Disclaimer in chapter 1.
Author's notes: Thanks once again to Nalan for putting up with me, and to the readers who didn't kill me when I forgot to upload these : )
The Tempest
by Smittysgirl
The past 24 hours had been frantic on Mesogog's island. Left without a certified means of incapacitating their villain, the team had been forced to medicate Anton Mercer and strap him to the lifeforce extractor's exam table. The injured ninja students had been more of an ordeal. Mesogog's chamber of horrors downstairs had been pressed into service as a sickbay, and Cassidy had quickly drafted Cam and Blake as nurses. And as for the captured Ninja Storm Rangers ...
Left with no other recourse, and unwilling to medicate them as thoroughly as Dr. Mercer, the three enspelled Rangers had been stripped of their morphers and forcibly teleported to a desert island about an hour away, one Mesogog had masked from most forms of sensor equipment years earlier. Hayley and Dr. Smitty didn't like it very much, but they had too much to attend to with their own foe and the ninjas Conner had incapacitated.
Kira sighed, leaning against the rocky outcropping that overlooked the island's still lush forests. Behind her a hidden door whooshed open, and Ethan took a seat next to her. "Rough night, huh?"
Kira looked at him briefly before her gaze returned to the foliage. "I wasn't even sure if it was night again until I came out here. I guess most evil lairs don't bother with clocks or stock tickers or anything that might tell you."
Ethan laughed softly. "Sounds like a casino."
Kira sighed. Ethan warily embraced her, and she happily moved into his arms. All she wanted right now was to be held, why didn't anyone understand that? "I hate this. This whole last couple of months has been murder on us. Do you remember when all we had to worry about was Conner turning into a mutant freak?"
"It was a simpler time," Ethan deadpanned. It elicited the most laughter she could remember having in the last week.
"I know Dr. Smitty is doing everything he can, but we're so cut off. Our lives, our school - my God, Ethan, what are we going to tell anyone? What kind of excuses do you think Randall's making for us? For Dr. Mercer? What do our parents think? How can we ever go back to normal lives after something this enormous?"
Ethan rubbed her shoulders, trying to let out some of the tension. He would have had better luck getting the curls out of a phone cord. "Do you know what really scares me, Kira? The thought we might not want to go back to normal lives after all this. Remember what the Black Space Ranger said after he quit soccer? His dreams of being remembered for himself, for what he had accomplished, were taken over by his identity as someone that had dealt with something beyond himself. No wonder they all live in space now."
"I'm just scared everyone is going to end up in jail when this is all said and done," Kira sobbed. "We've had to have broken some laws somewhere, and the perception of what we've done is way worse than what we actually did."
Ethan chewed his lip. "I'm terrified of losing Cassidy. I think I already have. Maybe to the life, maybe to the choices I've made in this life, I don't know. I really love her. Maybe it's not marriage or anything, but I couldn't bear the thought of her not being here anymore."
Kira's blood ran cold, and she knew she was going to have to tell him the truth. Tell it before this compounded and she lost the truest and most loyal friend she'd ever had in this whole nightmarish life. "Ethan, there's something I need to tell you."
"This isn't FAIR!" Kapri screamed for the third consecutive day. "Everyone I know has done way more illegal stuff than I have! I can name names! I can give you home addresses! If you want you can go spelunking in the Abyss of Evil and make some of them accredible for their actions!"
"It's been like this since you left," the sheriff whispered to Marah as they entered the jail. "Your cultist friend here is not taking imprisonment well. We're considering sending her to Westlake, especially now that your parents have loosened the noose on you, Ms. Cornell."
Marah smiled. "I suppose I'm just fortunate that I had such loving parents who could understand my predicament and let me get back to my normal life!"
The sheriff nodded. "Though I have to say, I'm impressed they'd let you come back here and speak with her unattended."
Marah shrugged. "Their brainwashing only ran so deep. Patty Hearst has nothing on me! Besides, it looks like this one's about to crack herself. She might be my only lead to finding some of the people that did this to us. I'm just glad Mr. Cormier understood and took me back into the fold at Channel 3!"
