An Evil Shade of Pink
By sweetgordon

Disclaimer in Part One

*~*~*~*~*

 
Chapter Twenty-Three - Conner's Punishment

“Okay class, everyone take their seat. Class has begun,” announced Dr. Oliver as he dug through his briefcase in search of the tests, which he had thank God made up Friday night and not waited until Sunday night to write. Things had been calm all morning much to his and the other Rangers’ surprise. The Evil Pink Ranger had not yet made her move and all of the other Rangers had been on edge all day in anticipation.

It was now two o’clock exactly, only fifty minutes left, last class of the day. Dr. Oliver was also thankful that he so far hadn’t had to leave class early, thus pissing off Randall. Another concern had also been eating at him all day, where was Mesogog? He hadn’t budged all weekend, was it possible that he too was afraid of the Evil Pink Ranger? Dr. O decided that it was best to just worry about one villain at a time. Conner on the other hand had silently wished all day that the Evil Pink Ranger would attack so he wouldn’t have to take the dreaded Biology exam. He had studied, yet somehow nothing sunk in.

Dr. O. began passing out the papers, “Okay everyone, this covers chapters ten through fourteen, if you studied you should be fine,” he said giving Conner a ‘you can do it’ grin as he set the test down on his desk. Conner returned his gaze with an apologetic look. He always wanted to please Dr. Oliver and he knew he was successful in doing so as a Ranger, but outside the costume he wasn’t so lucky.

“You may all begin,” declared Dr. Oliver once the last test was distributed. Everyone turned their papers over just as they heard a terrible crash outside, which shook the ground and the walls around them. The students immediately became alarmed.

“Everyone just calm down and stay in your seats,” ordered Dr. Oliver as he rushed to the door. Down the hall he spotted the librarian, Mrs. Spade. She too had heard the crash and was in search of someone with answers.

“Mrs. Spade,” called Dr. O as he receipted the woman’s attention.

“Dr. Oliver,” answered the plump middle aged woman, “did you hear that? What was it?” she asked not waiting for a response in between questions.

“I don’t know,” replied Dr. O, “but would you mind watching my class while I go check it out?”

“Sure, this is my free period,” agreed Mrs. Spade.

Dr. Oliver peeked his head back into the classroom noticing the distressed looks on Conner, Kira, and Ethan’s faces.

“Everyone just continue with the test, Mrs. Spade is going to sit in for me while I go check things out. Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Dr. O,” Ethan blurted out wanting in on the action, but knowing there was nothing he could do.

“Just stay put Ethan,” ordered the doctor as he turned to walk out.

“But I’m not feeling well!” shouted Kira as she put her hand on her forehead. Didn’t Dr. O get it? They were a team; there was no question that the commotion hadn’t been caused by the Pink Ranger. Why did he always have to insist on doing everything alone?

“Very well Kira,” said Dr. Oliver reluctantly, “Ethan take her to the school nurse.”

“But Dr. O?” interrupted Conner not understanding what was going on. He was just upset that he was going to be left to take and fail the test.

“Fine, Conner,” said Dr. O with agitation in his voice, why don’t you help Ethan.

“Sweet,” mouthed Conner stoked about his ‘get out of jail free card.’

Once in the hallway Dr. Oliver began his orders. “Okay guys, this could be it.”

“Then why didn’t you want us to come with you?” questioned Kira.

“I just wanted to be sure it was who we thought it was before I took you out of class. It’s going to start to look very suspicious if I get you all out of class every time a monster attacks.”

“Oh,” said Kira apologetically.

“Anyway, I’ll go get Trent out of math and we’ll check out north campus. Kira you’re east, Ethan you’re west, and Conner you’re south.”

“Of course I always get stuck with the stupid parking lot, where nothing ever happens,” complained Conner.

“Just do it pretty boy,” ordered Kira in frustration. Leave it up to Conner to make a fuss during an emergency.

Conner wandered out the south doors of the science and math building and entered the main parking lot. He kicked at the loose gravel at his feet positive that this was a total waste of his skills. As he watched the pebbles scatter he notice a shinny piece of metal on the ground and as he continued walking he ran into more and more until he finally looked up and saw it’s source, Principal Randall’s car. The convertible had been demolished almost beyond recognition. If it hadn’t have been in the “Reserved for Principal Randall,” parking spot he wouldn’t have made the connection.

As he stared at the gigantic heap of metal he suddenly realized that he was probably going to be the one to find the dreaded Pink Ranger. That test back in the safety of the classroom was looking pretty good right about now. Just as he reached his bracelet to his mouth to alert the other Rangers of his findings he was interrupted.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said a female voice behind him.

Conner turned around slowly afraid of what he was going to find.

“Like my sculpture?” questioned the Pink Ranger. Conner didn’t say anything. “What’s the matter hot stuff, you afraid of little ol’ me?” she continued as Conner finally faced her. At first he didn’t recognize the Pink Ranger, she was still pink, black, and gold, but now her costume had much more black on it. And, her helmet began to resemble Dr. Oliver’s. Dr. O had been right; Kimberly had retained his dino gem’s powers.

“No, I’m not afraid of you,” replied Conner, doing his best to hide his fear, “I just wanted to show off my best feature.” He had to come up with something to keep her occupied long enough for the others to reach him.

“And what’s that?” asked the Pink Ranger puzzled.

“My profile,” he responded casually.

Kimberly was completely dumbfounded, was this kid for real? And everyone said she was shallow in high school. ‘Enough of this foolishness,’ she thought as she charged at the teenage boy.

Conner saw her coming and some how was able to remain calm well enough to remember that he too had a secret weapon, his speed. As she lunged for him he quickly dodged her advances and she wound up running into the junk pile formerly known as Randall’s car.

“I don’t like it when you do that!” shouted Kimberly as she turned around to face Conner who was in the midst of preparing to morph.

“Dino thunder, power-“

The Pink Ranger also used her speed and was successful in kicking Conner hard, right in the stomach, interrupting his power call. It knocked the air out of him and he found himself on the ground.

“Nice shot, Kimberly,” Conner choked out as he lay on the ground struggling for air.

“I guess Dr. Oliver told you all about me, huh,” said Kimberly proudly.

“He may have mentioned you, yes,” replied Conner not wanting to give her the satisfaction.

“Tell me sweetie, did he speak fondly of me?” She was really full of herself now.

“Of you, no,” answered Conner, “of the former Pink Ranger, yes he did.”

“But, we’re the same person,” pouted Kimberly.

“No, you’re not a person, you’re a monster,” replied Conner putting her in her place as he finally gained back his strength and was able to once again stand up.

Kimberly couldn’t understand why, but the silly little teenage boy’s last comment really hurt her. Was it true? Had she become a monster? She never wanted to be a monster, she just wanted to make Tommy pay, but at whose expense? ‘Never mind that,’ she thought, it was time to take her revenge and if it meant destroying this kid along the way then so be it.

“You shouldn’t call people names, son,” she returned, “it’s not very nice. I guess I’ll have to punish you for that one.” She reached for her weapon and aimed it at Conner and fired.

Chapter Twenty-Four - I'm Sorry Kimberly

As the threateningly powerful pink ray raced toward Conner McKnight he closed his eyes and braced himself for the impact. It was going to be big and if he was lucky he’d live to actually feel it. But, it never came. As he slowly opened his eyes in confusion he was very surprised to find nothing but Principal Randall’s dilapidated car sitting in front of him looking pathetic. However, when Conner finally got to his feet he was able to see over the junk pile and for a moment he wished that he’d never been saved.

Kira Ford had in fact come to his rescue, Conner was just too shocked to hear her high pitched pterodactyl scream, which miraculously blocked the Pink Ranger’s blow. Somehow the two girls had worked there way away from the young man and were now a good twenty yards away. But now, Conner felt a rush of terror come across him, not for himself, but for Kira. She was in the middle of a battle with the Pink Ranger unmorphed and unprotected.

Kira exchanged a few words with the Pink Ranger, and although Conner was too panicked to make any of them out he could see that she had genuinely pissed off the Pink Ranger. Yet, to his surprise the woman chose to seek revenge on her own without the help of any of her weapons or arsenal. The Pink Ranger kicked Kira square in the abdomen. Toppling over in pain Kira left herself very susceptible to the Pink Ranger’s wrath as she grabbed a lock of Kira’s hair and drug her into the ocean of the students’ automobile’s.

Meanwhile, while all of this was going on Conner had successfully managed to morph and for some odd reason it seemed that the Pink Ranger had forgotten all about him. This wasn’t good because that meant she had only one thing in mind, the destruction of the Yellow Ranger.

The Pink Ranger had managed to drag the annoying teenage girl halfway across the parking lot by the hair, not hesitating to bang Kira into the side of a car every now and then. Although in extreme pain, Kira resisted her the whole way. When they reached the shrubbery, which led into the forest The Pink Ranger finally stopped, but her grip was just as tight as ever.

The pain was relentless and Kira eventually dropped to her knees groaning.

“Oh does that hurt?” asked the Pink Ranger sarcastically.

“No, it feels wonderful,” responded Kira in the same tone.

“Don’t get smart with me girlie,” scolded the Pink Ranger into Kira’s ear, “I can make things very uncomfortable for you.”

“But they’re so comfortable already,” huffed Kira in between breaths.

The Pink Ranger immediately jerked the girls head back even harder and stared down into her face with only inches between the two.

“You don’t take instructions very well Yellow Ranger, but that’s all going to change right now.”

Kira closed her eyes and tried to picture herself somewhere else, anywhere but there.

“Look at me!” demanded the Pink Ranger angrily.

Kira opened her eyes in compliance.

“Hey, you’re get’n better already,” whispered the Pink Ranger. “Now, for the real instructions. Use that tacky little bracelet of yours to contact Dr. Oliver and get him here. Now,” stated the Pink Ranger calmly.

Kira struggled for a moment hoping that by some miracle she could break free or at least keep all of her hair. But, it was hopeless to fight, yet it just wasn’t in her to comply. “No,” she answered sternly.

“I don’t think you heard me,” said the Pink Ranger as she once again jerked on Kira’s hair, “do it now or I’ll do you in.”

Kira wasn’t totally against the idea of having Dr. O come to her rescue, in fact she preferred it. But, if it meant obeying any order given to her by the Pink Ranger then Kira wanted nothing to do with it.

“Go ahead pinkie,” choked Kira, “I’m not afraid of you,” Kira immediately regretted what she had just said.

“Oh you’re not?” questioned the Pink Ranger who was beginning to get extremely irritated with the Yellow Ranger, “I guess I’ll have to show you just how afraid of me you should be.” The Pink Ranger wrapped her right hand around Kira’s neck and began to slowly squeeze.

Kira couldn’t believe it, the Pink Ranger was choking her, she was going to be strangled to death and there was nothing her powers could do to stop it. Not even her pterodactyl scream could work now, with her windpipe slowly closing.

“Are you ready to fallow instructions yet?” questioned the Pink Ranger.

Kira pondered the question for a moment; was her pride really worth her life? Before she could decide everything began to grow dark as she fought a losing battle to keep her eyes open. Then came silence.

As Ethan James turned the corner around the library he approached the main parking lot. His assigned area had proven to be free of evil. He figured that Conner was probably not taking his mission too seriously and would need some motivation. Now, like Conner he too noticed the pathetic remains of Randall’s car. ‘Serves her right,’ thought the young man. But, unlike Conner he decided that whatever was strong enough to do this much damage required a Power Ranger and not a teenage kid with a hidden super power. So, Ethan took his stance and yelled, “Dino thunder power up, ha.”

Once in uniform he surveyed the lot for any sign of the Red Ranger, but not a clue in sight. So, he decided to scout the perimeter of the parking lot and before long he reached the shrubbery, which led into the forest. As the Blue Ranger went deeper and deeper into the dark landscape he heard the familiar yell of a friend, Conner.

When Ethan finally reached the source of the yell he was astonished at what he found. The Red Ranger was in the midst of a battle with the dreaded evil Pink Ranger, but this battle wasn’t for the fate of the world, it was for the possession of the still and tiny body of Kira Ford.

Leaping into action Ethan immediately went after Kira, who was now laying on the ground with shrubbery in her hair, dirt on her face, and looking as peaceful as ever. The Blue Ranger did not want to even think that the lovely Yellow Ranger could be gone and for his sanity convinced himself that she was merely unconscious. But, before he could reach her, the Pink Ranger had detected his presence and slowed him down with a painful kick in his side. The blow sent him into a tree and then to the ground.

“Ethan!” yelled Conner who was also on the ground, “Hold on, Trent and Dr. O are on their way!” Conner had put a call into his leader and Trent immediately after he found Kira helpless and alone.

“Yippee!” squealed the Pink Ranger as she clapped her hands together, “I can’t wait for the handsome doctor to see what I’ve done and what I’m about to do.”

The Red and Blue Rangers did not like the sound of that, but they were pretty confident because they at least had their powers.

“Don’t get so cocky just yet!” declared the Blue Ranger as he stood up and prepared for a dual with the Pink Ranger.

“Why,” replied Kimberly, “are you gonna stop me little boy?”

“If I have to,” said the Blue Ranger confidently.

“Then do it!” yelled the Pink Ranger as she charged at the teenager and made the first hit, strait to Ethan’s head.

The Blue Ranger dodged her fist and plowed his into her stomach. Next, without hesitation he kicked her in the chin sending her backwards where she was not so warmly receipted by the Red Ranger who kicked her in the back causing her fall forward. The Pink Ranger continued to be juggled back in fourth between the two Rangers who were enraged with anger for the woman because of what she had done to their best friend.

The Pink Ranger couldn’t believe their strength, they were just two puny high school boys. How could they be beating her? She was not going to take this anymore. Just as the Red Ranger brought her to the ground with a Karate chop to her throat she reached for the Brachio staff, which now belonged to her. Using it to fight off the two Rangers she began to realize it’s power and she began to understand how to use it correctly. Summoning the weapons incredible power the Pink Ranger launched a huge blow at the Red and Blue Rangers.

Dr. Oliver and the White Ranger arrived just in time to see their teammates fall to the ground in defeat. Although morphed, neither boy made a stir, they were still, as still as Kira. Then, their power left them.

It hurt Dr. Oliver deeply to see the two boys lie there motionless, but it pained him the most to see the pretty young girl lying in the dirt lifeless. Tears swelled up in his eyes, not out of pain but out of anger. He knew it was ridiculous to take the evil Pink Ranger on without his powers, it was like taking on himself multiplied times three, maybe even four. But, he couldn’t restrain himself. At that moment he didn’t care who the Pink Ranger was, he was going to get his revenge.

He lunged at her and actually made contact to her chest with his foot. She cried out in pain. The Pink Ranger had not been expecting it at all. She had been too busy basking in her glory and the distressed look on Dr. Oliver’s face.

Before the Pink Ranger could gather her bearings the White Ranger had joined the action. He punched her in the stomach not allowing her to catch her breath. Then once again Dr. Oliver launched an attack and it was not fun. At some point, the Pink Ranger hadn’t realized when exactly, but she dropped the Brachio staff. By the time she noticed it Dr. Oliver was swinging it at her head. He was like a brand new person, she had been correct, Tommy Oliver did deserve what was coming to him.

Once the staff made contact with the Pink Ranger’s helmet she once again dropped to her knees. Tommy stood above her with the staff pointed directly at her face. The White Ranger, although devastated about Kira and his two best friends, offered encouragement beside Tommy.

“Tommy,” the Pink Ranger began to plead, “it’s me Tommy, Kimberly. Please don’t do this.”

Tommy could hear her sobbing beneath her helmet but for some reason he didn’t care. She had taken advantage of his heart way too many times recently, and more importantly in the past.

“No, Kimberly,” he responded coldly, “it’s not you,” he paused. “The Kimberly I once knew would never hurt me like you have done these past couple of days. You’re nothing but another one of Zedd and Rita’s henchmen.”

At this point Kimberly really didn’t care if Tommy finished her off, she was just pissed that he was comparing her to Goldar, she was no one’s puppet.

“You say the Kimberly you knew would never hurt you like I have?” she questioned. “Do you recall a little letter I sent you? I think it went something like ‘Dear Tommy, you’ve always been like a brother to me. But, I’ve found someone else.’”

Tommy once again became insanely enraged with the woman before him. She simply snickered at his response. He tightened his grip on the Brachio staff as it began to glow with its stored up power.

“Go ahead and do it Tommy,” Kimberly encouraged. “I really don’t care if this is it because I know that you’ll never be able to live with yourself knowing you killed your precious Kimberly.”

She had been right and Tommy knew it, he could never go on knowing he had killed the love of his life. But, he couldn’t let Kimberly win. It was either her or the millions of lives that depended on him. It was the most difficult decision by far that he had ever had to make, but it was an obvious one.

“I’m sorry Kimberly,” he whispered as he closed his eyes and sent a beam of power directly at her, which he knew would be her demise.

Chapter Twenty-Five -  It's All Your Fault

Once the blast generated by the Brachio staff subsided Dr. Oliver lowered his hands from his face to evaluate the damage. His eyes were still closed because he greatly feared seeing the result of the decision he had just made. But, when he finally gathered the strength to look down at what remained of the Pink Ranger, his Kimberly, he wasn’t quite so taken aback. She lay there, still as the other three Rangers she had defeated. She was still morphed but she did appear disheveled and possibly lifeless. Dr. Oliver wanted so badly to rush to her aid and take her in his arms but he had finally learned his lesson.

The White Ranger moved towards her but was stopped by Dr. Oliver.

“No Trent. Just leave her,” directed Dr.O.

“Why?” questioned Trent in confusion, “Don’t you want to know if she’s okay? I thought you loved her.”

“I never loved that,” responded Dr. Oliver coldly as he pointed his Brachio staff at what he saw now to be a creature.

Trent was completely speechless. Dr. O. was always so kind and caring, why was he being so mean? If it had been Kira he never would have just left her there like that, even after all the destruction she caused. Speaking of Kira, Trent remembered that she still lay helpless on the other side of the clearing. He turned to go to her but once again was stopped by his leader.

“Don’t go anywhere Trent,” he ordered.

“But, she’s defeated and Kira needs me,” Trent protested in anger.

“No,” answered the doctor dryly, “she’s not dead.”

“What are you talking about Dr. O? Did you see the size of that blast? There’s no way she survived it, she hasn’t even moved a centimeter.”

“That may be so, but there’s no way that the blast killed her,” stated Dr. Oliver, “You can’t destroy a power with its own power. She’s just playing us,” he continued. “The second you step away she’s gonna have me for lunch.”

Trent scratched his head. Maybe Dr. O. was delirious. The shock of it all was just too much for him to bear. It was probably just a defense mechanism; he didn’t want to face the fact that he had just killed the love of his life.

“Kimberly get up!” Dr. Oliver began to yell harshly. “Get up! Get up now!”

Trent felt horrible for the guy, of course it was hard seeing her like this, but he had to snap out of it.

“Dr.O!” yelled Trent. “Dr. O. stop it! She’s gone, just let her go, please!” he pleaded with the man as he wrapped his arm around Dr. Oliver’s back to contain him.

“Get off me Trent!” he ordered as he shook loose from the boy’s grasp.

“Kimberly get up!” he continued, “If you don’t get up then I really will hurt you this time...” He was so enraged that his words began to get muffled.

Trent moved toward the woman before Dr. Oliver could stop him; he had to remove the girl’s helmet and show Dr. Oliver that she was a person, and she was gone. As he reached her he knelt down quickly beside her and stretched for the clasps on her helmet.

“Trent, NO!!!!!” screamed Dr. Oliver as he rushed to his student, but he was too late.

The Pink Ranger had already “returned from the dead,” and had quickly grabbed her weapon from its holster and stabbed it through the young man’s abdomen when he knelt over her. It wasn’t a flesh wound or anything; in fact it was more like a laser had gone through him. There was no visible wound, but inside he definitely felt it. Trent killed over next to the woman and before long the white dino gem’s powers left his body just as they had left the others’.

The Pink Ranger jumped up and looked down at the poor teenage boy.

“He was kind of annoying anyway,” she chuckled to Dr. Oliver, “didn’t you think?”

Dr. Oliver was definitely pissed off at this point. Kimberly had managed to obliterate his entire team and it was entirely possible that she had also taken their lives, no one had moved since they had originally fallen.

“You know, this isn’t right!” he came back at her. “They’re just kids, just like you and I were!”

“That’s true,” she agreed, “But, just like you and I, kids grow up!” She jumped at him and kicked him in the stomach.

He bent forward in reaction to the pain, but he wasn’t going to give up, not yet.

“And what’s so terrible about growing up?” questioned Tommy as he huffed to catch his breath.

“Well,” she answered as she prepared to make another hit, “people change, and not always for the better.” She kicked him again in the shoulder.

“I suppose no one would know that better than you,” responded Tommy as he grabbed his throbbing shoulder hoping to ease the pain.

“Don’t antagonize me Tommy,” Kimberly snapped back. “You were always so high and mighty. You always thought you were better than everyone else, above everyone else.”

She then charged at him and the two countered each other’s blows for a while, but she finally got one in. A punch to his left cheek. Tommy felt his face positive he’d find blood, but there wasn’t any, it just hurt like hell.

“That’s not true Kimberly,” he finally answered her. “I never thought I was above any of you, we were a team, everyone was equal.”

“Oh please,” she snickered. “Don’t give me that! You know I’m right. You thought you were great and I thought you were too,” she admitted coldly.

Tommy stared at her for a second, neither of them was on the prowl or on the defense, they were just confused.

“You did?” Tommy asked softly.

“Of course I did,” replied Kimberly hesitantly. “It seemed like no matter what you always made the right decisions, you always led us to victory, you always saved everyone. You always saved me,” her words became very soft.

“And I’ll do it again,” assured Tommy proudly. “Kimberly, you don’t have to do this you don’t have to work for Lord Ze-“

“Please!” she interrupted “You think I’m doing this for Zedd?” she chuckled, “Zedd is just a means to an end.”

“And what end would that be?” questioned Tommy not really wanting to know the answer.

“The end of you,” replied Kimberly as she once again lunged at Tommy.

The two dueled until they were near exhaustion. When they finally took a breather they were both squatting and heaving for air. Tommy was beginning to realize that he wasn’t going to last much longer, but it did seem that the blow had weekend Kimberly. But was it enough?

“Before we end this thing and you finally get your wish can you just answer me one question?” asked Tommy.

“I suppose you deserve one last request,” said Kimberly.

“Why do you hate me so much?” there was a pause and Kimberly made no effort to answer his question. “You’re the one that hurt me with that stupid letter, so how is it that I’m the bad guy?” he prodded her some more.

Kimberly erupted in a fit of laughter. “You mean you don’t know?” she asked.

He looked at her quite clueless and this only made her even angrier.

“Well I’ll tell you why,” she snapped. “Katherine,” she said simply.

“Katherine?” he questioned in total confusion.

“Yes Katherine,” she continued. “When Kat came to town you fell all over her and she fell all over you!” All the animosity that had been building was finally coming out. “Admit it Tommy you cared for her,” she ordered.

“Okay, I’ll admit it. I did care for her, but only as a friend,” he added in his defense.

“Oh as a friend?” she questioned. “So I guess that’s why when Katherine did all of those hateful things to me, stole my power coin, and caused me an overnight stay in the hospital you were so quick to forgive her! Damn it Tommy, I was in the hospital and all you could worry about was figuring out how you could get Ninjor back without having to give up your precious Kat.”

“Hey Kim,” interrupted Tommy, “now that’s not fair. You know it was my job as a Ranger to keep all civilians safe no matter who it was.”

“Well then,” continued Kimberly, “I guess that’s why you put so much effort into her and so little effort into getting my power coin back!” she erupted and Tommy could hear tears in her voice.

It was just like in his dream. All of these things she had said to him in his dream, maybe not in the same words, but she blamed him for all of the same things. He must have known all along that he had let her down, he just didn’t want to believe it.

“I was so scared,” she continued, “it felt so strange not to have my coin it was almost as if I had lost my soul,” her tears poured down her face an fogged her vision, she was glad her helmet was there to conceal the pathetic sight. “I thought out of anyone you would have understood how I was feeling, but I guess not because you did nothing to help me!” she yelled.

“Kimberly,” Tommy began, “I did understand how you felt, but what could I have done?”

“Well you were so brilliant I’m sure you could have come up with something,” she returned sarcastically.

Tommy was beginning to wear her down, not so much physically as emotionally. But, when it came to spells emotional strength is even more important than physical strength. How could he get her to remember all the good?

“You’re absolutely right,” stated Tommy.

“What?” questioned Kimberly amazed that he didn’t immediately go on the defense like usual.

“I mean it Kim, you’re right. I never should have put Katherine first. I suppose I just figured you could take care of yourself more so than Kat ever could.”

Both were silent, Kimberly had no idea of how to respond to that. Tommy continued hoping and praying that she would snap out of it.

“Well, I guess you were wrong,” Kimberly finally responded softly.

She was beginning to lose touch with reality again. The man before her was no longer cold and vicious, he was kind and honest. But could she believe him? Did she really want revenge on him or was that somehow planted in her mind along with her powers? She couldn’t remember why she had thought him so terrible. He had been good to her and sure he did put Katherine first but it’s not like she herself was completely helpless.

Had it all been a fabrication in her mind? Worst of all was the attraction between Kat and Tommy romantic as she had thought, or was it really just platonic? Had she made a huge mistake when she sent that letter?

By now Tommy had let down his defenses he could tell that Kimberly was finally at a point where she was ready to reason with him. He was sure he could talk the evil right out of her.

“I was wrong, Kimberly,” he began again. “You were the most important person or most important anything to me when we were kids. It tore me in half to see you go.”

“Then why’d you let me go?” asked Kimberly eagerly.

“Because I wanted everything for you,” he said simply.

Kimberly once again became lost in her own thoughts. Could she trust him, he sounded so genuine and she remembered him being so genuine when it all happened. But, if he truly cared for her like he said then why didn’t he wait that long before making Katherine his new girlfriend? She was about to find out.

“You wanted everything for me,” she stated again. “Then I suppose that’s why it didn’t take you long to become cozy with Katherine, right?”

‘Oh man,’ thought Tommy. He was hoping she wouldn’t bring that up, he was going to lose her all over again. He didn’t know what to say, all he could do was tell the truth.

“Now, that’s not fair Kim,” he finally answered, “I was devastated when you sent me that letter. An while we’re pointing fingers, remind me again which one of us it was that left the other for someone else.” It was all wasted, all the progress he’d made up to this point went totally out the window. His pride got in the way and it was too late to stop it.

Kimberly began to pout underneath her helmet, Tommy had definitely pushed her buttons that time.

“I didn’t leave you for anyone else!” she cried.

“Well that’s not how I remember it,” said Tommy accusingly.

“That’s because you don’t remember it correctly.”

Tommy starred at her bewildered and she continued.

“There was never anyone else Tommy. I made it all up.”

Tommy lost his breath; he was in total shock.

“I knew our relationship was hard on you, it was only an extra burden you didn’t need,” she explained. “The fate of the world was lying in your hands and you were constantly wasting your time missing me. I had to let you go before you let me go,” Kimberly trailed off into sobs.

Once again neither of them knew what to say, but it was Kimberly who broke the silence.

“Can you just imagine how horrible it felt for me to return to Angel Grove only to see you in the welcoming arms of Katherine at the karate tournament?” she choked back a few tears. “I was still madly in love with you Tommy and I swear I was going to tell you the truth right after the match, but I was too late.”

“You know I can imagine how it felt,” Tommy finally regained his ability to speak. “Because I felt exactly the same way when I read your letter in front of all of our friends in the middle of the youth center!” He wasn’t going to let her make him feel bad, this time it wasn’t his fault.

Kimberly began to lose control. She didn’t need this right now. She wasn’t herself, she didn’t know who she was but she knew that she had been hurt. Right now the only thing that would make her feel better was to rid herself of the problem, Tommy. A part of her fought it and fought it, yet she found her left hand inching closer and closer to the weapon secured safely on her belt.

Tommy was too busy processing everything to notice her reach for the weapon and had he noticed, he definitely wouldn’t have said what he was about to say.

“So, don’t you dare ever blame any of this on me again. It was all your fault.”

“Be quiet Tommy,” warned Kimberly. She knew that if he kept it up she wouldn’t be able to fight the evil. It would take over her for sure and she would do something that she would definitely regret.

“My unhappiness, your unhappiness, everything that could have been but never was, it was all your fault Kimberly.”

“Shut up Tommy, I mean it!” she warned again. ‘No Kimberly, fight it, fight it,’ she thought in her head. ‘Don’t hurt him.’

But Tommy paid no attention to her warning and finally set her off, “It was you Kimberly, I loved you, but you ruined it all!”

