Volume II - The Gabriel Saga

Chapter 16—Inheritance

Grace

I was twiddling my thumbs, waiting for Aaron and Beth to arrive. Patrick had already explained their situation, skimming as many details as possible; though, I could totally tell he was biting back his excitement at the potential relationship he and Aaron had.

"You know you need to be careful with him, right?" I said to Patrick, who was fighting the grin curving his lips.

"What do you mean?" he wondered, the smile only fading slightly.

Amy and I exchanged looks.

"Well…I know you," I responded, "and I know it's been a while since you've dated anyone—so I know you're happy. But…just remember that this is Aaron we're talking about."

He chuckled somewhat, seeming to shrug off my warning. "I know. Don't worry, I'll be fine." He paused and seemed to think for a second before looking at Amy. "Are you…okay with this?"

Amy blinked. "Oh…yeah. I mean, what choice do I have?" She laughed nervously. "I'll be fine."

Patrick and I stared at her.

"What?" she demanded, the pitch of her voice increasingly slightly. "I'm serious, I'll be fine. I mean, initially, yeah, it'll be weird. But it'll be fine. Trust me."

Patrick grinned, then looked to me. "And you? Would you be okay with me pursuing something with Aaron?"

I screwed up my face. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Well…I know you used to have a crush on him before Beth came along. I don't wanna do the same thing she did and swoop in," he answered honestly.

I laughed. "Patrick, you are nothing like Beth. If you're asking for my 'blessing' to date Aaron—go right ahead. I, personally, think you deserve better. But, so far he does seem pretty determined to win you over. He gave me this whole spiel a few weeks back about how I shouldn't be so mean to him. And now I'm starting to see the reason why he cared enough to change his ways."

It's funny, because Patrick couldn't really blush—not with his complexion. But his ears could still turn a bright red, which I found to be the cutest thing.

"Aw, look," I said to Amy, "he's blushing."

The Pink Ranger and I shared a good laugh at Patrick's expense before settling down somewhat, trying to alleviate the somber mood that seemed to hang over the house. Amy and I both knew Patrick was devastated by Matt's behavior. I knew Matt better than anyone, and even I was shocked by the way he was acting.

As if he was reading my mind, Patrick asked, "Do you think Matt will ever come around?"

I sighed, Amy's silence leaving me to answer the question. "I think he will. I think he's mostly upset that you didn't tell him, not that you're dating Aaron. He feels betrayed, kind of like Jay did."

"But that's the thing," Patrick immediately argued. "I didn't think I needed to update him on who I was making out with. Plus, it's not like Aaron and I really knew what we were doing. Not to mention the fact that it wasn't just my secret to tell. And I promised Aaron I wouldn't out him."

"No, Patrick," I said, "that's not what I mean. What I mean is that you could have told Matt that you were also interested in guys. I know it doesn't make perfect sense, but in Matt's mind, it changes things slightly. I can guarantee you what's going through his mind right now is 'did I ever undress in front of him? Were there ever any 'gay' moments.' Things like that."

Patrick frowned. "That's not fair. He assumes that all gay guys—or bi guys or whatever the hell I am—he assumes that they all like every guy they see. I'm not attracted to him!"

"Patrick," Amy chimed in, "it doesn't matter. Think about it. Would you get naked in front of me or Grace?" She thought about it for a second and then corrected her question. "Okay, would you get naked in front of Grace?"

"Probably not…" he said, "but that's because she's a girl."

"Exactly. A girl who's attracted to boys. But, I can guarantee you that knowing you're currently attracted to a guy, Grace probably wouldn't mind changing in front of you. Do you see the difference?"

Suddenly, it was like a light bulb when off in his head.

"I think I understand now." He thought it over a few minutes, and then said, "I'm still pissed at him, though. He didn't have to act like a complete fucktard."

I had to agree there. "Just give him time," I ended up saying.

We all fell silent as soon as we heard a car pull up outside. Patrick's car.

We heard the two doors slam shut, and could hear Beth's loud voice all the way from outside. "This better not be some lame community service shit."

"Oh, God," Amy groaned. "Brace yourself, Grace."

"Been doing it since Aaron left," I replied, standing from the kitchen table and following Patrick and Amy down the staircase to the Basement.

"Our guest has arrived," Patrick warned the others.

Kira, Brad, and Doctor Oliver exchanged looks.

