Inside of Venjix's lair, Tenaya 7 and General Crunch walked shamefully back to face their master. Tenaya still rubbed her shoulder from where she had been thrown, and Crunch was walking with a limp beside her. They entered the room and saw the giant red machine that was their master in front of them.
"So…" Venjix's loud voice said. "Where are my two new rangers?"
"U-uh, umm…" Crunch stammered. "Th-there…uh…"
"General Crunch!" Venjix shouted at him. "Where are my rangers!!" his voice was growing angrier with each word.
"The Green Ranger escaped somehow and interrupted our procedure." Tenaya explained with hesitation. "His little teammates sent a portal for him and Ranger Black and they hopped through it—there."
"What?!" Venjix's loud voice boomed, "How could you possibly of screwed this up! It was flawless!"
"We're so sorry, your Venjixness! I guess that keypad on Green's cell was faulty." Crunch told him worriedly.
"Either that or he's a computer geek." Tenaya chimed in.
"However," Crunch went on, "the machine reached ninety-eight percent before it crashed."
"Crunch!" Tenaya snapped at him, she felt that his ignorance was only making things worse.
"Wait!" Venjix intervened. "You said it got to ninety-eight percent? We may not have a problem after all." The master told them slyly.
"And how do you figure that?" Tenaya asked smart-alecky. She never was afraid to mouth of to her master when she felt it was necessary. He may have something over her by being her master, but she had something on her side too—her powers.
"Ranger Black in constructed from a product of my own design. If you say he was at ninety-eight percent when the procedure was interrupted, that means that deep down, the evil we wanted is there." Venjix told them proudly. "Chances are he won't be able to fight off the evil within him for long. Eventually…it will consume him."
"Yay!" Crunch cheered! "So my plan wasn't a complete failure after all!" he began prancing about the room.
"Wait!" Tenaya interjected. "What do we do about the other rangers until then?" she asked.
"We sit back and watch him fight the darkness and his friends." Venjix answered, sounding more evil than he ever had. "After a while he'll have no choice but to join us." Tenaya got a wicked grin on her face when she heard these words. And Crunch continued to prance about the room.
In the infirmary of the Garage, Dillon sat on a table with his shirt off while Summer looked over his back wound. She placed alcohol and gauze all over it, while Flynn held a bright blue light that he shined over his body to see if he had anything in his circuits that shouldn't be. The device gave off a slight whirring noise. Ziggy just watched everything around him quietly while Scott questioned Dillon.
"What the first thing you remember when you escaped Venjix's machine." The Red Ranger asked.
"Grabbing Ziggy and getting out of there through the portal the three of you sent." Dillon replied. He didn't even look Scott in the eye. He was afraid that he'd look down on him since he just ambushed his friends--he couldn't look at any of them.
"Do you remember anything they told you about the machine and what it does?" Scott continued.
Dillon thought, thought hard. It was hard to remember anything before he pulled himself off of that table. His head was so scattered. His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a sharp sting in his back—Summer had just applied the alcohol to his wound and he winced.
"Sorry!" Summer apologized pulling the alcohol swab away.
He turned around a little so she could hear him. "It's fine." He assured her, and then his mind went back to Venjix's base. He tried to remember what Tenaya had said to him about what the machine was planned to do. When he finally remembered, his eyes got wide.
"What?" Scott asked noticing his friend's change of expression. "What is it?"
Dillon finally looked his friend in the eyes. He hated every part of what he was about to say, but he said it. "He wanted to turn Ziggy and I…evil. He wanted us to work for him and be his own rangers."
Ziggy's head whipped around upon hearing Dillon's words. He and the others had a look of utter shock on their faces. "Evil? Me? I don't even like returning something to the store, much less attacking innocent people!"
Flynn finished his work with the light and turned it off with a sigh. "His story checks out. I'm getting all sorts of foreign readings from him. I know they're connected to his little outburst earlier."
"Look, I'm sorry!" Dillon snapped, standing to his feet. He grabbed the black shirt next to him and threw it on, his black jacket following. "I know I was out of it earlier, but as you can see, I'm fine now." He told them gesturing to himself to prove his point. "I'll…be more careful."
Deep down, he really had no idea what was going to happen, or if it was even safe for the others to be around him. All he knew was that he wanted to be alone, alone and far away from any innocent people. Dillon hoped that if he were to have another outburst like that, the others would know how to handle it.
"I'll be in my room." he informed them, heading up the stairs.
Scott turned to his three teammates after he left. "Do you really think he's alright now?"
"Don't think so." Flynn answered flatly. "The negative readings I got off of him were extremely high—it's like it consumed him for the most part. I won't be one bit surprised if this happens again."
