Previously on Power Rangers: Foxhole Force.
A Raven alert woke the team in the middle of the night and they were introduced to Captain Engle, a new perfect Raven stronger and faster than any other they had encountered. Defeated and humiliated, they had to get on with their jobs while also endure senseless back to back attacks from regular Ravens. When a final alert showed them a monster and the three perfect Ravens, the Rangers knew they were in trouble. They disagreed on their approach but eventually faced off alone against one enemy each, leaving Neil to deal with Mureau. But the Red Fox was tired and hurt and not even the Black Ranger could help Neil get rid of Mureau because he was trapped under a deadly electrified net and Neil got hurt enough to morph out and show his face to Mureau. Recognizing him as their target number Five, Mureau called out to Riko who stole Neil away from the scene and got him to a secluded place near the beach forcing him into a face off, unprotected and alone.
S1 E11: Neil who? (Part 2)
…The redhead gasped and it took him an embarrassingly long time to find the ground under his feet with how fast the world was spinning around him. In the meantime, Riko continued to fly over him, circling him in a predatory motion before dropping heavily into the ground in front of him.
Their eyes met and when the Raven King broke out into a feral grin, that's when Neil knew he was doomed.
Alone and isolated from the rest of the world, surrounded by threatening cliffs and the water of the sea, Neil was absolutely sure he was about to die.
Red?
But silence met him.
The Fox was too hurt and out of commission to even talk to him and when Neil faced off against Riko, he was painfully aware of the obvious.
He was weak.
He was exhausted.
And he was alone…
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The first thing Riko did after dropping Neil on the ground was turn back into his human self.
Neil had only ever seen this side of him once but he remembered him exactly as he was, a man tall and slim with a number 1 tattoed high on his cheek and a superiority gleam to his eyes. He was looking down on Neil with equal parts excitement and contempt.
He didn't seem to be in a hurry, having already taken Neil away from everything and everyone and he also seemed content to just watch him, which was okay with Neil because the redhead was trying to catch his breath and keep his emotions together. Panicking would only result in an earlier death and he needed his head as levelled as it could be if he wanted to find a way out of his predicament.
Not for the first time since morphing out, he reached into the deepest corners of his soul but he still couldn't feel the Red Fox and its absence made a shiver run down his spine. The slight shiver also made him aware of the multiple talon marks on his arms and the blood flowing freely from the wounds. His left forearm, the one he'd dangled from before Riko dropped him on the beach, was throbbing something fierce and he kept a hand over the wounds to try and stop the bleeding.
He broke eye contact with Riko first, glancing around to assess his situation. Behind Riko and near the water, he could see a passage connecting this secluded section with the rest of the coast but the problem was that it was behind Riko and Neil knew he wouldn't be getting past him any time soon. Glancing back only confirmed what he'd already seen while flying overhead, the cliffs. They weren't un-climbingly tall but he was in no condition to sprint up a cliff with a winged Raven in pursuit. There was a cave entrance far to his left but he failed to see how seeking refugee inside it would help. He didn't need to lock himself between a cave and a Raven... not that his current situation was any better.
He could also see—
"I'm curious" the Raven man finally started, driving Neil's thoughts away from any possible escape routes he hadn't even been able to find yet. "Did you actually think disguising your features would hide you from me?"
What?
Neil remained silent as he frowned in confusion at Riko's words. His features weren't hidden. His face was in full display, red hair and blue eyes shining with the early afternoon sun. If anything, he looked as real as he'd ever... oh... of course.
If he thought about it, the only time Riko had ever seen him was during that first week at Palmetto City when his hair and eyes had been hidden away by cheap brown hair dye and dark colored contacts. Lieutenant Mureau had also mentioned something about Neil looking different and, earlier, Captain Engle had confirmed the Ravens had been looking for him still. To think that his natural features were the ones keeping the Ravens off his track all this time...
He almost laughed at the irony.
Almost.
"And then you go and get yourself turned into a Fox" the Raven King continued, making Neil's chest pang with worry. Where was his Fox? "I'm getting real tired of the Foxes taking away what's mine"
Riko's grin had been dropping steadily as he talked, his voice getting a threatening undertone he wasn't worrying much about hiding. But by the end of his little speech, the feral grin was back in its place.
"What? Fox got your tongue?"
Neil forced himself to take a deep breath. He kept a tight hold on his bleeding left forearm and lifted his chin high. "I am not yours"
"If I remember correctly, there was a mark there that said otherwise" the man said while double tapping his own tattoo.
"A mark like that means nothing"
"A mark by me means everything" Riko countered, making Neil grimace in disgust.
"Not when you mark people against their will"
"They always end up wanting what I give them"
"Kevin didn't" Neil was quick to reply. The mention of Kevin had Riko squinting his eyes in annoyance and Neil knew his blue teammate was as much of a sore subject for Riko as the Ravens were for Kevin. Then he also added, "And neither do I"
The Raven King composed his features back into a pleased smirk, no trace of the mention of Kevin evident on his face. "Being a perfect Raven is a blessing" he said, opening his arms and signaling himself as proof.
"Being a Raven in general is a curse" Neil countered.
Silence followed them after that.
Neil was happy to let Riko study him as long as he remained at a distance, giving the redhead enough time to figure what to do next. Ever so slowly, he inched the hand clasped around his forearm lower and lower to where his red morpher rested, hoping against all hope that if he touched it he could bring the spirit of the Fox back to the surface again. He didn't even care about getting the wrist cuff all bloody as long as he could reach it without Riko noticing. If he could only morph back into a Ranger he could at least even his ground a little more. But his stomach sank in defeat when not even touching the insignia on the cuff let him reach the Fox, wherever it had gone away to rest, and he shifted nerviously, spiking Riko's grin once more. The Raven was probably thinking his stare was so intimidating that Neil couldn't hide his fear which, okay, wasn't entirely wrong but his blood boiled just thinking about giving Riko that pleasure. Oh, how much he hated that Raven.