“Stop it!” she screamed as she aimed her gun at his chest and fired.

‘What have I done?’ she asked herself as she watched the beam travel in what seemed to be slow motion towards the love of her life.

But, it never hit him, instead a second beam deflected it, but who fired it? She scanned the trees around her searching for its source when finally she pinpointed it up in a tree, there were five of them and Kimberly was in complete and utter shock.

Chapter Twenty-Six - I Believe In You

“Kimberly, put down your weapon. We’re not going to hurt you just please don’t hurt anyone else!” screamed a familiar voice.

The sound of the voice shocked Kimberly, she couldn’t believe and mostly couldn’t understand how it was possible that her five former friends were there together and more surprisingly they were morphed. Black, yellow, blue, red, and even pink, they were all present. The sight of the colorful, diamond motiffed costumes immediately stirred up tons of memories. Some were bad, but most of them were good, very good. She stared at the five figures for what seemed like forever, Tommy did too, he had completely forgotten about the fact that he was almost dog chow less than a minute ago.

“Jason?” Kimberly called in confusion.

“Yeah Kim, it’s me,” responded the Red Ranger tenderly as jumped down from the tree and met her at eye level. Once the others saw that she was calm and mostly confused they also joined their leader.

Kimberly didn’t want to have to fight them. She knew that they would just end up like the four she had battled before them. But, she couldn’t trust them, it seemed as if she couldn’t trust anyone, not even herself. She had regretted pulling the trigger on Tommy, but now that he was okay and the others were there she wondered if they were angry with her. Had she done something unforgivable by so brutally turning on one of their own? They could see the various bodies of what looked to be harmless teenagers scattered throughout the clearing. She didn’t know how to react to their presence or how they were going to react to her and what she had done.

“Hello, Kimberly,” said the Black Ranger extending a gentle hand to the woman. It was Zack behind the mask, but she wouldn’t return his gesture. It could be a trick.

“Kimberly, it’s all going to be okay now,” interrupted the Blue Ranger in an attempt to make the Pink Ranger feel comfortable again. The last thing they wanted was to make her feel like they were ganging up on her, because they weren’t. They just wanted their friend back. But she couldn’t quite understand that yet.

Tommy starred at the sight in amazement. So many years had gone by, yet they still had his back. They truly were the best friends a guy could ask for. With their help surely they could win this battle without losing Kimberly.

“Come on girl,” began the Yellow Ranger breaking the silence, “we love you and you know that. Please just come back to us.”

The sweet sound of Aisha Campbell’s voice brought tears to Kimberly’s eyes. After all the pain and destruction she’d caused they still loved her. She was ready to break, ready to surrender. She wanted her friends back and she wanted to feel good again. All of the hate was just too hard and it wasn’t worth it. Zedd’s magic was strong, but her friends’ magic must have been even stronger. So, she dropped the weapon, which had caused so much suffering.

“But look what I’ve done,” she sobbed gesturing to the site around her. “Look at them,” she pointed towards the kids. “How can you love me after I’ve caused so much destruction?”

Tommy could feel her coming around and he wanted to just grab her and hug her and let her know that he understood, they all did. It was Zedd and Rita’s doing, not hers. But he was afraid he might frighten her since he had just finished battling with her and threatening her. So, he remained behind her, out of site and hopefully out of mind.

“How could we ever not love you?” replied Jason to the hopeless woman they had once known to be so great.

Kimberly began to feel warm inside. Jason’s words had always been so reassuring, she never questioned anything he’d ever said before and she really didn’t see herself starting to now.

“You guys mean it?” she asked muffled by her tears.

“Of course we do Kimberly,” answered Billy sympathetically.

“No,” returned Kimberly, “You don’t care what happens to me, you just care about what happens to Tommy. That’s how it always was, Tommy first, everyone else second!”

The evil within her began to kick in; it was beginning to take over her. The others’ love had been strong, but the evil was simply unstoppable. She couldn’t control it. She wanted to surrender to her loved ones, she already had emotionally, but the evil physically would not allow her to.

“Fight it Kim!” cut in Zack as he took a step forward towards her, “Please fight it for us.”

“Yeah Kim,” continued Aisha, “Remember everything we’ve been through? Remember all the good we’ve done and all of the evil we’ve stopped? This isn’t you Kimberly, and you know it.”

She did know it, but the evil that Lord Zedd infused within her refused to leave. By now Tommy couldn’t stand the anticipation, he had to help, she’d come so far already; he couldn’t let her down again. He walked over to other Rangers and stood next to the Pink Ranger who had remained silent the whole time. Kimberly hadn’t even really noticed her.

“Aisha’s right,” declared Tommy, “you’re so much stronger than this Kim.”

She dropped to her knees on the ground in agony. The battle within her was draining and seeing Tommy again only made it more intense. Tommy knelt down next to her and took her helmet in his hands and raised her face so he could see into her eyes. But all he could see was the evil hybrid stare of her helmet. So he slowly reached for the clasps on the sides of it, and she let him undo them. He lifted the armor off her head and unmasked the crying and confused face of Kimberly Hart. She starred back at him with the intensity he had starred at her with.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered softly. It almost felt as if Tommy was draining the evil right out of her with the simple touch of his fingertips on her face.

“It’s okay Kimberly, it’s all going to be okay,” how many times did she have to hear it?

“But it’s not,” she argued again, “I’ve hurt you so badly, how can you even look at me?” she felt so ashamed.

The other five Rangers closed in on the couple, and as they did Kimberly shrunk away from Tommy, but he wouldn’t let go of her beautiful face. Jason responded to her hesitation by taking off his helmet and then she wasn’t so afraid of the Red Ranger anymore. He knelt down next to Tommy who had released her face and had now taken both of her small-gloved hands in his bare hands.

“Come on Kim,” said Jason “you can end this now. Just please hand over your power coin. Billy can break its control over you. Right Billy?” he asked.

“That’s right Jason,” Billy assured as he too removed his helmet and knelt down next to Kimberly.

“I can’t do it,” Kimberly moaned, “it won’t let me.”

“Maybe it won’t let you, Kim,” said Tommy starring in her hazel eyes once again, “But you have to let yourself.”

“I’m trying!” she snapped looking down at her belt. The coin seemed so dull and ugly. It was black, sad, nothing like the girl she once was.

“You’ve got to try harder Kim, please,” said Aisha who had also removed her helmet and settled on the other side of Kimberly. The Pink Ranger was the only one standing at this point.

Kimberly noticed how youthful her friend Aisha had remained. It was almost as if she hadn’t aged a day since she last saw her that one Christmas. Kimberly on the other hand felt like she had aged years. She was so weak and tired. Did she have it in her to overcome the evil?

“I honestly don’t think I can do it guys,” admitted Kimberly, “I’m sorry but I’m just not strong enough.”

Her eyes began to glow bright pink and suddenly were overcome by black, which then turned to pink again. They could all see the battle in which she was consumed in as they spoke. Tommy hated seeing Kimberly this way. He wasn’t going to let her give up, he couldn’t. It wasn’t just the fate of the world that was weighing on this, it was Kimberly. Everything that his students fought for couldn’t have all been for nothing. He owed it to them and he owed it to Kimberly to save her.

“Yes you can Kim,” he finally said, “You can do it. You can fight the evil. We all believe in you,” he paused and once again raised her face to his, “I believe in you.”

That was all Kimberly needed to hear, the approval and the faith of Tommy. She had hurt him so long ago and she had always felt so guilty. But, now she understood that no matter what she did to him he would never let her fall. Her eyes once again returned to their natural hazel brown and she reached for her morpher then hit the release button allowing the dark coin to fall into her hand.

“Go ahead Kim,” urged Jason, “give the coin to Tommy and everything can be like it was.”

She reached out to Tommy and just as she was about to lay the coin in his hand the Pink Ranger broke her silence.

“Yes, Kimberly you did it,” said Katherine cheerfully as she too removed her helmet sure that the evil spell had been broken. Until now she wasn’t sure if her presence would infuriate Kimberly even more. After the events that occurred on the island of Muranthias all those years ago Katherine became very aware that Kimberly definitely harbored some hidden hostilities towards her. Jason had warned her not to provoke anything and that was the last thing Katherine had intended to do. She was just so relieved that they didn’t have to resort to a battle and no one else was hurt. Seeing those poor kids around her, Katherine couldn’t help but be fearful of the Evil Pink Ranger. She knew what being under Lord Zedd and Rita’s control was like, and she also knew that things could have ended much worse.

But, when Kimberly heard that sweet innocent Australian accent and saw that blond, almost white hair and those light blue eyes, she let her guard down and allowed the evil back in.

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Things Aren't As Bad As They Seem

“Zeddy! What are you doing!” yelled the piercing voice, which belonged to none other than Rita Repulsa.

“Don’t yell at me woman!” snapped back Lord Zedd as he thrusted his staff forward ejecting a bright bolt of lightning towards Earth.

“Why are you bringing back our deliciously evil Pink Ranger? She was just about to kick some serious butt!” yelled Rita again, paying no attention to her husbands demand.

“No,” replied Zedd trying to control his anger, “she was just about to engage in a battle in which she would lose.”

“Pardon my interruption my lord,” cut in Goldar as he bowed to his master, “but Rita’s right. That goody two shoes Katherine was just about to be out of our hair forever, and something tells me Kimberly would have destroyed anything that got in her way. Even the other Rangers.”

“The other Rangers!” yelled Lord Zedd. “Oh how I despise them. They’re going to ruin my plan. But I still have one or two tricks up my sleeve.”

“And does one of them include retreating?” questioned Rita sarcastically.

“Silence, the both of you!” demanded Lord Zedd. “Kimberly is much too emotional to win a battle against the most gallant warriors there ever were. She has too many ties to them to beat them.”

“What do you mean my dear husband,” asked Rita with a clueless stare on her face, “I thought Kimberly’s emotions were precisely the reason why you chose her to be your evil Ranger.”

“Well it was originally,” huffed Zedd as he plopped down on his marble throne. “But that was when all we had to worry about was Tommy. It was perfect! But those annoying little power pests had to jump in and save the day as always!” his entire body began to glow red. “Now we have to worry about the other five just when we got rid of the other four.”

“You think Kimmy’s not up to it?” asked Rita.

“Of course she’s not, were you here a minute ago? Did you happen to notice that she was just about to surrender my precious power coin to those imbeciles!” he once again exploded into a fit of rage.

“Oh calm down Zedd and tell me what you plan to do next,” said Rita who was by now very disappointed in her husband.

“Don’t worry my dear,” returned Lord Zedd sinisterly. “Pink Ranger or no Pink Ranger the Power Rangers will be destroyed if it’s the last thing I do.”

- - -

Everyone quietly entered the secret back door of the command center that also happened to be Tommy’s basement. The door closed behind the warriors as they took a deep breath and took in the site. Jason, Zack, Billy, and Aisha couldn’t believe what they saw. Machines, gadgets, computers, monitors, and even a metal shop off in the corner. It nearly brought tears to their eyes when they finally realized how much Tommy Oliver had actually devoted to saving the world. Most importantly they realized how much he had given up.

Soon they noticed the young woman with long, curly, burgundy hair sitting at the main computer. She swiveled around in her chair the moment she heard the back door open. She gave the group a solemn look and then quickly rose from her seat and began to pull a cot out of what looked to be a supply closet. But there were some pretty serious tools in there, and Billy eagerly took notice.

“Let’s power down guys,” said Jason emotionless.

Soon the four Rangers standing and the one Ranger resting in Tommy’s arms returned to their civilian state. No one spoke as Aisha helped Haley set up five cots dispersed throughout the room and the four men made several trips to Tommy’s jeep to retrieve the four kids.

When everyone appeared to be resting comfortably and Haley and Billy were working rapidly to check everyone’s vitals Tommy finally broke the silence.

“Are they going to be okay?” he asked unsure of whether or not he wanted to hear the answer.

“Well,” said Haley standing over Trent, “Conner and Ethan were only knocked unconscious. Their power left their bodies as a defense mechanism so that they couldn’t be drained or harmed. I need to go get the other first aid kit from upstairs, there are some smelling salts in it. They should do the trick.”

Tommy exhaled in relief, “What about Kira?”

He was truly concerned about the petite Yellow Ranger. Seeing her down hurt him the most because he always felt like she came before the others. It wasn’t because she was a girl, it was mostly because she often times reminded him of Kimberly, even though the two girls were nothing alike.

Haley looked at Billy, pleading with him with her eyes to explain this one to Tommy. She knew exactly how much the pretty blonde girl meant to Tommy and she didn’t want to have to be the one to break the news.

“Well,” said Billy nodding to Haley in acceptance, “from what I can gather Kira wasn’t morphed when she took the hit,” he paused to gather himself. “I’m sorry Tommy but it’s pretty bad.” He could see the tears welling up in his friend’s eyes. Tommy tried his best to fight them off.

Billy continued, “I realize that there’s not really any visible damage to her other than cuts and bruises, but the blow was very powerful. Right now she is unconscious and she seems to be resting comfortably. But I can’t guarantee that she’s going to wake up.”

A single tear fell from Tommy’s eye as he walked over to the small girl and knelt down next to her. He grabbed her hand hoping she would respond. But, when she didn’t he nearly lost it. Luckily Haley stepped in with perfect timing as usual.

“But, Trent’s going to be okay,” she said reassuringly.

It worked because it got Tommy’s attention and he released the girl’s hand down gently beside her and walked over to Trent.

“But, Kimberly stabbed him,” he said with question in his voice.

“That may be true,” began Haley, “but he was morphed, which means his body was at maximum strength. He was protected and the power had time to heal his body before it left him.”

Once again Tommy exhaled in relief.

“So the powers weren’t damaged?” he asked Haley with hope in his eyes.

“Nope,” replied the woman as she handed some strange device to Billy who ran it over Conner’s dino gem.

“They’re as good as new,” confirmed Billy with a smile.

The other four Rangers who had remained silent, as they were sympathetic to Tommy’s previous situation also erupted into smiles and cheers.

“I guess things aren’t as bad as they seem,” said Aisha as she walked up to Tommy and gave him a reassuring hug.

“But they’re still bad,” replied Jason who was always the voice of reason.

“Jas is right guys,” continued Zack, “that poor little girl is having to struggle for her life,” he gestured towards Kira, “and we haven’t even examined Katherine yet.”

Katherine had been lying on the cot in the middle of the room; she remained in the same position Tommy had set her down in. Now as the six adults turned their gazes towards the delicate blond woman the horrible memory of her fall filled their minds.

- -

Once Katherine removed her helmet and spoke back in the clearing, Kimberly transformed into an entirely different person. She immediately pulled her power coin away from Tommy and returned it to its rightful place, inside her morpher on her belt.

Everyone was taken aback by this gesture and at first no one quite understood what was going on. That is everyone but Tommy, who knew exactly what was going through Kimberly’s head. He immediately tried to stop her from hurting Kat by grabbing her arm.

“Kim it’s not going to happen like this,” he said sternly looking down on her.

She quickly jumped up attempting to break his grip, but he rose with her and so did the other four Rangers. They weren’t going to let her hurt the Pink Ranger either. Soon Jason grabbed a hold of her other arm and Billy reached for her weapon in the holster on her belt. She began to struggle fiercely.

“Be careful guys,” said Tommy, “she’s not exactly human right now.”

He remembered how she had somehow managed to heat up her body and forced him to let her go back in his bedroom the night before. She now began to glow red in an attempt to repeat the same trick. But Tommy was wise to it.

“Zack, get over her and take her arm,” he ordered.

He might not be able to resist the heat, but the other Rangers wouldn’t be phased by it because they had the power to protect them. Zack did as he was told and switched places with Tommy. Kimberly began to kick and scream fiercely but Jason and Zack managed to tangle their legs in hers, preventing her from having any sort of defense. Once they had her under control the red glow began to leave her.

“Stop, stop!” she screamed, “you’re hurting me Jason.”

Jason really did want to let her go, but he knew he couldn’t.

“I’m sorry Kim, this is how it has to be.”

“No,” said Kimberly weakly, “it doesn’t.” Everyone looked confused.

“What I mean is,” she continued, “it’s gone. The evil’s gone, I felt it leave,” she struggled to catch her breath.

Everyone starred at her questionably, but Tommy knew better.

“She’s bluffing guys!” he yelled as he signaled for them to tighten their grips, and they did.

Meanwhile Aisha had rushed to Katherine’s side prepared to protect her even if it meant fighting her own best friend.

“Are you okay Kat?” she asked quickly as she fastened her helmet back on her head.

“Yeah, just a little startled,” replied Katherine, not taking her eyes off of Kimberly for a second.

“Well we better get out of here. For some reason you don’t appear to be Kimberly’s favorite person right now. Seeing you only upsets her more.” Aisha began to lead Katherine out of the clearing.

“Right,” said Katherine following behind the Yellow Ranger.

“NO!” came a loud scream behind them, “Don’t you dare try to escape me Katherine. You have to pay!”

Kimberly’s yell was so loud and so fierce, fueled by the Pink Power, she shook the ground. The guys continued to struggle to keep their grip on her but they didn’t know how much longer they could last.

“Run!” yelled Tommy after Katherine, as he reached for Kimberly’s morpher. He was going to take that filthy coin this time no matter what it took.

Kimberly felt Tommy groping at her belt yet she wasn’t at all concerned with him. It was Katherine she was after, and if these pathetic men thought they could stop her, then they had another thing coming. Katherine had almost reached the end of the clearing and was about to enter the trees when she was suddenly stopped. No one actually saw it coming, especially not Katherine. But, Kimberly had somehow managed to shoot the tall Pink Ranger down with a pink beam, which escaped from the pupils of her eyes. As the Ranger’s watched one of their own hit the ground wounded, Kimberly Hart was snatched away from them by Lord Zedd’s bolt.

Chapter Twenty-Eight - How Did You Know?

“Well,” said the concerned masculine voice, “how is she?”

“I’m afraid only time will tell, Tommy,” replied Billy removing the device from Katherine’s head and consulting with Haley on her diagnosis.

“Yeah,” continued Haley, “Katherine was morphed when the beam struck her but it was exceptionally powerful. It was almost as if Kimberly had somehow concentrated all of her energy into one gigantic force and aimed it strait at Katherine.”

Tommy shuddered. He should have been able to prevent this. He knew how Kimberly felt about Katherine, all the hidden hostility. He should have sent Katherine away the second she appeared. What was he thinking? That was the problem, he wasn’t thinking, he was too busy trying to get Kimberly back to care about anything else. He really had been messing up as the leader lately, but why? He then realized the answer was pretty obvious, Kimberly Hart. If there was ever one thing that could consume his mind no matter what, it was she. Zedd knew this and that is why his plan had been working so well. But, on the positive side Kimberly had cracked more than once. She wasn’t completely evil, but the evil was feeding off of all of her weaknesses, just as she had fed off of his.

“So we just wait it out then?” questioned Aisha, breaking Tommy away from his thoughts.

“That’s about all we can do,” replied Haley as she headed for the stairs, “I’m going to go get that other first aid kit, I’ll be right back,” she called behind her as she exited the room.

“So what’s next?” asked Zack as he took a seat in the big black chair in front of the monitors and control panels.

Aisha followed, taking a seat on the steps below him. She propped her chin in her left hand and studied the fingernails on her right hand. She was definitely due for a manicure, maybe this time she’d get them polished pink. She swallowed harshly at the idea. How could she be thinking of her nails at a time like this? The only other person in this entire world that wouldn’t think her a brat for doing so was Kim. Poor Kim.

“Well,” began Tommy in response to Zack’s question, dragging Aisha back to reality, “I suppose the first thing you can do is tell me how the hell it is that you’re all here.”

The four adults chuckled at their former leader; the look on Tommy’s face had been indescribable when they appeared back at the battle site. He literally looked as if he had just seen a ghost, and in many ways he had.

“Jas,” began Billy, “I suppose you should begin.”

Jason nodded as he tried to decipher the best way to explain the events of the last few days without pissing off Tommy. Tommy never refused help but he also rarely asked for it. Jason also wanted to lighten the mood. He realized circumstances were dire but the last thing everyone needed was more negativity.

“It all started Saturday evening when you called me,” Jason said taking a seat next to Aisha. “There was something about you that just didn’t seem right and I knew it had absolutely nothing to do with Kimberly’s box.”

“What was your first clue?” asked Tommy eagerly. He knew he had been terribly unconvincing on the phone yet he couldn’t help but want to know where he slipped up.

Jason rolled his eye, “ come on bro!” he said with exaggeration, “uh, gee, uh duh, I just found some old things of Kim’s, can I have her address?” His impersonation of Tommy was quite insulting but Tommy had to admit it was fair.

“Come on man,” continued Jason, “you haven’t even mentioned Kim in years and then one day out of the blue you want her address? I don’t think so.”

“Okay fine, you got me,” admitted Tommy. “But there’s one problem with your story.”

“What’s that?” questioned Jason, amused.

“You’re not that smart,” chuckled Tommy as he pulled up a chair, set it down in front of the others, and planted himself in it backwards.

“Very funny bro,” said Jason, somewhat humiliated by the chuckles of his friends around him. “But seriously,” he continued, “I was pretty suspicious of you so I decided to do a little research, which might I add would have made Billy very proud.”

Billy nodded in approval as he recovered from the previous laughing spell that had taken over the room.

“Do continue,” said Tommy as he gestured the statement with his hand. “You do have me intrigued.”

“I sat down at my computer,” continued Jason, seriously, “and I did a search for Reefside’s news and came up with the local newspapers site where a fresh article sat just waiting for me to read.” Jason looked very proud of his accomplishment. “So I read the article and as it turned out that very afternoon there had been a terrible attack on the local teen hotspot, our dear friend Haley’s business venture. Of course only a few eye witnesses were questioned and even Haley herself.”

“What did they say,” asked Aisha eager to find out. She never actually got the whole story when she agreed to take on the mission, just a brief overview.

“Well,” said Jason browsing the faces around him, “I believe the phrase used was a pink she-devil with a giant Z across her chest, flew through the window like a bat out of hell. Now, it’s been a few years, but I’m sure that you all, like myself, can’t even read a word with that tainted letter z in it without cringing.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“So up to this point,” said Jason, “ I had reached a few conclusions.” He paused for dramatic affect. “One, our good friend Lord Zedd had returned from the dead or should I say the good, and was once again attempting to take over the world. Two,” he raised his pointer and middle finger in exaggeration, “Zedd had somehow managed to create his own evil ranger. And three, she was pink, which left the door pretty wide open. But, considering Tommy’s new found interest in Kimberly’s current address, it was pretty obvious who our Pink Ranger was.”

“What if you had been wrong?” questioned Tommy, feeling at little foolish at this point that Jason was able to conclude that the Pink Ranger was Kimberly without even having seen her in person. And, it took him two days to reach the same conclusion.

“Well,” answered Jason smugly, “I checked my facts.” He then pointed at Billy opening the floor for the great genius.

“That’s true,” confirmed Billy, “Jason used his communicator to contact me.”

“But how?” questioned Tommy. He always thought they were inoperable, especially when it came to contacting someone on another planet. “Where’d the frequency come from?”

“My station, back in Aquatar is pretty advanced Tommy,” explained Billy. “It’s so advanced that I am able to pick up even the tiniest signal from Earth, and it just so happens that when I created the frequency for our communicators I coded them with a special formula, which generates a signal totally different from any other. Luckily Jason thought to attempt communication and I picked up on his signal. It was incredibly faint but with a few minor adjustments I was able to receive Jason’s transmission.”

“When I finally got through, I explained everything I knew to Billy,” said Jason picking up where his friend left off. “He sounded a little skeptical because we all know that Lord Zedd is supposed to be as happy as butterfly, and Kimberly would be the last candidate for destruction.”

“So,” continued Billy, “I tapped into the morphing grid and ran a search for anything unusual, and boy did I find something very unusual.”

“What?” asked Zack, he too knew little of the whole story but wasn’t quite as in the dark as Aisha.

“Well,” answered Billy, “I found what looked to be a power source generated from a power coin, more interesting though I found that power to be composed of Zed’s energy, pink energy, and most importantly pterodactyl energy.”

“And Kimberly’s the only Ranger besides Kira to ever be infused with that energy,” finished Tommy. He had to admit this was all very impressive, and a much simpler way to find out the identity of the Pink Ranger than his had been.

“Precisely, Tommy,” responded Billy.

“Okay,” cut in Aisha, “so you find out that Kimberly’s the Evil Pink Ranger and Tommy’s a little worried, but how did you know that the Dino Thunder Rangers couldn’t take care of the problem? Tommy didn’t even ask for help.”

“Well,” answered Billy, “the power signal I found in the morphing grid was stronger than any power originating from a coin had ever been. In fact it was even bigger than the power generated by all five dino gems combined.”

Tommy gasped in amazement, he knew a little something about the intensity of the dino gems and the idea of a power being stronger than them was almost unimaginable. Had he known this, he definitely would have asked for help.

“Knowing this,” cut in Jason eager to continue the story, “Billy and I realized that it was going to take a hell of a lot more to rescue Kimberly from this power source than the dino rangers. So, the Aquitians sent Billy home in their most advanced space craft while in the meantime I, with the help of Delphine and Cestro, attempted to compile a team of basically anyone I could get a hold of.”

“And that’s where I come in,” stated Zack proudly, eager to tell his portion of the story.

“Hold on,” said Tommy raising his hand in defiance, “why go through so much trouble? Why didn’t you just send the Alien Rangers to help us out?”

“Are you crazy?” asked Billy, “Zedd would have sensed their approach before they even reached Earth and by then he could have prepared and equipped Kimberly for the fight. Plus, Kimberly never knew the Aquitian Rangers; there wouldn’t have been any chance of persuading her to surrender peacefully. It would have been her or them.”

“That’s true,” agreed Tommy. He was surprised at how all of this stuff had never even entered his mind. Why did he always insist on taking on every problem alone?

“Um, excuse me,” interrupted Zack, “I believe it’s my turn.”

“Go for it bro,” said Jason with a slight chuckle at his friend’s excitement.

“So check it,” began Zack, “There I was just chillin’ in my hotel room in New York City, totally exhausted from my busy day working, when all of a sudden I hear it,” he paused. “You know what I’m talking about that familiar chime. At first I thought I had fallen asleep and I dreamt the noise, but I heard it again. Finally I tore through my suitcase, which luckily was the same one I had taken to the Peace Conference. I couldn’t believe my communicator was still in it. I had ripped my house apart looking for that thing a few years back. Luckily I had it with me or else Jason would have never been able to track me down.”

“Uh, ever heard of a phone?” asked Aisha sarcastically.

“That’s cute girl,” said Zack as he winked at the African American woman, “but, I live out of hotel rooms these days, my job requires it. And I had just recently changed my cell number because it was just cheaper to get one with a New York area code since I’m there so often.”

“Oh,” said Aisha sheepishly apologizing with her eyes.

“Don’t sweat it,” replied Zack with his typical charm.

“Back to the story please,” interrupted Tommy annoyed by the flirting session that was taking place in his basement.

“Oh, sorry bro,” said Zack blushing, “So anyway I answered the communicator and Jas gave me a quick overview of the situation. Needless to say I was on the next flight to California, because you know I always got your back Tommy.”

Tommy nodded in appreciation.

“Okay, Okay,” said Aisha primping her hair “now my turn. It just so happened that I was visiting Katherine in Australia when Jason sent out the call. I was there for a international veterinarian’s meeting addressing the problem of dehydration, amongst a certain species of-”

Everyone but Billy appeared clueless and somewhat disinterested.

“Anyway, that’s not important,” continued Aisha realizing that she had lost them all at Australia, “Kat and I were in the midst of the beginning of a day long shopping spree when we heard it. I know it sounds silly but ever since I relocated to Africa I keep my communicator with me everywhere I go. I suppose a part of me just feels like I never finished my shift as a ranger ya’ know?”

Everyone nodded in agreement and Billy put his arm around her. None of them blamed her for leaving the team. She had other duties; other’s to help in a different way, just like Jason, Zack, and Trini.

“The communicator was in my purse, I was so shocked to hear it go off, we both were. When I answered it Jason filled me in on the situation. It wasn’t until after he had told everything that Katherine made her presence known.”

It was somewhat obvious that Katherine wasn’t exactly the best candidate for this mission. Eventually, everyone had pieced together the fact that Katherine had in fact had feelings for Tommy, even when he was with Kimberly. Tommy had known it too, but no one really ever knew if Kimberly had realized it. Kim was the type of person that always focused on the good in people, never the bad. But when Kimberly had returned to Angel Grove for spring break, senior year, Jason picked up on Kimberly’s dislike for the pretty blonde Australian. She never said anything to Jason to suggest her hostility, but he noticed the glare on Kimberly’s face whenever Katherine was near by.

