Rocky watched the reactions of the occupants of the security post with interest.
The unfortunate Silver Guardian who was presumably in charge of the night shift looked about ready to faint. Kimberly and Wes both jumped, Kimberly giving a tiny squeak of surprise. Eric, who had his back to Rocky's position, tensed then relaxed, presumably as he identified the speaker.
Slowly Eric turned to face him.
"What happened?" Eric asked.
Rocky offered a smile. "She wanted to talk to me."
"She kidnapped you!" Wes objected.
Rocky shrugged a little. "Yes and no." He sighed. "She wanted to talk to me and she isn't sure if he's watching them or not. She wanted to make it look good."
"This guy have a name?" Wes asked.
Rocky offered a sheepish smile. "Sorry. Frax -- he is the guy behind this."
"Not bad for a dead guy," muttered Kimberly.
"What did she want to talk about?" Eric asked.
"About you. She's figured that a lot of the stuff she's got floating in her head is bogus. She wanted to talk to someone who could confirm or deny and someone who didn't already have an axe to grind."
"Someone she's been confiding in since she was a kid," Kimberly filled in.
"Someone she figured her memories wouldn't be doctored about," Eric finished.
Rocky nodded. "Exactly."
There was a long silence after that. Rocky could see that both Eric and Kimberly were struggling to find a way to ask the obvious next question. It was Wes who finally said,
"And what did she say when you told her?"
"She believed me." He could see the minute relaxation in Eric's posture, the tiny lightening in his expression, that told Rocky just how much it meant to the other man to know Alice knew the truth.
There was another, lengthy pause.
"Did she say who the other rangers were?" Wes asked quietly.
Rocky sighed. That seemed to be answer enough for everyone. They might have known since Alice's identity was revealed hours earlier that the other Rangers were likely to be John, Rick and Lexia, but there had still been a shred of doubt. That was gone now. He winced. "Sorry."
Wes shook his head. "It's not your fault. We're just gonna have to fry the bastard behind this."
"And," Rocky put in quietly, "here's how we do it..."
"What do you think?" Alice asked softly as she finished explaining the plan to Rick. They were both sitting in the space under the stairs again -- it seemed to be the most private place in the whole of Frax's compound.
"Are you sure?" he asked just as quietly. "You really think you can trust them this much?"
A moment later Frax's face appeared where John's had earlier. "It's generally polite to report in when you've been out setting up the enemy."
Eric shivered. This was déjà vu. Barely twelve hours after the first showdown in the grain depot warehouse, they were back. This time, though, it wasn't for real.
He hoped.
Part of him wanted to believe Rocky -- and by extension, Alice. She was his daughter, his family. Families trusted one another. But there was a part of him that was wary. There was so much room for this plan to go wrong. So many unknown variables.
He hated it.
Standing either side of him, Kimberly and Wes were both standing rigid. Both were as conflicted about this as he was.
Stalling further observations, the four Vengeance Rangers arrived via teleportation. Now that he knew who they were, their stances made a horrible kind of sense. Alice was obviously protective of the others as she stood to the fore of the group. Given the general build of the Black Ranger, he had to be John. The way he'd angled himself, covering Alice, seemed to make that point. John had always been fiercely protective of his sister. Rick, the Red Ranger by a process of elimination, was doing the same for Lexia.
It was both heart-warming and heartbreaking.
Alice stepped forward. "You know what I want."
Eric matched her. "I do."
"Then let's dance."
She settled into a ready stance, waiting. He matched her, taking a moment to plot through how this was going to work.
She started forwards, intending to make the first move. Eric smiled a little beneath his helmet. Taking a step forwards himself, he vaulted over her, twisting so that he landed just behind her and facing her. She whirled around, not willing to give him any kind of advantage, but even as she moved, he brought his fists to bear in a couple of vicious looking punches. She blocked them, albeit clumsily.
