Haruka's Fanfic Journal

This is the result of a 15-minute challenge. Contains spoilers for later episodes of Gekirangers.

A Lion’s Pride (Gekirangers)

By Haruka (haruka@eastlink.ca)

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The sliding door closing behind him made Rio jump inside. It sounded too much like a cell door, which was probably no more than he deserved for his crime of trying to take over the world.

But instead he was here, back at Gekiranger headquarters. They were going to take he and Mele in, despite everything they’d done. How was it that these people could be so forgiving? Especially Jan – GekiRed -- the kid who had been raised by animals in the woods. That never would have happened if he, Rio, hadn’t killed his father. All right, maybe Dan had already been injured at the time and Rio, not knowing, had thought it was a fair challenge, but still –

How could Jan forgive him? How could ANY of them?

“Rio-sama?”

He looked up at the sound of Mele’s voice. She, too, would forgive him anything, even not being able to rescue her without the Gekirangers’ help. Yet still she affixed that honorific to his name. “You shouldn’t call me that,” he told her. “I’m no longer in charge of the RinJyuKen. All of our plans were for nothing.”

“No!” she declared firmly and rushed to kneel at his feet. “It wasn’t for nothing at all! If not for your ambitions and strength, you wouldn’t have resurrected me. Together we fought and struggled and overcame all obstacles –“

“Except Long,” Rio growled under his breath.

“Long was an unforeseen complication,” Mele said with distaste obvious in her tone. “We thought he was on our side – how could we know he was manipulating everything to his own agenda?”

“But what do we do now?” Rio turned away, his voice flat. “We have nothing left.”

He felt her hand suddenly grasp his firmly. “You have me, Rio-sama! And I have you. And we both have new friends. The Gekirangers and Master Shafu will help us adjust – maybe one day we can pay them back by joining THEIR fight. But right now ….” Mele lay her cheek against his hand. “Right now I regret nothing, because we’re still together.”

Rio stared down at her for a few moments, then squeezed her hand and drew her to her feet. He touched her cheek and wondered how he could ever have been so blind as to not see what was right before his very eyes. As he embraced her, he vowed that for her – no, for their future – he would swallow his lion’s pride and accept help from their former enemies. Maybe that way, he could finally find peace.

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(2008)

15 minute challenge, no prompt.

Gekirangers belongs to Toei.

This fic is not to be reposted.