Chapter 1: Itenerary
Summary:
Summary of what Episodes will be in each Chapter
Notes:
Updates every Saturday :)
Chapter Text
Chapter 01: INTRO
Chapter 02: 4-10
Chapter 03: 10-17
Chapter 04: (1-4)17-20
Chapter 05: 20-25
Chapter 06: 26-30
Chapter 07: 31-37
Chapter 08: 38-44
Chapter 09: 44-49
Chapter 10: 49-55
Chapter 11: 56-60
Chapter 12: 60-65
Chapter 13: 66-73
Chapter 14: 73-77
Chapter 15: 77-83
Chapter 16: 84-88
Chapter 17: 89-92
Chapter 18: 93-96
Chapter 2: Introduction
Chapter Text
It was only about a month after Halloween that the next big thing happened. Only, this time, it wasn’t having to fight some crazy evil thing or mega-wasps with stingers far bigger than they had any right being. It was…
Well, they all teleported into the ship. Normal. Except for the fact that none of them had teleported themselves. They hadn’t pressed the watches, but they were all suddenly stood in the ship, in the Command centre and in front of Zordon and Alpha, who looked around the place as well, seemingly confused. Maybe he was confused?
“What the fuck?” Juliana looked to her right and saw Daisy looking around her with a perplexed frown. “I did not…” Daisy made eye contact with Juliana, then blinked.
“I’m gonna assume none of you teleported here on purpose as well, then?” Valentina guessed from the surprised and confused looks on everyone else’s faces that she had no doubt mirrored her own.
“Is that a thing you can do?” Kimberly asked Zordon. “Teleport us here?”
“No,” Zordon answered. Frustratingly enough, his voice lacked any and all confusion because, of course, it did. “It is not.”
“Then, how-”
Trini cut herself off when the pixelated wall Zordon was on changed, booting the alien from his place and replacing it with white words on a black screen. Jemma blinked. “It can change colour?”
“I don’t think that’s what you should be focussing on, Jems,” Daisy said, eyes locked onto the words on the screen.
Juliana took a step forward and read them aloud, “How you arrived here does not matter, only that you did. You are here to watch an alternate universe. One that you 6 exist in with its own troubles but so distant from that of this universe.”
They all gaped, momentarily speechless, because what were you supposed to say to that? Well, if coins that gave you superpowers and magical armour existed, why not alternate universes? Somehow, it was hardly the most surprising thing that had happened to them in the past few months. Dios mio, what had Juliana’s life come to?
“Why?” Daisy, unsurprisingly, was the first to recover and break the silence. She always seemed to take everything in stride, no matter how insane it was. Well, aside from her thinking she was dreaming 90% of the time, not that Juliana could fault her for it.
The words on the wall disappeared, only to be replaced with ‘entertainment’. Kimberly stared. “Entertainment. Seriously?”
“Get comfortable and enjoy the show,” Julaina read off the screen with a tired voice. “You won’t be bored.” Then the words faded again before being replaced. Again. “Time beyond this has frozen, so no one will notice you are gone.” Was that a thing now? How the hell did that work? “You will also not feel tired, hungry, or thirsty, nor will you need to go to the bathroom.”
Okay. This was weird. So this… thing had just miraculously made it so that they needed none of the necessities of the human body. Right. Why not?
“Take a seat, Power Rangers. Prepare yourselves.”
Oh, because that filled her with confidence.
Chapter 3: Behind You
Notes:
TRIGGER WARNING:
Domestic Abuse / Child Abuse. It's mild and brief but you can skip it from when the scene chanegd to Daisy washing dishes and then start reading from them getting on the bus. Again it's brief, but I thought it best to warn you. There are mentions of it throughout the fic though, as mentioned in that tags.
Chapter Text
Juliana groaned as she sat down on the bus, thumping her head back against the seat with closed eyes.
Valentina tilted her head. “Wonder why you aren’t taking your bike.”
“Might have broken down?” Daisy suggested with a shrug.
“Or I just don’t have one in that universe?” Juliana offered as an alternative. In truth, they couldn’t know for sure until it was shown, so there was no point in guessing. But there was also no harm in guessing, either.
Juliana’s eyes shot open when someone sat down in the seat beside her; a girl with a distinctly British accent and a blinding grin was waving at her slightly. “Hi.” Juliana must have been staring for too long because the girl dropped her hand, and her smile faltered. “Sorry to impose, there wasn’t another seat.”
Juliana blinked and shook her head. “No, no, it’s fine. I’m Juliana. Are you new?”
The British girl blushed slightly. “Yeah, I am. I just moved here from England. London. I’m Jemma.”
Juliana smiled. Maybe in this universe, they’d see proof that they’d always have become friends, even if they weren’t thrust together by the power coins. Or maybe it wouldn’t, and they wouldn’t be close at all. Who knows?
“Oh, actually,” Jemma continued, “I think I live just a few houses down from you.” Jemma pointed through the window behind them as the bus began to pull away. “What’s with all the school busses?”
The screen changed to show a large area of busses, covered i graffiti and enclosed by a concrete wall. A singular red bus was outside of the wall and had ‘School Bus Graveyard’ graffiti’d on it with yellow and black paint. An ominous name but a cool one nonetheless.
Daisy’s eyes lit up. “That’s sick. Imagine the parkour opportunities,” she said wistfully before her head snapped over to Juliana. “You don’t have one of those here that you’ve been keeping from me, have you?”
Juliana raised an eyebrow at Daisy, deadpanning, “No.”
Immediately, the shorter girl’s shoulders slumped, and she sank into the chair with crossed arms and a pout. Hey, at least she still had the mines. They were still cool. Plus, she could safely jump off a cliff with a few too many flips, so she supposed it wasn’t all bad.
“It’s just a junkyard with a bunch of used and broken down busses. Nothing too interesting.” Juliana responded.
The scene cut away to a bit later in the day. Juliana was walking through the school corridor, probably on her way to a lesson, when a familiar voice called, “Look out!”
Juliana lifted her head before zipping to the side as a shoe embedded itself in the wall behind her, inches away from where she was now.
Daisy snorted before bursting into full-on laughter because how hard did you have to throw a shoe for it to literally bury itself into concrete? She didn’t have to feel bad about it, though, because it didn’t take long for her to hear the other Rangers join her.
“Sorry!” Valentina winced apologetically from where she stood in front of two boys, one with the other over his shoulder. The one in the air was blatantly down a shoe. Kimberly seemed particularly less sorry as she was doubled over with laughter. Juliana just shook her head with a deep sigh and walked away.
Daisy grinned. “Damn. We got the boss stressed out already, and it hasn’t even been a day yet.”
“Not to mention that the two most stressful haven’t shown their faces.” Valentina sent a pointed look at Daisy, then Trini, who both just grinned like it was something to be proud of. Idiots.
Juliana entered her classroom, looking around for a moment with a frown before her eyes locked onto the plaques attached to each of the desks with different names on them – assigned seats, then. Juliana walked through the room, down each row before finding her seat at the last row, because of course it was, by the window. Juliana took her seat and leaned back, looking at the seats around her to see if she recognised any names. Beside her was ‘Daisy J.’ and behind her was ‘Jemma S.’ which Juliana had to assume was the girl from the bus. She didn’t know who Daisy was, though. Maybe she was also new?
Kimberly and Valentina entered the room at a run, skidding to a stop with apologies on their tongues before they paused. The teacher wasn’t there yet. Kimberly made a noise, “Maybe we’re safe, then?”
They both froze at the voice behind them as the teacher came into view. “Safe?” The teacher asked with narrowed eyes as they both slowly turned. “Two students late to my class on the first day.”
“Just had to jinx it, didn’t you?” Valentina shook her head at Kimberly. Detention on what looked like the first day of school had to be a new record.
Then, the teacher grinned and waved a hand. “I’m only kidding. If you’re here before me, then there’s no problem. Otherwise, I’d have to mark myself late.” He joked before walking into the class behind Kimberly and Valentina. Following loosely behind him were Daisy and Jemma, who cast their eyes across the class for their seats in an attempt to avoid having to double-back after going to the wrong one.
“Sorry I’m late,” he apologised before gesturing to Daisy and Jemma. “These two are new here, so try to give them a warm welcome, kay?” He gestured ahead. “You two go ahead and take your seats.”
Both girls moved forward as fast as they could, trying not to seem like they were. It was lucky that Jemma was ahead of Daisy, or they’d have to dance awkwardly in the too-small space between desks to swap. The instant they were sat down, Jemma’s eyes were on Juliana with a bright grin and another small wave..
Daisy raised an eyebrow. “I don’t remember you being this shiny when we first met?”
Jemma rolled her eyes. “That might have something to do with being chased by security guards and getting hit by a train, don’t you think?”
“My name is John Garrett,” The teacher introduced himself. “And this is my first time teaching a class on my own, so bear with me. Now that that’s out of the way, how about the semester-long group project?”
Oh. So they were going to be forced to be friends in a completely different way, then? Great. Then again, Juliana supposed that you didn’t have to be friends to work on a group project; it just made that project a lot more bearable.
“Today is easy. You’ll be choosing your group partners, 6 people per group. No more, no less. Yes, that means you can’t work alone. You can push your chairs and desks together to form your groups now.”
Immediately, the scrape of chairs filled the classroom. Juliana glanced over at Jemma before pushing her desk over beside the British girl’s, Daisy dragging her’s back to Jemma’s other side. After a short moment, Kimberly and Valentina joined them. Finally, as expected, Trini pushed her desk over when all other groups had been formed, and she saw that this one was the only group down a member.
“Shocker,” Valentina deadpanned. “Who could have guessed?”
“Hey, look at the pairs,” Daisy pointed out with a shit-eating grin. The circle was, in fact, Juliana and Valentina, Daisy and Jemma, and Kimberly and Trini. Insane coincidence? Yeah, Valentina didn’t think so.
The teacher began to explain the project. “Our main focus this semester will be the History of California’s oldest city, San Diego. That will be what your project is about, and the topics you can choose to present are in your rubric. Also, there is an overnight field trip to go along with the project to try and inspire you and gives extra credit to those who attend.” Chatter began to take over the class before the teacher pulled them back. “For those who are interested, the permission slip on my desk has everything you’ll need to know. Now, spend the next 25 minutes choosing what topic your group will present and tell me at the end of the lesson.”
“San Diego?” Kimberly questioned. “What’s interesting in San Diego?”
The others shrugged, having never been there. “I guess we’ll find out,” Trini offered with a small shrug.
The scene changed to somewhere else, inside a house where two men were watching a football game. A woman sat on the couch beside them, crocheting as they yelled at the screen. One man was significantly older than the other, around the woman’s age, so they all assumed they were husband and wife, while the boy was their son.
The scene then moved downstairs, where they saw Daisy’s back as she did dishes, flipping a glass up and down to check it was properly cleaned before turning to dry it off with a towel. A loud yell from upstairs made her flinch, and the glass slipped from her hand, carreening in slow motion towards the floor before speeding up and landing with a loud crash as glass was shot across the kitchen floor.
Daisy froze, eyes wide with horror because that was never good. And they wouldn’t show this at all if nothing came of it, so they were either about to show a very angry foster dad or a panic attack. Could go either way. Daisy could make a much clearer guess when the sound from the TV shut off.
Daisy gaped down at the shards in horror before dropping to her knees and whispering, “Shit,” repeatedly under her breath as footsteps came thundering down the stairs. She hissed as the glass cut into her palms, turning her hands red with blood as she jumped back to her feet and shoved her hands behind her back.
“What the fuck was that?” The older man demanded, stomping towards Daisy with angry eyes.
Juliana tensed, shot back to a time when the same pissed off eyes had been on her and she’d been much younger. She suddenly felt much younger. Weaker. Defenseless.
“I-”
The man cut her off. “Show me your hands.” Daisy’s split second of hesitation was all he needed to grab her arms and jerk her hands forward and in front of her as a quiet gasp escaped her lips.
Juliana felt Valentina’s gaze turn on her but resolutely ignored it as she glanced away from the screen to Daisy, who seemed irritatingly unphased. That is, if it wasn’t for the tense line of her jaw or the wariness in her eyes.
Daisy gasped as he yanked a particularly large shard out of her palm, inspecting the logo for a second before turning back on her with a fiery rage in his eyes. “That was my favourite glass,” he said lowly. Threateningly.
“It was an accident-” Daisy tried to defend herself before he grabbed her and pulled her close to him, his breath stinking of alcohol even as she forced herself not to wrinkle her nose.
Once again, Juliana’s eyes strayed to Daisy because, apparently, they had more in common than she’d thought. Juliana didn’t miss Jemma’s concerned gaze on Daisy either; she’d have had to been blind to. Jemma was projecting her alarm and anger so clearly through her eyes as she stared at her girlfriend. Juliana couldn’t tell if that was just Jemma’s way of avoiding looking at the wall.
“You’re gonna pay it back,” he said quietly. “Every penny that glass cost you are gonna pay me the second you earn it, is that understood?” Daisy nodded quickly, and he shook her slightly, demanding, “Say you understand.”
“I understand.” Daisy said quickly. At his pointedly raised eyebrows, she amended, “Sir.”
After a long moment, he released her, and everyone slumped with relief. Hopefully, that was the worst they saw in this thing. Something horrid told Juliana it wasn’t.
“Clean this shit up,” he ordered before walking away, the instant her was out of sight, Daisy looked up and the tears in her eyes reflected in the kitchen light as she thumped back against the counter behind her, pressing bloodied palms, still mottled with glass, against the countertop.
Jemma stood from her seat and forcefully tugged Daisy into a hug. She didn’t say a word, but she didn’t need to. Neither of them needed to. Daisy just closed her eyes and melted like none of the tension in her shoulders had ever been there in the first place. Because with Jemma, Daisy could relax. Even when the world was ending, and she’d thought they were all gonna die, it didn’t seem too bad when she had her favourite person in it beside her.
She didn’t know when it happened, but at some point, they were on the floor instead of standing, and Daisy was resting her head against Jemma’s shoulder while the other girl rested her back against the bottom of Daisy’s chair, thankfully not a hovering one or that would’ve been a bit embarrassing and Daisy wouldn’t have been able to hold back a laugh.
Juliana didn’t know why they’d had to see that. It was a private moment of Daisy’s life, and had their roles been reversed, Juliana knew she wouldn’t want the others seeing something like that. It felt wrong to pry into the darkest parts of Daisy’s life without even trying, and truthfully, she was terrified that the same would happen to her at some point.
“Hey, you guys are coming to this thing too?” Daisy grinned as she walked up to the coach, where the other 5 were standing, already waiting for the deadline.
Jemma turned to smile back at her, but it dropped from her face as fast as it had formed. Eyes bugging out, Jemma rushed over to Daisy and grabbed her forearms with a blatantly soft touch. “What happened to your hands?” She asked with a concerned crease between her eyebrows as she looked at the bandages tied around Daisy’s hands incredibly well.
Trini tilted her head slightly. She wondered if Daisy had done that on her own with the cut-up hands. They healed like normal humans in that universe, so it must have hurt like hell to wrap her hands if she’d been doing it alone. And if it was anything like the tape they used for their wrists, Trini couldn’t imagine how she’d have made it neat, even if she’d had practice. It didn’t seem like something you could get good at.
It definitely wasn’t something you wanted to get good at.
Daisy smiled at her easily, gently pulling her hands back away from Jemma. “It’s nothing. I am not great at multitasking. I knocked a pan, then grabbed it with both hands to stop it from spilling. Because I'm super smart, obviously.”
Valentina wondered if she was the only one alarmed by how good at lying Daisy was because even after seeing the truth, she wanted to believe what Daisy had said. It’d be much easier than what they’d seen.
She wasn’t.
Jemma laughed and shook her head, taking a step back. “You should really be more careful.”
Daisy waved a dismissive hand. “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, worry wart. I’m fine.” And the carefree grin she wore while saying it only helped reinforce the idea, no matter how false they knew it to be.
The scene cut ahead to when they were already in San Diego. There were a few short scenes of them going through the city before it landed on them all sitting around a fountain.
Kimberly snorted. “Is Daisy stealing coins from the fountain?”
“You’re surprised?” Juliana grinned at her. It was unbelievably on brand for the other girl.
“Unfortunately not, no.”
“We should head back in half an hour,” Kimberly said, looking at her phone. “Deadline’s in 40 minutes.”
Everyone nodded their agreement, but before they could say what to do next, a woman called, “Excuse me!” They all looked over at her. She was conventionally attractive, tall with dark brown hair with green highlights and deep brown eyes. She continued, “Would you be interested in a tour of the Whaley House? A group cancelled their tour last minute, so we have an empty slot. It’s only 5 dollars a person.”
Juliana narrowed her eyes; that was suspicious. What were the chances of that? In most places, if someone cancels, you just accept the break and get a coffee or something; you don’t seek random people out. It was weird, and she didn’t like the feeling it gave her in her gut. She’d long learned to trust that feeling. Something was off. Also, something about that woman reminded her of Rita, and it definitely (maybe) wasn't because she was wearing green. It was the vibe she gave off.
“Could be cool?” Daisy grinned, looking at the others.
“I heard it was haunted,” Kimberly agreed with a nod, already taking a step forward before looking back at the others. “We going?”
Jemma rolled her eyes. “Well, there’s no way it’s haunted because ghosts obviously don’t exist, but it will be nice to have a look around. It’s one of the oldest houses in San Diego, actually. It-”
As much as they all loved Jemma’s rambles, Valentina cut her off by saying, “I’m down.” And then the group were moving towards the house. Juliana’s eyes roved over it, narrowing with suspicion. The second they walked through the door, they heard eerie swirling noises, almost like the choked static of a whistle.
Jemma made a face, leaning away from the wall slightly. The noises were horrible. “What the bloody hell is that?” She asked. If they were going to add ambient music, she’d much prefer they used a different kind. It almost felt like it was crawling through her. She hated it.
“Ambiance?” Juliana suggested.
Daisy shook her head. “No. You can hear it.” At their confused looks, Daisy pointed at the screen where Juliana grimaced for a split second before continuing on. But the others didn’t do a thing.
“I think it’s only you who hears it.” Valentina noticed with a small frown. “That, or the rest of us just don’t care. And you almost seem familiar with it, like-”
“Like I’ve heard it before, yeah,” Juliana agreed, watching… herself, which was still a weird thing to say, as she moved through the Whaley House on the tour behind the others. Which was unusual because when they naturally paired up in rows, she was with Trini. That never happened. Not that it was a bad thing, not at all. It was just unusual to see their natural pairs change in the other universe. They didn’t seem to have them over there, just switching between people as easily as breathing. Currently, it was Daisy and Kimberly in the front, Jemma and Valentine behind them, and then Juliana and Trini. It was different.
There was a loud ringing that interrupted the tour, coming from the woman’s pocket. She pulled it out and grimaced. “I’m so sorry, this is my emergency phone; I have to take it. I’ll be right back. You can keep looking around; just don’t touch anything.” Then she walked further into the house, answering the phone by saying, “Ophelia.”
Juliana tilted her head. “Something’s up.” She watched the scene with narrowed eyes again, trying to see something out of the ordinary.
Jemma frowned as well. “Are the noises getting louder?” They all blinked and realised, yeah, the noises were getting louder. Well, that was just fantastic.
Juliana winced slightly and reached up to pull out the earplug in her right ear, rubbing at her ear when it was gone. Trini tilted her head. “Why does she have earplugs?”
Jemma looked over as well. “Oh. I thought they were wireless earbuds.”
Juliana shook her head, turning around slightly as she said, “They’re earplugs. I wear them because I’m sensitive to…” Juliana’s eyes widened as she trailed off, staring into the distance. “Sounds.” She finished more quietly.
“Well, that can’t be good,” Kimberly remarked. “Well, we had a peaceful half an hour; it was a good run, really.”
They all laughed slightly but kept their eyes on the screen as they waited for it to reveal what had obviously caught Juliana off guard.
The screen cut to Jemma wincing apologetically. “My bad. I thought they were for music.”
Daisy’s face paled at least three shades when she saw the deep black figure in the distance behind Jemma, all traces of laughter gone in an instant. “What the fuck is that?”
She didn’t have to elaborate because the screen slowly zoomed in on the area behind Jemma as she was talking, creeping towards a freakishly tall black figure in the background before it slowly turned around. It started grinning too widely, tilting its completely black head with soulless and pupilless white eyes rimmed with red and red-tinted teeth.
They all stared at the wall with open mouths and wide eyes. How was the only thing they could see on a black silhouette glowing white eyes and teeth? That’s horrifying, and they didn’t have powers in that universe. Trini hoped it wouldn’t be a problem, but she knew it would be. Because, look at the damn thing, of course it would be a problem.
Juliana shivered as she made direct eye contact with the creature, but the others didn’t seem to notice. Actually, it didn’t look like they could see it at all. Like with the noises, it looked like a Juliana exclusive.
Daisy spoke up, pointing in the distance, “Hey, that room looks cool.” Her eyes naturally slid to Juliana to check her opinion, and her smile faded. “You okay, Juliana? You look really pale.”
Okay, so they couldn’t see it, then. That explained that question. But what the hell was that thing, and how was it important? Juliana had no doubt that it was linked to the sounds; there was no way it was some crazy coincidence that the noises got louder before it showed up.
Juliana exhaled heavily, nodding her head as she pushed the earbud back into her ear and turned around to face them while looking at the ground, no doubt thinking about something else.
It was weird how little she was reacting to it. Maybe it was a hallucination or something? It would explain why the others didn’t react. But you’d think someone would be more alarmed if they started hallucinating weird noises and terrifying monsters, no? Something was off, and all they had were questions. Of course, they had more questions. Daisy felt like they always only had questions.
It was infuriating.
It was another long moment, and none of the others had spoken, so Juliana frowned; that wasn’t like them. The camera cut to them where they were all looking, horrified at Juliana. Daisy had stepped in front of Jemma, Jemma had her hands over her mouth, Trini had taken a step back, Kimberly was gaping at her, and Valentina shakingly said, “Behind you.”
Then the screen changed back to Juliana. Only from the side. Except it wasn’t just Juliana. Right behind her, the monster stood grinning with its mouth open and its hand curled around Juliana’s forearm.
Jemma squeaked, her hold on Daisy tightening subconsciously as she forgot how to breathe. She looked over at the others and saw them at similar levels of distress as Juliana’s position. At some point, Valentina had taken Juliana’s hand and was now holding it in a white knuckled grip that Jemma knew had to hurt. Not that she could blame her. They didn’t know what the creature was or what it could do; there was an alarmingly high chance that it could and would hurt Juliana.
Jemma began to wonder if there was any universe where they could just exist in peace without the constant threat of danger. She really hoped so.
There was an inhuman scream as Juliana ripped her arm out of the monster's grasp, scratches from black talons painting her arm a bloody red at the brutal separation as she fell to the floor. For a second, the screen glitched, and Juliana was suspended in air, and the entire room was red and fuzzy, before it returned to normal, and Juliana was on the ground, gasping.
They all slumped, breathing heavily as the monster disappeared, and Juliana was okay. “Oh, thank god,” Kimberly breathed, dropping back in her chair from where she’d been watching on the literal edge of her seat.
“This thing sucks,” Daisy grumbled from the floor. Despite having barely seen it, they all agreed.
Jemma lurched forward to kneel by Juliana and check on her as Juliana asked, “Where did it go?” While holding her hand to her head.
“I don’t see it anywhere.” Daisy shook her head as she cast her eyes around the room, her shoulders tensed and wary, as if she was preparing to punch it or run. Or both.
“What the hell was it?” Kimberly asked, looking between them.
“Maybe it was one of the ghosts you were talking about,” Trini mocked, but there was an edge of fear still lingering in her voice that all of them could hear as clear as day. “I bet it was a prank.”
“Seriously?” Daisy stared at her with a raised eyebrow.
Trini raised her hands. “Hey, I don’t, she does. It’s different.”
“A prank?” Daisy drawled, moving forward to stand beside Trini with an unimpressed stare. “You’re kidding, right?”
Trini narrowed her eyes as she turned on Daisy. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? A group cancels their reservation, and then our guide just so happens to need to leave so that we’re in alone in a ’haunted house’. Then they scare us as a publicity stunt to get more people showing up, thinking it’s haunted. Don’t you think it’s convenient that the thing disappeared before we could touch it and confirm it’s real?”
Juliana blinked. “But I did touch it?” Then again, maybe they couldn’t see it. She had been at an angle, it was possible that they couldn’t see the thing grabbing her arm. Without that, it could definitely have looked like a projection. She saw where Trini was coming from; it would be insane if it was real. Of course, in their universe, they’d gotten pretty used to insane.
Daisy scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, Mr Holmes.”
Trini rolled her eyes right back at her. “Fuck off. I’m going back to the bus, we’re probably late anyway.” Trini walked away from the house with an angry scowl. “You don’t have permission to post that recording!” She called through the house, completely sure that it was a publicity stunt. Daisy rolled her eyes and followed after her.
“Juliana?” Valentina called, knelt in front of Juliana, who jumped at her hand, waving in front of her face. “You okay?” At Juliana’s reaction, she winced and apologised, “Sorry. I called your name a few times, but you didn’t answer. Is your arm okay? You’re holding it.”
Everyone’s eyes fell on Juliana’s arm on the screen, but somehow, the scratches that had been there so clearly before had completely disappeared. Not even a drop of blood in sight. It was like they’d never been there in the first place.
Juliana nodded and stood. “Yeah, sorry. Just caught me off guard, I guess.” She looked at her phone. “It’s almost half past 5, we should catch up with the others.”
Kimberly blinked for a moment. She could have sworn she saw something drip behind Juliana’s arm, but it was too dark to really tell. Weird. It was probably nothing, though, so she kept it to herself.
The scene cut to a Chinese takeout bag, not showing the woman talking as she said, “Yeah, I’m all done here. Though, I do have a question: Were the others supposed to get dragged with her into the rift?” The camera cut up to reveal the woman from earlier, who had given them the tour.
Jemma frowned. “The rift?” She questioned. That couldn’t possibly be good.
“Maybe the glitch that happened?” Juliana suggested. “When I pulled my arm out, and everything went red for a moment?”
Valentina hummed in thought. “It makes sense. I thought the screen glitched, but Zordon’s never glitched before.”
“Yeah, it was unexpected. Her connection was stronger than we thought; she pulled everyone too close in with her. Hell, I had to back up a few feet or I would’ve joined 'em.” He laughed slightly. “Yeah, I’m on my way back now. Got some orange chicken, too, if you want some?”
Then, the screen faded to black as she walked away from the camera. “That was weird,” Kimberly stated after a moment of awkward silence.
“Nice to know it was on purpose,” Daisy said sarcastically. “How screwed do you think we are, I’ll take bets?”
“Not funny,” Juliana reprimanded, shaking her head. “You’re forgetting we don’t have superpowers in that universe. If we get hurt, we get hurt. We can’t jump crazy distances, not anymore. Not there. If shit get’s bad-”
“We could die-” Jemma finished for her, and subconsciously, they all looked at Val for a short moment.
“Yeah,” Juliana said quietly, turning her eyes back to the ground. “Yeah, we could die. And… it could stick.”
Chapter 4: Phantom Noises
Chapter Text
Daisy was on the couch, scrolling on her phone beside Jemma, who was leaning against the other arm and reading a book. Trini sat on a separate armchair, also looking through her phone. It was dead silent.
“Well, this is fun,” Kimberly said sarcastically. “We weren’t this awkward, were we?”
Juliana shrugged. “We probably had our moments. Our circumstances are a little different. They have to do a group project together; we have to save the world with mystical superpowers stemming from colourful coins.”
Valentina laughed, squeezing Juliana’s hand slightly. “Fair point.”
Kimberly entered the room with a deep frown, holding her phone tightly in both hands. “Guys?” They all looked up curiously. “When we were in the Whaley House, I got a picture of the creature.”
Their eyebrows shot up. “Shit, really?” Daisy asked. “Nicely done, Kimberly.”
Trini scoffed. “Sure, you did.” Trini rolled her eyes. “There are thousands of ways to trick people, and projections are one of them. You got a picture of that. Good job.”
“You could try not being an ass, you know, it wouldn’t hurt you,” Daisy defended Kimberly with narrowed eyes.
Trini stood up. “If you want to waste your time on this bullshit, then go ahead. I’m going to bed.” She walked through the door and shut it behind her before anyone could get a word in edgewise.
“Sorry,” Trini apologised to Kimberly.
Kimberly shook her head with a smile. “Don’t worry about it. I mean, it does sound pretty unbelievable. And you’re not wrong, a picture is hardly proof that something we saw wasn’t a projection.”
“Maybe,” Trini allowed, “But the way I said it was uncalled for. I’m sorry.”
“Dick,” Daisy muttered, shaking her head as she pushed herself to her feet. “Let’s see this picture then, yeah Kimberly?” Jemma also got to her feet and stood behind Kimberly to get a good look at her phone.
The picture showed Juliana standing alone, no creature in sight. Which was weird because if it had been a projection, it would have shown up. Only, that wasn’t the weirdest part. No – there were two shadows. Juliana, and then something inhumanly skinny and at least a head taller than her behind. One person, two shadows.
“That’s kinda weird,” Daisy remarked, leaning back and forgetting there was nothing there to lean back on and dropping onto her back before pushing herself back up, ignoring the laughs of the others. “Shut up.”
“Well, that’s freaky,” Daisy said casually, leaning closer to the picture. “Is that even possible?”
“Apparently.” Jemma frowned at the picture. “Definitely not a projection then.” Jemma shook her head. “I’m gonna go to bed. See you guys in the morning.”
The other two nodded and let her walk away. Daisy studied the picture for a little bit longer before setting Kimberly’s phone down. Kimberly looked over at the other girl, who seemed completely unaffected by it. “You’re not… scared or something?”
Daisy shook her head. “Nah. I think it’s kinda cool, even if it’s fake. Imagine it wasn’t.” Daisy grinned widely. “Would be pretty awesome. Plus, if it is fake, then it’s crazy impressive. The technology needed to cast an illusion and a shadow without coming up on camera… I can’t even imagine. It’s incredible.”
“You’re so strange.” Trini stared at her with a mildly amused expression. “How are you not freaked out by that?”
Daisy gestured to the screen. “Well, I either think it’s fake or a ghost, so I’m more interested in how they did it, or just super siked about the supernatural existing because, let’s be honest, that’s awesome.”
The scene cut to Valentina and Juliana in bed in a different room of the motel. Maybe they only let 4 people in a room? “Do you think it was real?” Valentina asked, lying on her back and staring at the ceiling.
Juliana was silent for a long moment before turning the question back on Valentina, “Do you?”
Valentina sighed. “I don’t know. I didn’t get a great look at it. I just thought since you were the closest, you’d have a better idea than the rest of us. Like… maybe you saw something we missed. Like a projector if it wasn’t real, or a weird edge, or if it looked tangible up close. I don’t know.”
Juliana stared at her arm for a while, letting the silence envelope them. Finally, she answered, “I didn’t see anything, really.” She huffed. “Trini’s probably right, and either way, it’s done now. There’s no reason to worry about so just try not to think about it. Leave it behind when we go back.”
“Normally I’d say that’s pretty good advice, but…”
“But we’re being shown this alternate universe in the form of a TV show against our will?” Juliana finished for Jemma. “Yeah.”
“It doesn’t help that whatever brought us here said we wouldn’t be bored, either,” Kimberly added, just to make the point more solid. Something was going to happen, and it wouldn’t be good. They wouldn’t be watching it if it was just a trip to San Diego and nothing happened. Plus, there was whatever the hell that guy was talking about with ‘rifts.’
The screen went black for a moment, and they heard Jemma’s voice through the screen, but muted. Almost like it was underwater. “-iana? Juliana?” The screen opened on Jemma, but the white of her shirt was muted, and her dark blue jacket seemed more grey. She still sounded under water when she said, “It’s time to get off the bus, we’re in San Diego.”
Daisy blinked. “What the fuck?”
“If they’re about to pull an ‘it was all a dream’ on us, I swear to God.” Trini glared at the screen.
Juliana sat up, blinking harshly as she raspily said, “Okay.” And got to her feet, lifting her bag from where it was on the floor in front of her chair before pausing. “Haven’t we already been to San Diego?” The bus was empty, and the sky was red beyond the windows.
“Okay, seriously, what’s going on?” Kimberly asked. Unsurprisingly, there was no answer.
Juliana got off the bus and started walking through the weirdly desolate streets of San Diego. It was dark like it was night, but the moon was yellow, not white, and the sky wasn’t black, but dark red. “What the hell’s going on?” Juliana muttered to herself. “This has to be a dream.” There was a loud noise behind her, and Juliana whipped around, but she was back in the bus again.
They all tensed again because this was really fucking weird, even to them. There was no way it wasn’t a dream, but it seemed so real. Why was the fucking sky red?
“I hate lucid dreams,” Juliana sat down heavily on one of the bus seats, thumping her head back against the headrest and closing her eyes for a moment, as if willing the dream to go away. Juliana pinched herself and winced.
They all blinked. Isn’t that how you’re supposed to realise it’s a dream? If it hurt, you were awake? Well, if that wasn’t the case, then Daisy was rethinking her stance on all this Power Ranger business being real. Maybe she was in a really long coma from the train hitting the car.
Juliana looked down at her left arm with a wince, and the scratches had miraculously returned, bloody once again seeping from the deep wounds. Then she jerked forward with a yelp, her head snapping down as she exclaimed, “What the fuck?!”
She met the white soulless eyes of one of the monsters, its taloned hand clutched around her ankle. They stayed there for a moment before it yanked on her foot again.
“Holy shit,” Valentina said quietly, her grip on Juliana’s hand increasing as she fought the urge to copy Jemma and Daisy and sit on the floor, just so that she could hold her girlfriend.
Juliana yelped again as she tumbled out of the bed and onto the floor with a loud crash. She groaned, pushing herself up so that she was sat, half of the blanket still on her after her fall. “That sucked.”
“Juliana?” Valentina leaned over the bed with not fully awake eyes as she stared down at Juliana, perplexed. “Are you okay?” Valentina’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Huh?” Juliana nodded. “Yeah, yeah, just a nightmare. I’m good.”
Valentina pushed herself off the bed as she asked, “What happened to your arm?”
“What happened to my what now?” Juliana’s eyebrows shot up her forehead. Was it real, then? How did she travel between different areas so fast? And she’d been wearing different clothes a minute ago, so it made no sense at all.
“My arm?” Juliana looked down at her left arm, blood from her forearm to her wrist with the scratches, though it seemed to have stilled, clotting over and not dripping down her arm anymore.
Kneeling beside her, Valentina asked, “Should we get bandages? Oh, or the teachers? Are you okay? Do you need help up?”
Juliana smiled fondly at the screen. She hoped they’d get together in that universe, too and that everything would be okay. Something deep and awful in her gut told her that it wouldn’t. It was vile and foreboding and horribly similar to the feeling she had when Trini told them Rita had threatened her.
“No, I’m okay. I might need bandag-” She cut herself off as she went to lift the sheet and get up, gaping as she met the eyes of the phantom, hand still wrapped around her ankle like before. The screen bounced between Valentina and Juliana’s shocked expression before cutting outside the hotel with the sound of a scream that was so clearly Val’s.
“Holy shit,” Daisy said, shock coating her voice. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
Valentina flipped her off with a smile.
Daisy opened the door to the bedroom she and Jemma had been in with a frown. Jemma stood behind her. “Was someone scream-”
The door in front of her was thrown open with a thump as Daisy stumbled backwards into Jemma, and Kimberly sprinted from her room while yelling, “Val!”
Trini left the room a second after her with a bemused expression. “Who was screaming?” She paused as she shut the door. “What happened to your face?!” The camera moved to show Daisy staring unimpressed at Trini, blood running from both her nostrils down her chin with a cut across her nose.
Daisy snorted before slapping a hand to her mouth as Jemma whacked her on the shoulder. “Don’t laugh!”
“I am so sorry,” Kimberly apologised with wide eyes as she stared at the scream, mouth agape.
Daisy waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t sweat it. You were worried about Valentina; slam all the doors in my face, it’s fine.”
Juliana kicked the monster in the face before scrambling backwards, Valentina pulling her up as they stood back from the thing. “Isn’t that the whatever it was from the Whaley house?”
Juliana shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, come on.” She grabbed Valentina’s hand and dragged her away from the creature, shutting the door behind them with a loud slam. Hopefully, it would slow them down a little bit.
“What about the other girls?” Valentina asked, looking at the door to their room as they rushed past it to put as much distance between them and the monster as possible.
Trini frowned. “If there were others there, wouldn’t they have heard you scream? You’d think they’d come out of their room, no? I mean, I would if I heard someone scream like that.”
“They should have heard us scream,” Juliana answered. “I don’t know why they haven’t come out yet.” She shrugged. “Maybe they snuck out a window or something?”
Kmberly threw open the door, “Val!”
“Kim!” Valentina called as she and Juliana ran for the door.
Daisy wiped her hand across her mouth as more blood began to leak from her nose. “So it was them.” She blinked, frowning. “Why are you running?”
Kimberly winced. “I really am sorry.”
“And it really is fine,” Daisy responded with a grin.
“Something’s in our-” Juliana paused and spun around. All of them stared in stunned shock as the thin black creature rounded the corner slowly, eyes glowing and mouth unchanged from the broad grin it wore. Juliana turned and shoved Trini back out the door. “Go, go, go, go!”
“I thought it was only two?”
“Daisy!”
They ran out the door with the monster right behind them, clawed hand inches away from Kimberly’s hair before Daisy and Trini slammed the door shut in its face, pressing their weight into it as Juliana thumped her back against it as well.
“That was close,” Valentina pointed out, taking a deep breath. She already hated this, and they’d only seen an episode and a half. It was so much worse knowing just how human their counterparts were.
The horrid sound of scratches against the wood began to fill the silence before Jemma exclaimed, “What the bloody hell was that?!”
“That would be the projection, right, Trini?” Daisy mocked her, earning a glare from the shorter girl.
“I will throw you in there,” Trini threatened.
“I’m sure you’d try, Tiny.”
Juliana groaned, dropping her head into her hands. “You two, please.”
They both raised their hands. “Technically, it’s not us,” Daisy defended.
“Cut it out.” Juliana stopped them. “Something’s wrong. The girls should have at least yelled.” She looked around at the barren motel. “Hell, no one is coming outside. We’ve screamed and yelled enough to cause concern, but nothing.”
Jemma’s eyes locked onto something, and she paled considerably as she walked towards the railing while the others talked about what was going on. “Guys,” Jemma squeaked, catching their attention. “Look down.”
Everyone froze when the screen changed to show dozens of the monsters standing below and looking up at them. It only got worse when said monsters started to run. And they were fast.
“How far away is your room?” Juliana demanded, eyes darting between the approaching monsters and where Trini and Daisy were holding the door shut to keep the other monster from getting to them.
“6 doors down, I think,” Jemma provided after a moment to think, looking back for the open door. “How do we get away without letting that one out?” Jemma asked, gesturing to the door with a loose hand.
Daisy and Trini exchanged a look, Daisy lightly pushed Trini away from the door. “You guys go-”
“No way.” Juliana shut it down.
“Absolutely not.” Jemma tightened her hold on Daisy as if trying to prove that she’d never let her go.
“No,” Kimberly stated simply.
“Are you crazy?” Valentina raised an eyebrow at her.
Daisy raised her hands and leaned more solidly into Jemma. “Okay, okay, sorry.” Then she grumbled under her breath, “I didn’t even say it.”
“Not a chance,” Juliana interrupted her. “Give me the string from your hoodie.” Daisy stared at her for a moment before pressing her back against the door and pulling the string out of her hood. Juliana untied the string on her trousers as well. “I’m gonna tie the door to that pole.”
Trini blinked. “There’s no way that that works.”
Trini stared at her incredulously. “The two flimsiest strings I’ve ever seen in my life are gonna keep that thing back? You’re kidding. Are you kidding?”
“It’ll give me and Daisy a chance to make a run for it.” Daisy nodded in agreement while the others stared at her, glancing between her and Daisy. “Go.” She said, but none of them moved. “Go!” She repeated, and they finally ran, leaving her and Daisy by the door. “Tie this to the handle.” Taking the string, Daisy nodded and pushed her shoulder against the door to tie it.
Valentina took the string from Juliana’s hands, startling the other girl. “I’ve got this end. Tie it to the pole.”
“I can’t believe you ignored me,” Juliana lied; she could absolutely believe it.
“I can.” Everyone else said.
Once everything was tied, and the monsters were getting a little too close for comfort, Juliana yelled, “Now run!” And the three of them took off at breakneck speed towards the other room.
It didn’t take a second for the monster to snap the string, immediately pouncing out of the room and dashing after them faster than it had any right being. “Shit,” Juliana said quietly, as she looked back at it. It was faster than the three of them, and Daisy was very visibly slowing herself down to not overtake her and Val.
Trini shrunk in her chair. “I knew that wouldn’t work, but I really hoped it would.”
The monster was quickly closing the gap between them when Juliana yelled, “Move!” Daisy and Valentina dodged out of the way as Juliana slammed a cart into the monster, pressing its back against the wall as its claws reached out for her.
Right as its hand was about to connect with Juliana’s right arm, a different hand closed around it’s own. Daisy pushed the monster’s hand down and levelled a cleaning bottle with its face, grinning maniacally. “This could be fun.” Then she sprayed the bottle, and the monster screeched a deafening sound, like nails on a chalkboard dialed up to a thousand.
“Gah!” The Rangers held their hands over their ears with grimaces. “That’s horrible!”
The sound cut out abruptly when it swapped to Daisy watching the creature with a confused tilt of her head. “Why isn’t it screaming?” It then cut to the monster with its mouth soundlessly open as it clawed at the side of its head that Daisy sprayed.
“That’s so weird,” Valentina remarked. “How come you can’t hear it? If you can’t, why did it make us hear it?”
“Because Juliana can.” Trini pointed to the screen.
Juliana’s eyes squeezed shut as she clutched her skull, covering her ears desperately with her hands as Valentina rested a concerned hand on her elbow. “Daisy, come on!”
“We could take them-”
“No!” Juliana grabbed the sleeve of her hoodie and tugged her behind them, running away from the monsters at a sprint.
“Seriously, Daisy?” Kimberly raised her eyebrows at the other girl, unimpressed and annoyed. “You could-”
“It wasn’t me!” Daisy defended herself, pointing at the screen. “She said it!”
They ran into the room and locked the door behind them, slumping in relief that everyone had made it. Then the bangs started as the monsters threw themselves against the door. Juliana ran a hand through her hair. “Maybe we should prop the couch up against it.”
The screen cut to them, all sat down in the living room with the couch against the door. Daisy looked over at Juliana and frowned guiltily. “Your arm? I thought I got you out of the way in time?”
Valentina looked over at it as well from where she was sitting beside Juliana. “You did. She had that before.”
Juliana smiled at Valentina fleetingly before looking at Daisy. “Do you always feel guilty for things that aren’t your fault?”
“Sometimes.”
“Usually.” Daisy and Jemma said at the same time.
“It happened at the Whaley house,” Juliana explained, and everyone went silent, staring at her.
“You’re saying you knew the whole time that it was real?” Daisy gaped. “Wha- and you didn’t think to mention that to any of us?!”
Juliana glared at her. “I didn’t think it was real, either.”
Daisy met her glare with her own. "Something grabbed you! You don't make that shit up! Why the hell-"
Valentina spoke up. “Now isn’t the time. We need a plan.”
Daisy joked, “Hey, at least I didn’t get punched in the face this time.”
Jemma whacked her while Juliana grimaced apologetically. She still felt bad about that. Sure, Daisy had been an idiot and people got hurt, but she’d over-reacted. It was an accident, and she didn’t deserve to be punched in the face for it.
Juliana sighed and turned away from Daisy. “We need weapons. Those things are capable of killing us, and we need a way to defend ourselves. Let’s check the room for anything we can use.”
“Look at you, taking the lead, as usual.” Kimberly laughed. “At least that hasn’t changed.”
“Anyone surprised?” Trini asked and only got a chorus of ‘no’. “Yeah, me neither.”
Valentina tilted her head slightly. “I think… as far as I can tell the core being of us, our roles as rangers, they’re still there. Like Juls still being the leader and Daisy still being the reckless fighter.” She ignored Daisy’s fake affronted look. “I assume it will be the same for all of us.”
“Sorry,” Jemma said gently as Juliana hissed through her teeth. Jemma was disinfecting the scratches on Juliana’s arm.
Daisy looked up for a moment from where she was breaking the metal leg off of a chair. She paused for a long moment and closed her eyes before sighing and standing up, grabbing a towel off of the table. She crouched down beside Juliana and held it out. “Here. Squeeze it. It shouldn’t help, but it does. It’s distracting and all that.”
Juliana smiled, her shoulders relaxing from a tension she hadn’t known was there. She was glad that she and Daisy weren’t at odds with each other in that universe either. The worst they’d ever been was the previously mentioned incident of Juliana punching Daisy in the face for trying to pilot her Zord before they were able to.
“Thanks,” Juliana took it from her after a moment of staring in surprise. Jemma started to wrap the bandages around Juliana’s arm, making the girl tighten her grip on the towel and exhale shakily.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” Daisy apologised, no doubt trying to distract Juliana from the pain. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. It… makes sense that you didn’t tell anyone, like, it’s crazy. We’re strangers; you didn’t owe us anything, and I acted like you did. I’m sorry.”
Juliana shook her head. “No, it’s okay. I should have told you guys, I just…” She grimaced. “I didn’t want to believe it, and saying it made it more real.”
Daisy’s eyes were sympathetic as she nodded. “I get it. Don’t sweat it, kay? No harm, no foul.”
Valentina leaned over to Juliana with an almost smug smile as she pointed out, “Notice how Jemma’s still the Doctor.” Juliana just rolled her eyes fondly.
Juliana thanked Jemma when she finished the bandage, complimenting her skill before standing up and grabbing one of the chair legs that Daisy, Valentina, Trini and Kimberly had been pulling off. “How many of these do we have?”
Valentina looked up and answered. “8. Including these four.” She gestured to the chair that she and Kimberly were currently dismembering.
Juliana nodded to herself, “Good work, y'all. More than enough for all of us then.”
Daisy made a face, throwing her hands in the air as if in despair. “No!” She slapped her hands over her face, shaking her head in dismay. “She says it there, too! No version of me can escape this Texas abomination!”
“Fuck off,” Juliana shook her head with a laugh.
Daisy stared at her for a long moment. “Did you just say y'all?” She looked around. “Did she- did I imagine it? That’s horrifying.”
“Shut up,” Juliana rolled her eyes.
“Do you think the monsters are gone?” Jemma asked after a moment. “It’s been quiet for a while. They could have just… left?”
The screen moved to Juliana, and the noises from earlier filtered in before fading again. “No, they’re still there.” She shook her head. “They’re just outside the door. I think they’re smart enough to know making noise is just gonna keep us aware of them, so they’re hoping we open it thinking the cost is clear.” They all stared at her with perplexed frowns as they wondered how the hell she knew that. Juliana sighed. “I can hear them. Kind of. It’s…” She frowned, trying to think of a better explanation. “Remember how I said I had sensitive ears?”
They all leaned in, curiosity peaking as they learned why only Juliana could hear the noises, but the others couldn’t. It would make sense if it was because of some kind of superhearing. Sort of like a cat.
Jemma nodded as Valentina confirmed, “Yeah?”
“Well, they make sounds I don’t think you guys can hear, but I can because everything’s so loud to me.” Juliana sighed again and ran her hand down her face. “I’ve had them my entire life; that’s why I didn’t think anything of it when I heard the phantom noises at the Whaley house. I just thought they weren’t real.”
“Auditory hallucinations,” Jemma provided, and Juliana nodded.
“Yeah. So, since the phantom noises were so loud at the Whaley house, I just thought the, um, the monster was a hallucination as well. They’d never been that bad before, so I didn’t really know what was possible. But last time I checked, hallucinations can’t grab you.”
Jemma shook her head. “Definitely not, that would be-” She coughed and cut herself off. “Sorry.” Daisy laughed and pressed a kiss to her cheek, which instantly turned bright red.
“And you call us lovebirds?” Kimberly raised an eyebrow at her with a shit-eating grin, which only grew when Daisy flipped her off.
“No shit,” Trini deadpanned.
Juliana closed her eyes again and took a deep breath. “The point is I can hear them, and you guys can’t. Which means I know where they are.”
Kimberly blinked at her. “So… you’re saying your plan is superpowered hearing?” She stared at the other girl incredulously, glancing at the others for a second before her gaze returned to Juliana.
Juliana shook her head. “No... well, okay, maybe, but not yet. We should stay here to rest and prepare ourselves for… that, because once we go outside, there will be dozens of them. We need to be ready before we face that. And we should stick together, no horror movie splitting up; that shit never goes well.”
Then, the screen faded to black again as the second episode ended. Everyone was silent for a moment before Daisy complained, “We need better chairs.”
Valentina tilted her head. “Do you think we could teleport out of here to get chairs? Like beanbags or something? Is that how it works?”
They all shrugged. Trini offered, “I’ll try.” Because she didn’t want Valentina to. She pressed the button on her watch and sort of stuttered in place for a moment but didn’t actually leave. Once she was fully back, she stumbled into the chair, shaking her head to try and clear it of the dizzying wave of being in two places at once. That was horrible.
Kimberly was at her side in a second, hand gently on her back with a worried frown as Trini groaned. “That sucked. Don’t do that.”
Daisy was halfway to her feet when she asked, “Are you okay?”
Trini nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I’m good. Sit back down, Dais.” Daisy watched her for another long moment before aqueiscing and dropping back down beside Jemma and leaning into the other girl’s shoulder. Trini and Kimberly joined them on the floor, Kimberly pulling the chairs behind them so that they could lean back on them like Jemma. Was it more comfortable to sit on the floor than on the chairs? No, of course it wasn’t. They didn’t really care; it meant that they got to be closer. Kimberly knew it would only be a matter of time before Juliana and Valentina joined them so they could mirror Daisy and Jemma.
Chapter 5: Cinderella Style
Chapter Text
“Okay, so recap,” Daisy said, looking between them. “Every day, when the clock strikes midnight – Cinderella style – the sky turns red, and the world becomes lifeless except for the phantoms that keep trying to kill us. We have to survive 7 hours in hell rather than minutes in heaven, and in those 7 hours, time doesn’t change in the real world.” She paused. “I miss anything?”
“Well, that’s helpful,” Trini stated. “Answers instead of questions. This is new.” She narrowed her eyes. “Something’s up.”
The rest of them laughed at the suspicion because it was horribly accurate to their circumstance. Their entire lives had become questions in the past few months, and so many of those questions lacked an answer. Weirdly, Daisy was almost glad that they were suffering in that universe too, because then at least she wasn’t the only one. Except, it was her, so it still sucked. It was confusing.
“Yeah, you did,” Valentina answered. “We can influence that world through this one, but we can’t influence this one through that one.” They tilted their heads at her. “I tested it. If we move a box in this world, it will be moved in the Phantom Dimension, but if we move a box in the Phantom Dimension, it doesn’t move here.”
“Injuries can be felt but not seen if we got them in the other world,” Juliana responded.
“Which also applies to this one. Injuries we get here don’t show up there, either,” Daisy added, holding up bandaged hands. “Which is convenient, cuz at least that one goes both ways.”
At least half of them narrowed their eyes at the reminder of the scene in the kitchen. The Rangers were all naturally protective of others, but to hurt one of their own? It almost looked like they’d track him down in this universe on the off chance that he’s the same.
“And we always come back where we left off.” Juliana finished. “Except the first night, when we randomly appeared in our homes. Everyone caught up?” At everyone’s nods, she continued.
“Wait.” Jemma stopped them, turning to Daisy. “If your hands are healed there, why do you keep them in those wraps?”
Daisy frowned, confused for a moment before realising. “Oh, those aren’t bandages. You never know what’s gonna happen, and I’d rather not break my wrist if I have to punch a phantom.”
“You’re planning on punching a phantom?” Kimberly stared at Daisy with an incredulous grin as the other girl shrugged.
“If I have to, sure. We punch putties all the time; it’s not that different.” She gestured to Juliana. “She literally bitchslapped a demon into space.”
“Technically, Rita wasn’t a demon,” Jemma interjected.
Daisy waved a dismissive hand. “Semantics.”
They all stared at her for a moment before Juliana shrugged. “Not a bad idea, actually.”
Daisy grinned at her appreciatively. “I’ll get you guys some. Just in case.”
