Note: I decided to join a prompt comm with a claim on the deaged version of Ziggy that I created for “Painful is the Second Time Around”. Imagine my surprise when I started the story and it turns out it’s in a slightly different universe! This one’s more interested in his identity than his love life, though I suspect that some of the background is going to be the same.
Walking Into Danger With Eyes Wide
by EstiRose
In Media Res: Been This Person Before
Ziggy stared at his parents, not sure of what they were talking about. While he was willing to admit that they were looking at him in a way that shouted that they were telling the truth, it just didn’t make sense.
“What?” he asked, hoping that if they repeated what they’d just said, it would.
His mother held out a photograph of him. Or at least he presumed it was him; it looked an awful lot like him, except he’d never worn a leather jacket like that, at least any time he remembered.
“You remember us telling you about Ziggy Grover?” his mother asked, leaning forward and tapping the picture. “That’s Ziggy.”
The man was standing in what was now the McAllistair’s kitchen, leaning against a wall, a bright smile on his face. Ziggy had seen pictures of his parents in their team jackets, and this one was identical, except that the patches on it were some dark color where his parents’ had been red and yellow, respectively. Given that Ziggy Grover had been the team’s Green Ranger, the patch had to be a dark green shade.
“That’s you,” his father said, giving him a small smile, as if he didn’t really want to be having this discussion.
He continued blinking at his mother, trying to get his head around what she was saying. “That’s not possible. Cloning technology doesn’t exist in any real form.”
“You’re not his clone,” she said. “You’re him. Ziggy Grover.” Her voice was soothing, trying to massage the nonsensical into sense. “He didn’t die in the war. He was turned into a four year old. He had to grow up again.” She pulled out another photo, that of a curly haired little boy playing with the same jacket. “I took this picture before I knew that he - you - would be like this permanently.”
“Everything says he was lost in the war.” He’d memorized the history about the war almost obsessively, because his parents had been a part of it and he wanted to make sure he got it right. “That he died as a hero.”
“He was lost,” his father told him. “A four year old can’t fight battles. We just never said how we lost him, for safety reasons.”
“We wanted you to grow up as you, not as a duplicate of him. Ziggy kind of had a rough life.” His mother’s look was sad. “We wanted your life to be better, the second time around. That’s why we never said anything about who you were before. We wanted you to have your own life, not all of Ziggy’s burdens and problems.”
“So, I’m… him.” He was a Ranger who had fought with his Mom and Dad. Except that he wasn’t, because he didn’t remember it at all. He wasn’t that person.
He tried to bend his mind around the fact that he was the de-aged version of a war hero, and found he couldn’t. The man wasn’t him. Couldn’t be. It was impossible.
“Only genetically.” His mom put a hand on his shoulder. “And his memories up to age four. After that, as far as you knew, we adopted you.”
They’d always been open about the fact that he was adopted, but he could have figured it out anyway. His mother was white and blonde-haired, his father was black, with dense, curly hair that he’d loved to play with when he was little. He himself had pale skin and wild, curly brown hair, and didn’t resemble any of his relatives, even on the Landsdown side.
It felt like he was coming in the middle of things, or at least a life that somebody had already lived. “I want to know about me. Former me. Old me. Ziggy Grover.” If it was true, if his parents weren’t lying to him, then he wanted to know. He looked enough like their lost teammate that he might as well know anyway. Just in case something came up that he should know about.
“We’re not sure,” his father admitted, spreading his arms and hands out to rest them over his knees.. “Ziggy didn’t talk a lot about his past. And given that he had a rap sheet longer than your arm….”
He vaguely remembered hearing from someone that Ziggy Grover hadn’t been the ideal Ranger. He was sure it wasn’t the history books, probably one of his parents’ teammates had said something about it. Probably not his parents, but one of the more acid-tongued members, like Doctor K.
“If I’m him, I kind of have the right to know, don’t I?” he asked. There were few things his parents and their teammates wouldn’t tell him when he asked. They’d always been pretty honest with him.
“We’ll tell you what we know,” his mother said, “But it’s not much. You’re better off asking Dillon.”
“Got it.” Dillon was the one of his parents’ teammates that he didn’t know much about. The man tended to stay away from team gatherings, and was quiet when he did. His sister, Tenaya, was nice though, from the time or two that Ziggy had talked to her.
Ziggy looked at his parents’ expressions and said, “You don’t have to worry. I’m me, not him. I’m just curious, that’s all. I’m sure you had a reason for telling me all this.”
He’d never seen pictures of Ziggy Grover, not in textbooks and not in history books, which had surprised him, given the man had been lost in the Venjix war. He had a suspicion that he was why, now that he knew.
“Yeah.” His father was leaning forward. “Because with his body, you inherited his morpher.”
“I what?” That was his first reaction, anyway. After a moment, it made sense. DNA had been used as a security measure for the morphers in the the Venjix war, that and voice recognition.
His parents, their nervousness and worry, their finally telling him about all this, it all pointed to one thing.
They were going to war again.
Heroism: Meeting a Friend I’ve Never Known
“Hey, kid. Ziggy.”
Ziggy looked up and over at the man who had spoken his name, a portly man with stubbly hair that he didn’t recognize. He didn’t seem like the kind that Ziggy’s parents wanted him to hang around, so Ziggy shouldered his backpack, thinking about what homework he had to do.
The guy was persistent, though. He walked over to where Ziggy was standing. “Ziggy Grover?” he asked.
Freezing, Ziggy realized that this was probably one of the few people who’d known… well, him… a long time ago. “Nope.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so, but I had to ask. Ya look like him, you know. Don’t talk like him or move like him, but look enough like him.”
“Oh.” This was something that his parents might want to know about. Just in case.
“What’s your name, kid?” the man asked, studying Ziggy.
“Ziggy Truman-Landsdown,” he said with some confidence. He figured that the connection with his parents would be obvious, and if not… well, at least his parents had taught him how to fight. If only because of the morpher.
“Trumans and Landsdowns, eh?” He was still looking Ziggy over, in a way that made him uncomfortable. “Hell of a connection. How old are you, Ziggy?”
“Fourteen.” If only just, but fourteen regardless.
“Yeah, you don’t look much older than that. Ziggy and I met when he was fourteen, too. Had a lot of talent, that kid.” The man took a step back. “You look like him, even down to the birthmark. Sure you’re not him?”
“Pretty sure. I know he was my parents’ teammate and I look a lot like him.” His parents hadn’t said anything about not telling anybody else, but Ziggy knew that it was common sense not to proclaim to the world that he was the de-aged version of their teammate.
The man sighed. “Yeah. You might want to tell your parents that there are a lot of people with… underground connections… still wanting to get their hands on Ziggy Grover. And to be careful. If they think he’s still around… they might not stop to check to see that you’re not him.”
Ziggy nodded, absorbing that bit of information and making a mental note to be careful for a while. “I’ll tell them.” He’d be sure to, because there was something that might unlock his past. “What’s your name?”
“Benny. Benny Makesmith.” He held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Ziggy.”
Looking at the man cautiously, Ziggy wondered if it was a good idea to shake his hand.
“Well, okay, you have no reason to trust me. Ya obviously don’t know who I am.” Benny dropped his hand.
“Yeah, I don’t.” His curiosity was winning over his cautiousness. “What can you tell me about the guy I was named after?”
Benny stood there for a moment, thinking. Ziggy let him do it, hoping that at least he’d get a few tidbits about his former self’s life.
“Hey, not the wisest choice to trust a mobster,” Benny said, “But yeah, I can tell you about Ziggy. Just enough so you don’t get in too much trouble. Let’s sit down.”
Ziggy moved to the nearest bench, and Benny joined him. As the older man gathered his thoughts, Ziggy kept an eye out and made sure that everything looked okay otherwise.
