked.

"I do," Jay answered as he turned away from his friends. "If you're here to convince me to come back, don't bother. I've made up my mind, and I think this is for the best."

"But it's not," Valerie said. "We need you to win against Hades and the Dark Order! Who's going to lead us to victory if you aren't there?"

"Nate learned his lesson when it came to leading," Jay retorted. "I think he'll do just fine leading the team."

"Fine!" Valerie shouted. "We're trying to help you here, and you're just blowing us off! If you want to be alone, then that's fine with me!"

She ran away from the table, holding back tears.

"I thought you cared about Valerie and the rest of us," Nate said. "I guess I was wrong."

"Indeed," Mera agreed. "When you come to your senses, you know where we are located."

She walked away from the table, with Nate and Victor right behind her. Victor turned his head over his shoulder and gave a disapproving frown.

"It's better this way," Jay said to himself. "I would just slow them down. It's ust like the Gold and Silver Rangers said: I'm a poor fighter. Besides, less stress is better for my mental health."


Echidna grinned, showing off her teeth with all of their points. She slithered around the round table before reaching the Serpent.

"Ladon," she announced. "I want you to use your power to defeat the Rangers. Four Rangers will be no match for your serpent-like abilities."

Ladon rose from the table.

"As you command, mother," he said before walking towards the doors, "I will not fail you."

Echidna looked at the Colchian Dragon and his cracked armor before speaking.

"You had better not," she said. "I will not tolerate failure."

The Colchian Dragon stood up quickly.

"Mother!" he shouted. "Allow me another chance at the Rangers before you send Ladon!"

Echidna thought it over for a minute before nodding.

"Very well," she said, "I will grant you another chance, but know that if you come back here defeated, I will destroy you myself! Bring me a Ranger, and I will spare you from my wraith."

"Thank you, Mother, for this opportunity," the Colchian Dragon said as he exited the throne room.

"My dear Ladon," Echidna said. "I may have another mission for you…"


"Does anyone else have any other ideas?" Nate asked as the four friends walked down the path side by side. They were in the park by the lake, where they had fought Argus and several Spartoi almost a month ago.

"I was certain that Valerie would be able to get Jay to join our efforts again with their unique bond, but I was mistaken," Mera said.

"What do you mean 'unique bond'?" Valerie asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Nate said. "The two of you spent so much time together. You must have a thing for him or something."

"I...I...well…" Valerie spluttered, red in the face from her blush before redirecting the attention. "Victor? What about your plan?" She gave herself a silent pat on the back for getting herself out of the hot seat.

"Maybe we should just give him some space?" Victor asked quietly.

The other Rangers didn't have any time to answer Victor's question as a blast of golden fire shot out and hit the ground around them, causing it to erupt into a circle of flames. Strangely, the circle of golden fire didn't expand like it should have on the dry grass, instead it maintained it's round shape.

"Rangers!" a voice the Rangers knew too well shouted. "Prepare to meet your doom at the hands of…"

"The Colchian Dragon Knight," Valerie finished, clearly irritated. "Listen, we don't have time for you right now! We have a more pressing matter to deal with."

"Oh, I know," the Dark Order Knight cackled. "There are only four of you now, so it will be 20% easier to defeat you!"

"He can divide!" Nate joked. "Now let's see what he thinks when we multiply our power! It's Morphing Time!"

"Pink Olympian Power!"

"Yellow Olympian Power!"

"Black Olympian Power!"

"Blue Olympian Power!"

Each Ranger's color swirled around them before creating their Ranger suits. They stepped out of the colored lights that quickly faded and summoned their personal weapons. With a cry, Nate led the charge towards their foe.

The Dragon Knight blasted golden flame out of his halberd again, but the Rangers rolled to dodge it before jumping into the air to deliver two rounds of flying kicks, one from the guys and one from the girls. The Knight laughed as their blows merely bounced off his armor.

"That's it!" Nate shouted. "I'm sick of hearing this guy laugh! We need a way to beat him fast!"

"I wish Jay was here…" Valerie said as she looked down at the ground. "He would know what to do."

"Jay isn't here, though," Victor said matter-of-factly.

"We need to end our worrying of what-ifs and instead focus on our plan of attack," Mera said as she pointed her spear at the cracked parts of the Knight's armor, specifically his chestplate. "I believe it would be best if we aim our attacks there. They appear to be his most vulnerable regions."

"I've got nothing better," Nate admitted. "Rangers! Attack!"

With another battle cry, the Rangers rushed forward. Victor and Nate flipped over the Knight and grabbed each of his arms. As he struggled to break free from their grip, Mera and Valerie threw her spear and shot her bow respectively at his cracked chestplate. The point of the spear and the body of the energy arrow drove straight into the chest of their foe, causing him to scream in pain as well as fall to his knees in defeat again.

