Fractured Fates (S.P.D./inSpace Crossover/Power Rangers, prompt 2 ~ atmosphere)
I wrote this days ago, and I *still* have absolutely no idea how this is going to end, or what to do about Jack and Zhane's discussion in this chapter. x.x
Suggestions/requests are welcomed and encouraged.
Title: Fractured Fates
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: 2 ~ atmosphere
Author's Notes: Playing up the angst more than I'd mean to here. Also still debating who among B Squad will remain at S.P.D. The original plan had been to stick to cannon as close as possible, but ... I don't like B Squad without Jack. It's just not right. And Sky looks awful in Red.
"Now see, this? This is the life," Jack sighed happily, gesturing to the city around them. "No stress, no fighting ... "
"No S.P.D.?" Zhane offered.
Jack pointed at him. "Exactly."
He smiled a little, stretching and looking up at the open sky. "It's nice to see something that isn't gray," he admitted.
"Why Zhane, am I detecting a little anti-S.P.D. attitude there?" Jack teased. Zhane didn't answer immediately, and he frowned. "Zhane? You all right, man?"
"Yeah," he sighed. He hesitated, then finally shrugged. "I hate S.P.D.," he said bluntly. "I respect what it stands for, but I hate the way they do things, I hate the expectations, and I hate the rules. S.P.D. isn't me."
"Yeah ... yeah, I know what you mean," Jack muttered. He seemed to shake himself. "So why'd you join?"
He shrugged again. "I just woke up from cryosleep and my best friend had moved on with his life. I didn't have anywhere else to go." He glanced over at Jack. "You?"
Jack smiled wryly. "Cruger told me an' Z to join S.P.D. or go to jail for stealing clothes for the poor." His voice was surprisingly bitter. "She joined, I told him to blow it out his ear and escaped. Then I found out she was in trouble." He lifted a shoulder. "She's my sister, you know?"
Zhane nodded, giving a sympathetic smile. "Yeah, I get it."
"So why are you still there?" Jack asked for a moment, sliding his hands into his pockets and shrugging his jacket higher on his shoulders. "I mean, from the looks of it, you and that Andros guy are getting along again, right? So what's keeping you at S.P.D.?"
"Besides Grumm?" The light joke felt flat, and Zhane let out a long sigh. "I'm a Ranger," he said at last. "I've been a Ranger since I was nineteen years old. My parents were Rangers. It's all I ever wanted to be. I hate S.P.D., but I wouldn't give up fighting." He hesitated. "And now ... I have Sky and all of you. If I left, it wouldn't be the same anymore."
Jack hmmed in agreement, frowning at the ground.
Zhane watched him for a moment. "What about you?"
Now it was Jack's turn to sigh. "I can live without being a Ranger," he admitted. "Yeah, I like it, and yeah, it's ... it's like nothing else. But rules and regulations? Man, I *hate* that stuff. The only thing that keeps me together some days is B Squad." His face softened slightly. "Well, that and Syd."
"They baited us, you know that?" Zhane decided. "They knew we're the sort of guys who can't stand the way S.P.D. operates, so they bring us in by force and keep us there with hot blonds."
Jack cracked up, and Zhane grinned with him.
"You know, you might be right," Jack chuckled finally, wiping tears from his eyes. "That's the real secret behind S.P.D. The secret plot to set up their cadets."
"It could be true. You never know," Zhane pointed out.
After awhile Jack's smile faded, replaced with a brooding expression. "You ever think about leaving?" he asked eventually.
"Yes," Zhane returned immediately. He saw Jack glance at him out of the corner of his eye, but didn't acknowledge it. Instead he sighed again, looking back up at the sky. "Andros wants me to leave, but he won't ask. He tells me I have a home with him. It's tempting, even if I don't know his friends, just ... just because he's there. Because Andros knows me better than anyone." Another shrug. "I could always go back to KO-35, but that isn't really home anymore. The people I know are all gone. I could make new friends, but it wouldn't ... " His eyes fell to the ground with another sigh. "It wouldn't be the same."
There was a long silence.
"I miss life on the streets," Jack spoke up finally. He laughed softly, shaking his head. "Call me crazy, but I miss being out with people, you know? *Knowing* them. Helping them. Being a Ranger is great, but I don't help them day to day - I just keep them alive."
