Chapter 8
Alex's Pov
I was happy, the happiest I had been in a long time. Don't get me wrong, after hearing about all that had happened to Riku, Sora and Kairi since the connection had been severed was terrible. I was just happy to have that connection back, that Riku was back to him old self and that we were once again good friends. I felt a bit useless though as there wasn't anything I could do to help bring Sora's memories back as I was still in my own world. I did try to help Riku and his new partner in crime Shisui by giving him some ideas now and again or simply encourage him but it wasn't really enough. I went back to thinking that maybe I should talk to Zordon, come clean about knowing someone from another world and get his advice.
However before I could do that there was a new fundraiser that I and my fellow rangers were involved in and this one was fun. We were raising money to fix up the old observatory, and we were doing by sky diving out of a plane. Unfortunately I was too young to actually jump out of the plain so I helped on the ground. Things went off without a hitch, save we're not sure what happened to Bulk and Skull, and the observatory got a new lease on life. Later that afternoon we were rollerblading around Angel Grove when suddenly the Light Shard glowed and I started to feel light headed. I forced myself to stop near a bench and used it for support as tried to clear my head. "Alex, you alright?" Billy asked as he and the others joined me.
"I'm not sure." I said as I held my head. "Somethings wrong."
Before I could elaborate our communicators went off and Zordon asked us to come to the command center. "Alpha what's going on?" Tommy asked as Alpha was acting crazy as he ran around the control room.
"Massive surge of evil energy is over loading our systems. Aye-yai-yai-yai-yai!" he shouted clearly freaking out which I couldn't blame him for as I could feel it as well. I feared for a moment that it was a surge of Heartless I had come to our world but it turned out is was something a little more of what we rangers were use to. It seemed that 6000 years ago one of my ancestor keepers and a group of young warriors trapped a morphological being known as Ivan Ooze in a hyperlock chamber. It seemed he had ruled the world and had constructed twin machines called the Etco-Morphaicons. Once Ivan had been defeated the hyperlock chamber had been buried deep underground. His machines had then also been buried in two different locations on our world.
"So that's what the Light Shard was trying to tell me." I said as I held it and saw that is was not only glowing but pulsing in my hand, but there was something else as well. For a moment I thought I felt a presence coming from within it. I had to push that aside for the moment as Alpha located where the Hyperlock chamber was located and surprise, surprise it was at a construction site in Angel Grove. We teleported to the site and discovered that the chamber was already open and Ivan was free.
"Hey!" A security guard snapped as he grabbed Tommy by the shoulder and making all of us jump in surprise. "What are you kids doing here?"
"Um- you haven't by chance seen a morpelogial being around, have you?" Kim asked him well I started to notice that the energy around the security guard was dark. It was almost like a cloak of it hung around him which made me frown as I wondered if the Heartless felt like this.
The security guard noticed my frown, well his eyes found the Light Shard and he glared at me as he asked. "Morphlogical being? What the heck is that? Wait a second did it look something like this?" The guard then shifted his form into what I could only guess was Ivan's true form. He was very purple and he made me think of Al Lewis who played the grandpa from the old Monster's tv show.
"Ewe, gross." Kim said in disguise as we all jumped back and took ready stances.
Ivan chuckled at our reactions. "To kind. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm the galactically fear, globally reviled, universally despised. They call me Ivan Ooze."
"Well pack your bags because we're sending you right back where you came from." Rocky said confidently well I rolled my eyes as he once again was getting a head of himself. At the same time underestimating how difficult the situation was most likely be.
"Gee, a teenager with a big mouth. Not much has changed in 6000 years." He said as he stepped closer to us but his focus seemed to be on me.
"You clearly don't know who you're dealing with, Mr. Raisin head." Kim said, her voice a bit shaky.
Ivan put his hands on his hips and gave her a look. "Really?"
"Yeah we're the Power Rangers." Tommy snapped at him
"Whoa! Where's my autograph book!" Ivan shouted with fake happiness that made my skin crawl as he then looked down on us. "Ha, Power Rangers huh? So Zordon still uses a bunch of kids to do his dirty work huh? Though I see one of you is an inexperienced Keeper of Light, so that's a bonus. Well meet my kids." He then laughed as lighting shot out of his hands and a dozen of creepy little copies of him appeared around him, making Kim say ew once again. "From this moment forth the world as you know it will cease to exist. Welcome to my nightmare!"
