"But you can't leave!" Kimberly protested as she watched he friend back away from her. "Why do you have to?"
"Aisha, I need you," Rocky sniffed, gazing at her with a pleading look in his eyes. He reached forward to grasp her hand as she tried to back away even more.
"No." Aisha shook her head. "I need my own time. I need to know who I am."
"But we know who you are," Adam snapped. "You're Aisha. You're our friend."
"It's not that easy." She tried to step back, but stumbled since Rocky was holding on to her extremely tight. "Ow, let go of me!"
"Don't leave me," he murmured.
"Rocky, let go!" The more she tried to pull away, the tighter he held on, and she gasped in pain. "LET GO!"
When she finally managed to get herself away from him, her wrist was red. Aisha rubbed it gently, then glared at him before fleeing with her bag on her back. Rocky thought he heard a sob before she was finally out of earshot.
"Rocky, what was that for?" Kimberly growled at him. "You were hurting her. I know you didn't want her to go, but you could have broken her wrist!"
He didn't answer, just stared down the hill to where his girlfriend had disappeared.
Meanwhile, Aisha had begun weaving through the city again, just like she had planned. She had planned to leave Angel Grove and catch a way of transportation to another city. She just needed some space for a little while.
It had actually gone really well at first. She'd been living on her own in Crane Harbor for a while and she was happy there. Eventually, she decided to move on to another place. But then that was the day where everything went downhill...
Aisha sighed as she walked along a street to the corner of it, looking right and left, with no cars in those directions as far as she could see. Her left arm tingled and she cursed once before finally beginning to slowly walk across the street.
That's when it happened. She never even knew it was coming. All she remembered was when the car suddenly swerved around the corner, the excruciating pain she had felt when the huge vehicle had slammed into her, and the way it had swerved into the woods, carrying her along with it. Agony blazed inside her as everything caught on fire and she screamed louder than she ever had before until the blinding pain knocked her out.
Elsewhere...
"Guys!" Kimberly called up to her friends that were sleeping over at her house. "We just got the news on, sleepyheads!"
"Geez, we're already up," Adam grumbled as he trudged down the stairs, followed by Billy, Tommy, and Rocky.
"Let us see it," Adam ordered. The reporter on the news began speaking as a picture of a mangled, twisted, burnt-up car appeared at the left-hand corner above her head.
"A car crash that happened in the neutral roads between Crane Harbor and Angel Grove sends the individual driving the car away from the crash that injured and nearly killed 26-year-old Aisha Campbell. According to the investigation team, the car had run into her and brought her into the woods. She is currently being transferred to Angel Grove Hospital."
The camera turned over to a paramedic.
"If she hadn't been found by a bystander who wishes to remain unnamed," he said, "then she would have died. It looks unlikely that she will survive-"
Rocky had switched off the TV and everyone was sitting on the couch in shock. Kimberly had begun to cry.
"She can't die..." she sobbed as Tommy gently gathered her into his arms. "We haven't even seen her in months..." She closed her eyes. Her skin was growing paler and when Tommy gently massaged her wrist, he found that her now rapid pulse seemed to be weakening.
"Kimberly, are you okay?" Adam asked. She didn't answer.
"She's in shock," Billy realized. "We should get her checked at the hospital."
"Let's do it," Tommy agreed. His heart raced. They couldn't lose both Aisha and Kim.
At the hospital...o
"Have you seen anything like it?"
"I don't think she has hemophilia, but she won't stop bleeding..."
"Get a blood transfusion ready; we'll try to stop it."
"She's getting weaker..."
Aisha could barely hear them, but she could definitely hear the voices of the people around her. She couldn't open her eyes, but she still felt blood running down her body and pain flashing like lightning through her. She wanted to scream, but her mouth wouldn't make it come, and her body seemed to somehow be getting rid of that want by intensifying the feeling inside her.
Then a cry ripped from her.
"LET ME GO!"
In another place in the hospital...
"Please wake up!"
Kimberly opened her eyes. A bright light filled her vision.
"Kim?"
"Tommy?" Her eyes then began to adjust. "What- what happened?" Then she noticed she was laying on a hospital bed.
