Noah paced around HQ with his eyes darting in all directions. Clearly, he was on edge. He couldn't stop thinking about what he called Liam before Barbas captured him.
"Any luck?" He asked impatiently.
Alicia shook her head and blocked out Noah's emotions. It was hard enough to scry while worried herself let along with Noah. Jared flipped through the book trying to find Barbas while Sonia and Liam helped Tobias and Lydia scan the maps on the computer for Liam's signal.
"I got him." Jared called pointing to Barbas's page.
"Barbas, also known as the Demon of Fear, is a high leveled demon who preys on the worst nightmares of humans and witches alike."
Eyes widening, Noah left the room.
Noah sat alone on the HQ roof staring out at the ocean. The sapphire waters reflected the sunset's glow.
"We're all worried." Came Sonia's voice. She sat next to Noah and put her head on his shoulder.
"I know... but you weren't there when we argued. I... I called him..."
"Called him..."
Taking a deep breath, Noah answered, "Scars."
Sonia withdrew her head and stared at Noah in disbelief. "Noah! You know that was a dark time for him!"
"I know, and I said I was sorry. I was so stupid back there. I shouldn't have... no he's..."
Sonia took a breath and tried to calm Noah down. Pulling the now crying boy into a hug, Sonia whispered, "We'll get him back. I promise you."
As Liam regained consciousness, he felt cold cement under him. The boy squinted his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. Clearly, he was barred in a cage but where?
"Welcome, young man." Barbas greeted shimmering in from out of nowhere.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Liam asked.
"I want... your fear." Barbas's right hand glowed a light purple and back to its original pale tone. He waved his hand, palm facing him, in front of Liam's face. As if the fear was written in ink on his palm, Barbas studied it.
"So many fears, actually. But your biggest fear... is being abandoned by your close friends... how cliche." As Barbas shimmered away, the word 'cliche' echoed through the area, wherever it was.
Liam got up and touched his wrist, which was bare; Barbas had taken his morpher.
"Liam." Came Noah's voice.
"Noah?" Liam turned to see his friend glaring at him.
"How's it going, Scars?"
"No... you're not real."
"Of course I am... You're a worthless piece of trash. You're a waste of space."
Alicia's voice suddenly rang out. "Noah's right." She appeared alongside everyone else.
"You're useless. If it weren't for us dragging you out of the gutter you'd probably have ended yourself."
"Why not just give up on life?" Jared sneered.
Sonia laughed. "Do that and get rid of your jealousy toward me. I know you're mad I'm taking up your Best Friend's time. And you know what? Neither one of us care."
"Just disappear." Asher said.
"It's a good thing I joined." Chris added. "Because I can compensate for your uselessness."
Liam couldn't take it anymore. Tears stung his eyes as he started to hyperventilate.
"Shut up... shut up... make it stop... make it stop!" Liam chanted getting into the fetal position and covering his ears. However, covering his ears proved to be useless as he continued to hear the voices of Barbas's illusion.
~ HQ ~
"We have him locked!" Tobias called out. Noah was the first to get to the main screen. On the map of Bayview, a green dot pulsated on the outskirts.
"The forest." Jared identified. Suddenly, the dot disappeared.
"What happened?" Asher asked.
Lydia, in alarm, hit multiple command keys on the keyboard.
"Something blocked my scanner. One sec." After a couple of moments, the map on the screen was lit up like a Christmas Tree. Green dots were everywhere.
"Oh great." Tobias muttered. "It's a counter-procedure."
"So, we have to personally go to each location?" Sonia asked.
"It appears to be that way." Asher answered.
"We should hurry." Alicia suggested.
Lydia stood up. "Wait, take these." Lydia then proceeded to hand each Ranger a small metallic disc that appeared to be a bit bigger than a quarter. "If you find Liam, push the button in the center. That will immediately teleport everyone to you."
"Got it." Noah said impatiently. "I'm off." With that, he was gone in a blue blur.
"Good luck everyone. Be careful." Jared said. He then thought to himself, "Where's Dr. Bly and Claire when you need them?"
