A/N: ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT! I had put in some really really shitty stuff in it, and i had forgotten that i hadn't removed it! i beg you people, I AM SORRY! so here it ism edited, and sans all that f$#kery!

Ch- 17: Choices

Her morpher!

It was in the bedroom! If only she could get to it, she'd morph and that could easily sustain her until Sky arrived with Ruth and Richie. In fact, with the morpher, she could urge them to come quickly! She could call for reinforcements!

But how the hell was she supposed to get to the morpher? She couldn't even stand up straight let alone make her way to the room?

Her duplicating powers!

Bridge was too busy healing himself to notice what she was doing. For him, she was done for, he probably hadn't thought of the civilian powers. She duplicated herself, in the bedroom, but immediately realized it had been a mistake. Z couldn't, simply couldn't reach the morpher, her energy had been divided among two, and it had left her completely incapacitated.

But anyway, she removed herself, using her powers, from the living room, concentrating herself in the bedroom, and felt relieved as she could stand with a little support from the bed. She reached for her morpher, and whispered, only barely, "SPD…emergency" and morphed into the IX ranger, aka the Delta Ranger, second only to the Deka Ranger, X, aka her husband, Sky Tate.

She felt a rush of morphin energy rush through her, and made her way to the living room again, her delta saber in her hand, ready for another hard fight.

"hey Bridgey" she smirked, a few feet behind him, her blade pointed at his neck, and he was frozen in his spot, knowing another move by him results in something that'd really hurt!

"So, you managed to morph huh?" he asked, trying to steer the conversation, and distract her, so that he could do something that wouldn't hurt so much.

"what are you trying to do Bridge?" Z asked, immediately knowing he was up to something.

"nothing, I was just wondering whether you'd like to hear about what I planned to do with you if you ever came into my grasp" he said, "of course I wo't be able to do any of it now that you have me at your mercy" he said, and Z knew it was ruse.

"I know what you were planning to do to me." Z said, gravely.

"oh no you didn't" he replied, playfully, "what did you think? That I'd rape you? Then kill you?" very innocently he asked, "Well, honestly, that doesn't even begin to describe what I've been fantasizing about for the past years"
Z felt her dinner coming up, she knew that if she let herself fall, it'd be so painful for her that 'perpetual mental scars' would be an underestimation.

She knew if she ran the judgment scanner on him, he'd have a full minute to do whatever he wanted, while she'd have to hold the scanner, unable to defend herself. She had to stall him, more or less till Sky and the others arrived. She had already sent the SOS. But she didn't want to stall him with talks like this. She didn't want to be mentally disturbed for the rest of her life. He also seemed to be willing to talk, just a little bit more, maybe he was also waiting for something… maybe an opportunity.

She had to be careful, even if she had him at her mercy.

"so, Bridge, what do you think about the house? It was really hard to set it right after your last attack" she said, casually striking up a conversation.

"you know, it's really cool" he replied, willing to stall, "I love what you've done with the rugs, you know, not many people would put four mismatched rugs in an redwood living room floor!" he remarked.

"well, some of Sky's mom's friends had gone to Iran, and when they came back, they got us too many of these Persian rugs… we had to put them somewhere no?" Z asked matter-of-factly.

"what about the chandelier?"

"it's my choice" she shrugged, "I was really heartbroken when you shot through it at my daughter" Z said.

"the daughter part or the chandelier part?" he asked, just to make conversation, he was still looking for her to relax so that he could snatch the weapon out of her hands and turn the tables.

"how dare you ask me that?" Z scoffed.

"I still don't get which one," he said, matter-of-factly, and smirked, "you don't really seem to love your daughter. Or at least the kid you from the past doesn't" he said, and it hit Z somewhere she didn't want it to.

"how do you know about Sky and Z being here?" she asked, that was more important.

"Do you really think Count Time o'clock is an actual alien?" he asked, innocently enough.

"what the hell do you mean Bridge? he was alien enough. He even has an SPD record!" Z said, frustrated with his mind games.

"Count Time o'clock… you haven't seen him since the time he disappeared when Sky and Z first landed, right?" Bridge asked. He had a point; they hadn't heard form Count Time o'clock since the attack, (in chapter 2) not that they had bothered to look, as they had been busy with DZ Vaughn and Bridge himself, considering the number of surprising discoveries, but now, looking back, Z realized how casual of them it had been to just let go of a criminal.

"whatever" Z said, "he already has a criminal record" she said, there was no way what Bridge was saying could be true. Count Time o'clock had been around for like what? Fifty years!"

"oh my poor baby" Bridge said, mockingly, "you're sssoooo naïve"

Z felt her heartbeat skipping, "what the fricking hell are you trying to say?"

