Authors Note: I am incredibly sorry that I haven't updated in a month and half! I feel terrible! Initially, I was planning to finish the chapter and a few others when I went on vacation to Italy because of the long train rides and plane rides, my computer thought differently. To make a long story short, it had to be taken to the computer hospital for emergency surgery which took about three weeks to fix. Needless to say, I was livid. I have it finished, however, and I will be sure to get the next few chapters up shortly as school is finished and I have a full summer to breeze ahead with.
(I might even be coming up with a sequel. Hmmmm...)
Now, On with the story!
Breaking Ground : White Smoke
Khyla sat in her room idly, looking at the latest edition of Vogue, and wondering when the rangers were going to be back from their training so she could actually do something. As much as she was beginning to love being here among all of the B-Squad cadets, there was a part of her that was longing for the vibrant colors, and vivacious people of Phylia. It held so many memories for her, and she hated being away from it. As far as she knew, this was the longest period of time that she had ever been away. She was beginning to miss her father as well. In the past few months of her being at SPD, he had only visited her once, and rarely called her, which was very uncommon for him. Since her mother had been killed, he had constantly been checking up on her, calling her every hour just to make sure she was still safe, coming to her room to make sure she was still there; naturally, Khyla was perturbed by his lack of interest in her well-being, but also knew that it mean that he was working on something big.
She sighed heavily and dropped the arm holding her magazine to the duvet cover on her bed. She flitted her eyes up to the ceiling, over to her picture collage, to the opposite wall, and back again. Not even the pages upon pages of haute couture fashion screaming to be bought could distract her from her perturbed thoughts or her boredom. She was beginning to wonder if everyone had forgotten about her, when the hydraulic doors to her room opened, revealing the person she wanted to see the most at the moment, Sky. A broad smile came across her face as she felt her boredom and unpleasant thoughts float away. He smiled back, seeing the happy look on her face, and continued to enter her chambers. She pushed herself up off of her bed, and came across the room to meet him halfway in a tight embrace. He could feel her smiling broadly into his chest.
"Happy to see me?" He inquired, a playfully cocky air about him. She pulled away slightly and gave him a dissatisfied look.
"Happy to see anyone, really." She said, bashing his ego. He gave her a look of mock hurt, which she returned with a giggle.
"No, I'm just kidding. I was so bored, that I wanted to curl up and die. Not really of course, but you get the point." A moment of silence passed between the two, no moving, no speaking, just gazing at each other. Khyla studied his face. His features were so chiseled, and hard, giving him that look of authority and discipline. Khyla knew better than to fall for it entirely. There seemed to be this side of him that she only saw when they were alone together; a side of him that proved he could let loose and have fun if he was given the right opportunity, and that he was capable of showing emotions other than frustration and anger. Khyla had exposed a softer side of him, something that he was seemingly afraid to show anyone else. She gave him her signature half smile, and laid her head on his chest, just in the crook of his neck. He smiled again, loving the feeling of having her close to him.
"What would you like to do to get rid of your boredom, your highness?" He asked her softly, joking lightly.
"I don't know, something…anything." She replied. More silence. She shifted slightly, snuggling closer to him, pressing her forehead deeper into the crook of his neck. He adjusted his hold on her, bringing her in, closer to him. His mind began to wander, resting, as usual, on the subject of the young woman encased in his arms. He thought about everything that they had been through, their hatred for each other at the beginning, which had now become the exact opposite, and everything in between. Which made him wonder, they hated each other at first, and they became good friends after…where did that leave them now? Still friends? Friends with benefits? Or Boyfriend/Girlfriend? He pondered this topic, still holding Khyla tightly, and after not being able to figure it out, finally got the nerve to ask.
"Khyla?" He asked, not wanting to disturb her.
"Yes?" She answered.
"What are we?" He asked, hoping she would understand what he was talking about.
"ummm…Humans?" She half questioned, half answered, obviously not understanding his question.
