"Wes! You're alive," Jen cried, as she wrapped her arms tightly around him, wanting to make sure it was really him standing there and that this wasn't just a dream. "Everyone said you were dead. I thought I would never see you again," she choked, as she buried her head against his shoulder.
A few tears leaked from Wes's eyes, as he wrapped his arms around Jen. He was more than happy to see her after several months; nearly a year of being apart, but at the same time was feeling something else, something he was trying with all his might to hide. He glanced over at Nadira who gave him a faint smile. "If it wasn't for Nadira, I probably would be."
Nadira! And then the joy of Wes being alive turned into something else. Jen violently pushed away from him. She was angry, angrier then she ever thought she could be at him. "You asshole! Do you have any idea what you've been putting everyone through? Eric, your father, me…everyone thought you were dead…" she yelled. "You wouldn't have needed saving if you hadn't sent the others and me away in the first place!" She still couldn't believe he had done that, even after what Eric had told her. They had been a team, a great team, and he still had pushed them away and sent them back to the future. "After everything we have been through. How could you just-"
"I just had to," he sighed. Maybe she had every right to be angry with him for what he had done, but she would never understand. He could never tell her why. Why he did it.
"You just had to?" she exclaimed flatly. "That's not a reason, Wes."
Nadira came around to face her, trying to help Wes out. "Jen, if you just can hold out a little while longer, I'm sure Wes will be able to tell you just why he did it."
Jen's eyes felt boiling hot. Nadira was the last person she wanted to be getting any advice from. "You stay out of this!" She darted her finger towards Nadira. "This is between Wes and me."
Wes took a deep breath and came around to Nadira's side, to be face to face with Jen once again. "No." He watched as Jen's face grew angrier, much like it had back before they had become friends. "Look, if you give me some time, maybe I will be able to tell you, but I just need some timem Jen. Time to sort everything out."
"I can't believe you're siding with her, let alone listening to anything she has to say." Jen couldn't believe it. What had happened? It was as if he and Nadira were more truly friends than she and he had ever been. "She's the enemy! She's the reason Ransik escaped in the first place. She's evil, Wes, how can you be so blind?"
Nadira knew Jen had every right to say the things she had said, because at one point they had all been true, but that was before she had learned the truth. Before she had seen the world through her own eyes and not with the eyes of her father, but it still hurt. She felt as Wes gently gripped her shoulder. 'It's alright."
"No, it's not," answered Wes softly. He wasn't going to let Jen lash out at Nadira like that. The horrible things Nadira had done were in the past now. She was different now. She was the reason he was standing there right now. If it were not for her, he'd be gone. "Jen, for once in your life, get past all your anger that you hold against her and just listen." He took a moment to gather his words, needing to convince her that Nadira had changed, that she was no longer who she had once been. "I'm alive today because of her….."
He wasn't sure how much time had passed since he had been lying there. A few minutes? An hour...maybe longer? He tried to move, but couldn't move anything. There was pain all over, probably broken bones and heavy bruising. He felt something wet underneath him, most likely blood. His blood. Ransik had done a number on him. This would be how it ends. He would die alone, covered with pieces of both the Q-Rex and Doomtron on top of him. But the thought of never seeing his father, even Eric, again, pained him even more than any of the injures he had withstood. He would never see Trip, Katie, Lucas…. He would never see Jen again…
Just when he thought it was all over, that this was the end, he started to feel some weight lift off of him, or at least he thought he did. He looked up, but everything was too blurry and hazy to see. He tried to speak, but only blood coughed out.
"You're still alive…" he heard her say. He was sure he recognized the voice, but was in a state of denial, just barely hanging on; maybe he was just imagining things. She watched as he tried to speak again, but she gently stroked his cheek. "Shhh, try not to talk. You don't want him to find out you're alive." She continued to remove the rubble from on top of him. "I'm going to help you. Just hang in there…."
After that everything had been a blur. He vaguely recalled waking up in a warm bed a few times in a dark room. A cool wet cloth being pressed against his forehead to bring his fever down, and waking up having new bandages put on his wounds. It probably wasn't until a week later that he had fully regained consciousness and realized the person who had saved his life had been Nadira.