“Thanks.” Juliana nodded before moving on. “Now, we need a plan. Being split up is exactly what we didn’t want to happen, so we need to find a place to meet.”
“What about the School Bus Graveyard?” Jemma asked, looking at Juliana for her opinion.
That was something that happened in both universes, as well. They always deferred to Juliana, checking for her opinion on the things they suggested. It was nice that it wasn’t just the power coins making them do that, but their trust in her as a leader. Honestly, she hadn’t consciously had that thought for a while, but it popped up in the back of her mind sometimes. It was nice to see proof that she was wrong in a world where the power coins didn’t seem to exist.
Juliana hummed. “That’s not a bad idea, actually. Tall concrete walls should be a good defence against the phantoms. There are a lot of materials, we have an electric generator, and the buses give extra shelter too. And technically, I own it, so we can bring whatever tools we want.”
Trini gestured to Juliana and Jemma, who sat opposite her and Daisy at the table. “That’s convenient for you two, but the rest of us are gonna have to make a mad dash through the phantoms.”
Daisy shrugged. “Could be fun?”
“Why are you so unhinged in that universe?” Trini looked at her with raised eyebrows.
Daisy raised her hands. “I don’t know; leave me alone,” she joked.
Trini ran her hand down her face before Juliana spoke up. “No, I was thinking we all meet up at this convenience store.” Juliana slid the phone she’d been messing with into the centre of the table so everyone could see it. “It’s pretty much between all of our houses, so we’d all be at the same risk.”
Daisy frowned and shook her head. “No, that’s dumb. You and Jemma shouldn’t go all that way when it’s right outside your homes, it’s not worth the risk. Us four can meet up and get to the graveyard to meet you two.”
Juliana was shaking her head even before Daisy stopped talking. “No, we’ll be safer if we’re together. It’s the same risk for us as it is for you guys. It’s fair, and I’m the one who knows the way there. It’s not a discussion; we’ll all meet up there.” Juliana glanced around the table and saw everyone nodding their agreement except Daisy, who sighed reluctantly and leaned back.
“I don’t like the idea of you two running through that without powers just to go back the way you came,” Daisy agreed with her alternate self, unsurprisingly. “But I guess you’re the boss, and I can’t exactly stop you, huh?”
Juliana smiled. “Not a chance.”
Juliana continued. “We all run together towards the graveyard. Bring whatever weapons y’all can get your hands on.” She looked at Jemma. “I’ll bring my dad’s rifle for you.”
“Because I’m the weakest?” Jemma asked with a small frown. She knew it was true, though.
Daisy pressed a kiss to Jemma’s jaw. “Physically. We all know you’re the smartest.” Jemma smiled down at her girlfriend gratefully, her ears long having turned bright pink. She wondered if Daisy would ever stop making her blush so much. She highly doubted it.
“Physically.” Juliana put a reassuring hand on her arm before turning to the others. “Everyone agree to that?”
The screen cut to the six of them running through the forest at top speed, Trini in the front with Juliana, Kimberly and Valentina behind her, and Jemma and Daisy behind them.
Jemma shook her head. “You need to stop slowing yourself down to keep pace with other people. We both know you’re way faster than me.”
Daisy grinned at her. “Is this your way of telling me to stop bothering you?” At Jemma’s unimpressed stare, Daisy’s grin turned a bit more serious. “I wouldn’t leave you to run alone, Jem. I refuse to risk that. In every universe, I will protect you in any way I can, and if that means slowing down a little, I’m fine with that. More than fine with that. Okay?”
Jemma nodded after a minute and dropped her head onto the top of Daisy’s.
“Time?” Trini asked over her shoulder.
“8 minutes!” Kimberly reported.
“Just a little longer!” Juliana called. “We can make it.” But the steps were getting louder behind them as it gained on them. “I see the graveyard.” The graveyard appeared through the trees before they all broke through the leaves, the camera sliding past them to the phantom charging after them. Trini made it through the gate first, Kimberly and Juliana not far behind her. Juliana ran for the button, her hand hovering over it as she waited for Daisy and Jemma.
“Close the gate!” Daisy called, her hand on the winded girl’s back and pushing her forward faster while Juliana’s hand slammed into the button. The two made it through a few seconds before the stone gate shut. Daisy skidded on her heel and brandished the… baseball bat littered with nails in her hands as they stared down the phantom, the gate closing before the phantom could break through.
Valentina snorted. “Is that Steve Harrington’s baseball bat from Stranger Things?”
Daisy sniggered and raised her hands. “It’s a good weapon. If I was gonna have a weapon in an apocalyptic alternate universe, obviously, I’d want it to be Steve Harrington’s bat.” Then she paused. “Well, after a gun.”
All of them slumped in relief, Jemma doubling over with her hands on her knees and wheezing with every breath. Daisy didn’t seem to realise her hand was still resting on her back as she let her bat hang loosely in her hand, head tilted back as she panted.
Valentina and Juliana shared an amused glance, cheeky smirks on their faces. Evidently, Kimberly saw the irony, too. “Ooh, I wonder if you guys get together before Juliantina.”
Daisy wheezed as Juliana sputtered. “What did you call us?”
“Don’t look at me.” Kimberly raised her hands and nodded at Daisy. “She came up with it.”
Juliana shook her head as if she were disappointed. “Of course she did.” In truth, she expected nothing less from the other girl. She was more than used to Daisy’s antics by now; really, they all were.
“We should get to the bus,” Juliana said after they had a moment to recover.
Kimberly dropped her head back as she groaned, sitting beside Trini, who was equally sprawled out on the bus seat. “That sucked,” Kimberly complained.
Juliana frowned. “It’s quiet. Why’s it so quiet?”
“The banging stopped,” Juliana pointed out after a moment.
“You think it gave up?” Jemma suggested, sitting up and opening her eyes, where she was slumped in her seat. “That was…” Jemma trailed off, her face turning as white as her t-shirt as she stared at the phantom’s hand curled around the open door of the bus.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Daisy ran a hand down her face. Not even five minutes. They couldn’t even breathe for five minutes. Well, at least they knew the phantoms were persistent. Definitely something they wanted to know about the monsters that were trying to kill them. Totally. Why wouldn’t that be something they want?
All of them stared at the phantom as it climbed onto the bus with wide eyes. As Juliana and the phantom made eye contact, Trini helplessly exclaimed, “How?!”
Daisy dragged Jemma to her feet as they all moved backwards through the bus away from the steadily approaching phantom. It ended with Juliana in front of them all, with Valentina and Daisy bracketing her. Trini pushed on the back door desperately. “Damn it, it’s blocked!”
“What do we do?” Kimberly’s head whipped between all of them as she came to stand beside Trini as the phantom slowed down.
“Die, probably.”
“Daisy!”
“Daisy!” They all yelled, and the phantom lunged towards them. They all screamed, flinching away from it naturally. It didn’t escape their notice that Juliana put her body in front of Valentina as she turned away.
There was a loud beeping before Trini bolted up in her bed with a choked scream, her hand pressed to her head.
Everyone slumped back, relief filling them that they dodged death again. Though they were only on episode 3, it’d be incredibly weird if someone died already. At the same time, anything could happen. It wasn’t actually a TV show, it was just in that format. That meant they lacked any plot armour that came with a TV show because that universe was just as real as theirs, no matter how hard it was to believe.
Trini fumbled for her phone for a moment, opening the group chat as messages flooded in.
Daisy: everyone okay?
Juliana: That was way too close
Jemma: Physically, yes. Mentally? Not so much.
Kimberly: We should really work on our cardio if nearly dying is gonna be a daily occurrence
Jemma: It better not be a daily occurrence
Trini: I hope not
Valentina: Did anyone finish the homework?
Daisy: shit
Trini: Screw it
Kimberly: Couldnt agree more
Juliana: ⌃⌃⌃
Daisy: im so grounded haha
All of them frowned in unison, their eyes immediately turning to Daisy, who remained oblivious to their staring. Correction: Daisy who pretended to be oblivious to their staring. Her logic was pretty much that if she avoided eye contact at all costs, they’d pretend they didn’t see anything earlier. In her opinion, it was pretty sound logic. You know, if I can’t see you, you can’t see me and all that.
Daisy walked beside a boy not much taller than her with short brown hair and grey eyes on their way to school. The boy looked at her with a frown. “Did you sleep at all last night? You look like shit.”
Daisy stared blankly at him. “Thanks, Chase, I really appreciate that.”
Chase grinned back at her, pretending it wasn’t blatant sarcasm. “You’re so welcome.” Then his smile faded slightly. “How are your hands healing?”
Daisy frowned, taken off guard. Did he know something? She doubted she’d have told him, but then again, it was an alternate universe. Maybe they were really close? But she was new there? Making one friend was weird for her, five under duress, sure, but this guy? It was weird.
Daisy visibly shut down. “They’re fine. Aren’t you the idiot who bandaged them? Shouldn’t you trust they’re okay?” She raised an expectant eyebrow at him.
“Well, that explains that question.” Kimberly tilted her head. “At least you’ve got someone looking out for you. The rest of us would, we just-”
“Don’t know,” Daisy finished. “Which is a good thing.”
Before any of them could protest, the screen continued.
“That’s not really-”
“Shut up,” Daisy cut him off and not a second later, Jemma came over to her, looking slightly dead on her feet as she fell into step with Daisy. An easy smile fell on Daisy’s face, and she asked, “How are you doing?”
“I’m good.” Jemma nodded, glancing conspicuously at Chase. “A little tired.” Then her eyes brightened, and she started to rifle through her backpack as Chase excused himself and walked away from the two to his group of friends. “Oh!” Jemma exclaimed, pulling a sheet of paper out of her bag while they entered the school, “I finished the History homework. You wanna copy it?”
Daisy looked up at Jemma for a long moment before saying, “I love you.”
Jemma laughed, looking back down at Daisy. Technically, Daisy was actually quite a bit taller, but with Daisy leaning on Jemma, Jemma was the taller one for once. “You’re welcome.” Then, after a short pause. “I love you, too.”
Daisy stared at Jemma momentarily before taking the sheet of homework from her hands. “Thanks,” she said hesitantly as she stopped at her locker. “I’ll give it back to you before History?”
Jemma nodded with a beam and walked away through the hallway to her own locker. Daisy blinked a few times before shaking her head with a small smile as she turned to her locker, tension releasing from her shoulders.
The scene cut to the 6 of them eating lunch in awkward silence. At least it looked like they were back to their normal pairs. Jemma and Daisy sat on one side of the table, with Juliana and Valentina opposite them. Beside them, Kimberly and Trini sat opposite each other, Trini next to Daisy and Kim beside Val.
Kimberly made a face. “It’s almost painful.”
“No, it is painful,” Trini corrected. “It’s so awkward. Why’s it so awkward? Haven’t we been friends long enough for it not to be this awkward?”
Kimberly cleared her throat after an upsettingly long time. “I think we should go back to San Diego.”
Everyone looked at her incredulously. Jemma tilted her head. “I definitely remember us all agreeing not to do that. Because it’s too dangerous?” She glanced around the table. “That’s a conversation we had, right?”
“Yeah,” Daisy reassured her and opened her mouth to continue. Whatever she was going to say was lost forever when Kimberly interrupted.
“So we’re just gonna let things stay the same? Fighting for our lives every night for 7 hours and hoping that we don’t get killed by phantoms this time, but there’s always tomorrow?” Kimberly narrowed her eyes.
“Are there actually any good options?” Valentina questioned. “I mean, the way things are is horrible, but it could be worse. At least we’re all still alive.”
Kimberly disagreed. “But it could also be better. What if going back to San Diego means we find a way to get out of the Phantom Dimension permanently?”
“Or what if it means we get stuck in the Phantom Dimension permanently?” Juliana countered as her on-screen self brought up the same point to alternate Kimberly.
“Isn’t it better to be stuck for part of the day instead of all of it? What if going back to San Diego makes it worse?”
“What if it makes it better?” Kimberly argued.
“This shit started there.” Valentina pointed out. “Isn’t that proof that it’s not worth the risk? It got worse from nothing; how much worse are we willing to risk? We’re all still alive, that’s good enough for me-”
Kimberly cut her off, anger lining her voice. “We could all die tonight for all we know! Or tomorrow! Or the next day! Or any day for the rest of our lives because we’re stuck in an alternate dimension where monsters are trying to kill us! There’s always a risk, this could- ow!”
They all winced as they watched the screen switch between a few really confused students, looking over at their table where Kimberly had stood up in her irritation. It really wasn’t something to yell about, not in a public area. They’d probably get sent to an asylum if the wrong person heard that. It certainly sounded insane, even to them, and they’d seen it all happen.
Daisy shook her head at Kimberly, eyes boring into Kim’s as she loudly whispered, “Shut up.” Daisy glanced around at the other tables but only saw one person staring at them with confused eyes. She could have sworn he was closer a second ago.
Kimberly sank back down onto the bench, glaring half-heartedly at Daisy before sighing defeatedly. “What are we supposed to do, then? Accept it? Live the rest of our lives running from flesh-eating monsters?” She shook her head. “I don’t want to live like that.”
Juliana sighed, her gaze sympathetic as she looked at Kimberly. The outburst was annoying, but it was understandable. It really was no way to live. “None of us do.”
“Well, that was depressing with a side order of death,” Daisy remarked after a moment. “Where do we go from there, then? We want it to change, but the only thing we can think of to make said change could make it a million times worse.”
Trini shrugged. “We’ve had worse odds.”
Jemma grimaced. “I hate that you’re not wrong.” Jemma sighed. A few months ago, her worst problem was saying goodbye to her best friend before she moved away to California. Now, it was fighting to save the world against monsters summoned by a crazy woman who should be dead, and then all the other monsters that are sure to come after her, because why wouldn’t they? Oh, and in case she forgot to mention, also being forcefully made to watch an alternate universe, for some bizarre reason unbeknownst to her, where they’re being chased down by more murderous monsters.
It sounded ludicrous when she put it like that. Then again, she was pretty sure it sounded ludicrous anyway she put it because, at the end of the day, it was bloody insane!
Valentina dropped her back onto the bed as Kimberly paced the length of her bedroom. This continued for a few moments before Val spoke up, “Pacing isn’t gonna get you anywhere, Kim. You know that.”
Kimberly ground her teeth together. “It helps.” It didn’t, actually. “I can’t sit still, I’m too restless. We could all die tonight, for all we know, or literally any time after that. How the fuck are you so calm?” Kimberly whirled on Valentina with an edge to her voice before pausing. She looked away before closing her eyes and coming to sit on the bed beside Val. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re not wrong, though,” Trini admitted quietly. That was the worst part. She wasn’t wrong, and there was nothing they could do about it. Well, especially not from there. The point was that, in that universe, they had no good options. “We’re being pulled in so many directions, and all of them are bad, I’m starting to wonder to wonder if we still know which way’s up.”
Juliana sighed and ran her hand through her hair. “I’m starting to wonder if we ever did.” She gestured to the screen. “We hardly know each other, we’re being forced to fight for our lives every night–yes, I recognise the irony there, Daisy – and our only options are equally as bad as each other. One is risking everything; the other is risking doing nothing, and it getting worse anyway.”
“Somehow, I’m even more grateful we live in this universe than I was before,” Daisy joked. “It’s a shit show over here but we’re under threat of death, like, every month, not every day. Definitely better.”
“Except for the fact that one of us has died.” Kimberly sent a meaningful look at Valentina. Juliana’s grip on her hand visibly tightened.
“At least it wasn’t permanent,” Jemma argued. “We could die there, and there might not be a redo this time. We don’t know what happens if you die in the Phantom Dimension. You could die in the real world, it could be a coma, you could be brain dead, nothing could happen at all, there are endless possibilities. And, as far as we know, injuries still hurt through the dimensions. So, maybe you die, but you can’t see how.”
That would make the most sense. It would also royally suck. So, Daisy chose not to entertain the idea. She much preferred option 4 of nothing happening at all, and it just really hurt in the Phantom Dimension for a while. Or, even better, you die in the Phantom Dimension, so you’re not stuck in it anymore. Wouldn’t that be great?
Something told her that wasn’t at all how it worked.
Valentina sighed and sat up. “You can’t just give up on your life in this universe. It’s our future, and it’s important.”
Kimberly was already shaking her head. “It doesn’t matter if we die-”
“Then we don’t die,” Valentina said easily, as if it were so simple. “Problem solved, right?”
Daisy laughed quietly. “I’m not sure that’s how that works, Val.”
Kimberly laughed. “Sure. Yeah, let’s just not die. That’s a good plan, I like it.”
Valentina smiled proudly. “Right? I came up with it myself, can you believe it?”
“Only we would make jokes at the end of the world,” Juliana shook her head.
“Technically, it’s not the end of the world,” Trini countered with a shit-eating grin, but Juliana was right. Not many people are stupid enough to make jokes before they’re probably about to die, yet here they were. Was it stupid, or were they just a little too used to it?
Juliana narrowed her eyes playfully. “Technically, we were making jokes at the end of the world.” When Rita attacked. Juliana still couldn’t believe she backhanded the bitch into space to defeat her. That had to be a new one.
Trini conceded with a grin as she put her hands in the air in surrender. “Okay, fine, fine. You win.” Then, more quietly, she joked, “This time.”
The scene changed to a clock at 11:58. Trini was sat on her bed, holding her phone open on the group chat but staring at the clock, as if willing it to never hit 12. At 11:59, she looked back down at her phone with a frown. “We’re forgetting something,” she muttered to herself. She pressed her hand to her mouth and stared at her phone like it would give her the answers.
Juliana frowned, thinking. Now that she mentioned it, something was off. There was a nagging sensation in the back of her mind screaming at her to connect the dots, find what was missing.
It was Jemma who realised. “Wait, didn’t you say that we always go back where we left off?” Everyone froze. Oh, fuck.
Trini bolted upright, “Shi-” the world turned fuzzy and red, glitching as the screen jumped from Trini on her bed to all of them in the bus.
The screen faded to black. “Oh, you gotta be shitting me!” Daisy threw her hands in the air before remembering that they were watching it all consecutively. In her defence, it was easy to forget they weren’t watching a TV show when it was in TV show format. Though the fact that it was their faces in said TV show format should have been enough of a clue.
Chapter 6: False Platitudes
Summary:
Technically, this is nearly an hour late, but considering the fact that I accidentally posted on Friday 3 weeks in a row, it's fine. I'm not even entirely sure anyone's reading this, so it's at least 90% self-indulgent.
Chapter Text
Trini bolted upright, “Shi-” the world turned fuzzy and red, glitching as the screen jumped from Trini on her bed to all of them in the bus. Trini stumbled as she whispered, “Get down!”
Thankfully, instinct took over, and no one questioned it, everyone dropped to the floor behind the bus seats. Juliana peeked her head under the chair and saw the black feet of the phantom slowly moving through the bus. ‘Still here,’ she mouthed to the others, pointing in the direction it was.
“What do we do?” Jemma whispered, eyes flicking between all of them, shining with fear as she tried to make herself as small as possible.
None of them missed that the British girl was definitely hiding behind Daisy. Though they couldn’t tell if it was a conscious decision on either of their parts.
“We have to kill it,” Daisy answered, eyes falling on her bat. On the other side of the bus. Brilliant.
Jemma groaned. “Would it kill you to run away from the danger instead of towards it?”
Daisy shrugged. “It might. Either way, do you see any exits? It’s fight or die, Jems. Just because we don’t have superpowers there doesn’t mean we’re defenceless.”
Juliana sighed. “But we also don’t have weapons. And as far as I can tell, they’re faster and stronger than us. It’d be like fighting a really skinny putty without any training.”
“Which you tried.” Trini pointed out. “Didn’t go well.”
Daisy raised her hands. “Okay, okay, I get it. We don’t have a choice, though, and there are six of us and one of it. I reckon we could win.”
“We could,” Kimberly agreed. “Can they?”
“Please tell me you’re joking,” Kimberly deadpanned, staring at Daisy incredulously. “How the hell are we supposed to kill it?”
“We have weapons for a reason,” Daisy argued, looking at Juliana for backup. “It’s our only option. Make it to the weapons and smack the shit out of it with Jemma and the gun just in case.”
Juliana opened her mouth before freezing, her eyes going wide as footsteps got louder, and they could hear the phantom noises through the screen. She held a finger to her lips and hissed, “Shh!” Through gritted teeth. The others immediately shut up, looking at Juliana for direction.
“Why did we think arguing was a good idea?” Jemma raised an eyebrow. “It’s in the bus with us; it probably heard us.”
“Sorry.” Kimberly grimaced.
Daisy winced apologetically. “My bad.”
Juliana pointed frantically at the seats, mouthing, ‘Hide!’ Everyone immediately slid under the bus seats as the camera moved to he creature walking through the aisle to the back of the bus.
Kimberly’s eyes locked onto the box of weapons at the end of the bus and paused for a minute. Then she pushed herself forward in an attempt to crawl towards them. Her shoe scraped loudly against the floor, and she froze with a grimace.
All of them cringed at the sound. If the phantom heard them whispering, there was no way it didn’t hear that. Trini really hoped it didn’t. She was sure everything would be fine and Kim would make it to the weapons box without any problem. That was false, she wasn’t sure of that at all. Actually, all the signs were pointing to the exact opposite. She could pretend.
Kimberly looked back over her shoulder to see if the phantom had heard her. After a second, the camera swirled around to show the phantom on the ground behind her, where she wasn’t looking. Only, its head was twisted in the wrong direction, upside down as it grinned at Kimberly.
Jemma slapped a hand over her mouth as she gasped. Everyone froze, staring at the screen with wide eyes as they subconsciously held their breath. “I guess it heard,” Daisy remarked after a moment.
She wasn’t entirely sure whose shoe was chucked at her.
Kimberly released a relieved breath before turning her head around and coming face to face with the phantom, now much closer than it had been a second before. Kimberly gaped at the upside-down head before it spun 360°, and she screamed, scrambling backwards before rolling to the side to avoid the slash it made at her.
“Kim!” Valentina screamed, panic filling her voice as she pushed herself out from under a seat.
The phantom’s hand closed around the end of Kimberly’s hair, yanking her back from where she’d started to stand. Kimberly screamed as her hands closed around her hair, just above where the phantom was gripping it.
“Fuck!” Daisy jerked forward, just avoiding knocking her head into Jemma’s chin as she stared at the screen. She’d be fine. If Daisy told herself that enough, it’d be true. That was never how that worked, and she knew it. Daisy regretted joking now because it wasn’t a joke to them. That was an alternate universe of them, it was just as real as this one. That Kimberly was just as real as the one a few feet away from her, and it didn’t matter if she saw it in person or if she saw it through a screen, seeing Kimberly die would break something in her. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t real to them because they’d seen it happen, and it was real. And it didn’t matter if she came back because it would still be there.
And she could say that with a certainty that she never wanted to have because the pain was still there, even with Valentina sitting a few feet to her left. Real and alive and safe. Because, for a moment there, she hadn’t been. Because Daisy had watched her die and she didn’t do shit to help her. Save her. Because she’d carried a lifeless body home, and a part of Daisy didn’t come back when Val did.
Kimberly’s hands reached up to where the phantom was grabbing her and yanked at its arm with all her strength. The phantom went tumbling over her, but didn’t release its grip before she slammed her knee into its face, and it fell backwards.
Trini didn’t loosen the grip she had on Kimberly’s hand, even when the phantom released her hair; the phantom was still in the bus with them. Where the fuck was other Trini? Why wasn’t she helping?
Kimberly scrambled back clumsily before two hands grabbed her biceps and pulled her up onto one of the bus seats. Valentina asked, “You okay?” She and Jemma dragged Kimberly off the bus’s floor and hopefully away from the phantom.
“Yeah-” Kimberly cut herself off with a scream as the phantom reached up for them again, folding her legs into herself as she turned sideways, knocking into Valentina as the three girls screeched. “Go, go, go!” Kimberly kicked Valentina off the seat and scrambled after her to get away from the phantom.
The phantom lunged for them as someone yelled, “Duck!” and they all dropped to the ground, the phantom missing them but lunging headfirst into the swing of Daisy’s bat. The phantom went flying, its hands reaching out in their direction and, by pure chance, caught Kimberly across the right side of her torso, claws shearing through her clothes and skin as she cried out.
“KIMBERLY!”
Juliana didn’t think she’d ever heard Trini sound so terrified.
“Kimberly!” Juliana yelled, panicked, and Daisy froze, lowering the bat. In that moment, the phantom lunged at her, slamming into Daisy and knocking the bat from her hands. Daisy grabbed the phantom’s forearms to keep it from clawing her and slammed her forehead into its face. “Trini-” Juliana was cut off when Trini surged forward and drove the shears through the phantom’s chest. It struggled for a second before slumping on top of Daisy, dead.
They all breathed heavily for a moment as Juliana knelt on the seat beside Kimberly, where she was curled up with her hand on her side and panting heavily. “Hey,” Juliana said softly, “You okay? Can you move?”
Kimberly nodded shakily as Daisy pushed the phantom off of her and rolled to her feet, a thick layer of black blood dripping from her face. “We need to patch her up. Jemma, can you?”
Trini slumped down, resting her elbows on her knees, which she had crossed beneath her, and dropped her face into her hands as she exhaled heavily. “Jesus Christ,” she whispered shakily.
“How bad is it?” Kimberly asked when her shirt had been taken off, and the scratches were plain to see.
All of them sucked in a sharp breath, except Trini who didn’t lift her head; she didn’t want to see it. She’d thought Kimberly was clear when she made it out from under the seat. She thought they were all clear when Daisy hit the phantom with the bat. It should have killed it, right? But it didn’t. And Kimberly paid the price.
It wasn’t that Trini blamed Daisy, not at all. Actually, it would have been worse if Daisy hadn’t reacted and attacked the phantom. It was pure fucking luck that the phantom managed to scratch Kim, because it really shouldn’t have been possible. She wasn’t dead. That was the important thing. She was alive and okay, and Jemma was gonna patch her up like she always did. Everything would be okay. Right?
“Why’s no one saying anything?” Kimberly asked after a long moment of everyone just staring at her. “Is it bad? It’s bad. Oh god-”
“We can’t tell with the blood,” Daisy said gently. Immediately everyone looked at her with ‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’ clear in their expressions but Daisy ignored them. Her face was still partially covered in black blood where she hadn’t quite wiped it off. Daisy knelt in front of Kimberly. “Injuries always look worse than they are.” Daisy held out the pain meds in her hand. “Here. They’ll help, and Jemma can patch you up.” She looked over at Jemma. “Right?” Jemma nodded, and Kimberly took the pills from Daisy’s hand before Daisy backed up and let Jemma take her place.
Jemma blinked at the screen for a long time, shocked and silent, before she finally cleared her throat and said, “Well. I was gonna yell at you for having zero tact, but somehow that worked?”
Daisy laughed because Jemma sounded genuinely baffled. “People don’t usually want false platitudes. They’d rather you say it straight so they have a clear picture of what’s going on rather than mindless guesses based on how much pain they’re in. The truth helps more than reassurance in situations like those.”
Juliana watched her for a long moment. “You say that like you know it first-hand.”
Daisy sighed. “Because I do. It always helped me when my friend told me exactly how hurt I was. It just pissed me off when people lied about to make me feel better when I could very clearly feel that it was, in fact, a ‘biggie’.” Daisy smiled at her own joke, but no one else did. Tough crowd, damn. She got serious again. “You learn to tell people the truth of what’s wrong with them when you have a blind friend who can tell when you’re lying and gets real pissy about it.”
The camera moved from where Kimberly had been bandaged up and was sleeping to where the other 5 were standing around the phantom’s body. “What do we do with it?” Valentina asked after a moment.
“We should analyse it,” Juliana answered. “Find out what hurts it most.” Daisy pulled her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans, now thankfully blood-free, and turned the torch on, shining it on the phantom. Immediately, the phantom started vibrating and melting. “Turn it off!”
“Ew!” Kimberly made a face.
“What the fuck?” Valntina gaped at it.
“Least we know what hurts 'em?” Trini tried with a disgusted wrinkle to her nose, as if she could smell the body through the screen… Actually, she was really glad they couldn’t do that. That would be horrible.
As Daisy scrambled to turn the torch off, the camera changed back to Kimberly, who was drowsily blinking open her eyes before pushing herself up to sit. She looked around for the others as their faces faded in. “Well, that’s disgusting.”
Trini’s shoulders slackened with relief. If she was awake and getting up, then she was recovering. That was good. That was really good. She was okay. Trini knew that already, but it was good to have a confirmation instead of just hoping it was the case.
“That explains why it’s always so dark here, I guess.” Jemma turned around at the sound of footsteps behind her and immediately stood up. “Hey, you’re awake. How’re you feeling?”
“Not great-” Kimberly started before her eyes locked onto the phantom. “What the fuck?!” Trini immediately pointed at Daisy.
“Dick,” Daisy grumbled with a roll of her eyes. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Daisy grinned. “Turns out, our buddies in black don’t like light. As in, they turn to goop in protest if it’s on them for too long. Like they start twisting and bubbling and-”
Juliana ran a hand down her face. “Daisy, why?”
Daisy raised her hands apologetically. “Hey, we’ve established that me is more unhinged than normal.”
They all exchanged looks. “Is she? Did we establish that?” Kimberly teased as Daisy spluttered. She was definitely more unhinged. More reckless? No. More protective? No. Mildly insane? Probably.
Jemma’s face contorted. “Okay, quit it.” She slapped Daisy on the shoulder. “She gets it.”
Juliana shook her head, exasperated. “Now that she’s awake, we should really talk about San Diego.”
The scene cut to Trini glaring at Juliana. “We can’t just hope everything will go back to normal on its own. We have lives. We’re supposed to be able to live them without being in constant fear of dying.”
“We can’t risk getting stuck here permanently,” Juliana argued. The two continued for a while, but their voices became muffled as the camera shifted away from them to Daisy and Jemma.
“Would you be mad if I said I wanted those two to get together before us?” Juliana asked Valentina quietly with a grin, not to be overheard by the two in question.
“If it gives us teasing rights? Not at all.” Valentina laughed.
“Where do you stand?” Jemma asked Daisy quietly as their eyes flicked between Juliana and Trini like it was a tennis match. At Daisy’s distracted hum, Jemma elaborated, “Do you think we should go back to San Diego?”
Daisy slowly looked away from Juliana and Trini. “Do you?”
Jemma frowned. “I asked first.”
“I asked second.”
“Good to see your lovely personality is as annoying across any universe.” Trini grinned at Daisy teasingly. “I’d hate to see another universe be left out.”
Juliana muttered, “Lucky bastards,” loud enough for Daisy to hear it and pretend to be offended. It was nice to joke around after a very stressful episode. Something told Juliana that they’d only get worse with time, so she’d take what she could get. And if what she could get was teasing Daisy for being irritating? She was totally cool with that.
Jemma sighed and shook her head before answering, “Sort of. I don’t want to go back to the Whaley House, but we don’t necessarily have to if we go back to San Diego.” The others quietened down and turned to listen to what Jemma was saying. “We could ask around, see if we find someone who knows something about this. Then we’d never have to go to the Whaley House, and we wouldn’t risk making it worse, right?” Her eyes darted between all of them before landing on Juliana.
Trini nodded. “I’m okay with avoiding Whaley if we’re still searching for information from the locals.” Valentina and Kimberly both nodded in agreement.
Juliana turned to Daisy. “What about you?”
Daisy shrugged. “I don’t care. Group majority.” Everyone stared at her, unimpressed for a long moment, before turning back to Juliana.
Valentina raised an eyebrow. “Since when do you not have an opinion on something? I didn’t actually know you could do that.” Her voice was teasing, but her frown was confused.
Daisy just shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I’m just as confused.” Which was a big fat freaking lie. She wasn’t an idiot; she had her suspicions. No one knew her like she did, and she could recognise the signs in herself. Wanting something but refusing to say it because the moment she put it into words, it would be taken.
She didn’t want to go to San Diego.
It was sick and selfish, which is why neither Daisy said it, but she didn’t want to go back because that was their biggest chance of escaping the Phantom Dimension, and she thought that the moment they weren’t forced to be friends, they wouldn’t be. She didn’t want to go to San Diego because she thought going back would mean losing people she’d come to care about.
Daisy could understand that.
Juliana shook her head after a long moment of staring at Daisy with irritation swirling in her eyes. “I don’t think it was an accident. It’s like you said.” She gestured to Trini. “It’s all too convenient. Only, it wasn’t a prank, it was-
“That woman is trying to trap us here,” Jemma finished, slumped on the seat beside Kimberly. “But why?”
Juliana shrugged. “Who knows? What we do know is that if we go back there, we could run into her again. Hell, there are probably more of her who could benefit from us being stuck forever.”
Kimberly stared at her in disbelief. “Are you saying you’re still against going?”
Juliana sighed. “No. But I’m only going if we wait a year.”
“A YEAR?!” All of them exclaimed with their alternate counterparts because that was insane! If they were going to risk it, why wait a year?”
The scene cut to Daisy looking interested, even though Juliana was the one speaking. “There’s no way to know that going back will even get us out of here, and there are still risks even if we don’t go to the Whaley House.” Kimberly opened her mouth to argue, but Juliana cut her off. “Also, in case you’re forgetting, none of us has a license. Legally, we can’t go until next year.”
“You need to be 17 to drive a car in that universe?” Kimberly tilted her head curiously. To be fair, if Phantom Dimensions existed and Power Rangers didn’t, then why not have different driving laws, too?
“I guess that explains why you don’t have your bike,” Valentina offered to Juliana.
“A year gives us time to prepare for the worst outcome: we get stuck here permanently. We can train, get stronger, faster, and build more stamina. Research the shit out of the Whaley House and alternate dimensions. And, because apparently the high walls do jack shit, we need to fortify this place.”
Daisy agreed with Juliana, nodding along. “That last one has to be as soon as possible. Like, we do it in the real world. We’re still trapped here every night, I’d prefer we’re safe when that happens. The thrill is great, but there’s only so long we can survive by the skin of our teeth against those things before someone dies.”
Trini shook her head. “And you call me crazy girl. Adrenaline junkie.”
Daisy shrugged with a grin as if to say, ‘What can you do?’
“Where did you get a whiteboard?” Daisy asked with a tilt to her head as Juliana scribbled on it, with her back facing the group.
FIRST MAIN OBJECTIVE: GUNSHOP
Juliana turned around. “We need better weapons. The rifle’s a good start, and honestly, I kinda love the bat, but we need more guns. If we get stuck in a horde of those things, melee and one gun ain’t gonna cut it.”
Trini nodded. “Okay,” She said slowly. “How, exactly, are we gonna get there?”
“Well, that leads me to points one and two,” Juliana said, turning back to the whiteboard.
Daisy laughed, “Seriously, I want to know where the whiteboard came from.” Then she paused. “Actually, I’m kind of surprised you’ve never pulled out a whiteboard on us. I would say you seem like the type, but.” She gestured to the screen. “Proof.”
“I had faith in your memory,” Juliana narrowed her eyes jokingly. “My mistake.”
“Yeah, it was,” Daisy agreed. “You should really know better.”
FORTIFY GRAVEYARD WALLS
BRING JEEP INTO GRAVEYARD
“We need to drive to the gun shop, and my house is the closest. My mom’s Jeep should work just fine. The walls need to be fortified first so the phantoms can’t follow us in after, and like Daisy said, basic protection. When that’s done, we’ll get the Jeep.”
“How should we do that, then?” Daisy asked, looking between them. “Fortify the walls? How?”
Valentina looked back at the black goo corpse behind them. “Well, if the light of a phone torch did this to him, imagine giant lights on the walls. They wouldn’t be able to get close.”
Juliana smiled at Valentina with what Daisy would definitely call hearts in her eyes. “Brilliant.” And if Daisy pretended to gag when they kissed, then really it was just revenge for the time Juliana did it to her.
Juliana frowned. “I can’t imagine the generator’s powerful enough to power a bunch of lights around the walls and the door. If the lights go out when the door opens, then that’s really not helpful.”
Jemma tilted her head. “What about solar panels? Then they spend all day charging, and the lights are ready for when it’s night. And if they fail, the generator’s backup will be until we can fix it.”
“Question.” Daisy raised her hand. “Where, exactly, are we supposed to get solar panels? Cuz I am not stooping low enough to tear them off people’s buildings.”
Juliana snorted at the mental image while Kimberly teased, “Oh, okay, so that’s where you draw the line. Good to know. I didn’t think we’d ever find it.”
Valentina smiled shyly. “Let me handle that one. I can order them online and get them shipped here.”
They all slowly turned to look at Valentina. “You are way richer than I thought you were,” Daisy stated after a long pause. “Like I knew you were rich, but I didn’t know you were rich.”
They all stared at her. Daisy opened her mouth to make a comment, but Juliana interrupted. “Thank you. We can do that tomorrow.”
“Is that everything?” Kimberly asked, and Juliana nodded. “Cool.“ She turned to Trini. “Can I borrow your knife?”
Daisy grinned as she realised what was going to happen. It was a smart move to cut the hair off. It was so nice to see that Kimberly match the one sitting beside her more closely. Made it impossibly more real.
“I was wondering when you’d cut it off this time,” Valentina joked from where she was sitting behind the others, one of the two actually in a chair. She wondered if whatever brought them here could get them better chairs. If it could teleport them here, why not a couch? Or even bean bags at this point. Their poor backs had to be suffering; the episodes weren’t exactly short. Actually, Valentina wondered how long they’d been there. The thing said time wouldn’t pass beyond this room, so if they checked their watches, would any time have passed at all?
Valentina glanced at her watch and saw that, no. It was still 12:00 am on the dot. Oh. Wait a minute.
Kimberly tilted her head to the side, her hair long again in the real dimension. Then she tilted it the other way. Then she grabbed the ends and held them away from her head. “Well that’s fucking weird.” The camera moved to show that her shadow had short hair, and it looked like Kimberly was holding nothing.
“Creepy,” Trini said, raising an eyebrow. “I guess… maybe it’s the same rule as injuries? Like it-” She hummed, perplexed, as she tilted her head. “No, it’s just weird. At least now we get to see you with your hair short.” She smiled at Kimberly, one hand reaching out to push it back from her face. “I prefer it. It’s more you.”
Kimberly smiled back, cheeks turning pink. Daisy actually didn’t comment for once, just watching them with a smile and a fond shake of her head. Jemma looked at her with shocked, wide eyes for a moment too long before pressing a kiss to her head and turning back to the screen.
“Can you order the lights at lunch?” Juliana asked Valentina as they walked through the hallway.
Daisy immediately frowned. Where was Jemma? Val was far right, Kimberly behind her, Juliana beside Val, then Daisy on the right with Trini behind her. But where was Jemma? Apparently, Trini noticed the same as she pointed out. “We’re down one.”
“Yeah, that should be fine. My dad’s out of town, so we should be question-free, too,” Valentina answered with a smile before it slipped from her face when she faced forward. “I was wondering where she was.”
The others all followed her eyes to where a tall man had Jemma shrinking into herself, where a tall man with short brown hair and harsh brown eyes was saying something scathing at her. He towered over her.
Daisy’s eyes narrowed as her vision turned red because who the fuck did he think he was? He would be lucky if she never ran into him in this universe because she would kill him on principle. How fucking dare he? Jemma looked so scared. It was the first time she’d seen the British girl look so small, and it wasn’t against putties, or Rita, or phantoms, but a man who thought he had the right.
She was livid.
Chapter 7: Self-Preservation
Chapter Text
Juliana’s eyes visibly darkened, and she took a step forward before a hand on her shoulder stopped her, pushing her back hard enough that she took a step back with wide eyes as she watched Daisy stalk towards the man, rage evident in her posture and tightly clenched fists.
Trini grinned with a dark look in her eyes. “He’s so fucked.”
“She’s gonna kill him.” Kimberly agreed.
Daisy whistled sharply, and the man’s head snapped towards her before she put a hand on his chest and shoved him a few feet away from Jemma and pushing him into the locker behind him. “You’re Grant, right?”
His eyebrows raised. “Who the fuck-”
“No, no, no, no, no,” Daisy shut him down. “This is where you shut up, Grant, okay? Yell at her again, touch her again, talk to her again – even to ask for a pencil – and I will punch you so hard you taste your own snot.” He opened his mouth with his own rage-filled gaze, but she cut him off again. “You know, my brother is the Captain of the football team. You’re on that, right?” Grant paled. “Yeah. I thought so. Touch her again and I’ll sick Chase on your ass. We clear?”
Juliana smiled proudly. She wasn’t even remotely surprised that Daisy was the one to protect Jemma. Any of them would have done it in a heartbeat, but Daisy would always beat them there when it was Jemma who needed saving. Then again, Daisy was usually the first there when someone needed saving, throwing away any semblance of caution and throwing herself into protecting them even if it meant becoming their personal human shield.
Juliana didn’t like that it applied to both universes, not because Daisy protecting people was a bad thing, but because Daisy risking herself like she meant nothing was. She always seemed to put everyone else’s well-being 5+ ranks above her own, which, okay, Juliana was sort of guilty of that too, but it was different. Juliana would trade her life for any of them, but when she was protecting them, there was that human cautionary instinct of self-preservation keeping her safe.
Daisy just seemed to completely lack that.
Grant gritted his teeth but nodded after a moment. “Yeah. Now get the fuck off me, or I’ll stop caring who your brother is.” Daisy took a step back, but he shoved her anyway before storming away from her and back down the hallway.
When Daisy turned around, the others were all gaping at her from where they stood beside Jemma, Juliana with her hand gently resting on the shorter girl’s shoulders. “Daisy-”
Daisy interrupted Jemma. “Don’t sweat it. You okay?” Daisy leaned her head down to capture Jemma’s downturned gaze, her hand subconsciously coming up to hover above her cheek where a bruise was quickly forming.
Daisy’s fists curled into tight fists at the sight of the bruise because he’d fucking hurt her. She let him off lightly. She should have broken his nose for even thinking he could hurt Jemma and get away with it. Daisy glared at the scene, at the bruise, as if Grant could feel her rage through the screen. She wished he could. She wished she could jump through the screen and kick his ass before whisking them all away back to this universe, away from the Phantom Dimension and the constant threat of death.
Unfortunately, that wish remained ungranted, the same as most wishes she made. Jemma was a rare exception to the rule, and Daisy wouldn’t trade her in for every other wish she’d ever made. Between them and Jemma, it wasn’t even a competition. That’s how Daisy knew she probably didn’t deserve to be a Power Ranger. Because if it came down to choosing between her team and the world, she didn’t think she could make the hard call. Actually, she was pretty damn sure she wouldn’t. Yet another thing to add to the depressingly long list of reasons why Daisy was glad she wasn’t the leader and never would be.
“I’m okay,” Jemma answered quietly, eyes boring into Daisy’s with the thick layer of shock ever-present in them. Clearly, she hadn’t expected anyone to stand up for her. It was hard to say if it was more or less surprising that it was Daisy. “Thank you.” When Daisy opened her mouth to brush it off, she stopped her. “No, really. Thank you, Daisy.”
Daisy looked like she wanted to protest, but accepted it with a reluctant nod before changing the subject. Did half-accepting it still count as accepting it? “So, I was thinking we all need training.” She gestured loosely to Jemma. “This is just proof of that. If we can’t defend ourselves, we’ll die. We need strength training. Learning to fight.”
Juliana nodded in agreement. “Definitely. But we don’t have Zordon or Alpha-5 or superpowers in that universe.”
Daisy shook her head. “We don’t need it. We’re not fighting monsters three times are size, just some lanky shadows with claws. You don’t need to be a superhero to fight.”
“You’re not wrong.” Juliana nodded slowly.
“I know a place,” Daisy offered. “A woman. She can help us, and she’s cheap. We can go there after school. And, well, given that we’re all women, we have a perfect excuse.
“Which sucks, but you know. Humanity.” Daisy sighed. “Humanity sucks.” They all nodded in solemn agreement. Humanity did suck.
A shrill bell announced the end of class, and Mr. Garrett said, “Alright, guys, turn in your assignments on your way out.” Kimberly handed the paper to him, but he froze before taking it, his eyes on the desk. Or, more specifically, on her shadow.
“Oh shit,” Trini leaned forward slightly. Other people could see it too. God, that must be so weird. How the hell do you explain that your shadow doesn’t have hair without actually explaining it? They’d be thrown into a psych ward in seconds. And Trini wouldn’t blame them for it. Maybe Kimberly should cut her hair in the real dimension, too.
No, she didn’t think that only because it made Kimberly look more like the one beside her. It definitely wasn’t because the long hair felt out of place on the woman who cut it off halfway through detention. It definitely wasn’t because the short hair felt so much more like Kimberly than the long hair did. And it definitely wasn’t because Trini thought she looked impossibly hotter with shorter hair.
No, no, that wasn’t it at all.
“Mr. Garrett?” Kimberly with a confused frown when he didn’t take the paper from her hand. He shook his head before taking the paper with a smile. Kimberly walked away with a perplexed frown to join Trini, where she’d lingered in the doorway. “I need to show you guys something.”
“Am I high?” Daisy narrowed her eyes slightly as she stared down at the shadow on the table. “You guys can see that too?”
“No, we see it too,” Jemma reassured her as she tilted her head. “I have no idea how to explain it, though. It’s scientifically impossible, there’s no wa-”
“You’re telling me everything else was scientifically possible?” Kimberly raised a sceptical eyebrow. The shadow thing is what’s throwing you off? Not the literally everything else?”
“I’m pretty sure we’re beyond what’s scientifically possible.” Then Daisy frowned. “Isn’t it… It’s kind of like the reverse of what your picture was, isn’t it?” She asked Kimberly. “That time, we could only see a shadow; this time, no shadow at all.”
Juliana tilted her head. “Well, the phantoms exist in the Phantom Dimension. Somehow, when we were in the Whaley House, they crossed over-”
“Or we did,” Daisy interrupted. “That’s how it started. We crossed over in the Whaley House, but we didn’t come fully back. Which is why we go back halfway every night: because we only left halfway.”
Kimberly’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s…”
“Smart?” Daisy scoffed. “I have my moments.”
Jemma squeezed her hand. Juliana spoke up. “It’s a really good theory. And the best explanation we have for why we’re partially stuck. Good job.”
And if Daisy had to fight to keep a proud grin down, then really, that was her business.
Juliana nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense, actually.” Then she shook her head. “Anyway, the Phantoms are like shadows, right? So when we’re in the Phantom Dimension, we’re also shadows. Meaning anything that happens in the Phantom Dimension-”
“Happens to our shadow.” Jemma nodded definitively. “That makes sense. It also explains why injuries don’t transfer between dimensions.”
Valentina nodded in agreement. “Because they’re not happening to us but to our shadow. That does make sense.”
Kimberly sighed. “Still doesn’t answer the question of what happens if we die. You can’t lose your shadow. Would the pain of it send you into shock? What if it didn’t hurt? Would you feel the pain in the real world?”
“There’s no way to know,” Juliana said helplessly, her voice tinged with irritation at the situation. And exhaustion, if you listened a little closer. This should have been a break for them, from the world of being Power Rangers, but instead they were forced to watch another universe where they’re constantly being hurt and nearly dying because they’re so damn human. It wasn’t a break at all.
“Not unless one of us dies,” Daisy agreed darkly, because that was the grim truth. There was no way to know what happened when someone died until one of them did. Of course, they’d all prefer the question to remain unanswered.
Yet none of them could escape the nagging dread in the bottom of their stomachs and the back of their minds.
“Speaking of, how are you?” Trini turned to Kimberly with a concerned frown.
Kimberly looked up, startled, before sighing. “It kinda feels like a rash, I guess. And it hurts. Of course, it hurts, but it’s not half as bad as last night. Not even close.” Valentina watched her for a moment, as if to see if she was lying, before turning away.
Juliana nodded. “That’s good.”
“It shouldn’t have happened in the first place,” Trini said, eyes boring intensely into the side of Daisy’s head.
Trini dropped her head into her hands, mortified. “I am so sorry, Daisy.”
“Don’t be.” Daisy waved her off. “It’s nothing.”
“No, it’s not.” Trini sat up and stared meaningfully at Daisy. “It’s wrong, and dickish. And she’s wrong. Okay, well, yeah, it shouldn’t have happened, but it was in no way your fault. You were trying to protect us, and you did. It was unlucky. I’m sorry.”
Daisy just nodded again. “You have nothing to apologise for.”
Daisy looked up after a moment, doing a double-take when she saw Trini glaring at her. “What? Are you blaming me?”
Juliana sighed heavily. Another argument. Fantastic. Trini didn’t drop her glare. “I’m just saying, she wouldn’t have gotten hurt if you hadn’t been so reckless. Maybe, I don’t know, think next time.”
Daisy gaped at her. “I was. I was thinking that if I didn’t do something, three of our friends would have been phantom food. I was thinking that a hard swing to the head with a bat full of nails would have killed the damn thing. I was thinking that I had to stop it from killing them.” She turned to look at Kimberly. “I’m sorry you got hurt. Really, I didn’t mean for that to happen. I was just-”
“Trying to protect us, I know.” Kimberly nodded. “I don’t blame you because it’s not your fault.” She looked at Trini. “It’s none of our faults. The phantom got lucky; it shouldn’t have been able to survive that, and it shouldn’t have been able to scratch me. Look, we don’t know what could have happened if you hadn’t hit it, and I’m willing to bet it would have been a lot worse, so how about we drop this, okay? It’s no one's fault.”
Jemma wrapped her arm around Daisy’s shoulders and tugged the girl back from where she’d been sitting forward with her legs crossed, pulling her back into her chest. Quietly, she muttered, “It’s not your fault.” Into Daisy’s hair to reaffirm the message. She knew the voice in Daisy’s mind was screaming at her that Trini was right, as she no doubt confirmed what Daisy already thought.
She also knew that nothing could stop that voice, including Daisy, but she could sure as hell try to quiet it.
“I have a theory about San Diego,” Jemma said abruptly, catching everyone off guard. “Well, actually, not really about San Diego, but more how we got from San Diego to Angel Grove in the Phantom Dimension in a night.”
Everyone frowned, clinging on to the change in topic with both hands. “Your theory?” Juliana asked.
“Well, if our bodies are connected between the Phantom Dimension and this one, through our shadows or not, then what if there’s a limit on how far they can be apart?” Everyone tilted their heads curiously. “So, if one body moves too far from the other, the other resets to that position instead of continuing where we left off.”
“Told you you were the smartest.” Daisy grinned up at her girlfriend like she was flexing that her girlfriend was smarter than her. Actually, she probably was.
“You don’t need to tell me that.” Jemma smiled back cheekily. “Seriously, though, it does make sense. Though if we’ve been there for weeks, we really should have thought of it by now.”
Valentina shrugged. “I’m pretty sure we’ve hardly been sleeping. It’s a lot harder to theories when you’re heavily sleep deprived.”
Juliana hummed. “That makes a lot of sense. But how far can we go before it changes, and does the same apply to the Phantom Dimension? If we move far enough there, do we wake up in that location?”
Valentina narrowed her eyes contemplatively. “Maybe. But we know moving objects in the Phantom Dimension doesn’t affect this world, so the same might apply to us. Plus, if it is our shadow selves moving, then it would make more sense that our shadow would reset where we are the next night, rather than us moving there.”
Daisy sighed, eyes on the clock. “We can figure all the boring shit out later.” Juliana narrowed her eyes. “Lunch is about to end. How do we feel about going to a self-defence place after school to check if we can sign up? The one I mentioned? We’ll, uh, have to take the bus, though, cuz it’s kinda far away.”
“A self-defence place?” Juliana said to herself. “Do you think it’ll introduce Zordon and Alpha then? But… like, human?”
Valentina shook her head. “I don’t think so. I mean, Zordon died millions of years ago, and as far as I can tell, robots don’t exist there. And I don’t think Daisy would be so nonchalant about taking us ot meet an alien and a robot.”
“Then who?” Trini asked.
Daisy smirked. “I might have an idea.” Everyone stared at her for a long moment, but she didn’t take her eyes off the screen, apparently not caring enough to elaborate.
“Okay,” Valentina agreed, but narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Then, she remembered something from earlier. “Wait, did you say your brother was Captain of the football team? Like Chase?”
Daisy winced. She’d been really hoping they hadn’t remembered that. “I did.”
“Your brother is Chase?” Kimberly’s eyebrows raised. “He’s from New Zealand. How come you don’t have an accent like he does?”
“Oh shit, yeah, they don’t know,” Juliana remembered. Well, that wasn’t ideal. Not that she blamed Daisy for not telling them, they hardly knew each other in that universe. Plus, she assumed it wasn’t something she liked to advertise, considering how cagey she’d been when she told them. And that was kind of under duress.
