A Darker Shade of Red (Time Force/Power Rangers, T, Chapter 5: Truth)
Sometimes I like this chapter, sometimes I don't. But here it is anyway.
Fandom/: Power Rangers Time Force, slight crossover with S.P.D. (In Bright Skies universe)
Characters/: Alex
Pairings/: Alex/Jen, Lucas/Trip, Katie/OC, Wes/Eric
Rating/: T
Disclaimer/: Saban/Disney/Whoever sure didn't write *this* into the series. The plot comes purely from my own warped little mind, and the characters are merely borrowed from them for my own amusement. Lucky you.
Summary/: The legacy of Wesley Collins and Eric Myers didn't just affect the past - it affected the future. One thousand years after they became Rangers, one person is still struggling against the corruption of Time Force and the heritage he never wanted.
Warnings/: People used for scientific experimentation, corrupted Time Force, character with self-image issues
Author's Notes/: And the truth about Alex's past comes out. As always, more Alex angst ahead, because phantom_blue loves to see him suffer.
Alex stirred, his eyes drifting open to stare at the ceiling of his living room. For a moment, he wondered when he'd gotten there, and how long he'd been out. His head was killing him, but everything else seemed to be in working order.
"Alex ... ?" The voice was soft, tentative.
He blinked, frowning a little as he tried to sit up. It took more effort than it should have. "Trip? What are you - "
He paused. Trip was kneeling a few feet away from his couch, watching him in concern. Jen sat in his favorite chair with an unreadable expression, while he could see Lucas in front of the main door and Katie by the kitchen, both looking suspicious. "What's going on?" he asked warily.
Trip hesitated. "We were ... sort of hoping you could tell us."
He frowned, one hand going to the back of his head as he tried not to wince. "What happened? The last thing I remember was - " He stopped.
His office. They were trying to corner him, asking questions -
Oh, great.
"You had a flashback," Trip said carefully. "We brought you back here so there wouldn't be any questions."
He snorted without meaning to, finally managing to get to a sitting position. Yeah, like the Rangers didn't have questions of their own. This was *just* what he needed.
"Trip didn't want you in the infirmary," Jen spoke up, still looking at him with that expression he couldn't read through. "He seemed to think it'd just make things worse."
Logan finding out he was mentally unstable? Or worse, Blakemore? They'd get Ben in a heartbeat.
He shuddered without meaning to. "He's probably right," he admitted.
"So what happened?" Katie asked. The guarded look hadn't faded, and she didn't move from the entrance to the kitchen - although she wasn't blocking it completely, he noted - but her voice was less hostile toward him than it usually was.
"It was nothing. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm fine now." The words were automatic, and he fought for balance as stood. The sway was brief, but noticeable.
"Alex."
He looked up as his head cleared and found Trip standing in front of him, looking solemn. "Something's happened, hasn't it?" the younger man asked quietly.
He hesitated for barely a moment before shaking his head. "It's nothing for you to - "
"*Alex*!" Trip's eyes burned into his, full of hurt and anger. "If it hurts you, it hurts me too!" He paused, biting his lip uncertainly as his eyes looked pained. "Or do I not matter to you anymore?"
"What?!" He stared at Trip, incredulous. "You're the one who stopped caring!"
"I did not!" Trip protested hotly. "I ... " He bit his lip again, fidgeting. "I forgot," he confessed softly, guilt flooding his expression. "I just ... I kept seeing - I mean, thinking about Wes, and I ... " He looked up, his eyes pleading. "I didn't mean to do it, Alex. I'm sorry."
Seeing. Seeing as in visions. He *had* been picking up on the Rangers' thoughts.
Alex looked away. "You forgot," he repeated dully. "Must have been nice."
Trip flinched. "I'm sorry," he whispered again, sounding heartbroken. "Please, Alex. Tell me what's going on," he begged. "If - if they're trying to hurt you again, then it's my problem too."
He immediately shook his head without thinking, and regretted it the moment he did. "No," he said flatly. "I'm not dragging you into it. This is my problem."
"Dragging Trip into what?" Lucas demanded. "What's going on?"
"Alex, we have a right to know," Jen argued. "You've been acting strange for months now, and I want to know why."
He closed his eyes, fighting to keep his temper. "It's not my secret to tell," he said at last, his tone short.
"Then tell us anyway."
His eyes snapped open again to stare at Trip in surprise. "What?"
"If they're hurting you again, then I want to help. And if I'm a reason you don't want to talk about it, then ... " He could see Trip's hesitation, and the moment of slight fear in his eyes before he swallowed. "Then *I'll* tell them."