"Nadira, I, and a number of Silver Guardians have sought refuge underneath the motel ever since." Though it had only been a little less than a year, it felt much longer. It felt like several years had gone by. Every day was a struggle to stay alive, food and water sources were running out. It had become too dangerous to come above ground to look for food, and most of the stores that had been abandoned since the first attack had rotted and was no longer edible.
And they couldn't call for help, none of the phones worked, only a few of the Silver Guardians' radios worked, but were unable to make any contact from anywhere but Silver Hills. The place was crawling with cyclobots, which made it all the more difficult to make an escape, and with limited weapons it was only a matter of time until they would be defeated.
"So you've been here all this time, letting everyone think that you're dead." Jen just couldn't believe it. She couldn't seem to understand why, after all this time, Wes had led everyone to believe he was dead. She was so torn up inside. She didn't know what to think. What had happened to the Wes she had known? What had happened to the man she had fallen so in love with?
"Look, I never counted on anyone but Ransik thinking I was dead." It did pain him to think what his father had been going through, it pained him even more to think about Jen believing he had died. He hadn't counted on that happening. He hadn't counted on a lot of things. "That's why I took over being the quantum ranger; with my morpher destroyed I figured Ransik would think I was Eric. And that in time I would be able to defeat him."
"Yeah." Jen eyed Nadira; even if she had saved Wes's life, she still didn't trust her. "And how do you know that she still isn't working for her father? For all we know this could be one big trap." And even more coldly she added, "Just like the last time."
"Because I know she isn't! She's on our side now." Wes took a giant step forward, it was very rare that he had ever stood up to Jen, and in past times it always began and ended in an argument between them. "Nadira had plenty of chances to kill me back when I was injured, but she didn't."
Moments of silence passed. It didn't seem to matter what she said. Wes had made up his mind up about Nadira and where her loyalty stood. Jen still couldn't believe it, that Wes was siding with Nadira and not her. What had happened to everything they had been through? They had been teammates long before Nadira supposedly decided to switch sides.
"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" exclaimed James, as he bounced up and down in his crib, full of energy.
"Coming, James." Nadira walked over to the crib and picked the young boy up out of the crib. "How's my little guy doing?" Nadira kissed him on the cheek and made her way back over to Wes and Jen.
"Daddy!" said James, holding out his arms to Wes, wanting to be held.
Wes, not even thinking, took James from Nadira's arms and the instant he turned back to look at Jen he knew all hell was about to break loose. Ah shit!
"Daddy!" exclaimed Jen. She couldn't believe it. Never had she felt so betrayed in all he life. She just stared at Wes holding the baby boy that had just called him Daddy. The man she loved had fallen in love with Nadira and had a child with her.
It was no wonder why he had been siding with her and not listening to a thing she had been saying. She could already feel tears getting ready to leak through her eyes, but she held them back. She wasn't going to cry, not in front of them. Not in front of Wes. "I can't believe this!"
Wes quickly handed James back to Nadira and started to approach Jen, reaching out to her. "Jen, let me explain…."
Jen angry and hurtfully shoved his arms away, not allowing him to touch her. "Explain! Explain what exactly?" she roared. "How you've been screwing around with her?"
"Jen, please." Wes tried again, to reach out to her.
"Don't touch me!" she yelled as she slapped his arms away. And now she couldn't hold back the tears, her heart had been broken into a million pieces. "Don't talk to me…." Jen choked. And not being able to take another second of this she ran out. "Just leave me alone!"
"Jen!" Wes yelled, but she never answered. She wasn't going to answer; she'd probably never talk to him again. Not after this. "Damnit!" he shouted as he slammed his fist against the wall.
James started to cry, Nadira quickly kissed him softly, calming the young boy down. "Shh it's alright. It's alright." She placed him back in his crib and handed him one of his toys to play with.
She walked over to Wes and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. "You should go after her, talk to her."
"Talk to her." Wes sighed heavily, laughing at the thought. After what had just happened, he'd be lucky if Jen ever looked at him again. He looked up to Nadira. "And say what?"
"The truth."
"Wait, you're saying Wesley Collins is still alive?" exclaimed Taylor, after Alex had gotten down to telling them what he knew, or at least part of what he had known. Now they couldn't be too sure just how much Alex might be keeping from them.
