A/N: Answering Z Tate's question, Bridge's powers help him create a psychic and empathetic connection with the people around him, and these concrete blocks are just blocking this connection, and so Bridge is finding himself alone in his mind, with no other thoughts but his own. It's the same thing his gloves do on a smaller level. As for Sam, he's too ill to use his powers.
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Disclaimer: Don't own anything except the story.

Chapter 11: Shadows of the Empire

Part 2: Bohemian Rhapsody

Well Jack Landers now knew the plan, he knew almost everything there was to know. He knew Sky and Z's plan, he knew the bad guys' plans, and well, he definitely knew his own plan.

Now all that was left, was to execute the plan.

He couldn't save Z; he couldn't save his little sister. And though Jack didn't know it at the time, this was exactly how Z had felt on feeling like she had lost Sydney. Of course, Syd had never really been dead, but Z and Sky didn't know about the Nyxia. If not for that almost magical substance, Syd would be dead for good.

Jack had taken a few minutes, okay, maybe almost two hours, to get over the grief he had suffered because of the supposed death of Z, and the capture of Sky. And then he had tapped into the listening devices, and he had listened to the whole conversation that had happened between Sky, Bridge, Syd, Sam and Payton, and Snow. It was scary, and he immediately sent the audio clip to the Galactic command. Though Birdie was a little confused by who was sending it to him, Sergeant Silverback, who had been with Birdie at the time, understood the whole story with just the name of the Cadet he had trained for SWAT.

He arranged a video call, to have a chat with Jack.

"Landers" he acknowledged,

"Sergeant" Jack replied.

"I believe Tate and Delgado entrusted you with it all?"

"yes sir. I do not know how to handle all the responsibility… what if I fail? Who knows that they might do to them!"

"Cadet, I've seen you, and the rest of your friends, in worse situations, where their lives were even moreso at risk. You did not deter then and I believe you will not deter now"

"absolutely sir, I will not. I will gladly sacrifice my life for the greater good." He said, with absolute truthful fire in his eyes, "what I am worried about, is that one wrong move by me can lead to their demise"

"be positive Landers, and do what you need to do. Believe in yourself, and in the fact that you would not cause any intentional harm to your friends. If something may happen even after that, it is not your responsibility"

"yes, sir, thank you sir"

That short, five minute pep talk, was all Jack needed, to get over himself, and go all out to save his friends, and the whole SPD family.

X-X-X

Z's POV

It's… dark.

I open my eyes, and I find myself in a dark room. Everything hurts! But who am I to complain? The last thing I remember is two different blades slicing me in half, because I insulted some stupid cult ideology.

"How am I even alive?" did I just say that out loud?

"I can answer that" I hear a voice, though I don't actually think I hear a voice. And I'm… surprised? Maybe I am dead after all.

But isn't heaven supposed to be Bright? wait am I in hell? Will I be tortured? "Z?" I hear a distinct voice, and then I figure slowly comes into my perspective. I see Bridge bending over me, as my vision clears.

His voice is coarser, as if he's been coughing. It's why I didn't recognize it. my mind's spinning, reeling, whatever word you want to use, because I can't think of any right now. I'm… Befuddled.

"Z?" he repeats again, and I get up, and I find, strangely, my hands are encased in concrete. What? WHY? Is it to keep my powers from acting up? too bad my powers have nothing to do with my hands. I can still duplicate all the same.

Then I painfully turn my neck sideways, and look around, and I see Bridge there, and I see Sam! Sam! I want to hug them both so much, but I can't bring myself to do so because of all the body-aches. (Yeah plural)

"Bridge? Sam?" I cough out, finding my voice hoarser than Bridge's.

Sam coughs from the other end, "are you okay?" I ask, it's coming back now. I'm starting to sound like myself again.

"He's ill" Bridge said, not sounding like himself at all. Normal Bridge would be like ''he's not okay, I mean he's okay, as in he looks okay, but he's not. He's sick, or ill, or whatever disease he has, but he's not okay'' something is off.

"are you okay Bridge?"

"I am," he says, almost coldly.

"what happened to him?"

