Note:
* This idea of mine kept nagging at me, as did my lovely muse until I decided to start writing it...and this is what resulted. :) Thanks to both Kari and Cynthia for helping me pick out name for my "semi-non-canon-character", who shall remain nameless in the disclaimer at least, and thanks to Suzy for beta-reading this with a passion like she always does. :) And the title of the fanfic came from a line of lyrics in the song, "If You Want Me To" by Ginny Owens. ;)

Also, those who are looking for more installments of "Reflection Of Love"...I'm working on it! ^_^ The best parts always take a little longer, no? ;)

The room was dank and cold, smelling of cobwebs and thousand-year-old dirt. The darkness that permeated the crypt was scary and frightened him; he felt little solace from the small torches of light that penetrated the shadows just barely, allowing him to see. "Do not be scared," the monster that held him in his large ghostly arms stated blandly.

Six-year old Ryan Mitchell found it terribly hard to NOT be scared. He, after all, was only a child...a kid scared to death of what was going to happen next; so frightened he found it difficult to think of anything else but fear. He nodded his head ever so slightly, acknowledging the monster's words.

The monster slowly kneeled down to the stone slab floor, sliding Ryan roughly out of his arms. The young boy turned around and stood staring at the monster, - who could have been called his savior and kidnapper at the same time - visibly shaken. "Who, who are you?" Ryan was near tears and his lower lip trembled viciously as he spoke mutely.

The monster grinned, a cold grin, that made Ryan forcibly shiver in his state. It was then that he realized the monster wasn't looking at him, but at someone behind him. "Victoria," his voice slid with a warm welcome, "come meet your new companion."

The blond boy glanced warily over his shoulder and behind him to see a lightened doorway. In that very doorway, a girl his age stood, her dark brown hair spilling just over her small shoulders and her hypnotizing almond brown eyes meeting his ethereal green ones in a strong gaze. Her hands hung at her sides, pulling at the baggy black fabric of her pants awkwardly. "Yes, Father," Victoria obeyed, walking precariously towards the monster and Ryan.

Ryan now faced her, not as frightened as he had been before when he was alone with the towering monster. He saw the girl. He saw that she was like him and that she was not scared. If SHE wasn't scared of the monster, then he couldn't be scared at all. Girls were supposed to be scared of monsters, boys were always supposed to want to bash monsters' heads in; or so he always thought. "Where are we?" Ryan queried once again, his voice louder and stronger than before, barely betraying his deep-set fright.

"This is your home now, Ryan," the monster answered calmly, seeming to be glad that Ryan didn't fear him as much. "Victoria will be your companion and you will be hers."

Ryan faced Victoria once again now that she was standing beside him. "She's a girl," he spat somewhat venomously, shielding away from the other child.

"So what?" Victoria rolled her eyes in displeasure at Ryan's comment. "Trust me; I don't have cooties."

The blond boy looked wary and glanced up at the monster, feeling more at ease than before. "Why do I have to stay with her? Why can't I go home?"

"Your father doesn't want you anymore, Ryan," he explained, kneeling down to both children's height. "He only saved your sister because he wanted her alive and you dead. I saved you from death because I want you. This is my home and this is where you must stay with Victoria and train to be a great warrior, just as I am."

Ryan's mouth fell open and tears instantly rushed to his eyes at what the monster said. He ran away from where he stood and screamed, "YOU'RE LYING! My dad wants me! You just watch...he'll be here any second to take me home! YOU'RE A LIAR!" He ran into one of the corners of the crypt and buried his face, sobbing into his arms.

"Stay with him," Diabolico whispered to Victoria, stroking her cheek softly with his claw. "Don't let him be alone. He needs someone to be with, just like I was there when you needed someone."

Victoria nodded her head obediently. "I will be here for him, Father," she answered quietly. "Where will you go?"

"I will go where I must," Diabolico replied confidently. "For now, take care of him." He pointed towards the corner where Ryan continued to huddle in.

The little girl nodded yet again and Diabbolico disappeared into a soft mist, vanishing from sight.

Ryan sobbed for hours on end until he realized he had no tears left, and even then he still continued to cry, wailing for his dad to come and take him home. Victoria sat beside him the entire time, quiet as a mouse, watching him steadily.

Sometimes, between his anguished cries, Ryan would quickly peek next to him at Victoria and she would always smile at him comfortingly. When she did, he would instantly hide his face away from her view until the next time he would dare to look at her.

After a long while, Ryan calmed down and a silence befell the entire crypt. He lifted his head up to look at Victoria beside him, as a kind of assurance, and found her to not be there. The boy looked frantically around the shadowy room for the girl, terrified of being left alone.

"Your dad isn't coming." Her voice echoed within the cold walls.

He followed the voice to see Victoria playing with one of the small torches that had lit the room, all of them latched to the walls conveniently low for their height.

Ryan immediately cringed at her declaration. "You're wrong!" he snapped back in his angry tone. "My dad is coming and he's gonna beat up that monster for taking me!"

"No he won't," Victoria remarked spitefully, turning away from the small source of light. "That's what I thought when Diabolico brought me here. But my mom didn't come. She never came and she won't ever."

"My dad's different than your mom! He loves me and he's gonna come for me!"

"My mom said she loved me too," Victoria sighed pathetically, bowing her head and letting her hair fall over into her face. "They were lying. Diabolico cares about us and he doesn't lie."

All the blood drained from his face and his mouth hung agape. He couldn't believe what she was saying, but she had been there before him and she was still there. He had waited a long time, but his dad hadn't come for him either; he loved his little sister, he didn't love him. The monster had been nice to him, and the monster didn't lie to him. Victoria was right.

"Is that his name?" Ryan asked shyly after a long moment. "Dia...Diabolico?"

The little girl lifted her head and met his eyes. She smiled gently and motioned for him to come over to her. He walked over to where she stood next to the small flames of the torch, running her palm over the flames swiftly back and forth. "Diabolico is his name, but you can call him whatever you want if it's easier. I used to call him "Master," but now I call him "Father.""

"Why do you call him that?"

She shrugged carelessly. "I like to, I guess."

Ryan shrugged also and watched her in fascination as she continued to run her palm just above the burning fire. "How do you do that?"

Victoria took her attention away from her hand and grinned at Ryan. He grinned back at her. "Here." She removed her hand from the flames and wiped it against her pants, trying to rub the soot off. "I'll show you.

"You gotta lick your hand, like this." Victoria stopped speaking, and licked her entire palm with her tongue. He followed her lead and did the same with his own hand. "And then you do this with your hand." She demonstrated what she meant by waving her palm back and forth over the flames. "You do it."

With a slight amount of hesitancy, Ryan stared at her but stuck his palm into the fire and began to wave it back and forth. "WOW!" he giggled loudly, watching his hand pass through the flames unharmed.

Together, the two children started to play with their new gift: a friendship forged within the flames.

Diabolico studied his two protégées as they played amongst themselves finding the most basic of toys to have fun with.

He knew he had been right to leave Victoria with Ryan, to have her draw him out of his belligerent cries and excitable fears. She was a resourceful young girl who longed terribly for a playmate; Ryan was exactly what she was looking for and he knew she would do whatever she could to not scare him off. Though she was not of his blood, she certainly could have passed for his own true daughter. She knew how to think things through and she also knew when she needed to go with her instincts. She was almost...primal at certain times during their training.

Ryan, on the other hand, was emotional but strong and cunning. He had the mental and physical ability to become a warrior with the right training, which Diabolico was going to offer him. His emotional side would come in handy as well, for when he would be older, vengeance would be an idea that would lurk closer to reality than it would in his young years. Yes, he would make a wondrous warrior: one driven by hatred and passion.

Diabolico couldn't help but chuckle hideously as his plan ever so slowly fell into place. It would take many years until he could actually put it to work, but it would be well worth it. "The children they could bare..." he hissed pleasurably to himself imagining the future, which may have been far beyond anyone else's reach but seemed to only hover slightly out of Diabolico's own claws.

He only had to be patient.

Eight years rolled along quite swiftly, carrying Ryan and Victoria through their fourteenth birthdays, but that didn't matter much to the pair anymore. Nothing really mattered to them anymore; only their training, Diabolico and their loyalty to one another truly made a difference in their lives now.

Ryan skills grew with every session of training he took with Diabolico. He moved with an unparalleled grace and agility that was only helped by the fact that he had been trained in the basics of martial arts before coming into Diabolico's care. At fourteen years of age, he had mastered things that probably could not even be preformed by the greatest martial arts master on Earth...and Diabolico insisted he was barely brushing over the surface of Ryan's talent.

Unlike Victoria though, Ryan would never be able to master the art of demonic magic. Demonic magic, different from the regular everyday magic that sorcerers could easily teach to an apprentice, required more than just the proper guidance. To use demonic magic, there was a need for the mentality of a demon, and sure enough, Victoria possessed it. She was always on the rebound, always fighting and always wanting something more than what she had. She was willing to do whatever to get what she wanted, but knew when to back away.

Victoria was trained in everything Ryan was and also became quite the skilled warrior in her own respects, but never would she become as good as Ryan. He excelled her in many things from the beginning when they were trained together, and even though it frustrated her, unconsciously she wanted Ryan to be the better of them both. She accepted that and in turn, chose to excel in magic - making them an ideal team of power.

Ensuring their cooperation as a team, Diabolico made them part of each other's lives from the very start. They ate together, slept together, training together, played together...never separated for one moment in the large crypt that served as their home. Ryan and Victoria were the best of friends and respected each other more than anything. Together with Diabolico, they were a family of three; as close as brother and sister could be, and maybe even more beyond that.

"Hungry?"

Victoria glanced up at Ryan from where she sat, flipping through a book on their bed. "What are you eating?" she asked him curiously while he climbed off of a chair that he had used to get into their cupboard of stashed food.

Ryan continued to munch on his snack, tossing a bag at Victoria. She had returned her attention to the book for an instant, but sensed the object coming and caught it with her hand. "Good catch," Ryan laughed, plopping down beside her on the bed. "What are you reading?"

Ripping open the package of dried pineapples that both Ryan and her loved dearly, Victoria popped one into her mouth and chewed away. "A book Father gave me," she answered him, flipping to the cover momentarily. The book was ragged and bound with faded leather. Emblazoned on it were the words, "Demonic Spells." "He said if I want to get better with my magic, I'm going to need to know all this stuff."

He leaned over her shoulder, turning the first few pages written in an ancient language. "This is a lotta stuff," he murmured to her, scanning the pages that he knew how to read. "Weapons, healing, protection...how many different forms are there?"

"Ten," Victoria replied, stringing a long strand of her dark bronze hair around her finger. "I've got the healing spells mastered though. Those are the easier ones. Want me to try?" She faced Ryan, her eyes questioning hopefully.

Ryan cracked a grin and slowly backed away. "Last time I let you use me as a test subject my hair went red for a month," he reminded, unconsciously reaching up to brush his hair. "I think I'll pass."

She picked her book up and threw it aside, pouting. "Oh, come on Ryan! I was only eight when I did that! I didn't mean to!" He still was unconvinced, so she resorted to the next best thing: bribery. "I'll give you the rest of my pineapples!" Victoria waved her package in front of him temptingly.

"Ohh...alright." Ryan gave in, sitting back down on the bed. "What do you want me to do?"

Victoria grinned excitedly. "Lay down on your back. I'll fix that cut I gave you this morning in training."

Following her instructions obediently, Ryan removed his shirt and tossed onto a nearby chair. He then laid down on his back on the bed, trying to get comfortable with his friend hovering over him, her eyes shut while she tried to concentrate.

Ryan couldn't help but stare at her with her eyes shut, her hands held steadily above his chest where the stinging skin deep cut was. She was still wearing her training uniform - which consisted of a simple sports bra and pants - even though they had finished working with Diabolico more than an hour before. Sweat glistened on her forehead and her bare shoulders, running down the front of her chest and over the tops of her developing breasts. Her lengthy hair spilled against his shoulders and face when she bended over his body, yet he didn't dare move. He didn't know why he hadn't noticed it before, or even why he had noticed it just then, but Victoria was actually kind of pretty.

Suddenly, he felt a coldness against his chest and he looked to Victoria's hands to see a soft blue mist almost eating away at his small wound, causing it to disappear into nothingness. Once it was gone, he watched as she opened her eyes in triumph. "I told you I could do it," she snickered, jumping off of the bed. "What do you say now, Ryan?"

"Thank you, I guess," Ryan acknowledged dubiously on purpose. He grabbed his shirt and put it back on, crawling beneath the covers of the bed. He picked up his dried pineapples he had set aside and began to eat a few of them before going to sleep.

Victoria went into her closet and peeled off her training uniform, changing into a pair of shorts and a shirt for sleep. "You're so mean," she laughed knowingly, moving over to the torch that lit the room and blowing it out.

Lifting the covers of the bed, she laid down next to Ryan and softly whispered, "Goodnight, Ryan."

"Goodnight, Victoria."

The following morning Victoria awoke to find her arms wrapped snugly around Ryan and his arms around her body like two animals cuddling for warmth.

