Disclaimer: Oh, you know.
Many thanks to everyone for being so patient… tried to make this worth the wait.
Legacy, part 25
"This isn't so bad," whispered Kim, looking around the sewer. "I was imagining slogging knee-deep through bodily waste." Peter laughed softly, and she slanted him a look. "This is like when you tried to convince Billy and me that unplugging your alarm clock would stop time, you horrible man." She punched him lightly in the arm, and he grasped her fist and tucked it in the crook of his elbow.
"Just trying to lighten the atmosphere, sweetheart. Come on."
They'd surprised another pair of guards, which had doubled both their store of weaponry and their chances of being discovered sooner. Peter had a weapon slung over his back and a second tucked under his free arm; Kim carried both of hers over one shoulder like a pair of deadly pocketbooks.
Finding an access hatch had been no trouble, and they'd melted the lock to slag behind them. That last pair of guards had also been handily equipped with portable light sources, and these were now clipped to the fugitives' arms as they crept through the tunnel.
The tunnel was clean, metallic, round, with a stream of clear water sliding along its floor. "It's more of an aqueduct than a sewer," Peter went on. "Self-contained, too, unfortunately. Solid waste is incinerated, liquid waste recycled. No access or egress."
She stopped in her tracks. "So this is a good idea because…?"
He tugged her along. "Because So'Vran put this system into place too rapidly to have built it from scratch. About a century ago our forces mounted an attack from the functional sewers, an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate So'Vran. In response he instituted this self-contained system to ensure that we couldn't try again. But most of the tunnels used were preexisting, so what we need to find is some way to get over into the old system."
Kim nodded. "That'll be pretty heavily guarded, no?"
"In some fashion, probably. Alarm, I would think."
"Okay." She looked around again. "So what are we looking for?"
Peter shrugged. "Good question. A door, a seam in the wall, maybe just a visual anomaly. I don't know whether he'd bother to camouflage it from this side. Just look for anything out of the ordinary."
They walked in silence for long moments, alternating lefts and rights where the tunnels met or crossed in an attempt to avoid wandering in circles. In a swing to the left, Kim glanced right, and pressed her fingers into Peter's arm. "Hey."
He looked back over her shoulder, and nodded. "Yep." They hurried in the opposite direction and were confronted with a large, oval door with a huge spoked wheel in the center to control the locking mechanism. "Probably hasn't been opened in a hundred years," Peter muttered, closely examining the edges of the door. "Now, where are you, you little rat b — aha." He indicated with his light beam a small connection at the side of the door. "There's the alarm, Kim."
"Hm." She leaned close, squinting at it. "Can we bypass it, or do we just shoot it?"
Peter frowned, thinking. "Bypass if we can. It'll give us a little longer to run, but we'll be down one light." He consulted the power indicator on his own light, then hers. "Yours has more juice than mine, so I'll cannibalize mine for parts. Shine that over here, will you?"
It was an odd combination of forever and no time at all before Peter straightened and handed Kim back her light, scooting the leftover pieces of the other out of the way with his foot. "That ought to work, though I'm a little rusty on ancient electronics."
"We'll know soon enough." They each grasped a spoke of the wheel and pulled; it took all of their combined weight before the wheel budged creakily, the sound echoing through the tunnel behind them. Kim gritted her teeth and glanced up at Peter, who nodded, his blue eyes determined. They leaned against the wheel again; it protested, grinding rustily, metal squeaking against metal… and then all of a sudden it let go, spinning crazily, sending Kim hurtling into the middle of Peter's chest with a squeak of her own.
He put her down. "Remember when Zack convinced all of you to jump off the garage roof with an umbrella for a parachute? I barely caught you then, too."
She chuckled. "Trini and Billy wouldn't do it, Jason made it okay, and Zack broke his arm. I remember. But I'm a little bigger now."
Peter laughed. "Not by much." She glared at him, and he grinned. "Come on, Supergirl."
**************
Jason looked up at the sound of the medbay door opening. "Father? Should you be up?"
Iannos limped slowly to his son's side, looking down at the pale face of the girl who lay unconscious on the biobed in front of them. "I am fine, Jason. Has she stirred?"
"A little. I think she's just sleeping now, though it's hard to tell." Jason stood, offering the chair to the older man. "Is this normal for burnout?"
"It would depend on the level of exhaustion, but it does not appear to be much different from that which Taia and I have suffered on occasion." He shrugged. "Though it is also true that these powers of Light and Shadow are unknown to me. How does Tommy fare?"
