Jen hit the water only a few seconds after Eric had. It took an anxious few minutes of diving, but she found him and succeeded in dragging him out into a small clearing. To her relief he started breathing again immediately. She used her blaster to break the handcuffs and then demorphed and pushed up his sleeve to inspect the blaster burn.

Out of uniform and with the harsh lines of his face softened by unconsciousness, Eric looked vulnerable, and very attractive. Jen found herself smiling at him. She reached to brush dirt from his hair. Eric stirred and opened his eyes, blinking dazedly until he focused on her face.

He gasped. “I don’t need your help!” he said roughly, pushing Jen’s hand away and sitting up fast, wincing as he moved the injured arm.

“Obviously you do,” Jen said, angry now. “You would have drowned if I hadn’t pulled you out.”

“If you expect me to thank you, you’re wrong.” Eric staggered to his feet, still a little unsteady.

“What’s your problem? We’re not your enemies.”

“Aren’t you? You’re sure not my friends.”

“Your choice. Not ours.”

“You never wanted me to have that morpher and be a Ranger. You should be happy now.” Eric sat, slumping, on a large rock.

“Now that Conwing has it? Don’t be stupid.” When Eric didn’t answer she went on. “If you would have trusted us, and worked with us, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Trusted you? When you didn’t even tell me the truth about where you came from, or why your weaponry is so advanced?”

Jen opened her mouth, and finding no good reply closed it again nervously.

“It’s true, isn’t it,” Eric said slowly. “Conwing said you’re from the future. Maybe you think I really am stupid, for not figuring it out.”

“Maybe we should have told you. But you haven’t exactly encouraged communication between us. And if you knew what’s at stake -- our whole world -- we couldn’t take the chance of trusting you….”

“Save it.” Eric turned away. “I don’t want to hear about your problems. I’ve got my own. Like getting my morpher back.”

“You don’t care about anything but yourself, do you?”

Eric’s shoulders stiffened for a moment before he turned back to her, his face hard. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“Whose fault is that?” Jen started to turn away, but stopped. “If you’re capable of feeling any gratitude, do me just one favor. Don’t tell anyone we’re from the future. Especially Mr. Collins and anyone at Bio-Lab. If they figure out how to duplicate our weapons, it could be... a disaster.”

“We’re too primitive to handle it, right?”

“What have you -- we -- done with every weapon ever invented? We’re experts at killing each other off. Do you really want powerful new weapons around before their time?”

They stared at each other until Eric said, “I’m not making any promises.”

Something in his expression told her that was the best she was going to get. And at least he hadn’t refused. With a last angry look, Jen turned and started back to her teammates at a run, leaving Eric to watch her go.

Near the bridge, the Rangers were still evading the Q-Rex, returning fire with their blasters when they could and trying to get in position to attack the real enemy. Conwing seemed to be enjoying the game and had ordered the Q-Rex to hold back.

Wes saw the Pink Ranger emerge from the woods near Conwing. She took him by surprise with a burst from her blaster but he fired back almost at once; hitting her hard. She fell, dropping the weapon. Disregarding his own safety, Wes dashed over to her and helped her up. They started back to rejoin their teammates.

Conwing walked a few steps after them and raised the morpher. He spoke into it again, with Eric’s voice, ordering the Q-Rex closer. “Time to finish this!” he shouted at them.

Before he could speak, a voice shouted, “Conwing!” They all turned to see Eric running from the woods, headed for Jen’s dropped blaster.

“Get him!” Conwing said into the morpher. The Q-Rex turned and started walking toward Eric, its strides dwarfing his. It began to overtake him quickly.

“Eric, run!” Katie shouted. And he did, barely ahead of the Q-Rex he dived for the blaster and snatched it up in a neat somersault. He fired at Conwing, staggering him for a moment, then dashed the remaining yards between them and hit him with a kick.

But Conwing was too strong, he backhanded Eric down, and then hauled him up by one arm. Holding the morpher out of Eric’s reach, he shouted into it, “Q-Rex! Destroy the Rangers!”

But Eric hadn't given up. Suddenly he grabbed at Conwing’s mouthpiece, pulling it away and throwing it as far as he could in the Ranger’s direction. Then he shouted, “Q-Rex, stop!” The morpher picked up his voice and the Q-Rex froze in its advance on the Rangers. Lucas blasted the voice synthesizer as Conwing started for it. The Rangers charged for Conwing and Eric.

With a furious snarl, Conwing wrapped his long fingers around Eric’s neck and squeezed, even as he started for his car. Eric kicked at him and clawed at his hand, but could not free himself. The cyclobots, who had been standing by the car, held the Rangers back with several blasts while Conwing threw Eric’s now limp body in, then they all dove in the car and took off.

“We’ve got to stop them!” Wes shouted as the Rangers ran back to their cycles. But it was too late, the car was already out of sight, and a quick and frantic search failed to find it.

Eric woke up to find himself pushed down into the back seat of the same car he had been kidnapped in. Only a few minutes later, they stopped and parked, and the hands that had held him down now dragged him out. He barely got a glimpse of empty fields and a small shack before Conwing roughly shoved him inside. Looking around the small room, Eric saw Dr. Zaskin gagged and bound to a chair, his face bruised, bloody, and fearful, but definitely alive, along with Nadira, watching with a triumphant smirk.

