Chapter 2: "Idol"

It wasn't that it was strange to see Sky laugh. He laughed at them all the time. Laughing at himself was new, but after watching him with Dru it didn't seem as weird as it might have a few days ago.

That was the strange part, Jack decided. Sky had really liked Dru. He'd liked him enough to bring him back to the base without so much as a security check. Enough to vouch for him, sight unseen, during an intruder alert. Enough to be wandering the halls with him in the middle of the night, to lean against him in the lounge, and to want Dru's bracelet back even after everything that had happened.

Now, with a bandage around his wrist where his own bracelet had been and Dru in high-security confinement, Sky was laughing at himself. Okay, maybe his punishment for breaking regulations was ridiculous. And maybe Sky was human after all: he'd shown a side of himself with Dru that proved being the best wasn't all he cared about.

This wasn't just laughter, though. This was giggling that bordered on hysteria. He couldn't seem to stop. Every time he got himself under control, he would start snickering again. It was funny for a few minutes, but...

Okay, it was funny period. Sky giggling was hysterical on every level. And hey, they all dealt with stress in their own ways. Who was to say this wasn't just as effective as hitting a punching bag or snapping at lower ranked cadets? If it came down to it, Jack preferred the giggling to Sky's usual forms of stress relief.

Sky had settled down a little by the time they'd worked their way around to opposite sides of the entrance an hour later. He still seemed off somehow, in some indefinable but recognizable way, as illustrated by the fact that Z tried to slink up beside Jack without drawing any more attention to herself than she had to. Of course Sky chose that moment to laugh--not looking at them, just shaking his head and laughing quietly to himself--and her expression went from confused to suspicious.

"Brother," Z muttered, eying him over Jack's shoulder. "What's wrong with him?"

Jack was careful not to follow her gaze. "You mean the fact that Cruger chewed him out six ways to Sunday, or the fact that he's supposed to scrub all the cement areas on the base with a toothbrush?

"Oh," he added, like he'd just remembered. "Or the fact that his former best friend turns out to be lying mercenary scum sent to assassinate his commanding officer. Really, take your pick."

"Uh, Jack?" She was watching him scrub distractedly at the cement, doing nowhere near as thorough a job as Sky was. Or as Sky would be doing under normal circumstances. Who knew what he was doing now.

Z had narrowed her eyes at him. "Where did you get that toothbrush you're using?" she wanted to know.

Oops. He gave her his most charming grin. "Well, see, here's the thing," he began. She was definitely not buying the grin, so he pointed at Sky and asked hopefully, "Recognize that?"

She gave Sky a dismissive glance, then a frown. "Is that your toothbrush?"

Jack shrugged. "Turns out he's still a little mad about the whole confronting Dru thing. Who'd have thought Sky would hold a grudge, right?"

"So you gave him your toothbrush?" Z sounded incredulous.

"Oh, come on," Jack scoffed. "What am I, mental? He stole it! Only, the thing is..." He cleared his throat. "I thought it might have been you, at first."

Z rolled her eyes. "What would I want with your toothbrush?"

"I've asked myself the same question about a lot of things over the years," he reminded her. "My jacket, my sunglasses, that beret you still wear--"

"Doing you a favor," she interrupted. "Trust me, Jack, you were never meant to wear a beret."

"Is this some kind of twisted dental hygiene party?" Syd's voice wanted to know.

Z jumped, immediately becoming two people as she spun to face her roommate. Each with one hand behind her back, her free hand waving in cheerful greeting. "Hi Syd!" they said in unison.

Syd stared at her. "Okay," she said at last. "I've got an idea. Why don't you try to look less guilty about whatever you're up to now, and I'll go talk to Mr. Rational over there, hmm?"

"Oh yeah," Jack mumbled as she turned away. At least Sky wasn't laughing at the moment. "Good luck with that."

Then he put a hand on each of the Zs and shoved them from behind. "You stole her toothbrush, didn't you," he gloated, just quietly enough that no one else would hear.

"I thought she took mine!" Z protested. Each of her selves held up a bright pink toothbrush, copied identically from hand to hand.

"And what would Syd want with your toothbrush?" Jack teased.

"I still haven't figured out what you wanted with it!" Z hissed.

"Revenge," he said, rolling his eyes at her. "Obviously! I was making what I thought at the time was a tactical retaliatory strike. How was I supposed to know we're not the only ones on base who can walk through locked doors?"

"Well, actually Jack," Bridge remarked, "I'm sure I've told you on several occasions that locks pose very little problem for me."

