Fractured Fates (S.P.D./inSpace Crossover/Power Rangers, prompt 8 ~ friendship
It's official: the entire state of Utah sucks and should burn. They are evil, and seem to enjoy seeing me suffer. I hate you all.
(Excluding anyone on my F-List of course. ♥)
Title: Fractured Fates
Author: Tsukino Akume
Relationship: Zhane/Sky Tate, Jack Landors/Syd Drew
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers, because I probably wouldn't have done this to it even if I did. This is all purplestripe66's fault.
Warning: Character with depression/health issues
Summary: When Andros put Zhane into cryogenic stasis, he didn't wake up until he was completely healed - twenty-four years later. Zhane finds a new team, and S.P.D. tries to deal with the aftermath.
List of 22: 8 ~ friendship
Author's Notes: Not entirely happy with this chapter, but it is what it is. All parents mentioned are borrowed from Bright Skies, because I love the family backgrounds in that too much to be original in this one. ^.^;;
He wasn't sulking. He was just feeling a little down, was all. It had been a rough few days: first he'd been grounded to the base after his 'stunt' recharging his morpher while Kat worked out how to repair the 'damage' he'd done to it and spent a great deal of time making him feel like a new recruit again. Cruger had taken some sort of twisted pleasure in forcing him through a psych evaluation after his 'willingness to put his own life in danger as a sign of his refusal to accept help from those around him'. He was diagnosed with several different phobias and disorders, but after reading that he had a fear of garlic, flowering plants, and toads, Cruger had thrown out the entire list in disgust and yelled at him for not taking things seriously before assigning him trash duty - for the entire base.
It was amazing to see the sort of information people threw away without a second thought.
Sometime during his groundation, he'd heard B Squad breaking out into petty fights. He thought it was odd, but he wasn't sure if he should get himself involved. Kat had said something to Cruger about teenagers in a small living space, but personally he thought that was ridiculous; they were Rangers. Rangers were used to operating in small quarters.
Before he could think of any way to help them, Cruger had shipped out all five cadets to some 'team building retreat' on Zantor.
He remembered Zantor. He hadn't spent a lot of time there - just a small mission, where he and Andros had to 'rescue' yet another transmission device that was supposed to serve as the ugliest stranded civilian he'd ever seen. There hadn't been a lot to the place: just sand. Lots, and lots of sand. They'd registered trees somewhere, but those were in the middle of nowhere and not even remotely close to their mission objective.
What sand was supposed to do to bring B Squad together, he wasn't really sure.
Apparently sand had magical qualities though, because B Squad had come back tighter, more complete as a team, and wielding a new Team Power Up that came with giant guns. They rescued him and Cruger when they'd gotten in over their heads - which was entirely *Cruger's* fault thank you; stupid old dog could never listen to anyone *else's* ideas - and were now gathered in B Squad's Rec Lounge, being sickeningly sweet and friendly with each other.
He wasn't jealous. Okay, maybe a *little* ... But that was only because they'd spent their time bonding, and he got stuck with Kat and Cruger doing their best to make him miserable. So much for teamwork.
He sighed, lifting a hand from folded arms to trace on the desk he was currently occupying. His chin remained braced on his other arm as he stared blankly at his fingertips, tracing Kerovian and Eltarian symbols into the tabletop. Brooding in his room wasn't really going to help anything, but he couldn't think of anything better to do at the moment.
"Hey, Zhane!" Jack called cheerfully. "What are you doing in here?"
He glanced back over his shoulder, still slouched over the desk. "Nothing. Just thinking."
"Well, stop thinking. You'll hurt yourself. Come play lightball with us instead," Jack informed him.
He made a face at him. "Thanks. And no thanks."
"Come on," Jack wheedled. "Just one game? Don't make me send Bridge to get you. Or Syd. I can always send Syd." He paused, raised his eyebrows in a strangely threatening way, and added "Or I can tell Z to ambush you. And trust me, with the whole cloning thing? That's no picnic."
He smiled a little. "I'm fine, Jack. Thanks for the offer, but I'm still pretty worn out from today."
"What'd Cruger make you do while we were gone? Floss all the toilets?" Jack demanded. "Come on. Spend some time with us!"
