A/N: Hey all. Here begins the rollercoaster that I'm putting poor Z on in this story. SPD characters have proven surprisingly difficult to write, perhaps for the opposite reason of Kelsey and Ronny. The season does a great job of fleshing out the characters and creating rounded personalities, and maybe that's too restrictive when I don't have hometown content to work with like I did for Kira and Taylor. But anyway, here goes nothing.

Enjoy!

Chapter 8: The One-Woman Army

"So, are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?" Z watched Katie's face as the Time Force agent looked up at her words. She couldn't believe it had taken this long for the two rangers from the future to be the only ones in a room together.

"And what elephant is that?"

"The fact that Project Venjix doesn't exist. The S.P.D. records don't have anything about it." She had kept this to herself around the rangers of the present time, since she didn't want to worry them further. This could all turn out to be nothing.

"Time Force doesn't have anything about it either." Katie's face was impassive. The fact that Z was keeping what she knew from the present rangers was the exact reason why she wasn't sure she could fully trust the Time Force agent. What did Katie know that she didn't?

"S.P.D. is in charge of communication between the three human worlds, and all other allied planets. Project Venjix clearly didn't work. But why isn't there any information about it?"

"It must be classified, beyond both of our clearances."

"But why?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Z pursed her lips. It didn't look like Katie was lying, but she wasn't sure.

Kira stuck her head in. "Hey guys, Ashley and Tykwa are heading over to the academy. Want to check it out?"

"Yeah, count me in." Katie stood, giving Z a glance before following Kira out.

Z grimaced. There was too much that didn't make sense. She almost hoped that Katie was lying to her, and that Time Force did have unclassified information on Project Venjix. Because why would all information on it be classified?

She hurried after the others. Maya and Taylor were also coming along, and Z glanced at the Wild Force Ranger. She might have thought this all was nothing but for the disappearance of Taylor's husband. That, combined with the lack of information, made everything very unsettling.

She thought back to her battles against Grumm. Grumm had never been one for suspense. His attacks were almost always obvious, and those that weren't quickly became apparent. He had never forced the B-Squad Rangers to search around in the dark the way that Z felt she was being forced to now.

She never thought she would miss Grumm.

While Ashley retrieved her children, Tykwa showed the rangers around the academy. It served children of all ages, and Z felt some envy as she watched the kids run around with their friends after class let out. She had never gotten much of an education prior to joining S.P.D. Her peers bullied her for her ability, and after running away from school when she was twelve, she never had the money to reenroll. Before meeting Jack, she had been alone.

She missed Jack. S.P.D. was her family now, but Jack was the one who truly felt like a brother to her. They had been teammates long before they joined the force.

Amelia greeted the other rangers happily, and Z returned her smile. She was such a lucky girl.

It occurred to Z that she was actually only a year older than Amelia was. In the present time, her eight-year-old self was back on Earth, learning to be savvy on the streets and do her best with the hand she had been dealt.

Their lives were so different.

"So, what did you learn today?"

"We learned multiplication tables. But I'm already really good at them. Uncle J sends me math books from Earth."

"Uncle J?"

"My brother, Jeffery," Ashley explained. "He's a math wiz, and wants his niece and nephew to be the same."

Jeffery Hammond? Z knew that name from somewhere, but she couldn't recall where.

"Yup," said Amelia. "I have Uncle J and Auntie K."

"And who is Auntie K?"

Before Amelia or Ashley could answer, they heard a child's exclamation from the doorway of the academy. "The power rangers are fighting outside!"

The six rangers inside stared in the direction of the voice, and then Ashley turned to her children. "Kids, I need you to stay here with Tykwa, okay?"

Z and the others were already running towards the exit. Outside, she was stunned to see Summer morphed and fending off aggressive attacks from a red ranger and a silver ranger. Andros and Zhane.

"Zhane?" Maya called out to her husband. "What are you doing?"

Zhane didn't even seem to notice her.

Maya charged forward. "Go, Galactic!" She morphed, and her quasar saber, which she had left at Ashley's house, was suddenly in her hand. Raising the weapon, she placed it between Summer's nitro sword and Zhane's weapon, blocking his next attack. "What's going on? Zhane?"

Z and the others morphed and charged.

"Venjix has taken control of them," said Summer, her sword now clashing with the Spiral Saber that Z recognized from old power ranger records.

Maya tried again to get through to her husband. "Zhane, stop this!" But his only reply was to attack again.

"Andros?" Ashley was running in now, also morphed. "Stop!" She jumped between Summer and Andros, knocking them away from each other. She was then forced to dodge out of the way as Andros swung his weapon towards her. "What's going on?"

"Venjix is controlling him," said Summer.

"Star Slinger!" Ashley summoned her weapon and fired at her husband, knocking him back several steps. "Andros, knock it off!"

Again, there was no verbal response, only another attack.

Then there were shouts from beyond the clashing rangers. Several men were charging forwards with blasters. Raising the weapons, they began firing towards the rangers, though some also took aim at nearby civilians. Seconds later, the men among the civilians also started acting strangely.

