This is the third chapter of "Rhapsody In Pink." I strongly suggest reading the first two parts if you haven't already. Cuts down on the confusion factor.
As allways, Power Rangers in all it's incarnations belongs to Saban and Company. I'm merely borrowing them for my own amusement.
Rhapsody In Pink
Chapter III
"
Death is not the greatest loss in life.
The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."
-Norman Cousins
Carter leaned impatiently against the wall of the docking bay, chewing on his bottom lip. They had waited all day for the Galaxy Rangers to show up, and only now, as the sun was setting, did he see the ship descending through the atmosphere. The sun reflecting off of it made it look like a meteorite plunging downwards. Next to him, Joel paced impatiently. Carter knew that waiting was not one of the green ranger's strong points, and they had been waiting all day. A few meters away, Chad stood still, his eyes closed and his shoulders back. Of all of them, he seemed the most unaffected, but Carter knew better. Chad was merely better at controlling his emotions and hiding his feelings. Looking closely, he could see the slight tension in Chad's wiry frame and the absolute absence of emotion from the blue ranger's face. None of them were unaffected now.
With a hiss, the docking bay doors parted, and Captain Mitchell and Ms. Fairweather walked in. Their timing was perfect: the ship had just settled down on the grassy field nearby. As the ship vented it's atmosphere with a hiss, the plank lowered and the Galaxy Rangers walked slowly down to meet them. Carter stepped forward into Leo's embrace.
"Long time, no see," the Red Galaxy Ranger joked half-heartedly. Carter smiled wanely.
"Nice to see you, too." The others quickly joined him.
"We have to stop meeting like this," Kai informed Chad, who also managed a slight grin.
"Ah, fresh air at last. I was getting sick of the stale recycled stuff on the ship. Gives me a headache." Maya sighed and stretched her arms and neck. She turned at a slight cough behind her. "Oh, right. Guys, this is Damon, Green Ranger and all-around great mechanic -" A tall, lanky young man dressed in grease-stained coveralls nodded. "-And this is Kendrix, Pink Ranger and not-so-mad-but-disgustingly-brilliant scientist." A shy, be speckled girl who reminded Carter of Dana, although he didn't know why, waved. Maya paused, but at a nudge, grinned and continued. "And this rif-raf here is Mike, Leo's older brother and ex-Magna-Defender." She smiled mischievously. "Unfortunately, it's gone to his head." She ducked a mock-slap. "Damon, Kendrix, Mike, this is Carter, Joel, Chad, Captain Mitchell, Ms. Fairweather, and..." Her voice trailed off as she looked around. "Where's Kelsey?"
"That's a long story," Joel said as he put his arm around her and they headed back to the Aquabase. "I'll fill you in on the way."
* * *
Dana tried to control her shock and fear as she was thrown roughly on the floor. Judging by the echoes, she was in a far larger cavern than before. Her mind was still reeling from discovering her captor's identity: Olympious. She forced herself to focus on what was happening around her. Olympious' harsh voice grated on her ears as he spoke.
"As you can see, Mother, I have succeeded where all others, including Diabolico, have failed. HE would have left this pathetic ranger to die. HE did not recognize her potential to us. She is of much greater value to us alive, especially since her companions think her lost forever, according to the communications that I intercepted."
At this, Dana's heart sank even further. Would her friends, her own father, have given up on her that easily? Of course, you fool. What reason do they have to think you are anything but dead? She pushed this away violently. Whatever anyone else thought they knew, the fact was that she was not dead. She was very much alive, and while her situation was indeed dire, she was far from defeated. As long as she refused to allow herself to succumb to her fear and despair, she would prevail. To do anything less was to let her friends, her fellow rangers, her father and herself down. And that she would not do.
Her attention snapped back to the present when she heard Diabolico's outraged voice rise in protest.
"You fool! Have you learned nothing from the past? As long as she lives, she is a threat to us all! And you, you idiot, you bring her here?" His voice lowered in rage. "Queen Banshira, as your loyal servant and faithful warrior, I strongly advise you to get rid of her at once! Whatever advantage she brings to us is by far outweighed by the risks she presents. Let me destroy her now!"
"Coward!" Olympious shouted. "We all know how soundly the rangers have defeated you and Vypra before. You are afraid of them! You are letting your fear speak for you. Look at her! She is utterly defenseless. How could she possibly pose a threat to the great Diabolico, the conqueror of Atlantis, the destroyer of the M'Kris?" He snorted. "Go hide with your tail between your legs, coward. Leave the fighting to the true warriors."
"How dare you!" Diabolico thundered back. "I was fighting the rangers when you were a sniveling, helpless infant lying in that alter. Apparently, little has changed since." He ignored the other demon's protest and turned to appeal to Queen Banshira directly. "Your majesty, I have served you faithfully and without complaint for three thousand years. I have never had anyone's interests in mind but yours. I am telling you this now because I, unlike others here, owe my loyalty to you. I alone have the most experience in dealing with the rangers, and, yes, I have learned to respect them as the worthy opponents they are. As long as this rangers lives to draw breath, she is a grave threat to us, and to you. Your son has not yet gained the experience to appreciate this."
Whatever Olympious was going to say was silenced by the demoness queen.
"Enough! I do not wish to waste anymore time listening to you two and your petty bickering. If you devoted as much time to the task at hand as you did to fighting amongst yourselves, the rangers would already be destroyed and my city long since risen." She paused to let her words sink in. "As Diabolico has said, your actions, my son, were rash and ill-advised. If you are ever to rule after me, you have much to learn.
