"This place is pretty amazing," Jayden commented to his sister as they sat at the top of a cliff, overlooking the view of the Academy. From where they were, they could see the entire grounds. The massive Academy building towered over nearly everything, and housed students, supplies, dojos, senseis, visitors, kitchens, hospitals and more. Though many of students had lives outside of the Ninja Academy, there was really no reason to leave. Everything they ever wanted and needed could be found in the Academy.

And if that wasn't enough, they had the beautiful outdoors. With the air, water, and earth elemental Ninjas all in one place, the scenery was amazing. The skies were clear and blue, there were beautiful rivers, oceans, and waterfalls, and the foliage was unlike Jayden or Lauren had ever seen before.

"Mhm," Lauren simply nodded her head and sighed as she took a seat beside her brother, "This place is… wow but…"

"But? What kind of but can you come up with?" Jayden pointed again to the view, "Lauren, this place is incredible. It would have made dedicating our lives to training… well, worth it if we got to grow up here."

"Look at all those students. There must be hundreds down there, and thousands who have passed through those gates," Lauren said. "I feel… little."

"You are little," Jayden gently nudged his sister, "You haven't grown since you left all those years ago."

"Shut up. I'm not even shortest."

"That's not saying much," Jayden chuckled. Lauren rolled her eyes and pointed to the students.

"Look at that group. There must be twenty air ninjas in that section alone. And look at how amazing they are. Why don't we have something like this? A Samurai Academy?"

"We do. The Shiba House. Where Samurai families come to train…"

"One person from every family. In many cases, if something happens to them, we've run out of that family. We're lucky it's only happened once."

"A long, long, long time ago," Jayden nodded. "No one remembers that. How do you know that?"

"I was supposed to be the almighty red Ranger, remember? When I wasn't beating up my sensei, or painting Symbols, I had my nose in history books. Some of those books hadn't been touched in so long I've found extinct bugs inside of them. Dead, of course."

"You're kidding," Jayden turned to his sister, but she never took her eyes off the training ground.

"I care about you, Jayden. You know I do. You're my baby brother…"

"I told you, Lauren. You can't blame yourself for me taking your place. It was dad's plan, and he knew what he was doing. Besides, to protect you, I'd have volunteered in a heartbeat. Man, now I know how Emily feels when we keep…"

"Jayden, just shut up and listen for a minute," Lauren snapped and then looked to her brother apologetically, "Sorry. It's just… wouldn't it have been a little easier if there had been more?"

"More what?"

"More of us."

"Shibas?"

"I guess, but I just mean… do you know the story behind the Wind and Thunder Rangers?"

"Not really," Jayden shrugged. "I've heard some details, but never anything…"

"They came from Academies. The Wind Ninjas trained here, and the Thunder Ninjas trained in a similar Academy. Out of many, they were the chosen ones."

"So?"

"Out of many. So if they weren't good enough, or couldn't do it, they still had a whole school of people to pick from."

"Not the way I heard it. Ten years ago, Lothor abducted all but the five ninjas and the one Samurai who defeated him. The world rested on their shoulders. Just like it did ours. They didn't have any backup plans."

"Alright, fine. But they still have something we don't. Look over there," Lauren pointed again to the group of air Ninjas training, "That student's been screwing up the entire time we've been up here. I can see that even from this distance."

"So?"

Lauren rolled her eyes, "So, look. His entire class is helping him out. They're showing him how it's done, taking it step by steps, and from what I can tell from here, they're giving him tips. Did you ever receive tips?"

"Ji…"

"For your Fire Symbols."

Jayden shook his head. Lauren leaned back and let out another sigh, "I'm sorry, Jayden. I'm being a downer and I know it. The view is amazing but…"

"It would have been a lot easier knowing there was a backup," Jayden nodded. He took Lauren's hand in his, "I get it and we did have a backup. We had other. But I get what you mean. There was no way I wanted to let you down or put you in danger."

"And I hated every moment of you being in danger."

"But maybe it was the kick in the pants we needed," Jayden gave his sister a little smile, "I trained every day, and I gave everything my best effort because I knew that if I failed, we all failed. That's not something you get when you know that it's okay to screw up. Look again at those students. Now they're just goofing off."

"It looks fun," Lauren chuckled as one student fell on his ass.

"It is fun," Jayden nodded his head and remembered the times where Mike had done something similar, "But that's not the way a defender of the Earth should train. We worked our butts off, Lauren, and sometimes it would have been nice to get a little relief. But because we worked hard, because we sacrificed so much, we still have our whole lives to relax and have fun. Come next year, you're barely going to remember a time without laughter and pranks and goofing off and strange things."

"I don't think that's possible."

"I do. We're going to be okay. Great, even."

Lauren nodded her head and looked out at the view while Jayden got up and brushed the dirt from his pants. Lauren had an idea and turned around, looking to her brother.

"Our names are going to be cleared, right?"

"Ji's got a lot of friends. I'm sure we'll be home soon."

"I want to start an academy. You know just as well as I do how many people have lost everything, and even if we clear our names, that won't stop people from losing faith in the Rangers."

"What's your point? The Nighlok are gone. No one has to worry about that happening ever again."

"We know that. The people back home don't. What if we stepped up? Maybe not as Rangers, but as experienced martial artists and swordsmen. What if we taught the city to defend itself?"

"Like, open up a dojo? That sounds like a lot of work."

"We're not strangers to a lot of work. What do you say?"

"Business partners? Will I have time? I want to take classes and stuff and…"

"Business classes sound interesting?"

"Not the ones I've seen," Jayden shook his head.

"Please, Jay? It'll be good for the city, and who knows when the next evil might turn up? People need to feel safe, and who better to depend on than yourself? We can do this!"

"Can I think about it… what are you doing?"

"Emily taught me this," Lauren looked up at her brother innocently, "She called it the puppy look."

"Or the cookie face. Stop it. That's adorable," Jayden turned his head away from his sister. She got up and grabbed him, hugging him tightly and forced him to look at her again.

"I'm not really trained to do anything but fight," Lauren begged her brother, "It'll be years, or decades even, before I can get myself qualified to do anything else, and though it's been a rough ride, I do love training and all this Samurai stuff. Please, please, please?"

"Stop with the face! Okay, okay, whatever you want!" Jayden pushed his sister away, "You and Emily are not allowed to hang out anymore."

"You can't do that."

"My decision making abilities are being jeopardized by your relationship with the cookie monster. If you value me making any life-changing, important decisions for myself and our family, you and Emily are not… stop it."

"But I like hanging out with Emily. And Serena. And Mia."

"Fine. Do what you want, just stop with the eyes."

"Thanks, baby brother," Lauren reached up and ruffled her brother's hair. Jayden grumbled, knowing she had learned that from Serena. He let out a huff and stomped off. "Jay, where are you going?"

"To make more poor decisions. What tattoo do you think I should get?"

Lauren chuckled and followed her brother down the cliff with a smile, "Maybe we should come up with a name for our new business. Something fire related, but not too obvious. We don't want the city knowing we're Rangers if they're pissed off at us."