A/N: This chapter? Just to kill time, n fill it with something worthwhile

Chapter 7: Comprehend Cerberus

Sky's POV

"Z?" I think it's the fifteenth time I'm calling her name out on the top of my lungs. I have practically searched for her in every part of the deltabase where she could possibly have been. I tried her phone too, but it's saying 'out of network coverage area'. But I don't think she might be in the zord bay, where there's the least network coverage in the whole damn academy. And I don't know where else to look. So here I am, randomly shouting her name in every corridor of the deltabase. Hoping she'd hear me. I know that she's not taken, because they promised they'd come for us in 48 hours. Still 24 left. It's funny how the call just came this morning, but it seems like eons ago! And all we did during the day was share a few secrets, and snoop in the belongings of all our friends. Why does it feel like it's been days, nay weeks since the call came? I'm getting unnerved though. What if they didn't keep their promise? What can you expect from criminals? Or what if Z did something to herself?

I realized that I myself was getting a little sick, trying to gulp down food, so it wasn't worth trying. Left my food tray back in the mess hall. (not like I had taken a lot of food to begin with) if I feel hungry again, I'd eat, because I'm gonna stay up all night no? Punishment for my 'Syd theory'. If we took one whole day to search three rooms… no wait, five, mine and Z's included, though that should be considered part of one, as we shared them with Syd and Bridge's…. anyway, if it took us so long to do so little work thoroughly, then how are we going to finish about 120 other rooms housing about 240 other cadets in ONE FREAKING DAY?

If we spread out? Like I do one, she does the other? Might work.

I scratch my head, I'm still wasting time looking for her. why does she have to be so irresponsible? I am wasting valuable seconds, in which I could've started searching another room…

Relax Sky, I tell myself, this is no time to turn on your comrade. She is the only one you have. Think about the kiss. Oh for how long had you wanted that kiss? It was so lovely. Wish it could've lasted a little longer. But then again, we don't really have time for a full on make-out-slash-other-stuff-sessions. Time. time. time. Why does this word keep reappearing? It's like there's some hidden meaning to the word, an almost scary, bloody meaning.

Think I'd HAVE to do to the zord bay.

"SPD EMERGENCY!" I shout, and morph into the red Ranger, and rush to the command centre, into one of the sliding panels, that leads me to my zord. Now Dr. Manx's not here. So that means that the zords would stay offline even if I enter mine. It's better than climbing down 16 floors, over to the locker room, and then manually opening that gate to the zord bay.

So theory tested and proved, the zords are indeed offline. I get into the zord, then out of the cockpit door, via the maintenance pathways, I head down into the zord bay area, and look around. Not a soul in sight. The people, who cleaned SPD of living things, did their job well. Well, I'd better head back… I'm just about to turn back, when I get a new idea.

Wait as long as I am here, I should go check the locker room too. I mean she might not be there, but what's the harm?

Opening the door is a painstaking task, bt with the Ranger powers I am able to manage it quite well. On the other side is a huge locker room, with at least 400 lockers. To anybody who ever said SPD is understaffed… check your facts.

BUT I find a person, yes, a living person, I think, on the floor in one of the far corners. As I approach them, (hoping it's Z) they pay me no attention. Quite close, I shine the light of my morhper onto her face.

It's Z.

There is an empty liquor bottle by her side, so apparently, she's been drinking. And she's passed out, a little bit of drool around the corner of her mouth, tears staining her cheeks. I gently nudge her, and she murmurs something drunkenly.

"Z, it's me, Sky" I say, but she doesn't respond. I nudge her again, and she whispers, maybe in her sleep, "I'm so sorry Syd"

"Z?" I nudge her again, whatever dream she's having, it's clearly not a good one, and I need to get her out of it, "I shouldn't have left! I should've stayed by you" her words are slurring, but I can make them out. I gently lift her in my arms. I know that my trying to wake her up would just disturb her more, and so I carry her in my arms, as she rests her head against my chest, over the stairs, climbing the flights, taking the elevator when I reach it, and finally to my room. I know that when she wakes up, she wouldn't like to be in hers. And I'm not going to be there anyway, because I'm gonna be looking for clues and whatnot. I gently lay her down on Bridge's bed, where she had spent the previous night also. I get a wet towel, and I wipe away the drool, and the tears away. Then I gently kiss her forehead. Why? I don't know, it just feels like the right thing to do, and she soothes a little. Then hopefully drifts off into a dreamless sleep.

