Disclaimer: Power Rangers does not belong to me.
Ch. 4: Sky's Wife
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" cried Syd in pain as a blast threw her backwards. For B-squad, trying to bring in this latest alien criminal was turning out to be quite the handful.
"Syd!" shouted Z worriedly, seeing her best friend hit the concrete hard.
"Who does this guy think he is?" asked Sky angrily as he helped Syd to her feet.
"His name is Count Clock-u-lar," read Bridge off his SPD license. "His special ability is creating wormholes in time, which he uses to escape police. He's wanted in over seven galaxies for bank robbery."
Z turned angrily toward the alien. "We're the ones who are holding you up today. You and the money you stole are coming with us!" demanded Z, firing at shot with her Deltamax Striker.
The shot had good power. Unfortunately for Z, Count Clock-u-lar hit the ray right back at her. The yellow SPD went flying fast through the air, hitting her back against a tree before sliding to the ground.
"Z!" screamed Sky, rushing over to her. Sam however had gotten there first.
"You alright?" asked Sam concerned, touching her arm as he knelt by her side. Sky seethed; he had wanted to be the one to comfort Z.
"Nobody throws me around!" yelled Z in a blinding rage, jumping up and running heedlessly toward Count Clock-u-lar without waiting for her fellow rangers.
"Z, don't!" shouted Syd urgently. "You're too easy of a target!"
By the time Z realized Syd was right, it was too late. Count Clock-u-lar spun the hands on his watch-like body and fired a strong, sonic wave directly at her. Once again, Z felt her body smash hard against the stone surface.
"Hang in there Z," encouraged Sam desperately, wanting to go help the girl he regarded as his big sister. Yet he and other rangers were now tied up by Count Clock-u-lar's assistant: Admiral Alarm.
"You're quite a spirited little ranger, aren't you?" mused Count Clock-u-lar, quite ticked at Z's persistence. "But your time's about to be cut short," oozed the alien as he readied to launch another sonic blast
"I don't think so!" yelled Sky boldly, jumping in front of Z and taking the hit for her.
"Sky!" screamed Z in agony, feeling more pain than the sonic wave itself would have caused as she watched the red ranger slump over. "Please answer me!" Z begged distraughtly.
"How adorable," coed Count Clock-u-lar insincerely. "Your boyfriend took the hit for you. Now I really want to make him suffer!"
Opening a time wormhole beside him, Count Clock-u-lar yanked Z up from Sky's side and wrapped his arm forcefully around her neck.
"You couldn't catch us this time red ranger!" laughed Admiral Alarm, jumping into the wormhole with the money bag.
"Better luck in the future!" cackled Count Clock-u-lar, dragging a struggling Z into the wormhole with him.
"Z!" cried Sky hoarsely, reaching toward her. Pain throbbed through Sky's body as he forced himself up from the ground. He leapt toward the wormhole just as it vanished into thin air.
"NO!" yelled Sky furiously, falling on his knees and punching the ground angrily. "We have to get her back!"
"Where did they take her?" asked Syd, kneeling by Sky's side and placing a hand on his back in attempt to calm her leader.
"Oh no!" whispered Sam in horror, regarding his SPD license.
"Tell me!" demanded Sky.
"Z's signal isn't showing up in the morphing grid anymore," began Sam hesitantly.
"Meaning…" asked Syd, but Bridge had already picked up on Sam's train of thought.
"We're dealing with an alien that has the ability to time travel,' explained Bridge unsteadily. "Suddenly we can't track Z in the morphing grid that measures ranger activity in our present-day."
"Guys," said Sam, his voice shaking, "Z's been taken to the future."
Z felt herself loose her morph upon coming out on the other side of the wormhole. Growing weaker by the second under Count Clock-u-lar's choking hold, Z's vision began to grow blurry.
"Electro-mode!" Z heard an upbeat male voice shout. The blast hit Count Clock-u-lar straight in the chest, causing him to throw Z sideways. She hit her head hard on the ground, but the fall was not what stunned her the most.
"That voice!" Z thought to herself dazed on the ground. "It sounded just like the Omega Ranger's. It sounded just like Sam's as an adult!"
The pain in Z's head finally overwhelming her, the world around her began to swim. Z could barely make out the figure in the tight blue and silver ranger suit that leaned over her.
