Disclaimer: Okay, I'll admit it – I own them all. Jason is in my basement, Eric is in my closet, and Billy serves me breakfast. Also, I own everyone reading this fic, so please send royalties before you go on with your lives.
Everything above this line is what I like to call Faux Truth. My thanks to Rach for the betaing.
Angel with Two Faces
Chapter 10
The Earth shrank behind them, a peaceful ball of blue, no sign of the turmoil on her surface visible from the vantage point of space.
Ba'altesch sighed as he looked out the aft porthole of Nemesis. The people spawned by the small blue sphere had given the galaxy so very much; would they now be snuffed out by the selfish evil of a single being?
By the sacred springs of Brel Qetre, they would not!
The blood of the Altesch family ran warrior-hot through his veins at the very thought. A scientist he might be by training, but his family had served as guard to the royal clan of Qetre for generations, and Ba'altesch knew well how to fight for what was right.
He frowned mightily and thumped on the bulkhead again.
"Miri?" Ba'altesch tried to keep his voice from booming. A message from the other ship had been received a short time ago, triangulated through the ACC, and he was fairly certain he had an idea of what the private communication from the Admiral had contained. Miri's silence from within the cramped medical cabin wherein she had sequestered herself confirmed his hypothesis. "Please, Miri. Talk to me."
Commander Kwan joined him, her face set in lines of concern. "Any response?"
Ba'altesch shrugged. "She will not answer, but I can hear her grief."
The commander's lips tightened. "I swear, that poor kid… Once we save Billy's butt I am gonna put it in a sling for this, on top of everything else she's had to deal with." Trini snorted. "Everything we've all had to deal with, I suppose I should say." She patted the large alien on the shoulder. "Maybe we should let her get it out, Ba'altesch. She'll talk when she's ready. I hope."
He nodded and followed her back into the common area of the ship, casting a reluctant look back toward the resolutely closed door of the med cabin.
Maya met him with a sympathetic look. "Was it what you thought?"
The big blue man shrugged. "Hard to say for sure, as she's secluded herself and will not talk to me. But I think it's a safe assumption that the Admiral sent a farewell message."
The pretty Mirinoian frowned. "We will do our best to insure that it was a useless gesture, you and I." Ba'altesch liked the way she said that, teaming them to face adversity together. He liked even better the way she took his large hand in her slim one and tugged him toward the cargo bay. "Let me show you the Exo."
~*~
Goodbye. Such a small word, only seven letters, but it could cause such a wealth of pain.
Miri shook her head, ignoring the tears that coursed down her cheeks. At least Ba'altesch had stopped calling for her. His kindness would be more than she could bear just now.
It wasn't that she didn't understand what her father intended, or why. He wouldn't be William Cranston if he hadn't done precisely what he did. Saving the world had become a reflex to him, sacrifice almost expected.
But, oh, she felt so alone.
There was another knock, but not the heavy thumps of Ba'altesch's oversized fist. It was a single, gentle rap, followed by a deep, compassionate voice.
"Let me in, Miri."
Jason's voice was like balm to her, though Miri couldn't imagine why. She palmed the privacy lock and turned her back, wrapping her arms around her slender middle. She closed her eyes as the door slid open, silently willing him to just talk to her, to let that voice wash over her until the pain went away.
She heard the door swish closed again, and warms hands slipped over her shoulders and down her arms, tugging her back to lean against the solid wall of a broad chest. The pad of a thumb wiped the wetness from her cheeks. Jason turned her around and held her close.
"He said goodbye to you, didn't he?" That blessed baritone was like water in the desert, and Miri nodded as it soaked into her very skin. "He tried to do what was right, Miri. And he loves you too much to leave without a word."
"I know." Her own voice was raw from sobbing, barely a breath left to push it between her lips. "But he's all I have."
She could hear his smile as it crept into his voice. "No, he's not, I promise you that. You believe too much in what you can see and touch."
Miri opened her eyes, her lids feeling like sandpaper on grit. "I'm a scientist. That's all I know."
Jason sat on the examining bed and pulled her into his lap, wrapping his strong arms around her, managing to make her nearly six-foot frame feel small and delicate. "There's me," he said, and his voice was warm. "I'm here."
"Why?" was all she could manage. Talk to me, she thought desperately. Just talk to me.
"Because you said you needed me."
"No, I – " But she had, Miri realized, and she remembered exactly when, remembered her frantic fist pounding into his chest, forcing his recalcitrant heart to beat. "You heard that?"
"Yes. The light was calling, but you said you needed me, so…"
She leaned into his strength for a while, her head tucked into the curve of his neck, her fingers curling into the smooth material of his uniform. "Where were you, all that time?" Her voice was stronger now.
Jason didn't pretend to misunderstand. "I don't know whether it even has a name. Shadowlands would do as well as anything. A place just outside the light." She would have pulled away then, but his arms tightened. "That makes it sound as though it was an awful place to be, but it wasn't. There was a lot of… clarity there. A lot of power. And I am still connected, in a way."
"The power to heal?"
Jason nodded. "Yes. Other things, too. It changes you, living in the shadowlands."
Miri sighed. "Why? You don't even know me."
His chest rumbled as he chuckled. "Wasn't much of a choice. A beautiful woman calling for me, or death? No contest." His fingers tangled in her hair as he brushed it away from her face. "I'm beginning to know you, Miri. And I want to know more, if that's okay, though this isn't the time to talk about that."
