Bright Skies (Multi - Season Crossover/Power Rangers, prompt #33: Light, T)
-Sighs- You can all thank
phantom_blue for convincing me to post more when I'm supposed to be asleep. Thanks, Zhane. -Blows a raspberry-
Author/: Tsukino Akume
Fandom/: Power Rangers Time Force moving into S.P.D., multiple Rangers from each season
Characters/: Wes (Time Force), multiple Rangers from other teams (Literally too many to list)
Pairings/: Post - Wes/Eric, Rocky/Adam, Shane/Dustin, Hunter/Cam, Carter/Dana, Andros/Ashley, Zhane/Karone, Carlos/Ronny, Jason/Taylor, Conner/Ethan, Justin/Rose, Tommy/Kimberly, Tyzonn/Mack, Cassie/OC, Nick/Maddison, Zack/Aisha, Trent/Kira, Post - Billy/Cestria. Future Ryan/Carter and Billy/Hayley. More couples will most likely be mentioned, but not shown.
prompt/: #33: Light
Rating/:T (For non - graphic mentions of people having babies and being violent with one another)
Disclaimer/: I don't own the Power Rangers, but if Disney's hiring any new writers I volunteer.
Summary/: When Wes' life starts to fall apart, an accident gives him a chance at a fresh start in Newtech City, with Space Patrol Delta. But even a new life has its ups and downs - and weird friends. Meanwhile, Eric tries to move on.
Warnings/: A mentally handicapped person living in a medical facility, angst, male and female slash, non-cemented couples (In otherwords, pairings that will be separated), children created by scientific means, character death
Author's Notes/: I think I just made hints of Dax/Delphine. *So* didn't see that one coming. o.O;;
"For the last time, I don't care about your stupid pictures!" Sky shouted.
It was amazing the amount of difference time could make, Wes reflected as he watched Sky and Sydney glaring furiously at one another. A year and a half ago, they would have been happily playing together, and Sky had treated her somewhere between a friend and an annoying little sister. Now, with Sky nearly eight years old and Sydney’s seventh birthday just past, they couldn't stand each other.
He'd like to say that they were just in that stage where they couldn't stand the opposite gender, but somehow he couldn't convince himself of it. They had both just changed too much over the past year, partially from the horrible experience they'd gone through back then, and from the fact that their lives had changed so drastically. They just weren't compatible anymore.
He couldn't say for sure if it had been the kidnapping itself, or losing Elizabeth and having Bridge sent away, but Sky had withdrawn into himself recently. He was quieter than usual, rarely got into trouble, and spent most of his time reading and studying. The only thing that seemed to draw him out of his shell anymore was S.P.D., whether he was trying to exercise along with his father's Squad, or helping his mother in the labs.
Sydney on the other hand, had gone through a dramatic transformation. One day, fresh from a therapy appointment, she had announced to her father that she wanted to be a model. And then she wanted to be beautiful and popular, and become a superstar.
And Ryan had taken her seriously.
She was only modeling so far, but Ryan had taken leave from S.P.D. expressly for turning his daughter's whim into a dream come true. He had hired her an agent, gotten her discovered, and become her personal bodyguard. He did anything it took to get more attention for Sydney's career, and it was already paying off.
Ironically just a few months after Ryan had taken Sydney and left S.P.D., Carter had finally returned. Wes still wasn't sure whether it was coincidental or not - or if Cruger had just asked him to come back now that their Grunt department was slowly diminishing. Surprisingly he'd brought Joel, Chad, and Kelsey along with him, and the three Lightspeed Rangers blended in at S.P.D. as if they had always been there. Chad had taken over Rocky's D Squad, and to everyone's amazement, had turned out to be a fantastic teacher. Joel had joined the Grunts with only a few complaints, covering Ryan's former position, while Kelsey moved into the Docs department with Ashley and Aisha, citing many jokes about Newtech City's 'Yellow Docs' versus S.P.D. Japan's 'Pink Docs'.
It was Carter who'd explained Ryan's dedication to his daughter's dream for the rest of his stunned co-workers. Ryan had never had much of a childhood because of Diabolico and the demons who'd raised him, he'd pointed out. So now that he had Sydney, he wanted her to have everything he never could. And if Sydney wanted to be in the spotlight, Ryan would do everything it took to give it to her.
"Daddy?"
Wes shook his head to clear it. "Yeah, Sky? What's up?"