"Z, I was count Time o'clock. Not always, but one day, he came in my way, so I killed him. Then I went through his belongings, which even allowed me to masquerade as him; I now had a lot of time-resources available to me, I could literally change history. Make history. Break history. So, I decided, God was giving me another chance to redo my mistakes, and so, here I did it."

"what do you mean Bridge?" she asked, knowing fully well what he meant.

"Sky and Z are going to go back into the present, their present, our past, they're closer already. It'll be only a matter of time before they start dating… and as time progresses, as you felt like we were drifting apart, someday, those two will feel the same, and then, guess what? I'll swoop in. who knows, then maybe Sky will be the one with a bounty on his head." Bridge smirked, and Z had to admit, it was a pretty good plan. It was going to be well executed too, considering that since the memory removal tech had had quite a few accidents; they had to be extremely careful. Two days, three days, which was damaging enough for a person's memory, a whole week: that might leave some permanent scars. She didn't need any more permanent scars on her memory. It was Sky's call, whether save the world a murderer or the cost of his own sanity, go insane, and not alter the future a bit, or remain sane, but at the expense of all those people that he has tortured, raped and murdered.

It was a 70-30% chance. 70% they won't make through the memory release, 30% they do. It would be Sky's call, as he was the head, but he would consult her beforehand. She didn't know what to do. Erasing memories of Conner Ethan and Kira had been easy, for they hadn't been here for more than 24 hours, maybe even less, it wouldn't have had an impact, but Sky and Z, they had been there fr almost a week, and they would definitely get something bungled up in their heads if their memories of a whole damned week were to be erased.

Oh, Bridge Carson was horribly smart. Smart and evil.

"whatever, Sky will do what is best!" Z snarled.

"I just don't get what you saw in that jerk, you know," Bridge said, abruptly changing the topic.

"he isn't a jerk" Z defended her husband.

"he is, Z, don't delude yourself" Bridge replied, irate.

"I'm not! You are."

"oh really?"

"yes Bridge, you really are deluding yourself," a heavy, baritone voice said from behind, and Z's face lit up, though it wasn't visible behind her helmet; she felt so damn relieved!

Sky Tate was here.

X-X-X

When Sky Tate had received a message from his wife, urging him to come home quickly, he had anticipated it was because something was up. in no dream of his had he anticipated it to be something this dire. Sometimes Z just called him home because she was worried something might happen to him; just her own paranoia regarding Bridge, and this is what he had thought had happened this time.

He told Ruth and Richie —who were selecting the flavor of ice cream at the time, even though they were too old to argue on it— that they had to hurry some. The two of them said they'd had something to talk about, so they'd catch up a little later, so Sky set home alone, cuz his wife had asked him to.

He entered through the front door, using his spare key, and

Sky felt chills run up his spine, when he saw the scene in his living room... he needed to do something quick!

X-X-X

Meanwhile in the dark streets on New Tech City, two youngsters were walking together. The girl had a beer can in her hand, and the guy had a Sting bottle, cuz he wasn't legal drinking age. As soon as their father had left them, thy had dropped the idea of ice-cream, and gone to a general store to get their respective drinks, that kept them awake through most of the lectures at SPD.

"so?" Ruth asked her half-brother, after all, this had been his idea, "you didn't just get us away so you could get a Sting, right?"

"nope. If I need a sting, I can get it at the academy."

"well, you're too nice to ditch dad for a beer for me, so spill it. What do you want?" she asked, taking another sip.

"you know that if mom and dad find out, they're gonna kill us?"

"they can never kill us baby bro. and nope, they'll never find out" she added, smirking, joking about their parents never got old!

"Ruth, jokes aside, tell me one thing though, how did you find mom?" he asked, it was something he had always wondered, but never thought about asking; today, after the family meeting, he felt like this was the right time.

"what?" she was taken aback, this might've been the first time in years that she had actually hear Richie Tate say something so… human. (and that was excluding all the painful jabs)

"I asked you how you managed to find mom. I mean if I was in your place, I'd have been lost. How the hell did you find out where you came from?"

She wondered whether she should tell him, or not… he'd be judgmental, as he had always been, calling her illegitimate, and whatnot.

"I just did… it was easy" she replied.

"you're lying." He said, accusingly.

"I know I'm lying." She admitted.

"then why are you?"

"why should I tell you how I found Mrs. Tate?"

"Why TF not?" he asked, and damn he looked irritated.

"don't swear" Ruth said, snarkily.

"why aren't you telling me?"

"what have you done to earn my trust except for being judgmental about me? Be my friend first, then we'll talk" she replied.

"I'm your brother"

"half brother, remember?"

"still, we're related by blood, you shouldn't hide anything from me!"

