"Damnit!" There was a crash and Kira winced.
It had been barely a minute after Hayley, managing by some miracle of time and intellect and pure tenacity, to force the teleportators back into working order and recalled the group who had gone to the Ninja Academy. The second they saw Tori, still sobbing over the limp form of Blake, and the two geniuses still working hard to keep the badly injured Dustin alive, the unconscious Tyler and the further injured Andros, Hayley had rushed off with Tsuki and Billy, taking the dying yellow to the same infirmary that Kira had taken the unconscious stranger from before, carrying Tyler with them; despite screams to be allowed to go along, struggling around Hunter's grasp, Laura had been left behind, shaking. Whether from anger or frustration or sorrow, it was entirely too hard to tell; Hunter refused to look at Tori, at the remains of his younger brother, and his grip seemed almost too tight. Andros quickly followed Hayley and the others once the exact extent to his injuries became apparent, helping Tori up to bring her along as well before shuffling after them and placing a hand on Tommy's shoulder before leaving; he gave the other ex-red a weak smile then disappeared off to the infirmary with the quiet blue ninja.
This left six of them and Kira took a step back as Merrick, in fit of rage, slammed his fist against the wall, leaving a slight indent. Ileana frowned and tried to grab his arm, pulling on him. "Merrick, stop it."
"She killed him, Lana!" the wolf warrior exclaimed, turning to his sister and there was plenty of anger in his eyes. But there was more, Tommy knew it all too well; there was disappointment and pain and a broken wish that maybe it wasn't true. Merrick had been hoping, deep down, while worrying about his sister, while feeling terrible about not being able to help or save Danny and his other teammates, that maybe just maybe Taylor wasn't really his enemy after all. That the Yellow of his team hadn't betrayed them. Watching her shoot Blake in the heart had shattered that hope.
"I know," she said gently though her voice shook too and she looked down, her hand tightening to a fist, "But..."
"But what?" he said frowning, "What could possibly be else? Taylor killed Blake, she shot him in the heart, and she acted like it was nothing," Merrick bit his lip and struggled not to hit the wall again though his eyes betrayed how much he wanted to, "She betrayed us, she betrayed all of us; I just...argh!"
He pulled free of his sister's grasp and she moved to try to grab him again. Merrick did nothing though, just growled and his eyes seemed to flash again for a moment before he squeezed them shut and he turned his head away from her. He murmured under his breath. "Damnit..."
"What about Dustin though?" Laura's voice chimed in and Tommy glanced at her; she was looking at each of those still there, imploring and pleading with her eyes, "What about my brother? He's not...he's still..." The words seemed hard to get out and she fell back again.
"Tsuki and Billy have him," Tommy tried to reassure though he could see in her face that it did very little, "Those two are quite capable when it comes to stuff and plus the infirmary still works so the alien tech here should be able to help him."
"I don't know how much though," Kira said and he frowned a bit, turning to her; the rock star shook her head, "I'm not sure how much any of this can help us or for how long. We got a distress call and you guys returned with five people and a dead body, one of them being so badly injured it's taking two of us just to keep his heart beating and another still unconscious after everything you seem to have just gone through. The teleportation mechanism is just barely working, from what I'm gathering we have yet another ex-Ranger helping to try to capture or worse kill us, the ship can't move and most of us are injured physically, mentally or both. Is there really anything we can do to keep going, is..." she froze up, the words getting stuck in her throat, refusing to come out.
A part of her, a very large part, did not want to give up, refused to give up; call it the Ranger in her, fueled by the miracles they had done so far, but Kira didn't really want to believe this was all for naught. She wanted one of them, any of them, to say they could keep fighting; she wanted Tommy to assure her it would be okay, for Tsuki to say they would find a way, for Billy to rattle off some technobabble that ultimately translated to "They would survive". But Merrick was silent and Tommy simply stared at her for the moment; Hunter and Laura were still grieving, clinging to one another, and even more than before Kira felt the futility of this adventure. They kept being hurt, people kept dying; she wasn't sure she wanted to know the full story of what happened down there in the Ninja Academy but she saw in each and every one of their faces that it was not a happy story.
