Written for LiveJournal community fivebyfiction, prompt: Normal Again
Horizons
The newly risen sun in Mirinoi's sky reminded Karone of Earth's. Yellow, bright, a solo act. It was already playing a brisk, indecisive game of hide-and-go-seek up in the sky, slipping behind clouds for a moment, only to reemerge and cause Karone to wince at the brightness against her eyes.
The daylight acted as a veil. The light and the atmosphere, the blue of the sky and the bone-white of the clouds hid the rest of the galaxy from her view. If she were a different person, another, younger, more innocent girl, she might be able to ignore the dark, speckled expanse of space that lay beyond the isolation of Maya's heavenly planet. If she could cut away the memory of her adventures as the Pink Ranger, bleach her soul of her life as Astronema, she might have been able to focus on the beauty of Mirinoi's spring season.
Pink and purple flowers blossomed in a small bush to Karone's left, looking like magnolias and smelling almost like Cassie's favorite perfume (she hurriedly suppressed the nostalgia). A tiny bird with sea foam green plumage twittered overhead, pecking at the gnarled wood of what appeared to be a very old tree. A small, furry mammal eyed the little bird hungrily from beneath the giant leaf of one of the jungle plants, and some insect analogous to bees buzzed from branch to branch high in the foliage.
To the outsider, just beyond the clearing, her silhouette framed by the crunchy, well-watered grass, and thick, overhead jungle leaves was a study in contrasts. Peaceful, colorful, all-encompassing nature, ever alive and bustling, serving as the background for the lone woman dressed in black. Turbulence still plagued Karone's soul; she still felt the bloodstains that the outsider would say had been scrubbed clean.
The outsider observing the scene smiled sadly. Maya and the Space Rangers had told her the woman's dark story. Kendrix imagined standing in Karone's place, following her gaze into and beyond the heavens. Her ghost touched Karone briefly, was blessed with one beautiful second to gaze into the eyes and heart of the former Princess of Evil. She liked what she saw; her strength tempered by cautious fear, pinpricks of power-hungry longing tempered by floods of sisterly love.
She was a beauty, too, Kendrix had to admit. Blonde and petite—well, that Karone and Kendrix had in common. But Karone had none of Kendrix's bookishness or awkward grace. While she lacked Astronema's cocky sense of entitlement and assurance that the universe would soon be crushed into submission under her boot, she still stood tall and moved like a stream coursing down a bumpy hill; swift and fluid, but with the occasional jaunty, twisting bounce. The sparks of happiness and mischief in the former princess were heartening.
Kendrix had already broken the magic of the tableau, stepping past the frame of the two leafy trees and approaching her pretty successor. She walked slowly, deliberately bringing her boots down to crunch the grass and make as much noise as possible. Karone's shoulders were relaxed, which Kendrix took as a good sign, that Karone knew someone was approaching her.
"Hey, you," Kendrix greeted her cheerfully, once there was only about two feet between them. She wanted to squeeze the younger girl's shoulder or take her hand, something affectionate and friendly, but wasn't sure how well it would go over. Kendrix didn't want to act too forward or familiar.
Karone turned around calmly, confirming Kendrix's thought that her footsteps warned her successor. "Kendrix!" she exclaimed, slightly surprised by the identity of her visitor. Karone grinned a little, with blindingly white teeth and bright eyes. "What are you doing out here?"
"Just walking," Kendrix answered lightly. "You know, feeling the sun on my face, the wind in my hair."
"Stopping to smell the flowers," Karone agreed, nodding to the pink and purple blooms. "Maya told me about those, she said she used to gather them every year to make dyes."
"I think I remember that story," Kendrix said, gazing appreciatively at the lovely colors and delicate petals. "Didn't she say they confused her, because the petals were one color and the dyes they extracted from the stem were another?"
"That's the one." Karone smiled at her shyly.
Kendrix's smile was more enthusiastic as she closed half the distance between them. Relieved when Karone didn't retreat or look uncomfortable, she nodded towards the sun. "What're you thinking about?" she asked gently.
For a single, fleeting moment, Karone was prepared to recite a laundry list of simple, cheerful subjects: the beauty of nature, the emerging friendships between the natives of Mirinoi and Terra Venture personnel, what Kai was likely to prepare for breakfast. She didn't feel comfortable burdening Kendrix, a woman she hardly knew, with her problems.
But she stood there so expectantly, smiling to beat the band, positively dripping with kindness and understanding… Andros and the others had nothing but praise for Kendrix Morgan, and, somewhere, deep in her soul, Karone felt she owed her predecessor the truth.
"I… suppose…" Kendrix again longed to offer some sort of comfort, but refrained.
"I suppose I'm thinking about everything," Karone said after a pause. She shrugged, unable to phrase it any better.
