Hello, Everyone! This chapter... well... I'll just let you read it.

Chapter Five

Rita's Offer

Rita sent Goldar and a group of putties to Earth to speak to the angry girl. Alex had been unable to sleep that night and had left the house before her parents had returned. She returned to the park, the only place she felt that she could be alone with her thoughts. That was when Goldar had appeared. The Putties surrounded her so she couldn't get away and then the big, armored money began to speak.

"Empress Rita has heard your cries, Human," he said. Alex had no self-defense training, but she took a defensive stance anyway. She couldn't know for sure what was going on, but she wanted to be prepared in case she had to run.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"My Empress would like to make you an offer you won't be able to refuse. She offers you the opportunity to get back at those pesky Power Rangers who betrayed you."

"Do I look stupid? I know who Rita is. She's been trying to take over the world. Tried to destroy this city more times than I can count. She brainwashed Tommy and made him do terrible things. Why would I trust her to not just use me as leverage over the Rangers? Or any other of a number of things she could do with me?"

"My Empress is prepared to offer you something that no one could give you before. The power to change your fate." Goldar extended his hand, and Alex took a single step closer to examine the object within it. It was a long, ornate paintbrush; the most exquisite thing Alex had ever seen. "With this, you can paint a new life for yourself. You would be welcomed and protected as part of Empress Rita's court. You could get back at all those who have caused you pain."

Alex reached out for the brush, but Goldar pulled his hand away. "Will you accept Empress Rita's offer? Will you join her court in exchange for more power than you could have ever imagined?"

Alex glanced up at Goldar's face, then back at the brush. "I will. But I want to let the Rangers know that their secret is no longer safe. I want to do it before I come to Rita's palace."

"Very well," Goldar said, nodding and holding his hand back out for her to take the brush. Alex wrapped her fingers around the beautiful brush handle, and lifted it from the monkey's paw.

The moment it was in her hand, Alex could feel the power coursing through it. She grinned and stroked it through the air before her. As she did so, she pictured Tommy's locker at school. A shimmering portal appeared before her, right in front of Tommy's locker. Alex reached into the portal and opened the locker with another swipe of her brush. Taking the picture, she had drawn only an hour before, Alex placed it on the top shelf in such a way that it would only fall out when Tommy gathered all of his things at the end of the day.

With a smug smile, she backed out of her portal and closed it. Alex grinned up at Goldar. "Can I meet Rita now?"

As much as she tried not to, Alex couldn't help but be impressed with Rita's moon palace. She was taken straight to see the Empress, her hand still holding her new magic paintbrush. "Alex, my dear!" Rita exclaimed when Alex entered the room. "I am so glad that you decided to accept my offer."

"I'm tired of being controlled. I've been manipulated and lied to my entire life. I'm ready for it to end."

"Of course you are, my dear," Rita said. Her voice was high-pitched and rather irritating, but Alex couldn't remember the last time someone called her dear so she didn't complain. "I can help you learn how to use that brush I gave you. Together, we will be unstoppable."

Alex nodded, but smirked. "Actually, I think I already have an idea of how it works." She closed her eyes and touched the tip of the brush to her forehead. She was still dressed in her vampire costume but, as she drew the brush down her face, ripples spread across her body. Her black hair was swept back in elaborate, yet simple braids to form a bun with several braids hanging down her back. Her clothes shifted from ill-fitting pants and shirt into a snug bodysuit that hugged her frame. The black material covered her arms and legs, but a short skirt of the darkest emerald green rippled into being around her hips. It extended up into a green and gold corset with black buttons up the front. Her battered Converse morphed into knee-high boots with low heels and gold piping.

As Rita and her minions looked on in awe, Alex lifted her brush and conjured a mirror. She examined her new look with satisfaction until she took a good look at her face. Without her hair to hide it, her face showed its extreme thinness. Her dark eyes were sunken in their sockets, and her cheekbones looked like you could cut your finger on them. She ran the tip of the paintbrush under her eyes and over her nose. The skin turned an even, pale color rather than showing the dark circles around her eyes. With that simple change, her face looked much less unhealthy and more intimidating. She had left the dark lipstick in place from her costume, but banished the red at the corners. Satisfied, Alex dismissed the mirror and turned on her heel to face Rita. "How's that?" she asked, a smirk again on her face.

"A look fitting my new General!" Rita exclaimed, clearly pleased. Alex grinned. This was going to be fun.

Alex was nowhere to be found at school the next day. The teachers that Tommy questioned said that she had called in sick. He couldn't understand what had happened to her. Clearly whatever it was wasn't related to Rita's attack as he had thought the night before. If she was okay enough to call in sick, that meant she at least wasn't injured. Confused and still concerned, Tommy decided to go to her house after school. She had asked that the Rangers stay away, but he had to know what was wrong with their new friend.