"No, I mean…relationship wise. Are we just friends? Are we more than friends? What are we?" Khyla lifted her head from its resting position, and looked him sincerely in the eyes.
"Where do you want us to be Sky?" She asked him, her voice never faltering.
He was taken aback by her answer. No one had ever really answered one of his serious questions with an equally serious question before. He knew what he wanted to say, he was just wary of saying it, because telling Khyla that he desperately wanted to be with her, that he dreamt every night about kissing her, holding her, and being with her, that a moment never passed where he wasn't thinking of her would be laying too much on the line. In his life, he had always taken the safe route, the route that was by the rules, and by the book, the guided route. He had never seen a rule book or a manual on how to convey your emotions to someone you cared about, and winging things was not his forte. He was afraid of breaking the system, because in the system he felt safe; that if things did happen to go awry, he would have a set example of how to fix them. Here, he was on his own. There was no rule book, no guide to help him through this, and if he couldn't be honest with the one person in the world he cared about more than anything, then who could he be honest with?
Her stare was intense, and full of intent. He could tell that she was patiently awaiting an answer for him, just as she could tell that he was trying to formulate the best way possible to word his answer. When she saw that his mind had finally come back from its faraway place, and the determined look in her eyes, she was ready for the worst.
"I want us to be together Khyla. I want us to be together so badly I can taste it. I dream about it every night, even though I try to dream about other things, because I don't want to get my hopes up for something that might not ever happen. I think about you constantly; when I'm in weapons seminars, or martial arts training; virtual simulators or shooting practice; listening to Cruger debrief us…even when I'm on the battle field, I think about you. It's like you've gotten into my head somehow, and oddly enough, for the first time in my life there's this part of me that doesn't ever want that to go away." Khyla stared at him through his speech, listening to him spill his true feelings to her for the first time ever. She kept her look neutral, to keep him in the feeling that it was okay to talk to her, and that she would listen without passing judgments. She was getting through to him, slowly but surely. After not hearing a response from her for a few moments after his speech was concluded, Sky addressed her again. "What do you want Khyla?" He asked, genuinely concerned.
"If I can't get you out of my head, Schuyler Tate, I want you there even more and I don't ever want you to leave." Sky smiled ecstatically at her response. He picked her up, and spun her around, then planted his mouth upon hers in a binding kiss. All of his hopes had materialized, and he stood there with the girl he cared for more than anything. He felt like everything was right in the world.
"ATTENTION, ALL SPD B-SQUAD POWER RANGERS PLEASE REPORT TO THE COMMAND DECK IMMEDIATELY….I REPEAT ALL SPD B-SQUAD POWER RANGERS PLEASE REPORT TO THE COMMAND DECK IMMEDIATELY…" Kat's voice rang through the speakers like thunder clouds on a Mardi Gras Parade. He looked at the woman standing in front of him, his smile replaced by a look of seriousness. She nodded to him, acknowledging his call to duty. He placed a chaste kiss on her mouth, before letting her go; her fingers slipping through his as he unwillingly walked out of the room and ran to the command deck with all of the other cadets in tow.
She half smiled at him, knowing that his duties to humanity came first and foremost. She relished the feeling of his hand on hers as it slipped away slowly. After he was gone, she was left with only her thoughts, all of which were jumbled and irrational. She was consistently thinking of how much she cared for him, and how happy she was now that the fantasy she had been toying with since she and Sky began to get closer had finally become a reality. She stared at the ground, trying to slow the mounting excitement, and walked in loopy circles around her room. Her smile kept getting bigger and bigger until she couldn't contain it anymore, and she started to laugh whole heartedly. She leaned back, and collapsed onto her bed, her arms fell haphazardly on either side of her head. She sighed, and curled into her signature ball on her bed, closing her eyes to day dream about her new boyfriend. She was so entranced by her thoughts and fantasies that even her heightened senses didn't pick up on the faint traces of white mist flowing through the air conditioning ducts in her room.