"Let's just make sure that we're the ones he goes off on and not innocent people." Summer said, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets.
Scott, Summer and Flynn all realized Ziggy being strangely quiet in the corner of the room. They saw him just tapping the keys of the computer before him aimlessly. This wasn't like Ziggy at all, he was always much more…flamboyant.
Summer walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay, Ziggy?" she asked him.
"Huh? Me? I'm fine—perfect! A-okay!" Ziggy replied to her with a very fake sounding tone.
"Your mind's off somewhere, Ziggy, it's obvious. Tell us what's wrong." Scott said in a caring manner.
"I…just can't help but feel useless to this team. I mean, I get captured on, like, my third mission, and I can't even save my own teammate before Venjix and his cronies fry him. See, useless." Ziggy explained to them sadly. The sadness in his voice was like none the rangers had heard before.
"Stop." Summer said holding a hand up. "You're far from useless, Ziggy." She assured him. "We really need you on this team. What happened to Dillon was an accident—we'll figure all of this out, but we need you to help do it."
"Aye," Flynn chimed in, "don't beat yourself up about this. Venjix did all of this, not you."
"We just need to get Dillon the help he needs." Scott began, and then a loud crash came from Dillon's room. "And fast." He added. Then he and the others darted as fast as they could up the stairs.
When they made it to where Dillon's room was, they saw that it was empty. His lamp had fallen to the floor and the bulb inside it shattered. His dresser was knocked over as well. The four rangers walked into the room cautiously.
"Dillon?" Summer asked aloud. Suddenly, a harsh blast came from above them, nailing Summer in the knee. She shrieked in pain as she hit the floor, grabbing her knee.
"Summer!" Scott screamed as he knelt beside her.
"Are you alright?!" Flynn asked her.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. It only got my leg, nothing serious." She said with a pained voice.
In one swift motion, Dillon dropped from the ceiling and landed in front of them. He was in his ranger form and rested his Rocket Blaster on his shoulder.
"Aw…" he taunted at them while he watched Summer struggle to get to her feet. Scott was helping her stand, she held onto his arm tightly. "Does little Ranger Yellow have a booboo?" he mocked at her. He tapped the blaster against his shoulder as he began to walk around the room. "This is more of a man's field, don't you think, sweetheart?" he asked turning to her.
"What's wrong with you?!" Ziggy yelled at him. "Summer's your friend!"
Dillon turned his head over to Ziggy's direction. He pointed the large black weapon at him. "You wanna be next, Green Boy?" he asked evilly.
"N-no—no! I'm good." Ziggy answered cowering back a few steps.
Flynn stepped forward glaring at the man in black furiously. "What's happened to you, Dillon?!"
"How can you open fire on your own teammate!" Scott shouted loudly at him, all the while keeping a tight grip around Summer's waist.
"That's not Dillon." Summer said with a wince. "It can't be."
"What?!" Scott asked in pure disbelief. He, Flynn and Ziggy all shot her a strange glance. It had to be Dillon; he was the only one who could operate the Series Black Bio-Armor.
"As much as I hate to admit it, your little Yellow friend is right. The one you call 'Dillon' is the weaker side of me—he's a nuisance." The strange ranger told them.
"What're you talking about?! We saw Dillon attack us plain as day earlier!" Scott shouted at him.
"I'm afraid I have to take credit for that, you see, Dillon and I share the same body now, but by no means do we share the same mind. Whereas he wants to protect the world from struggle and strife, I want to crush it." The Black Ranger said making a tight fist.
"And if you aren't Dillon, what exactly do you call yourself?" Flynn asked with annoyance in his voice.
"Just call me Dane." He said, "Think of me as the person that will end up destroying you and your friends."
Scott guided Summer over to be held by Flynn and Ziggy. Then he stood right in front of Dane, not amused by his actions one bit. "Flynn, Ziggy, go back to the infirmary to treat Summer's leg." He ordered, never taking his eyes off of the evil ranger in front of him.
"But, Scott—" Ziggy began.
"Just…go." He ordered, turning around to them. "That's an order." Summer just had a sad look on her face. She was worried about Dillon and Scott at the same time. She wanted nothing more than to help Scott and get Dillon back to normal, but her leg was killing her and needed treatment for it, so she didn't protest Scott's orders.
"Aye." Flynn sighed. Then he and Ziggy helped Summer limp to the infirmary.
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into Red Ranger." Dane hissed at him, readying his Rocket Blaster.
"I'll take the risk." Scott said simply. He pulled out his Cell Morpher and slid the correct key inside it. "RPM—Get in gear!" he called out. Then in one swift motion he was morphed into his Red Ranger form. He equipped his Street Saber and aimed it at Dane.