"This is bad," said Kira.

Z spotted Kelsey, Ronny and Lily running towards them. "Guys, what the heck is going on?" Kelsey cast the large shield from her morpher, blocking several shots towards the unmorphed rangers before her suit covered her.

Lily and Ronny also morphed. "All the men are going crazy."

"It's Venjix's signal," said Summer. "There were only men in the laboratory for it to experiment on, so the signal must be attuned to them."

"So the computer has taken control of every man in the colony?" asked Taylor.

"It sure looks that way," said Kelsey. She drew her own blaster and fired towards the armed force that was running towards them. The blast struck the ground in front of them, knocking a few backwards.

"Then we've got to get all the women and kids out of here." Taylor looked towards where Ashley and Maya were battling their husbands, then back towards the academy. "Someone should tell Tykwa. Maybe she knows of a place to hide."

"I've got it." Z unmorphed and left a clone behind to continue fighting as she charged back to the academy. Children were screaming as they watched the chaos, and Z surged past them to find the High Consul standing between several children and three male teachers.

Splitting herself again, Z quickly knocked out the teachers, then vanished the clones and turned to Tykwa. "Project Venjix has taken control of all the men in the city. Is there somewhere where everyone else could hide?"

The High Consul shook her head. "Nowhere that will protect everyone. Unless we can get everyone to the spaceport and evacuate onto the ships."

Z grimaced, recalling all the armed male guards that the rangers had passed at the spaceport. "Alright then."


The evacuation was slow and messy. The guards at the spaceport had turned on each other, the women fending off sudden attacks from their colleagues. Ronny and Lily raced ahead to aid them, while the other rangers did their best to protect the evacuees. It helped that only the men of the city's Protection Service and some guards had weapons, and were the only real threats beside Andros and Zhane.

Gor'ko, fortunately, was unaffected, and he and Jun'ga arrived to aid the human rangers with the evacuation.

Ships took off as soon as they were full, their D.E.C.A. units aiding the pilots regardless of experience level. Katie and Taylor immediately went for the cargo vessel where Katie's Time Jumper still sat, loading it up with kids from the academy and then taking off. Many of the other evacuees boarded the largest ship at the spaceport, the Astro Megaship Mark IV. Z took Ashley's place fending off Andros as she ran aboard to help Tykwa.

A heavy weight was forming in Z's gut. She knew the only way to get all the other rangers safely aboard the fleeing ships without letting the ships themselves get attacked.

She turned to the others. "Get on board the ships!"

"And what about them?" Kelsey sent another blast towards the advancing Protection Service officers.

"I'll deal with them. Go." Z knocked Andros away and unmorphed, splitting herself and sending her clones against the men. Then she turned to Maya. "You too."

Putting some distance between herself and her husband, Maya turned to her. "What about you?"

"Just go." Z created more clones, grunting from the effort. She would need to make more than she ever had before.

As her clones spread out in front of the ships, the other rangers boarded. Z stopped the attackers from shooting at the ships, and they took off until only the Megaship was left on the ground. "Z, come on!" Kira called from the entrance.

But Z knew that wasn't an option. "Take off!" She winced as Zhane destroyed one of her clones and turned towards the ship, and sent another at him. The effort was exhausting her. "Go!"

She was relieved to hear the door close and the engines start up as she reengaged with Andros. Several men took aim at the ship, but her clones stopped them from firing.

Once the megaship was out of range of the blasters, she let the clones fall, collapsing. She couldn't fight anymore.

She could only shake her head at the irony that she would be dying in the year 2011, fourteen years before she even became a ranger.

Andros and Zhane stood on either side of her. Wordlessly, they lifted her up by her arms, dragging her towards the headquarters of Project Venjix. Once they were inside a small room, they deposited her back on the floor, and she looked up at the surrounding machinery.

"Welcome, Elizabeth Delgado, agent of Space Patrol Delta."

Z stared at the large camera atop the mainframe. "How do you know?"

"I know everything about you, past and future." To her astonishment and horror, her S.P.D. profile appeared on the screens on either side of the room.

"How?"

But Project Venjix wasn't interested in answering the question. "Andros, kill her."

Andros raised the spiral saber. All Z could do was look at him defiantly until her final moment.

Abruptly, a portal opened in the corner of the room. Z stared as the Shadow Ranger surged through it, and then the Shadow Saber was in front of her, blocking the Spiral Saber's blow.

Gathering whatever energy she had left, Z stood and ran towards the portal, the Shadow Ranger holding off Andros and Zhane until she was through. She leapt through, landing hard on a metal floor, and the Shadow Ranger jumped through behind her. The portal closed as soon as he was back.

They were in what looked like a tunnel underground. Narrow pipes ran overhead, and the rest was all metal as far as she could see in either direction.

The Shadow Ranger helped her to her feet, and she turned to him. "Commander?" She had never been so happy to see him.

But the voice that replied was not Cruger's voice. It was one that was far more familiar. "Not exactly, Z." He removed his helmet.

"Jack?"

Jack nodded. "I guess there's a lot to explain."