Nate was in his lab, setting up for the day ahead. He was whistling contentedly to himself as he polished and prepared the glassware ahead of the day.
"Alright, that's everything ready." Nate commented to himself. "Now I just need to check the security logs and Meghan's handover and I'll be good to go."
He heard the door open behind him and smiled as he turned round, seeing Zoey coming into the lab. He loved his work in the lab anyway, but the fact that she now spent a lot more time in there, working alongside him in addition to her studies just made it all the better. It was only a few hours here and there, since her duties in the laundry, her Ranger duties and her studies all took a lot of her time, but he did love getting the chance to spend some time with her. He did love her drive and dedication, it was something that always drew him to her, but at times it didn't leave a whole lot of time for them.
"Hey, there, ready for another fun and exciting day of…" He started to say, his words tailing off as he saw her in yoga pants, trainers and a t-shirt. "…and you're not exactly dressed for lab work."
"Nate, I'm sorry, I tried to get you before you came to the lab. I'm going to have to cancel our session today." She told him.
"Oh." Nate said, sounding disappointed. Zoey couldn't help feeling badly seeing the look of disappointment on his face. She loved him dearly, but she had to admit that she had rather a lot on her dance card these days and it didn't really leave a whole lot of time for them as a couple. They spent most of their time together helping her with her lab work and her studies now, and outside of Ranger battles, which could hardly be considered the most romantic setting, they didn't get a whole lot of time to just be a couple. "Is everything…?"
"Everything's fine, I just need to cover Ravi's shift in the gym." She told him. Like the rest of them, Ravi maintained a secret identity through a token job on the base. Officially no one was registered as being employed as a Ranger, instead being seconded from other duties when they were needed. On paper, Devon was a janitor, Zoey was the laundry supervisor and Ravi was a physical training officer.
"Is he sick?" Nate asked. "Is he…"
"He's fine, he just said he had some personal stuff to do today." Zoey told him, furrowing her brows. "It's kind of odd, he never asked for personal time before but…I guess that means we can't really begrudge him when he does."
"But you were studying for a test…"
"I'll think of something." Zoey told him.
"Alright, well…hope it goes well." Nate told her, leaning in and kissing her cheek. She smiled.
"I will." She assured him. "I'll make it up to you sometime, OK?"
As she was heading out, Nate turned back to his computer, and pulled up the security log. He noticed something odd.
"Zoey!" He called out.
"Yeah?" She asked.
"The system says you didn't access the vault last night." Nate told her.
"Yeah, so?" Zoey asked.
"Zoey, you were supposed to lock up the compliance collar last night." He reminded her. Zoey thought about it for a moment, before clicking her fingers.
"Yeah, that's right. I was going to but I got talking to Meghan and she said she'd do it." Zoey told him. Nate showed her the screen.
"Zoey, Meghan never accessed the vault last night either." Nate informed her. "No one did."
"But she said she would put it away for me." Zoey said as she inspected the screen. "Maybe it just slipped her mind or…"
"Zoey, if anything Meghan's memory is better than mine, practically eidetic." Nate pointed out. "She would never 'forget' something like that."
"So, why would she say she put it away if she didn't?" Zoey asked.
"More importantly, where's the collar now?" Nate asked in response. "We should call the Commander…"
"Nate!" Zoey called out. "Look, I don't…I don't know what happened, but maybe we should talk to Meghan before we go jumping the gun and getting the Commander involved."
"Zoey, that collar is dangerous and powerful tech. You saw what it made Kendall do to herself!" Nate said in horror. "Imagine what someone could do with that!"
"Nate, Meghan's been a great help, she's been doing really well with her parole!" Zoey reminded him. "Do you not think we should talk to her first before we jump to conclusions?"
"Zoey, what possible reason could Meghan want that collar for?" Nate asked her. "What GOOD reason would she want it for?"
"I…I don't know." Zoey admitted. It did all sound rather bad. "But I just don't want to get her in trouble if there's…you know…any other explanation."
Nate didn't look convinced. Zoey wasn't entirely sure she believed it either. There weren't many particularly good uses someone would have for technology that could make someone do anything they asked them to do regardless of if they wanted to or not. Meghan had been a tremendous help to them since she had returned, but she was technically still a prisoner. She wore a tracking tag, she wasn't allowed to leave the base and she had to report to a parole officer to keep track of her rehabilitation.
