Race Against Time
Chapter 3: Hope Dies Last
By: Pink-Green-White-4ever
Last Revised: November 25, 2005
Summary: Spoilers for Endings Pt. 2 - 5 yrs. post Endings Pt. 2, and the infamous B Squad Rangers are invited to celebrate Cruger's reassignment to General and head of SPD HQ and Sky's promotion to Commander, but something goes awry, and they have to race against the clock to save one of their friends before it's too late.
Ships: Syd/Sky, Bridge/Z, Jack/Ally, Cruger/Isinia, Kat/Boom
Rating: T, for now
AN: Time for action! grins The quote, "Hope dies last", which I used as the title for the chapter, and as a comment in the chapter,comes from Dawson's Creek. All credit goes to them!
--
"Syd?"
"Hmm?"
"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked her softly, his breath tickling her forehead as it moved her bangs.
"I'll be fine, Sky, I promise. It's just…"
He was disturbed by her pause, especially since he knew why she'd paused. Before the incident today, he'd always laughed when she told him she was scared, but he'd had a few hours to reflect on what had gone on during Wootox's rampage through the base in his body. He knew why she was scared, and why she'd come to him for comfort.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered into her hair, holding her tighter. "I wish I could have stopped him sooner."
"It's not your fault," she told him, looking up at him, and marveling for what seemed like the ten millionth time at how blue his eyes were, especially when he was staring straight at her. "I just, I needed to make sure…"
"I know," he whispered back, holding onto her. She knew, other than Bridge, she was the only person at the academy to ever see this side of him. It was rare when Sky Tate let out his emotions in front of anyone but his mother, but she and Bridgey were blessed in the fact that Sky knew he could let go in front of them and not be judged. "I'm safe though, and changed for the better, I hope."
She grinned up at him, blinking back tears, and nodded. "I need to go, we have reports we still have to file."
He nodded back and let her go, but not before giving her one more tight squeeze. "See you at dinner?"
"You know it," she teased, then bounced from the room.
"Are you ok?"
Nova's voice tore her from her dreams, making her panic as she struggled to remember them. She blinked back the tears, and stifled a sob with the back of her hand. She had a name for the face that haunted her dreams, and her only vivid memories of her life before the shuttle crash.
"Nova?" she sobbed softly, pulling the younger girl into her arms. "Do you know who Sky Tate is?"
The younger girl shook her head. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but she wasn't sure from where. "No, why?"
"The man, the one I keep dreaming of? I called him Sky in my dream and remembered that his last name is Tate. I think you're right, I think I served with him, and that he's my mate."
"That's good. If he knows you're missing, he's more than likely going to come find you."
She paused, and then continued. "There's more."
"What?"
"My name. In my dream, he called me Syd."
--
Anubis raised an eyebrow when Sky kicked the remnants of the shuttle in frustration yet again. They'd been searching for hours on end, and still, there was no sign of Sydney, or what had happened to her. The native of Sirius was disturbed to see his young friend collapse next to a tree, his knees drawn to his chest, his face buried in his arms, which were on top of his knees. Every so often, Anubis could see Sky's shoulders shake, telling the big blue dog exactly the frame of mind Sky was in.
It wasn't often that Sky cried, in fact, Doggie surmised, he could count the number of times he'd seen Sky Tate cry on one hand. The former Ranger didn't openly show emotions, that just wasn't how he was built. For Sky to be crying where someone could see him was a testament to what the situation with Sydney was doing to him.
Doggie wasn't blind, he knew that Sky and Sydney had feelings for one another, feelings that had been growing by leaps and bounds since they'd been promoted to active Rangers. He could only wonder now if Syd and Sky would be celebrating the way Jack and Ally were at this moment, with the birth of their son, if Birdie hadn't sent Sydney on a mission she still hadn't returned from.
"Sky?" Doggie called out, watching as the young Commander of SPD took a few shuddering breaths and looked up at him, his eyes and cheeks still moist from his tears.
"Y-y-yeah?" Sky called back, taking a few more cleansing breaths. He knew Anubis had been watching him when he'd lost it, but he simply didn't care. More years than he could count in the presence of the native of Sirius had left Sky with a feeling that Cruger was more like his father than any other since his real father had died, and he knew Anubis wouldn't say anything.
