It took a while for the FBI to conduct a full investigation on the fire and the suicide bomber.
By the time it was done, Shane was exhausted. Tori had gone back to the Wind Ninja Academy a couple hours ago at Shane's insistence.
He put his gun down on his old nightstand and rubbed his eyes, trying to remember the last time he had a good night sleep. He'd spent a year as the red wind Power Ranger. And most of that year was spent with less than enough sleep to get through the day.
And it didn't change once Lothor was defeated.
He'd wake up in a cold sweat, chilled by his memories. Sometimes he'd wake up screaming at a scratching at the window.
He'd talked to Dustin and Hunter about it a few times, and it was clear they had the same problem. But he didn't dare talk to Tori about it. She had this thing about her that made her see past any bullshit you tried to feed her... even when Shane was playing tough, she just knew.
Maybe it was girl thing, he didn't know. He rarely had time for them. Being a rookie FBI agent that made it into the Bureau off recommendations and special training required some focus and hard work. There was never time for a relationship.
He'd gone on maybe three dates in his life. One of them with a girl in his office (terrible idea, the two had no chemistry at all) and the other two back in high school.
He put his phone down and made sure to turn up the volume, in case he got a call while he slept.
He laid down and rubbed his eyes again, wondering if sleeping in his old bed would do him any good. He'd moved out a handful of years ago and hadn't slept here since.
The second he closed his eyes he was asleep.
"I have your ranger powers! You are powerless!" Lothor chided, gesturing to the batch of ninja students that were currently fighting for all that was good and their lives.
"We won't let you win!" Shane declared, knowing that he had to do whatever it took to stop Lothor from taking over the world.
"What can you do to me without your powers?" Lothor demanded cockily.
"We may not be Power Rangers, but we still have power. POWER OF AIR!"
"POWER OF EARTH!"
"POWER OF WATER!"
"NINJA POWERS!" The trio called out, raising their fingers into the air and pointing them at Lothor.
"What happened?" Tori asked.
...
"Hello... Red Ranger."
"Lothor." Shane called out, not entirely sure how he ended up in this dark room. The last thing he remembered he was in his bed at home...
"You have defied me for the last time, ranger. Prepare to die like your classmates."
In his head, Shane saw many of the students that died. Each manner of death, each blow, each strike, each torturous attack. Each shout of war from Lothor's army.
"No way. I'm putting you back in the Abyss... NINJA STORM RANGER FORM HA!"
But nothing happened.
"You are powerless."
"Not a chance." Shane said, trying to summon his ninja energy and failing. "What's going on here?"
"HAHAHA." Lothor laughed evilly, "You are useless... so i will destroy you, your friends, starting with the blue ranger..."
"Tori... NO!"
"TORI!" Shane shouted, jolting upright with sweat pouring down his shirtless chest, his breathing heavy. He took a few deep breaths, "It was just a dream." He told himself.
"Sounded like a nightmare."
"Ah!" Shane jumped and grabbed his gun, but a soft hand kept him from moving it. "Tori?"
"Hey, your mom called. She said you seemed off."
"Off? I don't know what she means. I feel fine." He said, putting the gun back on the nightstand.
"Clearly, that's why you jumped when you heard me."
"You startled me, and I was asleep." Shane reasoned, rubbing his eyes and sitting on the edge of the bed. "What time is it?"
"A little after eleven. I just got here."
Shane rubbed his forehead and tried to remember if he was supposed to go into the office today.
"Take the week off, Shane." His boss had told him before he left, "You need time to heal before getting back to work after losing a friend."
"Getting back to work is how I heal, Rob." Shane explained, grabbing his keys and his wallet from his desk. "I'll be back on Monday."
Rob just shook his head and walked back to his cubicle.
Shane shook himself out of the flashback and tried to remember what day it was.
"Is it Saturday or Sunday?"
"Saturday." Tori confirmed.
"Okay. I'll probably head home after lunch then..."
"The wake."
"Right." Shane remembered, "And the funeral's tomorrow?"
Tori nodded, "And don't think I don't realize you're using that to steer the conversation away from what I came here to talk about."
Damn... she caught him.
He sighed, "It's just been hard lately."
"What?"
"Sleeping. I feel like everyday is another face we lost."
Tori nodded again, "I feel that way sometimes too."
"How do you get through it?" Shane asked, going to his old dress and pulling an old shirt on.
"I try to focus on helping people... the ones that I can."
"And the ones that you can't save?" Shane asked rhetorically.
"Well, the stakes aren't that high anymore."
"Not for you."
Tori sighed, "Look I get that you're going through a rough time. I doubt there are any rangers in history that didn't struggle at some point with PTSD. Honestly, I think you should see a therapist."
Shane chuckled, "You think I'm crazy..."
"I think you're hurting." Tori countered, "I think being the Red Ranger took such a toll on you that you don't know how to process your feelings anymore."
"I think she's right Shane." Porter said, walking through the open door and closing it on his way in. "That kind of stress can't be good for your health."
"No offense bro, but I doubt you understand what really happened."
