Nicole’s head turned, the action sending a sharp stab through her nerves as she took in the sight of her once friend. Maraline hadn’t escaped unscathed, her armor was scuffed and dented, and several rips marred her clothes underneath. Blood leaked from a few wounds, but most seemed superficial at best.
“The hell was that?” Nicole demanded, her voice scraped raw, that electricity now proving to be too much for her body. She convulsed, falling from Grace’s arms to the hard ground as she no doubt caught her girlfriend by surprise.
The dreary sky quickly filled her vision even as her whole body trembled, then a helmet of red was looking down and across her body frantically.
“I don’t know what to do,” Grace whispered.
“Because there is nothing that can be done,” Maraline said. Her arms were raised with open palms as she approached, then she ever so slowly lowered herself at Nicole’s side, kneeling opposite her girlfriend. It said something for the situation that a blade hadn’t immediately lashed out for the remaining Sylan. “She has tapped into the Source directly, without a filter to protect herself from the destructive energies that empower all Rangers.”
“That sounds bad.”
Maraline turned an unimpressed glare upon Jeff’s cheeky comment. The Purple Ranger held up his hands in surrender, but Nicole knew that he was ready to spring into action the moment that Maraline proved to have less than noble intentions.
“An understatement if there ever was one,” Maraline said dryly. “If you were to drop your morph now, your body would tear itself apart from the sudden divestment of power.”
Grace’s helmet whipped between Maraline and Nicole, and she could almost picture the frantic look on her face as she did. “Then what do we do?”
Maraline bit her lip, looking away as a particularly violent tremor rushed through Nicole’s body, she bit her own lip clean through as she fought down the scream that wanted to tear its way free. That warmth was now roiling within her core, setting her blood to boil within her veins. It was the worst pain she had ever experienced, and she knew it was only going to get worse as the seconds continued to pass.
“I do not know. We have so few instances of this happening on record, and I was not permitted to view the records.”
“Why help if you don’t have a solution?” Grace demanded, and Nicole could hear the tears choking those words.
“Because I care,” Maraline whispered. “Nicole was the first friend I made that I could truly call such. I do not wish to see her perish.”
“That doesn’t seem to hold true for the rest of us,” Devon said rather harshly even as he cradled his shield arm.
Kayla elbowed him rather gently, yet didn’t issue a correction.
“Even if I were to bring her to the Sovereign, I do not know what could be done,” Maraline continued, her voice full of mourning. “The Prime Administrator would order her hooked up to every device we have until she came completely undone in the most horrifying of ways imaginable.”
“You’ve already given up,” Grace accused.
Maraline bowed her head, the tears falling freely.
The worst part of it was that all Nicole could do was lay there as the power coursing through her threatened to burn her up completely. Each pulse sent new tremors through her, Nicole’s mind slowly fraying at how intense the pain had grown without her realizing it. She really was dying, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
It was obvious her team was reeling. Even Carlos had come to join them and he looked like he’d lost a fight with a wood chipper. Yet, even knowing that, Nicole knew she was worse. The transformation hadn’t actually healed her, but forced her body back into a working shape by pure force and made her move according to her will.
How she understood that was something she couldn’t really question at the moment given how she was currently screaming up blood from the latest surge to rush through her. Arcs of energy were even starting to dance between her fingers and her suit was practically smoking. Nicole knew she didn’t have much time, and so it was with a monumental force of will that she reached a hand up to Grace’s helmet, cupping it gently.
She just wished that she could see her eyes one last time.
“Mayhaps we could be of assistance?”
Heads snapped to the source of the voice, though Nicole’s attempt was more of a slow bob as it fell to the side. Yellow stood out starkly in the waning storm, with several colors flanking her. Dimly Nicole recognized them, though her mind struggled to connect the memory to a coherent thought.
“You,” Devon snarled, bringing his own battered weapons back to bear.
Kayla and Jeff were quick to step up to join him, standing as ready as they could with their damaged equipment. Even Maraline had taken up her arms, standing protectively over Nicole’s prone form. The only one that hadn’t stepped away was Grace, who had simply moved to better shelter Nicole from the new arrivals.
“Me,” Yellow said, her voice oddly cheeky. “Sup little silver, still dating that bimbo bitch?”
“Fuck you,” he snarled.
Yellow laughed. “Oh, I finally got the little saint to curse, did I? Adorable.”
“What do you seek?” Maraline demanded.
That brought the banter to a sharp end. “Hello Conquista. I’m surprised to see you standing alongside the inferior beings you look down upon.”
“I am not my peers,” Maraline said.