"That's quite a bit, and all at once," Kendrix said gently.
Karone shrugged again, offering a smile. "I haven't had a lot of time to think lately," she said. "I haven't had a quiet minute to myself since I left Angel Grove. I guess I have some catching up to do."
"I think I know the feeling." Kendrix gestured back towards whence they came. "On Terra Venture, even with all of the different domes and such, it always felt like you were trapped."
"No place to run," Karone agreed. "No place to hide."
"I don't know why being on a planet is so different," Kendrix said, reflectively. "You can't run from it, either."
Karone giggled. "I guess not. I…" She looked back at the flowers, as if they could rearrange her thoughts and make them make sense to Kendrix for her. "I'm not sure why I ever felt that way, personally. I mean, I grew up on spaceships, practically."
Kendrix's smile changed into something hesitant, uncomfortable, and almost apologetic. "Maybe… it might be different when you're in charge of the ship," she ventured. She felt that she was taking a risk, that she had no right to pry into Karone's history as Astronema, but her desire to get to know Karone made her adventurous.
Karone shrugged it off; from the outsider's perspective, any discomfort rolled off like water off a duck's back. "Maybe."
Silence. Not entirely unpleasant silence, but silence nonetheless.
Kendrix sighed before she could catch herself. She made a mental note to come back to this little clearing and collect the pink and purple flowers. While she had Maya's one anecdote about them, they weren't scientifically documented, and recording local flora and fauna was one of her duties now. She was lucky she still had a job, she thought, but she hadn't been gone as long as Mike, she didn't think…
It wasn't worth dwelling on, she decided. Her job at Terra Venture was safe, and Karone performed beautifully as the Pink Ranger. Things were slowly settling down—not back to normal (they were on an alien planet, for heaven's sake), but into what would soon become normal.
"See the sunflowers?" Karone said suddenly, pointing in the distance. "I think I saw them on KO-35."
"We had them on Earth, too," Kendrix answered, surprised by the comment. It seemed to have come out of the blue.
"Really?" Karone frowned; she looked more pouty than thoughtful, and the effect was quite cute. "Maybe that's where I heard about them."
"You didn't spend too long on Earth, did you?"
"Longer than I spent on KO-35," Karone replied. "Um, longer than I remember, anyway. Andros says I never lived anywhere else before Darkonda kidnapped me."
"He would know, wouldn't he?" Kendrix asked.
"I certainly hope so." Karone paused to giggle briefly. "He's definitely my brother."
"It's so great that you found him," Kendrix said.
Her successor nodded vigorously. "I miss him a lot." She gestured towards the sky. "Honestly, that's what I've been thinking about," she admitted. "Whether I'll ever see him again."
"There's always the Jet Jammers," Kendrix reminded her, yet again feeling a need to comfort Karone somehow. Besides the nuclear families brought with them, most residents of Terra Venture had no close relatives as a general rule; how else could they brave the unknowns of outer space? Kendrix herself was an only child, her parents were both only children, and they died before she joined the GSA. In spite of that, she had received extensive counseling to ensure that she could handle being eternally, irreversibly estranged from every human being she had ever known, sans a few coworkers.
It was in the context of that counseling that Leo's very existence surprised her, that Damon's rising to the rank and level of prestige he had amazed her, that Maya's sunny demeanor engaged her, that Karone's strength and bravery fascinated her. Kendrix, Kai and Mike had been rigorously, brutally prepared to leave all hypothetical loved ones behind forever, but the others had not. Yet they endured, and prospered; with Alpha Six, they had become each other's family.
To be fair, Maya had regained her true friends and family, and the former rangers had been accepted into that circle with heartwarming enthusiasm. That, in turn, opened the door for the rest of Terra Venture, and the two communities were deep in the midst of forging what everyone prayed would be a lasting, fruitful friendship.
"You mean, 'there will be the Jet Jammers,'" Karone said wryly, stirring Kendrix from her thoughts. "Damon and Alpha still have to fix them, I think."
"Shouldn't take them too long," Kendrix tried for some optimism.
Karone paused to push back the pink headband she wore. Kendrix paused to wonder if she'd ever seen Karone wear the same hairstyle twice.
"Even if it doesn't," Karone said, "it will certainly take long enough to make it back to Earth. Granted, Terra Venture moves much slower. Besides," she fixed Kendrix with a stern, arresting look, "I'd have to take the Pink Quasar Saber with me."
"And then you'd have to keep it there, or take it back, and be stranded again," Kendrix finished. She sighed. "You're absolutely right, I never even thought of that."
