Kevin
"Goodnight Emily" we watch her walk into the girl's room and shake her head. Wonder why she did that. I turn and see Mia looking sad for Emily. Why are girls so weird?
Mike goes back to his video game and I notice Jayden is staring after Emily with strange look in his eyes, like he wants her to come back. Mia looks at Jayden and smiles like the cat that got the cream. Does she like Jayden? And if so, why am I getting mad about it?
~~~one month later~~~
We ran to a construction site and found moogers without a nighlok. That's unusual. They saw us morph and started to charge us. We all start running towards them and take on a bunch. Things were going well until the darkest voice started saying "red ranger, red ranger". Then the moogers pushed us away and started attacking Jayden. We looked at one another, shared a thought and raced to help him.
Damn these moogers are tough to be beat when they are this determined. I see Jayden take Emily's spin sword from her while a mooger turn to attack her. I turn to destroy the mooger before it hurt her.
"What does he think he's doing? Taking your sword? You're defenceless without it." I yell to Emily
"Guys duck!" Jayden yells, to answer my question he performs a move with both his and Emily's swords that destroys all the remaining moogers.
"Red ranger you are in danger." The creepy voice says and the gap glows closed. Jayden walks away from us deep in thought.
"Jayden? Who was that?" Mike asked
"I don't think I've ever heard anything so evil before." Mia told us
"Jayden what's going on?" I asked angrily since he answered any of us
"Jayden?" Emily's voice is so soft I'm not sure he heard her but he turns his head towards her slightly
"Not here, back at the house." He finally says. We nod and follow him.
"That voice you heard was Master Xandred. The reason he targeted Jayden is because he is the only one who can seal Master Xandred for good." Mentor Ji explained to us in the meeting room. Jayden hasn't said anything or looked at us since he defeated the moogers.
"Seal Master Xandred?" I questioned.
"Yes. Master Xandred has always been too powerful to destroy so the past red rangers created a sealing symbol to trap him in the netherworld forever. The last red ranger, Jayden's father, was not strong enough to make the seal permanent so the responsibility falls to Jayden to master the symbol and end this war for good." Ji answered and Jayden walked out of the room without a word.
The sealing power is the only way to defeat Master Xandred. We've decided that our duties as samurai now include protecting Jayden above all others, including ourselves. He wasn't happy when he overheard us discussing this.
Thankfully the gap sensor went off before we could get into an argument over it. We ran back to the construction site and see another nighlok waiting for us with more moogers.
Robotish, as he calls himself, is just another ugly nighlok. I wonder what his special trick is. "Moogers attack the rangers" we arm our spin swords and attack the moogers except for Jayden who attacks Robotish.
I've almost destroyed my share of moogers when I get a bad feeling. I look up and see Robotish about to release a massive attack on Jayden. My duty as a samurai ranger reminds me that I need to protect Jayden so I destroy my last mooger and run towards Jayden.
"Double Slash!" Robotish yells. I run faster towards Jayden and manage to step in front of him and take the attack. As I scream from the pain I realise that there is a second scream but I pass out before I can see who it is.
Mia
At the Shiba house it's quiet. Robotish's double slash greatly injured Kevin and Emily. The sight of my little sister and my crush falling to the ground in tremendous pain will haunt my dreams tonight.
Right now they are sleeping in the recovery room. They haven't woken up since the battle. Mentor says that their symbol power will speed up the healing process and they will be fully healed by lunch tomorrow. Mike and I are sitting at the ends of their beds watching them when Mentor comes in.
"Mike, Mia, have either of you seen Jayden?" He asks. Mike shakes his head.
"I haven't seen him since he went into his room when we got home." I answer as Mike shakes his head. I wanted to follow Jayden and make sure he was ok but Emily and Kevin needed me more. Mentor looks a bit stressed now. "Is something wrong?" I ask.
"Jayden isn't in his room. I can't find him anywhere. I'm worried he has run away." He confesses. I look out the window and sure enough the gate is open. "He just needs some time. He'll come back." I say to comfort Mike and Mentor, although to be honest I'm not sure he will.
I can probably relate to what he's feeling to some degree. I know Jayden likes Emily and is very close to Kevin so the sight of them falling is probably haunting him too. But they didn't do that to protect me. They did it to protect him. I can't imagine the guilt he must be feeling.
