Author's Notes: This chapter owes its life to me avoiding my family this holiday. Enjoy!
Reviewer thanks: brankel1, KLR (Thank you for the thorough review as always, and welcome back! Quick note on Aisha: As you can tell, she's ahead of her time. Others may not question misogynist practices, but she will… and will be unheard and unappreciated. I'm telling you, the more I write her, the more I love her. Oh, and you can keep leaving long reviews… but if you sign in first, we can talk through PM about them.), The-Knight2000 (I'm always for the Ranger drama.), Dan (Good memory about the Sabrina alias! As for Aisha... I really have to respectfully disagree. The Sadie Hawkins dance is not feminist: it's playing up the "girls asking the boys" as camp, thus reinforcing practice of male domination as normal. No feminist trailblazers formed this type of dance. In fact, it was an old comic strip called Li'l Abner that did it, and the joke in there is that hillbillies are so backward that women chase down the men to marry them, and not vice versa. I think Aisha is pretty astute in calling out misogynistic and heteronormative practices. She's forceful in saying so, but I'm not sure how she's a verbal bully. She's fighting for people's rights, not victimizing anyone.), Mirajane92 (I didn't spend a LONG time on this episode, but I couldn't resist bring Scorpina back.), Psycho Tangerine (The senior Rangers have been terrible at training the new team, and I kind of love them for it.), MoonWind Dancer, WILLZ (Welcome back!), and Guest (Thanks? I guess? LOL I couldn't really tell whether you liked the fic or not.)
Brighter Paths
Book 6: Scorpina's Return
Chapter 24: Come Back
Adam ducked around the car. The area around the crash was deserted, but he could hear Goldar crashing through the woods not far away, obviously thinking he was in pursuit.
Adam had had to double back when he found Putties guarding the road. He could have taken them down, but not without weakening himself and alerting Goldar and any Putty around to his location. The short run down the road had tired him out far too much. He assumed he'd been hurt by the crash more than he realized.
He buried his face in his hands. Trapped, out of options, unable to morph, no communication or teleportation, and he still didn't know where Sabrina was. She'd been hurt, and no matter how crazy she'd been before they'd crashed, she was still an innocent bystander. If he could just get word to his friends or the Command Center, maybe they could track her down.
The warbling of the Putties grew closer, and Adam wondered how he could get out of this mess. This was why he was always singled out. Rita and Zedd knew that he was the Ranger easiest to take down. Goldar had attacked him as a Putty, the clone hadn't even considered him a threat to target, and now he was going to get taken down with a real-life version of "The Most Dangerous Game."
He had the coin. He had the power. But he still wasn't a Ranger. Not like the others.
Adam closed his eyes, willing himself not to panic. Without his power, he was no match for the Putties plus Goldar. All he had were his fighting skills. His head bumped against the car door. He'd already tried the keys. The car would turn on, but the engine wouldn't turn over. If he were Billy, he could easily fix the car and drive out of here. Hell, he could probably turn it into a flying car.
Of course, if he were Billy, he probably wouldn't even need the car to start. The car had electricity, and there were some jumper cables in the back. That and a good conductor would be all he needed to take out a whole squad of Putties.
The street was wet. His clothes were already soaked through from the puddles in the surrounding potholes…
Smiling grimly, Adam slipped into the car, grabbed the jumper cables, and set about making the trap.
Billy helped Tommy to his feet. Tommy winced as he felt at his neck. He really wished Scorpina would stop doing that; picking him up by his neck was apparently her favorite mode attacking him. At least she hadn't jumped out of a hospital window while still holding him this time.
"So, Scorpina," Rocky said. "One of those things that happened before our time?"
Tommy ignored this. "We need to get back to the Command Center," he said, his voice hoarse as he massaged his throat.
"Agreed," Kimberly said, nervously scanning the surrounding area. Their conversation with Scorpina hadn't exactly been quiet. "We'll fill you in there."
They tapped their communicators after making sure no one was watching, and seconds later appeared in the Command Center.
Zordon's tube was dark, and the alarms were quiet. The lack of urgency in the place was unnerving: the Command Center was usually on alert during an emergency.
Alpha rounded a corner into the central chamber, humming absently. He stopped dead when he saw the Rangers. "Rangers! What a lovely surprise! What brings you here all dressed up?" he said, eyeing their suits and dresses.
"Something must be wrong with the sensors," Billy said. He was already at a computer console before he finished the sentence.
"Where's Zordon?" Tommy said, flicking his head toward the empty tube.
Alpha tilted his head. "Oh, ay-yi-yi, Zordon told me that he was going to be unreachable for the next four hours. He's working on…"
Tommy slammed his fist into the console, and Alpha stopped.
"Sorry," Tommy said. "We'll need to talk to Zordon about his timing later, but right now we have a more pressing problem."
"There's nothing wrong with how the sensors function," Billy reported.
