Variations Of SPD
Chapter 19: Disbelief
By: Pink-Green-White-4ever
Last Revised: August 31, 2006
Summary: Plans set in motion leaving Sydney grasping for some faith in the world around her
Rating: M, for adult-themed situations.
Disclaimer: I don't own PR, Disney does
Dedication: Thanks to Angela for being an awesome sounding board!
"Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict." -- William Ellery Channing –
"If it were not for hopes, the heart would break." -- Thomas Fuller --
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." –- Martin Luther King, Jr. –
--
"Hello Sky," a soft voice whispered in his ear. It sounded vaguely familiar, filled with softness and just a twist of erotic.
"Mmmm...Syd..."
"WRONG!" Anna screamed, jolting Sky into consciousness. The Blue Ranger blinked rapidly while Anna continued to throw a fit a few feet away from him.
Swallowing hard, Sky struggled to hide his thoughts and feelings, allowing the seasoned warrior to come out. "What now?" he groused at her.
Anna's chest heaved with her ragged, angry breathing. "We're heading back to Earth," she teased. "But before we get there, you have to change."
Sky's natural instincts kicked in, allowing him to deduce she didn't mean he had to change his clothes. No, she had something much more horrific in store for him, and he didn't want to think about it one bit. "You can't make me hurt my friends. I refuse."
Anna grinned. "I can make you do anything, lover. GUARDS!"
Four Tengas, Viper and some weird looking alien dude dressed in black leather and chains came rushing in then and unhooked him from the wall. The Blue Ranger took the opportunity to try and fight. It only took a minute for him to break the Tengas' hold on him. Just as he rushed at the door, a blast of power slammed into his back.
Sky let out one dreadful shout before he fell to the ground, unconscious. "Take him to the chamber, strap him to the chair, and start the machine!" As her henchmen dragged Sky from the room, Anna turned to Viper and grinned. "He'll be reprogrammed by the time we get back to Earth."
"Can you guarantee his reprogramming if he meets up with that blonde, pink-pain-in-our-side?" Viper sarcastically shot back at her.
Anna's whole face changed to devious. "Oh, I'll more than guarantee...I'll stake my life on it."
--
"Have fun Blue Ranger," the goon in leather and chains laughed after placing the helmet on Sky's head. As the Blue Ranger came to, he was assaulted by images of Jack comforting Syd, of Jack being Red Ranger and of scenes of Syd and Jack making out, and making love.
"See what's happened in your brief absence?" a sultry voice asked. "Already they betray you – he has the woman who was supposed to love you forever. All she's ever wanted was a Red Ranger, just like her father."
Sky tried to close his eyes, to block out the images he knew weren't true, but the sounds of Syd crying out Jack's name while the Red Ranger made love to her continued to tear at his heart and soul. "No…no…NO!"
--
Bridge rubbed the palm of his hand over his heart when a burning sensation started. At first, the Green Ranger thought it was heart burn from lunch, but soon, he realized it was anything but.
Boom started calling out to Bridge, but the Green Ranger couldn't hear him; his own voice was wringing in his head. SKY! Bridge clenched his eyes closed and felt the power of the Panda explode around him.
--
Z smiled fondly as she watched over the younger cadets training on the mats behind the base. The yellow Ranger was just stepping forward to correct the stance of a pair of fighters when she felt the burning in her chest. Z never realized she'd fallen to her knees, nor did she hear the cadets calling out to her. All she knew, all she felt was the burning and then the explosion of power from the Tiger. Then everything went black.
--
Jack sighed and pulled the body next to him closer. He and Ally had gotten into a water fight on their run through the park in the center of the town and now the two of them were resting under a tree, drying off. Jack felt the odd sensation in his chest, right over his heart. He gasped when it intensified. The Red Ranger didn't hear his girlfriend cry out his name, nor did he feel her hands shaking him. All he felt was the punch of power from the Pegasus.
--
The weight machine clanked every time he did a rep. The gym was silent save for that constant noise. The young man sitting on the bench, lifting weights, was oblivious to the world around him. For the first time in a long time, he felt an emotion he never wanted to feel again, and he still hadn't figured out why he was feeling it.
Every time he thought of Sky, he felt sort of empty inside; he didn't like the feeling one bit. It's not like there's any love lost, Brian thought to himself. The only ones who miss him are Bridge, his parents and Syd.
