The Ranger's Initiative

by Lawliet Veneziano

After many years of being protectors now the Rangers are being hunted, and the only ones who can save them are a mismatched and unlikely group. But with the public against them, the military after them, and even their own wanting them taken in, can a group of mismatched ex-Rangers really save the world and their friends? Or will they fail even to save themselves?

28. We Fall Down Together

Sledge's ship was every bit as gloomy and uncomfortable as Kendall expected and part of her was regretting volunteering for this mission. Especially when she glanced to either side and made note of her two companions.

Heckyl was necessary to come to the ship; he had been inside, he knew it at least a little, better than the rest of them, and most importantly according to what Billy and Tsuki started in about once he had spoken up about helping out, he was the perfect focal point to use to get aboard. She knew that his being on the retrieval team was non-negotiable but as he looked at her as well, seeming to sense her eyes on him, she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable about this. And the other person with them, currently rocking on his feet as he glanced out over the side of the hallway and keeping an eye on the monster guards mulling about down the way, didn't make her feel much better; she would have preferred a more senior Ranger, someone capable of handling themselves better. Zack was a child ultimately in her eyes, not much different than her own team, and far more hyper; he reminded her of Chase really and he wondered if it was a Black Ranger trait or just luck that the two gave off the sense of excitable puppies.

"Any particular reason you're looking at me with such a conflicted look, Pretty Lady?" Heckyl's tone too was bordering a little too much on playful and she couldn't help but frown at him.

"We're literally in enemy territory and I'm not feeling overly safe here," she spoke shortly.

"Honestly I was a bit surprised you choose to come along; I was certain it would be Tyler or Phillip who would jump at the opportunity to invade Sledge's ship."

"I'm the best suited to handling a non-bonded Energem; I'd rather not have a repeat of the Graphite Energem situation."

"Seems to me that that worked out in the end though; the prince proved himself worthy, the Energem was bonded safely, Sledge didn't get his hand on it."

"I also have no intention of just allowing you near it without my supervision." This made Heckyl stare at her for a moment and she continued to frown; Zack continued his watch, the plan being that once he sees an opening that he would tell them and they would get moving again. They were trapped in an empty cell row, having gotten that far from the solitary cell they had appeared in; unfortunately more than a few monsters had seen them and made a fuss so they had had to run for the nearest clear area. And now they had to wait out guards.

Moments seemed to pass, an eternity in which the outlaw just stared at the scientist, before finally he gave a low amused chuckle and he turned away to join Zack in observing. "I thought you were one of the ones who thought I was a goodie two shoes."

"You seem to be under the delusion that believing you're not nearly as bad as you think you are means I trust you with the Energem alone. Those are two separate issues." She didn't like this but mainly because she was worried. Was she convinced he was purely good? Of course she wasn't; for one, no one was, but it stood to reason that if his past was really as full of bad deeds as he implied, then he couldn't be completely trusted anyway. And it occurred to her that as much as RJ had tried to make his belief in Heckyl clear, it also seemed that the outlaw had been trying too hard also. Specially in trying to convince them he was all evil when his actions had shown none of that. He'd saved Lyta's life, he'd helped them fight, he had had opportunity after opportunity to take the Energems, even just one, but he hadn't. And if Karone, the successor to Kendall's own beloved sister, believed in him and loved him still despite the time and distance that had separated them, despite knowing who he was and what he had done and what he was capable of, then she could trust him too. But between the near-disaster of the Graphite, the problems that had come with trying to get the Purple, and Heckyl's own obvious internal conflict in being good and helpful, and being evil and proving it, she couldn't just let them go on on this mission. She had to be there, she had to secure the Energem herself, and that was exactly what she was going to do.

He didn't respond; she didn't expect him to. At the moment all that mattered was trying to get closer to where the Energem might be and to that effect she spoke again, "So where do you think he has it hidden? I would think somewhere he can keep a close eye on it in case of traitors."

"The idiots who work for him are terrified of the old bounty hunter; they won't betray him," Heckyl scoffed, "Well I say terrified of him but it's honestly a weird collection: Wrench is definitely terrified, Fury actually seems to respect him, and Poisandra is madly in love with him. The Vivix and Spikeballs are mindless minions for the most part but they do fear his wraith."

