A/N: Rated M for blood and gore

Chapter 3: Painted with Precision

Part 1: Dr. Manx's Lab

Sky Tate just stared at the mess of robot that was short-circuiting due to the viscosity of the blood. He didn't seem damaged much, but still pretty screwed. He was the one who had been making all the "ggrr—beep" sounds. He looked at Z, she looked faint, and the next moment, she ran out of the room, and when Sky followed, he saw her hunched over one of the trashcans, probably throwing up.

"Z you okay?" he rushes up to her, and she looks up at him, looking haggard, "I was NOT ready for that" she pants.

He reaches for his water bottle, and hands it to her, and she gulps it all down. "thanks" she said, tired.

Then they made their way back into the lab, "we need to get our hands dirty if we want to get RIC out" Sky said, as if he was asking permission, and she nodded. On 3, they both jumped into the blood, and grabbed RIC, at least all what was visible. Both their hands were covered in the blood as they dragged RIC out of the pool of death. And then they looked at him, he "woofed" and then a small smile erupted from both the rangers. At least he was alive and functioning. They just had to clean him up and maybe set right some parts. Bridge's instruction manual would do that nicely.

Sky ran up to his room to get the manual while Z bent down by the poor dog, and patted him, "oh boy, you know something terrible happened here right?" he woofed again.

"who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?" she could sense RIC felt better. Z smiled, which took some real power. But then Sky was back.

The two rookie rangers spent the next two hours getting RIC better. They fiddled with screws and bolts, and software programming, and spent a major chunk of their morning trying to get the blood out of his system. By the end, they were covered in slime, blood and grease, and they looked like mechanics who had been in a war. It would've been a little funnier, if they weren't in such a horrible situation.

"what now?"

"we oughta inform commander Birdie. And ask for help" Z insisted.

"and we need to clean up."

"I vote for the clean up first," Z admitted, and so, the two made their way to their respective rooms to clean up. About half an hour later, Z knocked on Sky's door, asking if he was ready, and he asked her to come in and wait as he got dressed. He was still in the washroom. While Z was waiting in the room, something odd occurred to her. but her thoughts were cut short when Sky appeared from behind the doors, putting on his shirt. He was dressed, and what Z got was nothing but a sneak, she blushed. He was hot! NOT THE TIME Z! She reprimanded herself, and then told him of what she had been wondering.

"Sky, do you realize this is a full scale police/military academy?"

"huh?" he asked and she repeated her question, "Z, I know what SPD is" he said.

"I know that, but didn't it occur to you, whoever did this couldn't have possibly taken over SPD like this. Not a soul in sight. The last time we were in such a danger, it had been a planet-wide invasion by Grumm's forces. It's literally not possible that nobody put up a fight."

"then how do you explain the blood if nobody put up a fight?" he asked.

"well, if anybody had, they were silenced, hence the blood. But see this, Syd and Bridge aren't going to go down without a fight. It's not possible. And we don't see the signs of ANY struggle in our rooms, which we share with them. You know what this implies?" she asked.

"they were taken without them knowing"

"exactly"

"so there's possibility they're not dead"

"yup! And we're going to get them as soon as we can. Before there is a possibility." Z looked determined.

"but if they were taken without them knowing, doesn't that mean that they didn't know a outsider was in here, SPD can't have such a slack security. Remember when Dru broke in?" Sky asked.

"only if it WASN'T and insider who did this," Z remarked.

"you mean it's an…. INSIDE JOB?" Sky asked, shocked, who in SPD would want such carnage? Who could do this?

The two were silent for a while, contemplating each other. Someone in SPD was a rat, and the same thoughts raced through the minds of both of them… what if the rat was the other one? After all, he/she had been the one who had been spared, no?

Finally, Sky spoke, "well, then let's talk to Birdie, and tell him what happened, which is technically the first thing we should've done."

The two hurried over to the command centre, it was open, and nothing seemed off, it was as if they were walking into the HQ on a regular Monday afternoon, except the fact that Anubis Cruger wasn't there. It WASN'T a regular Monday, and there was probability that there were people they knew who were dead already.

