A/N: Next Chapter of Power Rangers: Samurai Storm. If you do not like the pairing formation of Jemily, Kia, MikeOC, and Antonio/Lauren, please turn back now. But if you want to keep going, keep reading, but at your own risk. Don't complain to me if you don't like it. I tried to warn you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, just my characters, in this chapter, just Nicole.

Thank you for your reviews!

~PRS~PRS~PRS~PRS~

Chapter 4: The Other Ranger Team

Right after the defeated all the Moogers together as a team, they faced a menacing Nighlock. Nicole doesn't remember his face, or his name, or his voice, or the fight between it and her team. All she remembers is her name and the fact that she is the 19th Generation Red Samurai Ranger. She doesn't recall anything else.

Just her name and her secret identity as the Red Samurai Ranger.

Nicole sat up from the cold, hard pavement. Her head hurt. A lot. She rubbed her head. She felt her over-the-shoulder backpack, well, over her shoulder, at her side.

"Owww, my head hurts." She looked around. "Where am I? I'm at Rainbow's End. Did I come here alone? Mom and Dad told me not to…" She realized something bad with a sudden strike of panic. "Uh-oh…I can't remember their faces. I can't remember anyone's faces back home." She looked up and saw people running in a certain direction. She finally stood up and got suspicious. "Is there a Nighlock around here somewhere?" She started running in the opposite direction. She was running so fast that when she didn't notice anyone in front of her.

She hit something that felt as hard as a brick wall. She closed her eyes tight and waited for the pavement to hit her too, but it never came. Instead, she felt strong hands around both her forearms. She opened her eyes, afraid of what she would find.

What?! Afraid?! She's the Red Ranger and she's afraid?! Haha! That's hilarious!

"Good catch, Jayden," a male voice said.

"Thanks. You okay?"

She was staring into the ocean blue eyes of a chestnut brown haired man, who looked about eighteen years old. He looked pretty cute, but he was way too old for her. His facial expression was stoic and if it hadn't been for his kind eyes, she would've been dead scared.

She fearfully nodded. "Y-Yeah…" She bowed politely to them, muttering a quick thank you. "I apologize." Then, never being so scared in her life, she ran off in the direction she was going before, but not as fast as before. She didn't want another repeat.

The group she just ran into stared after her.

"Did she just bow to us?" Mike asked. "As if we were kings and queens?"

"Yeah, weird…" Mia commented. Emily didn't approve.

"Come on, guys. Be nice. At least she had manners," the young girl said. Despite being sixteen, she usually felt the mature one instead of Kevin.

"Emily's right," Antonio said, sticking up for the one who accepted him onto the team immediately after his arrival. "At she was polite and wasn't a complete jerk about it."

Mike shrugged. "I guess you're right."

"I've seen those eyes before," Jayden said, catching their attention, staring in the direction in which she went. "But I can't exactly place my finger on it."

Actually, he could. You see, he'd been having a little crush that he realized had grown when Antonio showed up. He had a crush on Emily and he knew what eye color she had. Emily had hazel, nearly chocolate-brown eyes, something that was thought to be rare.

The girl's eyes were the exact same color.

Nicole saw those eyes before, those ocean blue eyes. Both her father and her Aunt Lauren had eyes that were that certain shade of blue

Nicole shook her head to clear her mind. "There is no way that he's my dad! I can't even remember what Dad's face looks like!"

But that Jayden's face would not get out of her head.

When she heard a scream and then a few more following the first, then a few cries for help, Nicole snapped out of the daze she was in. She quickly ran into an alley way. Good thing everyone was running the other way to notice. She flipped out her samuraizer and drew the fire symbol.

"Go, go, Samurai!" She had morphed into her Ranger suit. Her left hand immediately searched for her Spin Sword clipped on her left hip and when she found it, underneath her helmet, she smiled.

"Samurai Ranger, Ready!" she muttered as she ran to the source of the trouble.

All six Rangers were un-morphed and not-really-severely injured. It took a while for them all to get up, even Antonio. Jayden got to where he could sit up, but the Nighlock pointed his sword at him.

"No need to stand. I'll just kill you, Red Ranger, right here, in front of your team." The Nighlock lightly laughed.

"Jayden!" He heard his team shouting behind him. 'Don't worry,' he thought. 'I'll be okay.'

Jayden merely stared into the thing's eyes. Fearless, stoic, hard, not afraid to die. Then suddenly, the Lion Zord came smashing into the Nighlock, toppling it over. Lion kept flying at the Nighlock, fiercely attacking him, and sometimes even shooting him with fire. Lion disappeared into the distance.

