Between the Lines

Chapter Seven

The sound of hoofbeats made Tommy and Norvi look up. To the East of them, through the trees, they could see a figure riding a horse in tight circles and figure eights, like a barrel-racer. The figure was male, lanky and muscular, wearing a black jacket, a deep scarlet tunic underneath and dark trousers. He talked and hissed to his chestnut colored horse, asking it to do this and that for him. The horse eagerly complied, seeming to have a ball with this game. The soft turf underfoot was quickly being mangled by its sharp hooves.

"Who's that?" Tommy asked.

"Sabin, The Red Rogue. You fought him the other day remember?"

"Oh yeah." Tommy said, making note that the Rogues all seemed to wear their token colors too. "I didn't know you had horses in the Fifth Dimension."

"We could have dinosaurs in here if we wanted to. It's up to your imagination."

Tommy raised his eyebrows. "Horses are good enough for me, thanks."

They laughed, and he gave Norvi a farewell nod as he got up and walked away. She waved and sank back into the water, reaching up to gather her hair into a ponytail. Instead of tying it though, she just let it melt into her hands and it was short again. Then she dove beneath the surface and swam away.

Tommy walked in the direction of the horse and rider. Sabin was riding bareback, save for a small pad, and he hung onto nothing but the animal's thick mane. When they rode in a straight line, the horse's tail rippled out behind them like a silken black river. Sabin hung on with his legs, and the two of them moved as though they were just one creature. Tommy stared, marvelling.

Sabin spotted him a moment later, as he brought his horse around and slowed it to a walk. He stared a moment, not recognizing the boy standing there, but then he saw the boy's emerald green eyes. At the same time, Tommy noticed Sabin's dark, maroon red ones.

Stopping the horse completely, the Red Rogue gave Tommy a silent nod of greeting and then turned away. He dismounted and picked up some grooming tools that were lying on the ground. Tommy approached them.

"Hey there." he called.

"Hello," Sabin returned the greeting, crouching over the tool bucket. "You must be our new Green Rogue. Welcome to the Fifth Dimension."

Sabin's voice was gruff, his face rugged and stubbly, and his manner slightly grim. He was perfectly polite though, and Tommy felt fairly comfortable around him.

"Thanks. I'm Tommy; you're Sabin, I presume."

Sabin stood and they shook hands.

"Sabin Adlai. I want to compliment you on your fighting abilities, you certainly taught Keevan and I a few things that day."

Tommy nodded, modestly accepting the praise. "I was up against quite a challenge."

The horse gave Sabin a forceful nudge with its muzzle. He laid a hand on its curved neck to quiet it.

"Does he or she have a name?" Tommy asked, admiring the creature.

"No." Sabin said flatly. "It isn't alive. It was conjured up the same way this place was, from the depths of the Dimension's resources. We are the only things that are actually here."

"Wow..." Tommy said, as the horse lipped his hand. "It's incredibly real."

"Flawless. A perfect facsimile of a horse. It eats, it sheds, it soils its stall, just like a live animal."

The two of them were silent a moment, admiring the Fifth Dimension's handiwork. Then Sabin took up a metal pick from the pile of tools.

"The others have all been introducing themselves I assume." Sabin said. "Heard a lot of stories today, eh?"

"Yeah. Most of them sound a lot like mine."

A nod. "We're all here for different, but similar reasons. I'm no exception." He glanced up to gaze at Tommy appraisingly. "I suppose I should jump on the bandwagon and tell you mine too, eh?"

He wore a slight smile, and Tommy laughed a little, shrugging.

"Yeah, I thought so. Well, I'm from a race known as the Sabini. We populated a region of Europe from around 479 to 290 BC."

Tommy gaped. "You're human?"

"No, the Sabini were originally from the planet Sabine in the Alpha Centauri solar system. We had limited space-flight technology when we decided to try and colonize another world, and we had no way of knowing that the only good planet in the Sol system was inhabited. We landed anyway, and integrated ourselves into the society there."