X-X-X

Z's POV

The meeting with Birdie had gone without much event. Both of us knew that he wouldn't take to the news well, and he didn't. What else to expect of a two hundred year old alien! Sadly, it is thirty more years before he retires. Or at least we speculate, as 230 was the age for retirement at SPD. we honestly have no clue about his age… Anyway, so when we told birdie, he didn't even fully comprehend the situation, and kept insisting on talking to Cruger rather than two 'newbies'. That old fowl even forgot he has met us before! Wasn't that annoying. But anyway, with the current situation, even birdie's annoying memory loss issues aren't as annoying.

We found one curious thing, though, Birdie had received a call from Dr Manx's lab, which he had been unable to take, because of a Intergalactic Planetary Union's meeting. He said he hadn't imagined it'd be anything urgent, but had he known the circumstances, maybe he'd have been more vigilant.

So apparently the talk with Supreme commander brought us back to the stalemate where we stood. No clues, nothing.

All we have is blood.

Wait! Blood!

"Sky" I call out, standing still in the hallway, we were just deciding what to do next. I know what to do now. He looks back questioningly, and I walk up to him, matching his pace.

"Sky," I grip his shoulder, "blood! The only evidence we have is something we might have to kill for in a murder case! DNA. We will know who was in the lab at that moment, and with so much blood flowing, I refuse to believe the person went down without a fight. So there must be blood of the attacker too, somewhere mixed with the victim."

I can literally hear the wheels in his head spinning as he processes this brand new information. He agrees without argument, and adds, "yes! And maybe the trail of blood outside might be that of the attacker dragging themselves out and away from the victim,"

"or dragging the victim with them, like you said, someone had been dragged through them!"

"we should investigate this as a case, shall we?" he asked, looking at her curiously, waiting for a reply.

"definitely" she said, after almost forever, "we're the only ones left, so, we have to get them all back… we're their last chance."

"we'll do it, Z, we can make it. We are the best of the best" he said sincerely, taking her hand, which she let it hang in there a minute, then she yanked it away, uncomfortable.

Alright, so we're probably the only chance ALL our friends have left. We cannot call anyone from the Supreme Command, or any other planet for the matter, because of those stupid shields! The Solar Spots had to occur at this time only! Kat, Cruger, Syd, Boom, Bridge, even Wally! The new kid. I can't bear the thought of losing them. I can't think of a life where I know that they are all… gone! No! No! No! it couldn't happen. They had just concluded that they were alive. At least some of them were.

We now rush back to Dr. Manx's lab. RIC is still there, waiting for us, as he had been programmed to. Anyway, only after searching for half an hour for some syringes, we realized something rather stupid; Dr. Manx is a physics specialist, on tech and stuff! It is Dr. Felix, who would have biochemistry related stuff. So, on this realization, we rush to Dr. Felix's lab. There was absolutely nothing wrong with either the infirmary, or Dr. Felix's lab, except for the eerie silence that was around there… no human or alien in sight. Then we rush back to Dr. Manx's lab, with half a dozen syringes in both hands.

We need as many samples as we can, however, if there are only two of us here, it is not humanly possible for us to map the whole area, but 24 samples, and running them itself would take the rest of today!

We rush back to Dr. Manx's lab, there are few words spoken among the two of us, we aren't that close after all, right? But we have talked more today than we had for weeks… ever since that incident. But it was way in the past. I don't know why I remembered it, I'm sure even he doesn't remember any of it.

We decide to take two samples from the hallway, and the remaining from different portions of the lab. It is a really gross, scary and messy work. We were treating it like a conventional crime scene, judging on the amount of blood in each region, we had divided it into 22 zones, with a sample from each zone. Problem had been that neither of us were accustomed to so much blood. I throw up several times in between, and need to rush to the washroom, then to the molecular synthesizer, to get some mints, and a coke, which literally ended up in the third floor washroom sink. Even Sky, at a point had to rush out of the room. I hadn't followed him because he hadn't bothered me the half-a-dozen times I had ran out. He also rushed out three times afterwards, but in the end, we finally managed to finish the tedious task. Colored in blood, we finally had carefully mapped out samples from twenty-two zones we had very carefully divided the lab into. It was done now, so we made our way to Dr. Felix's lab, and placing all the machines in the three DNA sequencing machines, we finally got the DNA reports. It was done! We then ran that report mixing and matching them with reports from SPD. I was sick and tired, so I went over to my room, before the report was done. I couldn't stand being drenched in blood anymore. It was making me feel disgusted with myself. If I had known whose blood it had been, maybe I'd have killed myself before I took a shower and washed it off.