With that the fight began as we jumped down from the top of the stone where the hyperlock chamber had been, getting more room to fight. Ivan left for who knows where as we fought the purple mutant who proved a lot stronger then they looked as they pushed us around a bit. Once we morphed it was a bit more even a fight and we soon defeated them but then the worst happened for the others. We were just cleaning up the last of them when the others lost their morphing powers completely. "What's going on?" Kim asked as I powered down and shared a worry look with her.
"Alpha come in." Billy said as he tried his communicator, but received no response.
"Somethings wrong." Aisha said what we were all thinking and Tommy agreed as suggested we get back. I offered to teleport ahead of them as I still had my powers but they all shot that down as of course they didn't want me to get into any trouble without them there to back me up. So we headed to the command centre on foot as fast as we could and we could tell from the purple slim on main outside door that something was wrong. Forcing the doors open we saw that the command center was in ruins, Alpha was nowhere in sight and Zordon- his stasis tube was shattered and he was laying in its remains.
Fear filled me as we all ran over to him, me not hesitating to jump up and kneel at Zordon's side, calling on the Light Shard's healing energy. "What's happening to him?" Aisha asked me but it was Billy who answered.
"Outside of his time warp, he's dying, he needs power.Alex?" he asked me as he and the others saw what I was doing.
"Doing my best Billy but it's not good." I said as Zordon stirred and saw us.
"Rangers." He said weakly as he retched for my hand. "Thank goodness you are safe."
"Come on we got to get you back inside." Tommy said.
"I'm afraid that is impossible." Zordon said as he pulled my hands off of his chest causing me to lose focus and stop the flow of healing energy I was putting into him. "The power has been destroyed. It is gone, the zords, the weapons, all of it. And Alex does not have the knowledge to send me back with her own power. The power rangers are no more, Ivan Ooze has won."
"We're losing him."
"Zordon you can't leave us." Kim shouted. "Ever since you came into our lives you've been a father to us all."
Zordon struggled to breathe as he let my hand go and stared up at the celling. "You must be strong." With that he fell asleep and I started to push energy into him again. It was then Alpha showed up, sounding weak as well causing the others, save Kim, to run over to him. "Are you ok?" Tommy asked him.
"I'll be fine." Alpha assured us before he gave us some good news. "There may be a power that can save Zordon."
"What power?" Adam asked confused as they all exchanged confused looks well I frowned.
"It is on the distant plant of Phaedos." Alpha informed us. "It's very dangerous. All those you have tried for it have perished."
"We have to try Alpha." Rocky stated what we were all thinking.
"Zordon's life force will not last long. You won't have much time." Alpha informed us.
"He'll last longer if I stay here and keep pour energy into him." I said getting their attention.
"No Alex you have to go with them as you are their best chance to retrieve the power as your power coin is connected to this power. " Alpha said as he moved around the ruined power chamber seeming to look for something.
"Wait are you serious?" I asked him shocked, my concertation and the power slipping for a second before I fixed it. "If that's so then all the more reason I should stay here."
"Alex, you must understand that if they fail you are the only one who can bring them back home." Alpha explained as he found a small device, handing it to Billy. "If that is the case channel your teleport energy into this device and it will allow you to bring everyone home immediately." I looked at the others and seeing their worried faces I realised then that I was their insurance to get back. I sighed as I agreed and let Rocky help me down after I recalled the energy. Billy handed me the device as Alpha used what little energy was left to teleport us to Phaedos.
We soon arrived on the planet, in particular a rocky sea shore where the ocean waves sprayed us with freezing water. "My gosh look at this place." Kim said in awe as we all looked around, and I agreed with her that it was indeed breath taking. It was just too bad that Aisha found the corps of an unknown alien with a mouth full of sharp teeth and nasty looking horns on its head. "Well that's not encouraging now is it?" I muttered, causing the others to all look at me sourly. "Sorry."
"Come on guys we got a job to do." Tommy said and we picked a random direction to beginning to walk. As we did in I found my mind drifting to Riku, this unknown Shisui and Sora, hoping the search for the brunet's memories was going well. We walked for what felt like an hour without making much progress of going in land when a group of Tengu showed up and attacked us.
These weren't the same bird brains we were used to, for starters their armor was much more refined, they had helmets and they defiantly packed more of a punch. I quickly morphed and putting my twin swords and stared to counter act their attacks and back up the others as best as I could. "You know the funny thing about Morphin?" I heard Billy ask Rocky out of the blue as we fought.