Aisha was glancing at the readouts coming from the Morphing Grid. "There's some serious magic going on, though. I think Zedd or Rita is trying to hide what they're doing?"
"Rangers, what are they doing?" Alpha said, his voice going up half an octave.
"Scorpina's back," Kimberly said, her voice harsh. "She's got Adam somewhere, apparently fighting for his life and dying from her poison."
They'd expected hysterics from Alpha. Instead, he grew quiet, a testament to the seriousness of the situation. "We must locate Adam as quickly as possible," Alpha said. "Aisha, determine if there's any target for the magical interference, and Billy and I will trace anything our sensors may have missed."
"And in the meantime," Tommy said darkly, "we need to talk about Scorpina. Whenever she's involved, Rita usually has something big planned. Let's just hope Adam can cope with whatever she's got."
The headlights drew the Putties back to the car, but this time Adam was ready for them. Silently, he waited for the group of four to shuffle to the puddle. The trap was already set. All he had to do was strike at the right moment.
The group paused just as the fourth set foot in the puddle, not noting one end of a jumper cable already submerged. Just as they were looking around in befuddlement, Adam tossed the second jumper cable from his position in the back seat and then bolted out of the opposite door.
He felt rather than heard the sound of the shock, but he didn't slow down until he reached the line of trees on the side of the road. From behind a tree, he watched as one Putty after another self-destructed, the electric shocks overloading their triggers. Adam pulled back behind the tree just in time for the shockwave to take out the car, igniting the gas can.
"Sorry, Sabrina," he said under his breath, and started to run. That was far less subtle than he wanted, and he knew the explosion would draw attention from everywhere.
The ground was dark and uneven, and Adam couldn't run very fast or very far. He had to keep moving. He had to figure out why he couldn't morph, how he could get back to the Command Center… and why he felt so damn sick. It was a cold night, but he had already broken out into a sweat after just a few minutes of running.
Adam forced himself to breathe. He'd taken out a few Putties, but he was in a worse position now. He had no idea where he was, and he was being hunted by Goldar, who probably knew this terrain better than he did. He'd been fighting in Angel Grove far longer than Adam had.
Closing his eyes and resting on a tree, he tried desperately to remember some of Kimberly's survival lessons. She'd taken them out on survival drills in the woods—not these woods, unfortunately—stressing the importance of being able to fight in just these conditions: lost and powerless. He'd at the time hated every minute of it, so he hadn't paid the best attention, but he did know she'd said something about what to do when lost in the woods…
"In the wilderness," her words finally came to him, "water is your friend. You're not looking to camp or do any long-term survival, but you do want to find civilization, and that's going to happen eventually at rivers and streams. If you want to find a stream, look for moss. It'll grow thicker the closer you get to it." He remembered that she'd smiled at this point. "Just don't fall in."
Careful to walk softly, sticking to the shadows as much as possible, Adam felt at rocks and tree trunks for moss. She'd said more stuff about plants and how to do long-term survival, but he didn't remember any of it, and all he wanted was to find town. He knew most of the streams around Angel Grove ended up in one of the parks. If he could find a park he was familiar with—one where he'd fought a battle—he would be able to reorient himself and get to one of the Rangers' houses and their security system. Or even to the dance, where for all he knew all his friends were having a wonderful time at this second.
Not for the first time, he wondered why he'd wanted to go to the dance in the first place. It hadn't really been about Sabrina (and he felt a stab of worry and guilt at her name); it had been about fitting in. Something about what Sabrina had said, about pretending, made him rethink why he wanted to fit in in the first place.
After several minutes of searching, he heard water, and a few more minutes rewarded him with a river that he suspected was one that fed Angel Grove lake. He dipped his hand in long enough to see where the river was flowing, and then inched along in the dark, heading back home.
"So," Rocky said, "she was your buddy in your evil Green Ranger heyday, and then she ran off when Zedd took over. Oh, and she's to thank for Rita coming back in the first place."
Tommy's eye twitched. "She set Rita free from her prison. I don't think she told Rita to come back here and marry Zedd. That's not her style."
"And you helped her," Aisha pointed out.
Tommy looked away. "I didn't help her. I just… didn't exactly get in her way." He frowned. "It's not like I asked her to come here."
"Okay…" Rocky said slowly. "But you didn't exactly treat her like an enemy that was trying to free another enemy.
Tommy ground his teeth. "Sometimes it isn't that simple. We can't just divide people into allies and enemies. Rita was completely out of the picture at the time, and Scorpina and we were facing a common enemy at the time."
Rocky glared. "And every time you decide someone isn't an enemy, we suffer later. You let Goldar go in space, he tries to kill us with a sword. You let Scorpina do what she wants, she comes right back to attack Adam. How many other people have you let go? When is your evil clone going to come back to finish what he started?"
Rocky realized he'd been shouting, but he didn't particularly care. Everyone but Alpha was staring at him. Tommy looked like he wanted to shout back, but he also looked haunted, his anger turning inward.
