In the lunar palace, two evil figures watched the twirling world below, and made plots that should never have seen the light of day. But Sophie and Girard cared only for one thing: the spreading of hate, evil, and their vampiric bloodline all over the world. They hated werewolves with the passion only those of long lifespans and longer memories could summon up, and one werewolf had just done something to truly annoy them.
"It's time!" Sophie had never enjoyed being vampiric, having had it forced on her, but this was a complete outrage!
"At last!" Girard gloated, eyes flashing. Rita and Zedd had left them running the castle for a time, while they went on an extended third honeymoon.
Sophie smiled wickedly. "Once she leaves that child alone, we shall take it!"
"I can't wait to see how they whine when they learn we have it!" Girard laughed. This was his most evil plan in centuries!
"They can try to save her, but it will not work!" Sophie snorted her disgust at the werewolf couple of Elissa and Adam.
Girard nodded, he'd grown more and more proud of his wife over the past nine months. Her cruelty had increased to almost his own level. "And we will have it forever!"
"Let us plan for our newest child!" Sophie declared with an evil tilt to her head.
"One that will never turn away from us!" Girard smiled wickedly as they began to plan. They had much to set up.
Elissa smiled as she spooned food into her little daughter's mouth. The past few weeks had been a pure pleasure as she and Adam got used to the presence of the little girl in their lives. "That's a good little girl, yes, you are!" she smiled softly. Her smile vanished almost when Gwen spat the food back at her.
"You are a handful, Gwen!" Adam smiled as Elissa began to clean her up. I almost said pawful there!!
"Adam, can you hold her for a second?" Elissa asked, handing the little girl to her father. Adam looked at her sternly.
"Don't you spit up on me, young lady"! he chuckled a little as Elissa first wiped Gwen off, then herself.
"First day back at school and this is the third time I've had to change!" the werewolf shook her head, then smiled as Adam's mother entered the kitchen.
Mrs. Park waved. "How is my granddaughter?"
"Spitting up on her mother," Adam said dryly. His mom laughed.
"She takes after you!"
Adam blushed a deep red as Elissa chuckled. "So that's why she does that!"
"So, how is everything with you two?" Mrs. Park asked. She looked closely at her daughter-in-law. "You look like you could use some rest!"
Elissa nodded. "I'll get some. Evanthe wants to spend some time with Gwen, so she's going to take her for a couple of hours while I catch up on my sleep."
"She really loves this kid, doesn't she?"
Elissa nodded. "She does."
"Maybe she'll have one of her own someday," Mrs. Park hoped. Probably with Billy. Those two are as tight as Adam and Elissa!
Adam walked out for a moment, then returned with two backpacks. "Yeah, maybe," too bad vampires can't. "Come on, Elissa, we're going to be late if we don't hurry!"
"You two going off somewhere?" his mom looked at the backpacks curiously.
Elissa nodded. "School, my first day back!" she looked to Gwen, smiling sadly. This would be her first time away from her little girl since her birth! "You be a good girl!"
"She'll be just fine!" her mother-in-law promised her. Elissa sighed deeply.
"Was it hard the first time you had to leave Adam?"
Mrs. Park agreed it had been. "But he was just fine, and she will be too!"
"Thanks for watching her today!" Elissa smiled gently as Mrs. Park told her it was no problem. She and Adam left, both a trifle reluctant, even knowing the good care their child was receiving. There was just no easy way to leave a baby for the first time.
Mrs. Park looked at her granddaughter, smiling. She had never really thought to be a grandmother when her oldest son was so young, but things didn't always turn out as one expected them to, she knew. And Gwen was beautiful, to say the least. "Oh, you're a darling," she cooed as the little girl waved her fists back and forth in infantile glee.
"Hello, Mrs. Park!" she jerked up at the surprising sight of two people, a man and woman, standing in front of her. They'd literally appeared out of thin air!
"Who are you?" she asked, frightened. There was something about them. . .
Girard laughed. "Your worst nightmare!" he threw his head back and mocked her, long sharp fangs appearing.
"We don't want to hurt you," Sophie told her. "We just want the child!"
Mrs. Park grabbed Gwen and held her close to her. "No way!"
"So be it, then," Sophie shrugged and clamped down on the woman with a grip of pure steel. "We'll just take you both!"
"Let go of me!" Mrs. Park screamed, not liking this one little bit! Who were this people, why did they want Gwen?