"It's not the same thing," Zhane finished softly.
"Yeah." Jack shifted again, and now they were both staring at the ground. "Yeah," he repeated quietly.
They walked on in silence for awhile, eventually stopping to watch a group of kids playing in the park. "You think you'll leave?" Jack asked suddenly.
Zhane shook his head. "I can't."
He got a curious look in return. "Can't?" Jack echoed. “Why?"
He hesitated. "I ... Sky," he said simply.
Jack frowned. "What, you think leaving would split you two up or something? Sky's not that shallow." He sounded vaguely insulted at the implication.
Zhane sighed in frustration, shaking his head. "That's not it. I just ...can't, okay?"
"Hey." Jack's voice was soft as he reached out to touch his arm, looking concerned. "What is it, Zhane? You can tell me."
He closed his eyes, debating for a moment, before at last looking away. "I promised Sky that I would always come back to him," he murmured finally. "It was after the meteor mission. He ... he said he wouldn't leave me behind again, and asked me to promise."
There was a long pause as Jack watched him for a minute. "Somehow I get the feeling there's something you're not telling me here," he said slowly.
Zhane took a breath. "What does it mean, to promise someone something on Earth?" he asked.
Jack looked at him oddly, his eyes slowly widening as it dawned on him. "Uh ... It means you'll do your best to follow through. But that's not what it was for you, was it?"
He shook his head wordlessly.
"Then what *did* you promise?" Jack asked warily.
He sighed. "On KO-35, a promise is something you make to someone very important to you. It's something you only break if you're dead. We don't ... we don't do ceremonies, like you do on Earth, but it's still considered binding." He looked up finally and Jack's stunned gaze caught his. "It means that I'll *always* come back to Sky," he finished quietly.
"You're ... you mean you're *married*?" Jack's voice squeaked at the end, and he coughed to cover it. "Uh, I mean, you uh ... you - "
"That would be the Earth equivalent," he muttered in the direction of his feet, feeling low.
"Oh, man ... " Jack breathed. He paused. "You didn't tell Sky, did you?" he accused.
Zhane winced. "Not exactly."
"Zhane! How could you do something like that?"
"It's not like I meant for it to happen, okay?" he snapped. "I *know* he wasn't asking me to be his Promised, and I know he didn't mean it that way. I *know* he doesn't think of it like that."
Someone shrieked in the distance, and they both spun to look. He cursed as he saw the shattered remains of a storefront window and rubbed his head in agitation. Why couldn't he control his temper lately? This was getting ridiculous.
"You do."
He looked up to see Jack staring at him. "Sky may not think of it as being married, but you do," he said softly.
Zhane looked away.
Their morphers beeped simultaneously.
Zhane reached for his. "This is Zhane. Jack's with me. What's up?"
"We need backup in Sector 12," Kat informed him. "Hurry."
"On our way." He snapped the cover shut, looking up at Jack. "Let's go."
Jack blinked, then abruptly nodded. "Right!"
****
Zhane trailed after the others, just ahead of Bridge. His head hurt, and the tension he could feel from everyone in front of him wasn't helping matters. He reached up to rub his temple.
He'd seen a picture of A Squad once, back when he'd first joined S.P.D. and Jack had been teaching him about the Rangers who'd served Earth. It had been small, and Jack hadn't known them either, so he'd glossed over the details. It really didn't seem important at the time.
She was wearing his helmet.
He grit his teeth, rubbing his head again. He'd heard Kat say that the Astro Rangers' technology had been used to help create S.P.D. Earth, but he hadn't expected to see *Andros* staring at him from across that clearing. And when she'd powered down, after the shock of seeing someone who *wasn't* Andros behind that helmet, or even Uncle, he realized that she was vaguely familiar somehow.
"You've got to be kidding me. B Squad?! When was the last time Cruger called us B Squad?! I mean, we work our butts off all year. And then we're ordered to leave the command center like some D Squad newcomers?!"
He glanced up at Jack's snarl as he leaned against the doorway of the rec lounge just in time to see Sky giving Jack a dirty look. "I don't like it any better than you, Jack. None of us do. We *knew* that if A Squad returned, this was going to happen," Sky reminded him.
