Whatever happened, Lucas Kendall was a trained Time Force Officer – first and foremost.
Reflexes honed by years of training in conditions that tested both body and mind kicked in, and he twisted his body, angling his fall, so that he would land on the nearby hedges, which would soften his landing.
Or soften my deathbed, Lucas thought with a touch of bitter humour.
The fall was surprisingly harder than he had expected, knocking all the breath out of his lungs. The barbed branches of the hedge tore at his skin and jacket, while the falling glass fragments had left a dozen nasty scratches down his limbs. He rolled onto the lawn, landing on his back, trying desperately to regain some semblance of breath. The heavy bruising his body had taken – particularly his chest, which felt like he had just cracked half his ribs – didn't make the job any easier.
Even then, gasping for breath, pushed to his death by a man he considered his friend, he could only think of the Time Force – and her.
Lucas, she had said. Lucas, with such concern and shock, torn between her dizzying astonishment at the kiss she had just received, and horror at what Wes had just done.
It only made him love her even more.
He groaned, having finally caught his breath. He rose shakily, slowly to his feet, one hand held over his injured ribs. He held a nearby tree for support, and wondered at the thoughts that were coursing through his mind.
Love. Hmph. Lucas Kendall, you sure have changed since you came to this blasted time period.
He could hear the voices of the other Rangers starting to filter toward his direction, and decided that it was about time he left. Somehow, he couldn't bear the thought of seeing them again. Not when his lust had thrown off the team's balance so much.
Not when Wes still loved Jen.
He reached down and stroked the dial on his wrist morpher and felt the pleasant tingling sensation as his body morphed into the Time Force Blue Ranger.
The morpher was a remarkable thing, really. One of the most sophisticated technologies that the big brains of the Time Force Academy had created. A device that connected to your DNA, your genetic code, and translated that into the appropriate Ranger uniform and weapons. What made the Rangers so invincible in their morphed forms was that they literally had a copy of their own self – besides the elaborate protection gear that the uniform provided – that covered their original bodies; another expression of their personality that provided them the shielding that they needed. The morpher was now a part of him, and he was part of the morpher.
He had not chosen to be Blue Ranger; Blue Ranger had chosen to manifest himself in him.
Normally Lucas wouldn't have thought of messing with equipment like this – there were stories about former Rangers who had gotten so ingrained with their morpher that they had grown obsessed with their Ranger status. Lucas had seen some of the symptoms in Alex, himself – when his dead comrade had been the Red Ranger. Lucas had sworn never to go down that path, despite the glory that it carried, thanks to the immense amount of disorder that came with the extra responsibility.
But when the mess with Ransik had happened, and Alex died –
When he had seen Jen's tears, and her unbendable will and determination to go back in time and capture Ransik once and for all –
-- he realised that he had no choice.
The morpher had already chosen him.
Lucas limped away as fast as he could, moving among the shadows. He turned off his communicator, trying not to breathe too heavily, trying to suppress the pain shooting from every part of his body, thankful for the night that had settled onto the city. His Ranger uniform made things slightly easier, but Lucas still felt uncomfortable staying morphed for large periods of time.
He looked back at the clock tower one last time, a tall black spire against the navy-blue sky.
I will end this for you, Jen. You – we – need not suffer anymore.
Yes – once Ransik was defeated, they could get back to the future. Start over. And until that was achieved, he would not waste time doing small jobs, engaging in petty jealousies, and fighting mutants in a dreary, daily routine – a routine that took them no closer to reaching their goal.
He would defeat Ransik – whatever it took.
----------------------------
"Lucas!"
Wesley Collins watched with almost frightening detachment as Lucas – his second-in-command, his friend – fell through the shattered glass clock face, surprise and an eerie sort of satisfaction etched onto his sharp features. After what seemed an eternity later – during which Jen's scream, Katie and Trip's gasps echoed again and again in the small room until Wes's universe seemed to reverberate with the sound – he heard a muffled thud. Lucas had landed.
Jen ran to the edge of the shattered glass face, peering at the darkened lawn below, delicate brow furrowed in concern. "I can't see him." Her hands bunched into fists. "I can't see him!" She whirled around and glared at Wes, hazel eyes filled with disbelief that a man she had slowly come to respect – maybe even love – had done such a callous thing. Her lips trembled, as if she were about to explode.
