A/N: As some of you may have noticed, I mentioned Dillon being infected with the Lightning Bot's activation code, despite saying that the Rangers don't know Dr. K created Venjix. I know she revealed that fact to them in that ep. but for the purposes of THIS story, she didn't. Her cover story and my version of what happened are explained in this chap. Needless to say my storylines occasionally, like now, go a little AU.
The cable repair woman came into the lab, causing Dr. K and Gates to look around at her. As she walked towards her master, she began to shimmer and alter form, her clothing once again taking on her original form. Gates smiled as he saw her.
"Is it done?" He asked her as she stood, staring vacantly at him. Wordlessly, she handed him the blood-stained weapon. Gates looked at it and let out a dismissive snort. "I guess I don't need to worry about the Black Ranger then. You may go."
Nightshade stepped onto her platform, and the glass tube came down, before lifting her once again into the ceiling. Gates threw the needle down onto the bench in front of Dr. K. She looked at it and felt the guilt creeping in as she remembered that she had told Gates about the virus in Dillon's implants, and the acceleration code the Lightning Bot had implanted him with. Although she had only told him under the effects of the truth serum, it didn't stop her feeling guilty about the fact Dillon was in danger.
"You know you; I think Ranger Black might just be the one person whose life you've screwed up more than anyone else's." Gates stated, pulling over a chair and sitting next to her. "I mean, he has no memories of his real life and most of his body now looks like it comes from Radio Shack because of what you created."
He placed a hand on her shoulder, smiling as he saw the pained expression on her face. She couldn't take her eyes off the needle, still overcome with remorse.
"Now because you told me about the acceleration code, he's looking forward to losing everything that makes him human within a matter of hours." He continued. "He's lost literally everything because of you."
"It was all a mistake." She murmured, staring at the needle, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I was held prisoner for all those years. All I ever wanted was to go outside."
"Well you did get to go outside." Gates reminded her. "Of course everyone else paid the price."
"If I'd been able to upload that fire-wall..."
"Oh now don't go crying about the fact you tried to stop the virus." He interrupted her, ruffling her hair playfully. "I mean sure, you did try to stop it, but only because you created it in the first place. If you hadn't been so selfish, all those people would still be alive."
Dr. K grabbed the needle and threw it across the room, before burying her face in her hands, sobbing. He just sniggered at the unusually emotional display from the young woman.
"Now, the thing I don't get is that even with the motherboard, the only way you could have halted the acceleration code the last time was if you uploaded the base code from the Venjix virus." He stated with a curious expression on his face. "How did you explain knowing the code to the Rangers?"
"I didn't tell them I knew the code." She explained. "I told them I had it on an archive file because I'm trying to create an anti-virus that we can upload if we ever penetrate its defences."
She knew it was necessary to keep her Rangers in the dark about the truth of her knowledge of the Venjix virus. She knew that they would never be able to trust her if they knew that everything that had happened to them, to the world, had been her fault. Although it was true that she was constantly looking for a possible anti-virus, she didn't need an archive file to know the base code for the Venjix virus. It had been the daemon that had haunted her ever since. While many saw Freddy Cruger or the Bogeyman in their nightmares, Dr. K saw lines of code. The code she had written, and all because she wanted to go outside.
"Well I guess I should commend you." He said with a laugh. "That little lie is so plausible even I might have believed it. I suppose it says a lot about how much faith your Rangers have in you that they believed it without questioning you any further."
He got up and started to leave the room, though stopped at the door.
"I wonder how they'd ever feel if they knew how misplaced that trust was?" He asked as the left, locking the door behind him.
Dr. K watched him go, feeling dejected. Her situation still felt hopeless, she was no closer to escaping. She looked around and saw the weapon in the corner of the room, and made her way towards it. It looked as though he was so busy tormenting her, he had forgotten about it.