“I tried to talk Kat out of coming, honest I did,” began Aisha regretfully. “But she insisted on it. I think she still feels bad about all those horrible things she did to Kim while she was under Rita’s spell. I couldn’t stop her. So, we boarded the next plane to America.”

Everyone gave Aisha a ‘we don’t blame you look,’ as the room went silent. But, the silence was broken by another voice, Haley who had just returned from the kitchen.

“So where did the power’s come from?”

Chapter Twenty-Nine - The Power of Five

Billy scanned the faces of his best friends around him. It had been so long since he’d seen any of them. Heck, it had been so long since he’d seen Earth. But, they had always been there for him no matter what. The situations they had gotten themselves into together, mainly becoming Power Rangers.

None of them had ever actually comprehended the responsibility that would come with being a Power Ranger when they accepted their coins. It wasn’t until many years after they had resigned from the job that it hit them. Life would never be normal for any of them, even if they never morphed again. Each and every one of them lived everyday wondering if this would be the day that the world would once again need their sacrifice.

It had changed the relationships they had in the past and even altered the ones they would have in the future. Each one of them would have a secret that they would never, for as long as they lived, be able to tell anyone. It was a secret that would never be shared with anyone but each other. It was a pact they had made together. More importantly it was a promise they had made to Zordon.

“The origins of the powers are a little complicated to explain,” began Billy hesitantly. “But, I guess the best place to begin would be when Andros destroyed Zordon’s energy tube.”

Everyone concentrated on Billy intensely; nothing could have torn the five adults away from the explanation.

“When Andros busted the tube with his sword he destroyed Zordon physically. After all, we all knew that Zordon really couldn’t take a physical shape outside of the tube, at least not for very long. But, Andros didn’t destroy Zordon spiritually.”

“I don’t get it,” said Zack curiously.

“Well, Zordon was basically scattered throughout the universe and since he was made purely of good he was able to overrule all of the evil, like Lord Zedd, Rita, the Machine Empire, and Divatox.”

“Makes sense,” thought Aisha out loud. “But, that still doesn’t explain why we were able to morph.”

“Okay,” continued Billy. For once in his life he couldn’t find the words to explain something and it was frustrating him. “When Zordon’s energy was distributed most of it went into the bad guys, but the heart of it went into the good guy.”

“That’s us?” interrupted Tommy.

“Precisely,” said Billy feeling confident that he would be able to make everyone understand. “You probably didn’t feel it that day. I know I didn’t. But, each one of us received a part of Zordon, and that can never be taken away. In addition, it also can be drawn upon when connected to a power source.”

“That would be the coins,” finished Jason.

“But how,” began Aisha, “you were there Billy, Goldar turned them into dust.”

“That’s true Aisha, but the power had to go somewhere,” answered Billy.

“Then where did it go?” asked Zack more confused than he thought possible.

“Into each one of us,” cut in Jason.

“So your saying that all this time we’ve been walking around with the ability to morph?” asked Aisha, somewhat perturbed that she hadn’t known this all along.

“No,” continued Jason, “I’m saying that all of this time we’ve been walking around with the powers necessary to morph. But, without each other we wouldn’t be able to create power coins from which to draw the power.”

Everyone stared at Jason and Billy blankly.

“What Jason’s trying to say,” said Billy. “Is that if we have the power of five, which would be equivalent to the original five coins, then together we could harness our energy and create the coins.”

“Even though some were Dino and some were Ninja?” asked Tommy as he carefully took note of what was being revealed to him.

“The type of power is irrelevant, it’s only the color that matters,” answered Billy.

“So are you saying these power are permanent?” asked Tommy excitedly.

“Within us, yes,” answered Billy, “but in an actual physical form they are very limited. We were fine today, but they won’t last forever because they simply aren’t strong enough to sustain over time. Once we’ve used them up it will take years for them to regenerate themselves. Unless of course we find some other power source to infuse them.”

“I guess this would explain why Zedd chose Kimberly to be his Evil Pink Ranger,” added Zack.

“Most likely,” said Billy. “He simply mutated what was already inside of Kim with the power coin he created from darkness.”

Everyone grew silent. The thought of Kimberly lay heavy in their minds.

“What are we going to do about Kimberly?” asked Aisha softly.

“Wait I guess,” said Tommy, resuming his role as leader. “She still has the upper hand. I don’t know if you guys noticed but she also has my dino gem.”

“Oh we noticed,” Zack chimed in.

“So, can Tommy call on his powers?” asked Haley, who had remained silent up to this point.

“Of course,” responded Billy, “as long as he has the support of the other five coins, but that includes Katherine.”

Everyone shifted their gaze toward the sleeping beauty in the center of the room.

“We can’t take Kim on without you bro,” stated Jason plainly.

“Maybe you won’t have to,” began Haley.

“What do you mean Haley?” asked Aisha.

“I mean that it’s a little fishy that Lord Zedd pulled her out of the fight just as she was about to gain the upper hand. She had just taken out Katherine and you probably would have been next Aisha.”

Aisha’s throat began to tighten. In all of the years that she had known Kimberly she had never once tried to hurt her, why now? It just wasn’t right.

“Haley’s right,” interjected Tommy. “Kim could have made toast out of any one of us, and I don’t doubt that she wouldn’t have.”

“So then what do you think is on Zedd’s agenda?” questioned Zack.

“I don’t know,” said Tommy seriously, “All I know is that evil or not Kim still belongs to him, and as long as she belongs to him so does my dino gem.”

“You’re not honestly worried about that stupid gem right now when Kimberly could very possibly be fighting for her life as we speak, are you?” snapped Aisha. She couldn’t believe it; normally Tommy would have been more worried about Kim than anyone else. That silly rock should have been the last thing on his mind.

The room grew silent. Tommy made no effort to defend himself and no one else made any effort in his defense. But what they didn’t realize was that Tommy was more terrified for Kimberly at this very moment than he had ever been before. If he let that fear show then he may never be able to gain his composer again. He had to stay strong if he was going to save Kimberly, even if it meant that he had to act as cold as ice.

Chapter Thirty - Kimberly Hart

Kimberly angrily plopped herself down on the cold marble stone that would have to serve as her bed for the evening. Goldar had just escorted her to the basement level of Serpentera II where the cells were located. As he shoved her into the cell she cursed at him, and unfortunately it brought no satisfaction to her because he was free and she was a prisoner behind the steel bars.

“It’s not fair!” she screamed with all her might as the tears began to pour out of her eyes.

She had busted her butt for Lord Zedd and still he was not satisfied. She continued screaming and yelling obscenities until she felt near exhaustion. Before collapsing onto the hard marble surface she fiercely hurled her pink, black, and gold helmet into the door, it bounced off the dull bars and landed roughly with a giant thump. She couldn’t see where it ended up because of the two-foot high fog that perpetually hovered over the floor. But, she knew the ridiculous piece of armor probably didn’t even get a single scratch.

Sitting on the stone she pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs. Rocking back and forth she continued to cry, but the reason for the tears was rather difficult to pinpoint. Was she scared? Was she angry? Was she sorry? With each rock the reason changed and in accordance so did her thoughts.

They started out as a distant memory of just three days before. She remembered waking from her nightmare and finding herself in the comfort of her own bed, in her own room, in her own house on Rose Avenue. That time she had felt scared, what if she never got over the guilt?

Her next memory brought her to the Youth Center on Friday night where Skull had offered her a ride home in another sad attempt to work his way into her heart. For that she felt sorry, but not really for Skull, it was mostly for not taking him up on that ride home. Realistically she knew that it would have only delayed the inevitable, but who knows, maybe things would have turned out different. She clenched her eyes shut not wanting to remember the next part.

Suddenly she could feel the cold wet raindrops pierce her skin like little nails falling from the sky. She could hear herself heaving for air as she ran through the dark. She felt her muscles begin to ache as she pumped her legs faster and faster, the cold grass below her bare feet turning into ice. Finally she felt herself come to a halt as an indescribable pain surged through her shoulder. Sitting in the small cell Kimberly covered her head with her arms as she struggled to protect her mind from the horrible memory. What followed wasn’t any better.

Standing before Lord Zedd and Rita was like standing on a ledge of the Empire State building, only she didn’t have a choice. Eventually she knew she was going to have to jump or else be pushed, and pushed she was. Recalling, the moment she realized that she was no longer the same woman she had been just hours before, Kimberly felt herself grow warm. As she remembered discovering her new self for the first time she began to sweat, and she could no longer distinguish it from the tears.

Her eyes were cloudy with water and the room was a blur, yet a part of her knew that she had to remember what lay ahead or else she might never be able to rationalize reality from the Evil Pink Ranger’s world. Bracing herself for the shame and defeat she wiped her eyes clean with her black fingers and she sat up strait against the cool wall behind her.

Kimberly’s head was immediately flooded with one image in particular, an image that she would not soon forget, nor would she really want to. But, right now she didn’t know if she had the strength to endure it. The image was of Dr. Thomas Oliver walking carelessly down the streets of Reefside, California. It looked as if he hadn’t a care in the world and he had aged perfectly. Despite the obvious physical changes like the short hair and the glasses he still looked just like the boy Kimberly had fallen so madly in love with in high school. It was a moment she had dreamed of for many years, but if she could change the past she would have given it all back if it meant that these past few days had never happened. She would have given up the chance to ever see Tommy again if it meant that she had never hurt him or the others. But, it was too late.

Now her mind was not her own, she had no control over what she saw next, Tommy hitting the hard wooden floor like a pile of dirt while she was radiant with satisfaction. Next, she saw herself back in the Youth Center gingerly kissing him on the cheek. She once again began to grow warmer in her cell. She couldn’t feel the chill of the stone surfaces below her or behind her. She was in another place, Angel Grove.

Soon, voices entered her head, one belonged to her and the other belonged to Tommy. She could hear him talking about college, about his job, and about becoming a Ranger again. She could hear herself dropping subtle hints that she hoped would ruin his day, like how fond she had grown of Skull. But then the calm conversation was suddenly replaced with screams and hollers. He was yelling for her as he selflessly fought to protect her from the putties. But she was yelling for help in an attempt to lure him into trouble as she eyed the gem, which rested safely on his wrist. In the cell, Kimberly once again found herself curled up in a tiny ball, she felt like she was inches from the sun yet she couldn’t unroll herself.

Next came the disappointment of Tommy’s goodbye, he had shrugged her off like she had been merely an acquaintance to him. She would not stand for it and in the next flashback she proved it. She could feel the muscular heavy weight overtake her. On her fingertips she could not feel the coarse black gloves, but the smooth yet rough texture of Tommy’s chest. In her mouth she could taste the Listerine on his breath, which she had not noticed at the time, yet she remembered it so clearly now. Most importantly she felt wanted, more than that, needed. It had been so long since she had that feeling and she wanted it again. But, it was broken when a cold metal object, the bracelet, replaced the soft skin beneath her fingertips.

Kimberly began to sob out loud in her cell, and she hadn’t noticed when it happened but at some point during her vision she had actually ripped off her gloves. Opening her eyes she found herself struggling with the bracelet on her left arm. It was stuck like glue, she scanned it for the clasp, but it wasn’t there, it was like it had been soldered around her wrist. Taking deep breaths she attempted to compose herself but before she could the bracelet took over her and the terrible memories once again invaded her.

They came in flashes like a strobe light. First she felt the dirty blond, wavy hair of the petite teenage girl in her hand. She could hear the girl attempt to muffle her cries of pain, but worse she could see herself beating the poor girl to a pulp.

The next flash was of the Red Ranger and the Blue Ranger. Quickly she saw herself zap them to the ground, and then they were once again just regular human, lifeless boys. The memories were eating at her and she just wanted to give up and let them go, but she had to remember, she had to face what she had done. She had to force herself to see the monster she had become in hopes that the good in her would not let it stay.

Soon Tommy entered the picture once again, accompanied by the White Ranger. It hurt so much to watch Tommy shoot that blast at her. Why would he hurt her? But, then the image of the White Ranger kneeling over her unsuspectingly entered her head. Soon, he ended up like the rest as she rammed her weapon directly through his stomach. That was why Tommy had done it, she wasn’t human, she didn’t deserve to be.

Suddenly it was just her and Tommy, the battle should have ended then, but thank God it didn’t. Thank God that the other’s showed up. High in the tree they shined like the rarest diamond. They were there to save her; not Tommy, and she realized that now.

Once again the pain was taking over Kimberly’s body as she lay down on her side. The fog had consumed her and she couldn’t see an inch in front of her face. Her eyes were clenched tighter than ever and she was sweating puddles beneath her. But, it was all about to end.

Tommy took Kimberly’s face in his hands, he stared deep into her eyes and she never wanted him to leave. Everyone was there; they were all so close to reconciliation and maybe even happiness. At that moment she was ready to trade her power coin in for her friends, and for him. But no, SHE had to go and speak; she had to ruin it all, just like in high school. The pale white face, the piercing blue eyes, and the silky blond hair of Katherine Hillard engulfed Kimberly’s mind. Kimberly screamed out in pain. She didn’t want to hate the girl, deep down she knew it wasn’t Katherine’s fault. None of it was, not the resurge of evil, not the loss of the power coins, and definitely not her loss of Tommy. Deep down Kimberly knew it was her own fault. She’s the one that left, she’s the one that became paranoid, and she’s the one that wrote the letter.

The letter, that stupid letter! It was the cause of all of this, more directly though, Kimberly was the cause of all of this. If she hadn’t harbored all of that hate deep down then she would have been broken of Zedd’s dastardly spell a long time ago. She would have given up her black coin to Tommy and she wouldn’t be here right now.

Bringing herself back to reality Kimberly slowly eased herself into a sitting position with the help of the stone bench. Her vision was once again blurry with water and the stray strands of hair that hovered over her face were sticking to her, glued with tears. Her body was so hot she could see the red reflecting off the fog. But, Kimberly persevered after realizing that she had been responsible for this whole mess she realized that she too was responsible for ending it.

Heaving for air and composure, Kimberly reached down for her morpher. She tugged at it so hard it almost ripped her belt in two. Once it was free she stared at the mechanism briefly and didn’t hesitate to hit the release button. The small, dull, black coin popped out quicker than Kimberly expected and it fell to the floor with a metallic ring followed by a short lived chime as it rolled across the smooth surface.

“Please, no!” whispered Kimberly cursing herself in her head for letting it fall.

She was never going to find it now, not with the stupid indoor cloud around her. The tears came full force again, she felt like she was made of water. It didn’t matter though, it wasn’t like she could see anyway. Returning to her hands and knees Kimberly blindly searched the floor for the tiny metal disk. Becoming frustrated she broadened her parameter and scaled across the floor desperately.

“Well, found the stupid helmet,” she said agitated before once again tossing it to the side.

Returning to the bench she pawed the floor beneath it, but she found nothing but the cold chill of the marble floor.

“I have to find it!” she sobbed taking a second round across the floor, but nothing. It was as if the coin had disappeared.

Kimberly then realized how ironic it was that just five minutes ago she was dying to get rid of the damn coin, and now she would have given just about anything to find it.

“Come on Kimberly,” she tried to motivate herself, while at the same time struggling to keep her cool.

After a while, Kimberly had no idea how long it had been, hours maybe, she finally stopped her search. By then she was too frustrated and tired to continue the disappointment, so she surrendered and took her spot on the bench and lay down on her side, with her hands tucked under her head as a pillow. Of course the perpetual flow of tears continued their steady stream down her face as she began to doze off, but she never fell completely asleep. It almost felt like she was in limbo, she was conscious but at the same time dreaming. Before long she came out of the trance only to find herself speaking one name over and over again.

“Tommy…Tommy…Tom-“ she whispered softly, only to be interrupted by a sudden chill that engulfed the ear she had been laying on.

Sitting up she looked down at the hand she had been resting her head on, it was Tommy’s bracelet. The black gem began to glow white first and then green. Kimberly wasn’t sure if she was dreaming or if it was actually happening. But soon the glow began to generate a green and white beam which lead to the floor. Following the beam Kimberly sprung up from her seat and rushed to the floor again, going strait for the beam’s trajectory. Feeling the ground for what she hopped was her coin she was disappointed that the bracelet had only led her to that stupid helmet once again.

At first she started laughing, she had imagined the whole thing! Picking up the helmet she held it at eye level to her, examining the face, her face, in the eye shield. Her reflection was somewhat pathetic. She had gigantic circles under her eyes, her skin was pale, and various strands of hair were crusted to her face.

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all,” she choked to herself, accompanied by a giggle.

As if waiting for a response she grew silent and that’s when she saw it. It was the tiniest glimmer of light and it was pink. Kimberly blinked several times figuring her eye’s just needed adjusting, but her curiosity got the best of her as she dug her hand into the helmet’s neck hole. She searched the vessel with her bare hand carefully, finally resting on a cold metal object. After a slight tug the object was freed in her hand. Kimberly was elated to discover that she had found her coin. It had somehow gotten lodged in a crevice inside her helmet and it had been there the whole time!

Relieved and somewhat confused Kimberly hugged the coin to her chest, silently thanking God for the discovery. But, she now knew what she had to do. Still sitting on the freezing marble floor she examined the coin carefully. The little pterodactyl relief stared up at her almost apologetically. She slowly ran her shaking fingers over the insignia. For so long the pterodactyl had brought her such comfort and luck, how was it possible that now it was the source of her undoing? The time had come to let go, to let the hurt go, to let the grudge go, and to let him go.

Kimberly slowly brought the coin to her lips and kissed it. It felt like ice against her lips, which were still warm from the evil. She didn’t know if she could do it alone, destroy her coin. But, it was now or never.

Solemnly she raised the coin in her right hand and held out in front of her. Somehow she knew exactly what she had to do; she could feel it inside her. Mustering up all of her strength she raised her left hand directly in front of her chest, parallel to the coin. Closing her eyes and preparing for the separation she allowed the black dino gem to take over.

She could feel the gem release it’s energy and opening her eyes she saw it begin to illuminate, releasing three figures. The first was a small brachiosaurus; it floated over to the black coin where the pterodactyl innocently rested. But suddenly the coin also began to illuminate pink. Before long the tiny pterodactyl came alive just as the brachiosaurus. The two small figures began to dual inside the tiny coin, firing and attacking like an animation. Kimberly felt every blow inside her no matter who it was meant for.

Soon the second figure emerged from the dino gem in the form of a green dragon. It joined the battle alongside the brachiosaurus. Kimberly began to really feel the pain now, it hurt so much she wanted to drop the coin and forfeit, but something inside of her kept her going, the third figure.

It was a tiny white tiger and as it emerged from the Dino Gem it let out a loud cry that somehow was reassuring to Kimberly. It too joined the battle and after some time all three of Tommy Oliver’s spirit’s emerged from the black coin, bringing with them the pink pterodactyl. This left the coin empty it was nothing now but a piece of metal. The black brachiosaurus, the green dragon, and the white tiger returned to the gem on Kimberly’s wrist and the illumination was gone.

But the pterodactyl had another destination, directly into Kimberly’s heart. She felt the spirit enter her as her body returned to it’s normal temperature and her strength returned even though she felt as if she could sleep for a year. Then, in just a quick flash she found herself unmorphed and still in the short pink dress she had worn on her date with Skull the night before. She was once again Kimberly Hart, and she had once again been rescued by Tommy Oliver.

Chapter Thirty-One - He Felt It Too

Tommy quietly tiptoed up the stairs that led from his underground command center up to his seemingly ordinary house. It was late, real late, but he couldn’t sleep. Eventually Conner, Ethan, and Trent had come to earlier that evening and woke up to discover that five of the original, well some semi-original Rangers had come to their aid and were now very concerned about them. They were so excited that they had completely forgotten what had actually caused them to be unconscious.

Conner spent what felt like hours to Jason drilling him with questions about being the leader of the very first Power Ranger team. Jason was gracious enough but eventually he gave Tommy a pleading ‘help me’ look, which queued Tommy to cut in.

“Hey Conner,” said Tommy “how ya’ felling?”

“Okay, I guess,” said Conner recalling the fact that he had been injured pretty seriously that afternoon.

“Well, you took a pretty bad hit,” continued Dr. Oliver pretending to examine Conner’s head as he put on his glasses.

“Yeah man,” added Jason, “I wasn’t there or anything, but you looked pretty bad when we brought you in. I’m amazed you don’t have the world’s biggest headache.” Jason had obviously picked up on Conner’s limited intelligence.

Conner looked at the two men questioningly and then paused and thought for a minute. “You know,” he began “now that you mention it my head does kind of hurt.” He rubbed his temple slowly.

“Hey, why don’t you take Ethan and Trent upstairs to the kitchen and make you something to eat. The fridge isn’t terribly well stocked but I’m pretty sure there’s some sandwich fixings,” said Dr. Oliver. “Then when you’re done eating there’s some aspirin in the medicine cabinet in my bathroom upstairs.”

“Good idea Dr. O,” said Conner thankfully as he scurried away to gather Ethan who seemed to be quite captivated by Aisha’s beauty. He had been very tentative being taken care of by the sweet and pretty Yellow Ranger all evening long. Usually it would have been Conner getting all the attention from the ladies, but things had changed since the young men had become Rangers.

Trent on the other hand wasn’t so star struck. He was terribly concerned about Kira and he hadn’t left her side since Haley woke him up with those nasty smelling salts. Dr. Oliver had joined him, as he too was worried about Kira and Katherine who was in the cot next to her. But, he couldn’t refuse Jason a hand after what he had done for him.

“Thanks bro,” said Jason giving his long time best friend their secret handshake, which they had shared since high school. “He’s a great kid, but I just really wasn’t in the mood you know what I mean?”

Tommy knew exactly what he meant; he had felt sick to his stomach since the whole ordeal happened.

“Yeah man,” responded Tommy, “don’t worry about it Conner’s never been terribly perceptive.” The two men chuckled to one another as they watched the three teenage boys head up the stairs.

“But how are you doing?” asked Jason with deep concern.

“Never better,” said Tommy sarcastically in an attempt to avoid the question.

“No, I’m serious Tommy,” said Jason with a stern look on his face. “If you wanna talk about it I got time.”

“I know what you’re thinking,” replied Tommy, “that I’m trying to play the heroic leader when inside I’m suffocating with worry, heartache and regret.”

“Well, I really just thought you might need to vent, but that’ll do,” said Jason.

“Well, I’m fine Jas, really,” began Tommy. “I mean naturally I’m worried about Kat and Kira, and I’m extremely nervous about Zedd’s next move, but I’m cool.”

Jason looked at Tommy almost angrily. “I can’t believe you Tommy, what’s the point? You care for Kim, probably more than any of us and we all know that. There’s no reason to hide it.”

“I’m not hiding it,” Tommy snapped back, “I just see no point in worrying about her when she’s done a pretty damn good job of taking care of herself up until now.”

“I feel sorry for you bro,” said Jason sadly shaking his head before turning and walking away to join Billy and Haley at the master control panel.

Tommy made no attempt to move, he knew Jason was right. He was being ridiculous, Kimberly was in danger, why couldn’t he just admit it? Probably because once he did he wouldn’t be able to think strait. He recalled the time Lord Zedd had kidnapped Kimberly and kept her prisoner in his dark dimension as he slowly drained her life away. He couldn’t remember how he was able to get through it. He had even made a conscious decision to let the Rangers pilot Zedd’s zords as a trade off for Kimberly. Looking back on it his decision was made with his heart and not with his mind. He had a feeling that history was going to repeat itself.

But now, nearly three hours later Tommy found himself creeping through his own house like a cat burglar. Everyone had decided that it was only logical that they all stay together tonight. So, they flipped coins for beds and couches, the losers ended up with a cot in the basement. He had been a loser. What he felt worse about though was the fact that Kira’s parents were probably in hysterics right now, worried their daughter hadn’t come home.

Conner and Ethan had called their parents earlier and asked them if they could stay the night at Trent’s. Had their parents known that Anton Mercer had left town for a business meeting earlier that day they never would have allowed it. But, the boys never told them that part. Tommy really wanted to call Kira’s parents and let them know that she was okay, well hopefully. But how could he?

As Tommy carefully placed his steps he worked his way to the front door. When he finally reached it he heard a moan come from the couch behind him and he quickly rushed towards it. Katherine had been the one resting comfortably there. It was first decided that Kira was probably the most affected and should probably get the best bed, so she lay quietly upstairs in Dr. Oliver’s bed, while Trent rested beside her in a comfy, cushioned chair. Although, Tommy wasn’t dumb, he knew that Trent was probably lying right next to the pretty girl right now. At least that’s what he would have done if it had been Kimberly.

Katherine was also in pain so she was moved to the next comfortable resting-place in the house, the fold out sofa in the living room. Ethan and Conner were in Dr. Oliver’s office, which also had a futon and a recliner. Aisha was asleep in a recliner next to Kat in the living room and the other guys, along with Haley were stuck on the cots in the basement.

As Tommy approached Katherine she immediately dropped her mouth open as wide as it would go and started to let out a terrified scream. But, Tommy reacted quickly, putting his hand over her mouth. There was no reason to alarm anyone, especially after the day they had all had.

As his hand smothered Katherine’s face she began to panic, her eyes moving every which way.

“Katherine,” Tommy said softly next to her ear as he bent over her. “It’s me, Tommy. Everything’s going to be okay.”

“Tommy?” Katherine repeated as Tommy removed his hand from her mouth and took a seat next to her on the bed.

“Yes, it’s me,” he assured her.

“What happened?” she asked in a whisper, “where are we?”

“Well,” began Tommy, “we’re in my living room in Reefside,” he said soothingly. “You had us pretty scared there for a while,” he paused, not wanting to tell Katherine the truth. “You see, Kimberly zapped you with a very powerful beam back in the forest.”

“She did?” questioned Kat.

“Yes, you’ve been unconscious ever since,” said Tommy regretfully. “Oh Kat, I’m so sorry. I never meant for this to happen to you. It was all my fault.”

“I don’t understand,” said Katherine, “how could this be your fault? You had no more control over the situation than I did.”

“Actually I did,” confessed Tommy as he helped Katherine sit up. “I kind of knew that Kimberly had some hostile feelings towards you before you got here. I knew the second you showed up that there would be trouble, but I just wasn’t thinking. I’m so sorry,” he said again trying to conceal the shake in his voice.

“Hostile feelings?” she questioned. “Why would Kimberly have hostile feelings towards me?”

Tommy struggled to look his ex-girlfriend in the eye, but she softly embraced his right hand in both of hers and somehow it relaxed him. He slowly began to explain,

“Kimberly wrote that letter because she was afraid that I was falling for you.”

Katherine was a little taken aback by the statement as her eyes widened and she griped Tommy’s hand a little tighter.

“She was afraid that I was going to leave her for you, so she let me go first,” he continued. “I know it was ridiculous and I think that now she knows it too, but it’s true.”

Katherine suddenly clicked, “But the karate tournament!” she gasped out loud causing Aisha to stir. She and Tommy had done everything short of making out at that tournament.

Tommy put his pointer finger to his lips gesturing for her to be quiet.

“I know,” he said, “she was still in love with me then. She was going to confess the whole thing that weekend and tell me that she still loved me. But, when she saw you and me together it was too late.”

“Oh,” said Katherine closing her eyes tightly, “I had no idea!”

“I know, I know,” whispered Tommy. “It wasn’t your fault. Neither of us had any idea.”

“I feel terrible about this,” began Katherine.

“Shhh, shhh, shhh,” said Tommy as he pulled his hands out of Katherine’s grasp only to engulf the woman in his arms. “It’s okay Kat, it was a long time ago. It would be stupid to get upset over it now because it’s all over and done with, okay?”

“Yeah,” muffled Katherine against his chest.

He could feel her tears soaking through his white undershirt and now he could smell her silky blond hair. She still used the same shampoo, it brought back so many memories. But, he was relieved to discover that it didn’t bring back any of the old feelings, just the memory of them.

“Now,” he said resting his cheek on top of her head, “I want you to get some more sleep. I know it probably feels like you’ve been asleep for ages, but you need your rest after everything you’ve been through. I promise we’ll explain everything to you in the morning and Billy will run a scan on you and make sure there was no permanent damage.”

“Okay,” she agreed speaking in a normal volume.

Tommy released her and she lay back down under the covers as he stood up and turned around toward the front door, but before he could take a step she stopped him.

“Tommy, will you stay with me?” she asked. “Just until I fall asleep.”

“Of course I will Kat,” he said as he once again returned to the bed and sat down leaning against the sofa cushion. Katherine cuddled up next to him and rested her head on his chest. She could hear his heart beat, it had been so long since she’d heard that. It sounded really nice.