Daisy sighed heavily. “It’s not biological. Foster brother.” Understanding dawned on all of their faces in an instant. “Please tell me he’s actually a decent guy and I didn’t make it up?”
Juliana nodded. “He’s cool. Not a dick, just… irritating sometimes. He’s funny, though, and he never actually means to hurt anyone. As far as I’m aware, at least.”
“And Grant didn’t want Daisy to tell him he was bullying me,” Jemma provided. “That means he’s not a wanker even around is football friends. So. Good foster brother.”
“Not so good foster dad.” Daisy finished with a grin that weirdly didn’t seem forced. Like that was somehow a good deal. Maybe it was compared to them both being shitty. Jemma wondered how rare it was for no one to be shitty. Probably rarer than she would like.
“Stay close.” Daisy led them through streets of old brick houses, cracks in the bricks and the occasional bars or sheets over some windows, lots of spray paint and at least 3 groups of teens smoking. The camera lingered on a sign that said ‘St Agnes Orphanage’ for a moment too long before following them through more underpasses and dodgy alleyways. “Sorry, it’s a shitty neighbourhood.”
Everyone exchanged a glance at the sign, bar Daisy, who pretended not to notice. Knowing that Daisy was an orphan made the dots unbelievably easy to connect, and the fact that it was highlighted by the screen. They wouldn’t show it if it wasn’t important.
“Oh, here it is.” Daisy stopped them just outside. “Be respectful.”
“You’re telling us that?” Trini raised an eyebrow. After a moment of Daisy staring a her blankly, she raised her hands as well in apology. “Okay, okay, sorry, I got it. Respect.”
Daisy shook her head with a sigh, closing her eyes for a short moment. “Just come on.” She led them through the doors of a surprisingly nice gym compared to the rest of the neighbourhood. It was clean, well-kept, and looked to be up to code. At least, there weren’t any visible problems.
There was a short woman with her back turned to them, wearing a black tank top and leggings as she slowly moved through what looked almost like yoga, maybe? It was hard to say. Kimberly opened her mouth to speak, but Daisy stopped her, putting a hand in front of her and shaking her head. Kimberly stared at her incredulously for a long moment before Daisy spoke up. “May?”
The Rangers’ heads snapped to Daisy. Trini asked, “Your foster mom?”
Daisy nodded, unsurprised, with a grin. “Yeah. She’s like… crazy good at fighting. Taught me quite a bit of self-defence. And discipline.” Daisy sighed heavily. “I guess now I know why.” She was S.H.I.E.L.D. One of the best parts of her life had been a lie. Again. Because of fucking course it was. No, Daisy hadn’t gotten over it. Yes, she was still pissed about it.
“You have friends?” The woman said slowly, not stopping her movement. Trini snorted. Both of them.
Daisy deadpanned, “Thanks, May. We need your help, if it’s okay?” May stopped and turned around, raising an eyebrow at Daisy. “Self-defence. Ideally private, but it’s a late booking, so I understand if it’s not. They can pay.” She glanced back at them. “Right?” Immediately, they all nodded. Daisy looked back at May.
May just stared at her. For a while. Then, May’s eyes moved to the others with such a sharp eye that it seemed like she could see directly through them to their soul, rifling through their secrets and discarding them as nothing to fret about. “Saturdays?” May offered, and Daisy grinned triumphantly. “It’s the only day I’ve got a free private lesson. I can also include them in yours if you’d like.”
Daisy beamed. “Nice to see I’ve got that in this universe, too.” She wouldn’t say she loved fighting, but it was a release. It helped her calm down, channel her emotions into something more productive than yelling or crying. May always said there was no point wasting your time on a tantrum when you could spend your energy on something much better. Daisy couldn’t agree more. Plus, it was nice to get out her frustration while also keeping her mind centred. It had to be healthier than picking a fight and punching the nearest bully.
Everyone’s eyebrows shot up to their hairline as they stared at Daisy. Valentina mumbled, “That explains why you’re a better fighter.”
Daisy ignored their surprise in favour of asking, “Thursdays and Saturdays work for you guys?” Everyone nodded after a brief moment of hesitation. Daisy turned back to May. “They need parental permission, right?” Daisy mirrored May’s nod. “Okay. I’ll let you know tomorrow.”
Daisy ushered them all back out of the gym, even as they all continued to look at her in surprise. “I thought your day was Thursday?” Valentina asked after a moment of walking in silence.
“It is. I clean the gym for a discount on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.” The discount was actually just not having to pay, but that wasn’t relevant.
“That’s a pretty good deal, actually.” Trini nodded to herself. “Discount and self-defence lessons for just cleaning the gym three days a week without pay. Pretty solid.” Daisy had to agree.
Daisy ducked the kick aimed at her head before spinning on the ground in an attempt to knock May’s feet out from beneath her. May danced back before kicking Daisy in the abdomen, sending her stumbling back a few steps before she rolled out of the way of another kick. She blocked a punch to her face, and May grabbed her arm, throwing her over her shoulder, where Daisy bounced off the ground before rolling to a stop. “Okay,” Daisy panted, sloppily tapping her hands together in a ‘T’, “Time out. Val, you’re in.” Daisy took the hand May extended to her.
Juliana raised her eyebrows. It had been faster-paced than she’d expected, considering they didn’t have powers. Then again, she knew Daisy could fight even before they got all the perks of being Power Rangers, so it really shouldn’t have been all that surprising.
Daisy half limped her way over to where Juliana was sitting, taking the bottle from her hands with a grateful smile and downing half of it. “That was good,” Juliana complimented. “Lasted way longer than the rest of us. Hell, you even landed a few solid hits. Didn’t know that was possible.”
Daisy nodded her thanks, her eyes drifting over to where Kimberly and Trini were sprawled out on the mats, dreading their turn. “It’s not good enough. Okay, May’s one of the best fighters the FBI have ever seen, but the phantoms aren’t human. We need to be better.”
Trini’s eyebrows shot up. “Damn, she’s that good?”
Daisy nodded, desperately trying to ignore the pride in her chest. “Yeah, even here. Except, FBI was clearly code for S.H.I.E.L.D.” Daisy tilted her head in thought. “I wonder if S.H.I.E.L.D. exists in that universe?”
There was a loud thud as Valentina went flying into the ground on her back, May’s hands still wrapped around her arm. “You saw what I did there, Jemma?” Jemma nodded rapidly with a squeak as May helped Valentina up. “I think that’s enough for today. Go home, get some rest.”
They all turned to leave except Daisy, who started to walk further into the gym before May stopped her. “And you.” Daisy frowned at her, confused. “You need rest too; don’t think I haven’t noticed you’ve been sleeping less.” The others were all lingering by the door, awkwardly avoiding eye contact with each other and pretending not to listen in. “When was the last time you had a full meal-”
Jemma clenched her jaw, pressing her cheek into Daisy’s hair and breathing in deeply as if that would make the simmering anger in her veins calm down. Somehow, it kind of did. Kind of. Daisy always helped.
“May-”
“Don’t interrupt me.” Daisy shut her mouth with a click, her eyes darting over to the others for half a second. “You need to look after yourself. You could have flipped into the throw, but your footwork was off, and you didn’t jump into it. That was sloppy.” Daisy averted her eyes. “On Thursday, I need you to beat me.”
Daisy gaped at the screen. “What?! She just kicked my ass! Like, not even 10 seconds ago!”
Daisy’s head snapped up, eyes wide. “You’re kidding... Are you kidding?” May raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “May, I-” She glanced over at the others before lowering her voice. “I can’t do that. I’m not-”
“That good?” May finished. “You are that good. I’ve seen it. You’re holding back, I need you to stop. Take your fears, put them in a box, and put them aside. Beat me on Thursday. You can.”
“Easier said than done,” Trini countered. “You can’t just… put away fear. That’s not how that works.”
“I don’t think she’s ever actually felt fear,” Daisy admitted. “She’s… unmovable. I’ve never even seen her anxious, just... She’s always so sure of herself and what she can do, and she’s never doubted it.” It was something Daisy really looked up to, but couldn’t imagine herself ever coming close to. Her entire life, Daisy had been ruled by fear or adrenaline. Fear of getting hurt, but the adrenaline high of doing something dangerous. Fear of jumping, but the thrill of falling. Fear of hiding versus the freedom of running.
She tended to push aside her fear for the adrenaline kick, but she couldn’t imagine never feeling it. Sure, there were dozens of things she should have been afraid of, but wasn’t. There were probably a lot of things she shouldn’t be afraid of, but was. It was a weird and kind of fucked up balance and Daisy was pretty damn sure she was doing everything upside down and backwards, but if it had worked out for her so far, maybe upside down and backwards was better. At least, it was better for her.
Chapter 8: Blame
Chapter Text
Daisy groaned as she stared down the upsettingly huge wave of phantoms from on top of the wall. She’d just set up the final light fixture, and now she had to go back down there so they could go and steal a Jeep from Juliana’s mom. Daisy jumped down beside the others and asked. “Are we really gonna be able to deal with all of them? There’s definitely more than yesterday.”
“What are you wearing?” Trini questioned, studying the all black outfit Daisy wore. A long-sleeve shirt with pockets on both biceps and black trousers tucked under Daisy’s normal boots. Actually, they were all wearing similar things, only with different shoes and different hand wraps. The colours didn’t take a lot of deduction skills.
Daisy laughed slightly. “I guess we’re all the Black Ranger.”
Valentina nodded. “Most of them should be distracted by the traps.”
“Alright, y’all, we’ve planned this for months,” Juliana reminded them. “Every possible thing that could go wrong, we have a contingency for. We’ve gone over it a thousand times; we couldn’t be more prepared. Once we get that Jeep, we’re a thousand times closer to getting the hell out of this place.” Juliana looked between all of them. “Let’s go over the plan again.”
“Are we really sure we want to do this?” Jemma asked hesitantly. Juliana blinked. “I mean, we have the lights; we’re safe here. There are so many more of them than I thought there’d be. Do we really have to leave?”
“There were a lot of them,” Valentina agreed reluctantly. Juliana stared at her like she’d grown a second head.
Trini seemed to share the sentiment. “We can’t just give up now. You heard what Juliana said, we’ve been planning this for months. We need the Jeep to do anything, we can’t just-”
“Technically, we don’t need to do anything,” Jemma argued. Daisy’s head whipped around to her girlfriend, sitting up slightly to be able to look at her better. Was now a bad time to ask for better chairs? “I mean, the danger aspect is gone. It’s just 7 hours added to our day, it could be worse. Why do we need to risk everything?”
“Please tell me you’re joking,” Juliana deadpanned. “You’re the one who wanted to get out of here. You said you didn’t want to be trapped here for the rest of our lives, but now you’re backing out? Are you fucking serious?!”
“Hey, man, don’t yell at her.” Daisy glared at Juliana.
“I didn’t!” Juliana defended herself, and Daisy immediately backed off. Right. That was another problem they kept having. It was hard not to get caught up in their emotions and mix that reality with this one. It was easy to imagine that what they were saying on screen was what they were saying in real life, or at least thinking. Most of the time, it was fine, but in scenes like this, where emotions ran high, it was easy to forget who said what for a moment. It was disorientating as hell.
“Hey, don’t-”
“We’re not giving up!” Juliana whirled on Daisy. “We need that Jeep. What if something new comes, something that the lights can’t stop, huh? We need a way out! We need to know this place!” Daisy stared her down easily but didn’t bother responding as Juliana continued. “We can’t wait! Because if we wait, then people could die, you could die, we could die! Is that what you want, huh?” She took a step closer to Daisy. “I know you like the thrill of being in danger, but there is a line! We’re ready, now! We’re prepared, now! If we wait, and shit goes wrong, and someone get’s hurt, then that’s on me. We have to do this because if we don’t-” Juliana cut herself off and looked away, turning her back on Daisy and the others.
Everyone was silent for a long moment. Even on screen, no one was talking. It was just the sound of Juliana’s heavy breathing. “That wasn’t fair,” Juliana said after a moment, closing her eyes. “It’s natural to be afraid, and I shouldn’t have yelled at you guys. I’m sorry.”
Valentina shook her head. “You have nothing to be sorry for. A) Technically, it wasn’t even you who said that. B) It’s also natural to be annoyed. And frustrated, and angry with a tough situation that you have to take the lead in because no one else can. You’re an amazing leader, Juls. In every universe. It’s okay if you crack under the pressure sometimes. You’re only human. Let yourself be human.”
It was silent again for another long moment before Daisy cleared her throat. “Hey, whatever brought us here, can you give us chairs? Like a couch or something? Please?”
3 couches appeared in a row in front of the wall. Helpful. Daisy pushed herself to her feet and extended a hand to Jemma, flopping down on the black and white couch. Definitely the best couch. The others sat on their own coloured couches as well, in pairs that Daisy didn’t need to bother to explain.
“I’m sorry,” Jemma apologised quietly. “You’re right. We can’t wait, and I really don’t want to be here for the rest of our lives. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry. I was just…”
“Overwhelmed?” Daisy offered. Jemma gave her a grateful nod. “Yeah. We all are; there are a lot of them. We’ll be fine as long as we stick together.” She turned to Juliana. “Let’s go over the plan again, and we can go. We’re doing this tonight, boss. Don’t worry.”
Juliana ran her hands down her face and shrank in her seat beside Val. Because that just made it a hundred times worse. Daisy hadn’t even said anything except ‘hey,’ and Juliana had used her as a verbal punching bag. How the hell was that fair? Realistically, she knew that the other Juliana had been too overwhelmed by her emotions to care about what was fair and who had said what, but that didn’t make it any better for Daisy.
“Wh- what are you doing?” Jemma squeaked and turned bright red where she had been checking that her headlight worked and inspecting the crowbar in her hands.
“Thigh holster,” Daisy said from the floor, knelt in front of Jemma and attached a black holster to her thigh. “For a knife, just in case. Don’t want to be screwed if you drop your real weapon.”
Daisy steadfastly ignored the smirk Trini was sending her. Actually, she was pretty sure all of them were grinning. Jackasses. Maybe this was karma for all the teasing. Great.
Jemma squeaked in agreement, taking a step back when Daisy pronounced it finished. Daisy handed her an extra torch as well. “Precautions never hurt anyone.” Which wasn’t entirely true, but semantics. Then, Daisy walked away to secure a walkie-talkie in the band of her trousers.
Jemma watched her for a moment before Juliana’s voice got everyone’s attention. “Before we go, I just… I wanted to say I’m sorry. For snapping at you guys earlier.” Her gaze lingered on Daisy for a moment. “It wasn’t fair on you.”
Valentina looked over from where she was checking on Kimberly’s side. “It’s alright. You were just as overwhelmed as the rest of us, it’s understandable that you cracked. No one’s mad at you.”
“Okay, so are we making bets on who gets together first?” Kimberly asked, looking between the other five Rangers with a broad grin. “Because they’re already taking way longer than us to figure things out, so anything goes.”
“I’m willing to bet on Daisy and Jemma.” Trini grinned, leaning back on the arm of the couch. “The tension is almost as bad as those two were.” She waved at Juliana and Valentina.
Valentina shook her head with a fond smile but agreed. Actually, most of the shit heads agreed. Daisy and Kimberly still thought it would be Juliana and Valentina for continuity's sake, but the rest of them thought it would be Daisy and Jemma.
“How’s your side holding up?” Juliana asked Kimberly who was holding the sniper rifle as she lifted her shirt. They were all sitting on the wall now.
“It’s pretty much gone now. Weirdly enough.”
None of them missed how Trini’s eyes lingered on Kimberly’s partially exposed torso for a moment too long. The only thing stopping Daisy from commenting was a preemptive kick from Jemma.
“Okay.” Juliana nodded once. “Get into position.”
Daisy’s thumb hovered over the screen of her phone as she watched Juliana expectantly. “Now?”
Trini cringed. “Oh, god, who gave you the music?”
Juliana nodded after a hesitant moment. “Now.” Daisy’s thumb tapped the screen of her phone.
I’M BRINGING SEXY BACK,
THEM OTHER BOYS DON’T KNOW HOW TO ACT,
Daisy snorted, then started sniggering to herself as the other 5 groaned in dismay. “Why?” Kimberly whined into her hands, shaking her head in disappointment. Was she surprised? No, not even remotely. That was the worst part. She wouldn’t be surprised if Daisy listened to SexyBack unironically.
Kimberly and Jemma stared at Daisy blankly, even as Trini snorted quietly behind them. Juliana shook her head and turned to the wave of stampeding phantoms. “Why?”
“It’s a good song!” Daisy yelled, running at the wall and jumping over it, plummeting towards the ground with a broad grin.
“What are you doing?!” Juliana gaped at the screen with wide eyes.
“Daisy, the rope!” Jemma called after her, sticking her head over the wall with a horrified grimace before rushing to climb down the ropes with the others.
“Idiot,” Trini grumbled under her breath while Daisy called up something about being durable.
“Run!” Juliana called when everyone was on the ground, sprinting through the field towards her house. The phantoms around them saw and charged after them, twice as fast. “Just keep going!” She called as the others looked at the phantoms steadily approaching.
“Uh…” Trini made a face at the number of phantoms charging at them. “Please tell me they had a plan for that?”
As if on cue, the phantoms activated a motion-activated light, and the group froze, curling over as their bodies distorted. “Yes!” Daisy cheered as they made it to the car. “It worked.” She pulled the handle and immediately paled. “It’s locked? Juliana-”
“I know!” Juliana whispered, head whipping around in a panic as she tried to think. “It should have been unlocked with the keys inside! My mum must have grabbed them! Juliana held the walkie-talkie to her mouth. “Kim, we can’t find the keys. We’re gonna go inside; keep watch!”
“What do you think I’ve been doing?” Kimberly said from on top of a stack of buses behind the wall.
“It could never just be simple, could it?” Juliana groaned, flopping her head back into the couch before lifting it again. She didn’t want to obscure her view of the screen; something could happen.
“In our lives?” Trini raised an eyebrow. “Never.”
As the others ran instead, Valentina hissed and staggered, dropping to one knee, hands moving to her calf as she grimaced.
Everyone frowned, their concern immediately turning the air thick. “What happened?” Trini asked, tilting her head. She hadn’t seen anything, and normally, ‘shows’ liked to highlight when something had gone wrong. If anything was gonna happen to someone, she’d expect it ot have been Daisy.
Juliana stopped abruptly behind her. “Woah, what was that?” She stared down at what Valentina was holding with an alarmed frown. “You’re hurt? How are you hurt? What happened?”
Juliana frowned, she really didn’t like this. Something was going to happen, she could feel it so deep in her gut it almost hurt. Something was wrong. Please not Val.
She couldn’t lose Val again.
“It’s nothing.” Valentina grimaced despite her words, not standing. The screen changed to show them running through the field and a phantom lunging through the night, missing almost completely but catching its claws across her leg. “A phantom clipped me.”
Daisy made a face. “That is one ballsy phantom. Dove through the lights for a chance.”
As a black hand slowly reached down from behind her, Juliana continued, “Why didn’t you say anything? You could have-” Juliana grabbed her torch from her belt. “Move!”
The phantom’s claw slipped under the collar of Juliana’s shirt and tugged her backwards as Valentinaturned with a confused frown, Juliana’s torch falling from her hand. Val’s eyes bugged out as Julianaa was wrenched up by the phantom, her head slamming into the bottom of the roof.
“JULIANA!” Valentina shot upright in her seat, heart falling out of her mouth as it stuttered, and her blood ran cold. She’d thought something was wrong with her when she dropped, not Juliana. How the hell did her getting hurt mean Juliana could die?
Val lunged towards Juliana, but her foot slipped, sending her crashing back to the ground. Her head snapped back up as Juliana was pulled on top of the roof, red shoes disappearing from sight. “JULIANA!”
The screen went dark as Valentina dropped her head into her hands, breathing picking up as she panicked over what the fuck had just happened. Oh, fuck, was Juliana dead? It was gonna kill her. Oh god, shit, what if Juliana was the one to die in that universe. Some sort of fucked up twist of fate. They couldn’t resurrect someone there, there were no redos, no reruns, no turning back time. They didn’t know what happened and damn it, Val didn’t one Juliana to be the mouse to test it. Because of her. Couldn’t they just be fucking happy in one fucking universe? What the hell had she done?
“Hey.” Juliana put a soft hand on her shoulder, Valentina’s head snapping up as she startled from it, tears clear in her eyes despite the effort of pushing them back. Screw being happy, she was trying. Every fucking day, she was trying, but this? How the hell was she supposed to smile through this? God, this was all her fault. She should have been more careful. Why hadn’t she been more careful? None of the others had gotten hurt, no, it was her. And now, Juliana would die for it. “Hey, it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything; that was her.”
“She is me, Juls,” Valentina reinforced, assuredly, “You could die; I could get you killed.”
“Val-”
“JULIANA!”
Daisy’s head whipped over from inside the house while she was climbing the stairs, Jemma just behind her. “What the fuck?”
“I’ll go check-”
Daisy shook her head, already pushing past her. “No, I’ve got it. You look for the key with Trini.” Jemma watched her for a moment with a conflicted expression before turning around to continue up the stairs.
Juliana shook her head. “No. Stop. I’m not going to just let you sit there and guilt-trip yourself for something you had no part in.” The screen stopped this time. It always did when they were talking, but for some reason, it interrupted Juliana. That wouldn’t do. Val had to hear this.
“Jul-”
“No, Val,” Juliana interrupted firmly. “If you won’t blame us for their arguments, you can’t blame yourself for her actions.”
Valentina shook her head. “It’s different-”
“It’s not-” Kimberly tried to disagree.
“It is!” Valentina reinforced, not lifting her head. “Because I was right. Because that shit would happen. Because in every way that matters, she is me.”
Juliana went quiet for a long moment, unsure of what to say. Daisy took over. “Okay. Feel guilty for it; we all know we can’t stop you. But if you’re taking responsibility for that, we’re taking responsibility for everything else our other selves have done and said. And, for the record, it’s in no way your fault that you got hurt. The phantom could have attacked any of us, and we’d be in your position. Sure, your injury is what let the phantom grab Juliana, but we don’t know that it wouldn’t have grabbed her the second we left the house. We don’t know.”
Julianaa groaned as she slowly blinked her eyes open, blurry as she was dragged up the slanted roof by the phantom and her headlight was tossed aside. Juliana’s hands clumsily reached up to the back of her collar where the phantom’s hand was wrapped, mumbling, “What?”
Valentina pressed both of her hands to her mouth, one clasped over the other in a desperate attempt to stop herself from reaching out to Juls. She leaned forward, hardly breathing as her elbows dug painfully into her thighs, just above her knees. She couldn’t take it if any version of Juliana died. She just couldn’t. She had to be okay.
The music cut off, and Kimberly frowned, glancing at the speaker. She picked up her walkie-talkie. “Guys, they won’t be distracted anymore…” she trailed off, slowly lowering the walkie-talkie as she stared at the roof. “Juliana?”
“What the hell are you doing?” Daisy questioned with an annoyed frown as she opened the door.
“Help me!” Valentina called, feet dangling uselessly over the edge of the roof as she fruitlessly tried to climb up the slanted ceiling. After a second, she called, “Hurry!” A desperate and panicked rasp that had Daisy dropping the bat in her hands and rushing forward under Valentina’s feet to push her up.
“Come on, guys,” Trini muttered under her breath, leaning in slightly as she fought not to blink. She had to believe that Juliana would be okay. Kimberly would shoot the phantom, or Val would get to her before anything happened, right? Right?
“What the hell’s going on?” Daisy questioned as she finally managed to get Valentina onto the roof.
“A phantom grabbed Juliana,” Valentina said lowly, scrambling to find purchase on the slant. “I’m gonna get her back.”
Daisy opened her mouth to question before the camera changed to where phantoms were approaching, around the stream of lights. Slowly but steadily. “You’re gonna want to hurry.”
Juliana lightly grabbed Val’s wrist and tugged her left arm away from her mouth, slack as Valentina looked over with a confused frown. Juliana ignored it, her fingers slipping between Val’s comfortably. Perfectly. Julianaa had gotten sick of just staring at Valentina, drowning in her guilt over something she had no control over. She wouldn’t just sit there and watch her sink when she could offer a hand to pull her up.
Juliana’s hand reached down to her boot as she curled her body as much as possible, fingers wrapping around the knife handle and tugging it out before clumsily jamming it into the phantom’s side. Jerking back, the phantom let out a soundless scream before raising a clawed hand at Juliana as its other hand tightened around her throat, and she gasped for breath.
Valentina’s grip tightened, and if she’d been paying half a mind to it, she probably would have worried that it was painful. As it was, Juliana didn’t seem to notice – or care – and Val was far too preoccupied with the girl that she loved being moments away from a gruesome death on the other side of a screen.
And Val couldn’t do jack shit about it.
“Wait!” Juliana called, desperation clouding logic. Except the phantom actually stopped. Then, it tilted its head. There was a loud bang, and the bullet went through the side of the phantom’s skull, making it collapse lifelessly onto Juliana. The phantoms in the surrounding area’s heads shot to the graveyard and started charging for it, while others dashed towards the house. “Oh, fuck.” Juliana picked her axe back up.
The Rangers blinked at the screen, relieved, sure, but confused beyond a shadow of a doubt. “What the hell?” Trini muttered. “It listened. Why the hell did it listen?” She looked between them for answers, but they were just as confused as she was.
“Juliana!” Valentina called from the top of the roof while Juliana was halfway down it on the other side, the phantom still on top of her. Juliana made a confused, whining noise as she slowly turned her head to look up at Valentina. “You’re okay!”
Valentina started to pull herself up as Juliana sat, the phantom rolling off of her slightly. “I think I’m concussed. You’re blurry.” Juliana groaned and held her hand to her head. It was a poor description of how she knew, but she didn’t really care.
Valentina started to reluctantly pull away from Juliana’s hand guiltily, but found Juliana’s grip had tightened tenfold. When she met her eyes, Juliana shook her head and tugged Valentina closer to her. Stupid Power Ranger strength meant Val slid into her side and was immediately trapped beneath Juliana’s arm. Not that it was a bad place to be, not remotely. It was just that she didn’t think she deserved to be there.
Sure, Juliana was alive – thank god – but she was concussed because of Valentina! Concussions aren’t nothing, that shit’s important! She was unconscious for fuck’s sake! And it was Val’s own fault because, somehow, of them all, she’d gotten injured. Because she clearly hadn’t been as careful as the rest of them. And that was saying something because Daisy jumped off a damn wall, but she was fine!
Kimberly’s voice came through the walkie-talkie. “Phantoms are headed back to the graveyard, and there are only 17 bullets left.”
“Hey, come on,” Valentina said gently, half climbing over the roof. “Time to go. Here.” She held out her hand for Juliana to take. Except when Juliana moved, she dislodged the phantom, and it slid off of her, dragging her down the side of the roof with it. “Juliana!” Valentina jumped over the side of the roof and grabbed onto it with her hand, the sharp panels cutting into the glove. Her hand wrapped around Juliana’s forearm. “I’ve got you!”
Kimberly’s shoulders slackened, and she huffed out a relieved breath of air. That could have been disastrous. For a second there, she thought Juliana wouldn’t make it. Then, another second there again. She still didn’t know why the hell they were watching this. What purpose did it serve other than making them stressed out and giving them heart problems and guilty consciences for shit they didn’t even do? Which was a whole nother confusing can of worms that she really couldn’t be assed to open.
“What the fuck is that thumping?” Trini looked at the ceiling with a befuddled frown.
Daisy walked back into the room, axe in a tight grip. “Juls and Val, don’t ask. You found the key?” Trini nodded as Jemma blinked and moved towards the window. “Good. Then we can go when they get in here because there’s already at least two phantoms outside the door.”
Jemma stuck her head out the window. “Valentina? Juliana? Are you guys okay?” Then her eyes fell where the two were on the side of the roof, Juliana with her arm over Valentina’s shoulder. “What happened?!”
“Phantoms headed to you guys!” Kimberly’s voice came panicked through the radio. “At least 20; you need to get the hell out of there! Now!”
“Well, clearly, this mission went well,” Trini said sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood. “If we don’t get the Jeep after all this struggle, I’m gonna be pissed.”
Valentina nodded in agreement. “To be fair, I don’t think we could make it back to the Graveyard without the Jeep. There’s no way we’d leave it behind after all that struggle.”
Kimberly joked. “Especially not if we had to listen to SexyBack again.”
Trini snorted as Juliana rapidly shook her head in horror. “I think they’ve learned not to give Daisy control over the music. We had to.”
Valentina could admit that the banter helped to take her mind off of just how wrong things had gone and how much worse they could have been because of her. She could try to focus on the fact that her girlfriend was holding her, perfectly fine, and Valentina hadn’t actually done anything. Juliana and Daisy were right, she couldn’t refuse to blame them for anything on screen while taking the blame for everything she did. It wasn’t fair.
“I’ve got you,” Daisy reassured Juliana as she pulled the taller girl onto her back, somewhat awkwardly. They had to move quickly, and neither Valentina nor Juliana was in any condition to run. Which was why Trini was carrying Valentina, and Jemma would be driving. “Okay, let's-”
Juliana tried not to snort at how unbalanced Trini looked with a girl damn near a head tall than her on her back. It really wasn’t a time for laughing, but it wasn’t like they were known for keeping their composure in high-stress situations. Last time she chekced, they were cackling in the forest about 10 minutes before Rita kicking their asses. And 10 minutes was generous, really.
She was cut off by a loud crash from downstairs. They all winced and whipped towards the bedroom door. “There are way too many coming,” Juliana said, looking out the window from Daisy’s back, where dozens of phantoms were charging towards the house.
“Well, fuck.” Trini sighed. It just kept getting worse. There was only so much worse it could get before someone died, so it had better start getting better. And fast. She couldn’t watch another one of them die. Not again.
Daisy opened the door before jerking back with a scream at the phantom that popped out at them. Only, the phantom jerked back too, wincing at the light from their headlamps. “Val, the torches!” Juliana screamed as she reached for Daisy’s torch, shining it into the phantom’s face.
Valentina held out both her torch and Trini’s at the monsters creeping in through the window. “Holy fuck.” Jemma handed Juliana her torch so that the two unable to walk could dual wield while she took Daisy’s bedgurdgingly cool bat in both hands, attaching her pickaxe to her back.
“Okay,” Juliana said, not daring to lower the torches in her hands. “We’ll go slowly in a circle. Val and I will watch the ceilings; the rest of y’all watch all other angles. We’ll be okay. We just need to work together.” She froze when they reached the top of the stairs.
“Son of a bitch,” Trini muttered. There were so many phantoms downstairs. Every surface was covered by a monster with dead eyes and a broad grin, and there were still more climbing through the windows.
“Holy shit,” Juliana breathed. She’d expected a few; hell, she’d expected a lot. But this was excessive to hell and back, Dios mio, they were everywhere! How the hell were they supposed to get out of that? Would the circle still work against all of them?
The phantoms cringed away from the light, backing up as they eased their way down the stairs like a weird ass looking ball of light. They kept moving slowly in formation through the house, sticking to the walls until they made it to the door. “There are phantoms on the roof,” Kimberly informed them through the walkie-talkie. Valentina spun, guiding Trini to turn with her knees as she pointed two torches at the phantoms above.
“She’s not a horse, jackass,” Kimberly joked with a grin.
“Okay, you three in the car,” Trini instructed, her and Daisy taking the torches from Juliana and Valentina as Jemma unlocked the car, and they crawled into it with little struggle, Jemma in the driver’s seat. A phantom crawled on top of the car into their blind spot, but a bullet tore through its head before it could attack.
“Why am I always driving?” Jemma complained. Last time didn’t go well, cough, the bloody train. This time, there were no superpowered miracle coins as a fail-safe.
What the hell had her life come to?
“Get in!” Juliana called as Jemma started the engine. Daisy and Trini slowly backed up, making eye contact briefly before nodding and diving back into the car, slamming the doors before the phantoms could get in behind them.
They all slumped like some puppet master had cut their strings loose. “Bloody hell,” Jemma muttered, dropping her head onto Daisy’s with a heavy breath of relief.
Which was shattered with the car windows as the phantoms’ hands smashed through the glass before Jemma stood on the gas and shot them out of there, spinning the car in a rough circle to beeline towards the graveyard. “Open the door!” She screeched in the general direction of the walkie-talkie Valentina was holding.
Kimberly smashed her fist into the button at the last second, and the car came speeding through the gate like a bat out of hell, its tyres screeching as it rapidly slowed down on the concrete, and Kimberly closed the gate.
“Now, is it over?” Trini asked with a pained grimace. That whole episode was easily the worst one so far. Arguments, fighting, almost dying, too many phantoms. It sucked. She’d forgotten how to breathe at least times throughout.
“Yeah.” Kimberly grinned at her girlfriend, which, it was still novel for her to be able to call Trini that, even months later. “Yeah, I think it’s over. We did it. And no one died, so really, that’s a win in my book.”
“Agreed.” Trini flopped back onto the couch. She’d been perched on the edge of it the whole time, eyes darting around the screen for anything she could warn them of, despite knowing that she couldn’t actually warn them through the screen. Sadly.
They all climbed out of the Jeep on wobbly limbs, stumbling slightly. Valentina used Jemma to limp around the car while Daisy had Juliana’s arm wrapped around her to support the other girl with a wide grin and a crazed look in her eyes. “Holy shit, we did it. We actually fucking did it.”
Trini laughed, leaning heavily against the car and panting tiredly. “Yeah. We’re pretty awesome. Phantoms didn’t stand a chance.”
“Oh yeah!” Daisy agreed, squeezing Juliana slightly where her arm was wrapped around her waist. “You guys were great with those torches. Ceiling phantoms were trembling.” She grinned at Kimberly, whose eyes were downcast. “And that shot, Kim, holy shit! That was insane! You’re insane.”
They all grinned at each other, feeling the high of winning a battle despite never fighting one. Maybe it was a battle for their health, because Valentina didn’t know how much of this phantom bullshit she could take before it straight up gave out under the stress.
Being Power Rangers was stressful as hell; they were in high-intensity situations, and they had to save the world. But at least they had superpowers. In that universe, the only superpower they had was Juliana’s magic hearing, and that didn’t make them any less squishy. They were all so susceptible to injuries, and most of them had been hurt in the phantom dimension. It really wasn’t comforting.
“Oh, yeah,” Trini agreed heartily. “You totally saved me and Daisy’s asses, too. We couldn’t have done it without you, Kim.” Kimberly returned the girl’s smile, gratitude shining so brightly in her eyes that a blind man could have felt it. “We should celebrate!”
Daisy paused, looking down at Juliana for a moment. “Are you okay? Do you need to sit down? How’s your head?” The camera cut to Valentina with the most guilty expression in the world as she abandoned Jemma to limp faster than she should have over to them.
Their Val also shrunk slightly, but considering the only place she could shrink into was Juliana, it wasn’t too bad.
“I’m alright,” Juliana smiled, even as her eyes drooped. “Just… dizzy…” Juliana tilted forward towards the ground, but Daisy caught her, and the screen faded to black.
“Hey, whatever the hell brought us here?” Kimberly started, her eyes lingering on Valentina and Juliana. “Can we have a break?”
As usual, it didn’t verbally agree, but the screen stayed black instead of turning back on, so they took it as a yes. Daisy groaned, pushing herself to her feet and stretching to get the stiffness out of her back. How long had they been here? “I know it said we didn’t need anything human, but man, I could really do with a nap right now.”
Valentina hummed in agreement, letting herself sink into the ocean-blue half of the couch properly for the first time since sitting down in it. A nap would be great, but she had a feeling that the thing wouldn’t let them have that much of a break. If time was frozen there, it would be hard to say how long they could be there before that took too much energy to maintain.
Daisy plonked back down onto the couch, once again on the black side rather than the white, sitting sideways and sliding down until she was using the armrest as a pillow. Then, she threw her legs over Jemma’s thighs and shut her eyes with a deep breath, slinging her arm over them. “I hate this,” she declared after a moment. “It sucks. So much. Why are we even here? Did we ever actually get an answer for that? Or is it just some sick form of entertainment?”
“It’s bullshit, is what it is.” Trini decided. “We have all of our own problems, and now we have to watch another universe with a whole new set of problems because why the hell not? It’s bullshit.”
“We can’t leave, either.” Juliana reminded them. “We’ve been kidnapped, technically, to watch ourselves go through hell. Again, but different.”
Kimberly laughed after a moment. “What the hell are our lives? When did we get to the point where saying that is normal?”
“Pretty sure that was when we picked up a bunch of colourful coins, got hit by a train, and woke up jacked,” Daisy answered. The others laughed because it sounded so unbelievably absurd. It wasn’t even that funny because it was their lives, and it was hell, and it had been hard, and people had gotten hurt. But Daisy had a feeling that if they didn’t laugh, they’d cry, and then they’d all be crying, and they wouldn’t get anything done.
Not very productive.
Chapter 9: Fear Isn't Real
Summary:
I forgot to update last week cuz I was thoroughly ill, so you get 2 chapters today instead of one as an apology.
Chapter Text
Juliana groaned, curling into a ball in her bed and cradling her head in her hands. She opened her eyes, squinting, to glare at the school work on her desk before shutting them again and pulling her thick blanket over her head.
Jemma’s eyes drifted over to Daisy, dead asleep, where she claimed to have been resting her eyes. That really didn’t last long. Daisy always looked about 20 times more peaceful when she was sleeping, which was what actually highlighted that she wasn’t at peace during the day. Jemma would never have realised how much weight Daisy carried on her shoulders had she not seen her sleeping without it.
When they were asleep, she could remember that they were just kids. Teenagers, sure, but kids. Kids who had to save the world and get hurt, and train every day just to have a fighting chance against monsters. Jemma would give almost anything for their biggest problem to be maths homework.
But that wasn’t their biggest problem in any universe, apparently. A completely different dimension, and they still couldn’t catch a break.
Valentina and Juliana walked down the stairs together, far apart and awkwardly avoiding eye contact with each other. Kimberly sighed. “Okay, stop it.” Everyone stared at her, but her focus was on Valentina and Juliana. “Whatever the hell’s going on with you two? Fix it. It’s driving me insane; we’re supposed to be celebrating, not whatever the hell this is.” She waved her arm at them.
Jemma blinked at her before shaking her head. “What she means is… this is supposed to be a great day. Part 2 of our big plan is completed; it’s amazing. And yet, you guys are acting like everything’s gotten worse instead of better. We’ve got 10 minutes, we’ll go get snacks while you two talk. And don’t just stand there in silence for 10 minutes; it’ll kill you.”
Trini laughed quietly. “And the tension’s back. Wonder how long it’ll take for them to crack this time.” She rolled her eyes, but there was a fondness that all the Rangers carried when talking about each other.
After a few too many moments of long, awkward silence, Valentina asked, “How’s your head? Should you be in school?”
“Should Daisy be awake for this?” Juliana asked, watching the other girl for a moment with a concerned frown. She shouldn’t have been tired enough to fall asleep, the thing literally said they couldn’t feel any human functions like that. And yet, she was dead to the world with her dark hood pulled over her head, her arms crossed, and her legs thrown over Jemma’s. It was… concerning, for lack of a better word.
Jemma shook her head, also watching Daisy. “Let her sleep. Clearly, she needs it.”
Juliana shrugged with a small, awkward smile. “You’re limping. Not sure you should be here either.”
Valentina shrugged back. “Yeah, but that’s different. It was my own fault, I should have seen the phantom coming. Plus, it’s really not that bad.”
Juliana narrowed her eyes protectively, but Valentina cut her off. “You don’t have to tell me it’s not my fault, you’ve done that already.” Not that she fully believed it, but semantics.
Juliana frowned and looked away. “It wasn’t your fault…Maybe we should talk later, my head’s throbbing.”
Valentina winced as Juliana turned to leave. Gently catching her wrist, Valentina called, “Wait, I-” She sighed and averted her eyes. “I’m sorry, Juliana. Really, I had no idea I would get you hurt. I should have said something and been more careful, I didn’t think my being hurt would get you hurt too. I didn’t think it would almost get you killed.”
Everyone cringed at the reminder, not that they needed it. The whole thing was fresh on their minds after the last episode. It was way too close, and it hadn’t been the first close call. They were all too aware that it would be far from the last, as well.
“Hey, come on,” Valentina said gently, half climbing over the roof. “Time to go. Here.” She held out her hand for Juliana to take. Except when Juliana moved, she dislodged the phantom, and it slid off of her, dragging her down the side of the roof with it. “Juliana!” Valentina jumped over the side of the roof and grabbed onto it with her hand, the sharp panels cutting into the glove. Her hand wrapped around Julianna’s forearm. “I’ve got you!”
The Rangers frowned in confusion. Why were they being shown this again? It wasn’t like they forgotten, it’d be damn near impossible to. That is, until the scene continued and they were shown more than in the last episode.
Valentina tugged Juliana up shockingly easily with one arm before wrapping said arm around her tightly, burying her face into Juliana’s shoulder and whispering. “I’m sorry.”
“Val, now isn’t the time-” Juliana started with an irritated but dazed frown before pausing. The camera cut to Val’s hand, shaking where it was wrapped under Juliana’s arm and gripping tightly onto her back. Juliana closed her eyes and dropped her head onto Valentina’s shoulder, hugging her back with the arm that wasn’t pressed into the roof.
“I’m so winning this bet. You guys are so screwed. Look at them,” Kimberly announced, leaning back in her chair and casually tossing her arm over Trini’s shoulders. It definitely wasn’t because seeing that had shaken her about how fragile they all were in that realm. Definitely not, because that meant that any of them could die at literally any time. No, no, that would be crazy. That’s definitely not it.
Trini shook her head. “Nuh uh, that’s not how that works. Daisy and Jemma are already like locked in. You’re losing this one, admit it. Admit you’re bad at making bets.”
“This coming from the girl that still owes Daisy ten dollars?” Valentina raised an eyebrow. Trini grumbled intelligibly under her breath.
Valentina continued in the present, dropping her loose grip on Juliana’s wrist. “I’m not used to being so cautious, and I’ve been as close to other people as now aside from Kim.” Valentina released Jemma’s arm and took a step back. “I… I get it if you want nothing to do with me more than you have to. I wouldn’t blame you.” Valentina smiled, but it was blatantly forced.
Juliana shook her head slowly, cautiously to avoid irritating it. “It’s okay. You already apologised, and I know you didn’t mean for it to happen. It could have happened to any of us, and it’s not the first time we’ve made a mistake.”
“Yeah, but not like that. Never a mistake bad enough someone almost died,” Valentina argued.
Which technically wasn’t true if you counted Daisy smacking the phantom with a bat and accidentally getting Kim clawed as a mistake. Juliana wouldn’t say it was a mistake because it was completely based on luck, and if she hadn’t done it, it might’ve been worse, but she’d bring it up if she had to. Plus, it wasn’t like Daisy would be awake to guilt-trip herself over it if she did.
Juliana took a step towards Valentina, closing the physical distance alongside the emotional. “We’re all clueless, and a phantom got lucky. It’s no different to what happened to Kimberly. Sure, maybe you should have stayed back, but you couldn’t have known the keys wouldn’t be where they were supposed to be. You made it to the car, which was all you signed up for. Not that bad, if you ask me.”
“Not bad at all,” their Juliana agreed. “Plus, no one actually died, so. A win, really.”
Jemma paused. “On that note, why did it listen to you?” It had been on her mind since it happened, but she couldn’t figure anything out. “The phantom, it makes no sense. They’ve wanted to kill us the whole time, but it stopped when you told it to. Why the hell would it do that?”
Unfortunately, none of them had an answer for her. They were all as clueless as each other. They were also pretty sure the other Juliana hadn’t even mentioned it to her group. Which was great and super helpful.
Valentina smiled and held out a hand. “Let’s start over. No apologies needed. I’m Valentina Carvajal. And you?”
Juliana laughed and shook her hand with a small grin. “I’m Juliana Valdes. Lovely to meet you, Valentina.” And if Val’s cheeks turned slightly pink? Well, neither of them pointed it out.
Kimberly had no such reservations. “Blushing, are we, Val?”
The others laughed as Valentina sank into her seat, slightly turning pink. Assholes, the lot of them.
Daisy stumbled back from a quick jab to the face before May kicked her legs out from under her. Daisy rolled back to her feet before May could press the advantage and threw a punch at May, stepping into her space and twisting as she blocked it, trying to land an elbow jab. May grabbed her and used Daisy’s weight to flip her over, only this time, Daisy jumped into it, flipping over and dropping to the floor to knock out May’s legs, jumping forward and pinning the older woman with a hand raised.
“Holy shit.” Juliana raised her eyebrows with a smile.
“She did it!” Trini celebrated, looking to Daisy to congratulate her, but she was still asleep. Right. She’d forgotten about that.
“Holy shit!” Juliana exclaimed. “How the hell did you do that?”
Daisy got up, panting and sweating balls as she held a wrapped hand down to May. Maybe she was smiling? It was hard to tell; more of a twitch than anything else, but it was closer to a smile than normal. “Took you long enough.” Daisy grinned at her. “You put your fear away, you weren’t afraid to hurt me. That’s good. Fear-”
“Is a choice, I know, you’ve told me,” Daisy finished for her, not even wilting at the unimpressed glare May gave her. “Jemma, you’re up.”
Jemma made a face. “Fear is most certainly not a choice. It’s a chemical impulse in the brain, biological and instinctual, processed by the amygdala, that triggers physiological changes in the body by sending a signal to the hypothalamus, which activates the pituitary gland and releases cortisol and adrenaline among other natural stress hormones. You can’t prevent the impulse, that’s impossible and not at all how the brain works. I mean, honestly-”
Kimberly wasn’t entirely sure when her eyes had glazed over and she’d stopped fully listening, just that she wasn’t the only Ranger to have tuned out by the 3rd too-big word they didn’t understand.
The scene changed to a much younger Daisy, maybe 11 or 12, as opposed to 16. “Get up,” May said, hand extended down to Daisy with a thin sheen of sweat across her forehead as the young girl panted, exhausted.
“I can’t.” Daisy shook her head, breathless and sweaty as she lay sprawled out on the floor.
“You can,” May repeated sternly, not lowering her hand for a second.
Jemma got defensive, an angry scowl on her face. “She just said that she can’t! Pushing her too hard is only going to hurt her!”
“May, I can’t-”
“You can. Because you have to. Because one day, that won’t be a choice. One day you will have to get up, and it doesn’t matter if you’re scared or hurt or upset. Because one day, you have to take your fear and put it away so that you can survive.”
“She has no idea how right she is,” Valentina said with a pained frown. Because, really, becoming rangers hadn’t been their choice. Well, okay, it was, but the choice was be a Power Ranger or let the world get destroyed by a power-hungry, crazy woman. Given the choice, there was none.
And in that universe, especially, they didn’t ask to be pulled through the rift. After that, every night, their choice was fight or die. May couldn’t have known it then, but she was right. And realistically, her training Daisy so hard was probably what kept the other girl alive when they were on their own and had probably saved the others as well when Daisy had to step in. For example, the first night Daisy saved Juliana. Inadvertently, May was saving their lives, even before she started training all of them.
“It’s not that simple-”
“Fear isn’t real, Daisy.”
Daisy stared at her with a bemused face, lifting her head as she helplessly breathed, “What?”
“It’s fake. Made up of your own thoughts and other influences on you. Fear doesn’t exist.” Daisy opened her mouth to argue, but May stopped her. “Danger’s real. But how you respond to that danger, fear? Fear is a choice. So, when it comes to it, what will you choose? Run? Hide? Give up? Or will you fight? Put aside the fear and get back up.”
“Okay, she’s still completely incorrect about fear not existing, but I’ll give it to her. That was not bad advice,” Jemma conceded. “A better way to word that would be that the way you respond to fear is a choice, not fear itself.”
Slowly but surely, Daisy pushed herself to her feet on shaky arms and raised them to the sides of her head. May smiled slightly. “That’s what I thought you’d choose.”
“Of course it is,” Valentina said with a sigh and a fond shake of her head. The day Daisy gives up would be the day hell freezes over because the girl is nothing if not persistent. In the best way possible.
“Well, I failed that midterm.” Daisy groaned as she dropped down heavily on the couch beside Trini.
“Same,” Kimberly agreed with a sigh before frowning. “Did any of you see Mr. Garrett staring at me the whole time, or did I imagine it?”
Daisy’s eyes darkened visibly as she sat up. Lowly, she asked, “What?”
Kimberly's eyes widened. “Oh, she thinks-” She glanced at Daisy automatically, but she was sound asleep. No, she wasn’t. Daisy’s eyes were open as she blinked sleepily at Kimberly, who startled in her seat. “Jesus! How long have you been awake?”
Daisy shrugged, pushing herself up to sit on the couch instead of lying on it. “Not long. Start of the flashback, maybe?”
“Yeah, he-” Kimberly cut herself off as Juliana’s mom entered the room.
Jemma cleared her throat. “My parents are back in town next week.” Valentina’s head snapped up, tilted with interest. Jemma smiled bashfully. “They were at a business conference overseas. Did I mention that?”
“You did not.” Daisy grinned. “That’s awesome, Jem. That they’re coming back, I mean. You guys close?”
“It’s been months and we’ve never met your parents?” Kimberly tilted her head, looking at Jemma curiously. They’d all met each other’s families within a few weeks, and it was a weird difference between universes. Then again, May was Daisy’s boss instead of her foster mom.
“We should have dinner,” Juliana’s mom said. “A barbeque, maybe, in the school bus graveyard?” Juliana blinked at her, wordlessly, as her little siblings charged into the room, seemingly summoned by the idea.
“When did you get home?” She asked, her befuddlement clear in her tone as her sister scrambled onto Valentina’s lap, waving some kind of something in her face. When she slowed it down, it was a Power Ranger toy.
Daisy snorted. “Ironic.”
Jemma shook her head with a fond smile. “It makes sense that something is linking the universes together. Aside from the people that are.”
The others couldn’t disagree with it, it’d certainly make sense. Well, make sense was the wrong way to put it; nothing in all this mumbo-jumbo made sense.
As Valentina immediately started messing with Dani and the Power Ranger toy as Juliana’s mom continued. “You should invite your families. I’ve yet to meet any of them, and you’ve been friends for so long. Does that sound right to you, mija?”
Julaina laughed quietly and shook her head, looking at the ground. “No, ma. No, it doesn’t. Is that alright with y’all?” She asked, turning to the others. Daisy had tensed around the eyes even as the others agreed, and she nodded stiffly.
“Oh shit,” Kimberly breathed, raising her eyebrows. “Think they’d come?”
Even as Daisy was shaking her head, the other Rangers’ eyes had turned dark and nearly murderous. “They better not.” Trini glowered at the screen as if Daisy’s foster dad could feel her rage through it. “He better not.”
“You’re sure you’ll be okay, Juliana?” Jemma asked as they walked through the parking lot to the arcade. “We’re supposed to be celebrating, and arcades are loud; you shouldn’t be uncomfortable.”
Daisy tilted her head slightly. “I wonder if we subconsciously dress in our Ranger colours across the multiverse.” At the weird looks, she excused, “It’s what the movies call it, so why not?” Then she refocused on her point. “No, like seriously. For me and Jemma, it makes sense. I mean, it’s black and white, you can’t get much more generic than that. But do you wear pink at all times, Kim?”
Kimberly rolled her eyes. “Muted pink. That hot pink is… a statement. I like it, though.” She paused. “You guys ever notice we wore our colours before getting the coins in this universe. Weird.”
“For you.” Daisy persisted. “Black is a perfectly common colour to wear. It’s not my fault your girl likes neon yellow.”
“It is not neon!” Trini protested, but she was laughing anyway.
Juliana shook her head with a grateful smile. “No, I’m okay. I’ve got these.” She pulled large, red headphones over her ears. “I’ll be fine. Plus, I’ve never been to an arcade, I kinda want to see what all the fuss is about.”
Cue a very chaotic and entertaining montague of shit they did at the arcade. First, Dance Revolution went horribly for Jemma, decently for Trini and shockingly well for Daisy and Juliana.
Trini’s eyebrows shot up. “Since when can you dance?”
Daisy laughed, eyes sparkling. “You’d be surprised. I have a dark past.” No, she would not bring up the fact that she had been, for a brief time when she was 14, in a band. Which, she assumed, applied to that universe as well, because why not? They would never have to know. That was for her to know and them to never find out. Otherwise, she’d never live it down.
