Billy abruptly whirled away from his prisoner, hiding his face in the knowledge that otherwise he could not conceal his reaction to what he'd been told. All of this time Tommy had been the Red Psycho Ranger! And he'd never known, never even suspected! That it had been a human, yes, of course, but that it had been Tommy . . .
Yet it wasn't really him, was it? He'd fought alongside Tommy for years, had gladly served under the other Ranger's leadership, and Tommy had always been calm and rational during battle, even in the worst of situations. He hadn't charged recklessly forward like the Red Pyscho Ranger often did, hadn't ever let his lust for victory overwhelm his good sense, and he had certainly cared much more about his teammates than the Red Pyscho Ranger.
Oh, who the Hell was he trying to fool?! Himself? Was he trying to rationalize away what . . . what he was afraid had to be done? This was hardly the first time Tommy had been under a spell; in fact if he checked back through his personal journals Billy was pretty sure he'd find that Tommy had been the victim of mind-control more often than all of the other Rangers combined. And why not? Why wouldn't the bad guys want to turn the most formidable warrior on the other side into their warrior?
It was simple, elementary logic, of the kind which had apparently somehow eluded him for the last two years. He'd seen the skill, the battle prowess one would expect of true Rangers, but he'd been misled by the savagery and bloodlust. And he shouldn't have been, since that was the whole point of such spells: to change the victim's personality. True, Tommy hadn't been acting like himself, but of course he never did when he was under a spell! They'd saved him time and again, and after they did he always went back to being Tommy. Sadder, yes, and stricken by guilt for what he'd done, just as Justin clearly was, but still fundamentally Tommy.
This wouldn't be freeing him, at least not in the sense that they always had before. It would be killing him, shooting the hostage instead of rescuing him. Rangers didn't do that. Rangers didn't EVER do that!
But what if there was no choice?
What if this was the only way to stop the Psycho Rangers, defeat the United Alliance of Evil, and save the galaxy? Could they do it then? Could he order it done?
ΩΩΩΩΩ
Justin watched Billy's back like a hawk, working hard to keep the smug, self-satisfied grin from his face. Though he doubted the remaining Light Rangers had any real chance of taking down Tommy, there was certainly no harm in making sure they targeted him above the rest of the Psycho Rangers.
And given the dire nature of his of own situation, it felt terrific to actually be accomplishing something, even if his achievement here was unlikely to equate to any substantive gain.
When Billy turned back toward him he appeared relatively together. Surprisingly, he didn't return to the subject of Tommy, but moved on to weaponry and Quantrons. As he was forced to give away more valuable information Justin resolved to himself that he would escape from here.
Tonight.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
Hours later Billy left Justin and went almost to the door, where Cestria and the Phantom Ranger both stood.
"Did you get all of that?" he asked the morphed Eltarian.
The Phantom Ranger nodded in confirmation.
"Send it to the League Military Board. Maybe having it come through you will make Admiral Garthok more inclined to take it seriously."
"Is he troubling you again? Didn't my father-"
"No, he wasn't there. He's still on the front lines, trying to hold back the UAE offensive," Billy explained.
"You were right to have me take him, Billy," the Phantom Ranger declared firmly. "What he told us about the Psycho Rangers could be the key to the war!"
"If he was right!" Billy snapped, louder than he'd intended. Moving to his side, Cestria placed a comforting hand on his arm.
"You think he was not?" she asked gently.
"I don't know yet. I think that's what Dark Specter told him, but that doesn't mean it's the truth; it only means it's what Dark Specter told him."
Billy paused for a moment, then turned back to the current Ranger.
"The Board wants to send you back to the Dark Fortress, but I don't think there will be anything to overhear there now, not with the offensive they have underway."
"I can to try to infiltrate them closer to home," the Phantom Ranger offered, "if you're sure you don't need me here."
"In all the time you've been watching him, has our prisoner ever hit the forcefield or shown any other signs of anger?"
Again the Phantom Ranger shook his head.
"Then there's no more reason for you to stay here. Just be careful out there, please."
With a nod the Phantom Ranger turned and left the room. Cestria's hand hadn't moved from Billy's arm since she placed it there, and he could see the concern in her eyes as she gazed at him.
"Would you like to talk of what he told you, my love?"
"Maybe later tonight," Billy allowed. "Right now there's something I have to work on."
