Gaby, Patrick, Scott, Jimmy Duran, and any others you don't recognize are mine.
Violet is... ?
Rated PG-13 : Harsh language; violence; sexual content.
Reviews are appreciated, please take a moment to leave one.
Wes stared into her face, her brown eyes filled with a mixture of shock, happiness and anxiety. It's true, it's true. That was all he could think, it ran through his mind over and over. He raised a hand to touch her cheek, feeling himself smile foolishly, feeling tears sting at the same time. Then he pulled her into his arms and just held her tight, murmuring, "Jen... Jen..."
After a moment she relaxed against him, and even returned the embrace. When he regained some self-control, he let go, stepped back and grinned at her, then looked around self-consciously. Jimmy was grinning almost as wide as he was, and he quickly moved in and hugged her too, briefly and gently.
"I knew it," Wes said. "I knew it. I knew you couldn't be gone. And now..."
"Yeah," Jimmy said. "Now what?"
"Sorry, Eric, I haven't gotten anything else." Daryl Gunn's voice was as cool and steady as always, with only a trace of frustration. "Still can't track down anything definite. No proof they are who they say they are. No proof they're not, either."
"Do you think they could have faked the records? Set up false identities?"
"People use fake ID's all the time. But the records -- most of that stuff's in computers nowadays. I guess someone good enough could have hacked the databases... You should ask Gaby, she knows more about it than I do."
"I will, as soon as she gets here. Thanks, Daryl. Sorry to bother you at home."
"No problem. Call if you need anything else."
After hanging up, Eric stared impatiently at the door of the office he was using temporarily until his own desk and carpeting could be replaced. His men would contact him as soon as they brought Gaby in. It seemed to be taking a long time, but that was probably just his anxiety.
Meanwhile, try to think. What was the logical next move? How do you prove that a man is really a robot? Or that he isn't? Without sticking a knife in him... An attractive idea, but not very practical... And Wes -- how would Wes react? He'd probably want to go crashing in there and pull Violet out. Better to have a real plan to offer before telling him.
Wes turned down the road leading to the Ryder farmhouse, glancing at Violet as he did. In a few seconds, they were parked several yards from the house. They sat quietly for a moment.
"I'm still not Jen, you know. Not really," she said, not looking at him. "I don't have her -- my -- memories."
"Maybe they'll come back to you. You said you remember a few things."
"Just impressions. And -- a dream." She looked up and met his eyes. "I may never remember."
"Well..." He swallowed. "Let's not worry about that now."
"Okay." She offered him a faint smile, and opened the door.
"Hold on. I'm not letting you go in there alone."
"Why not?"
"They lied to you. You can't trust them. What if they lied about Norman, too? For all we know he's still around somewhere."
"Scott and Patrick are my family, Wes." She looked into his face again, with that strong, resolute expression that brought a lump to his throat, it was so much his Jen, come back to life. "I want to talk to them, alone. Give them a chance to explain. They would never hurt me."
"Look, I'll go in and -- and stand in the next room." He smiled slightly. "I just found you again. I'm not letting you out of my sight."
"All right." She sounded reluctant. But then she smiled, reached out to touch his arm, slid out and waited for him before they started for the house.
Eric was staring at the phone when it rang. He grabbed it up before the sound of the first ring had died away, his nerves already telling him something was wrong. His men should have checked in by now, Gaby should have been walking in his office door. Jimmy Duran's tense voice only confirmed his own instincts.
"Eric, I've got bad news. I'm in front of your house. Two of your men are down. The neighbor who called 911 says he saw a man attack them and drag Gaby into a car."
"Any sign of them?" Eric asked after a moment, willing his heart to settle down.
"No. We've got an all-points out, but so far nothing."
"How are my men?"
"Alive. Ambulance just got here. One of them's conscious, just barely. Said it was one of the Ryder twins. Gaby called him Patrick."
"Shit. Then we know where to look."
"We'll back you up."
Eric hung up without saying goodbye. He stayed long enough to order a squad of Guardians to follow him, raced out of the building, paused under a cloud-specked sky and raised his morpher. Two words rang out into the summer air, "Quantum Power!" triggering his transformation, sparkling light rolling around him, power and energy filling him, leaving him in the red and black Quantum Ranger suit, ready for action.
Scott and Patrick stood there, looking at her. When she walked in, they had been hurrying up from the basement, their faces showing tension and anxiety. They still seemed a bit distracted, as they faced her in the library, Wes outside in the hallway where he could see her but not hear what they were saying. But she was too intent on what she had to do, too angry, still too shocked, to care what other problem they might have.
"All a lie," she said forcefully. "It was all a lie. I'm not a clone, I'm Jen Scotts. Everything I thought I knew about myself is wrong."
