Danse avec le Diable (by Angel for Lilyleia78)

[defeatedbyabridge]

Title: Danse avec le Diable
Author: Angel Negra
Rating: R
Summary: How far would you go to save your team? How far would you go to save the world? Would you choose the lesser devil?
Author's Notes: Remix of lilyleia78's fic One Question. Thanks to Arrow and KK for the beta.



Jack ambled towards the command center. He was early for his shift for a change, he had plans on settling in five minutes before the hour and then calling Sky on the comm to brag about it. He was about to cross the threshold when he heard a yell and a burst of static. Jack reached for his morpher as there was an electronic beep and a voice started talking. "Come in SPD! SPD! We've been overrun!-"

Slumping against the wall, Jack let his hands fall from his morpher. Commander Cruger was watching A Squad's final message again. He peered carefully around the door frame to confirm it, and saw Cruger standing stock still at the briefing table, glaring at the message playing. Like if he watched it enough times, it would crack under the pressure of his glare and tell him what he wanted to know.

Jack let his gaze drift down the hall and spotted Syd coming from the computer labs. She raised her eyebrows at his slumped position and came to a stop on the other side of the doorway. He held a finger up to his lips and made the sign for 'just peek' in Bridge-sign.

Syd peered into the command center and made a face. She turned to Jack. She started to sign 'he's still-' then stopped and wrinkled her nose. She started signing 'watch over' then threw up her hands in frustration. Jack gave her a sympathetic look. Bridge-sign was a new thing for them. They couldn't do it often, especially not in battle or on Bridge's really sensitive days, but it was easier for Bridge to follow than the standard sign language everyone learned in the primary schools. They never got enough time to practice though. Syd finally settled on 'again?' and gestured expansively towards Cruger.

Jack nodded and made a resigned face. Syd rolled her eyes. A Squad's yell rang from the speakers again, followed by the burst of static. As one, Syd and Jack entered the room. "Cadets Landors and Drew reporting for duty, sir," said Jack, keeping his expression blank.

Cruger looked up quickly, Jack thought he saw a flash of surprise in Cruger's expression, but it was gone in less than a second. Cruger nodded to Jack and Syd. "Very good," he said. He stepped back and started around the table, towards the door. "I'll see you two in the morning at briefing."

"Yes, sir," said Jack as he and Syd saluted.

*

Charlie led the way to the clearing, blaster rifle at the ready. Her helmet scan wasn't picking up anything. "Mike, are you sure the co-ordinates were right?"

Mike nodded, his green helmet flashing in the light. "Yes, ma'am. Double checked 'em three times."

"I still say we should have split up," said Maki as she came up on Charlie's other side. "SPD regulations clearly say-"

"That Maki needs to get out more," said Surl in annoyance.

"And you wonder why the cadets never believe me when I say your bark's worse than your bite," said Wally drolly. He pressed his back to Surl's a bit more firmly and kept scanning their behind.

"I still say it's the teeth," said Mike, smirk audible in his voice.

Charlie suppressed a smile. "Focus, people."

There was movement by the rock outcrop ahead and Charlie tensed, sliding her finger onto the trigger. A Bluehead stepped into view, aiming its laser at them.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" asked Maki as she levelled her blaster at the Bluehead.

Something exploded, large and loud, behind the Rangers, knocking them forward and down. Charlie swore under her breath and scrambled to her feet, clutching her blaster. The sounds of Krybots chittering grew louder and Charlie turned in a tight circle. She swallowed and brought her blaster up. They were surrounded.

"Okay," said Wally, panting. "This? Was not in the brochure."

The Krybots charged. "Let's get to work, Rangers," shouted Charlie. She shot the Bluehead in the face and ducked a swipe from a Krybot. She kicked out the legs of another Krybot and shot it in the chest. She slapped another one across the face with her blaster and kicked it in the stomach.

"Red, down," said Surl. Charlie ducked as two Krybots sailed over her head, chests sparking.

Maki gunned down three Krybots charging them. Charlie grinned and turned. She blasted the one coming up behind Wally quickly. Mike let out a strangled yelp. "Yellow, help Green," she barked, jumping up and kicking a Krybot in the face. Wally moved towards Mike, firing as he ran.

Surl landed hard beside Charlie. "Best vacation ever, Red. Thanks." he said drily.

Charlie snorted and shot the charging Krybot. "Yellow's a bad influence on you, Blue."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," he said, flipping to his feet and kicking a Krybot in the head. Maki let out a yelp as she flew towards them. Surl caught her with a grunt. "Why, Pink, how-"

"If you say how nice it was of me to drop in, I'm telling Green what you did with his Kira Ford mp3s," she snapped.

Surl let her down and punched a Krybot in the face. Charlie shot it in the chest. "It's my duty as a Ranger to protect all the citizens of Earth," he said, sweeping out the feet of another Krybot. "Even from their own bad musical tastes."

A sparking Krybot crashed into the rocks beside them. "Big talk from the guy who listens to Sydney Drew willingly," said Mike as he and Wally rejoined the group. He turned to Charlie. "And that's all of them. No sign of the criminal though."

"Can I just say that this doesn't make me feel all warm and comforted inside?" said Wally, raising his hand.

"Noted," said Charlie, smirking. "Okay, people. We-"

The clearing seemed to explode in laser fire. Charlie swore and tried to peer through the smoke. Five Blueheads, their criminal and a lot more Krybots. She swore and slapped her comm. "Come in SPD! Come in SPD!" The Blueheads started firing and her team spread out to meet it. "We've been overrun! It's a trap! We're receiving enemy fire!"

There was a burst of static from the receiving comm. "What?" She ducked a laser blast and barely made out the word location. "Oh, our co-ordinates are-" Two blasts hit her hard in the chest and Charlie cried out as she went down. Maki was standing over her before she even hit the ground, firing steadily.

"Red!" shouted Surl.

Charlie clutched her blaster tighter, curling upright. "Ok, retreat!" she shouted. "Pink, Green, clear a path. Yellow, Blue, help me cover our asses." She staggered up and started firing. Wally and Surl bracketed her, Mike and Maki taking lead. As one, they moved.

*

Jack waited until he could see the lead D level cadet start to visibly panic before he stepped to the side of the hallway and let him and his classmates jog past. Syd smacked Jack in the stomach lightly, grinning and shaking her head at him. "Sky's going to lecture you again if you keep doing that."

Chuckling, Jack moved back to her side. "And then I'll hide his manual again and watch him turn purple."

Syd shook her head.

"Oh, hey," said Jack, bumping Syd's shoulder lightly with his own. "How'd the test go?"

"Ugh," Syd wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I think Wilkins hates me."

Jack and Syd stepped into the common room. "Oh come on. You can't-"

"Seventy percent!" shouted Z as she paced angrily around the room. Bridge was sitting on one of the couches, watching Z and biting his lip. Sky was sitting on the opposite couch, hunched over and gripping his open manual so hard, his knuckles were white.

Jack blinked, confused. "Z?"

Z spins to face Bridge and points at him for emphasis. "Who the hell takes off two points for a missing comma?"

Sky seems to snap at this. "I really don't think it was just the comma, Z. Maybe you just didn't stud-"

"I know that book better than you do, Sky," said Z, a snarl in her voice. Jack took an instinctive step back and Bridge looked like he was trying to phase through the couch.

"I lost like ten percent for grammar," said Syd quietly.

Sky sighed heavily. "Look, the essays are always the most-"

"On the short answer questions," she said flatly.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!" Z threw her hands into the air. "I swear, it's-"

"Cadet Delgado, Cadet Drew," said Kat from the doorway. "May I speak with you two privately?"

Syd sighed, sounding resigned. Z grumbled quietly and stalked towards Kat, Syd following in her wake. Jack watched the three of them walk out and then turned to look back at Bridge and Sky. Bridge was fidgeting, adjusting the straps his gloves, pulling his jacket's zipper higher, even fussing with his socks. Sky, on the other hand, had opened up his manual again and was so still that Jack half expected one of the janitors to come by with a brass plaque titled 'Model SPD Cadet at study'.

Rubbing a hand over his face, Jack made his way to the kitchen area. What a way for a good day to get ruined. He pulled out the bread and moved to the toaster. He may not be able to fix everything, but he could at least calm Bridge down a bit. They didn't need a psychic freak out on top of everything else.

