Impact of Power - Jason: Gold
By: ScarletDeva
Betaed by: Some combination of Shawn30, JTrevizo and Pink_Green_White_4ever.
Rating: K (maybe K+)…
Spoiler: MMPR to the Turbo movie
Disclaimer: Power Rangers belonged to Saban, then to Disney, and now are owned by Saban again. I'm so confused…
Summary: Jason has been Red. And now Jason has been Gold. He voluntarily gave up the mantle the first time. This time it was ripped from him. All he has left is himself. What he has to remember is that himself is more than enough.
This is part of a series of vignettes focused on former power rangers and how they find what they accomplished under the helmet had bigger impacts than just saving the world. Other parts have been and will be posted under the Impact of Power title by other authors such as Pink_Green_White_4ever and Shawn30. A community is also now set up where all the series will be archived, as well as JTrevizo's website.
It had been two weeks since Jason handed back the Gold to Trey and one week since he followed Billy to the stars.
Now he was spending his days bumming around the capital city of Aquitar - Vodar - while Billy worked long hours in the government labs and his nights interfering with Billy and Cestria's couple time. Billy, ever considerate and still able to recall the loss of his own powers, didn't protest the intrusion, but Jason was beginning to think that Cestria's left eye was starting to twitch at the sight of him despite her warm smiles and soft greetings.
Still, he simply didn't know what to do with himself.
He cut the Peace Conference short, leaving behind friends and a possibility for more because he couldn't deny Tommy's urgency nor the call of the world to be saved. The possibility remained but there was no way back, no open spot in Geneva that he could slip back into.
And that was too bad for more reason than one.
He dreamt about Geneva while back in Angel Grove, dreamt about sightseeing the old churches and whispered conversations with Trini and Zack and the other delegates in the pews as they stayed behind the real parishioners and looked at the pieces of Swiss history, dreamt about the Grand Theatre de Geneve and the last dance performance that Trini dragged him to as he laughed, fakely unwilling to dress up and follow his best friend, dreamt about the ice hockey matches that he caught with Zack and bantered about European sports' inferiority to good old American football, dreamt about the formal events he really dressed up for so he could chat with important people about politics, economics and how to change the world and so he could take a turn around the dance floor with the women he called friends aswirl in satin and lace, dreamt about wandering those old streets, the Gothic peaks and golden domes while talking about anything and everything and dreamt about the box of the best chocolate he got Trini when he made her so mad that she wouldn't speak to him for three days - she ate half by herself, picking out the chocolate covered orange peels first, and then shared the rest with him. The dreams were sweet and painful.
The dreams never stopped. They just changed.
Now in Aquitar, where everything was blue and white and round, he dreamed about Geneva still but about Angel Grove too, about golden explosions behind his eyes and then multicolored ones before them, his limbs sure and strong at first but then weaker, slower, frustration bubbling up like acid in his throat.
When he woke up in the little studio apartment that the Cathirai, the Aquirian ruling counsel, presented him with as a mark of their respect to Zordon's former Ranger, he looked in the mirror and he wasn't sure who he saw - Jason Lee Scott, a world savior, a human, a Ranger, a student, a friend - who was this man with brown eyes and messy hair and tanned skin?
So he wandered around Vodar and plastered on a fake smile when the occasional kid ran up to him for an autograph.
Maybe he should have gone to Florida. He had gone in on Billy's weekly video call to Kim and something behind his little sister's soft smile and sharpened cheekbones said that she would understand what he felt.
But he didn't.
He was on Aquiris and everything tasted like water.
He ambled past the main bank building and walked towards the central park, with its extravagant water features and water life. Sometimes, watching the exotic fish swirling around in its natural environment slowed down his own swirling thoughts.
As he moved to step off the curb he caught sight of a flash. A young boy, maybe twelve, barreled down the street and slammed into a young girl about the same age before he dashed out of the way. The girl, on the edge of the sidewalk, was just inches away from the quickly flowing traffic.
Jason didn't have to think. He simply did.
He lunged, catching the girl's falling body around the waist, and twisted them both away from the street, turning so that his body cushioned her fall. The cool, smooth stone that made up the sidewalks in Vodar didn't sear his skin the way concrete would have but the thump against his shoulder echoed through his body.
The girl scrambled off him, large green eyes opened wide. "Oh! I'm so sorry!"
He held up a hand and smiled, for once genuinely. "It wasn't your fault. The boy knocked into you." He rolled his shoulder, grimacing against the pain, then got to his feet. "Are you alright?"
She glanced at the street, flowing full with vehicles and cycles, then back at him. "Thanks to you, Mirthai Jason."
It took him a second to recall the word. There was no real translation to English - it was an Aquitian word, a water word - one that denoted the depth and strength of the ocean, used to convey the deepest kind of respect.
Bright red bloomed in his cheeks.
"I'm not..." he began to say and paused, not sure how to continue.
She blinked and cocked her head, the typical Aquitian formations around her eyes flushing darker. "Are you not Jason Lee Scott, Zordon's former ranger?"
"I am," he agreed.
"Then you are Mirthai Jason," she said decisively. She clasped her hands in front of her chest. "The Cathirai say we are not supposed to bother you. You have given so much to fight evil and it would be wrong to interrupt your restful time here on Aquitar."
The Cathirai gave orders that the people were to leave him alone? Jason supposed that explained why only the rare young child approached him and even then was usually quickly dragged away by a parent.
"I... don't mind being spoken to," Jason offered.
The girl shook her head. "When Mirthai Billy first arrived, we crowded him. If not for the Cathirai, we would have done the same to you. I'm sorry I interrupted your rest. But I'm glad I am getting the chance to thank you."
She looked nothing like his little sister, although they were similarly petite, but something about this young girl's determined air suddenly desperately reminded him of Kimberly.
"You're welcome," he said quietly.
She shook her head. "I have not done it yet," she scolded and now he had to hold back a laugh as the similarity to Kim grew stronger. "We know all about how you and Mirthai'i Zack and Trini left Angel Grove to learn a new path. Water goes around what it cannot go through. But you left the new place to become the Gold Ranger. Because friends never let down friends. And you helped save everyone and you even stepped in as leader when the Red Ranger was missing. Because you always do what's right. So that's what I want to do. What's right. Always. Just like you."
Aquitar was a different world from Earth. They knew the Rangers and what the Rangers did. They revered the Rangers.
But Jason never thought they revered Earth's Rangers too. And these days he didn't think he was worth revering.
"I just did what I had to do," he said quietly.
She nodded. "I know. You are Mirthai."
And suddenly Jason could see himself reflected in this little girl's eyes, a young man in dark wash jeans and a red tee who was greater than the sum of his own parts, the red ranger and gold but Jason Lee Scott besides. He wasn't entirely sure who Jason Lee Scott was but here was a young Aquitian who was born light years away from Earth, who had never been to Angel Grove nor ever likely would be, and she was beaming at him like he'd hung Aquitar's three suns and two moons.
So maybe there was no way back. That didn't mean there was no way forward.
And there was someone in Geneva who wouldn't be surprised to get an email from off world who might be open to possibility.
Meanwhile, water wasn't such a bad thing.
He held out a hand to the little girl and smiled.