"What that?" Rocky asked him despite fighting off a group of Tengus.
"You don't appreciate it till you can't do it anymore." Billy shouted before a tengu brailed into him. I roiled my eyes at him as we continued to fight, though I found that the bulk of them were focused on attacking me. Though that didn't stop me from see a tengu pick Kim up and it try to carry her off as she screamed. I heard Tommy shout to her and made to go save his girlfriend but tengus stopped him. So I putting my swords hilts together, I jumped high above the heads of the ones I was fighting and threw my weapon at the one carrying Kim. I was given enough time to see it hit its target, the Tengu carrying Kim and I saw her land on her feet before three of the flying bird brains grabbed me. I was on the bottom of the pile as we landed on the ground, the force of them falling on me, caused me to demorph. Without the protection if my morph and very outnumbered, I could only cover my head well the three started to inflict injures to me.
Suddenly a high pitched whistling filled the air, that hurt me ears but it seemed to drive the Tengus off of me. Adam was at my side a second later, carefully pulling my arms away from my face. "Alex, you alright? What hurts?" he asked as I let him pull me to my feet, our hands quickly covering our ears to protect them from the sound. It was then I saw a women with long curly brown hair, a green head band across her forehead. Her cloths conceited of a green bikini that looked to be made of vines, green boots and a lone cloth. She was the source of the sound as she twirled two parts of a staff, which was make the sound that was driving the tengus off.
Once they were pecks in the far off distance the women stopped the sound and put her staff together as we regrouped and approached her. "That was amazing, thanks." Rocky said as he tried to offer her his hand. The women swiftly turned knocking his hand away with her staff, shooting him an angry glare. "If you want to thank me, go back to where ever it is you from." She snapped.
"We can't go back." Aisha informed her.
"We were told there's a great power here." Billy said, worry written on his face as he pulled me close for some reason. "Is it true?"
"Yes. The ground is littered with the bones of those who have tried for it and failed." She said this time sounding a little less angry and more like an adult having to explain something to a group of children. She seemed to study us, most likely seeing how young we were and was trying to deter us so we would not be added to the body count.
"We're different, we won't fail." Tommy stated as he walked towards her, to suddenly sent flying onto his back, the women's staff pinned to his chest, keeping him in place. She glared down at him, disapproval in her eyes. "Leave Phaedos now before it's too late."
Not really if it would help or was the best idea I stepped forward. "Would you feel differently if I told you I am the Keeper of Light?" I asked her hopefully.
This clearly surprised the women as she looked at me over with wide eyes, soon seeing the Light Shard that lay at the base of my throat. I was not prepared for what came next as she asked in a dazed voice. "Alexandria, is that you?"
I repressed a shutters as I felt Billy pull me closer to his side again as everyone drew around me. "That is my full name. I prefer to be called Alex but how-"
She didn't let me finished as she once again started glaring at my fellow rangers and family. "Did they force you to bring them here?" she demanded as she pushed down on her staff, putting more pressure on Tommy's chest making him wince.
"No, of course not. We're her friends." Aisha told her before she put her arm around me and said. "Look we don't want any trouble. Our mentor Zordon got hurt-"
"Zordon?" the women asked cutting the yellow ranger off this time, surprised once again. "Did you say Zordon?"
"You know him? Who are you?" Kim asked the question we were all thinking.
The women studied us a moment before she finally let Tommy up. "I am Dulcea, master warrior of the planet Phaedos. What has happened to Zordon?" Dulcea asked us and we quickly informed her of the situation with Zordon and that Ivan Ooze being free. She was not happy to hear that last bit but with Zordon dying we fallowed her to some old temple ruins. Along the way is explained how she knew who I was, though she was saddened to hear that my mom had died. It seemed when I was young my mom had brought me to Phaedo but she wasn't surprised that I didn't remember. "You were after all a toddler when your mother brought you along when she came for training. Like George and every keeper before you, she came for training and to gain knowledge, all to be better at protecting the Light Shard. I did not think that it would be this soon for it to be your turn to come for the same training Alexandria. Though you do have a great advantage over your dear mother and your predecessors."
"I do?" I asked confused.