Knowing that what he needed was time, time for the Red Fox to recover, time for his team to maybe find him, time for his own body to be ready to fight again, he resolved to do the only thing he could right now: talk. He just hoped Riko went along with it.
"Why me?" the redhead asked, his right hand still over the morpher in case the Fox gave out a sign. "They said you never go after the same target twice, so why me?"
The sun glinted in the man's eyes as he got a predatory look on them, and as he spoke his next words, Neil thought Riko had never looked more unstable, or crazy. "There was something in your blood, something I'm not sure..."
Neil shivered. He didn't like where this was going or the step Riko finally took in his direction, a step Neil mimicked backwards, keeping the same distance between them.
But the man kept walking, talking to himself more than talking to Neil at this point as he began to mutter under his breath. "Need to taste you again. 'Cause I'm not sure. Not sure. Taste your blood again. Need to taste your blood again"
"Not sure of what?" Neil asked reluctantly, hoping to drag Riko back into conversation so he would stop his advance. At this rate, Neil's back would end up pressed against the cliff wall in no time. He also looked down at Riko's clean hand. The blood from his arm wounds must have been wiped clean when he transformed into a human and Neil's heart picked up its pace when the man made his talons grow threateningly with every step he took.
Then Riko answered him. "If you're what I'm looking for"
"I–I would never want to be a Raven" Neil stumbled in his haste to keep their distance and the Raven King grinned openly at his prey.
"If I'm right, I don't need you to be a Raven. I just need you to be him"
"You're not even making any sense" Neil tried in vain to keep the conversation alive but he could see that Riko was now a man on a mission and that that mission was him.
Faster than he could process what happened, Riko leapt forward and slammed Neil into the rocky wall, knocking the air from his lungs and keeping an arm pressed to his chest. The other one he was hovering near his face and Neil could do nothing but dig the back of his head further into the wall just trying to keep it away from the Raven's talons.
Red?
Nothing.
Red!?
"This time" Riko started, resting the tip of his talon on Neil's cheek and making his heart beat so wildly inside his chest Neil was sure Riko could feel it. "I'm marking you for real"
Then Riko sank his talon all the way to the bone, making Neil grunt in pain and squeeze his eyes shut. But when he did it again over the same spot not once but twice, and three times and four times, that's when he screamed.
His cheek was on fire. The whole left side of his face burned with the repeated lacerations and blood was already dripping into the ground from the edges of his jaw. Neil tried to wrestle Riko's hand away but the man was strong and driven and he didn't stop cutting into his face until Neil was sure his cheek was ruined. Then, when it all finally stopped and he was left panting and grunting at the sharp pain, Riko fisted his hair to keep his head still. Neil's eyes had watered against his will and through his blurry vision, he could see Riko's disturbing excitement.
"I need to taste you. I need to taste you again. I have to make sure. I need to taste you again" the man muttered once more, eyeing Neil's bloody cheek as if he could already savour his blood. Neil tried to pull his head away, but the grip on his hair only tightened.
Then Riko leaned forward and licked the blood directly from his skin.
Neil wanted to vomit.
And he would have, if Riko's tongue wasn't still disgustingly pressed to his cheek and his scalp wasn't burning from the fist keeping him still. Riko licked the wound a total of three times, making it burn even more before abruptly letting go and stumbling a couple of steps back. He also sucked his own talon clean as he regarded a panting Neil with an even crazier glint in his eyes. How Neil could remain standing after that disgusting ordeal was beyond him.
But then the blood oozing out of the wound again and the unsteadiness of his stance were the least of his problems when Riko's eyes widened and he let out a frenzied screech.
"You!" he yelled, licking his own finger again like he couldn't believe that whatever he was saying was real. "It's you! It's you!"
"The hell... are you talking about?" Neil asked, unwilling to admit that he was breathless out of fear and pressing the back of his hand to the wound on his cheek.
"I knew I'd tasted your blood before!" and then Neil's world came crashing down. Wesninski! You're a Wesninski!"
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"You're a Wesninski!"
That name coming out of Riko's bloodied mouth had Neil's blood running cold and the shock of hearing it out loud for the first time in years made him miss the Raven King crowding into his space again. "Wh—what?"
"You're the one I've been looking for! Where is it? Where!?" the man asked, holding into the front of Neil's shirt and shaking him back into the cliff wall.
"I—I don't know what you're talking ab—"
"Liar!" Neil grunted when Riko slapped him out of nowhere and he added a busted lip to his rapidly growing list of injuries. "Your mother hid it away from us. Where!?"
Neil's mind was short circuiting. His mother? Riko couldn't possibly mean his mother. Not his mother. Not Mary.
The King's eyes had grown impossibly wide and crazy, and he was roaming Neil's body with a frenzied hurry as if by looking at him he could confirm his accusations. But there was no way Riko knew who he was. No. Uh-uh. Riko couldn't know his mother, or his lastname, or his father for that matter, because Riko was a Raven and Neil's fucked up family had nothing to do with Ravens and there was no way, there was just no fucking way.
Yet... Wesninski.
Neil shook his head in denial and held his head high. "You're crazy. My name is Josten, Neil Josten. I'm not who you think I am"
He winced when Riko's talons pinned his chest to the cliff and the rough rocks dug into his back. The pressure on his chest made it hard to breathe and Neil struggled pointlessly to rip the hands away from his body.
But all Riko did was lean closer and though he lowered his voice, he did not gentle his words. "You think I'd forget the taste of your mother's blood?"
