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

KINGS AND VAGABONDS

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Fourteen: Truth and Consequences III

Friday nights at the academy were almost as nice as the time after lights-out. Everyone emptied out of the place and went somewhere. The local movie theater had a special cheap rate for SPD personnel, so most of the younger cadets went there. For everyone over twenty-one, there was a plethora of bars and clubs. The only people left here were the people with the evening shift and they tended to keep to the command center and the security camera room. The SPD Academy was suddenly quiet and peaceful.

Conner smiled to himself as he poured two glasses of wine in the small kitchenette of his apartment. There was a time when he would have been right there with the rest of them, probably underage and with a fake ID to get into the clubs. In fact, he had a fake ID for most of high school and on into college before he actually did turn twenty-one and didn't need on anymore.

The apartment was pretty quiet as well. Madeline and Christina were in bed after watching their ridiculous movie. Both of them liked Kira, making their relatively new relationship easier. At least Kira knew what a loud, wild woman Christina was. That girl made more noise than one child had a right to. He supposed she made up for Madeline, who was overly quiet. He often had to bite his tongue and not ask to her to be like her sister. He and his brother had been two peas in a pod, so there was no asking someone to be like someone else when he had been growing up.

He moved from the kitchen to the living room, handing Kira one of the glasses. She was sitting on one of the couch, her feet tucked up underneath her. She accepted the glass with a smile as he sat down next to her.

"How was the simulator training?" she asked.

Conner rolled his eyes. "Harrowing."

Kira grinned. "That a big word for an ex-jock."

"Yeah – and I know what it means." He waggled his eyebrows. Kira just laughed, resting her hand on his thigh. He let out a long breath. "Seriously, though," he continued. "I just feel like something isn't right here. This is the third time in a row we've been at the simulator with Cruger and Sky has come away with a bloody nose." He raked a hand through his hair. "It just doesn't make any sense. I mean Doctor O made us hone our powers, but not to the point where we got physically ill from it."

"Is Sky all right?"

Conner shrugged. "I hope so – he had a date tonight."

Kira looked thoughtful. "And to think – I almost joined this place as an officer."

He gave her an interested look. "Really?"

"Yeah. I didn't want to be an officer – I applied for the teacher's job. The department chair got to me and hired me before Cruger realized I had powers."

"Good thing for you – if Cruger had you as an officer, you wouldn't be able to talk after the training exercises."

Kira shuddered dramatically. Conner laughed. "There might be a way to figure out what's been going on here, though," she mused.

"Oh yeah?"

"Doctor O is head of the Counter Terrorist Unit in LA, now. He might be able to dig up some information on SPD and we wouldn't be able to get a hold of through normal channels." She paused. "And Ethan's with the GSA now. Both of them can work on getting information about this place."

Conner nodded. Trust Kira to know where the others were and what they were doing currently. He wasn't surprised at where Ethan was, but Doctor Oliver? The man had gone from being a paleontologist to working for a top-security government agency? It made sense in a perverse kind of way.

"So who was Sky going on a date with?" Kira asked, effectively changing the subject. She had a knack for knowing when a particular subject needed to rest.

"Syd," he replied. "It's been coming for a while." He paused. "Something about needing to finish a poem first."

Kira smiled. "Did you tell them about your date?"

He rolled his eyes. "Please. They don't think old people go on dates."

The former Yellow Ranger just shook her head. "You're not old, Conner. And I'm going to forget that you just insinuated that I'm old."

"I don't know," he replied softly. "Sometimes I just don't think I can help these kids at all. It was all such a long time ago – with the gems and all."

Kira set her glass of wine on the coffee table, taking his from him and putting it in the same place. She reached up and gently cupped his face in her palms. "You were a great ranger, Conner," she whispered. "A little bit of an airhead, but a great ranger." He opened his mouth to speak, but she laid an index finger across his lips. "And now you have experience. You've had time to grow up and become more… humbled."