"What can you tell us about Wrench and Poisandra?" Keeper hadn't really filled them in on the rest of Sledge's crew, only about the villain himself and the vicious cat that the Renegades had had to deal with for the last while.

Heckyl shrugged. "Wrench is a coward but from what I've heard and gathered he's supposed to be a capable scientist and inventor. Nowhere near the abilities of some of the people in our group but also nowhere near as useless as he might look at first. As for Poisandra...she might be a problem; she's obsessed with Sledge but she's not to be underestimated simply for being a woman in love. She's strong and honestly probably more capable than her paramour, she just acts like a lovesick fool and Sledge encourages it. Her obsession though means she'll act a lot more aggressive if we do something to Sledge than Wrench or the minions might."

"Kind of like how Karone acted when that other you took over your body," Zack piped up still keeping watch, "I don't think I've ever seen her so cold."

"My princess and Snide never did get along," Heckyl answered with a smirk, "She seems to hate him almost as much as I do and he despised her for 'always being a distraction'. As if my Pretty Princess was anything but a light in the darkness and alleviation of irritations in my daily existence back then. Still I'd be lying if I said I wasn't filled with some glee at having her defend me."

"Betcha could have done without having her staff pressed against your...Snide's...both of yours? Throats." Heckyl just continued to smirk and the answer hung in the air, unspoken.

In the end it wasn't needed either; Zack perked up and with a turn of his head he gestured for Kendall and Heckyl to follow after him, signaling that the coast was finally clear. The scientist gave a sigh of relief and the trio were on the move finally. Monsters took note of them again but this time Heckyl was far more quick on the uptake than before; his hands glowed their eerie electric blue and his glare spoke volumes of what horrors would come upon them if they spoke a word. In the end the vast majority learned to shut their mouths and they made it across the hallway at least.

But they still had no idea where they were going for the most part. Kendall frowned and turned to Heckyl. "So where do you think the Purple Energem is?"

"Obviously the engine room; why steal something as powerful as an Energem and not try to use it?" He answered matter-of-factly; he crossed his arms, "His one opportunity in a long while to actually have one? I wouldn't be surprised if he has Wrench working on modifying to weapons to be super charged by the Energem, which would explain why only a few guards came at us and we haven't seen or heard hide or hair of our actually enemies."

"If he plans on supercharging his weapons, do you think he plans on using it on the Megaship?" It was odd to hear Zack be serious or to see him frown but both were happening. "Or worse yet the Pai Zhua Temple?"

Kendall took a deep breath. "Both are highly likely and both are a worst case scenario."

The Megaship was very much not in a position to take any more abuse and based on what she had heard before they had left for their mission, Andros was going to the ship with his sister and a few others to bring it to ground. They were injured, Karone had only been awake for maybe a few hours, and it didn't sound like they were any more protected than Kendall was with the hyper teenager and the space outlaw. If Sledge choose to attack it, if he managed to put Energem power into his weapons and hit the ship, it wouldn't just likely do further possibly irreparable damage, but could potentially badly hurt or worse kill the ones aboard. But more than even the ship was the temple.

The Mystic Force were protecting it with magic, and she got the sense that the Pai Zhua had more than a few tricks up their sleeve anyway for hiding their school from prying eyes, but with everything that had happened, who knew if they could really hold their barrier up against an attack backed up by an Energem? And if the barrier did fail, it wouldn't be just a few lives, as vastly important as those lives were, that would be lost. Kendall's heart sank as she thought of Keeper and her teammates, of Abby who had helped her build her museum, of the members of the Renegades who she had honestly come to think of as friends. More than friends, basically family in the face of the events of the last year and a half or so.

The full implications seemed to hit them all and Heckyl's expression darkened some, no doubt over the idea that Karone of all people would be in danger. But for his credit the outlaw didn't do anything particularly reckless; he simply looked about for a moment, taking in their surrounding, the sounds of monsters wanting out, of the creaking of a ship much older than the Megaship but that had so easily brought it to ruin. Kendall ran a hand through her hair, wondering exactly what they would do now, how to find the engine room and how to get the Energem out safely.