Sabin lifted one of the horse's feet and began to dig the mud out of it with the pick. He gestured for Tommy to start brushing the animal. Tommy complied.

"I remember studying the Sabini in history class." Tommy said. "Historians haven't a clue where they came from."

"Well, now you know why. The Sabine people are easily adaptable. We have been 'conquered' many times throughout history by other races with their sights on our world; but we always managed to out-survive them, taking back everything that was ours and learning how to use the technology they left behind. When we went to Earth, we simply did what we knew how to do best; burying our ship and anything not fitting with the time period, and blending in. Soon, you couldn't have told us apart from any other minor cultures around that region. We learned the languages, traded with other peoples, and even converted to the Hebrew religion. Earth never had a clue we didn't belong."

He finished with that hoof and began to clean another.

"I was born in 270BC. My parents gave me a Hebrew name. In 290, I was part of the army that fought the Romans who were trying to conquer us. For some reason, we chose to fight that time instead of be overrun. We lost that war-- a lot of our soldiers were killed, and our people became part of the Roman Empire. I could think of nothing worse though. We hated the Romans, and I made everyone think I had died on the battlefield. I dug up our old ship, and flew back to Sabine with a few others, where we built our own Hebrew Temple and continued on with our religion.

"We blended back into our own culture, but at the same time, brought with us new things for others to learn from. Me and my companions who had come back from Earth became cultural leaders. We were the first to preach the Hebrew faith to our homeworld, and it did not go unnoticed."

He finished with that hoof and went around to the other side. Tommy followed to brush the other side of the horse.

"A Morphin Master named Barimm approached me one day when I was 28. Mind you, that's 28 in..."

"...in human years I know." Tommy interrupted. "I'm already trying to get over the fact that I'm the short-lived one in this bunch."

Sabin laughed and went on. "Anyway, he explained to me what the Rangers were, and told me about the group he was assembling from different races in the galaxy. Those who he had selected already happened to be from worlds with little faith in a Higher Power, and so he wanted me to become a Ranger to help balance them out."

Sabin shook his head. "I prayed for days, trying to figure out if this was the path I was supposed to take. How could I leave my friends and all those I had taught God's word to, for the sake of traveling the galaxy destroying monsters I knew nothing about until I was fighting toe-to-toe with them? I had my training as a soldier, but was that enough to become a Power Ranger?"

He moved to the fourth hoof, and sighed. "Finally, I decided yes, it was the right thing to do, and I contacted Barimm again. I was made the Red Ranger in the year 299BC."

Sabin finished the last hoof, and went to get a tail comb to pick the horse's tail. Tommy, who had heard a lot of stories that day, was beginning to catch on to how they usually went.

"But then something happened..."

"Not until a few years later." Sabin replied, not missing a beat. "The Rangers and I had been off fighting on other worlds for a while, and I had not been home. I had found, in working with the four other members of my team, that I was indeed the only one who could stand in the face of uncertainty. The others were prone to hysterics and stress, and I found myself holding them up emotionally every time we came to a rough situation. I began regretting my decision to become a Ranger. I would never have quit though, if not for what happened that year. We were called back home to fight a battle on Sabine itself, where a monster was destroying cities left and right. We travelled there as fast as we could, but were too late. My hometown was in ruins. My friends, my Temple, everything was destroyed. It was the first time I hadn't been there to lend a hand when someone needed help. I was at my wit's end, and suddenly, everything I had counted on to come home to was gone."

The horse gave a solemn whuffle.

"And then that's when you found Salacia..." Tommy guessed.

"No, not at first. Actually, she found me. I wandered solar systems by myself for a long time. I stopped praying, thinking that God had finally given up on me, and reasoned that I had no business bothering him. My faith had had a number done on it, and it was fading. Like many of the other Rogues, I had nothing more to live for when Salacia found me. I joined her without hesitation, thinking that if I couldn't belong in the real world, I would belong in this world of make-believe. When I came here, I met Skyla, and she made the world I left behind obsolete."

They finished grooming No-Name, as Tommy silently digested the story.

