Maya needs an escape. The room she shares- shared with Kara and Kendrix is too quiet, the latter choosing to bury herself in her work, and the former… The brunette lets out a frustrated shout, kicking at a fallen branch that sits in her path. It's all Leo's fault. She hates to say it like that, and she's tried to phrase it differently in her mind, but that's what it comes down to. Maya thinks blame is a dangerous game, especially in a situation as complicated as the one they're in now, but she's a Power Ranger, and she eats danger for breakfast.
"It's all his fault!" She shouts, not even bothering to greet her Wolf Galactabeast, which growls something along the lines of, "Has he told you what happened yet?" Maya shakes her head as she clambers up into her favorite tree, leaning back against the cool bark.
"He absolutely refuses. All I know is that they'd been forced to tell some pretty dark secrets, and after that… well. You know what happens after that."
"Don't be sad," her Galactabeast replies gently (or as gently as a giant can), "there must be a good reason for all of this."
She's tried to be happy. She really has. But it's hard when their leader has just exiled his own second-in-command. Maya doesn't even know where she is anymore, no matter how hard she looks. At least, looks with her own eyes.
"I need you to do something for me."
Kai needs to move the fuck out. He's pretty sure the Commander would set him up with an apartment of his own, and he honestly wouldn't even mind a storage closet somewhere. Just as long as he could get out of this stupid apartment.
"Morning," Damon chirps as he waltzes in, containers that smell vaguely of pancakes and syrup in his hands. "I bought breakfast, since I figured it's your day off and I should let you sleep." Ever since that day three weeks ago, he and the mechanic had stuck together like glue. Especially since one of their other roommates was a fucking mess.
Not to mention, a coward. And a bully.
Kai doesn't think he hates him. At least, not yet. To him, there's always another option, a plan B out of practically any situation. But try as he might, he can't find one that will put his little sister back onto the team. Back where she belongs, despite what Leo thinks.
"Thanks man," Kai replies softly, stretching as he jumps down from his bunk, "I needed the rest." Back before all of this shit happened, he'd get a good amount of sleep each night, maybe six or seven hours. Now, he'll be lucky if he even gets two or three. The Commander's noticed his slack at work, and ironically, that makes his anxiety worse.
"Of-" The door slides open, and Leo marches in.
The room drops into silence when the Red Ranger walks in, and he hates it. He misses the friendly banter, the occasional (okay, maybe more frequent) dirty jokes.
But if this is what it takes to protect his team, he'll do it.
His second had been the weakest link of them all, and somehow, he hadn't noticed. None of them had. (He misses her, more than he'd like to admit.)
"Where've you been so early?" Damon asks, and the mechanic's usually chipper attitude feels off. Sarcastic. Dry. (It's his fault, but if this is what it takes, so be it.)
"Working out." It's the only way he can keep his mind off of the reality of the situation. Especially since Trakeena's been oddly quiet.
"Did you eat?" Leo cringes. Of course, despite everything he'd done to his little sister, Kai worries about him. He shakes his head.
"I'll eat later." Silence pervades the space once more, and Kai sighs, rubbing his face with a hand.
"Dude. You're a fucking mess, do you realize that? And I know that Trakeena hasn't tried anything recently, but once she does, the Lights of Orion won't work." They've been over this more times than Leo can count, and despite his stance on the situation, Kai's right. At least, in theory, as he likes to say.
"We've never removed anyone from the team," Leo explains, "so as long as us five are together, why wouldn't they work?" Damon pats him on the shoulder as he passes by, placing the breakfast on the counter.
"Keep telling yourself that, buddy. We'll see when it comes down to it."
I don't work in command anymore. That would mean seeing Kendrix, Kai, and Mike nearly every day, and I can't have that. Not like Leo forbade me from seeing them. Not like he forbade me from doing anything at all, since he's technically not my first-in-command anymore. But seeing them would just make this all worse. As soon as I'd walked out of the guys' apartment two weeks ago, I'd looked into finding housing for myself, and thankfully, I did.