The lawman shrugged, heading to the back of the hallway for a moment apparently to ensure his own belief in Marah's lack of complicity was accurate.
"What are you doing?!" Kapri hissed. Marah shushed her, smiling a toothy grin at the sheriff before he disappeared.
"What do you think? I have to play this thing out until I can figure out what happened! The easiest way to do that was to pretend the brainwashing failed and I was Cassidy. Kapri, there's lots of stuff going on here that doesn't make sense!"
"Like my baby sister being out on the town while I'm cooped up in here!" she yelped, throwing herself back on her bed. Marah frowned.
"Stop thinking about yourself for a minute! I did some investigating. Cassidy's whole life has been taking a down turn in the last few months. She's spending more and more time with Eric McKnight's twin brother, a guy with known psychological problems, who vanished exactly when Eric did. Now Eric's dead body turns up weeks old. Every single person that Cassidy knew vanished at almost the same time this week. Their science teacher, the woman who runs the local teen hangout - EVERYONE. She quit a lucrative job at Channel 3 too."
"So?" Kapri demanded. "Lots of weird stuff is happening. Uncle Lothor must've hit the academies about the same time too. Why is any of this your concern?"
"Because it's the right thing to do!" Marah stamped her foot. "And maybe if we can figure out what's happening here we can get to the bottom of what happened at the academies! We're too close to it, Kapri. Too much is resting on the McKnight brothers. We have to be missing something."
"This isn't our business!" Kapri said defiantly. "I don't know when you became such a goody-good, but we need to look out for ourselves. There's nobody left, Marah! This is a matter of life and death for our kind - not to mention us - and you're off chasing rainbows."
"This matters," Marah said. "I know it."
The siblings exchanged a heated glance before Kapri grabbed a pillow and screamed into it in sheer frustration. "Fine. You win. We'll play this out. But what happens then, huh? I'm still in prison, and any minute now Lothor's going to come looking for us."
Marah smiled. "But sis, if I can prove Cassidy's cult or whatever killed Eric, you'll get sprung and we can get out of here!"
Kapri blinked, that train of thought having never occured to her. She smiled in return. "So I guess doing the right thing does have its advantages!"
"Totally!"
"Thank heaven for small favors," Terrance said in relief as he wiped blood on his hospital tunic. "Everyone will pull through."
Hayley sagged. He disposed of the tunic, pulled her into a tight embrace, and they lounged back onto one of the benches set around the once and likely future chamber of horrors.
"I can't believe all this happened," Hayley said.
"I just want it to be over," he breathed into her hair. "I just want to go home and get back to how everything was before. Adrenaline and shock only go so far. I don't know how Cassidy is doing it."
Their gaze turned to the young woman, frantically rounding up whatever Rangers or support staff were available and bringing them in as swing shift nurses. "She's a teenager. And she has a palm pilot."
Terrance laughed softly. "Devin just got done cleaning out some of the barracks. Get some sleep. We've got a full day ahead of us. You need it more than us Rangers."
Hayley yawned. "No, I don't."
"Yes," he insisted, "you do."
His hands slid around her waist, feeling her heart pound all the way down in her rib cage. "You're about to collapse, Haye. You can't lie to me."
"Okay, so I'm a little tired. If Cassidy can run around with her palm pilot, I should be able to run around too."
"It's a Zire," Cassidy called.
Hayley waved as she was too tired to muster up a verbal response. Terrance kissed her forehead. "I tell you what, if you promise to lay down and rest for 20 minutes, I'll sit right next to you and make sure nothing important happens."
Hayley grinned. "Promise?"
He smiled down at her. "I promise."
Hayley sagged further into his embrace. "Good, because I'm about to collapse."
The emergency exit burst open, and an irate Ethan stormed through the sickbay. He glared at Cassidy for a moment before grabbing his knapsack and bursting into the hallway.