Trini was weirdly good at the claw machine, which was bull because those things were rigged, as Daisy declared with a glare at a plushie she couldn’t get out. Stubborn bastard. Kimberly crushed everyone at air hockey. They were all pretty good at the shooting, but Daisy was somehow better than the two people experienced with guns. She excused it as Nerf battles and BB guns. The punch as hard as you can was smashed out of the park by Juliana.
They were halfway through watching Daisy and Trini go at it on a car racing game when the door opened and fucking Grant Ward entered the arcade with his cronies.
Everyone sucked in a sharp breath, eyes darkening at the man that had bullied Jemma. Prick. “It was going so well,” Jemma despaired. She really hoped it wouldn’t ruin anything, but their luck was genuinely the worst she’d ever seen in her life. Meaning, there was no possible way things weren’t about to go tits up.
“We’re too good,” Trini announced as she grinned down at the pile of tickets. “Even when we split this, we can get good prizes.” She high-fived Kimberly and Jemma before turning to the others, hand raised to connect with Daisy’s, but she noticed the grin had slipped from the taller girl’s face, replaced with a dark glower as she stared across the arcade. Trini followed her eyes and narrowed her own when they landed on Grant. “Oh great.”
“He won’t do anything,” Valentina reassured the others, her hand resting on Jemma’s shoulder as the girl shrank into herself almost imperceptibly. “He’s been too afraid to mess with you since Daisy threatened to tell Chase.”
“This guy keeps coming up, and we know literally nothing about him.” Daisy threw her hands up in the air. “What if he’s secretly a raging dick and doesn’t care if Grant’s bullying Jemma as long as he’s good at football?”
There wasn’t much they could say to that. Valentina tried anyway. “We know he’s the one who bandaged your hands in the first episode. That counts for something, it has to. Plus, Grant was scared. He would be the first to know if his friend cared about bullying, and clearly, he does. I’m sure your foster brother is a good guy.”
“I still don’t like it.” Val narrowed her eyes. “We’ve been here a while, should we just call it? Hang out at the graveyard for the rest of the day?”
“Not a bad idea,” Kimberly agreed.
Jemma frowned as she watched Grant, but it didn’t look like she was scared. “Wait. Not yet. I don’t think the guy with the curly hair is a part of their group. The small one in the sweater with the books. I think Grant just replaced me with him.”
Jemma’s eyes darkened as she gasped at the sight of Fitz. So they weren’t friends in that universe, then. At least, not yet. And now, he was being bullied by Grant because she wasn’t. Fitz didn’t have anyone to protect him, like she did. “We have to help him, that’s Fitz.” Not that it being Fitz mattered, they’d help anyone, but it made it personal. That was her best friend they were bullying. They wouldn’t get away with it.
“That’s what he does,” Jemma continued. “He makes you think you’re a part of the group, his friend. But really, he’s just using you. Guilts you into doing his work for him.” The scene cut to Jemma following Grant and his friends around in a bowling alley, doing his homework while the others have fun. “Then, when you wise up to it, it’s too late to get out, and he starts threatening you.” Daisy’s eyes darkened as she glared at the door Grant had just walked out of.
The Rangers frowned, hoping Grant could feel their anger through the screen. “What a dick,” Juliana said with feeling. How dare he use Jemma like that, and then hurt her when she realised she was being used? Who the hell did he think he was? He was damn lucky he didn’t do it in this universe or they probably would have broken one of the rules of being a Power Ranger and kicked his ass. Not that they needed their powers to do that, so really, they were safe.
“We’re gonna help him.” Daisy nodded resolutely. Then she caught Jemma’s eye. “Oh, you want to help him alone.”
“I have to at least warn him,” Jemma admitted. “Telling him what to expect is the best way to get him out before it’s too late.”
Valentina squeezed her white-clad shoulder, having not let go. “We’ll be right there if you need us. Good luck. Go save his ass, Jemma. Safely.”
“Probably a good detail to throw in there.” Daisy nodded approvingly.
“This coming from you?” Trini raised an eyebrow. “The Queen of self-sacrifice? Just checking, do you actually know the meaning of self-preservation, because it’s genuinely hard to say.”
Daisy shrugged. “Nah, I think I missed that memo.”
“Man, we should have gone to Arcadia instead, this one’s shit,” Grant complained, scrolling on his phone with his right hand and holding a cigarette between two loose fingers in his other. “They don’t even sell food.”
“Hate to say I told you so,” Ian Quinn smiled smugly before his eyebrows raised at the sound of the door opening. “Well, hello. Look who it is, Ward.”
Ward’s grin turned predatory in a second as he laid eyes on Jemma. “Simmons. I hadn’t expected you to be here. Where’s your girlfriend?” Jemma narrowed her eyes but ignored him as he glanced between her and Fitz for a moment. “How’ve you been?”
Daisy narrowed her eyes. Using Daisy as an insult was just rude and false because she wasn’t even Jemma’s girlfriend in that universe. Also, who the hell uses someone having a girlfriend as an insult? That’s such a dumb insult. It literally just means they’ve got more game than you. As if Ward could pull her. It was laughable. Like really, it was a compliment to Jem, rather than an insult. Ward should be embarrassed.
Jemma brushed past him, walking towards Fitz and holding out a hand. “I’m Jemma.”
Fitz blinked at her, taken off guard by either her talking to him or her accent. “I’m Fitz,” he responded after a long moment.
“He’s making you do his homework, right?” Jemma asked gently, though both knew it wasn’t a question. She looked pointedly at the two books in Fitz’s hands. “You shouldn’t have to do that.”
Daisy frowned, pained by the hurt on Fitz’s face. “He looks so scared,” she said quietly.
Jemma nodded. “He is. No doubt he’s been through it before. Maybe not the exact same. Probably just some assholes who made him to his homework without pretending to be his friend. Somehow, it’s worse when they pretend. Cuz then the whole relationship was a lie, and it’s a little harder to trust the next friend.”
Daisy nodded in agreement, keeping her voice low to match Jemma’s. “I get it,” she said with more understanding than she had any right to have. She understood not trusting people because of the past.
Fitz glanced at Grant for a moment. “No, no, I-I want to help him. He needs help, I’m not…”
“You couldn’t say no,” Jemma said matter-of-factly, “Made you feel guilty for even thinking about it, right? Wanting to help people is good, it makes you a good person. It also someone people like Ward will want to exploit. Which is what he’s doing. Trust me, it doesn’t end well.”
Daisy’s teeth ground together painfully at the surety in Jemma’s voice because her girlfriend knew firsthand. And sure, she might not be her girlfriend in that universe, but it was still Jemma. That was all that mattered. She wanted nothing more than to tug Jemma into her arms, but she didn’t want to make her feel trapped, so she’d accept their only contact being her legs thrown over Jemma’s. That was enough.
“He pretends to be your friend so he doesn’t have to get physical for as long as possible. When he gets physical, he’s more likely to get caught. Doesn’t want that, so he pretends until you wise up to it. Then he gets pissed. Any mistake, it’s late, it’s below 80%, he’s in a bad mood, he-”
“What the hell are you doing?” Ward demanded, pushing himself off of the crate he was sat on, flicking his cigarette to the floor. “I’ve left you alone, and-”
“Hanging out with him will only get you hurt,” Jemma cut him off ruthlessly. “You’ll only be miserable. You should go home, or you can hang out with me and my friends. But Grant will just-”
“Who the hell are you calling Grant?!” He shoved Jemma, getting in her space with an angry scowl. “Who the hell do you think you are to talk about me like that? Stop interfering, I’m done with you, Simmons. You’re nothing but a weak, worthless, good for nothing, dyke-”
Daisy’s teeth ground and her nails cut into her hand as he kept fucking lying. None of that was true. Okay. Well, technically the last one wasn’t wrong, but not the slur version! Not as a fucking insult.
Evidently, Juliana agreed. “He’s wrong. About all of it. You’re brilliant, Jemma. And I’m sure you know better antonyms than I do, but you’re not weak. You’re our doctor, there isn’t much more worth than that. And you’re good for a hell of a lot of things, more than I can even think of right now. The gay thing is kinda true, but the way he said it was out of line. So, we’re gonna stick with wrong and call him a bigoted asshole, yeah?”
Jemma laughed. “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds right.”
Ward raised his hand to shove Jemma, but she grabbed it and twisted, forcing him to fold and drop to one knee, pulling his arm back to where it was nearly painful. “I’m worthless? You can’t even do your own damn homework. No, you get other people, people better than you, smarter than you, to do it. Because you’re weak. Because you can’t even do common human decency. There are toddlers with more worth than you, Grant.”
“Woah.” Trini raised her eyebrows. “That is not like you.”
“Your eyes.” Daisy noticed Jemma’s pupils were blown and dark, eyebrows deep in a scowl. Okay, so it was kind of hot seeing her girlfriend stand up for herself and kick ass. Yes, Daisy was finding out something new about herself. She was also going to ignore it, because she shouldn’t be finding Jemma attractive when she was actively hurting someone. Then again, the asshole totally deserved it. Either way. Hot as fuck.
“Who the hell do you think-” Grant wrenched his hand from Jemma and turned to punch her, but she caught it and tossed him over her shoulder, planting him face down on the ground. “Get the fuck off-” Jemma slammed his head into the ground, pressing her knee into his back as the streetlight flickered.
Jemma spoke darkly into his ear, voice slightly distorted, “I advise you shut the fuck up now.”
It wasn’t hot. It was alarming.
Okay, it was kinda hot.
It was alarmingly hot.
Fitz backed up, eyes wide in alarm, but they sparkled with awe. Then, shit go bad when Ian shot to his feet with a horrified frown and one of Grant’s friends opened the door. “What the fuck are you doing?!” Brock Rumlow demanded, Kara Palamas, Colt Wallace and Nathaniel Malick following him out.
Valentina winced. “Well, that can’t be good.”
“I think we should step- what are you doing?” Daisy stormed straight past the others to where Colt and Rumlow were dragging Jemma up by the arms and grabbed Rumlow’s head, slamming him into the ground. Ward’s other friends charged for her. “Shit!” Juliana scrambled to follow the others as they tried to help Jemma.
“This can only end well.” Kimberly grimaced.
“Who the fuck are you?” Kara grabbed Valentina and slammed her back into the wall. Not a second later, Juliana’s fist slammed into the side of her head. Fitz retreated back into the arcade as fast as possible as two others came running out to help Ward. Trini tackled Ward from where he’d been joining the 2v1 against Daisy, decking him in the face repeatedly before getting dragged off by Colt. Naturally, she slammed her forehead into his nose. Kimberly ducked Ian’s punch before slamming her knee up into his gut. Jemma pulled Sitwell off Daisy and kicked him hard in the side.
“Jesus Christ,” Jemma whispered. “This is… more violent than usual, right? I’m not making that up?”
“For a fight against school kids?” Trini raised her eyebrows. “Yeah, it’s pretty damn violent. There’s more of them than us, if we weren’t trained, we wouldn’t be winning. Let’s just hope they don’t realise that. Or, do realise that and back the fuck off.”
Kara punched Juliana in the face so hard, the headphones slid off her head, and Juliana crumpled, hands over her ears as loud phantom noises flooded through the screen.
Immediately, they all mimicked her, covering their ears with pained gasps. They hadn’t been this loud before, not since the rift. Even then, it might have been louder. It hurt. Jesus what the fuck? There shouldn’t have been any phantoms there.
The scene cut ot the various fights occurring in the alley, then to a building with blacked-out windows as the lights flickered aggressively and then the windows flashed with phantoms, the sky blinking red for a few moments. “STOP!” Juliana screamed, hands over her ears.
Instantly, the not-Rangers froze, backing off, and Grant’s friends ran back into the arcade, bloody and bruised as their alternate selves blinked, shaking their heads slightly and panting as they looked between each other and then at the arcade door. The streetlight had returned to normal. “What the hell was that?” Jemma breathed after a moment, looking at her bruised knuckles, bloodied with red that didn’t belong to her.
“Nothing good,” Juliana answered with a deep frown. “We shouldn’t have snapped like that. I’ve never seen us that violent before. Playfully aggressive, sure, protective, yeah, but that? They weren’t putties, or phantoms, they were just…”
“People,” Jemma finished quietly. “Teenagers. We could have seriously hurt them.”
Daisy scoffed. “I don’t really care. You ask me, I say they deserved a little shake-down, and Ward attacked you first. Sounds like self-defence to me.” At the looks she received from the others, she defended herself. “We’re teenagers too, normal ones in that universe. Kinda. We don’t have to worry about superpowered strength hurting anyone, plus they were all fine. They were no more hurt than we, really, sure, a broken nose or two, they heal. They’re not even that bad, a little ice and they’ll be fine. Worst they have is bruised egos.”
Jemma didn’t exactly agree with Daisy, but she also didn’t disagree. It was self-defence at the end of the day, and they’d escalated it first. They’d only reacted in kind. And no one was badly hurt, so it could have been worse.
“They attacked first.” Daisy crossed her arms, blood leaking from her nose and a cut across her cheekbone. “That was self-defence. Okay, we might have gone a little overboard, but if it was anyone, at least it was them.”
Juliana shook her head, hands falling slowly from her ears as Valentina held out her headphones with a concerned frown. Juliana didn’t put them back on, but the phantom noises had stopped. Good. They were horrible. “That’s not the problem. No, it’s… I think it’s so much worse than that.”
“Of course it is.” Kimberly groaned in dismay.
“What does that mean?” Kimberly asked cautiously from where she was sat with her back against the brick wall beside Trini, catching her breath and ignoring the bruises on her face.
The scene changed to the woman sitting on top of the roof with a hood over her head and a cigarette in her mouth, even as Juliana’s voice rang out. “You were making the same sounds as the phantoms.”
The Rangers frowned, horror filling their eyes because what the hell did that mean? They weren’t… they weren’t becoming the phantoms, were they? Being in the phantom dimension wasn’t how you became a phantom, right? The phantoms didn’t used to be real people. They couldn’t…
But…
It would explain why the phantom had listened to Juliana when she told it to wait. Then they did the exact same thing earlier. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Were they turning into the phantoms? What did that mean? How did they stop it? If they were turning into phantoms, why did the phantoms keep trying to kill them? It didn’t make sense.
Jemma had a horrifying thought that she didn’t dare voice. Because saying it out loud meant it was actually a very real and very horrifying possibility.
They didn’t know what happened when someone died, hopefully, they never would. But… what if that was how you became a phantom? It would explain why the phantoms were trying to kill them beyond instinct, they wanted more of them. If killing someone in the phantom dimension meant they became phantoms, they’d no doubt die in the real world and lose their soul in the phantom. That could be what happened when you died.
Jemma hadn’t wanted one of them to die before, but she certainly didn’t now because there was too much saying that it would be permanent. All of the signs pointed towards the idea that if you died, you didn’t come back. You became a monster. She wondered how it worked if you died in the real world, would you still become a phantom, or would you be normal in the phantom dimension? Jemma assumed it would just mean you were dead, because that seemed to be how the two connected.
She didn’t want to find out. She’d rather have a thousand questions and a million theories than have this one, horrifying question answered. They couldn’t die. She couldn’t watch that again.
Jemma could hardly watch it the first time, and it hadn’t been brutal. If they died to a phantom, she couldn’t imagine it would be quick. Painless. Shuddering, she cast it from her mind, locking it in a box never to be opened again because that was a horrifying thought she didn’t want to entertain anymore.
“So you’re saying we’re being influenced by the phantom dimension?” Jemma asked after a long moment of them sitting in silence in the broken-down school bus.
“Not just us.” Juliana shook her head, eyes downcast, before they flicked up to look at the others. “I think we’re affecting the real world, too.” Everyone went quiet. What are you supposed to say to that? “As far as I could tell, it was after Jemma got mad.”
“Great,” Daisy drawled. So now we can’t have emotions, or people get hurt. Fanfuckingtastic.” The others were inclined to agree with her view of the events. It was shit. They were hormonal teenagers in an awful situation, and not feeling anything negative was damn near impossible.
“So, we can’t feel anything negative?” Kimberly frowned. “That’s not possible, not in our situation.”
The others nodded in agreement, but they didn’t have much choice. Which Juliana pointed out. “It’s not a choice, at this point. We can at least try.” Juliana sighed and ran her hand through her hair. “We’ve been too careful. Which... Weird thing to say, but… We can’t afford to wait anymore. We don’t know how fast this… whatever it is is gonna affect us. We have to go back to San Diego.”
Valentina sucked in a sharp breath at that while the screen turned black. Really, she shouldn’t have been surprised; they all agreed to go back. But she thought they’d have more time to prepare. Did they have guns yet? Had it already been a year? More? How long had it been since that first night? It was impossible to say. And very irritating.
As far as she could tell, it had been a week or two since getting the jeep since Juliana’s head had healed, and Valentina wasn’t limping anymore. Or, maybe it’d been days because injuries healed faster. Or, maybe it’d been months because they hadn’t mentioned anything. It was impossible to say. Which was unbelievably irritating.
At least in this universe, they knew what they were up against, they knew what they were, and what they could do. They hardly knew anything in that universe. Hell, they didn’t even find out Daisy was an orphan until months had passed.
That’s a pretty important detail in someone’s life.
Chapter 10: Never Change
Chapter Text
“It’s the truth,” the woman from the rooftop stated, one hand resting lazily on her hip, cocked out slightly as she tilted her head. Though her almost black eyes lowered in deference.
Trini narrowed her eyes. “I knew she’d be important, I just didn’t know how.”
Juliana nodded her agreement. “It wouldn’t have shown her if she wasn’t.”
Daisy wasn’t going to admit that she thought the blue hair was really cool. It just wasn’t important. But it was weird that both of the people connected to the rift had coloured hair. Coincidence? Honestly, yeah, probably.
The scene moved to the man he was facing. Mr. fucking Garrett. “I believe you, Nebula. Which is a problem. Energy spikes that will draw unwanted attention.” He shook his head. “And we thought we could stay incognito for a little longer. Make the preparations.”
“Well, shit,” Kimberly remarked with an air of resignation. They’d all known it was coming. No, no, almost dying every night to phantoms was too calm, of course, the shady people had to come back with their awful intentions and worst haircuts. It was only natural.
“Ma!” Alex called from where he and his twin sister were shutting a blue box. “The cooler’s done! We did it!”
Juliana ruffled his hair and opened her mouth before there was a knock on the door. “I assume that’s Jemma,” she told her family as she moved towards the door. “She’s closest.”
“Hi,” Jemma’s mum grinned, she lifted the Tupperware in her hands. “I brought chicken. I kindly blanked, I’m sorry. You must be Juliana’s mum, Lupita, it’s lovely to meet you.”
“Your mum’s so sweet.” Valentina smiled brightly at the screen. She’d met Jemma’s parents but only in passing. Her parents seemed as bright and as kind as their daughter, to the surprise of no one.
Lupita smiled warmly. “And you, Elizabeth and Daniel, come in, come in, make yourselves at home. We will wait for the others and then go out to the school bus graveyard.” She waved in the three, smiling at Jemma’s dad’s quiet ‘hi’ as he beamed.
After Valentina and her dad arrived, shortly followed by Trini’s family and Kimberly’s family, they had to move to the graveyard or they’d run out of space. Juliana stayed behind to wait for Daisy and her family to show up. She watched the door with a slightly concerned frown.
“Do you think she suspects anything?” Jemma asked, recognising the slight suspicion in her friend’s eyes.
Trini shrugged. “Hard to say. I mean, she’s never met Daisy’s foster parents, and on the like second day they interacted, Daisy had bandages all over her hands. But she lied about it, well, so it’s hard to say.”
“We also don’t know what we’ve missed between then and now.” Juliana reminded them darkly. It had been months, and a lot of that time had been skipped. Who’s to say there hadn’t been other injuries? And, if anyone was going to pick up on the injuries of domestic abuse, or the signs of someone living with it, it’d be Juliana.
Then there was a knock on the door, and Juliana pushed herself to her feet with a relieved sigh. She swung the door open with a smile. “Hey,” she greeted Daisy, then her eyes drifted over the girl’s shoulder. The brunette teenager who bandaged Daisy’s hands was walking towards them with a broad grin and a kid on his back. “You brought Chase?”
Daisy nodded with a small smile. “The Randall parents couldn’t make it, so I got the neck best thing.” Chase came up to her side with a smile, holding his hand out slightly awkwardly as he tried to balance his sister. “Juliana, uh, this is Chase, which… You know, and Chloe, his sister.”
“Dumbass” Trini shook her head with a quiet laugh. “Hey, Juliana, meet the guy you’ve known longer than me.”
Daisy glared at her, though it lacked any real heat. She hoped Trini knew that if Daisy could reach her, she’d slap her. Alas, she couldn’t be assed to get up so she was left half-heartedly glaring at the Yellow shitter.
“Hi, Juliana!” Chloe grinned at her from over Chase’s shoulder, her grin matching his own perfectly. Like a god damn mirror.
Juliana shook Chase’s hand briefly before walking past them and gesturing for them to follow her. “We’ve already moved to the graveyard cuz you guys were rudely late.”
“It’s called making an entrance,” Daisy countered, easily falling into step as Chase took her other side. “Buses were all crazy late, so we had to walk, and this one’s a whiner.”
“I am not,” Chase disagreed indignantly, bumping his shoulder into Daisy’s. “So…” He raised an eyebrow with a grin that hadn’t left his face since he got there. “Why are we hanging out in a graveyard?” He wiggled around like a ghost, making Chloe laugh. “Spooky.”
Daisy laughed slightly. He was a good guy. Fuck, he was actually a decent guy and not a raging wanker. She let him touch her casually; that said enough. Not a single inch of tension, or fear, or alarm in her eyes. Her foster brother was a good one. She didn’t have Coulson or May, but she had a good foster brother and friends. So no, that universe wasn’t as good as this one, but it wasn’t awful. She had people.
But she still didn’t have a light in her eyes. She could see that clear as day. The others wouldn’t notice, maybe Jemma, but it was doubtful. There was no spark. No will to live.
And yet… maybe she was wrong. Because that Daisy fought to live every night, fought like hell, did everything she could to not die in the phantom dimension. Why would she do that if she so clearly didn’t care about her life?
Juliana laughed. “Not a real graveyard. School bus graveyard. Bunch of broken down school buses in a concrete box, it’s a pretty cool hangout spot.”
Trini kind of wanted to point out the fact that Chase was in all black and grey, the same as Daisy, and the irony in the Black Ranger’s brother also wearing all black, but there was something about it that felt different. There was an unspoken feeling in her gut that Chase was as linked to the colour black as Daisy was. Like Trini was linked to Yellow. But… Chase wasn’t a Power Ranger in this universe either? Or maybe he was a past one?
That or there was a third universe. Well, she had to assume there were billions of alternate universes; there was nothing to say Chase wasn’t a Power Ranger in one of them. Ironic, though, if he was, that the two Black Rangers were foster siblings.
It turned night fast, and the Rangers, plus Chase and the kids, were sitting a little bit apart from the adults. Juliana, Valentina, Trini, and Daisy were playing a game of cards, sat on the floor. Chase and Kimberly were keeping the increasingly drowsy kids entertained, and Jemma was half-asleep, slumped on Daisy’s shoulder.
“Told you there’s no way I ain't winning this bet.” Trini smirked competitively at her girlfriend, who just shook her head fondly at her antics.
Kimberly glanced at he watch and saw the time was getting a little too close to midnight, 11:57. She wrangled the kids over to the parents while declaring, “We needed to grab something from the bus, but we’ll be right back.” Chase plonked down on a seat, they pulled out and pulled Chloe onto his lap, the kid half asleep as the others flopped into and onto their parents. Kimberly smiled and turned to follow the others towards the bus as they stretched.
“I suppose it would look rather strange if we all passed out at exactly the same time at 12 on the dot.” Jemma winced. She was glad they’d thought of that, because it had completely slipped her mind. It really was awfully like Cinderella.
“I’m surprised you’re still awake.” June smiled affectionately at her son, pushing Pedro’s hair back as her other son, Carlos, curled up under her arm between her and Frank.
Lupita laughed as the twins clambered onto the couch they’d dragged out in the day, both were dead on their feet. “I would agree, but it’s been hard to get sleep recently for all of us.”
Juliana narrowed her eyes. Her siblings never had trouble sleeping, they were faster to crash than any kid she’d ever met. Sure, energy that lasted for weeks, until it got late, usually around 11, then they were gone. Dead asleep for as long as they got away with, and waking them was like pulling teeth. Very grumpy and vocal teeth.
Elizabeth’s eyes shone with intelligence, almost an exact mirror of her daughter's. “Why’s that?” She asked kindly.
Daisy shook her head. “She still terrifies me. Weeks after knowing her, she scared me shitless. Her and your dad. Lovely people. Scare me more than Rita.”
Jemma laughed, doubling over. “They love you.”
It didn’t change anything for her. They were Jemma’s parents, and that was more than enough to make them terrifying to her. More than terrifying. Okay, maybe scaring her more than Rita was a lie, they hadn’t killed Valentina or scarred Trini. It had stopped being weird that her teeth ground every time she thought of it.
June and Frank made eye contact for a long moment, the boys blinking blearily up at them. Frank sighed after a long moment. “It sounds crazy. We’ve been… seeing things.”
Suddenly, all laughter was gone. They’d all paled about 50 shades, because now it wasn’t just them. Now, it was their families. The people they loved more than anything were in danger. Now, everything was at risk, and their parents, their siblings could die. They were just kids.
“How much time do we have?” Valentina asked Kimberly, slumped in the chair and leaning heavily against Juliana, her eyes half closed.
“Who’s winning the bet, Trini?” Kimberly tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, earning herself an affectionate eyeroll. God, they were all idiots, but they loved each other, so it was okay.
“Bout a minute.” Kimberly sighed. “We’re going into town, right? To test the distance limit theory.”
Juliana nodded. “Better safe than sorry. First town, next San Diego. After tonight, we’re one step closer. But we don’t know if our original bodies will reset to the phantom dimension, like it did in reverse, so we need to find a safe place to stay for the night.”
“Which we can’t do without scouting first,” Daisy finished boredly. “We know. Quick trip, lots of lights, couple guns that we snagged, what could go wrong?”
“Why would you say that?” Juliana groaned, dropping her head into her hands. “You never say that. That’s worse than saying ‘I’ll be right back’ in a horror movie. Or like saying I’ve never been hit by a car, like, why would you do that? It’s like you asking for something to go wrong.”
Daisy laughed. “Never took you for the superstitious type, Juls.”
Kimberly stared at her incredulously. “Magical coins give us superpowers, make a suit based on relationships spontaneously appear around us, we had to fight a space witch who’s older than the dinosaurs, and we’re actively watching an alternate universe where shadows are trying to kill us every midnight for seven hours.”
Daisy snorted. “Point.”
“Is that everything?” Val asked as Daisy and Trini dumped the last of the supplies into the back of the jeep. At Kimberly’s nod, she continued. “Then get in the car. Time to go.”
They climbed into the car, Daisy bemoaning the fact that she couldn’t drive. None of them trusted her driving skills. No, Juliana took the front seat, Jemma beside her to help with directions and have control of a gun in case something came running at them. Kimberly was in the back with another gun, for very much the same reason. Daisy may have shockingly good aim, but the two with experience would always be their go-to gun people. Then in the backseat, Daisy on the left, Val.
Jemma shook her head with a long-suffering sigh. “You three should really be wearing seatbelts.”
Daisy laughed. “Like you’re any better.”
“Actually, you’ll find I’m the only one of you heathens wearing a seatbelt,” Jemma argued. Which, god freaking damn it, she was right. Even Juliana wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, but Jemma was. Stupid English people, being all responsible.
“You ready?” Juliana asked Trini. “First, you have to close-”
“Close the gate, run for the other door, wait for the honk, leg it for the jeep,” Trini droned with a bored tone but a small smile. “Yeah, I know. You’ve told me a thousand times, now can we go?”
“Don’t die,” Kimberly said, only half-joking as she took her girlfriend’s hand in her own, mindful of how tight her grip was. Power Ranger resilience wasn’t super helpful when it was against Power Ranger strength. Ergo, not crushing Trini’s hand in her own.
Juliana sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Jemma gently said, “Be careful.” Trini gave them a bright smile as a response. Without further ado, Juliana pressed the pedal to the floor and, armed with the lights, sped out of the graveyard, tyres screeching on the concrete in protest of their speed. Trini punched the button to close the gate before making a mad dash for the door as the car skidded to a halt and a loud honk called Trini, running for the open back door and jumping in beside Val, slamming the door behind her.
They slumped in unison. This was so much more stressful than their lives in this universe. Which, well, it really shouldn’t have been possible because fighting monsters was insanely stressful. But it was a hell of a lot harder to kill them here. Case in point: train.
They were so very human in that universe. That was the worst part.
“Are they following?” Juliana called, glancing away from the road to the mirror before returning her eyes to the street ahead, knuckles white with her grip on the steering wheel.
“Yeah, but they can’t keep up,” Kimberly informed them, relaxing her grip on her gun as her hair flew in front of her face from the wind created by the drive. Right, broken windows. She sat down from where she’d been partially knelt, comforted by the phantoms becoming nothing more than blobs in the distance. “You okay?”
Trini nodded, breathing heavily as she dropped her head back against the headrest, but she was grinning. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.”
Daisy grinned over at her, twisting and giving her a thumbs up. “Nice job, Tiny.”
Trini laughed and shook her head. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Thanks, Dais.”
“Juls, please,” Daisy moaned, thumping her head against the car door where the window should have been, torch shining out the side. “Music. Please, it’s been thirty minutes of silence, it’s killing me.”
“Not her!” They all yelled simultaneously, horrified grins on their faces at the idea of Daisy’s god awful music taste.
“What’s wrong with my music?” Daisy beamed, feigning innocence horribly.
“I could have died to SexyBack,” Juliana answered indignantly. “Do you know how awful that would have been?”
Val’s grip tightened on Juliana’s hand at the reminder, but she forced herself not to lose her light mood. “Yeah, it’s either the cirngiest shit in the world, or so unbelieably depressing. Not happening.”
Juliana shook her head. “No, we need to stay focused.”
“Even if we were gonna listen to music, it certainly wouldn’t be yours.” Trini agreed, ignoring Daisy’s fake gasp of offence. “See any phantoms?”
Jemma shook her head, eyebrows drawn in concern. “Not for two minutes.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Valentina tilted her head. No phantoms meant no danger, surely that was good.
Jemma hummed doubtfully. “It would be.”
“Would be?” Trini questioned.
Jemma nodded. “Yes, would be. Because why? Why are there no phantoms? There should be, they’re not linked to us. Or at least, I don’t see why they would be. So, if phantoms operate like any other living species, the only thing that could run them out of the place is…”
“Something a lot bigger and scarier,” Juliana finished for her with an alarmed frown. “Great.”
Juliana made a turn at the school, weaving simply around dead cars strewn about the road. Unideal, but not the end of the world.
Valentina frowned at the screen, the uneasy feeling in her gut multiplying. Something was coming, and she could feel it to her bones. The same feeling when Trini was hurt. Before she died. It was dark and foreboding, and it made her feel sick. She just had to hope that she was wrong, and it was just worry over the steep cliffside and whatever the hell had driven the phantoms away.
“The shit?!” Juliana weaved sharply to avoid the tree growing into the road. The others made noises as they slammed into the car doors and each other, sliding across seats because none of the idiots knew how to wear seatbelts except Jemma.
Jemma gestured to the screen. “I would say I told you so, but it seems I don’t have to. Seatbelts are there for a reason, you know.” Daisy giggled and lifted her socked foot to push Jemma’s face. Jemma made a sound of disgust and shoved her foot back down, lightly whacking her thigh. “Daisy!”
“What was that for?” Daisy laughed, pushing herself off of Trini, who had swapped places with Val when the tall girl got bored of Trini climbing over her to playfully whack Daisy for irritating comments.
“When did we swap?” Val tilted her head. No, they still didn’t have seatbelts on. No safe driving at all in that universe.
Trini shrugged. “I prefer it on the inside anyway. Also, means I can freely elbow Daisy, so-”
“Shut up,” Daisy grinned and shook her head at her friend. They loved her really. Probably. Maybe. Perchance.
“There was a tree root in the middle of the road?” Juliana answered, her voice lined with the purest form of befuddlement. “I thought this road was well-maintained- gah!” She bumped harshly over another freaking root.
Jemma frowned, holding onto the window frame as she stuck her head out. “It’s definitely the right road, the petrol station’s right…” The station was overgrown, vines spreading over the sign and dangling from the main shop. “Okay, this is weird.”
“Now it’s weird?” Kimberly raised an eyebrow. “It’s been weird.”
“Should we find a different road?” Valentina suggested before making a noise as they sped up dramatically. “What’s going on?”
“What are you doing?” Daisy asked, and the others asked similar things as their voices overlapped.
“Well, that can’t be good,” Kimberly remarked. If Juliana was freaking out, then surely something was wrong. Red never panicked. Okay, that was a lie. Red rarely panicked.
“There’s something in the trees,” Juliana whispered, eyes wild and knuckles white on the wheel. Jemma looked at her in concern, but likely hadn’t heard what she said.
“Where the fuck did the road go?” Trini gaped at the screen as they moved from the road to the grass, seemingly randomly cut off for some reason. What the hell was going on?
“Juliana, we have to turn back!” Valentina called out as her eyes fell to the grass beneath them instead of concrete. Kimberly made a strangled noise, and all colour fell from her face as she faced the back of the jeep again.
Daisy gulped before lightly declaring, “We’re fucked!” Because fucking Kimberly was scared, and that was never a good thing. Kimberly and Juliana, Red and Pink, arguably two of the bravest of all of them, and they were so terrified that their words had left them completely.
“Don’t say that.” Valentina shook her head, ever the optimist. She had to believe they would be okay.
“I can’t,” Juliana yelled, her voice shaky with terror. Jemma blanched. “It’s right behind us!”
Every hope that Valentina had that they were overreacting was dashed by the monster of a creature, double the size of a fucking school bus, with a milion limbs, a lumpy goey black boedy and the massive screaming face of a phantom. Except it didn’t have eyes, just two black holes where there should have been.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?” Daisy’s voice went high-pitched in terror after the few seconds of silence among them all, bar Juliana, who didn’t tear her eyes away from the road ahead.
Trini felt sick. What. The. Actual. Fuck. HOW THE FUCK WERE THEY SUPPOSED TO DEAL WITH THAT? WHAT WERE YOU SUPPOSED TO SAY TO THAT? THAT’S HORRIFYING!
She voiced said thoughts and found absolutely no disagreement. Only quiet terror, and then the sound of Valentina scrambling to her feet and dropping over the bin in the corner. Then, she emptied the contents of her stomach into it.
“Our lights won’t do anything to that thing!” Jemma cried, damn near hysterical.
“Should I shoot it?” Kim asked, hands shaking on the gun she held tightly in her hands.
“Yes!” Daisy screamed.
“No!” Juliana countered before quieting down, remembering they weren’t there. “We can’t risk attracting more.”
Juliana responded instantly. “No! No, no, it could attract more. That’s the last thing we want.” The grass gave way to rock and stone pillars that were so out of place in the middle of a city, but at this point, nothing could surprise them.
“We have to turn around!” Valentina called again. “We’re gonna run into more if we get lost out here!”
“The pillars…” Trini breathed. “They’re huge, that could block out the monster, right? It would give us a chance to run, to escape it. Get back to the graveyard, be safe.”
“Are we safe?” Daisy questioned. “The walls, the lights, could they keep that thing out? What if we just lead it back there with us?”
“Then we lose it!” Kimberly offered. “It’s our only choice, we have to get away. We have to go back.”
“Guess this means we can’t go back to San Diego,” Jemma sighed, resigned to the idea that they might be stuck living an extra 7 hours every day in the phantom dimension for the rest of their lives. If it was the only choice, it was the only choice. There wasn’t anything they could do if there were those things running around trying to kill them when they went too far.
“It’s gaining on us!” Kimberly called, panic coating her voice as she shakily levelled the gun at it. Just in case.
Juliana grit her teeth before muttering, “Fuck it.” She swerved around the pillar as the ginoferous centipede monster crept closer to them. One of the creature’s front legs raised up and slammed down on the side of the jeep, spinning them slightly before Juliana managed to gain control, all of them screaming as she fully rounded the pillar and shot away from the monster like a bat out of hell. Slowly, the sharp sound of the creature’s talons on the ground faded as it no doubt struggled with the harsh turns Juliana made.
Everyone dropped back into the sofas like sacks of potatoes, breathing heavily as if they had been the ones running for their lives. It certainly felt like it. Every close call like that was another concern for their health. Seriously, Jemma was just waiting for one of them to keel over from heart failure. This shit couldn’t be healthy.
Bloody hell. How did it all go so wrong? Test the distance limit in the phantom dimension, what a brilliant idea, Jemma. How could that possibly go wrong? In a lot of ways, apparently.
Idiots. They were all idiots. Trapped idiots, or so it seemed. Trapped for the rest of their lives in a fucked up dimension for 7 extra hours of their day, fighting life and limb not to die.
But that’d be easier in the graveyard. It would at least be doable. And sure, it would suck, but at least they’d still be alive. And, maybe, it didn’t have to suck. Maybe it could just be another few hours where they got to hang out and just be kids. Maybe it wasn’t their lives ending, but changing. She could be okay with that. Hell, 7 extra hours of the day sounded lovely, the things she could do with all that extra time. It could be good, they just had to make it good.
Well, that and hope whatever the hell those things were wouldn’t follow them, and the phantoms wouldn’t mutate to deal with light. Hopefully, neither of those very doubtful things happened, and they could just… be teenagers.
She wondered if there was a single damned universe where they could just be teenagers. At this point, she highly doubted it.
Juliana sighed, still leaning forward with an iron grip on the steering wheel as stone turned to grass again. They might be okay, yet. With a little luck, they could make it back to the graveyard. They could make it home. Be safe. “Everyone okay?”
They all nodded, Kimberly turning to face the rest of them in the car rather than stare into the black-red abyss of the night, waiting for the monster to catch up again. They’d hear it if it did this time. They knew what to listen for. Daisy smiled slightly. “We’re good, boss. Door’s kinda fucked, but we can fix it when we get back.” She panted slightly, looking at Val with a teasing grin that shouldn’t have been possible after that. But no amount of grins would hide how shaky she was. How terrified she’d been. “That, or Miss Moneybags can replace it.”
Jemma smiled affectionately at Daisy. “Never change.”
Daisy blinked, startled. “I don’t plan to.”
Then, Trini had to cut in because it was too serious and mushy, and that just wasn’t like them at all. “Well, most things. Change your music taste. Please.”
Daisy laughed and flipped her off. “Never.”
And Trini groaned dramatically, but she wasn’t as scared anymore. She guessed Daisy always had that effect on them. She could make any dark moment light with witty comments and dry jokes, and honestly, Trini had to agree with Jemma. She hoped Daisy would never change. She hoped none of them would. They were all perfectly flawed with all their stupid and kind and really fucking dumb personalities that made them them. She wouldn’t change it for the world. She wouldn’t change them for the world.
Ew, wait, she was being corny. Disgusting.
Valentina laughed and dropped her head back against the headrest as grass turned to concrete roads. They were okay. “I reckon I could do that. We’re not leaving for another week, though.”
“Try month,” Jemma corrected before they swerved again to avoid a damn car and she thudded into the door. The swerves were a lot more aggressive than they had been on the way up here.
Juliana winced apologetically. “Sorry.”
“For what?” Kimberly laughed. They were all hysterically elated that they’d made it out of an impossible situation. And the monster hadn’t come back yet, they were on road. If the monster couldn’t see them, they couldn’t draw it back to the graveyard. “Getting us the hell away from that thing? Don’t apologise, Juls, your driving saved our asses.”
“Gah!” Val made a noise as Daisy and Trini’s full weight slammed into her, pressing her into the door. Then the car swerved the other way with a harsh yank of the steering wheel, and she and Daisy swapped positions. Only, the scene turned to slow-motion and the camera moved to the door. A sharp click rang in the silence.
Everyone shut up, paling more than they’d thought possible. They’d misheard. They had to have misheard. “What?” Juliana breathed blankly, back ramrod straight as she stared at the screen with wide eyes.
The scene changed to Trini, hair blowing to her side in slow motion as her eyes widened, turning rapidly from blank to horrified as her mouth started to fall open, lurching forward. Then, to Daisy, halfway out of a wide-open care door, eyes wide as her hand automatically reached out.
A hissing intake of breath from Kimberly was the only thing that struck through the sudden silence before a strangled noise from Jemma followed. Trini’s hands moved over her mouth and nose in what was almost a prayer position, fingertips pressing into the bridge of her nose. Please.
Slow motion as Trini’s hand snapped out her fingertips inches from Daisy’s own, closing the gap as fast as Daisy was opening it. Then normal speed as they didn’t connect and Daisy toppled out of the side of the car, back thudding against the grass and punching the wind out of her lungs as Trini screamed, “DAISY!”
“DAISY!” Jemma and Trini mirrored Trini’s other self, palarlytical terror shooting through their veins and clogging their lungs as they lurched forward, as if they could catch her through the screen. As if they could save her.
Kimberly clamped a hand over her mouth and forgot how to breathe. No, this wasn’t happening. They were out. They were safe. They were going back to the graveyard. It was just a minor setback, nothing had gone wrong. They escaped the phantom, they’d done it. They should have been free.
“GO BACK!” Tirni screamed, lunging for the door as if to follow Daisy before Val’s arms wrapped around her, pulling back to keep them from falling too with the next harsh swerve. “JULIANA, GO BACK!”
Jemma whipped around, whiter than a sheet as Juliana yelled, “I can’t!” The phantom was gaining on them again. Daisy. It was gaining on Daisy, only, no, it was chasing them.
“GO BACK!” Trini and Jemma agreed vehemently, Jemma’s fingernails clawing at the front of her sweater like the loose cotton was choking her.
“I-” Juliana’s voice cracked, and she dropped her head into her hands. She had to believe Daisy was okay.
“YOU HAVE TO GO BACK!” Trini repeated, only muffled slightly by her hands as Kimberly uselessly forgot to move. Or breathe. Or speak. Her brain had stopped moving completely, and they’d lost another one, and they couldn’t bring her back.
“It’s Daisy,” Valentina reminded them with shining eyes and a breaking voice. Juliana lifted her head from her hands. “She’ll be fine, she always is. If it was gonna be one of us on their own, she has the best chance. If we lure that thing away from her, she might be able to get to shelter. Hey, that gas station isn’t far away, right?”
Hope. That was all she could give them, and it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. But it was a start.
A start that was ruined as fast as it had come.
Daisy skidded across the grass, bouncing off the ground as she flopped onto her side, grass slipping through loose fingers as grass made way for open air, and she tumbled over the cliff.
“Daisy-” Jemma’s voice cracked, and her shoulders hunched in on herself as she sobbed. They’d survive that easily. Maybe a bruise or two if they didn’t quite stick the landing. But she was human. She might survive it, but at the very least, she’d have a dozen bones and even more internal bleeding. If they didn’t reach her in time, she’d die from shock, or the pain, or from bleeding out in moments. And that was even if she survived the fall, which was so unbelievably unlikely. Unless that cliff was a lot shorter than she thought.
“Oh,” Daisy breathed near silently as she fell towards the ground. Then she closed her eyes in grim and resigned acceptance. Not an ounce of fear in her face. Not. One. That might have been worse than if there had been.
And suddenly, finally, Daisy realised why she fought so hard to live. It wasn’t the human impulse to survive, it wasn’t a fight or flight instinct, it wasn’t her wanting to live. It was her wanting to protect the others. She lived so that they wouldn’t die. She fought so hard because giving up would put them at risk. She fought so survive so that she could die for them when she had to.
She didn’t live for her, she lived for them.
Daisy supposed the worst part was that she wasn’t surprised.
Then Daisy grunted as she hit a growing tree, and it bent under her weight. Until, SNAP.
Huh. She’d wondered how it felt to die.
“What?” Kimberly whispered as the screen turned black with a wet choking sound. Was that it? Were they gonna leave it at that? They couldn’t-
The screen brightened. The bottom of the tree, no doubt the one from a moment ago. Then up. And up. Black shoes. Blood. A limp hand.
A sharp inhale.
Daisy’s head tilted lifelessly back at the sky, eyes devoid of any light, blood spilling from parted lips up her face. The tree sticking out of her abdomen, her guts pooled around the blood red and broken peak.
Valentina threw up again. Trini sobbed into her hands, folding in half at the waist, and her shoulders shaking as her hands covered her entire face, pressing into her thighs. Juliana’s breaths quickened, shortened as she refused to rip her eyes from Daisy. No light. No life. Nothing. Gone. Lifeless. Dead.
Fuck, it was her fault. It was all her fault. She’d let Daisy die because she drove recklessly, and she hadn’t gone back. Going back wouldn’t have done anything, logically, she knew that. Daisy was dead the second she fell from the car because of Juliana. Juliana killed her.
Why was it never fucking her? Why couldn’t it be her who died for once? Val, then Daisy? Who’s next? How the hell- what the fuck? What the fuck is wrong with the universe? They were kids! THEY WERE FUCKING KIDS!
“Why didn’t you go back?” Jemma cried through broken sobs as the screen turned black. “You should have gone back!” Her voice cracked as Juliana dropped her head into her hands, shoulders trembling with silent tears. “Why didn’t you go back?!”
Jemma lurched towards her as if to throttle her, before Daisy lunged up and caught her around the waist, pulling her back onto the couch, tightly pressed to her chest. “Hey, hey, I’m right here.” She reminded gently. “I’m right here.” She held Jemma’s head to her chest, over her heart, a strong hold around her waist as her girlfriend sobbed over her very dead other self. “It’s okay.” Daisy didn’t care about how Jemma’s knees jabbed into her thighs or how her elbows cut into her ribs because it didn’t matter. “I’m okay, Jems, I’m right here. I am right here.” Her girlfriend shook her with the harshness of her sobs. Daisy pressed her lips to the top of Jemma’s head, not shifting for a moment for a more comfortable position as the headrest dug into the back of her neck under their combined weight. “It’s okay. Breathe, Jemma. I’m okay, I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere, I am right here.”
Her fingers lightly raked through Jemma’s hair as her black shirt was quickly soaked through, just letting the other girl cry it out for a moment. She could remind her to breathe in a moment. For now, she just needed to hold her. Daisy lifted her eyes and met Valentina’s horrified gaze, face wet with tears that were replaced faster than they could reach the bottom of her face.
It was supposed to be her. She was on the outside, too, it could have been either of them. But it should have been Val. Why hadn’t it been her? She was the one that was supposed to die. That’s how it went in this universe; why not there? Why hadn’t it been her? Why did it have to be Daisy? Kind, funny, reliable Daisy with the stupid sarcasm and the annoying teasing and the most guarded, loving, sharp eyes in the damn world. Why wasn’t it her again?
“I’m not dead,” Daisy said slightly louder so that it reached the others and not just Jemma. “I’m okay. She’s not me. I’m okay. I’m here.”
It should have helped. Maybe if they’d been more rational, it would have. And maybe, if she’d been more rational, Val would have cared that she was probably disturbing the girlfriends. She did not care. She scrambled to her feet clumsily and dropped to her knees beside the black and white couch, wrapped her arms around Daisy’s shoulders and head, and sobbed into the not-dead girl’s neck that was dead in another universe. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t.” Daisy lifted the hand on Jemma’s head to wrap around Val’s shoulders. “I’m okay. You have nothing to apologise for, none of you do.” Her heart ached at the sound of quiet sobs filling the room in the silence. For her.
Because, for all the people that hadn’t loved her, for all the foster homes that had cast her aside, for all the nagging doubts and pains from her past, these people actually loved her. It wasn’t some kind of mask to make using her easier. It wasn’t a means to an end. It wasn’t superficial. And Daisy had had the wonder for a long time, but this confirmed it as loudly as it could have been, more so than words.
For the first time in her life, someone might actually care if she died.
Daisy was kind of unclear on when Trini had wormed her way between her and the couch, or when Juliana’s steel grip on her hand had shown up, or when Kimberly had pressed her face into Jemma’s back, curling around the both of them, just that it had happened at some point and that neither Jemma nor Val had moved from their positions. It was actually kind of impressive. Daisy didn’t need to breathe, anyway.
Chapter 11: You With Me?
Summary:
TW for a panic attack between the line "It didn't look like Daisy" and the first ///
Chapter Text
Daisy didn’t know how long it’d been that they were allowed to just stay there, but even she knew it was starting to push it, and the screen would no doubt force their attention soon. “Stop blaming yourselves,” she all but ordered quietly, not that she had the power to do that. Then again, it was her death they were blaming themselves for; she had at least a little power there. “It’s no one’s fault. No one could have guessed that that thing would have shown up or that the roads would be so fucked. Hell, everything we’ve seen would have said we took every single necessary precaution we could. It was unlucky.”
Trini scoffed into Valentina’s forearm, while the rest of her head rested partially on top of Daisy’s and pressed into the back of the couch. “You did not just call your death unlucky.”
“I did, actually.” And she wouldn’t take it back. Because that’s all it was. Bad luck. “Also, technically, it wasn’t my death. I’m very much alive, as I’m sure all of you can feel. Intimately.” Val snorted into Daisy’s neck. Awake then. She’d thought so. But she was pretty sure they’d all run out of tears to cry, and she couldn’t really discern between Val’s breaths, Jemma’s, and Trini’s. “So.” Daisy pulled them back on track. “Whatever way you're finding to blame yourselves, stop it. It. Wasn’t. Your. Fault. None of you.”
Juliana shook her head, her hand shifting in Daisy’s, but not letting go. “I was driving the damn car. You weren’t thrown out of it by the monster, you weren’t pulled out, you weren’t hurt by the phantom. You were thrown out of it because of me. Because I swerved too hard and you were thrown into a door you told me was broken. That’s on me.”
Daisy craned her neck as well as she could to see Juliana, but her view was partially obscured by Valentina’s arms and Kimberly’s hair. Oh well. It would do. “No. It’s not. Getting us away from that thing, that’s on you. Saving our asses, that’s on you. Getting unlucky and having to avoid slamming full speed into a car to run from a monster with a dozen legs that wants to kill us? You did better than any of us could have, and it’s not like you kicked me out of the car yourself. If you want to pin the blame on someone, pin it on me.” She ignored the muffled scandalised noises from the others. “Cuz Jemma was right. If I had been wearing a seatbelt, I wouldn’t have died. It’s that simple. Want to blame someone, look at me. And if you can’t do that, then you can’t blame yourselves either.”
“It’s not that simple,” Trini disagreed.
“It is that simple.” Daisy cut her off. Then the bloody screen started making noise, and they all groaned in protest. Daisy laughed weakly. “I don’t think it’s gonna wait for us.”
Juliana sighed heavily and tightened her grip to a near-painful degree before reluctantly pulling away. “We don’t know what happened to you in the real dimension. Maybe, despite…” She swallowed. “That, you’ll be okay. Only one way to find out.”
It was reluctant, but eventually the others crawled off of her with unhappy glares at the screens and dried tear stains on their faces. Well, that is, most of the others. Jemma and Trini remained firmly planted on top of Daisy, though Trini did shift to see the screen. The only reason Daisy knew Jemma was awake was her arms tightening around her when Daisy shifted.
Daisy’s eyes fell to Juliana, Valentina and Kimberly on the other couch, seemingly unwilling to leave Kimberly without human contact if Daisy was dead in both worlds. Daisy finally met Juliana’s eyes and prayed that the other girl got the message through them. The truth that it wasn’t her damned fault.
Daisy’s fingers carded gently through Jemma’s hair, and she dropped her head down to rest on Trini’s, where it lay smushed against her shoulder. It should have felt suffocating, all of it should have felt suffocating, but it didn’t. It just felt… warm. Safe. Maybe something like home.
“GO BACK!” Trini screamed, restrained by Valentina to keep her from diving after Daisy as the car continued on, leaving the other girl behind.
The Rangers winced, Trini turning her head to hide in the crook of Daisy’s neck. She thought she oculd watch it, but god damn it she was too weak. She couldn’t watch them leave her best friend to die, impaled and disembowled on a fucking tree without a singular sign of that carefree and happy light in her eyes.
“We will,” Juliana reassured her as Kimberly and Jemma stared at the open door with their mouths agape in muted horror. “But we can’t help her if we’re all dead. First, we survive.” The monster raised its leg again and slammed it down to the side of the jeep, Juliana just about swerving to dodge it in time. Then, the god forsaken tyre slipped, and they all screamed as the jeep was sent hurtling down the cliffside, slamming into multiple trees before skidding to a stop. The jeep’s light flickered for a brief moment, then died.
