Episode 7

Going Dark- Part II

Miguel's knees hit the hard concrete as the green light dropped him to the ground. The room was dark; his hands pressed against the cold, moist earth as he buckled on all fours, shaking.

His mind was spinning. He couldn't breathe. An icy chill pickled his skin, like a creeping breeze that loomed over his shoulder. For a moment, Miguel felt himself begin to shift, threatening to crack again into the black smoke and flash him to another part of the room. It took all his might to stop it, to ground himself in the darkness. To process all that just unfolded.

The blast.

The powers.

The Morpher!

…Abbey.

What had he done?

They'd all just stared at him, huddled together on the ground in defeat, their expressions a tempest of confusion that looked equal parts betrayed and frightened. Frightened of him; of what he'd become.

Of what Lena had made him.

"Miguel?"

He whipped around, hands planted behind him as Miguel stared up at his only remaining friend. She stood beside him, enveloped in the darkness that curled around them. Only now Lena looked different. Her regular clothes were gone, replaced with a strange olive-green armor that encased her from her feet to her neck.

"What…?" was all he could stammer. "What's going on?"

"Miguel, it's okay," Lena assured him. "We're somewhere safe. They can't get to us here."

But safe was the last thing Miguel was feeling. Where they were was so dark he couldn't see a way out, and Lena's armor made her look far more threatening than anything else he'd seen that day. And that Morpher, it….

With wide eyes, Miguel stared down at the device on his wrist, realizing everything it had made him do. It had made him strong, and powerful. And it made him dangerous.

When he'd turned it on, he'd been scared and confused, torn between two places without knowing what else to do. But as the power had flushed through him, those feelings had vanished, and as the helm had enclosed his vision, the only feeling left was a willingness to fight.

He'd wanted to fight.

To hurt them.

Abbey…

"What did it…?" Miguel gasped. "What have I done?"

And then another voice sounded out through the darkness, a snide, gleeful cackle that seemed perpetually entertained by its own sharp wit. The figure stepped from the shadows, and Miguel gasped as he flinched away. It was the blue man from the park, the one with the cane who had ordered the robots to clobber him.

"My, my," he snickered. "Teething issues, Mileena?"

Miguel's eyes widened, flinching back as his arms snapped up in an instinctive guard. "You!"

"Oh, right," the man replied with more amusement than sincerity. "We had a scuffle the other day, didn't we? Well, no hard feelings, right?"

"Miguel," Lena said calmly. "It's okay, he's not going to hurt you."

"A lot of people have been telling me that lately," Miguel replied. Every nerve was shaking, screaming at him to run. But run where?

And then, yet another spoke from the shadows, only this one curled like icing fingers crawling down his spine. Another man stepped into view, this one draped in dark and purpled robes, his face concealed behind a metal mask. A large-armored warrior loomed behind him, his face concealed behind a helm that seemed to glare at him through the dark.

"Now, now, Ender," said the man in robes. "You appear to be scaring our guest."

"My lord, Xaviax!" Lena gasped in surprise, kneeling at the figure's arrival. Miguel took another step in subconscious retreat, but there was nowhere left to go. He pressed as flat against the wall as he could in a desperate attempt to get away, knowing it was to no avail.

"Ahh, our new Dark Ranger," Xaviax mused. "Welcome. And thank you for your fine work."

"I don't work for you," Miguel insisted. "I don't work for anyone."

"We'll see," Xaviax replied. "But for now, why don't you have a tour of our facilities? I'm sure that you'll find them quite… captivating."

He snapped his fingers, and two of those strange robots lunged at him from the shadows. They grabbed at his limbs, squeezing him tight and locking him in place. From there, all Miguel could do was scream, as the same emerald light that had brought him there flashed again, blinding his vision as it spirited him away.


The journey back to the lab was long, not least because they had to hobble down the parking tower and back a block to Abbey's car. Climbing into the Prius, Erika's limbs painfully protested as she lowered herself into the seat, certain that she wouldn't be able to peel herself out when they got back to the museum. Half an hour later, the trio was downstairs in the lab, sore, bruised, and beaten, while Ray and Hilary's demeanor was doing little to lift their deflated spirits.

"That could have gone a lot worse," Ray admitted. "We're just glad you guys made it out."

"Miguel didn't," Abbey replied. Her voice was soft and distant, but every ounce of bitterness still dripped from her words.

Sadly, all Ray could do was nod and agree. "Yeah," he said sadly. "Yeah, we know. We're going to get him back."