"Trip, you can't - "
"Will *somebody* explain what's going on?" Katie demanded irritably.
He and Trip stared at one another for a long moment. "Please, Alex," Trip whispered, looking pained.
He hesitated. "It's Ben," he said at last, closing his eyes. "Blakemore has Ben. He said that if I don't start using the Red Chrono Morpher, they'd wake him up again."
He heard Trip suck in his breath sharply, and could almost sense the surprise from Jen and the others. " ... Ben?" Katie asked hesitantly.
He swallowed hard, forcing his eyes open. "My brother," he said evenly.
Jen started. "You ... you have a ... ?"
He nodded once, slowly. He glanced at Trip again, just to be sure. After all, Ben wasn't just a part of his secret.
Trip just nodded in return, biting his lip. "It's okay," he whispered.
"You'd ... you'd all better find a seat," he said finally. "This is a long story."
Lucas and Katie didn't seem any more reassured by that as they begrudgingly found places to sit. Jen sank back against her chair, seeming lost, and he hated knowing he was the one to put that look on her face. Trip sat beside him on the couch, squeezing his hand reassuringly, and he resisted the urge to wrap an arm around him and pull him closer.
There was a long silence as they waited, and he tried to find a way to begin. If it hadn't been for Trip's insistence, he wouldn't be trying to tell them at all. To be honest, he still didn't want to. They'd never look at him - at either of them - the same way after this.
"You've always said Wes looks like me," he said abruptly. "But that's not true."
He could see Jen blinking out of the corner of his eye. "You're right. He existed first," she murmured.
He shook his head. "There's more to it than that. Time Force has had records of Wesley Collins' existence for decades, with data about his time as the Red Time Force Ranger. Same for Eric Myers as the Quantum Ranger. They *knew* it was going to happen. A group of scientists were selected to use the data to construct the Chrono and Quantum Morphers. They succeeded, obviously, but as they were building it they was a lot of deliberation over the test subject. Someone made a joke of using Wesley Collins to test the Red Chrono Morpher. Eventually, that led to the decision that they wanted Collins to be the only person to ever use the Red Chrono morpher."
"They cloned Wes?" He could hear the puzzlement in Lucas' voice, and Katie's sudden gasp.
"You're-"
But he was already shaking his head. "They deliberated over it, but someone else purposed a better idea. They wanted to see someone with the intelligence, business savvy, and wit of Wesley Collins, combined with the strength, determination, and martial arts prowess of Eric Myers. They violated Time Force protocol to retrieve DNA for each of them, and used it to create two children, one for each morpher. The scientists named one Alexander, and the other Benjamin."
They were staring at him in shock now, and Trip's grip on his hand was getting uncomfortably tight. "Alex..." Jen breathed.
"The Chrono Morpher was adjusted to accept the DNA of Wesley Collins *and* Alexander. The child developed alongside it, and they conducted many experiments to see how his body reacted to it. Benjamin was used to test the Quantum morpher, with similar experiments." He shuddered, unable to keep up the detached narration any longer. "I hate hospitals to this day," he whispered.
There was another long silence, and he started when Jen moved to sit beside him. Tentatively, she took his hand in hers and gave a gentle squeeze. "So Ben is your brother?" she encouraged.
He nodded. "The Quantum Morpher was more powerful than the Chrono Morpher, but there were problems. It began to affect Ben physically - he was eventually paralyzed. The scientists used the opportunity to see how much of the human body the morphers could regenerate for battle. They just kept pushing him, until he finally collapsed and never got up again." He closed his eyes and felt another hand squeeze. "They called it a self-induced coma, and put him in regenerative stasis." He shrugged a little. "But by then they had more interest in me and Trip, so Ben was pretty much forgotten." His eyes darkened. "Or at least I thought he was."
"You and Trip?" Lucas sounded puzzled.
He felt Trip shiver slightly, and immediately wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He looked down at him again to be sure, but Trip just offered a hesitant smile and nod. He didn't bother waiting for Trip to explain - he knew he couldn't.
He took a deep breath. "They discovered another stasis pod when I was about nine, but they weren't able to get it open at the time. There was some sort of lock on it. When they finally decided to leave it alone, Trip tried to speak to me telepathically." He smiled a little at the thought, shaking his head. "I thought I was losing my mind at first."
Trip elbowed him lightly, but they smiled at each other.