“Ziggy and I were friends, a long time ago. We were both in the Scorpion Cartel, I took him under my wing. Brilliant at getting money and things away from people without them noticing, he was. Not so good at anything else, but really good at separating people from their stuff. He was the kind of kid that could pull a face and make you want to take care of him, or at least feel sorry for him. At least until he cracked a joke.”
Benny leaned back more, and Ziggy had to wonder if he came across that way - by accident, of course.
“Well, Ziggy always had a soft heart for people less fortunate than him. Got him in trouble. Got him in major trouble once, because he managed to pull something that got all of the major cartels pissed at him. Fortunately enough, he had the sense to get out of here - and this was when Corinth still had its dome up, but he managed to get himself out. Next thing I know, he’s back in Corinth, and he’s somehow a Ranger - a hero. Risking his neck to save the world. But I think that he wanted to be a hero, even if he didn’t realize it. And he was, even if he wasn’t always real good at that, either.”
“Mom and Dad said he had the heart of a hero.” Strange to think of him, his body, his former self saving the world. “Not the fighting skills, though.”
Benny laughed. “That’s Ziggy for ya. I guess he kind of stumbled into being a Ranger and was stubborn enough not to stumble back out.” He looked at Ziggy. “If you’re named for him, you got a heck of a namesake, kid.”
“Yeah, I guess I do.” More than a namesake. This was a second chance for Ziggy Grover, a second chance to get it right. A chance to save the world in full this time, if war was coming like his parents had implied.
Taking out a card, Benny said, “Look, I’d like your folks to call me. I wanna talk to them. Tell them I’m one of Ziggy’s friends, from the old days. They’ll understand.”
Maybe once they’d seen the card, talked to Benny, maybe they’d be able to tell him more about the person he apparently once was. About the person he had been, and could be again. “Thanks, Benny.” He held the card like it was a lifeline.
“Anytime, kid.” The man looked at him, as if to say something, then shook his head. “I’m sure we’ll meet again.”
Ziggy was quite looking forward to it.
Betrayal: This Old Jacket With Tales To Tell
“Ziggy, team meeting.” His father poked his head into the kitchen where Ziggy was figuring what sauce he wanted to put on his spaghetti when he made dinner that night.
“Okay, see you later,” he said automatically. Sophie, his little sister, was off at a friend’s house, so he didn’t have to watch her while their parents were out.
He was still going through the cupboards when he realized his dad and mom were standing in the doorway, as if expecting him to do something.
“You want me to make dinner for when you get back?” he asked. It wasn’t a problem, he liked cooking.
“Actually,” his mom said, “You’re coming with us.”
Oh, yeah. He had a morpher, courtesy of his past self. He was supposed to be a Ranger. Didn’t feel like one, though. “Oh.”
He was going to have to be a grownup far faster than he was really expecting to have to be. But then again, his original self had been barely an adult himself, a mere eighteen when he’d activated his morpher. A teenager as well.
His mom and dad were in their team jackets, which was a bad sign, and his mother was holding a third. He gulped and stepped away from his preperations. “That, um, mine?”
She held it out for him. “Yeah.”
Taking it, he looked at the small patch on one breast. It said “PROJECT RANGER” and “RANGER OPERATOR SERIES GREEN” on it, and Ziggy couldn’t help but think of what had happened to the last time someone had worn this jacket.
He wasn’t ready to put it on quite yet, so he just held onto it. Yeah, he’d come to the meeting, but he wasn’t ready to claim his morpher and his past at the moment.
Looking up, he realized his mother was looking at him sadly. “I remember when Ziggy got his jacket,” she said, wiping a tear. “Remember, Scott? That’s when we took that photo. He was so proud….”
“So am I,” he said, feeling like he shouldn’t have the jacket. It wasn’t his, except it was, like everything else had seemed lately.
His mother reached out and hugged him. “It’s okay, Ziggy. Everything’s going so fast now. We never thought we’d be reactivated, either.”
Gulping again, he held onto the jacket and followed his parents out.
The team meeting was held at the McAllistairs’ house. He easily recognized his parents’ teammates - Gem and Gemma, the twins; Gemma’s husband Flynn, and Dillon. Doctor K, who had mentored the team was there too, as was Tenaya, Dillon’s sister. Everyone else on the team was wearing their team outfits, either sweatclothes for the twins, or their team jackets. Doctor K was in her labcoat, while Tenaya was casually dressed.
Shivering in the cold, he slipped on Ziggy Grover’s jacket. He wasn’t comfortable, but at least it would keep him warm.
“That’s eerie,” Dillon said, and Ziggy realized that Dillon was staring at him. “Why’d you bring him along?”
Ziggy knew why they’d done it intellectually, but he wouldn’t mind slinking out of there. This was not a place where he should be.
“Because we need him.” His father’s voice was firm. “And you can’t form your megazord without his zord, remember?”
Oh, yes. One of the megazord configurations, Ziggy remembered, was made up of the Green and Black Rangers’ zords, along with a third. In fact, if he remembered correctly, the Green and Black Rangers had worked together a lot, which meant that he was going to be paired with Dillon. A lot.
“Look,” Ziggy’s mom said, taking a step towards Dillon, her tone pleading and her arms out. “I know it hurts, Dillon. I don’t want to be tossing my son into this fight, either. But he’s the only one that can activate the morpher.”
“You don’t know how I feel, Summer,” Dillon said flatly. “I lost Ziggy that day. You really expect me to work with his doppelganger?”
“Yes, actually, we do.” His father stepped forward. “It’s not Ziggy’s fault for what happened. He’s a member of this team and you will work with him.” Ziggy shivered again, but not because of the cold. His father was using his “I’m in command, you will obey me” tone that Ziggy tried not to be on the receiving end of.
Ziggy forced himself to stay where he was. “I can’t help how I look,” he said, recalling what Benny had said, “But I want to live up to his legacy. I want to be the best partner I can be to you.”
Dillon took one look at him and walked off, leaving and slamming the door behind him. “Dillon!” his father yelled, but Dillon ignored him.
“Did I say something wrong?” Ziggy asked, looking at the assembled group.
“Um…” his mother said, looking at his father like they were going to have to explain something difficult.
“Well, lad,” Flynn told him, “It’s rather that… Dillon and Ziggy shared a bedroom for a reason, you see.”
Ziggy was sure that was somehow important, but he wasn’t sure why. The others were looking at him expectantly, as if they expected him to get what he wasn’t getting. “They were roommates?”
Gemma piped up. “Ziggy and Dillon were boyfriends.”
“Oooh.” It must have seemed a betrayal to Dillon, to have to work with a person who was his boyfriend but wasn’t anymore. There was history in there he wished he knew, just because it was a potential minefield. And he didn’t have any clue of where the mines were.
“And they had-“ Whatever Gem was going to add was muffled by Flynn’s hand.
“It’s not your fault, Ziggy,” Flynn told him warmly.
“Indeed.” Doctor K was standing up, looking annoyed. “This immaturity on Dillon’s part should not be taken as a critique of your presence among us. The danger we face will not wait for him to resolve his issues.”
“I’m going to get Dillon,” Ziggy’s mom said, heading out the door.
“I can’t believe someone was insane enough to reactivate Venjix,” Flynn said. “Didn’t they remember what we’d gone through before?”
So that’s what had happened. The computer virus that had tried to destroy all organic life, and nearly succeeded, was active again. The Rangers were needed, called back to duty to fight an enemy they’d fought before.
He fingered the patch on his jacket and wondered if he could do what he was being called to do.