Zeke straightened up at the comment, face twisting in an angry scowl. "Do we even want to? He didn't exactly seem under duress when kicking our butts."

With hurt and confusion shaking in her eyes Abbey's face flashed to him, scowling narrowing in ill-humor. But she didn't say anything, and Erika could only assume it was for the same reason that she hadn't jumped on Zeke for his comment. Because of all the hurt that Abbey was feeling, she couldn't say that he was wrong.

Miguel had taken that Morpher by choice. He had sided with Lena, and he had mopped the floor with them. Ray and Hilary were acting like Miguel was Lena's captive, but did that make him their friend?

"We don't know what's going on yet," said Hilary. "None of us expected what Mileena was planning, we're all in the dark on this. Including what that means for Miguel."

Her bottom lip quivering, Abbey looked at Ray with fresh desperation as Erika sank further with her teammate's anguish. Because as much as Abbey was a tempest of turmoil, Erika knew the blame resided elsewhere. With herself.

She'd done this. She'd ignored Hilary's warnings, not one, but all of them. She'd hoped to change the tune, but Mileena had her fully wrapped up in strings. Lena had played her from start to finish, and Erika had her.

After all this time, it was like she'd learned nothing.

"It wasn't meant to go this way?" Abbey asked. "Was it?"

"An evil Ranger? No," said Hilary, shaking his head. "Although it has been known to happen."

"You guys have been through a lot," Ray told them. "And it's times like these we've got to dig deep. There's nothing we can do right now, but Hilary and I will tell you the moment that changes. In the meantime, you guys need to take care of yourselves. You need to let yourselves rest and get back to peak shape. That's the best thing you can do right now, for you and the city."

Slowly, Erika watched as Abbey and Zeke both nodded begrudgingly, peeling themselves from the slumping chairs and slowly walking toward the elevator. "Come on," Zeke suggested to Abbey as they stepped inside the elevator. "Let's get some tea. That usually helps right?"

Erika's feet, however, refused to budge, as if glued to the floor in all-consuming self-pity. The doors closed behind them, leaving her with the two veteran Rangers, staring into the distance without a clue of where to even begin.

"Erika?" Ray asked quietly. "How're you going?"

She didn't even have the anger to hit something, all of the rage sapped from her body in horror. Because of what she'd done. And what she hadn't.

"I'm sorry," Erika started. The words almost thoughtlessly left her mouth, and now she'd started, they were blathering out with no control. "You warned us we should have morphed earlier, and then you told us to run. I should have…"

But Ray simply raised his hand, quieting her with a comforting look. "No plan ever survives contact with the enemy. You were there; we weren't. You made a call, and you had your reasons. Only hindsight will ever tell if it's the right one."

"But how do I know I'm making the right one?" Erika asked sullenly. "I give into my anger. I screw up. I hold it back, it's not enough. I try to stop things from getting worse, and I do the opposite. My friends relied on me, and instead, it all went to hell. Now Abbey's even more of a mess, and Miguel…"

Slowly, Hilary turned to the keys and punched in a code, the screen flashing to show a strange creature. It looked like a large, boxy car battery, limbs protruding from its body with a strange, unnerving face looking back at her.

"What's this?" Erika asked. "A bad Halloween costume?"

"This," said Hilary, "is the first monster that ever kicked our butts. Second time out with our Morphers, and it floored us."

"Wouldn't be the last time, either," Ray admitted. "Or the worst."

"Or embarrassing," Hilary finished.

Without any of the sinking sadness fading, Erika couldn't help but feel a smile creep to her lips. Being beaten by that? It did sound embarrassing.

"The city's still standing," Ray assured her. "And so are you. You brought your whole team back. That's a win, and sometimes it's the win you need to hold on to. To give you the strength to get back up when they knock you down. What happened with Miguel was not your fault, and beating yourself about it isn't going to help fix it. You did the best you could."

"It still wasn't enough," said Erika.

Ray nodded. "True, and sometimes the glass isn't half full; sometimes it's empty. But I know you're still going to kick butt next time you go out there; that when the time comes to deal with Miguel, you'll be ready. And you'll handle it."

It wasn't much of a pickup, and Erika suspected that Ray knew she barely believed half of it. But it was enough to unroot her feet, to renew her strength enough to make her way to the elevator.

"I meant what I said," Ray assured her. "You need to take care of yourself. And the next time we run into Lena and Miguel, we'll be ready."

Erika nodded, bidding both Ray and Hilary thanks before moving to the elevator. But as doors closed behind her, she seriously doubted what she could even do at all.


