I actually wrote this chapter mostly tonight. I got really inspired for it. I keep forgetting to mention that we're on Part 3 now. Part 2 ended with the beginning of Chapter 25, right after the Temptations chapters. It keeps slipping my mind for some reason. The icon request session I did with my subscribing readers wasn't a total bust. BoredGirl84 gave me a good episode for caps, and some of them will be given away in future chapters! Anyway, enjoy this chapter. I might be able to get another chapter out by Saturday, but I'm not certain. Again, I have community service Saturday evening!
Chapter 29 Anxiety and Devious Deeds
Tommy wasn't responding to any of the Rangers' pleas. Katherine and Jason became more worried as each second passed by. The two didn't notice Kimberly kneel beside them. Rita had been so distracted by the capturing of Jason that she hadn't taken away Kimberly's ability to walk. Katherine and Jason looked to their friend, whose body was trembling. "All my fault, all my fault," she kept repeating to herself.
Jason placed an arm on her shoulder gently. "It's not anyone's fault Kim," he told her.
Kimberly simply shrugged his arm away, not taking her eyes off of Tommy. She leaned over him and began to whisper something in his ear. Jason and Katherine struggled to read her lips, but her hair soon fell in the way and it would forevermore be a mystery as to how the crane had made the falcon fly again.
Shortly after Kimberly went back into a kneeling position, Tommy's eyes slowly opened. He groaned in pain, but tried to sit up. He looked around at his teammates and placed a hand on his head to still a growing headache. "I feel like I've been smashed by one of Mondo's monsters," he groaned.
"Tommy can you fight? We need your help!" instantly stated Jason.
Tommy looked to his best friend. "I think I can fight… it might be a little hard."
"We can't do it without you," added Katherine.
Tommy then turned to look at Kimberly, whose face was twisted in pain despite the fact that she was kneeling easily beside him. The fact that she was paralyzed and shouldn't have been able to do that never crossed his mind at that moment. She looked at him, but said not a word.
"Here's your other morpher piece and communicator," said Jason, interrupting Tommy's thoughts as he shoved the items into Tommy's free hand.
Tommy slipped his communicator back on his wrist and then took his morpher piece. "I guess there's really no other option, huh…" he mumbled to himself. He slowly pulled himself to his feet, taking out his other morpher piece. "Zeo Ranger V, Red!" he shouted.
Rita shouted in rage as she saw the red Ranger appear before her. This wasn't possible. There was no way in hell. He should have been down and out. He shouldn't have woken up. Those damned girls should have put him in a coma! Rage overtook her mind, and she pulled her scepter out. The first target within her sights that wasn't a Ranger was Kimberly. Kimberly would create a good distraction. She thrust her scepter forward and a burst of light shot forth at Kimberly.
As the light overtook Kimberly's body, she fell over. Once again, Rita had removed her magic spell, forcing Kimberly's legs to become nothingness to her once more. However, this time was different. Kimberly felt as though her body was on fire. Everything was burning and it wouldn't stop. She kept curling and uncurling her fists, hoping to dull the pain in her hands at least, but to no avail.
Rita smirked. Now this was more like it. She noticed the Rangers turn to tend to their fallen friend and that was when she took her chance. "Tengas, attack!" she shouted. Throngs of Tengas now swarmed the Rangers and they soon took to battle against the pesky birds. This was the chance. It was more than perfect, and it'd still allow her to have the upper hand. Rita turned toward the shadows where her loyal clone stood waiting for the next set of instructions. Rita looked over her clone, watched her face as the battle moved forward.
Maroon's eyes seemed to glow with fury that her queen had been put in such a position. Even though only a clone, she knew what the loss would mean for Rita. Another humiliating defeat, probably one of the worst ones in the history of battles. To have built the plans so carefully, only to have them so easily crushed. She noticed Rita looking at her and only glared. How could she have fallen so easily? This was turning out to be like every other battle that Maroon had in Kimberly's memory. Nothing had really changed—Rita had simply taken more risks; she still was failing. Maroon thought that she could do better. At least she didn't have the track record that Rita had amassed.
Rita noticed that Maroon was concentrating not on the battle, but on her. Something was going on inside her clone's mind, and she couldn't guess what. It didn't matter anyway. Rita motioned for Maroon to join her. It was time to set up the last plan, the last trap that could possibly be used against the Zeo Rangers.
