Title: Green To Black

Series: Black Past

Author: Dingo

Disclaimer: I don't own the Power Rangers, Saban and some guys whose names I can't spell do. I do own Ty, and anything you don't recognise from Power Rangers canon.

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: The seeds have been planted. Will two Rangers concede defeat against one they can't fight against?

Notes: Yes, chapter summary is correct. And just in case you somehow got here without reading the first chapter…this is the very beginning of a slash pair. To be precise, I plan two slash pairings…

Andros marched to the bridge. "DECA," he commanded, ignoring the surprised glances of the four other Rangers several feet away. "Bring up the Kerovian words for 'evil to good, green to black, _dashal_ of mine'."
"Immediately. Displaying translation." Andros waited impatiently for the small screen to come up with the writing he wanted and dreaded at the same time. The words came up. "Saelisth ey faer, mishali ey tora, dashal mian."

Andros swore violently, smashing down on the console with one fist. Ashley jumped. DECA buzzed at the language. Carlos exchanged a glance with TJ. Cassie sent a concerned look his way. All of them stepped back as he got up and walked out. All of them followed as he quickly made his way to the engine room.

"DECA," he called as he ran. "Is it possible for Zhane to be awakened now?"

DECA sounded concerned. "The longer he stays…"

"Is it possible?!" Andros yelled, skidding to a halt in front of the engine room.

"Yes, it is possible."

Hitting his hand against a control panel, Andros took a deep breath and stepped into a hidden room. The four other Rangers followed.

"Andros? What's going on?" Ashley asked.

He turned, only a little startled by the four figures standing behind him. "It's a very long story."

TJ crossed his arms. "We like long stories."

Andros sighed and started to explain. His arm rested continually on the cool blue horizontal tube behind them.

_"Andros?" a voice called. The young eight-year-old boy smiled as Adairach moved next to him. "Whatcha doing?"

"Nothing, Adair," he smiled. The _dashal_ bond that had brought the two together had picked the right two. _Or four,_ Andros mentally corrected himself. As if drawn by the thought, ten-year old Zhane bounded up, a grin plastered on his face, followed by a tall girl, approximately nine years old.

"Come on!" Zhane said, the grin increasing. "Taryan's got three new _hashak_ and they need to be tamed before going to Sayat's!"

"You sure, Taryan?" seven-year-old Adair asked the girl.

"I do!" the girl insisted, parting her curly green fringe so she could see him.

Andros, Adairach, Zhane and Taryan all turned and ran, their minds innocently filled full of pictures of the little hawk-like birds, unaware that their world was about to change very soon._

_"Andros! Zhane! Adair!" Taryan called, her mostly blond fluffy hair bouncing. She had grown, as had the rest of them, but she was the most noticeable. Despite only being thirteen, her body was fully-grown, and most of the time she hated it.

"Taryan, we need sleep," Adair groaned, pulling a pillow over his black, purple and blond head. She ripped it off him, and unceremoniously revealed the glass of water behind her back. Adair looked up sleepily, and seeing the water, broke the record for eleven-year-olds being unconscious one second to hyper-alert the next.

"Mummy, 'snot time fo' t'ainin'," Zhane mumbled trough his pillow and elbow. Taryan grinned evilly, dumping the water straight on top of the fourteen-year-old Zhane. His yelps woke up Andros quickly, quickly enough that he fell off the top bunk.

"Zhane!" the twelve-year-old groaned as he jumped on his _dashal_ bonded.

Adair grinned as he bombdived into the pileup. "Cowabunga!"

Taryan stood at the edge, primly watching the boys with a little mischief in her eyes. Andros saw the look, and told her,

"You aren't getting out of this that easy, missy!"

She shrieked as the three started crawling up to her, hands in the universal tickle position.

Just a normal day for the three training Rangers._

"What is a _dashal_?" Carlos asked curiously after hearing that from Andros.

Andros paused, obviously trying to think of a simple way to explain it. "On Earth," he began slowly. "You have a smaller version of _dashal_, soulmates. _Dashal_ is when three, occasionally four, people understand each other perfectly. There is hardly any place for fighting, and it's like an honorary family. Usually there's no romance, but in the few occasions in history the couple never broke up. Sometimes there's telepathy involved, but I can't communicate well with Adairach and Zhane can't do it really well with Taryan. Zhane and Adairach were especially close, as were Taryan and I. My sister Karone was _dashal_ with Zhane's younger brother Jadab and Taryan's younger sister Miaki. Now, out of the lot of us, there's pretty much only Zhane and I left, if you can call it that. Taryan evacuated along with the rest of the Kerovians, and I have no idea where they went. Karone was kidnapped, only a couple of weeks after she found her _dashal_ bonded. Taryan's sister and Zhane's brother are dead, Jadab about a year after Karone of fever and Miaki died in the war."

"What happened to Adairach?" Ashley asked.

"He moved to Earth, about four weeks after he turned fourteen. Approximately five months before the war began."

"But if it was possible to wake up Zhane before," Cassie asked. "Why wait until now?"