The new room was even darker than the last, a cold stillness hanging in the air that clung to his skin with every breath. Four walls, low and dark ceiling; only one way out. The first thing Miguel had tried was the door, his hand desperately hammering against the metal surface as he'd found the handle missing. But it didn't move, and no one answered.

He was trapped. And he was alone.

Four walls and a bench, the shadows curling in the corners with barely a flicking fluorescent for ambient light. It was taking all his effort to stop his teeth from chattering, to not jump at every imagined movement and every creaking sound.

When the door finally groaned open, he almost leaped across the room.

"It's okay," said Lena, hands raised in peace as she stepped inside. "It's only me."

She was in normal clothes again, the same white jacket and light capris she'd been wearing at the parking tower. The armor from earlier was gone, or… had he just imagined it? The unfolding events of the last few hours were so insane that Miguel had no idea what to even believe anymore.

But as Lena approached him cautiously, another thought occurred to him. Lena had opened the door from the outside, and she'd stepped into the cell without any hint of protest. She knew about the device, the Morpher. She had been the one to bring him there.

And that meant she wasn't his friend; she was with them.

"What do you want?" Miguel growled as she stepped closer.

"I just want to make sure you're okay," Lena said. "The last few hours have been, well… they've been a lot."

"Thanks to who?"

Taking the point, Lena nodded in concession as she again stepped deeper into the room. Sitting on the bench that was bolted to the wall, she pointedly left a space for him to sit. Miguel didn't move.

"I know you've got questions," Lena admitted. "And you need to believe me when I say this was not how I wanted you to find out about all of this."

"Find out what?" Miguel spat. "That you're working with those Robo-psychos? That you've got some crazy armor and a sword? Were you even in any danger?"

"Of course, I was!" Lena insisted. "The Rangers, they would've destroyed me if they had the chance. You saw it yourself; when things got tough, they came at us with everything they had."

"Then why do I get the feeling that the only person that actually knew what was in that trunk was you?" His words snarled with dripping venom, the only defense Miguel had left. He was cornered, trapped, and Lena clearly had friends in high places. The only thing Miguel had was that strange device still strapped to his wrist. The device that had caused him to attack his friends.

But… had it? It hadn't controlled him or made him do something that he hadn't wanted. And yet, what shocked Miguel the most was that he had wanted to. A feeling that had only emerged when the power surged through him. It had made him feel invincible, and that terrified him.

"I needed you to see," Lena insisted. "To realize that the Power Rangers are dangerous. But I knew that if you got a taste of the power I can give you, you'd realize the truth. Because they'd do everything to stop you from getting it, because the Power Rangers are your enemy, as much they're mine."

"My enemy?" Miguel scoffed. "And what exactly makes them that?"

"Miguel," Lena reasoned. "They betrayed you. They held you in contempt, they lied to you."

"And what did you do? Did you really think that I'd go along with what you wanted if I knew about all of… this?"

"There's nothing that I showed you that wasn't the truth," said Lena. "I might have left a few things out, but it was because I didn't want to overwhelm you. I've never lied to your face. Unlike Abbey, who remained insistent in her falsehoods even when you called her out on it. And what did they do when they saw your power? They attacked you."

But they weren't the only ones. Erika had jumped him, sure. Miguel shouldn't have been surprised by that; she'd always been itching for a fight as long as he'd known her. And Zeke seemed to hold some kind of resentment toward him. But Abbey, Abbey had stayed out of it. Yet somehow had been right in the path of his final attack. Because someone had thrown her in there.

"And what did you do?" he asked. "Because from where I'm standing, you didn't have any trouble handling yourself."

"Now you see!" Lena replied excitedly. "Now you realize what we could do! The power that we hold together. If we fight side-by-side, we would be unstoppable; we could destroy the Rangers!"

Whoa…!

Miguel snapped back, horrified at Lena's suggestion. He'd been scared, panicked. In feeling the power surging through, maybe even carried away. But he never wanted that.

"Destroy them?" he gasped. "I don't want to destroy them! They're my friends. They're yours too! Or at least… they were…."

"Friends?" Lena scoffed. "They were never my friends. They are, and always have been my enemy. Just as they're now yours."

"That can't be true! You spent time with them, laughed with them. Was all that a lie too?"

The question seemed to catch Lena off guard, her eyes blinking with confusion as she paused to reply. "No…" she reasoned slowly. "That was all real. But…"

"It was all an act." Miguel finished for her. "All just play-acting to get them to trust you? To help you destroy them?"