"Time," Sky reminded him, tapping his wrist pointedly.
He grinned, grabbing what he needed off the shelf and ruffling his son's hair as he passed him. "Thanks, buddy. Can I trust you and Sydney to both behave for your mom while I'm gone?"
Sky scowled. "Very funny, Daddy."
"Bye, Uncle Wes," Sydney said with exaggerated politeness.
He leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "Stop torturing Sky, Sydney," he told her gently. "And Sky, be nice."
"I *am* being nice!" Sky shot back hotly, just as Sydney insisted "I'm not torturing him!"
"Uh huh. Behave," he reminded them. He managed to keep the laughter in until after he'd closed the front door behind him.
****
"Boardwalk! Pay up!" Tori crowed.
"Who's big idea was it to play Monopoly tonight, anyway?" Zhane grumbled, sorting through his paper money.
Tori, Chip, and Dax all pointed at Wes. "His," they said in unison.
"Hey, we all agreed Poker was getting boring," Wes protested. "Monopoly is not poker."
"No, but it's the perfect game for the son of a business tycoon," Zhane retorted.
"Why are you complaining about me when you landed on Wind's property?"
"Because I was so busy praying not to end up anywhere else on one of *your* properties, I ended up on hers," Zhane argued. He glanced down at the game, frowning. "You already own most of the board anyway. Why are we still playing?"
"Because it was Time's night to chose, and it's better than Dungeons and Dragons," Tori replied.
"There's nothing wrong with Dungeons and Dragons!" Chip objected, pouting.
"I thought it was fun," Dax agreed, frowning in confusion.
Tori snorted. "I rest my case."
There was a pause.
"Hey!" the two men protested.
Wes cleared his throat, fighting a grin as Zhane snickered. "Okay, new topic for tonight. Who was up?"
"Overdrive," Tori answered immediately.
Chip regarded her in fascination. "How do you *do* that?"
"Do what?" she asked absently, flipping her money again.
"Every time Time has a question, you always have an answer. It's awesome!"
She smirked. "It's a chick thing," she assured him.
"I thought it was a Blue thing," Wes said without thinking. After all, Justin and even Dax more recently always had an answer for him. He flinched when Tori looked up.
"It's a chick thing," she said again, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Right," he agreed quickly. He forced a cough. "So. Overdrive. What are we talking about tonight?"
Dax looked thoughtful for a moment. "What do you miss about Aquitar?" he proposed at last.
Everyone paused.
"What do we *miss*?" Zhane repeated skeptically.
Dax nodded. "Well, we've gone over everything we could possibly hate about it already. So what do we miss?"
There was a long silence as everyone considered the question.
Game Night, formerly known as Poker Night, was a team tradition since shortly after their return from Aquitar. The six Rangers had gathered together every Tuesday night for a game of poker to talk about their week. Each game, a new person would come up with a topic for them to discuss. It was their own form of therapy to deal with everything they had gone through during those months, and returning to people who couldn't understand what it had been like.
Shortly after Justin and Rose had transferred to S.P.D. Japan, the group had decided that they could only play poker for so long before it became annoying. Instead, they instigated Game Night. Now for each week they met, there was one person to come up with the discussion topic, and one to bring a game for them to play. As part of the rules they had established, no one was allowed to refuse to play or answer a question, and there was no protesting said game or question.
It was one of the few ways their team had managed to stay connected after their return from Aquitar. Even Zhane, who they all acknowledged as being an Astro Ranger, was on some level still one of them. Game Night was a way to remind them all of that, and allow them to talk about grievances throughout the week that they weren't able to share with anyone else.
After all, there was nothing you couldn't say to someone who had gone to war with you.
"No Earth food on the menu," Zhane said suddenly. He smirked. "And no one had the slightest idea what a cheeseburger was, but they all knew how to make Kerovian Coranol Soup."
"Which is disgusting, by the way," Wes pointed out as they all laughed. He paused to think, then grinned. "No one asked me when Nes and I were getting married," he declared.
Tori laughed, leaning over to swat his arm. "You know we all know better," she argued. "It's just fun to tease you."
"Yeah, and the teasing got old quick - about seven years ago," he returned wryly. "Your turn."
She smiled almost dreamily. "An entire planet of water. The only place that ever felt more like home was the Academy."
"And the way they thought you were some sort of Aquitian goddess at first because you could manipulate water?" Zhane teased.
