Emily was in a really good mood as she made her way to Cody's place for training. Despite everything, things were actually going pretty well at the Shiba House. Mike and Kevin were getting along a lot better as a result of their experience with Epoxor, Mia had gotten word from her parents that Terry was home, and they were making headway towards building bridges in their relationship, and even Ji had come back to the house, explaining that as part of Brenda's therapy, it had been decided she needed to be able to spend time by herself if she was going to be able to learn to cope without him and get back to a normal life.
She had to remind herself to stop skipping a little as she got there. She had found a pretty good balance so far between being tough enough with her students that they progressed, and took their training seriously, but that they could still have a little fun, and feel encouraged when they did something well.
As she got there though, she could feel that something was wrong, very wrong. Bulk, Spike and Cody were all sitting in the yard, waiting for her. Normally, Cody's dad just took a step back and let them get on with it, dropping in once in a while to keep an eye on them and ensure he was satisfied with the way training was going. His visits had become less frequent now, suggesting he was happy with Emily's methods, so for him to still be here instead of at his workshop, dealing with his latest order, she was sure something was up.
"We didn't want to just leave you hanging without an explanation." Bulk told Emily as she arrived. Now, she was a little more concerned. Seeing the way he was stroking Spike's shoulders, she could see that he was upset about something. He looked incredibly ill, and rather put down.
"What happened?" Emily asked.
"Someone at Spike's school tried to kill herself today." He informed her. "She...um...she did it in the bathroom before first period."
"Oh my God!" Emily gasped, hearing this. "Is she...?"
"An ambulance got to her in time." Spike said somewhat morosely. "The school tried to keep us in the dark, but by lunchtime, everyone knew."
"The news even got to my school." Cody told her, showing her his phone. "I got that during second period."
"It was Spike's ex." Bulk explained. "Under the circumstances..."
"Yeah, of course." Emily said, nodding in understanding. She patted Spike on the shoulder. "We can do this another time. Just...go home and try to get some rest."
Spike nodded, and got up, leaving with his uncle. Cody's dad just looked to her, then back to Cody.
"Are you sure you'll be alright?" He asked. Cody just nodded.
"I told you before dad, I don't even know her." Cody assured him. Kieran just left, heading back to the workshop. Emily though was not quite ready to just give it up and go home. Seeing the way he just quietly went into the house, she had a feeling that he wasn't quite as disconnected as he had made out.
She went through the house, finding it hard not to be impressed by the quality of workmanship inside. The house had been built from the ground up by the family over the years, including all the furnishings. Generations of master craftsmen had meant that the interior had the benefit of centuries of time and care to create something amazingly impressive.
As she got through to the rearmost bedroom though, finding a rucksack carelessly dumped by the door, and presumed that was Cody's room. She knocked on the door gently and opened it ajar.
"Cody?" Emily asked. "Do you mind if I come in?"
Cody didn't answer, and Emily wondered if he had heard her. She went inside, finding him sitting by a desk, which was incredibly ornate for a teenager's work desk. Apparently the family's obsession with carpentry was pretty pervasive. Cody was working on something, and apparently he was completely enthralled by what he was doing. So much so, he didn't notice her coming in.
"Cody?"
He scrambled as she startled him, and hurriedly pulled a sheet over what he was working on. She came up to him.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." She told him. "You just seemed pretty quiet about what happened. I wanted to make sure you were alright."
"Yeah, I didn't even know Melanie." He responded. Emily just sat down with him.
"Don't you mean 'know'?" She asked him. "Spike said she was still alive."
Cody just shrugged.
"I don't get what the big deal is." He told her. "Vicky was upset, that's all I really care about, but Melanie made her life miserable."
"Cody, you can't possibly be that cold about this." Emily asked him. "If she's in Spike's year, that means she isn't that much older than you."
"Yeah, and she tried to kill herself." Cody put down flatly.
"Cody, can you imagine what she must have been feeling like to be so low?" Emily asked him.
"She gave up!" Cody stated. Emily just sighed. While he wasn't from one of the noble families, Cody had been raised with the Samurai code. He had been taught many of the stories, and had heard many of the beliefs that the Samurai had formed over their time. One of their strongest held beliefs was in facing adversity, and not giving up, no matter how hard a struggle got. Unfortunately, Cody was still young. Emily might only have had a few years on him, but it was enough to know that things were rarely so clear cut.
"The world isn't conveniently black and white Cody." Emily told him. "For one thing, not everyone believes what you do. You also have to remember that others have problems that are very different from yours. I can't tell you what Melanie's situation is..."
"Apparently it has something to do with her dad." Cody told her. "He was some big shot, but he was throwing around money that didn't belong to him. So she was rich and popular, not she's not."