"Too tired," he sighed, doing his best to look pathetic. "Rain check?"
"Leave him alone, Jack" came a voice by the door. "Let the old timer get his rest."
He turned to give Sky a pointed look. "Old timer?" he repeated.
Sky shrugged lightly. "Hey, if you're too exhausted to play, I understand. We wouldn't want you to break a hip or anything."
He knew he was being played. He knew it, saw right through what Sky was doing - because hey, he'd done it to Andros all the time - but still. *Old timer*? Seriously?
He pushed himself to his feet with a glare. "You," he informed Sky calmly as he pointed at him. "Are going down."
Sky smirked dangerously. "Bring it on."
****
The tiny ball of light rocketed back towards his face at high velocity. He dropped to the floor, rolled over and back to his feet, and snagged the ball just before it got out of reach. Grinning wildly, he spun in a circle and flung it wide, watching with a certain satisfaction as it pinballed off each of the walls, snagging Bridge and Syd along the way. Z cheated by cloning herself to avoid it.
He dodged the return fire, ducking behind the couch to plan for a moment. Z could easily be taken down as long as there was a way to fire so rapidly she couldn't clone herself quick enough. Sky, on the other hand, was more of a challenge. He'd have to go head to head with him.
He somersaulted over the couch, stealing the ball just before Jack could catch it and turning to catch him by surprise before he realized what was happening. Jack glared, but he was already moving on. Z tried to back out of the corner he trapped her in by replicating again, but he retaliated by telekinetically snagging all of the couch pillows and beating each of the clones back into the corner. The ball rebounded off of each pillow as he directed it, tagging all four clones before darting back into his hand. Z gave him a nasty look, and he winked.
Sky was waiting for him. They stared one another down, moving slowly as they assessed their opponent's weaknesses. Sky was arrogant, he decided, but also easily flustered. He wasn't used to fighting dirty; Zhane was.
He'd just have to step up the distractions a notch.
He stepped back a little, mentally calculating the angles. It was a tricky move, but if he timed it just right ... it *might* work.
He feigned left, threw right, and tensed, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he waited for the return. Sky sent it back fast and hard, and he took advantage of the momentum to throw wide.
The sight of the smug look on Sky's face when he missed him melting into total and absolute shock when the ball hit him in the butt was absolutely worth it.
"Did you just ... " a grin was beginning to creep over Z's face.
"Zhane!" Syd protested, but she was trying not to smile herself. "That was mean!"
He shrugged easily, catching the ball as it finally bounced back to his hand. "All's fair in war and video games," he informed her.
"I thought you said you'd never played this game before," Jack grumbled, pushing his braids out of his face as he moved to grab one of the scattered pillows.
"I'm a fast learner. Oh, let me get that," he interrupted. He telekinetically snagged the pillow from Jack's hand, directing his thoughts to grab a few more and move them back to the couches where they belonged. "I'm the one who threw them in the first place," he added as the last one settled into place. He paused to shift it to a better position and smiled in satisfaction.
"You have a genetic power too, Zhane?" Syd asked, looking curious.
"But that doesn't make any sense," Bridge protested, frowning. "If Zhane was born more than twenty years ago, his parents couldn't have been involved in the morpher project the way ours were."
"Whoa, hey," Zhane interrupted, giving them both an odd look. "What's a genetic power?"
Z immediately responded by cloning herself. "We all have some sort of special ability from when our parents were part of S.P.D.," she informed him as both Zs folded their arms.
"Jack walks through walls, Sky makes forcefields, Syd turns her hand into, well, stuff, and I'm ... me?" Bridge offered, shrugging. "I'm sort of hard to explain."
Zhane raised his eyebrows at him. "Try me."
Bridge sighed a little. "I read auras," he explained. "That's why I have um - " he gestured towards one hand with the other, pausing to tug on his glove. "It sort of manifests when I don't have these on. And uh, I sort of started learning telepathy awhile ago."
He blinked. "You're Kerovian?"
Bridge blinked back. "Um ... no?" he tried. "I don't think so. I mean, I'm pretty sure my parents would have said something. I think." He frowned.
"Why would you think he's Kerovian?" Sky asked suspiciously.
