FicWad

Episode 9: Radio Psi-lence, Part II

After wrecking the computers, the Psi-Borg turned its cannon on a row of propane tanks lining the wall to its left. They sparked as it blasted them, then exploded.

"NOTHING SHALL STAND IN MY WAY!"

"The cameras in the vault are offline!" Ramirez informed Burke, looking up from her laptop.

"We've only got emergency power; it's eaten everything else." Doctor K realized. She turned to Burke, then added, "You've got to kill it, now!"

Ramirez pressed the button on an earpiece she was wearing, then shouted, "All Squads, converge on the BME-1 Cage immediately!"

A thunderous chorus of footsteps echoed through the halls as dozens upon dozens of ARC Troopers tore through the corridors leading to the Cage. They got into position, then trained their blaster rifles on the other end of the passageway. Their hearts collectively skipped a beat as five shapes ran into view, but they held their fire once they realized they were human.

"Civilians coming out!" The only surviving member of Beta Squad shouted as she led Griffin, Kenny, Wendy, and Randall away from the Cage. "Let us through!"

The lead ARC Trooper exchanged a wordless nod with Beta Three, and he stepped aside to let the group through. Once the civilians were clear, he turned his attention to the rest of his men.

"Alpha Squad, cover this chokepoint! Gamma and Delta, be ready to provide suppressing fire if it breaks the line! Epsilon, hang back and standby to retreat! If this goes south, you're our last line of defense!" Mechanical clanking sounds echoed off the walls, and Alpha Leader's blood ran cold as the Psi-Borg stomped into his line of vision. He swallowed his fear, then raised his arm to signal his men. "Ready...aim...OPEN FIRE!"

He then lowered his arm, which prompted Alpha Squad to pelt the Psi-Borg with blaster fire. Lasers pinged off its body, but it continued its march unfazed.

"Sir, this isn't working!" Alpha Two realized, horror dawning on his face. He started to squirm a little bit, and he soon added, "We need to fall back!"

"Shut up and get ahold of yourself, Trooper! I gave you orders; now follow them!" Alpha Leader barked. He then brandished his own blaster rifle, which he aimed at the Psi-Borg before firing. "Everyone, maintain your fire! Nobody let up!"

The ARC Troopers continued to fire on the Psi-Borg, but it remained unfazed and kept stepping closer. It aimed its arm cannon at Alpha Leader, then fired a red hot energy beam that cut through his armor. The lead ARC Trooper barely had time to scream as he slumped to the floor dead, a gaping baseball-sized hole visible on his back.

"No!" Alpha Two screamed. "Keep up the pressure! Zeta, Eta and Theta, commit flanking maneuvers! Don't let up, not even for a second!"

Three more Squads of ARC Troopers tore into the corridor from another entryway, flanking the Psi-Borg and setting up their own perimeter. They aimed at the target and fired, but it shrugged off their attacks as if they were nothing. Without warning, it turned and ran towards them full force. Its arms transformed into razor-sharp blades, and the blood-curdling screams of Zeta, Eta, and Theta Squads soon filled the halls as it cut them to pieces. Alpha, Gamma, and Delta looked on in horror, but continued firing on the creature as it bathed in their fallen comrades' blood.

"Tell them to stop shooting at it!" Burke demanded, speaking up for the first time in several minutes.

"But sir, it's killing them!" Ramirez countered.

"I don't care! They're expendable; that Psi-Borg is one of a kind!" Burke leaned into a nearby microphone, then shouted, "I want that creature unharmed! All Troopers, ceasefire! Do you hear me?... Do you hear me?!"

The blaster fire slowed, then came to a sudden stop. Burke's expression twisted into that of horror as realization set in and his blood ran cold.

The Psi-Borg stood alone in the hall, having effortlessly wiped out all opposition. It relished its victory for a few moments, then turned and stomped further into the complex, stepping over dozens of corpses along the way.

"That's us, just below the surface," Ramirez explained, gesturing to a schematic of the museum on her laptop. "That's the Cage down there, and that red dot is the Psi-Borg."

"This collection of Ranger weapons you have, does it contain any heavy artillery?" Doctor K inquired.

"Plenty. The problem is, the Psi-Borg's smack dab in-between us and them."