"Hi Bridge," Z's first self said with a smile. Her second self waved.

"Hi," he said, replying with a smile and a wave. "Have you come to help Sky with his community service project?"

Jack snorted. "This isn't community service. This is a seriously ridiculous way of making a point."

"Well, it will go faster if we all help," Bridge said placidly. "Next time you should call us right away instead of, you know, waiting until Z notices you're missing." He held up a handful of toothbrushes with obvious intent.

"Guys," Jack began. "You don't have to get involved--"

"Yeah, and neither did you," Z pointed out. "But here you are, so. Here we are."

"Me and Syd have helped Sky out before," Bridge added. "He gets in trouble a lot."

Jack had to grin. "Yeah, I noticed that. Didn't really expect it, though. Why's he so uptight about rules and regulations if he's just going to break them every time he turns around?"

"Dunno," Bridge said with a shrug. He held up his collection of toothbrushes, fanning them out like a deck of cards. "Which one of these should I start with, do you think? Color is important to an auspicious beginning."

"Where did you get those?" Z wanted to know.

"The supply slot in the lounge," Bridge answered. "Where did you get yours?"

Z's first self exchanged glances with Jack while her second self looked down at the toothbrush she was holding. "Actually," she said, one of them handing off her toothbrush to the other, "I'm just going to go put these back where I found them."

The Z holding the toothbrushes turned and headed back inside, while the remaining Z smiled sweetly at Bridge. "Do you think I could use one of yours?"

Jack rolled his eyes again, but Bridge looked pleased by the request. "You can have first pick," he told her, holding them out.

"I think I'll work over here," Jack told them. He moved his soap a little further down the pavement, glancing across the entrance at Sky as he did so.

Syd was sitting next to him now, perched on the edge of a cement step and talking animatedly while Sky scrubbed. She had a toothbrush too, Jack noticed, but it must be dry because she was waving it around while she gestured. Sky didn't seem to be paying any attention to her, but he was letting her talk and Jack was pretty sure that was more than he would have done for anyone else.

Jack couldn't make out what she was saying over the conversation Z and Bridge were having a few feet away. The two of them were funnier than Syd anyway, so he didn't try to move again. He let their chatter entertain him, really only half-listening until Z's voice dropped and suddenly he was all ears.

"What's with the bracelet?" Z was saying quietly. "I thought Sky's broke."

"Oh, that's Dru's," Bridge said with a certainty that made Jack glance at Sky and Syd again. Sure enough, Sky was wearing the metal coil on his unbandaged wrist.

It was just practical, Jack thought. He probably didn't want to set it down out here and risk forgetting it. He'd probably just put it on his wrist until he could throw it away, or... store it in his room or something. Not like they didn't have pockets, though.

"Jack picked it up for him," Bridge continued, and Jack looked up at the sound of his name. He waved when Z caught his eye, and she smiled a little.

"Why is he still wearing it?" Z wondered. "Why'd he want to keep a friendship bracelet from a guy like Dru, anyway?"

"It's not so much a friendship bracelet as it is a lovers' knot," Bridge said casually, and Jack turned to stare at them again. Bridge was frowning. "Only, maybe you shouldn't tell him I said that, because he might have said specifically not to mention it. I can't really remember."

"Wow." Z sounded skeptical. "Sky was actually involved with someone? That's kind of hard to imagine."

"He was a good guy," Bridge said. "Dru, I mean. Or at least, we all thought so. Obviously not so much, now anyway, but back then. Sky was totally into him. They were..."

He trailed off, and Jack heard Z whisper, "Is he okay?"

Jack backed up, giving up any pretense of not participating in their conversation, and followed her gaze as he did so. Sky was kneeling on the concrete now, shoulders shaking, and Jack shook his head. "He can't stop laughing," he murmured. "I don't know why. I've never seen him like this before."

He saw the Green Ranger shake his head out of the corner of his eye. "He's not laughing," Bridge said quietly.

Syd had gotten down on the ground next to him, which was pretty shocking for the girl who didn't like to get her nails dirty, let alone her clothes. Sky shrugged off the hand she put on his shoulder, so she caught his elbow instead and didn't let go. Jack was torn between going over to help, which was what he wanted to do, and pretending they hadn't seen anything, which he knew full well was what Sky would want them to do.

"Hey, Z," Bridge said in a normal tone of voice. "Can you help me with this?"

"Uh--sure." Z turned away as Syd poked and prodded Sky to his feet, so Jack was the only one who saw the look she sent their way.

Don't follow us, Syd's expression said.