Overcoming the Odds: Getting To Know The Life I Once Knew
Wondering if he should ask for permission to leave the team meeting - he really shouldn’t have come, he decided - Ziggy decided to keep quiet for the moment. The last thing he needed was to rock any boats after Dillon had just done the same.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Doctor K folded her hands in response to what Flynn was saying. “I believe, however, that we should wait to hold this discussion until Summer returns with Dillon.”
“Right.” Flynn didn’t seem fazed at all by the dismissal. “Ziggy, lad, how are you doing? ‘Tis your first team meeting as a Ranger, after all.”
“Like I don’t belong?” he answered. It was the honest truth. He was over his head, and even though he knew he was needed, it didn’t make the whole thing any easier. Especially with what was going on with Dillon. But he was the one that was bonded to the morpher because of the person he was originally, so he really didn’t think it was fair to the rest of the team to back out. They needed his power and his zord, no matter what he felt about it.
“Due to the original Ziggy Grover’s choice to bond the morpher to himself,” Doctor K said, “You are essentially Ranger Operator Series Green, Dillon’s issues notwithstanding.”
“I know that, it’s just… a bit hard to be on a team with my parents and people I grew up with,” Ziggy said. He didn’t have any problem with the duty, oddly enough. He was Ziggy Grover, and whatever promises and commitments his original self had taken on by bonding with the morpher, he could handle. It was just that he wasn’t sure he felt comfortable with being the youngest person on the team by far, and trying to complete the mission of a man that was dead and yet not dead. “And, um, people who are avoiding me because I look too much like their dead boyfriend.”
“Well, Dillon never did need much excuse for skipping a team meeting,” Flynn said casually. “And don’t worry, lad. When we got Ziggy, he had no clue how to fight. Had to teach him first thing before he was any good on the battlefield. He realized it, though, did a good job of committing himself to training.”
He remembered how big his parents had been on him learning how to fight, no matter how difficult it was for him, and how he’d gradually become a pretty decent fighter despite everything. He’d never known why, other than his parents had been fighters. Of course, if he’d always been in place to take over the green morpher if he had to, it made sense.
“Yeah, learning to fight was hard for me, too,” he admitted. “I’ve always kind of preferred books over battle.” But he’d wanted to make his folks happy, so he’d learned to fight. “As long as I can keep learning other things, though, I’m happy.” School could become a refuge for him, from a world where he was suddenly the odd person out.
“Your parents have kept me appraised of your studies,” Doctor K said. “I will be tutoring you in mathematics, sciences, and biofield manipulation.”
He had a bad feeling about the way she said it that school was out of the question. “Dad?”
Running a hand through his hair, Ziggy’s father said, “I know you like school, but we’re going to have to take you out. Rangering is 24/7; we’re just going to have to do the best we can.”
“I have been reviewing educational requirements,” Doctor K said, “Since you were skipped a year in school, you are actually more advanced than other students your age. You test consistently as someone with above-average IQ. We will take this time to prepare you for college.”
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, then. He had the planet’s best scientist as a tutor, and Gem and Gemma were not slouches either. He was pretty decent at math and the sciences, though he had to admit that he preferred Social Studies and English best. He could study almost when he wanted.
A thought occurred to him. “But what about Sophie?” he asked.
His father gave him a small smile. He suspected it was mostly because he was thinking about everything that was about to change. “Your mother’s arranged for her to stay with her cousin Tracy and her husband.”
Oh, yeah, the Vachons. Tracy was nice enough, her husband Javier was kind of sarcastic though. But he knew that his parents wouldn’t leave her with relatives they didn’t trust.
“This is what I have planned for you,” Doctor K said, apparently deciding that while his mom was getting Dillon to come back, she might as well cover something. He listened closely to what she had in mind.
After a few minutes of Doctor K outlining his academic program - which he didn’t mind at all - the McAllistairs’ door opened, with a sullen Dillon coming back in, followed by Ziggy’s mom.
Dillon didn’t look at him, taking a seat so he wasn’t having to look at Ziggy. Ziggy’s mom settled down next to Ziggy’s dad. “I guess you can go on with the briefing, Doc,” Ziggy’s father said, shooting a look at Dillon, as if telling him to behave.
Ziggy knew, intellectually, that Dillon had every right to be upset about having to work with him. But Doctor K was right, if they were dealing with a reactivated Venjix, then there was no time for Dillon to sulk about having to work with him.
The odds were probably against Dillon being comfortable with him, but he had to attempt to get along, meet Dillon halfway, even if Dillon wasn’t ready to make the effort yet. He had no desire to die just because a version of him had been dating the strongest fighter, and even if he didn’t have a chance of overcoming Dillon’s grief, he had to try.
Doctor K nodded at his father’s words. “The Venjix code was released about a year ago; my research indicates that someone was attempting to create a benevolent program by using the code.” Her tone said what she thought of the person in question, and it was not pretty. “Venjix was able to recreate some of its original factories from scratch; fortunately, all of the current Venjix forces are currently what we would consider early generations - second, third, and fourth.”
“Which means, people, we have a good idea of cutting this off early, before Venjix destroys the world again.” Scott looked around. “But we have to work together.”
Ziggy was sure the comment was aimed at Dillon, but he dared not look at the man’s reaction.
“I’ve checked your zords over and made improvements and upgrades, as needed,” Doctor K said. “You’ll find them ready when you need them. In addition, all megazord configurations have been brought online.”
“And I’ll be here to advise Doctor K on Venjix’s strategies,” Tenaya said. She’d kept silent during the whole discussion about her brother, for which Ziggy didn’t know whether or not to be grateful.
“How about housing?” Dillon asked. “Are we expected to-“
“Yes,” Doctor K said, cutting off his question. “Corinth military forces are providing us a base of operations, configured to my requests. As I anticipated the housing needs of the entire team this time, as well as testing rooms and other needed areas, we should be amply supplied with working areas. Which will include a small schoolroom for our one minor member.”
Well, he could hardly complain. At least it was a school, of sorts. Just not the one he’d planned.
“I will expect all of you to make arrangements for moving into our new base within 72 hours,” Doctor K said. “At which point in time I will also have new training and testing schedules for you. Since it has been so long since any of you have been active rangers, I must test your relative fitness and other levels.”
There was a groan. Ziggy was sure it had come from Dillon.
“If there aren’t any more questions, then you are all dismissed in order to make your arrangements,” Doctor K said, looking at all of them.
He watched the others exchange glances, and knew that they were tired, weary. But they were ready.
Quest: Packing For War Summary:
His parents and the Vachons were talking softly to each other in the living room as Ziggy tried to get his little sister to pack what she needed to in order to go live with their mom’s relatives. His mom and dad had already pulled him out of school and were making sure that the paperwork was in for Sophie to live with their mom’s relatives for a little while.
It felt so strange, being out of school. He supposed he should get used to not being in a classroom with other teens. Yeah, he’d continue learning, but not with people around his age. He’d be surrounded by adults. He didn’t know how much he’d expected to take care of himself, but at least he’d have others to turn to when he wasn’t sure.
But he had to admit that it was kind of cool too, because how often did you get a chance to save the world from an evil computer, and as a teenager at that?
“I can do this on my own,” Sophie said, looking at him with eight year old seriousness. “Shouldn’t you be packing too?”
“Yeah, well, have to get you packed first, squirt.” There wouldn’t be huge amounts of space in his new room at the base, so he had less to pack. His clothes, some other things. Sophie was getting the better end of the deal, if you counted that she had to go live with relatives for a while. He just had to pick out which books he wanted to take, and other things that would make the place seem like home.
Besides, Sophie was going with the Vachons; he would be leaving with their folks. His parents had gotten pictures of the room, and dimensions, something for him to look at to get ready. He’d already placed where he was going to put his stuff, including his bookshelves, and the place came equipped with a desk, bed, dresser, and closet. A mundane little room, just waiting for him to put his own personal touches to.