"sweet dreams" I whisper. I think I'm getting a little too attached to her. And why not? She's my security blanket; for now at least.

Then I head out, for my mission.

X-X-X

Z's POV

Clouds… I see clouds on the ground… maybe a smoke machine? Where am I? I'm sitting on a theater seat, and there are stony-faced people around. I don't know a single one of them, and I don't know what we are watching.

But then the lights go out, and the movie plays, and I know it, I know every second of it, I realize, because I've lived every second of it… it's my own life on a theater screen. What is happening? Are these people here also watching their own lives? Or are they watching my life? Do I know them and just don't remember? This movie… I hate it's ending… but it starts with an alright scene. I guess I can watch.

I watch on the screen, my very first bad memory, I was six. None of the good ones survived till the end it seems. It's mama. She is running with a little girl in her arms, and there is gunfire behind. She is shot. A hole through her now bloodstained jacket, as she shields me, and rushes inside our home. She makes me hide under a bed, and I do, I cry, and tell her to stay by my side, but she has to leave. She looks around, making sure enemies weren't around, then hands me her jacket, saying as long as I have it, she'll stay with me. Then she went off, and the little girl on the screen watched, as the bombs went off, tearing her beloved mother into smithereens.

I know I'm crying, I can feel tears strolling down my cheeks, but I can't life a single finger, to wipe them. I'm frozen like all the other people I saw. The scenes play, though they're blurry, as if my memory is hazy, though I remember each one distinctly, my father, and his misery, my school, all the teasing about being a freak, my run, Cruger saving me, meeting Jack, finding solace in him, a brother, a protector, learning how to take care of myself, falling for Brian, how his mother didn't approve, how I walked out after being insulted by her, and how I forgot everything that happened as a teenage episode, then all my exploits with Jack, the way we were arrested, then became power rangers, all our time in SPD, when Jack left, and then my other five friends, my increasing friendship with Syd, and the kiss with Sky, and finally… the last few days.

I watch the empty SPD corridors, these memories quite distinct, but Sky nowhere to be seen, but out of the blue, I find myself able to walk, and I run, run around and then freeze, realizing somehow I landed up from the theater to the dead SPD. the blood we wiped was still there. there was blood on my clothes as well, Syd's blood, I feel a bit nauseated, but I keep walking, until I reach my room, which was completely bloody, where I find Syd's dead body, her throat slit, her head bleeding, her whole body covered in blood from wounds from the battle. My eyes water, as I realize I was holding the knife that caused those wounds. I can't believe it, what am I seeing? I scream, but my voice isn't heard, I scream with all my heart, maybe hurting my throat a little in the process, but I scream, soundlessly.

And the scream drags me with it into a vacuum, where I cannot see or hear anything except black. Is this what death feels like? Maybe, because they say that your whole life flashes before your eyes before you die, and that just happened. It'll be better if I die.

But then there's something I see, a voice I hear, calling out my name, a hand reaches out for me, "Z, it's me" he yells, it's Sky.

I struggle against nothing, to try and teach his hand, and I do, and he pulls me out of the void, and we are standing in the clouds, I see Syd again, and she's not dead, but she looks like she might try to kill me. She has that Sam bloody knife, and all her wounds are openly bleeding. She calls out to me, and I yell "I'm sorry Syd" and a few other words, before Sky drags me away.

