Alright, installment number three. There's been some speculation as to Ryder's parentage. All will be revealed, as will Sydney and Ryder's true relationship... Thank you for the reviews. Drop me a line if you like this chapter and I'll get started on chapter number 4.
When they returned to SPD headquarters the six rangers were exhausted, but they had been successful. Bridge, Jack, and Sky came out the worst of the lot. The first two, because of previous injuries, and Sky because he had taken the brunt of the entire battle.
FLASHBACK
"Stop, SPD!" Sky stepped forward as the rest of the team hung back. Cruger had kept Ryder back the Academy, a surprise for Gruumm should they need him. The creature let out a demented, mechanical laugh and fired a red laser beam at the rangers. "Guess we do this the hard way." Sky growled, pushing himself off the ground. "You guys ready?" He didn't wait for an answer as he rushed the monster. He pulled out his Patrol Baton and used it sword-style to slash at the monster's torso.
"Sky!" Syd watched as the robotic creature grabbed the blade of Sky's Patrol Baton and wrenched it from his hand. It laughed as Sky flew into the side of a nearby building; his weapon was thrown in the opposite direction. Sydney pulled out her own weapon and fired at it.
The monstersparked and it fell back slightly as the beams cut into its chest. Then it laughed again, maniacally, and fired back at the four standing rangers. Sydney, Bridge, and Z managed to jump out of the way with no problems, but Jack, due to his four bruised ribs and a stretched ligament in his knee, was having some trouble. The red ranger stared at the powerful red energy as it barreled down on him. His muscles tensed and Jack braced himself for impact when he felt himself flying through the air. He managed to turn just in time to see Sky take the entire blast in the chest. "Sky!"
Sky felt his suit dissipate around him and coughed violently. He winced when he saw the blood and spit, to get the coppery taste out of his mouth. "Ugh…" He got to his feet, weakly, and turned to face the monster again. He pulled out his SPD morpher and became the blue ranger once again. He felt, rather than saw, his teammates gather behind him.
"Sky," Sydney asked worriedly "Are you-"
"I'm fine." He snapped, "Let's just get this guy to Headquarters."
Sydney nodded, despite being slightly hurt by his tone of voice, as did the others. "Let's do it." Bridge said grimly, sliding into a fighting stance.
The five power rangers attempted to attack the robot simultaneously when he released the Krybots. "Dammit," Sky swore under his breath. "This keeps getting better and better."
With Sky, Jack, and Bridge injured the rangers were barely able to defeat the Krybots. "I think we need some help." Jack wheezed, clutching his ribs in pain.
Though he couldn't see it Sky scowled at the red ranger. "We don't need-" He wasn't able to finish his sentence as Gruumm's mercenary shot him in the back. He fell to his knees with a pained gasp. He felt his suit disappear again before everything went black.
"Sky!" Sydney rushed over to the unconscious blue ranger and dropped to her knees. After feeling for his pulse and checking his breathing she trained a fiery glare on the monster. "You'll pay."
The conscious rangers were taken aback by Sydney's steely voice, but the monster just laughed. "I hope you do better than your boyfriend, pretty pink ranger." Syd growled and started to charge the creature, when everyone's attention was drawn upwards.
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
Z rolled her eyes as the Omega ranger flipped from the top of the building, where he was standing, and landed right in front of Sydney."That was lame, Ry."
Ryder just shrugged, before pulling a sword from the sheath at his side. "Let's finish this."
Sky woke up just in time to see Ryder trap the creature in a containment card.
END FLASHBACK
"Dismissed!" Sky looked at Cruger, surprised that he had spaced out for the entire debriefing. He saluted his commander as was about to leave when Cruger called him back. "Cadet Tate! A word?"
Sky regretted it as soon as he nodded, as his head started to pound once again. "Shit." He muttered it quietly enough that even Cruger's advanced hearing couldn't pick it up and raised a hand to his forehead. As if touching it would make the hurt go away…
"I understand," The big blue dog began his lecture as soon as everyone else had vacated the room. "That you're the reason for Cadet Landors' condition."