She leaned forward and gently brushed her lips to his. He responded and the kisses grew deeper, more passionate. They had a handful of dates when one of the other B-Squad rangers volunteered to watch the girls – and Kira had been over for dinner a lot, but they hadn't crossed the line to become lovers. Her past was almost unknown to him, but there was time to find out. He remembered the girl she had been and he knew the woman that she had become.

Kira pulled away from him, her finger brushing his left hand. He hadn't worn his wedding ring for a long time – in fact, he wasn't sure that it had survived the moves. There was so much baggage from that and it wouldn't be fair to burden Kira with it. She deserved so much more than what he had to give her.

"Conner?" She looked concerned.

"I'm fine," he replied hoarsely, opening his arms to her. She snuggled up against him with a contented sigh. He closed his eyes, just happy for the physical contact. He had always craved a human touch his entire life – and he had never been sure why.

How much longer would he be able to keep up this relationship with Kira before the wall he had erected around his heart came crashing down?

Bridge yawned. It was well past lights-out for most of the academy. He wasn't sure what gave him the brilliant idea to volunteer to help Kat with some new morpher prototypes, but he seriously regretted it now. The nightmare had been haunting him more frequently lately, but there was something there that hadn't been before – a woman and a village would come into sight just before he woke up. The woman was a vague outline with quite a lot of brown hair, but she was protecting him from the dark shape that he was running from. It didn't make sense – but it did ensure that he didn't get to sleep at night and that Sky was kept up most of the night when he would start talking in his sleep.

He put down his tools and rubbed his eyes. He and Kat had been working in silence for the last hour. Ordinarily, that would have bothered him and he would have started blathering on about something just to fill the silence. Now, he wanted some time to be alone with his thoughts. What did that dream mean? Was it even a dream?

There were thoughts and feelings he could make out from Olive. He was psychometric, but the older the touch, the more vague the memory. Most of the older memories on an object were just feelings. The oldest memories on Olive involved intense love and caring. He always went to the oldest memories with that stuffed animal, knowing they came from a time before adopted parents and SPD. It was the same with Z's blanket. The oldest memories were just feelings from someone other than Z. Someone – presumably their parents – had loved them so much that the feeling had been transferred onto their toys and blankets.

Paris had that weekend project of looking for her parents. He wanted to ask her if she could look for his parents as well, but wasn't sure how to go about it. She would probably want to know why he wasn't doing it himself. Of course, she had also entertained an idea about him to Syd who told Sky who ended up telling him. Through their training, each of them were able to distinguish between humans from Earth and humans from the Outer Worlds – places such as KO 35 and Mirinoi. Kerovans and Mirinites were the most common on Earth. Kerovans were each telekinetic. The Mirinites blended in more, but each was in tune with nature and the callings of the earth. Other traits were there, but it made him wonder. Paris had said he struck her as a Mirinite raised as an Earthling. His birth certificate claimed he had been born on Earth – his adopted parents insisted he had been born on Earth from Earthling parents. But he still wondered… Was it possible for him to be from Mirinoi? No one could know for sure.

Nothing was certain…

"You all right?"

Bridge started at the sound of Kat's voice. He looked down at the small screwdriver in his hand – that had been doing nothing for a while. The morpher case was still unfinished on the work table. "I'm fine," he replied softly. "I'm just thinking."

"You looked pretty worried." She paused and gave him a scrutinizing stare. "It's pretty late. We can leave this for now and finish tomorrow."

He nodded, absently putting the tools back in their cases.

"Can I ask you something?" Kat questioned. He looked up at her, nodding. "What are you thinking about?"

"A lot of stuff." He paused and took a deep breath. Kat's aura was clean, for the most part. It didn't have the swirls of regret and doubt and anger that ran deeply through Cruger's. He trusted her more than their leader. "I've been having a nightmare and Paris thinks I was born on Mirinoi and I'm worried about Z and Sky and their training—" It all came out in one fast breath. He had been holding it in – and now it spilled out.

"Doggie shouldn't be pushing Sky and Z," she agreed. "And there's not much that can be done about nightmares other than sleeping pills." She paused and looked concerned. "But why does Paris think you were born on Mirinoi?"

