Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Why are they crying? Why are they not talking to me? What is… what is happening?

Javi Garcia’s mind… reeled, as he walked down the wooden stairs of the house he shared with his sister, and their father. 

He remembered walking down like this years ago, to a similar scene of his sister and their father huddled up in front of the fireplace, the fire looking warm, almost cozy, simmering, making a small cackling noise… but they were crying. They were upset. 

He had asked what had happened, back then, he had only been seven years old, and dad had turned his head, his eyes swollen red, as he beckoned Javi to come to him, and then grasped him in the same bear hug as he had Izzy, and Javi didn’t know why they were crying, but seeing the people he loved and cared about the most weeping, he also felt tears slide down his cheeks. 

“Where’s… where’s mom?” he had asked through his sobs, and Izzy’s wails got worse. 

Mom had died of a stroke. 

Javi felt goosebumps return, as he recalled, but something was… strange, right now. He felt like he had goosebumps, but seeing his skin, it was smooth, no hair standing up, perfectly… untouched. He ignored it as some sort of issue acting up with his depression. 

“Izzy?” he called out to her, but she didn’t reply. Dad didn’t even turn his head, Javi wondered maybe they hadn’t heard him, “Dad?” he repeated, a little louder. 

There was still no reply. 

He closed his eyes, maybe they had decided to give him the ‘silent treatment’ or something. He wondered if he should be annoyed with them, but then decided against it, instead going closer to them and touching Izzy’s shoulder, but she seemed to not feel it at all. 

He was still confused. Were they really ignoring him that bad?

“Fine” he groaned, “I’ll go away” 

He hoped to elicit a reaction from either of them, but nothing happened. He rolled his eyes, maybe they were punking him? Trying to psych him out. What was the worst thing that could’ve happened? There was no way anyone could’ve died, there were only the three of them here, no one else. Maybe Izzy had lost a championship game? Dad lost his job? 

He’d deal with them later. Right now he saw the time, he was already late for his job. He sprinted out without thinking more about his dad and sister, knowing they’d come to notice his absence, and she’ll find him. Perhaps if he came back in an hour or so, they’d pay more attention to him.

And if the Sporix attacked, they’d have to come together to fight anyway. 

He thought he should teleport to the command centre, check back on Solon and Zayto before going to work, if he was already an hour late, what difference would ten more minutes make?

Then he noticed his communicator wasn’t there on his wrist. He tried to summon his morpher, but nothing. Even his key was not in his pockets. 

Something felt… wrong. Oh so, so terribly wrong. 

He decided he better walk to BuzzBlast or the base. That was probably his best option right now, considering dad would have the keys to the jeep, and that he wasn’t gonna talk to him anyway. 

En route, he found it strange that he was almost… floating, his steps felt light even though his mind felt heavy. No one gave him a second glance, as if they saw through him, as if they didn’t even see, know he was there. He had to walk in zigs and zags to avoid bumping into people who, even though looking straight ahead, refused to acknowledge his presence. 

It was as if the entire town had decided to give him the silent treatment, to ignore him, as if he never existed. 

A fleeting thought passed his mind, what if it was a sporix attack which had made everyone forget him? What if he was… invisible? 

But then his conscious mind dispersed the thought with an almost Ollie-like notion, feeling like if he had been hit by an attack, he’d remember it. 

Come to think of it, he didn’t remember a lot from yesterday… 

He had been with Amelia, by sunset, they had been walking through the woods, talking. 

Well, not exactly talking. 

The conversation had come to an abrupt halt, when they saw a spark lighting the woods up. She looked into his brown eyes, he stared back into hers, time seemed like it’d stop. Javi reminisced the moment with an almost nostalgic affection, as the mist felt like it was settling, and they had leaned in closer to each other, closer and closer, till they were less than an inch apart. He loved the feeling of her warm breath on his lips, tickling that small stubble that had taken the place simply because he didn’t shave for two days because the water in November was cold. 

That smile on her face still lingered in his memory.

And then their communicators had beeped, apparently the sparkles in the sky were something to do with a fire breathing sporix, and they had to run to their friends’ aid. 

Javi didn’t remember what happened in that fight… he remembered it breathing fire, Zayto trying to shield them, and he had also launched in, Amelia was screaming, so was Izzy, Ollie fell on the floor, demorphed, and the last thing that he remembered was his own suit receding… 

And then he had blacked out. Only to wake up in his bedroom in the morning. Not warm, not cold, no wounds, no signs of damage… just perfectly fine. 

Except that nobody was reacting to him. 

Maybe Izzy was mad at him for charging at the sporix like that. Javi frowned, that wasn’t really like Izzy, and coming to think of it, Izzy was a strong girl, she rarely ever cried, and to realise that she seemed so broken. 

Something had gone really wrong. 

BuzzBlast seemed almost normal, though, Javi was glad to notice, everyone was cheerful, smiling, going about their day, doing all the things they usually did. But even here, not one person saw him, waved to him, said hi to him, as they usually did. 

He did wave to Gerard, the camera guy, but he didn’t see, or he saw and ignored. Something was so, so wrong here too…

Something was wrong with him. 

Finally, he saw a familiar face, and felt relief sweep over him. But it was short lived, very, very short lived, because he realised Amelia sat on her desk, eyes closed, head down, as if she was sick, or having a terrible headache. 

“Hey!” he grinned, reaching close to her, if anyone could make him feel better, it was either his music, or Amelia. Amelia and her cheery demeanour, and her ever hopeful eyes searching pages of local news tabloids, anyplace, anywhere, for a ghost story, something paranormal, anything. And seeing her gushing about it, like an innocent sweet summer child, in her small bubble of paranormal, (That Ollie liked to burst, and Javi hated him for it) it always made him feel nice.

And Nice was just about the best thing he wanted to feel right now.

But something felt wrong...

Especially when she didn’t reply to his greeting. Just looked up, as if a cold wind had touched her.

The expression he saw in her face, was one he hadn’t expected... at all.

She looked surprised.

But then the moment passed, and he saw a pensiveness, an expression he had seen in dad and Izzy this morning, an expression as if she had just seen the light of day disappear into the mist, and then she suddenly shook her head, as if to disperse the wind, and put her head down on the desk again. No smile when she saw him, no reply when he spoke to her, not even an acknowledgement.

Something was wrong with her, with dad, Izzy, BuzzBlast, EVERYONE.

Everything was wrong.

Or maybe he himself was all that was wrong.

He sat on the desk in front of her, not giving up on her that early, and besides, he was at work, he had nothing else to do, until Jane gave him another story.

He watched her movements, she didn’t move for a long time, as if fast asleep, however he knew she wasn’t, she shook uncontrollably at times as if crying, he felt worried, a lot, panicky even, but she didn’t reply once when he asked her about it, would just look up, look around, look at him, but stare past him as if he was transparent... as if he didn’t exist.

Then he suddenly saw her pull out her phone, and he knew it was very inappropriate to look into someone else’s phone, it was a breach of their privacy, but he couldn’t resist... maybe it could explain the peculiar behaviour... something... anything.

Anything at all.

He circled around her, to peek into what she was looking, and if she minded him doing that, she didn’t show it.

What he saw made no sense to him whatsoever... it was maddening.

Because she was looking at a photo of him.

It was a selfie from a week back, him and her, him with his mouth full of marshmallows, her with a hot cocoa moustache, both laughing their head off at BuzzBlast, both...

Happy.

Then she slid to the next picture, same day, when Ollie had been scolding them about playing with food like that, and then Izzy had dumped a barrel’s worth of syrup on his hair, just to ‘tell him’ how much fun it was.

Ollie has shook his head in disapproval... before spraying whipped cream into Izzy’s hair.

And then the next hundred pictures in Amelia’s gallery were of the food fight that had followed.

But for some reason, Javi noticed with an ache growing inside him by the second, that she was zooming every picture, at his face, to just sit there and... look at him.

Whyyy

And then, then he noticed something stranger. He watched Amelia’s reflection in the phone, while he couldn’t see his own.

But he did watch Amelia’s eyes go wide with, as if with recognition, her lips parted, and in a stunned, whisper, he heard her utter one word... just one.

Her tone was one of surprise, an almost whisper, filled with... was it mixed emotions? He saw happiness, excitement twinkling in his eyes for a second, which was then replaced by awe, shock, and finally...

Fear.

Amelia looked pale, as if she had just seen a ghost, her voice a husky whisper, more questioning, than a mere observation, as Javi would’ve thought it would be... and it was only one word.

“Javi?”

Chapter Text

Her mind felt heavy. Heavier than it ever had. Amelia Jones closed her eyes, trying to push out the exceedingly painful images out of her head, but they just kept rushing back in, again and again and again. Her eyes fluttered open, and blinked rapidly to disperse the initial shock. Closing her eyes and lying with her head on the desk all day was just not working anymore. Her head hurt, and her body refused to listen to what her tired mind told her. 

She flipped open her phone, tapping into the gallery, flipping through the pictures, digital files made merely of a few megabytes, yet so, so important to her, because to her, they represented a time not so long passed by. 

A time when they were happy. 

A time when, while they had the weight of the world on their shoulders, they were happy. They had a food fight, those were the pictures she was looking at. They all looked like joyful, callous, carefree children. 

And then her mind reeled, dragging her back into a memory just two hours old. How they had all just aged up within one night. How they now looked like weary, old, tired adults. The maturity that hadn’t come with age, or experience. 

Abrupt, unexpected, uncalled for. 

Even Izzy, who was barely seventeen, looked like a broken shell of a forty year old woman who had lost a million more wars than she had won. 

And seeing the same face, those same eyes, twinkling, grinning, pouring syrup over Ollie, him wolfing down marshmallows, hot cocoa moustaches, balancing candies on the upper lip before them falling into their mouths… 

The tears just crowded her eyes, as she realised she’d never see them smile again, probably. 

And that she’d never see him again. 

That was when she saw her eyes contradict that very thought in her mind. 

Because he was staring back at her, from her phone. 

Not a picture, not a lifeless digital file. But an image. A reflection. It was blurry, she realised, but that was probably because of the tears in her eyes, but she could see him. As if he was looking into her phone, at his own face, from behind her shoulder. 

But it couldn’t be!

Could it?

Javi. 

Javier Garcia. 

She felt her mind go to the first place she hadn’t even realised it would, Was it Javi’s Ghost?

She stared at him, at his expression. He was staring right at her, through the reflection, looking right into her eyes. His lips were contorted into a grimace, filled with confusion, his brow creased, his eyes questioning. 

How, HOW could it be?! She knew she must be dreaming. 

Ollie had basically hammered it into her head by now, that ghosts weren’t real— not like she believed him, but somewhere deep down, we mind was slowly beginning to accept that maybe she better let go of this passion of hers— but what she saw right now, could not Be anything other than an actual... ghost. 

Because you see, Javi Garcia had died. 

The battle the previous night had been spectacularly UGLY. While the fire breathing Sporix had been something the Rangers could’ve easily dealt with, things had gone oh so terribly wrong. They had all been... injured, badly. 

But why, everyone wondered, because their Ranger Suits, on more than one occasions, had proven to be fire resistant. 

Not that it mattered to her anyway.

Javi had caught the inferno in his face. He had tried to save them all. It wasn’t even a show of bravery, it was just impulsive... 

He had seen Izzy get burnt in the arm, and in a rush of emotions, just fired up, charged straight, into the demon’s almost literal mouth. 

No one even noticed what exactly happened in the moment, a flash of blinding light, Amelia could swear she heard him almost… laugh? No one really knew what happened, but moments later, they were all crying over the Black Ranger’s charred dead body. 

The Power had failed him. 

And that was something no one could actually believe. 

Aiyon had gone insane after that. If there was any part of the guilt that he had refrained from imposing upon Zayto in his rut to be the leader, it was all unleashed now. Gone was the fun loving, light hearted angel he used to be, now it was replaced by an insanely angered Gold Ranger who refused to speak to Zayto at all. Zayto, meanwhile, did feel the guilt, overwhelmingly, and the rangers who remained alive, saw him break down, his entire self disintegrating like sand in the wind, as he… wept. 

As for Javi’s sister, it took hours upon hours to stop her from wailing, to drag her away from Javi’s barely recognisable, incinerated dead body, screaming as she continued to cling on… And when she finally did stop, she sank into an unending silence. Softly sobbing from time to time, in shock, not a single word had been uttered by Izzy Garcia. She loved her brother way too much to actually accept her death. 

Amelia remembered crying, she remembered that only moments before his death, he had been so close to her, they had almost shared a kiss. Oh how she regretted never leaning in sooner, never admitting that she loved him, sooner. Yet for some reason, seeing her entire team break apart like this, Ollie had asked her to hold on, always acting in the most ‘logical’ way, even if he himself was on the verge of breaking apart. One Halloween he had claimed that his biggest fear had been the thought of losing any of them. And here it was, a manifested nightmare…

They had lost Javi. 

And yet, he was standing right there. 

Ghosts are real, and I can see my best friend’s ghost, Amelia thought, blinking through the tears, the entirety of the events that had happened from last night passing through. 

She felt a sudden jolt of excitement pass through her body, as she continued staring into his eyes, “Javi?” her voice was a bare whisper, and she didn’t even know why.

She heard no reply, though. 

However, what did surprise her further, was that Javi’s lips, in that reflection moved… As if he said the words, but none whatsoever reached her. He had heard her, but she couldn't hear him. She saw his lips twisting into a frown, and just knew she had to communicate with him. 

And that was without using her ghost hunting equipment. Javi wouldn’t run away from her, she needed to be calm. 

“Javi? Can you hear me? Nod your head if you can” she said, not turning back, frozen to her spot, staring straight into his reflection as the mobile phone’s screen dimmed and finally blackened, while Javi’s reflection stayed... and nodded. Confused. 

 “I— I can’t hear you...” she said, as he opened his mouth to speak. The tears still remained in her eyes, but those on her cheeks had started to dry. Her mind was mystified and occupied now. She searched for a way, any way to see him, to communicate with him, because she knew that her seeing his reflection was an unusual phenomena, even for a ghost; ghosts didn’t show up in reflections now, did they? 

She tried to read his lips in the reflection, but it was laterally inverted, it was hazy, it was translucent... she couldn’t. 

Could... could the Power help her? She wondered, how many impossible things had been made possible by the Power of the Morphin Grid, maybe seeing his ghost... was one of them? 

She clasped her eyes shut, tightly, whispering to the ghost, “WAIT,” urgently, and tried to concentrate all of the Power. How could she even do that, she wondered for a moment, trying to recall how it felt as the Dino Saber had bonded with her, how she felt every time she morphed. Sure enough, from the wristband of her morpher, she felt a surge of pink energy slowly flowing up, and coursing like electricity through her body. Willing herself, literally requesting the Morphin Grid, like it were god, trying, oh so desperately trying, probably in vain, to will herself to see him when she opened her eyes. 

Like a small child praying desperately at the altar for the wellness of its sick mother. 

And when she opened her eyes... 

His reflection was gone. She couldn’t see him anymore. 

A darkness seemed to settle upon her, realising he was... gone. She had blown it, probably. A feeling of dejectedness due to failure taking the place of the hope within. 

She sighed. 

“I’m so, so sorry, Javi” she whispered, the tears clouding her eyes once again, as she slumped back into the chair, her head lifelessly leaning against the headrest, eyes looking up towards the heavens, as if searching for her lover in the stars. 

“What for, Amelia?”

The soft-spoken voice had come so suddenly, filled with innocent confusion, as if he did not know what was happening at all. As if he did not know he was dead. 

She turned around abruptly, shocked, eyes widening, and she looked here and there, but she couldn’t see him. 

She was sure she had just heard him, but there was no way of confirming that either. She felt helpless, time was slipping away, he may be long gone. She stood up, as if he had run away, and she’d have to chase after him any moment. But she didn’t have to, because the voice spoke again. 

“What happened? You okay?” His tone was a little panicky now, as if he was trying to figure out what was going on in her mind, but he couldn’t; her behaviour appearing as strange to him as his appearance was to her. 

Frantically, her eyes searched for the source, searched for anything, anything at all, that would link her to Javi. 

Javi’s ghost. She corrected, in her mind. 

Her heart was racing because she knew it. The paranormal was real, and Javi’s presence after his death was the Morphin Grid’s way of telling her that she had never been wrong. 

He was nowhere to be seen, but she could actually hear him. 

“Javi? Javi, where are you?!” She asked, trying to control her voice, trying to not give away the excitement, the sorrow, and the entire mix of emotions that were passing through her like electricity. 

“I’m right here, Amelia… can’t you see me?” he sounded like he was… disappointed ? 

“I—” she was about to say that she couldn’t, but as she turned, she saw him , right there. Sitting on his desk. As if nothing had ever happened.

“I can…” a bare whisper, as she realised she wasn’t hallucinating. 

He was actually in front of her.

Chapter Text

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost” Javi chuckled; whatever residual confusion in his mind was washed over by the sweet relief of being acknowledged. Amelia was acting weird, but who wasn’t, today? At least she was acting less weird.

“And I thought you’d be a bit more excited about seeing a ghost” he continued, joking.

“I— do you—“ she tried to form understandable, sensible sentences but she didn’t know what to say.

Was he playing with her? Did he know he was a ghost?

He stared at her, with a piercing gaze, as if trying to figure out what was going on inside her mind, then finally relaxed, she was here, she was acknowledging his presence, she was talking to him. Maybe she was a little shaken up for whatever reasons, but she’d be fine, right?

“Do you remember what happened yesterday?” She asked, trying to make some, any sense of what was happening. If he were a ghost, he was in no way actually aware of the fact, or he wouldn’t have been having such a… normal conversation with her. He was confused to say the least. Her mind was in overdrive, thinking of all possible scenarios, and possibilities, but seeing his calm, almost too innocent face, she realised she needed to put him, and his feelings before her own.

Her obsession with ghosts could wait.

She needed to know what had happened to him.

“I…” he started but then decided against it, his tone turning apologetic, “I didn’t wanna make you feel awkward, Amelia, I— I mean, I really like you” she could tell he was nervous, but she couldn’t tell what he was going on about, “I acted on reflex, I was carried away in feelings… I just…” he sighed, gaze locked at his feet, “I just really wanted to kiss you…”

“You what?”

“I… still want to kiss you” he said nervously, “I want to. I really like you, Amelia, and I think we can be something” he said, now actually feeling afraid, “do you… don’t you feel the same?” He asked, softly, mentally preparing himself for a cold rejection.

Her words surprised him though, “I do, Javi, I wanna kiss you too…” she said, her voice a bare whisper, “but I can’t…”

His eyes searched hers for an explanation, anything of the sort, anything that would make sense of the words she had just said, but when she evaded it, looking down, he understood. Or at least he thought he did.

“It’s Ollie isn’t it?” He asked, his tone being carefully balanced, trying to contain the hurt, trying to stay calm.

“It’s not Ollie!” She revolted, sat up, and looked him in the eye, “it’s not Ollie, Javi, honestly, I don’t know how to say it…” she looked on the verge of tears, in a flow of emotions, she said the words, “it’s you!”

She regretted the words the moment they were out of her mouth. She watched his expression shift, as he turned from a flame to bare smoulders, right in front of her, and almost got up to leave.

But he didn’t.

Because she spoke again.

“Javi do you even know what has happened to you?!” She questioned, trying to keep sane. She was talking to a ghost. The ghost of the boy who she had adored. The ghost of a boy who had tried to kiss her yesterday and had just admitted he had feelings for her. The ghost of a boy who was dead.

Dead.

“It’s Ollie” he said, with finality in his voice, “I— I gotta go, Amelia” he got up, and before Amelia could say anything, he walked out on her.

A ghost had just walked out on her.

If there had been the smallest seed of doing in her mind, it was gone now, she believed it completely, as Javi walked away, she could see it— Something she hadn’t even imagined, she would see when the day started— a faint halo around him. He didn’t look as crystal clear as he had when he had been sitting in front of her, talking to her, communicating with her, as normal as she was used to seeing him. But as he walked away, he was almost translucent, fading, bathed in a deep violet aura, like that of his Ranger Powers… shimmering like stardust, and then fading into nothing.

She realised if she didn’t act quick, she’d lose him for good.

“Javi wait!” She cried out to no one in particular, and chased after him, after that faint trail. Anyone who saw and heard her, in that moment, at Buzzblast, couldn’t fathom what in the universe she was doing.

After all, none of them actually saw Javi there.

Javi of course, ran as fast as he could, the world around him a blur, while he tried to contain his emotions, that been taken as if by a whirlwind, scattering him like dead leaves. He had never been one to be very open with what he was feelings, always putting on a happy face, always pretending everything was okay. Truth was, he never trusted anyone enough to let his feelings loose, to trust someone to understand, to know things would’ve okay. He had started to do it with his friends, opening up slowly, but he knew he still had a long way to go.

Last night, when him and Amelia had been talking, his mind right now traced the moments, he breathed deeply, thinking. Remembering. His heart ached as he recalled the conversation, almost word by word.

They had been talking about music. Not just his music, their general music tastes. Amelia had told him she was reading a fantasy book that had something to do with Demons and Ghosts possessing people they loved after their deaths, and Javi had commented about how he almost always ended up associating a song, or a tune with anything he read. She had said she did the same with her books. This one in particular fit well with a bunch of Alan Walker songs.

They had started talking about songs then, and he was surprised to find out that actually no one had ever actually asked him what songs he liked. You know, other than his own.

The conversation had been deep, meaningful, moreso than anyone could imagine at a superficial level.

How can two people connect over music? Javi believed someone who knew music like he did would never need to ask that question.

What had happened then? She had wanted to kiss him too, but maybe it was in the moment…

Her words rang through his mind, “but I can’t”

He felt angered, he knew Ollie had something to do with it, and tried to think rationally.

But it seemed his mind had given him a ditch. People were still continuing their charade of ignoring him, not acknowledging he existed.

Invisible as he was, he knew he was there. He could feel himself. And Amelia had talked to him. That had been proof enough for him. Otherwise he could’ve considered something was wrong with him.

He made his way to Ollie Akana’s house.

