Bring On Tomorrow

Siblings Part Four

Kat ran. Behind her, everything she loved was going up in flames. Her home, her family, her husband, gone. She tried to run faster, tried to escape the figure that was slowly closing in on her, but she stumbled. Falling, she turned in time to see the masked man catch up with her. She tried to scream, but a hand closed around her throat. "This time," a voice hissed, "you're all mine." She screamed, and a strong arm wrapped around her upper body. She heard a distant voice calling her name. She fought to break free from who or whatever was holding her, but the arm held tight. She struggled to retain consciousness, but her vision started to blacken. The voice kept calling her name, but her vision grew hazier and hazier. Above her, her murderer was laughing maniacally. Just when she thought she was about to die, she heard her name again, loudly this time.

"Kat!" Her eyes flew open. She was sitting up in bed, and Pride was holding her tightly. "What is it? What's wrong?" She shook her head. "Nothing. Just a bad dream." Pride held her closer. "It scared you pretty badly. You're trembling." Kat shook her head. "I'm okay now. I don't even remember what it was about," she lied. Only half-convinced, Pride nodded. "Okay. Are you sure?" Kat nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine." She looked around her, taking in the familiar surroundings of her room on the Megaship. She sighed, snuggling closer to Pride. "Really, I'll be okay now. Go back to sleep." He nodded. "Okay. Sleep tight." She nodded, and he closed his eyes. She closed her eyes too, but her dream came back to her, and a scream ripped through her throat.

Andros had just about fallen asleep when his sister screamed. He jerked up instantly, running to her side. "Kat, sweetheart, what is it?" Kat looked up, looking like a scared little girl again. He reached out his arms, and she fell into them. She clung to him, reassuring herself that he was there. He glanced at Pride, who looked equally worried. "This has been happening a lot lately," Pride admitted. "It's never been this bad. I'm worried about her." Andros nodded. "Maybe we should see about getting her some therapy," he suggested. Pride shook his head. "She won't go. I'll talk to her. She'll be fine." Andros nodded. "If you're sure…goodnight then." He released Kat, who cowered into Pride's arms. Andros pursed his lips. "If you're really sure…" he muttered in Kerovian. He left the room. Pride held Kat, whispering comforting words into her ear. After a while, Kat fell into a relaxed sleep. Pride, however, didn't plan on sleeping the rest of the night.

With the morning came work. DECA still needed to be repaired from the last battle, and there were fewer hands around to help out. Tasks were given according to skill. Hedia, who was mechanically inclined, having built DECA, took engine repair. Karone did a lot of computer maintenance, recovering and backing up important files. Zhane and Kat spent their time fixing up the medlab and the mess hall deck, while Pride tinkered with the Simutron, trying to tweak it so it served real food. Andros hovered, not actually allowed to work on anything more complicated then the Simudeck. As Hedia put it, "Seeing as how last time, you managed to slice DECA's free will wire in half, please don't touch anything!" Mouse, though she wanted to help, ended up being underfoot most of the time. She cried when Karone snapped at her for being in the way. Karone apologized instantly. "I'm so sorry, sweetie! I'm still getting used to this. Please don't be angry at me!" Mouse smiled. "Okay, I forgive you." After that incident, Mouse tended to hover around the Simutron, hoping to be able to help Pride with something. Pride put it as gently as he could. "Sweetie, this particular machine is not something you should be messing with. It's extremely delicate." Mouse pouted. "I'll be careful!" she insisted. Pride smiled. "I know you will, but it's very complicated. Even I barely know what I'm doing. Why don't you see if Andros needs help, okay?" Mouse nodded, still sulking. "Okay."

The days kept Kat busy enough, but the night signaled the return of her nightmares. She was getting better at controlling them, and she spent long hours meditating, trying to figure out the meaning to them. The only thing she ever got from these sessions, however, was flashes of the planet Onyx, or even of KO-94. She never understood these visions, but after awhile, she decided to focus solely on them. She started getting longer flashes, sometimes even hearing sounds, but never received an explanation. Her nightmares even gave over to the visions, and she dreamed about them. She never found out anything, however, until one night, when her dream was terrifyingly vivid.