"You are a student of Zordon. You have connected to the Light Shard on a much greater level then pass keepers, your mother included. There is not much I can do to teach you that way but I do know what next step you must take well you are here." Her words confused me a bit but I pushed that aside as we reached the top of the ruins and she showed us the monolith that was just beyond the vast jungle. It was there that the source of the great power we were sent to get was kept safe by safe guards. According to Dulcea any who had tried to reach it before had failed, which I guess meant they were dead. So to protect us and help us she performed a ritual to call forth ninjetti animal spirits.
She had us stand before her in a row in front of the hug bon fire we had started when the sun went down. "Buried deep within us is an animal spirit, waiting to be realised. Close your eyes and look deep inside." She instructed us as she stood on the other side of the fire. We did as she said and though we didn't see what she did I could feel the power both in the air and inside of me. I felt a warmth beginning to spread from my power coin and Light Shard, before it spread through my entire body. As I felt the magic in the air settle on me a loud bird like stretched filled my ears, making my eyes pop open.
When I had felt the magic settle it seemed to have been that some robes had appeared on my body and those of my fellow rangers. Their robes were very similar to the ones they got when Ninjor had given them ninja powers, only these were much more ornate. I hadn't lost my powers that time either so I had stayed behind to deal with Lord Zedd and his minions, so I hadn't received any ninja robes that time. I could tell right away mine were very different from the others, as the sashes at their waists were all white, where mine was gold. Also my robes were two colors instead of one, the main being red like Rockey's well the second under laying being orange.
Dulcea walked to each of us, telling Aisha, Rocky, Billy and Kim about their spirit animals, the Bear, Ape, Wolf and Crain, before she made it to me. "Alexandria, you are the Phoenix, one of the 4 Guardians of the Ninjetti. A beacon of strength and hope, reborn from the ashes of the darkest despair." She told me with a smile but I could see the surprise in her eyes as I saw all of my fellow rangers smiling at me as she moved onto Adam. We could all see he was disappointed, which confused the ancient ninjetti warrior. "Adam… Adam what's wrong?"
"I'm still a frog." The black ranger said bitterly disappointed.
Dulcea gave a short laugh as she smiled at him before she said. "Yes a frog. Like the one you kiss-" She kissed his forehead. "to get a handsome prince." He smiled happily as he looked at us had me laughing and smiling as I playfully elbowed him in the side. Adam winced a little before he pushed me away but he was still smiling. After Dulcea had told Tommy about his Falcon she once again addressed us all.
"To be in harmony with the sacred animals is to have the force of the Ninjetti. To those who are Ninjetti, anything is possible. But I'm afraid you must do this on your own."
"You're not coming Dulcea?" Aisha asked her as she began to move away from us.
"If only I could. One step beyond this plateau and I would begin to age rapidly as Zordon is now. The strength is in side you, trust it. Your sacred animals will be your guides, as Alexandria stays behind to train." She in said, the last bit shocking all of us.
"Why dose Alex have to stay here? We can't leave her here alone." Kim said as she put an arm around me, now I was really starting to get annoyed.
"I'm afraid that the Light Shard must not approach the monolith as the dangers of the jungle would be drawn to it and her. Also there is much that she must learn, though I know I cannot teach her all as your time is short. But I will teach her what I can with the time available to us, in the morning. For now you all must rest before you begin, do not wonder from this place and you will be safe till morning. May your animal spirits watch over you." With this said Dulcea turned into a beautiful barn owl and flew away.
With there being no other choice or anything else to do we took off our new ninja robes, so we wouldn't dirty or wrinkle them in our sleep. Then the others all settled down on some soft grass and moss that was growing in a corner of the ruins. I didn't really feel tired so I stayed by the fire, hearing the others soft conversations as my mind wondered. I found myself thinking about Riku once again, wondering if Organization 13 was making things difficult for him. The other night he had told me about Sora's nobody Roxas and that he was gathering hearts for the group of nobodies that had taken him in. According to Diz, a bulk of Sora's memoires and a keyblade, was in his nobody, there was not telling how long it would take to get all of Goofball's memories back. I had been wishing more and more lately that I didn't have to stay, to go back to wondering. This time with Riku, to finally help him like a true friend should when they need it most.
"A penny for your thoughts?" I jumped a little as Rocky and Aisha joined me. I raised an eyebrow at him as this was out of character for him. "What? You looked like you something is on your mind so I thought I would see if you wanted to talk and get it off your chest."
"That's a nice thought but I'm alright." I said as I rubbed at my arm where a nasty scratch I got from one of the crystals from Zordon's broken chamber.
