Disclaimer: The usual. Don't own anything you recognize.

KINGS AND VAGABONDS

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Three: Our Beginning III

Year 2012

It was Open House day at the SPD Academy. Katherine Manx paused in the doorway to the lounge, her green eyes scanning the roomful of rowdy kids and the ghost of a smile tugging at her lips. There was so much life in this room. Most of the kids were junior high aged, about ten or eleven, and thinking about joining SPD at age fifteen. They got refreshments, a tour and opportunities to have all of their questions about coming to the academy answered by cadets, officers and the support staff here.

She let out a long breath. It always happened on these days – she wondered about those six children she had helped abduct so long ago. Legally, nothing had been done wrong. Doggie had gone to court and proved that the children were, for all intents and purposes, the result of SPD activities and SPD needed to decide where to place them for their best interests. It was a lot of bureaucratic garbage, but it had cleared Doggie and SPD of all charges.

Their parents had been so sad when they left the courtroom that day.

Kat shook her head. That had happened a long time ago – nearly six years ago. All of the children were fine. She made sure of it herself. Kidnapping those children had not been something she wanted to do, so she made it her responsibility to see to them and make sure that they were all right. However, Doggie was in charge of SPD and didn't want a repeat of what had happened to his home planet. But he didn't know their parents, hadn't worked with those people, didn't know how much their children meant to them…

Three blonde heads caught her eyes.

Yes – their adopted mother had said they would be here – Austin, Paris and Sydney Drew. The former two were twins while the latter was their younger sister by a year. All three of them had blonde hair – straight from their real mother – and blue eyes. Her smile grew sad in the wake of looking at them. The twins took after their father, tall and lean with the angular facial features, while Sydney looked like her mother, shorter with rounded features.

The terms of their adoptions had been simple – at age fifteen, each child must be enrolled at the SPD Academy. Well, it looked like the adopted parents of the Drew children were working on making that a reality.

"See?" their mother was telling them. "It will be great here."

Sydney looked worried, glancing at the other kids in the room. Austin had a doubtful expression on his face, as if this was not what he had envisioned for his life. Paris had her arms crossed over her chest, looking defiant.

"It will not be great here," she spat, squaring her tiny eleven-year-old shoulders. "We don't want to go here. All the other kids get to chose. How come we don't?"

Their adopted mother looked exasperated, like this was a conversation they had often. "I've explained this to you, Paris," she said in a tone that was fast losing patience. "You have special powers and SPD needs you."

"More than I need them," Paris muttered.

"Paris," her mother said in a warning tone.

Paris opened her mouth to speak again, but Austin grabbed her sleeve, saying something in a made-up language. His sister glared at their mother, but didn't say anything else. She responded in the made-up language.

"Haven't I told you two to stop that?" their mother said angrily. "You are too old to be talking in a language that is pretend!"

Kat had a feeling that the language did exist between the twins. She watched as their mother left them for a moment to talk to someone about the education programs. Paris looked completely and totally livid, her eyes shooting daggers at her mother. Austin just sighed, looking bruised. Kat had a feeling that he was constantly running interference between his adopted mother and his twin.

"Do we really have to come here?" Syd asked, still looking worried.

"Unfortunately," Paris said angrily.

"Paris," Austin said in a patient tone of voice. "I've checked the handbook here. If we come here, then we can stay here. We don't have to leave for holidays."

"Really," she looked interested now.

"But what would Mom and Dad do?" Syd questioned.

"They're not our parents," Paris retorted.

Austin shushed her just as their mother came back to them.

Kat sighed, her heart breaking for them. She had followed the Drew siblings from the moment that she and Doggie had taken them from the driveway of their uncle. A rich childless family had been lined up for their adoption – a family with no hope of ever having children and wanting the instant family that the Drew children could provide. Of course, the couple had been willing to send them to SPD and cope with the powers that the kids' had.

Nothing had been flowers and fairy tales. Paris had run away from home several times, aided and abetted by her phasing power. Not knowing what else to do with a rebellious child who refused to call her adopted parents 'mom' and 'dad', she had spent a year in a special school that catered to children with discipline problems. All of that could have been avoided if her adopted parents had just been willing to let her express herself.

