Andrea, Morgan, and any others you don't recognize are mine.
Rated R : Strong and descriptive but not explicit sexual content, including m/m contact; language; violence.
This story includes slash, which involves sexual situations between two men. If you're uncomfortable with the idea, don't read this.
Reviews are always appreciated.
"Guys?" Eric heard Wes's voice from behind him, sounding blankly astonished. Pretty much the way he felt himself. For a moment he simply stood, staring.
Lucas finally was the first to move, holding his hand out. Eric took it automatically as Lucas said calmly, "Hello, Eric. Nice to see you again. May we come in?"
The ordinariness of the request seemed to snap all of them out of it. Eric stepped aside, saying, "Sure, come on in," and the five of them crowded into the hallway, Katie shaking his hand also and then following Lucas to greet Wes with a hug; Trip glancing sharply at him and then at Wes. Eric found himself facing the last man as Jen gave him a quick, absent smile and passed by. A man who was almost identical to Wes -- his face, his body, his double in every way except for darker hair and a more serious manner.
"You're Eric Myers," the man said. "Glad to meet you."
"You must be Alex." Eric stared, making no attempt to hide his curiosity. Wes had told him about Alex, of course, but it was still startling and unsettling.
He turned away in time to see Wes and Jen looking into each other's eyes, seeming to search each other's faces without finding whatever they were looking for, before she stepped forward and they hugged quickly. Eric caught the flash of resentment Alex tried to hide, and knew he hadn't quite been able to keep a flare of jealousy from his own eyes.
And then Alex was speaking, his voice drawing everyone's attention. "I'm glad you're both here. Makes this easier. We've got a problem, and we need your help."
"What kind of help?" Wes asked.
"Sit down. This may take a while."
"Who's this Andrea?" Wes asked. "Why did she steal the morphers?"
Eric watched from his seat, back a little from the others, who had arranged themselves almost in a circle on sofa and chairs. Staying back, out of the group. Just like it had always been. His own fault, at least at first, he had to admit. He had never wanted to be included. Or had told himself he didn't. It was the habit of a lifetime, standing back from the others around him, being alone. Better that way. Until the last couple of months, with Wes, and for the first time he had actually felt he belonged to someone, and that someone belonged to him.
Too good to be true, of course; how long would it last, how long would Wes put up with the harsh realities their relationship would bring down on him? He would never really leave his father; not with everything he had going for him here, not for something that had started such a short time ago. Despite the years they had known each other, been friends, maybe loved each other under the surface... But then Wes looked up and caught his eye, offering a faint but affectionate smile, the warmth of it softening the sharp edges of his unhappy mood. Maybe some things were real, after all. Maybe.
He caught Trip looking at him, his expression curious and somehow knowing, and remembered uneasily what Wes had told him about the green-haired alien's psychic abilities. He also noticed the sparkle of a diamond on the third finger of Jen's left hand -- and saw the way she kept twisting the ring around her finger. But Alex was continuing; Eric dragged his mind back to what he was saying.
"Andrea was my partner." He paused, lips tightening. "We worked together for just over a year. We were both rookies, assigned to a patrol unit in the downtown section. Not a very pleasant area, not a pleasant job, either. We were after a small gang of mutants, thieves; petty crimes mostly, but they had hurt a few people. Their leader was a mutant named Razor."
"Razor?" Wes asked with a skeptical smile. "Sounds like something out of a movie."
"Yes. Gray, metallic skin. Very strong. He got the name because he liked to use knives. And he was quite good with them. There was nothing amusing about him."
"Sorry. Go on."
"Time Force suspected him of being allied with Ransik, who was after time travel technology even back then. He and his gang raided a research facility, a private lab experimenting with compact time transporters, devices that could open miniature timeholes a person could go through without a ship. Andrea and I were in the unit that spotted their car as they escaped.
"It was over the middle of downtown, they were in an airborne car, and we were in pursuit in our small flyers. Too dangerous to shoot them down; people on the streets would have been killed, but they didn't have the same concern. They fired at us. We dodged, and fell back, trying to get out of range. There were two other Time Force flyers, two more teams. Good people, those other officers. We both knew them, had worked with them before.
"The chase went on, they circled around, coming back over the streets, where they knew we didn't dare attack them. Came right at us... I pulled up, they fired, hit a stabilizer. We didn't fall, but I had trouble controlling the flyer, we couldn't aim the weapons, and we were slowed down. They came after us. One of the other TF flyers saw we were in trouble. They closed in. Tried to draw the mutants off, to distract them, long enough for us to reroute our functions and compensate for the damage."