Neil gasped.
Red, are you there?
Nothing.
Red, please.
As he let out one heaved pant after the next, Riko's words continued to shatter Neil's world. "Your whore of a mother died by this hands and you think I'd forget the taste?"
Neil couldn't breathe.
This was not happening.
This was not real.
Red?
"That's not… I'm not…" he didn't even know what to say, but he knew he couldn't believe a word out of Riko's mouth and he needed to hide his identity no matter what. "You're wrong!"
He couldn't fuck it up now. Not after so many years.
Riko couldn't possibly know.
No one could know!
"I'm not who you think I am. You're wrong. You're mistaking me with someone else. My name is Neil Josten. You've got the wrong guy"
"You're the one I'm looking for!"
Not knowing what else to say, Neil repeated desperately, "You're wrong!"
And Riko let out a predatory smile. "Then let me make sure"
"Agh!"
Neil's chest exploded in pain when Riko slashed his talons from the shoulder all the way down to his stomach, but it wasn't until a few seconds later when the burn of the slashes really hit him. He dropped to his knees, only now realizing Riko had let him go and clutch both hands to his chest. They both came away bloody and, looking down, he could see his shredded t-shirt soaking in red.
Riko demanded his attention once more when he made a show of sucking one finger into his mouth, eyes widening in triumph once again as he did so.
"Wesninski! Wesninski!"
Damn it. Damn it! Damn it all to fucking hell!
"That's not my name!" he growled between clenched teeth, but Riko ignored him.
"I know she hid it in Palmetto. I got it out of her but she died before she could say where. You know where!"
At another mention of his mother, Neil clenched his teeth even harder. There was no way in hell that what Riko was saying was true, because if it was then his mother… his mother was… but it just didn't make any sense! How could the Raven King know who his mother was? Why would he even be after her? All their lives Neil and his mother had run away from his father, not from this supernatural creature. Just what the hell was going on? "I'd never been to Palmetto before in my life"
Another crazy screech. "You were! You were!"
What was he even talking about?
Neil realized that whatever the truth, he couldn't keep listening to Riko or waiting for the man to get the urge to taste him again. Words had become more dangerous than not, so he needed to jump into action.
Red?
The softest of hums. Not enough to really feel anything yet and definitely not enough to morph, but it was something. His Fox was there, somewhere deep, deep inside him, but there.
Neil needed to get out of there.
Struggling with every move, he managed to get back on his feet . He clenched his right fist tighter and tried to time things right to take Riko by surprise.
In the meantime, the Raven King kept talking. "I know she hid it here. Palmetto, she said Palmetto. So tell me where it is. Tell me! Tell m— argh!"
Riko growled when Neil threw the sand in his eyes and all Neil could do was make a run for it.
He sprinted past Riko towards the water and the passage he'd seen earlier. Maybe if he made it into the public beach, he'd be able to hide amongst the crowd. But the passage was too far away and the Raven King was too quick to clean the sand from his eyes and before Neil even reached his tenth step, the man landed on his back.
The redhead spat the sand out of his mouth and grunted when the weight of the man grew heavier and heavier. Riko was turning into his enormous Raven self and not only his weight but his talons dug into his back.
Neil screamed.
"You can't hide from me again! You can't lie! I know who you really are and you're gonna tell me what I need to know!" the talons dug even deeper into the back of his shoulders. "Where is it!?"
"I don't… know!"
Riko growled and pulled him up by the grip of his talons. Then he let him go, turned him around and sent a fist to his stomach. "You do! She must have told you"
"I don't know… who… you're talking… a—about" the only reason he hadn't sunk down to his knees again was because Riko didn't let him.
The Raven King punched him in his wounded cheek and Neil moaned at the painful contact before he was sent flying back towards the cliff wall, wiping the small progress he had managed to make on the run.
Winded and disoriented, he missed Riko's approach until the Raven was once again pinning him to the wall.
"You're a Wesninski so you must know"
Neil moaned again when Riko took a hold of his forearm to drag his talons all the way down to his wrist. The pain was so sharp and isolated that it was hard not to think about anything else, but as the blood flowed freely from the slashes and into the ground, he powered on through the pain and held on to the one name he hadn't even realized he wished he'd always been.
"I'm Neil… Josten. I'm not… who you think… I am. Argh!"
Riko sank the talons into his side.
"Liar"
"Stop" the redhead begged when the pain in his side was so great he thought he'd be ripped out in half. "Stop!"
"Then tell me the truth"
"I swear I'm not him! My name is Neil. My fucking name is— argh! Stop! Stop!" he wrestled Riko's hand until the Raven finally released him and Neil shivered at the amount of blood he could feel running down his side. "I'm telling you… the truth… my name… is Josten"
"I don't believe you"
This time, when Riko slashed him down and caught him in the thigh, Neil couldn't help the whine.
Neil.
He gasped and held on to the wall so he wouldn't fall at Riko's feet.
R-red?
Neil.
He almost wanted to cry in relief.
Can we morph?
A barely there tremble let him know it was too soon.
Weak.
"…ning to me!?"
"Omph" a new fist to the stomach left Neil gasping for air and unable to make a sound as Riko tightened a hand around his neck and pressed him back against the wall. He clawed at the feathered hand but halted his movements when he felt the tip of Riko's talons digging into his throat.
Despite knowing his Fox was back with him, though still too weak to help him out of this one, Neil's eyes were wide and his breathing was heavy. One wrong move and Riko's talons would cut his throat open. One wrong move and he was dead.
"Tell me the truth" the Raven King insisted, leaning so close to Neil he was afraid the Raven would want to lick his cheek wound again. "You're a Wesninski"
Neil winced at the mention of his name again and at the talon slowly digging its way into his neck.
