Variations Of Pink
Chapter 14: Learning The Truth
Last Revised: September 7, 2005
Summary: In her confrontation with Mayon and Desdemona, Sydney learns who they really are, and how they came to be working for Visvajita. And, she gets a small gift from someone in her past that helps her deal with her present.
Rating: it's changed, M, for adult-themed situations.
Disclaimer: I don't own PR, Disney does
AN: Um, yeah, BloomingViolets and I started writing a joint story. It's called A Different Side Of You (SPD with S/S and B/Z). Beyond that, thanks for all the support you guys. I'm still debating what the sequel is gonna be about...I should have an answer for you on it by the time I post the epilogue, which might I add, is about 2 pages long at the moment...I've already got two scenes written. :) Now I just have to work on 15 and finish the Epilogue and this story will be finished.
"Three things cannot long be hidden the sun, the moon, and the truth." -- Confucius --
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." -- Martin Luther King --
"Truth fears no trial." -- Proverb --
It had been an extremely long night. After three days, she still wasn't use to the quiet of the house in the outskirts of Reefside. She missed the academy, she missed hearing Z snoring slightly across the room, she missed the feel and smell of her sheets, she missed knowing that the boys were just across the hall from her, and she missed Peanuts. But of all the things that she'd missed in the last three days, it was Sky she missed the most.
Sighing, she threw back the covers and rolled out of bed. Slipping her feet into the fuzzy pink slippers she'd found, she reached for the pink and white bathrobe that hung on the bed post and then moved into the hall and then down the stairs to the kitchen.
The sun was barely out, leaving most of the yard draped in darkness. A glance at the clock showed it was barely five thirty. Biting her bottom lip, Sydney moved to the refrigerator and pulled out the milk she'd bought the day before. A bowl, spoon, and a box of Rice Krispies followed.
Once she had her breakfast, Syd moved out onto the front porch and sat at the picnic table. The sun was shining brighter now, and she felt comfortable enough to eat her breakfast outside instead of cooped up in the house.
After she was done eating, Sydney got dressed and then headed down to the hidden room in the basement, via the staircase in the den.
For the last two days, she'd spent most of her time working to get Tommy's computer system up, as the lab looked like no one had been in it for ages; that wasn't much of a surprise, as Hayley probably didn't frequent the lair much since Dino Thunder had lost their powers, or since Tommy and Kim had died.
After an hour of working on the computer, Sydney chirped in surprise when she saw the image come onto the screen. "I'm Tommy Oliver. If you're not me, then something is seriously wrong. This video diary is a confidential record, only to be viewed in case of an emergency. What you're about to see is a history of my life, my history as a Power Ranger. My story begins in Angel Grove..."
The Pink Ranger's eyes misted over as she sat and watched the history of the Power Rangers of Earth. She saw how her parents became Rangers, saw how they left being Rangers, and saw how the other teams, up through Dino Thunder, came into existence. After the Ranger diary was done, Sydney found another video on the computer, and this time, it was a lot more personal.
"Sydney, if you're watching this, I can only assume that something's happened to your mom and me," Tommy started, looking into the camera. He looked a little older than the last time she'd seen him alive, and a lot older than in the video diary she'd just watched.
"It's January 1, 2009. Right now, you're mom's upstairs putting you to bed. I just received a call from an old friend of mine, Wes Collins. You probably know him by now."
Syd laughed. Boy did she know Wes, and especially his son. "Anyway, his wife, Jennifer, she's a police officer from the year 3007. She's living here to make sure that the Power Rangers legacy continues on. I'm sure by now you've heard about the Power Rangers, and you probably know your mom and I were Rangers, correction, are Rangers, but that's a story for another time. Anyway, Jen just called and told me she'd spoken with some friends in the future, and had checked into a few things I'd asked to know about. One of them was your future. By the time you see this, Syd, you're probably already going to be in the middle of your destiny, your life as a Power Ranger."
Sydney looked shocked. Her father had checked up on how she turned out when she was barely two? "I know that sounds unfair, but I just had to know, and I think after everything your mother and I have been through to protect this planet, we should be allowed to know that much. The battles with Visvajita are getting harder and harder, and I don't know how much longer either of us may be around. Imagine my surprise, Sydney, when I learned the beautiful blonde Pink Ranger of S.P.D.'s 2025 B Squad happened to be my daughter."
