Chapter 4 future realizations
"Yes, he's all yours." The masked figure said and Brianna Mitchell nodded and turned to face her son.
"Mom?" He asked and Ryan knew his voice sounded weak but he didn't care. He was having enough of trouble believing his mother was truly standing before him.
"Hello Ryan." She said solemnly and he just couldn't believe that his mother, who'd been dead for over 14 years, was truly standing there. She looked as lovely as she had when he was a child and he felt as if he'd been lost for a long time.
"What are you doing here?" he heard himself asking and he sounded once again the six year old child.
"Ryan, although much has happened to you in the last twenty years you are still my son and even though your father and I had to leave you we love you." The blonde woman said gently but still didn't move any closer.
"You two did all of this?" He asked looking for the masked spirit knowing she was already gone.
"Yes, neither of us could stand watching what you have become." William Mitchell said and materialized beside his wife.
"What so you two put on this little show to fix everything?" Ryan demanded angrily. His father was deed he had no right to be there, no right to be doing this to him.
"Ryan, it's not like that, we just want to show you what you are becoming." His mother tried to slow the situation before her child got to upset. They didn't have much time left and there was still a lot of work to do.
"What like you care?" He glared at his father. "You didn't care about me or Dana after the rangers were disbanded. You just left us." He spat angrily and all FO his feelings not just that rage but the feeling of desertion fear and pain hit him hard once more.
"Ryan, I didn't have any more choice than your mother did." William replied calmly and that just made Ryan feel more and more. How could this man say he had no choice? He'd always had choices; like he'd had when he let him take Karate at four and the way he trained Dana to be a ranger.
"But she was sick, you just gave up!" The young man shouted at the top of his lungs. If he didn't he was afraid he'd do something violent.
"I had a heart attack; I didn't choose to leave either of you. Ryan, I'd never do that." William said trying to make his son see the truth.
"Then why didn't you fight it? I fought the demons!" Ryan cried and his mother winced, she'd watched him do so and now the truth was finally being spoken aloud.
"Ryan…" William tired, feeling even as a ghost, shaken and proud of his son. He'd been so little, to fight those monsters…
"Come Ryan, you have to see the future now." Brianna said knowing their time was rapidly running out. This confrontation as much as it was over due would have to wait. They still had one last trip to make. She'd not give up, not on this, not on her angel.
"No, no I want to tell…" Ryan shook his head so angry he could spit. "Damn it Mom, I want to finish this!" But even as he spoke the scene changed and they were standing in a cemetery, behind a dull grey tombstone. "What are we doing here?" He asked Brianna show pointed to a figure on the other side of the grave.
"Just watch and learn." She whispered.
"Hey big brother," the elderly woman said shifting in the weal chair. The wind whipped at her rose colored babushka. She looked old, old and fragile. Ryan could barely believe that it was really his sister; still he knew those blue eyes, so like his guides. He then found himself listening to the rest of her words as she went on.
"I made it, just like I promised. I know you can't hear me now, and wouldn't care if you could…" the sound of her words was sad and not a bit tired as she went on. "But I'm here anyway." The sunlight flinted off of the metal of the mobile chair and he frowned, how had that happened? His thoughts were diverted though with her next words. "I heard from Kelsey the other day. Her cat had kittens." Since when did Kelsey have cats? She was a daredevil, why would she be that settled? But then looking at his sister he knew that from how Dana looked Kelsey had to be pretty old too.
"It's funny; I never would have thought her greatest joy would be found in a cat. But then I never thought she'd become so bitter." Kelsey bitter? Ryan frowned at his sister's unknowing image, what had happened to her? Why would the ex-yellow ranger be unhappy? She was wealthy? Then he remembered how she'd spent the holidays growing up and then how she'd been alone for that other time… Had she never found someone to settle down with? Had she always been alone? Unaware of his thoughts his little sister went on.
"Carter says she's just like her Grandmother. I haven't heard from Angela, but then after what happened to Joel I don't think I'll ever hear from her again." Dana said staring off into space a moment. Ryan felt concern hit him, what had happened to the sky cowboy?
