A/N: Questions:
Phantom Rogue: I have absolutely no idea. Actually, research... lots of it. I get confused with the rangers half the time...
I think a part of me did intend it to be somewhat funny, but I'm not a funny person in real life, so I didn't expect there to be much humor in my stories; I'm usually really bad at any humor. But I like that this one is going pretty well. :)
Whoa, that was almost exactly what I thought when I came up with the title!
For everyone else: just wait a little more longer; it's getting there. I know, I'm evil. But I think you guys will really, really, really like this chapter.
Oh, and if any of you are interested, I posted my very first PR music video on YouTube; it's about Ashley and Andros. I actually redid it and have the improved one on my computer but I don't know when I'll post it... But people seem to like the one I just finished. The work is mediocre if you ask me, but if you want to see it, just send me an email or something and I'll give you the link.
Chapter 6:
The fight continued between the Charmed Ones and the demon henchmen, an audience full of mystified companions watching from behind an invisible wall which, despite Kimberly's warning and Jason and Billy crashing into it, others collided with when they tried to walk forward to get into the fight themselves. When the rest of the Power Rangers finally understood that there was no way to get through the unseen shield, after the Mystic Force Rangers couldn't find a way to break it down with any spell, they gathered as close as they could to see what was happening at the forefront. The girls were doing what they did before: blowing demons up, throwing others around using telekinesis and electrocuting or burning them up. It just confounded the rangers how the girls were able to do so.
After fifteen minutes of fighting, and barely any demons vanquished without them duplicating two for every one destroyed, the three young women were becoming exhausted. They were used to fighting for a long time but not against something of this range. In fact, the group of demons practically quadrupled since they had begun fighting. It would have been easier for them just to fall and give up right then and there but they knew that it was never going to happen; they weren't quitters of any kind. The fight continued far longer than they expected; the sisters became frustrated, so much that it was inevitable one's aggravation would cause her to do something, anything, that was over the edge. Yet none of them were willing to do so without a surefire way to destroy these fiends once and for all.
Yelling out an expletive in exasperation, Kimberly tried to take a quick moment to calm down while still fighting off a demon's energy ball. Finally, she decided just to do as her instinct told her and voiced whatever spell her mind tried to come up with.
Demons brought forth to hold us back,
through doubles and extras made more and more-
She was stuck at that point and tried to finish the impromptu spell, no words coming to her mind that would work. She could feel panic spreading inside her at not being able to finish a spell that could potentially finish off these minions when she heard Ashley continue the extemporized enchantment.
Undo their damage and their copies-
Both girls looked to Taylor, knowing she would be able to finish off the spell and remembering that all three of them needed to recite a part in the incantation in order for it work completely.
By sending and locking them behind hell's doors.
Sooner than they thought, and more effectively than they assumed, the henchmen that were duplications were the first to evaporate, leaving faint flames behind them. Once those were gone, the rest burst into flames, screaming in agony at the heat and pain of inevitable defeat coming. Quickly after their shouts, they suddenly erupted leaving nothing but fiery particles that subsequently dissolved and small patches of burnt grass from where they all stood.
Each girl switched glances with each other, checking that each was all right and that each was calmed down from the adrenaline that usually came along with fighting demons. Grateful smiles passed over their faces, glad their spell had worked. Obviously, their spells had worked in the past but those were ones they found in the Book of Shadows that were created centuries and generations before by the Halliwell family. Rarely did situations require the girls to formulate incantations on their own, let alone have them succeed. And this one was so short, so simple, so… random. Thankfully, this time worked out just fine. Yet there was one little pest hiding behind any relief at the moment…
Ashley saw the thankful smiles fall from her sisters' faces and remembered everyone they were fighting for standing behind them beyond the forcefield Kimberly conjured during their fight. Gripping herself involuntarily for whatever she would see, Ashley turned around to look at the crowd, being the only one who couldn't see any of them from where she was standing. The breadth of faces she met ran from slightly apprehensive to diffident to unbelieving and even to curiosity. Still, they all shared one common expression: pure bewilderment. Just as she, Taylor and Kimberly had expected… almost unfortunately. Ashley took in a breath before saying anything, not actually knowing what to say to them. How could she explain something like this, especially now?