Neil.
Red's thoughts did nothing but remind him that if Riko killed him, he would kill the Red Fox as well just like he'd done with Seth and the Blanford Fox.
Neil could not let that happen because he had long ago began to care for his Fox's life more than he'd ever cared for his own.
Neil.
"Tell me!" Riko insisted, another talon breaking the skin at the side of his neck. "Tell me! Tell me!"
Neil couldn't take it any longer because his Fox couldn't take much more damage. So when blood dribbled from his neck into his collarbone, he let out a shout of frustration and against every instinct of his being, he held Riko's stare as he screamed. "So what if I am!?"
Neil.
"I'm a Wesninski!"
Neil.
"So what the fuck do you want with me!?"
Riko dug out his talons, grinned menacingly at him and Neil knew he'd made a mistake.
"Where is he?"
"Who?"
Neil swayed on his feet when Riko abruptly let him go and he brought a hand to his burning middle. He was bleeding a lot. Between the slashes on his chest, the punctures in his back, the deep wound on his side and his shredded left arm, it wasn't really surprising that Neil's vision was starting to swim. He must have lost a lot of blood already and the warm substance running down his neck only let him know his ordeal was far from over.
But Riko was giving him a respite. If only he hadn't had to confess his real identity to get it...
"Let's not start this again. Where. Is. He?" the Raven King repeated, adding to Neil's blood loss confusion. Hadn't he been asking for an it? Why was he suddenly asking for a person?
"I don't know who— argh! For fucks sake! I don't know! I don't know!" Riko had struck like lightning, slashing at his other forearm and leaving behind bloody jagged lines.
"You must know!"
Neil was nearing desperation and his vision was starting to tunnel. "How... how the hell can I know if I... know someone if I... don't know who you're asking for?"
It was worrying how strained his breathing was and how hard it was to put his thoughts into words. Riko had really done a number on him and when the Raven reached out again to spin him around and slam him face first into the cliff wall, Neil almost wished he would pass out already.
"Don't play games with me"
He tried to push away from the wall where Riko had nearly smashed his nose in, but it was no use against the strength of a Raven. "I—I'm not"
"You're a Wesninski, you're the only one that knows"
"That knows what?"
"Where he is"
"Who the fuck is he!?" he exploded because couldn't Riko understand that he just didn't know?
But the Raven King only pressed closer to his back and whispered a strained answer into his ear. "The Doctor"
The Doctor.
The Doctor.
The Doctor.
The Doctor?
"Who the fu—"
"Your father!" Riko screamed impatiently and for the second time in the last hour alone, Neil's world was turned upside down. His father? Riko couldn't possibly mean his father. Not Nath— not him.
"I don't... I don't know" but when Riko lifted an arm ready to slash down his back, he was quick to add. "I swear! I don't know! I've been running away from him for years. I don't know where he is!"
He let the truth spill out because what Riko was asking was so surreal he couldn't possibly come up with a lie on the spot.
"You're lying again" Riko accused and Neil let out a growl of frustration. This was actually the first time he was being completely honest about everything and Riko didn't believe him? "How could you be running away from him if he's imprisoned?"
The redhead frowned. "In prison?"
Talons dug into his shoulder. "Imprisoned. Your mother captured him and hid him away"
It didn't make any sense. "But I've been running away from—"
"You've been running away from me" Riko spat and Neil inhaled a sharp breath because... maybe... if he thought about it... he'd never actually seen... it was always his people... and his mother always... she said... but he'd never seen him... not since he was ten... but his mother had said—
"You're wrong" he whispered, not entirely convinced. But things weren't adding up because despite knowing his last name and being accurate about his mother, none of what Riko was saying about his father could possibly be true. "You've got it all wrong"
"No. You've got it all wrong"
Did he? Did he!?
"My father isn't a doctor" Neil tried next because what else could he argue?
"You're a Wesninski" Riko replied, making Neil flinch at the name once again. "Your father, the Doctor, is Nathan Wesninski"
"But..."
"Don't you know who your father is?"
"Don't you know?" Neil burst, making Riko release him so he could turn back to spat in his face. "He's a butcher. A fucking serial killer. He's a monster! The Butcher of Baltimore. Whatever you want with him is none of my business because you can kill him for all I care!"
Neil's confusion had turned into anger and he'd put the last reserve of energy he had into that little tirade about his father. He didn't have enough strength or mental power to analyze Riko's genuinely surprised face, or the fact the Raven had been the only thing keeping him up at this point and that he was starting to slide down the wall. He didn't have enough strength to understand or even process all the discrepancies between his story and Riko's because he also couldn't see past the contact points between them.
For his part, the Raven King dropped both his excitement and impatience as he regarded Neil with a resigned expression. "You really believe that"
If Neil had had any oxygen left, he would have retorted that yes, he believed that, because it was the fucking truth! But as it was, he couldn't even keep standing. He slumped further into the wall behind him and his vision continued to darken around the edges.
In the meantime, Riko kept talking. "This is her fault. She washed your brain. She took him away from us. She hid him away!"
At this point, Neil couldn't even argue with that.
"You're useless to me" Riko continued, eyes flashing yellow while his talons grew impossibly larger. Neil's heart hammered in his throat. "If you don't know anything, then you're useless to me!"
Neil!
The Red Fox startled him enough that Neil was able to straighten up and flatten himself against the rocky cliff wall, but Riko was too close and even if he'd had the strength to lift his arms up, the Raven would just shred them to pieces. The only thing he could do was hope for a quick death and apologize to his Fox because he hadn't been strong enough to protect him.
Riko lifted his arm and slashed his talons down. "Die!"
