Chapter 34: Compromise and marks.
"So, Tao," Jen asked after summoning the robot from her own glove, "What was the task of the apples of the Hesperides about?"
"It was Heracles' penultimate task," the robot started, without any mention of their disappearance or his own confinement. "Eurystheus asked him to pluck three golden apples from the tree of the Hesperides. The most difficult part was finding the garden, which was secret. These apples were a present from Gaia, the Earth-mother, to Hera and Zeus on their wedding. Hera planted them in her garden and sent a one-hundred-headed monster to look after them."
"We can safely assume what happened to the poor monster," Alex said. "It got killed." Jen snorted at his comment, but Tao shook his head.
"You are wrong, Heracles never came in contact with the monster, and therefore it was never killed," the robot said. "Heracles set off towards the west, where the garden was rumored to be located. On his way, he met some river nymphs who told him that Nereus, the old man of the sea, would know the whereabouts of the garden. Heracles found him, and then forced the old god to give him directions."
"How does one force a god to give directions?" Jen asked playfully.
"By choking him long enough, in Heracles case. Nereus could turn himself into many forms, including fire and water, but Heracles hung onto him until he had no choice but to give him directions. Moving on, Heracles found the titan Prometheus, who had been punished by having his liver torn out by vultures every day, as it grew back every night. Heracles liberated the Titan from his punishment, and he told the hero not to pick the apples himself, but to ask another Titan, Atlas, to do it for him. After a long journey, full of useless battles and unnecessary killings, Heracles found the garden, and remembering the advice from Prometheus went straight to Atlas, who had been given the burden to carry the world on his shoulders."
"That explains why the Brotherhood told us we might feel the weight of the world is on our shoulders," Alex said.
"It's either that or they plan to make us carry really big boulders," Jen answered, rather gloomily.
"Little ray of sunshine, aren't you?" Alex commented with a smirk.
"Huh! We'll see!" she said, unable to suppress her own smirk.
"Keep going, Tao," Alex asked.
"Well, Heracles approached Atlas and offered to take the burden of the world off him if he went and fetched three apples from the golden tree. The Titan thought this was an easy way to rid himself of the burden and agreed. Heracles took the world on his back, and Atlas went to get the apples. When the Titan returned with the apples, he offered to take them to King Eurystheus himself, refusing to take back his burden. Heracles pretended to like carrying the burden, and asked Atlas to hold the world for him for a minute, so he could bind his own head with ropes to release some pressure causing him pain. The Titan was a little slow and took back the burden. Heracles took the apples and set off, leaving the Titan deceived with his own trickery.
Heracles gave the apples to King Eurystheus, who admired their beauty but didn't know what to do with them, so he handed them back to the hero, who, not knowing what to do with them either, gave them to Athena. The goddess took them back to the garden, where they belonged."
"King Eurystheus is such an ass! He asks Heracles to bring him things he either doesn't know what to do with, or sacrifices them to Hera!" Jen snapped.
"Yeah, but this is a nice story. It's mostly about brains over brawn, literally," Alex said.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm tired," Jen said, sitting on the floor. Alex sat next to her.
"I'm tired too. Tired and hungry." He proceeded to check his glove and found the chocolate they had kept from before. "You want some chocolate?"
"Sure," Jen said. He handed her a piece and they sat back and ate. "I would pay to see the babies again!" she said suddenly.
"Me too. I wonder how long we've been here. I've completely lost track of time."
"It could have been a month; it could have been a year, who knows?"
"It definitely hasn't been a year, Jennifer, maybe a month, or two, but not a year."
"Who knows?" She shrugged and finished her chocolate. "I wish we had a basket, I'm so hungry, and we don't have any food saved."
"Yeah, I know the feeling," he said. "Well, let's keep on moving; the sooner we get knocked unconscious by something, the sooner we get something to eat." They laughed at the comment, got up, and kept walking.
After a couple of minutes of silent walking, Alex cleared his throat, as if preparing to say something important. There was something he had wanted to bring back into conversation, and he felt it was the right time. Jen looked like she was open to discuss the matter, and even reach a compromise solution. "Jen," he began.
"Yes?"
"Have you given any thought to the returning to the Force thing?" he asked bluntly.
Jen remained silent for a few seconds. She had thought of it, she had weighed her options and she had decided she was willing to compromise on it. "Yes, I have," she said simply.
"Good. I was thinking, I'd really like to go back, you know? Time Force is really my thing, it's what I really like to do," he said, telling her he wanted to go back, but not making her feel threatened.
"I know it is," she said. "Time Force is not only what you do best, is what keeps you alive. It keeps that fire burning in your heart, capturing the crooks, running after the mutants, the explosions, it's what you live for," she said, looking at him for the first time since their conversation had started.
