Disclaimer: Power Rangers belongs to Saban. All I own are plot ideas and things you don't recognize from TV.

A/N: Sorry this one took so long. Real life and stuff happened. You know how it is. Thanks for reading/reviewing/following/favoriting, everyone. Seriously, you guys are why I keep writing this.


Oliver Residence
Angel Grove, CA
July 10, 2012
6:45 PM

"If anything happened to him, this whole group might fall apart."

Seven pairs of eyes zeroed in on Jason and Billy as they emerged from the basement door and strode into the living room. Jason practically fell onto the couch beside Kim, who put a hand on his thigh and stroked it softly. Nobody said anything, but the anticipation in the air was practically solid. Billy wandered over to the high-backed chair near the fireplace where he'd been sitting earlier; Tanya occupied it now, the front of her shirt stained with drops of blood from the makeshift operations they'd just completed.

After a tense minute or so, Zack finally leaned forward and leveled his gaze at Jason, planting his hands on his knees. "Well?"

Jason didn't shift his gaze from the ceiling; he just brought his free hand up to his face and grunted, "Well what?"

Zack rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to speak again, but Adam beat him to it. "Well, what the hell did you find down there?"

"Nothing," Jason said, letting out a long, slow breath.

"Nothing," Tanya repeated incredulously, drumming her fingers on the arm of the chair. "You spent over an hour down there finding nothing?"

"Well if you would've let me finish before biting my head off, I could've told you that finding nothing is probably the most important thing we've found today," Jason retorted. Tanya snorted and shot Zack a look of mutual annoyance. Kim glared at Jason and elbowed him hard in the side. He grunted again and continued. "The guy downstairs, the one who tried to take the chip we found? He didn't have a chip of his own. Believe me, I know." Jason held up a hand to show his friends the blood that coated his first two fingers down to the palm.

"So what does that mean?" Tommy asked, leaning against the fireplace, one arm draped over Kat's shoulders. "Every one of the other guys had chips. Why wouldn't he?"

"The man in the basement wasn't just the only one without a chip," Billy supplied. "He was also the only one who actually tried to take the chip Jason, Kim and Tommy found, and once he got it, he ran off immediately, completely abandoning his comrades. Said comrades never even seemed to notice that their compatriot was evacuating without them, they just kept on fighting. The logical conclusion is that the man downstairs was the leader of this group, the one who actually knew what they were coming in for…"

"And the others were just blunt instruments, weapons for him to throw at us long enough for him to accomplish his mission," Trini finished, suddenly paling by several shades.

"Tri, are you OK?" Adam asked, taking a step toward the yellow-clad woman from the doorway.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she insisted, waving him off. "I just, uh…" she made eye contact with Adam and sighed. "Could I get a ride home? I haven't gotten a decent night's sleep in almost three months and this," Trini spread her arms wide in a gesture that encompassed the entire room. "This isn't helping with that."

Adam nodded and turned back to the group as he and Trini headed for the door. "I'm just gonna take her home, OK?"

"Wait!" Jason exclaimed. Adam and Trini stopped and stared at him quizzically as he leaned forward and heaved himself up to his feet. "Before you go. You guys all need to hear this. Billy?" Billy frowned at Jason in bewilderment and Jason gestured to the center of the room in response. "Tell them what you told me. About the scanner readings and what we plan to do about it."

Billy groaned and stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking out at the group assembled before him. "There's a lot of technical exposition required to really set this up and paint a full picture of the situation but everybody here has had a long fucking day and I know none of you are in the mood for that so let me just cut right to the chase. Jason doesn't have much time left."

Adam glanced from Billy to Jason and back. "Much time left before…what?"

Billy let out a long breath through his nose and braced himself. "Before the foreign presence in his brain can't be held back any longer and turns him into an out-of-control killing machine long enough to destroy everything he's ever cared about and then slowly tears him apart from the inside."

Jason spread his arms as if to say there you go before slumping back onto the couch and drawing Kim close; she buried her face into the crook of his neck and he kissed the top of her head. The others just looked at each other for a second.

"Oh," Tommy said. "Well, if that's all…"

"Tommy," Kat hissed at him. "Somehow I'd have thought you'd be taking this a little more seriously."

"Of course I'm fucking taking it seriously!" He retorted. "I thought Jason would appreciate a little commiseration." Jason nodded his assent.

