Summary: The Rescue of Rhapsody Angel.
Notes: TRIGGER WARNING for themes of abuse, this follows Followed, Missing and Explosion.
Ian and Elaine retired from Spectrum not long before Simone died, so the current Captain Grey, Ochre and Magenta, are Brad, Rick and Pat...
Found
2098
Colonel Scarlet quietly checked his gear for umpteenth time as he tried to calm his already shot nerves, there was no room for error on this one, if they failed, they would not only lose Rhapsody forever, but Skybase would lose all her colour officers, with the exception of Blue, Green, Chartreuse, the Doctors and the Skybase kids - and it was still a waiting game to whether Amber and Turquoise were going to recover from their injuries from the missile attack on the security conference days before.
But after Mahogany's initial reaction to the area where Scarlet sensed Rhapsody's location, he knew that they were going to have to have every man that could get to take out this Mysteron nest.
It had taken longer than he would have liked to get to this point, he was rearing to go as soon as he had woken up properly after being badly injured, in the same blast that had put Amber and Turquoise out of commission, but he hadn't completely healed, and he had started to fight with the Doctors when they wouldn't let him out of his bed.
A fight that was ended by the appearance of the retired former Colonel White, who had just come up to Skybase with Amber's parents, the retired former Lieutenant Colonel's Grey and Ochre.
Charles Grey had wasted no time in proving, that even though he was eighty-six, that he still had no trouble with dealing with unruly officers, and by the time Ian had collected Blue from his hospital bed, both Scarlet and Mahogany were lying in their beds like good little boys that had done nothing wrong.
After having Scarlet explain the situation in regards to Rhapsody, Blue ordered Scarlet and Mahogany to start planning a rescue mission for the missing Angel pilot, and the elimination of the Mysteron nest holding her, to be carried out as soon the Doctors cleared them for duty.
But that was when they hit their first problem, Scarlet didn't have Rhapsody's exact location, only a rough idea on where to look - which was a warehouse in the UK, of which there were hundreds of them, if not thousands.
That was when Mahogany mentioned the bond Scarlet shared with Rhapsody, he used it to find her before he could use it to find her again.
Mahogany then went on to explain, how his bonds between his wife and sister worked, the bond between him and Kesha was one where he could feel if she was physically injured or in pain, he could even get the occasional vision of what Kesha was seeing from it.
Mahogany then looked Scarlet dead in the eye and said that the bond between Coral and himself was, for the lack of a better term, a mating bond, which allowed them to feel each other's emotions, via their telepathic abilities.
Scarlet's eyes had flown open at that statement, and had shot a nervous look at his daughter, who just looked at him and shrugged.
"Clara, I-"
"You don't have to explain it to me, dad," Coral replied. "I was there the day the two of you met, remember?" She sighed. "As for things happening so fast after Mother died, you do realise that she had been treating you badly, due to her own insecurities, for years prior to her asking you for a divorce, right?"
Scarlet stared at his daughter as Mahogany continued to explain the thing that both bonds have in common was the fact that if you focused on them you could use it to find the other person.
Mahogany had done it with Kesha, and Scarlet was privy to Mahogany's experiments with Coral, so Scarlet decided to give things a try.
Only to be swamped with Rhapsody's emotions as soon as he opened the link.
It took a few moments, with Mahogany's and Coral's help, to get his own emotions under control and focusing on finding on the link that he could use to find her.
After he found it, he sent all the reassurance to Rhapsody he could, he was coming, and nothing was going to stop him getting to her.
Now that they had the means of finding Rhapsody, they had another problem, Scarlet knew that there was a nest of Mysterons guarding Black and holding Dianne prisoner, without any recognisance they would be walking straight into a trap.
He knew Rhapsody was in a warehouse, a well guarded one, but driving around all the warehouses in the UK seeing if she was in one of them was impractical…
And would also tip the Mysterons off to his presence before he even got a chance to get close.
It was Symphony, who had come down to Medical to check on her half-brother and father (and to check out Doc Fawn, but Scarlet kept that bit of information to himself), that came up with the solution.
So, as soon as Scarlet was released from the medical wing the next day, he was in one of the Angel craft out on 'manoeuvres' - which was actually trying to pinpoint Rhapsody's approximate location from air.
And soon as they got an approximate location they started running satellite scans on the general area.
