At the Right Time
Disclaimer: I do not own PR, otherwise there would be a lot more romance and actual couples mixed in with the fights, Lycra and zords.
Summary: What happens when your perfect life turns into an automatic routine? Billy needs help to get out.
Author's note: Spin-off from my other story 'Stages of Intervention', although you don't need to read that to understand this, it might help if you just read Ch.13 though, but it isn't necessary. Set several years after Billy left for Aquitar.
Billy studied the strange looking device in front of him, letting its intricate design slip and slide underneath his fingers. He never really questioned why the devices he was given were designed the way they were, he just find the problem with them and fixed it. He worked in a small off-the-way office which people only came to if they wanted something or were lost. He didn't socialise with anyone any more, preferring more to either lose himself in his work or lock himself away in his apartment. It was strange how his life had taken such sudden turns in such short amounts of time.
His first experience of that such sensation was when he was teleported from Ernie's juice bar one day and told that he could have extraordinary powers and the responsibility of saving the world. Billy would never forget that day. How could he when it was the best day of his life? It was the day he had truly started living, and he would be forever indebted to Zordan for choosing him.
Being a ranger had taught him so many things, had let him grow into the man he was today, and given him the best friends anyone could ever wish for. It was during these pensive times that Billy allowed himself to think of them and how much he missed them. He didn't regret coming here; he had so many good memories and new friends to be grateful for he could never regret it. But sometimes he just wished he could go home.
It was strange that Billy still thought of Earth as home, or at least it was to the Aquitarians. It was one of the final nails in the coffin for his relationship with Cestria. She just couldn't see how he could still call his birth planet home when he didn't live there anymore and wasn't in contact with anyone from there; with his friends. They just couldn't understand that the ties which bound Billy and the others were greater then those of just ordinary friends. He'd thought that they'd be able to understand, because they were rangers too. But on Aquitar they were trained to be rangers and then the lucky few were chosen to actually get morphers.
Somehow they just couldn't understand, even with being rangers and saving the world, they just didn't know what the relationships that were formed between rangers were. They couldn't understand that letting go of his friends would destroy part of him. They were such a huge part of him that if he did that there wouldn't be anything left. Billy depended on the memories and thoughts of his friends for his very life.
It wasn't that he was depressed, that he would harm himself or anything like that, it was just that everything about his life had changed so much that he clung to them to keep himself, Billy Cranston of Earth, still who he was; still living.
When he'd first come to Aquitar everything had been fantastic. He'd been with Cestria and had been working on some of Aquitar's top research facilities, with teams of staff reporting to him. Billy didn't care much for big companies, or being in charge, but the fact that he was working with cutting edge Aquitarian technology (which was light-years ahead of Earth's already) to solve environmental and defensive problems had been an amazing experience for him. He had made new friends quickly, and got to know the alien rangers better than he had done on Earth. And then every night he had gotten to go home to Cestria. He'd only been there and they'd only been dating a few months when they'd moved in together. Billy hadn't thought he could be so happy.
And then little things had started to go wrong. Billy had just been talking casually at work when he'd mentioned his lack of contact with Earth and that he still viewed it as home, then the next day he'd lost half his staff and his funding was being reviewed because he'd been given a new topic to investigate. This wasn't an unusual change, nor was its suddenness, it had happened quite a few times before and Billy wasn't overly bothered by it.
Then Cestria had started to come home later from work and she was short with him, not answering some of his questions and not saying why she was always avoiding talking about issues which before had never been a problem; like his plans of maybe returning to Earth for a visit. It was like any mention of his home planet was punished by something going wrong in his life. For some reason, it was becoming obviously clear to Billy that Aquitar did not want him to have anything more to do with Earth. And then the arguments had started.
Slowly the arguments had gotten worse, and then Billy had started to hear the rumours that she was spending time with a close colleague, and that friends of both said that they were everything but official. Still Cestria hadn't left for another month after that, even though Billy knew she was spending time with this other man.
It was around that time that Billy had come to work here, working a small company of his own that repaired and salvaged every type of technology there was. It was what Billy was best at and, after all his years as a ranger technician working under conditions where if he hadn't repaired whatever had gone wrong his friends would've died, he was quicker than most.