Girard licked his lips, eyes on her neck. "She looks so tasty!" he murmured. In a lightning quick move he pushed her head to side and sank his fangs into her neck, drinking deeply. At the touch of his fangs, she fainted, but was still held in the female vampire's grip.
"Puny human," Sophie shook her head. "Let's go."
"She is beautiful!" Sophie admired the child in her arms, and felt the longing common to all vampires. I wish I could have one of my own. But that is why we have her. I cannot bear one of my own flesh, but THIS child shall serve admirably. Her power only makes it even better!
Mrs. Park glared at them, she'd awakened soon after their arrival in this strange place. "Let us both go!"
"Never!" Sophie hissed out the words. "This child shall grow up to be what it rightfully should be: a child of evil, not of good!"
The grandmother was startled. "What do you mean, rightfully should be?"
"This child's parents," Sophie chuckled. So they didn't tell her. Well. . .I will! "Do you know what they are?"
Mrs. Park nodded fiercely. "My son and daughter-in-law!"
Sophie laughed. "This one is a child of wolves: werewolves to be exact!"
"You're joking!"
The vampire shook her head. "Where do you think your son goes every full moon?" she watched as Mrs. Park thought that over, then went pale and began to shake. "This child should never have been born!" she declared. She was enjoying the look of ultimate shock and fright in the human woman's eyes. "Would you like to hear just how your son became one?" she'd heard the tale from Rita and Zedd, and would enjoy telling it again, especially to the mother of one of the participants! At Mrs. Park's nod, she continued. "You can thank Elissa for that. Remember when he had that injured arm? Elissa was the animal that tore it up!"
"No!" Mrs. Park shook her head harshly. "She wouldn't!" Elissa's so gentle, she wouldn't do anything like that!
"She did," Sophie could feel Girard's eyes on her, and wiggled a little to tease him, then carried on with her story. "She was turned into a wolf, and Adam was there, and she attacked!"
The human began to cry. Sophie's lips curved into a venomous grin. "Your son is a werewolf. A couple of days later, from what I just found out, they mated. I guess you could say it's like marriage, but they can read each other's minds, but that's not the worst of it!"
Mrs. Park looked up at them through her tears. "How can it get worse? My son is a monster!"
Sophie laughed. "They're both Power Rangers!"
"I. . .uh. . .." Mrs. Park couldn't believe her ears!
"I am a vampire," Sophie flashed her fangs. "And so is my husband Girard!" she gestured to the man beside her.
Mrs. Park glared at them both. "I already knew that!" she touched the side of her neck where Girard had drank from her.
"So are two of your son's friends!" Sophie was going to enjoy telling all of Adam and Elissa's secrets to his mother!
"Why are you telling me all of this?" she asked, feeling on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown at all this horrible information.
Girard smiled, and a chill went down her back. "A mother should know the truth about their child, don't you agree?"
"I'm not sure I want to know much more!"
Oh, but the best is saved for last! Girard laughed. "Not even that Evanthe and Billy are vampires?" her jaw dropped, and Girard smiled with evil pleasure. "They're vampires! Billy and Evanthe are vampires!"
"I think we should let all of this information sink into her!" Sophie smiled, putting Gwen into a cradle she'd stolen near Mrs. Park. They had business of their own to attend to, and the human woman would serve to keep the child safe. It wasn't as if they could leave or anything!
Girard nodded and licked his lips, staring at Mrs. Park's exposed neck. "And I think I'd like to snack on her again later!"
Once she was left alone, Mrs. Park went over to Gwen and stared at the little girl, then up to the Earth visible through the balcony. "Adam?" she whispered through torrents of tears. "Why did you lie to me?"
Elissa sighed as she unlocked the door to the apartment and entered. "I can't believe how difficult school was today!"
"That's just because you've been away!" Adam told her. She glanced at him, eyebrow upraised.
"For a whole week!" she went in, calling out, "We're home!" she glanced around as Adam followed her inside, and felt fear filling her suddenly. "Something's wrong. It's too quiet."
"Mom?" Adam called out. Elissa sniffed the air, then growled softly to herself as she ran to the nursery.
"Blood," she muttered to herself as she did so. The coppery scent was strong in the air, too strong!
"Something's very wrong here!" Adam declared as he followed her. Elissa picked up a note in the nursery, and went pale. That was where the blood smell was strongest at.
"I don't even want to know," she whispered, handing the note to Adam.
He read it swiftly, and managed to restrain himself from crumpling it in anger. "Girard and Sophie," he whispered. Elissa took a deep breath.