She felt someone grab her hand and suddenly was being dragged along; she panicked for a moment, thinking maybe it was a monster, a bad guy. But on the other end was Heckyl and Zack, who was being held by the outlaw's other hand, was smiling and following rather willingly it seemed. Heckyl spoke not a word, no explanation or reasoning, just grabbing and running. Kendall opened her mouth to ask but he pulled her around a corner and a Spikeball turned to stare at them, causing all three to stop immediately. That wasn't a far run and it certainly didn't seem like it had been a good idea.

"Heckyl," she said in a low tone and she turned to look behind them.

As luck would have it as she did so a pile of Vivix crawled up to them and she frowned deeply. "What the hell?! Heckyl, you idiot!"

"How did they get behind us?" Zack asked in an even tone.

"That is not important right now!" Kendall snapped, "Heckyl, what were you thinking?"

"Shhh Pretty Lady, I'm thinking." This did not help; her face reddened and Heckyl let go of their hands to glance at the cells running on either side of them. Kendall and Zack moved closer to him and he spoke again, "Hey, monsters, how would you like to be free?"

There was some confused noises, some angry ones, but many that gave affirmatives. Kendall looked to him to see his hands glowing again, energy crackling and arching out and hitting each and every door, jumping from one to the next to the next until they all were linked. The energy danced about him and he gave a small smirk as alarms started going off and doors suddenly opened, letting loose a bunch of ridiculous and dangerous looking enemies. They all rushed out and the guards were suddenly overwhelmed, during which Heckyl once more grabbed his two companions. "Let's go!"

"Heckyyyyyl!" she yelled and winced as she nearly banged into a rather troublesome creature covered in spikes; her cheek did get cut though and a trickle of blood formed, making her a lot more annoyed, "Goddamnit, what are you doing?"

"Finding us the Energem," he answered and pulled them down the hallway, avoiding monsters and minions alike; there was noise about, loud voices and Kendall realized that Sledge seemed to have finally become aware of the situation because he was yelling over an intercom that sounded a lot worse than even DECA's had at times.

"You know where the engine room is then?"

"Nope."

"You have any idea where you're going on the ship?"

"Nope."

"Then what the hell makes you think you're taking us towards the Energem?!"

"Trust me!"

"HECKYL!" He laughed, a sound that sounded a lot less like that of a villain trying to lead them into doom, and much more like an amused friend doing something he truly believed was right.

Trust him, he said. Heckyl was honestly giving her a headache between the contradictions and the situation. Vivix were chittering and she could hear the sounds of fighting over the sounds of Sledge's annoyance, and she was still being dragged by a man who seemed to not know for himself what he wanted to be. Good or evil, right or wrong, a monster or their friend. Saving peoples lives and insisting he was a villain who was going to steal the Energems. But again actions spoke louder than words and she bit down hard on the inside of her mouth before squeezing his hand tight and hoping, praying, that whatever was driving him forward wouldn't lead them astray. That Heckyl wasn't going to lead them astray.

A blast of something dangerous flew by their head and Zack turned to look back with a frown. "Guys, I think I found Sledge."

"Well fuck," Kendall muttered and Heckyl pulled them to the side, into a room full of machinery and glowing lights. He let go of their hands and turned quickly, blasting a panel by the door; it sparked and smoked and the door shut behind them, leaving a frustrated Sledge and company on the other side. He gave a sassy wiggle of his fingers and Zack turned to look behind them into the room proper.

"Um guys?" Kendall didn't like that tone from the teenager and she tried to prepare herself before looking as well.

She didn't recognize the strange blue monster that was standing there, though it's weird crying face made her somewhat uncomfortable; behind it she could see the faint glow of the Purple Energem though it seemed to be embedded in a device just as they expected. It stared at them, they stared at it, and Heckyl sighed. "Well at least it's just Wrench."

The being known as Wrench made a noise and shaking pointed at them. "Heckyl?! What are you doing here?!"