Of course, he could have really done without being called on this quest, but hey, it was still kind of exciting. And it wouldn’t be forever, and he could go back to classes soon. The sooner they defeated the resurrected Venjix, the sooner that he could be back to be a normal kid. Or as normal as someone who was a deaged war hero went.
Somewhere along the way, he wanted things to be settled with Dillon, the only person who seemed to have problems with him. Especially if they were supposed to work together as much as he thought they were supposed to be. He didn’t want to make the other uncomfortable, but they should do something to resolve the problem before it became detrimental to their survival.
Maybe that was something personal he could strive for, to get Dillon to see that he was a different person and not a pale imitation of the man that he’d loved. A quest to make things right.
Their mom peeked in. “So, how’s the packing going?”
Ziggy shrugged. “We’re doing it slowly.”
“Why doesn’t he have to pack now too?” Sophie asked, motioning at him.
“He’s packing after you do,” she said. “Because the Vachons have to take you home, and then we have to take care of Ziggy.”
He’d noticed that she hadn’t mentioned where he was going, which was probably because Sophie might not really understand why Ziggy got to go with their folks and she didn’t. She might understand her parents had been Rangers in the last war, but not the truth about her big brother, or why he had to go to war when nobody else his age did. “Why isn’t he going with me and cousin Tracy?” Sophie asked.
“It’s a log story, Sophie,” their mom said, folding her arms. “Ziggy has to come with us because of what happened to him years ago.”
“Besides,” Ziggy said, “You get to go to actually be with people your own age. I don’t.” If he’d done the math right, he was really twenty-eight, in a fourteen year old’s body. He was an adult, he just didn’t feel like one, and he certainly wasn’t legally one. He certainly didn’t have the memories for it. Mentally and physically, he was fourteen, and he wanted to be around people his own age as much as Sophie did hers. “And you’ll get mom and dad back.” At least, unless they died, but their parents were some damn competent people, so Ziggy wasn’t too worried.
“Yeah, but you get to go with mom and dad.” She folded her arms, in imitation of their mother. “Why can’t I be special?”
“Trust me, you don’t wanna be,” Ziggy said. “I don’t think this is going to be fun.” Okay, maybe he’d enjoy it, but it wouldn’t be Sophie’s idea of fun. She was outgoing, and she liked being with her friends. “I’d rather be going with you.”
“Besides, your father and I are going to have a lot on our minds for a while,” her mother said. “And the faster we get started on it, the faster we can all come home. So, pack.”
Sophie pouted. “But I wanna go with the rest of you.”
“You’re not,” their mother told her. “And unless you finish packing, you’ll find you don’t have enough stuff, and then you really won’t be happy with cousin Tracy. So, get moving.”
“All right,” Sophie said, though from her tone, she considered the discussion far from over. She was just practical enough that she realized that getting packed just in case might be a good idea.
“Do you want help?” her mother asked.
Sophie sighed. “Yes.” The argument definitely wasn’t over, but Sophie was giving in, for the moment.
Their mother walked into the room. “Ziggy, you’d better start packing as well. She has a point.”
“Right, mom,” he said, moving out of the room, and heading down the hall to pack himself.
Mystic/Divine Influence: Babbly Puzzle Pieces
Ziggy settled into his new room without a lot of fuss. He really didn’t see the point of doing anything other than maybe putting a poster or two up and settling his books in his bookshelves. It wasn’t like his parents had any choice other than to bring him along, so he wasn’t going to protest. He had a pretty good selection of books that he’d brought with him, and his room was soundproof, so he could listen to his music without bugging anyone else.
It was a little weird to live in one place with his parents and their teammates. Sure, everyone was friendly enough, other than Dillon, who just shot him looks and avoided him as much as possible. But he still felt that he was out of place, no matter what everyone said. His dad had presented him with his morpher, and it still didn’t feel like it belonged on his wrist. He’d rather have had morphers like his parents’ and Flynn’s, to be honest, that looked like cellphones, instead of his awkward wrist-mounted model.
Of course, that had been after they’d moved in, and Doctor K had run him through upteen million tests to gage his physical condition and training needs. Which had been a fair amount, because he wasn’t really a warrior and really knew only what he’d learned from his parents. At least he wasn’t fighting boredom, because he was getting frequent physical training. That was, of course, on top of his classwork; Doctor K had gotten his assignments and textbooks, and so he was doing homework as much as he ever had. Except his classes had never included Biofield Manipulation 101, or had a teacher as brilliant - and as impatient - as Doctor K. Sometimes she let Gem or Gemma tutor Ziggy instead, which was infinitely more fun, because they were into the more practical side of things, and didn’t care about perfection as much. “As long as it blows up, that’s what counts?” Gemma had told him one time, a grin lighting up her face.
Between it all, Ziggy was getting used to the long days of school and training. Sure, he wasn’t doing school in one big block anymore, and he could take breaks when he wanted to, when he wasn’t with Doctor K. But his parents and their teammates couldn’t replace being with kids his own age, and he was expected to keep himself in good shape even when Doctor K wasn’t training him. There was talk of teaching him to drive, since he had to help drive a megazord and all. In all, it kept him very tired.
It didn’t keep him from having the occasional insomnia, even as he should be dead to the world.
One evening, he’d crept down to the hallway leading to the rather large rec room, intent on seeing if there was something down there that he could raid to read. He was surprised to see light coming from the room, and remembered belatedly that Dillon, having been implanted with Venjix hardware, rarely needed more than an hour or two of sleep.
Apparently he hadn’t gone to bed yet. Ziggy wondered how pissed he’d be if Ziggy joined him, if he’d make things worse by trying to talk to him.
Quietly, he crept down the hall itself. Halfway down, he could hear voices, and froze.
“Put the video camera down, Zig.” Dillon’s voice reached him, the slight distortion telling ZIggy that this was a recording. Besides, Dillon avoided him and had never called him by name.
“Hey, this is worth recording!” his voice announced. “And you’ve got to admit, the Z-man can handle a camera like an expert.”
“An expert moron, you mean,” but the tone was fond, nothing he’d ever heard from Dillon. “Put the camera down. Now.”
“Look, this might not seem important to you now, but think of the future! Think of the historical significance! The first interview with the new Ranger Black!”
“You’re not a journalist.” There was a little less amusement in Dillon’s voice.
“Hey, cut me some slack. I’m here, you’re here, you’ve taken the offer of a lifetime. How does it feel?”
“Ziggy-“
“Okay, okay, okay! We don’t have to record this right now! Really! We can always…. mmmrph!”
There was nothing more said. Ziggy could guess that Dillon had probably caught his boyfriend in a liplock, but he wasn’t about to look. Besides, he wasn’t ready to deal with the fact that some version of him had been in a physical relationship with another man.
Ziggy very quietly crept back out of the hall and back upstairs. He had no desire to cause Dillon more pain, even though he wanted desperately to ask about the man that Dillon had known and loved, the man in the video. He wondered if he could get his hands on the video, or something else that had shown how the other him had acted. From the one recording, he and his older self sounded absolutely nothing alike.
It was pure luck, or maybe bad luck, that he’d run across Dillon and the video. He’d always been curious about the world around him, and his place in it. With what his parents had told him, what had happened, he felt like he knew where he belonged even less. Knowing Dillon would help him figure himself out, and he thanked everything that he’d walked down the hall. Maybe Dillon would be willing to share his treasure store. As long as it didn’t include porn starring his body. He didn’t think he could take that too well, not yet. But anything else would be wonderful, giving him a glimpse of the person Ziggy Grover.