My loft is small, and as of this morning, I just finished furnishing it. There's the door, and next to that is a bit of counter space. Thankfully, I didn't need to buy much furniture, since two small couches sit against the opposite wall next to the stairs, as well as the cute white coffee table I'd got. Next to that is the kitchen, my bathroom, and upstairs is my bedroom. It's quiet. Cozy.
Lonely.
I take a glance at the clock as I finish putting on my rings, and flinch. If I didn't live upstairs from my new job at the bookstore/cafe, I'd be late. And that would suck. Checking to make sure the bracelet I share with Kai is secure (I'd had to get it welded again once I'd fixed the gem), I notice that the tan from my morpher's finally gone away. It's kind of… sad? No. Bittersweet.
All of my doubts, all of my regret has led me here, alone on a colony drifting through space. I ponder this as I grab my tote bag and head out the door. Isn't this what I was afraid of this whole time? Losing the team who was there for me through awakening from cryosleep, taking down Scorpius, and everything in between? It's not like they're totally gone, though. They're still on Terra Venture. And unless they move- I hope they don't- I still know their addresses.
But it feels like they no longer exist. No calls on my landline, no running into them at my job, nothing.
It's for the best, I tell myself as I walk through the back door of the cafe. I'll move on.
Damon's upset. Has been ever since that day two weeks ago. Unfortunately for him, (well…) Trakeena hadn't sent a monster until now, so that meant he'd actually been exercising in his free time. The daily jogs he takes around the dome give him a lot of time to think. And to be angry. Which, he acknowledges, is extremely unlike him. But this entire situation is absolutely unlike anything he, or any of his friends, have faced. So a strange reaction from him shouldn't be too alarming.
When Kara had first stepped out of the hallway on the Megaship, legs wobbly from disuse, eyes narrowed at them, he'd recognized her immediately. How could he not? She was one of the legendary Space Rangers that'd saved them all from Astronoma and Dark Spectre. He owed her his life. And when she told him about her past team, about all she'd left behind, he understood how painful it was.
So it absolutely astonishes him how not understanding Leo, someone who literally shared (shares?) a telekinetic and emotional bond with her, can be. And the more he thinks about that in particular, the angrier he gets.
Oddly enough, when they come face to face with Motor Mantis, Damon's raring to go. A good fight should be just what he needs.
"Oh Power Rangers, do I have a challenge for you!" Kai gets off of his Astro Cycle.
"We're not gonna play your game!"
"But if you win, you get the trophies!" Pfft. Damon's never been materialistic, which is weird, because he's a literal mechanic.
"We don't need your stupid trophies!" He could swear that Motor Mantis smirks.
"Oh, but you'll want these!" The monster jeers triumphantly, lifting the things up, "they're special." Oh shit.
"What did you do with them?" Leo demands, and honestly, even he sounds tired.
"It's the Pink Ranger and the Yellow Ranger!"
"Whatever you did, you better change them back now!"
"I can do that, but only on one condition: I say I've got the fastest wheels in the galaxy. We race once around the dome, and if you win, you get them back." A fake out if Damon has ever heard of one. They've been tricked one too many times for him to believe that anything the creature says is legitimate. Thankfully, this seems to be the one thing Leo agrees on.
"We're not gonna race, and you're not keeping our friends!" They charge forwards, and it's strange without Kara. Yeah, they'd had that one rescue mission where she'd had the flu, but she'd been back at the girls' apartment, waiting for them to come back. Now, it's different. Weirdly different, the kind of odd that makes Damon's skin prickle.
"No race, no trophies!" Damon's confident and angry, two things that don't make a good combination. So his guard is down just enough that he can't dodge fast enough, and the Mantis' bike rams into him.
"Come on!" Leo urges, scrambling to his feet and back onto his Cycle, and then they're off.