He kissed her once, and then went over to the work table nearest the door. Taking hold of a thin metal wedge, he worked it into the seam and used it to pry the cover off of Justin's Psycho Morpher.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
The teenage Psycho Ranger betrayed no signs of his excitement or anticipation when Billy brought his dinner arrived that evening, keeping to the same silent, depressed facade he had been maintaining throughout his captivity. Nonetheless inside his heart was racing and his mouth had gone dry. This was it!
Dinner appeared to be some form of fish resembling flounder, fruit of an unknown type, and a glass of water. His only utensil made of a bendable, springy material which would be useless as a weapon. That was all right; he didn't need one. He already had everything he needed, right here.
He ate slowly and not too much; he didn't want to be stuffed for what came next. Once the field went down he would sprint for the plasma torch lying on the nearest table. He would use that to take care of Billy, then he would use the communications equipment in the next room to contact the UAE before teleporting home. All in all it should only take a few minutes.
"I'm done," he announced to Billy.
"You're sure? You didn't eat a lot," the Rangers' mentor asked.
"I'm sure."
"I've gotten a stripped-down device that I'll bring in an hour from now for your bodily wastes," Billy offered, and Justin only nodded, not trusting his voice to remain steadily in the face of this disgusting humiliation. Killing him was going to feel so good!
And it would be possible because of the one design flaw he had at detected in Billy's device. By placing the controls in the back of connector which linked the top and bottom halves of the device, he had ensured that whoever was manning the machine would be blinded to what the prisoner inside was doing at the moment it was switched from one setting to another. Billy was a genius, no doubt about it, but Justin knew from personal experience that even geniuses made mistakes, and Billy was going to pay dearly for this one!
The light-haired adult disappeared from view, and a few seconds later there was again the sharp crack as the forcefield shifted from the inner ring to the outer one. He placed his plastic-or at least it seemed like plastic-plate in the outer niche. Then he spilled the water which was left in his glass atop the needle-thin line in the inner metal circle which received the forcefield from above. In almost the same motion he wiped his left forearm vigorously along the metal, getting rid of the water which had pooled on either side of the hair-wide opening. Finally he put his empty glass in the outer niche.
Pulling his arm back and standing he called, "Okay," tensing his large, powerful muscles for the action which was to follow, his eyes fastened tightly on the plasma torch.
Another sharp crack, and . . .
Nothing.
He had thought there would be sparks at the least, perhaps a small fire, and maybe even a potentially lethal arc of electricity conducted along the lower platform and into him. That was a risk he was more than willing to take (death was certainly far better than what would happen to him if he remained in their custody), yet nothing had happened.
Billy walked back around, seeming briefly surprised to find Justin standing. In order to cover this lapse the teenaged Psycho Ranger asked, "Do you think you could bring the portable toilet sooner? Please?"
Billy nodded, picking up the plate and glass and leaving.
As soon as he heard the door whisper shut. Justin extended his hands, his fingers feeling an impenetrable, invisible surface. He traced the forcefield all along the area where he had spilled the water, in growing disbelief. Nothing!
Some of the water had gotten in there, he knew it had! The machine should have shorted out, he should be free by now!
Unless Billy had somehow water-proofed the interior of his device.
Slowly Justin shook his head, in numb resignation. He had no idea how it had been done, but that was the only answer which made sense. Working underwater, with an amphibious species, Billy had found a way to waterproof his inventions.
A scream of mingled rage and frustration tried to claw its way free from Justin's throat and only with great difficulty was he able to choke it back.
Suddenly he wondered if he was going to die here, if that was the only option left for him to exercise.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
They rose with the sun, the Light Rangers greeting the dawn. The Aquitans immediately went to the surface of the nearby sea to fully regenerate themselves. For what was to come they would need to be at the peak of fitness and readiness.
T.J., Cassie, Justin waited at the ruins, their visual receptors occasionally turning to scan the bone-strewn plain.
"If we make it there, do you think we'll have enough?" Justin questioned, glancing up at T.J.
It was an unusually imprecisely phrased question from the little android, but T.J. understood what he was asking perfectly.
"I think if we receive the Great Power, we'll have more than enough energy to defeat the Psycho Rangers," he reassured his teammate. "Billy wouldn't have sent us here unless it was the answer."