The Pink Ranger blinked back tears and continued to watch the video. "You looked so beautiful, Sydney, when we met. I'm sure by now you know it was me in that black and gold uniform. You fight like your mom, with a mix of your Aunt Kat and Aunt Aisha thrown in for good measure."
"Sydney, your mom and I are so proud of you. In case something happens to the copies I made, all of our home videos are on the back up computer that's kept in the vault. To access that, just click on a folder called DT Vault on this computer and type in Handsome for the user name and Beautiful for the password."
Sydney watched on with a smile as Tommy turned when someone called his name. Her eyes welled when Kim's voice sounded and then she appeared on the video.
"Beautiful?"
"I thought I'd find you down here," Kim chided, leaning forward to kiss him.
"And I thought you were putting Sydney to bed?"
Kim giggled. "She keeps crying for her daddy. Come up with me and help me or I won't be able to get her to bed."
Syd saw Tommy reach out and take the little girl with brown pigtails from her mother. "Say hi Sydney," Tommy told the two year old in his arms. The little girl reached out a hand toward the computer, giggling happily in her daddy's arms.
The Pink Ranger watched in fascinations at how she interacted with her parents at such a young age. Once the little girl's desire to play with the computer and camera were gone, Sydney watched Tommy pull her close and tuck her head under his chin, so that she was snuggled against his chest. Kim pulled up the other chair, and Syd watched her lean her head against Tommy's shoulder so that she and her daughter where face to face, smiling at one another.
"It's time for bed, munchkin," Kim murmured to baby Sydney, who began to rub her face against Tommy's shoulder in a sleepy manner.
"Beautiful, shut the camera and computer off, will you?"
Sydney closed her eyes for a moment once the screen went black. She was biting back the tears that wanted to fall. Her birth parents had loved her so much; she could tell just from how they were with her and each other on camera.
Shaking off the melancholy mood, Syd got to work finding the copies Tommy told her about.
She sat there for hours watching six years of home movies once she found them. She saw Tommy and Kim's engagement party, which was chalk full of Rangers from the past, as well as their wedding and Jason and Katherine's wedding. She saw Trini's inauguration as the Governor of California, she got to witness Sky's birth – sorta – as Tommy and Kimberly had been present for that, as well as Sky's first few birthdays. And then there were tapes of Kim during her pregnancy, where Jason and Katherine were constantly present. There was a copy of the day she was born, her first four birthdays, moments Tommy had captured of her and Sky playing together at the park, in the sandbox, and even in the Collins' pool.
By the time she'd watched all of the movies it was nearly three in the afternoon. She shut off the equipment and went to go find something to eat.
"Mayon?" Desdemona called out. She was crouched next to him on the floor.
They'd been lovers for as long as they'd worked for Visvajita, and to see him like this was hard on her. She knew she was seen as pure evil, but deep down, she loved this man more than she could possibly describe, and she'd never seen him like this.
"Kat...Jase...Syd...Kim..."
Desdemona gasped at the names. They were familiar to her, like she hadn't heard them in a long time, but she didn't remember their importance. "Mayon?"
"Beautiful..."
Mayon's eyes opened, and instead of the beady black they normally were, Desdemona saw a chocolate brown. The humanoid android watched Desdemona's eyes glaze over before she slumped forward against him.
Sydney sat cross legged on the picnic table on the deck at the front of the house. She had a cup of green tea in her hands and a plate at her side where half a sandwich sat, untouched.
'I can't believe I hurt my friends!' she kept repeating to herself.
Sydney couldn't help but to keep picturing the simulator session with Z, and how her lack of concentration had gotten the Yellow Ranger hurt by blaster fire.
Then she saw herself grabbing Bridge's hand, hers a fist of iron, and she remembered squeezing his hand so hard that she probably broke several of the bones.
The argument with the Commander and Jack hadn't been too bad, until they'd both looked at her with hurt in their eyes.
No, the worst of the incidents that had caused her to leave her safe haven had been when Sky attempted to hug her and she'd snapped her elbow back into his ribs. Seeing him clutching his side, while he was on his knees, because she'd hurt him was too much for her to take.
'I'm going to beat this, so I can go back and apologize, and if they at least forgive me, then I can live with that. I don't expect them to welcome me back with open arms or anything like that, but to at least have their forgiveness will be good.'
