Serena was having an enjoyable dream. Everyone was happy, everyone was getting along, and everything was how she wanted it. There were no tricks, no alternate life, and no talking dogs.

Then, the dream was interrupted by a cold, wet, slimy lick to the face. She groaned and rolled over in bed.

"Storm, stop. I want to sleep. I moved a freaking mountain yesterday."

"Emily's gone."

Serena sat right up in bed, "What?"

Storm jumped down to the foot of the bed and looked at Serena worriedly, "I didn't plan this, nor did I see this coming. She's gone."

"When did she leave?" Serena was already out of bed and getting changed.

"I don't know," Storm jumped off the bed and paced back and forth, "I heard your dad getting up for work and I just saw she was gone."

"Fuck," Serena muttered and opened the window. She didn't want everyone in the house going after Emily, certain it would only make things worse, "When does this trial end again?"

"Soon, I promise," Storm jumped up on Serena's back. The earth Samurai caught her and held her in her arms as she climbed down the side of the house.

"Definitely not soon enough."

-Samurai-

Emily was shaking as she approached the pond. It was a favourite spot for her friends, but she hated coming here. In her hands, she held the Mask. It was a piece of black fabric that fit over her head and acted a lot like the blindfold Brian often made her wear, but the blindfold was for games. The Mask was for punishments.

"You're late," Brian ripped the Mask from her hand and then grabbed Emily's arm, yanking her forward. She got down on her knees, understanding that's what Brian and her friends all wanted. She had done this before. "You know, because of you, I've got extra shifts at the shop. Dad says he needs to keep his eye on me."

"Our parents cut our allowance," Stephanie said and gestured to herself and the girls. "Now how are we going to buy clothes?"

"I pay for them anyways," Emily had no idea what possessed her to speak, but she knew it was a bad decision. Stephanie gasped and then whined to Brian. Brian assured her he wouldn't let Emily talk to her that way and he pulled out the duct tape. Whenever there was a punishment session, Brian always had duct tape. He ripped off a piece and placed it over Emily's mouth. The he put the Mask over her head and taped it up with duct tape around her neck. Now, even if she wanted to, Emily couldn't get the Mask off.

"Here, Steve, help her get changed into this."

Emily always hated this part. She was by the pond, so Brian always thought it would be funny to dress her up as a fish. Being a fish wasn't too bad, but getting into the costume was. Emily wasn't allowed to bring extra clothes, and Brian didn't want her going home in wet clothes, certain her parents would ask where she had been and what she had done. So she always had to strip down to her underwear and then get into the fish costume.

And Brian always asked Steve to help her. Steve grabbed her roughly by the arm and dragged her away. He always assured her the others couldn't see her, but Emily was certain it was a lie.

"Yo, Brian!" she heard Steve shout as she undressed. Then she started to tune everything out. Steve liked to tease her, but if she didn't hear him, his words couldn't hurt her. She just kept her focus on going home and spending the rest of the day with her sister and the Samurai – and maybe she would get to talk to Mike a little more. Were it not for the tape over her mouth, she would have actually smiled.

Steve did as he always did. He put a life vest on Emily so she wouldn't drown. Though her friends were very careless with her safety (proven by the activity the day before), they didn't want her to die and knew water was extremely dangerous. When she was near water, she always had a life vest.

Then, Steve did something he normally didn't do. He pinned her arms to her side and then Emily felt some duct tape being wrapped around her arms, keeping them pinned to her body. She felt Steve wrap the tape around and around until she couldn't move her arms at all, except at her wrists. Then she felt he did the same to her legs, taping them together. She couldn't pull them apart, but she could bend them at the knee.

Finally, he slipped the fish costume over her and then picked her up and carried her to the others. Emily blocked out their teasing and name callings as they tried to hurt her with words, believing it was only fair considering she had gotten them all punished. Instead of listening, Emily focused on her conversation with Mike and remembered the kiss he had given her. It wasn't much, but it was defiantly special.

Suddenly, she felt someone grab her face, forcing her to look whoever it was in the eyes, even though she couldn't see through the Mask. He pinched her cheeks hard. Surely they were going to leave bruises that Emily would have to explain to her parents.

"Don't tell your Power Ranger sister about this, got it? She'll protect you now, but eventually she's going to have to go home, right?"

