Disclaimer: Nobody belongs to me. This universe sort of does. Set nearly a month after the original team debuts in AtAP.

Author's note: Big thanks to Nalanzu for betaing both of these vignettes, and no thanks to uncoporative characters.

Bloodties

by Smittysgirl

Dr. Terrance Smith pulled his black jeep into a narrow trail running off an already narrow road and climbed out. He couldn't deal with things in Reefside anymore. As he lugged his meager camping gear from the back he reflected on what had brought him here.

They'd stormed Mesogog's island laboratory in an attempt to free Conner from the tyrant lizard king's clutches. in the process of freeing the Red Ranger - a Red Ranger who hadn't even gotten the chance to morph - Terrance had happened upon his own dinogem, and the team - his team, he smiled - had been born.

It hadn't been easy. The kids didn't take well to Hayley or Terrance lying to them. Conner especially seemed to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Terrance had spent every waking moment holed up in his own lab, trying desperately to isolate the chemical compound that would unlock Mesogog's hold on the boy.

Until then there was nothing he could do.

Three weeks of constant research, with barely a moment spent tending to his duties as assistant manager at the cafe, taking care of his own amenities, or in the loving arms of Hayley, had taken their toll on Terrance. He needed some time to himself. Away from chemistry books or Tyrannodrones.

"Time to face the ghosts of the past," he reflected in the cool air. The contrails of his breath nicely underlined his words.

He hadn't been back to the cabin in years, and the overgrowth of stray branches and weeds all along the walkway could attest to its lack of care. He carefully lugged his duffel and sleeping bags up the uneven rocks his grandfather had laid in the ground so long ago.

He'd settled in for a light meal cooked over the hearth. Gorging wouldn't do much for his work ethic, and maintaining a heap like this was going to require loads of TLC. If anything was bound to get his mind off the real world, this would be it.

He pulled his blacket tighter around his legs. So why wasn't it working? He'd had so many wonderful memories at this place, why did his mind return only to the bad?

A scratching came at the front door, too high to be any animal other than a bear - and a bear wouldn't take the time to bother just scratching. Terrance cautiously got up, rematerializing his morpher. If this was an ambush, he was going to be ready.

He threw the door open, ready to fall into a battle pose at a moment's notice. A short, slightly heavy woman stood on the porch, the hiding places for the keys turned inside out.

"Samantha," he gasped. The small woman's mouth plopped open.

"Terrance?"

He pulled his sister into a bear hug, sweeping her up off the ground. She laughed excitedly, and for a moment it was like they were kids again.

"What are you doing here?" they asked together.

Her eyes cast low. "Jeff and I were having some problems. I thought maybe you'd been keeping this place together affer ... dad."

He shook his head. "I never came back after he left it to me. I couldn't. I didn't want anything of his. But I told you you were always welcome, you know that."

She laughed nervously. "Jeff doesn't like me any further than he can see me. This is the first time I've had to myself since my bachelorette party."

Terrance didn't like the sound of that. He gestured for her to enter, and the two went in.

"I envied you," she said over a lukewarm can of beans. "Always did. You got out of that town, out of that life. I buckled under just like Mom. Married someone like Dad, got knocked up and led by the nose. But you - you got a scholarship, Terr! You left before he cracked down completely."

Sam handed him back his pocket knife, and he dug in with the spoon. "I'm sorry I left you to fend for yourself. I had an opportunity and I took it. I knew if I stuck around until you turned 18 Dad would clue in and keep us both there forever."

"I'da done the same."

"Doesn't make it right."

"Were you planning to hide me in your dorm like some Hogan's Heros sketch? I was a big girl, Terr. Or big enough. I chose my shitty life."

Her words hung in the air like an open invitation to fight. He supposed it was all she knew. Terrance sighed, leaning back. Had they all chosen their shitty lives? Was coming here supposed to help him deal with Rangerhood, or was it to remind him how much worse it all could have been in another time, another place? His only memories of their father had always been the abuse, never the moments when he hadn't touched the bottle and overcompensated on his affections.

Sam was doomed to repeat that until she died, though she was selfactualized enough to know it. Did that make it worse? How had he gotten away from that, managed to pull Hayley into his orbit? Could he have become the broken, vindictive man his father was if he'd been dealt a worse hand of cards?

"I only have one sleeping bag and not nearly enough food for two people," he said finally. "I'm going to head into town and get us some supplies. Do you have a cell phone?"

His sister nodded. "You?"

Terrance tapped his bracelet. "Hayley made it for me. Just call my office, it'll get routed once you bounce to voice mail."

Not, technically, a lie.

Moonlight caressed the armored figure in his driveway as he returned from the store. He could see Sam pressed against the nearest window, her face paled significantly. This was worse than anything Jeff could have sent her way. With no other recourse, Terrance slowed his jeep and climbed out. "Zeltrax."

"Hello, Dr. Smith. You are a difficult man to find."

"I try to be." He remolecularized his morpher. A real superhero might have been able to get clear and make a clever substitution, but Terrance didn't have that luxury. He desperately hoped he wasn't breaking some Ranger credo by doing this.

"I have waited years for this moment, the moment where I would finally taste your utter destruction!"

Terrance looked at him sideways. "Years? We only met last month!"

"Are you so self possessed you have forgotten all those you've wronged before?" Zeltrax produced his axe and shield. "Destroying you will be the finest pleasure on this Earth!"

Zeltrax lunged forward. Terrance leaped over the arc of his swing, ricocheting off Zeltrax's back with a flip kick. "Dino Thunder, Power Up!"

The Black Ranger landed in a crouch, unsheathing his Brachiostaff and deflecting the blow he knew was coming without having to look. His leg shot backwards, knocking the shield from Zeltrax's hand before it could be brought down against his back.

"Give it up, Zeltrax! I don't want to fight you. Whatever you have against me, we can talk this out like adults."

Zeltrax summoned his sword, meeting Terrence's with a furious parrying. "Talk likes adults, is it? When it comes down to it, you are nothing but a scared little child!"

The Black Ranger kicked against the android's midsection and snapped the components of his staff in place. "Wind strike!"

Gale force winds buffeted the cyborg, throwing him against an old hickory. Terrance lowered the tip of his staff against Zeltrax's forehead. "Leave now, with your dignity intact. I have no quarrel with you, and your presence here is jeopardizing an innocent life."

Zeltrax scoffed. "What little regard you have for innocence." His gaze turned to the face in the window, and he nodded with understanding. "This does not involve kin, Black Ranger. I will respect that. But we will meet again."

His hand raised to the sky, Zeltrax dissolved into an invisiportal. Terrance looked up at the now clear sky. He dreaded the conversation he knew was going to come, and he dreaded even more what was going to become of his sister.

"Count on it."