Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Family History

He felt the fire before he saw it.

It stole the breath from his lungs, even before the searing heat struck. Sky stumbled from the portal into a whirlwind of smoke and flames.

The fire was all around him. He dropped to a crawl, pulling himself across the blackened carpet. Around him rose the shells of office cubicles. The fire leaped between the low walls, just above him.

“Help!” Sky shouted. It came out as a strangled cry. The fire howled around him, burning his eyes, making every breath searing and shallow.

There was a creaking groan, the sound of disintegrating wood and stressed metal, and then an echoing crack as the ceiling collapsed. Sky shielded his face with his arms as smoldering debris rained down around him.

There was nowhere to go. Black spots danced in front of his eyes. He was going to die here, consumed by the inferno, and nobody would ever know about it.

As if from a dream, the flames parted. A red ranger in an ever-so-familiar suit stepped out from a dark cloak of smoke. Sky wondered if this was a hallucination. Maybe he was already dead, but the strong hands that lifted him felt very real.

Glass shattering. The disorienting spin of free fall. Soft grass beneath his back. The night sky above him, bathed in an orange glow. Words, indistinct garbled sounds at first, repeated in an insistent tone.

Sky obeyed. He took a breath. It deteriorated into a lung-wrenching coughing fit.

The blurry outline of the ranger went still above him. “Power down!”

Sky blinked several times. Stinging tears left cold trails down his cheeks. The face above him swam into focus. The similarities between their features were striking. His rescuer had the same dark blonde hair, although the front was beginning to streak with gray. He had the same ice-blue eyes. Even the intense, serious expression was the same. It was a dream come true and a nightmare.

It was the face of a dead man.

“Sky? No… who are you?”

Sky tried to form words, to explain, but couldn’t. Then he was falling, tumbling away from ghosts and memories into a chasm as dark as the space between worlds and many times as deep.

There was a voice. At the edge of his consciousness. Something, a feeling or a premonition, just beyond his conscious grasp. Something he had forgotten...

The first thing he was aware of was a soft, steady beeping, in time with his heartbeat. His body felt heavy and sluggish, but the fabric resting against his skin was as scratchy as sandpaper.

His mouth tasted like smoke.

Sky opened his eyes. This was S.P.D. medical wing… at least according to the large logo on the wall. It was smaller than he remembered, with only four beds. Everything seemed slightly clunky and out-of-date compared to his universe — the monitors, the computers, even the uniform of the C-squad cadet resting in a nearby bed.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Tate. I’m Dr. Kurt Williams.” A stout man in a medical uniform, covered by a loose-fitting white lab coat, appeared by his bed. The man’s eyes crinkled. His square, bristly beard twitched, hiding a smile. “Or should I say, Cadet Tate? How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” Sky said. His voice was scratchy. He tried to sit up, but was firmly pushed back down to the bed. “What happened?”

“Carbon monoxide poisoning, inhalation of quite a bit of toxic smoke, and a few thermal burns. A couple more minutes in that fire, and you wouldn’t be here.” The doctor’s bristly eyebrows furrowed together. “Even with the off-world technology we used to heal your burns, smoke inhalation can have delayed symptoms. Do you understand? You are not to over-exert yourself. I can’t have you fainting in my infirmary… or anywhere else, for that matter.”

“I do not faint,” Sky rasped. Dr. Williams only chuckled.

He was about to ask what year it was when the door slid open. Kat entered, the feline scientist, graceful and ageless as always. She was followed by someone he thought he would never see again.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Kat Manx,” Kat introduced herself and then the man beside her, “and this is Officer Ryan Tate, A-squad red ranger.”

“Cadet Sky Tate.” Sky wondered why he hadn’t anticipated this situation. In all the universes, there had to be at least one where his father survived. He suddenly realized he was staring and dragged his attention back to Kat. “You've probably already figured this out, but I'm not your Sky. I'm from a parallel universe.”

Kat tilted her head in thought. Her keen emerald eyes missed nothing. “We were wondering about that. Especially since you had these.” She put the trans-locator watch and his morpher on the small bedside table. “At first I thought you might be a time traveler, but a parallel universe makes more sense.”

“How did you end up here?” Ryan asked.