"Billy is intelligent and wise," Dulcea's oddly English-accented voice spoke from behind them, and all three androids whirled around, wondering how she had been able to approach them so silently.
"He knows that with the Great Power, anything is possible," Dulcea continued.
Their Aquitan companions joined them and Dulcea spread her arms wide.
"I can aid you no longer, Rangers. If I were to leave this plateau I would begin aging rapidly, and I would not live to see you halfway to your goal. Trust in your Spirits, trust in each other, trust in the Power, and you will achieve all you have sought."
Resuming her form of a snow-white owl, Dulcea disappeared into the blue sky.
"Let us begin," Delphine intoned, and they started toward the Temple.
The endless hours of walking the plains would have been monotonous if not for the bones scattered everywhere. The bones of those who had sought the Great Power in the past, and failed.
Billy had told them that his team had had no trouble at all on the plains. It wasn't until the elephant-type graveyard in the jungle that they'd faced any danger.
So, each of the Light Rangers wondered uneasily during the course of their trek, what had killed these questers? And would it come after them, as it had not after Billy and his teammates?
Perhaps their reasons for seeking the Great Power were unworthy, Delphine speculated. Maybe that was why they'd been struck down.
Whatever had killed all of these people in the past could have been killed itself in a battle, or simply died of old age, Cassie concluded.
Justin noticed that many of the skeletons were neither human, Aquitan, or Eltarian. Maybe they were the remains beings who hadn't been able to survive this long, hot march across open land. If that was the case, though, why had they begun it at all?
They might have had no other choice. Maybe this had been the last hope for their species, for their planet. Just as he and his friends represented the last hope for the galaxy.
Justin shuddered, and tried to think of something else.
It was late in the afternoon when they ceased baking on the plains and stepped into the sweltering jungle. The humidity, the water in the air, made it a more congenial environment for the Aquitans, and a less inviting one for the androids.
The jungles on most worlds teemed with life, the air filled with the noise of furry, arboreal creatures and the flight of avians, with the occasional roar or bellow from one of the larger predators.
This jungle was eerily, unnaturally silent.
Two hours in they came upon clearing where the bones of seemingly dinosaur-sized behemoths lay. Billy had warned them that this was where his group had been attacked by a giant skeleton.
"We'll skirt it," Aurico whispered. "Around the left edge. Follow me."
So they made a path of their own through the jungle, to one side of the vast, surface graveyard of beasts. They rejoined the path, though T.J. couldn't resist looking back, not believing it could be this easy.
It wasn't.
Not one, but ALL of the massive skeletons were rising up and putting themselves together, at least a dozen, each roughly the size of a Triceratops.
"Run!" the Red Ranger shouted, and his comrades didn't question him. They ran, the undead beasts smashing through the jungle after them, knocking down trees and trampling the undergrowth.
A quick glance back at the danger told Aurico they weren't going to make it. The things would overtake and trample them, and without their morphed armor to protect them, the Aquitans would die.
"Get ready! We must fight them!" Aurico called out. This time there were questioning looks and stares of disbelief thrown at the Red Ranger who had spoken, but he had no time for them. The things were getting closer.
"We can't face them head-on! Outmaneuver them!" he commanded.
Dropping back and swerving to the right Aurico deliberately put himself in the sights of one of the foremost beasts. Judging the distance, the creature's pace, calculating, he headed straight for a tree and, using a combination of spirit power and telekinesis, he literally ran straight up the trunk!
When the skull smashed into the base of the tree Aurico flipped off the bark, somersaulting to come down on the thing's neck. Remembering what Billy had told them about how they had defeated their one opponent, Aurico swiftly searched the neck, finding and pulling at the proper section of bone.
The skull fell free from the rest of the macabre being, and the remainder of the skeleton collapsed into pieces beneath him.
The others had stampeded past him, and he swiftly scaled another tree. Grabbing a vine he swung after the pack.
In mid-swing he saw Delphine flip off T.J.'s shoulders, coming down on the neck of a creature as he had, even as T.J. darted out of the way.
Tideus and Cassie had doubled back on the beasts, taking advantage of their difficulty in turning swiftly.
And as he landed on the back of another creature, he saw Justin go down right ahead of him beneath one of their hooves.
"No!" he shouted, reaching forward as though he could somehow change the outcome.
