MASK: Legacy Saga 3: The Fallen
Chapter 4

Author's Notes: Thank you all for sticking with us during the long periods of waiting. The saga chapters have finally caught up with our writing, so they're coming a bit farther between. Thank goodness none of you, our loyal fans, seem to mind the wait, nor the so called horrible grammar brought up by a particular reviewer. To that, we have a few things to say:

We are dudettes, thank you very much.

We're positive that at least 3492 words exist in this story so far. That's at least half of the 6984 that exist, not counting this chapter.

People who live in glass houses, and can't spell the word "phrase", should not throw stones.

For the record, most of those grammatical errors have been left purposely to add a bit of flavor. After all, as Lisa pointed out, who always speaks in proper English?

But anyway, enough of our ranting and on with the story that, grammatically correct or not, you all seem to enjoy. Be warned that darker subject matter lay ahead…don't say we didn't warn you.

"Roxanne…it's dad again…where are you?" beep "It's dad have you been getting any of my messages? I need to speak with you its urgent." beep "I'm at the hospital, Scotts awake. Please call. I know I sort of lost my temper. I'm sorry." beep "Roxanne this is work calling. Get your sorry butt over here or else your leaving me no choice but to fire ya." beep "I came by your apartment, you weren't there…I'm worried…it's been a week…Roxy I don't want this to come between us…call home please." beep "That's the last draw young lady…your FIRED!" beep "Roxy it's Buddy, your dad says he hasn't been able to get a hold of you. I hope you can forgive me, I'm sorry I hurt you like that. There's a lot I want to talk to you about, so call Me." beep "I'm not mad…Roxanne…I just want to know your alright…sighs" beep

Scott and Buddy huddled around the answering making notes of who called the past few weeks.

"I don't understand," Scott asked as though he expect Buddy to tell him, "Why did she wait until now to contact somebody if she was in trouble?"

"Maybe she was scared."

"Why would she be scared of you or dad?"

"Cause," Buddy sighed, "We both sort of rubbed her the wrong way after that last mission."

The discussion was interrupted as Matt, Jess, and Annie finally arrived at Roxanne's apartment. Before anybody could get a word in, Matt walked right pass Scott and Buddy and looked around the apartment in disbelief. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he'd never believe it. "Tell me this is not happening," He grumbled as he ran his hand over his mouth trying to grasp the situation. Her living room was a disaster area with everything turned over and shattered glass and picture frames everywhere. He forced open Roxanne bedroom door and saw the trail of blood leading from the adjacent bathroom towards her bed. The sheets on the bed were gone but her mattress still had some red stains from where she had been resting. He swallowed his pride and forced himself to head into her white tile bathroom. The mirror in the medicine cabinet had been shattered, pills were scattered all over, along with a huge puddle of blood resting besides the tub. His chest felt tight at the sight of it. Everything appeared as thought she was murdered. That was the only reason that could explain everything. A hand clamped down on his shoulder and pulled him out of the room.

"Matt," Buddy spoke up looking directly into his long time friend's eyes, "this is a lot to take in all at once. Believe me I'm still not over the shock, but let's head into the kitchen and sit down and talk. I know what this looks like, but I don't think she's dead."

"How are you doing?" Annie asked as put her arm around Scott's back and her head resting on his shoulder.

"I feel like somebody just ripped out my heart out and stepped on it," He replied also putting an arm around Annie for some comfort. "I failed her…I was a lousy brother…I let this happen to her."

"Scott you never asked for this to happen. If you weren't so overprotective of her I wouldn't be harping on you all the time, but nobody could of known this would happen." He tightly gripped her, and Annie knew he didn't want to let go. Scott was so much like his father, despite no blood relation. Both were very well at masking their emotions, but underneath that shell Annie could tell he was crying. He lost both his parents to death at a young age, that he's grown to cherish his adopted family. The tears he was hiding were not full of sorrow for his sister, but anger towards himself for failing to protect what was so dear to him. She wanted so badly to take him aside, hold him to no ends, stroke his thick locks, and whisper that everything would be all right, as thought she were his mother. Yet once his father sat down at the kitchen table and asked the question of the hour, his full attention went back to the job at hand.

