Author's note: I wanted to say that I usually listen to music when I write; I guess it's like my way of a soundtrack. If anyone wonders what I use you
can email me for a copy of the list.
Chapter 3 Nightmares, weights, and a ghost
William Mitchell stood looking at the five young people facing him. Ryan stood at his side where he should have always stood.
"I want to thank each of you for all you have done both for this town and for my family." The captain said proudly. Each of the rangers smiled as they returned their morpher. Ryan hadn't, instead opting to keep it just in case.
"I bet we're all ready to get back to our normal lives." Carter replied.
"I here that." Joel said and they all started laughing.
"Well, I have an extreme sports challenge to start training for." Kelsey said smiling over at Chad.
"I'll be able to get back to surfing." Chad put in returning her smile.
"Looks like we'll finally have time to be a real family." Ryan found his little sister looking up at him happily and his mind began to wonder. It hadn't been so long ago since He was plotting his revenge on his father and little sister. Now, he was good, he was saving the world.
He opened his mouth to speak even as he saw her belly swelling as if she were carrying the children. Then in horror he watched as the world around them exploded with fire and blasts and the SAR were dragging her off.
As the scream lodged in his throat Ryan bolted upright in his bed.
"A dream, only a dream…" He breathed but his heart was racing so fast he couldn't even hear the words.
***
Sarah and Devon sat on the bridge, scanning for any trouble. There had been none and the opal ranger figured that the SAR had just sent word to the generals trying to take Mirinoi. She sighed and wondered where the others were. She'd not seen them in a while. She and the chatter box that was the onyx ranger had been on duty for 2 hours and the ship had been silent since then. She sighed and tried to focus on the medical information the computer had provided her with from Mirinoi. From some reason though she couldn't make her mind work.
***
Devon sat there bored out of his mind, he'd been trying to figure out what on the ship was worth sketching but so far he'd not found something. He'd thought of trying portraits but he figured the others would laugh just like everyone else.
The soft sigh that reached his ears had Devon's gaze drifting over to Sarah. The girl looked bored out of her mind. Not that he blamed her, their shifts weren't' exactly exciting. No, they were in fact rather uneventful.
Now, he took a moment to study her profile. Her raven tresses were pulled back into a tight plait; her flawless skin lent her high cheekbones a mode of perfection. He wondered if she knew she was no doubt born of some form of Nobility. He could see it though. That was something he tended to notice. Another was the way her smooth brow was high hosting her jet black brows. Maybe she would make a good subject. True the others on the ship were interesting but Devon had always thought there was something about Sarah that just seemed… What was the word? Magnetic? She just drew people. She and Hollie although not of the same team to start were now friends, the same with Heath. It was harder with Ryan but the older man was not exactly an open book, with his silver gaze that cut like ice through any room. Still, it was Sarah he now thought he'd like to sketch or even eventually paint.
***
Swoosh, clank, swish, clang, the weights made their sounds, as she ran through her routine. Hollie never slept at night; it was why she was here, why she was working out now. It was a well guarded secret that she never slept. It was dumb, she knew that but when she did she had nightmares. She just caught
Little cat naps here and there. None but Heath had caught on, she was glad then that he'd come. He'd help keep the little secret.
***
Ryan stood there in the doorway a little surprised to see Hollie working out with as much concentration as he'd ever seen his little sister study with. He wondered then why she was still awake. He'd have pegged her for a morning person. Ollie was just such a chipper person. Well, with the others anyway.
It struck him that she'd probably not used that program he'd told her about and he was not surprised, she was stubborn. It was one of the things that made Hollie marsh a good ranger. He then knew that maybe this was a god thing that they were both still awake.
Ryan moved up behind Hollie stealthily and then just as she was lowering her weight he tapped her on the shoulder.
***
Hollie went into battle mode instinctively dropping the weather and flipping over the apparatus, knocking the intruder to the ground in one lithe move.
"Easy." Ryan grunted trying to catch his breath and it was only then that Hollie recognized him.
"What the hell were you doing sneaking around like that?"
"I wasn't sneaking. I just wanted to see if you were almost done."
"Oh, well you should have said something. It's the middle of the night and I thought everyone not on duty would be sleeping." She got waspishly to her feet.
