Disclaimer: I still don't own PR.

Dissension within the Ranks

Chapter 20

The next day, Syd found Jack in the recreation room lying on the couch reading a comic book. She had been searching for him all morning and had just now found him.

"There you are. I need to have a word with you Jack," Syd said.

Jack noticed the seriousness to Syd's tone of voice. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"What's wrong Syd?" Jack asked.

Syd took a deep breath. She didn't really want to tell Jack what she was about to, but he had a right to know.

"I want to have an abortion," Syd answered.

Jack couldn't believe what he had heard. An abortion? Syd couldn't be serious. Jack knew that Syd was far from pleased with how she became pregnant in the first place, but he would never imagined in a million years that she would consider having an abortion.

"No Syd! You can't have an abortion! Need I remind you the child that you are carrying is also mine," Jack replied.

Syd figured Jack would react like this. It wasn't his decision though, not really. He wasn't the one carrying the child. He wasn't the one the child was developing in. She was. She was the one that would have to end up giving birth to the child. Syd didn't want that. It wasn't the right time.

"I'm young Jack. We both are. Now's not the time for us to be worrying about raising a child together. Besides, Gruumm is still out there and we can't afford to be down two rangers because those two rangers are soon to have a bigger responsibility in parenting. The boy or girl that I'm carrying deserves to have two parents whom love each other, and I do not love you Jack. That is why it is best if I just have an abortion," Syd explained.

Jack felt very strongly about the issue of abortion. He was one of those people who strongly opposed it because he viewed it as the killing of an innocent life. He regretted raping Syd. He knew that wasn't the way for the two of them to become a couple. The fact of the matter was though that what's done is done, and there's no going back. Syd may not love him, but he loved her. He hadn't always loved her, but the more he got to know Syd, the more he fell in love with her.

"I've told you time and time again that I'm sorry for raping you. I know that was a mistake. I know I messed up, but an abortion really isn't the answer Syd. You haven't given this enough thought," Jack said.

Syd was getting really fed up with Jack's stubbornness. It was by far his worst quality. How dare Jack tell her she hadn't given it enough thought! She's been thinking about it practically nonstop ever since she first found out she was pregnant. Syd was scared to death about being pregnant and the possibility of her having to give birth to a child.

"If abortion isn't the answer, then what is Jack? Adoption? No! That would still mean I'd have to give birth and I am not giving birth! I knew telling you was a mistake. You really don't have a say in what I do or do not do concerning the child I'm carrying!" Syd retorted.

XXXXXXXXXX

The funeral for Sky's butler had just come to an end. It was a great service very fitting for William. Sky couldn't help but shed some tears during the funeral. So many people were dying and the thing was that they shouldn't have died in the first place. Sky felt responsible for William's death, Broodwing's death, and LeAnn's death. No matter how much people would tell him otherwise, Sky couldn't shake the feeling that he was to blame.

"That was such a touching service," an evil voice sarcastically remarked.

Sky spun around and saw Giganis standing a few feet away from him. He took his morpher out from a pocket in his pants.

"S.P.D. Emer…" Sky started to say before he was blasted with a jolt of electricity.

Sky's morpher fell to the ground as Sky was thrown backwards. Sky picked himself off the ground just time to get slashed in the chest by Giganis' right claw. His claw tore through the tuxedo that Sky had worn to the funeral leaving a bloody slash mark on Sky's chest.

"No matter how hard you tried Sky, you always ended up being second best!" Giganis remarked before kneeing Sky in the gut and throwing him to the ground.

Sky knew that if he could just get to his morpher, he would stand a chance. However, Giganis was being relentless and if it kept up, Sky was a sitting duck. Giganis transformed one of his arms into a sniper and Sky knew that if Giganis connected with that while Sky was unmorphed, he would be done for. Giganis aimed his sniper at Sky and fired. Sky threw up a force field to stop the blast.

"You should have gotten rid of me when you had the chance instead of arresting me and throwing me in jail Sky!" Giganis commented.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Rangers please report to the command center immediately!" Kat announced over the intercom.

It wasn't long before the rest of B-Squad and Sam were in the command center watching Giganis attack Sky on the viewing screen. That was the lowest attacking Sky at a funeral.

"Ready?" Jack asked.

"Ready!" the others answered.

"S.P.D. Emergency!" they shouted in unison.