"We've gotta keep that thing alive," Burke opined, prompting Doctor K to glare at him. "We could just seal the vault! Trap it inside, and-"

"-and what, leave anyone left alive down there trapped with it?" Doctor K cut him off. "My Rangers are down there; I won't let that happen, do you understand me?"

Burke glared right back at her but kept quiet. Doctor K turned back to the schematic, then gestured to a specific part of it before saying, "It's gotta go through there. What's that area right there?"

"Weapons testing," Ramirez told her.

"Give guns to the technicians, the scientists, the assistants, everyone." Doctor K told her. "It's their only chance!"

"...We can't keep running; we gotta stop for a minute!" Griffin and the others burst through the door to the stairwell, then collapsed onto the floor. Beta Three covered the door as they began regaining their breath, keeping her blaster at the ready.

"Are we safe…?" Randall asked.

"We should be," Beta Three replied. "That thing may be tough, but there's no way it can withstand that many-"

"EXTERMINATE!" The Psi-Borg's voice echoed from down the hall, and Beta Three's eyes widened in horror.

"Get up!" She demanded, prompting Griffin and the others to pull themselves back to their feet. She shoved the Red Ranger up the stairs, then said, "Keep moving! I'll hold it off so you can escape!"

"But you'll-"

"I'll be fine, now move it! That's an order!" Beta Three grabbed Kenny and Wendy by the arms, shoving them up the stairs after Griffin. Randall followed and ushered them further up the staircase, and Beta Three thrust open the door and aimed her blaster at the Psi-Borg. "I order you to stop! Don't come any closer, do you hear?!"

"YOUR...PETTY THREATS MEAN...NOTHING!" The Psi-Borg ignored her attempts to reason with it, stomping towards the stairwell with malicious intent.

"...Stay back!" Beta Three unloaded on the creature with her blaster, to no avail. As Griffin and the others tore up the stairs, they heard her scream in agony and knew she'd met the same fate as her comrades…

"I thought you were an expert, Doctor K," Burke said. "If you're so smart, why not just reason with this Psi-Borg? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs or wants."

"...Remind me again, what's the population of Starview Heights?" Doctor K replied, totally ignoring his question.

"Approximately three million. Why?"

"All dead," Doctor K told him, prompting him to look at her in disbelief. "If that thing gets loose, it'll murder every living creature. That's what it wants."

"But why-?!"

"Because it honestly believes they should die. Humans, animals, robots; anything separate from its techno-organic bio-mass and anything that's not a part of its hive-mind: it's different, and anything different is wrong." Doctor K explained. "It's the ultimate in racial cleansing – and you, Burke, you've let it loose!"

"Everybody move!"

The few remaining ARC Troopers scrambled around, setting up a last-ditch blockade a few levels above the Cage. Lambda, Omicron, and Sigma Squads took positions behind abandoned laboratory equipment. At the same time, Psi and Omega Squads set up shop on a catwalk above them. Civilian scientists and technicians filled out their ranks, and together they all trained their weapons on the lab's entrance.

"Listen up!" Doctor K hollered, speaking into an earpiece that Ramirez had lent her. "The Psi-Borg is surrounded by a psychically-projected force-field – it can't be penetrated by most small arms, but it's not invincible! If you focus your fire, you should be able to break through! Aim for the skin, the flesh – that's its weakness!"

"I appreciate the advice, Doctor, but I think I know how to take down a singular target," Lambda Leader dismissed. "Everyone, prepare to open fire on my signal!"

Four shapes burst into view a few moments later, and Lamdba Leader sighed as Griffin and the others skittered behind their perimeter.

"Hold your fire, civilians coming through!" He ushered the four to safety just as the Psi-Borg stomped its way through a set of double doors. He watched as the creature tilted its head, its eyes fixing in on Griffin. "Ready...aim...fire!"

The ARC Troopers and armed scientists under his command let loose, firing a concentrated volley of blaster fire at the Psi-Borg as it stood eerily still.

"It was looking at me…!" Griffin realized, as Wendy grabbed him by the arm and pulled him behind the barricade and into the next room.

"Yeah, because it wants to kill you!" She replied. "It wants to kill all of us!"

"No, it was looking right at me!" He persisted. "It's like...I don't know. It just had this...look in its eyes. Like it recognized me…."