"Yes sir." Sky responded emotionlessly.
"There's a good reason for it I suppose?"
"No sir." Sky responded, realizing that he should have been able to control his temper despite the provocation. "Jack happened in on my training and offered to spar with me. Things got out of hand."
"I see." Cruger looked appraisingly at the blue ranger. He was putting all his weight on his left side and breathing shallowly. There were scrapes all over one side of his face and his right eye was swelled shut. The commander noticed Sky's bruised and scraped knuckles, but had a sneaking suspicion that that particular injury hadn't happened during battle. "You're dismissed Cadet."
Normally Sky wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the lack of punishment confused him. "Sir?"
"Dismissed, Cadet Tate. Please go to the infirmary and have Dr. Kushner check you out." Cruger's voice brooked no argument, so Sky saluted and quickly left the room.
"Why didn't he get some sort of punishment?" Dr. Manx asked curiously.
"I hadn't realized you were here, Doctor." The complete lack of surprise in his voice completely contradicted his sentence though.
Kat rolled her eyes "That doesn't answer my question Anubis."
"Did you see the condition he was in?" Kat winced and nodded. "I believe the next few days will be punishment enough for him, especially if Dr. Kushner declares him unable to participate in training. Besides, this is Schuyler Tate we're talking about."
Dr. Manx smiled wryly "I suppose you're right, as always."
"Sky?" The blue ranger sat up gracelessly as Syd entered the infirmary.
"Hey Syd."
"Are you okay?" She asked tearfully, rushing to his bedside.
"Yeah." he winced as she lay a hand on his bruised chest.
Syd drew her hand away at the look of pain on his face. "I was so worried about you." She admitted, crying freely.
"You were?" Sky asked, lifting his less injured left hand to cup her cheek. She nodded, treasuring the uncharacteristic show of affection.
"Of course I was. Don't ever do that again!"
Sky chuckled, but it soon turned into a hacking cough. "I can't promise anything." He said honestly.
"Sky-"
Sky cut off the pink ranger by drawing her face down for a soft kiss, despite the painful cut on his lower lip. He scooted over awkwardly, making room for Sydney next to him. He leaned against his pillows and smiled as Syd laid her head on his uninjured stomach. "I'll be more careful." He vowed.
Syd smiled, she knew that was the best she would get from him, and barely moving kissed his stomach. "Good enough."
Without thinking Sky began running his fingers through Sydney's hair, lulling the blonde to sleep. Her rhythmic breathing had him following her into unconsciousness moments later.
Sky woke late the next morning, which was unusual for him. He smiled to himself when he realized that Syd was still cuddled tightly against his side. "Syd," he nudged her shoulder gently "Sydney, it's time to wake up."
"Huh?" the blonde stirred slowly. Her voice was husky eyes were hazy with sleep. "Sky?" she asked, rubbing her cheek against his stomach dreamily.
"Yeah. Wake up, sweetheart."
"What're you doing here?"
"You're in my bed, Syd." he smirked at the lethargic pink ranger. She wasn't a morning person.
"I'm what?"
Sky laughed as she sprang from the bed. "Relax, Princess, you just fell asleep when you came to visit me last night."
"Don't call me Princess."
Sky smirked at her "You're going to be late for training."
"What?" She looked around the room frantically, looking for a clock. "It's 10 o'clock? Crap! I'm so late!" Sky almost laughed as she practically ran out the infirmary doors. He closed his eyes to go back to sleep, the painkillers Dr. Kushner had prescribed him were strong little buggers, when Syd poked her head back into the room. "Sky?"
"Hmm?" Sky could barely open his eyes.
"Aren't you coming?"
"Can't," the blue ranger scowled tiredly at Dr. Kushner's door "Internal bleeding." He yawned loudly "I'm 'not fit enough' for training."
"Okay," Syd smiled at the usually tough blue ranger and smoothed a stray piece of his hair back before kissing him lightly on the forehead. "I'll come see you when training's done."
