Colonel Truman threw his jacket aside as he turned back to face the Rangers. Scott and the others all stood facing him, still a little taken aback by his actions. They knew that he and Dr. K had some kind of bond that had formed between them since around the time of the evacuation, but none of them knew that it was this strong. He had attacked his own son viciously for his actions towards her.

"Well Scott, is this the man I raised you to be?" He asked him, stretching out his shoulders. "Did I raise you to be the kind of man to beat up women?"

"Dad, I don't want to fight you." He responded as he stroked his jaw. "You don't know what she's done!"

"What could she possibly have done to deserve that?" He asked him. "What gives you the right to strike a young woman who won't defend herself?"

"Everything is her fault." Scott snapped in response, making his way over to his father. "She's the reason we have to hide in this dome like scared rats awaiting extermination! She's the reason we have to fight every day of our lives just to survive! Every death, every ounce of pain that Venjix has caused is her fault!"

"You found out she created the Venjix virus." He surmised. The Rangers all stared at him in shock as he said this.

"You knew?" Scott asked him.

"Of course I knew!" Colonel Truman snapped. "She told me herself!"

Scott got a hateful expression on his face and got into Colonel Truman's face. He was clearly still livid over the betrayal he felt over her actions, though now he felt another betrayal. His father had also kept this knowledge from him.

"You knew about this and you did nothing about it?" Scott asked him angrily. "She's the reason Marcus is dead! Don't you care about him at all?"

Faster than any of the Rangers could have anticipated him moving, the Colonel lashed out, connecting with another savage punch to the side of Scott's face, almost knocking him completely senseless.

"How dare you ask me that?" He hissed in a disapproving tone as he looked down on his son in disgust. A few tears were beginning to form in his eyes. "Marcus was my eldest son. I've loved him from the moment he was born. I still mourn his loss to this day. Yes, Dr. K created the Venjix virus, and yes it was that battle he died in, but Marcus always knew something that you seem to have forgotten."

He leaned in closer, glaring straight into his eyes.

"Marcus knew the risks when he signed up to the air force." Colonel Truman reminded him. "I was proud of him, just like I was proud of you when you signed up, but I was always terrified. I've watched so many people go out to so many battlefields that never came back. I always knew that was a risk of his career choice."

"But Dr. K...."

"If it wasn't Venjix, we'd probably have been at war with the Middle East, or the Russians, hell we might have been at war with the UK for all I know, politicians were never short of a reason for us to sell our lives for our country." He interrupted him sharply. "Marcus was at war with Venjix, and Gates murdered him. That's just a fact of life, and while I wish and pray every single day that Marcus will walk into my living room with a smart ass comment about how much weight I've put on recently, I know it isn't going to happen. That's no reason to let hatred blind you to the fact that we aren't the only victims."

"I just miss him so much." Scott muttered as he pulled himself up, setting himself down on a chair. Colonel Truman came over to him, grabbing his shoulder. He glared at him judgementally.

"If Marcus was here, he'd be ashamed of you." Colonel Truman told him. "So would your mother. Now, I'm going to bring Dr. K in here, and you are going to sit there and listen to her side of the story, and you aren't going to say another word until she finishes. Do I make myself clear?"

Scott just nodded wordlessly. He had no desire to fight his father. While it had been a long time since his dad would have been able to best him in a straight fight, he just couldn't bring himself to harm him. If nothing else the shame he felt from him had taken the heart out of him and left him with no will to fight anyone. Colonel Truman went into the nearby lab, finding Tenaya sitting in her chair and Dr. K checking over a computer screen. He came over behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Dr. K, I'd like you to come through to the Garage." He told her softly. She shook her head.

"I have a lot to do here." She told him. He just chuckled.

"I might not understand a whole lot about your work, but I do remember what some of it looks like." He reminded her. "You've checked that same screen five times since I got here."

"Colonel..."

"The Rangers need to hear the truth." He told her. "All of it."

"With all due respect, I don't see what good it will accomplish." She told him. "They already know the most important detail. They already know that all of this is my fault."

"Dr. K, they need to hear the whole story." He told her. "If they're ever going to trust you..."

"They only need to trust my technology." She interrupted him. "They know that I'm the world's best chance of destroying Venjix for good. Whether they trust me..."

"You know that isn't going to work. That's why I agreed when you asked me not to tell them." Colonel Truman reminded her. "You were the one that said from day one that trust is the most important thing. If they don't believe in each other..."

"They do." She whispered. "It's just me they hate."

"Dr. K, you can't live like that." Colonel Truman told her. "You've been alone for far too long already."

"I guess I should just stay here." Tenaya stated. "Venjix has detailed files on his creation; I already know the story anyway."

"That would probably be for the best." Colonel Truman told her. "Um...sorry to do this, but I'm still a little uncomfortable. Would you mind if I activated your restraints while we discuss this?"

Tenaya breathed an exasperated sigh and placed her hands and feet into position for the restraints to be activated. Dr. K stopped the Colonel as he reached for the control.

