Summary: 500 years ago the Sacred Beasts were locked in a fierce battle with Empress Ventrixa and her clan. 5 humans were chosen to bear the powers of the Sacred Beasts, becoming the first Phantom Rangers. 500 years later, the seal around Ventrixa is weakened and evil breaks free once more. 5 new humans are chosen to become the 120th generation of the Phantom Rangers. Can they seal the Empress before the entire world is engulfed in darkness forever?

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Power Rangers Phantom Force

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter VI

The remaining rangers retreated back to Katie's house since it was the most convenient due to her parents being abroad. Arashi's knees buckled the moment they were inside the house, and Katie scrambled to keep him on his feet.

"Thanks," Arashi said.

"You're heavy," she grunted, forcing herself to stand.

Kenny came over and supported Arashi from the other side, together the duo brought their leader over to the couch and gently ease him down on it.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like a truck ran me over," Arashi groaned.

Katie disappeared for a while and came back with a tray of cups. She handed one out to the others and sat down in her chair, blowing gently on the rim before taking a sip.

"So who are you?" Arashi turned to the new person in the room.

"I'm Kenny Robinson, the Black Ranger."

The trio scrutinized him from head to toe.

"He's not of the Shidou line. I thought only those of our line could become Rangers," Penny whispered.

"Allow me to explain," a new voice interjected.

Everyone in the room jumped to their feet and drew their weapons as two strangers appeared from what seemed to be a portal. Katie was the first to recognize who they were and immediately dropped down on one knee. She elbowed Arashi and Penny to do the same, though the two were reluctant to do so. Only Kenny was the one who remained alert, until the white ranger elbowed him as well.

"Greetings Rangers, I am glad to see you well."

"Priestess Yuki, it's an honor to finally meet you," Katie answered.

"Please rise. There is no need to be so formal with me," Yuki said warmly.

The group rose to their feet and everyone turned to Katie for answers.

"Why are you all looking at me?"

"Because you seem to know who they are," Penny replied, crossing her arms.

Yuki chuckled to herself and lowered her hood.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Yuki, and this is my younger sister Hana. We are the Priestesses in charge of the Inari Shrine in Japan. Our true heritage however, are guardians of the Sacred Beasts and the gems they have left behind. Gems which you now all hold," Yuki explained.

"I thought only those of the Shidou line could become rangers. How come Kenny has a gem?" Penny inquired.

"The Shidou line has thinned over the past hundred years, and you three are all that remains of the original five rangers who first fought and sealed Ventrixa. To compensate for this, the Kirin and Chimera have chosen successors pure of heart, to become the remaining two rangers who will fight alongside you. Though I only see one here, where is the blue ranger?"

Arashi grimaced as he raised and lowered his shoulders.

"They disappeared the moment the fight was over," he explained.

"I sense they will seek you soon Arashi. In the meantime, I wish to congratulate you all on a job well done. With your awakening as Rangers, Ventrixa and her clan will know fear once more."

"Priestess, why have you come all the way here to see us?" Katie couldn't help but ask.

"Sister and I have agreed that it was time to introduce ourselves now that all five gems have found their owners. We wanted you guys to know you have an ally in us, no matter where you are."

The rangers all bowed to the two priestesses in response.

"We must return to Japan for now. The barrier trapping Ventrixa and her clan is slowly weakening over time. Rangers, you must seal her before the planetary alignment of the nine planets converge. Should you fail to do so before then, Earth will be plunged into darkness for eternity."

"How long do we have?" Arashi said, exchanging looks with the others.

"Five months. That's when the planetary alignment will happen," Hana supplied.

Five months.

That wasn't much time.

"Can we do it?" Penny murmured.

"We can. We must," Arashi said.

"Should you wish to contact us, merely use your gems to do so. It will establish a link with ours back at the shrine."

The others nodded as the two priestesses vanished back inside the portal.

Everyone was pacing the room after Yuki and Hana departed. The grim news they were just given was enough to put a damper on their first victory. Penny was muttering frantically to herself in one corner, Katie stared out the window with a cup of tea in hand, leaving Arashi to mull over the news in silence. Kenny received a phone call ten minutes prior and left the house, saying something about a hospital.

"What are we going to do? We only have five months to seal this Ventrixa person. How are we even going to pull that off?" Penny whined, biting her nail in the process.

