The Red and Gold World

Chapter one: Remember the Day

He did remember. The day he destroyed Master Xandred for good. It was difficult, more than he could ever imagine anything else could be. And after they ended the fight, everyone moved on. Everyone moved out. He had gotten used to all of them being around. He still had Ji of course. His mentor, friend, father who wasn't his father. The man who taught him everything. Or, mostly everything. He always wondered the difference if his dad didn't leave to fight him, to be with his team and temporarily seal him. And not die. Leaving him and Lauren without their parents.
It was weird, he was a leader for so long, he had gotten used to that too. Even if in the beginning he almost refused to lead. He missed them, Emily, Mia, Mike, Kevin, Antonio. They all had moved on. He remembered the day they worked together to destroy Xandred. One of the last times they had been a strong team before everyone left.
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Jayden held the console of his Zord tightly. His burning and sore hands kept a strong grip, despite being covered in his gloves. He tried  not to let go of the folded up sword that was controlling his zord, more specifically the Gigazord. He looked around at his friends. They were tired too, they were weak like him, blasted off of their consoles and trying to get up from Xandreds last blast. They were almost falling unconscious from all the exhaustion. They kept fighting though. Jayden breathed heavily. Kevin crawled back up to his console, hardly keeping himself up. "Xandred is more powerful than ever." Emily stated as she held her console, hardly being able to keep on as well. "What do we do now?"
Mia crashed her arm onto hers, her fingers hardly reaching the zord part at the tip. "At this rate, we won't last long." She ended with a huff, almost falling apart on her folded sword. "I'll try and buy us some time." Kevin pulled out his samuraizer. "Samurai symbol power-" he began to try and draw a symbol, before Jayden held out his arm in front of the started symbol. "Wait—don't use symbol power yet-"
"Why not?" Kevin interjected quickly. Jayden breathed hard, trying not to fall apart in front of his team. "We can't use it in small amounts." He paused. "He'll win that way." Jayden admitted. He didn't want to hear it, even from
himself, but it was true. Jayden felt the shogun uniform dissolve from his body, leaving him without his guarded shield. He looked at Kevin and Emily. "We have to demorph." Then looked at Mike, Mia and Antonio. "And combine every last ounce of symbol power into one grand strike."
"What—?" Antonio asked wearily, looking at his leader through his damaged golden helmet. "We can only beat him as a team." Jayden spoke confidentially to his team. After he finished Mike and Mia demorphed. "One attack?" Mike asked with a breathy unsure tone.
"What if we miss?" Mia followed. Jayden chewed on the side of his cheek before looking back in front of him. "We need to get so close that we can't miss." He gritted his teeth at the thought of even missing. They would be dead. He would never see Lauren or Ji again. 'I have to make my big sister proud.' Emily and Kevin demorphed. Emily taking a heavy inhale before speaking. "We have to do it." She looked at all of them. "To save the world." Finally, Antonio demorphed after a nod from Mike. Antonio held up his now Barracuda Blade instead of Mega Blade . "Sounds risky. And dangerous." He looked ahead. "Let's do it!"
"Remember. No matter what happens we cannot retreat. We have to keep going at all costs. Even if we only have one zord left." He stopped another heavy breath refraining him from continuation for a moment. "Everything is riding on this one attack."
"Right!" The entire team yelled in unison, sticking their blades into their own consoles. "Okay then." He had to be ready, he pushed his sword ahead. "Charge!"
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Even if it was hard, he missed the fighting. The constant saving the world, the adrenaline he felt while fighting the Nighlok. It was gone now. His destiny was done.
His normal routine now, was waking up, taking a shower, getting dressed, playing his new gutar. Sometimes with Ji, and sometimes not. Reading, writing, drawing symbols and occasionally calling one of his friends to check on them. They would always send pictures or messages of what they were doing on their shared group but it never stuck as it did when they were in the Shiba House. He still missed them after the year. His new friends and of course, childhood best friend and sister. But he wished life was more interesting than that. It was with the fighting. 'I shouldn't miss that. All I wanted was to have a normal, steady life. Now I do. What's the point in wanting to go back now?'
"Jayden?" Ji approached him from the doors to the house, he had his black guatar in his left hand while his left held the door open. Jayden turned his head back. "Are you alright?"
Jayden nodded. "Uh yeah. I was just thinking."
Ji walked closer to the bench he was sitting on, he put aside his own gutar and sat next to him. He placed his hands in his lap. "Is it about the fight with Xandred?"
Jayden kept quiet. He didn't want to answer that.
"You know you defeated him. You Rangers won." He held his shoulder. "And you did amazing. So did Lauren, by creating the Shiba disk you guys had enough power to defeat him in his first form. So why are you thinking about it?"
Jayden shifted his legs, stepping his feet across the ground. "I don't know. It is just so different. Being, normal I guess."
"Normal." Ji laughed. "Whatever that means."
