A/N: Slightly AU. Takes place during “Nothing to Lose.”

“Everything to Lose”—Full Version

“Not you! We haven’t finished our conversation.”

Mack stopped short, shaking his head before turning. He knew he wouldn’t be allowed to get away with the stunt he’d pull, but for the life of him—or lack of it—he didn’t know why.

“Let me guess?” he challenged, knowing instinctively he shouldn’t press, but what the hell? “You want to take away my tracker?”

“No,” Andrew growled, putting out his hand. “I don’t want to. I am. Hand it over.”

“What?” He couldn’t believe this. “You’re not serious.”

Instead of waiting, Andrew simply snatched off the boy’s shoulder and stormed toward the headquarters. “Look, you want to act like an out-of-control teenager, then fine, I’ll act like a domineering parent.”

“But I’m not a teenager!”

“No, you’re right. You’re two. I guess that makes you a toddler.”

Mack stopped for a brief moment, trying to assess the pain he felt and how before giving chase. “What do you want from me? I’m not human, and I never will be. You can’t treat me like one!”

Andrew turned as the elevator opened and cocked a half-smile. “Then how you would you like me to treat you? Like a machine? Like my property?”

“Then what will you do?” Mack argued. “Just reprogram me when I don’t act like you would like?” He rolled up his sleeve and offered his mainframe to Andrew. “Why don’t you do it now? It’ll just save you all this trouble.”

Andrew leaned forward to be within whispering distance of the boy. “You would like that, wouldn’t you? Then it’ll just stop this whole identity crisis you’re going through. You’d know you’re a machine, and that’d be it.”

Mack narrowed his eyes, then averted them. He hated how his creator seemed to know what he thought. Perhaps that was because Hartford programmed these thoughts to begin with.

“But I’m not letting you off that easily, Mack,” Andrew continued, his voice lightening and his back straightening. “Whether you want to believe it or not, you’re a living being with feelings and thoughts and emotions I could never have created. I’m a man, Mack, not a god, so until you get your head on straight, you’re off the team.”

“Why don’t you just straighten it for me?” Mack quipped, but the delivery was dry.

Andrew’s face contorted in an embittered scowl. “What do you think I’m doing? You’ve been trying to commit indirect suicide since—”

“Suicide? I’m a machine!”

“And you can’t expect me to sit here and do anything about it.”

“Do what? I can’t die.”

“Then how can you be living?"

Ouch.

As to the doors to the elevators shut, Mack whirled and punched his fist into the nearest pillar. A small crack worked its way through the base, but Mack ignored it as he shook his hand. Even with super strength, he still felt pain and anger and the like—or at least what he thought they felt like.

It wasn’t fair. Hartford wasn’t being fair. His creator built him—built him!—for his own selfish wants, and so Mack’s entire existence was nothing more than for Hartford’s own pleasure.

Well, he wanted a little selfish pleasure of his own. If there was only one thing in this world that belonged to him—one singular thought—it was his desire to be a ranger. Hartford had even said that he never thought Mack would want to be one, and so, the “machine” hurried to the pole. Once his feet touched the ground and the team, Spencer, and his creator turned, Mack hardened his features.

“I want my tracker.”

“We’ve already been through this,” Hartford explained, then nodded toward the team. “Go.”

“Not without me!” Mack shouted as he stalked forward to be within inches of his creator. “You took everything from me—my life, my identity, everything that makes me…me, or so I thought. But that morpher is the only thing in this world I chose, and you can’t take that away from me. It belongs to me.”

Andrew once more looked at the rangers. “Go.”

“No!”

Will slapped him on the shoulder. “Bro, he’s right.”

Mack shook his head, dread swarming in his stomach. “N—No. Not you, too.”

“Actually, we all took a vote while you and Andrew were talking,” Rose informed, coming forward to take Mack’s hand. “Mack, ever since you’ve found out about your birth, you’ve been—”

“Insane,” Dax offered.

Ronny smacked over the top of the head.

“Though I was going for ‘reckless,’” Rose sighed, “Dax is right. You think you’re expendable, and you’re not. And we’re not going to let you be.”

Mack let out a incredulous chuckle. “B—But I am! I’m a robot! A machine! So what if you lose me? Mr. Hartford can just make another one. A Mack Version Two or Three or Eighteen.”

Tyzonn shook his head. “And that is why we voted not to have you come.”
“B—But…”

The team started to back away, grabbing their gear to head to Egypt, and as Ronny sent him one last sympathetic gaze, Mack whirled toward Andrew. “This is all your fault! You created me, and yet you don’t want to take responsibility! You don’t want me to live or—or—”

“Master Mack, please, we’re simply worried about you,” Spencer came forward and gently lead Mack toward the stairs. “Come now. Let’s see if I can find some of my famous cupcakes.”

Mack broke away from the butler to whirl toward Hartford. “Tell me one thing, will you? My name? Was that some kind of sick joke?”

The silence unhinged Mack, and he almost thought he wouldn’t receive an answer when Andrew, facing the console, dropped his head. “I named you ‘Mackenzie,’ after your grandfather. You named yourself “Mack.’ ”

*^*^*

“Drew! Drew!”