"Just so I'm absolutely clear, this is leftover Maligore stuff, right?" Zack had begun to pace, but now he slowed to a stop in front of Billy and crossed his arms.

"I'm not sure," Billy responded. "But then I'm not the one with firsthand knowledge here. Jason?"

"What it is doesn't matter," Jason said firmly, rubbing his hand up and down Kim's upper arm. "What matters is that we don't have any more time to sit here arguing about it. We have to do something right now, or all of you are in danger. Billy was telling me before that he has an idea of something we can do."

"Would this have something to do with that super-secret job you're not allowed to talk about?" Kim asked, regarding Billy with a skeptical look.

The former Blue Ranger nodded slowly and looked at Kim apologetically. "Actually, yes, it does, which means I'm going to have to be sparse with the details. I work at a government facility where most of the technology I brought back from Aquitar with me is stored. The people who work there have been using alien technology to enhance our own for several years now, and I believe that we have the necessary equipment there to resolve Jason's problem."

"Great," Tommy said, stepping toward Billy. "When do we leave?"

"Sorry, bro," Jason cut in. "There's no 'we' this time. It has to be just me and Billy."

"Wait a minute, hold on," Trini interjected, gently pushing away from Adam. "Let me see if I've got this straight. You're going to go – alone – into the headquarters of an organization you know nothing about, let them work on you with alien technology you probably won't even understand, and just go along with whatever they tell you, no questions asked?"

"Hey, I never said I liked it, either," Jason said. "But I trust Billy with my life and I would do anything to keep the rest of you out of danger. Besides, after what happened a few hours ago, what I did to Kim this morning…" Kim leaned over and kissed him gently on the cheek. Jason smiled lovingly at her, his eyes twinkling, before returning his gaze to the group as a whole. "Anyway, I have to put your safety above any objection I might have to this. I have no other choice."

Tanya rose from the chair and moved to stand beside Kat. "Billy, can you at least tell us the name of this secret group you work for?"

Billy smiled sadly. "Sorry, Tan. Since it doesn't technically exist, the name can't be public knowledge."

"Well is there anything else you can tell us?" Zack asked, stepping up next to Tanya and forming a four-person line in front of Billy. This was suddenly looking a lot more like an interrogation.

Billy shook his head. "Sorry, man. This information is classified higher than the White House security schematics. Just telling you about my Aquitian technology being kept at the headquarters is punishable by decades in prison or worse."

"Then what the hell are you still doing there, man?" Adam piped up from his position near the door. "Didn't you get enough of keeping secrets from people when we were Rangers? You're not helping anybody by not filling us in." He looked to Jason. "Jase, come on. You're smart enough to see how shady this whole thing looks. You can't seriously expect us to be OK with this."

"I'm with Adam on this one, Jase," Kat added. "I know you know this is a bad idea. I really don't think you should go along with this."

"If this was anybody else making this suggestion, I would agree with you," Jason said. "But it isn't just anybody, it's Billy. Like I said, I trust him with my life."

"Yeah, but can you trust this government group with all of ours?" Tommy asked softly.

"Bro, Kim and I work for the FBI. I'm part of a shady government group. Besides, this isn't your decision to make; it's mine and I've made it. I'm not gonna ask your permission but I had kind of hoped for your support."

"Well you've already thought about this at least ten times longer than you did for any decision you made as a Ranger, and we all made it out of that intact," Kim said with a wink. "Well…mostly." Most of the others nodded.

Trini, though, was having none of it. "I'm sorry, Jason," she said, heading for the door. "God knows I can't stop you but I can't get behind this. Something about it's just putting up way too many red flags. I just wish I could put my finger on what…" the slender Asian trailed off and sent the group a small wave goodbye before sliding Tommy and Kat's dislodged front door aside and heading out into the evening sunlight.

"Trini," Jason called after her, but she was already gone. He slapped his forehead and pulled his hand slowly down his face. "That could've gone better."

Tommy sighed loudly. "Well clearly your mind's made up. None of us are stupid enough to think we can do anything now so…when are you doing this?"

"Tomorrow," Billy answered, sending Jason a questioning look. Jason nodded and rose to his feet.

"Awesome. Now if you guys don't mind, I've been awake since 5 AM and I've been fighting an evil brain tumor for the last five years. I'm going home."

"Not in my clothes, you're not," Tommy said. Jason looked down at himself and smiled.