"and YOU shouldn't call me illegitimate, a slut, or any of the hurtful things you say about me, just because I was born of a tragedy!" Ruth said, and she tried to hurry off.

Richie realized how insensitive he had been. He hadn't even realized what a jerk he had been. Why had he never been so incredibly nasty to her? He felt so guilty, and horrible, and felt like he needed to make it up to her.

"Ruth! Wait" he ran up behind her, "I'm sorry Ruth." He said, and yelled a hurried apology about how sad he was and how idiotic he had been, being so inconsiderate about his SISTER. He finally said that he didn't need to know what Ruth had said. It'd be her choice, if she ever decided to trust him enough to do so.

Ruth smiled, just a little, and placed a hand on his shoulder, "all in due time, brother, maybe someday that day will also come"

He also smiled, a little sadly, and the two walked around together circling back to the house. They were close enough for casual conversations, and had accepted each other, even stuck up for each other once in a while, but they weren't close enough for such heart to heart talks. That'd be something they'd have to work to build in the future. Someday, maybe they'd actually be truly open with each other.

But Richie's question had actually made her think back to her mother finding out about stuff.

She remembered her foster family. She had absolutely no memory of her mother, or father, and as far as she remembered, she was living with them.

They had told her, they had told Ruth about her real parentage when she had been thirteen. She was so shocked when she had found out, and she didn't know anything about her parents. She now knew she was adopted, she needed to know more. She went to the adoption agency to find out about who left her there. Turned out that her mother had been there, and had just left her there without a word, left her there the day she was born, so they had her birth-date right. She decided she didn't need to know anything about her mother, who was so cruel that she had left her baby the day she was born. What kind of a mother was that?

Then when she turned twenty-three, her adopted parents died in a car-crash. So she decided she should hunt her parents. The major lead was the fact that she had powers. She was looking for someone with powers. By that time, she had made it into SPD, the job of her dreams. And she realized that both of her commanders, as well as the trainers-slash-nurse, AND a boy in her squad had powers. It was so awesome. She felt as if her spectrum for the search had been narrowed. This was going to be easy. She paid another visit to the orphanage, and talked to the warden, and the receptionist. Finally, she found out what had been disturbing her for so long, but what she had been afraid to find out: why her mother had left her.

And Ruth couldn't help it, but feel sorry for her mother when she found out why her mother left her. she herself had been a teenage girl. She decided she should forgive her mother for this cruel act, because she had been in a very vulnerable situation herself. Seeing one picture of her mom, Ruth knew for one thing: Commander Tate was her mother. The likeness was undeniable. The same almond shaped chocolate eyes, and the same flowy hair, and the same soft jaw line. It was her. She was Ruthanne Delgado-Tate.

Then she confronted Z Tate, and Z was shocked. At first, she almost passed out, and took the support of her chair to steady herself. Then she smiled at her, tears in her eyes, and she hugged her daughter tightly. Z told her that she had always regretted giving her up. She had had her own problems. Z never could forgive herself for what she had done. Ruth couldn't remember how many times her mother had told her that she'd never let her go. Then she met the rest of her family. Her now-father, and commander of the earth branch, Sky Tate who was such a nice guy, that he was so supportive about all of it. He had been so damn surprised at first, he looked at her as if she were a medical specimen, then Z had expained the whole story, and she saw the temper rising in his eyes as he learnt that the woman he loved had endured so much pain. He sat through the nights with Z, consoling her, of her sorrows and wounds that had opened up. He truly loved her more than anything in the universe, which was what had made Z bold enough to face her past, and accept it. He had come to talk to Ruth some time after what had happened, and he had very softly told her that he loved her mother, and that he'd love her too, he just needed to get to know her. he told Ruth that he was there for her, and if EVER she needed anything, she could contact her father, without hesitation. He would always be there for both of his girls.

Ruth still hated her biological father though. And she knew of an encounter between her new father and her real father, which Sky had asked her to not tell Z about. After Z had told him about the rape, Sky had decided to track that wretched guy, and teach him a 'lesson'. He had pounded him, and today, he was resting in a confinement card.

She had a loving family, now, and had had for quite a long while, so she actually had never had any grudges against her mother, and after actually finding out about her mother, and everything else, all she could do was be grateful, even if her brother was kinda a jerk. But hey, all brothers are kind of jerks right? He had her back when she hadn't revealed her boyfriend to her parents. So maybe she should open up to him?

"hey Richie," she suddenly looked up, and he looked back at her and asked, "yeah?"

"I'll trust you. Let me tell you how I found my mother"

A/N: i know the story's moving real slow, but it literally has like three chapters left, so i'm dragging it... bye until next time!