Disclaimer: Defenders of the Earth, Flash Gordon, Ming the Merciless, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Lothar and other characters and properties belong to Marvel, Stan Lee, Alex Raymond, Lee Falk, King Features Entertainment, Hearst Entertainment, Mill Creek Entertainment and Complex Networks and affiliates. Ronin Warriors and all characters and properties belong to Sunrise, Bandai and Discotek Media. The Lady Ronin Guardians belong to fellow Ronin Warriors writer Winter Yuy and if you wish to use them, you can contact her here. The characters James Ferino and Twyla Koji – Ferino belong to Harry2, and if you wish to use the characters, feel free to contact him here. The characters April Gordon and Sheila Oceanna Dewindt belong to fellow Defenders of the Earth fanfiction writer Marzena and if you wish to use those characters, you can also contact her here. A bit of the first chapter has some dialogue from "Rick Gordon: One Man Army" which was written by Francis Moss.

Rick's Secret

Chapter One

Rick found himself thrown onto the floor of the dungeon. He looked up and faced the very person that had him prisoner, "You won't scare the Defenders. They'll find a way to rescue me."

"That's just Ming wants, gringo." El Jefe replied with a smile on his face before he closed the door to his cell, locking the young Defender inside his cell.

Wanting to have an idea to get free so he could warn his father and the Defenders, Rick sat at the

"Rick." a voice called out from outside.

"Rick." This time Rick heard the voice, and then he stood up to address the person calling for him, "Carlotta."

Carlotta took off her robe a bit so that the young man could see as the blonde hero seemed desparate as he had to warn his father and the Defenders about the trap that Ming and El Jefe had in store for them, using him as bait.

"El Jefe and Ming has set a trap for the Defenders," Rick told the young woman in hiding, "I have to get out tonight."

"Hey, flower lady!" the blonde boy heard a guard shout from outside, "Move on!"

"I must go." Carlotta told him before leaving the area.

Rick nodded before he turned around and decided to think of an escape plan. He had to find a way to escape and fast so he could warn the Defenders about the trap that had been set for them. Not like things could get any worse for him at the moment.

Rick was startled when he heard a loud slam of the door from behind as he had been unaware of the door being opened at the moment that he was thinking. Now, this situation had become worse.

Startled by that loud door slamming, Rick turned around to see two of El Jefe's man: one, with curly dark brown hair with a mustache and brown eyes and the other was with blackish brown hair with a thick mustache and dark eyes. Both men faced the young Defender with sinister looks in their eyes.

In fear, Rick looked on at the two men, wondering what they were going to do to him. However, he wasn't about to show any kind of fear to those creeps. He rocked back and forth a bit to try to keep calm at this situation, remembering his training and everything, even as the two men pointed guns at him.

"What do you two want?!" Rick demanded.

"Why we are going to have pleasure from your body," the thick mustache man answered, "and El Jefe has given us permission to do so."

"No." Rick shook his head in protest, refusing to expose himself to those sickos, " You are going to have to shoot me instead."

"It's not that simple, gringo." the curly haired man replied, "Ming the Merciless wants you alive, and so does El Jefe."

Why doesn't that surprise me? Rick thought as he was angry and annoyed with the two men.

"However," the thick haired man added, "if you do not strip for us, we can go find Carlotta Vallejo and we will kill her on the spot."

Rick's blue eyes widened in shock. He realized that he didn't have a choice in the matter now albeit he was not sure if they would find Carlotta or not. It was either take his clothes off for the crooks or risk getting Carlotta hurt, or worse killed! He wasn't happy but this was surely a no win situation for him and judging by the looks on those two men's eyes, they meant every word that they said.

Sighing and not willing to take a chance to endanger Carlotta more than she already was, Rick started taking his clothes off, starting with his black boots, then his belt, then his white pants and then his blue jacket and finally his black T shirt. As he took off all of his clothing, including his underwear, the young Defender took deep breaths to try and compose himself. Rick looked over as he had his clothes to the side of the room before looking at his perpetrators.

