Chapter 4
The cell Joey was in was all too familiar to her. The cold hard cement, the suffocating darkness, and the loneliness. Especially the loneliness.
She felt around the floor in the back corner and felt the lines she had scratched in the floor. 1,827 in all.
She found a sharp rock, hidden beneath a loose stone. She had scraped a line in the floor for every day she had been stuck in that god-forsaken cell. Five years and three days.
She sighed and used the rock to scrape another line.
I should have known she'd find me again. Jo thought. Even the Power Rangers couldn't protect her forever. Not if they were going to protect the entire galaxy at the same time.
Joey wasn't angry with them for it. After all, she was the one who had told Mike to leave her at the base.
"Looks like I'm just gonna have to sit here until someone comes and gets me...If someone comes and gets me." She said to herself, curling up into a ball on the floor.
The rangers were aboard the Astro Megaship, searching for Trakeena's base where she was keeping her prisoners. Namely Joey.
"She could be anywhere in the Galaxy! We'll never find her at this rate." Damon sighed.
"We have to find her! Keep searching!" Leo commanded.
"Leo..." Kendrix whispered sadly.
"Guys, guys! Get over here, quick! I think I've located Trakeena's ship!" Kai said excitedly.
"Where?" Mike and Leo both jumped up.
"Straight ahead. We're almost there." Kai said. Leo looked out the window into the endless galaxy.
"We're coming Jo, just hang on." He whispered.
Joey looked up as the cell door opened. The red creature she had seen too many times grabbed her by the arm and brought her to another familiar room.
The bright light in her eyes that prevented her from seeing anything in the room. The room that haunted her, and probably would for the rest of her life.
"Long time, no see, girl." She heard Trakeena say.
"I'm still not going to tell you anything." Joey said stubbornly.
"Ah, well. I had a feeling you'd say that. That's all right. We'll make you talk." Joey cried out. The pain was excruciating. She screamed until her voice couldn't take it any longer, and even then she screamed silently, tears running down her face.
This was worse than before. Much, much worse. Trakeena must be desperate to know about the Stars of the Zodiac.
Just then a door slammed open, letting in a bright light in the room. Joey closed her eyes, thankful for the interruption of the torture.
"Give us back the girl Trakeena!" Joey's eyes flew open. The room was fully lit now. She saw the rangers standing ready to fight.
Leo...He came back for me. Joey thought.
"What, this girl?" Trakeena turned her to face the rangers before tossing her and the chair she was tied to against the wall.
"Jo!" Jo was stuck lying on her side, facing the wall so that she couldn't see anything that was going on. The more she struggled against the ropes around her wrists and ankles, the tighter they got. She could hear the fighting and could tell that the rangers were winning, but just barely.
Finally someone ran over to the chair and turned Joey onto her back. She looked up, only to see Trakeena looking down at her.
"I won't let you escape this time." she said.
"No! Get away from her!" Leo slashed at Trakeena with his Quasar Saber. She yelped in pain before disappearing all together.
"Dangit! She escaped again." Joey heard Kai say.
Leo quickly cut Jo's bonds. She tried to stand up, but it hurt too much to move.
"Jesus, Jo, what'd they do to you?" Leo said quietly. Carefully, he picked her up and he and the other rangers hurried to the ship. With every jostling move, pain shot up and down Jo's body. Jo bit her lip and held her body stiff; so as to not let Leo know how much pain she was truly in. As Leo laid her on the bed in the Astro Megaship, Kendrix rushed over.
"She needs medical attention now. I'll do what I can on our way back to base." She pushed Leo aside gently and loaded up a syringe needle with clear liquid.
As she inserted the needle into Joey's arm, she whispered soothingly, "Here you go, honey, you won't feel a thing. I promise."
The last thing Joey saw was Leo's blurring face hovering over her, looking worried before she fell asleep.
Leo looked her over, carefully studying every wound.
She had been beaten, for sure. There were bruises and broken bones. Also cuts and slashes, but none that could be made by a knife. Trakeena must have used some sort of magic, injuring her without touching her. She was still extremely underweight, emaciated from the last five years being tortured on that ship.
Kendrix and Maya gently pushed Leo out of the way to tend to her wounds.
"Almost all of these cut will be scars...poor girl won't ever be able to forget this..." Maya said quietly to Kendrix.
"Even if she didn't have scars, she would remember. It's too horrible to be able to be able to ever forget." Kendrix replied.
Leo silently vowed never to let anything like this happen to Jo ever again. He also promised himself that he would destroy Trakeena, and make sure she felt all the pain that Jo had felt all these years.
He pushed Joey's hair out of her face. "I'm so sorry..." he whispered. He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around.
Mike set a chair down next to the bed for Leo to sit in.
"It was my fault. I left her. I know how you feel about her. I...I'm so sorry." He quickly turned around and left.
Leo sat down in the chair and held her hand. He wasn't going to move. At least, not until Jo woke up.
Jo was at her old hut, on her home planet. She looked around, seeing all the familiar items lying around. But something was different. She looked around; a bright light was coming from her Father's room.
Slowly, she walked in. She found the source of the light coming from inside his closet.
On the top shelf, the remainders of her mother's ashes were in a large pot, engraved with signs of their family. She had no idea her father had kept them.
She opened it slowly and twelve bright lights shot out. It got brighter and brighter, until everything was white.