It was Kimberly who finally spoke up. "Rocky, I hear you. And I know it's frustrating, but what are our options? Do we kill them? Imprison them? I ordered Jason to save Goldar on Divatox's ship. If we'd left him, he would have died." She looked down. "We sometimes make compromises, but I don't want to make compromises with people's lives, no matter who they are. We destroy Putties, we destroy mindless monster, but we don't kill enemies."
Rocky flushed. "I'm not saying we do. But what if they kill us?"
"That's their decision," Kimberly said. "And we don't let them. We're not going to let her hurt Adam."
Rocky glared at the Viewing Globe. His outburst had been half about Adam, though it had also been about the clone. He was just so tired of Tommy's evil past screwing their lives over.
"Kim, you're right… but Rocky's right also," Tommy said, surprising everyone. He smiled grimly. "It's something Delphine warned me about on Aquitar. I've got too many connections with our enemies. I don't want to kill them, of course, but I also let them get away with far too much. I… I didn't help Scorpina rescue Rita, but I may as well have." He took a breath. "Rita, Goldar, Scorpina… they've all told me that they're my enemies. It's about time I started treating them like it." He looked up. "Rocky, Aisha… I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what the clone did, and I'm sorry it took me this long to listen to you."
Rocky was still looking toward the Viewing Globe, though his gaze had become unfocused. Aisha's shoulders had tensed as she stared at her console.
"Let's just get Adam found," Aisha said quietly. "Then we'll talk."
The room became quiet, and Kimberly looped her arms around Tommy's arm and squeezed. He'd done his part. Now it was up to them.
Adam stumbled and fell. He was gasping for breath, sweating and trembling. Something was wrong. It wasn't just the car crash. Something was terribly wrong with him, and he had no idea what.
He recognized the woods now. He was about a mile from a familiar park, and there he could find a pay phone to call the Youth Center or (he cringed inwardly) his brother. The problem was, he wasn't sure if he could make it. It was hard to see, hard to breathe… He had to remind himself not to drink from the river, that it wasn't safe, but he was starting to get too damn thirsty to care.
When he heard the guttural laugh behind him, he knew that it was over.
"Starting to slow down, Black Ranger? Too bad. You put up a good fight."
Adam forced himself to his feet and turned to see Goldar. He was pointing his sword at Adam and smirking. Adam glanced around, but he knew there was no escape. Even if he jumped into the river, it would either just slow him down or he'd die of hypothermia.
"What's wrong with me?" Adam asked in a shaky voice.
"That would be the poison," Goldar said softly. "You've been slowly poisoned all this week, and you haven't even noticed. That's why you couldn't morph. The final dose tonight is what's killing you, though."
Adam's mind raced. He had to keep Goldar talking. He had to make sure Goldar did something stupid, because that was the only way he was going to get away. The problem was, he wasn't good at getting away from bullies. Lately, Rocky had been the one to take care of that for him.
Rocky…
"Oh, so you can't take me in a fair fight, is that it?" Adam said, folding his arms and pulling himself tall. He forced himself to laugh, the same laugh he'd heard from Rocky countless times. "You took me on as a Putty, poisoning me with a mirror. And now just poison? Come the fuck on." The cursing gave him courage, just as it had whenever Rocky had used it around him. "Where's your honor?"
Goldar tried to act unconcerned, but Adam could tell he had struck a nerve. Something in the way Goldar had tensed at the laugh and the word "honor."
"You think you're going to get me to cure you, for a fair fight," Goldar said, his voice dangerous. "That's not going to work. I'm here to carry out a mission, and that mission involves your slow and painful demise."
"Oh, I know you're not going to cure me," Adam said, even though his insides felt like ice after Goldar had talked about his death so casually. "You know you can't beat me fairly. You're just following orders, huh? Pretty convenient, I'd say."
Goldar was about to say something, but he was stopped by another familiar laugh. A figure, clad in golden armor, emerged from the shadows. Even with the dark and the new clothes, it wasn't hard to recognize Sabrina.
"Goldar, you really are an idiot," Sabrina laughed. "You're just playing right into his hands." She smiled at Adam. "I've got to hand it to him. He's clever. If I hadn't shown up to throw him for a loop, who knows what he would have done?"
Goldar snorted. "Scorpina, you're not supposed to be here. Your work is done."
"And let him think that his date was somewhere captured, and not the one who'd been poisoning him all week?" Scorpina countered. "Come on… he still thinks he's the hero."
The name was instantly familiar to Adam. He'd been looking into the recent history of the Power Rangers, ever since Rita had come back. He knew she would think that the newest Rangers would fall for old tricks, so he'd learned some of them. And he knew Scorpina was a friend of Rita's, who had worked for her and acted in some of the most devastating attacks against the Rangers.
Including poisoning Tommy once, who had been cured by the serum. So there was a chance.
As the two bickered, Adam had slowly dropped to one knee. It was better that they thought him weak and helpless. That way they would just let him slowly die rather than attack him. It bought him time.