"Right. Let me go change."

The others watched him go, the broad shoulders and thick torso bobbing slightly as they moved down the hallway and vanished into a bedroom. As soon as he was out of sight, Adam, Kim, Kat, Tanya, Tommy and Zack all turned to look at Billy.

"Listen to me, Billy," Tommy said, moving to within arm's reach of Billy and laying a hand on his shoulder. "That guy in there is like a brother to me; he's the overprotective older sibling most of us didn't have, not to mention a leader, a best friend, a role model, a hero…"

"A fiancé," Kim added.

"Yeah, that too."

"What's your point, Tommy?" Billy asked, puzzled. "I've known Jason even longer than you have; I know exactly how all of you feel about him."

"I know you do, Billy. My point is, I don't trust this group you work for, having been told so little about them. Now obviously, you have Jason convinced, so we won't try to stop you; but if you see anything, even the slightest indication that things aren't going as planned, you grab him and get both of your asses out of there. And I do mean anything. You got that?" Billy nodded and Tommy leaned in closer. "If anything happened to him, this whole group might fall apart," he whispered in Billy's ear, his voice strained. "And let me make this perfectly clear: that'll be on you." Tommy straightened and looked Billy in the eye. "Got it?"

"You worry too much, Tommy," Billy said. "Everything's gonna be fine."

"It better be," Kim said as Jason returned wearing the red shirt he'd been wearing earlier unbuttoned over his bare chest and dirty slacks, his tie wrapped around his hand like a bandage. Kim motioned him out the door and turned back to Billy. "Just remember, you're handling precious cargo in there." They turned to walk everyone to the door, but Tommy grabbed Billy as he was clearing the threshold.

"If you tell Jason one word of what I just said, I will kill you."

Billy chuckled. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Tommy clapped him on the back as he walked past him out the door; he and Kat stood next to each other in the doorway and watched as the cars in their driveway backed out and disappeared, one by one, around the corner.


Kwan Residence
Angel Grove, CA
July 10, 2012
7:00 PM

Adam swung his car into the parking lot of Trini's apartment building and eased into a space. He let the engine idle for a minute and glanced over at Trini, who sat staring into space in the passenger seat.

"Tri," he said gently. She jerked a little and blinked rapidly as though she'd forgotten where she was. "We're here. You OK? You didn't say a word the whole way over here."

Trini didn't answer at first, just turned away and fumbled with the door for a moment before sighing in frustration and falling back into the seat. She turned to Adam and opened her mouth as though about to talk, but hesitated for a moment.

"Adam," she started haltingly. "Come in with me. I think there's something you need to see."

Adam nodded, killed the engine and followed Trini into the building's lobby, into the elevator and down the hall to her door. As the yellow-clad woman reached into her purse for her keys, she began speaking without any warning.

"At first I wasn't sure if this meant anything," she said, unlocking the door and swinging it inward. She stepped through into the darkness, and as Adam followed, the lights clicked on to reveal a glistening, modern kitchen almost entirely composed of mahogany and stainless steel; a round glass table sat in the middle of the moderately sized eating area, six gold-painted chairs surrounding it. The table was covered in assorted stacks of paper, printouts, legal pads, plastic tubs full of file folders and a couple of expensive-looking fountain pens. A doorway beyond the table led into a darkened hallway, the whitewashed walls and plush beige carpet disappearing into the murky black. To the right of the front door, a short set of carpeted stairs led up to an elevated living room, with TV and sound system facing out from the wall and a burgundy leather wraparound couch facing it from the opposite side. Trini pulled a beer out of the refrigerator and pulled out one of the chairs at the kitchen table, using a small stack of papers as a coaster. As she moved about her kitchen, she continued speaking, her soft voice filling the apartment like an expanding cloud.

"I thought maybe because I was so busy preparing for Malawi, running around in circles like a hamster on speed, maybe I was letting the stress get to me, maybe I was making mountains out of molehills, but after what happened today I just…" Trini let her hand fall to the table and looked up at Adam with a hopeless expression on her face. "I have no idea where to even start."

"I tend to find the beginning to be a good place," Adam said, pulling out the chair beside Trini and flipping it around, folding his arms on top of it as he lowered himself into the seat. Trini eyed him almost suspiciously and downed a long swig of her beer.

"God, that is so cliché."

"Doesn't mean it isn't true."