Conwing pulled another chair away from a nearby table. As the cyclobots forced Eric into it and tied him, none of them noticed the tiny button he pressed on the watch on his right wrist.

Conwing crouched in front of him, taking the morpher off and holding it up to Eric’s face. “You’re very clever,” he said softly. “That was our only voice synthesizer. Now I’ll have to find another way to use the morpher.” He added, “If you call the Q-Rex, you and Zaskin will be dead before it gets here.” Even more softly he said, “Release the voice lock.”

“No.” Conwing slapped him, hard. Eric ignored the pain and faced him defiantly. Conwing hit him again with his fist, almost hard enough to knock him over. Eric gasped, his head ringing, but he faced Conwing again and glared at him murderously.

“Are you going to do this again?” Nadira asked sharply. “I told you I don’t like it.”

“You were right that Zaskin doesn’t know anything useful. But this one has something I intend to get. If you don’t want to watch, I suggest you leave.”

Nadira hesitated, giving Eric a look that was almost apologetic. Then she stepped back and disappeared in a transporter shimmer. Conwing turned back to Eric and said, “Where were we?”

The Rangers had split up to speed their search, and Wes realized he was out of places to look. And it might already be too late. He had seen enough of Conwing to suspect that Eric’s future in his hands would be short and painful. He stopped at an intersection trying to decide which way to go in a search that seemed increasingly hopeless.

He heard engines and looked up to see a line of Silver Guardian cars speeding in his direction. The lead car suddenly swerved to the side, pulling up next to him as the others went by. Wes was surprised to see the Guardian driving, whom he recognized as Miller, Eric’s second-in-command, lean out and call to him.

“Commander Myers is in trouble.”

“I know!” Wes answered. “He’s been kidnapped by a mutant. The same one who killed Commander Porter. We’re trying to find them.”

“He’s wearing a tracking device, and he’s used it to call us. He left orders that if we found you we should ask if you want to help.”

“We sure do! I’ll follow you.” Wes felt considerable surprise at Eric’s unexpected willingness to include them, but there was no time to wonder about it now. As he pulled out he called the others on his morpher.

Conwing bent to inspect Eric’s damaged face, forcing him to look up with a hand under his chin. “You’re brave, for a human,” he said mildly as Eric twisted his head away. “If you won’t release the voice lock, I’ll have to kill you to make sure you can never use the morpher again. And eventually Ransik and Frax will figure out a way to get around the voice lock. Why die needlessly?”

“You’ll kill me anyway. I’d rather go fighting.”

“Perhaps I should start on Zaskin again.”

Eric looked at Dr. Zaskin, who stared back, his eyes wide. “I’m sorry, Michael,” he said reluctantly. “I can’t let them control the Q-Rex, even to save you.” Zaskin looked even more fearful, but he nodded.

Conwing studied Eric for a moment. “I have no more time to waste on you.” He stood up.

“Wait,” Eric said. “Dr. Zaskin doesn’t know anything. You said so yourself. Let him go.”

“Ransik will decide what to do about Zaskin. After I’m done with you.” He moved quickly, putting the morpher down on the table, then drawing his knife and twisting his fingers in Eric’s hair, roughly pulling his head back and pausing to watch his face. He touched the knifepoint to Eric's chin and slowly drew it down his throat to the hollow between his collarbones, lightly scratching the skin. Eric saw him looking for signs of fear, of weakness. He was sickeningly afraid, and he knew it showed, but he forced himself to stare defiantly into the mutant’s eyes. Conwing smiled down at him gently.

“We take care of our own. We’re going in.” The Silver Guardians had led the Rangers to a small shack outside town. They had left their cars behind and crept closer under cover of the trees surrounding it. Now they were ready to move.

“We’re better armed and protected. We have more experience with this kind of enemy. And Eric’s a Power Ranger. He’s one of us, too,” Jen told Miller. “There’s no time to argue!” she added when he hesitated. Reluctantly, he motioned them on.

Wes slipped in the back door with Jen and Trip just as Lucas and Katie burst in the front. He felt a surge of raw anger as he saw Eric tied to a chair, the marks of Conwing’s brutality on his face, a knife held to his throat.

Startled, the mutant looked up at them. The Rangers fired from both sides; stunning him for a moment and making him drop his knife. As they fired again, he retreated, drawing his blaster and crashing through the wall of the shack. The troop of Guardians outside immediately opened fire. Jen and Lucas blasted the two cyclobots and went after him with Trip right behind them.

Wes ran to help Eric, picking up the knife and cutting the ropes he was tied with. Katie moved to free Dr. Zaskin. Wes started after Conwing and saw Eric grab the Quantum morpher from a table a moment before he leaped through the ruined wall.

Conwing was holding his own, snarling as he blasted at Guardians and Rangers. But even he couldn’t withstand the Quantum Defender. The Quantum Ranger advanced on him, firing repeated blasts that left him helpless and dazed on the ground.