Austin had always been quieter than his sister and fought the blows that were dealt to him. Kat learned that the adopted parents often looked to Austin to correct Paris' behavior problems. When he wasn't working hard at school in order to please, he was expected to keep the peace in the house. He shouldn't have to be responsible for Paris, but his parents made it that way.

Kat watched the youngest sibling. Syd looked torn between two worlds. It was obvious that she was fascinated by the world of wealth and prestige that her adopted parents could offer, but didn't want to lose her siblings. It was insane that their mother was expecting a child – a ten-year-old – to choose between her older siblings and them. If she had known that the Drew children would end up in such a precocious situation, she would have put them elsewhere.

Their mother herded them out of the room, probably before Paris could make a scene.

I wish I could help you, she thought as they left. I wish I could have made Doggie see reason six years ago. I'm sorry – I'm sorry…

Year 2018

"No getting any girls pregnant."

Schuyler Tate rolled his eyes as he and his father walked down the hallway to his room at the SPD Academy. Summer vacation for the cadets was over and it was time to start a new year of training, education and experiences. It had been a running joke between him and his father about getting girls pregnant. The sex talk that had happened years ago had ended with 'use a condom, dammit.' Not that Sky could claim any firsthand knowledge about this.

His room was empty when he entered, just as he had left it at the end of the term. His roommate and best friend, Dru, had been reassigned to the Nebula Academy to complete his training, leaving Sky without a roommate for the new year. Since all the other cadets in his year had roommates, he was probably going to be assigned a newbie. The earliest age of enrollment at the academy was fifteen with potential graduation at eighteen, depending on the track. Sky had chosen the longer, ranger track. Almost all of his class had been on the shorter, officer track that meant basic police work.

"I'm serious about the 'getting girls pregnant' thing."

"I know that, Dad," he replied, trying not to smile.

"Sure you do."

Sky watched as his father, Eric Myers, dropped one of his duffel bags on his bed and gave him an appraising look. All right, so the pair of them didn't normally pass for father-son since Eric had Asian features, black hair, dark eyes and olive-colored skin. Sky had blonde hair, blue eyes and managed to get a tan every summer, whether he tried or not. Eric was his adopted father, but was the only parental figure Sky had ever known.

"Dru got assigned to the Nebula Academy," Sky reminded him. "The wild parties won't be thrown in our room anymore."

"How about you don't throw parties, just attend them? I don't really like getting phone calls from Crugger telling me about your social life."

Those calls had been frequent. First, it had been that Sky didn't have enough of a social life and wasn't making friends. Then it had been that he had too much of a social life and needed to cut down on his group of friends. Well, most of his friends had graduated, so it didn't matter.

"Everyone graduated. I don't think there'll be wild parties."

His father just smiled. "Be nice to your new roomie. Just because you and Dru turned out to be best friends doesn't mean that this one will be the same way."

Words of wisdom from the man who used to say, 'I work alone.' Sky didn't reply, just shook his head and began to put his clothes into his dresser. The only major fight he and his father had ever had was over whether or not he was going to go to the SPD Academy. It had been something Sky wanted to do for a long time. His father had been a ranger—and the SPD Academy was the only way he was going to be able to follow in those footsteps. Eric hadn't wanted him to go, but hadn't been able to give a concrete reason.

"Here it is, room 203."

Sky looked up at the sound of a 'mom' voice. A woman was guiding a new cadet into the room. And the kid was a new cadet—looked like he had just turned fifteen in time to be enrolled for this year.

"Are you Schuyler?" she asked.

"I go by Sky," he corrected automatically.

"This is Bridge Carson," she said, indicating her son. "He's your roommate."

Obviously. Sky looked back to his father. Eric was frowning at Bridge, but didn't look like he was about to say something about it. The kid looked scared, like this was the last place he had wanted to be. God, Sky remembered move-in weekend his first year. He had been so excited, especially because he had found out his roommate was an alien. He also couldn't wait for the orientation weekend to be over, so his dad would go home. Sky was the type of student who lived three minutes away from the academy and was used to being able to go home a couple times a month, just to get away from everything.

"I'll go to the car to get the rest of your things," the mom said, leaving the room.