She clenched her fists and she swallowed; she felt a deep lump in her chest and she took a deep breath to speak, unsure what was about to leave her at first, what words would follow. But they died away too and another spoke up, calm, collected.
"We never know until we try," spoke Hayley and the woman walked into the room, holding her arm; she approached Kira and smiled lightly, "It's hard, but face it; we all knew it was gonna be the moment we made our madcap run for the Megaship-"
"Some of us knew it from the moment our houses were destroyed by the military with tanks," Tommy spoke up and Hayley gave him a look; he just grinned, a broken but struggling thing, an attempt more than actual happiness. He tried at least.
She nodded. "Still, we knew this was not going to be easy; there was no guarantee of what was going to happen when Tommy and the others choose to go to the ninja school, of what could happen to them or who or how many they could save. I think even just five is an excellent start though and far more than I could have imagined before. We just...have to keep trying I think, that is all we can do, anything we can hope to do at this point."
"How is my brother?" Laura asked, looking at the other woman with bated breath.
Hayley looked back at her and was silent for a moment before finally speaking with a sigh. "I want to say he's good, that he's just resting and that he'll be up soon; that's what you're hoping for right? Unfortunately not so great with that level of lying." Laura blanched and Hayley continued. "He took a lot of damage; almost all the bones in his body are either fractured or straight out broken, his organs are badly damaged, he has internal bleeding in addition to second and third degree burns and lacerations. That he is even alive is frankly a miracle but I think we can all guess what is causing that."
Tommy said nothing, unsure whether to be thankful or damn the Morphing Grid for this. Was it better Dustin survive or that the boy wouldn't have to suffer as he was right now? He couldn't say; he was certain Laura felt it better her brother be alive but at the same time he liked to believe the woman would not want her brother to be in pain and he was sure to be in pain.
When no one spoke for the next few minutes Hayley spoke again. "Andros showed us how to activate the cryogenics pods and we got Dustin inside one; he says it should be able to help but he didn't really seem too certain of how much. Last person to use it was his silver and according to him Zane was not nearly in as bad as shape as Dustin was. We can only hope. At the same time..."
"Same time what?" Kira asked furrowing her brow.
"We need a doctor," Hayley said after a moment, "An actual person trained in medicine. The infirmary wasn't affected by the virus but there's only so much we can do in there with DECA unable to help and most of the equipment having to be handled manually. Tsuki, Billy and I can do some stuff but none of us are actually trained doctors; we can tend to minor wounds, we can even do our best to keep people alive through major events like what just happened, but we can't handle everything. Especially if we're going to get any more distress beacons. It also could go a long way towards making sure Dustin, or god forbid anyone else we end up having to admit to the medical wing with similar injuries, get as much help and treatment as possible."
"And where exactly are we to find a doctor who will help us?" Merrick asked, giving Hayley a look of sorts, "The populace at large have made it quite clear they are on the side of the government where we are concerned; I somehow doubt we can simply go to a hospital and just ask for assistance."
"Are there any doctor Rangers?" Lana asked furrowing her brow.
"There's a paramedic," Tommy said thinking out loud more than anything, "But Dana was taken in almost immediately; all of the Lightspeed team were rounded up quickly."
"Any friends we can depend on then?" Kira asked, cringing at the desperation she heard in her own voice.
Again it was Tommy who spoke but what he had to say made her blood turn cold.
Elsewhere Tsuki had collapsed into a chair, letting her bloody sword fall to the ground for the moment, and Billy was trying to figure out a sink. The ex-blue's hands shook as he fumbled with an alien faucet, in more ways than one, his mind racing as everything, every last thing he'd gone through in the last 24 hours, came crashing down on his head.
Part of him truly wondered why he hadn't just stayed on Aquitar, but the rest of him knew exactly why. He knew what made him rush off planet when he had gotten the staticky, panicked call from Tommy and Tsuki, why he had been so willing to abandon the place he had called home for almost twenty years. Earth had been in trouble but more importantly his friends had asked for his help.
