A/N: Yes, I know this chapter is a little too 'out there'. But it can happen.

Chapter 12: Sounds of Silence

Sky's POV

Z's there, right by my side, and Syd, Sam and Bridge are in the same cavern. Syd leans against Z's shoulder. Sam rests in Bridge's lap, Z is against me... We're 'resting'. None of us are in perfect condition, but at least we are alive. It makes me feel okay. Not as terrible as I did, about everything else that's happening, but still I do feel bad about Wally. He lost his life, fighting for a cause that we are all fighting for, but we are alive, because of a certain glitch in the chain.

This is what is called Natural selection isn't it? Isn't this what these people believe in? That they are on a higher rung of the evolutionary scale. It's the same philosophy Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and countless other dictators had in the past. I'm not letting our Earth be thrown into the hands of another. Four? Even moreso! The Big Four, as they call themselves, have to go.

This philosophy is wrong in every conceivable way.

Though the truth is that though we are more complex organisms, it doesn't mean that the ones who are not simpler, are inferior to us in any way. The bacteria, the FIRST, and most primitive organisms known, probably, survive in some of the worst climatic conditions, which we humans wont be able to stand for even a nanosecond.

But at the moment, I have bigger problems, as the door opens, and I find myself in the presence of another one of the big four. The fourth one. There was Payton, Snow, then a Nixon and a Schmidt. I had met two; this must be one of the other two. And the last one must be Xyz. This one's not Xyz, I am sure of at least that much.

"Liana Schmidt" she introduces herself, and quite elegantly, she courtesies, I know that name. I think it's an influential German family, or something? Maybe Swedish? Definitely European. Definitely Rich. Well, that means that our dear Xyz, the architect of the plan, is Nixon.

"I guess you already know us," I say, without much emotion.

She laughs, "of course I do. Schuyler, Elizabeth, Sydney, Bridget, and Samuel. There's one more isn't there? couldn't get my hands on him, he wasn't at SPD at all. Lucky son of a bitch. Anyway, I think five of you will suffice very well"

"suffice? For what?" Z asked. Of course, she didn't know of the 'we're-only-alive-till-they-need-us' deal. We skipped that part over. Rest we had filled each other in on EVERYTHING we heard and saw separately.

"are you all comfortable?" she asked, ignoring Z, and Syd scoffed, "yes ma'am, more than I've ever been in my entire life" she lifted her cemented hands.

"oh!" Schmidt looked apologetic, "sorry about that… but you know what?" her voice perked up again, "it's not for long! In fact, we're removing those right now!" she then looked at all of us, "please follow me if you may, so that my people can remove the cement from your hands."

The shootings of Czar Nicholas! That's what this reminds me of. Lure us out of the prison cell with some hope, (such as clicking a family photo), and unleashing a firing squad instead. I'd like to know how my end meets me.

I stick close to Z, and slowly, as everyone heads out the cavern, I hold Z back for a few minutes, and tell her, "Jack will have to hurry I think they're taking us out to eliminate us" I whisper, loud enough for both her and Jack to hear, and she nods, "I know" she nods, and then we share a short, hand-free kiss, which is abruptly broken apart by Schmidt. She's like 'no time for lovey-doveys and I feel like I could hit her on the head with my concrete block… coming to think of it, why can't I?

Maybe not right now, but definitely something to think about no?

We head out, in a line for probably our execution.

X-X-X

Oh God! These two words are literally the only thoughts in Jack Landers's mind. ELIMINATE? Was he too late?

Right now, he was in the Deltabase Crawler, which was literally crawling, and Jack knew that he'd never reach in time, if he were to continue for six miles in this snail.

So instead, still morphed, he reprogrammed the crawler with the co-ordinates of the location. The Crawler's autopilot will take it there, enlisting RIC to watch over it. Jack himself needed to hurry. He got down, and found himself about a block away from an old contact of his, a bar owner, Prady or something? And decided to enlist his help. Reaching Prady's bar, he made quick conversation about how he needed to borrow Prady's fastest car, because well, he was an old friend, (mentioning he was Jack too) and the Red Ranger. Prady readily agreed, as long as the car wasn't damaged. Jack promised, and then in a Subaru WRX STI, he raced at about 170 mph to the given co-ordinates, still plugged in to the listening devices.