She tilted her head with a coy look. "I guess that wasn't *too* bad ... "
Everyone laughed.
"I miss not being teased for wearing a skirt," Chip announced, sighing.
They gave him sympathetic looks. "Who was it today?" Wes asked.
"Nick," he grumbled. "I know he was teasing, but ... "
Tori shook her head, reaching out to squeeze his hand. "He just doesn't understand," she said softly.
"I miss Delphine."
There was another pause as they all reflected quietly on Dax's words. Delphine had taken Dax under her wing so to speak when they'd arrived, as he'd been more easily effected by everything happening around them then the rest of them. But then, while none of them had seen the amount of destruction as what had happened to Aquitar on such a grand scale, Dax had come from a team with the least experience in dealing with such pointless devastation.
Delphine was the reason Dax had matured so greatly. She'd seemed amused by his endless enthusiasm, but had taught him to temper it with a sense of maturity he hadn't had before. And in return, Dax taught Delphine to laugh.
They had all been hurt when they lost her to the war, but no one had grieved quite so much as Dax.
"Remember the look on her face when she found out Time, Turbo, and I all had kids?" Zhane asked finally, smiling in remembrance.
"You mean the look on her face when she found out *you* had a kid?" Tori teased gently, elbowing him in the side. "I always knew you were infamous on Earth, Astro; I had no idea you were infamous in space, too."
"What can I say? I'm just that important," Zhane boasted.
"Or that frightening," Chip snickered.
Wes cracked up, and smiled when Dax did. "I remember what she said when she realized we were the representatives from S.P.D. Earth," Wes chuckled. "'Earth has sent us - '"
"'*You*'?" everyone chorused mockingly, bursting into laughter.
There were bad memories of Aquitar, Wes reflected as he laughed at the memory of the Aquitian Rangers' scandalized reaction to how easily Justin had taken over their headquarters’ computers. But even then, they weren't all bad. And just as time had changed the relationship between his son and Sydney, it had also changed the way he saw things. It had turned a few people he barely knew as co-workers into life-long friends, and was slowly changing the thoughts of war and strife and so many people he couldn't save, into an unpleasant memory, with flickers of happiness and laughter in between.
Time did heal everything - even a Time Force Ranger.
phantom_blue for convincing me to post more when I'm supposed to be asleep. Thanks, Zhane. -Blows a raspberry-
Author/: Tsukino Akume
Fandom/: Power Rangers Time Force moving into S.P.D., multiple Rangers from each season
Characters/: Wes (Time Force), multiple Rangers from other teams (Literally too many to list)
Pairings/: Post - Wes/Eric, Rocky/Adam, Shane/Dustin, Hunter/Cam, Carter/Dana, Andros/Ashley, Zhane/Karone, Carlos/Ronny, Jason/Taylor, Conner/Ethan, Justin/Rose, Tommy/Kimberly, Tyzonn/Mack, Cassie/OC, Nick/Maddison, Zack/Aisha, Trent/Kira, Post - Billy/Cestria. Future Ryan/Carter and Billy/Hayley. More couples will most likely be mentioned, but not shown.
prompt/: #33: Light
Rating/:T (For non - graphic mentions of people having babies and being violent with one another)
Disclaimer/: I don't own the Power Rangers, but if Disney's hiring any new writers I volunteer.
Summary/: When Wes' life starts to fall apart, an accident gives him a chance at a fresh start in Newtech City, with Space Patrol Delta. But even a new life has its ups and downs - and weird friends. Meanwhile, Eric tries to move on.
Warnings/: A mentally handicapped person living in a medical facility, angst, male and female slash, non-cemented couples (In otherwords, pairings that will be separated), children created by scientific means, character death
Author's Notes/: I think I just made hints of Dax/Delphine. *So* didn't see that one coming. o.O;;
"For the last time, I don't care about your stupid pictures!" Sky shouted.
It was amazing the amount of difference time could make, Wes reflected as he watched Sky and Sydney glaring furiously at one another. A year and a half ago, they would have been happily playing together, and Sky had treated her somewhere between a friend and an annoying little sister. Now, with Sky nearly eight years old and Sydney’s seventh birthday just past, they couldn't stand each other.
He'd like to say that they were just in that stage where they couldn't stand the opposite gender, but somehow he couldn't convince himself of it. They had both just changed too much over the past year, partially from the horrible experience they'd gone through back then, and from the fact that their lives had changed so drastically. They just weren't compatible anymore.