Five minutes later, Jack placed a plate of buttered toast in front of Bridge and sat down beside him. Bridge gave him a small smile and reached for the plate. "Thanks, Jack."

Jack smiled back and settled down into the cushions. He eyed the Amazing Sky Statue and wondered if it would be worth the hours of sulking if he dropped a piece of toast, butter side down, onto the manual. Sky lifted his head slightly and glared at him. "Don't even think about it, Jack."

Smirking, Jack lay his arms along the back of the couch. "Think about what?" Bridge stiffened slightly beside him and Jack looked over, following Bridge's gaze to the door. Z and Syd came in quietly. Syd was fussing with a lock of hair and Z was hugging herself, watching the ground as she walked. Jack glanced around the common room quickly. If Bridge was picking them up before they got in, there was no way he'd be able to handle sitting beside either of them. But Z wasn't going to want to be far from Jack, either.

Jack nudged Bridge over until he was sitting at the end of the couch, with Jack in the middle. Z immediately dropped down on his other side. Syd sat down beside Sky, curling her legs to her chest. Sky actually let his worry show as he looked at Syd and asked, "What happened?"

"Would you guys follow Syd if she'd gotten Red?" asked Z quietly.

Jack shrugged. "Yeah, of course."

"What?" said Sky, staring at him in surprise. Syd stopped playing with her hair and focused her attention on Jack too.

"She's the best fighter on the team," said Jack, leaning forward and snagging Bridge's plate of toast. "And she's good at managing the lower lever cadets without being an ass about it."

"I'm still surprised that I didn't get bumped down to Yellow when Z joined the team," said Bridge contemplatively, taking the plate from Jack when he held it out.

"And I'm sure Jack would have been just fine with Pink," said Sky, dropping his manual on the table and crossing his arms defensively.

Jack laughed. "I would have been an awesome Pink. Women love me and I have a better fashion sense than Z does."

Z smacked him on the arm. Sky rolled his eyes. "And then we all follow Syd into battle?"

"Why not?" asked Syd softly. She looked more curious than insulted. "What if Kat was our commander instead of Cruger?" She was watching Sky's face closely.

"Look it's not that- I just..." Sky let out a loud, frustrated breath. "This is stupid. We're talking about things we can't change. We're stuck with our colours. Deal with it." He stood up abruptly, grabbed his manual and stalked out of the room.

Jack watched him leave and wondered how much of that was Sky believing in SPD's practices and how much was him believing in his dad. He could almost see the tangle of emotions coming off Sky. "Hey, Bridge," said Jack, turning to him. "Do you need to borrow the spare bed in my room tonight?"

Bridge shook his head, smiling gently. "He won't take it out on me. I'll be fine, Jack."

*

"This is such bullshit," snarled Charlie, glaring at her Pink morpher. She paced around Dr. Manx's lab angrily.

"Agreed," said Wally from where he was leaning against Dr. Manx's desk. "Red is totally going to clash with my hair." Surl snorted, rolling all four eyes. "Hey, just because the green works with your skin tones," Wally griped.

Maki made a frustrated noise and walked away from the data pad she and Mike were looking over. "I give up. There's no way the SPD HQ tests make any sense here."

"Thank you for coming, cadets," said Dr. Manx as she walked into the lab. "I see you've all gotten your assigned morphers. I trust you're not having any problems with the voice command functions."

"Actually, ma'am," said Mike, pocketing his data pad. "We've been getting some delays in the morph call recognition."

Dr. Manx raised her eyebrows. "Really? Interesting. Any other problems?"

"Yeah," snapped Charlie. "They're the wrong fucking col-"

"Good," said Dr. Manx, as if Charlie hadn't spoken. She looked down at the files she was carrying. "I've called you here for an important reason."

She walked around Charlie and started tapping commands into the display console. "Commander Cruger's given me the go ahead for a special project I'm working on. For security purposes, only myself and you five can know the full details of this project." An image flickered to life on the display, a 3D rendering of the A Squad Ranger suits. "Give me your morphers, please."

Charlie could feel the rest of the team looking to her first. It was the only reason she didn't throw it in Dr. Manx's face. She pulled out her Pink morpher and held it out. Dr. Manx took it with a nod, collecting the other morphers when the team followed suit. Once she had all five, she turned to a console on the wall and started slotting the morphers into it. "I believe this should also correct your voice recognition problems," she said calmly.

"With all due respect, ma'am," said Wally, squaring his shoulders into what Charlie thought was an attempt at a leader stance. He didn't look comfortable using it. "Just what are you doing?"

Dr. Manx turned, giving him an innocent look. "I'll be exploring the effects of power switching on a Ranger team that's already morphed with a different colour from the same power source."

Charlie was having trouble breathing. There's no way Dr. Manx meant what Charlie thought she did. "Ma'am-"

"The uniforms are behind you in the box. I've labelled them for your ease."

Surl open up the box, pulled out a uniform with a pink stripe down the side and squinted at the front of it. He held it closer to his face, then further away. Sighed in disgust, he held it out to Wally. "You Earthers need a more legible language," he grumbled.

Wally patted him absently on the shoulder while reading the uniform's tag. He blinked in surprise and held the uniform out to Maki. She smiled. Mike got one with a green stripe, which he took happily. Wally read the tag on the uniform with the yellow stripe and laughed. "Now that makes more sense," he said, slinging it over his shoulder. He pulled out a uniform with a red stripe and grinned. "And so does this." He held out the uniform to Charlie.

Charlie stared down at the red stripe. She could hear Wally teasing Surl about matching, but she wasn't really paying attention to them. It was funny, pink and red were pretty similar, in terms of colour and shade. And yet, it felt entirely different to think of putting this uniform on instead of her current one with the pink stripe.

A triumphant sounding beep made Charlie look up. Dr. Manx started typing rapidly at a keyboard.

"Uh, Dr. Manx?" said Mike.

"Yes, Cadet O'Neil," said Dr. Manx, not looking away from her screen, which was scrolling text rapidly.

"For a project that no one is supposed to know about, aren't we going to be rather obvious in these uniforms?"

"Not to mention as soon as we talk while morphed," said Maki.

The computer beeped again and Dr. Manx stopped typing. She moved over to the console that was holding the morphers and started pulling them back out of the slot. "That's why I've added vocal modifiers to your helmet speakers," she said, turning around, morphers in hand. "The new uniforms are designed to fit easily over your current outfits. Put them on only before morphing. And I expect you to report for all emergency drills in full morph."

"So we morph before reporting to the Commander for pre-mission briefing?" asked Charlie, just to make sure. "And he'll be okay with this?"

"I've already cleared it with him," said Dr. Manx, holding a morpher out to Charlie. "Any problems with that, SPD Red?"

Charlie shook her head, gripping her morpher tightly. "No, Ma'am."

*

The first time it happened, Jack was fighting three Krybots that were trying to make off with a couch of all things. He wasn't sure why an evil army needed a couch, but since they hadn't paid for it, Jack was completely fine with kicking their asses over it. He'd knocked the last Krybot into a wall and there was a flash of red out of the corner of his eye.

He'd spun to see something or someone in red spandex and a helmet running into a nearby alley. Jack followed purely on instinct. "Hey!" he shouted. The figure spun, standing right in a beam of light. It was definitely a Red Ranger. The guy had the nerve to salute Jack SPD-style and then tapped his helmet. He vanished just as Jack got to where he was standing. "What the hell?" Jack asked the empty air, panting hard.

Z was the next to see one. A Yellow Ranger had been following her in the park. She'd had the same problem as Jack, as soon as she'd gotten close, the Ranger had vanished.

Jack doesn't start to seriously worry until Syd comes back from patrol, looking shaken and drags the rest of the team into her and Z's room. She focuses on Jack and Z first. "Those Rangers you guys saw," she said, voice calm, but Jack could hear an edge of panic to it. "What did they look like?"

Jack traded a look with Z. "Like Power Rangers?" he offered. "Spandex, helmets, one colour."

"No," said Syd, exasperated. "Like-" She sighed and started searching through the clutter on her dresser.

"So you saw one of them," said Sky, leaning forward. "And you recognize the suit."

Syd waved a distracted hand in Sky's direction. "Maybe. Or maybe it was some freaky alien who just copied a Ranger suit that's nearly run me over, like, a kajillion times."

"I wonder how you can quantify a kajillion," said Bridge, folding his arms and staring contemplatively at the ceiling. "Would you start with adding up millions? Or billions, maybe? I-"

"Bridge!" snapped Z.

