Cotton sheets twisted around Kate as she snuggled further into the covers. The early sun had begun drooling in, striking the walls with a cold blue morning. She groaned at the light before smooshing her face under a pillow.

"You have to get up at some point, Sweetie," Edging his way closer, Keith sat beside the cocooned woman.

"No I don't," Kate grunted as she curled in on herself. "I'm still tired."

Keith rubbed Kate's shoulder, "don't you have your therapy today?"

"I'll cancel."

The smile on Keith's lips sunk, "Hun, it's the first meeting." There was no reply. "Look, the therapist specializes in rangers and operates out of the ranger union, right? I'll give you a ride there since I have to stop by and drop off my mission report."

Kate scoffed, finally rolling over to face Keith, "Mission reports? You barely turned in your homework at the Academy." A ghost of a smile echoed over her face for a moment.

At the comment, Keith's chest puffed out. His black and white uniform stretching as he pulled his red jacket with a spark of confidence, "I'll have you I'm a very responsible ranger! School was boring, writing about stuff that happened over 50 whole years ago." Keith flared his arms out with a scrunched expression as if he bit into something bitter. It melted away into a soft warmth as he looked back to Kate, "Now I get to write about cool shit, like diving to the bottom of the ocean to battle a frickin' legend so to stop raging tsunamis. Writing reports are like leaving evidence for whichever lucky soul gets to write my epic, life-changing, biography."

The man continued to flail his arms around dramatically as each word came with a wind of life. Kate nodded along as Keith narrated his aquatic saga. Her eyebrows relaxed as she watched the love of her life ramble on with passion hanging on each word. He would turn to look at Kate frequently, and each time their eyes met, his smile spread further into his cheeks.

It was like the first time Keith breathed in his entire story. His shoulders settled as he rubbed Kate's shoulder and said, "I am gonna go get our ride ready, I'll meet you outside in a few."

"Kay," Kate whispered as Keith rose to leave the room.

She twisted and turned in bed for a few minutes. Finally, she loosed a sigh of defeat as she rolled out of bed. Rubbing her eyes, she began to get ready. She went with the first thing she grabbed as she meandered around the bedroom softly. Kate paused at the full body mirror tiredly as she tied up her hair into two ponytails. They were quickly wrapped up at the base of her skull, dropping to skim her shoulder blades.

She wondered how long it had been since she had trimmed her hair. Or even showered for that fact. Grease stuck to her fingers as she pulled her hands away. Kate attempted to clean them off by wiping them off against her dark sweatpants.

Giving a last look over to her reflection, Kate pulled her red bomber jacket further in. She hoped no one would notice her bra through the white tank top. "Maybe I should just change the shirt..." She mumbled, blue eyes scrunching up. But she wasn't going to. These were ranger colors.

These were her colors.

When Kate stepped out of her apartment door, she had no need to look for Keith. There he stood, grooming a feathered beast beside him. "Raptoooor," The creature cawed the moment it saw Kate. Her little Starly sat upon the Staraptor's head, the size of the two pokémon towering over the rangers.

"Hop on," Keith said as he climbed on to the flying-type.

Kate just shook her head, "I thought you meant you'd take me to the Union in a car."

"Hey, I said I'd take you to the Union, never said how," A smirk curled against Keith's lips, "Come on, this is a lot faster and we avoid traffic. Unless you're, you know, scared?"

Kate's eyebrows shot up at the challenge, "You're playing a dangerous game, Dazzle."

"Only for you, Hitomi-Dazzle," Keith replied, putting emphasis on the last name as he reached out. Kate scoffed but still took his hand. Staraptor stretched as they watched Starly soar on ahead of them. Their steed gave a valiant screech before unfurling its wings. Within moments, they were up in the air. Wind thrashed and beat against Kate's pearly face, throwing her pigtails wildly behind them like a banner.

Plumed clouds swam past them in white streaks across the ocean of sky. Their home of Pueltown, their region's great metropolis, was nothing but a collection of grey specks the further they rose. As Kate looked about the endless horizon, she caught her partner.

Little Starly glided beside them, her feathers fluttering in the headwinds. She dropped for a moment, wings closing together to turn away. Kate and Keith's own Staraptor began to lean in the opposite direction as a cotton cloud swelled up between the two birds.

Once they all were past the cloud, Staraptor evened out. Little Starly sprouted up from the lower winds and spiraled around them with a breath of life in each small motion.

Even Keith was caught up in the ordeal as he flung his arms back and rang on the top of his lungs, "Yahoo!" Staraptor joined in the cry, rising even higher. The warm light burned against Kate's skin and she turned to look above her. The afternoon sun burned directly overhead. Something within Kate told her to reach for it, and she did. Her arm stretched and fingers flexed, but no matter how close they came, she couldn't reach the sun.

Her eyes came back down to look at the frame of Keith's back. She wondered when Keith's shoulder's had become so broad. His spiked hair seemed a bit shorter too. But as Kate looked at all those around her, she could only find one way to truly describe them.

They seemed free.

When the team landed at the Ranger Union, Keith took the time to thank Staraptor before releasing the great beast with his styler. Kate's partner snuggled onto her shoulder as the two rangers walked into the building. Starly nuzzled Kate's cheek as the woman waved goodbye to Keith. "You'll probably be off on a mission when I finish my appointment, so I'll walk home. I can pick up groceries," Kate said as she strolled towards the escalator.