However, Trip was the first to respond.
"Wes… why did you do that?"
The Xybrian's normally cheerful voice was filled with pain, disbelief – his unassuming, pure ideals shattered by what he had just seen.
Wes could've stood up to yelling, accusing, maybe even fighting, but he couldn't bear to hear the betrayal in Trip's voice.
"I'm… sorry. I… he…"
"Sorry? Is that all you can say?" Jen had finally exploded. "After sending Lucas to his death, all you can say is sorry?"
"What else do you expect me to say?" Wes shouted wildly. "He… he was kissing you, Jen! Was… was kissing you…" He trailed off, adding mentally, And you weren't protesting.
"Maybe what he did was wrong, but you had no right to react like that, Wes," Jen responded acidly. "You had no right to interfere in my personal life."
Wes staggered back a few steps, as if she had just slapped him across the face. "And what does that imply?" he tried to retort, but couldn't quite mask the tremor that crept into his voice along with the question.
She didn't answer.
"Tell me, Jen, what does that imply?" he pressed without quite knowing why he was doing so.
More silence, that seemed to settle onto the clock tower room like a crushing blanket of snow, suffocating them. A breeze blew in from the broken window, ruffling Jen's hair.
"You love him, don't you?" he whispered, the inference bringing him more pain that he had originally imagined it would. "You love Lucas."
Jen's gaze shifted to the floor. "I… I don't…"
"That's quite enough."
Katie's sharp command cut through the silence, startling both Wes and Jen.
"We need to go down there and look for Lucas – check if he's still alive." Katie's dark eyes had clouded, but her voice didn't falter. "We don't have time to waste arguing here – he might be badly hurt."
"I have to agree, guys," Trip said, striding toward the door. "We can resolve this later."
One hour of intense searching later, the four exhausted Rangers hadn't found anything. The only thing that hinted at what had happened were the glass fragments scattered over the lawn, a few them limned with blood.
Lucas's blood.
Jen leaned against the tower wall, closing her eyes, her mind in a state of disbelief. This couldn't be happening. Not on this mission. Not when she was trying to avenge Alex…
"It seems like Lucas has left us," Wes said wearily. "Either that, or he's been kidnapped."
"He wouldn't allow himself to be kidnapped without making some sort of noise," Katie said.
"What if he had been unconscious?"
"Even so, we would've heard something. Cyclobots and mutants aren't the subtlest of kidnappers, and there's no way Ransik or Nadira could've known of this so quickly."
"So," Jen said slowly. "You're implying that he just… just left?"
Katie nodded. "Seems like the only thing that could've happened."
Trip tried to smile. "Hey, look at the bright side, guys. At least Lucas is alive, and was well enough to leave before we could find him." He spread his hands. "He's probably just… upset about this whole thing, that's all. Maybe we should give him some time to cool off. Think it over. He'll return to us soon, I'm sure of it."
"But we don't have the luxury of so much time," Jen said softly. "Without him, our ranks are seriously depleted. With the emergence of the Quantum Ranger and Q-Rex and the uncertainty regarding the Silver Guardians' loyalty, this problem couldn't have chosen a worse time to rear its head."
Wes bit his lip. "He has his morpher, right? Have you tried tracking him through that?"
Katie gave him a deadpan look. "Of course. He's turned his communicator off, and though I know his morpher is currently activated, it's almost impossible to find out his exact location right now."
"It seems to me that he doesn't want to be found." Trip looked at his friends seriously. "Like I said guys, we don't have a choice now. At least for the next twenty-four hours. We'll try to reason with him, try to persuade him to come back then, okay?"
Jen stared at Trip for a long time, then nodded slowly. Katie and Wes were quick to concur with the Pink Ranger. "He'd better come back before that," Katie muttered.
The four Rangers silently trooped back inside the tower, feeling an inexplicable exhaustion seep into their bones. Trip brought the rear, his gaze shadowed and worried as he looked at Wes, and then the red morpher tied around his wrist. Alex's morpher…
Trip shook his head and clenched his fists.
What is it doing to you, Wes?