Ollie was a good friend, and an even better ranger, sure, the two of them could talk about what was happening. He always looked at the logical side of things maybe he could explain everyone’s strange behaviour.

And that’s what he hoped for.

…

Strangely though, when he arrived at his friend’s doorstep, he found the Akana’s doorway wide open. There were muddy footprints leading in, and they looked strangely dragged. As if someone had been walking heavily.

He wondered if he should enter, and called out, “Ollie?” But no reply met him, minutes later, as he waited, he yelled again, “Ollie? Mrs Akana? Anybody home? It’s Javi!”

No reply. Not a word.

He took a deep breath, this was starting to get tiring.

He heard a faint sobbing sound coming from somewhere within the house, and walked in, following the muddy footprints, all the way upstairs, to probably what was Ollie’s room.

Curled up in his bed, in a fetal position, head in his mother’s lap, was Ollie Akana. 

“I— I failed, mom” he kept whispering, and his mother patted his head, and Javi understood why neither of them responded to their names being called out.

“Hi… Ollie, are you okay?” He knew his problems could wait, but Ollie didn’t respond to his words. He spoke again, tried to talk to Dr Akana, but did she respond.

He heard a panting sound come from downstairs, from where exactly he had come, then a loud clutter of feet scurrying up the staircase, coming to his room.

His gaze met with that of Amelia Jones, as she stumbled into view, and threw him a glance, looking relieved to see him.

“Ollie? Dr Akana?” She also said, the way he had, but wasnt met with the same reaction.

Dr Akana looked up, apparently saw Amelia and smiled, relieved, “I’m so glad you’re here Amelia” she said, letting Ollie get up from her lap, “can you take care of Ollie for a while? He’s been like this since he came back”

Amelia nodded, looking as shaken up as Ollie right now, and just like Ollie she hadn’t said a word to Javi yet.

“Ollie?” She said, as Dr Akana left them alone in the room, and Ollie looked up, his cheeks tear stained, his eyes swollen, but he gulped, and wiped his tears, letting a smile that was so obviously fake cover his mouth, “hey Amelia! S— sleep well?” He stuttered, his voice broken as well, but trying to contain the sorrow. He got up, off the bed, still pretending everything was okay, and stumbled over to where she was standing, ignoring Javi’s presence altogether, and took her hand.

She looked down when she replied, Though, “You know how I’m feeling Ollie…” and Javi felt all that anger bubble up again. He didn’t know why, maybe it was nobody acknowledging him, maybe it was Amelia seeing him and pretending she didn’t, maybe it was her rejecting him in such, such a cold way, and then running up to Ollie’s house like this. The blue ranger saw her but ignored him, it was all almost too much for him to take. 

“Ollie” he said, in a grave tone, feeling a sudden burst of energy bubble up inside him, feeling himself lose control, why couldn’t he get it right?

Chaos… all inside him. Nothing but chaos.

“Javi NOOOO—“ Amelia couldn’t even shout, before Javi moved at an almost supernatural velocity, towards Ollie and a land a punch to his gut.

If he were to be honest it felt exhilarating… for an entirety of five seconds, and it then faded into a feeling of horror, as he saw Ollie crumble to the floor, a mess.

Amelia looked horrified, her scream choked midway, a terror in her eyes, hands to her mouth, as the blue ranger, unmorphed, and vulnerable, lay on the floor…

All bloody.

Javi stared at his hands in disbelief, he had only wanted to punch him, he’d maybe punch him back. It’d give him some, some reaction some proof of his own existence, but as he watched his palms glow with the same energy, not stained in any blood, even though there was a splatter of it on the floor above which his fist had made contact. Ollie was bleeding from a single punch, a hole almost torn through him.

Amelia recovered just, just enough to scream “DR AKANAAAAAAA”

“What?!! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!!?!” Javi screamed, fear of himself seeping in, inch by inch, he had completely lost control…

Who was he… he wasn’t even sure anymore…

But Amelia’s panic stricken eyes said one thing to him. Just one

He was a monster

He didn’t blame her for feeling it, and found himself crumbing to the floor as well while the horror of the crime he had just committed came back to him.

He shivered, closing his eyes, feeling a tear slide down his eyes. But nothing really touched his cheeks.

There was no blood in his hands, there were no tears on his cheeks. His mind reeled, but his body felt nothing. No goosebumps, his morpher wasn’t in place, the shower knob wouldn’t turn when he tried, nobody noticed him….

“What’s wrong with me, Amelia?” He asked in a cracked voice filled with tears.

When he opened his eyes though, he didn’t see her anywhere. He jumped to his feet, sprinted to the staircase to see her and Dr Akana taking Ollie to the hospital.

Ollie, who had been unmorphed, vulnerable, upset, crying to his mother, looking to Amelia for comfort, putting up a brave face. And he had done god knows what to him, causing him such an injury… he had acted without thinking and the repercussions were in front of his eyes. His mother, and Amelia, a girl they both probably loved, wheeling him to a hospital. Javi hated himself for acting without thinking, hated himself for letting his emotions out like this, for not being able to control them, for not being able to deal with all the shit that was going down.

As they loaded the coughing, barely coherent blue ranger into Dr Akana’s car, Amelia threw her head back, for an entirety of one second, and locked her eyes with Javi. The expression in her eyes said one thing. Just one thing.

She hated him too…

The guilt swallowed him whole.

Chapter Text

This was not how it was supposed to go… 

Javi Garcia sat, invisible as he had been all day, on a bench in the park, hoping, even though he felt it was pointless at this point, that his father would come to him, scold him for whiling away his precious time instead of doing anything productive. 

But of course that wouldn’t happen… 

This wasn’t how today was supposed to go. 

That look, that rage in Amelia’s eyes, as she and a very, very terrified Dr Akana wheeled Ollie to the hospital had broken him… completely. He knew he didn’t have the guts to follow them to the hospital. Everything had spiralled into hell. 

He did feel guilty for wounding Ollie like this, but that one gaze of hers seemed to have done more damage. 

And now he sat here, with his head hung low, non existent for the universe. 

What had gone wrong?

Javi kept thinking and thinking but nothing seemed to help… 

And once again, his tears felt imaginary as they rolled down his eyes… never even touching his cheeks. 

Where was Aiyon? Where was Zayto? Why was Ollie crying? Why were Izzy and dad crying? Why did Amelia seem so shaken? What was going on?! 

And worst of all… why was nobody telling him what was going on?

And Amelia. Talking with her made everything okay, just ranting, if nothing more, what had happened today?

Javi closed his eyes, and tried to trace his mind across the entire day, trying to just… remember what had happened. As if a spectre had appeared out of nowhere, and taken him out of his life. 

Everything was in pure silence, no one breathed a word, a silent whirlwind taking the universe for a spin, scattering their lives and lies like dry leaves in an autumn gust. 

He was sure of one thing though, it was him. It had been him. He had ceased to exist as the man he had once thought he was. He was a demon, a monster, he recalled distinctly how he lost control, how his fists glowed dark, black, violet around the edges, and in a burst of adrenaline, or some sort of paranormal energy, or anything at all , that he couldn’t fathom for the sake of the lord, that had channelled into him, and made him… act out. 

The pitter patter of rain was what made him open his eyes, though, after what felt almost too long, and he shuddered to realise, in a moment, that the rain never touched him at all. 

He stared at his hands, watching as the darkened skies cried their tears over them, and the raindrops passed through him, and splattered onto the park’s bench. 

Invisible and intangible. 

Was he even real, anymore?

The answer came to him almost instantly, he WAS real. He was real, he could feel himself, the impact, that impact had sent Ollie to the hospital. He may not be the same Javi Garcia he used to be, but he was alive, and breathing, and real, and there. 

Amelia had also seen him, right? 

Zayto, Aiyon, Solon, Izzy, Fern, Adrien, someone, anyone at all, who knew him, could tell him what was going on. If Amelia could see him, talk to him, and Ollie couldn’t, maybe there was some sort of filter… maybe…

Maybe if he actually observed someone who couldn’t see him, he’d understand what was going on. Amelia had been looking at his own photo when she had seen his reflection, wasn’t that what surprised him? 

At least I’m not a vampire , he let himself have a small chuckle, as he got up, determined to find out what had gone wrong with him, and his entire universe. 

He walked to the Ranger Base, since he didn’t have his morpher/teleporter; the forest felt nice, soft, green, comforting, even as the raindrops fell through his intangible form, he floated, almost, as his feet skipped lightly on the soggy floor. His shoes didn’t get muddy at all, as if, with him, they were also unreal. 

For a second he wondered how he was even wearing the clothes that he had worn last night, how could he feel the fabric? But the again, he didn’t completely understand the rules of this game any way. 

He felt a wave of relief sweep over him to notice the clearing in the woods where almost always Amelia ran into his dad who would scold her for trespassing, that very place where he and Izzy had found themselves as Power Rangers… the keys to their ‘Past, Present, and Future’, their link to the morphin grid… the DinoHenge. 

After the way the events of the day had rolled about, Javi could swear on his life, that he wouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore. But that was before he knew of the horror that awaited him at the DinoHenge… one he could have never even imagined in his wildest dreams. 

Blood splatter. 

Smell of burnt, charred, ruined flesh. 

The flora underneath, and nearby still smouldering, although mere embers remained.

Javi didn’t know sixty five million year old rocks could be burnt. 

Yet here, right in front of him, along with a strange feeling of intense heat, as if scathing his own flesh, he saw, with horror, the statue… 

His statue. 

Well, technically, the Stegosaurus Guardian’s statue, that directly linked him and his black ranger powers to the morphin grid. It was broken to bits, and the stone that lay at his feet was smouldering like it were wood after a bonfire. The putrid smell that hung about the air made him nauseated. 

Something had gone so, so, so terribly wrong. 

So much so, that he was scared to find out. Even if in his heart of hearts, he already knew… 

Why Izzy and dad were mourning, why Amelia was in shock, why Ollie was breaking down in front of his mom. 

The confirmation came in the most unexpected way possible. 

“TELL THEM, MAN, JUST TELL THEM! The sooner you tell them; the easier they’ll find to make their peace with it!” It was Aiyon’s voice, angry, frustrated, and his tone told Javi enough to know that he was mad at Zayto. 

“I can’t tell them!” Zayto’s defiant voice came, “it’s against the Ranger Code! We can’t reveal his identity. Alive or…” he trailed off. 

“They’ll mourn him, but he will get his due. He did not DIE IN VAIN. He was a hero, and the world deserves to know that…” Aiyon argued, and Javi moved towards the source of the sound, Mandy ring his way through the smouldering DinoHenge, with the rain trying to quell its flames, finding it not that far away after all, just a little away, as to keep away from the putrid scent and flames. They were walking, while they talked and Javi noticed a… a slouch in Zayto’s pace. 

“He didn’t die in vain, I’ll never deny that, but we can’t just tell everyone that a power ranger is dead.” 

“It’s not like that’s the first time it happened” Aiyon said, but the second he said it, he regretted it, seeing Zayto’s expression change. 

“I failed again. Again. I couldn’t save him, it was all my fault” Zayto’s hands held his head, feeling it pounding, feeling lost, broken, defeated. Aiyon didn’t say a word, just stood there, staring coldly at the crumbling team leader. 

The rain was starting to pour down heavily, making the atmosphere denser, and even more befitting to the depressing mood. 

Javi felt like he was at a Funeral. Flashbacks from the cinematic depiction of Helena’s funeral, with Gerard Way’s vocals, the depressing downpour, the black umbrellas, the dancing corpse, and the… roses. 

He breathed, but no air reached his lungs. 

It occurred to him, then. 

It was his own funeral… but of course it wasn't. It just felt like it… right? 

“What happened to Javi wasn't your fault, Zayto…” Aiyon placed a hand on his shoulder, trying his best to comfort him… but nothing. Nothing at all. 

Aiyon didn’t know what impact his words left on the invisible eavesdropper. 

Zayto broke down into tears, the first time either Javi, or Aiyon had ever seen… the brave knight of Rafkon, the leader of the Dino Fury team, two times in a row… broken. Just like that. 

Aiyon teleported the two of them away, after that; not paying attention to Javi, who was standing there, but probably not there at all. 

Javi was left staring at the empty space in front of him, as the DinoHenge burnt, and HIS Stegosaurus spirit burnt with it. 

His hands flopped down, lifeless next to him, the feeling of charring flesh creeping up his skin, though it seemed spotless, and smooth as ever. No goosebumps. No raindrops touching him, or drenching his clothes. Even the wet mud not letting his shoes be soggy and stained. 

Everything made sort of sense, he wondered, those same intangible tears flowing down his cheeks, as he recalled Dad and Izzy huddled up. He recalled Amelia scrolling through pictures of him, then turning pale, his own joke , which seemed almost liek a truth now; how Ollie had been huddled up with his mother, claiming he had failed. How Zayto was beating himself up, but at the same time trying to stay strong, and Aiyon trying to help him out, and at the same time trying to… what was Aiyon trying to say anyway? 

He wasn’t even there, anymore. 

But Ollie had been hit. The blood splatter was just as clear in his mind as any of the other things. 

The morphing grid like energy had emanated from him, hadn’t it? 

He had actually spoken to Amelia. She had seen him, interacted with him, albeit the interaction was weird, but it was real , from both their sides. Because she had screamed for him to stop at Ollie’s house too… 

Nothing made any sense. 

All these thoughts just cluttered his mind, and while one part of him readily believed what had happened, as an explanation of so, so many confusing incidents, another part of him stayed in denial… he was in complete consciousness, right here, being able to think, to move around, to do anything he normally would… 

And yet…

Javi let his head roll back on his neck, facing upwards, eyes open, at first, as if looking at the heavens, for a clue, any sort of sign that things would be okay. But he was met with the sight of the raindrops falling, and falling through, through whatever physical manifestation of death he was in, leaving him unmarked… 

His eyes clamped shut, the world went dark, as the tears were forced out. 

He opened his mouth, in exasperation, heaving, but very much aware, unlike he had been earlier, of the completely unnecessary flow of air through his body, and let out a scream, as loud as he could, all the hopelessness and dejectedness trying to leave him in it…

No birds were scared of his outburst. No animals disturbed. No dad to come and scold him for ruining the serenity of the woods, because his distressed cries were never heard.  

He then fell to his knees. 

And then he heard a voice… 

Her voice.

Chapter Text

“Stay away from me” he said, in a voice uncharacteristically cold for him, but she didn’t stop in her tracks. Her footsteps made a splash in the muddy puddles, indicating her pace, although he didn’t turn to see her face. 

“Javi, are you… are you okay?” She asked, softly, not bothering to heed his advice, making her way closer to him, white jacket, pink top all drenched, her open hair clinging to her face messily. 

“I’m not okay. Everything is wrong, EVERYTHING IS WRONG!” he cried out, getting up on his feet, turning around to see her. 

She had to admit, there was a sudden burst of energy from him, and she did step back a few paces, unintentionally.

“ You’re scared of me, aren’t you? I see fear in your eyes, Amelia” his voice was also sounding ghostish, as if he was… threatening her… Javi? Like this?! She couldn’t believe it, but no matter what was going on, Amelia wasn’t scared, she was excited, it was her first encounter with a ghost, and she wasn’t going to let her best friend die just like this… especially when she lived under the guilt of it. 

“Javi you’re not… sounding like yourself” she didn’t know how much he knew, she had to act carefully. 

He clamped his eyes shut, letting the rage pass, the last time he had been feeling like this, Ollie had landed up in the hospital… if he was all wrong, he wasn’t going to let himself hurt Amelia. 

“Javi…” she felt bold, moving closer, towards him, now standing right in front of him, and waited for him to open his eyes. He needed to be okay if he was to talk to her. 

While the rain poured mercilessly, making her look like a soaked dog, it did nothing to tarnish Javi’s seemingly perfect appearance, from his puffy hair to his still unwrinkled clothes. 

“Javi, please listen to me…” she said, softly, “Javi, look at me…”

His eyes opened, finally, to find her piercing eyes gaze right into his, as if seeing into his soul, and she was greeted by pain, disappointment, and a hopelessness so intense, she didn't know if she could ever make him feel better.

“I’m not… I'm not okay… Amelia I’m—” his voice was all choked up, and she tried to touch him, to place a comforting hand on his shoulder, but touching him, she realised, for the first time, he wasn’t real. She could see the outline of his body, as clear as she ever had, but when her hand reached the spot, she found nothing but cool air… maybe colder than that around, but nothing solid… he was a phantom, a ghost, he was actually dead. 

Javi’s eyes were filled with tears, as he also traced Amelia’s movements, trying to place his hand on Amelia’s skin, trying to touch her the way those raindrops did, but as his skin made contact with hers, he saw goosebumps rising on her flesh, but there was no sensation at all. They were right there, both of them, staring at each other, hearing each other’s voices, but they could only look… look, and never touch.

He was panting now, she could see, his mouth open, heaving, trying to do anything as normal as a human would… but he couldn’t. All the things they took for granted. 

“Do you know ?” she asked, in a whisper.

“I—” his voice was still choked, and he let out a stifled sound before speaking again, “I heard Zayto and Aiyon… talking about it . Have you guys not told anyone else? ” He didn’t need to say it out loud, that he was dead, these were things that weren’t made into words, he was not alive and he wanted to stay in denial of it as long as he could… saying it out loud would be like accepting it with open arms. He didn’t know if he was ready for it just yet.

“We didn’t know how anyone would react… Izzy is so, so broken, and Warden Garcia is just— they’re the ones who should take the call… it’s not our place” she said, solemnly, “but Javi, please listen to me, I don’t know what has happened, i don’t have any idea what I’m going to do about any of this, I don’t know how, or why, I can see you, hear you… but… but I’m glad I can…”

Javi didn’t reply, he just stared at her, spellbound. 

“I didn’t know, last night, when we talked, when we almost kissed, I wanted to kiss you, Javi! I didn’t know any of this would happen! And I’ve not been able to live it down… I was at the base all night, I stayed with your…” she didn’t know how to say the words, but finally gathered the courage, “your mortal form” and saw his eyebrows raise at the words, scared, skeptical, hurt, “I couldn’t leave you. I just kept thinking and overthinking… I—” 

He was still not speaking, and she was getting worried now, what in the hell had she been talking about again? She knew she didn’t need to say these things, they would only hurt him more. But what could actually hurt a ghost? To be fair, Amelia had never really imagined how it would be if she actually got to talking to a ghost. Investigating the paranormal had always been her lifelong dream, you know? Seeing a ghost, getting to talk to a ghost, knowing a ghost, things like that, but never in her life had she actually imagined it would happen like this. Her best friend was dead, and his confused ghost was sitting in front of her, looking for answers, crushed under his own identity crisis. She had always imagined a ghost would be this… this intangible entity… she had never imagined how those ghosts became ghosts; of course she knew the facts, all the usual stuff, but she had never actually considered the implications… people who died, but couldn’t accept that they were gone, or those, who, as long as people were still connected to them on a certain emotional level, not quite letting them go, they’d be there with them. Maybe they had some unsettled score, maybe they were here by choice, maybe they were trying to leave, but couldn’t. There were so, so many attempted explanations, theories, ideas, for the occurrence of ghosts, but right now, sitting in front of Javi, she saw a different face of her own obsession with the paranormal, the sheer morbidity of it, and realised that there was still so much more to it, that she didn’t even know. It was up to her, and only her, to figure out why Javi was still here, after his death, and why he could only see her . And maybe that was the real reason why it was… so she could help him. 

“I’m just glad I could hear your voice again” how was she supposed to tell him all those thoughts that rampaged in her mind? She settled for this loving statement instead, which was actually the first thing she had felt when she had heard him speak that very morning. 

“How do you know I’m not a figment of your imagination?” he asked, softly. 

“Oh so we’re doing ghost jokes now?” she asked, with a laugh, albeit still a bit uncomfortable, and he also gave her a small smile. 

“I’m here for you… and I’m going to help you.” she extended her hand towards him, not in a handshake kind of way, but more of a holding hands kind of way, as if he’d take it, as if she’d be able to feel when he did… but what shocked her was that she did feel. It was Nothing that resembled the touch of a human, instead a sudden burst of energy, colder in places, warmer in some, that engulfed her hand, and when she saw it with her eyes, she couldn’t help but get giddy, he was holding her hand, like they were kindergarteners on their first day, promising to never let go.

“How will you help me?” he asked, timidly, as if he was afraid she would fade away that very second, offended by his words. His emotions seemed to be more of a wreck today than they were usually.

“I don’t really know how myself, but I know this, I’m the only person who can see you and there’s a very good reason behind it. Maybe the universe wants me to stay with you”

“Thank you so much, Amelia” he told her, tears in his eyes, Tears that, to her, seemed like stars, glowing and sparkling, unreal, but real at the same time. 

What was the definition of real anyway? 

He, on instinct, hugged her, tightly, not really feeling her, or the dampness in her clothes, or the stickiness of her hair, but there was a certain warmth, the only feeling that touched him, as he cried on her shoulder. He felt the warmth wrap around him, even though she and her clothes were cold from the downpour, while her hands also lifted to reach around his intangible body, just imagining the way she would actually touch him. 

They couldn’t touch, but they could fool their minds into believing that they were, right? 

“Do you hate me?” he sobbed into her shoulder, and she couldn’t think of what she could say to that, she was beginning to understand the actual importance of physical human touch, the connection felt so intimate, just the holding of hands, a warm hug, a pat on the head, cupping the cheek, shoving the shoulder, all the things she and Javi had once done, but probably would never be able to do again…

“Why would I ever… hate you, Javi?” she told him softly, lovingly. 

“What I did to Ollie” he said, still sobbing, “I’ve become a monster, a demon.” 

“No! No Javi you haven’t!! You don’t even KNOW what happened! You probably did it without any intention!!” she tried to console, and he just broke down in her surreal embrace.

