A/N: rated M for a little bit of cruelty ad violence.

Ch- 19: Chances

"FREEZE! SPACE PATROL DELTA!" Sydney Drew's voice yelled, as she, leading the rest of the A-squad, and a little bit of B-squad, all morphed, who had all recovered, now, but minus the younger Sky, Z and Draco; (Ruth and Richie were still out, without any knowledge of the events in progress.)

They were met be a shocking sight. Their commander, Schuyler Tate slumped almost on the floor by the couch, a judgment scanner in hand, the other commander Elizabeth Tate, breathless, and trying to uphold herself, just as a person… Bridge Carson, slowly, almost dramatically slumped to the floor, his left temple oozed out gallons of blood, painting the house's carpets red.

"seems like you didn't need backup after all" Syd remarked, smirking at the sight, not knowing the whole extent of the mental and physical damages.

It seemed like Sky and Z had absolutely not noticed Syd's presence even though she had very loudly announced her arrival. Sky crawled all the way over to the extremely wounded Z, who was still morphed, and he placed a hand around her back, slumped slightly over her, and gently kissed her forehead, from over the helmet. She looked at him, and with the closeness between them, he could see her tear filled eyes through the helmet, and she pressed her head against his chest. He reached over to her hand, and pressed a button on her morpher, and her helmet came down, not the complete suit, just the helmet, and she looked into his eyes… they were there, and they had made it.

Sky let himself relax a bit, and leaned back, against nothing in particular, but the tension in his chest was released, and he closed his eyes, pressing his forehead against hers, and then Z also leaned into his chest, her own tensions releasing. He wrapped his arms around her, and then lied completely back on the floor, supporting her as a cushion.

Some rangers stumbled around awkwardly, to help Sky and Z, but Syd held a hand, signaling that she would go herself.

She bent over the dead body first, checking the pulse, and then certifying that yes, he was definitely dead, then she made her way over to Z and Sky. Sky was awake, his eyelids were open just a little, gazing lovingly at his wife; she on the other hand was completely passed out.

Syd went over and helped him out. They carried her over to the emergency medical van, which Syd had anticipated. The other cadets, very carefully carried the dead body of Bridge Carson out.

Only after Bridge and Z were out of there, did Syd pull Sky aside to talk.

"you guys managed it pretty well didn't you?" she asked, proudly.

"Z handled him. I was just a handicap for her. By the time I had arrived, she had had him at her mercy, but then she had gotten distracted, and well he then turned the tables. Maybe she would've handled him better if I hadn't come."

"how did he die?" Syd asked, almost knowing the answer.

"committed suicide."

X-X-X

Commander Sky Tate sat leaning back in the New Tech City hospital's special Space Patrol vault. The injuries sustained by the young Sky, Z, Draco and commander Z, were a little too severe, and Dr. Felix suggested it'd be better if they're shifted into the hospital. There they were being treated by that medic alien, who kept on saying that he 'owed' them, because they had actually listened to him, taken down time to track DZ Vaughn, and cleared his name. According to him, all four of them would be perfectly good to go in two days. Which frankly, he said, was overestimating the time, since he had treated Sky Tate's paralysis in less than an hour. He really knew what he was doing, and an ingratiated alien with crazy medic skills is all SPD could ask for. In fact, if the commanders allowed, he planned to take up a job in NewTech city only.

It was about six hours after the initial treatments, and their anesthesia had just worn off.

"so what he just felt bad and killed himself?" younger Sky asked, after commander Tate had narrated Bridge Carson's suicide.

"or maybe he heard the police sirens, realized that he would never be able to get out, and decided his time was up. Better death than the prison at Yitrius."

"Yitrius?" Z asked.

"the prison for the worst criminals" Draco explained, "it has only three inmates till date, all worse than the last. It's a kind of solitary confinement, where robots give all orders for the labor reformative therapy. Solitude combined with painfully hard labor is supposed to be reform, but in my opinion these people are beyond reform. I remember the last one they had sent there had been arrested for the mass murder of a whole tribe in Central America, with a chainsaw." Sky and Z winced hearing that.

"anyway," Z said, "why did he leave me? He could've just killed me with himself, why let me go and die himself?"