Now I know the level I'm fighting at... The next few blows, a combination of kicks and punches, still looked vicious but were at half power. Alice easily blocked them and then essayed an attack of her own. Her blows weren't as skilfully pulled as his -- but then again, he'd had years of practice and there was little danger of her doing any serious damage.
Alice twisted into a super kick. Eric swayed to the right, avoiding the kick and tucking into a roll that brought him back to his feet in front of her, ready to attack again. As he moved to punch, she was the one twisting away, letting his blow slide past her, connecting with nothing but fresh air. Even at half power, basic physics applied and he found himself taken off balance. Rather than fight it and stumble, he continued forwards, tucking into another roll.
This time, though, he came to his feet into the path of a barrage of blows as she followed up, not giving him a chance to get an even footing. Again he smiled a little even as he blocked her punches. The purely objective part of his mind was impressed by her obviously growing confidence. This was going to work.
"Why don't you just give it up, old man?" Alice jibed. "You're goin' down."
That was his cue. Eric tensed as he continued to block her blows, waiting for her to make the move. It wasn't long in coming. Driving him backwards with her blows, she suddenly dropped into a crouch and swept his legs out from under him, sending him crashing to the concrete.
As he went, he sent a sub-vocal command to demorph so that it appeared as if he was seriously weakened by the fight. This was the part of the plan he really hated, because as he hit the ground, back in civvies, he was acutely aware of how vulnerable he was now. Particularly as Alice landed on his chest, effectively pinning him to the ground.
Her fist was poised above his head.
The moment seemed to stretch out into long, long minutes. Eric could only stare up into the faceplate of Alice's helmet, feeling vulnerable. He could dislodge her easily enough -- she wasn't very heavy -- but that would wreck the plan.
Why was she hesitating?
Any time now, Alice...
"And now we finish this," she growled.
Eric had the chance to note that something had gone drastically wrong with this plan as she ripped the Quantum Morpher from his wrist, then her poised fist crashed down into his temple and everything went black.
It all happened in slow motion for Wes.
He saw the fight come to the planned conclusion. Saw Eric demorph as he hit the concrete. Saw Alice take up a position that pinned Eric to the concrete...and felt the hairs lift on the back of his neck. This wasn't right. Her fist poised above Eric's head. This wasn't the plan. She tore off his morpher.
"No!" Kimberly's scream galvanised him.
He started to move but it was too late. Alice brought her fist down on Eric's unprotected head. Then, even as he took a step forwards, she, the other Vengeance Rangers and Eric vanished in a haze of teleportation sparkles.
"No!" Kimberly's second scream was hysterical. "Eric!"
Wes caught her as she surged forwards, towards the now empty spot on the concrete. "Kim, they've taken him."
"No! You bastard!" She fought against him.
Wes took the blows until he could safely trap her flailing arms. "Kim -- they've taken him but we are gonna get him back." Her struggles slowed a little. "C'mon -- Lucas will be calling in soon. He's gonna have the solution to this mess. You'll see."
Kimberly tilted her head to look up at him. Wes couldn't see her expression thanks to her helmet but he could well imagine the death in it. "He'd better or I'll start tearing this town apart."
As Eric came round, several things made themselves known. His head pounded. He was lying on his back, trapping his arms, which had been tied together at the wrist, against the floor. His ankles were also bound together.
Kim is going to kill me.
What had happened in the grain depot came back to him in snatches.
The obvious conclusion was that Alice had either had a change of heart or had just been stringing Rocky along in the first place, but that didn't sit right with him. Neither option really seemed like Alice -- at least, not the Alice he knew. But did he really know this Alice?
Feigning unconsciousness for the benefit of anyone present wherever he was now, Eric tried the bonds at his wrists. To his surprise, they were loose.
"Dad, don't." The words were hissed into his ear by an unfamiliar baritone voice, even as fingers were gently pressed against his throat, presumably checking his pulse.
The voice alone was enough to force his eyes open regardless. Eric found himself looking up at John. It had to be John, although it could equally have been a window on the past. His past. The only real physical difference between John and himself at the same age was the haircut. When he'd been nineteen or twenty, he'd had a regulation buzz-cut.