"I felt like working out." Ryan shrugged.
"Well, you got slammed is what you did." With that she gave him a little smirk.
"Well the way I see it," he crossed his arms over his broad chest. "You owe me a rematch."
"Excuse me?" she asked a coppery brow arched in amusement.
"Well you just flipped me and I didn't even have a chance to defend myself." He pointed out.
"Well if you could walk like a normal noisy person that wouldn't be such a hardship." She muttered. Still as she thought about it sparring might be nice. She could use the practice. "But I'm always up for a good sparring match." She said with a wicked little smirk.
"Well now that's a good plan." Then they were both up and moving for the mat in the middle of the floor.
With in seconds they were circling each other, looking for the right moment. Hollie waited, she knew she could judge the way an opponent would fight with his first move.
"What standing in tar?" Ryan taunted but Hollie just smiled at him, waiting.
The ruby ranger had seen this form of fighting before and would not let her pull anything like this. He made to move and when she went to counter he swiftly dove right coming up behind her.
Hollie grunted as he then grabbed her from behind, she didn't miss a beat though, instead of waiting for him to flip her, Hollie hooked her left boot behind his knee, When he moved to rebalance she stepped on his still planted right foot, elbowing left and then spinning out of his grip.
"Not bad red." Ryan had to say, she had been smart and fast and she didn't wait anymore, this time flipping over him, landing behind him. Instead of making the grab though she brought up a leg kicking his right knee out from under him, sending the ruby ranger to the floor.
"Never assume you know your opponent's fighting technique.
"Ok, well I'd say that's enough for now." Ryan said, he didn't know how she'd done it but she'd used his own trick against him.
"I think I'm going to go back to lifting."
"You know I never did find out why you're still up."
"I like to be by myself." Hollie shrugged as she headed to the leg press.
"Well, that's too bad now, I'm not going anywhere."
"Suit yourself." She shrugged as she increased the weights to three hundred.
As Ryan headed to the Bench press he wondered about the red head, she looked very at home when he'd come in. It was odd but now, when they were alone like this he didn't feel so irritated by her. She didn't try to be anything; she just did what she did, not bothering anyone. But then did she ever really bother anyone? He didn't think so. She was perky but not too intrusive. At least that's how it seemed by how her fellow rangers had always reacted to her.
It struck him that it might not be her specifically but how the others felt with her. They seemed so easy even with her wildness. He'd just thought it was like he'd been, dangerous and a hazard to the others, yet they liked her. Maybe it was just one of those quarks that occurred in the world. Ones that just drove you nuts like, how his father had died, like how Dana and Carter had taken three years to figure things out and now Hollie.
Neither Ryan or Hollie were aware of the paper thin figure standing in one corner. The captain was very aware of his son and the red haired gold ranger
Though. They were his final mission. Once He got them together he could rest once more beside his own love.
Now that he'd managed to get Hollie on the shi8p, placing the plan in Dana's mind he just had to find a way to give the couple a nudge. But how?
The five young people faced captain Mitchell, and Dana thought that Ryan looked just perfect finally standing beside their father in his rightful place.
"I want to thank each of you for all you have done both for this town and for my family." The captain said proudly. Each of the rangers smiled as they returned
their morpher. Ryan hadn't, instead opting to keep it just in case. It was a funny thing that, after all he'd lived through he was more cautious than
most elderly and more innocent in some ways than a six year old.
"I bet we're all ready to get back to our normal lives." Carter replied.
"I here that." Joel remarked and everyone laughed.
"Well, I have an extreme sports challenge to start training for." Kelsey said smiling at Chad. Dana wondered if there would be more than just friendship between them. After all they'd been so close and it was not such a far off idea.
"I'll be able to get back to surfing." Chad put in returning her smile. Yep, Dana hid a smirk, there was definitely something there.
"Looks like we'll finally have time to be a real family." Dana smiled up at her big brother but suddenly there was blood, so much blood and pain…
"What's happening?" Chris asked meeting the captain in the hall as Carter led Dana from their quarters.
"Nightmare." Carter told the younger man who nodded, having been present for another such night several months earlier.
"Right." By then they'd reached rescue ops.