She found herself in a saloon. All around her, there were various evil creatures. She started, but they treated her as though she were one of them. She was confused. Why would these evil beings, creatures she had fought to destroy, respect her? Instinctively, she looked down at herself, expected to be wrapped in Andros' cloak. She saw legs, however, and they were not her own. They were dark green, bulky and interlaced with threads of lighter green. She looked at her arms. They were the same as her legs: not hers. She raised her gaze to the mirror behind the bar and looked at her face. All she could see were the red eyes, gazing out at her from a face, the same color and build as her arms and legs. She gasped. She had Ecliptor's face, Ecliptor's body! Suddenly, she was pulled backwards, and found herself gazing into the face of one of the very creatures Ecliptor had used to command. The face, however, was not filled with respect, but rather, hatred. "What are you doing out of your cell, Ecliptor? You weren't supposed to leave." She was roughly dragged to a room in the basement, fashioned to look like a prison cell, complete with iron bars. She was thrown in roughly, and the door was slammed shut. She felt herself detaching from Ecliptor's body. 'No!' she protested weakly. 'Not yet!' It was to no avail, however, and as she drifted farther away from Ecliptor, she thought she heard his weak cry for help. As soon as he faded from view, Kat screamed in frustration.

The dream shattered. Pride was giving her a worried look. "Kat? Is everything alright? You screamed again." Kat breathed heavily, tears of frustration streaming. "No, I'm not okay. We have to save him!" Pride frowned. "Who? Save who?" Kat wasn't listening, however; she was already running towards Hedia's room. "Hedia! Hedia!" Hedia opened the door. "What?" Kat threw herself into her sister's room. "We need to save Ecliptor!" Hedia's eyes snapped back open; she'd been on the verge of sleep again. "What? From where? Who?" Kat shook her head. "Onyx. He's being held prisoner." Hedia stared at her sister. "How do you know?" Kat looked at her sister disbelievingly. "I had this dream…I don't know…I guess, in a way, I was Ecliptor. He was standing in the door to the saloon, the bidding hall, whatever. He was just staring into the saloon, and then someone-I didn't see who- grabbed him and threw him into a cell. He called for help, I think." Hedia nodded. "Your spirit connected with his while you were sleeping. He trusted you. He knew you'd want to save him." Kat nodded. "And we have to save him. I can't let him down!" Hedia smiled. "No. You can't. Alright. We'll go in the morning. We'll bring Pride and Karry along. Get some sleep." Kat nodded. "Okay."

The day dawned dark and cold. Hedia, Kat, Pride and Karone had been on Onyx since before dawn, planning. The strategy was simple. Karone would go in and distract the crowd, Hedia would take out the guard, and Pride and Kat would get Clippy out of there unharmed. At dawn, Karone gave the signal, at they moved into their positions. Karone placed the black wig on her head, entering the building. Hedia slipped around back, telekinetically knocking out any and all guards. Kat slipped in behind her, pulling the homemade lock pick out of her pocket. Pride waited at the rendezvous point, and DECA stood by ready to teleport them. Hedia nodded to her sister, and Kat started to unlock the cell quietly, motioning for Clippy to be silent as she did so. He nodded and Kat worked quickly. As soon as the cell was unlocked, Kat led Ecliptor out the back door, pointing him in Pride's direction. Hedia signaled Karone, who discreetly left the front room. As soon as they were all together, DECA teleported them to the Megaship, where Zhane waited for them anxiously. "It all went well then?" he whispered. Kat nodded. "Yeah. It did." Zhane smiled. "Good. Andros is waiting on the bridge. Everything will be decided from there. " Kat smiled at Clippy. "Don't worry. You'll be able to stay."

"Absolutely not!" Andros snapped. "You realize, Kat, that not so very long ago, Ecliptor was trying to kill us? And now you want him to live with us?" Kat stared at her brother in disbelief. "You realize that not so very long ago, I stripped you of your rank? I never officially gave it back. Technically, I'm still in charge. And I say he should be allowed to stay." Andros sighed. "Fine. But I just know we're going to regret this." Karone shook her head. "No, you won't. I promise."

