This is just a little filler chapter of my own devising to move the story along while I wait for the next episode. I hope you like it.
Lily awoke the next morning, rolling over and finding that her arm did not find the warmth of the man she intended to marry. She opened her eyes to find the other side of the bed empty and looked around, finding no sign of him other than a sliver of light under the en-suite door. She went inside to find him staring at himself in the mirror.
"You're still thinking about him, aren't you?" She asked him, wrapping her arms around his abdomen and resting her head against his back. "I can't imagine how much this hurts. I don't think..."
"I know you miss Phant too." He interrupted her. She squeezed him hard, causing him to wince slightly before turning him to face her.
"RJ, it's not the same and you know it!" She stated with authority. "Phant's a good friend of mine, I miss him more than I can say, but it isn't the same. Master Finn is your dad."
I've lived this long without him." He told her. "Look, my feelings are no threat to the team..."
"The team can be damned." She snapped. "RJ, it doesn't matter how much you rationalise this, he's your dad. You wouldn't be human if the thought of hurting him didn't bother you. I know this is hurting you."
"I just want to know he'll be alright." RJ replied sadly, placing a hand on hers, stroking it gently with his other. "I really want them all to get out of this safely."
"You know they will." Lily told him, pulling him into another soft hug. "Please RJ, you have to trust us, you know we'll go easy..."
He cut her off by shoving her away a little too briskly as the thoughts came to him again. He knew they cared about the masters, and he knew they didn't want to hurt them, but his research had led him to a conclusion, one that was unlikely to be comfortable for any of them. Lily looked at him with the hurt evident in her eyes.
"RJ, what's going on?" She asked him.
RJ turned from her, unable to look her in the face as pondered his position. He wanted to see the masters hurt as little as the others, but so far he'd kept his suspicions from all of them other than Dominic. He longed to find a way around the situation, but so far taking them on head-on seemed to be the only way. Lily grabbed him, spinning him around before roughly forcing him against the wall. By now the anger in her was obvious.
"I'm not a kid RJ, I'm your fiancée!" She roared, getting into his face. "I know when something's wrong with you, you're hiding something, I know it. You're hiding something and I want you to tell me what it is, NOW!"
RJ turned his face from her, only for her to grab it and pull it back to face him. Now her face was no longer one of anger, but one of hurt. Tears were already forming as she beheld him.
"RJ, I need to be with you at times like this." She told him truthfully. "If you can't talk to me when times are hard, then you obviously aren't ready to marry me."
"Lily, I love you more than anything, you know that." He replied. "Why else would I have put Fran in danger when they were threatening..."
"Damn it RJ, that's not the point." She interrupted him. "If you don't think you can share anything with me, then maybe it isn't the right time for us."
"Lily, please don't do this." RJ implored her, seeing her reach to her left hand and beginning to twist off her engagement ring. He placed a hand on hers to stop her. "Lily, I'll tell you, but it isn't going to be easy to hear."
Lily sat down on the bed awaiting an explanation she so far couldn't think of.
"You and I can morph because of our morphers. You already know that, right?" He asked. Lily nodded to confirm this. "Most of the power comes from our animal spirits, but the rest comes from our morphers."
"RJ what are you saying?" She asked.
"They don't have morphers, so the remaining energy comes from another source." He paused, holding her hands in his own as he prepared to explain. "The remaining energy comes from their life force."
"You mean..."
"Yes Lily, every time they fight in Ranger form, they deplete their life energy." He told her. "If they completely deplete that, then they'll die."
"RJ, I'm so sorry!" She whimpered, throwing herself into a passionate hug with him, comforting him over the potential loss of his father.
"Lily, I know I can never ask any of you to hurt them." He told her.
"RJ, I'd rather hurt Master Phant than lose him altogether." She responded. "I owe it to him, I owe it to Gabby, but more than anything I owe it to myself. I know I'd never be able to live with myself if I didn't do all I could to save him."
"Lily, you know what happened the last time." RJ reminded her. "We may find another..."
"RJ, we need to save them before it's too late." She interrupted him. "I don't want to hurt Master Phant, but if that's what I have to do to save him I will. I know the others will feel the same way. We can't afford to go easy on them anymore."
"Lily, it isn't going to be easy on any of us..."