This monster was easier than any they had ever fought before. It looked like a deranged version of Cookie Monster with leathery dragon-like wings, a demonic tail, beady black eyes that shot lasers at you, and talons that could cut through sheets of steel. Sky shrugged inwardly; to him this was just another one of Grumm's incompetent lackey's that would only take up space in their file storage compartment. Since Cruger had revealed himself as the Shadow Ranger, the battles were going substantially better, and had cut themselves shorter than the ones previous. It all seemed to be going perfectly, a fact which had begun to ebb away at Sky. He knew something wasn't right.
Unlike all of the other Monsters that Grumm and Broodwing had sent at them, this Monster didn't seem to have any real purpose or history. It was nothing like Sinukou and his chemical genius and his desire to give Grumm an Alien version of a Nuclear Bomb. Nor was it like Banagg and his quest to destroy Cruger because of an age old grudge that was held from Cruger's day's as a Delta on his home planet of Sirius. It wasn't even like Drew who was sent by Grumm and Broodwing to assassinate Cruger. This monster, from Sky's perspective, was starting to seem like a mere distraction. But the problem was, he couldn't figure out what Grumm was trying to distract them from.
Speaking of distractions, he was so distracted by his thoughts about the monster, that he didn't see it coming at him. The feeling of its claws tearing the skin off of the rotator cuff in his shoulder dragged him out of his thoughts as he was thrown backwards by the power of the monsters attack. He vaguely heard Sydney yell his name out of concern for his well being, and took it upon herself to avenge her friend's injuries. She attacked with a ferocity that was known to few. She could be a handful when she wanted to be. She watched as the monster attempted to block the rapid fire punches and kicks that Sydney was throwing it's way, but eventually it got so distracted by her fakes that it took some serious hits, and eventually lost its footing. Sky felt the vibrations of the monsters fall as he pushed himself up from his compromising position on the ground. Sydney rushed to his side.
"Sky are you alright?" She asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's keep this moving." He replied, determined to keep his focus on the task at hand. He watched as Jack and Bridge double teamed the monster, and eventually got him on his back yet again. Sky took this time to try to address Cruger.
"Sir?" Sky queried, standing next to Cruger.
"Yes Cadet?" Cruger replied gruffly.
"I'm getting a strange feeling that this monster is merely a distraction against something more important." He said, keeping his eyes on the monster and assuming a stance that prepared him for combat.
"So am I Cadet, so am I. I'm currently unable to decipher what that other something is, but I have Kat on watch for the rest of the city." Sky nodded in reply, then watched as Jack and Bridge were flung their way due to lasers fired by the monster. Syd and Z came to their assistance, helping the two up, then moving to their geometric formation behind Cruger.
She had never felt so tired in her life. She wasn't really sure what had brought on this spell of fatigue, but she was sure that it wasn't natural. The scenery around her began to swim together in to blurry blobs of colorful mass. She pushed herself off of the bed, thinking that splashing her face with water, and possibly drinking some might help pull her out of it. She walked in zig zags, unable to keep herself in a straight line. Had anyone been there to watch, they would have assumed she was in an absolute drunken stupor. She felt as though her legs were falling out from underneath her as the room began to spin. She grabbed onto her chest of drawers to catch her fall as her balance gave out. She slumped to the floor, leaning her head back on the less than furry carpet. She saw a great mass of black with stripes of red move towards her swiftly before her consciousness slipped away.
"Well Rangers," the monster addressed in its unearthly high-pitched voice, "this has been fun, but unfortunately, my duties have been completed." Sky drew his eyebrows together in confusion; what in the hell was this monster talking about? Jack had obviously thinking the exact same thing because he replied to the comment.
"What are you talking about? You haven't even come close to destroying us yet."
"Had that been my mission I would have succeeded a long time ago." It replied smartly.