As far as she could remember sleeping with Ryan, Victoria always recalled waking up in the same position: both of them clutching each other. She figured it was because when they were little they just didn't want to be alone; they felt comforted by knowing that they were still together. Many years had passed since they felt that way about each other, but they still continuously woke up together the same way. And the funny thing about it was that Victoria didn't mind it at all; she LIKED waking up in Ryan's arms.

His strong arms always circled her waist, pulling her closer to him. Her head lay against his broad shoulder and she could smell him. He smelled of pineapples and she enjoyed that; they both liked pineapples for some odd reason. Her arms would be slung around his back lazily and sometimes their legs would be caught in a tangled mess. Ryan always felt secure and safe to her every morning when she would wake up with him. He would always have a look of pure bliss on his face: one Victoria used to tease him about when they were younger, but now, she just admired.

Gently, she slowly removed herself from him, trying not to wake him up, but he immediately protested. His arms wove around her tightly from their loose grip in his sleep and Victoria couldn't help but laugh. "Ryan!" she cried quietly, nudging him. "We should get up. It's almost time for training."

"Hmmm...what?" he mumbled, his green eyes slowly flickering open.

"Get up," she told him clearly, staring him in the face. "We have to train."

"Oh!" Ryan finally realized what she had been implying and slipped his hands away from her, allowing her to move out of the bed. "Sorry about that..." He blushed, a soft red rising in his cheeks.

"No problem," she assured him, opening the closet and getting dressed.

Diabolico studied Ryan's attack on the creature that he had Victoria conjure up from her spell book just for that very exercise during his training session.

The creature was small compared to Diabolico's towering size, but compared to Ryan they were evenly sized. It was lithe and its strongest attack was speed, and at that very moment was beating up Ryan fairly easily, landing blow after blow faster than he could react to stop them.

Of course, Diabolico did not only watch Ryan in his battle; he glanced at Victoria out of the corner of his eye. The spell book lay open in her lap, but she paid it no attention. Her unwavering brown eyes stared at the fight, her facial reaction to Ryan's losing screaming out how badly she wanted to help him. She knew better than to interfere with his training, however.

"Victoria, does something bother you?" he voiced over Ryan's cries of anguish.

Both quite aware of the fact that when in battle, Ryan paid no attention to the outside world because of his deep concentration, Victoria responded to his question. "No, Father. Do I look as if something is amiss?" she queried innocently, unaware of how intently she had been looking at her companion before.

Diabolico grinned knowingly at the young girl, and thrust his hand out towards the magical creature causing it to disappear in mid-fight with Ryan. "What happened?!" the young warrior shouted in frustration, the dagger he had just thrown lodging itself into the stone wall.

"I want you to battle Victoria, Ryan," Diabolico declared, causing Victoria to suddenly rise from where she sat, quite confused. "You will use your fighting skills and she will use her magic...only."

Mentally, Ryan questioned the fairness of the fight, but didn't voice his concerns. Father had never made them do anything that would cause them harm. "Very well," he accepted, grabbing his sword off of the ground where it had been discarded in the previous quarrel.

Ryan lined himself up on one side of the room, while Victoria did the same on the other side, making sure she was standing directly across from him. They both took attack postures, and then waited for someone to unleash the first move.

Confident as he always was, Ryan took the first move; pulling a dagger from inside his boot and pitching straight towards her head.

Victoria easily deflected the dagger with a wave of her hand that was glowing a deep crimson, and threw an energy charge at him: one she knew he would simply flip over and avoid.

True to her thoughts, Ryan did flip over the attack and unsheathed his sword in mid-air, his hilt making solid contact with her forehead causing her fall backwards onto the cold floor. He landed over her, straddling her body, his blade swiftly coming down to make the finish. Before the sharp blade could touch her flesh, Victoria blocked it with a temporary shield, flinging Ryan backwards.

Hastily pulling herself back onto her feet, Victoria's thoughts fell back to a healing spell she had just learned to use. She wasn't severely hurt, but the results from the spell would be able to get her out of the spot she was in.

Ryan recovered from his stumble, and began to rush Victoria when she lifted her hand to her face and blew softly against her palm. A deep blue mist rose from her hand and swirled around Ryan's figure a few times before he collapsed to the ground, his sword clanging as it fell with him.

"Very good," Diabolico complimented the winner of the battle, moving to her side. "You used a healing spell to stop him."

She nodded, her gaze turning to look up at Diabolico. "The fight wasn't fair, Father."

"Of course it wasn't," Diabolico agreed, resting his large hand upon her shoulder. "But is it fair when you fight Ryan in combat only? He is far more superior than you are in that art of battle. In those matches, you were bound to lose.

"Magic dominates combat; it always has," he paused, gazing at the fallen warrior. "Combat is strong though. When you combine the two they are unstoppable. They are a team, complimenting one another: never to be separated."

A gentle smile graced Victoria's face as she returned her gaze to Ryan, fully understanding the meaning of her teacher's words. "Yes, Father."

After that battle, Ryan and Victoria never fought one another again. Ryan learned from his defeat: never doubting the capabilities of magic and to always be aware of them. Victoria learned from her victory: always saving her strongest suit until it was desperately required to be unleashed.

With five more years they grew under Diabolico's tutelage, maturing into young adults with a fierce power held easily at the end of their fingertips.

Ryan grew into a handsome and fierce young man, one of deep powerful passions and strong, upstanding morals. Over the years, he had remembered the car accident that had brought him into Diabolico's care much more vividly; remembering just the parts that seemed to justify what Diabolico had told him at a young age. His REAL father had left him to die, letting Ryan go while hanging onto his younger sister. Bitterness and hatred singed his soul, though it was mostly filled by a lustful passionate want for another.

Specifically, Victoria.

Ryan didn't know what to make of the feelings. They were completely foreign to him, and yet they felt so natural. Every single part of his body ached when he was near her and his body throbbed when they slept together. He wanted to be close to Victoria with every particle of his being. His respect for her prevented him from doing just that though. She was his companion; he couldn't do such a thing without talking about it with her.

Which was exactly why when Victoria slid her petite legs underneath the bed covers and took to the bed that night, Ryan huddled as close to his side of the bed as possible without falling off.

Victoria tossed in the bed slightly, trying to find a comfortable position. Once she found it, she turned to Ryan and was about to voice a goodnight when she caught sight of the great warrior's huddled form at the other side of the bed. "Ryan, what are you doing?" Her voice held a sultry flavor to it, as she slinked over to his side of the bed and peered down at him.

Realizing he had been caught, Ryan turned over to face her, trying to seem casual. "What?"

"Staying all curled up on the side of the bed," she replied, her small feet brushing against his calves. Ryan nearly groaned out in pure pleasure at her caress.

"I'll stay here then, alright?" He scooted towards the middle of the bed and spread his legs and arms all over the bed so there was barely any room left for Victoria.

A joking grin spread across his face when she took her own pillow and hit him hard with it. "Scoot over!" she hissed playfully, her legs kicking him over to his side. "You big monster!"

Ryan didn't budge from his spot even after all her prods and pushes. Quickly, with an effortless swipe of his hand, he rammed her off of the bed. Out of the darkness of the room he heard her fall to the floor with a minimal thump.

After a few minutes of waiting for Victoria to crawl back into the bed, Ryan became somewhat worried. "Victoria? Are you alright?"

When no one called back to answer his questions, he suddenly felt a dread come over him. What if he had driven her off the bed too hard and she had hit her head? Scrambling, the blond man moved over to her side of the bed and bent over, looking at the floor below the bed.

His eyes, which hadn't totally adjusted to the darkness quite yet, had a hard time of distinguishing the different shadows, so he was completely caught off-guard when Victoria's hand grabbed for his wrist and hauled him to the ground.

Ryan fell down on his stomach and let out a low grunt of surprise. "That's what you get!" He heard Victoria's voice snap from underneath him. It was only then he realized he was lying directly on top of his best, and only, friend.

He felt like he was on fire. Every nerve in his skin that touched her skin sparked within him crazily, little fires within him raging out of control. All of the small hairs on his body stood on end and he could feel his blood rising to the top of his skin. His brain couldn't handle all of the maddening impulses that his nerves were sending to it, and in compensation he let out a relaxed groan.

"Ryan?" He could hear her small sensual voice overriding all of his other senses.

"Hmmm?" he replied her after a moment, gazing down at her now that he could finally see her; drinking up her beauty with every blink of his eyes.

"Ryan..." It wasn't a question anymore to Ryan's ears; it was an invitation. Victoria was inviting him to touch her...hold her...caress her.

"Mmmmm..." He moaned excitedly and met her halfway, his lips indulging hers in a desperate, soulful dance.

He barely noticed when her arms grazed down his bare chest, her fingertips leaving fresh trails of fire on his skin. He was much too involved with her mouth, and how it leapt out to his own, caressing it and pleasing all of his desires and longings for her.

It was intoxicating, the touches that she lavished on him and how they magically met the demands his body would unconsciously call for. Her legs came to his own, running her toes up and down his calf causing him to pull away from her and moan delightfully.

"Ryan?" Victoria gasped just before he moved to capture her lips once more; her deep brown eyes staring hungrily into his own green ones.

This time he answered her with more than a grunt or moan. "Yes?" Ryan whispered, his voice deeper and throaty accompanying his primal hunger for her.

"Will we ever grow up?" she panted fervently, her hand slipping slowly down his arm.

"Ohhh...I hope not," he groaned fiercely, his hand weaving into her cascades of reddish brown hair, kissing her once more.

Over the last five years, Victoria had matured. She had grown beyond the crush she had had on Ryan when she was fourteen; the one she had been taught to suppress by Father after he had recognized the primal look of warmth in her eyes towards the blond boy. She had full control of her bodily actions through her mastery of demonic magic and self-control.

Or so she thought.

What Victoria had thought of herself over the last five years had completely changed within the very millisecond her lips met Ryan's and she felt a surge of unrequited lust run rampant through her body, breaking the bonds of magic that had held it in place for so many years. It hastily took over all her systems, leaving nothing for her higher brain functions to control. It was all primal...all instinctive...and oh so right.

How had Ryan resisted the hunger for all these years? She couldn't help but wonder that as his hands roamed her back and his tongue probed her collarbone with a whisper-delicate touch that drove her insane. Her hands gripped his back tightly, her long nails digging into the flesh of his shoulder blades and causing blood to slowly trickle from his skin. Yet he still persisted in nourishing her long cast-off desires any way he could possibly.

The way he stroked her and almost seemed to pay heed to her groans and moans, pulling away where she didn't want it and giving more when she did. It was a dance. She gave and he received. He gave and she received.

She couldn't put down a name to what she was feeling. Lust it most definitely was, but there was another feeling hiding behind it in the shadows just lingering out of reach. And Victoria couldn't put a name to it. She wanted to know what it was, but how could she describe something she couldn't even name?

She broke from her thoughts, and glanced at her hands which were slicked with Ryan's warm red blood. "You're bleeding," she breathed deeply, trying to tell him of his injury. "I made you bleed; let me heal you."

"I'm fine," he murmured into her neck, nibbling gently on her ear. "It doesn't hurt.

Victoria insisted once more, while directing a wayward thought towards the blood and causing it to evaporate, cleaning the mess of red. "Ryan, you'll have scars on your back if I don't heal them now," she half-moaned, his hands sliding beneath her shirt and onto her stomach.

It was then he gently withdrew from her, grinning softly. "Scars are good," he told, running his thumb along her lips. "They'll always give me something to remember this night by."

The young woman blinked brightly, returning the same grin. He wanted to have scars...scars from her. How...kind? No, that wasn't the right word she was searching for. How...sweet? Yeah, that was the word that she wanted, but she couldn't quite understand what the flavor of pineapples had to do with him wanting scars from her...

"Finally," Diabolico chuckled to himself as he spied upon his two near adult charges through his own demonic magic. "After thirteen years of sleeping in the same bed together, tension breaks!"

His hissing laughter rang through the buried room of the crypt, his ghost image resting upon the large tomb that incased his corporeal body as well as Queen Bansheera's other lackeys. "Soon, the humans will come to free us like the prophecy has always foretold: with the loss of innocence, brings forth the freedom of the demons...

"Of course it certainly won't be the end," he continued to talk out loud to himself, liking the sound of his bellowing voice recounting his eventually victorious plan to recapture what was rightfully his. "Once we are freed, I will feign my loyalty to Queen Bansheera and take back her palace for her, just like she would demand of me if she still was in this realm. But once my two protégées have produced the perfect offspring for me - one born of the knowing magic and battle - I will destroy my captor, retain my Star power and enslave her as one of mine. Then no one will stop me and I will rule all within my clawed clutch."

Ryan awoke later the next morning with a huge lump on his shoulders. It wasn't heavy, but it was definitely warm. He nearly laughed out loud when he was more conscious and realized what - more like who - was on him. "Mmmmm..." he moaned softly, remembering her warm caresses from the night before.