"What have you found?"

Buddy pulled up a chair ready to give a full report, "The policed are still looking for her and put a missing persons report out to every medical facility in Nevada for a girl matching her description. So far we've heard nothing, and I wouldn't let them search the apartment."

"Why not?" Annie gave Buddy a look of disbelief as if that was the stupidest thing he could of done.

"There's a lot more that happen in this room then meets the eye. I think Roxanne was involved in something…I don't know what. I never could get it out of her," Buddy confessed with a great deal of guilt, "But because she's an agent, we get first dibs in this investigation. Unless we find out this is not MASK related, then we hand this over to the police."

"Alex came by and took several blood samples from around the room." Scott added, "So far he says they're a perfect match to Roxanne. Another thing dad…we listen to her answering machine. Most of those messages you left and others are from her job."

"She stop going to work right after that last mission," Buddy jumped in as thought he felt at fault. "Her neighbors say they never knew her. They said her boyfriend visited frequently though."

"Boyfriend?" Matt raised a brow, "Roxanne never had a boyfriend. Anybody else knew about this?" Both Annie and Scott shook their heads. Matt looked around for Jess, but she seemed to have disappeared.

"That's what I thought," Buddy smirked.

"Do they have a description of this guy?" Matt eagerly pressed knowing who ever this man was had to be the culprit.

"The police took somebody down for a composite sketch. That's the best we have to go on."

"She was hurting…"Jess spoke up as she rejoined the group in the kitchen, after doing a little snooping herself.

"What do you mean…she was tortured?" Matt sat up from his chair knocking it back outraged.

"No…I mean she was mentally hurting. I knew she was growing more distant, but I didn't think she'd shut everybody out. She wrecked her own place in a fit. I know cause she deliberately shattered her picture frames."

"It wouldn't be the first time," Annie inquired noticing a hurt look on Scott and Matt faces, "She was throwing a tantrum in the locker room not too long ago."

"Yeah well," Buddy remarked, "I never did find out what was troubling her. Could have been she didn't take her meds, but I don't like what your pointing out to me Jess. I guess I'm still in just as much shock as everyone, I'm over looking the obvious."

"What are you hiding? Out with it!" Matt insisted.

Tears erupted down Jess's face, "She tried to take her life." There was dead silence in the room afterwards nobody wanted to believe it.

"What do you mean? Jess if she did…she'd still be here." Matt insisted as he came up next to her pressuring her to be wrong.

"I know…but somebody beat us to her." She reminded wiping her tears.

"That's a good thing," Buddy reminded, "That means she's still alive. Who ever took her would haven't any use for her if she's dead."

"That doesn't make me feel any better," Matt added in anger. "I want to know why then? Why was she hurting? Scott and I have been here for her all this time. She's been in therapy and taking medicine. I've only heard she's gotten better. Why now!"

Annie bit her lip to stop herself from opening her mouth. Out of everybody in the room she noticed a lot more of Roxanne odd behavior in person. She wondered why Matt thought she had gotten better, when it only appeared she gotten worst. Unless she was only acting in front of her family to hide what was really going on.

"You mention she was taking meds Matt." Jess asked, "anti-depressants?"

"I don't know. I mean PNA assigned a doctor to her, I trust they've been giving her what she needed to stay healthy. I haven't had to monitor her medication cause she's not a child anymore."

Jess nodded and headed into the bathroom, as she opened her medicine cabinet she stared at it in disbelief. "Oh my god…"

"What?" Matt replied as everybody followed Jess into the bathroom curiously wondering what she had found that left her so shocked.