"Good job, Jayden!" he heard Antonio shout as his team, quickly crawled over to him. Antonio patted him on the back. "Excellent way of proving you're stronger to the Nighlock."

Jayden, however, was in shock. "That wasn't me…" His team looked at him in surprise.

The Nighlock jumped up. "A surprise attack?! No fair!"

Jayden looked back up to the Nighlock. "How many times shall I have to say it? That wasn't me!"

"He's right," said a voice no one had heard before. "It's wasn't him. It was me."

The rangers and the Nighlock stared in the direction of the strange, new voice and got the greatest shock of their lives.

There stood another Red Ranger, female. The Lion-Folding-Zord was in her right hand, left hand on the hilt of her sword. Lion was in animal mode, turned in the direction of the Nighlock, and growling at it.

'Could she be…Lauren?' Jayden thought. His hand flew to his pants pocket and he took out his own Lion-Folding-Zord in defensive mode. His hand clutched around it. 'She isn't. Besides, it's too early for Lauren to arrive anyway…' He looked back up at the Red Ranger. 'Who is she?'

Emily voiced his question. "If both of you have your own Lion Zord, then who is she?"

Jayden wordlessly shook his head, muttering "No idea."

The Red Ranger continued to speak, not Jayden, but the other. "Lion Zord here can feel whom I am close to. And whenever someone attacks those I love dearly, I get angry. Since Lion here is an extension of who I am, it gets angry too." The Rangers noticed the Lion Zord still growling ferociously at the Nighlock. The new Red looked down at the Lion Zord in her hand. "Alright, Lion. It's fine now. You'll have your fun later, okay?" The Lion Zord in her hand beeped before resuming defensive mode, a pentagon shape with the fire symbol on it. The new Red placed the Zord in her pocket, or whatever pocket she had on her suit.

"An ally?!" The Nighlock was furious. "You Rangers are no fun!"

"Whining like that is not going to get you anywhere, Nighlock," female Red commented, clicking her black power disk above the hilt of her sword. "I suggest you retreat to the Sanzu River, man up, and come back so I can defeat you properly." The Rangers on the ground looked at her in surprise. "And 'ally'? What are you taking about? I'm the only Ranger here." The Rangers continued to look at her. She did not realize that the 'innocent civilians' on the ground there were actually Power Rangers too. But they said nothing.

Female Red jumped up and attacked the Nighlock. Their swords clashed and female Red was becoming harder to see for the Nighlock and the Rangers. Jayden and Kevin, however, could see her just fine.

"What's she doing?" Mike asked. "She's moving too fast."

"She's using a martial arts technique that hasn't been used for over a century," Kevin said. "I read about it when I was a little kid and I studied it when I was training, but no matter what, I couldn't get it all down. My dad tried to teach me, but neither one of us could master it."

Jayden continued, "She's using her speed, her strength, her Spin Sword, and her flexibility all at the same time with little to no effort. But someone her age would have a difficult time using it in battle."

"Maybe it's her size," Mia suggested.

"Her light weight contributes to her speed, but not to anything else," Jayden shot down automatically.

"She is quite flexible, though, unlike us," Emily said.

Jayden had to admit, Emily did have a point. Not many of his team was flexible. They were strong, but as flexible as this Ranger was, not even him.

"Her speed matches mine," Antonio said. "It's a little hard to keep up with her."

"What's this technique called?" Mike asked, annoyed that no one really answered his question.

The female Red Ranger landed in front of them. They looked at the Nighlock, who was nearly bursting into flames. There were a few small explosions, but it wasn't anything for the Nighlock's first form to be destroyed with. The female Red seemed to notice their discomfort with this.

"Don't worry, I'm not looking to kill him just yet. I just left him in enough pain so I could have enough time to tell you guys to run." The Rangers looked at her in complete surprise. "Don't look at me like that! Just run and get out of here! Run and don't look back!" They all stayed still. "Alright, suit yourself… But your lives are in my hands…if any one of you fall, I'll never forgive myself…"

Emily took a deep breath. "You don't understand. We're Rangers too!" There was a short silence. Only the Nighlock's moans of pain were heard.

The new Ranger took this in.

"Why can't you morph then?" They didn't answer. "Too injured to fight, huh? Just rest and morph and help me when you're ready." The female Red turned back to the Nighlock and waited for him to get back up.

Kevin asked, "Why doesn't she charge?"

Jayden answered, "'Never fight an unarmed opponent.' She's doing the right thing."