She never thought she would find herself in Tommy Oliver’s arms again, but here she was. He was still so handsome and it had felt so good when he wrapped his muscular arms around her. But things were different now, they would never be the same again. He was still madly and desperately in love with Kimberly Hart. She could tell by the way he spoke of her. He didn’t blame her for any of this, only himself.

Hell, who was she kidding? He had never fallen out of love with Kimberly, even when they were together. She always told herself when they were going out that he just missed Kim, but the feelings were gone. She had just been fooling herself and that’s why she had let him go once she went off to college. She didn’t have any kind of advantage anymore with a long distance relationship. Why would he pine after her when he could pine after Kim just as easily? But, for now she would just enjoy this moment of having the pleasure of falling asleep in Tommy’s arms.

Tommy sat still as a rock with Katherine cradled in his arms. Soon he began to doze off to the even sound of Katherine’s breaths. As he floated in and out of consciousness his lips cracked a smile. For a moment he had dreamt that it had been Kimberly in his arms.

In his dream the couple had been upstairs in his room on a chilly winter night. Only, it wasn’t his room, it was their room. Kimberly had just come out of the bathroom in a pink satin nighty and joined him under the covers. Neither of them said a word, they just smiled at each other as she adjusted herself in his arms. Before long her head was resting on his chest and he could feel their hearts beating in unison. But suddenly he felt something strange happen inside of his chest. At first in his dream the two had felt it together, it felt as if they had been fused together and their eyes shot open in unison, just as he awoke from the dream. He found himself panting hard to catch his breath and sweat trickling down his temple.

“What just happened?” he asked out loud disappointed to find Katherine in his arms. She was still asleep but somehow he knew that where ever Kimberly was, she had felt it too.

Chapter Thirty-Two - Things Are Starting To Look Up

“Cut out that racket!” yelled the gold beast as he shoved the rusted key in the lock, which had assured Kimberly would remain in the small cell through the night.

Kimberly quickly shoved her hand down the front of her light pink spaghetti strap dress before Goldar had a chance to notice. She had been feverishly working for the last couple of hours at her plan to basically stay alive. First things first though, making Lord Zedd believe the black dino gem was destroyed with the pink power coin. After Kimberly had been relieved of the evil and everything that came with it, including the costume she realized that maybe she wasn’t so helpless after all.

Staring at Tommy’s dino gem she noticed the bracelet had relented its grasp on her and the clasp appeared once again. The only problem was that once she got the bracelet off it was too bulky to hide on her person. There wasn’t much you could conceal under the skimpy little dress. Why oh why out of all of the garments in her extensive wardrobe did she have to wear that dress on her date with Skull? She didn’t even care to impress him; it just must have been a rule that when you’re evil you have to be sexy too.

So, the only way to conceal the gem was to separate it from the bracelet. Kimberly undid the clasp quickly and removed the silver hardware from her wrist. She first examined the set of the gem and immediately discovered that there was no prying the thing loose. Deciding that Tommy probably hadn’t been the one to construct the bracelet, given his lack of skill in shop class back in high school, Kimberly was left with no one to blame. Maybe Haley? It was stupid to care about that now and yet she was still jealous of the woman.

“Jealous of a female Billy,” Kimberly said to herself out loud, “I can’t imagine how this experience could get any stranger.”

But, Kimberly’s sense of humor was still not enough to shield her from her frustrations. Finally, she declared, “Oh the hell with it,” as she began to slam the bracelet onto the hard marble floor repeatedly for at least a half-hour. Once she pulled it up from under the cloud of fog, which she absolutely loathed at this point, she noticed that there had been little to no damage done to the bracelet. But, determined to free the gem she simply found a different surface, the steel bars. That was about when Goldar approached her. Just as he appeared the gem had been successfully knocked loose and this time she wasn’t taking any chances and made sure to catch it before it got lost in the white cloud. Reacting fast the dino gem now sat safely nestled inKimberly's bra. ‘Tommy, the things I do for you,’ she thought.

“Get up,” yelled Goldar once again as he entered the cell and effortlessly pulled Kimberly up by her left arm. She was now aware that she had in fact been barefoot this entire time, the floor was freezing. Tommy must have removed her shoes when he put her in his bed after she 'fainted' the night before last. ‘Don’t think about that now Kimberly,’ she thought trying not to remember what had occurred shortly after she had 'awoken'.

“What happened?” Goldar questioned accusingly. “Why aren’t you morphed? Where’s the power coin?”

“None of your damn business,” Kimberly snapped as she struggled to break free.

“Lord Zedd is not going to be happy about this,” Goldar said obviously not phased by Kimberly’s hostility.

He commenced to drag the girl kicking and screaming up several flights of stairs to reach the main corridor. Kimberly knew that her struggles were useless, but why make the dumb ape’s job easy on him?

As the pair entered the familiar lair Goldar tossed Kimberly to her knees in front of Lord Zedd who was perched on his throne with Rita at his side. Kimberly stood up immediately after gathering her bearings. She had no reason to bow to the emperor of darkness now.

“I see you have decided to rebel,” began Lord Zedd, not at all surprised by Kimberly’s defiance. “I suppose it’s for the best.”

“What?” screeched Rita.

“Well, my dear,” he answered, “you have to admit Kimmy was a rather big let down as my Pink Ranger.”

“You can say that again,” said Rita glaring at the woman. “Now give it up girlie! We want our coin back!”

“Well, you can’t have it back,” said Kimberly as a smile grew across her face.

“Oh, I’m sorry dear,” cut in Lord Zedd, “you must be confused, my wife is demanding that you return that coin to me this very second!” His voice erupted into echoes that sounded throughout the craft.

“No, you must be confused,” returned Kimberly, holding her head high, “you can’t have the coin back because it no longer exists.”

“Zeddy,” screamed Rita, “I don’t like what I’m hearing make her give it back!”

“What are you talking about?” asked Zedd leaning forward in his throne.

“You heard me,” replied Kimberly, “it’s gone, poof, goodbye, nonexistent, no more,” she continued sarcastically and loving every second of it.

“I don’t believe you,” said Lord Zedd, “that’s impossible.”

“Oh contraire, Zeddy,” said Kimberly cutely, “It was destroyed by your favorite human of all time, Tommy Oliver.”

“What?” gasped Zedd, “How? When?”

“How!” added in Rita.

“Well,” explained Kimberly, “he didn’t like physically destroy it, it’s more like his dino gem destroyed it.”

Lord Zedd, Rita, and Goldar were baffled and left speechless. Kimberly stood before them rocking back and forth on her heals with the biggest grin on her face.

“Okay,” said Zedd finally breaking the silence, “then give me the dino gem, now.”

“Sorry, can’t help you old man,” replied Kimberly, “the gem didn’t make it either.”

“I really don’t care for her attitude,” said Rita.

“Silence!” ordered Lord Zedd. “You will address me with respect Kimberly and you will return to me what is mine.”

“I already told you,” answered Kimberly somewhat annoyed, “they’re both gone.”

“That’s it,” declared Lord Zedd rising from his seat, “just remember Kimberly, you brought this upon yourself.”

He aimed his staff directly at Kimberly releasing a blast that hit her so fast she never even saw the charge escape from the shinny, silver Z. She was on the ground and unconscious immediately.

“Goldar,” demanded Zedd, “search her and then tie her up. I have plans for our former Pink Ranger. She may have failed at destroying Dr. Oliver, but she will most definitely succeed in luring him to his doom.”

Tommy was awoken by the sound of Conner and Ethan’s chuckles as they discovered their conservative science teacher entangled with the blonde bombshell in his arms. At first he had no idea what was so funny, had he worn only his boxers to bed? They weren’t that immature, were they?

“Looks like Dr. O had an eventful night, Ethan,” said Conner trying unsuccessfully to choke back the laughs.

Ethan was in such hysterics he couldn’t even respond.

“Hey, that’s enough guys,” said Tommy seriously, afraid that they would wake up Katherine, but it was too late.

Katherine opened her blue eyes and allowed them to adjust to the scenery as she lifted her head off of Tommy’s chest.

“Tommy?” she questioned starring him directly in the eyes. “What’s going on?”

“That’s what we would like to know,” cracked Ethan.

Katherine starred at the two boys in confusion and then returned her gaze back to Tommy. He looked so good, even first thing in the morning. His stubble had become very heavy and he was definitely due for a shave, but it was very sexy.

“Don’t mind them,” began Tommy squirming to get out from under Katherine, “they just barely passed the second grade.”

“Third, thank you very much,” chuckled Conner as he gestured for Ethan to follow him to the kitchen to get some breakfast.

Everyone else had already convened in the kitchen, with the exception of Trent and Kira. They had all been pleasantly surprised that morning to find Katherine in Tommy’s arms. By the couple’s position everyone gathered that Katherine had woken up during the night. That was definitely cause to celebrate.

Meanwhile back in the living room Katherine had separated herself from Tommy not wanting to let go, but not wanting to let on to the fact that she had thoroughly enjoyed falling asleep to the sound of his heartbeat the night before.

“How are you feeling?” asked Tommy gently as he swung his feet around and planted them firmly on the floor.

“Well, I’m a little soar, but mainly it’s just my head that really hurts.”

“Why don’t I walk you into the kitchen and Billy can go ahead and check you for any injuries or damage.”

“Okay,” agreed Katherine allowing Tommy to help her stand up and then escort her into the kitchen.

Everyone was elated when they saw Katherine enter the room. They all rushed her so quickly that she felt like a celebrity.

“Hey guys,” interrupted Tommy, “take it easy, she’s still not at a hundred percent.”

Everyone heard Tommy but, they couldn’t help themselves, they still took turns showering the woman in hugs. While the excitement was on Katherine, Tommy took it upon himself to sneak away to head upstairs to check on Trent and Kira, and for a long over due shower.

He slowly eased the door open afraid that he might wake Trent, but he was overtaken with relief when he saw the couple sitting up in the bed next to each other holding hands. They had been quietly discussing Kira’s current condition but in spite of the shock and the pain Kira still managed to smile.

“Dr. O,” she said excitedly, opening her arms to the man.

Tommy walked over to her and without second thought he engulfed her in a monstrous hug. It was highly inappropriate for a teacher student relationship, but very appropriate for a Power Ranger Power Ranger relationship.

“Are you okay?” asked Tommy overjoyed.

“Well, I guess I’ve been better,” answered Kira, “but I have to admit the day’s starting out pretty good.” She turned her gaze towards Trent and Dr. Oliver got the hint.

“I guess that’s my queue to go,” he chuckled, releasing Kira. “I’m just going to grab a quick shower and you guys can head downstairs if you want, the guys are making breakfast.”

“Come on,” said Trent helping Kira out of the bed, “you won’t believe who showed up after you got knocked out.”

The two teenage lovebirds slowly exited the room and Tommy headed strait for the shower, maybe things were starting to look up. Katherine had woken up and appeared to be okay, and thank God so did Kira. Not only that, with Kat in commission he could now call on his old white tiger powers. Most importantly though, something had happend last night. It wasn't something he could ever describe or even really recall, but for a split second Kimberly had been with him and he promised himself that next time it would be for real.

Chapter Thirty-Three - The Fog

By noon Tommy felt like he was literally going to burst. Why in the hell hadn’t Zedd made his move? It had been nearly twenty-four hours since his last attack, what was he waiting for? In spite of Tommy’s attempt to trick himself into believing that Kimberly was capable of taking care of herself in Lord Zedd’s lair, his common sense had gotten the best of him. The night before when he had felt that strange connection to Kimberly it felt good to know that she was okay, but it also didn’t feel right. He knew something was wrong, very wrong.

“Hey man,” interrupted the strong masculine voice that belonged to Jason, “I know you’re probably sick of me asking this but how are you doing?”

Jason stepped outside and the screen door slammed behind him. Tommy retreated from his usual workout space in his vast backyard and joined the Red Ranger on the porch. Tommy had been roaming around the grounds for at least an hour just trying to come up with some sort of strategy. But it was a little hard to come up with a plan of attack when you had no clue where the bad guys actually were.

“Well, I’ve been better,” Tommy replied to Jason’s question hopelessly. “I can’t stand much more of this bro. Zedd’s got to make a move.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” said Jason in amazement, “are you telling me you finally let the macho man routine go?”

“It wasn’t a macho man routine. It was a mind over matter strategy.”

Jason looked at Tommy questioningly.

“That failed poorly,” added Tommy surrendering to his best friend.

“Just hang in there Tommy,” said Jason after a few seconds of silence. “Kim’s been through so much in her life, some bad, but mostly good. There’s no way she’s going to let a little thing like Lord Zedd and Rita take it all away from her. She’s especially not going to let them take her away from you.”

Normally Tommy would have shot back at Jason with denial and defense at his suggestive comment of the couple’s failed romance. But, he didn’t have the strength to, not today; maybe not ever again. The fact of the matter was that the day he met Kimberly Hart she had stolen his heart away and when she left him she never gave it back, he didn’t want it back.

“Tommy, oh Tommy…”

Tommy’s head snapped up at the faint sound of the whisper of his name echoing through the forest. Jason reacted immediately too.

“Did you hear that?” he asked.

“Yeah,” replied Tommy suspiciously as he searched the grounds with his eyes. “It was probably just Ethan and Conner fooling around. Sometimes those guys have no tact or regard whatsoever,” he admitted sorely to Jason.

“Tommy, Tommy…” said the sinister voice again as it began to grow wickedly familiar.

“There it was again,” began Jason as he followed his friend down the porch steps, “and I don’t think it’s the voice of a teenage menace.”

“Shhhh,” snapped Tommy quickening his pace as he wound through trees and expertly avoided all the bushes that crossed his path.

A part of him was actually looking forward to greeting the owner of the voice. He didn’t care that he had left his newly created power coin back at the house. He didn’t care that it was now just him and Jason against the world’s most feared evil. But, what he did care about was finding Kimberly and hopefully in one peace.

As the two men chased the calls they found themselves getting lost deeper and deeper in the forest. Neither of them had noticed when but at some point fog had begun to close in on them. Soon they could only see but two yards in front of them, at which point Jason tightly latched on to Tommy’s shoulder. He knew that once they were separated it was pretty much over for the both of them. They never should have wondered so far alone, but even if he had tried to convince Tommy to turn around to retrieve the other’s Tommy would have just said “do what you want but I’m not stopping.”

“I’m going to call the other’s,” announced Jason, not even sure if Tommy had heard him because he was so focused on the beckon. It was almost as if he was hypnotized. Jason briefly released Tommy’s shoulder to engage his communicator, but all he heard was a failed signal. He tried again and still no success. The two men stopped cold in their tracks.

“The signals gone,” declared Jason almost panicked.

“Yeah,” continued Tommy, “and something tells me it has something to do with this fog, which no doubt has something to do with Zedd.”

Jason had a look of worry on his face, which normally would have at least made Tommy stop and consider the severity of his situation. But, not this time, he didn’t hesitate once to turn around and keep moving.

“Tommy it’s a trap,” warned Jason as he looked up from his communicator. But, Tommy was no where in sight; in fact nothing was insight but walls and walls of the white abyss. The fog was so heavy that the man couldn’t even see his own hand when he placed it directly in front of his face.

“Tommy!” yelled Jason, sure that his friend would answer back in annoyance. Silence. “Tommy!” he shouted again even louder. “This isn’t funny! Where are you? Tommy! Tommy! Tommy!”

Jason was starting to get really panicked now, Tommy was no where to be found. Even worse than that the voice had completely diminished. Jason could hear nothing but silence. Reaching for his morpher Jason realized it was time to get serious. He pulled the silver mechanism from the back of his belt, but before he could swing it in front of him to call on the coin’s great power the morpher was swiftly knocked out of his hand. He hadn’t even seen what did it or who did it. But, like Tommy it was lost. Jason scurried to find it, running in circles, when suddenly he realized that losing his morpher was the least of his problems.

Meanwhile, Tommy continued on his journey. The voice still rung fresh through his ears. The fog was thick but it didn’t worry him, in fact all it did was prove to be an annoyance. Soon he found himself at the edge of a tiny ledge where a gigantic tree root had protruded out of the ground. Below it was about a ten-foot drop and man was Tommy relieved that he had seen it before it resulted in a sprained ankle.

“Watch you’re step bro,” he said casually as he jumped off the ledge and landed safely on the leaves and brush below. He quickly moved out of the way so Jason wouldn’t end up landing right on top of him, but there was just one problem. He never heard Jason’s feet hit the ground; in fact he heard nothing.

“Jas,” he hollered behind him, “quit fooling around we don’t have all day.”

But, Jason didn’t respond.

“Jason?” he questioned in confusion. “Where did you go?”

But, still nothing.

“Jason!” he yelled loudly. “Jason! Jason! Jas-“ he stopped short realizing it was useless.

Lord Zedd had been successful in splitting the two friends up. Before Tommy would allow himself to worry for his best friend he reminded himself that Jason was just as capable as he was if not more. Just then the voice returned, but it wasn’t echoing through the trees, originating from some remote location. No, it could be heard as plain as day and Tommy felt the warm, moist breath of the source breathing down his neck and he froze.

“Hey, has anyone seen Dr. O?” asked the cute petite girl as she entered her science teacher’s living room.

Everyone had been present in the room, well everyone but herself, Jason and Dr. Oliver.

“Haven’t seen him, girl,” said Zack casually as he tossed a kernel of popcorn up in the air and waited patiently for it to land perfectly in his mouth.

All of the Rangers, old and new had spent the last couple of hours brainstorming a solution or at least some sort of a plan. Tommy had cut out quite some time ago. Everyone figured he just needed some air, it wasn’t until he had been gone for nearly an hour that Jason decided he should probably check on him.

“I think he and Jason are out back,” said Kat sweetly as she tried to fight back a yawn unsuccessfully. She still hadn’t recovered from the day before. “Oh excuse me,” she said apologizing for her bad manners.

“No,” said Kira factually, “they’re not there anymore.”

“What?” said Conner casually not really giving much thought to the possibilities.

“Well, I was in the kitchen doing the dishes when Jason went outside to find Dr.O and I heard them talking on the porch for a little while. But then I suddenly realized after a few minutes that the voices stopped.”

“So maybe they went for a walk,” said Ethan as he battled Conner for the plastic bowl of popcorn that was being passed around.

“In this fog?” questioned Kira, “that’s not very likely. I just went outside to call them in but I couldn’t see beyond the porch.”

“Fog?” asked Haley, “What are you talking about sweetie it’s as clear as the ocean outside,” she gestured towards the living room window where bright golden sunlight filtered in through the black mesh shades.

“Maybe I should run some more tests on you Kira,” offered Billy kindly, “maybe there’s something Haley and I overlooked. Are you feeling okay?”

“For the millionth time I’m fine!” declared Kira raising her voice.

She was so sick of the way everyone had been treating her since she woke up that morning. Everyone acted like she was as delicate as an egg. Even Trent had been trying her nerves, not allowing her out of his site. She practically had to fight him off with a stick before he let her separate from him for fifteen minutes to take a shower.

“Calm down Kira,” said Trent soothingly as he rose from his seat on the bench in front of the fireplace.

He walked towards Kira and extended his hand to her in consolation. But, she didn’t take it; she only stared at him in disgust.

“As you were,” she huffed sourly as she turned around and walked back into the kitchen.

“What’s gotten into her?” asked Aisha not caring for the young Yellow Ranger’s attitude.

“Yeah, pardon me for caring,” said Trent to himself as he watched the girl disappear behind the corner. After a slight hesitation he decided to follow her.

“Wait,” interrupted Billy, “just let her be Trent. She’s probably just frustrated with everything that’s going on.”

“Billy’s right,” continued Haley. “You know how Kira is, she can’t stand seeing her friends suffer and not be able to do anything about it.”

“Yeah,” said Conner, “especially when it comes to Dr. O.”

Everyone stared at Conner questioningly.

“Oh come on,” whined Conner, “don’t tell me I’m the only one to have picked up on their ‘relationship,’” he raised his hands in the air and made quotation marks with his fingers.

“I must say, I’m impressed,” said Ethan with a giant grin on his face.

“What?” questioned Conner, “they’re like so obvious.”

“No,” replied Ethan, “I’m impressed that you used the quotations correctly.

Every soon erupted into chuckles, disregarding Conner’s comments about Tommy and his student. Everyone knew their relationship was a little strange, but Tommy’s friends understood that it was because of Kim. When they first met Kira she had reminded them of Kimberly immediately.

Kira shuffled into the kitchen once again and headed straight for the refrigerator. She opened the door and fished out a can of ginger ale. Closing the door she muttered curses to herself. Sometimes it was so hard being a girl. Popping open the can, Kira briefly wondered what it must have been like for Kimberly back when she was a Ranger. She had been as tiny as herself and not only that her color was pink! She must have really gotten the damsel in distress treatment. But, knowing Dr. O, it was probably welcomed. Speaking of Dr. O, where was he?

Kira stepped to the side and peered out the widow, but all she could see was a distressed wooden porch enclosed by a curtain of white and gray. After taking a gigantic gulp of soda she set the can down on the counter and headed outside. Once on the porch she called for her teacher.

“Dr. O!” she yelled not too loud but loud enough to be heard within a fair distance.

She heard no response and suddenly she got the chills. She wrapped her arms around her chest and rubbed them in an attempt to warm up.

“Dr. O!” she hollered again, even louder as she cupped her hands around her mouth.

She started to realize that the stupid fog was only reflecting her yells back at her. Maybe if she got further out he could hear her. So, she stepped off the porch and was shocked to find that she couldn’t see a damn thing.

“Dr. O?” she questioned meekly somewhat annoyed at herself for allowing fear to creep in.

But, there was nothing. Before allowing her mind to become poisoned with uncertainty Kira decided that she preferred the ridiculous treatment back in the house over the scared and helpless feeling inside of her right now. So, she turned around and stepped up expecting her black boot to land on the bottom step of the porch, but there was nothing there except dirt. She took a few more steps surprised that she hadn’t realized just how far she had gone from the porch. Still, nothing. Spinning in circles Kira was beginning to feel panic. Grasping at her chest to catch her breath she didn’t like where she was at all.

“Dr. O,” she pleaded. “Help me! Somebody!” but she was still alone.

It was the most horrible feeling she had ever felt, it was even worse than the time the tyranodrones kidnapped her and took her to Mesogog’s island fortress. Little did she know it was about to get worse, when suddenly she felt something encircling her right arm. For all she knew it could have just been a stray weed or branch from a tree, but she wasn’t taking her chances as she took off running not concerned with the direction. As she ran further and further she tried desperately to avoid any trees, but wasn’t always successful. She couldn’t even begin to count the bruises she was going to have the next day if it ever even came. Tears began to drip from her eyes in masses and the screams had literally been scared out of her. She thought she could hear footsteps behind her, but she wasn’t sure, and there was no way she was going to stop to find out. But suddenly, without warning she found herself in mid air and falling fast. She tried to scream but she couldn’t. Then, she remembered her dino gem, just in time. “Dino Thunder Power Up, ha,” she mouthed as she fell faster and faster. But the yellow pterodactyl never appeared on her wrist, her bracelet along with her dino gem was gone. All she could do now was listen for the sound of her bones crashing to the ground.

Chapter Thirty-Four - He Wanted To Kill Him

Jason stared up at the Gold monster, which hovered above him. Due to the fog he could only make out the beast’s silhouette along with two red glowing eyes. Jason was not the least bit surprised that it had been Goldar who had knocked his morpher out of his hands. But, he was somewhat intimidated. It had been quite a few years since he had encountered the goon and if he recalled correctly Goldar had always proved to be a worthy opponent.

“Shame on you Red Ranger,” began Goldar towering above Jason. “I bet you never guessed your precious power coin would lead you to your doom.”

“What are you talking about Goldar!” Jason shouted as a demand rather than a question, trying to stand firm and not allow his apprehension to show.

“Well Red Ranger, incase you hadn’t noticed it is a little foggy out here. I never would have found you had it not been for your coin. It’s an energy source which is very easily detectable because it is so, shall I say, unwelcomed.”

“So your saying my powers would do more harm than good,” stated Jason, doubting Goldar’s claims.

“Oh no, I’m saying your power coin does more harm than good because it’s like bate on a hook,” explained Goldar. “Your powers don’t even work in the cloud unless you morph into them before entering the fog.”

Jason didn’t like what he was hearing, but regardless he needed to find his morpher and get the hell out of there and find Tommy. Thank God Tommy hadn’t taken his power coin with him. Jason remembered seeing it resting safely on the control panel back in the command center right before he went out to find him. He had actually even considered bringing the coin to Tommy but decided against it.

“Tell me Goldar,” said Jason, “who else is out here?”

“You know, the usual,” responded Goldar casually as he charged at Jason. He too was blinded by the fog, but Goldar was never one to get discouraged so early in the game.

“The usual?” question Jason as he dodged the beast’s advances and followed with a spinning kick to Goldar’s stomach of steel.

Goldar recovered quickly. “Yes the usual,” he continued as he swung his sword at Jason, “Lord Zedd and just a small army of warriors.”

Jason rolled on the ground barely missing the sword’s blade, “Small army?” he questioned rising from the ground and attempting to kick Goldar’s sword out of his hand.

Goldar was too quick for Jason and managed to dodge his kick. “Yes a small army of some of your favorite opponents from the past.”

“Mind elaborating?” asked Jason as he and Goldar sparred as if it had been a rehearsed routine, in a way it actually had been.

“Actually I do,” answered Goldar becoming winded but far from giving up, “let’s just say I feel sorry for anyone that takes more than two steps off that porch.” He gestured with his hand in the direction of the porch.

Jason silently mocked the idiot in his head for giving away the direction home, but he was glad the big dumb ape was so, well dumb.

“Well,” said Jason smartly as he backed away from Goldar, “it’s been fun, I guess I never realized how much I haven’t missed this or you.”

With that he swiftly dropped to the ground and kicked Goldar’s legs right out from under him, and then he took off running in the direction Goldar had gestured towards. He ran for what seemed like forever, he was sure Goldar hadn’t followed or at least if he had he was too far behind him to ever catch up. Jason had decided that his morpher was not terribly important right now, it would only blow his cover, so he left it. He knew it was risky, but even if Goldar did get a hold of it, it wasn’t like the coin was even any good without him. The power needed him to work, and without him it was just a plain old coin.

Soon Jason found himself coming to a halt. He could have sworn that he heard a voice, but whom? It sounded like a female but he couldn’t make out what she was saying. Immediately he thought it was Kim, so he continued running towards it when he realized whom it had been.

The girl stood only a few feet in front of him with her back towards him and she was obviously shaken. Jason didn’t want to startle her, but she was an open target. In spite of the thick fog the yellow gem sparkled vibrantly on her right wrist. The first thing that entered Jason’s mind was, a power source. Quickly he reached for the bracelet on which the gem was contained. There was no time to explain, he had to get the gem as far away from the girl as possible. There was no telling how many of Zedd’s henchmen had already been hot on her trail. As he wrapped his fingers around Kira’s wrist she immediately jumped and before he knew it she was gone.

“Kira!” he yelled after her as he chucked her bracelet along with the dino gem as far as he could throw.

But, she didn’t hear him, so he took off after her. It was difficult to keep up with the young girl because she had an adrenaline rush like Jason had never seen. Plus the fog didn’t help either. He continued to call her name loudly, but she just kept running and running. He saw her smash into trees and stumble over shrubs, but he just couldn’t catch her. The faster he ran the faster she ran, until she disappeared completely.

- - - - -

“Can we please decide on something!” moaned Conner as he hunched over in his seat.

He and everyone else had become quite exhausted brainstorming all day, but him mostly. At this point the two teams had managed to narrow the plan down to two options. The first was to attempt to lure Lord Zedd out of hiding by sending a surrender signal through the morphing grid and hope he picked up on it. But, they were pretty sure that Zedd was much smarter than that. The second option was to combine their powers and channel them all into one Ranger, Tommy and teleport him to Zedd’s location. The only problem with that was that they still had no idea where that location was and it was very risky to send one Ranger out all alone.

“Look,” continued Conner with exaggeration, “why don’t we just ask Dr. O his opinion? After all, he is the one that will be affected the most.”

“I think that may be the smartest thing to come out of you mouth today,” stated Ethan relieved by Conner’s solution.

“I suppose that would be the best idea,” agreed Katherine as she massaged her temples. Her head never stopped pounding all day, and all of the stress of having to come up with a plan definitely hadn’t helped.

“I agree with Kat,” confirmed Aisha, “Tommy is the leader, I just didn’t want to have to burden him with this decision too, along with everything else.”

“That may be so Aisha,” cut in Billy, “but Tommy is the leader. He willingly took on the responsibility and although it may not be easy he ultimately has to be the one to make the call.”