Yellow made a show of looking around the area, gesturing at all the destruction around them. “I seem to recall you fighting right alongside them up until this one took a sudden downturn. Feeling sympathy for a single human doesn’t absolve you of your deeds.”
The way this new Ranger switched from irreverent to deadly serious was a bit of whiplash for Nicole to follow. It was almost as if they were two different people speaking. The other Rangers with her hadn’t spoken, and simply stood back at a parade rest, as though they were just window dressing on her performance.
It was also disconcerting to see a second Purple Ranger among them, but it wasn’t as if Jeff had a monopoly on the color. Orange stood out the most among them, their distracting color serving to ground Nicole’s attention even as the standoff continued.
“My regard for Nicole extends to all of humanity,” Maraline said, her voice dripping with venom. “Were it my decision, this war would not have happened.”
“You’re still complicit,” Kayla snapped. “You want to play at being better? Then be fucking better!”
“I do grieve the senseless loss of life, there is much waste in this conflict that I abhor,” Maraline hung her head at that admission. “Our methods are needlessly cruel for your planet, and I wish it could be different.”
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“Then be different,” Grace said. “You claim to want to nurture humanity, then put actions to those words. Show us that you’re different from them.”
“I cannot,” Maraline answered, tapping at her neck. “I am allowed some freedom, but only so long as I act accordingly as a General of the Sylan Empire.”
“You’re a slave,” Nicole whispered, but her words carried.
Maraline turned shimmering eyes upon her, the depths of despair reflected back made her chest clench. “You are… Not incorrect. I value life, and even should I perish, they would just replace me. So, I endure what I must, so that when it comes time for my rule, I will be there to govern humanity with compassion.”
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Jeff said. “You claim to be better, but you’re every bit the monster as Bartran.”
“Perhaps I am,” Maraline said, softly. “Were I any other Sylan General, you would all be dead. That is the proof I offer of my compassion.”
“You’re lucky that our mandate to end you is currently a secondary objective,” Yellow continued, addressing Maraline with that same derision. “Your friend is dying, and we have a way to save her.”
“Unlikely,” Maraline said immediately. “Even the greatest technology aboard the Sovereign could not stop this process.”
Yellow snorted. “Oh, is the great Sylan Empire unable to do something to help a single girl?”
The pair continued their posturing, right up until Nicole convulsed again, her every muscle pulling in on themselves violently. She couldn’t even scream, her lungs had expelled everything they had and her jaw was locked.
“Enough fucking around,” Grace growled. “If you can help her, then fucking do it already or piss the hell off!”
“See, she gets it,” Yellow said. “Now, would you kindly step aside so I can be of assistance?”
After a tense moment, her companions parted and Yellow was allowed to approach. She stepped beside Nicole, ignoring the glares from the other, or how Grace kept a tight grip on what remained of her axe.
“There is just one thing that I would be remiss to not mention,” Yellow said, kneeling down as they pulled a device from a pouch. “It will require the sacrifice of your morpher.”
Nicole’s eyes widened and she wanted to protest, yet she couldn’t form the words, only whimpers that cut off with an aborted scream. She couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to stand alongside her friends, yet the alternative was death, and leaving Grace alone was simply unacceptable. It was almost laughable, death would be the easy way out, yet she did not wish for it any longer. She wanted nothing more than to continue living for the first time in a long time.
“Do it,” Nicole croaked out.
Yellow nodded. “When this concludes, we will take you to an emergency vehicle where you will be rushed to a hospital. Red will be allowed to accompany you and we will ensure you receive the best care that can be provided.”
“She better,” Grace snarled.
“You have my word, for what little that is worth at the moment,” Yellow said as she worked quickly, laying out a device on the ground before moving Nicole’s left arm to sit over it. “I won’t lie, this will hurt. We’ve only ever done this once before so there isn’t much of a baseline.”
“Just get on with it,” Nicole said through grit teeth.
Yellow chuckled. “As you wish.”
The device blinked to life and the heat suddenly surged through her core and down the arm atop the device. It moved like liquid lightning and a honeybadger had hate fucked out back of a crackhouse before shoving the resulting demon spawn right through her blood. The bitch was right, this was somehow worse than everything that came before.
The world flickered and cold rain crashed into Nicole’s prone form, instantly sucking all the remaining heat from her body. The convulsion that resulted from the shock was the worst yet, several grotesque sounds followed bringing fresh pain along with them.
Mercifully, that seemed to mark the end of the torment from the raging storm of energy that had threatened to consume her. Unfortunately she now felt completely hollowed out. Grace was at her side, pulling her into her arms and a princess carry. Nicole might have been put off by that if she wasn’t quite literally a limp noodle at the moment.