Inside her helmet, the female Red smiled. It was like hearing her father's voice again, this time, telling her that he was proud of her…

The Nighlock suddenly, a shockingly, stood back up and blasted at the group. Emily and Mia shrieked and immediately covered their heads, Antonio and Jayden covered Emily, and Kevin and Mike covered Mia. Female Red, though, covered them all.

The cowering Rangers looked back up at the female Red, who was still standing, using her Fire Smasher as a shield against the Nighlock's blasts.

"Darn it!" The Nighlock yelled in frustration. "You blocked them with your oversized blade! Whatever, I'll be back, Rangers!" The Nighlock left through a gap.

Once the Nighlock was gone, female Red turned to the others.

"Thank you so much for covering us," Mia said. "But you didn't have to."

They could swear the female Red was smiling under her helmet. "No problem. Like I said, Power Rangers or not, your lives were in my hands. If you got hurt, I wouldn't forgive myself."

"Who are you?" Mike got two slaps on the arm, one from Mia and the other from Emily, and a slap to the head from Kevin, scaring Antonio and the female Red slightly. Jayden merely shook his head in exasperation.

"Does that always happen?" the female Red asked, kneeling next to Jayden, who nodded. "But what's the deal?" They all stopped. "It's only fair I show you my identity because you showed me yours." She de-morphed.

There stood Nicole, the same girl who Jayden had bumped into at Rainbow's End.

"Surprise?" She weakly said.

"I knew there was something off about you," Kevin exclaimed. Nicole did not answer right away. She was too busy staring at the Lion-Folding-Zord in Jayden's hand.

"And I knew there was something off about you guys," Nicole commented. "Two Reds," she said, catching Jayden's full attention. "That's the story of the century…"

Jayden did not respond to that one either. "Come on. Follow us." Nicole looked at him, confused. "Jii will definitely want to speak with you."

Nicole sat in the living room in a cushioned seat, Jii pacing around in front of her, not directly in front, but still pacing. With Nicole in her seat like at the head of a table, Mia, Emily, and Antonio were all on one side, with Kevin, Mike, and Jayden on the other side.

'No, I am not nervous,' Nicole thought, sitting perfectly still. 'Alright, yes, I am. What is the old man so mad about?' Whatever, she did to make this lot angry, it must have been really bad, especially Jii and Jayden, who seemed like figures of authority, Jayden mostly, and were to be respected at all times. 'But when is he going to start? They've all been staring at me for the past ten minutes.'

Despite her inner emotion, Nicole sat still, quiet, and straight up, hands resting perfectly in her lap. She had manners. And even though these were strangers, who were making her very nervous right now, and seemed quite angry, she would keep her manners in check.

Desperate to get her nervousness under lock and key immediately, Nicole was trying to look at anything except into the eyes of these strangers. The ceiling didn't work (she was getting a crick in her neck) and neither looked at the ground (it made her look like she was ashamed). She found a mirror on the wall in front of her. She looked into it and she was greatly alarmed at what she saw, and she could finally see why they were all staring at her so intently.

There was a big bruise on her left cheek that she felt also had a cut and a huge, nasty gash on her forehead, right side. She had a few scratches on her neck a small cut on the top of her nose. Her face also had numerous burns all over it, both big and small.

Now that she thought about it, she could feel a big bruise on her knee, a couple bruises on both arms, and a lot more bruises than two on both her legs in various locations. She also had a small wound in her side, in her torso. That worried her. But the thing that really bugged her was the fact that she felt like there were four huge gashes in her back.

She opened her mouth to say something, but she was so absorbed in her own broken reflection to notice Jii look up in slight interest.

Nicole sudden felt her stomach give a violent start. Her insides felt scorching hot and then arctic cold. She felt the world spinning around her, the blobs and faces of Nicole's home and family dancing in the red mist that covered her face and everywhere else on her body that she could see. Her vision turned blurry all of a sudden and the red mist on her face turned into a mass and swirl of colors. Nicole felt herself swaying in her seat, but felt helpless to prevent it.

She fuzzily heard, "You think she finally noticed?" She heard three loud slaps and then an "Are you okay, chica?" before the ground rushed up to meet her very suddenly.

When she opened her eyes next, she was in a warm, comfy bed, but not in her own bed. Nicole mentally freaked out. Where was she?

Then suddenly the previous events hit her like a tidal wave. Rainbow's End, crashing into Jayden, fighting the whining Nighlock, following the other Rangers back here, and finally sitting in the living room and fainting after her nerves finally got in contact with her brain to tell her about the pain.