He raced to the quarry, and then, in about 500m before he was supposed to enter the quarry, he parked the car in a shady spot. Didn't want to attract any sort of attention. Then he morphed into the SWAT mode, and he, hiding, and keeping to the darker areas in the evening sun, like a thriller movie, made his way past everything, and to the iron bridge Sam had mentioned. He had to admit, Sky and Z did have a pretty solid plan, and though it was based on cartload of LUCK, it seemed that they odds were in their favor.

Unless they weren't.

He quietly, made his way past, there were only weird metallic, techno sounds coming from the other end now, no speech, nothing. He didn't know what was happening to them. The worst thoughts coming to his mind hearing the sounds was that they were either being sawed in half, literally, by a chainsaw, or they were being electrocuted.

"please say something, please say something!" Jack begged, knowing they couldn't hear them. Nothing. Jack, though he was panicking, knew that he had to maintain a level head. It wasn't just his friends, but the lives of two HUNDRED other people at stake. Any lacking on his part could not only get those five killed but another 200. The stake was much higher than he had imagined.

He wasn't in a mood to let anyone down. So he made his way to the lift at the abandoned mining site. He recognized the place from one of the SPD seminars on precious metals. This was a Bauxite ore, and had been pretty important in the past. Then a mine accident, which caused a bunch of miners to blow up inside there caused the mine to be sealed off and quarantined. Trespassing in this area was a criminal offence, minor though, but still. This sort of trespassing? Definitely NOT minor. He realized there weren't any people on the above ground level. High Security eh? But who knew, they might be in hiding. Jack decided it was better if he passed through all the heavy mining stuff that still just laid around for whatever reason. He demorphed. Rocks, and minerals, and wrecked trucks, and abandoned equipment and whatnot, all became a blur to Jack Landers as he used his civilian powers, to make his way through them. Finally he found himself right underneath that black metal bridge Sam had mentioned, and looked about for the entrance to the mineshaft. Found it!

There was a long elevator cable, which led all the way down, and then there was the elevator itself, which didn't exactly have a top. Jack considered his options… If he called for the elevator, it was bound to attract some attention. No it was a risk a little too big. What he could do, without risking anything, was slide down the wire, as firefighters do their pole. Again, if he was met by unexpected guests at the bottom, he'd end up screwing a lot up anyway. But it'd still be better than calling the lift up. Oh, and if someone else called the lift up, or if the lift started moving, it guaranteed death.

Considering all options, Jack made up his mind.

"SPD emergency, SWAT mode" he whispered into, and powered up, silently, in the shadows of the bridge and the setting sun. and then, taking the cable in hand, he gently lowered his weight onto it, sliding down at the minimum speed he could manage.

Z's POV

I close my eyes, as we enter a grand cavern, not really wanting to see how we die, as in what equipment they use to murder the five of us. It's scary, facing death in the face, but for some reason, I don't feel as scared as I did less than twenty-four hours ago, before all of this. Maybe it comes with a near death experience. Maybe it comes with feeling free of guilt. Many reasons. So much has changed since then, I've changed since then. And I know it's not the time, but I wish I had accepted his offer for sex this morning in the shower instead of going separate ways. If I get another chance, even for a quickie, I'm NOT denying it. I think this might be my only regret in life, making Sky upset about it, now that Syd's alive. Yes, Wally passed too, but I never really was that close to him. I wish I had gotten to know him better. He was a remarkable guy wasn't he? Sacrificing his life for Syd's...