This time Lena didn't reply, mouth hanging as if she knew the words but couldn't bring herself to form them. Because if her friendship with the others was never real, what could she possibly say for her one with him?

"Destroying the Rangers," she said eventually. "It's my very reason for being. It's why I was created, it's everything I've ever worked for."

"Even befriending them?" Miguel pushed. "Befriending me?"

All he ever was to her was a means to an end, a way to get to his friends. The friends that he had now betrayed.

What had he done? The words he'd spat at Abbey were all laced with venom because of a secret she could never share. So consumed by his fears that he'd pushed away the one person reaching out to him. Someone who liked him.

At least he thought she had.

And now he'd never have a chance to find out, all because of Lena.

"Get out," Miguel growled suddenly, causing Lena to rise cautiously and step toward him. "GET OUT!"

This time he stepped closer, teeth gnashing as he raised his arm across his chest. The arm with Dark Morpher, screen flashing as it readied to go. At the sight of the device, Lena flinched back, eyes widening.

For a moment, Miguel stared her down, heart thumping as Lena's eyes quivered with a secret fear. And then, just as quickly, her posture straightened as her confident veneer returned.

"I will destroy the Rangers," she warned. "And you will help me. You'll see."

And then she vanished in a flash of green.

Heart pounding, Miguel lunged at the door, slamming into the surface that refused to budge as he screamed in rage. He had to get out and had to find help and some way of getting this thing off of him.

Before Lena found a way to turn his friends against him for good.


Up high, in the penthouse section of his stronghold, Lena dropped down onto the reflective floor, snarling in exasperation.

The fool!

Couldn't he see what she was doing for him? He had power because of her; he could do anything he wanted now! Hurt those who had hurt him. Repay those who had betrayed him. And yet, there he was, defending those who had cast him aside. Who lied to him like he was nothing!

Her enemies that he didn't want to fight.

Because they were his friends?

With seething anger, Lena decided she was grateful to have never put stock in a notion as ridiculous as friendship. She'd never been seduced by an idea so asinine that it blinded her from objectivity. The Rangers were her enemy; her reason for existence was to destroy them. And Miguel would see, soon enough, that it was his purpose as well.

But as she slowly calmed, feeling the rage slowly boil down within her, a voice broke through Lena's thoughts.

"I didn't go well then, I take it?" Xaviax asked, almost gliding into the room as his eerily calm voice sent chills along her spine.

"No," Lena conceded. "I did not. He remains emotionally attached to the Rangers; his feelings blind him from reality."

Beneath his mask, Xaviax nodded but said nothing else, instead continuing his painstaking pacing around the chamber. The steps were plodding, methodical, a leisurely prowl as he circled Mileena in thought.

"To err is to be human," Xaviax admitted, "and hesitation is not a luxury we can afford."

"He was distracted," Lena insisted. "Seeing the Blue Ranger disarmed like that it-."

"I'm not talking about our Dark Ranger," Xaviax interrupted. "I'm talking about you."

It was like she was a deer on the train tracks, unaware of the freighter about to barrel into her. Her chest snapped to freeze, breath seizing as Lena's eyes widened and she stared at the expressionless mask in horror. "My Lord Xaviax, I have never…!"

"No?" Xaviax queried. "You had the Rangers at your feet, squirming at your mercy. And yet you retreated."

"The Dark Ranger; he was unraveling, he…"

"So, you prioritized the boy over your mission? You sought to extract some human over pursuing your purpose?"

She…she hadn't even thought about it. When Miguel had screamed in agony, when he'd dropped to the ground and demorphed, all she'd thought about was getting him to safety. Of protecting her…

"No matter the methods we use," Xaviax said coldly. "The destruction of the Rangers is your priority. Anything else is just a means to an end. They are all that stand between me and my ultimate goal, and so long as Dr. Hawkins can hide behind them, they will continue to be an obstacle to our plans. As will anything else."

With a grit of her teeth, Lena cursed herself. She'd been blinded, not thinking of the bigger picture. She'd failed that way before. In her memory banks, she'd replayed a thousand times the destruction of her previous life, the old Mileena. She'd been too swept up in her pride, so consumed by her hubris and determination to prove herself that she'd allowed herself to be destroyed.

Spitefully seeking to wound, protecting the agony of their enemy's defeat was what had brought about the defeat of Gideon, her former master. Neither were mistakes she could afford to repeat. And they were mistakes Xaviax seemed all too aware of.

"I apologize, my master," said Lena. "Thank you for reminding me. They will not happen again."

"See that they aren't," Xaviax instructed. "And have no worries for our Dark Ranger."