There was a long moment when their eyes met. Eric half got the impression John was trying to tell him something, but whatever it was, he didn't understand.
"Prisoner's fit for interrogation." The harsh, unfeeling words were at complete odds with the expression on John's face.
What the hell?
"Good. You may leave."
The new voice had to belong to Frax. Yet it sounded different to the voice Eric remembered the maniacal robot possessing. More real, somehow.
John cast him another look, clearly trying to communicate something beyond what had been said. Then, as John got to his feet, he mouthed: Alice!
Alice what?
"So, the famous Eric Myers."
Eric's attention was drawn away from John and that conundrum and to the nerdy-looking...
"Who the hell are you?"
The man laughed, his over-prominent Adam's apple bobbing rapidly. "Really, I did think you'd be a little quicker than this. I was told you were sharp. Obviously your powers were over-estimated by my master if a twenty-one year old girl can beat you."
"You bastard," Eric snarled.
The Adam's apple bobbed again as the man laughed once more. "Oh, very probably. Who am I? I'm Frax -- or at least, his human beginnings."
"You're dead."
"I was -- but I got better." Frax -- if that truly was who the man was, and Eric was far from convinced -- moved to crouch beside him. "You see, I was made an offer I couldn't refuse by a man who has a big score to settle. I expect you heard about how Ransik tried to kill me."
Almost in spite of himself, Eric nodded. He had heard the story -- as he recalled, Jen had visited him in hospital while he was recovering from a punctured lung just after Ransik had been defeated, and as they'd talked, that particular story had come out.
Frax smiled, displaying a full set of teeth. "Well, let's just say, that story has a twist. A very big, temporal twist."
Jen's eyes widened as she saw the reddened rings around Kimberly's eyes but then understanding came, along with a leaden feeling in the pit of her stomach, as no Eric followed Kimberly and Wes into conference room one.
"What happened?" she asked.
Wes slowly shook his head. "We don't know."
Into the suddenly awkward silence, the sound of the conference room door opening was unbelievably loud.
"I'm not late, am I?"
For an instant, Jen thought it was Eric. So did Kimberly, if her expression was anything to judge by. But the instant passed and they both realised it was Zaskin.
"No -- you're right on time, Michael," said Wes.
Almost as if to underline that point, the holoscreen flared into life. Jen could see Lucas almost conducting a headcount of those present and watched as his face contorted into a grimace as he realised who was missing.
"What happened?" Lucas asked quietly.
Frax stood up and began circling Eric's prone form like a hungry shark.
"It was all his idea -- creating the robot," he mused. "Just after Ransik had left me for dead, he showed up in my lab. He helped to heal me. In return, he helped me create the robot you met." He snorted. "People are so silly to believe the cockamamie story it was programmed with. It wasn't a cyborg at all -- just a clever piece of programming."
"If you have a point, get to it," Eric retorted. "Or just get on with it and kill me."
Suddenly, Frax was back down, crouching, grabbing hold of his shirtfront. "Kill you -- oh, I've got something much better in mind for you. You see, he gave me all kinds of latitude as to how I put you down. And I think..." There were footsteps and a new person loomed over Eric.
Alice. Her face blank.
"Yes. The daughter destroys the father after he almost destroyed her only days before." Frax cackled. "There's a lovely symmetry to that. A pity you're not really in a position to appreciate it."
Alice produced something that looked rather akin to a Silver Guardian blaster and aimed it.
Eric felt his heart stop as he watched the aim-point of the blaster move slowly up his chest as she fixed her aim. He wanted to close his eyes, not wanting to see her pull the trigger. At the same time, he couldn't look away.
Couldn't take his eyes off the still moving blaster sight.
Couldn't fully grasp, for a start, that she was no longer aiming the weapon at him.
She was aiming it...
Eric's eyes widened as he realised who she was aiming it at.
Frax.
"Ya know," she said, "I've got a better idea."
TO BE CONTINUED...