"How could this happen?" he asked. "The Dark Order is invincible!"

"Obviously not!" Nate said as he stabbed his trident right through the Knight's helmet, causing him to explode into ash.

"That was easier than I thought it would be," Victor remarked as he kicked some of the ash in the pile with his boot.

"Let's head back to base," Nate said as the others nodded in agreement.


Jay sat in his room, surrounded by reminders of his old life. The Power Ranger articles seemed to become larger, threatening to suffocate him. He ran out of the room before falling to the floor, gasping for breath.

"You ok?" his brother said as he stood next to the doorway, looking at his older sibling inhale shakely. "Where's your not-girlfriend girlfriend?"

Jay shook his head.

"I don't know and I don't care," he said quickly.

"I don't believe that for a minute," Jay's brother said as he shook his head. "You two spend nearly a month together, meeting up and doing things together, and you suddenly don't care about her anymore? I think the problem is you care too much."

"I need a walk," Jay said. "I'll be back. Eventually."

Jay opened the door and looked at the leaves as the wind picked them up and whirled them around a bit before dying down. The coldness of fall was beginning to worsen again, and Jay had to wonder if there was some reason for this. Some supernatural reason…

"No," Jay said out loud as he began to walk down the street. "I'm done with that life. I couldn't take the stress of it, so I quit. That's it."

He looked up at the graying sky before continuing his monologue.

"So why do I keep having to tell myself this? Why can't I let the past go?"

Why can't I let Valerie go? he added silently in his head. He stopped in front of a house and continued his train of thought. Do I really care for her that much?

"Can I help you with something, young man?" an older man said as he stepped out of his house, his white hair and beard rustling in the wind. His eyes were blue and still full of life, even though the rest of him looked defeated by the forces of time.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, sir," Jay said as he turned to start walking again. "I didn't mean to loiter, I'll just keep moving along."

"No, no," the man said as he gestured to the bench in the yard. "Come sit down, please. You obviously have a lot on your mind."

Jay got a strange feeling: he could trust this man. As he sat down, he realized something.

"I know you. I'm certain I know you from somewhere," he said.

"I'm sure you've seen me around," the man said. "I've been in Olympia Hills for years, waiting for someone."

"Waiting for who?" Jay asked, his natural curiosity superseding his current avoidance of the strange.

"Someone like you," the old man said. "I've been waiting for a young man with lightning in their soul and mind."

"Lightning?" Jay said as he thought of his old Ranger element. "I may have had it a month ago, but it's gone now."

"Oh no," the man chuckled. "That lightning never fades. It may become harder to harness and control, but it is never truly gone. Something tells me you used to be a part of a group, a group of friends you decided caused you unneeded stress."

Jay looked at him questioningly

"How do you know this?" he asked suspiciously.

"I know this because I used to be like you. I used to think that I was best off alone, that I would never be able to be a leader, that the stress was too much, and I feared for the safety of my team," the old man said. "Then I found a way to harness that fear. We all can be great warriors if we can overcome fear, that is the greatest power mortals possess, unbreakable will and the ability to overcome great fear."

The man looked over at the young teen next to him.

"I hope you now know what you need to do," he said.

"I need to go find my friends," Jay said, determined and renewed with confidence, "because I need to face my fear."

"Good," the man said as he stood up. "Then my search is over, I may go home."

There was a sudden crack of thunder as Jay began to speak again

"Where is your home?"

He turned around to find no one around. He looked down to see a rotting bench. As he jumped up off of it, he looked up to see the house he had been sitting in front of was abandoned and had been for some time.

"Cool," he said, smiling. "There was definitely more to that man than met the eye." He turned around and ran down the street back to the school.

He ran around the corner and saw the familiar blue glow around one of the doors of the school. He opened it up and stepped through. Inside, he found Nate, Mera, Valerie and Victor standing around Hermes, who was at the computer.

"Can I come in?" he joked.

"Of course," Valerie said as she ran up and gave him a hug. "Welcome back."

"I never even said why I came back," Jay said as he blushed, "but I did come back to apologize. I blamed you guys for my problems, and I realized that with these powers we have a chance to make a difference. I want to help with that again. Now, I understand if you guys…"

"Stop right there," Nate said as he broke into a grin. "Welcome back, fearless leader."

"Good to be back, hotshot," Jay countered as he shook Nate's hand.

Hermes flew over to Jay with his morphers.

"I think these belong to you," he said simply.

"Now, Hermes, I wanted to ask-" Jay said before the alarms went off.