"That doesn't mean we have to like it," Z said quietly. Syd looked equally uncomfortable.
Bridge wandered in, staring vacantly into the distance, and Zhane eyed him for a moment.
"Bridge. How do you feel?" Jack called.
Bridge continued to stare blankly out the window.
Sky sighed. "Bridge!"
Bridge blinked, glancing back at them. "Sorry," he murmured. "I was just thinking. I have a really bad feeling guys, kinda like the feeling I had before?"
Zhane swallowed. As reassuring as that was to hear, somehow it just made things worse. Because as much as he instinctively didn't like her for what her uniform looked like, he really didn't want a reason to hate her.
"And after being gone all that time, wasn't it just a little too easy, the way we just happened to find them?" Bridge went on.
"Yeah, well, that's not our problem," Jack told him. "Our problem is that we're B Squad. The reserves. Zord cleanup detail. We do all the work, and they're probably in the Command Center, getting all these medals from Cruger."
Zhane's head continued to pound, and his temper finally snapped. "Oh, get over yourself."
Jack turned to stare at him, eyes narrowing. "Excuse me?"
"So Cruger dismissed us. So *what*? A Squad's going to need to know what's going on at some point, aren't they?" he demanded. "You should be grateful they're still alive, instead of whining about not getting enough recognition for finding them."
"Grateful?! I don't even know those people!"
"Not all teams come back!" Zhane shouted at him.
There was a long silence as everyone stared at him, and the tension in the air only grew thicker.
He shook his head slowly, bitterness and pain making him continue. "You don't get it," he told them flatly. "Not everyone gets their teammates back. Not everyone - " His voice cracked, and he forced himself to look away before they could see the tears in his eyes. "Not everyone gets to be reunited."
Sky moved toward him, looking anxious. "Zhane - "
He shook his head again, and Sky stopped. "No," he said quietly. "Not right now. I need some air."
In an instant he was out the door, heading for the roof before they could see him cry.
He didn't make it far before Kat called him with the news that A Squad had kidnapped Cruger, and B Squad was going after them. He took just enough time to calm himself and force the memories away again before he made his way back to the Command Center. He had work to do.
Suggestions/requests are welcomed and encouraged.
Title: Fractured Fates
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: 2 ~ atmosphere
Author's Notes: Playing up the angst more than I'd mean to here. Also still debating who among B Squad will remain at S.P.D. The original plan had been to stick to cannon as close as possible, but ... I don't like B Squad without Jack. It's just not right. And Sky looks awful in Red.
"Now see, this? This is the life," Jack sighed happily, gesturing to the city around them. "No stress, no fighting ... "
"No S.P.D.?" Zhane offered.
Jack pointed at him. "Exactly."
He smiled a little, stretching and looking up at the open sky. "It's nice to see something that isn't gray," he admitted.
"Why Zhane, am I detecting a little anti-S.P.D. attitude there?" Jack teased. Zhane didn't answer immediately, and he frowned. "Zhane? You all right, man?"
"Yeah," he sighed. He hesitated, then finally shrugged. "I hate S.P.D.," he said bluntly. "I respect what it stands for, but I hate the way they do things, I hate the expectations, and I hate the rules. S.P.D. isn't me."
"Yeah ... yeah, I know what you mean," Jack muttered. He seemed to shake himself. "So why'd you join?"
He shrugged again. "I just woke up from cryosleep and my best friend had moved on with his life. I didn't have anywhere else to go." He glanced over at Jack. "You?"
Jack smiled wryly. "Cruger told me an' Z to join S.P.D. or go to jail for stealing clothes for the poor." His voice was surprisingly bitter. "She joined, I told him to blow it out his ear and escaped. Then I found out she was in trouble." He lifted a shoulder. "She's my sister, you know?"
Zhane nodded, giving a sympathetic smile. "Yeah, I get it."
"So why are you still there?" Jack asked for a moment, sliding his hands into his pockets and shrugging his jacket higher on his shoulders. "I mean, from the looks of it, you and that Andros guy are getting along again, right? So what's keeping you at S.P.D.?"
