Charlie groaned as she got out of bed for the first time since her run-in with the B-squad Blue Ranger, Sky Tate. She shivered as she kept replaying in her head what had gone on that night- and what both Sky and Z had said. But now Z was in prison, trying and failing to prove that Sky had been torturing her as well, to land him in prison alongside her.

They barely saved me. Next time, Sky will make sure her doesn't fail to destroy me.

"Charlie?" a voice echoed from the doorway. Commander Cruger slowly entered the medical room, running to catch her as she slipped. "Are you doing okay?"

She rolled her eyes, but nodded.

Cruger turned her towards him and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Listen to me very carefully. I need to know exactly what went down that night Z attacked you. Was Sky telling the truth when he said that Z had the whole idea to destroy you?"

"Actually..."

Charlie silently cursed as the door opened and the B-squad Pink Ranger, Sydney, popped her head in.

"Excuse me, Commander, but Kat says she needs to talk to you. I can take care of Charlie."

"Okay, but..." Cruger waved a paw at her. "...if you do anything to her, you will be expelled from SPD."

"Yes, sir."

After Anubis Cruger had left, Syd turned to Charlie, looking her up and down, which made her feel a bit uncomfortable. "What happened to you?"

Charlie turned away, her eyes glistening with tears.

"Come on, you can tell me. I'm not against A-squad anymore like everyone else."

She took a deep breath. "It was Sky. He is against A-squad and even though Cruger was giving me a chance of redemption, he wanted to destroy me and he and Z nearly did. Sky blamed Z for all of it; that's why she's in prison." Charlie grimaced as she fell against the side of her bed.

Syd went to help her up and a flash of gratefulness appeared on her face.

"I can't believe I ever looked at him in a good way," the Pink Ranger sighed, shaking her head.

"I need to prove that Sky is the one that can't be trusted," Charlie voiced. "And I can start by getting out of here."

"But first, you might want to get dressed. I can bring you some clothes. Be right back." Sydney slipped out the door and closed it, leaving the other girl alone once again. She sighed, sitting on the bed again.

But suddenly, some kind of unseen force slammed into her, bowling her backwards off the other side of the bed. Charlie gasped as pain rushed through her. She was immediately on high alert. "Who- who did that?"

"Who do you think?" Quick as a wink, Sky was towering over her, his hand pressing against her throat, almost preventing her from breathing, and a knife in his other hand, poised to strike. "You can't escape me." With astonishing speed, he whisked her up to the top floor of SPD, not caring about the agony he was bringing her. Then he slyly opened a trapdoor in the ceiling and pushed her up to the roof.

She instantly knew what the Blue Ranger was doing. He was planning to make her suffer before tossing her off the roof, which, as she looked out across it with a sick feeling growing within her, made her realize it would ultimately kill her. Still, the first attack caught her off guard as Sky pushed her over again and tried to stab his weapon into her throat. She barely avoided the blow and it cut deep into her shoulder. Charlie forced herself not to cry out, but she had not realized that her body was now very sensitive to pain and figured that she wouldn't be as lucky after the next blow.

"Sky, this is ridiculous! You're going too far!" she shouted desperately. "It couldn't have been just the betrayal that made you like this. What really happened that caused you to turn against A-squad like this?"

Those words only seemed to make him angrier. "My father was the A-squad Red Ranger," he spat. "By betraying SPD, you're destroying his whole legacy!" Sky let her go and she slowly stood up, edging away from him, and a small hint of dismay appeared on her face as he followed her, gradually pushing her towards the edge of the roof.

"But that's in the past!" Charlie protested. "I would never try to do anything like that to anyone except criminals now! When Cruger came to my cell to interrogate me, I realized that it had been a mistake to align myself and my team with Gruumm and Broodwing. I told him that and he scanned me to see if I was lying. He soon found out that I wasn't and arranged for our meeting to give me a chance to possibly join B-squad."

"What about your team?"

"They said they'd still want to be on the evil side."

"And you got them into that in the first place. You influenced them to that."

"No, I-"

"SILENCE!"

"You need to listen to me!"

"I said SILENCE!"

"No!"

Sky's knife left his hand and flew toward her, scraping the side of her neck as she attempted to move out of the way. Blood streamed down the sides of her body as she noticed that it had sliced deeper than she'd originally thought. Charlie stumbled precariously on the end of the roof, trying hard not to fall. But as she looked down and then gazed back at Sky, she knew what she had to do.

Charlie gripped the edge, her heart pounding in her chest, as she savored the moment.

And she jumped.

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

"Now, I didn't really know your size, but you might want to try-" Sydney cut off her own sentence as she opened the door to Charlie's hospital room. She was gone.

"Ch- Charlie?" she stammered. "Wh- where a- are you?"