"he just coughed blood. And since, he's not been able to speak properly. I think it's untreated tonsils, with some other bacterial infection in his throat, which has grown because of the unhygienic conditions here. It's getting worse. He wasn't able to eat a morsel of food yesterday. Today he can't even speak. He was better in the morning. By now, he's gotten much, much worse. We had thought it was nothing, but I'm not so sure now. I have a feeling something's much worse than we thought and/or expected." Bridge calmly explained, not like Bridge at all.

"But if they treated me, then why couldn't they treat him?" I ask.

"Because Sam doesn't want to go with them. He's afraid, and he says that it's better for him if those people don't find out about the infection," Bridge said, and I felt so terrible for that little boy, who is like my little baby, suffering so much! and I can't even do anything about it! I promise myself that I am gonna fix him! I am going to do something about him, I'll get us all out of here, and we'll treat Sam! Sky, and Jack and I will fix everything!

At that moment, something horrifying happens, the gates open, and two people are ushered in. It's Sky and Syd!

SYD!

She's alive! Oh God she's alive! She's alive! How did this happen? I can't even express how happy I am! Syd is alive, and is it just me, or does she look a little… blue? Seriously? Her skin is glowing a little tint of blue.

And Sky? He's looking miserable. He is still in my yellow Ranger uniform, though without the helmet, morpher or any weapons, it's just a piece of bulletproof clothing. And it is torn at places, tattered and battered, and dirty, and almost reeks of medicine. Nyxia, I think. I don't know what happened. He fought a little too hard it seems. His hands are also encased in the cement blocks! It looks like new cement. Don't tell me they did that to him while he watched! Gosh that is so cruel!

Coming to notice it, all of them look miserable. They have all blocks of concrete on their hands, and their clothes are dirty and torn, their faces look black with all the dust. They look as if they have been starving for a while. Their wounds have blood clots, with scum on it, and I feel so terrible about them. Bridge has wounds on his face, cuts, and whatnot. The rest are hidden by his uniform. We can't see what's beneath, except a few places where it's torn badly, and bloody wounds are visible. The uniforms themselves look redder than Sky's uniform, which he's not wearing. The Yellow Suit he is sporting, has all it's whites turned into greys. it's something horrifying. AS for Syd, like i said, she looks... blue. I don't know what is causing it. Her hair are down her shoulders, muddy and her curls are all straightened out. She looks as if she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. It's wayy too bad a way to treat people!

"Z?" he says, his eyes wide in horror, as he saw me on the floor, encased in that cement that he also held, Sky made his way over to me, trying to go as fast as he could, and when near me, dropped to his knees, shocked. Tears threaten to spill down both our eyes, mine especially, because everything I lost? It's all come back!

"Z?" he asks again, this time, in almost wild panic, and relief at the same time. "they had taken you away from the infirmary! I didn'tt know what they would do to you! But i was helpless! I tried to fight! but there were too many of them! I'm so glad you are okay!"

"Sky!" I say. I am so relieved to see him, in whatever condition, he's there, he's with me now, safe. I tried to hoist myself up on my knees, using the concrete blocks to hoist myself up.

"oh God Z!" he said, again, hoisting his and he tried to hug me, then realized the blocks on his hands couldn't do the job, and so settled to kiss me on my lips, without touching me with his hands. I also reply, by kissing him back, uncaring for the audience in the room.

We stay that way, pressed against each other for a few minutes, after which Bridge coughs, and Sky and I break apart abruptly, and looked at him, "Sam's still twelve remember?" he says. Though he doesn't ask what happened between us.

We look embarrassed, but Sam doesn't really care, he's sick. He just looks faint. Then I turn my attention to the person who has been haunting my nightmares for the past few days.

"Syd!" I say, feeling tears, real, uninvited tears rushing into my eyes, and Sky shovels past, to make way between her and me.

"Z" she says, and comes close to me, and nuzzles me, I think this is the equivalent of a hug now, with all our hands encased in cement. Then she rests her head against my shoulder, and stays there.

"you're ALIVE!" I say, relieved, and with a really broad smile, and the tears flowing down my cheeks.

"I'm kinda glad about it myself" she says, a few tears clouding her eyes as well, and I chuckle, through the tearful reunion of me and my sorta little sister, "we thought you were- I mean- all that blood in the lab! It showed that it was yours!"

