Chapter 7 lethal truths
"So you come here a lot?" Dana thought
to ask when they'd been walking in silence for a little while. The path was one Dana's father used to bring
her along as a child. She'd not liked it
then. It had always reminded her of the
evil forest in" the Wizard of OZ." She
still didn't like it much, especially now in the dark. It struck her that for all of their talking
she still didn't know much about this guy than the basics. Yes he liked old movies and Pop music, flashy
cars and pasta but that wasn't' what mattered.
"I used to come with my little sister." Mark admitted bringing Dana out of her musings.
"You have a sister? Just one?" She asked leaping whole heartedly on this topic. Gees, had he read her mind or something?
"Yeah, our parents died when I was fifteen so we lived with our grandparents in Angel Grove." He admitted slowly and she noticed how he scanned the shadows for unseen dangers. It was odd but it made her skin crawl. It wasn't' him really but his sweeping gaze as if he expected danger to come at them from some dark shadow.
"Since we moved here it's been just me and Mandy." Mark explained and then he paused catching her arm. "Look at that." He urged pointing up to where a grew and white hawk perched on a nearby tree.
"that's weird there aren't' usually hawks in Mariner Bay. At least not free." She amended.
"My grandmother always said a wild bird on a date was a good Oman." He explained why he'd noticed it.
"Hmm, I've never heard that." She confessed and he just flashed Dana a grin and started walking once more.
"My Gram was very superstitious." He explained as they neared a spot in the path where only one could walk at a time.
the sudden chill had her going on full alert but when she made it through behind him she managed to relax a bit. Nothing had happened. what had she expected to happen? What would a lion jump out at her or maybe a bear? She nearly laughed at that image but still her unease only grew. She thought about asking him to turn back but she was a power ranger what could she not fend off?
***
"Are you sure about this?" Kelsey asked and Ryan nodded.
"It was right there in the files." The titanium ranger replied grimly. How had their father just let her go on a date with a stranger after all? What if the guy had been one of Queen Bansheera's, minions in disguise? Hell hadn't he spied on Dana and the others before he'd made his debut in Mariner Bay?
"And you just happened to find it?' Joel asked glancing over at the newest member of their team who was in his sister's customary seat.
"I had a bad feeling." Ryan shrugged and glanced at the hand held monitor in his hand. They were nearing her location, at least according to Dana's communicator's homing device. He said ten million thanks for that one. Now if they could just reach Dana before anything happened…
Behind him Kelsey was thinking that it was good they'd not gone to that movie after all. If they had it would have taken precious time for Ms.F to find and alert them to the situation.
Beside Kelsey Chad wondered if their lives would ever be normal. After all could they even handle ordinary things like dating?
The blue ranger hadn't had a date since joining lightspeed Rescue but still.
Casting Kelsey a sidelong glance Chad saw she was looking out the window. Her usual bubbly eyes were solemn as she no doubt preyed her best friend would be alright. Funny, he mused, they'd all become like family. Not just with Ryan's return either, it had started long before that. Maybe from the moment of Carter's trial by fire. They'd understood then how one wrong more, one uncalculated step could kill them or others. Even Kelsey, their resident wildfire, was much more careful thanks to her run in with a back draft. That too, Chad knew was the reason he'd not asked Kelsey out, since she was like family that would be really weird and what if it didn't work out?
Yet now as he sat there, the pretty brunette's leg pressed against his he made his own vow, as soon as this was over he'd finally do it, he'd finally do it; he'd finally ask her out.
Joel on the other side of Chad was thinking about the insanity they lived with. All he'd wanted tonight was to spend a little time trying to Chad up Ms. F yet here he was chasing down on of his friends on a potentially dangerous date.
The green lightspeed ranger thought about the girl in question. He'd not really thought much about her but that she was one of them, working to save the city of Mariner Bay. She'd just come with his new life in the Aquabase. Not that he minded, she was generally an upbeat girl with her moments of lost self-assurance but didn't they all go through that? It was a part of life anywhere in the world. Even he, the sky cowboy had his lapses. However now would not be one of those e times, they'd find Dana and she'd be just fine.
In the drivers seat Carter was completely unaware of anything but the higher pitched sound of the homing signal of Ryan's scanner. Since he'd read the words on the page he'd felt ill, as if he'd forgotten to eat for several days. He knew that was a dizzying feeling after all he'd done that. It had been part of their ranger traiing. They'd basically been starved, isolated and then put through rigorous questioning to prepare them for getting captured. At any rate he felt like that now, felt ill and lost. He knew only one thing, the woman he'd loved since the beginning was in trouble and he'd not let her down.
Hell no, he'd be there, would not let anyone hurt her, even someone who might be very disturbed. God, if anything happened to Dana…
"Well?" The red lightspeed ranger heard Kelsey asked as she tried to peer over Ryan's shoulder.
"She's on the west end of the park near the bridge."
"We should take it on foot from the next break in the trees." Kelsey pointed to the spot so Carter would understand exactly what she was talking about.
"Right, we split into groups of two.' Carter said as they pulled off the street and parked along the sidewalk.
"Right, Kelsey you and Chad take it from…"
The sound of a night bird had the blonde looking around warily as they arrived beyond the trees. Dana glanced around and realized she'd never been here at night.
