A/N

This is a challenge based story, based around 'x things a character misses.' In this case, "x" being "six" and the characters being the five original Samurai Rangers. First up, Jayden-relatively easy to do in this experience, mainly by virtue of getting more character development than most of the other rangers. Still, being a red ranger, I guess that's the rule rather than the exception in most cases.

Power Rangers: Shattered Dreams

Chapter 1: Fire

01

Jayden misses his father.

He supposes it's natural for any child, or even adult to feel this way if it comes to it. Certainly he feels no shame in such an emotion, and Ji has never tried to make such an emotion surface. The reasons for the empty place in his heart however, are far more than simple longing for the presence of a father figure. It's rather what his father represented. Determination. Will. The comfort of his presence. Even knowing that he was fated to take his place, it seemed a moot point when his father was around. But now, all he has to remember him are his words...

"Protect the world from evil. Stand by your allies. And never run from a battle."

Jayden remembers those words, but misses the man who imparted them to him.

And the second part of that creed, as he discovers later, is a whole can of worms in itself...

02

Jayden misses Antonio.

Bad enough that it's unlikely that he'll ever see him again. It's also that he'll never experience the same feeling he had while playing with him. The sense of being a child. The ability to enjoy life to its fullest. The sense of pure enjoyment where the nighlocks weren't at the back of his mind, but rather removed from his mind altogether. Antonio made it all possible. And he misses his oldest friend, and what he brought to him in turn.

He wishes he could see him again.

But like the wish that the nighlocks would give up their attempts to flood the Earth, he knows that it will never be granted.

03

Jayden misses being alone.

Granted, privacy isn't an impossibility at the samurai lodge, and provided he has a means of communication, he can wander the city all he wants. But none of this changes the fact that he has a team. That by virtue of simply being the red ranger, he's the leader of that team. And until the nighloks are defeated, that won't change.

It's not so much that he's ungrateful for their presence, both in general company and on the field of battle. Maybe there's a small part of him that seeks glory for himself, to be the single individual responsible for beating back evil, why he resisted on summoning them at first. But he knows the truth as much as Ji does-he's scared to lead. Not out of raw fear, and certainly not in regards to himself, but in regards to others. If they should fall...if he should be responsible...he doesn't know how he could take that. "Rangers together, samurai forever," as their war cry goes...but what if that isn't destined to be the case?

Battling moogers? Fine. Duking it out in zords? Fine. Watching your friends fall?

...Jayden misses not having to worry about that.

04

Jayden misses not having the world on his shoulders.

Granted, perhaps the world's always been there in some form or another. He knew that he would have to continue on from his father and from those before him, to honour the lineage of the Shiba Family. But unlike the Atlas of myth, he could always find time to take the world off his shoulders for brief periods, and to not have to rely on Heracles for it. Other Ranger groups to follow on the news, Ji's words of wisdom...he could always find a way to avoid his fate at times. The fate of being the only ranger capable of sealing Master Xandred in the Netherworld, as temporary as that might be.

But now it's come to it. His secret's out...the same secret that Negatron was able to cause him mental and physical anguish from. A secret that his team now know, thanks to Xandred's latest attack. Now the world's on his shoulders, and he has no way to get it off. Just like the Atlas of myth...

...but he's no god. He's a man.

And he doesn't know if he can succeed.

05

Jayden misses not having secrets.

Maybe that's not entirely accurate. Everyone has secrets, it's just that the impact of their release varies...if they're released at all. And one has to consider that secrets are only secrets when there's those close to you to keep secrets from in the first place. So what he knows about his fate, about the sealing power that could seal Xandred permanently...it only became a secret when he became part of a team. Just another bitter pill to swallow in addition to the medicine required to save Earth.

Yet sometimes, it feels like the medicine isn't working. Negatron got past his defences, and so did Deker. As he pointed out, they're both warped. And while he isn't compelled to seek battle for the sake of it, he's still obliged to keep that which makes him warped in the first place.

Jayden misses not having secrets...

...but he doesn't know if revealing them will help matters.

06

Jayden misses smiling.

Alright, maybe that's not entirely accurate. It's not so much smiling in itself he misses per se, it's more that he lacks the reasons to smile. He's without his father. He's without his best friend. He's without privacy on one hand, caught up in secrets on the other hand, and if he suddenly grew a third arm, the burden of protecting Earth from the nighlocks would sure as Hell fit in the palm attached to that arm. Yet he only has two hands, and both of them are clutched on the shaft of his sword half the time.

Smiles can't stop the nighlocks.

If they could, he might have reason to show them.