And the black shield stopped him inches before he could tear Neil's face apart.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Neil wouldn't have believed it if the Black Ranger hadn't already saved his ass at the last possible second on several different occasions. And still, it was hard to process that the man had somehow escaped his electrified prison to find him just when Riko was about to finish him off.
Neil had never considered himself a lucky person, but he had to admit the Black Ranger felt like a pretty lucky strike in his life. Most of the time anyway.
Through his clouded vision, Neil saw Arctic's arms trembling with the effort of stopping Riko's attack and that's when he also noticed the state of the other Ranger's suit. Smoke was coming out of the black suit in different places and it was discolored in others. The color looked faded and worn instead of bright and solid, and though the Black Ranger was holding his ground, he was struggling to do so.
He didn't know how the man had managed to break away from that deadly net, but the thing had taken its toll on him.
Still, the Black Ranger pushed on.
With a grunt of effort, he pushed Riko's arm to the side and kicked the Raven away, making him stumble and lose his balance enough that there were now a couple of steps between them. The Black Ranger stumbled a step back himself, but he recovered before he could bump into Neil, who was still looking at the scene in front of him like he couldn't believe his eyes.
Then, what he couldn't believe were his ears because he could have sworn he heard Allison calling out his name. "Neil!"
"Neil, are you okay?" it was Matt.
"Get away from him" this time Kevin, who had dropped in front of Riko with his blue staff poised to attack.
Neil couldn't process the sudden appearance of his team and he also didn't have time to answer them back because sparks began showing as the Blue, Green and Pink Rangers launched themselves at Riko, driving the Raven King away from the cliffs and closer to the water.
The Black Ranger took the first step to follow them but that's when Neil's body couldn't take it any more and slumped forward on its own. If the other Ranger hadn't been there to break his fall, Neil would be a heap on the floor right now.
"Arctic..."
The man had caught him just in time and despite being hurt himself, he supported Neil's weight like it was nothing, like he wasn't a dead weight in the brink of consciousness.
Slowly, Arctic lowered him into his knees and Neil was embarrassingly relieved that the man stayed with him instead of running head first into the battle, which was probably what he should have been doing.
Awake.
Neil shook his head in lieu of an answer. He didn't think he'd be able to remain conscious much longer. The Black Ranger had been watching the battle but at the movement, he brought his attention back to Neil. The redhead was also uncharacteristically sorry for getting his blood all over the other Ranger's suit.
"Hey" Arctic demanded, shrugging his shoulder to shake Neil's head. "Stay awake"
Neil could hear the sounds of the battle taking place in front of them but his brain was too muddled to distinguish what was happening despite the ocasional shouted swear word. Then he felt a hand crawling at his neck and pressing down on his bleeding wound.
When had it started bleeding so much?
Neil groaned at the pressure and his body sagged even more. Now that Riko wasn't the immediate threat, blood loss was the main concern given how fast his condition was deteriorating.
Hold on.
"Open. Your eyes"
Neil hadn't noticed them closing down. "A—Arctic... you... okay?"
"I'm alive" the man replied, which didn't accurately answer Neil's question but was probably more than what the redhead would de able to say about himself in about a few minutes.
Neil's arms burned and twitched when he tried to move them, so he aborted his mission, instead looking up into the Black Ranger's helmet.
"Why won't you help us?" he asked in a whisper, not sure why he'd decided to bring that up now of all times considering the man was literally holding him up. Blood loss and all that.
Arctic looked down at him for a while. "I already am"
And Neil had the feeling he wasn't talking about today.
In the distance, an explosion had the Black Ranger shifting to get a look at what was going on with the rest of the team, and then Matt yelling Kevin's name in worry had the Ranger letting out a gritted curse.
"Go" Neil offered, making a monumental effort to take some of his weight off the Black Ranger's body. "Help them"
If Neil was still gonna die due to blood loss, he could at least spare his last words to encourage the other Ranger to help his team. He still didn't understand how they'd found him or how they'd managed to get away from the other Ravens. He didn't know how Arctic had escaped the deadly trap or how the team was holding their ground against the Raven King. He didn't understand how Riko could say everything he'd said about his family and he didn't have enough brain power at the moment to figure any of it out.
The only thing he was lucid enough to think was that if Arctic could still fight, then he should fight along his team's side.
Arctic hesitated but then ever so slowly he deposited Neil against the cliff wall and tapped his uninjured cheek a couple of times. "Stay. Awake"
"Uh-huh" Neil answered back, knowing full well he wouldn't be able to comply.
The Black Ranger snapped his fingers twice to keep him alert before standing up and rushing to help the other Rangers.
"Awake" he repeated as he left, but the last thing Neil saw before he inevitably lost his battle with unconsciousness was the Raven King with a hand wrapped around Kevin's neck and the Black Ranger running off to help.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A second later, he was back in the Command Centre.
He opened heavy eyelids to be met with the ceiling of the medic bay and the wall of curtains around him.
So he was alive. Definitely weak and hurt but alive.
A soft hum inside his chest let him know that the Red Fox hadn't died at Riko's hands either and his mind sagged in relief before he let his eyes close and allowed himself to drift off a little bit longer.
It was over.
For a while there, he hovered in a state between awareness and unconsciousness in which his mind was thankfully too sluggish to panic or even think about everything that had happened that day. A small movement of his right hand confirmed that the slight pressure he felt there was an i.v. stuck to the back of it and Neil suspected that whatever drug was making its way into his system was responsible for his semi-comfortable state.
But, eventually, he was more present than not and he became aware of different uncomfortable spots on his body. Knowing that Riko hadn't wasted any opportunity to hurt him, Neil readied himself for the worst.
Making sure he was alone, he took the time to analyze his injuries and asses his situation.