"Found it!" shouted Syd in triumph. She held up a digital photo frame, grinning. She started scrolling through the pictures as she made her way back to group. "Okay, Jack. Was this the Ranger you saw?"

Jack leaned forward, taking in the long shot of a team of five Rangers. He nodded. "Yeah, the Red one."

"That's the Yellow Ranger I saw," said Z softly, pointing at one of the Rangers.

Bridge wrinkled his forehead in confusion. "But, that's A Squad," he said. Z made a surprised noise and leaned closer to the picture. "Why are they just appearing at random? Why haven't they contacted the Commander yet? Oh, maybe... maybe Gruumm made them mute?"

"I've got a better question," said Sky quietly. "Why do they keep disappearing?"

"We should tell Commander Cruger," said Z, looking worriedly at Jack. "Right?"

Jack bit his lip. "They haven't hurt anyone," he said slowly.

"They haven't helped anyone, either," said Sky, crossing his arms.

Rubbing at his forming headache, Jack said, "I think-"

The alarm cut him off. "Rangers, report to the command center," said Kat's voice over the speakers.

Jack took off at a run, his team at his heels. They made the run to the command center in record time. "Reporting for duty, sir," said Jack.

"Rangers," said Commander Cruger. "We seem to have a large group of Krybots causing property damage in the warehouse district."

"...Why?" asked Syd, wrinkling her nose.

"We're not sure," said Cruger. "We're also reading no Blue or Orange heads in the area." He took a deep breath, and Jack thought the Commander looked worried. "I want you to check it out, but use extreme caution. This may be a trap of some kind."

"Yes sir," said Jack. The team saluted and ran for their civilian vehicles.

It was a tense drive to the warehouse district. Jack debated bringing up A Squad again. He didn't have to be Bridge to know that everyone else was thinking it too. But they were all holding off on informing Kat and Cruger until Jack gave the okay. He knew that both SPD regulations and a good working relationship between command staff and field team called for full disclosure. And yet. Jack's instincts were telling him to hold off on this.

"Coming up on the combat zone," said Sky.

Jack focused ahead of him to see about twenty Krybots. Who all stopped what they were doing and stood silently facing the Rangers as they pulled up.

"Yeah," said Syd slowly. "That's not creepy at all."

Jack eased off his bike and slid his blasters out of their holsters. "Ok, so we-"

A rain of blaster fire fell over the Krybots. Sparks and squeals filled the air and Jack ducked behind his bike. He glanced back to check on his team; everyone was behind cover. He looked towards the Krybots again. Smoke filled the area until Jack couldn't see the Krybots hitting the ground, just heard the thumps, crashes and squealing. As quickly as it had begun, the blaster fire just stopped. Jack found himself holding his breath as the smoke began to drift away.

"Jack.." Z sounded scared. A slight breeze picked up, blowing the last of the smoke away. Jack stiffened. Standing, in perfect formation, at the other end of the clearing were all five A Squad Rangers. All fully morphed, blaster rifles resting casually on their shoulders.

The Red Ranger nodded in their direction and gave a showy little bow. Then he snapped his fingers. A Squad saluted in perfect unison, then turned and ran in five different directions.

"After them," said Jack, his instincts screaming at him. He wasn't sure if this was good or bad, but he was not letting these guys get away without getting some answers.

"But Jack. We should-"

"Now!" he snapped, charging off in the direction that Red took.

The alley that A Squad's Red has chosen was narrow and cluttered. If Jack hadn't grown up in places just like this, the box spills and hidden pot holes would have taken him down before he'd even got halfway down it. He could see a chained fence at the end of it and he started looking for deep openings along the side. There was a flash of red in the shadows to his right and he spun, bringing his blasters up. Red stepped forward slowly, resting his arm on the top of the dumpster beside him.

"You know," said Jack cheerfully, "if you've lost your room key, all you gotta do is talk to Cindy in Housing. She's very cool about stuff like that."

Red cocked his head to the side. "What makes you think I want to go back?"

Jack smirked. "I can see why you might not want to leave here. Cosy atmosphere, awesome sunroof," he nodded at a moulding burger by Red's feet. "Fine dining."

Red snorted and touched his morpher. "Power down."

The suit faded away, revealing a pretty brunette in an SPD cadet uniform. Jack's jaw dropped and he lowered his blasters. "You're a girl?"

"Yeah," she said, glaring at him defiantly. "Got a problem with that?"

Jack shook his head quickly. "Me? No, I'm cool. I... just didn't think. I mean. I didn't know SPD had a girl Red before."

She let out a bitter laugh. "I think there's a lot about SPD that you don't know. You should fix that, Cadet."

"Jack!" shouted Syd from the mouth of the alley, she was waving at him frantically. Jack looked back at A Squad's Red, but there was nothing but wall and shadow there now. Holstering his blasters, he jogged back to Syd.

The rest of the team were gathered there. Jack gave them a quick once over, but no one looked hurt. "Power down," he said, the rest echoing him.

Sky was clutching a data pad in his hand. "What's that?" asked Jack, nodding towards it.

"Cadet Surl gave it to me," said Sky. He looked a bit spooked. "He says it's the current SPD prison releases."

Jack waited, but Sky didn't continue. "So?"

Sky glared at the data pad. "So, something's not right here."

There's a lot about SPD that you don't know. Jack swallowed and pushed Red's words to the back of his mind. "I know what you mean," he said. "You guys didn't tell me that Red was a girl."

Bridge, Syd and Sky gave him blank looks. "Red's not a girl," said Syd. "He's the tall red-head. Wally Garrick."

"No," said Z slowly. "That was the Yellow Ranger."

"Something's definitely not right here," said Jack, taking in the confusion on his team's faces.

Bridge raised his hand. "So, what do we tell Kat and the Commander?"

You should fix that, Cadet. Jack nodded to himself. "We tell them the truth," he said firmly. "The SPD Rangers took out the Krybots without a problem." Sky opened his mouth and Jack held up his hand. "And then? We get into the computers and figure out what the hell is going on. Understood?"

The other four nodded. Jack led the way to the vehicles and hoped that he was doing this right.

*

Charlie blinked at the sight of Surl and Mike hunched over Mike's home made console. She dropped down onto the couch beside Wally and jerked her head at the pair. "Since when is Mike as gung ho as Surl about the whole 'know your enemy' stuff?"

"Actually, he got me on the firewalls."

"Doesn't Dr. Felix have a vaccine for that?" Charlie smirked.

"Funny," said Mike drily. He typed rapidly on the keyboard for a couple of minutes, stared expectantly at the screen then swore in Aquitian. He scrubbed a hand through his hair. "You have no idea how hard it is to find actual information on Gruumm."

Charlie raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Last time I checked, he was enemy number one of SPD."

"Yup," said Wally, offering her a piece of liquorice. "And like all good little soldiers, all we get is the propaganda, apparently."

Surl snorted and shook his head at Mike. "Some how, I don't think the password is going to be 'SPD can bite my sexy ass'." he said, pointing at the console screen.

"I hate fairies," groused Maki as she walked in. "It's like trying to talk to my mom on a sugar rush."

"He's got you into this too?" asked Charlie, taking Wally's bag of liquorice and holding it out to Maki.

Maki sighed, waving the bag away. Wally grinned evilly at Charlie when she gave it back to him. "I licked them all when I opened it anyway."

"Ew," said Charlie and Maki in unison.

Maki sat down on the table in front of Charlie. She kicked Wally lightly on the knee and then turned to Charlie. "I got curious when we found some of the shady zoning laws that went down when SPD bought out Briarwood."

Charlie tilted her head. "But, that's not exactly news, you know."

"Not to the Briarwood natives, no," said Maki. "But, I did get some interesting info." She turned towards Mike and poked his knee. "Try Isinia." She spelt it out for Mike as he typed it in.

Mike's face lit up. "We're in."

"Whoa," said Surl, leaning forward.

"What?" said Charlie, getting up and moving closer, Wally and Maki following behind her.

"Gruumm destroyed Commander Cruger's entire planet," said Mike in shock.

Charlie leaned closer to the screen. "Holy-"

"And three of the Kerovian colonies, Phaedos, Juron..."

"And Triforia," said Wally.

Mike blinked. "It's not on the list."

"But, it's in the training vids on him," said Maki, chewing her lip.