She groaned through another mouthful of beer and swallowed. "Fine." Setting her bottle back down on the table, Trini leaned forward and began moving things aside, carelessly tossing papers and folders over her shoulder and letting them scatter across the linoleum floor like confetti on New Year's Eve. Finally, she pulled a page out from the very bottom of a stack and scanned it briefly before grunting with satisfaction and passing it to Adam.

"About a year ago, I started getting these weird anonymous emails from this guy who claimed he worked for a secret government research lab located somewhere near Angel Grove. My official email address is public and anyone who lives around here could point me out of a crowd so I didn't think too much of it at first but then they just kept coming."

Adam glanced up from the paper and frowned. "Could it have been someone you worked with or a friend playing a joke on you?"

"That was what I thought at first," Trini said, nodding. "But then I got that." She pointed down at the paper Adam held in his hand. Adam looked back at the page and scanned its contents. After a moment, he noticed something that made the small hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He lowered the paper to the table and stared at Trini, blinking a few times before he finally found words.

"He makes direct references to alien technology."

"That he does," Trini agreed, downing another swallow. "I'm sure under normal circumstances I would find that even more evidence that this was a prank, but…"

"But what?"

Trini arched her eyebrows. "You know damn well but what, Frog Boy." Adam glared at Trini and she chuckled evilly in response. "I spent two years as a fucking superhero with magical alien powers, Adam. You spent almost four. When was the last time any of us lived under normal circumstances?"

Adam let his chin rest on his arms. "I sure can't help but feel normal every time I fill out a tax form."

Trini rolled her eyes. "Thank you, smartass."

"Anytime," Adam said with a smirk. He held the paper out to Trini and pointed at a line near the top. "Did you ever try and send a reply? I mean, the sender's email address is listed right here, seems like a pretty logical next step."

"Oh, sure it does," Trini grumbled, propping her head on her hand. "Although somewhere around the thirteenth email I got returned invalid I began to think differently."

Adam sighed. "OK…" he breathed, looking at Trini expectantly. The yellow-clad woman drained the bottle in front of her and then reached into one of the plastic tubs that sat on the table. When she sat back, she was holding a small stack of papers in her hand.

"This is where it kind of starts getting weird."

"OK, you and I have vastly different definitions of the word 'weird,'" Adam retorted, leaning back in the chair, his hands gripping the metal back. Trini ignored him and went on.

"The next email I got from this guy, he didn't say much," Trini said, peeling the first piece of paper off the stack. She handed it to Adam with a flourish. "He didn't have to." Adam read the message in less than five seconds and glanced back up at her, eyebrows raised. Trini nodded, scratching absentmindedly at a spot along the seam of her pants.

The message was simple, with no salutation or signature, just a single line of plain, 12-point text against a white background. It was only after the third time he read it that Adam began to realize what he was seeing; by the fifth, the words seemed to zoom toward and away from his face like a bad special effect in an old 3-D movie. He swallowed hard and closed his eyes, only to have the words light up along the backs of his eyelids.

You don't get to talk, Miss Kwan. Your job is to listen. And if you don't do it, then everyone in Angel Grove is in some big fucking trouble.

"Damn," he whispered, tossing the page back down onto the table. "This guy didn't fuck around, did he?"

"Nope," Trini said softly, shaking her head. "And it gets better." She slid another stack of papers across the table. "Check out Act 2. After he found out I was trying to communicate back with him, he started mentioning things that directly applied to me – places I spent a lot of time, my home address, the names of my family members – and kept going on and on about how much danger we were all in, and I was starting to get a little freaked out because I could never figure out what the hell he meant. Then finally, after about two months since the first email, he mentioned the name…" Trini flipped through the stack of papers until she found the one she was looking for and pulled it out, scanning it for a moment before jabbing a finger at the page. "ERECA." She pronounced it like "Erica," and Adam furrowed his brows in confusion until she caught on and shook her head.

"It's not a person, it's an acronym," she said, laying the page on the table. "E-R-E-C-A."

Adam was silent for a moment before he responded. "He ever say what it stood for?"

"I don't think he meant to use the actual name at all," Trini said. "He never even acknowledged it again. For the next three months after that he kept talking about how I needed to launch an investigation into the Department of Defense; he told me to look for a large amount of money sent somewhere with a name that seemed too generic or vague, I believe his exact words were, um…" she tugged another page out of the pile and read aloud from it. "If all else fails, just follow the money."