But it was because of everything that just happened, at this point in time in this place, because of her and her sisters putting it off while always promising to 'explain everything later', that she had to do it now. Besides, they didn't exactly have the permission, or the standing with the Elders, to use memory dust for a group this size.
"So…" Ashley began, forgetting practically every other word she used in the past to fill up empty conversations and awkward silences.
"Well…" Taylor continued nodding her head ever so slowly, dragging out whatever was going to be said eventually.
"Here we are…" Kimberly said, leaving the rest in the air, having nothing else in mind to say. This was a most uncomfortable circumstance.
For what felt comparable to the longest time in waiting, each girl would look side to side with mere glances, sometimes at each other, sometimes at the other rangers before averting their gazes again to avoid the questions on their faces. As for everyone else, they knew not what to think of all that had just taken place. Time was inching past, the silence growing ever more discomfiting. As Ashley and Taylor had guessed, Kimberly felt obligated to go first, probably because she was gone and missing from everyone's lives the longest. And so she did. Or at least she tried.
There was no actual warning any of the girls could see before several of the crowd behind the forcefield took on masks of alarm and yelled for them to watch out, causing the trio to turn around immediately. The first thing any of them saw besides five more obvious demons dressed in signature shade of obsidian were three abrupt fireballs flying their way. Kimberly and Taylor jumped and dodged the fiery orbs in time but Ashley caught on a second to late and for that her left arm was more than what one would call grazed by the flying blazes and fell straight on her bottom.
However, she refused help from either sister, telling them both to go and fight the demons while she tried to get up and recover from the fireball. One thing she and her sisters knew was that the action would bring out several worried outbursts from some of the other rangers. The one voice that asked if she was all right which caught her attention before anyone else's was Andros's. She caught his concerned gaze with her eyes, trying to see what was behind their shield that he was keeping from her. She could not discern his thoughts like she used to but she saw one thing that pushed her even more to get up and help vanquish whatever demons these were: he still cared for her. That was the all the impetus she needed.
Taylor wasted no time before returning to her attack mode and casting out all the energy and fireballs she was capable of. She could soon see, from observing their defense tactics, that something all three of the demons knew well was how to defend themselves from easy fireballs and throwing some in return, but nothing more. More lower-level demons, she asked silently, almost scornfully with her justification residing in the back of her mind. The other two, though, were merely standing there, as if they didn't have much of a duty in this fight and they knew it. Taylor couldn't even figure out who they were exactly, not that she had much time to afford the ability of attempting to do so.
As usual, the battle went on like every other: one side would attack, the other would defend and perhaps retaliate, and the pattern continued. Until Taylor got tired of standing there with no evident ending coming soon and decided to ask Kimberly to try a power combination they only tried once but worked out quite well. It really was not necessary; in fact, the combo wasn't anything they gave great thought to, but when either got rather impatient, it would be a great aid to speed things up.
Mind if we try a little experiment? Taylor asked Kimberly in her mind, knowing the older girl would hear it.
The one we tried two weeks ago? Kimberly queried in return, orbing her way from a fireball.
An amused smirk appeared on Taylor's face as her latest energy ball barely grazed one of the weak underlings and caused the demon to start jumping for a quick while out of panic of getting hit. It was too obvious now that he was a beginner in the 'trade'. Too simple, she thought. But she still wanted to give another try at the power blend due to lack of amusement. What else would I be asking for, Taylor returned lightheartedly to Kimberly.
"Okay, then," Kimberly said aloud in her direction.
Letting no more time pass by, Kimberly paused for a quick second while Taylor threw out two full-blown energy balls toward her direction. She put all her focus in her common ability of thermodynamic generation on those two single entities. Using as much force as her mind would allow, she applied surging heat to the electric spheres until they expanded to more than triple their size, an extent that would evidently be damaging to the other side. Seeing her part of the work nearly finished, Kimberly threw the energy balls with her psychokinesis toward one demon and the other toward one of two motionless dark-clad demons who had been standing for the past ten minutes merely watching the others clash. Unluckily, only one of the energy balls hit its target, which happened to be the novice.
What a waste, both Kimberly and Taylor agreed silently. Hardly instantly after, they both returned to their former fighting styles accommodated to their abilities.
