On Fire (Power Rangers Samurai)

78 - Experiment / Expense

"Jayden, can you hear me?" Ji remained calm and cool, even as he saw his son figure lethally injured. "Demorph and preserve your energy."

Jayden listened and demorphed, revealing his pale skin and his pain stricken face.

It pleased Arachnion to see her victim's face as she slowly killed them. It took her mind off of her own injury that caused blood to pool at her feet.

"Whatever you do it's hopeless!" Arachnion barked.

"Kevin, use your swordfish disc to purify Jayden's body." Mentor ordered him.

"Right!" Kevin shook himself out of his stillness and immediately summoned his hydro bow.

Ji brought a sense of certainty to the situation, making the rangers feel more at ease.

Kevin attached the swordfish disc to his hydro bow and began to shoot purifying water pellets at Jayden.

It slowed down the effects of the poison and helped Jayden a tremendous amount.

Jayden would feel waves of relief, followed by a new intensity from the poison. It was an exhausting pattern.

"Mike, put your sword at that nighlok's neck."  Ji knew that Arachnion was stuck on Jayden's sword and couldn't remove her tail from Jayden's back, but he still wanted to confirm their upper hand.

Mike nodded, and approached the nighlok.

"I'll kill you if you come closer." Arachnion threatened the green ranger. She still had 3 free arms that weren't cut off.

Mike swallowed his doubts and ran forth.

Arachnion swiped her arms at him in a disorganized manner.

Mike didn't expect the range of Arachnion's arms to be as long as they were, and so he ended up getting a few minor slashes.

After finding an opening, Mike quickly slid his sword in front of Arachnion's neck and stood right behind her.

"Alright," Ji turned his attention to Antonio. "We won't kill the nighlok. We'll take this opportunity to experiment instead."

"Antonio, take this." Ji handed him Lauren's tiger zord disc.

As expected, Antonio, Mike, and Kevin wondered how the heck he got Lauren's tiger disc.

"With your symbol hacking skills and her disc, you can replicate Lauren's dark symbol power." Ji continued.

Antonio was getting an idea of what Ji was about to ask him to do, but he didn't want to believe it.

Reluctantly, Antonio attached the disc to his self made samuraizer. He remained silent and allowed Ji to go on.

"The monks believe they've found a way to temporarily seal the bridge between our worlds. You must use this symbol on that nighlok." Ji showed Antonio the symbol in his handbook.

Antonio took a look at the symbol. It seemed to be similar to something he had seen before until he realized it was.

"This symbol looks very similar to the ones I saw in the archives... the ones Lauren paint in her room."

Antonio was already aware that performing extreme symbols had greater consequences than just utilizing symbol power.

"... don't these symbols involve a spirit?" Antonio was suspicious.

"There's no time to explain." Ji respondly urgently.

"Using this symbol and the tiger disc... it wouldn't harm Lauren, right?" Antonio questioned.

"You must do it!" Ji commanded.

"..."

"Ideally it should work in the way it is supposed to. Try it now before we can't save Jayden." Ji became fed up.

"Uhh." Mike wasn't sure who's side to be on. But it was obvious that both sides did not like each other.

On the other hand, Kevin was just as reluctant as Antonio was.

The two of them shared an intense exchange of looks before Antonio took Ji's handbook.

But rather than beginning to type out the symbol, Antonio began to fiddle away on his samuraizer.

"What are you doing?" Ji sounded irritated. "Are you not worried about Jayden's stamina!"

Are you not worried about Lauren? Is what Antonio wanted to say.

Antonio assumed that the symbol Ji wanted him to do would either weaken her powers as a black ranger, weaken her body, or even take a part of her spirit.

The monks must've noticed that the rangers were all tired, injured, and needed a break from nighlok. Continuing to fight in an exhausted state would not be healthy or productive.

To buy some time, they formulated that symbol at Lauren's expense.

The monks viewed Lauren as a tool, so it would be easy to sacrifice pieces of her to accomplish their goals.

Antonio had taken Ji as the type to care about Lauren, but now he just seemed like another one of the monks who didn't.

Maybe spending so much time with them had an influence on him.

"There's always a better way." Antonio wasn't planning to risk any of the untold side effects of using Ji's symbol. "I'll take responsibility if this doesn't work."

"What are you-"

"Kevin, how long can you keep that hydro bow up?" Antonio asked, gauging the amount of time he had.

"10 minutes would be pushing it." Kevin replied.

"Alright then, I expect 10 minutes." Antonio replied, to which Kevin nodded his head and fell into a deep concentration.

"Jayden, can you hold out that long?" Mike asked him over Arachnion's shoulder.

The poor boy was heaving, with sweat and tears dripping from his nose and chin.

"Hm." This was Jayden's way of saying I can.

He knew that he had endured worse. He thought all the way back to when Kotek tortured him with his poison and tried to drive their team apart.

It was painful on many levels, but he survived.