“But I— I got so jealous, seeing him and you so close, I saw this love in your eyes for him… and I couldn’t resist! I had been so confused, you had seen me, but no one else did, I was scared, I was jealous I didn't know what happened” he cried, “I’m sorry Amelia… I’ve become what you can’t accept… embrace… love…”

It took her a minute to notice, but then she started panicking, the more Javi broke down, the hazier he became, fading, around the edges, like an old polaroid, like he would disappear in a gust of wind…

“No, Javi, NO, be strong, don’t panic, nothing happened” she assured, in a panicky voice, knowing his panic would get worse if he realised it himself, “everything is okay… they will discharge Ollie from the hospital soon… they will. He's fine, just some blood spilt, small wounds, really, Javi, I don’t hate you, Javi, I will never hate you! I never could ” she said, breathless, looking at his through tear stained eyes, tears that had slid down without even telling her, seeing his fade like that, but when he looked up at her, he saw a sort of glow in his face, a small smile.

“I’m so sorry, Amelia…” he said, and she wished she could kiss him so much, in that moment, even though it wasn’t the right moment to be thinking such things, “We’ll figure it out, Javi, I know things are bad… but I’m here, aren’t I? We’ll fix it all together… I promise you, we will”

“What if we… can’t? ” he said, he was actually shaking now, feeling the dejectedness and disappointment take hold of him again, as the truth struck him in the face again, and he couldn’t help but say the words, no matter how much they hurt, “I still am dead, aren’t I?” 

“You’re not dead to me,” she said, “I see you smiling at me, talking to me, I may not be able to touch you, but you’re here for me… Nothing can change that.” 

They parted, slightly, as the skies remained darkened, while the rain lessened to a mere drizzle, the sound of thunder feeling far, far away, though the canopy of the trees not helping with the lighting either, but they could see each other clearly, and she was so relieved to see him coming back into focus, as if assured of himself, and him feeling acknowledged had somehow renewed his life force, or death force, or energy, whatever the hell it was, like he was real again. Their expressions echoed similar melancholy smiles, like they knew things weren’t okay now, but they would be. He hadn’t known how much he had needed this assurance, till she had given it to him. 

He was ready to face his demons now, no matter how ugly they were. 

“So, how did I die?”

Chapter Text

‘Mirror mirror on the wall, why did I lie to them all?’

Amelia Jones stared at her own reflection in a mirror, unable to believe what she had just done. Her eyes were bloodshot, her eyeliner running from her tears, her hands shook as they felt the utter gravity of what she had just done… 

And then she had coaxed herself, convinced herself that it would all be okay. She hadn’t done anything wrong. 

Nothing wrong at all. 

Javi had already been dead. What she held was a small memento. That was all. 

…

“You just…” Amelia had absolutely no idea how to tell him. She didn’t want to hurt him, she loved him. And she knew that no matter what she said, he’d be hurt. 

“You just died …” she didn’t know what to say, how to tell him. It had been gruesome, to say the least, even thinking about it pained her. It reminded her of the hours she had spent, in the same room, shocked beyond repair, sitting in a corner alone, as Ollie and Solon tried to comfort Izzy, taking her away from Javi’s corpse, asking Amelia to stay there, to keep a watch on Javi, as if by some miracle, her presence would heal him. 

Of course, none of that actually happened, she was just left with the image of a dead body laid in white, on the floor in front of her, unable to look at him, or look away. She remembered shaking, crying, shivering, her mind feeling numb, everything feeling wrong. Hours and hours later, when she felt all cried out, when she wanted to stop thinking about Javi, leave regrets, gather herself a bit more, and on Ollie’s insistence, take Izzy— and Javi— home. But the words, the thoughts, the actions, everything kept swimming in her mind, she maintained a straight face, when she went home, splashed water on her face, and without saying a word to any question her Pop Pop asked her, and headed to work. She couldn’t even fathom what had happened, her head felt heavy, she felt sick, she didn’t even want to work. Jane handed her an assignment, in her usual cheery voice, and Amelia didn’t even say a word, just accepted the assignment. She didn’t even ask why Javi wasn’t there. 

All the sensitivity, and the way everything else just seemed so… normal… made her mind hurt in ways it never had. She almost felt her own brain crash, she shivered, and laid her head down, once again trying to push all the emotions out, shaking, trying to contain herself… 

A sudden urge to see Javi’s face had led her to open her phone, when she had first seen his ghost. 

And how was she going to tell Javi about any of this?

“What’s… what’s that supposed to mean?” He gave a hearty laugh, “A sporix beast attacked us, that’s the last thing I remember.” He told her, “what happened then?” 

What the hell did he expect her to tell him?! 

“You…” she started again, not sure how to continue, “it was a Fire Breathing sporix…” okay, that was a start. 

“And then what? Did it burn me or something?”

“It… did.” Okay, that was pretty much the gist of it all.

Javi stared at her blankly, they had started to walk towards the DinoHenge now. 

“I got burnt?” He asked, looking aghast, and obviously he would be, “so I’m… I’m really dead?” 

“I… guess? I mean…” she didn’t know what to say to that, was he actually still in denial? To be fair, anyone would be confused, even Amelia didn’t know exactly WHY everything that was happening, was happening. BUT this was her chance to investigate a ghost, interview one. Her dream of a lifetime. And it was the boy she loved, sorta, so it would be a bit easier, no?

“What did you think? When you woke up this morning? How did you feel?” She was actually interviewing a ghost, oh god. 

“I felt… normal. Nothing wrong with myself ,” he replied, and she looked confused, 

“Okay, let’s start like this, what did you do in the morning? Did you take a shower?” 

“I… had the same clothes as last evening. I pulled them off, and I tried to turn the shower knob, but it wouldn’t budge, so I slipped the same clothes on, and went out.” 

“Did you ever wonder why it wouldn’t turn?”

“I thought it was rusted or some sort of plumbing error thing”

“Did you feel it’s touch?” She probed further, he shook his head, feeling all muddled up, “I— I don’t know, I didn’t notice, my head was pounding, what Are you trying to ask!!!!” He burst, exasperated. 

“I’m just wondering… did you see your body?” She realised she had messed up, the moment his face cringed at the usage of the word ‘body’. Right, empathy, Amelia… how would you feel if someone called your body a… body?

“I didn’t! I don’t know anything! I just…” he closed his eyes, and suddenly, he started to burn. 

“Aaaah” he winced, eerily self aware, and felt his skin itching, as if peeling off, heat searing through him, a feeling he had felt earlier, when he had been closer to his smouldering statue… which is where he was, again. 

The destroyed Stegosaurus as if stared at him in pity, through eyes that didn’t look like eyes, the scales as broken, and burnt as he felt. 

“What’s… what’s happening to me” he muttered, and turned to his companion, who looked just as confused, “do you… do you see any burns?” He asked, “I feel like I’m being scorched!” He hissed, feeling as if his skin should start blackening, and he started running away. If the rain had done anything to quell that same pain earlier, make it feel lesser, Javi’s luck seemed to have run out… 

But out of the clearing in the wooded, back at the same spot where he had overheard Zayto and Aiyon, broken down, talked with Amelia, and the fire slowly… died down. He felt normal again… although his skin still remained unnaturally smooth. Perfect. Unscarred. As if nothing had happened. 

Amelia followed shortly after, “are you okay?” She looked so worried, “I felt like I was burning…” He replied, “and only when we were at the DinoHenge!” 

“Maybe that’s because last night’s tragedies took place there…” she mumbled to herself, all the dots connecting, all the things making sense, “we… you were very badly burnt, trying to protect Izzy, Ollie had fainted from the fumes, somehow, you had jumped in the direct line of the fire, you suit, it just… seemed to fade away, somehow… You were vulnerable, we were screaming, I don’t know how, but Aiyon took the sporix down, and when the fire died down, we realised you were…” 

“B— but nobody dies from burns, right? I must’ve had some sort of life left in me! The grid, the morphin master, something, ANYTHING could’ve saved me, no?!” He protested. 

She didn’t know how to tell him. She didn’t want to either. “You choked on the smoke” she lied instead. 

“I…” there was silence in the damp air, her words hanging around, him not bothering to speak more, just ruminating on what he had heard. 

Amelia never knew just when all this had happened, when, or why she had come this far. It it was her fault, it was always gonna be, she would live with its burden, because she hadn’t actually done anything wrong. 

Her morpher suddenly beeped, and the two of them jumped apart, surprised by such a sudden interruption, she answered the call, “Amelia! It’s Zayto, Fern called me up, she’s worried about Izzy. Hasn’t heard from her all day. Can you check up on her? I’m still trying to find Aiyon. Something tells me our bad days aren’t done with us yet…” 

Unable to actually speak anything to the team leader, she just nodded, swallowing a lump in her throat, and turned to Javi. 

“Did you… talk to Izzy?” 

“I tried” he said, eyes filling with tears, “I tried but her and dad, they were crying, in the morning, by the fireplace… just the way they had when mom passed away. I didn’t… understand why they were, back then, but now it’s—” he trailed off, unable to complete his sentence.

“Are you gonna go check up on Izzy?” He asked, all of a sudden, “would you mind if I accompany you? I won’t do anything, I just want to… I’ll be quiet, just your own private little ghost” he looked so miserable that there was no way Amelia could refuse, (although she did feel like grinning at the thought of having her own personal ghost, she didn’t let it show, as it may hurt his sentiments). 

The two carefully avoided the DinoHenge on their way back to Pine Ridge, not speaking along the way, both completely lost in thoughts, and foreign to each other; finding it hard to believe that just yesterday they had been so… close. 

… 

However he had expected Izzy to be, it wasn’t seething with anger. Amelia had gently knocked on the door hoping to see the girl, and tell her that her girlfriend was worried about her, but when the younger Garcia opened the door, Amelia, and Javi, invisible to everyone but the pink ranger, found themselves faced with an almost rabid expression clinging onto her face. 

“ What did you do with his morpher?!” She asked, almost growling. 

“What?” Amelia asked, surprised, and Javi looked at her, with renewed interest. 

“The body. His ranger morpher isn’t there, it was there when he died . You were the only person who stayed with him while we all left. You and Ollie. WHAT, DID.YOU. DO?” Izzy demanded. 

Amelia looked surprised, almost blue, and was just about to reply, when Warden Garcia came to the door. Amelia had never seen him this dishevelled. He was in a sort of night suit, his hair all messy, his eyes bloodshot, like those of Izzy’s, his cheeks tear stained. And why would they not be… he had just lost his son. 

Amelia’s mind went into flashback, as she recalled him in a similar getup, only not grieving, but worried. 

He had opened the door, and the first thing he sas was Izzy, and hugged her tightly, “where were you baby girl, where’s your brother? Do you know how worried I was? You are in SO MUCH TROUBLE, young lady” he had started, without even looking at her face, just grateful that she was home, safe and sound, 

Izzy had sobbed into his plump chest, and that was when he realised things were worse than he had imagined. He pulled away from the hug, and made his daughter look into his eyes, and found himself greeted with nothing but pain. Sheer, agonising pain. 

“W— where is Javi?” He asked, his voice unsteady, as he realised her brother was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a shadow glinted from behind. It was a Power Ranger, the Blue Ranger. He was standing hunched, as if in deep guilt. 

“Mr. Garcia, we…” the blue ranger had started, and Warden Garcia realised there seemed to be two more figures in the dark, one lying on the ground, another hunching over it. Dread filled him, and he quickly ran inside to switch on the light at the porch. 

Coming back, he found himself face to face with the Blue Ranger, his head hung low, and the Pink Ranger appeared to be the one hunching over the figure on the floor. 

A figure wrapped in white. 

A dead boy. 

His dead son. 

Amelia Jones and Ollie Akana saw Warden Garcia break down, at that moment. He looked so shook, standing with a hand clutching Izzy’s, as he probably tried to process what had happened. Any feasible reason for two Power Rangers to bring the dead body of ANYONE, literally anyone to his quarters, maybe it was because of his status as the Park’s guardian. Maybe it was something else… his mind kept rejecting the truth that even he himself knew, deep down. 

The fact that his daughter had come home, at 3AM, weeping, broken, defeated. And the fact that his son had not come home at all. 

He hadn’t let Amelia and Ollie explain anything about what had happened. He had just brushed them off, “tomorrow. Whatever you have to say… tomorrow…” 

This was the same broken man, who stood in front of Amelia, right now. 

“Amelia?” He asked, his voice having the tiniest element of surprise seeing said troublemaker at his door. 

“I… Fern was worried about Izzy. She’s looking for you” Amelia explained, first to Warden Garcia, then to Izzy. She didn’t know what Zayto and Aiyon had decided. Aiyon wanted to tell everyone about Javi’s demise, as that of a martyr’s sacrificial story, Zayto wanted to do the same, but without mentioning the fact that Javi was a ranger. Because how could people trust the Power Rangers if they couldn’t save themselves. 

Amelia only wondered HOW those aliens could think of things like this, when they had actually lost Javi, forever. Maybe it was their maturity, maybe it was something else entirely. She didn’t want to think about it. 

Ollie crying to his mother, Izzy with her father, were by far, the most genuine reactions to their friend’s death… Amelia herself hadn't had enough time to mourn, finding herself face to face with stranger challenges, and a certain ghost.

“What is wrong with you people!” Izzy burst frustratedly, and walked away, next to Amelia, and almost through Javi, who jumped out of the way, just in time, and yelled after her, “IZZY!!!” But she didn’t turn around, she didn’t hear his voice. She didn’t know he was here. 

Amelia turned to see her, but didn’t follow, instead, texted Fern to take care of her. And was just about to walk away herself, her job here done, when a hoarse voice stopped her in her tracks.

“You were… his friend, weren’t you?” The Park Warden’s voice was so broken, it made her heart wrench, and she turned around, and looked at him, his eyes showing an expression of such intense grief. 

She nodded, “yes sir, we used to be friends” it needn’t be said who they were talking about. Warden Garcia gestured her inside the house, she followed, throwing a glance to Javi, gesturing him to follow as well. 

Mr Garcia led her to the living room, by the fireplace, and she marvelled at the house. The wooden flooring and the fireplace granted it a sort of vintage cabin-esque look, and the staircase in the background, above the bookshelf did much to enhance the feel. He sat on a recliner, while she took the couch, Javi clutching her shoulder, her being able to see his hand, yet unable to feel anything except a chill, where he was. 

“How did you find out, that he was… gone, I mean” Warden Garcia asked. He knew everything, he had guessed from her expressions, perhaps. 

“Sir I—“ 

“Who all know?” He questioned, she shook her head, indicating she didn’t know. 

She wasn’t the leader, goddamnit, she didn’t know how to handle things like this. If she told Warden Garcia the secrets, who knows what would happen. Leaving these kind of things to the sixty-five-million year old aliens who HAD seen deaths before, was better. 

“How did you find out?”

Amelia decided on the safest option. 

Which would probably render her as crazy. 

But Warden Garcia already knew of her obsessions, maybe he would believe. It was better than telling him she was the pink ranger, anyway. 

“I talked to his ghost , sir.”

Chapter Text

Javi didn’t know if he could tolerate another ‘ghosts are real’ ‘No they are not’ discussions. Between Amelia, and Ollie or his dad. He was a ghost, goddamnit, nothing could deny the fact that Amelia had been right all along, now. He didn’t need to hear his dad reject it over and over and over, because nobody ever believed what Amelia said. 

He let Amelia and Warden Garcia chat, and instead, got up, and sneaked up the stairs— not like he needed to be careful of being heard anymore— and up the stairs, down the hall, across from Izzy’s room, towards his own. The doorway was open, the way it had been. 

Javi entered, and found himself surrounded by the same faint, yet strange smell that had plagued him— had it really been only a few hours?— that morning.

Charred flesh and burnt hair. 

Now his consciousness told him that it was he, himself, who burnt, and not any sort of weird dish dad may have been making, as he had assumed in the morning. And an even more morbid realisation that his own dead body was indeed placed at one edge of the bed he had woken up on this morning…

Dear god, he had assumed an awful lot, hadn’t he? Assumed the plumbing was broken, assumed that his dad and sister were sad on something else, and were merely pranking him, by not talking. Assumed that the entire town had been in on the game, assumed that Amelia was upset because she had feelings for Ollie, assumed that Ollie was a bastard and was doing the same thing his dad and sister were.

He had assumed everything to be wrong with everyone else in the world, and him being The One that was normal. How self righteous.

It had never occurred to him that what was wrong, could be him. 

That is until the rain started ignoring him too… as did his own, unreal teardrops… 

Is it easy to accept that you are dead? Hell no, how could it be?! And how the hell do the other ghosts do it? Were there even other ghosts? Or maybe he was the only exception… 

He felt, somewhere, in this entire exercise, that there was something so awfully wrong. Not just with him, but with everyone and everything else. Not in the way he had assumed it to be either, he could see his flaws now, but something buried deep inside, something like those strings inside a grand piano, that resonate inside to make the sound be heard outside… 

The sounds were all there, but the strings and keys could not be seen. There was still a part of the mystery that felt incomplete, hidden away, from him, from everyone who had been experiencing this hellish ordeal. 

Why was he here? And why could she see him? 

Was there any way to bring him back?

Was there any way to send him away?

He couldn’t live like a ghost for eternity, could he? Because that wouldn’t be living at all.

But the biggest question was this, what had gone wrong… why had the morphin grid failed at all? He knew somehow, his being a ghost had something to do with the morphin grid… And Amelia Jones…

Javi Garcia was stuck in the middle, and the only way he could go anywhere at all, whether back to life, or anywhere else, was through her. Amelia. Amelia Jones was the key. 

Javi ran downstairs, on this realisation, and found himself face to face with his dad. Who was clinging to the rails as he climbed up the staircase, heavily, muttering to himself something about silly girls. 

Javi felt his heart racing, he didn’t even know if something like that could still happen to him, but the fact that while he had tried to get himself away from Amelia, she may have gotten away from him. 

He ran towards the door, and outside, but found nothing at all that would resemble Amelia, and returned home aghast.

He had lost her… 

Soft plucking of strings drew him upstairs though, sounding like those of his own guitar. 

He didn’t know what he had expected to find, but whatever it had been, he couldn’t have imagined this. His father sat on his bed, head hung low, inching slightly away from the figure clothed over in white, as his fingers brushed over Javi’s black, acoustic guitar, that one instrument he had fought with his dad to keep, in his own room, and had somehow succeeded. 

“I’m so sorry, my boy…” the Warden said, to no one in particular. 

“Dad?” A ray of hope sparked inside the black ranger, as he wondered if his dad had actually seen him. 

“I… I could never give you love enough for both the parents… I failed miserably. And I know you hate me, because I never let you follow your passion…” he was crying now, “i just wanted what was the best for you, Javier, and now that you’re… gone… I don't know if I’ll ever be able to make things right… I failed, my boy, I failed.” He bent over Javi’s guitar, hugging it, as if it were the last remains of his son, “I wish I could tell you, in some way, just how much I love you” 

Javi felt his heart melt, tears welling up in his own, unreal eyes, and he kneeled in front of his father, his head on the Warden’s thigh, sobbing with him, “I’m sorry too, dad,” he muttered, “i never hated you…” he now knew that his father may never hear his voice, his words again, but he continued anyway, wishing for a miracle, “i just, got angry, at times… I’m still so sorry I ever argued with you dad… but whatever it was, I loved you too. I still do… and if you ever see me again, I promise I’ll never, ever say anything bad to you. I love you dad, I love you” he closed his eyes tightly, and Warden Garcia let out a choked sigh, “that girl, she said that your ghost… was around, I mean I don’t believe in bullshit like that, but there’s nothing else I can do, Javi, she said you came to the house with her. If you’re still here, I just want you to know, I love you, and I’m sorry…” 

It hadn’t even been twenty four hours to his death, and so many things had happened. Javi wasn’t sure if he’d be able to believe it all… 

What if all this was only just a dream? 

Amelia’s voice reminded him, all of a sudden, that it wasn’t. Warden Garcia looked up, as did Javi, to see her standing in the doorway. 

“Did you fi— find him?” he stuttered, obviously referring to Javi, and she nodded, “I thought he’d gone out, but I didn’t find him… he was right here” she pointed to Warden Garcia’s lap, to his feet, and Javi knew it, she could still see him. And that she was the only person who could. 

“You know” Warden Garcia coughed, to clear his voice, “I still don’t believe you”

If you didn’t believe her, dad, why did you cry all alone, in my room? Why do you need to hold such a strong facade? You KNOW, that you can let it go, at times, don’t you? Javi thought to himself, not speaking a word, to either of them, just watching how his father would react. You just cried, you told me that because of your pride, you never told me how much you loved me, you never even knew me, dad, because you faked a mask, I faked a mask… and even now, you’re still holding on to it… why, dad? Why…

Amelia shook her head, “he’s there, sir, whether you believe it or not,” she said, her voice coldly still, and Javi was surprised to hear it. There was no pleading tone in her voice, no desperation. She knew, right now, that everything she believed was actually true, and the boost in confidence, that he noticed taking her over, it made him shudder. He was starting to like this form of her…

Javi watched Amelia extend a hand towards him, as if beckoning him to take it. Javi got up, he didn’t know if his father would feel anything, but he came closer to Amelia, and actually took her hand, watching as a feeling of relief washed her over, following his gait with her gaze, fixating, at his hand in hers, although she couldn’t feel him, she watched him take her hand, and smiled at him. 

Warden Garcia stared at her, as if she had gone insane, her hand clasped around invisible air, surety in her eyes, as she looked at something that he couldn’t see, couldn’t comprehend, and in a moment, he felt the belief… in her words… and he realised he was so distant from his son. Warden Garcia, for the first time, in a long time, felt alone. 

Amelia walked out with what appeared to be, her hand in Javi’s, and warden Garcia just let them go. 

If only he could ever get a second chance, if he could do it all again… he’d try to… 

Oh what he wouldn’t do… if only he had a second chance. 

“Do you feel bad about what your dad said?” Amelia asked, when they were out onto the cold road, Javi shook his head, “he told me he loved me… and that he was sorry for everything he hadn’t said to me…” Javi confided. 

Amelia didn’t reply, just nodded, a small smile around her lips. 

“What happened?” It was an odd moment to be smiling.

“Nothing, I just realised that you don’t value someone till they’re gone from your life…” she said, looking at the skies, that had started to look almost dark, while dusk settled in, making way for the night. Both of them stayed together, her hand still invisibly wrapped around his, neither actually feeling the touch except the warm-cold sensation that was quickly becoming more and more familiar with every passing minute.

