[Mushverse; for RPM Rangers]

[brilliantshadowpuppets]

It feels like years before I finally make it back to our apartment "base". My arm is still hanging at my side, limp and dislocated at the shoulder, and I clutch at it with my opposite hand when I don't need to like, open doors and stuff. My eyes are dry, and red from crying.

My lips burn too, but that has nothing to do with anything.

Not... not really.

...Dillon.

I practically fall into our apartment once I finally get the door open, crumbling to the floor when my strength of both body and... and I guess will? Finally gives out. My knees hit the floor with a sharp crack, and I'll probably have bruises there tomorrow.

"Help." I choke out weakly, feeling like I should be crying again, but my eyes are too sore, too spent. "Dillon... they got... D-Dillon..."

Comments

[scottishheartofblue]

Flynn had been in the kitchen, preparing food for the rest of the team. He knew Ziggy had gone out for food earlier but as he wasn't back yet, he'd started making food for himself, Scott and the twins.

The sound of the door open gets his attention and he goes to investigate. When he spots a clearly beaten Ziggy in the doorway, he immediately rushes forward, streaming Gaelic curses. "Ziggy? What happened?" Had he been crying?

[dearawesomediary]

Gem and Gemma had been thinking about going out to maybe find Ziggy, mostly because he was taking a lot time, and they had enough supplies and ingredients, really, and Flynn was doing alright by making something for them to eat and it would be best if Ziggy didn't miss dinner.

But then the door to their rented apartment opens, and Gem and Gemma look up simultaneously as Flynn moves to the door to catch Ziggy and curse a lot in a language that is probably not meant to be understood by the general populace of the room, but Gem and Gemma are a bit above the bar where languages are concerned.

Still, it's bad. Ziggy is bruised, there's a bit of blood, and he's been crying. And his voice... His voice is the worst of all of it.

Gem and Gemma know the tones of absolute heartbreak and broken helplessness better than maybe anyone does, even if it's been a long time since they were holding one another's hands in a holding cell, listening to a now-familiar hummed tune through the vents and humming along.

"Oh, Ziggy-"

"-What's happened?"

Gem is the first to notice the way Ziggy's holding his arm, recognizing the significance, and his motions would be imperceptible to anyone other than his twin, but she understands, crossing the room, brushing past Flynn (with a note of affection that Gem would purse his lips at, if the situation weren't as dire as it is) to catch Ziggy by his good arm and hold him steady.

"It's alright, Ziggy, you're here now."

Gem approaches next, and gingerly takes Ziggy's lame arm in both hands, one just above the elbow, the other a bit higher, nearer the shoulder. Obviously dislocated, but they've fixed one another's dislocations enough.

It's going to hurt, and Gem feels badly about it, but he can't bother warning Ziggy before he finds the direction his arm needs to twist to set his shoulder neatly back in it's socket, if he does, Ziggy might panic, tense, and make it even harder and more painful.

So he just does what he knows he has to do.

[brilliantshadowpuppets]

Yeah, it hurts when Gem and Gemma work together to relocate my shoulder, and I scream, a weak pathetic sort of scream, the kind small children give when they're in pain.

I kind of want my mom, not that I have a mom to remember, but some kind of mother figure right now would be nice. Someone I could just fling myself into the lap of and cry. That's what moms do, right? That and give you curfews and groundings. Or is that dads?

When the pain lessens enough for me to speak again I try. I really really try, but all that comes out is a whining sound that dies as quickly as it started. And I think I'm crying because everyone around me has gone all blurry.

"Dillon." I manage again, and then there's another pathetic whine. "They got Dillon. Th-they... they reactivated the... the virus."

[scottishheartofblue]

He wasn't a mom, but Flynn was the closest thing Ziggy was going to get. He took over from the twins, supporting Ziggy with an arm around his waist until he could get the green ranger seated on the couch.

"Take a deep breath now, son. Then try again. Whose they and what have they done to Dillon?"

[scottishheartofblue]

A little bit later, Flynn has Ziggy sitting on the sink in the bathroom of their apartment, med kit spread out on the toilet. While he was grateful to the twins for putting Ziggy's arm back in place, he sensed Ziggy's need to not be surrounded by people so he'd soon hauled the Green Ranger into the bathroom and set the twins to finishing dinner.

"So...what's that ye were sayin' about Dillon?" He asks softly as he starts cleaning a cut on Ziggy's arm.

iirc I had permission to butt in, tell me if I'm wrong!!

[nevershoweralone]

Scott leans against the bathroom doorway, eyeing Ziggy and Flynn with concern. "What happened to Dillon? Does this have anything to do with Tenaya disappearing?"

Ziggy looked reluctant to talk to anyone but Flynn, and time was of the essence. Scott sighed. "Tell him, then both of you come tell me, okay?"

The hardest thing about being the damn leader was knowing when you couldn't take action. He stalked off to the kitchen to wait.

[brilliantshadowpuppets]

I've calmed down, a... a little. I'm not crying anymore, though my face is still all red and my eyes are puffy and my nose is stuffed up.

I sit limply on the sink, hands folded in my lap with palms facing up. I feel small and useless, which isn't anything new in the greater scheme of my life, but, since becoming an accidental ranger...

"Scott figured it out in one." I say dully to Flynn, once our leader has left the bathroom. "Tenaya'd already been taken. Converted. Reactivated. And... and..."

Fresh tears. Damn it.

[scottishheartofblue]

Flynn waited for Scott to leave before continuing. The Red Ranger was a good friend, Flynn's best, but he could be a bit intense when in leader mood.

He kept cleaning, making sure not to look at Ziggy as he asked, "Aye, ye told us that part already. About Dillon and the two villains who converted him and Tenaya. But that wasn't all that happened, was it?" Ziggy had been far too upset for that to have been all. Not to mention, Flynn had always had his suspicions.

[brilliantshadowpuppets]

No, no that wasn't all that happened.

Flynn keeps cleaning my wounds, gentle in that sort of way he has. Not motherly, not like that at all, and not even fatherly really. Not very parental, just... caring.

"No."

God I just want to stop crying already.

"He... h-he..."

I look away, because really, this is all so stupid. I'm stupid. Always have been.

Always will be.

[scottishheartofblue]

Flynn often suspected that he'd grown up in the most normal household out of all the Ranger Operators. Granted, they didn't know what Dillon's home life had been before he'd lost his memories but that was besides the point. He'd had loving parents who'd supported him in whatever caught his fancy. It was the least he could do to pass a little of that on to his friends when they needed it most.

He stopped for a moment and looked up at Ziggy, using a free hand to cover one of the Green Ranger's. "Nothin' ye see will have to leave this room. I'll only tell Scott and the others what they need to know to get Dillon and Tenaya back," Flynn promised, as sincerely as he could. Ziggy needed to talk, that was clear, but that didn't mean everyone had to know what he said.

"Not, out with it," he continued gently as he resumed cleaning and bandaging, "What' got ye so upset?"