"Adam, I'm not sure, because to me all blood smells the same, but that could mean. . ..," she didn't finish her sentence. She couldn't.
Adam put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him, gazing into her eyes with his own. "If they've killed her, or worse, I'm going to serve them a stake dinner," he promised.
"Let's get this to the Command Center," Elissa decided. "Maybe Alpha or Evanthe can tell us if that's your mother's or Gwen's blood."
Elissa paced nervously in the Command Center minutes later, waiting for the arrival of her best friend. In flashes of purple and blue, she and Billy arrived. "What's up?" the older vampire asked. Adam quickly told them what was going on, and Evanthe's eyes darkened with rage. "Let me see the note," as Elissa handed it to her, Evanthe took a deep breath of it. "It's your mother's, Adam," she reported. "It was Girard who bit her, too." I'd know his foul stench anywhere.
"If they hurt her," Adam shivered in anger. Elissa glanced at them both.
"We'll get her back," she said firmly. "We'll bet them both back," she closed her eyes.
Kim glanced at the others. "Got any ideas, anyone?"
"Elissa?" Adam looked at his wife, who seemed to have slipped into some form of trance! The others stared at her in surprise and shock. "What's going on?" he wondered. Evanthe shrugged.
"I do not know!"
A moment later, Elissa opened her eyes and collapsed into Adam's arms, exhausted. "I saw her!" she whispered.
"Where is she?" he wanted to know at once.
"On the moon," Elissa shivered in memory. "It's almost like I saw things through Gwen's eyes! I saw your mother, Adam! She was crying, repeating something over and over!"
"What was it?"
Elissa closed her eyes, thinking hard. "She was asking why you lied!"
Adam frowned. "I've never. . .," he paled suddenly. "Uh-oh," there were only two things he'd ever kept from his parents: his being a werewolf and a Power Ranger.
"I think they told her the truth about us!" Elissa managed to get up to her feet, her weakness having passed. She remembered what Ninjor had told her, that the bond she had formed with her daughter would allow her to see through Gwen's eyes on occasion. That had to have been what she was doing. That would make keeping her safe a lot easier, she realized. "We have to get them both out of there, and soon. We don't have much time until sunset and moonrise," she glanced over to Alpha. "Can you get us up there?"
"I can try!" the little droid promised. Adam looked at the other Rangers.
"The less people to go, the less likely to raise the alarms. Who else is coming?"
Evanthe stepped up. "Me. You'll need someone to keep their attention while you get your mom and Gwen," she knew no one could distract Girard and Sophie like she could, they would never turn down the chance to get her back on their side. Elissa nodded briefly.
"Let's do it!"
"Teleportation ready!" Alpha told them minutes later. Tommy grinned at them all, leader or not, this was a mission he wasn't suited for, and he knew it.
"Good luck guys, and hurry back!" he declared. Evanthe smiled, her own fangs flashing in the Command Center lights.
"They're the ones who are going to need the luck."
Mrs. Park was curled in a corner, crying with Gwen in her arms. "Why did you lie to me, Adam?" she wondered over and over again. "Why?"
"Mom!" Adam stared at her as they arrived in the throne room. She looked up, fear filling her eyes as she saw Adam, ELissa, and Evanthe there. "Mom, we're going to have a long talk, but for now, we're getting out of here!"
"Yes, we are, Black Ranger!" Mrs. Park almost enjoyed the startlement in her son's eyes as she so sweetly told him she knew his secret. She nodded, fear turning to anger suddenly as Elissa took Gwen gently from her. She turned suddenly as Sophie entered, eyes widening to see them all there.
"And where do you think you're going with that child?"
Evanthe leaped in front of her friends, for defense and distraction as she'd promised. "Out of here!" she declared. Sophie gave a curious smile.
"You know," she almost purred. "I wonder what your parents would say if they saw how you turned out."
Evanthe trembled for a second. Her parents had always been a sensitive spot with her. "Leave my parents out of this," she said finally. "They're dead because of you!"
"Are they?" Sophie laughed, eyes glinting. She glanced over to the small family behind Evanthe. "Take the child, for now! I will have her again, soon!" she vanished in a blast of light too swiftly to hear Elissa's muttered, "bitch."
Evanthe was pale and trembling, even for a vampire. Could my parents still be alive? After all this time? After six hundred years? "Evanthe," she glanced up to see Adam standing next to her. "Let's go home. She just said that to get a rise out of you, that's all."
She sighed a little. "Yeah, let's go."