"Come on Power Rangers, faster!" Damn, if the ugly thing doesn't stop taunting him, Damon might just lose it. Kai takes the lead, and only proceeds to slam into a near invisible tripwire that'd been laid. Of course the Mantis is cheating. "One down, two to go!" Okay, that's it. The Green Ranger fires the laser cannon on his bike, and when they strike true, he grins. Cathartic.
"That should slow him down," he mutters. But as he drives through the smoke, some rumbling comes from above him, and rocks start to rain down onto the road. He may be the best driver out of the team, but he hasn't tried it in these conditions. Damon goes flying off of his Cycle, and the pain from hitting the ground is less so than the irritation he feels. If Kara'd been here, there's no doubt she and Leo would've gotten past the obstacles. No doubt they'd have Maya and Kendrix back by now.
"You alright?" Honestly, he's surprised that Leo even bothers to check up on him.
"Yeah, go get him."
Leo needs to get his head in the game. The two weeks where Trakeena hadn't sent a monster was a nice reprieve from all of her mess, but that also meant he was out of touch. (He worries that without his second, they're at a disadvantage. But also, they're facing off against a literal motorcycle-riding Mantis. They'd better have the damn advantage.) His irritation spurs him on, and soon he's caught up to his opponent. Leo deals a few punches of his own, then before the bug can launch a counterattack, he's racing off.
That is, until a laser beam from the Mantis sends him slightly off-balance, and slightly slower than he needs to be to win. Which means-
"That wasn't fair, I would've beaten you!" He argues, pulling to a stop as acrid smoke rises from his Cycle.
"No one can beat the Motor Mantis! You're just mad 'cause you lost." (For the shortest of moments, Leo thinks of all the sarcastic comments Kara might have in response to that. But she's not here, and he's failed. He tells himself that the two aren't connected. Because they aren't.) "You're a loser, and I keep the trophies!" The Red Ranger has had just enough of this bullshit.
"Shut up, and give me back those damn trophies," he growls.
"Never!" Then, they're gone in a flash of green lightning, and he lets out a frustrated shout.
He knew he was out of fighting shape, and he hadn't expected a fucking race to happen, but the fact of the matter is that they were down one of their best fighters. Leo glances towards where the Aqua Ranger's morpher latches against his belt. The morpher he'd forced her to give to him. When he'd also forced her to quit.
No. He didn't force her. She could have easily argued against the command, could have won that argument thanks to the support the others would undoubtedly give her. But her words… her words hurt him to his very core. And could hurt the rest of the team, if they ever found out what she said. (She said she'd be there for him, no matter what. That he was still her best friend, that… that she was interested in maybe being more. But her other truths far outweighed these.)
Leo falls to his knees. But maybe Kara was right. Maybe none of this would be a problem for the Space Rangers. For Andros. Because right now, when it mattered most, he's failed.
This is probably the longest amount of time Kai's ever spent in a room with Damon and Leo since the incident. He's fairly certain one of them might explode.
"My bike's wrecked," he hisses out, irritation spiking up at the evidence of his failure today. Damon plunks a piece of something or other onto the worktable, then turns to grab something else from the ruined cycle.
"No shit. These two won't be back on pavement for quite a while," he explains as he dashes around, doing… whatever he's doing. Kai's pretty sure Damon's secretly casting some sort of magic while he works, because otherwise he'd like to think he could figure at least some of it out. But also, it's kind of funny how the mechanic's anger is visible in the way he rushes around.
"What about mine?" Leo questions, and Damon shrugs. A show of nonchalance.
"The fuel systems are burnt out, but other than that-"
"How soon can you get it running?" Kai scoffs, just loud enough for Leo to hear. If an argument's gonna happen, he might as well not beat around the bush with his feelings.
"If I work all night, maybe in the morning, but it's still not gonna be perfect-"
"Just get it running."
"This wouldn't have happened if my sister was here." Leo turns to face him from where he stands in the doorway, and Kai can't help but shrink back, to regret his outburst. If not for his tone, he'd have no idea that the Red Ranger is fucking mad. Leo's expression is blank, eyes not betraying a hint of emotion.