His hands gently glassed up Victoria's calf that laid on either side of his hips. Ryan could feel her stir from her sleep at his touch and grinned privately. "Hello, my scarred warrior," her heard her voice murmur, her delicate fingertips tracing along the ten little crescent moon scabs that had formed on his shoulder blades.

"Same to you, my enchantress," he warmly replied, slowly flipping onto his back so that he had Victoria sitting down on his stomach on top of him.

Victoria couldn't help but give a silly grin, her hands sliding up his bare chest. "Have you ever felt this way before, Ryan?" she asked curiously.

Ryan met her gaze and held it for a long moment, answering her question in the process, "I feel...happy. I don't know...it's hard to describe what I feel, but I've never felt it before. Although," he chuckled, his hands slipping underneath her tank top to hold her waist, "I do LIKE the way it feels."

"Will Father approve of it?" Victoria queried once more. That very question was her truest worry about whatever had taken place between her and Ryan. She hoped to death he would approve because, like Ryan she enjoyed the way she felt when she was with her companion.

"Father will approve," he assured her confidently. Always so confident, Ryan was. But then Victoria thought that that was his best trait because he continually managed to make her perceive their little world as the safest place to ever be. "He'll be happy and we'll be happy and it will be alright."

Victoria's eyed looked unsurely upon him, still a child in many respects; somewhat untrusting. "You promise?"

"I promise you."

Few hours following, Ryan and Victoria ran into their training room clad in their clothing, ready to follow their father's orders.

"We will not be training today," Diabolico declared blatenly as the two lined up before him.

The team of two looked completely taken away. Never in all the days, weeks, months and years they had lived with Diabolico and trained under his tutelage had they taken one day away from training. Learning and living to Diabolico's expectations was their lives. There was only one possible question that could sum up their thoughts.

"Why?"

Diabolico looked to Victoria, the one he had known would ask the question. "I need to explain everything to you now. You both are old enough now to know the reasons of your training and why I offered you a home in my sanctuary," he carefully explained, trying not to foreshadow to what he was going to reveal in their continuing conversation.

After a pause of silence, Diabolico began to tell his reasoning to his intrigued students. "Three thousand years ago I lived on Earth as a demon serving my queen, Queen Bansheera. I admit, during that time I did some horrible deeds, but it was always for the benefit of my queen; I could not very well deceive her.

"Soon enough, a powerful sorcerer came along to challenge my queen's power. He ended up banishing my queen into another realm of existence and entrapped me and my fellow warriors in a tomb to be sealed forever."

"And you're still trapped?" Ryan queried with a confused expression.

Diabolico nodded his head, to the shock of both. "Yes, I am. What stands before you know is my spirit's projection; it is just as real as I would be if I stood before you in my real body.

"Before I was captured, I was made aware of a prophecy that had predicted my queen's demise and my entrapment. While before I didn't believe it, I do now. It was foretold that two children would free me from my prison; two children who possessed the minds and souls to become a great warrior and enchantress."

"And we are those children," Victoria succinctly stated. It wasn't a question to her. She knew...she felt like she had always known she was special, destined for something great.

"Yes," Diabolico replied, then continued on. "For the many, many years that followed my capture, I allowed my spirit to search endlessly for these two children...and I did not succeed until I came upon you two.

"When I first saw you Victoria, roaming the dark streets on that fateful cold night with your mother, I knew right away you were my enchantress. So swift and resourceful you were, slipping your hands into the right places and coming out rewarded nearly every time; you never got caught in your game. You were a quick study, eager to learn and craving the new knowledge to be found in your games." He chuckled, recalling the girl when she was younger. "You despised me when I first brought you here."

Victoria blinked rapidly, and Ryan could have almost sworn it looked like she was on the verge of tears. He immediately banished the thought though. Victoria never cried, at least he had never seen her cry and ever since that first night he had spent with her in their home, Ryan hadn't shed a tear either.

"I grew to respect you, Father," she insisted, her eyes baring into the monster that raised her. "Despising you wasn't an option."

"It was never logical either," Diabolico agreed, then paused as if to signal his continuation of his story. "When I first saw you Ryan, you were in a terrible situation, forced to hold on for dear life while your father chose to save your sister, rather than you. Your strength and willful determination was what drew me to you. Though sorely misplaced, you placed blind faith with your father...same faith that you have now learned to place in yourself as a warrior of great strength. I saved you from death - the same death your father condemned you to - because I knew you worthy of my attention. Such a great life, I certainly would not allow to go to waste. While you did not appreciate the help I bestowed upon you at the start, I have come to believe you respect me the same way Victoria does."

Through his anger at the memory, Ryan lifted his dark eyes and nodded tersely towards his savior. "I do respect you, Father, and I cannot thank you enough for this great power you have given me," he voiced tightly, but meaningfully.

Victoria noted her companion's anger, and while she always knew he was very emotional, she never knew him to display such a deep anger towards anything before. She had never heard the story of his life before he came to be with her, but from what she had just heard, Ryan had every right to display his emotions the way he did. After all, he had never heard her life story before today as well and she had seen him studying her expression to it being revealed. It took all she had in her to control her tears. "How do we free you, Father?"

"You have already freed me," Diabolico answered easily. He laughed at the furrowed brows of both of his students. "You two children are no longer children. I have told you the truth. You are no longer oblivious; you have both given into your desires for one another. You are no longer innocent."

"How did you know?" Victoria cried in bewilderment, frightened of his lack of acceptance.

"I see everything, Victoria," Diabolico responded, moving forward to cradle the young woman's jaw within his claws. He turned his head dismissively towards Ryan. "Leave us, Ryan. I will speak to you later."

It was evident in Ryan's eyes that he objected to leaving Victoria's side, nonetheless he followed his father's command and returned back to his quarters.

As soon as his warrior left the room, Diabolico returned his gaze to his enchantress. "You are the enchantress, Victoria. You wield demonic magic within your fingertips, therefore you must also have a demonic persona."

Diabolico moved away from Victoria and started towards a stone table that had gone unnoticed in the back corner of the shadowy room. She slowly followed him, until her eyes caught upon a gleaming silver object lying on the table. Edging closer, Victoria spotted a strong silver sword set next to its leather sheath among many other silvery things.

Her brown eyes wandered the table in excitement as she came to realize that everything there was for her. All together they created an entire suit of body armor, colored silver and black. "For me?" she whispered, still quite in surprise. Awing over it all, she gingerly slid her fingers over the silver wings lying before her.

"For you," Diabolico nodded, standing beside her. "From now on, when you don this armor you will be Vypra. When you leave this armor behind, shed it for your humanness, you will be Victoria once more."

"My humanness?" She faced him, eyebrow raised in a peculiar fashion.

"When we leave here, which we will soon enough, we will reside in Skull Cavern; one of my queen's many hidden hideaways. Everyone who resides there with us will be demons: Impus, the queen's son, Jinxor and Loki, my two lackeys, and all of the battlings, our henchmen. You and Ryan will be the only two humans, but I want you to appear as demonic as possible to everyone else."

"And what about Ryan?"

"He will be fighting by your side of course, but in a different fashion than you fight."

"That would be?"

"Many ways...but mostly by your side, in your bed," Diabolico bluntly declared. "I do approve of the turn your relationship has taken with Ryan, Victoria. I trained you for great power, but I also trained you to breed."

Her excited brown eyes were now clouded with slight disappointment. "We were just animals to you, Father?" she demanded, her tone tempered. She had never yelled at Diabolico - she had never had a real reason to - but now, being angry with him seemed only decently right!

"No! I do not see you as animals." The monster shook his head, wanting to chuckle at his protégée's misunderstanding. "You see, there is one bit of information I lacked to reveal to you when Ryan was present before."

"Oh?"

"The prophecy that was told to me also spoke of the two children giving birth to a child, a child born of both worlds - magic and strength. This child was to overthrow Queen Bansheera and her son from their powerful perch...which has always been my true mission. To banish her evil ways..." The words flowed easily from his mouth, half-truths mixed along with his lies. Slowly, Diabolico twisted his voice to produce the sounds of sorrow and begging. "This will sound like an odd request to you, Victoria, but...I NEED a child from you and Ryan."

Victoria stared into her father's eyes, her lips pursed tightly. As she searched, she found the look of need in his eyes hiding his true intents. Yet she stood quiet, not knowing how to respond to his plea.

Diabolico pushed his acting skills to the limit, cupping the woman's cheek with his large hand. Whipping out his trump card, he gently let it slip from the caverns of his mouth, "Grant me my wish, dear daughter..."

Her eyes swelling with love towards the monster - her only real father figure - that had raised her from such a tender age, Victoria tore herself from his gaze. The long strands of her dark bronze hair that hid her features from Diabolico for a moment were pushed away from her face with the aid of his claws. "Daughter..." He pushed her again, hoping that she would acceptingly play into his hands.

Her voice was a ginger and gentle whisper, but it did touch his ears.

"In time, Father, in time..."

Victoria walked down the hall towards her quarters, her steps tentative and her mind jumbled. She hadn't experienced the feeling of such a thick confusion clouding her thoughts. Mostly everything had been laid out for her in life: clear and concise, black and white.

It was no longer like that anymore. She was confronted by ceaseless doubts and so many different shades of gray at the decision she had just made with her father. So many that she felt utterly uncertain, and she hated that feeling. It made her feel uneasy.

She was going to give her father a child.

Did that seem so awful? Did it seem wrong? Was it right? Should she have not agreed? The questions barraged her and she did all she could to suppress them with her magic, but one question insistently remained.

Was it right?

In her mind, she believed it to be right...or at least MOST of her thoughts believed it. It was only fair, for he HAD saved both Ryan and her from lives of misery. One new life, for both of their lives? It seemed like a decent equation. Maybe even they were getting the better part of the bargain!

Victoria approached her quarters and pushed open the stone door, stepping inside the room and nearly bursting into laughter.

There Ryan was, laying lazily on their bed before her, tossing pieces of dried pineapple into his mouth casually. His appearance contrasted to her own tumultuous emotions so much, she couldn't help but give a small giggle.

"You're finally back?" Ryan sat up on the bed, pushing the pineapples aside and eagerly scooting up to the bottom of the bed.

She watched him, his eagerness and childishness showing upon his face. They were both still were children, no matter what Diabolico had told them. "Seems so," she replied, taking up a seat beside him. She could smell the scent of the pineapples on his breath and she grinned.

Ryan and pineapples. If anything, she always wanted to remember that about him.

"What did Father talk to you about?" he asked, not even looking at her face. He was far too busy tracing and memorizing the skin of her neck, causing little tingly sensations to run crazily down her spine.

She gave a little moan before replying. "He gave me new armor and a new name." Victoria slyly left out the part about them conceiving a child for Diabolico; she didn't want to talk about it and bring her mind into more chaos.

"A new name?" He looked at her intrigued.

She nodded, lolling her head back to allow room for Ryan's finger which had begun to graze downwards towards her collarbone. "I am to be called Vypra when I wear my armor," she told him, her voice a throaty whisper. "When I don't, I am Victoria."

A slow, opulent smile grew upon Ryan's lips as he replaced the touch of his fingers for the caress of his tongue along Victoria's skin. "You are my Victoria...my enchantress," he claimed, one of his arms slipping around her waist and pulling her down onto the bed.

A teasing smile tickled her lips momentarily as she watched him hover over her, forgetting everything else but Ryan. "I suppose," she whispered hungrily, bringing him down to her.

She hadn't committed the act.

She couldn't bring herself to do it so long as Ryan didn't know what their father wanted...and as she told herself before, she was not going to tell him until Diabolico did. It already was too complicated.

Quietly, she lay in the dark of their quarters, gazing off into the nothingness the shadows occupied. Ryan's arms held her to him, her head resting lightly against his bare chest while one of her arms remained draped over his side.

Victoria tried and tried again to let her mind completely blank out, to be free of thoughts, allowing her the sleep she longed for. The sleep would drown her in fantasies, and for awhile let her forget of her promise to her father. If only it would come and take her away...

Sleep did not come to her rescue that night.

A month passed dreadfully fast for the two prophesied children and their world was hastily thrown upside down, as well as rearranged.

A few days following their enlightening, Diabolico was released from prison along with the other demons and they all moved to reside in Skull Cavern. Almost immediately, they attacked the city of Mariner Bay with one of Diabolico's many monsters, looking to reclaim it for Queen Bansheera...disguising their true mission, which Victoria and Ryan were led to believe.

As if a retort to their attack, a team of five appeared from nowhere and attacked their monster, destroying it rather easily. Both Ryan and Victoria had been surprised by their seemingly vast power, but Diabolico reassured them that these people were weak for they could hold nothing to his two protegees.

It was on their third attack that Victoria first made her appearance in front of these "Power Rangers" as her demonic persona of Vypra. Though she did not succeed, through this battle it was finally revealed to Ryan that his father was in charge of the group of "Power Rangers" and that his younger sister, Dana, was also part of the pathetic group.

Upon the discovery of that information, Ryan erupted; the lava of his passionate hate slowly oozing it's way through Skull Cavern little by little.

"I ask you, Father," Ryan demanded, Diabolico standing before him in the quarters he shared with Victoria in Skull Cavern, "let me go out and fight beside Victoria! Give me the chance to destroy all of them all at once!"