The skeleton continued stomping the area, somehow making a trumpeting sound of triumph while lacking at vocal chords.
It was cut off mid-bellow as it abruptly seemed to levitate into the air. At first Aurico thought Tideus or Delphine had used their telekinesis, but no Aquitan who had ever lived could use TK to lift even half that much weight!
Then he saw a flash of blue down somewhere beneath all the white, and he began to breath again.
Only to lose his breath as the skeletal beast came flying straight at the one he was riding! He jumped, but before he could touch the ground something came flying into the side of his head and he knew no more.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
Cestria tried again to engage her husband over breakfast, but it was a subject Billy was reluctant to speak of.
"My love, I know how difficult this must be for you. I know Tommy was one of your best friends."
"He was," Billy agreed tightly. "And you know how we first met him? As the evil Green Ranger, while he was under Rita's magical control."
In a sudden violent move he smashed his plate and the eel remaining on it from the table and into the wall, shards of plasticite and eel flying everywhere.
"I should have seen it!" he raged. "I should have realized who the Psycho Rangers were!"
Cestria was out of her chair in a flash, kneeling by her husband's side, her hands placed gently on his shoulders. "Listen to me!" she insisted. "This is NOT your fault!"
When he shook his head in wordless denial she shifted her grip to his cheeks, holding his head.
"It is not!" she nearly shouted. "Just as the capture of the Turbo Turbine was not your fault! If you must blame someone, blame the Eltarians for not defending their planet better! Blame the rest of the free galaxy, for not coming to their aid in time! Best of all, blame Dark Specter and the United Alliance of Evil for forcing this war upon us! But do not blame yourself, not now or ever again. If not for what you have done, Dark Specter would already rule the galaxy. We are still here because of you."
"Here, on the edge of destruction," Billy countered bitterly.
"And that, too, is not your fault! All of the GLL intelligence community failed to detect the Gold Psycho Ranger before it was too late. You try, my husband, you try mightily, but in spite of all your efforts, you cannot know everything!" she proclaimed fiercely, placing special emphasis on the last four words.
Lowering his forehead to hers, Billy wept and her arms went around him in an embrace.
Later, he told her, "I just wish I could have done something! If I had known earlier-"
"What could you have done?" Cestria asked reasonably. "If Justin spoke truly, only Tommy's death will shatter the spell."
"I have no real reason to doubt him," Billy admitted quietly. "Everything he's told me so far has been the truth. But Tommy . . ." he paused, unable to find the words to go on.
"He saved us, he saved me, so many times, Cestria."
"I understand," his wife whispered.
"He's the last person who deserves this!" Billy said with sudden vehemence. "He should have been allowed to retire, to enjoy the world he protected for so long."
"Yes," she agreed, and for a time they just sat silently.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
Aurico! Aurico! A voice called within his mind. It was accompanied by a flash of pain and with a groan he brought a hand to the hood surrounding his head, feeling a sticky substance right over the area of pain.
"No telepathy!" he barked. "My head is aching as it is."
"Can you stand?" T.J.'s voice questioned, and he opened his eyes to see all of his teammates clustered around him, the other Red Ranger extending a hand downward. Taking it he was pulled to his feet. He staggered a bit, but found his balance.
"What happened?"
"When one skeleton struck the other, a flying bone hit you in the side of the head," Delphine explained.
Aurico winced, realizing the sticky patch was his own blood. He was most fortunate to have taken the hit in the side of the head, where the bone was thick. Such a blow to the top of the head would have killed him.
"And someone has something to say to you," Cassie put in, her hands on Justin's shoulders.
The littlest Ranger was staring down at the jungle floor, refusing to meet Aurico's gaze. The all-covering blue ninja outfit he wore was badly shredded around the torso, his golden dolphin chest emblem hanging by little more than a thread. The synth-skin underneath it had also been torn, but there seemed to be no further damage.
"I'm sorry, Aurico," the Blue Turbo Ranger confessed. "When I threw my skeleton thing, I didn't realize you were riding that other one! I didn't mean to hurt you!"
"I know, Justin," Aurico said gently. "I'm glad you're all right. When I saw that monster step on you I was afraid we had lost you too."
Now Justin did look up, his eyes meeting Aurico's. "Don't worry, Aurico. We androids are tough."
Laughing he clapped Justin on the shoulder before looking around at the rest.
