John pounced on Rick as he came up the stairs behind Alice. "I want a word with you," he said softly as Alice entered Frax's lab.
Rick glanced in that direction, but the lab door was already sliding shut. He sighed. "What's up?"
"I think you know," said John, offering Rick a cool glare.
Rick's shoulders slumped. "Is this where you threaten me and tell me to stay away from your sister?"
"Well," John drawled, "see, that all depends on you."
Rick's eyebrows climbed.
John smiled a little, showing teeth. "If you so much as look wrongly at Alice, there isn't a place you'll be able to hide. And if you hurt her..."
"I get the idea," Rick snapped.
"Do you?"
Rick took a pace forwards, trying to intimidate John with his greater height. "I get the idea."
John just glared back, unimpressed. "You'd better. For your sake."
"This a private pissing contest or can anyone join in?" Lexia asked dryly.
John visibly started at her sudden appearance and, to Rick's surprise, actually flushed in embarrassment. He opened his mouth to refute that charge, but Rick got in first.
"It's nothing, Lex."
Lexia snorted. "Yeah right."
"Just...shooting the breeze," John put in, still looking embarrassed and -- to Rick's further astonishment -- increasingly shy.
"And I'm Julia Roberts," Lexia shot back with a shake of her head. "Never mind. John, I thought you were gonna give me a few pointers. I don't like getting my rear kicked, especially by some stand-in ranger."
"Sure."
Lexia nodded and headed back into the training room. John moved to follow her, leaving Rick standing in the hallway.
He snorted softly. "Same goes for you, buddy. You hurt her..."
John glanced over his shoulder. "Guess we've got an agreement, then."
The knock on the door of her hospital room caused Taylor to look up from the magazine she was half-heartedly thumbing. Somewhat to her surprise, Ben was standing in the doorway, looking tired and worn.
"Hey," he said, smiling faintly.
"Snuck past the dragon?" Taylor suggested.
"What, you mean that sweet duty nurse on the desk?" Ben asked, sitting down.
"Bitch," Taylor retorted. "Told me I had to stay here over night."
Ben lifted his eyebrows. "How come? I didn't think your shoulder was that serious."
"It's not."
"Then?" Ben frowned in concern and confusion. "What's wrong?"
Taylor looked down, unable to meet his gaze. "I...kinda fainted."
"You? Fainted?" Ben sounded both incredulous and worried. "Taylor...?" Taylor studied the magazine cover, not daring to look up. "Taylor, babe, what's wrong?" Damn, but he knew her well. "Taylor, you're scaring me." The fear was now ripe in his voice. "Taylor -- look at me. What's wrong?"
"I'm pregnant."
There was a long, long, long silence.
Taylor didn't dare look up now. Couldn't risk seeing Ben's reaction. They might have been together off and on for nearing ten years but they had no official commitment. The few times either one of them had brought that idea up; the other had gotten cold feet.
"And when were you planning on telling me?" Ben finally asked, clearly hurt. He swore. "Jesus, Taylor, you could have been seriously hurt today."
"I know."
"Is the baby all right?"
"She's fine."
"She?!" Ben swore again. "How pregnant are you?"
At that, Taylor managed a weak smile. "Six weeks." She heard Ben sigh in relief. "It...um...kinda a reflex...calling the baby her."
There was another, awkward silence.
"So what now?" Ben asked quietly.
Alice leaned on the window ledge, looking out of the window, not seeing the rest of the industrial compound of which Frax's complex made up a sizeable chunk. She had far too much to think about.
Rick had been waiting for her when Frax had finished, but she wasn't ready to talk. He'd smiled a little shyly and offered to listen when she was ready. It was nice to know that Rick was there for her, but at the same time, it was weird. It was going to take a little while for her to truly be used to the idea of the triumvirate suddenly being her contemporaries rather than her kid brother and his friends. And it didn't help that Rick, as an adult, was definitely cute. She found herself blushing at that thought.
Just one more confusion on top of everything else, she thought wryly. The meeting with Frax played over and again in her mind, but the more she thought about things, the less sense anything made.
"You didn't kill anyone," Frax stated as she walked into his lab for the debriefing.
"There was no point to killing anyone. If we're targeting Time Force, why kill innocent bystanders if we don't have to?" she replied, puzzled.
Frax smiled at that and nodded but Alice didn't miss the strange flicker of 'something' in his expression. "What about your targets?"
"What about them?" Alice asked, bemused.
"Curious choices," said Frax.
"Tactically sound choices," Alice retorted mildly, and a little surprised at herself for not being annoyed.
"Oh?"