Kat ran again. Behind her, the masked figure was slowly catching up to her. She couldn't run anymore. She fell. The figure caught up to her, laughing maniacally. She didn't scream. This time, she was ready to accept death. The familiar hand closed around her throat, but she brought her hand up to the mask. The man didn't move. She pulled the Techno-style mask from his face, revealing his identity. Only when she realized who was trying to kill her did she scream. There, looming above her, was a face straight out of her worst memories. Above her loomed the face of Zoot. Her vision darkened. The sound of Zoot's laughter faded. She welcomed the light.

The beeping of the heart monitor continued. Pride stood at Kat's side, wringing her lifeless hand. "Kat, come on, come back to me. Please." Zhane stood to the side, watching the life support readouts. "Lung activity normal, heart rate normal, brain waves normal. I don't understand why she won't wake up." Pride faced him. "Because she's not here. Her body may be here, but her spirit is far away." Zhane looked confused. "How do you know this?" Pride smiled weakly. "This has happened before. But it wasn't Kat. Amber, actually. It's a stress response. The body shuts down, leaving only the basic functions going. The spirit leaves. We need to coax it back." Zhane nodded. "And how do we do that?" Pride smiled wryly. "I read a story once, about a man who thought he had lost everything. He retreated deep into his mind, and it took almost all of his family and friends to convince him that life was worth living again." Zhane gave Pride a concerned look. "And you have this story memorized…why?" Pride gave Zhane a look. "Because, if you must know, that story is true. The man in the story-well more of a boy, really-was me." Zhane was shocked. "Oh! I'm…I didn't mean to make fun of…" he trailed off. Pride waved a hand dismissively. "Not important right now. We need to save Kat." Zhane nodded. "Right."

Kat was floating. Floating in a field, and she didn't like it one bit. She kept trying to return to consciousness, and she kept slamming into a wall. She yelled in frustration. 'Why can't I go back?' She looked around. A horrible thought occurred to her. Was this purgatory? Was she doomed to stay here forever? 'No,' a voice answered her unspoken thoughts. 'You are not in purgatory. You are simply in a between place, and it is here you will stay until you learn to accept your destiny.' Kat whirled, looking for whoever had spoken. 'And what is my destiny?' The voice chuckled. 'That is why you are here. To find this out. You will learn, young one. You will learn.' Kat sighed. 'Who are you? Where is this place, exactly?' The voice chuckled again. 'That is one of your many flaws, Rubye. You wish to know everything. All of your generation does. But I will answer your questions in time. Here, I will answer one now. You are in the place known as Shadowland. This is a between place, much like purgatory, but with one major flaw. You must actually be dead to reach purgatory. You are not dead, simply…astral projecting, in a way. As for who I am…that is not important right now.' Kat sighed again. 'Okay, okay, I'll stop asking. But why do I need to accept my destiny? I already have, I thought.' The voice chuckled again, this time with a decidedly more feminine sound to it. 'Oh, no. You've only accepted part of your destiny. You've saved the universe, and you've married Pride, but that is just the beginning. You are destined for some many more greater things. With your family at your side, who knows what you can do? Your destiny is directly linked to the fate of the universe once more.' Kat nodded. 'Okay, I accept that. What else?' A bright light appeared. 'You will see, Rubye. You will see.' The voice vanished, leaving Kat alone with the information she'd received. Kat sighed. 'Great. Am I ever going to get out of here?'