Warmth suffused her body, beginning at her toes and fingertips. She wasn't alone, Miri finally realized with certainty. Whatever happened, she wouldn't be alone.
~*~
Battered, bruised, and stripped to the waist, Billy glared defiantly at Goldar, who chuckled maliciously. The robotic soldiers who gripped his arms forced the Admiral to his knees; behind him, a dull thud let Billy know they'd done the same to Tommy, who growled in both pain and fury.
Goldar turned to go to the throne, whirling his cape about him theatrically. "You get credit for trying, Blue Ranger, I will say that, though I rather expected a noble, suicidal gesture." He sat and tapped his chin, a frown crossing his face. "Wait, there was another word I wanted. Noble… suicidal… oh yes." Goldar grinned. "Futile, that was the one."
"Damn you, Goldar, where is my wife?" Tommy burst out.
His crimson eyes opened wide in a parody of innocence as Goldar patted himself down, pretending to check his pockets. "Now where did I put – I know I had her here somewhere." He looked about himself, then shrugged. "I'm sure one of these will do as well." Behind the throne a Kat-clone appeared, a small bandage on her forehead. Behind her was another, this time wearing a uniform similar to the Rangers', excepting it was the dull gray color of lunar dust. Another followed, and another, until a full squad stood to attention behind Goldar, who chortled gleefully at the expressions on the faces of his captives.
"Oh… dear…" Goldar managed to stop laughing long enough to get another good look at Tommy, which set him off again. "Oh, Thomas…" He wiped his eyes with the corner of his cloak. "I remember a time when you would have appreciated the exquisite humor of this situation as much as I. Ah, well." He sniffed a few times, still giggling.
Tommy struggled forward. "I'll kill you for this, Goldar, I swear I will."
"You know, my old friend, I really do doubt that."
Billy tried to curb his temper. If there was any chance at all… "Where are they, Goldar? Kat and the others?"
The creature turned to him. "Dead by now, I expect. I wasn't terribly careful with them."
That rocked Tommy back on his heels, his hazel eyes wide and stark. "No. NO!" He let out a howl of agony as he collapsed to the cold metal floor.
"My," said Goldar, eyes sparking evilly. "And the fun's only just beginning."
~*~
Kailey suppressed a sigh of relief as she sighted their objective ahead: the terminus line. Beside her Scott was barely hanging onto his fury; the sounds of his father being taken captive had been almost more than the young Ranger could bear. Together they'd fought the instinct not to burst from the compartment where they'd concealed themselves; he'd held her hands so tightly they still tingled.
A muscle ticked in Scott's jaw, his blue eyes glittered with repressed rage, but reason prevailed. He knew as well as she did that they had a far better chance of rescuing his parents and the Admiral with some backup. And that was close, and Kailey was grateful.
She glanced at her comm, checking the tiny homing signal. Another two kilometers to the rendezvous, under cover of the lunar darkness beyond the terminus line, which lay immediately to their left. In the distance, to their right, she could see activity at the ruins of Goldar's palace: gray-clad figures parading to and fro. He had an army, then. Kailey stored away the information to report to Commander Myers when she saw him.
Scott squeezed her fingers gently; she looked up at him. He offered her a tight smile. "Almost there."
She nodded, wanting to say something reassuring but knowing anything she could offer now would be a platitude, and those were worse than useless.
He just looked toward the palace, his jaw tightening.
~*~
Jason frowned. "Run that by me again?"
Taylor shrugged, clearly bewildered. "In the last half hour the number of life signs at the palace has doubled. Twice. The last communication from Interceptor was that there were two; now that number is nearly a hundred." She looked up at her husband. "I don't understand how, but… it's almost like he's making people, or something."
Eric paled, his dark eyes meeting Jason's. "You don't think…"
Jason scowled. "I sure as hell do."
Ba'altesch looked from one of them to the other. "Some clarification would be welcome."
Miri touched her friend on his massive shoulder. "Goldar said he'd taken what he needed from the other Rangers. And he duplicated Aunt Kat once, that much we saw."
The large blue alien stared at her. "Surely – you cannot mean – an army of Commander Olivers?"
"And Wes Collinses, and Cassie Chans…maybe by now Tom Oliver and the Admiral to boot," Taylor all but spat, fury in her blue eyes.
"And if he's duplicating them using Finster's old technology," Trini said slowly, horror lacing her words, "they'll know what the originals know. They'll know how we fight, what our weaknesses are. They'll know everything."
"Not everything." Jason folded his muscular arms across his chest.
They all turned to stare at him.
"That's why you wouldn't let us tell Dad you were alive," Miri breathed. "This was the something you thought was coming."
He nodded. "Looks that way."
Trini's dark eyes narrowed. "Just what was in that duffel you brought on board, Jase?"
He answered her with a question of his own. "What do we hate the most, Tri?"
She shrugged, bewildered. "Spiders? What?"
It was Maya who broke the short silence following Trini's confusion. "I think I see. Spiders would be correct, for you, Trini. For me it is the loss of my freedom. We hate most what we fear most. Is that what you mean, Jason?"
Jason nodded. "That's it. So we know what Goldar fears most. He told us himself." He tugged the duffel from under the seat where it was stowed; through the loosened opening they could see a flash of bright pink. "Just how much does this daughter of yours look like Kim, Trini?"
From the open cargo bay ramp came an exasperated voice. "Aw, c'mon. Can't you people find something else to talk about?"