"Shit," Terrance muttered. "I'm sorry, love, but - "
Trent popped his head out of a side door leading to Dr. Mercer's examination room. He'd been keeping a vigil beside his father for hours now, when not assisting Cassidy at one thing or another. "What's up?"
"We don't know," Hayley said, forcing her way back to her feet and sighing. Kira came out of the same door as Ethan, roughly ten steps behind and looking around in confusion. It was evident the Yellow Ranger was in a great deal of turmoil.
Trent looked at Kira. "What's going on?"
Kira couldn't meet his eyes. She clenched her fists, trying not to cry in sheer frustration. "I told Ethan some ... some unpleasant things."
"Like what?" Trent asked, confused.
"Never mind!" Kira exclaimed, stomping out. Cassidy's hand went to her mouth, and she chased after Kira a second later. Hayley and Terrance exchanged a long look before filing out after her, and Trent after them. They followed her through the labyrinthian corridors of the base for a few minutes before Kira turned around and glared. "Would everybody leave me alone. NOW."
"Kira," Hayley said cautiously from the middle of the chain, "we're just concerned about you."
"I'm FINE," Kira snapped.
Cassidy cautiously stepped forward. "Kira, please. I - I want to know you're all right."
"I'm fine, leave me alone!" Kira shouted.
"I can't," Cass said softly. Conner popped out of the express lift behind Trent, and the White Ranger quickly hustled him to the back of their growing little crowd.
"Cass ... "
Cassidy place her hands on Kira's shoulders. "You know why I can't let you go, not like this."
Kira sighed. "I'm pissed and I'm having a bad day."
"We're all having a bad day, Kira," Cassidy reassured her. "Tell me why Ethan was like that, and why you're crying."
"I'm not -" Kira began, before Cassidy's finger gently traced the single tear running down her cheek.
"Kira."
Kira leaned in to her. "I'm not ...."
"What happened?" Cassidy asked, their foreheads now touching. The others unconsciously stepped back to grant them a semblance of privacy. Conner's fist clenched, unnoticed by all.
"I ... um, had a talk with Ethan."
"I gathered," Cass laughed softly. "Please tell me. I hate to see you cry."
"I ... um ... told him about my feelings," Kira said.
Cassidy's heart almost stopped. This couldn't have gotten any worse if someone was purposely trying to spite her. Kira and Ethan? "Your ... feelings?" she repeated slowly.
Kira nodded. "Yeah."
Cassidy couldn't meet her gaze any longer, and she wasn't sure she wanted to. "I had no idea you felt like that, Kira. I ... I can't believe Ethan would refuse you like that."
"Not feelings for him," Kira said hesitantly.
"Oh," Cassidy breathed, her heart already feeling like the tremendous weight on it had lifted. "But what .. ?" Kira gazed up at her, longing in her eyes. Cassidy gasped in surprise, her mouth widening in shock. "Me?" she squeaked.
Kira ducked her head in something like shame. Cassidy acted without thought, reaching out and catching Kira's chin with her finger. She lifted the smaller girl's head back to her eyeline. Tears began to streak down both their faces. "Oh Kira," she whispered so low it was almost inaudible. "I love you so much."
Kira sniffled. "I know," she whispered back. "I love you too."
They both leaned forward slowly, their lips tentatively meeting. An eternal moment passed, and the kiss deepened. It was like a floodgate had opened, and pain and jubilation and anticipation had all run together. They kissed like their lives depended on it, like they drew sustenance from the other.
Someone coughed at a great distance. They reluctantly broke apart, Cassidy still trying to catch Kira's lower lip in hers. The 5 of them turned towards Conner, his hands now clenched into balls of black steel.
"THIS?!" he cried. "This is why you drew apart from us? For HER?"
Trent, himself obviously flummoxed by what he'd just seen, grabbed at the armored teen's arm. Conner jerked away and tore down the opposite way. The girls unconsciously trembled, not completely certain what they had just done. Hayley and Dr. Smitty moved closer and consoled them as best they could.