Looking down at himself, he noticed that his shredded clothes had been replaced by a set of standard Court clothes and he had bandages all over his body. Both arms were wrapped to the wrists and Neil could feel tape tugging the skin of his neck when he moved his head to study his surroundings. There was a thick pad of gauze wrapped around his thigh and when he felt the skin under his shirt, he realized almost his entire torso was covered in white bandages as well.
He didn't know what time it was or how long he'd been unconscious for, but his quest to find out was interrupted when the front curtain of his small cubicle was pushed aside and a short silhouette walked in.
"Andr—Aaron" Neil corrected when he spotted the white coat the blond was wearing over his Court uniform.
The other boy walked closer to inspect the drip bag. "You're an idiot, did you know that?"
"Umm..."
"Taking on the Raven King alone. You're lucky to be alive"
Neil fought the urge to roll his eyes mainly because he didn't want the motion to spike the headache he'd only now just realized he had. "It's not like I wanted to"
Aaron shrugged like he hadn't said anything. "Everyone was really worried, you know? But I sent them off because you need to rest and they wouldn't have let you"
"How... how is everyone?" Neil asked a bit reluctantly. It was more than disorienting feeling like he'd been on the battle field only five minutes ago, and he blamed his probably concussed brain for not wondering about his teammates sooner. "What time is it? What happened to the Ravens? And the monster? Is anyone else hurt? Where's the Black Ranger? Is he alright? How did they deal with the threats? Was a target taken? What happened out there, Aaron? How long have I been—"
Calm.
Neil gasped in a breath.
The Red Fox emitted a soft warmth that only lasted for about two seconds before it was gone, letting Neil know the Fox was still too weak to do anything else but at least recovered enough to talk to him. The redhead tapped into that presence to struggle his way into a sitting position, only succeeding because Aaron came forward to raise the headrest of the bed.
"How long was I passed out?" he asked again when he was finally sitting upright.
"It's half past eight so... four hours. Ish"
"And everyon—"
"Everyone's fine. The Ravens took off soon after you were taken and Dan helped the guys locate you at the beach. No one was taken. Riko banged Kevin up a little bit but he's up and about it, so he's fine"
"And Riko?"
"He just left"
"Why?"
Aaron shrugged. "Beats me. The guys said he seemed unstable, like, so mentally unstable he wasn't fighting like himself"
For a second, and as Aaron checked again that his drip bag was empty and removed the needle from his hand, Neil wondered at the blond's chatty mood today. But his thoughts didn't linger on Aaron as he caught on to his words about Riko. Had the Raven King been as affected by their conversation as Neil had been?
Suddenly he remembered everything the Raven King had professed about his family: looking for his father, calling him the Doctor, saying he had been the one chasing them all these years, killing his mother...
Killing his mother.
Neil's next breath caught in his throat at the mere thought of it and he brought a sore hand to his chest.
His mother was dead? It was a shocking revelation but it was one he should have already known. In fact, he guessed that deep inside him he'd always done so because how unlikely had her chances of being alive ever been? But Neil had been stupid and nostalgic and naive and so fucking scared of being alone that he'd held on to the hope of her surviving their last encounter with his father's people.
Except it wasn't his father's people, was it? Because according to Riko his father was fucking imprisoned somewhere and his mother was to blame for that and the Ravens had been after them for years and Neil didn't know anything about it because his mother had said it was his father, the Butcher of Baltimore but Riko called his father the Doctor and how the hell was Neil supposed to believe any of that but how could he not believe it when Riko had made so much sense while talking about it and yet none of it made any sense to Neil and he just didn't fucking understand—
"Hey!" Aaron snapped his fingers in front of Neil's face. "The hell is wrong with you?"
Neil's spiraling thoughts had left him panting on the bed and he suddenly felt crowded and cold all over. The thoughts were threatening to overtake his mind again and he needed some place safe to figure out what the hell it all meant and the medic bay was anything but safe for him.
"Where are you going?" Aaron asked when Neil dragged his battered body to the edge of the bed. He bitched and grunted all the way down to his feet and rejected Aaron's help when the blond made to offer it. "Neil, you shouldn't be walking yet!"
But Neil ignored the other boy as he slowly limped his way out of the medic bay and towards the stairs. He needed to go to his room.
Careful.
Painstakingly slowly, he made his way up the stairs and to the end of the hall. He was glad the place was empty and he didn't have to deal with anyone else right now, because he was pretty sure he was losing his mind and he didn't want anyone else to see that.
With every step he took, he could feel himself digging his own rabbit hole as he couldn't stop thinking about Riko's words. Everything he'd said about his father, everything he'd said about his mother.
Don't you know who your father is?
She washed your brain!
Had she? Neil thought about the day his mother had beaten the memory of Palmetto out of him. What if that hadn't been the only time? Or even the first one?
Finally reaching his room, he slammed the door shut and remained panting with his forehead against it.
Riko was a Raven and he knew about his identity and apparently he knew more about Neil's family than Neil did himself and Neil had been discovered and his mother was dead, his mother was dead!
Calm.
But Neil couldn't. He couldn't because everything he'd ever known was being put into question and what the hell did his mother have to do with the Ravens and what the hell did his father had to do with anything at all?
Suddenly, he realized the room was spinning around him and it was probably because he couldn't fucking breathe and his body felt so hot he was sure he would burst any second and his Fox did nothing but send out waves of warmth that were usually comforting but that right now were making Neil's skin feel feverish and his wounds were aching and his legs were trembling and his chest was constricting and he just couldn't, he couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't!
So he reached towards his wrist and despite his Fox letting out frantic denials, he took the morpher off and tossed it on the nightstand.
Then everything went cold.