They glanced at each other, in that annoying way they had of silent communication. "We're sorry, Violet," Scott said.
"Did you know all along?"
Another glance. "When we arrived here, we found you as you are, with no memories," Patrick said. "All we could go by was the instructions Norman gave us."
She didn't miss the fact that they hadn't really answered her question. "What else don't I know? What are you hiding under the basement?"
"We've told you. A laboratory."
"I want to see it."
"That's not possible."
"Why not?"
"There are things there we can't allow anyone else to see. Please, don't ask about that."
She sighed with frustration. "What's really going on here? Why keep me hidden all this time? Why would Norman have said I'm a clone? Is he really dead, or is that a lie too?"
"Don't you believe us, Violet?"
"No, I don't think so. Not any more." The words spilled out even as some inner knowledge -- some deeply buried memory -- surfaced, telling her she was right. "I think you knew the truth about me all along. You were involved in all of this. I want to know why this happened to me! Why my memory is gone!"
"That was not our doing."
"You were there, you were involved. You were a part of it." Sudden tears sprang to her eyes. She brushed them away, uncaring. "I had a life... I want to remember my childhood, my job, my fiancé, I want to remember me. You stole my life away, and I want it back!"
"We didn't do this, Violet. If you don't believe anything else we tell you, believe that. We never meant to harm you." There was no denying the sincerity, and the sadness, in Scott's voice and face.
"But you let it happen. Didn't you?" They had no response. Violet took a deep breath and went on. "Won't you help me now? Give me back my memories."
"We're sorry. Truly. But we can't."
"Can't, or won't?" She wiped away tears again. "I'm going to get my things and go with Wes."
"You can't leave," Patrick said.
"Why not? I intend to get back as much of my life as I can. And you're not going to stop me."
"Let her go. It's better that way. We have other concerns," Scott said suddenly. Patrick seemed about to protest, but after another shared glance he only frowned.
The TF Eagle rose into the sky, turned in a tight circle, and took off, skimming over the rooftops as Eric headed for the highway. As he spotted it and turned towards the Ryder place, he raised his morpher to his helmeted face again. "Wes!" he called.
The answer came in a moment, in a slightly startled-sounding voice. "Eric?"
"Wes..." There was so much to explain, and very little time. "One of the Ryders has grabbed Gaby. He must be taking her to their farmhouse. I'm on my way there now."
"Patrick and Scott? I'm at their place right now. They're both here."
"You're there? And they're..." Eric's mouth tightened as his thoughts moved quickly. "Then it must have been Norman. And that's not all. I think Scott and Patrick are really Silver and Purple."
"What? But..."
"Think about it, Wes. But don't take too much time. Where's Violet?"
"She's here. Eric..." His voice lowered. "She's Jen, Eric. Alive. We proved it, with her fingerprints."
Eric paused for another moment to absorb that, and found it was no surprise. "I knew it. That whole story was a lie. Wes, you've got to help me find Gaby. If Norman's on his way there..."
"I have to get Violet out of here. I'll -- I'll send her back in my car, and meet you. If you're right, it'll take both of us to fight them."
"Okay. I'll be there in a couple of minutes."
Jen saw Patrick's and Scott's eyes move past her and turned to see Wes coming into the room, a smile on his face. "Violet, could I talk to you for a minute?" he asked, sounding casual, but she could detect a subtle tension under the surface.
"I'm ready to go, Wes," she said. "Just want to get my things."
"This'll only take a minute. Let's talk outside." He smiled again at Scott and Patrick, took her arm and pulled her firmly toward the door.
"Wes, wait..." But something in his face as he glanced at her silenced her protest. She followed him, unresisting.
But before they could reach it, the front door flew open. They both froze at the sight of two people in the doorway, struggling, a young woman with her hands bound, being roughly dragged inside by -- by Scott, or Patrick -- but he wasn't either of them, they were standing behind her, and this man was somehow different, perhaps because of the expression of raw rage that flashed over his face as he saw them.
"Wes!" he snarled.
"Norman," Wes answered, his tone calm, but Violet felt his hand tighten convulsively on her arm.
"That's right. Thought I was dead, didn't you?"
"Hoped you were." Wes took a step forward. "Let Gaby go."
Norman laughed, a sound full of hatred. "You must be joking. I'm keeping her, and Jen, too."
"Over my dead body!"
"No problem." He raised his eyes to look past them. "Silver, Purple, you know what to do."
"What?" Violet twisted to look behind her, seeing Scott and Patrick start forward, their faces set grimly. Wes let go of her and turned to confront them as they closed in. "Scott, Patrick, what are you doing?" she asked, her voice quivering.
"I'm sorry, Violet, we must stop you," Scott said.
