A/N: It's me, StarSlingerSnitch once again with my chapter. Lily's POV, as usual. Warning- major Lily/Latvia sibling-like fluff. It's so sweet I can't stand it!
"Maybe you should stay in the back," Theo suggests, his comment directed at Latvia and Sealand. Sealand frowns.
"But we can help you! We sparred with you and I actually lasted a while against RJ!"
"But you didn't beat him," Theo reminds him, putting on his solar morpher as we continue to run towards the scene. I roll my eyes behind my own morpher.
"M-maybe Theo's right, Sealand," Latvia says softly, trying to hold back his friend from barreling into an unknown situation.
"Finally, a voice of reason," Casey tease. I stifle a laugh.
"We let you come, that's far enough," RJ tells them. "Stay behind us and don't' run into a fight. Let's morph, guys." We all nod.
"Jungle beast, spirit unleashed!" we all cry out at once and morph, still running.
"Remember, stay behind us," Casey cautions them when we arrive at the edge of the city. I shake my head, knowing he needs to loosen up at them, sure, they're young and sure, they have little to know fighting experience, but he was the same as them only a little while ago.
"Casey, let it go. They can take of themselves, let's just finish this." Casey turns to me and I feel like he's about to say something but then he forces his attention back to Jellica and her army of Rinshi.
"Glad you could make it, rangers. And who's this?" she asks, pointing her staff at the countries behind us. I take a step in front of them. Habit, I guess, to always protect someone.
"Our secret weapon," I call out proudly. Jellica's look of surprise is priceless and Sealand's smile is almost as big as his face. Latvia looks a little more wary, but still happy.
My friends, however, are not.
"Lily! They're not our 'secret weapon'!" Theo reprimands me.
"Yeah, why'd you say that?" Dominic joins in. I sigh.
"Guys, battle going on here," Casey reminds us.
"Right, right," Dom mutters. Theo turns to me and if I could see inside his helmet, I'm sure I'd see him frowning at me.
"This isn't over, Lil," he says under his breath. I smile brightly, knowing Theo can't stay mad for long. Especially at me.
"Of course not," I answer him then turn my attention back to our upcoming fight. The adrenaline stings in my veins and my breaths become short, quick.
Let's do this.
"Come on guys!" RJ calls and we charge forward into the mod of Rinshi. "Stay back and fight carefully!" I hear RJ call out, probably mostly towards the younger nations who are each looking a little hesitant to join the battle, as excited as they-or more specifically, Sealand-was.
I jump over a foot soldier, kicking him in the back in the process and as he falls, I land in front of them, skidding slightly on the small pebbles. I hold my hands out to them.
"Care to join us?" I ask them. Sealand grins hugely but Latvia is still content to hang back.
"I-I don't know, Lily," he stammers. "I m-mean, you saw b-back at JKP, I'm n-not a very good fighter…" I wave away his excuses.
"It's okay, you don't have to be a prize fighter. I'm certainly not, and no matter what the others say, they're not either."
"Yeah, Latvia! Everyone can't fight perfectly one hundred percent of the time! Let's fight! Rocket punch!" he screams, charging at a Rinhsi and hitting it in the gut. It falls before him and he looks on triumphantly and then runs off to another. I turn back to Latvia who is watching his friend fight the Rinshi.
"Hey," I say, kneeling down to his eye level. "I'll stick close to you, okay? I won't let you get hurt." Latvia gives me a timid smile, a spark visible in his eyes for the first time since I've known him.
"O-okay. Let's…fight?" I laugh, pulling on his hand towards the foot soldiers advancing on us. I kick on in the torso, still holding Latvia's hand.
"Yeah, let's fight. Duck!" I pull on his hand and he leans forward, missing the punch to his head that the Rinshi tried to give him. I spin him in towards me, jabbing another soldier with the opposite hand as Latvia kicks out, knocking a Rinshi down. He looks startled for a moment, then smiles. A real smile, not a shy smile.
"This is fun," he exclaims, without a trace of his stutter. He lets go of my hand and I take my eyes off of him for a second to evaluate how the others are faring.