Eric strode up to Conwing, ripped off his transporter and kicked his blaster away. Raising the Defender, he commanded it to full power, then held it to Conwing’s head and asked, “Any last words, mutant?”

“Eric, what are you doing?” Wes demanded.

“I’m going to make sure he never hurts anyone again.”

“You can’t do that!” Wes and the others started forward.

Eric tensed and shouted, “Stay back!” They froze in place.

“Eric, we don’t kill mutants, we bring them to justice,” Jen said.

“I’m giving him justice! He killed Commander Porter. And you saw what he did to Dr. Zaskin! And me! He’s... a monster!” Eric’s voice trembled with fury.

“It’s not up to you to execute him.”

“But he deserves to die.” Eric stared down at Conwing. “You liked hurting me, didn’t you? You liked making me afraid. I saw that look in your face....”

Conwing smiled defiantly. “Whatever I am, I’m only what you humans made me.”

“Please don’t do this, Eric,” Wes said. “For your own sake.”

“Why? Because I'll be no better than him? I don't care.”

“You don't want to be a killer.”

“You’re wrong.” Eric held his aim, arms trembling slightly, for a long moment as the others watched tensely and Conwing glared up at him fearlessly. His breathing quickened and he braced himself, his inner struggle clearly visible. Then with a sudden cry of frustration, he fired -- hitting the ground next to the mutant. Stepping back, he lowered his weapon, shoulders sagging.

“Freeze him or shrink him, whatever you do. Just get him out of my sight before I change my mind.”

The other Rangers hurried to comply. Eric moved aside and demorphed as soon as Conwing had vanished. Seeing him sway unsteadily, several of the Guardians started for him, but he waved them away and directed them to help Dr. Zaskin, who had appeared in the doorway of the shack.

As they brought him out, Zaskin turned to the Rangers and said simply, “Thank you.” The Guardians helped him toward their cars.

“Eric,” Wes said, “you did the right thing.” Eric looked back at them silently, his face cold, before joining his troops.

As the Rangers watched them leave Wes said quietly, “I guess that proves Eric can control himself.”

“Maybe. But what would he have done if we weren’t here?” Lucas asked.

“At least he listened. And -- I have a feeling he wouldn’t have done it anyway,” Jen said. Wes felt her hand on his shoulder for a moment as they turned to go back to their vectorcycles.

Eric was being treated in the Guardians’ small infirmary when Mr. Collins hurried in. He looked Eric over for a moment, his face showing a flicker of shock and compassion. But all he said was, “Did you get Zaskin out in time? Is he all right?”

“He’s hurt. But he’ll be okay.”

“Did he tell them anything?”

“No. He doesn’t know anything they’re interested in anyway.”

“The research still isn’t getting results?”

“No.”

Collins thought for a moment, and asked, “Do you know anything that might help?”

Eric hesitated for an instant, and then answered, “No. Nothing.”

“Maybe we’d better suspend the research for awhile. I need Zaskin on other projects.” Collins looked him over again and added, “Take a few days off. You need to recover.”

“I don’t need time off.”

“Take it anyway.” Collins hesitated for a moment before asking, “How’s Wes?”

Eric looked up, surprised. “Fine, I guess. We don’t exactly socialize.”

Collins looked at him another moment and added, “I see I chose the right commander for the Guardians.” He turned and walked out quickly, leaving Eric looking after him, surprised again.

Eric looked down at his morpher thoughtfully. He didn’t like lying to his boss, a man he had come to respect and admire. But he knew he had done the right thing, and that felt unexpectedly good.

The summer sun was setting when a Guardian SUV finally brought Eric home. The long shadows hid the man sitting on his stoop until the car had driven off and he was starting up the walkway. He tensed for a moment in alarm, as the man stood up.

“Hey,” a familiar voice said. Wes stepped out of the shadows, his expression changing as the fading light picked out the purpling bruises on Eric’s face, neck, and wrists.

“Wes,” Eric said, annoyed at Wes’s sympathy and at his own jumpiness. “If you think I’m going to give you the morpher now, forget it.”

“I just wanted to see if you’re okay.”

“I don’t need you to check up on me.”

“Right, I forgot. You don’t need anything from anyone. Sorry I bothered you.” Wes brushed past Eric angrily, headed for his motorcycle.

“Wait.” Wes and his friends had saved his life. And stopped him when he tried to do something he would inevitably have regretted. Fair was fair. Eric took a determined breath. “Thanks for saving my neck back there. Literally. And thank Jen and your friends for me too.”

Wes turned to smile at him. After a moment he asked, “Did you expect them to come after you and take you to Dr. Zaskin? Is that why you were wearing a tracking device?”

“Yeah, that was the idea.”

“So you used yourself as bait.” When Eric didn’t respond, Wes went on, “I’ve been wondering about something. When we went through the timehole on the Eagle -- the first time -- I remember starting to fall off, and then something grabbed my arm and held me on.” He looked at Eric directly. “Was it you?”

Eric returned his gaze impassively. He answered, without hostility, “So what if it was?”

Wes smiled again. “Watch out. I might start to think you’re not such a bad guy.”

“Don’t count on it.” But Eric felt just the smallest twinge of satisfaction as he turned away.