Mia squeezed Kevin's hand as they approached Antonio's bedroom, unsure of whether he was inside or not, but they needed to find out. She was worried about what they wanted to ask Antonio because there was a chance that things didn't work out the way she wanted them to. She hadn't yet experienced the pain of the Stones, but she had seen Kevin's experience and heard Mike's cries. It wasn't something she would wish on her enemies, and it definitely wasn't something she wanted Emily to go through a second time.

Just before they reached Antonio's room Mia stopped. Kevin continued walking until his hand felt a tug. He turned back to Mia with a gentle look.

"You know we have to do this…"

"Are you sure?" Mia asked him. "Can you really… you know, do the symbol? If you can't and we go through with this…"

"I don't want to see her hurting either," Kevin promised Mia. "I could barely sit through Mike's programming… I wouldn't be able to hear Emily's screams, never mind be in the same room with her, without completely losing my sanity."

"It's just… you've only started learning the symbol and… what if…"

"Mia," Kevin smiled and wrapped his arms around her, "You know half the process of mastering any symbol is believing you have the strength to create it. I know I can do this, and when it's do or die, I'm going to do. I'll make sure the process is painless and I'm going to make sure you never have to know what it's like."

Mia leaned into Kevin and listened to his screams play over and over again in her mind before Mike's screams were suddenly added overtop, making it twice as loud and twice as painful for Mia to imagine. She buried her face in his chest. Kevin could feel her trembling as she sobbed. He held her tight and kissed the top of her head.

"It's okay," he whispered, "Everything's going to be fine."

He continued to hold Mia with one hand while the other knocked on Antonio's door. Mia heard the knock and tried to straighten herself out before seeing Antonio. She didn't want him to see her hurting. She didn't like it when people knew she was hurting. She was the strong one; the one who couldn't easily be broken.

The door opened and Antonio looked at the two oldest Samurai. He lowered his head in shame.

"I'm so…"

"Cut the crap," Kevin snapped. "We need you and the Black Box one more time."

Antonio looked up, eyes wide. He glanced at Mia an d thought she was here because she wanted to get her programming over and done with. He shook his head wildly from side to side and backed away from the couple.

"No! No way! I'm not going near that Black Box again! It hurts, Mia!"

"You think I don't know that?" Mia growled. "I saw what it did to Kevin, I heard what it did to Mike, and I know it's still holding onto Emily. If you're going to put them all through hell, you may as well make sure they go all the way."

"Emily…"

"Finish her programming or I will make sure you know what they went through," Mia took a step forward and Antonio stumbled as he took three steps backwards. Kevin grabbed his fiancée's shoulders to hold her back. Had he not been trying to keep a straight face so Antonio would know they weren't joking around, he would have laughed at his fiancée's ability to terrify the golden Ranger.

"I would listen to her, Antonio," Kevin said, "I can only hold her back for so long, and I'm pretty sure she's tougher than you even with the cast holding her back."

"But the symbol's different with her than with you…"

"It will do its job," Kevin assured the fisherman, "I'll make sure of it. Stop acting like a coward and finish what you started."

Antonio looked from Mia's deadly glare to Kevin's angry stare. He didn't want to hurt his friends but he knew what he had to do. He nodded his head and walked to his desk to pick up the Black Box.

"We'll just need Jayden…"

"No Jayden," Kevin shook his head, "I'm in charge now. I'll make sure the symbol works and if Emily's in any pain I'll be the one to cast it again."

"But…"

"Any man who hurts my family is dead to me," Kevin growled. "If we didn't need the sealing symbol, Jayden would already be six feet under."

Antonio gulped and closed the door behind him as he followed Kevin and Mia down the hall. Inside Antonio's room, Jayden sat on his own bed, feeling like the little prick inside a shoe that one can never find or remove while it continues to hurt the sole with every step. He leaned back into his pillow and stared at his lion Zord folded up in his hands and his Samuraizer. He knew he needed to make things right. After dialling a number he pressed the Samuraizer to his ear and waited for the person on the other end to pick up.

"Hello?"

"There's something you need to know…"

-Samurai-

It didn't take long for the pain of the programming to fade away for Mike. He was almost back to feeling completely normal. The only part of him that hurt was his hand. Emily was squeezing it so tightly; it was starting to turn blue. He had told her to do so if she felt any pain while Antonio finished her Stone's programming. This way he could make sure Kevin used the symbol as soon as it started, especially if the pain kept Emily from speaking.