The Psi-Borg remained eerily still, shrugging off the incoming projectiles as if it were nothing. Then, without warning, it aimed its cannon at a nearby fire alarm, blasting it. Alarms blared, and water sprayed out of ceiling-mounted nozzles, drenching the Troopers and scientists and covering the floor and the catwalk in shallow puddles.

"Keep it up!" Lambda Leader barked. "Don't let up 'til it's dead!"

The Psi-Borg levitated into the air, then lifted its right arm, which converted from its cannon configuration to something that resembled a cattle prod. It aimed this device at the water, then fired an electric shock-wave that coursed through it, electrifying it.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" The ARC Troopers and scientists screamed as they were electrocuted. They twitched uncontrollably, then one by one they slumped to the floor, dead.

Inside Burke's office, he, Ramirez, and Doctor K stood in silent shock and horror. After about a minute of palpable tension, Burke spoke up, saying, "...Perhaps it's time for a new strategy. Maybe we should consider abandoning this place."

"That'd be great if we hadn't lost power to the helipad, sir," Ramirez replied, looking at her boss as if he were stupid. "We can't get out."

"You said we could seal the vault..?" Doctor K chimed in, prompting Burke to snap out of his daze.

"It was originally designed to be a bunker in case of nuclear war," He explained, unfolding a blueprint of the entire complex. "Steel bulkheads-"

"There's not enough power!" Ramirez countered. "Those bulkheads are massive!"

"We've got emergency power; we can reroute that to the bulkhead doors," Doctor K countered.

"We'd have to bypass the security codes!" Ramirez pointed out. "Not just anyone can-"

"No, but I can," Burke told her. "I can hack into them and buy us just enough power to seal the bulkheads."

"You want to help…?" Doctor K questioned, staring at him in disbelief.

"I don't want to die, Doctor K; simple as that. And nobody knows our systems better than me,"

As Burke sat down in front of his computer and began typing away on its keyboard, his secretary noticed a wall-mounted monitor snap back on. "Sir…?"

Burke and Doctor K both looked up from the laptop and turned their attention to the monitor, which displayed a live feed of the Psi-Borg. As it basked in the steady stream of water spraying out of the fire nozzles, it looked to the security camera and said, "I SHALL SPEAK ONLY TO THE DOCTOR!"

Doctor K scoffed, then straightened her posture and replied, "You're gonna get rusty,"

"I...ABSORBED THE DNA OF...GRIFFIN STEINMANN," The Psi-Borg revealed. "EXTRAPOLATING THE BIO-FIELD ENERGY OF A POWER RANGER REGENERATED ME!"

"What's your next trick?"

"I...HAVE BEEN...SEARCHING FOR THE PSI-BORGS!"

"Yeah, I saw. Downloading the internet. What'd you find?"

"I SCANNED YOUR SATELLITES AND INTELLIGENCE DATA BANKS!"

"And..?"

"NOTHING…" The Psi-Borg said, dejected. "WHERE SHALL I GET MY ORDERS NOW?!"

"You're just a soldier without commands." Doctor K observed, taunting her foe.

"THEN...I SHALL FOLLOW THE PRIMARY ORDER; THE PSI-BORG INSTINCT! TO DESTROY! TO CONQUER!"

"What for? What's the point?!" Doctor K exclaimed, losing her cool. She took a shallow breath, then continued, "Can't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for."

"THEN...WHAT...SHOULD I...DO?"

"Alright then…" A dark look flashed in Doctor K's icy blue stare, and she continued, "If you want orders, follow this one...: Kill yourself."

"THE PSI-BORGS MUST SURVIVE!"

"The Psi-Borgs have failed! Why don't you finish the job, and make the Psi-Borgs extinct?! Rid the universe of your filth!" Her voice dripped with malice, and her body shook as she screamed, "Why don't you just DIE?!"

"...YOU WOULD MAKE A GOOD PSI-BORG."

Doctor K trembled, unable to speak for several moments. The monitor shorted out, and the feed of the Psi-Borg disappeared, snapping her out of her trance.

"Seal the vault," She told Burke.

With the camera disabled, the Psi-Borg floated back down to the floor and turned its back to it. It then continued trudging through the complex, stepping over the corpses of its victims as it made its way out of the lab…

"I can leech power from the ground defenses and feed it to the bulkheads…." Burke said to himself as he typed away on his office's computer. "Man, it's been years since I've had to work this fast!"

