Thank you Kekejo99 and Catgox for reviewing!
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Bridge decided not to sleep that night. He knew the nightmares would come on strong. He did not want the doctors to visit his dreams again; he did not want them in his head. Instead, Bridge sat in his bed all night trying to build his walls up. He needed stronger blocks to stop all the energy getting in. People's thoughts were creeping into his mind causing Bridge to get confused. He needed to focus and control his abilities better. Bridge always worried what would happen if he had no control anymore, but that was not something he wanted to experience.
Before Sky's alarm went off, Bridge got up and got dressed. He shook the sleep away and left. As he walked down the hallway to the cafeteria he stopped not knowing where he was for a moment. The halls were different. They were more aged, darker, dirtier. The dorm rooms were now large and metal with thick locks on them.
What was going on?
He stood there in the middle of the hallway afraid to move. He heard someone slam up against one of the doors and he jumped. There was a guy in there with crazy eyes, laughing. Bridge did not like this place. He wanted out; he needed to get back to reality. He squeezed his eyes shut concentrating on the hallways he remembered. When he opened his eyes again, the world was back to normal. He let out a sigh of relief.
Bridge was quiet for the rest of the day. Part of him wanted them to get a call, but the other part knew that he would mess up in the field. Above everything, Bridge just wanted a distraction. He needed to take his mind off of whatever was going on with him. He decided to go to the Rec-Room and stand on his head to clear his thoughts. That always seemed to help. His head was pretty clear when Jack walked in and wanted to talk to him. Bridge flipped right side up and sat in a chair. Jack sat down next to him.
"If you are having trouble controlling your abilities, I need you to tell me. We can't afford another slip up out there." Jack did not mean for that to come out as harsh as it had, but it was too late to take back.
"Why would you say that?" Bridge looked offended.
"You've just been acting off lately is all." Jack tried to be as sensitive as possible.
"I've got my powers under control. I won't jeopardize the team. I've just…" Bridge looked off to see a girl rocking back and forth in the corner of the room.
"Bridge?"
Bridge turned back to Jack. "Maybe I have been a bit off. Something isn't right with me. I should talk to the rest of the team."
"Okay." Jack got up to gather the other rangers. He was not sure what caused Bridge the sudden change, but he would take it.
Once everyone was together Bridge sat in front of the rangers in the Command Center. He was not sure where to start. "Look, I know you have all noticed my weird behavior lately. At first I thought I was losing control of my abilities. They have been getting stronger, and sometimes I struggle to keep a grip on them, but now I'm not so sure."
"What's changed?" Syd was worried.
"Voices. They are coming in stronger. Sometimes I will catch a thought or two without trying, but now it's like a wave of thoughts, and I can't figure out who's they are. When I focus I can read anyone's thoughts I want, but this feels different."
Z tried to comfort Bridge. "We'll sort it out Bridge, don't worry."
"That's not all." Bridge was afraid to go on. "For the past few days I've been seeing things."
"What sort of things?" Sky new this was somehow connected to the nightmares.
"Things from my past. I thought it was just random thoughts and old nightmares until I saw someone I used to know while I wasn't sleeping." Bridge wished he could have dropped it right there, but the "tell me" looks on the rangers faces told him that he needed to elaborate. He took a deep breath. "Before I came to S.P.D…I was in an institution."
There was a collection of what's and wide eyes amongst the rangers.
Bridge turned from his friends. "No one understood my abilities then. My town was afraid of me, my own father was afraid of me. He decided it would be best to send me somewhere to "cure" me."
"How long were you there?" Sky hated to think of Bridge locked away.
"Six months. My mom left my dad after he got me put it in, and it took almost that long to get me back out. She knew I could get the help I needed here. That place, it was terrible. At first they thought I was just crazy, but soon the doctors realized I wasn't faking. They would write down my progress as if I were insane, but then they tested my abilities off the record." Bridge took a calming breath. "Now I see the doctors, and the other patients everywhere. I can't tell what's real anymore."
"What could be causing this?" Z turned to Kat.
"I'm not sure, but we'll run some tests and figure it out. Everything will be okay Bridge."
Bridge nodded. He hoped so.
Kat could sense Bridge's anxiety as he sat on her exam table in her lab. She knew about where he was before and the thought of that place made her blood boil. "I know it must be hard having to relive what you went through, but it will pass."
Bridge nodded. "That's not just it…I'm afraid I'm still there. What if I actually am just crazy and all these years have been one big hallucination. Maybe I finally had a breakthrough and am getting back to normal."
"Bridge, you cannot think like that. This is the real world, you have extraordinary abilities. Those people who call themselves scientists and doctors tried exploiting that."
"I know, it just feels so real." Bridge was not completely convinced Kat was right.
Kat began to give Bridge a thorough exam. She took a head scan, blood sample, blood pressure, and checked all his vitals. Once everything came back she turned to Bridge who looked exhausted from the lack of sleep and long hours of testing.
"Aside from some high blood pressure, I can't find anything wrong. I could only glance at the blood sample, so after I analyze that it could shed some light on all this." Kat looked sympathetic.
"So I could just finally be losing it then." Bridge looked at the ground.
"No, something is causing this, and we will find out what. For now you should get some rest." She handed him a pill bottle. "Take two, they should help you sleep."
Bridge nodded. "Okay, thanks Kat."
He left the lab and went back to his room. He ignored that the hallways did not look like those of S.P.D. He also ignored the voices whispering in his head. Screaming insane thoughts just like all those years ago. Once Bridge got to his room, he took two of the sleeping pills Kat gave him and collapsed onto his bed. He fell asleep almost as soon as he hit the pillow. For a while his sleep was uninterrupted, but then the memories came through the fog.
"Please, I need to keep my hands covered." It was the same argument he had almost every night with the doctors.
"This phobia needs to end. Having your hands exposed won't do anything to you." The doctors ripped the bedsheet he used to cover up his hands away from him.
At first they did this to try and show him he was fine, but once they discovered his abilities were real, they did it to observe him.
Bridge wasted no time in folding his hands into his shirt. The doctors shook their head and the male spoke. "You know what we have to do Bridge."
Panic rose up in the boy. "Please, you don't understand."
The doctor nodded to the orderlies who hauled Bridge up and threw him onto the bed. They put his hands in restraints.
"No, no, no! Please!" Bridge pulled on the restraints.
The doctor pulled a needle out of his pocket. "This will help you sleep." He injected Bridge and the boy began to drift.
Bridge still tugged on the restraints. The fog helped drown out the residual energy around him, but the whispers still crept in. This place would kill him, he knew it.
Bridge's eyes shot open and he looked around to find himself in his room. Another dream. He tried getting up, but found his arms would not go. He looked to see restraints on his wrists. His hands were gloved and he was in his room. This was not a dream. Bridge began to panic as he pulled and pulled on the bindings.
He screamed in frustration because he could not move. Somewhere far out he heard his name being yelled and then he was being shaken. His hands were free and Bridge jolted back to reality to see Sky above him. Bridge gave out a small sigh of relief.
"It was just a dream."
Sky looked at Bridge worried.
Bridge rubbed his wrists, he could still feel the burn of the restraints. He looked at Sky, something was off. "What?"
Sky shook his head. "Bridge, you weren't asleep just then."
Bridge stared at his roommate. "But?" He looked at his hands. "It's getting worse."
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AN: Poor Bridge! Thanks for reading!