As they appeared in the Command Center, they were greeted by Tommy's shout of, "You got them!"
Adam nodded. "Yeah, we did," he saw his mother looking in surprise around their headquarters and bit his lip as her eyes stopped on him and Elissa. "Mom, we need to talk."
"You can say that again!" she snapped.
"What did they tell you up there, exactly?" he wanted to know. He flinched as she repeated what she'd been told. They hadn't left anything out, even telling her about Evanthe and Billy. Her eyes practically blazed with anger as she looked at them.
"You lied to me and your family!" Mrs. Park almost growled it. Adam had a defense, though.
"I made a promise not to tell anyone I was a Ranger," he told them. "And no one asked me if I was a werewolf!"
His mom raised up his still-scarred arm, and looked to Elissa. "You did this to him?"
Elissa nodded briefly. "It was an accident," she told her husband's mother. "I didn't mean to turn your son into a werewolf."
Mrs. Park almost growled. "I don't think I can believe you, any of you, anymore!" they had all lied about various things, it seemed, and even if it was for a good reason, lies were lies!
"We didn't mean to keep this from you," Elissa tried to explain. "We thought it was for the best that we didn't tell you!"
"Not tell me that my son is a werewolf, and my daughter-in-law is the one who made him into one?"
Elissa's eyes sparkled with tears as she handed Adam their daughter. "You're right. We should have told you. I can't change the fact that we didn't, and that I'm the reason all of this is happening! I'm sorry."
Before anyone could stop her, Elissa had teleported out. Adam turned on his mother, furious. "We should have told you, true, but you didn't have to treat her like that!"
His mother raised her chin firmly. "I think I had every right to say what I felt, and to feel the way that I do!"
"You're forgetting something, Mrs. Park," Evanthe told her.
"What's that?" Mrs. Park could hardly stand to look at this woman, this vampire at all! How could Adam be near her? She drank blood from living people!
"That Adam is still your son, Elissa is still your daughter-in-law, and Gwen is still your granddaughter. They made a mistake, but you're making just as big a one: being angry over something you don't really have the right to be, and if you keep being angry, you're going to lose them, all of them!" Evanthe didn't want that for her best friend.
Mrs. Park practically glared at her. "And just who are you, that gives you the right to tell me how to feel?"
Evanthe walked over to her, and they could somehow feel the age dripping off her, the age, the experiences, the centuries she had lived through. "I am Evanthe Lisa Foster," she spoke her full name with the weight of all she had lived through in it. "I was transformed into a vampire six hundred years ago in a small village on the outskirts of London by Girard and Sophie Dubois when I was sixteen years old. The last time I saw my parents alive I had fought with them. I never had the chance to apologize to them, and that has been a wound in my heart that has never healed. Do you want Adam and Elissa to live their lives, however long those lives are, with an argument being the last time you spoke to them?"
Tommy glanced at his watch, then to Adam. "I think you'd better hurry," he said softly. "It's almost sunset."
Adam nodded, then looked at his mother. "We'll talk about this tomorrow."
Evanthe's eyes were still on Mrs. Park. Once more she asked, "Do you want an argument to be the last words you say to them?"
Adam's mother shook her head. "No it isn't. But don't expect me to lie to my husband and other son about this, either."
Tommy took a deep breath. He'd discussed this with Zordon before they'd returned with the captives. "If they can keep our secret, I think we can accept that."
"Thank you," Mrs. Park nodded as she looked to the other Rangers. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to care for my granddaughter tonight," I don't want this vampire touching her!
Evanthe shook her head. "I promised Adam and Elissa I'd look after her!"
"I think you need some rest, too," Mrs. Park lied. She wasn't going to tell Evanthe to her face she didn't trust her, she might drink her blood or something!
Evanthe glanced to Billy. "We do have to go out tonight," though they had planned on it being a bit later, once Gwen fell asleep. Billy nodded, as Mrs. Park, revolted and not showing it, teleported out. Things just weren't going at all well for her today.
Elissa glanced over to Adam as they returned to their human forms the next morning. He'd caught up with her in the night, and together they had roamed Angel Grove Forest, enjoying the pleasures of being what they were in their fullest. "We need to talk to my parents," he sighed.
"I'm not sure I can, Adam," Elissa told him. "Not after what your mother said."
"We have to," Adam reminded her. "She was going to tell them anyway."
Elissa turned away from him. "What your mother said was the truth! Face it, Adam, I ruined your life!" she started to walk away, only to have Adam catch up with her and gaze into her eyes with those warm ones of his own.