The problem was, other than the fact that he was dying from a poison, that he couldn't morph. The morpher wouldn't allow him to morph because it knew that he was sick. How did it know? He had a fever.
He remembered once when he was sitting with Aisha while she was trying to fix a computer that wouldn't start. She'd pulled all the guts out of the casing and was checking the hard drive when she finally sat back and laughed.
"What's the problem?" Adam had asked. "Is it bad?"
Aisha had gestured to all the pieces around her. "I overthought the whole darn thing. I should have checked the fan first."
"Wait," Adam had asked, "are you telling me the computer wouldn't turn on because the fan wasn't working?"
"Bingo," Aisha said, laughing despite the mess she'd made. "It's a failsafe. If I turn the computer on and there's no fan, the computer will eventually overheat and melt the whole thing. System won't let me."
There was a river behind him, full of freezing water. If he could jump in long enough to get his body temperature down, he could morph long enough to register on sensors or at least get a message to the Command Center. It was guaranteed to work, and it was damn stupid, but if there was one thing he'd learned from Tommy, it was that sometimes you had to be just that stupid.
With that thought, Adam threw himself backwards into the river.
Goldar and Scorpina started forward, obviously thinking he'd gone suicidal. Adam wondered if they weren't right as he thrust his morpher in front of him and mouthed the words, "It's morphing time" under the freezing water.
He felt the power surround him like an icy fire. It wasn't comforting. It physically hurt him, tearing at him inside and out, but it worked nonetheless. Working on instinct, he threw himself out of the water and drew his axe to deflect the attacks he knew were coming. Goldar lashed out at him with his sword, but in his pain Adam felt much stronger than he'd ever felt before.
In that moment, he felt like a Power Ranger.
After deflecting attack after attack, Adam finally knocked Goldar's sword out of his hands and hit him in the chest with the full force of his axe. Goldar fell back, looking dazed. Adam worried for a second that he'd hurt him too much, but then he remembered that Goldar could teleport up, or be teleported by Scorpina…
Adam turned in time to dodge a vicious attack from Scorpina's stinger. He tried to get some distance between them, but his strength was starting to ebb as the fever was starting to return, and he felt his power ebbing away as his morpher tried to protect him. He tripped over Goldar and fell to the ground hard. He looked up at Scorpina's stinger, and knew she was about to finish him off.
He felt himself demorph completely, and then heard the crackle of teleportation. He'd never heard a better sound.
At that, Scorpina smiled and backed away. "You found him," she said. "None too soon. I was about to finish him, and he's far too handsome to die."
Aisha ran forward, and Adam felt a sting in his arm. Instantly, his fever broke, and he felt his strength return.
"So that's it?" Rocky demanded as Adam let himself be led over to the other Power Rangers. "He gets cured, and everyone gets to leave? No attacks or anything?"
Scorpina smirked. "Adam played the game and won. He's alive, and I'm sure Rita and her husband will have something else cooked up soon. I did my job." She turned to help Goldar to his feet and leave.
"Hold it, Scorpina," Tommy said.
Scorpina stopped. Her eyes narrowed as she turned back around. "You have something to say to me?"
Tommy had drawn his sword. He and the other Rangers were morphed, so they couldn't see his face, but his voice was low and dangerous. "You almost killed a Power Ranger. And you think you can get away with it."
Scorpina sagged a bit. Without the benefit of a mask, she couldn't hide how tired she looked. "Oh, come on, you know I'm just doing this as a favor to Rita. There are no hard feelings between us, and it's not like I'm staying."
Tommy shook his head. "Several people have told me that you can't play both sides like that, and I agree. You're not just doing favors for a friend. You're fighting in a war against us, and out of everyone we've faced you've come the closest to killing more than one of us. If you stay, you fight. And we don't pull our punches."
Scorpina regarded him carefully. "Well, you've become quite the leader. You could give Jason a run for his money in pompous speeches." She looked a bit wistful. "You really were much more fun in the green."
"And you used to be a real threat," Tommy said. "Now you just seduce teenagers and play your mind games. You say you're loyal to Rita and are just doing her favors, but I think you're just lonely and want someone to take you in. I'm glad you're not sticking around, cuz I really don't want to see how low you can sink."
Scorpina opened her mouth, but all that came out was a choking sound. It took them a minute to realize why she couldn't speak. She looked… hurt.
The silence stretched, and Adam was wonder if they would do better to leave, when Scorpina's face twisted in a smile of cold fury.
"You're one to talk about sinking low," she said, her voice deceptively light. "You're the one who hopped in my bed the minute I showed the slightest interest."
The silence became even more complete, and the only motion was Tommy finally dropping his sword to his side.
"Oh, no, the secret is ruined, whatever will our stalwart heroes do now that they know the truth," Scorpina said dully. Her voice turned hard. "Grow the fuck up, that's what you'll do. There are no heroes in this war. Only people hurting each other until the last few survivors grind each other into dust. No fucking honor in that."