He couldn't say for sure if it had been the kidnapping itself, or losing Elizabeth and having Bridge sent away, but Sky had withdrawn into himself recently. He was quieter than usual, rarely got into trouble, and spent most of his time reading and studying. The only thing that seemed to draw him out of his shell anymore was S.P.D., whether he was trying to exercise along with his father's Squad, or helping his mother in the labs.
Sydney on the other hand, had gone through a dramatic transformation. One day, fresh from a therapy appointment, she had announced to her father that she wanted to be a model. And then she wanted to be beautiful and popular, and become a superstar.
And Ryan had taken her seriously.
She was only modeling so far, but Ryan had taken leave from S.P.D. expressly for turning his daughter's whim into a dream come true. He had hired her an agent, gotten her discovered, and become her personal bodyguard. He did anything it took to get more attention for Sydney's career, and it was already paying off.
Ironically just a few months after Ryan had taken Sydney and left S.P.D., Carter had finally returned. Wes still wasn't sure whether it was coincidental or not - or if Cruger had just asked him to come back now that their Grunt department was slowly diminishing. Surprisingly he'd brought Joel, Chad, and Kelsey along with him, and the three Lightspeed Rangers blended in at S.P.D. as if they had always been there. Chad had taken over Rocky's D Squad, and to everyone's amazement, had turned out to be a fantastic teacher. Joel had joined the Grunts with only a few complaints, covering Ryan's former position, while Kelsey moved into the Docs department with Ashley and Aisha, citing many jokes about Newtech City's 'Yellow Docs' versus S.P.D. Japan's 'Pink Docs'.
It was Carter who'd explained Ryan's dedication to his daughter's dream for the rest of his stunned co-workers. Ryan had never had much of a childhood because of Diabolico and the demons who'd raised him, he'd pointed out. So now that he had Sydney, he wanted her to have everything he never could. And if Sydney wanted to be in the spotlight, Ryan would do everything it took to give it to her.
"Daddy?"
Wes shook his head to clear it. "Yeah, Sky? What's up?"
"Time," Sky reminded him, tapping his wrist pointedly.
He grinned, grabbing what he needed off the shelf and ruffling his son's hair as he passed him. "Thanks, buddy. Can I trust you and Sydney to both behave for your mom while I'm gone?"
Sky scowled. "Very funny, Daddy."
"Bye, Uncle Wes," Sydney said with exaggerated politeness.
He leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "Stop torturing Sky, Sydney," he told her gently. "And Sky, be nice."
"I *am* being nice!" Sky shot back hotly, just as Sydney insisted "I'm not torturing him!"
"Uh huh. Behave," he reminded them. He managed to keep the laughter in until after he'd closed the front door behind him.
****
"Boardwalk! Pay up!" Tori crowed.
"Who's big idea was it to play Monopoly tonight, anyway?" Zhane grumbled, sorting through his paper money.
Tori, Chip, and Dax all pointed at Wes. "His," they said in unison.
"Hey, we all agreed Poker was getting boring," Wes protested. "Monopoly is not poker."
"No, but it's the perfect game for the son of a business tycoon," Zhane retorted.
"Why are you complaining about me when you landed on Wind's property?"
"Because I was so busy praying not to end up anywhere else on one of *your* properties, I ended up on hers," Zhane argued. He glanced down at the game, frowning. "You already own most of the board anyway. Why are we still playing?"
"Because it was Time's night to chose, and it's better than Dungeons and Dragons," Tori replied.
"There's nothing wrong with Dungeons and Dragons!" Chip objected, pouting.
"I thought it was fun," Dax agreed, frowning in confusion.
Tori snorted. "I rest my case."
There was a pause.
"Hey!" the two men protested.
Wes cleared his throat, fighting a grin as Zhane snickered. "Okay, new topic for tonight. Who was up?"
"Overdrive," Tori answered immediately.
Chip regarded her in fascination. "How do you *do* that?"
"Do what?" she asked absently, flipping her money again.
"Every time Time has a question, you always have an answer. It's awesome!"
She smirked. "It's a chick thing," she assured him.
"I thought it was a Blue thing," Wes said without thinking. After all, Justin and even Dax more recently always had an answer for him. He flinched when Tori looked up.