"You don't remember?"
She shakily sat up. "No. But... why am I here?"
"Kim, you went into shock."
"Why though?"
"I- I think you'd better come with me."
When he led her to the "Extreme Emergencies" wing of the hospital, the rooms looked almost empty.
"Why are you bringing me here?"
Then a loud scream rang through the air.
"LET ME GO! STOP, IT HURTS!"
Everything suddenly connected in Kimberly's mind. "AISHA?"
Soon, she was running through the hall, following the cries coming from her friend. "AISHA, I'M COMING!"
"Kim, no!" He ran after her and wrapped her arms around her just as she was about to try opening the door to the only room with light in it in that wing of the hospital.
"Tommy, she's in pain! I have to get to her!"
"You don't know what could be happening to her in there!"
She broke from his arms and rushed inside.
"KIM, HELP ME!" Aisha was bleeding, but as Kimberly watched, the doctors managed to finally stop it, and her friend lay back, gasping for air. Her dark dreadlocks quivered as she attempted to breathe normally. Her body was covered by the sheet, but when Kim slowly pulled it back, she could see the horrible scars, cuts, and newly closed gashes that the crash had left on her mocha skin. The scars were the worst and it hurt so much knowing that she would have them for the rest of her life.
"Aisha, how...?"
"I shouldn't have run. Now... I'm going to die..."
"No... Aisha, you left to find yourself..."
"And I know who I am. I'm a Power Ranger. Once a Ranger, always a Ranger. I'm Aisha. But it- it hurts..."
Tommy then entered the room behind her and suddenly, Rocky, Billy, and Adam burst in as well.
"My love..." Rocky sighed. "You... you didn't deserve this..."
"I know. I did nothing to them and even when they hit me, they just ran away like they did nothing wrong." She shuddered. "I hope that guy goes to hell. They cannot kill me and get away with it."
"Aisha, you can't die..."
"You found out who you are, Aisha. That's all we wanted you to do. It's what you wanted to do."
"You did what you felt was right," Kimberly added. "We couldn't be more proud of you."
Rocky and Kim both sat on opposite sides of her on the bed and Aisha leaned into Rocky's arms as she tried to sit up.
"Aisha..." Kimberly reached over to grasp her hand.
"I made my choice," she whispered to Rocky. "I don't know if it was the right one or not."
"The answer's in your heart," Rocky whispered back. "But I... I can't bear to lose you."
Aisha sniffed. "At least God was merciful enough not to take me before I was reunited with my best friends. You guys are like family to me. And Rocky..." She stared at him with sad eyes. "I love you so much..." Her breathing quickened and they realized she was slowly beginning to die.
"Come here, Aisha." As Kim said those words, Rocky slowly handed his girlfriend over to the former Pink Ranger. Kim's heart began to tear in half as she looked down at her. She was the strong one, the one who held the team together.
"This... was my choice..." Aisha gritted her teeth as she shivered in Kimberly's arms. "I- I don't have much longer, I know, but... I want you to know... you guys are my family... and... I love you so much..."
"Aisha, you can't leave us!" Kim whispered. Then a dangerous tone entered her voice. "I will find out who did this to you," she vowed. "And I... I will kill them."
...
The doctors had pulled out a syringe that had put the injured girl to sleep.
It had erased all of her pain.
For Aisha Campbell had died peacefully in her sleep during the night. It had only been Rocky and Kimberly by her side during that time.
The drunk who had been driving the car that hit Aisha was found by the police and Kimberly. He had a gun with him and opened fire on them. They had fired back and the guy had been killed by a bullet from Kim's weapon, just like she always wanted.
But nothing would ever bring Aisha back.
Rocky, Tommy, and Kim visited her grave every day and often brought the other Rangers.
The former White and Pink Rangers eventually got married.
But Aisha's picture stayed on their nightstand forever.
It stayed everywhere in their house.
Once a week, they had a private memorial service with candles.
And when, at last, Kimberly gave birth to a beautiful daughter that seemed an exact young copy of their lost friend, she and Tommy... they named her Aisha.