Zhane shrugged. "Most Kerovians are selectively telepathic. We're all telekinetic, too." He glanced at Bridge. "I'm kinda surprised we haven't been able to read each other then, actually."
"My gloves are made of dampening material," Bridge said apologetically. "So I uh, can't. Otherwise I sense people by accident. And animals. And plants. And sometimes buildings - "
"Bridge!" Sky interrupted irritably.
"So what's my aura look like?" Zhane asked curiously.
Bridge hesitated for the briefest of moments before slowly removing the glove on his right hand and running through the air in front of him. Then he paused, frowning a little and tilting his head. "Huh."
"Huh, what?" Zhane asked. He grinned. "Am I that strange to look at?"
"More like familiar, actually," Bridge said absently. "Your aura's all sparkly and silver, but something about the colors in it remind me of ... someone."
"Someone?" he echoed.
Bridge hesitated. "It feels like my dad," he murmured at last, ducking his head as he quickly pulled his glove back on. "You remind me of him sometimes."
"I'm flattered," he said honestly. He gave Bridge a lopsided smile.
"So why didn't you tell us you were Kerovian, Zhane?" Syd asked in the sudden silence, moving to sit beside him on the couch.
He glanced down at her, surprised. "It didn't come up?" he tried. He shrugged when she frowned at him. "I've never assumed you're all Earthians, so I figured you'd see it the same way. Besides, what does it matter? It's not like I use it all the time - just when it's useful."
"When's that?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.
He squinted over at the synthetron for a moment. His eyes settled on a pen on a nearby table, and he levitated it up and over, pressing the numbers he needed for paopu juice. He set the pen down as the machine released his cup, and directed the glass towards himself until he was able to snag it out of the air. "See? Useful," he said brightly, taking a long sip as everyone laughed.
Sky on the other hand, was watching him with another one of those unreadable expressions.
He looked directly at him, smirked, and toasted him with his glass. Sky rolled his eyes, and he grinned.
"So how was Zantor? he asked abruptly.
Syd wrinkled her nose. "Terrible. I'm still trying to get the sand out from under my nails."
He nodded sympathetically. "Try soaking them," he suggested. "It worked for me."
"You've been to Zantor?" Z asked, frowning.
"Unfortunately," he agreed. "Long story short, it was a very boring training mission while we were still at the Collegiate. What'd you guys do?"
Syd was more than happy to tell him the whole story, with the others interrupting when she 'missed' a particular detail. Which of course, lead into a round of good-natured bickering. But even as they argued, the atmosphere was so relaxed he couldn't help but wonder what the problem had been to begin with.
"Zhane? You still with us?" Jack asked, prodding him with his foot.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah," he said absently. "Sorry. Thinking."
"Don't strain yourself," Jack teased, shifting out of the way when he went to kick him. "Seriously. What's on your mind?"
He shrugged. "What was the problem earlier?" he asked, looking around. "I mean, I've never seen you guys fight like that. What happened?"
More than one person shifted uncomfortably. "Syd was nitpicking," Z said finally. "So I started trying to give her something to get upset over."
Syd nodded miserably. "I was. And I'm sorry," she added, looking over at Z.
Z smiled and waved a hand dismissively. "Forget about it."
"Sky was brooding, so I tried to piss him off," Jack admitted. "And Bridge said something about how he was holding back when we spar, so I wanted to show him he wasn't *that* good."
"He does," Zhane said, just as Bridge said "I do."
They exchanged glances, Bridge surprised and Zhane amused. "I've seen it," he said, nodding to Bridge. "You don't want everyone to know what you're really capable of."
"My parents are all martial artists," Bridge said reluctantly. "They've been teaching me since I was a kid."
Zhane tilted his head, curious. "Rangers?"
Bridge blinked. "How'd you know?"
He grinned as everyone else started in surprise. "As one Ranger Kid to another, I recognize the signs. My parents were the Kerovian Rangers before Andros and I got our morphers. My mother was Blue, Father was Yellow."
"Um, the second Red, Black, and Yellow Rangers of Earth," Bridge said after a moment. "Well, technically Red, Black, Yellow, and the first Black. But I'm not actually related to my dad - he married my mom, who gave birth to me for my other dads."