That's how Kai knows it's bad, but he has no sympathy. Not even when Leo stalks up to him, pushes a finger into his face. "Her not being here changes nothing. You don't know what she told me two weeks ago. I'm just trying to protect the team-" Despite himself, Kai starts laughing. He'll probably regret it, but he chuckles anyway.
"You can't even say her name, huh? If you've already forgotten, my sister's name is Kara. And she's meant to be a part of this team just as much as any of us are." Then, he shoves Leo away and walks out. The Red Ranger started this on his own, and for all Kai cares, he can figure this out on his own, too.
Leo almost doesn't want to acknowledge it when he hears his Galactabeast call for him. Before Maya refused to talk to him, she'd told him how she communicates with animals. From the heart, she'd said. So here he is, standing in front of his Lion Beast, desperately trying to decipher its cryptic speech. The Red Ranger steadies his breathing, tunes into the deep growls the giant animal elicits, and finally, finally…
"The strategy is simpler than you think. More power." The words are more like ideas than anything else, amorphous images in Leo's head, and combined with nudging feelings of confirmation...
"More… power? Where?"
"The Cycle."
"My Astro Cycle?"
"Yes. Now go."
So much for moving on, because the next morning, I get an odd, itchy feeling at the base of my neck. And try as I might to ignore it, I know exactly what it is. Sometimes, Leo or I would go into lockdown, our term for shutting down our thoughts and emotions from the other person. But even when I couldn't tell what he was thinking or feeling, this itch on my neck would indicate that he's about to do something reckless. Stupid, even.
I groan, putting my peanut butter-and-jelly down, and scratch at my neck as if that'll help. (It's never worked before. Don't let this be proof that I'm going insane, though.) Of course, without my morpher, I have absolutely no clue what's going on, and even with my attempts at ignorance, worry gnaws at me worse than the hunger pangs. I take another bite of my sandwich.
And nearly spit it out. Because when I reached for the bond just now (like I definitely haven't been doing for the past two weeks), it was open. Not as much as it used to be, but I can sense panic from Leo. His thoughts are jumbled, so much so that I can't seem to pick a single one out, but what I can decipher is-
Maya. 'Drix.
"Leo, what the fuck did you do?"
… thing. Need… win. Get the… back.
He has my morpher. There's nothing I can do, no matter how much I want to. And trust me, if my suspicions are right and the monster he's facing off against has Maya and Kendrix… I want to do something, badly.
"You better get them back, Leo." Then, I go back on lockdown, pushing the bond as far to the back of my mind as I can.
You better get them back, Leo. The first thing she'd said to him for two weeks. He'd been unable to get a glimpse of where she'd holed up, but just to hear her words… wasn't terrible. So when Motor Mantis leaps onto the back of his Cycle, Leo summons all the willpower within him and shoves the creature back onto its own bike.
He's not out of the woods yet, though, since the Mantis pushes him off to the side and into a booby-trapped side road. The Red Ranger ducks down, protecting himself from the worst of them, but he knows that it's not the physical obstacles he has to endure. To get Maya and Kendrix back, he needs to get the hell over his own doubts.
His teammates need him. Who the fuck cares if he might have made the biggest mistake of his life two weeks ago? What matters is what's happening now. And he hasn't realized that until this very moment.
"Red Capsular Cycle!" With a single command, his Astro Cycle transforms, the head of his Zord becoming the front. Then, a newfound burst of speed sends him speeding past the finish line.
I got them back.
No response. He's not surprised.
"I beat you. So I keep my Saber, and you change my friends back, now!"
"You're gonna have to take them from me!" Of course. What did he expect?
"Fine, have it your way. Fireball mode!"
He'd said he got Maya and Kendrix back. They must have celebrated. From the little I can gather from the bond, I can tell that they didn't even need the Lights. Which means they didn't need me anyway. I hope Kai isn't upset. I hope Maya isn't shutting Leo out. I hope Kendrix isn't overworking herself. I hope Damon still smiles as he goes about his day.
I hope they're okay.