These had been Zeltrax's quarters once, Tori decided. The room was utilitarian and adorned with almost no decorations of any sort. Aside from a few penciled schematics in an empty dresser drawer and a voodoo doll with Dr. Smith's face affixed to it, they hadn't seen a single personal adornment since taking residence here. The bed, fortunately, had no unusual grooves or divets in the mattress.
Cam mumbled in his sleep, almost curling up in the fetal position. She rubbed his back for a moment. It had been such a hard day for them both, but Cam's double shifts in the sickbay had nearly killed him. Tori had finally been forced to bodily remove him from a patient. She was thankful Blake had been there in case Cam resisted.
Blake. She hadn't seen him since they'd broken up last year. She still regretted the way she'd ended that relationship, even if she wouldn't have traded her life with Cam for anything. Blake had always seemed cordial in his correspondence with them, and Tori supposed there was nothing which kept them from remaining friends, but it wasn't an avenue of thought her sleep adled brain was prepared to stroll down.
Her mind returned to her friends on the other island. Sticking them there until they could sort things out had been a desperation move on Dr. Smith's part, but it wasn't like they could do anything else. They only had so many hands to operate everything on Mesogog's base, and the last thing they needed was a group of ornery Rangers breaking out and making things worse.
She hadn't seen Hunter in as long as Blake. Shane and Dustin had put in an appearance over Christmas for about an hour before ninja streaking back to their own families, but it had been tense. At least tense with Shane. She wasn't clear if Dustin picked up on the subtleties between the Wind Sensei and Cam. Knowing what Lothor did to them made her stomach turn in knots.
She was grateful she'd left the academy when she did. She had no regrets. This last year of traveling the country and helping people, living off the money they'd earned doing odd jobs and the good will of others, it had shown her more of what it was like to live than all the ninja studies in the world.
She just wished she could have been there when her friends were taken. Maybe she could have done something to stop it.
She wanted to kill Lothor, and she expected the feeling was mutual. What had been done to Sensei especially was such a primal violation. There was no reaching out to the man that had once been Sensei's brother, she knew that now. Cam probably knew it too, and she had no idea what he'd make of that. Could he look his uncle in the eye when it came time for the killing blow? With what family meant to him?
With a tiny sigh of frustration she tucked the sheets up to her neck and spooned tightly against Cam's already curled form. There was a long day ahead, and who knew when the next chance to get some sleep - or feel one another - would be.
Conner bolted out one of the emergency exits from the lab, emerging in the thick jungle. He marched through what little clearing there was to a small babbling brook and sat next to the water. He unfastened his helmet, placing it beside him, and leaned over to catch a drink in his hand. His reflection stared up at him, the black armor offset by the dried red of ...
The blood. Oh God, the blood. In a rush it was all over him, and the bodies ... all those ninjas laid out had Eric's face. Eric, who trusted him. Eric expected Conner to look out for him, and he'd failed. Mesogog had made Eric a pawn in another one of his schemes, and Conner had gone right along with his life by stealing Eric's.
He wasn't a brother. He was barely a person. Why hadn't he felt it until now? He'd instinctively known what had happened, but why hadn't it seemed real? Why did feeling any emotion that wasn't anger become harder and harder with each passing day?
Why did it feel so right when his sword sank into the flesh of those ninjas?
Conner slumped forward, his face slipping into the shockingly cold water. It would be so easy to let go. They'd never miss him. He'd barely miss himself at this rate. Would that be right? Would that be justice? Would that give back everything he'd taken away? He felt his lungs begin to burn with need, and began to take in a mouthful of the water.
"- NER!!"
He wheezed as he was pulled back to dry land, and through the spots in his eyes he could just barely make out Trent hovering above him, concern evident. "Conner, what were you thinking?"
"I wasn't. I was just kind of going on instinct. The kind of instinct that leads me to nearly massacre a bunch of people that were only under a spell. Maybe they wanted to kill us, but were supposed too be above that."
