A/N: Thank you so much for your patience anyone who is reading this. I am so sorry for the wait. My grandmother fell ill and has now passed. During that time I didn't have enough time to write, but I had been slowly working on this chapter. Hopefully now that things are starting to get back to a semblance of normality, my writing will too. By the end of the week I should have another chapter for The Untold Truth up as well. Once again, I am sorry for the wait, and I appreciate all of you so much!
Later that night, after caring for her younger brother for several painstaking hours, Mia storms into the shed. She forces herself into the prototype and begins to buckle herself in just as the door opens again. She looks up to see Antonio, tailed by Mike, enter pleading, "Mia, stop! You need to rest." Her eyes meet with the gold ranger's but she shakes her head.
Mia mumbles, "No more waiting. No more testing. I have to start training on this thing. I can't let anything like this happen again. I can't…I can't…" She runs her hands through her hair and chokes, "He got hurt because of me. Don't even try to say that it isn't my fault. He felt like he had to go out there because I got hurt and because I told him that he couldn't. I'm not letting this happen again. He will go out again, because he is my brother and I know that if I was in his situation, I would. I have to get back in the game, now."
Antonio and Mike stand looking down at her for a moment, then Mike nods his head and says, "Okay, lets start doing some practical training. I have a place where we can start, but I'll need to get some things arranged so that we have the place to ourselves. Go to sleep, Mia. You'll need your energy for tomorrow." She moves over to her other chair and transfers herself onto it. Antonio walks behind her and pushes her chair out of the shed and into her room. She slips into her pj's and lie on top of the covers. Her eyes are heavy, but the refuse to rest. She slips out of her bed and into her chair. Mia glides through the hall as silent as a mouse and creeps into the infirmary. She scans her brother's battered body in the dark and lightly brushes some hair out of his closed eyes. Her fingers intertwine with his and she lets herself rest her head on her arm, while she gently strokes his hand with her thumb. Slowly her tired eyes become content to rest.
The sound of birds chirping and the rays of light from the window tell Mia that morning has arrived. When she tries to lift her head off of her bed, she realizes that her brother's arm is wrapped around her head and her fingers are still interlocked with his. She smiles and ducks under his arm gently, in and attempt not to wake him. When Mia sets her brother's arm down, his fingers tighten around hers, not letting her go. She up at him and his eyes meet hers.
"D...d...don't go," he stammers. Mia squeezes his hand back and gives him a warm smile.
She leans closer to him and whispers, "I am not going anywhere."
"H...how d...did you do it?" Terry asks, "When I...I...I try to fight, I end uh...uh...up getting thrown onto my b...b...butt."
Mia chuckles and shrugs, "I got thrown down a lot two. The key is to never stay there. You always have to get up no matter how much it hurts. You have to get up until you can't even stand anymore." She gently nudges his rib cage and jokes, "Literally. I mean until you literally can't stand anymore." They both laugh until Terry begins to hug his rib cage.
"Don't m...make me laugh, Mia! It hurts!" he whines.
She sighs, "Fine. How about I go get breakfast? You didn't eat much yesterday, and you can't get better on an empty stomach. What do you want?"
He looks away for a moment as if seriously contemplating a complicated matter, then replies, "Cereal. It's hard to blow up milk and carbs. It's also probably the only thing you can reach in the kitchen."
"Hey!" she retorts, "The others love my cooking!"
He rolls his eyes and teases, "Mia, there's a reason that they banned you from the stove!"
"Like you said, I can't reach anything in the kitchen except for the milk and the cereal!" she snaps. She throws down his hand and turns to leave.
Before she can, he yells, "Mia, don't forget to get something for yourself, okay?"
Mia smiles and jests, "Maybe. I have to take care of my defensewiss baby bwudder first." Terry rolls his eyes, but grins at his older sister as she wheels out of the room.
When she reaches the kitchen, she sees Cam. Without acknowledging him, she gets two empty bowls, spoons, the milk carton, and cereal. Then, she leaves silently.
