It wasn't supposed to end up this way…. This wasn't how things were supposed to go, that was all he could think of. No words could describe all the emotions he was going through right now, or all the emotions he had been going through these past six months…..everything all of them had been going through. So much had happened, so much had changed, in ways none of them ever thought possible and now the outcome of everything could no longer be denied, choices had been made, facts would have to be faced and they all would have to come to terms…..

Eric sat motionless in his chair next to Sky's bed, his face growing grimmer with each passing second, as Sky lay there motionless, machines and wires of all kinds connected to his body, helping to keep him alive. The son of two of the greatest Power Rangers he had ever known was heading towards death. It seemed all too impossible, you wouldn't think a son of two Rangers would ever end up in a place like this, but then again there had been Rangers long before him who had ended up this way, some even far worse …some didn't even survive long enough for this... So in all truth, not even a son of two Rangers was safe from deadly battles and explosions that had nearly killed him upon impact.

The long retired Quantum Ranger let out a heavily sigh, doing his best to keep his emotions stable, not ready to let go, even though knowing that it wasn't looking good for Sky….

The doctors had done all they could, but Sky had broken several bones and ribs, there was heavy bruising around his head, cuts and burns all over his body. He had lost a tremendous amount of blood; for a while there the doctors didn't even think they had enough for him, due to his very rare blood type. It was looking more and more likely that like his parents before him, Sky would die young. Too young…. Far younger than his parents had been, his father just shy of his thirtieth birthday.

It had only been a few hours since it all had happened. The battle….everything… He himself still couldn't believe it, none of them could. None of it seemed possible. It had to be some dream, a nightmare he couldn't wake up from. It was something he wasn't ready to accept or believe… Couldn't believe. He wasn't ready.

"How's he doing?" asked Drake as he walked into the room, but Eric never answered him, not that he needed to. He had already known the situation was bad and getting worse by the minute. He had done all he could at the time, but he had only been able to stabilize Sky's injures enough to get him back here safely. Drake walked around to Sky's other side and took a seat, staring into the face of the man who at one time, a long time ago, had been his little boy. Now that seemed like a lifetime ago…. And in a way it was… It was a life he had long ago given up, for the sake of a promise he had made a very long time ago.

It was heartbreaking to see Sky in this condition. It was a knife into his heart, feeling that somehow this had been his fault. A feeling he was all too familiar with; over the years he had known he had made some bad decisions, a part of him always wondering if he had done things differently, if things would have turned out better or would they have been worse? He supposed he would never know for sure, but as hard as he tried not to he still found himself blaming himself for things that had happened decades ago. He folded his hands together and rested his chin on top of them. Today was six months since he had last seen Sky. A meeting that hadn't gone well…. That had been the day he had told Sky the truth….about everything. About where he really came from…..it had been more than Sky could have ever handled.

He had thought he would be able to handle it, but apparently with everything he had been through, it was just too much for him to take in or even begin to be able to accept.

"He's not going to get better, is he?" Eric had already come to the conclusion that the chances of Sky's survival were not in his favor. His injures had been too severe, they couldn't even begin to compare to the injures he had withstood all those years ago in his battle with Mirloc.

"I'm going to do everything I can, Eric."

"Everything!" Eric shot an angry look up at Drake. He had gone through years without so much as an outburst to Drake, but now he could no longer hold his anger in. And even as it was happening he wasn't entirely sure if the person he really was angry at was Drake or himself, maybe it was just all his emotions, everything he'd been holding back, coming out at full force. "You've done enough! This is your fault!" Eric could feel his anger flowing through his veins. "If you hadn't told him, this would never have happened. If you hadn't….." Eric rose to his feet, not caring that he was shouting. "He never would have tried…" And then he could no longer hold it in. Everything just came out full force; tears streamed down his face. He wasn't ready for this….he wasn't ready to say goodbye.

Drake too felt a few tears slip through his eyes, feeling that in some way he had let Jen down. He had promised that he would keep her little boy safe, but now that boy he had promised to protect was barely hanging on by a thread. He looked over at the monitor, seeing no changes, no progress, no ounce of hope, nothing. Sky was fighting his greatest battle yet and he was losing.

All any of them could think was: it wasn't supposed to be like this. Sky was supposed to continue on as Red Ranger, leader of A squad. He was supposed to fall in love, get married, start a family, and be able to have everything his parents always wanted him to have. Everything they had always wanted.