Charlie sat down beside Mike. "Ok, what about before all this?" she asked. "Where the hell did this guy come from?"

Mike started tapping away again. A password request popped onto the screen. Mike sighed in frustration and looked at Maki. "Any other magic words, Kato?"

Maki hugged herself. "Fowler-Beta-99," she whispered, looking freaked out. Wally came up beside her and bumped her shoulder gently with his own.

The password box vanished and more files scrolled onto the screen. "That's one impressive fairy," said Surl.

"Troobian rebel leader," muttered Mike, scanning the file. "He and some woman named Morgana overthrew the SPD base on their planet. Lots of talk of rebuilding lost archives, trade parties, and..."

"And?" prompted Charlie.

"That's it," said Mike. "The next record SPD has of him is his attack on Sirius."

"So he just woke up one day and decided to take over the universe?" said Wally skeptically.

"Triforia never had an SPD base," said Surl suddenly.

"What?" Maki gave him a blank look.

Charlie could have kicked herself. "Gruumm's planets," she said. "Triforia never had an SPD base, remember? The planet was ruined before they could set up."

"We need to get a hold of an outside source of information," said Mike. "We're missing some big pieces here."

*

"Bridge, are you sure you cracked the right database?" said Sky. He was so tense that Jack was worried about possible sprains, or explosions.

Syd rolled her eyes. "Wow, you figured it out, Sky," she said sarcastically. "Bridge somehow managed to crack the SPD database from the universe next door."

"Oh, ha-"

"And screaming at us isn't going to change the results," snapped Z, arms crossed tightly. "It's not the computer that screwed up here."

Jack found his drawn to the console screen again. 'T-Top' - in for twenty years, charged with property destruction and use of illegal narcotics. Mirloc - set for release in 2026, thanks to improper filing of the escape incident by the Kerrovan guards. Jack sighed heavily and rubbed at the back of his neck.

"Okay," said Jack, holding up his hands. "Z's right about one thing. Yelling isn't going to help here." He gave both Z and Sky pointed looks. Sky huffed and crossed his arms. Z looked at the far wall, blinking rapidly. "All we have right now is intel from people who might have joined Gruumm's side, people who have the know how to get into SPD's systems. Right?"

"Cadet O'Neil was one of the best at handling the systems. Me or Sophie could probably do better," said Bridge, leaning back in his chair.

Jack nodded. He'd figured as much. "Okay, so we back our theories up with evidence. Proper SPD procedure." He pointed to Bridge. "Can you get a message to Sophie without anyone else knowing?"

"I think so," said Bridge, thinking it over. "Well, maybe not with anyone not knowing. Sophie's an anyone. Or would she be an anyrobot? Anyperson? Or, maybe-"

"Bridge," Jack said firmly.

Bridge grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, Jack."

"Okay," Jack said, patting Bridge on the shoulder. "Get in contact with Sophie, see if she can help you. I want you guys to check over the files, make sure they're legit."

"And what about the rest of us?" Syd asked.

Jack sighed and caught Z's gaze. "Still got a stash?" he asked her. She nodded. "Okay. Okay, Z and I are going to check with some of the guys on the streets. Syd, you help Bridge with the database. Sky, watch their backs."

Sky eyed Jack suspiciously. "A stash of what?"

Z turned and headed out the door. Jack patted Bridge on the shoulder again and headed out himself. "Don't worry about it, Sky."

"No," said Sky, jogging slightly to catch up. He grabbed Jack's arm and turned him around. "We're keeping enough from everyone else. We're supposed to be a team, Jack."

Jack glanced over Sky's shoulder, both Syd and Bridge had followed them. He sighed again, pushing down his knee jerk reaction to just phase through the floor and get out before they could find him. Sky had a point. "All right, all right. Come on."

He led them to one of the rarely used hallways in the back of the Academy. He stopped by an old bathroom with a dusty 'out of order' sign on it and phased through the door, unlocking it from the inside so the others could get in. He dragged an old cardboard box out from one of the stalls and pulled back the flaps so they could see the old street clothes and cans of food laying inside.

Syd bent down and pulled out a can of beans, staring at it in confusion. "I don't get it," she said. "There's plenty of stuff in the kitchen. You can eat whatever you want."

"Yeah," said Z from behind them. "For now." She was wearing an old outfit from before they get enlisted and was holding some cans of food herself. Sam peered at them from behind her, clutching a few tins of his own.

"Looking a little clean there, Z," said Jack. Z grimaced, nodding. Jack pointed to Sam. "And you brought a friend."

Z shrugged. "I let him stick his stuff where I keep mine. He was adding stuff when I showed up."

"I can help," said Sam softly. "I'm smaller and I have more range with my powers."

Jack stared at Sam's earnest face and considered his options. Sam hadn't been on the streets as long as Jack had, but he'd started younger than Z. He had that hard edge that Z had never had to develop; it was something Jack was both grateful for and blamed himself for when they were on the streets. Jack had been able to keep Z whole and in turn, she'd kept him sane and solid. "All right," said Jack. "But you listen to me and Z, got it?"

Sam nodded seriously. "Got it."

"Okay," said Jack, turning back to his survival stash. "Now everyone out so I can change." He pulled the clothes out of the box while everyone shuffled outside. He turned back around to see the bathroom empty except for Sky. Jack rolled his eyes, un-surprised, and started undressing. "No," he said as he dropped the uniform jacket on the ground.

"I don't see why not," said Sky, pointing a finger at him. "Especially when you're bringing a kid."

"A kid who's survived the nastier streets on his own." Jack pulled his pants off and debated the risk of keeping his clean underwear on under the grimy clothes.

"And at a younger age than you and Z," Sky said sarcastically.

Jack thought about where he needed to go and decided not to risk it. He changed his underwear. "Well, he was younger than Z was when she got onto the streets," he said mildly. He didn't have to look up to know the shocked look Sky would have on his face. He sighed and finished pulling up his pants. "Look, Sky. You're a good guy, and you're great back-up."

"But?"

"But anyone who saw you would know you were a cop. It's too much a part of you and where we need to go? Not even your shields would last long." He started layering his shirts. "I promise, you'll be the first to know if we find out that this information is wrong."

Sky sighed noisily. "I still think I should go with you."

"Okay," said Jack, nodding. "But answer me this: What about Bridge and Syd?" Sky blinked in surprise and Jack leaned in close to make his point. "Syd could probably handle herself if she got caught, and yeah, Bridge could probably talk someone else into a coma, but they're still going to be vulnerable. You're my second in command, Sky. I can't be here to watch their backs, I need you to do this."

Sky searched Jack's face for a moment. Jack wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he seemed to find it. "Okay," he said, nodding slowly. "But I expect all three of you back in one piece." Jack smirked and opened his mouth. "You know what I mean." Sky glared at him.

Jack laughed. "Yeah, I got it." He bent and grabbed a couple of cans, sticking them in his pockets. He ushered Sky out the door, locked it and walked through to meet the rest of the team in the hallway. He caught Z's eye.

"We're starting with Piggy," said Z, placing a hand on Sam's shoulder.

Jack barely suppressed his automatic 'Fuck, no!' reaction. He frowned. "No," he said slowly, wondering where this instinct was coming from. "Not Piggy."

Z bit her lip. "Jack?"

"Just..." he shrugged helplessly. He couldn't explain it. "Not Piggy."

"Okay," said Z, nodding. "Where are we meeting up?"

Jack mentally ran through some of the places that wouldn't be too close to the Academy. "Archer," he said. The shelter was actually called Eagle Claw Shelter, but some of the regulars called it Archer for reasons they never saw fit to share with Jack, or anyone who wasn't there for the story. The name stuck and was used as a shorthand- if you were someone who lived on the streets.

Z gave him a knowing look, but didn't say anything about it. She wouldn't want the others trying to follow them either. "Okay," she said, her eyes flashing yellow. "See you boys there." The Z body standing in the hallway faded to nothing.

Sam gave Jack a little wave and vanished. Before Jack could make his own exit, Sky took a step forward and said, "Hey, Jack?"

"Yeah?"

Sky took a deep, steadying breath. "If..." He squared his shoulders and stiffened his spine. "I want you to tell me first. If the information is right."

Jack nodded. "Okay," he said. Then he turned and walked through the outside wall. He paused by the alley to get his bearings. The sound of a throat clearing broke the silence and Jack spun to see Commander Cruger leaning casually against the alley wall, arms crossed. Jack started running through various excuses in his mind.