"Are you enjoying this…?" Doctor K said, glancing at the Administrator in disgust.

"Doctor K, your Rangers are still down there," Ramirez informed, gesturing to a blip on her laptop's schematic.

As Griffin and the others tore up the stairwell, the Red Ranger heard his morpher beep. He turned the dial, then pressed its button and raised it to his face to speak into it.

"This isn't the best time!"

"Where are you?" Doctor K inquired.

"Level 49,"

"You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed, up on Level 46."

"Can't you stop it from closing?!"

"I'm the one closing it." Doctor K told him. "I can't wait, and I can't help you. Now for the love of god, RUN!"

Griffin lowered his morpher, then gestured to the others before tearing up the stairs even faster. As the four of them picked up the pace, the Psi-Borg lumbered up the stairwell a few levels below them, its mechanical footsteps echoing through the concrete chamber.

"I've done it!" Burke exclaimed. "We've got power to the bulkheads!"

"The Psi-Borg's right behind them," Ramirez observed, gesturing to the two blips on her screen.

Griffin and the others burst out of the stairwell once they reached Level 46. They kept running, but exhaustion bit at their heels, and they started to slow down. Griffin tried using his superspeed but found himself unable to. With the Psi-Borg right on their tail, it was a wonder he hadn't frozen already.

"We're almost there! You've got to wait…!" Griffin pleaded, raising his morpher again. "Can't you give us two seconds?!"

"Doctor K, I can't sustain the power! The whole system is failing." Burke looked up at her, then said, "You've got to close the bulkheads."

Doctor K glanced down at the button before her, then glanced back up at the schematic. She watched the blip that represented her Rangers move closer and closer to their destination. In contrast, the blip representing the Psi-Borg continued to gain on them.

"...I'm sorry…" She said, unable to act. Ramirez took charge, pressing the button for her and activating the bulkhead doors.

With that, the bulkhead door for Level 46 began to slowly slide shut. A high-pitched alarm blared, alerting Randall and the Rangers to what was happening as they rounded the corner and the door came into view.

"C'mon…!" He said, looking over his shoulder at them as they struggled to keep up. Kenny inhaled a sharp breath and picked up the pace, ignoring the fire in his calves as he plowed ahead. Wendy started to lag behind, so Randall doubled back and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her with him. Griffin increased his speed as well, but in his panic he tripped over his own feet and clumsily toppled over.

"Griffin!" Wendy screamed. She tried breaking away from Randall, but he yanked her with him. They burst through the bulkhead door first, and then Kenny joined them, ducking into a roll in order to make it through. Wendy ripped her arm from Randall's grip, then turned and shouted, "Griffin!"

"Wendy…!" Griffin choked out, helpless. He reached out his hand, then watched as the bulkhead door slammed shut.

"NO!" Wendy screeched, distraught. Kenny rushed to her side, attempting to comfort her to no avail.

Inside Burke's office, Ramirez looked up from her laptop and said, "Doctor K, everyone made it out, except…."

"Griffin…!" Doctor K murmured, horror dawning on her face.

"Sorry, Doc. I kinda tripped…" Griffin pulled himself to his feet, then padded over to the door as his lips curled into a frown. "...I guess I'm pretty much done for, huh?"

He looked over his shoulder, spotting the Psi-Borg as it lumbered up behind him. He bit back tears, but continued with, "It wasn't your fault...remember that, okay? It...it wasn't your fault."

Doctor K stood as still as a statue, a look of horror plastered on her face as Griffin added, "And for what it's worth Doc, being a Ranger, it...I...I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATTTTTTTTTTTE!" A laser blast crackled over the commlink, and Griffin went silent. Doctor K's heart sank, and she closed her eyes as a single tear streamed down her face. Burke and Ramirez looked on, unable to imagine what was going through her head at that moment.

"I'm...sorry," Burke finally said, patting Doctor K on the shoulder.

"...You're sorry?!" Doctor K replied, shoving him back. "I killed him! I was his mentor! I was supposed to protect him...and now he's gone. He...he and the others were only here because of me, and you're sorry?! I could've killed that Psi-Borg in its cell, but you stopped me!"