That was when they were interrupted, her communicator beeping loudly, and both of them bent down to look at their entwined hands, hers with the morpher, his, without… A feeling of emptiness taking him over. 

Amelia pulled her hand away, to respond, “Hey?” It was Aiyon. 

“It’s Ollie. He’s wounded! He had a fatal attack!” his voice was filled with panic, “We went to his place, to get his opinion, and like, we found no one there.” he ranted, “and then we asked some people here and there, they had taken him to a hospital! He’s wounded, really really bad, and like” Aiyon took a break for a second, to breathe, then continued panicking, “they, he, they say something some sort of energy blast hit him? He’s like, wallowed out,” he was still panting, and freaking out, “I don’t know, maybe it was a sporix? Dr. Akana is in shock she’s not saying anything, just sitting by Ollie!” 

Amelia had turned pale, Javi was stunned, Zayto suddenly added in, from behind Aiyon, “He’s not fatally wounded, Aiyon is being dramatic. But he’s hurt, badly. He’ll be fine, don’t worry, just come soon” 

Amelia nodded, muttering something intelligible, and cut the call. 

Javi stared at her, “You… lied to me?” he seemed hurt, betrayed, and at a complete loss of words. 

But it wasn’t those words that took Amelia by surprise, it was the hurt, and the spite that coated the ones that came next, “ for Ollie?”  

Javi’s hands are glowing again, just like they had when he had punched a hole through Ollie, the same maddened frenzied look taking over his eyes, his emotions spiralling out of control again. 

For the first time in her life, Amelia Jones felt scared of the ghost of her best friend. 

“What else did you lie about, Amelia? Did you lie about not hating me? Did you lie about the literal demon I’ve become?” He asked, he was shaking, and Amelia knew if she would start backing away, at that moment, Javi would probably kill her, without control. He may cry and repent later, but he’d kill her… or at least send her into the hospital like Ollie…

Her mind was reeling, trying to think of ways she could calm Javi down. Javi was silent, he just glared at her. The fear must’ve been very apparent on her face, because even the ghost seemed to spot it, and she saw her own expression mirrored in his form. 

Then he closed his eyes. 

“I’m sorry…” he whispered, and she was relieved to note the energy dissipating, and Javi— his ghost anyway— returning to normal. 

“I shouldn’t have done that… I almost lost control, again” she watched as those strange ghostly tears started streaming down his face again, “I don’t, I don’t even know who I am, Amelia, I’m to blame. I did it to Ollie, he’s… I’m a demon, I’m a murderer, I’m not… okay…” he broke down, head held in his hands, as he crumbled to the floor, in the middle of the street. 

Amelia didn’t know if she should be more relieved or concerned. She gathered herself for a minute, she had to be the sensible one here, and got to her knees, next to him, and told him, “Javi I think I figured it out…” 

He looked up at her, bloodshot eyes, she continued, “you, when you get mad, when you get jealous, of Ollie, when you feel all those emotions, you, you glow, it’s like it’s some sort of dormant Morphin Energy that manifests outside of you, and that’s what hurt Ollie… you’re not your demon, Javi, you’re not someone who would hurt someone on purpose… look, you contained your demons before they hurt me, didn’t you? Why’d you do that? Because you are Javier Garcia,” she soothed him, and he slowly whispered something that almost made Amelia’s world stop.

Just a whisper, with a hint of regret, and guilt, and acceptance. He didn’t mean it as a consolation. He meant it as an apology, a confession, and most of all, an explanation. 

An explanation for everything he had done since he had become a ghost.

Something that had just occurred to him moments ago, but it explained everything he had been feeling, with regards to her. 

“No,” he said, with finality, “It’s because… I love you, Amelia” 

Chapter Text

The knight could still not fathom what had just happened in his life; Javi Garcia had been one of his closest friends, ever so supportive, so easy to get along, always, always so nice, it seemed almost too unfair.

As if he was in the middle of reliving the worst moments of his life, the destruction of the ultrazords, those few minutes before he went into stasis. And the regret that came afterwards…

He’d never actually thought any of this will happen again. His new teammates seemed more than capable enough, seemed like they had the protection of the morphin grid, and the morphin masters…

What had happened.

And then Zayto. Aiyon knew it was all his fault, maybe not directly, but it was. It always had been. And he was still behaving like such a prude, like he didn’t care Javi died at all, and that all he wanted to do was protect his identity as a ranger! WHAT FOR?!

“You don’t want to admit that you’ve failed. That’s all” Aiyon had told him as the two knights walked around the woods in the rain, trying to make sense of the things that were going on, one day, just one day, but so much had happened and neither of them really knew what they could do about it, “You’ve failed, and screwed up, again and again AND AGAIN!” He almost shouted at the man, and Zayto looked at him, his accusations paining him more than anything in the world… even though he knew that the gold ranger was right on every single account.

He’d stormed off after that. Just… walked out on him, Zayto had stood there, in the pouring rain, watching him teleport away, to god knows where. He’d closed his eyes, and realised he wasn’t okay, nothing was, that same feeling that had come with realising that he’d been in a stasis pod for more than sixty five million years.

He was the team leader, and he happened to have no idea where a single member of his team had been. He’d teleported into the base, to talk to Solon, and was surprised to realise that the wise dinosaur had plugged herself to the stasis pod, and was apparently trying to get some rest herself. Personally, Zayto had never seen her do something like this, but she’d told him that she’d done this once in a while, that it was necessary, the same way it was necessary for humans to sleep and cry, to vent or rest their emotions. She’d been too severely hurt by Javi’s demise… well who hadn’t? That boy had made his way into everyone’s hearts! What even was his team without him?

Zayto teleported out of the command base, knowing it to be no help, and not wanting to disturb Solon in her recharging. The red ranger felt like a zombie, walking haplessly through the trails of the woods, and finding his way into the city, the damp staircases and pathways echoing the sounds in his soul, the darkness was almost captivating, and befitting for their situation… death still loomed, and something inside Zayto told him that it wasn’t over yet… their bad days weren’t behind them.

He needed to look for Aiyon. He’d been right. And Zayto had been stubborn. He needed to tell him that he was right, because he stood the chance, at the moment, at this strange crossroad, of losing him forever… and that was something his heart couldn’t allow; Aiyon was the one thing he’d gotten back, after the War, the only thing that, after he thought he’d never have, had returned, and Zayto simply couldn’t bear to lose him again.

He was passing by the cemetery— what a serene, and perfectly fitting place for reflection of the days events— when he’d gotten Fern’s call. She’d been hysterical, it wasn’t like Izzy to miss training, well, it wasn’t like any of them to miss training, or not show up at Buzzblast. Izzy had skipped school, Warden Garcia hadn’t come on patrol, it was so, so unusual, almost as if they’d all decided they didn’t wanna exist in the real world anymore. Fern wasn’t sure if she should just show up unannounced at the Garcia’s house, because that could be considered as rude, or a breach of privacy, but she didn’t know what else she could do, so she’d called Zayto up.

Zayto didn’t tell Fern about the situation, he knew he should go looking for Izzy, the girl who had to bear the worst brunt of it, after all, Javi had been her brother, and there were chances she may have been considering self harm;

“Izzy is a strong girl” he’d told Fern, “I’m sure whatever it is, she’s fine; I’ll tell Amelia to look for her” he didn’t know how else to deal with the situation.

His priority was finding Aiyon though. And he did find him. He was also soaked in the rain, which was almost stopping, at the moment when Zayto spotted him leaning against the concrete wall of a gothic fountain in the middle of the city, weeping.

“Aiyon!” Zayto’s voice was raspy when he said the name, and the other man looked up, to meet his gaze for one second, and all the tears Zayto had been holding back, ones from last night, ones from millions and millions of years ago, all came flooding back, and he was running towards the gold ranger with all he had, not stopping till he was at his feet, “I’m sorry, Aiyon, I’m sorry for everything…”

Aiyon had nodded, gravely, and Zayto had continued, tears in his eyes, as well as in those of his friend’s.

“We lost, Aiyon, you, you were right… I was being obstinate, we needed a memorial for Javi, we need the world to know what a hero he was, just like… just like our Rafkonian knights, you were right, right all along… we should tell them, we should tell them all.”

Of course, Aiyon had also been thinking, and he’d come to the conclusion that maybe Zayto wasn’t all that wrong after all, because revealing Javi was dead to the world also meant revealing to Void knight that he had been victorious… it did bring about… some complications…

But he took the knight’s hand in his own, gazing into his deep eyes; he realised that he loved the fact that Zayto had actually given in to, and agreed with what he’d said, he’d also loved the caring tone in Zayto’s voice, directed at him, as if the walls had finally come down for him….

But at the same time, they needed a third opinion. A team meeting was out of question, Izzy was still nowhere to be found or contacted with, Amelia seemed a mess too… they wondered where Ollie would be, he’d be the best consultant.

Finding Ollie in the emergency room, plugged to a ventilator, with his mother sitting in shock outside the ward, was the last thing they could’ve imagined, making this day all the worse.

XXX

It took all of Amelia’s willpower to not jump onto Javi, and kiss him, and touch him, and simply act on her emotions, and just show him just how much she loved him too. 

Because she couldn’t , right?

Javi was dead. He was a ghost. He couldn’t touch her, he couldn’t feel her. She couldn't either. The pretence of holding hands, hugging each other, it was starting to tire her. 

“I—” she started, but couldn’t continue, tears welling up in her eyes, as she remembered how she had felt last night, when she was almost about to tell him what she felt for him. In a span of mere twenty-four hours, her feelings for him had, as if multiplied. She had seen what he could do, and what he had done, and what he was becoming, and how he was handling it, and none of these things had done anything, anything at all to make her feel anything lesser for her ghost. 

Her ghost…

He was hers now, hmm?

She liked the idea of that…

“You don’t love me, do you?” he asked softly, not burning with jealousy, just simple acceptance, “I mean I know you feel… something, but love, it’s too much, isn’t it?” he looked down, shaking his head, “I know, I know, I fall too hard, too fast, I—”

She interrupted him, “why do you make assumptions so quickly, Javi?” she asked, making him look up, and she told him, surety, softness, compassion, and most important of all, love, in her voice, “you don’t get it, you still don’t get it” she let out a soft laugh, as things came together, “I think I’ve got it, I’ve got it figured…” they were standing eerily close now, the cold air around them wrapping them together, as if in a spell. His eyes searched her face, for some sort of explanation, hope flickering in and out, while she talked in riddles, wishing she’d say something that’d soothe his demons.

“Don’t you know it, already? You could ask me to go watch paint dry with you and I would say yes in a heartbeat, I don't think you realise how much I love spending time with you, with you, everything is…” she looked around, as if searching for words, “peaceful, calm, cozy, relaxing,” he nodded, slowly, agreeing with every word, he felt the same, that was love, wasn’t it? For him? Was it like that for her too?

“It’s you, Javi” she said, wishing she could pull his cheeks in adoration at that moment, seeing his reaction to her words, “You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you… it's you and it's always been you. You don’t need to be jealous of anyone, I love you” 

It was as if he was soaring in the skies, in the seventh of heavens, as happiness and relief flooded his soul, almost intoxicated with joy, he didn’t know what he would do, but on instinct, leapt up at her, touching her cheeks, and placing his intangible lips gently against hers, the warmth that spread through him was enough, for the moment, as he felt her laugh under his touch, tears welling through her eyes towards him as well.

Amelia and Javi could’ve stayed rooted to the spot, wrapped in each other, for all eternity, if her communicator hadn’t buzzed again, Aiyon telling her to hurry up.

En route, Javi asked her, more sure of himself, “So why didn’t you tell me of what I had done to Ollie?”

“You were already crying” she didn’t hesitate to respond, their confession having brought the two of them closer… but not close enough for one secret. But she continued with this anyway, “I didn’t want to make it worse… you don’t know how bad I felt, seeing you hurt like that…”

“I thought you’d hate me for what I did to Ollie”

“I didn’t hate you, Javi, there’s nothing you can ever do to make me hate you… quite the opposite actually”

“But—”

“I didn’t want you to hurt knowing that Ollie was so badly injured…” she said, looking down in shame at having hidden the truth from him, “I knew it’d have hurt you more, that’s it. Ollie would recover, the doctors promised, and I’d handled all of Dr. Akana’s wild anger already, but you, you were vulnerable, I swear Javi, I was only thinking what’d be the best for you. So many things had happened to you in such a short time…”

“You… you took the blame?” he gaped at her, aghast. 

“I’m not sorry I did” she said, “I told her it was an accident. An outburst of my ranger powers, seeing him cry like that. She…” he shook his head, “I don’t think I want to hear any more…”

She nodded in agreement, “It’s okay, let’s go and check up on the others”

…

Being a ghost was a weird thing for Javi Garcia. He couldn’t touch things, feel things, yet somehow, be able to feel everything. Why did he feel cold? Why did he feel warmth? How could he lean against a wall? How could he sit on a bench? How could he walk on the ground? How could he feel his clothes? How could he gather so much energy when he was enraged, that he’d punch a hole through a man, and yet not be able to kiss the woman he loved? Why? 

Why this strange distinction? 

Why?  

Amelia had been silent on the entire walk from the Garcia’s house to the hospital, and Javi’s mind had been buzzing with questions about the strange duality of the situation. 

He knew one thing, no matter what he was feeling, nothing could be impacted by him. He wasn’t leaving any footprints, and while he could feel the falling rain, it fell through him. 

And Amelia. 

She was the biggest mystery of this entire episode. Why was she the exception? 

The only exception, the only person who could see him, and hear him. 

But she couldn’t touch him either. 

Gosh being a ghost was weird. 

Were there other ghosts? Other lost souls like his? Who could maybe offer him a crash course on said topic? This odd thought, out of nowhere, made him giggle, and she stared at him, wondering what was up. 

“Do you… think it’s something to do with my perception of things?” he mumbled out loud, softly, the ground beneath them was still damp, a sole pair of footprints following their track, as they walked together. 

“Your what?” he shook his head, as if unable to answer her question. Then narrated his dilemma. 

“Hmm, maybe you’ve got an explanation right there… I mean, before you yourself considered said option, you couldn’t even realise you were dead” 

He noted how easily she said the word ‘dead’ this time around. Didn’t comment, and didn’t know what to make of it, but it didn’t escape his notice. 

“Maybe it’s how you look at things, your perception, as you said… you tried to turn the shower’s knob, but it didn’t, did YOU feel it turning in your hand?” she questioned, like the perfect paranormal investigator she was, and he thought about it, and finally, the two of them reached the same conclusion. 

It was his perception, that made him feel things. 

Before accepting he was a ghost, he could walk normally, sit normally, hang about normally, he had even tapped Izzy’s shoulder, and while the girl wouldn’t have felt anything, the feeling wouldn’t have been mutual.

Then why could he not feel Amelia’s hand there? Was it because he had made up his mind that since he was an intangible ghost, he couldn’t feel anything either? Agreed, it was a mind bending concept, but maybe it wasn’t as insane as it had first appeared. 

“Okay, imagine you’re not… walking” she said, squinting at him, “Imagine this, you’re floating, like you’ve seen ghosts do in movies”

Javi thought about it, for a looooonnnnnnggggg second, imagining his feet not touching the ground. Eyes closed, he wondered what it would be like, to not feel the earth beneath him. It would feel… light, as if he wasn’t bound by gravity, as if he was a free bird, a soul, spirit… something. 

A gasp brought him back to reality, and he stared at Amelia, who was suddenly seeming shorter, with both her hands clasped around her own mouth in shock. 

He looked down, and realised, with a jolt, that he was actually a few inches above the ground… he was actually floating. 

If Javi had had even the slightest doubt that he was no longer a human, no longer alive, this mystical feat almost made him break down in said realisation. But then he knew one thing, because when she reached up for him, and he held her hand, he could feel her touch on his fingers, he was bound to her, for all eternity. 

“Stranger things have happened” he found himself repeating slowly. 

What all else could he do?! 

“You go…” he suddenly stopped in his tracks, “I don’t think I want to see Ollie. I don’t think I want to know what exactly what happened just yet. You were right. Go on, you know where to find me… I’ll be at the Dino Henge. I…” she started to protest, but he silenced her with another ghostish kiss, this tume, with her closing her eyes, as if feeling his lips on hers. 

Then he quietly told her, “go on, I’ll find you… take care of them” he smiled at her, and she swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded, turning away from him, and walking away. 

Javi looked around himself, he knew he’d find Amelia soon enough. But he had more important things to do right now. 

Chapter Text

Had he actually been there, or was it all actually in her head? 

Two days. Two actual days, with no contact from the spirit world left Amelia Jones with a strange, unfamiliar ache in her heart. Where had he disappeared to? She’d looked all over Pine Ridge for him, for a sight of him; she’d tuned in to radio stations and questioned every single Buzzblast reporter about any, any sort of paranormal sightings in the city…. But nothing. Nothing at all. 

It was as if he’d been there, with her, for that one day, he’d kissed her, he’d bid her goodbye… almost as if he was fulfilling his last wish… and then, like all stories, he was gone. 

Just like that. 

He didn’t even say goodbye. 

As this prospect began to sink into Amelia’s conscience, she realised just how much she missed him. 

She couldn’t close her eyes without finding his eyes staring at her with a blank expression, as if she’d never meant nothing to him, ever, at all. She couldn’t sleep at night, when nightmares about Javi Garcia burning in her arms woke her up,  made her scream. She’d cuddle next to pop pop for the nights, him comforting her without questioning what the nightmares had been about. 

It reminded her of when she had been six years old… when her parents had disappeared. She’d been the only one in that tragedy, apparently, left alive. Huge stones, balls of fire, pummelling down towards the park, things that didn’t make any sense, explosions, even in the open; dead bodies strewn all around her, a little girl, the only survivor, weeping amongst the corpses, with her pink frock burnt off in places, her face covered in soot and her tiny little hands charred. And of course, they’d looked for the tiny child’s parents… Out of the two hundred and sixty eight people who were supposed to have died, only two hundred and sixty six bodies were ever counted. Amongst all those corpses, Mr and Mrs Jones had not been there. 

The little girl had been handed over to her grandfather… and she couldn’t sleep for days and days out of trauma. Weeping into the then fifty year old man’s chest, all nights, as she was haunted by memories over memories of what she has witnessed. 

As she grew older, she realised there were so many thIngs in her memory that went wrong… anomalies… things that didn’t make sense at all. 

And that’s how it had all started. She’d wanted to fill in those blanks in her own memory, as she found herself getting comfortable with the now permanent residents of her brain. Those too were slowly pushed further back into the deepest reaches of her mind, buried there unless triggered. 

The lies, of course had started as an eight year old telling her grandpa she was okay. Then it came to her obsession. Everyone knew she was obsessed; she had been since she was a kid, but she’d slowly realised that it was only a matter of time before people started getting concerned about her mental health, so she started lying. Lying about having friends whose places she crashed at, at nights when she was actually stalking cemeteries and mausoleums. Her obsession had taken such an insane form, that Amelia Jones tried and made sure no one would ever discover the sheer depths of it. 

There were occasional moments when she felt bad about what she’d done; and those moments were when she she whispered to herself “ Mirror mirror on the wall, why did I lie to them all?” And it would usually be followed by an explanation, a justification, more to herself than to anyone else, as to why she did lie to everyone. 

In this case, it was the line that she hadn’t done anything wrong. She shouldn’t have lied, it had just been a compulsive habit… right? It was nothing… big… right? 

Javi was gone, his soul probably resting at this point. They’d organised a memorial service for him, with the plans to reveal the fact that he was a Power Ranger, fallen in battle, commemorate him as a hero. The funeral was supposed to be after that. The rangers planned to remain suited up at the memorial service and then join in as civilians later. 

But it raised a few complications. Izzy couldn’t leave her father’s side, and Ollie was still in the hospital. It meant that only her, Zayto and Aiyon were going to be there as “rangers”, and they needed an explanation for the absence of the other two…

Which reminded her, Izzy was behaving strangely. She would ignore her presence, not talk to her, as if she was mad at Amelia, and she hadn’t gone to visit Ollie in the hospital once. And the fact that Dr. Akana felt Amelia was responsible for what had happened to Ollie, but couldn’t do anything about it for the lack of evidence, somehow seemed to push Amelia into a spiral down the guilt lane, as if everything was going wrong… and as if it was all her fault. She couldn’t explain what had happened to Ollie without bringing out the fact that Javi’s ghost had been here; and now, she wasn’t even sure she had been dreaming him up either. His ghostly kiss still stayed like broken glass on her skin, the memory lingering like the piano keys he used to play for her…

Was he real? Had he ever been real? Zayto had held Ollie’s hand, unconscious as the blue ranger had been, to seek his memories, find out what had happened, and turned up empty, because Ollie himself didn’t know what had happened to him. That night at the hospital, when she had met Aiyon and Zayto, the two boys were almost broken. First Javi, then Ollie, Amelia being distant, because her own mind was occupied with the thoughts of her ghost, Izzy being a no-show as it was. They had each other for support though, and they’d had moments together, comforting each other, trying to hold on, telling each other it was gonna be okay, the way they had much deserved to, back when their first team had; the same opportunity for mending relationships and fostering closeness, that had ripped itself away sixty five million years ago, presenting itself to them, when history repeated itself.

Amelia found herself so, so alone, all of a sudden, as if Javi’s disappearance had created a black hole in her life. Pop pop tried to be there, but he old, and he didn’t know her secret, he couldn’t comfort her; he was there to pat her back and hug her when she needed to cry, but something was missing…

And maybe that’s why she found herself pacing the corridor outside Ollie Akana’s hospital ward, contemplating whether she wanted to go in or not. The nurse had told her that he was slowly regaining consciousness, would move his body with little help, at times, getting better day by day; something that seemed like a miracle, since the doctors hadn’t been able to figure out what had been wrong with him, and it seemed like his condition had been getting better by itself. Astounding, she’d heard someone say.  