"Zhane was grievously injured in the battle for KO-35, and his injuries heal faster while he's frozen. Right now, when he wakes up, he'll probably only have a splitting headache and maybe a fractured rib."

"Why now?" Cassie repeated. "I mean, if you wait, won't the little stuff be gone?"

Andros lost the faint smile he still had after relating the childhood 'incidents' to his current team. "I have to wake him up now," he muttered under his breath. He punched a few buttons. The Rangers waited. Andros waited. DECA waited.

The right glove moved.

Zhane opened his eyes and saw a light blue-white roof. He reached out weakly with his mind. *Andros?*

Andros grinned in relief. *Hey, Zhane. Enjoy your nap?*

*Next time I think I'll pass.* Zhane reached up with one hand and touched a sloping cover. *Uh, Andros? Can you let me out? I'm not dead yet.*

"*Sorry, man,*" Andros said both aloud and in his mind. He quickly undid the three hooks that kept the tube closed. *I probably should warn you that there's four other people who are going to watch you get up for the first time in two years.*

*Should I be worried about helmet hair?* he joked. He sat up and swung his legs over the side before looking up. Under the helmet his face broke into a smile. "So, the little shrimp's grown. Bout time."

Andros laughed. "Don't forget who regularly kicked your butt."

"I won't. Adairach always beat you, so that's something to be thankful for." Zhane encased Andros in a hug.

*Uh, Zhane? There's a couple of people here who are probably very confused.*

*You finally gave the morphers away?* Zhane asked.

*Uh, yeah.*

Andros broke out of the hug and motioned to each member of the team. "Ashley, the Yellow Ranger."

"Hi."

"Cassie, the Pink Ranger."

"Nice to meet you."

 "TJ, the Blue Ranger."

"Hey."

"And this is Carlos, the Black Ranger."

Carlos merely nodded. Zhane frowned slightly as a spark of…something…appeared in the Hispanic's eyes. Jealousy?

 "Everyone, this is Zhane, Silver Ranger."

Zhane clicked his Digimorpher and in a flash of silver-white light he stood in his version of the Megaship uniform. "Nice to meet you all."

"So are you from KO-35?" Ashley asked, crossing her arms.

Zhane smiled. "Yeah, Kerovian born and bred." He suddenly shot a glance at Andros, having picked up a flash of pain.

*What's the matter?*

Andros sighed, wiping and hand down his face. "Try to sense Adairach," he said softly.

Zhane hesitated. "You know I can't," he said after his pause. "He moved to Earth, remember?"

"Just try it," Andros said softly.

Zhane closed his eyes. For a minute it seemed as though there was a black and purple tinge to the top of his head, but it vanished the second he opened his eyes. Zhane slowly told his leader and his new teammates what he had found out. "He's close, but I can't pinpoint h-ahhhh!" Zhane exclaimed, clutching his right arm in pain. His breathing was ragged as the other Rangers gathered around him, concerned. "He's being hurt," Zhane said through clenched teeth.

Andros explained to the other Rangers quickly. "A drawback of the _dashal_ bond is that we partially feel each other's pain. Only a fraction, so Adairach must be hurting pretty bad for Zhane to hurt this much. I don't really feel it, unless it leaves a physical trace."

Zhane suddenly fell forward, like someone had packed a punch to the back of his head.

Astronema watched as Adairach was pulled, kicking and screaming, to the chair in the middle of the room. His black eyes burned, free of the red flames that had danced only an hour before, before he had been sent to fight those damn Rangers.

"Astronema!" he roared. "You will pay for this!"

She stood up smoothly. "No, my little former Ranger, I think you can pay my bill." She motioned to Ecliptor to chain him into the chair. "You need a little more…convincing…to be evil. So I guess we'll just have to top up that little piece of abra-cadabra Divatox did, hmmm?" A purple bolt of lightning flashed from her staff down to his right arm. As he clenched his teeth in pain, she signaled to the Quatrons nearby. "Oh I love the sounds of pain in the morning!"

Adam was knocked out almost straight away.

But the pain didn't stop.

Neither did the spell casting.

"Yow, that would have hurt," TJ observed as he watched Carlos and Andros patch up the Silver Ranger. After the phantom blow that knocked the blond out, a huge cut down his left arm appeared, ripping his uniform, followed by a long scratch across his forehead. At the scratches, Andros winced and briefly held the places on his own body, experiencing diluted measures of pain.

"It did," Zhane answered, still groggy from the knockout hit. "What happened?"

"If what Andros says is correct, then Adairach, wherever he is, was probably knocked unconscious thanks to the little concussion-giver you got," Cassie diagnosed. "He was probably still unconscious when he got the cuts."

"Good," Zhane said. "Less pain little frog has to go through the better."

"Frog?" Ashley asked.

Zhane gave her a crooked smile. "His name. Means noble frog." He suddenly closed his eyes, his breathing rhymic.

"He's tracing the pain," Andros whispered.

Zhane suddenly cursed in Kerovian, and Andros shook him out of his trance-like state. "What is it?" he asked roughly.

