Darkness Lives

Chapter Ten: First Battle

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Power Rangers in Space, and I'm not making any money from this fic. Oh, and much of the interior of the house comes from the game Fatal Frame/Project Zero; and the house's history comes from various horror films and the like – so don't own anything from The Grudge, Ringu, or any other horror film that might come into play

Summary: While he's frozen, Zhane's spirit detaches itself from his body and enters a haunted house on Earth, where he has to fight for higher stakes than his life

Warning(s): Violence; spoilers; some swearing; spanking in later chapters; horror themes

Katra grabbed onto Zhane's arm, and he didn't immediately shake her off. "Stay behind me," he said when he pulled his arm free. He didn't take his eyes off the air in front of him, feeling his heart pounding. He might be a Power Ranger, but this was so far outside the realm of his experience that he found he was – for one of the first times in his life – actually scared.

Looked like he was going to find out sooner than he'd thought about whether morphing would work or not.

The spectral figure of a woman appeared right in front of Zhane. The silver ranger shoved Katra back out of the way. "Stay out of this!" His fingers went immediately to the morpher on his wrist. "Let's rocket!"

It was with some relief that Zhane felt the familiar tingle as his ranger suit enveloped his body; but when he looked down, he was wearing a black ranger suit instead of his usual silver one. He was only given a moment to register that, though, as the ghost attacked him immediately.

"Okay... Let's see what this suit can do," Zhane muttered, fighting back – and was gratified when he managed to hit the spirit a glancing blow in the stomach. Without looking, he grabbed at his waist, finding a blaster there. He pulled it out, and shot the spirit, causing it to finally dissipate; but Zhane still had the feeling that the ghost had only been temporarily defeated.

When Zhane turned back to Katra, the girl stumbled back a few paces, hands raised as if to ward him off. "W...What are you?"

Zhane powered down, and gave a frown. "I'm a Power Ranger." She didn't know about Power Rangers? As far as he knew, he was on Earth... and he'd always thought that Earthlings knew about Power Rangers. But maybe they weren't as well-known as he'd always thought.

Katra shook her head, still staring at him as if he was no worse than the spirit who had just attacked. "It was like you were a ghost as well."

That was so close to the truth that Zhane's automatic denial died on his lips. He took a deep breath, and finally decided on a partial truth. "I'm not dead."

"How do I know you're not just saying that?"

"You don't. But the way I see it, you don't have a whole lot of options here. I don't know how you managed to survive this long, but you have to know it won't last. I'm the best chance you have to make it out of here alive."

Katra continued to stare at him. Then, finally, she made an awkward, half-jerky nod; and turned to the door set under the stairs. "Whatever you did... you managed to banish that spirit."

"Temporarily. I have no doubt that it'll come back. Maybe the only way to put the spirits here to rest is to break the curse on this house." Zhane glanced at Katra, relieved to see that she no longer seemed to be scared of him. "Ready?"

"No. But you might as well open the door anyway."

Zhane opened the door in time to see a man disappearing down the corridor it opened into.