"Trip?" Katie's voice wavered slightly. "I don't understand ... "
Trip looked up at her guiltily. "I was born on Xybria," he explained quietly. "We - we were very peaceful people, but we'd been attacked so many times for our technology and resources ... Eventually our scientists discovered that all the fighting damaged the planet's core - it was dying." He swallowed, and Alex saw tears shining in his eyes. "They started creating cryogenic stasis pods and starting shipping our people into space, in hopes we'd survive to colonize another planet. My parents ... they only had enough money for one."
The other three were staring at him in horror. "Trip ... " Lucas murmured.
Alex cleared his throat uncomfortably. "When Trip first tried talking to me, he didn't speak English and I didn't speak Xybrian. It took awhile for us to learn from one another. I still can't pronounce anything accurately in Xybrian, but Trip picked up English quickly." He gave his friend another slight smile, but Trip's answering one was still slightly shaky. "About two years after they found him, Trip's pod just ... opened. I tried hide him before anyone heard, but they found him the next day anyway." He fell silent for a moment.
"You were trying to protect him," Katie said softly, staring if she'd never seen either of them before.
Trip nodded. "Alex has always protected me," he admitted quietly. "He's my brother."
Lucas was giving them another weird look, but Alex just nodded in agreement. "I didn't want Trip to go through the things I did. I wasn't able to keep them from away him completely, but I did what I could." He hesitated, thinking of blinding lights over tables and total darkness each night, and having to lead his new friend around by the hand so he wouldn't walk into anything. "He ... he had things worse than I did."
He didn't elaborate.
"I didn't really know Ben," Trip said softly. "He went into stasis just after I woke up. After that, it was just me and Alex trying to take care of each other."
"I was in the middle of testing one day when someone stormed the building," Alex went on, staring at the floor as he remembered. "It turned out Time Force had discovered that some of their scientists had been conducting illegal experiments and went to put a stop to it. They weren't expecting to find us, but they offered to enroll us in the academy." He shrugged at the stares he knew he was getting. "We didn't have anywhere else to go, so we accepted.
“After we joined the academy, I pretty much flew through all my classes and graduated a year ahead. Trip got held back a year because his muscles had nearly atrophied after all that time in the labs - it's how he got his nickname. We didn't get to see each other much after that, but I still tried to help him whenever I could."
"Alex is the reason I made it into a squad at all," Trip agreed, leaning into him a little.
"We never told anyone about what had happened partly because we just wanted to get past it, and partly because we were afraid no one would ever be able to see either of us the same way again," Alex finished. And because I didn't want you to know that I *am* Collin's replacement, he added silently. He refused to voice that aloud; it was true, but he knew they'd argue with him just because they'd think they had to.
Silence lingered.
"How long were you there?" Lucas asked at last.
"Four years," Trip said softly.
Alex considered. "According to the logs, I was fifteen when we were released, and I was raised there."
"Alex ..." The horror in Jen's voice made him want to cringe. "How could you stand to join Time Force after all that?"
He shrugged. "There wasn't anywhere else to go. Then once they found out how good I was, they weren't going to let me go no matter how much trouble I caused. They claim that I'm a good officer, but the Time Force officials see me the same way their scientists did." He shook his head at her expression. "I'm a Ranger, Jen. That's all I've ever been."
"You ... " Katie swallowed. "Then why did you refuse to morph before?"
He sighed, leaning back against the couch. "I know none of you want me to be a Ranger," he said at last. "I'm not Wes."
He saw Jen's start. "What?"
"I'm not Wes," he repeated. "No matter how much Time Force wants me to be, no matter how much all of you miss him, I'm not." He looked down at the morpher on his wrist. "This morpher was made for Wesley Collins. *He's* Time Force Red. I'm only wearing this now to keep anyone else from trying to use it." He stood, unable to sit still any longer. He walked to the large window that gave his living room a spectacular view of the city - the benefits of being a Time Force officer. His eyes automatically fell on the main Time Force compound. "If Commander Blakemore hadn't interfered, it'd still be in the vault. I mean it when I say that no one wants to see this thing in a museum more than me."
"Alex, I - " Jen stopped, and he could see the uncertainty in her reflection.
He shook his head. "There's nothing more to say. If you'll all excuse me, I'd like to be alone for awhile."
They exchanged glances, and Trip took a step toward him. "Alex ... "
"I'll be all right, Trip," he said quietly. "I just need some time alone."
Trip looked hurt, but he let Katie tug him back toward the door. Lucas ushered them out with barely a backwards glance. Jen hesitated, but at last she followed the rest.
Alex waited several minutes after the door closed before resting his forehead against the cool glass of the window. He closed his eyes, and felt his shoulders shake.
He barely remembered to lock the door before he broke down completely.