Just then, her nerves got into contact with the pain from her bandaged wounds once again. Tears flooded her vision as she tried to suppress a groan of absolute pain.

"Hey, I think she's awake!" That voice was familiar. Mike.

"No, duh, Sherlock!" Another familiar voice. Kevin.

"I don't get it," Jii commented. "She shouldn't be able to feel any pain at all. We gave her pain killers."

Nicole felt a soft, cool, wet washcloth being run over her forehead. She looked over to see Emily with a bowl of water. "Are you feeling alright now?" she asked. Nicole tried to shake her head, but the pain in her head somehow wouldn't let her. "I can understand that," Emily continued. "You took quite a beating. And that must have been before you arrived at Rainbow's End, because they were there then, but you ran off before we could ask you about it." Nicole said nothing, but tried to keep the Leader Face on, not taking anyone's nonsense and tolerating any pain, no matter how bad it felt. Apparently it failed, because Emily used the washcloth to wipe her still-existent tears away. "It's okay. You're in good hands."

"And don't worry about the washcloth," Mia said, on her other side. Nicole turned her eyes to look at the other girl. "You had a really high fever, but it seems to be going down now that you've woken up."

Nicole finally found her voice, but was unable to get any words out smoothly. Her throat and her mouth were dry. "H-How long…?" She was unable to finish, but it was okay, Antonio must have understood.

"You were out for about ten hours. It's about seven PM right now," Anotnio said.

Nicole said nothing. What if the Nighlock came back while she was still in this condition? Surely the others could take care of it without her.

Before she fell back asleep, she heard Mentor Jii said, "Hey, have any of you noticed that she heals really fast?"

Nicole woke up again, and this time, she felt a lot better. The sun was shining, not the moon, which meant it was probably the very next morning. The pain was finally calming down, but her head and back still hurt quite a bit, not to mention her throat was still dry.

She looked to the side to see Mentor Jii sitting there beside her reading a book. He looked at her and then back at the magazine. Then, he did a double take at her and put the book down.

"Ah, I see you are awake," Jii exclaimed. "How are you feeling now?" He asked, handing her a glass of water.

Once she took a sip, her throat felt a lot better. "Better than yesterday," she said truthfully. "What's the diagnosis?"

"Not one of us can explain it but somehow your body seemed to be in a state of flux when you arrived," Jii said. "It definitely explains your high fever and you passing out. The flux is gone now, but I'd like to make sure. But where did you get the injuries?"

Nicole tried to remember everything before Rainbow's End, but…she couldn't. "I can't remember…Maybe I was fighting a Nighlock that was too powerful for me…"

"Maybe," Jii responded. "Where did you get you're Samuraizer? Did you build it?"

Nicole shook her head lightly. "No, I got it from my father."

"Was your father the Red Ranger before you?" Jii asked.

"I think that's obvious," Nicole said, trying to be humorous to lighten the mood, like what the sun was doing to the room at that moment.

"What is his name?" Jii asked.

Once again, Jii here was asking Nicole of the impossible. She couldn't remember anyone's face back home, nor their names. "I can't say…"

"Why not?"

"Because I can't remember," Nicole politely shot back. "But I can tell you what he's like…I may not remember his name or his face, but I remember his personality…extremely well."

"I see…"

There was a short, awkward silence before Nicole broke it.

"Did the others defeat the Nighlock?" she asked. He nodded. "And what is the year, Mentor?" She asked.

"2012," he replied. "Why?"

"That's kinda what I though…" she mumbled.

There was another silence that was uncomfortable. "I think what kind of flux you're body was in, uh…?"

"Nicole Shiba," she responded. "And keep going, please?"

"I believe your body was in a state of time flux. You're either from the future or the past. I can't tell that for sure, only you can. But I know for sure that you're not from the present. Your body was merely getting used to the time change."

There was another uncomfortable silence that hung in the air. "Am I allowed to walk now? Or am I still bed ridden?"

"Yes, you are allowed to get out of bed and join the others for breakfast, but make sure you take it easy on yourself. Just watch when they train."

Nicole nodded. This mess would take a long time to get out of.

Nicole Alexandria Shiba, Red Ranger from the future or the past, you have really gotten it bad this time…

~PRS~PRS~PRS~PRS~

A/N: I have no intention of making this the ultimate sequel to the real ending to the series, just my ending, of how I think things should have turned out.

Note: And yes, I am a Jemily shipper. Deal with it. (That does not mean I disapprove of Memily. Actually, I think it's a cute pairing. I just see Mike and Emily more like siblings, that's all. Same goes with Jayden and Mia together.)