The White Ranger sighed, his heart breaking as the image of his sister collapsed in the middle of the gym floor, screaming Sky's name, flashed before his eyes. Even if he hadn't been so closely linked to Sydney, he'd have known she was hurting just from the look on her face. Bridge had been the only one to be able to clam her, and even then it had been only long enough to get her to the infirmary. The sight of his sister struggling while Dr. Felix and Kat sedated her still haunted him.
God, Sky and I were just joking about Thanksgiving and what to get Syd for Christmas, he thought. For the first time since he'd arrived in New Tech City, he hadn't felt that all consuming animosity between himself and the Blue Ranger when they'd been running the fun house on Halloween. They'd actually laughed and joked and teased each other like they were real friends.
"Hey! Really original costume!" Sky teased when the Blue Ranger neared the fun house.
"I thought it was," he grinned. "Who would think one of us would dress in our Ranger uniform?"
Sky just laughed. "True. That really your Ranger uniform?"
He just shook his head at the condescending yet joking tone Sky asked the question in. "No. Good likeness thought. What about you? I never would have pegged you as a tights kinda guy?" he teased, nodding to the blue tights Sky was wearing.
The Blue Ranger glared but did so with a smirk. "Yeah, well..."
"Oh the things love does to a man," he chuckled.
"You just wait, when you get a girl you find yourself in love with, I'll teas the heck out of you about doing stupid stuff for her," Sky shot back, reaching out to ruffle his hair as he prepared to make the first walk through the Fun House.
"NOT!" he laughed as he walked through the door.
Brian shook his head and started another set of reps. It had barely been a few days, and things already seemed vastly different. Not a bad thing, if Syd wasn't so upset, he thought sourly. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but Sky had definitely been trying to be nice. Their conversation and the afternoon they'd spend together from a week before came back to him and made him feel horrible for thinking it would be better without Sky around.
"You busy?" Sky asked, knocking on the partially open door to his room.
He looked up and saw the Blue Ranger leaning against the door jam, dressed in sweats, an old t-shirt, a Detroit Tigers cap snugged down on his head and a sports bag slung over his shoulder. "Not until five, why?"
"Feel like going outside?" Sky asked casually.
"Why?" he asked, suspicious of the Blue Ranger's motives, as always.
Said Blue Ranger grinned at him. "Ever play baseball before?"
He shook his head. He knew what baseball was, thanks to lots of channel surfing, but he'd never played. "Can't say that I have."
"Then let's go," Sky urged, grinning wider.
"Sky, I don't know how to play," he'd argued, despite how much it pained him to admit he couldn't do something, especially to Sky.
The Blue Ranger shook his head. "Which is why I'm going to teach you. Put on a pair of grubby sweats and a shirt you won't mind messing up. I'll be downstairs, waiting in the lobby."
Brian blew out a breath when he felt himself get shaky at the memory. He and Sky had spent all day out at the baseball diamonds. The Blue Ranger had taught him to pitch, hit, and to catch, all before they'd taken a break to eat the lunch Sydney had packed them.
He was still amazed at how much he and Sky had to say while they'd sat there enjoying the picnic. The Blue Ranger had told him about what it was like growing up the song of billionaires, let alone former Rangers. For someone most people thought was stuck up, Sky, Brian discovered, was pretty down to Earth. The younger Ranger attributed that to Sky not getting his way in the begging of the Red Ranger situation the year before, and because of all he'd been through with Syd and his teammates.
Shaking his head, Brian began concentrating on his work out. He was mildly startled to feel the burning sensation in his chest. When he heard the mournful roar of the Dragon followed by an influx of power, he cried out as if he'd been electrocuted. Just as Sam and Kat entered the gym and called his name, the world went black.
--
Blonde hair lifted gently in the breeze. Blue eyes were closed against the glare of the sun. Cotton candy pink painted toes wiggled briefly in the foamy surf. Memories swam through the troubled mind of the woman standing on the deserted beach. How many times had they come here, for business and pleasure, in the last three years? Too many times to count, she thought, fighting back the despair that was bright as fire inside her. Arms wrapped around her slender waist, Sydney turned to head back to her car. As she trudged through the sand, she felt an odd burning in her chest. Shaking her head, the Pink Ranger absently rubbed a hand over her chest. It was then that she heard the cry of four animals, felt the power rocket from her own animal spirit and then she saw it. Standing right in front of her, tinged in blue light, was the Sphinx.
"Young Phoenix."
"Sphinx."
"My bearer is in trouble, Sydney. She's trying to deceive him."
Sydney smiled sadly. "It takes a lot to deceive Sky, he very rarely believes anything without proof."
"Beware, Phoenix, all will not be as you remember it when you meet him next."
