Chapter 33

Samantha walked towards the door and looked out. The Power Rangers were holding back her four mutants. "Ransik, Nadira," she called. "Go and help those four, kill the Rangers if you have to."

As the two mutants ran to the scene, she turned back to the interior and looked around. Jen had finally fainted from Goldix's blows. Josephine hung from her wrists, tears falling from her eyes, but in too much pain and too weak to say anything. Kevin looked at her with pain in his own eyes, also filled with tears. She was slightly touched by the depth of the love that tied that forty-year-old man to the twenty-year-old woman. The children were crying annoyingly but she was willing to put up with it, after all she was going to get to kill them.

Alex and Wes were still fighting skillfully, both very good at it, their powers equally strong. She was sorry to do that to her Alex. After all, he was her son, but hurting him was the way to get to Jennifer.

Wes kicked Alex in the ribs and sent him flying against the wall. The old wooden wall gave way and Alex landed outside the stable. He got to his feet within a second and summoned his Chrono Saber. Wes followed him outside and imitated him. Now the martial arts fight had turned into a sword fight, and the sparks and beams that flew from the swords only gave it an extra touch.

"You stole my girl away!" Alex yelled as he slashed Wes across the chest with his saber.

Wes stepped back in pain, but immediately charged back. "It's not my fault you don't know how to love!" He hit Alex on the shoulder with his saber, but the black Ranger punched him in the ribs, making him step back again.

"I'm going to show you how to respect other people's things, spoiled brat!" Alex yelled, throwing his sabers aside and charging at Wes, with the intention of strangling the red Ranger.

"So that's what Jen is for you?" Wes asked as he blocked Alex's attempts to get to his neck. "A piece of property?"

"You don't know what you're talking about, bastard!"

"You don't have to go all envious just because I'm a better fighter than you," Wes mocked.

"You? A better fighter? You wish you could be half as good as me!" Alex snarled.

"You want to take this outside?" Wes asked.

"We are outside," Alex reminded him.

"Then, power down!" Wes said and his armor left his body.

"Power down!" Alex imitated. "I don't need my powers to kick your ass!"

"Bring it on!" Wes dared.

And Alex did.

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Fly-tag, Centauricon, Boulderac and Bunnistein hid from Ransik and Nadira's sight. Father and daughter walked past them and then they jumped out of their hiding place and surrounded them.

"There you are," Ransik chided. "Where are the Power Rangers?"

"They are fighting the others," Fly-tag said, pulling one of her daggers from its holder in her boots. "But don't worry about the Rangers," she began.

"Worry about us!" Centauricon said, hitting Ransik on the back with his forelegs.

"Daddy!" Nadira yelled and the minute she turned around one of Bunnistein's arrows buried itself in her shoulder. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Exactly what you kindly taught us to do," Fly-tag said.

Anger taking her over suddenly, Nadira pulled the arrow from her shoulder and looked at the butterfly mutant, yelling in anger. She made her nails grow and promised: "I'm going to make you wish you were never born!"

"Says the pink-haired air-head," Fly-tag said.

"Fly-tag!" Centauricon called. She looked and he threw her one of his swords. "Give me one of your daggers!" She threw him the dagger she was holding and kicked Nadira away from Bunnistein.

"We'll take her, you can take her father," Fly-tag said.

"You bet," Boulderac said, growing his gigantic rock fists again.

Ransik, who had been knocked unconscious, woke up and began getting on his feet. When he was up, he faced the two young mutants with the most malignant face he could put on, but the two youngsters just smiled.

"Take it easy, Ransik," Boulderac said mockingly. "You don't want to hurt your lumbago again, do you?"

Ransik pulled a sword out of his back and snarled. "What lumbago?"

"The one you are going to wish you had when we're done with you," Centauricon said, twirling his sword and dagger skillfully in his hands.

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"What is taking them so long?" The Mistress asked angrily. "Well, Jossie, I guess we are going to have to alter our order of death. You don't mind, do you?" she asked cruelly. Josephine was limply hanging there, not even aware of what was going on anymore. Samantha pulled out a small knife and walked towards the twins. Josephine followed her with her eyes, mortified, but unable to move, for she was weak and hurt.

"Mark or Mathew?" The Mistress asked when she was standing in front of the five-year-olds. "I wonder how much time there was between your births." She walked towards Kevin. "How much, Kevin?" Kevin looked away from her, refusing to follow her cruel game. "Which one of them was born first?" she asked, Kevin ignored her again. "Look, they are going to die anyway. Answer my question and I promise you I'll make their deaths painless." Kevin still refused to answer. "Oh, whatever," The Mistress said, bored, as she walked back towards the children. "Either one will do." Then, to his parents' despair, she stabbed Mark in the chest twice.

"No! Mark!" Josephine pleaded weakly.

"It's your turn," The Mistress told Mathew cruelly and proceeded to stab him twice, like she had done with his brother.

"No, my babies!" Josephine cried desperately.

Kevin looked at The Mistress, anger running through his veins, tears falling down his cheeks. "How could you?"

"It wasn't so hard," The Mistress said. "Their skin is quite thin." Kevin struggled against his bonds, desperate to get his hands around her neck. "Sorry, their skin was thin."

"You are going to pay for this!" Kevin shouted, so angry he actually sprayed saliva.

"And who is going to make me pay for it? You?" she asked.

No. Me. She heard Jen's voice in her head and turned to look at her, but the pink Ranger was still unconscious.