***
Ryan was at his post, on the bridge when the com alert went off.
"Mitchell here."
"Ryan?" The familiar voice said and he felt a shock of alarm. It was Dana, her face filling the viewer even as he knew something must have happened.
"Dana what's going on is everything ok are you… the twins..." Ryan blurted and over at her station Hollie watched the older Mitchell's. He looked so worried. She'd never thought that nerves could make a guy look cute but… What was she thinking this was the guy who made her miserable most of the time?
"You two are so alike." Dana said and she sounded a little better, rolling her eyes.
"Sorry, how are things going?" Ryan asked a little embarrassed.
"Ok," she began.
"She had a nightmare." Carter put in and Ryan had the oddest feeling, as if someone had just walked over his grave.
***
"Ryan what is it?" Dana asked seeing the odd look come over his face. She felt Carter's arm still about her and was glad for its support, without it she'd have slumped to the floor.
"I had one too." Was Ryan's quiet reply and she knew then.
"We were in the park and…" She began looking eyes with her brother as everything else fell away.
***
"We were attacked." He breathed and he felt someone pushing him down and felt the chair beneath him. What was going on? Was this a sign? Was coming? He didn't usually look for signs but when something like this happened, when two of them had the same dream he did. Living with demons for fourteen years could do that.
"It means something." Dana was saying and he felt himself nodding.
"I don't' know what but it does." He said and he took the cup of water Hollie pressed into his hands.
"So what do we do?"
"Carter go to code blue." Ryan said and Carter nodded.
"I'll send out word. You guys be really careful."
"We will. You just take care of that sister of mine."
"Will do." With that the transmission ended and then Ryan closed his eyes, saying a little prayer.
"You two have the same dreams a lot?"
"Hmm?" He'd forgotten that Hollie was even there.
"You and doc have the same dreams sometimes?"
"No, not really. True we have dreams, nightmares like everyone else but not usually like that."
"Do your dreams ever come true?"
"No do yours?" He asked and she jumped as if a shot had been fired.
"Mine?"She asked a little surprised.
"Well yeah you do dream don't you?"He said a golden brow arching.
"I um…"She looked away. She really didn't want to talk about this.
"You have nightmares." He said knowing and she paused, looking back at him.
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, you have lines beneath your eyes, and your up, now even tired." Ryan hadn't actually realized it until now but it had to be true, how many times had he seen her around the base.
"Maybe but mine aren't future like." She shrugged and went back to her station to patch into Mirinoi and give the galaxy team their current ETA.
Ryan thought about the things that had happened in the last days and knew that she was doing what Dana used to, staying awake as much as possible. The fact that she could do so so well told him that she'd been doing it for a very long time. It was odd he'd not noticed, and then again he really didn't know her or the others very well.
"Light raider to megaship, come in megaship!" Hollie began and as Ryan watched she did her job. He noted that she didn't take things for granted, even as they talked to monitored the transmission, careful to be sure it was not being bugged.
The image of his sister's face flashed in his mind and then he was moving to Hollie's side and addressing Alpha 6.
"How bad are the attacks?"
"Three this week, but their getting worse." The droid told him in its tinny voice. .
"Any fatalities?"
"One, heart attack."
"Alright, tell the rangers we'll be there in three more days."
"Will do Ryan, be careful." Alpha said and moved to end the transmission.
"Hey," Ryan caught Hollie's hand as she reached for the end button.
"Yeah?"sha asked looking at him oddly.
"If you want to…" He didn't know how to make the offer but he knew that if she were his little sister he'd do this and want someone else to do it. "Talk about the dreams, I'm here. I've dealt with them myself for about17. Years." He said and her green eyes met his silver ones for a long moment.
"Maybe sometime." She nodded and then went to get them some coffee from the sinthitron.
TBC
***
What kind of a mix do you think you get when you add one volatile ruby ranger, one gold ranger as wild as the wind and a match making ghost? *evil grin*
Seriously though when I read this this evening asit was origiannly written I had a feeling, on that not only said to check and rewrite some of the story but that chapter 3 and 4 should have been only one. The theme carried over in both really. hcpater should be one *shrugs*Anyway PLZ R/R and let me know what you think.