Juliana ran her hand through her hair. “At least this means we’ll be able to find Daisy,” she tried.
“And then what?” Kimberly asked in what should have been a harsh tone, but came out defeated as she slumped against Val’s other side. “Stare at her. Hope she isn’t dead as she bleeds on us? Look at her fucking eyes?”
“Kim,” Trini lifted her head to meet her girlfriend’s eyes, but Kimberly was shaking her head, pushing herself off Val as her lip quivered slightly.
“Her eyes,” Kimberly said shakily, her own glistening with tears that she really should have run out of by now. “It was wrong. When have you ever seen Daisy’s eyes look like that? It was wrong. Her eyes were wrong.” Val pulled her back against her side as Kimberly squeezed her eyes shut as if trying to will the image from her head. It wouldn’t work. It hadn’t since the damn moment she saw Daisy’s fucking lifeless eyes without a drop of light. Without humour. Just… nothing. Fuck all. Death.
Jemma let out a strangled whine and buried herself further into Daisy’s chest. Kimebrly should have felt bad about bringing the image to the younger girl’s mind, but she couldn’t spare a thought away from the same damn image in her own.
Juliana stabbed a knife into the airbag that had saved her from a broken nose and pushed herself up, blinking harshly. “You all okay?” She asked weakly after a moment.
Jemma’s hands were shaking as she nodded, temple bleeding from where it had no doubt slammed into the car door. Weakly, she gasped, “Daisy-”
“We’ll find her.” Kimberly cut her off, blood sluggishly leaking from her nose as she’d no doubt been thrown around in the back. Trini and Valentina held their heads where they’d clearly been banged together in the chaos. Juliana tried to start the car for a long moment, but it just spluttered into the quiet red darkness.
“I don’t think that’s gonna work, Juls,” Daisy tried to lighten the mood a little. It didn’t work.
“Hey, it’s not gonna turn back on,” Val said gently, reaching ahead to rest her hand on Juliana’s shoulder in the short second before Juliana gave up and slammed her fist into the steering wheel. It had all been for nothing. Everything they’d gone through to get the damn jeep had gotten them here, without Daisy, in the middle of a forest, being hunted by a monster double the size of a house. “We should go look for Daisy.”
Daisy knew it wasn’t gonna be received well, but she had to say it. “Is it weird I’m hoping you don’t find me?” Jemma's head snapped up in alarm as the others all turned eyes bright with anger onto her. “Before you get mad at me, I mean it in a it’s traumatising to look at kinda way. Not a leave me behind, I don’t matter kinda way.” Not that she was opposed to that if it kept them safe. Actually, the opposite, but she definitely didn’t want to see just what they thought about. Probably safer she kept that one to herself.
It probably said enough that none of them even bothered to give her a response, just shaking their heads at her in shock and turning back to the screen as it showed them searching hopelessly through the woods for her. It took more will power than she’d like to admit not to make a joke about them looking up rather than ahead. That would definitely get her at least one whack.
“We thought we were going crazy.” Kimberly’s dad shook his head, back in the real dimension, in the school bus graveyard. “Seeing things in dark corners, inhuman grin, soulless eyes?”
“Oh shit, yeah, I forgot about that.” Daisy shifted with a concerned frown. If the others were being dragged into it too, then maybe it wasn’t just them being affected by the phantom dimension. Which also meant it wasn’t just them being angry. That is, unless the phantom sightings started in the last few days. Hopefully, that was the case, and they could just avoid negative emotions. Wait, no, Daisy died like… five minutes ago. Negative emotions were probably gonna be pretty prevalent.
Juliana glared at the screen. “Is this really important right now?” Daisy was dead, and they were seeing a, frankly, alarming conversation around a campfire? Okay, yeah, she was terrified of her mum and the twins being pulled into the shit show, but did they really have to see it now? Every second they were aware meant not knowing if Daisy was okay.
“You’ve been seeing them too?” Elizabeth asked, but it wasn’t a question. She met Daniel’s eyes for a long moment before turning back to the others. “Well, that’s not good.”
“Mass hallucination with my sister’s friends’ parents?” Chase smiled sarcastically. “Sounds great. And, yeah, Chloe’s been seeing them too. I’ve been trying to convince her it’s the whole imaginary monster in the closet, but it’s a lot harder to do that when you can see the monster.”
“So it’s the kids, too,” Trini said quietly, half an eye on the conversation. Her brothers were in danger, and there was nothing she could do to protect them. She couldn’t even grab Daisy’s damn hand and she was right fucking there, what chance did she stand to protect her family from monsters they had no experience with? Her brothers were too young for this shit.
They all were.
“I’ve had the same problem,” Lupe agreed. She opened her mouth to continue before the world glitched, turning the fuzzy red they’d come to associate with the shift between realities. All of the group around the fire staggered slightly, Lupita’s hand moving to hold her head.
Blinking harshly, Daniel breathed, “Wha-”
“DAISY!!!”
“Well, that doesn’t bode well.” Daisy regretted the remark the instant it left her lips, and it wasn’t just because both Trini and Jemma whacked her for it, though it did help. She might not have been affected by her death, but they had. Which… was a really fucking weird sentence that had no right making sense.
Chase’s face paled as his head snapped towards the bus Jemma’s voice had come from.
Daisy didn’t say anything about her surprise that he cared, but it was seriously touching. If she’d had any doubt that he was a good brother, this would have shunned it all and shat on it. Though she could have guessed that from the moment they found out she’d let him bandage her hands. That trust didn’t come from being a douchebag.
Jemma lifted her head from Daisy’s chest. Well, kind of. She turned it on its side so that she could see the screen, no matter how much she wanted to hide from it all in her girlfriend’s warm embrace with her ear to the steady and strong beat of Daisy’s heart. Alive.
Daisy seized erratically from her place beside Jemma, the British girl’s hand on her chest as she begged, “Wake up! Please, Daisy, wake up!” The others rushed to her, scrambling up from their various places around the bus. “Help!”
Chase tore through the doors of the bus, Elizabeth and Daniel hot on his heels. “Daisy!” His grin had vanished from his face, replaced with confused distress as his eyes caught his seizing foster sister in Jemma’s arms. His arms scooped under her back and beneath her knees, lifting her from the ground as easily as breathing. “We need to get her to a hospital!”
But Jemma had stopped listening the moment he turned around to leave the bus, and the camera fell from him to Daisy as she spasmed in his arms. Daisy’s eyes were open and empty and void. It didn’t look like Daisy.
Hands fumbling uselessly against Daisy for a moment, Jemma pushed herself off of her, half falling off the couch as she half-stumbled to the door, pushing it open and running out of the room in a desperate attempt to just escape.
She couldn’t hear anything over the rushing of her blood and the heavy sound of her heart thudding in her ears. Her heart. Maybe it hadn’t been Daisy’s she’d been listening to at all, but her own. She was dead. She was really dead. And she hadn’t done anything but stare at the door she fell through, like it would bring her back.
Jemma tugged at the collar of her white sweater, but it only seemed to make it tighter as she crashed through the door of wherever the hell she’d ended up. She hadn’t been paying attention, and it didn’t matter because her vision was blurry and tunnelled, and she couldn’t breathe.
She clawed at her sweater, nails scratching her neck as her breath quickened, and she collapsed into a wooden something beside the door, why was that there? Where was she? Did it matter? No, she decided, it didn’t matter, because Daisy was dead and Jemma was dying because she couldn’t fucking breathe. Oh, bloody hell, Daisy was dead. She loved her. She told her that all the time, but she really, really did. She loved her so fucking much and she was just gone and Jemma had done nothing.
There was a face in front of her. When did that get there? Daisy. Oh bloody hell, she was hallucinating now. Her mouth was moving, but she couldn’t hear anything, and lip-reading had never been Jemma’s strong suit. Especially not now. Jemma couldn’t breathe, and every time she tried to inhale, the oxygen refused to follow. What was wrong with her?
Daisy took her hand and pressed it to her chest, over her heart and took large, exaggerated breaths. Oh. Jemma could do that. Focus on her heart. Just like a test. Focus on how many beats there are in a minute. She could do that.
Jemma didn’t know when she started being able to hear again, but Daisy’s voice was like coming home, which was weird because Jemma could have sworn Daisy was dead, so how was she talking to her? Was she dead? No, her heart was beating. Daisy’s heart was beating. But she was on the tree? No, she wasn’t. No, that was other Daisy. “Okay, just slowly. In two, three, four, five. Hold two, three, four, five. Out two, three, four, five.” She repeated it, voice steady and unwavering as the oxygen in the air was finally complying and entering her lungs. That was good. “That’s my girl. You’re okay. You with me?”
Jemma nodded shakily, thumping her head back into the door. The door? When did she sit down? Where was she? Oh bloody hell, that was so humiliating. Of course Daisy wasn’t dead, she was right fucking there. Jemma was practically using her as a human bed, how could she possibly be dead?
“There you go.” Daisy smiled at her, keeping Jemma’s hand firmly over her heart. It was embarrassingly doing wonders to centre her. “Can I touch you?” Jemma assumed she meant more than her incredibly light and no doubt easily broken grip on her wrist and nodded. Daisy very slowly manoeuvred herself to be sitting with her back against the door beside Jemma and her arm loosely over Jemma’s shoulders. No, Jemma didn’t remove her hand from her chest, and she likely wouldn’t until she had to. “It’s okay. Just breathe for me, Jem, okay. Nice and slow.”
Jemma had thought she was fresh out of tears after the last episode, but her fucking eyes. Jemma squeezed her own shut, but it felt like the image of black holes, devoid of any laughter or sparkle, was seared into her eyelids, and she couldn’t escape it. Because Kimberly was right, that was the worst part, somehow. The fact that in death, it had stopped being Daisy.
Jemma shifted, reaching her hands up to force Daisy’s head to face her, not that it took any effort whatsoever. Life. Warm brown eyes like coffee, filled with gentle concern and love in every language that Daisy didn’t speak.
Daisy didn’t say anything, just looking between Jemma’s eyes with sweet worry as if she wasn’t the one who died. Which, of course, she wasn’t. Jema was being awfully silly, Daisy had been led beside her when the other her died. Solid and real, with her legs on top of her lap. Jemma had been led on top of her when she freaked out and bolted. Oh, this was so embarrassing. What had she been thinking?
“Hey,” Daisy said softly, more of a whisper, but it reached Jemma’s ears easily. “You with me?” She’d already asked that, but Jemma nodded anyway. “I’m okay, Jemma. You don’t have to worry or mourn, I’m right here. I’m not dead.” One of Jemma’s hands slipped from Daisy’s cheek to the side of her neck, fingers lightly pressing into the pulse point there. “What do you need me to do?”
Jemma sniffed as she tried to stop the tears flowing down her face. Where on earth were they coming from? “I’m okay.” Jemma smiled, rather unconvincingly. “I’m okay.”
“Are you?” Daisy asked earnestly, crease between her eyebrows as light-filled eyes bore into Jemma’s own, but lacked any expectancy. Just a patience she hadn’t known Daisy could have. “Because it’s okay if you aren’t.”
///
“You think they’ll be okay?” Valentina stared with a concerned frown at the door Jemma had disappeared through, shortly followed by Daisy.
Trini shook her head slightly, shifting on the black and white couch to take up more of the space while the other two were gone. “Are any of us? We just watched one of our friends die. Horrifically. I mean a fucking tree-” She cut herself off and took a deep breath. “I don’t think any of us are okay, right now. Except maybe Daisy, but that’s different.”
“I can’t imagine I’d be okay after seeing myself skewered on a tree.” Yet, Juliana had to agree. Daisy really did seem unfazed by it all, but it was hard to say if that was actually her not caring or her just having not to. It would make sense if Daisy was pushing down her own feelings to comfort the rest of them.
Elizabeth kneeled beside her daughter as Chase whisked Daisy out of the bus, Daniel following behind him with the other kids as they tried to get the seizing kid to a car. “Are you okay, honey? What happened?”
Jemma just sniffed and shook her head, pressing her hand to her mouth before pushing herself to her feet. “Not now, mum. I have to make sure she’s okay.”
“She always wants to save everyone,” Kimberly pointed out. “Seeing every injury we have as doctor has to take its toll. I can’t say I’d be completely unaffected, and she’s a hell of a lot better person than me.”
“You’re a good person,” Trini immediately countered, sitting up with a protective frown.
“That’s not what I meant.” Kimberly smiled weakly and shook her head. It was suddenly a lot harder to smile, and she didn’t need to guess at why. The important thing was their Daisy was okay. No matter what the outcome was in that universe, it wasn’t theirs. It had no effect on them, beyond being a weird and fucked up TV show wearing their faces. Nothing more.
Daisy wasn’t dead, just some alternate version of her. It was no different than the billions of universes they weren’t watching, where one or more or all of them were dead or didn’t exist. It was just the same. Except it wasn’t because they weren’t watching those universes.
The waiting room was stiff and awkward, not made any better by the thick air of fear that seemed to surround them all. It didn’t matter whether or not it was your kid, any parent feels the same kind of deep terror when they see one of their kids’ friends having a seemingly unending seizure. A teenager.
Trini’s foot bounced restlessly, her head dropped onto one of her hands and rising and falling in time with her leg. “DAISY!” Echoed through her mind, her hand inches away from Daisy’s, but inches she couldn’t close.
Trini winced. She’d been so close. If she’d been faster, she could have saved her. “Don’t blame yourself,” Kimberly said softly. “There was nothing you could have done, and it’s a wonder you were as close as you were. None of us would have gotten close to that. It’s not your fault, Trini. Daisy wouldn’t want you to blame yourself.”
Which made it sound like their Daisy was dead, so she had to rectify that real quick. “Which she’ll tell you when she comes back with Jemma, and we can tell them all about the very awkward hospital waiting room.”
“Trini?” Kimberly’s voice broke her out of her thoughts, unusually gentle as the back of her knuckles lightly brushed against Trini’s. “It’s not your fault. Daisy wouldn’t want you to blame yourself.”
Juliana smiled slightly. “I guess you’re being proved right about that same in every universe thing.” Val huffed in what could have been a laugh. She’d take it.
Trini gritted her teeth and her shoulders shook as tears finally leaked from her eyes where she’d been fighting them. She twisted her hand, interlocking her fingers with Kimberly in a white-knuckled grip that she couldn’t spare half a mind to caring if it hurt. If it did, she’d feel bad about it later. If it didn’t, then no harm, no foul.
“Kim?” Kimberly’s dad interrupted, their heads snapping up and hands springing apart as he smiled slightly. “Want to go on a walk? Clear your head?” Kim hesitated for a second, glancing at the doors of the hospital before nodding and pushing herself to her feet.
“Could be good for you,” Valentina offered.
“And it’ll be good to know what he knows.” Juliana nodded to herself. “If our families are seeing the phantoms in the real world, we need to know. Which means we probably have to let them in on what’s been going on since San Diego.”
“Great.” Trini dropped her head back onto the black armrest. “I’m sure that will go down well.”
“What happened?” Kimberly’s dad, Oliver, asked.
Kimberly sniffed and frowned, confused. “We told you. We went into the bus to get our homework for tomorrow, so we wouldn’t forget. Then Daisy- Daisy collapsed.”
“That’s… a really bad story.” Trini made a face. “Like genuinely an awful cover-up.”
“I don’t think they were i the right frame of mind to think of a good story, Trini,” Juliana reminded her not unkindly. “We watched Daisy take a nose dive off a cliff after being chased by the phantom of all phantoms. I don’t think convincing cover-ups were our top priority.”
“Fair point,” Trini conceded.
“You did. Now, how about what really happened?” At Kimberly’s look, he frowned deeply with worry. “You can tell me, Kim.”
Shaking her head, Kimberly pressed her lips together into a thin line and ran her hand through her hair. “You wouldn’t believe me. It sounds crazy, and we don’t have any proof.”
“Isn’t her hair kind of proof?” Valentina suggested. “I mean, how do you explain that your shadow has short hair but you don’t? At the very least, it’s a start.”
“I will,” Oliver said resolutely, squeezing his daughter’s shoulder. “I promise, no matter how crazy it sounds, I’ll believe you. I promise.” Kimberly’s hands shook before she clenched them into fists before her face screwed up and she let out a gasping sob, dissolving into a teary mess as he pulled her into his arms.
Kimberly shrank slightly. It felt wrong for them all to see them so vulnerable, which was really fucking stupid because she’d been crying with the rest of them on top of Daisy and Jemma like 10 minutes ago. And she’d certainly cried when they thought Val was dead.
Fuck, why did everyone have to keep dying on them? Who was next? Who would they fail to protect next time? In either universe, they could die at any time, and they don’t know that it wouldn’t be permanent. She was willing to bet it’d be permanent in this universe, but she prayed to a God she didn’t believe in that Daisy would be okay over there. She didn’t want to see any version of Daisy dead.
Kimberly played awkwardly with her fingers as she and her dad sat on a bench in awkward silence. Then her dad cleared his throat. “Every night?”
Kimberly nodded, eyes red and puffy. “Since San Diego, yeah.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose before running his hand down his face. “I guess that explains why you were sick for a week after San Diego. And why you kids were suddenly hanging about when they were so different from your old friends.”
Both Kimberly’s wilted slightly at the mention of who they used to be friends with. Who they used to be. She wasn’t much better than Grant. Sure, she never directly hurt someone (Ty Flemming not included), but she’d watched as the others did and didn’t do a damn thing. That made her just as bad. Well, that, and everything that happened with her bullying Amanda. God, she was such an awful person. How were any of them friends with her?
“I guess that explains the shadow,” he remarked quietly, Kimerbly bolting up in her seat and staring at him with wide eyes as he gestured to her short-haired shadow on the floor.
“I thought-” She gaped at him. “You said you couldn’t see it!”
“I couldn’t.” He shrugged. “I didn’t notice until we got to the hospital, then it was kind of hard to stop noticing your shadow has short hair. When you showed us, it was normal. But… that was before we started seeing the shadow creatures that sound an awful lot like your ‘phantoms’.”
Trini’s mind screamed at her that she was missing something. Forgetting something. Why did that seem so off to her? It made sense that they couldn’t see it, they hadn’t been pulled through the rift, so they didn’t have the connection to the phantom dimension like they did. So… what the hell was the nagging voice in the back of her head saying to remember? What was she missing?
///
Sniffing, Jemma pulled away from Daisy and thumped back into the door. She pressed her face into her hands like it would hide her from her mortification. “I’m being silly, I’m sor-”
“Don’t you dare.” Daisy stopped her, moving off the door so that she was sitting opposite Jemma. Gently, she lifted Jemma’s face, catching her eyes so she could make damn sure Jemma believed every word that left her mouth. “You’re not being silly. That shit was traumatising and we’re watching this like its us. It doesn’t matter if it’s through a screen, watching any version of someone you-” Daisy swallowed. “Of someone you love die. Like that. It’s horrifying. And it’s okay to freak out, I would have been worse in your shoes. You have nothing to apologise for. Nothing.”
Jemma stared at her dubiously for a long moment before closing her eyes and dropping her forehead against Daisy’s, hands reaching up for the other girl, one automatically sliding to her pulse again. Steady. Strong. Alive.
“What do you need me to do?” Daisy repeated. Right, she’d asked that earlier. Jemma forgot to answer. Oops.
“Just…” Jemma thought for a moment, sighing heavily as she counted the beats of Daisy’s heart, letting it consume her for a moment. Because her heart wouldn’t be beating if she was dead, which meant she was alive. Daisy’s heartbeat meant Jemma could breathe. “Just be here.”
Daisy nodded slightly against her, thumbs brushing across her cheeks to wipe away what she could get to. “I can do that.”
After a long minute, Jemma tilted her head up to press her lips soundly against Daisy’s. Daisy made a startled noise in the back of her throat but quickly melted into it, shoulders slackening as she pressed her weight into Jemmma softly. She was breathing heavily when she pulled back. Then, because she had to ruin the moment, she said, “Salty.”
Jemma laughed wetly, dropping her head onto Daisy’s shoulders and wrapping her arms around her. “Had to make sure you’re real.”
Daisy hummed, pressing a long kiss to the side of Jemma’s head. “Yeah, I agree, that's totally the most effective way of figuring that out. I’m real. I promise. I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere.”
///
Juliana ran a hand down her face, resolutely avoiding eye contact with Trini and Jemma. “Wait, I don’t get it. They didn’t go to San Diego, how are they seeing the phantoms too?”
Daniel shook his head, gently rubbing circles onto Jemma’s back as she dropped her head into her hands, clearly overwhelmed with everything. “We can figure that out later. Right now, the important thing is Daisy.”
“Okay.” Oliver tapped his fingers against his leg. “Okay, so if I’m getting this right, if we put supplies where you guys were, you can use them there, yeah?”
Juliana groaned. “We should have told them earlier. It would have made everything so easier if we had adults on our side. At the very least, we wouldn’t have to keep lying and hiding.”
At Juliana’s nod, her mum held her shoulder. “I’ll take you into town for the supplies.” She turned to the others. “Try to convince the other parents?”
The Rangers all looked up and left at the same moment as they sensed Daisy and Jemma getting closer, about a second before Daisy opened the door and dramatically waved Jemma in ahead of her. Tension they hadn’t realised was there leaked out of their shoulders at the sight of them, Trini moving up on the couch but not getting off as Daisy dropped beside her, Jemma bracketing her in. Yeah, something told her she wasn’t getting rid of either of them for at least another episode. Not that she was complaining.
June pinched the bridge of her nose. “You expect us to believe that our kids have been running from demons and monsters in another dimension for the past six months? Seriously?”
“We all said we were seeing things,” Chase said, eyes rimmed with red and Chloe tightly in his arms. “It’s not like it’s insane.”
Daisy shrugged. “Poor choice of words, it’s stupidly insane. It’s just that they're also going through something insane. It kinda balances out.”
Juliana shook her head, but she was selfishly glad she was back. Not that she would have wished Daisy wasn’t with Jemma when she needed her, not in the slightest. She just wished they were all together, where she could see them. Where she knew they were still alive.
“It’s definitely insane.” Frank had to agree with his wife. “It could be a coincidence, but there’s a difference between shadows messing with us and alternate dimensions every night at 12. There’s not enough proof.”
Jemma’s hands curled into fists at her sides as her jaw tightened. “White eyes. Humanoid. Tall. Pitch black. Deranged smile.” Jemma slowly turned to face them with a harsh glare as her eyes cursed Trini’s parents, before scanning the others with equal venom. “That’s what you’re seeing. That’s what keeps trying to kill us. Not enough proof? We watched our friend tumble off a fucking cliff and we couldn’t turn back to save her because something more horrifying than you could possibly imagine was chasing us. You want proof? Daisy is dying!”
The pain in Jemma’s voice buried itself through Daisy’s chest and lodged itself directly into the centre of her heart. She knew that it would be damn near impossible to forget it. Which… she supposed it said a lot about her that the worst part about her death was seeing the reactions of the others. She didn’t care about dying, but she cared a hell of a lot about the pain it caused others. Weird. Well, actually. Not that weird.
The steady beeping of a heart monitor rang out before increasing rapidly, the doctor spinning with a startled frown when she met Daisy’s eyes, wide and unseeing as blown pupils stared unblinking at her.
The sighs of relief everyone let out at seeing Daisy alive echoed. Oh, thank fucking god. She wasn’t dead. Confused, and her eyes still looked weird, but they weren’t dead. Just… lost.
The doctor pressed a hand to her chest. “You’re awake! That was much faster than we’d expected of that kind of seizure.”
Daisy blinked slowly, eyes slowly coming back to themselves as she stared at the doctor and whispered into her oxygen mask, “What?” She pushed herself up before her eyes bugged out, and her hand fisted her shirt, the screen flickering briefly between her there, and her shoes and hand dangling lifelessly from the tree. She dropped back down onto the bed, breathing heavily but weirdly unpanicked. “Why?”
Daisy was the only one who didn’t flinch at the sight of the tree. They all really hoped they wouldn’t see her like that again. “What do you mean ‘why’?” Valentina asked, tilting her head to the side. “Why what?”
Daisy shrugged. “Who knows?” She did. She knew. She also was very much not going to share with the group. There were some things they didn’t need or want to know.
“How are you feeling, sweetie?” The doctor asked, paging a nurse and another doctor to the room. “What do you remember?” Daisy just stared at her blankly. She pushed herself up again to the doctor’s protest. Daisy clawed at the mask. The doctor’s hands fell over her own to stop her. “I need to do a checkup, you need that, honey.”
Daisy glared at her, eyes darker than they had any right being as she paused, every inch of her body lined with tension. “Get off.” She growled into the mask, and the doctor backed up, hands up in surrender, before Daisy tugged off the oxygen mask and tried to get to her feet.
Jemma made an offended noise of protest. “What are you doing? You just died, you can’t be moving!”
“No, no, hey kid, you can’t move.”
“I’m fine-” Daisy protested as more doctors flooded into the room, pushing her back onto the bed. “Really, no, wait, get off, I’m fine.” Daisy started to thrash. “GET OFF ME!”
“That’s not good,” Juliana whispered to herself. Obviously, it wasn’t good, anyone could see that. It wasn’t like Daisy at all, and she shouldn’t be able to thrash around like that after being… Holy shit, she was still on that thing. She could probably still feel it inside her. Fuck.
In the waiting room, the lights flickered red as their heads snapped towards the doors with Daisy’s scream. Chase paled and stumbled to his feet away from the windows, all of them backing away from where fucking phantoms flickered beyond the glass. Like outside the arcade.
“What if we end up dragging the phantoms into the real world?” Juliana asked, a sudden pit of dread in her stomach.
“What, like we cause a fucking phantom apocolpyse by being mad?” But the only answer any of them had for Kimberly was a few shrugs and worried looks.
“GET OFF!” Daisy writhed, her hand clipping one of the doctors’ jaw as a group tried to keep her pinned to the bed. She shoved them back and threw herself off the bed, ripping the IV out of her arm as she made a mad dash out of the room and down the hallway.
Jemma groaned. “Daisy, you can’t do that when you’re so hurt. You died, what if this sets back your recovery?” Jemma’s eyebrows were furrowed as thoughts of how it could get worse ran through her mind. What if it took longer to get better? What if it made it hurt more?
Then, Jemma had to pause. Why didn’t Daisy seem that hurt? Sure, there was that moment when she first woke up, but should she have been able to run and fight like that after being impaled?
None of her questions would be answered, yet, so for now, she was just going to lean against Daisy and hope she wasn’t too squished between her and Trini. Jemma was sure she’d say something if she was.
Daisy threw open the doors of another hallway, sprinting through them and not slowing as she looked behind herself. She grunted as she crashed into someone, sending them both tumbling onto the floor. Face screwing up in pain, Daisy scrambled backwards before pausing as Jemma pushed herself up as well to sit. “Daisy?” She squeaked before slamming forward into her and wrapping her in a vice grip, sobbing into Daisy’s shoulder.
Jemma’s shoulders loosened slightly. If she was still, she wasn’t moving around and making anything worse. Okay, and the added bonus that Daisy was hugging her in both universes, which shouldn’t feel as nice as it did, but alas, it did.
The lights stopped flickering. Daisy stared blankly at the ceiling as she returned the hug. “I’m okay,” she said gently after a while. “It’s okay.”
Valentina narrowed her eyes. Something was off and she could make a pretty damn good guess, but she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t say anything, but it was almost like… almost like Daisy didn’t care that she’d died. This one, okay, that made sense, she hadn’t died. But in that universe, she just seemed… acceptant. Like it didn’t matter to her. But she could be wrong. She hoped she was wrong. Because if she was right?
Daisy closed her eyes as she dropped her head onto Trini’s shoulder, the centre of a hug pile they’d created as a doctor hung awkwardly, waiting for the opportunity to whisk her away while talking to Chase, who had very much lied about his age. An echoey version of Daisy’s voice whispered through the screen even though her mouth didn’t move. It was slightly distorted. “So that’s how it feels.”
In unison, they frowned. Well, all but one. “What does that mean?” Kimberly questioned Daisy, eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“What, none of you have wondered what it would be like to die? It’s a pretty common thought. I guess… It’s just weird having it confirmed.” Daisy deflected easily, a good lie that none of them should have been able to see through.
Jemma did. “No, it’s different. You said it like…”
Daisy smiled and tried to reassure her. “I think that was its way of showing my thoughts. I don’t know.” She shrugged in a ‘what can you do?’ kinda way.
Valentina frowned as the doctors walked Daisy back through the doors to the rest of her hospital, and her phone rang. “Juls? Are you okay?”
Juliana was pacing as her mum set down the supplies. “Did something happen? Is everyone okay?”
“How did you know to call?” Trini asked quietly.
“Yeah, everyone’s alright. Daisy woke up. She looks okay, but she freaked out and attacked a few doctors. She was running around, though, literally, so hopefully she’ll be alright.” She blinked. “How did you know to call?”
“Believe us, now?” Kimberly crossed her arms, resolutely ignoring the dried tear tracks on her face as she glared at them.
They all nodded, some more reluctant than others. But there was no way to explain or deny the monsters they’d seen outside the glass. “How are we supposed to help you?” Daniel asked, glancing between the other parents, the kids, and then the younger kids. “And why are we seeing them too when we never went to San Diego?”
"And isn't that the question." Val ran a hand down her face. Nothing made sense. Why could nothing ever make sense?
Juliana threw open the door of the hospital room, eyes wide as they locked onto Daisy, surrounded by all the others and sitting on the hospital bed. Daisy turned with the sound of the door, and the teasing laughter in her eyes was replaced with soft understanding. “I’m sorry,” Juliana whispered as she approached, eyes welling with tears as they refused to stray from the girl she’d thought she’d gotten killed.
Daisy shook her head with that same smile. “You’re good, boss. It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault. Plus, the doc says I can leave in a couple hours when my Foster mom shows up. So, really, it’s all good, Juls. Quit blaming yourself and give me a hug.” Juliana snorted but was more than happy to oblige, careful not to squeeze too hard since they didn’t know how or where Daisy was hurt.
“You’re leaving?” Jemma’s eyebrows jumped up. “What on earth are you thinking? You were impaled! You’re still-”
“Jemma,” Daisy cut her off, squeezing her hand. “If the doctor says I’m okay, I trust their opinion. I’ll be fine. I mean, Juliana’s arm was nothing more than a dull ache in the real universe, but it was scratched to hell in the phantom. I’m fine, Jems.”
Chapter 12: I've Got You
Chapter Text
Daisy rolled her eyes from Chase’s back. “This really isn’t necessary.”
Juliana gave her a sceptical look over her shoulder as Valentina led them through her ridiculously large house. Holy fuck, it was huge. “You died, Daisy. Let your brother carry you.”
“Holy shit!” Daisy exclaimed. “I know I called you Miss Moneybags, but damn. What does your dad do for a living? Your living room is the size of most apartments.”
After pushing around the furniture, they set up blankets and pillows to make themselves comfortable. “Okay.” Frank sighed heavily. “This is crazy.”
“But we know it’s true,” Lupe finished, glaring at the others for a moment as if daring them to disagree. No one did. “There’s a tree stuck in you?”
They all winced. The reminder was as unnecessary as it was unpleasant. Just seeing it for a few seconds had been horrifying; she couldn’t imagine trying to drag her off of it. How would they even do that? There was a lot of fucking tree sticking out of her, it wouldn’t be fast. It would be a small mercy if Daisy was still unconscious.
Daisy nodded as Trini tightened her arms around her, pulling Daisy closer to her chest. Anyone with eyes could see her guilt, but Daisy didn’t seem to hold any of them responsible. Unsurprising. “I can still feel it. I’m still there, so. Didn’t quite break the distance limit. Yay.”
“Okay, wait, we keep saying you died.” Chase stumbled over his words. “Do we actually know that?”
Jemma sniffed. “We do.”
“I fell over the cliffside next to the school. Hundreds of feet and landed on a tree. Plus, it sure as hell felt like I died.” Daisy sighed. “The real question is what happens to my body in the phantom dimension. Do I… come back? And if that’s the case, then why do the phantoms bother chasing us?”
Valentina ran a hand through her hair. “Why is all we ever have ‘what if’? Once, just once, I would love to not have more questions than answers.”
“We’ve been running on hope for the past few months.” Juliana agreed. “Hope and luck. We shouldn’t have made it as far as we have, really.”
“And each other,” Daisy cut in, drawing the attention of the other Rangers. “Hope and luck and each other. That’s how we survived. And it’s how we’ll continue to survive. Together.”
Kimbery was left flat-footed by Daisy’s optimism. It wasn’t like she was a pessimist, but she was realistic. It was kind of weird to hear her say that they’d make it through it all with so much confidence when all the odds were stacked against them.
“It doesn’t matter right now,” Juliana shook her head. “Facts are what matter. And right now all we know is that the phantoms are trying to kill us, and Daisy died on a tree. That means it’s gonna hurt like hell pulling you off of it.”
“Way to sugarcoat it, Juls.” Valentina sighed, shaking her head.
“She’s the one who said false platitudes were useless,” Juliana argued.
“Unless we have a sedative,” Elizabeth offered.
“And where the bloody hell are we gonna get that?” Daniel raised an eyebrow at his wife, but the answer came from someone else.
“I uh… I might have an idea.” Daisy grimaced. “How do we feel about bringing May into this?”
“May has access to sedatives?” Kimberly questioned, tilting her head.
“Well, definitely if she’s S.H.I.E.L.D. She still has connections even if she’s only FBI. There’s a decent chance there’s someone she could call for a favour.” Daisy hated that she understood why she felt so guilty. She hated being a burden.
“Your self-defence teacher?” June questioned, making a face.
“She’s ex-FBI,” Daisy explained, pushing herself to her feet with barely a wince. “If anyone has a chance of getting a sedative, it’s her. I’ll call her. Send me the location you guys dropped off the bag of supplies.”
It made no sense to her. Sure, Jemma was glad that her girlfriend was okay, but it made no sense. Juliana’s head was killing her the day after her concussion, but Daisy was walking around after dying like it was nothing. And sure, death might play by different rules, but surely it would be worse, right? Especially considering the god forsaken tree was still in her stomach. She should still be in a hospital, not waltzing around Valentina’s house like she hadn’t just died. Something was going on, and she couldn’t think of what it was.
“I… might have an idea,” Chase spoke into his hands after Daisy disappeared from the room. “On how to keep you guys safe from the centipede monsters.” That caught everyone’s attention. “The football stadium has floodlights, powerful ones. A lot stronger than a Jeep headlight. It’s your best shot. Get to the school and shut down the power supply, and-”
“And the generator will recognise there’s no power and kick on automatically, that’s genius,” Jemma finished gleefully.
Valentina grinned as they found a way to give them a chance. They could survive. They actually stood a chance against those bus-sized monsters that- They would be okay. Daisy would be okay. They all would.
And, another lovely bonus, they knew that dying in the phantom dimension didn’t kill them in the real world. Obviously, they didn’t know what other unforeseen consequences there could be; no doubt, there would be some. But it was hope either way. That was something. It at least helped to lower the stakes.
“May’s dropping off the sedative, then coming here. She’ll be here tomorrow, and yes, she sees them too. Tried to punch one and her hand went through her window instead.”
Daisy closed her eyes. “Guess I should have expected she'd be dragged in too. Aside from your mom, she's the one who's been around all of us together the most.” Then, she tilted her head slightly. “Or maybe even more? Like, if she's been training us, then that's probably more than your mom, cuz I assume we spend most of our time in the graveyard.” At the end of the day, it didn't matter. Everyone that mattered to them could see them. That was what was important.
Daisy cleared her throat. “I still think it’s stupid. It’s not worth the risk, you should leave me until the school’s safe, and you guys have every advantage, I’ve already died, it can’t get worse.”
Immediately, yells of outraged protest filled the room before Juliana’s scandalised voice drowned the others out. “No fucking way! Are you insane? There is no fucking way we are leaving you to die! We don’t know that it’s safe, and even if it wasn’t, you are in agony! I refuse to leave you behind, Daisy, that’s non-negotiable!”
Daisy blinked rapidly and nodded slowly, desperately ignoring the thick lump in her throat. If she pretended it didn’t exist, it wasn’t there. Perfect logic.
Equally loud shouts of outrage came from the screen, except the kids were joined by the adults until Daisy backed off, raising her hands with wide eyes. Juliana continued anyway. “Not a chance. There’s no world where I leave you to die when I could have saved you. We are not abandoning you.”
Daisy’s eyes glistened, teeth grinding harshly together as she ignored the aching of her heart. She should not be this touched by someone saying they wouldn’t just leave her to die. That was kind of sad, actually.
Daisy’s eyes shone with tears as she nodded, pressing her lips together. Valentina reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “We don’t know why the phantoms are chasing us, there’s a decent chance it’s not to kill us. Not if that’s not permanent, which we know now. We’re not risking that. Never.”
“Okay,” Daisy whispered before repeating louder. “Okay. We need to try and sleep. All of us. And um… I can’t imagine it’s a pretty sight, so… mentally prepare yourselves before you see me.”
“Understatement of the century,” Kimberly remarked, just barely keeping her voice steady. It wasn’t as convincing as she would have liked, but it’d have to do. It wasn’t like any of them would judge her. Actually, she might be in a room with the only few people who wouldn’t.
As they were setting up the beds, Jemma drifted to Daisy, hands twisting around each other nervously. Daisy looked up, losing the frown at being forced not to help immediately. “Hey, Jemma. What’s up?”
Jemma swallowed, tongue darting out to lick her lips. “Can we talk?” At Daisy’s slight head tilt, she glanced to the side and elaborated. “Alone, I mean.”
Despite the still tense atmosphere, the Rangers managed to perk up slightly. This could be a good thing. Hopefully, it was a good thing. Jesus, they could take only so many bad things in a row. Just one good thing to balance it out would be… Well, it would make it better.
Daisy nodded slowly with a perplexed smile. “Sure. This house is massive, there’s gotta be somewhere private. We should probably tell the others cuz they’ll freak if they turn around and I’m not there.” In hindsight, she probably should have expected the joke to fall flat, but whatever, it was worth a try.
After a short minute of waiting in the room they’d moved to, Daisy asked, “Is something wrong? You can talk to me, Jemma. What’s up?”
Jemma scoffed. “Is something wrong? Is something wrong? You died, Daisy!” Jemma clenched her jaw and turned her eyes to the floor, swiping at her eyes.
Daisy winced. “Yeah, okay, poor choice of words.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Daisy said gently, pushing herself to her feet to stand next to Jemma without so much as a wince. What the hell is wrong with this girl? Couldn’t she just rest for five god damn minutes? Daisy sighed. “We’re not gonna get anywhere if you don’t talk to me, Jemma. I can’t fix it if I don’t know what I did wrong.”
“No, no,” Jemma stopped her, shaking her head. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Just…” She held up a hand, and Daisy stopped, just waiting. Letting her sort her words out for a long moment. “I can’t lose you, again.”
“Huh?”
Daisy tilted her head. “What? Jem, you won’t-”
Jemma spun around. “You don’t know that. None of us knows that. We don’t know what happens now, and we don’t know what the phantoms are trying to do, and we don’t know what happens now that you have died, and-” Jemma sucked in a shaky breath, trying to steady herself under Daisy’s intense gaze. “Everything has gone so wrong, and I thought we’d have more time.”
Trini narrowed her eyes suspiciously. But, good suspicion. What did that mean?
Daisy’s eyes filled with a hesitant understanding. “More time? It-” She deflected to the most logical answer, “We- We all thought we’d have more time before we had to go back to San Diego, it’s okay if you’re scared, no one’s gonna blame you for that.”
Kimberly groaned. “Are you being dense on purpose?” And yes, she could see her money burning in front of her very eyes, but whatever.
Jemma was shaking her head long before Daisy finished her sentence. “Not… for San Diego.” She huffed, trying to think of the right words. “It… It’s kind of more…” She made an irritated noise. “I can list most of the constellations in the sky, I know the medical names for theoretical diseases and cures, and I can name the atomic mass of most elements, but I can’t find the words for the one thing that actually matters.” Daisy watched her for another short while, eyes flicking between both of Jemma’s. “It-” She was cut off by Daisy’s mouth on hers, but it was gone before she could even process the pressure, let alone think about reciprocating.
“Fuck!” Kimberly swore as Trini cheered. She shook her head with a grin. “It was rigged!”
“It was not!” Trini argued, laughing at the fake dismay on Kimberly’s face at losing ten bucks in the bet on who’d get together first.
In Daisy’s humble opinion, it was totally rigged. Jemma only said anything because she died, so really, it wasn’t a fair competition. Rigged by death. Yeah, something told her that none of them would appreciate her voicing that, so she just grumbled at having to give the others ten bucks. Assholes.
Jemma gaped at her, blinking owlishly. Daisy shrank slightly. “Please tell me I didn’t misread that?” Jemma beamed and pressed her lips to Daisy’s, the taller girl’s shoulders loosening in an instant as her hands moved up to hold either side of Jemma’s face lightly.
Daisy and Jemma were quickly turning red as they prayed the already too-long scene would end already. Sue them, they didn’t want all of their friends watching them kiss, that was a pretty normal thing to blush about. Trini snorted, which quickly dissolved into sniggering as the screen waited for Jemma’s hand to curl into Daisy’s hair before finally shutting off.
Daisy crossed her arms with a grumpy frown as the other shitheads (minus Jemma) were still giggling to themselves. Jemma hid her face in her hands, bright red from mortification. “There just really wasn’t any need.”
“Hey, at least Daisy and Jemma are together now?” Val offered after their evil laughs had died down. Wankers. “That's one out of three, at least.” She paused. “Hey, wait, if we’re Juliantina, then what are you guys?”
Daisy immediately answered for Trini and Kimberly. “Trimberly.”
Both Yellow and Pink stared at her blankly. “How long have you been storing that one for, then?” Kimberly asked, unamused.
Daisy grinned. “Same time, I came up with Juliantina. So, like, 4 months.”
Kimberly shook her head with a sigh as she tried to think of what Daisy and Jemma could be. Daima? Jemmsy? Ew. No. Johnmons. Simmson? Okay, this wasn’t working at all. “Your names are impossible to merge. The best I got was Jemmsy.”
The two’s faces screwed up in horror. “Sounds like something my gran would call me.”
“Am I allowed to suggest one, or is that against the rules? Because I will take suggesting over being called fucking Jemmsy.” Daisy’s face screwed up like the name tasted bad on her mouth.
“Should you?” Trini tilted her head. “It feels wrong. We just gotta get more creative. Come back to me.”
Daisy squeezed Trini’s hand from where she was led, looking at the ceiling with Jemma curled on top of her. Kimberly was curled into Trini, with Valentina pressed into her back, her arms wrapped around Juliana. Then it cut to the parents in the main room, Chase having refused to be kicked away with the younger kids. His sister was in there, he was staying. Then the screen turned red, glitching momentarily.
“Here we go,” Juliana said, her resignation clear in her voice. There wasn’t anything they could do but watch and hope it wouldn’t get worse. One death was bad enough; two? Even knowing that it wasn’t permanent didn’t make it any better. Okay, that was a lie, it made it a little better. Still sucked.
It opened on the bottom of the tree, same as before. Then up again before pausing at Daisy’s hand, still beside the much larger trail of blood down the tree. A twitch. Daisy coughed, blood spurting out of her mouth before falling back down and painting her face in crimson splatters. Her face screwed up in agony as she gasped, eyes wide. Lifting her head, she made a wet choking noise in the back of her throat.
Jemma’s face screwed up as she fought tears. She was in so much pain. Daisy never showed how much pain she was in, and maybe that didn’t apply in private, but the pure, unrestrained pain on her face killed her. She felt sick to her stomach, and she couldn’t look for another moment, so she turned and buried her face in Daisy’s neck, pushing her more firmly into the couch and Trini. Though it didn’t seem like either of them cared.
Daisy’s black shoes scrambled uselessly against the tree before her toes ended up on a small branch. She dropped her head back, trying to breathe as little as possible. Then she froze at the sound of a rustle in the bushes, turning her head around slowly.
“Please say it’s us,” Kimberly whined hopefully. Something told her it wasn’t. There was no way they’d get that lucky.
It was not. A phantom stood staring at her for a long moment, tilted head and eerie grin as it met Daisy’s wide eyes with its own, brown and alarmed versus white and soulless. Then, the phantom started charging, and Daisy’s arms waved around for a second before landing on the branch beneath her back.
“No!” Jemma called, knowing exactly what was about to happen.
Daisy pushed herself up with a guttural and echoing scream, agony etched into every line of her face as she dropped back down onto the branch with a sickening squelch and thud.
The phantom kept running before an axe tore through its neck, lopping its head off in one clean and mighty swing. Juliana swung with the force of the swing, stumbling slightly as she called, “Daisy, are you-” She cut herself off with a shaky exhale as her eyes turned up.
“Oh, thank God.” Valentina slapped a hand over her heart, breathing heavily with relief. How had it all gone so wrong? They never should have tried to test the distance limit theory.
“Always there to save us, hey boss?” Daisy smiled at Juliana gratefully.
A drop of blood fell onto her forehead. She swallowed, jaw shaking as she stared up at her friend. “Juliana!” Valentina called, running through the trees with the others behind her. “Where are you?” She skidded to a stop as she saw Juliana, shoulders slacking with a relieved smile. “Thank God.”
“The syringe!” Juliana’s voice shook as she pushed past Valentina to get to Kimberly, rifling through her bag as the others questioned her. Chest pumping as her hands trembled. “I need the syringe!”
“Thanks, Juls.” Daisy smiled earnestly at her. “For saving my ass and for caring. Which, I already knew you cared, but… You know. Thank you.” Daisy didn’t quite understand the confused frowns she got from the others, but she did understand the befuddled nod from Juliana as a reluctant ‘you’re welcome’.
“What’s wrong?” Valentina cast her eyes up and stilled, mouth falling open in unison with Kimberly’s choked gasp.
Valentina held the bottom of the ladder, eyes blurry as she stared up at Juliana and Daisy. Juliana carefully slid the needle into Daisy’s arm. “We’re gonna get you down, Dais,” Juliana reassured her softly. “I’ve got you. I promise.” Daisy closed her eyes and nodded slightly as Juliana pressed down the syringe.
“You don’t have to sound so close to tears, Juls,” Daisy said gently. “We know I’m okay.”
“Alive and okay are two very different things,” Trini argued into Daisy’s hair, closing her eyes. And well, Daisy couldn’t exactly argue against that.
A loud bang rang through the forest as Kimberly put a bullet through another phantom’s head, Jemma and Valentina at her sides with Trini and Juliana (carrying Daisy on her back) behind her.
“Hey, we swapped.” Daisy laughed, referring to when she was carrying Juliana a few episodes ago. Fuck, things had changed so fast. They only got the Jeep 4 episodes ago, and everything had moved in rapid-fire bad, then worse.
“Come on.” Valentina gestured forward. “More phantoms keep coming, we need to get out of here. The sooner we get to the school, the better.”
Juliana huffed out a puff of air as they skidded to a stop outside the school in the car they’d stolen. Trini was better at driving than she’d thought she’d be. She turned back with a concerned frown. “How is she?”
Jemma’s hand ran through Daisy’s hair as the injured girl smiled weakly up at her. “Better. We… we put everything back and stitched what we could. We’ll have to replace the bandages when we’re in the generator room, but she’s bleeding less than she was an hour ago. Which.” Jemma sniffed. “Is quite frankly a miracle. Her body shouldn’t be able to function at all.”
“It should be impossible,” Jemma said. “You should have bled out the second we pulled you off the tree, it was the only thing stemming the blood flow.”
“Pretty sure it’s all impossible,” Trini reminded her. “But, I guess this is the one impossible thing that… is actually good.”
Juliana looked at Daisy for a long moment before lifting a shaky hand and staring at it. She whispered, “What are we?” Then she sighed and shook her head, opening the door and sliding out of the car. “Come on, we need-” Her face froze in horror. “Turn off the truck, it’s coming!”
Kimberly choked on her spit. Why couldn’t it just be simple?! Please, just once! That was all she asked!
“Don’t close the doors,” Kimberly said, climbing out of the back of the car. “It could hear it. And, you know. Easier to jump into a car if its doors are already open.”
They walked through the halls of the school as quietly as possible, but the phantom noises were getting louder. Which meant the centipede monster was getting closer. “Are we close?” Juliana whispered.
Daisy nodded. “This hallway and a few more classrooms. We’re close. Just a little more.” Daisy’s breath was fast and heavy against the side of Juliana’s neck, but it only served to remind Juliana she was alive. She could deal with the uncomfortable feeling for that.
“Okay, I thought I was imagining it, but those noises are definitely a lot louder than they were a minute ago.” Juliana anxiously fiddled with her fingers.
“Which means we have to hurry the hell up.”
A shadow blotted out some of the light of the room, and Trini frowned, turning her head to the window. In said window was the fucking phantom’s face. Not even its whole head, just its eyes and the top of its mouth.
“It is so much bigger than I thought it was,” Kimberly breathed, as if talking too loudly would alert it. As if it wasn’t already staring at them through the glass.
They all stared at it for a moment before screaming and running down the hallway. Seconds later, there was a reverberating crash as the phantom slammed its head through the wall. Juliana sumbled, jostling Daisy as she tried to bring her shoudlers too her ears as they sounds grew to feel like they were piercing through her fucking skull.
All of the Rangers groaned, covering their ears with their hands as the phantom got closer, gaining on them as it managed to squeeze its way through the hallway that had seemed so large before.
Jemma glanced back at Juliana and Daisy, facing screwing up in indecision as the phantom got too close for comfort. Then she spun around and fired three shots at the monsters, hitting its face with little effect, until the third hit its eye, and it screeched. Juliana buckled, falling to her knees and overbalancing Daisy, sending the girl rolling off her back with a groan as pink bandages turned blood red.
Juliana’s face crumpled with guilt at the sight of her inadvertently hurting Daisy. “I am so sorry-”
“Can we agree to stop apologising for things that are completely out of our control? Yeah? Great. Good plan. You have nothing to apologise for, you’re hurt too. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
Kimberly spun too, levelling the rifle in her arms before unloading the barrel at the monster. Both their bullets lit up the hallway with loud bands and pops as they slammed into the phantom’s flesh. With a final screech, it slumped lifelessly to the floor.
“Holy shit.” Trini gaped. “You killed it. We can kill them. Holy fucking shit.”
Valentina dropped beside Juliana and put a gentle hand on her elbow as Trini helped Daisy sit up. Jemma and Kimberly lowered still smoking guns with heavy pants, before turning to look at each other for a long moment. Then they turned back to the others. Trini pulled Daisy’s arm over her shoulder and helped her to her feet as Daisy protested against being carried again. Valentina softly said. “We should hurry. There could be more.”
Juliana shook her head in dismay. “I can’t believe I dropped you.” Then she blinked as Daisy refused Trini’s attempts to lift her, accepting using her as a crutch instead. “Why the hell are you walking?!”
Chapter 13: Too-Wide Grin
Chapter Text
“You’re sure they’re here?” Kimberly asked, rifling through the drawers with the others as Jemma changed Daisy’s bandages again.
“They should be,” Daisy answered through gritted teeth. “He could have moved them again to avoid Danny and Braden from messing with them. Which means we’re just gonna have to walk around aimlessly until we can ask tomorrow.” Then she paused. “Wait, how long have we actually been here? How long have we got left?”
“How long have we been here?” Val wondered. It somehow felt like it had been hours and minutes.
No one had an answer for her. Given the fact that they were on episode 11, it had to have been at least a few hours. Doing nothing but sitting and watching an alternate universe’s version of themselves. Now that it had been mentioned, it was weird that none of them were getting antsy, especially considering Trini’s near-constant restlessness that almost rivalled Daisy’s. Almost.
Kimberly glanced at her watch. “About 3 minutes.” The stopwatch being on her wrist was definitely better than when she’d been relying on her phone. Which was very smashed in the phantom dimension. She’d refused to explain how.
Juliana glanced at the door. “Phantom incoming.” Kimberly pulled the knife out of its sheath as she moved to the door, waiting a second before spinning out and jamming the knife through its eye. It was dead before it hit the floor.
Juliana’s eyebrows shot up. “Damn, Kim.”
“That was badass,” Trini complimented with a broad grin. They’d moved back to their respective couches to allow themselves a little more space. It was also them trying to will bad things happening out of existence. If they stayed together on the two couches, they were prepared for something awful. Therefore, separate couches meant nothing awful. Terrible logic, but whatever.