"That'll have to wait," Hermes said. "Another member of the Dark Order is attacking the city, get out there and stop him."


In another part of town, Ladon crushed another car with his suddenly serpentine body. His body quickly unwrapped itself from it's anaconda-like grip and shifted back to a humanoid shape.

"Rangers!" Ladon shouted. "Face me in battle, so I may avenge my brother's defeat!"

He turned around to see the Gold and Silver Rangers standing in front of him, blocking him from attacking any more civilians.

"Halt!" the Gold Ranger said as he put up his hand.

"Your reign of terror ends here!" the Silver Ranger finished. The two Rangers drew their bows and changed them into their melee weapons.

The Silver Ranger flipped over Ladon and slashed down his back, slightly slicing through the armor and leaving him vulnerable from a strike from behind. The Silver Ranger was about to slash at that spot again, but Ladon shifted into his serpentine form and slithered around her strike. The Silver Ranger was too shocked to block the strike from Ladon's sword. She was sent flying backwards into a wall, creating a crater in it. The Gold Ranger ran up to her and helped her stand up.

"You ok, sis?" he asked as she fell down again, clutching her side in pain.

"I've been better, bro," the Silver Ranger said as she grunted in pain. "Now let's beat this freak and go home."

They both turned their weapons back to bow mode and charged up their energy.

"Gemini Arrow!" the two Rangers shouted. "Fire!"

They released their bow strings and fired off their energy arrows. The two arrows merged into one large arrow that went flying straight at Ladon. Just as he was about to be hit by the arrow, Ladon shifted into his serpent form and dodged it.

"What!?" the two Rangers said together.

"Did you honestly think that would work?" Ladon said as he shifted back to human form again. "I saw how you defeated my brother. You think I wouldn't have a contingency against your final attack?"

"What do we do now?" the Gold Ranger asked the Silver Ranger.

"You get help from us!" Jay shouted from the rooftop.

"Who else is getting a sense of Deja Vu?" Nate asked Mera, Valerie and Victor as the Rangers, already morphed, stood on the rooftop before jumping down in between the sibling Rangers and the Dark Order Knight.

"More Rangers?" Ladon asked. "Not a problem."

He shifted into serpent mode and wrapped himself around the five primary rangers, slowly crushing them in his grip.

"This went better in my mind," Jay admitted.

"Hang on, Rangers!" the Gold and Silver Rangers said together as they transformed their bows into their melee weapons again.

With a battle cry, the two rangers charged. The Silver Ranger slashed at Ladon's serpentine body while the Gold Ranger smacked it with his staff. It had little to no effect on the Knight's armor.

"What do we do now?" the Gold Ranger asked the Silver Ranger.

"Let's bring them together!" the SIlver Ranger said before the two Rangers combined their weapons. The two daggers combined into one blade, and then were attached to the staff, forming a javelin.

"Gemini Javelin!" the two Rangers shouted before the Gold Ranger threw the javelin at Ladon's body. The javelin pierced the Knight's body, causing him to scream in agony before unwrapping from the other Rangers, allowing them to breathe. All five Rangers gasped for breath as the pressure was released from around them.

Ladon's remains laid in front of them as the Rangers shook hands with each other.

"You may have a lot to learn," the Gold Ranger said, "but we do appreciate you trying to help us. You may have gotten in the way, but at least you tried."

"Do you practice being arrogant in a mirror, or does it come naturally?" Jay countered. "That being said, we were glad to help."

"Jay seems a lot more confident," Victor whispered to Valerie.

"He does," Valerie agreed.

"Until next time," the Gold and Silver Rangers said as they gave a little salute before jumping to the nearest rooftop.

"They're still as nice as always," Nate said.

"Yeah," Jay said, "but we can't let what they said get to us. As long as we don't give in to self-doubt and fear, there's nothing we can't do."

The other Rangers nodded before a door near them cast a familiar blue light, they stepped through to see Hermes standing there, waiting for them.

"Rangers," he said, "I know you have questions, but you must just allow destiny to take its course. I promise all questions will be answered in time."

"I have a question that I hope can be answered," Jay said as he pulled off his helmet before the others did the same. He turned to Valerie.

"If I need to face my fears, there's one in particular I've been dealing with for a few weeks." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Valerie, will you go on a date with me?"

The whole world seemed to slow down as he awaited Valerie's answer, the other rangers watching with bated breath.

Definitely a different kind of cliffhanger!

I know some people may say that I should have let Jay stay out of the fight for a little longer, but the arc isn't really about that, it's about the three-sided fight between the primary Rangers, the twin Rangers and the Dark Order.

Thanks to everyone for reading, and may the power protect you all.