Upon seeing Scott's weapon, Dane cocked his head to the side. "If that's how you want to play." He said throwing his Rocket Blaster to the side and pulling out his Nitro Sword. The two rangers aimed their swords at one another, engaging in a stalemate for a few moments—just circling one another.
In a flash, the two lunged forcefully at one another, their blades clanging loudly against each other. Each ranger pushed against the other's sword as hard as they could. Dane pushed full force against Scott, causing him to walk backwards until he crashed his back into the wall.
"Do you really think you stand a chance against me?" Dane growled at him. "If you're smart, you'll just go and help your little Yellow friend like the others did!"
"No!" Scott yelled back at him. "You've hurt two of my friends now, and I won't stop until you let Dillon go!"
Scott pushed himself off of the wall, running at Dane swinging his weapon as hard as he could. Dane jumped backwards to avoid his strikes, crouched, and sweep kicked Scott in the ankles, bringing him to the floor. Scott lay on the ground, his back on fire. Dane looked down at the ranger and pointed his sword at him.
"Why do you care what happens to him anyways?! It's obvious you hate him! I think it's because you're threatened by him! That he has more power than you do!" Dane sneered at him evilly.
"It's not like that!" Scott yelled back. "Dillon and I may argue, but he's my teammate and I'm the leader. I have to protect him and my team at all costs!"
Suddenly, Dane turned around mysteriously. Scott gathered himself to his feet as fast as he could muster.
"Well, that's the thing," Dane said, turning to Scott, flipping his sword into blaster mode in one swift move, "Black's not your teammate anymore." He said coldly, firing the blaster rapidly at Scott. The blasts caught Scott off guard, so they nailed him. He was sent slamming into the floor, demorphing in the process. His Street Saber slid across the floor away from him. Scott grabbed his side as he groaned on the floor. Dane walked over to him once again, and aimed the blaster down at him.
"Looks like your team will be minus one ranger." Dane told him, his finger hovering over to trigger. "Goodbye…Ranger Red."
Before he could fire the weapon, two laser blasts clipped him on both of his shoulders, making him drop his weapon and stagger back. Scott looked behind him to see Ziggy and Flynn in their ranger forms holding smoking blasters.
"Step away from our leader." Flynn warned the Black Ranger.
"Y-yeah. What he said." Ziggy added meekly.
The Green and Blue Rangers helped Scott get to his feet. "Where's Summer?" he asked.
"She's resting her leg. We thought you could have used some help up here." Flynn told hi, still aiming the blaster at the one in black.
"Well, you came just in time." Scott said with a sigh of relief.
Dane dusted the smoke from his shoulders and turned to the three rangers, their blasts didn't seem to faze him at all, and all they did was knock him off balance. "Couldn't fight me alone, huh? You had to get your cronies to come and rescue you?" The Black Ranger grabbed his Rocket Blaster from the floor and walked towards the rangers. "Fine. I'll destroy all of you at once instead of one at a time." He hissed.
A few steps in he stopped in his tracks, dropping his weapon to the floor, crying out loudly. He fell hard to his knees, breathing hard and quickly. His ranger powers left him.
"Whoa, what's going on here?" Ziggy asked.
"I think he's changing back." Flynn said to the others.
After a few long seconds, the cries ceased, and Dillon looked up at his friends. His eyes were brown again, his hair was back to normal and he was panting softly.
Scott walked over to him carefully. "Dillon, is that you? Are you alright?" he asked in a friendly tone of voice.
Dillon didn't say anything; he just nodded in response to Scott's questions. He was looking at his hands, shaking slightly. He remained on his knees and after a beat he finally spoke.
"What…what happened? What did I—he do?" Dillon asked hesitantly. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer. He knew that someone else was making him do things to harm others; he just hoped that it didn't get to the point where someone was seriously hurt.
Scott, Flynn and Ziggy all looked at one another and were silent. They debated on the fact of telling Dillon what happened to Summer's leg. It wasn't serious but they knew that he really had a soft spot for her and that he'd never forgive himself if he hurt her in any way—his fault or not.
Then Summer walked into the room with a small limp. Her leg was wrapped in gauze underneath her pant leg and she used a crutch to get around. "Welcome back, Dillon." She said softly. She was so thrilled to see in his eyes that he was back.
Dillon looked at her and when he saw her injured leg and her crutch, his eyes widened. He knew that he had done that to her. He knew that in his life he had let people down, but never had he been the one to inflict pain on people. This was made him feel worse than a failure; it made him feel like a villain.