Chapter 20- Sing Me To Sleep

Sydney looked out her bedroom window, trying to recall the events from a few nights ago, when she had been in some kind of trance that had made her attack Z. The trance had been powerful, as far as she could tell; it was more than just pure insomnia or sleep-walking. She felt like a puppet now, since she wasn't in control of neither her actions nor her body. In some ways, she was Grumm's prisoner all over again. Maybe what Rogue and Morgana had said was right: She would never be free.

She let her thoughts slide when the alarm sounded. Z jolted awake and pulled the covers away from her body. Both girls put on their uniforms on in a hurry and ran to the Command Center, both still working out the kinks that came with dressing quickly. Z and Sydney concluded that they had done a pretty good job at dressing in a matter of minutes, while some had not had the same luck. That certain someone was Bridge, who was wearing his shirt backwards. Sky was impeccably dressed. He had recently washed his uniform and ironed it.

You could the boy out of the Academy, but you couldn't take the Academy away from the boy. Jack arrived a few seconds before Commander Cruger and Kat Manx. He adjusted his jacket and got in line with his teammates. They saluted the Commander, who stood before Bridge.

"Cadet Carson, I'm sure the dress code for cadets doesn't state that you should wear your shirt backwards." Cruger pointed out.

"No Sir, I know the dress code by heart. I would never wear my shirt backwards. Unless, of course, if this were an alternate universe, in which the dress code stated otherwise…" Bridge began rambling once again. Syd and Z both shared a small smile and Syd decided to interrupt.

"Bridge, what the Commander means is that your shirt is backwards." The Green Ranger looked down at his shirt and rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Commander. I'm working on a new project and I haven't had a lot of time to sleep. You must know what lack of sleep can do to someone's brain."

Cruger nodded and pointed at the screen. A live video feed from one of the security cameras in the downtown area was recording an alien attack. The alien looked like a very big and ugly turtle. Its body was covered with a large shell that had large spikes for protection.

"Be careful, we believe the spikes are poisonous. Approach the creature only when morphed." Kat stated clearly as she handed a new morpher to Sydney. She took a deep breath and shouted "SPD! Emergency."

When her morphing was complete, she went down to the garage with Z and the others, who had morphed, too.

Upon reaching the downtown area, which was the poorest section in all New Tech, the Rangers got off their vehicles and took their weapons out. Z and Syd checked out the perimeter and made signals to the guys that meant that the coast was clear.

As they continued to move at a slow and careful pace, an army of Krybots came out of nowhere and immediately went straight to the Pink Ranger, who was already in her fighting stance with her weapons out and ready. She yelled at the other to keep moving and that she could handle them. A quick fight against a dozen of Krybots in the morning never hurt anyone, especially not her.

While Syd fought off the robotic army, the rest of the rangers kept moving until they found the alien terrorizing Piggy in his dumpster. Jack ran over to the creature and pointed his weapon at it. It immediately dropped Piggy, who quickly vanished inside his dumpster for protection. It turned to look at the Red Ranger; its hands were shaking, like he was afraid of something.

"I didn't mean to do this; Grumm made me do it." It produced a gurgle, which was probably meant to be a sob. "He has my family."

"We'll help you get your family back. Just come with us and we'll see what we can do." The alien, whose name was Shellshock, began following the Rangers. It stopped abruptly in the middle of an alley and took a shot at them when they had their backs turned to him. In a matter of seconds, a total of four spikes had penetrated the four suits. One after another, the Rangers all began demorphing as they hit the asphalt, clutching their chest as if all of them were experiencing an intense pain.

Shellshock looked back at his work and smiled proudly. It disappeared just a few seconds before the Pink Ranger arrived.

When she saw the scene before her, she demorphed and ran over to them, getting on her knees. She put Sky's head on her lap and began to brainstorm of ideas of how to help her teammates without getting killed in the process. She wasn't a scientist or a doctor, but she immediately thought that taking the spike out of his body would help. That was until he stopped her.

