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Nova gave up her garter for me to use as a wrap for the large cut down my arm. I carefully tied it around, making sure to tie it off right above the wound itself before positioning two sticks on both sides of my wrist and using a piece of my torn dress to hold them in place. It was definitely broken and my skin required stitches.
Nova was a few feet away, using her blaster to smack something just outside of the cell.. The sound was making my head pound even worse. I needed her to stop doing that before my brain exploded.
"Can you just stop for a minute?" I groaned.
"Not until we're out," Nova huffed. We'd been locked in this weird prison cell for who knows how long.
Nova went back to banging the object against the lock outside the cell.
"Nova!" I shouted.
She turned towards me angrily and threw her blaster to the ground. I was just as frustrated and scared as she was.
"Just calm down, the Rangers are probably looking for us now." I told her.
"We don't even know where we are," Nova said, plopping down on the ground. I looked at both of our dresses. They were dirty, ripped, and blood soaked from my arm.
"They'll find us." I said softly. They had to find us, right? I mean, one moment we were enjoying a wonderful extravaganza and then the next we were here.
"Are you sure?" Nova said.
"Positive." I took her hand in mine.
She looked up to the ceiling and I looked down at the ground. Any minute now I expected Carter and Ryan to come busting through the cell, scoop us up into their arms, and carry us away to safety.
"Nova?" I cleared my throat, seeing the scar peeking from the back of her dress as she moved. I knew this was the wrong time to ask about it - but the words came out of my mouth before I could stop them
"Hmm?" she turned back to look at me.
I looked at her nervously, "What really happened to your shoulder?"
Nova pulled her hand back to her own lap and it looked like I struck a nerve.
"If I have to share my story with the crash then you have to share the scar story." I posed. I thought that seemed fair...
"I can't talk about it..." she sighed.
I looked at her sadly, "Please?"
She was silent.
"Was it your dad?" I questioned.
Nova leaned her head back against the wall.
"That was always a rumor. You know... why your mom left and stuff. Everyone said-" I started.
She cut me off, "Everyone was wrong. He didn't beat us."
"Then what did he do? Nova I saw the bruises." I stared at her, watching her emotions fluctuate on her face.
Nova sighed, growing agitated, "That was from training. You saw that part. I didn't have to do that."
"What did you have to do?" I wondered.
She picked her head back up, finally looking at me, "You know I was supposed to be the red ranger right?"
I looked at her in shock. Why didn't she ever tell me that before?
"Yeah. I know. It was supposed to be a reward for everything he put me through. For every failed attempt to make the morpher work." Nova rattled on.
"The anonymous tester... was it really you?" I whispered. I had heard the stories about the tester and what it did to them. I didn't know it was my best friend and my heart broke for her. I was crying before she even clarified for me.
Nova nodded, tears slipping down her cheeks, "Yeah, at this point, I don't know why I turned it down when Captain Mitchell finally offered it to me.. I deserved it. But somehow I convinced myself it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth it because I wouldn't get to share it with you, or even Ryan."
"Did Ryan know?" I asked.
"He was starting to figure it out," Nova said, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand, "He was going to tell your dad, so he could take me away from him. Then he was gone-"
Tears ran down my face as she let out a loud sob, "Why didn't you tell me?"
We were eleven. How could someone put someone so young through something like that? How could someone hurt someone so innocent as her? She always had the purest soul and I didn't want to think about her practically being tortured.
Nova shrugged, trying to keep sobs from escaping as I scooted forward to pull her into a hug. I couldn't imagine her going through something like that. My best friend... my best friend who's father put her through so much unnecessary pain....
"I was just so scared of what he would do. And after he was dead everyone called him a hero. I couldn't take that away from him because in the end he was saving lives even in death. I just wanted it to be done with." Nova wept.
"Who knew?" I asked.
"Miss Fairweather found out after my mom left. She came in and made my dad stop. That's when he started on himself but he wasn't strong enough. The last test he did on me, it made my shirt catch on fire. Miss Fairweather had just joined, she was the one who put it out." she told me.
I continued to hold her as her tears soaked my destroyed dress, "It's over. He can't hurt you anymore."
We sat there. Just crying together until everything was dried up.
"I stayed at Lightspeed because of you guys." Nova told me. She became a part of our family the moment we became friends despite what happened to her.
I grabbed her hand again, "You're part of our family Nova."
It only made Nova cry harder. I held her until she couldn't cry anymore.
"There has to be some way out of here," I wondered out loud.
There had to be a way out of here. We had to figure something out. I followed Nova's glance up to the ceiling where we saw a small grate for ventilation covered with a thin sheet of wire.
"There." Nova stood up.
"Can you give me a boost?" I stood up with her, careful to not hurt my hand any further. My arm was still pooling blood - slowly leaking out of the garter trying to hold it all in.
Our dresses were the biggest problem as I had climbed onto Nova's shoulders. I had Nova set me back down so we could rip the bottom of my dress to get it out of the way. It was ruined already anyways. I decided to use the extra piece of fabric to help me reach the grate and pull myself up with.
"Can you reach it?" Nova said, straining to hold me up.
I reached my arms up, "Almost..." I had to be able to reach it. If I could get it and get up there, then I could pull Nova up and we could find a way out of here.
I stretched as far as I could, using what little strength I had to pull me up.
"Got it!" I cheered.
I looked down at Nova, wondering how we were going to get her up here now. I was not leaving her here by herself.