The insistent knocking and screeching brought Spencer to the door, his last nerve sliced and readying him for an attack. However, when he opened the door, he blinked at the sight of Jessica Jeffries, her face distraught and her bag bursting with files and papers.

“Spencer, thank God! Where’s Drew?”

“D—Downstairs, Ms. Jeffries. May I ask—”

“No, there isn’t time,” she bristled into the house and whirled on her heel. “Perhaps a more important question is: Where’s Mackenzie?”

*^*^*

Mack abstained from Spencer’s cupcakes, knowing somewhere his team was looking for an artifact and possibly was in danger, and here he ambled in downtown San Angles, praying for a miracle.

Instead, he got a hand to the shoulder. “You wouldn’t happen to be Mackenzie Hartford, would you?”

Mack turned to see the elderly man’s face, then the man’s uniform—that of a military general. The man faked a smile better than Mack could have done at the moment, and he held out his hand for Mack to take.

“Son of Andrew Hartford, correct?”

Mack took the hand and nodded, not sure how to answer these questions anymore. The only reason he kept from spurting how his supposed father was actually his creator, was Spencer, who explained to him a little after the revelation that telling people he was a functioning android might get him in a chop shop. The thought shook him to the core, and he forced a smile.

“Yeah, I guess you can call me that, but I’m not in the mood to sign an auto—”

“Oh, no. You’re mistaken.”

*^*^*

Andrew blinked and pushed off the console. “What!”

Jessica sighed and slammed her bag onto his work table. With Spencer’s help, she spread out the information. “He came to me and asked me to do an investigative report on your son. I told him no at first, but then he said he would go to another reporter.”

“So you did a story on my son for no other reason than for your own fame?” Andrew scoffed and grabbed her arm. “You’re not the same person I knew in college. Get out.”

“You’re talking to me, right?” She waved a paper in front of his face. “I took it because I knew there was something wrong with your kid.”

His anger immediately melted to fear. “W—What are you talking about?”

Jessica let out an aggravated exhale and ruffled her hair. “I’m not stupid, Drew. I remember you from college, and you were never hot and heavy with anyone. That boy has to be seventeen, eighteen at a stretch.”

“Seventeen,” he confirmed with a nod. His son was the youngest of the rangers, and it was partly why he abhorred the whole affair. Of course, the whole “putting-his-son-in-death’s-grasp” ruled out his age on the parental priority meter.

“You’re only forty-two. That would have made you twenty-five. We were going for our masters during that time, and I know you didn’t have a child. You hardly looked up from your research to even have a chance at conceiving one, let alone getting married and…” Jessica swallowed hard. “I wanted to make sure that if I found out what I thought I would, I could lie and say I hadn’t. But I prayed I wouldn’t, Drew. I prayed, and…”

“No birth certificate,” he supplied for her.

“No certificate. No school records. No social security number. Not even a library card.”

“I can buy my kid any book he wants.”

“That’s not the point, Drew, and you know it.” Jessica grabbed his hand and squeezed tightly. “What is he? And please do not tell you grew him in a test tube.”

“I wish.” Drew leaned back against the console and patted the machine behind him. “He’s an android.”

“You’re brilliant but not brilliant enough to create that boy so lifelike. My guess, it wasn’t the Sentinel Knight, not if Flurious knew how to interface a virus into that boy so easily.”

“How did you—”

“I’m a damn good reporter, Mr. Hartford, and my instincts are telling me you made a trade, didn’t you? I know you always wanted a child, and Flurious agreed to help you as long as you got him the Coronoa.”

Andrew’s eyes drifted shut. “What do you want from me, Jessica?”

“To make that kid legit for one thing,” she smirked. “After all, it wasn’t hard to find out Andrew Hartford never had a child, and I can only imagine what the military would do if they had heard about your little soldier.”

“And the second?” he asked, daring to raise his eyes.

“The man who came to me wanted to make sure he was right about the boy,” Jessica said, looking back at console. “I think he wanted to make sure he wouldn’t be kidnapping anything less than the most miraculous machine in the cosmos and a surefire way to get the jewels.”

“Which means?” he pressed.

Jessica met him squarely. “Do you think Flurious can change his appearance?”

*^*^*

Mack hardly felt the intense heat of the coldest ice racing through his circuits before his knees gave out, shocks still rolling up his spine. He tried to focus through the cloudiness weighing down in his head, but the only thing he recognized was the malicious hand twisting his wrist and holding him lower than the supposed man before him.

“That’s where you belong, Hartford,” the man laughed, which quickly became a cackling with maniac glee as his body shifted to white and blue.

Mack didn’t need to raise his head to know who towered over him, who held him captive. Yet, the being touched his chin and manually raised his head.

“After all, Mr. Hartford,” Flurious affirmed, “you are nothing more than a thing, my property actually, and since Andrew Hartford has not delivered the jewels, I guess I’ll just have to repossess you.”

*^*^*

“Still nothing, Spencer?” Andrew asked for the eightieth time, his eyes bloodshot from staring at the screen, his heart demoralized from the lack of miracles, his mind clouded from exhaustion.

But he would not give up and neither would Spencer.