The two men stared at their victim. They took a real good look at Rick. He had a lean and muscular body, which was a very good body shape as well as strong lean legs to go with it. They looked at their target and then at each other, then back to their target, both nodding in satisfaction at what they were going to do.

Rick was surprised as the two men were coming towards him. He backed to the wall, hoping that they would not get any closer to him. However, that was not the case. The thick haired man grabbed the young man by his blonde curls and they tossed him to the floor. He winced in pain as he landed on the hard cement floor.

"What...do you want?" Rick asked as a part of him didn't want to know the answer.

"Isn't it obvious what we want, gringo?" the curly haired man asked, "We want you."

He grabbed the young Defender by the hair and forcefully kissed him on the lips. Rick tried to break free from the grasp but to no avail.

"I think he gets the idea now." the thick haired guy told his accomplice.

The curly haired man broke his kiss, which caused Rick to gag after he fell to the floor again. The young Defender felt as if he was trembling even though he was trying to stay strong during all this.

"Now we can begin on the main event!" the curly haired man declared.

-Rick's-Secret-

Rick woke up screaming in terror from the nightmare that had happened to him. He gasped heavily in between breaths a second after the screaming.

"Rick?" a voice called out from his bedroom. The young Defender looked up to see his father opening the door, and then he looked at him with nervousness on his face as he saw his father with a look of concern on his face.

"What happened, son?" Flash asked, "I heard a scream."

"I...it was just a dream." Rick lied.

"Are you sure?" Flash shook his head as he was not convinced of his son's answer, "It sounded like a nightmare to me."

"Well um." Rick lied again as he looked down on the blanket, "I don't remember it."

"Are you sure about that? You've been having these nightmares for the past week." Flash still was not convinced by the answers given to him as he was concerned, "Is there something that you want to talk about?"

"No." Rick shook his head, "There's nothing to talk about, Dad. I promise."

"Well," Flash sighed as he decided to drop the conversation for the time being, "okay then."

Rick watched as his father closed the door to his room. Then, he looked at the ceiling as he reflected on the nightmare that had just happened, it was the event that was the worse day of his life.

After he had been captured by El Jefe, Rick was imprisoned in the dungeon of the castle. In that dungeon castle room, two of El Jefe's men violated him and they both took turns violating him, degrading him, but he didn't cry. They wanted him to. They wanted to see him cry, and they wanted him to show weakness. He held on and stayed strong during the assault. Eventually, the two evil men left in satisfaction for what they had done and knowing he had no time to feel sorry for himself, Rick eventually managed to escape as he reunited with Carlotta and helped her find her father, who was the president of Esmeralda and had also been turned into a man of frost and that led to Rick and Carlotta being captured again. This time, the Defenders, who escaped their own trap rescued them and they defeated El Jefe and his men and they were taken into custody.

However, the damage was done. Rick remembered everything that happened to him over a year ago, yet he never spoke about what happened to him. Not to any of his teammates. Not to Jedda. Not to LJ. Not even to his own father. As for April, Sheila, the Ronin Warriors and the Lady Ronin Guardians? He didn't speak to them about what happened either. April would surely blab about what happened, knowing she was someone who wanted to get down to business. Rick wasn't sure how Sheila would react, but knowing how close she is to his father and how she hates her father, she might say something about it to Flash. As for the Ronin Warriors and Lady Ronin Guardians, they didn't even join the team at the time the incident happen, so they wouldn't understand. Rick didn't want to tell anyone. He was ashamed of what happened. He was embarrassed. He didn't want anyone to know his secret.

Author's Note: I written this concept from one of my favorite episodes from Defenders of the Earth called "Rick Gordon: One Man Army", exploring something that might have happened to Rick while he was captured by El Jefe in the dungeon in Esmeralda as he was imprisoned. I was inspired by fellow DoE fanfiction writer rosehill in writing my own dark takes on some episodes, such as Rick losing his mother and Jedda's ordeal with Prince Krotan and realistic events such as Sally Ann and Jedda being pregnant and deciding on whether or not to keep her baby.