"RJ, we'll do what we need to." She told him. "It's the right thing to do, we can't go easy on them, and it won't do them any good. We'll help them even if we do have to risk destroying them ourselves; you need to do it for their sake. You need to do it for your dad."
"I don't think I could bear it if I lost him now." RJ told her softly. "He's my dad and I love him. I can't let him down."
"You won't RJ." Lily responded, hugging him tightly for comfort. "He loves you, he's proud of you, any father would be."
"What about your own dad?" He asked her, changing the subject. "Have you told him yet?"
Lily sank onto the bed, the air taken from her sails as he asked this. It was something of a cheap shot for RJ; he knew she didn't have much contact with her father.
"I sent him a letter telling him about the engagement about a month ago." She told him. "I still haven't heard anything back."
RJ sat on the bed next to her, placing an arm around her regretfully. He knew he'd stooped to a major cheap shot to get pressure off himself. He held her closely, kissing the top of her head.
"I'm sorry Lily, I shouldn't have asked." He replied softly. "I know you're having a hard time with that."
"I'm alright RJ." She whispered softly. "I'm used to it."
"No you're not." He replied. "No one ever gets used to being so cut off from their parents."
"He dumped me in a boarding school he'd never even heard of before I was 14." She snapped. "In the last year I've received three letters from him, that's it."
"I went a long time without even that much from my dad." He replied. "Sometimes families grow better away from each other."
Lily pulled open a drawer, pulling out some letters and threw a 'get well soon' card on the bed.
"That was one of only three letters I've received from him this year!" She snapped. "I got that when I'd called him to tell him about my accident. I told him I might be blind for the rest of my life and all he can do is send me a god damned greeting card I couldn't even read!"
She threw it across the room and tried hard not to succumb to her tears.
"Most dads hearing their daughters were getting married would at least want to meet the boyfriend." She muttered. "I suppose it's too much to hope for he'll ask you if your intentions are honourable."
"Lily, you know..."
"Damn it RJ, I know they are." She roared. "It would just be nice to know my dad gives a damn!"
RJ took this as the sign he needed. He couldn't possibly ask Lily to patch things up with her dad and not sort out his own house.
"I guess you'll be the master in our relationship." He told her. "I'll tell the others on one condition."
"You're not really in a position..."
"Humour me." RJ implored her. She shrugged and settled down to listen. "I want to meet your dad and for him to be there at the wedding."
"It won't be easy." Lily told him. "But if that's what it takes, I promise that I'll call him again."
"Life's too short to lose contact with your parents." RJ told her. "Take it from someone who knows."
"RJ, we need to save them." Lily told him. "If that means we have to fight them, then we will. But the others have a right to know how far they night have to go."
He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her, kissing her cheek. With that they held each other and passed the time until the morning training session where they would brief the others properly. If they were going to save the masters, they'd have to give them everything they had, regardless of the circumstances.
In the morning, the other Rangers assembled in the back room for the morning training session, only to find themselves being sat down for a serious talk. RJ explained the situation about the Master's powers to their collective shock and doubts. None of them wanted to hurt the masters, only to stop them. Of course it now became evident only one course of action was possible.
"We go at it full tilt." Casey instructed, swinging a nunchaka to emphasise the point. "If it's a choice between getting them back hurt and getting them back dead I know what I'm choosing."
"Fine." Theo sighed regretfully.
"I'm in." Dominic reiterated in a defeated manner. "We need to save them from themselves."
Just then, the alarms bleeped, drawing their attention to the monitors. Once again the Spirit Rangers and Sonimax were attacking the city. They rushed out, preparing for the battle ahead.
A few minutes into the battle, the Claw Cannon had seen Sonimax turning tail, though obviously Dai Shi saw fit to leave the Spirit Rangers for a while. Lily once again was
battling Phant with her Jungle Mace, Casey and RJ were trading blows with Master Finn, while Theo and Dom were taking care of Swoop. Things were looking like they were heading south quickly for the Rangers. Lily was struggling one-on-one with her friend.
"Goodnight Lily." He sneered, rearing up his mace ready for the strike. "I guess you die always the bridesmaid..."
He was interrupted as an orange streak came down into the alley, smashing his mace aside and knocking him down. Lily looked up, catching only a glance of her saviour in the shadows as Phant de-morphed. The mysterious warrior surged forth, slamming a savage kick into his right hip, sprawling him on the ground. The stranger then surged over to Swoop, firing an energy blast inches behind his head, causing him to collapse, holding the sides of his head in pain as he was deafened by the noise. Then the stranger blurred out of sight. All any of them ever saw was a blur of orange light, hardly a glimpse of their saviour.