“What did you do?” Maraline whispered. “All of the Source energy was just siphoned from her into that device through her morpher.”
“Neat, right?” Yellow said, already moving to pack it away. “It’s something our research teams came up with, and how a certain anomaly survived your boss’ last assassination attempt.”
It was becoming glaringly obvious that this group of Rangers weren’t mere smugglers, but instead something a lot more connected than they originally figured. The way Maraline was looking at the device was hard to place, but it almost seemed as if she wanted to dive into the inner workings of it.
Nicole tried to laugh at how cute it was, but coughed instead, which was quickly followed by a hacking episode that had her vision darkening at the edges and red flecks falling off Grace’s uniform in droplets a bit too thick to just be liquid.
“Stay with me,” Grace whispered. “We’ll get you somewhere that will help. Don’t worry.”
“I’m not,” Nicole said, forcing a smile. “I’m never worried so long as I have you.”
“Oh God,” Yellow groaned as she passed the now glowing device off to another of her compatriots. “Let’s get the little missy to a proper emergency unit before she kills me by exposure.”
“Not to an ambulance?” Devon asked. “No offense, but the last time we met, you threatened me with my identity.”
“Well, you did poke your nose into matters you shouldn’t,” Yellow said easily. “Relax, I’ve already got what I was after here, there’s no reason for me to threaten anyone at the moment.” Her head tilted as she regarded the Silver Ranger. “Unless you want me to threaten you, is that it?”
Devon looked away sharply. “N—no!”
Yellow busted out in raucous laughter. “Adorable.”
“Can we perhaps move this along?” Grace demanded. “If you hadn’t noticed, she’s sort of coughing her damn lungs up over here!”
“Calm your tits,” Yellow said, waving a hand dismissively. “Just buying time for my friends to secure the rather volatile Source energies before Conquista over there decides eye fucking the pretty lights aren’t enough for her.”
Maraline blinked, tearing her gaze away from said device. “I am not—”
“Whatever,” Yellow said, cutting the Sylan off. “Keep playing at being benevolent, first chance I get that isn’t neutral grounds and I’ll put a bullet through your head.”
Yellow leapt into motion before Maraline could follow, and Grace matched her pace. Nicole expected a hard impact as Grace touched down on solid ground, yet the expected shock never came as Grace landed with a surprising gentleness before bounding off again after the enigmatic Ranger.
They were quick to cross the police line, leaving several ambulances in their wake. Nicole could practically feel Grace’s hesitation at trusting this unknown Ranger, yet she carried through with it regardless. Whatever their intentions, they didn’t appear actively malicious, just a bit of a catty bitch.
Yellow stopped at a tall building downtown, one that tickled some part of Nicole’s brain with familiarity, not that everything was firing correctly at the moment. They paused at the door for a moment and Nicole tried to follow the conversation, yet struggled to parse every third word spoken between them.
A moment later the doors opened and a gurney was rushed out alongside a dozen different medical technicians. Nicole found herself being set down gently, then several pinpricks along her arms followed as a dozen sensors were swiftly secured in place. Nicole didn’t have the energy to squawk in indignation when they cut her shirt away to attach something else, it all happened so quickly and soon she was being ushered inside with all due haste. They entered an elevator and Nicole felt her stomach drop as they went down rather than up.
The elevator ride lasted for over a minute and she could only wonder how far they were going down when the door finally opened and she was rushed along a long steel hallway lit with harsh fluorescent bulbs. It was only then that she realized that Yellow had left them at some point, but Grace was right there with her in her red uniform, her vizor cracked yet still intact.
Her girlfriend also maintained a vice grip on her hand as they hurried along, eventually making it into a surgical room that looked like nothing Nicole had ever seen before, even when they rushed her in after her…attempt. They shifted her over to the table, doctors rushing about as they took notes and began to bring in strange devices that were too reminiscent of sci-fi movie abductions. Hell, one of them looked like a goddess be damned anal probe!
Something cool rushed into her veins, finally calming the rawness that persisted from her last ditch efforts to stop Bartran from killing everyone she cared for. It was a welcome reprieve after everything the last hour had dumped upon her. Just as she felt the calming chill hit her heart and begin to spread through her entire form, red prisms shattered, revealing Grace with tears streaking down her cheeks. Grace leaned down, placing gentle lips upon Nicole’s own, barely the ghost of contact, and then they pulled away.
“I love you,” Grace whispered, but Nicole was already slipping away into blissful unconsciousness.