She had almost reached it when the shackle around her ankle snapped painfully, holding her fast. She lay down on her stomach, reaching out into the corner, her fingertips only just managing to reach it, and eventually she managed to grab it. It was not going to be any use in releasing her from her cell, and it certainly wouldn't make her a match for the Project Strychnine rigs even if she did release herself. However, she knew there was one use for it. Carrying it back to her workbench, she grabbed some tools and got to work. If there was going to be any hope of saving Dillon, she knew they would need the motherboard from the weapon. She could worry about how they would get it to him once she escaped.
Brie came back to the mansion after a long day of shopping, dropping her purchases at the door for the butler to collect and take to the guest room where she was staying.
"I'm home sweetie!" She yelled excitedly, completely recharged after a long day of excessive spending and gossiping with her vacuous friends. "You will NEVER guess who's having a baby!"
When she didn't get an answer, she started to look around the mansion. "Chas?"
She eventually came into Chas' study to find him sitting, drinking brandy. He looked a little pale, and his gaze was distant.
"Chas?" She asked him, a little concerned. His head jerked up to look at his fiancée, seeing her standing in the room. Although she was right in front of him, he hadn't seen her. He seemed to be in another world.
"Chas?" She asked him again, making her way to his desk. While Chas enjoyed a few drinks, he usually reserved the brandy for special occasions or when something was weighing on his mind. He didn't drink anything cheap, and the brandy he was drinking was almost a thousand dollars a bottle. He didn't open it for nothing. "Are you alright?"
"I just had a visit from Gates." He told her in a voice so quiet it barely reached her. Her eyes rolled as he said this.
"I keep telling you he's bad news." She told him. "What's he done now? Did you talk to him about the Marcus thing?"
"I did." Chas told her. "He got really intense. It was like nothing I've ever seen, he really scared me."
"What happened?" Brie asked him, putting an arm around him. She could feel him still shaking from the encounter. While Gates hadn't made any real threats, his manner unsettled Chas greatly.
"He didn't really say anything; it's more the way he acted." Chas explained. "He was here to make sure I was ready for the ceremony, but when I questioned him about Marcus, he just got this really...it's like he's obsessed with destroying the Trumans. I know he blames them for holding him back. I can understand him wanting to hurt Scott and the Colonel, but Marcus is dead. He seems fixated on him though."
"Chas, I've told you before that he's creepy." She told him sympathetically. "I've never been comfortable with him. I've always thought he was kind of crazy."
"I'm starting to think you might be right." Chas replied, unbuttoning his shirt and pulling down the shoulder, showing her bruising where Gates had grabbed him earlier.
"He did that to you?" She gasped. Chas nodded.
"It's like I said, he was kind of intense." Chas replied. "He's gotten us this far, it'll only be a couple of days now..."
"Chas, maybe this has gone too far already." She suggested. "I know you want to be mayor, but is it really worth all of this?"
"I really hope so." He sighed, taking her hand. "I really hope so."
The following day, Flynn and Ziggy were quietly eating breakfast when Scott came into the room. He had arrived back late the night before. They had explained what had happened to Dillon. The mood was more than a little subdued as Scott poured himself some cereal.
"Where's Summer?" He asked them. Flynn gestured to the door to the room Dillon's stasis pod was in.
"Where do you think?" He asked him. "The poor lass is heartbroken. She refused to leave the room all night. Eventually I took one of the easy chairs in there for her to get some rest."
"I still can't believe they got Dillon." Ziggy commented. "I can't imagine what Summer's going through."
"I'm really worried about her, this can't be healthy." Flynn told them. "I called Dr. Young and explained what happened."
"What did he say?" Scott asked him.
"He just said to keep an eye on her in case she gets any worse." Flynn told him, shaking his head. "She still has some of her leftover meds; he said she should take some if she's having problems. This couldn't have come at a worse time for her."
"I doubt there was really a good time for this to happen." Scott replied sadly. Flynn finished his cereal and dumped the bowl in the dishwasher.