To be honest, at this moment, I feel a little proud of myself. Even if we might not survive, there's a large chance that Jack will arrive in time to save everyone else. And 5 casualties out of over 250? Not a bad score. I can deal with it. At least we could do something! We, all of us, are a part of something bigger than us. Something... that counts. This feeling makes me happy, and proud, of all of us, me, Wally, Syd, Sky, Bridge, Jack and even little Sam! We lived, and we fulfilled our purpose of being Power Rangers. We carried on the legacy, and will hopefully pass it on to worthier young adults, to carry on. Our light will lead them, and join the black parade!

Powered up with this courage, I open my eyes, at last, because there's nothing left to take from me, and nothing left to break of me. When I look at my friends, I see a similar fire in all their eyes. None of us are afraid to die, all of us are Proud.

But what I see in front of me surprises me. I guess we're not done with life yet. It has more surprises for us, for what I see in front of me, is probably the main, and largest chamber of the mine, which has been turned into a guinea pig lab.

The first person I see there makes my blood boil. It's Gaul. She looks miserable though, and I let myself revel in a little sadistic pleasure, seeing her miserable like us. This was all her doing though wasn't it? Had she not been all crazy about recreating the project, NONE of this would've ever happened.

Feels good. She's in handcuffs, and bent over a panel, which is probably a control computer for the MEGA MACHINERY that furnishes the cavern. Yeah, it's freaky, like there's computers and machinery, and scientific equipment so big, that it'd make an elephant look small! There are gurneys, which are connected to Nyxia, and a bunch of wires, tubes, and stuff, I see Syd's eyes going wide, and I know why,

We're going to be strapped onto these.

We're going to be experimented on.

We're going to be test subjects now.

Well, I think we pretty much signed up for this, so I can't really say that I'm shocked. I might as well die strapped to a table with electricity flowing in my veins. Wonder how Syd feels, to live all these days in a terrible reality just to die this way in the end. I wonder what experiment they have planned for us. By the looks of it, it seems as if even Gaul is being forced to do this. The big four want something with us, with our powers. I can only think of one thing, as far as my knowledge of Science Fiction goes. This is a pretty Sci-Fi plot, though, so I don't think I am wrong. I think they are going to extract our powers and try to consume it themselves, so that they become super powerful, and almost immortal God like beings. If I remember correctly, Finster Five had once managed to do something like that for Lord Drakkon, and he had almost become God, until, us, the Power Rangers defeated him.

"well, so now that you are all well," Schmidt spoke, "I believe we can begin our little experiment. If it is successful, we'll eliminate you, because you'll be just husks of your older personalities. Euthanasia of a sort. And if it doesn't succeed, well, then, you'll be dead already." she said, like it was nothing, and though we are scared, none of our faces show it, we hurl curses as they strap us in with the gurneys tightly. We yell, and we shout, and we protest, all of us except Sam, and then to silence us, they place gags on our mouths. Our concrete blocks are broken with drills, and mind you, it hurts like hell! I can see that our wrists are all stretched and bruised, and purple, with blood starting to lazily ooze out. Then they encase our hands in some sort of soft, slimy, black silver substance, that shines bright. I don't know what it is, but I think it's Nyxia. But it feels strangely cool, and I honestly like the feeling.

Until the machines grunt and start working on us.

They take a look at Sam, and Dr Gaul stops the experiment, shuts down the machines and computers, causing a terrible silence in the room, for a minute, to point out that Sam is sick. I don't know what they do with that, as the next moment they start the current. I'm not sure it's current, but it's definitely some non-terrestrial substitute for what we call electricity. It makes my bones rattle, and my blood run cold, literally. It's hard to describe the effect. It's as if icy cold water is flowing inside my body, and not as blood, but rather, washing over my bones directly. Then it reaches my brain, and it feels like a brainfreeze. I try to clutch my head, but I'm in no position to move. I'm in no position to scream either. So the only outlet i have is what is being used. As my mouth, my hands, my whole body is restricted, a tear rolls down my eyes, and the gag finds itself wet with saliva that's just dripping uncontrollably from there. The energy rushing into my brain causes so much pain, that I start seeing stars, and then finally black out. Stop struggling.