"I don't know," Katie was at a loss for words.

"We'll manage somehow."

"In case you haven't noticed, there's only five of us and god knows how many monsters Ventrixa has! Not to mention we nearly got our asses handed to us!"

"Being negative about it won't help either! Now stop complaining and focus on what we have to do!" Katie yelled.

"Don't talk to me like that!"

Fed up with the arguing at that point, Arashi stood between the two girls and glared at them.

"Enough! We're supposed to be a team! How can we defeat Ventrixa if we can't stop going at each other's throats," he snapped.

Penny bit back her retort and stomped inside the bathroom, slamming the door furiously behind her. The sound of running water drifted from behind the door, and Arashi assumed she was taking a shower or a bath. Katie sighed to herself and left the bedroom, with the former trailing behind quietly.

"Do you want anything for dinner?" Katie asked, opening the fridge and looking over what she had inside.

"What do you have?"

"I can make curry for us."

Arashi reached over Katie's shoulder and extracted some ingredients from the fridge.

"I'll cook. You should take a break."

"You can cook? Seriously?"

"Are you assuming I can't because I'm a guy?" Arashi said incredulously, holding a hand over his heart in mock hurt.

Katie giggled at this.

"No. I've just never met a guy who actually can."

"Well, when you've been an orphan as long as I have, you learn to survive on your own somehow."

"Is it tough? Being an orphan," Katie asked quietly.

Arashi used the excuse of cutting up carrots as an excuse to think of an answer.

"In a way it is, though the pain has dulled over the years."

Katie noticed a necklace dangling around his neck and couldn't help but admire it. It was a pair of wings encasing a sapphire in the center, the wings adorned with what looked like diamonds. The necklace must be very expensive, something Katie could only afford if she saved up a year's worth of salary from her job.

"Your necklace, it's beautiful."

Arashi's hand stilled as he gently touched it momentarily.

"I'm sorry. Did I say something wrong?"

"No. My girlfriend gave it to me on my birthday," he replied after a moment of silence.

"You have a girlfriend? Won't she miss you now that you're in America?" Katie grinned and elbowed him in the ribs.

"She passed away five years ago," Arashi answered in an emotionless tone.

Silence.

"I'm sorry."

"Thank you."

The duo prepared dinner in silence after that.

Kenny rushed to the hospital fast as he could after receiving the call from his mother. His dad was in critical condition after suffering a horrendous injury at work, requiring him to be whisked to the ICU. Out of breath when he arrived, Kenny rushed over to where his mom was and held her tight.

"How's dad?" he asked.

"D-Doctors say h-he might not m-make it through the night," his mother replied through her tears.

"What happened? How did dad even get injured that badly?"

"His boss said it was an accident. There was a new guy...training on the job...and he was momentarily distracted...your dad saw what was happening and rushed over...it was a miracle both of them managed to even survive."

"I told dad repeatedly to get a new job!" Kenny closed his eyes and took several breaths to calm himself.

"You should go see him," his mom said quietly.

Leaving his mother to gather herself in the women's bathroom, Kenny entered the ward where his dad was being hospitalized and saw him heavily bandaged upon the bed.

"Hey dad," he said quietly, taking a seat beside his dad.

The steady beeping of the machines were the only response that greeted him.

Arashi finished cooking the curry and scooped out three generous helpings onto plates, then followed it up with rice on the side next to the curry. Katie had gone up to get Penny, and the two girls returned in time to see the table being set.

"Curry?" the redhead asked, the delicious aroma causing her stomach to growl in hunger.

"Yea. Can't go wrong with curry," Arashi answered.

"Awesome. This smells so good," Katie inhaled deeply.

The three of them began eating and the two girls were taken aback by how good the curry actually tasted. Arashi gave them a irritated look but inwardly, he was smirking at his cooking abilities. Looks like the many years he spent picking up recipes here and there in Japan actually paid off. Judging from the expressions Katie and Penny were making with each bite, everything was worth it in the end.

"Holy shit Arashi, I never knew you were this good of a cook."

"That's because you always run from me whenever I try to get along with you," Arashi retorted at Penny.

"Guess I should stop being so stubborn. My respect for you has gone up a level."

"Good to know," the raven-haired male said with a rarely seen smile.