“Got it,” Kimberly announced, wiping her black, bloodied knife on her thigh before moving to sheath it.
“Are there any more?” Juliana frowned. “I can still hear them?”
Juliana narrowed her eyes. “Something’s wrong.” But she couldn’t put her finger on what. Well, there was also the problem that it had been so quiet. One mega phantom and then radio silence, bar one baby phantom? It felt foreboding.
Kimberly stopped, tilting her head to listen for running before sticking her head out the door. “I don’t think so?” Then the building shook with what felt like an earthquake, the metal letting out an unhappy groan. They all made loud noises as they lost their footing, Kimberly stumbling out the door and holding onto the frame to keep herself upright, something that poor Daisy didn’t manage as she toppled over Jemma, knocking into Val as well, and sending all three crashing to the ground while the others tried to stay stable. They were quick to try and scramble to their feet in the chaos, however difficult it was.
Daisy sighed. “Oh, and it was going so well.” She paused. They hadn’t been able to find the keys. “Kind of.”
Outside, three of the centipede phantoms were climbing onto the roof, their bodies longer than the building was tall. Jesus, it had been so easy to misjudge just how scarily huge they were.
“What the hell are they doing?” Trini gaped at the screen. “Why the hell would they do that? What’s that even supposed to do?”
Jemma tilted her head. “Maybe they’re just like centipedes and like crawling over things? It would make sense that they like a bigger building.” She winced. “That, or they definitely know we’re in there and can’t fit through like the other one. They certainly look bigger.”
“What, and they think that’s gonna flush us out?” Valentina questioned.
Jemma shrugged. “Who knows? It’s hard to say if the centipedes are capable of conscious thought. Or any of the phantoms, really. We know the one that tried to attack Juliana stopped because she told it to, but whether that was because it understood or just her tone, it’s hard to say.”
“And there’s also the fact that Juliana could kinda control us, when we started making the phantom noises,” Daisy reminded them. She hadn’t forgotten about that; it felt kind of important. Okay, it felt really super important, but whatever. Until that universe had confirmation, there was no way to know.
“So do we think Juliana could… control the phantoms?” Kimberly suggested. “Cuz, if she could, that’d be super helpful.”
Jemma shrugged again. “Maybe? It’s certainly a possibility, but there’s also a question of: if she can, can she control all of them? Just one at a time? Only the little phantoms? It’s impossible to say.”
“Until it isn’t,” Juliana said grimly. “We don’t know it’s possible until it’s happened on screen. But, I can’t imagine it’d be a great scenario for me to try. When I told the phantom to stop, it was-”
“Purely instinctual.” Jemma nodded.
“Exactly. And I told you guys to stop because we’re friends, and again, probably instinct at being hurt by the phantom noises.” She sighed and gestured lazily at the screen. “Let’s just keep watching. We won’t know anything for sure until it happens. So, hopefully, it won’t happen.”
But when were they ever that lucky?
There was a loud crack as black webs formed in the ceiling under the weight of the phantoms. “The ceiling!” Trini noticed. “Get under something!”
Without further prompting, Daisy lunged for Jemma, tackling her across the room and pulling her under the desk, with Val not far behind them. Trini turned to drag Kimberly back inside before freezing at the loud pop of a ceiling tile falling out of place. Kimberly made a face, lifting her arms. “Oh shit-”
Trini paled, blood rushing from her face as her heart forgot it was supposed to be pumping it. Her fingers tingled as she begged that Kimberly would be okay. Prayed to a God she’d long stopped believing in, that she wouldn’t have to watch her girlfriend die.
Kimberly crumpled with the ceiling as it crashed onto the ground “KIMBERLY!” Trini screamed, scrambling forward and pulling off the rubbing. She paused, frozen with wide eyes, when they pulled the tile out of the way. Kimberly led under the rock with unseeing eyes and blood all over her face. Chest not moving.
Suddenly, Daisy understood why they’d all been so affected by something she thought was stupid. It was through a screen; it wasn’t technically them, there was no reason to be so upset, right? WRONG! Blaringly wrong! Daisy felt like her heart had just been torn out of her chest with zero regard for everything around it. She pressed her knuckles to her mouth, grinding her teeth so hard they creaked in protest as she uselessly fought tears.
Valentina let out a wounded whining sound in the back of her throat before her hands shot to her mouth, eyes welling up with tears. She’d never imagined she’d see her best friend’s body just… lying there. Not sleeping. Dead. Bloodied and broken on the floor as she hid under a desk. Did that Val even know? Surely, she’d heard Trini scream Kimberly’s name, but did she know? Did she know her best friend was dead?
Trini was frozen, unmoving as she stared down at Kimberly’s lifeless face, blood still actively leaking from her head. “Come on!” Juliana called, suddenly there and dragging Kimberly up from under her arms towards a table to avoid the smaller amounts of still-falling rubble, Trini following behind her in a daze.
Trini felt like she'd swallowed glass. There was a distinctive lump in her throat that was making it increasingly hard to swallow and even harder to breathe. What just happened? It was so fucking sudden, how? What? No, it was wrong. She couldn't be; it didn't make sense. Not Kimberly. It didn't make sense. She wouldn't die, she was, well, Kimberly. Holy shit, Trini’d been right there. Kimberly needed her, and she just… watched. She just stood there and fucking watched her die. That was two for two in that universe. Not Kimberly. Not her girlfriend and her best friend, both. What kind of fucked up reality was that? That between one second and the next, they were just dead, and all she did was watch.
Juliana had her arm braced against the bottom of the table as the building rumbled from the weight of the phantoms, more flakes of ceiling raining down on them. Pressed into her side was Trini, with Kimberly pressed tightly to her chest, head cradled with her hand.
Trini couldn’t think. But… her mind was racing. It felt like something was clawing at her chest. It was kind of ridiculous, she knew she’d be fine. Daisy tested that for them all. But Daisy was in agony, no matter how well she tried to hide it. What if there were consequences they didn’t know about? Because of her. How could she just stand there? Why didn’t she do anything? Why did she just fucking watch it happen? Why did she never do anything? The first time, Val, she was tied up – that’s an excuse. She was inches away from Daisy. She’d been standing right there with Kim. But she was too slow.
Slowly, Kimberly opened her eyes and looked down haltingly at Kimberly. She paled impossibly, and horror filled her eyes. Kimbery’s eyes were wide, her pupils had expanded, and there was a broad and eerie grin that was terribly reminiscent of the phantoms.
Jemma blanked. Well, that definitely shouldn’t be possible. What the fuck was that? It certainly shocked her out of stunned stupor. Which meant, rather unfortunately, she could feel her feelings again, which she’d rather not do. She could try and distract herself with theories, but considering said theories were about Kimberly’s death, it really wouldn’t help. She couldn’t put it in a box if it was right there in front of her.
Daisy gaped at the screen, tears still falling steadily down her face as she spoke into her hands. “What. The. Fuck.”
Kimberly tilted her head slightly as she stared at the paused and petrifying version of herself on the screen. “What the hell is that?” How was she grinning? Dead people definitely couldn’t do that. Then again, they also didn’t come back to life, so the rules were different.
Jemma remembered her theory from before, after the arcade. She still didn’t want to voice it, but she couldn’t imagine they’d be very happy if she didn’t and it was right. What was the harm? Well, aside from being awful news. “What if…” Everyone turned to look at her, and she realised she couldn’t back out now. “When we were fighting with Grant and his friends, we were phantom noises, right?” She saw it click in Juliana and Trini’s eyes. “Daisy’s eyes were blown wide like the phantom’s when she died. That grin was…” It clicked for Daisy, too. “And the phantom listened to Juliana.” She could see that they’d all connected the dots, but none of them wanted to admit agreement. Agreeing gave it weight. It had enough weight as it was. “What if we’re turning into them?”
There was silence for a long moment as they stewed over it before Daisy broke it. “What if dying speeds up the process? It would explain why the phantoms want to kill us, even if it’s not permanent.” She made eye contact with Kimberly, and she saw the exact moment Kimberly realised the steadiness of her voice was faked – displayed by the tear tracks on her face that had yet to relent. She hated the shock on Kimberly’s face at them.
“So we’re screwed?” Kimberly asked weakly with a smile that didn’t even pretend to reach her eyes. Daisy shrugged with an equally poor smile.
“KIMBERLY!” Valentina’s scream echoed through the house, startling the parents and sending them scrambling to their feet and running to the living room.
Kimberly’s mum shoved Daniel aside, dropping to her knees beside her seizing daughter. “Kimberly, honey?” She hesitated to touch her shoulder as she shook in place, head lolled back, and eyes dark, unseeing.
She looked exactly like Daisy had in the real world after she died. Which all but confirmed that Daisy had looked like… that when she died, too. With the too-wide grin and blank, dark eyes. Great.
Trini stared at Kimberly with wide eyes, scrambling backwards as Kimberly’s dad scooped her up, running to the car. Her breaths were heaving, trembling in her chest and coming out as short gasps as she stared at the space Kimberly had been. What the hell was that?
Daisy knelt in front of her with drawn eyebrows. “Are you okay? You weren’t hurt, too, right?”
If Kimberly hadn't just died, Trini might have made a joke about Daisy always putting everyone else above herself, as it was, she felt too numb to even think about making a joke.
Abruptly, she remembered Kimberly was beside her and tugged her into her chest, wrapping her arms so firmly around her, it would have hurt a normal human. As it was, it wouldn’t hurt Kimberly, so she did not care. Trini buried her nose into the crook of Kimberly’s neck and tried to pretend she wasn’t crying into her girlfriend’s short hair.
Trini pulled her eyes away to stare at her for a long moment before she nodded, forcing herself to breathe properly under Daisy’s concerned eyes. “Yeah.” Her eyes flicked between Daisy’s as if looking for the same look she’d seen in Kimberly’s. “Sorry. I’m fine.”
“Don’t you dare apologise.” Blissfully, they all ignored Daisy’s voice crack. And it had been going so well, too. Daisy had never been more glad to have Jemma pressed into her; it helped to ground her. Reminding her she was here and not there, even though she really shouldn’t need the reminder. Her brain struggled to discern between that Kimberly and the one across the room. And if she had to glance at Kimberly every other minute to make sure she was still there and whole, then really, that was her own business.
Daisy shook her head with a knowing look in her eyes. “Don’t apologise, T. She’ll be okay.” She stood and offered Trini a hand. “Come on. Hospital round 2.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes, but it tried.
Trini’s mum stopped them with a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “You kids have school in the morning. You need sleep.” They all gaped at her. She couldn’t be serious.
“Are you kidding me?” Daisy all but stated. “Tell me she’s not serious.”
“She’s serious,” Trini confirmed, voice muffled by Kimberly’s neck. Fucking hell. Daisy died yesterday, now Kimberly, and she expected them to just what? Go to maths, pretend everything was okay? Act like the world wasn’t falling apart around them and they weren’t watching their friends die in horrifying ways. It didn’t matter that they came back; they still saw it happen. They couldn’t just get over that. Hell, it was killing them in this universe, and they could hold each other, and it wasn’t even them.
Juliana paused for a moment, closing her eyes and huffing. “We need to go to school anyway.” They whirled at her, outrage plain on their faces, but she stopped them. “We didn’t find the key. We need to see if we can weasle it out of Coach. We can’t abandon the plan, we’re… We’ll just be in more danger.”
Daisy narrowed her eyes, but she saw the logic. Her eyes darted to Kimberly briefly again. Okay, this was getting ridiculous, now. Daisy untangled herself from Jemma and pushed herself to her feet. “This episode just started, and I’m not waiting the full however long it is to hug you.”
She warned Kimberly, who laughed weakly before crossing the short distance in two long strides and dragging the girl out of Trini’s grip – much to her protest – and wrapped her arms around her tightly. Her fingers dug into Kimberly’s back as she shut her eyes, inhaling deeply to try and keep herself from crying again. It was stupid. Kimberly was fine, she knew that.
There was another person pressed into her back, their arms curling around the both of them before almost immediately being joined by the other 3. It was… weirdly nice. She probably should have felt trapped or suffocated, but (like before) it just felt safe. Like home. And the back of her shoulder was definitely wet from someone else’s tears, so she didn’t feel so silly about crying either. Not that it could have stopped her if she tried.
After who knows how long, they slowly began to unfurl themselves, and Daisy pulled back, eyes still glistening. “Twins.” She joked weakly, but it got a barely there laugh out of Kim, so she counted it as a win.
She dropped back down next to Jemma and swiped the back of her hand across her face, sighing heavily. “How much of this have we got left? Can it get any worse?”
They all looked at her in horror. “Stop jinxing things!” Kimberly yelled, only half-joking.
Valentina blinked. “Didn’t you say what could go wrong like… the same episode you died?” Everyone paused. Huh. She had said that, hadn’t she? Oops.
The woman with the blue hair, Nebula, was in a black car, watching as the Jeep pulled away. She lifted her phone to her ear. “They’ve split up. 5 in the Jeep, including the rift girl, one left 7 hours ago for the hospital, and one’s still in the house.”
Maybe she had jinxed it. When she said that, she didn’t think the scene would immediately cut to someone plotting against them. What they were doing wasn’t clear, but considering who it was, it wasn’t difficult to guess that it wasn’t good. Daisy really needed to stop saying things without thinking.
“Okay.” Chase nodded to himself. “I left my bag in the gym room, and we need the keys. He’ll either give them to me, or he’ll come with us and we can see where he gets them from and puts them back.” He sighed, glancing between his foster sister’s four friends. He really hadn’t seen any of this shit coming. Oh, and his dad was going to kill them when they actually came home. He’d called his mum to let her know, but whether or not she told his dad was… debatable.
Juliana nodded approvingly. “That should work. I can’t imagine he’d be particularly secretive of where he’s putting his keys or move them again in the same day, not if Chase isn’t the one stealing them.”
Val crossed her fingers. “Hopefully.”
Either way, he couldn’t imagine Daisy’d be staying for them much longer. He wouldn’t be all that surprised if one of her friends bullied their parents into taking her in, it could take a year, but they’d at least try. At the very least, he hadn’t missed Jemma making moon eyes at her whenever they interacted. He’d be shocked if Daisy hadn’t noticed, but considering he was almost completely sure she returned the feelings, she was probably just thinking that now wasn’t a good time to get into a relationship. You know, almost dying constantly, and all.
“Ah, there you are.” A voice called from down the hallway, approaching them. “I was hoping I’d run into you before classes start. Do you think I could talk to you all in the classroom?”
There wasn’t a single person among them who didn’t tense at the sight of Mr. Garrett. So whatever he’d been making preparations for a few episodes ago was coming then. That explained Nebula. Which meant it wasn’t just Trini, Jemma, Juliana, Val, and Chasse that were fucked, but Daisy and probably Kimberly too.
How, exactly, did they plan to smuggle Kimberly out of the hospital? Then again, it’d been six hours since her seizure, and it only took Daisy one and a half to wake up. But if she was awake, how would they get her out?
They exchanged looks. Jemma hesitated. “We’re in a bit of a hurry, I’m afraid, sir. We need to talk to Coach Rogers, so-”
“It’s about San Diego,” Mr. Garrett interrupted as they moved to walk away. The 5 whipped around with wide eyes, glancing at each other before nodding and following Garrett into the classroom, including Chase, despite not taking History.
“Oh, great, so we're getting him involved then.” Daisy ran her hand down her face, resigned. “They won't leave any witnesses.” She paused. “They wouldn't kill him, right? Or any of our families?”
Well, that hadn't been a thought until now. A truly terrifying one. They had to hope they'd just kidnap them too, if that was the plan. What if the plan was to just kill them all? It wouldn't be too difficult if they were caught off guard, especially for Kimberly if she was in the hospital. It'd be easy to play that off as her condition worsening to a fatal level.
“If we plan to help the kids look into these creatures, we should start with when I saw them before.” Lupe sighed, dropping her coffee onto the table with a heavy thud.
“What?” Juliana asked hollowly. There was no world in which that was a good thing. Fuck, not her family. Why couldn't her family stay out of this? The twins were in Val’s room upstairs in the same damn house.
They all blinked at her. Daisy leaned back slightly and shared a befuddled glance with May, who'd arrived about 20 minutes ago. May asked, “You didn't start seeing them weeks ago?”
Lupe nodded unflinchingly despite Melinda's cool gaze. Then again, it was always like that. “When Juliana was born.”
“So they're connected to me, then.” Juliana frowned, looking at her hands. Everything that happened was her fault.
Kimberly didn't point out the fact that they already knew that. She was pretty sure the others had forgotten that Juliana was the one who pulled them all through the rift. While they wouldn't blame her, Juliana would certainly blame herself. She didn't need to know. It didn't matter how they were in the rift, just that they were.
The scene moved back with a timestamp of 16 years ago. It was night, and there was a car parked on the side of the road, in the woods beside a brick building. Chino was covered in blood as he sat back on his heels. Pouring water over his hands, he looked back into the car where Lupe was holding a loudly crying baby in her arms.
Daisy's eyes as she beamed. “You're so cute,” she all but squealed. She loved kids. She'd had to look after more than her fair share of them throughout her life, both in the orphanage and fosters that liked to dump responsibilities. Little stinkers and generally chaos gremlins, but they were great.
“Shut up,” Juliana grumbled, a light flush to her cheeks. Her mood wasn't made any better by fucking Chino on the screen. In that universe, she was birthed by that monster. Hell, she was surprised he cared enough to help her into the world rather than just letting her mom suffer through it alone. She guessed he was at least a little different there then, not that he was still around. Hey, maybe he got worse after she was born? That was always a possibility.
Jemma, meanwhile, looked horrified. “In the woods?! The risk of infection is-”
“Yeah, yeah, we know Jem.” Kimberly waved her off with a laugh. “Very bad. But we know she's fine, so no harm, no foul, right? Isn't that our thing?”
Jemma huffed and crossed her arms, glaring at the screen with feeling.
Lupe smiled down at Juliana lovingly, gently bouncing her arms. “Did they say when they'd get here?” She glanced up at Chino before freezing eyes wide at the phantom behind him. Its hand reached out over his shoulder before he noticed, spinning and stabbing it in the chest as its claws tore through the side of his face. In tandem, Juliana and the phantom screamed. Then, it disappeared as the sirens rushed in, leaving Chino standing there with a baffled frown as blood ran down his face from three slashes across his cheek.
Trini frowned. “How was it in the real world? What connects it to Juliana?”
“Didn't she say she'd heard the phantom noises her whole life?” Jemma remembered. “Maybe it's because she was born in their territory?”
“Isn't everywhere their territory?” Valentina countered. “It's not like she was born in the Whaley House. Or even San Diego for that matter, she's from San Antonio, that's not even the same State.”
Juliana was oddly touched that she remembered that. The Texas thing was a given, Daisy took the piss out of her all the time for it. But she remembered the oddly specific detail of San Antonio was weirdly sweet.
“She could hear its scream even then,” Jemma continued. “It made her scream. So she was born connected to them, it didn't happen because she saw them at such a young age.”
“So, what does that mean?” Daisy asked after a long pause.
“I have no idea,” Jemma answered with a concerned frown. They wouldn't know until the people on screen did. Or until someone on screen did. Which meant they were just as in the dark as always. Well, at least they were used to it.
“So, the auditory hallucinations the doctor warned you about were the phantoms, then?” Frank confirmed.
Daisy and Lupe nodded at the same time. Daisy continued, “I don't understand, though, why are they connected? Cuz she was born there? She said they were strongest in the Whaley House and San Diego's not even close to Texas. As far as we can tell, they're everywhere, so shouldn't everyone be able to hear them? What makes her different?
“That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?” Kimberly sighed.
“They're all million-dollar questions,” Trini argued.
June spoke up haltingly, “Doesn't that mean that Juliana caused this?”
Valentina’s eyes darkened as they all let out loud protests defending their friend's honour. How fucking dare she talk about Juliana like that? Who did she think she was?
Lupe and Daisy glared at her, Daisy's hand tightening around her spoon as if she was imagining stabbing Trini’s mom with it. Melinda nudged Daisy with her knee, raising an eyebrow as Lupe lowly challenged, “You aren't blaming my daughter, are you?”
“Please don't stab my mom.” Trini groaned. “That would suck.”
Daisy didn't turn her glare away from the screen. “We’ll see. I'll think about it.”
Daisy forced her shoulders to relax under May's eyes and shovelled more cereal into her mouth. Frank tried to defend his wife. “I'm sure she only means that Juliana looks to be the centre of everything. Not that it's her, or anyone's, fault.”
Daisy suggested. “Maybe there's a connection between San Antonio and San Diego? Well, aside from the San bit. Might help piece something together.” It would've been helpful to know about this months ago. For the first time, Daisy wondered if filling the adults in made things better, rather than worse.
Daisy remembered, too? Then again, Juliana might have mentioned it more than once in that universe. She doubted it. Why did they both remember that? It was a pretty unimportant detail about her life.
“Not a bad idea.” Jemma nodded approvingly. “Better than nothing, at least. Plus, it's the only new lead we've gotten in months.”
“That's what I was thinking.” Elizabeth smiled at Daisy approvingly. “Good ide-” She was cut off by a knock on the door.
The Rangers tensed. It could very well be nothing, but there was a terrifyingly high chance that it was Nebula, parked outside the house in her car last time they saw her. What would she do to their parents? Fuck, what would she do to Daisy?
“I'll get it.” Valentina’s dad, Leon, wiped his hands on his trousers as he got up and made for the door. The second he opened it, a gloved hand thrust a cloth into his face, covering his mouth.
Valentina tensed, straightening in her seat. This was it, then.
Kimberly blinked blearily at her phone, a text from Daisy on it from 3 hours ago.
Daisy: The others have gone to school, and I’m on house arrest
Thought I should let you know for when you wake up
Hope ur ok :)
Kimberly frowned, looking at her hand. “How did she wake up so fast?” She muttered under her breath. She shot Daisy a text. Half an hour later, there was still no response, and she frowned again.
Kim: Thanks for telling me. Woke up about half an hour ago. How come you woke up so fast?
Kim: Daisy?
Kim: You there?
Kim: Helllloooo?
Kim: Daisy
Kim: Daisy
Kim: Daisy
Kim: Daisy
Kim: Daisy
Kim: Daisy
Kim: Daisy
Jemma paled. Daisy frowned. “Well, that’s not good. Guess we know they grabbed me.”
Jemma whacked her. “Not funny.”
“Wasn’t really trying to be.” Daisy’s eyes flicked to the time on Kimberly’s phone from the first text, frowning. “You only woke up at half 9?”
Everyone else caught on, suddenly feeling ill. It took Daisy a little over one hour? Did that mean Kimberly’s injury was worse? Maybe it mattered that it was to the head?
2 hours ago. “Okay,” Oliver said after a minute. “So, how do we go about this? Google? Cuz I can’t imagine there’s anything on Phantom’s-” His eyes bugged out. “Look out!” A cloth clamped down over May’s mouth, an arm wrapping around her front and knocking her out faster than it should have.
Daisy ran a hand through her hair. “So, they did their research. Went straight for May, knock her out before she knows what’s wrong, and she can’t fight back.” She sucked in a deep air of breath. “At least we know they aren’t killing them.”
“Do we know that?” Valentina asked, half hysterically. “We don’t know what’s on that cloth, maybe-”
Daisy’s voice was even as she cut her off. “They’d use a gun for May. Sure, that argument would work if it was just your dad because they want to keep it quiet, but once inside the house, they wouldn’t risk close range with her. She can’t do shit if she’s got a bullet through her head.”
It was morbid, but it helped Val calm down a little. She wondered if they’d take the kids too. She had to assume they wouldn’t leave any loose ends. Which meant Juliana and Trini’s little siblings were going too.
“May!” Daisy called as the man in black dropped her to the floor, unconscious. The other parents scrambled up as more agents(?) entered the room, charging them.
Daisy vaulted over the table and dashed for the kitchen as Nebula made chase. Daisy grabbed a knife right as Nebula grabbed her, spinning her at the shoulder. Making a swipe at her face, Daisy slid out of Nebula’s grip. Unfortunately, Nebula dropped back and kicked Daisy in the abdomen, knocking the air out of her with a pained gasp as she dropped to one knee.
All of them vicariously hissed or winced in pain. “Ooh.” Trini made a face. “Not there.”
Nebula slammed her knee into Daisy’s face with a crack before grabbing her and slamming her back into the ground, pulling a syringe out of the pocket on her thigh, jamming it into her shoulder. In seconds, Daisy stopped struggling, and her eyes drooped, dropping her head back with heavy breaths before the world finally turned black.
“Fuck,” Juliana swore with feeling, dropping her chin onto her hand as she watched the screen with wide eyes. “Did she have to break your nose?”
“It’s always my fucking nose,” Daisy complained. “That didn’t last very long.”
Trini gave her a judgmental look. “You died. Like, yesterday. And she happened to kick you in the place you were impaled for over 24 hours. You did pretty well.” And, okay, fine, Daisy could agree that it wasn’t great circumstances.
Someone disconnected Kimberly’s IV drip with a quiet pop. “Did I wake you?” An oddly familiar voice asked, lifting the disconnected IV to inject something into it. “Don’t be alarmed. This will put you right back under.” Kimberly slowly blinked her eyes open and looked at her, but she didn’t have the energy to be alarmed at the sight of the girl at the Whaley House before her eyes fell shut again.
“Shit,” Val said blankly. “Guess we’re retesting the distance limit. In the world again, though, that didn’t go well last time.” Two of them died. Not going well was the most extreme understatement in the universe. Hell, since it apparently existed now, the entire damn multiverse.
“I’m sorry for being so abrupt.” Mr. Garrett led them into the classroom, Chase shutting the door behind him. “We don’t have much time.”
Juliana narrowed her eyes at his back. “You said you had something to tell us about San Diego. What?”
“You kids went in, too, didn’t you?” At their shocked looks, he elaborated unnecessarily. “The Whaley House.”
“Too?” Jemma repeated. “He went in? Why the hell would he do that?”
Val shook her head. “I don’t think he did. He’s the big boss, right? Wasn’t green-hair-streaks lady calling someone after?” It’d been a while, but it was a pretty memorable moment for her. “I’d assume that was him. He’s probably just trying to get our attention since he knows what the Whaley house did.”
Trini nodded in agreement. “Because he had the blue-haired girl spying on us, yeah. That, and the fact that he had the other woman trap us. Or, well, presumably.”
“You went in, too?” Chase questioned suspiciously. They didn’t have time for this, they had to talk to Couch before lessons started. Sure, they could ask at Lunch, but he could be busy. He didn’t like the extra risk.
Mr. Garrett sighed. “We don’t have time. We’re being watched.” He met Juliana’s eyes. “Which, I’m sure you noticed.” The others turned to her, even as Juliana nodded. “Take a look at this.” He pulled a thick, black binder out of the drawer and held it out for her to take.
“Is he actually trying to be helpful, or is he just lulling her into a false sense of security?” Kimberly wondered. She could more than assume it was the latter, though. Especially when considering the fact that Daisy, Kimberly and their family had already been kidnapped.
“I can’t imagine he’s trying to be helpful.” Trini shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back into the pink.
“JULIANA!” Val screamed, but the latter end of the word was muffled. The four had agents wrapped around them, cloths over their mouths. Juliana whipped around with wide eyes, jerking forward before Garrett jammed a syringe into her arm. She turned back around with wide, betrayed eyes.
Julaiana yanked her arm out of his grasp and stumbled back a few steps before kicking him in the chest and shoving a desk into the guy holding Val. She grabbed Val’s wrist and ran to the door, but Val collapsed before she could make it there. Garrett and the agent advanced slowly on them as Juliana’s eyes drooped. She dragged Val to the wall, putting herself between her and Garrett. Garrett knelt in front of her. “We aren’t trying to hurt you. We just want to help. You’re sick. We’re gonna cure you.”
Jemma’s eyes glistened with hope. “Is there a cure?” Then she paused. “Oh. No, wait, that’s not possible. I can’t imagine how it could be a disease. It’s not like we’re hallucinating, we’ve been… injured.” She decided on. “I can’t imagine there’s a cure, and if there is, that is certainly not the right word for it.”
Juliana panted, the world turning dark at the edges as Garrett got blurry. “You… are the sick one.” The world tilted, and she fell unconscious, collapsing in front of Val.
The screen stayed dark, even as Garrett’s words rang out. “Let the facility know we have them.
Daisy groaned. “Has something good ever come from a facility?”
Jemma hated to say it. But… “Technically, a hospital is a facility. So. Everyone saved.”
Daisy stared at her blankly for a long moment. Then, she leaned over to press a quick kiss to her lips. The smile she put there was immediately gone when she joked, “You suck.”
Chapter 14: But You Will
Chapter Text
“So,” Valentina started with a heavy sigh. “Everything’s about to change, huh?”
Trini nodded. “Yep. Better or worse?”
“Can it get much worse?” Kimberly wondered. “If none of us die, I’d argue it’s a little better.”
“In the phantom dimension,” Jemma agreed. “But not in the real world. We lose everything, our normal lives. I’d have to say it’s… bittersweet. Good and bad.”
“Bit of both.” Daisy smiled. “I can work with that.”
“The problem is that we’re gonna reset, so we don’t even know that we’ll be together,” Juliana pointed out. That was actually a really good point, Kimberly thought. Would they have any of their weapons or clothes? Before, Juliana said that if they affected it in the phantom dimension, it wouldn’t reset to the real world. Maybe that meant they wouldn’t be completely defenceless.
Trini frowned. “And if we’re not together, then what about Kim and Daisy?” Oh shit, yeah. That was gonna suck for them. Yay.
“Ah, come on!” Trini groaned, leaning in as Valentina’s character tore through the enemy team as a sniper in the game. “Why are you so good at this, it came out recently?”
Valentina made a face. “What the hell?”
Daisy snorted. “I think you should just accept that Val’s better at video games than you, Tiny.”
Trini scoffed good-naturedly. “Like you’re one to talk, you suck!”
Jemma laughed from where she was, opting out of the game, braiding Juliana’s long hair as they watched the others with broad smiles. Daisy defended herself. “Hey, I’m not the one chasing randos to the ends of the earth. You’re supposed to be fixing the damn door, I’ve killed at least 12 guys wating for your ass.”
“Okay, seriously, what is happening?” Kimberly asked. What the hell was going on? They were violently kidnapped by people in black stealth suits, the same people who got them stuck in the phantom dimension in the first place, and now they were playing video games? The fuck?
“Maybe it’s a flashback?” Jemma suggested. Ohhhh, that made sense.
“Kim, left, left, left!” Trini called out as the floods approached them.
Kim screamed as her health was shredded in moments by the large wave of navy blue soldiers. “Help! Help! Val, help!”
Jemma snorted. “You take it so seriously. It’s just a game.”
Kimberly shook her head. “You don’t get it. Look at your girlfriend, she’s just as invested.” She pointed to the screen.
Daisy answered, “I’ve got you, get back. Abort. Abort.” Their characters were quickly being cornered. “Trini fix the fucking door!”
Trini laughed heartily. God, they’d been needing some levity in all this shit. The arcade had been a nice but very small break, and then it was followed by bad, then worse. Wait, what did that say about this?
“Move the box in the basement,” Val said calmly, completely unlike the rest of the group. “There's a crawlspace.”
Trini took her eyes off the screen to stare at her for a second. “How the hell did you know that? We've been playing for five minutes!”
“Juliana, your girlfriend is alarmingly good at video games,” Trini declared.
“Which she decided not to tell us,” Daisy agreed, pretending to glare at the side of Valentina's head. Smiling smugly, Valentina raised her hands in surrender.
“Watch your back!” Daisy called before her voice got muffled, fading slowly as Juliana's eyes dropped and fell closed. When she next opened them, the room was dark, and it was quiet.
Juliana narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Something’s wrong.”
“Maybe we just left?” Kimberly suggested hopefully. “It looks late?”
“Without waking up Juliana?” Trini questioned. She shook her head. “Doesn't seem right. Also, it was too peaceful. Something had to go wrong.” She supposed now was as good a time as any to voice her thoughts. “Last time we were having fun, Daisy died in the next episode.”
“So, we're fine for this episode?” Daisy joked. The only response she got was unamused head shakes. Or half-amused in Trini's case because she, at least, had a sense of humour.
Juliana blinked owlishly while pushing herself to her feet. “Guys? Val? Jemma?” She frowned, casting her eyes around the room.
“Aw, you called for Val first?” Daisy couldn't stop herself from teasing.
“Shut up.” Juliana rolled her eyes and pretended the heat in her cheeks wasn't blatantly obvious to the others.
Juliana's head swivelled to the door to her bedroom at the sound of a dull thud. That must be where the others were, then. She moved towards it and pushed the door open. Daisy and Jemma were sitting on the floor, Jemma’s head downturned, and Daisy was upside down, her legs on the bed. Val was scrolling on her phone. Trini and Kimberly were looking at the computer. All of their faces were obscured.
Something was wrong with that picture. What was wrong? There was something about it that was setting off alarm bells in Jemma's head, but she couldn't quite place it. That is, until Daisy quietly did. “The screen isn't on.”
Juliana smiled, bemused. “Why are y'all sitting in the dark?” She reached for the light before meeting Valentina's eyes and freezing.
Val was stood in another room, the door partially open as she stared at Juliana in horror. “Juliana,” she whispered, voice shaking. “That's not us.”
“What?” Jemma breathed. “How is that possible?”
“If our phantom selves are separate from our real selves, then maybe that's us when we're not in the phantom dimension?” Daisy suggested.
Juliana paused. Then, she jolted upright. “Wait. What if it's like shadows? What if our phantom selves-”
“Are our shadows,” Jemma finished. “It would explain Kimberly’s hair. And why our injuries are connected but not completely the same. Also, why we can't die: you can't get rid of your shadow.”
“And the distance limit,” Kimberly added. “It makes sense that we can only be so far from our shadows before they reset.”
“And why everything went to hell in a handbasket when we tested it in the phantom dimension?” Jemma agreed. Daisy blinked. That was new. “Our shadows can't move too far from our real bodies. And it defies all laws of physics for our bodies to reset to the shadow.”
“I think we're kinda beyond laws of physics at this point,” Valentina pointed out. And, well, no one could really argue that. For either universe.
Juliana paled and looked back into the room. They were all facing her now, eyes dark and wearing the eerie grin of the phantoms. And if Daisy and Kimberly's grins stretched just that little bit further than the others with tilted heads, then none of them noticed.
Jemma swallowed thickly. “Well, that's… horrifying, what the bloody hell is that?”
Juliana shot upright with a gasp, wearing a stark white shirt in what looked like a metal bed. She panted for a long moment before dropping her head into her hands and curling her knees up to her chest. “What the fuck?” She muttered under her breath. Flashes of Mr. Garrett and the kidnapping blinked across the screen as Juliana remembered how she got there. “Where am I?” Her eyes locked onto the camera in the corner. “Where are the others?”
It… kind of looked like a mental asylum. The walls were stark white panels, and it was completely windowless. “Hey, at least there's a TV?” Daisy offered weakly. She knew as well as they did that they were fucked.
There were three loud raps against the door. Juliana froze, head snapping to it as alarm flashed in her eyes. In the next second, a brunette woman walked through the door wearing a dark red face mask over the bottom half of her face. She smiled semi-awkwardly. “I did not mean to startle you.” She had a thick accent, though none of them could really place where it was from. “I brought you food?”
Juliana narrowed her eyes. She wouldn’t trust a single person in that place as far as she could throw them. Actually, wait, she had super strength. She wouldn’t trust a single person in that place as far as her human self could throw them. That was much more accurate.
“Who the fuck are you?” Juliana demanded, dark eyes blown wide as she backed away into the corner of the room, putting the bed between her and the woman.
“My name is Wanda.” The woman walked a few paces into the room, bag hanging loosely from her fingers. “I am in charge of you and your friends. I will do my best to explain the situation so you don’t have to be so scared.” She held out the food slightly. “I promise it isn’t drugged. We have no reason to drug it. Eat while we talk.” Juliana just glared at her. Wanda shrugged, setting the bag down at the end of the bed before sitting at the coffee table. “Ask and I will answer what I can.”
“But not everything. Great,” Trini drawled sarcastically. Secret, probably government, kidnappers. She really should have expected it.
“Where are my friends?” Juliana asked sharply.
“Rooms just like this one.” She held up the tablet she’d entered with. Kimberly was led back on her bed with her eyes squeezed tightly shut and her legs crossed. Jemma was looking through the drawers, tapping her hands around them and beneath them. Trini was slamming the flat of her palm into the door and yelling soundlessly at it. Val was looking under her bed, for… some reason. And Daisy was venomously glaring at the camera like it owed her money with a bruise across her cheek, a cut across her nose and a split lip.
In no world would Kimberly ever admit she found Daisy scary, but in that exact moment with the banged-up face and the most terrifying glare she’d ever seen in her life? Yeah, Daisy was scaring the shit out of her, and what? She didn’t have to say anything about it. No one would ever know.
“You took my friend from the fucking hospital?” Juliana gaped at her with an enraged scowl. She didn’t give Wanda the chance to reassure her. “Why are we even here? Where the hell is here?”
Wanda sighed. “I can’t tell you exactly where we are.”
Daisy scoffed. “Of course, you can’t.”
“But I can say that we’re in a containment facility.”
Val blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You came into contact with a fungus we are attempting to get under control.” At Juliana’s sceptical look, she explained, “It is parasitic. Causes hallucinations until it takes over the brain. Then once that happens, it…” She tilted her head. “You become like zombies. You understand, yes?”
Jemma shook her head. “That’s not… how that works. If it were fungus, it wouldn’t be a mass hallucination. And we wouldn’t feel pain from the phantom dimension, and I definitely can’t explain the seizures.” Then she wondered, “Unless the fungus is so deeply ingrained that the brain thinks it's under attack through the hallucination? But how would it get so bad within the first night?”
Daisy laid a gentle hand on Jemma’s forearm, dragging her out of her muttered spiral. “Jem. She’s lying to us. She wants to make us complacent. We won’t fight back if we think they’re trying to cure us. They called it a rift, right? Not hallucination, not fungus.”
Jemma huffed out a heavy breath, mildly embarrassed. “Right. Of course. Obviously.”
Juliana deadpanned, “You’re saying we have a parasitic zombie fungus inside us? You have to know how ridiculous that sounds, right?”
“I know how it sounds.” Wanda raised her hands. “It showed up on Miss Johnson's hospital report. Miss Hart's only confirmed that it's all of you. We found out that you kids went to San Diego at the beginning of the school year.”
The weird thing was, she sounded genuinely concerned. Like she was sure that something was wrong with them. God, Juliana must have been so confused when Garrett grabbed her. It was easy to forget how much they knew that their alternate selves didn't, and in times like this, it showed. Because maybe, just maybe, Juliana was beginning to doubt herself. One crack in a dam was all it took for it to fall.
“Garrett told us that you went into the Whaley House specifically. We found large amounts of the fungus I'm the basement, which we suspect is why you were all so affected by it.”
Juliana looked half hysterical as she dropped her head into her hands, fingers digging into her scalp. “We didn't touch any fungus!”
“Shit,” Trini muttered. Because if they were making Juliana begin to think she was wrong, the others would be quick to follow. If Juliana was convinced that these people could help them, the others would follow her lead. She couldn't imagine trusting the facility would lead to anything good. Case in point, the kidnapping.
Wanda's voice was gentle as she explained. “It’s airborne. You breathe it in.”
“Convenient,” Kimberly all but spat. Everything lined up a little too perfectly, and without the outsider information that the Rangers had, she could imagine Juliana falling for it.
Juliana shook her head, voice shaking and muffled. “It wasn’t just a hallucination. It… It wasn’t. It can’t have been. Daisy-” She breathed heavily as snapshots of Daisy on the tree and Kimberly in the rubble flashed across the screen.
More than one of them flinched at the unexpected images. There just really wasn’t any need for it all.
“We sent people to secure you all as safely as possible when we found out what was happening.”
Juliana lifted her head from her hands slightly to glare at Wanda. “Safely? Is that why you cornered us, chloroformed us, and knocked us out? You want to explain Daisy’s face, cuz she was fine when we left?”
Wanda winced. “There was… more resistance than we’d been expecting, and your friend had a knife. Our operative did what she had to do to bring you in. We didn’t know how strong the hallucinations were, so it was better to be safe.
Trini wondered, “Do you think she’s just an excellent liar, or do you think she actually believes what she’s saying? Because she looks completely convinced of her words to me.”
Juliana frowned. “She wants me to believe her. And she wants me to think she’d be convinced. Whether that’s because she really thinks I’m sick, or because she’s trying to manipulate me, I have no clue.”
Val tilted her head. “I want to believe she doesn’t know. I don’t know, there’s something about her. It… it just feels like she’s as out of the loop as the rest of us when it comes to the internal shit in the facility. I… don’t think it’s far-fetched for them not to tell her the truth. We’d have an easier time believing her if she believed it herself.”
“If it causes… zombie-like symptoms and hallucinations like you say, then shouldn’t something like this be on the news?” Juliana questioned.
“We’re trying to avoid mass hysteria. If it gets out, there would be riots and robberies while people try to prepare for an apocalypse. There’s a high chance it would only make it worse. Until we find a cure, there’s no solution we can offer to keep people calm.”
Juliana lifted her head fully, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. “And if there isn’t a cure?”
“I believe her, then.” Juliana sighed.
“Or you’re humouring her?” Val countered.
“We’ll find something. We’ve got the best scientists around the world making real progress. For now, we can keep you comfortable until then. You have the TVs, and you’ll get pagers if you want to ask for things like books. The facility isn’t a prison, Juliana.”
Trini scoffed. “I’m sure that’s what you want us to think. It sure as hell looks like a prison.”
Jemma hated to contradict her. But, really. “Actually, it does look an awful lot like a medical research facility. Or even a mental ward.” She shrank with an apologetic smile at Trini’s glare. “Sorry.”
“If it’s not a prison, I can see the others?” Juliana lost the hopeful look in her eyes at the flinch around Wanda’s eyes. “You said there were other infected. Can I see them?”
Wanda relaxed. “I have some pictures I can-”
“I mean in person. Face to face so I can see that you’re not lying to me. Hell of a lot easier to face a picture than it is to fake a whole person.”
Valentina smiled proudly. That was smart. See it to believe it and all that. And, even though the facility was lying, if they did have infected people, it would be good to know. That meant others had been in the phantom dimension. At least, it would give them some insight into what could happen to them if they weren’t careful.
She ignored the pull of her eyes towards Kimberly and Daisy. What did that mean for them?
There was a short time skip until Wanda walked back into the room with some random guy they hadn’t seen before. “You can see them. But, you have to wear these.”
Kimberly made a noise. “Not a prison, but they have to wear handcuffs.” Again, Jemma made an apologetic face and opened her mouth. Kimberly stopped her. “Don’t tell me. Let me be annoyed with them.”
“I will warn you that it is not pretty. There is no harm in resting for a day and seeing them tomorrow?” Wanda offered. Juliana just shook her head as she got to her feet, holding her hands out expectantly.
Walking through the stark white halls, Juliana broke the silence. “How many are there like us?”
Wanda hesitated. “Dozens infected. But, as far as we can tell, you kids are different. We don’t know why you didn’t, but normally, when the host is infected, they fall into a coma. They wake when the fungus has taken over the brain and are no longer themselves.” She looked to her right at a room full of coma patients. “That’s one of the wards for coma patients.” Juliana slowed down slightly before following after Wanda again.
Jemma leaned in with wide eyes. “She isn’t lying.”
“What makes us different, then?” Juliana asked. “I know I’m linking to the phantoms, but… it doesn’t make any sense, it’s been months. The closest to a coma…”
“When you die,” Daisy whispered. She looked at Jemma. “You were right. Maybe dying does take you a step closer.”
They were enveloped in a short but suffocating silence. Eventually, Kimberly broke it. “So, let’s just avoid dying again, yeah?” They could all agree to that one. No one wanted to get a step closer to becoming one of the monsters hunting their friends.
“You aren’t completely immune as you’re experiencing the hallucinations, but you aren’t in a coma. That’s the closest thing to a breakthrough we’ve had in years. Which is why we need to keep you here.”
“And our parents?” Juliana asked, raising an eyebrow.
“We’ve told them everything we know. None are very happy about it, but they understand the need to keep you safe. Your safety is the priority, even if that’s with us and not them. Which it is.”
“Fucking liar.” Daisy glared at the screen. “They kidnapped them, too, I know it. They wouldn’t trust them not to go to the news with the information they have. No way they let them roam free.”
The man at Wanda’s side scanned his keycard into the locked door in front of them. Wanda explained as Juliana’s eyes widened in horror. “This is the result of the fungus maturing completely. There were dozens of monsters in test tubes. They didn’t look like the shadows, but they had their broad grins, stature, and wide soulless eyes. And claws.
Kimebrly couldn’t tear her eyes off the phantom… human’s? Face. Or more specifically, the grin and the eyes. It was… the grin looked like she had when she died. It looked like Daisy’s eyes when she was seizing. They really were turning into them, weren’t they? And she and Daisy were gonna be the first. Wouldn’t they? Shit.
Wanda blinked, her eyes drifting rapidly between all the monsters. They were all staring directly at Juliana. She hesitated at the sight of Juliana, with a broad grin and dark eyes. “Miss Valdes?”
“The fuck?” Trini stared. That… shouldn’t be possible.
“What the hell?” Jemma whispered.
“Why?” Kimberly was genuinely stumped. “What? But- But you didn’t die. Wha- you shouldn’t look like that.” Then her eyebrows scrunched together. “We’re in the real world. You’re doing that in the real world. Why’s it affecting you in the real world? It shouldn’t be changing you at all.”
Juliana blinked. “This is what the fungus does?” Juliana asked, completely normal. Wanda stared at her for a moment, swallowing before flinching at the loud thud of a phantom uselessly lunging at the thick glass of the test tube.
Wanda shook her head slightly. “I think that’s enough for today. You should get some rest. Let everything fall into place in your mind so you don’t feel so… off.”
“Let’s just hope that our rooms are clear of phantoms and we still have the weapons we had on hand.” Juliana ran a hand through her hair, messy from the number of times she’d done that recently. She hadn’t thought she could be this stressed watching a bloody TV show. Though really, that was oversimplifying it.
“John,” a man with grey hair greeted jovially as Mr Garrett entered the room he was in. “You’ve certainly found an interesting case with those students of yours.”
Trini kicked at the door in the red hues of the phantom realm, combat outfit and weapon in place. Thank god for that. “Open you son of a bitch!” She slammed the axe into the already battered door, but it did nothing but add another scratch. She panted, taking a step back and kicking it again before moving back and dropping onto her bed. “It’s been three days, how the hell are we supposed to get out of here?” She dropped her head into her hands, where her arms rested on her knees. “I’m going fucking insane.” A loud thud had her head whipping up.
“Relax.” Jemma smiled weakly. “If you can’t get out, they can’t get in. They’re probably just trying their luck. Besides, we all know you can handle a phantom or two.”
Trini lunged for her axe, staring down the door as she stood, shoulders squared, facing it with a white-knuckle grip around the handle. She swung it back when the door handle moved down and the door swung open. She froze at the sight of Jemma and Valentina. “Jemma? Val?” She breathed.
Kimberly slumped. “This thing is gonna give me heart failure.”
Jemma wondered. “Can Power Rangers get heart failure? I haven’t been sick since, but I suppose that’s very different.” It was… a good question. Actually, where on earth had Alpha and Zordon gone? They kind of just disappeared when Zordon’s screen was hijacked. Lucky bastards.
“Jemma?” Trini grinned. “Val?” She surged forward, dropping her axe with a clatter and wrapped her arms around the both of them, burying her face into the space between their two heads. “I’m so glad you’re okay. Have you found the others? How did you get out?”
Jemma beamed proudly. “I asked Wanda to play chess with me and asked to look at her card a minute or so before midnight. Told her I was curious how it worked, and unlike you, I didn’t trash my room, so she didn’t think I’d try anything.”
Daisy pressed a kiss to Jemma’s lips for a brief moment. “You’re a genius.”
Jemma tried to refute it, but she was still trying to get her brain to reboot. Stupid feelings. Always getting in the way of smart comebacks.
Trini stared at her. “That’s brilliant.”
“I know.” Jemma preened. Val laughed before pausing at the sound of fast-moving footsteps. Jemma pulled the gun from her belt and levelled it down the hallway, waiting for the phantom to round the corner before putting a bullet through its chest. She held up the medical bag that Melinda had left them in the forest. “This came with me when we reset, like our clothes.”
Juliana's eyebrows raised. “That was a good shot. You’re getting really good with that.”
Val nodded along. “We can talk about everything once we’re all together. We still have to find Juliana, Kim and Daisy.” They all exchanged looks at the mention of the latter two. Who knew what state they’d be in, especially Kim?
“You better be okay,” Trini said like it was a threat, eyes boring into the side of Kimberly’s head before drfiting to Daisy to know that she was included in the ‘don’t die again or I’ll be pissed’ threat.
Jemma pushed open the door and froze, eyes blown wide at the blood-soaked bed. Every white inch of it was a deep crimson, spreading across the floor as well. But there was no one in sight. “Daisy? Kimberly?” Jemma asked hesitantly, the others trailing into the room after her.
Valentina paled, suddenly feeling sick. That was so much blood. She was willing to bet that meant they’d, at the very least, come close to bleeding out. Fuck, that was so bad. They must be in agony.
Jemma walked a few steps further into the room before a black and red blur slammed into her from the side, knocking her to the ground. They rolled over a few times before a knife was lifted into the air. Trini tackled Daisy off of Jemma and just about managed the fist flying towards her face. “Daisy, it’s me!”
Daisy flinched. She could have really hurt them. She’d been about to stab Jemma in the fucking face, she didn’t know if she’d have stopped herself by the time she realised. It was impossible to say. “I’m so sorry.”
She pushed herself away from Jemma, eyes falling to her hands in horror. She’d almost killed her girlfriend. She’d almost killed Jemma. God, if Trini hadn’t- Her thoughts were brought to a screeching halt when Jemma ignored the space Daisy had guiltily put between them. Jemma folded herself into Daisy’s chest, putting the screen at her back and burying her face into Daisy’s neck. The dumbest part was that she didn’t even need to say anything for Daisy’s shoulders to slacken. She wrapped her arms around Jemma’s back and her fingers curled into her hair, closing her eyes for a beat.
Daisy paused, staring down at her with her hand raised and her eyes frantic. Between pants, she breathed, “Trini?” She blinked and lowered her fist before scrambling backwards off Trini. “I’m so sorry.” She panted, looking over at Jemma. “Jem-”
Jem hurtled forward, knees skidding across the floor and enveloping Daisy in her arms. “Thank God, you’re okay.” She pulled back, hands immediately pushing Daisy onto her back as the poor girl gaped at her, following silently in her confusion. Jemma peeled off the black suit stuck to Daisy before pulling off the all-red bandages around her torso. She paused. “It’s… what?”
Jemma turned around at the befuddlement in her voice. “What?” Then she paused, making a confused expression, her face incredibly close to Daisy’s. Daisy was approximately three seconds away from passing out, but she ignored it in favour of looking at the screen for what had confused both Jemma’s.
Daisy smiled, eyes following Jemma’s hand from where it was drifting over Daisy’s starred abdomen. “It was only bleeding the first night. Spent the last two healing, it’s basically just a stomach ache now. Like I did way too many sit-ups after going a few rounds with May. It’s… weird.”
Trini was beyond confused, so she made a joke to pretend she wasn’t. “Okay, the first few seconds, it was you testing how healed it was, now you’re just feeling up her abs.”
Jemma turned beet red as the others laughed.
Jemma let her hand rest on Daisy’s stomach over the scar as she met her eyes with a concerned frown. Then, she pushed herself to her feet. “We should get a wheelchair while we look for the others. Val, you can stay-”
Daisy made an affronted face, getting to her feet. “I’m fine. I just tackled you across the room, I think can handle walking.” All three of them glared at her. Daisy lifted her chin stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t know why, either, but I’m okay. I… I want to see Kimberly.”
She was touched. Annoyed that Daisy didn’t know what ‘looking after herself’ meant, sure, but touched that it was at least partially because she was worried. Though Kimberly couldn’t imagine that there was much to worry about it if Daisy had recovered in 3 days.
Juliana was trying to pry off one of the wall panels by the keypad when her door opened. She shifted, grip tightening on her knife before she relaxed at the sight of Val. Lunging forward and wrapping her in her arms. “Thank god. Have you seen the…” She trailed off as she opened her eyes to see Daisy, Trini and Jemma standing behind Val. “Why the fuck are you walking?!”