We're in the dark again, "are you near me?" I ask, and am received by a gentle kiss on my forehead, "can you hear me?" in response to that, we're now standing on a rooftop, naked, our hands entangled, he brings himself to kiss me, but there is an invisible, impenetrable wall between us. We're standing together, but not able to touch each other. But then he starts fading, more and more, until I am standing alone, and fall, finding myself in a car that I couldn't drive in the name of God, and I try to steer it, as it's going over 100 miles an hour, and before I realize it, I'm crashing, and crashing and crashing, and I see Sky, he's in another car, again trying to reach out for me, and our cars collide, glasses shatter, and I find us both… killed.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

I wake up screaming, breaking into a cold sweat, and realize I'm in a dark room. is the nightmare still going on? But I get up, myself, feeling my feet, and switch on the lights. Sky's room. Maybe Sky brought me here. There's a terrible pounding against my skull, an after effect of the nightmare, and the whiskey, no doubt. Settling down on the bed, I think, about the nightmare and what caused it? it has many different aspects I think, the most important being my guilt for Syd's death, and how now I'm looking at Sky to be my 'protective blanket' as Syd phrased it. I can't believe in a span of just 24 hours, I saw him naked, told him I'd happily shoot him, even then he shared his secrets with me, I'm touched to my heart, he has been so nice with me, even though I was so mean… But now look at me, I know, that now, less than 12 hours later, I'm in love with him again… I'm really messed up no? if he pulls a gun to shoot me now, I'd die happily. But for some reason, I know that he'd never shoot me. I was the one who was wrong here, I was too suspicious, too paranoid, and I was the one who judged him wayyy too quickly. He's a gentleman… I hope he doesn't hate me by now.

They're strange, you know? Dreams. They show a side of you, you never thought you could embrace. There was a criminal psychology seminar at SPD last year, (yeah SPD has been hosing wayyy too many seminars in the past few years, a part of their 'Educating Minds as Well as Bodies' initiative.) and there, finding it more interesting than that chemistry/bomb infographics workshop, I had decided to attend it, as well as make notes of it.

I'm pretty good as psychology now. Analyzing dreams, my own, and of Syd and Bridge's are one of my favorite pastimes now. Earlier it had been a very boring thing to do, Syd had had interest, and she had been the one to push me into it.

It was almost ironic how I am analyzing a dream where I had murdered Syd, and her ghost came to murder me. Damn… Anyway, I think about why I feel so guity about it? Just because she was my best friend and I wasn't able to protect her? or was there something else to it?

I think I'm sober now, courtesy the pounding headache, I think this is all that takes, a nightmare, and a little screaming, to sober up form just one bottle of whiskey. Will remember for next time. to be honest I am surprised how I can think straight even with the pain. Anwyay I know it's still night time, the darkness speaks for itself, but how long was I passed out?

I see the time, its about 3 o'clock, (damn, must be over 4 hours… no wonder I'm sober) but Sky's not here. He's not in his room at this time. Where is he? hey he brought me all the way here. He must've been so worried! I wonder where, or how he found me. I must've passed out after drinking. Oh that was so irresponsible of me. I shouldn't worry about the dead just yet, not when I have a chance to save the living. I can mourn about Sydney when Sky and I are safe, and we've gotten SPD out of danger.

So I go looking for him. I have to, even though my head doesn't feel like it should have to work. Stumbling out of my room, I yell his name "Sky!" just as he might've had when he looked for me. I don't know where he is, I just hope he is safe. Maybe he can't hear me shouting, so I call RIC. Wherever he is, he can hear my command, and comes running at once. I get down on my knees, "hey RIC, have you seen Sky?" I ask

And RIC makes a sad noise, and then runs towards a direction, me in trail. We went up two floors, and to the C-squad rooms, and I see him, still vigorously searching the room, of a guy called Trey, I think, and his roommate… Josh I think. They were both C-Squad cadets, and I knew them from a mishap that had landed them both in a troobian dungeon and the B-Squad had to go rescue them.

"Sky?" I gently ask, so as not to scare him, and he turns around, "Z?" he asks, and I nod, "are you okay?"

"yes, I'm fine" I reply, "you got drunk" he said, "I know, I'm sorry" I say, with as much emotion I can muster, with the hangover on my head, "how long have you been searching?"