It was also around that time that Billy had stopped feeling anything. He'd just stopped caring about everything. He got up in the morning, walked the same way to work, got to work and buried himself in all the jobs that were sent his way. Occasionally old friends came by and disrupted his routine, but they were only there because they either felt guilt or so the Aquitarians could convince themselves they weren't mistreating him. But Billy didn't much care for the visits; they just served to remind him what he'd lost – and how little he felt about everything.
What Billy did feel though was an almost overwhelming sense of betrayal. As a ranger he'd promised to always be true to himself and to live his life to the full. Both of which he wasn't doing now. However, as much as he felt this he couldn't feel anything else to make him do something about it. He didn't feel any drive or passion anymore, any wonder or excitement about what could be ahead. He just settled himself into his routine and existed, working off automatic. The only things he thought of these days were his curiosity for fixing whatever objects he was given and his nostalgia for missing his friends. Thoughts of them kept him going, and nobody was going to take that away from him.
Then one day there was a private message waiting for him, something that was completely out of place in Billy's comfortable routine. He'd been even more surprised when he'd seen that the transmission wasn't from somewhere on Aquitar but from Trifornia. Settling down to receive it, he'd been so surprised when it hadn't been Trey he saw that he'd almost fallen off his chair. Jason had just smiled back at him that first time. He'd told Billy all about Kim's plan for a reunion, and what it would mean to all of them if he would be able to make it. Jason hadn't said anything about Billy's well-being that first time but Billy had known that Jase knew there was something not quite right.
He had, however, brought it up the next time they'd spoken, which had only been two days ago. It had convinced Jason that Billy had to come home. And Billy wasn't arguing; it was finally at the right time for him too.
So right now he was waiting for Jason's call, pretending to be doing work but all the time knowing that as soon as his friend called he would be gone. If anyone on Aquitar knew of Billy's plans or wanted to stop them, no-one had mentioned or tried to do anything. For that Billy was greatly relieved; he didn't know if he had the strength in him to put up much a fight.
Sighing, he put the object back in its container and closed the lid. He wasn't bothered by what made it tick and what was stopping it working anymore. He just wanted to go home, to see his friends again. And especially since he knew all of them were going to be there. For five days they would all be together again. Billy didn't know what he'd do after that, but he did know that he won't have to face it alone and that he wouldn't be abandoned when he hit hard times. They were going to be there for him, as they always had. Stretching back in his chair, Billy pictured their faces as they would probably be now. Trini and Aisha would still have their long hair, Aisha's held back in those dreadlock plaits she loved so much. Zack would probably also still have his dreadlocks, and still be working his moves as always. Billy chuckled to himself as he thought of all the trouble he would get up to if he teamed up with Rocky, and how much pain Kim would dish out if they ruined her planned reunion. He wondered how she would be doing with her gymnastics, especially after her success at the Pan Globals. Tommy and Adam would probably also be dealing with new conquests; Tommy with his race driving and Adam with his martial arts. Vaguely he remembered the thing that Adam had had with Tanya and if it had developed into anything serious; the two of them just seemed to suite each other in Billy's eyes. Tommy might have finally sorted things out between him and Kim, which was what Jason had hinted at, and which could open doors for new relationships for them both; Billy had a feeling that Jason might still have a crush on their 'pink crane'. This led Billy's thoughts on to Katherine, and what she could be up to now; whether she'd gone back to diving or had embarked on her dreams of becoming a dancer. He couldn't wait to see them all again.
Billy was brought out of his reverie when the message transceiver started to beep, alerting him to an incoming message. Jumping up he reached for the transponder and accepted the transmission which was audio only as Trey had done Jason a huge favour by linking his cell phone up to the Galactic transmission network they used. Jason was phoning to say that all the others had settled and that it would be okay for him to come now.
"Hello?"
"You ready to come home now?" Jason's familiar voice greeted him "'Cos we are sure ready to have you back here."
"Yeah, I'm ready. Jase, I just got to say – everything you've done for me, I don't know how I'm going to ever repay-"
"No, you don't." Jason cut him off "I'm your friend man. This is what we do for each other, friends. Now hurry up. I can't wait to surprise everyone."
"Alright I'm ready."
Billy cast one last look around the place that had almost been the end of him and said goodbye. He definitely wouldn't miss this place. And he was finally going home.
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