Zhane turned on him, eyes spitting cold fire. Suddenly he looked different, like a mask had replaced his handsome features, turning his eyes a burning red. "Andy," he greeted, his voice missing the light, carefree undertones and changing to a different sound. "Little problem with the _dashal_ bond. See, I'm evil, so the 'goodie-good' Rangers can't fight one of their best friends. The problem here is that I'll keep on attacking Earth, and you can't do a thing to stop it." Zhane's smile was cold, calculating. "Fare thee well, Andy." Zhane's eyes closed, then opened seconds later, revealing Zhane's normal bright blue. The blond shook his head rapidly for a second before asking. "What was that about?"

Cassie, Carlos, TJ and Ashley all looked at Andros, who had a sad look of acceptance on his features. "Zhane, remember how in the last days of the fight, Dark Spectre unleashed two evil fighters, human, fighters from KO-35, so we couldn't fight against them?"

Zhane nodded his head. "Yeah, Taryan refused to fight Miaki, so she ended up going with the evacuees. What's this got to do with Adairach?"

"His name is Adam now," Andros said softly. Cassie and the others gasped. "He's fought against all of us morphed, and he's kicked our butts."

Zhane looked like someone had hit him over the head. "Evil?" he croaked.

"Under Astronema's control."

They both got a telepathic message.

*And don't you forget it.*

"_Kao_!" Zhane cursed. "How did you find out about this?"

"He told me. _Saelisth ey faer, mishali ey tora, dashal mian,_" Andros told Zhane.

"Okay, good to evil, I can understand. _Dashal_ of mine I can understand. But green to black?"

Andros shrugged, running a hand through his striped hair. "No idea."

Carlos snapped his fingers. "Adam? Do you know what his last name was when he came to Earth?"

Both Rangers looked puzzled. "No," Andros said slowly. "Did you know someone by the name of Adam?"

"Vaguely. But…" Carlos trailed off. "He looked a little different. I had an Adam as a soccer coach," he explained. "Then a while before the powers were passed on to us, he just…disappeared. I heard his family didn't care, but for a while the friends he used to hang around with were really depressed and sad and stuff. I've got a picture in my room if that helps," he offered.

Andros smiled at him gratefully. "You have no idea."

Carlos dug through the pile of junk in his room. Ashley looked around with a scared look on her face. "What's the matter?" Cassie asked.

"Last time I was in Carlos's bedroom there was a family of cockroaches underneath his dirty clothes. That's just plain disgusting."

TJ raised an eyebrow. "You have a family of pet cockroaches 'Los?"

Carlos flipped him a very rude sign with one finger.

"You found it yet?" Andros asked.

Carlos picked up a small photo lying by his bed. "Here we are." He gave it to Andros, while Zhane leant over to see it.

Carlos was on the left, an arm around his shoulder. His hair was shorter, and he was dressed in a blue shirt with white/cream slacks. The arm belonged to a young man who was smiling at the camera, wearing a black shirt over khaki pants. Curly black hair framed his Korean face, and black eyes stared out of the photo, seemingly into Andros's soul. He took a deep, shuddering breath.

"That's him alright," Zhane said with a good amount of sadness. "How did he get like that? Go evil?"

"Astronema wasn't the first one to have control over him. Originally he was Divatox's," Andros thought out loud.

"Divatox? That hussy?" Cassie asked.

TJ shrugged. "I certainly can't remember Adam ever being evil. The former rangers fought Divatox for a lot longer than we did though, one of the former Rangers might know what happened. We could get them up here to try to identify him, maybe find how he got this way."

"Disturbance in Angel Grove," DECA interrupted.

"We'll have time afterwards," Andros said reassuringly. "Right now, let's rocket!"

"Well, well, well," Adam said as they materialized. "You've got a new friend I see." He bowed sarcastically. "I am honored to be in your presence."

"Come on Adairach!" Zhane called, ignoring the bait. "You aren't evil!"

Adam cocked his head. "Adairach is dead."

"He's inside of you!" Andros yelled, circling around him.

"We don't want to hurt you!" Cassie shouted.

His smile widened. "How about if I want to hurt you?"

"Then bring it on," Carlos said quietly, quietly enough that he thought only his teammates would hear it.

Adam's smile disappeared. "Oh, I'll bring it, Black Ranger."

Even with six morphed Rangers against one unarmed non-Ranger, Adam was utterly kicking their butts. Actually, destroying their butts would be more like it. He was a flurry of punches and kicks as he made his way through the ranks, taking down the Rangers easily. Before long, all the Rangers were groaning painfully on the ground. Adam's smile returned. Curiously enough, he looked exactly like a little boy playing with his favourite toys.

"Okay, eenie-meenie-miny-moe," he started, pointing at each of the Rangers in turn. "Catch a tiger by the toe. If he squeals, let him go, eenie-meenie-miny-moe." He stopped at Andros. "Well, old chap, seems as though we'd be destined to do this."

He hoisted Andros up, so Andros's arm was around one of his stronger shoulders and his arm around his waist supporting his entire weight. "Misha," he nodded, before teleporting away.

"Farewell," Zhane mumbled before slipping into unconsciousness.