Alex paused for a moment, shoulders rising and falling in a sigh. "Frank and Linda. The officers in that car. The mutants fired at them, got a lucky shot, blew out an engine. They went into a spin, uncontrolled. Couldn't pull out in time. They hit a tower. We could hear them screaming over the comm. system, just before their flyer exploded."
There was a few seconds of silence before he went on. Eric saw Jen's hand reach out to touch Alex's, just for an instant, and quickly withdraw as she glanced sideways at Wes.
"The wreckage fell. We found out later another person was killed on the street. We had our flyer under control by then, both we and the other TF team circled, trying to see if -- if there were survivors. It was hopeless, of course, and meanwhile Razor and his gang tried to slip away. We pursued, this time staying back, hoping they'd land.
"They did, in an abandoned lot in one of the worst parts of town, a place where even we patrol in groups of four." He obviously noticed Eric's expression, looking at him with a slight smile and saying, "Yes, even a thousand years in the future, we have slums. I suppose some things never change.
"Anyway, we followed. Andrea and I were the first to land, the other flyer spotted the gang from the air and got us started in the right direction before they landed. Once we had mutant lifesigns locked into our personal DNA scanners, we knew we could follow them anywhere.
"They headed straight for an old abandoned building." Alex's eyes flickered up to Wes's, and away. "It used to be an important company... just empty rooms and rotting furniture now. We waited long enough for the other team, Wayne and Rob, to catch up. Then we went in.
"It was dark inside. Dusty. Just enough sunlight through the windows to get around by. And it echoed. We could hear them, footsteps and voices, couldn't tell which direction they were coming from. But the scanners guided us. When we found them, they were with Ransik. Recognized him at once. Looked like they were in the middle of an exchange. Money for what they had stolen from the research lab. We knew what it was, a timehole generator. Ransik was setting it up, maybe to test it, or just see if it was undamaged, I don't know. He seemed to be satisfied, they shook hands; Razor and his goons, two of them, picked up their payment. We knew we had to make our move. Four against four, seemed like we had a good chance, and reinforcements were coming. Of course, one of them was Ransik...
"Wayne and Rob went in, ran to cover behind a desk and challenged them. Andrea and I stayed in the doorway. Ransik, Razor, and the other two froze. Then they dived behind whatever furniture was closest and started shooting."
Alex sighed again, now staring down at his clenched hands. "It happened so fast after that... Andrea and I ducked into the room and ran for a cabinet a couple of meters away. Ransik had a clear shot at us, I saw him aiming, but Rob -- Rob broke cover, rolled into the open long enough to tag him. Left himself exposed, and they got him. Ransik was only slightly injured, but Rob was down. We moved in, trying to work our way closer, while Ransik and the two hired hands retreated. I think I winged one of them, but all three got out through another door. Razor was alone, don't know why he stayed, but he was still shooting, snarling at us... we couldn't get past him to follow Ransik.
"Maybe that's why Wayne did what he did. He yelled, 'Cover me,' and charged. We tried, kept Razor down, but then Wayne was on him, they were struggling, and we saw a knife... Wayne was hurt, bleeding, helpless. We couldn't fire without taking the chance of hitting him, should have done it anyway, but it happened so fast... Razor was on top of him... Wayne didn't have a chance. Razor cut his throat. Smiled at us when he did it."
Again there was a brief silence before Alex went on. "Andrea screamed. I ran at them. Wayne was -- making noises -- dying, blood everywhere... Razor grabbed the timehole generator. Turned it on. I got in a couple of kicks, disarmed him, but he knocked me down, hard, and jumped through the timehole. I remember seeing Andrea jump in after him, remember shouting at her. And then I must have passed out.
"They told me later I had been grazed with a blaster shot. Don't even remember. Anyway, when I woke up, it was maybe an hour or so later. The backup team hadn't found us, they had gone after Ransik instead. I was still in that empty building, Wayne's body next to me. Rob was injured and unconscious on the other side of the room. I looked around. No one else. Then I noticed a sound, must have been what woke me up, a low humming.
"I thought the timehole machine must still be running. Another hole opened up, in the same spot as the one Razor and Andrea had used, only this one was flatter, and it rose up from the floor into the air and then disappeared. Took maybe two seconds, and then Andrea and Razor were lying there."
