Sanders Sides (power rangers au)

Chapter 58.

Virgil let Janus just sit, not completely sure how to help other than just to be there. However, that was what Janus seemed to need. Virgil watched as his friend’s shoulders shuddered in and out with every breath, and he listened to him sniffling. After a moment, he noticed that the hoodie Roman had bought the other day was sitting on the chair and saw a set of burned holes in the back. He frowned, wondering how Roman was still running so hot. Janus slowly began to sit up, distracting Virgil.

“Are you okay?” Virgil asked, giving Janus a once over. He could see a small cut on his eyebrow, and a couple bruises on his neck. Virgil also noticed a set of cuts and bruises beginning to form around his wrists from the chains. He wished he could make it better, but he knew none of them would let him.

“Not really.” Janus admitted. “I just wanna be a kid. Now I’ve put my mom in danger, and god knows who else.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Patton said, still leaning on Logan’s shoulder. Logan had his head over top of Patton’s, and Virgil could see the blue ranger fighting off sleep.

“Will we? Is there even an ‘out’ to get to?” Janus asked, and Virgil frowned.

“I don’t know if there is an out.” Virgil admitted. “Just forwards.”

Janus quieted, still sniffling as he wiped his tears from his cheeks. Virgil reached down, snagged the last first-aid kit, and opened it up. He grabbed one of Janus’s wrists gently, and began to clean the spots Remus’s hadn’t. He focused on cleaning out the cuts and bruises on his friend’s wrists. Janus’s bracelet hand made it particularly difficult, as the band kept moving into the cuts as Virgil cleaned them. He made sure they were able to close well. Virgil moved Janus’s bracelet around gently, so it wasn’t in the wounds, before he took some gauze and wrapped his hands. He had only just finished when a woman barged into the room. She was clearly Janus’s mom, her hair was the same dirty blonde and she had the same eyes, she was wearing a set of clothes that were covered in dirt.

“Janus!” She cried, running around the couch to grab her son. Janus attempted to stand, before his legs gave back out and he fell back onto the couch. She didn’t seem to care, reaching down to pull him into a hug as Virgil stood up and moved out of the way. “Oh my god, baby, where have you been? What happened to you?” She looked him over, checking over his newly bandaged wrists and his face.

“I’m okay, Mom.” Janus said, trying to put her worry to rest. She didn’t seem to care, still looking over his face as she sat down on the couch next to him. Janus let her, and Virgil noticed Roman and Remus standing near the entrance. He waved the twins over, gesturing for them to sit down so they could all be here for their friend. Janus pulled away after a moment, as Remus sat down on the chair beside Janus and Roman came to stand by Virgil. “Mom. We should talk.”

“Yes.” She nodded. She finally pulled her eyes away from her son to look around the room, and she seemed to only just realize the others were there. “Hello.” She turned back. “Jan, what is this place? Who are these kids?”

“Mom.” Janus said, scooting to face her better. “This is the Sanctuary. It’s where the Power Rangers go to practice.”

“Power Rangers?” She frowned. “Those heroes? You know them?” She looked at the others. “Are they-”

“Yeah, Mom, we are.” Janus gave her an awkward smile.

“We?” It seemed to dawn on her all at once. “Jan. You haven’t been…”

“Yeah…” Janus nodded. “These are my friends, Mom.” He pointed to the others, and Virgil gave an awkward wave.

“And you’re all… these superheroes we’ve been seeing?” She looked at them all, seemingly sizing them up.