Title: Corruption, Absolute

Author: Solarbaby

Disclaimer: All I own is the plot.

Words: 697

Summary: It wasn't that the world ended that really bothered him. It was who caused its fall. Rasey.

Spoilers: None.

Notes: Mostly Jungle Fury but with minor SPD and Time Force as well. Darkish… Not that I really think so, but…

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

Dai Shi had gotten his wish. The world had returned to the way it was before. To the Beast Wars. And they hadn't been able to stop it.

No one was able to predict the future, even if that's where they were born.

It was small things that started. Like Bridge's sudden gape in memories or Jen's missing jewelry that she'd brought back with her. Things started changing then. So when Jen wasn't able to get a reply to one of her somewhat irregular messages to the future it came as cause for concern. Wes worried for his wife and Eric worried for Wes.

But RJ and the other rangers had other things to worry about than people they only knew in passing. Like the sudden disappearance of Casey. They searched for months, panicked before they knew.

Before they saw their tiger, RJ's mate, standing at Dai Shi's side. It had been the lion's ultimate form of revenge against the wolf by stealing his mate, corrupting his spirit and intending to make him his own. He had destroyed Whiger, one of his own generals, and used his power to fill Casey, the dark rinzin power effectively turning him.

It had never even occurred to Dai Shi that Casey's dislike of him would only be intensified by the power. The tiger had always been more powerful that the lion so it hadn't really surprised anyone that Casey had been able to kill him. What had shocked people is the fact that Casey then took Dai Shi's place as the leader of the Phantom Beasts.

Casey had been an effective leader of the rangers and he was just as an effective with the phantom beasts. The tides had slowly turned and by the time the rangers had called in reinforcements, Casey had found many allies himself.

He had come at them sideways. The moves were almost clinical, taking out rangers and former rangers before they could even blink. The older surviving rangers were pained to see the return of both Scorpina and Rito.

The Beast Wars had begun.

Times grew harsh and survivors had scrambled, many coming together in some semblance of a group at what once was the Wind Academy. RJ, himself, was one of the lucky few, having not lost any of his own. Honestly, though, he felt as if Casey had spared them for a reason, maybe some sort of bizarre sentimentality or something more sinister.

He could still feel his mate, at times. This was strangely reassuring to him, knowing that Dai Shi hadn't been successful in that aspect. That some part of Casey was still his. He could feel the tiger call out to his wolf, a pitiful, mournful cry that his own spirit echoed. There were times were others would barely stop him from going to him.

All he wanted was his mate back.

RJ had met with Casey several times since his fall, all by accident (on his part). They would face off, his mate meeting him blow for blow. But that would quickly dissolve into something more.

Punches changed into something softer. A slash to the face would turn into a caress. A meeting of mouths and hands and skin. Clothes disappeared, replaced with hands and teeth. There was no clash for control; there never had been with them. Until finally they're bodies were spent and they set there, just holding on.

Every time Casey would ask the same question. He wanted his mate back as well. For RJ to join him. Not as one of his flunkies or even a general in his army, but as his Consort.

He would never tell the others what really transpired those days. Never to see the bite marks or scratches down his back. RJ was sure that no one would ever see the matching ones that his tiger wore.

And he sure as hell would never tell them just how tempted he was to take that offer, his resolve weakening more and more each time it was given.

So it wasn't really the fact that the world had ended that really bothered RJ. It was the fact that Casey had been its fall.