Tommy's eye colors:

Azure - sadness/shame

CHAPTER 9 - BUGGED

Tommy was leaning on the dining room wall opposite the entrance when Lord Zedd returned, with Goldar and Scorpina beside him. He smirked as he took in how Scorpina kept glaring at Goldar. Connor's depiction of Kit Kat's actions easily explained that animosity.

Zedd looked Tommy over. The boy's hair was loose and hanging into his eyes in a messy look. It wasn't how he was used to seeing him. Zedd took his seat, Goldar placed the order from the Youth Center at the other end of the table then he sat midway down. Tommy stepped forward taking his seat. Scorpina sat directly beside him. Zedd waved his and his minions food to them.

"You got food from Earth?" Tommy questioned of Goldar and Scorpina without touching the bag before him. "I hope you got help."

Scorpina growled lowly while Goldar said, "There was a very helpful woman there."

Scorpina scoffed. "Yes. She helped herself to feeling up the moron over there."

"Flirting right in front of your girlfriend, Goldie?" Tommy laughingly said as he pulled the food out and began eating. He found the bug and slipped it under the table, activating it as he hid it. "I knew you could do stupid things but that's gotta be the topper."

Goldar growled now. "Do not call me that. She has no room to speak. I remember the first day we met you, Tommy. She was willing to go further than flirting."

"I remember that first day too," Tommy said, his voice cold.

"Why is your hair loose?" Zedd demanded, partly in interest and partly to move the subject off when Rita bespelled the boy. "You always wear it pulled back."

"I know that," Tommy said, sounding annoyed. "What I use to pull it back disappeared with the rest of my clothes."

"There was no hair tie in your belongings. What do you use, the garrote?" he said, disbelieving.

"It works." Tommy glanced up and Zedd caught just a flash of his sage green eyes. Sage was the color of coldly calculating, a truly dangerous look. Zedd wasn't sure what to think of seeing it on Tommy there. "It comes in handy against those that try to force their desires on me."

"That would be handy so long as you can get close enough to use it," Scorpina commented.

"Never had a problem getting close enough," Tommy said with a humorless grin. "No one 'desires' from a distance."

They ate in silence for awhile. Then Scorpina asked, "Where did you live before Angel Grove?"

Tommy took a drink of his smoothie before glancing up at her. "Why?"

"I wish to meet whoever it is that taught you sex is good only as a weapon so I might rip out that being's heart and feed it to it."

Tommy stilled just noticeably. His hand tightened on the drink in his hand, crushing the container and spilling the beverage over the table. "Shit," Tommy hissed, jumping up. His azure gaze swept the table and he said, "Must've been a defect in the cup." He took a couple steps back, saw the shock in all three aliens, and quickly exited the room.

"Scorpina," Zedd hissed. "What did you just discover?"

Scorpina stared after the young Green Ranger. "He's been raped at least once," she softly stated. "More than likely more than that. It explains so much. Why he's alone. He ran away from that and he brought his little brother with him. Why he doesn't trust those older than the other Rangers. Why he sees normal family life as a loss of freedom. It explains so much yet it doesn't explain everything. I think -" she turned and met her Lord's eyes. "I suspect that even this is just a small part of what it is he hides."

"Leave," Zedd ordered as he stood and headed towards the boy's room.

"My Lord," Scorpina cautiously called. "He won't take well to your presence just now."

Zedd chuckled darkly. "I have no doubt of that, Scorpina. Leave now."

888

Within the Command Centre, the two groups of Rangers watched the broadcast from the bugs. The ones planted on Goldar showed the path to Tommy's prison, the door and everything from how it was sealed to how it opened. Everything they needed. It was the one Tommy activated that had them all silent now. The Dino Rangers were aware of Tommy's past, in a basic sense anyway. The Thunder Rangers had suspected something of it but they knew not to ask. To hear it stated so baldly took them all by surprise though. Tommy's reaction only added to that.

Everyone was lost in their own thoughts, but one thought came to them all. Nothing good could come of their enemies knowing that past.

888

Continued - Let me know what you think. Review