"Alright, hun," Keith smiled, "I'll see you back at home." He quickly blew her a kiss before turning towards the receptionist. The sight of her husband quickly disappeared as Kate rolled up to the second floor.

Her feet skid against the ending mat, eyes fixed on the creamy yellow tiles that patterned ahead of her. Her breath shook for a moment before she stepped forward. The cold metal walls shrunk in around her as she moved down the hall. Red trimming wrapped around the top and bottom of the walls, as if a fire was crawling in through the cracks. Kate skimmed her overly-trimmed nails across her palm over and over. Teeth pulling at her lips, ripping bits of dead skin away

Starly beside Kate cooed. The two met eyes and the little bird cocked her head, tweeting again. Kate's expression slid, a smile too awkward to fit on her face, "Just a bit nervous." The little Starly began to brush her head against Kate's cheek, wings fluffing up as she hummed. "It feels like I haven't been here in forever..."

When she arrived at the office door, Kate waited until it was exactly 2 pm before knocking. After a moment of waiting the door swung open. Kate's eyes gazed out a window for a few moments, with a few owlish blinks, before she peered down to a stout woman. The woman was quite a bit older than Kate, but couldn't have been over fifty. Her hair was twisted into a blonde braid over her shoulder and the makeup she wore was just a little too thick. The woman's penciled-in eyebrows rose, her ruby painted lips agape.

"You must be, Ms. Hitomi-Dazzle, I've seen photos of you in the paper!" The woman extended a hand out, "Good afternoon."

Kate gave a like greeting as she grasped the woman's hand, a polite smile painted on each of their expressions, "You can call me Kate, it'll be less of a mouthful to say."

"Fair," the therapist chuckled, "I'm Annabelle Willow. You can just call me Ann."

"Nice to meet you, Ann," Kate said with a mandated warmth.

The two took a seat, and thus the first meeting of many began. A ring of questions filled the time as Kate told of the darkness that has hung on her shoulder since she was just a child. Weeks where she was tethered to the bed, missing school, events, and work. How this numb feeling would strangle the air around her throat into a noose. It would pull her further and further by the throat towards an endless nothingness.

Then came the nightmares. Kate's air slipped through webbed lungs as she trembled to tell the horrifying images, scenes, skies. She fought back tears as she painted it out what she had done in her dreams. How they pooled into her life today so much that she doesn't know what is real anymore.

"I-It's like I'm lost in reality," Kate said. Her eyes gazed into the wall behind Ann, "the world continues to move on without me. I... I was a hero before. But now I know, the keyword is that I was. The Rangers don't need me. They've got Wendy, Sven a-and Keith. I am just a name in books, that will one day mean nothing. The horrors I saw at Altru meant nothing..."

Ann nodded, scratching down notes quickly across her clipboard.

"Sorry, this all just sounds like a spoiled kid complaining that they don't get enough attention," Kate said, her posture shrinking.

The therapist's head rose, soft eyes matching a sadder smile, "Not at all Kate. Actually, what you're describing to me is Major Depressive Disorder; Depression. It's something quite common and treatable."

Kate looked up, "I'm... Depressed?" She blinked the small puddles forming in her eyes away. "But I've had a good life. I have loving parents— an amazing sister— I got the job of my dreams and married the love of my life... Do I deserve to be depressed?"

"May I speak candidly?"

"Uh— Yeah."

Ann shifted her glasses down her nose. The woman's piercing brown eyes burning into Kate, "that's Tauros shit. Depression doesn't just target those who've had a shitty life. It preys on anyone it can curl its fingers on. Rich, poor, good, corrupt, kind and bitter. It is an illness in your head. Often the brain can't produce enough of a chemical like serotonin or dopamine, basically the smiley energy."

The former ranger was left quiet. Starly nuzzled against her, hoping to move a reaction. But Kate just locked her gaze onto the top of her hands.

"As for the nightmares," Ann mused while she glanced over her notes, "They seem to often tie back to the Rangers or Altru Inc. I can't say for sure, but you may be suffering from PTS or PTSD. That night on Altru tower really shook you to the core, whether you'd like to admit it or not. It also probably elevated the depression you already had."

Kate nodded. A small voice poking in the back of her head. It grew louder and louder before deafening Kate. She finally opened her mouth to let the fear spill across the room, "is there a chance I could hurt someone?" Her eyes shivered as she looked to the ranger therapist. Kate couldn't bear if this meant she was able to hurt someone if she did.

It would kill her.

Ann smiled, her voice like silk, "Everyone is capable of hurting others. Whether it may be purposefully, or accidentally from just saying the wrong words. But you mean in the twisted manner of your dreams."

Ann breathed as she took in all that was Kate Hitomi-Dazzle. Her Rattata-hunched demeanor. The blue pools for eyes that carried a kindness that would unravel everything Kate is if she kept on stretching as she was now.

"No." Ann said just a little more than a whisper, "Nightmares show us our greatest fears, weaknesses, and loss. If anything, your dreams are telling me you never want to harm those closest to you. It shows me how compassionate you are, Kate."

Kate hung her head. Those were words she has been dying to hear for years. But when they finally came, it felt like thousands of thorns were pulling her so tight, she would pop.

Is that really all?