"Master?"

"There are ways of ensuring his… compliance."

Compliance? Not from what she'd seen down in the cell. Come to think of it, placing him in holding was hardly going to change his mind. But before Lena could question Xaviax's cryptic statement, he was already issuing another order.

"Go out," he said. "Get some air. Maybe go visit your friends."

"I don't know if they would really call me a friend anymore but…"

"Oh no, Mileena," Xaviax chuckled. "You should find them. We wouldn't want them to get too relaxed now, would we?"


Until that day, if anyone had told Erika that the best self-care she could think of was revising for a math test, she'd have laughed straight in their face. And yet there the three of them were, sitting around a table in the half-crowded Hub, hunched over textbooks and scribbling at the problems while cursing non-right-angled trig.

For the life of her, Erika had not been able to come up with any better idea. Sure, there were a million things she'd rather be doing. With all she'd been feeling, Erika would have much preferred to hit the training room and wail on the punching bag until her knuckles were numb and her breath was all but spent. At the very least, it would certainly have been an outlet for her frustration.

But that wouldn't help the team.

Much as Erika wanted to scream into the void at their failure, she knew that Abbey was feeling a million times worse. And for all his jealousy and resentment, Zeke was reeling too. In barely two days, they'd lost two friends. Lena may have been unavoidable, a sinister scheme from the very start, but they didn't need to lose Miguel. And now both were their enemies. They'd failed, the odds were now stacked against them, and the outlook wasn't getting any better.

So, if letting their frustrations flare at math was all they could do to feel a distracting sense of normality, then it was a compromise that Erika could abide.

"Okay," Zeke decided, putting down the pencil as he finished his masterpiece of workings and scribbles. "What did you get for question seven?"

"Ummm…" Erika took another look at her workbook, barely a quarter of which was filled and mostly contained multiple skipped lines of working. "Eight?"

Zeke could only stare in confusion. "Eight?" he asked, flipping around her book to check, "How'd you get eight?"

"I have no idea," Erika admitted. "Why is half your working in Greek?"

"Maybe I took the long way around," Zeke admitted. "What'd you get Abbey?"

But the redhead didn't reply, and as Erika peered at her workbook, she realized that the girl had instead been mindlessly scribbling for the last thirty minutes.

"Hello?" Zeke tried again. "Earth to Abbey?"

"What?" Abbey snapped back to it, shyly looking away as she realized she had the full attention of both other Rangers.

"I could really use your help on this," Erika admitted, pushing forward the question in a vain charade of normality. "I know you've probably got this down pat, but I'd really like to not flunk math.'

"Sorry," Abbey admitted. "I guess I was just thinking about Miguel."

And there went any hope of distraction. Maybe the training room would've been such a bad idea.

"Not sure why you'd want to," Zeke bitterly. "I'm not too keen to remember the butt-kicking he just handed us."

"I guess, I just…" Abbey trailed off, as if uncertain of what she was trying to say. "I'm worried about him."

"You're worried about him?" Zeke scoffed. "He signs up with the bad guys, goes to town on us, and you're giving him sympathy?"

"It's not that simple," said Abbey. "I don't think what happened back at the parking tower was entirely his choice."

"It sure seemed like a choice to me, you know; when he picked up that Morpher, and we were telling him not to."

"Then if he was so determined to take us down, why did he hesitate? Why did his powers flash away when he realized what he'd done?"

Zeke opened his mouth to answer but shut it as if searching for an answer that wasn't there.

Erika remained quiet, uncertain whether to interject between the two best friends or even what she thought herself. A few weeks ago, she would have had steam billowing out her ears. Hell, even now there was plenty built up. Miguel would have been dead to her, just as Lena was; end of story. But even Erika had to admit that, having thought back on all that had happened, there was more going on than they'd realized. That while laying blame squarely at Miguel's feet might make herself feel better, it wasn't the truth.

Not all of it.

"I'm just saying," Abbey tried again. "Miguel's got a lot going on. He's gone through some really hard stuff. I get how having a few bombs dropped on him like that could send him reeling, that's all."

"So what?" Zeke asked. "He's got a sob story, so that lets him off the hook?"

"Zeke, it's not like that-."

"But it is!" Zeke insisted. "Having a hard life doesn't just give you the excuse to turn on your friends."

"But it does make it understandable," Abbey countered. "You and I, we've been lucky. You've never had to fend for yourself like he has. You've got both your parents, and I've got my mom and Richard. We've had our every need catered for; never had to wonder how we were going to get by."

