Chapter 7

11 years ago

Antonio came back home with Matthew and Gianna after picking them up from their first day of kindergarten. Antonio and Mia decided that it would be best if only one of them picked up the kids from school every day. That way there would be less of a chance of Octoroo finding them.

Gianna excitedly ran up to her mom when they walked in the door. "Mommy! Guess what our teacher told us about?!" she said.

"What?" Mia asked.

"The samurai rangers!"

"Oh. Really?" Mia glanced at Antonio who just shrugged. The kids still didn't know who the samurai rangers were, so he didn't see the harm.

"I like the pink ranger," Gianna said. "She's so cool."

"I like the gold ranger," Matthew said. "He made his own powers."

Antonio and Mia glanced at each other smiling. Of course, their kids would like the gold and pink rangers. "Why don't you two go do the assignment your teacher gave you?" The two kids nodded and ran to their rooms. They had told Antonio during the car ride home about some drawing that the teacher assigned the class to finish at home.

"Are you sure they won't piece anything together?" Mia asked.

"They're just learning about the samurai rangers," Antonio told his wife. "It's not like the school knows who we are."

"I guess you're right. I just don't want them to know about everything yet. They deserve to be normal kids and not have to constantly watch their backs."

"I know. We'll protect them. They won't know until we believe they're ready."

Present

Matthew and Gianna were on their way to Spring Valley. They figured they would start by destroying the rock and then look for their parents. They knew there would be a huge risk destroying the rock first, but they figured that they could use a fake rock to try to trick Octoroo. Although, how would they make a regular rock look like it was glowing. Oh well, they would cross that bridge when they get to it.

"Are you sure we're doing the right thing, Matthew?" Gianna asked her brother.

"I honestly don't know, but we need to do this," Matthew said. "We're part of the new team who can stop Octoroo. Our parents spent years in hiding trying to make sure that Octoroo wouldn't get his tentacles on the rock and Master Xandred would never come back. We need to finish what they started."

"I guess you're right."

"Good. We need to keep moving."

Elsewhere

"Where are we going?" Brandon asked his cousins who were in the front of the group.

"I have a feeling that Matthew and Gianna are heading to Spring Valley to destroy the rock," Adrian responded.

"So, what are we doing?" Benjamin asked.

"We're going to locate their parents," Juliet told everyone. "If we can find them while Matthew and Gianna are destroying the rock, then all we'll need to worry about will be Octoroo."

"Where do we even start?" Rosie cut in.

Juliet looked at the younger set of twins. "You two might be able to track where Octoroo took them. You guys have symbols powers of forest and earth and that's why we're here." The group arrived at Matthew and Gianna's house. Adrian and Juliet had talked it over and decided that it would be a good place to start.

"Ok," Benjamin said. "Let me try." Since they were currently in the forest, he managed to pick up the trail the Octoroo took the former gold and pink samurai rangers. "I think I got the trail." He started following it and the other rangers followed him. He tracked the trail for a while until they ended up in a rockier area and then Rosie took over since her symbol power is earth.

"I think we might have found it," Rosie said. "The trail ends in there." She pointed to a tunnel right in front of them.

"A creepy tunnel," Juliet said. "That's not surprising at all." She looked around at the others. "Ready?"

"Ready!" the others responded.

"SAMURAIZER! GO GO SAMURAI!" they all shouted as they morphed.

"Let's go, but be careful," Juliet instructed. "We don't know what we'll find in there." The others nodded in agreement and followed Juliet into the tunnel.

Back with the older twins

They just arrived at Spring Valley and were looking at the water. "So, this is the purest water around," Gianna said.

"Yeah," Matthew agreed. "I'm sure the Nighlok hate this place because of that."

"Considering how this water can help us destroy the Nighlok rock, I'm pretty sure they would do anything they could to avoid this place."

"Let's hope that works in our favor." Matthew stepped closer to the water with the rock in his hand. He hesitated because he thought about how the rock could potentially be leverage to get his parents back, but there was also no way that he could give it to Octoroo. Their parents worked so hard to make sure Octoroo didn't get it for years. They couldn't turn back now. They had to do this. He dipped the rock into the water and waited a couple of minutes before pulling it out. The glow from the rock dimmed to the point where it was almost nonexistent. Matthew took a moment to study it, remembering all of the times he secretly took it out of the hiding place his parents had it in even though his father told him to leave it alone. It looked so fragile now.

"Do you think it's ready?" Gianna asked her twin, which shook him out of his thoughts.

"There's only one way to find out." Matthew raised the rock up above his head and was about to smash it on the ground when they heard laughter. It wasn't normal laughter either. It was ominous.

Octoroo came out of one of the gaps and appeared in front of them. "Ooh. Aah. Ooh. What is going on with the two of you? Trying to destroy the rock I see. I don't know if that would be in your best interest."

A/N: I hope you enjoyed!