Outside the room, down the hall, take a left and then to the right, teary-eyed over everything that was happening Hayley stared through the only window of another room in the intensive care unit. It was a small window; she couldn't see much, only that Kat was working on another young man who had been injured in the battle with Sky. It seemed that SPD would lose two Rangers.

"Mrs. Myers…."

Hayley turned her head and found Commander Cruger standing behind her. His face was sad, so much pain, he had lost so many Rangers over the years, first Andros' team, then Zhane, Wes, followed by Dash and the late A squad rangers. "Commander Cruger….."

"They're not doing so well, are they?" He hadn't even been able to bring himself into either one's room, it just hurt too much. He wasn't ready to go through it all again and this time was even worse.

"No….They're not." A few tears rolled down her cheek. "I just can't believe this is happening. After all these years, only to lose him…..lose them both." She couldn't even begin to understand why this was happening; they had all already been through so much. Hadn't they lost enough?

The SPD base was the quietest it had ever been for as long as it had stood there. Two lives hung in the balance, no one knowing if either one would make it through the night or even the next few hours. The only sound that could be heard was the soft crying in the waiting room.

Where Z and Bridge sat on either side of Syd, holding her hands as tears rolled down her cheeks, but even they had trouble keeping it together. Sky was their friend, their leader and in a way he was their older brother. How on earth would they continue on without him?

4 months earlier….

They had only been dating for a little over two months now; Syd wasn't quite sure how it had happened. She thought she would never be able to admit to Sky her true feelings for him, but one day while they were still off on break from defeating Gruumm he had shown up at her door, appearing to be upset about something, and from there on was when things between them had changed.

Sky had shown up at her door without warning, all he had said was that he needed to be with a friend. They had spent the whole day together, but Sky never did tell her just what had happened. At the time she didn't seem to care, she knew that when he was ready he would tell her.

She was just so happy to be spending some time alone with him. And somehow they wound up at his old home, a place he had not stepped foot in since he was fourteen. At first he had handled it very well, but then everything went downhill from there. And Syd did the only thing she could think of at the time, she wrapped her arms around him giving him the biggest hug she could. Shortly thereafter he had surprised the hell out of her by returning her embrace and not a second later their lips met into a kiss, that turned into more than just a kiss, and ever since they had been together.

Syd lay there smiling, cradled in Sky's muscular bare arms in the bedroom of his apartment; blankets were piled on top of them. She laughed every time Sky ghosted a soft kiss onto the ticklish spots on her body, and every time he kissed her lips her heart skipped a beat.

"See, isn't this much better than a afternoon workout?"

Sky grinned. "Personally I found our activities somewhat of a workout, if you know what I mean."

"Sky!" She playfully swatted him. "Can't we ever do anything without you making it into a workout activity?"

"Nope." He kissed her lips lovingly and gently stroked her cheek. "Not with you as my girlfriend; it's a workout just to keep up with you."

"You're just lucky you're cute." Syd returned his kisses, deepening them as she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, fully intending to give him another one of his so-called workouts.

Megan opened the door to the apartment; it was Friday late afternoon. She had just gotten done with classes and her workout session over at the Academy, and this was part of the agreement for her to attend. She had to make a deal with her parents that during the weekends she would stay at Sky's apartment, if she didn't go home. She could have stayed at the Academy, but her mother preferred that she for at least some of the time be around family and even thought it might be good for Sky to have someone around. Ever since Sky's talk with Drake, he had been acting uptight and a little irritable around family.

Not that it wasn't to be expected, but he had been acting like this for the past two months and hadn't returned any of Drake's phone calls.

"Sky?" Megan set her bag down and apartment keys on the counter, as she looked around the combined kitchen and living room, but Sky was nowhere in sight in the three bedroom apartment. Sky had gotten the apartment two months ago, feeling ready to move out of the Academy's living quarters and live on his own. The only Ranger who still remained at the Academy was Bridge; Syd and Z had gotten an apartment together and Jack and Ally were living together outside of NewTech.

"Sky?" Megan called again, but again no answer came. She knew he had to be here, she had seen both his bike and car outside in the parking lot. "Where could he be?" Megan quickly turned her head towards Sky's bedroom door, which was closed. She could faintly hear some noises coming from it, muffled laughter and light talking that she couldn't quite make out. A sly grin came across her face, as she looked over at the couch and saw a brightly colored woman's leather jacket lying on top of it. "I really shouldn't, but Commander Cruger did say it was important that he see Sky today."