"She's a little high maintenance," Doc said to Gabriel's parents.

"Why are they here?" Beth asked contemptuously, no sooner had she descended the last few stairs.

My instincts tried to take over so I could spit out a witty reply, but Doc Ol had it covered.

"Class meeting," he said hurriedly before rushing to the point. "Beth, we need to talk to you."

"About what?" she asked, like she had somewhere to be.

Aaron seemed to slowly step away from her, as if he knew this wasn't going to go over well. His massive frame seemed to dwarf her, but I knew all-too-well that Beth and I were about the same height. She was about 5-feet-7-inches, her wavy reddish-orange hair always flowing in the most perfect of hairstyles and contrasting sharply with her green, almost teal eyes. Her mother was of Hispanic descent, so Beth had inherited her creamy, tan skin. Along with her fiery attitude.

"Gabriel," I responded, now sounding scornful as well.

Her face never faltered in emotion. "Why? Are we really going to waste time talking about—"

"Don't you dare bad mouth him," Kira said firmly, her eyes ablaze.

Beth spared her a glance but reworked her approach. "Okay…so what? Why am I here?"

"Gabriel died," Dr. Oliver stated blankly.

How many more times was he going to say it? I swear, it made it seem like he enjoyed announcing deaths almost as much as he enjoyed self-destructing Megazords.

"W-what?"

A crack in the icy stare she was giving.

"Sit down," Aaron said gently.

Beth stepped over and slumped into the chair Aaron had pulled out for her. In less than two seconds, it was like her entire composure just crumbled.

"Gabriel is a direct descendant of a mythological alien being known as Cronus—a titan of immeasurable power. Gabriel's purpose in life is to provide himself as a sort of replacement Cronus—at least, according to a prophecy written hundreds of years ago," Doctor Oliver debriefed her.

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked—nearly pleaded—her eyes heavy with tears and her voice choked with sobs.

"Because we think you may have something to do with this prophecy," Aaron answered her evenly.

"I…I don't know how. He never said anything about it."

"So…you were involved with him?" Dr. Oliver asked.

She looked up at Aaron, whose face remained blank of any discernable emotion. Her eyes seemed to wander around the room, taking in all the eyes that were glued to her. She finally settled back on Aaron's face.

"I'm sorry…"

"You don't have to be sorry."

"Beth…this is really important," Doc pressed on. "I know it's a little awkward to ask, but…did you and Gabriel have…uhm…'sexual' relations?"

I had to admit, I felt kind of sorry for her. I mean, only because she had to answer all these questions in front of everyone.

"I…" she stuttered a few times, then seemed to lose whatever sort of self-control she had left. "Why are you asking me in front of all these people?" she shrieked. "Why are they even here?"

"Because we're Power Rangers," I answered.

I wanted it to sound a little more arrogant, but even I found myself feeling some form of sympathy for the fact that she obviously cared about Gabriel. And now he was gone.

She blinked several times. Then she looked at our t-shirts. Her mind was registering the fact that there were new Rangers in town, and I could tell she was trying to remember the colors. Finally, her eyes went to me, and her lips spelled 'black.' She continued on to Matt, 'blue;' then Jay, who didn't have a shirt; on to Amy, 'pink;' and finally, her eyes landed on Aaron standing next to her.

"White…" she said aloud.

"Well…we're not all rangers," Matt pointed out in a harsh manner.

I felt my body loosen in defeat at Matt's unnecessary low-blow. Patrick didn't even take a second look. He simply unfolded his arms and calmly walked up the basement stairs to the kitchen.

Aaron looked torn. I could tell he wanted to go after Patrick, but he had business to address. I, however, did not. I took off after one of my best friends, hoping I could maybe talk to him.

When I got upstairs, Patrick was at the kitchen table, head in his hands.

"You okay?" I asked.

No response.

I sighed, sitting next to him.

"Why wasn't I chosen?" he finally asked. "I mean, I think I'm the only one who pays attention in History Class. I could name every ranger ever to exist off the top of my head, or even any zord. What's wrong with me? Why couldn't I get Gabriel's morpher? I mean…someone has to replace him."

He was venting, which was good. Patrick never let himself feel anything. He was always so worried about everyone else that I wondered if he ever gave himself time to hurt, or heal…or anything. I could tell from his voice, though, that his frustration was getting the best of him. He sounded ragged and sore, like his vocal cords were going to snap at any given point and he was just going to explode.