Question answered, Jack thought with a sigh. "Here," he added, leaning around Z to knock her toothbrush out of the way. "You missed a spot."

"Jack Landors," she retorted. "World champion of cleaning pavement with a toothbrush."

"Do they have championships for that?" Bridge wanted to know. "Cause, no offense, but your technique isn't really what I'd expect from someone who'd been in competition."

Jack pretended to pout, Z laughed at him, and they managed to fill another half hour with friendly banter before Cruger found them. Bridge noticed him first, which was still strange to Jack, since there were three of Z at that point and he was used to her winning hands down on the observation front.

"Psst," Bridge muttered. "Commander at four o'clock."

"Damn," Jack whispered. "Quick, cover story: where's Sky?"

"Bathroom," Bridge said instantly.

"Sulking," Z murmured.

Jack pushed her as unobtrusively as possible.

"Cadets," Cruger said, coming to a halt directly in front of them. Two of Z's selves vanished, leaving the one next to Bridge to snap to attention along with him and Jack. "I seem to recall assigning this task to Cadet Tate."

"Yes, sir," Jack replied. "However, we knew the rules as well as Sky, and although we reminded him of them, we didn't enforce them any more than he did. Therefore, we feel we were partly to blame for the security breach that led to your... injury.

"By the way," he added, still staring straight ahead, "looking much better, sir."

"Indeed," the commander said slowly. "And where is Cadet Tate now?"

Jack didn't bat an eye. "Bathroom, sir."

Cruger looked up and down their short line, and when no other response was forthcoming he said, "I see. In that case, inform him upon his return that I want all of B Squad in Command in ten minutes."

He was either testing them or waiting for their questions, because he didn't move. Jack took the opening he was given and asked why. Only after Cruger told him did he realize that he had been intended to ask all along. It wouldn't look good to have Earth's primary Rangers showing up uninformed, after all.

"Okay," he said after Cruger had left. "We need to find Sky and Syd. Bridge?"

Bridge took off one of his gloves and led them on a fairly direct route back to B Wing--so much so that if he hadn't detoured into a quiet alcove on the other side of the doors, he could just as easily have been guessing. The detour obviously convinced Z, though, because she asked, "Can you really track us just by following our auras?"

"No," Bridge answered absently, folding his arms and tucking his hands in while they waited for a lift. "Sky's easy 'cause his is so strong. Yours too, except it's always going in so many different directions at once that I can't follow you at all. Jack either. His aura is like nothing. Syd's is kind of in between."

"My aura is like nothing?" Jack repeated. He lifted his hands like maybe he could see it himself if he squinted hard enough. "What does that mean?"

"That's kind of an interesting question, actually." Bridge stepped out of the way of a cadet leaving the lift, then led the way in. "Up," he told the lift.

Jack raised his eyebrows when the lift hummed to life, but he didn't say anything. He hadn't known they would move without a specific destination. Bridge was standing in front of the door, holding his hand out without actually touching the metal as they rose.

"The way I figure it," he was saying, "you and Sky both use a fundamental universal force, the electroweak force. Only you use it in opposing ways, see. Sky makes it stronger, so the space around him becomes essentially impermeable.

"His aura goes crazy when he does that," Bridge added as an aside. "Totally blinding. Everything is just, so dark after that.

"But you do the opposite," he continued. "You make it weaker, dissolving the binding force that holds your atoms together to the point where you can pass through solid objects. So your aura's always sort of... you know.

"Stop," Bridge said quickly, and Jack exchanged glances with Z as the lift glided to a halt.

Electroweak? he mouthed behind Bridge's back.

She just shrugged, smirking at his expression.

"B Wing," Bridge said in response to the lift's error message, which informed him that they were currently between two levels. "That's where he got off, anyway."

When the doors opened, though, he put his glove back on and shook his head. "We're here too much," he said. "I can't follow any of us on this level. Unless you were, I dunno, right in front of me or something. Or if Sky was using his power."

"Check your rooms," Jack told them. "They could be in either one of them. I'll get the lounge. Meet back here if you don't find them."

He didn't really expect Sky to be in the lounge. So of course he was, sitting with his elbows braced on his knees and his head in his hands, alone. Jack stopped in the doorway, suddenly struck by the only part of Bridge's explanation that he'd understood: the space around him becomes essentially impermeable.

He leaned in and knocked on the wall carefully. Sky didn't move, but he proved he knew who it was by saying, "I really don't feel like talking right now, Jack."