He opened his locker at the end of the day to gather his things and found a piece of paper falling on his head. Startled, he grabbed it before it could fall to the ground and looked at it. The blood drained from his face. He hid it quickly in his book and grabbed the rest of his things before rushing off to a secluded area. Lifting his communicator to his mouth, he spoke quickly. "Jason, come in."

"Yeah, Tommy what's up?"

"Get everyone to meet at the Youth Center. We have a situation."

When everyone was gathered around a table at the Youth Center, Tommy brought out the paper that had fallen out of his locker. He placed it in the center of the table where everyone could see it. "This fell out of my locker today."

The picture on the paper was of the Power Rangers. They were all lined up with their helmets off revealing their faces. The whole team was shown, each in their proper colors. They all had smug looks on their faces. Behind them, with lightning coming out of her fingers like glowing puppet strings, was Rita. Her face was depicted grinning down over the Rangers' heads at the small figure before them. Shown as a thin figure in all black, the Rangers couldn't see her face, but it was obvious that Alex was the one cowering in fear before them.

"How did she find out?" Zach asked, fingers tracing over the cruel features etched on his drawn face.

"All I can think of is that she saw me fighting the Putties outside," Tommy said, his voice quiet. "I was right outside the door. It wouldn't have been hard for her to see me."

"What are we going to do?" Kim asked. Both she and Trini were fighting tears and trying not to look at picture before them.

"We have to talk to her," Jason said, his voice grim.

"I am uncertain that is the wisest course of action," Billy added. He wasn't the only one to have spotted the deep imprints of the penciled faces. Jason and Tommy's drawn likenesses were the most deeply etched of all of them. "Clearly she is angry with us for hiding the fact that we are the Power Rangers."

"Which is precisely why we need to talk to her now," Trini exclaimed. "We have to explain why we never told her. Once she knows, she'll understand."

"I was going to go to her house," Tommy said. His eyes were fixed on the cowering black figure at the bottom of the picture.

"We should all go," Jason said. "We all need to apologize for what we did."

"Then let's go now!" Zach said, standing quickly. "The more we sit around, the angrier she'll get." They all stood up and Tommy grabbed the picture from the table. With one final look, he ripped it in half then crumpled the pieces and tossed them in the trash can. No one said anything as they left the Youth Center.

Alex wasn't at her house when the Rangers arrived. Her parents hadn't seen her, and were upset that she had apparently been gone since the night before. The Rangers thought it was strange that her parents seemed more upset that she was gone than worried about where she was. But they didn't have time to worry about it at the moment. They had to find Alex.

They spread out around town, searching for their missing friend. No one could find her, and they eventually met in the park, the only place they hadn't searched yet. They spread out through the park, looking for any sign that Alex had been there. Finally, Tommy found a lone pencil lying on the grass near a lamp post. He contacted the other Rangers, and showed them what he'd found.

A couple kids were walking past as they discussed where Alex might be. "Maybe your friend got eaten by the werewolf!" one of the kids said with a light laugh. When asked what he meant, he told the Rangers about the screaming they'd heard the night before. "It sounded like some kind of werewolf or something. It just kept screaming. We could hear it clear down the street."

The Rangers thanked the kid for his clue and the kids continued on their way. "She really was angry," Zach said grimly. "To just be screaming like that?"

"Hey, do you guys here that?" Kim's question made everyone go quiet for a moment. A very distinctive sound reached their ears. "Putties!" she cried, and they all ran in the direction of the sound.

They crested a hill to see a group of about ten Putties surrounding a dark figure. The girl was wearing a skin tight outfit in a mix of black, green and gold. As she turned to face them, the Rangers froze in shock and horror as her face was revealed to them. Alex looked very different without her dark hair hanging around her face. It was pulled back and hung down her back, revealing her pale face, dark eyes blazing in the paleness of her skin.

Tommy wanted to call out to her, but his voice failed him. Something had happened to her. Something bad.

"Tommy, look." Tommy glanced in Jason's direction to see that the Red Ranger was pointing at Alex's hand. The Green Ranger turned his focus back to the girl, still being circled by Putties. In her right hand, she held an elaborate paintbrush. He didn't have to be in Morph to feel the dark power radiating from the object.

"Alex!" he called, finally finding his voice. "What's going on? We've been trying to find you. To apologize."

"It's too late for your excuses, Power Rangers!" Alex shouted. "Rita has given me the ability to change my fate. No longer will I stand idly by while I am manipulated and lied to by those who should be my protectors. From now on, you will be facing the Peinta. The Painter. I paint my own fate!" With those words, Alex swished the paintbrush through the air. She and the Putties disappeared in a flash of multi-colored light, leaving the Power Rangers reeling.

Do I need to invest in guard dogs yet?

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