Jason folded his powerful arms across his chest. "Pretty much the same, they tell me. I should probably go and see for myself, but – "
Iannos offered him an understanding smile. "I was lifebound once myself, son."
"Yeah."
Aji moaned slightly, her green eyes opening in a pained squint. "Jason?"
Immediately he was by her side, grasping her hand securely. "Here, babe."
The comm beeped. "Tommy's awake, Jase," said Adam's voice.
Jason grinned. "Thought he might be. Thanks." The link beeped again, signaling the end of the message, and he looked down at Aji. "Do you guys do everything together? I could get jealous."
"How are you feeling, little one?" Iannos asked gently.
"Well enough, Pahpian, though my head pounds."
Iannos bent to kiss her gently on the cheek. "You haven't called me that since you were a small girl, Aji. It gladdens my heart to hear you say it again, all the more so since I am to be your father now."
Aji looked at him doubtfully. "Then you really don't object to the lifebond?"
He gave her a mock-stern look. "Of course not, little one. Why would I? You are yourself, and responsible for your actions alone. And your actions have never made me other than proud." Iannos looked at Jason. "I honor your Bloodsong, my son. I welcome this union."
Jason watched Aji as she registered the welcome she'd just been given, a slow but brilliant smile creeping over her face. "Thank you, Father," he said, slipping an arm around Aji's shoulders to steady her as she sat up.
"And you are truly my Pahpian now," she added, kissing Iannos on the cheek. Glancing up at Jason, Aji swung her legs over the side of the bed. "I'm well enough, Jason. It's time to act."
****************
In a small conference room, Tommy paced incessantly. Trini watched him for about as long as she could stand, finally sighing in exasperation. "Tommy, sit or I am going to tackle you to the ground." He shot her a look from haunted hazel eyes, and she sighed again, more gently. "It's not your fault, Tom."
"Didn't you hear what happened?" he growled. "That maniac killed Mr. C! Killed him! And then brought him back, like it was nothing! I can't even imagine how that must have – what if he's done something to – oh, God, Trini, how can you say it's not my fault?"
Trini bit her lip. "It's as much mine as yours, then. I'm the one you trusted to keep things under control at home, and I'm the one who let them take her."
Deorth caught Rocky's eye, leaned against the wall and stretched out his feet. "It's my fault too."
"And mine," the blue Zeo Ranger added, sliding an arm around Kat's waist.
"Don't leave me out of this pity party," she chimed in.
"Yeah, I want to beat on myself too," Tanya threw in her two cents.
"Who says you guys get to have all the fun?" Adam wanted to know.
"Basically, what we're saying here is you're both full of it," Zack wrapped it up. "There's only one person to blame for all this, and that's So'Vran. Now unless one of you is hiding a thousand year old secret life, I suggest you let it go."
"Easy enough to say," Tommy muttered.
Zack's dark eyes were sympathetic. "Look, bro, I never said it was easy. And I do understand where you're coming from. But you're not exactly setting yourself up to be effective, hanging on to this guilt. Let's get her back first, and you can set fire to yourself or something later."
There was a long pause, during which Jason and Aji came in. Tommy squared his shoulders, his mantle as leader too ingrained to ignore. "Right. So let's figure out a way to get them back."
"Bill not here?" Jason asked.
"He'll be along," Adam supplied. "He and Taia are hashing out some numbers, trying to figure out exactly what we have to work with after the last attack on the base." He shook his head, pulling his wife against his side. "I think he needs something concrete to do, you know?"
"Yeah," Jason nodded sadly. "I know what you mean."
As if in answer to their train of thought, Billy and Taia entered the room. The young scientist sat in the corner of the room, his expression preoccupied, while Taia called up a vidscreen monitor.
"Okay," she began, her usually gentle demeanor replaced by that of a seasoned warrior. "We had some warning before the attack, so most of our ships got out. I've got teams working on arming the last of our hoverskids and runabouts so we'll have a full squad of small, maneuverable fighting craft as well as the seven warships we have left. The trick is going to be getting them close enough to do any real damage. If there were a way to get them actually into the Citadel…" with that she broke off and looked at Tommy and Aji.
Aji nodded. "We can conceal them, at least from visual detection."
"A whole squadron?" Jason expostulated. "You'll burn out again!"
"Maybe," Aji inclined her head. "Your point?"