“I feel like you’re all overreacting a little,” Daisy admitted. “I mean, clearly I’ve healed. I look fine to me. If Jemma’s okayed me walking around, I’m good to walk around.”
And really, Jemma was honoured in her girlfriend’s trust in her. But. She leaned back and blinked sceptically at Daisy. “You know I’m not actually a doctor, right?”
Daisy shrugged. “May as well be.”
The next room they walked into was dark, Juliana at the head of the group as usual. For a second, they were about to walk away, thinking it was another empty room, before pausing at the sound of a weak groan. Trini blinked and reached for the light, but Daisy caught her wrist, flicking her torch on and aiming it at the floor. It illuminated the room enough to show Kimberly curled in her bed, pillow coated in blood, as she squinted at them with a pained expression.
Daisy frowned. That didn’t make any sense. Sure, Kimberly died after her, but only by a day. She should have been recovering, right? Or maybe it was because they moved during the reset before she could come back to life in the phantom dimension?
Jemma moved to Kimberly’s side as fast as possible, kneeling beside her head. “Hey,” she whispered. “How are you feeling?”
Kimberly smiled weakly. “The shards are all out. My head is pounding, I can’t think. I- help. Please help.”They set up camp in Kimberly’s room, Trini and Juliana returning with two wheelchairs after a while. “The ward rooms had some wheelchairs,” Trini whispered, setting them against the wall in case they had to move before they were ready.
Daisy was leaning her head against Jemma’s shoulder, where she sat beside Kimberly's head. Trini dropped down, leaning her back against the bed frame and taking Kimberly’s hand lightly in her own. Juliana crossed her arms, leaning back against the wall. “Have you guys seen the infected?”
Juliana hated that they had to talk about it while Kimberly was so clearly in pain, but they didn’t have much of a choice. They had to figure out that they couldn’t trust the facility, and the best way to do that would be to share what they all knew. That meant they’d have a higher chance of finding contradictions in what they say. The sooner they knew not to trust them, the better off they’d all be.
Jemma nodded. “Pictures.” She swallowed, adjusting her hold of Daisy’s hand. “The fungus thing.” Her eyes drifted to Daisy for a second before the others. “Is… any of this even real?”
Daisy sighed through her nose. “Maybe. Maybe not. We can’t know for sure, right, so why doubt it? In this reality, we have each other. I prefer that explanation over us being insane and alone.”
Valentina nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I think I’d definitely prefer it if we were all insane together.”
Valentina nodded. “We have each other, that’s too important to start doubting. If we start to think it isn’t real, we’ll get sloppy, and then…” Well, she didn’t need to finish her sentence.
Juliana agreed. “We should look into it as well as we can. Just as a possibility, but we have to treat this like it’s real.”
“It feels real,” Kimberly grumbled, her voice a pained whisper into the darkness, illuminated by a sole torch facing the opposite wall. They’d gathered what pain meds they could find, and while Daisy had straight up refused, Kimberly had taken them gladly. Any of them could guess that Daisy only refused because she didn’t want to take them from Kimberly when one of them was clearly struggling more than the other. It’d be a cold day in hell when they got her to admit that.
Trini sighed, dropping her head back onto the couch. “At least none of us told them about the phantom dimension. If they knew that we could explore an exact replica of the facility every night, they’d be a hell of a lot more cautious. And they definitely wouldn’t have given Jemma that card.”
“So, we’re not idiots?” Daisy grinned jokingly. “Yay, that’s new.”
“Got another one,” Trini reported, tossing a card into the pile they had on the desk. Her, Val, Juliana, and Jemma were looking through a server room for any information they could find or cards that would allow them further access.
“Guess Wanda’s card couldn’t get us everywhere.” Juliana shrugged.
Jemma tilted her head. “This… might be me wanting to see the best in people, but I really don’t think she knows. I think she genuinely believes that we’re infected and wants to help us, she just…”
Val helped her find the words. “Doesn’t have all the answers. I thought the same thing.”
Juliana sighed. “I want to agree. And, for all of our sakes, I really hope you’re right.”
Kimberly groaned, flopping sideways onto the bed. Daisy turned to her with a slightly concerned gaze before realising that she was being dramatic and shaking her head. “It’s been over a week, shouldn’t we have found something already? What help am I anyway, you’re the computer person.”
Trini nodded to herself. “That’s good. That means you’re getting better. Dramatic is a lot more like you.” Her cheeky smile only widened at the slight slap she received for that. “What are you guys even looking for?”
“Well, since we don’t live in the dark ages, documents are more likely to be online than in paper. We have a better chance of finding something online than going through the facility room by room,” Daisy answered.
Daisy laughed. “Yeah, but I only have two eyes. Not that yours are particularly helpful down there.” Kimberly groaned but took the hint and sat back up. “How’s your head?”
Kimberly stared at her for a long moment, analysing her. “Just… sorta fuzzy vision if I move too fast. And a pounding headache, but it’s not as bad anymore.
Kimberly frowned. “I still don’t get it. Why are you so okay? You were basically fine after 4 days, it’s been over a week, and I’m still hurt. I don’t get it; wasn’t your injury worse than mine? It sure as hell looked worse.”
“You pass out at all?” Daisy watched her knowingly.
Kimberly shrank slightly. “Once.” Then she squared her shoulders. “What about you? Why am I so hurt and you’re just fucking fine? Are you fine?”
Daisy shrugged. “I feel fine. Like maybe I’ve cracked a rib or two, but nothing that bad.” Kimberly sighed heavily and turned back to her laptop with an irked pinch between her eyebrows. “I don’t know why, either. We probably never will.”
“Just another thing we’ll probably never know.” Kimberly made a face. “Add it to the list, I guess.”
Kimberly hesitated. “Juliana said that we might be turning into phantoms. And that… When we die, we get closer.” Daisy stopped typing, looking over at her. “What if we are? What if we have to watch ourselves hurt our friends?”
Daisy leaned over, hand on Kimberly’s shoulder. “Hey. We’re not gonna let that happen. It’s just a theory, okay? Worst-case scenarios are good for disappointment, but it’s only gonna hurt you with something like this. I’m sure we’ll be fine. Hey, I don’t feel any different personality-wise, do you?”
Juliana breathed out. “That’s good. Personality change would be the first sign, right?”
Jemma nodded in agreement. “Our personality changed outside the arcade, and that was when we started making phantom noses. If Daisy and Kimberly are still acting like themselves, that’s a good sign. Let’s just hope our theory’s wrong, yeah?”
“Yep,” Daisy agreed easily.
“Smart.” Trini nodded.
“Yeah, I’m cool with that.” Kimberly smiled weakly.
“No, no, I’ve been normal. Just…” Kimberly’s eyes turned back to her screen, fiddling around as she tried to gather her thoughts before she froze, eyes widening to the size of saucers. “Daisy-”
Daisy was already leaning over before she could finish her sentence. Her face paled several shades as her hand snapped to her walkie-talkie. “They lied. Our families are here.”
Juliana sighed, running her hand down her face. “We thought so.” But thinking it and confirming it were wildly different things. Perhaps the worst part was the fact that if their parents were there, then she could assume that Chase and the younger kids were there too. They were all in danger because of them.
“Hey, at least now they know the facility was lying to them.” Valentina tried. “That’s good. We can’t get hurt by trusting them if we don’t.”
“They’re on the floor below us.” Daisy told them, typing away on her laptop as the others crowded around her and looked at the screen over her shoulder. “More prisoner-like than us. Damn it.”
“What?” Val looked between Daisy and the screen, which made a total of zero sense to her.
“That’s as far as I can go. Even piggybacking off of Wanda’s security card, I can’t get past their firewalls. There’s something in here that they really don’t want people to know.” She leaned back with a sigh. “Kind of comforting that Wanda doesn’t seem to know either. Less comforting that she might have known about your parents.”
“That’s sketchy as hell.” Kimberly crossed her arms over her chest. “Like, sure, all government agencies have secrets, even from their own employees, but this is… why hide it? Why not tell us that our parents are here for their own safety, or something? What are they doing with our families that they refuse to let us see?”
And wasn’t that a horrifying thought?
Juliana disguised her glare quickly as Wanda walked into her room a few days later. She gently fixed a machine onto Juliana’s head. “What’s this for?”
Daisy snorted. “Good job making your irritation subtle, Juliana. She definitely won't think something’s wrong.”
Juliana rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”
Wanda adjusted the part that wrapped around to Juliana’s temples. “They said it reads your brainwaves. They are trying something today, I don’t know what, but they think it could help you.”
Val narrowed her eyes. “I’m sure they do.”
A man in a dark combat outfit knocked on the door before opening it. “Done yet, Maximoff? Boss is impatient, we got her from here.” The man was joined by another as they walked Juliana through the halls, Wanda nowhere in sight. The man scanned his badge at the door before taking post outside it with the other. “Go on.”
“Something’s wrong,” Trini thought aloud. What did they want from Juliana’s brave waves? How would it help them? What could Juliana’s brain waves even tell them? Could it tell them anything at all?
Juliana stepped through the door before freezing at the sight of one of the infected chained to the opposite wall in the large room. “What the fuck?” The infected roared and lunged forward, straining at the chains on his arms.
“What the bloody hell do they think they’re doing?” Jemma exclaimed. “Are they insane? Who knows what those things are capable of? He could kill you! What the fuck do they want?”
“Miss Valdes.” A familiar voice boomed through the intercom. “We would like you to try and interact with the infected. Talk to it. Try to touch it. Don’t be alarmed, the restraints will keep it from harming you, and we’ll be keeping an eye on your brainwaves to try to see how and why the fungus is affecting you differently.”
“TOUCH IT?” Valentina gaped. “Is he insane?”
“Do they want you to die?” Trini asked, only half-joking.
“What the hell do they think this is gonna achieve beyond scaring the shit out of you?” Daisy followed.
Jemma spun where she was curled around Daisy, instead sitting on her lap as Daisy rested her head on her shoulder. Jemma tilted her head. “That’s the man that Mr. Garrett was talking to earlier. The excited one with the grey hair.” Well, that explained why his voice was familiar, then, Trini supposed.
“You want me touch it?” Juliana repeated incredulously. “You first.”
The door to the room behind the window above Juliana was swung open, and Wanda scowled at the scene. “What is going on? Why is she in there with that thing?”
Jemma smiled. “Ah, she is one of the good ones.”
“Or it’s an act,” Daisy contradicted. “Set her up as someone to be trusted so that they can get away with this without completely losing our trust. It’s… horrible but smart as hell.”
“Or maybe she’s just kind?” Valentina stared at Daisy skeptically. Shrugging, Daisy raised her hands in surrender, but she still didn’t trust Wanda. She didn’t trust anyone in that facility, which she thought was totally fair; the dudes kidnapped them.
“You don’t have clearance to be in here, Miss Maximoff. God tend to the other kids, this is none of your concern.”
Wanda’s eyes flashed with anger. “She’s a child. You can’t put her in danger like this. Why would you risk something like this?”
Daisy hummed, tilting her head. She still didn’t buy it, but it was a damn good act. She’d be surprised if Juliana didn’t fall for it. She wanted to believe it, desperately; she wanted to believe that Wanda wanted to help them. But she couldn’t stop the nagging feeling that it was all a lie. Just another trap to hurt h- them.
“As I said, this is none of your concern, and you are way out of line.” Two security guards came up to Wanda, pulling her back. “We don’t need to explain ourselves to you. Know your place, Miss Maximoff. Escort her out.”
Wanda pushed off the men and turned. “I can walk just fine.” She glared the the men before looking through the glass at Juliana with a concerned frown. Then, she left the room, right as Ophelia entered.
“I don’t think she’s faking.” Val agreed with Jemma. She understood Daisy not trusting anyone in that place, but Val really did think Wanda wanted to help them. She seemed like she cared.
“And if I refuse?” Juliana drew attention back to herself.
The grey-haired man tilted his head. There was a pause before his voice came through the intercom. “Then we’ll need to see if someone else in your group will be more willing.”
Kimberly sucked in a sharp breathe. “Fuck, that’s her weakness.”
Daisy tilted her head. “I wonder if it would be different with you and me.” Maybe it should have been a thought to keep to herself, but she thought it was better to put the theory out there. Hopefully, it would be the same for everyone, and they’d have nothing to worry about.
Juliana bit her tongue and slowly approached the infected. When she was less than a meter away, it lunged again, chains clacking in protest of the sharp movement. “Hi.” She flinched as it jerked forward again. “This is insane, I can’t touch it!”
Daisy raised a hand. “I’ll touch it.”
Jemma grabbed her wrist and lowered it. “No, you won't.”
“Oh, come on, you can’t tell me you’re not curious.” Jemma met her expectant gaze with an unimpressed stare. Though when Daisy turned her eyes to the other Rangers, she found guilty agreement in Kimberly’s eyes. She knew she wasn’t the only one.
The grey-haired man sighed and looked to Mr Garrett for a moment, before turning back to the glass. “Release the restraints.”
“WHAT?”
Garrett’s head snapped to him. “What? She’s no use to us if she’s dead.”
“If she dies, there are 5 more,” he countered casually. “We have guards outside if it gets too dangerous, we might as well get it out of the way. Release the restraints.”
“What the fuck is wrong with him?” Kimberly whispered in disbelief. Valentina tugged Juliana backwards into her and wrapped her arms around her front in a steel grip.
The chains around the infected’s wrists unlatched with a click, and it darted forward, crashing into a shocked Juliana. Juliana jumped backwards. “What the fuck are you doing?” She kicked the legs out from underneath it while glancing at the glass screen, pausing at the sigh of Ophelia and Garrett. “It’s you.” She whispered.
“No, don’t get distracted!” Daisy yelled at the screen, praying that Juliana could hear her. Obviously, she couldn’t. Son of a bitch. “It’s still behind you!”
“This was planned from the beginning?” The infected lunged for her, but she didn’t take her eyes off of Ophelia, even as its claw wrapped around her face. “You meant for this to happen.” Juliana was slammed down into the ground, the infected looming over her. Juliana pried the claw off her face as a distorted version of her voice echoed through the screen despite her mouth not moving. “All of it?”
It sent chills down the backs of their necks. It was darker, angrier, than Daisy’s voice had been when the screen showed her thoughts. The same echoey distortion, sure, but it was filled with rage and pain.
Juliana’s lips pulled back into a face-splitting grin as she stared crazed up at the infected. The lights flickered, screen flashing between the stark white and the red of he phantom dimension. Garrett and Ophelia exchanged looks. “That’s not good.” He grinned.
“Well, shit.”
Ophelia pulled his arm, leading him from the room. “We should go.”
Juliana’s legs wrapped around the infected’s head, and she twisted, snapping its neck with a loud snap. She rested her hands on the back of its head, partially sat on its deceased body. Her voice was dark as she announced. “You have no idea what you’ve done.” When she slowly lifted her head with a grim sneer, phantoms flickered in and out in the space around her alongside the lights. Again. “But you will.
Trini sighed through her nose. “Shit. We’re so screwed.”
“That was freaky.” Daisy frowned. “Didn’t know you could scare me like that, boss.”
“Sir, everything’s offline,” a girl sitting behind a computer informed the grey-haired man.
He nodded once. “Take her to the infirmary, then back to her room. We can check Miss Johnson next week.”
Daisy straightened as Jemma tightened her grip on her arms. “Can’t imagine I’d give you a better performance than Juliana.”
“Don’t even joke about that,” Val chided.
Chapter 15: What Happened?
Notes:
Sorry for being late, I kinda forgot. My bad.
Chapter Text
Juliana unloaded her guts into the toilet, tears streaming down her face. She’d just killed someone real. Something that used to be a person. God, it shouldn’t have been different, but it was so much worse than killing a phantom. It had been human. She’d killed something that used to be human.
Valentina raked her fingers through Juliana’s hair, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She was okay. Val didn’t give a shit that she had to kill to do so. She was okay, and that was all that mattered to her.
Wanda frowned, taking a step forward. “Let me help-”
“Don’t touch me.” Juliana slapped away her hand with a dark glare.
“Get the fuck away from her,” Daisy said at the same time. Putting her through that, who the hell did they think they were? Acting like she was disposable. Sure, there was a chance that Wanda didn’t know, but there was a damn high chance that she did.
Wanda took a step back. “The camera in your room is still working, but the cameras for your friends malfunctioned when you were with the infected.” That caught Juliana’s attention. Wanda was standing at a respectful distance and held up the tablet in her hand. “This was the last shot they captured before they crashed.” Jemma was reading a book on her bed, Trini was mid-yoga, Daisy was halfway through a pushup, Kimberly was sitting up in her bed, and Val was also reading on her bed. The catch was, all of them were staring in the same direction: the direction Juliana had been in.
“How the hell did we know?” Trini tilted her head. “That’s so weird. The cameras breaking makes sense, electricity goes haywire when the phantom dimension’s involved, but this? Since when are we that connected?”
Juliana blinked, leaning closer to the screen. Wanda continued. “And when I went to go check on them, they all knew something had happened. Somehow.”
Wanda’s card scanned into the door, and she opened it with a concerned frown. Immediately, she was tackled with a loud gasp before the door slammed shut behind her, and a tanned hand wrapped around her throat. “I’m gonna ask once, and if you lie to me, I’ll take your eye out. What happened to one of the others?”
“Holy shit,” Valentina breathed, eyebrows in her hairline. “That was kind of terrifying, Trini, Jesus.”
Trini raised her hands. “I’m a protective person.”
“Oh, we know,” Trini joked.
Juliana raised an eyebrow. “Like you can talk.”
Kimberly stared pointedly at Juliana and Val. “I don’t think anyof us can talk.” And, well, no one could really argue with that.
Wanda’s eyes blew wide with fear as she struggled against Trini’s iron grip. “She’s okay! Everyone’s okay!”
“Who?” Trini asked, tilting her head with deeply furrowed eyebrows.
“Juliana! I can explain if you calm down, but I can’t breathe!” Trini glared at her for another long moment as Wanda wheezed before releasing her and standing, not loosening her grip on the pencil she’d been wielding, as it was a knife above Wanda’s eye.
“Thank God she didn’t say Kimberly,” Juliana half-joked. “I’m only half sure you wouldn’t kill her right there.”
“I just want to help.” Wanda told Juliana as the flashback ended. “You all asked to stop seeing each other at the same time. And you all asked for medical books the day after Jemma. You have some form of communication, don’t you?”
Valentina blinked. A beat passed. “Shit.”
Daisy glared at Mr Garrett from across a table in what sort of looked like an interrogation room. “What the hell do you want?” Daisy demanded, arms crossed tightly over her chest.
“Oh, great, it’s this prick,” Kimberly drawled.
“The camera system is down. Anything you say or do won’t be seen or heard. Just you and me.”
Kimberly immediately clocked the urge to jump over the table and strangle him flash through Daisy’s eyes. It was an incredibly dumb thing to tell a prisoner. Hey, we are completely alone and no one will know what happens in here, so you could totally kill me and get away with it, but don’t do that, kay?
“Don’t use that to attack me.” He smiled sharply. “Miss Maximoff already told you about Juliana, I assume?” At Daisy’s stilted nod, he continued, “I’d like to tell you that your foster parents and siblings are also here. And your friends’ families, too. Locked in the level below us.”
“Why would he tell you that?” Trini questioned. “And especially when it’s such high security, too?” He was trying to gain their trust. He wanted something from them, and it couldn’t be good. No doubt, he was trying to lull them into a false sense of security so that he could get away with something when they’re least suspecting.
Daisy’s hands clenched into fists, and the light above her flickered briefly. “This isn’t a containment facility,” Garrett informed her. “It’s corrupt and run by monsters that won’t hesitate to use you and everyone you love. Like Juliana. And they can get away with it.”
Trini scoffed. “You say that like you weren’t watching her through the glass like she was a damn guinea pig. He’s the one who ordered us to be kidnapped. If anyone’s the monster, it’s him.”
Daisy narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Why are you telling me this?”
Garrett interlocked his fingers where his hands rested on the desk between them. “I’ve read your file. Moved around from house to house your entire life. Used and abused by the Foster System. Overlooked and mistreated by authority. Sound familiar.” Daisy looked dangerous as she ground her teeth together. “Places like this are the same. No one is going to stop them from hurting you kids, unless we do something. We’re gonna burn this place down from the inside out.”
“He’s lying.” Daisy decided. “Which is dumb, cause if he was gonna lie to one of us, he shouldn’t have lied to the person who doesn’t trust authority the most. Seems kinda stupid if you ask me.”
“Guys-” Juliana grumbled. “Get off, I’m fine.” Despite complaints, Jemma and Val did not release her from their grip. And she had accepted it with a reluctant smile a few minutes ago, so really, she was just being dramatic. The others had hugged her as well, but they’d stopped already.
Kimberly laughed. “There’s no way you actually thought that would work.”
Juliana snorted. “Wishful thinking, I guess.” Val shoved her lightly before ruining any effect it had by immediately pulling her back under her arm. In her defence, this shit was stressful! If she wanted to hold her girlfriend while said stressful things were happening, then that was her business and she wouldn’t be judged for it. No one was judging her, she didn’t know why she was defending herself. To herself.
Daisy ignored her, sitting on the bed and leaning her shoulder into Kimberly's. “Garrett said if we work with him, he can offer us protection when his ‘group’ tries to tear this place down.”
“There’s no way you buy that,” Trini figured.
Juliana shook her head, ignoring Val wrapped around her back. “He was stood by the woman that got us into this shit when they tried to make me touch the phantom.” Jemma frowned deeply as Val’s grip tightened on Juliana. “It kind of looked like he was her boss. I’m willing to bet he just wants to use us.”
Daisy nodded in agreement. “That’s what I gathered, too. He was trying to gain my trust, told me about the others, talked about my past, he was just trying to make me soften up to him.”
Daisy sighed in relief. “Good. I can’t imagine trusting him will get us anywhere good.”
“Does it matter?” Jemma wondered. “Can’t we use him instead of him using us. If he destroys this place, that's a lot fewer people we have to go through. Couldn’t we just pretend to go along with it until we have our freedom?”
Juliana shook her head. “I don’t think it’s that simple. And what about our parents? He never said anything about our families. How do we know he won’t burn them down too?”
Daisy disagreed. “He never said that we’d be free, just that he was planning on destroying the facility.”
“Plus, how do we know it wouldn’t get worse? If he’s the boss of the facility now, or.” Trini gestured to Juliana. “High-ranking, at least, then less people means less regulations. He wouldn’t as much opposition if he wanted to make the tests worse or more dangerous.”
Kimberly made a face. “Shit, I didn’t think about that. That could be bad. That could be really bad.” Then she huffed. “But what if it gets better? Is there any way to know? I mean, they were willing to let Juliana die; that’s awful, but it could be worse. So, do we and try and stop it, or do we let it happen?”
Jemma groaned, head falling back against Daisy’s chest. “I hate impossible decisions.”
“Don’t we all?” Val agreed.
“How do we know it wouldn’t get better?” Valentina countered. “What choice do we have? Wanda wants to help us escape, but if Garrett wants to take this place down, I’m okay with that. We could use the distraction to escape.”
“They’re government,” Daisy reminded them. “You can’t-” She sighed, running her hand through her hair irritably. “Look, if you’re no one and you disappear, fine. That’s nothing, I can do that, I can erase you. But this? We’re on their radar, high on their radar, you don’t just run from that, you can’t. We’d have to leave the country, and we don’t know how to get to your families so there’s a damn high chance we’d have to leave them behind and then they have leverage. They’d track us down and they’d drag us back and we’d just end up here. All over again. Maybe worse.”
“Wait, wait, wait, you can erase people?” Juliana questioned.
Daisy nodded. “From personal records, yeah, everything online about them. I can make so a person doesn’t exist if I have a little access to their files, identities, history, family, all of it.”
Jemma’s eyebrows raised, impressed. “You can do that?”
“I’ve done it before.” An old friend of hers from the orphanage. He was 17 when he left, but he didn’t want the army to know about his past when he enlisted. Not that she was happy when Hunter decided he wanted to be in the military, but he was her friend, so she helped him anyway. It was his future, she wouldn’t stop him from doing what he wanted. Not when she could help him.
“I’m with Jemma and Val,” Kimberly announced. “I’d rather go up against a small group than the whole facility. Did he say what he wanted us to join him for?”
Daisy’s tongue darted out to wet her lips as she glanced nervously at Juliana before her eyes drifted away. “He thinks we might be able to open ‘rifts’ or portals between the dimensions. And since that messed with the system earlier, then if we could control it, he could take advantage of the chaos. We know it takes a while for the cameras to reboot, and if they take out the backup generator, the lights will be down for a while.”
Juliana tensed. “Why did you look at me when you said that about the rifts?”
Kimberly worried her lip between her teeth before deciding that it was better to have it out there. “In the first episode, when Ophelia was walking away from the Whaley House, she mentioned the rift for the first time, right?” She got multiple confused nods of confirmation, not that she really needed them. “She said that ‘she pulled us all in’. And the screen glitched-”
“When Juliana pulled away from the phantom,” Jemma whispered. “Holy shit.”
“This is all my fault.” Juliana looked at her hands. “You guys are in the phantom dimension because of me.”
Jemma shut that down real quick. “No, that’s idiotic. You had no control over it, something grabbed you, and you pulled away from it. You want to blame someone, blame Ophelia. Blame the facility, blame the people who sent us into the Whaley House. It’s not your fault that you couldn’t control something you didn’t know existed, that’s stupid.”
Maybe it was a little harsh, but it was the truth, and it was what she needed to hear. If they didn’t say it firmly, it wouldn’t go in. Hell, it probably wouldn’t reach her anyway the first 10 times they said it, but it’d be a little more effective, at least.
Juliana noticed the look Daisy had given her and opened her mouth, but stopped herself when she heard Jemma’s quiet sniff. “I just want to go home,” the British girl whispered into her front. “I don’t want to deal with all this shit.”
Daisy’s hand lifted up from Jemma’s waist to tilt her head to the side. After pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth, she assured her. “We will. One day. Hopefully soon, but if it takes a month, it takes a month. If it takes a year, that sucks, but we’ll be together, okay? Always. We’re going home, I promise.”
Jemma met Daisy’s eyes as best she could before nodding slightly and leaning back. “Okay. Okay.” She sniffed and closed her eyes. “Why can we never just be kids? Why do we have to fight everything? Does it always have to be us against the world?”
Daisy kissed the top of her head. “I guess so. Key word ‘us’. We’ll be fine if we’re all together. That’s what matters.”
“Let’s take a break tonight, okay?” Juliana suggested with a gentle frown.
Daisy glared at Trini from across the monopoly board, temple pressed into her fist. “I watched you!”
Trini raised her hands. “I’m taking what I landed on!”
“You took 400! It’s 200!” Daisy threw her hand in the air, accidentally dislodging Jemma before wrapping her hand back around the girl’s shoulders. “Let Val be the banker, I trust her more than you.”
Trini gaped at her affronted, despite knowing that she was, in fact, a massive cheat at board games. “How could you?”
Trini gasped in offence even as she handed over the lid of the box containing all the money to Valentina. “That’s a horrible thing to say to me.”
“You landed on my property.” Juliana was clearly fighting back a grin. “The hotel. You owe me 1200.”
“What?!” Trini screamed as Daisy cackled at her misfortune, head back and everything. Cheeky bastard. “What do you mean?!”
Jemma giggled. “This is why you shouldn’t cheat.” She patted Daisy’s shoulder twice, and Daisy held out her arm without looking away from the board as she rolled the die. Jemma wrapped the partially done bracelet around her wrist to check the measurements before continuing with it.
“I’ve got it!” Trini yelled, scaring the shit out of the others as they stared at her like she’d groan a second head. “Biocode! That’s your name now, Biocode.”
“Huh?” Val questioned with a bemused frown.
“Daisy and Jemma,” Trini replied. “Jemma’s the doctor. Bio. Daisy’s a hacker. Code. Biocode. Works out perfectly.”
Daisy tilted her head, thinking. She hummed after a moment. “Better than Jemmsy. I’ll take it.”
Trini tilted her head, waving her hand between the two of them. “When did- When did this happen? Is this a thing? It looks like a thing. Are you a thing?”
Daisy’s mouth opened and shut for a long moment as she glanced at Jemma. She didn’t know where they stood, really, they hadn’t actually had any time to talk about it. She hoped so. Jemma glanced at her, giving Daisy full permission to take the lead on this one. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, it’s a thing. It’s a thing, we’re a thing.” Okay, yeah, fighting the giddy smile was a struggle, but whatever. “Um, after I died. Perspective and all that, right?”
“Took you long enough.” Trini smirked.
“You know we’re the only ones that are together, right?” Daisy raised an eyebrow. “You’re not getting any money from me, by the way, you still owe me 5 bucks after this.”
They all fell asleep in the phantom dimension in a large pile. Juliana was basically the pillow of everyone, Val curled around her, with Kimberly sleeping on her legs. Trini’s back was pressed into Kim’s, and had an arm around Jemma’s waist. Daisy was wrapped protectively around Jemma with her face pressed into Juliana’s stomach.
“That’s adorable.” Valentina grinned. They’d fallen asleep in various hug piles after the Rita incident and just on random sleepovers, though, specifically after something had happened. It was nice. Safe.
Wanda sorted through laundry as Juliana watched the TV, volume up to keep them from being too closely overhead. “You remember the man with the grey hair who was watching you through the glass?”
“Straight back in it, then,” Jemma grumbled.
Juliana kept her back turned to the camera. “Yeah? He was the one talking through the intercom, right? What about him?”
Wanda hesitated. “He’s in a coma. So are the two assistants also behind the glass when the power faltered.” Juliana’s eyes widened, and she clearly had to fight not to turn around. “Like the patients I showed you in the ward. They were fine before they went to sleep, then they just didn’t wake up.”
It was visible when it clicked for Juliana on the wall. When she realised what Kimberly had told them. What the other Daisy had no doubt realised as well. There was no chance that she wouldn’t blame herself for everything. Valentina just hoped the other versions of them would be equally understanding. At the very least, she assumed Daisy would take Juliana’s side if she hadn’t said anything last night.
Wanda watched her as Juliana spiralled into her guilty thoughts. “I'll bring dinner in a few hours.”
Juliana blinked, looking up. “Okay. Thank you.”
Wanda walked through the hall with the laundry basket in hand, a deep frown on her face as she lost herself in her thoughts. She stumbled slightly when her shoulder bumped into the blue-haired girl’s. Wanda narrowed her eyes before turning to keep walking. “Hey,” Nebula called, stopping her.
“Does she know something?” Kimberly asked, paranoid. Wanda might be their only way out of there safely if Garrett had a larger force than they expected. They couldn’t lose their edge or they’d be trapped for the rest of their lives.
“I hope not.” Juliana frowned.
Wanda turned around slowly. “What?”
Nebula glanced to the side before stepping closer to Wanda and saying quietly. “Tell those kids not to trust a word out of Garrett’s mouth.”
Jemma gasped quietly. She had not seen that coming. Wait, wasn’t she the one who punched Daisy in the face? Why was she helping them against Garrett when she helped Garrett kidnap them? None of this made any sense.
Wanda blinked, tilting her head. “Who?”
Nebula glanced to the side before slipping a burner phone into Wanda’s pocket. “My number is on here. Only use this phone for me. I’ll explain what I can.” Then she turned around and sped off down the hall.
“YES!” Daisy cheered, pumping her fists before going back to the laptop. “I take back everything I ever said about Wanda not being trustworthy!” She tossed the card to Jemma, who was grinning at her girlfriend’s excitement.
“Holy shit, she totally stole the high clearance security card from the guy with grey hair.” Trini beamed proudly. “She actually wants to help us. We might get out of there without Garrett’s help.”
Kimberly shared the smile. “Maybe we don’t need Garrett after all.” It would be a hell of a lot better if they didn’t have to risk everything with the guy who kidnapped them.
“How did Wanda get a high-access card?” Kimberly asked while Jemma replaced the bandages around her head.
“She was the one who found the guy in a coma. She snuck it away from him before he was set into a ward,” Juliana answered from where she was sorting their weapons into six piles.
Jemma tilted her head. “Maybe we should make her a bracelet as a thank you?”
“Red’s taken,” Juliana joked. “What colour would it be?”
Trini hummed. “Maybe green? We haven’t got a Green Ranger.”
Kimberly agreed, “She does have green eyes.”
“So what does it have access to?” Trini asked, arms crossed as she stood behind Daisy, looking at the nonsense on her screen.
“It’d be easier to list what it doesn’t have access to. The guy was pretty high up.” Daisy flicked through a few screens. “The big ones are the generators, armoury, and where your families are.” She glanced between them at their hopeful smiles.
“That’s amazing.” Valentina perked up. “That means we can map out the place. Then, when we escape, we know if we can make it to them and then out before getting caught.”
Kimberly nodded. “We can also arm ourselves better against the phantoms. They’re a government containment facility, I’m more than willing to bet they have guns.”
Juliana crossed her arms over her chest. “Armoury first. It’s closer than the generators, so we can get lights after that’s sorted. Then we can start memorising layouts.”
Daisy made a face as she rested her chin on her fist. “I can walk just fine.” Juliana ignored her and continued pushing the wheelchair. Val was beside her, pushing Kimberly, who was much more content to stay in the wheelchair.
“A TREE–”
“YOU HAVE A HOLE–”
“YOU–”
“–IMPALED–”
“–DIED!”
“–IDIOT!”
Daisy raised her hands with wide eyes. “Holy shit, I get it. I died. Sorry.”
The other two were walking just ahead. Trini looked at Daisy out of the corner of her eye. “You collapsed two nights ago because you walked into a desk.” Daisy groaned.
Jemma changed the subject. “Did anyone wake up really refreshed this morning? As in, more refreshed than I’ve ever felt since the phantom dimension?”
Jemma wondered how that worked. Did their bodies recognise the extra 7 hours? Were they supposed to compensate? How were they supposed to compensate? It’d be pretty weird to be sleeping, then suddenly be in the phantom dimension. Wait. “If we were sleeping in the real world before going into the phantom dimension, would we still be sleeping in the phantom dimension?”
That was a good question. Trini assumed they would be because of how the real world affected the phantom dimension. Which was probably why they always made sure they were awake before they shifted.
After everyone agreed, Val suggested, “Maybe we should try eating and sleeping in this place more often, then? I can’t imagine it’d do any harm.”
Trini jerked backwards as a phantom charged her before slamming Kim’s knife through its face. Jemma slammed Daisy’s bat into the stomach of another as more came flooding into the hallway. Daisy put a bullet through the head of the phantom charging at Jemma’s back. Before spinning and shooting the next three.
Jemma paused. “GET BACK IN YOUR WHEELCHAIR!”
“Sit back down!” Trini said as she kicked back a phantom. “We need to move faster!”
“This is amazing news.” Daisy beamed at the two pistols in her hands.
Trini laughed, ducking her head. “You’re insane.” A loud scream pierced the silence. A human one that they all heard.
“What the fuck.” Trini’s nails dug into her hands. “That sounded like a kid. Like a child. There’s a kid in the phantom dimension.”
“And they probably have nothing to defend themselves.” Daisy stared into space. “We’ll make it to them. We have to.”
Chapter 16: I'm SHIELD?!
Summary:
I forgot again. Very sorry. Not abandoning this, just forgetful and busy. Still updating every week, I'll try to remember on Saturday next time. My bad.
Chapter Text
They ran around the corner, Trini at the head of the group, before two hands fisted into her shirt, and she was slammed into the floor. A knife flashed to her throat as she held her own to their chest before she paused. “May?”
“Oh, thank god,” Kimberly breathed out.
“What the fuck is she doing there?” Daisy questioned. “I knew they were seeing things, but I didn’t think it would drag them in. Until we found out they were prisoners, I was kinda worried they’d be in comas.”
Juliana paled. “Does that mean everyone who was seeing them got dragged in? The twins?”
Trini mimicked her, suddenly feeling violently ill. They heard the high-pitched scream of a kid. Fucking hell, why hadn’t that been their first thought?
Melinda froze, eyes widening. “Trini?” She immediately released her shooting up. Unfortunately, the others saw Trini pinned by an unknown and charged forward, weapons raised. At the last second, Daisy’s eyes went wide, and she threw out her hands to grab the back of Val and Juliana’s shirts, falling backwards to stop their momentum.
Daisy’s shoulders slackened. “That could’ve been bad.”
The three fell to the floor in a pile. “Daisy, what the fuck?” Kimberly demanded before she clocked the aggressive coughing of said girl as her hand fisted into her shirt, and she rolled onto her side.
“Oops.”
“I thought you said you were fine?” Trini narrowed her eyes irately. “If you were in a wheelchair-”
“May’s head would’ve been bashed in. A little coughing isn’t the end of the world.”
“Daisy?” May jumped off of Trini and dropped to her knees beside Daisy, helping her up into a sit as she gently rubbed her upper back. “Breathe. 60 bpm, can you do that for me?”
Daisy tried to replace her coughing with slow breathing as the others fought off the phantoms that started to trickle in. “What are you doing here?” Daisy recovered incredibly fast and pushed herself to her feet with May’s help.
“That was impressive.” Jemma raised her eyebrows. “You recovered incredibly fast for someone recovering from a hole through their stomach.”
Kimberly frowned. “Yeah, I still don’t get it. You shouldn’t-” She huffed. They’d had this conversation before. They still didn’t have an answer as to why.
A scream of, “HELP!” Echoed through the halls, and everyone’s heads snapped towards it.
“The others are here too,” May informed them as Daisy pulled the guns from her belt, handing May two while keeping one for herself.
Daisy smiled. Okay, so she wanted to see May fight, and what? May was a badass, of course, Daisy wanted to see her fight. And to be able to fight with her? Awesome as hell.
“Don’t shout.” Daniel reminded the others, stepping in front of the Valdes twins. “You’ll attract more.” He whacked a phantom in the head before Lupe shot it. He was kind of terrified of her at this point.
Multiple gunshots rang through the hall before May came into sight, running towards them. A phantom began to advance on her back before two knives tore through its head and it collapsed to the floor, Daisy rolling off it’s back and following after May as Jemma stayed behind her, covering her back with the gun.
“Dynamic duo,” Trini joked. “You guys look so badass.”
Juliana took charge as she used Daisy’s baseball bat (which everyone kept fuckig stealing) to kill a phantom behind Daisy. “Val, go ahead with the card to find a decent room to hide in. Jemma and Kimberly, get the torches to the others. And guns. Trini, Daisy, you’re with me.”
“Damn, Red.” Daisy grinned. “Taking charge in every universe like a boss.” She blinked. “Why does everyone keep stealing my bat?! Make your own! I haven’t seen myself use that thing since episode… Was it the fifth episode?!”
They were all sitting in the room Val found, some around the table in the centre, and most of the kids on the floor. Minus Kim, who was in her wheelchair, and Daisy, who had also wormed her way into Kim’s wheelchair. Hers was long gone. “I assume Daisy told you we were drugged at my house?” Leon questioned. Six nods. “Good. When we woke up, we were all together in what looked like a cell. Even the kids.” He gestured to Trini’s brothers.
May groaned as she blinked herself awake, slowly pushing herself up to be sitting. “What the hell?” She muttered as she looked around the room also containing the other parents. And kids. Hell, they took the kids too. Damn it, she should have reacted faster. She hoped Daisy had gotten away.
“Welcome to the land of the living,” Daniel drawled, crossing his arms and leaning back against the concrete wall next to the sleeping pad he had. “We were all sedated, including the kids, for some reason. We haven’t seen the teenagers, but we have to assume they at least have Daisy.”
May tensed. Lupe offered. “She ran. She might have escaped.”
“She also died yesterday. Or… the day before. Whatever it was. That woman was close on her heels, we should assume they took the other kids too.” Leon agreed with Daniel.
Val cringed at how casually he said that Daisy died. Like that wasn’t a crazy or horrifying thing to say, but just a fact of the day. She also hated that that rhymed.
A voice from beyond the bars spoke. “If you’re missing some of your group, they’re probably in another block.” Everyone turned to the man in another jail cell. His one arm was raised so his hand could curl around the bar in front of him. “That, or they’re upstairs. If they’re upstairs, you won’t see them again.”
“Who the hell’s this guy?” Kimberly questioned. Why did he know so much? Had he just been there a really long time? Why was he there in the first place?
May narrowed her eyes, standing and taking a step towards the bars. “How do you know that? Did you work here?”
He shook his head. “I’ve seen people be taken from down here upstairs. They never come back. Most of this block is clear, but there are a few others further down. Hopefully, your friends are there.”
“Who are you?” Daniel questioned.
“I’m Bucky.”
Elizabeth asked. “Where are we? Why are we here? Why are you here?”
A thousand questions and enough curiosity to scare a nun. Just like her daughter. Apparently, other people stayed relatively the same through the multiverse as well. Which Daisy had assumed, but whatever. Confirmation was always nice.
“Human Experimentation Facility, I don’t know, and I punched a guard, so I’m in solitary. It’s for mental illness as far as I’m aware. Hallucinations, hearing shit, seeing things. The fun stuff.”
“Did he just human experimentation facility?” Jemma questioned. “I would not call that a containment facility. Someone needs to tell Wanda that those two are very much not the same thing.”
“Some people think they grab us cuz no one would miss us, or they’re trying to find cures in a less ethical way to make more money, or they want to use us as slaves. Or all of the above. Oh, or they took us cuz we’re all seeing the same things.”
“Hey, it’s nice to know Juliana didn’t create the issue. She’s just… weirdly connected. That’s reassuring.” Val offered. It was a lie, actually, it really wasn’t that reassuring.
Kimberly scoffed. “Great. They told us some bull about a fungus.”
Jemma filled some of the gaps that the parents had. “Everyone upstairs was staff, infected, in a coma, or us six. That was it. So, if Bucky was telling the truth, we should assume the people that were taken upstairs fell into comas not long after.”
“Do you think they’ll fall into comas?” Trini asked.
Jemma made an apologetic face. “I believe they already have. If the people in the window fell into comas after being pulled in, I assume they did too.”
“I don’t understand.” Daisy shook her head from where she was leaning comfortably into Kim, who was pretending to be upset about her wheelchair being taken over. “How did you end up here? As in, crazy murderous alternate dimension.”
“We don’t know.” Chase shrugged.
Frank continued. “I think it was last night. Everything was creepily quiet, and the guards didn’t respond to any of our calls.”
Juliana closed her eyes. “So it was me, then. That’s the same time the guy with grey hair fell into the coma. And the assistants.”
Daisy held up a hand. “Wait, pause. And, it’s not just cause of the guilt train, though that is stupid, and we’ll come back to it later. Why didn’t we go into comas then? Or why weren’t they half-dragged in like us? Juliana pulled as both in, what’s the difference?”
It was a good question. Both times, Juliana hadn’t meant to open the rift, but for some reason, the second time it’s permanent? Was it because it was the first one she opened? Age? What was the thing that changed it for them?
And what’s more, if Juliana was the only one who could open rifts and pull people through, then how did other infections and comas happen? And if she wasn’t, which was clearly the case, then what made her different there? What did that mean?
“After a day had passed and there was still nothing, May picked the lock and we could get out of the cell,” Elizabeth explained. “There were a few of the guards’ supplies at the bottom of the stairs.”
Daniel nodded at May. “May scouted ahead since she was the best fighter. Then we were surrounded, and you guys showed up.”
“A day?” Trini blinked. “They are in the comas then.”
Juliana paled. “Does that mean they’re gonna become infected?”
Their faces fell with realisation. There wasn’t a cure, either. And there was no way to get them out, as far as they knew? How long did they have? What happened to them in the phantom dimension? Did they become phantoms? It did make sense.
“When did you get this?” Alex asked with the saddest eyes in the world as he held Juliana’s arm up. The one with the scratched scar down it.
Juliana smiled kindly at him. “It happened a while ago. Our first day here. We all have our little things, it’s nothing. I don’t feel it, it healed a long time ago.” She blinked and looked down slightly, frowning. “Kim, you took a picture of the map, right?” Kimberly hummed and passed her phone over without further prompting. Juliana looked at it for a while before closing her eyes. “I pulled you guys in.” She looked up and met Kim’s eyes. “You guys, too. I pulled everyone here in.”
Juliana held her breath. She didn’t think they’d react too badly, but if they did, she’d deserve it. And it would only confirm what she already knew to be true. Selfishly, she hoped they’d be understanding. Forgiving.
Everyone went quiet as they chewed on that. “It’s my fault.”
Trini’s head snapped up. “Not true-”
Jemma made a face. “You’re kidding-”
“Are you serious?” Kimberly stared at her judgmentally as if blaming herself was some insane thing.
“I knew.” Daisy cut them all off. Heads whipped around to her, but she didn’t pull her eyes away from Juliana’s. “I pieced it together after talking to Garrett. I don’t forgive you because there’s nothing to forgive. You couldn’t control it, and you didn’t do it on purpose. I don’t blame you, cause it’s not your fault.”
Embarrassingly, Juliana felt like she could cry. She didn’t, but she kind of wanted to. Really, she knew they wouldn’t blame her, but that immediate acceptance from all of them and, hell, even annoyance at her for blaming herself. It was so far from what she’d been dreading. And then Daisy keeping it from everyone else just in case they reacted badly to protect her? Yeah, she could cry.
Valentina offered, “That could mean there’s a way to pull everyone out. Either way, it wasn’t your fault. We’re here, that’s all that matters. How isn’t important unless it helps us get out. No one’s going to blame you for this.”
The scene changed to Wanda in her apartment, sitting on her bed and glaring at the ringing phone Nebula had given her. Finally, she picked it up and held it to her ear. “Hello?”
“This information needs to get to those kids. Then, I’m out. Understand?” Nebula sat at a desk in her own apartment.
“Did she see something?” Kimberly wondered. What had been so bad that had caused her sudden change of heart? Or, maybe it was just her being self-aware of how vile kidnapping children was.
Wanda frowned. “Didn’t you help kidnap them?”
Nebula suppressed a wince at the reminder as she remembered the sound of Daisy’s nose cracking beneath her fist. Whoops. “I didn’t fully think it through. Now, listen.”
Juliana looked through the note Wanda had left in her laundry. “He says they found our parents in comas in their cell. And Garrett took over the grey-haired man’s position.”
Kimberly crossed her arms, leaning back against the wall beside the bed. “That explains why we haven’t been able to access the higher information anymore. Well, aside from what Daisy could use to piggyback further. Which, I still have no idea how you do that.”
Daisy grinned. “And you never will.” Unless they asked. But they’d probably tune out the second she started explaining it to them. Most people found it unbelievably boring. Daisy never had. Maybe it helped that she’d gotten into it to find her past. Which, to be fair, had been wholly unsuccessful. Hey, at least she was using it in that universe. In this one, she hadn’t done anything cool since she hacked S.H.I.E.L.D. a few months ago. And that hadn’t really been conclusive either.
“So, now we need his card?” Jemma narrowed her eyes, irritated by the constant shifting of what they could and couldn’t do and what they did and didn’t know. It was so very annoying.
Daisy smirked, blatantly joking. “Juls, you think you could get on that?” Val whacked her lightly in the back of the head with a pillow.
“Not funny,” Val chastised, shaking her head and fighting a traitorous smile. She’d argue she was pretty successful.
Kimberly scowled at May. “You want us to what?”
May stared back unflinchingly. “Play along. Use Garrett’s proposal to find out how they operate and what they want. They’ll assume that you’re faking it until trust and loyalty have been built. The worst thing you can do is underestimate them.”
Daisy was nodding along as she spoke, even as the others exchanged hesitant glances. “That’s what I thought, too. At first, I didn’t want to work with them because I didn’t think it would get us anywhere, but it’s better to work with them than for them to force us.”
Reluctantly, Trini agreed. “They’re right. If we don’t go along with them willingly, they’re just gonna force us. May as well try to get the best out of it for us instead of just them benefiting.”
“He’ll probably ask you guys to touch the phantom, too, then.” Juliana leaned her head on her fist. “Don’t say no, or they could release the chains again. Don’t recommend.”
It cut to a few scenes of the six of them in the room where Juliana had killed the phantom. Daisy and Kimberly were poking it with unimpressed stares as nothing happened.
Then, they were all blindfolded and stood in a circle. They gently sliced across the top of Jemma’s hand, watching the other five for a reaction, but there was nothing. However, when they used the phantom to lightly claw her other arm, everyone’s heads whipped towards her.
Daisy gritted her teeth near-painfully. Valentina cocked her head to the side. “So the connection is through the phantom dimension? That makes sense. We have spent a lot of time there together.”
“And we were all pulled in at the same time,” Jemma agreed.
Juliana made a squeaking noise in the back of her throat as it moved back to the present. She stared at the paper with wide eyes. “What?” Kimberly asked slowly.
“Garrett wants to start the apocalypse,” Juliana answered after a moment, voice choked.
Trini gaped at the screen. “I’m sorry?”
“He fucking what?” Kimberly questioned.
“Yeah, I’m thinking trusting him might be the wrong call,” Juliana declared.
Jemma pinched the bridge of her nose. “So, the facility wants to use the infected as super soldiers… and Garrett wants to destroy the world… am I missing something?”
“No, no, I think you got it.” Daisy tightened her grip on Jemma’s hand, tugging her closer to her as if that could stop the world for a second. Stop the crazy shit they were learning about. “We’re not gonna let that happen. Both plans need us, so we just need to make it out before they figure out how.”
“You say that like it’s easy.” Juliana sighed. “I don’t see a way that we can get our families out with us. Especially if they’re in comas. Even if it was convenient to push the beds, there are far too many. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Nebula groaned as she was awoken by the harsh ringing of her phone. Specifically, the phone containing the number of Wanda’s burner phone. “I told you I wasn’t going to be involved-”
“They’re planning to escape tomorrow night,” Wanda cut to the chase.
“Guess we’re not wasting any time, then,” Kimberly remarked.
“Well, the fate of the world is at stake,” Juliana reminded her unnecessarily.
Daisy scoffed, “What’s new?”
Nebula blinked before bolting upright. “They’re what? You have to stop them, they won’t get past the high-end security-”
“They have it handled. For the plan to work, we need someone to allow a breach to cause a distraction. I’m not high-up enough. They’ve memorised the layout of this place using the phantom dimension. They stand a real chance. So, will you help?”
Daisy smiled. “I’m so glad I was wrong about her.”
Val grinned. “We all are.”
Frank’s mouth was slightly agape as he stared at Melinda. “You work for S.H.I.E.L.D?”
Trini hummed. “So, it does exist there.”
Leon remarked, “I guess that explains the lockpicking and fighting skills. And why you were so unfazed by the kidnapping. And why you were so quick to accept the phantom dimension.
Trini was staring at Daisy like she was a whole new person. “And the hacking. And the skill with guns. And the fighting.”
Daisy’s eyes bugged out. “I’m S.H.I.E.L.D?!”
Daisy winced. “Okay, yeah, I should have told you. But I didn’t know how, and then it had been too long, and it just… got a little harder to bring up. I’m sorry.”
May steered the conversation away from her rookie. “She was low-level. Brought her in for her hacking skills, but only partially. She still had a life outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m higher up, I can call in a favour.” She met Daisy’s eyes meaningfully. “S.H.I.E.L.D. won’t take you in, nor would I want them to. But they might be able to cause a distraction.”
“We’re valuable.” Daisy crossed her arms and leaned back, trying not to shrink under the stares of her friends. “They’ll help. Coulson loves you.”
Daisy ran her hand through her hair. “I can’t believe I’m with S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m so sorry.”
Jemma held her hand with a slightly strained smile. “Don’t be. It’s not like you did anything to hurt us.”
“I kept secrets from you. That’s enough. I feel betrayed by my May and Coulson, and now I do this? It’s the same. You can be mad at me, you should be mad at me.”
Jemma sighed. “Maybe the other me is. I’m a little mad at the other you. Not you. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
May rolled her eyes. “And you. Give Wanda his phone number and a message. I trust you. But she’ll need to shut down their cameras or S.H.I.E.L.D. will be more reluctant to help. Then you kids will be able to escape.”
Daisy felt like she was having a mid-life crisis. At 16. She was with S.H.I.E.L.D. Why the hell would she do that? How did that even happen? Why the hell didn’t she tell any of her friends? Why didn’t she tell Jemma?
Oh, man, Jemma was going to be so pissed. And Daisy would deserve it. They were definitely going to watch an argument, weren’t they? It would probably wait until after they’d escaped, but it was coming. And the longer it took, the more dread would pool in Daisy’s stomach. This was gonna really fucking suck.