She looked over at Kimberly. "Goldar knew, by the way, and it looks like Tommy and Goldar had already talked about it and made their peace. Looks like you were the only one out of the loop, Kim, but don't take it too hard. I heard you know what it's like when you're evil."
Scorpina teleported to Rita's throne room before she remembered that no one would be there. No one would have been there, of course, if Goldar hadn't chosen to follow her.
"What the fuck was that?" Goldar growled.
Scorpina shrugged. She was too tired to shove him out of the way. "I did the job Rita asked of me, and nothing more. It's your fault for letting that new Black Ranger outsmart and beat you."
Goldar snorted. "I don't mean that. Neither of us really expected him to die, and if he had we'd still be down there fighting some brassed off Rangers. I mean the other thing."
Scorpina rolled her eyes. "Short answer? Why not? Long answer… because he pissed me off, and he needed to be taken down a peg. Leadership doesn't really suit him, does it?"
"You were catching him on an off night," Goldar said. "Why reveal what happened now? You had nothing to gain from it."
"Personal satisfaction," Scorpina said. "That's hard to come by nowadays." She frowned. "What do you want me to say, Goldar? Think I should go down and apologize?"
Goldar growled in frustration. "Scorpina, you know what I'm talking about. I've avoided asking you about it, but… dammit, you don't look pregnant anymore. Weren't you even going to tell him about the child?"
Scorpina laughed in surprise at that one. "What, tell the teenager that he's a dad now? After he went on about that war and enemies bullshit?"
"It's not bullshit," Goldar said, "and I'm glad to hear he's finally taking things seriously. But that child changes things. It would change his entire perspective."
"No, it won't," Scorpina said, and then looked away. "I lost the baby, okay? She's gone now."
It would have been silent, except for the hitches in Scorpina's breath. She realized she was trembling, but she wrapped her arms around herself and drew away before Goldar got any dumbass notions of comforting her.
"Sh… she?" Goldar asked unsteadily.
Scorpina gave a shuddering, broken laugh. "Yeah."
"I'm sorry."
Scorpina felt herself recoil at the words, and she withdrew back into anger. "Don't be. I'm not. Why should I want to raise a child in this hellscape of a universe anyway?" She pushed back Goldar, and he didn't resist. He was probably mourning, and she didn't want to see his pity. Instead, she walked mechanically to Zedd's throne room, wanting to report in and get out of there. She had what she needed.
First, after a quick medical scan from Alpha, Adam went home, and Rocky went with him, wanting to make sure he was all right.
Aisha left next, muttering something about a curfew. As her parents cared about where she was and didn't know she was a Ranger, that was plausible, but it probably had more to do with the two Rangers who were currently staring at each other silently.
Billy looked like he wanted to stay and act as a diplomat, but Alpha showed more tact than he ever had before by sending some work home with Billy to do in his lab. After the rest of the Rangers left, Alpha loudly excused himself to go check on the Command Center security.
Finally, the Command Center was empty except for the two now unmorphed Rangers. Tommy and Kimberly stared at each other, apparently trying to read each other before saying anything. It was unsettlingly like they were about to engage in battle.
Uncharacteristically, Tommy lost his nerve first. "Kim, I wanted to tell you."
Kimberly laughed and rolled her eyes. "Now, we both know that's not true."
Tommy looked down. "You're right. If I wanted to tell you, I would have told you by now."
"Yeah, well…" Kimberly said. "Now that we're being perfectly honest with each other."
There was a moment of silence, and then Tommy started again. "You also know I was under a spell at the time." His eye twitched. "And really drunk."
"I know," Kimberly said quietly. "Tommy, you know I don't blame you for anything you did under the spell. You've worked so hard to make up for everything you were forced to do. I was evil, too. I know the score. I know everything gets twisted when your mind is not your own."
"I feel like the other shoe is going to drop…" Tommy said cautiously.
Kimberly didn't react. She just looked exhausted. "You let Scorpina tell me. You let her use it against me, after you hurt her feelings." Kimberly laughed humorlessly. "And, the thing is, I knew. God knows it was staring me in the face. I mean, remember the Island of Illusion? This was literally my nightmare. You and Scorpina having sex, and Scorpina mocking me for it." She looked down. "Come to think of it, that was a really stupid nightmare. There are worse things in the world. Both of us know that now."
Tommy's eyes were red. "I'm sorry, Kimberly. I should have told you. I should have respected you enough to tell you before someone else had the chance. At that campout we had after the Island of Illusions, or when we started getting serious, or when you told me about when you were evil, about what Zedd made you do…"
He broke off, unable to go on. Kimberly was nodding at each suggestion, obviously imagining each conversation.
"Yeah," she said, "that would have been nice." She frowned. "But you're wrong about one thing."
Tommy didn't say anything. He waited, his insides ice.
