Disclaimer: I own nothing; Saban and Disney own it all. Except Ink and Alice who I created myself and are therefore wholly mine.

Ranger References: Contains scenes from 'The End of Time Part 3'. Hope you guys like. The direct quotes from the episode may be a little off as the website I usually use has closed down and my tape of the episode is back home. Alice's weapon comes from Wild Force. We're nearly the end guys, maybe only two chapters after this. I can't believe it! Reviewers you rock as always! Thankful shout-outs are at the end! Enjoy!

I am so sorry its taken me so long to update, I've been working and living somewhere doesn't have a computer with a data stick slot. But I'm back for three weeks so I'll be posting every week to make up for it!

A SOMEWHAT HAPPY ENDING

Wes didn't think he'd ever known pain like it. It tore through his chest with frightening strength and for once, hitting the ground was a welcome rest. He felt his Ranger suit melt away from him, leaving him feeling disturbingly vulnerable. He glanced around him. Lucas lay on his stomach, trying to crawl forward to get to Ransik. His eyes were shining with a fighting strength but the way his limbs shook as he moved gave away how badly he was hurt. Katie was trying to get over to a nearby wrecked car to lever herself to her feet, her face streaked with dirt and tears while Trip was lying with a hand clasped to his shoulder, his face screwed up in pain. The team had been decimated.

Frantically Wes's eyes sought out Jen, his heart thundering in his chest. She couldn't be dead, Jen always survived; she was a fighter until the end. He squinted through the thickening smoke and thought he saw something white moving but before he could be sure, he felt Ransik's presence behind him and immediately flinched. He was in no shape to fight again and Ranisk didn't seem at all phased from the battle. Wes felt his heartbeat slow down completely which was odd, he was sure he should be panicking around now. Then he heard a voice.

"Get away from him, Ransik."

Alice stepped out from the shadows of the building she'd been hiding in. Her battle armour was still in place and she held a long sword with a yellow handle in one hand. Her face was calm but her eyes raged with blue fire anger. Ransik appeared confused and not at all threatened.

"This is between me and the Ranger," he snarled.

"Then I'm involved too."

"Who are you?"

"I am Alice, daughter of Zordon of Eltare. I am the Navy Titanium Protector, created of light to help and protect the Power Rangers."

"Very noble," Ransik wasn't impressed as he began stepping towards her. "If you want to fight me, then you've sealed your fate."

Alice smirked and dropped low into her fighting stance, causing Ransik to sneer as he moved closer.

"I'm not afraid of you, mutant. If I let you win then a dark path would be taken and I can't let that happen," Alice stated with a hiss. "Give me your best shot."

Without ceremony, Ransik fired a large laser bolt off his sword at her which Alice neatly flung herself out of the way of. Rapidly she leapt off a chunk of debris and flipped over Ransik, striking him hard with her weapon.

"Golden Eagle Sword!" she yelled, the sword in her hand glowing briefly with yellow light.

Quickly Ransik engaged her in sword combat, their blades flashing as they circled each other. Wes coughed, crawling in the dust to try and get closer. He wanted to gather his strength to help Alice in any way he could.

Alice tumbled to the ground as Ransik got a shot in on her legs and laughed as he struck his blade down with deadly accuracy. Alice flung her cape around just in time, the sword clanging loudly on the suddenly steel-hard fabric, and immediately flew upwards with a hard kick to Ransik's gut.

"She's getting tired," noted Lucas with what could be concern.

"Alice? She can't be! I've seen her tear through hundreds of Cyclobots barely pausing for breath," replied Wes confidently though a slight fear began worming it's way into his brain.

"No, she is getting tired," insisted Trip. "Look how she's starting to stumble. Ransik's a lot more powerful than the Cyclobots are and he's got better weapons too. If she's not careful, something very bad's gonna happen."

Before Wes could form a reply, Jen pulled herself determinedly to her feet and stumbled closer to Ransik. Her suit was as shredded as the others and she had one hand clamped to her arm which hung limply at her side. She didn't look in good shape, especially not for going into battle but she was making her way over to Ransik regardless. Wes felt a lurch in his stomach as he realised what she was doing and tried following but found his limbs were in too much pain to obey him.

"I said I was going to bring you in and I promise I'm going to do it!" yelled Jen loudly and clearly.