A sudden knock at the door drew their attention from the friendly dinner conversation, and Katie stood to go to the door but Arashi stopped her.

"Were you expecting someone?" he whispered quietly.

"Not that I'm aware of," Katie replied in a equally quiet voice.

Beckoning for the two to transform in case it was something dangerous, Arashi approached the door and peeked through the little hole. Standing on the other side was a figure wearing a scarf, obscuring most of their features from the light.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

In response to his question, the person held up a gem and Arashi sucked in a sharp breath.

"Who is it?" Penny asked from the kitchen.

"It's the Blue Ranger," he replied.

Celio mentally scolded himself for running away after the fight but he couldn't let the other Rangers see his face.

He wasn't even human to begin with after all.

Which was the main reason why he kept himself locked in his room he rented from a nice couple who didn't mind his appearance. In fact, they were the only humans to show him any form of kindness. Everyone else either ran away from him in terror or pretended to be nice in front of him, but would betray him the moment his back was turned. After the fight earlier with the rest of the team, he felt a connection with others for the first time in his life.

Which was the reason why he forced himself to leave the safety of his room and track down the others.

His gem made that part easy at least.

Now as he stood in front of the house belonging to the White Ranger, his anxieties reared their ugly heads.

"Come on Celio, you can do it."

He knocked three times.

"Who are you?" a voice demanded from the other side.

Pulling out the Kirin gem from his pocket, Celio held it up and waited for the door to open.

The door indeed opened after a minute of silence.

"Come in," the guy said.

Hesitantly, Celio stepped inside the house and was greeted with the smell of curry.

"You're the Blue Ranger?" one of the girls asked.

"Y-Yea. I'm Celio Santagato."

"I'm Katie, that's Penny, and the one who let you in is our leader Arashi. We had one more guy but he left earlier," Katie explained with a smile.

"A-Am I interrupting something?" Celio inquired, his eyes lingering upon the kitchen table where plates of curry still remained.

"We were just having dinner. Do you want some?" Katie ladled out a plate and beckoned for him to join them.

Tentatively sitting down at the table while the other three joined him, Celio reached for his plate when Penny noticed the fur on his hands.

"Um...not to be rude or anything...but is that fur on your hands?"

He hastily snatched his hands back and ducked his head.

"It's ok. We're not going to judge you or anything," Katie reassured.

"..."

Arashi rested a hand on his shoulder and Celio flinched in response.

"Easy there. We're not going to hurt you. You're one of us aren't you?" Katie said warmly.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm just not...used to being around other people," Celio explained slowly.

"You're not human are you?" Arashi observed, deliberately neglecting the mention of a tail poking out from the latter's back.

"No. I'm not."

"So you're a cat or something?" Penny interrupted.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Celio slowly reached up and removed the scarf from his face.

"Holy shit," Penny breathed.

"You are a cat," Katie giggled.

Arashi was the only one who didn't say anything.

"You're not afraid of my appearance?" Celio frowned in confusion.

"Should we be?" Arashi finally said.

"No! I'm tired of hiding myself. I want to be normal for once!"

"Then don't hide your face from us. You're a part of our team now," Arashi said, reaching out to scratch him between the ears.

Celio purred at the ministrations and then immediately pulled away, completely embarrassed at what he had just done.

"Aw don't pull away. You look cute when Arashi scratches your head like that," Katie pouted.

"I second her," Penny added.

The Japanese male facepalmed hard and got up from the table.

"Where are you going?"

"To clear my head," he answered before walking out the door.

To be continued...

Review?

Next time: Arashi faces off against a monster which forces him to relive his past memories.
The rest of the team fall under the same spell and turn against one another.
Can they break free before Ventrixa turns them against each other?

See you all next time!

Celsius Fate~

I may have use of a sixth and seventh ranger. If interested, please PM me your submission!

The element of the sixth ranger is metal, and the Sacred Beast is the Manticore. The color associated with the sixth ranger is Silver

The element of the seventh ranger is wood, and the Sacred Beast is the Gryphon. The color associated with the seventh ranger is Gold

Please follow the template below

Name:

Age:

Appearance:

Personality:

Sacred Beast:

Element:

Background:

I'm also in need of monsters for my story. If you're interested please PM me your submission using the template below!

Name:

Appearance:

Powers/Special abilities: