Chapter 29: Enemy Truths

"Are we going to fight that monster?"

Pulling her eyes away from the images on the second screen, Zriac shook her head. Whether she liked it or not, Weihan would have to deal with Frenter on his own…even though it looked like the thug would be keeling over soon anyway. Though the way he was shaking his head like that clearly wasn't doing anyone any favours. Mentally doing a headshake of her own, she looked over to the strangely out-of-place white cushion that the Cerberus Crystal was resting on. Where the Elders had found such a thing, she didn't want to know but she supposed things could easily pile up over the generations. It seemed to be calling to her, planting visions of a powerful set of armour that could, and possibly would, forever change her connection to the Power. She longed to grasp onto that power and use it to her advantage but there was something off about the images in her mind's eye.

She could 'see' herself surrounded by Rangers of all manners of colours and armours and, along the edges of her vision, the fiery arm bands that flickered and swayed with every movement she made. A length of material fluttered at the edges of her vision, trailing down from the back of her armour. In her hands, she was holding a large and ornately decorated sword and striking it against a creature that looked like something out of her most terrifying nightmares. However, the Rangers around her didn't look like her team and the weapons they were pulling out didn't seem to mesh with the creatures on their helmets. She didn't know if she was seeing something in the future or the past…or if she was the one holding the Power. Wrenching her mind away from the images, she looked at the Crystal and slowly shook her head.

"We're not attacking it? Do you have something else planned?"

Blinking at the voice, she looked up to see the slightly concerned face of Raluna looking at her. Her father was shaking his head at something on the screen of the battle, clenching his fists tightly as the Blue Elder whispered into his ear. The Grey Ranger was right to look at her like that; she had degenerated into a wreck during the few days the Orange Ranger had been with them. A week ago, she hadn't even thought about having a physical relationship with an off-worlder, let alone having a spur-of-the-moment 'session' inside a cramped lift with a team mate in extremely close proximity…but she had seen the other Rangers changing in the short span of time as well. Xristi had begun to creep out from the shadow of her sister and had started to make more of an effort in her training. Reefti, the Ranger in question, had reeled in her sexually focused personality somewhat and was expanding the communications network in the Processing Core.

"We're attacking the mutation with a united front with attacks in pairs. We'll deal as much damage to it as we can but the Cerberus Crystal will only be used if there is no other solution. We leave in five minutes."

The others nodded and scrambled to prepare themselves for a monster battle, strapping on their civilian armour and securing their weapons. Taking a brief moment to ensure that her laser blade and bladed beam dagger were in place, her thoughts turned to the other members of her team. The Ranger who had undergone the most drastic change, other than herself, had been Droas. The normally formally stuffy Yellow Ranger had, for lack of a better phrase, had his world view kicked up its ass and he was seeing everything with new eyes. Battles after battles had taken their toll on the Yellow Ranger and, after seeing their Zords torn to shreds, he had finally begun to understand that he wasn't deserving of special treatment because of his privileged upbringing and that he had to earn his place in the world like everyone else. Privately, she thought it was a personality shift that was long overdue.

"What the…you never said anything about them making their own foot soldiers!"

The surprised yelp from the screen caught everyone's attention as they crowded around to witness the first real twist in the battle. The Orange Ranger, clad in some form of heavily battle-damaged armour, leapt away from several jagged bolts of electricity that had been blasted by humanoid creatures that looked to be wearing some form of pseudo-Ranger armour with eerily blank masks. They held strange staff weapons with dangerously crackling tips and shuffled forwards like their legs couldn't support their weight. As they watched, more and more blasts of energy leapt towards the Orange Ranger who couldn't dodge in time; the resulting explosion engulfing him in a ball of fire. Zriac's mouth fell open a fraction before she, wordlessly, activated her Power Bracelet; the mystical armour covering her body within a split second.

"We're going now."

