"Hey, Nick, come check out this CD. It 'bumps'," Madison called out to her coworker and now boyfriend, who had just walked into the record shop. Officially, they hadn't said that they were dating yet, but by the way they acted with each other, it was implied. It had taken the other three friends less than a minute to realize what had happened when the couple had rushed into battle together nearly a week ago, faces flushed despite the effortless journey between trees.
And then the battle with Clawbster and receiving their Titan forms, along with the Dragon Formation, had completely overshadowed anything about their relationship. It had just faded into the background, until Maddie had quietly walked into work the next day, hand in hand with Nick.
Since then, Vida had made a conscious effort to back off her usual overprotective sister routine. It didn't take a request from Maddie for her to do so, though, when she saw how great they were for each other. Not only was it bringing Nick closer to the group and helping the generally secretive guy open up, but it was giving Madison some much needed courage. No guy had ever treated her like Nick did, and it was doing wonders for her self-confidence.
Smiling when he heard Maddie's voice, Nick quickened his pace, not watching where he was walking. Before he knew it, he was laying on the floor opposite Xander, who himself was underneath a small box. Nick pushed himself up, grabbing the small envelope that had landed on his chest and helping Xander up with his other hand.
"Here, man," he said, handing his friend the envelope back while reading the writing on the outside. "A thousand dollars ... Sure could use that kind of cash." Xander smiled, picking up the box, and took the money from Nick.
"Who couldn't?" he asked jovially, throwing the money back into the box. "But I've got to put this in the bank for Toby. He's trusting me with the bank drop." Nick smiled quietly, knowing how much Xander reveled in that kind of trust, seeing as how it made him feel important.
The two parted, Nick once again ambling obligingly over to Vida's deejaying corner, where Maddie and her sister stood, smiling and bopping the heads to the beat in synch with each other. Maddie held a pair of headphones out to him, which he accepted, giving her a fleeting smile. He may not have been a morning person, but just seeing her this early made waking up at eight worth it.
The music blasted into his ears, a sort of jazz-hip-hop mix. He bounced his head to the beat, much like the Rocca twins.
"Ooh, I like it. The beat just -"
'They won't want you, Nick. Now when they find out,' growled a voice deep in his mind. Nick froze mid-sentence and looked around for the source of the voice. It had sounded like Koragg, but why would the Knight Wolf be here, in the Rock Porium of all places?
No, the words had come from inside his own head, but they weren't his. Maybe he had just imagined it, or maybe the sisters had heard it, too.
"Did you guys hear that?" he asked, taking off the headphones and setting them gently next to the turntables.
"Hear what?" Vida asked back with a raised eyebrow. Nick looked momentarily shaken, but quickly recovered and shook his head.
"Nothing," he said a bit too quickly. "Listen, I need to start unloading the van." He walked away without any further explanation, heading to the front where Toby had parked the van.
Maddie and Vida exchanged questioning looks for a second before the former ran out to the street. She found exactly whom she wanted to see unloading the van mindlessly.
"Hey, what was that?" she asked in a sharper tone than she'd intended. Nick slowed down a bit, but didn't meet her eyes.
"It was nothing," he replied quickly, not convincing the Blue Ranger at all.
"You know you can't lie to me," she said, taking a box out of his hands and setting it down behind her. "Just tell me. Whatever it is, you know I'll be okay with it." He inwardly sighed, knowing that she was telling the truth. Being entirely honest was something he was still trying to get used to, after years of bottling up his secrets and emotions so people wouldn't get hurt, but it was getting easier. The reluctance was still there, though.
"Please," she whispered, forcing him to look into her eyes. They were so soft, so pleading, he knew he couldn't lie, even if he'd wanted to.
"It was Koragg," he answered in a defeated tone. "I heard his voice in my head, but I'm not quite sure if I imagined it or not." Genuine concern shone on Madison's face.
"Knowing everything that he can do, I doubt you were imagining it," she said, trying to apply some reason to this situation. "What did he say?"
"He told me that you guys wouldn't want to know me, not with all my secrets." That was stretching the Knight Wolf's words a tad, but he couldn't outright tell her, not here in on the side of the road next to work, and he couldn't lie.
Madison arched her eyebrows in a questioning gesture. He saw this look and could tell that she knew he was lying, or at least stretching the truth.