Emily nodded. Her thoughts exactly. Serena had saved her at the cliffs, but she couldn't get involved anymore. A few tears dripped down her cheeks, but they went unnoticed by the others. The torment was never going to end, and if Serena got involved, it would just get worse. Gone were the days when having Serena around would lessen the bullying. The kids knew Emily was on her own, and too scared to seek help. They could get away with anything

Then, one of the boys lifted her up. She was sure it was Brian. She heard the splashing of the water as he walked her into the pond and then dropped her into the cold water. Because of her life vest, she floated without a problem. However, the irony of the fish suit was that it got heavy when wet, making it hard to swim. Now that she was taped up, and could do nothing more but flail around like a fish, Emily had a lot of trouble moving around in the water. It was made even harder by the fact that she couldn't see anything, and her mouth was covered. She could only breathe through her nose.

"C'mon, little fishy, swim back to shore," her friends all laughed at her as they watched her flail around in the water. She knew once she made it close enough to the edge of the pond they would pull her out and that would be the end of her punishment. This time, though, she couldn't swim back. Though the life vest was keeping her at the water's surface, she struggled to stay face up.

-Samurai-

It was one of the worst searches of her life. Serena had no idea where her sister was, why she had left, or if she had left with anyone. The odds were that she was still somewhere in the farmlands or in town, but the small town's borders were huge. There were many places Emily could be.

"Laughter. I hear laughter!" Storm instantly darted off in another direction. Serena skidded to a stop and then followed her. Her senses were sharp, but they were still weak compared to Storm's.

"So she's not alone?" Serena asked.

"I don't hear her laughing, but how many farmers do you know that giggle at this time of… EMILY!"

Storm barked loudly as she approached a pond. She saw Emily's friends were standing around and they were the ones laughing while in the water was an overgrown fish who was struggling to swim. Despite her reservations about jumping into a strange pond and getting wet, Storm ran right into the water and started swimming over to Emily. When she reached the fish, she bit down on the costume and with as much strength as she could muster, she started pulling Emily back to shore.

"Idiots!" Serena shouted and shoved Brian to the ground. Now that she knew the truth about Emily's friends, she couldn't stop herself from getting angry, especially with Brian. When he was on the ground, she gave him a hard kick in the stomach. When her baby sister was in trouble, she didn't give a damn about consequences.

"A little help!" Storm shouted and she was almost near the shore. Serena left the teens alone and raced to the water. She pulled her sister the rest of the way out so she was no longer in water and then removed the fish costume.

"I'll kill them," Serena whispered. She pulled her Samuraizer from her pocket and created a small knife. She cut the duct tape from Emily's legs, then her arms, and then she cut the hood off Emily's head. Finally, she ripped the piece of tap away from Emily's mouth. Her sister gasped loudly, taking in as much air as she could now that she could breathe again.

"Serena!" Emily threw herself into her sister's arms and cried again. Serena hugged her close and then felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Clara. She was holding out a towel.

"We were just having fun."

Serena wrapped the towel around Emily, covering her up. She told Storm to stick with her sister and then she stood up. She was only a couple of inches taller than Clara, but she towered over the girl like a monster.

Brian, Clara, Stephanie, Steve, and the others in Emily's group of friends had always respected Serena. She was a legend at their high school and very well-known in town. Everyone liked her. Everyone respected her.

But everyone knew what happened when they got caught messing with her little sister. Serena was fiercely protective.

Before Serena could do anything, though, she felt two pairs of hands grab her arms and pull her back. Looking to the sides, she saw it was Jayden and Kevin holding her back. They were stopping her from doing something she was sure she would regret. They couldn't stop the words from coming out of her mouth.

"I'll fucking kill you all!"

"No, you won't," Jayden and Kevin pulled her away to calm her down. Mike and Mia, meanwhile, were sitting with Emily, trying to comfort her.

Serena was pulled away from the scene and when she was far enough, the boys finally let her go. Serena walked away from them for a few paces before turning back around and shouting, "In less than twenty-four hours they nearly kill her twice."

"And you're not going to be the better person for threatening them," Kevin reminded her. "You're a Samurai. You have honour and…"

"I'm a sister first," Serena shook her head. Kevin and Jayden tried to hold her back, but Serena shoved them aside and raced over to Emily. She grabbed her little sister in her arms and hugged her tight.

"I'm going to make it all go away," she whispered in Emily's ear, "I promise, I'm going to take you with me and you're going to be safe. How does that sound?"

Emily buried her head in Serena's shoulder and nodded. Serena continued, gently stroking Emily's back, "You'll have friends who'll protect you instead of bully you. You'll find a boyfriend who loves you for you. The only downside is that I'll screw up, but I'll screw up because I love you."