X-X-X

Sky's POV

Z left halfway through, I can understand why, but I can't help feeling irritated. She left me all alone! What if something bad happens? In horror movies the first person to leave the group always dies! She shouldn't die! I can't live with myself knowing that she has died with me nearby. We were both just about to get the results, it was the most crucial part of it all, and it's just half an hour more to go. I don't know what to do while we're waiting for the results to come up.

I don't want to think about literally ANYTHING that has happened in my life for the past three days. First that ghastly trip, with that slut Bella, then mom arriving, and then all of this! The time I spent with Z, all day, today, was painfully exhilarating. She isn't like others. I don't know why I feel like that, even though we haven't spoken more than ten sentences to each other today, it's more than what we generally talk, at least since that strange talk we had.

I decide to roam about a little in Dr. Manx's lab, taking care to not step in the blood, to pass my half-hour of alone time. I wonder what it was, with the whole thing. Who could it be? Who was it who was so powerful that they managed to overwhelm the whole of SPD, without leaving the slightest of a trail. The DNA sequencing said there were three different strands of DNA, two largely less than the third, the one person who's bled an ocean! He/she is dead for sure, and I don't want to imagine who it is. But I know that I'm going to know, and I'll know first, before Z, which means I'll have to break the news to her. I pat RIC a little, and then ask him if he knows something. His screen flashes the words 'computer'. I don't know, maybe something's wrong with his programming. Eh, I mean this is stupid I'm trying to talk to a dog!

"so, RIC, boy," just because it's stupid doesn't mean I have to stop, "have you ever had your girlfriend do something so horrible and have your mom support her in it?"

Obviously, RIC replies, completely confused, with a 'woof' yet I continue to say nonsensical stuff, "RIC, boy, have you ever had any sort of girlfriend?"

I tell the dog, like an idiot, "I suggest you stay away from girls"…"woof!"

"but you can't do that unless Bridge builds you a female RIC"…"woof!"

"I'll tell him to do so, if he ever comes back"…"woof!"

"hey RIC, would you tell Z if I told you the answer of her question?"… a defiant, "woof!" he wouldn't tell Z; hopefully.

"the answer has always been 'yes', I never replied." He said, smiling a little, he couldn't help it, but this time, RIC didn't reply with a 'woof' instead he rushed out of the lab, making a RIC shaped hole in the doorway, Sky shoved the door open, and ran after him, in full speed. The dog had made its way over to Dr. Felix's lab, and Sky followed, surely enough the prints of the DNA matches were out, and still lying in the landing bay of the printer, crying out for attention.

Sky picked it up, and read through it, first one was unidentified, someone who wasn't from SPD. The second had been Wally; all the blood that belonged to him had been the one that was confined to a cabinet in the lab. It wasn't too bad really, he was alive, a hundred percent, and probably had passed out due to a wound in the head caused by banging his head on the cabinet. Hopefully he was well, the evidence suggested this much. Then he saw the third report. Oh yes, a very definitive YES… he absolutely knew the name of the report. Seeing those letters printed on paper, right next to what seemed to be a fatal quantity of blood loss, he felt his knees go weak. He slumped to the floor, the papers slipped away from his hands. His mind was blank, his heart was pounding, his whole body covered in blood. RIC must've noticed how Sky's demeanor changed, so he sat down next to Sky, licking him with his falsely wet tongue, and Sky felt like this was not the time for it, so he reached out behind the dog's neck, and pulled a switch to put him in sleep mode. The dog slowly shut down, and would stay dormant till they woke him up. Sky needed to see Z, right now!

He got up, and made his way to her room, ringing the bell, but he realized the door was open. He went in, but there was no sign of Z, a great fear took him over… had she also been taken? Nope, his fears were put to rest when he heard water splashing around in the bathroom. She was taking a shower, for the past half an hour! Wow! Coming to think of it, he needed a shower too. He gently knocked on her door, and she opened after a minute, poking her wet head outside, "yes?" she asked. Then she saw the perfectly panic stricken face of the man, and she said, "one minute" and disappeared back inside, and appeared another minute later, with a bathrobe wrapped around her.

"who is it?" she asked, having already guessed the cause of his worries.

"it was Sydney" he said, emphasis on the 'was'…

A/N: I know I know this is REALLY REALLY predictable shit, BUT please wait a little, because everything is not what it seems...