"No one else was injured," he asked hopefully.
"Just you. Why, you think the rest of us can't take care of ourselves?" Tideus asked cockily.
"Not at all," Aurico responded smoothly. "I knew my team was more than a match for that bunch of boneheads."
The collective groan at his horrible pun was music to Aurico's ears.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
They reached the Temple as the sun was starting to go down.
It was just as Billy had described it: built into the side of the small mountain they were facing, a massive stone door flanked by pillars, with a diamond-shaped pattern of four niches in the door.
To the left of the Temple a gentle waterfall cascaded down into a pool of clear, extremely powerful acid, while a rocky path zigzagged up the mountain on the right.
In the niches had been statues of black-furred, hoglike armored bipeds with great axes and maces that had come to life to challenge them. They were the final obstacle to obtaining the Great Power.
Aurico and the others approached and he raised his eyes to the door, only to stop in shock.
It wasn't statues of the creatures Billy had described in the four niches: it was the statues of Rangers. Two Aquitans, two humans, and as they shifted from stone he saw their colors: Black, Yellow, Green and Blue.
"Corcus!" Delphine called out, the yearning plain in her voice.
"Cestro!" Justin shouted, following suite.
In response the Black and Blue Rangers drew their back-sheathed swords, while Yellow twirled her Star Chargers and Green brandished his Turbo Thunder cannon.
"These aren't our friends!" Aurico shouted. "Scatter!" he commanded as the Green Ranger discharged his Thunder Cannon, his friends barely avoiding the blast.
Aurico raced forward, even as the Black, Yellow and Blue Ranger dropped from their niches, leaving only the Green Ranger remaining in the highest niche. T.J. flanked him, while Delphine raced for the path on the right, up the mountainside.
He couldn't see where Tideus, Cassie, and Justin had gone, and right now it didn't matter; far from being able to help them , he was going to have enough problems just trying to stay alive himself.
Aurico was an expert swordsman, the product of his own natural talent and of more than a decade's worth of intense, determined training. Aside from perhaps the Red Psycho Ranger, he was willing to confidently pit his swordsmanship against any other being in the galaxy, including this Corcus imitator. Yes, he would have been confident of winning this duel.
If he'd had a sword of his own.
Without one he was reduced to dodging the swipes of the shining blade, evading each thrust and jab. Out of the corner of his eye he saw T.J. doing the same, only a few feet to his left. He'd feared the Ashley-doppelganger would flank them, but she was instead sprinting up the path after Delphine, while the Green changeling poured blaster fire beyond them, presumably at the other three Rangers.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
Tideus came flying from the left to knock Cassie down to the ground, the blast from the Green Ranger imposter barely passing over them. She, Tideus and Justin had been driven back into the jungle, pinned down by the sniper on the stone door's highest niche. Justin was prone, seeming to be looking around the ground for some reason, and Cassie had just tried to rise to get a view of what was happening.
"Thanks, Tideus," she whispered to him as he crawled off her.
"What would you do without me?" the Yellow Ranger asked mockingly, as Justin pounded at the ground.
"There aren't any rocks around here to throw!" he exclaimed furiously.
"We should have taken some of those rib bones," Tideus pointed out. "We could have used them as spears."
Unfortunately they hadn't, and so at the moment they were helpless to aid their friends.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
Delphine ran along the path, stopping when she was above the temple and its gun-wielding guard. She wished with all of her heat that they had been able to fight the things Billy had, and not just because they had lacked ranged weapons. Having to face these simulacrums of their fallen friends was terrible! Only by pretending they were Psycho Rangers was she able to keep her focus.
Now if she leapt down from here, she should be able to-
A jolt of electricity flashed through her and she crumpled to the path. Rolling onto her back she saw the Yellow Guardian looming over her, Star Chargers sparking. Forcing her aching muscles to obey her she seized her enemy's wrists as the Star Chargers came down for another blow. This thing was stronger than she was, however, and she wouldn't be able to hold the weapons back for long.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
The sword tip opened a painful cut on his left side as he failed to dodge quickly enough and Aurico hissed in pain. How had Billy said they'd beaten these things? One had plunged into the acid pool, one they'd crushed under boulders on the path, one they'd tricked the other into destroying and one they'd just hit really hard into the door.