In the zone they found a site full of abandoned warehouses, that had been foreclosed on by the bank, one of these warehouses could not be seen into with the satellite's scanners.
They had found the Mysteron nest.
But getting to it without tipping off the Mysteron's was not going to be an easy task, and while they were brainstorming ideas Mahogany disappeared with Magenta.
They were still trying to figure out a way to get to the warehouse, when Mahogany burst in claiming that the warehouses had just come under new ownership and that the new owner was planning on using the warehouses as storage for weapons to aid Bereznik in their fight against the world government.
Blue looked at the evidence in the report, "How convenient," he told Mahogany. "Did you manage to confirm the Mysterons were there?"
Mahogany nodded, "I don't think they noticed me, but I wouldn't sit on it too long," he replied.
Blue gave the order moments later, and now here they were waiting for the last of Spectrum's personal to get in position.
0o0o0
The attack began with the Angels screaming overhead and blowing up the empty warehouses surrounding the warehouse that Rhapsody was in, there were no homeless in these warehouses, it appeared the Mysterons either killed them themselves, or simply scared them away, the burning warehouses provided cover for the two Rhinos that came charging in behind them.
The Mysterons opened fire in return, but since this was a set up that was meant to be kept low key they didn't have much in the way of powerful weapons to bring to the battle, and Scarlet and his team were able to smash into the warehouse and bring down many of the Mysterons without leaving the rhino.
But they had to leave the rhino to get to Rhapsody.
Leaving White, Grey, Ochre and Magenta with the rhino's to cover their backs and retreat, Scarlet, along with Mahogany, Navy and Copper, proceeded to the offices to retrieve Rhapsody.
It wasn't easy going, they had been ambushed more than once as they made their way down the corridor, Scarlet had remembered passing through to find Rhapsody, but eventually they got to the room that Black had kept Rhapsody in.
Only to find Rhapsody wasn't there, Black had clearly moved her.
Scarlet reached out to his connection with her and sensed that Black hadn't gotten far with her.
"Black is still nearby," Mahogany snarled, as he looked to the door Black had obviously left by. "Watch yourselves, he may have booby trapped the exit."
Scarlet, who had been just about to charge through the door stopped at the last second, had he taken another step he would have tripped the wire Black had strung across the door.
Scarlet and Mahogany exchanged a look, "You are going have to let me go first, Paul," Mahogany commented, as he disarmed the mine. "You're the only one that can track Dianne across any distance, if you get taken out before we get to her, and Black escapes, we have no hope in keeping track of her."
Scarlet growled and nodded, as he fell in behind Mahogany.
Mahogany had disarmed two more such traps, before they caught up to Black.
Black was holding a still naked and struggling Rhapsody in front of him as a shield, as he slowly backed up to a large black SUV, with two Mysteron guards covering his sides.
The Spectrum officers had to dive for cover as the guards opened fire, Mahogany hissing as a bullet scratched his arm.
"PAUL!" Rhapsody screamed.
"Quite the firecracker you have here, Scarlet," Black taunted. "Hope you don't mind that I claimed her for myself."
Scarlet nearly broke cover, "Keep your head, Paul," Mahogany hissed. "He wants you to attack blindly."
Scarlet took a deep breath, "Let her go, Black," he shouted back.
"Now why would I let the mother of my future child go?" Black replied. "You inspired me with Coral and since you took Destiny from me, it's only fair that I claim your mate as mine."
Before Scarlet could reply, Rhapsody cut in, "Bullshit," she snarled. "He is lying Paul, if he had Coral in his hands, he would to the same things he done to me to her, he doesn't want children, he wants slaves he can control."
Scarlet winced when he heard Rhapsody cry out in pain, apparently Black didn't appreciate being undermined.
Scarlet looked at Mahogany and Navy who had moved into position, "Last chance, Black," he shouted. "Let Rhapsody go and surrender."
"Never," Black snarled, as Mahogany and Navy broke cover and shot the two Mysteron guards.
Seeing that he was beaten, Black pulled his weapon and shot Mahogany in the shoulder and chest, while hurling Rhapsody at Scarlet and Copper, then turning his gun on Navy, who managed to dive for cover, before jumping into the SUV and tearing out of the warehouse with Copper and Navy firing shots at the car, and shouting into their cap microphones.