Sighing, Maroon went to Rita's side. "What is it that you want?" she asked, not all too pleasantly.
"It's time to get ready for our last plan, and you are the key to it."
"I seem to be the key to a lot of things, but we seldom get further than unlocking the door."
"Shut up and listen to me! The other Rangers are too distracted by the Tengas to take care of Kimberly. You saw how quickly they turned away from her pain to battle against my warriors. We must use that to our advantage," spoke Rita.
"How are we going to do that?" asked Maroon. She was eager to hear this answer. This had to be good. Maroon knew that Rita was pulling at straws, grasping for that final plan that would ensure victory. She also knew that this didn't bode well for her either. It was then and there that Maroon decided she would die before she allowed the Rangers to succeed. She may clash with Rita, but she too hated the Rangers and would not live to see them continue to fight on, if it came to that.
"I want you to steal Kimberly from under their noses. She is in too much pain right now to yell for help or fight against you. Take her away and then I want you to make sure you look exactly like her in every manner. Every cut, every bruise, every ripped bit of clothing must be exactly alike. When the time is right, you and her shall return to Earth and give the Rangers a final do or die showdown—"
Rita was interrupted by a soft tapping on her shoulder. She quickly dismissed Maroon to do her bidding then turned to see who had the nerve to interrupt her. "What!" she hissed.
There stood Finster holding a bottle. "I'm sorry my queen, but the Desire potion is ready for use as you requested. What shall I do with it?"
Rita contemplated this for a few seconds. Then she had a brilliant idea. "Oh Rito," she called sweetly.
"Yes sis?" he answered.
"This is the new female version of my desire potion. I want you to rub it on your bones and then focus your thoughts on Katherine. Draw her away from the battle. One less Ranger gives us a better advantage."
"Gotcha!" he saluted as he took the bottle from Finster. He pulled the stopper and began rubbing the potion on him. Once finished he sniffed at his body. "PU! What is in this stuff? It reeks worse than Ed-boy!"
"Never mind what's in it," answered a frustrated Rita. "Just go distract Katherine. I don't care what you do with her, but get her away from here and out of this room! Can you do that?"
"Sure can!" replied Rito before scampering off into the flutter of Tengas just as the Rangers began shouting to each other in a panic.
"Where's Kim?" asked Jason.
"She was behind me!" yelled Katherine.
"She couldn't have gone far!" added Tommy.
"We've got to find her," commented Jason.
"As much as I'd love to Jase, that's a bit impossible right now," answered Tommy as a Tenga gave him a right hook to the side. He groaned before taking up his stance again.
"Yeah Jason. These Tengas are swarming like crazy! Every time I knock one out, another simply takes its place." As soon as Katherine mentioned that, she felt a bony finger tapping her on the shoulder. She quickly turned, already in fighting position. She was about to swing at Rito when he spoke.
"Hey there doll. What do you say to you and me hooking up?"
Before Katherine could give a rational reply, she froze and her hormones were overtaken by the Desire potion. When she moved again, she answered, "Mmm, sure thing. Let's ditch these guys."
Rito held out his arm and Katherine took it. The two walked arm and arm out of the room right under Jason and Tommy's noses. Tommy caught the tail end of the conversation. "What the hell just happened Jason? Katherine just went off with Rito!"
"Oh man! I knew things were going too well—"
"Define too well," muttered Tommy.
"As I was saying," continued Jason, "It seems Rita's got a new version of her Desire potion, the same type that she used on you."
"Great… now we've got to get Katherine away from Rito."
"How are we going to do that?"
"I don't know, but I have a feeling that only Rito can break this spell."
Somewhere in Master Vile's
Maroon made sure that she had gotten far enough away from Rita's secret room. She had taken so many twists and turns that she was sure she was safely hidden from the Rangers. Actually, she had no idea where the hell she really was. For all she knew, she could be right next to the secret room. Out of all the possibilities, she truly hoped that was not the correct one.
As she looked around her surroundings, she noticed many books and potions. A large black iron cauldron sat in a corner while a smaller one sat on a table opposite it. One shelf was filled with volumes of books while another held a variety of jars, most of which were filled with different colored concoctions. With a groan she realized where she'd ended up—Finster's laboratory. Then she realized that this could be used to her advantage. She had access to all of his things and he couldn't stop her from doing as she pleased. After all, if she were to do things correctly, a few potions were in order right?
