Author's Note: I think we can all feel that Samurai is going to come to an end. Ideas for Megaforce are coming and I would like to end the Samurai series soon (before I start beating the dead horse). The time that passes between chapters is going to grow as I wrap things up. I'm still working to give you guys the best, and so I hope you enjoy these final chapters of the Way of the Samurai Series. I appreciate all your support!

Lauren was sitting in her office at the Shiba's Dojo and looking over the profiles of some of her students. The dojo had now been opened for a few months and just as Lauren expected, Master Xandred's attacks of Panorama City had encouraged people to learn to protect themselves. She had students of all ages signing up, and more and more people were showing interest everyday as word of mouth spread around town. If that weren't enough, new monsters had started turning up in a neighbouring city: Harwood County. Danger never crossed the city lines, but after the terror the citizens from Panorama had endured, very few people were willing to take the chance with their limited knowledge of basic martial arts.

At this time of day, it was the younger students who were having a class. Lauren had offered Emily the position of a Sensei and had assigned her the younger classes. Between her, Lauren, and Jayden, she was the best at making learning fun and educational for the kids, and they all loved their Sensei Emy. For many of the students, it would be a while before they could practice any serious martial arts, but they were learning to focus, keep a calm mind, and how to respect their opponents, their weapons, and their own limitations.

Few injuries had occurred since the dojo had opened up. Lauren had initially been worried after Riley's swordplay incident months before that she wouldn't be able to handle any cases of her students, especially the younger ones, hurting themselves under her watch, but she had followed advice from Mike, Emily, and the past generation of Samurai who had all taught their children. Fortunately, there hadn't been any severe incidents, and Lauren was determined to keep it that way.

Jayden worked at the dojo as well, but split his time between being a Sensei and taking classes to learn how to properly run a business. Though he found a lot of the learning came from experience, the classes did prepare him for anything that would come up in the future. Because he spent his days in class and doing homework, he took the afternoon shift, which meant he spent his time teaching the middle aged kids. He was responsible for the older school-aged children as well as the teenagers and it was exactly where he felt comfortable. After leading a team of Rangers and helping them train every day, and that team being young in age, he knew how to handle the middle crowd. He knew exactly how to get them to behave, how to discipline them when they started acting up, and how to keep the lessons entertaining (he did get some advice from Mike and Antonio on that front).

Lauren took the evening classes, with the college aged students and the more mature adults. Some of the older men laughed when they first realized they were taking lessons from Lauren. Her appearance was deceiving. Though she was older than her Samurai team – some by a few years, she did look young. Her size didn't work in her favour either. Most of the men who walked into the dojo were convinced they would snap her in half.

They had been proven wrong. All Lauren had to do to show them she was the best sensei they could find anywhere in the city, and possibly even the country, was challenge the biggest man in class. Of course, he didn't stand a chance and now she had a whole class that respected every word that came out of her mouth.

She loved her job. She loved every part of it. And the very best part of all of it was that she got to work with her family. Ji and Kate stopped by often to lend a hand whenever they could, Jayden co-owned the dojo with her, Antonio ran the kitchen in the dojo and worked two to three times a week with Lauren, and Emily had a full time position.

A knock on the door grabbed her attention and she looked up to see Jayden walking in. He had his bag over his shoulder, which meant he had just gotten back from class, and he carried a paper in his hand. He put his bag on the floor by Lauren's desk and the paper in her hands.

"A new student wants to sign up. Well, his parents want to sign him up."

Lauren had a look at the student's name and smirked, "Terran Michael Smith?"

"He's one and a half," Jayden said, "I agree, it's a little young, but he's got the spirit of a real Samurai. I can feel it."

Lauren chuckled, "Smith doesn't sound like a Samurai descendant to me."

"I think it's more on the mother's side."

"Oh, yeah?"

Jayden nodded his head, "Yeah, and not that I like to gossip, but I hear the father isn't his biological father."

"Really?"

"I heard, his biological father was also quite the warrior – so he's definitely got the fighter's blood. We could have a great Samurai in our hands."

"We'd have to talk to Emily," Lauren smirked, "She would be his sensei."

The door opened and Emily groaned, "Seriously? You brought Dekker into this? We agreed never to mention his name again where Terran's concerned."

"James just stopped by with this," Lauren held up the registration form for Terran, "You know, if we approve…"

"He'll be in my class. I know," Emily nodded and pointed to the form, "I filled in that form, dropped it off with James this morning for him to sign it, and he brought it in."