"This isn't a few pills this is a drug store in here." The medicine cabinet was filled with at lease 20 bottles of prescription drugs.

"Half this stuff in here shouldn't even be mixed," Jess remarked glancing at the bottles, "…it could drive a person crazy or worst kill them."

"She was crying over the phone," Scott spoke up closing his eyes as his sister message replayed over and over like a broken record in his head, "She talked about blacking out all the time and not being able to remember. She sounded so scared…I would have never imagined it was Roxy talking."

"How did she get her hands on this stuff?" Buddy asked wanting to know whom to pound.

"The old fashion way, the doctor wrote her a prescription." Jess remark. "But I don't know if he did it on purpose or if Roxy asked for the drugs."

"Well he obviously did it on purpose," Matt concluded. "That son of a bitch turn my daughter into a drug user and made her want to kill herself. I'm going to get that asshole right now!"

Jess put her hands up trying to calm Matt down, "Give me the number and I'll contact him. I put you on the phone he'll hang up. In the meantime, search some more and see if you can come across anything I might have missed."

Buddy and Scott started to search in Roxanne bedroom, while Annie did some more investigating in the bathroom. She pulled a digital camera from her pocket and started to take pictures. She squatted down as she noticed a shoe had disturbed the blood, "Somebody had to have found her and dragged her into the bed room. Possibly tried to save her. Could explain why the sheets are missing."

"Yeah well," Scott shouted across the bedroom to Annie in the other room, "Some of her stuff is missing. Either she was planning a trip or somebody packed stuff in a hurry not intending to bring her back."

"He grab her alright, and had no intension of bring her back," Buddy noted. "Who ever did this left in such a hurry he didn't care what mess he left behind, just as long as he got out without anybody stopping him." He ran his hands under the mattress and pulled out a 9mm, "She was too weak to even put up a fight. Some good this does to keep." He turned his head and noticed something was keeping the bedroom door from opening from all the way. He opened the door and cussed as he saw what was resting on the back of the door, "Ah hell…"

Scott snapped his head over to Buddy direction from the closet, "That isn't what I think it is."

"What did you find" Annie suspiciously popped her head up from taking pictures.

"Annie, DO NOT COME IN HERE!" Buddy shouted, but it was too late. Annie stepped into the room and stared in a trance at the door.

A dartboard was attached to the back of the door had a picture of Annie spread across it. Sticking out of the picture was a bloody ranger knife that once belonged to Annie.

She froze in shock as she saw the message clearly being sent. Roxanne wanted her dead. The realization that she had several brushes with death, along with the fact that it was her Phoenix handled knife sticking out of the back of the door, stung her in the back of the neck like a poisonous dart.

"Annie…" Scott's voice sounded so far away that she barely heard what he was saying. "…outside…"

She shook one shaky step forward, hand outstretched toward her knife as though her touch could automatically cleanse the blade of Roxanne's devilish aura.

"Scott, don't let her touch that!"

Buddy's warning was moot, because Annie curled up into a ball and passed out cold on the floor before she could reach her knife or anybody could catch her.

Belatedly, Scott knelt down and pulled Annie's head into his lap as Matt and Jess rushed into Roxanne's bedroom at the thud resounding on the floor. Jess immediately knelt down beside her friend while Matt stared in shock at the evidence facing him from the door. "My God…"

"Go home, Jess," Buddy ordered sharply as he watched her mothering over Annie's prone form. "There isn't anything else you can do here."

Matt took strength in Buddy's take-charge attitude and forced himself to regain his composure as he addressed both Jess and Scott. "Buddy's right…I don't think we'll find anything else here. Scott, make sure you get Annie home safely. I'll contact all of you when we know something more."