It hadn't occurred to her that Meghan might want to use the collar for anything bad, but now that she thought about it, there was a lot of harm she could do with it. She could control anyone, like the Commander with it.
"Alright, we won't tell the Commander…YET!" Nate told her. "But we need to find Meghan and get that collar back!"
"I'll just tell Ravi's class that the class is cancelled." Zoey told him. As they both ran out in search of Meghan, they could only hope that they found her and got the collar back before anything terrible happened.
In the Crystal Dimension, Evox had gathered his new allies, Sledge's crew, Zeltrax, Scorpina, Scrozzle, Blaze and Roxy to discuss their next move. Their latest battles had left them with a distinct advantage, one they were keen to press sooner rather than later.
"The Rangers have gifted us a tremendous power!" Evox boomed, pacing among his allies as he pondered the next stage of his plan. "Now we must move forward with the next stage of my plan!"
"Yes, we've still got a whole trunk full of powerful relics to reanimise!" Sledge stated.
"Master Evox, with respect, the monsters we've reanimated from Ryjax's collections haven't been anything special." Scrozzle stated. This went down about as well as one would expect among this company. Scrozzle cowered as Snide and Sledge both grabbed him.
"Watch your mouth, rust bucket, or you'll have us to deal with!" Snide warned him.
"I…I only meant to say…" He stammered, realising his mistake. "I found a way to make the monsters we bring back even stronger than they were before!"
"Quiet, all of you!" Evox roared, silencing his henchmen as they bickered among themselves, still angered by being implied to be weak by Scrozzle. "Continue, Scrozzle, and this better be good!"
"If we introduce something powerful, something…tough…into the mix when we reanimise them, the clones will be even more powerful than they ever were when they were alive the first time! I propose gemstones!" He declared. Poisandra let out a little squeal of delight hearing this. Blaze and Roxy came forward, carrying a chest, slamming it down on a table. They opened it, showing that it was about half filled with gleaming diamonds. Roxy picked up a handful and let them run between her fingers, back into the chest.
"You know what they say, diamonds are a girl's best friend." She said with a smile.
"We've had a Robotron gathering them for the past couple of days." Blaze added. "We figured you'd appreciate a little initiative."
"So far, I only have enough diamonds to bring back one clone." Scrozzle told him. "Now all we need is to figure out who to bring back first. I think I have a good candidate."
He went to his computer, calling up some records from the Rangers' past battles.
"Behold, Korrag the Knight Wolf!" He said proudly. "Strong, fierce, utterly ruthless! He's utterly perfect!"
They all watched, impressed as they witnessed his battles against the Mystic Force Rangers. Blaze and Roxy just looked at each other and laughed.
"What is it?" Evox asked.
"Um…well…we did Ranger history class and I think Scrozzle forgot one tiny little detail." Blaze responded, heading to the computer. He punched a few keys, finding some new footage. He then smirked and stepped back. "Korrag was Leanbow. Once he broke the curse, he joined the RANGERS!"
They all rounded on Scrozzle, looking incredibly unimpressed. He just backed away.
"Hey, I was stuck in another dimension for 25 years, I only heard the name!" He reminded them. "It's not like I could have known, I didn't even know the Machine Empire was gone!"
"Well, your judgement is sorely lacking." Evox stated. "So, who else can we choose, preferably someone who WON'T join the Rangers!"
Back at Grid Battleforce headquarters, Ravi came back into the cafeteria, finding Nate, Zoey, Devon and Steel all gathered around a table. He made his way over, sitting down with them.
"Guys, I got your message, what's so important?" He asked. "I had something important to do!"
"What were you doing that's so important?" Devon asked. Ravi started to shift a little uncomfortably.
"Um…what's going on?" He asked.
"There's a problem." Nate told them. "Zoey…"
Zoey put a hand on his, stopping him. This was her mistake; it was up to her to take the responsibility.
"I was taking the collar to the vault, but I got talking to Meghan." She explained. "She seemed really down about something and I tried to get her to talk but…she just said it was fine."
"OK." Devon said, shrugging. "So, what's the problem?"
"I…" She took a deep breath. With each telling, it felt even more foolish. "I left the collar with her."
"You did what?" Devon asked.