"Billy, we wouldn't ask if we had any other ideas for what to do; we don't want to make you feel you have to do anything. There's just so much going on and we need help." He could remember all too well the sound of Tsuki's voice and he turned to look over over her, her hand over her eyes as her body slumped in her seat. He hadn't felt forced, he hadn't felt like he had to do anything. What he had felt was upset that things had gotten so bad, that something could happen that would turn the Power Rangers into the enemies of the people. That Tommy Oliver and Tsuki Kokuryuu had had to go to him, the Ranger that left home, just to get some help.
Still he had not expected this. Getting the water to finally run he held his bloodied hands under the stream, still shaking as they were finally washed clean. He could never have imagined when he had landed back on Earth that he would end up on another alien ship, with a bunch of other Rangers and allies, with blood on his hands and the image now burned into his retinas. The Ninja Academy, the utter destruction, the bloodshed; it was one thing to go after the Rangers, there was some reasoning to that. Billy remembered even in his own time that the Megazord battles didn't always end without some destruction of property, some endangering of lives; it left a bitter taste in his mouth and he gulped, trying to swallow it down though it never went away. No, the Power Rangers truly were a danger to others and there was logic in wanting to better control them, to bring them into a position where they could be regulated better. But the Academy was not a Power Rangers Academy and the dead there had not been morphed. Ninjas or not, they had ultimately been at worse allies but certainly not targets deserving of such aggression and violence; he wondered to himself how many children there had been there, actual real children, six, seven, eight year olds, learning ancient arts, now never to grow past that point because the government had chosen to see them as enemy combatants more than the kids they were. All in the name of one dead boy.
The water was stained red and he watched it swirl down the drain, he watched the blood leave his hands yet he didn't feel like it really did. Ultimately the Academy was their own fault, the fault of the Power Rangers; they had gotten the students involved by being there, and now only the Rangers remained. And Dustin was just barely remaining.
He turned and looked towards where the cryogenic slumber pod lay; from such a distance it was impossible to see inside but he hadn't had nearly the lifetimes pass that he would need to forget what Dustin looked like when they put him into it, him and Hayley and Tsuki and Andros. His charred skin, the wounds that seemed to pour blood until they could just barely get them closed enough to keep the ex-yellow from bleeding out. He had not awoken, Billy was thankful for such a tiny mercy; he was certain if Dustin had, the other man would have been in so much pain he might beg for the very thing none of them was prepared to give him. For everything they had gone through, what they were promised to go through next, no one aboard the Megaship would be willing to actually kill Dustin, even if asked, and as even Billy knew it was the will of the Morphing Grid that the man had survived, he was uncertain how trying would even go. Though why they all seemed to have to go through this anyway was beyond him.
"You look tired, Billy," said a familiar and soft voice; his head turned.
Tsuki was looking at him and in her eyes he saw tiredness as well. She too had gone through quite a bit of hell; she'd seen Dustin be blown up, the house in Reefside be destroyed, Blake be shot. She was injured and chased and hunted and shot at and threatened and helped drag more than one person back to the Megaship by now; honestly Billy was pretty sure she was the one who should be more concerned about being tired rather than worried about others. He wanted to tell her that much, remind her of what damage she had suffered too, the lacerations and bruises, the rips and dirt in and on her clothes. The fact she'd been coughing up blood when they arrived at the Academy and no telling if she'd really covered from overexerting herself that much.
But he choose not to; instead the scientist smiled, a weak small sort of smile, and he shrugged mildly. "It's been a long day after all, for both of us."
She nodded and pulled herself; Billy's eyes widened and moved to stop her but she was already on her feet, wincing but steady still. She walked over to one of the other beds, where the young man she'd found in the old NASADA facility was laying down; his status had not changed since they had dropped him off in the infirmary beforehand, the machines beside him beeping slowly and quietly. She regarded him with a light tilt of the head, trying to think; it wasn't really about anything either just odds and ends, pieces of thoughts that slipped together into a strange sort of pile of thoughts. She found the mystery of who he was, why he had been locked up alongside Rangers and allies, slipping back into the forefront of her mind but it was eclipsed again by everything else that had happened, the attack on the school and the events at the compound and the destruction of the Valencia Road house and finding Billy's lab ransacked like it had been. Eventually all Tsuki could think to do was sigh and turn away, smiling lightly back at Billy.
