Prism
Disclaimer: I know, I know - they're not mine. They belong to Saban or whoever bought the rights.
Author's note: I rate this PG-13 for violence and the like. I deviate from the original storyline in places.
The chisel tapped away in a steady rhythm, carefully prying loose a chip of rock. The work was delicate and painstaking, and to loose concentration could mean damaging the crystals embedded behind the rock. If that happened…he shuddered, both not really wanting to think about those possibilities, as well as feeling the cold dampness of the cavern on his bare chest.
The mines were deep, seemingly endless. It was dark, and moisture seemed to drip off the walls. He sighed. There were other parts of the mines that were drier, but he was glad not to be put in those, since several sections near that part had collapsed, burying many workers, including one he'd begun a guarded friendship with. More workers had been brought in, not to recover the bodies of the men and women killed in the narrow shaft, but to clear the rubble and reopen the shafts. The bodies were carted out with the stones, and left among them. Later that night, families had stolen over in secret to claim the bodies of loved ones and bury them in unmarked graves, the locations known only to themselves.
Everyone called themselves 'workers'. It was better than admitting they were slaves somehow. It soothed their minds, at least allowing them to maintain the illusion of hope, the kind of hope that got them through the day. When the Empress had come, the young man remembered, he had climbed from the rubble (rubble of what? He wondered silently. He remembered well that he'd seen wreckage everywhere, but for the life of him, he could not remember what had been there in the first place to be broken so badly) dazed and nauseated, and immediately grabbed by a quadroon of strange beings. He had fought hard, but eventually, they overcame him and forced him to into a crowded huddle with hundreds of others. They were sorted out, one line for kitchen work, one for servants to the Empress herself (these were the ones who, either terrified or naturally toadies, voluntarily acknowledged the Empress' supremacy), and many of the rest were bound for hard manual labor.
As they all found out the next day after a poor supper and little sleep from sleeping on the hard ground in a light, cold rain, the work was hard. Everyone was issued a shovel or a pickax and instructed to dig. And dig they did. Eventually, after many days of work, one group broke into a deep cave. Shuttled down into the bowels of the cavern, the Empress commanded them through her servants to carefully remove the crystals that grew along the walls of the cavern.
After the cave was located and the operation truly began, quality of life had improved a very small bit. A couple of groups of workers spun off to begin building barracks so that the workers could sleep under shelter instead of out in the open (the Empress had been most displeased when a fairly large number of her workforce had died over the first several weeks of exposure and illness and had thus grudgingly granted that some sort of shelter was necessary. Her workers were expendable, but not at such a vast rate).
"Tommy!" came a soft hiss in his direction, breaking his thought. He glanced over at the girl beside him. Her striking paleness stood out in the darkness, and he gave an almost imperceptible nod so as not to attract any attention to their interaction.
Following her eyes to the entrance of the cavern, he noted the foremen coming down to inspect their progress. Grateful for the warning, he smiled slightly at her. She seems so familiar, he pondered, thinking perhaps that she had been one of the women he'd dreamed of the night before. Perhaps not - in his dream, there had been a quality to the people, including the one who looked like her, that he could not describe. 'Strangely bright' was the closest he could come, but that did not do justice to the richness of the quality. It had changed her skin and her hair, but especially her eyes and clothing.
Reluctantly, he forced his mind back to his work. It always seemed that the beasts that served as the Empress' foremen held some sort of grudge against himself and the girl. They were the only workers the foremen used specific, proper names with. Of course, everyone had a name that all of the other workers called them by to discern identities, but the beasts neither knew nor cared about these, simply calling everyone "stupid" or "idiot", or a number of other less pleasant things. However, whenever they looked at him or the girl, they always called them specifically: he was Tommy, whatever that meant. The girl, he recalled, was usually called "Kat".
Tommy winced as he heard the crack of the armored monster's blade striking Kat on the back. Kat bit back a cry. Usually, that would only bring another blow, and besides, this one had been with the flat of the blade. It would probably bruise up nicely, but other then that, not be too bothersome. As the beasts left the cavern, satisfied with the progress apparently, Tommy leaned over to Kat. "Are you alright?" he whispered.
"Yes," Kat whispered back. Tommy personally found her unfamiliar accent rather intriguing. He could recall little of his past life, but he was fairly certain that the girl came from someplace other than where he'd been brought up. More talking was dangerous, so Tommy turned back to working in silence. Someday, he vowed, I'm going to fight back. For all those that have died. And for all those that still live.
It was not that no one attempted to fight back against the foremen or even the Empress, who enforced the system of slavery over them, but all who had tried were killed. If they were lucky, death came swiftly. If not, it was a lengthy, drawn out torture in front of the Empress they'd tried to overthrow. Tommy knew that to plausibly attempt something effective, it would take a careful, trust-worthy alliance.