"So that makes it okay when he suddenly joins that bad guy?

"That's not what I said! I just mean that if you knew what he'd gone through, then maybe you'd understand why he made a mistake."

"Then why don't you tell me?"

"Zeke!" Abbey groaned. "It's not my story to tell, okay?"

"You want me to feel sorry for him, but you're not going to tell me why?" Zeke pointed out. "I'll try to keep that in mind next time he's beating us in the face."

It was then that Abbey shot a look to Erika, not for backup but for guidance. Like somehow she'd have any idea what to do. Erika sure as hell knew that were she to ever divulge something private, she'd expect Abbey to take it to the grave. But at the same time, Zeke had a point, they couldn't even begin to empathize with Miguel if they didn't know what drove him.

In the end, the best she could give Abbey was a shrug; tacit permission to choose for herself. A backing for whatever she decided. With a heavy breath, Abbey took a moment to consider, before leaving closer and speaking in a hushed tone.

"He hasn't lived with either of his parents since he was six," she explained. "He's lived in eight different homes since then. You don't have to be a math genius to figure out the average length there. I know he has occasional contact with his mom, but I don't think he's seen his dad since he went into care."

And just like that, any simmering fury vanished from into nothingness like someone had cut the gas. Erika could only stare blankly, vacantly blinking as Abbey confided in them, seeing all too clearly the source of Miguel's frustration. His fear.

A darkness that Erika knew all too well herself.

"Every time he thinks he's settled, he's been moved," Abbey continued, her voice quivering as she tried to hold back the tears. "Either they couldn't look after him anymore, or he wasn't what they wanted. As Miguel got older and started acting out, some decided he was just too much. Everyone he's ever trusted either abandoned him, let him down, or tried to get something out of him. And now we can add ourselves to that list."

"That wasn't our fault," Zeke cut in.

"Wasn't it?" Abbey countered. "We lied to him, Zeke. Sure, we had a reason, and I don't know if we could have done anything differently. But it doesn't change the fact that we did. And I can also see how someone like Le… someone like Mileena could use that to get into his head."

Again, Abbey had hit the nail on the head. Lena had been playing them from the very start, pushing them like pawns across her personal chessboard. And Miguel was just one more piece to move into the ideal position. Something to trade for something greater.

"Miguel saw exactly what Lena wanted him to," Erika agreed, quietly. "She had that Morpher all ready to go, she just needed him to press the button." For a moment, Zeke looked like he was about to argue, but Erika cut him off quick. "And Abbey's right, we did keep Miguel in the dark. Something Lena twisted to her advantage. She's probably the reason he found out in the first place."

But for all their reasoning, Zeke wasn't having any of it. In realizing that Erika and Abbey were now a united front, he soured further, slumping back into his chair with a huff. "We can explain it away all we want. That doesn't make it all okay. Sure, he's got a sad story, but does that give him a free pass because he fell for what Mileena was selling him?"

Erika almost wanted to reach across the table and slap him. Almost. Zeke, with his nuclear family and white picket fence, had no clue of what it's like for those without. What it was like to have it taken away, to see everyone else go on with what he was without. His life from far from easy, but Zeke still had it made. And he had no idea how good he had it.

Sure, Miguel was now against them, and if they crossed paths, they'd have to treat him no different from any other of Xaviax's goons. But they'd have no chance of making anything better if Zeke didn't try to see what caused the mess in the first place. What drove their friend-turned-enemy.

And as an icy terror stabbed at her heart, Erika realized the only way that Zeke would understand. He'd have no interest in sympathy for Miguel, but he still cared. And he'd care for why Erika understood so easily. With a cold, terrifying breath, Erika gulped down as she looked at her friends and made an admission.

"I would've," she said. "Even as little as a few weeks ago I probably would have lapped right up what Lena was trying to sell."

Abbey's face dropped, shocked at such a statement, while Zeke's expression scrunched in confusion.

"Sure," he replied, in a tone that betrayed his ignorance. "But you wouldn't have turned around and blown up your friends?"

"What friends?" Erika asked. "Or are we forgetting my stellar reputation as Lakeside's angry longer? Truth is that a few months ago, I was perfectly primed for someone like Mileena to swoop in and convince me to do something stupid."

If Erika were honest, she still probably wasn't that far off from it. How long it had been since she'd last nearly started a fight? Close calls were a step above having one, but it was still far more recent than she was proud to admit.