When she finally managed to muster enough courage to open the door of the ward, and walk in, she felt the wind knocked out of her stomach, seeing that kneeling beside Ollie, a hand, and some glowing energy being released from it, onto the blue ranger, sat the black ranger… the dead black ranger. 

“Javi?” She mouthed, and maybe he heard her, because he turned around with a jolt, and she watched his pupils— which had started to lose colour, as had his skin and hair, and clothes— dilate, as they gazed upon her form. He looked so miserable, weak, worn out and worst of all… faded. 

He looked like a ghost. 

His gaze lay fixed on her blankly, maybe trying to place who she was in his mind, Amelia felt a sting realising this. She was there, in front of him, breathing, the same as she had been, alive, real, well. And where was he? What was he? What had he become? Faded, coming apart at the edges, imaginary, a memory, maybe a waking dream wish fulfilment… 

“Amelia” he finally spoke, his voice even more musical than she could remember, and she felt the same warmth spreading over her again, reminiscing that touch of a kiss he’d given her before he disappeared. 

“What are you doing to Ollie?” The ideas in her weren’t half as forgiving, the words were out before she could stop them. She waited for him to react, rave. And then hurt her the way he had stopped himself from doing that day. 

“Bringing him back to life” Javi said, quietly, and gestured her to sit next to him. He didn’t sound hurt, the harsh way she’d spoken to him; he just sounded like an echo of what he used to be, like be didn’t even care anymore. And that pierced her heart like an icicle. 

“You’re…” be came closer to him, and instead of sitting on the chair where he had gestured, she kneeled beside him, on the same level, bringing her face closer to him, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. 

“Do you know how much I worried about you? Do you know how scared I was when you disappeared?” She said, in a flurry of emotions, trying to contain most of them, but even then, and he just looked down, towards his feet. 

“I’m sorry, Amelia… I shouldn’t have kissed you that day, I shouldn’t have tried to come closer to you… I can give you nothing but sorrow. I’m dead, and I know it very well now,” 

“What are you even talking about!? That has nothing to do with what I’m saying” she was frustrated, and angry. Why was he talking like that?? As if he was going to give up?!

“I had time, I thought about things. I thought and I realised, Amelia… I did you wrong. I’m still hung up on you, I still love you, and that’s on me. I had no right to drag you into it; I shouldn’t have kissed you…” 

“Do you really think your KISS is what keeps me up at nights, Javi?” 

He stared at her, looking like he was about to break down into tears any second now. 

“Javi I loved you when you were alive… and I want to hold on to you. Right now, you don’t know just how happy I am to see you… I love you, Javi, I really do! It’s got nothing to do with you not being alive, I’d love you whether you’re possessed by an evil demon or whether you’re alive and an Angel. Because I love YOU, Javier Garcia… not what you are. That’s all part of you and I honestly don’t think I’ll care much about any of it… just stay with me…” she was also in tears by the end of it, and he sighed, dejectedly. 

“I’m sorry, Amelia… I’ve made my decision. I can’t stay this way; like a ghost. I need to go… and maybe I will. I’ve been exploring, I’ve been trying to figure things out. I realise that I can manifest myself in bursts of energy, when my feelings and emotions are directed… I don’t know how or why, but energy, that somewhat looks like my ranger energy… just comes through. It hurt Ollie, but when I tried, it brought a wilting flower back to life… I realised I could heal things. I can fix Ollie. That’s what I’m doing” 

“And what’s that doing to you?!” She exclaimed, maybe a little too loudly, and he returned to the same blank stare. 

“You’re fading away Javi, everything that was… alive in you… even after you died… it’s fading…”

“I don’t think you’re making any sense to yourself either, Amelia. Please, forget me, and forget that I ever loved you… you’ll be happier that way. And the world is big enough already without me; it won't make much of a difference” He told her, quietly, placing a hand on hers, and continued, “I’ve not seen a single ghost apart from myself; unusual? I know, but that means that after people die, maybe after a funeral? They go somewhere; they leave our mortal realm… it’s the only place I can go to, because I can’t be brought back to life. I’m here with you till my body is. When that’ll be six feet under, Amelia, I’ll go. And I’d like you to remember me as a friend. Not like some lost lover—“ 

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” She almost lost control, shaking her head, “I don’t want to lose you, Javi! I can’t! I lost you once, then I found you, and then lost you again! I cant lose you a third time, Javi I can’t” she broke down in tears. 

“I’m not the same person I used to be, Amelia. We both know we can never go back to where we were. All I can ask you to do, is to sing me to sleep” he told her, quietly. 

A sudden noise like a man coughing made both of their heads turn to the doorway, but discerning there was no one there, they realised it had come from the man on the stretcher. 

“Ollie?” Amelia and Javi stared at each other, a smile spreading over their faces, “I told you it’d work!“ he said, excitedly, and both of them got up from their place on the bed, to see Ollie stirring in his sleep, coughing a couple of times, but with an overall expression of peace on his face. 

“How many times have you done this?” 

“This is the eighth time since I left you.” He said, smiling softly at her, “don’t take it otherwise… I’m trying to wash away my guilt. And giving you a chance with him” he winked. 

“You’re impossible Garcia” Amelia said, shaking her head, “and kinda sensible once you get time to think things over” 

“Yeah, I realised that too… I shouldn’t be so clingy and possessive and all of that. I mean Ollie was mourning me when I punched a hole through him” he joked, and honestly it was kind of nice hearing him like that, almost back to normal. Still faded, still not alive, but somewhat back to what he used to be. 

“YOU” a voice so cold, and so deeply filled with bitter hatred made both of their faces turn back to the doorway, and Javi and Amelia found themselves face to face with the Dino Fury Green Ranger, Izzy Garcia, seething with anger. 

Her girlfriend Fern was trying to peek over what was going on inside the ward that had made Izzy’s temper rise to the heights of Mt Everest in five seconds. Amelia realised Izzy was here to see Ollie— took her long enough— and since she couldn’t see Javi the way Amelia could, that meant the anger was directed at the pink ranger…

“Please wait for me outside, Fern. And if you hear any screaming that’s not coming from me, ignore it” Izzy told her girlfriend cruelly, and as Fern went out, looking shaken up, the younger Garcia locked the door and faced Amelia again. 

“What were you trying to do?” Izzy asked, in a disgusted tone, as if she’d just discovered a monster in the ranger base. Her eyes flicked over at Ollie on the stretcher, and then back to Amelia, who was still standing close to him. 

“My brother’s ashes aren’t even cold yet, and here you are, taking another” 

“What?” 

“Where’s Ollie’s morpher?“ she asked, and Amelia’s eyes returned to the boy’s wrist. Nothing was there but the sedative drips. 

“I— I don’t know” Amelia said, Izzy was starting to scare her now. 

“Let me rephrase, why did you take Ollie’s morpher? So that you could kill him just like you killed my brother?” 

“I what?” Amelia looked stunned, and she noticed Javi mirroring her expression as it was, apparently as shocked at Izzy’s allegation as she was. 

“Where’s Javi’s morpher, Amelia Jones? Either you know, or the half dead man knows. And I have a feeling that’s got something to do with all the crazy shit that’s been going on.” She spoke through gritted teeth, and Javi saw an expression of almost… fear… take over Amelia’s face. 

“I— I don’t have it” she stuttered, “look, Izzy you’re traumatised, you don’t know what you’re saying. We’re okay, you really are, the doctors probably removed Ollie’s morpher thinking it was a watch or something…” she hurriedly explained, “and I have no idea what happened to Javi’s…” 

“Come on. Even I can tell you’re lying. Why don’t you tell me the truth? What was it, exactly, that you did to my brother?”

Chapter Text

“I’m not lying!” Amelia Jones lied, hoping to convince the almost feral looking green ranger of her stance, “I didn’t do anything to Javi!” 

“But you did take his morpher?” 

“NO I DID NOT” Amelia knew screaming in the presence of a patient was not a healthy thing to do, but she couldn’t help it; Izzy seemed like she was possessed by a demon or something. Not in her right mind, completely insane. 

“I know that his morpher had been there when we’d taken him into the base; I remember HIM—” she pointed to the unconscious Ollie, “—taking me out of the room, and I know that the morpher had been at my brother’s wrist at the time. When I came back… it was gone… and so was he.” 

“Izzy, please, please calm down, you’re grieving, you don’t know what you’re talking about… please, Izzy, relax…” Amelia tried to calm her, and Javi silently watched the exchange between the two women he loved more than anything in life, noticing the fear creep up on the Pink Ranger’s face, as she slowly inched away from the Green Ranger. 

“If you don’t have the morpher… who has it?” Izzy asked, sounding suddenly calmer, but her eyes still glowed in amber like smoking embers. 

“I don’t know… maybe Solon does!!?” 

“Solon doesn’t. I asked her already. Actually, she’s the one who told me she couldn't find it when she covered him with the shroud…” 

“What if she’s trying to deflect suspicion?” Amelia asked, sounding terribly wrong to herself too. 

“Do you even hear yourself, Jones? Or is there some sort of buzzing in your ears that doesn’t let you hear the words coming out of your own mouth?” Izzy said, through gritted teeth, “Solon, that adorable, sweet, sixty five million year old cyborg dinosaur. You’re accusing her of stealing Javi’s morpher?” 

“What’s the point of the morpher anyway?!” Amelia asked, frustrated, “the morpher, or the key, maybe it was destroyed in the attack; maybe that’s what happened, and caused his powers to fail and him to… die…” she explained, what she thought to be her own version of events. 

“The point of the morpher is that my brother’s soul is bonded to that stegosaurus from that key, and that morpher!”

“SO?” Amelia was suddenly struck by an idea, “ oh wait… If Javi is still bonded to that Stegosaurus, that would mean that he’s still here; his ghost, maybe?” that was probably one explanation of all the events that were going on, but that wasn’t what Amelia’s observation was, “ Solon told you to get the morpher and key back from me, didn’t she? She wants to break the link between Javi and the morphin grid, so he can be released… right? Or does she want to do that so the Black Dino Fury key is free to be bonded to a new ranger?”

Izzy’s eyes widened, as she considered the implications of what Amelia had just said, it was true, that Solon had told her that the key was not with Javi. She’d said it was important to bring it back, and that it was probably the loss of the morpher and key that had caused Javi to die. And that he could’ve been saved if enough morphin energy, in the right way could be flowed through him. Had Solon really been poisoning her mind into getting the keys for the reason Amelia said it to be? That seemed so far fetched, knowing Solon, and yet, at the same time, not far fetched at all. 

“So you actually don’t have the morpher and key?” Izzy asked, while Amelia and Javi both saw the aura of rage descend from her mind, and her looking even more miserable than before; she almost seemed to lose energy all of a sudden. 

“How’s Ollie?” Izzy asked, coming closer, and finally, Amelia didn’t seem too keen to inch away from her anymore. Amelia’s eyes flicked over from the blue ranger to the green, and then to the black ranger only her eyes could see, and she sat down on the bed beside Ollie, placing a hand over his forehead. 

“He’s better… much better…” Amelia said, quietly, looking over Izzy’s shoulder, at Javi, who was leaning against a wall, eyes full of gratitude, at the deed he’d done, and Javi stared back with a smile, not speaking, just staring at his sister and friends interacting longingly… 

He’d been eight years old, in the third grade, when he’d realised that; his model of the solar system had been flawless, he’d worked on it for weeks, and taking it to school in the bus was slightly difficult, and dad had even offered to take it with him in the jeep. And then in school a big bully, some older kid, had pushed him over, called him out for being a nerd, and plucked out the Earth from his solar system, ruining his project, and telling him that the world was big enough without it. 

He was right. Javi was gone, and they were all recovering from it. They were all going to be okay, they were all going to move on, sooner or later, because their breaths hadn’t stopped, they were still living. He was the only one who was dead, he was the one whose time had stopped; he was the one who was going to have to go… 

His own tragedy made him laugh, as he realised he’d been afraid of becoming something he hadn’t been, when soon enough he’d cease to exist at all. Where was he going to go then? Death wasn’t half as scary now, as the prospect of… leaving… would he fade into the smoke of his cremation, or be buried in the sands on his grave when they hold his funeral? Where would his consciousness find itself? Ripped away from being conscious, or would he actually be there, trapped in a small wooden coffin, resting, while the grass grows over him, and the world moves forward. But he wasn’t afraid. There was no one who he had to hold on to… well maybe Amelia, but his body had already said goodbye to everyone else. 

What would happen now? 

What could happen now?

XXX

“Solon can’t do something like that” Aiyon shook his head, and Zayto placed a hand on his shoulder, “who do you think severed the links from our fallen comrades, Aiyon? All those years ago?”

“But still!” Aiyon closed his eyes, “it’s so… mean.”

“Aiyon, but look at it this way, Void Knight is still out there, so are all those sporix, and Lord Zedd, all those people who would try to harm Earth…  There need to be defenders. We need a new black Ranger!” Their voices were hushed whispers, passing between the pink, red and gold rangers, standing in a corner outside Ollie’s hospital ward, with Izzy sitting on the sitting space outside the ward, weeping into Fern’s shoulder in a corner, while her girlfriend tried her best to console her. The younger Garcia seemed so… broken. Devoid of all energy, all passion, and completely distraught. As if all that anger, which had erupted on Amelia had given way to helpless depression once again. 

Five stages of grief, one of the doctors had called it, and the rangers couldn’t help but agree… the first night, when she’d cried and screamed for him to come back, that was her denial, which was followed by anger; anger at Javi, at the sporix, at the rangers, at Amelia, and all she’d done in the past two days had been fostering that anger. Then, when it all burst out on Amelia, and she handled it with care, and made her realise it was pointless, came the depression… and they were all there for it. 

“I don’t think Solon lied to Izzy” Aiyon said, with finality, “Zayto, you and I have known solon for so long. Do you really think she can… manipulate Izzy?”

Zayto held Aiyon’s hand, and information passed between the two, information that went from one knight’s neurons to the other’s, bypassing the speech, and the possibility of being heard over, even by Amelia. 

~I don’t think Solon was lying either, Aiyon. 

—but if you don’t then why don’t you tell Amelia? Why let her accuse her?

~Because I don’t think Amelia knows Solon all that well… you see, we do. We know that Solon probably told Izzy what she thought was right. She assumed Amelia took the morpher, so she told Izzy; and that too probably because Izzy was the only one she could reach before she went into charging. 

—I get that… but then why would she tell Izzy that she could've saved Javi if his morpher had been there?

~Maybe Solon thought, that with the help of his morpher, she could put him in a stasis pod to heal?

—I guess… should we tell this to Amelia?

~I think we should focus on handling the memorial and funeral, for now… we’ll deal with the missing Dino Keys later…

—What about Ollie’s key and morpher? 

~It wasn’t there when we first went to see him. 

—So do you think Dr Akana took it away? 

~I honestly have no idea…

—let’s just… Like you said, let’s focus on the memorial and funeral… we’ll deal with the missing powers after that. It’s tomorrow, right?

~yeah. 

“Earth to Zayto? Aiyon?” Amelia had been watching the two boys holding hands for almost five minutes, without words, just watching the expressions in their eyes changing, and the two jolted back to reality, and faced Amelia. 

“It’s okay, we believe you… Maybe Solon has been up to something. It can’t be something bad, of course… but I think we should focus on Javi’s funeral for now”

Amelia nodded, “you’re right. Yeah, you’re right.”

Amelia then caught sight of Javi Garcia, sitting beside Izzy, head on her shoulder while he too silently wept with her, humming the tune of a song he’d once written for his sister’s birthday, promising to stay with her forever, which was what she was doing too, because she didn’t want to think about the fact that her brother actually had left her…

Amelia knew she had to get going now, but she couldn’t call Javi and ask him to come with her, so she just loudly announced that she needed to go, to arrange the memorial service; everyone at Buzzblast had been informed of the casualty, and they had all—being the nice people they were— offered to help with the service, Jane even suggested they hold the memorial at Buzzblast. Zayto and Aiyon had accompanied Warden Garcia, when they’d revealed about Javi’s death. Warden and Jane had been let in on the little secret of Javi being a ranger, which they soon enough aimed to make public. Jane, without knowing Amelia was the Pink Ranger, and so close to Javi to have kissed his ghost, had made ner in charge of the memoriaL duties. 

Warden Garcia, meanwhile had taken one look at Amelia, and remembering the conversation he’d had with her at his horse, pulled her to the side to ask if she had met Javi again, and if, in some way, he could communicate with her again, to which she’d said the ghost had disappeared for a couple of days. The man had looked skeptical, at first, but then apparently remembered the curious scene in Javi’s room, and decided to believe her anyway… and then he’d asked her if she was also a ranger. She’d told him the truth. About everything. And Warden Garcia had asked for her help to set up the funeral because Izzy was not in the right state to help. “If Javi trusts you enough to come and see you after he died… I do too. You’re like a daughter to me now” the warden had told her. It melted her heart to see the stiff and by-the-rules man’s softer side. 

And so, Amelia had found herself as the frontman of all the activities concerning Javi’s memorial AND his funeral. And that’s where she was headed. 

Reaching around town square, Amelia dipped a hand in her jeans’ left pocket, feeling for her cellphone, and finding it there, reached around to the right one, hands scrambling to discern the shape of the half charred object in there, and make sure it still lay there; the last memento she had of her best friend, of the boy she loved. 

It was there all right, small, still covered in soot, that she wiped on her black jeans’, a little something she’d taken out of a sheer surge of emotions, and couldn’t find the heart to return, because deep down, even she knew that’s what was holding him to her…

Chapter Text

Amelia Jones had always had a morbid fascination with death; death, funerals, ghosts, the paranormal… anything that normal people refrained from talking about. She always said she wasn’t normal. And she didn’t want to be either. 

But standing here, making arrangements for a plot on the cemetery to be named under “Javier Garcia”, whose death certificate they’d just gotten issued, an epitaph stone already in the works, casket, funeral flowers, everything else already picked and ready to provide him his final send-off… 

Warden Garcia was oddly quiet, as if he had a special respect for Amelia. He kept shooting her glances, and asking for her opinion, softly, calmly, and in a way that felt so… un-warden-Garcia-like. As if he’d actually accepted her into his family, as if he wanted to take care of her like he did with Izzy… as if she was some way Javi had come back to him. 

He kept telling her that if she saw Javi’s ghost, she better tell him, because he wanted to apologise. Amelia wondered, at times like that, how it took his son’s death, to make his father see the way. How long could it have gone if Javi hadn’t died? How different would Warden Garcia would have been? Or rather, how much the same. Death changed people. And for Amelia, the understanding that she herself had changed, brought with it some stranger realisations. 

Amelia had always been comfortable with cemeteries. She’d been here four out the seven days a week anyway. And the excursions were usually enjoyable. She didn’t know why, but tonight, dressed in a black raincoat, drenched from top to bottom, with Warden Garcia in a similar one beside her, both of their heads covered by hoods, as they stared at the place marked for Javi’s burial, she felt a sudden repulsion; a repulsion from herself, from everything she’d ever stood for. For the first time she realised just how morbid those things had always been. There were bones of people buried under her feet. Bones, made of calcium and magnesium and minerals, just like her own. Bones that had once belonged to an entire body, a body that had once belonged to a soul. 

They had all been people. Alive. Just like she was… just like the boy she loved had been. There would’ve been people who grieved the loss of their loved ones, until they joined them in the earth. One day, she’d join Javi there too. So would Warden Garcia, so would Pop Pop, Izzy, Ollie, Zayto, Aiyon… 

I didn’t take his life. I’m just holding on to it… she closed her eyes when she felt the thought rush into her mind, feeling numb when Izzy’s accusations came back to her; the memorial was tomorrow. She hadn’t seen Javi since she’d left him at the hospital, surrounded by his stolen friends. Ollie had been wrong, of course. She had that peace. She knew ghosts existed, and she didn’t feel the need to prove it to herself, or to Ollie, or anyone. But along with it came the same realisation that her obsession had been morbid since the beginning, and even while Ollie had been wrong, he’d been kinda right too. 

Amelia was starting to hate what she had become… and maybe it was high time for her to start putting her energy into something more… productive. 

She saw Javi ghosting around her when she was headed home. She’d initially thought she was ring followed, but turning around and catching a figure ducking out of the street light’s lamp, and his shadow not following, she realised it was actually her ghost. 

“How long have you been following me?” 

“I was at home. With Izzy and Fern. Fern was trying to comfort her. Then dad dropped by, and i saw you dropping him off… thought I’d tag along” he said, softly, hands in pockets as he ventured closer to her, “i was kinda hoping you’d notice me” he smiled at her, and for a minute, Amelia felt like things were back to normal, like this entire ordeal hadn’t happened at all, as if he had never died, as if he was still her best friend, as if he was still there for her if she wanted to drive to some haunted castle for ghost hunting… as if she hadn’t just come back from planning his funeral. 

They didn’t talk much on the way to her place, just walking silently, side by side, occasionally staring at each other, stealing wishful glances, hoping for some miracle, some way, they could go back to where they had started out. 

“Don’t talk a lot okay?” She told him, as they sneaked in through the back gate, so they don’t scare pop pop, or wake him up if he were already asleep. 

He wasn’t. He was waiting for her, and when he saw her, he smiled, tiredly, and got up and came to her, “did you eat anything, baby girl?” He asked her softly, and Amelia shook her head, “I’ll make you something.” 

Amelia gestured Javi, as discreetly as she could, to go into her room, and Javi started to protest, but she wouldn’t hear of it, until suddenly they head pop pop call out, “and your little paranormal friend, would they like something to eat too?” He asked, then added satirically, “something that’s not like our brains” 

Javi and Amelia stared at each other. How did pop pop know? 

Maybe he had guessed her question, because he came in with a tray of sandwiches and soup, and placed it on the table, “I told you not to wait up” Amelia said with a pout, and Pop Pop gave her a small kiss on her forehead, “I should know you’re okay, if I want to sleep” he smiled, and then casually added, “how’s your friend doing” 

“How do you know he’s there?” 

“Well” he shrugged, Javi watched, wondering if pop pop could see him too, “i know you, baby girl, and you don’t bring boys home. You’re sneaking in the back door and then telling someone who i can’t see to sneak up to your room, just tells me you found yourself a ghost and brought him home. Oh and the temperature dipped by, like fifteen degrees.” 