"Yes. It's a strong possibility," he answered. Not a second later he felt Lucas grab a hold of him and shove him right against the wall.
"This is bull crap, Alex! You said that Ransik killed Wes." He might not remember Wes or the friendship they once had shared, but he didn't like to be lied to, especially not in a situation like this.
"Look, the details were unclear. Dates and timeframes were unknown or forgotten." He pushed Lucas off of him and got very serious as he looked at them all. "Wes is still going to die. He may be alive right now, but Ransik is going to kill him."
"But we're going to stop it, right?" announced Trip.
Katie added "And with the Mutorgs here, things could have already changed, maybe Ransik won't-"
"No," Alex interrupted her with great force and then took a second to calm himself down. "No, with the Mutorgs here, it makes things all the worse. Wes's life could be in even greater danger with them here."
"So we are going to stop him from being killed?" asked Taylor.
"I don't know." He sighed heavily. Preventing Wes's death would change history, which was something he was trained to prevent. Wes was supposed to die, by Ransik's hand, it was in all the history banks, but with the Mutorgs here and teamed up with Ransik that would change things. "Right now, we need to regroup with the other wild force rangers and make our way to Silver Hills."
Merrick was starting to grow concerned; he hadn't heard from Eric in a while. He had tried contacting him for the last hour, but only got static. Something must have happened. Eric had either been captured or killed, maybe both. Merrick cringed at the thought; though he and Eric hadn't exactly become friends, he didn't want him to be dead.
He ducked down behind a wall and watched as a group of six cyclobots marched past it. They seemed to be all over the place, it was as if they were preparing for an attack or searching for something. Merrick would guess both, this hadn't been the first group of cyclobots he had passed today, since he and Eric separated. He saw another group from the corner of his eye. He knew if he was going to get anywhere today he would need to have some kind of cover.
He waited until all but one passed him. One…Two…Three…. He jumped from behind the wall and wrapped his arms tightly around the cyclobot's head and dragged him back behind the wall. "Lights out for you…."
The group of cyclobots stopped, noticing they were missing someone, but no one was there. They waited….and they heard a sound from behind the wall. The leader cyclobot signaled for someone to go check it out, but there would be no need. The cyclobot that had lagged behind came from behind the wall to rejoin them.
I hope this works. Merrick, disguised as the cyclobot he had jumped, did one of the motions he had seen many of the cyclobots doing, hoping that it would work. They responded and returned the same gesture and started back on their way. Must have worked. Merrick knew he had two choices, either stick with them and see if they would lead him to their base of operations or wait for the right moment and take them all out and continue on his search for Jen, the pink power ranger. Best to wait it out.
"Jen!" Wes yelled as he came up from underground. He had searched all over for her, but she wasn't anywhere in any of the rooms underground in the hotel barracks. "Jen, come on!" But no answer ever came. Wes sighed heavily and closed the entrance to the barracks up. He stepped outside for a moment, searching, it was nearing nightfall but she was nowhere to be seen. "Please tell me you didn't go outside."
He wanted to go out and look for her, but with the Mutorgs now being here it made it all the more dangerous, and he wasn't positive she had left. And then it dawned on him, he had the quantum morpher. Jen might not answer his call, but the morpher could help him locate where she was.
"Okay morpher, do your thing." Wes raised his wrist and pressed the tracker button. And a pink light was blinking and from what he could tell it was very close, but then he noticed four other colors: red, yellow, blue and green. They were a lot farther away, but they were there. That's odd… But he pushed the thought away, right now all he wanted was to talk to Jen.
She definitely was in the hotel still. Wes walked down one of the halls with rooms left and right of him, and then he found the room where Jen had gone. He reached for the handle to open it, but it was locked. He knocked on the door. "Come on Jen, open the door. I know you're in there." No answer. "Jen please, open up. We need to talk." Still no answer came.
Wes sighed heavily, feeling helpless. He leaned his back against the wall and buried his head in his lap. Out of everything that had happened between him and Jen, this had to be the worst. In the past even when she was pissed at him, she would still talk to him, even it was just them arguing. But now, the silence was just killing him inside.
Inside the room Jen sat on the bed curled up, with tears running down her face. Nothing was the same; just as Alex had changed, so had Wes. Now everything was different. And she knew things would never be the same again.