"it was mine"

"but then how are you alive? it was all the blood there would've been!"

"feels like these people had more usage of me, to just let me die you know?" She says, melancholily, and then fills me up on everything that happened. I'm surprised, to be honest; I tell them I got myself killed, and then they tell me that apparently these people hooked me up to Nyxia, yes, NYXIA to save my life. I never thought in my life that I'd end up ever getting a dose of Nyxia. This is exactly what happened with Syd too. But since I hadn't had much of a blood loss, I healed in about five hours from all my stab wounds. Syd, as Bridge told us, had fought, until the last drop of her blood was drained. Well, figuratively. (Bridge feels weird to be honest, speaking like this)

Sky also tells us how, after they had dragged me away, he was miserable, knowing that they'd take me to cement my hands as well, and he didn't want that to happen, but then they gave him a worse problem to worry about. The burns in his hands were easily healed by the Nyxia, but then they took him into one of the deeper chambers of the mineshaft, which was really small, and lit by a single electric bulb. There he watched as I was, unconsciously, cemented. It must've been so painful for him to watch as the cement hardened into these impenetrable blocks around my hands. But the horror still awaited him, as once i was done, and taken away, Sky was forced onto his knees, in full consciousness, and made to dip his hands into those now empty square depressions, which were then filled with cement, that slowly hardened around his fingers as he WATCHED, and couldn't do anything about it, as the men behind him had massive arms and ammo, in their hands. The account makes me want to hug and kiss him again, but then Syd and Bridge continue their side of the story, telling us, a first hand account of the invasion. How everything happened, as in how Dr. Manx, who we tell them, was not really Dr. Manx, because Kat was in her room at the moment, was just simply dragged out of the room. Makes more sense to them now.

Oh and by the way, Wally is dead. Sky and I are absolutely horrified by the revelation. Syd denied ever having made a video, and well, considering all her blood loss, and as Bridge narrated, Syd was half dead, and Wally just retreated with Syd in a corner after she passed out from the numerous stab wounds, and tried his best to cover for her, and try to save her life. (yes, they shared a kiss!) Bridge remembers faintly, that just as he himself was passing out, Wally took a shot in the chest to save Syd, they don't know for sure, but since they never saw Wally in any of the infirmaries, they think he might be dead. I guess that accounts for the one death Xyz spoke about. Unless they saved him and killed someone else. We spent all the time thinking that it was Syd who had passed away while it had been Wally. Wow! It feels like hell. As we talk more about the events, and finally the mystery of the video tape is revealed.

Bridge tells us, that though he was unconscious, his powers were hyperactive, and even with eyes and mind closed, his memories kinda recorded the auras of all that happened around him, right up to the point where he came to in this prison cell. He tells us, the video, it was shot minutes after Wally was shot, and Bridge himself passed out, so our speculated timing had been spot on, and then one of the people had entered and stood in front of Sydney for a minute or two, and suddenly, Bridge could get Syd's aura, though corrupted, from that person. "There were two Sydney auras in the room, one pure, and super faint, as if she was dying, and a much stronger one, thoroughly corrupted," Bridge stated, and it confirmed our Brian Collins theory almost certainly. Can't believe I ever slept with the guy. Not the point. Point is, almost all our theories were spot on.

Now my whole family is here, safe, with me, and I think, that I can easily carry out the phase two of my plan. I believe I have a way to facilitate Jack's operation. I just hope he's listening to my letter, and has tapped into the listening device and listening to our conversations.

X-X-X

And indeed, Jack Landers was tapped into the listening device. In fact, since his talk with Silverback, he hadn't removed the headphones. Well, he had; and instead, he had connected the tapping device to a pair of wireless earphones, and was sporting them at the very moment, inside his Ranger Suit. Morphing into the red Ranger gave him serious déjà vu. He had decided it'd be better if he kept the suit on. It was a sign of respect, in a way. He had heard the whole conversation, and now knew every detail of what happened at SPD that night.