Neil inhaled sharply at the sudden emptiness inside him and not even five seconds after taking his morpher off, he reached out and clasped it around his wrist once more.
"I'm sorry!" he let out frantically when the Red Fox took residence inside his chest. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I won't do that again. I'm sorry!"
Calm.
"I can't! It... It's too much. What he said... doesn't make sense... my mom... she... she"
Breathe.
Neil whined desperately because he was tired of his crippling anxiety attacks and his body was too injured for him to be wounding so tightly and the slashes on his chest hurt every time he tried to expand his lungs, but he needed to because he couldn't fucking breathe because everything was too fucking much and his mother was dead and what the hell was he supposed to do now?
Breathe!
Neil was heaving by now and no matter what the Fox did, he couldn't stop panicking. He ended up sitting at the edge if his bed and fisting his auburn hair and he knew that if he didn't calm down soon, he was either gonna pass out again or puke all over the floor.
Help, his Fox said, but the redhead had barely made it into his room without collapsing so he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to walk back out searching for help.
But maybe that wasn't even what Red had meant because only a few seconds later there was a knock on the door.
Neil didn't remember if there were any words spoken and he definitely didn't remember letting anyone in, but the next thing he was aware of was a hand at the back of his neck pushing his head down to rest between his knees. The position was uncomfortable and it pulled on the wounds of his back, but after a moment, it made the world stop tilting and he was able to focus on the firm pressure behind his neck.
"Breathe" someone said and only when Neil opened his eyes a saw a black armband out of the corner of his eye did he realize that the person was Andrew.
Help, Red repeated and he took in a deep unobstructed breath when he realized Andrew's presence was actually helping. He nodded and slowly straightened up but Andrew waited another minute before squeezing the back of his neck and letting go.
The blond was sitting beside him, watching him as he continued to regulate his breathing until he was finally able to talk. "What... what are you doing here?"
Andrew regarded him with his usual bored expression. "You left the medic bay in a hurry"
"How would you...?" Neil frowned and forced his tired brain to do its work. He took in Andrew's attire and realized for the first time that he was wearing a Foxhole Court uniform, something the redhead had yet to see the blond doing. He was the only one who got away with disregarding the uniform in favor of plain black clothes and as the wheels turned in his brain, he saw that they were exactly the same clothes Aaron had been wearing under the lab coat. Except it hadn't been Aaron, had he?
Instead of feeling angry or cheated, the realization brought a tired laugh out of him and his body decompressed a bit more at the sound. Andrew and his antics. "You're a very strange person", he said.
For his part, Andrew lifted an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. "Pot, meet kettle"
"Hmm" Neil whispered after a soft laugh but the laugh made an uncomfortable pull on his cheek bring his attention to his face and he brought his fingers up to find gauze and tape covering the wound Riko had made. He began tearing at the tape, wondered by how much Andrew's presence and the Fox's warmth was helping him battle the anxiety.
"You'll tear the wound" the blond chastised but Neil didn't stop until his cheek was exposed.
"How is it?" he asked, the memory of Riko digging his talon repeatedly into his cheek making him shiver a couple of times.
Andrew studied his face for a full minute, nothing really betraying his expression but Neil thought he saw some anger simmering behind his eyes. "Distinctive", he replied and Neil sighed.
Distinctive. Something Neil had spent years trying not to be.
Then he looked down at his bandaged arms and tore at the white material as well.
Distinctive. Distinctive. Riko had made him distinctive.
Angry and red jagged lines made their way from his elbows to his wrists and the thick suture stitches were pretty hard to miss because they made his arms look like they were Frankenstein's and though Neil was used to seeing grotesque marks on his body, he had to admit he was shocked.
His breathing got ragged again, but Andrew grabbed the bandages and started wrapping his arms again. "Abby did them. Aaron helped, but this was a little out of his league"
Neil nodded silently and didn't even fret about the unfamiliar doctor treating his wounds. There were bigger things to concern himself with.
By the time Andrew finished wrapping his arms again, Neil's mind had gone back to working a mile a minute and he began thinking about the implications of Riko's words.
Riko knew who he really was.
Riko knew who his father was.
Riko killed his mother.
Riko wanted to find his father.
What the hell was he supposed to do now?
To Neil, the answer was obvious.
He needed to leave.
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Red let out a whine of protest but Neil couldn't listen and he stood up on shaky legs, going to the wardrobe and taking out his duffle bag.
"What are you doing?"
Neil checked he had his binder at the bottom of the bag and then began pushing some of his clothes inside. "What does it look like I'm doing?"
Stop.
"You're leaving"
"I'm leaving"
Stop.
"Why?"
"Can't stay here. Not anymore"
"Why?" Andrew asked again with an irritated undertone as he also stood up from the bed and walked closer to him, as if he had every intention of stopping him.
When the blond actually reached out and tugged a shirt from his hands, Neil whirled around to face him.
"Riko knows, okay!?" he burst out, reaching for the stolen shirt and only succeeding in pulling at his injuries. "Riko knows who I am"
"He saw your face, so what?"
Neil shook his head. "You don't understand"
Denial.
"Riko knows me. He—"
Denial.
"He knows who I really am. He knows about my father. He fucking knows more than I even do and he—"
Denial!
"Let me talk!" this time he burst at the Fox, probably confusing the hell out of Andrew but the blond continued to watch him as he wrestled more clothes into his bag. "You fucking know what happened. You know I have to go!"
Stay.
"I can't stay!"
Andrew snapped his fingers in front of his face and Neil remembered he was supposed to be having a conversation with the blond. "What happened out there?"