“I fell into an inter-dimensional portal during a battle,” Sky explained. “I've been jumping between universes ever since, trying to get home.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Kat asked. They seemed to accept his story without question, and Sky felt a flicker of unease. Could it really be that easy? His blasters were missing, but that was just procedure…

She must have caught his surprised look. “You’re a ranger and an S.P.D. cadet,” Kat pointed out. “Of course, we’ll help in any way we can.”

“It could be a while before I can leave,” Sky said. He checked the “watch”. The display indicated that he had five days, eighteen hours, and twelve minutes left in this universe. “Around a week, actually. It would be great if there was a place I could stay until then.”

Kat nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. Maybe guest quarters, although most of those are still under construction…”

“He could stay with me,” Ryan said. He turned to Kat. “Well, it just makes sense, doesn't it?”

“I don't know.” Kat frowned, and Sky realized that he was missing something important. “That might get complicated.”

“Why would it be complicated?” Sky asked.

Kat turned back to him. “Because then you'd have to stay with our Sky. Who, frankly, is fourteen years old and probably not ready to meet his alternate self.”

“He doesn't have to know,” Ryan said. “I'll tell Sky that he’s a cousin, visiting from New York. They look similar, but not identical. In civilian clothes, he’ll look the part.”

Kat looked unconvinced but said nothing.

“I don't want to cause any trouble,” Sky said, but the opportunity to spend an entire week with his dad was almost impossible to resist. How many times had he wished to meet, to talk with his father just one last time?

“You won't be,” Ryan reassured him.

He was stumbling over a thanks when the alarm went off. Kat and Ryan quickly excused themselves, promising to return.

A few minutes later, a cadet delivered his uniform. It had been cleaned, but still smelled faintly like smoke. In a few spots, the fabric was smoother and slightly lighter. Otherwise, it had been nearly seamlessly patched.

Sky waited until Dr. Williams was busy treating a cadet sporting an impressive gash in his head from a light ball accident, and then drew the curtains around his bed. He ran his finger over recently healed burns along his arms and chest. His bare skin felt uncomfortably sensitive to the touch.

Sky shrugged out of the hospital gown into his uniform. He strapped the watch to his wrist and returned the morpher to its place on his belt. He almost made it to the door before someone cleared their throat.

“Where do you think you're going?” Dr. Williams demanded, his arms crossed.

Sky shot the door a longing look. Freedom was so close, yet so far. “I was feeling better.”

“You’re not the first Tate to try and sneak out of here. In fact, I think your family has some kind of genetic fear of hospitals. Well, since you're up and about, I suppose you're doing better than I expected.” Dr. Williams picked up a scanner. “Do you feel any dizziness or headache?”

Both, but… “I’m fine,” Sky repeated, exasperated.

“Lying is not really a skill they develop at the Academy, is it?” Dr. Williams said. “I’m sure you know that I can’t hold you, but I’d recommend against sharp-shooting or sword fighting or whatever else you rangers do for a few days. I do not want to see you back here. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” Sky said. It came out as a near-growl.

“Then you can leave. But I’m assigning Lindy, here, to keep an eye on you, and to get you something to eat.” A girl in a medical uniform with cropped platinum-blond hair stood from a desk and gave him a cheerful wave. She could almost have passed as human, except for the lines of gills that traced along her neck and disappeared under the collar of her uniform jacket. Now that he was looking closely, her skin had a faint purple undertone.

“Nice to meet you!” Lindy was almost painfully upbeat. She accompanied him out the door, chattering the entire time. “Do you want a tour? I don't know if you've ever been here before, but Headquarters is a really great place.”

In the three minutes it took to reach the cafeteria, he learned a great deal about Lindy. He learned that she had seven siblings, four identical and three semi-identical. He learned that her favorite food was blueberry cheesecake, her favorite class was anthropology (‘Human culture is so interesting!’), and that she had been in medical training for sixteen months.

He learned that the year was 2018. The Delta Base was still under construction, and S.P.D. Earth had just relocated from its original location downtown. With the expanded space came additional staff. Lindy was one of dozens of cadets in various specialities transferred from the Nebula Academy.

“… so really, I don’t know S.P.D. that well either.” She finished, seemingly without taking a breath.