"Look, okay ... It's a long story," he answered, desperately hoping she wouldn't pursue it here.
"I've got time." Not the answer he'd been looking for, but better than some of the alternatives he could think of. He glanced around and, sure that no non-Rangers were in earshot, said, "Fine. But not here, okay? Meet me in the glen after your shift." She nodded silently, confused by his reluctance but not wanting to voice it, and went back into the store.
He sighed as he watched her walk away, her brown hair swinging side to side so beautifully. Begrudgingly, he went back to loading and unloading things from the van.
"Hey, Nick," came an all-too-bubbly voice from behind him.
"Hi, Leelee," Nick responded, not even bothering to look back at her.
"Guess what?" she asked, not really a question. "I've got a new leather jacket. Check it out!" She twirled around, garnering a quick glance from the Red Ranger. "Do you like it?"
"It's nice," he replied absently, not really caring what she was talking about. He was more engrossed by the building pressure behind his own temples.
Leelee took a minute to pout at the lack of attention she was receiving, before smiling giddily again. "I know! I'll let you take me out on your bike so that you can show me off!" she said and then, pretending to catch her intentional mistake, added, "I mean, so I can show off my jacket."
"No can do," he breathed, heaving a particularly heavy box from the van to the sidewalk. "I've got work to do." Going back to work, he started ignoring her again, especially the huffy look she gave him. Eventually, she stormed off, muttering unheard words about if he didn't have a job. He continued working, trying to ignore the ever-growing pressure behind his temples. In a relieving moment, the pressure was gone, before the absence was replaced by the booming voice.
'The blue witch does not love you. She only wants to hurt you. Do not stay there. They do not want you.'
Nick ground his teeth and fought hard to force the echoes of Koragg away. Slowly, they disappeared, leaving only a strange emptiness in his head. It was soon replaced, though, by the headache trickling back in, not quite as severe as before. He rubbed his temples fruitlessly and sighed. It was going to be a long day.
Nick sat patiently on a rock, massaging his temples gingerly. Maddie's shift ended in ten minutes, so he wasn't too early. Still, the emptiness around him was eerie. He wished someone, anyone, would show up to end the silence.
His wish was unfortunately answered when he heard a familiar rough voice from behind him.
"This is my rock, ya know," it said, more pep than necessary in the voice. Nick felt a shirt brush up against him and was overwhelmed by a putrid stench. He let one eye drift open and was greeted by exactly whom he'd expected.
"Oh, it's you," he said wearily, not exactly in the mood to deal with Phineas' strangeness. He had enough in his life right now.
"'Oh, it's you'," the troblin mocked jovially. "Makes me feel almost wanted."
Nick sighed. As on edge as he was, he could at least try to be friendly to Phineas. After all, no one else in the forest seemed to acknowledge the guy's presence.
"Sorry," he replied tiredly. "I'm just having a bad day." The troblin smiled.
"Oh, good. Let's compare bad days." He seemed absolutely thrilled just to be talking to someone. "First, I got up and immediately got into a fight with a mouse. It won," he added, as if being beaten by a mouse was an everyday occurrence for him. As far as Nick knew, it probably was. He didn't catch much of the conversation after that, only fading back in when he heard the slightly disturbed troblin say merrily, "I got a crab in my pants." He pointed to his legs, indicating that there was something in them. If Nick hadn't been in so much pain from the killer headache, he would've found the not-so-innocuous words funny.
And then the pain was gone again, a passing reprieve from the headache before Koragg came again into his mind. He collapsed off the rock and onto his knees, clutching his head between his palms.
'Why should they trust you? You don't trust yourself. You don't even know where you're from.'
And again it was gone, leaving only the faint echoes of his words. Phineas stood next to him, hands up in defeat.
"Okay, you win," he said. Nick let one eye creep open as the pain came back slowly, less intense yet again, as if his mind was adjusting to the constant aural assaults. All he caught was a fleeting glimpse of Phineas disappearing into the woods and a flash of blue emerging from a tree. He let the other eye open slowly, filling his vision now with Maddie, who had just appeared. She caught sight of him and ran over, looking him up and down.
"Are you okay?" she asked fearfully. He ignored the pain returning to his head and nodded, standing himself up slowly. Even when she was afraid, she still looked so sweet in his eyes.