Zhane nodded as Jack, Z, and Syd looked confused, Jack mouthing what Bridge had said to himself as he tried to figure it out.
"My dad was Time Force Red," Sky said after a long moment of silence. He stared at the ground, his eyes dark. "His partner helped my mom raise me after he ... " He cut himself off, shaking his head. "He was the Quantum Ranger."
"So all three of you have parents who were Rangers?" Z asked, frowning. "That's a little convenient, don't you think?"
"Not really," Zhane told her as Sky and Bridge shrugged. "A lot of families have Rangering in their genes. It's sort of like racing stock: you know you've got a good sample, so why not offer a morpher to the child and see what happens?"
There was a moment of silence.
"Thanks for that image, Zhane," Jack groused, rubbing his temples.
He shrugged. "Hey, I didn't say *I* agree with it. It's just the way some people think. Why do you think someone like me got into the Eltarian Ranger Collegiate so easily? That's one of the best Ranger Collegiates ever built. If my parents weren't Rangers, I never would have gotten in."
"That's not true," Sky argued. "You're better than you let people see - just like Bridge. You both hold back so no one knows what you're really capable of."
He blinked in surprise, strangely pleased by the compliment. He forced a light shrug. "Well, why let everyone see what you can do? Then you don't have any secret moves left later."
"Very true," Bridge agreed, nodding solemnly.
"Honestly, I'm kind of surprised the rest of you aren't Ranger Kids, too," he told them. "I mean, it'd make sense. Why your parents were involved with S.P.D., why you all have special abilities ... "
"Wouldn't know." Jack's tone was suddenly sharp, his eyes dark with warning.
Syd shrugged lightly. "I know my dad travels a lot for his job, but I don't think he's a Power Ranger. He's too ... " She wrinkled her nose. "Flakey."
There was a noticeable pause.
"Well, it's getting pretty late," Jack announced, stretching with an exaggerated yawn. "I'm thinking bed. You coming, Zhane?"
He nodded quickly. "Sounds like a good idea. I'm all worn out from that lightball game."
"You know, me too," Z said, standing up herself.
Bridge was already halfway to the door with Sky lagging just behind him. "Good night, guys!" he called cheerfully.
" ... *Hey*!" Syd shouted after them.
"Zhane," Sky said abruptly as they all headed toward their respective rooms. "You got a minute?"
He stopped, waving Jack on ahead. "Don't turn the light out on me," he called.
Jack waved in acknowledgement, and he turned to face Sky. "What is it?"
Sky just looked at him for a moment. "You play lightball like it's a training sim."
He shrugged it off. "I guess it kind of reminds me of one."
There was another moment of silence as Sky continued to stare at him. "KO-35 was under attack for a full year before you died," he said eventually.
He stiffened. If it had been *anyone* but Sky, he would have ignored the question. But Sky took him more seriously than anyone else did, and he'd been there when he ... when everything hit him all at once. And he'd never brought it up again afterwards.
And Sky was the only one - beside him - who would actually say that he'd died. With everyone else he'd been 'out', 'sleeping', or his personal favorite 'when you were ... y'know'. But Sky said it exactly the way it was: he'd died, and come back to life.
"It was a warzone," he said finally. "That's not something you forget."
Sky nodded, hesitated, and reached out to pat his shoulder lightly. "Night," he murmured.
Zhane watched him walk away thoughtfully. Sky never seemed to fail to surprise him. Whenever he thought he'd figured the other teen out, he did something completely out of the ordinary.
"He's the one who thought of you, you know," Syd said from behind him.
He turned to blink at her. "What?"
"When we were in the lounge? Sky realized you weren't there, and said we should get you to spend some time with us," she explained. She gave him a soft smile. "We all love spending time with you, but Sky was the one who thought we might be ignoring you. He won't admit it, but he was worried."
"Thanks, Syd." He wasn't quite sure what he was thanking her for, but it seemed like he should say it anyway.
Her answering smile was warm. "Good night, Zhane," she murmured, standing up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
He stayed in the hallway for a long time, lost in thought. Eventually he let out a long sigh, and went to his room. Jack was already asleep, but the lamp between their beds remained on, waiting for him.
For some reason, it made him smile.