"Besides Grumm?" The light joke felt flat, and Zhane let out a long sigh. "I'm a Ranger," he said at last. "I've been a Ranger since I was nineteen years old. My parents were Rangers. It's all I ever wanted to be. I hate S.P.D., but I wouldn't give up fighting." He hesitated. "And now ... I have Sky and all of you. If I left, it wouldn't be the same anymore."
Jack hmmed in agreement, frowning at the ground.
Zhane watched him for a moment. "What about you?"
Now it was Jack's turn to sigh. "I can live without being a Ranger," he admitted. "Yeah, I like it, and yeah, it's ... it's like nothing else. But rules and regulations? Man, I *hate* that stuff. The only thing that keeps me together some days is B Squad." His face softened slightly. "Well, that and Syd."
"They baited us, you know that?" Zhane decided. "They knew we're the sort of guys who can't stand the way S.P.D. operates, so they bring us in by force and keep us there with hot blonds."
Jack cracked up, and Zhane grinned with him.
"You know, you might be right," Jack chuckled finally, wiping tears from his eyes. "That's the real secret behind S.P.D. The secret plot to set up their cadets."
"It could be true. You never know," Zhane pointed out.
After awhile Jack's smile faded, replaced with a brooding expression. "You ever think about leaving?" he asked eventually.
"Yes," Zhane returned immediately. He saw Jack glance at him out of the corner of his eye, but didn't acknowledge it. Instead he sighed again, looking back up at the sky. "Andros wants me to leave, but he won't ask. He tells me I have a home with him. It's tempting, even if I don't know his friends, just ... just because he's there. Because Andros knows me better than anyone." Another shrug. "I could always go back to KO-35, but that isn't really home anymore. The people I know are all gone. I could make new friends, but it wouldn't ... " His eyes fell to the ground with another sigh. "It wouldn't be the same."
There was a long silence.
"I miss life on the streets," Jack spoke up finally. He laughed softly, shaking his head. "Call me crazy, but I miss being out with people, you know? *Knowing* them. Helping them. Being a Ranger is great, but I don't help them day to day - I just keep them alive."
"It's not the same thing," Zhane finished softly.
"Yeah." Jack shifted again, and now they were both staring at the ground. "Yeah," he repeated quietly.
They walked on in silence for awhile, eventually stopping to watch a group of kids playing in the park. "You think you'll leave?" Jack asked suddenly.
Zhane shook his head. "I can't."
He got a curious look in return. "Can't?" Jack echoed. “Why?"
He hesitated. "I ... Sky," he said simply.
Jack frowned. "What, you think leaving would split you two up or something? Sky's not that shallow." He sounded vaguely insulted at the implication.
Zhane sighed in frustration, shaking his head. "That's not it. I just ...can't, okay?"
"Hey." Jack's voice was soft as he reached out to touch his arm, looking concerned. "What is it, Zhane? You can tell me."
He closed his eyes, debating for a moment, before at last looking away. "I promised Sky that I would always come back to him," he murmured finally. "It was after the meteor mission. He ... he said he wouldn't leave me behind again, and asked me to promise."
There was a long pause as Jack watched him for a minute. "Somehow I get the feeling there's something you're not telling me here," he said slowly.
Zhane took a breath. "What does it mean, to promise someone something on Earth?" he asked.
Jack looked at him oddly, his eyes slowly widening as it dawned on him. "Uh ... It means you'll do your best to follow through. But that's not what it was for you, was it?"
He shook his head wordlessly.
"Then what *did* you promise?" Jack asked warily.
He sighed. "On KO-35, a promise is something you make to someone very important to you. It's something you only break if you're dead. We don't ... we don't do ceremonies, like you do on Earth, but it's still considered binding." He looked up finally and Jack's stunned gaze caught his. "It means that I'll *always* come back to Sky," he finished quietly.
"You're ... you mean you're *married*?" Jack's voice squeaked at the end, and he coughed to cover it. "Uh, I mean, you uh ... you - "
"That would be the Earth equivalent," he muttered in the direction of his feet, feeling low.
"Oh, man ... " Jack breathed. He paused. "You didn't tell Sky, did you?" he accused.
Zhane winced. "Not exactly."
"Zhane! How could you do something like that?"