"Yeah, just another voice message from Koragg."
"Like earlier?"
"Yeah, just like earlier."
She looked worried. "How many times has this happened now?"
"This was the third time, and today is the first day."
"So what has he been saying to you, honestly?" she asked, adding the last word because she knew he hadn't been telling the whole truth earlier that day.
"Well, when I told you what he said the first time, I was stretching the truth a little bit." He paused, waiting for an angry response, but was met by arched eyebrows that only asked 'And ... ?'. "He actually said that you guys wouldn't accept me if you knew."
"Knew what?"
And here was the hard part. How did you tell your girlfriend that you were born evil?
"Please don't freak out, okay?" he said, looking at her solemnly. "I just found out a week ago. The day you were turned to stone, in fact." He took a deep breath and looked her straight in the eyes. "I'm adopted. I've pretty much always known, and it's not a big deal. But I'm not from around here."
Maddie gave him a confused look. "None of us are. We're all from Briarwood."
"No, it's not like that. I'm not from Briarwood, or California, or even that dimension. I guess I am from here," he added ruefully, pointing to the forest around him, "sort of. According to Udonna, I'm from this dimension, but not this kingdom. I was born in the Dark Lands, the same place Koragg and Necrolai were from before they were sealed in the Underworld."
Maddie, although inclined to believe him, was still hesitant. She felt like there were a few pieces missing in the puzzle that was Nick's past.
"No disrespect to Udonna or anything, but how would she even know this?"
"Because she's the one who took me from the darkness and put me with my parents."
"Any idea why, though? I'm sure she didn't just take random children."
"I'm not exactly sure. She did mention something about taking children to fulfill a prophecy. I just happened to be one of those lucky kids." Maddie nodded slowly, taking in everything slowly.
"Well, it does explain some stuff, like Koragg's interest in you," she said, meeting his eyes. "And your unconscious use of magic since you were young."
"But you guys have used magic since you were younger, too, and you're just normal surfacers. I think we were just destined to be witches and wizards." She nodded to him, acknowledging the truth in his words. In hindsight, she could see that all four of them had been using magic without realizing it for years. Even stories Xander told about his childhood in Australia contained what could be seen as bits of magic.
A silence settled between the two as they lost themselves in thought tangents, an air of relative peace hanging around them. Maddie, though, still felt as if there was something else.
"That's not all, right?" she asked hesitantly. "I mean, you did mention hearing Koragg three times, but you only told me about one."
He glanced away and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Actually, it was right after you went back into work earlier today. He told me that you guys were just out to hurt me." She gave him a funny look, wondering why the Knight Wolf would even think Nick would believe that. "Yeah, I know. Not exactly the smartest thing to tell me. He's obviously just messing with me. You guys are the closest friends I've had in ages." He stopped short, smile fading slightly. "And ... " His words trailed off, leaving the sentence open.
"And ... ?" she repeated, eyes questioning his own, which kept avoiding hers. He seemed more fidgety now, more uncomfortable, than he had been with the peaceful silence only a minute or two ago.
"And ... " he said slowly, taking a breath, "he said that you didn't love me, that it was all a game to hurt me."
"What?" she asked, more than a little appalled. "You didn't believe him, did you?" From the way he was acting, it almost seemed to her that he did.
"For a minute," he admitted, somewhat hurriedly. He felt that if he didn't explain quickly enough, she would storm off and leave him alone again. "But then I just thought about you, and I knew he was lying. I know you'd never, ever do that to someone." Both blushed slightly, Maddie leaning her head on Nick's shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her abdomen, looking down on her lovely face.
"So you're not freaked out?" he asked quietly, breaking the short silence. She shook her head as best she could with it on his shoulder.
"No. Why would I be? It doesn't change who you are now, so I don't see the big deal. It doesn't matter where you're from, only how you're raised." He smiled at her.
"When did you become so philosophical?"
"You haven't seen anything yet. How else could I be growing up with Vida and Chip? Someone had to pull those two back down to earth." She giggled, thinking about the craziness that was her childhood, then looked up at Nick as something occurred to her. "So I hear you used some crazy new spell to save me. Care to explain that?"