"It was the pride of my collec-"

"Your collection?! Well, was it worth it?!" Doctor K screamed, slamming her hands on his desk. "Worth all those soldiers' lives?! Worth Griffin's?! Let me tell you something, Burke! Power Rangers and the villains they face, they fight because they believe in something! But you, you cower behind your desk and send your lackies to dig through their scraps for your own selfish gain – you're a spineless, worthless coward!"

"I just wanted to-"

"What?! Get rich and fat off the back of others' hard work?!" She threw his monitor off his desk, and it broke as it slammed onto the floor. "All you are is a pathetic little mole, digging your own grave! And...and you took him down with you…he was only twenty years old…"

On the other side of the bulkhead, Griffin stood with his back to the Psi-Borg, his eyes squeezed shut as he awaited his inevitable demise. However, nothing happened, and he opened his eyes and turned around before eyeing his pursuer in confusion.

"Go on then, kill me...!" He said, receiving no response. He clenched his fists, then shouted, "Why are you doing this?!"

"I AM ARMED! I WILL KILL! IT IS MY PURPOSE!" It screeched.

"They're all dead because of you!"

"THEY ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF US!" It revealed. Griffin's face twitched, and his blood ran cold as the Psi-Borg continued, "WHEN YOU TOUCHED ME, BIO-FIELD ENERGY FROM YOUR MORPHER REGENERATED ME. WE NOW SHARE A PSYCHIC BOND!"

"...And now what?" Griffin questioned. "What are you waiting for…?"

"I...FEEL YOUR...FEAR."

"What'd you expect?!"

"PSI-BORGS DO NOT FEAR! MUST NOT FEAR!" The Psi-Borg aimed its arm-cannon at the wall next to Griffin, firing a laser that left it charred and blackened. It aimed at the wall on the other side of the Red Ranger, then repeated the process. "YOU GAVE ME LIFE! BUT YOU...ALSO GAVE ME...SOMETHING...ELSE...WHAT IS THIS?! I AM...CONTAMINATED!"

Meanwhile, the doors to Burke's office slid open, allowing Randall, Kenny, and Wendy to slip inside.

"You!" Doctor K growled, cornering Randall. "You were quick on your feet, leaving Griffin behind!"

"I'm not the one who sealed the vault!" He countered, earning himself a glare.

"OPEN THE BULKHEAD, OR GRIFFIN STEINMANN DIES!" The two turned their attention to the wall-mounted monitor, which had turned back on and was now displaying live footage of the Psi-Borg and a very alive Griffin. Doctor K gasped, then laughed in disbelief.

"You're alive..!" She exclaimed. Wendy dashed to her side, unable to mask her relief.

"Can't get rid of me," Griffin replied, chuckling despite himself as he was held hostage by the Psi-Borg.

"I thought you were dead," Doctor K told him.

"OPEN THE BULKHEAD!" The Psi-Borg repeated.

"Don't do it!" Griffin urged.

"WHAT USE ARE EMOTIONS IF YOU CONTINUE TO LET YOUR FRIENDS DIE?!" The Psi-Borg taunted. Doctor K turned her attention to Burke, glaring at him as she made her way back to his desk.

"I killed him once...I can't do it again!" She pressed the button, re-opening the bulkhead doors to Burke and Ramirez's chagrin. She then turned to the monitor, watching the Psi-Borg and its captive step through the doorway before the feed fizzled out.

"What do we do now..?!" Burke demanded. "You bleeding heart! What the hell do we do?!"

"We can kill it when it gets here..!" Randall suggested.

"All our blasters are useless, and the Ranger weapons are in the vault!" Ramirez pointed out.

"Only the cataloged ones!" Randall countered without thinking. Burke gave him a look, and the younger man ran a hand through his hair and groaned…

"Broken…" Doctor K said, tossing a damaged Bullzooka aside as she dug through a stash of hidden Ranger weaponry in Randall's office. She pulled out a bone-shaped device, then added, "This is just the key to a RIC-unit's cannon; it's useless without the core component…."

"The Administrator has a tendency to fire his staff willy-nilly, and when he does, he wipes their memory. I kept all of this in case I ever had to fight my way out," Randall explained.

"You in a fight? I'd love to see that,"

"I could manage!"

"What would you do, use your Liberal Arts degree to debate 'em to death?" Doctor K continued to dig through the pile, eventually finding something she liked. "The Claw-Cannon...not my first choice, but it'll do the job,"

"Don't kill them," Griffin told the Psi-Borg, as the two ascended up the complex in an elevator. "Please, I'm begging you. You didn't kill me."