"She sounds pretty special to you."

Sabin nodded, tossing the brushes and picks in the pile. No longer needed, they were swallowed up by the ground. "She is," he said shortly. Then he looked up. "You had someone special like that once, didn't you Tommy?"

Tommy looked at him a moment, and then averted his eyes, starting to brush the horse again. "I don't really know. I did, before this all happened, but I'm not sure anymore what I meant to her. I'm wondering if she hates me because of all this, becoming 'evil' and all."

"If she hates you for becoming what you are, then she had no business loving you in the first place." Sabin said flatly. "You are not evil, you are simply being yourself. It sounds like she just can't understand that."

Tommy looked at Sabin again, furrowing his brow. The man was suddenly so defensive, and he seemed to be talking about a specific person-- but how could he know Kimberly? Sabin turned away though, before Tommy could study his eyes anymore. Tommy realized their conversation was at an end.

"Well, I uh... I'm glad you found someone here..." Tommy began, lowering his eyes a little. Sabin sensed an edge to his voice. He gauged Tommy a moment, and then turned the horse around and gave it a firm slap on the hind quarter, sending it running happily into the distance. He turned back to Tommy.

"So am I. I think you'll find, Tommy, that the past is something best left behind you. It has no place in the present."

And with that, he walked away from Tommy, back toward where the portal to the stone chamber was. Tommy watched him go, the man's words echoing in his mind.

He would have stared a long time, if he hadn't spotted someone he hadn't yet met sitting over by the edge of the lake. As he studied the woman, he mentally counted off the number of Rogues he had so far encountered. He had spoken to five. There were two left.

The woman was roughly Sabin's age, with silken brown hair and a vaguely Samurai-like style of dressing. Her tunic was blue. So were her eyes.

The Blue Rogue. Tommy thought, starting towards her. Skyla.

Unlike Tristam, Skyla heard him coming from a distance away. She was seated cross-legged on the grass, hunched over a book of her own, but this volume was blank. She was writing in it.

She stopped when Tommy came up, and gave a polite smile.

"Hello," she said. "You must be Tommy. Welcome to our group."

"Thanks," he said, trying not to sound too eager. For some reason, he was anxious to know about this woman who held a man like Sabin's heart. "You must be Skyla."

"Skyla Killian." She shook his hand, and then said nothing more. She seemed to be waiting politely for him to go away before she went back to her book. Clearly, this Rogue wasn't as eager to get to know him as some of the other Rogues had been.

"I uh, was talking to Norvi before, she told me to introduce myself to everyone and get acquainted."

"Well, it's nice to meet the latest newcomer. Who have you met already?"

"Tashana and Keevan, Tristam and Norvi and Sabin. Now you, I guess."

"Yes, then all that's left is Undine. I don't know where she is though, probably in the gardens, over past those trees." Skyla pointed behind her, and Tommy saw a low pruned hedge in the distance. He would indeed go meet this Undine, but first he had wanted to hear Skyla's story. It seemed uncomfortable knowing the details of everyone else's past, and not hers. However, he was aware she had basically just told him to go bother someone else. He decided he wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Mind if I ask what you're writing?"

"A journal. I keep a log of my thoughts and feelings, and I like to draw pictures of interesting things I see."

Tommy nodded. "What were you drawing?"

"Sabin and his horse." she flipped backward a few pages to reveal rough pencil sketches of Sabin's square-shouldered form atop the horse's back. There was a sketch of his face in profile, an expression of concentration on his face, and a long, low drawing of the horse's four hooves tearing up the ground. Skyla was very good. She had a clear eye for light and shadow, and she was obviously fascinated by her subject matter.

"You're really good." Tommy commented, leaning forward to look at her work.

"Thank you." she said, and closed the book, turning to look back up at him. He had a feeling she was soon going to outright suggest he leave.

One last chance. When all else fails, be blunt. Tommy thought.

"I, uh... I was wondering," Tommy began. "..since everyone else told me their story, I thought I'd ask you if you minded doing the same. It's kind of making me feel better to know I have some things in common with you guys. I hope you don't mind, but I'm really interested in what you might have to say."