"It's nothing, really. Just another spell in a stream of random words that come around when I need them." Maddie looked confused. "I mean, sometimes spells just pop into my head when I need them. I'm not sure where they come from, but they've helped so far, so I'm getting used to it."
"Wait," Madison said, taking in what her boyfriend had just said. "You're telling me that whenever you need a spell, one just comes to you?"
"Something like that. I'm not sure if it'll work all the time, because whoever or wherever it's coming from can't know every spell that exists." She still seemed apprehensive. "You want a demonstration? Here." He held out his wand, closing his eyes for a moment. After only a moment's thought, he opened his eyes again and said, "Voco florum boqaius." A loose bundle of lilacs materialized on her lap, fully bloomed and smelling wonderful. She gave him a surprised smile and picked them up, inhaling the delicate scent.
"Told you," Nick said quietly, looking at her smile. "Lilacs are your favorite, right?"
She nodded. "How'd you know?"
"I didn't. The spell did. I told you, they just come to me, like that one just did." He paused, a contemplative look crossing his face. "Actually, that's kind how I found all this out. I found a book at Root Core on the three forms of magic -"
"Three?"
"Yeah, three," he repeated with a smile. "I'll get to that. Anyway, I found this book after a freaky run-in with the Hydras Worm and some random spell usage. It was all about the three different kinds of magic, light, dark and balanced. Udonna came in and found me reading it, and I had a few questions. It all happened pretty fast, but -" He put his palms to his temples, trying to relieve the sudden increase in pressure beneath them. Moaning, he barely noticed his muscles tensing up as a voice thundered in his mind.
'Do not trust her, son. Do not trust any of them. They do not trust you. Leave them and come to me. Only I can show you your true power.' And the pain vanished, replaced by a strange, ethereal feeling of lightness, like he weighed nothing at all.
When he opened his eyes, he couldn't see the glen at all. Instead, he could only see a small room in what appeared to be a cabin. A cradle stood in the corner, a small child cooing in it. Nick floated closer to the child, no control over his own movements, and saw that it was a baby boy. He had gentle green eyes and shock of dark hair matting his head. As his eyes took in the features of the child, they drifted to the blanket that wrapped tightly around the baby, and his stomach lurched. He knew who this child was.
Suddenly, his gaze shifted to the doorway, where a tall, tanned man stood peacefully against the doorframe, smiling down on the baby. His curly black hair brushed his shoulders lightly, hiding a muscular build.
"Hush, Nickolaus," he whispered in a vaguely familiar voice. "It's time to sleep now." He walked over to the crib and tucked in the child, covering the baby's exposed limbs with that blanket that Nick knew so well. He only carried it everywhere with him on his bike. A voice rang out from another room, sounding equally as familiar as the man's, drawing the older man away from the child.
And as quickly as it had come, the vision was gone, leaving a few black spots dancing on the edges of his sight. He found himself hanging limp in Maddie's arms, drenched in a cold sweat.
"Wh ... What happened?" he breathed, trying to prop himself up. Finding his arms akin to jell-O, he gave up and just held himself weakly in his girlfriend's arms.
"I'm not sure," Maddie replied, pulling him up gently into a sitting position. "I was hoping you could tell me. You just started moaning and then went limp, but I managed to catch you. You've been out for nearly five minutes. After the first couple of minutes, you opened your eyes and just stared into space."
Nick rubbed his temples vigorously, muscles finally responding to his commands, though still ungodly weak. Maddie just looked at him sympathetically.
"So what actually happened? Was it Koragg again?" she asked quietly. He nodded back slowly. The pain had come back again, less severe than before. In fact, the pain was lessening after every time it happened. That didn't mean that it still didn't hurt, though.
"It was him again," the Red Ranger said weakly. "He told me not to trust you guys because you don't trust me. He wanted me to join him so that he could show me my 'true power'."
"So do you think he knows that you're not from our world?"
"No question. The way he talks to me ... He has some weird interest in me, to say the least." He paused, contemplating his next words. "And then I had a vision."
Maddie arched her eyebrows, interest piqued. She knew he'd had visions once or twice before, but he'd never talked much about them.
"I saw a baby in a cradle in a small room inside of a cabin," he continued. "There was this guy there, looking at the baby, and he seemed really familiar. A woman called him away, but I got a good look at the baby."
