Water dripped slowly from the pipes above the floor. As the water fell it echoed on the concrete floor and created a small, slow-moving river between the walls. Inch by inch it rolled through the crevices that time broke apart. Flowing through the walls it exited out through a break near a small room. Dirt and dust covered the room as the water continued to flow across the floor and into a darker corner.

He sat silently in a small beam of light, his eyes fixed on the small face of a little girl that time forgot. Her bright brown eyes smiled back at him, and radiated to the man beside her. Thick brown hair matted her face. Reaching through the light he touched her face through the glass wall. A small, liquid droplet escaped his eye and fell into the shadows around him.

“So close,” his words echoed in the darkness as he ran his finger across the glass that separated him from her. “Yet,” his eyes trailed off into the small beam of light, “so far away. My . . . baby girl.” He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, his head falling back into the shadows as her laugh echoed in his ears.

“Daddy . . .” her voice whispered into his ear, her voice filled with fear, “ . . . no . . .”

She fell hard as she panted and picked herself up and continued to run. Faster and faster, her feet tore across the pavement in a blur. Her chest burned a fiery red as she turned a corner and looked back at the shadow that followed her. She had begged him, but nothing could stop him, and if she stopped, she’d be dead for sure.

Rounding a corner she stopped and panic overtook her. A dead end, and already she felt his breath on the back of her neck. The walls around her screamed for her to run, but the ground had grown around her feet. She looked behind her, her heart screaming in her ears. Suddenly the world around her was silenced as she stood against the wall, shrinking lower.

“Please,” she whispered, her voice freezing in her throat. Her head pounded compliments of the wound he inflicted earlier, before he gave chase.

His shadow ascended on her slowly, his footsteps slow and clicking, torture to her ears. Tears flew from her eyes. Again she pleaded and tried to grip the wall behind her, begging for more places to run and hide.

“You sold me to the Devil,” he muttered. “You destroyed my future, my career,” he looked at his hands, all deformed, “my . . . life. Now, I shall do the same for you.” He charged for her. She tried to avoid him, but to no avail. He grabbed her by the throat and laughed menacingly as a blood red color flashed in his eyes. He shoved her against the wall as he drew a kitchen knife from his jacket and pushed the blade to her skin, just below her breast bone, but he did not penetrate it . . . yet.

“Any last words, my dear?” he snickered and pressed the blade closer against her skin.

She drew in a shallow breath as he gripped her throat tighter and brought her to eye level, to see the fear and sorrow in her eyes. “I’m only sorry,” she choked, “to see the man my father has become, and to see the monster you really are.”

Angered, he hollered lowly. With the flick of a wrist the blade penetrated her skin as he choked back her scream as he plunged the knife deeper into her abdomen, spilling her blood mercilessly onto his hands. He smiled as the red liquid spilt onto his hands, his arms, and his feet. Removing the knife, he looked into her eyes and stabbed her again, just above her right breast.

She gasped painfully as the knife penetrated past her ribs and dove into her lung, tearing into it instantly and releasing the air. Again and again, he repeated this motion until her body fell limp in his arms and she fell, the life drawn from her eyes. Her body shook slowly, then ceased to his satisfaction.

He stood over his daughter’s body as a cold wind blew into the alleyway, sweeping away his guilt. Breathing fast, he looked over her body once more and silently counted twenty-two knife entries. All clean, and of even length. A sick smile escaped his lips as he slowly dropped the knife. The red-soaked blade clang against the pavement besides her. All around her the walls echoed murder as leaves bunched up against her body, soaking the blood he let lose. Instantly another breath of wind rounded past her, carrying the sound of her death along with it.

“Kane,” a soft voice said as Samira entered his room, just as the small chimes ceased. “What’s wrong?”

He opened his eyes and glanced at her, then back to the small music box. “Nothing’s wrong, Samira, trust me.” He closed the box, and quieted the chimes that made the melody. “Did the Rangers get my message?”

Samira nodded. “I delivered it to Oliver only a few moments ago, and he rushed out of there. I trust by now have watched it, or at least he has. Do not worry, Kane, your message shall be seen, I have no doubt about that.”

“And how of our prisoner? I do hope you have let her live, we need her for the next phase of our plan.”

The huntress grinned. “She’s alive, barely. I get to have my fun while you get yours.” She pushed him away from the desk and straddled his lap, a grin on her face.

Reaching over, Samira pushed the door shut and turned back to him. Her eyes went from black to green as she told him the next step to lure the Rangers back to them, while unzipping the pants Kane wore around his waist.

--

“This man’s nuts, you know that?” Chip asked as he stared into the computer screen as Kane’s message played.

“I don’t think nuts quite defines it, kid,” Eric retorted and shook his head in disgust. “Tommy, you can’t trace where the message came from?”

The Black Ranger shook his head. “No, I told you, Samira poofed into my basement, handed me the disk and then vanished. The sensors in my basement didn’t even have time to trace the source of the warp.”

