Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers, but hey I can dream can't I?
*Italic indicates thought
Chapter Sixteen: A Full Explanation
A/N: prepare to have your minds blown! I have written another chapter. Yay! Please review!
"We've all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we chose to act on, that's who we really are." -Sirius Black
Jayden opened his eyes to a pounding headache. He was momentarily grateful for the diminished sunlight. He tried to move his arms, but discovered he was tied up. He shifted against the uncomfortable pole he was tied to. "Is anyone else awake?" he croacked.
"Jayden?" came Kevin's voice to his right. "Where are we?"
"I don't know. Is everyone here? Mike?"
"Huh?" a groggy green ranger to his left asked.
"I'll take that as a yes. Lauren?"
"Over here Jay." He turned and saw his sister was tied to another pole a few feet away.
"Emily?"
"I'm with Lauren," the hidden yellow ranger answered.
"Mia?"
"Here," the pink ranger said from the side of their pole facing the guys.
"We're all here," Lauren said. "At least we know that everyone's ok."
"You call this ok?!" Mike asked.
"We know that everyone's alive," Lauren clarified.
"Hello rangers," the black ranger said, announcing his presence.
"You," Jayden hissed. "Let us go."
"How about, no. I need you to lure the gold ranger here since you insist on hiding him."
"Leave Antonio alone!"
"I can't. You see I have to get rid of him. The weak one."
"What?"
The black ranger laughed. "I suppose it's time I started explaining what's going on." He walked closer to them and de-morphed.
Emily and Mia gasped in unison.
Kevin's eyes widened.
Mike opened his mouth then closed it again; at a loss for words.
Lauren felt her stomach shrivel up.
Jayden blinked several times. "Antonio," he whispered.
The black ranger smiled. "Surprised Jay?"
Jayden shivered.
The unmorphed black ranger was identical to Antonio in every way. From the way he stood to the very clothes the gold ranger was wearing that day. It was if they were staring at his twin brother.
The black ranger laughed and crouched in front of Jayden. "Go ahead, Jayden. Am I Antonio?"
"No!" Lauren said. "Antonio isn't evil."
"You're trying to trick us!" Mike voiced.
"Yeah," Kevin said.
Jayden wanted to agree, but he was to unnerved. He stared into the black ranger's eyes. They were wide and dark like Antonio's. But, it was here he found the difference. Antonio's eyes were ways filled with light and happiness. Jayden saw nothing but coldness and evil in the doppelganger's. "You're not Antonio."
"Oh but you're wrong." He stood and walked so he could see them all. "I am Antonio. Or at least part of him."
"Come again?" Mia asked.
He began circling between the two poles. "I'm the dark side of him. His fears, doubts, anger, resentment. I'm the pain he felt being bullied. I'm the anger and resentment left by his father. I'm the disappointment and hurt when his best friend turned him away. I'm the hurt and anger when the blue ranger doubted him. I'm his darkness."
"Antonio doesn't have a dark side," Kevin said.
"Everyone has a dark side. But the light side, the good side was always stronger. He always pushed the pieces of me into the nether regions of his brain. He refused to acknowledgement my existence. Except in his dreams where I could remind him of it." He smirked. "The Antonio that's been with you is the light. The happiness, forgiveness, love, loyalty, bravery. All those happy emotions and memories. The nighlock created a spell to split his mind into two. The good and the bad. They used his blood to connect the spell to his mind.
"The night he first saw me was the night I was created. Normally this sort of thing would take weeks, but he was having a panic attack and the spell was able to sort the light from the dark easily. The Antonio you know hasn't existed since then."
"No!" Emily argued stubbornly. "We've been with him this entire time."
"No. You've been with the good Antonio in complete-Antonio's body. The Antonio you know consists of us both. He wouldn't be Antonio without the bad memories along with the good. We are one in the same. Two souls in a single self. You can't destroy one without destroying the other."
This took a minute to set in. Jayden wanted to punch himself. It all made sense now. That's why he'd hurt Antonio while attacking the black ranger, and why they'd thought he was under a spell. Because he was happy. He dis t have any unhappiness in him. But one thing still didn't make sense.
"If destroying the good-Antonio destroys you, then why do you want to kill him?" Lauren asked.
"Good question. It's simple. I think I've figured out a way to kill him so that I can have the body, and be the only Antonio in existence."
"But light can't exist without the dark," Emily argued.
"True, but I'm willing to take that risk." He turned away and began walking around. Confident his adversary would come to rescue them. In truth he didn't harbor any specific hatred towards the others, but he supposed after he'd gone though with his plan he could just finish them all off. Make a clean job of it.
"Game on, Light. Come and get them."