Before the incidents with the demons had started she'd liked to come here to get away when her training and school and her father's expectations got to be too much. She'd stand on the bridge and feed the ducks. Watching the little creatures pick at the bread, or catch it mid toss always made her feel a little better.
Heavens it had been so long, she had to be so careful since the demons had started their trouble. She wondered if Mark came down here to get away too.
***
"Kelsey where are you?" Carter called into his communicator. He and Ryan were under the same pathway that Dana and Mark had taken earlier. It was weird but Ryan had almost been able to sense his sister. Now the red lightspeed ranger wondered if it had not been fate that had taken the titanium ranger to live with creatures of darkness, ones without souls and who could teach the elder Mitchell sibling more than most humans knew. It wasn't' even the way he followed her tracks. There were many people who could no doubt have done so with traiing but some of the other thins. His eyes were sharper in the darkness, almost uncannily so.
"I'm at the bridge on the other side, their here." Came the voice of the yellow ranger and Ryan glanced at Carter in question.
"How is she?" Carter asked the one thing both of them were wondering.
"She looks ok, a little distracted but ok." Came the blessed reply and both men slightly relaxed. Even if something happened Chad and Kelsey would be close by to help out.
"Good, hold your position." Carter said adding. "Don't do anything unless he makes the first move."
"Right." And Carter cut off the transmission.
"Well there's one in our favor." Ryan muttered as they passed though the most narrow part of the foliage. he'd rarely let his extra senses kick in but now, when his little sister's life was the reason he had, tapping into the place where he stored his immense energy. In the short time he'd been home he'd realized he did care about Dana, a lot. True they'd not grown up together but they were family. That and he actually liked her, she was sweet and smart. She could also kick Batlings from there to the moon. Now though when the danger was not of a demonic sort she was not ready, he just knew it.
***
"You look a million miles away." Mark murmured and Dana glanced up at him as she realized they were still moving, stepping out onto the stone bridge.
"Yeah sorry, I was just thinking."
"What I'm not interesting anymore?" The red haired young man asked teasingly.
"Actually I was thinking about what you said about your little sister." Dana lied moving to rest her arms on the railing to the side of the bridge.
"Yeah, Mandy was a really sweet girl." Mark said and Dana caught the sad tone of his voice, one she understood. It was how her father had often spoken of Ryan. Dana moved to reach out to Mark but then remembered how much Ryan had hated being touched and withdrew, uncertain.
"Was?" She gently inquired; maybe he needed to talk about it?
"Yeah, she got hurt in one of the attacks on the city." Mark murmured looking first out at the water and over at her, a strange look coming into his eyes.
"I'm sorry." She murmured sincerely. She'd always hated knowing that they couldn't save everyone; it was just another thing she shared with carter. He'd been like that. He'd come face to face with that little problem in what was it their second… third battle?
"What happened?" Dana asked this red haired young man now as they stood there in the night drenched park.
"Mandy's school was on a field trip to the Collins Planetarium on the south side." Mark said and his hands on the railing fisted tightly, as if with restrained violence. "Bansheera's minions attacked." He said firmly shoving his hands into his jacket pockets as if not to strike out.
"A…" Dana felt ill, another lost child? God she hoped not. To think this young man, so funny and so nice could have been through all of that pain.
"It was just after the titanium ranger came to town." Mark said helpfully as if wanting her to remember, t see just what had happened to see it again. She had the feeling then, the chill and glanced around fear hitting her. She was alone with him and… But this was a public place right? Besides he had to know they worked to protect all of the children, everyone in Mariner Bay.
"Oh." Dana felt sick, had Ryan hurt his little sister? True he'd been tricked but… God, she just couldn't believe that of Ryan.
"Some Batlings attacked the bus and some of the kids got hurt." Mark said and she felt a little better, Ryan hadn't done it himself.
When Dana then saw his eyes she knew he was now not the guy she'd laughed with talked with but a complete stranger. A very very angry stranger. Maybe she could hell him?
"We try and fight, we…" She murmured the litany she'd had to say every time she heard about the injured, the dead. She had to, she knew it was all they could do to live and fight the evil. Hell it was too how she fought the guilt.
"It wasn't enough Dana!" And he was whirling; his eyes hard, and full of now raging fury. Dana felt as if she were facing down a wild mustang, angry at its capture. She instinctively backed away from him. The unholy smile that lit that once boyish face turning it into a grisly mask of malevolence.
"Everyone talks about the power rangers but you're just a bunch of fakes! You can't even help kids!" He snarled and she felt panic start to build but she had to tamp it down, had to get him to understand.
"No, we do help, we just can't save everyone." The pink dress clad girl tried to soothe him.
"What you do is get your pictures in the paper and a few kicks and that's it! If it hadn't been for that brother of yours changing sides you'd have died, just like three of those kids!" He growled advancing on her.
"My brother has nothing to do with this." She said calmly and only then did she see it, the shining knife clutched tightly in his hand.
TBC
***
How's that for a cliffy? I know it's positively wicked to leave you hanging but when the next chapter is perfected you'll have it. Anyway what do you think? Was it too predictable? I was trying not to have her be scatter brained, she truly is my fav pink ranger but I don't know… I tried to imagine her in the scene and after how Dana handled Steve in "Go Volcanic" I thought this would be how the character would probably handle this. What do you think?