“Well said my man,” said Zack with a shake of the head.

“Then I guess all that’s left now is to present Tommy with his options,” said Haley with a look of hesitation on her face.

Nobody wanted to force their friend and leader to have to make such a difficult decision. But what choice did they have? Kimberly’s situation definitely wasn’t improving and neither was Tommy’s. All day long everyone watched as Tommy grew more and more impatient. The stress was taking its toll on him and they all knew that if something didn’t happen soon Tommy’s health would suffer.

“Okay then, it’s decided,” declared Trent as he rose from his seat. “I’ll go find Dr. O and Jason.”

“Thanks Trent,” said Billy as he turned to Haley ready to discuss strategy to track down Zedd’s hiding place.

Little did they know Trent just wanted an excuse to find Kira, who he assumed was with Dr. O by now. He had heard the back door open at least a half hour ago and he figured she must have found Dr. O and Jason outside. Turning the corner, Trent entered the kitchen. He noticed how dark the room was and was forced to switch on the light. He saw an open can of ginger ale sitting on the counter and he figured it was Kira’s. Grabbing the can he then reached for the screen door and pushed it open. Stepping outside Trent was shocked at what he saw. The porch was completely surrounded by a thick heavy fog. Kira hadn’t been imagining things, the fog did exist. Then where were she and Dr. O?

- - - - -

Tommy stood frozen and shocked in the middle of the clouded forest. Before he couldn’t wait to get his hands on the evil and disgusting master of darkness, Lord Zedd. But now that the ruler stood so close behind him that he could feel his warm moist breath breathing down his neck, he couldn’t even move. It almost felt as if he had been paralyzed and suddenly a great fear had swept over him. If Lord Zedd had done all of this had he paralyzed him too?

“Nice to see you again Tommy,” whispered the voice vindictively in Tommy’s ear. “Did you miss me? Ha, ha, ha…” Lord Zedd erupted into laughter.

Tommy struggled as Zedd’s laughter only motivated him more, and finally his muscles became operable. He moved away from Zedd and was now facing him.

“Miss you?” said Tommy taking a defensive stance, “I can’t even stand the site of you.”

Zedd finally brought his laughter under control, “That’s too bad Tommy, we could have been such good friends. After all, I did bring a present for you.”

With that Lord Zedd waved his hand as the fog began to clear in front of him and there, only about twenty yards away was the object of Tommy’s affection, Kimberly. She was tied to a tree with rope surrounding her like a vine. Her head hung down, her chin resting on her chest, she was obviously unconscious. Tommy briefly lost his breath and had to take several deep breaths to recover. The shock of seeing Kimberly defeated and vulnerable was almost more than he could handle. She looked so sweet and innocent, nothing like the last time he had seen her. She was Kimberly again and everything should have been perfect, but it was so far from that. Her face was so pale and the circles around her eyes were so dark. For a moment the possibility that she might not have survived entered Tommy’s mind but he immediately pushed it out. He was too close now to have lost her.

“Kimberly,” Tommy said to himself in relief and fear all at the same time. “What have you done to her Zedd!” he demanded as he looked Lord Zedd straight in the eye.

“Never you mind that Tommy,” he answered. “The point is she’s here and she’s all yours.”

At that Tommy took off running toward her, his feet moving faster than he ever thought possible. He didn’t understand why Zedd was being so generous, it made absolutely no sense, but he didn’t care. It seemed as the though the closer he got to her the further away she was, but finally he reached her. He tore at the ropes fiercely, ripping them in half with his own two hands. Soon the limp and possibly lifeless, fragile body fell into his arms. He embraced her warmly as he lowered her to the ground where she finally rested in his arms.

“Kimberly,” he said aggressively, studying her face. He carefully brushed some stray hairs away from her eyes and called to her again.

“Kimberly,” he said coolly. “Wake up,” he waited for a response. “Kimberly,” his voice was becoming nervous and shaken. “Kimberly!” he began to yell.

But it was no use, she wouldn’t budge. Tommy could feel his throat tighten as water gathered underneath his eyes, blurring his vision. He reached for her pulse on her neck, but his hands were shaking profusely. It took everything in him to steady them so that he might check for a sign of life. His ears were attacked with Lord Zedd’s evil laughter, which was uncontrollable now. Looking up he could see the hateful being basking in all his glory. He wanted to kill him.

Chapter Thirty-Five - It's Morphin Time

Tommy stared down at the once bright and beautiful face of his one true love. In all of his life he had never seen a sight quite like it, but now it hardly resembled the face he remembered. Kimberly lay limp in his arms; her hair tangled and disheveled, her skin as pale as snow. Tommy pressed his fingers to her neck praying for a pulse, but he couldn’t feel one. His hand was shaking violently as the chuckles coming from Lord Zedd’s direction proved to be too distracting. Finally, Tommy realized the devastating reality of the situation, Kimberly was gone. Immediately he collapsed over her small body with tears filling his eyes, and his chest heaving in despair.

“What’s the matter Tommy,” began Zedd, “did you lose something?”

Tommy had heard him but he didn’t care to respond. Nothing mattered right now, not even Lord Zedd. What was the point anyway, for all Tommy cared the world could have ended right then and there and it wouldn’t have mattered to him one bit. He continued to weep into the woman, his head was nestled in her neck and his arms engulfed her relentlessly. Pain had taken over his body, he couldn’t move, he couldn’t speak, he couldn’t even think. He was stunned.

Lord Zedd continued to mock his archrival with unyielding satisfaction, “I know you blame me Tommy. But, let me let you in on a little secret, she did this to herself. I gave her one simple mission and the imbecile couldn’t even accomplish that. She was dead weight Tommy.”

Soon feeling began to come back into Tommy’s bones and in his head. Lord Zedd had struck a bad cord, yanking Tommy back to reality.

“Why did you do this?” he pleaded weakly. He knew that Zedd deserved a roundhouse kick straight to the head, and Tommy would have been happy to give it to him. But, that would have meant that he would have had to let Kimberly go, and he didn’t want to do that, not yet, not ever.

“Well, Kimberly was given orders to destroy you, I told her I didn’t care how she did it just as long as the job was done,” answered Lord Zedd from across the forest. “But, sadly she was unsuccessful in that mission, but at least she succeeded in steeling your dino gem, which by the way she ultimately destroyed.”

Tommy registered what Zedd had just said, his dino gem destroyed? That couldn’t be, what about the Rangers? What about Mesogog? What about the destruction of Lord Zedd and Rita? The temporary powers just weren’t going to last long enough to hold them all off.

“I figured,” continued Lord Zedd, “that I had basically already defeated you. Sure you have your pathetic bunch of teenagers and your team of has-beens, but that’s child’s play for me. No Tommy, it just wasn’t enough to know that shortly your end would come. I still wasn’t satisfied; I wanted to see you suffer before I got rid of you forever. But then a brilliant idea sparked in my wicked little head. What if I didn’t destroy you? What if I let you live?”

Tommy broke away from Kimberly and stared up at Lord Zedd curious of what he was getting at.

“Answer me this Tommy,” said Zedd, “what’s worse than a fallen ranger?”

Tommy didn’t respond, but tightened his grip on Kimberly instead.

“I’ll tell you what’s worse,” said Zedd answering his own question, “a powerless ranger with nothing to live for.” Lord Zedd was overcome with laughter. “No revenge is sweeter than watching you suffer for the rest of your days like you have made me suffer for the past decade! So here’s you payback Tommy Oliver,” Lord Zedd gestured towards the mass resting in Tommy’s arms, “isn’t she beautiful! Ha, ha, ha…”

Tommy couldn’t handle it anymore, his will was gone, his spirit demolished, Lord Zedd had won, and he was right, Tommy had nothing to live for. Once again he collapsed into Kimberly, hoping to hear a heart beat or a breath, but he heard neither. Instead he heard something else faintly enter his ear.

“Tommy,” said the whisper, “don’t you dare move.”

Tommy froze as the warm air tickled his earlobe. He couldn’t believe it, was he hearing things? Was he imagining things?

“Tommy,” the voice continued, “reach down the front of my dress and into my bra, now.”

Tommy was definitely stunned this time, he highly doubted that this was the appropriate time for such things. But he felt Kimberly’s shoulders tighten in an effort to nudge him along. So, slowly Tommy pulled Kimberly too his chest, facing her back towards Lord Zedd who was too busy celebrating to notice the hidden connection. Carefully Tommy followed Kimberly’s instructions as he eased his right hand down the front of her silk dress. He considered just how ironic it was that the first time he got down Kimberly’s shirt he would have preferred to have not done it at all. Something felt really wrong about feeling up Kimberly when just seconds ago he was mourning her loss.

Kimberly was also uncomfortable with the situation. She had been fortunate that Lord Zedd’s blast back on Serpentera II had done nothing but shock her. The black dino gem must have shielded her from the blow, for she was not hurt. She was also lucky that Goldar was so incompetent and had failed to search her thoroughly, actually she was more than lucky for that one. After she realized Zedd had assumed he had finished her off she decided the best option was to actually play dead. And that’s exactly what she had done up to this point. She thought Tommy would have surely blown her cover right away, but his body was shaking so fiercely he couldn’t distinguish her breaths from his.

Kimberly felt incredibly awkward as Tommy’s hands roamed space between the soft fabric of her dress and her chest. And she had to stay as still as a board if she was going to pull this one off, but it was nearly impossible! She could tell by the hesitance of his hand that he also was not comfortable with the situation and she was half expecting him burst out in a million apologies.

But, Tommy’s fingers finally found the treasure he had been searching for. The cool rigid stone came as a surprise to Tommy since Lord Zedd had said it had been destroyed. Tommy quickly retrieved the gem and Kimberly immediately came to life for Lord Zedd to see, just as Tommy raised the gem chanted, “Dino thunder power up, ha!”

- - - - -

Kira opened her clenched eyes slowly as her muscles tightened. She was more than shocked to find herself suspended in mid air. The fog was still too thick to see the ground below her or anything around her, so the only place to look was up. That’s when she realized that she wasn’t floating in mid air, but someone was holding her up by the hood of her sweatshirt. Unable to see who it was that had come to her rescue, Kira was just thankful that the person was pulling her up and in no time she would be safely resting on her own two feet. But when she finally felt the grainy soil under her, she was ready to take her chances at the bottom of the drop.

As Kira looked up to greet her savior, she let out her ear piercing ptera scream, knocking the gold beast to the ground. He was by far the scariest monster she had ever encountered and just as luck would have it she of course had to encounter him alone. Or maybe not. As Kira stood up she realized that she was not alone, there was someone else lying on the ground not too far from her, it was Jason. He was obviously recovering from a hit that was no doubt launched by Goldar. Kira rushed to his side and helped him up before the monster had a chance to recover.

“Jason!” she said pulling him up with all of her might.

Jason rose swiftly and lightly shoved the young girl behind him, “Stay back Kira,” he ordered taking a karate stance.

“I don’t understand,” she began paying no attention to his orders, “what’s going on? Where’s Dr. O?”

“I have no idea,” answered Jason not taking his eyes off Goldar. “The fog is being generated by Lord Zedd. My guess is that he wanted to get Tommy alone, and he was successful. This forest is littered with monsters, right now I suggest you and I just focus on staying alive.”

“Sure, no problem,” answered Kira sarcastically, as she too took a fighting stance, “that won’t be so hard, especially without my powers. Please tell me you have yours.”

Jason shook his head and then lunged at Goldar, “No, the power coins and the dino gems don’t work in the fog, they only make us fish bate!” He began battling Goldar, and soon Kira joined in.

“What!” she yelled, “Are you telling me that you’re the one that stole my bracelet?” she kicked Goldar in the back causing him to lunge forward as Jason’s foot met his chest.

“Yeah,” replied Jason, “trust me, it was for your own good.”

Kira rolled her eyes but was quickly stunned when Goldar’s fist met her stomach, bringing her to the ground. “Oomf,” she said landing hard.

Jason immediately came to her aid, but was also hit and tossed to the ground. He immediately sprang up and pulled Kira up with no effort using just one arm. He dragged her behind him as the couple approached the drop off with Goldar following close behind.

“On three!” declared Jason clenching Kira’s hand so tight that there was no way she was getting loose.

“Are you insane!” she demanded coming to a halt behind him. “We have no idea what’s down there!”

Jason looked her in the eye and gave her a reassuring grin gesturing behind him. “It can’t be much worse than what’s up here.”

Kira looked behind her noticing the gold ape was only yards behind them. “Good point,” she said closing her eyes and bracing for impact.

But Jason never counted to three; he just pulled the girl with him as the two embarked upon the free fall.

- - - - -

Trent stared out into the fog for a few moments pondering the possibilities.

“Kira,” he yelled into the fog, “Kira!”

He heard no response, so he took the first step down from the porch and embarked upon the second when he nearly stumbled down the rest of the way. Catching his balance Trent squatted down on the second step and spotted the culprit, it was a very familiar looking bracelet. Picking it up Trent immediately knew whose it was. And he burst through the back door and scaled across the kitchen into the living room faster than he ever thought possible.

“Something’s wrong,” he announced holding up Kira’s bracelet for everyone to see.

“Where’d you get that?” questioned Haley immediately.

“Outside on the porch steps,” replied Trent quickly, “Kira wasn’t making up stories, the fog out back is so thick I couldn’t even see the steps until I tripped on the bracelet.”

“But where’s Kira?” asked Conner with intense concern that shocked everybody.

“I don’t know,” responded Trent, ignoring Conner’s obvious enthusiasm for the girl that he shared his affections with. “Her, Dr. O, and Jason are nowhere to be found.”

Everyone swiftly rose from their seats and within seconds flooded the porch in amazement.

“Let’s go,” said Conner hastily as he approached the steps.

“Wait a minute,” said Billy, “I think there’s more to this fog than we think.”

“Like what,” asked Ethan, preparing to follow his friend into the unknown.

“I don’t know,” replied Billy, “but we can’t be getting ahead of ourselves here, obviously it’s not safe or else we probably would have heard from the others by now.”

“Billy’s right,” confirmed Haley. “Try and contact Tommy with your bracelet, Conner.”

Conner raised his wrist to his mouth, “Dr. O,” he called. But there was no signal.

Aisha repeated the motion with her communicator and all she picked up was a failed signal.

“I think this is serious guys,” said Kat, obviously worried.

“Well, we can’t just stand here,” said Zack stepping up and joining Conner and Ethan at the end of the porch.

“This goes against all of my best judgement,” began Billy, “but something tells me that we don’t have time to investigate this fog. I think the other’s need us, and I mean now.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Dino thunder power up, ha,” yelled Conner in unison with Billy who yelled, “It’s morphin’ time!”

Chapter Thirty-Six - Pink and Yellow

Kira and Jason landed on the ground, and hard. Their feet hit the dirt and leaves so forcefully that they found themselves in a squat position at the bottom of the cliff.

“You okay?” asked Jason turning to Kira.

“Never been better,” she choked as she swallowed the pain in her ankles and shins that was generated from the impact.

Before either of them even had a chance to rise they realized that they had just interrupted something they were not in a million years expecting to see. Only yards in front of them stood Lord Zedd irate with fury and across from him was Tommy, and it appeared that he had just pulled his hand out of the top of Kimberly’s dress. Both of them blinked in astonishment, mostly because of Tommy’s gesture.

Tommy rose from the ground in unison with Kimberly who backed away considerably while Tommy called upon the powers of his dino gem. He was immediately shocked and disappointed to find that his call went unanswered.

“What’s going on?” he asked out loud to no one in particular.

Lord Zedd once again busted with laugher, “Ha, ha, ha…You naive, wretched, powerless man! Surprise, surprise Tommy, your powers don’t work in the fog. Your helpless!”

“I may be powerless,” began Tommy in his defense, “but I’ll take you on anytime and in any form.”

“Then so be it, but I must warn you civilian, you won’t even live to be sorry,” finished Lord Zedd.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” cut in Jason finally making his presence known and stepping up to the fight.

Just then Goldar landed on the ground with no problem, next to Kira. She immediately squealed and took off running in Dr. Oliver’s direction; there was no one she felt safer with.

“Let’s make this a fair fight,” declared Goldar drawing his sword from the holster, paying no attention to Kira as she scurried across the clearing.

“You can have the red one,” announced Lord Zedd to his henchman, “but the doctor is mine.”

“Thank you my lord,” replied Goldar as he took his stance across from Jason.

Meanwhile, Kimberly watched in horror as the two men in this world she cared most about were about to engage in a battle that would most likely result in their doom. She quickly waved Kira over to her just as Kira reached Tommy who gave her a ‘get the hell out of here look.’ Kira joined Kimberly behind a tree that was undoubtedly no protection from the fight. Kimberly pulled Kira by the arm and lowered both of them to the ground.

“Are you alright sweetie?” she asked the young girl as she secretly thanked the Lord that she had not permanently hurt the girl back when she was the evil Pink Ranger.

“Uh-huh,” responded Kira as she tried desperately to catch her breath, using Kimberly to help her keep her balance.

Kira was amazed at just how beautiful the woman actually was, even though she looked like she hadn’t seen a mirror in quite some time. Kira had seen pictures of Kimberly course, but she was still in shock.

“Good,” continued Kimberly, “we have to find a way to help them.” She nudged her head in the men’s direction. They were now engaged in a very heated and physical battle. But, it appeared Lord Zedd had actually decided to play fair and had put his staff down for the fight. That was a good thing, right? At least it would buy some time.

“Oh please don’t tell me you want to take them on without powers,” pleaded Kira leaning her head against the bark, exhausted from her journey so far. “I don’t know if I have it in me.”

“Yeah, you and me both,” replied Kimberly in consensus, “Come on.” Kimberly took the girl’s hand and pried her off the ground.

“Um,” started Kira, “where are we going?”

“If only I knew,” answered Kimberly. “Do you have your dino gem?”

“No,” snapped Kira in agitation with Jason, who disposed of her gem a while back.

“Sorry,” said Kimberly stunned at the girl’s response.

“Oh, no, um,” stumbled Kira in embarrassment. She hadn’t done a very good job of impressing who had to be the best female Ranger of all time. “It’s just that Jason tossed it somewhere earlier, he said it would attract monsters.”

“Monsters?” questioned Kimberly, still walking briskly, which wasn’t easy since she was barefoot. She had to stop and rub her feet every dozen steps or so.

“Yeah,” explained Kira, “that ugly gold monkey said there was a whole army of them out here. Which is why I am so curious as to why you are separating us from the men.”

“Goldar’s full of it,” said Kimberly quickly and casually as they approached a rock wall, which Kira equated with the drop off she had just fallen from, not thrilled at the possibility of having to scale it.

Kimberly honestly believed that Goldar had been telling the truth, but there was no reason to scare the girl any more than she already was. This place was a maze, what were the chances that they would even encounter a monster?

“We’ve circled around the guys,” announced Kimberly looking up at the wall, unable to see the top. “Is this where you came from?”

Amazed at Kimberly’s composure and drive Kira responded diligently, “Yes, I’d say it’s a good ten foot drop if not more.”

“Nice,” said Kimberly under her breath as she searched for a foot and handhold. “You ever been rock climbing?”

“Once, with my uncle,” responded Kira sheepishly.

“Well, now you can say you’ve done it twice,” Kimberly found her grips and continued her careful maneuver.

Kira paid close attention to Kimberly’s foot and hand holds. The two were about the same size so she should have been able to do it the same way with no problem. Soon Kira stepped up to the wall and was surprised to find that it wasn’t the challenge she thought it was going to be. When they reached the top Kimberly steadied herself on level ground and then helped Kira up.

“Thanks,” said Kira.

“Don’t mention it,” replied Kimberly as she rested her gaze on a tree, which had a thick trunk, it most likely was fairly tall.

Kimberly started strait for the tree and stopped only to find foot holes.

“Wait!” said Kira tugging Kimberly down, “where are you going?”

“I’m climbing the tree,” answered Kimberly like it was a walk in the park. “I’m thinking this tree is tall enough to peek out of the fog. If that’s the case then most likely I can spot Tommy’s house, and we’ll know which direction to go in.”

“And then we can go get the others,” finished Kira in relief that they actually had a plan.

“Exactly!” shouted Kimberly who was already pretty high in the tree.

Kira waited patiently at the base of the tree for the former Pink Ranger. By now Kimberly had exited her view but Kira wasn’t too worried. As strange as it seemed, even though this was the scariest predicament she had ever been in she was actually kind of glad to be in it. She was extremely impressed with Kimberly who had kept a cool head and an optimistic outlook the entire time. For a second Kira wondered how she would look in pink herself and then giggled at the thought. Just the day before she despised and feared the woman with incredible fury and now she aspired to be like her.

“Done,” said Kimberly as she jumped off the lowest tree branch and landed perfectly.

“So where is it?” asked Kira eagerly.

“North,” replied Kimberly.

“Well, that’s all fine and dandy,” said Kira sarcastically, “but unless you also have a compass in that bra, we’re going to get turned around faster than the speed of light.”

“You ever heard of the moss growing on the north side of the tree,” replied Kimberly smartly, returning the Yellow Ranger’s sarcasm.

“Oh, yeah,” answered Kira humbly, “good call.”

Kimberly was amazed at her own composer and surprising intelligence. She didn’t recall ever being this smart, maybe the whole mentor, protégé thing brought out the best in her.

“So you saw the bra thing?” asked Kimberly shyly, after the two girls had been walking in silence for a few minutes.

“Yup,” answered Kira trying to cover up her smile. “And let me tell you, I never want to see my science teacher’s hand anywhere near there ever again!”

The two girls broke out in giggles, Kimberly reverting back to her old high school behavior, and Kira actually not afraid to act like a teenager.

“You know Kira,” began Kimberly, taking on a more serious tone, “I just wanted you to know that I am truly sorry for the pain I’ve put you through these past few days. I know your going to say that it wasn’t my fault and I was under a spell, but the truth is that I had control of the situation the entire time. But, I chose to allow the evil to control me.”

Kira stopped walking and grabbed Kimberly by the arm, “I know you feel guilty Kimberly, but I don’t blame you. I’ve been under a few spells myself; one actually caused me to betray the team. But, I know how it feels to realize that you have caused destruction, and it’s not easy. So, I forgive you completely.”

Kimberly was truly touched by Kira’s forgiveness. She was so young and yet so understanding. Kimberly quickly gave the girl a hug before continuing on their journey.

“You know, I totally get why Tommy chose you,” said Kimberly.

Kira smiled in appreciation, “He didn’t choose me though, the gem did,” she replied in disappointment.

“Yeah, that’s what he wanted you to believe,” said Kimberly sweetly.

“What do you mean?” asked Kira curiously.

“Oh nothing,” replied Kimberly, “just that whether the gem picked you or not Tommy picked you too. Tommy is a very thoughtful man, always has been. He never lets anything be dictated to him, especially when it comes to saving the world. Something tells me that was the case when he asked you to assume the gem’s powers.”

“Thanks,” said Kira blushing. “He really loves you, you know.”

Now Kimberly stopped walking and turned to the young woman, “Did he actually say so?”

“Well, not technically,” answered Kira hesitantly, “but you don’t take on that disgusting Lord Zedd alone unless you truly do love a person.”

Kimberly looked at the ground in disappointment. “Big deal, he did that once back in high school.”

“You mean back in high school when he first fell in love with you?” questioned Kira.

“Come on,” said Kim turning around and continuing on their way.

Kira followed, not making any effort to say anything. She could tell Kimberly was deep in thought, most likely she was thinking about Dr. O. For a split second Kira wished that she could know what it felt like to be in love like they were. Was it everything it was cracked up to be? She cared for Trent deeply but they were so far from love. Kira realized how painful everything must have been for the couple back in high school. It must have been so hard to see each other in the path of danger on a regular basis, not to mention when Kimberly left. Aisha had filled Kira in on the details of Kimberly and Dr. O’s breakup back in high school. Kira now wondered if it had been worth it to Kimberly to have hurt Dr. O like she did. According to Aisha everyone said that he had never been the same after he got that letter. How would things have been different today had the couple not split up? Would she herself even be a ranger now?

Chapter Thirty-Seven - The Plan

“Okay Zedd, make your move,” ordered Tommy as he and the massive red monster sized each other up.

“Well, as long as I am finally going to rid myself of your annoyance, I might as well enjoy it,” replied Zedd throwing his staff to the ground where it made a metallic clank as it hit the rocks.

Tommy made the first move, lunging at Lord Zedd with renewed speed and vibrance. He wanted to end this thing once and for all and he wanted to do it now. Suprisingly, Lord Zedd matched Tommy’s speed and agility almost exactly as he blocked every punch, kick, and elbow he could throw.

Meanwhile, Goldar and Jason had already engaged in their ongoing feud long before Lord Zedd and Tommy. Goldar despised Jason more than any other being in existence and Jason felt the same way about him. The dual was heated and the opponents were both on their game. It seemed for every good hit Jason got in, Goldar managed to get in two. Eventually Tommy and Jason ended up back to back and bumping into each other. It startled both of them because they had forgotten that another battled existed besides their own. They nearly took each other out without realizing it, but once they did they used the other to their advantage. Switching places they threw off Lord Zedd and Goldar long enough to take a small breather.

“Where’s the girls?” asked Tommy in between pants. As he held his hand to his chest he felt his heart beating so fast that he swore it was going to beat right out of his chest.

“I don’t know,” managed Jason, who was just as winded, “Last I saw of them was right before the fight. They were behind that tree,” Jason pointed at the tree. “But, they’re not there now.”

“Oh don’t worry boys” interrupted Zedd as he once again engaged Tommy in a dual of fists, “you’ll see them soon enough.”

“What do you mean?” questioned Tommy as he blocked Zedd’s fierce kick with his forearm.

“Just trust me Tommy, I’ve got my best man on it,” answered Lord Zedd slyly as he lured Tommy away from Jason and Goldar.

“What does he mean Goldar!” demanded Jason as he pinned the giant beast to a tree and was prepared to seal the deal with a kick to the chops.

“Nothing,” replied Goldar in defiance, struggling unsuccessfully to break free.

“Tell me, or it’s lights out!” threatened Jason as he reached for Goldar’s sword, which had not moved from the ground since their fight began. Jason drew the sword back.

“Okay fine!” erupted Goldar, “Lord Zedd meant for all of this to happen, he knew that Kimberly was alive and he knew that she would eventually escape. He wants Tommy to watch her die!”

Jason froze, his lip quivering, beads of sweat gathering at his brow, “Who did he send after Kimberly?”

Goldar paused, not wanting to call for his master’s help but also not wanting to divulge his secret. He stared at the blade of the sword, “Scorpina.”

- - - - -

“You know I’ve been in these woods dozens of times but I never realized just how creepy they were until now,” said Kira trying to break the silence that had been haunting her just as much as the strange noises. She had no idea Dr. O was such a touchy subject for Kimberly.

“Huh,” said Kim shaking her head. She had been deep in thought about Tommy. She was so very worried about him and Jason, and of course she’d been blaming herself.

“Nothing, never mind,” said Kira as she quickened her pace. “We better get moving, it seems like we’ve been going forever. The house has to be close.”

Kira couldn’t wait to get back to Dr. O’s house, it was so cozy and most importantly safe. The first thing she was going to do when she got there was find Trent, latch onto him and never let go, or at least not for a while. She hadn’t realized just how lucky she had been all of this time, facing danger on a daily basis. Each time she had come out on top, but would it end that way for Dr. O? She really hadn’t grasped what it meant to be a Ranger before, not until now. They just had to be close to Dr. O’s, they just had to be.

“Right,” said Kimberly in agreement as she scurried to catch up with Kira who really did seem to be creeped out by all of this.

Kimberly had to agree that this place was definitely no picnic but she had seen worse, like when she was stuck in that other dimension with the Bloom of Doom monster. At least she had Kira with her. Speaking of Kira, Kimberly noticed just how far ahead of her Kira had gotten. These woods could definitely be very dangerous, especially due to the fog’s low visibility.

“Hey Kira, slow down,” she called, cupping her hands to her mouth.

Kira turned briefly, looked at Kimberly, and then froze like an icicle. Her eyes were as wide as a door and her mouth dropped open. All she could do was stare. The second Kimberly saw the look on Kira’s face she knew something was wrong. Kimberly took a deep breath preparing to turn around, but before she could she felt a very cold hand rest on her shoulder. Her glance quickly shifted to her shoulder and immediately she knew who it was. The hand tightened its grip on her but she was stunned, she knew full well what was going to happen to her, but she couldn’t react. Kimberly closed her eyes and waited to assume her destiny, when suddenly she heard the most ear piercing, high pitched, painful sound she had ever heard. Forgetting about the hand and her fright she raised her hands to her ears and opened her eyes to find the painful pitch’s source. It was Kira.