The cafeteria was nearly empty. A few cadets were scattered across the tables, eating a late lunch. Lindy grabbed two plates and piled a mound of food on each. Refusing his help, she expertly balanced both trays and then plunked them down at the nearest table. Sky picked at the pile of food. He forced himself to eat something that may have been a green bean before choking down some kind of rubbery, synthesized meat.

“You’re not hungry?” Lindy asked. Sky noticed that she had almost already cleared her plate.

“I guess not.” Sky put his fork down. He watched as a gaggle of trainees entered the cafeteria. They were all so young. He remembered his first days at the Academy. Everything had seemed so strange and intimidating. “Hey, Lindy — is there a list of Academy trainees? I'm looking for someone.”

Lindy nodded. “I think so. I've never looked, I mean, almost everyone I know is in medical, so I never had to, but you can borrow my tablet and see. So is it true? Are you really from the future?”

Rumors, it seemed, travelled just as fast in this universe as in his own. “Kind of…”

“That’s so cool. Do you know my future?”

“This is the first time I've ever met you. And it doesn't exactly work like that, anyhow.”

The cadet looked a little disappointed. “Oh, well. It was worth a try. I guess I'll just have to wait and find out where I'll get posted. I hope I can stay on Earth.” Lindy pulled the tablet from her jacket, tapped a few words, and handed it to him. “Here's the list.”

Sky flipped through the list of names. He found Syd (Drew, Sydney: 1st year cadet trainee) but not Z or Jack, although he hadn't really expected to find those two. It was strange — Bridge wasn’t listed anywhere. A bit more searching revealed that the Carson family was on the faraway Crux Gamma colony. The other Sky, as Kat had mentioned, lived right here in Newtech City as a civilian. He was the right age. Why hadn’t he joined SPD?

The flashing alarm lights suddenly went dark. Their plates rattled on the table as the floors shook.

“That’s the zords returning to the hangar,” Lindy explained. “I guess the rangers are back.”

They cleared their plates and exited to the hallway. “Are there a lot of battles?”

Lindy shrugged. “Well, not a lot. But more and more. I mean, the alien population of Earth is growing really fast. I guess you can't help having a few bad apples in with the good. And... oh!”

Lindy skidded to a stop. Sky followed her gaze. Cruger was striding toward them down the hall. The Commander paused when he saw Sky.

“Sir!” Lindy snapped a salute, followed by Sky.

“At ease,” Cruger told them. He studied Sky with his inscrutable gaze. “Kat told me about you. You're Ryan's son, Sky — but from another reality.” His eyes flicked to Sky’s uniform. “One where you’re part of S.P.D.”

“Yes, sir. My f — I mean, Officer Tate,” Sky quickly corrected, “offered me a place to stay until it's time for me to leave.” He hoped that Cruger wouldn’t read too much into his mistake. “I’ll only be here for a few days, but I'd like to help with anything I can.”

“Thank you, Sky,” Cruger said. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He was about to say something else when the alarm blared. The Commander shook his head in irritation. “Excuse me, Mr. — Cadet Tate and,” he nodded at Lindy, “Cadet Rezene.” They both saluted again.

When Cruger was out of sight, Lindy turned to him and beamed. “Wow! Did you see that? The Commander knew my name. That's crazy! Nobody's gonna believe me when I tell them about this.”

To be continued...

Chapter Text

True to her word, Lindy kept a watchful, if talkative, eye on Sky. Ignoring his protests, she hurried him back to medical at the first sign of fatigue.

Sky refused to lie down in a bed, but Lindy eventually convinced him to sit in an empty chair. As he waited for Ryan to return, his eyelids grew heavy. He didn’t realize he had fallen asleep until someone laid a hand on his shoulder.

“I would have left you here to rest, but you didn’t look that comfortable,” Ryan said. There was a brief, but awkward silence. Sky realized his presence must be disconcerting to the other ranger as well, although Ryan was trying his best to hide it. “Sorry that it took so long. We don't usually have that many attacks in one day.”

“No, I understand,” Sky said. “I never got a chance to thank you for saving me.”

Ryan brushed off his thanks. “You don't have to thank me. I was just doing my job. I'm glad you're okay.” He flashed a good-natured grin. “I have to say, it was a bit of a shock seeing you.”