Anyway, he was up in the Delta Command Megazord's cockpit, and was just seeing how he could initiate it. He decided he'd better ascertain the location first, and then do so. Locking the tracking co-ordinates, now Jack knew that about six miles from the main NTC area, was an abandoned rock quarry… AGAIN! The same quarry, for some reason. But anyway, it was underneath that quarry that Z and Sky were at the moment. A little more research with the equipment available to him at SPD, and a little help from the tech team across the planets, on video conference, and he was able to determine that there was a whole f*cking colony of people. Yes, they were all underground at the very moment!

He listened intently, for anything at all, that might be of his use. He heard Sky's convos with Syd, and then those of Z with Bridge and Sam, and the heartfelt reunion of Sky and Z, and couldn't help but feel a warm feeling spread all over himself, that his little sister had found love in such a guy.

Anyway, then came the important stuff, and he adjusted his earphones to listen well.

"Syd?" Z said, looking at the blond, "you're the one who has been out of this prison the most times. Do you remember anything you saw about the layout or anything?"

"Well" Syd thought, "yes I do actually. We're underground" that earned some gasps from Sky and Z, "so, I don't remember the entrance as I was unconscious when I was brought in, but all my trips to the infirmary because of my injuries, have made me memorize the path from here to there. It's not long, and I also know a few other places along the way.

She paused, "See now, all the other people are in locks. We are the only ones with powers, and hence the cement encasing, but others just have plain handcuffs. And are in locked cell doors. Wait I think some don't even have handcuffs. I remember Payton blabbing to Nixon. She said they were out of handcuffs, since they couldn't raid the academy, for whatever stupid reasons. And they settled down on handcuffing only the authority figures. Cruger, Kat, and the like. B-Squad they didn't need to worry about," she raised her cemented hands.

Jack heard it all, Z knew Jack was hearing, or hoped at least, and asked, probing further, "so if we were to open the doors?" left it at the question.

"well, first of all, we can't open them, no keys, and to blast them, we'd need our SWAT blasters, which we don't have. But if we do, then we'd have an army to fight. People in training, people almost training, people super trained, everything!

"and I guess we can get out of the cement also by the SWAT blasters?" Sky asked, catching up with the scheme Z had in mind.

Bridge nodded, Sam was still sitting lifeless in one corner, and no one coulf go all the way over to hold him either. The best they could do so far was to come up with a way to get out.

"okay. And how'd we get out? or get in for that matter? Syd didn't see the entrance. So?"

"I did" Sam suddenly spoke up, "me and the other junior cadets were led in, without blindfolds or anything. They got cocky I guess, I mean, what can a bunch twelve year olds do to them?" he said, and Z looked up hopefully, and feeling proud of him, "a LOT more than they could ever imagine in their lives!" she said, "tell me everything you saw in detail… if it doesn't hurt to speak."

"it does, but I want to help!" he said, spoken like a true Power Ranger. No wonder he went on to become Omega in the future.

He told them how there was a black metal bridge over the quarry, connecting two parts of the old pit mine, which led to an abandoned mineshaft. To reach the bottom of that mineshaft, there was a lift, which was just big enough to carry seven people at a time, which was a bummer, so they had all gone down in installments. Anyway, down into the mineshaft, there were three entrances into the mine. The centre one led to a corridor, that ended in a doorway, that landed them up in the prison cell area.

Syd chimed in at that, "I've seen that trisection!" she said, surprised, "the left side one leads to the chamber, Is it? of the big four, you know, the masterminds, the ones with the super-mutant-powers, and the controls. And the right side one leads to the army thingie? Like where their lackeys reside. I don't know what else to call thme. It's all not permanent, just until they are able to get rid of SPD's support, and make themselves safe. They all have homes and stuff, and they're just working with the big four for the money. Xanthus Snow is a trillionaire remember?" she explained.

Then a wide grin spread over the faces of Sky and Z, "thank you guys" they said, and then well, then they sat back, to chat with them, normal chit chat, nothing that elegant.

Because now, Jack Landers had all the data he could possibly need for anything at all. Now their job was over, and they could revel in the joy of having found their friends alive, and well.

A/N: I know some of the scenes have absolutely no feeling at all, but I'm trying really hard! How else do you react to seeing people you thought were dead? Especially when you can't even hug them! Plzz Review!