"Okay." Sky's response was barely a whisper, as he retreated back into the land of dreams.
"I love you." She whispered and kissed his forehead again before running out of the room again. She was going to be really late now. Then she smiled, he had called her sweetheart.
Syd was completely out of breath when she reached the other rangers in the training fields outside of SPD Headquarters. "Sorry I'm late, guys."
Z raised an eyebrow at the panting pink ranger. "Where have you been?"
"Yeah," Ryder added, always looking for a way to make Syd annoyed "Aren't those the same clothes you were wearing yesterday?"
"It's a uniform, Ryder." She said, glaring at the other blonde "I wear it everyday."
"Whatever you say, Kitten."
"Kitten?" Jack asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.
"It's a long story." She huffed. Then she glanced between Jack and Z and raised her own eyebrows at them. "Has anyone ever told you guys that you look eerily alike when you do that?"
"Ah, ah Princess." Z said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're not getting out of it that easily."
"Shouldn't we start training?" Bridge asked. He was starting to get a headache from all the tension.
"But Syd never came back to our room last night!" Z blurted out.
Syd clenched her fists and glared at the yellow ranger. "What?" Bridge asked incredulously, training forgotten. "Syd-"
"Dad's gonna kill you!"
Sydney turned her glare from Z to Ryder "Don't you dare tell Uncle Hunter!"
Ryder shook his head "Sydney-"
"I fell asleep in the infirmary." She said, exasperated with her fellow rangers. "I was just making sure Sky was okay. There's no need to drag anyone else into this." With a final glare to Ryder Sydney stomped off, towards the elaborate obstacle course they were supposed to be training on.
"Uncle Hunter?" Bridge asked Ryder curiously, though he didn't bother to take his worried eyes off of Sydney's retreating figure. "I thought you guys were just friends."
"We are friends." Ryder shrugged "But we're cousin's too. Our moms are sisters."
"Oh."
Sky glanced anxiously at the clock on the wall. 3:30. "Can I get out of here soon?" he asked impatiently as Dr. Kushner entered the room.
The elderly Indian man shook his head. Sky Tate was one of the most irritating patients he'd ever had. "You're more like your father than you know."
Sky's eyes darkened with emotion for a moment, before returning to their normal icy expression. "Can I get out of here or what?"
"You've got two fractured ribs, internal bleeding, and first degree burns on you back, not to mention all the cuts and bruises. What do you think Mr. Tate?" Sky grunted as the doctor handed him some more painkillers. "Take these. I'll be back to check on you later."
Sky grunted in frustration, but quickly swallowed the pills. He was in more pain than he wanted to let on. "Are you guys just gonna stand there or are you gonna come in?" Sky asked a few minutes later, as he heard his fellow rangers just outside his door.
"Hey, man." Jack said as he, Bridge, and Z entered Sky's hospital room. "How ya feeling?"
"Been better," Sky shrugged indifferently "been worse too."
"Worse?" Z asked. He looked pretty bad to her.
Sky nodded wordlessly, he didn't want to talk about it. "Where's Sydney?"
"She and Ry are probably still going at it." Z shrugged.
Sky looked questioningly at her, then at Bridge when she didn't answer. "What?"
"They got into a pretty huge fight. She was pissedwhen Z mentioned that she never went back to their room last night."
Sky glared at the yellow ranger "She was checking on me. We fell asleep."
"That's what she said."
"That's what happened. Look guys," Sky said, pretty pissed off himself, "I'm kinda tired. The doc just gave me these pills… I'll talk to you later."
The three rangers nodded and left quietly. Sky was actually starting to fall asleep again when Jack came back into the room. "Sky?"
"What do you want Jack?" He was pissed, sore, and just wanted to go to sleep.
"Thanks… for, you know."
Sky nodded, a little surprised that the red ranger would bring it up. "Yeah, well…"
"Alright," the red ranger nodded "I'll let you sleep…" Jack was about to leave when he looked at the beaten up Sky again. "Sky?"
"What Jack?"
"I just thought you might want to know that Sydney and Ryder are cousins."