Adam chuckled incredulously. "So clearly this guy didn't know a damn thing about what you actually do for a living."

Trini smiled. "Well I would've filled him in a little but my job was to listen, remember?" The two of them laughed a little and Trini tapped a finger against the side of her nose. Adam winked and adjusted his weight.

"Seriously, though," Trini finally said. "I don't think this guy really understood much of anything about politics or government workers or anything. He never used any of the technical terminology or anything; actually, come to think of it, he sounded more like a scientist than anything else. I think he just chose me to contact because I was close; like you said, he clearly didn't understand my job description."

"So a scientist-slash-aspiring-secret-agent working at an ultra-classified government research facility sent you four months' worth of anonymous emails and you never once thought, 'hmmm, this might be something of some importance, perhaps I ought to tell somebody?'"

"Adam, the guy was clearly either crazy or scared out of his mind," Trini started to protest.

"Tri, you just said crazy two different ways," Adam noted calmly.

"Bite me," she snapped. "What good would telling anyone about this have done? No one in their right mind would've believed him – well, no one who wasn't a former Ranger, anyway – hell, I'm not sure I believed him completely; but he wouldn't stop sending these to me. Then, seven months ago, I got one that said he was going to get someone he worked with to leave and come find me so I had some proof."

"And did this mystery refugee ever show up?"

"What do you think?" Trini asked bitterly, tossing the rest of the papers in her hand back onto the table. "After two weeks and no word I thought the dumbass had just given up and finally decided to leave me alone. But then I got another message, and this one..." Trini shuddered at the mere thought of it. "He said the person he'd sent had been…what was the word he used? Neutralized. He said this organization had squads of people, people controlled by these brain implants that basically turned them into RC cars with skin, who would be sent after anyone who tried to cut and run. He told me these squads always had a leader who was…independent…and that leader would be able to use the others in his squad like a weapon, point and shoot them wherever he wanted."

Adam scowled. "God, that's creepy."

"Tell me about it. I thought I was getting emails from the goddamn Twilight Zone," Trini replied. "Things kind of fell into a pattern after that. I'd get one message saying he was sending another refugee my way, and then a couple weeks later, another message saying they were dead. Then, just before I left for Malawi, I got a message saying he couldn't do it anymore, that he was coming to see me himself. I haven't heard from him since."

Adam blew out a breath. "Those squads you were talking about sound a lot like the guys who broke into Tommy's house today."

"I know," Trini said softly, her voice becoming somber. "I'm scared, Adam. What if this…ERECA place is after Jason, Kim and Tommy because they finally have the proof this guy was trying to send me all this time? What if they're in even more danger than they know?"

Adam thought for a moment, stroking his chin. "Billy said he was taking Jason in to wherever he works to help him out first thing in the morning, you could tell them as soon as they get back and –" Adam stopped suddenly and stared at Trini, his eyes widening. "Tri – what if this place Billy works is this place that guy was talking about?"

Trini furrowed her brow in intense concentration. "I really hope I know Billy well enough to be able to say this, but he wouldn't do that, Adam. We have to trust that if he worked for a place like this and found out they were doing something like this he would tell us."

"What if they're threatening him into silence? They could be threatening to kill his family or something unless he does what they want."

"Wow, you haven't seen Billy for a while, have you?" Trini cocked her head slightly at Adam. "He doesn't intimidate easily, Adam. He just doesn't."

"OK, OK," Adam rose to his feet and started to move toward the door. "Thanks for telling me this, Trini. We'll tell the others tomorrow, together. Deal?"

"Deal. Night."

Adam turned to leave but froze with his hand on the doorknob and looked back at her.

"Wait a second. Did this guy ever give you a name or description of himself so you would know him when he came to you?"

"You know, as a matter of fact," Trini rummaged around on the table until she found the last email and skimmed it over again. "Yeah. He must've slipped or something; the last email has a sort of name on it."

Adam frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well it's not really a name, it seems more like a call sign or something," Trini said, not taking her eyes off the paper. "On the very last email he sent to me, he refers to himself as Delta 4."

Adam let his hand fall from the doorknob and stared into the floor, brow furrowed in deep thought. "Any idea what that means?"

Trini just shook her head. "Like everything else here, Adam, this is way outside my area of expertise."