“Not yet, sir, but don’t lose faith. Master Mack is stronger than both of us.”

Andrew snorted. “Yes, but he’s still fallible.”

Spencer sat up straighter. “I was not talking physically, sir.”

No, of course not, and like most times, Spencer was right. Mack was more than Andrew could have dreamed of—stronger, wiser, more loving…perfect. Then again, Andrew thought most fathers felt like that about their sons.

The door to the elevator whooshed open, and in came the power rangers, utterly devastated, their faces worn by more than exhaustion. Andrew knew better than to ask by their demeanor, but he couldn’t help it. “Anything?”

Ronny shook her head. “Sorry, Mr. Hartford. It’s like he disappeared off the planet.”

Andrew hoped that wasn’t the case.

“Why don’t you five go upstairs and rest?” Spencer urged. “There are some cupcakes I made for Master Mack on the pool table. When we find something, we’ll call.”

When, Andrew noted. Not if.

Rose fought back a yawn and came to stand on Andrew’s left. “I’ll stay and help. There must be something on Mack to track, even if it’s not his tracker.”

“That would have been smart, but I never thought…well, I should have,” he amended and patted her shoulder. “Go, Rose. I’m fine. Really,” and by the look on her face, he knew he didn’t lie well.

*^*^*

Will flopped back on the couch and bit into his cupcake. “I still can’t believe it.”

“Dude, I know,” Dax interjected, bouncing to sit across from Will and Ronny, “How no one totally didn’t see all this before is crazy. I mean, hello. Mr. Hartford? Rich guy with tons of money to spend and no one knows he has a kid. Then we pop up and then suddenly, introducing kid?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Will growled and threw his wrapper at Dax. “Mack being a robot? All right. I can deal with that. But being built from parts given to Mr. Hartford by Flurious? It’s just crazy.”

“It doesn’t fit. Mack’s so…innocent,” Ronny replied, taking a seat by his head. “So optimistic, and yet, he’s practically Flurious’s son, too.”

“Kinda like Superboy,” Dax gasped. “Half ultimate evil, half ultimate good.”

“And just what happens to this Superboy?” Tyzonn asked, perched on the couch’s arm.

Dax rubbed his elbow and muttered, “He, kinda, sacrifices himself for the planet.”

“Well, we’re not going to let that happen,” Will affirmed, righting himself in his seat. “We’re going to find Mack, drag him back here, and teach him where he belongs.”

Pacing in between the pillars, Rose shook her head and bit her thumbnail. “You hit on something, guys. This whole scenario doesn’t add up. Mr. Hartford wanted a son so badly he went to Flurious for Mack’s parts. How would he even know that Flurious would have the right parts?” Pausing for a moment, Rose turned toward the group. “And this is going to sound even more crazy, but…I think Dax is right.”

“Sweet!” the blue ranger cheered, then curled his eyebrows together. “Um, about what?”

“Well, why didn’t anyone notice Mack before all this began? I mean, Mr. Hartford reveres Mack as his son. Wouldn’t Mack have lived in society? Gone to movies? Did something with Mr. Hartford?”

“Dad didn’t let me out of the house.”

The team whirled toward the voice, elation in their eyes.

Sure enough, in the doorway stood a smirking Mack, his hands upon his hips, his eyes slightly darker than usual. He looked appropriately normal, dressed in his ranger training uniform, his arms crossed over his chest. Shrugging, he came forward.

“Anytime I wanted to see a movie or something, Dad always brought the movie home. I guess I didn’t know any better and thought that was normal.”

“Mack!” Rose shrieked and dove into his arms, holding him close when he wanted to pull away. “You scared us!”

The team followed less than a second later, engulfing him with hugs and embraces.

“Yeah, bro—” Will knocked knuckles. “—where have you been?”

Mack smiled sheepishly. “I just went for a walk, which became a marathon. Man, I never knew I had such an energy source, y’know? It just keeps me going and going and going…Ow!” He rubbed his shoulder and glared at Ronny. “What’d you do that for?”

“Because you were being a jerk! We came all the way back from Egypt when you went missing. We thought something happened to you, and all this time you just went for a walk? Dax is right. This whole situation is just crazy!”

“I needed to clear my head, get some things into perspective.” He shook his head and looked at the team. “Is my dad around? I think we have some things to talk about.”

“Of course he’s around,” Dax bounced behind the pack. “Where’d you think he’d go, man? On vay-cay or something?”

“Riiiight. Chalk it up to one of the many things I’ve done out of character lately. Bad programming, I guess.” He saluted the team, then headed to the poles. As he passed the couches, he waved to Tyzonn, then disappeared down into the headquarters.

“Hey, why didn’t you come say hi?” Rose asked the Mercurian. “Mack’s okay now.”

Tyzonn looked at the pole, then back at her. “If only he was.”

*^*^*

When Mack’s boots hit the ground, neither Hartford nor Spencer turned. He wasn’t surprised to see them hunched over different computers, searching frantically for his whereabouts. He didn’t have his tracker on because his creator had taken it, and apparently, Hartford hadn’t put any tracers in his circuits.

Maybe they didn’t want him after all.

