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.

~TBC