"Don't take it out. You'll only get poisoned yourself." Sky muttered between moans of pain and loud grunts. "Call Kat and the Commander."

Sydney took out her morpher and called Dr. Manx. "Kat, I think you and the Commander might want to see this."

"I can't get a video feed from your location. Downtown has very few cameras." Kat told her.

"Kat, I need you and the Commander to come over to my location. The situation's pretty urgent. I wouldn't be calling you otherwise." She heard nothing but silence for a minute.

"We'll be there in a few minutes." Kat replied gently.

She put her fingers to Sky's throat to measure his pulse, which seemed stable. Then she just observed his chest, which went up and down like if he were breathing normally. He did the same with the other Rangers and got to the conclusion that they were sleeping.

When Kat and the Commander arrived, she was pouring cold water on a towel that she placed on Z's forehead. She stood quickly and saluted Cruger. Kat quickly got on her knees and started taking their pulse.

"I did that already, Kat. They are stable." She said gently.

"How did you…"

Sydney interrupted. "My mother's a doctor, remember?"

Kat came by her side and put on a pair of latex gloves. She removed the spike from Sky's shoulder and placed it in a bag. She repeated the process for the other Rangers. After they were taken away to the Academy's medical wing, the Doctor began analyzing the spikes with the equipment she had brought while Sydney waited for answers at the loading docks.

This was a typical Sydney reaction. If she felt scared, anxious or guilty, she would always run off somewhere distant to clear her head and be alone. She had attained this trait while training to be Rogue. It was one particular occasion when the Emperor had tried to make her kill an alien for betraying him. She declined and tried to get away from the situation when he grabbed her by the wrist and convinced her that that was the alien that had killed her parents, a lie that he told frequently. He used his mind tricks on her, finally convincing her. That had been Sydney's first kill. She was only 15.

The situation had left emotional scars on the petite girl. By the time, she got to the ship, she ran off to her room instead of letting anyone congratulate her. She recalled sitting on her bed, crying behind closed doors because of what she had done. She told herself she would never cry in front of Grumm or anyone else. She put up walls and different masks to protect herself from getting hurt. She masqueraded as the tough girl, always following the Emperor's orders and sticking by the rough training that this implicated. If she took her mask off, all that would be left would be a scared little girl, desperate for redemption and a savior.

"Dr. Manx has the results already." Cruger told her.

"I'll be there in a minute." She replied gently. "Commander, have you ever lost someone that meant everything to you?"

The Commander debated whether to tell her or not. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Yes, I lost my wife Isinia a few years ago."

Syd couldn't help feel melancholic. Speaking of the death always made her feel like that. "I'm sorry for your loss."

He smiled a bit and eased up. "She meant the world to me. What about you, have you lost anyone?"

"Well, let's see…"

"There's Dru. Not that he's dead, but he seemed to care for me when no one else would, up until he betrayed me that is. Then there's S…" She bit her tongue so she wouldn't reveal her relationship with the Blue Ranger.

"You can tell me."

"This person isn't dead, but I'm afraid to lose him. He is literally between life and death right now and I have no freaking idea of what to do." She couldn't have been more obvious about it. She cursed herself mentally. "I feel like what happened to him was my fault, like I could have prevented it."

"Don't blame yourself. You couldn't have predicted that this would happen." He began walking back to Kat's station with Syd in tow.

"There's good news and bad news." Doctor Manx announced. "The material in the spike is just a strong soporific. That's why the Rangers fell asleep instead of dying."

"I fear there's a 'but' coming on." Sydney added anxiously.

"But unfortunately this unique type of soporific directly affects the person's conscious part of the brain, leaving them trapped in their subconscious."

"So, this means that they are trapped in their own dreams. How are we supposed to get them out?" Syd asked.

"I may have an idea. I'll tell you about it later." She put her hand on the Pink Ranger's shoulder. "For now, I want you to go to the Academy and relax. Blaming yourself over this isn't going to help you or your teammates."