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Samantha laughed at Jen's reaction when Goldix poured the water over her. She gasped and coughed, finally waking up from her unconsciousness. "Welcome back," the mutant said. Jen received a couple of blows with the rod before something else caught the mutant's attention. He walked towards it and came back, carrying a thick and heavy chain. "Did you ever play the sex slave with Alex?" he asked.

"Unlike you, he can actually get some without enslaving anyone," she said, but he didn't hear her.

"I think this will make a lovely whip," he said, shaking the chain. Jen's eyes opened wide when she looked at the chain. It had to weigh about a pound. She shuddered to think all the damage it would do to her body if he used it as a whip.

"I'm sure of it," she said. "Let's try it on you," she suggested and took the chain from him with her mind and began whipping him with it. The mutant retreated but there was no escape from her anger.

The Mistress heard the metallic noise the chain made when it hit Goldix and turned to see. "Leave him!" she ordered Jen and walked towards the pink Ranger. But she was stopped by the stick she had used to hit the young woman.

"No, Samantha," Jen said, her face contorted in anger. "Now I'm going to show you why your mother told you to never make a psychic angry." Her words were followed by a blow across the face that sent the woman to the ground. "There was a time when I respected you, when I wanted you to like me," Jen admitted, making the ropes that were tying her arms release her at last. "But now I'm fed up with you, you know? You really, really pissed me off now. I'm fed up with you Samantha, and this time you can't escape from me!"

Samantha had crawled towards the wall, scared of her prisoner's anger. Jen took the wooden rod in her hand and approached her captor. "It's time to end this, Samantha."

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Jen hit The Mistress on the head and she lost consciousness. When she woke up, Samantha Drake found herself tied by the wrists where Josephine Simmons had been hanging. Tied to a pole were Nadira and the other five young mutants. Ransik was lying on the floor, face up. Each one of his limbs was tied to a horse with a rope.

The Mistress's eyes opened wide in surprise. "What is this?"

Jen held her command knife in her right hand, and she noticed suddenly just how bare her upper body was. "This is how things look from the other side, Samantha," Jen said bitterly. She ran the knife's edge once across Samantha's abdomen, leaving a thin red line. "Ever since you met me you've done nothing but hurt me. You and your mutants were always on the bad guy's side, doing the hurting, having the fun. Well, this is the good guys turn to do the hurting. This, Samantha, is MY turn to do the hurting. And your turn to be hurt!" She buried her knife deep into The Mistress's side. She withdrew it, but didn't prevent her wound from bleeding. "Now it's your turn to see your children slaughtered, to see the man you love killed."

Jen approached Nadira and stabbed the mutant twice. "How does it feel, Samantha? How does it feel to hang powerless while your family is being slaughtered?" she asked. "Would you tell Josephine Simmons you know how much it hurts now?"

"Yes, yes, please stop this, I understand now, I'll fix everything, I'll stop doing this," the woman whimpered.

"Stop this?" Jen asked, disbelieving. "Are you begging me, Samantha? Did you hear how the Simmonses pleaded? Do you truly understand what's going on? Will you truly fix everything you've done?"

"Yes, yes, I will, I'll fix everything, I promise," The Mistress said, scared.

"How do I release Alex and Wes from your control?" Jen asked angrily.

"There's a remote control in my pocket," she said. Jen took it with her mind and brought it to her hand. "Press the button and they'll be free, but you have to free my mutants," she said.

"I don't have to do anything, I'll free your mutants if I want to," Jen said, pressing the button that was labeled 'release'.

Outside, Alex and Wes fell to their knees, tired and hurt.

"Great," Jen said. Ransik was struggling against his ropes. "If you keep struggling the horses are going to get scared and they'll run away, each in a different direction," Jen warned. Ransik went still immediately. "That is not going to help you either," Jen said, slapping the rear of one of the horses.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" The Mistress yelled over the sound of hooves. "You've killed him!" she yelled at Jen.

But Jen's face was different, it wasn't bitter or angry. It was sweet and concerned. "No, no, Samantha," she said softly. "No one killed anybody. You need to relax, so you can come out and wake up, back to reality."

Alex walked into the room, dressed in civilian clothes, not in his uniform like the last time she had seen him. Samantha looked at Jen and then at Alex. "Let me down," she asked.

"Down from where?" Alex asked, confused.

"From where I'm hanging!" Samantha said.

"Hanging?" Alex repeated. He walked towards Jen and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you sure she's getting better?"

She shrugged. "She's making me defeat her in her fantasies now," Jen said softly.

"What are you talking about? What is going on here?" Samantha asked.

"Are you aware of what's going on, Mom?" Alex asked.

Samantha looked around and noticed her surroundings were changing from the stable to a white room. "Where am I?" she asked.

"You are in Argentums Ville's Psychiatric Hospital, Mom," Alex answered.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"You've been here for almost two years now, Samantha, since the incident of the children, remember? We captured you and put you under arrest. In the trial, the jury declared you incompetent and you were sent here instead of jail," Jen said.

"You captured me? You didn't capture me, I escaped. I shot you and I escaped," Samantha said.

"You never shot me, Samantha, it never happened, I put you and your mutants under arrest," Jen explained.

"You are insane, Mom," Alex said sadly. "But don't worry, you'll feel a whole lot better soon." He smiled and grabbed her hand. "And when you do, you'll get to meet your grandchildren."

To be continued.