Aisha noticed that scratch in the low light of the fire, and when I told her where I got it from she frowned at me in disappointment. "Alex you shouldn't keep things like this from us. We should get the cleaned up before you heal it so it doesn't get infected."
"Its fine Aisha, it's just a scratch." I fought to keep my voice even and not snap at her as my temper began to rise. The over protectiveness of my fellow rangers as of late had started to become annoying to me. I made me wonder if they only saw me as the weak little girl that had needed their protection instead of a fellow ranger, capable of taking care of myself. When she and Rocky began to insist and she went grab my arm, I finally retched my limit. "Would you just back off?!"
I shot to my feet as I shouted this glaring down at the now startled yellow and red rangers, the silence around us deafening, as I realised the others had suddenly stopped talking. I then heard them approaching as Tommy asked. "What wrong Alex?"
"I am tired of you all being over protective of me." I snapped as I turned and glared at him and the others. "Ever since we got here you guys have been keeping me close, asking if I'm alright, pulling me to your sides. I am the Phoenix Ranger as well as the Keeper of Light. I am more than capable of looking after myself, because you guys have trained me yourselves."
I could see the surprise on everyone's faces but I could also see the guilt as well as Tommy looked away from me. "Alex, we know that but you're also the youngest and we can't all help but worry about you at times like this." Tommy explained, his words making the others nod.
"No, your all worried about Zordon, so am I but you don't see me shifting that worry on any of you do you?" Tommy opened his mouth to speak but I continued before he could. "No, because I know that despite being worried not only for Zordon but everyone we care about back in Angel Grove it accomplishes nothing. Now leave me alone!" with that I turned on my heel and stormed away from them.
I didn't know where I was going, though I was making sure to stay on the plateau as Dulcea had instructed. I soon found a path that seemed to go around the plateau so I decided to take it as I hoped to clear my mind. The two moons shined brightly from high above, easy lighting my way down the path, which suddenly came to an end at a cave entrance. I peered into the darkness of the cave, wondering how deep it went into the plateau. As I stood there for I don't know how long I heard a roar from deep inside but the phoenix inside of me stirred.
I jumped in surprise as a gold light came out of my chest and it took the form of a bird, its colors were gold and red with and orange tint in places. It was the size of a parrot, its tail feathers were long and similar to a peacock's tail feathers save there were only a few. Its head turned to me, its wings gently flapping and I knew it was my animal spirit, the phoenix. It squawked at me before it turned and flew in to the cave, its light bright enough to light the way. I frowned as I looked back up at the path, wondering if I should fallow my spirit animal as I suspect that one of my friends would eventually fallow me. My phoenix squawked again, causing me to jump and I looked at it again, seeing the unhappy look it was giving me. "Alright, I'm coming. Don't get your feathers in a bunch." I grumbled before I walked into the cave.
With the light from my phoenix spirit to light the way I wasn't bothered by the darkness around me as we headed downward. As I walked I started to notice carvings on the walls, they reminded me of ancient cave painting found on earth. These showed what I guess was events involving both Ninjettie and the great power they used. I wanted to stop and study these but the phoenix kept me moving forward until a light appeared up head. I soon entered a cavern that held ruins of their own, that were similar to the ones on top save the still intact pillars that went to the dome shaped ceiling. There were carvings of animals everywhere, and not all of them were ones I recognized. There of course were ones from earth both every day and the mythological but there were ones that I couldn't even describe they were just beyond me. The source of light looked to be giant glow warms that were crawling across the ceiling, eating was looked to be some type of moss.
At the center of the cavern was an alter, a pool of water in a hug basin resting in the floor behind it, which I of course would steer clear of. I slowly approached the alter, as that was where the phoenix was headed and saw that there was something on top but was covered in a thick layer of dust. Carefully I wiped the dust off and discovered what looked to be a crystal of some kind was inlayed in the surface. As I uncovered the crystal and the light from the glow worms hit it, the stone started to glow. The roar I heard from earlier came again, filling the entire chamber well the pool of water shifted. The phoenix chirped at me as it flew in tight circles over the pool. "Ok if you are my spirit animal then you should know that I am an Aquaphob, which means I fear large sources of water. Also I can't swim so there is no way you are getting me near-"
The roar from before cut me off, this time it was behind me, so I turned and screamed as a hug silver dragon with aquamarine eyes came flying at me. I backed away from it, lost my footing and soon fell backwards, right into the pool. Of course my first reaction was panic as I struggled to get back to the surface of the water or even near the stone edge if the basin so I could climb out. But then both the phoenix and the dragon appeared in the water and as they approached a peace filled me. They both circled me as two other spirit animals appeared, a tortoise and a bird that looked a bit like a hawk. These 4 spirits curled around me in the water as I hit the bottom of the basin, their energies mixing together and an image began to take shape in front of me.
