Timer
By: AndiKaneUnderwood
So... I'm actually Power Ranger trash. If you've read my bio, then you've seen both which ones I've watched, my favorite characters, and my ships.
If this does not appeal to you, my readers, then please feel free to click the back button and read something else. Thank you for understanding.
Now that that's out of the way, welcome to my story. It's a SoulMate AU, as most of the stories I write are.
For this specific one, it's the Timer AU, where you have a timer that ticks down the seconds before you and your SoulMate meet.
SoulMates always have a mental bond.
AU: Timer SoulMate, Alpha/Beta/Omega
Braiden Romero: Alpha
Hayley Foster: Alpha
Levi Weston: Beta
Sarah Thompson: Beta
Calvin Maxwell: Omega
Preston Tien: Omega
Braiden's timer hadn't started the moment she was born, but roughly eighteen months after.
Her parents said that meant her SoulMate was younger than her.
Aiden had told her not to worry too much about it, timers stopped and started and changed like that all the time. Humans were very unpredictable and therefore, the timers that counted down the times where too.
Braiden was thankful to have such amazing parents and a great brother. She wasn't sure where she'd be without them.
Then, when she was four, her mother left and things got a little harder, but Braiden persevered. She started learning how to handle chores and even cooking when her father's turned out burned and her brother's practically radioactive.
Her lessons as a ninja had begun once she was old enough to walk by herself, becoming as easy as walking as she continued to practice.
Braiden learned a new way to live.
Her life soon turned simple and fun.
Then she turned seven and Galvanax came to Earth in search of the prim that crash-landed in her yard short months before and things changed.
Her brother ran as her father instructed him to and her father vanished in a flash of white and Braiden was left on her own.
One of the aliens took her roughly by the arm and led her back to Galvanax's ship. There, she was enslaved and forced to work as a mechanic and a punching bag for training monsters.
She presented on Galvanax's ship roughly six years later.
Mick helped her make sense of what her father hadn't gotten to teach her about her designation, but mostly it was all trial and error.
She began dreaming of blue smoke and magic and big brown eyes and Braiden knew that it was her SoulMate.
So she started planning for a way off the ship.
She began trying to figure out where her brother may have run too. She began trying to make sense of the images in her head that told her about her SoulMate.
The timer on her wrist continued to count down and before Braiden knew it, ten years had passed since her capture and the timer flashed with days instead of years.
After three Earth days had passed, the timer read a matter of hours.
Braiden saw a chance to leave the ship with the Ninja Nexus Prism in tow. She gathered Mick and Redbot and jumped off the ship with no regrets.
Ninja Steel~Ninja Steel~Ninja Steel
Preston's timer had been counting down since the day he was born.
His mother told him that meant his SoulMate was older than him.
How much older, Preston didn't know, but he sincerely hoped it wasn't anywhere above five years. It would be weird if they were too much older than him.
All Preston's life, he'd been attended to by servants.
His father's company wasn't something he really saw, so for many years, it had just been him and his mother.
Sure, Preston knew his dad existed, but Marcus Tien was a working machine and rarely thought of anything more than his job for many days at a time.
Until Preston's mother took him to see his first magic show around the time he turned five, Preston hadn't really known what he wanted to do.
Then he watched as the magician pulled a rabbit out of his hat, coins from his ears, and turned one dollar bills into twenty dollar bills, then hundred dollar bills and suddenly, the air was alive with magic and it was all Preston could feel.
Once a month for two years, Preston's Mom and Dad took time out of their day to go and see the magic show and Preston was happy for the meager attention he could garner from his father.
Then his mother left one day to go and get something from the store.
And her funeral happened.
And Preston didn't understand why Mommy wasn't coming home and why Daddy didn't take him to see the magic shows any more.
For several more years, it went like this.
If Preston was lucky, he would see his father at dinner.
If he was not, he wouldn't see his father for many weeks.
Preston learned how to care for himself.
At age ten, Preston presented as Omega too early and that was the most he'd seen of his father in three years.
His dad was gone before his first Heat was up.
And Preston felt more alone than he had when he was five and his mother left the house one day and never came back.
Ninja Steel~Ninja Steel~Ninja Steel
Braiden fell to Earth with a crash and a clatter and a bunch of pain.
Having endured more from the monsters, she managed to get on her feet and ignore the pain in her ribs and shoulders. She'd have Redbot look at them once she was sure it was safe.
Until then, she had a monster to fight off.
She didn't hear the timer beeping faster until she was nearly bowled over by a blonde girl and a brunette boy on a hoverboard.
Then she stood and ran over to help the pair up.
She helped up the girl first, feeling nothing but sympathy and guilt, then the boy. "Are you guys okay?" she asked quickly.
"We're fine. I'm Sarah." the girl replied.
The boy dusted himself off; holding out a hand as he added. "I'm Preston."
Then Preston looked up and Braiden caught his eyes and suddenly, all she could hear was the sound of her timer going off.
"It's you." Braiden breathed out and Preston tilted his head.
The small male's eyes widened in realization as he came to the conclusion Braiden had already reached, "You're here."
Braiden grabbed Preston into a hug and felt him stiffen, but she couldn't find it within herself to let go.
Slowly, Preston hugged her back and all Braiden could think was, I found you.
Somehow, in that moment, it was enough.
Ninja Steel~Ninja Steel~Ninja Steel
Preston couldn't say he wasn't surprised after finding out his SoulMate was form space.
His life had been tainted by magic since the day he went to see his first show, so anything else would be…
Well, wrong.
Now the hug, well, that did surprise him.
And not in the, oh a person is hugging me kind of way. More of a holy shit, this person is hugging me, help, help, what do I do, aaaahhh! kind of way.
Preston's life with his father had been lacking in a few things since the death of his mother short years prior, and physical affection had been one of those things.
Preston hadn't really been hugged in too many years and was out of practice and touch-starved.
But when Braiden had wrapped her arms around him, Preston felt nothing but affection and kindness and love and it was all a little overwhelming.
It took him a second to hug her back, but embracing the Alpha before him felt very right.
It those few precious moments, it was perfect.