"don't tell me your words touched him sooo much" younger Z said in a mocking voice.

"I hardly believe that" Sky himself admitted, "he was incorrigible. But maybe something happened. I am not sure."

"what changed in him was something quite strange, but I think something did happen. Something happened in him, maybe our words, maybe some greater realization?"

"or maybe he'd had enough of it?" Sky suggested, and the commanders, Z and Draco, all looked at him, and pondered his peculiar statement.

"maybe he was sick of running around?"

"I think he had intended this to be the endgame" older Z nodded,

"yeah, either you live or he does" Draco nodded,

"maybe he realized that your love was stronger than his hate, and decided it'd be better to die rather than staying alive and watching you two together"

"or maybe he wanted his love to be happy, even if it wasn't with him?" Z suggested, and commander Z looked at her, wondering IF that might be the case.

Finally Sky sighed, "in the end, whatever he had in his mind, we'd never know"

"bottom line is that we're together, and will be," and everyone agreed.

Commander Delgado sat up, and Commander Tate kissed her softly, which, for once, the younger Sky and Z didn't wince. Rather she gave him a flying kiss from across the ward, and the older duo looked at each in wonder. As Sky smiled happily, while Z's expression darkened a little.

"what's this little situation?" he asked with an amused grin, knowing exactly what the situation was.

"we're…. kinda… sorta….. dating?" Sky looked uncertainly at Z, "you haven't actually confirmed what we… ARE yet"

"yes, Sky, we ARE dating" she replied with a smile, then immidiately made her wince as her jaw hurt from the injury.

"THAT'S AMAZING!" commander's eyes were completely lit up!

"Sky I think we need to talk" older Z gestured to older Sky and the two looked awkwardly at each other, and then at the other three in the infirmary.

"you can't get ANY privacy here" Draco said grinning, and lifting up his plastered leg, and wincing, still trying to sustain his chuckle.

"alright" Z sighed, "but you wouldn't like it" she said.

"Sky, count time o'clock was Bridge." she revealed, and the others looked at her in surprise, "which is why he immediately went off the grid the moment you guys were stuck here"

"yeah. It's not like we didn't search for him… but we couldn't find any sort of Clocksworth Bio signs, which meant nobody from that planet, specifically Count Time o'clock, wasn't anywhere in our vicinity." Drake added, and the others nodded.

"that was Bridge's backup plan," Z said, "he explained it to me, because he thought I might never live to reveal it to anyone else" to that they heard the other commander mutter a string of curses that were… disturbing… to everyone in the room.

"anyway" Z said, guiding everyone away, "he felt that if you two get t spend so much time together, you might end up dating each other… BUT then if the events take a toll, you might split up, and I might end up with Bridge. But that would mean that Sky here might end up being the psychopathic-rapist-slash-murderer. It also chances the risk of removing two persons' existence."

"two persons?" Draco asked.

"Richard and Friedrich." Sky supported.

"yes" Z nodded, "we don't know what might happen if you go back into the past with memories of your time in the future. You might try to change it, or you might not try to change it, yet something will change. It is inevitable, because as we see, you two already are together. Everything is a little too uncertain"

"why can't you remove our memories?" younger Z asked, "Dr. Manx removed the Dino Thunder ranger's memories when they had landed up in the future with us?"

"yeah, but those were the memories of just a day and a half. You two have been here almost two weeks!" Z was almost in a panicky state, "if we erase your memories and send you back, there is no telling what we might delete. You two might just end up in a mental asylum, because you won't even know who you are!"

"what if we don't delete the memories, but pretend like we did. Like we just try not to think about whatever happened between us?" Sky suggested.

"then we'd try to avoid each other, and that itself can create a change in the timeline" younger Z was beginning to understand.

"how bad can it be? You know the change in the timeline?" young Sky asked, and commander Tate completely agreed, "what do we have to fear Z?" he addressed both of them, "if we found each other once, why not again?" he took his wife's hand in his own, "Z if we were meant to be, there is nothing in the universe that can change it"

She looked at him, painfully, "but Sky what if we weren't? what if all of this was just a matter of chance? One in a million?"

"Z—" Sky was interrupted by Draco, "do you people even know what's on the stake?"