Zack put a hand on his friend's arm before Jason could explode. "The point, Aji, is that nobody's expendable. It's okay, man," he added to a still- fuming Jason. "We'll just factor it in."
"Already done," interjected Billy from the corner, startling them. "I've been doing some thinking, and I think our best shot at getting Dad and Kim back would be right before the first wave of attack." There was a series of slow nods around the tale as each Ranger took that in. "It seems to me our main problem lies in that we don't know exactly where in the Citadel they're being held. If there were a way to locate them, I'm pretty sure Tom and Aji could get in and out clean."
Aji sat straight up, a look of surprised discovery on her face. "Tom!"
He shot out of the seat Trini had coerced him into. "My God, you think?"
"What? What is it?" Everyone leaned forward excitedly.
Aji spoke up. "The Watcher said Tommy was lifebound to Kim. I know they're human, but he carries Xeryan power now, so what if – "
Rocky was the first to get it. "—he can detect Kim psychically, because they're bound? It's like when I pick up the phone to call Kat and she's already there, calling me!"
Jason turned to Tommy. "Can you, bro?"
Tommy's hazel eyes were dark with determination. "I'm sure as hell going to try."
***************
Kim gasped, stopping short. Peter bumped into her from behind. "What is it?" he asked in concern.
"It's – he – for a second I felt as though Tommy were here." Her eyes filled with tears. "I'm an idiot."
"No, you're not." He folded his arms around her for a quick hug. "And maybe he is."
"Maybe." The single word broke on a sob, and they continued in silence for a while. Kim sighed, wrenching her mind to the present, and something struck her. "Mr. C.?"
"Mmm?"
"We're not making any noise."
He nodded absently. "Good. Stealth mode."
"No, I mean, back there – " she waved her arm vaguely behind them, "—you could hear our footsteps, at least. Here, though, we're not making a sound… and is the ground a little squishy? Like walking on – I don't know – cotton, or something?"
Peter froze in place. "Kim, stop." He directed the light to the floor of the tunnel, which was covered in a thick layer of a shimmery, gossamer substance. With a nervous flick he shot a beam of light down the tunnel.
Ahead, in the gloom, a dozen or so black, fathomless eyes caught the glint of the light.
Peter swallowed. "Oh, no."
Many thanks to everyone for being so patient… tried to make this worth the wait.
Legacy, part 25
"This isn't so bad," whispered Kim, looking around the sewer. "I was imagining slogging knee-deep through bodily waste." Peter laughed softly, and she slanted him a look. "This is like when you tried to convince Billy and me that unplugging your alarm clock would stop time, you horrible man." She punched him lightly in the arm, and he grasped her fist and tucked it in the crook of his elbow.
"Just trying to lighten the atmosphere, sweetheart. Come on."
They'd surprised another pair of guards, which had doubled both their store of weaponry and their chances of being discovered sooner. Peter had a weapon slung over his back and a second tucked under his free arm; Kim carried both of hers over one shoulder like a pair of deadly pocketbooks.
Finding an access hatch had been no trouble, and they'd melted the lock to slag behind them. That last pair of guards had also been handily equipped with portable light sources, and these were now clipped to the fugitives' arms as they crept through the tunnel.
The tunnel was clean, metallic, round, with a stream of clear water sliding along its floor. "It's more of an aqueduct than a sewer," Peter went on. "Self-contained, too, unfortunately. Solid waste is incinerated, liquid waste recycled. No access or egress."
She stopped in her tracks. "So this is a good idea because…?"
He tugged her along. "Because So'Vran put this system into place too rapidly to have built it from scratch. About a century ago our forces mounted an attack from the functional sewers, an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate So'Vran. In response he instituted this self-contained system to ensure that we couldn't try again. But most of the tunnels used were preexisting, so what we need to find is some way to get over into the old system."
Kim nodded. "That'll be pretty heavily guarded, no?"
"In some fashion, probably. Alarm, I would think."
"Okay." She looked around again. "So what are we looking for?"
Peter shrugged. "Good question. A door, a seam in the wall, maybe just a visual anomaly. I don't know whether he'd bother to camouflage it from this side. Just look for anything out of the ordinary."
They walked in silence for long moments, alternating lefts and rights where the tunnels met or crossed in an attempt to avoid wandering in circles. In a swing to the left, Kim glanced right, and pressed her fingers into Peter's arm. "Hey."