Consciously T.J. knew he wasn't facing Cestro. Subconsciously, however, he couldn't help expecting the opponent using Cestro's form to also use his style, his techniques. Hence he was taken by surprise when his enemy launched a jackhammer-like side kick into his torso, undoubtedly denting his metal even as it knocked him to the ground.
Aurico saw T.J. go down, saw the Blue's sword level itself at his chest, and without even time to think, he acted. Seizing his foe's left wrist, he used that lock and all of his strength to hurl his black-armored enemy on top of T.J. When the sword came down, it buried itself in their enemy rather than the Red Ranger.
The Black Ranger facsimile broke apart into chunks of rock as the Blue one turned its' attention to Aurico, its slashes forcing him back, toward the pool of acid.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
Drawing up one leg, Delphine braced her foot against her attacker's stomach and then sent it somersaulting over her head. The White Ranger scrambled to her feet and took off back down the path, the Yellow doppelganger hot on her heels.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
"Aurico, down!" T.J. shouted as he regained his feet. The Red Aquitan Ranger dropped into a square, footstool-like crouch before his opponent. T.J. rammed the Blue imposter from behind, sending his tumbling over the prone Aurico and into the pool of acid.
As he watched the thing disintegrate, a blaze of energy blasted off T.J's right arm. He dropped to the ground and Aurico had to flip over him to avoid the blast aimed at him.
Now Justin broke cover, racing toward the pile of stones which had been the Black attacker, ignoring the shouts to wait. The Green sniper shifted his aim, and had Aurico not had the presence of mind to use his telekinesis to yank the barrel upward, he would have gotten in a direct hit on Justin's chest which would have surely finished the android.
Grabbing one of the stone pieces, Justin rifled it at the Green guardian's weapon, smashing it almost in two. Behind him Tideus and Cassie ran forward, while Delphine came back down to their level, closely pursued by the Yellow guardian.
Aurico knelt to see if T.J. was still functional, the Green imposter leapt down and Cassie and Tideus swerved to cut off Delphine's pursuer.
She nailed each of them with a Star Charger, though without her morphed armor the effect was worse on Cassie, causing her entire system to reboot. Delphine shifted, coming back toward the Yellow creature to defend Cassie and Tideus, even as Justin stepped in front of the Green Ranger.
Yet the Green Ranger imposter flipped over Justin, striking down Delphine from behind. The Yellow simulacrum hit Tideus again with both Star Charges. Then it dropped its weapons, lifted him overhead, and hurled him into the pool.
Tideus' agonized death screams as his body was swiftly eaten away immobilized Aurico and Delphine. Cassie was still rebooting and T.J. had yet to rise after the loss of his arm. The Green imposter was about to stomp Delphine's skull when a blue-clad fist came smashing out of his chest.
Even as he crumbled Justin was swerving around him, coming at the Yellow Guardian, who had regained her Star Chargers. Grabbing the weapons from the sides Justin crushed them both. Yellow staggered him with a chest kick, but he grabbed her throat and one thigh, and threw her into the pool as well.
They had won . . . but at what cost?
ΩΩΩΩΩ
Seldom could Billy remember a day so frantic. Between interrogating Justin, conveying his information to the fleet, examining the Psycho Morpher, and putting the finishing touches on Ashley and Carlos' new bodies, now each occupying a table in his workshop, he felt absolutely drained by the time it was lunch, which he couldn't even have because this was the time the military board wanted him in holo-conference again.
The only thing which helped was how Cestria had come to aid him. Though she lacked the technological know-how of Justin or Cestro, merely his presence was calming to him. He was more than half-tempted to ask her to come with him to the holo-conference, but she was not technically military personnel and the last thing he needed to do was to give Admiral Garthok something else to complain about. So he left her with a kiss, and she promised lunch would be ready when he got back.
"Could I have a lunch, please?" a voice called out right after the door slid closed, and she realized it had come from their prisoner.
Walking over to the forcefield generator, she stared sympathetically at their cross-legged captive. She knew her husband saw much of himself in the Robot Ranger Justin, and she likewise cared for the boy. It was a tragedy that his original template had fallen to such a terrible fate. As Billy had observed of Tommy, Justin deserved better.
"What would you like?" she asked kindly.
He wouldn't look at her, his head still bowed. "Anything is fine," he mumbled.