I don't know when I finally come to, but when I do, I feel like I'm not even know if I am alive or dead yet again. Everything's still black, and opening my eyes is hurtful. I don't know to whom, or how, but I speak, or maybe I don't. I just think, 'Am I Alive?' and I am even more shocked when I hear a voice, a VERY familiar voice, replying, "Z?"

Wait, it's like I Can hear the voice, but I can't. I might just be hallucinating because the voice sounds so much like Sky. Oh, what I wouldn't do to actually hear that voice, to see those eyes, to feel his skin! I could walk a thousand miles to see you Sky. 'I didn't know you were so poetic in your mind' Sky chuckled, can he actually hear my thoughts, or did I say all that out loud? 'I CAN hear you Z' he says, and I am so surprised, 'how?' i ask, because it's the only way.

'I don't know how, but last I remember was passing out, and then when I came to, I realized I could hear voices. Not just voices, those of my friends. Try listening carefully, Different Directions, but they're all here!' he says, 'I know, I was surprised too. We're actually talking in our thoughts Z, the thoughts that had been separate all our lives. They are merging, somehow. They are no longer different. We see the same thing, feel the same thing, I can hear what you are thinking, you can hear what I am thinking.' he says, or thinks, whatever it is; it's wayyyy too confusing. But he is right. Because I don't remember opening my mouth to speak, and yet here we are, having a conversation. The only explanation, the experiment. It's doing something. 'I think you're right' someone says, it's not Sky, it's Bridge.

'Bridge?' I ask, and i hear a smile, feel, or maybe he thinks he should be smiling at this moment. I don't know how to define it, and I don't feel the need to define it. 'I think they're merging our powers' he says, and it doesn't really make sense, he reads the thought, 'yeah I know' he thinks, 'But see it like this, I am a psychic, so whenever I want, I can do this. Like I can actually enter people's minds, and though I don't have a conversation with them, I CAN actually listen to their thoughts like this now you all can too'

'He has a point' it's Syd. I guess I was the last one to come to, No Z, Sam's still unconscious' Syd corrects. Okay. 'But we can't move physically, so there's no way of knowing.' I have a theory, what if this substance 'Nyxia' (someone says), as it flowed through our bodies, connected us all together? like maybe in Gaul's experiments, she used whatever she did to give people powers. What if they discovered that using this Nyxia, they could merge our powers, and then want to see if it works?

'and then what?' That's Sky, 'then maybe they want to try it on themselves? Try merging their own powers?' That's syd's suggestion.

'or maybe they can extract our powers and add them to their own pool of powers?' I nod, or think i should nod, because it'll send the message to the others, what if it's BOTH? i ask, and they consider the idea. For the first time, I realize, I can hear HOW people consider ideas when they start thinking silently. Funny thing is, Syd keeps phasing out, thinking of other things, though having the pensive aura around herself, while Sky has readily decided it in one go, and then settles to think about how happy is because we're all together. Bridge's mind keeps running circles, around and around, about the same idea, this way and that, and I realize, he does think a little too much.

'What now?' Sky finally asks, after we have all sufficiently pondered over the idea. It's intriguing, how we think, and Sky grins, 'Z, we're not in a psychology seminar right now' he tells me. I grin; it had always been my subject of interest. Anyway, Sky and I decide we must now tell Syd and Bridge about Jack and the rest of the plan.

I hope these people have not tapped into our minds as well, though, because that would be trouble. Anyway, once we are done, they are just looking at us in awe, surprised.

'are you guys geniuses or what?' Syd asked, and then suddenly, we were met by a scream from her side. We tried to block the screams, but no use, we couldn't because it was in our mind. Bridge seemed oddly at ease. Why? 'Because I have about a ton of practice. I've spent literally my whole life trying to block, people's thoughts' he replied.

And then suddenly, the scream stopped. Syd's voice came back into view; well, not really, because we couldn't SEE anything. But we hear it. 'Z are you always this confused?' Sky asked, chuckling, 'How can you chuckle at a time like this? I reprimand', and he grins AGAIN! Never mind, 'what happened Syd?'