"It's not like I meant for it to happen, okay?" he snapped. "I *know* he wasn't asking me to be his Promised, and I know he didn't mean it that way. I *know* he doesn't think of it like that."
Someone shrieked in the distance, and they both spun to look. He cursed as he saw the shattered remains of a storefront window and rubbed his head in agitation. Why couldn't he control his temper lately? This was getting ridiculous.
"You do."
He looked up to see Jack staring at him. "Sky may not think of it as being married, but you do," he said softly.
Zhane looked away.
Their morphers beeped simultaneously.
Zhane reached for his. "This is Zhane. Jack's with me. What's up?"
"We need backup in Sector 12," Kat informed him. "Hurry."
"On our way." He snapped the cover shut, looking up at Jack. "Let's go."
Jack blinked, then abruptly nodded. "Right!"
****
Zhane trailed after the others, just ahead of Bridge. His head hurt, and the tension he could feel from everyone in front of him wasn't helping matters. He reached up to rub his temple.
He'd seen a picture of A Squad once, back when he'd first joined S.P.D. and Jack had been teaching him about the Rangers who'd served Earth. It had been small, and Jack hadn't known them either, so he'd glossed over the details. It really didn't seem important at the time.
She was wearing his helmet.
He grit his teeth, rubbing his head again. He'd heard Kat say that the Astro Rangers' technology had been used to help create S.P.D. Earth, but he hadn't expected to see *Andros* staring at him from across that clearing. And when she'd powered down, after the shock of seeing someone who *wasn't* Andros behind that helmet, or even Uncle, he realized that she was vaguely familiar somehow.
"You've got to be kidding me. B Squad?! When was the last time Cruger called us B Squad?! I mean, we work our butts off all year. And then we're ordered to leave the command center like some D Squad newcomers?!"
He glanced up at Jack's snarl as he leaned against the doorway of the rec lounge just in time to see Sky giving Jack a dirty look. "I don't like it any better than you, Jack. None of us do. We *knew* that if A Squad returned, this was going to happen," Sky reminded him.
"That doesn't mean we have to like it," Z said quietly. Syd looked equally uncomfortable.
Bridge wandered in, staring vacantly into the distance, and Zhane eyed him for a moment.
"Bridge. How do you feel?" Jack called.
Bridge continued to stare blankly out the window.
Sky sighed. "Bridge!"
Bridge blinked, glancing back at them. "Sorry," he murmured. "I was just thinking. I have a really bad feeling guys, kinda like the feeling I had before?"
Zhane swallowed. As reassuring as that was to hear, somehow it just made things worse. Because as much as he instinctively didn't like her for what her uniform looked like, he really didn't want a reason to hate her.
"And after being gone all that time, wasn't it just a little too easy, the way we just happened to find them?" Bridge went on.
"Yeah, well, that's not our problem," Jack told him. "Our problem is that we're B Squad. The reserves. Zord cleanup detail. We do all the work, and they're probably in the Command Center, getting all these medals from Cruger."
Zhane's head continued to pound, and his temper finally snapped. "Oh, get over yourself."
Jack turned to stare at him, eyes narrowing. "Excuse me?"
"So Cruger dismissed us. So *what*? A Squad's going to need to know what's going on at some point, aren't they?" he demanded. "You should be grateful they're still alive, instead of whining about not getting enough recognition for finding them."
"Grateful?! I don't even know those people!"
"Not all teams come back!" Zhane shouted at him.
There was a long silence as everyone stared at him, and the tension in the air only grew thicker.
He shook his head slowly, bitterness and pain making him continue. "You don't get it," he told them flatly. "Not everyone gets their teammates back. Not everyone - " His voice cracked, and he forced himself to look away before they could see the tears in his eyes. "Not everyone gets to be reunited."
Sky moved toward him, looking anxious. "Zhane - "
He shook his head again, and Sky stopped. "No," he said quietly. "Not right now. I need some air."
In an instant he was out the door, heading for the roof before they could see him cry.
He didn't make it far before Kat called him with the news that A Squad had kidnapped Cruger, and B Squad was going after them. He took just enough time to calm himself and force the memories away again before he made his way back to the Command Center. He had work to do.