Just the thought of never sharing the intimacy of friendship she'd had with any of them every again made her ache, but it was the fact that she knew she'd never be with Sky again, not in such an intimately personal way, that had the tears rushing back to her eyes.
"Damn it! I'm not a baby! I don't need to cry every time something doesn't go right! I'm going to make this okay! I swear it!" she vowed, slamming the cup down next to her before she scratched at the tears in her eyes.
"You wanted to see us?" Jack asked as the A Squad Rangers entered the Command Center. Commander Cruger and Kat were standing near a computer where Boom was typing in something.
"Yes," Cruger started. "Ms. Manx has gathered as much information on our enemy as she could. She's going to brief us now."
The Rangers gathered with Cruger and Kat and Boom around the table in the middle of the room. "As you know, his name is Visvajita," Kat started, making sure she had everyone's attention. "And as you also know, he was who the first S.P.D. teams of Earth fought against many years ago. Until recently, he's been pretty low key. We didn't know a lot about him back when he first attacked, and we still don't know a lot about him now."
"Then how's that going to help us help Syd?" Sky demanded sarcastically.
Commander Cruger glared and Kat shook her head at him. "Well, I haven't gotten to what we do know about him. First of all, I've been in contact with as many of the S.P.D. bases as I could think of. He's basically been following Grumm's path the last couple of years, but staying out of trouble. However, I have a handful of places of some importance that I've found he's attacked."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Z asked.
"These places are all related – each one of them has a significant part in Ranger history."
"Where Kat?" Cruger finally demanded.
"Outposts near KO-35, Phadoes, Eltar, Aquitar, Edenoi, Liaria, Mirinoi, Triforia, and Inquiris – each of those planets, at one point or another, has played a role in Ranger history."
The four cadets knew enough about Ranger history now to know that Kat wasn't lying. Rangers or their mentors or even allies to Ranger teams had come from each of those planets.
"So what, is he out to destroy the legacy of the Power Rangers?" Bridge asked.
"In a way, yes. I had Andros and Ashley do some digging for me, and they put me in contact with Earth's first Blue Ranger, Billy Cranston. You met him at the Officer's Ball, his wife is President Cranston."
The cadets nodded and waited for her to continue. "The original teams here on Earth were mentored by a being known as Zordon. He was from Eltar, which is quite a ways away from Earth. Anyway, Zordon was several millennia old when he died, which means he made a lot of friends..."
"And even more enemies," Z finished when Kat trailed off.
"Correct. So far, those who've survived Visvajita's attacks have been able to tell us one thing – he's bent on defeating Zordon's Rangers. Now that he's here on Earth, he could go after the original teams, and it explains why he went after the Ninjetti Rangers with such abandon twelve years ago."
Sky cocked an eyebrow at their feline advisor, sensing right off that something was wrong. "What else haven't you told us."
"Desdemona has a partner," Kat started, taking a deep breath before continuing. "His name is Mayon. I believe he's the one who put the implant in Syd. But there's more to it than that. During your last fight with Desdemona, I did a scan of her, to input her energy readings into the computer."
"And?" Cruger asked, not liking where this was going.
"She bares a small amount of the Pink Crane energy signature that was unique to Katherine Hillard Scott, and before her, Kimberly Hart Oliver."
The woods behind the Oliver homestead were nearly a jungle these days, the brush having overgrown tremendously without the disturbance of people, namely the Dino Thunder and Ninjetti Ranger teams.
Sydney was grateful, however, that the path that led back from the house into the woods was still pretty visible. She could get her workout in and then follow it back to the house.
As a child, she'd done so many things – ballet and diving like her mother, karate like her father, but she'd also been very interested in the martial art known as Ninjitsu, or the art of the Ninja, as well as gymnastics, playing the guitar and singing. She remembered going to camp each year. One year it had been New York to study ballet, several summers had been spent here in Reefside studying the musical arts with, ironically enough, Kira Mercer, and a lot of time, had been spent in Angel Grove, going to the Youth Center to study the martial arts with her father and her uncles Adam and Rocky, who were now both politicians.
While she had enjoyed the same sports as her parents, she knew now why she'd been so drawn to the guitar, to singing, to gymnastics, and to Ninjitsu – those things were a connection to the parents she barely knew now.