'I keep getting these blasts of pain. It's a side effect of Nyxia. I don't scream out loud, because I'm grateful to be alive and all, but yeah it hurts like hell'

I want to hug her, and I kinda feel that I am.

'Is it just me or is this really weird?' I ask, and they all agree, 'like an unreal dream…' Sky said, 'I like it, you know?' Bridge says, I'm glad that at least he's not alone anymore.

X-X-X

The SPD Red Ranger, in SWAT mode, descended the cables of the shaft, and found himself in a cavern, or actually a smaller cavern, which opened into a larger cavern, through a small entrance. Inside the larger cavern, there were guards.

These were the guards; Jack had to very silently take out.

Jack knew that taking out five guards, would be easy. But taking out a whole army? He couldn't do that alone. They weren't Krybots, whom the could shoot and break and disintegrate, and take their anger out on. These were humans, who needed to be treated with care and confined. Not killed.

He approached one of them, and gently tapped on their shoulder. He/She turned around, and was met by surprise, seeing a Power Ranger standing in front of them. But before they could alert the others, they were met by a swift hit in the corner of the neck, and were knocked out almost instantly.

The other four rushed in, but to Jack's good luck, did not raise an alarm. Maybe getting cocky that they could easily take out a Power Ranger. They had underestimated Jack. They didn't know one thing though... You should NEVER underestimate a Power Ranger.

They have the Power for a reason.

Jack had them all taken out and on a heap on the floor, (unconscious) in just fifteen minutes.

"amateurs" he scoffed.

Now he took the keys from one of their waistbands, ('this was so cliché' he thought) and then pushed the keys in, and unlocked the door to the centre passage. He silently opened the door, and was totally surprised when he realized there was no security on the inside. No guards or anything. Was he at the wrong place? No there were prison cells there all right. Inside the prison cells, he could see fellow cadets. But something felt off… Seriously off, about the place.

He made his way through the dark corridors, trying hard to ignore the faces that turned up to look at him. Of course he was going to let them all out, but first he needed to find Commander Cruger and Kat, and Boom. These three were his first priority, followed by his friends, who he didn't even know were alive or not. By the looks of it, he'd place his bets on the latter, no matter how much it hurt him.
He silently made his way across the prison, and saw the terrible condition the prisoners were in. The people were bruised, and battered, and starving. They looked in terrible condition. They had been here for what? A week? And this was their condition! He felt like his insides churning.

It was at the absolute end, when he had lost almost all hope to find the people he was looking for, that he saw Commander Cruger, and Isinia Cruger sitting there, holding each other tightly. It looked like she had been crying, and he was trying to console her. Looks like everyone gets lonely, even with people around. Wouldn't it be amazing to just escape reality like that?

And here Jack was, with the precise purpose of making them escape this terrible reality. He came into their view, and they looked up, surprised by the shadow he cast, blocking the light on them. They thought their executioner was finally here. Cruger got up, and took a defensive stance, "I will Not let you harm my wife!" he growled, and got ready to fight, but then Jack realized what he must be looking like standing in the shadows with a SWAT enforcer in his hand. He lowered the gun, and took off his helmet. "Commander? It is me, Jack" he said, and watched a puzzled look spread across Cruger's face.

"prove yourself" he said, and in reply, Jack quietly demorphed, keeping his enforcer still in hand, and using his civilian powers, crossed over to the other side of the prison fence. Powers coming in usefully huh? He didn't suit up again.

Cruger relaxed realizing it was actually Jack. And asked, "what are you doing here Landers?"

"Sir, it is a part of Cadet Delgado and Tate's plan." Jack explained, but didn't tell the plan exactly, except the fact that he was going to get them out of there. But Cruger had other ideas. He said that all the weapons, his shadow saber, the Ranger's morphers, it had all been confiscated, and were now probably in a cellar by the end of the corridor. He said it was better that Jack retrieved those before setting anyone free, because these people had more power over them with their blasters and guns, and blades. Jack agreed, and then slid back out of the door, staying unmorphed, and over to the cellar door, which he passed through, and turned the lock from the other side to open it. It wasn't a prison cell after all. It could be opened from the inside without a key. With the weapons in hand, Jack led the way out, and handed the shadow morpher, and saber to Cruger, the rightful owner. And Cruger also suited up, telling Isinia to stay inside the prison cell, until he could come back for her. He didn't want her to enter the battlefield. Jack blasted the locks to the cell doors from the outside, so it wouldn't raise any alarm. The battle had just begun.