Skyla took a long pause, processing what he had said. Her gaze lost it's falseness and she actually smiled warmly at him, slightly amused.

"Now that's refreshing honesty," she said. "I thought you were going to beat around the bush until I shoved you in the water. Of course I'll tell you my story."

Tommy flushed in embarrassment and relief, but sat down and prepared to listen.

"Wow... where do I begin?" Skyla sighed, searching herself mentally. "Well, like Sabin, I used to live on Earth. For a very short time, that is, in the days before the human civilization ever really existed. I was part of the group who first constructed Venus Island." She laughed a little at Tommy's astonishment. "You may know the story about how the Venusians came to live on Venus Island: how queen Naya's jealous sister Divatox destroyed our lush Venus homeworld by putting a spell on it. Her spell caused all the water vapor to escape the atmosphere and the planet to dry up and become uninhabitable. The queen and her other sister, The Ninjetti Master Dulcea, lead an exodus to Earth to escape."

Tommy nodded. He knew that story. Dulcea herself had told it to him.

"But, few know the story of how the Island itself was constructed. All the women of the colony helped build it. It took only a day, but the effort put out was enormous-- every ounce of magic we possessed was focused towards breaking a hole in the Earth's crust below the sea. We called the lava forth and it poured out of the submerged fissure, cooling and solidifying, rising higher and higher towards the boiling surface of the ocean. Finally, it broke the waves in a monstrous explosion of steam and magma. The Venusians were all in boats surrounding the area, and we had to pull back hundreds of feet to avoid being burned."

Skyla was a true storyteller. Tommy was spellbound.

"In the end, a giant volcano island stood in the sea where only blue water had been before. That was the birth of Venus Island, and when the volcano was quieted, we began to build our city."

"Ambrosia..." Tommy said.

Skyla nodded. "Ambrosia."

"And you were there for all that?"

"I was. I was in one of the boats when the first pinnacle of stone rose out of the water. It was an incredible sight for a youngster like I was."

"So what happened then?"

"We built our beautiful city and our Queen's castle. The citizens built new lives for themselves, and I began my Ninjetti Training, with the help of my mentor Euklea. Your spirit is the Falcon, Tommy, and mine is the Horse; calm, watchful, and deadly if provoked." Skyla laughed at a memory from that time. "I remember being outraged that my spirit required me to be calm and watchful, but I got over it. Euklea trained me well."

Tommy grinned at that story, but his smile faded a bit afterward. He was now well aware of how these stories went, and knew what was coming next.

"One day though, I suppose about thirty Earth years after Venus Island was created, an unstable rock mass under the water came loose from the pinnacle on which the island stood. It fell to the sea floor, displacing massive amounts of water and causing a large earthquake. A wave twenty stories high crashed into the island not long after, and Euklea, among others, was killed in the destruction left in the tidal wave's wake."

This was the sad part. Skyla was handling it well, still focused on telling her story to the excited listener before her.

"Many people lost loved ones in that disaster, and so the sympathy I received was enormous. I was offered places to live by many of my friends, and I had few other options but to be taken in like that-- but in the end I chose not to. Instead, I travelled to Eltar, a world very far away, to seek out an Oracle who could perhaps tell me what my future held without Euklea to guide me. The Oracle was a wise, kind old woman, who told me there was great power in store for me. I wasn't sure if I should believe her or not, but I thanked and paid her, and went on my way. I lived on Eltar a short time then before I was discovered by the famous Morphin Master Metsuke No Ezan. She knew of the tragedy that had befallen the planet Venus, and she also knew of the mighty Ninjetti Warriors that came from there. She wanted to know if I would do her the honor of fighting as one of her Power Rangers. As soon as I got the offer, I remembered the words of the Oracle, and knew it must be the right thing to do, so I joined. It was then that I met Chase."

Suddenly, it was as though all the world froze for Skyla. The wind died, the birds fell silent, and not even an insect dared speak. Skyla's voice was no longer clear and dramatic, it was now almost soft and wistful, almost fragile. Tommy sensed the change right away, and froze as well.

