Author Note: Armageddon, his minions, Ultima, Power Force, the Samurai Rangers, Samurai Zords and Shinobi Zords were all created by me. If you want to use them, e-mail me!
Time Scale: This picks up a few days after 'Challenges.'
Misplaced Ranger or Misplaced Trust?
By Matt
Lee was walking down to the corridor to his room. He had just finished some upgrades on the Zords. It was about three o'clock in the morning and he was struggling to keep his eyes open. He had just passed the Simulation Room when he heard a noise from inside. He stopped and turned back. Activating the controls for the room, a view screen flickered on, showing the events inside.
He was quite shocked by what he saw. It was Sean, unmorphed fighting all ten of the Samurai Rangers. His only weapon was a sword he had taken from the Gold Ranger. More amazing than the fact he would take on all the Rangers, even holographic versions, was the fact that he was winning. He had never see Sean fight like that. Actually, he had never seen anyone fight like that!
Sean was in a frenzy, swiping the sword back and forth, punches, flying kicks and loads of moves he had never seen before. It got Lee thinking. Why was Sean up at this time, practicing alone, and against the Rangers? He considered going in and asking, but a few things changed his mind. Firstly, he didn't want to walk in and be mistaken for a target, and second, he was too tired to bother. He flicked the view screen back off and headed back to his room.
The next morning, all the Rangers were eating breakfast in the dining area, except for Sean. "Anyone seen Sean this morning?" Lee asked everyone.
Everyone shook their heads, nobody had seen him yet. "Is there a problem?" Kane asked, seeing the strange look on Lee's face.
"No, I just want a word with him. I'll go and check in his room." Lee said, walking out. He walked down the corridor until he reached Sean's quarters. He pressed the buzzer and waited. After he got no reply, he tried a couple more times. After he got nothing again, he unlocked the door and went inside. The bed hadn't been slept in and there was no sign of him. On the table, lay his Morpher and Communicator. Lee lifted his wrist and spoke into the communicator.
"Alpha, this is Lee. Where's Sean?" Lee asked.
Seconds later, Alpha's voice came over the speaker. "Sean is in his room. Do you want me to contact him?"
"He's not in his room. That's where I am, Alpha. His Morpher and Communicator are here, but he's not!" Lee said.
"Okay, I'm scanning for his biorhythms!" Alpha commented. There was a brief pause, then Alpha said, "He's not in HQ. I'm extending the search down into the valley."
Lee stood waiting nervously. Finally Alpha said, "He's down in the valley. Do you want me to teleport him back?"
"No, it's okay Alpha, I'll go find him myself. Thanks." Lee said, walking back out of Sean's room.
Crush stood in front of the large doorway again. She hated this time of day. Every day she would come along to give Armageddon the daily report. But as they were not actually doing anything to fight the Rangers, there was never anything to report. She would always lose her temper and demand he do something, but he would always respond in one of two ways tell her their time would be soon, or threaten to destroy her for her insubordination. She was most annoyed that he had not yet given her the chance to use her new Weapons. Porto had made identical copies of the Swords of Light and Darkness. She had been given them, but not yet used them. She felt confident that with them, she could destroy the Rangers, but he would not allow it.
The doors opened by themselves and she was ordered inside. They slammed shut as soon as she was out of the way of them. "Report!" he boomed.
"Well most of the others are recovered from the fight and seem ready to battle again, except for Gasket and Archerina." Crush reported.
"What happened to Gasket and Archerina?" Armageddon asked. He had never asked exact details on the battle, all he had asked after their return was 'how badly were they defeated?'
"Jandra used some kind of strange device on them. It shut down all their systems and Porto just can't figure out how to restart them." Crush said, fearing his reaction to losing two of his warriors.
"Oh well. Tell Porto to give up. If it's taken him this long already, the chances are he'll never figure it out. Gasket and Archerina are no big loss!" Armageddon said lightly.
"Very well!" Crush said, suprised. Their numbers had been halved when the Dark Rangers were destroyed, she had expected him to be eager to keep his warriors as long as he could. Brushing off gasket and Archerina like that had definitely not been what she thought would happen. "That is all I have to report."
"You may go then." Armageddon dismissed her.
She turned, but stopped for a moment, considering whether or not to ask him when she would get a chance to try out her new swords against the Rangers. She decided not to He would tell her when the time was right, and besides, if he was so willing to get rid of two of his minions, maybe she would be next if she angered him. She just kept walking and left the room.
"And I thought Ultima was bad!" Crush mumbled to herself as she walked back down the passageway.
Lee walked through the streets of the new City. It was quite massive really and it was nearly completed. The Rangers had helped a lot, using their Zords to move the bigger things around and just generally doing anything else that was needed. For the first time, the identities of the Rangers were public knowledge. It was the sensible thing to do really. It could have got confusing to have ten mysterious teens keep showing up in the City. Well they all knew the Rangers, and quite often made a fuss of them. That's what Lee was counting on to help him find Sean.
He had quite a few people stop and watch him as he walked past. He was the closest thing they had to a celebrity now. He stopped one of them and asked, "Excuse me, have you seen any of the other Rangers around today?"
"Sorry. We haven't seen anyone else today!" the woman answered.
Lee carried on and eventually met a young boy who thought he had seen one of the Rangers over in the park. Lee had suspected Sean might be there, and was already working his way there. When he eventually got there, he began the long task of searching the Park. When he saw a large crowd gathered round something, he could easily guess what it was.
He ran over and worked his way to the front. In the middle of the large group was Sean, practicing a load of moves. He didn't seem to care that he had drawn such an audience, just as he didn't notice his friend standing there watching.
Ultima sat up suddenly in bed, waking Divatox from her light sleep. "You okay?" she asked gently.
He looked round, breathing heavily, then down at Divatox. "Yeah, I'm fine!" he answered her eventually.
"Dreams again?" she asked bluntly as she reached up and put her hand on his arm.
He just nodded. "What this time? Did you remember any of it?"
"I can remember parts, but not much. There's one part I can always remember - Armageddon. He's always there, in my mind and in my dreams. Ever since we met on the Astral Plane I've been unable to get rid of his presence. I keep getting the feeling I know him, but I don't know how or why!" Ultima explained.
Divatox just pulled him back down to a laying position and put her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and the two just lay there together.
The crowd in the Park started to move away as the Gold Ranger finished his workout. He took a moment to cool down before he started to walk away. "That looked like a tough workout." someone said to him, tapping him on the shoulder.
Sean turned round, suprised by the voice, his fist flying straight for his face. He stopped just in time as he saw it was only Lee. "Hey calm down, it's just me!" the Green Samurai commented quickly.
Sean just looked at him for a moment, then turned and carried on walking. Chad ran in front of him and stopped. "What's up man?"
"Nothing!" Sean growled.
"Yeah right, if there's nothing up with you, then Sara's gonna fall in love with Zedd!" Lee said sarcastically.
"It's none of your business." Sean snapped.
"Well at least I'm getting somewhere now. Before there was nothing wrong, now there's something wrong but it's none of my business!" Lee grinned.
Sean didn't smile in return, in fact, he looked like he was about to hit Lee. He stepped up to the Green Ranger so that their faces were virtually touching and hissed, "I said it was none of your business, so just leave me alone!"
Lee stepped back. "Geez, alright. No need to get like that I was just worried about you, that's all!" he replied.
Sean looked back for a moment, his expression lightening slightly as he thought about what Lee said, but then the angry frown returned and he walked off. This time Lee didn't follow, instead he hit a button on his communicator and teleported away.
Michelle, Louise and Chad were lying out in the Sun. Chad already had a strong tan which had stayed just as dark during the whole time they had been Rangers, but Michelle and Louise's slight tans had faded since they took on their roles as the Red and Pink Samurai Rangers.
"You know. I can't remember the last time I did this!" Michelle commented, not even opening her eyes or looking round at her friends.
"No, me neither!" Louise agreed. "I mean, ever since Zordon came into our lives, it's been nothing but fighting, training and more training. I can hardly even remember seeing the Sun I've spent so long in HQ."
"I can remember the last time I did this!" Chad commented, and audible sadness apparent in his voice. Louise and Michelle both sat up to look round at the Blue Samurai, urging him to go on. "It was about this time last year, before Ultima showed up. I was on vacation with my Mom, Dad and brother in Barbados. I spent two whole weeks just laying around like this. Vacations were the only time I really saw my parents." he paused for a moment. "I really miss them."
"What happened to them when Ultima attacked?" Louise asked. None of them had ever asked the others about their family before, but now seemed like the best time to ask.
"My parents were both killed protecting me in one of his raids!" Chad commented.
"How about your brother?" Louise asked.
"He was captured when we were escaping." Chad said sadly. "What happened to your family?"
"My Dad and my little sister were killed when Ultima attacked. They never stood a chance!" Louise said, a tear in her eye.
Chad saw the tear and said, "Hey, I know it's hard, but we're Rangers now, we have to stay strong."
"Yeah, you're right. I've got responsibilities now!" Louise said. She was right. Not only was she a Ranger, but she was also second in command of the team. If anything ever happened to Kane, she would have to take the role as leader, so she needed to be at her best all the time.
"How about you?" Chad asked Michelle, noticing she had said nothing so far.
"My Mom and Dad were captured by some of his Drones and taken away to a camp somewhere. I don't actually know where they are now. For all I know, they were turned into Drones themselves and I've killed them in battle!" Michelle said sharply.
"Not knowing what's happened to them is the worst thing." Chad commented.
"Yeah, it is." Michelle said.
"Hey, maybe they're down in the City. They're publishing the City census in a few days. It'll have the names of everyone who lives there, so maybe you can find them!" Louise said optimistically.
Michelle cheered up when she heard that. Was there really a chance her parents were still alive, or was she just getting her hopes up? There was only one way to find out - wait!
"Hey, I say we forget all that stuff, it's just gonna depress us. We've still got some serious sunbathing to do!" Chad grinned.
The girls agreed and they all went back to their positions in the Sun.
Lee walked into the Power Chamber and saw Alpha walking around slowly. He walked over to the mechanoid and tapped him on the shoulder. the little robot jumped and turned round, calling out, "Ay-yi-yi, Lee, don't sneak up on me like that!"
"Sorry Alpha. I just came to check everything's okay. How are the scans going? You found Armageddon yet?" Lee asked as the mechanoid calmed down.
"No, we haven't found anything yet. Did you find Sean?" Alpha asked the Ranger.
The Green Samurai looked slightly on edge for a moment before he said, "Yeah, you could say that!"
"Is there something wrong, Lee?" Zordon asked, able to tell something was not right.
Lee considered telling his mentor what had happened, but decided not to. There was obviously something wrong with Sean, and he was determined to sort it out himself. "No, nothing!" he answered innocently.
Zordon was about to ask something further, but he was interrupted by the alarms sounding. Lee and Alpha rushed to the computer console and checked what the problem was.
"Armageddon?" Lee asked.
"No," Alpha said, disappointed. "There's some kind of anomaly forming."
"Where?" Lee asked quietly as he started scanning. When the computer beeped with the results, Lee read them out. "About 550 miles North by Northeast. The exact coordinates are coming in now. You'd better call the others."
Alpha moved to the communication control and hit transmit. "Rangers, this is Alpha. Report to the Power Chamber straight away!"
Seconds later, flashes of Black, White and Silver flew in. They materialized into Kane, Matt and Niko, who were all dressed in rough workout clothes. Next came Yellow and Purple - Lucy and Sara, who were dressed in casual clothes. Finally came Pink, Red and Blue - Michelle, Louise and Chad. The two girls were dressed in bikinis and Chad in a pair of shorts.
"I knew it was too good to last!" Chad grinned to Michelle and Louise.
"What's up?" Kane asked.
"Hold on, where's Sean?" Matt asked.
"He's down in the City still." Lee said. "I don't think he has his communicator with him."
"Shall I teleport him here?" Alpha asked.
Kane was about to say yes but Lee butted in and said, "I think we can manage without him!"
"Okay, so what's going on?" Kane asked again.
"We have detected an anomaly that we need you to investigate." Zordon said.
"Alpha, can you tell what the anomaly is yet?" Lee asked.
The Alpha series unit pressed a series of controls on the console, then moved to another and hit some more, then moved back to the first. As he looked at the readout he said, "Ay-yi-yi, it appears to be some kind of trans-dimensional vortex!"
"Let's get going then." Kane ordered.
"Do we need to morph?" Sara asked cautiously.
"There's no sign of danger at the moment, so I think you should be safe!" Zordon said. Following that, the nine Samurai's touched the controls on their communicators and teleported away.
They landed in a main street of a small town. Naturally, there was no sign of any life there, all the Cities and towns had been deserted for the last six months, ever since Ultima showed up. Since Ultima allied with them, the Rangers had often wondered exactly why they were accepting his help instead of hating him. After all, he had attacked their world, killed millions, enslaved millions more. He had captured them and tortured several, but they just allowed him to join them. They just had to think of Armageddon to make them realize why they accepted it. Armageddon had not actually done much wrong, but he was obviously the greater of two evils. For now, he was the common enemy, so they were stuck with Ultima.
Kane was holding a device that looked similar to a Turbo Navigator that Alpha had programmed to pick up the energy output of the anomaly. He turned round a few times and it locked on. "This way." he said, starting off down the road.
They walked down the streets and eventually came to the town square. As soon as they got there, Kane put the Navigator away. It was obviously needed. They could quite clearly see the anomaly. It looked similar to the vortex that the other Rangers had gone through to go home, but this one was still forming, and much more slowly.
They all walked over to it, but Lee stopped them about twenty feet away from it. "Careful. It could suck us in if we get much closer!"
Now they just stood and watched as the rip in space got larger. As soon as it was full size, it stopped growing and something started to come out. They all stared in amazement as they saw a person come through, and that person was - the Gold Samurai Ranger!
Rita, Zedd and Goldar were stood in one of Armageddon's bases smaller rooms, talking. Goldar had just come back from talking to Crush.
"What did she say?" Zedd asked insistently.
"Well Armageddon's still not doing anything, but he reached a decision about Gasket and Archerina." Goldar said quietly.
"What's that?" Rita hissed.
"He wants Porto to give up trying to reactivate them. He says he doesn't need them." Goldar reported.
"What?" Rita screeched. "Who's next then? Us?"
"I don't know." Goldar said.
"You could be right. If he's so willing to get rid of them, he may be willing to get rid of us too." Zedd commented.
"I don't like that idea! I knew working for someone else was a bad idea!" Rita commented. "This was all your idea Zeddy!"
"Me? I think it was you who said 'we'll gladly join you, just give us the Power,' not me!" Zedd said back. "But either way, I think we should get out of here!"
"I'm with you!" Rita said.
"Me too." Goldar agreed.
"Okay, we'll do it!" Zedd said decisively.
The vortex closed as Samurai Gold cleared the entrance. The rest of them walked over to him. They looked at him carefully. It was definitely the Gold Samurai Ranger, but how had Sean got there?
"Sean, where did you come from?" Kane asked.
The Gold Ranger said nothing in return, he just reached up and removed his helmet. They stared, once again amazed. It wasn't Sean. They didn't know who he was, well most of them didn't.
Chad stepped forward, his eyes wide open. "M...Michael!" he commented.
"Chad, thank God you're here." the Gold Samurai said.
"Do you know him?" Louise asked the Blue Ranger.
"Yeah, that's Michael. My brother!" Chad commented.
"What!" they all exclaimed.
"I thought you said he was captured by Ultima!" Michelle commented, remembering what Chad had told them earlier.
"He was," Chad whispered back. He turned to his brother and said louder, "Michael, where did you come from? How are you a Ranger?"
"It's a long story. Do you mind if we go back to the Power Chamber first. I need Zordon to hear this as well." Michael said.
Kane walked away slightly with Chad and said quietly. "I don't know about this. Are you sure we can trust him?"
"Of course we can, Kane. He's my brother. Its like me asking if you can trust Sara." Chad commented.
"Okay then!" Kane said. They walked back to the others and he said, "Okay everyone, back to the Power Chamber!"
The ten of them teleported away, leaving the town as desolate as it had been before.
Sean still hadn't returned, so the other nine Rangers, Ultima, Divatox, Mondo, Alpha and Zordon all waited for Michael to begin his explanation.
"Okay. You're gonna have to bear with me on this. It's going to sound completely crazy to begin with, but just let me explain." Michael said, then he continued. "Can I just ask how long it's been since the other Rangers left?"
"It's been thirty one days now!" Kane said quickly. Apparently he was the only one who had been keeping count.
"Okay then, it started about a week ago. Armageddon had been weakened by the destruction of the Dark Rangers, but he soon recovered. He knew there was only one way to defeat the Rangers, and that was to attack them from within. So he found someone suitable and cloned the Ranger Powers. He then planted his operative within us and kidnapped me. He knew I would find some way to get back and warn you, so he threw me through a dimensional portal, thinking it would lead me away from Earth, but I managed to find my way back. Now here's the bit that's hard to believe. So that you wouldn't notice his spy or miss me, he altered your memories. He wiped me from them completely and put his spy in my place, making you think he had always been one of us."
They all just looked at him, trying to comprehend the story. "I've got one question then!" Kane said. They all looked at the Samurai leader as he asked it. "Who's the spy?"
"It's...." Michael started, but then the door slid open and Sean walked in, "HIM! HE'S THE SPY!"
They all rushed around Sean. "What's going on?" he asked innocently.
Crush walked into Armageddon's throne room to give him yet another meaningless report. Not only was she getting tired of the reports, but she was getting tired of talking to the back of his throne. He never even turned to look at her and she was tiring of it, but there was nothing she could do. She had chosen to join him, now she had to live with that decision.
"Okay, Porto's stopped trying to reactivate Gasket and Archerina. Instead he's working on some more weapons. Other than that, nothing more to report." Crush said, then waited for an answer.
After a minute or two, Armageddon said, "You want to know when I'm going to attack the Rangers again, don't you?"
"Of course. Their destruction is my only ambition!" Crush commented. "So when are you?"
He laughed and just said, "Sooner than you may think. If things carry on the way they are going, much sooner than I hoped!"
Crush thought about the cryptic comment, then left the room as he started laughing again.
"Me? What have I done?" Sean asked, shocked at the sudden attention he was getting.
"I won't let you do it!" Michael called out, running at him. He punched Sean to the ground. Sean got up and didn't bother to ask anything else. All he knew was that he had been attacked, so he was going to defend himself. He punched Michael back, followed through with a quick kick to his stomach and then a throw to the ground. The others stepped in and pulled them apart.
"Sean, stop!" Kane ordered. Lee, Louise, Kane and Niko only just managed to hold Sean back.
"Why did he attack me?" Sean snapped.
"He said you're a spy, that Armageddon put you here in his place and got rid of him." Matt summarized.
"What? That's ridiculous!" Sean commented sharply. "How could I be a spy? I've been with you all since the day we got our Powers and Armageddon wasn't even around then!"
"Good excuse, but I can answer that!" Michael said, glaring at Sean. "Armageddon wiped me from their memories and put you in instead!"
"Yeah right. You expect me to believe that. You're probably a spy yourself!" Sean accused.
"I don't think so. If I was a spy, could I do this?" Michael asked. He pulled out his morpher and called out, "SAMURAI GOLD!" He transformed into the Gold Samurai Ranger and faced Sean.
"Big deal." Sean said in retort. His own morpher appeared in his hand and he called, "SAMURAI GOLD!" He too changed into the Gold Samurai Ranger.
"Alpha, scan them both for traces of Armageddon's Power!" Zordon ordered.
Alpha Five stepped forward with a scanner and waved it over them both, then looked at the results. "Ay-yi-yi, neither of them show any signs of it." Alpha chirped.
"Both of you, power down!" Kane ordered. Reluctantly they both powered down and waited for instruction on what to do next. "Now give me your Morphers!" Michael immediately surrendered his morpher.
"What?" Sean asked.
"Give me your Morphers. Until we figure this out I think it's safer!" Kane said calmly.
Sean was about to complain further, but when he saw everyone looking at him suspiciously, he decided it was best to just do as he was told. He handed it to the Black Samurai who walked over to the wall. A panel slid aside and he placed the two Morphers in.
"Okay, so what now?" Michael asked.
"Now, you two leave us." Kane said. "We need to talk about this."
"Okay, I'll go to the rec room for now. I'll be there when you want me!" Michael said.
"I'll be in my quarters!" Sean said sharply. They both left the Power Chamber.
"Alpha, keep a lock on them both at all times!" Zordon said.
"Right away, Zordon!" Alpha said obediently.
"We'll leave you to it!" Ultima said, heading for the exit with Divatox.
"Yeah, this is between you Rangers." Divatox added.
"I think I'll go back to the Zord holding bay!" Mondo said, excusing himself from the whole thing. The Rangers all looked round at Kane, expecting some kind of decision, but for now he had none to give.
"I just don't know, guys!" he said.
"How are we meant to decide who's the spy?" Sara asked.
"Well I think it's Michael!" Niko said.
"Why?" Chad snapped.
"Sean was right. We've known him since day one. He's been through everything with us." Niko said.
"Michael explained that." Chad said. "Armageddon's just messed with our memories!"
"Well I remember what we went through in Gasket's fortress when we were being held there. There's no way Armageddon could have made up all that stuff." Lucy said, thinking back to their imprisonment two months earlier.
"Look, this is no way to decide it. Armageddon may have changed our memories, or he may not have. We just have no way to know!" Kane said.
"Chad, I can understand why you're so willing to accept this, I mean if I could get my brother back like you have I'd do anything to keep him but we have to stay realistic. That story is really far-fetched. There's just as much chance that Armageddon has sent Michael in to cause problems for us." Matt said realistically.
Chad thought about it for a moment, then looked at them all. "But you don't understand. Sure we may have all known Sean since we got the Power, but I've known Michael since the day I was born. He's never done anything to hurt me and I can't imagine him doing it now."
"No offense, Chad, but I shouldn't think the other Rangers could ever imagine their own friends betraying them, but it happened!" Louise said sharply. "Armageddon has a lot of power. Exactly how much power, we don't know yet, but he can do a lot of things. Turning someone against his own brother is probably child's play to him!"
"I just don't know what to think." Sara commented.
"I have to agree with the others I'm afraid Chad. I just find it hard to believe that Armageddon has messed with our heads without us even noticing!" Michelle said.
"That's all just opinion, though." Kane said objectively. "We have no proof about either of them!"
"Well maybe." Lee said quietly. They all noticed he had not said anything yet and turned to him.
"What was that, Lee?" Kane asked. "If you know something, tell us!"
"Well...." Lee said hesitantly. "remember none of this is really proof, but just what I've noticed. Sean has seemed to be acting really.... aggressively lately. He's been spending all his time practicing fighting and doing these moves I've never seen anyone do before. It just seems weird, because this morning, he was down in the City practicing, and when I went up to him afterwards, he almost hit me. When I asked what was wrong, he snapped at me and looked like he was about to hit me again before he walked off, but that's not all...." Lee paused after his confusing account.
"What else?" Kane asked.
"Come on, Lee. If you know something else, tell us!" Chad insisted.
"Well, last night, I saw Sean practicing in the Simulation Room." Lee said quietly.
"So, we all do that!" Niko commented.
"But he was fighting against all ten Samurai Rangers, without his Powers...... and he was winning!" Lee said. They all looked at him, thinking about it.
"Okay, if he's not the spy, why would he fight the Rangers?" Chad said accusingly.
"So it's Sean?" Sara asked.
"Definitely!" Chad said.
"We still don't know that." Kane said, not wanting to accuse either of them yet. "I don't think we should do anything about it yet. Let's just watch them both carefully and see what happens!"
There were a few murmurs of disapproval, but everyone knew Kane's decisions usually made sense. they slowly left the room, going off to do their own things.
That evening, Kane was sitting alone in his room, pondering the predicament. As the leader of the team, all the decisions came to him. He had to decide what to do soon. He didn't know which one was the spy, but he knew that they wouldn't hang around too long. If they were going to do anything, they would do it soon, before they were discovered.
He was disturbed from his thoughts by a buzz from his door. "Come in!" he called out.
The door slid aside and Louise walked in. "Hi." she smiled at him.
"Hey, what's up?" Kane asked, sitting up in his seat.
"I just came to talk." Louise said.
"Why? What's the problem?" Kane asked, worried that his second in command had something wrong.
"Actually, I thought you might want to talk." Louise grinned at him. He just looked back, confused. "You know, about all this spy business."
"Why would I need to talk about it?" Kane asked innocently.
"Well, oh fearless leader, I've not known you very long, but in that time I've got to know you pretty well. I know what you're like. You won't talk about things with anyone, you just bottle it up. And this is too important for you to try and handle alone. Let me help!" she explained.
"Louise, as leader, this is my decision, so I do have to do it alone." Kane commented.
"Okay," she said, getting up to leave. "but you're doing this completely wrong!" She started towards the door.
"Hold on." Kane said, standing up.
The Red Samurai smiled, 'Yes, got ya!' she thought, before turning to face him, the smile hidden well. "What?" she asked.
"What do you mean I'm doing it all wrong?" he asked.
"No, sorry, it's not my place to say." she commented with false indignation.
"Oh come on Louise. Just help me out here." he pleaded. "I'm sorry."
She couldn't hold it in any longer. The grin spread across her face and she started laughing. "I'm only kidding with you. What I meant was, you're not going about it properly. You're just thinking of a judgment based on what we know now, which is virtually nothing. It's not a case of deciding which one is guilty, we have to find out for sure. We can't just think about it and then decide, 'right, I know, it's Sean!' can we?"
"I suppose so, but I can't think of any other ways to find out which one it is!" Kane commented.
"I know one way!" Louise said, grinning again.
That night, the Power Chamber was dark and empty. The Rangers, Power Force, Ultima and Divatox were all sleeping, Mondo and Alpha were recharging, and Zordon had transferred to his personal Chamber. But as the night passed, the Power Chamber didn't stay so empty. A door slowly slid open, opened manually rather than mechanically in order to reduce the noise it made.
Through the doorway, someone crept in, carefully avoiding all the control panels and other obstacles, heading for just one thing. They reached the wall near to the ion tube and hit a button. A panel slid aside, revealing two Morphers, but at the same time, the alarm sounded. More people rushed in.
"You were right, Louise!" Kane called out.
"Computer, lights on!" Louise commanded. At her order, the lights flicked on and they looked over at the perpetrator.
"SEAN!" Louise shouted. He looked back at them, suprised.
"Sean, what are you doing?" Kane called out.
"I need my morpher!" Sean said.
"I guess you were completely right." Kane said to his companion.
"What do you mean she was right? About what?" Sean asked.
"She knew that whichever one of you was the spy would need your morpher, because without it you're completely powerless, so we just waited here for the spy to reveal themselves!" Kane answered.
"So I guess it's you. I can't believe it!" Louise commented. Just then, all the others came up, woken by the noise.
"What's going on?" Matt asked.
"We've caught the spy." Kane said.
"I knew it was him!" Chad said venomously.
"You're way out!" Sean said to them. "I came to get my morpher so I could go and prove I'm innocent."
"How?" Chad snapped.
"I'm gonna go find Armageddon and make him confess." Sean said determined. "More like you could go running back to him and tell him you've failed." Michael commented.
"What? No way. I'm gonna prove my innocence!" Sean said, heading for the door.
Kane stepped in front of him and said, "I can't let you leave!"
"Get out of my way, Kane!" Sean ordered.
"No." he said back. "If you really are one of us like you say, you'll stay and we'll find another way to prove it."
"This is the only way to do it!" Sean said, trying to walk around the Black Samurai.
"Sean, you're staying, even if we have to force you." Kane said calmly.
"Are you challenging me?" Sean asked.
"No, it doesn't have to be this way. Just give us back your morpher and we can do this without a fight." Kane said.
"There won't be a fight anyway, just me doing this!" Sean said, knocking his leader to the ground. He started towards the door and the others all rushed at him, but before they could stop him, he morphed and teleported away.
"Should we go after him?" Michelle asked.
"No point. He'll be back with Armageddon now!" Chad said sharply.
"You guys go back to bed, I'm gonna let Zordon know what's going on!" Kane said. The others immediately started back to their quarters, all talking about Sean on the way.
The next morning, the Rangers were all sat around in the dining area again, although most of them weren't actually eating. They just pushed the food around on their plates as they talked to each other about Sean.
"I'm really glad you found your way back, Michael." Chad said, "Otherwise who knows what Sean would have done!"
"Yeah, I tell you, I'm glad to be back too." Michael grinned.
"I can't believe he lied to us. All this time, I thought he was our friend." Sara commented.
"What do you mean 'all this time'? He was only here for a week." Michelle replied.
"Oh that's just confusing, you know, having six months of memories with Sean in them when he's really only been around for a week. I mean, we don't even know Michael and he's one of us." Lucy said. "What I find hardest to believe is that Armageddon could put such detailed fake memories into our heads. I can remember everything about when we were trapped together in Gasket's fortress, I remember him telling me how he felt, what he was thinking. It seems so real."
"I know, but that's just how it, we just have to deal with it!"
"I still can't believe Sean was a spy!" Niko said, disbelievingly. He looked round at Lee who was sitting next to him, expecting a comment in return.
"Actually, I don't believe he was the spy!" Lee answered.
"What?" Niko asked. "But you've seen the proof!"
"We haven't seen any proof. Sure he's been acting weird and him getting his morpher sure looked bad, but it never proved anything!" Lee said firmly.
"I don't know, why would he have left like that if he was innocent?" Niko asked.
"I really don't know!" Lee answered, confused.
"Louise, did I do the right thing?" Kane asked, unsure of his own actions.
"Of course you did. Sean was guilty and you just tried to stop him." Louise answered.
"But what if we were wrong?" Kane asked.
"There's no way we were wrong. You saw the way he acted." she said back.
"Well think about it, wouldn't anyone act like that in his situation. He was only going to try and clear his name!" Kane said quietly.
"Well as we have no way to know for sure, that's the only way we can tell!" Louise commented.
"Maybe it's not the only way to tell!" Kane smiled as he thought of something. "Come on, we gotta get to the Power Chamber." The two of them got up and rushed towards the Power Chamber.
"Ay-yi-yi. Zordon, I've just detected Armageddon." Alpha called out.
"Alpha, calm down. Locate him now." Zordon commanded. "I detect he is weaker, if
you can locate him, the Rangers may have the opportunity to defeat him."
Alpha frantically hit controls on the computers and eventually got a result. "Zordon, I've got him, but...." Alpha started.
"But what, Alpha?" Zordon insisted.
"But he is with Sean!" Alpha said.
Just then, Kane and Louise ran in, but stopped as soon as they heard the alarms sounding. They went over to Alpha.
"What's going on?" Kane asked.
"Rangers, we have detected Armageddon and he is much weaker now, but he is with Sean." Zordon said.
"Okay, we're on our way!" Kane said. "LET'S SAMURIZE! SAMURAI BLACK!"
"SAMURAI RED!" Louise shouted.
The Red and Black Samurai Rangers transformed and teleported away.
When the two Rangers arrived, they saw Sean, morphed into his Samurai Armor, lying on the ground. He slowly struggled to his feet, looked around and fired a shot at a cluster of boulders from the laser built into the hand of his armor. It exploded and there was a flash of black flame behind it that could only have come from Armageddon.
"Come out and face me!" Sean challenged.
In answer he just got a blast in the back from another outcrop as Armageddon reappeared behind it. The Gold Ranger fell to the ground once again.
Kane and Louise ran over and helped him up. When he saw them, he just pushed them away and shouted, "Get away from me!"
"We're just trying to help." Kane said defensively.
"Well I don't need your help!" Sean said.
"We're your friends, we have to help!" Kane insisted.
"Sorry, did I just hear you call yourselves my friends? You have to be kidding!" Sean sneered.
"I hate to interrupt this, but there is a force of unimaginable evil getting ready to destroy us!" Louise said sarcastically.
"Right. We'll sort this out later, but as you're here now, help me get Armageddon and he can tell you the truth!" Sean said.
"Okay." Kane said. He quickly pointed over to where he saw a flash of black. "OVER THERE!" The three Rangers fired their weapons and hit the area where Armageddon had been, but he was gone before they could even hit him.
"THERE!" Louise called as she saw him appear again. They fired, and again, he was gone. Hi reappeared once more and before they could even see where, he had fired a shot at them. Sean jumped out of the way, but Kane and Louise were hit hard. They fell down unconscious.
"NO!" Sean called out. He charged at Armageddon at an incredible speed and sliced at him with his Senturion Sword. Armageddon was hit quite hard and retreated without saying anything. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" Sean shouted.
Suddenly he remembered Kane and Louise. He ran back to them as the other eight Samurai Rangers appeared. As they looked round, they saw Sean standing over the two fallen Rangers.
"What did you do, traitor?" Michael shouted, charging at the other Gold Ranger.
Sean dodged out of the way and said, "I didn't do this, it was Armageddon!"
"You expect us to believe that?" Chad asked.
"Yes, because it's the truth." Sean said back. "Now hurry and get them back to the Power Chamber, they need medical attention!"
"And where are you going?" Sara asked.
"I've got a score to settle with Armageddon!" Sean swore. Before he could continue, he was hit by an energy blast. He fell to the floor as the others all looked to its source.
"Not this time, you don't!" Michael said. "Come on, let's get them all back!"
The others looked at Michael warily. They knew they had to capture Sean, but that seemed a little extreme. Slowly they picked up Samurai's Black, Red and Gold and teleported away.
When Sean woke up, he was inside one of the HQ's holding cells. He rubbed his aching head and sat up. He was powered down and he didn't have his communicator or morpher. He walked over to the door and looked through the small hatch. Outside was Michael.
"Hey, let me out." Sean insisted.
"Why should I, spy?" Michael sneered.
"Look, I don't know how I can prove it, but I am not the spy, so if it's not me, that just leaves you, and the others will find out the truth!" Sean said firmly.
"They already know the truth." Michael snapped as he walked away.