"Ian Foster, Danielle Hines -- they're friends of Eric Myers. The training centre is his current project. They were the fastest way to get his attention without risking collateral damage." Why wasn't she angry at the criticism? Alice frowned, even as she realised Frax looked almost annoyed by her reasoning.
"I see."
"What would you rather we did?" Alice enquired. "Blow up Bio-Lab's headquarters? The shopping mall?"
"Oh, no -- of course not."
That answer had been too fast, too pat, she realised. Frax had been hoping for them to cause complete and indiscriminate mayhem. Alice smiled wryly. Not gonna happen. But if Frax was hoping for that kind of thing... Her smile thinned into a grimace. The logical conclusion from that was that Frax wasn't being entirely straight with them about Time Force.
She snorted softly.
And where did she get off being 'logical'? She'd never been logical. She'd always been impulsive. Whoever had done this to them had given her an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of tactics and strategy. It was less obvious than the information that had been given to Rick, Lexia and John, but possibly more insidious. It was slowly acting on her thought processes. Taming her temper. Curbing her tongue.
Mostly.
Hysterical outbursts in grain depots not withstanding.
And even that, as idiotic and near-terminal as it had been, was nowhere near the level her temper had been reaching.
A memory fragment drifted free of the fog that still shrouded her memories. Of hundreds of Cyclobots. Of being grabbed. Of Rangers. Of being hurt. Of lashing out in anger at the one who'd hurt her. Of refusing to listen.
"Shut up! You hit me -- you're just like Dirk."
Alice shuddered as the memory finally dispelled. It was all disjointed but it leant further credence to the idea that there was something lurking in her mind, something other than the plastic-quality memories. She sighed. Something more real and less black and white.
I need to talk -- but I don't think Rick can help me on this...
More awkward silence followed his question. Ben hated it. Hated not knowing what to do, or say. Give him a Cyclobot and he could hit it. Give him the end of the world and he'd fight tooth and nail to stop it. Could. Would. Had. But this? This was something far beyond his ken.
And not just him, he realised, looking at Taylor.
"Taylor, babe, please say something."
She slowly looked up at him. "Ben, I don't know," she said helplessly.
He offered her a smile. The patented Johnson charm-offensive smile. The smile that said 'I can make this better for you'. But that smile faded as he realised he couldn't 'make this better'. "Me either," he admitted.
"I...I'm not sure I want to keep her...it."
And suddenly Ben understood. "You weren't going to tell me at all." He thought he'd been shocked when she'd first said the word. He was wrong. He could feel a chill wrapping itself around him, invading every pore. "You were going to have an abortion and..."
"No!" Taylor cut in. "It wasn't like that -- I wouldn't..."
"Look me in the eye and say that," Ben answered quietly.
Taylor looked away.
"At least I know where I stand." He moved to leave.
"Ben, I'm sorry." Her voice was soft. So unlike her normal tones. So broken. So scared. "I know I've messed up over this."
The faint crunch of gravel was all the warning Rocky had before one hand came down on his shoulder while the other clamped itself across his mouth.
"I don't want to hurt you," hissed the hands' owner. "Gotta make this look like I'm kidnapping you."
Before Rocky could do anything, the world shimmered and his stomach lurched as some form of teleportation device kicked in. Moments later, he found himself standing on a bluff overlooking a cove. He recognised the area as being the coast just to the north of Silverhills.
"Sorry," apologised his captor, relinquishing her hold. "I needed to talk to you."
Slowly Rocky turned to face her. Alice.
"And we couldn't have had this discussion somewhere more comfortable exactly why?" he asked, gesturing to their surroundings. "Or are you planning on using me to bait some kind of trap?" Alice looked startled, as though she hadn't been expecting him to suggest that. "Alice, give me a little credit. You've just teleported me thirty miles. Think I could have guessed."
"I..." She stopped. "This was dumb. I'm sorry. I..."
"Stop," Rocky commanded. Alice's mouth closed with an automatic snap. "Breathe."
"I'm not a little kid any more," she objected.
At that, Rocky actually found himself laughing. She looked mildly offended. "I know, but last time I saw you, you were sixteen and in a snit over tongue piercing. This is a lot to take in." Alice's shoulders sagged at that, offence muting into sheepishness. "Now, kiddo, how about you explain what the hell we're doing up here?"
Taylor cringed at the look on Ben's face.
"I didn't know how to tell you," she whispered. "I was scared. Am scared. Didn't want things to change between us. I thought..." She shook her head. "It crossed my mind I could do that. Just never tell you. I'd be lying if I said it didn't." She looked up, forcing herself to meet his accusatory glare. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't consider it." He straightened. "For all of an hour when I left the clinic on Saturday morning."