He knew that while she was squeezing him, she wasn't in any pain. The squeezing had started long before the programming. It was Emily's panic playing up. He wrapped his other arm around her and kissed her.

"It's almost over," he told her and suddenly she fell limp. Mike caught her and he laid her down carefully on his bed. Antonio stumbled forward, landing on his hands and knees. He was relieved it was over.

Kevin tucked his Samuraizer away. He didn't need to use it. Jayden's initial symbol had lasted until the very end and had worked to keep things completely pain free. He turned away from the Black Box, Antonio, and the Earth Stone and looked at Emily and Mike on the bed.

"How is she?" he asked. Emily's eyes fluttered open and she smiled up at Mike. She threw her arms around him, holding him close. Mike kissed her again before looking over her shoulder to Kevin.

"She's Emily."

Mia smiled. She turned her attention to Antonio and pointed to the door, "You can go now."

Antonio nodded and gathered up the Black Box and his Samurai Morpher. As he started for the door he heard Emily calling his name. He stopped.

"I'm sorry, Em… I didn't want…"

"Thanks for being honest."

Antonio glanced over his shoulder at his yellow teammate. He offered her a quick smile before leaving the room.

Mike looked down at Emily, "What was that?"

"Antonio's just as mad at Jayden as you are," Emily shrugged. "He was the one who made Jayden tell me the truth. He's a good guy! I mean, c'mon! It's Antonio!"

Mike pressed his forehead against Emily's and smiled at her, "You don't know how happy I am to hear you say that."

"We've got a big choice to make," Kevin announced as he took a seat on Emily's bed and pulled Mia onto his lap. "What do we do next? What about Jayden and Antonio? The Black Box…?"

"Take it one day at a time, I guess," Mia shrugged her shoulders. "If we need it, I'll…"

"No," Kevin stated firmly. He shook his head, "No, Mia, you're not going anywhere near that Box until we've actually figured out a way to make it pain free and we test it on Jayden first. It's not worth it."

"Trust me," Mike nodded, "it's far from worth it."

"I guess, like all other teams… we won't use it," Mia shrugged.

"Can we afford not to use it, though?" Emily asked. "We still haven't defeated that Spider Nighlok…"

"If we need it, Jayden'll have to work his ass off to make sure it's painless," Kevin told Emily. "There's no way anyone else is going near that thing while it's still so dangerous. Mike survived it, but there's always a 'what if', and I'm not going to risk losing any of you to a stupid box with an even stupider name."

"So… we're done with it, then?" Mike asked Kevin, Mia and Emily. "No more trying. No more waiting or wondering. It's done."

"It's done," Mia nodded. It was then a catchy tune reached all their ears and Emily reached into her pocket. She answered at her phone and smiled.

"Serena?"

"Speaker phone?" Mike whispered. Emily nodded her head and set the phone onto speaker so everyone could talk with Serena.

"Hi guys," Serena chuckled, hearing the shift on her end as Emily tapped away on her phone.

"Why are you calling?" Emily asked her sister. She loved it when Serena phoned her, but her older sister never did unless it was on the schedule. She and Emily would usually only speak once a week. Any other conversations were usually too important to wait and dealt with Samurai business.

"My friend, my possible future brother in-law and my baby sister suffer at the hands of their friend and leader and you don't think I'm going to call to see how you guys are doing?"

"We're all fine," Mike promised Serena. "Once our Stones are programmed it's kind of like it never happened."

"The only reminder that it did happen is the knife in our backs," Kevin muttered.

There was a sigh on Serena's end, "Yeah… Jayden told me about that."

"He… he did?" Emily frowned.

"Yeah. I just finished a very long and… private conversation with him."

"Why did you call him?" Mia asked.

"I didn't. He called me. I was expecting it, though. Dekker told me that he told Jayden to call me to tell me everything that's happened."

"Don't believe a word he says," Kevin warned the older Samurai. "He's a lying, backstabbing, treacherous…"

"Slow down there, Kevin. I'm smart enough to know when to trust people and when to have my doubts."

"Hey!"

"No offense, Emy," Serena chuckled. "Look, guys. I know you're all hurting but… from what Jayden told me… well, he didn't handle things the right way and I would be mad at him if I were you. Hell, I'm furious with him right now and I won't ever forget this but, like it or not, you guys are all on a team."

"We don't like it," Mike frowned. "Serena, this is different for you. You weren't here. You didn't see or hear anything that happened."