The fighting had barely grown tedious when it became obvious that both sides were getting tired of the 'same old, same old'. Keeping in the back of their minds that their friends were basically behind them, still thrown off over all of this, the girls wished something, anything, would happen to change up the battle for either sides. Apparently, their older powers were getting them nowhere and they were unsure about using their recently gained abilities. The whole wait made it more startling when the two static unknown demons suddenly summoned a heavy crossbow for each, arrows ready in their places, and aimed at Ashley and Kimberly. It seemed quite a compromising position, at least for both the targeted girls and their sister. Immediately, they recognized just what demons the two were: darklighters.
Kimberly, Ashley and Taylor visibly widened their eyes at the realization of the demons. They already had one bad incident almost a year ago with another and they did not want the episode to repeat, especially here. Thinking quickly of any possible solutions for this, Kimberly decided to return to a tried and true way, so far, of stopping any progress of any demon. She whipped her head toward her sisters' direction and told them to return to the manor quickly for something they already knew to go after. In two seconds all three of them were gone, Kimberly dissolved in soft blue sparks, Ashley zooming off at a speed practically faster than lightning, and Taylor drifting away quickly in disappearing streaks. Everyone wondered where they had gone, all except the demons wondering over the peculiar methods of their departure.
Almost as quickly as they left, the girls returned but didn't stand in their spots long enough before all five demons began either throwing a fireball or shooting an arrow at them, causing them to panic, and made Ashley even yelp in surprise, and the three disappeared again. They returned sooner than last time though in different locations within the large clearing. Their earlier positions were already vastly detached from each other, surrounding all five demons in a large nonexistent triangle. Now they were even farther apart and with no forms of communication besides Kimberly's ability to sense and read part of their thoughts and yelling. They were basically on their own in this fight.
The scuffle continued with constant sparks of all sorts of energy flying from everyone in their own way, some getting hit here and there. Taylor shimmered once more when the two lower-level foot soldiers she had apparently been randomly assigned to fight decided to continue with arm-to-arm battling, seeing as how their demonic powers were getting them nowhere with their goal of damaging her somehow. She returned longer than it took her the last time but she was ready with a huge fireball when she did, letting something of substantial weight drop from her, consciously and physically. Her arrival brought her return to the fight beside her sisters, despite the distance among the three of them. Something was bound to happen sometime soon; they were all merely waiting for whatever it was eagerly.
Taylor's emotions were going off the charts in her head. Anger, tension, adrenaline, recollection, anxiety, pressure, resentment, everything on her 'unwanted', though rather frequent, list of sentiments. Even worse were the reasons for those emotions: her friends and Eric watching, all rangers of the past watching, her and her sisters still not yet explaining their other 'identities', and the great possibility that at any moment now she or her sisters would be hit with a poisoned arrow from a crossbow. At the moment, the last one was what worried her most.
She just let free another energy ball that missed its target when she felt a sudden force push her toward her right and straight into the ground on her side. Ignoring any pain the impact may have caused her body, Taylor turned her head toward what or whoever pushed her, vowing a small revenge for the action. All thoughts of such dissipate when she saw Kimberly right beside her, the acknowledgment telling Taylor it was Kimberly who pushed her out of the way, and almost immediately after, she saw why. Kimberly's lower left side was punctured by something that only made everything worse: a darklighter's arrow.
Nothing was worse than the horrid pain coursing through Kimberly's body; the poison was spreading fast and for the umpteenth time since she began her journey to basically save the world nearly two decades ago she didn't know what to do. She had no room in her mind to try and try to think of any possible actions since the agony in her side was blocking anything else from her mind. Her attention turned elsewhere when she heard both Taylor and Ashley shout out an infuriated "NO" in unison followed by Taylor launching another fireball and energy ball at the darklighter whose arrow accomplished its aim in perforating Kimberly's left side. The demon was distracted before with his attention on aiming and shooting his arrow at Kimberly to escape the two spheres which destroyed him immediately but slowly enough to cause him to scream in anguish.