"Not right now, Ryan," Diabolico insisted, his arms folded across his large chest. "We must wait until the time is right, THEN you may get your chance for vengeance."

"I CAN'T wait!" he shouted back heatedly in protest. "I must kill them NOW!"

A split second later, a slap resounded through Ryan's ears and he found himself sprawled out on the bed on his back. A jutting pain ached through his entire jaw as he tried to speak, finding that he couldn't.

"You will obey me, Ryan," Diabolico growled lowly, flexing his hand a few times. "I raised you to not be foolish and to think things through; to have a bit of common sense. I won't tolerate stupidity or selfishness from you!"

The blond man watched from his place on the bed as the monster left the room in a simple flourish. Rising to sit up, he gently cradled his aching jaw within his hands and continued to stare at the door in astonishment for many minutes. His father had hit him...

"Ryan!" The voice of his companion echoed through the door, and soon enough, she appeared in the doorway, still dressed head to toe in her armor. "RYAN!" she screamed once more, running to the bed where he sat and eyeing his jaw.

Though he couldn't tell her anything, Victoria could see the throbbing pain in his eyes as well as his sudden shock. She knew of his conflict with Diabolico, for just moments before in the gathering room he had told her of what he had done to Ryan. "He broke your jaw," she told him softly, sitting down beside him and cupping his face with her hands. Closing her eyes, she took to concentration and blue light emitted from her hands, healing his face.

Victoria drew her hands away from his face, allowing him move his jaw around a few times, making sure it was in working condition. "He hit me." Ryan finally spoke with a mixture of wonder and resentment.

"I know that," she retorted, moving away from him and slowly stripping herself of her armor.

"But...he hit me!" he cried once more, stunned. The thought simply was unbearable for Ryan; his father had never hit him! What possessed him to do so now?

The enchantress sighed, while sifting through her clothes searching for something halfway decent to wear to bed. "Ryan, you ASKED for Father to hit you! You were ordering him around...playing the role of a stubborn child!" She ultimately found a simple black silk slip from one of their explorations out in the human world hiding at the bottom of her wooden chest and slid that over her armor-less body. "I know you are furious about-"

"I am NOT stubborn!"

"Oh, really?"

"If anything, YOU'RE stubborn!"

"Me?" Victoria was now standing at the foot of the bed where Ryan still sat, glaring. "How am I stubborn?"

"You never stop until you get what you want," Ryan replied quite seriously, his voice tempered. "Like that time when we were seven, you wanted my pineapples and wouldn't stop pestering me until I gave them to you because I couldn't stand your whining!"

She gasped, her eyes wide. "I do not whine!"

Ryan was about to let out another spiteful remark, when he realized how immature they actually were acting and began to laugh. "What?" She glared at him, the most childish pout upon her features.

"When was the last time we fought like this?" he queried through his laughter.

"When we were ten," she quickly responded, then caught on to what Ryan was implying and began to giggle. "We fought over who should get the bigger pillow on the bed..."

Both of them burst into a louder fit of laughter, Victoria falling back onto the bed beside Ryan, clutching her stomach for dear life. Their howls of laughter must have filled the caverns for over ten minutes until they eventually began to spiral down from their high points and calm down.

They laid beside one another, tired and worn from their fun, trying to catch their breath. Victoria rolled over onto her side and propped her head up with her arm, gazing down at Ryan with his eyes closed as he tried to slow his breathing to normal. Compelled out of a need to touch him, she took one of her long nails and dragged it down the side of his face, creating a light scratch mark.

His eyes flickered open slightly at the unexpected touch, but he didn't push her away.

Victoria ran her finger over the little scratch, trying to rub it away, while her eyes wandered over his face. She could see him peeking up at her with his intense green eyes through his half-open lids, watching the movement of her own mysterious brown ones as they brushed over his lips. His pursed lips - a light tone of red - held in a straight line so quietly when just before they had expelled the beautiful sound of his laughter.

She moved her thumb to graze across his lips when he softly kissed the tip of her thumb, causing a slow shudder to overcome her. Ryan's hand now began to move also, taking her hand into his and holding it up to his mouth so that he could devour her sensitive skin - calluses and all.

Gasping in pleasure at his touch, Victoria moaned, "Ryan, did Father tell you everything?"

"Tell me everything of what?" he murmured, his lips gliding up her arm from her fingers.

"Tell you everything about the prophecy?" she managed to groan out as he tugged her on top of him.

Totally involved with her neck now, Ryan barely even heard her question; nevertheless, he was able to grunt his answer to her. "Uh-huh..."

The promise she made to Diabolico was the last conscious thought that entered Victoria's mind before Ryan finally made his way up to her mouth, catching her lips in a fiery kiss.

Ryan awoke the next morning to feel the warm petite body that had been sleeping closely against him leaving him and the confines of their bed. Without even opening his tired eyes, he could hear her bare feet against the stone floor and stopping, just as a creak from her old chest sounded.

"What are you doing?" he mumbled with a deep yawn, sitting up in the bed as he heard the shuffle of clothing.

"Here."

He finally ripped his eyes open just as a pair of clothes hit him in the face. "Hey!" he cried, rubbing his face with his hands, trying to wake himself up fully. "What am I supposed to do with these?"

Victoria rolled her eyes at him from where she stood, watching him stare at the black zip-up shirt and black cargo pants she had thrown him with a puzzled look. "They're clothes, Ryan; you wear them," she snorted sarcastically, yet grinning at him.

"I know THAT part," he remarked, tossing the clothes aside and glancing up at his lover, who was bent over her chest digging deeply into the clothes. His eyes widened as his gaze remained glued upon her back for many minutes before he spoke once again. "Ummm...who says we need clothes for whatever you're planning? You look delicious without clothing...almost as good as pineapples."

Victoria chuckled, removing her head from inside the chest and shaking her head at Ryan. "Almost?" She stuck her tongue out at him playfully and returned to her search. "Actually, if you want to walk around Mariner Bay nude, I don't mind. Just as long as you don't get yourself into trouble."

"We're going into Mariner Bay?" Ryan queried, his brow furrowing slightly with tension. "Why? Does Father need us to do something for him?"

She noted the strain in the tone of his voice and turned around, plopping down on the bed before him. "We are not going to kill anybody today," she declared sternly, meeting his wavering glance. "Father is attacking Mariner Bay today on his own with one of Jinxer's monsters. I guess you could say I have the day off, and while I usually would spend it training with you, I feel like going shopping."

Ryan blinked a few times in bewilderment. "You want to go shopping? Is this another one of your weird magic urges?"

Slapping him once in the arm, she snickered. "Actually, I think it may be one of those human womanly urges that I just can't suppress with magic."

"And I'm going with you?"

"Yes."

"Do I have a choice in the matter?"

"No."

"Are you sure?" Ryan questioned once more, his hand slipping up her bare calf. "Because I was really looking forward to doing a little more training today."

A smirk fell upon Victoria's lips as she saw a wicked grin curl upon his own. "And what kind of training did you have in mind?" she teased, a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Oh, just one that involves the use of a bed, that's all," he winked back, patting an empty spot on the bed next to him.

Victoria feigned a look of fright, gazing down at the bed. "That sounds a little too dangerous for me I think..."

Ryan huffed at her mockingly, grabbing her and pulling her onto him as he fell back into the bed. "Dangerous? Since when did we limit ourselves to dangerous?!"

Several hours following, when Victoria finally managed to actually remove Ryan from bed, she found herself browsing through the flea market that was set up smack dab in the middle of bubbling city, Mariner Bay.

If there was one place where Victoria wanted to be at that very moment it was the flea market. It was the complete opposite of her: chaotic, noisy and crowded. She knew she would be able to loose her thoughts in the swarm of craziness; maybe even make her stop thinking about what had taken place between her and Ryan the night before.

Of course, that also was the real reason she had chosen to go shopping in the first place: to get her mind off Ryan. She supposed she shouldn't have dragged him along with her because it most likely wasn't helping her forget him, but she couldn't help but want to be with him. He was intoxicating, like some kind of drug. Whenever he touched her, she lost all conscious thought and simply needed to drown in everything that was him.

Her eyes roamed the many stands around her, until she noticed Ryan admiring one of the stands behind her. He had his fingers coiled around something, and it was shiny because she could see the sunlight of the beautiful day glinting off of it. "Hey, I thought I was the one interested in the shopping," she remarked, pressing up behind him and staring down at the thing in his hands. It was a plain silver ball necklace. "Attracted?" she questioned curiously, nodding towards the item.

He glanced back at her then brought her to his side, his arm wrapped firmly around her waist. "It reminded me of you," he chuckled softly, allowing the necklace to dangle from his fingers. "Your armor, and how the sun hits it when you battle those nasty, pesky, Power Rangers."

Victoria smiled back, glad he was back to tossing out petty insults about the Power Rangers. Maybe his father breaking his jaw had knocked some sense into him, or maybe she had just managed to make him completely forget about his anger towards his blood family. While her logical side hoped that the first thought was true, a little piece of her wanted the latter reason to be the answer. She shrugged mentally; either way, he wasn't dwelling upon his wicked father or sister and that was more than enough for her.

She cast her gaze back towards his hand, where he still examined the necklace. "Did you want it?"

Ryan shrugged absently, fingering the little price tag attached to it. "Twenty dollars," he commented with a scoff, laying the jewelry back down on the table. "Are you willing to pay that much for a piece of metal?"

A sudden swell of emotion overcame Victoria as she thought of the necklace. She had seen how Ryan gazed at it, almost longingly; like it was a piece of her he never wanted to be without. The feeling was warm and gentle and determined; it made her feel the NEED to buy the necklace for him, no matter the cost. "Don't worry," she assured with the smallest of smiles, "I'm pretty sure I could bargain her down a few dollars. Besides, you want it...I'll get it for you. It's not like I'm going to run out of money anytime soon, and if I do I can make some more."

"You don't have to buy-"

"Nonsense!" She quieted him, waving down one of the ladies running the stand while Ryan stepped back to watch. "Miss, I was wondering, how much is this necklace?" Victoria smiled brightly and motioned to the silver ball-chain.

The middle-aged woman grinned back at her, playing into Victoria's hands. "This one?" she questioned, picking up the necklace and examining the little tag. "It's twenty dollars."

Victoria pulled a small fist of bills out from her pocket and counted them out before the woman. "Twenty? Oh, I only have twelve dollars!" She feigned a soft frown, appearing to look disappointed. She then returned her solemn gaze to the object in the older woman's hand. "I really wanted that necklace too; my cousin would've loved it. See, her birthday's in two days and I haven't been able to find anything to give to her, but when I spotted that necklace I KNEW it'd be perfect!" She quickly finished weaving her little lie before the woman, hoping that her plea of desperate help would get her to go down on the price.

Ryan watched in awe as the woman slowly smiled and said a few words to Victoria, handing her the necklace. In turn, the petite woman handed over the twelve dollars in her hand and voiced a, "Thank you so much!" before moving away from the stand and towards where he stood, a few stands ahead.

"I told you if you wanted it, I'd get it for you," she told him with a grin as they headed towards a bench and sat down.

"You are so stubborn," he remarked, softly kissing her lush red lips, "and you're a liar."

She shrugged absently, leaning forward to slide the silver chain around his neck. "So I'm both, I'll admit it. But why are you complaining? It got you what you wanted, right?"

"Whoever said I was complaining?" he replied, relishing the touch of her arms around his neck. "I like it when you're evil!"

As Victoria finished clasping the chain around his neck, she abruptly felt something soft and warm against her own bare shoulder and groaned happily. Ryan could choose the most inappropriate times to be intimate, but that's what she most enjoyed about him.

Closing her eyes, she sunk into him and returned his gesture, nibbling at his ear hungrily. She let him ravish her with his caresses, all the while sensing the stares they both were getting from some onlookers. Being the center of attention was such a wondrous feeling...one she hadn't experienced very often before that point.

She and Ryan continued on with their make-out session, oblivious to the world around them until a rather loud and obnoxious voice snorted, "Geez, you'd think they'd learn to get a room or something!"

The two lovers almost instantly pulled away from one another, both recognizing the annoying voice. Arching their heads behind them, they saw Joel Rawlings - cowboy hat and all - shaking his head in a scolding manner. Dana Mitchell and Kelsey Winslow weren't far behind him, all of them wearing their tacky-looking Lightspeed Rescue jackets. God, how Ryan wanted to rip those things off them!

The Green, Pink and Yellow Rangers standing directly before them, not even knowing they were staring at their sworn enemies. Victoria ducked her head, fighting off the urge to burst out laughing. The situation was just too ironic.

On the other hand, Ryan was blazing mad. He was literally glaring daggers into the three rangers for many moments, until Joel finally spoke up again, snapping out at Ryan. "What are you staring at? I'm simply voicing my opinion. Freedom of Speech; the First Amendment, you know."

"Joel!" Kelsey cried out nervously, grasping him shoulder and pulling him away slightly. "What are you doing? That guy looks like he could eat you!"