Slowly Megan reached out to the door knob and then swung it open. "HEY GUYS!" Both Sky and Syd jumped as they along with blankets rolled off the bed away from the door. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything….' Knowing fully well she was.

"I told you we should have locked the door," exclaimed Syd as she kept the blanket close to her upper body.

Sky just looked at Syd, annoyed. "MEGAN!..." He turned to Megan giving her one of those looks she knew too well, and if her father wasn't who he was she probably would be intimated by it, but no matter what kind of look Sky would throw at her she wasn't in any way frightened by it.

She just grinned and waved, showing that she could very well be the annoying little sister he never had. "I'll just wait out in the living room and let you guys get dressed, before I give you the message Cruger gave me." She waved again before she slipped out the door closing it behind her.

"This isn't funny," exclaimed Sky, his face was beat-red and full of embarrassment, and the big grin on Syd's face wasn't helping. "I'm going to kill her…"

Syd just grinned as she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Next time you'll listen to me about locking the door."

Twenty minutes later Sky was seeing Syd out of his apartment door, but both were having a little trouble letting go through their kisses, while Megan stood a few feet away just grinning. Her parents didn't believe it when she had told them that Sky and Syd were dating, it seemed to them that Sky and dating just didn't mix, although she suspected that her father's reasons had more to do with who Syd's father was. She didn't know what had gone on between those two, but for some reason her father hated Gunnther Drew's guts. Her mother, however had other thoughts on Sky's and Syd's relationship, as if the relationship might be one-sided.

"I'll call you later." Syd looked over at Megan and waved. "See yah around, Megan." Syd then kissed Sky goodbye and closed the door behind her as she left.

"You two sure have gotten friendlier since I last saw you together."

"And you need to start minding your own business!" Sky was beginning to see that Megan had picked up on her father's cocky personality and seemed to be better at it than he was. He was starting to wonder why he had even agreed with both Hayley and Eric about this arrangement with Megan, but even though she was cocky and a little annoying, he didn't mind having her around …well as long as she minded her own business. He reached onto the counter for his set of keys and started to reach for the door, but turned to her, with one of those older brotherly looks he had somehow picked up over the last couple of months. He sighed heavily, there really was no use in yelling at her, nothing seemed to faze her and it wasn't exactly something he wanted to bring up to her parents, not that is should matter, because he was paying the rent, they would just periodically pay for the groceries, but how do you go up to someone, and say, 'hey your kid walked in on me and my girl'. Sky just shook his head; he would just have to learn to be more careful around Megan, since she insists on being noisy.

"Do we need to talk about…..what….." He wasn't even sure how he was supposed to ask this or how to go about it, he was clearly sure that Megan's parents wouldn't be pleased with what had happened.

Megan just grinned, laughing to herself as Sky tried to explain what she had seen. "You know if you and Syd ever have kids, you're going to have to do a lot better than this, when explaining sex." She just shook her head, not believing the look Sky was giving her. He looked blown away, that she even knew the word. "Sky! I'm fourteen; my parents had the sex talk with me when I was ten."

"Oh. Okay, good. Then we don't need to….."

Megan just shook her head. "Nope, we're all set on that subject."

"Good. Good…" He opened the door and started to step out. "Okay, when I get back from my meeting with Cruger, we can start on dinner."

"Sounds good." She watched as Sky nodded his head and started out the door. "Ah, Sky…."

"Yes?" Sky stepped back in.

"You might want to put some pants on, while Syd may find the boxers-only look attractive, I'm pretty sure Cruger won't."

"How was your flight?" asked Commander Cruger, to a man who was in his early twenties, wearing a different type of SPD uniform than the ones that were normally seen around the base. He was very good looking, built like a warrior; there was a sort of sadness about him, but he hid it well. "No problems getting here?"

"It was fine, sir. Thank you for asking," answered the young man, as he held his composure. Though the man never had met Cruger he held him in high regard. He had heard a lot about the old commander from his previous commander who had worked with him briefly many years ago.

"Mirinoi is a pretty far off place to come to Earth." And Cruger would know; he too had made the journey from Mirinoi to Earth, close to sixteen years ago. It had been shortly after the destruction and death of his planet. He looked directly into the young man's eyes. "It must have been difficult to leave the only home you have ever known." It had been hard for him to leave his planet, but there was nothing left for him there, nothing had survived, only he and now his wife were all that remained of his home world.

"Yes, sir it was." He knew well enough that Cruger knew part of the reason he had come here. "….but I heard you could use a Blue Ranger, so here I am." He didn't want to get into too many details on the subject.

