Hello, Everyone! Remember what I said about getting distracted with the Festival? Yeah... Sorry I'm late. :(

Anyway, as much fun as it would be to upload this on Halloween as that is the subject of the episode, I can't wait that long. Things start happening in this chapter. A few questions are finally answered, and a few more crop up. It's also pretty long! :)

So, enjoy!

Chapter Four

Halloween Costume Caper

When Halloween arrived that year, the Rangers managed to recruit Alex to help with the decorations for the Masquerade Party at the Youth Center. She drew up the initial design ideas, which were quickly approved by Ernie. That was all she wanted to do, but Tommy convinced her to join them in the actual decorating process.

As usual, Bulk and Skull were making nuisances of themselves which ended with Bulk getting a bucket of paint thrown on his head. Tommy was happy to see Alex smiling at the funny scene. The shy girl seemed to be slowly coming out of her shell. At least around them. Tommy still frequently saw her tensing at the end of the school day and she had specifically asked them to not come over to her house.

The girls had been doing their best to get her out as much as possible by taking her shopping and inviting her join their activities at the Youth Center after school. Billy had become her study buddy, helping her out in the classes she was struggling in. Zach attempted to be her coolness coach. He was constantly giving her tips and being encouraging about her art and literally anything else she showed interest in. Tommy and Jason had appointed themselves as her bodyguards. Bulk and Skull liked to pick on her because she was so shy and insecure that she would never retaliate herself. So the red and green rangers did it for her.

Tommy was really proud of her for the progress she'd made, but he wished he knew what was holding her back from reaching her full potential. The most popular theory was that it had something to do with her parents and those mysterious 'projects' she was always having to do. Whatever the reason was, the Rangers had begun to notice that she was using the excuse less often.

Once the decorating was finished, the seven friends left to get into their costumes before the party. Alex's costume had been kept at Kimberly's house, so she went with the pink ranger to get changed. Kim had chosen to dress as a princess in a flowing pink dress with a tall, pointy hat. Alex had gone the complete opposite direction and was dressed as a vampire in all black. She had heavy eyeliner around her eyes and dark lipstick with a subtle touch of red around the corners of her mouth.

"Wow, Alex!" Kim exclaimed when she came out to join her friend. "That costume is on point! You are the spookiest vampire I have ever seen."

Alex smiled at Kim's compliment. "Thanks. Lots of people will over do the whole vampire thing and make it look cheesy, but I have always been a firm believer in subtlety."

"Well, you look great! Come on! Let's go meet the others."

Tommy's costume wasn't finished yet, so they all headed to the party without him. Trini was dressed as Pocahontas, Billy made a perfect Sherlock Holmes, Jason was dressed as Little John, and Zack had chosen King Tut. Everyone complimented Alex on her costume, and speculated about who would win the costume contest.

The party was great. Everyone was dancing and having a good time. Zach was trying to get a girl named Angela to dance, but she shut him down right away. Ernie was also dressed as a vampire, though he had gone full Count Dracula with the high-collared, flowing cape and a visible trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. "I want to suck your blood!" he cried to three girls who were getting drinks.

"We'll take a pass, Ernie," Kim said, both she and Trini laughing at his cheesy line.

"How did you know it was me?" he asked. The girls just shrugged, but Alex decided to have a little fun of her own.

Her dark hair was hanging around her face as usual, and that just enhanced the subtle effects of her costume. "Relax, Count," she said, finally turning so that Ernie could actually see her face. "I have chosen these girls as my own meal for the night. Go stake your claim somewhere else." The lines were delivered with such a dead-pan expression and sincere tone that Ernie visibly cringed away from her before all three girls burst out laughing.

"You really got him good!" Trini exclaimed, patting Alex on the shoulder.

Alex flicked her hair over her shoulder and fixed Trini with a fierce look. "How do you know I was just joking?" she asked. But the sparkle of humor in her eyes ruined the effect this time, and all three girls once again began to laugh.

The Rangers' attention was caught by the arrival of Alpha, and they scurried over to see what was going on. The little robot had figured that the costume party would be a perfect opportunity for him to hang out with the Rangers without arousing suspicion. Alex wasn't completely fooled though. She saw right through her friends' explanation that he was visiting from out of town and knew that there was something fishy going on.

When Rita's Frankenstein monster arrived and crashed the party, it didn't help her suspicions. Billy suspected at first that the Frankenstein was Tommy, but Alex knew right away that it wasn't. Nothing bad really happened, so Billy left to follow the Freaky Frankie and the rest of them continued to enjoy the party.

The earthquake freaked everyone out, but then Billy rushed back in. "Alex, I'm sorry, but could you give us a moment please?" The concern on his face let Alex to do as he asked and step away. They all huddled together and spoke quietly for a moment before Jason broke away for a moment.

"Alex, Rita Repulsa is attacking again. You need to get somewhere safe. We're going to do what we can for others, but you need to stay hidden as best you can. Alright?"