"I'll just go and check on her." He told them, heading through to the room holding Dillon's stasis pod. He looked into the easy chair he had taken in there the night before, finding Summer curled up on the cushions. He had tried to get her to go to bed to get some rest, but she had outright refused to leave Dillon's side. He had tried in vain to tell her that he was fine, and it didn't matter if she was there or not, but she still wouldn't leave. Nothing he could say could convince her to leave him, and so in the end, he had brought her an easy-chair so that she could at least get some kind of rest.
He could see the bottles of tablets on the nearby table, along with a glass of water, and knew that she had taken some of the meds to help her get through the night. She was still having problems with her nightmares and sleeping at the best of times, but after this, it was understandable that she wouldn't be able to sleep unaided.
She looked quite pale, and more than a little dishevelled as she lay on the chair, quietly sleeping. The runs in her eye makeup betrayed her tearful vigil at the side of the man she loved, who just hours before, had been frozen in time to prevent him becoming a threat to everyone close to him. All things considered, she had the right to her tears. She had taken off her jacket and rolled it up, forming it into a kind of pillow, while she used Dillon's jacket as a blanket. He was so much larger than her that it served the purpose well. Dillon went over to her, taking a quick look before deciding that if she was resting, it was probably best to leave her. He made his way back into the main room, finding Ziggy pulling on his jacket, as Scott started buttering some toast.
"She's sleeping for now." Flynn told them. "I guess that's for the best."
"Well I need to go and see dad." He told them. "He's still insisting on going ahead with this ceremony tomorrow, so he's going over the security details."
"I promised that I'd go and see the kids today." Ziggy told them. "I figured it'd be good to let Tenaya get used to being around people before the ceremony and..."
"Its fine Ziggy, Dr. K's not here." Scott reminded him. "We know she'll come back, you don't need to convince us."
Ziggy just smiled and rushed to the secure lab to fetch their "prisoner". He had promised her walk, and the incision on her back was beginning to heal, Ziggy figured that today was as good a day as any to make good on that promise.
"He loves that orphanage." Flynn commented with a little laugh. "I know I like kids, but he seems to really put himself out for them. I never thought of him as the kind of guy to love kids."
"Well maybe he identifies with them." Scott suggested with a shrug. "I mean, he is a big kid himself."
"Aye, that's true I guess." Flynn replied. Neither of them knew much about Ziggy before the Ranger days, only that he had stolen medical supplies from the cartels to help out the orphanage when the kids all had gamma sickness. He hadn't gotten close enough to them to explain that at one time he had been raised in an orphanage. He wasn't in a hurry to let people know that even his own parents hadn't wanted him. So far, only Summer knew, and that was because she had gone with him to the orphanage after Tenaya's first attack. "Still, I guess we can't deny him cheering himself up. Goodness knows we all need something to be cheerful about right now."
"Are you off to see Sam?" Scott asked him. Flynn held up a large sandwich bag.
"Poor lass has been at the lab all night going through evidence of that crime scene." Flynn told him. "I figured she'd appreciate some food and some caffeine."
"I just hope it finds Dr. K." Scott responded, gathering his jacket. "I can't believe she was grabbed while she was delivering that recording. If only I'd handed it to dad myself, this would never have happened."
"The recording?" Flynn asked him, with a curious expression on his face. He reached into his inside pocket and pulled out a disk. "You mean this? How did you get a copy?"
"Dr. K found it and made a copy on her computer." He explained. "You still have it?"
"I didn't want to destroy it in case you changed your mind." Flynn told him. "I just kept it from you like you asked."
Scott ran over to the computer, pulling up the communications link to his father's office.
"Scott, what is it?" Colonel Truman asked him. "What's so important it couldn't wait until we met?"
"When Dr. K was coming over, did she tell you what it was about?" Scott asked him. Colonel Truman furrowed his brows.
"She said she thought she had found something about Marcus' crash that would clear him in the press." Colonel Truman told him. "She said she wanted to check something in the wastes to verify her findings, but she was sure she had found something suspicious."