However, he knew better than to disturb Dillon in the middle of the night. He’d talk to his parents in the morning, and plan out an approach. Whether Dillon liked it or not, he held the big piece to the puzzle that was Ziggy, and Ziggy hoped to convince him to give it up.
Villainy: Battle Wound
For a base, there weren’t a huge amount of extra rooms - storerooms, Doctor K’s lab, the testing and training areas, and his small classroom - which he suspected had been a small storeroom before it had been converted. The bathrooms, bedrooms, rec room, and kitchen/dining areas rounded things out. Everything there was in use, one way or another. Not a whole lot of the space lent itself to private discussions, so Ziggy chose to talk to his parents in the room that served as his classroom.
“So, what do you want to talk to us about?” his mother asked, leaning forward at the table that Doctor K reserved for herself when she was teaching Ziggy. Thanks to the twins occasionally playing substitute teachers, there were enough seats for the three of them.
At least he had this time to talk about such a thing with his parents. While they’d only had to fend off a few invasions so far, it was only a matter of time before Venjix would become powerful enough to escalate the war. Ziggy had tried to be an adult and not seem freaked out about the fact that he was running into danger instead of away, admittedly with the rest of the team. But he was sure everybody knew that he was, given the sympathetic looks he was given every time they finished a battle. So far it had been mostly Grinders and an AttackBot or two, with Doctor K, Gem, and Gemma trying some things that had helped last time to locate Venjix’s bases in order to make sure Venjix never got back to the level of technology it had gotten to before they’d shut it down. They didn’t want the villain to nearly win again.
It was so not a life he would have chosen for himself. He was finding that he hated battles, and the only thing that kept him going was that if he didn’t help out, didn’t participate, it would weaken the team and humanity’s chances of surviving Venjix a second time. And the morpher was his, and he was, in body, a war hero. So he just pretended that it didn’t bother him to be a soldier in a war.
He’d also sworn to know more about Ziggy Grover, in hopes that he’d get to understand what had led the man to become a Ranger, and in turn, survive the war he was in. Which was why he and his parents were there. He supposed it wouldn’t have been such a big deal if he hadn’t run across Dillon and the video, or have been asked to do what he had to do, but maybe if he understood his original’s courage, he’d be a better Ranger too.
“Ziggy. Well, um. You know. Him. And Dillon.” That wasn’t the most coherent sentence he’d ever gotten out. “A few nights ago, I had insomnia, and Dillon was watching a video. I didn’t disturb him, because I didn’t think he wanted to be disturbed, but I know he was in it.” He took a deep breath. “I need to know how to approach him. He’s the link I need to my past. Or at least one of them. The important one.” There were others, of course, his other teammates, and Benny, who had known Ziggy from before.
“We can talk to him, Ziggy, but you’ve got to understand, it pains him to see you.” His mother’s tone was sympathetic. “It always take him a while to warm up to people and it’s worse because you’re you.”
“In fact, we have,” his father added. “Numerous times. He’s stubborn. Always was. He thought orders were for flouting, not obeying. Mine and Doctor K’s.”
“To be fair, Scott, we all had moments where we went AWOL,” Ziggy’s mother said gently, putting a hand on ZIggy’s father’s arm. “We should see if Dillon would give us copies of those videos, though. I’ll talk to him. I bet most of them were before Ziggy bonded, though. You remember seeing that video camera of his after that, Scott?”
“Not really,” his father answered thoughtfully. “I think he stopped doing that. He was too busy training.”
“That makes sense,” his mother agreed. “He had a lot of spare time before that. He was the only one there that wasn’t on a training schedule.” She smiled at Ziggy. “We’ll see what we can do.”
“Thanks.” That’s all he needed. And even if Dillon didn’t want to deal with him, he might do it to get Ziggy and his parents off his back.
“We’ve been meaning to ask you-“ his mother said, as the alarms went off. “But that can hold.”
Ziggy tensed and prepared to follow his parents to battle.
Whatever they’d been planning to ask him, it wasn’t brought up when they came back to the base. Ziggy was slightly bugged by it, but planned to let them ask in their own time when they were ready.
That time didn’t come, most probably because of team debriefing time, plus his schooling and his parents’ training time. By the time they weren’t all busy, it was dinnertime and time to relax. The team liked to have movie nights, and he snuck out to do his homework. Gem and Gemma were way too fond of action movies with lots of explosions, and that was not his thing.
Besides, he thought as he stood in the rec room’s hallway, looking at the bruise caused by an opportunistic Grinder, it might not hurt to see Doctor K and make sure that he wasn’t bruised too badly. He hadn’t brought it up during debriefing because he didn’t want to make a fuss. Tapping it gently, he winced, and straightened up, leaning one hand against the wall as he took a deep breath, mentally preparing to face Doctor K. Who wasn’t that keen on her team failing to promptly report injuries after battle.
Suddenly, he was grabbed from behind, and Ziggy automatically twisted and aimed an elbow in his attacker’s direction. As he looked, he realized who his attacker was.
It was Dillon.
Meeting Your Match: Things That Shouldn’t Be
It only took him a second or two to get over the stunned realization that one of his teammates was kidnapping him, and start fighting again. His parents had told him, when they’d been talking about Venjix Hybrids, that Dillon had been mind-controlled, programmed, more than once because of his implanted technology.
“Would you stop fighting me?” Dillon snapped.
“No,” Ziggy replied. His safety was at stake, so he raised his voice. “No, I’m not.” He was quicky beginning to realize that he probably didn’t have enough strength to get loose, but he could get help.
“I’m taking you to Doctor K,” Dillon told him. “When were you going to have that looked at, you moron?”
“What?” Ziggy asked. Dillon had to be under mind control; he seemed to have lost the ability to realize that he wasn’t talking to his old teammate. As Dillon scowled more and started hauling him down the hallway, he screamed, counting on the fact that his parents would be able to hear. It wasn’t a very good scream, but if it was loud enough, at least someone would come save him.
After a few seconds, he heard the thud of footsteps. “What are you doing, Dillon?” Flynn asked from behind them.
His father didn’t even bother asking. “Dillon. Put Ziggy down, now.”
“Did you notice, oh fearless leader, that your son forgot to report that he was injured during debriefing?” Even as upset as Dillon seemed to be, at least he put Ziggy down. That was good.
“That doesn’t explain why you were carrying him off,” Ziggy’s mom said. Ziggy could easily imagine her, hands on hips, glaring at Dillon.
“He’s injured, and him picking up Ziggy’s bad habit of not reporting injuries is the last thing I need right now. You remember what happened last time Ziggy forgot to report an injury.”
Whatever had happened, Ziggy found Dillon’s grip on him tightening, so it had to be pretty bad.
“Then Summer and I will talk to him.” His father’s tone was firm. “You don’t-“
“Scott, stop. Dillon, how badly is he injured?” his mother asked. Ziggy thought it was strange that she was asking Dillon and not him, but he was sure she had her reasons.
“Bruises, a concussion,” Dillon answered curtly. “For sure.”
“I think you should take him down to Doctor K’s, then,” Ziggy’s mom said. “Ziggy, let Dillon take you down.”
They weren’t worried about mind control, then. Or him being mauled. Dillon didn’t like him, he knew that for sure, but obviously his injury was a personal sore spot, and he wasn’t about to protest. He was sure he didn’t have a concussion, but he wasn’t an expert. “Okay.”
“Dillon, let him go, I’m sure he can walk there,” his mom pointed out. “Just follow him, all right?”
“I was kind of heading that way anyway,” he admitted. If he was injured worse than he thought, then at least he’d have someone to catch him.
“I don’t believe you,” Dillon said, still sounding damn angry.
“Ziggy wouldn’t lie,” Ziggy’s dad said, and Ziggy was glad he was defending him.