"You can go; I think I can handle things here after all," she told him and saw a spark of surprise cross his eyes; seeing the beginning of a head shake she continued, "All our patients are currently asleep. And we have no way to know when the next call will come or even how long we'll be up here in the Megaship."
"Tsuki, please, do not talk like that." There was something forbidden there, a thought, an implication that they both knew was too dangerous to get into.
Still the woman simply spoke again, "Truth can be really dangerous, Billy. As it stands right now it's better with so many of us injured and all of us exhausted that we get rest as we can."
"Then you-"
"You're far more important to things than I am, we both know that," she said and chuckled softly while making her way over to her seat, and it didn't escape his notice the way she limped, the way her body seemed also hesitant to move, still wincing, still hurting, "I'm what? A woman with the power to teleport that can barely handle move a few of us before her body starts to give way? The girlfriend to an ex-Power Ranger, ex-girlfriend to another?"
That last one hurt him but Billy bit his tongue. "Tsuki, in the collective span of roughly 24 hours you successfully fulfilled at least two long range teleportations, one while transporting six individuals from a distance that most Earth technology cannot easily or so expediently replicate, as well as what I am aware of to this moment at least three short range; there is little doubt in my mind that you performed a currently unknown number of movements within the NASADA building as well. That you are currently standing and speaking is a medical miracle and I would feel greatly relieved if you would make your way to one of the beds and lay down so you may too recover, but more to the point, you are no less important than any Ranger or other ally aboard this ship. Least of all to me or Tommy."
"We all need to be laying down" was all she had to say to that and he frowned as he watched her sit back down in her chair. It bothered him but there was a small part of him that deep down, even if just a little bit, understood.
They were all being far too stubborn about their own health right now; both Tori and Andros were out like lights but mainly because Tori seemed to have been overwhelmed finally by everything and just collapsed after they had finally gotten Blake away from her, while the latter had been so adamant about not sleeping, not resting, though his body was torn to bits and he could barely walk on his own, that finally in a moment of desperation to get him to rest Hayley had grabbed one of the vials of sedative they had found in the cabinets, planning originally to use on Dustin if he woke, and injected Andros instead. Both were fast asleep in their own beds. Tommy had seemed to jump on the excitement of everything, riding every wave from start to end without rest, and neither Billy nor Tsuki nor even Hayley or Kira were convinced he was truly fine in the end. Even Billy was being dismissive of his own needs; he looked to his hands, watched them shake and beyond them he could see his torn clothes and he knew he was wobbling. Yet he kept trying to tell himself he was okay, that he had to keep standing, had to keep going. Others needed help first, but wasn't that what everyone else was thinking too, that everyone else was more important than them? Wasn't that Tsuki's exact thoughts? Wasn't that his?
He turned his head to look over at the currently sleeping Andros and he sighed before finally and heavily nodding his head. "Correct."
The ex-blue pulled himself away from the faucet and brought him to one of the few remaining empty beds; unceremoniously he dropped himself on it, and it seemed to be enough to startle Tsuki at least for he heard a small shriek from her. He lifted a hand to signal he was fine though before moving himself so he was laying down properly and he closed his eyes. It was not a comfortable bed nor was it overly uncomfortable; it was better than a normal hospital bed though it struck Billy that he did not remember clearly the last time he'd actually visited a proper Earth hospital. He could remember every battle they had fought as Power Rangers and he could remember clearly the sound of Tsuki's voice as she had asked him to come back to Earth, he could recall the smell of the inside of the Wolf Ninjazord and it was far from hard to bring to the forefront of his mind the day Lord Zedd arrived and he could still hear Jason's, Kimberly's, Trini's, Zack's. Tommy's, the voices of all his friends as they called out their powers. But it was the normal things, it was the things kids took for granted in life, it was the stupid falls that led to the ER or the tests in school that once meant so much to Billy or the things Bulk and Skull used to do to him, it was all those things that seemed so foggy and lost. Billy wondered what that meant ultimately.
"Good night Tsuki," he said already half asleep he found from the moment his head had hit the pillow.
"Sleep well, Billy," she responded with a soft smile and laid her head back in her chair; it wasn't comfortable but anything was better than standing around. And she was already there after all.