For the rest of the day, Mia speeds around the house performing various tasks for her brother and the other samurai. Neither Mike nor Antonio mention the project, only talking to her about new movies or the latest catch, but Mia did notice that Mike slipped out of the house for half an hour. As night draws nearer she becomes anxious for the lights to go out, but as light's out draws nearer seconds seem to take the span of hours. Yet, despite the prolonged wait, the night does come. She waits in the shed for the others wheeling in circles and figure eights to pass the time. Mia longingly stares at their project, but knows that she should wait. She looks away from the creation and her eyes rest on the black case. A smile creeps onto her face as she rolls over to her trusty cello. Gingerly, she leans it onto her shoulder and begins to play a new song that Antonio gave her the sheet music for. She smiles as the notes build the suspension in the melody. Her head sways for a moment with her bow. Despite the complexity of the music, she picked it up relatively easily. The song contains a certain familiarity that she can not place her finger on. Her whole working body and mind become engulfed in the music, playing the song over and over again ad nauseum. Only when her arm tires and hangs loosely at her side, barely gripping the bow does she notice the time.
"It's one in the morning!" she exclaims, "Lights out is at ten. Where are they?" She turns around and the answer to her question lies on the floor, snoring. Mia rolls her eyes and begins to roll towards them. Shaking them awake she yells, "Hey! Wake up! What are you guys doing?" They groan and open their eyes.
"Mom, five more minutes," Mike whines.
"It's one am!" Mia informs them. With that their eyes snap open and Antonio grabs the prototype and Mike practically drags her out the door. They sneak out the back gate and into the woods and finally end up in the city. They finally stop in front of the local skate park. "Are we training here?" she asks.
Antonio nods and says, "First put these on." He pulls out a pair of black wheelchair gloves from his back pocket and hands them to her. She looks at him skeptically, but does as he says. He continues, "We are going to need to morph up in here in order to avoid the security cameras. Mike got permission from the owner, but he came in his ranger suit. Once you start fighting again, people are going to wonder who you are. This way we won't have any issues." They help her into the prototype which has pink, compact rims. Her legs are strapped into the chair by two padded, metal bars that come across. Underneath the chair is a bar that runs the horizontal length of the chair. The wheels also have shocks and levers that can adjust them if they need to go into the woods. Finally, the seat belt comes across her waist to lock her in.
She looks up at the guys excitedly and asks, "Ready?"
"We're waiting on you!" Mike jokes. When Mia attempts to morph, she blows herself back into the wall. Music flies everywhere and Mia lays on her side under the chair. "Well, at least the chair is in tact!" he halfheartedly jokes.
"What happened?" Mia asks as they set her chair upright.
"I don't know," Mike replies, "Maybe you're rusty. Try again?"
"No!" Antonio exclaims, "Do not try again! We have to figure out the source of this before we do anything else, if we do anything else." Frustrated, Mia puts her head in her hands as she attempts to figure out what went wrong. Suddenly, they hear a knock at the door and they all freeze.
"Mia, are you okay?" the voice from outside asks. Mia instantly recognizes it and swings open the door.
"Cam? How did you find us?" she asks.
He smirks and replies, "Well, the explosion gave you away. Actually, I figured you out rather quickly. Knowing you, the OCD germaphobe, there would have to be a good reason for you to hang out in a shed."
"How did you…"
"I saw you coming in here the other night," he explains, "I figured you were either practicing your cello or building a super chair, and by the looks of it, both guesses were correct." Mia rolls her eyes at him. "Listen, I know you are mad at me for helping Terry, but I knew he would go off and do something stupid if I didn't. At least I could give him some protection."
"That sounds familiar," Mike mumbles. Both of the guys give Mia a reprimanding look. She sees this and sinks into her chair a bit.
"Fine," she sighs, "Sorry I've been ignoring to you. I just never thought I would have to see Terry like that."
"No, apologies necessary cuz," Cam replies, "I get it. How about we use some of my research done on Terry to fix your morphing problem, okay?"
"Wait, you know what the problem is?" Antonio asks.
"Yup," Cam answers, "Your symbol power flows through your body, but your system controls it and releases it when you write a symbol. I figured this out when I did a scan to see why Terry's asthma affected his symbol power. His problem was that he did not have enough oxygen for him to utilize to morph since every time he tried, his adrenaline would spike causing his asthma to act up. Your problem is that without your nervous system in tact, you have no way of controlling it."
"And your solution is?" Mia asks.
"We need to redirect your symbol power back up into your spine so it thinks that it is circulating through your whole body, when in actuality it is only going through about half. This should actually amplify your power if done right. Mike, Emily told me that in highschool you had a bit of an underground business tattooing people without their parents knowing."
"How did you?"
"We will need that skill," he continues.
Mia comments, "I don't like where this is going."