Chapter 5

17 years ago

Antonio and Mia were standing at a wedding altar with a marriage officiant as Mentor Ji walked into where they were getting married. "Am I late?" he asked.

"No, you're just in time," Mia said as both she and her about to be husband smiled at him.

The wedding officiant conducts the ceremony, and it ends with the gold and pink samurai rangers kissing. After the ceremony, the two walked over to their mentor.

"Are you two sure about this?" Mentor Ji asked and he was not referring to them getting married.

"We have to," Mia said. "We can't let Master Xandred come back."

"This is the only way," Antonio added. "And we have to keep our family safe."

Mentor Ji looked at Mia. "How far along are you?"

"Only 8 weeks," Mia said and rubbed her stomach.

"Please keep me posted on your lives."

"Of course we will."

"Do you want to know where we'll be in case you want to come visit?" Antonio asked.

"I think it will be better if I didn't know," Mentor Ji said. "It will protect you both better. You hid it well?"

"We did," Antonio said for confirmation. "We'll make sure that Octoroo never finds its location."

"Be safe."

"We will."

Present

Octoroo had both Antonio and Mia chained to a wall. "Ooh-ah-ooh. I finally caught the two of you," Octoroo said and walked up to Antonio. "Now, tell me where the rock is."

"We'll never tell you," Antonio said.

Octoroo hit Antonio's face with his staff.

"No!" Mia yelled. "Don't hurt him!"

"I will find out where the rock is from you two one way or another." Octoroo walked away leaving the two former rangers.

"Antonio, are you ok?" Mia asked her husband.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm alright, but it's probably going to bruise."

"I hope our kids are alright."

"I'm sure they are and if they got to the Shiba House, they'll be protected."

The Forest

Matthew and Gianna were leading everyone, minus Mentor Ji, to their house. They were nervous about what they might find there. They didn't know what happened to their parents after they ran. Adrian stayed next to Gianna the whole time they were walking to make sure that she was ok with everything that was going on.

As they were getting closer, Rosie came up to Matthew. "Hey," she said.

"Hey," Matthew said back.

"Are you ok? This all must be a lot to take in."

"Yeah. It kind of is, but I'm dealing with it."

"Are you sure? I mean, I don't know what I would do if all of this was just dumped on me."

"Well-" Matthew was cut off by Emily asking a question.

"So, you two are Antonio and Mia's only kids, right?" Emily asked.

"Yeah," Gianna answered. "Although, at one point we were going to have a younger sibling."

"What happened?"

"Our mom had a miscarriage."

"She did?" Emily didn't expect Mia to have a miscarriage. Emily knew that if that happened to her, she would be so upset. Mike put an arm around his wife knowing what she was thinking.

"Yeah, but it was about 10 years ago," Gianna said remembering what happened back then. "Mom was so upset about it for a while. She stayed in her and dad's room for a few days while dad was doing everything around the house as well as comfort her."

"How was Antonio feeling about the whole thing?" Mike asked. He knew that if Emily had a miscarriage, he would've been upset about it too. "I mean, it was his kid too."

"Dad didn't show anyone how he felt about it for a few days," Matthew piped up. "He was keeping himself busy by taking care of everything for mom. We didn't see how much it upset him until me and Gianna found him one night crying in the bathroom."

"That must've been hard for both of them," Emily said.

Jayden was about to say something, but Matthew spoke before him. "There's our house!" Matthew and Gianna took off running and everyone else chased after them. When Matthew and Gianna got there, they were shocked to see their house a complete mess. It was obvious that there was a fight there, but there was no sign of their parents. When everyone else caught up, they saw how the house was a wreck.

"They're not here," Gianna said. "They must have been taken."

Adrian hugged Gianna to comfort her. "Don't worry, we'll find them," he said. Nobody questioned the hug. They all thought that Adrian was just being a good friend.

"We will find them, but we also need to find out where they hid the rock," Jayden said.

"What rock?" Matthew asked like he knew something.

"It's supposed to be a special Nighlok rock."

"Could it be red? Dim glow to it?" They all looked at Matthew confused, including Gianna.

"Possibly." Jayden didn't really know what it looked like but was curious at what Matthew might know.

Matthew started walking into the forest and everyone else followed him. The new gold ranger stopped at a tree and reached inside a small hole.

"Matthew, what are you doing?" Gianna asked.

"When I was training with dad a few years ago, I accidentally stumbled upon a rock that was hidden inside this tree," Matthew answered. "When dad saw me with it, he took the rock from me and told me that the rock shouldn't be touched and that it needs to be left there. Now, I understand why he didn't want me to touch it. It's what they've been hiding!" He pulled it out and they all looked at it.

Jayden took it from him. "This must be it!" Jayden said.

"Wait," Gianna said and turned to her brother. "How did you remember what tree it was? You said it was a few years ago."

Matthew rubbed the back of his neck. "I might've disobeyed dad a few times and came over and pulled it out a few times."

Gianna slapped his arm. "You didn't think the rock was weird at all."

"Of course I thought it was weird, but I wanted to know why dad was so protective of it."

Jayden interrupted the older pair of twins. "Let's head back to the Shiba House and see if we can find any information to lead us to your parents."

Everyone nodded and they started heading back.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed!