The Tainted and The Broken- Part 3
Author: dream-edge
Title: The Tainted and the Broken
Summary: In an effort to protect Ziggy, Dillon is thrown into te future. A future where everything he knows is drastically different. During his struggle to get home, he finds himself drawn into the twisted, broken mess his best friend has become.
Rating: T
Pairings: Dillon/Ziggy, Doctor K/Tenaya
Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers or anything related to the franchise.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
The Tainted and the Broken
Chapter 3
Dillon had known that Ziggy had changed. His dear friend was drastically different from how he remembered him. Gone was the warmth and happiness and life and in their place was someone who was cold and distant and something in his eyes was blank and lost. Sometimes he was shocked by how harsh he could be but during the almost three days he'd been here he'd started to get used to it.
However, he had thought that Ziggy being team leader was nothing more than the fact that he was the only person left from the original team. And he was quickly being proven wrong.
He leaned back in the chair he'd been provided, watching as Ziggy systematically wiped the floor with Gem, Gemma, and Tenaya. When Doctor K- Kat, he was learning- had first suggested the three-on-one fight he had been concerned and skeptical. Ziggy had proven him wrong, severely wrong.
Ziggy slid out of the way of Gem's punch, dropped down to kick out Gemma's legs from under her and flipped over the Silver Ranger's downed body to slam a roundhouse kick to Tenaya's side. Before he could pull away, Tenaya wrapped an arm around his leg in an effort to keep him in place. The Green Ranger didn't hesitate when he pushed himself up off the ground and twisted, using his free leg to kick Tenaya roughly in the head.
Dillon winced in sympathetic pain as his sister fell. "That had to hurt." He observed, glancing at Kat next to him. She nodded, a smile of pride on her face. "He's getting faster."
He hummed in agreement, tilting his head to the side as he watched Ziggy fight. There was grace in his movements; he made the fight look like a dance. It was beautiful. Yet there was something about his movements, something off. It was almost like he could sense what they were going to do before they did it. "How does he do it? Know what their going to do?" he asked.
Kat gave him a confused look before realization dawned on her and she rolled her eyes. "I thought someone had told you. I guess not."
He frowned. "Told me what?" he demanded.
"That Ziggy's telepathic." She said, looking completely serious. He stared at her in disbelief. "Telepathic? As in...he can..."
"Read your mind?" she finished for him, a small, amused smile on her face. She nodded. "Yes. He can also project his thoughts so he can tell you things without saying them out loud." At his disbelieving look her amused smile grew into a grin. "Yes I know. Your Ziggy can't do that. He learned to do it during a training excursion outside the dome with the rest of the team. None of them gave me very many details but they all came back with abilities. Gem can turn himself invisible for instance, and Gemma can walk through solid objects. Tenaya wasn't with the team at the time."
Dillon looked at her for a long moment, trying to decide if she was kidding, before turning to look back at the fight. It made a bit of sense if he thought about it. Ziggy was always answering questions he hadn't asked or snapping off comments about things he hadn't said out loud. He always seemed to have silent conversations with the other members of his team and he always knew what they were going to do. But still, the idea that Ziggy was telepathic was a little... scary.
As he watched, Ziggy took a few steps away from the three, shrugging out of his jacket and rolling up his sleeves. Dillon raised an eyebrow when he noticed the thick black marks curling up Ziggy's left arm in intricate patterns. Ziggy had a tattoo? Now that was interesting. And something else came to his attention. "What's with the bracelets?" he asked, examining the identical silver bracelets Ziggy was wearing, the emerald in each gleaming back at him.
Kat glanced at what he was talking about. "It's the new morpher." she explained. "Tenaya designed it. The sliver is surprisingly pure, allowing it to channel the energies from the Grid better. Much more advanced than the morpher you have and less noticeable."
He glanced down at his own morpher, noticing how bulky it looked compared to the slim ones Ziggy was wearing. Now that he was looking, he noticed that the other Rangers were wearing them as well. He turned his attention back to the fight, watching as Ziggy reengaged them, dancing and spinning around his teammates attacks with an amused glint in his eyes.
It looked like he was wrong. Ziggy was more than qualified to be team leader.
---
He was getting a head ache. He frowned in annoyance, resisting the urge to rub his temples as he watched Gemma edge around the corners of the room, eying him darkly. The woman was mostly unchanged except for the fact that she had cut her hair short. So short the ends brushed her chin, her bangs done in a choppy, ragged style. She had, however, become highly distrustful, never taking her eyes off him. "Is she always like this?" he asked.
Kat looked up from where she was sitting next to him. "It's just you." she answered blankly, turning her attention back to her computer. "It doesn't seem like the temporal energy is effecting the growth of the Venjix parts inside your body." she told him.
He felt relief flow through him and he sighed gratefully. "Thanks Doc." he whispered. He straightened and turned to the door just in time to see Ziggy enter and slap Gemma soundly on the head. A smile of amusement touched his lips when Gemma ducked reflexively and muttered a soft, "Sorry, boss."
"Don't apologize." Ziggy ordered. "It’s a sign of weakness." He continued past her, walking towards them. He met Kat's eyes and jerked his head to the side. She stood immediately, making Dillon wonder at the level of obedience she hadn't shown to even Scott. Ziggy walked to a corner away from him and Gemma, Kat following him. He watched as they talked for a few minutes, Kat starting to look perplexed. But Ziggy looked determined.
Before they could finish their conversation an alarm blared, breaking the little silence that had wedged in. Dillon jerked his head up and automatically started heading for the garage. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Gemma run towards the wall and then right through it while Ziggy also broke into a run out the door ahead of him, shouting to Kat over his shoulder. He entered the garage just as Ziggy was slipping into the Aston Martin and called out, "What about me?"
Everyone paused, Ziggy's hand still on the door handle, Tenaya straddling the bike, Gemma seconds from turning the ignition key, and Gem slid half way into his car. Then Ziggy shook his head. "You're not coming." He said in a tone that said not to question him.
And in typical Dillon fashion, he questioned him. "Why the hell not? I'm a Ranger too Ziggy. You can't just tell me to stay!"
"I think I just did. And you will!" Ziggy shouted back at him. Dillon caught the words on the tip of his tongue and crossed his arms, giving Ziggy one sharp, determined shake of his head. He could almost see the Green Ranger grind his teeth. Turning his head away, Ziggy jerked his thumb at the passenger seat. "You obey every order I give. No exceptions."
A small smirk twitching as his lips, he ran towards the car and easily slid into the passenger seat. Seconds later, Ziggy joined him in the driver's. He glanced at the younger man as he started the car. "Tell me you learned to drive." he said. Ziggy smirked at him as he told him. "I learned from the best." With that said, Ziggy pulled out of the building and practically flew down the road.
After taking a particularly close turn at a very dangerous speed for the fifth time he turned to his former partner. "Where the hell did you learn to drive?" he demanded, his expression tense. Ziggy turned a smirk towards him as he pulled around another corner. "From you!"
They entered a relatively empty street, relatively only because it was packed with Grinders. "Ziggy!" he shouted in warning. Ziggy spun the wheel, causing the back end of the car to spin outward and slam into a group of Grinders. As Ziggy easily maneuvered backwards and away, Dillon looked wildly at his friend. He was insane. As he jerked the gear-shift into park, Ziggy turned to him. "I know." He agreed with that same infuriating smirk, stepping out.
The other Rangers joined the two of them seconds later. Ziggy looked over at him, slipping on a pair of slim black sunglasses. "Let's do this. Dillon, cover us. Take care of the Grinders." He ordered. Dillon didn't protest it, morphing along with the rest of the group. Once that was done, they split up, the four going for the attack bot standing in the center of the street and Dillon cleaning up the Grinders that tried to stop them.
But he continued to watch them out of the corner of his eyes. It pained him to realize that Tenaya, his sister, had taken his place as Ziggy's partner. It was the logical choice of course, anything else would mean splitting up Gem and Gemma, but it just didn't feel right. It didn't help that the grouping worked much better than their partnership, particularly because the two were on the same rough skill level where he had always been much stronger and much faster than Ziggy.
It seemed to take a startlingly short amount of time for the small team to take down the attack bot and almost immediately the Grinders cleared the street. The group demorphed and Tenaya stretched, a small smile on her face. "I like this, it was easy. Let's go home. I'll make dinner."
Gem and Gemma looked at each other. "I'm not one to pass up free food." Gem said in a round-about agreement. Dillon smiled in amusement and was about to walk back to Ziggy's car when he noticed the young man himself. Ziggy had a strange expression on his face and he was glancing around uneasily. "Ziggy, what's wrong?"
Ziggy looked at him, an anxious look in his eyes. "That was easy. That was too easy." He whispered, continuing to look around. Tenaya, Gem, and Gemma gave each other uneasy glances. "What is it, Zig?" Tenaya asked carefully.
The Green Ranger paused suddenly, his expression becoming tense. "Are you here..." He asked, turning around to stare at something. Dillon squinted at the area, noticing a vague shape in the shadows. His breath caught and his eyes widened when the figure walked forward, out of the shadows. His thoughts froze in place even as Ziggy finished his question, his last word chilling him to the bone.
"To make me a martyr, Dillon?"
Ziggy watched as his version of Dillon stepped out from the shadows, raising a gun to point at him. There was a dark smirk on his face and his eyes were cold. There was something dark lurking in the back of his gaze, something the Dillon that had been at the base for the last three days lacked. His Dillon smirked at him and said, "It's crossed my mind."
He gulped slightly, forcing himself to stare into the dead brown eyes of the person his best friend had become. The eyes that had haunted his nightmares for nearly two years. He hated them. He resisted the urge to close his eyes against the dark memories that assaulted him as he stared at his former friend and partner.
Ziggy choked back a cry when he saw Scott and Flynn lying on the cold street, unmoving. He raced forward, sliding to his knees and reaching out to cradle Scott's limb head in his hands. His neck was twisted at an odd, horrible angle. He could feel the tears starting to burn behind his eyes. He looked over at Flynn, horrified to see blood starting to pool beneath him.
Slowly he raised his head to stare at the man towering above him. "What did you do?!" he shouted. "God damn it Dillon! What the hell did you do?!!!!"
A smirk crossed his former friend's face. "They should never have given me the chance." he whispered.
The man before him was a murderer. He had killed Scott and Flynn and many held him responsible for Summer's death as well. Scott and Flynn had spent the battle trying to talk to him, get through to him. They had been trying to get Dillon to remember who he was. And Dillon had killed them for it.
Ziggy had had to bury two more bodies that day. Had to carve their names into the monument that day. He had lasted through the funeral, not showing any signs that he was even aware of what was going on. But when he had gotten home that night, he had locked himself in his room and had a near complete mental breakdown. He hadn't lost just Scott and Flynn that day.
As far as he was concerned, his Dillon had died with them.
Chapter 4
Title: The Tainted and the Broken
Summary: In an effort to protect Ziggy, Dillon is thrown into te future. A future where everything he knows is drastically different. During his struggle to get home, he finds himself drawn into the twisted, broken mess his best friend has become.
Rating: T
Pairings: Dillon/Ziggy, Doctor K/Tenaya
Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers or anything related to the franchise.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
The Tainted and the Broken
Chapter 3
Dillon had known that Ziggy had changed. His dear friend was drastically different from how he remembered him. Gone was the warmth and happiness and life and in their place was someone who was cold and distant and something in his eyes was blank and lost. Sometimes he was shocked by how harsh he could be but during the almost three days he'd been here he'd started to get used to it.
However, he had thought that Ziggy being team leader was nothing more than the fact that he was the only person left from the original team. And he was quickly being proven wrong.
He leaned back in the chair he'd been provided, watching as Ziggy systematically wiped the floor with Gem, Gemma, and Tenaya. When Doctor K- Kat, he was learning- had first suggested the three-on-one fight he had been concerned and skeptical. Ziggy had proven him wrong, severely wrong.
Ziggy slid out of the way of Gem's punch, dropped down to kick out Gemma's legs from under her and flipped over the Silver Ranger's downed body to slam a roundhouse kick to Tenaya's side. Before he could pull away, Tenaya wrapped an arm around his leg in an effort to keep him in place. The Green Ranger didn't hesitate when he pushed himself up off the ground and twisted, using his free leg to kick Tenaya roughly in the head.
Dillon winced in sympathetic pain as his sister fell. "That had to hurt." He observed, glancing at Kat next to him. She nodded, a smile of pride on her face. "He's getting faster."
He hummed in agreement, tilting his head to the side as he watched Ziggy fight. There was grace in his movements; he made the fight look like a dance. It was beautiful. Yet there was something about his movements, something off. It was almost like he could sense what they were going to do before they did it. "How does he do it? Know what their going to do?" he asked.
Kat gave him a confused look before realization dawned on her and she rolled her eyes. "I thought someone had told you. I guess not."
He frowned. "Told me what?" he demanded.
"That Ziggy's telepathic." She said, looking completely serious. He stared at her in disbelief. "Telepathic? As in...he can..."
"Read your mind?" she finished for him, a small, amused smile on her face. She nodded. "Yes. He can also project his thoughts so he can tell you things without saying them out loud." At his disbelieving look her amused smile grew into a grin. "Yes I know. Your Ziggy can't do that. He learned to do it during a training excursion outside the dome with the rest of the team. None of them gave me very many details but they all came back with abilities. Gem can turn himself invisible for instance, and Gemma can walk through solid objects. Tenaya wasn't with the team at the time."
Dillon looked at her for a long moment, trying to decide if she was kidding, before turning to look back at the fight. It made a bit of sense if he thought about it. Ziggy was always answering questions he hadn't asked or snapping off comments about things he hadn't said out loud. He always seemed to have silent conversations with the other members of his team and he always knew what they were going to do. But still, the idea that Ziggy was telepathic was a little... scary.
As he watched, Ziggy took a few steps away from the three, shrugging out of his jacket and rolling up his sleeves. Dillon raised an eyebrow when he noticed the thick black marks curling up Ziggy's left arm in intricate patterns. Ziggy had a tattoo? Now that was interesting. And something else came to his attention. "What's with the bracelets?" he asked, examining the identical silver bracelets Ziggy was wearing, the emerald in each gleaming back at him.
Kat glanced at what he was talking about. "It's the new morpher." she explained. "Tenaya designed it. The sliver is surprisingly pure, allowing it to channel the energies from the Grid better. Much more advanced than the morpher you have and less noticeable."
He glanced down at his own morpher, noticing how bulky it looked compared to the slim ones Ziggy was wearing. Now that he was looking, he noticed that the other Rangers were wearing them as well. He turned his attention back to the fight, watching as Ziggy reengaged them, dancing and spinning around his teammates attacks with an amused glint in his eyes.
It looked like he was wrong. Ziggy was more than qualified to be team leader.
---
He was getting a head ache. He frowned in annoyance, resisting the urge to rub his temples as he watched Gemma edge around the corners of the room, eying him darkly. The woman was mostly unchanged except for the fact that she had cut her hair short. So short the ends brushed her chin, her bangs done in a choppy, ragged style. She had, however, become highly distrustful, never taking her eyes off him. "Is she always like this?" he asked.
Kat looked up from where she was sitting next to him. "It's just you." she answered blankly, turning her attention back to her computer. "It doesn't seem like the temporal energy is effecting the growth of the Venjix parts inside your body." she told him.
He felt relief flow through him and he sighed gratefully. "Thanks Doc." he whispered. He straightened and turned to the door just in time to see Ziggy enter and slap Gemma soundly on the head. A smile of amusement touched his lips when Gemma ducked reflexively and muttered a soft, "Sorry, boss."
"Don't apologize." Ziggy ordered. "It’s a sign of weakness." He continued past her, walking towards them. He met Kat's eyes and jerked his head to the side. She stood immediately, making Dillon wonder at the level of obedience she hadn't shown to even Scott. Ziggy walked to a corner away from him and Gemma, Kat following him. He watched as they talked for a few minutes, Kat starting to look perplexed. But Ziggy looked determined.
Before they could finish their conversation an alarm blared, breaking the little silence that had wedged in. Dillon jerked his head up and automatically started heading for the garage. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Gemma run towards the wall and then right through it while Ziggy also broke into a run out the door ahead of him, shouting to Kat over his shoulder. He entered the garage just as Ziggy was slipping into the Aston Martin and called out, "What about me?"
Everyone paused, Ziggy's hand still on the door handle, Tenaya straddling the bike, Gemma seconds from turning the ignition key, and Gem slid half way into his car. Then Ziggy shook his head. "You're not coming." He said in a tone that said not to question him.
And in typical Dillon fashion, he questioned him. "Why the hell not? I'm a Ranger too Ziggy. You can't just tell me to stay!"
"I think I just did. And you will!" Ziggy shouted back at him. Dillon caught the words on the tip of his tongue and crossed his arms, giving Ziggy one sharp, determined shake of his head. He could almost see the Green Ranger grind his teeth. Turning his head away, Ziggy jerked his thumb at the passenger seat. "You obey every order I give. No exceptions."
A small smirk twitching as his lips, he ran towards the car and easily slid into the passenger seat. Seconds later, Ziggy joined him in the driver's. He glanced at the younger man as he started the car. "Tell me you learned to drive." he said. Ziggy smirked at him as he told him. "I learned from the best." With that said, Ziggy pulled out of the building and practically flew down the road.
After taking a particularly close turn at a very dangerous speed for the fifth time he turned to his former partner. "Where the hell did you learn to drive?" he demanded, his expression tense. Ziggy turned a smirk towards him as he pulled around another corner. "From you!"
They entered a relatively empty street, relatively only because it was packed with Grinders. "Ziggy!" he shouted in warning. Ziggy spun the wheel, causing the back end of the car to spin outward and slam into a group of Grinders. As Ziggy easily maneuvered backwards and away, Dillon looked wildly at his friend. He was insane. As he jerked the gear-shift into park, Ziggy turned to him. "I know." He agreed with that same infuriating smirk, stepping out.
The other Rangers joined the two of them seconds later. Ziggy looked over at him, slipping on a pair of slim black sunglasses. "Let's do this. Dillon, cover us. Take care of the Grinders." He ordered. Dillon didn't protest it, morphing along with the rest of the group. Once that was done, they split up, the four going for the attack bot standing in the center of the street and Dillon cleaning up the Grinders that tried to stop them.
But he continued to watch them out of the corner of his eyes. It pained him to realize that Tenaya, his sister, had taken his place as Ziggy's partner. It was the logical choice of course, anything else would mean splitting up Gem and Gemma, but it just didn't feel right. It didn't help that the grouping worked much better than their partnership, particularly because the two were on the same rough skill level where he had always been much stronger and much faster than Ziggy.
It seemed to take a startlingly short amount of time for the small team to take down the attack bot and almost immediately the Grinders cleared the street. The group demorphed and Tenaya stretched, a small smile on her face. "I like this, it was easy. Let's go home. I'll make dinner."
Gem and Gemma looked at each other. "I'm not one to pass up free food." Gem said in a round-about agreement. Dillon smiled in amusement and was about to walk back to Ziggy's car when he noticed the young man himself. Ziggy had a strange expression on his face and he was glancing around uneasily. "Ziggy, what's wrong?"
Ziggy looked at him, an anxious look in his eyes. "That was easy. That was too easy." He whispered, continuing to look around. Tenaya, Gem, and Gemma gave each other uneasy glances. "What is it, Zig?" Tenaya asked carefully.
The Green Ranger paused suddenly, his expression becoming tense. "Are you here..." He asked, turning around to stare at something. Dillon squinted at the area, noticing a vague shape in the shadows. His breath caught and his eyes widened when the figure walked forward, out of the shadows. His thoughts froze in place even as Ziggy finished his question, his last word chilling him to the bone.
"To make me a martyr, Dillon?"
Ziggy watched as his version of Dillon stepped out from the shadows, raising a gun to point at him. There was a dark smirk on his face and his eyes were cold. There was something dark lurking in the back of his gaze, something the Dillon that had been at the base for the last three days lacked. His Dillon smirked at him and said, "It's crossed my mind."
He gulped slightly, forcing himself to stare into the dead brown eyes of the person his best friend had become. The eyes that had haunted his nightmares for nearly two years. He hated them. He resisted the urge to close his eyes against the dark memories that assaulted him as he stared at his former friend and partner.
Ziggy choked back a cry when he saw Scott and Flynn lying on the cold street, unmoving. He raced forward, sliding to his knees and reaching out to cradle Scott's limb head in his hands. His neck was twisted at an odd, horrible angle. He could feel the tears starting to burn behind his eyes. He looked over at Flynn, horrified to see blood starting to pool beneath him.
Slowly he raised his head to stare at the man towering above him. "What did you do?!" he shouted. "God damn it Dillon! What the hell did you do?!!!!"
A smirk crossed his former friend's face. "They should never have given me the chance." he whispered.
The man before him was a murderer. He had killed Scott and Flynn and many held him responsible for Summer's death as well. Scott and Flynn had spent the battle trying to talk to him, get through to him. They had been trying to get Dillon to remember who he was. And Dillon had killed them for it.
Ziggy had had to bury two more bodies that day. Had to carve their names into the monument that day. He had lasted through the funeral, not showing any signs that he was even aware of what was going on. But when he had gotten home that night, he had locked himself in his room and had a near complete mental breakdown. He hadn't lost just Scott and Flynn that day.
As far as he was concerned, his Dillon had died with them.
Chapter 4