Victoria's head shot up at Kelsey's words, and she faced her companion to see the glinting predatory glare he gave only when he was preparing to attack. And it wasn't solely focused on Joel...it was focused on all three of them.

She quickly laced her arms around his shoulders and crawled into his lap, making sure she kept him steady in his seat. The last thing they needed was for him to go all animal-like on the three of them and have their entire cover blown; they were normal Mariner Bay citizens for the moment, and that's all they could show. "Ryan," she pleaded, her eyes darting between the group of rangers and her lover. It was because of that she was able to catch the slight wince to appear on Dana's face when she voiced Ryan's name. Bitch, she deserved to wince and more; however, Victoria wasn't about to risk them both for her own little vendetta against the Pink Ranger. "Ryan, just leave them alone. We can go somewhere else. Just forget it."

Gazing persistently into Ryan's eyes, she managed to finally get through to him and the dark, predatory look vanished from his eyes. Victoria smiled tightly, trying to tell him of the precarious position they were in and he immediately took heed. "Come on," he declared, standing up from the bench and taking Victoria's hand. "You're right. He's not worth it."

The couple walked away arm in arm, and she could still sense his intensity from the confrontation in his body as he walked somewhat rigidly. "That was close," she heaved nervously under her breath, just so Ryan could hear her. She had never felt nervous before, and she never wanted to again. "I can't believe the nerve of those rangers! All haughty, thinking they own the city!"

"I would've killed them where they stood," Ryan whispered heatedly, as they continued to walk towards the end of the flea market.

Victoria nodded solemnly, her arm squeezing his gently while she continued to stare straight ahead as if nothing had happened. "I know you would have."

Another two months passed by swiftly for all the occupants of Skull Cavern, as those two months became desirably forgettable.

Every battle fought against the Power Rangers for control of Mariner Bay was lost. Victoria found herself being sent out more often into battle situations where she was always able to keep her ground against the rangers, but as soon as Diabolico ordered Jixner to send out one of the monsters to finish the job, the battle was lost.

It drove both her and Ryan to the point of madness. Victoria couldn't understand why her father wouldn't let her finish off the Power Rangers when he very well knew that she could blow them to pieces with an easy wave of her hand. Ryan couldn't understand why his father refused to let him fight against the Power Rangers at all when he most certainly had the skill to destroy all five of them. Instead, he was stuck training himself with an axe; training that Diabolico insisted would soon become very useful. Ryan rolled his eyes at the thought. A dagger was the most useful of all his weapons; an axe simply seemed too clumsy for his agile grace.

The two were left in the dark until one night when Diabolico called them to him.

Diabolico stood before his two students in the gathering room; Victoria appareled in her body armor and Ryan in his usual casual clothing of black. Within the blond man's hands sat the axe given to him by Diabolico a month prior.

"You wanted us, Father?" Ryan questioned, his fingers running along the dull side of the axe's blade.

"Yes," the monster answered. "I know you wonder why I let us continually loose to the Power Rangers; I can see your eyes. So I will tell you why.

"I let us loose because I have been waiting for this chance that those stupid pathetic rangers and their Lightspeed Rescue commander have laid out for us." He paused momentarily to see the fascination light up in their eyes. "For the last month, I have been quite aware of the experiments they've been running in the Aquabase. One of these experiments caught my eye: the creation of a sixth Power Ranger, the Titanium Ranger.

"Just earlier today, the experiment was taken a step further as the Red Ranger was used to try and harness the powers of the Titanium Ranger. He wasn't able to because he was an ordinary human and due to this, the experimentation on the morpher was stopped."

It was like Victoria was reading Diabolico's mind because she knew exactly what he was going to say, and the excitement caused a incredibly large smile to peel across her face. "And you want to give this morpher to Ryan?" she queried, trying very hard to keep the happiness out of her voice. Her companion was finally going to be able to fight by her side!

Ryan glanced at the woman beside him, shocked at the words that had just flown out of her mouth. He was going to harness Ranger powers? Oh, how glorious the idea sounded to him! With that type of power, he would become undefeatable! "Is it true, Father?" he prodded, trying not to sound forceful or too excited for that matter. "Will I finally get my day of revenge against my blood?"

Diabolico chuckled at the antics of his protegees. He had raised them to think just like him...they had practically read his thoughts. Diabolico was glad; he had tutored and created a fine warrior and enchantress. "Yes, you will Ryan," he paused, studying the man as a lust for vengeance began to fill his eyes. "I will allow you to have your way with all the Power Rangers, so long as you destroy them. That is my only demand."

"Very well," Ryan agreed easily, his mind wandering to the many possibilities and ways he could destroy them all. He usually wasn't so bloodthirsty, but since the chance of revenge lingered so near he couldn't help it. The chance that was being handed to him was what he had longed for since he was fifteen. Five years of waiting...he couldn't wait any longer. "Where is the morpher?"

"You will retrieve it from the base, Ryan. Victoria will disengage all the alarms for you; all you will have to do is go into your blood father's office and remove the morpher from his safe."

Ryan grinned, glancing at Victoria who had the same sly grin on her lips. "This is going to be too easy; those Power Rangers won't know what hit them."

"So this is what Mariner Bay looks like in the morning?"

"This is it." Victoria wandered away from her post at the edge of the tall building, standing next to Ryan while their group of battlings stood silently around them. "Are you ready to face them?"

His eyes glittered eagerly from within his helmet, his visor up, so he could enjoy the sunrise over the city to the fullest. "I've been ready since forever, my dear Vypra." He chuckled, caressing her cheek with his gloved fingers. It had been the first time Ryan had ever called Victoria by her alter ego's name, and she loved the way he said it. The name had jumped off his tongue fast and hard, like a striking cobra - just the way she wanted the Power Rangers to remember her.

"Then let's get to work," she returned, walking up to the side of the building once more, the battlings following her obediently. She brought her hand up, closing her fingers and their long red nails into a tight fist and began to concentrate. After a few moments, Victoria's eyes flashed open and a devilish grin appeared on her features. "Isn't it beautiful? The last sunrise Mariner Bay will ever see!"

Her fisted hand began to glow an iridescent blue and with a swift thrust of her arm, she sent the tenacious ball of energy catapulting forward into one of the tall skyscrapers of Mariner Bay's skyline.

The city's demise now lay tightly in the two prophesized children's grip.

Victoria held out her sword in front of her as she trooped down a ramp and through the lower part of the building, her battlings right behind her. She stopped in the middle of the abandoned warehouse, and laughed wickedly while bringing her fist to her face again, gazing around the room. "Next target..." She waved her fingers around, trying to pick and choose.

Before she had the chance to fire a free blast, a rain of laser shots fell upon her and she shied away momentarily, protecting herself from the sudden shower. When she glanced up, her eyes smoldering, she saw the group of five Power Rangers facing her on the opposite side of the room.

"There's not gonna be a next target this time, Vypra," Carter Grayson - the Red Peppermint Ranger, Ryan teasingly called him - yelled out at her, supposedly trying to intimidate her. It had yet to work. "Get outta here!"

Her dark brown eyes twinkled in amusement at the empty threat, and a smirk soon followed. How glorious it would be for her to watch Ryan mash them into a bloody pulp; she couldn't wait for the moment. "It's only a matter of time before Mariner Bay FALLS to Diabolico!" she retorted easily, playing their little game of words.

The snooty Green Ranger stepped up, and folded his arms across his chest while shaking his head at her. His actions were nearly enough to make her blood boil; they were the same actions he had taken with her and Ryan when he saw them at the flea market months before. "Oh, I know when that'll be...NEVER!" he mocked terribly, and his words were what pushed Victoria over the top.

Her voice came out harsh, a crack of a whip. "ATTACK!"

The plan hadn't been for her to attack the rangers, but to just draw them out into the open for their introduction to the new Titanium Ranger. However, she decided to change the plan a little bit and get into a little squabble with the color-coded defenders of the city. That stupid idiot Joel certainly provoked a fight since he had literally gone about asking for one.

Besides, would Ryan protest to her wearing them down a bit? She doubted it.

Victoria returned her attention to her fight with Carter, watching the delicate movements of his sword to note his next move. He easily knocked her away though, due to her mindset still wavering in thoughts of her lover. She was far too anxious to carry on a serious and intense sword battle.

Studying the team as they regrouped, she saw the Red Ranger move forward once more, taunting her with his sword. Sure, like that thing would scare her. Victoria couldn't help but roll her eyes. "I'm not gonna tell you again. Get outta Mariner Bay!"

"Yeah...forever!" Kelsey chimed out, taking a stand beside Carter. Victoria felt slight revulsion creep through her at the Yellow Ranger's predictable move. Ugh! How she utterly despised those female rangers! They showed no backbone at times...at least, not one that Victoria could see.

She swallowed her revulsion away instantly though, as she could feel the strong magnificent power of the Titanium Ranger close by. Her Ryan would soon show them all what REAL power was. "Wild horses couldn't drag me away," she declared in a pleased tone, slowly darkening it for what she had to say next. "This is the moment I've been waiting for; the moment you meet your match."

As if cued by her words, a blue light began to emanate from the ceiling of the warehouse and hastily grew. Using her arm as a shield from the blinding light, she waited until it dissipated completely to reveal Ryan in all his glory.

Well, to her he was in all his glory. To the rangers, most likely, they'd still be recovering from the initial shock of the Titanium Ranger's arrival.

Ryan rapidly snapped out a pattern of arm movements and took to his normal battle stance, his arms shaking with a deep intensity. His anger and excitement radiated off him like the smell of pineapples did when they were in bed together, and she picked up on all of it.

Oh, how wondrous he'd look stained in their blood...

As Ryan laughed at the retreating figures of the Power Rangers, Diabolico appeared on the rooftop beside him, congratulating him on his victory. "Excellent work. I knew you'd be the perfect addition to our team." The two of them turned to face Mariner Bay's skyline. "With your new powers this city will soon be ours."

Ryan nodded his head, his axe swung on his shoulder. "Yes, very soon."

A short silence followed their exchange of words, soon to be filled with the click of Victoria's boots on the ground. Coming up from the bottom level, she sauntered over to where her father and companion stood. "So, I saw the rangers retreating," she commented flippantly. "I take it things went well?"

She came up behind the newly-powered Titanium Ranger and pressed her body tightly against his back, causing a loud groan to emit from Ryan's mouth. If he weren't morphed, he'd be ravaging her with kisses at that very moment; his blood throbbed fervently throughout his body from his victory. Though it didn't involve death and blood like he had hoped for, it was a victory nonetheless. And there was no one he wanted to spend the aftermath of his victory with more than Victoria. "Things went very well, with your aid," he answered passionately, flipping up his visor to gaze hungrily into her eyes.

Victoria laughed merrily as she spotted the primal look his vibrant green eyes that only emerged when he wanted one thing from her. "Father," she quickly ripped her eyes away from Ryan, "you wouldn't mind if we left abruptly, now would you?"

Diabolico shook his head at his two children and gave a throaty laugh. "So long as you do not tire my warrior out, Vypra," he warned teasingly. "He must be ready for the second attack later this afternoon."

"Of course!" she replied rather hastily, and the two lovers almost immediately melted into Victoria's aura, out of Diabolico's sight.

The afternoon came quickly, and Ryan was again dispatched into downtown Mariner Bay to wreak havoc so as to draw out the Power Rangers once more. The rangers came running as usual and the battle between the group and him began, Victoria watching the entire scene unfold from her perch atop one of the many buildings surrounding the area.

In the first few minutes, Ryan appeared to have the upper hand in the fight; blasting them over and over again with his weapon. However, in the midst of their losing streak, the Power Rangers pulled out one of their new little weapons; V-Lancers, Victoria had heard them named. The battle suddenly turned into staff combat and that was when Ryan began to falter.

He blocked them with a swift skill - that was to be sure - but his axe didn't seem to stand up to their long stick-like weapons. Sure enough, Carter managed to knock away Ryan's axe from him, the weapon landing a good ten feet away from him.

She studied his form as he eyed his fallen weapon even though the rangers stood lined before him prepared to fire on command. Ryan would go after his axe, and the rangers wouldn't hesitate in firing on him; Victoria could see it in their tense stances. And as the act played out just as she had predicted, she yearned for the chance to interfere in the battle and defend her Titanium Ranger, although she knew she couldn't. It simply wasn't her place.

So, there she stood high above the fight and watched as Ryan grabbed up his axe and aimed it at the rangers, just in time to catch a glimpse of the powerful laser blast from their V-Lancers rushing straight at him. He didn't dare shy away from the attack, and took it head on to his companion's painful dismay.

A fiery explosion followed the blast and an agonizing wince washed over Victoria's features as she saw Ryan's body fly into the air and collapse to the ground heavily. She heard the gasps and awed voices emitted from the five Power Rangers when they saw him slowly pull himself up from the ground. Waves of spite and deep hate ran through her at the noise, her eyes still glued to the Titanium Ranger's fatigued figure as he shakily stood clutching his axe.