Instantly, Taylor rushed to Kimberly's side, charging her with questions of worry and concern. Out of her rage, Taylor side-kicked the minion hurtling toward them to attack, just about slamming him into the ground and unable to recover for an unpredicted time length. Even though Kimberly felt like her head was beginning to spin from the poison, she could hear Ashley and Taylor verbally wrangling over what to do. Taylor wanted to stay and help Ashley fight while, on the other hand, Ashley told Taylor to shimmer Kimberly anywhere else, preferably behind the forcefield where the demons had a smaller chance of getting to her, and calling for Wyatt or Chris to help as Ashley fought off the rest of the demons. With vehemence, Taylor insisted that she would stay and fight which prolonged the argument that would not pacify due to Kimberly's lack of sisterly input due to her hazy conscious. There was still an amount of clarity in her eyes when Kimberly heard Ashley yelling with finality for Taylor to shimmer her and Kimberly to the other side of the forcefield.
"Taylor, I'm telling you," Ashley yelled while demolishing fireballs thrown at her, "you have to get Kimberly out of here! I'm pulling rank on you, do it now!"
Knowing Taylor would rarely ever disobey any order when 'rank' was concerned, Kimberly waited to see what would occur now. She and Ashley almost never used their rank as earlier Power Rangers preceding Taylor as a method to get her to do as they wished, even when they discovered it was something she would almost never contravene. The scarcity of the concept made it evident to Taylor that things were urgent and she needed to do as asked when either sister called out rank. Kimberly could sense Taylor and her shimmering from her current spot on the grass in the clearing soon after.
Taylor eased Kimberly onto one of the wooden benches around them and edging her back toward the tree right next to the bench as dorsal support. Taylor knelt down quickly beside the bench. "Kim, are you sure you're okay? I mean, a freaking darklighter's arrow hit you."
"I'm-" Kimberly halted her voice as she found that the effort caused more hurt in her midsection and her throat to strangle with the words. When she attained breath again she finisher her two-word sentence. "Fine."
The signature expression of incredulity crossed Taylor's face. "Really," she asked dubiously. "I think you've forgotten that I was the first one of us to get hit with a darklighter's arrow in the first place. I know how much it hurts."
At hearing that, Kimberly turned her head to face Taylor. She knew her younger sister was right. "Okay, so it hurts like hell," she admitted. "It's not like I have a choice." She made an attempt to change positions when she felt some soreness on one side of her body but the poison hit her right after she tried and she emitted a small yelp at the throbbing.
"Careful," Taylor urged immediately, pushing Kimberly lightly in her shoulder to lean back onto the tree. "Bad idea. Don't worry, just don't move."
Without regarding whoever was around them, Taylor called out for their brother mentors who were seemingly taking their time orbing to the park. Taking only about four seconds to wait for the two guys and seeing that they weren't there, she turned back to Kimberly to give a momentary check. She was hit with the guise of concern and revelation on her sister's face and instigated Taylor to turn her head the crowd she now recalled was standing behind them and with no invisible wall standing between the two groups.
The first sentiment that came to Taylor was vigilance to safeguard her injured sister. Promptly, Taylor jumped up from her kneeling position and faced all the questioning faces thrown their way. The look in her eyes changed from apprehension to misgiving. Invoking probably the thirtieth-something fireball that day, she decided to grant a warning to everyone coming their way.
"All of you better stay the hell back if you know what's good for you," Taylor advised slightly more heatedly than she thought she would come off. The battle was still raging in her mind and she still kept in thought that Ashley was still fighting the demons.
Aisha was the first to step up and speak. "But Taylor, Kim needs help. Look at her."
"And she's going to get it," Taylor assured. "Just not the way you guys think she'll get it. This isn't your typical puncture wound."
"But maybe we could help," Katherine added.
There was a waning but still existent suspicion at Katherine's offer to help Kimberly, though it was too little to be a priority of the moment. Besides, there was no way Taylor would let any of them try to wrench a darklighter's arrow from Kimberly in attempts to help just because they thought they could.
"Trust me, it's a hell of a lot harder than any of you could comprehend. Besides, I'm not so sure I could even trust you guys with Kimberly." Just as a few of the former rangers started moving forward toward the two, Taylor released her hold on her fireball and let it loose. It hit the trunk of a thick oak and eventually burned out, leaving a roughly round scorch mark on the wood. However, the blazing orb did do its job of warding off any rangers who walked forward to try and help Kimberly. Yet it also showed that Taylor might still have a small anger management difficulty, especially in sensitive cases such as this one.