"I've come to do what I was set free to do," he said summoning up more energy around his hands, "Stealing the Energem. Now do be a dear and get out of our way because I notice you have it behind you and we'd like it back."

"Where's Sledge?"

As if in response to his words there was loud bangs from the other side of the door and the distinct sound of a blaster going off and trying to break it down. For all the junky look of the ship, and part of her wondered how it managed to defeat the Megaship, the doors seemed sturdy at least; Kendall threw it a backwards look while the boys continued to face the weird monster. Wrench jumped at all the noise and made another sound of distress, he really did seem like a coward, but he rushed Zack and she didn't even bother to look. There was a flash and a laugh and soon the monster was tumbling with a Power Ranger and he probably hadn't expected that but he should have.

Heckyl sighed again then turned to Kendall. "Pretty Lady, I'll keep an eye on the door, so if you could do us the favor of getting the Energem free of that thing that would be very helpful."

There wasn't a reason to argue; the door kept making noise and there was even some bending that did worry her some. Zack was apparently trying to give Wrench a nudgie on the ground but the monster was actually not as weak as he seemed and giving the Black Ranger a run for his money. While the others did what they could, she had to do what she could and what he could was get the Energem; she took a deep breath and with a nod made her way over to the device. No one seemed to pay her much attention and she got far enough to actually reach it and start trying to analyze it, in hopes of best figuring out how to dislodge the Energem with as little backlash as possible; it was complicated, far more than most things she saw, but after spending the last few months with the Renegades aboard the Megaship and dealing with alien tech, building the E-tracer and the scanner, she felt she could at least handle it to some degree.

She had gotten some idea of what she needed to do, and reached into the bag at her side to pull out the tools she'd brought with her, when the door finally flew in and without thinking she screamed. Sledge stood there among the smoke, his eyes glowing dangerously, Fury right behind him as well as more than a few Spikeballs and Vivix. Heckyl's hands sparked and he threw the first attack at them, knocking back one of the minions but that did little. Wrench pulled free of Zack to run to Sledge's side, cowering effectively, "Master Sledge!"

"Heckyl," Sledge growled and Heckyl narrowed his eyes at the bounty hunter.

Zack rushed to the outlaw's side, getting into a fighting stance and called back over his shoulder. "Kendall, focus!"

"Got it!" she said with a gulp; now was not the time to complain about not being addressed properly. She pulled out tools and started on dismantling the machine and getting to the Energem. Behind her Sledge screamed but it was followed by the sound of crackling electricity and she didn't need to look to know what Heckyl had done. Focus, she had to focus, she knew she had to focus.

"That Energem is mine!" Sledge roared

"No, it belonged to Albert! You stole it from his corpse, you creepy lizard thing!" Zack retorted.

"You take another step and I'll fry you," Heckyl added coldly.

"Heckyl, you traitor!" Came the anger of Fury.

"I was never on your side to begin with; I have only ever been on my own." The back and forth between four voice continued but the sound of fighting erupted and Kendall tried her best not to worry about what was going on behind her when she had something important before her. The Energem eventually slid free and into her hands and she looked at it, the light sparkle of it's crystalline form seeming like the least anxiety-inducing thing here. She clamped her hand tight around it and turned her head to call out to her two teammates, "Hec! Zack! I got it!"

Sledge heard too of course and with another outraged sound he leveled his weapon at her; Zack moved quickly, tackling him and causing the blast to hit the ceiling inside. Heckyl frowned and moved to grab Kendall, the rest of the enemies taking the opening to rush in as well and the room quickly got full. She tried to slip the gem into her pocket for safe keeping but hands, and claws, grabbed at her and she felt herself being lifted off the ground, making her scream and start kicking wildly.

"Let me go you brute!"