Maroon noticed a long wooden table near the small cauldron and laid Kimberly upon it. Kimberly wasn't doing much to respond to Maroon. Her body was writhing with the pain that Rita's magic had caused her body. While Kimberly was distracted, Maroon looked for some sort of potion that would freeze the pain for now. There was no way that she could accurately fool the Rangers with Kimberly in her current condition. After a few minutes she found a potion on one of the shelves labeled "Freeze-Eze". She groaned at the stupid name, but read the label on the back. It instructed that the potion only be used to "dull an ally's pain so that they may continue to fight on until their body succumbs to death." Maroon shrugged and took the bottle over to Kimberly. "Bottoms up," she called cheerfully as she dumped the entire bottle into Kimberly's mouth.
Kimberly sputtered and choked, most of the liquid dribbling out the sides of her mouth. However, the small amount that had made it down her throat began to take effect on Kimberly's body. She felt as though the world had stopped as her body felt cooler and cooler with each passing second. When everything finally began to return to normal speed, it seemed to her that hours had passed by, when in reality it had only taken minutes. Kimberly pushed herself to a sitting position and found herself staring directly at Maroon. Before she could say a word, Maroon spoke.
"Before you say a word, shut up and listen to me. I've been told to make myself look exactly like you down to the last cut. So you just lie there and everything will be peachy."
Of course, Kimberly would have none of this. She wiggled and squirmed, trying to get off of the table. Maroon had suspected that Kimberly would try to escape. As futile as it was, a moving Kimberly made for very hard copying. She shoved Kimberly back down to the table, banging Kimberly's head on the wood in the process. This effectively knocked Kimberly out. Maroon was going to strap her to the table, but this worked just as well.
She began copying Kimberly's injuries to her own body. Many of the bruises she could cause to appear with her own limited magic, but the cuts were another story. Maroon had to take a sharp edge and cut herself. She felt the tears stinging her eyes with every cut she made on her own body. Damn this girl's sensitivity. She can't take anything like this without crying! Maroon glanced up from her work as she heard the door begin to open. It must be Finster! He can't come in here, not now! Thought Maroon.
"Go away!" she yelled as she thrust a rock-like object at the door to force it to slam shut. Before the intruder could open it again, Maroon used her bonding power to seal it shut. Angry knocking began as soon as the intruder realized the door simply wasn't going to open.
"Open this door! I won't hear of this!" yelled Finster from the hallway.
"I have permission! You're interfering with the plan!" shouted Maroon back at him.
"I don't care if you do have permission! This is my laboratory room, not yours, Maroon. I created you, you know!"
"Stop with the idle threats you dog beast! Perhaps if you didn't let your wavering loyalty get in the way of your work, you wouldn't have these kinds of problems." Silence was heard for a few minutes from the other side of the door.
"I have been loyal to my queen ever since I first joined her as a young adult. My loyalty has not wavered, only grown stronger. I suggest you should do the same."
Maroon groaned. She didn't want to have a stupid argument with one of the henchmen right now. She had more important work to do and he was going to mess up her careful carvings. "Leave here and return later. I'm using your lab and you'll get it back."
"You'd better not break any of my bottles!" shouted Finster.
Maroon knocked the empty Freeze-Eze bottle off the table, grinning when it shattered violently on the hard floor. She knew it was empty, but Finster didn't.
She heard a shout of rage and angry retreating footsteps outside the door. She laughed loudly. "That's right! Good riddance!" she yelled. Maroon went back to her work. The final mark she made on her body was that of the crudely drawn 'M'. She scoffed. Here was her own signature on herself. Her act of malice toward Tommy and Kimberly had come back full circle to its creator.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It took on a twist of its own, really. And poor Katherine! Sorry, but with Goldar frozen, Rito seemed like the perfect choice! Especially since she'd dealt with him before! Also, all reviewers receive a special icon from me. This one is of Bulk and Skull and is capped from the episode Rocky Just Wants to Have Fun. I won't say what it says, but the look on those two's faces is priceless! Just make sure to give me an email to send it to!
Next time on Windmill into the Fall: Rito sweet talks Katherine while Rita tries to deal with the remaining two Rangers. Maroon finishes her preparations, but what will Kimberly do when she awakes? Find out next time on Windmill into the Fall!