Ransik paused as Alice fell back again, this time against a huge chunk of stone. She winced; her face creased in pain and then her body lay lifeless. Wes refocused his attention to Ransik again and shuddered. Somehow during the what seemed like endless battle, Ransik had lost his mask and now his face was clear for all to see. The side that had been covered was thick and massed with his mutation and his eye seemed to have slid down so that it wasn't at the same level as the other one. It looked sickening and Wes felt the urge, amongst the other pain-addled thoughts which fuzzed his mind, to throw up.

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Ransik growled menacingly.

Jen cast her eyes backwards at her team who stared pleadingly back from their sprawled pained positions on the ground. Whatever she was planning they didn't want her to do but they were too weak to stop her. They'd managed to defeat Doomtron, bringing the robot crashing down after Wes had neutralised the Q-Rex's Trizirum crystal with the modified Quantum Defender and had thought that next to that, battling Ransik would be somewhat easier. They'd been very very wrong. She felt a strength course through her and clenched her fist. She wanted to finish this now. The look on Wes's face as he gazed beggingly up at her ripped into her very core but she staunchly ignored it and turned back to Ransik.

"You want me? Come and get me," she hissed out through the pain.

As Ransik took a step forward, Jen turned and half ran half stumbled towards the nearby warehouse. She was disappearing into its dark depths when Ransik raced after her.

"Jen!" Wes's cry of pain and fear seemed to stretch out forever.

There was a silence then Wes's attention whirled from Jen, choosing to go into a warehouse to face off against their arch enemy in order to arrest him, to Alice, lying on the concrete. She was just started to move as he painfully pulled himself to his feet and stumbled to her side, the others trailing close behind him. Quickly he cradled her head in his hands as she opened her eyes and managed a pained smile up at him.

"I underestimated him," it was a statement with a surprisingly wistful tone to it. "At least I live and you're all still alive. Ink wouldn't be pleased if I let you all die."

"How are you feeling?" asked Trip concerned.

"There's a lot of rib pain, he might have broken a couple," Alice managed. "That's the downside to taking on human form; you end up getting hurt more easily."

"Are you going to be alright?" asked Katie, a hand to her own waist.

"I should be fine. I'll recover a lot quicker than a human can," Alice smiled as Wes helped her carefully to her feet and then looked around puzzled. "Where's Ransik gone? And where is the Pink Ranger?"

"They're in there," Lucas pointed to the large warehouse that loomed menacingly behind them. "Jen lured Ransik in to get him away from us."

Before Alice reply, blaster shots rang out from the building and with worried looks to each other, the Rangers began making their way as quickly as they could to the doorway, Wes supporting Alice as they moved.

X

Jen had struggled to find somewhere to hide. As much as she hated to admit it, Ransik was a lot stronger and more powerful than she was. He possessed mutant powers that no one yet knew the limit of and for an older man; he was quick and talented on his feet. When she'd seen her friends barely able to stand and Alice trying her best to defeat the man they'd spent the better part of a year trying to capture, something inside of her had snapped.

Now as she huddled behind some old storage cases, she knew it had been a poorly judged idea. She was limping rather than walking and every inch of her body ached. Ransik was somewhere around, she could hear his heavy footsteps. The strangest thing was that Jen was almost sure she could hear someone else in the warehouse. Ever so often, she'd hear a childlike whimper and a hurried shushing but she'd seen nothing. She could hear Ransik get closer. Quickly she pulled a Chrono Blaster from her belt and gripped it tightly with both hands. As long as he didn't see her, she had a chance of ambushing him and hopefully getting him arrested.

"Gotcha!"

For a second, her heart seemed to stop beating as she heard him release a large fireball and felt the heat glow around her. But it wasn't aimed at her. She heard the crash and then a young desperate cry. She could hear Ransik moving closer to his prey and without another thought, launched herself from behind her makeshift shield.

"Ransik!"

The look on his face as he turned was pure surprise and Jen quickly fired off a pink laser shot. It hit him square in the chest and he flew backwards into more crates. Jen smiled, moving closer. The sight that greeted her was totally unexpected. Nadira lay prone on the concrete, her white armour hadn't been able to protect her from her father's energy blast, and was that a baby? It certainly looked like one, wrapped in a pale yellow blanket and clutched protectively to Nadira's chest. Ransik seemed utterly floored as he reached out for his daughter and Jen could have sworn she saw concern in his eyes. Her mind was thrown into turmoil. She kept her Blaster trained on Ransik as he spoke quietly to his daughter, seeming to check carefully on the baby and then take it out of her arms.

"Jen."

Wes's quiet voice from behind startled her and she put a finger to her lips, gesturing to the scene before her. The others looked as shocked as she did and Jen noticed with a smile that Alice was there with them, leaning heavily on Lucas. The Titanium Protector grinned back at Jen wearily.