Cruger held up a hand. "I'm not here," he said, staring out at the mouth of the alley. "I'm currently stalking the halls, hiding from Dr. Felix and his monthly check-up."

Jack blinked. He didn't buy that for a second, but from the knowing glance Cruger gave him, Jack didn't think he was supposed to. "Okay," he said, relaxing his stance.

"But," said Cruger contemplatively. "If I was here, I'm pretty sure I'd want to ask you if you were sure you knew what you were doing."

Jack nodded slowly. "Well, if you'd been here to ask me that, I'd say that I'd have to remind you that me, Z and Sam know how far we can push without setting off any suspicions. And then I'd probably have to bring up the fact this isn't the first time that SPD Command would screw us over when we trusted them."

"I'd most likely have problems refuting that. But I would ask that you step carefully." Cruger looked tired and old.

"Well, then I'd probably have to be a smart ass and remind you that I can move like a ghost when I want to," said Jack, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Cruger nodded. "I think it would have been a good conversation."

"If we'd had it," said Jack, smirking. He nodded to Cruger and started off towards an older stash of his. There was a knife hidden in it that he was hoping he wasn't going to need.

*

Charlie stood in front of the row of Quasar Sabers in their platform. According to the plaque on the side, they were a symbol of peace and prosperity for the Mirinoi people. She let her eyes drift around the clearing, taking in the miles of ramshackle temporary housing with fading SPD logos, the few sickly trees, the small bits of brown grass coming up in the cracks of the miles of pavement around the platform.

"What is it with doctors and their love of needles?" asked Wally as he walked up. He was rubbing his arm absently.

She shrugged. "They're still testing the others?"

"Yeah."

"Let's take a walk," said Charlie, picking a direction at random.

They walked quietly, side by side. Charlie didn't miss how any people they saw always moved to their destinations just a bit faster upon spotting her and Wally. The state of decay in the neighbourhood was steadily getting worse. Then the graffiti started up. Some of the English ones Charlie could make out said things like 'Captain Mutiny was kinder than SPD', 'Free Leo!' or 'Free the Lion!' "I wonder who Leo is," Charlie whispered to Wally.

"A local hero? Or he could be one of those myths," said Wally. "Like Johnny Appleseed or Doc Skullovich."

She nodded. She stepped aside to let a guy walk by and froze when she noticed the mark on his face. He was a Triforian. "Excuse me," she said, touching his arm. "May I ask you a question?"

The man tensed. "I have my papers," he said.

"No, it's not that," Charlie replied, raising a placating hand. "Look, is there some where we could talk?"

He gave her a once over, eyes focusing on her morpher. "You're Rangers?"

"I'm Red, he's Yellow," she said, nodding.

"SPD would never-" The man looked around the area suspiciously. "All right, come with me. Quickly."

He led them through a couple of back alleys and stopped at a rusty shack. He ushered them inside. The room was shabby, but clean. Charlie sat down gingerly on one of the two chairs, while Wally opted to lean against the wall. The man dug through a chest by the door, pulling something out before he came over and sat down on the other chair. "Okay," he said. "Talk."

"What happened to your planet?" asked Charlie, leaning forward. "SPD says Gruumm-"

The man laughed bitterly. "Of course they blame Gruumm." He shook his head. "Look, Rita and Zedd had done a number on us. Even Zordon's wave of good could only do so much. We were still recovering when SPD offered their military services in the clean-up."

"That doesn't sound too bad," said Wally carefully.

The man sat back. "Actually it sounds good," he said darkly. "It sounds good that they have experience in rebuilding. That they're doing it for various worlds that were hit hard by the Evil Alliance. Triads, it even sounds good when they have programs they're willing to adapt to help out.

"The problem with giving up control to others is that not everyone will give it back. Your Earth is going to learn that the hard way if you're not careful."

Charlie traded a worried look with Wally. "Why didn't you fight back?" she asked. "You had Rangers, didn't you?"

"We had one Ranger." he said, sounding tired. "And we had a lot of people torn apart and losing their unities. And we were scattered." The man's gaze drifted over to the far wall, but he seemed to not really see anything in front of him. "And fighting back means you're hostile. And You're rebels who don't know a good thing when it happens. And then I lost my Heart. And my Courage." He smiled bitterly and dropped a small crystal shard onto the table. "Wisdom only gets you so far, kid."

Charlie swallowed hard. Just what the hell was she dragging her team into?

*

Sky was sitting on the couch when Jack walked in. He looked as tired and freaked out as Jack felt. For once, the manual wasn't even there. Jack flopped down beside him and sighed heavily. "Soap is awesome," he said, settling into the cushions. He kind of wished that the soap could have washed off more than just the dirt.

"Didn't you get back two hours ago?" asked Sky, trying for his usual banter tone. "How did you not drown?"

Jack grinned. "Phased through the water for a while. Great for getting all those hard to reach places."

Sky snorted softly. Jack waited, but to his surprise, Sky wasn't pushing for answers. He sat there, looking confused and freaked out. Jack sat up straighter, pushing down his own rising fears. "Sky, about the files..."

"Commander Cruger's just barely keeping us from being lab rats," blurted Sky.

Z gasped in shock from the doorway, and the thought of leaving her behind is the only reason Jack didn't just phase through the floor and start moving.

"We were going through arrest records," said Sky, staring at his hands. "Back through to ones that A Squad made."

"T-Top wasn't the only one who would get these huge sentences for no reason," said Syd softly as she stepped around Z. She eased herself down on the second couch with a sigh. "They all had weird circumstances in their cases. Like, random powers, growing into giants, stuff like that."

Bridge sat down beside Syd, clutching a plate of toast. Z made her way over, looking a little shaky. "So, what does that have to do with us?" she asked, sitting down beside Jack.

"Our powers aren't on record," said Sky. "But there were records of Rangers with freak powers going in for testing and not coming back."

"They died?" whispered Z. She reached out and gripped Jack's sleeve.

"A couple of them did," said Bridge. "But we couldn't get much deeper. We'd need at least three more Sophies to get past those security levels. Kat might be able to get us part way, though. SPD command gave her enough clearance to do most of our testing here. The Commander's been pushing out a lot of reports of the dangers of sending us off planet with Gruumm right over our heads."

"So, in other words, if we win..." said Jack slowly.

"What about Sam?" asked Z. "He's too young for them to touch, right?"

"Well, actually..." Bridge shared a concerned look with Syd. "We're too old."

Syd sighed and sat forward. "Apparently, we're supposed to be tested, like, as soon as we enter the academy. And on a regular basis. The Sam from the future keeps getting linked in Sam's files. Commander Cruger keeps using him, I mean, future him, as like a shield or something."

"So we could get him out of here," said Z, getting up and pacing. "And no one would ever know about him."

"And send him where?" asked Sky, sitting back and crossing his arms. "Do you know any other Rangers that still have their powers and the training to protect him?"

It reminded Jack of their own information. He watched Z speed up her pacing. "Yeah, about that," he said. "A lot of old Rangers have been disappearing. Mostly the off-planet ones. No one really knows if it's Gruumm or SPD. But there've been a lot of attacks by super criminals when those disappearances happen."

"So..." Syd glanced between Jack and Z. "What? SPD's been arresting Ranger killers?"

"A lot of those criminals were early releases," spat Z, still pacing furiously.

"So, we've got some corrupt generals," said Sky. "So we destroy Gruumm and use that to give us the edge we need to clean up SPD."

Jack pressed his lips together, mentally poking at the idea that had been brewing in the back of his mind since he'd gotten the file from the strange rooftop bum named Dax. "There's this file," he said, picking at a hangnail. "It's been floating around parts of the black markets. The guys who first started passing it around said that it was made by a Tangarian." He didn't look up at Sky's sharp intake of breath, but it was a near thing. "Gruumm's being backed by some kind of telepathic monster. They say the file is from the inside of Gruumm's ship."

"Ok, fine," said Syd. "So we take them both-"

"Was it Dru?" Jack could feel Sky's gazing practically drilling a hole into the side of his head.

Rubbing a hand over his face, Jack sighed. "It sounded like him, but I don't know for sure."

"This doesn't change the fact that we need to take out Gruumm and then deal with SPD," said Syd.

