Disclaimer: I don't own them. Saban does.
She was gone.
It was a strange sort of gone, Billy mused as he walked down the hallway of the Youth Center. He knew none of the people who he passed remembered Aisha Campbell. When she had gone to Africa for her spirit quest to get the Yellow Zeo Crystal, the portal had taken her back in time. actually, to be completely accurate, it had just taken her across space. They were all back in time at the moment. The portal had taken her to Africa. There she had met a young girl, very much like the young girl she, at the time, was and had been caught up in the girl's own quest to save the animals who lived there. It was a worthy quest, yes...but Billy felt he had the right to be selfish and wish she hadn' taken it up.
She hadn't returned. Instead, she'd sent the other girl, Tanya Sloan, in her place. Tanya was a very brave girl, traveling through time and space to a country that was completely different and taking up the heavy ranger mantle. She was even, in enough ways, enough like Aisha that the hazy memories Aisha's girlfriends had, of a darkskinned bubbly friend they had once known, had somehow been transferred to her. Most people didn't even know the difference.
Only the rangers remembered. Aisha's parents had somehow been transported through time as well and lived in Africa now, so the house they used to live in was empty and on the market. Tanya was staying with Kat and her parents who had, for some inexplicable reason, agreed immediately to the presence of this new "exchange student" in their home. In fact, she seemed to have always been there. Rocky and Adam were...lost without Aisha. They tried not to show it, and Tanya and Adam were even starting to connect, but they had been best friends with Aisha most of their lives and nothing could change that bond. Tommy missed Aisha but was much to busy missing his girlfriend more.
No one noticed how much hurt Billy was in. He and Aisha had gotten together after he had expressed his feelings for her at a dance. They had mostly kept it discreet; he thought Rocky and Adam had suspected something but neither had spoken up. Everyone had been too occupied with Kim leaving them. Tommy was, of course, devastated. Aisha had felt like she was losing her best girlfriend due to the two of them bonding and Kim staying with her and her family the last little while. An odd thought; what would have happened to Kim if she'd still been staying with Aisha when time had been changed? Where had she been staying, in fact, while she was still in Angel Grove but Aisha had never lived there? He made a mental note to discuss this with Zordon and clear it up in his own head.
Billy had missed Kim too. He'd grown up most of his life being her neighbour. She had been his friend and his teammate. Some days, she was the only one he could talk to, with Trini having left for the Peace conference with Zack and Jason.
And now Aisha had left. Billy couldn't help feeling like everybody was abandoning him. First it had been Jason and Zack and Trini. Then Kimberly. And now Aisha. Aisha who he thought had, for one second as she waved goodbye to them from the viewing globe, caught his eyes and smiled apologetically. Even though he knew the globe didn't work that way. Aisha had abandoned the rangers. She'd abandoned her best friends, Adam and Rocky. And she had abandoned him and their budding relationship.
Billy felt like circumstances had abandoned him too. He'd given up being a Ranger so the new girl, Tanya, could take over Aisha's role without guilt. He'd done things around the Command Center, acted as their tech, but it hadn't been the same. Not with his role and not with his friends. And now the school had forced him to graduate early. Once upon a time, he would have been thrilled at being able to graduate early from high school but things had changed. Now he had friends he would no longer be spending his days with, that he couldn't imagine NOT spending every day with.
In a way, Cestro crashlanding on Earth and needing his help had been timing of the most impeccable sort. He'd been feeling lost in his life and needing some purpose. And Aquitar had been AMAZING. He had met the aquitian rangers before but he had never dreamed how different their society and their world would be. He was fascinated by all the differences in a race that looked mostly the same as the human one. He had worked with one of their top scientists, a woman named Cestria. It was an experience that was both gratifying and soothing at the same time. Working with her had acted as a balm to the aching wound that Aisha's absence had left on his heart. He'd returned to Earth feeling much better about himself and the world around him.
Being back on Earth these past few days had ripped his wounds open anew, however. His friends were too busy to take advantage of him being back and his days were purposeless without time spent at school to fill them. Instead, he'd experienced an increasing wish to return to Aquitar where he was useful and respected.
As he stepped into the main room, Tanya spotted him and called out his name, causing the others to look over and rush towards him. Smiling at his friends, he banished his melancholy thoughts from his brain and concentrated on greeting them all. Even Tanya who he hated a little deep inside, ashamed as it made him feel. He knew that, one by one, they would all one day part ways and lose track of another.
This time, maybe, it would be him that was gone.