"Okay, it's been a week," Andros looked at his family, sighed, and continued, "and there's been no change in condition. What do we do?" Zhane looked at Andros. "I say we give it another week or two, then, I guess maybe…no, never mind." Hedia piped up. "She should be in a hospital, Andros. We just don't have the equipment to deal with this on board." Karone nodded. "Or we could try a healer. There's bound to be a couple of those still on the side of good." Pride nodded. "There are plenty of healers. The problem is that Kat's body won't respond to most healing magics. Zhane and I have already tried everything we can think of. Nothing has worked." Zhane nodded. "He's right. We can't get any response from her. The thing is, I don't think anything's wrong. All her vitals are normal. The only thing is that she won't wake up. Pride described it as her spirit being gone. It's as though her spirit decided to die, and forgot to tell her body." Karone nodded. "Did we try the bam method?" Andros and Zhane both looked away guiltily at that, and Pride looked confused. "The bam method?" Karone smiled. "Yeah. Our oldest sister, Angel, could do it. She would just hold her hands over someone for a second or two, and then shout 'BAM! You're healed.' It worked every time. Have we tried it yet?" Andros looked at Zhane. "You wanna tell them?" Zhane nodded, taking Karone's hands into his. "Karone, there's…there's something you should know. Angel died a few years back. We did everything we could to save her, but in the end…her body was exhausted. She held on as long as possible." Karone looked stunned. "Angel's…dead? How?" Andros turned. "Well, you know she was born with some…problems. They finally won. She held on for almost twenty years, honey, just for the chance to say goodbye to her little sisters. It was time for her to move on. But she always loved you, and she always wanted to see the three of you one last time. It just never worked out." Karone looked down. "I didn't get to say goodbye?" Zhane looked at her. "We can take you to her grave after we figure what's wrong with Kat, okay? Besides, if it makes you feel any better, I didn't get to say goodbye either. She died shortly after I was frozen." Andros nodded. "She talked about you guys everyday. She never stopped looking for the three of you, even when I was ready to give up. After she died, I promised that I would find you guys. For her. And I did." Karone nodded. "Okay." Zhane smiled. "Besides, no matter where Kat is, I think it's safe to say that Angel's probably with her right now."

Kat was getting frustrated. 'I don't understand why I can't go home! Everyone's bound to be worried about me.' The voice stayed patient, if not taking on a more mischievous sounding tone. 'Honey, you can go home soon, I promise. There are a few more things you have to do here. Besides, you keep asking who I am. Don't you finally want to know?' Kat nodded. 'Yeah, I do. Are you finally going to tell me?' There was the sound of laughter. 'You're telling me that you don't remember me? What did those people do to you? I'm your big sister.' Kat frowned. 'No, I'm the oldest girl. I remember that clearly.' The voice laughed again. 'You're the oldest girl now. But before…I was the oldest in the family. Older than Andros. I was born first. I'm Angel.' Kat frowned, but then realization hit her. 'Angel! I remember you now! What do you mean, you were the oldest?' Angel finally appeared, smiling wryly. 'I died. About three years ago. I haven't been able to move on completely yet. I had to wait here for you. But I didn't mind. I wanted to see you again. In fact, I might just stick around and haunt you when we're done here!' Kat giggled. 'That'd be cool. Not the you being dead part. I never really forgot you; I just…pushed you from my mind.' Angel nodded. 'Yes, I know. I've always watched over you. Even before I died, I was always there with you.' Kat smiled. 'I thought I felt someone watching me. I always thought it was Drac. Guess not.' Angel grinned. 'Sweetie, you've always been a bit paranoid. Growing up with a vampire just brought it out more. Now, as to your destiny. You are linked in the future-semi distantly, of course- to a new group of rangers. You are going to be crucial to the fate of the world again. And if you accept the challenge, you will rise up to it beautifully. I have faith in you.' Kat nodded. 'I accept.' Angel smiled. 'Then you are ready. However, you must tell no one of your future. This includes your husband and your daughter, Mouse, for their fates are intertwined with yours, and if you tell them, it could ruin the future as it should be.' Kat nodded. 'I promise. I will tell no one.' Angel grinned. 'Good. One more thing. Those dreams you've been having? Don't worry about them. They're not prophetic. They are just horrible nightmares. Zoot died a few days ago. Apparently, being evil leads to heart failure.' Kat giggled. 'Funny. I think.' Angel nodded. 'Actually, him being evil had nothing to do with it. His heart just gave out. Anyway, you are ready to go back. I'll always be watching over you.'

DECA beeped suddenly, rousing everyone from a deep sleep. Andros shot the ship's eye a death look. "What is it, DECA?" DECA beeped excitedly. "Your sister. She has woken up." Andros was up instantly. "Does Pride know?" DECA beeped again. "Yes. He's at her side right now." Andros was grinning. "Good. I'll let them have their privacy then."