“Right.” Obviously, Dillon lead as much credence to his dad as he did him.
He could hear his mother make a noise that could have been a sigh. “Dillon, unless you’re sure he can’t stand on his own two feet, could you please let him go?”
There was silence behind him for a minute, and then she added, “Ziggy, how do you feel? Do you think you can make it?”
“Yeah.” He was pretty sure of that. Why Dillon thought he had a concussion, he didn’t know.
There must have been some glaring going on, because suddenly, Dillon let him go. “But if he collapses, I’m carrying him, and he’s not going to like it,” Dillon said. Ziggy made a mental note to not fall over in Dillon’s sight in the near future.
On the other hand, the guy was talking to him. Sort of.
He headed down the hall towards Doctor K’s lab. She looked up as the two of them entered, eyes narrowing as if wanting to know why they were daring to disturb her. “He’s injured,” Dillon said from behind him.
“When did the injury happen?” Doctor K asked, as if trying to find an excuse to toss them both out of her lab.
“Uh, during battle,” Ziggy said. He wished it sounded less like a squeak, thinking of what she’d say to him.
She glared at him. “Move to the chair so I can scan you,” she said, making a vague motion in that direction. “You can depart now, Dillon.”
“I’ll stay,” Dillon said simply. Ziggy figured there was something Going On which would be explained to him at some point.
She let out a long, explosive sigh, and Ziggy, not wanting to get her angrier, moved to the chair. He stayed very still as she ran the scanner over him and then moved to her computer. “I am seeing nothing more than a bruise on your right leg, above the ankle. One that, fortunately, merely requires time and minor medical attention. Which does not excuse not reporting it to me.”
That wasn’t too bad. Sure, she was upset at him, but he’d make it up to her. Somehow.
“Enlighten me,” she said, “As to why you did not.”
“I forgot?” It really wasn’t the real reason, but he didn’t think she wanted to be told that he’d been embarrassed by the fact he’d gotten injured in the first place.
Doctor K exchanged a glance with Dillon, and then moved to one of her cabinets. “I’m going to do further testing,” she said, much to Ziggy’s surprise. “Please bare your lower left leg.”
Without protest, he did that, though was curious on why. “What are you doing?” Ziggy asked.
“I am attempting to discover whether this failure is a result of a behavior that needs modifying, or an outside influence,” she said shortly.
Whatever that meant. She came back with something else that she strapped onto his leg. She pressed a button, and he felt it humming against his bare skin. A beep later, and it was off and she was back at her computer.
“By testing my leg?” he asked.
“That is where the patches are,” she said, not looking up. “If I am to determine if they have become reactivated, where else would I test?”
“Patches?” Ziggy asked. There were no patches there, as far as he could see.
“Against your fibula,” she said, then looked up, catching his eye. “You carry the remains of a virulent Venjix hardware infection. You are not aware of this?”
“Um. No?” He didn’t remember his parents saying anything about that. As far as he remembered.
Doctor K pinched the bridge of her nose. “While I can understand Scott and Summer’s reluctance to expose you to a life of crime, I wish that they had informed you of that particular medical issue.”
“I wish they had too,” Ziggy said honestly. “Um, what happened? How did I get infected?”
He might as well dig it out of her while he had the chance.
“Several months before Ziggy Grover ceased to exist, he was injured in an attack which infected him with a self-generating Venjix hardware virus. Initially he failed to communicate this to me, and it was only at Dillon’s insistence that he came to my lab for an exam. I had thought at the time that it was an isolated test, not one of Venjix’s most common method of creating hybrids within the city.” She looked at him. “I initially thought that removing the hardware would stop the infection, but it recurred a few weeks later. By the time I detected it, it had partially surrounded his fibula in an attempt to surround, dissolve and replace it. I was able to keep the growth rate down by the same antivirus downloads I was giving Dillon, but the location of it prevented complete removal. You carry only a few patches of the original growth because the rest of them dislodged when you became your current self, and could be removed.”
So, parts of his leg had Venjix hardware in them, hardware that could be reactivated. He felt himself going pale and his dinner was doing its best to come out the wrong way. “Um.”
“Yes?” she asked, still impatient.
“I think I’m going to throw up.”
“Get him a trash can,” she snapped at Dillon.
Dillon got one just in time, as he coughed the remains of his dinner into it. He was vaguely aware that not all of it made it neatly inside, but he didn’t care as the slight stomach acid burned his throat.
He coughed, trying to get his mind around the fact that he could become like Dillon, full of Venjix hardware, controlled at times by a computer virus if the opportunity arose. There were a lot of people like Dillon in Corinth, because so many people had been infected and therefore had become part mechanical.
And then part of his history lessons came back to him. “But you eradicated all the infections with your cure,” he said, with some relief, though he hoped to have some water soon. Regurgitated dinner with stomach fluids did not taste good.
“The cure didn’t work as well for certain segments, of which you are part of,” Doctor K said. “Which means that you will continue to be scanned regularly for signs of reinfection.”
He was mentally thinking of how unfair that was. Of how he was fighting when he shouldn’t have needed to, and risked getting turned into the enemy every time he ventured onto the battlefield.
Maybe he shouldn’t be fighting at all. For the first time in his life, he considered running away. Not that he was sure about where he’d run, but he’d figure it out before leaving.
“That’s why I wanted to bring him in,” Dillon said to Doctor K.
“You were intending to prevent a potential recurrence of the virus,” Doctor K replied. “Fortunately, it seems like this is a false - if useful - alarm. It seems that it is a case of adolescent irresponsibility that his original had mostly outgrown by the time he bonded to his morpher.” She turned to Ziggy. “I expect, in addition to your other homework, that you will turn in a two-page essay by the end of this week on why you will report all injuries to me in the future.”
Ziggy nodded. It seemed like a fairly small punishment. “Right.” He wobbled up, tried to take a step, and decided sitting back down was a good idea. As he sat, he heard Doctor K paging his parents.
They didn’t take long to arrive at all. “So, what’s the diagnosis, Doc?” his father asked. His mother looked at him, as if unsure that it was okay to take him out of there.
“Fortunately, he only received bruises from the last battle and not a concussion,” Doctor K said. “Unfortunately, during my examination of him, and explanation as to the nature of the inert infection in his leg, he proceeded to vomit. I believe he currently does not feel comfortable with standing up at the moment.”
“Oh, Ziggy,” his mom said, sounding horrified, and hurrying over to him. “Don’t worry, we’ll get something into you, and then you should go to bed. Water, at the very least, food if you can take it later.”
He nodded, not quite trusting his voice at the moment. Of course, that was not the only thing he didn’t quite trust. But he’d bring that up later, when he wasn’t feeling so cruddy, and when he could have a rational discussion and not an argument about it with them about why they hadn’t told him.
In the meantime, he was glad that he’d get out of Doctor K’s lab. Soon.
Dying Well: To Make The Best Of Things
Three weeks. Four battles.
Ziggy was grateful to flee to his tiny classroom after giving his litany of bumps, bruises, and cuts to Doctor K after the team’s latest debriefing. Battles were getting worse for him, and he knew he wasn’t fighting or defending himself as well as he could. Doctor K hadn’t precisely called him on it, but suddenly he was losing school hours to training time, her silent comment that he could do better than how he’d been doing.
He wondered if his parents realized it, too. That he’d rather be anywhere but in the forefront of humanity’s defenses, that he wanted nothing better than to join Sophie at the Vachons’. But no, of course his original had to bond himself to the morpher, and then get turned into the four-year-old that eventually became him.
Ziggy Grover had made a really sucky life choice, as far as Ziggy Truman-Landsdown was concerned. He was the one having to deal with the consequences of the man’s decisions, and he really didn’t like it. He didn’t want to die, even if he died a hero, or become the slave to a computer virus, both of which were real possibilities in his life.