Both Abbey and Zeke were now looking at her, an awkward silence that neither was certain that they should break. Unsure whether they needed to interject or let her continue. Erika wasn't entirely sure what she wanted either. But the longer she sat there, the more the words grew inside her chest, edging their way out. Crawling into her tongue to free themselves into the world. Like they could no longer bear being locked away inside.

Ray was always telling her that letting it all out could only bring good things. Maybe it was time to start?

"My mom walked out when I was twelve," Erika said as her chest began shuddering between the syllables. "One day she just… didn't come home. At first, people didn't know; they just went about their daily lives, walking past me, and talking to me like everything was fine. Then they'd find out, and that was almost worse. 'Poor Erika', 'Are you okay, Erika?' 'If you need anything, Erika, you just let us know'. It was like all of a sudden, I just became the kid whose mom abandoned them. And nothing else."

It was like in the blink of an eye she went from invisible to a charity case. Like the only reason Erika mattered at all was because she'd been left behind. Because there was some part of her that needed fixing.

"They'd say that they understood," she went on, "but they didn't. How could they? How could they possibly know what it was like? And then, as time went on, I was just expected to get over it. 'It's been a year', 'haven't you adjusted yet?' 'That's just an excuse.' Most people would just tell me that they didn't want to know. It's as if I stopped being interesting once they couldn't fix me right away. It led to a lot of anger with nowhere for it to go. Still does."

It was like the air had grown cold, prickling at Erika's skin as her head began to slump. She blinked back the tears best should, a drizzly rebellion behind her eyelids, surging at the faint permission of the memory as some escaped her blockade to trickle down her cheek. Gently, Abbey reached forward, to take Erika's hand in her own in sympathy. But Erika flinched back, withdrawing her hand beneath the table.

No; they weren't there yet. But maybe, one day, they could be.

"So yeah," Erika decided, steeling her resolve and shifting the conversation. "You can imagine what someone like Mileena would have done with that if they had the chance."

"So, what's different now?" Abbey asked her.

"Honestly?" Erika admitted. "You guys. Having two friends that are willing to deal when I screw up; that don't just cut and run when things get tough. For so long it just seemed inevitable, that I'd scare them off, or chase them away. That the second they realized how messed up I was, they'd run a mile. But even when I completely blew it the other week, you guys stuck around. That… that meant a lot. But it also made me realize that if I didn't work on it, if I didn't find a way to do better, then that patience and goodwill would run out. If I didn't have people like you guys, like Ray, holding me to the standard they could see I could reach, then I don't know if I'd have gotten out of that rut."

Miguel, instead, was alone. The very people that Erika counted on to keep her on the straight and narrow were the ones who lied to him. And the only person by his side was doing all they could do to keep him from those who could help.

"When he walked into the parking lot," said Abbey, "Miguel saw exactly what Lena wanted him to. Set everything up to prey on his fears, to stop him from turning to his friends. To keep him from us."

Now getting it from both sides, Zeke instead sat there quietly, sinking further and knowing that he'd lost all arguments. But that didn't make him wrong either.

"But Zeke's right too," Erika added before Abbey could get on her high horse. "No matter what reasons led to it, Miguel still made a choice. And that choice means that the next time we run into him, we have to be ready. We can't spend our energies trying to reach him when he's still easily wiping the floor with us. First, we hold our own, then we can try therapy."

Her admission seemed to lighten Zeke's mood a little, perhaps a little too much, but while it clearly made Abbey uncomfortable, she also nodded in agreement.

"I know," she said. "It's about more than just us. But at the very least we need to get him away from Mileena."

"You rang…?"

The voice curled behind them, snide and chilling as it crawled up the spines. All three snapped to their feet, spinning around to see Lena standing casually behind them. She stood in the gap between the tables, arms folded with a smile of scheming expectation. Of delightful, sadistic, amusement.

"That was quick," Erika sneered. "I thought we needed to say it three times."

"We'd need a mirror too," Zeke agreed.

"Well, you know what they say," said Lena, slyly. "Speak of the devil…"

"You've got a lot of nerve," Abbey growled, and Erika almost snapped her hand in front to stop the redhead from lunging. But as much as she also wanted nothing more than to drag it all out, to blow off the building steam in a knockout brawl, Erika knew there was nothing they couldn't do. Not here.

Not in public.

And Lena knew it.

"Go on, make a move," she taunted, slyly stepping into their space with full immunity. Then, close enough for only them to hear, she gleefully added, "I think there are still a few people who don't know that you're the Power Rangers."

"You!" Abbey realized. "You're how he found out."

"It wasn't exactly hard to show him," said Lena. "And it's not like you took any effort to tell him yourself."

