Timeranger belongs to Toei. I am using it without permission, but I am not and don't expect to make money.

Warnings: Spoilers for the end of the series. Death.

This was done some time ago for a Toku challenge conducted by EstiRose. The specific prompt: "Anything to explain Naoto's obsession with birds."

The Cage

- x -

"Why?" Asami cries, kneeling in the dust of a dirty back alley. "Why do you have to die?"

Why? I wonder about that myself as I watch him cradling the lifeless shell that was once Takizawa Naoto. Why did I have to die? After a lifetime spent looking out only for myself, why did I lose everything for the sake of a bird?

But had there ever been a choice? Had another path ever been open for me? Asami is fond of saying we make our own destinies, but I could remember no point at which things might have gone differently. From the moment I had accepted a job with the City Guardians I had locked myself on a course that led me to become Time Fire, to battle Don Dorunero and his gang, to clash with Asami Tatsuya and with his father, eventually to question my own values during the desperate struggles of the last day, and inevitably to this time and place where all my possibilities had been ended by a stray Zenitto's bullets.

The bird I had rescued twitters in its cage, and I smile at the memories of two little birds I had bought in a fit of loneliness, named, fed, and cared for. I had enjoyed watching them and imagining that they were grateful for what I gave them. But somehow things had changed, or I had changed. Months later when I had been assured of my future as captain of the Guardians, and was headed for higher places and greater responsibilities, there seemed no longer any room in my life for such foolishness as pets. So I had given them away at the first opportunity. I had told myself at the time that it was the best thing for them, but now I wonder.

Had some part of me sensed the cage I had locked myself into, a cage built of envy, distrust, and anger, one which kept me safely distant from anyone who might try to reach out the hand of friendship? Had I felt the golden bars of ambition and thirst for power surround me, and heard Mr. Asami turn the key in the lock? Perhaps I had thought there was safety inside, as my birds were safe in their own cage. But what I had not realized then was that while a bird may be content and protected in captivity, a human being, by his very nature, must bend the bars and break free in order to reach his destiny.

The circle closed and the final threads of my demise wove together today, when the birds' cage was broken so soon after my own had crumbled away when Mr. Asami and the City Guardians turned against me. They, and I, were exposed to the elements, facing the dangers of this world alone and unprotected. I had left the hospital to catch that little bird and put it back in its cage, to know it was safe, to know that its life had returned to normal, and perhaps to imagine that mine would one day do the same. It was only a moment of distraction, but it was enough.

There's another sound of grief as Asami cries out, still holding my body. I'm surprised by his emotion, and wonder what I did to deserve it. I never returned his efforts at friendship, opposed him and his friends, gave him respect only grudgingly, even to the small insult of always calling him by the name of the family he had struggled so hard to escape. I feel a pang of regret at what might have been, but I have made my decisions and my mistakes. With death comes finality. There will be no more chances.

"It's all right, Asami - I mean, Tatsuya," I say, knowing he cannot hear me. "I'm only sorry that I can't be here for the end of the fight." But I've given Tatsuya my Changer; I've done what I can, and all of this is no longer my concern as I turn my face to the limitless sky.

Somewhere high above, a bird flies free. And I fly with it.

- End -