"So you're okay with this?" Jayden asked and then pointed to Emily's expanding stomach. She was moving along with her pregnancy with her twins. She was getting bigger and bigger by the day. "You're barely keeping up with the little ones already."

"I'm keeping up just fine," Emily crossed her arms over her chest, "Besides, it'll be good for Terran to get started early. I think he's a little bored around the house."

"He's a baby."

"He's smart!" Emily shook her head, "You know what he did the other week? Mike and I got him down for bed and when we went downstairs to watch TV, we couldn't find the remote."

"So?"

"So, the next morning, we woke up, and when I went to change Terran's diaper, guess what I found."

"I really don't want to," Jayden chuckled and shook his head. Emily frowned.

"He didn't eat it. When I took off his pyjama pants, the remote fell out. The little bugger hid it from us all night."

"And that makes him smart?"

"He gave me that look. Puppets and singing cartoons aren't enough for him. I think he's ready."

"Well, if you're ready to take him, we'll get him started," Lauren nodded her head and took Terran's form back, "But remember, you got yourself into this mess."

Emily nodded her head excitedly and rushed back out to her classes. She couldn't leave a bunch of kids alone in a dojo for too long, even with the office door open. If she had learned anything over the last few months of babysitting Terran and helping out with Riley, as well as teaching, it was that it took only seconds for chaos to ensue.

-Samurai-

Serena was out to lunch with James and Terran. Since getting married, she loved spending time with her family. As they had agreed, Serena and James had married on Serena's parent's farm in a beautiful, but still very simple wedding.

There had been no honeymoon after the wedding. Mike and Emily had been responsible for looking after Terran while Serena and James were gone, but given both had jobs, and Emily was working through a pregnancy with the tiresome twins, Serena and James had taken their vacation before Emily blew up. It was still the magical experience Serena had been expecting, even though it was very unorthodox.

James had been in the bathroom of the restaurant cleaning Terran up. Their little boy was getting bigger and smarter, but he was still difficult to take out to restaurants.

Serena had been alone at the table for a while. Long enough for a waitress who had just started her shift to think she was out to lunch by herself. When Serena noticed the waitress looking her way and nervously trying to flirt with her, she smirked. Seeing the grin, the waitress came over.

"I'm really sorry… or maybe I'm not, but I couldn't help but… I mean… well, I was working over the bar and spotted you and… if you want to come over, maybe I could get you a drink… on… well, on…"

"I'm flattered," Serena said and held up her left hand, showing off her ring, "but I'm also taken. And straight."

The waitress' face turned a dark red, which kicked and idea into Serena's head. It had been a while since Lauren had come back home from living a life in almost complete isolation. She had gotten used to having a family, having friends, and was adapting very well to the crazy world she found herself in. However, Lauren often found herself alone. When the whole Samurai family got together, everyone had someone to cuddle with but Lauren. Time and time again, the red Ranger denied that she felt lonely, but Serena could see a little curiosity sparking in her Samurai leader's eyes.

"I do have a friend, though," Serena spoke up just as the waitress turned to leave. "She's a bit like me. Blonde, too, which I guess is your type."

"Yeah… yeah, a little bit… I guess, I…"

"She's a little new to the lesbian thing too."

"You can tell?"

Serena nodded her head and caught a glance of James and Terran coming out from the men's bathroom. She knew she had to hurry it up.

"I'll see if she's free sometime this week for dinner here. You working?"

"All week, unfortunately," the waitress sighed, "I've got to pay for college somehow."

"See you then," Serena smiled to the waitress as she walked off. James and Terran sat down.

"That wasn't our waitress. What was that about?"

"Just flirting," Serena teased. James gave his wife a stern look.

"Serena, you're way too comfortable in your sexuality."

"I know," Serena chuckled and then gently held James' face as she leaned in to kiss him, "I'm going to try and set her up with Lauren."

"Lauren? Do you think she's ready for that?" James looked slightly concerned. "Relationships are a big thing. There's a lot she'll need to…"

"I always thought of relationships as kind of… learn as you go," Serena shrugged her shoulders. She reached out and took Terran, seating him on her lap. "I think she's as ready as she's going to get. And she'll have help."

"Alright, well, I guess the decision is Lauren's anyways," James put his hand in the air to call over the waitress; "You didn't want dessert, did you?"

Serena shook her head and pointed to Terran, "With this mess monster? We should get out of here before he decides to redecorate."