RJ and Casey are fighting Jellica by themselves and are actually doing pretty well against her. When Casey goes flying, I feel a tightness in my chest. But when he gets back up, I exhale a breath I didn't even know I was holding. I shake my head and deliver a flying kick to three Rinshi and they knock into each other.
Theo is handling his group easily, no surprise there. Yet when he is pushed back, my heart starts to beat a little faster, only returning to normal when he gets back up.
Dominic is shoving his way through his foot soldiers, pounding them around as casual as taking a walk in the park. I shake my head at his easiness.
Sealand…well Sealand is screaming and running around, pushing and kicking his way through, he is knocked down quite a lot, but always gets back up with enthusiasm. I always wish I could go and help him, but making sure me and Latvia are doing okay is all that I can handle for now.
We continue to fight the soldiers until the circle surrounding us is done for, lying at our feet. I turn to Latvia, who is breathing heavily. He has a cut on his cheek and several bruises on his arm, but seems fine.
"You okay?" I ask him, checking out my own injuries and seeing the others make their way towards us. He nods and I discover I've really grown to love him. Him and Sealand, as my little brothers. As much as I wish that's how I felt about Casey, as I told him, or even Theo, they are my real, fake, little brothers.
"Yeah," he nods. "It's h-harder than I thought but it was a-also fun." He nods. He's back to his stutter but since he abandoned it for a minute, that's all that matters.
"What about you guys?" I call out to them as they join us. Theo is slightly limping and RJ is holding his arm but they all seem relatively unharmed.
"Theo, what happened?" I ask, referring to his limp. He shrugs.
"Just the Rinshi. Nothing I can't handle." I feel the degrees in my helmet go up several degrees but don't comment.
No. Best friend, remember? Best friend.
"Well, you took care of them pretty easily. This will be tougher than I thought…" Jellica mutters. "This calls for backup, I suppose. Grizzaka! Carnisoar!"
"Uh oh," Casey murmurs. I nod, knowing this can't be good.
"You said it," Dom agrees. "Grizzaka, Carnisoar, and Jellica-great."
"This time, you really need to stay in the back," Theo says to the countries. This time, they don't argue and take a few steps backwards.
"Don't worry guys. We got this," I exclaim, trying to be positive. But even with my sunny outlooks, having all of the Overlords against us is not a good sign.
"They're not here yet, though," Casey points out. I give thanks for his calm manner in times of crisis. "Let's just…"
"So you think you can take a break, rangers?" Jellica interrupts him, stabbing her staff into the concrete. "Tsk, tsk, how pitiful."
"I'll show you pitiful," Casey growls but I touch his arm and shake my head-a warning sigh. She could be playing us until she gets backup.
Suddenly, they appear in front of us in a shower of dark magic. Carnisoar and Grizzaka. Them.
I narrow my eyes at them inside my helmet as they sneer down at us, pushing Latvia and Sealand even further behind us.
"Well rangers, seems you are prepared for us," Carnisoar says, airing out his wings. To intimidate us, I suppose. It's not going to work.
"More like prepared to lose," Jellica smirks. They all laugh as we look on, unimpressed.
"Oh yeah? Well, just watch us win!" Dom shouts back at them, anger plain in his voice.
"Come on, let's play," Grizzaka joins in. he charges towards RJ. RJ's ready though and blocks his hit.
"You guys heard her. Let's fight," cries Theo. Jellica jumps right in between me and Theo so we look at each other and nod. We got this.
We circle around her as Carnisoar makes his way towards Casey and Theo. I notice the nations cowering behind an abandoned car.
"Stay there!" I shout at them, ducking beneath one of Jellica's kicks. Theo takes out his Jungle fans and blocks all of Jellica's hits with her own staff.
"Here girl, let me show you how a real women does it," she snarls as she slashes me in the chest. I stagger backwards but then crouch down and aim my fist upwards, catching her in the jaw.
"You're not a real woman," I answer back, dodging her hits and stepping aside as Theo uses his Jungle Fan to make her take a few steps backwards. I run at them and leap over Theo to deliver a kick that she shields with her staff once again. My foot connects with her staff and she's knocked backwards a bit as I fall, landing on the palms of my hands.