Jayden stood up, balencing his chin on the top of his instrument. "It means that I am not keeping any big secret anymore. Lauren being a secret was already one thing, and now I don't have to walk around with the idea that I might have to save the world in a moment if she doesn't come back in time." He sighed, looking towards the dummies, then the outside used-to-be kitchen. He remembered when Antonio would always grill fish. Usually after a battle. Jayden clenched his jaw. "It's all differenct now. Not like when it was just us. Me training as a kid. Sometimes with Antonio. And you telling me it had to be perfect to succeed."
"And you did." Ji smiled sympathetically. "You won. You did amazing."
"Maybe." Jayden replied doubtfully.
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Jayden had walked back to his bedroom after a few more moments talking to Ji. And strumming some notes on his bright red guitar. When he returned he looked up. His symbol. His fire symbol. The one on his helmet as well as the one that represented his power. It still hung up high on a red frame. His eyes drifted and saw the box on his shelf. The box containing his discs. And the unworking black box. He still tried to make it work, but without Antonio's techness and after the battle with Master Xandred the box was hardly useful. And the zords were lost. Only the main six survived. There wasn't a way to get them.
Though he still had the Lion zord. And his friends had all of their folding zords. Maybe Emily would give hers back to Sierra if she was better, and shed become the yellow ranger. It reminded him of his own situation. 'She's probably still sick though.'
Jayden balanced his closed Lion zord in the palm of his hand. It made a small roar when it opened, kicking up it's front robotic paws when Jayden tired to imitate his protest. "Do you miss them too?" The red zord roared again. "Yeah. I know I do." He held his hand above the Lion, folding his zord back up, placing him on the shelf with the symbol facing forward. He didn't want to at first, but he picked up the box with the discs. It had dust on the cap from how long it was away, and when he opened the cover it was also dusty inside. The power discs sat carefully in each section. His fire disc, shark disc, tiger disc, bull disc and of course in the little indented seat was the box. He picked it up and held it to rest in his fingers. It was heavy, with small cracks on the sides. The lights on the sides were also cracked from the damage. He remembered the day they got them. They found many dark red puddles of Sanzu River water all across the city, and with that they also found Arachnitor washing himself through the puddles. They fought herds of Moogers until Antonio came running in with the finished box. He worked so hard on it. And it didn't even work anymore.
Jayden put the box back and his zord at the top. His eyes then landed on his Samuraizer. It was balancing on the side of the wooden box before he had picked it up. He picked the Samuraizer up. Rolling it around in his hands made a lonely feeling. He remembered holding it in his hands, flipping it open and yelling out their chant that scared the Nighloks. Their morphs. "Go Go Samurai!"
Jayden flipped it open. The bright red homescreen glowed. His symbol spun around at the home. He saw the contacts, clicking on the option with the select button. There was all his friends. He chuckled seeing Kevins contact information. With the ballerina costume on from when his body was switched with a music box. Mike had sent it to him after the event had subsided and Antonio had gotten over his fear.
"Reminiscing?" Ji sat in the enterence, holding his bamboo stick against the ground. His hands were folded while holding it. His chin was high.
Jayden folded back his samuraizer and leaned  it on the wooden box. He stepped back from his shelf, stuffing his hands deep in his jean pockets. "Yeah. I suppose." He sighed deeply. "I miss it you know? And yeah it was tough but that is what made it good. What made life interesting." He looked back to Ji, whose face was in thinking. Ji clutched on his stick strap. "I understand the change Jayden. It's definitely hard when you spent your life constantly training, now to have so much free time it might kill you."
"Thanks Ji. It's the boredom that kills me not the Nighlok." Jayden rolled his eyes.
Ji shook his head, walking into Jaydens room. He glanced around at everything on the book shelf. His hand picked up a picture frame towards the top. It was him with his dad and Lauren. "This is old. This was one of the pictures I put away." He cleared his throat. "To keep the Lauren plan away."
"Well it wasn't keeping from me." He corrected with a raised brow. "It was keeping from the others."
Ji nodded. "Do you remember your father?"
"No. Not much." Jayden looked over to his actual books at the bottom. Just a bunch of Samurai training books. Or how to be a good Samurai. "Only him leaving for his last battle. Where he gave me the Lion zord." Jayden shifted his shoulders. "He was a good man. He really cared for his children. And his team. He was a naturally born leader." Ji paused. "Like you."
"Maybe. But I really don't have anything to be a leader for now. Until the Nighlok come back. If they do."
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Jayden prepared for bed soon after his talk with Mentor. It was early in the night, and he didn't even realise until his shower was done. 'I used to go to bed so late when I had training.' He laid down on his bed, his head hitting the pillow with a thump. 'What do I do now?'

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The first chapter! I probably will rush the plot a bit to get to when they all come back but I hope it will be good anyway! Yes this is the first chapter and I did try to stay true to the story, I will 'morph' (Haha) a few things to make it fit. Here it is! Hope you enjoy!

--MFP--