For a moment he stared at the Power Rangers vengefully, his visor open due to the force of the explosion. He quickly turned down the visor and stomped towards them, aiming his axe, ready to fire. The rangers tried to warn him off, but he wouldn't be swayed. Ryan was unaccustomed to losing and he wasn't about to become accustomed to it right then either.

The rangers rose their V-Lancers again and this time, a trembling fear swept through Victoria as she looked on. Ryan wouldn't be able to take another hit. If she was fighting them, she could handle five or six more hits with the protection of her magic. But he didn't have magic on his side, he only had his brute strength...and his brute strength was wavering. He continued to press on, taking one step at a time when his legs would allow.

In spite of this unrelenting progression on Ryan's part, the group of five suddenly lowered their weapons and seemed to be arguing with their captain through their helmet comms. The new turn of events immediately brightened Victoria's spirits even further when she saw the group relent, walking away from the fight entirely.

Ryan fell to his knees in the rubble of the melee, his hands desperately grasping out toward the five retreating figures. "We're not finished!" He cried out in anguish. "COME BACK!"

As if scoffing at his words, the Red Ranger turned momentarily and looked back at him, then turned away and walked off with the rest of the Power Rangers.

Once they were out of sight, Victoria jumped down from the building and ran frantically to Ryan's side. "They nearly killed you," she stated in a growling manner, slipping his arm around her body so that she could help him stand.

"I was supposed to nearly kill THEM!" he snapped back furiously, letting her help him up from the ground. "They should have finished me off...I utterly failed."

Victoria shook her head vigorously. "You did not fail," she restated persistently. "It is a stand-off; both sides are in control right now."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Ryan scoffed at her, shifting his weight so that it wasn't solely on her. "Because it most certainly doesn't."

"Stop being a spoiled, stubborn brat," she jeered, finally adjusting to how they stood. "We'll go home, I'll heal you, and you'll have your day soon enough." With her last words, the two of them faded away into Victoria's usual blue mist.

Many meters below the ocean, Ms. Fairweather stood in the operations of the Aquabase, staring at the monitor before her. One of the many cameras they had posted all around Mariner Bay had just recorded the scene that took place between the Titanium Ranger and Vypra and her natural curiosity was most definitely piqued.

In the small exchange that she had witnessed on the screen, both Vypra and the Titanium Ranger acted far too human-like to be demons. They were very close; like they had some sort of bond. Perhaps they were close friends, or even lovers! No matter what they were to each other, the fact remained that both of them appeared more human than demon.

Ms. Fairweather let herself linger on the thought awhile longer before she pushed it to the back of her mind for future reference, heading towards the conference room to meet up with the rangers and Captain Mitchell.

Ryan sat stonily on the bed, staring straight at the brick wall before him. It was already near midnight, but he still couldn't remove his thoughts from the battle that had happened earlier that day. He had failed, no matter what Victoria said. The thought festered in his mind, spawning other angry and depressive thoughts about the rangers, his blood father, Diabolico and even the rare angry thought about his lover. Least to say, he didn't expect sleep to come to him that night.

Victoria re-entered their quarters, carrying plate of chocolate cake in her hands. She closed the door behind her with her bare foot and then began to attack the cake with her fork, swallowing down as much of the dessert she could in one mouthful. Neither of them had been indulged with those kinds of foods until they arrived in Mariner Bay a few months ago and ever since, Victoria had been binging on everything from tapioca pudding to large tubs of pure honey whenever she could - which usually was at night when their father couldn't catch her.

Ryan wondered where she had gotten the sweet treat from at that late of an hour, but he decided against it. If he said something, she'd think he wanted to talk and that was the last thing he wanted her to think. She'd already spent the entire day trying to get him to talk and cheer him up about his loss to the Power Rangers. Even Diabolico had given him a pep-talk of sorts, and that was even more bothersome than Victoria's constant prattle.

He ignored her casually, continuing to glare ahead at the wall.

Out of the periphery of his vision, he saw her move to the other side of the bed and crawl across it to sit directly behind him. The smell of the strong dark chocolate wafted into his nostrils and he nearly gagged. Chocolate was too strong of a sweet for him; he much preferred the lighter taste and smell of vanilla. Victoria knew this as well, yet she asked over his shoulder, "You want some cake?"

Ryan shook his head tersely in response to her question, hoping she would take his hint and leave him be for awhile. However, he had known since earlier that morning that Victoria was extremely moody and noticeably aroused, so he was more than sure she wouldn't be leaving him alone until she got what she wanted from him...and Ryan wasn't in the mood to give her what she wanted, even though he may have been previously.

Victoria whimpered in reply to his rejection, and pressed her body against his back; her breasts crushed against the middle of his back, her lips brushing against his scarred shoulder blades and her arms and legs wound around his stomach.

He fought off the urge to moan to the stimulus he gave her, when he felt something different against him. Strangely enough, he could feel her stomach through the silky green material of her nightgown at the small of his back, which he usually never felt. He had felt it there against him in the morning when he had been morphed also, but had tossed the thought aside. Now that he could feel it again, Ryan wondered if Victoria had been lacking in her training and putting on weight from all the sweets she had been eating. If Father knew about that, he wouldn't be happy at all with her.

She slowly began to work her tongue against his shoulder, and this time he couldn't resist the urge and he moaned lowly. Ryan felt her grin into his flesh at his response and he quickly snapped, "Victoria, no; not tonight."

"You're making a big deal out of nothing," she huffed, pulling herself away from him and returning to her cake that she had set on the bed. "Tomorrow is another day; you'll get another chance to kill those rangers." Her eyebrows were furrowed as she pouted, stuffing herself with the chocolate cake - partly hoping Ryan would take pity on her pathetic look and come to her.

He did no such thing.

Ryan sighed depressively, moving from where he sat to crawl underneath the covers of the bed on his side. He lay down on his back and folded his hands behind his head, closing his garnet green eyes. "It's not about killing the rangers anymore."

"It isn't?" Intrigued by the turn in his thoughts, she hastily scooted up the bed and lay beside him on top of the covers with the remains of her cake. "What IS it about then, Ryan?"

"It's about being human, Victoria," he responded, confessing his guts though he really didn't want to. "Do you want to live forever in Skull Cavern, fighting the Power Rangers and continuously training?"

"Who says we're going to be living in Skull Cavern forever and fighting the Power Rangers?" she questioned rhetorically. "It's only a matter of time before we defeat the rangers and reclaim Mariner Bay for Father...and besides, don't tell me you don't love our training! We get stronger everyday, gaining new abilities-"

"Don't you feel it being monotonous though? We do the same things everyday!"

He now lay on his side, facing Victoria and waiting expectantly for her reply. "After thirteen years of the same routine, you finally say you have tired of it?!" She glanced at him skeptically. "What ideas this melancholy mood has brought out in you!"

Ryan shook his head, sitting up in the bed and staring down at his companion. "Don't you ever wish we could live like normal people, Victoria? Like those people we attack everyday in Mariner Bay?" His voice rose anxiously, his true thoughts pouring out of him. "Don't you wish for more than the closed life we carry on here?!"

"That's the point, Ryan!" Victoria retorted, trying to bring him back down into reality: her reality. "We ATTACK those normal people you want to be like! The fact is we aren't normal; we are SPECIAL! Diabolico chose us because we were destined to fulfill a prophecy...a GREAT prophecy that needs us still!"

He blinked at her a few times, his thoughts clearing from his mind and allowing back in the warrior mentality that had been instilled in him from a young age. "You're right," he agreed softly, cupping her cheek in his hand. "I will kill the Power Rangers tomorrow; it is another day."

Satisfied with his normal thoughts returning to him, the crazy ones fleeing, Victoria took his palm to her lips and gently kissed it in reassurance.

As Victoria told him, the next day turned out to be another day; another opportunity to get back at the Power Rangers and Ryan took full advantage of it.

Striding down the streets of Mariner Bay, blasting away at anything in his path and waiting for the rangers to show...it was a tedious job, but someone had to do it. He was more than willing to do it, but he just wished they would show soon; patience was never his forte. He preferred action and movement to anything else.

So he was quite overjoyed when the Pink Ranger - his little sister - eventually appeared, stopping him from shooting an innocent citizen.

Innocent.

The word caused a little twitch in his thoughts, as if there was a battle going on inside of his mind over the very word. Ryan quickly shook off the feeling and returned his gaze to his sister, approaching her in the wide courtyard.

He pointed at her menacingly and forcefully, his hot and fierce voice rushing from the confines of his mouth. "It's you! After all these years, I've been waiting to meet you again." He growled deeply, literally seething venom. "I finally get to pay you back, Sister..." Quickly, Ryan raised his blaster and fired several shots upon the younger girl sending her tumbling.

Hungrily, Ryan pressed the fight on and chased after her with his axe. Since forever he had longed for revenge, and it finally seemed to be all falling into place. His plans were going to be fulfilled.

He swung his axe down on her sword, knocking his sister to her knees while the blade of his axe remained locked with her sword, pressing down on her. "No brother of mine could be as evil as you are," she spat hastily, pushing against his weight.

"You're right," Ryan easily agreed in a spiteful tone, watching her quiver underneath his obviously stronger power. "Unless his father let him fall from a cliff to save his younger sister!"

He released his axe from her blade and they continued to fight on, a new resolve pushing him on. Who was the more evil one? Was it he, who only sought the proper revenge that deserved upon these cruel people? Or was it her, who spat lies into his face and had taken his entire life from him?

As they kept going, it became fairly apparent that Ryan had and kept the upper hand in the one on one battle from the beginning all the way through. He was a warrior of course, and he had trained all of his life for moments like the one he was caught up in at that very second.

Gradually, Dana tired and with a neat blow from Ryan, she collapsed a few feet away from him, panting furiously. He chuckled at her weak state, slinging his axe on his shoulder casually. "Ryan," she called to him, still trying to catch her breath, "Father didn't LET you fall; there was nothing he could do!"

He slowly felt his blood begin to boil. Would this girl ever realize that he refused to swallow her damned lies?! He threw down his axe, pointing it directly into the Pink Ranger's face. "But you're the one who survived that night on the cliff," he replied in a succinct and clear fashion.

"But now it's over, Ryan." She spoke softly, only loud enough for him to hear. He stopped for a moment, listening to how she said his name. She didn't say it like Victoria did. Victoria said it...well, she said it like he thought a lover would. But Dana's way was different; and for a moment, he liked that difference.

But Ryan instantly shook off the feeling, returning to his agenda at hand. He was going to kill her; destroy her. He couldn't suddenly feel sentiments for the sister that stole his entire existence from him; things just didn't work that way. "It's over for you..." He trailed off menacingly, switching his axe back into its blaster mode.

He kept his blaster trained on her for many seconds, but for some reason unknown to him, Ryan found that he couldn't pull on the trigger. His burning eyes remained glued to her as she slowly stood up from the ground. "He loved you," she insisted in a pleading voice, Ryan trying to not give into her ploy as she tried to force-feed him her lies. "You wanted to grow up to be a fireman, just like him!"

In the back of his mind, he could feel a soft hum cutting through the fog of his early childhood memories. The hum slowly progressed to become louder and louder, until his efforts to block it all out became completely vain. "QUIET!" He screamed, partly at Dana and partly at the sound in his head.

Ryan continued to struggle with the hum, when he heard Dana's voice momentarily cut through. "What's wrong with you?!" He felt her throw herself onto his blaster, taking hold of his arm and shaking him a bit. "Don't you remember anything?"

Unexpectedly, the hum stopped and fog cleared in his mind; a few solitary memories flashed through his mind. "I remember..." he whispered delicately, his head bowed.

"RYAN! DON'T!"

He was knocked out of his brief lapse and snapped his head around to see the other four Power Rangers running toward him and Dana; the Red Ranger's voice being the one he heard.

Utterly startled and frightened by what had just taken place between him and his sister, Ryan reverted into his comfortable and safe warrior mode and gave Dana a good swift kick to the gut and hit to the back, pushing her aside. Once she was out of his way, the confused Titanium Ranger began to frantically run through the courtyard, away from them all.

The minute she saw Ryan run, Victoria knew something was most definitely wrong with her companion. He needed her, but he didn't need those five rangers following him.

Borrowing one of Jinxer's monsters from him, she hastily confronted the Power Rangers, giving them Liztwin to tango with while she went searching for Ryan. First, she went back to Skull Cavern, assuming he had returned there to sulk or do whatever it was he was going to do there. When she found no trace of him there, she went back into Mariner Bay and eventually found him on the outskirts of the city, along with the rangers AND his blood father. "Do they have a homing beacon on him?" She growled angrily, standing on one of the little hills around where they stood below her. Her expression instantly switched from annoyance to shock when she realized two things: one, Ryan wasn't morphed and two, he wasn't fighting them at all. "What the hell is he doing down there?!"

Her shock expanded into horror when she saw the glimmering silver-blue object that was his morpher fall from his wrist. "RYAN!?!?!" she shrilled, not caring just who heard or saw her at that moment. He was giving up his morpher?! HE WAS GIVING UP HIS MORPHER! He wasn't supposed to do that...WHY WAS HE DOING THAT?!