"You say you should have respected me more. The thing is, you have a lot of respect for me." Kimberly smiled grimly. "So much respect that you were terrified that I would find out that you'd had sex with one of our enemies during a time when you couldn't call your brain your own. I mean, it's not like you had a choice."
Tommy's eye twitched, but he remained silent.
"So, no, I don't think you not respecting me is the problem," Kimberly continued. "I think the problem is still that you don't respect yourself. You still blame yourself for everything. You blame yourself for what you did under the spell, for what your clone did… and for what our enemies did to us after that. And as long as you keep blaming yourself, you stay allied with our enemies. I mean, god, how much penance do you feel you still have to do?"
"I…" Tommy frowned. This obviously wasn't the argument he was expecting to have. "I can't just pretend that people didn't get hurt by me. I can't just excuse myself with an evil spell or a clone. It's still what I would have done…"
"If you were evil," Kimberly finished. "Which you're not. God, do you think I would have kissed Zedd if I were in my right mind? Do you think I would have shot Zack, or tortured our friends? And I chose the spell, unlike you." Her eyes were red as well, but for once she wasn't shedding a tear.
The same couldn't be said for Tommy. Tears were streaming down his face, but he didn't wipe them away. He felt himself getting angry. "I don't blame you. Of course I don't. But… our actions still have consequences. I can't just ignore that."
"Then don't," Kimberly said. "But stop using me to punish yourself. Stop being the tragic hero, acting like you're making such a huge sacrifice to not tell me about your one night stand."
"So, which is it?" Tommy countered. "How can I not respect myself and be the tragic hero?"
"I've been trying to figure that out myself," Kimberly said.
They glared at each other for a full minute, and then the anger seemed to seep out of the room. Neither one of them had expected the conversation to go this way, and neither one of them knew how to get out of it.
"So what do we do now?" Tommy asked. He gave a bitter laugh. "I don't know about you, but I know where this argument will go from the many times my parents argued, and I don't really want any of that to happen."
Kimberly felt herself smiling in spite of herself. "Same here. Let's just…not take a break, but just put a pause on this. I think we both have some stuff to think about."
They hugged, both relieved. "Agreed," Tommy said. "And for what it's worth, I am sorry."
"I know," Kimberly said.
Kimberly teleported straight into her room and just peeked out long enough to tell her mom that she was home. She knew they'd been waiting up for her. She didn't really want to talk to anyone right then. She felt drained. She knew she'd be having nightmares that night, so she prepared to stay up for as long as it took to pass out from exhaustion.
"Tommy didn't walk you to the door?" her mom said, her arms loaded down with laundry. "That's what he usually does."
"We had an attack," Kimberly said. "We didn't stay at the dance long. I'm pretty beat. Tell Frank goodnight for me?"
"Okay, sweetie," she said. The phone rang, and Kimberly was ready to close the door when her mother's words stopped her.
"It's good to hear from you, Trini," her mother said. "Yes, Kimberly is here, just a…"
"Got it, mom!" Kimberly said, picking up the extension. "Trini!"
"Hi, Kim," Trini said, a smile in her voice. The exact voice Kimberly needed to hear.
"How's Switzerland?" Kimberly asked before Trini could say anything.
"I'm actually not in Switzerland right now," Trini said. Kimberly could hear Zack yelling something in the background, and Jason yelling something back. Kimberly felt herself tearing up again. She forced herself to breathe normally while Trini told her about Hong Kong, and about the Cantonese language camp they were participating in. She forced herself to pretend everything was normal.
Trini sounded so far away. Too far away. This time the tears actually fell.
"Kim, what's wrong?" Trini said, her voice turning urgent. "Has something happened?"
Kimberly gave a broken laugh. "Trini… I just wish you were here," she said with a shaky voice, and prepared to tell her everything.
Tommy called up the readings from the past few hours. He didn't like the idea that Zedd and Rita could hide Scorpina so thoroughly. It didn't take a lot of magic, since they weren't using a monster, but an attack by Goldar and Putties would have triggered the alarm. It made him worry what else they were hiding.
He also didn't want to go home.
He knew Billy would be waiting for him. Billy would want to see if he was okay, would want to talk and lend his support. And Tommy just didn't have it in him right then. He didn't really want to feel feelings. Work gave him some focus.
It hadn't been how he'd always dreaded Kimberly finding out. She hadn't reacted like he'd imagined. It was somehow worse.
There was a shuffling footstep behind him, and Tommy braced himself against Alpha telling him to go home. When he turned, though, he saw Aisha.
She raised her hand in an awkward half-wave, but then lowered it. "I checked back at the dance, just to make sure Zedd and Rita weren't using all this as a distraction to do something there. Everything checks out okay."
"Huh," Tommy said. "I mean… really good work. I hadn't thought about that."
She gave a hesitant smile. "You were distracted."
Tommy turned back to the readings. "Yeah. You could say that."