Alex opened his hands and glanced around at all of them. "The relief team arrived only a few seconds after that. Andrea was unconscious, so was Rob. Razor was dead. Ransik and the other two mutants escaped."
"Fascinating. But what does it have to do with her stealing those morphers?" Eric asked.
"Andrea had been a very promising young Time Force officer, up until that point. She might very well have been selected as the first Ranger, instead of me. But after that -- she never had a chance."
"Why?"
"How did Razor die?" Wes asked softly.
Alex glanced at him, raising a brow. "That's just it. Andrea said she had no memory of what happened after she went through that timehole, until she woke up back in our time. We have no way of knowing for sure who killed Razor, or under what circumstances. But we do know how he died. He was shot in the head, with a Time Force blaster, at lethal intensity."
"Self-defense," Eric said. "He was a killer. Dangerous. She was in pursuit. Don't tell me Time Force held that against her."
Alex's mouth tightened again. Jen answered this time. "Maybe. But according to the pattern of blaster burns on Razor's body, he was shot in the back of the head. From above. He was on his knees, head bent. It had all the signs of an execution, in cold blood."
After a quiet moment Alex spoke again. "I think most of Time Force Command privately thought Andrea deserved a medal. Her career as an officer wasn't hurt. But... it was enough to prevent her from becoming a Ranger. Andrea had come back with a dead suspect, no explanation, claiming she didn't remember anything. She was tested; no indication she was lying, but our truth detectors aren't foolproof. And -- the doctors couldn't find any evidence that her memory had been tampered with.
"The Rangers are trusted with a great deal of power. Command had reason to doubt Andrea's judgment, her self-control, her honesty, maybe even her mental stability. There was no proof of anything, of course, but the suspicion, the uncertainty, were enough."
"And obviously Command was right," Lucas said quietly. "Now she's got those morphers. And four more people with her. Two of them are Time Force officers, too."
"What do they want?" Wes asked. "What are they going to do?"
"We don't know," Trip said. "Whatever it is, we're going to have to stop them. With those morphers, they're extremely dangerous."
"And that's where you come in," Katie added. "Those Quantum morphers are a little more powerful than our Chrono-morphers. The suits are about the same, an unarmed fight would be about even. But all of them have a Quantum Defender, just like Eric's, more powerful than our Chrono-blasters."
Eric exchanged an uneasy glance with Wes as Alex spoke again. "We can't take the chance of fighting them five against five. We need you two to go with us. Give us an advantage."
"Why can't you take an army of Time Force guys with you?" Eric asked. "Why us?"
"Because..." Alex shot a look at Jen.
"Because they went into the future," she said quietly. "When the timehole Andrea and Razor went through was traced, they found it had gone into our future. Now, for whatever reason, Andrea's gone back there with her team. We know nothing about our future, and don't want to know. Too much possibility of someone using that knowledge for their own advantage in the present, or of finding and bringing back a weapon we have no defense against. Travel forward is strictly forbidden."
"There's something else," Alex added. "Strange things have happened when it's been tried, ships that malfunctioned, people who came back with impossible stories... That's why Time Force will only send the very minimum number of people after Andrea. People who can be trusted. And that means we need you."
"Well -- if you need me, I'll go," Wes said. He raised his eyes to Eric.
"Damn," he said with feeling. "I guess I'll have to go too. How far in the future?" Then he got the distinct feeling he wasn't going to like the answer, as all the future Rangers eyed each other uneasily, as if trying to decide who would get the task of saying it.
And it was Alex who told them. "The year 7000," he said quietly. "Four thousand years in our future. Five thousand years in yours." Eric had been right. He didn't like it at all.
Jen gave Alex another look. "There's one more thing Alex hasn't told you. It could be important."
Alex frowned. "Yes. Probably the reason Andrea used my identity to get the lab staff out when she stole the morphers." There was a pause. "Andrea and I were... friends." Eric could see a deeper meaning in the expression on his face, and the way Jen looked away. "In the investigation, I was called to testify. I could have said I wasn't sure, that I was still dazed from that blaster shot and didn't remember, could have said anything. Andrea expected me to protect her. But I told the truth, that Razor had been alive and disarmed when she went after him, and dead when they got back. The investigators asked if it seemed likely that she had killed him. I -- I couldn't say no."