Ransik stood up and approached the group. The other Rangers had their Chrono Blasters out, aimed at him in readiness for any tricks but Ransik seemed solemn as he stood before them, the baby held gently in his grasp. He passed the child to Katie who cradled it worriedly and then returned his gaze to Jen. There was something akin to remorse in his eyes and Jen tried to ignore it, to tell herself he was just a murderous monster but she couldn't ignore the tenderness she'd seen him direct at his daughter or the gentle way he'd treated the baby.

"I'm ready to pay for what I've done," Ransik announced, holding his hands out in front of him in fists.

Jen gaped in astonishment at this and it wasn't until Wes squeezed her arm gently she realised it was her turn. Never taking her eyes from Ransik's face, she slipped her Blaster back onto her belt and pulled a huge pair of handcuffs out from behind her where they'd been stored in shrink-size in her back pocket. She took a limping step forward and slid the cuffs onto Ransik's wrists, clicking them shut. Ransik gave a deep sigh and looked down at his daughter who sat at his feet. Nadira almost looked beautiful despite her frazzled appearance and smudged face as she smiled up at her father.

Jen smiled and didn't protest as Wes slipped an arm around her to give her a happy squeeze. She sagged against him, exhaustion suddenly flooding her body. Their mission was over. They'd finally caught Ransik. But as elation prickled at her senses, she looked at Wes and realised a new pain. They'd be going home, leaving again only this time for good.

X

Ink breathed an enormous sigh of relief.

"They've done it," she murmured happily.

Eric, lying prone on the bed and his hands toying with the chess pieces set up on a board on his lap, looked sharply at her. She looked as though a huge weight had been taken off her shoulders.

"What's happened, Ink?" he asked urgently, grasping happiness and contentment from her emotions.

"The Rangers have done it, my Quantum Ranger," Ink replied with a wide uncharacteristic smile. "They have captured Ransik and are all safe."

Mr Collins, still sat solitarily in a chair, seemed to come out of his self-contained daze at Ink's words and instantly got to his feet.

"They're ok? Wes is ok? How do you know?" he asked breathlessly.

"I just know, Alan," Ink replied with a warm smile. "You will have to trust me. Simply check with your Silver Guardians and they will be able to tell you from their survallience that your son and his friends are currently at the warehouse district safe and well."

Mr Collins looked at Eric who merely smirked and shrugged his shoulders. If he or Ink told Mr Collins how Ink knew, he wasn't sure Wes's father would believe them.

The truth cannot be denied, Quantum Ranger

If the truth sounds wacko, there's no point in telling it. Not if it gets you put in a nut house.

Eric felt Ink smile at him and watched as his boss started towards the door before turning back.

"Eric, I hope you realise that your time in hospital will all be paid for by Bio-Lab and that you can take as much time off as you need to get back to full strength," Mr Collins told him.

Eric, completely surprised at his boss's generosity, fumbled for an answer for a few moments. He could feel Ink's amusement and shot her a scowl back.

"Thank you, sir. That's completely unnecessary but thank you," he managed.

Mr Collins nodded, his hand on the door handle. He smiled at the pair left in the room.

"Well I hope you feel better soon, Eric and it was a pleasure to meet you, Ink. Thank you for keeping an eye on Wes for me."

"That was my pleasure," the Keeper replied.

As Mr Collins disappeared out of the door, Ink returned her gaze to Eric who was looking at her with a multitude of emotions playing across his face. When she grasped for them, she felt regret, anger, sadness and a vague sense of uneasy love.

"What is it, Eric?" she asked softly, though already knowing what was troubling him.

"You're going to leave," it was a statement solid with anger.

"Yes. I told you that before, Eric. Once Ransik was arrested, the darkest path has been saved for many years and when shadow falls again, someone else will be present to help. It is not my duty to stay."

"Not your duty! You were the one who told me to trust people and to open myself up, to become a team player. Now you're leaving me! You're fucking leaving me! Just like everyone else."

His anger slowed as his words ground to a halt. Waves of regret washed over him, Ink's own feelings mirroring his. She looked perfectly calm, her long hooded cloak wrapped around her. Almost tentatively she reached for and grasped his nearest hand.

"I understand your pain, Eric. I know it. My sisters and brother and I were created for singular purposes before we fly back to the place we were created in; Eltar. It is a planet far away from Earth where I grew up and where Zordon's memory is cherished," she gave his hand a squeeze. "I lost my parent also and I know how awful it is to let go of someone again. But this is my duty, my purpose. This is what I have to do."