"I wouldn't know my way back, anyway," Karone admitted, turning back to face the sun again. "What with the Lost Galaxy having thrown us off course to some degree, I have no idea where in the universe we are. I'd never heard of Mirinoi before meeting Maya. Certainly the Quasar Sabers themselves are legendary, but part of the myth was that no one knew which planet hid them. And without the Megaship, I have no way of broadcasting a transmission to Andros for him to track so he could come pick me up. And," Karone had to pause to steady her voice, and Kendrix thought she may have shivered for a split second. "There is still so much I need to make up to them."
While she started out sounding casual and nonchalant, it could not be maintained. Each word seemed more despairing than the last to her predecessor, and Kendrix could feel her heart shattering into jagged, icy fragments. Karone remained visually composed, but she could not seem to stave off the grief completely. It sneaked into her speech and tone, and seemed to settle until, by the end, Kendrix could almost see the sorrowful weight Karone must have always felt.
"I'm sorry," Kendrix began, but Karone cut her off in a horrified rush, whirling around in shock.
"Oh, no, no, no," Karone exclaimed, a fist clenched over her heart. "Oh, dear God, Kendrix, please…" She shook her head emphatically. "Please don't be sorry, please. I am begging you not to be sorry. I," she smiled bitterly, "I brought it on myself, in every possible way. It's all my fault, and… God, it would kill me if you felt sorry for any of this. Psycho Pink…" Karone shuddered violently, an odd sight in the tropical jungle weather. "My God, Kendrix, I should be apologizing to you for all of this unpleasantness."
"In all honesty, I'd hate for you to do that," Kendrix said sincerely, after a second's pause to recover from her surprise at Karone's (not unjustified) outburst. "I truly do hate the idea of you torturing yourself over that."
Her successor managed a less bitter smile. "In all honesty, I don't really enjoy it much, either."
"Glad we agree on that, then." Kendrix, thinking this opportunity was the one she had been waiting for, slowly, carefully reached for the hand Karone still clenched, and held it between her own. In a softer voice, "You really have made everything right, Karone. Everything," she emphasized. "Andros and the others would agree, one hundred and ten percent. You changed all by yourself, by your own choice. It's just rotten luck that they erased that, and even more that it was able to come back to us."
Karone nodded slightly, looking at her hand held so tenderly by Kendrix. She thought of how Ashley had done the same thing, assuring her of their friendship, how everything was right in the end. And so it was here and now. Kendrix was safe and sound and forgiving.
Karone raised her other hand and rested it over Kendrix's, squeezing just a bit. With a small, yet true, smile, feeling just another weight removed from her shoulders, she said, "It probably won't be too bad to stay on Mirinoi."
"I think we would all miss you terribly if you left," Kendrix said seriously. "Your bravery, your heroism… I mean, I admire you so much for giving up your brother like you did, for Terra Venture and all of us. We really couldn't help but love you after that."
"You were willing to give up so much more than I," Karone protested in a murmur, "and very nearly did. I admire that."
"Well, once again, I'm glad we agree on something," Kendrix said lightly. "Let's go home, okay?" Adding, "You can still brood there, I'm sure," in a teasing tone of voice.
Karone giggled, and the restoration of her good humor filled Kendrix with an exquisite kind of ecstasy. "Andros is so much better at brooding than I am," she said brightly. "I wish you could see him, it's depressing just to think about."
"I don't doubt it," Kendrix replied, pausing for one last glance at the lovely pink and purple blossoms. "Remind me to come back and document those… what did Maya call them? Do you remember?"
Her successor turned to the patch of flowers quickly, her hair bouncing jauntily with the movement. "As a matter of fact," she said, offering Kendrix a shy smile, "I do."
"Oh?"
A nod, and Karone dropped their entwined hands so that she could kneel and run her fingers across the petals once more; take in one last inhalation of their sweet scent.
"I believe," said Karone, "that they are called 'new-dawn-on-the-horizons.'"
Kendrix giggled, and offered a hand to pull Karone to her feet. "That's awfully convoluted."
"Perhaps," said Karone, accepting the assistance. She offered Kendrix a bright smile, feeling immensely glad that her predecessor had coaxed her into opening up even the littlest bit. She didn't yet drop Kendrix's hand again. "But fitting."
"But fitting," Kendrix echoed. She glanced at Karone, who immediately began giggling again, and Kendrix couldn't help joining in.
It felt fine to laugh, and better to be so light-hearted despite the grimness in the past and uncertainty in the future. Karone's good cheer was infectious, and Kendrix was by no means a gloomy person herself. Finally, she felt as if whatever invisible expanse between the two Pink Rangers was sufficiently bridged, and that it would never be compromised. Not for anything.
And Karone didn't mind when Kendrix dropped her hand, and shifted them into a fierce hug, and even followed it up with a friendly kiss on the cheek. She accepted the affection happily, and it was with new, stronger resolve and love for their friends that both were able to anticipate whatever lay ahead.