"You can fight it. I know you," Trent insisted. "Suicide isn't the answer."
"Don't you get it?!" Conner exploded. "It's not like that anymore! This armor, this stuff Mesogog wired into my brain! I can barely function as myself anymore!"
"You've never been yourself for as long as I've known you!" Trent countered. "Mesogog always had something over you, but what made you special was that you never gave in!"
The words came out in a rush. "My brother is dead! He's dead and I'm stuck wearing his skin! Only it's not even skin, because I didn't do a good enough job protecting him, so he became Zeltrax! Only now I have to spend the rest of my natural life in this freak body, and that's not enough penance! it's changing me, changing who I am!"
"Conner, this is survivor's guilt. You're under a lot of stress and you're part of one of the most highly developed killing machines on Earth. If you don't maintain control you will start slipping into the routines built into the armor," Trent said reasonably.
"I have to die," Conner said calmly. "If I die, it all gets solved. I can't repay my debt through actions, I'll just make it worse. The only solution is death."
Trent's brow furrowed. "I won't let you kill yourself, Conner."
Conner rematerialized his helmet. "Then I guess you're going to have to do it for me."
Trent shook his head. "I won't fight you."
Conner loosed a blast of laser fire, forcing the White Ranger to take cover. He rematerialized both his weapons, throwing the sword near Trent's feet. "You don't have a choice. Besides, you can call it self defense."
Trent morphed, rolling across the ground and snatching up the sword. He threw it back to Conner, who caught it effortlessly. "Don't you get it? This isn't the solution!"
Conner shot at the ground beneath his feet, and the White Ranger shifted positions. The armored teen charged him, his axe swinging with deadly intent. Trent, acting purely on instinct, unsheathed his Dragosword and knocked the weapon from Conner's hand before ducking away from the charge. They both spun around, facing one another.
"It's what you always wanted, isn't it? Me dead at your hand? Everything Mesogog represents without the love you have for your father attached? Well COME AND GET IT, THEN!" Conner yelled.
With a ferocious roar the White Ranger knocked him to the ground, hammering away at the snaps connecting Conner's helmet to his torso with the Dragosword. Real panic began to gnaw away at Conner's gut. Was this the same ignominous way Eddie Payne had died? Was Trent drawing it out in retaliation for months of humiliation at Conner's hand? Did he really want to die at all?
When the final snap was disconnected Trent tore the helmet from Conner's head before slumping in resignation. "This isn't about Eric, Conner, though that was going to come out eventually. This isn't even about us. This is about Kira. You lost the prize you were holding out for, your motivation for being."
Conner looked up defiantly. "So what if I did? I can't deal with this, Trent! We're both losing everything, and Kira doesn't want us anymore! She wants CASSIDY!"
"We weren't in charge of what Kira wants or doesn't want. Be grateful she's still our friend, I know I am. Whatever makes Kira happy will only make her a better friend to us," Trent said. "Conner, I can't know how their relationship will pan out. I don't know that one day one of us won't end up with Kira again, for that matter. All I know is, you have to take the big changes as they come. You can't live your life on what's going to happen or what might happen, or what is actually happening doesn't even matter."
"I'm not worth loving, Trent," Conner said as he laid his head against the cool grass. "There's nothing I can give someone that's not nullified by everything that comes with me."
Trent stared down at him for a long moment, obviously deliberating something. A part of Conner's heart sank at the thought it was taking this long for Trent to think of a counterargument, though his head sang with joy. He really was more trouble than he was worth. Trent sighed heavily and pulled himself off of Conner's chest. He reached down and pulled the armored teen back to his feet a moment later.
"Believe what you want," the White Ranger sighed heavily. "Obviously your common sense isn't working anymore."
He demorphed in a flash, still holding Conner's hand. "Come on, let's get you back inside. Everything will look better in the morning, I promise. Not good, but better."
Conner, in spite of himself, followed him.