As he became to circumnavigate the globe, he cleared his throat. “Y’know—”

That turned them.

“The guys were talking about how sheltered a life I had, and it made me realize just how right they were.”

“Mack!” Andrew’s tensed face washed with relief as he pitched forward to grab his son in a tight embrace. Only after he held Mack for several moments, running a hand through the teen’s curly hair, did he pull away and pat the boy down for potential injuries. Spencer stood to the side, a jovial grin forming on his lips. “Are you okay? Were you hurt? Did Flurious—”

Mack never blinked. “You never let me go out by myself, did you? I went with Spencer places and stuff, but I didn’t have one friend until the other rangers came.”

“Master Mack, that is not important now,” Spencer pleaded as he came forward to place a hand on the boy’s shoulder and draw him into his own embrace. “It is so good to have you home, sir. This is stuffy place is not the same without your cheery face.”

“Really? Because I’ve actually only been here for two years, so it’s been pretty stuffy for a while. Think about opening a window, old bean?”

“Is that why you stayed out all this time?” Andrew accused after a moment of silence. His eyes ricocheted about Mack’s, as if looking for some sort of recognition. “You were trying to worry me?”

Mack narrowed his eyes and walked backwards toward the glass encasements on the back wall, where they kept their zoid parts. “The first time the other rangers came, were you trying to push me out of the room because I was a robot and might malfunction or something, or did you really not want me involved?”

Andrew’s eyes became slits, and father and son mirrored each other in their anger. “If you really want to know the truth—”

“No,” Mack spat, “I want to be lied to like I was the first two years of my existence.”

“Fine, then. I’ll take that as sarcasm. It was a mixture of both.”

“HA!” Mack grabbed his chest, unnerved at the feeling of ache. God, what was that, and why did it hurt so badly? Machines don’t have feelings. They don’t. “So even back then, you were trying to hide me from everyone, keep me for your own personal little servant boy.”

“No, I was afraid if the others found you out to be a robot, it might get out, and there was one very special person I wanted to keep you from.”

Mack’s smirk edged to malevolence, and he slammed his fist through the glass. “Flurious, right?”

As he grabbed the crystals, Mack actually saw the pieces of the puzzle click into place on Andrew’s face. At first, his creator realized that he had, in fact, been accosted by Flurious, and he dashed to the computer console to entrap Mack in a force field—only he never made it. Mack leapt upward, kicking off the wall and tackling his creator before Andrew came close to achieving his goal. He felt Spencer coming behind him—with what as a weapon, Mack didn’t know—and the android simply backhanded the older man across the face.

A pang of guilt surged through him, but he ignored it. So what? They didn’t care about him. They wanted to use him. They already tricked him into playing their little charade of family, and now he wanted out.

His smirk only grew as he closed a hand about Andrew’s throat, watching as the older man clawed at his metal hand.

“Stop struggling,” Mack laughed, pushing down with all his weight on Hartford’s stomach to hold the man on the ground. “It’ll go quicker.”

“Mack! Stop!” A force slammed into his shoulder, sending him tumbling off of Andrew and slamming into the computer console. After a brief shake of his head, Mack looked up to see Ronny and Dax dragging an unconscious Spencer away, while Rose knelt by Hartford. Tyronn and Will stood ready to fight, protecting the others.

“Our friend, this is not you,” Tyronn eased. “Whatever Flurious has done—”

“He’s done nothing but shown me the truth.” Grabbing the console, Mack pulled himself up to his feet and leveled a cocky smirk. “I’ve been nothing more than a slave my life, and I’m ready to be liberated.”

“No. You’re not a slave, Mack.” Will took a tentative step forward, reaching out his hand. “You’re my bro, Mr. Hartford’s son, and our friend.”

Mack snorted. “See, that’s the problem with being an android and not a human.” He snatched Will’s wrist, then threw the black ranger over his head. “I can be reprogrammed.”

When Tyronn kicked, Mack ducked the attack, then threw all his weight behind a thrust to toss the Mercurian into the console next to Will, spraying sparks about the small confinement. Unlike a human, he saw Ronny as she rushed to grab him, and he simply stepped out of the way to let her fall next to the two. Rose, invisible to the naked eye, he could feel, and when Dax jumped to grab him, he ducked to allow the blue ranger to snatch pink, eliminating them from the fight—or so he thought.

When he turned his back, they attacked him all at once, and he couldn’t say he hadn’t completely ruled it out. However, as an android, he had superior reflexes, kicking Rose, elbowing Dax, throwing Ronny into Tyronn, and then smirking as Will stood ready to attack him by himself. The slightly older man was undoubtedly his best friend, having been the one to tell him to stop putting his life on the line, to still call each other bros, to fight beside one another.

And yet, here they stood—adversaries.

Something tugged at his heart. No, ignore it. He’d been given a directive, and he’d see it through.

A kick, a punch, two smacks to the head, and Will spun in mid-air and slammed hard into the globe, unhitching it from its holder and sending it sprawling into the room.

“Mr. Hartford! Isn’t there anything we can do?” Rose shrilled as Mack crossed the room to pluck his tracker from his creator’s holder on the sparking computer console.

“I believe this is mine.”