The burning in her chest became noticeable again when Sphinx blinked out of existence. As Sydney fell to her knees, then her stomach, she never saw the others racing down from the parking lot, shouting her name.
--
"How is the reprogramming coming?" Anna asked the leather and chains wearing man. She'd found him several years before on the planet Onyx. He was a relic of Dark Specter's reign, but he was an excellent bodyguard and spy.
"Mistress," he answered, not turning to look at her. "He stopped struggling about a half hour ago. He's only moaned a few times since. I think your slid show is a success."
"Good. When the treatment is finished, take him to my rooms and let him rest."
"Do you think that's a wise idea?" he questioned.
"Let me worry about that. I need someone I can trust watching Viper for a while."
"Of course."
--
"Viper?"
"Sire, I think it may be best to dispose of her sooner rather than later," Viper spoke into the device in his hand. "She seems bent more on playing with her reward than getting you what you asked for."
"I trust your judgment. Do as you see fit, but do not mess up my carefully laid plans, or I will make you regret it!" a voice hissed through the device.
"Yes Sire," Viper murmured, his mind projecting the image of Vampra killing him to the front of his thoughts.
"Good. Report back in five days."
"Yes Sire."
--
She was dreaming. She knew she was dreaming. In her reality, Sky was gone, captured by Anna several nights before during the Halloween party. But here he was now, standing in front of her, staring at her with such hatred and loathing that he made her skin crawl. It was even worse than the time when Wootox had taken over his body and had leered at her suggestively in the confines of her room.
"You dare come to me after you've betrayed me?" he hissed angrily at her, his arms folded over his chest, his blue eyes burning with his power, the same power that he was just discovering he held within.
The blonde haired woman stared in shock after she made sense of his words. "Betray you? Sky, when and how did I betray you?" she frantically asked. "I love you!"
"Don't play innocent with me, WHORE!"
Tears of shock stung her eyes, but she ignored them. "Sky!"
"Don't Sky me!" he growled in warning. "Go back to your Red Ranger! Go back and whore yourself to him! And remember, I will kill you when next we meet!"
"SKY!" Sydney screamed, sitting up in bed, her breathing labored, tears streaming steadily down her cheeks. The vile taste of her dream lingered in her mouth while fear turned to shock. Sitting at the foot of her bed was a gently blue giant who was becoming as familiar to her as her Phoenix. "Sphinx?"
He nodded, and then to Sydney's astonishment three birds – two colored in pink and one in white – appeared. "Crane? Falcon? Phoenix?"
"He needs your love, and your understanding, now more than ever, Sydney," Crane spoke softly but clearly, making sure her bearer's daughter understood her words.
"He called me a whore," she murmured, the pain of his glare still resonating through her. "He said I betrayed him."
"She feeds him lies," Falcon spoke to her, his voice soothing and fatherly.
Sydney implored them with her eyes. "Why would he believe such a thing?" she softly cried to them.
"Like you, he's human, Sydney. She's played to his feelings of not being worthy," Crane explained to her.
The Pink Ranger looked confused. "Not worthy of what?"
"Of being Red Ranger, of being with you," Phoenix finally spoke up. "He has insecurities, Sydney, just like you, and she's playing to them. It's your job to break through the lies and show him the truth."
"Tell me what to do."
"It's not that simple," Falcon told her, his heart breaking when his bearer's daughter looked at him with anguish-filled eyes. "We must hit him from all sides, but you and Sphinx must work together. You're going to have to exploit any opening you're given."
Sydney nodded. She understood that it could be a while before she gets him back. "A piece of advice," Crane murmured soothingly. "Don't let him see you and the Pegasus alone together, it'll only make your attempts to free him harder."
"Alright," Sydney murmured, Sky's words about her whoring herself to the Red Ranger coming back full force. Crane's advice explained so little, and yet, so much.
"We'll be in touch," Falcon said just before he and Crane disappeared. Phoenix and Sphinx remained, each quiet but staring at Sydney intently.
"And what about you two?"
"Are you going to be alright?" Phoenix asked, her polished reserve dropping. The mythical bird looked sad and worried about her bearer.
Sydney swallowed hard, Phoenix's worry undoing her tenuous control of her emotions. "I miss him the way I missed you – there's a piece of my heart missing – only this time, it's so much larger."
Phoenix nodded her head in understanding. "I'm always here if you need me." That said, the pink bird disappeared, leaving Sphinx sitting quietly with Sydney.
"I have a present for you," he told her, his eyes closing. As he blinked out of sight, Sydney fell into a deep sleep where she dreamed of happier times.