"I know, I know…"

"What he did… I didn't expect that from Master Xandred, never mind the red Ranger!" Mike said. "You don't know how much it hurt. If I'm being really honest here… the programming was the part that hurt the least… knowing you've just been lied to by someone you care about, someone you never thought would lie to you… I don't think I'll ever get over that."

Mike looked up at his teammates who all nodded. They felt the same way. Kevin couldn't remember the pain he had to endure and even if he could, no one knew he would suffer when his Stone had been programmed. But the fact that Jayden insisted they continue with the Black Box, and the way he lied to Emily and tried to cover up his mistakes was unforgivable in Kevin's eyes. If Jayden had been loyal, and if he had any respect for the Samurai Rangers, he would have been honest with them from the start and he would have let them make up their own minds.

Emily felt a little differently from Kevin. She was still hurt that Jayden had lied to her face. He had let her believe that the box had been fixed and had taken her so far away from home that it was almost impossible to refuse an attempt to program the Stone. Jayden had been honest with her and he had allowed her the chance to refuse, but Emily still remembered how he hesitated. He had tried sugar-coating the truth, and Emily knew that if it weren't for Antonio he probably would have made the programming sound like it wouldn't be painful at all. She could also remember just how long she had to endure the pain before she was hit by Jayden's symbol and thinking it over again, she knew he had hesitated again. And he still hadn't apologized to her for what he had done. Instead, he chose to run away, making her feel like he didn't care what she had gone through for him. She had only suffered because she trusted him, and when he let her down, if he was truly her friend, he could have at least apologized.

Mike couldn't care less about Jayden. Things were simple for the green Ranger. He had watched his best friend get hurt, witnessed the woman he loved losing everything about her that made her completely unique, and he had endured hell, all because the so-called fearless red Ranger couldn't handle the truth. As far as Mike was concerned, Jayden was dead to him. The team, depending on where Antonio stood with his loyalty, was at best a team of five and a family of five.

Mia wrapped her arm around Kevin and leaned into him. She too hated Jayden for what he had done. She couldn't hate him for the things he had done to Kevin. No one knew her fiancé would hurt so much. But Jayden had done something just as unforgivable in her eyes. Mike and Emily were her little siblings and at times she even felt like their (very young and cool) mother. Hurting them deliberately, no matter the reason, was enough to turn Mia against even Kevin. Next time she saw Jayden, he had better run away from her.

"We need a new red Ranger," Mia muttered and rolled her eyes. "I think Jayden's dug his own grave with this little stunt."

"Can you come home, Serena, and we'll send Jayden to guard the Tengen Gate?" Emily asked her older sister on the phone."

"Uh… I'm not a red Ranger, Emily, and if I'm going to replace anyone it's you," Serena laughed. "Besides, if you don't trust Jayden at the Shiba House, why would you trust him here?"

"Just… put a lock on all the doors before he arrives. Or, you know… you can leave Dekker behind and he can keep an eye on Jayden…"

"Nice try, Emy. Not going to happen."

"Don't tell us to trust him, Serena," Mike said, "It would take a miracle for him to earn our trust again, and even with that miracle it's not going to be easy."

"I know," Serena said. "I'm not telling you to trust him. If he tells you the sky is blue, look up just to make sure. But… until further notice, he's your teammate. You can't change that. Maybe one day… but for now you guys will have to find a way to make this work."

"Until further notice?" Emily frowned and looked at her cell phone. "Serena…"

"What? I'll be right there, Dekker!"

"Dekker wasn't… Serena!"

"I've got to go!" Serena said into the phone. "I love you all."

"Serena!" Emily crossed her arms and pouted when Serena hung up the phone. "What did she mean by that?"

"The Tengen Gate's shipping us over a new red Ranger to replace our broken one?" Kevin shrugged his shoulders. "It probably doesn't mean anything, Em. I wouldn't worry about it."

Emily huffed and picked up her phone from the bed. She tossed it over to her own bed and then sighed as she looked around.

"I'm bored. Can we do something?"

"Like what?" Mia chuckled.

"Get away from here for starters," Emily shrugged. "It's way too stressful in here."

"The beach should be quiet this time of night," Kevin stated. "If we leave now we'll have time to enjoy the beach and watch the sunset."

"Sounds good," Mike smirked.

"One rule," Mia nodded as Mike and Emily started gathering their things from the beach and Kevin made his way to the door to get his and Mia's things. All eyes turned to her for a moment. She pointed to her broken wrist, "No getting water on the cast."