She was so lost in her thoughts, that Sydney never noticed the Krybots poking in and out of the trees, or the two powerful figures stalking toward her.
"So, this is the courageous Pink Ranger of S.P.D.?"
Spinning around, Syd brought her body to a defensive posture, regarding the two figures and the Krybots. "Oh, Desdemona, did you bring a playmate?" Sydney taunted.
"She has Kimberly's attitude problem," Desdemona chuckled to Mayon, which caused him to roll his eyes at her and Sydney to stiffen and glare at the pair.
"How dare you even think of speaking my mother's name?" Syd hissed angrily.
Desdemona smiled. "Because, child, I'm the one who destroyed her. She fell at my hand."
"Don't play with her like that, Desdemona," Mayon grumbled, resting his hand on Desdemona's forearm. "We don't want to fight you, Sydney, we merely want to talk."
"Whatever!" Syd shot back. "I know this is a trap, and I know Visvajita has sent you here. I'm not as stupid as everyone thinks."
Desdemona rolled her eyes and sighed, while Mayon merely stared at Sydney. The Pink Ranger watched on in shock as Desdemona extended a hand and destroyed the Krybots. "Does it look like either of us are going to hurt you now?"
"You've got five minutes, talk," Sydney told them, easing up from her position but remaining on alert.
"How much do you know about your parent's deaths, Sydney?"
"Just that they got taken back to Visvajita's ship after Team One set the explosives, and that no one ever saw them again."
Mayon watched the young lady before him, an ache in his chest he hadn't felt in over twelve years rising up to grasp hold of him – love. "You're right, and there's a reason no one heard from Tommy and Kimberly ever again."
"Oh yeah, why?" Sydney asked.
Desdemona stepped forward, her eyes shifting from fire red to a doe brown, which caused Sydney a moment of terror to see. She knew those eyes, had seen them countless times in pictures, home videos, hell, in her dreams, but most of all every time she looked in a mirror without her contacts in – they were her own eyes staring back at her, the same eyes she shared with one other person – her mother, Kimberly.
"Because Visvajita turned Tommy and Kimberly into what you see before you."
Tears coursed down Syd's cheeks, her head shaking back and forth in denial while she brought a hand up to stifle her sobs. "NO! LIAR!"
"Report."
"Emperor, both Mayon and Desdemona have left. They took a squad of Krybots with them," one of Visvajita's many flunkies told him.
"Where have they gone?"
"To Reefside, Sire; to where the S.P.D. Pink Ranger is."
"Bring them to me! ALL OF THEM!"
"Yes Sire!" the lackey obeyed, running from the room.
"Its time we met, Sydney, so you can learn how you're going to help me bring about the destruction of S.P.D."
Evil laughter rang out, filling the room and the hallways beyond.
The alarms inside the command center went off, causing the Rangers to snap to attention. Kat and Boom moved to a computer, while Cruger sat in his chair.
"Oh no!" Boom cried out, seeing the screen and what it read.
"What's wrong?"
Kat spun around to face the Rangers. "Desdemona and Mayon are in Reefside."
"Have they found Sydney?" Sky asked, worried.
"Yes."
"Commander!" Sky cried out, watching the big blue dog think for a moment.
"Will we be able to get there in time, Kat?"
"I'm afraid not. There's a hundred Krybots closing in on their position," Kat told them, her eyes never wavering from Cruger's. "They're sitting ducks."
"SYDNEY!"
"LOOK OUT!" Mayon called to the two women, racing toward them and shielding them with his own body as laser fire erupted, knocking them down. When the trio got up, the saw they were surrounded by a hundred or so Krybots, and Visvajita's sniveling assistant.
"The Emperor wants to see the three of you, now," the lackey told them, smiling wickedly.
Sydney panicked, but Desdemona simply shook her head at her and moved to keep the Pink Ranger between her and Mayon. "Then let's not keep him waiting."
In a flash, the forest was cleared, leaving no trace of Sydney, the Krybots, Mayon, or Desdemona.
"Kat, status report!" Cruger demanded.
Kat looked up from her console, her eyes full of worry. "All of the energy that was building in Reefside is gone..."
Cruger bowed his head in disbelief. Z spun around and threw herself into Bridge's arms while Jack moved toward Sky.
"Including Syd?" Sky asked, hoping against hope.
"Including Sydney." Jack caught Sky just as the Blue Ranger's knees buckled.