Rushing to Kimberly’s side, Kira grabbed Kimberly by the other arm and managed to tug her away from the hideous monster who was still recovering from Kira’s defense. Kimberly and Kira took off running, but Kimberly managed to sneak a look back a the perpetrator. Just as she suspected it was Scorpina, but to her surprise Scorpina hadn’t assumed the form of the beautiful Asian woman in gold and silver armor like she remembered. Instead she took the form of the beast that she would become whenever Rita made her grow into a fifty-foot monster. She was hideous, with scorpion features like pinchers and tentacles, not to mention her face. The site of Scorpina in that shape had always turned Kimberly’s stomach, and it was no different now.

The two girls ran as fast as they could but Kira’s scream had royally pissed off Scorpina, only giving her more incentive to catch up with them, and shortly she did. She once again grasped Kimberly’s shoulder, while capturing Kira with a tentacle, which wrapped around the young girl, covering her mouth. The trio was at a standstill now, the two girls overcome with fear didn’t know what to do.

Kira was definitely freaked out by the disgusting creature. It seemed that every monster she saw today just kept getting uglier and uglier. But this one took the cake, Kira wanted to cry. She stared at Kimberly, wide eyed, unable to speak because of the barricade. Kimberly stared back at Kira and gave her a reassuring look, which actually did help Kira feel better.

Once again Kimberly knew that this whole thing was all her fault and once again she had dragged this poor girl through hell. She probably should have just left her back in the clearing with Tommy and Jason, they had to have been having more success than her, right? Kimberly knew exactly what she had to do, she had to save Kira at all cost.

“What do you need the girl for!” Kimberly demanded as she tried desperately to ignore the giant bug’s warm breath as it breathed down her neck.

“I have my orders,” replied Scorpina in her deep forceful voice, as she began to slowly wrap another tentacle around Kimberly.

But Kimberly knew that once she had her wrapped up it was over for both her and Kira, so she acted quickly. Kimberly swiftly jerked away from Scorpina’s grip as she raised her fist to Scorpina’s face and struck her, hard. Scorpina shrunk back in pain but did not relent her grip on Kira.

“You’ll pay for that Kimberly!” declared Scorpina.

“Yeah,” replied Kimberly taking a karate stance, “ and who’s going to make me? Certainly not you with all that extra baggage,” she gestured towards Kira.

Scorpina charged at Kimberly but Kira was sharp and immediately picked up on Kimberly’s plan, so she planted her feet firmly in the ground and refused to move with Scorpina. Scorpina tried to drag Kira along but it was too hard to pull her and try and catch Kimberly.

“Nice try,” said the mutant as she lengthened her tentacle and once again reached for Kimberly. But Kimberly was too fast, her years of gymnastics had definitely paid off because after several back handspring she was far out of Scorpina’s reach.

“It’s either me or her!” she declared. “Lord Zedd wants me so if you showed up with only her I'd hate to think what he would do.”

Scorpina thought for a minute, Kimberly did have a point, what did she care about some stupid high schooler anyway?

“Very well then,” said Scorpina, “I’ll let her go, but only on one condition.”

“What’s that,” questioned Kimberly suspiciously.

“The girl has a special power that does not require her gem to activate, it is a danger to me. I cannot allow her the opportunity to use it against me.”

“Fine,” said Kimberly cutely, “Kira, you promise you won’t use your scream on the lady?”

Kira nodded her head vigorously trying to convey her promise.

“That’s cute,” cut in Scorpina, “but I’m just not that stupid.”

“You sure about that?” asked Kimberly mockingly.

Scorpina starred at Kimberly intensely, picturing all of the ways she was going to torture her if given the opportunity. She never much cared for the Pink Ranger before and it appeared that some things never changed because she was now utterly and completely annoyed with the woman. She knew Lord Zedd was waiting for her and she had wasted enough time, so without warning she rapidly whipped the teenage girl into a tree face first causing Kira to hit her head, hard, knocking her out cold.

As Scorpina released Kira, the girl fell to the floor and Kimberly definitely felt like she was going to hurl now. She didn’t have the strength in her to run anymore. Once again another one of her plans had backfired and once again it had been at Kira’s expense. Scorpina quickly gathered up Kimberly with two of her tentacles and without any hesitation they were gone, leaving Kira alone and unconscious.

- - - - -

“I can’t see a damn thing!” yelled Conner as he followed the other team.

“Will you just shut up boy!” replied the Yellow Ranger over her shoulder as she followed behind Zack. She’d had just about enough of the young jock’s complaining, and now things were serious.

Ethan immediately started laughing, but had he seen the look on Aisha’s face without her helmet on he would have thought otherwise.

“Guys, just be quiet,” said Katherine in her typical sensitive voice, “this is serious, you can’t be fooling around.”

“Sorry,” said the Blue Ranger and Red Ranger in unison as they lowered their heads in shame.

Both teams had ventured out into the mysterious fog, leaving Haley behind to man the command center, which was pretty much useless at this point since her signal couldn’t penetrate the fog either.

After a few minutes of roaming, Trent suddenly made a discovery, “Hey look you guys footprints.” He dropped to the ground pointing them out.

They were small, undoubtedly a woman’s and judging by the treadmarks they were made by boots, which meant they were Kira’s.

“They’re Kira’s,” declared Trent.

“What?” questioned Conner as he shoved past everyone else, eager to see them.

“They’re Kira’s alright,” he confirmed, “but when were they made? They could be from last week.”

“Actually,” began Ethan “Kira hasn’t been out here since before it rained the other night, I think it’s safe to say that they’re fresh.”

Everyone sighed in relief, at least they were on the right track. Following them they made another discovery of another set of footprints, trailing behind Kira. They were much bigger than hers, undoubtedly belonging to a male.

“Whose are they?” questioned Katherine in anticipation.

“Well,” began Billy, “they appear to have been made by sneakers, “What kind of shoes were Jason and Tommy wearing?”

“Tommy was wearing hiking boots,” replied Katherine immediately.

“And I think Jas was wearing the sneakers,” added Zack.

“Then this is good new right?” asked Aisha, “Jason and Kira are together.”

“But why aren’t they morphed?” questioned Ethan, “There’s no way in hell I would have come in without my suit.”

“And where’s Dr. O,” asked Conner, looking around for answers but not finding any because of the fog.

“Let’s just keep going,” said Billy, rising from the ground and following Trent.

Not long after Trent spotted something through the fog, it was lying on the ground and it appeared to be dirty blonde hair, it was Kira. He immediately rushed to the site, not saying a word to anyone or even acknowledging their presence. He was so close and finally he reached her only to be heartbroken to find Kira alone and unconscious on the forest floor.

Chapter Thirty-Eight - I Love You

“Kira, Kira, Kira…” said a voice.

Kira could hear someone speaking her name but she just couldn’t seem to wake up. She felt someone stroking her hair behind her ear and she could feel the warmth of their body next to her. It was difficult but Kira knew that she had to wake up, she had to find Kimberly. Opening her eyes she was greeted by seven multicolored faces staring down at her. Trent had been the one stroking her hair and speaking her name.

“What happened?” questioned Billy immediately.

“I don’t know,” began Kira as she rubbed her head and attempted to sit up with Trent’s assistance.

She honestly couldn’t remember what had happened all she knew was that she had to save Kimberly because Kimberly had saved her. But then it all came back, she remembered their never-ending hike, their chat about Dr. O, and Scorpina. Suddenly tears began to drizzle down Kira’s cheeks as she recalled Kimberly’s last effort to save her.

“We have to find her,” said Kira about ready to go into hysterics, “we have to!”

“Wait, just slow down. Who do we have to find?” cut in Conner as he knelt down next to her on the opposite side of Trent and wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder.

No one was really used to seeing this tender side of Conner, he was an overly emotional kid but usually compassion was not one of his most visible emotions.

Kira fought hard to compose herself and finally she was ready to talk, “Jason and I found Kimberly back in the clearing with Dr. O. He was getting ready to fight Lord Zedd but his gem wouldn’t work. So he and Jason had no choice but to fight Goldar and Zedd,” Kira took a breath and then continued. “Kimberly and I hid behind a tree for a little while but Kimberly couldn’t stand it, she had to help them. So, we headed back in the direction I had come from. We were trying to find the house so you guys could help Dr. O and Jason but before we could make it back we ran into the most disgusting monster I’ve ever seen.” Kira clenched her eyes shut trying to remember anything she could that might have been helpful. “It was some kind of scorpion lady.”

“Scorpina,” said Aisha immediately cringing at the sound of the name, she recalled her one and only encounter with the witch and it was not pleasant. Billy and Zack also had a similar reaction but said nothing because they didn’t want to delay Kira from spilling the information.

“She had captured me,” continued Kira, “but Kimberly sacrificed herself to save me. Scorpina knocked me out and she must have taken Kimberly with her,” Kira broke down into sobs and allowed Trent to gather her into his arms.

“It’s going to be okay sweetheart,” said Katherine sympathetically.

“Which way did she take her?” questioned Billy getting right down to business.

“I don’t know,” answered Kira, muffled in Trent’s chest. She paid no attention to the monstrous purple bruise that now consumed her forehead.

Billy immediately began searching the ground for clues and he didn’t have to look far because he spotted to pairs of tracks. The first was two concise footprints and the other was nothing more than a dirt trail, clearly Scorpina was forced to take Kimberly kicking and screaming.

“Okay guys,” announced Billy, “this is how things are going to go, Zack, Aisha, and Kat you’re coming with me. We’re going to fallow the tracks and hopefully they’ll lead us to Kimberly. Conner, Ethan, and Trent, you guys take Kira back to the house and have Haley check her over. If she’s okay I want the four of you back here and morphed as soon as possible. Something tells me we’re going to need every little bit of strength we can get. I also need you guys to bring Tommy’s power coin; it’s sitting on the counsel in the command center. Got it?”

“Got it,” responded Conner immediately as he and Trent helped Kira stand and eventually walk.

“Let’s go guys,” said Zack as he began to fallow the trail left by Kimberly and Scorpina.

- - - - -

“Had enough Tommy?” asked Zedd shrewdly as he hovered over Tommy who now lay on his back on the cold wet dirt.

Next to him laid Jason whom Goldar had also just knocked out of command. The two men had no intention of surrendering, but their bodies believed otherwise. Both of them were covered in sizeable bruises, welts, scratches, and scrapes.

“I can’t do it, man,” admitted Jason as he tried his best to raise himself off the ground.

“Me neither,” said Tommy sorely as he rested his head on the ground and closed his eyes.

“Goldar, tie him up!” ordered Zedd pointing to Tommy.

“Yes master,” answered Goldar as he made a rope appear with the wave of his hand. “And what about Jason?”

“Well, I suppose it would be fun to pulverize him but I’m so impressed with your performance today that I am giving him to you. Do with him what you want just don’t let him escape,” said Lord Zedd as he turned around and headed towards the giant boulder across the way.

He was also rather exhausted after messing up Tommy pretty good. He wouldn’t let it show but he had been very close to being in Tommy’s position. As a last resort he had finally gave in and reached for his staff. Without much thought he quickly zapped Tommy to the ground, where he lay now. Zedd hadn’t been proud of the fact that he hadn’t been able to take out the best ranger on his own with nothing more than his own strength, but he had to defeat him.

Tommy could feel Goldar drag him across the dirt and mud and then finally pitch him against a tree. But, he couldn’t do anything he was just too exhausted and that last blow felt like it had seriously taken seven years off of his life.

Jason also lay there on the dirt, playing dead. Goldar had used nothing but his own mutant strength to battle him and had been somewhat successful. Jason was sure that eventually he could have defeated the gold beast, but once he saw Zedd zap Tommy with his staff he knew it was best to just lay low and join Tommy. Jason watched hesitantly as Goldar began to drag Tommy away, Tommy seemed as lifeless as a rag doll. Once, Jason saw that Goldar was distracted with his duties he raised his head and surveyed the area for Zedd. He spotted him on the bolder across the way and even more perfect, his back was turned towards Jason as he struggled to catch his breath, his pride not allowing him to do it in front of his opponents. Jason quickly and quietly rose from the ground and headed for the brush. He wasn’t really sure what he was going to do next but the last thing they needed was for him to end up in the same shape as Tommy, so he hid in the bushes.

Once Goldar finished tying up Tommy he kicked him once in the stomach just for spite. Tommy reacted in pain, yelling out in agony, but the jolt had actually revived him. The pain was just too painful to allow him to doze off but not painful enough to cause him to pass out. Now he was somewhat alert and definitely coherent.

“Nooooo!” screamed Goldar as he turned around and realized that Jason had escaped.

His reaction caused Zedd to turn his attention to the situation, “You spineless, incompetent imbecile!” he cursed as he rose from the boulder. “How could you let him get away? Go find him, now!” he yelled ferociously.

Goldar quickly scurried away just as another henchman arrived, Scorpina. In tote was Kimberly who stumbled clumsily behind her. She had been pretty banged up too, and most definitely regretted her smart-ass comments back in the forest with Kira. Her trip back to the clearing with Scorpina had been a nightmare. Scorpina had done to her just as she had done to Kira in the Reefside High parking lot, but instead of ramming her into cars, she had rammed her into trees, and quite a few of them.

“Excellent,” declared Zedd as he greeted Scorpina excitedly, “At least someone knows how to fallow orders.”

“Of course my lord,” said Scorpina bowing to Lord Zedd. “Where do you want her?”

“Anywhere’s fine,” replied Zedd, “actually why don’t you tie her to that tree across from the heroic Dr. Oliver. I want him to have the best seat in the house. Ha, ha,ha…”

The second Tommy saw Kimberly enter the clearing, staggering behind Scorpina he felt this renewed strength within his bones. He wasn’t sure if it was enough, but at least he had the feeling back in his legs. Now, he watched painfully as the hideous monster tossed Kimberly around like garbage and then mercilessly tied her to the tree across from him on the other end of the clearing. She had been in bad shape before, but nothing compared to now. Her legs were covered in scratches and her feet were as black as the dirt. Her once pretty pink silk dress was now snagged and ripped beyond recognition, but he could tell that her spirit was not broken. She held her head high as Scorpina tied her up and she continued to struggle in resistance.

Once Kimberly was securely fastened Scorpina stepped away to join Lord Zedd and receive more instruction. This allowed Tommy and Kimberly a few moments. But, neither of them spoke, they didn’t want Zedd and Scorpina to be a part of what could be their last moments together, so they had to say all they needed to say silently.

“I’m sorry,” mouthed Kimberly slowly to Tommy. The look on her face was so sincere that there was no doubt in Tommy’s mind that she genuinely meant it.

Tommy returned Kimberly’s apology with a sweet smile that brought tears to her eyes. He didn’t blame her for any of this and right now she understood that. As crappy as the whole situation was she did at least feel good about that. Life could have been so sweet for them if only she hadn’t have ruined it. But it was too late now, so Kimberly had to do what she could now. She never thought she would see the day when Tommy Oliver was defeated, not in a million years. Unfortunately though, it was looking like today would be the day. She stared at her white night dreamily remembering their past and hoping for their future. He was still as handsome as ever in spite of the bruises and scrapes. His eyes still had that beautiful twinkle in them that had originally attracted her to him that one day back at the youth center. That day was so long ago, they had come so far. How could it be that it was meant to end like this?

The pair continued to exchange glances, engaged in a conversation that only they could understand. It was too late for plans and schemes but neither of them was so sure that they were going to give up so quickly. However, there were too many things beyond their control and as Zedd’s tone became lower they were sure that their time together was almost up.

Scorpina and Lord Zedd began to walk towards them, confident in their stride and merciless in their gaze. Tommy and Kimberly knew their time was up, so in one last effort for a goodbye Tommy caught Kimberly’s attention and mouthed to her the words she had been longing to hear for so long, “I love you.” She was overjoyed and sobbing uncontrollably. Of course as luck would have it she finally had him, only to lose him without ever being able to enjoy his companionship. All she could do now was mouth the words back to him.

When Tommy read the words “I love you,” on Kimberly’s lips he thought he felt his heart tear in half. Never in his life had he ever been so happy or disappointed and of course it was at the same time. Right now he didn’t care how things were going to end because at least he knew, if only for a few moments, that Kimberly Hart loved him too.

Chapter Thirty-Nine - Too Bad Love Doesn't Last Forever

“Okay Kira, good as new,” said Haley cheerfully as she secured the small peach band-aid across Kira’s forehead. “Well, as good as new as your going to get right now.”

Kira smiled at the woman sheepishly, it seemed lately that every time she was with Haley it was only to get bandaged up or scanned for injuries. But luckily the diagnosis was good, there was no sign of a concussion and besides the small cut and big bruise on her forehead, which she had no idea how she was going to explain to her parents, things were looking up.

“Okay, let’s go,” said Trent as he lowered his helmet down over his head.

“Oh, don’t forget Dr. O’s coin,” reminded Kira as she fastened her dino gem bracelet on her wrist, Trent had saved it for her.

“I got the coin,” responded Conner, examining the gold disk as if it were a rare and precious stone.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” asked Ethan, who was halfway out the command center’s door. Everyone turned and stared at Kira.

“Oh yeah,” she said standing up, “Dino thunder power up, ha!”

The four Dino Rangers had been running through the forest for just a few minutes and were very focused on the trail left for them by the other Rangers. Kira was delighted to be back in uniform and everyone else was glad to have her with them too.

“Wait!” yelled Ethan who was at the end of the line.

Everyone stopped running and joined him next to a dead tree. Ethan bent down to the ground and picked up the object, which had attracted his attention.

“What is it?” asked Trent curiously as he tried to poke his head into the circle of helmets surrounding Ethan’s find.

“It’s Jason’s morpher,” answered Conner in awe.

“Well, it’s not like it’s of any use in here,” added Kira, “but I’m sure Jason is probably missing it by now. Let’s go.”

Ethan was nice enough to allow Conner to hold the silver gadget because he noticed how captivated by it Conner was. Soon, everyone was following Kira’s lead.

“Hey,” said Conner curiously, “why do you guys suppose Billy wanted us to bring the white power coin?”

“I don’t know,” yelled Kira behind her, “it’s not like he can morph in the fog. And even if he could it’s not like it matters because he has the black dino gem.”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out,” finished Trent, somewhat annoyed that their focus had been broken by Conner’s useless question.

“Um, we might have to wait a little longer than we thought,” said Ethan slowly as his jog turned into a dead stop.

Everyone stopped with him confused at first, but they quickly caught his drift. Standing in front of them was an army of gray men with red eyes and Zs on their chests. They definitely were not a pretty picture, but Kira had seen worse.

“What are they?” she asked in confusion.

“Beats the hell out of me,” answered Conner stepping up to the plate, “let’s drop ‘em guys!”

Immediately the Rangers jumped into action, fighting the creatures, which were surprisingly just as difficult to battle as the tyranodrones.

“It’s like nothing phases them!” commented Ethan, who had just kicked a putty down but was very disappointed to see that he got right back up.

“Just keep going guys!” ordered Trent, “They have to wear out eventually!”

- - -

“Now what?” asked Katherine in annoyance and disappointment as the trail they had successfully followed up to this point had pretty much vanished.

“I don’t know,” answered Billy, “what do you suppose happened to the trail?”

“Maybe we just got mixed up and started following the wrong one,” said Zack optimistically, “We should just turn around and I’m sure we’ll see where we went wrong in no time.”

“I sure hope so,” whined Aisha, “ we really don’t have time for mess ups.”

“You can say that again,” added Katherine, turning around to retrace their steps. “Just hang on Tommy,” she said to herself quietly.

The Rangers had been running for what felt like forever, but Billy had attributed it to the fog. It seemed to have very mysterious ways and in all reality had they actually been running for as long and as hard as they’d felt then they would have reached the other end of the forest by now. It was like a never-ending maze and Billy hoped that if nothing else, then at least the trail had been accurate. But, judging by their dead end it was entirely possible that they’d been running in circles.

“I hope this little detour doesn’t confuse the kids,” commented Aisha as the Rangers finally discovered where they’d taken a wrong turn.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” answered an unfamiliar voice. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, eager to continue their journey, not yet recognizing the intrusion.

“Uh guys,” said Katherine questioningly, “who just said that?”

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, processing just what Katherine was getting at. They all turned around and immediately spotted the source of the voice.

“Oh man,” said Zack taking a fighting stance, “will someone please just give us a break!”

“Not very likely, Black Ranger,” said the monster. It was Scorpina and she was not alone, accompanying her was an army of tengas.

“We don’t have time for this,” announced Aisha, “so why don’t you just tell us where Kim is and then kick your own asses!”

“It doesn’t work that way, Yellow Ranger,” responded Scorpina with a hateful smile, “Tengas attack!”

- - - -

“Come out, come out where ever you are,” said Goldar hatefully as he searched the perimeter of the clearing for Jason.

Jason sat crouched behind a bush still trying to catch his breath. He knew his cover wouldn’t hold out forever and he also knew that Tommy and Kimberly were about to meet their doom. He had been watching the events as they unfolded; it was particularly upsetting when Kimberly entered the picture because she looked so beaten and worn. But, Jason knew that making his presence known would only agitate Zedd and cause himself to end up tied to a tree as well. He had to lure Goldar away from the site, divide and conquer. So Jason began working his way away from the clearing, and Goldar was hot on his trail.

- - - -

As Lord Zedd and Scorpina approached Tommy and Kimberly, Scorpina disappeared into thin air. Tommy and Kimberly both knew that she was on her way to distract the other Rangers, no doubt. But, things could still work out for them because now all they had to contend with was Zedd and both of them had been renewed with energy from each other’s confession of love.

Lord Zedd first approached Tommy confidently and merciless. He stood so close to Tommy that he could feel Zedd’s warm breath. This of course was meant to intimidate him but Lord Zedd could no longer scare Tommy. Looking strait into Tommy’s eyes Lord Zedd spoke,

“Well I hope you said your good-byes Dr. Oliver, because you will never see your precious Kimmy again. Ha, ha, ha…”

Tommy stared at Lord Zedd in disgust, but made no effort to struggle or appear agitated in any way. But with every chuckle, the fire in Tommy grew bigger and bigger.

“Please! Don’t hurt him!” yelled Kimberly from across the clearing. Tears still dropped from her eyes but they were no longer tears of joy, they were tears of fear.

Lord Zedd’s laughter ceased at Kimberly’s plead, he turned around and glared at her, “Oh don’t worry my dear, no harm will come to your sweetheart,” he paused, “It’s you who will die!”

“No!” Tommy immediately began to struggle, he wanted nothing more than to pound Lord Zedd into oblivion. But, struggling was useless; it only made Zedd’s laughter grow in intensity as he taunted Tommy. Tommy was beginning to realize that there was nothing he could do to stop Zedd in the position he was in. Right now, about the only thing he could do was delay Zedd from approaching Kimberly. He had to keep him there with him.

“Wrong Zedd,” declared Tommy, interrupting Zedd’s glory, “it’s you who will die.”

“And just who’s going to stop me!” yelled Zedd, his face only inches from Tommy’s. “It certainly won’t be the other Rangers, they’re all a little preoccupied right now. If you catch my drift.”

“What have you done to them Zedd!” demanded Tommy as he inched his face closer to Zedd’s, showing no sign of weakness.

“Nothing yet,” replied Lord Zedd, “I’ll worry about them later. But for right now it’s payday for Kimberly. It’s time I paid her what I owe her for a mission poorly done. And it’s time I paid you back for all of the grief and distress you have put me through.”

Lord Zedd turned away from Tommy and headed in Kimberly’s direction. He took a small detour to obtain his staff but soon returned on his path.

“Get back here Zedd, you coward!” yelled Tommy frantically. This couldn’t be happening, he couldn’t lose Kimberly. “Why don’t you fight me like a real man instead of using and innocent girl to take revenge!”

“Innocent girl!” snapped Zedd, “Innocent girl! There is nothing innocent about this woman! She has lied, cheated, played, and destroyed ever since she gave up her power coin! Have you forgotten Tommy? Do you remember the pain and anguish you felt when she selfishly broke your heart, not even having the respect to tell you to your face that you weren’t good enough for her?”

Zedd’s words hit Tommy hard. He knew that they weren’t true and he now knew the real reason why Kimberly had sent that letter. But, he still couldn’t help but wonder if Zedd was right. Did Kimberly leave him because he wasn’t good enough for her? If that had been the case then Zedd could just take him now. He couldn’t handle her rejection again.

Kimberly watched, horrified, as Lord Zedd approached her. Her vision was blurred from the tears, but that was for the best because she didn’t need to see Zedd’s anger and she certainly didn’t need to see the look on Tommy’s face now. She was literally shaking from her head down to her toes, but Lord Zedd was not her biggest fear. Her biggest fear was that Tommy would doubt her and she would have to leave him, with him never knowing just how much she truly loved him.

“Tommy, don’t listen to him!” she yelled, “He’s wrong Tommy, you know why I sent that letter!”

Tommy starred at her; his eyes appeared empty and confused. Had she lost him?

“Tommy,” she continued, “Tommy, the truth is that I wasn’t good enough for you! You were always so good to me and I didn’t deserve you!” Kimberly began to sob so hard that she couldn’t finish her thought. Her shoulders jerked uncontrollably and her pulses were so fast she couldn’t even catch her breath.

Tommy closed his eyes, he needed to figure things out and fast. But he couldn’t do it while looking into Kimberly’s beautiful hazel eyes. They were sad and pleading with him. He needed to know for sure if Kimberly loved him, he couldn’t lose her without never really knowing.

Lord Zedd finally reached Kimberly and stared her directly in the eyes, just as he had done to Tommy.

“Give it up Kimberly, he doesn’t want you anymore.”

“No, no, no, please,” she pleaded, “Stop it! He does love me, he said so!”

“Oh really?” questioned Lord Zedd sarcastically, “Then perhaps he’d like to say it again! Tommy,” he called, “Why don’t you tell Kimberly exactly how you feel about her. Tell her exactly how she makes you feel when you look into her eyes and you see the girl that didn’t want you. Tell her how she makes you feel whenever you’re at the park or even at work and you see a happy little couple that reminds you of how things used to be. And tell her how she makes you feel whenever you see a cute girl that you would just love to wine and dine but can’t get up the courage to ask out because of Kimberly’s rejection! Tell her Tommy! Tell her!”

Tears now fell from Tommy’s eyes. How could it be that it was Lord Zedd who would reveal the truth to him? How could it be that all this time the answer had been right in front of his face? He didn’t need Kimberly to tell him how she felt about him, because he had known all along.

“Okay, Zedd,” answered Tommy angrily as he raised his head and stared at the two, “I’ll tell Kimberly how I feel. I’ll tell her how she makes me feel every time I look into her eyes and I see the girl that sent me that painful letter that changed my life forever. I’ll tell her how she makes me feel whenever I see another couple, a daily reminder of how things used to be. And I’ll tell her how she makes me feel every time I see another woman who I think could possibly be the one, but I can’t bring myself to ask out.”

Kimberly held her breath; her eyes were as wide as a deer’s in front of headlights, waiting to hear Tommy’s response. And finally he continued,

“She makes me feel like I could be a better man. She makes me feel like I could do anything, go anywhere, and achieve anything if I just had her love. Whenever I look into her eyes and I’m reminded of that letter, it makes me realize just how much I need her. Every time I see another happy couple it makes me smile because I remember the smile on her face and the laughter in her voice that made me fall in love with her. And every time I see another woman that sparks my interest I can’t bring myself to ask her out because I know that Kimberly is the only one who is meant for me!” Tommy paused and stared directly at Kimberly, who still hadn’t let herself breathe. “So there you have it Zedd, I love Kimberly Hart. I always have and you better believe that I always will!”

Kimberly erupted into tears once again; laughter escaping her mouth as joy filled her heart. “I love you too, Tommy Oliver!” she shouted to him. For a brief moment the two forgot that Lord Zedd was even there.

But Tommy’s response only infuriated Lord Zedd even more. He couldn’t stand the fact that they were in love and that while all of this time he had thought they were so miserable they had actually had everything they ever wanted. It would end here, if he couldn’t be happy then neither could they. Raising his staff high Lord Zedd pointed it directly at Kimberly and said,

“Love is such a wonderful thing, too bad it can’t last forever.”

Chapter Forty - Hiyah!

“What’s going on? These tengas just won’t go down!” yelled Aisha to anyone that could hear her. She was in the middle of an intense battle with two relentless tengas and a third one had just entered the picture.

“Aisha’s right,” declared Zack in response as he was brought to the ground by a double kick from two of the oversized birds. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold out!”

