TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS ONE SHOTS
DAY FOUR: 16TH DECEMBER
BUILDING BLOCKS.
Time Force.
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24th December 3005.
Silver Hills.
"What about this one?" The green haired man held up a small red sphere attached to a length of gold ribbon for Jen to look at as she carried another box of decorations into the workshop area.
She squinted to read the delicate inscription on the glowing ball, "If it's Cole it needs to be near the top," She answered and placed the box on the work bench.
"Oh yeah!" Trip grinned and twisted the bauble around so the picture of Cole in his Ranger days faced him, the young Wild Force Red gleaming proudly in the picture, "I still love these," he said and climbed up a few rungs on the ladder to reach one of the highest branches on the tall and wide evergreen fir tree.
Jen smiled and pulled a pearly pink bauble from the open box on the table by its fine, glittery white ribbon, "I think by next year we can develop these further to have the photos moving." She ran her finger over the scriptive 'Doctor Dana Alison Mitchell- Grayson' glitter writing and passed the ornament to Trip, just catching a glimpse of the photo of the Lightspeed Pink from her original Ranger file, "Have you put Carter up yet?"
"Uh-huh, I know, put them together." Trip hooked it to the tree beside the firey shaded bauble, "Do you think future Rangers will make these to remember us?"
"Hmm," She pursed her lips and tilted her head to study the almost finished tree, "Maybe, or we could always make our own so we can be up there with Eric and Wes."
"That would be cool," Trip said in agreement and began to climb down the ladder, "I wish Katie and Lucas would hurry up though so I could put the star up – it's my turn right?"
Jen shrugged and leaned back on the workbench, "I'm pretty sure it is." She had to agree that the tree didn't look right without the shooting star topper after a couple of years with it.
Jen hadn't really liked Trip's idea to make ornaments dedicated to their friends on the first Christmas back in their own time but when she saw how much he was enjoying it, she left him to it... By the next year, their fourteen baubles had turned into one for every Ranger in history- their tree was decorated to the point almost every branch had an ornament hanging from it. It grew on her every year, and now taking turns to hang up the decorations had become one of their teams traditions.
The door opened with the ex-Yellow and ex-Blue walking in, both of them carrying two wreaths each, mid conversation.
"We would have been there all day Lucas," Katie told him with a roll of her eyes as she put her wreaths, embellished with sprigs of holly and small metal Christmas bells, on the work bench.
"The kids at the Orphanage wanted us to have dinner with them," Lucas explained for the benefit of the brunette woman and green haired man, "We told them we couldn't as we had plans tonight."
Jen pressed her lips together; if Wes had been there, he would have nagged them to do it 'for the children'. "We could stop by there after with dessert." She said and then began to inspect the four wreaths.
Each wreath was made with bells and holly entwined with the evergreen pine branches, making them identical in that sense, but the centre of each ring, other than the two identical wreaths, where usually there would be a hole had been filled with a painting of a teams insignia. One of Katie's contained Lightspeed's broken astrix logo, because they had come out of retirement to help the Time Force Rangers. Lucas' had the wreath with the Wild Force emblem, in memory of the team's relationship but also to remember Eric's wife Taylor Earheartd. The final two wreaths had the Time Force logo but with the addition of coloured pine cones, black for Eric and Red for Wes.
Very few craftsman made wreaths now as holographic ones proved more popular and practical as they could be used every year but the team had been determined to place real ones so were willing to drive there hours to have their custom-made wreaths.
"I could give the head a ring on the way over, make it a surprise for the children?"
"Great idea Lucas." Jen grazed over the wreaths with an admirative eye, "Leeroy out did himself this year." She could just see Trip looking at the last box of decorations with an anxious eagerness in the corner of her eye, "Go on Trip."
Trip beamed and pulled the box open carefully and took out the final, lovingly wrapped decoration. He tore off the tissue paper and bubble wrap to reveal the sparkly, double shooting star tree topper. A photo of Eric and Wes from the Silver Guardians archives, a good five or six years older than when they had known them, sat in the middle of the star. They assumed the photo was taken by an unknown party on a fishing trip by how the men were sat by a lake with beer bottles in hand, smiling and joking.
"Come on Circuit, you can do it," he held up the star and waited.
Across the room, resting on a coat rack, the robotic owl whirled into life. Circuit flew across the room and took the star from Trip's hand. He fluttered up and placed it on top of the tree, although admittedly it was crooked but no one pointed it out; Circuit swooped back down and perched on Trip's shoulder, who scratched the top of the robot's head affectionately, "Good job buddy."