Annie stood shakily in front of the entrance to the Ranger Station, relieved to finally be somewhere safe. She could leave all the stresses of the city, PNA, and MASK behind her and revel in the camaraderie of friends who cared ONLY about HER. She could also take quite a bit of comfort in the fact that Roxanne wouldn't dare risk chasing her up here into the mountains, not with such an unwelcome reception waiting for her. If she tries, it won't be me leaving here with a knife or a bullet in my stomach…

She pushed open the door and looked toward the front desk, slightly surprised to see Izzy's blond hair over the counter. Normally Cody filled in on the desk while she was gone, but he had no doubt suckered the other easygoing Ranger into the job. Annie let out a deep breath she didn't know she was holding and allowed herself a small smile. At least things here are still status quo.

"Hey Izzy, is Matt here?" She called out to him.

She walked around the counter when she didn't get a reply, and jumped back with a startled scream at what she saw. Izzy sat perfectly in the chair as though he was waiting for the phone to ring, but he'd never be able to answer it because someone had slit his throat open.

At this point, Annie realized that she had none of her own weapons, and Matt was adamant about keeping the ones in the Station out of sight. So she carefully trod further into the station, hoping to find one of the other Rangers or a weapon before she found the person that did this. She managed to push back an increasing sense of trepidation as she noticed the glare from the television in the recreation room. She walked around the corner into the semi-darkened room, again calling out to the two Rangers she knew she'd find there.

"Hart? Cutler?"

Once again, there was no answer. She flipped the light switch to fully illuminate the room, then immediately shut it off as she gasped for breath and clutched the wall for support. Hart and Cutler had been engaged in a vicious game of pool that had ended even more so with both of them slumped over the table with multiple stab wounds in their backs. Annie slowly backed out of the rec room her mind whirling with the same horrible revelation she had known all along, even as she tried to deny it. No, this can't be her…it can't!

She could still smell food cooking in the kitchen and immediately thought of Robin, one of her only female mentors and the only other woman in the group besides her.

"Robin! ROBIN!"

Annie's cries grew more frantic as she fled toward the kitchen. The image she saw when she arrived froze her stupid. Robin's hand was still outstretched toward a bloody pan she must have touched after trying to stop the bleeding from the vicious slash across her stomach. Her delicious meal preparations would continue to remain unfinished…

Annie paled and repeated a mantra of denial to herself. This can't be happening! This CAN'T be happening! She forced her spinning mind to focus on facts as she tired to figure out what to do next. Things were obviously slow here if Robin was cooking and Hart and Cutler were goofing off at the pool table. Her brain zeroed in on the two remaining Rangers closest to her, Matt and Cody Hawkes. They would have went to visit Jesse, she pleaded with herself, please, please…let them be with their father…

Annie darted outside to hop on one of the horses and head further up the mountain to Jesse's cabin, but the two bodies lying outside the stable doors stopped her cold. Oh God…NO! She couldn't bear to look, but her feet propelled her unconsciously toward what she knew she'd find waiting for her. God, no, please… As always, Matt had tried to protect his little brother, taking a knife straight in the heart for his trouble. And Cody…the one who understood her better than anyone… it was too grimly violent for words. She fell to her knees and pushed a bloody strand of dark hair away from his forehead, knowing in her heart who had done this and why. As Annie started to cry over the bodies of her two adopted brothers, she heard laughter from right behind her.

"Don't cry Annie…you'll be joining your little boyfriend soon, 'cause you're next!"

She barely jumped out of the way of the knife strike in time, rolling and looking up to see Roxanne above her with a twisted look of insane hatred on her face. Roxanne swiped at her again, and she leapt up screaming and running toward the last possible safe haven near the Ranger Station.

"AVILA!"

She screamed the pilot's name repeatedly as she bolted for the chopper, hoping and praying for dear life that he had been doing some maintenance on the bird and that they could fly right out of here. Her hopes were dashed as she reached the helicopter and found him slumped over the controls.

"NO! NO!"

Annie crashed to the ground as Roxanne pinned her in a flying tackle and forcibly rolled her over. The last thing she remembered was the Phoenix handle heading straight for her heart…

"NOOOO!"