Scarlet, who had managed to catch Rhapsody before she hit the ground, quickly removed the restraints on her wrists, before pulling the sobbing woman into a tight hug, "It's going to be okay, Dianne," he whispered to her. "I've got you."
Rhapsody buried her face into Scarlet's shoulder and cried.
0o0o0
Symphony Angel saw the Black SUV as it tore out of the warehouse, "This is Symphony," she called into her comm. "Black's SUV sighted, permission to fire?"
"Permission granted."
Symphony fired on the SUV and scored a direct hit, "This is Symphony, target destroyed, I repeat, target destroyed."
0o0o0
Scarlet, with a sobbing Rhapsody in his arms, Mahogany, who only had an injured shoulder, thanks to his body armour doing it's job for once, Navy and Copper were making their way back to the rhino's when they realised that the Mysterons had left behind a parting gift.
"Self destruct!" Mahogany shouted, "We need to get back to the rhino now! Ochre, Magenta, get your rhino out now! Grey, White, be ready to move as soon as we get in!"
They got out of the building with seconds to spare as the final warehouse in the lot blew up.
0o0o0
The Spectrum officers from the London office were left to clean up the mess while the Skybase officers returned to base with their precious cargo.
Rhapsody wouldn't let anyone but Scarlet touch her, Mahogany was the only male officer that could come close to her, without her quivering with fear, and she was terrified at the idea of being left alone, frightened that Black would comeback and reclaim her.
The former Colonel White, looked through the glass of the observa mirror that had been built into the wall of these particular quarters on Skybase, at Scarlet and Rhapsody as they were lying on the bed together, as Rhapsody sobbed in Scarlet's arms, while Scarlet tried to soothe her.
These quarters were designed so that anyone that was staying in them, could be observed without the subjects noticing it.
Charles had heard that this was the quarters that Mahogany had first stayed in after he had been let out of the brig when he first came to Skybase, "Bit different being on this side of the glass, Mahogany?" He asked the young man beside him.
Mahogany snorted, softly, "A little," he replied, as he hugged his wife. "Dianne and Paul know we are here if they need us."
"It's going take time," Dr. Fawn commented, as Colonel Blue walked into the room. "I hope Paul is up for this, because Dianne is not going recover from this overnight."
"Then there's the whole possibility that she could be pregnant," Symphony mentioned quietly.
"I hope she is, for her sake," Blue muttered.
Everyone in the room turned to face Blue in shock, "You did not just say that," Coral hissed.
"You better have an explanation for that comment, Adam," Charles growled viscously.
Blue held his hands up defensively, "Sorry," he replied. "I should have led with, do you think she will be able to return to full duty in a month Doctor?"
"A month!?!" Mahogany hissed. "Kevin was kidnapped and abused for two days, now more than ten years latter, it's a fight to get him to leave the Island to do anything, because he is petrified that someone is going to attack him again," he pointed at Rhapsody. "Dianne was constantly abused for more than two months, and you expect her to get over that in a month!?!"
"Research and Development, do," Blue growled back. "If Rhapsody is not fit for duty in a month, I have been ordered to hand her over to their 'care,'" he sighed. "If she is pregnant, I can buy more time, granted she will have the extra challenge of having the baby, and accepting it, but she will have nearly a year to get into a better head space."
"If Dianne's pregnant, and rejects the baby," Coral cut in. "We'll take him or her," she looked at Mahogany, who after a few moments nodded.
Blue shook his head, "They are not going let you do that," he replied sadly. "R and D want a test subject, and they will be taking any rejected children that Dianne, or you I might add, may have, regardless of what opinion you or I may have."
Charles frowned, as he looked at the couple in the other room, "You do realise," he commented. "That you are going to have a mutiny on your hands if you let R and D take that girl and/or any child she may have."
"Oh, I'm aware," Blue replied. "And with all due respect sir, it will be Spectrum's governing body dealing with the fallout, because if there is a mutiny…"
"I will be the one leading it."
Notes: So, Dianne is home safe… For now… She has a lot of baggage to work through and no time to do it in.
Because there are humans that wish harm to the Myst's as well.
The only reason why R and D mostly leave Scarlet, Mahogany and Coral alone is because that they are serving officers and they have access to their medical records, if any one of them were to leave Spectrum, they would find themselves taken into custody as alien spies.
As for the Mysterons, Black has survived having his car being blown up before - he will be back…