“Me either,” added Katherine who was now pinned to a tree by two tengas. She had no free arms, just her legs. “I don’t remember them being so strong!” She finally gathered enough strength to overextend her leg up and over her shoulder knocking the tenga in the face, releasing her left arm.

“I don’t know,” replied Billy, “it looks like you’ve got things pretty well under control!” He was referring to Kat’s last maneuver. But, Billy on the other hand wasn’t having quite as good of luck. For some reason he had become Scorpina’s main target. Was it possible that Zedd had been keeping tabs on them and knew that Billy had taken the lead of the team?

The Rangers had been in battle for quite some time and with every passing moment were becoming more and more concerned.

“Shouldn’t the kids have been here already?” questioned Katherine as she removed her blade blaster from it’s holster and began blasting the tengas with a red beam. The only problem was that every time she knocked one down another one would appear.

“Yeah, they should have!” confirmed Zack as he too pulled out his blade blaster and began firing.

“I hope they didn’t run into any unexpected visitors!” added Aisha as she did a back handspring causing two tengas to collide. She too utilized her blade blaster.

“Well then it’s too bad that they did run into some unexpected visitors!” interrupted Scorpina as she captured Billy in an impressive headlock. But he too took the queue from the other rangers and blasted Scorpina in the foot at a very close range causing her to release him.

Grouping together with their backs turned towards each other the Rangers knew that they couldn’t keep this up forever.

“What do we do Billy?” questioned Katherine as she shot at Scorpina swiftly.

“Well, it sounds like there’s not going to be any relief coming our way any time soon. I say we run,” responded Billy.

“Run where?” asked Aisha puzzled, but still on guard.

“Why not follow the path,” suggested Zack, “ at least then maybe we can regroup with Tommy and Jason.”

“You got my vote!” confirmed Aisha.

“Okay guys, on the count of three,” declared Billy. “One, two, three!”

All four Rangers took of running on the path’s course. Their main concern was keeping enough space between themselves and Scorpina and the tengas, so they still had to continue firing. Zack was in charge of leading everyone on the right path while everyone else concentrated on tenga control.

- - -

“What the hell!” shouted Conner in annoyance at the putty that had been on him like ants on sugar for the past few minutes. It seemed like no matter how many times he pounded on the putty it just wouldn’t quit.

“Calm down,” shouted Kira back, “they can’t last forever!”

“Yeah well neither can we!” replied Ethan as he too struggled to keep the upper hand or at least an equal hand.

“Come on guys, don’t give up!” encouraged Trent who was using his saber quite successfully.

The battle raged on for quite sometime, but finally the four teenagers found themselves in a pile on the forest floor.

“Get off me!” yelled Conner at Ethan who had just been tossed on top of him.

“Oh a thousand apologies Conner, because I landed on you on purpose and all!” yelled Ethan back sarcastically.

“Guys!” screamed Kira, breaking up their fight. “We don’t have time for the power trips. Everyone stand up.”

Eventually everyone followed Kira’s orders and Trent was relieved by her initiative because he knew that had he gotten involved it only would have ended up in a three-way fight.

“Kira’s right guys,” said Trent, “we have to work together.”

“Together at what!” snapped Ethan, “We’re surrounded by ugly gray mutants that keep making that incredibly annoying sound, and I don’t see us gaining the lead anytime soon!”

“For once, I totally agree with Ethan,” agreed Conner, who was at his wit's end.

“I say we run,” suggested Kira.

“Run where?” asked Conner “we can’t see a thing in this fog, dammit!”

“We’ll just keep following the trail,” continued Kira, “we’ll eventually meet up with the other Rangers. I’m sure they know how to beat these guys.”

“I’m with Kira,” replied Trent.

“Of course you are,” mumbled Conner under his breath. He couldn’t stand the way that Trent was always fawning over Kira.

“What was that?” questioned Trent immediately. He knew that Conner had feelings for Kira and he hated to admit it but he was beginning to become a little threatened by them.

“I said of course we are,” Conner paused for a second to think, “uh, too.”

“Well then let’s kick it!” yelled Ethan not wanting to hear the dispute.

Everyone followed Ethan’s lead and charged through a wall of putties leaving them no choice but to let the colorful pack through. Finally the Rangers were free; Kira was leading, following the path left by her friends exactly. The guys held up the rear doing what ever was necessary to keep the putties at a safe distance.

- - -

“Stop wasting my time Goldar!” yelled Jason as he punched and kicked at the monster as fiercely as he ever had.

Goldar had discovered Jason behind a bush that had served well as a protective shelter for a while. But even the fog was no help because Goldar was more determined than he had ever been to find the Red Ranger and destroy him once and for all.

“Wasting your time?” questioned Goldar. “You should be thanking me for the extra time I’ve allowed you to be on this puny planet!”

“Oh yeah,” shot back Jason, “if it’s so puny then why’s it so hard for you to conquer it?”

He had Goldar on that one and Goldar had never been real swift. The monster paused for a second to come up with an answer, allowing Jason to take control of the situation and snatch away Goldar’s sword. But Goldar wouldn’t tolerate it; he immediately struck Jason hard with a blow to the chest, sending Jason up in the air only to be halted by the incredibly hard tree. Jason slid down the bark and landed hard on the moist soil. He was once again hidden beneath the fog.

- - -

“Zeddy!” yelled the high pitched squeal of Rita Repulsa as she appeared out of thin air in the clearing.

Her ear piercing shrill caused Lord Zedd to flinch resulting in the deadly beam that was meant for Kimberly to miss her and hit a tree behind her. Zedd yelled in dissatisfaction.

“What’s wrong with you woman!” he screamed animatedly at his wife.

Kimberly and Tommy simultaneously let out the breath they had been holding in ever since the moment that Zedd raised his staff to Kimberly. They gave each other a relieved glance before drawing their attention back to the quarreling couple.

“What’s wrong with me!” snapped Rita as she walked swiftly towards her husband. “You were going to kill that annoying powerless priss without me! How could you!”

Zedd realized his mistake, more importantly he realized the hell that Rita would put him through the next few days if he didn’t apologize.

“Oh my pet,” he began trying to let go of his anger, “please forgive me. I’m afraid I did get ahead of myself. What was I thinking?”

“Hmm,” snapped Rita, “that’s more like it. Now where were you?”

Tommy and Kimberly immediately locked eyes, up until now they had been so relieved that Kimberly’s annihilation had been postponed that they forgot that it was going to happen eventually.

“Help me,” pleaded Kimberly to Tommy silently.

Tommy made out the words on her lips and realized that never before had he failed her when she asked him for help. But, unfortunately it was looking like there was in fact a first time for everything. But Tommy didn’t want to believe it and just like before he began to violently struggle with the rope which binded him to the tree. After a few seconds he realized it was helpless. Turning his head to the left he froze and listened for a moment. When his gaze returned to Kimberly he quickly reassured her by mouthing “It’s going to be okay.”

Kimberly gave him a ‘how do you know look.’

“Trust me,” mouthed Tommy back to her with a smile.

Kimberly smiled back at him, though not very confident in his claims. What did he mean it’s going to be okay’? How in the hell can things be okay when they were both helpless?

“Well Kimmy,” began Rita stepping in front of the former Pink Ranger and blocking out her view of Tommy. “I’ve been looking forward to this moment since the minute Zordon selected you to be his Pink Ranger. I have to say victory is sweet, ha, ha, ha…”

Kimberly turned her head away from Rita. She definitely didn’t want Rita to be the last face she ever saw. Instead she peered behind the witch and noticed that Tommy had come back into view. The only problem was that he was not paying attention to the situation at all. Had he lost interest already? Kimberly had always thought that Tommy’s wandering habits were cute but right now was just not the time. She scowled at him angrily, but he didn’t even see her do that. ‘Fine,’ she thought, ‘I might as well just be put out of my misery now then.’

Rita’s laughter was becoming louder and even more annoying as Lord Zedd cut in.

“Oh just shut up.” ordered Kimberly hatefully to Rita.

Everyone, including Tommy became silent and directed their attention at Kimberly.

“What did you just say to my wife?” questioned Zedd, trying to control his anger.

“You heard me,” said Kimberly flatly, “I told her to shut her ugly face.”

“Hey…” began Rita raising her hand to Kimberly and taking a few steps closer, “you really shouldn’t have said that.”

“And what are you going to do about it huh?” questioned Kimberly in a smart-ass tone. “What are you going to kill me? Because it’s not like that wasn’t going to happen before. Face it Rita, there is nothing you can do or say that is going to give you any power over me now.”

Rita began to shake with anger and hostility, Kimberly was right, no matter what she or Zedd did to her there was nothing she could do to control the woman.

“That’s it!” declared Rita lowering her hand. Not even slapping Kimberly across the face would satisfy her now. “Finish her Zedd!”

“Gladly my dear,” replied Zedd as he backed away from Kimberly and then raised his staff towards her.

As the silver pole began to become consumed with flashes of lights and small bolts of lightning Kimberly realized her mistake and quickly glanced at Tommy for one final look. Like before he wasn’t paying one hint of attention to her.

“Say goodbye, Kimberly,” said Zedd one last time as he drew his arm back.

Kimberly closed her eyes tightly, and held her breath waiting for the blast to finish her, but it never came. Instead she heard a distinctive and familiar “Hiyah!”

- - -

Jason sat on the dirt motionless for just a second while he processed what had just happened. Goldar had just launched him right into a tree and it did not feel good. Looking around him all he could see was the fog and some shrubs straying from the bushes. As he attempted to move he felt something slithering against the back of his head and immediately thought it to be a snack. He rapidly lunged away from the tree, landing on his hands and knees, still holding on to Goldar’s sword. As he turned around he realized that it hadn’t been a snake at all that had alarmed him, instead it was a rope, and it was moving. Suddenly it clicked to Jason that he had been leaning on the exact same tree as Tommy. Smiling, Jason quickly maneuvered his way back to the tree and was able to peek around the trunk where he saw Tommy’s hiking boots attempting to struggle. Jason was careful not to let his head peek out of the fog because Goldar was undoubtedly searching for him. So he rose as high as he could and called out to Tommy.

“Tommy,” he whispered, but no response. “Tommy!” he said a little louder afraid that he may have blown his cover to Goldar. But still no answer. Finally, he called to Tommy again but this time he tugged slightly on the rope while he did it. This finally got Tommy’s attention and he looked down at him with no reaction in his face. Jason understood that Tommy didn’t want to blow his cover so he made it quick.

“I have Goldar’s sword, when you give the signal I’m going to cut you loose, but there’s no room for error so you better be prepared for this one, bro.”

Tommy appeared to have no reaction to Jason’s plan but knowing Tommy, Jason knew that Tommy understood. So he remained crouched and waited for a few moments. During that time he noticed that Tommy appeared to be centering himself through meditation. His eyes were focused on the fog below him and it seemed like nothing could ever infiltrate his concentration. Most likely he was playing out different scenarios in his head in preparation for the battle ahead. Soon Jason heard Kimberly’s little outburst and couldn’t help but chuckle silently when she told Rita to ‘shut her ugly face.’ He even noticed that Tommy’s attention had been broken. But then, when things began to become even more tense and serious he was beginning to wonder if Tommy had any intention of acting upon the situation. Jason could hear Lord Zedd say goodbye and just as he was about to rise and take care of things on his own he heard his best friends signal.

“Hiyah!”

With that Jason rose strongly to his feet and with all of his might he swung the heavy gold sword as fast as he could and easily split the ropes in two. Tommy was free and Jason’s cover had been blown.

Chapter Forty-One - She Loved You More Than Her Own Life

When Kimberly opened her eyes chaos erupted around her. Tommy had already made his way to Lord Zedd and had successfully deterred him away from her. Behind their battle, raged on another one between Goldar and Jason. But, it was good news because Jason had possession of the gold sword and Goldar was pretty much useless against him.

Rita on the other hand was in no mood to give up on Kimberly’s destruction. With a snap her staff appeared in her left hand and the expression on her face was one of determination. Kimberly watched as Rita approached her and prayed silently for someone, anyone to set her free from the ropes which binded her to the tree. Rita had always appeared to be psychotic but for some reason today she appeared to be even more unstable than ever. Kimberly had never really been afraid of Rita personally, just of her magic. However, things had a funny way of changing lately.

“Time’s up Kimmy!” screamed Rita with a screech of unparalleled terror. She rose her staff in the air and quickened her pace significantly. The only hope Kimberly had now was the small chance that the wicked witch would trip over that hideously ugly thing she called a dress.

Kimberly looked to Tommy and screamed for help, but he was no better off than she was because Lord Zedd had the advantage, his staff. Next, she looked to Jason and pleaded for his assistance excitedly, and she at least received a response. But, he was too preoccupied trying to knock Goldar off of his feet to make it over to her in time.

“Hold on Kim!”

Didn’t Jason know that she didn’t have time to hold on? Kimberly understood he was busy, but she needed him, and now. Kimberly braced herself, planting her feet firmly in the soil below her and clenched her eyes shut. Prepared for the worst she awaited her destiny. It came in the form of a horizontal stroke of lightning, which zapped the rope so fast that she never even felt it loosen. Kimberly immediately ducked down, causing Rita’s ray to miss her by mere centimeters, but the tree was fried. Following the smoke’s path Kimberly realized who had saved her. It was Tommy, and while wrestling with Zedd for possession of the silver staff he had somehow managed to redirect the beam towards the tree, and lucky for Kimberly his aim was impeccable.

Tommy had a difficult time in his struggle against Lord Zedd. There was no doubt that he was a very worthy opponent, possibly the worthiest opponent that Tommy had ever battled, but Tommy would never actually admit it. He had been bruised and battered beyond belief by the monster and yet he was so far from giving up. The moment Tommy set Kimberly free from the constraints of the rope Lord Zedd faltered and let his guard down in frustration. This opened up the perfect opportunity for Tommy to tighten his grip on the elusive staff and separate it from its owner with one powerful jerk. Lord Zedd recovered huffing and puffing and then starred at his archenemy in utter disbelief.

Inspired by Jason and Tommy’s triumphs, Kimberly immediately charged at Rita, feeling pretty optimistic that she and the guys were finally in charge. It didn’t take much for her to free Rita’s staff from her tight clutches, just a few punches and even a kick here and there. Kimberly was surprised at what a pathetic fight Rita put up, especially considering how feisty she had always been. But now, finally, Rita cowered before her like a scolded puppy.

Regrouping, Tommy, Jason, and Kimberly formed a line. Each one of them possessing a power source from the enemy. Lord Zedd, Goldar, and Rita paralleled their line, and were still bent on bringing destruction to the three heroes. The evil bunch knew that they had allowed their egos to get the best of them and had it not been for their big headedness the tables would have been turned. In spite of this Lord Zedd knew that his doom was not yet meant to be.

“I must applaud you rangers,” began Lord Zedd, “I never thought I’d see the day when you losers would have us in the palms of your hands.”

“Well, you have to admit it was long overdue,” replied Tommy confidently as he admired the shine of the staff in his right hand.

“That may be,” snapped Rita, “but you haven’t seen the last of us!” She was pouting like a baby.

“Oh no?” questioned Jason, “I think you’re wrong.” Jason locked eyes with Tommy and smirked.

“Uh-oh,” interrupted Goldar as he began to slowly back away from the humans. He was prepared to desert his master in a second.

“Not so fast Goldar!” shouted Kimberly as she pointed Rita’s staff at the goon. “Let’s finish ‘em guys!”

“You got it!” confirmed Tommy; he raised the giant Z high into the air, signaling the other two to fallow his lead. The three heroes aimed and fired.

- - -

As Billy, Zack, Aisha, and Katherine approached the clearing they were feeling rather exhausted and unsure of their fate. They had managed to hold off the tengas and Scorpina quite successfully with their blade blasters, but if they didn’t find relief soon then the battle would very easily shift out of their favor. They were physically drained and several of them had already stumbled over their own feet more than once. But, just as they were sure all hope was lost, things took a turn for the better.

“Hey look,” declared Zack, “the fog is dissipating!”

“He’s right,” huffed Katherine as cheerfully as she could manage, “I can see the clearing.”

“And look, there are the Dino Rangers!” added Aisha in relief.

- - -

The teens across the way appeared to be just as tired and distressed as the other team, but like their seniors they weren’t finished yet.

“Look you guys!” declared Kira in elation. “There they are!” she pointed at the multi-colored figures through the trees.

“Snap!” cheered Ethan in relief.

“Come on guys, let’s move it,” ordered Conner as he immediately took lead of the Rangers.

But, Trent was not distracted by the news; he never once faltered from his duties of holding the putties off.

The two teams finally joined up in the clearing, each one complete with excess baggage. They greeted each other briefly with sighs of relief and cheer. But, everyone quickly forgot about the creatures that pursued them once they realized the events which were unfolding on the other side of the clearing. Tommy, Kimberly, and Jason had just blasted Lord Zedd, Rita and Goldar with their very own weapons. The reaction caused a gigantic explosion, which surely could have been seen and heard from miles away. The Rangers could even feel the heat radiating through their suites. The blast sent Tommy, Jason, and Kimberly to the ground, and remarkably it even alleviated the fog.

Jason lay on the dark, moist soil, covered in dust and debris and felt completely exhausted, but that didn’t stop the smirk from spreading across his face. On the other end of the clearing the Rangers watched in amazement as one by one the putties, tengas, and even Scorpina disappeared into thin air. Kimberly quickly sat up, ignoring the aches, which consumed her body. Immediately she began searching frantically for Tommy to make sure that he was okay. He had landed nearly thirty yards away from her but she was relieved to find him sitting up, and he appeared to be quite alert as he searched for her too. Once the couple locked eyes, smiles engulfed their faces. It was finally over; all of the uneasiness of never knowing if today would be the day that the dreaded Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa would return. Everyone could finally have peace and happiness.

Kimberly and Tommy simultaneously stood up and rushed into each other’s arms, while everyone else looked on in satisfaction. As the couple embraced tightly, Kimberly felt an indescribable feeling of relief wash over her. Zedd and Rita were finally gone and now she was free to love Tommy and to be loved by him in return. The two separated briefly and gazed into each other’s eyes. Not speaking a word Tommy took Kimberly’s face in his black and dirty hands. He gently wiped a single tear from under her eye, and in its place he left a thick black streak of dirt. But, she didn’t care about the dirt, she was just happy to be with him. Tommy raised Kimberly’s face to his, preparing to give her the most sensual, earth shattering, heartfelt kiss, but his lips never reached hers.

Kimberly was mortified as Tommy fell limply into her tired arms; tiny bolts of lightning surged throughout him. He never even felt the blast because if he had he surely would have called out in agony, but he didn’t make a peep. His body weight quickly grew much too heavy for Kimberly to support any longer and she was forced to ease herself to the ground with him. It was like a bad dream, a horrible scenario, but it was true. She could hear the frantic screams of her friends behind her and she could feel the cold wind pick up around her. It whistled in satisfaction and the chill pierced her skin with vengeance. Soon everything began to grow dark and for a moment Kimberly wondered if it was really dark outside or if it was just in her mind. Her world had gone dark; the flame inside of her had burnt out the moment her one true love fell helplessly into her arms.

Cradling Tommy to her chest, Kimberly buried her face between his neck and his shoulder, just as he had done to her before. Her cheek rubbed harshly against the stubble that coated his chin. It felt like sandpaper against her soft skin but the scratches couldn’t keep Kimberly away. For a moment she couldn’t understand how it was possible that he was gone and yet she could still feel him, touch him, smell him…She could hear and sense the commotion around her but she was too afraid to look up and accept Tommy’s fate…her fate. Kimberly longed for that last kiss. Why had she been so naive? Why couldn’t he be holding her now? She just wanted to be alone with him forever.

The fact of the matter was that Tommy lay lifeless in her arms and there was nothing more that she could do about it. The only defense she had to stay sane was to deny the truth. She kept telling herself that he was okay and she kept swearing to herself that she could feel his heart beating against hers, but it just wasn’t so. She had lost what she had looked so hard to find and she had never even had a chance keep it, not even for a little while.

Time passed, Kimberly had no idea how much, but eventually she was forced into reality as she heard the wicked and hateful sound of Lord Zedd’s voice once again. Pulling herself away from Tommy, Kimberly opened her eyes and accepted what couldn’t be changed.

Standing before her was Lord Zedd, only he wasn’t just Lord Zedd. Somehow the blast had supercharged him, causing him to grow nearly ten feet tall. His muscles swelled beyond recognition and the silver, which had originally adorned him, had somehow been transformed into gold. He had always been frightening and intimidating, but nothing compared to the being he had morphed into now.

To his left was Rita, her once puke brown dress now appeared ebony velvet. Her headdress, although massive before, was now more elaborate than anyone could ever imagine. Rita too was adorned with gold and onyx and her face was even uglier than ever; it was much more sinister.

To Lord Zedd’s right stood Goldar, who had also grown in size, matching his master’s height. Goldar’s sheen was blindingly shinny and his armor was now encrusted with incredible jewels, in particular there was a large red jewel in the middle of his chest. It appeared to be some sort of power source. But regardless, Goldar seemed to be even more powerful than any force they had ever reckoned with.

“Ha, ha, ha…” laughed Lord Zedd loudly, causing the ground to shake below him. “You should have quit while you were still ahead Pink Ranger. But, now it’s too late and your honoree persistence has cost you your one true love’s life…ha, ha, ha…”

Kimberly starred up at the three beasts, too shocked to react and too scared to let go of Tommy. She didn’t care about revenge anymore. But soon, the Rangers gathered around her, creating a barrier between her and Tommy and the monsters. Kimberly was surprised to see that amidst her confusion Jason had assumed his Red Ranger powers and was now morphed.

“You’re going to pay for what you did to Tommy!” threatened Jason to Lord Zedd.

“And who’s going to make me?” questioned Lord Zedd with a mighty roar.

“We are!” answered Kira strongly.

Lord Zedd looked down at her slowly and along with Goldar and Rita, exploded with laughter.

“Ha!” screamed Rita; “you are all powerless against us!”

“We’ll just have to see about that!” declared Jason, “Let’s bring ‘em together guys, We need Dinosaur power now!”

Everyone followed Jason’s lead, a little shocked that he didn’t wait for Zedd to grow twenty stories tall before calling on the gigantic machines. Raising their hands to the sky in unison the Rangers waited for their larger than life vehicles, but they never appeared.

“What’s going on? Where are they?” shrieked Aisha.

“I don’t know,” responded Billy in complete confusion.

“You fools!” replied Lord Zedd, “My new powers are more powerful than any of you could ever imagine, do you think I would allow you to waste my time with those silly little robots?”

“He must have put some kind of block on our signal,” announced Billy.

“Can he do that?” asked Conner.

“Well, he just did,” answered Zack.

“What are we going to do?” questioned Katherine in terror.

“I don’t know,” replied Jason. “But what I do know is that we need Tommy.”

All of the Rangers turned around to stare at the tragedy behind them. Kimberly hadn’t budged, she continued to rock Tommy back in forth softly.

“Is he…you know?” asked Kira sadly; she gripped Trent’s arm tightly.

“It’s looking that way,” replied Jason as he choked back his frustrations.

“No!” screamed Kimberly in a fit of rage, taking everyone by surprise. She starred up at her friends with bloodshot eyes in anger, “He’s not dead, he’s not! He can’t be! He just can’t be!” She slapped the ground fiercely with her fists causing nothing but loose soil to fly up a few inches. The realization of her weakness forced her to break down into sobs once again.

Zedd, Rita, and Goldar once again shook the ground with their evil snickers. Normally Lord Zedd would have already annihilated the Rangers, but he enjoyed seeing their agony and nothing pleased Rita more than to see Kimberly broken.

Everyone continued to stare at Kimberly for a moment. None of them felt it to be their place to attempt to bring comfort to her because it just wasn’t possible. Eventually it was Conner who took the initiative and walked over to Kimberly slowly. He knelt down beside her and offered her a look of condolence but didn’t speak a word. She looked back at him puzzled. She barely even knew who the kid was, what in the hell was he doing? But then he reached down to his belt and from it he pulled out a small reflective object, Tommy’s power coin. His hands shook as he handed it to Kimberly. Graciously she took it from him and conveyed her appreciation with a simple, “Thank you.” Conner nodded, stood up and resumed his place in between Kira and Ethan.

Kimberly held the coin tightly and then opened her hand. She starred at the coin for a long time and somehow became hypnotized by it. It held so many memories and more importantly it radiated so much energy; so much of Tommy. Finally Kimberly closed her hand once more and slowly but carefully eased Tommy off her lap. She made sure to place his head softly on the dirt and she arranged his arms so that he appeared comfortable. Next she leaned over him on her hands and knees and looked down into his handsome face. Her tears fell onto his cheeks but he didn't notice. Lowering her face down to Tommy, Kimberly kissed him gently on his warm, and surprising soft lips, and sweetly whispered “I love you,” into his ear. Rising to her feet Kimberly was ready to finish what she had started.

“Let’s do this guys,” she mumbled as she stepped forward.

The Rangers stared at her bewildered but she paid no attention. Instead she cut through the group and made her way to the front.

“Okay Zedd, you want me gone? Why not make good on your promise?”

“Very courageous my dear but I never thought you to be so stupid,” replied Lord Zedd as gigantic darts of rain began to fall at his command.

“Well, sometimes people can surprise you, “ Kimberly shot back, as she clutched the power coin tightly behind her back.

“Alright then,” began Zedd, “you asked for it so I suppose I will finish you off first!”

“Kimberly, No!” screamed Jason as he lunged to pull her back, but Billy and Zack wouldn’t allow it. They knew that Kimberly had made her decision and her own fate was now in her own hands.

Lord Zedd raised his staff high into the air and Rita and Goldar mimicked his motion. A pyramid of light was created by the three and would eventually result in a blast much larger than was necessary to finish off the girl. At Lord Zedd’s command the trio shifted their aim towards Kimberly and fired an amazing blow.

The beam shot at Kimberly quickly, but determined to succeed she reacted even faster. Kimberly pulled Tommy’s power coin out from behind her back and extended it in front of her. The tiny gold coin shinned brightly with rays of white, green, red, and black, which were blinding to the human eye. Kimberly was forced to turn away but the Rangers were shielded by their visors. The coin reflected all of the evil energy away from Kimberly, but not without strain. Kimberly’s body convulsed violently but she remained strong for she knew that this was what Tommy wanted.

In a rapid response Jason led his team of four to mimic Kimberly’s gesture. It all occurred in a split second but the beam reflected off of Tommy’s coin, then it hit Zack’s coin, next it reached Katherine’s coin, Aisha received it eagerly, and finally Jason redirected the beam back to Zedd, Rita, and Goldar. As the beam traveled from one Ranger to the next it collected energy and grew in size and vibrancy, and each Ranger was left powerless. By the time the energy was returned to Lord Zedd all five Rangers were nothing more than civilians. Each person dropped to the ground in exhaustion, barely able to stay conscious to watch the final destruction of Lord Zedd and Rita. It all happened so quickly, but in one spectacular show, the three monsters went up in flames like a wild fire, they never even had a chance.

Immediately the flames spread throughout the forest and the group of heroes were directly in the middle of it. Too tired and drained to save themselves they lay on the forest floor coughing and gasping for air, that is everyone but Kimberly who was motionless. Jason gestured for the Dino Rangers to help her but none of them saw him because they were too preoccupied with trying to contain the flame.

Charred and smoking, the forest smelled like a campfire. All of the flames were gone and the fire hadn’t done too much damage. Conner, Kira, Ethan, and Trent stood tall, not out of pride but out of assurance to the other Rangers. Without a word Conner led his team towards their mentors and one by one everyone was tended to.

“Just leave me here for a few weeks and I’ll be fine,” choked Zack to Ethan as he helped him to sit up.

“Sorry man,” replied Ethan, “it’s not that easy. Rangers code of honor, you must help everyone.”

“Especially a fellow Ranger,” cut in Kira as she dusted Aisha off.

Aisha erupted into a coughing fit as she looked around the battlefield. Tears immediately welled up in her eyes when they finally settled on Kimberly. Her best friend was so still and so peaceful.

“Help her,” whispered Aisha to anyone that was listening.

Jason was the first to respond feeling re-energized at the sight of Kimberly strewn across the debris. He made his way over to his friend and immediately checked for her vitals. Everyone waited in anticipation, but after a delayed response from Jason their hopes were pretty much shattered.

“Strange isn’t it?” asked Conner dryly, “Do you suppose they’re together now?”

Everyone understood what the Red Ranger had meant and the world seemed to go silent.

“I would imagine they are,” said Katherine finally.

“Come on,” began Billy in reverence, “we should get them out of here, it won’t be long before the fire department shows up to make sure the fire’s completely out.”