Sky returned a small smile. “I bet it was.”

“I also brought you some civilian clothes, along with a bag for your uniform and other things.” He paused. “Kat and I talked, and we think it’s best if you don’t mention you’re part of S.P.D. outside of headquarters. Think of it as being undercover.”

Sky changed into a heather gray t-shirt and dark jeans. The clothes were plain, nondescript, but fit well enough. He folded his uniform into the duffel bag, along with his morpher. The watch stayed on his wrist.

He followed Ryan out of Headquarters to the parking garage. He climbed into the passenger seat of an aging sedan with faded red paint. The car made sputtering noises as they drove down the street.

“I’ve been meaning to get a new one,” Ryan confessed as they lurched to a stop in front of a light. “But I’ve become kind of attached to this one. It was an Academy graduation gift from my father, you see.”

Sky had only met his grandfather a few times. The senior Tate was a wealthy recluse with a deep distrust for authority, and had never approved of his only son’s — and grandson’s — choice of occupation. This, apparently, was another difference between their universes.

They turned onto a narrow cul-de-sac, lit by a single streetlight. Spacious white houses hid behind neat lawns and towering oak trees. A faint, half-forgotten memory stirred. He recognized this house from his childhood. Their family had lived here before his dad died and his mom moved away.

Ryan parked the car in the garage, and Sky followed him into the house. They passed through a pristine kitchen into the living room. A teenager sat on the lumpy leather couch, playing a video game on a large television. He didn’t even look up until Ryan spoke.

“Sky,” Ryan told him, “we’ve got a visitor.”

Tate put down the controller. When he stood, he barely reached Sky’s shoulder. His hair was bleached to a nearly-white blond, and he was wearing a worn superhero hoodie.

“Hey,” Tate said. He shot a sidelong glance at Sky. “Um… have I met you before?”

“No,” Ryan said, a little too quickly. “This is your cousin…”

“Matt,” Sky said, borrowing the name of a distant relative who was near his age. He just hoped that the real Matt didn’t turn up during his stay.

Ryan shot him a grateful look. “Matt will be staying here for the next few days. I'm counting on you to help him settle in, alright?”

Tate shrugged, already turning away. “Fine. Whatever.” He returned to his game, ignoring them both.

Sky held his breath, expecting an explosive argument. He would never have dared speak to his mom so disrespectfully! Ryan said nothing. He didn’t turn off the television or even send Tate to his room.

Instead, the red ranger only sighed. “Well, I guess I'll show you around.” He backtracked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. It was stacked high with energy drinks and not much food. “Help yourself to whatever you want, but there's probably just snacks and frozen pizza. Sky can help you order food if you get hungry. Neither of us can cook. Ever since my wife, Maddie, passed away…”

Sky must have blanched as white as the walls, because Ryan lowered his voice. “In your universe, she lived?”

Sky nodded. For a moment, Ryan was lost in thought. “That’s nice to know. Yes, she was murdered years ago. By a criminal named Mirloc.” He gripped the marble countertop until his knuckles turned white. “A lifetime in jail isn't enough for people like that. I thought about quitting S.P.D. after it happened. But I couldn't stand the idea of other criminals going free while I sat at home.”

Ryan led him up the carpeted stairs to a hallway with doors on either side. He flipped the light switch on the wall to illuminate a small but cozy bedroom. The quilt on the twin bed was somehow familiar.

“I hope this is okay.” Ryan brushed a layer of dust off the dresser. “It’s nothing fancy, but you’re used to the Academy anyhow, right? Sky's room is next door, and mine is down the hall.” He dug through the closet and handed Sky a towel. “The bathroom is down there, to the right.”

“Thanks again,” Sky said. “For everything.” He didn’t mean to sound wistful, but this chance meant more to him than Ryan would ever know.

“Are you always so serious? I told you already, don’t worry about it.” Ryan studied his face, so close to his own. “We’re family, right? After all, I’m supposed to be your uncle.”

“Matt is a first cousin once removed, I think,” Sky said. His late grandfather had taken great pride in their family tree and all of its complicated, obscure relationships.

“Oh, is he? I haven’t seen him since he was a baby.”