"Or we let Gruumm do it," Jack said softy. He kept his eyes on the floor, but he could feel it when the rest of the team froze and stared at him in shock.

"Are you nuts?" shouted Z.

Jack tensed and met her wide eyes. "Hey, you're the one who always wanted me to think big." He rose up from his seat and stalked closer to her. "Think about it. Even if we do stop Gruumm, what's that gonna do? We're the B Squad. Not the Graduates."

"And you want us to what, just leave?" snapped Z. "That's not big picture, brother, that's doing what you've wanted to do since we got caught."

"I never said we leave," said Jack darkly.

"...Jack?" Bridge's voice was shaky.

Jack kept his eyes on Z. "If we pretend to side with Gruumm, we can get in close. We can take him out without having to fight every criminal in the universe to do it. And if we break up the chain of command in SPD at the same time-"

"And let Gruumm kill a whole bunch of innocent people. What about them, Jack?"

"What about us, Z? Or Sam? Or any of the other Rangers? What the hell is going to stop SPD if they don't have Gruumm to focus on?"

"I don't know!" shouted Z, throwing her arms into the air. "Okay? Is that what you want to hear?"

A throat cleared from the doorway and Jack turned to see a very nervous Boom standing there. "Hey, guys. Don't mind me." He smiled tightly. "Just checking the cameras. Kat's been noticing some problems in the sound. SPD command is going to be complaining about our surveillance tech glitching again." He gave them a meaningful look as he edged his way to one of the wall consoles.

Sky stood up suddenly, face a stony mask. "Glitching?" He stalked over to the nearest wall and punched it hard. A wave of blue rippled out, shooting over the walls, the floor and the ceiling. Cameras and consoles exploded. Or tried to. The blue bubbled out before smashing back in, forcing the explosions into the walls themselves. The room shuddered. Syd let out a little shriek, pulling Bridge in and behind her. Jack grabbed Boom and Z, shoving them behind him. Sky dropped his hand and the blue vanished. Wiping at a trickle of blood from his nose, he glared at Boom. "There. Now we can get tech that actually works."

"Just what is going on here?" said Commander Cruger from the doorway.

Everyone snapped to attention. "Sorry, sir," said Jack automatically, stepping forward. "I was antagonizing Cadet Tate and challenged him to an overt expression of his powers. It won't happen again."

Cruger gave him a knowing look. "SPD command expects the common areas to be secure areas. We can't have personnel talking about high security issues out in the open."

Syd wrinkled her nose and said, "but we weren't-"

Jack hooked his finger into Syd's waistband and tugged. He stepped in front of her and met Cruger's eyes. "I apologize again, sir," he said smoothly.

The corner of Cruger's mouth quirked up almost in-perceptively. "Until the new surveillance equipment is installed, I expect the five of you to monitor this room heavily. Understood?"

Bridge raised his hand and opened his mouth. Sky moved quickly, grabbing Bridge arm and using it to pull Bridge behind him. "Understood, sir," he said firmly.

Cruger nodded to them and continued along down the hall.

*

Three weeks of testing at the Nebula Academy and they still don't have much to show for it. Charlie flops back onto the bed in her temporary quarters and glares at the ceiling. They haven't been able to find anything concrete on the missing years of Gruumm's life. What they have been able to find is more stories like Trey Wisdom's. Charlie's been debating bringing up the theory that SPD created Gruumm themselves.

Her door slid open and Mike rushed in. "Okay, I think we might have something."

"We? You've got to stop including the team in your dating life like this, it gets awkward for everyone," said Charlie, with a pointed glance at the room's camera.

Mike made a face and grabbed her wrist, pulling her up. "Oh, like you guys wouldn't just barge in on my dates any ways," he said. "This way, guys know about you weirdoes going in. Now come on, you gotta see the ass on this guy."

Charlie let him pull her out of the room. It took them about ten minutes to get to a rather sheltered alcove. The rest of her team was there, plus a new kid. He looked familiar, but she couldn't immediately place him. "This is Dru," said Wally by way of greeting.

"Why do you look familiar?" said Charlie.

"I used to serve at the Earth Academy, ma'am," said Dru.

Charlie stared at him blankly. She still couldn't place him. Maki leaned against the wall and said, "He's the Tangarian kid who used to hang out with Captain Tate's kid all the time." Oh, now she saw it.

She nodded at him, looking at her team. "Okay, so what's he doing here?"

"I've been approached by an alien named Broodwing," said Dru. "He wants me to work as a double agent for Gruumm."

Surl grinned. "And we were thinking-"

"That we could make him a triple agent?" finished Charlie, thinking it over. Tangarians were tough, it could work.

"This might be our best chance to fill in the missing information on Gruumm," said Wally.

She caught Dru's gaze. "And you're okay with this?"

Dru nodded. "Yeah. I can wear a micro recorder and send out the data over radio frequencies. It'll have a kill switch, which will melt it if needed."

"I've never heard of those before," said Mike curiously.

Dru smirked faintly. "There's a lot the universe doesn't know about Tangaria."

"Okay," said Charlie, holding out her hand to Dru. "Welcome to the team."

The data bursts start out slow. General barracks and training regiments. When they first get footage of a little girl with a doll, all five of them are totally confused.

"What, he's running an evil day-care?" asked Wally incredulously.

Several months in, it gets serious. Gruumm is a strange man who spends a lot of time talking to himself. Eventually he declares Dru ready to meet the master.

The last data burst was static filled, and full of a lot of twisting hallways and Gruumm's voice talking vaguely about 'that vile SPD' and perfection and freedom from tyranny. They stop at a large set of doors, the camera almost fuzzing out completely. The doors open and the room inside can be barely made out in all the static and snow. Dru's gasp of fear comes through clearly, and for one second the picture is crystal clear. There's a large vat in the room, holding what looks like a giant brain with an eye-stalk. The video stops there.

That was the last they heard from Cadet Dru Harrington of Tangaria.

*

The blaring alarm jolted Jack out of his bed. He was mostly dressed and out the door before he's even fully opened his eyes. Shrugging on his jacket, he ran for the command center, his team quickly filing in behind him. There was a transmission playing as they charged into the room. "-Repeat. This is the A Squad Power Rangers team. We've made it to Earth, but we're under heavy fire. Requesting assistance. Please!"

"But they've-" Syd cut herself off as Cruger looked up.

He didn't look surprised at the message. "I had hoped," he said quietly. "that you would have been able to trust Kat and myself with the news on A Squad." He didn't look disappointed though. Jack wondered when he'd developed the ability to read Cruger's expressions this easily.

"We were trying to gather the facts first, sir," said Jack. He didn't see the point in denying what Cruger already knew.

Cruger nodded slowly. "This is most likely a trap, Rangers. Be careful."

They saluted and morphed in unison. No one talked during the ride to the transmitted co-ordinates. When they pulled up, A Squad were simply standing there. Jack pulled out one of his blasters as he dismounted his bike. "Stay right there!" he shouted, moving forward cautiously.

Red tilted her head, tapping her helmet as if she was considering it. She straightened. "No."

Yellow fired once at the ground between the two teams and A Squad ran for it as the smoke rose. "Okay, that's getting annoying," snapped Syd.

Jack hesitated. He noticed Sky tensing, turning to face him and the comms crackled with an incoming message from Kat. Jack thought of Sam. And Bridge and his stupid full body pyjamas. And Syd and her love of glitter. And Z's music player bought with her first SPD paycheque. And Sky's father's helmet.

"Rangers-" Jack tapped his helmet and cut off Kat's message. Z gasped.

"After them," he said firmly. "We need answers and this time, they're going to give them."

They split up, and Jack ran hard after Red. He finds her waiting for him in another alley, just as cramped and dirty as the last one. She's unmorphed and sitting calmly on the bottom rungs of a fire escape. "We know," he quips, levelling his blaster at her. "We keep meeting like this and people are gonna talk."

"You saw the video footage, didn't you?" she asked him.

Jack kept his blaster up. "You could have faked that."

"Yeah." She nodded. "But we didn't. Look, we've been on Gruumm's ship for months now. Whatever that thing is? It's what's driving him. If we can take it out? We could control him. He'd just go after SPD-"

"And still need to use up resources to do it," said Jack.

"But we might be able to get him to leave Earth alone."

Jack snorted bitterly. "And we just throw the rest of the galaxy under his guns instead?"