"I wanna go with you!" Emily sobbed loudly and held on tightly to Serena. Serena didn't let her go, but turned her attention to Storm. She no longer cared if the others saw her talking to a dog, or if they thought she was losing it. She wanted to make this the end of her trial. She knew what her decision was going to be. It was painfully clear every decision she was going to make had an impact on her family – on Emily. Her actions, whether good and bad, changed all their lives, but now it was obvious that life had a way of working itself out, in spite of all the hardships. It put everyone where they needed to be. Serena needed to learn to embrace that.

And after this experience, she had.

"I want to undo the symbol, Storm. I don't want this. I don't want any of this."

"Close your eyes," Storm instructed and Serena did as she was told, after giving Emily a kiss on the forehead and swearing everything would be better.

From what she could hear and feel, the world slowly faded away. Emily's sobs were first to go, then the muttering from the other Samurai and the teens, and then, finally, Emily's body disappeared from Serena's arms. She tried to hold on to her sister, afraid of losing her, but the spell had its way. Eventually, Serena was lifted up to her feet and a steady beep replaced her sister's cries. Serena opened her eyes and started to cry. The bruising hadn't disappeared from Emily's body. In fact, they were bigger and darker, and joined by scrapes and cuts, many of which had been stitched back up.

"Doctor says she'll be fine," a hand was placed on Serena's shoulder. "She didn't break anything."

Serena turned around and saw the voice and the hand belonged to Antonio. If he was here, she knew she was back in her world. Serena turned to the TV, which was turned on to the news, showing pictures of the accident, but Serena wanted to know the day and time. She saw she had been dropped off only a few hours after the accident.

"… Friends and family didn't want the victim's name to be released, but she's in hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. In other news…"

Serena turned away from the TV. Antonio and the news anchor had just promised Emily would be okay, but it didn't look that way. She took her sister's hand and held it gently.

"Pst! Serena!"

Serena heard her name and followed the voice over to the window. Storm was sitting outside on the ledge and was calling her. Confused, because Storm wasn't supposed to be talking, Serena claimed she needed fresh air and walked out of the hospital. She met up with Storm in the hospital's park.

"You shouldn't be talking," she put her arms on her hips and glared at the dog.

"Emily's going to be okay," Storm assured her.

"Last time I was here, she died. How can you say…?"

"She died before the ambulance turned up," Storm reminded Serena, "She's in the hospital recovering now. She'll be bouncing around soon, I promise."

"Why did you leave me here? Why couldn't you bring me back to before I used the symbol? Before she was hit by a car?"

"You expect life to be too easy," Storm shook her head and smirked, "Just remember, Serena, everything happens for a reason. Learn to embrace it, learn to take advantage of it."

"Just get her out of that hospital!"

"I can't. No pets allowed," after that, Storm's words turned to barking, and the dog was jumping around frantically, trying to nudge Serena's feet. The dog was obviously very upset, just like Serena. Realizing things were going back to normal Serena sighed and picked up Storm. It was going to be hard sneaking her past the hospital staff, but she wasn't about to leave the dog outside.

"Work with me," Serena whispered and hugged Storm tight to her chest, pretending the dog was just a plush toy. She fooled the staff and made it all the way back to Emily's room without a problem. There, she opened the door and heard some light laughter. She leaned against the wall and smiled when she saw Emily was awake, and the other Samurai were doing their best to keep her happy and comfortable. Antonio, as usual, was acting like a big goof by pretending to be Emily's doctor, but Emily knew more about the hospital equipment than he did, and giggled as she corrected him.

Mike was laughing along, but he was sitting on the side of the bed with one arm wrapped loosely around Emily. Mia was also laughing, but was trying to keep Antonio from messing with things he had no business messing with. Kevin was trying to hold back a laugh, and Jayden just hung his head, letting a few chuckles escape, but seemed to be embarrassed by Antonio's failed impersonation of a doctor.

"AHA!" Antonio finally noticed Serena and Storm and took the dog from Serena's arms, "This is exactly what the doctor ordered. One puppy. Shall we inject orally?"

"EW! No!" Emily reached out and grabbed Storm in her arms, hugging her dog close, happy to have her back. Then Emily giggled and swatted Antonio's arm, "You're the worst doctor I've ever seen!"

"I am hurt," Antonio huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, "I didn't spend nineteen years in medical school to be insulted by my patient.

"Nineteen years?" Jayden shook his head, "Oh, Antonio."

"What?"

"If it took you nineteen years to complete medical school, maybe I don't want you as my doctor," Emily giggled.

"It took my nineteen years because I have a super degree," Antonio explained. "I'm the world's best doctor ever."

Emily hid her face in Storm's fur and then rolled over and nestled into Mike, trying to hide her laughter.

Serena had a big, bright smile on her face. Life was definitely better here.