Soon Emily and Kevin start waking up. Mike jumps to Emily's side as I move to Kevin's side. I gently stroke his face with a damp cloth as his eyes open. "Hey" I whisper, full of relief. He smiles and I have to stop myself from throwing my arms around him.
"Mike where's Jayden?" I hear Emily ask. He looks at me and I look back at him. We all know that Emily and Jayden like each other so how do you tell her that he left? She starts looking like she's about to have a panic attack so Mike puts his hand on her shoulder and gently says "He needs some time Em." She looks heartbroken but she understands so she nods.
After an hour of talking and caring for them, we all start feeling tired. Once Em and Kev are comfortable Mike and I go off to our rooms to sleep and hope that Jayden comes home soon.
Jayden
This is how life should be. I'm sitting on a bench at the park watching the kids play. I start seeing similarities between some of the kids and my team, uh, I mean the others. They're not my team any more. The moment of Kevin and Emily lying on the ground, looking lifeless has been taunting me all day and night, reminding me on how much of a failure I am. I promised myself to protect them and I broke that promise, especially to Emily
I shake my head, trying to get rid of the image when I hear a little boy crying against the tree next to me. I look around the park for his parents but no one seems to be paying attention to him.
"Hey what's wrong? Are you hurt?" I ask him and sit next him. He shakes his head and tells me that his dad has gone away for work and he misses him. That gets me thinking about the last time I saw my dad.
12 years ago when Xandred last tried to take over the world, my dad was the red ranger of his team. His team members were Kevin's and Mike's fathers and Emily and Mia's mothers. I was 5 years old and living at the Shiba house with them and Ji, my mother had passed from cancer the year before.
On the night of the final battle my father gave me Lion Zord and told me "One day you will lead your own team of samurai. Be a good leader and work together to defeat Master Xandred." That was the last time I saw him. He used the last of his energy to create the sealing symbol.
The little boy's soft cry brings me back to reality then I get an idea. I quickly get out my samuraser and draw a symbol. A piece of red paper appears as the boys looks shocked. I smile and fold it into a paper aeroplane. Soon he's running around chasing it and I'm creating more planes for the other kids.
Suddenly I hear the running footsteps of moogers. I turn around and see them chasing the kids so I start attacking them with my hands and feet. From the corner of my eyes I see the kids and parents are hidden behind a few trees.
"Go get out of here!" I yell at them. Once they're gone I get out my spin sword and take the moogers down.
This is most moogers I've ever taken on by myself. Eventually I notice that some of the moogers have stopped fighting me and moved onto other targets. Looking up I see Kevin, Mia, Mike and Emily armed with their spin swords, fighting moogers. I'm thankful to see Emily and Kevin are at full health.
During the battle they all remind me of the importance and value of teamwork. We defeat Robotish together and I remember something Mentor Ji told me a few years ago "A samurai is strong but a team of samurai is unbeatable."
Its late afternoon when we get back to the Shiba house. Everyone has forgiven me for leaving, Ji has welcomed me back and everything is back to normal. Well almost everything.
Emily hasn't said anything since we got back; actually I haven't seen her since they forgave me. I want to apologise to her again, we've gotten really close over the last month and the thought of her hating me for deserting her breaks my heart.
I'll wait a few minutes then look for her. After I put all my stuff back in my room I start looking for her. I know if something is bothering her, she'll go outside and play her flute but when I look outside she's not there. She's not training, cooking or anywhere in the house. I'm pretty sure she's in her room but when I knocked she didn't open the door or acknowledge me in any way. I walked away disappointed, hopefully she'll be able to forgive me soon.
Kevin and I have been discussing more possible zord combinations for a while when Mentor calls us in for dinner. I take my usual seat next to Emily's seat and hold my breath, waiting to see her.
But she doesn't come. After I finish eating Mentor asks "Jayden can you take this tray of food to Emily please?" I look at the others confused, why is Emily still in her room? But they just look sad. I clear my dishes, take the tray from Mentor and walk down the hall to the girl's room. Outside her door I can hear her crying and talking to herself. My stomach feels like it weighs a ton, I caused her to feel like this.