"She said she was going to the vault anyway, she said she was going to put it away!" Zoey protested.
"Zoey, with that collar she could make anyone do whatever she wants!" Ravi reminded her. "She could put it on mom and make her sign her release forms. She could make someone take her tracking tag off her. She could…"
"I know!" She whined. "But I thought…I thought maybe if we find her, we can find out what she wants with it before we get her in trouble…"
"Wait, you haven't told mom?" Ravi asked.
"I told you, I want to make sure there isn't a simple explanation." Zoey assured them. "I don't want to get Meghan into any more trouble than she already is unless…unless we have to."
"Alright, we'll look for her." Devon said, getting a strange look from Ravi. "I mean, we give it 20 minutes, then we tell the Commander, got it?"
"I guess that's fair." Zoey sighed.
"What about her tracking tag?" Steel asked. "Can't we just use that?"
"It only activates if she tries to leave the building." Nate told them. "If she tries to leave, it'll take us right to her, but until then, she could be anywhere in the building, which is a lot of ground to cover."
"Presuming she hasn't already used it on someone to get them to take her tag off." Ravi pointed out. "Who can do that?"
"Only the Commander and her parole officer." Zoey stated. "We should tell Blaze."
"OK, if we each take a couple of floors, hopefully we should find her before the Commander finds out and read US the riot act too!" Devon stated. With that, they all split off and headed off to search the base. Zoey got onto her communicator.
"Blaze, have you seen Meghan today?" She asked.
"Not yet." He told her. "I'm due to see her this afternoon."
"We might have a problem." Zoey told him. "Um…this is something you might want to keep on the DL…"
Elsewhere on the base, Blaze was watching Starlight, trying to keep her occupied until he got word from Meghan that her dad was ready to see her.
"That's…not good." He responded to Zoey's story. "I've got…I've got something I need to deal with here but…"
Just then, he saw Roxy walking past. He smiled.
"Never mind, I think I found the answer." He told her. He ran up to Roxy. "Hey, Roxy!"
She turned and looked at him, crumbs falling from her mouth. He could see a large bag of chips in her hand.
"Uh…enjoying your breakfast, are you?" He asked. She gulped down her mouthful.
"I was just…um…" She stammered. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Yeah, I've got…something to do." He told her. "Would you mind taking Starlight here and keep her entertained for a little while?"
"Oh…hi!" Roxy said nervously. "Um…Starlight?"
"She's Chakku's daughter." He told her. "Her dad's resting now so she's just waiting until the doctors say she can see him."
"Oh!" Roxy said. "Well…"
"Thanks! You're the best!" Blaze replied, running out of the room. Roxy turned to the little girl who was just staring up at her. She smiled and held out the bag of chips.
"Um…chip?" She asked.
In the Command Centre, Commander Shaw was doing some work on her computer when Joanne came to her. She looked up.
"What can I help you with?" She asked.
"Commander, I came to tell you, there's been some more thefts reported from the pharmacy." She whispered. "More vitamins and some Prochloroperazine."
"Wait, what?" She asked, looking at the report.
"It's an anti-nausea medication." Joanne told her. Commander Shaw just looked up at her.
"I know what it is!" She responded. "Something tells me you wouldn't be troubling me like this if it was just some pills that were missing."
"I checked the security logs from last night once I heard there were more thefts." Joanne replied nervously. "No one accessed the vault last night."
"But Zoey took the compliance collar…"
"I don't know what happened to it but no one's been in the vault." She told her. Commander Shaw's face became stern as she heard this.
"Put the building on lockdown, now!" She commanded. She got on the communicator. "No one is to leave the building until further notice, and Rangers, report to the Command Centre IMMEDIATELY!"
In another part of the base, Blaze heard the announcement. He just sighed.
"Alright, she sounds pissed, that's not good." He commented. He was looking around the places he knew that Meghan liked to go when she was upset. He knew that she had taken the incident with Starlight badly, and had to think that had something to do with why she took the compliance collar.
He tried her room last, thinking it was far too obvious, but having tried everywhere else, he was running out of options. Knocking on the door, he waited for a moment. It slid open and Meghan came out, wearing denims and a turtle neck sweater.
"Blaze?" She asked. "What are you…?"
He shoved her inside and closed the door. He knew the guards would soon be looking for her and he wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on before they did. He had a feeling he would be much more understanding than they would.