Kat's eyes took a moment to adjust, but as they did, she found herself looking into Pride's beaming face. She grinned back. "What's the occasion?" Pride held her tightly. "You gave all of us quite a scare. You've been gone for over a week. You wanna tell me what's going on?" Kat giggled. "Nothing. My sister just wanted to visit me. She had some things to straighten out with me. I didn't realize it'd been so long. Time must run differently there." Pride smiled. "I see. And what did she need to tell you?" Kat smiled. "Sorry, baby, but there's something called a 'sister confidentiality clause.' I can't break the sacred bond of sisterhood. It stays a secret. But I can tell you one thing. We don't have to worry about Zoot anymore. He died. His heart gave out." Pride nodded. "Well, as much as I can't condone celebrating the death of a fellow human being-and Zoot was human, underneath all that evil-I have to say I'm relieved. That's one less thing that we have to worry about." Kat nodded. "Yeah, I guess." Pride smiled again. "We should be arriving on Earth soon. Then the big question arises. Where do we live? Are we going back to the mall, or getting a place of our own?" Kat smiled wryly. "We can't afford a place of our own yet. We're gonna move in with my dad until we can. I've already discussed it with him and Mina, and they'd love to have us." Pride nodded. "Okay."

Kat spent the next few days pondering what Angel had said about her destiny. She began looking for clues, but found nothing. Finally, one night in a dream, Angel clarified. "You are destined for great things, but you are trying to hard to achieve them. Don't worry about it. Forget what I told you for a few years. You'll remember when the time comes. Focus on raising your daughter, and on being a good wife to Pride. Your destiny will reveal itself in time. Even in more than one way." Kat woke from the dream, excitedly. She and Pride had moved in with Drac, on Earth, and Mouse was enrolled in public school. She loved it. Drac, however, kept dropping hints to Kat about her giving him a grandchild that couldn't tell him off in three languages. Now, it seemed that he just might get that wish. Kat calculated, realizing she had skipped two months already. She smiled as she woke Pride. "Honey, I have some good news…"

Two Years Later

Kat smiled at her gathered family as she bounced one-year-old Angel on her knee. Mouse absolutely adored her baby sister, and Drac was as grandfatherly as he could get, being what he was. The family was gathered to witness yet another wedding, but this time, the happy couple was Andros and Zhane. Kat smiled as they exchanged their vows and finally embraced each other as a married couple. Andros had purposely planned the wedding date to coincide with both Angel's birthday and Kat and Pride's anniversary, to save the trouble of planning three celebrations back to back. Kat grinned as she looked around at her family. Karone was had recently celebrated her first anniversary with Carlos, and the two of them were expecting their first child any day now. Hedia had yet to find someone she loved (at least, she had yet to tell the family), but she was still a happy, loving sister and a doting aunt to both Mouse and Angel, and both she and Ecliptor had spent the last two years helping restore peace to the galaxy. Kat hadn't thought of her sister's prophecy in a year, believing Angel's decree that she'd remember when the time came. For now, she just wanted to focus on being a wife and mother. She and Pride were expecting another child, who was due in just four short months. Pride was as attentive as a father could be, even with working to help pay for the house they'd moved into after Angel's birth. Even though Drac paid the majority of the bills on the house, she and Pride had discussed it, and they wanted some semblance of independence. Pride had a job he loved, working as a certified bird trainer and marine biologist. Kat, though on maternity leave at the moment, had a steady job with Cassie's record company, working mainly as a producer and agent, but occasionally recording demos with some up and coming star or even working outside the studio as a talent scout for local musical productions. They made plenty of money, but since Drac paid most of the bills, they could afford to spoil the kids a little. They had paid for the majority of Karone's wedding, and they had even invited her and Carlos to move in with them for a while when the baby was born. It seemed life was finally going to be normal, though, if Kat knew her family, normal was going to be far out of reach.

(Author's note: And that's it! Siblings is finally complete, though, if you notice, it is left open for a sequel. Be prepared, the sequel will le even more riveting then the original!)