Out of the corner of his eyes, Mack watched his creator open a draw by the zoid cases, saw the man snatch a black, pen-looking object out of the drawer, saw him raise it. He couldn’t say he wasn’t surprised Andrew had created a false safe, just in case Mack went crazy and attacked others. After all, isn’t that what a tranquilizer was for? Except Mack knew the truth. This wasn’t a tranquilizer or taser. It was a destroyer, to put him out of commission forever.

Yet, his creator took it in his hands and snapped it in half. Mack turned as the pen-looking object slipped through Hartford’s fingers and clinked to the floor. His creator’s hair was in a state of disarray, but his face marred the android, contorted with emotional turmoil and tear tracks.

Andrew shook his head, and a warm, loving smile crossed his features. “You are the greatest thing I ever did.”

Not the greatest person. Not the greatest son. The greatest thing. A machine, never to be seen or loved as any different.

Mack grabbed his tracker and ran it down his arm. “Overdrive, accelerate!” By the time the light faded, Red Ranger held a blaster in his hand, aimed directly at Andrew’s forehead.

And it stayed there.

And stayed.

And stayed.

Mack’s breathing slowly started to increase, and he simply glared at his creator, as Andrew glared back. He tried to pull away from those eyes, not to see the tears, not to the likeness of them in his own. He was created, not born. There was no way they looked the same—but every time he glanced in the mirror, he saw those eyes—those exact same eyes.

And the pain flickering across them couldn’t be faked, and neither could the tears. The man was grief-stricken, and in his captivity, Mack felt a wetness trickle down his own cheeks.

The whole situation felt wrong. He hated Hartford, hated him for what he did, hated him for taking away his life, for giving him a glance at what humanity looked and felt like and then ripping it away.

But he didn’t hate Hartford for creating him.

An explosive energy burst behind Mack, and a chill so cold it felt hot washed over him. Without turning, the teenage android knew Flurious stood behind him, a hearty laughter echoing from the depths of his malevolent soul.

Apparently, someone knew how to put a tracer on him.

“Do it, my red ranger,” the monster coaxed. “Finally make your creator pay for what he did to you.”

A pain surged through his body, causing the blaster to shake.

“Mack, no!” Ronny screamed, trying to run to his aid but being held by Tyzonn. “This isn’t you.”

“I gave you an order, my slave.”

Andrew’s eyes never wavered as he glared at Mack, though they spiked suddenly with something—anger? Hatred?

“He’s not your slave,” his creator growled. “He’s my son.”

“No, he’s not. He’s a machine, and all machines obey their commanders,” Flurious disputed, putting a hand upon Mack’s shoulder. “You have no will other than your master’s, so shoot him!”

“Mack! Please! Don’t do this!” Rose, he heard.

A pain greater than he’d ever felt before ravaged his body, as Mack continued to hold his finger on the trigger and not depress. He fought against the urge Flurious directed, fought against his own body to stop, but his resistance waned as his fears weighed down heavily upon his soul.

He didn’t hate; that was what Flurious did to him, forced him to fight his friends. And he didn’t hate his creator, either. He was hurt.

“W—Why?” Mack managed to mutter. In a blast of power, his suit crumbled from his body, letting father see the tears coursing the boy’s face, true and heart-wrenching. “Why didn’t you ever take me with you on your adventures? Was it because I’m a machine?”

“Mack—”

“And my tracker! This is my tracker! Was I not good enough as the red ranger? Maybe you didn’t want to lose your precious research? Maybe you didn’t want to go through all the hassle of rebuilding another me? Why—”

“Son—”

“Why didn’t you just—”

“Mackenzie Hartford!” Andrew shouted, using the stern tone he’d always used when reprimanding his son, and like always, Mack shut up. “Whether you want to realize it or not, you are my son,” Andrew persisted without hesitation, reaching up to wipe the tears from his son’s cheek with his thumb. “And everything in this house, every one of those damn jewels—they’re nothing compared to you, kiddo. You’re everything to me.”

Before Mack could breathe, the gun dropped from his numb hands, and the pain paralyzed his body. As he let out a shriek, convulsions overtook his body, and he felt his father’s trembling arm wrap about his body.

“It’s okay,” Andrew whispered, pushing his hair out of his eyes, but a hard hand fisted in the back of his uniform and tugged him by the scruff of his neck out of his father’s comforting hold.

“Well, isn’t this touching?” Flurious laughed, holding Mack out in his hand like a cut of beef. The teen trembled under the waves of pain crashing through his body but still managed to feel the sadistic fingernail that scrapped down his face. He tried to squirm out of the hold, but Flurious was too strong, pulling him back within touching distance. “Creator and fake son connect once more. Apparently there must be a glitch in programming. No matter. I can reprogram you, and with these jewels—” He shook Mack to make sure they were on him “—I can finally destroy—ah!”

The hand holding Mack unclasped, and the teen found himself tugged away once more, this time by a familiar embrace.

“Master Mack is home, you filthy beast, and you cannot take him from us again,” Spencer declared, a blaster smoking in his other hand.

Mack grinned up at Spencer, who wrapped the boy’s arm about his neck to hold him on his feet. “Hey, Spence. Miss me?”

