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One of these days, Kat Manx thought to herself as she looked at the view screen that monitored the Rangers. I am going to save Grumm the trouble and kill that big blue dog myself. Sending the Rangers out, the B-Squad Rangers no less, against a top Troobian general had to be one of Cruger's more monumental mistakes. Yes, the A-Squad was still MIA and yes, this situation needed to be addressed, but still...
"They're up against a force they don't know how to deal with." She said to Cruger, who was watching the Delta Zords go out with her. "You do."
"What's your point, Dr. Manx?" He asked, with an edge to his voice. That and the use of her title should've told her to back off, but she pressed on.
"You know Benag, and yet you send a group of brave and inexperienced kids to fight him? You should be out there with them."
"No! It's not my battle anymore."
"Doggie, I know this brings back some memories, but running from themâ€""
"I am NOT running from them!"
"Then why haven't you told the Rangers everything?! You left out the most important part of your story! You're a team, there shouldn't be any secrets!"
"That is my business, not theirs!"
"Well, I think it is their business." Cruger simply growled at her. She handed him a metal box. "Here, I made you something." Doggie accepted the box and opened it, then growled and shut it immediately.
"This is bordering on insubordination!" he snapped. "I suggest you leave my sight while you can."
"You stubborn old dog! Running from what you fear can only bring about its existance!"
"OUT!" With that, Cruger all but shoved the box back to Kat and she turned to leave, but stopped short of the doorway.
"You know, Anubis." She said, her back still to him. "I had thought this would turn out to be a complete disaster where nothing could go right, but now...now I actually see a bright side to it."
"And what would that be?" He sneered. Doggie was then met with the coldest glare Kat could muster, mixed in with pity and disgust, as she turned to face him.
"At least Aisynia isn't here to see what a disgrace you've become." That shook Doggie down to his very core. He knew Kat was angry at how he was handling the situation with Benag, but to say something like that...
"How dare you?" He whispered, both hurt and angry at the same time.
"HOW DARE YOU?!" Kat yelled to him, her face becoming filled with rage. She then stalked back in until she was face to face with him. "Ever since we arrived on Earth, you have done nothing but delegate and hide! You spend more time in this very room than out into the world you've sworn to protect!"
"That's not true! I've been out of the academy before!"
"Only on official delegations and only after I drag your ass out there! But every day since Sirius fell, you've buried yourself in your work instead of being out there living!"
"Why should I go out there, Katherine?! I have no reason to waste my time on luxuries!"
"Because that's what people do! Or have you spent so much time hiding from your pain that you've forgotten that?!"
"Damn you! I am not hiding, I am making absolutely sure that Grumm doesn't win!"
"He's already won! Every moment you hide yourself away, he wins, can't you see that?!" At that, Doggie snarled at her. Kat looked at her life-long friend, whom she always loved as a brother. Most of the academy theorized they were secretly dating when in all actuality it would be the closest thing either of them would come to committing incest.
"What's happened to you, Anubis?" She whispered. "Before Sirius fell, you were a wolf; always doing things your way if it got the job done, taking risks, seeking thrills, playing pranks, living every moment as though it were your last...loving unconditionally...and now you're just this beaten-down dog who hides away from the world and fills his heart with bitterness and lashes out at everyone around him. What caused that, Anubis? Huh? What caused you to be so cold to people? Was it your home planet falling? Was it your comrades getting killed in the line of duty? Or was it when Grumm murdered your wife and forced you to watch her die?"
"Kat, please..."
"No. I've backed off from you before, and that was a mistake. We are dealing with this, right now. The Anubis Cruger I knew would never have done what you did. He would have protested Earth being brought into the intergalatic alliance during our fight against the Troobians, he would not have isolated himself from the world and he never, NEVER would have been such a hypocrite!"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You gave Jack and Z passes on some of their bigger screw-ups yet one or two little mistakes and Sky's your private chew toy. I know Jack and Z had a bad life, but you know damn well there are people out there with worse than they had it. Anubis, they chose their fate on the streets and the accident was not your fault. You didn't deliberately fuck up their parents' DNA so they'd have these powers, you didn't force them out onto the streets. They could've gotten themselves off without your help."
"Their powers made them outcasts. No one would've wanted anything to do with them."
"They could've hidden them, went into a shelter and not turn to thievery to survive. And at least they had each other. Sky doesn't have anyone, and I mean anyone."
"He has Bridge...and Syd."