He shrugged. "All my official documents say I'm completely Earthling. She says that my power is an extension of natural born Mirinite powers."

"Paris doesn't exactly have the training to know that," Kat responded, but her voice was shaky and her green eyes had gotten wide.

Bridge gave her a concerned look. "She also has this theory that all of us are related somehow – all of us with powers."

Kat's complexion grew pale. "Theory?" she asked weakly.

He nodded. "All of the files from 2001 are under lock and key and that was the year that five of the six of us were placed up for adoption." He paused. "And we're the only six on Earth with natural powers – powers we were born with."

"There were – experiments in 2001 that had to be kept classified," Kat agreed. "The people involved in those experiments had their DNA altered because of exposure to the chemicals." She let out a long breath.

Bridge gasped – realizing the full implications. If the reason the files from 2001 were locked up was because of the indirect results of the experiments – them – then it would stand to reason that it was being held from them because of the terms of each of their adoptions or placements in group homes.

"I have to go," he said quickly, bolting from the room to tell the others.

"Doggie, they know! It's only a matter of time before they put the pieces together!"

Kat stared at the commander of SPD, her green eyes pleading with him. The dog remained silent and passive, his eyes staring at a spot beyond her left shoulder. She wanted to shake him – wanted to scream at him. The repercussions of his past actions were starting to come full circle. He had gotten what he wanted, but the terrible price was coming along with it. One of them would put the pieces together. Oh – they wouldn't be able to find out their parents or their roots, but the facts they could find would lead them straight to Cruger and implicate him as the instigator in all of this.

"Paris knows that Bridge is Mirinite," she hissed. She shook her head. "I'm amazed that no one has picked it up sooner. She also knows that they all have to be connected. Bridge knows that their parents were involved in the experiments in 2001."

She left out the fact that she had given Bridge the information he needed to draw that particular conclusion. Doggie didn't need to know that. Besides, it would only anger him and hold dire consequences for her – mostly being jailed or banished from SPD where she would be unable to drop the facts that they needed. She might have played a part in the abductions, but she was willing to face the consequences it held for her – she wanted them to find out and wanted them to overthrow Doggie and run her out of town.

But she couldn't tell them anything – the one other person she had come to trust those fourteen years ago had been Eric Myers. He couldn't tell them anything either. Not unless she left something out as a hint, something that Doggie would think of, something that someone like Paris would pick up on – she was the one that guessed Bridge's true heritage.

The Mirinoi media files…

"It doesn't matter," Doggie said. "They can't find anything out until the Troovian invasion is over. They won't find anything."

It was pointless to argue with him. Kat saluted, finding a bitter irony in it, and left the room. She had to leave a few well-planted seeds for one of the children to stumble across. She wished she could tell them, but she couldn't. They had to find out on their own in order for it to be effective. Doggie would just silence her and claim it all to be lies, but if Paris found out…

There was a newspaper article from Mirinoi she needed to find.

"Our real parents were involved in experiments here in 2001?"

Syd gave Bridge an incredulous look. It was the same theory that Paris had proposed, but he had proof. He said that Kat had told him. She frowned, shifting against Sky, aware of the way he sat close to her but didn't touch her. Z was sitting on Bridge's bed next to him, her arm around his waist.

"That can't be it," Sky said.

"Why?" Bridge asked.

"You're forgetting something," the Blue Ranger responded. "I was born in 2000. If my real parents were involved in experiments in 2001, then it wouldn't have affected me. But I have powers anyways. How do we explain that?"

"I don't know," the Green Ranger faltered.

"Maybe your parents subjected you to genetic testing," Z suggested.

Sky snorted. "I'd like to think that someone wouldn't do that to a baby."

Bridge looked crestfallen. "It works for five of the six of us," he commented sadly. "I just didn't think that—"

"Just forget it, Bridge," Sky interrupted. "It was a good idea."

"I don't think we should abandon it," Syd said quickly, speaking up for the first time that night. "Maybe we need to be looking somewhere else."

"Where else?" Z said, her voice fierce. "That was the one idea – the one lead that we've had since Paris dragged all of us into her project." She shook her head. "I think we should follow that lead. It works for most of us, just like the adoption year of 2006 works for most of us."

