SPD: Nine Lives

Life Two: History

Note: I do not own Power Rangers or Power Rangers SPD. I'm mostly pulling all this information from my mind alone. All mythological references come from my textbook The World of Myth (an anthology) by David Adams Leeming.

Fun Fact: For all you non-cat people and those of you who are, there is a breed of cat called Manx. It doesn't have a tail, or if it does, it's a stump and because they have shorter front legs and longer back legs, they hop. I learn something new every day. Also I have been getting information on cat mannerisms because I want cat to have some of the mannerisms of cats since she is a cat alien.

Timeline: After 'Endings Part Two'

Rating: PG13

Focus Shipping: Isinia/Anubus/Kat

Main Characters: Kat, Anubus, Boom, and Isinia,

Minor Characters: Jack, Syd, Bridge, Z and Sky

SPD Command Center

New Tech City

Anubus "Doggie" Cruger awoke and dressed. Isinia lay resting at his side, and he smiled to himself. He didn't think he'd ever get the chance to be beside her until he was dead. Once he was dressed he walked out of his room, instantly causing anyone who had been walking down the hall to stop and stand at attention.

"Carry on," he commanded and headed for the cafeteria. The scent of food hit him way before he came close to the cafeteria. He also picked up the familiar perfume of Kat Manx. He walked in to see her sitting alone near a corner, her eyes scanning the files in front of her as she slowly sipped her hot tea. "Good morning Kat," he said as he approached and sat across from her.

"Good morning Commander," she replied, not looking up. He watched her eyes tick from left to right as she scanned line after line of text. He smiled, remembering the days that had long since past where she would take the time to draw him into conversations just to hear his thoughts on her ideas. In the past her ideas were to create a force to protect and to serve, and she had completed her goal long ago with the aid of the B-Squads parents.

"Kat, do you remember when I first arrived at this SPD station?" he asked suddenly. Kat blinked and looked up at him. With one glance at her half opened eyes, he saw her contentment, and even after all these years the easiest way her emotions were given through her eyes. Since he was of dog ancestry, he could easily pick up her feline mannerisms.

"Yes, why?" she asked. She tilted her head to the side slightly, her eyes filling with confusion.

"Watching you just now made me remember," he replied. She smirked.

"Some old habits die hard," she answered, returning her eyes to the page. Doggie frowned. After knowing her as long as he did he realized something was bothering her.

"What's wrong Kat?" He asked softly. She exhaled deeply and spoke softly.

"I couldn't sleep last night. I was thinking about some of the questions that the Rangers had asked me. One in particular stuck with me and I couldn't sleep well last night. Also, I'm having difficult with the Inanna device. I think some of the circuits are fried and the wiring must be off," she decided aloud in sudden realization.

"I'm glad you figured out what could be the problem with your device, but was the question about why you haven't had children?" Kat lowered her eyes and wouldn't meet his gaze.

"Yes," she stated flatly, hiding the pain in her voice. Doggie was about to open his mouth to speak when she cut him off. "Doggie, I don't want to bring it up or talk about it. We both know why I did it and no one else needs to know, understand?" she snapped, her eyes flashed with anger.

"I understand Kat," he repeated, seeing the obvious hurt in her eyes as she glanced up behind him.

"I have to go. Your wife has arrived, enjoy breakfast with her," Kat stated, gathering all her work with a sweep of her arm and grabbed her tea quickly. He watched her go and Insinia approach.

"Good morning, my love," she greeted.

"Good morning darling. Sleep well?" he asked. She nodded.

"Its better then sleeping on the steel floor of a cage," she said, referring to the time where she had been Gruumm's prisoner, which she didn't bring up often.

"I'm so sorry, if I would have known-" Doggie began. She cut him off gently and took his hand.

"Doggie, there was no way you could have known. It's not your fault." Doggie knew he couldn't win and smiled kindly to his wife.

"I love you," he told her. Then he felt a pang of guilt from his mind and heart about the other woman he'd let into his soul.

Meanwhile Boom had arrived in the lab to find Kat sitting at her desk, face blank and eyes glazed over. That shocked him so walked over to her finding it stranger when she didn't snap orders at him. He gently reached out and poked her in the arm, which was the most physical contact she'd ever allowed from him.

"Kat?" he asked. She shook out of her trance and looked up at him.