Alex nodded and watched as her friends ran quickly out the door. She knew that something was going on but, for now, she knew that she needed to do as Jason asked and get somewhere safe.

While the Rangers went to deal with Rita's Frankenstein monster, Tommy arrived at the Youth Center just in time to get attacked by Putties at the door. Alex was just about to leave when she nearly ran into the fight outside the door. She ducked back into the doorway, hiding from the Putties. She had seen Tommy and Jason spar plenty of times and knew that he would be able to handle himself. But the last thing either of them needed was for the Putties to decide to try taking her prisoner and distracting him.

The confrontation wasn't long, and Alex peeked back around the doorframe at the sound of the Putties being teleported away. She was just about to call out to Tommy when a voice suddenly spoke out of thin air. Tommy spoke into the watch on his wrist and was told to join his fellow Power Rangers. Without hesitation, he pulled out a morpher and shouted "Dragonzord!" With a flash of light, he was suddenly clad in the Green Ranger suit. A golden shield extended over his shoulders, and Alex could see the Dragon Flute hanging from his hip.

As he disappeared in a flash of green light, Alex finally stepped out from the doorway. Tommy was the Green Power Ranger. That had to mean that Jason, Zach, Trini, Kim and Billy were the other Rangers. It wasn't hard to guess their respective colors. Confused and hurt, Alex lingered in the doorway until she could hear the sounds of the Rangers' Zord battle dying away to be replaced by silence and the sound of people cheering.

She didn't feel like going back to the party. It wasn't likely that it would get completely canceled. Nothing ever did after a Power Ranger victory. Everyone would come back and be even happier about the successful battle. They'd announce the winner of the costume contest and everything would proceed as normal. But nothing was normal any more. Alex's only friends had been lying to her. They'd been taking care of her and making her feel really wanted for the first time in years. But every time they said they were off doing something among just the six of them, they were battling Rita's monsters as the Power Rangers.

How had she not connected the dots before? How could she have been so completely fooled? She hadn't realized that she'd been walking back to her house. Her parents were nowhere to be seen, likely out enjoying their own party, so she went in via the front door. Only long enough to grab her sketch pad and pencils though. She needed to think. She needed to be alone. The only way she could do that was to go somewhere else. Still dressed in her vampire costume, she headed to the park.

The Rangers returned to the party, elated from their battle. Tommy's ingenious costume turned out to be very similar to the Frankenstein monster that Rita had sent. It gave everyone a good scare before Ernie announced that the winner of the costume contest was Alpha. The little robot had girls fawning over him but, of course, refused to reveal his identity.

It was only after this that Tommy noticed Alex's absence. "Hey, has anyone seen Alex? To be honest, I'm surprised she didn't win the contest."

"I told her to get somewhere safe when Rita attacked," Jason said, glancing around in an attempt to locate their missing friend. "Maybe she just went home. She probably thought the rest of the party would be canceled anyway."

"You're probably right," Tommy said. The rest of the Rangers seemed to accept this answer, but Tommy wasn't sure. Something in his gut just told him that there was something very wrong with their friend.

Night had fallen by the time Alex reached the park. She settled herself near a street light so she could see her paper as she worked. Drawing for herself always helped her think. It helped her process what was going through her head and work out her emotions. As she drew, she didn't focus on a particular design. She just let her hands move on their own while her mind was occupied.

She tried to rationalize what she was feeling. She was keeping secrets too. Her friends had no idea what went on at her house every single day. They didn't even know that it was likely she wouldn't be around for too much longer. But she had never actually lied to them about it. She simply hadn't told them. They had actively lied to her though. They lied every time they came up with an excuse for where they were going when the Rangers were needed to fight the Evil that continued to try to destroy their little city.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Her pencils flew over the paper in her lap, pressing harder and harder as though to engrave the picture into the page. She didn't stop until the image was complete. Only then did she look at what she had created. With a scream of frustration and rage, she threw the pad onto the sidewalk and stood, scattering her pencils over the grass around her. She continued to scream and rage. All of her emotions, pent up over years of keeping quiet, came pouring out. It had to be a good five minutes before she finally dropped, exhausted, onto the grass several feet from where she'd started.

After a few moments, Alex stood and collected her things. She walked home with only the light of the full moon to guide her. She was numb. Empty. Everything had been screamed out to the stars. All that was left was a plan for exactly how to inform the Rangers that she knew about them.

Unbeknownst to Alex, her screams did not go unheard. Not only did a few Trick-or-Treaters hear and scurry on quickly in case of werewolves; but Rita, frustrated at her lack of victory and hoping to see something that would make her feel better, had looked down at the earth and witnessed her emotional breakdown. Rita also saw the reason behind Alex's torment as she spied the drawing that lay on the grass. A wicked smile spread over the sorceress' face. Perhaps the day wasn't a complete waste after all.

Please don't hate me! *Ducks behind Tommy*