"You never were worthy of being my son!" Finn roared, levelling a sabre at RJ. He grabbed the others before teleporting away.
"What the hell happened?" Casey asked. "Who was that?"
"I don't know." RJ told them, looking around for the mystery saviour. "I think all we can do is be glad they're on our side."
"That and hope it stays that way." Theo stated as rain began to fall, drenching them all. "I really could do with fewer enemies, not more."
Lily made her way towards something curious on the street, it was a scroll.
"Do not fight an enemy on their terms; always force them to fight on yours." She read from the scroll.
"It's from Sun Tzu's the art of war." Theo explained. "What does it mean?"
"Hopefully all will become clear soon." RJ stated. "Until then, let's go home."
Somewhere on a rooftop above them, a mysterious figure awaited their departure, before setting up the communications relay as instructed.
"They got the message." The electronically distorted voice announced. "It's up to them now."
"You're not having doubts now are you?" The distorted voice on the other end asked. "They need help..."
"I know we have to keep this under wraps." The saviour asked. "My partner does too. Just don't expect us to like it..."
"It will all be worth it in the end." The boss replied. "You know you can't intervene directly. You weren't seen were you?"
"Not directly, or for long enough." The saviour replied. "This better pan out soon, I really don't feel good about handling things like this."
"Just let them perform business as usual." The boss stated. "You and your partner will get your time in the sunshine soon, I know it."
"It isn't about that and you know it!" The mysterious warrior snapped. "Just hope everything goes well."
"Just keep your heads down and all will be fine." The boss reiterated. "Your partner has already gotten the eyes safely to the Rangers, so all is going as smoothly as it can. Now all they need to do is rescue the masters. Keep up the good work."
"I will." The warrior reiterated. "Just don't expect me to like it."
With that the warrior killed the communication and left the scene. Things were going as well as could be expected under the circumstances, but they were quickly running out of time. They needed to step things up a gear and they needed to do it soon.
Back in the back room, the Rangers were gathered around trying to figure out what the mysterious warrior wanted from them, and what the message meant. Lily was carefully examining the footage of their previous battles with the masters, trying to find some weakness in their style as the others discussed strategy.
"Lily, there's no point beating yourself up over this." Theo told her, placing a hand on her shoulder and trying to turn her away from the footage. "If there was some weakness in their style we'd have seen it by now..."
"Theo, you're a genius!" She shrieked, kissing him on the cheek enthusiastically.
"You know a girl could get jealous." Fran giggled as she arrived in the room with their dinner.
"What did I say?" Theo asked her.
"There IS now weakness in their style!" She announced.
"I'm still not following you." Dominic commented. "How's that a good thing?"
Lily played a little more of the footage, pausing the frame as Phant caught her with a savage blow. "He never taught me that technique."
"But he taught you everything you know about the elephant technique." Casey remarked. "Just like Master Finn taught me everything I know about the shark technique."
"And Swoop did the same with me and the bat technique." Theo chipped in. Lily rolled her eyes at them as they failed to grasp what she was getting at.
"Exactly, they taught us everything WE know." She reiterated. "But did they teach us everything THEY know? I doubt it."
"So what's your suggestion?" Casey asked.
"The reason they've been beating us is because we've tried to fight them using the techniques THEY trained us in." She told them. "They're masters in their chosen techniques, we're not. We were always going to lose trying to match them with their own styles."
"So what do you suggest?" Theo asked. Lily grabbed a tonfa from the weapons rack and threw it to him.
"I suggest we master our OWN techniques." She stated with authority, picking up a bo staff. "Shall we begin?"
"I guess I'm eating alone then." Fran commented. "I'll leave some for you to reheat." With that, she left the room to let them train in peace without the smell of fresh pasta distracting them. She knew they'd be training for quite a while, so she left them to it. She smiled as she left the room, she had a feeling they might be on the right path to a solution to their problems with the masters. Arriving in the restaurant, she sat down in a booth and began eating.
"My new pasta sauce recipe is pretty good." She commented. "Maybe I should suggest to RJ we try it in the restaurant when we re-open."