A/N: Soooooooo I had planned to do other stories first, but then I reread Saving Happiness and I had the thought of "wow. you really tortured poor Carter." and thus this was born. I haven't finished it yet, (and I'll be more motivated to do so if people review, hint hint hint, and I actually just wrote it so this is very drafty), but I just really wanted to post something because I haven't for like a year. So here you go.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except maybe the Red Ranger's outfit, but even that's borderline. ;)
"DANA!" Carter bolted upright in bed, his red bedspread was damp with sweat, and he could feel his heart pounding all the way down to his toes. He took in the small bedroom, and then leaned back against the wall. He just needed to take some deep breaths, do those stress-relieving exercises that they had workshops on when he was a firefighter. He just needed to relax.
But how could he when all he could see, all he could hear, were the rangers suffocating, hallucinating, falling, dying, Dana almost drowning, all because he couldn't answer some silly questions fast enough.
All because he had buckled under the stress.
In his mind, the Red Ranger had beaten him. He just wasn't good enough. Maybe nobody was, but he needed to find out. He needed to find her. Yes, all the rangers had agreed that they should not attempt to find the Red Ranger, but even in the name of love, she had gone too far.
And he would never forgive her for it.
Sure they other rangers had looked happy with their newly-admitted feelings, but he had seen the shadows under Sky's eyes, seen the lingering pain on Xander's face, seen the worry in Ashley's touch, and he had seen the pity in Dana's eyes the first time he had told her about one of his dreams. One of his never-ending nightmares. Carter had seen it all.
He got out of bed, pulling on a nearby shirt, and walking over to wear he had hung up his official Lighspeed Rescue coat. He stopped for a moment, fingering the lettering on the jacket, before finally putting it on, and walking out of his room. Outside his room, Carter came to a dead stop. Where should he start? He turned a brisk heel towards Ryan's room. Dana's brother would know all sorts of good contacts to get a tip for this sort of thing. His mind whirled as he came closer and closer to Ryan's door. He lifted his hand to knock, then cursed himself.
"It's the middle of the night Carter. Ryan's not even up, and you can't wake him up for this." He muttered, cursing himself again.
"Carter?" The man in question arrived, cocking his head curiously at the Red Ranger, "Why are you talking to yourself in front of my bedroom?"
"Ryan!" Curse his demon training, Carter thought as he jolted away from the door, "Uh…. Hi."
"Hi."
"So…. Uh… What are you doing up this, er, late?"
"I could ask you the same question." But seeing the look on his friend's face, the ex-evil ranger, he shrugged then continued, "Demons don't really sleep. I'm used to being awake long hours at night."
"Oh." Carter looked down at his shoes, then down the hallway, then at his shoes again.
"What's wrong?" Ryan finally asked, gazing curiously at the firefighter, "Is Dana okay?"
"She's fine!" Carter quickly reassured him, seeing the deadly big brother stare come across the blond in a flash, "She's just still a little bruised from the last… mission." Ryan nodded, quickly understanding that the last mission, with the rogue Red Ranger, was the source of Carter's strange behavior.
"Carter." Ryan pinned Carter with his eyes, "This is about her, isn't it?" the Red Ranger glanced down the hallway again, reassuring himself that his girlfriend wasn't standing at the end of it.
"I'm going after her Ryan. She has to be brought to justice for what she did to Dana and the other rangers." He lowered his voice, "Do you have any contacts that could help me find her?" Ryan cocked his head again, contemplating, then he opened the door to his room, gesturing for Carter to follow.
"I might know someone."
It was hard to believe that Karone was ever the Princess of Darkness, or that she had inspired terror in millions of people, and had been the closest of all the villains to take over Earth. The fact that Zordon had to sacrifice himself to stop her… it still made many of the rangers shudder to think about it. She still shuddered to think about it. When she had filled in for Kendrix, it was about redemption. When she worked undercover… well…. It was still about redemption, but it was also about not letting Andros or Zhane find out about her extracurricular activities involving dressing up like a supervillian to find out about various evil plots that she then told Tommy and (anonymously) her brother about.
But she was also the first ranger to start a XEA, or eX-Evil Anonymous,(only it wasn't really anonymous, that was just the official title to get new members), club with-in the ranger community. The club only really took off when Tommy started showing up to meetings, then all the macho-ness was dropped and all sorts of rangers and ex-villains started showing up. Anton Mercer was inducted soon after Dino Thunder hung up their morphers, followed closely by his son, Trent Mercer. The members included Katherine Hillard, the silent Merrick, the Bradley brothers (occasionally one of the wind ninjas would tag along), and the more recent additions of Leanbow and Nick from Mystic Force, and every so often Jason or Kimberly would show up.
And, as Carter found out, Ryan Mitchell was also a member.
"Hey Karone." Ryan spoke to the blond figure in the screen, "How's everyone doing on your side of the galaxy?"
"Good." The perky blond chirped, spying Carter in her view-screen, "But my guess is you didn't call to chat."
"Andros told you about the Rogue Red." Ryan stated, Karone suddenly scowled, and Carter had a very good idea of why she almost succeeded in taking over Earth.
"Makes me wish I was still Astronema." She muttered darkly, "What about her?"
"I want to find her." Carter put in determinedly, "I know that the group of rangers captured agreed not to, but I need to find her."
"I've tried." Karone shook her head, "So far I've gotten a lead of some alien technology that was stolen, Zhane's looking into that one and it could be completely unrelated, but that's it, that's all I've gotten."
"What about Tommy?" Carter pressed, "He seemed to know something."
"As soon as he got back he holed up with Kimberly and hasn't been heard from since." She grimaced, "And I am not about to interrupt that reunion, even to get my hands on the Red Ranger."
"Karone," Ryan interrupted before Carter could say something stupid, "What was the alien technology that was stolen?"
"It was a prototype that some scientists on KO-35 were working on. It was small, it couldn't really do much, so it wasn't that huge of a deal when they lost it." Karone glanced behind her, "Hey Cassie do you remember what exactly that did?" there was a voice in the background, then Karone turned back towards the monitor, and shrugged, "Apparently it didn't really work but it was supposed to utilize a humans dormant telekinesis powers. They've been trying for a long time now, and they've never been able to do it."
"Ryan." Carter thumped down on the bed.
"Carter, you okay?" Karone gazed worriedly at Ryan, "What's going on?" Ryan turned towards the Red Ranger.
"Ryan, Dana was hanging by nothing, nothing! Sure there was a rope going up to the ceiling, but it wasn't attached to anything!" He bolted back up into Karone's view, "She had to have been behind the theft and she was able to somehow utilize the technology."
"It's possible." Karone nodded, "I'll take another look at the tapes, but I still don't think we'll find anything to lead us to her."
"That's fine. We just need to start gathering the clues." He fingered his chin thoughtfully, "Is there anyway we can contact the future? Syd from SPD mentioned some ranger-technology that was stolen from them." Ryan nodded to him, glancing at Karone.
"Eric might be able to get a hold of Time Force, and they could patch us through to the time where SPD exists. But that would only be if he was willing to break the little pack that you guys made about not going after her." The Titanium Ranger gave Carter a grin, "Luckily I'm the one who contacted Karone, so you still haven't broken any bonds of fellowship."
"Hate to break it to you Ryan, but I plan to before this is all over." Carter gave Ryan a very rare grin in return, "And I think Eric Meyers will agree with me."
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A/N: Don't forget to review! Reviews= inspiration! And if you have suggestions, go for it, cus I don't really have a storyline yet....