"You'll pay for this!" Sean shouted after him. He just went and sat back down, waiting for something to happen, he just hoped it would be something to his advantage.
Most of the others were gathered in the med lab. Kane and Louise were still both unconscious, but they were in no danger. For now they were just waiting around for them to wake up so they could find out what happened.
Louise was the first to wake up. She felt groggy and disoriented as she sat up, and it didn't help having half a dozen people rushing round her asking no end of questions as soon as she opened her eyes. She looked round for a moment, then just laid back down and closed her eyes, saying, "Leave me alone, I wanna sleep!"
Matt quieted the others. With Kane and Louise out of action, that left him in command. "Louise, please, we need you to tell us what happened, we have to know!" he asked quietly.
The Red Samurai opened her eyes and looked at Matt. "We got there and Sean was fighting Armageddon, we tried to help, but Armageddon fired at us and that's all I remember!"
"Thanks, we'll let you rest now." Matt said.
"But what about...." Chad started, but Matt pulled him away.
"We're letting her rest now." he said firmly. They all started to walk out of the room, but they stopped when they heard the Red Samurai speak again.
"Did Kane wake up yet?" she asked weakly.
"No, not yet" Matt said, walking back to her as the others left.
"He said he knew a way to prove which one of them was the real spy!" Louise commented.
"What? Did he tell you what it was?" Matt asked excitedly.
"No, he was about to do it when Alpha detected Armageddon, but he never said what it was!" Louise answered.
"Thanks, Louise, now you need to rest, that was a powerful shot you took from Armageddon." Matt said, urging her to try and sleep again. He went and sat down in one of the seats and watched the others. This wasn't the first time he had been left in charge. Before Ultima released the two most senior Samurai Rangers, Matt had been in command. He never really liked it, not that anyone ever really liked to be leader in times like that, but when Zordon had given them their Powers he had also dictated the chain of command. After Zordon had announced Kane as the leader of the Rangers and Louise as the second in command, he had expected someone like Sean, Niko or Lucy to be put next. They were all much older and stronger than he was, he never thought he had anything to offer. As it turned out, he seemed an okay stand-in leader, just so long as it was never a permanent arrangement.
He had never really taken time to think about everything that had happened to him as a Ranger - the pressures, the loss, the responsibility. He'd never even thought about why they in particular had been chosen! And for now, he still wouldn't think about those things for he was disturbed from his thoughts by a noise from Kane. He got up and went over to him. He saw that the Black Samurai's eyes were open and he was looking round slightly.
"Aah man, did anyone get the license plate of that Zord?" Kane asked.
"What?" Matt asked, not understanding the expression.
"Never mind, it's just a phrase Tommy told me." Kane grinned weakly.
"How are you feeling?" Samurai White asked.
"Well let's just say I've been better!" Kane said back.
"Louise said you knew a way to prove which was the real Gold Ranger." Matt said hopefully.
"Yeah, I almost forgot." Kane said grinning again. "It's the most simple way. We should have thought of it right away!"
Everyone was gathered together in the Power Chamber, except for Louise and Kane. They were still much too weak to leave the med lab. Sean was shackled in case he tried to leave again.
"Okay Matt, what's so important?" Michael asked.
"I've got a way to prove who's the real spy." Matt said confidently.
"But we already know. It's him!" Chad said, pointing back to Sean.
"We don't know it's him. I don't mean to doubt you Michael, but we have no proof to say either of you is innocent." Matt said.
"Okay, so how do we find out?" Michelle asked.
"Well when did all this begin, when did Armageddon supposedly make the switch?" Matt asked.
"Just over a week ago." Michael answered.
"Right, so who knows all of us and was gone long before that happened?" Matt asked. They all thought about it for a moment, then it hit them. "The other Rangers!" Sara called out.
"Exactly. Zordon, I need you to contact them." Matt requested.
Alpha was immediately at work trying to get a connection to the past. It didn't take him long as he knew how to do it already He had done it before to call them all to that time, so it was a simple case of repeating what he had done before. "You are connected." Alpha reported.
"Okay" Matt said. "Rangers, this is Matt Elling, White Samurai Ranger, please respond."
They waited a moment, then a voice came back. "Matt, this is Tommy, what's up?"
"Tommy, this may sound strange, but I need to ask you something. Who is the Gold Samurai Ranger?" Matt asked him.
There was another moments silence as the signal traveled to the past and the response returned. "The Gold Samurai Ranger? That's Sean. Sean Kingston!" Tommy replied. They all looked round to Sean, then to Michael who was starting to look a bit worried.
"Thanks Tommy. Much appreciated." Matt said.
"Any time." Tommy said, and the signal was cut.
"So, Sean is the Gold Ranger!" Matt said as he glared at Michael.
"Hold on, there's something weird going on here. How could you speak to Tommy?" Michael asked.
"It's quite simple, it's just a case of transmitting the signal within a takion pulse and directing it through a quantum vortex to a point in the past!" Lee explained.
"I didn't mean that. I meant, how could you talk to Tommy, he died with all the other Dark Rangers!" Michael said.
"What? No he didn't. Tommy's clone died, but Tommy was never even a Dark Ranger!" Matt answered.
"Yes he was. Both him and his clone joined Armageddon. They both died when the Shinobi Rangers defeated them." Michael said.
"Hold on, I'm confused. What's going on?" Sara asked.
They all looked around, confused. None of them knew what he was talking about, but somehow, they could tell he actually believed what he was saying.
"There can be only one explanation for this!" Zordon commented.
"What's that?" Michael asked.
"This is not your reality!" Zordon said. That didn't make things any clearer so he elaborated. "Obviously when Armageddon opened the vortex to get rid of you, he opened a portal to the parallel worlds."
"Can you send me back?" Michael asked.
"We can open a portal for you, and it will take you to a parallel world, but we do not know which one. If you knew the exact coordinates of it, we could send you there, but without them, you would just end up on another random world." Zordon said.