"May I offer a small piece of advice?" Sky merely nodded. "A wise person once told me, of all the feelings and emotions in the world, hope dies last."
Sky nodded, understanding what Doggie meant by that. As long as he was breathing, he had to keep the hope alive that he'd see her again, that he'd get his chance to tell her. "Yes Sir."
Doggie smiled and nodded. "Come on, let's go."
Just as Sky was crawling to his feet, he got a good look at the path that extended to his right, and instantly caught sight of the footprints. There were three sets – one that was large, one that was about his own size, and then he saw the third – small, dainty, and definitely female. Sydney's. "SIR!"
Anubis rounded at Sky's yell, and flew to his friend's side. It was when he crouched next to Sky that he saw the tracks. "Let's go!"
The two stood and then rushed off down the path, praying the tracks would lead them to their missing friend.
--
"This sucks," Jack muttered, walking into the Command Center. There hadn't been any transmissions from his former teammates and Commander in nearly a week, not since they'd left the outpost academy and had traveled into the heart of the M51 Galaxy. Nothing was happening on Earth, so the Rangers had continued on with their day to day chores of running the Command Center, training the younger cadets, and keeping the city safe. "No wonder I left SPD."
Kat raised an eyebrow at that and moved from where she and Boom were working on the new sensor system to stand next to Jack. "I thought you left SPD to help people, just in a different way?"
Jack glared at her, and then sighed. "I do miss this though, every now and then when I see the Rangers out and about in the city."
The feline advisor said nothing as she pulled the small device from her pocket, handing it to her young friend. "Sky said to give this to you, just in case."
The former Red Ranger looked confused even as he accepted the small device. It was an SPD Morpher, of the same variety the B Squad had used during their tenure as rookie Rangers. When Jack flipped it open, he was shocked to see the inside. It was his Morpher, the very same he'd used during his Ranger days. "But I thought Sky had taken the Red morpher?"
Kat grinned when Boom finally came over and joined them, looking a little less like a space cadet now, than he had some years before. "He did," Boom started, gesturing to the morpher. "However, after he was made Co-Commander of the base with Kat, and the others took over their duties at the new Academy, he locked those away. I think he's always figured, someday, you'd come back."
Jack looked over at Boom, smiled, then looked to Kat for confirmation. "Before he and the others left, he said something I didn't understand until you opened your morpher. He said, 'Heroes come in all colors' and then handed me the morpher. I really think he missed his time as the Blue Ranger, in more ways than one, and decided to relive his glory days."
"So he gave me back the Red Morpher? What an idiot."
Neither Boom nor Kat had time to respond when the alarms suddenly started going off. Jack looked down at the console in front of him while Kat and Boom both went to other consoles, and the Rangers came flying into the Command Center to see what was up.
"We've got…oh my God!" Kat hissed, slamming her palm down on the console. "Jack! We've got a giant monster downtown! And it's replicating itself!"
The Rangers looked to the hologram as Boom pulled up what was happening downtown for them to see. "Mr. Landors, what do we do?" Nick, the Red Ranger, asked.
"We go to work. Kat, do they have Zords?" Jack fired off his first question as he mentally prepared for what he was about to do. These kids weren't experienced enough to handle one on their own, let alone one that could replicate as well as Z ever had.
"They do, but they've never used them," Kat told him, watching him shake his head.
"Remind me to razz Sky about how he's training his Rangers later," Jack muttered then grinned. "Are the Delta Runners still operational?"
"Yes. They're housed underneath the base along with the SWAT Fliers."
"Then get them activated!" Jack ordered, spinning to face the Rangers. "Look, you're about to get first hand experience. I'm going to go with you. You follow my lead, and you listen to anything Dr. Manx tells you over the communications channel, got it?"
"YES SIR!"
"Then let's go," Jack turned, the Rangers gathering behind him. "READY?"
"READY!"
"SPD EMERGENCY!" the six yelled, each morphing into their uniforms.
Jack shook his head, admiring their uniforms for a second before they rushed to their tubes and down to their zords. It took the base three minutes after the Rangers had been dispatched to move off of the underground Zord bays and let the Delta Runners out.
