Sylvie had enough. She couldn't really ask any questions about Carlos because then she'd have to say who she was. She knew they wouldn't let anyone in who wasn't qualified, but others didn't know it and probably wouldn't believe it, specifically her exboyfriend Geoff. She sat down at the terminal in her room, plugged in her datapad, and set about trying to find out what was going on.
Lunch went by too fast. She hadn't even started when Amy came in, wordlessly grabbed her datapad, and left again with a glare in Sylvie's direction. Right behind her came Portia and Leia, to drag her off to Science. In class, it was such a temptation to work on breaking that code, but she knew if she tried, Cestro would either catch her doing it, or he would catch her later, in the form of a test. She bent her mind to the subject at hand.
Once philosophy was over, she made excuses to her roommates and Mack and David for missing their regular practices, and ran up to her room to work on her project. She knew the Academy had a pretty good security system, and tried to hide her tracks. So far, it seemed to be working.
It took her three days before she found what she wanted: the medical reports entered by Cassie Chan on Carlos. She downloaded it onto her datapad and crawled up on her bunk, grabbing Delilah and putting her on her lap. "Now, lets find out what happened," she said softly and began to read.
The car accident had been someone else's fault; the truck driver hadn't seen the red light or hadn't cared. Brianna had been driving, Harmony in the back seat, taking Carlos to the Academy, to work. Both Brianna and Harmony had been killed on impact. Sylvie felt the tears gather in her eyes, and brushed them away angrily. She knew all that, had been to the funeral that Carlos hadn't attended, hadn't been able to. She hugged Delilah closer and read on.
"The hospital staff was inexperienced or careless, the doctor couldn't tell me which. They didn't check the necklace or the bracelet we now wear in case of such an emergency, and of course stripped him to care for his wounds. That sent him into further shock. Carlos went from bad to worse in a matter of seconds, apparently dropping into a coma faster than they had ever seen. Doctor Jamieson called the Academy in a panic when he found the bracelet identifying the problem. I went down with a blanket and wrapped him up in it; once surrounded with black again, he stabilized. It was kind of amazing to see the difference. But Angel Grove Memorial isn't equipped to deal with the quirks of being a Power Ranger, so as soon as he stable enough, we're taking him up the Academy."
Sylvie wiped the tears from her cheeks. That made sense; he'd worn black the whole time she'd known him. He still did. "But why did he leave?" She opened the next file, hoping to find something out.
"Carlos is doing better; we moved him up here yesterday, and he's starting to improve. He looks at me with this haunted expression, and I don't know how to help him. I know it's got to be hard for him, although up here I'm sure it's a little easier than at home. Brianna rarely came up here, and Harmony had never been. We haven't told him that Ashley lost the baby yet; he's taken about as much loss as he can handle, and I'm not sure how he'd react to that. I'm still not exactly sure how to tell him, frankly, but I'm going to have to. He won't say much, it tires him, but it shouldn't be long before he's much better. The double shock to his system may have been more than the power could heal all that quickly. He hasn't complained, and that's a bad sign. He's almost a worse patient than TJ."
"That still didn't tell me what I wanted to know," she mumbled, and opened the next file.
"He's walking around, still not saying anything. He seems to be thinking about something, and that is not a good sign. It means, oddly enough, that he's going to do something rash. I'm keeping him here anyway, I'm worried about him. I've never had someone go through Color Withdrawal while as injured as he was, and I'm hoping there are no bad side effects. Well, other than the relative slowness of his recovery. I'm not a real doctor yet, I still have some studying to do for that, if only I had the time. Dr. Jamieson came up to see him, and was surprised he was up and around; he expressed an interest in sending people up here to study us, to prevent what happened to Carlos from happening again. I think he's one of the people he was talking about. He must be a researcher at heart."
Sylvie leaned back, staring thoughtfully at the bunks on the other side of the room without really seeing them. She wondered how injured Andros and Carlos had actually been, fighting the monster in the Secret City, unable to morph. They had survived, certainly, but it couldn't have been comfortable. That explained how they'd even managed to get up after a couple of blows. She turned her attention to the next file.
"I sent Carlos home last night. I don't know what else to do. He seems to be getting better, sort of. But it's like he's missing something - okay, it's cliche', but it's true. I guess he just needs time to get over this whole loss thing. He doesn't take it very well. As far as I know, he doesn't know about Ashley's loss, either. He took his communicator and his morpher, so we can track him if we have to."
There was an addendum to this file, dated two weeks later. "Carlos vanished last night. He left a note for Ashley and Andros, apologizing for leaving like that, saying something about memories, and having to clear his head. He's not well yet, but his house is empty and sold. Andros found the morpher and communicator on his desk. He didn't want to leave us short a team member."