"Did you recognize the baby, too?" Maddie asked, sensing that there was more to this. The Red Ranger looked away for a moment, formulating his thoughts, already overloaded and jumbled by the days' events.
"Yeah, I did," he eventually replied.
"And who was it?"
Instead of answering, Nick stood up, ignoring the head rush he received, and held out his hand to the sitting girl before him.
"I want to show you something first." Confused, but realizing that this could be important, Maddie took his hand and followed him through a tree, walking out next to his bike, and across from the Rock Porium. Nick hurriedly opened the pack resting on the back of the motorcycle, pulling out a worn-looking red blanket. Gingerly passing it to Maddie, he was silent for a minute as he let her look it over.
"What's this?" she asked, giving her boyfriend a confused glance.
"It's the same blanket I saw wrapped around the baby in my vision." Maddie looked up sharply, meeting Nick's steady gaze. Even with her mind firing at a million miles per hour, the dots wouldn't connect.
"How'd you get this?"
"My grandparents said my parents got it at the adoption agency. Somehow," he said, voice tainted by a slight anger, "I think they were lying to me. I'm sure that this is the same blanket as the one from my vision. Which means that -"
"You were the baby," Maddie cut in with a slight gasp. The dots had connected just seconds before she'd replied, and now everything seemed clear. Well, sort of. Nick's past was too complicated to understand that quickly, even to Nick himself. "So then the man you saw was your father?"
Nick nodded. "I think so. It explains why he seemed so familiar, and why he and I look so much alike. But I've got to make sure, so I'm going to go visit my grandparents. They should know something about this," he said, already folding the blanket carefully and placing it back in the pack, pulling on the leather jacket he'd taken from the other compartment.
"I'm not sure when I'll be back, so cover for me at work, okay?" he said, pulling on his helmet.
"No way," Maddie said, shaking her head fiercely. "I'm going with you."
"Why?" He wasn't quite sure where this was coming from, or if he even wanted her to come.
"I just want to be there with you, in case anything big happens. I want to be there by your side, so you know that I'm always going to be there. And besides," she appended with a mischievous grin, "I have to meet your family sometime." Nick smiled, shaking his head with a reserved acceptance of her actions.
"Fine," he said, handing her a helmet. "Do you have a leather jacket?"
"No, but V does, and she and I are about the same size," she replied. "We can drop by my house to get it."
"Great," he responded smoothly, throwing a leg over the bike. "Climb on." Maddie followed suit easily, no novice to riding a motorcycle. Her father used to ride an old Harley when he was bored, and he'd take his girls with him often. When his workload had tripled several years ago, he'd reluctantly sold the beautiful machine, giving up the freedom that came with it.
Maybe that was one of the many things about Nick that appealed to Maddie - the freedom he offered, with or without his bike. He was so fun, so unpredictable, so much unlike the regular Maddie. He brought out an unbridled sense of adventure in her, something she hadn't felt since elementary school, since before her father had sold the bike. She loved the wild side he presented to her almost as she loved him.
Lost in thoughts, she absently wrapped her arms around his waist. Knowing that she was secure, Nick revved the engine and floored it, speeding down the quiet street and out of Briarwood.
A/N - Okay, this chapter is cut a bit short from the original. Technically, this chap and the next were supposed to be one, but then I looked at the two together and realized that it'd be crazy long. Therefore, you get two short-ish chapters instead of one uber-long chapter.
Anyway, I like this chapter. The whole thing (meaning this one and the next) is my favorite one so far, even if my favorite part is in the next chap. I watched the episode again, and it inspired me to include a short part I'd nearly forgotten, even if my brother renamed the DVR file 'Porno'. Honestly. The kid is weird.
In the next part is going to introduce Nick's grandma Lydia, my first OC. I quite like her, actually. Maybe it's just because I created her, or because I can see her and her house in my mind really vividly.
And with summer break now begun, I'm hoping to get more writing in. I think I've got the final plot pinned down in my mind (finally), so that should help. Plus, the second part of The Gatekeeper is finally playing on Saturday (we don't have Toon Disney T-T ), and eps always inspire me. Bwahahaha ...
Okay, the few modifications took a while longer than I'd expected. Still, here's the new chapter. Please, leave reviews. Reviews are good. I mean, I'd be happy with only one, but the more, the better.