But it was something he couldn’t share with anyone, not even his parents. He didn’t want to get into a fight with anyone that he didn’t have to over something he had no choice to be, so he kept quiet and bit his tongue at Doctor K’s increasingly acid comments, and did what he was told.
He felt like crying. It was his study period, so he probably was safe there, but it was even safer up in his room. It was his refuge, and a place where he could pound the mattress and cry as much as he wanted without anyone being the wiser. For the moment, he lay his head down on his desk, letting the tears seep out onto his jacket.
“Ziggy?” he could hear his mom. She had to be standing at the doorway. Ziggy straightened up, quickly batting his tears away so she wouldn’t realize what he’d been doing. “Are you all right?”
He turned around to answer her, and realized that both his mom and his dad were in the doorway, both with worried expressions. Had he left too fast from the debriefing and worried them? Of course, him in the dark classroom wasn’t exactly the most reassuring sign either.
To his horror, as he breathed in to reassure them that he was okay, his nose betrayed him with a rather large sniffle.
“Oh, Ziggy.” His mom jogged forward to grab him into a hug. “It’s all right. Breathe.”
His father shut the door behind him, flipping on the light. “Ziggy, what’s wrong?” his father asked. He grabbed one of the chairs from the teacher’s desk, and Ziggy’s mom let go briefly to do the same. Ziggy found himself sitting between his parents, wishing they’d go away but not willing to say that to their faces.
Taking a deep breath, he said, “Nothing.”
His parents looked at each other. “Ziggy, the whole team knows something’s wrong. Dillon knows something’s wrong, and he barely knows you,” his mother said gently. “It’s very hard to hide things like this on our team.”
“And you’ve never had much of a poker face to start with,” his father added.
Had he been that obvious? Obviously so. But how could he tell his parents that he didn’t want to fight any more? The last three generations of men on his father’s side had all been military. And no matter how much he wanted to run away from there, he couldn’t.
He was much too responsible for his own good.
Looking at his parents, he wished he knew what to say. “I, um.” That was about as much as he could get out with them looking at him. “Never mind.”
“Ziggy, it’s bothering you so much that you’re barely fighting out there,” his father told him, hand on his shoulder as if to be reassuring. “You’re not like that in here, you do fine in training, or so Doctor K tells me.”
Running off, as much as he really wanted to do it, was a little hard with his mom holding him and his father’s hand on his shoulder. So he didn’t. Instead, he wondered what to say that would get him out of this without causing too many problems. “I’m not a warrior,” he said finally. It was the truth, it wasn’t something that would surprise anyone, and it might solve his problems if he admitted it. “I’m a scholar. I like books. Knowledge. Not battle. The only reason I’m out there is because I’m a Truman and I inherited the morpher.” He sighed. “I’m fourteen, and I’m being asked to fight.”
“Ziggy, you know the last thing we ever wanted to ask you to do was fight in a war, right?” his mother asked, brushing a lock of long blond hair out of her face quickly. “We’re proud of you, you’ve grown up to be a good person. We want to do what we can to get you through this.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about the patches?” Ziggy blurted out. That was maybe what hurt the most. His parents, as far as he could tell, had never said a single thing about him carrying little bits and pieces of Venjix technology within him, or the fact that his could reactivate. Sure, a lot of the population had mechanical parts, but wouldn’t it have been obvious to tell him something about it? He could hardly defend himself if he didn’t know. “The ones that are in my fibula.”
“On your fibula,” his mother corrected absently. “I don’t know if they ever got around to ever taking over the bone… I don’t know, Ziggy. The infection was always so small with you that I don’t think we ever thought to tell you about them.”
“Considering mine could start growing again at any time….” He ran a hand through his hair.
“If it makes you more comfortable,” his father said, as if planning to give an order, “I could ask Doctor K to run a scan after every battle. If anyone would catch it, she would. Plus, you have to be 51 percent mechanical in order to be taken over. You’re at a hundredth of a percent at most.”
Yeah, it was very small, but it bugged him. Of course, his parents were probably telling the truth, that his infection was so tiny compared to most everyone else’s that they probably never thought it would be an issue. He wondered what else didn’t occur to them, what secrets they held to his past because they didn’t think that they were important. “I wish he’d never taken on the morpher.”
Surprisingly, his mother and father shared a laugh at that, and his father grinned. “You know what? I thought the same thing a dozen times when he did it. It’s not like he really had a choice, but I still wish he hadn’t found himself in that position. Doctor K and I didn’t like him a whole lot when he bonded with the morpher, totally unauthorized.”
“He was an incredibly brave person,” his mother told him with a small smile. “And you’re a lot like him in that way; he didn’t want to be a Ranger either. He wasn’t a fighter, not at all. But he’d held by a promise, and he learned to fight. If there’s anything more important about Ziggy, I can’t think of it. For a criminal, he was one of the sweetest people I knew, and one of the most determined.”
So he was in this position because of a promise held by a man who had never been meant to be in the war against Venjix. Somehow, it didn’t comfort him that he was now sort of replaying that part of his predecessor’s life.
“And you know what?” his mom continued. “He became incredibly brave as well. He could have refused to fight. He never did, even with everything that happened to him. He lived with those patches of yours, Ziggy, and worse - he had to live with the hardware growing inside him, knowing at any time that something might happen and it would become worse for him. By the time he became you, he had little bits of hardware throughout his body, just ready to start the process on some of his other bones. And he was scared, Ziggy. Incredibly scared. He tried to hide it from the rest of us, but I saw the look in his eyes every time he had to go into the lab. It probably didn’t help that Dillon became terribly overprotective of him, either.”
His lunch threatened to come up his throat, but he was able to take a deep breath, forcing it back down, and thinking about what his mom was saying. And then the puzzle piece clicked into place in Ziggy’s head. Dillon had tried to save Ziggy Grover, and failed, and now Ziggy was not only a reminder of his lost love, but someone close he’d failed to save, especially from what had happened to him. No wonder he was a painful reminder to Dillon, and he didn’t blame Dillon at all for not wanting to deal with him.
“We can’t ask you not to be scared,” his father said, his expression thoughtful and serious. “No matter what I think of him, Ziggy, he went out fighting. He died a hero. But he had to work hard, and learn a lot, and, as your mother said, he was scared. But that meant that he didn’t take foolish risks, either.”
“Unlike some people named Truman that I know,” his mother said, lightly teasing his father.
“Yeah, well, that wasn’t my proudest day ever,” his father admitted, grinning back. “Especially after Gem pointed out to me that I was doing exactly everything I kept telling him not to do.”
Ziggy sighed. It still didn’t really solve his problems, but at least his parents did care. “I want to hear everything you know about him. Because I’m tired of not knowing. I’m not even sure who I am, really.”
“You’re Ziggy Truman-Landsdown,” his father said, leaning forward. “That’s the only person we’re asking you to be. We’ll work with you, we all will. Even Dillon, even if it kills him, he’s going to help you out. We’re a team, Ziggy. You’ve got all the help you can ask for, we just have to know when something’s wrong… and in some way other than getting your butt kicked big time in battle because you can’t ask for help.”
“Do you want a therapist, too?” his mother asked, looking from his father to him. “Scott, me, all of us… we all were going to therapists by the time the war was over. We all had to recover from being soldiers and having that weight upon us.”
His father nodded. “You’re not weak,” he said. “You’re my son. And I’m proud of you. And… I can’t believe I didn’t think about asking if you needed one earlier.”
“Neither did I,” his mother echoed. “We should have thought of that.”
“I thought about running away.” If he was admitting everything, he might as well do that one. He, at least, would be honest. “But I couldn’t. Because of the morpher.”