"Like I said," Taylor began, "it's best if you guys just stay away at the moment. You'd probably just make the situation worse." She felt a tug on her pants and looked back down to see Kimberly slightly tugging on it to grab her attention.
Kimberly silently pleaded for Taylor to look her straight in the eyes before she spoke. "Listen, I'll be all right," she assured. "You need to go help Ashley."
"But you need-"
"To make sure you two demolish those demons on the other side of this forcefield before I can even think of taking this arrow out of my side." Kimberly finished Taylor's sentence to her liking, hoping it would urge Taylor to leave and help their other sister. "Don't worry, Wyatt or Chris will come soon. Right now, Ash needs our help, and obviously, I'm incapable of doing so. Now go."
Taylor gave Kimberly a quick once-over before glancing back at all the other former Power Rangers, wariness surrounding her eyes. "You guys better stay away from her," she repeated before looking back at Kimberly for reassurance. With that, she shimmered from her spot and reappeared on the other side of the forcefield beside Ashley and continuing the skirmish between the two sides.
Seeing that Taylor was back in the fight, Kimberly took a moment to drop her head slightly and take a breath, regaining a lot of clarity in her vision, though she was aware the poison would still flow nonetheless, its aim to take over her and eventually kill her in its view. Nothing cleared in her mind, she looked up and the first thing she saw were the faces of her old friends peering down at her from their places, their gazes full of unease and inquiries. None of them said anything, though she knew the lists of questions in their minds was not going to end anytime soon. Taylor, Ashley, and she still had not explained any portion of what happened the last few years.
After some moments, she said the only thing she was sure about in this entire situation. "Like Taylor said, you should probably stay away." She didn't want to worsen her condition in any way. Though it didn't look like it could get any better from where she was sitting.
Everything seemed to be unfolding in front of him. He thought the day would be mostly just plain fun and relaxation, just a day of meeting up with old friends and seeing the ranger generations after his. He expected some surprises, mostly in the ranger teams after his, but this was going over the top. First the arbitrary singing/dance contest from Zack and Rocky, although that turned out all right even to him, then the regenerated minions of the past came to crash the reunion, a random man in a cloak pops up out of nowhere, three of the former female rangers, from separate teams nonetheless, confess to be these 'Charmed Ones', Taylor Earhardt burns the guy up with this unnatural ability to throw fireballs, another 'demon' appears with more henchmen, and now this. Yep, definitely more surprises than all of them expected. It should have been an enemy monster of the new Mystic Force team who would have raided the reunion at the most.
He stood there beside his friends watching everything come undone from an unknown knot, thinking basically the same things his friends were, watching Kimberly Hart lying on the bench in what they figured was immeasurable pain with an arrow stuck in her left side. An arrow! Even in his ranger days, there was really nothing this extreme that his team went through, save for the world nearly ending a few times. But then again, all the fireballs, energy balls, demons popping up, uninformed abilities to throw people to the sides, blow up things and summoning forcefields were surprises enough.
Of course, he was unsure if all this surpassed the astonishment he acquired some time before all of this occurred. He certainly had not expected the surprise; he even began letting go of the wish that rested in his greatest hopes, something spurred quite some time ago. He came here hoping for everything to go fine and to meet some new people. Instead, he got the largest surprise he could only think of in his solitude: his desire from so long ago was granted.
So much time had passed, so much had happened. Life went on, so had his friends, and so did he. He knew that he had to. There was no real choice in the matter, but he would've done so anyway, with one yearning in mind that he wanted to change but never could. Things changed and matured along with him, life becoming less black and white while becoming more familiar to him at the same time. Things were going fine and now… He thought he got over it, but apparently he hadn't. That, however, was not the greatest shock. The biggest one now was that he didn't want to let her go now that she had come back. But so many complications lay there now…
Kimberly's upper body suddenly reeled forward, a sound of pain coming from her lips. It was obvious she was in pain but instantly right after she did so, she raised her arm as a sign for the people who moved forward to stop in their tracks; she still wanted no one to help.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and he glanced back to see his longest and closest friend standing beside him, a look of agreement and assertion in his eyes. Though he knew that nothing was going to be definitely fine, the assurance from his friend was comforting. Plus the fact that only this friend was one of the very few who knew everything going on in his mind was also somewhat reassuring. He didn't give a small smile like some expected but he knew that they thought he would if current circumstances were changed. His friend finally spoke.