He sighed. "Andrea thought I had betrayed her. Never forgave me. And she changed in the weeks after that... began to hate mutants, and blamed them for destroying her chances of becoming a Ranger. Blamed me too. We argued, she accused me... We ended our partnership, and broke up. And now, she may still be out for revenge."
"So -- what do we do now?" Wes asked after a moment.
Alex stood up. "Now -- it's late, all of us are tired. It'll be night where we're headed, too, and I don't want to arrive in a strange time in the dark, when we're not at our best. We'll have to take the chance of waiting until morning. Wes, Eric, make whatever arrangements you need to and report to our ship at the beach tonight. You can sleep there, and we'll leave first thing in the morning."
"I shouldn't even be doing this," Wes muttered. "You should have let me just leave a letter. Or a message on his machine at work."
"He's your father, Wes. You have to tell him." Eric held his eyes, knowing Wes was thinking the same thing he was. There was the distinct possibility they would never come back. He had already given his pet birds to his neighbors for safekeeping -- again -- and had contacted Steve Miller, their second-in-command of the Guardians. And then spent ten minutes convincing Wes to tell his father goodbye in person on their way to the beach, and insisted on coming inside with him. Although Wes would never have asked, Eric sensed he needed the moral support. Maybe there was also some corner of himself that hoped he could help, could convince Mr. Collins to be reasonable, to accept both of them for what they were. Or maybe a part of him just couldn't believe that the man he had come to think of almost as a father could really reject him this way.
"Okay. Let's get this over with." Wes headed for the front door of his house, pulled out his keys, and unlocked it with an angry twist.
Eric followed him in, into the marble-floored foyer, doors opening off it into the living room and the other parts of the large house. It occurred to him that he might well never see this place again, never go up the wide stairway opposite the door and into Wes's bedroom, where they had spent time talking -- and even sneaked a few kisses -- when he had visited in the last two months.
"The lights are on, he's still up," Wes said. "I'll... Just wait for me here."
But there was no need. A soft, "Wes?" turned them both around to see Collins standing in the doorway to the living room. His eyes turned to Eric. "What's he doing here?" he demanded, his voice harsh now.
"Dad...!" Wes's voice flared with anger, but he made a visible effort to stay calm. "Look, I'm only here to tell you we're leaving. We're going to be gone for a while."
"What are you talking about?"
"The Rangers -- the other Rangers, Jen and the others -- have come for us. They need us. We're going to their timeship from here."
"Leaving?" Collins stared at them, eyes widening. "Leaving for where? What do you mean?"
"They need us to go with them. They're after some criminals from their own time -- it's a long story. There's no time to talk about it now."
"You can't leave! You can't just take off like this, not now!"
"I'm sorry, but we have no choice."
"You can't tell me something like what you said tonight and then leave! Obviously you don't know what you're doing. We can get help for you--"
Wes turned on him, his voice angry as he answered. "Get help for me? A shrink? I'm gay, not crazy. I don't need your kind of help."
"Wes, at least let's talk about it..."
"What's there to talk about? You've made it clear how you feel. So have I."
"I have a few more things to say!"
"Like what?"
Another hostile look at Eric. "Not in front of him. I don't want him in my house again."
"Then I guess you don't want me here, either. Forget it, Dad, I'm leaving. Shouldn't have even bothered." Wes turned with a glare and started out.
"Don't you turn your back on me, Wesley! This isn't over... Walk out that door now, and don't bother coming back!"
Wes passed Eric, yanked the door open and faced his father again. "This is a dangerous mission, Dad," he said coldly. "Maybe you'll be lucky and neither of us will come back alive!" And he spun and strode out stiffly.
"Wesley..." The tone was soft and stricken now, as Collins started after his son, stopping abruptly as Eric stepped into his path. "Get out of my way!" he exclaimed.
"No. You're gonna shut up and listen."
"To you? All of this is your fault, if you hadn't -- corrupted my son..."
Eric advanced a step. "Fine. Insult me, kick me out, fire me, say whatever the fuck you want to me, or about me. But Wes is your son. He loves you, and you're supposed to love him. No matter what. Tonight you made him feel like dirt. Well, I care about him, even if you don't!" He paused as Collins stared at him, pushing back the wave of anger he felt, reaching for self-control. With an effort, he lowered his voice and stepped back. "You should be ashamed," was all he added, hardly noticing the shock and pain on the older man's face as he turned to follow Wes.
TBC...