"We could really make a lot of money selling those baubles," Katie thought aloud which earned a glare from Jen, "Not that we're going to."
"It makes us unique. I'd like to think everyone on that tree is with us everyday." Trip said solemnly, "We should get moving though if we want to place the wreaths before it gets much colder."
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It was a lot colder than they imagined it would be as they trekked through the crunchy grass bundled in coats, scarves, gloves and, in Trip's case, a woolly hat. As they assumed it would be on Christmas Eve, the memorial park was empty, only lit by a few street lamps and the light from the moon.
Jen cradled her wreath to her chest; to anyone looking at her, it could be seen as her huddling into it for warmth, but really it was because it was for Wes- her Wes. If she was alone she may have been crying as she held it to her, but being with her friends gave her the strength to keep walking toward the monument, just like it did every year.
They stopped in front of the marble statue that immortalised their team in their morph suits, Wes and Eric central.
"Wild Force first," Katie laid her wreath below the plaque acknowledging the team along with the list of Red Ranger's present in the 2003 all Red team up mission. "Thanks for looking after them for us. And thanks for making Eric smile for once Taylor..."
She stood and the group moved along to the Lightspeed memorial plaque, which unlike the other side had a carving of the Rangers morphed.
Trip knelt down, "In thanks to the Lightspeed Rescue Power Rangers who came out of retirement to aid our city's heroes in their hour of need." He smiled sadly and put the wreath down gently, "I hope Eric and Wes repayed the favour- and we still have our jackets... Thank you."
Lucas clapped Trip's shoulder, "They probably did. You've seen the wedding photos, they were both in them."
"Exactly," Katie agreed, "They had more friends then we think if you add both teams, all the Red Rangers and then more Rangers from other teams."
"Eric first?" Jen prompted.
They moved to the front of the monument so their statue selves were now facing then. A longer plaque took up the majority of the front, telling the legend of the Time Force Power Rangers with each of their names mentioned. There was also a gap before a smaller second plaque, the one which always got to the group whenever they saw it.
'In fond memory of
Wesley Richard Collins
Time Force Red Ranger
21st April 1976- 3rd July 2059
And
Eric Franklin Myers
Time Force Quantum Ranger
9th February 1976- 14th November 2058
Whom this city would have fell to ruin without their selflessness, courage and bravery.
Silver Hills shall ever be in your debt.'
"Separately doesn't been right," Trip said after a few minutes of thoughtful silence, "They were always together."
"You're right," Jen forced out over a lump in her throat. She knelt and Lucas did also, placing their wreaths down together.
"Miss you guys," Lucas said as he touched their small plaque, "Even if you were a misery guts Eric."
Katie laughed, "And a privileged rich kid."
"And it's weird having a link to talk to you when I walk past this everyday." Trip added.
"But we love you both," Jen concluded, "And we'll see you again in person one day."
Lucas helped Jen to her feet and Trip grabbed her hand and squeezed it to let her know they were there. She offered him a sad smile then turned back to the memorial- reluctant but knowing it was time to go.
She turned and started out the park, the others close behind. Christmas was tough without the whole team together, but knowing it wouldn't be the last time they would see Eric and Wes made it all bearable.
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[A/N]
Greg: Thanks for reading! We'll be posting a one shot a day on the run up to Christmas to thank anyone whose been reading our SOAverse stories, to people who asked us to beta read (as it helps toward our Uni degrees!) And to apologise for our slow updates this year!
This is a one shot a la me, so thank you for reading :3.
Bleach7Deadlysins:
Hey, thanks for the suggestion! We've already have the christmas series already written so we can't take up Nick and Maddie on their own; however, we do have a Mystic Force one shot coming up (Day 9- 21st December, so Wednesday in our timezone at 8pm GMT) which has Nick and Maddie fluff in so keep an eye out! Thank you for reading!
And if everyone has a particular group/ Ranger too and wants to know if they're featured, just PM or review and I'll happily let you know. :)
Next to be posted is BILLY! This is set in SOAverse (if you don't know what that is, don't sweat it, you don't need to know to enjoy it but if you would like details but don't have time to read through our previous stories, just PM us and I'll give you a run down).
Thanks for reading and hopefully see you tomorrow for the next one shot!
Remember to fave, follow and review, it really helps us out! And if you have questions or suggestions just leave it in a review or PM us.
Mwah x
Merry Christmas from Sam and Greg x