"about three hours I think" he explained, and I felt so bad for him, and even more guilt, "you put me to bed" I comment, "you searched for me, you must've… how'd you find me? I'm sorry Sky, I caused you so much trouble" I'm sincere in my apology, he won't need to worry about me anymore… I'll try to make sure.

He ignores it, getting back to his search, "thank you Sky," I say, and he turns around, and smiles at me, and I see he is tired, very tired, "you can rest now, I can stay up and do the rest. I'm not going to fall asleep."

"you had a nightmare" he ignored my words again, "want to talk about it?"

"no" he doesn't press, but says, "Z don't feel bad for what happened with Syd. She was your best friend, but protecting her is not your responsibility. She's a big girl, she could handle herself. She put up a brave fight. She died a martyr. You'd only be disrespecting her, by saying anything else." I nod, it's registering… why I felt so much guilt. I now understand completely. Sydney Drew had become much more than my friend.

She was my sister.

Just the way Jack was like a brother to me, Syd was like my little sister, and I failed to protect her, I think this is how Jack would've felt if something happened to me. "I know Sky, I can't do anything about her now, but if I could, I'd happily trade my life for hers"

Sky came to me, and held my hand, "I would too" he whispered, and then continued, "for any of us Z,"

"but back to the present, we have one casualty, we don't want others. So whatever we are doing, it should go off without a hitch. You think I don't feel bad? I accused her. I said that she might've sold us all out, while she was actually just protecting us! But I am suppressing my guilt. I'll let it go if we are able to get SPD free. You do that too. If we waste time right now, we might miss out on some clues. I don't want us to have the guilt that we had a chance to save everyone, and we couldn't save anyone."

"you're right Sky, we might have all our lives for the guilt. But we only have twenty hours to win" she said, then a little hesitant, she added "and I know I might be wasting time when I do this, but I really want to"

And wrapping my arms around his neck, I pulled him into a long, passionate kiss. He realized what I was doing, and wrapped his arms around my waist, and almost lifted me off the ground, spinning me around, and we landed up on left side the bed in the room, his body almost covering mine, and we stayed like that for a few minutes, when we had to break apart for air. Panting, we smiled at each other, "feeling better?" he asked, and I nodded, laughing. Then he got up, and off of me, and I also got up, getting a rubber band from my pocket, and tying my loose hair in a ponytail.

"shall we get back to work?" I asked, trying to sound strictly professional, but a chuckle escaped, and we burst out laughing again.

"yes ma'am" he agreed, and we got to searching. RIC meanwhile, (who had been here all this while, AND had seen everything… not that we cared. It was entertainment for him too) was barking like crazy, as if to get our attention. Coming to think of it, he had been barking all day, and that was why we had commanded him to go off to sleep. We look at him, "what happened RIC? I ask, even though we are running out of time, and have been wasting a lot of it, maybe it's something important.

"he's been malfunctioning I guess" Sky suggests, but maybe he's not. Besides I don't think that in the dead of night we'd be able to do much searching, in fact I was just about to suggest that he go to sleep, while I'd search.

"maybe he wants to tell us something? He was the only live witness of the events" I suggest, and Sky considers the idea, "maybe…" he says. Then he gets down on his knees, on RIC's level, "you got something we need to know buddy?" he asks patting him, and RIC, in reply,

X-X-X

Z looks at RIC, he looks at both of them, kinda happy that they asked him, and then the next moment, he darts out of the room, at maximum speed, and since the door was already open, there was, (thankfully) no RIC shaped hole in it.

Z looks at Sky, they shrug, and then dart right behind him. RIC takes the stairs, and since the rangers don't know which floor he's gonna stop on, they take the stairs too. About twelve flights of stairs, they reach the topmost floor, which usually just housed Cruger's room, Kat's room, (which were pretty huge, a result of their highest rankings,) and a couple more rooms that belonged to other leading scientists at SPD. Dr. Felix(biology), Dr. Gaul(mutation expert, under whom Kat had also worked once upon a time), Dr. McHarvey(criminal psychology) and many others about whom many Sky and Z did not know.