Ben froze. "Saturday?" he croaked.
Taylor nodded. "I saw the doc on Saturday morning."
"You didn't know before then?"
She shook her head. "I've been late before...heck, I haven't been 'regular' since I was a ranger. Just...never quite this late."
"Why didn't you say anything sooner?"
"I didn't know how to. And...and then the shit hit the fan...with the kids...and then today..." Taylor trailed off.
There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Taylor tried to work out what Ben was thinking from his expression, but that was carefully schooled, not giving anything away.
"I should go," he finally said, quietly. "I need to think." He turned towards the door, paused and turned back. "When are they discharging you?"
"Lunchtime tomorrow."
Ben offered her a weak smiled. "I'll pick you up."
It took her several moments to realise what he'd said. "You're not...leaving-leaving?"
Ben shook his head. "I'm shocked, I'm hurt...but I'm a part of this and I'm not gonna walk away. We'll work this out."
"It's a mess," Alice finished. "And...I don't know what's real, what's fake...I'm not even sure I know who to trust."
"You're talking to me," Rocky pointed out.
"I figure you're far enough out of Eric's main circle that what I remember about you isn't fake." Alice hesitated a moment. "And I could always talk to you before."
Rocky sighed. "I don't know what you want me to tell you."
"The truth."
"You're being manipulated. But you already figured that. You wanna know who by. I can't answer that. All I can tell you is whatever this guy's told you -- about Eric being the one behind this -- is bull." Alice opened her mouth to say something but Rocky just shook his head. "That man would die for you, Alice. You and your brother."
Alice shivered, a little surprised at the vehemence in Rocky's voice. "I want to believe you."
"Then believe me," Rocky answered. "Believe me, kiddo, because it's the simple truth. And it's the same way with Wes and Jen. All four of you kids are loved very much. The last thing any of your parents would do is hurt you. In any way."
Alice nodded slowly. She could feel the honesty in that statement. "Which means that Frax is the one who's playing us," she concluded.
"Or his boss," said Rocky quietly.
"What do you mean?"
"There's someone else behind this. Someone who wants to get at your parents."
"Why?"
Rocky sighed and gestured at the ground. "Mind if I sit down? It's been a long day."
Alice smiled faintly, dropping to the ground herself. "No kidding."
Rocky matched her smile as he sat. "So. You know your parents were...are rangers." Alice nodded. "And I guess you're probably old enough to remember Ransik?"
Alice frowned for a moment, raiding her memory. "I think so. Kinda." She sighed. "Whatever 'they' did to me's really screwed up my memory."
Rocky nodded. "Kim said you didn't remember her."
Alice stiffened at the name. "Kim?"
Freeman Hauritz enjoyed working the night shift of the Silver Guardians. Even if chaos was reigning during the day, the night shift was calm and quiet and, he had to admit, the anti-social hours suited him nicely.
Of course, he reflected sourly as the phone began to ring, there's always the exception that proves the rule.
Reaching forwards, he picked up the receiver. "Good evening, Silver Guardians, how may I help you?"
"Sorry to bother you," said an apologetic sounding woman. "I don't suppose my husband's still there is he?"
Hauritz's eyebrows lifted. "Your husband would be...?"
"Sorry -- Rocky DeSantos. He had a meeting with Commander Myers."
Hauritz grimaced. Just because he was on night shift, didn't mean he didn't know what had gone on during the day. "I see. Hold on one moment, I'll check." He put the call on hold and checked the security board. He had a nasty feeling that everyone present at that meeting had long since left. Sure enough, the security board revealed that Conference Room One was locked up and alarmed. He turned back to the call. "Mrs DeSantos -- your husband left some time ago."
There was a lengthy pause on the other end of the line then, "Are you sure?"
Hauritz sighed. "Yes I am."
"Is there anything you can check?"
Given what's happened today, I'd better go and check the surveillance logs for the parking lot, Hauritz decided. "There is. Can I take a phone number so that I can call you back? It'll take a few minutes."
"Oh -- yes, of course. Thank you."
Hauritz wrote the number down. "I'll call you back in about five minutes."
"Thank you."
Hauritz put the receiver down and hastily crossed the control room to check the CCTV coverage of the car park. Part of his job on this graveyard shift was to keep an eye on the various security camera feeds but by a common consent, the parking lot wasn't a feed to be monitored unless the assorted motion sensors installed in the lot detected movement outside of normal hours.
As he scrolled back through the tape, he recalled the detectors had been set off at nine o'clock that evening. That had been the break-up of Commander Myers' meeting. He hadn't checked the feed at that time, knowing that it would be Commander Myers, his wife, Commander Collins, Mr DeSantos and the other Commander Collins leaving. At least that gave him a time to check.