He closed his eyes when Aisha didn't show any signs of leaving. He was grateful that she was talking to him again, and looking him full in the face, but he really wanted to be alone right then.
"You didn't have to apologize for what the clone did," Aisha said, "but I accept it anyway. Rocky was out of line."
Tommy turned back to face her. "Thank you. And he wasn't out of line. Like I said, he was just telling me what I need to hear."
Aisha nodded thoughtfully. "But… I mean… it's dangerous, when we think of things in absolutes. Black and white. Us vs. them. I mean, we can justify doing terrible things, because then we think we're on the side of the angels." She looked down. "And it means we condemn actions and not intent."
Tommy didn't answer. He wasn't exactly sure what she was getting at, and he was too exhausted to guess.
"What Scorpina said… it was when you were under a spell," Aisha said hesitantly.
"Yes," Tommy said.
Aisha smiled bitterly. "I'm sorry, then. I actually thought you'd never had to deal with… harassment. That's what the clone did to me."
Tommy's brain kicked sluggishly into gear. Both Kimberly and Aisha now had pointed out that having sex with Scorpina had never been his choice. And it hadn't been like he'd actively resisted…
But that wasn't the point. His mind and heart hadn't been his, and Scorpina hadn't realized what she was making him do.
"I… I appreciate it," Tommy said, not caring if what he said even made sense. "I'm not sure I can think of this right now. I'm too tired."
"Right," Aisha said. "I'm sorry if I overstepped. Do you… do you need help with those sensors?"
Tommy smiled. "It's okay. Get home and get some rest, Aisha."
"Right back at you, Tommy," she said before disappearing.
Tommy turned back to the console, but he couldn't see it. Instead, he was trying to keep his hands and shoulders from shaking. He was crying again. He brushed them aside angrily. He hadn't been like this since the first month his father had passed away.
He looked up at Zordon's empty tube. For the past few weeks, he'd felt himself breaking apart. He knew Zordon was doing the same. He wondered if they could help each other… or if this was evidence of Zedd and Rita's plans working. Attack them until they had no fight left.
Adam looked up as a shadow fell across him. Aaron stood over him with two steaming cups of cocoa. Adam took his cup and held it between his hands without drinking.
"Thanks, Aaron," Rocky said. He took a huge slurp of cocoa. "Shit! I mean…" he glanced at Aaron. "Shoot. That's really hot."
Adam laughed, both at Rocky's chagrin and Aaron's glare. "Guys, I'm okay. You don't have to sit with me."
"Alpha wanted me to stick around to make sure the serum did its job," Rocky said, shrugging.
Adam took a sip and smiled. Alpha had said nothing of the sort, but he didn't really want Rocky to leave. He'd had a terrible night and, in retrospect, a terrible week. A whole week of being slowly poisoned by someone he'd thought of as a friend.
His mind was still slowly putting the pieces together. Sabrina. Scorpina. A girl who had seemed so friendly, so genuine, and she'd been lying to him the entire time. And there'd even been warning signs, long before the disastrous car ride, but he'd been too blind and self-involved to see it.
"You were right, by the way," Adam said to Aaron. "She wasn't any good."
Aaron laughed softly. "I just thought she was cruel and selfish. I didn't think she was an evil space alien bent on destroying the world by… going to the dance with you? How does that make sense anyway?"
Rocky and Adam glanced at each other. They hadn't gone into a great deal of detail about what Scorpina had actually done. It was better for Aaron to not realize how close Adam had come to dying.
"From what I hear, she used to do this kind of stuff before our time," Rocky said to shift the subject. "Mind games. That kind of sh… crap." He set his cup down on the coffee table. "These attacks don't always make sense, I guess."
"They're wearing us down," Adam said dully. "They know they can't act against Zordon directly, so they try to torment us until he decides to give up."
"Not that we'll let him," Rocky laughed. He got up from the couch at the sight of Adam yawning. "I'll let you rest, then. See you tomorrow for training… if Tommy and Kimberly haven't killed each other, I mean."
He left before Aaron could react. Instead, Aaron gave Adam a questioning look.
Adam shrugged. "Just something Scorpina said. Not really any of my business." He took another sip of cocoa. He sort of wanted to just go to his room and crawl into bed, but at the same time he didn't want to be alone.
"Well, I'm sorry she didn't work out... in the most spectacularly disastrous way possible," Aaron said. "But there will be other girls. Maybe not evil aliens next time."
"Yeah. Right." Adam was staring into his cup. His heart was hammering. It was easier to pretend. Aisha had told that to him, but if he spent his whole life pretending, when was he ever going to be himself?
Aaron seemed to sense the change in him, the tension in his body and the sharpness of his words. "Adam, you are okay, aren't you? I mean, she didn't do anything…"
"No," Adam said quickly. "I mean, other than sending Goldar and Putties to attack me, she was okay. It's just…"
He'd half-convinced himself that it was easier to pretend, but Scorpina had seen right through him. It seemed easier to pretend, but he was tearing himself apart in pretending.