Without a second's hesitation, she grabbed the Cerberus Crystal off its resting pillow and placed it on her right wrist, feeling it lock onto her wrist guard. Crackles in the air informed her that the others had morphed as well and were itching to dive head-first into battle. Glancing up at the Blue Elder, she nodded once before activating the transport system on the side of her belt. Dark purple flashes lit up her vision for an instant before she found herself face-to-face with the mutated creature that was allegedly Rookac. While the monster hadn't really moved since it had first appeared, thee were small groups of the same Ranger-like foot soldiers around it. Drawing her bladed beam dagger, she waited for the creatures to make the first move. When that tactic failed, she charged at them.

The first few grunts fell easily, her stabs and slashes tore through what little armour they had on their bodies. The impacts of their weapons on the armour didn't hurt that much but, as their armour was so damn skin-tight, made her slightly nervous that something would poke though. Distracting male enemies and monsters was one thing but to be worrying if a sharp edge was going to pierce her skin was something else…even though she knew that the armour had been meticulously designed to be stronger than flattened Zycordian silver. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see the others faring well against the enemies that surrounded them, though they were faltering slightly. As the grunt she was battling turned to strike again, something about its movements seemed familiar to her. She knew that move and how to counter it but…no; that couldn't be it. Even if everything lined up with that particular truth, he would never willingly switch sides like that.

Being leader of the Rangers had its perks and it meant she could use the cameras in the Processing Core to covertly spy on the others. Mainly, she had been using them to make checks on their living quarters to see if they were adjusting to her as leader but, that morning, she had listened in on a conversation between a few of the Rangers. Obviously, it had been concerning the information the canine monster had 'spilled' before his explosive death and had raised some slightly uncomfortable questions. Of course, she had dismissed all of the points that had been raised and had intended to corner Weihan and question him about it but the monsters had appeared. On the other hand, the discussion in the hallway hadn't been the strangest or most disturbing thing she had ever witnessed but she didn't really want to throw up again.

"Watch it!"

Coming out of her thoughts, her eyes widened as a bolt of energy smashed into her chest – throwing her back a fair distance. Shaking her head sharply, she cursed herself for taking her attention out of the battle and raised her head to see who had fired on her. Strangely, the warnings on her visor were flashing something about extremely familiar energy…which would only happen in a morphed training session. No one had managed to figure out how on Huran Ulani's injector gun could fire out energy bolts at such a rapid pace but the energy signature didn't match the White Ranger, never mind the fact that she was three lengths away from her. Deactivating her beam dagger, she sheathed it and drew out her Primary weapon: the laser longsword. As the three beams coalesced into a single blade, she activated her radar to see where the attack had come from.

"Very nice; it's so good to see you've finally stopped playing around. On the other hand, what can you do against me?"

The voice was maddeningly familiar but there was enough distortion in it that she couldn't pin it down. Rising to her feet, she looked around the battlefield, not noticing Droas stiffen in shock as his mind, miles ahead of everyone else, made the connection. A tingle at her back was all the warning she had before three crescents of energy smashed into her armour, penetrating the sturdy armour and cutting deep into her back. Crashing to the pavement, she gasped for breath as a figure leapt at her. Rolling away, she tried to stifle her screams as the wounds on her back opened slightly wider. An armoured lag came slamming down at the ground next to her head and she instinctively jerked back…into the path of a rapidly descending hand that wrapped around her throat and squeezed hard.

"Pathetic fool, did you really think you could stop me? You should have just rolled over and died."

Zriac struggled as her lungs screamed for air. Fingers weakly scrabbling at the vice-like grip around her throat, she looked up at her attacker and, behind her helmet, widened her eyes in shock. Holding her effortlessly was a figure that had seemingly come out of the not-too-distant past to haunt them. The light from the suns bounced off the sleek and almost skin-tight armour, armour that had been recoloured to reflect the darkness that had overtaken the wearer. A silver bracelet encircled the left wrist, the hand gripping a strange claw-like weapon consisting of three 'blades' that were almost transparent. The helmet was no different than the armour, as black as the night with the only spot of colour – and only sign of former allegiance – being the almost-imperceptibly thin band of cyan around the visor.

"Miss me?"

TBC…