"Why would she go into the wastes because of this?" Flynn asked, holding up the disk.
"She was going to check the plane." Scott stated. He snatched the disk from Flynn and ran towards his car. "Dad, I'm coming over, I think you'll want to hear this!"
With the, he gunned the engine and raced out of the Garage leaving a mixture of exhaust fumes and ozone from burned tyres in his wake. Flynn waved his hand in front of his face to clear some breathing space as Ziggy and Tenaya came into the room. Tenaya was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of denims that Ziggy had borrowed from Summer. They both watched curiously as the Red Ranger left.
"Where'd he go to in such a hurry?" Ziggy asked.
"He just went to see his dad." Flynn answered. "Come on you two, the orphanage is on the way. I'll give you a lift."
Meanwhile, in a candy shop on the south side of the dome, Gates made his way up to the counter, eyeing up the selection of treats there.
"What can I do for you?" The assistant asked him.
"Tell your boss that Mr. Kirkdale is here." He replied. The assistant headed into the back as Gates started pacing the room. He looked judgementally around all the various sugary snacks and chocolates on display, giving a little laugh as he saw something that caught his attention. It was a 15 inch tall, scale chocolate Power Ranger. Their merchandise, it seemed, was so profitable a business, it was even being sold by gangs.
"Mr. Kirkdale I presume." The boss stated as he came into the room. He was wearing a cheap, light brown suit, with a gaudy, brightly coloured shirt underneath. Though, most notably, he was carrying a huge brown paper bag full of snack treats. "I got your generous gift. Now tell me, why anyone would give so much money to the Southtown Sweet Tooths before even asking for anything?"
"Call it a gift for the honour of meeting you Mr. Newmark." He replied. "Now, I have business to discuss."
"I understand you wanted to give us information." The crime lord stated. "What kind of information?"
"I just wanted to let you know that Ronan and the Blue Crew are planning on moving in on your territory tomorrow." He told him.
"He'd never do that." Newmark chuckled. "The Sweet Tooths and the Blue Crew have had a truce in place almost as long as the dome! We never gained any real ground, both of us are just too strong to win a decisive victory. We'd just leave ourselves vulnerable to the other Cartels if we started a war."
"The rumour I heard is that they have a connection in the military who's sold them some pretty serious firepower." Gates told him. "You know, those standard issue blasters are way more effective than anything available on the market."
"They'd roll over us like a steamroller!" Newmark gasped, causing chocolate to fall from his mouth onto his shirt. "He'd crush us like we were nothing!"
"That's why I wanted to make you an offer." Gated told him, putting an arm around him. "You see, I have some firepower of my own that you can use. It would give you a fighting chance, and it is very reasonably priced."
"How much are we talking?" Newmark asked him. Gates handed him a card with an account number on it. "Half a million?"
"You earned over 80 million last year." Gates told him. "Now, you can either pay up, in which case I tell you where the weapons are, and you get them for four hundred grand, or you presume I'm lying. I walk out the door, you keep my 100 grand as a gift and we say no more about it."
Newmark's face flashed red with anger as he thought about the possibility of losing his business. He put down his bag of treats and pulled out a palm pilot, tapping some keys. Gates heard his own palm pilot bleeping, and flipped it open, smiling as he realised that the money had been transferred.
"The weapons are at the fish cannery down the street." Gates told him, turning and walking away. "They'll be coming through the central plaza tomorrow. Happy hunting."
"Boys, get to the cannery NOW!" Newmark roared. "If Ronan thinks he can walk into my territory and take it without a fight, he's even dumber than he looks!"
As he got into his car, Gate's phone rang, and he answered it.
"The weapons were here just like you said. They're easily worth every penny!" Ronan told him. "You're certain they're making a move?"
"Trust me; those weapons are going to get a workout tomorrow." Gates told the other gang lord. "Trust me; tomorrow everyone's going to see a lot of action."