"Chase was the Red Ranger. He was quiet, fair and smiling, and I fell for him faster than a meteor from the sky. He loved me with all his heart, and when we finally got up the courage to _tell_ each other, it was like magic for us. I finally found someone to help fill the hole Euklea had left, and with every day of battle and of peace, we grew closer."

Her voice dropped another notch in volume. What she was about to say was hard to remember. "Chase died protecting me from a monster made of fire. I watched his red costume disappear into the wall of flame and smoke, and I held him while he took his last breaths. He told me it was the best death he could have hoped for, lying in my arms and knowing I was safe from danger once more. I still wonder sometimes if he realized his perfect death was the end of my life as I knew it.

"The girl I had been before died with Chase that day, and I went mad with grief. The hole in my heart was twice as big now, and I thought it would swallow me up like the maw of a giant whirlpool. I went into a rage, destroying life on half a world with my power, before I came to my senses and fled, disappearing without a trace into space. I had no ship, no supplies, I simply teleported into oblivion, with no destination whatsoever. I thought I would eventually end up some place where I could die alone and anonymous, but instead I found Salacia. She took me in, told me I was safe now, and told me she was a friend. She made a promise that the pain would all go away if I chose to stay with her, because she had experienced something similar, and she had survived. I eventually believed her, and I gave up my Ninjetti powers to become the first Rogue Ranger, the Blue Rogue. Salacia became my big sister, my guide and my teacher, and together we travelled all over the galaxy. It was I who helped her create the Fifth Dimension, where the Rogues live now, and I helped her start her empire. You can see the fruits of our labor now. Just look around."

She lowered her eyes. Tommy stared a moment longer before looking as she had suggested. He saw green grass, blue sky, cottony white clouds and rippling clear water. In one word: Paradise. Salacia and Skyla had created Eden in a pocket dimension so many years ago.

"But you still hurt inside, don't you?" whispered Tommy, knowing all too well some of the emotions underlying in what she spoke about.

Skyla lifted her chin to look at him, almost defiant.

"Yes, but I have Sabin now. He knows what its like to lose everything you ever cared about. Together we survive the pain, which is something you'll learn to do eventually. Just keep faith in that, Tommy, and you can survive anything. Trust me."

And with that, she snapped her fingers and the world went blindingly bright. Tommy wasn't sure if he had closed his eyes or not, but a moment later he was opening them, and greeting a different scene.

He was sitting cross-legged as he had been before, but now he was perched atop a wide stone bench surrounding a rushing fountain. The stone was warm from the sun, and the water glistened and gurgled quietly. Tommy followed the spouting water up with his eyes, to where it reached its highest point, and then tumbled back to Earth, defeated by gravity. Still more water pushed upward though, and Tommy marvelled at how steadfast and hopeful it was.

Dimly, he thought, Ah... I've made a metaphor.

But then, movement caught his eye on the other side of the fountain.

Sitting opposite him, a mandolin in her lap, sat a young woman. She was decidedly Aquitian, with the smooth, blue-grey scullcap of bone and flesh that protected her race from the trace radiation in their ocean. She also had flowing, straw-gold hair that fell angelically around her face. Her chin was delicate, her features soft and girlish, and her eyes a startling pale rose color. Save for those eyes, she looked a little like Kimberly, only different-- it was an inexplicable likeness.

The eyes were looking directly at Tommy, the girl's hands paused in mid-strum over her mandolin, and her mouth open on an interrupted note of song.

When he realized she was looking at him, Tommy blinked, and sputtered like a nervous high school freshman confronting his first date. He finally got a word out.

"..hi." he said.

She smiled. "Hello. You must be Tommy." Her voice was sweet and melodious, even overlaid with that strange warble that all Aquitian voices possessed.

"Um, yeah." he swallowed. "And you're Undine?"

She nodded, looking shy and averting her eyes to play with the strings of her instrument. She looked to be about sixteen years old.