Her deep brown eyes, which were as wide as saucers, spied the entire group below glancing up at her. Though they were far away, she could see the confusion on their faces wondering just what she was doing there...except for Ryan. Ryan's bright green eyes seemed to be glaring daggers at her from where he stood.

Victoria's heart nearly stopped beating at the sight of his face.

She watched as he looked away from her and began to run up the side of the hill to her, the Power Rangers and his blood father also watching his every step as he climbed up towards her. "What were you doing down there?" she asked casually as he soon joined her at the top of the dirt hill, trying to forget the nasty look he had given her.

"I could ask you the same thing." He glowered, meeting her face with a cold and stony gaze.

Few things actually frightened Victoria, and the way Ryan was acting right then became one of those things she did fear. She had never seen him that way before, at least not directed towards her, and it truly scared her. "Did I do something?" she questioned, her voice wavering slightly.

Ryan glanced back down at the six people below still staring at the two of them, then forcefully grabbed her arm and dragged her away from their view. "I don't want them watching us," he stated blatantly, then returned to answering her former question. "You LIED to me, Victoria!" He growled loudly, his fingers squeezing tightly around her arms. "You and Diabolico LIED to me!"

"How?" was the only thing she could get out of her throat.

"I remember how I was taken away that night when I first came to live with you," Ryan sneered in her face, jerking her close to him; his anger had completely taken over and he was starting to loose all control. "Diabolico did save my life, but he STOLE me away from my family. My father wanted me all along, and you made me believe that he didn't! YOU LIED TO ME!"

Tears were streaming down Victoria's face for the first time in fifteen years while he yelled at her. "I didn't know!" She bawled persistently, clutching him tightly. "My mother...abandoned me with Diabolico at the first chance! We were poor and we stole for our survival. I thought...I THOUGHT my mother loved me, but she didn't!" Victoria took in a deep breath before continuing. "She GAVE me to him without a second thought...she didn't WANT me! I thought the same had happened to you!"

Ryan's anger instantly dissipated at the sight of the woman's tears and turned into awe, as she cried openly in front of him for the first time in her life. She was now on her knees, clinging to his legs and sobbing. "I have to leave Skull Cavern," he slowly voiced after many long minutes filled solely with her sobs. "I can't stay with Diabolico...not when I know the truth."

"NO! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME ALONE!" Her scream echoed around them as she pulled herself up from her knees and gazed intently at him with her red, wet eyes.

"I have to," he said solemnly, refusing to meet her gaze.

"LOOK AT ME!" Victoria commanded desperately, grabbing his face in her hands and forcing him to look at her directly. She didn't even think twice before letting the words fly out of her mouth, "Ryan, I NEED YOU! I LOVE YOU! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME!"

Ryan simply gawked at her for a long moment, totally stunned and taken aback by her sincerity and frankness. Out of fourteen years of companionship he had spent with the woman before him, it was in that moment when he realized just how he felt for her; her declaration of love triggered the emotions hidden deep inside of him to gradually surface and need to be seen. "I love you, Victoria," he replied tenderly, cupping her tear-streaked cheek with his hand.

At his response, Victoria pulled herself to his chest and buried her face there, her sobs at last slowing. Ryan removed her stupid armored crown from her head and threw it aside, running his hands freely through her soft hair - cherishing its feel - and leaned his chin against the top of her head.

He knew he would have to leave her in the long run, as much as he didn't want to. He couldn't stay with Diabolico a day longer, not with his memory intact the way that it was. And she wouldn't leave Diabolico for him, no matter how much she said she loved him. Ryan's family waited for him in Mariner Bay, while Victoria's only real family was Diabolico. He was still HER father, even if Ryan no longer viewed him as that.

But they both knew that they loved each other, and Ryan desperately hoped that that would be enough to keep them together - no matter which side they were on.

"...none of that matters. The past is gone; forgotten!"

"I remember it all too clearly."

Victoria stood in the shadows of the gathering room in Skull Cavern, studying the final confrontation between her lover and father. Ryan was being spiteful, pulling away from it all. Diabolico was being tempting, reminding the man before him of all that he could give. But at last, she knew that Ryan would win the fight; perhaps his first and last win against Diabolico at all.

"Stay here and your future will be to follow in my footsteps. Master, ruler of the Dark Kingdom!"

"Never," Ryan spat coldly, turning his back and walking into the shadows that lead out of the room.

Diabolico strained for one last effort to keep Ryan from walking away from him. "Do not walk away from me..." he warned in his threatening voice. When Ryan didn't stop his progression towards the exit, the monster pressed on his with threat. "You'll pay for this. Mark my words, Ryan..."

As a last gesture, Ryan faced him for a second and shook his head tersely at the threat made before disappearing into the shadows completely.

"Do you have anything to say about this?" Diabolico glanced towards Victoria, motioning her closer to him.

"He packed his things," she quietly responded, her eyes averting his heavy stare. "He is going to leave."

"And you are not going to stop him?"

Victoria maintained her gaze on the floor of the dark room, shrugging her shoulders ever so slightly. "He's determined to leave. I can't stop him."

All of a sudden, Diabolico grabbed her by the arms viciously and gave her a hard shake, causing her to yelp loudly in surprise. "Since when did you give up so easily?! Don't you want him to stay?!" he barked angrily into her face.

She pulled her face away as far as she could from his, and shut her eyes tightly for a long moment, recomposing herself. "Of course I want him to stay! I need him to stay!" she snapped back, not quite as loud as he had.

Diabolico removed one of his claws from her and pointed towards the shadows where Ryan had just left. "Then go after him!" Letting go of Victoria's arms, he pushed her towards the exit vigorously. "Or are all of those sentimental emotions getting in the way since you proclaimed your "love" for him?"

A shuddered gasp left her body at his expression. He had been watching them on that hill earlier? She spun around fiercely, glaring heatedly at her father. "You were...spying on us?" Victoria rasped sickeningly, clutching her churning stomach with her arm.

"I knew Ryan was wavering," he stated casually, as if was everyday news. "I wasn't about to let him go off into Mariner Bay without keeping an eye on him. You just happened to choose the wrong moment to declare your "feelings", Vypra."

Victoria took a few paces around the room, steadying herself and allowing her mind to take in everything Diabolico had said. "You know what?" she pondered out loud, reaching for her armored crown on top of her head and holding it in her hand. "I AM NOT VYPRA!" She flung the armored crown, letting it skid across the floor. She began to roam the room in a hasty and frantic fashion, her eyes darting left and right. "Maybe Ryan was right about leaving here...maybe I should go too...maybe-"

Her rambling was cut short when Diabolico wrapped his hand around her neck and lifted her a good two feet off the ground. Swiftly, he tossed her from his grip and into one of the pillars. Her back hit the pillar and she let out a piercing cry, grunting as she fell a good three feet before she eventually came in solid contact with the ground once more.

He waited until she slowly raised her head, blood dripping quietly from a large bruise on the back of her head as well as from her split lip. "If you weren't-"

"I know." She groaned painfully, licking her lower lip carefully. "I was asking for that and you were right in doing so...I'm sorry, Father. I didn't mean to talk back to you; I didn't mean to be disobedient."

Diabolico nodded, satisfied that his actions had curved her waywardness. "Of course you didn't," he agreed. Moving over to where her broken body lay, he picked Victoria up and cradled her in his large arms. "Now, what shall you do for me once you have healed yourself, Vypra?"

She looked at him through her half-lidded eyes, drowsy with pain. "I'll find Ryan and bring him back home to me, no matter what it takes..."

"Very good," he complimented her, taking her away from the gathering room and back to her quarters to rest.

The only remnants of Victoria and Diabolico's squabble in the gathering room sat in a small shadowy corner next to the pillar she had been thrown against.

An armored crown lying in a small, drying pool of crimson blood.

Part Three

Ryan walked along the abandoned piers down at Mariner Bay's sole beach, taking in the cold salty ocean breeze brushing against him. Of course, everything in Mariner Bay seemed abandoned at two in the morning as Ryan quickly found out upon his explorations of the city in its night hours.

After leaving Skull Cavern with his few earthly possessions in his backpack, he found himself wandering the streets of the large city aimlessly. He had decided he didn't want to go see his dad - calling his real father "Dad" would distinguish him apart from the monster that he called "Father" for so many years - or Dana at the Aquabase. As much as they were his family, he didn't quite think he was ready to embrace them with open arms.

At first, the big city had been incredibly disorienting to him. Ryan had never really roamed through Mariner Bay casually by himself before. He was either there as a student/shopper with Victoria when she insisted they should become more aware of human culture through shopping or he was there on business, all his intents exclusively on killing each of the rangers one by one, mercilessly. The first role was always fun for him to play, as it always ended in their quarters with his lips on Victoria's. The second role he certainly didn't relish now; it just brought a fierce shudder to his thoughts.

He had done awful things when he was Diabolico's puppet. There were plenty of other ways to describe what he was, but that simply seemed to be the best way. Sure, Diabolico had saved his life, but essentially he had also taken it from him...turned him into a fighting machine, supposedly born to fulfill a prophecy; a prophecy he was pretty much sure was just a whole bunch of crap now that he thought about it. The things he did for Diabolico's approval...it made him furious and nauseous at the same time.

As much as he hated to admit it though, Diabolico had given him one good thing in his life: Victoria. Without Diabolico, Ryan would have never met her. He loved that woman with all his heart. Sure, if he ever told anyone, they would say, "How would YOU know what love is? You were evil!" But that wasn't the way Ryan saw it at all: He wasn't raised evil even though he did believe he was; Diabolico raised them like his own children. He had shown them love - even if it was a cruel kind of love - and he taught them to value that love and invest it in each other. Ryan supposed that it had been Diabolico's plan all along to have Victoria and him fall in love with each other, but he didn't care. At least the monster had taught them SOMETHING useful to use in real life.

Strange as it was, maybe he had more to thank Diabolico for than he thought.

Victoria awoke slowly from her numb slumber, her eyes crusted with sleep and her head pounding ferociously. A terrible, throaty moan escaped her swollen lips as she forced her eyes open, rubbing the sleep from them.

She was lying on her back in the bed, still dressed uncomfortably in her armor; she suspected Diabolico had removed her wings to allow her to lie down in the first place.

Slowly, Victoria moved her fingertips to the bruise on her head and brushed against it lightly. It stung violently and she winced, swallowing the urge to yelp. Unfortunately, she didn't think she had enough energy to conjure up even a small healing spell to remove the painful scars from her encounter with her father, so she let them be for the time being.

Her stomach growled at her angrily and she sighed unpleasantly. Oh, how badly she wanted a tub of popcorn covered in honey and pineapples! It sounded so good at that moment, but she didn't want to move one inch. Where was Ryan when she needed him?

The question flashed through her mind, and the entire events of the day before fell upon her like a ton of bricks. "He left," she forced out, the mere thought of her loss somehow giving her the energy to push herself up to sit on the bed. "He left us alone," she voiced once more, the hollowness of her voice echoing through the quarters.

Tears easily and furiously spilled from her deep brown eyes, driving down her cheeks like mad rivers. She moved to distract herself from the tears and slowly began to pull off her knee-high metal boots. Once she removed them, she then removed her leather, metal-guarded gloves and her armbands, tossing them all into a pile forming at the side of the bed.

Clad in only her breastplate and leather black pants, she scooted off the bed and padded gently towards the cupboard for some food - any food - to satisfy her gnawing hunger. She owed it to herself and Ryan to keep eating; it was what both of them shared that made her want to keep going.

Pulling open the cupboard and spying its contents, Victoria began to laugh brokenly, her tears turning into full blown sobs wracking her petite frame. Her legs soon enough gave out below her and she collapsed to the ground, but not before she grabbed the item of food that had been mocking her from within the cupboard. She unfurled her fingers from around the object and simply stared at it through her watery eyes.

It was a package of dried pineapples.

Victoria sat in that same position for what felt like forever, even after her sobs faded away and her tears had run dry. All the while she clutched the pineapples, not daring to even open the package and eat one to curb her distinct hunger.

Eventually, the absent thought dawned upon her to heal her wounds and she did, applying fierce concentration. Her thoughts were so mangled that she needed all the concentration she could get to cut through it all and apply her attention to the activity. The blue mist that always emitted when she was healing something wasn't as strong as it could have been, but it was enough to hide the evidence of Diabolico's abuse.

Worn from her crying, she crawled on her hands and knees back into her large lonely bed and shut her eyes trying to sleep. "It's too cold," she murmured to herself, rolling over and grabbing the other pillow and hugging it to her chest tightly. However, it didn't help - it just couldn't replace the warmth and safety Ryan's embrace brought her every time she slept.

"VYPRA!"

Victoria snapped her head up to see Diabolico standing inside the doorway of her quarters, staring down on her. "Father?" she questioned.

"Ryan has joined the rest of the Power Rangers," he stated in irritation.

The way she saw it, it had been bound to happen. His family was part of the Power Rangers. Nevertheless, she kept her mouth shut and queried once more. "Did you want me to do anything?"