At first I couldn't make anything out but then a familiar silver haired boy I knew well took shape as did the rest of the image. Riku looked to be fighting a group of Heartless alongside a figure in a black coat very much like his own. They were back to back as they defeated the last of the Heartless, and then they jumped away from each other. "Who are you?" the unknown figure demanded, his voice sounding young and male.
"What doesn't matter? I'm here for you." Riku told him.
"Why are you trying to stop me?" the boy demanded anger in his voice.
"Because I want back the rest of Sora's memories." Riku said as he gripped the keyblade in his hand as I put the pieces together. From what Riku had told me Sora's Nobody was with the Organization, so the boy must be him, but what had happened to the puppet Xion. Riku had told me that a man by the name of Vexen had created a fake body and as such it- no she had been soaking up Sora's memories from his Nobody. Something must have happened to her, the memories returned to Roxes and now Riku was fighting to get his best friend back.
I watched the two of them fight, as Riku refused to let Roxes go and try to destroy Kingdom Hearts as he knew it wouldn't bring Xion back. Riku was knocked down at one point but he got back up, knocking Roxes down, which allowed me to see the Nobody's face. He was indeed young, with spiky blond hair, and though his eyes were closed I figured he would have the same blue eyes that Riku told me Sora had. Roxes did recover, getting back to his feet, putting Riku on the defensive, jumping away, putting some distance between them.
"Why don't you quite?"
RIku didn't answer the question. Instead he taunted the blond as he would Sora and as such was not surprised when he got a Sora based answer. This confirmed our suspicions about him being Sora's Nobody but all this confirmation did was piss Roxes off more. He attacked Riku again, this time landing a hit on my friend. I wanted to cry out and stop this but I couldn't, though someone did. She begged Riku to stop Roxes and he did but it came with a price. I could only watch as my closet friend gave into his darkness, his form changing to look like Ansem and used that power to subdue Roxes.
Once it was done, a dark corridor opened and Riku quickly covered his now changed face as two figures walked out. One was a man dressed in a strange outfit, a red cap covered most of it though I could see a belt with three pouch's on it. His entire face was wrapped with red fabric and two belts were also tied to his head. Only his mouth and one yellow eye were left visible. The other was a young man who looked around Riku's age and was wearing the same black coat. His hood was down so I could see his face which I had to admit was rather hansom. He had short black hair that curled around his head in thick waves, well he kept his eyes closed. From what I understood was that he actually had no eyes and had been teaching Riku how to fight without the use of his eyes. I knew his name to be Shisui Uchiha and other then coming from a world where ninja existed I didn't really know anything about him.
"Diz… he could feel Sora." Riku told the man in red, his new deep voice sending unpleasant chills down my spine.
"Oh, he told you how he "felt" did he?" the now identified Diz asked as he looked down at Roxes. "Ridiculous. A Nobody can't feel anything."
"If he had meet Sora, things might have been different." Riku offered.
"There are always exceptions to the rules old man, don't forget that." Shisui offered, seeming at ease compared to the other two men. He earned a disapproving glare from Diz for that but the older man chose to not say anything further. It was well they made to leave through another Dark corridor, Shisui caring Roxes I was something interesting. The same silver dragon, unseen by the men was fallowing Riku, its energy apart of my friend, from deep with in him.
'That must mean that you're…' I didn't get to finish my thought as the image faded and I discovered that my lungs were screaming for air. Kicking off from the bottom I was able to make it back to the surface of the water, thankfully near the edge of the basin. I was able to grab on to the edge and pulled myself out of the water, coughing the entire time. I laid on my back, breathing heavily seeing the 4 animal spirit floating above me, the dragon and phoenix looking at me concerned. "Oh now your concerned? I told you I couldn't swim." I snapped at them as I glared.
I was still wet when I made it back to camp, everyone but Tommy was a sleep. "Alex you're… you're wet?" he asked in surprise as I walked passed.
"Don't ask." I told him, very much not in the mode to elaborate.