In frustration, Neil threw the half empty duffle bag to the floor. "Apparently, Riko's looking for my father and he thinks I know where he is but I don't know where he is because I'm running away from him. You know this. But according to Riko, I'm not running away from him because my mom took him and hid him here and I can't stay here if my father is somewhere here and Riko thinks I know where somewhere here is but I don't and my mom was the only one who knew but he... he... he said he killed her! He said he killed my mother and that's how he knows what my blood tasted like and how he knew I was who I am and everything's fucked up now and I don't understand how any of it fits together but it does and that's why I can't stay here"
Stay.
Andrew's eyes hardened by the end of his rushed explanation. "You can't go. You promised a year"
"Don't you get it? My mother is dead. The deal is off. I have nothing left to do here"
Andrew narrowed his eyes. "You promised"
Promised.
"And what good is a promise!? They're just words!"
Silence reigned inside the room and Neil could feel his heartbeat thrumming in his ears. He'd promised Andrew he would stay for a year if the blond helped him find his mother. But things had changed now, not only because he wouldn't be finding his mother any time soon but because if what Riko said was actually true, then his father was somewhere in the city and staying would go against everything he'd been about for the past ten years.
Neil could not stay.
"I've been asking myself that for years" Andrew deadpanned and Neil gasped in a breath at the sudden coldness of his tone. "If you're gonna go, you either do it now and never come back, or you stay and you can fucking grow a spine"
After another heartbeat, Andrew went on. "What would it take for you to stay?"
"Andrew, I can't—" but the blond interrupted him.
"You have a life here. You have a Fox and a team that can protect you, from your father or anyone else"
Family.
"Andrew, please, you have to understand..."
"Don't say that word"
Neil frowned at Andrew's sudden request. "What, please?"
"I don't like it"
For a moment, Neil thought the blond would elaborate but he didn't and it wasn't like Neil had the time to focus on such a strange comment. Instead he went back to the matter at hand.
"I... Andrew, I can't stay. What Riko said about my father... and he thinks I know where he is. I have to get away from him"
"They would just follow you"
"Then at least I'd be taking the problem away from Palmetto"
"And bringing it with you wherever you go next" the blond countered, an answer ready for everything Neil tried to argue.
"Wouldn't that make me hold up my end of the deal?"
Instead of confirming or denying his statement, because Neil was pretty sure it did count as keeping his promise if the redhead took the Ravens away with him, Andrew decided to change tacticts. "What does your family have to do with the Ravens anyway?"
"Fuck if I know" Neil replied with a frustrated huff.
"Don't you want to figure it out?"
"I…" he was about to automatically say no, because all he wanted to do was survive and never risk an encounter with his father ever in his life, but if he was honest with himself, he had to admit he was curious and some part of him did want to understand why suddenly his past seemed so intertwined with the Ravens and the City of Palmetto and quite possibly with the Foxhole Force itself. But he didn't want to admit that just yet, so he focused on the blond and gave the conversation a 180 degree turn. "Why do you want me to stay so badly? I thought most of the time you hated me"
If Andrew was fazed by the sudden question, he didn't show it in his expression. "No. Most of the time I wanna kill you. I always hate you"
So stoic. So impassive. So calm to be talking about hate.
"Then why?"
Why insist so much? Why make promises? Why help him and even talk to him?
Andrew's face still betrayed nothing, but his words were heavy and they forced Neil to stop and think about what he was doing. "I keep my promises Neil. I couldn't help you find your mother, so make a new deal with me. Stay and I'll help you figure out the truth behind your family and the Ravens"
Yes.
"I..."
"Stay, Neil"
Stay.
"I have to think about it" he finally let out because his mind was too crowded and he needed time to figure things out.
But apparently the blond didn't have enough patience for that. "Tomorrow night"
"What?"
"You have until tomorrow night to decide. I'll be on the roof. If you show up, I'll know you decided to stay. If you're gonna go, then don't let me see you again" what was it with him an deadlines?
Andrew bent down to pick up his duffle bag and very purposefully shoved it into the wardrobe before storming his way out of the room, not even giving the redhead a chance to say anything else. Of course, Neil got the message loud and clear. Stay.
Andrew raised valid points. If he stayed, he wouldn't have to be alone again. If he stayed, he wouldn't have to leave his team behind. And then, there was the matter of his Fox. It's not like Neil could actually take the red morpher with him, could he?
A slight tremble made him put a hand on his chest and he sat down on the bed, exhausted and defeated.
Stay and I'll help you find the truth behind your family and the Ravens.
How much of the truth did he really want to find out? How much of his own truth was a lie? What would the others say when they found out? Did he want them to find out?
Neil remained hunched and staring at the wall for a long time, Andrew's words and Riko's words and Red's thoughts having a party inside his mind. He placed a hand over his morpher and though Red sent out a wave of warmth to his chest, he was mindful not to overheat him with it. Neil was grateful.
But he was also ashamed, because staying should be an easy decision to make but he was at war with his very own instincts and he was sure that if it hadn't been for Andrew interrupting his escape, he would have been long gone by now. Probably without the Fox.
Together.
Neil's eyes were burning, definitely just because of his exhaustion, and so he closed them and cradled his morpher in his lap. He ran a thumb over the Foxhole Force insignia and the only reason he didn't take the cuff out was because he'd promised he wouldn't do that again.
Promised.
He thought about his promise to Andrew and the new deal the blond wanted to make, and then he thought about Red and how much the Fox wanted him to stay.
"I'm sorry" he whispered out loud, because he just didn't know what to do and he wasn't sure he could come up with a solution before Andrew's deadline.
Red didn't speak again and Neil let himself drown in the silence, and the covers, as he laid down to spend the rest of the night worrying about the next day.
He had a decision to make and he had roughly twenty-four hours to make it.
He also knew that whatever he decided to do, he'd end up disappointing someone either way.
Next episode: A Swift exchange