There were no more entries. Sylvie stared at the last one, closed everything and saved it to a disk she'd bought at the Academy bookstore for just such an occasion, then deleted everything off the datapad that had anything to do with Carlos. What could have possessed him to take off like that? She didn't come up with an answer, staring at the bunks, so she left, to go down to the practice mats and began to try to figure out the move Mr. Scott had performed a while ago. Anything to get her mind off her friend. On her way out the door, she noticed Amy had come in and was doing something with her datapad hooked to the terminal against the back wall. Sylvie said good-bye, but she didn't answer.
Sylvie ended like usual, on her back staring up at the ceiling and wondering what she was doing wrong. "It's really hard to learn that on your own," Mr. Scott's voice said, and Sylvie scrambled to her feet, flushing in embarrassment; he smiled at her. With him stood Mr. Park, who watched the exchange with a straight face. She wondered if he ever smiled.
"Yeah, I've been finding that out," she said sheepishly. He stepped onto the mat.
"Let me show you where to start, okay?" he asked. She nodded.
Sylvie returned to her room, aching. The man didn't pull his punches! Or at least, she hoped he wasn't, because if he was, she never wanted to face him on real terms! She now had a private instructor before dinner, at least until she got the move as perfect as she could, until he said she was finished. That had been the deal.
The two occupants of the room turned to look at her as she stepped in the door and sank onto one of the chairs. "What?" she asked after it became apparent they were staring at her.
"You've got a black eye," Portia said. "What happened?"
Sylvie reached up and touched the bruise around her left eye. "I didn't dodge fast enough," she grimaced. "I'm actually getting instruction on that move I nearly broke your leg with."
"Good," Leia said, and smiled. "Who from?"
"Mr. Scott, no less. I guess Mr. Park saw me trying it a few days ago, and got hold of him. They've been waiting for me to show up again." She shrugged, wincing at the pain in her shoulders. "I can tell tomorrow is going to be fun."
"Take a long hot shower and go to bed. I'll bring something up from the Commissary," Portia told her.
"Where's Amy?" Sylvie asked, just as the door opened and their roommate came in, looking upset. "Are you okay?" Sylvie asked. Amy sank down on her bunk.
"Oh, sure, I'm fine," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I was just told that if I don't start working with other people, I won't be able to stay." She glared at the other three around her, then opened her locker and pulled out her datapad.
Sylvie watched her, stunned. Teamwork was important; she'd seen how the Rangers had all supported each other. Carlos had told her the risks the others had taken to get him, Andros, and the other people out of the Secret City, allowing themselves to be captured even though they knew they could be turned into data cards, too. Never mind that they couldn't morph. "That doesn't surprise me," Sylvie murmured.
"What, that they'll kick me out?" Amy snapped, looked over at her in fury.
"No! No, that you have to be part of a team, and there's no point in training someone if they won't. Have you ever watched any of the vids of the stuff they've had to do? I mean, in the Teamwork class they just showed us what happened when Mr. Scott and one of his teammates didn't work together at first. Two different vids, one when they were under a spell and one when they weren't. It's just impossible to win if someone isn't part of the team and you need them."
"There are solitary Rangers out there," Amy protested.
"Remains of teams," Leia said. "Even the head master had to take on the rest of his team when the opportunity presented itself. And as far as we know, the Phantom hasn't had the opportunity."
"The Triforian Ranger, though," Amy said, sounding a little more desperate.
"Exception," Portia said evenly. "Or we can ask someone about him." She laughed suddenly. "Unless he is his own team."
Leia laughed, too. "Well, since he's a tri-fold being, I guess that's possible," she grinned.
Sylvie shook her head. "That's just it. The solitary Rangers are the exceptions, not the rule. And even they can work with teams, and do, fairly well, from what the syllabus said. So you still have to be able to work with a team, even if you don't right then." She shook her head. "I'm not sure that made sense."
"I didn't need the lecture from you guys, too," Amy said, and turned her back on them. They all heard her start up her datapad. Sylvie looked at her friends and shrugged.
"Look, we're sorry," Leia said softly. "We didn't mean to lecture you."
"We really didn't," Portia added. "And I hope you don't get sent home, and not just because you're helping me out with the computer."
Amy didn't answer, and didn't even turn to acknowledge that they'd spoken.
"Well, I'm going to take a shower, then try to sleep. And if I wake up early, I'll try not to wake you guys up, okay?" She gave them a wink and grabbed a towel on the way towards the bathroom.
The next day was spent explaining her black eye and stiffness to everyone but the teachers of the Combat Class and the Teamwork class. The inseparable Mack and David were merciless from the beginning; as soon as she gave her first excuse, she could hear them talking to whoever she'd just explained it to, and the comments always made her blush. David could be particularly pointed, but it never hurt her; half the time he took the blame. Of course, when he did, she came back with something like "As if you could hit hard enough to bruise like this!" She could have sworn Mr. Scott was laughing at her as she explained for the millionth time that she'd been sparing and hadn't ducked in time.
"You could see Dr. Chan for that," he said to her when they met after her classes were over.
She held up a small bottle. "Ibuprofen does a GREAT job of keeping the pain just out of reach," she said, tucked it away, and took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm ready."
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