"Well, the commander wants to talk to us," Jack said. "The Aquitian Rangers are checking in on their way back from the Helix Nebula."

That made Sky lift his head, and there was nothing on his face that wasn't usually there. "They want to meet the rookies?"

"They want to report to us," Jack corrected. "They won't talk to Cruger until we're there too."

Sky frowned. "Why not?"

Jack shrugged. "As far as they're concerned, the A Squad Rangers are our teammates. They won't report on the search to anyone else."

"Huh." Sky seemed genuinely baffled by this, but after a moment he pushed himself to his feet. "Let's go then."

Z appeared behind Jack just then, poking him gently in the shoulder. "Both our rooms are empty. See you found Sky, at least."

"Yeah..." Jack glanced out into the hallway and saw Bridge coming toward the lounge with one of Z's other selves. He could hear the other Z telling Bridge that Sky was with him. "Hey, Sky, where'd Syd go?"

"How should I know?" Sky sounded like his old irritable self again, and Jack shook his head when he realized he kind of missed the giggling.

Pulling out his delta morpher, he said, "Syd, come in."

Syd's voice came back immediately. "Jack, where are you guys?"

"We were just about to ask you the same thing," Jack said, as the Z beside him disappeared and the Z with Bridge took her place. "We're in B Wing, looking for you. Commander wants to see us in five minutes."

"Four," Z muttered.

"I'm in the courtyard looking for you!" Syd exclaimed. "Where are we going?"

"Command," Jack told her. "We've got Sky; we'll meet you there, okay?"

"Right," she answered.

At the same time, Z offered, "I'll fill her in." She tilted her head, then added, "We're on our way back inside now."

"Thanks," Jack said.

"If it's so urgent, why didn't you use the radio in the first place?" Sky demanded.

Jack rolled his eyes and headed down the hallway toward the lift. "Never mind," he said over his shoulder. "Let's just go, okay?"

"No," Z replied.

It was so unexpected that Jack stopped in his tracks, turning around to find Z blocking Sky's path. The Blue Ranger had to have a good six inches on her, if she cared to notice. Which she didn't.

"You know why we didn't just call and tell you when and where to be?" she demanded, staring up at Sky. "Because we wanted to know if you were all right first. Because friends don't just snap orders at each other. And because, in case it hasn't occurred to you, we covered your butt out there in the courtyard when Cruger came by and it might have looked a little suspicious if we had to turn around and track you down by radio!"

Sky looked stricken. "The commander was outside?" He caught Jack's eye over her shoulder, and Jack nodded once.

"Hello!" Z waved her hand in his face. "What did I just say?"

"Look," Sky snapped. Then he caught his breath, closed his eyes, and paused for several seconds. Without opening his eyes, he said tightly, "Thank you."

"Uh-huh." Z's tone made it clear she'd taken that exactly the way he meant it.

"Guys," Jack warned. "We need to go."

"Hey, Z," Bridge said, "Are you and Syd in the lift yet? Maybe we could, uh, catch it as it goes by. That would be cool. That would be the best timing ever."

Z spared him a smile. "We'll hold the lift when it gets to this level."

Sky took advantage of her distraction to step around her, ignoring her huff when she realized what he'd done. "Hey," he said, looking down at his hands when Jack just stood there. "I changed my mind."

Not his hands, Jack realized. His wrist.

"I don't want this," Sky said, and he'd pulled the bracelet off and was holding it out to Jack. "Thanks for..." He swallowed, maybe the first real break in his composure since they'd found him. "But I don't want it," he repeated.

Jack wanted to ask what he was supposed to do with it: give it back to Dru? Throw it away himself? But he couldn't ask, because this was probably the closest Sky would ever come to apologizing and he wasn't going to ruin it.

"Okay," Jack said simply.

"Hey!" Z's voice echoed down the hall from the direction of the lift. "Let's go!"

The nearest Z just smiled at the reproachful look Jack gave her. "Ride's here," she said sweetly. "Race ya!"

If she won by virtue of the fact that she was already there, then Jack only complained all the way to Command. Z, unfortunately, could shout him down with sheer numbers, and Bridge and Syd were no help. Sky didn't waste time yelling at them to act more professional, though, so that was a bonus.

When they arrived in Command--on time, give or take--the Aquitians' solemnity dampened their spirits a little, but their respectful greeting made Jack stand up straighter. Real Rangers, a voice in his head whispered. Real Rangers, here on base, returning from the search for the real Rangers of SPD Earth.

Reporting to B Squad.

It was odd, Jack decided, but he'd never felt as much like a team in training as he did that day.