Title: A Familiar Face

Series: Black Past

Author: Dingo

Story Summary: Adam is drawn into a messy web of evil, deceit, and his past. But when his past comes back to fight against him, will he stay on the same side?

Chapter Summary: With Adam attacking on the side of Astronema, Andros starting to open up and a strange message, it's no wonder that one paragraph in someone faints from confusion.

Note: See first chapter for assorted other things.

* Pronounced as sale-ISTH ay FAY- er, mish-SHALL- ee ay tor-A, dash-AL mi-ANE

"Then, what do you think? I blew those Rangers sky-high!" Divatox gloated. She stumbled forward as she was bumped into from behind. Steady hands grasped her waist as she almost fell, and she smirked at her catcher before turning.
"Divatox," Rita whined in her nasal voice.
Divatox employed a fake smile. "How nice to see you!…Frita," she ended flatly.
Rita stomped her foot. "That's Rita!"
"Oh, sorry, Frita." Before Rita could object, she pulled her catcher forward, a black robe disguising everything but a pair of equally black eyes. "I believe you haven't met my favourite servant?"
Rita sneered. "Why should I?"
Divatox smiled angelically. "I believe you know him." The figure pulled off the head of the robe, and Rita gasped.
"How? Wh…" There was a thud as she fainted dead away.
The figure looked down with a fair amount of disdain. "I think that went well."


Another robed figure sat at the end of the table. Divatox's main fighter looked up as he felt a stare, and curiously looked towards the stranger. He could say nothing, as Dark Spectre appeared in front of them. He remained standing, as Divatox had ordered him to stay there, demonstrating her ownership.
The servant paid little mind to Dark Spectre's speech – if it was something important his mistress could tell him. As the ancient being finished, his once-enemy Lord Zedd proposed a toast. The henchman of Divatox noticed the other robed figure did not drink, so he quietly stepped down to behind the stranger's chair, his hood falling down his back.
"Hey you! What, you too good to drink with us?" Divatox's voice bleated.

The stranger slowly got up, but unfortunately for the powers of good, Divatox's fighter was too quick, and grabbed him by both arms.

The newly announced Princess of Evil, Astronema, came over and unmasked the good stranger. The helmet that stared back at her shocked her, and he took advantage of that by slamming an elbow into his holder's stomach. The man oof-ed, but kept his grip. The Ranger twisted violently, calling out, "Galaxy Glider!" as he struggled. Finally the Ranger got out of the painful hold, and jumped onto a surfboard-like glider before flying away.
"Astronema!" Dark Spectre bellowed. "You shall follow the spy and destroy him!" He noticed the captor of the Ranger, bfore recognising him. "Divatox! You will give Astronema the former Power Ranger, and will guard Zordon until further notice."
The man threw a cold glare at Zordon, who was staring, aghast, at the man one of his 'sons' had become.

Gone was the shoulder length curly black hair, now it was cut short, bringing back memories of the first time he had come into the Command Centre, and now was three colours: dark blond, on his left, purple on his right, and the middle stripe was kept a midnight black.

Gone was the green shirts and clothing, swapped for black leather, and what Zordon identified as being _hala-vasham_, an extremely rare substance from the planet Eltar, a mix of silk and a native plant to Eltar similar to leather.

Gone was any unneeded flab, replaced with smooth, rippling muscles. Even worse for Zordon to see was the black as midnight eyes. All the warmth, and love, and compassion, and happiness, and all things that made a Ranger a Ranger were replaced with a cold indifference and hot flames, and as Zordon watched the man, he smirked in an expression disturbingly reminiscent of Tommy as the Green Ranger.
Astronema grabbed the Ranger, and they teleported out.


Astronema brought up the display on both current and former Rangers, and looked around at what was now her property. "You will identify all Rangers, along with their fighting techniques, and learn from their mistakes, as well as the ones you made. You will be sent to Earth in a matter of days, and I expect you to use all their mistakes and statistics against them." She left without bothering to wait for a reply.
The former Ranger sneered at her back, an expression that had never graced his face before entering Divatox's service, and watched as statistics and numbers on the current Rangers scrolled down the screen at nearly undistinguishable speed. Suddenly he stopped the display, and said five words out loud.
"Rocky DeSantos and Typhus Merina."
The picture whirred, and then the two pictures of the former Rangers came up. He smirked coldly as he read their marital statuses: engaged.


For a brief second Rocky felt a cold chill run through him and he shivered, glancing around. His fiancée looked up at him and asked worriedly, "You okay, love?"
"Fine, Ty," he told her. He hugged her closer to him and they continued walking. Rocky looked up at the sky again, wondering over the sudden cold.


Andros stretched briefly before Carlos made his way onto the bridge. "You okay man?" the teenager asked his current leader.
A smile graced the lips of the Red Ranger. A true one, not one put on for show or to lie. "I'm fine, Carlos. It's just...strange to have all these people on the Megaship. It was only me for so long…"
Carlos nodded in understanding. "If you need to get away from it all-" he stopped, and cleared his throat nervously. "I mean, if you want to, I know a spot down on Earth that no one else can really find."
Andros took in his third-in-command. "Just might take you up on that someday."