Amelia chuckled, blushing redder than Javi was at the same moment, and she said, “it’s Javi. You’ve met him… we’re holding his memorial tomorrow, remember?” 

“Aaahhh. Got it” he patted Amelia on her shoulder, and looked in the direction where Amelia had been looking at Javi, and nodded, “don’t try and hurt my granddaughter and you can stay here” then he laughed good naturedly, and took his leave. Javi and Amelia stood rooted to the spot, wondering what to make of the odd interaction with pop pop. 

“He gets you” Javi smiled, coming closer to her, looking like an envious five year old whose best friend had that sixty-four crayon pack that his dad wouldn’t buy him, “you don’t need to tell him things… he knows” 

“We’ve always been like that. I know I’ve hidden a lot of things from him, but somewhere deep inside, I think he knows all of it” she couldn’t lift her eyes to meet his gaze. 

She held his hand in that oh so strange way, where he could now feel her touch and she could feel his cool, and she led him up to h e r bedroom. Once inside, she locked and latched the door, locking them in, securing privacy, while Javi went and stood against the wall, the way he always did. 

“We need to talk” she said, with finality in her voice. There was not way he could evade her right now. 

“About?” 

“About what the fuck you’ve been doing to yourself while trying to save the life of that asshole Ollie” The usage of the very strong words by the pink ranger caught Javi off guard, he stared at her with his mouth open, for a moment, then realised she was seething with anger. 

“Ollie is our friend. He may be the biggest jerk in the universe, but he doesn’t deserve to die. I know that because I don’t want him to go through what I’ve gone through. And the fact that he’s in this pathetic situation is all my fault doesn’t help either. I want to make things right.” 

“That doesn’t mean you drain your own life force! The doctors will fix Ollie sooner or later!” 

“ Life Force?! Amelia, do you even hear yourself?” His voice was filled with scorn like she’d never heard before, “I’m dead. Amelia, even I’ve accepted it! I’m dead I’m fucking dead. I’ll probably vanish into nothing the moment my body is buried! I shouldn’t be here in the first place! There are no other ghosts here! I’m the anomaly! I’m not supposed to be here! What makes you so sure that I’m not a figment of your own imagination because you can’t let your love for me go?! ” 

“Shut up, Javi! If you were a figment of my imagination Ollie wouldn’t have been in the hospital” she replied, angrily, she’d come closer to him, not afraid of him, but not completely unafraid either. 

“But I’m still dead, aren’t I? And I’ll be gone tomorrow. I told you, you should start forgetting about me now” his voice was the same ghostish whisper it had been in the hospital. 

“Ive told you already, Garcia. I love you, and I can’t forget you. I won’t forget you. Now if you say shit like that one more time…” 

“Empty threat, Jones. What are you gonna do?” He smirked, as if having scored a victory, “I’m already in the worst place possible.” 

“You’re Right” she quietly said, and went and sat on her bed, “it’s true. I— I’ve been thinking too… about lots of things. I can't hurt you even if I want to. And I’ll never want to hurt you. We’re together, but there’s no way we can be together. Oh Javi!” She cried out in frustration, tears having started to well up in her eyes, “I want to, I want to have you back with me so bad. You don’t even know. I… I miss you. I want you to stay with me, hold me. Play for me… do all the things we used to do. I want to laugh with you, I want to kiss you, I want to be yours…” 

“But does it really matter?” He also softened, all the anger flushed out, now, and a depression settling in at the sorry situation they were in, “I’m the paranormal… I’m… invisible…”

“You’re not invisible… Javi… you’re all that I can see” she said, looking straight into his faded black-grey eyes, “I can still look into your eyes and see into your soul. You may not have a body… but you’re alive… all I’m asking is for you to. To give up this ridiculous thought that you’re gonna leave everyone and that I should forget you. I hate you for even thinking that I can forget you. After everything that happened…” 

“I’m sorry… I just want you to be happy” he quietly said. 

“Would you stay with me tonight?” She asked, suddenly, with no rhyme or reason, taking him by surprise, and he stared at her, confused, “what?” 

“Where have you been spending your nights?” 

“Roaming the city. Seeing how everyone is doing. Sitting on park benches and steering clear of the DinoHenge. Thinking.” 

“So would it hurt if you spend tonight with me?” 

“I…” 

“I don’t want us to do things, if that’s what you’re thinking. I just want you to hold me through the night. It’s your funeral tomorrow and… I don’t think I can make it through the night alone…”

“I don’t think I can provide you any comfort, Amelia…”

“I don’t want anything like that. I just want you to stay here. By my side… as if you were mine” 

“ I am yours.” 

That one line just made her heart melt. All the anger she had felt for him dissipated. Minutes later, the two of them lay in bed together, under the covers that did not touch Javi’s body, but provided her with warmth, when Javi’s intangible touch brought her cool. She could feel him kissing her neck from behind, as he cuddled her, and held her in his arms, even if only in soft sensations that manifested as temperature variations. 

For the first time in many nights, Amelia Jones slept. 

XXX

Her morning wasn’t half as peaceful though, because her eyes opened to the roaring thunder outside her window, as the rain mercilessly poured again, illuminated only by the occasional lightning strikes, that lit up the room with a ghostish white glow. It was one such strike that blinded her in her sleep, and made her jolt out of bed, and sit up straight, staring at the figure seated in the dark, hunched menacingly like a monster, and mayhaps looking out of the window, as if a bird trapped in a cage. 

“Javi?” She called out weakly, somehow feeling tired and drained; the boy’s back was turned to her, she couldn’t see his expression as he responded. 

“Why’d you do it?” He asked, quietly. 

His words, and the way he uttered them, made Amelia’s heart race, all of a sudden, she felt afraid, she felt guilty. 

Because she knew that he’d found her out. 

“I wanted to hold on to you” 

“So you kept my Dino key? So you kept me… trapped…” 

“How did you find it?” 

“You kept it in your jacket’s pocket. It fell out. Simple as that” he said, emotionlessly. 

“I didn’t keep you trapped on purpose, Javi, I wanted to…” Amelia didn’t know how to explain her stance, “if I tell you, will you listen?” 

“I don’t think I have a choice, really… I don’t think you’ve left me with one” he said, dejectedly, and his tone hit Amelia with all the guilt she had been burying inside her, since she had found out about the reason Javi had still been there. She had it all figured out, already… and with the knowledge came the guilt. 

“Alright. Listen. Javi, when you— when you died” the words came out slowly, heavily, “we didn’t know what was happening. The world was spiralling into insanity. Aiyon did away with the sporix, Zayto was crying, Izzy was raving, madly. It was up to me and Ollie, we were the only ones who were still able to stand. Ollie tried to comfort Izzy, Solon too, te left me with your body. They just. I was there, Javi, all night. I stayed in the same room as your corpse. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t do anything, I don’t even know if what I did was justifiable, I just...” She paused to take a breath, sobbing silently, as Javi listened to her words, still not turning around to face her, looking out at the dystopian horizon, on the dawn of the day of his own funeral. 

“Your Dino key started to glow. It was signalling something, it was disintegrating your body. It was stuck with the morpher; And I just... I Panicked. I wanted to help. I didn't know what I could do about it. So I— I saw that no one was around, and I thought it wouldn’t hurt anyone if I took it out. I’m sorry… I didn’t know if it would make any difference. I unstrapped it and I kept it… And I know I shouldn’t have… But it was the only thing I had of you, I didn't have you anymore. I felt hurt, I felt broken, and at the same time, I’d been so madly in love with you… I felt like there was a way for me to… to… to hold on to you, to have something of you, something like a momento, something to hold on to, to keep, to remember you by… anything at all that could keep me bonded to you...” She was crying now, and Javi finally turned around, and Amelia found the breath knocked out of her lungs. 

She paused and stared at him, in silence, scared as he seemed distorted beyond recognition… he looked dead. A fading, silvery silhouette against the backdrop of the stormy night sky. The expression in his eyes being one of intense sorrow, as he tried to comprehend what he’d become. 

What she had turned him into. 

“and then?” He asked, hollowly. 

“And then…” she closed her eyes, “i don’t know, i went into the washroom, I cried some more, I regretted what I did, stealing your morpher like that, but I told myself it was nothing big, Solon could always whip up a new one if need be… then, Izzy came back, we delivered your body. I couldn’t sleep. To be fair, I’ve not had a wink of sleep since you died; but that’s not important… The important thing was that the next day, as I tried, tried almost too hard to not think about you, I saw you… I was about to take out your Dino key, to look at, thinking about you, when I actually saw you. It didn’t strike me back then, but then Izzy said all those things and I thought about all these things and… and I figured it out. I actually did figure it all out in the end... and I couldn’t tell anyone…” 

“Because then the guilt would be yours?” 

“Yeah” 

“If the key makes its way back to Solon?” 

“She’ll separate your soul from it, and give the black ranger’s role to someone else. Yeah I’ve thought about it” 

“And then I’ll be free to go” Javi said, soberly, and Amelia nodded, slowly. 

“And then you’ll be free to go” her voice was a bare whisper. 

“And if the key is returned to me?”

“It was disintegrating your body when I pulled it away, I think it would do the same again.” 

“The morphin grid is weird.” Javi commented, light heartedly, for one second, then returning to normal, “but I’ll be able to go away then too… right?” 

“ Go away?! JAVI GARCIA WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO AWAY TO?!” Amelia shouted before she could stop herself. He remained calm, composed, ghostly. 

“Anywhere but here.” He said, softly, and she stared at him, in disbelief. Here she had done such an insane thing in love with him, and look how selfish he was being?! He wanted to go away, to leave her. 

“You’ve been making excuses to not be with me for the past few days. I have noticed, Garcia. You say you have things to do, you want to think. But I think you just want to get away from me” 

“I do. I don’t want to be near anything that reminds me that I am a ghost stuck between the realm of the living and the dead. Have you ever imagined what it’s like from my perspective? I can look, but I can’t touch. I see my father, my sister , crying, mourning me. I see my friends breaking down, and I know that I’m there, I’m watching it all, but I can’t interact with them, I can't offer them comfort… do you know what an ugly middle position this is?!”  Javi said, frustrated, his patience finally giving way, “you say i don’t want to spend time with you, no, that’s not true; i want to spend time with you, but more than that, i want to touch you i want to kiss you… but I can’t do any of that, I probably never will be able to now! So what can I do?! Why did I want you to leave, Amelia? Why’d I want the only girl I’ve ever been in love with to forget me? I want you to be happy… I want you to leave me… let me go… it’ll bring the both of us some peace” 

Amelia stared at Javi for a loooonnnggg time, and Javi stared right back at her, both of their minds reeling, trying to make something of the conversation they’d just had… the words sinking in deeper and deeper by the moment, as they realised they were barely two feet apart, but in different worlds. 

“No” she finally said, the one word that cut the air with just as much electricity as the lightning in the storm outside. 

“I can’t let you go, Javi. I love you, and I want you to stay here, with me… I can’t let you go, I can’t and I won’t.” She shook her head, closing her eyes, “I love you too much” 

Javi stared at her in disbelief, “and so you’ll keep me chained up, a d bound to yourself like your little pet, because you love me?” 

“I’m not chaining you… you’re free to go” 

“But am I really?” 

Another awkward stare between the two of them followed, both of them silently ruminating what had just happened. Amelia knew, that with her words, she’d just blown it. She knew that Javi possibly hated her at that moment, but she also knew she wasn’t ready to let him go just yet. She wanted him to stay, she’d wanted a piece of him to keep since the beginning, that’s how this entire thing had started… right? And she didn’t want to see it through till the end. 

“I can’t believe you’re gonna be that selfish,”

“You can’t tell me that you don’t love me the way I love you” Amelia silently added to his accusation, and Javi sighed, “It’s true” he leaned back against the glass window, his fingers slowly combing through his own hair, glinting beautifully, in the silver light falling on him from the window. Amelia slowly got out of her bed, pushing the bedcovers aside, and rising, coming closer to him, and pressing her forehead against his, not feeling him, but knowing he was right there soothed her more than anything else… she knew it was wrong, but she really couldn’t let him go.

“It’s true.” Javi said, slowly opening his eyes to see Amelia close to her, and saw the regret in her eyes shadowed by her love for him, and he nodded, “I do love you… I don’t want to leave you either… but I despise what I’ve become and what I’ve made you into” he said quietly, and she leaned in and he felt her kiss on his lips, but it didn’t feel so warm anymore.

Chapter Text

Eulogies were difficult… especially when the one you were mourning was your brother, and you weren’t allowed to address that fact, and pretend he was nothing more than a ‘fallen comrade’. Izzy Garcia tried not to be utterly furious and feral, when Zayto told her that she had to appear as the green ranger at her brother’s memorial, and then step away from the platform and join the crowd as Izzy Garcia, with her dad, saying she got hung up in traffic or something. There were two things very very wrong with this: one, she had to pretend her brother didn’t mean half of what he had actually meant to her, in front of a crowd of literally everyone they knew, hide her emotions under a mask, and two, what kind of a sister would she be, to miss her brother’s memorial service for something as trivial as traffic, as if she wouldn’t make sure she’s the first one there.

But she had consented, in the end, hearing Zayto’s reasoning, Ollie couldn’t come, Javi was dead, there would be questions about where the other rangers were, if only three of them showed up at the memorial service. Besides, Javi’s morpher was still missing. They’d recovered Ollie’s, lying with his belongings at the hospital’s locker, along with his watch and a few other things. Dr. Akana was with her son, and still not okay with everything that had been going on. Pop Pop had helped with the set up, which Izzy understood why her dad had asked Amelia to help with, instead of her. So instead she got some time with her girlfriend, who understood just how much Izzy had been hurt by the death of her brother, and did everything in her power to comfort her, from staying over at her place for nights, or asking her to come over, to doing silly things like she usually wouldn’t, just to make Izzy smile.

XXX

“I miss seeing you smile” Fern had told her, the night before the memorial and funeral, as they watched the Park Warden fixed up some dinner for the two girls; Fern was staying over again.

Izzy shot her a tired glare; she knew Fern was doing her level best to make her feel better, but seriously, telling her to ‘smile’ at a time like this was just not working. 

“I’ll leave you girls alone” the warden said, gruffly, as he placed the pasta on the table, and nodded his head, as if admiring his handiwork, and then walked away muttering something about ‘stupid boys’ and ‘damn pasta’ and Fern stared at Izzy, confused by the Warden’s behaviour. 

“Javi makes amazing pasta” Izzy said, but a realisation hit her like a ton of bricks, “used to make…” she corrected, quietly, tears welling up in her eyes again.

“I miss him Fern” Izzy said, looking like a puppy kicked in the rain, “I— gosh why can’t I be strong?! I mean… it’s not the first time I’ve handled death… I guess, I…” she sobbed into the other girl’s shoulder, who wrapped a hand around her waist, pulling her closer, and bringing in warmth and comfort. 

“It’s okay, Iz, it’ll get better… it’s not the end, you know? You and your dad still have each other, right?”

“I don’t know, Fern, I really don’t know. I mean first mom, now Javi—” Izzy’s voice choked up. Fern nodded, knowing words wouldn’t make that much of a difference to Izzy, right now… what she needed was someone to be there. The warden had a lot of responsibilities, and he knew he could count on Fern to take care of Izzy. That’s what Fern had been doing for days now, and she didn’t mind, she loved the girl, and she could be there for her all her life, if it was all she did, gladly. 

A sudden sound of laughter, from Izzy took Fern by surprise, and she looked at her, to see her smiling her through her tears, “You know, Javi used to drown his sorrow in music… he’d find the saddest song in the universe, memorise it’s lyrics, throw in some of his own lyrics to the tune, make them sort of… sadder? Somehow? And when he played it, be it on his guitar, harmonica, or on that weird flute thingie he had hidden from dad, we just… we weren’t sad anymore. We heard the song, we felt it, and somehow, it sucked the sadness out of our mood. I’d tell him to play a song that was less sad, maybe a hymn? Something or the other, and before we knew it, we’d move onto a country song, Levi Weston even? I don’t know how, but the transition always occurred so smoothly… Javi never let us feel… down…”

“Do you have a recording, or something? Maybe we can hear some, maybe it’ll make you feel better…” Fern offered, and suddenly remembered Javi’s song Spotlight, and quickly whipped out her phone, scrolling youtube to find the perfect video. 

Her brother’s voice made Izzy’s expression light up, instantaneously, the girls listened, spellbound, her head resting on Fern’s shoulder.

“There’s some videos on the laptop… if you want to see” Warden Garcia’s voice pulled them back into reality, and Izzy turned around to see the Warden standing in the doorway, his eyes also filled with tears as he heard his late son’s music. 

“Thanks… dad” Izzy said, getting the laptop from the bag, and realising that the warden, for all his disapproval of her brother’s music, had still silently kept it all… 

XXX

They had to give it to Amelia; that girl was one heck of a planner. The funeral had a depressive vibe to it, just walking into Buzzblast, which was usually to upbeat and cheerful, seemed dull, as if drained of all colors, even though they were all right there. The lighting was soft, the decor flowers were lilies, the coffin was already in place at the centre stage, closed, because Javi’s remains were scarring to even look at, his photograph placed on a pedestal in front, at the exact same spot where the boy had once stood with a microphone in front of him, his music, and pure happiness filling the place; all of that was gone, and maybe things would never be quite the same without the soothing sounds of his music resonating at Buzzblast.

Amelia had captured that emotion, which everyone had been feeling, in the overall despondency of the atmosphere, so… so well. The second Zayto and Aiyon stepped into the hall, they felt any last residue of cheer, that had resulted from their heartfelt confessions to each other, minutes ago, evaporate from their faces.

What happened was all a blur, what with Warden Garcia being over emotional again, and Izzy being kinda mad at Zayto and Aiyon for their decision of making her be there as a green ranger first, and Javi’s sister second, and greeting people, filling Jane up about things, the next thing Amelia Jones noticed, in full consciousness, was Javi staring at her, unflinching, from the back of the hall, his eyes not leaving her for a second, paying no attention to anything that was happening at his memorial service, other than fixating his stony gaze on the pink ranger, the only person in the entire hall who could see him, as she stood on the podium next to his coffin and photograph, wearing the armour of the Dino Fury Pink Ranger. Izzy was on her right, and Zayto and Aiyon on the other side of the photograph of Javi, smiling broadly at the camera with a guitar in his hand, surrounded by lilies and roses… 

They asked Izzy to speak first, deliver the first ‘words of sorrow’ from the Power Rangers, and she nodded; out of respect for the heroes, the Rangers had been asked to speak first, and the others took seat in front, listening, attentively. This wasn’t exactly how traditional, normal, funerals or memorial services were supposed to go, but Javi wasn’t a normal guy either.

“I… I don’t know if I will be able to say the words… exactly” the green ranger began, trying to keep her voice from choking, or cracking up, but not doing a very good job at it, she turned away from the crowd, to face her brother’s coffin and photograph, “Javi Garcia… was…  gosh I’ll never be okay saying that” she sobbed, slightly, then continued, “…Javi was, Javi was the sweetest, most adorable little shit I’d ever known in my life. I love him more than I love myself. He always protected me, and took care of me like an older brother. I cant believe he’s… gone… I can’t even imagine what my life, all of our lives… would be….  I… I don’t have words to express what I fee—“ her voice choked up, the process of stringing up sentences and she covered her helmet’s mouthpiece with her gloved hand, and looked down, “I’m so sorry, I can’t… I’m sorry, Javi… I know you’d want me to be stronger but…” she got off the stage, and ran away, and Zayto took the stage, rubbing the back of his helmet in slight embarrassment, but noting with a nod that Izzy had inconspicuously rejoined the crowd, and was now with Warden Garcia and Fern, softly sobbing into her dad’s shoulder, while her girlfriend rubbed her shoulder.

“I apologise for our green ranger’s emotional breakdown… honestly we’ve all been feeling that way” he started in his baritone voice, “Javi was not just an amazing warrior, who we are all proud to have called our teammate,” he swallowed a lump in his throat, “he was an amazing friend, a talented singer, someone who cared about everyone, someone who would never intentionally hurt anyone. He was a ranger, and above all else, he had every quality we valued in a ranger, he was determined, hard working, zealous, and an amazing warrior. He died as a hero, he was a martyr, and we must respect, and remember him for it. His loss is indeed a massive one, one we cannot be excused for. We failed, the Power failed… and we promise that we will make amends… Javi can never be replaced, in memory or in reality… but life does not end here, Void Knight is still out there, and we must be strong, try and live on, carry forward his memory, and all that he stood for… it’s the only way… May the Power Protect You.” Zayto solemnly ended, and there was a spellbound silence over the crowd. No standing ovation, yet, the effect was the exact same.

Amelia took the stage next, and started, softly, “Someone once told me death is the end… I don’t believe that. Even after death, there’s something out there, something that stays…” Amelia was looking Javi dead in the eyes, as she addressed him, he stared back with the same stony gaze as he had been all day, the conversation she’d had earlier with Javi haunting her once more, when he’d silently told her “You know, black roses was nice accent… suits my color,” They had been standing in front of the memorial podium, together, broken, two feet apart, but in different worlds, and he had refused to acknowledge a single word she told him. Now he was listening, he was staring at her, he wanted to hear what she had to offer. Her words were not dedicated to the people in front of her, they were not dedicated to the dead body in the coffin, they were dedicated to the boy’s soul, the key to whom she still held on to, in her pocket.

“You know where to find me” he’d finally added before walking away, walking away without further conversation, and Amelia had just watched him go. The closeness they had once shared was nothing but a ghost of a memory now.

