Author's Note: And for my next magic trick, I have chapter 12. Tada! Hope you like it and vote on the poll, you decide what happens to Syd my dear readers. Please vote and review a lot! And I will not stick to the Power Rangers SPD Syd, I will make her into a character with more depth and a little bit more sarcastic, like Kristen Bell in Veronica Mars. (For those of you wo don't know who she is, check wikipedia, she's a fantastic character and it was also a fabulous TV show!)
Sky sat next to Syd's bedside. He smiled and reached to touch her forehead. He put his hand to it and felt that she warm. He started to stroke her hair gently so she would not wake up. The man smiled to himself, he had found her, his eyes filled with tears as he remembered that terrible night but they were also tears of joy.
On the other hand, Syd was fast asleep due to the medications that Kat had given to her for the pain. Her chest went up and down at a normal rate, unlike earlier when her ribs had been cracked by the force of the powerful blast.
"Sky, I need to tell you something, its about Syd." The doctor said softly as she looked down at the girl.
"You can tell me Kat." Sky answered, hoping that whatever Kat told him would be good news. He sighed and looked at the feline female. His eyes focused solely on her.
"Syd was infected with Black Crystal, we had to put an IV on her arm so we could remove the toxin from her body. She will probably be in pain when she wakes up, so be delicate with her." Dr. Manx said softly as she stood up to go to the command center.
"I will take care of her, Kat, I promise." Sky's gaze shifted as Syd started to let out soft groans in pain. Her once peaceful face was now one of pain. His hand kept stroking her hair in an attempt to calm her down.
"What are you going to tell the others? They will want to know everything and I know how hard it is for you to speak about this."
"I will have to tell them the truth, we are a team." He cleared his throat and smiled a bit. "I trust them and I need for them to trust me."
Kat smiled and patted Sky in the back, he had finally learned to trust his teammates. She would have never expected him to say something like that. The doctor exited the room, leaving the cadet alone with the girl.
"Syd, I know you are in there. I know what Grumm did to you and I don't blame you for anything. Please wake up, your parents and I want to be with you again. We missed you." He knew that she would not respond or wake up, she needed time to heal. Both mentally and physically..
What Sky did not know is that Syd was having an internal battle of memories and revelations she had forgotten about. Her mind was racing with fragments of memories that had been unknown to her for some time.
Syd woke up in the same forest that she had been in . She looked down at her clothes, she was not wearing the leather suit but the white dress. She asked herself is she had already regained her humanity, she looked around and the little girl was there. The girl approached her and smiled as she took the older girl's hand.
"Why am I here again?" Syd asked, she just wanted to wake up from the dream and confess to everything she had done."I already know what happened to me, please let me go."
"You only know part of the truth. Please, trust me, this is for your own good." The girl paused and looked down at the floor. "If I show you the whole truth, you will understand why I am a part of you. Trust me when I say that this is the only way to fully regain your humanity."
"OK, show me." They put their hands together and in the blink of an eye. Syd was transported to another place. She looked around and the place she was in looked familiar but she still could not place it.
Both girls stood together and watched the house come to life. The little girl guided her to a living room where they stood in silence. A man and a woman were sitting down, smiling at each other. The smell of sweet tea filled her nostrils.
Suddenly, a little girl, exactly like the one standing next to Syd, came running down the stairs wearing a pink sun dress. She smiled and as she came down, the little girl hugged her parents and brought over a stuffed animal for her mom to take a look at.
"What happened to Peanuts Syd?" She pointed to a gash across the stuffed animal's arm with one of her tiny fingers. The cotton was beginning to slip out of the arm. The mother pulled the little girl into an embrace and kissed her forehead. The older woman looked at the gash just as she would with a patient the animal and took out a needle.
"Will that hurt Peanuts, mommy?" Dana shook her head and caressed her daughter' hair. This brought reassurance and a smile to the girl's face. And without hesitation, the mother started to skillfully sew the small tear. She grabbed a band aid once she was done and gave it back to the a very anxious Syd.
