Disclaimer: If I haven't already told you that it's mine, then it belongs to Saban or Disney or whoever.
Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Funny? Okay, then...
Mz. Daydream: The battle won't be for awhile... action scenes aren't my favorite, and there's about fifty people I've got to work in there. :P
Juzblue: I made Carter a jerk, didn't I? Oh well, I never liked him...
Jenny: Don't worry, I'll go back to the angsty fluff A/A stuff just as soon as I'm done with this story, which was originally supposed to have a lot of angsty fluff A/A in it. I thought the zeo, mighty morphin, and turbo powers were nada too, but if Forever Red happened, then I guess not. And this takes place only four months after Forever Red, so the WF team still has their powers. There's Skylar and Ximena in this chapter, and you can start saving people now. Sorta. :P
the-power-of-love: Thanks, here's more.
Red Ranger Chick: I guess I forgot about the kids, didn't I? Oops. I'll fix that.
PinkRanger4Evr: Thanks. Here's some more. Sorry for the wait, and I think all the other rangers will just be part of the final big battle.
Chapter 25
"What's wrong now?" Ximena demanded, plopping down on her bed and groaning as she saw Skyar's troubled expression.
"Oh, nothing," Skylar replied, her voice heavily laced with sarcasm. "There's only about fifty rangers down there that have been trying to kill us for the last few weeks."
Ximena shrugged. "That seems almost normal. What's really bothering you?"
"The same thing that's bothering you," Skylar said evenly. "And don't pretend that it's not."
Her twin sighed. "We saved them once. I don't think we can do it again, not without dying ourselves."
"Maybe not," Skylar agreed. "But I don't think we're even supposed to be alive."
"Skylar..."
"Think," she urged. "The rangers have Jenny and Marieke. We were them, so what does that make us?"
"You can't expect us to just go poof and become rangers ourselves," Ximena said warily.
"I don't," Skylar assured her. "I just don't think we exist anymore."
Ximena groaned. "Why did they insist on messing with time? It's too complicated."
Skylar shrugged. "They didn't know who we were," she reminded her. "And they wanted to save their parents... our parents."
Ignoring her sister's last comment, Ximena said, "So if you're right, and we're not supposed to exist anymore... then does that mean we can't die?"
"I don't think so," Skylar said, looking startled at the suggestion. "But I don't know... and it's not too late. If things were supposed to be this way, they still could be. There's nothing stopping us from going after the twins ourselves."
"Except that we don't want to," Ximena sighed. "What about Spyridon? Does he know? Does he exist?"
Skylar shrugged. "He's one of the sons of the black ranger and the red Aquitan ranger. We don't know which one, and it doesn't really matter."
"He doesn't care?"
"He doesn't believe."
"Do you want him to?"
"Don't you?"
Ximena sighed again, and nodded. "You're right, you know. We can't just sit around and do nothing."
"So we're saving people?" Skylar's expression brightened for an instant, and then her smile faded. "How?"
After a moment, Ximena admitted, "I know where they are."
Skylar didn't need to question who 'they' were. "How? Where?"
Ximena shrugged uncertainly and grinned ruefully. "I guess all that stuff you said about it feeling wrong to fight the rangers made me start thinking. When they started selling off the captives, I was watching for them, I guess."
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"Still no trace of them?" Ryan asked, coming up beside Karone, who shook her head sadly.
"If there is one, I can't find it," she said, sighing heavily. "I don't know what to tell Aidan..."
Ryan nodded silently and let his eyes drift to the boy that was his younger self. He was cradling Seren in his arms, and had been for the larger part of the past three weeks, ever since he had teleported onto the Megaship during the battle. Jenny and Marieke stuck close to their brother and sister, questioning everyone they met when their parents were coming back. No one had had the heart to answer.
"We'll think of something," Zhane said in a low voice as he joined them. "We have to."
The three of them started in surprise as the comm signal chimed. "Incoming transmission."
"Who's it from, Deca?" Zhane asked.
"It is from the Overlord's ship," Deca reported. "Do you wish to accept it?"
"Yes," Karone said decisively. "I think we do."
"What do you want?" Ryan demanded the instant Skylar's face appeared. In his heart, he had already accepted that this was his sister, but his mind refused to.
"To help," Skylar said quietly. "We can help you find them."
"And why should we trust you?" Ryan snapped before he thought better of it. "You're the ones who captured them! You're the ones that sold them!"
"That wasn't us," Skylar insisted urgently. "We were the ones that stopped Spyridon the night your sister was born."
"I don't believe you," Ryan said. "I don't trust you."
Skylar glared at him sadly for a moment and the screen went black. He let out a heavy sigh, and turned to Zhane and Karone, both staring at him.
"You shouldn't have done that," Zhane said finally.
"Then you should have stopped me."
Ryan stalked off. Karone watched him go, surprised to see a small smile on her husband's face. "What?"
"That boy is entirely too much like his father."
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"I told you it wouldn't work," Ximena said not unkindly. "They'll never trust us."
"I know," Skylar said sadly. "I was just hoping that maybe..."
"We don't need them," Ximena insisted, jumping to her feet. "If this is what we want to do, we can do it ourselves."
"Ximena..." Skylar said, shadows of doubt creeping across her face. "If we do this, we'll never be able to come back."
"Why not?" Ximena asked. "As long as we don't get caught, we'll be fine. Saving that baby was much riskier."
"That's not what I mean," Skylar said. "We knew that they were our parents, but we stayed here because this was where we belonged. We've already saved them once. If we do it again, then this isn't home anymore."
"We don't have to do this," Ximena said, beginning to hesitate. "We could stay here."
"Do you want to?"
"No," she admitted in response to her twin's challenge. "I don't."
Skylar nodded. "Then let's go."