~ Later ~
Naturally, Noah went to the first area of detection. As he sped on his overboard, he could only think of what Barbas could be doing to his best friend.
"I've got to find him." He kept telling himself. Suddenly, Noah felt an oncoming attack. He pulled up into the air and flew through the treetops to avoid oncoming boulders. The Blue Ranger swerved and swerved only to be knocked out of the air and onto his back, causing him to demorph.
"No way..." He commented when his assailant stepped into the light. "Liam?"
Liam, fully morphed, slowly approached Noah. "Just... leave me alone. Leave me alone." Liam kept repeating.
"Liam? Liam what're you doing?"
"You're not here. You're a monster made by Barbas... You're not Noah." Liam summoned his axe and swung down. Noah rolled out of the way and got up to his feet. At this point, Liam was slicing away at Noah who was barely dodging everything. Noah jumped back a few feet and flicked his hands forward freezing the molecules of Liam.
It held for a few seconds, but the Green Ranger quickly broke free.
Liam chopped diagonally, but Noah super sped away. He took out the metal disc and was about to push the button, but Liam knocked it far away.
Noah dive rolled to the left and morphed up.
"Snap out of it!"
"He won't wake up." Barbas said as he appeared in mid air.
"Barbas! What'd you do to him?"
"I only called out his worst fear. And now, he wants to end you to escape that fear. It's him or you, Blue Ranger."
"No..."
"Liam, he's still alive!"
Liam growled, "You're just a nightmare. Go away!" Liam was hysterical. After being subject to so much torment by Barbas, all he could see were shadowy demons. Leading them all was Noah or at least, an evil one. With his judgment twisted, Liam reasoned that the only way to end Barbas was to end the Noah that was in front of him now.
Noah ducked under Liam's axe and grabbed his wrists. The two scuffled around in a mad dance, Noah finally able to disarm his friend. That didn't stop the attack though. The Green Ranger sent forward a barrage of boulders in a flurry of projectiles. Noah could only super speed his way around them, trying to find his locator disc. Liam chased him through the forest as if he was forcing him somewhere. He was finally hit square in the chest and knocked into a giant rock.
"I'm sorry, buddy." Noah whispered as he sent icicles from his palms. With a direct hit, Liam was thrown in a familiar tree: The Treehouse.
~ Flashback ~
A 12 year old Noah was crying inside the treehouse. He had just run away from home after learning of his Father's disappearance.
"Noah?" Came Liam's voice. The door on the floor opened up and Liam climbed his way through. Noah quickly wiped his eyes. "What do you want?" He sniffled.
"Are you ok?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
Liam hugged his friend and said, "My Mom told me that it's always ok to cry."
~Flashback~
Noah realized that Liam had led him to the treehouse. However, the Green Ranger was still attacking.
"Liam, you've got to wake up!" Noah called as he backflipped onto a tree trunk. He jumped forward and spun in the air to avoid wooden projectiles.
"I know we've been drifting a bit!" Noah rolled behind a tree for cover. "But no matter what, you're still my best friend!" Noah flipped through a gap in the tree trunk and kicked Liam in the chest, sending him into the Tree house causing him to demorph.
"We're still us! It doesn't matter where we've been." Noah whispered as he demorphed as well. He approached his friend and lifted Liam's sleeve revealing one of his scars.
"This doesn't define you anymore. You're you. You're Willy: my best friend."
As tears streamed down Liam's face, a dark aura rose from him and evaporated causing him to collapse into Noah.
"Noah... thank you so much."
"We're friends, Liam. I wouldn't trade you for anything in the world." The two got up and quickly found the locator disc.
As they pressed the button, Barbas arrived shooting fireballs in all directions. He was not in the best of moods.
"You brats!" He roared as blazing fire rained from above. The other Rangers were transported into chaos.
"You've got to be kidding!" Chris commented as he side flipped away from a fireball.
"What'd we miss?" Asher called out.
"Long story! Let's just deal with Barbas!" Noah said. "You ready, Liam?"
"Oh yeah."
"Spirit Legend, Awaken!"
In swirling blue and green lights, Noah and Liam stood ready for battle.
"Spirit of Earth: Green Legend Ranger!"