"We have to get this girl back to the Base Infirmary NOW!" said the ranger Z felt kneeling by her side. "If anything happens to her, I'll be history!"
Those were the last words seventeen-year-old Z Delgado heard before her world went black.
"Will she be alright?" Z heard the man who she imagined was Sam ask.
"She's still a bit woozy" replied a woman in a voice that shocked Z in its sounding almost identical to her own.
"She has to be alright," implored Z's supposed Sam. "I couldn't stand it if anything happened to you, Nova."
"Not now Omega, she's waking up," quieted the woman. "But I feel the same way about you too, Sam."
"Sam?" Z asked herself wildly as she heard a pair of lips meet. Z opened her eyes to see a medium-sized man with sandy-blond hair walk out of her infirmary room. She had only seen that man once before for brief second, but Z knew exactly who he was.
"Sam, come back!" shouted Z pleadingly. She shot up in her bed to be met with a sharp pain throbbing throughout her head. "Owww," Z groaned, lying back down.
"Relax, you must rest," urged the woman, who Z – with her eyesight beginning to return – saw was wearing a blue and silver uniform with a gold SPD badge.
"But…" protested Z.
"You will lie down!" ordered the female, SPD officer. "All your questions will be answered in time."
Something about the officer's tone and manner told Z that even her expert negotiating skills wouldn't work on this woman.
"That was Sam, the Omega Ranger you were talking to," entreated Z. "What is he doing here, and were you kissing him…."
Z's voice trailed off as she gasped upon looking up into the face of the female, SPD officer. Like the grown-up Sam, Z had only caught a glimpse of this woman once in the past but her face was all too familiar… and now up-close all too familiar to Z's own.
"You're the Nova Ranger," whispered Z. "You were there the day we defeated Grumm."
"Perceptive, even at a young age," reminisced Nova.
The similarity in facial features between her own and Nova's, Z noted, was striking: the same full cheeks, the same wide face, the same fluffy brown bangs, the same spirited, brown eyes. Looking at Nova to Z was like looking at an older version of herself in the mirror.
"Why do you look like me?" croaked Z, frightened beyond belief at this point.
"Because I am you," responded Nova calmly. "Only twenty years older. Count Clock-u-lar and Admiral Alarm took you through a wormhole in time. The year is now 2045 – twenty years from your present day."
"In the future, I'm the Nova Ranger," Z thought to herself, beyond overwhelmed. "That means Sam and I…."
"I know this is realization is not easy for you," continued Nova. "I remember I had difficulty wrapping my mind around it when I at seventeen first arrived in the future."
Z's mind was racing with a million questions, but before she could open her mouth, a short, blonde-haired woman dressed in a nurse uniform entered the room. Unlike the previous people she had encountered within the past five minutes, Z recognized who this perky female was immediately.
"Syd!" exclaimed Z, delighted to see a friendly face. "Why are you dressed up as a nurse? Is it Halloween today in this time?"
"Hold out your arm Z," requested Syd matter-of-factly. "I need to take your blood pressure."
"But you're not a real nurse," laughed Z.
"Don't forget Z, you've traveled 20 years forward in time," reminded Syd. "Things have changed here at SPD in the future."
"How is Sky?" asked Z eagerly, blushing at the thought of her love interest. "And Bridge? And Cruger? Do you ever hear from Jack and Ally?"
"They're all fine," soothed Syd. "Sky's never been better," she added quietly.
Z admired how well Syd had aged. Her fair face had matured beautifully, and she had ironed out curls into a smooth, blonde locks. The biggest change, Z suddenly observed, was the obvious bump on Syd's belly.
"Syd, are you pregnant?" inquired Z excitedly. "Congratulations. Who's the father?"
Syd's face went white, but Nova cut in before Syd could answer.
"Nurse Tate, that will be all for now," ordered Nova. "Please leave us."
The words rang in Z's head more foreboding than the SPD alarm: "Nurse Tate."
"Why did you call Syd 'Nurse Tate'?" Z asked Nova in a shaky voice.
Nova's next words realized Z's worst fears: "Because Syd is married to Sky Tate."
A/N: I told you Sky/Syd shippers I was saving the good stuff for y'all! Again, this is my first SPD fic, so I'd really appreciate any comments. Thanks so much, and please stay tuned 'cause I'll try to update this story very soon.