"Give us the Energem!" Fury snarled and dug his claws into her skin, drawing blood and making her wince. It hurt but Kendall knew it was little compared to the kind of things many of the others went through, the injuries and pain of those who normally fought. She slammed her heel into his face, or at least tried, feeling the reverb through her foot but was somewhat satisfied when he let out a scream and loosened his grip some. There was a strange tinge and she only realized that Heckyl had blasted the cat warrior, and that it was the static from his powers that she had felt, when she was suddenly and unceremoniously dropped to the group. She heard a crack but wasn't entirely sure what it was nor did she have time to worry about it; she quickly got to her feet and through the sea of monsters and Ranger and one human looking alien, she tried to make her way out and away from the trouble. More of Sledge's group tried to grab her, or at least for her pocket, but Zack or Heckyl beat them away and she pulled free out into the hallway, finally catching her breath. Sledge noticed her, of course the big bad did, and moved to follow, yelling that the Energem was getting away, but got a punch to the face from Zack that based on the noise his fist made making contact, was not a soft one.

"Come on," she called out to her companions and held out her hand, knowing how stupid and dangerous it might be. The minions could grab it, Sledge could, that weirdo Wrench could.

But the ones that did were the hands of the two she needed to have grab onto her and she smiled before feeling the uncomfortable but slowly becoming more familiar feeling of being teleported. The trio disappeared and from the chaos Sledge roared again, "GET THEM!"

Kendall felt safe once they landed but for a second. Because she hadn't expected to go from a fire straight into the burning infernos of hell itself; the trio appeared and the first thing she noticed was that they were in a meadow but not on the Pai Zhua grounds. Not a bad thing she wanted to believe, Tommy and Billy had warned them beforehand that Tsuki's power was not always precise and sometimes it would be a bit off on where it would drop people off. They were at least together and she started to let go of their hands before she heard clicks around her and her heart immediately fell again; she felt Heckyl and Zack move, try and press her between them as she lifted her gaze and realized what it was she had really heard.

They were surrounded and she had no idea how this was possible. They shouldn't have been found so quickly, they shouldn't have been found at all; she didn't think the government had the ability to track them effectively, not as far as any of them knew, and truth be told in the chaos of the last few hours she had even forgotten about their primary enemies. But it was hard to ignore so many guns pointed at them and she tried to think of something to do, something to say. But she wasn't a Ranger and she could feel how stiff Zack got beside her.

"Now now now, what do we have here? To think some little mice actually fell into our trap; Astor will be so cross about losing our bet." The voice was sweet and feminine and in all the ways Kendall knew, in every human instinct in her body, she knew that it belonged to a person far more terrifying than Sledge. It sent ice through her bones and she shuddered without thinking, finding it hard to want to look around more to find the source. But she told herself that she had to, something inside her told her she had to, as if not doing so would only make things all the worse later.

What she found was more military types, and it occurred to her that she didn't see any of the known Government Rangers around. The only one who seemed to be something more, definitely more, was a rather beautiful woman with the coldest smile Kendall had ever seen. She was dressed elegantly, not in an especially flashy way, it didn't stink of money or privilege, but it had the effect of making her look like someone Important, someone higher and better, and the way she looked at the three of them reminded Kendall of a cat. No, not just a cat. A lioness.

Heckyl's hands sparked again and the outlaw had the gall to laugh though he did not leave Kendall's side. "Your trap huh? I assume you then were planning on catching some Renegades because I have some bad news for you."

"Bad news?" the woman asked raising an eyebrow at his comment, a perfectly made eyebrow on a face that was mesmerizing for the wrong reason.

"Yup, all you got was a bad guy, a girl and a teenager."

"A teenager who is currently morphed."

"He's far from a catch." Kendall had no idea what Heckyl was thinking but she felt Zack grab her hand again and she squeezed his. He was shaking, actually shaking; the strange hyper Ranger was scared and she wasn't entirely sure why but she did know she needed to protect him then.

"Zack, hold on," she whispered to him and tried to feel for her communicator.

There was a chuckle from the woman and the scientist froze. "Any Ranger is a catch, and considering you also seem to have Kendall Morgan, the missing archaeologist and curator of Amber Beach Museum, I think we actually have a pretty good catch here."

"Senator van Dran, how shall we proceed?" one soldier spoke turning to the regal seeming woman.