He looked back over her shoulder, and nodded. "Yep." They hurried in the opposite direction and were confronted with a large, oval door with a huge spoked wheel in the center to control the locking mechanism. "Probably hasn't been opened in a hundred years," Peter muttered, closely examining the edges of the door. "Now, where are you, you little rat b — aha." He indicated with his light beam a small connection at the side of the door. "There's the alarm, Kim."
"Hm." She leaned close, squinting at it. "Can we bypass it, or do we just shoot it?"
Peter frowned, thinking. "Bypass if we can. It'll give us a little longer to run, but we'll be down one light." He consulted the power indicator on his own light, then hers. "Yours has more juice than mine, so I'll cannibalize mine for parts. Shine that over here, will you?"
It was an odd combination of forever and no time at all before Peter straightened and handed Kim back her light, scooting the leftover pieces of the other out of the way with his foot. "That ought to work, though I'm a little rusty on ancient electronics."
"We'll know soon enough." They each grasped a spoke of the wheel and pulled; it took all of their combined weight before the wheel budged creakily, the sound echoing through the tunnel behind them. Kim gritted her teeth and glanced up at Peter, who nodded, his blue eyes determined. They leaned against the wheel again; it protested, grinding rustily, metal squeaking against metal… and then all of a sudden it let go, spinning crazily, sending Kim hurtling into the middle of Peter's chest with a squeak of her own.
He put her down. "Remember when Zack convinced all of you to jump off the garage roof with an umbrella for a parachute? I barely caught you then, too."
She chuckled. "Trini and Billy wouldn't do it, Jason made it okay, and Zack broke his arm. I remember. But I'm a little bigger now."
Peter laughed. "Not by much." She glared at him, and he grinned. "Come on, Supergirl."
**************
Jason looked up at the sound of the medbay door opening. "Father? Should you be up?"
Iannos limped slowly to his son's side, looking down at the pale face of the girl who lay unconscious on the biobed in front of them. "I am fine, Jason. Has she stirred?"
"A little. I think she's just sleeping now, though it's hard to tell." Jason stood, offering the chair to the older man. "Is this normal for burnout?"
"It would depend on the level of exhaustion, but it does not appear to be much different from that which Taia and I have suffered on occasion." He shrugged. "Though it is also true that these powers of Light and Shadow are unknown to me. How does Tommy fare?"
Jason folded his powerful arms across his chest. "Pretty much the same, they tell me. I should probably go and see for myself, but – "
Iannos offered him an understanding smile. "I was lifebound once myself, son."
"Yeah."
Aji moaned slightly, her green eyes opening in a pained squint. "Jason?"
Immediately he was by her side, grasping her hand securely. "Here, babe."
The comm beeped. "Tommy's awake, Jase," said Adam's voice.
Jason grinned. "Thought he might be. Thanks." The link beeped again, signaling the end of the message, and he looked down at Aji. "Do you guys do everything together? I could get jealous."
"How are you feeling, little one?" Iannos asked gently.
"Well enough, Pahpian, though my head pounds."
Iannos bent to kiss her gently on the cheek. "You haven't called me that since you were a small girl, Aji. It gladdens my heart to hear you say it again, all the more so since I am to be your father now."
Aji looked at him doubtfully. "Then you really don't object to the lifebond?"
He gave her a mock-stern look. "Of course not, little one. Why would I? You are yourself, and responsible for your actions alone. And your actions have never made me other than proud." Iannos looked at Jason. "I honor your Bloodsong, my son. I welcome this union."
Jason watched Aji as she registered the welcome she'd just been given, a slow but brilliant smile creeping over her face. "Thank you, Father," he said, slipping an arm around Aji's shoulders to steady her as she sat up.
"And you are truly my Pahpian now," she added, kissing Iannos on the cheek. Glancing up at Jason, Aji swung her legs over the side of the bed. "I'm well enough, Jason. It's time to act."
****************
In a small conference room, Tommy paced incessantly. Trini watched him for about as long as she could stand, finally sighing in exasperation. "Tommy, sit or I am going to tackle you to the ground." He shot her a look from haunted hazel eyes, and she sighed again, more gently. "It's not your fault, Tom."
"Didn't you hear what happened?" he growled. "That maniac killed Mr. C! Killed him! And then brought him back, like it was nothing! I can't even imagine how that must have – what if he's done something to – oh, God, Trini, how can you say it's not my fault?"
Trini bit her lip. "It's as much mine as yours, then. I'm the one you trusted to keep things under control at home, and I'm the one who let them take her."