Bridge sagged onto his bed with relief after her exit. He looked around the room with renewed curiosity now that his mother was absent. "This is kind of nice, huh?" Bridge said, more to himself that Sky and Eric. He noticed that Bridge was wearing gloves… and it was almost ninety degrees outside.

Sky was one of the few cadets with special powers. There were only three others from what he could tell and the three of them were siblings. Maybe Bridge was one of the ones with special powers and that was why Crugger had them rooming together. Although, in all honesty, Sky couldn't help him hone his power since the power was unique to the person. Bridge wouldn't be wearing gloves if he could create force fields with his mind, like Sky.

"How long have you been here?" Bridge asked him.

"It's my fourth year," he replied.

"Wow!" his roommate breathed. "So you're, like, eighteen?"

"Yeah. If I had been on the officer track, then I would have graduated last spring."

"You're on the ranger track? Cool! Me too!"

That meant Sky was going to be seeing a lot of Bridge. There were others on the ranger track—notably the five that were first in line to become rangers. He and another girl that he didn't know well were the younger cadets on the ranger track. The twins of the three siblings were on the officer track, even though Crugger kept trying to get them on the ranger track.

"That was your mom?" Sky asked him.

Bridge nodded, making a face. "My dad couldn't be bothered to come up here and my mom's going to act all overprotective."

"This is my dad," Sky added, motioning to Eric.

"Eric Myers," his father said to Bridge.

"No offense, but you guys don't look like—"

"I'm adopted," he said quickly.

"Really?" Bridge's whole face lit up. "Me too!"

Sky exchanged a glance with his father. This was going to be an interesting year.

"A-Squad rangers… step forward when I say your name."

Sky stood at attention with the seven others on the ranger track. The first round of ranger powers was ready and Crugger was dividing the cadets on the ranger track into two groups. The A-Squad, who would get the powers and start work on the alien forces trying to get to Earth illicitly, and the B-Squad… the latter was the squad that he knew he would be assigned to. The other five cadets were older and had more years of experience.

Crugger read off five names. Sky was left along with Bridge and the youngest of the three siblings, Sydney. It stood to reason… none of them were old enough to become rangers and handle the power. Bridge was fifteen, he was eighteen and Syd was sixteen. There was no way Crugger would give ranger powers to a bunch of teenagers.

"Report to Doctor Manx."

"Yes, sir!"

The five A-Squad rangers saluted and filed out of the room. The three of them were left, standing in front of Crugger. He gave them scrutinizing looks.

"You three will continue your training," he said. "You will be the B-Squad cadets and will eventually have ranger powers, but not for a few years." He paused. "You all have unique gifts and you must learn to hone these. Dismissed."

They saluted him and left the room. "Yes!" Bridge said the minute they were in the hallway. "This is so awesome!"

"Yeah," Syd agreed, her blonde ponytail bouncing along. "We're, like, more than just cadets now."

Sky remained silent. Neither of them understood that this was not a promotion. It was just a new name for what they had already been.

"I don't get it, Dad. I feel like I know Bridge from somewhere, but I can't place where."

Eric cradled the phone to his ear, surprised that it had taken this long for Sky to realize that he had once known Bridge. Of course, Sky had been six at the time and Bridge had been three—and there was a huge difference between a three-year-old and a fifteen-year-old.

"You do know Bridge," he said softly. "He stayed with us for about three months when he was three years old."

"Huh," Sky said. "That explains why the dinosaur stuffed animal is so familiar." There was a pause. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I couldn't be sure."

"This is weird."

Eric let out a long breath. He couldn't tell Sky the entire truth without revealing something about his own past that he couldn't know. "You two were like brothers then," he said, carefully picking his words.

"I don't know…"

"Just be nice, Sky. You took care of him once. You can do it again."

There had been an accident with a training exercise. No one had been seriously hurt, but Bridge had gotten a piece of metal lodged in his arm. He was supposed to be in the clinic right now to have someone look at it. Sky had managed to shield them from the brunt of the explosion, but there hadn't been enough time to create a large enough and substantial enough force field. He and Syd had escaped with nothing more than a few bruises.

Sky!

He turned slowly down the hall. That had sounded like Bridge's voice, but Bridge was supposed to be in the clinic.

Sky! SKY!