"We're not doing this again," Erika said impatiently. "What do you want?"

Lena's face twisted into a mocking surprise, jaw-dropping as if shocked by such an audacious accusation. "Me? Why do I need to want anything? Last I checked, this is a public place. Am I not allowed to come down for an afternoon brew? Because I could just kill for a pumpkin spice."

"I'll have to check the banned list," Abbey growled. "Pretty sure we stopped serving she-demons last Halloween."

"Oh, Abbey, don't be like that. Can't we just put this all behind us? Be old pals again?"

Fool them once, shame on her, but Lena was not getting under their skin a second time. Even now, Erika watched as Abbey's resolve hardened, her back straightening as her focus narrowed.

"Where's Miguel?" she said flatly.

"Miguel?" Lena asked. "Oh, right. He's nowhere near here if that's what you're wondering. I can't imagine he'd want to be anywhere near any of you. Not after all you did."

"What you did," Erika correctly sternly. "Or are you still dripping poison in his ear, thinking he hasn't noticed?"

She had no idea what it was, but the words seemed to cut through Mileena's Teflon coating, the smile at her lips flickering at the barb. A break in the façade.

So, Miguel had noticed. And from the minute reaction, he hadn't taken it well.

"You asked why I'm here?" Lena replied, her voice curling again as the cold veneer of composure re-iced. "I'm here with a warning, but not for you. Tell your precious mentors that they know what Xaviax wants. That if they don't want to see their precious Rangers get hurt, or their city lying in ruins, then they'll give it over. Me, personally? I don't really care. In fact, I'd love it if they held out on my master's demands. It just gives me more playtime."

A seething exhale hissed from Erika's nostrils, her fist curling so tight that her nails dug into her palm. But she held, as did the two Rangers beside her as Lena flicked back her dark hair and turned to the door.

"Toodles!"

And then she strutted from the building, leaving the Rangers to seethe in her wake.

"I swear," Abbey growled, "If she's done something to Miguel…"

"What was that even about," Zeke asked. "She just showed up and left."

But Erika knew all too well that was, what it was for. And it was more than just a message. "She was here to rattle us," she said. "To show she doesn't care that we know about her now."

"Sure, but what does that mean?"

It meant they needed to talk to Ray and Hilary, to come up with a plan. Because Xaviax was about to make a move.


For a long time, Miguel sat in the darkness, trying to calm his breathing among the looming shadows. He needed to be patient. They'd thrown him in there because they wanted something, and they'd locked the door because they knew he'd try to run. But he also knew they'd get sloppy eventually, they'd grow tired of watching him around the clock. He just needed them to think he'd given up.

It was the only way he was ever getting out of there.

He certainly wasn't going to get any help. Whatever it was that Lena wanted, it was clearly beheld to higher interests. She didn't care about him, not really. He was just a means to an end. Just like it was with everyone else.

No. He couldn't think about that now. Not her, not Abbey, not Zeke and Erika. They were all how he'd got into this mess. Once he was free, then he could figure out how to be as far away as possible from all of them. But first things first, Miguel needed to get out of this room.

The door wouldn't open on his end. He wasn't sure why he'd ever expected it to; it wouldn't be much of a cell if it did. But Lena's visit had given him a key piece of information. She'd entered through the door, not that weird green flash that had both brought him to the strange place and imprisoned him. Which meant there was an exit on the other side.

All Miguel needed to do was get through the door, and Lena had given him the tool with which to do it. He just had to remember how he did it in the first place.

What had he been thinking? Feeling?

Panic. That's what it had been. Sheer, unadulterated fear overriding all his other senses. But he couldn't afford to feel that now, couldn't let his terror control him. It would just let everyone else control him.

Think…

Think…

He'd wanted to be gone, to be well away from everything going on. He'd want to be… outside!

Every nerve in Miguel's body tensed, his breath hissing in and refusing to release. The black smoke cracked around him, his body snapping in an instant to the strange feelingless sensation of his limbs, his vision consumed by the darkness as his feet whisked off the ground. And then they hit the floor once more.

Feeling his heart slow to a cautious, hopeful beat, Miguel slowly creaked open a clenched eyelid to spy his new surroundings. He was in a hallway, equally dark and poorly lit, a cold draft even pricklier than before.

But he was no longer in his cell.

He needed to move, to run before someone discovered him. Miguel had no idea where he was, or how he was going to get out. But it was a start. And now he knew how to work that strange power he'd been endowed with.

Steeling himself and daring to hope, Miguel took off into the hall, racing for his chance for freedom.