"It was what I lived for, Jen. Now I have you, and the kids, but I think the only thing I'm missing to be absolutely and completely content with my life, is to have my job back." He stopped walking and took her hand in his. "We can do this. We have done this in the past. We are a great team, Jen, just look how far we have gotten all by ourselves in these crazy tasks. I won't ever let anything bad happen to you, or our babies, and I promise I'll be very careful with myself too."
She looked at him, her face blank. He remained silent for a few seconds, looking at her, his eyes begging in a deep way his words couldn't. She swallowed hard and looked to the wall behind him. "Only as officers, not Rangers," she whispered very softly.
"What?" he asked in a controlled voice.
"Only as officers," she repeated. "I don't want us to be the Power Rangers anymore."
He remained silent, looking at her face. She still refused to look at him. It was a very good compromise. "Are you sure?" he asked one last time.
"Yes, I'm sure." She finally looked at him and couldn't suppress a smile. "I have to admit I have missed it too." He let out a happy scream and picked her up by the waist and twirled her around in the air.
Putting her back on the floor, he kissed her. "Thank you, baby. I promise I'll be very careful."
"Of course you will, I'll be there by your side all the time. We have to be partners!" she added as an afterthought demand.
"Of course we have to be partners!" he said happily, hugging her again and kissing her. "I wouldn't want to be partners with anybody else," he added sincerely.
She smiled and kissed him softly. "I'm glad you're happy."
"You keep making me happy, in every way." He took her hand and kissed it.
They walked silently for a few minutes again, and after a few minutes they found something that pleased them very much: the Brotherhood had left them a basket in the middle of the corridor.
"Food!" Alex called and ran for the basket, with Jen on his tail. They both sat down next to the basket and Alex opened it. The first thing he withdrew was a photograph of two baby boys, about two months old, awake, and looking straight at the camera. On the back were written the words: "It's only been six weeks." He remained silent, and looked at the babies, his children, and from the photograph, they seemed to be looking back. Silently, he handed the photo to Jen, who took it with a trembling hand.
"Six weeks," she whispered after reading the back of the photo. "They are almost two months old now," she whispered, caressing the photograph lovingly. "They've got your eyes, told you so," she told Alex.
"Yeah, but they have your smile."
"Just like we always wanted," she said, on the verge of tears. He moved towards her and hugged her.
"Hey, we'll get them back," he promised. "We'll get them back and everything will be fine."
"I know," she said, drying her tears. After comforting her for a second, he put his hand back in the basket and pulled out a rose.
"Look, a rose for my lady," he said, handing it over to her.
"It's beautiful," she said, looking at him with a smile. "Roses were my mother's favorite flowers, they were her sign flowers; she was a Libra."
"Well, now we know what sign we are dealing with, Libra."
"Yes. What's for eating? I'm starving!" she said, putting the rose and the photo aside.
Alex pulled out a small container and opened it. "Seems to be fish," he said, handing it over.
"Let's eat," she suggested, and he nodded. They ate swiftly and silently, and after they were done, they laid back against one of the corridor's walls, Jen looking at the picture of her babies, as she absentmindedly ran the petals of the rose over her cheek. Alex sat looking at her. Eventually, Jen fell asleep, used to napping after meals. He looked at her for a few moments, and then became distracted by the palms of his hands.
In ordinary circumstances, and until six weeks ago, the palms of his hands were something he wouldn't normally look at, but since they had started this journey every task they managed to get through was tattooed on the palms of their hands. He had often wondered why the palm of the hand, but had never come up with an answer.
At the moment he had eight tattoos, four in each hand. On his right palm, near the thumb were Sagittarius in purple and Aries in red; at the base of his middle finger was Gemini in a golden yellow; and at the base of his ring finger, clashing terribly with his wedding band, was Leo in orange, the first one they had gotten.
On his let hand, near the thumb was Taurus, in a pale blue. Below his index and middle fingers was Cancer in gray and below it was Virgo in blue, their latest one. Below Virgo and Taurus was Capricorn in green.
Staring at his palms, he tried to guess where the four remaining tattoos would be, and their respective colors. After only a few minutes, Jen woke up, startled, and looked guiltily at him. "Did I doze off?" she asked.
"Yes, but it's okay. I was admiring our tattoos," he said, showing her the palms of his hands. She turned her own hands over and showed identical marks.
"This is to remind us how long it has been."
"No, it's to remind us how far we've gotten, and how close we are to the end," he corrected her.
"You're right, we are so close now," she agreed.
"Yes, I say we keep going, we have a new task waiting for us."
"A golden tree, the weight of the world, a one-hundred headed monster," she enumerated.
"And a new tattoo."
To be continued…