"It's a chick thing," she said again, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Right," he agreed quickly. He forced a cough. "So. Overdrive. What are we talking about tonight?"
Dax looked thoughtful for a moment. "What do you miss about Aquitar?" he proposed at last.
Everyone paused.
"What do we *miss*?" Zhane repeated skeptically.
Dax nodded. "Well, we've gone over everything we could possibly hate about it already. So what do we miss?"
There was a long silence as everyone considered the question.
Game Night, formerly known as Poker Night, was a team tradition since shortly after their return from Aquitar. The six Rangers had gathered together every Tuesday night for a game of poker to talk about their week. Each game, a new person would come up with a topic for them to discuss. It was their own form of therapy to deal with everything they had gone through during those months, and returning to people who couldn't understand what it had been like.
Shortly after Justin and Rose had transferred to S.P.D. Japan, the group had decided that they could only play poker for so long before it became annoying. Instead, they instigated Game Night. Now for each week they met, there was one person to come up with the discussion topic, and one to bring a game for them to play. As part of the rules they had established, no one was allowed to refuse to play or answer a question, and there was no protesting said game or question.
It was one of the few ways their team had managed to stay connected after their return from Aquitar. Even Zhane, who they all acknowledged as being an Astro Ranger, was on some level still one of them. Game Night was a way to remind them all of that, and allow them to talk about grievances throughout the week that they weren't able to share with anyone else.
After all, there was nothing you couldn't say to someone who had gone to war with you.
"No Earth food on the menu," Zhane said suddenly. He smirked. "And no one had the slightest idea what a cheeseburger was, but they all knew how to make Kerovian Coranol Soup."
"Which is disgusting, by the way," Wes pointed out as they all laughed. He paused to think, then grinned. "No one asked me when Nes and I were getting married," he declared.
Tori laughed, leaning over to swat his arm. "You know we all know better," she argued. "It's just fun to tease you."
"Yeah, and the teasing got old quick - about seven years ago," he returned wryly. "Your turn."
She smiled almost dreamily. "An entire planet of water. The only place that ever felt more like home was the Academy."
"And the way they thought you were some sort of Aquitian goddess at first because you could manipulate water?" Zhane teased.
She tilted her head with a coy look. "I guess that wasn't *too* bad ... "
Everyone laughed.
"I miss not being teased for wearing a skirt," Chip announced, sighing.
They gave him sympathetic looks. "Who was it today?" Wes asked.
"Nick," he grumbled. "I know he was teasing, but ... "
Tori shook her head, reaching out to squeeze his hand. "He just doesn't understand," she said softly.
"I miss Delphine."
There was another pause as they all reflected quietly on Dax's words. Delphine had taken Dax under her wing so to speak when they'd arrived, as he'd been more easily effected by everything happening around them then the rest of them. But then, while none of them had seen the amount of destruction as what had happened to Aquitar on such a grand scale, Dax had come from a team with the least experience in dealing with such pointless devastation.
Delphine was the reason Dax had matured so greatly. She'd seemed amused by his endless enthusiasm, but had taught him to temper it with a sense of maturity he hadn't had before. And in return, Dax taught Delphine to laugh.
They had all been hurt when they lost her to the war, but no one had grieved quite so much as Dax.
"Remember the look on her face when she found out Time, Turbo, and I all had kids?" Zhane asked finally, smiling in remembrance.
"You mean the look on her face when she found out *you* had a kid?" Tori teased gently, elbowing him in the side. "I always knew you were infamous on Earth, Astro; I had no idea you were infamous in space, too."
"What can I say? I'm just that important," Zhane boasted.
"Or that frightening," Chip snickered.
Wes cracked up, and smiled when Dax did. "I remember what she said when she realized we were the representatives from S.P.D. Earth," Wes chuckled. "'Earth has sent us - '"
"'*You*'?" everyone chorused mockingly, bursting into laughter.
There were bad memories of Aquitar, Wes reflected as he laughed at the memory of the Aquitian Rangers' scandalized reaction to how easily Justin had taken over their headquarters’ computers. But even then, they weren't all bad. And just as time had changed the relationship between his son and Sydney, it had also changed the way he saw things. It had turned a few people he barely knew as co-workers into life-long friends, and was slowly changing the thoughts of war and strife and so many people he couldn't save, into an unpleasant memory, with flickers of happiness and laughter in between.
Time did heal everything - even a Time Force Ranger.