"Meghan, what did you do with the collar?" He asked her.
"I…I don't…"
"Meghan, don't try to lie to me! I know you had it last!" Blaze told her. She just stared at him. "Meghan, they know you took it, they're looking for you as we speak!"
"But…but I just…"
"Meghan, don't you know how serious this is?" Blaze asked her. "They think you plan to use it on someone!"
"Blaze, I…"
"Meghan, you better tell me something good, because there's no way the Commander will look the other way unless you have a good explanation!" Blaze told her.
"Blaze, I would never…"
"Tell me what you did with the collar!" He demanded a little more forcefully. Meghan just stared at him, her eyes a little sparkly by now. He could see she was upset. He saw her hand go up to the collar of her sweater, pulling it down, revealing that the collar was around her own neck. He just stared at her.
"I put it on myself." She told him.
"You put it on?" He asked. "Why would you do that?"
"Because…because I nearly sent a little girl into a room to see her dad chopped into pieces like a prize bull!" She sniffed. "You don't know how hard this is for me, Blaze! I didn't think! If it was you or Zoey or Nate or…or ANYONE else, they'd have known not to send her in but me, I just didn't think!"
"But why…?"
She turned away from him, unable to look at him. She started sobbing.
"When I was a little girl, one of my foster moms got really sick." She told him. "I remember being taken into her room once, and seeing her hooked up to all these machines and with all these chemicals being pumped into her. She…she didn't even look like her anymore."
She wiped her eyes.
"I nearly sent that little girl into the same situation and it took you to tell me and make me think how I felt when I saw my foster mom like that." She told him. "I was going to make her feel just like I did then and that just made me feel really…I just thought maybe it'd be easier if I do this."
She turned back to him, tapping the collar.
"If I have this, other people can make those decisions for me." She told him. "I thought…maybe it'd be easier."
Blaze came up to her, grabbing the sides of her face.
"Meghan, those kinds of decisions aren't MEANT to be easy." Blaze told her. "And what you just told me, the way you felt…don't you get it? You've shown me more progress now than you ever have."
"But I almost…"
"And you realise why it was bad." He interrupted her. "The way you're feeling now, that really shitty, crappy feeling, that's a good thing. You know how you felt then, and you know how you would have made her feel."
"But it feels so…"
"Meghan, I've done a lot of shitty things in my life, believe me. I wasn't a great guy!" He assured her. "On the day Zoey got cut from the Ranger programme, I saw her coming towards the testing room. I could have let her in, but I literally slammed the door in her face to stop her getting in. We all do terrible things, and we're not meant to feel nothing about it. The fact you feel this bad now, that's a pretty amazing indication that you're a really good person deep down."
Meghan just stared into his eyes, before reaching behind his head, pulling him in and kissing him deeply. Blaze stepped away, looking shocked.
"Did…did I do a bad thing?" She asked him.
"Meghan, why did you do that?" He asked her.
"I…wanted to." She admitted. Blaze just blinked for a moment.
"Um…OK, that's…that's a subject for another time." He said. "Now, come with me so we can explain all this to the Commander before she sends you to Siberia or something."
He got onto the communicator and contacted the Commander.
"Commander Shaw, I've found her." He told her. "I'm…bringing her in. I think you need to hear this."
A little while later, up in the Command Centre, the Rangers, Blaze, Joanne and Commander Shaw were gathered. They listened to Meghan as she told her side of the story, explaining what she had done. Although Blaze had been against the idea, Meghan had insisted that they leave the collar on so that everyone would know she was telling the truth. She understood that it would be difficult for them to trust her.
"I'm really sorry Commander." Meghan finished. "I never meant to cause any harm. I thought this would make things easier."
"Meghan, we're not in the business of taking away people's free will." Commander Shaw assured her.
"I just…wanted to be better than I am." She admitted.
"Well, from what you told me, I think you're a lot better of a person than I gave you credit for." Commander Shaw told her. "A little misguided perhaps, but a good person."
She got up and walked towards Meghan, standing over her, looking down on her.
"Now, I have to ask, did you steal anything from the medical bay?" She asked. Meghan looked confused.
"Medical?" She asked.