Ryan’s face fell as an unhappy thought occurred to him. “Don’t be too hard on Sky, okay? He’s young, and he's had a hard time. Maybe I haven't been here for him as much as I should have.”

“Of course,” Sky said. This Sky had also lost a parent. And with all the giant robot attacks, Ryan was probably gone a lot of the time. Sky had joined the Academy early. His friends became his family during those painful teenage years. Had Tate grown up alone?

The ranger excused himself to take a call from Headquarters, so Sky returned downstairs, where Tate was still playing the game. He watched as Tate’s armor-clad avatar fought through a building overrun with giant robot spiders that shot lasers from all eight eyes.

Tate paused the game and looked up at him. “Do you like video games?”

“I haven’t played many of them,” Sky told him. The rigors of the Academy left very little time to play games.

“Seriously?” Tate stared at Sky like he was a freak of nature.

Which, come to think of it, he was. Sky resolved to keep his own powers secret, at least until he discovered if Tate shared the same abilities.

Tate handed him a second controller. Sky sat beside his counterpart and struggled through the next two levels before getting the hang of it. It was just like fighting giant robots, just with smaller buttons and virtual explosions.

Tate cheered as they beat a particularly difficult level. “Hey, you're not bad. Not as good as me, though.” The teen smirked. “I’ve been playing this every day for months. Wouldn't it be cool to be a real-life galactic hero?”

“Like your dad?” Sky asked.

Tate rolled his eyes as if he had heard that a thousand times. “Yeah, I guess. But giant robots are kind of boring compared to the stuff happening on different planets. All the battles in this game are based on real life. Can you imagine fighting killer mermaids or being an intergalactic bounty hunter?”

“If you want excitement, why don't you join the Academy? S.P.D. cadets get posted all over the galaxy.”

“The Academy? Please,” Tate scoffed. “My dad would never let me. I wanted to go to West High with my friends, but he decided it was too dangerous and sent me to Newtech Prep instead.”

He stared down at his hands, still holding the controller, and scowled. “I’m not allowed to do anything. I can't wait until I'm grown up.” Tate squinted up at him. “How old are you, anyways?”

“Twenty-one.” Probably. In every universe so far, it had been a different time of year, or even decade. He had gone from winter in the last universe to late spring in a single step. For all he knew, back home, his birthday had already passed.

“That must be nice. No one to tell you what to do.” Tate glanced at the clock. It was five minutes to eleven. “Anyhow, I have to go to bed now, or I'll be grounded. See you later. You can keep playing or watch TV if you want.”

Ryan still had not returned, so Sky lowered the volume and flipped through TV channels until settling on the local news. Part of the city was recovering from flooding caused by heavy rainfall. There had been a string of robberies downtown, and the Newtech Police Department was searching for a suspect. It seemed like very little had changed in the day-to-day life of the city itself.

A red bulletin suddenly flashed on the screen. A scene of children studying in a classroom suddenly cuts to the studio. The human anchorwoman and her alien partner both had grave expressions.

“We interrupt your regular broadcast for this breaking news. The infamous criminal Mirloc escaped today from prison on Gamma Orion.” An image of Mirloc, face twisted in an arrogant smirk, appeared. Sky shivered and leaned closer.

“Mirloc was serving a triple life sentence for his role in the Pegasus Theta massacre, the destruction of Indus Prime, and the murder of several S.P.D. officers and civilians on Earth before his capture. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to come forward. He should be considered armed and extremely dangerous.”

“So far, details are scarce on how Mirloc escaped from the supposedly inescapable Gamma Orion supermax. S.P.D. Supreme Commander Fowler Birdie made the following statement…”

The image cut to Galactic Headquarters. Fowler hurried to a podium. The Supreme Commander cleared his throat. “I would like to assure the people of the galaxy that Mirloc will be recaptured, and the negligent parties will be held accountable. We currently believe that Mirloc may be hiding in the Onyx system..."

Sky was so stunned, he missed the rest of the Commander’s speech. Mirloc had escaped? It was deja vu, a horrible nightmare that he had to experience all over again. And he knew Mirloc. He knew how he thought, how devious and cruel the monster was. One thing was certain: Mirloc wasn't going to Onyx. He was coming here to take his revenge.

To be continued...