No—that was in his head. Bridge! Get out of my head!

I'm sorry. Fear and panic filled the connection. Bridge was psychometric, meaning he could touch things and see human emotions from them. He was also telepathic, which meant he could open his mind and dive into other people's minds. He didn't do it often, but it was always jarring when it did happen. Something was wrong with Bridge.

What's wrong?

Needles… Oh no… Bridge had a piece of metal lodged in his arm, but, even if the cut didn't need stitches, then he would almost certainly need a tetanus shot. And Bridge was needle-phobic like no one's business. He practically went into a state of shock when he was confronted with a needle.

I'll be right there!

Sky turned and ran down the hall to the clinic. A few seconds later, he raced into the small room. Bridge looked close to tears and the woman holding the syringe looked beside herself. She had no clue what to do with someone so afraid of needles. Bridge was breathing shallowly, meaning he had probably hyperventilated at least once. He moved to where Bridge was sitting and put his hands on his shoulders.

"It's all right," he said softly, but firmly.

Tears began to run down Bridge's cheeks. He shook his head. "No…"

Sky just pulled Bridge into a huge bear hug, holding him tightly enough to give him comfort, but also hold him still long enough for the woman to give him the shot. Bridge began to cry in earnest, clutching Sky's uniform jacket tightly. The woman quickly gave Bridge the shot and put a band-aide over it. She then left the room.

"I'm sorry," Bridge whispered, pulling away from Sky and wiping at his tears.

"It's not a problem," Sky replied.

"I feel like such a baby."

"You're not the only person afraid of needles."

"But I—"

"Bridge, just shut-up for once in your life." He paused. "Crugger told us to take the rest of the day off and finish getting ready for the winter holidays."

That was something that Bridge was looking forward to. He wasn't going to spend Christmas with his family. (Or Hanukah… since Bridge's adopted family was Jewish.) He had gotten permission to spend Christmas with Sky and his father. Bridge had talked and asked questions about almost nothing else for the past week.

Bridge nodded and the pair of them headed back to their room.

"Do we really have to go home for Christmas?" Sydney Drew asked her older sister. Paris shook her head, her blonde hair in place and her blue eyes distant.

"No," Paris replied. "We've got nothing to lose by staying here."

Life wasn't fair. Syd fell silent as she looked out the window in the room that the sisters shared at the academy. Snow was falling in gentle flakes over the school grounds, making it look like Christmas, but Syd couldn't have been less in the spirit. Their adopted parents had sent a message to them, saying that, although Austin had been assigned to the Nebula Academy and was now in another galaxy, they still expected Paris and Syd home for the holidays. It wasn't like the holidays would be bearable. Their mother would drop hints that she wanted expensive gifts that neither sister could afford and their father would hide behind his newspaper.

She wished that they knew who their real parents were. Syd had been four when the adoption took place. All she had of times before that were insubstantial memories—a man with sandy blonde hair and a gentle smile spinning her through the air, a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes to match her own putting a band-aide on her knee, running through the backyards of a neighborhood to someone's house, going to a bay to see the boats… Paris remembered a little more than her since she had been five when it happened, but the force of time had caused her to forget the name of the town, their parents and all other pertinent details that might lead them to the life they had twelve years ago.

"No one can force us to go home," Paris said with determination. "We can have Christmas here and have more fun."

"I wish Austin were here."

Paris was silent. Austin was her twin and the pair shared a bond that only twins could. Both could phase through solid material and almost read each other's thoughts. Their parents had always told them that they would go to the SPD Academy. There was no choice. It just was. None of them wanted to attend. Austin had wanted to be a firefighter, while Paris had her sights set on being a nurse. Syd, always the actress, had wanted to be a Broadway star. But no… the only option was the SPD Academy. They were being punished right now… Crugger thought that if he split up Austin and Paris, he might get Austin on the ranger track. Paris had been on the ranger track, but had been taken off of it her first year due to behavior problems.

Her sister wasn't a bad person—she just didn't like people telling her what to do. "We'll stay here," Syd said in a small voice.

Paris turned to her and forced a smile. "What are your friends doing?"

Syd scowled. "They aren't my friends."

"All right, your fellow squad members."