She didn't turn her head, instead lifting it slightly as she seemed to regard them, analyze them. It made Kendall all the more uncomfortable but she didn't speak to the other woman. Finally she raised a hand, followed by a long moment of silence, before gesturing forward; the soldiers surged and Heckyl made a noise that sounded like it was probably an alien curse word. As the first one took a step too close, there was a burst of navy energy and Heckyl's hands still sparked as he spoke in a calm but dangerous tone, "I would not do that if I were you."

"Stand down combatant and come peacefully!" yelled one of the others and they all aimed their guns at the trio.

He narrowed his eyes and blasted another soldier's feet then another then another until there was a circle of burning spots surrounding them like a strange border between the Renegade trio and the ones who caught them; Kendall took note that he hadn't attacked in any way that caused them harm, only to force them back and she said his name.

"We need to be teleported out of here and now," he half hissed and Kendall glanced at her communicator with a frown.

There was an audible clicking of a tongue and she frowned as she looked over at where Senator van Dran still stood, watching them with amusement. "If you're trying to contact your friends I will warn you that it's useless; we have blocked out a mile radius around this area, rendering any communication not through our devices useless."

"Then I guess our only way out is through you," Heckyl said and Kendall got the sense that he very much serious in his implications. And she was reminded again that he was a villain, a monster who had hunted the Energem for time longer than she knew, and the lives of humans meant little to him.

"Heckyl, we should run," Kendall said. If the radius was a mile then that was bad but if they got out of it, if they could get far enough away...

"I'm sorry, Dr, Morgan, but there will be no running." A gunshot rang out and Heckyl in response blasted a man in the chest, sending him flying. And like it always was, this only lit the fire that started to burn quickly around them; Kendall found herself again in the middle of a fight and one far worse than the one she had just been in on Sledge's ship. Three against what seemed to be dozens; no, correction, two against a dozen. No, correction again, she told herself and as she saw a gun fall to the ground she scrambled to get it, determined to do something. Maybe it would have been better to send Tyler or Phillip or Ivan or Abby or anyone else but herself but she was there now and she couldn't just stand around doing nothing. She had grabbed the Energem before and she was going to do something now, even if it just meant trying to make a way out for the three of them because she refused to let such a terrifying figure tell her that she couldn't get away.

Kendall was not used to using guns; she had never actually used one in her life, she had never had a reason to, and it felt heavy in her hands. But it seemed simple enough, far more so than building a device to use Energems to find more Energems, and she pulled the trigger, shooting one soldier through the leg. It made her feel terrible and she told herself that this was necessary, that this was not because she wanted to hurt anyone but because they gave her no choice. She shot again and tried her best not to kill anyone but a stray bullet tore through a woman's throat and her heart sunk further than she had ever thought it could. She bit back the tears that formed and tried to look for Heckyl and Zack; both were fighting, of course they were, but the latter looked over as the bullet killed that soldier and through a crack in his helmet he gave her a look that seemed both pity and fear. But not fear of her, fear of something else, fear of a trauma from the past, and he threw an enemy to the ground before yelling out in pain as he was in return shot in the shoulder.

Heckyl didn't look much better but he was also not focused on the soldiers. His attention seemed focused on the woman, as if knowing that she was the real problem and not caring for her puppets, he blasted and knocked back and likely killed many of them as he tried to reach her instead. And she didn't even seem to flinch, making Kendall feel all the more scared to tell the truth. Because who could look upon all this and not even blink an eye?

He got within a few feet when something shocked the electroblast user and he convulsed, limbs twitching, energy surging, yet he seemed to refuse to scream as he fell. Kendall wasn't sure what had happened but as people tried to approach him she took aim and shot, sending them back. Zack ran over to grab him, getting shocked as well obviously, but still the Power Ranger tried and dragged him to Kendall who kept her weapon pointed at the senator. This alone seemed to stop the soldiers and they froze for just long enough to Zack to bring Heckyl to Kendall.

"Kendall, give me the gun." She did not expect that from Zack nor did she expect the serious expression on his face as he completely removed his damaged helmet and the two looked at one another.

"Zack, what are you..."