Spencer smiled. “Only the lack of dirty dishes in the sink, young sir.”

A braying laugh cut threw the warm embrace as another surge of pain tensed Mack against Spencer, and Flurious whirled toward Andrew and the rangers. “You were wrong to double cross me, Hartford, and now, your precious toy will pay. He is nothing but a machine, and thus, I delivered a virus to him again. This time, it was to be released into his system if he disobeyed me.” Flurious howled with laughter. “You have less than an hour to free it. After that, the damage will be too great for even you to repair him.”

With one laugh chortle, the monster disappeared in a fury of snowflakes.

His present was received, though, as Mack cringed and another surge of pain coursed through his body. The convulsions were so violent that Spencer lost grip, and Mack only avoided the floor by his father’s arm wrapped around his back.

“Will, Ronny, get one of those chairs cleaned! Rose, ready the hook up!” he ordered.

Mack heaved in painful breath after painful breath as he barely remained on his feet, and he winced at the blaring alarm piercing his hearing. Through his squinted eyes, he saw Dax approach the computer and hit whatever buttons remained.

“Negative energy in downtown San Angeles,” he informed quickly. “So, uh…what do we do?”

Mack hissed as Spencer and Andrew laid him down on the chair, and Andrew whirled. “Go! We’ve got Mack!”

Rose shook her head. “No, Mr. Hartford. I’ll stay and—”

With whatever strength he had left, Mack seized her wrist and pulled her close. “No…go with them,” he wheezed.

She simply smiled. “Mack, I thought we already explained this. You’re not expendable.”

“I know—finally,” he added with his own cocky grin, “but…I’m really close to losing all my dignity, and I really don’t want you to see me that.”

If he died, he really didn’t want his friends to see him wither away. It was bad enough his father and Spencer would, but at least they were his parents. He needed them to be there, to be able to handle it.

Rose seemed to understand and turned toward the group. “Ready, guys?”

Will shook his head and manually lifted Mack’s hand to punch fists. “We’ll be back, all right? You better be here when we do, or else I’m totally asking Mr. Hartford to turn you into a garbage can.”

Mack smirked. “Duly noted.”

The rangers hesitated for only a moment before hurrying into the elevator, leaving Mack alone with his father and his Spencer. Mack let his strong front drop as soon as the doors shut, writhing in pain and screwing his eyes shut. After his father plugged him into the main computer and began to assess the virus, Andrew’s soft hand graced his forehead, while other squeezed his.

“Mack? Can you hear me?”

Mack groaned the best he could and opened his eyes just enough to see the tears reflecting on Andrew’s face. “I’m going to have to shut you down, okay? It’ll only be temporary, but the virus is moving too quickly. I—I won’t be able to contain it in time.”

“But sir, doesn’t that mean—”

A sharp look from Andrew shut up Spencer, but the point got across.

“What aren’t… you telling me…Dad?”

The word, slipped so nonchalantly, spurted more tears down Andrew’s face, and he ran a tender hand through his son’s hair. “Mack, the temporary shut down might erase your memory. You have a hard drive, but—You know you’re not a machine completely, but you’re not quite human, either. I don’t know exactly what it will—”

“Then shut up…” Mack interrupted, hissing as he fought to remain conscious. “…and work.”

“But—”

“Dad…” he murmured, squeezing his father’s hand as hard as he could without breaking it. “It won’t be me if…”

“But it will be you, just not with your memories——”

A loving smile parted Mack’s lips as he looked up at his father. “Dad, please…I want them…They’re who I am.”

He fought to keep his eyes open and piercing his father’s soul. He knew what Andrew debated—He would still be himself, not a Version 2.0, if his father shut him down now, but he would lose everything that made him—him. So, risk losing him or risk losing him?

Andrew shot forward, grasping his son behind his neck and pressing his lips into Mack’s forehead. “I love you, kid.”

The pain raged, but if only for that instant, it didn’t matter.

*^*^*

“Hey guys…” he murmured as he saw the black silhouettes filed into the room. He barely could raise his eyes, his energy drained from all his screaming and squirming as his father combated the virus. Andrew apologized for not creating a program to lessen the pain and set to work on it immediately after declaring the virus gone, but the damage had been done. Mack was exhausted, his energy spent. He would need a recharge, which would take time and a good amount of rest.

The rangers huddled around the bed where he lay, his jacket off, his black shirt slicked with sweat against his skin.

“Hey, bro.” Will offered his fist, and when Mack struggled to return it, he lowered his to hit. “What’s this? Lying around when there’s a world to save?”

“Hey, speedy recovery, Mack,” Ronny urged, to which he let out a little laugh, which became a cough.

“So, what’d Mr. Hartford do?” Rose asked, playing with the curls flopped on his forehead. “Recalibrate your hard drive to locate the virus, isolate it in a part of your body, then erase the memory associated with that one circuit?”

Mack smirked. “Uh, Rose? I might be a machine, but it doesn’t mean I understand every single working part of my body.”

“Right.” She cringed. “Sorry.”

“It is okay,” Tyzonn eased, laying a hand on her shoulder and smacking Mack’s. “It is good to have you back.”