Hitting that mark, he started to play the tape, displaying the images from the four parking lot cameras on the four display screens. Two were immediately discarded as they clearly displayed completely empty sections of parking lot. Of the other two views, both displayed the last three cars in the lot so he split his attention between the two screens and waited.
Sure enough, a minute or so past nine o'clock, the five meeting attendees exited the building. Hauritz quickly identified Mr DeSantos and followed his progress into the lot and towards his car -- some sort of older model Honda, he thought. Commander Myers drove away with his wife, in his car, closely followed by the two Collinses in their car. So Mr DeSantos was actually last to leave.
He continued to watch...and felt his heart stop as he saw what happened barely seconds after everyone else had gone.
"Oh shit!"
Rocky hesitated, clearly debating what to say. "Kim's your mom -- the Pink Ranger this evening."
Alice wasn't entirely shocked by that. Instead, she nodded. "I kinda figured she had to be. Guess only a mom can make your full name sound like a battle cry!"
Rocky smiled faintly. "It's not just your full name Kim can do that to." Alice made no comment. He sighed. "Point is, your parents have enemies. Guess one of them's decided to get creative."
"They're not gonna get away with that," Alice stated. She frowned for a moment as a plan began to form. "Do the 'rents have a way of getting this shit reversed?"
Rocky nodded. "I think so -- Lucas seemed to have some ideas about it, certainly."
Alice nodded again. "Good."
Rocky looked startled. "Good?"
"Think I want to be robbed of five years of my life and spend the rest of it with bullshit for memories?" Alice queried. "Thank you, no. I wanna get this over with."
"Well to do that, you're going to need a plan -- and you're going to need to work with your parents without arousing Frax's suspicions," Rocky pointed out.
Alice smiled. "I can do that."
Conflicting thoughts poured through Eric's mind as he pulled into his garage. On the one hand there was the certain knowledge that Alice was one of this new team of Rangers who had destroyed the training centre and caused damage elsewhere in the city, not to mention injured three Guardians badly enough that they'd been admitted to hospital. It was not an unreasonable assumption to figure the other three Rangers were the other three missing children but that wasn't confirmed yet. On the other hand was his promise to Alice and Kimberly when they'd first become a family, that he would never, ever hurt them. Could he face her?
"Can you fight her if you need to?" Kimberly asked from the passenger seat as he killed the engine.
Eric leaned against the steering wheel and put his head into his hands. "That's what's killing me."
"What do you mean?"
"I know I can...know I will if the time comes. I know what's at stake, I know what needs to be done, I know the objective... How fucked up is this? That I can just sit and analyse this whole situation like it was some sort of goddamned military mission in some godforsaken place to get rid of some asshole warlord that no-one cares about anyway..."
"Eric, hon, look at me," Kimberly commanded, cutting off his diatribe. When he didn't move, she put a gentle but firm hand on his shoulder and forced him to look round. "Alice is our daughter. I don't like this situation at all, but I also know what has to be done. If she...they...keep this up, they have to be stopped before innocent people are involved."
Hearing his own logic and reasoning spoken by Kimberly was disconcerting. Eric had been prepared for everything but this and he didn't know how to react. Then, sparing him, his cell phone started to ring. Kimberly rolled her eyes and smiled a little. He answered her expression with a wry smile of his own as he unclipped the noisy device.
But as his eyes fell on the display, any traces of levity left him. The caller ID was that of the SGHQ. That could only mean bad news.
"Myers," he said.
"Commander Myers um..." Hauritz hesitated. "I think Mr DeSantos has been kidnapped."
"Who by?" Eric managed to ask.
"It looked...kinda like your daughter."
Could this get any worse? Wes found himself wondering as he made his way to the security post at SGHQ, having been recalled to the building by a terse phone call from Eric, explaining the new situation.
Why on earth would Alice have kidnapped Rocky? In a situation that made little sense anyway, this truly was bizarre. Unless she was somehow looking to further hurt Eric.
Which, Wes realised as he reached the post, was always a good possibility.
Eric and Kimberly had already arrived and Freeman Hauritz was already replaying the relevant footage.
"That's her," Eric agreed. "Damn it."
"Why would she do this?" Kimberly queried. "Rocky isn't a Silver Guardian."
"No," Wes agreed, joining the conversation, "but he is a friend of yours and Eric's. So far, everything and everyone she's attacked has been connected to you."
Eric nodded, the reluctant realisation written on his face. "She's not just pursuing Time Force, she's after me personally."
"More than that," said a new voice, "she's challenged you to one-on-one combat tomorrow morning."
TO BE CONTINUED...