"If you want the Rangers to trust my judgement, you must first demonstrate that you are willing to do so." She said gently. "She does not need to be restrained. She will stay here if I ask her."

The Colonel nodded and retrieved his hand. Dr. K just looked at Tenaya.

"Stay here until I return." She instructed her 'captive'. Tenaya just relaxed on the chair as they left, making their way back into the main room. Dr. K walked, standing closely to Colonel Truman as she made her way back to the main room. She could feel the Rangers' gaze on her as she walked in. Scott wasn't even looking at her, instead looking down at his feet. He had fresh injuries on his face, and given the swelling of Colonel Truman's knuckles, she could guess how he had got them.

Dillon's gaze never left her. When he was focused on something, his gaze could be a little unnerving, but when that focus was anger, it was downright terrifying. He watched her, barely blinking as Summer sat next to him with an arm around his waist. She knew that he had more reasons than any of them to hate her.

Ziggy was watching, but she could see something different in his gaze. She could see that he wasn't as angry as the others. If anything, he seemed almost accepting. He had explained to her in the lab before Colonel Truman arrived that he was giving her the benefit of the doubt and only wanted to know the full story. As she looked around, Summer and Flynn seemed to be largely unreadable. While both were upset, they too seemed to be more curious than angry.

As she took a seat, Colonel Truman just stroked her shoulders gently, giving her some comfort under the judgemental gaze of her Rangers. Time slowed to a crawl. Eventually Ziggy broke the silence.

"Dr. K, you can understand why we're upset, but I know better than anyone things are rarely how they seem." He explained. "We just want to know what happened."

"We won't interrupt; we just want to hear what you have to say." Summer assured her, squeezing Dillon to ease his anger a little. "Please begin."

Meanwhile, in Venjix compound, General Shifter came into Venjix's main command room. The column turned, and the computer's burning red eye cast its gaze over him.

"You have acquired what I asked for?" It asked him.

"We got most of it." He replied in a slightly sadistic cackle. "By the time the Rangers were finished with it, there wasn't much left."

With that, Crunch came into the room, wheeling a large contraption, carrying the remains of Gates' shattered body. He let out a low moan as he came to. His right arm was completely severed, and was still in the dome. His legs hung uselessly beneath him, unnaturally limp and flexible having been completely mashed as a result of his near two mile fall from the roof of the central command building. His torso was completely encased in a steel box, with numerous cables and tubes tending to his vital functions. His body had been completely obliterated, and he would surely have died within seconds if he had not been retrieved by the two robotic generals. His face was covered in blood, and the right side of his face was unrecognisable, his eye completely gone. His jaw was broken, held together by a couple of metal plates. He looked around as much as his shattered body would allow with his one remaining eye.

"With all due respect Master Venjix, what could you possibly want this for?" General Crunch asked him.

"As you know, this form is not conducive to my long-term plans." Venjix reminded him. "It is time for me to complete my generation 13 technology."

"Generation 13? You mean you will at last walk among us?" General Shifter asked him as he skipped around Gates erratically, inspecting the near-corpse as he tried to figure out what, if any use this could be to them. "I thought you said..."

"While Dr. K gave me my base programme and my learning capabilities, she did not see fit to give me a body." Venjix explained. "While I have created a great many magnificent creations, nothing has been worthy of serving as my vessel. You see all of my creations are based largely within my programming, which was based on all the files I could download from Alphabet Soup. However, two major programmes were never held on the central database for security, but held on removable data drives."

"Two?" General Crunch asked him. "I thought you said that only Project Ranger was beyond your reach."

"There was one other project that harnessed a connection to the bioelectric field that powers the Ranger rigs." Venjix told them. "Project Strychnine."

The life sign monitors hooked to Gates sounded a couple of alerts as his heart rate and breathing became more rapid. He was wearing the last Project Strychnine rig.

"Utilising the technology within this rig, I will be able to complete my generation 13 rig and finally have a vessel worthy of carrying me across this earth." He announced. Several drills, scalpels and saws descended from the ceiling on mechanical arms. Gates' remaining eye shot open wide in his panic. "Once I remove the unessential components of course."

"That would be you by the way." Crunch told Gates as the alarms on the life monitors bleeped loudly.

"Sucks to be you!" Shifter cackled evilly as the tools descended. Gates let out a blood-curdling cry which resounded throughout the entire complex as the tools began their work.

Back at the Garage, Dr. K had just finished telling the Rangers her story, plunging the room into silence. She couldn't even look at them as they sat in amazement.

"I can't believe any of this." Summer gasped in horror. "I knew that the Government was supposed to have done some reprehensible things, but this?"

"They kidnapped you when you were five?" Flynn asked her. Dr. K just nodded to confirm the detail she had already told them. It all did sound pretty far-fetched, but as Ziggy had already pointed out before, he regularly drove around in a giant green fish, so they were open to just about any concept.