"Huh?" she asked. He immediately knew something was off.

"What's wrong Kat? I've been working with you long enough to know when you're lying through your teeth so tell me the truth and don't make up something you've pull from your ass," he stated, being frank, realizing since Gruumm's fall she'd been off, making simple mistakes where she usually made none.

"Boom, long ago things were so much different. You couldn't understand," she told her assistant of five years.

"Is this about Doggie?" the SPD gadget tester asked softly, Kat met his gaze and he saw tears well in her eyes.

"Yes," the alien replied.

"You love him," Boom began to fill in.

"Yes."

"He's married," Boom reminded her.

"I know."

"When Insinia was gone and he arrived here you two began a relationship didn't you?" Boom asked. Kat couldn't hold it in any more, not to Boom who she trusted to safeguard her information.

"He needed me, I needed him," was all she said, and then he saw her eyes go back to normal as her tears stopped. "No more of this, we need to get back to work now," she told him, her voice tight and teeth clenched.

"Yes Kat," her assistant replied promptly and they returned to their work on the Inanna device.

The B-Squad was lounging in the break room when Bridge came bounding in. He held a data disk in hand and looked happy as a dog with a bone.

"Whatcha got Bridge?" Sydney asked from her position on the couch cuddled with Sky. Z glanced up from her magazine and looked to him with curiosity in her face.

"I found this and I know how Kat lost her third life!" The newly appointed Blue Ranger proclaimed. Z immediately sat up straight, as did the Red and Pink Ranger.

"How? Where did you find it?" she asked. He bounded over to them and called RIC into the room. Placing the disk into a slot the mechanical hound projected a movie onto the blank, white wall.

New Tech City

SPD Headquarters-Earth

2001

There was a flash to show the command center being worked on inside and out while the employees hurried in and out of the danger zones.

"Oh my! Guys look at Kat! She looks so young!" Z said, as a moment from the SPD past along with Kat's began to play.

Kat walked down the hall, her eyes darting everywhere and her ears were twitching as she took in the information around her. All around her things were being worked on and sparks from a chainsaw on metal rained down upon her. Quickly sidestepping the falling ashes, she headed for what was her lab. The lab itself was being rewired and new walls were being placed in. Shaking her head in disgust at the ruins of her lab, she grabbed what she came for, a disk, and then left. As she headed from the lab towards the courtyards, she stopped. Before her a sandy haired man in a red shirt was standing beneath what was now the cadets' quarters. He shouted something to a man up above him who was taking a steel beam and moving with the aid of two others. Kat all of a sudden rushed to him and pushed him out of the way as the beam dropped and she became trapped under it. The man screamed for her has he scrambled to his feet. He went to move the beam to find it had crushed her head into the cement. He grimaced in horror and looked away, tears pouring down his face. He grabbed out a communicator and began to make a call. As he turned his back on the scene of gore which would have been his he didn't look to see that Kat was pushing herself up and clutching her face. He turned when he heard the nose and she smacked him with a free hand before stumbling towards the place the infirmary was once held.

The movie stopped and the text that displayed on the disk surprised them.

Dr. Katherine Manx

Death: September 15, 2001

Head crushed beneath a steel beam as she protect Cadet Tate

Cause: Massive trauma to the head and face

Length of Death: 5 minutes

Life Taken: Three

With that the disk ended and they looked to Sky in surprise.

"Sky, she saves your fathers life," Bridge told him. Sky kept his face stoic as he replied.

"I know. She's a hero, but Bridge, where did you get this?" he asked. Bridge smiled shyly and smirked.

"Medical Records, from when the Command Base was being built. I haven't found any others yet because Mrs. Bates, the record keeper, found me and kicked me out. I had to have a written consent form to even be in the records to begin with," he explained.

"So that leaves one life to go," Z stated, and they all wondered how Kat's next life ended.

Later that night

Doggie headed towards his room. He had been up surveying the city until the night guard returned. As he passed Kat's room, he paused and listened, expecting to hear the sounds of her breathing in sleep. But what he heard brought him pain; she cried so softly that it could only be detected by supernatural hearing if you weren't in the room with her physically.

"Doggie," she whispered through her sobs, knowing he was there. He hung his head, letting tears form in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered back, knowing she could hear him as he turned and walked away.