Chapter 2: Guilt
The last few weeks had been hard on her. Between Moltor and Flurious, battles were not hard to come by. Not to mention the random attacks of the Fear cats. Sometimes there was little time to recover. Will would not forget the look on her face when he found her attached to the draining device in the Fear cats hideout. It had scared him more than he wanted to admit as he raced furiously to disconnect the machine. He had rescued her just in time before her entire energy had been drained, but now he wondered if he hadn't been too late to save her from irreparable damage. He would not be able to forgive himself if she never returned to her full form. "If only I had gotten there sooner…" He muttered with regret as he held his head in his hands.
Meanwhile, down the hall the red ranger was pacing anxiously fighting his own guilt. "What did I think she meant when she said 'Something's not right.' "Mack chided himself as he replayed the earlier conversation with Ronny in his head. 'I should have put the pieces together, she actually trusted me to admit that.' The red ranger paced back and forth in the hallway outside the medical center waiting for the test results to come back. "I should have checked up on her." He mumbled to himself.
"You can't blame yourself." Rose tried to convince him as she returned from getting coffee for herself, Mr. Hartford, Dax, and Mack as they all waited for Spencer to report on Ronny's condition.
"I should have known." He protested angrily, walking away from Rose's attempts to comfort him. He was the team leader; it was his job to know. Nothing could take away his guilt until he knew Ronny would be okay. She was the the driving force behind the team. The first one into a fight and usually the last one out. He might be the leader of the power rangers, but he considered her his second in command.
"How could you?" The pink ranger asked truthfully. "There's a lot we don't know about Ronny." She added softly.
"Why don't we?" Mack argued hating the fact that he didn't understand what was going on with Ronny, and wishing there was something he could do.
"I think she's been hurt a lot." Tyzonn joined in the conversation. "It's not easy for her to trust people." He continued on wisely, knowing firsthand how long it took her to trust him an accept him as part of their team.
"Rangers." Spencer interrupted gravely. At the tone of his voice the six turned quickly and silently towards the butler, holding their collective breaths hopefully. "I ran all the diagnostics on Ronny, and so far the results are inconclusive. I cannot seem to find the source of her weakness."
"Can we go see her?" Will pleaded hopefully. "Yes, but she's in and out of consciousness. Her body is not strong enough to sustain itself yet. Until we find out what is causing the weakness, we'll have to keep her sedated." Spencer regretfully explained. "Ronny must stay calm or her blood pressure will rise, any undue stress may sap the rest of her strength." He made the rangers promise to keep their visit to 5 minutes to allow Ronny time to rest, and time for him to complete other necessary tests.
The black ranger flew into the medical center as soon as Spencer finished his report, desperate to see his best friend. In the beginning the two had clicked right away, their personalities so similar. They had spent many nights talking about their adjustments to the ranger lifestyle, playing pranks on the others, and competing in whatever sport they could find or imagine. Now to see her lying so sick in the bed was more than Will could bear.
Tubes and wires attached Ronny to machines that would keep track of all her vital signs. Oxygen flowed through a tube in her nose and the heart monitor beat slowly but steady. It looked like all the life had been sucked out of her. He grabbed her hand wishing her could give her some of his strength. She had always been there when he needed her; most of his life had been spent alone. His career as a master mind thief didn't lend itself to making friends, but that all changed when they agreed to be rangers. Once again she needed his help and like always Will Aston would rise to the challenge.
"I'm fine Will." She reassured him softly as she opened her eyes. Ronny wasn't surprised that Will was there, he always was, but she saw the look in his eyes. Guilt wasn't an easy emotion to hide.
"Spencer said the test results were inconclusive." He argued. He was not relieved to see she didn't look much better than when Mack had carried her in earlier.
"You did take some hard hits today." Mack stated as he entered the room, wanting; needing to believe she was okay. Dax, Rose, and Mr. Hartford followed close behind the red ranger as they gathered around the yellow ranger's bed. Even as she struggled to get out of bed, she felt powerless to do so falling back onto the bed drowsily. "You're staying until we get some answers." The red ranger declared forcefully.
"I gave her some medicine to help her sleep. Hopefully we'll know more in the next 24 hours." Spencer stated optimistically as he studied the machines intensely.
"You think she's ok?" Tyzonn whispered curiously. "She seems different somehow." He observed anxiously.
"Now that you mention it, she has been a lot more tired lately. Ever since she was captured by the Fear cats." Will noticed somberly.
"I've never seen her so still." Dax remarked as he peered down at his teammate. "Like you should talk." Rose teased softly. Dax was the hyper crazy one of the group. His energy was well appreciated in battle but she wished he could be a little calmer in real life. "Let her rest." The pink ranger admonished the team as she pulled the blue ranger away from staring at Ronny while she slept.
"Until we know her exact condition, we can't risk Ronny going into battle." Mr. Hartford announced resolutely to the unusually quiet group of teens gathered around him.
"What are we going to do if Moltor or Flurious attacks while Ronny is sick?" Dax worried as the group met outside the medical center. "The same thing we always do." Mack reminded his teammates confidently. "We're power rangers; we will fight until we can't fight anymore."
"Why were the Fear cats only after Ronny?" Rose wondered curiously as she thought about the attack from earlier.
"They're always after Ronny." Will corrected her matter of factly. Will's statement caught Mr. H's attention. There had to be a connection between Ronny's mysterious illness and the Fear cats. As soon as the rest of the rangers left, he sought to find the answers that could help their yellow ranger.
"Why didn't the Fear cats finish her off when they had the chance?" Rose's question puzzled the group as well as the cerebral pink ranger. "I mean, why did they leave her there?"
"You're right Rose, It makes no sense." Tyzonn agreed, his suspicions aroused as they left the medical center as per Spencer's command, though they all knew they would not get a lot of sleep that night anyway.
"Sir, do you think Moltor could be behind this?" Spencer questioned his master thoughtfully.
"I wouldn't be surprised." Andrew Hartford replied nonplussed. 'And I'm not going to rest until I know one way or the other.' He promised silently to himself and the young woman fighting for her life in the next room. "In fact, I bet that was his whole plan. After she escaped the last time he knew her powers would take time to recover fully for all these battles." He surmised pensively.
"So why didn't he destroy her when he had the chance?" Spencer repeated Rose's question from earlier.
"Because he knows that she is weak and watching her die would be more painful for the rangers to endure than to simply kill her." The adventurer said pessimistically, shocking the butler with his brutal honesty. One ranger remained hidden in the stairwell desperate to overhear what his father was hiding from them. The stark realization of Ronny's condition frightened him into action.
Mack sat up in the library long after the others had gone to bed. Whether they had actually fallen asleep though, was another story. He was doing some research on energy draining other power rangers endured. Especially interesting were the articles on the original green and pink mighty morphin power rangers and how they reacted and responded to the circumstances. He was determined to find a way to save Ronny.