--------------------------------------
Eric Meyers, currently Quantum Ranger, head of the Silver Guardians, and a very satisfied man, drove through the dark road to his apartment, mind buzzing with all the information he had just received.
Bio-Labs, since the formation of the Silver Guardians and his unprecedented acquiring of the Quantum Morpher, had become a literal beehive of scientists and soldiers, the former keen on analysing the mutants that were attacking the city, and the latter keen on destroying them. There was always something new being discovered, or invented – theories, from the wildest to the most pragmatic, being flung all over the place, devices that defied modern sciences being constructed on a nearly daily basis.
But none of them were as weird, Eric reflected, as the one that rested in his pocket at that moment.
He patted the little bulge of the device that he held in his shirt pocket, its miniscule size belying the magnitude of its importance.
-
"Eric, I need you to take care of this for my sake. For Bio-Labs'. For humanity's."
Unfazed by the uncharacteristic drama from the chief of Bio-Labs, Eric examined the little sphere he had cupped in his palm. "Me, sir?"
"Yes, you, Eric." Mr. Collins had called him by his first name twice already. This had to be important. "You, as Quantum Ranger, are the only one here capable of handling this job." He clasped his hands behind his back, and switched his narrowed gaze onto Eric. "That little sphere could be the answer to everything that Bio-Labs – and the Silver Guardians – have been trying to achieve. We have to use it when the time is right."
Eric stiffened. "I accept this responsibility, sir."
"And I'm sure you'll carry it out without a hitch. However, Eric, I need you to remember this: you will not speak of this sphere – and of its power – to anybody else, other than myself and Dr. Zaskin. Not even to your subordinates. And especially not to the Time Force Rangers."
"Of course, sir. I understand. I will not divulge information about this to anybody else."
"Excellent, Eric. I knew I could depend on you."
-
Eric sighed, and leaned back in his seat for a moment. I wonder where all that trust was before I became Quantum Ranger.
Suddenly, his headlights illumined the figure of a person stumbling across his path, and Eric had his trained reflexes to thank as he immediately grabbed the steering wheel and swerved away, missing the person by barely a few inches. Another one of those drunks, I suppose, Eric thought derisively, as he brought the skidding car to a halt, unbuckled his seatbelt, and got out of the car, ready to give the pathetic fool a piece of his mind.
The 'drunkard' beat him to it.
"You know, Meyers, you're not a half-bad driver."
Eric stiffened at the perfectly sober voice, its deep tones so familiar it sent chills down his spine. "Who the hell are you?"
The mysterious figure stepped into the light, and Eric's eyes narrowed at the dishevelled, bruised form; the torn black jacket and jeans, at the nasty scar on his forehead and arms.
"You're… you're one of Wes's friends, aren't you." It wasn't a question. "Blue Time Force Ranger."
The man nodded. "I'm Lucas Kendall."
Does he know about the sphere? "What do you want?"
The man took a deep breath. "I've come to you," he said, "to make a proposition."
Eric's eyebrows rose. "A proposition?"
"Yes – one that you can't refuse."
"I'll be the judge of that."
Lucas stepped closer. "I wish to join the Silver Guardians."
Eric's eyebrows now rose so much that they seemed to be in danger of disappearing into his hairline. "You wish to join us? Now? Why the sudden change of mind?"
"The other Rangers and I… have come to a certain disagreement as far as our strategy is concerned." The calm brown gaze was almost haunting. "I believe the Silver Guardians have a better chance of achieving our goals, and this time, I wanted to make the right choice."
Eric couldn't believe it. After having refused the offer before to join the Silver Guardians with his friends, Eric found it incredulous that the Blue Ranger would willingly seek the out and wish to join. "And how do I know you're not a spy?"
A flicker of annoyance passed through Lucas's face. "I assure you, my loyalties are now with your side."
"Hm." This was the opportunity that the Bio-Labs had been waiting for. Having two Rangers working for them – especially if one of them was an experienced Time Force Ranger – would surely quadruple their strength. And, Eric, reflected, there were always ways to keep Lucas from knowing too much…
He expelled a deep breath. "All right, Lucas Kendall, I accept your proposition."
He shook Lucas's extended hand.
"Ranger Kendall, Welcome to the Silver Guardians."