"Don't worry, bro," Jason said in a lower tone than usual, "Everything will be okay. Kim will be okay. Besides, she won't leave without explaining everything. She came back because of you, Tommy, and you know it. Don't worry."
For the first time in years, Tommy Oliver felt the greatest amount of consolation since the day he got what he considered the worst news of his life. He finally gave Jason a small smile and glanced back at Kimberly, the look of pain drifting away from her face but the knowledge upsetting him inside. He still cared for her, more than he ever thought possible after everything that happened. He wasn't going to let her go, not without clearing up the ridiculous mess everyone threw out of proportion years ago. He wasn't letting her leave without getting her friendship back. Not if he could help it.
Ashley was beginning to grow tired from this fight; it took too much out of her and she wasn't prepared for any of this when she came to the reunion, despite her dreaming premonition from weeks before about something big like this. Too much had happened already: old enemies came back from the dead, Phrazare paid them a visit after so long with tensions rising from both sides, demons came up without any warning and brought darklighters with them to boot, and Kimberly was hit with an arrow from a darklighter. Ashley's stress level was going off the wall.
She knew she had to do her best to either finish these demons off or at least restrict their powers for enough time for her and Taylor to figure out what to do. They had to do it quickly, too, so that she and Taylor could get the arrow out of Kimberly and stop the poison from killing her. Ashley couldn't speak to Taylor telepathically like Kimberly could but she hoped their sisterly bond would be enough; it was surely enough in connection with Kimberly to cause her to feel the agony Kimberly felt when a huge surge of pain shot through her midsection from the poison. It even caused Taylor to feel the same suffering. Maybe their bond would be enough… hopefully.
She focused as much as she could on Taylor's thoughts and emotions while doing her best to keep the demon she just threw down after so much effort stay inoperative for the moment. Perhaps if she could find a way to channel her empathy and talk to Taylor that way… With so much of her concentration on her bond with Taylor, Ashley couldn't help being startled by Taylor's quick whip of her head toward Ashley's direction, almost as if she knew what Ashley was trying to do. Taylor gave a quick nod, almost imperceptible to everyone else, and suddenly Ashley knew what Taylor was going to do, though she did not know how she knew. Yet she could only wait for a few more seconds for everything necessary to happen.
For the fourth time that day, Taylor shimmered from the scene again, leaving everyone to guess where she went and what she was doing, if not wondering again how she could do it. She returned just as fast as before but this time the demons were ready, wherever she would reappear. Right when she shimmered back, Taylor was greeted with yet another fireball, one she was unprepared for and had to endure the burning pain it caused in her right arm. The action caused her to drop the crystalline object in her hand, delaying her plan further.
Ashley finally saw the complete plan. Wasting no time, she used her ability to speed her way to her sister and the crystal but was stop by a demon who rushed in a few yards from Taylor who was recovering as quickly as she could. Seeing her sister in a slightly paranormal dispute, Taylor hurried to finish what she had in mind when she shimmered away not even a minute ago. The ex-Yellow Eagle Ranger tried to move as fast as she possibly could but the unvanquished darklighter stood in her way, his crossbow the threat pointed at her.
Seeing what her sister attempted to do, Ashley decided to take a chance and make a move she might regret later if it distracted her from protecting herself from whatever the demon standing before her would throw at her. Aiming her focus at the darklighter's arrow and crossbow, she motioned her hands in an expanding movement, concentrating on the objects combusting or at least causing the demon to drop his weapon. It may not have blown up but the darklighter thankfully dropped the magical firearm.
Seizing the chance she could see easily that she knew would not last long, Taylor didn't try to shimmer again to another part of the clearing and lose whatever time she had. She rolled on her right side, hoping the momentum gained would continue her turn so that she could do what she needed to do. Knocking down the taken aback darklighter on her way, Taylor pushed herself to continue until she reached the crystal that was moved from its previous spot in the little skirmish. Aiming it at its vital place, she kicked the rock onto its course, hoping it would stop when it should have. Fortunately for her and Ashley, the one demon that was slightly farther from the others was pushed back by Ashley's own kick and lost his balance, his thrown body stopping the crystal in its necessary spot and igniting the electric confinement that held them all back. They were finally trapped…