"You like?" Carlos asked as Andros surveyed the tree-surrounded area in Angel Grove Park.
"Oh yeah. Where did you find this place?"
Carlos sat at the base of a tree, and Andros followed his lead. "You know how when you met us we were former Rangers? Well, we all held the Turbo powers. My predecessor was named Ty, and she told me all about this spot. Apparently she and a friend of hers met here before she became a Ranger."
"Who were the Rangers before you?" Andros asked.
Carlos leaned back into the trunk of a tree. "Well, there was Tommy Oliver. He was the Red Lightning Turbo Ranger, and he gave his powers to TJ. Katherine Hillard was the Wind Chaser Turbo Ranger, pink, and hers went to Cassie. Ashley got the yellow Dune Star powers from Tanya Sloan. Justin Stewart was the blue Mountain Blaster Turbo Ranger, and he got the powers from someone named Rocky DeSantos. And a girl called Typhus Merina gave me the Desert Thunder Turbo powers, green."
Andros frowned. "Green. Huh. Female Rangers are never green," he objected, perplexed.
"There was a story behind it, something about the Green powers fading away, and the powers recharging in her," Carlos explained.
Andros shifted, glancing around. "This spot reminds me of places on KO-35…"
"Really, where?"

Carlos grinned as the conversation turned to their respective childhoods.
Unfortunately the last Ranger to sit in Carlos' place was now evil. Unbeknownst to the two, he was also watching them.


TJ rolled his eyes. "DECA, that's just childish," he reprimanded. He poked curiously at the substance that had come from the Synthetron – it was light blue in colour, resembled sheep droppings in water and smelt awful.

"Disturbance in Angel Grove," DECA announced, drawing all of the Rangers' attention.
"You aren't getting out of this," the Blue Ranger warned, pointing a finger threateningly at the blinking red light of a camera. The computer didn't reply verbally; instead TJ yelped as a shot of static electricity hit him in the posterior. He turned and regarded the navigation console suspiciously.
Andros rolled his eyes, but exchanged a mirth-filled look with Carlos. "You and DECA can continue your little lover's spat later, we've got a job to do. Let's rocket!" Andros commanded.


Astronema turned as the Rangers shimmered into existence.
"Finally down here to do your own dirty work, Astronema?" Ashley called.
Astronema allowed a smirk onto her surprisingly innocent face-when you looked under the makeup. "Actually, Yellow Ranger, I just wanted to introduce you to a new friend of mine. Actually, you could thank your Red Ranger for introducing us. He never would have come with me if the Red Ranger hadn't botched up that spying he did." She snapped her fingers and in a splash of green-black a figure materialized by her side.
He was dressed almost fully in black, the only other colour being a silver charm on silver neck chain, and he probably wouldn't have looked out of place in a biker gang. The clothes he wore practically reeked of danger, but there was no possible way his clothes could hinder movement. The blond, purple and black hair suddenly reminded Andros of something, but he shoved it to the back of his mind for a less dangerous time. The sleeveless shirt he wore showed off the smooth, rounded muscles that came purely from hard work, not the muscles that came from a gym.

Astronema flipped her straight black hair and said with a hint of pride, "This is Adam. How ironic. One of the first people on Earth was Adam, and he gave you life. One of the last people on Earth will be Adam, and he will give you death." In a slightly concerned voice, she said to the newly revealed fighter, "I know you hate the Black Ranger, but do make sure he dies painfully, not just quickly."
Adam looked straight at the Rangers for the first time, and they all shuddered as they saw their own uniforms reflected in red and yellow flames in his eyes. "Believe me, Astronema, pain is one thing I am _very_ good at."
She smirked and as way of a goodbye, said, "Have fun! And don't forget to scream." She disappeared in her usual teleportation.
That left the Rangers alone with an insane maniac.


Adam hadn't been lying when he said he was good at pain, Ashley thought. And he was good enough at what he did to stop when the Rangers were about to fall unconscious. Currently, everyone except Andros and Carlos were down, and that was because Carlos had a huge threshold of pain, and for some reason Adam was going easy on the Red Ranger.
"He's like a tank," Andros groaned to Carlos.
"Really? I hadn't noticed," the accented voice told him sarcastically.
Suddenly Adam stopped, standing totally still. He began muttering to himself, nonsense words to Carlos, but annoyingly familiar to the Red Ranger. Andros tensed. The blow he had been expecting came, and he turned it with difficulty, even though he had anticipated the move. Three lightning-quick jabs to the Red Ranger's throat had Andros down, gasping for breath. Adam leaned down and picked up the pain-filled teen, and looked directly at the helmet. Andros had the strangest feeling that the evil teenager could see straight through it, and could see the fear in the hazel eyes inside.
A surprisingly innocent, happy grin passed over the face of the young man as the red flames eased a bit. "It is you," he muttered. The moment was broken by someone kicking Adam in the back. Andros was dropped, and was forced to watch as Carlos was slammed into the concrete path behind him. Adam was walking towards the Black Ranger when he suddenly turned again to face the majority of the Rangers. "Saelisth ey faer, mishali ey tora, dashal mian,*" he quipped, bowing toward Andros. He disappeared in his customary black-green light.


Andros sank into his bed on the Megaship, still pondering over Adam. "Saelisth ey faer, mishali ey tora, dashal mian," he muttered softly.
Hazel eyes widened in sudden recognition. "Good to evil, green to black, _dashal_ of mine."
He fell back on his bed, cursing in the native Keroviain tongue. If Zhane had been there…he moved his mind from the painful area, but one thought stayed in his mind. _If Zhane knew..._
"Adam," he whispered. "Adairach."