He would need a psychic healer when this war was done, she was certain. Perhaps his robot counterpart could aid him in recovering.
She would make him Billy's favorite eel dish. It took only a few minutes, and then she was depositing it, a drink of water, and a springy aurmok in the outer niche. Moving to the control panel she shifted the forcefield to the outer, allowing him to access the food and drink.
When he was finished she went back to the controls, shifting the forcefield back to outer. "Okay," he said, and she pressed the button to shift the forcefield again, just as he said something else.
Then a piercing scream, as terrible as anything she'd heard on the field of battle, echoed through the room. Coming back around at a run Cestria beheld an awful sight: Blood practically fountained out of the four stumps on Justin's left hand, hitting the forcefield and running down it in a trail of crimson gore. His right hand clutched at his left, his head thrown back and his mouth gaping open as he howled his pain to the heavens. Below, in the niche, four severed fingers lay in a pile on the plate.
She'd turned the forcefield back on too soon, and amputated his fingers!
If she'd had time to coldly and logically examine the terrible scene, to truly study every detail as one would for a beautiful landscape painting, perhaps Cestria would have wondered why Justin's left thumb had not been cut off. In its natural position on an outstretched hand, the thumb would have been sliced in half by the forcefield that had taken his fingers so neatly and completely.
Perhaps she wouldn't have. In either case, the answer was irrelevant, as there was simply no time to waste. The horrific knowledge of what she, an aspiring healer, had done to a man already suffering from the most terrible guilt, led Cestria to operate entirely on instinct. Moving perhaps faster than she ever had in her life, Cestria ran back to the controls, turning off the forcefield and shouting "Medical emergency! Healer to the workroom!"
As she came back toward Justin, intent on administering what aid she could, he released his left hand and brought his right fist crashing down onto the delicate top of her skull.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
As he'd watched four of his fingers tumble onto the plate, Justin had reminded himself for the thousandth time that this was the only way! It was horrific self-mutilation, far worse than anything he had ever imagined willingly subjecting himself to, but it was the ONLY WAY! This was the last card he had to play, the final roll of the dice he would be allowed. Lose your fingers or lose your life; that was the choice he'd had to make.
That it was Cestria and not Billy who was attending to him only confirmed that this was the right time to put his plan into action. Billy might yet have mastered himself, might have let his intelligence guide him rather than his compassion.
His wife had done no such thing.
Bringing his fist down on her head brought such fierce joy that Justin wished he could do it over and over again, but there was no time. Healers would be on their way here and he would be going into shock soon.
Whipping off his shirt he wrapped it around his hand, temporarily staunching the flow of blood. Picking up the plate with his-his fingers on it in his right hand, he turned toward the door, stopping when he saw the android bodies of Cassie and Carlos. Mind racing, he grabbed the plasma torch in his mouth and went to the storage device. Setting the plate down on the chair, he switched the plasma torch on and left it leaning on the top of the memory storage unit.
Snatching up the plate again his eyes desperately searched across the table, looking for his Psycho Morpher. If he could just morph, then he wouldn't have to worry about his wound or the onset of shock. He could slaughter the coming medical team, then find and kill Billy before leaving, a thought which filled him with delicious anticipation.
There! On the table nearest the door! But he'd removed the outer casing . . . and as Justin drew near, he saw that the morpher's power leads had been cut.
Again a scream pierced the air of the workroom, but this was no cry of pain; it was a bellow of purest, almost animal fury. Just like his left hand, his morpher had been mutilated.
Setting down his place, he shoved the device into his right pocket and with his plate in hand staggered out of the room, half-slumping over the controls, his blue shirt around his hand now almost black with blood.
Where could he go? This equipment would drop the planetary shield automatically to allow his egress, but he was teleporting from fucking Aquitar, how could he get the UAE to drop shields to allow him onto any planet or vessel?!
Wait, of course! Working feverishly with his one remaining hand, he set the computer to locate the Envenomed Blade, hoping against hope that Billy had specially flagged that ship in the computer's database. If he hadn't . . .
He had.
"This is the Blue Psycho Ranger!" he shouted into the comm as he locked onto the location and the door slid open, three astonished Aquitans staring at him with wide eyes. "I'm teleporting to the ship, drop the shields!"
He grabbed his plate, hit the button with the cloth-covered stump of a hand he had left, and in a flare of bright blue light he was gone.
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