Eric glared at her for a long moment, not ripping his hand from her grasp yet but trying to get all his seething emotions (which he knew she could feel as though they were her own) into some semblance of order.

"Are the others leaving too?"

His tone was clipped and Ink knew exactly what he was talking about. She smiled sympathetically.

"Yes. Jen, Katie, Lucas and Trip must return to their home in the year 3000. Their presence here has both changed and healed the time line Time Force wishes to be followed and they need to go back before anything else threatens their future," she replied. "Wes is losing his best friends today."

"So everyone's leaving me."

Eric's tone was now seething with anger and his dark eyes flashed with emotion that Ink could feel in waves. She almost flinched at their ferocity.

"We are going home," Ink replied softly. "How can you deny people that?"

"Because I was denied it!" Eric's anger seared across the room and Ink squeezed her eyes shut for a second to squash the anger that Eric threw her at. "Why am I the one left alone here? I'm always the one left behind."

"You chose to leave prep school."

"Because there was no one there like me, Ink. Because they were all rich shits with life handed to them on a plate. No one knew what it was like to crawl up through the gutter like I had to and no one bothered thinking about me because I wasn't up to their fucking standard. They ignored me so I left before I got kicked out for starting a fight."

"Except Wes."

That stopped Eric and he took a breath to calm himself.

"Except Wes," he agreed. "But that was just pity."

"Quantum Ranger, you will listen to me. Wes did not befriend you out of pity; you were not some charity case he decided to take on! He wanted to be friends with you because he liked you, because you were different to all the other boys at that school. You were genuine and he appreciated that, he knew you would always be honest and always tell him what you thought. He valued that tremendously," now it was Ink burning with anger as she towered over his bed and her eyes cut into him. "You have always survived on your own and suddenly finding you need people does not make you weak. Make no mistake, Eric, I know exactly what goes on in your mind."

Silence fell thick and taut. Eric glared up at her and Ink stared back, her anger slowly ebbing out of her to be replaced by her usual brand of mystical calm.

"Our bond will not ever break, Eric. I know you can last alone. You had been doing it for long enough before you met me. Wes respects this; he only wishes to be your friend. That is all. Besides, no matter where I go, you will always be the Quantum Ranger and I will always be the Quantum Keeper. No amount of distance can change that."

Eric sighed; shifting to try and get comfortable in the bed which now felt utterly uncomfortable. As always all she said was true.

I don't want to lose someone who knows me so well

I know, Eric and I understand. But you have so much here. You have a good job in a position of authority and a generous boss who has changed so much for the better. You have made friends and Wes, no matter your differences, is your ally. He is someone you could call a friend.

Eric thought about how he'd entrusted his Quantum Morpher, something he'd fought over with Wes for so long to the point of them trying to kill each other, to Wes without any regrets. He'd known as he lay injured on the concrete that Wes would take care of it and use it as best he could. He trusted Wes.

"I'd better get my Morpher back in one piece," he growled.

Ink laughed and sat back down next the bed, clasping his hand in her's like any concerned relative would.

"I am sure you will," she replied. "Now you must rest. The Rangers will be leaving tomorrow I expect which means you will want to be recovered for that I am sure. Alice is telling them about our departure so that they are aware. We will not engage with long goodbyes but we may be there to wave them off."

"Will I see you again after today?" asked Eric, hearing the door open and a nurse slip in to check and adjust the monitors beside him.

"Maybe tomorrow but after that I am unsure," answered Ink, her voice beginning to sound thick and soft to Eric as he felt the prick of a needle in his arm. "I have a feeling that we may meet up once more."

Eric tried to form more words but drug induced sleep swept over him so powerfully he couldn't even open his eyes. The overwhelming need for rest consumed all his thoughts and the last thing he was properly aware of was that Ink was still holding his hand. She hadn't let go.

X

AUTHOR SHOUT-OUTS

White Time Ranger: You're almost right, after this chapter we have about two more chapters to go I reckon. I'm glad you enjoyed the bit with Eric in hospital, it was fun and interesting to write and thought it would be good to show he and Ink conversing about her leaving. Hope this chapter lives up to your expectations! You've been my star throughout this story, helping me along with your encouragement!

Mag Cat: Thanks for your review! Yep Eric's recovery was never shown on-screen so I thought it would be interesting and essential to the story to explore that angle. I'm glad you enjoyed his interaction with Ink and I hope you like this chapter also, just a couple more to go now!