"Elissa, you didn't ruin my life, you fulfilled it!" he told her. She sighed deeply, she didn't ever really want to leave him.
"You wouldn't stop trying to find me, would you?"
"Never."
Elissa sighed again. "I guess I can go talk to her. But I'm not promising that I'm staying."
"If you go, I go," he said simply. She shook her head stubbornly.
"I go, I go alone," she kissed him briefly. "Let's go talk to your parents."
A few minutes later, they were at his parents' house. His dad looked shocked already as he opened the door. "Oh, it's you."
Elissa looked to Adam. "She told them."
Adam nodded. "Looks like it."
"Come on in," Adam's father gestured them in. "We're all in the living room."
As they entered, Elissa glanced briefly from face to face, not able to meet Mrs. Park's eyes. "You told them already, mom?" Adam asked. She nodded.
"I wasn't going to lie to them!"
He looked at everyone. "What do you all think of this?" he had an idea of what his little brother Ian's reaction would be.
"I think it's cool!" the fourteen-year-old declared. He'd always been into werewolf and vampire stories, and finding out his big brother was a Power Ranger was a major high for him! Adam turned to his dad.
"Well?"
Mr. Park took a deep breath. "I'm a little disappointed, but I also don't quite know how to take this. It's not an every day occurrence!"
"I know," Adam nodded. "Both being a Ranger and being a werewolf were kind of shocks to me, but I don't really mind being either."
Elissa?
What?
Are you all right?
His dad continued speaking. "Son, don't expect us to accept this right away, you are going to have to give us time!"
Adam nodded. "I know."
I guess. Elissa mentally shrugged. I don't know.
It's going to be all right.
She hates me, Elissa spoke the plain facts. I can sense it. She also hates Evanthe.
She'll get over it.
I hope so!
She will.
Both of them looked up suddenly as Gwen's familiar cries sounded. "Gwen is here?" Adam asked.
"Your mom wanted to take care of her last night," Mr. Park said. Elissa frowned.
"Evanthe was supposed to watch her last night. I wanted Evanthe to watch her!"
"Susan insisted," Mr. Park told them. Elissa growled softly and went to pick up her daughter. Adam glared at his parents.
"Why?"
"I wanted Gwen to be safe," his mom told him, a trifle unsure of herself now that she had seen them both angry at that.
"She would have been safe with Evanthe!" Adam was absolutely furious now!
Mrs. Park looked disgusted. "Evanthe is a vampire!"
"So?" Adam growled. "I'm a werewolf, don't you trust me around Gwen?"
His mom tried to explain. "You're her father! But Evanthe and Billy drink blood!" Adam practically howled in disgust at that. "Can you really trust her around them?"
"You have no right to say who watches my daughter!" Adam bellowed. "I trust Evanthe with my life, of course I trust her with my daughter!"
Mrs. Park stood up. "I'm not sure if I can trust her with anything!" she had a deep set hatred against vampires; her first experience hadn't been pleasant with them.
Elissa entered, holding Gwen. "Adam, I'm going home." Don't expect me to ever come back to this house, either! She was furious, she'd heard everything that had been said. Adam stood up, eyes blazing.
"It was nice being part of the family!" he stormed out after Elissa. Ian glared at his parents, then ran after them. Elissa, I'm not going back there, ever, I don't believe my mom did that!
I can't ask you to desert your family!
YOU are my family! Adam told her. You and Gwen!
"Guys!" Ian caught up with them, panting. "I don't agree with our parents, believe me!" he was having a hard time deciding which he like better, his brother the werewolf or his brother the Power Ranger!
Adam smiled. "I don't know why they're acting like that!"
"I don't, either," Ian shrugged. "I think it's cool! You guys are my family, and I love you both!"
Elissa, not all of my family are idiots, apparently! Out loud, Adam just said, "Thanks, Ian."
Okay, just one of them isn't. But I'm still not going back!
Neither am I.
Ian sighed. "I wish you guys would talk to them, make them see that they're wrong."
Elissa sat down under a tree, they had reached the park by now. "I wish it were that easy, Ian, I really do!" she declared, tears slipping down her cheeks.
"If they can't trust us and our friends, I don't want anything to do with them," Adam said harshly. He meant it, too.
"Come and visit us, though, Ian, okay?" Elissa asked. Adam nodded his agreement with the invitation. Ian grinned at them.
"You know I will!"
After all, they were family.