"None taken."
"Shane, I went to see a therapist. She's the one who recommended charity work." Tori told him. "It's nothing to be ashamed of."
"What am I supposed to tell them? 'Hey, I just saved the world from evil's domination. And now I can't sleep at night. Is it because I was a Power Ranger and watched a lot of my friends die right in front of me? Thanks for the help.'" Shane gave her a look.
"You don't have to tell her..."
"But what's the point of being honest with a therapist, or seeing one at all if you don't tell them exactly what happened? But we can't. It's against the rules."
Tori shrugged, "Then maybe we should just talk about it. I'm no therapist, but maybe talking to a friend who was there will make it easier."
"Thanks Tori, but I'll be fine." Shane said, making to leave the room. "I just have to figure this out on my own."
When Shane left, Porter put his hand on Tori's shoulder and said, "Don't worry, he'll come around. When he's ready for help, he'll ask for it."
"I hope so."
...
"So like, normal me? What are we doing here?" Cyber Cam asked.
"A little investigating." Cam explained, sneaking through the window and jumping down silently.
"What are we investigating?"
"Blake's death... I just have a hard time believing it was an accident."
"Yeah totally." Cyber Cam agreed, following his real-life counterpart to the part of Police Lock-Up that had the motorbike.
Cam made it to the bike and pulled out his tool set, but he didn't get a chance to open it.
"What's this?" He pulled a small purple piece of metal off the navy bike and inspected it.
...
Hunter had received a note.
It chilled him to his core, making the loss of Blake that much worse.
He called all of his friends over to the old headquarters for the second time in two days for the reading.
Once everyone was there, aside from Cam who hadn't answered the call, Hunter read the note.
"Dear Hunter,
I know about the bike. I know what's wrong with it. And I know it's not a good idea for me to go out and ride it.
I can take care of the fixes, do the work... but it's just been so hard lately without the others. Being off alone, it's taken a toll on me. I've been in a bad place for a while, maybe that's why i kept riding alone. Hoping that something bad would happen and that would be the end of my story by accident.
But it didn't.
I know it's not a traditional method, but I want you to understand that if I died... I wanted too. I know its selfish of me, and I feel bad that I'm leaving you behind. But I haven't slept in months, I can't stop drinking, and doing other things that I shouldn't be doing.
It just felt like it was the only answer.
Tell Tori I'm sorry for what I did to her... it's one of those things I never forgave myself for.
Your brother,
Blake"
Hunter stared down at the letter, despite this being the umpteenth time he'd read it.
"I guess he did know." Hunter said, choking a little on the words.
Shane went over and hugged his friend, who'd broken down into tears.
Hunter set the paper down and Dustin looked at it.
"Why is it so discolored right here?" Dustin wondered aloud.
"What do you mean?" Shane asked, taking the paper and scanning it with his eyes. "Wait, wait a minute. Look at these marks..."
"What marks?" Tori and Hunter asked at the same time.
Shane scratched his head, "I'm not saying for sure... but the writing looks different write here. It looks like... at least two different pieces of paper."
"Like he glued two pieces of paper together?" Dustin asked.
Shane went over to Cam's desk and set it under the scanner to analyze it.
"It's not a match. Two different people wrote this note." Shane said when the results showed up on the computer.
"What are you saying?" Hunter asked.
"I'm saying I don't think this is suicide." Shane said, staring at the words. "The new writer inserted a piece in, right about here." Shane underlined the line right above the apology to Tori. "This below is his writing... but this, this doesn't match. His e's are off, his a's are different... everything."
"But why would he send such a short note?" Hunter asked.
Shane thought about it.
"What if whoever forged the other half of the note ripped the original writing from Blake? What if there was more to the original message?" Tori suggested.
Shane nodded, "I worked a case like this last October. We thought this girl killed herself over her boyfriend, who cheated on her. Turns out, the girl he cheated with pushed her off a bridge and stole a note from that same girl and forged a suicide letter with her note. She only forged a few lines, but she sent it in the mail. Just so happened, the camera caught her, and we busted her for homicide."
"So this could be the same thing." Dustin reasoned.
"It is." Cam said, coming down the stairs to Ninja Ops. "I found this on Blake's bike. It's alien technology designed to affect the interface of human technology. I still can't get Cyber Cam working again, and he was just standing by it."
"So what does it do?" Tori asked.
"It messes with circuits, takes control of them. In the case of Blake's bike, it spun out of control and exploded. Killing him instantly, but this kind of alien tech doesn't belong on Earth. The only reason I've ever seen it is because I talked to a green ranger from a few generations before us and he identified it for me."
"So Blake was murdered." Shane decided, pulling out his phone and dialing his bosses' phone number. "You wanted me to look into it; I'm looking into it."
Bum bum bummmmmm
All joking aside, this was a tough chapter to write. I considered breaking off before they discovered it was staged, but I decided I didn't have the heart to put you through all of that. So, I hope you enjoy the little fic. And we'll see you next time.
As always, please review, follow, favorite, and whatever else it is you do between updates.
Have a great day.
