Chapter 14

"Sorry," Maddie said. "It's okay, let's just focus on trying to get down from here," he said. She looked down and realized she had dropped her morpher on the ground. "Great, I dropped my morpher. Do you have yours?" she asked him, her face one inch away from his. "Yeah, but I can't move my hand down to get it. It's in my back pocket," he said. There was a pause.

"Um, let me, then," she said and hesitantly wrapped her arms around him, making their faces come really close to each others, that their lips almost touched. She grabbed his morpher and pulled it out of his pocket. "Thanks," he said. She smiled weakly. "Okay, now give me the morpher," he said. "What for?" she asked. "That way I can shoot that rope over there," he said beckoning to a rope that was holding the net up in the air.

"Oh," she said excitedly, and put her hand through one of the holes in the net and prepared to shoot the rope that was holding them up in the air. "Hey!" protested Nick, trying to get his morpher back from her, but she didn't give it back to him.

She aimed at the rope and shot at it, but missed. "Darn it!" she spat with irritation. "Okay, now let me do it," said Nick. "Why, you going to waste more power?" she asked teasingly, giving it back to him. "Don't worry, well have a lot more power to kill each other with later," he said to her jokingly. She rolled her eyes with amusement. He aimed and shot. This time it made and the net came tumbling down from the air.

Maddie came crashing down on top of Nick. He looked at her and she looked at him. They both started laughing. "Nice shot," she said. She got off of him and they both stood up. She brushed off the dirt and leaves from her clothes and so did Nick. "Well, that was fun," he said jokingly. Maddie smiled at him, her big brown eyes gleaming with amusement and… contentment. Nick found himself just looking at her. She looked down at her feet and thought about the kiss. "Um, we should keep going," she said, walking past him and taking the lead. "Where did Udonna say Clare was?" she asked him. "She didn't say… all she said was that Clare needed help," he told her. She nodded. "How did she know?" she asked. "She said that someone from the forest told her that Clare needed help with something," he said. "Why?" he asked. Maddie shook her head. "Nothing… it's just that… well, maybe Clare is in danger somewhere," she suggested.

Nick looked at her. "Why would you suspect that?" he questioned. "I just have this feeling," she said. She was about to explain more about it, but she saw Nick giving her a look that told her he didn't really believe her or understand her. "Never mind, you wouldn't understand," she sighed. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, his voice becoming a bit challenging. "It doesn't mean anything," she said simply. He grabbed her hand. She froze and turned to him. He blushed and quickly let go of her hand. "Look, I just have a bad feeling about this, okay?" she said, and turned around to walk onward. "Maddie, wait," he said, catching up to her and standing in front her. He faced her and then said, "Maddie I'm sorry. I didn't mean…" he trailed off, not knowing what to say. "I guess what I'm saying is that I'm sorry for whenever I've hurt you or did anything mean to you. I mean I try to understand and stuff, but sometimes I don't know… I guess sometimes... I just-" he managed to say before she cut in off. "No Nick I'm sorry. I'm the one who's always so stubborn and always hiding behind my camera," she told him with soft eyes and a sweet smile. He looked down at her and he smiled. "I guess we've both learned a lot of lessons from being enemies," he said with a small laugh. "I guess we have, but… I don't want to go back to being enemies," she said truthfully. "I want to be… friends… with you," she stammered. He liked the way that she sometimes stammered when she was nervous. She always seemed so closed when it came to guys she hadn't know for ever like she knew Chip and Xander.

He hoped that he could become a friend that would be close to her like Xander or Chip. She was about to say more, but then she didn't know what to say so she turned back around and started walking again, but this time, her steps matched Nick's. "Help!" someone said. Maddie and Nick recognized Clare's voice. "Clare!" yelled Nick. "Clare, where are you?" shouted Maddie. They heard Clare scream and Maddie gasped. They both ran towards her scream and they found one of the monsters pinning Clare down. "Hey, get away from her!" shouted Maddie angrily. They both powered up and fought the monster. Maddie felt something sharp pierce her side. She screamed and the monster threw her and she hit a tree. She quickly regained her balance and helped Nick fight the monster. The monster threw Maddie again, but this time, he motioned for Nick to come forward and fight him one on one.

"Nick, no!" she yelled. But Nick had already accepted. Suddenly, Nick said some magic words and he sent the monster flying. "It can't be, no one can defeat me!" yowled the monster with rage. The monster vanished and Nick ran back to Maddie and Clare. "Clare, are you okay?" he asked her. Maddie was holding Clare close to her. Blood oozed from gashes everywhere on her body. Clare suddenly began closing her eyes, and her breathing became shallow. "Clare, please…. Stay with us now," encouraged Maddie. She and Nick powered down and Nick noticed tears filling up in Maddie's eyes. "We need to save her," she said to Nick. He nodded and picked up Clare and took her to a cave. "You think she'll make it back to Rootcore?" he asked Madison. She shook her head. "She can't be moved that much, or else she'll lose a lot of blood," she explained. There was a flat table looking stone in the cave and he set her down on it. He remembered the first day they became power rangers and Maddie had passed out in his arms and he had set her down on the table in Rootcore. He looked at her and she looked so scared and helpless like she had back then, but he also saw furiosity and courage in her eyes.

She took her morpher out of her pocket and pointed it at Clare. The wounds stopped bleeding, but since they were really serious wounds, they would still need to be tended to every now and then. Maddie remembered she had her bag with her and she pulled out her jacket and gave it to Nick. "Go soak it in the river and bring it back here," she told him. Nick took her jacket and ran down to the river. Maddie looked down at Clare and stroked her friends blond hair. "We'll save you, Clare. I promise," she vowed

Nick came back from the river and saw Madison with Clare. Maddie looked so gentle and sweet. She was so patient and she knew exactly what to do. He admired her for that. He just realized then how pretty she really looked, but he convinced himself that she was pretty to him as a friend. The memory of her standing there watching him kiss Kuinn shot back into his mind. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He still felt guilty about that… and yet he was starting to become great friends with a girl he thought would be his enemy forever. He slowly walked into the cave and handed Madison the jacket. She smiled to him thankfully and began to clean the cuts on Clare's face. He waited outside the cave until Maddie came out. "What now?" he asked. "Now we wait," she said, sitting down by a fire that Nick had made.

Night fell upon the sky quickly. The two just sat there, thinking and wondering about many things. Maddie looked at Nick out from the corner of her eye and then looked away. The only sound they could hear was a cricket whistling in the night. Maddie bit her lip. "Nick, I'm sorry I kissed you," she said. He looked at her. She was looking away. There was a long pause. "I'm not," he finally said. She looked at him. They both leaned in to kiss, but then stopped when they heard something in the bushes… Maddie and Nick both stood and waited for whatever it was out there to reveal itself. Then it sprung out from the bushes. It was Vida…