“Javi may not be here, in front of us, the way he used to be… but somewhere, somehow, he’s still here… he’ll be here until he has a bond with us, until he’s got a connect with us…” she knew that no one in the crowd understood a word of what she was saying, but Javi did, he was shaking his head, gravely, and Amelia was starting to feel nervous, “Javi was an amazing guy… we all loved him, he loved all of us… we had something special… I really loved him, yeah. And I’ve done some questionable things in the past… but it’s because I love him, and I don’t think anything can bring him back to us, but I still have my wagers on one last thing” this line was met with gasps from the crowd, “One last thing… one last ditch effort, something like a miracle maybe… I’ve been thinking… maybe… maybe he can come back…” Amelia had lost sight of the man for a second, and the next thing she knew, he was inches away from her. She backed up a step, he shook his head, “You can’t bring me back. You can only hold me in this terrible state” Javi gripped her morpher, and she felt chills through her spine, feeling a sudden surge of energy, which was not gone the second Javi let go of her hand, and with a sad smile toying on his lips, he said, “I touched the key… I’m not back… your last ditch effort failed…” he added, and she was so confused, what was even happening? But somehow, Javi’s touch to her morpher set into motion, a series of glitches. Her own ranger suit started aberrating, somehow in and out, the pink fading in places, being replaced with darkness… black.

His dino key was glowing… along with hers. He’d refused to touch it earlier, back at her place, this morning, when she’d told him about her idea, and now that he did, in front of so many people, while she herself was also morphed, something was ignited. He smiled at her, his expression unreadable, and she mouthed, “why?” To him, and he shook his head, instead of responding, touched his fingers to one of the black roses, sending some energy through it, watching as it was engulfed, in front of everyone, in a violet flame, and then skipped away from the podium, and walked out into the still pouring rain, as Amelia watched him go, yet again.

Izzy Garcia was the first to actually understand what was happening, other than Javi and Amelia themselves, because she had spent wayyy too long thinking about it…

“YOU BITCH?!” She couldn’t contain her anger, her mind eclipsed by rage, as she made her way through the crowd, almost seething, “YOU… YOU…” she couldn’t speak properly, the green ranger, unmorphed, chimed onto the stage, death and fury in her eyes, she came up to the older girl, and gripped her by her ranger suit’s non-existent collar, “YOU DID KILL HIM FOR HIS POWER!” She cried out, punching the pink ranger as hard as she could, in the gut, and the ranger suit may have protected Amelia because she only doubled up, but Izzy’s own fist was bloody now, “You did take his key… you somehow, somehow your twisted brain infused your pink powers with my DEAD BROTHER’S BLACK ONES…” her nostrils were flaring like that of an ox now, she punched the girl once again, and this time, Amelia didn’t even defend herself, just cried out, “Izzy I can explai—“ Izzy’s fist found Amelia’s morpher, shattering the metal with a surge of green energy, causing Amelia’s already glitching pink-black ranger outfit to start disintegrating, fading into nothingness, and the pink ranger, in her civilian clothes, unmasked, and berated, stood in front of everyone, as the crowd went into insanity.

“WHAT CAN YOU EXPLAIN?!”

“It’s not what you’re thinking Izzy!” Amelia shouted, but was met, finally, with a blow in the face, leaving her with a bloody nose, and then yet another by the maddened green ranger, tearing the pink ranger’s lips on her own canines, blood splattering some more. Zayto and Aiyon realised Izzy may just kill Amelia if she weren’t stopped, and they rushed to try and contain her. “LET ME GO MY BROTHER WAS MURDERED!” She screamed at the red and gold rangers, as they held her, while Amelia tried to collect herself.

“Amelia is it true?” Aiyon asked, while still struggling with Izzy’s ferocity, “did you take the key?”

Amelia didn’t reply, for once, she didn’t want to lie. Not here, not right now. Izzy took that as a yes, “don’t… don’t you dare show me your face again… Jones… or it’ll be your coffin they’ll be carrying out of here” Izzy spat, as Aiyon helped Amelia up, while Zayto now contained the relatively calmer Izzy, and got the pink ranger as far from the green ranger as possible.

“We’ll handle this later… you gotta get away from here… better not show up at the funeral” Amelia couldn’t lift her gaze to meet Aiyon’s, and she was sure he wasn’t looking at her either. She had just had the most humiliating experience of her life… exposed for who she was, and what she had just done… she couldn’t even say Izzy was out of her mind, because the green ranger had been absolutely right… Amelia felt like she sorta understood now, why Javi had done what he had done.

She wasn’t even welcome at his funeral now…

Things had gone downhill really quick. Caught in the rain, with a shattered morpher, and two dino keys, the skies getting darker by the second, the commotion inside dying down, as Amelia knew soon Javi’s coffin would be carried out, and to the church, then the graveyard… and she wouldn’t be there to see any of it…

She was as good as a ghost in the rain now.

Chapter Text

The church’s gates were massive, wooden, yes, a guy Javi recalled from Buzzblast— the one who kept messing around with paints— standing in the doorway wearing black, with a bundle of pamphlets in hand, handing them to every person who entered, some women he remembered dating once upon a time, wiping their tears, yet somehow making sure their mascara remained unsmudged, a guy who looked eerily like Mikey Way, who Javi sss sure he had never before seen in his life, swinging about a strange apparatus on a chain, spewing smoke on each side as if it were a purification ritual, his dad rooted firmly to the altar, Zayto, Izzy, and Aiyon, unmorphed now, already seated, people who entered paying their respects to his dead body, in the coffin, and then taking seats as well… being at your own funeral was something… strange. 

Javi had not stuck around at his memorial service long enough to hear what the other people had to say about him. He hadn’t stuck around for the candles being lit and whatever else they had in the plans. 

The church was merely a pit stop in his journey to his own grave, where the pastor would say a few words of prayer or something, everyone would sit for a few minutes crying— if any tears were still left— and then the coffin would be carried out and buried with ritual. 

And Javi would be gone… soon, his memory would fade too, people would move on with their lives… the world would keep spinning madly on. And Javi would be here. He’d be here, to see it all, as the seasons changed, the forest would shed it’s greens to take the gold of autumn, white in winter, pink in spring, he’d be here when the homes would have a warm glow from the fireplaces, or when people would be trying to pour ice down their throats to ward off the heat, he’d be here when the stars would fall, he’d be there as the tears would slowly stop, he’d be there when the hurt would stop… he was here, this way… for all eternity. He would be able to see everyone he ever loved, move on, forget him by, live their lives, and he’d just stand and watch. Forgotten by sensation, betrayed by love, forsaken by anything human, Javier Garcia would forever stay a ghost… for all eternity…

The weight of this realisation firmly set on his mind now, he hovered in and around the cathedral, aimlessly. 

He couldn’t really blame Amelia for what she’d done either. She didn’t want to let go of him, she loved him, and the more he thought about it, he realised she was being stupid, and stubborn, just the way she was hung up on her parents, and her obsession with the paranormal. That girl needed to learn how to let go, to let bygones be bygones. This way, she was just ruining her own life, hung up on him forever, in love with a ghost, with no way to be united with him, a dead end… literally. 

And he knew he couldn’t go away either. There was no way he could disappear… 

He watched silently as people paid their respects to him, something that was a bit strange to witness anyway, feeling broken and hurt and destroyed, and wondered if there was ever a way to get out of this ugly middle position. 

And then he saw her. Standing in the darkest corner, pretending to be just as invisible as he actually was, bloody lips, one eye black and blue, drenched in rain, looking miserable… 

Maybe it was the morbidity of being dead, or maybe he was really mad at her anyway, but something about her ragged condition appealed to him. Head bent low, hands clasped in prayer, even though Javi had never actually pegged her as a believer in God, whimpering softly, and trying not to shake, she looked beautiful. 

That’s when he wondered, what if… what if she were also dead… wouldn’t that make everything infinitely easier?! 

Of course, it took Javier Garcia a total of eight seconds to mentally punch himself for even harbouring such a thought. 

“Pity there’s no music” Javi decided to approach Amelia, and put her out of her misery, “what?” She suddenly looked up to see him, and shrunk away instinctively. 

“You know, I’m usually a happy guy” he winked at her, she saw him laugh, the way he used to, with his eyes shrinking as they did, pure, natural, happy, “and I love my music… I’d have expected some kinda music at my funeral no? Maybe something small on that grand piano right there” he winked, pointing to the piano to the side of the altar, reserved for carols and hymns. 

“Why’d you do it? What you did, in the memorial service? Did you know? ” she asked, as if still haunted by the memory. 

“I didn’t know what would happen, but I figured that would be the best time to do it. You said you wouldn’t let me go, I had to see if I could release myself without you having to let me go… I figured a time when you couldn’t acknowledge my presence would be the best…” 

“You say that like I have you locked away in a cage” she still looked at her feet, not meeting his gaze.

“And you pretend like you don’t have my soul trapped in your hands” he laughed, but it wasn’t as natural anymore, “But you’ve got yourself trapped too, Amelia… don’t you get it?” 

She shook her head, “I’m in love with you. I don’t have any regrets, or any explanations. I’m obsessed with you… life can end… doesn’t mean love has to, does it?”

“Obsessed with me because I’m dead, or obsessed with me because I’m me?” he asked, a coy smile playing on his lips, and she felt an urge to pull him closer to her, for a kiss… although she knew that would be as impossible as anything else right now. 

“Why can't it be both?”

“You’re impossible…”

“Do you like it?” 

“I’m not sure…” he said, staring at his feet. 

“I don’t know why, but I feel like I’m dead too, just like you… only they forgot to bury me…”

“Doesn’t that mean we’re both ghosts now?” he shook his head, then looked away, hoping to change the topic, “You know, it’s funny how they’re all weeping and paying their respects to my dead body, while I’m here, next to you,”

“The only thing funny in that sentence is that you’re here next to me… ”

“You know you’ve chosen this hellish life for yourself, you know you’re in love with a ghost, in love with someone you can’t touch, you can’t feel, someone only you can see… someone you probably wouldn’t even be sure is real, had he not landed one of your best friends in the hospital… someone who is not sure what he’s become, someone who wonders if he’s better off dead… and you know it. And you know that your own life, because of all these things about me won’t be the same anymore anyway. Right?”

“I know.” she smiled, “I know what I’m signing up for.” she nodded, “I’m going to give up my ranger powers,” she pointed to her broken morpher, “not like after what happened, I have a choice…” she smiled miserably, “I still wonder how you touching my morpher made it act out like that…”

“Burst of energy, maybe my key sensed me nearby… and me touching your morpher, your link to the morphin grid, set it off…but  Pink and Black do look good together, aesthetically, I mean” 

“Severing your connection to the morphin grid, by removing the key will let you be free to fade into nothingness, isn’t it? Like, go wherever people go after death? ‘Moksha’? Is that why whenever you spend too much energy— which is probably morphin grid energy sustaining your ghost form— you start looking like you’re fading… right?”

“Probably… you’ve been thinking about it a lot, haven’t you?”

“I don’t know… Mick’s ranger database said that Rangers have been brought back to life after their deaths, twice now, one ‘Steel’ guy, and one Kendrix Morgan, power of friendship and love, it said, Steel wished to be a human, and he sacrificed his life for good, and the grid brought him back… and similarly with Kendrix…”

“Did any of them have a funeral?”

“I don’t know… maybe not?”

“What makes you think my case would be something like that? I didn’t die trying to stop some major evil or something…” he made a gesture like jazz hands, “big”

“But you did… you died trying to save your sister… that's noble as anything. And maybe you'll come back... maybe you need a little more time. Miracles do happen you know? Entire timelines have been reset... maybe something like that can happen. I'm not letting you go, and losing that one strand of hope, until I know for sure, that there's no way I'll ever be able to have you back. And believe me, I'll bring you back”

"If you can't, you'll let me go?"

"Maybe... you don't hate me for this, right?"

"A bit.... but I think it figures. You're being hopeful, I'll try and make it worth your time" he smiled, then looked up at the ceiling of the church, at the glass panes, the meagre light shining in carrying wonderful colors, “I still wonder why my powers failed me, though” he said, looking absentminded.

“Maybe it wanted to give us this adventure” Amelia chuckled, lightly, “make my dream of interacting with ghosts come true…”

“And why did I have to be a scapegoat? Why not Ollie? The dude who doesn’t believe in ghosts would benefit from being a ghost more in my opinion”

“Maybe you’re right…” she stared into his eyes now, “but it wouldn’t be the same… you’re you, Javi, your death impacted all of us, so, so badly; all of us, including you grew as people, as individuals… I don’t know if Ollie’s death would have caused the same impact… he wasn’t that close to any of us because he chose to shut us out, and feel pleasure in proving his superiority”

“I don’t know” he sighed, “Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn’t… let’s hope we never find out. I don’t want anyone to go through what we have gone through” 

Seeing her smile like an idiot made him wonder though, and he asked, “you said we ” she said, “you’re formally mine now… You accepted it...”

“You’ve chosen this life, I’m going to live it with you” his words carried weight, they felt like finality. She nodded, then slowly said, “I know no one but me would be able to hear it, but why don’t you sing for me?”

“Funeral songs? Or something happy?”

“Whatever suits your mood…”

Chapter Text

“Pop Pop, am I a terrible person?” Amelia asked in a small voice, when her Pop Pop emerged from the crowd that had just buried Javi’s body, and stood by her side, pulling up an umbrella over himself, and his granddaughter, who was already dripping in the rain, a result of not caring for anything relating to herself. She didn’t feel like a terrible person, really, but the way everyone was reacting to her, with her being asked to stay away from the funeral, and Izzy bloodying her with her fists, Javi and his gallows Humor, and the songs that hurt, and the innuendos, even though he tried to be nice. Was it her that was all wrong? Or was it them? 

“No, baby girl, why would you ever say that?” he said, genuinely concerned, and Amelia, suddenly overcome by all the emotions that had somehow felt to have left her body, came flooding right back, and Amelia latched onto her Pop Pop for support, hugging him as tightly as she could without choking him, around the midrib, while he just rubbed her back, and patted her head, “now, now, you’re my brave girl, aren’t you?”

He didn’t ask her about the bloody lip, he didn’t question her about the broken morpher. He knew she had been lying, he knew she was a ranger, almost all her secrets had been exposed, and her gradnfatehr didn’t ask her a single thing about it, simply because that would mean humiliating her even more, somehow. He just stood there, supportively, as she broke down and cried under the embrace. 

Javi had left, after the song. His songs were always beautiful, but lines and phrases like “you played for me” and “we couldn’t stop the world from turning” bouncing off the walls of a morbid church, while the lines that followed being “escaping our shadows, just to end up here” or “I’ve become what you cannot embrace”, didn’t sound beautiful, as much as soul-crushing. Javi was probably not doing it on purpose, but he’d sung for her, made her weak, and disappeared into nothingness, when she found herself too distraught to reply. 

She’d decided to leave the funeral, then. There was no point hanging around, and Amelia had walked like the ghost she’d become, in the rain, circling in and around the graveyard, waiting for the service to be over. 

She wanted to disappear, but she didn’t want to go just yet. She wanted to see him buried, say a final goodbye, somehow— something he himself probably didn’t, and that’s why he’d gone away. She still held on to his Dino key in her pocket, his morpher had been burnt, and was lying safely in her house, while she carried the Dino key around, as the most precious object she’d ever beheld. 

Somehow, things made sense now…

She hung around for long enough to watch the body being buried from a distance, the parade of black umbrellas through the gothic graveyard looking extremely aesthetic from a distance, while she felt her own dried blood be washed away by the downpour. 

And then her Pop Pop had noticed her, and was here to comfort her. 

“Would you believe me if I tell you that I can see his ghost?” she asked, still sobbing like a little child.

“I do, sunshine, I absolutely do! He came to our place yesterday, remember?”

“Would you hate me if I tell you he’s a ghost because of me?”

“Oh come on, sweetheart, you didn’t kill the boy… he died saving his sister!” Pop Pop still tried to be positive.

“No, I didn’t kill him, but… but I’ve got this” she finally produced Javi’s dino key to him, “Somehow this thing has kept his soul… still here, in the mortal realm? I mean… I have this thing, that’s why I can see him, talk to him”

“Because of that little doohickey?” he picked up the key, and examined it, “Oh I see. Power Rangers things!” he said, making a cute little face, “like my little girl is…”

“I’m sorry for hiding everything, Pop Pop” she quietly told him, and he laughed, “it’s okay, baby girl, do you know how very proud of you I am?” she nodded, amidst the tears, and her running nose turning red. 

“Let’s get you home now” he said, taking her by the shoulder, and leading her away, with just one glance back at the grave, and the funeral procession, “and will your ghost friend be joining us?”

“I don't… know…” she sobbed. 

“How are things between the two of you?” they got into his truck, now. 

“He says he’s gonna live this life, with me. He…” she trailed off, leaning her head against the window, watching the droplets cascade downwards, on the other side of the glass, and decided to tell her grandfather everything. Maybe he could help her out, just a little bit. 

Ending the entire narration with a “I don’t want to let him go… I love him too much. And he loves me too. He loves me a lot. Javi, he— he said that if this was the life I’d chosen for us, he was going to live it with me…” she sighed. 

“Us?” was the only reaction that Pop Pop gave, to the story, and she assumed he wanted to hear the entire thing before commenting. They were home now, and he sat her down on the table, as if he needed to give her career counselling. 

“Javi said that this was destroying me just as much as it was destroying him.” 

“And was he right?” 

“I don’t care if we’re destroyed. Human or ghost, I’m in love with him, and it’s the only way I can have him here, with me…” 

“But do you like seeing him in pain?” Pop Pop asked, looking at her through his glasses, and alot seeing into her soul. 

She looked away from him, and down at her own feet, cracking her knuckles, “I don’t like it… but…” 

“What is your justification for keeping him in pain, sweet pea?“

“I… want him to be there, with me…” 

“What if you let him go and your morphin— whatever doohickey brings him back to life? You did say that was an option”

“But it also has the prospect that he’d go away forever. I don’t want to take that risk” 

“So you’d rather have him chained, lusting after that one thing that can set him free from you ?” The way Pop Pop said the words surprised her.

“I— he’ll be with me…” she repeated. She knew she was being stubborn. She really didn’t have more of a reason for holding on to him other than the simplest reason that she wasn’t ready to let go yet. 

“But will he love you the way you love him?” 

“He’s promised me that he will.. he’d keep his promise, right?” 

“How did he react when you told him? The first time?” 

“He was furious. And he hated me?” Amelia replied truthfully; Javi had somehow said the same words, but they hadn’t had the same impact as Pop Pop’s. 

“He wanted to leave, right? Fade to dust, or whatever you kids say these days, that’s why he was transferring his energy force to your other friend, so that at least one of them is completely alive?” 

“That’s what you think he was doing?” 

“What else?” 

“I mean…”

“One friend in a coma, and one dead, and a ghost. He clearly thought that since he’d caused the comatose friend’s state, he should transfer his half life force to him, to make it full… he’s already said goodbye to the world in his perspective, when he tried transferring all he had, to that friend of yours. Then you tell him that no matter what, there is no way he’s going to leave. That he’s trapped with you and only you for all eternity… if you were in his place, what would you have done, baby girl?” 

“I don’t know.” She clutched her head, imagining how she herself would’ve reacted if Javi would’ve trapped her soul… probably humiliated him in front of everyone? No. Tried to kill him? Not really. 

Then it struck her; the realisation that made everything around her shatter. 

Javi would’ve never held her against her wishes. 

“I’m a terrible person” she said, the tears, her own realisation catching up. She didn’t ask the question, as if to confirm that the people who had implied this, were the ones who were wrong, but instead, as a realisation of her own right. 

It wasn’t a question at all, it was a statement. 

Because now she knew what she had become. All Javi had wanted was for her to be happy. And all she had wanted, was for her to be happy. So he had given in. He’d protested, a bit, when he’d realised she was being selfish, but then he’d given in to her, he’d told her that he would go through this hellish life for her sake. 

Even before he knew that she was the reason he was here, he’d given his all to her.

And she’d done the exact opposite. She’d taken everything that was his, and made him watch as people mourned him. She deserved to die. One day, he’d realise what she had done, he’d resent her more than anything. And she would still keep him trapped like her own personal canary in a cage. That’s what he was getting at, wasn’t it? At the funeral? When he said they couldn’t be happy this way. 

And he’d still said the words. “You’ve chosen this life, I’m going to live it with you” 

She didn’t deserve him. But he deserved to be free. 

Then she realised pop pop had been saying something which she had completely zoned out on, and retracted. 

“He sounds like a nice boy” was one of the lines, and she nodded, he said something about birds, “if the bird is yours, if it loves you the way it loves you, it’ll come back to you when you set it free; if it doesn’t, it means it never was yours” the metaphor, albeit a little weird, made sense…

“I’ve got it” the tears started rolling down her eyes, without control, and she slumped to the floor, from the chair, with pop pop bending down to pick her up and cradle her against his chest. 

“I’ve got it… I don’t deserve him… I should let him go…” 

He nodded, “good, good, we have made progress. What will you do now, baby girl?” 

“I want to let him go… but I’m not sure if I’m ready yet…” 

“Well look at it this way then” he got all excited again, somehow, “all your friends had to say goodbye to him suddenly, right? And let’s pretend you got an extra… what’s it been? Four days? With him. So count those as a blessing, and actually say goodbye to him before letting him go?” 

“And how will that help?” She asked through the sobs. 

“If he disappears, with the key, leaving his bond do that grid doohickey of yours, you won’t have any regrets, and if he comes back, he would love you because you let him go! It is a foolproof plan. You can’t stay afraid, and sit on the fence forever, can you?” 

“You’re right, absolutely right. I’ll…I‘ll make this thing right. I promise” she said, getting up, and wiping her tears on her denim jacket’s sleeve. 

“Good luck, kiddo, I know you’ve got it” he said, getting up, and hugging her, “now go tell that boy how much you love him” 

Amelia stepped out of her house, to find the strong petrichor hit her face, breathing the environment after the rain; the city looked damp, and the skies remained darkened with the clouds that threatened to cry once more. It was almost dusk, and the street lights were blinking on— a perfectly dramatic atmosphere, characterised by the stars that were wayy too near the ground… 

She had a mission in mind. She had to find him. Where, she didn’t really know, but there were only a few places he could be at. Dino Henge was definitely not one of them, because that still remained his spot of death, and he still felt himself being incinerated when he was there… the more she thought about it, the more cruel she felt about this entire deal of making him stay with her despite his wishes. She needed to make things right. And she needed to do it before it was too late. 

