Chapter 1 – Cosmic Love
"Emily are you alright?" The red ranger said rushing over to the clumsy, sweet yellow ranger. The nighlock had hurt Emily instead of Jayden once again. She was always willing to take one for the team, even if it meant that she would get hurt.
"I'm fine. I promise!" Emily winced in pain as she sat up. The hit was so bad that it caused her to demorph.
"Will get you to Mentor as soon as possible. That's what I promise." Jayden got up from Emily's side and turned to face the nighlock. "Hey! Haven't you ever heard of chivalry? Pushing girls definitely does not fall under the criteria." Jayden took out his red fire smasher and charged forward at the nighlock, spinning his personal fire symbol power causing the sword to erupt in flames of fire every time he swung it at the nighlock.
Emily watched smiling. She felt a smidge of warmth when Jayden ran to her side. She liked Jayden a lot and secretly hoped he liked her too. No one knew her secret and she planned to keep it that way to save her from embarrassment and the tears.
Jayden continued to fight the evil nighlock. This one's specialty was using rivalry to turn the rangers against each other. The first strike was when the nighlock mentioned Mike's love for Emily which obviously wasn't true. Mike loved Emily like a sister. So as soon as Mike heard that he immediately defused the blow by telling the team, but specifically Jayden, it wasn't true. Mike knew how Jayden felt about Emily and he could see in Emily's eyes that Emily felt the same way about Jayden.
After a few more blows the nighlock grew ten times' it's size and Jayden, Kevin, and Mike summoned their three zords (tiger, swordfish, and beetle) to create the Samurai Battlewing. The three of them controlled the megazord and destroyed the nighlock in less than ten minutes. Emily cheered from the ground, trying to hide the pain. Mia was at her side helping her up.
The three boys demorphed and went to join the two girls. They were walking at first but when they saw Emily struggling to get up they ran to her side. "Emily are you sure you are okay?" Kevin said looking into Emily's eyes.
"Yes! I'm okay guys!" Jayden returned to Emily's side and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. He then put an arm around her waist and his other arm held her arm on his shoulder as he stood up.
Emily steadied herself and stood with the others in silence for a few moments. She smiled. "See guys! I'm okay!" They all began to walk back to the Shiba House. Mia walked next to Emily keeping her entertained while the other boys stood around her, ready to catch her at any moment. They only walked about a mile when Emily stopped and brought a hand to her head. "Ow!" She wined.
"What's wrong Emily?" Mia said looking at her best friend confused.
"It's nothing really, my head just hurts. I'm sure I'm fine. Let's just keep going." Emily walked forward and then fainted backwards. Jayden was quick to catch her.
"Emily!" He screamed, clutching hold of her. She was like a rag doll, if he let go she would flop to the ground easily. Jayden picked up Emily bridal style and carried her back the rest of the way. Mentor was outside meditating when the five of them returned.
"I'm glad to know another nighlock was destroyed." Mentor opened his eyes and looked at the five teenagers approaching him. "What happened to Emily?" He stood up and walked over to a depressed Jayden.
"She took a blow for me. She's weak Ji."
"Let's take her inside." Emily's eyes began to flutter open when Jayden walked inside.
"Where am I?"
"We're back home, Emily." Jayden said placing Emily in the recovery bed.
"What happened?" She said rubbing her eyes.
"You collapsed while we were walking back. You need to rest now." Emily was about to protest. "That's an order." Jayden said laughing. Emily not wanting to defy her fearless leader immediately closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep.
Jayden left the room and went to join his friends who were talking to Mentor Ji. "Emily will be okay. She just needs rest so she can recover." Jayden sat down next to Mike and folded his hands in his lap. He didn't look up into anyone's eyes.
"This is my fault. I shouldn't have let Emily get in front of me and take the hit."
"Jayden, this is not your fault. It was Emily's choice to sacrifice herself for you. She did it for the team and to protect you. Don't beat yourself up so much." Mentor tried to soothe Jayden.
"I just feel so bad."
"Don't! Emily is going to be all right in a couple of days. You'll see." Mia smiled at Jayden.
A couple of hours later, Jayden went to join Emily in the recovery room. He sat on the opposite bed and watched her sleep. She looked so cute and innocent. He couldn't believe he let her take that blow. It should be him sitting in the bed recovering, not sweet little Emily. He sat in silence. He didn't know what to say to her. His head was a mix of emotions. They ranged from anger at the nighlock, to love for Emily and more anger for what he did to her.
He finally found a reason to speak to her and spoke. "Emily, I'm sorry. I let you down again. It shouldn't be you in this bed right now. You're too precious to lose. I don't know how to say this but—you mean a lot to me. When the nighlock hit you, I thought I was going to lose you forever. I'm glad you're okay. But please don't let me go through this again." He hoped that Emily didn't hear him in her sleep. He wanted to tell her how he really felt. He wanted to look her in the eyes and say that he loved her. He wanted to tell her everything that he liked about her. From her warming smile, to her caring heart, everything about her made Jayden fall more in love with her.
Emily heard it all. She had been awake since Jayden started talking. She continued to pretend that she was sleeping because she didn't know how to respond. She couldn't believe that Jayden felt the same way about her. Maybe she was right to think that Jayden's rigid response to the nighlock's remark about Mike and Emily was jealousy. She heard Jayden get up and walk out of the room. When she knew he was gone she turned over onto her other side and opened her eyes to look out the window.
She wished she could tell Jayden how she felt now but she was scared too. She was scared that maybe she didn't understand him correctly. Maybe he meant what he said as a friend, not a lover? Emily thought to herself for a while. She wanted to be with Jayden so badly.