"But I have to go!" Michael said. "I have to warn my friends."
"No Mike, don't go!" Chad pleaded.
"Chad, I have to. This isn't my world, and you're not really my brother. I have to get back to my own place and get rid of the real spy." Michael said.
"But Mike, I lost you once and just found you. I couldn't bear losing you again!" Chad said, tears coming to his eyes.
Michael walked over to his brother and hugged him. "If the Michael of this world is anything like me, then he loves you and he'll be doing everything he can to get back to you." he said, only just holding back his own tears. "Good bye Chad."
The Blue Samurai said nothing in return, he just let the tears roll down his face. Michelle, who was standing next to the young Ranger, put her arm around him and he leant on her, crying.
Next, Michael walked over to Sean who had now been released from his bonds.
"Sean, I owe you an apology. I accused you of something you didn't do and I'm sorry." Michael apologized.
"It's okay. You had no way of knowing this wasn't your world. Can you do me a favor." Sean requested. "Sure." Michael replied.
"When you get back to your world, if I've done any damage, can you say how sorry I am for it to everyone. I know it's not really me, but I'll still feel responsible." Sean said.
"No problem. Now I gotta go. Zordon, can you open a portal for me." Michael requested.
"Take this!" Zordon said. A small device appeared in Michael's hand.
"What is it?" he asked.
"It's a mobile vortex emitter. It will allow you to open up another portal whenever you wish. It will also keep a record of the coordinates of each world, so that you do not visit the same one twice unless you wish to do so." Zordon explained.
"Thanks Zordon." Michael said. "Well I guess this is good bye everyone. I'm sorry for the trouble I caused."
They all waved good bye as he opened a portal and jumped through. Things just happened so quickly that nobody really had time to think about it all until after he was gone.
"He's gone.... again!" Chad mumbled. Michelle just pulled him into a hug and he stood there holding onto her for a moment. A couple of minutes later, everyone realized they still had the awkward task of apologizing to Sean, but judging by the way he had reacted to Michael, he should have been no problem. They turned round to see him, but he was already gone.
Without even wondering where he had gone, they all started to disperse, heading off to carry on with their everyday activities. Soon it was just Niko and Lee left in there. Lee had a clearly puzzled look left on his face.
"What's up?" Niko asked him.
"That still doesn't explain why Sean's been acting so weird." Lee commented.
"No, I don't suppose we'll ever know!" Niko said. "Now I gotta go, I wanna check up on Kane and Louise." The Silver Ranger ran off to the med lab, leaving Lee completely alone in the Power Chamber.
"Computer, show all the information you have on Sean Kingston, the Gold Samurai Ranger." Lee ordered as he walked to the computer console. Screens of information appeared and he started to review it. It didn't take him long to discover a possible cause of Sean's aggravation. "Got it!" Lee grinned as he ran off to the living quarters.
Sean was busy in his quarters, gathering up all of his things. As a beep came from the door, he hit the button to open it and went straight back to sorting out his belongings without even looking who it was.
"Happy Birthday!" Lee said quietly.
"Oh, so you know do you!" Sean commented.
"Yeah. Is that why you've been acting so weird lately?" Lee asked.
"You could say that." Sean sneered, then Lee noticed Sean seemed to be packing.
"What are you doing?" Lee asked, alarmed.
"I'm leaving!" Sean snapped.
"Why?" Lee asked quickly.
"If I actually have to tell you, then that just makes it even worse." Sean said coldly. "Now go away!" The tone in Sean's voice was the same tone Lee had heard the previous day in the Park, when Sean had been ready to hit him. He didn't hesitate, the Green Samurai just left.
A little later, Sean walked into the Power Chamber and approached Alpha, with Zordon looking on. He took his communicator off his wrist and placed it down on the console.
"Sean, what are you doing?" Zordon asked.
"I'm leaving Zordon. I can't stay here. I'm keeping the Power, and I'm not gonna stop fighting Armageddon, but I just can't stay here." Sean answered.
Zordon was about to try and talk him out of it, when Matt, Lee, Michelle, Lucy, Sara, Chad and Niko came in. "You're not leaving, Sean. Whatever's wrong we can sort it, just talk to us." Matt said strongly.
"You're wrong, this is beyond sorting out." Sean said hopelessly.
"What is? Tell us what's wrong!" Matt pleaded.
"Okay then." Sean said. "In my family, the eighteenth birthday has always been the most special one. The one we always celebrate in our usual family tradition. Today's my eighteenth birthday. Now I knew I wouldn't be celebrating with my family, as I have none now, they were all killed four years ago in an accident, and I'd come to terms with that. But now, here, with all of you, I thought I had found a new family. I thought I could share that time with you, but I was wrong. You were so willing to believe I could ever betray you, and I can tell you how that felt, it hurt. It really hurt. That's all it took to make me realize that you'll never be my family, you'll never even be my friends, so I don't want to stay here."
They all listened carefully as he explained, and all immediately felt guilty for ever doubting him. "Sean, we're sorry." Lucy started.
"Save it." Sean said, cutting her off. "I don't want to hear it. I'm leaving, and you can't stop me."
Matt could see the others getting ready to argue against him, so he instead stepped forward to speak for them all. "Sean, I know nothing we can say or do can make up for this, so if you think leaving is the answer, then go ahead, we won't stop you. But remember one thing. There will always be a place here for you if you change your mind." he said strongly. He held out his hand. "I hope one day you can forgive us!"
Sean looked at him for a moment, then shook the White Samurai's hand. "Yeah, maybe one day." He held up his morpher and called, "SAMURAI GOLD!" Once he was transformed, he looked round at his fellow Rangers, then towards the infirmary as if he could see Kane and Louise, then teleported away.
"Come home soon, Gold Ranger!" Matt said quietly.