"Some items have gone missing. Vitamins, some medication, some records…"
"No, just this." Meghan told her, tapping the collar. Commander Shaw nodded, satisfied she was telling the truth. She took out a key, at which Meghan turned around, waiting for her to take the collar off. She was surprised when instead, she took the tracking tag off her ankle.
"Commander?" She asked.
"I'll take the collar off." Commander Shaw told her. "But from now on, you're on the honour system. If we trust you not to leave the base, you will no longer have to wear the tag. Do you understand?"
She just nodded. Commander Shaw stood aside, letting Nate take off the collar.
"Now, take this to the vault." Nate told her. "And this time, we mean TO THE VAULT!"
"I will." She sighed. "I'm really sorry. I can only imagine what you all thought I might have been about to do."
"There were some bad thoughts." Zoey admitted. "But I had faith in you."
"I appreciate that." Meghan replied. "Thank you."
With that, she turned and headed out of the Command Centre. Commander Shaw looked to the Rangers.
"I'm not happy that you didn't tell me about this right away." She told them. "But I appreciate you were showing faith in a friend."
"Meghan's a good person." Devon stated. "I guess we just needed to remind ourselves of that."
"Well, I have some things to take care of." Commander Shaw stated. "You're dismissed."
Ravi picked up a bag, which rustled as he moved it as they headed out.
"What's that?" Zoey asked.
"Chips and crackers." Ravi told her. "Roxy's eating them like they're going out of stock lately!"
As they left, Commander Shaw thought about something.
"Joanne, you have the room." She stated. "I have something to deal with."
Later in the day, Roxy was leading Starlight by the hand through the base. She was smiling brightly and had a little skip in her step.
"See, what did I tell you? This place is great to play hide and seek in!" Roxy told her. "Now, I know I have some hot chocolate in my room, do you like that?"
"What's chocolate?" Starlight asked. Roxy just stopped still.
"Seriously?" She asked. Starlight just shrugged.
"We don't have it on my planet." She told her. Roxy just shook her head.
This is something we have to correct, right away!" She told her, leading her into her room. She got a start when she saw Commander Shaw sitting on the bed. Beside her were some medical records, some vitamins and some pills. She gulped.
"Starlight, have you had a fun day?" Commander Shaw asked.
"I have!" She said brightly. "Roxy's great at hide and seek!"
"Oh, I can see that!" Commander Shaw said in a knowing tone. Roxy just gulped again.
"She was going to get me something called hot chocolate?" She added.
"That sounds like an EXCELLENT idea!" Commander Shaw told her. "How about you go to the canteen. Tell them I sent you and to use my special blend!"
Starlight skipped away, at which the door closed behind her. Roxy looked to the Commander nervously.
"So…on a scale from one to ten, how much trouble am I in?" Roxy asked her, the fear evident in her tone.
"That depends." She stated. "You've broken some pretty serious laws. Stealing these medical records is itself a crime that could carry a custodial sentence!"
"So…10?" Roxy offered.
"Like I said, that depends." Commander Shaw told her.
"On what?" Roxy asked.
"On the answer to my next question." Commander Shaw said, setting down her own medical records. She smiled. "How long have you known you're pregnant?"
"You…you know?" Roxy asked.
"The dry food, the vitamins, the anti-nausea medication…I recognise the symptoms." Commander Shaw assured her. "Ravi didn't appear from thin-air you know!"
Roxy breathed a huge sigh of relief. Commander Shaw came across, hugging her tightly.
"I was so nervous…this wasn't planned!" She admitted. "The medical records, I just…"
"You want to look out for your child, to know if there's anything you need to prepare for." Commander Shaw surmised. "I'd have preferred if you just asked, but I appreciate you looking out for your child."
"I've…I've not told Ravi yet." Roxy told her. "I was just so nervous, I just…"
"Don't worry, I won't tell him. That's your news to share with him." She said with a smile. "And for what it's worth, I'm sure you'll make wonderful parents."
"Thank you." Roxy replied. "You don't know what that means to me."
"Like I said, Ravi didn't just appear from nowhere." Commander Shaw replied, picking up the medical records. "Now, I'll take these, and if you need anything…just ask in future."
"I promise I will." Roxy assured her. With that, Commander Shaw hugged her one more time, before walking out of the room, leaving Roxy to lie back on the bed and think about the future, trying to imagine how Ravi would react when she gave him the biggest news of his life.