The other 6 rangers were on their way each in their respective vehicles. Cruger was in his ATV. Sam was on his Uniforce Cycle. Jack and Bridge were on their respective Patrol Cycles. Syd and Z were in a jeep. They just hoped they could get to Sky before it was too late.

XXXXXXXXXX

Sky had just knocked Giganis back with a well placed force field, but that only served to anger Giganis even further. The ferocity with which Giganis was attacking caught Sky completely off guard. Sky had thought that somewhere in there was his former best friend, but apparently he was wrong. While Giganis was recovering from the ill effects of being nailed with Sky's force field, Sky took this opportunity to dive for his morpher.

"S.P.D. Emergency!" Sky shouted.

Sky wasted no time forming his Delta Max Striker. Sky and Giganis fired at each other, but they both were successfully able to dodge the other's attacks. Out of nowhere, there was an explosion and Giganis went sailing through the air. Sky looked to see what had caused the explosion and he saw that Cruger, Jack, and Bridge had fired lasers from their vehicles. Giganis stumbled to his feet. Jack threw up a bone and R.I.C. transformed into the Canine Cannon.

"Canine Cannon! Fire!" the five core rangers shouted.

Just as it looked like Giganis was about to be contained, the blast from the Canine Cannon was suddenly thrown back at the rangers causing an explosion that threw the rangers in different directions demorphing them in the process.

"I don't think so!" Gruumm said.

Morgana also appeared and started firing energy blasts from her daggers. Cruger was deflecting the attacks with his Shadow Saber.

"Omega Morpher Hyper Mode!" Sam shouted throwing a flurry of punches at Gruumm.

Sam was shocked when all of them connected, but Gruumm appeared to be unharmed. Gruumm blasted Sam's Omega Morpher with his staff taking him out of the equation as Sam was reverted to his light mode. Giganis snuck behind Cruger and nailed him with his sniper. Cruger fell down to one knee. Morgana, Giganis, and Gruumm had Cruger surrounded and all fired at him. Cruger leapt into the air and landed slashing Gruumm's staff in two in the process. Giganis turned his attention to Syd. He stalked over to her with his sniper pointed directly at her.

"So is this the girl who's so important to you old friend?" Giganis asked.

Sky was trying to get to his feet to save Syd, but he had taken far more damage than any of the other rangers and couldn't do anything. For the second time in two days, Sky felt helpless. Sky watched in horror as Giganis fired. Just then, Jack leapt in the way, putting his body in front of Syd's in order to protect her. Syd watched as Jack fell to the ground in a heap before her.

"Jack! No!" Syd shouted.

Giganis, Gruumm, and Morgana teleported away satisfied with how much damage they inflicted today.

"God Jack, why did you have to go and do that?" Syd shouted.

She tried to run over to Jack who was only a few feet away. Syd's knees gave out because she was shaking so much, so she ended up crawling over to him. Syd felt horrible for the way she had treated Jack earlier in the day. The things she had said to him didn't make her feel any better either. There was no doubt in Syd's mind that Jack loved her otherwise he wouldn't have thrown himself in the way of Giganis' attack in order to save her. She thought back to earlier when she told Jack that she didn't love him. That had to have broken his heart. Syd didn't think much of it then, but now considering what happened, she started to feel badly about it.

"We have to get him to an infirmary fast! Hang on Cadet Landors!" Cruger shouted.

TBC

A/N: I am so sorry it took so long for me to update this. I used to be really good at updating pretty regularly too. I hate to burst your bubble, but I don't think I will be anymore. I think the only probable days for me to get updates in are during the weekend, which for me is Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays since I don't have any Friday classes this quarter. It also doesn't help that I have three other unfinished stories besides this either. To be truthful, fall quarter didn't start at my college until yesterday, but before that I was at home with my parents, and there are only two computers there which were being used practically all day by my parents, so I didn't really get much of a chance to update at all, so I apologize for that. Well, for all of you hoping I would go longer than 20 chapters with this story, you got your wish as was indicated by the "TBC" at the end of this chapter. I'm sorry this chapter's kind of a little short, but given that it's been 17 days since my last update, I figured it was better than nothing. Besides, I had to end it with a cliffhanger because I can. It's ironic though because I hate it when I'm reading a really good fic by another author and that author ends a chapter with a cliffhanger. Anyways, tell me what you think of this chapter in a review. I still am going to ask for no flames please.