The petite girl nodded and drove off to SPD in the Jeep. After arriving, she went to check on Boom and Bridge's latest project. As she strolled in to Kat's assistant's lab, she carefully observed the progress that had been made since the last time she had checked up on them.

Considering how it looked, both geniuses were pretty much done, except for a few parts that were yet to be assembled. Apparently, Boom hadn't noticed when she walked in, because he jumped when Syd touched his shoulder.

He sighed loudly and relaxed when he saw who the person was. "I thought you were Kat."

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Don't worry, it's only me. How's our little project coming along?"

"It's going great; Bridge and I have made pretty significant advances over the last few days." Boom told her as he paced around the room.

"Is there something wrong? You don't sound too excited about what we're doing here."

"I'm just worried about Kat finding out. I kinda borrowed some pieces from her lab. If she finds out, she'll put me in a containment card like when I ate the last piece of chocolate cake."

"Kinda borrowed? Sounds to me like you stole the parts." Boom let out a small sob as she patronized him. She took a deep breath and sat beside him. "I'm sorry I said that. Look, I know stealing is bad and all that crap, but this is for a very good cause. And it was created by her, the original version, I mean. We should just consider this as an upgrade."

He plastered a smile on his face and hugged her tightly for a few seconds. "Boom, may I have my body back now, please?"

He broke the embrace and smiled at her when she stood up. "I heard what happened to Bridge and the other Rangers. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I'm sorry too." The petite blonde took a deep breath. "Do you think they'll be okay?"

"I have a feeling they will. A true Ranger never stops fighting." He grinned as she took his words in. She smiled when she realized she now had to fight for them as they had done for her in the past.

"Keep working on it. I have to go do something." Sydney shot him one last smile and made her way to the medical wing, where Dr. Felix and Kat were examining her teammates.

"Any changes, Doc?"

"Sadly, no." Kat put her hand on Syd's shoulder. "Dr. Felix has found a way to wake them up but it's not going to be easy."

"As Dr. Manx mentioned before, the soporific directly attacks the brain's conscious part, which leaves the Rangers to the will of their subconscious and unconscious. In other words, they are trapped in their own dreams and nightmares." Dr. Felix interjected.

"The way to bring them back is by putting you under as well and when you're asleep, we'll make connections with your teammates' brains, one by one. We call it collective dreaming." Kat pulled the girl out of the room before she could make any irrational decisions. "Before you say you'll do it, I need you to know that this is a very risky and delicate process."

"Someone today told me that a Ranger never stops fighting. I can't abandon them just because there are risks implied." She declared passionately. "I want to do it."

"Then if you're really sure, go put on something comfortable that you won't mind getting wet." Miss Manx instructed.

She nodded and ran to her room. In a matter of minutes, she came back wearing a pink sports bra, covered by a gray wrap sweater, and black shorts. Dr. Manx and Dr. Felix made her follow them to Kat's lab, where they had already moved the Rangers' gurneys.

Kat pulled open the doors of a hatch that only contained water and seemed as shallow as a bath tub, only wider. She directed the petite to a table, where two white probes connected to cables were placed on her temples. Kat put a white pill on the girl's hand. She instructed for her to swallow it. After doing so, the other doctor injected a strong sedative into Syd's arm.

"Get inside the hatch and relax. The sedatives will do the rest."

"Kat, I'm beginning with Bridge. It's urgent that he wakes up. Boom needs him for a 'top secret project'." She made quotation mark with her fingers as she lied on her back in the water, which was surprisingly warm. She took a deep breath and smiled as she felt the sedative take control over her body and her mind.

"In every mind you'll visit, there will be a red door that you will use to exit that person's dreams. Passing through that door will also wake him or her up." Kat mentioned slowly. She had no idea what fast or slow was anymore. She could just see dark spots dancing around her vision as she blinked.

"Red door got it." She muttered weakly before falling asleep.