"Then what was your mission ugly?" Syd retorted, obviously becoming impatient with the monsters attempted banter. Her answer came not in words, but in a way that chilled them all to the bone: a blood curdling scream.
Sky's head snapped to the left as he watched an event that made his blood run cold. Broodwing, followed by a small child, was literally dragging Khyla along as she struggled to break free. Her hands were bound by some solid, plastic looking form of handcuffs. His fury was spawned, and it was growing at a rapid rate as he realized what this monsters job was. Sky and Cruger had been correct in their assumptions that this monster was a distraction, but they never guessed that the distraction would be to draw them away from headquarters so that their enemies were able to infiltrate it, and kidnap one of their most valued charges. Sky moved to attack Broodwing, but Cruger stuck his arm out in front of him to stop him. Sky gave him a look of disbelief, which he wasn't sure if the commander could see. Broodwing, sensing and expecting this reaction, drew out a long blade and held it against Khyla's neck.
"Be careful Blue Ranger." The small child next to Broodwing said, her voice eerily innocent and soft. "You wouldn't want anything to happen to your precious little girlfriend now would you?" Sky's fury grew. He could feel his rage growing from, and spreading to every fiber of his being as he watched the scene unfurl. His breathing became deeper, and if looks could kill, Broodwing, the child, and the pathetic monster would all be long since dead.
His eyes were narrowed dangerously, his body filled with tension waiting to strike. His brain began going over every tactical hostage move he had ever learned at the academy. He knew that it was beyond reasoning, anyone affiliated with Grumm was beyond reason. He knew that there was no way to plan a tactical move using more than just himself since he had no way to convey his thoughts to the others, even though he was sure that they were all going over the same things in their heads. He came to the conclusion that the only thing he could really do was play the chivalristic Knight in Shining Armor with a better sword and a bigger gun, and save the damsel in distress from the evil dragon. At this point, he would have rather faced the dragon. Dragons blow fire, but Broodwing had a knife to Khyla's throat, which put both himself and her in very compromising positions. The small child met him in a stare, as if she could see through his helmet. She raised one of her eyebrows dangerously; an eerily innocent smirk crossed her face almost as if she could read his thoughts.
"Ah ah ah Blue Ranger. You know that Chivalry is dead." Her statement confirming Sky's prior suspicions about her mind reading capabilities. Broodwing, obviously becoming impatient with the stare down, began to move away from the Rangers, causing Khyla's eyes to go even wider than they were already. He knew he was going to pay for this dearly later, but there was no way Sky was going to let Broodwing just walk off with Khyla. He sprung into action, running past his team mates, and towards his captive girlfriend, being sure to use the speed his ranger powers gave him. He vaguely heard them yelling after him to stop, and Cruger barking orders at him to stand down, but he was numb, and the only thing that mattered was making sure that Khyla was safe. The child had a look of surprise on her small face, and Broodwing was desperately trying to think of some way to get out before the blue ranger made it to where he was holding her captive. The child raised her hand and sent a wave of energy towards Sky in defense, leveling him.
He felt as though every nerve ending in his body was on fire. The pain seared through every fiber of his being, and made him feel like he was being burned from the inside out. He collapsed as soon as the wave passed over him, the intensity of the pain making it impossible to stand. He wanted to just curl up and die so that the pain would go away. He felt its intensity lessen slightly, but it was a far cry from being gone. Every muscle in his body was tense, and was on the brink of convulsion. He felt his morph leave him, making the pain increase once again. He opened his eyes slightly, and saw Khyla being pushed through a portal by Broodwing as she was struggling to get to him. He heard dull sounds of screams and commotion. The last thing he saw before he succumbed to the pain was the evil child looking at him, her face screwed up into a malicious grin, and Khyla disappearing into the fathoms of the portal, her two captors behind her. Not being able to stand it much longer, his vision went black as he left the realm of consciousness, and slipped into a void of darkness.