Lucas bit his lip and looked to where Jen stood next to him. “What do you make of this, Jen?”

The Lieutenant pondered for a moment. At first, Jen did not know what to think, only stared at Kane’s face over the screen.

“My friends, you have only days left, and I am getting impatient,” Kane spoke on camera, and nodded to Samira. She turned the camera over to where a woman sat bound in a chair.

Nick gasped. “Madison!” he yelled as Kane came on camera with a knife in his hand. Nick stood silent and watched.

“You have two options here, Rangers. One, you all can face me, and if I am defeated, know that I will kill your precious Pink Ranger here.” Madison struggled in his grasp as he held the knife to her throat. “Or, you can surrender the boy and his mother to me and make their deaths as painless as possible. Think about it, Rangers. Ready or not, here I come.” The video cut out instantly, leaving the room in a fearful silence.

Nick felt his legs going numb as he trembled. Pain, fear and anger rushed through his body as he breathed, and breathed hard. Tears strained down his face as Vida slowly fell into Cole and Kira’s arms. His fists balled up tightly as his face twisted from sadness to pure hatred. “We need to help her.” He whispered. “We need to . . .” his voice quivered. “Or he’s going to . . .”

“Nick,” Taylor said and gently touched his shoulders. Immediately Nick pushed her off and jumped.

“No, don’t you dare tell me to sit here and wait for a plan,” he shouted. “Don’t you, dare tell me to wait. That’s all we’ve been doing is waiting, waiting for something. I’m tired of it. Madison needs our help, and we’re standing here with our thumbs up our asses.”

Alex stood slowly and spoke lowly. “Unfortunately, waiting is all we can do.”

Nick stared bullets into Alex as he walked towards him slowly. “If we wait any longer, he’s going to kill her,” he spoke slowly.

Alex bowed his head. “Like I said, all we can do is—”

“They are going to fucking kill her!” he screamed loudly in Alex’s face, his rage being released as he stomped towards the door, cursing and screaming his plans for finding and killing Kane.

Eric, Lucas, Trip, Cole, Tommy and Wes rushed after him while the others took Vida into the other room to calm her down. She felt dizzy and lightheaded as she ran to throw up in the bathroom.

All the while, Jen sat calmly in the computer chair and watched the footage over and over. Something in the video sparked a memory from Jen’s mind, a place she used to hear all about when she was younger. It was a place of top security, and a labyrinth.

“Jen, what are you thinking?” Alex asked, his eyes following the movements the guys took to control Nick’s anger. Her eyes remained glued to the screen as she replayed once section over and over, images from her childhood flashed in her mind.

“I know where Kane is,” she muttered. “I know where he’s hiding, Alex.”

Minutes later the party came inside, Vida also emerged, supported by Xander and Katie. Trip had given her something to help control the shock she had slipped into, and they sat her down in a chair as Jen stood and thought things through, and nodding to herself happily with her plan.

“While Kane thinks he has an advantage on us, he has indirectly given me the answer to the question I have been searching for.” Jen said. Immediately she stood and grabbed a pen and paper, and began to furiously write on it. Chewing on the pen cap, she wrote down names under two columns. The pen flew across the paper like the fast pace of her heart as she thought over her plan.

Wes tried to glance over her shoulder, but she kept moving back between her paper and her lap top. Placing the pen in her mouth, she bit harder as she thought, and the light flashed in her eyes. Her fingers flew over the keys as more pictures and diagrams began appearing on screen. Images and text blasted off screen as she stopped a calculation and stared at it.

Each Ranger exchanged curious glances with each other as Jen smiled to herself. “We can do it.”

“Do what?” Xander asked. Jen turned to him and grinned.

“Pull off probably one of the greatest rescue missions of all time.”

Her statement hit everyone hard with reality as the room turned silent, with the only sound being the hum of the computer. A rescue mission to save Madison from a madman would be one of the biggest Ranger tales in years. Sure, Ranger teams had saved one of their own before, but it wasn’t under a threat of the hostage’s death.

“We may be killed in the process,” Alyssa spoke.

“But it’s the only change Madison’s got, Alyssa,” Kira replied. “Like Nick said, we can’t just sit here. Half of us still have our powers, it’s not like we’re not Rangers.”

Trip jumped at the change. “That’s true, Kira. We are all still Rangers,” he said and ran to the corner of the room. “Time Force has been developing a new device to temporarily restore powers to an old morpher that is no longer able to function.” He opened a case to reveal five chips that was no bigger than a dime.

“So, if we have a plan and a way for us to morph, we need to know where Kane is,” said Taylor.

Jen turned her computer around to them. “Does this answer your question, Taylor?”

Each Ranger’s eyes focused on a picture of a few large buildings. Numerous buttons leading to different links hounded the left side of the screen, and four simple words stood out on top…

 . . . Welcome to Alcatraz Island . . .