Blushing, Mack kept Tyzonn’s attention and nodded once. “Thanks for realizing I wasn’t me. If you would have come any later, I might have…”

“You wouldn’t have, dude,” Dax said with a flippant wave.

“Y—You don’t know that…”

“Sure, we do,” Rose affirmed with a wink. “You’re you.”

“But.” He couldn’t hold her gaze and looked away shamefully. “I almost killed you guys today.”

“Almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, nuclear weapons, and farts.” Dax smiled, then met all the glares at him. “What? It’s true.”

“I think what Dax is trying to say—” Ronny fought the urge to slap the boy across the back of the head to grab Mack’s cheek and turn his eyes to meet hers. “—you’re our friend, and even if you can be programmed differently or whatnot, you’re always be our friend. Mackenzie Hartford.”

He bit his bottom lip, seeing the truth within their eyes, the trust they held of him, and he couldn’t help but grin in return. “Mack, please. My father must have been on crack to name me after his dad.”

“And you must be a parent’s dream,” Will replied. “Despite the occasional identity crisis, can you get high or drunk or anything like that?”

“I don’t know.” Mack grinned mischievously with a furled eyebrow. “Wanna find out?”

“No, I believe we do not want to find out,” Spencer decreed as he came down the stairs and glared particularly harshly at Will but saved his most incensed glare for Mack. “Young sir, might I remind you that your father is a scientist and wanted you to be ‘like any other kid.’ If you can feel pain, then I’m sure you can feel other things as well. Therefore, I suggest if you do not wish to be confined to his house again, you will nothing of the sort.” He narrowed his eyes at the others. “And that goes for the rest of you. Now, out. Shoo. The master needs his rest.”

Tyzonn jumped at the towel hitting his back, and Mack couldn’t help but laugh. The others sent him fleeing calls for a swift recovery, but when they were gone, he knew one person remained, his wounds more emotional than physical, though a lively bruise colored his face.

“Spencer?”

The man seemed to jump, believing Mack didn’t know him to still be there. “Yes, young sir?”

“I’m sorry…for what I did before.”

A hand combed through his hair, and if he didn’t know better, he thought he heard his more-than-a-butler sniffle. “Think nothing of it, sir, though I have already asked your father for better medical insurance.”

*^*^*

“Are you sure about this?” Andrew asked as Mack stepped into the doorway of his father’s room. Andrew sat on his bed in his silk pajamas, a book on his lap and reading glasses in his left hand. In the other, he held his cordless phone. When he noticed Mack in the doorway, he waved his son inside with a brightened smile.

In flannel pants and a sweatshirt, Mack obeyed, coming to sit on the edge of his father’s bed and crossing his legs. He grabbed a pillow and wrapped his arms about it as Andrew finished his conversation.

“Well, you have to understand what this means….You’ll have to come around here more often, and once it hits the papers—but you’re a reporter. The scandal will be—oh, I know, but…” He shook his head and closed his eyes, relief swelling his gaze. “You don’t know how much this means to me. Really. You might have just saved his life…Yeah, he’s right here, actually. I’ll tell him…Thanks.” He clicked off his phone and put on the bed. “Well, that was Jessica.”

Mack sent his father a bewildered look. “So?”

“She came around earlier, actually. Told me she’d done some research on you and found out you weren’t exactly legitimate in the legal records. No birth certificate, no school records…the like. I just wanted to make sure no one caught on and decided to use you as a science fair project.”

Mack let a little smile creep onto his lips. “So why call Jessica?”

“Well.” His father took a deep breath and looked directly into his son’s eyes. “She’s going to be put on your birth certificate as your mother. She’s coming out with the story on Monday.”

“What!” Mack blinked. “Story? For what?”

“Apparently, she’s been fielding questions from certain people about how billionaire Andrew Hartford kept a child sequestered all these years. We need to answer them finally.” Leaning forward, Andrew patted his son’s leg. “So, what brings you here? Is everything okay? Did the virus—”

“I’m still tired, and Spencer said my systems are still working on recharging, but…” Mack focused upon his pillow.

“I’m going to work on a program to stop Flurious from taking control of you again, so we won’t have to worry about that. Oh.” Reaching into his draw, Andrew extracted a small medicine bottle and jingled the few pills inside. “These hold a little antivirus I like to call ‘Tylenol.’ They’re like the pills on the market with a few modifications.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Squeezing it a little tighter and seeing his father’s questioning face, Mack finally blurted, “You never really answered any of my questions. Why didn’t you bring me on any of your adventures? Didn’t you want me there? And what about letting me out? And—”

Andrew let out a little sigh, then leaned back against the bed rest. When he patted the bed next to him, Mack obliged, rocking the bed when he plopped onto his butt. “It’s more complicated than I would like.”

“Try me.”

“Okay.” A pregnant pause. “Fear.”

Mack’s face scrunched. “Fear? That’s your complicated answer?”

Andrew took a deep breath, then turned to look his son in the eyes. “Look, Mack, you have to realize that Flurious came to this planet years before I found the crown, three years to be exact. He apparently had been looking for them for centuries, and he dispatched people on every planet imaginable to look for them.”