It scared him even to think about asking anyone to join him, though. Among the workers were plenty of snitches, and to ask the wrong person would quash any rebellion quickly and effectively, him along with it. Not to mention, the mines were dangerous, and someone you trusted one day could be gone the next. Tommy sighed. He had thought often about the pale girl, Kat. Something about her - maybe it was just someone he remembered in his dreams that resembled her - but in any case, he wanted to trust her, even with his life.
At last, a loud tone sounded through the cavern, signaling the end of the workday. Tommy carefully wrapped his tools, slipped them into a large pocket on his pants, and headed for the surface. The bright light burned his eyes as he stepped out into the sun. Running a hand through his hair, he walked towards the line for food, not noticing a crowd milling around. Tommy squinted. The workers were speaking in a variety of languages as they stood, a ripple of apprehension going through the bunch. Tommy considered trying to figure out what the occasion was, but surmising that it was a fight of some sort - those were common - he decided it wasn't worth it.
"Attention!" came a call from up on a high guard tower where several soldiers stood gravely straight and a foreman lounged against the metal structure. Everyone stopped, no matter how hungry they were or how much they wanted to go back to their bunk and sleep. Lines began to form, and Tommy hurried to his place in the lines. Before anyone could be grabbed and singled out for punishment for being too slow, the lines were formed, everyone stood silent and waiting, all too tired or frightened to move.
Several of the soldiers came forward with a large wooden pole. Behind them came one of the foremen, dragging a woman. She was struggling against them, fighting tooth and nail to pull loose. While most captives fought for fear of the punishment they were about to receive, Tommy sensed that this woman was different. She fought, he realized, not to escape, but rather to deal her captor as many injuries as possible. Her dark skin glittered with beads of sweat in the bright light as the monster flung her hard against the pole and bound her to it, hands pulled high in the air.
The woman stared defiantly at the crowd, as though to challenge them. I'm not afraid of death, her eyes seemed to say to Tommy. Why are you? Tommy felt a surge of blood flow up through his veins as he stared at her. This woman is a warrior, he thought, furious at his own cowardice.
The hiss of the whip sounded and left a glistening trail of blood where it stung across the woman's abdomen. As Tommy watched the blood ooze out, he gasped silently. The blood took on the quality of his dreams, and before he knew it, he was plunged into darkness.
The woman's skin had changed, this much he knew. She also wore a garment, the likes of which he had never seen before. He blinked. "Tommy?" she asked, concerned, "Are you all right?" "Oh, yes, of course. Sorry, didn't mean to space out like that." Laughter from others gathered around a table. "Aw, Tanya, he's just searching his mind for his lost memory!" More laughter, which he joined in.
~*~
"Zordon, what's going on?" asked Kimberly softly, both wanting to tear her eyes from the viewing globe and not being able to look away. It almost physically hurt her to see Tommy crumple to the ground like that. She tried not to even think about what Tanya was enduring.
Billy stared. For once, he had no reassuring data, no schematics, nothing. He was at a complete loss to comprehend what had happened, for his whole mind and being screamed that it could not be so. He took a deep breath. From the moment Zordon's message had come across to Aquitar, he had figured on circumstances being bad. Remembering that he and the others, no matter what powers or team members, had overcome some amazingly difficult problems and come out the better for it, he maintained his hope. Until now.
Jason swallowed hard. Retired, huh? he thought bitterly. If only. He knew well that it was plain, darn, simple luck that he'd needed to check in with Billy and the Aquitian scientists to ensure that the Gold Powers were completely purged from his body and that the after-effects were also abating. When Billy had been summoned from the room for 'an urgent message from Earth', Jason remembered feeling an icy ball form in his stomach, despite his rational sense being that all was well right now. After all, Terra Venture was in space protecting them, there were other rangers now that were more than competent, he reminded himself. However, when Billy returned, there was little to say before they were teleported back to their home. Back to the Power Chamber to face the most crushing news of their entire lives.
The old sage in his time warp looked away. He could not bring himself to face these, his first chosen. "The Earth has fallen."
"To whom?" exploded Kimberly, unable to keep herself in check any longer. Came back to the Power Chamber to make sure Jason and Billy were all right on Aquitar, and before I know it, the whole darn place is shaking, and now we're being told that someone has taken over the earth? I am NOT hearing this! "Who did this? Why are we all safe in here? Why is Tommy," she faltered, as tears flooded her eyes, "fainting, and Tanya being hurt? Why, why, WHY!" she shouted the last.
Zordon looked even more ancient than his usual, his face more deeply lined even behind the glass of the warp tube. He looked down as Kimberly dissolved into deep, aching sobs, Billy and Jason seeming too shocked to move. For once, he had no answer.
To be continued. Whether you loved it, hated it, or were somewhere in between, let me know what I can fix or am doing well on - reviews are appreciated greatly!!!
