A/N: This story is set right after Andros has to use Zordon to save the universe and he dies. Obviously, the earth Rangers have just found out about it. I originally intended it all to be in Kat's POV but I was more fascinated by Jason's so I switched. It is mildly Jason/Kat but no real romance so it could be taken either way.
I do not own the Power Rangers or their affiliates.
The water laps softly at the edge of the sand, the white tops of the waves clashing startlingly with the navy blue depths beneath them. And there is nothing more then Katherine would like then to get lost in those depths. She's tired of riding on the top of the waves; always fighting to stay above the surface, keeping her head above water only to crash desperately onto the grainy hardness of the sand. Sometimes, she figured, it really wasn't worth the effort to end up spread too thinly over a too large space.
She had learned her life's meaning in those waters. Diving had been her passion but water had been her soul. When she had been little the warm Australian waters had beckoned her into their crystalline vastness and when she had moved to America she had thought that their bodies would also welcome her. But they had been cold and dark and deep and she had always struggled to fit into them. Much like those around her, the Californian depths had taunted her inability to tame their powers. She couldn't swim in their deep pits and she couldn't laze in their shallow banks because she would get so cold that her lips would turn blue. She had tried, oh how she had tried to welcome the changes this new experience was bringing her, but she couldn't.
Perhaps, she mused, she was just not meant to fit with them. Oh how she had thought that she did. She had tried diving again, after Kimberly's accident and surfing, although King Mondo had ruined that. There always seemed to be some unseen force keeping her from truly bonding with the waters. Her friends had encouraged her; to be sure, to keep up her efforts, but it all seemed so futile.
She grew angry thinking about how she had been spit back up, disappointed and frustrated and how they had laughed and laughed and laughed. Her anger grew like bile in her throat until she staggered blindly to her feet and ran at the coast. She balled her hands into tight fists at her sides and stumbled into the water which gripped to her legs icily.
"How DARE you! How DARE you! Why wasn't I good enough?! Why could I never do anything good enough! I am NOT WEAK! I am not HELPLESS! I tried! I tried and you spit me back out like I was nothing! NOTHING!" Her voice grew shrill as she screamed at the waves. She wildly threw her arms around, thrashing in helpless anger. "Why did you have to lead me on?! Like you actually wanted us to succeed! Like you cared about us! YOU NEVER CARED ABOUT US! YOU NEVER—" Her voice broke out into violent sobs, exploding from her delicate frame and wracking her entire body. She nearly fell into the icy water beneath her, her knees giving way to her anguish but a pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her into a warm, solid chest, shushing noises attempting to soothe her. Kat grew angrier at this and wrestled her holder, screaming nonsense and flailing her limbs about her in a weak attempt at self defense. They fell to their knees into the shallow shoreline; water coming up and burning the spots that it touched.
"Shhh, Kat, it'll be okay. Shhh…." Her captor turned her to him and she buried her face into his chest, her mouth opened in silent screams. Kat felt the tears start to fall, ungracefully, down her face, around the contours of her nose and into the corners of her mouth, her lips stinging at the salt. And they stayed there, like that, embracing in the shallow water. The water was unmercifully cold and even the wind was embittered with tears as the skies let loose and began to pour down on them.
Jason slowly pulled away from Kat and looked down at her. She had turned up to face the rain. Her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks were wet and flushed with both cold and anger. She was wearing a black tank top and a pair of jean shorts, both of which were clinging to her body. She turned her head to look at him and he was struck by the resemblance she shared with a cat; it was creepy and he shuddered at the thought of evil Kat that the resemblance brought up.
"You aren't weak Kat. That's why he chose you; because he knew that you could take care of yourself. You aren't helpless Katherine, please believe that," Jason felt his throat constrict and more tears prick at the corners of his eyes. 'Not now' he told himself sternly, he had had his time to grieve, this was Kat's now and he needed to be there for her. She closed her eyes tightly and fat tears rolled out from underneath her eyelids. Jason brought his hands to her face and brushed his thumbs underneath her eyelashes.
"Why didn't he let us stay? Why did he make us find our replacements? Why did he think we couldn't do it anymore? Why did we—" Jason interrupted her firmly, gripping her upper arms tightly, shaking her only slightly in his anger towards her.
"Don't you dare desecrate his name Katherine. Everything that he did he did for us, you know that. He thought that it was best; he knew it was for the best. We had to lead our own lives Kat, we needed to live independently from the constant struggle, we needed to learn about the good things in life. We can't live from now on pretending that could have fought any more; we were wasting away and he saw that, we were—"
"He was wasting away Jason! And none of us ever saw, none of us ever cared to ask, none of us bothered to think that maybe the impossibly great and powerful man in front of us was slowly dying with the knowledge that he would never make it home because he must have known. Think back Jason, all of his tired actions towards the end, it all makes sense! He knew and he never said good bye and I—I, I HATE him for it!" Her proclamation was met with stunned silence. One because Jason knew that what Kat had just said was true; Zordon must have known and second from what she had admitted against their father figure. However, with her weeping openly in front of him, this time much more bittersweet than the last, Jason realized that all Kat could remember was all the grief she had caused him, all of the problems she had unintentionally caused.