"All systems go with the Delta Runners!" Kat called to Jack, who nodded and took off.
Turning, Kat and Boom shared a look before immediately going back to business. "Feels like old times, doesn't it?" Boom asked, causing Kat to chuckle at her station.
"Yes it does."
--
Nova was startled awake by the explosions, and then the stamping of feet and someone yelling about and attack. It took the young girl a full minute to realize the base was under attack. Quickly, she jumped out of Syd's arms and shook her awake.
"What's wrong?" Syd asked groggily. It had only been an hour since her latest stint in the snake man's machine, and her head still felt like someone had taken a stick and scrambled her brains.
"The base is under attack!" Nova cried, rushing forward to the door to try and peek out the little slot where they pushed food through to the girls.
"By who?"
"I don't know!" Nova hissed, before she recoiled in alarm. She had forgotten that the snake man and his metal minions had dragged Syd from the room some time before and taken her to the chamber before tossing her back in here, unconscious. "Maybe it's your friends!"
Syd tried to stand, but the aching in her head pounded more and more as she struggled, causing her to simply give up and slide down the wall. She and Nova shared a look before they heard another commotion.
"WHERE IS SHE?"
"SYDNEY?"
"SYD!"
Both Syd and Nova's hearts stopped when they heard the three voices, followed by the laser fire and the banging of the other doors in the hallway. "Nova, make noise!" Syd ordered the little girl, who turned and pounded on the door only to hurt her hands instead.
"It's not working!"
Nova watched in shock as Syd crawled to her and started groping near the door for something, anything, to use in her plan. She gasped softly when she found a broken bolt laying there near the door. Grasping it in her right hand, Syd prayed for what had happened in the shuttle to happen here.
Both girls were surprised when Syd's hand suddenly turned metal. Reaching over, Syd began to bang on the door. It was almost an afterthought that Syd started to scream the name from her dream through the food opening while she slammed her fist against the door.
"SKY!"
"Guys! Over here!" a feminine voice called. A rush of feet could be heard outside the door. "Sydney? Are you in there?"
"YES!" Syd cried out, feeling absolutely drained. "Sky…" she managed to mutter, as her strength just seeped out of her.
"Syd! It's me!" Sky called softly when her utter his name. "You need to get away from the door, Syd, so Commander Cruger and I can blast it open. Ok?"
"I'll help her!" Nova told them, surprising the others. Quickly, she dragged Sydney as far back away from the door and off to the side as she could. "We're ready!"
Seconds later, the door flew inward, lurching right off it's hinges and slamming into the back wall, before four figures rushed into the room. Nova was as surprised to see them, or more specifically what they were wearing, as she was when she'd learned Syd had been a Pink Ranger.
Standing there, in Ranger uniform, were Shadow Ranger, and the SPD Earth B Squad Blue, Green and Yellow Rangers. "Syd?" the one in blue asked, looking for her.
"Back here!" Nova got his attention. "Be careful, she was put through his machine just a while ago, so she's weak, and she doesn't have any memory of who she is."
Nova watched as the Blue Ranger stiffened in what appeared to be shock. Taking a stab at it, Nova leaned forward and touched his arm. "Are you Sky?"
The Blue Ranger nodded and powered down, revealing himself to the little girl. "I am, but how do you know that if she has amnesia?"
The little girl smiled up at him. "She's been having dreams about you, for days, but only you, and nothing else; it's how we found out her name, and yours."
Sky looked shocked but covered it quickly as he moved forward to kneel before Sydney. "Sky, we need to hurry!" the Yellow Ranger informed him, watching him nod. "Come on Sweetie," Z told Nova, ushering her toward the door to stand between her and Bridge.
"Sydney?" Sky asked, watching her raise her head slowly. Her eyes were glazed with pain, surprise, and unshed tears.
"Sky."
"Come on, Babe, it's time to go home," Sky muttered, reaching forward and pulling her into his arms. When he stood up, he was holding her princess style, her head resting against his chest and her arms around his neck.
"Let's move!" Cruger barked out, the six of them running for their lives.
--