"Wait... now you can't get up," I said.
"It's fine," Nova said, "Run, go get the rangers."
She picked her discarded blaster up off the ground.
"I can't just leave-" I started.
"Go! Go tell them where we are! I'll be fine here. If I'm going to die, this would be a grand exit." Nova insisted.
That girl was so hardheaded that I knew better than to argue with her right now.
"I'll be back," I yelled, pulling the wire back up over the vent.
I crawled through the vent, unsure of where I was going or if I was going to be able to find a way out of here. What if I screwed everything up and got caught? What if they put me somewhere else where Nova was not and nobody would be able to find me?
The thoughts roamed my mind as I looked for anything. I just hoped Nova would be okay until I could get to the rangers. If the demon came back and saw me gone - she would get hurt.
"Come on Skye, now is not the time to start panicking, I've got to get to the rangers."
In the distance I could see a faint light, so I carefully and quietly crawled over to it. It was beaming down from another grate and above I could hear voices. The ringing in my ears from the explosions made it hard to pick out the voices, but I had to try right?
I used my hands to push the grate up, even though it really hurt my injured hand, I pushed it to the side and heard a loud thunk when it was out of my way. I grabbed the sides, using my tippy toes to push myself up off the ground and pull myself up again.
I didn't have to do much work when each of my hands were grabbed and my entire body was yanked right through that small opening. I landed with my knees on the ground and my hand in even more excruciating pain.
"Skye!" a collective chime of voices snapped my attention to them. It was Carter and Ryan that had just pulled me out of that vent, both looking very concerned and upset at how beat up and bruised I appeared to be.
I looked down at my dress, seeing how badly it looked now than it did at the start of the night.
"Well, there goes the rental deposit." I muttered, catching my breath.
"Where is Nova?" Ryan asked.
"Dana, she's bleeding!" Carter called out.
"I just need stitches - maybe a cast." I shook my head, "Where are we?"
"Still at the banquet hall." Carter said.
Dana ran over with a first aid kit and started examining my hand. I instinctively grabbed Carter's arm and squeezed at the pain. He only just placed his hand over mine and dealt with it.
"Skye, where is Nova?" my twin asked again.
"I-I don't know. I crawled through the vents. Ryan, you've got to find her." I shook my head, wincing at my sister's movements again, "We were in a dungeon or basement... A cell, I don't know."
My brother took off running without saying another word. I knew he would bring Nova back safely, but I couldn't help but worry about her.
"We need to get you to the med bay. I don't like how much your arm is bleeding." Dana announced.
"I'm not going anywhere until I see Nova up here with me." I meant my words.
"Skye, you are bleeding." Carter reminded me.
"I've been bleeding for over an hour now, I'm fine. I'm not moving until I see my best friend." I glared.
"Well, you're not staying here to bleed out either!" Carter reached underneath my knees and wrapped his arm around my legs and then used his other arm to throw my non injured hand over his shoulders as he picked me right up off the ground despite my protests.
"Carter, stop! Put me down - I have to make sure Nova is okay." I protested as I tried to push myself out of my arms.
"Just let the guy carry you already!" Nova shouted from down the hall, "I'm okay! See, I told you we would be fine!"
I stopped fighting against Carter when I saw Nova coming down the hall with Ryan. Much to how I was in Carter's arms, she was in my brothers. I never felt so relieved in my life than I was when I heard her voice.
"Thank god." I muttered.
I wasn't going to lie, I was starting to feel a little light headed from the blood loss.
"Move it, double time!" Dana shouted, causing us all to jump and keep moving, "Geez, are we just going to let my sister bleed out here?"
I rested my head on Carter's shoulder as he carried me to the Rescue Rover. He gently placed me in the seat, helping me buckle up as Dana rushed us back to the Aquabase. We were there in no time at all.
Carter picked me right back up and carried me all the way to the med bay where medical supplies were already set up and at my reach. As soon as he sat me down on the table, I reached for the cart and pulled it closer to me. Dana could give me an x-ray after I stitched the cut in my arm up. I was stable enough to do that much on my own.
I poured cleaning solution on and then covered the area with betadine. Carter watched in either amazement or disgust. Dana frowned that I took away the fun part from her, Nova watched from the bed next to mine, and Ryan gagged at the sight of the needle.
"Doesn't that hurt?" Carter asked, "Shouldn't you let Dana do that?"
"Shut up for a minute will ya? I'm almost finished." I said, carefully watching my movements.
Carter looked at Nova, probably mentally wondering if I was crazy or not.
"What? You think I could do that? She might be afraid of a spider but she can handle some very gorey and bloody situations. She's got a better stomach than I do. I could never do what she does. I cause it, she fixes it." Nova said, letting Ryan hold her close to him.
"All done." I announced.
I was in the med bay longer than I wanted to be. Dana had concluded my hand was only fractured and the worst of my injuries was the cut I had stitched up. My hand would heal in a few weeks but until then I just needed to wear a brace to keep it still.
When I was cleared, Carter scooped me right back up into his arms and carried me all the way to his room. I didn't want to be anywhere else but with him for the rest of the night. I wanted to be in his company so that I felt safe the rest of the night.
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May the power always protect you.
If you would like to see Ryan saving Nova, then head on over to @carnationcreation's page and check out (19) Trapped of Final Phase! Don't forget to add this to your reading list to get the latest updates!