"I wish it could have been me with him up there." Again, her change in temperament surprised Jason and he looked down at her swollen face. He could only nod his head in accordance as his throat constricted and his heart sank into his stomach. He too wished things could have gone over differently; that he could have been there to talk to his mentor, his father figure once more before reality set in.
Jason gently tugged himself and Kat to their feet and guided her across the beach towards that parking lot where he had parked his black jeep. They stumbled along, cold and frightened in the rain. Kat was shoeless and Jason didn't have the heart to search for them. They slid into his jeep and sat in stoic silence, watching the storm grow worse and tear the water apart, unrelenting and unforgiving. His dark hair hung limply in his eyes and his breath was coming out in short gasps. Or maybe that was Kat's. They both sat staring into the infinite abyss of darkness and Jason felt like he was suddenly drowning in something that he could not fight and maybe something that he didn't want to.
His phone rang shrilly, the loud noise filling the silence and startling the two occupants of the car. Jason picked it up, staring at it as it protested, seemingly ringing louder. He cleared his throat and answered it, however unwillingly.
"Yeah? Jason here…Yeah….Yeah I found her. Yeah don't worry, we're okay. Yeah, yeah we're coming. Yeah. Yeah, you too bro." Jason clicked the phone shut and looked over at his companion. She was shivering slightly, still staring out the front window which was fogging with their breathing. Jason turned around and grabbed the spare sweater he kept in the car and helping Kat slide it over her head. He turned on the car and cranked the heat all the way. He put the car into drive and pulled out of the parking lot, turning right and facing the glare of the oncoming cars, wipers moving madly. Neither occupant said anything until Jason felt that suffocating feeling again and started to talk.
"That was Tommy. They were worried about you. Rocky was scouring the town looking for you and Adam and Tanya were just about ready to put in a search warrant." He chanced a look to his friend. She was still staring straight ahead, although the tears had stopped. "We're going to Rocky's house; Maria made us a bunch of food and kicked all the little kids out of the loft for us. She said we could stay over as long as we needed. She also called all of our parents to tell them." Jason smiled gently at the thought of the overbearing Hispanic woman that had accepted the group as a permanent part of her family. He was met with more silence and this time, decided to remain that way. He turned slowly into Rocky's driveway and watched as both Rocky and Maria DeSantos perked their heads at the sound of his jeep.
"Do you think he thought of us, in the end?" Her question was asked so softly that Jason almost didn't hear it over the roar of the heaters. He turned off the engine and watched as Rocky put his head inside of the doors and yelled something to its occupants; probably to the others. Maria DeSantos was clucking away, her hands on her hips, hiding underneath the awning, away from the rain. He turned slowly to face Kat, her bright blue eyes reflecting the dim lights from the house, pleading him to give her the answer that she needed to hear; that they all needed to hear.
"I think he thought of us all the time; the end would have been no different" They stared at each other for a good few seconds before they both slid out of the car and trudged tiredly towards the warm DeSantos home. Maria clucked her tongue loudly at both of their states and made Rocky run in to get warm clothes for the both of them (not that any of Rocky's clothes would fit either of them; Jason was far bigger then Rocky and Kat was much smaller) and taking the slender Australian into her arms. She pushed the blonde strands away from her face and wiped her damp cheeks.
"Goodness you two certainly do know how to make a woman worry. Rocky! Where are those dry clothes, your friends are going to catch pneumonia! Come, come dears, the others are already resting upstairs. Let's get you two changed and fed and then you may join them" She bustled them into the house and Jason watched as Rocky met them at the door, enveloping Kat in his arms in a heartfelt hug that was eagerly met. Maria took Kat and the dry clothes Rocky had brought and led her towards the back rooms to change. Rocky gave Jason a friendly clap on the shoulder and they both shared a grim smile. Jason finally felt warm and safe and seeing Kat emerge swamped in Rocky's sweats and his own sweater from the car, made him know that she was going to be okay as well.
She looked up at him as he passed her to change and she gave him a tentative smile. Small, but hopeful. They would be alright, he knew it. They depended on each other too much to not be. Zordon's death was just another struggle along their paths, but they could move past it, just as they always had. He watched as Tanya and Adam came down the stairs to see Kat, bundled up and snuggled securely under Rocky's arm. He watched Tanya join Kat under Rocky's other arm, a group hug; and Adam being pulled into it by the insistent Tanya. Tommy came next, his lean frame towering over his friends and his long arms wrapped around them all, determined to keep them safe. And he watched as Kat looked up, her blonde head peeping up from somewhere between Rocky and Adam and beckoning him closer. As he slowly walked to join them, slipping in quietly between Kat and Adam, he realized that they would be just fine, because they were a team and that was what teams do. They hold each other up when it seems as if nothing else is stable enough to do the job. His friends, his teammates, were his rocks, and he knew that he had to take care of that because he needed his rocks to hold him out above the dark depths of the water.
THE END