She had to ask one of the others. Bridge had a very good memory; maybe he would know something. But he had just gone out on patrol, although she could catch up to him if she got permission from Cruger. However, she didn't know where he was and she was paranoid that something bad had happened to the former A-squad Red Ranger, so she immediately exited the front door of SPD.

And that's when she saw her.

CHARLIE?!

The injured girl lay sprawled on her side next to one of the outer zone walls of the base, some of her bandages ripped, and many stab wounds on her clearly bleeding. Why had the guards who were supposed to be near her left their post? They could have helped her. Then a suspicious thought crossed her mind. Ever since their betrayal of SPD, almost everyone in the base had hated all the former members of A-squad. Had the guards abandoned their duties to make an excuse as to why Charlie had died and they hadn't seen a thing?

Wait a second... Sydney cautiously walked over to her body, gently kneeling down beside her and feeling her wrist and chest. No, she wasn't dead... yet. But the fall from the SPD base roof was a long way and...

Syd was overwhelmed by the emotions rattling inside her, knowing that she, out of all the people and aliens at Space Patrol Delta, was one of the sole cadets that still cared about what happened to any of the A-squad Rangers who wanted to be good again. Rangers like the one in front of her. She pulled Charlie closer. Her eyes were closed, yet the expression on her face was peaceful. A picture unfolded inside Syd's mind and understanding flowed through her. Both Charlie and Sky had known that a fall off the high roof could kill someone. The two must have fought on that roof and, in order to end her suffering, knowing that she couldn't win a battle against him, Charlie had thrown herself off. But Syd couldn't just let her die. She noticed a large, bloody knife on the ground right beside her. Now she was sure that this was proof of what Sky had forced her to do. However, she knew that she'd need help getting her back to her room, so she radioed Cruger.

"Commander, are you there?" she called. "Please... I need your help... Charlie's been attacked... you need to know the truth!"

Within 10 minutes, the alien dog was out there.

"What happened this time?" he sighed. "Tell me what went down out here."

"Sky attacked her, took her up to the roof to make her battle him, and to end it all, she jumped off the roof." Sydney showed him the knife.

"Are you sure it was Sky?"

"Yes. She told me earlier and I bet if you check the security cameras on the high roof, it'll be proven."

And indeed it was. The camera footage was blank until it ended with the scenes of Sky repeatedly trying to stab Charlie and the horrifying image of her leaping away from him, only to fall to the ground below.

Anubis Cruger took a deep breath and growled. "I can't believe I ever trusted Sky. He's going in prison along with Z, but for longer."

Syd blinked at him in desperation. "Can we help Charlie first?" She shivered. "I- I don't want her to die."

The Commander sniffed. "I knew it," he said. "You like her, don't you? Something like this had to have happened around when you and her first met at SPD."

She nodded. "I do like her. And I was heartbroken when she betrayed SPD. But when I heard she'd been attacked, I knew that she had decided to be good, but someone had thought she was lying."

"Strong intuition, Drew. Very impressive."

)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Sydney cried bitterly, her eyes struggling to avert from the sight of Charlie struggling to hold on to life back in her hospital bed. Sky had been placed in prison for a long time, but it had only made her feel a little bit better. Her life was being run by machines that were helping to regulate her heartbeat and breathing and the Pink Ranger was now living in constant fear that Charlie was going to die before she got the chance to tell her how she felt. She hadn't woken up since her fatal fall and more than two weeks had passed since then.

"Charlie... please..." Syd sat on the edge of her bed, gently grasping her left hand. "Please wake up..."

"S- S- Sydney?" Syd's heart leaped as Charlie whispered her name almost inaudibly, attempting to open her eyes. "I- is that you?"

"Yes, Charlie, it's me. A- are you okay?"

"I've been better. What happened to Sky?"

"He's in prison. Don't worry, he can't hurt you anymore."

"R- really?"

"Yes, it's true."

"Oh..." Charlie gave a sigh of relief as her eyes opened and she tried to sit up.

"Be careful. I don't want you to hurt yourself again. But... can I please tell you something?"

"Sure. I'm listening." She squeezed Syd's hand tighter.

"Um... so, Charlie..." Sydney mumbled. Then she tried to speak up. "Charlie, when I first met you, I knew there was something that made you different from everyone else. But when you betrayed SPD, I felt more scared than ever that you were going to hurt yourself and I'd never see you again, plus, I knew you were just desperate for something to happen that would make you feel good about yourself. However, when Sky attacked you, I finally realized my true feelings for you and that's why I was so worried." She paused to take in a breath.

A glimmer of understanding passed through Charlie's gaze. "Why haven't... you told me this... before?"

"You used to be part of the most disciplined team in SPD. Do you really think that would be appropriate?"

"I know."

"So..."

"Come here." Syd leaned closer to her and Charlie reached up and captured her lips in a searing kiss.

"You mean..."

"Yes. I love you too, Sydney Drew."

"Will you be okay if I leave to go get you some food?"

"Of course. I'll see you later."