"And you think that would be easy to deal with?" Emily asked him.
"So she isn't the queen bee anymore? Who cares?" He asked in response. "I've never been popular..."
"Exactly, so your life hasn't changed." Emily told him. "From what I've heard, Melanie was at the top of the heap when she went out with Spike. That was only about two months ago."
Cody suddenly felt a little quiet hearing this. He hadn't really thought too much about that side of things. He only really knew of Melanie as someone that Spike and the others had told him had messed him around.
"It sounds like her life's pretty much changed overnight." Emily told him. "How would you feel if you suddenly lost everything that mattered to you?"
"But...giving up..."
"And if you're going to judge her like that, you might want to remember that the Samurai were not above Hara Kiri."
"That's different!" Cody snapped. "They only did that if they had failed..."
"And you don't think maybe she felt like she had somehow failed?" Emily asked him, stroking his shoulders. "I don't know much about suicide, but I do know that by the time people go through with an attempt on their own life, they often feel like it's already over. It's not really giving up; often they've already done that before the event."
Cody just looked away, feeling somewhat ashamed.
"Maybe just like our ancestors, she didn't see things as worth fighting for, because she thought the fight was already lost." Emily told him. "Now, all we can hope is that in time, the people that care about her can show her that she's wrong."
Emily could feel the shift in Cody. She knew he was a good kid; he was probably just confused about the whole incident. It was a lot to take in for a kid his age, even Emily couldn't really imagine how bad things would have to be for her to want to take her own life.
Emily just looked to the sheet, and pulled it back, thinking that Cody was working on something to show his dad. She was surprised though, to see that it wasn't any form of woodwork. Indeed, it looked a lot more like something she'd have expected to see Antonio, working on. She could recognise some of the tools he was using too.
"Wow, what is this?" She asked him. "Did you do this?"
"I...um..." Cody started to look at the parts assembled before them. "I kind of got into electronics. We did some work on radios in science, and I got hooked."
"This doesn't look like any radio I've ever seen." Emily commented, picking up a piece that looked a lot like the head of the Bull Zord. "It looks a lot like something Antonio might want to have a look at."
"No!" Cody called out, taking the piece from her and putting it down. He looked to her regretfully. "There's...there's a reason I work on this stuff in my room. Dad..."
"Your dad just wants you to be happy." Emily told him.
"He wants me to be a happy carpenter." Cody sighed. "He doesn't understand this stuff; he thinks it's a waste of time. That's the reason this thing's sat in the shed for a couple of hundred years."
"A couple of hundred...alright, now you've lost me." Emily said honestly. "What is this thing?"
"It's a weapon that the Kin family were working on before the Bull Zord was sealed away." He informed her. Emily knew that the Kin, Ji's ancestors, had been weapon smiths. It made sense that they had something to do with new weapons. "Back when our ancestors first encountered the Bull Zord, the Kin started to create this based on the technology of the Bull Zord. When it went on the rampage, this was entrusted to us, along with the Bull Zord's control disk."
"So it's a weapon?" Emily asked him.
"As near as I can tell, it was some kind of firearm." Cody told her. He just shrugged as she looked to him confused. "What? The Samurai eventually ended up embracing modern warfare."
"So I guess this was never finished." Emily surmised. Cody nodded, pulling out a journal. It contained some ancient parchment, showing the designs, while the journal itself contained various diagrams and notes Cody had made in his attempts to understand it. "It seems like some of Da Vinci's designs; the Kin decided this couldn't work under the technology they understood at the time. I was hoping that maybe with some of the advances we've made since then, I could get this working. You guys can never have too much help right?"
"I guess not." Emily commented. "You know, maybe you should give your dad a chance. If he lets you bring it to us, I'm sure Antonio would be only too happy to give you a hand."
"Thanks, but I'd like to see if I can do it." Cody told her. Emily knew that Kieran loved his son, but she had the impression that since he was raising him without a mother, he could be a little overbearing in his attempts to fulfil both parenting roles himself. His training had been rigid and a lot harder than Emily was used to. With the exception of the work station, Cody's room was a very model of order and cleanliness that defied all logic for a fourteen year old boy. She could understand Cody's reluctance to rock the boat with his dad. "Besides, it's probably nothing anyway."
"Well, if that's what you want, I guess I can respect that." Emily replied. "I'll leave you to it. But, if you want to talk any more, you know...if you have more questions about what happened at Spike's school, I'm sure we can do what we can to answer them."
"Thanks." Cody replied. Emily closed the door over as she left, before pulling out her Samuraizer.
"Alright, I'm coming home earlier than I expected." She told Mike. "I'll tell you when I get there. I'll be home shortly."