Chapter 17: She's Insane
Notes:
Uploading this one early cuz the past few have been late :)
Well, that, and this chapter is bloody tiny.
Chapter Text
Loud alarms blared through the facility as guards rushed from the prison cells upstairs. Bucky frowned, looking through the bars. “What the hell’s going on?” He asked, well, demanded really.
The only response he got was. “S.H.I.E.L.D.’s attacking!” Thrown loosely over a guard's shoulder as they all flooded upstairs, leaving the prisoners alone. Bcuky blinked, then fiddled with something. Then, he knelt on the ground and picked the lock.
Kimberly tilted her head. “Seriously, who is this guy? Do you think he used to be in the facility?”
Jemma wondered, “How do you think they find the infected? Hundreds of people fall into comas every day, and that’s just in America. Across the world, wouldn’t it be impossible to tell who was affected by the phantom dimension and who wasn’t?”
Juliana hummed in thought. “Didn’t they say something about Daisy and Kim’s bloodwork showing signs of it?”
Val didn’t know either. “I thought that was just a cover-up. Like the fungus. We know they were spying on us before, since they’re the ones who made us go through.” Huh. How did they find the infected? Unless they were creating all of them like they had with Juliana. Tricking them and pulling them through. But why?
Oh. Oh.
Juliana had said they wanted to use the infected as super-soldiers, didn’t she? It made sense that they were creating them, but kept trying to find someone more stable, like Juliana. She still didn’t know how, though.
Bucky looked out the window of the facility when an explosion happened at the side, no doubt S.H.I.E.L.D. Then, he turned back around with a bemused frown at the sound of voices, specifically Trini’s voice as she hurried Val along, the others right behind them from where they were jumping out of the vents.
Daisy turned and made eye contact with Bucky, freezing and opening her mouth. Before she could say anything, though, Wanda came running down the hall. “Juliana! The 4th East exit has the least traffic. Go there. There are guards headed this way, so hurry.”
Val frowned. She really hoped Bucky wouldn’t mess anything up for them. They were so close. They wouldn’t get another chance.
Val nodded. “We’ll message if we get out.” She paused. “Thank you, Wanda.”
Wanda blinked before pulling the kids into a quick hug. “Be safe. Stay hidden.”
Daisy pulled away first, a serious look in her eyes. “And you. You’ll be suspect number one. Free the prisoners and make a break for it.”
Jemma smiled. “You do care about her.”
Daisy shook her head. “Of course, I do. She’s saving our asses. He’s done a lot to help us, I can only be cynical for so long. She deserved the benefit of the doubt, by now.”
“Over there!” A few guards ran into the hallway.
“Shit,” Daisy swore, all of them pulling away and turning to run. “Hey!” She called over her shoulder. “If you want to escape, get your ass moving!” Bucky raised an eyebrow but followed after the six.
“We have five minutes before S.H.I.E.L.D. leaves!” Jemma warned them as they ran before pausing at the hand flying towards her face. Thankfully, Juliana grabbed it, throwing the guard over her shoulder before stomping down on his knee with a crack.
Trini made a face. “At least we know he can’t follow us?”
Kimberly turned to the side. “They’re catching up.”
“Incoming from the right!” Daisy warned them, hands already raised in front of her face as she slid into a fighting stance as easily as breathing. “I can-”
She was interrupted by the loud radios of all the guards. “ALL UNITS REPORT TO THE CRYO CENTRE IMMEDIATELY! I REPEAT, REPORT TO THE CRYO CENTRE IMMEDIATELY! THE INFECTED HAVE ESCAPED!”
Val’s eyebrows jumped up. “Shit. That’s not good.”
Daisy made a so-so motion. “Good for us. Think it was Wanda?”
“That’s a little insane, even for her,” Jemma disagreed. “Much more likely to be Nebula.”
Ah, Daisy supposed that did make sense.
“Hey!” Nebula called as Daisy stole a gun from one of the guards. “This way! Now!”
Daisy narrowed her eyes, but was the first to break into a sprint towards the woman, the others following her lead. Thank god they still trusted her. “If you betray us, I’ll shoot you.”
“Nebula?” Bucky questioned.
Juliana’s eyes widened. “He was working for the facility then.” She wondered if they’d been right to trust him. They were risking everything on this breakout; they couldn’t afford to fuck it up now. Then again, it was done. There was nothing they could do if he decided to stab them in the back.
Nebula paused, frowning. “Aren’t you supposed to be in lockup?”
Juliana scowled, pushing Nebula forward. “Does it matter? We need to go. Some dumbass let out the infected, so we’re running out of time.”
“We needed another distraction,” Nebula scorned. “You should be thanking me.”
Daisy huffed. “Really should have guessed it was your psycho ass. You know they’re attracted to us, right? And not in the fun way.”
Jemma dropped her head into her hand, too disappointed to even groan. She was far too used to her girlfriend’s shenanigans at this point. Hell, it hardly even surprised her anymore.
Jemma rolled her eyes at the comment as Nebula exclaimed, “What? No, I did not know that!”
Juliana’s eyes bugged out. “Stop!” Everyone skidded to a stop as an infected lunged past the space they would have run into. Daisy raised the gun, but someone else fired before she could. She was the only one with a gun?
Daisy’s face screwed up in disgust and annoyance. “Oh, not her. Literally anyone else. Why’s it gotta be that bitch?”
Ophelia lowered the smoking gun with a sly smirk. “Well, I hadn’t been expecting to see Nebula and Bucky. Garrett must feel so betrayed.” She swung the gun around like it wasn’t a very fucking lethal weapon. Daisy subtly pushed forward to stand next to Juliana and Nebula, blocking the others at least partially with her body. If a gun went off, she didn’t want them to get shot.
Bucky’s eyebrows raised. “I was just tagging along-” He was cut off by a loud gunshot that whizzed over their heads.
“She’s insane!” Trini protested indignantly. Fucking hell, she was gonna shoot them. They were gonna die. Damn it, they’d been so close as well.
“I don’t care.” Ophelia tilted her head, raking her eyes over the strange group before her. “I’m just wondering if I should kill you now, or let Garrett use you for the infected. And then what to do with the kids? We really only need two-”
She was cut off by three loud gunshots, gasping at the sudden sharp pain in her arm, hip, and thigh. Clearly, she hadn’t seen that Daisy had a gun hidden behind Juliana’s back. She sneered and lifted her gun, staggering slightly and sending two shots at the group, skimming Daisy’s arm and tearing through Nebula’s stomach.
“DAISY!”
“DAISY!” Jemma screamed as her girlfriend gasped and clutched her upper arm with a grimace.
At the same time, Bucky called Nebula’s name, catching her as she stumbled. “You kids get out of here! GO!”
Juliana scowled and tugged Daisy’s good arm to try to keep her distracted from the pain. The others were quick to follow, Jemma reluctantly pulling her eyes from Daisy to in front of her to avoid running into anything. Hopefully, the wound was just superficial.
Kimberly ran a stressed hand down her face. “Why are you always getting hurt?”
Juliana answered immediately, “She has no sense of self-preservation.”
It spoke volumes that Daisy didn’t even bother trying to argue. She just tightened her grip around Jemma’s waist and dropped her head and her shoulder, closing her eyes for a few short seconds.
It then cut to a flashback. “New York?” Val questioned in the phantom dimension.
May nodded once. “It’s where the main facility is. The communication between there and here is full of false reports, so they’ve deviated from the initial goal of the facility: curing the infected. The facility in New York is your best bet.”
“So our only hope is the bigger version of the facility we’re running from?” Trini asked dubiously.
“Yep.” Juliana nodded.
“Pretty much,” Val agreed.
“About sums it up, yes,” Jemma said at the same time.
“Cool.” Trini crossed her arms. “Just clearing that up.”
The kids tore through the garage as fast as possible as the guards rushed after them, jumping haphazardly into the car Wanda told them was hers. Thankfully, she still hadn’t let them down, as there were keys in the ignition. Juliana’s grip tightened on the steering wheel as she sped out of the garage, Val and Jemma shooting out of the windows at the guards behind them.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before their tyres were popped by the bullets, and they swerved into the wall of the facility. Juliana managed to drive them a few metres down the bridge before all their tyres were popped and they slid to a halt on the bridge. They scrambled out of the car, using the doors for cover as they aimed their guns at the cars in front of them.
“Shit, now what?” Trini wondered. “We’re cornered. We definitely can’t outrun them on foot.” There was a loud honk of a train, and she paused. “We are not jumping on that train.”
Val turned to the sound as Juliana had the thought. She shut it down immediately. “We are not doing that!”
“What choice do we have?” Daisy questioned, resolutely pretending she hadn’t been shot so that she could keep the guards from advancing after them. “It’s jump or get caught.”
“You were shot!” Jemma reminded her. “We could die!”
“If we stay, we’ve lost our only chance.” Kimberly frowned. “We don’t have the upper hand anymore, they know we know the layout, we’ve lost all our help, and no one will trust us. I can’t imagine there won’t be a punishment for this stunt, either.”
Daisy sighed. “Ophelia was talking about killing all of us but two. Maybe they wouldn’t, but we don’t know that. I don’t want to risk it.”
“If we stay, we’ve lost everything!” Juliana argued. “This is our only chance! I’d rather be dead than go back there with all of us separated and unable to do anything against anyone.”
“We have to jump.” Trini agreed reluctantly, as did Kimberly. Jemma and Val still didn’t like it, but they’d follow the majority. A minute later, they were all staring at the fast-approaching train. “Let’s just try and not die, okay?” And, well, no one was gonna argue with that.
“On three.” Juliana took a deep breath to steady herself. “One. Two. Three!” They all dove off the bridge with their hands interlocked, landing with loud thuds on the metal and separating.
Daisy screamed as she slid off the side of the cart before Valentina’s hand wrapped around her forearm, anchoring her to the train with a grip on the cart so hard it dented the metal. She cried out in pain at the lurching of her arm, but there wasn’t much she could do about that.
Trini’s eyes widened. “Damn. You should not be that strong.”
“We were also moving weirdly fast through the facility,” Val pointed out. “None of the guards could keep up, even Bucky was struggling.”
Juliana nearly flew over the side as well before Kimberly managed to catch her by the leg, keeping her on the train by the skin of their teeth before pulling her back on top. All of them were mottled with bruises from the tough landing as they looked around. Juliana froze. “Where’s Jemma and Trini?”
Daisy paled, suddenly sick to her stomach. If something happened to them in the real world, that shit was permanent. There weren’t redos like the Phantom Dimension. If they died, they died. And falling off a fast-moving train? Fuck, no, they had to be okay, right? They had to be.
Chapter 18: Liar
Notes:
At this point, I may as well just say I update on Sundays, this is getting ridiculous now.
Chapter Text
The sound of a heartbeat filled the room, thumping and getting faster by the second. “Jemma?!” Daisy called, pushing herself to her feet and staggering slightly. “Trini?! JEMMA?!”
Kimberly scrambled along the cart. “Trini?!” She looked over the edge and her eyes bugged out. “Trini!” Her eyes locked onto the girl below, led on the edge of the deck plate below. Then, Trini started to slip. “TRINI!”
“FUCK!”
“NO!”
At the last second, a hand shot out, catching Trini’s shirt and dragging her back onto the deck plate. Jemma lightly shook Trini. “Trini, wake up!”
Kimberly slumped with relief in tandem with Daisy. “Oh, thank god. Holy shit, that was close. Please tell me we’re done with close calls, now.”
Jemma made a regretful face. “I’m afraid I highly doubt that. We still have to make it to New York without getting caught by them. There is almost no chance that they’ll let us get away that easily. Then we have to get back. Oh, and hope that New York is better than California.”
Juliana sighed and crossed her arms. “Sounds great.”
“Jemma!” Daisy came to Kimberly’s side, grasping the edges of the cart so hard that it dented beneath her fingertips, not that she noticed.
“Open the cart doors!” Jemma called before Trini gasped awake, eyes darting around. “Hey, hey, you’re okay-”
“Am I?” Trini’s hands clamped around Jemma’s wrist where the British girl’s hand was still fisted in her shirt. “Am I okay? Are any of us okay?!”
Val winced. “That’s a fair point.”
Daisy held up her hand. “A tad bit dramatic, but fair. It’s pretty freaky.”
Trini shrugged. “I did agree to jump, I guess.”
Juliana slumped back and slid down the inside of the cart with a quiet groan. “Everyone okay? Nothing broken?”
Jemma was wrapping Daisy’s arm with the torn-off bottom of Daisy’s shirt. “A little bloody and bruised, but I’ll survive.”
Daisy pressed a quick kiss to Jemma’s cheek.
Kimberly groaned. “I’m good. My wrist hurts like hell, though.” Everyone agreed, no one broken, just… kinda hurt.
“Please tell me we still have the money Wanda gave us?” Val asked, turning her eyes to Kimberly, swiftly followed by the others. Thankfully, Kim nodded. “Good. Cuz the phone fell out of my pocket.”
“So, she doesn’t know we made it out.” Juliana sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “She’ll panic.”
“Hopefully, she assumes the best when we’re not back,” Val tried to reassure her. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“And what about Bucky and Nebula? Ophelia saw them, and I’m pretty sure she’s not dead.” Daisy pointed out. “I can’t imagine Garrett, Ophelia, or the rest of the facility will take kindly to losing their pet projects.
They fell into silence for a minute before Kimberly awkwardly mentioned, “It’s probably important to tell you that Daisy dented the train cart earlier.”
Daisy blinked. She hadn’t realised she’d done that. Trini frowned. “What?”
“When we found Jemma and Trini. It basically crumpled in her hand. Left an impression.”
Val paused. “I think I did, too.” She nodded at Daisy. “When I saved you.”
“How the hell did that happen, then?” Trini questioned.
“We’re becoming more like the phantoms,” Juliana answered. “The anger, the rifts, the lights. Now we’re getting their strength, and maybe even their speed. Good news is that it isn’t just Daisy and Kimberly. Bad news is that it isn’t just Daisy and Kimberly.”
Oddly, that made sense. Though it really shouldn’t have.
Before they tried to figure anything out, Juliana stopped them. “We have to get off the train once it starts slowing down. Then we can get some supplies and figure out how to get to New York without getting caught.”
Jemma frowned after a woman, pausing as she was tying off the end of the bandage. “They saw us jump onto the train, right?” At their simultaneous, befuddled nods, she continued, “Can’t they just track the train and stop it to search for us?”
Daisy blinked. “Oh shit. I didn’t think about that.”
As if on cue, the train wheels screeched as it slowed to a stop on the tracks, and their heads snapped towards it. “Fuck,” Trini stated. “We need to get off the train.”
It cut to them all hiding in a tree as the facility searched the train, Daisy clinging on to it for dear life, almost comically.
Trini snorted, then felt bad about it and slapped her hand over her mouth. “Sorry.”
Daisy laughed. “No, no, it’s cool. It’s funny.”
Jemma flopped onto the floor in the motel room with a loud groan, wearing new clothes. They all were wearing new clothes, no doubt bought with the money Kim had in her pocket from Wanda. “I’m starving.”
Daisy immediately hauled Jemma up onto the bed, sliding onto the floor in the same movement. She stopped Jemma before she tried to protest. “We need sleep, all of us. I’m good with sleeping on the floor. You need it more than me.”
Jemma shook her head with a fond sigh. “Always putting everyone above yourself, aren’t you? Would it physically hurt you to look after yourself a little more?”
“You love me.” Daisy winked, despite knowing that Jemma wouldn’t see it with her back turned to Daisy. It was the thought that counted. Daisy knew she’d winked; that was what mattered.
Juliana nodded.“We can get some rest first, then we can eat.”
Kimberly made a face. “I’m hungry too, though-” She cut herself off as she realised Trini, Val, Jemma, and Juliana were already asleep. “Oh. I guess I can wait.” SHe gently pulled up a blanket over Kimberly’s shoulders before dropping onto the floor beside her and closing her eyes.
Kimberly snorted. “Damn. When was the last time we slept?”
Jemma pointed out. “If we’re also malnourished, it would make us more fatigued. So I’d presume it’s a combination of the two making us so tired.”
Daisy smiled and set an alarm on her phone for three hours. She watched Kimberly for a second before leaning back against the bed beside Jemma’s head, dropping her head back and closing her eyes with a smile.
Daisy half-moaned as she shoved food into her mouth like she hadn’t eaten in weeks. “I missed food. Good food. Not shitty food.”
Jemma snorted before checking her phone for the umpteenth time. “Still nothing from Wanda.”
Valentina frowned. “I really hope she’s okay. They wouldn’t kill her, would they?”
Juliana glared at her hands. “Honestly, at this point, I wouldn’t put it past them. If they’re willing to kidnap kids and nearly kill them for an experiment, then killing a traitorous employee isn’t off the table.”
Trini’s face screwed up. “Can we not talk about the death of the person who saved us, please? I’d rather just believe she’s okay.”
Juliana rested her hand on Jemma’s arm for a moment. “I’m sure she’s okay.” Then, she snapped back to business mode. “Okay. We need to figure out transportation now that we know where we are.”
Daisy pushed herself to her feet. “I’m gonna use the restroom. Fill me in when I’m back.” She smiled reassuringly, but Kimberly narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Like she knew something the rest of them didn’t. Which would probably stay that way as they didn’t seem to notice.
Jemma tilted her head. “You’re arm seems better. You’ve been using it quite a lot, but I can’t tell if that’s because it’s actually healing fast or if it’s just your absurdly high pain tolerance.”
Daisy shrugged. “Bit of both?”
Trini admitted, “I’m more curious as to what that look was about.” She nodded at Kimberly on the screen as she watched Daisy walk away and the others continued their conversation. “We’re missing something.”
Daisy sighed, looking into the mirror with tired, almost dead eyes. Her eyes fell to her hands for a moment before she shut them and leaned heavily on the sink, bracing her hands against the counter and dropping her head. “Hey,” Kimberly announced her presence, startling Daisy, who immediately lost the weight that had settled comfortably on her shoulders like a second skin.
Juliana’s eyebrows drew together deeply. She didn’t like that look. Daisy looked so… empty. It felt wrong. It was wrong. It wasn’t like Daisy. Except, maybe it was? She didn’t know anymore. But that tiredness, that weight, it shouldn’t have to be carried by a 16-year-old.
Kimberly hummed. Point to Trini on the ‘missing something’ bit. “Think we’re about to find out.”
“Good.” Jemma shifted. “I don’t like not knowing things. Which seems to be all we do. Though I don’t like that it’s the two people who have died. That doesn't bode well.”
And still, talking about Daisy and Trini dying made Jemma want to throw up in her mouth a little bit. Permanent or not, it still happened. It didn’t have to be permanent to have affected them. Case in point, Val. Jemma didn’t think she could ever forget the coolness of her skin when it was usually so warm. Or how blank her face had been, completely bear of a kind or cheeky smile. Just nothing. Jemma shivered slightly at the very thought.
Daisy smiled. “Jesus. When the hell did you get there?”
Kimberky cut straight to the point. “You’re hiding something.”
Daisy winced. “All business, then. Yay.”
Daisy made a face, convincingly confused if they didn’t know her as well as they did. “I am? Uh, what, exactly, am I hiding, Detective Pikachu?”
Kimberly stared at her unimpressed. “You are, yeah. I know because I haven’t told them either.” That caught Daisy’s attention, losing her confused facade for a more serious and worried look. “You haven’t slept, so I’m gonna assume you’re having the same dreams of a version of you trying to kill you.” The mirror showed a red and fuzzy image of Kimberly, hands braced on the glass with a broad smile and dark, wide eyes.
Trini’s mouth fell open. There were a lot of things she could have guessed, but that never would have been one of them. “Holy shit. What does that mean?”
“It means we’re fucked and Jemma was right,” Daisy answered. “When you die, you’re a few steps closer to becoming a phantom. Which is what I assume is gonna happen if the other version of us kills us.”
The scene cut back to Daisy’s face before zooming into her eyes and displaying a scene of her pinned by a beaming version of herself, one hand wrapped around her throat and the other raised in a fist. Then, they were back in the bathroom. “Yeah. I didn’t think it was anything, but if you’re having them too, we should probably tell the others.”
Jemma’s eyes widened in horror. “Yours caught you?”
Juliana reassured her. “It might reset every time they wake up. Probably why neither of them has been sleeping. Daisy’s not dead yet, neither is Kimberly, as long as they stay that way, we have nothing to worry about.”
That wasn’t strictly true, they couldn’t know that for sure in any way shape or form. But it was reassuring to hear anyway, so Jemma would take what she could get.
Kimberly watched her for a long moment, considering with sad eyes. Then, she sighed and continued, “I also think I figured out something about our injuries in the phantom dimension and how we heal.”
The Rangers leaned in, instantly interested. That had been a point of confusion for ages. Why had Daisy healed so much faster than Kimberly, and why wasn’t Juliana’s arm hurting after she got scratched, but Kim was in so much pain for so long? Was it a Kimberly thing? Wait, no, they were pretty sure Juliana’s head took a while to heal, too.
“Juliana’s arm was healed by the next night, but my scratches took weeks. Juliana’s head was fucked for a month but Val’s ankle was fine after a day or two.” She paused. “It took forever for me to even be able to sit up, but you were walking around within a week. If it’s our souls, or whatever, that are walking around in that place, then maybe it’s not related to how long it should take to recover physically, but mentally.” Daisy closed her eyes. “I took ages to heal cuz I was terrified of dying, but you… You didn’t care about dying at all, did you?”
Jemma paled and slowly pushed herself off of Daisy so that she could face her properly. “What?” She asked quietly.
Val closed her eyes as Kimberly connected the pieces that Val had been grasping at for a while. She’d wanted to be wrong about that, but it was always a possibility. The biggest possibility she could think of.
Daisy raised her hands. “I’m not suicidal, Jemma. We’re different people, different lives. Kind of. I’m not her. We don’t have the same struggles, I’m okay.” She pressed a sound kiss to Jemma’s lips in an attempt to clear off the devastated frown. She rested her forehead against Jemma’s. “I don’t want to die, Jemma.”
Juliana hated that she didn’t believe her. She wanted to. She wanted to cling onto the maybe-lie with everything she had and never let it go, but she didn’t. No matter how much she wanted Daisy to be telling the truth, there were more than a few things that said the opposite. She just hoped that seeing the alternate reality was making her mix up the two Daisys in her head. Maybe that was the lie she could cling to.
Kimberly didn’t take her eyes off the side of Daisy’s head, not facing her but the mirror. “Even from the beginning, you-”
Daisy made a huffing noise. “I realised that a few weeks ago. Was wondering how long it’d take for the rest of you to catch on. But you’re getting ahead of yourself. The adrenaline was nice, and it was cool finding out what it felt like, but I didn’t actually want to die.” In the mirror behind Daisy, her phantom self whispered, “LIAR!” in a sickly, echoey voice that Kimberly obviously couldn’t hear. “I wasn’t scared, though, and I got over it pretty quickly, so I realised that was how recovery works. Didn’t say anything cuz I didn’t want you guys to get the wrong idea. Guess that’s out, now, so we should really tell the others.”
Jemma pulled back from Daisy to look her properly in the eye “Tell me you’re not lying. Tell me and mean it. Don’t lie to me, Daisy, please.”
Daisy’s eyes flicked between Jemma’s and the hesitation was answer enough for the others. “I’ve thought about it. And there have been moments when, yeah, I wanted to die. Or, at least, didn’t care if I died. I haven’t wanted that in a long time. Before I met you guys, but now? I’m okay, Jemma. I’m better now.”
And this time, Jemma could believe it. Fuck, did it still hurt, but at least it wasn’t the case anymore. She didn’t really care that she was crying, it was hard to hear that her girlfriend had considered killing herself before, sue her. She was just glad that Daisy felt comfortable enough to tell her the truth. And more importantly, that she was better now. Jemma prayed that Daisy never felt like that again, and if she did that she would tell her.
Jemma sniffed. “I can’t imagine a world without you in it. I don’t want to. You are the best part of my life, Daisy Johnson, and you have been for a long time. It’s probably corny, but it’s true, and the world is a better place with you in it. I don’t want to wake up knowing that I’ll never see your smile again, or hear your laugh again, or listen to your really quite awful jokes. I couldn’t live without you, Daisy, and I need you to know that you mean everything to me. I know you said that you don’t feel like that anymore, but it doesn’t matter. I need to say it anyway because it’s the truth, and the moment you start doubting that, I will say it again. And again. And again. For the rest of our lives, I will remind you how much you mean to everyone around you. How much you mean to me.”
Daisy blinked away the rising tears in her eyes and whispered, “Okay. Okay.” Because really, that was all she could get out, and she didn’t trust her voice not to crack if she said more. Not that she knew what the hell she’d say anyway.
Ophelia scowled and grumbled under her breath, a few scratches across her face and her arm in a sling, the other leaning heavily on a crutch. “I’m gonna kill those little shits. We don’t need all of them. That fucking crazy bitch with the gun. And when I get my hands on those traitorous-”
Garrett sighed. “You’ve said that at least twenty times in the past few hours, it’s getting annoying.”
Ophelia scowled. “You should be upset! They betrayed you, and you’ve lost your pet project! And our team didn’t find them on the train, so they could be anywhere.”
“Not if you did what I told you to do.” Garrett rolled his eyes. “They will be caught soon enough. They can only evade us for so long with so many eyes on them.”
Trini narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “The hell’s that mean?” She was resolutely not looking at Daisy and Jemma, where they’d curled up on the black side of the couch in fear that she’d cry if she did. She’d already cried far too much in the past who knows how long that they’d been there. It was starting to get ridiculous.
“And while the government’s lackeys are distracted with the damage to the facility, we have other things to focus on.”
Ophelia cut him off. “That’s the kid’s blood. I thought you had already injected it into the infected, and it was useless?”
“The other kids had no connection to the phantom dimension until Juliana pulled them in. They do now.” Garrett started walking away. “Now they can open rifts thanks to the push-pull effect that created. I want to see if we can use hr blood and the blood of an ordinary person to recreate that effect.”
Juliana frowned. “That’s not good. More rifts would mean more infected, right?”
“That, or more people stuck in the phantom dimension like us,” Daisy answered.
Juliana raised an eyebrow as Daisy and Kimberly slid into their places beside Jemma and Trini respectively. “What took y’all so long?”
“I had a nosebleed.” Daisy waved them off. “Kimberly’s a mother.” Kim leaned over the table to slap her with a forced smile.
“You’re not gonna out me.” Daisy smiled gratefully at Kimberly. “Thank you.”
It felt wrong to accept it, but Kimberly wouldn’t violate Daisy’s trust like that. If she didn’t want to tell the others, Kimberly wouldn’t do it unless she thought she was in danger or a danger to herself. As far as she could tell, Daisy wouldn’t do anything to hurt herself aside from taking a few too many risks.
Two of the waitresses stared wide-eyed at them behind the counter, looking between their phones and the teenagers. The article on their phone showed pictures of the six with the headline ‘DANGEROUS KIDS’
“Great,” Kimberly deadpanned. “Just what we needed. The entire state is terrified of us and reporting us to the facility. Fan-fucking-tastic.”
Jemma watched Daisy for a moment before turning her eyes back to Kim. “So you think healing in the phantom dimension is linked to emotional recovery?”
Trini shrugged. “I guess it kind of makes sense. I mean, it’s the only explanation we have?”
Valentina mentioned. “And it would explain why we felt so refreshed after sleeping. Mental recovery and all that.” Then she changed the subject. “How long have you guys been having those dreams?”
Daisy and Kimberly exchanged a glance before Daisy answered, “After we died. But they’ve gotten a lot more frequent.”
Juliana pinched the bridge of her nose. “I still don’t get why you didn’t tell anyone.” She paused. “Okay, I kinda get why Daisy didn’t tell anyone, but you, Kimberly?”
Kimebrly raised her hands. “I probably thought Daisy wasn’t having them, so they were just nightmares. I mean, I’ve made it pretty clear that Daisy healed a lot faster than I did.”
Juliana stared blankly at them “And neither of you thought to mention it?”
Again, Daisy and Kimberly shared a look. Kimberly shrugged it off. “I thought I was just having nightmares. I mean, we did die.”
Juliana frowned and looked down. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them and seeing a phantom version of herself in the reflection of the window. “If you’re both having them, and I am-”
“Woah-” Daisy frowned.
“Not death-related, then.” Jemma ran her hand down her face. “Maybe dying strengthens your connection to the phantom dimension? We know Juliana already had a strong connection, so that might be why she’s having the dreams, but none of the rest of us are.”
Kimberly wondered, “Does that mean we’ll start hearing the phantom noises too?”
Juliana shook her head. “I don’t think so. The phantom noises would have come first.”
Juliana was cut off by sirens as two police cars pulled up outside of the diner. Trini tilted her head. “Wonder what happened out there?”
“Drugs? It’s usually drugs.” Kimberly suggested.
Daisy’s eyes narrowed, and she tightened her grip on her fork. “The diner’s empty. We need to go.” She started to rise, hand pulling Jemma’s sleeve. Thankfully, the others followed her lead, clearly clocking that something was wrong.
“Shit, that must have been what Garrett and Ophelia were talking about,” Trini remembered. “Too many eyes to hide.”
“So, now we’re on the run?” Val made a face.
The door was thrown open, and multiple officers entered the diner, tasers raised. “Freeze! Everyone, hands up!” Daisy loosened intentionally, lowering herself subtly and tightening the grip she still had on the fork. She didn’t want to kill a police officer, but if she had to, to keep her friends safe, then she would.
They all raised their hands, Daisy’s right strategically hidden behind Valentina’s back. Juliana spoke up hesitantly. “What’s this about, officers?”
Valentina spoke slowly. “Daisy, you’re not planning on stabbing the police officers with a fork, are you?”
Daisy shrugged apologetically. “I mean, if I have to? Like, ideally, no. Better to be prepared than to be caught off guard.
“Juliana Valdes, Valentina Carvajal, Daisy Johnson, Trini Kwan, Kimberly Hart, and Jemma Simmons. You are to be detained and classified as dangerous. We are prepared to use physical force if you do not comply. If necessary, we will resort to lethal force. I don’t want to kill a kid today. Come quietly and we won’t have any problems.”
Daisy exchanged a glance with Juliana, waiting for her nod before shooting forward and jamming the fork into the nearest officer's shoulder, wrapping around him and using her weight to bring him to the ground before rolling over and punching him in the face so hard he passed out.
Jemma’s eyebrows shot up. She would not admit how attractive she had found that, though, she was pretty sure her rather flushed face gave her away at least a little bit. She shouldn’t have found that as hot as she did. And no, being pressed up against Daisy under Daisy’s arm was not helping.
All of the tasers were suddenly levelled at Daisy. “What the hell-” Trini lunged forward and tackled him around the waist, sending them both crashing to the ground.
The others all pounced on the officers before they could react, keeping them from fighting and tasing them. Daisy yelled, “Juls, there’s a window in the bathroom and a backdoor in their office!”
“They’ll have all the exits blocked,” Trini reminded them.
Daisy hummed. “Yeah, but any exit is better than walking out the front door.”
Juliana opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, her body shuddered and crumpled as she was tazed, screaming in pain at the electricity burning through her veins. The lights flickered as the screen glitched, the sky turning from a dingy grey to blood red.
“Oh shit-” Trini started.
“Fucking hell-” Juliana's eyebrows rose; she hadn't expected them to actually taze one of them. Granted, they did get a little stabby. So, maybe it was a little justified.
“She’s a teenager, you psycho!” Jemma yelled angrily at the screen, or more accurately, the man on the screen.
“What the fuck?!” Val was just... well, she supposed shocked wasn't the right word for the situation. More.... she couldn't find it. Protective was what she was going with, because there was no way that bastard got to taze her girlfriend and get away with it. Absolutely not.
Chapter 19: SERIOUSLY?
Notes:
Sorry for the delay, but the last chapter is finally here.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Juliana opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, her body shuddered and crumpled as she was tazed, screaming in pain at the electricity burning through her veins. The lights flickered as the screen glitched, the sky turning from a dingy grey to blood red.
They all froze in place, heads snapping towards Juliana in horror as the lightning coursed through her veins. Valentina tackled the guy, tazing Juliana before kicking him in the head with a crack as her nose met her shoe. She dropped to her knees beside Juliana in a second. “Are you okay?!”
Daisy’s eyebrows hiked up her forehead. “Damn, Val. Badass.” Not that she was surprised anymore. She saw what kind of awesomeness that Val unleashed when Juliana was hurt or in danger. Super kind optimist was not so secretly a badass. Who knew?
“I’ve got their weapons!” Kimberly reported as Daisy and Trini knocked out the two remaining officers in the diner, with them and the other two crowded around Juliana with concerned frowns.
Juliana reassured them. “Jemma got the things out of my arm. Just a little dizzy.” Her arms were curled around her abdomen.
Jemma’s jaw tightened. “Tazing teenagers. Who the hell do they think they are?” Okay, so they’d attacked them a little bit. So what? They were kids. You didn’t go around shooting, threatening, and tazing kids, that was just fucked up. In her opinion, it was totally self-defence on their part to fight back. If the officers didn’t want to get beaten up, they shouldn’t have tried to arrest a bunch of teenagers with no evidence and threatened lethal force. Assholes, the lot of them.
“HELP!” Someone called from beyond the window, muffled by the glass but still as clear as the gunshots that followed. Multiple police officers were beyond the glass, rapidly turning and shooting at the phantoms quickly surorunding them.
Trini blinked once. Twice. “Wait, the fuck? How the hell? Did you open the rift? Should that even be possible?”
Juliana ran a hand through her hair. “Fuck if I can make portals between the real world and the phantom dimensions and I can’t control that, where does that leave us?”
Val tilted her head slightly. “We’re wearing our normal outfits? Did it reset like the distance limit?” She suggested hesitantly. And if it didn’t reset, then what did that mean for them? She shook her head, this was giving her a headache.
Jemma gaped. “How the bloody hell are we here?”
“May!” Leon called over his shoulder. “Get over here.” May came to look over his shoulder. “We’ve got new footage for the project with Juliana’s blood.”
Jemma perked up. Okay, yes, it was freaky and evil, but if it found a cure for the phantoms and didn’t hurt Juliana or anyone else in the process? She was okay with that. Sue her. She thought that was reasonable.
Daniel came over to watch over Leon’s other shoulder. “Jesus, how many times is he gonna try this? Nothing’s happened yet, and he’s already taken far too much of Juliana’s blood.”
Leon made a face. “Look.” He clicked onto something, and even May was startled, eyes widening slightly at the scene on the screen. Stupid thing was out of view though.
Daisy tensed. “Well, that’s not a good sign. May’s spooked. Like… like super freaking spooked. What the hell are they doing?”
Daisy and Kimberly banged on the glass, trying to get the officers’ attention. “USE THE TORCHES! HEY, YOU NEED TO USE YOUR TORCHES!”
“I don’t think they can hear us!” Trini pointed out, reaching for her torch and taking a step towards the door before freezing, mouth falling open in horror at a loud crunch.
Valentina cringed. “What the fuck was that?”
Trini’s face screwed up in disgust. “That was horrible. What was that?”
The teenagers all stared with wide eyes out of the window, deathly pale and gaping at what they were seeing. Val looked kind of green as well.
“What the hell are we seeing?” Daisy questioned. She couldn’t imagine there was much that would make them freeze like that after everything.
There was an infected crawling onto a man strapped down as Garrett’s voice came through. “After extensive trial and error, we’ve found the method that the creatures use to infect new hosts. Thanks to the success of mixing Juliana Valdes’s blood with a person with no connection to the phantom dimension’s blood.” The infected’s jaw snapped open, and a phantom crawled out of the mouth, hand grasping onto the other man’s jaw and snapping it open. “The subject seems to have opened a rift inside of itself. While the entities appear not to exist on this plane on their own, they’re able to with a host. Like parasites.” The phantom crawled out of the infected’s mouth into the other man’s. “The infected was able to transfer an extra entity into the host.”
None of them really knew what to say to that? What the fuck were they supposed to say? What the actual fuck? Was that? They all felt sick, quite frankly. It fucking broke their jaws and crawled into them? That was how you became infected.
Daisy felt kind of queasy. Then, she had a horrifying thought. “Wait.” Everyone looked at her, slightly green. “Me and Kimberly are being hunted by phantom versions of ourselves.” Immediately, they all paled impossibly, catching on to what she was suggesting. “What if they do… that when they catch us?”
Val stopped her. “If. If they catch you.”
Kimberly looked kind of heartbroken. “Val-”
“If,” Juliana agreed. “If they catch you. And they won’t. We won’t let them. We’ll find a way to fix this, okay? We aren’t losing anyone, not permanently. Not to this. We can’t.”
The teenagers stared in stunned terror as the phantom crawled into one of the police officer’s mouths, snapping his jaw. They were paralysed for a few more moments before the glass shattered with the phantoms jumping through it. “OUT THE BACK!” Val screamed, pulling Juliana up and dragging Jemma behind her before her brain caught up, and they were all running from the phantoms.
Jemma frowned. “What about the police?”
“They threatened to kill us and tased Juliana, I’m not too fazed about what happens to the police.” At Jemma’s scanadlised look, Daisy course corrected, “Uh, I mean, we don’t have time and they’re kind of already fucked anyway. Not much that we can do there.”
It still definitely wasn’t the right answer but it was certainly better than the ‘they suck, let them die’ answer. Jemma shook her head but nuzzled it slightly into Daisy’s shoulder, so Daisy figured she was kinda in the clear. Maybe. Hopefully.
“Where are we going?” Daisy called from the back of the group, except this time it didn’t seem like Daisy was slowing herself down. Her face was drawn in pain, and her breathing was laboured to hell and back, but she was keeping pace well enough.
Juliana grimaced. “Neither of you should be running. How long were we even stuck in the facility? A few weeks? It can’t be good for you or Kimberly to be running about.”
“I don’t know!” Trini called over her shoulder from the front. “Anywhere that’s more secure than a damn waffle house!”
“We need to get back to the motel!” Juliana decided. “That’s where ur weapons and supplies are!” Then Juliana stumbled, dropping to one knee as she held her head. “Something’s not right…”
“Juliana!” Jemma stopped beside her, Kimberly shooting the phantom that charged forward. “What’s wrong?”
“I-” Juliana shook her head. “I’m really dizzy.”
Trini frowned. “Do you think that’s from the taser?”
Kimberly wondered, “Is that how tasers work?”
Simultaneously, the Rangers all turned to Jemma, who glanced around at them, perplexed. “Wh- I don’t know everything!”
Valentina scooped her up bridal style in a smooth motion as they continued running. “I don’t get it, how the hell are we here?! It’s the middle of the day!”
“Gah!” Jemma lay face down on the floor where she must have fallen.
Jemma frowned. Something was off, but she couldn’t place what it was. It was obvious. What was she missing? It was so obvious, but where the hell is it? What was wrong?
Daisy stopped and held a hand out to Jemma. “Jem, you okay?” She asked frantically before noting the white wraps covering the hand in her own. Then the black combat outfit. Before she could react, Jemma lifted her head to reveal a too-broud smile and blacked out eyes.
Jemma gasped. Bloody hell, that’s what it was, then. It was their other selves. They had been wondering about that. Shit. So what now? What would the phantom version of Jemma do to Daisy?
“Where the hell is the real you?” Daisy asked, naturally more focused on Jemma’s safety than her own. The usual. Completely unsurprising.
Daisy screamed as the phantom version of Jemma dragged her down an alley. The group whipped around, Trini calling, “Daisy?!” They ran down the alleyway, but Daisy had disappeared.
“Fuck,” Trini swore under herr breathe. Where the hell were Daisy and Jemma?
“We need to split up!” Kimberly called, running off to the right. “We’ll find her faster that way!” They all agreed and parted ways, aside from Juliana and Val since Val was still carrying her.
Trini blinked. “That’s a terrible idea! Didn’t we agree that we weren’t gonna pull an of that horror movie splitting up bullshit? We definitely agreed on that. That’s a horrible idea, babe.”
Valentina ran as fast as possible with Juliana in her arms. The phantom was gaining on them, but they should be okay. Just a little longer. Juliana’s phantom self lingered in an open doorway that they ran through before another glitch took over the screen, and they stumbled as the sky turned normal and people were walking around again. Not a phantom in sight.
Juliana slumped. “Okay, we’re out. Good. Now we just have to find Daisy and Jemma, and everything will be fine. Once we’ve fixed the whole splitting-up thing. We’ll be fine, we just need to get back together.”
“Maybe we’ll meet up at the motel?” Kimberly suggested. That was actually quite smart, yeah. That’d make sense.
Val and Juliana stared around with bemused frowns, panting heavily as Val let Juliana down to standing with her arm slung over Val’s shoulders still. “We made it out?” Juliana breathed before meeting Valentina’s eyes with a relieved smile. Her eyes flitted down to Val’s lips for a brief moment, even leaning in a hair before blinking and turning to the alley they’d run out of. “What about the others?”
Daisy groaned. “So close. Come on, man, how are me and Jemma the only ones that are together?” Then she paused. “We still haven’t had that conversation about S.H.I.E.L.D., have we?” She really hoped she’d still have a girlfriend after that. Well, other Daisy. Daisy definitely still had a girlfriend.
Kimberly turned her eyes to the sky with a relieved smile. “We’re out.” She kept walking forward before making a loud noise as she collided with someone, sending them both hurtling to the ground. Kimberly’s head snapped up with a scowl, venomous comment on the tip of her tongue before she cut herself off. “Jemma?”
Daisy dropped her head back against the back of the couch with a breathy exhale. “Oh, thank God.” Jemma was okay. That was good. And she was with Kimberly. They’d be okay.
Jemma looked at her with wide eyes for a long moment, eyes flicking between Kimberly’s before she shot forward and wrapped her arms around Kimberly, burying her face in her shoulder with a shaky breath. “Val grabbed me!”
Val blinked. “I fucking what?”
Jemma dodged backwards to avoid being grabbed by a phantom before yelping as phantom Val’s hand clamped over her mouth and she was dragged into an alleyway. Then, she saw the other version of her fall to lure Daisy in. Jemma’s screams were muffled by Val’s hand as she was dragged backwards before her hand managed to wrap around the gun in Phantom Val’s belt, and she shot a bullet into Val’s calf. Phantom Val screamed soundlessly, releasing Jemma and giving her the opportunity to escape, which she took with both hands.
Kimberly ran her hand down her face. “God, the phantom versions of us are fucking horriyfing. That’s terrifying.”
Kimberly helped Jemma up. “Clones?”
Jemma nodded. “Wearing the combat outfits we wear in the Phantom Dimension. The ones Val bought us.” She paused. “Where are the others?”
Kimberly swallowed. “I don’t know. Daisy got grabbed, too, so we split up to look for you guys.”
Trini shook her head in disapproval at the mention. Such a stupid idea. She loved her girlfriend, but she didn’t have to always agree with her. Plus, Kimberly wasn’t exactly happy with the whole splitting-up thing either.
Jemma stared at her. “You split up? The one thing-”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, I panicked.” Kimberly excused herself. “Let’s just o find them, kay?” A loud crunch interrupted Jemma’s response, and they both froze before slowly turning around. “What the fuck was that?”
Trini swallowed. “I second that.”
“I third that,” Daisy agreed.
“Am I allowed to agree with myself, or is that weird?” Kimberly asked. She didn’t think it was weird. She was pretty sure it made sense. It was still her.
Trini ran through the streets, the sky now a normal colour and not red, thankfully. “Daisy? Jemma? Kimberly? Guys?” She called as she ran, but there was no response.
That is, until about five seconds later when Daisy called. “Tiny!” She ran over to Trini before skidding to a stop and wrapping her arms around the shorter girl. “You okay?”
“Where the hell did you go?” Trini asked before pulling away. “Are you hurt?” She looked at Daisy’s arm for a moment. “Are you more hurt?”
Jemma let out a long-suffering sigh. That really was basically their motto with Daisy. Are you more hurt than you were the last time I checked? And much to her dismay, the answer was usually fucking yes.
“No, I’m fine. Freaky-Jemma-twin grabbed me. Don’t recommend. Shithead stole my bag and everything.”
Whatever baffled response Trini had to that was cut off by a sharp yell. “Freeze!” Both girls turned to look at the officer raising a gun at them. A gun. An actual fucking gun. What a bitch. “Raise your hands! Now!” Daisy and Trini slowly raised their hands before exchanging a look. Then, they took off to the right much faster than the officer could keep up with.
Juliana groaned. “You could have been shot!”
Val laughed. “Who the hell decided it’d be a good idea to put you two together. You’re equally terrible influences on each other.”
Jemma and Kimberly stared in shock at the infected officer who stood in front of them, head tilted unnaturally to the side. Kimberly finally snapped out of it, pushing Jemma as they ran. “GO, GO, GO!” They took off down the alley at breakneck speed away from the infected man.
“Should we shoot them?” Daisy tilted her head.
“What?” Kimberly questioned. “Daisy, they’re still police!”
“Not anymore, they’re not!” Daisy disagreed.
Jemma and Kimberly were having a rather similar crisis on screen as the infected bandage grew on them and Kimberly’s hand drifted to the gun hidden in the back of her waistband before multiple shots rang out and the phantom crumpled. Both of them paused, looking around. “What the hell?” Jemma breathed before a dart buried itself into her arm, followed by Kimberly’s.
Kimberly stumbled slightly, eyes growing lidded as she tried to fight off the effects. “What…?” Then she slouched into the brick wall, sliding down it as her vision grew dark around the edges. The camera panned up to the men standing on the fire escape.
“Son of a bitch!” Trini swore.
“The fucking facility?” Juliana made a face. “I thought we’d have a little more time.”
“What the hell are they going to do with you two?” Was Daisy’s main concern. How long would it be before they ran out of Juliana’s blood, and then what? What would they use Jemma and Kimberly for? As bait? Worse?
Daisy and Trini rounded the corner, breathing heavily. Trini leaned her hands on her knees as Daisy interlocked her fingers behind her head and dropped her head back. “Jesus Christ, have we lost them now?”
Trini lifted her head and her eye locked onto a coach where a man was packing bags into the compartment underneath. A pretty large compartment underneath. Her eyes brightened. “I have a great idea.”
Daisy made a pained face. “We are not going in there.”
Daisy smiled kindly at the old bus driver. “We saw you had a flat tyre at the back. Figured it’d be good to let you know.”
The driver went to check the tyre and found it, shockingly, completely unscathed. He ground his teeth together. “Damned teenagers.”
They were, in fact, going in there.
Daisy and Trini were tightly packed in with the luggage. “This is a terrible idea.”
Trini rolled her eyes. “Didn’t see you offering any dieas to get away from those assholes. We can get safe, then find the others. They’ll probably go back to the motel, we’ll meet them there. We only have to wait for the next bus stop.”
“How are we supposed to know when the next bus stop is?” Daisy raised an eyebrow. “We can jump out in a minute when it stops at a red-” She froze at the sound of a click. “Ah, nah.”
Trini buried her face in her hands. “He just locked us in, didn’t he?” Okay, in hindsight, she had to agree it was a terrible idea. They were so fucked.
Trini paled. “Did he just lock it?” Daisy didn’t have to answer. Trini wasn’t asking because she didn’t know. She was asking because she didn’t want to believe it. Daisy very slowly turned a venomous glare to Trini, who grimaced as the bus’s engine roared to life.
“I hate to say it, Kim, but spitting up was the worst idea you’ve ever had.” Daisy groaned. In fairness, they knew that already. But it was only becoming more clear as everything got worse by the second. Jemma and Kimberly had been kidnapped. Trini and Daisy were driving who knows where in a bus. She could only hope that Juliana and Valentina would be better off.
“Yeah, I know, I know,” Kimberly whined. She was more than aware of her stupid mistake.
Juliana and Valentina lowered their heads at the police siren from across the street, ducking into an alleyway in an attempt to avoid attention. Having a search warrant out for them sucked balls. “Let’s try and find the others,” Valentina suggested quietly, Juls nodding in agreement.
Trini winced. “Good luck with that one.”
Juliana stopped them after a minute, hand resting on Val’s arm with a concerned frown. “Why are you limping? Did you get hurt?”
Valentina frowned, shaking her leg out a little. “I didn’t think so? Maybe? I mean it hurts, but I don’t remember hurting it.”
Jemma’s eyes widened. Bloody hell, it had to be because of her shooting Val’s phantom self. Shit, that made sense. Why hadn’t she thought of that? They knew that hurting their shadow selves hurt them in the real world, it made sense that those rules still applied.
Juliana frowned at the clean skin, not so much of a bruise in sight. “Weird. Maybe you bruised the bone? Or… did you hurt it in the phantom dimension?”
Val shrugged. “Not that I remember, no. And it hurts enough that I should definitely be able to remember it.” She frowned, looking up from Juliana to try to bring something to her mind, but she couldn’t think of what could have possibly happened. Then she paused, eyes locking onto a fire escape within the alley. She jutted her chin towards it. “You think we’ll be able to see the others from up there?"
Kimberly sighed heavily. “I wish.” It would make everything so much simpler.
Juliana closed her eyes from the top of the building, shoulders slumping at the lack of success. “Damn it.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” Val squeezed Juliana’s shoulder. “We’ll find them. We just need time. And… to trust that they can look after themselves.” That was at least a little bit reassuring. They were all more than experienced in combat, and they’d hopefully all make it out of this okay. They could only pray that the others weren’t alone.
Juliana nodded, turning to look at Val gratefully. “Yeah… Yeah, I’m sure they’re fine. I mean, how far can they have possibly gone?”
Which was almost a jinx as the scene changed to Jemma and Kimberly in a car, completely passed out in the backseat, before switching to Daisy and Trini arguing in hushed voices beneath the bus. Then it showed the satnav. 2 hours and 4 minutes. Fuck.
“And I thought I was the one always jinxing things?” Daisy joked, her voice tinged with resignation. There was split up and then there was… this shit.
Kimberly blinked a few times when the wall didn’t light back up. “Wait. Wait, that’s not it, is it?”
To their great relief, the wall did light up. To their great irritation, it was only words. Juliana read them out, “I am afraid so. You may be brought back here again at a later date. Time will now resume, and it will be as if you had never left, to everyone else.”
Kimberly blinked. She blinked again. “Fucking seriously? You have to be kidding! Why even bring us here at all if you aren’t gonna show us the whole thing?”
There was no response. Fucking coward. Where the hell did this thing get off-
Juliana blinked, looking at her hands. Then, she looked at the room around her, decidedly not the ship. And she was alone. It was her bedroom again, the same place she’d been when they’d first been teleported, what felt like days ago.
“WHAT THE FU-”
Notes:
THE END #
(until Season 3 drops)
S_yisel on Chapter 7 Sun 04 May 2025 10:53PM UTC
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EchoingQuake on Chapter 7 Sun 04 May 2025 11:24PM UTC
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S_yisel on Chapter 7 Mon 05 May 2025 09:44PM UTC
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EchoingQuake on Chapter 7 Mon 05 May 2025 10:49PM UTC
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yubinch on Chapter 10 Sun 25 May 2025 05:23AM UTC
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EchoingQuake on Chapter 10 Sun 25 May 2025 10:45AM UTC
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yubinch on Chapter 11 Sun 01 Jun 2025 03:27AM UTC
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EchoingQuake on Chapter 11 Thu 05 Jun 2025 04:05PM UTC
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IgnisDS16 on Chapter 15 Mon 07 Jul 2025 01:10AM UTC
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EchoingQuake on Chapter 15 Mon 07 Jul 2025 11:03AM UTC
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EchoingQuake on Chapter 15 Mon 07 Jul 2025 11:28AM UTC
Last Edited Mon 07 Jul 2025 11:28AM UTC
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IgnisDS16 on Chapter 15 Mon 07 Jul 2025 05:36PM UTC
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IgnisDS16 on Chapter 15 Mon 07 Jul 2025 05:30PM UTC
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IgnisDS16 on Chapter 16 Mon 07 Jul 2025 06:00PM UTC
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EchoingQuake on Chapter 16 Wed 06 Aug 2025 10:26PM UTC
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IgnisDS16 on Chapter 18 Mon 21 Jul 2025 01:43PM UTC
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EchoingQuake on Chapter 18 Tue 22 Jul 2025 12:01AM UTC
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IgnisDS16 on Chapter 19 Wed 06 Aug 2025 10:14PM UTC
Last Edited Wed 06 Aug 2025 10:18PM UTC
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EchoingQuake on Chapter 19 Wed 06 Aug 2025 10:22PM UTC
Last Edited Wed 06 Aug 2025 10:23PM UTC
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