The Return

Chapter 4

Lily wasn't entirely sure what to do. Usually, if she'd been trapped in a car with a gun to her head she'd have attacked her assailant with every ounce of power she had, but there were two small children in the backseat. What kind of crazy man would threaten to shoot a girl while his sons watched? But then -- what if they weren't his sons? Lily was suddenly very certain she had gotten into a car with a psychopath, possibly one who had murdered these poor boy's parents. She narrowed her eyes and called on her animal spirit. Just as the energy welled up within her she was thrown from the car by some force. She landed just short of the road where cars were driving quickly past. She pushed herself up on her elbows to see two small spirit bear cubs, one white and one black, growling at her from her seat.

Eric frowned at the cubs and turned to the backseat.

"Boys," he said firmly, "you know what your mother said."

One of the children laughed and clapped his hands while the two cubs disappeared. Lily looked up at Eric in confusion. He was still aiming for her head.

"You want to tell me who you really are?" he asked.

"What --?"

"Taylor Earheart," he said almost gently, "is my wife."

Lily moaned and fell back, putting her hands over her face.

"Listen," she said when she'd gotten that out of her system, "I'm a student from the Pai Zhuq academy. My master, who isn't at the academy, got hit with this weird blast yesterday and he told me to come here, find Taylor, and tell her that he didn't find the chain and that he needs Shayla. I don't know what any of that means but --"

"Get in!" Eric yelled, shifting the van into gear.

"What?" Lily demanded, rushing to her feet but stopping just short of entering the crazy man's car again.

"RJ! RJ got hit with a blast and now he's acting weird, right?"

"Yeah, he's even wearing a collar --"

"Shit! Don't tell Taylor I said that in front of the boys. Get in already!"

No one could ignore that tone of voice. Lily leapt into the car and it leapt back onto the road. Lily bit back a scream as they drove in the wrong direction across four lanes of traffic before crossing the gravel divider and entering the proper flow. Eric flicked a switch on the dashboard and sirens started going off. The boys laughed. Lily wondered what she'd gotten herself into.

Eric pulled out his cell phone and hit a button.

"Taylor," he said, "I've got a girl here," he turned to look her over once, "presumably a Yellow, who says that RJ is going crazy. I'm bringing the boys to Silver Guardian HQ, along with the girl. Don't go flying off to a mythical floating island until I get there."

"Mythical floating island?" Lily asked.

Eric let out a harsh chuckle as he closed the phone. "You go to the Pai Zhuq academy and you think the floating island is weird?"

"Touché. What did you mean when you said I was yellow?"

"Yellow Ranger."

Lily let out a half-hearted laugh that didn't fool Eric for a second. She frowned. "How did you know?"

"RJ got your morphers from a woman named Angela Rawlings, she's a scientist with the Lightspeed team. RJ knew Taylor, Taylor knew me, I knew Lightspeed."

Lily nodded, remembering what RJ had told them when he'd given them the morphers. "What's happening to him?"

Eric gripped the wheel tightly. "I can't be sure, not without more information." He paused, pulling off the highway and onto more residential roads. "He did that to your arm, didn't he?"

"He wasn't himself," she said quietly.

"Yes, he was," Eric said darkly as he pulled into Silver Guardian headquarters. A blonde woman rushed out of the doors as soon as they parked.

"What happened to him?" she asked Lily, leaning in Eric's window.

Lily quickly related the previous day's events and the woman nodded darkly. She turned to Eric when Lily had finished. "Drop the kids off with Wes and then get her back to RJ. We'll get Shayla." She motioned for Lily to get out of the van. "Do you know where Merrick is?" she asked Eric.

"No idea."

She muttered something that sounded like "damn sixths" and told Eric not to rush into anything before hurrying away, Lily following close behind.

"I'm guessing you're Taylor," Lily said. She was daunted by the pristine Silver Guardian facility. It was almost like walking into a hospital, but with guns instead of sick people.

"Yeah," Taylor said, ignoring the armed guards they passed and smiling back at Lily. "Didn't RJ tell you I was a bitch?"

"He was sort of busy fighting off insanity. What's wrong with him anyway?"

Taylor paused and turned back to her. "He didn't tell you anything about his past?"

"No, nothing. It took us more than a month to figure out he even had a wolf spirit."

Taylor nodded to herself. "Assuming we can sort all of this out before anything too horrible happens, I'd prefer to let RJ tell you himself." She reached out and rested a comforting hand on Lily's shoulder. "It's not that I don't want you to be prepared, but he's worked so hard -- I think he deserves this at least." She dropped her arm and continued down the hall, Lily rushing to catch up. "But you should know, RJ is extremely dangerous."

"I've seen him fight," Lily said as if it should be obvious.

"You've seen him fight when he was trying to hide who he was. Now that he's evil there won't be anything holding him back. He was one of the most terrifying enemies I ever faced. You need to be careful."

"Wait," Lily said as Taylor stepped into an elevator, "you fought RJ? So he was evil recently?"

"Depends on your definition of 'recently.'" Taylor held the door open, pointedly raising her eyebrow every time it beeped angrily at her but Lily didn't budge.

"Within the past ten years recently."

Taylor sighed. "Still depends on your definition."

"How does it--?"

Taylor grabbed Lily's good arm and yanked her inside the elevator before hitting one of the more than twenty unmarked buttons on the wall. "My husband was a member of Time Force, the ranger team, not the future crime fighting organization. That should give you some indication of how."

"Ow!" Lily said, rubbing her ears. They had popped.

"Sorry, I forgot to warn you." She pulled a pack of gum from her pocket. "You might want to take this, we'll be going up a lot farther and faster in a few minutes."

Lily would have asked what she meant but bit her tongue when the doors slid open to reveal a large hanger and a jet in the middle of it.

"Let's get you suited up," Taylor said.

Lily gulped, thinking that if she'd been made for flying her spirit would have been a bird.