“Like Tyzonn?”

“Exactly,” Andrew agreed. “He extorted me much like he extorted Tyronn, and I couldn’t escape. When he threatened to kill me, I told him I needed help to find the jewels. I thought if I could get Spencer, together we could find a way out of Flurious’s clutches. Instead, he brought me you.”

Mack clutched the pillow harder. “But I thought you made me.”

“I did,” Andrew said with a small grin and hand on his son’s knee. “Let me rephrase. He brought me the technology. I was lonely, and I thought if I was going to die, there was something I always wanted.” He ruffled his son’s curly hair. “It was selfish. I know, but…I never thought you were ever be what you became. I didn’t even program you to be my son, and you just came to life and said, ‘Dad.’ I…and then when Flurious saw you, how much you looked human, he said he could use you to take over the planet, plant androids among us to destroy the human race if it resisted his will. He told me to create a failsafe in your circuitry and then hand you over to him.” Tears formed in his eyes, and he didn’t even attempt to wipe them. “And then you said three words I’ll never forget: ‘Dad, I’m scared.’ I knew, at that moment, we had to escape. I was your father, and it’s my job to protect you. I never want you to be scared or sad or hurt, and if you are…and he would destroy you, and I couldn’t let him. You’re my son…”

As his father’s shoulders shook, Mack snorted. “How very Iron Man of you.”

Andrew retorted with a smack across the back of the head.

His amused demeanor faded, and he squirmed as he thought of the pen his father had broken. “But you still built a failsafe…right?”

“Is that what you thought that was?” Andrew laughed, some of his tears leaving his voice. “No, son. That was just a taser, and I wanted to stop you before you did something you’d regret. I just…I couldn’t use it. I was afraid that it might do something to your nerves, and I won’t risk you—ever. Even with Flurious, I made a deal. If he let me go with you, I’d get him the crown.”

“And that’s why you didn’t take me with you on those missions.”

“Yeah. I was afraid Flrurious would try to steal you again, and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you. Call it selfish want. Call it fatherly love, but…”

Mack sniffled and pulled his legs to his chest. “And at home, I was completely safe without any—”

“At home, Spencer knew where the headquarters were, so you could hide there if there was ever any problem,” Andrew combated.

“And that’s why you didn’t want me to become a power ranger.”

“And that’s why I didn’t want you to become a power ranger.”

Mack let out a loud exhale. “Then this whole quest for jewels, creating the power rangers—”

“I only met the Sentinel Knight a little over a year ago, Mack,” Andrew revealed, “and at first, I didn’t care. I gave the power to the rangers for no other reason than finding the crown and jewels and handing them to Flurious.”

“So, you were willing to give the greatest treasure the universe has ever known to its worst threat….for me?”

Andrew allowed a smile to grace his face. “…Yeah.”

Mack sprung up and tugged away from his father’s warm embrace. “But Dad—”

“But by putting you in harm’s way, by allowing you to be a ranger, I knew you were never going to allow that. So, the only choice we have now is destroy Flurious and Moltor.” Grabbing his son’s flushed cheeks, so they looked eye-to-eye, Andrew said, “I love you, kid. You are the best thing I ever did, and I can’t lose you. Not again.”

“Thing?” Mack objected.

Before he could move, Andrew engulfed his son in a tight embrace. “I said you were the best thing I ever did, not built. It’s an expression, Mack. Nothing more. Don’t be so sensitive.”

“Hey, you programmed me that way.”

Andrew ruffled the boy’s hair and released him. “That was all you, kid, and if I were going to program you any way, I would have made less prone to dangerous situations. I swear you’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days.”

“Oh, great. Are you trying to make me worry now?” Mack shook his head. “But Dad, I don’t remember Flurious before the mission or—”

“That’s because I erased that part of your memory when we finally made it here. I didn’t want to you to fear or…” Andrew slapped his son on the shoulder and granted him a kiss on the forehead. “Why don’t you head to bed? You’ve had a hard day, and I’m sure tomorrow won’t be any easier.”

As Mack climbed off the bed, stealing his father’s pillow in the process, he realized he wanted more than a token of affection from Andrew. “Dad…?”

Andrew took off his reading glasses to see his son clearly. “Yeah, Mack?”

Fidgeting with a string on the corner of the pillow, the teen asked, “Would it be okay if I slept here tonight? I mean, just in case I have a relapse or something.”

A soft smile curved Andrew’s lips. “Of course, just in case I have to deal with the relapse or something.”

Mack snorted and gathered under the covers, turning off the light on his side of the bed. His father stayed up, reading and tenderly working his way through Mack’s curls. Long they lay there until Mack’s address startled the older man.

“Hey, Dad. What’s with the affinity with red?”

Calming his racing heart, Andrew rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. I like the color.”

“Yeah, but you have, like, no clothes in that color. Why not green?”

“Well—”

He started off the bed. “Or would that make you gangue green?”

“Mack!” his father yelled incredulously.

Mack was already halfway to the door before he spat, “What about orange? Does it make you look pudgy?”

“Mackenzie Hartford!” Andrew screamed as he gave chase with a pillow, but his son dashed into the hall, calling for Rose to hide him.

The End