Infinite Sky

By: AsTheWheelWills

Disclaimer: If I owned the Power Rangers I'd be rolling in my dosh. And giving myself a firm slap for Power Rangers Turbo.

Warning: Character death. And an awful lot of angst.

Note: Yes I think Sky thinks like this.


Universe 17

I'm tired. I'm just so tired. Not physically, although that would make sense. Seventeen hours on the go could take the best out of any member of SPD staff. But I'm not letting the lack of sleep get to me. I'm talking about an emotional, a mental, tiredness. There's only so much any one mind can take before it snaps, and I'm pretty sure I'm pushing those oh-so undefined boundaries right now. Everyone has there own limit, and for the longest time I was self asserted, so bloody sure that I would never reach mine. Me, the great Schuyler Tate, giving up because of the strain? Yeah right. That's so clearly impossible. Only, thanks to this stupid universe, it so clearly isn't.

These places were all the same , I had come to believe. Well not totally alike, obviously, but they had there similarities. One being the fact that the newspaper stand outside SPD always has everything ridiculously overpriced. And another being that the day is that the date is the same, no matter where I go. Not so as I flick open the paper today. It's a very different date than usual. And significant, to the second, only the little holographic dial ticking in the top right corner, for reasons I don't want to admit. Sufficed to say, a sick feeling settles in my stomach very quickly.

I go into SPD. Everything seems ordinary. Just like in every other universe. I get that feeling that this isn't quite my SPD, although for no real reason. I can't help but wonder if, when I get home, if I'll ever view my SPD the same way. After seeing so many mirror images, uniqueness tends to fade away.

Everything so completely unspectacular. Maybe a little more quiet than usual. And as I walk through the halls, I know why, and decide to head for the command centre. I can only hope I won't draw attention there. It's a risk but I have to take it. Not that I particularly want to. It's a sirens call, and I have to answer whether I like it or not. So I head up there, and Kat and a few more staff are present all concentrating carefully on their monitors. I'm not noticed as I slip in, and take up a free station. The same thing is being played on all of them, I know, viewing a small armoured vehicle, holding a very precious cargo, protected by the city's best and brightest.

I know what happens next, but I'm powerless to do anything but sit there and watch. I can't interfere, on a grand scale anyway. That could mean touching on messing the natural order, which inevitably leads to something very, very bad. All the universes imploding in on each other, for instance. So I won't interfere. No matter how much I want to.

Instead I look on as the drama unfolds. Everything seems so quiet, but then out of nowhere a strange monster appears, accompanied by a good number of krybots. The fight breaks out between them and the rangers. And all this over some stupid crystal

Then comes the defining moment, what this entire thing was all about. The blue ranger is occupied with a number of krybots as Mora's monster takes aim at him from behind. A pulse of deadly energy, hurtles at his, at my, back but never meets it's intended target. Instead an incredibly foolish, incredibly brave, and incredibly incredible green ranger jumps in front of it. I watch as the suit disappears quickly from around him as he smashes into the ground, smoking at the chest through and SPD uniform. Those things don't quite make us as invincible as some would make out.

I hear someone, Kat, from behind me shout for a medical team to be dispatched immediatley. It doesn't matter how fast they're sent out, they'll be too late. The monster just shrugs coldly as the man beneath that suit cries out in pain, instead grabbing a hold of a stupid hunk of rock, and phasing out of view, to appear somewhere else, more than likely not on this planet. And the krybots follow.

There's a few seconds stunned silence, no one quite understanding the sudden retreat. The guy in blue is first to notice. Letting his suit fall off him, he shouts and runs to his fallen team mate, his fallen friend. But he's too late. I know that already. He reaches the body lying sprawled on the ground, unmoving. He fumbles at it's wrist, but he won't find anything there, he won't... he won't...

I choke back a sob and tear my eyes away from the screen, closing them. I can't go through this again. I won't go through this again. But it's too late. The second I read the date on that newspaper I'd torn open half healed wounds. It's all I can do not to collapse on the floor. No one should ever have to relive this. No one should ever have to deal with this, these feelings, with no-one to talk to, with no shoulder to cry on.

But then, that's not what Sky Tate does, is it. I've built up a reputation of being an ice prince, something I've never tried to discourage. I don't get upset, I don't ever need to talk. I don't need anyone or anything. I don't feel anything full stop. Only I do. I need my team. Right now. I need the SPD, my SPD, my home. And more than anything else. I need Bridge. My Bridge. Sweet, innocent, toast-loving, snoring, caring, remote hogging, sharing, crazy, occasionally ridiculous, never angry, always dependable, Bridge. He's the one person I would say anything to, without fear of mocking, the one person I would give my full opinions to. The one person who's advice I'd choose over any others. And I never told him that. That regret weighs me down. To the point everything seems so pointless. I finally understand what hopeless means now.

And all this over some stupid crystal

I'm tired.


Sorry for the long time since last update. Scorn life, scorn it right into the ground. Here's my chapter number five, I hope it's okay. A little shorter than usual, but I'd prefer to leave this particular universe on it's own. The next one is well into production, and there should be more then six chapters now. Whether that means one more, or twelve more remains to be seen.