"Thank you, mommy. One day I want to be a doctor too, just like you." She grabbed Dana's hand and held it tightly. She kissed her daughter's cheek and hugged her tightly. Syd lay her head in her mother's lap and fell into a deep sleep with Peanuts clutched tightly between her tiny arms.
On the other side of the room, the younger and older versions of Syd were standing besides a roaring fireplace. The older girl sighed and looked at her younger self, trying to bring back memories that she forgotten long ago. "Why don't I remember any of this?"
"The answer is simple. Grumm made you forget." She inhaled sharply and tried to think of a better answer but the little girl was right. All the pieces of the puzzle fit perfectly. But she couldn't remember anything about the day she was captured.
"Can you take me back to when Grumm took me?" The little girl nodded and took her hand. A bright flash blinded Syd for a moment and then, it began to fade. A dark room came into view. When she turned around, the little girl was gone and she was alone. She walked around the room and spotted Peanuts and a few other things that belonged to her in the past. She looked at the framed pictures in the walls of the room. Every single one of them contained a picture of her when she was little. One picture in particular caught her eye.
It was a picture of her and a boy. This was the same boy that appeared in her dreams and who's ghost haunted her every night in her sleep. She grabbed a locked made out of steel and put it in her palm. She made it a fist and in a few seconds, her hand was completely covered by a thin layer of steel.
"I don't think that this is going to last very long but I need to give it a shot. Who would have thought that my powers are also weak in dream land?" She punched the glass of the frame with her fist. The steel disappeared and her hand was now a bloody mess. She groaned and took the picture out with her clean hand. She turned it and read the names out loud.
"Sydney and Sky." She gasped as she heard a blast coming through the locked door. The emperor came in and ordered his troops to move in. His eyes lit up as he looked around the room. She stood before him, frozen, which was weird for her to do since she had never feared him before.
"Take her clothes and her furniture. Leave the rest here, I don't want for anything to remind her of home." The Krybots nodded and started to move her stuff out. Once Grumm was left alone, he started to whistle a tune that would make the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
She heard a cough coming from inside the closet and closed her eyes because she knew that the worst was yet to come. Grumm walked over to the hiding spot and opened the door very slowly. Syd stood behind him and could see Sky and her younger self hiding there. Both of them came out of the closet.
The young boy stood in front of the girl and covered her. He put his brave face on and stared at Grumm. The skeleton chuckled, he had to admire the boy, he had to have guts to stand up to him. "Take me, not her."
"I'm afraid my plans are meant for her, not for you." He whistled and a pair of Krybots burst into the room and separated Sky from Syd. The little girl stood in front of him. She was scared but she couldn't show it. She had to be brave for everyone. Grumm took her hand and his eyes lit up again, glowing a bright red. In a blinding flash if light, he, Syd and the Krybots were gone.
Sydney gasped and slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was still blurry and she couldn't speak. She saw a familiar face sitting besides her. It was Sky. He was holding her hand and stroking her hair.
"Welcome back." She looked at her hand. It was already covered up by gauze. She stared at him and cleared her throat.
"Thank you. I'm sorry about Dru, I know he is your friend. I should have never gotten in the way. I thought that he was different but he's just like the rest of us." Kat entered the room and put her bed into a sitting position. He shook his head and held both of her hands.
"You are not like them, Syd. Its not your fault, you can't blame yourself for things that you are not responsible for." She scoffed and laughed. He raised an eyebrow in question while Kat checked her medical chart.
"Now I have my own cheerleader. I just hope that you don't start making rhymes because I will kill you." He laughed and this brought a smile to her face. He was so beautiful to her when he smiled or laughed, which was rare for him to do.
"Are you always this sarcastic?" The girl laying in the bed smiled and began laughing. Sky couldn't help but to do the same. She shook her head with a mischievous grin.
"No, sometimes I'm even more sarcastic." Sky laughed again. She stared at him. She thought about how beautiful he looked when he let his real self show. "You should do that more often, you know? Smile and laugh, I mean."