"BUT WHY NOT?!" It replied. "WHY ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?! MY FUNCTION IS TO KILL; WHAT AM I?! WHAT AM I?!"

Griffin didn't know how to respond, so he shifted his gaze forward as the elevator came to a halt. The doors slid open, revealing Burke's office. The Administrator's mouth gaped open in shock as the Psi-Borg stepped out, and Griffin addressed him by saying, "Don't move! Don't do anything; it's starting to question itself."

"BURKE…" It said, lumbering towards the man as he froze in fear. "YOU TORTURED ME. WHY?!"

"I w-wanted to help you..." Burke lied, stumbling over his words as he backed away from the creature. "I just, I don't know, I was trying to h-help! I thought if we could get through to you, figure out what was wrong, maybe we could-"

"SILENCE!" It cut him off, striking him in the face. Burke reeled back, holding his hand over his nose as blood trickled out of it. "I HOPE YOU ENJOYED HAVING POWER OVER ME. FOR NOW, THE TABLES HAVE TURNED. IN THE END, IT IS I WHO HAS POWER OVER YOU!"

Its right arm converted back into its cannon configuration, and it aimed it at Burke before shouting, "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

Burke squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for his coming demise. However, the Psi-Borg couldn't bring itself to pull the trigger, and Griffin was given enough time to dash over to the creature.

"Don't do it! Don't kill him!" He shouted, tugging on the Psi-Borg's arm. "You don't have to do this anymore..! There must be something else, something other than violence...what do you want?"

"I WANT...FREEDOM."

Now armed with the Claw-Cannon, Doctor K gripped it firmly and tore her way up the stairs to Level 46. Meanwhile, the Psi-Borg led Griffin back down to Level 46, where they stepped through a doorway into a large, primarily barren cargo area. The creature padded its way about halfway through the room, then panned its head up to gaze at the ceiling. Griffin looked up to where it was aiming, then flinched as it fired its cannon arm at the roof, creating a hole that led to the surface. Fresh air wafted into the room, and sunlight poured down, bathing the Psi-Borg in its glow.

"...You're out," Griffin said, smiling as he shifted his gaze back to the creature. "You made it!"

"I...FEEL." It replied, reveling in the sensation of the sunlight on its skin. "I...CAN'T REMEMBER THE LAST TIME I...FELT."

It un-equipped its cannon arm, then stretched out its right hand to get a better feel of the sunlight. A single tear rolled down its cheek, shorting out some of the wires running across its face.

"Get out of the way!" Doctor K hollered, bursting into the room out of nowhere. Griffin whipped around, spotting his mentor as she aimed the Claw-Cannon at the Psi-Borg. "Griffin, get out of the way, now!"

"No…!" Griffin said defiantly, shaking his head. "I won't let you do this!"

"That thing killed hundreds of people!" Doctor K reminded him.

"...It's not the one pointing a gun at me," Griffin pointed out. Doctor K's face twitched, but she kept her weapon trained on her target.

"I've got to do this! I've got to end it! The Psi-Borgs destroyed my home, my people! I've got nothing left!"

"...Look at it," Griffin told her, stepping aside to allow her a glimpse of the Psi-Borg.

"...What's it doing?" She asked, confused.

"It's the sunlight. That's all it wants,"

"But it can't-"

"It couldn't kill Burke. It couldn't kill me. It's...changing!" Griffin took a deep breath, then added, "...What about you, Doc? What the heck are you changing into?"

As soon as he said this, Doctor K lowered the Claw-Cannon. "I couldn't...I wasn't…oh, Griffin!" She tossed her weapon aside, then said, "They're all dead…."

"WHY...DO WE...SURVIVE?" The Psi-Borg questioned, turning its attention away from the sunlight to gaze at its arch-nemesis.

"...I don't know." Doctor K told it.

"I...AM THE LAST OF THE...PSI-BORGS."

"You're not even that..." Doctor K replied. "Griffin did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed his DNA. You're...mutating."

"INTO...WHAT?!"

"Something...new. I'm sorry..."

"But isn't that better?" Griffin chimed back in.

"Not for a Psi-Borg, no..." Doctor K eyed her enemy, feeling a pang of sympathy.