"So, what are you working on?" Tommy asked, deciding to break the silence, and proud that his voice did not crack again.

"Just a song," she replied, ducking her head a little. "I like to write music." she admitted softly.

Tommy felt another flash of deja vu. Kimberly had always loved music, and was an excellent singer and guitar player as well. He still remembered the song that she and Zack had written, back when they thought that he was not going to be able to be a Ranger anymore. Pushing that firmly out of his mind, he moved a little closer. "Think I could hear it?"

She regarded him for a long moment, then began to strum her mandolin. The tune was wistful, much faster than he would have expected it to be, considering how sad it sounded. He listened raptly as she began to sing.

"Moonlight on ocean, silver wave.
Singing of wind and water.
Sound of the sea in the cave.

Child of the ocean, sea's daughter,
In dreams, I hear her call,
Calling me, silver water.

Oceans of darkness, night's fall,
Seas of space now between
Me and the source of that call.

Still in my dreams that silver sheen,
Calling me to be brave.
Dream of the life that has been.
Sound of the sea in the cave."

As the last of the song died away, Tommy let out the breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"Wow." he breathed. "That was... amazing.!"

Undine smiled shyly. "You really think so?" she asked.

"Yeah! The emotion in it was so powerful!" He suddenly realized why it had touched him so deeply. "Are you homesick?" he asked.

She seemed slightly startled by his abrupt question, but nodded. "Just a little," she said. "It's because I'm the youngest Rogue, I guess. I still miss Aquitar sometimes... to some extent."

"Why did you leave?" Tommy asked. Then he caught himself. "I'm sorry. You probably don't want to think about that."

"No, it's all right." Undine waved him off. "You see, I was the eldest of the two children of the King. I was supposed to be the ruler after he passed on. They taught me everything I needed to know-- the arts, science, politics. The one thing I could never master was the fighting arts. However, since Aquitar was at peace, this was ignored. One day, I was practicing my music in one of the gardens when Hydro Hog launched his attack. I would have died if it hadn't been for Salacia."

Tommy found himself in yet another life-story. This one had taken zero prompting to convince its teller to begin though, and he hoped that was because Undine didn't mind talking to him. Once again, the story was similar to the others.

"She was Pink Rogue at the time, and she saved my life. I asked her if there was anything I could do to repay her, and she said she had come for the Starfire Carnelian, one of our crown jewels that magically protects the wearer against flames. It was sacred to our people, so I couldn't give it to her. I told her so, and she said that she understood, and would be around if I changed my mind." Undine's features hardened, and it was obvious that she was remembering something unpleasant.

"When I returned to the palace, I was suddenly told that my younger brother would be crowned instead of me. I had been groomed for the position all my life, but now they just threw me aside in favor of my brother, just because he could fight, and I couldn't. I ran away, and while I was crying, Salacia found me. She offered to train me in combat if I could get her the gem. I agreed, but when I tried to retrieve it, I was caught and thrown into jail. Luckily for me, Salacia and the Rogues broke me out. Salacia made me the Pink Rogue, and I led the team back to the palace and stole the Carnelian. It wasn't as if they really needed it. I haven't seen my family since then."

Tommy was taken aback. "That's really harsh." he told her.

She shrugged. "I've learned to live with it. The others-- they're more of a family to me now than the family I left behind. It's just-- sometimes, in my music, I get a little bit homesick." She cocked her head at him. "Do you play an instrument?"

"Um-- the flute." he admitted. "As the Green Ranger, I had-- _have_, a Dragon Dagger that controls different aspects of my Powers through music. I can play it like a flute, and I learned to play a real one too."

"Well, would you like to play a duet with me? Just concentrate, and a flute will appear." He did as she suggested, and was startled to see a silver flute appear in his lap. Lifting it to his lips, he waited as she started her song again. He listened for a bit, and then he began to play a simple harmony to accompany her sweet voice and mandolin.

Magically, the music of their song drifted across all corners of Fifth Dimension, reaching the ears of everyone present in the tranquil park-setting.