Twisted

By: M.L. Shards

Disclaimer: Don't own Power Rangers...duh!

He watched as the Officer from HQ circled her, gesturing in an over the top manner and nearly screeching in hopes of making her break. He'd been trying for the passed two hours and nothing had passed her lips yet, save for a few witty insults here and there.

He knew he shouldn't be watching, that technically he was on duty and should be with Z patrolling, but he hadn't been able to set foot outside when he knew this was going on.

She sat, her hands cuffed to the interrogation room table, folded neatly in front of her, her braided hair had been let down and fell over her shoulders framing her face. She looked quite pretty…

He shook his head furiously. He couldn't afford to think like that, yet…

He'd always looked up to her, wanted to be like her. When she acknowledged him in the halls when he was still on C-Squad, even when she glared at him if he did something stupid or barked an order at him, he'd always admired her. Coming to terms with the fact she wasn't as honorable as he thought was making his brain work overtime to digest the information.

She was strict. She'd taught him a lot about regulations and such, maybe that was part of the reason he'd kept so inline with training, he'd wanted to impress her, maybe even serve with her someday…

But that would never happen, not now…

He couldn't hear what was being said very clearly since he'd partially zoned out into his little world while the Officer threw his hands up and stormed out of the room. He didn't even notice until the door on his left slammed shut and the Officer stormed in.

He nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Having fun watching?" the Officer snorted as he grabbed a bottle of water off of a nearby table, "she's a stubborn one, won't say what she told them, what got out about S.P.D. if I go back to HQ without an answer Birdie…well no, I guess it's Cruger now… will have my head."

He nodded unthinkingly as he studied the woman more carefully. She was rapping her nails on the desk impatiently and staring at the one-way window as if she could see through it. Of course she knew what the room on the other side looked like but it was still an eerie stare that made him feel like she knew he was there.

"Can I talk to her?"

The words were out of his mouth before it had even registered he wanted to say anything at all.

The Officer looked at him doubtfully raising an eyebrow, "Why?"

"Maybe I can get something," he lied shifting uncomfortably and tugging on the sleeves of his new uniform, "you know, she helped train me a bit…"

"Knock yourself out kid."

He managed to avoid retorting with "I'm not a kid."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he made his way out the back area and into the interrogation room to face her. He swallowed nervously before he took the seat across from her.

She raised her eyebrows, "What are you doing here? They think you'll be able to get something out of me?"

He met her eyes that were so much colder than he remembered, "Why'd you do it? You had so much here, respect, rank, friends…why throw that away?"

She put her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her fist as she studied him for a moment, "You're not here to interrogate me really, are you?" she stated it more than she asked it, "You're genuinely curious."

He nodded.

"Good," she continued, "I always saw some potential in you Tate."

He felt himself flush slightly; even when she was the enemy he found her praise worth a lot. He wanted to smack his head into something so his logically side could regain control and remind him she was bad and her praise should mean nothing.

"Why?" he coaxed leaning forwards slightly, like a young boy waiting for a bedtime story, "I need to know."

She reached out for him but her cuff prevented her from getting to him. She gestured for him to lean forwards more and he did. At more insistence he held his hand out to her in confusion. She gripped onto it firmly.

"You're the leader of the Earth A-Squad now-"

"B-Squad." he automatically corrected.

She rolled her eyes, "Whatever, just listen. Why are you here? What made you get here?"

He paused and lightly tried to remove his hand from her's, but she held on and stared him in the eye until he answered, "I suppose because my Dad was a Red Ranger, I wanted to be like him…" he trailed off wondering what this had to do with anything, and more importantly why he'd just told her.

"Okay, so that's why you're here. You're daddy dead?" she asked emphasizing "daddy" tauntingly and smirking slightly as he flinched at the question, "Never mind, I know he is. Ever want to hurt the person that did it?"

"We contained him," he replied furrowing his brow as her features turned into the face of the hero he'd had to someone more dangerous, scary even. She waited and he caught on, "but that's not what you mean…"

She nodded.

He thought about it. Had he really wanted to contain him again? Hadn't he wanted to do much worse? Sometimes he regretted S.P.D. didn't have a death penalty, Mirloc deserved much worse than death. He didn't notice his automatic reaction, that he'd started squeezing her hand as his blood began boiling at the thought of the criminal that had killed his father was simply stuck in confinement as opposed to suffering like he'd had to. He'd had to grow up without a farther because that idiot had just….just…taken him! He had no right to-

He caught himself and looked away from her, down at the table

"You wanted him to suffer," she cooed as she attempted to reach out and force him to look up at her. It didn't work, he was a bit too far away, "to rip him apart molecule by molecule, to kill him, didn't you soldier boy?"

He looked up at her, eyes flashing angrily. He was having a hard time getting his emotions in check, it scared him, and normally he was better at bottling stuff up than this. She began stroking the back of his hand, the touch mockingly soothing as he began to calm down.

"What does that-" he began but she interrupted.

"What if you had the chance to really get back at the person who took him? Would you do it?"

He swallowed hard again as he began to seriously think about it, "I-I don't know." he admitted.

"Well I knew," she replied as her nails dug into the back of his hand painfully, "they all hurt me. Everyone of them, society, the media, Cruger, all of them!" her voice became harsh, an edge of sadness creeping in through the bitterness, "You'll find being a Red Ranger means you have to put up with a lot of shit Tate. You do one thing wrong reporters hound you, civilians shun you, Cruger punishes you… I'd had enough! I was planning on leaving, all of us had just had enough…but when we were offered a chance to get back at all of them…"

He nodded solemnly, "You took it."

She smirked, "I always liked you Sky, for a C-Squad Cadet, you had the right idea about how things worked around here, kind of cute too…" she added raising her eyebrows suggestively and he looked away from her, embarrassed her techniques seemed to be working on him. Her tone of voice changed a bit with her next statement "You know it happens to everyone."

"No."

"Yes," she countered, "we're a lot a like. You'll crack, you'll turn, and I'll give you two years, tops. Trust me, with all the people who now know about S.P.D.'s little secrets, they'll be a busy two years. Broodwing sold the information to the highest bidder, now what was his name? Vilor? Well it doesn't matter, just that with the information highway he has it's all over the galaxy by now, just how to defeat S.P.D."

At that the Officer burst into the room with two guards, ready to take her away now that they had the information they needed.

He tried to process everything she just said as they un-cuffed her from the table, "Charlie, I looked up to you," he said glancing up at her addressing her with her first name as she let go of his hand and was forced to her feet. He was desperately trying to figure out a way that she was utterly wrong, yet all of her logic made some sense, "I-"

She smirked as she was hauled by the guards from the room, "Enjoy you're new rank while you can," she instructed then laughed evilly before she was pulled out of sight "I'll be seeing you soon Sky."

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