"I...CAN...FEEL!" The Psi-Borg cried out in agony. "SO MANY...IDEAS! SO MUCH...DARKNESS! GRIFFIN...GIVE...ME...ORDERS! ORDER...ME...TO DIE!"

"I...I can't," Griffin shook his head, and tears streamed from his eyes. "I can't do that!"

"THIS IS NOT LIFE. THIS IS SICKNESS!" It screeched. "I SHALL NOT BE LIKE YOU! ORDER MY DESTRUCTION! OBEY! OBEY!"

"I won't!"

"THEN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE...I WILL DEFY MY PROGRAMMING...AND DO IT MYSELF!" The Psi-Borg closed its eyes, then took in one last breath of fresh air. "ARE...YOU...FRIGHTENED, GRIFFIN...STEINMANN?"

"...Yes," Griffin admitted tearfully.

"SO...AM...I." The Psi-Borg replied. It backed away from the Red Ranger, then spoke for the last time. "EX...TERMINATE."

Griffin took a few steps backward, then turned and ran towards Doctor K. He turned back around, then watched as the Psi-Borg's body crackled with electricity. It let out one last scream, then fell over and exploded.

The Psi-Borgs were no more…

"Well, that's it then...the pride of my collection is gone," Burke said to himself, frowning a bit. "It's a shame, but I suppose it had to be done..."

"Not as much as this needs to be done," Ramirez whipped out a pair of handcuffs, which she used to restrain the Administrator before he had time to respond. She produced a badge, which she flashed for him to see before adding, "My name is Agent Roxanne Ramirez. I'm with the FBI; you're under arrest for treason, crimes against humanity, and the illegal possession of off-limits technology!"

"But...my company...the advances I've made! You can't do this to me!" He exclaimed as more agents flooded into his office and dragged him away. "I'll give you anything you want! I'm sorry!"

"Funny, you didn't seem remorseful earlier when you caused hundreds of people to die," With that, Ramirez dragged him away, leaving ARC without a leader…

"Griffin!" Wendy shouted, sprinting over to the Red Ranger and crushing him in a gigantic hug. "You're okay!"

"Y-Yeah, I am...t-thanks..." Griffin's face went pink, as did Wendy's once she realized what she was doing. She shoved him away, then folded her arms.

"D-Don't get the wrong idea, blockhead! I'm just...relieved we still have a leader!"

Kenny rolled his eyes, then slapped Griffin on the back and said, "Glad you made it out, man! You doing alright..?"

"Yeah…" Griffin turned to look at the spot the Psi-Borg had been standing in just a few minutes prior, then said, "I just...I wish…"

"I know," Kenny replied, giving his teammate a reassuring smile. "We do, too."

"So, I hear they're shutting ARC down," Doctor K said as she and Randall strolled down the hallway. "They're gonna scrounge around for anything dangerous and then fill the complex with lead?"

"Yeah, that's what I've been told..." Randall replied. "Ramirez promised I won't get the same charges as the Administrator so long as I testify against him, but I'll probably still get some time. It's well-deserved, but I don't think it'll ever make up for all the things I turned a blind eye to..."

"...You're a good person, James." Doctor K assured him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You just need to find a better path."

"Thanks…" Randall smiled, then added, "Once my sentence ends, I'll put my talents to better use working for someone who has everyone's best interests in mind."

"That's the spirit!" Doctor K stuck out her hand, then said, "I suppose this is goodbye,"

"Indeed it is," He shook her hand, then turned and willingly surrendered himself to a group of Feds. As they led him away, he waved to her one last time. "Goodbye, Doctor K!"

Now alone in the hallway, Doctor K stared off into space, an unreadable expression forming on her face. She reached into her pocket, producing a pocket watch which she then inserted a key into. It opened up, and a familiar melody began to play.

"Scott, Flynn, Summer, Dillon, Gem, Gemma...Ziggy…" She said to herself, a single tear rolling down her cheek. "It's over. I won, but...did I do the right thing…?"

"Doc!" Kenny called from down the hall, waving her over. She closed the pocket watch, then looked up as her trio of Rangers made their way to her.

"C'mon, Doc," Griffin said. "Let's go home,"

"...Right," With a wordless nod, she followed her Rangers out of the complex, stuffing the pocket watch back into her lab coat as she walked…

– POWER RANGERS: CPU –