"We can't run," he said, "Not all three of us; one of us has to distract them. One of us needs to keep them occupied while the other two get to safety. And right now-"

"No!" She could guess what he was thinking and she held the gun tighter.

The boy, for he was really was just a boy, only a teenager who likely was still in high school and honestly shouldn't be allowed to touch a gun but also shouldn't have to be afraid for his own life; he gave her a weak smile and held out a hand. "Heckyl just got electricuted and despite his powers, it seems to have done a number on him. I'm the only one morphed right now, the only ranger we have; honestly between the three of us, I'm the best prize anyway. I'll be...just go okay."

He couldn't even tell her that he was going to be okay. Her heart raced but the soldiers seemed to have unfrozen and started moving again and Zack took note, ripping the gun from her and shoving an unconscious Heckyl in her arms before sending out a shot and yelling, "Go already!"

Kendall was terrified and she was worried and she was angry and she didn't want to leave him. But she pulled Heckyl's arm over her shoulders and started to move as fast as she could. There were more gunshots, there were a lot more but she tried not to stop and she tried not to look back.

The tears returned and she could do nothing to stop them; she didn't know how long she had been dragging the outlaw or how long she had been moving, how long the shots were ringing or how injured she might be. All she knew was that she suddenly was engulfed in light and she finally let out a loud and pained sob, a screaming cry as it hit her completely what had just happened. Kendall Morgan had just left behind a teammate, a child, and it weighed even heavier on her than killing did.

Zack let out a cry of pain as he kicked to the ground and a small whimper; he demorphed and blood pooled in his mouth, filling his senses with the quality of iron.

Katina van Dran stepped towards him, watching as he was held down and handcuffed. There was no particular feeling looking down at him, least of all being any pity. He was a Power Ranger, like the ones who had "saved" her home city what felt like an eternity ago; he was a Renegade, a member of that group of fugitives who had been a thorn in her side for far longer than she had expected. He was young but as she approached him she could see the defiance in him, and in his actions. His teammates had gotten away but he had thrown down his weapon once he seemed to believe they were far enough and didn't resist as he was restrained. She hooked her shoe under his chin, forcing him to look up at her, covered in blood and sweat and dirt, a filthy cretin who stared up at her with all the fire of a teenager. No, rather that stupid stubbornness that the Power Rangers seemed to all possess.

"A small prize but better than nothing I suppose," she said and smiled at him; it was not meant to be reassuring and he didn't seem to fall for it either, "Tell me little boy, what's your name? Which team do you belong to?"

"John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt," Zack weakly snickered and gave her a cheeky smile, "Let me guess, that's-Aaaarrggh!"

Katina dropped his head and moved to dig the spike of her heel into his back, causing the boy to cry out in pain. She sighed in fake disappointment and shook her head. "How disrespectful, though I guess I can only expect as much considering the company you keep. Now shall we try again or will we have to be a little more forceful with you?"

She removed her heel and he panted, his hair falling over his face as he lay there. The words he spoke came out short, weak but the hatred was clear. "You're a monster."

"Very rude." Again with the heel and while he kept from screaming this time she was certain it wasn't very comfortable either.

Honestly she didn't really care if he answered her now nor did she expect him to. If the ones in confinement or the reports she'd gotten of the conflicts with the Renegades were any indication, there was a strong sense of stubbornness in many of them. And he, young as he looked, likely wouldn't be easy to get to tell her what she wanted to hear. But that was far from enough to dissauge her and pulled back again she deigned to lean down, cup his chin in her hand forcefully, look him in the eye. He was like a caged beast at the moment; there was calm and there was resilience, but Katina knew that that could only last so long. He'd either give in to her or he'd die, either way just a matter of time.

"You'll find, little Ranger, that it is in your best interests to play nice with me," she half purred and her index finger nail dug into his skin, "Lest you find yourself hurt."

"I'm not afraid of pain," he said in a low voice, "I'm not afraid of you."

"Oh, you are going to find that you are very foolish in saying such things." She smiled again and his blood ran cold.

But still, still Zack Taylor held onto hope, because he got the sense that showing her fear would be like leaving an injured beast before the lioness. And he had no interest in being lunch.