"Now he does. But before they came? He had no one at the academy. Yes, he did have Dru but that was it and that didn't even last long as you recall. Do you have the slightest idea how many people here look at him and only see his father?"
"Sky always wanted to follow in his father's footsteps, thus people would see his father."
"No, Anubis. Sky hates being constantly thrown into his father's shadow, but thanks to us he feels it's all he has to be! We've all but told him he should be his father."
"And you figured this out all by yourself?"
"No, I figured this out after watching the Rangers closely. I've been observing them since they each came into this academy and I didn't like what I saw in Sky's case. People making remarks on how much like his father he is, how his father would be proud of him, how he would do this, not do that...and then Jack and Z came along and it got worse."
"Yet you followed my orders regarding Sky and when I disciplined him."
"The fuck I did. I upgraded Sky's bike like I did Jack and Bridge's only I didn't put the color on it. When you dressed him down for not guarding those diamonds? I was there to make sure he realized it wasn't his fault."
"And when Harrington tried to kill me?"
"I told him anyone could've made that mistake and Harrington wasn't trying to kill you, Anubis. You're already dead. If Dru had succeeded, all he would've done was help the body catch up." That was when Kat finally walked out of the Command Center, practically running and leaving a stunned Cruger just standing there.
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In her lab, Kat shoved the metal box onto a shelf and collapsed on her desk, worn and tired from aruging with Doggie. What had just happened was ugly and brutal, but it needed to be done. He had been hiding for way too long and this time, he was going too far. She only regreted not doing this years ago, but back then she probably thought he'd get over it on his own. She was mistaken; she overestimated his strength, underestimated how broken Grumm's single action made him. And he was broken, so very broken in his heart...she didn't want to admit it then because that would be saying he was weak and couldn't handle the pressure. Kat didn't want to see him weak, didn't want to admit he had weaknesses like everyone else, but in doing thatâ€"in ignoring that and blinding herseld to itâ€"she allowed him to get progressively worse.
Oh gods...what have I done? she thought to herself. Anubis, I'm so sorry! I really thought you could handle this! Kat allowed the tears to flow freely as she sat up at her desk. Her glistening green eyes looked at the mess before her and then fell onto an old holo-picture. When she activated it, she saw it was an old picture taken a lifetime ago. It was of her and a younger Anubis on a shuttle trip (the space equivalent of a road trip)...with Aisynia.
We were so happy then...so young, wild and carefree. Oh Nia...if only you could see how much he misses you. You two had everything going for you and then Grumm...Kat didn't want to think about that, it hurt too much. Memories started flooding her despite her and they flew so fast; her landing on the now-ruined Sirius and finding her best friend still embracing his wife's corpse, performing the autopsy of said corpse finding her dead from a precise stab wound straight through the heart...finding the dead, six week-old fetus inside of her. It nearly killed Anubis to hear the autopsy results; watching her die was bad enough, but to learn she was pregnant at the time...especially when they talked so often about becoming a family after two years of a blissful, exciting marriage. All this, all the life lost to that monster's wrath...it made Kat collapse into sobs, because of how much Grumm's destroyed in regards to Anubis. Yes, Grumm destroyed his world, his friends, his wife, even his unborn child. But what Grumm destroyed most of all...was his spirit, and that was the biggest loss of all.
"Kat?" Someone called softly. Kat looked up and saw Boom through tear-streaked eyes. "Kat, you're crying."
"I-I-I'm fine." She said, wiping away the remains of the tears. "I'll be okay, Boom."
"Is everything all right?" Kat was grateful to the dusty-crested humanâ€"always so compassionate, always ready with a shoulder to cry on, a joke to make her feel better...
"Yea...I just...just had to do something I avoided doing, and it hurt a lot doing it, but I...I'll be all right. Thanks."
"Does it have to do with the Commander?" Kat nodded. "Did...did he hurt you?"
"Not as much as I hurt him." That caused Boom to look worried. "Boom, really, it's okay; I just needed to reopen some old wounds in him so he could heal properly."
"The Rangers are back, and Cruger's calling for you."
"Could...could you go see what he wants? I don't think I can face him just yet."
"Sure." With that, Boom left Kat alone in the lab. At that point, Kat decided a walk is in order to get everything off her mind. Yes, that should do it...just a quick step outside the lab for some air. That wouldn't hurt, right? And when she was done, and this whole mess with Benag was over with, she and Anubis could focus on rebuilding his spirit and then maybe, just maybe...she'll have her big bad wolf-brother back. For good this time.
â€"fin.