Syd braved a glance at Sky. His expression was neutral, but she could see the pain and isolation evident in those blue eyes. He was the one factor that didn't match the others – his official adoption took place in 2005, although his adopted father had been his guardian since 2003. He had been born in 2000. Why didn't the facts line up for Sky? There had to be an explanation for it and Syd hoped that it would reveal itself if they followed this lead.

She took Sky's hand, threading her fingers through his. He needed friends and relationships – more that he was willing to admit, if he admitted it at all. Bridge knew, but Bridge knew things about all of them that was fuel for the tabloids. Sky grasped her hand tightly. He had spent so much time putting up walls – and the remnants of those walls remained. He felt it when things like this came up.

Z was scrutinizing them. "I think Bridge and I are going to take a walk," she announced. It was after lights-out, meaning the halls would be quiet and devoid of life. She grabbed Bridge's arm and hauled him out of the room, ignoring his sputtered protests.

"Are you all right?" Syd asked after the door slid shut.

"I'm fine," he answered tightly.

"Really?"

Sky sighed, turning his gaze to her. "I'm the odd one out – and there's not an explanation for it."

"Maybe there is and we haven't found it yet."

He was silent, but the logic wasn't enough for him. None of this made sense to any of them and it wasn't going to. She gently traced the soft, leather of his necklace, her fingers going to the small silver pendants – one was a small sun, while the other was a cloud. It was high time for a subject change. Something would come up – she'd have to relate all this to Paris so they would incorporate it into their search.

"Who got you the necklace?" she asked.

"Taylor."

He didn't elaborate. Syd gave him a bored look.

"My dad's girlfriend," he clarified.

"I didn't know your dad had a girlfriend."

Sky looked uncomfortable. "Uh – it's kind of an on and off thing." He paused, one hand rubbing the back of his neck. "She thought if I had something like this, I might lighten up."

Syd smiled. "So what's with the charms?"

"Sun and clouds are in the sky – Sky." He shrugged. "It's kind of cheesy."

"I think it's cute."

"So did Taylor. My dad thought it was the funniest thing he had heard yet."

"I don't know," Syd replied. "My real parents had to have had a sense of humor, because they named me and my brother and sister after cities."

Sky thought for a moment and then smiled. "I don't think I would have thought of that if you hadn't pointed it out to me."

Syd just smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist, snuggling up against him. He returned the gesture, holding her close, his cheek resting on the top of her head. Maybe he had to stop putting up the walls between himself and others. Maybe he needed to put up the walls in order to protect the people he loved. Syd breathed in his scent, realizing that there were good walls and bad walls.

Conner walked towards the back of the darkened apartment. Kira had gone back to her apartment and the only thing left for him to do was to go to bed. He paused at the door of his daughters' bedroom. He had a steady job – and there was a roof over their heads, food on the table, clothes and enough money for the luxuries they hadn't had for so long. But it came with a price. He was a ranger and worked odd hours – meaning he didn't have time to spend with his family.

He entered the dark room. Both of the girls were asleep and breathing evenly. The beds were bunk beds. Christina was on the top bunk – she was buried under her blankets and surrounded by an army of stuffed animals. Madeline was below her, sleeping more sedately with one teddy bear.

Had his daughters become strangers to him?

Between work and this relationship with Kira, had he forgotten his daughters?

No – there had to be something he could do about it. Tomorrow was Saturday and a free day for the B-Squad. Barring emergency and disaster, he had nothing to do. He had to spend tomorrow with the girls, do something. He was paying the price. Did he have to trade a relationship with his daughters for their well-being?

It didn't make sense.

And he was slowly losing his heart.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Another update within a week! Thanks to everyone who has been sticking with me. Camp will be over after this week and I'll have the first two or three chapters of the next section to my beta readers by then as well. (Thanks to Kaidence Ledger and Jepoliant for beta reading!) Also, the reviews from the last chapter made me get a huge, goofy grin on my face. Thank you so much! I hope you continue to read and review enthusiastically!