"He was killed during the filming of a movie in Angel Grove." Brianna told her son as if having read his thoughts. After all he'd seen and was coming to believe in he nodded.
"It was a picture about the life and time of the Silver force power rangers." Brianna told her oldest child quietly and he frowned then looked from Dana back to his mother.
"The…?" he asked, thinking, what a cheesy name for a ranger team.
"The final team." Brianna explained before Dana went on once more.
"Chad and Aggie moved to silver Hills and it's funny but for the first time it truly feels like the rangers aren't a team anymore. But I guess you felt like that when we handed back our morphers." Dana murmured shivering in the chill December wind.
As if on cue Ryan spotted the man coming to stand beside the wheelchair.
"Dana, it's freezing, you shouldn't be out hear like this." Ryan knew the man was Carter, his silver hair had changed but his blue eyes were vivid from within his aged face. Now, all he looked was concerned for the woman. Only then did Ryan notice the ring on her hand. It was simple but then she'd never been one for the fancy trappings. At least they'd found each other. But then he noted the annoyance in her eyes.
"Carter, I have to, I always come see him on Christmas." She defended herself and Ryan wondered if that bothered Carter. His question was answered when he saw his old friend hunker down beside his wife.
"I know honey but you know what the doctor said." He took her hand and she nodded wearily saying.
"But Carter you know how much Ryan hated being alone for Christmas."
"Yes, how could I ever forget, if he hadn't been…" the bitterness was unmistakable and Ryan felt sick, he'd never even dreamed that could have happened, let alone for her to end up like this… he loved his little sister, didn't they understand that?
"Carter, we've been over this a million times, the accident wasn't Ryan's fault. I made the choice to come home." Dana said and the annoyance was back and in full force.
"Because you felt you should do what he wanted." Carter straightened to his full height and it was then that Ryan noted his fragileness. He looked so tired and bitter, how had Carter become like this? But he knew that pain, and helplessness could do that, wasn't' he himself like that? God, had he done this to them? Had his actions hurt her like this and in turn Carter?
"What happened to me?" Ryan asked his mother.
"You were killed five years ago in a break in at your house. The house you grew up in." She said somberly." You were so bitter, after the accident that you never left the house,"
"I was feeling sorry for myself." He understood then.
"Yes, and it destroyed you. Ryan you become worse than you were with the demons." She told him softly, and he saw the tears in her soft blue eyes.
"No…" he shook his eyes. He remembered how that had been, how he'd become, he never would want to be like that again. Then he remembered that day and…
"Yes, you thought that everyone should keep close to you, but you never made the effort yourself." Ryan knew his father was right, he'd thought they should all do it, that he didn't have to, that they owed it to him, that the world owed it to him. But then Kelsey had tried he'd… Heavens had he done that to her?
"I see you understand now." His father said and for once he didn't feel that rage. Ryan just felt cold, as if he'd been frozen and only now felt the sudden thaw.
"I hurt everyone. All because of selfishness." He said looking at the image of his sister and carter as it faded.
"Not exactly, you did hurt them but it was more because of all of your actions from the time the six of you defeated the demons. You let them drift as much as they did." Then as his Mother spoke images flashed around them. "Dana loves you, always has, even when you were trying to kill her, even when she didn't know you." He saw the past, her trying to tell him who he was, that it was not Dad's fault, his surprise party in the galley. "Chad and Joel were you're friends, if you'd just tried to keep contact things might have been different." Images of both that last day in the park flashed and Ryan felt a lump rise in his throat. "Then there's Kelsey…" no sooner had her image come than it was frozen.
"What?" He asked frowning, what were they trying to tell him? If he'd kept in touch would she have not gone bitter?
"Even with as much as we are aloud to show and tell you there are still things we cant'." Brianna explained as the image of the girl faded. "Just know this Ryan, what you feel and do effects those around you." That said the images of his mother and father faded and he was once more sitting in the living room of his house.
TBC
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Well, what do you think? I know I did a little showing of how Ryan's parents as ghost felt but I was trying to show just how bad he'd gotten. PLZ let me know what you hsink should happen.