The other four turned to look at him, "I can't believe how selfish you are being!" he seemed a little angry, "it isn't just about the two of you! Or four" he added as an afternote, "but about so many other people who's lives are influenced by you! Look at it this way, suppose it's an atom, you four are the nucleus, everyone who's lives are affected by you are the electrons in your orbit. Your behavior affects them, and theirs affects yours!"

"what's your point?"

"my POINT, is that, there are people who have lost their lives to Bridge Carson. including Carson himself. It is they who will benefit or detriment from your choice. If Carson goes good, and you take his place instead, you might end up killing more people or less. Or you might not kill any people at all since Sky here knows what happens in the future." He realized by the faces of others that they were completely lost in his explanation, "guys it isn't about you. He killed other people who might be saved if these two go back and change the timeline" he explained simply.

"he has a point" older Z said, a little ashamed, "we were just thinking about ourselves"

All the others nodded in agreement, neither sure about what to say or what to do. Draco had a point, "Z, your call" Sky said.

All eyes turned to commander Tate.

She was still a little uncertain, but she said, "alright…" she sighed, she was the commander of SPD, and she had to put the benefit of the people above her own wishes. And the best for the people would be if there never WERE a psychopath named Bridge Carson. "Let us leave it to chance."

X-X-X

Richie and Ruth were only allowed to see their mother after twelve hours, i.e. six more hours after Sky had, which had been set acc. their doctor's prescription. When they had met their injured mother, who was finally out of danger, they grasped her in a heart wrenchingly emotional hug. They didn't let her go for quite a while, and then finally when they did, they all talked, all the events were narrated, both at the Villa, with DZ Vaughn, and the one at the Tate mansion with Bridge Carson.

X-X-X

Meanwhile, the A-Squad undertook a raid of the Carson-Villa, uncovering a bunch of dead bodies, which were just rotting in the basement. There were humans, aliens, cyborgs, all brutally massacred alike. The basement was ringed with blood, and all those people's possessions were still lying untouched.

Going through it, surely enough, Sam found the dead body of Count Time o'clock, stripped naked, and without anything that had been his own originally.

The sight of the basement led many of the squad members to throw up their lunch.

So anyway, he found the clothes, which had been sported by the murderer when he had come back to the past, and the devices he had used to travel through time. there were also a whole bunch of fake IDs and passports, and visas, which maybe he used to get around. He had a LOT of 'mementoes' such as brooches, pens, trinkets, there was even a teddy bear. It was impossible to identify to whom these belonged, but it was painful to think that all that was left of a person on this planet maybe was a brooch, or a teddy bear.

What a monster he had been! It horrified the whole A-squad, as they tore apart his cave of brutality.

But on the brighter side, they now had accounts of a bunch of murders, dead body, as well as criminal, AND they could send their guests from the past back home.

X-X-X

It was another twelve hours later, and Sky, Z and Draco were finally discharged. Sky and Z returned to their room, back at the academy, Sam and Ruth are there to escort them, and make sure they stay out of trouble.

They don't land up in any sort of trouble.

It was about ten at night, when they were finally at the room, which had become their home.

"it's up to us isn't it?" Sky slowly asked Z, once they were all alone in that room.

"I guess it is" she smiled, softly.

"what will we do?"

"we'll let time tell us what to do…"

And then they kissed.

X-X-X

"I'm here to take you home" her husband slowly whispered, as he wrapped his arms around her waist, "do you want to come home?"

"where is home Sky?" she asked, her eyes clouding with tears.

"where we are together" he whispered, resting his head in the nook of her neck.

"what if it all changes? What if we're not together anymore?"

"then your home will be with whoever would keep you happy then" he replied.

"only you can keep me happy Sky!"

"then I'll be there. You can trust fate that much"

"I love you Sky"

"I love you too Z"

He looked up, at the stars, visible through the transparent glass ceiling of the room, and she looked up with him. The stars would stay the same, everything else might change. And no matter how things changed in the past, present or future, they had a feeling they'd still be there, stargazing… together.

A/N: The Dino Thunder/SPD team-up (History, not Wormhole) has already happened in this storyline.

A/N(2):Next is the last chapter of the fic! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!