"You okay?" Theo asks me, pulling me up by one hand. The spark that happens between us I hope goes unnoticed by him.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." I get up, clutching my wrist to my chest. It feels like the muscles were stretched over my bones too tight, probably from my fall, but I'll survive. We rush back at Jellica and each aim for her arms, trying to knock her staff from her hand. She just swipes it around and shoves us backwards but I flip over her next hit and slash her with my Jungle Bo. We exchange blows quickly until Theo intervenes and swipes a leg under her feet, tripping her. She gets up and looks at us balefully.
"Don't be so smug, rangers. We have something else planned." She suddenly lashes out and shoots at us. The explosions make us fly backwards a few feet and I land hard on the ground as I cradle my still slightly-throbbing wrist. I pant trying to get to my feet. I make it halfway up before Jellica plants her foot on my stomach. It knocks the wind from me and I pull in deep breathes of air. It's like she's putting all her weight on me and with all my strength, I can't shake it off.
Theo is lying a few feet away from me but isn't getting up wither. He turns his head and sees me as I continue to suck in air. At least you're still okay. You're okay.
"I told you, yellow, that we had something planned. Ah, look. It's happening now." I turn my head to where she's pointing…and feel the bottom of my stomach drop.
There's Casey and Dom fighting Carnisoar, dancing around near the side of the mountain.
And RJ…
RJ is lying down, still morphed, but helpless as Grizzaka walks away from his prone figure and over to…
Over to the nations.
No.
Sealand is pushing Latvia behind him, his chest puffed out, prepared to fight Grizzaka once more. But when he runs up to him, Grizzaka simply blasts him away and he flies onto the hood of the car Latvia is still hiding behind. Latvia gets up, his face scared and my heart goes out to him. He's so young…
Grizzaka advances on him, snarling. Latvia tries to run away from him at first, skirting around the car but Grizzaka doesn't fall for that trick and shoots at him, knocking him onto his backside. Just hearing the little country cry out pulls at my heartstrings.
Grizzaka leans down and pulls the nation up by his arm. Grizzaka then looks in my direction, holding the struggling Latvia.
"Like our plan, rangers?" He cackles evilly, adjusting his grip on Latvia as he cries out and kicks the overlord. I feel my mouth drop open as I realize how close we are to losing him.
"Guys, Latvia! Help!" I call out to the others. But they're too preoccupied with their own fights to notice what's happening. Notice what could change everything.
"Theo! Help him! Anybody!" I struggle beneath Jellica's foot as she laughs at me. I feel water in the corner of my eyes but I don't cry. Not yet.
I see Sealand catch my eye. He looks panicked too, and is trying to scramble to his feet to reach his friend. I can see his hand reach out, but all in vain. He's immobile. That means it's me…just me…
"Stay tuned, rangers," exclaims Grizzaka darkly as he starts to shimmer around the edges. He's fading.
"Latvia!" I scream, reaching my hand out towards him. He looks so scared and small and innocent…
Caught in the grip of evil Earth overload.
Jellica's weight is lifted off me. I look up to see her gone and see out of the corner of my eye Grizzaka and Latvia vanish completely.
"No!" I pull myself to my feet and sprint over to where they were. I slide to the ground and pound my hands into the dirt, willing him to come back.
Come back to me.
"Latvia…" I whisper, griping the dirt with my darkened gloves. My mouth is open in a silent scream that I can't seem to move past my throat. I promised to protect him. I told him everything would be okay. Everything would be okay…
I let him down.
"Its okay, Lily. It's okay, we'll get him back." I hadn't notice the others come up to me until I hear Casey's soft voice right by my ear and his arm around my shoulders. I sense, rather than see, the others around me as well. I hear Theo hissing in pain, Sealand's soft whimpering and Dom's steady breathing.
"I…Casey, I couldn't, couldn't help him. I…" I can't go on and finally let my tears leak out. There aren't many, just a couple, but they contain more sadness than a thousand.
Casey's words, the words I always say, echo dully through my brain.
Everything will be okay.
I feel like I just lost a piece of myself.
Like I lost my little brother.