"Spirit of Water: Blue Legend Ranger!"
"Spirit of Fire: Red Legend Ranger!"
"Spirit of Wind: Pink Legend Ranger!"
"Spirit of Lightning: Yellow Legend Ranger!"
"Spirit of Light: Silver Legend Ranger!"
"Spirit of Darkness: Black Legend Ranger!"
"Ancient Spirits Unite! Power Rangers: Next Legend, Start Up!"
Barbas snapped his fingers. "Shadowlites, attack!"
The Seven charged into the fray with their personal weapons drawn. Sonia and Jared were in the front of the group, slicing through the first Shadowlites. Alicia, with her bow, and Chris, with his fan, covered long range support with a barrage of arrows and darkness waves.
Noah and Liam went in straight for Barbas with a combo attack. Barbas was given little to no room to counter strike as Liam and Noah moved in a synchronized assault.
The two landed a kick against the Demon's chest, sending him flying.
Barbas lost his cool right then and there. His eyes turned a sick yellow, his hair started to spike up and fire erupted from his body. He rose into the air and let intense flames shower down.
A giant blast managed to hit Sonia and demorph her.
"Sonia!" Noah called as he super sped to her. However, a blast hit him too, knocking him back into his human state. Barbas took this opportunity to attack.
With eager eyes he let a concentrated blast of fire soar at the two Rangers.
"Get down!" Liam shouted at the top of his lungs. The boy couldn't believe his eyes; his best friend was about to get cooked. Without thinking, he took off full force.
"No!" Liam called out focusing his Power from Within into his legs. The trees around him were falling apart. Jared, Alicia, Chris and Asher were being held up by Shadowlites.
"Noah!" Liam shrieked in desperation as he threw himself in front of the attack. In seconds, the Green Ranger felt pain in all sense of the word. Looking up, Noah strained to escape his eyes.
"Liam!"
The boy fell to the ground, his Ranger suit seared. It wavered in a faint green light. Liam was not dead, but he was fighting to keep his Ranger form in place.
Getting up, Liam made sure Noah and Sonia were ok. His visor was broken and the three made eye contact. Sighing in relief, Liam turned to a crazed Barbas.
"I'm taking you down in one shot." Liam threatened.
"And how will you do that in your state?"
Liam raised his hands and made a green force field appear. "I wouldn't worry about that if I were you." He closed his hands into fists and made his force field in a concave disc shape. He then moved it over his seared Ranger suit. In a brilliant green light, Liam felt a warmth wash over him like a wave against the sand. Within seconds, his suit was good as new; his barrier had repaired him.
"This is your end!" Liam shouted out as he charged forward with his axe. He jumped into the air at full power.
Barbas set himself on fire and flew forward. The two struck each other at the same time and landed several feet apart.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment. Neither one moved for several moments... Suddenly, a green slash mark appeared on Barbas's chest. He gurgled in pain and turned to Liam.
"You may have beaten me, but you cannot destroy fear. I will always come back!" With that, the Demon of Fear burst into nothing.
"And when you do come back, I'll be waiting to destroy you once more." Liam answered as he demorphed.
~ Liam's House ~
Liam sat on his rooftop watching the stars. Watching the stars from his rooftop was always a favorite thing. It always made him feel as if the world was so small, which in the grand scheme of things, was actually true... He felt as if the weight of the world had left his shoulders.
"Hey, buddy." Noah greeted from the ground.
"Noah." Liam greeted happily. Noah focused his power into his legs and jumped up to Liam's roof to join him. "Where's Sonia?"
"Does that really matter? Who says I can't hang with my best friend?"
Liam laughed a bit. "Well alrighty. What's up?"
"I came to apologize."
"Dude, you don't need to. I just overreacted. I've already forgiven you anyway."
"So we're square?"
"Of course." Liam answered. The two friends fist bumped and continued to watch the stars in silence.
A/N: Yeah, this mini arc was a last minute thing I thought up. I mean, I wanted to show that even though the Rangers were superheroes they were still teenagers with real life, though with over-exaggerated, problems. Hope you enjoyed it!
Later Days!