"Maybe now I will. I had no reason to do so, but know that I found you, everything will be better." Syd's face turned a bright red. She was still trying to figure out why he was being so nice to her. She knew that they had been childhood friends but after everything she had done, she thought that she deserved no pardon.
"Is this the part where I'm supposed to cue the Barry Manilow music?" Her smile faded when Z, Jack and Bridge came into the room. She was surprised that he was not letting go of her hand. He wanted for them to know that she was good.
"Sky, may I ask what you're doing?" The Green Ranger asked. Syd insisted that he let go of her hand, but he never did. He stood up and glared at the shorter man.
"I'm talking to Syd." Bridge's jaw dropped and looked at the girl from head to toe. "Yes, Bridge, she's real. DNA confirms it."
"It's a long story. It would be better if I told it once we are all happy and friendly with each other, right Sky?" She said in an attempt to lighten the mood in the room. Z shot a glare at her and she shrugged. "OK, I will just shut up now."
Sky went out to the hallway with the rest of the team. He sighed and leaned against a wall. His eyes focused solely on Jack. "She's not who we thought she was. She's different from Grumm and from Broodwing."
"And how would you know that?" The yellow Ranger questioned with a hasty tone of voice. She huffed when he did not manage to give her a quick answer. She started to walk away to her room along with the other Rangers.
Sky ran after them and stopped them in front of the Command Center. His chest tightened and he balled his hands into fists. He looked down at the floor. "Because I know her since she was a kid. She was my best friend. And just for the record, her name is not Rogue, it's Sydney."
The Commander stared at him when he walked out. The alien stood besides the Cadet. The four B-Squad Cadets saluted him.
"He's right, Cadets. Miss Drew, or Rogue, has special abilities. In her case, she can transform her hands into any material she touches. The reason why we have brought her to our medical wing instead of a hospital is because of her family." He paused for a second. "Her parents were one of the many founders of SPD and I know her since she was a little girl."
"What exactly made Syd turn to Rogue?" The Blue Ranger and the Commander looked at themselves. Apart from the Black Crystal, they had nothing to go on. Suddenly, they heard a clicking of heels behind them. When they turned, Syd was standing there.
She was now wearing a knee-length black dress and lacy tights. Her high heels clicked against the floor as she approached them. "I can answer that."
"When I was seven, I only thought about ponies and dolls. I never really thought about the powers I have or that someone would harm me for having them." She paused and bit her lower lip. "I still remember that day and I know Sky does too." They both smiled at the memory of them playing in the garden.
"He and his parents came over to my place to stay for the weekend. We loved playing together when we were kids. We would always pretend that he was the Red Ranger, just like his father, and that I was the Pink Ranger, just like my mom. We would spend the whole afternoon inventing new missions. But when the night came, so did the darkness." Her body trembled as she recalled the memory of the night when everything was taken away from her. "I was laying down on my bed, I had this feeling that something bad was about to happen. And all of a sudden, I heard a loud banging in the kitchen and then footsteps on the stairs. My mom entered my room and told me to hide in the closet with Sky and so we did."
She paused again and stopped the tears that threatened to fall. She had to be strong and hold it in. "Then he came into my room and started looking for me. I saw the Krybots taking some of my stuff and carrying it to someplace else. I coughed by accident and he opened the door. He got Sky out of the way and got to me."
"I'm sorry, this wouldn't have happened if I had been stronger." The blond girl shook her head. And put a finger to his lips.
"Don't beat yourself over this. It's not your fault. You would have gotten killed if you had tried to fight him." He embraced her warmly. She placed her head on his chest and then pulled away a bit.
"Once we got to the ship, a girl in her early 20's greeted me in a not so friendly manner. She laughed at me and that's not the worst. She undid the back of my robe and branded me like an animal. I can still remember the pain. I tried to be strong but I passed out." She fell into his arms and began crying. Kat hugged the young girl and comforted her.
"Thank you. I'm better now." She stepped back a bit and smiled. "If you want to arrest me, like you did with Drew, it's fine. I deserve it. I've done terrible things and I am truly sorry. I really am."
