Author's Note: Hope everyone's enjoying this so far :)
In Memory
Chapter 3
"Wait, you're telling us that we have a green ranger on our team?" Shelby asked skeptically. "Since when?"
Tyler scratched his head in confusion. "It doesn't make sense, Ms. Morgan. You said that the three of us entered the Dinolair for the first time together, but Shelby and I don't remember picking up anyone on our way to the museum."
Unsuccessfully trying to clamp down on her rising panic, Kendall turned to the remaining two rangers. "Koda? Chase?"
The caveman frowned in concentration, but shook his head wordlessly after a while. Chase, on the other hand, seemed to be zoning out, clutching the front of his black hoodie in a tight grip. "I don't know," he whispered, the fist over his heart beginning to tremble. "I feel like I should recognize him, but I don't."
Exchanging glances with Keeper, Kendall took a deep breath and mentally counted to ten. "Okay, what's the last thing you remember after leaving the base to confront Fugue?"
"He was causing trouble in the city square," Tyler said, earning murmurs of agreement from his teammates. "We morphed and started to fight the Vivix he sent after us."
Koda spread his arms wide. "He had… big gun?"
"Some kind of bazooka he was carrying around," Shelby clarified. "It looked really old and run down, like it was going to fall apart any second."
"He fired at us and we all went down, but it must have short circuited or something because the thing just started to smoke," Chase recalled distractedly. "He turned tail and fled pretty quickly after that, the coward. We weren't able to catch up to him, so we came back. And that's it."
Kendall nodded in understanding. "I see. Alright then, that's enough for today. Get some rest and I'll see you all tomorrow."
"What about green ranger?" Koda asked.
"I'll let you know when we have more information about what's going on. Until then, stay alert."
Having been dismissed, Tyler and Shelby packed up their belongings and headed for the cargo hold while Koda retreated into his cave. Chase lingered behind however, looking somewhat lost.
"Something wrong, Chase?" Kendall kept a close eye on him, knowing that he and Riley always left together even though they lived in separate apartments. She pretended to be oblivious to the running bet between Tyler and Shelby as to who would ask the other to move in with them first, even though they'd only been dating for a few months.
The black ranger started at the sound of his name and clenched a fist over his heart again. "No, nothing, I just… It feels like I'm forgetting something…"
Kendall could only watch as Chase's free hand grasped uselessly at the air by his side, as though reaching for an invisible person, before he forced his feet to start moving towards the door. From his uncharacteristically subdued behavior ever since he had stepped into the Dinolair, she knew things were going to be rough on him over the next few days, which made her all the more determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.
"You suspect that the blast had something to do with their memories," Keeper commented once Chase had left, following the scientist as she made a beeline for her computer.
"Not just their memories. My scanners aren't picking up Riley's energy signature anywhere. Whatever that weapon did, it erased him physically as well." Kendall froze in the midst of typing, her face suddenly turning pale. "I don't even know if he's still alive…"
"He is." Keeper met her shocked gaze calmly. "I can still sense the power of the green Energem. It is weak, but it's what's keeping him tethered to this world. Perhaps if we can acquire that weapon, we may be able to find a way to reverse the process."
Exhaling sharply, Kendall nodded to herself and got back to work.
'We'll bring you back, Riley. I promise.'
Author's Note: Come find me on tumblr if you wanna chat :)