"Patrick," I said softly, "I swear, if I could trade places with you, I would. You would make the absolute bestranger. I have no clue why you weren't picked…but if these morphers didn't choose us, you'd be my first pick."

"Yeah…but that doesn't really help, now does it?" he snapped. "I'm tired of all this bullshit. Being a ranger never seemed this hard to any of the other rangers. I mean, the way stuff was handled with Beyt the first day? Sloppy. Yeah, granted you didn't have a red ranger, but look at the Wild Force rangers. They only had 4 rangers and they did just fine for a while."

I didn't know if that was his way of saying thank you, but somewhere in the middle of that speech, I got a little offended.

"We're trying our best," I said, a bit incredulous at his accusations.

"Look, all I'm saying is that maybe these morphers had malfunctions with choosing the Rangers. Not that you're a bad Ranger, but I mean…Jay? And Matt? He's such turned into such a huge dickhead, I don't see how he could fit in his helmet."

I tried not to smile. I was offended slightly, yes, but I had to smile. I knew Patrick had a temper, I'd seen it firsthand last year at the state fair. Some guy messed with Amy, and it was not pretty. Thankfully, we weren't at school when it happened. Anyway…I knew he didn't mean a lot of what he was saying.

"C'mon…let's go back downstairs, and just ignore Matt."

"You know he likes you right?" Patrick said, seemingly out of the blue.

Now I knew he was trying to get even with Matt. Telling his best friend's secrets was…well…low. Then again, Matt didn't set very high standards himself just a few minutes ago.

"Uh…no…I didn't know."

"Well, yeah, he does…and it's kind of pathetic since he won't even mention it to you at all. He's liked you forever. But notice how it's a double standard with you guys. He's had all these feelings for you for years, but never says anything. Meanwhile, I have a weird physical attraction to someone with some weird like-hate feelings mixed in and I'm supposed to immediately tell everyone. Otherwise, I'm being dishonest."

How did I not see this before?

I mean, I saw Patrick's point about double standards, but currently, that was the least of my concerns.

Matt had been my confidant for a while when I couldn't tell Amy things. He'd seen what my mom's husband, Terrance, was really capable of—he knew the horrible things that happened behind closed doors. And somehow I'd managed to overlook him completely as a candidate for my heart. While I was crushing over Aaron all that time, I never even bothered to look right next to me at Matt.

"Ok…well…um, we should get back downstairs," I said, trying to change the subject and not at all sure how to really respond.

"No. I think I'm gonna go home."

"Well, you have to get your keys from Aaron, don't you?"

He swore and groaned. "Yeah, I guess I do."

In my head, I cheered. I didn't want Patrick leaving at such a crucial time. Whether he realized it or not, he was the brains of a lot of our operation. Without him, we may not have been able to get to the poetic features of the prophecy. I'm sure we could've translated it with Dr. O's computer…but Patrick was passionate about stuff like that, and I was sure no computer would've analyzed it like he did.

We made our way downstairs in time to hear Dr. O wrapping up the story of Gabriel's death. Kira and Brad tried to busy themselves with something else rather than hearing of their son's last moments.

"So…you're telling me I'm carrying his soul inside me?" Beth asked, sounding much better than she did before.

"Well…I wouldn't go that far, but—" Dr. Oliver was cut off by a loud humming sound.

"I swear I didn't touch anything," Kira said.

Over on the medical bed where Gabriel had been lying was a shining red object. Near the computer was another. I realized them immediately as Gabriel's morphers.

The two devices floated up next to each other, circling one another, before flying towards the group that Patrick and I had rejoined.

I saw the morphers going to him, and I smiled on the inside. Finally, Patrick was getting what he deserved.

"The morphers have passed on to Patrick," Dr. Oliver said happily.

Patrick smiled the biggest I'd seen from him in a while as the bands floated over his head, lingering, before lowering themselves behind him to Beth's wrists and strapped on tightly. The morphers ceased humming as a harsh red glow overtook Beth.

"Are you serious?" I said, unable to hold my tongue.

"I should've fucking known," Patrick cursed, snatching his keys from a shocked Aaron and leaving the room faster than expected.

"Welcome to the team," Dr. Oliver sighed, rubbing his hand through his silvery hair.