"Yes." Cruger nodded his head. The young man before him definitely was qualified to come in as A squad Blue Ranger, perhaps too qualified. He had graduated at the top of his class a year early; he held all the records at Mirinoi's SPD base. He was more than just a top ranked officer; he was the top ranked officer. The position he had held before was a few steps down from the one he had come here to take over. "Commander Michael Corbett told me that you're one of the best he's ever seen. I think he was sorry to see you go."

The young man sighed and bowed his head down, just the mention of the name brought something out of him, it wasn't anger, but it was a name he didn't like to hear. He quickly dismissed it, not wanting to think about it. "I just needed a change, sir." He looked the old commander right in the eyes. "Thought Earth would be a good place to start."

"Yes. I see…." Cruger could tell right away that the new recruit did not want to bring up his past; in fact he was doing everything to avoid the subject. Not that it was to be unexpected, Commander Corbett had informed him about his behavior and a little of what had happened. It was even hard for him to talk about it, but that was to be expected.

"Sir! You wanted to see me," announced Sky as he joined the two in the command center, by Cruger's post.

"Yes, Lt. Tate, there is someone I'd like you to meet." Cruger moved aside so that he and the newcomer were face to face. "This is Lt. Chase Ryder, he will be taking over as Blue Ranger and be your second in command."

"It's nice to meet you, Lt. Tate, Commander Cruger has spoken very highly of you." Chase put out his hand. "I look forward to working with you."

"Likewise," Sky shook Ryder's hand firmly, not taking his eyes off of him. Sky knew there was something familiar about Lt. Ryder, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "You can call me Sky."

"Chase."

"Thanks for letting me stay here until I'm able to get settled and find my own place," said Chase as he and Sky walked into the apartment. He hadn't brought a lot with him, just a few bags and his gear.

"It's no problem." Sky showed him into the vacant bedroom, which already had a bed and dresser in it. Sky had planned to use it as a guest bedroom, but until Chase found his own place it would be his bedroom. "Besides, it's better than the rooms at the base."

Chase set his bags down and the two headed back into the living room where they found Megan sitting on the couch. Megan turned her head and glanced, definitely taking notice of Chase, she smiled brightly. "Wow, SPD sure has a lot of hot officers! Now if only I was just a few years older..."

Chase grinned; he never did have trouble with the ladies liking him. Sky just rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath. "…Chase, this is Megan, she'll be staying here during the weekends sometimes."

"Nice to meet you." Chase shook her hand. "So you must be Sky's little sister?"

Sky rolled his eyes again, knowing that Megan found that amusing, as he headed into his bedroom.

"No," she giggled. "My last name is Myers….."

"Myers?" He knew that name….it took him moment to gather where he had heard that name before and then it came to him: Commander Corbett's brother had spoken of an Eric Myers, along with several other Red Rangers, and about a mission that took place on the moon. It had been many years since he had heard that story. "You wouldn't by chance be related to an Eric Myers, the Quantum Ranger, would you?"

"He's my dad."

"Really?" Chase just smiled; perhaps the universe wasn't as big as he thought it was. What were the chances of him running into the daughter of the great Eric Myers? Perhaps there was hope after all for him, to find what he is looking for. "So then how'd you end up with Mr. Personality over there?"

Megan laughed, now she really liked this guy. "That's kind of a long story…but the short version is, my parents became Sky's guardians after his grandpa died. I guess they kind of adopted him."

"Nothing wrong with being adopted." Chase ran his hand over the back of his head. "Whatever happened to his parents?"

."Sky's parents died when he was just a kid, his dad and my dad were best friend, worked in SPD together, up until an alien killed Sky's dad. I think his name was Mirloc."

"Mirloc?" That was another name he knew all too well. Though he had never faced the alien fugitive, he knew Commander Corbett and his team nearly lost their lives while trying to arrest him; ultimately they had been unsuccessful in arresting him and Mirloc escaped, making his way to Earth where he would later kill a young commander before finally being arrested. "Wait….is Sky's dad Wesley Collins?"

Megan nodded her head and could see he was confused about the last name. "Yeah, the name thing gets me too. I don't know why he doesn't have Collins as his last name; I know my parents know the reason, but they won't tell me."

"…..So how does pizza sound to you two?" announced Sky as he rejoined the two in the living room, fully intending to turn the conversation around and get off the name subject, as to why he and his father didn't share the same last name. Personally he preferred the reason he had come up with as a child, to tell the truth.