Everyone silently agreed and rose slowly to their feet. Aisha and Katherine required assistance from Kira and Ethan to walk, while Trent and Conner set out to collect their fallen leader. Jason insisted on carrying Kimberly.

Just moments later everyone was interrupted by Conner’s shouts, “Hey guys, where was it that Dr. O landed?”

“What do you mean?” yelled back Kira, “He’s right over there!” she pointed towards a giant charred tree.

“He’s not there!” returned Trent in confusion.

“I swear!” cursed Kira. “These boys are just so useless sometimes!” She braced Aisha against Ethan. “I’ll be right back.”

Kira jogged over to her friends in annoyance, shaking her head in disgust the whole way. When she finally reached them she began to understand their dilemma.

“He’s gone,” she announced puzzled.

“Gee Kira, nothing gets past you,” replied Conner sarcastically.

“Hey cool it,” said Trent in Kira’s defense. “Billy!” he yelled, “Can you come over here, please!”

Billy made his way over to the teenagers as quickly as he could while the other’s waited, wanting to know what the problem was but were too exhausted to investigate it themselves.

“Guys we really don’t have time for this…” began Billy as he reached them but suddenly became silent. “Where’s Tommy?”

“That’s what we were hoping you could answer,” replied Kira.

“He landed here, right?” questioned Billy.

“I thought so,” answered Conner. Trent nodded in agreement.

Billy turned to his friends sheepishly, “Uh guys, I think we have a problem!”

“No, we don’t,” replied a voice.

Everyone shifted their gaze towards it, and were delighted to see that it was Tommy.

Tommy carefully pulled himself off the ground with the assistance of a sturdy tree trunk. He had been behind a bush halfway between the former Rangers and the current Rangers.

“But how…” began Katherine in utter relief.

“I have no idea what happened, one minute I was holding Kimberly in my arms and the next minute I saw Rita and Zedd go up in flames,” Tommy rubbed his throbbing temples. “Then I tried to find Kim but it was impossible with all of the smoke.”

“The white power coin,” began Billy ignoring the mention of Kimberly’s name, “it must have rejuvenated you in the process of destroying Zedd in Rita.”

“I don’t know,” continued Tommy, “whatever it was, it was strange,” He looked around at all of the familiar faces and found it difficult to pinpoint everyone considering the darkness, which had just set in completely.

“Where’s Kim?” asked Tommy, allowing a small smile to spread across his face.

Everyone held their breath in terror; Tommy didn’t know what had happened.

“I hate to break it to you man,” started Billy, “but…”

Jason walked up to his friends slowly with Kimberly limp in his arms. He didn’t say a word he just presented her to his best friend.

Tommy starred at her perplexed. At first he didn’t quite comprehend what they were trying to tell him. He was so close to bliss that the idea of misfortune was just not something that he could understand right now.

“Give her to me,” he snapped at Jason as he grabbed Kimberly from Jason’s arms. “Don’t ever try to scare me like that again!” he ordered.

“Tommy,” cut in Katherine from across the way.

Tommy looked up towards her in the darkness. “What?” he asked dryly.

“I’m sorry,” she said before allowing her emotions to overtake her.

Tommy was clearly in denial and all of the Rangers knew it but Tommy. He pretended not hear Katherine’s sympathetic condolence, lowered Kimberly to the ground and rested her in his lap. Taking her head in his hand he raised her face to his and said, “Hey beautiful it’s time to wake up.”

But there was no response. He clenched his eyes shut tightly, positive that things would turn out okay. He opened his eyes and once again repeated the phrase, “Hey beautiful it’s time to wake up.”

But still there was nothing.

“I’m sorry, bro,” interrupted Jason, “but she did it for you.”

Tommy looked up at his best friend in disgust, “Is that supposed to make me feel better or something?”

Jason looked away trying to hide his tears, “Of course not, but I just thought you’d want to know that Kimberly loved you more than anything in this world, even more than her own life.”

Tommy starred down at the ground, not bothering to conceal his emotions. “How?” he asked looking up at Jason, expecting a valid answer. “How? How did this all happen? How in the hell did everything happen!”

“I don’t know man,” replied Jason as he lowered himself down to his best friend and wrapped a brotherly arm around his shoulder. “I just don’t know.”

The forest was quiet and there was no sound but the sound of Tommy’s pain. Soon the silence was broken by the faint scream of a siren in the distance.

“That’s the fire department,” announced Billy. “We better get out of here.”

Chapter Forty-Two - THE END

Dr. Thomas Oliver sat perplexed and utterly stunned as he watched the silent commotion unravel throughout his basement. The tears had all been cried and the rage had been exhausted out of him hours ago. Now he remained still, sitting on the steps of his command center. He sat patiently; focusing on the cot in the middle of the room where Aisha washed Kimberly’s face gently with a gray washcloth that used to be as white as snow. Kimberly was starting to look human again, and now that Tommy could actually see her face free of the dirt, blood, and debris he began to feel something again. It wasn’t a good feeling though, in fact it was a very bad feeling, but at least it was something. It was the feeling of regret. But what did he have to be regretful of? He hadn’t been the one that dragged Kimberly into this mess and he hadn’t been the one that told her to use the white power coin to destroy Lord Zedd and his evil minions. At least she knew that he loved her and as horrible as it sounded he finally knew that she loved him. In fact she had made the ultimate sacrifice for him. If nothing else, he at least had that.

Soon Tommy became distracted as Jason rose from his seat next to Billy across the room; bandaged and bruised. He began to walk towards his best friend slowly, but to Tommy it appeared as though he was moving in slow motion. Tommy somehow found himself enamored with the motion of Jason’s feet. He could see the white sneakers hit the floor purposefully but he couldn’t hear the actual footsteps. Tommy next realized that he couldn’t hear anything at all. Shifting his gaze up he saw the water drip from the rag in Aisha’s hand, but no sound. Next to Aisha, Kira and Katherine spoke solemnly, comforting each other kindly, but Tommy couldn’t hear their whispers. Behind them, Billy and Haley fidgeted restlessly with the computers, knowing full well that their efforts would go unrewarded, but neither of them could stand to be a part of the grief. Tommy never heard the click of Billy’s fingers running over the keyboard. Beside them Conner, Trent, Ethan, and Zack stood discussing something, but Tommy couldn’t make out exactly what. Every now and then they took turns glancing at Tommy, and eventually shook their heads sadly.

Tommy didn’t need their pity and he didn’t want it. What he wanted and desperately needed was for the small angel in the middle of the room to open her eyes and smile at him, just once more. But he knew that was impossible. He couldn’t remember anything after entering the command center earlier, and nothing before his revelation of deafness. But somehow he knew; he knew that he would never see those hypnotic hazel brown eyes again and he missed them already.

Jason finally reached Tommy, starring down at him awkwardly. Tommy starred back up at him, making no efforts to rise from the stairs. Jason sank down to Tommy’s level, starring him strait in the eye, and began to speak. As his mouth moved slowly, Tommy was relieved that he couldn’t hear his best friend’s words. But he knew what they were and he knew what was coming. Struggling, Tommy strained to turn his head away, not wanting to see that phrase on Jason’s lips. Breaking into a sweat, Tommy fought to move but he was paralyzed, not even his eyelids would blink. Clearly and almost hatefully Jason’s lips molded into the words Tommy dreaded more than any other words in the English language, “I’m sorry Tommy,” they said, “but Kimberly is dead…”

- - -

Drenched in sweat, Tommy gasped for air as he sat up from the deep sleep. His heart pumped so fast that it hurt. As his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness he focused his attention on the floating neon green numbers on the nightstand. The clock read 3:37, he had only been asleep for ten minutes and already he was sopping wet. This scenario seemed so familiar to him, and rightfully so for he had experienced it at least five times already that night, and countless times many nights before.

The exact same dream had been haunting Tommy every night for the past three weeks, two days, one hour, and roughly ten minutes since it had all happened. Each time it played out exactly the same way, just like clockwork, and each time he would pull himself awake but not in enough time to avoid the most painful part. The dream had become quite draining for Tommy. Every morning he awoke feeling as if he had never even hit the pillow the night before. He faked his way through his class lectures just going through the motions and pretty much reading the textbook out loud to the students. Battles with Mesogog’s drones were like a play and he was a member of the audience. He wasn’t the leader he knew he once was and he wasn’t the man he knew that he should be. But who could blame him? Of course Tommy’s disturbing change in behavior did not go unnoticed by his faithful team of Rangers but he didn’t feel it their business to know about the dreams. They were personal, private, and sickeningly realistic.

Feeling thirsty and quite frankly a little nauseous, Tommy rose from his bed tossing the black comforter aside. Slowly Tommy made his way to the door and without noticing he went down the stairs, through the living room and entered the kitchen. It wasn’t until the bright light of the refrigerator shocked him into reality that Tommy realized he was no longer in his room. Shaking off the hypnotic trance Tommy grabbed the half-drunken bottle of Sprite from the top shelf of the refrigerator. He twisted the top off easily expecting to hear the effervescence escape with a sigh, but he barely heard the cap fall to the floor. Taking a gigantic gulp Tommy was disgusted to find that the Sprite had gone flat. Thinking back he couldn’t even remember the last time that he had drank from the bottle. For all he knew it could have been there for weeks, maybe even before IT happened.

“It”, was the name he had given the events, which had effected his life drastically three weeks before. It was like his life hadn’t changed one bit yet it felt so unfamiliar. He was still a science teacher at Reefside High, he was still the Black Dino Thunder Ranger, and as hard as it was to believe right now Kimberly was still in fact very much alive.

- - -

Tommy entered the command center with Kimberly in his arms. The walk back from the battleground was a confusing one. Tommy played the events of the past few days in his head over and over again looking for some kind of loop hole, trying to pinpoint exactly where he had gone wrong and where he could have prevented the whole tragedy from ever even happening. However, the more he searched the more clueless he became, but it was no matter now because Lord Zedd and Rita were finally dead and above all he was still Dr. Thomas Oliver, the greatest Power Ranger there ever was. Sure it was vain and pompous but he knew it was true, he had to believe it was true.

Not stopping to even acknowledge Haley, Tommy headed strait for the table in the middle of the room, which Haley had already prepared for Kimberly. Setting Kimberly down gently but swiftly Tommy immediately began spouting orders.

“Jason, Billy, Zack, Aisha, and Kat, you guys join me please.”

Kira, Conner, Trent, and Ethan groaned silently to themselves as they shifted directions and assisted their mentors to the middle of the room.

“Form a circle,” ordered Tommy without looking up as he arranged Kimberly across the table.

No one bothered to question their leader’s orders but were very doubtful. Looking to Jason for answers the Rangers starred at the man in red. Jason nodded his head indicating that they should fallow Tommy’s command. Jason was very pessimistic about Tommy’s intentions but he knew that Tommy never gave up, and even if this tactic failed at least Tommy could live with himself knowing that he tried.

Quickly the circle was formed around the small woman and without any further delay, Tommy explained his intentions.

“You guys remember that time Zordon infused me with his energy so I could maintain the Green Ranger powers?”

Everyone shook their heads in unison even though Kat and Aisha weren’t there for the occasion, but they had been reminded of the instance many times in the past.

“Well, we’re going to do the same for Kimberly,” finished Tommy with a clever grin.

It was so heartbreaking to see him so optimistic when all hope was lost back at the clearing.

“Tommy,” interrupted Jason softly, not really wanting to bust his best friend’s bubble. “I don’t know if you noticed this or not but we all lost our powers during the destruction of Zedd and Rita.”

“It’s true,” confirmed Billy humbly.

Tommy starred at his friends in disbelief; he couldn’t believe how quickly they were willing to throw in the towel.

“I don’t care,” he finally declared, “we don’t need fancy suits and shinny helmets to save Kimberly. You said it yourself earlier Billy, the power is inside each one of us.”

Billy swallowed hard, for once wishing he hadn’t been the smart guy. “Um, that’s true Tommy, but we used up all of our powers in the battle. It would take years for enough energy to accumulate to even try to bring Kimberly back.”

“What about the dino gem’s?” interrupted Kira, breaking the mandatory silence which the Dino Rangers had been expected to adhere to.

“They’d never work,” replied Haley, “they’re not in any way connected to Kimberly.”

“But she used the Black Dino gem,” added Trent.

“Yeah,” replied Haley, “but it just isn’t enough, and none of your powers were ever connected to her.”

Tommy shook his head in irritation. “Just shut up everyone! You are all just wasting valuable time, now come on-“

He was cut off instantly with the sound of the alarm. Haley was already at the control panel tracking the disturbance.

“It’s Mesogog,” she announced, “he’s sent tyranodrones to the power plant, it looks like they’re looking to tamper with the city’s power supply.”

Tommy appeared unfazed by the news. “Kira, Conner, Ethan, Trent, you guys go take care of those goons. I’ll be along later if you need me.”

Hesitating, the Rangers finally bit their tongues and raced for their motorcycles.

“Alright,” declared Tommy, “let’s bring her back guys.

The Rangers limped and struggled to position themselves equidistant from the person next to them. Tommy stroked Kimberly’s cheek sweetly.

“Hang on Beautiful, were coming for you.”

Tears spilled from Aisha’s and Katherine’s eyes as they stared at Tommy. It seemed so impossible, but Tommy was right. They had never given up before, why in the hell start now?

“Okay guys,” broke in Aisha suddenly as she smiled at Tommy, “I don’t know about you but I’m ready to get my best friend back.” She winked at Tommy who returned the gesture with a smile.

“Me too,” confirmed Jason with a grin.

The other Rangers nodded in accordance and everyone raised their hands high into the air and connected palms with the friend next to them. Closing their eyes the Rangers prepared to exhaust every resource necessary to save their friend. But then another voice broke in. It was Conner from the battle site, his plea echoed through the speakers and into the command center.

“Dr. O, we need you,” begged the young Red Ranger, “Elsa’s here along with a three headed monster who apparently has the ability to freeze things, Kira mainly.”

Tommy flinched at the alarming news but shook it off impatiently as he squeezed his eyes shut tighter. Haley understood Tommy’s gesture and answered Conner’s call.

“You’re going to have to hold out a little longer Conner,” she said, “Dr. O will be along as soon as he can.” Conner just responded with a sigh.

Focusing their attention back to the problem at hand the six adults resumed their positions and began to search. They searched long and hard within themselves, desperately seeking any last drop of power that might help their cause. Eventually, multicolored bolts of light began to erupt from the humans as they collected what was left, but was it enough? The room glowed with such intensity that Haley had to cover her eyes and alarms rang off throughout the command center indicating an overheating. But neither of them could be deterred. Soon Conner’s voice broke in again,

“Dr. O I’ve lost Ethan and Trent too. I just can’t do this alone, there’s too many of them. I need help, please!”

Tommy heard Conner but he pushed the young man’s voice to the back of his head. Mesogog just was not his greatest concern right now and after all he’d been through kicking some tyranodrone ass was sounding like a piece of cake. He just had to finish what he had started.

“We’re almost there guys,” he urged. “Come on, we can do this!”

In unison the heroes forced themselves to push harder than they had ever thought possible, and soon the power gathered into a radiating mass hovering above Kimberly. With one final force the Rangers released their hold and the gigantic mass of energy dropped on Kimberly with incredible impact. She gasped as life entered her body once again, but her eyes remained closed. Billy and Haley rushed around preparing the medical equipment necessary to sustain Kimberly long enough for her to recover completely. Katherine and Aisha hugged in relief, while Jason tended to Kimberly immediately. Tommy starred down at Kimberly one more time.

“I knew you’d never leave me, Beautiful,” he said before digging deep down into his pants pocket and pulling out the black Dino Gem.

“Dino thunder, power up, ha!”

- - - - -

Tommy poured the remainder of the bottle of Sprite into the sink and tossed the empty bottle into the trashcan; he missed it. At first Tommy really didn’t care, in fact looking around the kitchen it appeared that he hadn’t cared for quite sometime. Rancid milk sat in a plastic jug next to a half-eaten stale box of cheerios. A banana peal as well as several more pieces of garbage occupied the space on the floor. The sink was surprisingly clean but after slight observation Tommy realized that it was because he had never even bothered to bring the dirty dishes to the sink. Instead they littered the kitchen table, the counter, and even the top of the refrigerator. The microwave was splattered with spaghetti sauce which he had forgotten all about one evening while thinking about Kim. He never even realized it until the next morning when he opened the microwave door to heat up some water for his instant coffee, which he despised. But now staring at the red design his attention was shifted from what was on the door to what was reflected in the door. Tommy rubbed his hand over his chin, it was covered in stubble, and in fact it was bordering on a beard. Beards were never quite Tommy’s thing and he cringed in disgust, how could he have let himself get this bad?

“Forget it,” he groaned as he turned around and headed back up the stairs not wanting to deal with the mess right now.

He didn’t really want to go back to sleep either because for him sleep was merely a portal into his nightmare. But why did the dream continue to haunt him so? It wasn’t like it was real; he just really hated the man in the dream; himself. In actuality he hadn’t been the pathetic passive weakling as portrayed in his vision, in fact he had been the complete opposite. It was he who had been responsible for Kimberly’s survival. So why did he feel so guilty? And could it be that the man he saw in his dreams was in fact an accurate depiction of himself at this very moment? It’s true, Tommy had saved the day, rescuing Kimberly for the hundredth time, and then he topped it all off by once again putting Mesogog and his crew in their place. These were by no means the accomplishments of a failure, but it was the events that followed the victories that plagued Tommy.

The battle with Mesogog’s henchmen was a surprisingly close call for the Dino Rangers. It seemed that all that time that Mesogog was quiet was not due to the fact that he feared the evil Pink Ranger or Lord Zedd. Instead he took the opportunity to strengthen his army, creating more tyranodrones, tougher monsters, and even a new weapon for Elsa. He undoubtedly figured that the Rangers would be so exhausted from the past few days that they would most definitely meet their doom. How wrong he was, though. Tommy, had actually fought most of the battle on his own due to the fact that the rest of his team was frozen solid, courtesy of Mesogog’s latest creation. Looking back on it Tommy had no idea how he managed to defeat dozens of Tyranodrones, three monsters, and Elsa all in one day and at times all at the same time! The answer was easy though, for he had been so thrilled by Kimberly’s awakening that nothing could have stopped him.

With that in mind it wasn’t difficult to understand why Tommy was now starting to believe that he was wretched and weak, this was because he hadn’t seen Kimberly since she took that first gasp of air back in the command center. During Tommy’s eternal battle against Mesogog’s forces his friends naturally took it upon themselves to see that Kimberly made a full recovery. The minute she was strong enough to make the journey they transported her to Reefside Hospital where she was examined and not long after was relocated to Angel Grove Hospital. Reefside Hospital definitely had an issue with overcrowding, especially when a monster attacked. It just wasn’t practical for them to give up a bed to Kimberly when she could receive better attention in Angel Grove.

Tommy was heartbroken when he had finally made it back to the command center only to find Haley there. She had explained the situation to him and had urged him to hop in his jeep and race to Kimberly’s side at that very moment. He had definitely considered it but for some reason he just couldn’t bring himself to actually do it. He hadn’t forgotten about the revelations that Kimberly and he had shared with each other, but he also had to wonder just how genuine they were. Sure it’s easy to say you love someone, especially when you may never see them again. Of course he had meant every word he had uttered, but had Kimberly? It was true that she had sacrificed herself for him on more than one occasion but that was pretty much a part of the Ranger’s code of honor.

Tommy figured that Kimberly was probably having a hard enough time right now during her recovery. The amount of power that she consumed in such a short period of time was unheard of. He knew what it was like and he knew that the side affects took time to wear off. He didn’t want to bother her with his endless infatuation because it would only make adjusting more difficult for her. He had promised himself that he would give her a month to recuperate and then maybe, just maybe then he would approach her. But as the days passed he became more and more doubtful that he would ever find the life he had hoped for because Kimberly had not once bothered to contact him.

He guessed that was why he kept having that stupid reoccurring dream. He was letting her slip away now at this very moment just as he had let her slip away in the dream. He felt almost as if she were dead to him now, and what was worse was the fact that he wasn’t doing a damn thing to try and pull her back. It was funny how things could make so much sense in the middle of the night.

Tommy entered his room and turned the corner sharply without hesitation. Flicking the light on with his right hand, he reached for his razor with his left hand.

- - -

Kimberly entered the familiar room cautiously; relieved to discover that the Youth Center was buzzing with the typical relaxed teenagers that usually inhabited it on Saturday mornings. They would definitely make this much easier for her. Kimberly had returned to work at Angel Grove High at the beginning of the week. When she had first called Mr. Caplin to explain her leave of absence and to request a couple more weeks off he was not at all pleased. But when she told him she was calling from the hospital he was so concerned that he told her she could take as much time off as she needed, and he didn’t even request proof from her doctor.

Kimberly’s doctor had been a very nice man; he was older and very knowledgeable. She had been diagnosed with nothing more than exhaustion, and of course the cuts and bruises. The doctor had made a big deal about them and began to hint at the suspicion that she was involved in an abusive relationship. He even had the nurse give her pamphlets on abuse prevention. But, Aisha and Katherine assured the physician that, that simply was not the case and everyone stuck with the story that Kimberly had merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Eventually the doctor came around.

Focusing on the commotion surrounding her Kimberly spotted a couple of her favorite students sitting at the table across the room and standing in front of them was the whole reason why she had avoided the Youth Center all week, Skull. He took the kids’ orders, delivering what looked to be an absolutely hilarious joke; even Bulk laughed from behind the juice bar. But once Bulk spotted her the fun was over. He quickly became silent as he gestured towards her to Skull. Skull turned around and the moment he spotted her the smile quickly erased from his face. Handing the order to Bulk he attempted to casually meet up with Kimberly on the other side of the bar.

He had been dreading this moment just as much as Kimberly; in fact more. Their date had ended on a sour note and when she stopped coming in every morning he was heartbroken. He now realized that she would never return his affections but he still wanted her to be a part of his life, even if it was just a small part like a friend. At least a week had passed before someone clued him in on Kimberly’s absence from school, and after some investigating he discovered that she had been “ill.” At least that’s what Mr. Caplin called it. Skull knew it probably wasn’t his place but he sent the women a dozen pink roses anyway. And although Kimberly had been disappointed to discover that they had not been sent by Tommy like she had hoped, she was still very touched by Skull’s gesture.

Kimberly and Skull silently took a seat next to each other, and saying nothing they turned to one another. Tears welled up in Kimberly’s eyes as she could see the hurt in Skull’s face. She knew why too, it wasn’t because she had avoided him for so long and it wasn’t because their date had ended horribly. It was because he now understood that they would never be.

Kimberly quickly kissed Skull on the cheek and locked him in a truly heartfelt hug. She could feel the eyes of the kids watching them but she didn’t care. Skull returned her embrace and once the couple parted they both broke out in chuckles.

“So we’re okay?” asked Skull sheepishly, avoiding Kimberly’s eyes.

“Yeah, we’re okay,” confirmed Kimberly still smiling. “Although…” she began.

Skull’s eyes darted up, staring at her curiously, “What?”

“I really don’t deserve a friend like you,” she replied seriously, “and I really mean it this time.”

Skull made no attempt to interrupt her; he definitely wanted to hear what she had to say.

“I realize that I haven’t been myself lately,” she continued, “but you haven’t changed a bit through all of it, and I love you for that.”

Skull said nothing; he just smiled and blushed profusely.

“And the flowers were beautiful, too,” added Kimberly with a giggle.

“Only the best for you,” replied Skull, rising from his seat and planting a kiss on Kimberly’s cheek before returning to his place behind the counter. “Now, what will it be?” he asked reaching for a pink glass behind him.

“You know what I like,” replied Kimberly cheerfully.

“One strawberry smoothie coming up,” declared Skull as he turned around and began to prepare the drink.

Once Kimberly received her smoothie and Skull had wandered off to challenge some kid to a video game, she was left alone at the juice bar. She quickly reached in her designer tote bag and pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. Hesitantly she began to scribble words and hoped that somehow they would miraculously begin to make sense. But it seemed no matter how hard she tried she just couldn’t focus. Letter writing had never been her strong suite and although she had been trying to compose the letter since she woke up in Angel Grove Hospital the words just weren’t coming. Finally deciding that there were too many distractions in the Youth Center Kimberly stood up, offered a friendly wave to Skull and headed for the door.

Kimberly decided that this matter required careful attention and inspiration, so she headed for one of her favorite spots in the park, on the lakeshore. She plopped down on the sand carelessly, not afraid to ruin her blue jeans, but leaned against the tree softly hoping she wouldn’t find tree sap on her pink tank top when she went to do her laundry the next day. Before pulling out her paper and pen again Kimberly made sure she was comfortable and let down her hair from the messy knot she had been wearing on her head. She was stalling as long as she could to avoid writing the letter; it had been extremely difficult for her.

There were so many times that Kimberly just wanted to pick up the phone and dial Tommy’s number but she didn’t even know what it was. It wouldn’t have been difficult to get it from Jason, but she just felt like if Tommy wanted to talk to her then he would have made the effort to contact her. That was why she had been working painstakingly hard on the letter. How do you write I love you on a piece of paper and make it look like words that have never been uttered before? That’s how she felt about Tommy, she felt like the love she had for him was unlike any other love that anyone had ever experienced in the entire universe. She feared that he did not share the same feelings for her but at this point she was willing to put everything on the line as long as Tommy knew that she really did love him more than life itself.

Once again Kimberly’s pen took flight and after a while frustration got the better of her. Sighing in disgust she hurled the pen and paper down to the sand next to her. A small cloud of dust rose and fell to the ground as Kimberly pulled her knees to her chest and huffed. She was officially incapable of writing the letter but as difficult as it was, it was still easier than trying to do it face to face.

“You know letters really don’t become you,” said a voice from a ways off.

Kimberly turned her head towards it in surprise as she found the biggest surprise of them all, Dr. Tommy Oliver. He stood tall in his old worn jeans and black polo shirt. His face was cleanly shaven and although he had monstrous circles under his eyes he was still breathtakingly handsome. Kimberly gasped immediately and then froze. Tommy looked at her questioningly.

“I guess I should have called first,” he began as he started to turn away, “I’m sorry, I can come back later-“

Before he could finish what he was trying to say Kimberly had sprung up from her seat on the sand and rushed towards Tommy. The moment she reached him she jumped into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck with no intention of ever letting him go. Tommy was shocked beyond belief at her welcome because he had come expecting the worst, but not wanting to waste a split second of this moment on his shortcomings he embraced her with welcoming arms. The two hugged for quite sometime, never once speaking a word, with every second their grips grew tighter and tighter. Soon they could hardly stand it anymore and it was time for the truth to come out. Releasing Tommy slowly, Kimberly drew back her arms and picking up on her signal Tommy also let go. But, he wasn’t going to risk her running off so he made sure to hold on to both of her tiny hands inside of his.

Kimberly looked down at her hands interlocked with Tommy’s; there had been a time when it had been as natural as breathing. Now she felt like she couldn’t even breathe, but she certainly couldn’t stop smiling. Finally gazing up into Tommy’s deep brown eyes Kimberly spoke,

“Tommy…” she began, rushed and short of breath. “Tommy, I…” she said realizing that she was about to lay it all out on the table, with the possibility of walking away with a broken heart that could never be mended for as long as she lived.

“Kimberly, I love you,” blurted out Tommy with no hesitation, not caring if he so rudely interrupted her.

“What?” asked Kimberly, stunned at the man’s declaration.

“I said I love you,” replied Tommy sincerely as he raised her small hand up to his lips, gently unfolded it, planted a soft, sweet kiss in her palm and then closed her hand again.

Kimberly stared up at him deeply, praying to God that this wasn’t a dream.

“Do you really mean that?” she asked as tears once again welled up in her eyes for the second time that day.

“I’ve never been so sure about anything else in my life,” answered Tommy confidently as he cupped her chin in his fingers.

“Because I love you too,” declared Kimberly with excitement.

“Are you sure you really mean that?” questioned Tommy, in need of verification.

“I’ve never been so sure about anything else in my life either,” repeated Kimberly eagerly, as her voice became muffled with giggles.

Tommy lowered his face down to hers, tilting her head up to his, with their lips only an inch apart, he said, “I can’t live without you any longer, Kimberly. I need you,” he trailed off into a whisper as he couldn’t keep his mouth away from hers any longer.

He had to taste her and feel her breath inside of him. The couple kissed passionately with no reserves; their ferocity not even coming close to comparing to the kisses they shared in Tommy’s bedroom weeks before. This kiss was different, it was real, and it was undoubtedly a kiss of true love. Finally Kimberly was able to gather the strength to tear herself away from Tommy, but only for a moment.

“I need you too, Tommy,” she said hurriedly as he once again invaded her mouth, forbidding her to breath without him.

The End

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