"Go to him tonight and convince him to come back," Diabolico ordered her insistently. "You have more to persuade him with."

Victoria's dull eyes lit up slightly. "You mean, I can tell him about-"

"No." Diabolico cut her off, swiftly chopping down her growing hope. "I have given Ryan the curse of the cobra. If he returns to our side, I will remove the tattoo and he will not suffer. If he refuses, he will face the consequences. Do not tell him anything else of your predicament."

Frowning ever so softly, she nodded her head. "Yes, Father," she replied, then asked, "Father, wasn't the curse of the cobra originally meant for the Red Ranger?"

"Yes, it was, but it seemed more useful to use on Ryan," he remarked, dismissing her as he exited her chambers.

The door shut behind him and Victoria gazed at it for a long moment before she began to formulate her plan to get Ryan back. It was vain to create a plan to bring him back, but she did nonetheless, knowing it was positively useless.

Ryan shot up in his bed, a good thick sheen of sweat covering his forehead. He had just had the worst nightmare ever...or at least he hoped it was a nightmare. The pain he had felt when Diabolico gave him the tattoo in his dream...it just seemed far too real for his own liking.

Frantic to prove to himself it was just a dream, Ryan jumped up and rushed up to one of the many closets in his new room in the Lightspeed Aquabase. Seizing the door open, he turned around so that his back was facing the mirror on the inside of the closet door and slowly pulled up his night shirt, staring into the reflection. At the base of his back was a large cobra tattoo, exactly like it had been in his nightmare.

He blinked, unbelieving, and continued to gaze at his reflection in the mirror. "This can't be happening," he mumbled, running his hand along his back attempting to feel the tattoo.

"It's real and you know it."

Startled by the new voice, Ryan spun around in the darkness to see Victoria sitting on his bed, wearing his Lightspeed Rescue jacket. And as he could tell by her bare legs, that was most likely ALL she was wearing at that instant. "Father didn't tell me that he was going to give you the curse of the cobra; he only told me after he had done it. If I had known, I would have tried to stop him." She sighed as he closed the closet door and began to head in her direction. Ducking her head into his coat, she took in a deep breath and grinned. "You haven't even had this jacket for a day and it already smells like you; like pineapples."

"You wouldn't have stopped him, Victoria," Ryan remarked casually, joining her on the bed. "You wouldn't have disobeyed Diabolico."

"Want to make a bet on that?" She arched her eyebrow at him. "I nearly followed you last night when you left. I told him I wasn't Vypra, that I wanted to leave...he, of course, threw me into one of the pillars. He knocked some sense into me, I guess you could say."

Ryan gaze softened from his guarded look. "You're okay now, right? I mean, you did heal yourself, didn't you?" he queried in a worried tone. Instinctively, he reached out and caressed her cheek with his hand, but quickly tried to pull away when he realized what he had done. They were on opposite sides...she was his enemy, even if he had feelings for her.

"No, keep it there." Victoria stopped him, placing her hand against his and keeping it against her cheek. She raised her eyes to meet his, utterly tossing her "get Ryan back" plan out the window. There was no possible way she was going to execute it on him in their position. "I couldn't sleep; I missed you beside me. It was too cold." Tenderly, she pressed her lips to his wrist, leaving a feathery kiss on his skin.

Ryan trembled at her light touch and found himself gravitating closer to her body. "Victoria..." Her name lingered on his lips softly, his other hand cupping the other side of her face.

Before he could say anymore, they were kissing gently, lips brushing against each other in a slow dance. Sensations ran wild through them like nothing before, longing for their love's touches after only a day of separation. Soon, the kiss deepened into an ardent flame of want.

Victoria's mouth roamed, searching for the flesh of his neck to taste him fully. The subtle scent of pineapples that filled her nostrils was intoxicating as she slipped her hands up his shirt and began to unbutton it quickly. Ryan moaned at her urgent caresses, his hands running through her hair madly.

She continued to unbutton his shirt and was nearly done when she felt a sharp stinging pain and pulled away with a cry of pain. "OW!"

Panting, Ryan also pulled away, untangling his fingers from her hair. "What happened?" he gasped in concern.

"I think you accidentally touched my bruise." She chuckled softly, touching it at the back of her head and wincing a bit. "When I tried healing it, I didn't have enough energy to actually heal it correctly. Which reminds me," her stomach growled on cue and she laughed, "I didn't eat any food today. Could I possibly get some here?"

"I'd have to go down to the galley, but that's no big deal." Ryan assured her with a grin, re-buttoning his shirt. "What did you want?"

Victoria winked. "Anything and everything."

"So you like life away from Diabolico?" Victoria commented lightly, licking the last of the mango pulp from her sticky fingers.

"Well, I've only experienced one day, so I wouldn't call that my life," Ryan joked flippantly, chewing on a fresh piece of pineapple, "but yeah. I like life away from Diabolico. It's not so structured; I'm totally free to do whatever I want whenever I want."

"Diabolico let us do whatever we wanted." She piped up, trying to defend her side a bit. Although, she found it ridiculously fruitless because of the fact that Ryan made life without Diabolico sound so tempting.

"Within reason," he replied, propping his head up with his clean hand as he laid on the bed across from Victoria with their platter of fruit between them. "I mean, we always had to return to fight. And whenever you were fighting, I was always training with that stupid axe."

She giggled, pulling a banana off the tray and peeling it. "You have to admit, Ryan, him having you train with that axe two months before you received the Titanium powers was pretty smart. You handle that axe with such ease now!"

"True." He shrugged absently, pulling a grape off its vine and popping it into his mouth. "Here, at the Aquabase, I know I'll be in training still, but I don't think it'll be as hard as it was with Diabolico. After all, I am the greatest warrior of all time, am I not?" he teased, grinning at her through the darkness of his room.

Victoria grabbed a lone cherry and pelted him on the forehead with it. "I think you're getting drunk on all this change; it's making you hallucinate," she retorted playfully. Taking in the last bite of her banana, she laid the peel back onto the tray and rolled over onto her back with a satisfied sigh. "I feel so full, I don't think I'll ever want to eat again."

Ryan took the platter and moved it down to the floor, scooting over to lie beside her. "I only wish there had been some leftover watermelon from the party we had earlier. I wanted you to taste some; it was so sweet, not as tart as pineapples," he murmured, his sticky fingers playing with her bangs on her forehead.

"That plate was more than enough." She smiled quietly. After a few minutes of tender silence, she changed subject. "How are the other rangers like...when they're not fighting?"

He noted her shy, tentative voice - one he had never heard from her before - and smiled inwardly to himself. The thought of Victoria turning towards his side teased him endlessly; it was a good feeling. "They're different, that's for certain." He chuckled softly, staring off into the darkness and thinking back on his first impressions of the people behind the Power Ranger uniforms. "Joel, the Green Ranger, he's a lot like the same person we met at the flea market that one time; I don't think he remembered me, or if he did, he didn't say anything. He's kinda cocky, but fun-loving in a real good way. He knows how to have a good time.

"Kelsey, the Yellow Ranger, she's a lot like Joel. She's a little more reserved than he is though. Dana tells me she's a real daredevil, someone who likes a real thrill. She's real friendly."

Victoria arched her eyebrow curiously, staring up into his face. "How friendly?"

Ryan laughed, bending down to lightly kiss her lips. "I didn't know you could be jealous," he remarked humorously, his green eyes brightening.

"I'm not jealous," she protested with a short pout. "Just continue."

"If you wish," he complied, returning his thoughts to the question he had been answering. "Well, I guess Chad, the Blue Ranger, he's pretty subdued. Seems pretty open and honest, and to tell the truth I think he's as good a fighter as you even."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It was meant as one. Anyways, Carter is probably the most different when he's out of uniform. Not as ruthless, is the best that I can think of. He seems protective of everyone, and he was so easy to accept me into the fold. That made me feel much more comfortable around them all."

Victoria fiddled absently with the zipper on his jacket that she continued to wear while listening to him talk. "What about your sister?"

"Dana's the same way I remember her, and so is my dad. I don't feel like they've changed at all since I was six. Dana's my little sister and I want to protect her from everything. My dad is my dad, still looking out for me and Dana like he did when we were younger."

She gazed into his face for a long time after he finished, watching his expression. It was completely content and free. Not a single negative emotion appeared to linger in him at that peaceful moment. "You were never evil," she whispered tenderly, causing him to turn his gaze and meet her solemn brown eyes. "You were always good. For awhile you were misguided - lies and your emotions led you - but you eventually got your head on straight...and now look where you are. You're in a place that makes you happy."

"No; YOU make me happy," he murmured quietly, bringing his lips down to her forehead. As he studied the woman lying beside him in the stillness, a question popped into his mind that he couldn't help but ask. "What would Diabolico do if he saw us...together, like this?"

"He isn't watching us." Victoria guaranteed him, taking his hand into her own and caressing it. "He assumes whenever we're by ourselves that we are always having sex for some reason. Either he actually wants to give us privacy, or he just doesn't like to watch."

A slow grin crept onto Ryan's features as he slipped his hand from hers and ran it across her bare stomach beneath his jacket she still wore. "Don't you think that we should at least live up to Diabolico's expectations of us for one night?" he whispered throatily, his mouth edging towards the hollow of her neck.

"Since when did you decide you wanted to live up to MY father's expectations?" she scoffed at him, a sly grin also peeling across her lips.

"Since they involved you, me and nothing else," he retorted fiercely, burying his face into her neck and effectively stopping all word communication between the both of them.

As he awoke, Ryan found himself tangled up in the sheets of his bed with Victoria's body resting lightly on top of him. He adjusted himself ever so slightly to gaze down upon her while she continued to sleep contentedly with him.

One of her arms hung off his shoulder, her fingers gripping onto the curve of his neck ever so gently. Her head lay on his chest with her lips pressed delicately to his flesh and her hair splayed against his other shoulder. Her eyelashes lay softly against her tan, flushed skin and her eyes remained peacefully closed. She was absolutely radiant to him in her calm and safe beauty.

Ryan bent his head forward and laid a kiss at the crown of her head, his arm slipping around her nude back and hugging her close. She stirred slowly at his touch, her eyes blinking open. "Leave me alone, I'm sleeping." She grumbled into his chest, snuggling into his embrace.

"We're going to have to get up sooner or later." He grinned, his arm sliding up around her shoulders and nudging her a little. "Carter's supposed to be coming to pick me up for my first day as an official Power Ranger." His voice held a small amount of jest in it, but he was being serious.

Victoria hid her face in his chest and pouted. "Don't talk about that. Don't talk about anything outside of this room." She insisted sleepily. "Better yet, don't talk, period."

He laughed yet again and was about to say something to her when the doorchime rang. "Who is it?" he called out casually while Victoria placed a kiss against his jaw, neither one truly startled by the uncalled interruption.

It was who responded that startled them above everything.

"It's me, Ryan...Dana. Can I come in?"

Instantaneously, the couple jumped out of bed. "Go hide!" Ryan hissed towards his lover as she made a beeline towards the nearest closet. He then replied to his sister through the door, "Ummm...give me a second, Dana!"

Quickly, Ryan grabbed for his usual black attire that was draped on a near by chair and hastily put his clothes on. Once he had done that, he raced towards his bed and picked up his nightclothes off the floor, dumping them onto the bed with his crumpled bedsheets. Lastly, he kicked the platter of fruit under his bed before running into the common room to open the door.

Taking in a deep breath, he opened the door and came face to face with his younger sister. "Hey, Dana." He greeted her with a heaving grin. "Was there anything you wanted?"

The blonde girl took in her brother's flushed appearance in confusion. "Are you alright, Ryan?" she questioned in concern.

"Yeah," he answered, reaching around and rubbing his neck. "I just woke up kind of late; Carter's supposed to come and pick me up in a few minutes."

"Oh." Dana nodded slowly in understanding, but was still slightly suspicious. "I just stopped by because I heard some loud noises last night through the wall...you know I sleep in the room next door, right?"

Ryan gnawed furiously on his lower lip. "Oh, yeah! Well, sorry about the noise, but I'm kind of a restless sleeper. Just must've been me yelling in my sleep or something." He lied hastily, grinning nervously. Taking his chance, he quickly spoke, "Well, I'd better finish getting ready. I'll see you later, Dana."

"Right. I'll see you," Dana returned, allowing Ryan to speedily shut the door after her leaving. Sighing heavily, he collapsed against the door.

"You should've told her the truth. I would have loved to see her reaction when she found out just what those noises actually WERE," Victoria teased, stepping out of her hiding place and standing in the doorway between his bedroom and the common room. "You lie a lot better than you used to," she commented, returning to the bedroom and sliding back onto the bed to lie down.

He shrugged, following her in and walking over to where his jacket laid on the floor. "Lying for the good of us is worth it," he replied, picking up the jacket and hanging near by chair. He turned to face her. "Didn't you bring any clothes with you?" he remarked, shaking his head at her pitifully.

Victoria nodded to his surprise. "Sure I did," she answered, poking her arm underneath his bed and coming out rewarded with a knee-high metal boot. "I stuck all of my armor und