Tired and out of breath, they followed RIC to a room that said, very clearly, "Dr. Katherine Manx"

RIC went up to a desk and started barking.

Sky and Z carefully examined the desk, and the papers lying on the desk. They were reports, apparently Kat had been filing the missing people's DNA reports into her computer. There were also reports about face reconstruction structures, and different types of genomes. Apparently a study all the scientists were undertaking together. That wasn't much interesting, because Sky and Z were not geniuses who would understand these complex numbers and equations and Gene sequences, and MRI scans.

"what about that?" Z asked him, pointing to a laptop.

Kat's laptop was open, though the screen was black. The charger was plugged in, but off; he shrugged, and switched on the charger, then pressed a few buttons, and it came to life, asking for a password.

"Dr. Manx's password?" he looked quizzically at her,

"RIC?" Z turned to the dog, who was already inside Kat's dresser, and searching for something, and then he pulled out a photo frame, it was Kat with a little girl. She looked like Kat, but only about 5 or 6 years of age. Her ears perked up in the picture, and a small tail crept up from behind, he giggled almost stupidly with a massive teddy bear in her hand.

Maybe the way the frame was kept in the dresser, and with how much care, and whatnot, Sky and Z could know the tragic story behind it, which Dr. Manx had never let anyone know. They allowed the girl a few moments of silence. But then they turned the frame around, and pulled the picture out. Usually people wrote the names, dates and times of the printed picture on the backside. At least Sky did.

And sure enough, it was there.

Dear Maria, 11 September 1972, Earth.

The picture was over 50 years old!

Sky typed, Maria in the password, *INCORRECT*

Z then typed 11-9-72 *INCORRECT*

"hmm?" he asked, RIC kept barking at the picture, his way of telling them that this was the password, "Maria Manx?" Z asked, typing. *INCORRECT*

"11 Sept?" Sky typed *INCORRECT*

"how about them together?"

"Maria, 11 Sept 72?" Sky asked, seemed too long a password,

*PASSWORD ACCEPTED*

"up top!" Z high fived, "RIC, how did you know? Do you spy on people?" Z asked, fake angrily at RIC, but also patting him at the time. He 'woofed'

"so what's she had on?" Z asked, knowing her words made little sense, but he got what she was asking and replied, "a Google slides presentation."

They went through, random SPD work, studies, data collection, New Tech, deliveries, nothing that interesting in the whole laptop, but RIC seemed convinced that there was something to help them, and that was what he had been trying to tell them all day, when they got irritated with him, and asked him to 'go to sleep'.

RIC then flashed the time on his face-screen.

"we know RIC, it's late. You can sleep if you want" Z said, looking at him, "you too Sky," she said, but he shook his head, "we're in this together?"

RIC gave an exasperated 'BEEP' noise, and Z grinned, (or tried to), he was also getting irritated with these dumb humans.

"yeah RIC, we get it, we know the ti…." He trailed off mid sentence, as it struck him what RIC was pointing to. He turned and looked at the computer. By then Z also understood. He hastily opened the Google slides document. It had a tiny note on a corner that informed the two

*Last edited on Sunday 2:43 AM*

Dr. Manx wasn't in the lab, at two forty three, she was here, in her room, filing reports, making power point slides. The video they had found of Sydney, it had had the time of 2:20 or something. She said Kat had been drugged and taken away… Kat had never left the room.

Further research showed that all her slides had been made between Ten Thirty to 2:43.

2:43 was the time she had been taken… and half an hour before, was about the time that an imposter had masqueraded as Kat Manx, and destroyed Space Patrol Delta from within.

That smart dog, it knew it all, just didn't know how to tell us... but he worked it out, that forever alert, smart, guard dog, almost as mighty as Cerberus, the guard dog of hell... and well, this place wasn't any less than hell, was it? The lesson for the mortals? If Cerberus tries to tell you something, don't ignore it.

The two humans in the room, their mortal minds reeling, trying to digest this information, stood rooted to the spot, their eyes fixed on what they couldn't believe,

*Last edited on Sunday 2:43 AM*

A/N: YES! i did just drop the bomb...