Sighing, his mother said, “That proves that you’re just as much a Ranger as the rest of us. Ziggy was like that too. He was determined to make the best of things, no matter how much he didn’t like them.”
Maybe he should do that too. It wasn’t like Venjix was suddenly going to go away just because he didn’t want to fight. He was stuck in this war he didn’t want to be in, but at least maybe he’d get some support. Maybe someday things would get better, even if they didn’t feel like it right then. “Skip the after-battle scanning, but… I’d really like it if we’d all just get together and tell me about him.”
“That,” his father said, leaning back in his chair, “We can do. In fact, I think it would be good for all of us.”
Setting an Example: Fears and Foibles and Joys
“Heya, Ziggy.”
Ziggy looked up from his book to where Benny Highsmith was walking towards him. He glanced over at where his parents and the rest of the team were playing volleyball. The team needed some rest and relaxation, and so Doctor K had sent them out to enjoy themselves, while remaining behind herself.
He wasn’t with them because of a still-healing ankle that Doctor K had sternly told him not to aggravate, and so he was staying down. Which was just as well; volleyball had never been his game. And, as he told his parents, if he needed help, he’d yell.
“Hi. Pleased to see you again.” He managed a smile. His parents had said nothing about ever contacting the mobster, or that he shouldn’t, so he chose to cautiously talk to the man.
“Yeah.” Benny plopped himself down by Ziggy. “Figured since I saw you, might check in, see how you were.”
He’d known Ziggy before, after all, or so he’d said, and an offhand comment on Doctor K’s end told Ziggy that the man had been telling the truth about it.
“I can safely say that getting hurt sucks.”
Benny laughed. “Yeah, well. You’re a fighter, kid. Been paying attention to the whole Ranger thing ever since Ziggy went legit.” He looked at Ziggy. “Thanks for having your parents call me, by the way. I may not be a person they want to really associate with, but ya know, I kind of had some things to say to them.”
Ziggy shrugged. He wanted really to talk to Benny about his original self, but like with his parents and team, Benny probably wouldn’t think to talk about the things important to Ziggy.
“I guess from what your folks told me, not directly of course, that you kinda know who you are.”
“Yeah.” He wouldn’t have phrased it quite that way, because he was still trying to figure out who he was, but he had a better understanding of who he had been.
“Did ya know when we last met?” Benny quirked an eyebrow at him. “‘Cause I hate to have been over-cautious-like.”
“Yeah. But I didn’t know you, either.”
The man nodded. “Yeah, wise choice there, kid. There’s a lot of people out there that knew Ziggy Grover, and not all of them remember him fondly. There’s a big debt that he owes, and some people are never going to forget it.”
He remembered being told about that, the night where they’d all just gotten together to share stories of the man he’d once been. It had been a night full of laughter, and silly stories, and somber recollections. All immensely useful to him.
“I know. Someone told me. Doctor K, in fact.”
“She’d know the whole story,” Benny leaned back on the bench. “Heck of a lady. I wouldn’t want to go against her, ya know. Been busy myself, ‘cause there are some in the cartels who’ve noticed a… certain resemblance between you and him.” Looking at Ziggy’s parents and team, he added, “Hate to tell your parents this, but we lived through a computer virus that destroyed the world; isn’t that hard to look at ya and realize that Ziggy didn’t precisely die like they said he did. Especially with you as a Ranger.”
He somehow wasn’t surprised. Once he’d gotten over the shock of having been someone else before, it hadn’t taken him long to realize that some people probably still remembered Ziggy Grover and saw the resemblance.
Well, apart from the not moving or talking like him bit. His parents had coaxed Dillon into sharing some of the handful of videos he had, the ones where Ziggy Grover had videotaped himself. Most of them had been from before he’d become a Ranger, as Ziggy’s parents had suspected, but there were a few after, including right after he became a Ranger, an entire monologue on how things kind of really sucked and he didn’t want to be a Ranger and how stupid he’d been. Ziggy suspected that he’d made it just so that he could look back someday and laugh, but he hadn’t been planning to share it with anybody else.
Doctor K’d had one or two as well that she’d dug out of her records, but hers had been so much more somber, discussions about his diagnosis and treatment, including computer scans of the leg and scary long medical terms, and his former self had been sitting there, hooked up to a machine, while Doctor K’s antivirus program targeted the growth inside him. Ziggy had only watched the video maybe twice, because compared to his growths - which really were tiny, she’d showed him - Ziggy Grover had whole sheaths of metal and machinery in there, up and down his fibula.
“I kind of wondered about that,” he said, looking over at Benny. “But I’m not him.” He did not want to be Ziggy Grover. And even if he wanted to, he couldn’t be.
Ziggy Grover had been human, full of foibles and fears and joys. He’d never really wanted to be an example, never planned to be turned into a preschooler. He didn’t want to be a role model. He’d stumbled into being a hero and as Benny had said, was too stubborn to stumble out. Charging into battle even when he didn’t want to.
He’d been maybe the example that Ziggy Truman-Landsdown had needed, because his performance on the battlefield had gotten better, and he’d gotten his class time back.
There had been good in him, as Ziggy’s therapist had pointed out, and it wasn’t like Ziggy hated the man he’d been before, the man who was in some ways as much his parent as his adoptive parents were. Just… genetically instead of an actual physical parent.
“Nah, you aren’t.” Benny looked over at the team, playing volleyball. “If ya were, you’d be lifting my wallet and then convincing me that I should give to a children’s charity while you were at it.” He grinned at something, some memory, but it soon faded. “Ziggy was always the kind of kid that should have been adopted himself. That’s why I took him under my wing, you know.”
Ziggy nodded. There was so much he wanted to ask about Ziggy, but he wasn’t sure it was the right time. “There’s so much I don’t know about him, still.”
“I could tell you stories, but there’s a lot I don’t wanna remember on my end. And others that your parents would go after me if they knew. When you’re a teenager and running with cartels, you kind of do things that are stupid, you know?”
Maybe he didn’t want to know the man that Ziggy Grover had been before he pretty much followed Dillon into Ranger HQ. “Yeah, so not a good idea.”
“Thought not,” Benny said, chucking again. “You’re better off hearing their stories, kid. Not that I don’t have a few myself that I could probably share, but I don’t want to get a set of Rangers pissy at me. One of the first things you learn in the Cartels is there are people you just don’t touch.” He nodded towards the team. “You’re looking at a bunch of them, right there. And you.”
It was a relief. “Yeah. Thanks for telling me, Benny.”
The man didn’t seem to take it as a dismissal, for which Ziggy was glad. “Anytime, kid. Gotta go, but when you’re older… lemme know. I got tales to tell.”
“I think we all do,” Ziggy said, looking at his family, his team.
“Yeah.” Benny grinned once more and got off the bench. “Take care of yourself, Ziggy.” And with that, he was away, walking off as if nothing important had happened.
The last few months had been important in ways he couldn’t have imagined. He’d lost who he thought he’d been, learned that he’d been someone else, and tried to become himself again… except that it was a little harder than he thought. Maybe it was all part of being an adult. Or maybe it was just him.
He didn’t know, but for once, he felt comfortable with it.
-end
End note: Wow. 10 parts/prompts later, I’m done! I’d like to think that I was mostly coherent, too.
When I started this, I expected it to be in continuity with “Painful is the Second Time Around”. Instead, it wandered into continuity with “Warm Spot” (which is where the whole storyline about Ziggy’s Venjix implants came from). I don’t know if I’m going to write in this universe again, other than write the sequel to “Warm Spot” that deals with Ziggy trying to deal with the whole infection. Probably you won’t see this character again, unless someone really wants to.
Thank you for reading!
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