"I had heard about Alphabet Soup before, but like most I always thought it was an urban myth." Colonel Truman told them. "I only realised it was real when I found Dr. K in the wastes. She had walked by herself for miles to try and get to Corinth, but the desert heat finally overcame her. She was unconscious and close to death when I found her. I recognised the insignia on her uniform from the conspiracy theory newsletters."

He began pacing the room, recalling finding her tiny, lifeless form in the wastes before the shields went up.

"I had her taken to a hospital and nursed back to health. Because of her experiences, she had a lot of reasons not to trust many in authority, but she seemed to trust me, and so I helped her get back on her feet." He told them. "She told me about Project Ranger and agreed to set it up as a way to combat Venjix. Over time though, she trusted me with more and more of her past. She finally felt able to tell me about her part in creating Venjix."

"It must have been awful for you." Summer said a little sympathetically. She felt a little tug at her arm from Dillon. She understood that he was still angry about all that happened. As much as he could understand why she had created it, it didn't mean he was completely ready to forgive her for what was happening to him. Summer kept her focus on Dr. K.

"I didn't mean for the virus to spread. I designed it to infect and destroy enemy communications and infrastructure. I knew how aggressive it was and how destructive it could be." She explained. "I needed to upload it to the system before I uploaded the firewall to prevent it spreading beyond the compound."

Colonel Truman put his arm around her as she started to weep.

"They were so desperate to stop me escaping that they stopped me before I could upload the firewall and it spread to the internet." She whimpered. "I only wanted to go outside. Now because of that, I've lost the only two friends I've ever had, and I'm responsible for almost 6 billion deaths. It's haunted me every day since then."

"Dr. K, I'm sorry, I didn't know." Scott said apologetically. "I can't imagine what that must have been like for you."

"I can." Ziggy told him, getting up and making his way towards her. "You long for someone to care for you just for you. It pains you every time you watch anyone else get to go home and spend time with their family, imagining how wonderful it must be to just be normal."

He took her hand gently and smiled at her.

"You're so desperate to get out that you'll do anything just to get it." He concluded. Dr. K smiled at him and nodded.

"Of all of you, I'd never have imagined you and I to be so similar." She commented. "Thank you Ziggy."

"It'll take a while for you all to process this and decide how you want to go on from here." Colonel Truman told them. "That is why I would like you all to go home and spend time with your families. Return here in two days and we'll discuss how things will be from now on. Until then, just spend some time with the ones you love."

Summer got up and took Dillon by the arm, leaving the room. She and Dillon had been intending to do the formal introductions properly anyway. She knew they could get a motel room for Dillon nearby, and it had been a long time since she had spent any real amount of time with them.

Flynn made his way to his Hummer, planning on going home to see his dad at the garage. As he pulled out, Ziggy held up his hand.

"No one's going to be here to take care of Tenaya." He pointed out. "Would you mind if I took her with me?"

"You know, you all have a very interesting concept of what a prisoner is." Colonel Truman grumbled. "Fine."

As they left, Scott looked at his dad, stroking his face awkwardly.

"I guess you wouldn't want me to come home right now." He suggested. "I'll get a motel room."

"I may not be too proud of you right now, but you're my son and I love you." Colonel Truman told him warmly, hugging his son. "I was just going to put the sword on Marcus' memorial. Would you like to come?"

"I'd really like that." He replied. As they turned to leave, Colonel Truman turned back. "There's no reason for you to be here alone Dr. K, would you like to stay with us for a couple of days?"

She looked to Scott, and was a little unsure. Between her feelings for Scott, and the fact she still wasn't sure if he could forgive her, she wasn't certain of the wisdom in accepting the invitation. However, a warm look from the Colonel convinced her. Even if things wouldn't be the same between her and Scott, at least she still had the Colonel to look out for her.

Meanwhile, back at Venjix's compound, Crunch and Shifter came back into the room as the cleaning drones finished cleaning away what was left of Gates' biological tissue.

"So is it finished?" Crunch asked the computer. "Will you finally walk among us your worshipfulness?"

"Behold the generation 13 attack unit." Venjix announced as the claw descended into the floor, pulling out a black and white armoured body. It was a somewhat sleeker and more advanced design than any of his other creations. As it was placed on the floor near the column, a cable connected to the back of its head. Lights flashed as Venjix began the download. The red eye on the column faded and turned dark, and the eyes of the robot lit up as it raised its hands, marvelling at the sensation of having a working body.

"You wanted ultimate power for yourself, and in doing so have gifted me with the ability to create my ultimate weapon." Venjix stated as it thought about Gates. "The end of humanity will soon be at hand."

"Now all we have to do is get inside the dome." General Crunch stated.

"That will only be necessary once the Rangers are destroyed." Venjix announced. "I already have a plan in place to bring them out of the dome. They will come to us."

Fin.

A/N: The end of this story, but I'll start another one to cover future events soon, including the introduction of the latest two Rangers.