"Sir, if I may ask, why is there such slack security?"

"we heard some guards talking. They don't consider non-mutants as threats, Especially without any sort of weapons" Jack nodded, Cruger had a point.

"what made you agree to morph again Jack?" Cruger asked, taking his first name, as calling him cadet would be inappropriate.

"Once a Ranger, Always a Ranger" Jack said, it was more than enough. He had the red Ranger morpher. The Yellow one had been with Sky. He didn't know where it was at the moment, because it wasn't in the cellar. The green morpher had been corrupted when Wally died. So what Jack did have were the blue and pink morphers.

He knew just the people who were worthy of the powers.

"Sir, where are Dr. Manx and Boom?" Jack asked, and the other people, I mean I passed about ah undred on the way, but what about the rest? There are a LOT of people at SPD."

'Good question', Cruger thought, he had never been out of his cell, and hence had no clue how many people were out here, or there. But then Jack and Cruger made a discovery. There were more doors, beside cells. Jack took his guard's key, and opened it, and it gave way. The prison cell doors opened through voice recognition, but the other ones just used a key, because they were old mining chamber doors, which had just been modified a bit for the cells.

There they found the rest of the people. Dr. Kat Manx and Boom were there, in separate cells, and very quietly, Jack blasted the locks to their doors as well, from the outside, so it wouldn't raise any sort of alarms.

Then he decided it was time.

It was morphin' time!

"Are you serious?" Boom asked, totally awestruck. He didn't know what to say, "I'm not actually trained to be a Ranger. I dropped out of the Academy Jack. I can't do this. I'm not the right choice"

"Boom, it is it about the training… well, not ALL about the training. More than that, it's about heart. I didn't have proper training either. Trust me Boom, you can make it" he said encouragingly.

And then he handed them the morphers, and with his team of almost rookie Rangers complete, he threw caution to the wind. "READY?" He yelled, and the others repeated, "READY!"
And in unison, they shouted, "SPD EMERGENCY!"

Red, Blue, Pink, and Shadow. It was good enough. In SWAT mode now, he informed Kat and Boom (blue and pink respectively) to blast through all the prison cell doors with as much speed as they could, not bothering about the alarms or anything, since they were going to go off at some point in time. The objective was to get as many people out of there as they could before they were swarmed by enemies.

"We also need to drive the enemies out" Kat commented, "good point," Jack agreed, because taking the alligator in a pond, would be a mistake. It was better if they managed to get them out.

Kat, Boom, and Jack blasted the doors, of more than a hundred cell doors, letting out the beaten, the bruised and the broken, leading them through, before the enemy squads came pouring in. There were apparently two ranks. One in a Shiny Black suit, which let their hands out in the open, probably so they could use their powers. This would be a disadvantage, because as Sky and Z had said, some of the powers were really destructive. BUT now it was finally the time to show these self-righteous egomaniacs, who consider themselves superior to everyone else, what Space Patrol Delta was made of!

"Cadets, please exit via the elevator in an orderly manner" Commander Cruger barked loudly, for everyone to hear, but the Cadets had something else in mind, "sir" one of them approached Cruger, "we want to fight. We want to stand by you, and show them what we're made of!"

Cruger considered it for a few moments, and then nodded, "Very well, then, let's do it! FOR SPD!" he cried out, and everyone else within earshot also repeated, "FOR SPD!"

A/N: So? Are the Rangers really alive? Or are they dead? Are they just hallucinating? Or is this actually possible that they can hear each other's thoughts? And what about Jack? Would him and his squad of rookie Rangers be able to win?