"What if… there weren't any other girls?" Adam said slowly, putting emphasis on the word 'girls.' He half wanted Aaron to not catch the inflection, to just think that Adam was didn't want to date anymore. A misunderstanding would give him an out.
Aaron's eyes widened, and he sat down slowly, studying Adam's face. So, there was no misunderstanding.
"I think," Aaron said slowly, "that I would love and support you, no matter who you wanted to date." He cleared his throat. "Is there anything specific you wanted to tell me? Anyone…?"
Adam shook his head. "Not really anything I've thought about a lot. Just, something that Scorpina said tonight. She said I was pretending. I think she's right, but I haven't had time to put it together. I mean…" he laughed, "what do you do when you've just put it together that you're gay."
Aaron smiled, this time less guarded. "I'd say you don't have to rush into anything or force yourself to do anything. When you're ready to try dating, you'll know." He got up and pulled Adam into a hug, and they held each other for a long time.
Adam pulled away first, feeling ragged and turned inside out. He'd been vaguely afraid for most of his life, and now that his brother had accepted him, some of that fear felt eased. "I'm going to bed."
"Sleep yourself out," Aaron said. "I'm volunteering in the morning, so I'll be quiet leaving."
Adam nodded. He kept it together until he got to his bedroom, and then let the tears fall. He'd been honest, finally, but he'd still pretended. He had thought of someone. Really, it was the reason he'd gone to the dance with Scorpina.
Rocky. Rocky had asked him to go to the dance, but only as friends. Only because he felt sorry for him. And that was far too painful. If he went to the dance with Rocky, he wanted it to be real.
New tears burned in his eyes. He blinked, and they fell steadily. Rocky liked girls. He'd always liked girls. There was no way he'd accept Adam. And if Adam ever said anything, it would ruin what he had with Rocky forever.
If he wanted to keep Rocky as a friend, he'd just have to keep pretending.
Scorpina docked her ship in the station's hangar and transmitted the mission details before unstrapping. She had to follow protocol to the letter, or else she might not get what she wanted.
There were guards surrounding her. She kept her hands where they could see them. The only weapon she had on her person was her stinger, and she kept that securely wrapped under a fabric belt, just as she'd been told. The only thing she carried with her was a data chip, her mission objective.
The stopped before some double doors and allowed the guard to announce her presence. After a few minutes of tense waiting, the doors opened all the way, and Scorpina walked carefully inside.
Poised next to an electronic strategy map projected over a table, a young woman, younger even than the Rangers, watched Scorpina's approach calmly. The teenager had purple hair—an obvious wig that Scorpina had seen changed frequently—and wore head to toe silver and black leather. She seemed to blend into her technological surroundings, to the point where she was as cold as the computer she was using.
Scorpina saluted her and waited for the girl to formally acknowledge her presence.
"Scorpina," she said, her voice icy. "Your mission was a success?"
Scorpina relaxed a bit. "Yes, General Astronema. I have the information about Lord Zedd and Queen Rita: their future plans, their magical and technological capabilities, and their…"
Astronema lazily waved her hand, and Scorpina fell silent.
"I am sure this will be an amusing read," Astronema said. "It is important to understand those that come before you." She smirked, a slight twitch of her mouth that almost didn't register on her cold face. "The old order is dying out, but it still has power. Power that I can use… or destroy."
Scorpina didn't say anything. She waited. She knew Astronema would use any of her words to taunt her, and she didn't want to give the girl any ammunition.
Astronema regarded the older woman with amusement. "I suppose you want payment for betraying your friend, not to mention your former lover." She laughed. "Are you sure he's not the father?"
"Goldar is not the father, General Astronema," Scorpina said flatly. Then her voice trembled. "Please… please let me see her."
Astronema laughed again. "My, haven't the mighty fallen. Family will do that to you." She sighed, a faux long-suffering one. "Very well. Let's say half an hour, and then off to your next mission. It's about time I made you into the assassin you were always clearly meant to be."
Scorpina could barely contain herself. So little time, and she knew the half hour started right at Astronema's word. She quickly took her leave and ran as fast as she could to the guarded central chamber. It took eight minutes to pass all the checkpoints and receive clearance, and Scorpina was practically screaming by the time she was allowed in.
A nursemaid was holding the baby. She smiled, but she was not allowed to talk to Scorpina. Instead, she offered the baby.
Scorpina tried not to cry. Tried to remain calm. There had been times when she'd upset her own baby and hadn't even been able to hold her. Scorpina's arms ached with longing to grasp the baby to her chest, but she forced herself to simply rock the child.
"Lara," she whispered in the baby's ear. "Mommy's here now. Mommy will always come back for you, Lara."
She knew Lara was too young to hear and understand, but she wanted her to know that, in her heart. Scorpina would do anything for her, even serve a monster like Astronema. She would betray, torture, kill… whatever she was asked to do.
But she would always come back for her. She would always come back.