"Bridge is going to stay with Sky at his house over the break."

"Think they'd let us tag along."

Syd snorted. "I doubt it. I'm not really friends with either one of them."

"Well, we'll just have to make the best of things."

"When is Austin coming back from the Nebula Academy?"

It was Paris' turn to scowl. "Never. He won't agree to the ranger track, no matter what Crugger threatens him with."

"I don't understand why you don't like Crugger or Kat."

Paris shook her head. "There's something about them… it's like they've done things in the past that they want to forget."

Syd sighed and went back to the window. She would never understand why Paris hated the head of the SPD Academy so much. Crugger had been fair with Paris' previous behavior problems. Now Austin's reassignment to the Nebula Academy could be that he wanted their brother to have more training… Kat was nice, always helping them and introducing new weapons and training programs. Then again, Paris had always been dark and brooding.

"We could go Bronley Hale hunting," Paris said. "He's supposed to be around Newtech sometime over Christmas."

"You're kidding!" Syd breathed. "He is, like, the hottest of hot pop stars."

Paris smiled. The pair of them were back on mutual territory.

Eric smiled to himself as he finished putting dinner together in the kitchen. Sky and Bridge interacted like a pair of brothers. He had told Sky not to tell Bridge about his stay with them all those years ago, since it was likely that Bridge didn't remember and it would only drive him nuts because he would start trying to remember.

"I don't see how a collective dream would bring an intruder to the academy."

Sky was being his normal skeptical self, while Bridge was being an imaginative dreamer who thought anything was possible. "It could happen," Bridge replied. "Like, if we all had the same dream and then, like, it became reality somehow…"

He tuned out the rest of the overlong description about collective dreams. If there was one thing he had observed, it was that Bridge tended to rely on the mind and the collective unconscious a lot in his theories. Of course, if he was psychometric and telepathic, he might feel the same way.

Bridge was sitting on the couch, a couple books spread out around him—a dream dictionary among them. He had started out trying to figure out the meaning of a dream he had had, before moving into the collective dream discussion with Sky, who wasn't buying it. The dream dictionary hadn't been helping, since Bridge had said something about a red house and the meaning of the color red didn't make much sense. Sky had been moving in and out of the room with a basket of laundry.

"Fold your socks," Sky said, throwing a pile of laundry at Bridge.

"Hey!" Bridge protested. "Don't squash Olive!" Olive, the stuffed dinosaur that Eric remembered from twelve years ago, was living on the couch since that was where Bridge was sleeping. (Sky had long since gotten rid of the bunk beds and invested in a double bed.)

"I can't believe you still sleep with that thing," Sky muttered.

"Never underestimate the power of transitional objects," Bridge intoned. "You should get one, Sky. It'd make you feel better."

"Right," Sky replied, rolling his eyes and moving into the kitchen. He reached into a cupboard and began pulling out plates to set the table.

Eric just continued stirring the contents of the frying pan. He wished that Bridge and Sky could have grown up as brothers. Bridge had regained so much of who he had been on Mirinoi. It made him wonder how much Bridge had lost living with neurotic parents whose one task was to make sure that he went to the SPD Academy.

"I think when we get to be rangers," Bridge was saying more to himself than anything. "I want to be the Green Ranger, because then I'll be the same color as Olive."

"That's just… special, Bridge."

Bridge looked up at Sky as he set the plates on the table. "Yeah, I know. You're going to be the Red Ranger. I've heard that a million times."

Sky didn't reply, but Eric could see that it was something he desperately wanted. He had trained so hard and so long that it would almost be insane for him not to get it. Well, he would see just what happened with that. Sky might be good at what he was doing, but he sometimes forgot that the other people he worked with were just that—people.

"I think I should put your Christmas present in a trust fund," Bridge told Sky. "That way it would multiply over the years."

"Get in here and eat," Eric said, cutting off a forthcoming musing about whether or not a trust fund really would multiply the Christmas present. Ah, Bridge, Eric thought. It would have done us all so much good to have you around when you were growing up.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Slightly longer chapter than usual - that is all Jepoliant's fault. Which reminds me - Jepoliant is now my official beta reader for this piece. Thanks to Jepoliant! Also, thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. The support and comments means a lot to me!