"We're A Squad for a reason, Cadet," she said, defensiveness and arrogance mixed into in her tone. "We can do this fast."

Jack demorphed impatiently and stepped right into her personal space. "So why bother stopping in to say hi, Cadet Rael?" he asked, leaning in close.

She glared and stood up fast, forcing Jack back a step. "We need to take you down and we need you to go down fast. I promise that we won't actually destroy you, and Earth will be left alone."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because we haven't lied to you, and you know that."

"Yeah, yet," said Jack.

She sighed, glancing down briefly before meeting his gaze head on. "Look, SPD screwed us over. We were alone, no back up being sent and we were surrounded. What would you have done?"

"I-"

"No," she snapped, leaning closer. "Think about it, Red. What would you do to protect your team? If you knew SPD was going to screw you over?"

In the back of his mind, Jack could see Sky's face when he broke the equipment in the rec room; Syd's face when she told him what they'd learnt; Z's pacing during their fight; Bridge's constant fiddling with his gloves. He drew his shoulders back and fixed Charlie with his coldest look. "We're not going down without a fight," he said firmly. He held up a hand when she opened her mouth. "But give me a way to contact you. We might have a better plan."

Charlie stared at him for an endless minute. She nodded once. "Okay."

Jack was the last to make it back to the vehicles. He checked his team over visually as Sky walked up to him stopping them both a few feet away from the others. Jack looked up at Sky curiously. "Sky..."

"What you said in the rec room, about letting Gruumm take out SPD..." Sky heaved a loud sigh. "Look, I get that you and Z have that whole thieving background. And me and Syd? Despite what you think, we can handle ourselves. But you can't seriously want to take Bridge into enemy territory like that. The guy has trouble when we fight in the common rooms."

"So you want to risk sticking with SPD? You think he could handle being a lab rat better?" Jack asked acidly.

"You could always let him decide for himself," said Bridge quietly.

Jack looked up to see Bridge and the girls standing behind Sky. Syd had her hands on her hips, looking determined and scared. Z was hugging herself, but when she looked up, she looked... well, it was the same look she'd had on her face when she told Jack she'd joined SPD, when she'd taken a big step and was sticking with it. Bridge was chewing on his lip, but he looked just as determined as the girls.

"We're a team," said Syd. "We decide together."

"And we decide this now," said Z firmly.

It doesn't take them long after that. They made their way back to base quickly and Jack separated from the team to talk to Commander Cruger.

He was greeted with a growl upon entering the command center. "Cadet Landors. Did you suddenly get a mysterious and secret promotion that puts you above the need to listen when your commanding officers attempt to communicate key information to you about an upcoming battle?" Cruger's voice was both menacing and dryer than a desert.

Jack straightened his posture and saluted like a proper cadet. "Sir, no, sir."

"In that case, I'm not interested in hearing your excus-"

"Sir," Jack cut in. He didn't let himself flinch at Cruger's snarl. "Requesting permission to speak to you privately."

Cruger glared and folded his arms.

"It's about a matter we've never spoken of."

Cruger's glare didn't lessen. "Everyone who is not Cadet Landors or myself, get out." The cadets and personnel in the command center stared at Cruger with wide eyes. "Now!" he barked. The room cleared within seconds. Cruger tapped several keys into the console before him. The doors slide shut and the lights on the cameras died. Cruger fixed his glare back onto Jack. "No."

Jack stiffened and glared back. "You're not going to be able to protect us forever. Eventually, they're going to write you off as a crazy has-been."

"SPD was formed on the principles that all Power Rangers adhere to."

"Yeah, and they're going a great job of keeping that up," said Jack sarcastically. He ignored Cruger's warning growl. "Look, I know Gruumm's evil, but-"

"He destroyed my entire planet!" shouted Cruger, slamming his hands onto the top of the console.

Jack stepped forward. "I'm not letting him do that to mine!" he shouted back.

"For all you know, this could be his plan. He could have brain washed A Squad already."

"We know," said Jack, bracing himself on the console.

"If you do this, you're not going to have any support to fall back on. You have no idea how-"

"Then come with us." Jack pushed off the console, swinging his arms into the air. "If you think Gruumm is-"

Cruger's snarl was loud and almost a bark, he actually raised a fist, shaking with rage. Jack froze, he was half a second from phasing through the floor. Cruger closed his eyes, sighed heavily and dropped into his chair. "No, Jack," he said, shoulders drooping heavily. "I can't."

Jack relaxed slowly, easing closer to Cruger. "Okay," he said, nodding slightly. "Sorry, sir."

Cruger snorted. "I won't align myself with that... monster. Ever. But," he looked up and caught Jack's gaze with his own steely one. "That doesn't mean I'm going to abandon your team."

Jack caught himself wishing he'd had Cruger as a father growing up. It wasn't the first time, but now wasn't the time to focus on it. "Thanks, sir," he said.

"Sit down," said Cruger, rubbing at his snout. "We need a plan."

*

Charlie was the first to reach the shuttle and she spun, firing quickly. Three Krybots went down, sparking. "Everyone inside, now!" she ordered. Maki and Mike dart inside, Wally spins to the other side of the door, helping Charlie with cover fire while he shoves Surl inside.

"Ready!" shouted Maki from the controls.

Charlie shared a quick nod with Wally and as one, they leapt inside, the doors slamming shut behind them. Charlie sat down on one of the chairs, panting heavily. "Okay, what the hell happened to our back-up?"

Mike was tapping away at the comm console, muttering to himself. He scanned through a message and swore heavily in Ssalgian.

Surl snorted. "Your accent still sucks, Earther."

Wally patted him on the shoulder. "It's not Mike's fault you mumble in your native tongue."

"Guys," said Charlie in warning. "Mike? What's wrong?"

"They're not coming." said Mike, demorphing and glaring at the screen in disgust. "Apparently, two small Troobian ships are an unacceptable risk to SPD personnel."

"What?" said Maki faintly. She darted over to the console, tapping buttons. "You read that wrong. They- They..." She seemed to wilt as she read the message. "But, we're the good guys. Right?"

"Yeah," said Wally darkly. He pulled off his helmet. "We're the heroes." He threw his helmet at the wall.

"You think they realized what we were looking into?" Surl asked Charlie, leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees.

Charlie bit her lip. Blaster fire suddenly rocked the ship hard. Mike yelped and Surl and Maki both reached out to catch Wally before he fell. Charlie stood up and edged over to one of the windows. They were surrounded. She glanced at her team, Wally, Maki and Surl were clutching their blasters and Mike was holding his morpher, but they were all focused on her. She turned back to the window and caught sight of her reflection in one of the consoles.

Red. She was the Red Ranger. And this was her team. She straightened and turned to face her team. "Do you guys trust me?"

"Yes," said Mike and Wally in unison. Maki was nodding heavily and Surl made an affirmative grunt.

She took a deep breath. "Enough to follow me anywhere?"

They all nodded. "We'd follow you to hell, Red," said Wally firmly.

Charlie let out a short, bitter laugh. "Hell it is," she said softly. She looked at Mike. "Make a copy of SPD's message and contact the Troobian ships. Tell them that we want to change sides."

Not a single protest or look of doubt from her team. Charlie was proud of them. Out of the frying pan and into the fire and they might still manage to win this.

*

Jack hovered in the doorway of the common room. The walls were still a bit charred and there were holes all over the place from where Boom had removed the busted equipment. The new ones were due on Tuesday. He did a brief head count of the people gathered in the room. The rest of his team, the Commander, Kat, Boom, and Sam from the present.

"Sorry, Jack," came Omega Sam's voice from behind him. "It's hard to keep track of time sometimes," he said, bobbing gently in front of Jack's face.

"S'ok, man," said Jack. He jerked his head towards the gathering. "Come on."

Jack dropped down beside Bridge on the couch and Sam settled for floating over Z's head. Commander Cruger nodded and took a deep breath. "Jack's contacted A Squad. We're going to have to time this perfectly. Once you're all onboard Gruumm's ship, Kat will send out the signal to my and I'll issue my challenge to Gruumm. Ideally, it should take about a week to the Herculeon base. You need to find that giant brain and destroy it by the time we get to the base, understood?"

"I've managed to contact some of the last residents of Briarwood," said Kat. "They estimate twenty four hours for a complete evacuation, but we'll be starting from the center of the city and working outwards. Don't forget that. I've also scrambled the command overrides for all the zords, but I can't guarantee that it will hold. We'll have them for Earth, but once news spreads, we may loose them."