Deorth caught Rocky's eye, leaned against the wall and stretched out his feet. "It's my fault too."
"And mine," the blue Zeo Ranger added, sliding an arm around Kat's waist.
"Don't leave me out of this pity party," she chimed in.
"Yeah, I want to beat on myself too," Tanya threw in her two cents.
"Who says you guys get to have all the fun?" Adam wanted to know.
"Basically, what we're saying here is you're both full of it," Zack wrapped it up. "There's only one person to blame for all this, and that's So'Vran. Now unless one of you is hiding a thousand year old secret life, I suggest you let it go."
"Easy enough to say," Tommy muttered.
Zack's dark eyes were sympathetic. "Look, bro, I never said it was easy. And I do understand where you're coming from. But you're not exactly setting yourself up to be effective, hanging on to this guilt. Let's get her back first, and you can set fire to yourself or something later."
There was a long pause, during which Jason and Aji came in. Tommy squared his shoulders, his mantle as leader too ingrained to ignore. "Right. So let's figure out a way to get them back."
"Bill not here?" Jason asked.
"He'll be along," Adam supplied. "He and Taia are hashing out some numbers, trying to figure out exactly what we have to work with after the last attack on the base." He shook his head, pulling his wife against his side. "I think he needs something concrete to do, you know?"
"Yeah," Jason nodded sadly. "I know what you mean."
As if in answer to their train of thought, Billy and Taia entered the room. The young scientist sat in the corner of the room, his expression preoccupied, while Taia called up a vidscreen monitor.
"Okay," she began, her usually gentle demeanor replaced by that of a seasoned warrior. "We had some warning before the attack, so most of our ships got out. I've got teams working on arming the last of our hoverskids and runabouts so we'll have a full squad of small, maneuverable fighting craft as well as the seven warships we have left. The trick is going to be getting them close enough to do any real damage. If there were a way to get them actually into the Citadel…" with that she broke off and looked at Tommy and Aji.
Aji nodded. "We can conceal them, at least from visual detection."
"A whole squadron?" Jason expostulated. "You'll burn out again!"
"Maybe," Aji inclined her head. "Your point?"
Zack put a hand on his friend's arm before Jason could explode. "The point, Aji, is that nobody's expendable. It's okay, man," he added to a still- fuming Jason. "We'll just factor it in."
"Already done," interjected Billy from the corner, startling them. "I've been doing some thinking, and I think our best shot at getting Dad and Kim back would be right before the first wave of attack." There was a series of slow nods around the tale as each Ranger took that in. "It seems to me our main problem lies in that we don't know exactly where in the Citadel they're being held. If there were a way to locate them, I'm pretty sure Tom and Aji could get in and out clean."
Aji sat straight up, a look of surprised discovery on her face. "Tom!"
He shot out of the seat Trini had coerced him into. "My God, you think?"
"What? What is it?" Everyone leaned forward excitedly.
Aji spoke up. "The Watcher said Tommy was lifebound to Kim. I know they're human, but he carries Xeryan power now, so what if – "
Rocky was the first to get it. "—he can detect Kim psychically, because they're bound? It's like when I pick up the phone to call Kat and she's already there, calling me!"
Jason turned to Tommy. "Can you, bro?"
Tommy's hazel eyes were dark with determination. "I'm sure as hell going to try."
***************
Kim gasped, stopping short. Peter bumped into her from behind. "What is it?" he asked in concern.
"It's – he – for a second I felt as though Tommy were here." Her eyes filled with tears. "I'm an idiot."
"No, you're not." He folded his arms around her for a quick hug. "And maybe he is."
"Maybe." The single word broke on a sob, and they continued in silence for a while. Kim sighed, wrenching her mind to the present, and something struck her. "Mr. C.?"
"Mmm?"
"We're not making any noise."
He nodded absently. "Good. Stealth mode."
"No, I mean, back there – " she waved her arm vaguely behind them, "—you could hear our footsteps, at least. Here, though, we're not making a sound… and is the ground a little squishy? Like walking on – I don't know – cotton, or something?"
Peter froze in place. "Kim, stop." He directed the light to the floor of the tunnel, which was covered in a thick layer of a shimmery, gossamer substance. With a nervous flick he shot a beam of light down the tunnel.
Ahead, in the gloom, a dozen or so black, fathomless eyes caught the glint of the light.
Peter swallowed. "Oh, no."