Meanwhile, Octoroo was aboard Master Xandred's Junk, and was biding his time. He now knew that Serrator had something planned involving Dekker. While Xandred also knew that Dekker was back in the picture, and was happy that he was a sell sword working for Serrator, he had no idea that Serrator had something planned that seemed to run much deeper than either of them suspected.
Given his discussion with Dayu, and what he observed between Dekker and Serrator, it seemed that he was playing everyone. Dekker, he had said, had a big part to play, but it also seemed that he knew where Urumasa was, and was deliberately keeping the location from Dekker. For what purpose, Octoroo couldn't yet fathom, but he doubted that it would be good.
He was keeping Xandred in the dark about what he had planned for Dekker, assuring him that he was merely a powerful ally that he intended to use. Octoroo didn't know the plan, but he recognised the moves. Everyone had a place, everyone knew a little, but what they knew was subtly different for all involved. He was setting up the dominoes, all he could do was hope that he hadn't set all of them up, and that he would figure it out before he had a chance to set them off.
He could only remember what Dayu had proposed. Right now, with her injuries, she wasn't in a position to do anything herself, and so she had bargained on Octoroo's desperation to stop Serrator taking the Netherworld for himself. So far, he hadn't managed to reach Dekker, he hadn't had an opportunity to slip away on his own, but when he could, he was to find Dekker, and lead him to Urumasa. It wasn't a plan without risk, but doing so would show Dekker that Serrator could not be trusted, and deprive him of a powerful ally. Right now though, he had to sit through another of Serrator's 'show and tell' sessions with a new plan for Xandred. He had to wonder if his own such lectures were ever so sanctimonious and boring.
"I have something special planned for the Rangers." Serrator began his speech. "It is something that I have been preparing for some time, something that will combine a trap, with a major advance in our forces that I have just been...waiting for a chance to exercise."
"By any chance, is this trap anything to do with all the time you've been spending on Monalua?" Octoroo snorted. Serrator just looked to him.
"After your lack of progress lately, I would have thought you'd have far more important things to do with your time than follow me around." He chuckled. "Still, I suppose I should take it as flattering that you want to see how a real Nighlock does things. Yes, I plan to lure the Rangers to Monalua. I have been sowing certain...shall we say...seeds of dissent there."
"Seeds of dissent?" Octoroo asked him.
"Let us just say, that instead of going attracting unhealthy attention with noisy, blundering explosions, I have been building things there for some time. Believe me when I say that by the time the Rangers get there, they will find little support, and even less of a welcome."
"Really?" Octoroo asked him. "So what is this deadly new addition to our army?"
"Why, just a little something I've been considering debuting for some time." He commented, pointing to the window. Xandred and Octoroo looked out, seeing some Moogers on the shore, but completely unlike any they had ever seen before, and carrying a new kind of weapon. Xandred just looked to him in disbelief.
"I will go personally to Monalua." He assured Xandred. "My sell sword will join me. By the time you see what I have in mind, I am certain you will find your headaches far less troublesome."
"Fine, but if you do plan to keep the Rangers distracted, I'll go with you." Octoroo told him. Serrator just looked to him, his eyes boring into him. He didn't want any interference. "Surely you wouldn't mind an extra pair of hands when the battle starts."
"Take him." Xandred grumbled, waving him off dismissively. "It'll keep him from getting under my feet for a little while."
"Anything my master wishes." Serrator replied. "Come Octoroo, if you must accompany me, I will give you detailed instructions what you must do."
On the farm, Serena was in the yard, just finishing her workout, with her mother beside her. It had been a long time since they had trained together, and she couldn't help smiling as she worked with her daughter.
"Your technique is excellent." She complimented her. "It's clear you made good use of the time since you recovered."
"I was surprised how much my body remembered to be honest." Serena admitted. She had been critically ill for a couple of years, so there was something of a loss of step. Of course, since then, she had plenty of time to work at getting back to form, and even improving on what she already had. Her symbol power was stronger than it had ever been, and her technique was beyond what her mother had ever expected. She took the bokken from her, and went to Kasamune, handing it to Serena.
"Who would have thought, my daughter, the Blessed Warrior?" She asked her. "Now, let's just see how brilliant this Stephen of yours was."
Serena drew Kasamune, and placed the octagonal power disk on it. She held the sword into a ready stance, and started it spinning. She could feel a new power coursing through it. It was something she couldn't have believed, but as she tried to hold it, the power dissipated again, and fell inert, just as quickly as it had flared up. Serena looked to her mother, clearly disappointed.
"How often do these things work first time?" Her mother asked her. "I said I'd help you with this, and I meant it. Why don't you try again?"
With that, Serena took a deep breath, and prepared to try again.