"We can't arrest you. You're not responsible for anything that's happened. Grumm is." The yellow Ranger stepped forward and held her hands. "I'm Z, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you, you can call me Syd. Its nice to finally meet another girl that's not Mora, she was starting to get on my nerves. And speaking about her, I owe her a batch of cookies. Oh well, guess she will have to wait until Grumm gets me back."
"What are you talking about? You are not going back there again." Bridge was the one who spoke this time. "If Grumm gets to you again, it will be the same story all over again. You get captured, you get drugged with BC, we try to save you and the cycle repeats and the story...."
The other three rangers cleared their throats loudly. "I'm Bridge Carson, sorry." She laughed and shook his gloved hand.
"Freaky dude that rambles is named Bridge. Got it!" The blond girl put two thumbs up and the Red Ranger approached her.
"It's finally nice to meet the Pink Ranger of our team. I'm Jack Landors and this..." He handed her a morpher and shook her hand. "is yours."
"Thank you, wow!" She observed it and grinned. "I have never really had the chance to be part of anything. Thank you, Jack. I'm glad that you are giving me a chance. I won't let any of you down, I promise." She held the object in her hands and observed it cautiously. "Why are you giving me this, after everything I've done, I deserve nothing but jail time."
"You were destined to have it. Besides, you were under the influence of a powerful substance. And also under Grumm's influence. You did not ask for any of this." He paused and approached her. "We all agree that you are a part of the team and its the only way we can keep you safe."
"Well, this certainly beats locking me up in a tiny cell." She hugged Jack, which made a little jealous. "You know what they say: 'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade'. I will take whatever I can get."
The four Rangers smiled and took her by the hand. Jack, Bridge and Z started showing her around the Academy while Sky explained the use of each room. When the tour was done, the others left the Blue Ranger and the Yellow Ranger alone with her.
Sky stopped in front of a metallic door. The blond turned her head to the side and wandered as to what that place was. Z stepped in front of her and opened the door. She smiled as she look around. She saw Z's bed on the left and an empty one at her right.
"I hope you don't mind but we will be sharing a room." She shook her head and looked around. The room wasn't big or fancy but it was cozy and most importantly, she was sharing it with a friend. She laughed as she saw the other girl's things thrown all over the place.
"No, I don't mind at all. Grumm would have killed me if I had left my room like this. I'm way too organized and my things are always in order. But, variety is the spice of life, right?" She shrugged and sat on her bed.
"Yeah, exactly." They both laughed and grinned at their jokes. They would have never thought that they would get along so well. Both were just so different. The Pink Ranger stood up and walked to Sky.
The Yellow Ranger took this as her cue to leave the room. As the door opened, she waved and winked at her. "Goodbye, lovebirds."
"When is Commander Cruger going to tell my parents about me?" He did not have an answer but he was sure that it would be sometime soon. "They didn't forget about me, did they?"
"No, they never stopped searching for you. They gave up after five years. They never thought you were dead, just that you were missing. When my father died..." She hugged him and looked up at him.
"Uncle Wes died? When?" He sat down next to her, she pulled him into her arms and stroked his hair. His hot breath made contact with her cold skin. She sighed softly and looked him in the eye.
"When I was 12, he died in battle. Mom and I miss him so much." She tried to understand his pain. When she was taken, she lost everything that meant something to her. But now, she had gotten it back. Sky, her parents and her life. The scars may remain, but the pain was now gone. She couldn't feel what Sky's was feeling because she hadn't really lost anything. But in Sky's case, his father would never come back.
"I'm sorry for your loss." She held him in her arms. She began crying. Sky embraced her and stroked her golden hair. She sniffled and locked gazes with him. The blue Ranger leaned and softly kissed her cheek.
"Thank you, Syd." He muttered as he exited the room. The girl was left alone in her room to think. She smiled to herself and touched her cheek. She grinned and squealed because the love of her life had just kissed her. It was not a super romantic kiss like the ones in the movies but a softer one and it would for now.