"This said, the Pink Ranger could be of great use to us against the other rangers. Diabolico, your loyalty to me has never been questioned. I do wonder why these five humans seem to present such a problem to a warrior who has crushed entire planets in the palm of his hand. Your inability to conquer a small, helpless city makes me question your ability, and your judgment. I cannot see how you can deem five young humans 'worthy opponents', especially when I see how easily my son captured one of them.
"Olympious, she is your responsibility. She has knowledge that could be valuable to us. You will oversee the extraction of it from her. She is o be under constant guard. Do not fail me in this. Diabolico, you will not interfere with my son in any way. You will continue to oversee the latest plan to overthrow the rangers. If it works, we won't need to use her and you may destroy her as you like. Have I made myself clear?" As they turned to leave, she added one more warning. "If anything happens to her, whoever is responsible will share her fate."
* * *
"How did you get here so fast?" Chad asked Leo. The Galaxy Rangers had been quickly brought up to speed on yesterday's events. He shrugged.
"We were actually well on our way to begin with. We figured we'd take a little vacation from colony life and visit our respective homes. Kendrix got bored on the way and decided to monitor the radio and television frequencies up in the ship."
"I figured it would be nice to catch up on what's been happening on Earth." Kendrix explained. "I programmed the computer to alert me if any of the transmissions contained any key words. 'Power Ranger' was one of these. Then when Leo told me about a whole new group of rangers in Mariner Bay, I added it to the list and made it a point to monitor your stations in particular. That's how we heard about Dana."
"After that, we decided you guys might need a little extra support." Maya finished.
"I know we sure did." Kai finished. "I don't know what we would have done without the help of Andros and the others, especially Karone." Kendrix paled slightly as he spoke.
"It's hard to lose a fellow Ranger. Believe us, we know." Leo admitted. They lapsed into silence. "Anything we can do to help, you let us know. We owe you one anyway for the last time we were here."
Carter cleared his throat.
"Thanks, guys. It means a lot."
Maya stood at the base of the tree and gazed up. High up in the ancient pine's branches, Kelsey was perched, brooding silently. Sighing, Maya began to climb the tree. She settled herself on an adjoining limb and studied the girl. There were dark circles under her eyes and fresh tears ran down her cheeks. She refused to acknowledge Maya's presence and instead gazed out across the bay.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" she asked. "It eats at you from the inside out and tears you up." Kelsey turned to her. "Everyone tells you 'time heals everything' and you have to get on with your life. As if your life will ever be the same." She paused. "So many different emotions bottled up inside you: grief, anger, guilt. You spend every moment trying to understand why. Why did it happen? Why did it happen to her? Why wasn't I there? Why didn't I do something?"
"How do you know?" Maya had to strain to hear the question. "How do you know what I feel?"
Maya was silent for a few moments. Finally, she sighed and, staring out across the bay, began to speak in a low, intense voice.
"We were in the middle of a very difficult fight with Tracheena and the usual monster of the day. We were losing until the Andros and his group of rangers showed up. Even with their help, it was a stalemate. Then Kendrix and Cassie discovered the sword that would have given Tracheena the power to defeat us. While the rest of us were fighting a city-sized monster, they went to find and protect the sword. In the end, another monster managed to trap Cassie and was draining her morphing power, which would have killed her. In order to save Cassie, Kendrix sacrificed herself." She wiped her eyes. "Cassie was the last one to see her."
Kelsey listened as the story unfolded. When Maya stopped, Kelsey reached out and touched her arm.
"What happened?"
"Well, Karone managed to find Kendrix's galaxy saber, and after we defeated Tracheena, Kendrix appeared good as new. But those weeks when we though she was gone were the longest, hardest, saddest weeks of my life. So yes, I have some idea of how you feel right now. You blame yourself for not saving your friend." She turned to Kelsey and gripped her by the shoulders, looking her straight in the eye. "That guilt, that anger, they will tear you apart. You have to forgive both Dana for dying and yourself for letting her. Otherwise, you'll turn into the very thing you're fighting against."
"I don't know if I can." Kelsey admitted. "I'm afraid if I let go of my feelings, I'll be letting go of Dana. I'll forget her."
"No. You won't. You'll be honoring her memory and what she stood for. As long as you continue to stand against evil and injustice, there will always be a part of her here." She pointed to her heart. "With you." Kelsey smiled, tears streaming down her face.
"Thank you," she whispered, "for reminding me of that." The two hugged, united by more that their common status of yellow ranger, united by the memory of courage and friendship. When they pulled apart, both were crying and laughing at the same time.
"So tell me," Maya asked as they made their way down, "did you give up on rock climbing?"
"No, there aren't any cliffs around here to climb. I figured a tree was the next best thing."
"Good taste." Maya grimaced. "Although I wish you had chosen a different species of tree."
"Why?"
"I don't think I'll ever get this horrible sap out of my hair."
* * *
To be continued...
* * *
And now for the required author's ranting...
To those of you who have waited patiently for this, thank you for your patience. Due to circumstances beyond my control, it took a while to get this one out. Forgive any spelling and grammar errors you see, I hadn't much time to type this. Basically, my roomate took off over winter break, leaving me with $600 per month rent and no computer. Needless to say, I have been working more than full time because I needed the money. Due to this and other things (school, student teaching) my posts will not be happening very often. I still intend to finish this story, but it may take a while. Try to be patient.
For whomever asked, try looking under George and Ira Gershwin. Good luck! As always, I would appreciate any and all feedback, comments, cristscism and suggestions. This is, after all, a work in progress. Until next time, then, may your pen flow as freely as your imagination.