"Why? Why did he call you-"
"Silver and Purple, Violet. They're robots," Wes said grimly. "They have to obey Norman, he created them."
"No! You're people..."
"Patrick!" Gaby suddenly called. "You didn't want to hurt Steve, did you? You don't have to do this! You've already gone beyond your programming-"
"Shut up!" Norman turned on her, snarling, viciously backhanding her across the face. She fell to the floor, crying out in pain.
Wes started for him with a growl. Then he spun back as Scott and Patrick charged at him. With a quick movement he raised his arm, touched his morpher, and with a sparkling flash of light stood before them in a form-fitting red and white helmeted suit. Violet gasped, reflexively raising her own arm as a shiver of memory ran through her, but the morpher she sensed should be on her wrist was missing.
"Violet, get out of here!" he called.
She glanced towards the door, but Norman blocked the way. And she was unwilling to leave Wes anyway. A few steps took her to the young woman now sitting on the floor. They stared at each other as Violet knelt beside her, the shadow of another memory seeming to stir.
"Jen!" Gaby said softly, smiling just for a moment.
Then she could only watch as Scott and Patrick closed in on Wes. They moved between him and the others, cornering him against a wall. With a sudden move, he had a blaster in his hand, and fired it fast enough to hit Scott as they sprang at him. But Patrick grabbed him before he could fire again, grasping his wrist and forcing it up. Another shot struck the ceiling.
Scott had staggered back, clutching his chest where he had been hit, but it only took him a moment to recover enough to move forward again. Wes pivoted, twisting around Patrick to kick Scott in the belly, doubling him over, landing another kick to knock him down. He wrenched his arm out of Patrick's grip and brought it down again, hitting the robot over the head with the blaster. A punch to the face send Patrick to the floor.
But Scott was back up. He faced off with Wes, feinting for a few moments before Wes aimed his weapon again. A jump-kick, almost too fast to see, knocked the blaster aside before Wes could fire. Patrick was on the attack again, and they both leaped forward, Scott twisting the blaster out of Wes's hand, and using it, hitting Wes. He slammed against the wall and fell to one knee. Scott fired again, and then again.
"No!" Violet screamed as another flash of light left Wes demorphed and groaning on the floor. She leaped to her feet and started for him, but a hand closed on her arm, yanking her back to come face-to-face with Norman. "You bastard!" she cried, striking out at him with skills she didn't know she had, the edge of her hand hitting him in the throat, her foot kicking him in the knee.
But he was strong, stronger than a human should be. It hurt him, she could tell, but he only snarled and hit her, slapping her hard enough to make her head ring. In another second he had her arms pinned behind her back and was shoving her in the direction of the basement.
"Bring them!" he ordered. Wes was lying on the floor, apparently unconscious. Scott bent and lifted him up and over a shoulder. Patrick went to more gently pull Gaby to her feet and push her along to follow them. Moments later the six of them were at the secret door, now open, about to descend into the rooms Violet had never seen before.
"Wes?" Eric called into his morpher as the Eagle swept to a landing in front of the Ryder farmhouse. "Wes, where are you?" There was no answer. He emerged from the flyer, jumped to the ground, and looked around. Scott and Patrick's cars were parked beside the driveway, and so was Wes's car. There was no sign of anyone. The house loomed before him, silent and somehow ominous.
He started for it. As he stepped up to the door and found it open, he slid through in a fast motion, crouching and scanning for danger. There was none, only an empty, silent house. The hairs seemed to rise on the back of his neck as he looked around, seeing a chair overturned, a couch out of place, mute evidence of a violent struggle. And now Wes and Jen were gone, and so was Gaby.
He moved quietly through the room, into the hallway and kitchen. He paused at the foot of the stairs leading up to the second floor, but instinct told him he wouldn't find what he was looking for there.
"Morpher, locate the red Ranger," he said softly, after raising his arm to his face.
"The red morpher is located approximately thirty feet beneath your current position," the morpher answered in his head.
"Beneath..." he looked down. A few minutes' search revealed stairs leading down to a surprisingly empty basement, an unused-looking room, except for the fact that it was clean and dust-free. The floor was concrete with a few threadbare area rugs thrown over it, the walls were paneling, oddly expensive and attractive for an otherwise bare and functional space. Thirty feet down from the main floor would be another fifteen feet below him. He began to circle the room, testing the walls for a hidden door.
It took ten minutes to find, another couple of minutes to break the lock open without making noise. Eric stepped inside, onto a dark stairway leading down. The memory came forcefully back, of himself entering another place, looking for Wes and Jen. The old silver mine, the dark tunnels where they had lost Jen. This time, he promised himself, things would turn out differently.
TBC...