"Sophie's heading for Herculeon," said Bridge, fiddling with one of his gloves. "She might be able to make it permanent."

"Speaking of permanent," said Cruger. He turned to Kat and held out a morpher. "I found your morpher. For some strange reason, it only had a few minutes of morphing capability on it." The corner of his mouth quirked up. "I contacted an old friend who was able to correct that error."

"Doggie..." said Kat softly as she took the morpher.

"As long as you can access the morphing grid, it will work."

"Okay," said Jack, sitting up. "So we're doing this?"

Cruger met his gaze and nodded. "Dismissed, team." He got up slowly, then pulled Kat to the side, murmuring softly.

Jack looked away quickly, it felt a bit like watching his parents, and he had some final details of his own to settle. "Sam?" he said. The kid version looked up and the ball of light version flickered. Yeah, he wasn't going to miss that. Jack pointed to Omega Sam. "You. Come here."

"Jack?" asked Sam, floating over to the corner Jack had moved to.

"I want you to go with Commander Cruger," said Jack.

Sam spun in a tight circle. "What?" he blurted in surprise. "But, I have a Zord. I-"

"Exactly," said Jack. "And Commander Cruger won't. Look, he's one of the greatest warriors ever, but even he needs to sleep. I can't split my core team up for this, and the other you is too young."

"But, what about the future?" asked Sam. He sounded like he wanted to be talked into doing this.

"What about it?" Jack shrugged. "We don't know exactly what happened to make the future better. For all we know, it's because you stayed and kept Commander Cruger alive until we could stop Gruumm and SPD for good."

Sam bobbed up and down slowly, his version of nodding. "Okay," he said. "It's been an honour serving with you, Jack."

"You too." Jack saluted him and watched him float over to Cruger. His morpher chirped with an incoming call. "Yeah," he said, holding it up.

"Ready and waiting, Red," came Charlie's voice.

"Copy that, Red," said Jack. "Let's save the universe."

*

Charlie edged around one of the Krybot regiments and resisted the urge to just blast them. She slipped into the team's cluster of rooms on the ship and dropped down heavily beside Maki. "We really need to get off this ship before I shoot something," she said. Her morpher chirped and Charlie pulled it out. "...Yeah?"

"Hey, Red," came B Squad Red's voice. "Bring your team to the warehouse district. We need to talk."

"Copy that, Red," said Charlie, grinning.

"That sounds good," said Maki, standing up.

Charlie nodded. "Get the boys, we're going on a field trip."

*

Jack kept his gait to a relaxed stroll, trying to ooze more confidence then he felt. He followed Charlie into Gruumm's throne room, trying to take in as much of the ship's layout as he could. His team followed him calmly - Boom was even carrying Sam on his back. The rest of A Squad kept them surrounded.

He didn't gape when Gruumm came into view. He kept his eyes cold and he smirked slowly. "All hail Emperor Gruumm," he said.

Gruumm's eyes glowed red and he made a low rumbling noise. Jack resisted the urge to tell him that Cruger was better at that. "I have been told," said Gruumm, "that you seem to have had a change of heart."

Jack nodded softly. "What can I say?" he said, letting his gaze drift around the throne room like he was bored. "We talked it over and ruling the universe sounded like a better deal than being SPD's newest lab rats."

"Is that so?"

Jack met Gruumm's eyes and gave his most charming smile. "What's the matter, Emperor? Don't you trust me?"

"No," said Gruumm flatly.

Jack leaned in like he was sharing a great secret. "Not even if we destroyed New Tech City for you?"

"Oh, that sounds like fun!" chirped Morgana brightly. "I want to see that!"

Gruumm tapped his chin while he considered it. "Very well. But the child and his guardian stay here," he said, pointing to Sam and Boom.

"Sure," said Jack easily. "And we'll even let A Squad drive the main Megazord."

Gruumm waved at them to leave. Jack patted Boom on the arm as they filed out, fighting the urge to pull them both along, instead leaving him and Sam behind.

"So, we get the main Megazord?" asked Charlie mildly.

"Well, we have the SWAT Megazord now," said Jack, grinning. "It's still got that new Zord smell. And Kat'll take the Delta Base."

"Just don't screw up the suspension," said Sky huffily.

Wally snorted. "Hey, it was ours first, kid."

Jack flicked Z's sleeve. He made the Bridge sign for 'all clear?'. She glanced at her morpher's chrono display and nodded faintly. He grinned and clapped his hands together. "Okay, Rangers," he said loudly. "Let's cause some destruction."

*

Dr. Manx tapped a few buttons on her console, then looked up at Charlie and Jack and nodded. As one, they saluted the camera. "This is Cadet Charlie Rael, A Squad Red Ranger, Space Patrol Delta, Earth sector."

"This is Cadet Jack Landors, B Squad Red Ranger, Space Patrol Delta, Earth sector," said Jack. "This message is being sent to the remainders of the Lightspeed Rescue program, the remaining Silver Guardians, the Pài Zhuǎ Academy, and the newly formed Alphabet Soup department.

"We're sending this to tell you that both SPD and Emperor Gruumm will be leaving Earth soon," said Charlie, picking up the narrative. "The A and B Squad Rangers have taken steps to ensure that Earth will no longer be caught in the middle of this war."

"It's going to seem like we destroyed New Tech City," said Jack. "Rest assured that we're currently evacuating the city and there should be few to no casualties in the ensuing destruction."

"We're protecting the planet from Gruumm and SPD to the best of our abilities," said Charlie firmly. "But once we leave, you're on your own for other threats to the well being of the people of Earth. It's going to be up to you now."

"To those of you getting this message: we're trusting you with the planet. Take care of it," said Jack. He glanced at Charlie and she nodded.

"SPD out," they said in unison, saluting again.

Kat tapped a few buttons and then looked up at them. "End of transmission."

Comments

[kikos_ai]

So yeah Angel, when you said this was an EPIC I didn't quite grasp it till I read it all the way. IT IS EPIC. It's just got this flow to it that just keeps building and building and just...wow. WOW.

I also want to give this fic a shout out cause it uses Jack as a narrator and does it SO WELL. I've been RPing him for a year and a half now and really I don't think anyone gets him as well as you, Kiri and Lily do and it SHOWS here so much. This is Jack at his best--stubborn and brave, with a soft spot for his team and the tries to hide but fails. Also gotta love the Cruger and Jack scenes, you always hit the right tone with them. I think Lily should be proud of this BB. If anyone ever did this to my story I'd be stoked.

In sum <3 I'm amazed at how fast you wrote it and you should be proud

[lilyleia78]

Thanks for the compliment and rest assured, I'm truly awed. :)

I did tell you

[angel_negra]

Yeah, as much as I whined about how it just kept getting longer, I'm really impressed with how it went down. And with the deadline I had on this, it forced me to keep it on track and not get distracted by filler scenes, so that went a long way to keeping the flow solid.

I admit, I love writing Jack's POV a lot. And Cruger - Jack is a lot of fun to do, so I'm glad you think that works. :)

13,630 words. *sobs*

[lilyleia78]

Wow. Just wow. This is...amazing, epic, unbelievably wonderful. I'm so thrilled and humbled that my little story inspired this in you. Thank you so much for fleshing out all the stuff I just hinted at. This story makes me so proud and honored to have been remixed. Thank you so much.

:D

[angel_negra]

Oh, I'm so glad you liked this. I was a little worried because it's not a straight up POV shift like most remixes, but me playing with all those lovely themes you wrote.

I admit, I'm a big fan of Jack/Sky, but that little genfic called to me. Just, the hints you slipped in about A Squad's choices, and Jack and Charlie finding common ground because they're both Reds, and the fact that you made it AU, so I really got some room to run with it.

[silvercaladan]

I think the other commentators covered the basics: this story is an epic full of intrigue, love, trust, and betrayal...

in other words, its freaking awesome!

:D

[angel_negra]

Aw, thanks! Despite my whining, it WAS a lot of fun to write.

[defeatedbyabridge]

TOOK ME LONG ENOUGH but I am finally replying. This is indeed an epic, both in length and in scope, and I love what you've done with it. I really enjoyed getting to read bits of it as you were going, too. This is great, bb. <3

I *JUST* noticed this...

[angel_negra]

Aw, thanks sweetie. I'm glad you liked it. :)