“I wanna apologise” she texted Izzy, “I’m gonna give you the Dino key” she texted Zayto, followed by her live locations to each of them, so they would know where to find her, if they wanted to meet her in person. 

Then she spent an entire hour, scouring every inch of pine ridge, looking for Javi Garcia. 

It was dark, with the moon shining brightly on top, by the time she reached the cemetery. She didn’t know where else she would find him. He wasn’t roaming around in the park, or at or outside Buzzblast, or the cafe, any place he usually would have been. It was as if he’d disappeared off the face of the earth. 

An awful thought tugged at the back of her mind; what if his funeral had indeed released him? Because she hadn’t seen the body being buried, actually, and she’d not seen him since the funeral songs sung by him. It was possible… and while that meant that her speculations were wrong, and she couldn’t have done anything to keep him, or let him go, she also didn’t have the opportunity to say a final goodbye to him…

But she realised this wasn’t the case, because, softly glowing against the moonlight, sitting on the damp soil on top of his own grave, leaning weakly against the headstone, lay the ghost of Javier Garcia, looking depressed and miserable. 

“J—Javi?” Her voice quivered, as she approached him, and watched him turn his head, his eyes, and the surreal tears in them, glowing against the moonlight, looking beautiful and sad at the same time, like those gothic stone structures of weeping angels. 

“Hi” he said, softly, trying to muster a smile, but it seemed like he found it too impossible, and let go of the effort way too soon. 

She sank to her knees, in the dirt, next to him, tears now welling up in her own eyes, “Javi… I… I…” she hadn’t thought about what she’d say, how she’d even start. 

“I have a new address” he said, finally managing to force a weak smile, pointing to his headstone, “see? Javier Luis Garcia…” he bit his lip. 

“You have a lovely name” she breathed, trying to approach the topic without breaking down herself, realising she’d never heard his middle name before. 

“Thanks…” he said, with that same far off expression again. She knew she’d put him in this miserable condition, that it was all her fault… she wanted him to be hers, but not this way… 

“Hey, Javi… listen” she said, regretting the words immediately, because she realised now she had his full attention on her; he knew she was going to say something important now. 

“I love you” this wasn’t what she wanted to say… it was true, but stupid, stupid, stupid. 

“I know” he quietly said, looking the other way again. 

“Javi… I’ve been an awful person. I don’t deserve your love. I don’t deserve anything… in fact, I think it’s better for everyone if I die too” 

She watched his reaction to her words, as he turned around, with a fearful expression, “no, NO, you’re not even allowed to say that, Amelia. You shouldn’t have to go through what I’m going through” 

Those words from her were proof enough for her, though; both of his own goodness, and her selfishness. He didn’t even want to imagine her going through something like he was going through, and she was the reason he was going through this in his own place. 

“I’m sorry…” she said, finally. He looked up, to meet her gaze, and saw genuine regret in her eyes, surprised by her words, because the last time she’d said sorry to him— the only time— she hadn’t meant one letter of the word. She genuinely regretted everything, and it made him wonder what had caused the change of heart. 

“I… shouldn’t have tried to hold on to you despite your wishes. I want to make things right. I want to fix them… before it’s too late for us. I love you, and I want you to love me back, the same way I love you. Not because I’m the only person who can see you, or because I’m the only person you can turn to. I want you to love me because you want to, I want you to talk to me, to choose me, even when you have other people to turn to, not because you have no other choice. I…” she sighed, tears still rolling down her eyes, the cemetery feeling a very accurate place for this, “I’m so weak, Javi, because I can’t imagine my life without you. I forgot what your life, without everyone else, would be like. You told me this, last night, when we were in my room, but I didn't understand then, because I was thinking of myself, and only myself. Your words fell on deaf ears. I’m sorry for everything, Javi, I really am…”

He nodded, as if agreeing with everything she was saying, “But I realise now…” she continued, “even though it breaks my heart— that loving you, means letting you go. I don’t own you, I shouldn’t try to, either. You were never supposed to mean this much to me; I was never supposed to fall so hard, but you know what, I did… and that’s the truth, that’s what kept me holding on, because letting you go hurt like hell. But I didn’t realise how much my grasp on you was hurting you.”

“So what will you do now?” he asked, softly, and she gazed into his grey eyes, “what you want me to do…”

“What would you say if I tell you I’m willing to live this life for you?” he asked, and she deeply wished she could punch him, in that moment, because he wasn’t making this any easier.

“I’ll say ‘stop trying to make me feel like a good person when I’m not’,” she said, letting out a teary chuckle, which he followed in, with his signature smile. Oh how much she’d miss this smile, once he’s gone.

“If I return your Dino Key to Solon, it’d mean she’d separate your soul from it. There’s no chance for us then. I don’t want that… you yourself said, if I give it to you, there’s a fifty percent chance you might come… back… and that’s a risk I didn’t want to take, because the other fifty percent is the same as giving the key to Solon” she explained.

“If I become a star, would you look at me every night?” 

“If you come back to life, I’d lie in the grass and look at them with you… Javi, I can’t imagine a life without you… but I literally have no right to keep you to myself… to trap you, to hold on to you… I’m sorry.” she said, closing her eyes, not wishing to accept the fact that he may not come back to life at all. If this was what she was doing, she would still hope for the best, because it was the right thing to do...

“I hope the morphin grid sees our love for each other, and has mercy…” she dug in her pocket, and brought out the key, holding it out for him to see, and touch, hoping her hands wouldn’t quiver when he’d touch it, and take it away.

“You’re really going to do this?” he asked, in a low whisper. She didn’t reply, because she wasn’t sure what her words would say, how her voice would betray her, she just nodded. He stared at the key for a really long moment, wondering if what was happening was real. She’d apologised to him, she’d tried to let him go, but even with this goodbye, she wasn’t sure if she was ready yet… 

Then she looked at him, with that expression of gratitude in his eyes, his lips parting only slightly, to whisper “thank you” to him, and she knew. She knew she was ready. Because whatever the outcome may be, she was doing the right thing. This is what a guy like him deserved, he deserved to be happy, whether it was as a star, as a human, or as a part of the grid… 

Javi’s hand made contact with the key, somehow, because Amelia could see the glow of energy on her hand, as the energy dissipated, and Javi lit up like the town’s Christmas Tree on twenty fourth December, energy traversing his body, and Amelia watched, her heart pounding in her chest, as he started to fade… change…

Her eyes snapped shut. She didn’t want to watch him go… she didn’t know what was happening to him, only that there was a lot of blinding lights emerging from him, as he was either reborn, or destroyed… a star indeed…

Then it went quiet, suddenly… 

She didn’t want to open her eyes, she didn’t want to see him go, as if opening her eyes would make it real, the fact that he was no more. 

But suddenly, she felt his hand grip hers, the black dino key sandwiched between both their palms. 

It took her a moment to even realise that she was feeling a human touch, before her eyes fluttered open, the world blurry with tears, but a face in front of her, looking confused…

He was also staring at their hands; they were touching. She didn’t know how he was feeling, because he could still feel her when he’d been a ghost… but the important thing was that she could feel him…

He was real. 

Javi Garcia was real. 

The moment he realised it, a smile spread over his face, an unbelieving, unaccepting, skeptical  smile, as if this was a dream and would fade away the second he moved, or blinked. 

“Am I… am I real?” 

“Javi… you… you…” she started, but her voice couldn’t make the words come out, her hand let the key drop onto the floor, her fingers scrambling for his, skin against skin, wrapping together, entwining with each other… holding on, like they’d never let go. 

They were both, for once, at a loss of words, with just massive smiles painting their lips, and Amelia leaned in, and pressed her lips against his. Feeling the touch of his skin, albeit a bit parched, and dry, but it was there, she didn’t want him to let go, and felt his other hand cupping her cheek, while hers wrapped around his neck, and the two stayed together, for a long minute, before parting for a lack of oxygen. 

“It’s real… you’re alive” she didn’t know how she was sounding, but she didn’t care. She was so happy she felt like she was on top of the world. 

“I’m alive… I really am” he said, breathlessly, and leaned in, pulling her in for yet another kiss, and when they parted, this time, they pressed their foreheads against each other’s, still not knowing what they could say to each other. After everything that had happened, it was difficult to decide what was the most important thing to say at this moment; their hands still stayed linked, and finally both of them, as if on cue, together, said the words 

“I love you so much…”

Their moment was interrupted by a stifled screech, and they jumped away from each other, realising they were making out on Javi’s grave— which made one wonder if Javi’s body was buried under there, what was this form of him? He looked absolutely unaltered, and beautiful. But more importantly, they saw Zayto and Aiyon standing in a distance, with Izzy running towards Javi and Amelia at top speed, and Javi saw his sister, his eyes, which were already filled with tears after his heartfelt moment with Amelia, overflowing again, and he ran towards her too, meeting her halfway through the cemetery, and wrapping her in the biggest hug she’d ever got. 

“Javi, you, you—” she started, then looked at Amelia, “ what did you do?” she asked, with hostility, and Javi grinned at his feral sister, “Hey that’s my girlfriend… be polite”

“What?!” Zayto and Aiyon, who’d also made their way towards the Garcia siblings, from the other side, (as well as Amelia) asked, surprised, but still smiling. 

Amelia came and placed an arm around Javi’s shoulder, wrinkling her eyebrow, “it’s a… kinda… really long story…”

“Can we narrate it at some cafe? I’m kinda hungry…” Javi said, softly, with everyone else agreeing… 

Was this what Happily Ever Afters felt like?

THE END

Chapter Text

“No.” Ollie Akana’s voice was weak, but still with the no-nonsense finality, as he stared at the Pink and Black rangers, both of whom were perched on his own bedside, smiling broadly at him, and still holding hands from both sides of the hospital bed, “No, I don’t believe you” 

“You don’t believe that we’re dating, or that Javi was a ghost for five days?” Amelia asked, with the sheer intention to frustrate the recovering Blue Ranger.

“I don’t believe that Javi was a ghost, and that he’s the one who landed me up here” he gestured to their surroundings, the hospital and all the equipment attached to him, “and I’m really happy for you guys” he smiled broadly.

“Whoa… whose ghost possessed Ollie” Izzy commented from the background, “how’re you actually being nice?” To which, Ollie scowled, and turned back to the couple telling him their story. 

“Okay, if you don’t believe in ghosts” Javi spoke, finally, “you do believe in miracles right?” 

“Why?”

“Because before going into a coma he was dead, remember?” Amelia said, glaring now. 

“That’s all… okay wasn’t that the first thing I asked you?” 

“Yeah but if I have to tell a story I have to tell it from the beginning right?” 

“True, True…” Ollie nodded, “but—“ 

“No buts. Javi was dead before you went into a coma. You literally helped me carry his body home” she shot a glance towards her boyfriend to make sure he was taking this lightly, and didn’t feel disturbed at the usage of the word ‘body’, and ascertaining that he was fine, she continued, “and then you wake up on your hospital bed, one month later, and he’s sitting in front of you?” 

“I’ve been awake three days” he frowned, “and who knows. Maybe we all had a collective dream? About Javi dying, and then next morning he woke you guys up saying ‘hey I’m not dead’??” 

Amelia sighed, “you’re impossible ollie” she chuckled. 

“The important thing is that we’ve all gone through enough trauma for at least ten lifetimes, and sincerely HOPE we never get a repeat of this” Amelia said, with Javi nodding, his grasp around her hand tightening. 

It had been almost three weeks since Javi had come back to life, and coming back to life, after a funeral, and after declaring to the world that he was dead was… complicated to say the least. Izzy hit Javi at least fifteen hundred times to make sure he was real, and by the time he was sore, she was sobbing into his chest, saying “I missed you, you big idiot” 

Explaining things to the rangers was difficult, especially without incriminating Amelia, but of course, that wasn’t possible, and Izzy let Amelia off with a warning, even though she was still damn annoyed at the girl. It took about a million chocolate chip cookies and cotton candies and video games and new music playlists for Izzy’s track sessions, for Amelia to win Izzy over, and finally, go out on an official date with her brother. Zayto and Aiyon talked about what Amelia did, with Solon, and like responsible adults, didn’t freak out, and handle the situation with a bit more maturity, letting Amelia off the hook with mild penalties, and a warning. 

Explaining this to warden Garcia was harder, but he nodded along with half of the explanation, before saying “whatever Ranger magic you did… is my son really alive again?” They could all see the hopefulness in his eyes, and when he saw Javi, he engulfed the boy in the tightest hug he’d ever gotten. 

“Your ghost hunting finally did something good, Ms Jones” warden Garcia patted her back. For some reason, Amelia really really liked that feeling, almost as if having him as a father figure…

Explaining things to Jane, and the crowd at Buzzblast, and those who attended the funeral, wasn’t as difficult either, because saying things like “the morphin grid was kind, and decided to give the fallen hero yet another chance at life” worked for them. Not to mention Jane was hovering around Javi for days after that, to get all sorts of details, because with this, came the realisation that Javi was now a ranger with his identity revealed to the world— as was that of Amelia’s, courtesy of Izzy’s little stunt at the memorial. A lot of people also tried guessing at the identities of the other rangers, and while some guesses were wildly inaccurate— Blair and his band, random employees at Buzzblast— some were a little too close. But the rangers never concretely accepted or denied any such claims. 

However Javi and Amelia were in the spotlight, through all of this, both, as rangers, AND as a couple. 

Yes, things were messy, but at least no one was depressed, right? 

Well, one person was… 

Explaining things to Dr Akana was the hardest of them all, because she didn’t take anything at face value. She dug into every detail, and tried to make everything as clear as possible in her mind. It was she, who grilled them for every single piece of the story, and took almost a month to be convinced of the authenticity, and actually accept what had happened, and forgive the two for what they had done to her son. It was on the third day of Ollie’s being conscious— still not discharged from the hospital though— when she allowed his friends to finally visit him and tell him everything. 

And that was precisely what they were doing right now. 

Suddenly the doors to the ward flew open, and in the doorway stood Zayto and Aiyon, grinning as usual, with a massive box in their hands. 

“Whoa?! What’s this guys?” 

“It’s a happy recovery party for you” Amelia grinned at the blue ranger, as the red and gold rangers set the cake down, and opened the box. 

Happy Fiftieth Anniversary Jim and Cecilia

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhh” there was a long moment in which no one said anything, and five seconds later, all six teens were doubling over in laughter. 

“Boys are idiots” Izzy said, shooting a glance at the two Rafkonians, and Amelia nodded solemnly, “I second that!” 

“You know what… I think we can make this work” Ollie wrinkled his eyebrow, dipping a finger in the frosting which Amelia slapped away, “just a little manoeuvring and change the Jim to Javi and Cecilia to Amelia” 

“Yeah… but it’s not our fiftieth anniversary dude!” Javi groaned, blushing as he giggled. Amelia realised just how much she loved his laughter, at that moment, staring at him, while they were surrounded by all their friends… and it occurred to her, just how happy they had been since he’d come back to life. Yes, adjusting to being alive again was difficult, this new body of his felt like the old one, but somehow… different. Javi rarely mentioned it to anyone, but it was true, and Amelia saw it in his demeanour. She knew he was haunted by memories of his death, and the time he had spent back then; the nightmares came frequently, the insecurities even more so. But she was always there with him. And whenever he woke up screaming in the middle of the night, he’d see her face, and calm down immediately, a warm smile spreading over his face as she’d wrap her arms around his neck, and pull him into a kiss, before calming him back to sleep. She never really left his side after the events… 

They had been so starved of physical touch, they hadn’t even realised it, until they could . The touches, the kisses, the hugs, the shoulder nudges, the linking fingers, the hand holding, the pecks on the cheeks, the running of fingers on every smooth surface of the body, the wiping away of tears, the soothing of each other’s goosebumps… all the subtle, and not so subtle things felt like a pleasure. They didn’t mind holding hands all day, doing everything they were doing with the other hand, if it didn’t mean letting go.

“So Javi, What was it like, being a ghost?” The question was dripping with skepticism, but Javi smiled and shrugged, “I felt like I was… it was the world that felt different” 

There was silence in the room, as they all waited for Javi to continue. None of them had explicitly asked what it had felt like to him, yet.

“Hey I’m just glad we’re all okay” Javi cut the tension in the air, sensing the terseness, “I’m sorry about what I did to you, Ollie” 

“Hey! Even if I do believe that what you did happened because you were a ghost… no bad blood. It was an accident” the blue ranger smiled good naturedly, “it’s ok bro. We’re cool” 

“Thanks Ollie” Javi nodded, and then looked at Amelia, then at Izzy, “you girls gonna come with me, to replace the cake that these two idiots messed up?” 

“Uhmmm okay!! Zayto, Aiyon, catch Ollie up on how you two got together meanwhile, ok?!” Amelia ordered, and the rafkonians nodded, laughing lightly, and Ollie stared at them incredulously, “you mean— you two—“ 

“YES!” 

“Oh gosh someone get me a girlfriend or a boyfriend too” Ollie chuckled, as Javi, Amelia and Izzy made their way out of the hospital ward. Five metres away from the room, Javi tapped Izzy on the back, handing the cake to her, “can you have Fern get it with you? I… I kinda felt like spending time with Amelia…” Javi nervously toyed with his thumb ring, and looked at the pink ranger, who was blushing now. 

“Yeah bro… sure” Izzy winked, “go get some!” And then to Amelia she mouthed ‘take care of him’ a little too menacingly, and Amelia, a little scared of her boyfriend’s sister, yes, nodded, as her and Javi ran to the other side now. 

“You… wanted to spend time with me?” 

“I… wanted to say I love you” 

“Javi you’ve said it a million times” 

“I know, I know…” he looked the other way, his fingers still messing with that thumb ring, “but narrating all of those… events… to Ollie… they stirred up some emotions” he was also blushing, “and it made me realise how much we’ve gone through together…” 

“It’s okay Javi… you don’t have to—“

“If I die agai—“ she didn’t let him complete the sentence, sealing his lips with hers in a passionate kiss, pushing him back against the too white almost sterilised hospital wall. 

When they parted, he started again, “If I die again— and don’t stop me, you know it can happen again. We’re rangers, we put our lives on the line every day… what I'm saying is that, if I die again, please don’t steal my morpher again” he chuckled nervously. 

“And lose the chance of bringing you back to life?” She asked, annoyed. 

“No, not that… I mean… as a momento… that’s why you wanted my Dino key, right?” She nodded, and he continued, “take this” he removed his thumb ring, and handed it to her, “if you’re ever apart from me… or feel the need to feel near me when you’re not… this… I’ve had this for a really long time. And I want you to have it.”

She stared at it intently, she’d not seen it since the early days, back when Javi had joined the team. Back then, whenever he was nervous, this thing would somehow pop up on his finger, and he’d be playing with it mindlessly. Guess as he got comfortable around them, a stress reliever became redundant… but his gesture was beautiful. She wore it on her finger. It was a little loose, but she knew she could work with it. It was her most precious possession now. 

“Wait!” Just as he was about to turn away, she called him back, and he searched her face for an explanation. 

“Wait… if you say you can die again, so can I. And it’s not fair if you’re the one giving me something precious of yours to keep. It should be evened out.” She said, reaching her hands behind, and unclipping her little heart shaped locket, and placing it in Javi’s wrist, and folding his fingers into a fist around them. 

“Pop Pop got me this when I was twelve. It has ‘mine’ engraved on top.” She smiled, and he blushed, “let’s hope we don’t have a repeat of this drama again… but if we do, just remember, I’m yours… just as much as this locket is” 

“And I’m yours…” 

They were holding hands now, staring unblinkingly into each other’s eyes, “Always and Forever” 

Author's Note:-

Aiight I'm going to take a few minutes to be a total emotional wreck about this fic ending so if anyone’s not in the mood for that, skip ahead… the fic is over ^^ 

I.... I really REALLY WANNA THANK EVERYONE WHO. READ THIS FIC AND COMMENTED ON IT, AND LEFT KUDOS AND VOTED ON THAT LIFE/DEATH POLL AND BOOKMARKED AND DFGFNJDMSEFHEUHRGUIRJJFJKGJNDNJG ALL THAT STUFF BECAUSE LIKE. FOR THE FIRST TIME I THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE ACTUALLY LIKED MY FIC AND THIS WAS A VERY BIG THING AND VVVV OVERWHELMING AND I JUST WANNA SAY THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOUUUUUUU T-T

Special Shout out to @CampionSayn you've been there since the first chapter and like...  I couldn't have done it without your always so supportive comments that just encouraged me to keep going!!! *hugs* *Also slides in this moodboard you made because it lives rent free in my brain*

@MarvelVisuals and @somethingthing23 my two best friendos  who I've tortured SOOOO much with this fanfic... On DMs and otherwise... THANK YOU SO SO SOOO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING GUYS UwU ILY FJHTRGFJDSJHREHNGHRTHGRTHGRJNDFG

(Another moodboard that I requested @MarvelVisuals to make....)

Last but definitely NOT the least @reiofthemoonflower with whom I became friends with thanks to this fic and now I'll protect them w everything I have <3  AND who gave me the biggest honor of all... *dies before completing the sentence* 

Anyway LOOK *still sobbing*

(I wasn't sure if I should embed the images, so I just put in the links!! ^^)

BUT REALLY THANK YOU ISN'T ENOUGH I NEED MORE POWERFUL WORDS!!!

And now a rant about this fic because I've written/completed a multichapter fic after almost two years, and it honestly came out so well >//< while ending I decided to put all other projects on hold because my brain felt... uhhhh.... anyway, I'll be continuing all fics and all those oneshots now ^^ FINALLY, I know, I know, it's been wayyy too long!

One more thing I wanna say just how much, as someone who writes of nothing but romance, little physical touches are important for comfort and that the absence of those in this fic added to the narrative because of Javi's being a ghost, and it was a pain for me to write the comfort scenes without them touching and trying to be soft. Made me realise just how... Important... these little things are... annnnnndddd I forgot what else I was supposed to say. ALSO playlist

ANYWAY SO LONG FOR NOW!! <3 Hope we meet again!!!