Full Circle

Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and I'm not making any money from this fic. Any character you don't recognise from the series, I probably own. Anything you recognise from another fandom, I probably don't own

Summary: Jason has been having dark, bloody nightmares. A new enemy is in Angel Grove, and a cousin of Tommy's has come to visit

Warning(s): Violence; spoilers; original characters

Timeline: Set after Season One, with the original Power Rangers

He was lying on a cold, hard floor, head resting on one of the smoother rocks. The mask covering his face – normally warm and comforting – had heated to an almost unbearable level; which it normally did when there was danger close by.

The warrior forced his eyes open, and looked around the cave. His gaze fell first on the princess, curled up in a far corner of the cave. She hadn't recognised him. She didn't know who he was, and he didn't even know if she remembered him. But once they were with her father, he would tell her his true identity – and ask for forgiveness for his deceit.

The mask grew hot enough to burn his skin. Hissing, the warrior jumped to his feet and pulled his sword free.

A man stepped out of the shadows, clad in leather armour and carrying a sword. The warrior relaxed when he realised that it was the captain of the king's guard, and continued looking for the real threat. "There's danger here. Take the princess to safety."

"Your senses aren't serving you very well, are they?" The guard captain blocked the warrior, raising his sword to strike. "The princess you are so desperate to protect will be your downfall."

Almost unconsciously, the warrior's eyes went to the princess. He'd expected her to still be sleeping, and so was surprised to see that she was on her feet. He was even more surprised to see that she was staring at him with what looked like hatred.

What had he done to her to make her hate him?

Looking at the princess cost the warrior dearly, though it was only for a moment. He turned back to the captain of the guard, whipping his sword up – but it was too late, and the other's blade sliced through his body.

Jason woke up in incredible agony. For several moments, all he could do was lie there, staring up at the ceiling. White-hot pain rippled across his chest and stomach, where he'd been stabbed in the dream. It hurt so much, he couldn't even cry out. His mouth opened and closed as he gasped for breath.

The pain only lasted for a few seconds, but it was a long few seconds. By the time it faded, Jason had sweated so much that his bed sheets were completely soaked.

It was that dream again. The same one he'd had four nights this week. Knowing that every time he closed his eyes he'd see himself getting stabbed, Jason didn't even bother trying to go back to sleep. He got off his bed, and walked over to the window. His chest was bare, but since it wasn't a cold night, that didn't bother him.

Jason looked down at his morpher to check the time, and frowned when he saw that it was only 2.26am. Tommy had offered to come round the next time Jason had that dream, but Jason didn't want to wake his friend up. If he needed to, he could call Tommy later on, and ask him to come over then.

This wasn't the first time Jason had had nightmares. They all did from time to time. After Tommy had been freed from Rita's spell, Jason knew just how bad his friend's nightmares had been. None of the group had blamed Tommy, but that didn't matter; he blamed himself. He still did, and fought against the monsters so hard that Jason was worried he'd get seriously hurt one day.

But there was no outward cause for these nightmares.

Though Jason knew that he was pulled into the warrior's head, he had no idea who the others were – and though he knew their identities in the dream, he never thought of them by name. And after waking up, he couldn't think of their names.

Even more worrying than anything else, though, was the pain of being stabbed after he'd woken up. Jason hadn't told anyone about that – not even Zordon or Tommy. Despite the pain, there was never any wound. The first time, Jason had run his hands all over his chest and stomach to make sure there was no wound – not even a healed scar. And now, he was worried that the pain was a sign that he was losing his mind.

Perhaps it would be safer to give his morpher back to Zordon to look after. If he was going to lose his mind, Jason didn't want to be running around as an insane Power Ranger. But he hoped it wasn't necessary. He was hoping that it was just his mind playing tricks on him, as a result of him being tired. Besides, if all else failed, he could speak to Zordon, and find out if their mentor had heard of anything like this before.

Maybe it was some kind of new trick of Rita's. If Jason was too tired to battle, that could seriously weaken the team. That, of course, was another reason for Jason to try and figure out how to stop these dreams and the pain they were causing him.

The noise of his communicator startled Jason out of his thoughts. "Jason here," he said into the communicator, wondering if there was a monster on the loose already. He wasn't really up to having a battle right now, but if he had to, he would.

"Hey, bro." Tommy's concerned voice came over the communicator. "Thought you might be awake. Had another nightmare?"

Jason released his breath in a slow sigh as he sat down on the edge of his bed. Not wanting to worry his friend, he took a few moments to decide what to say. He wasn't going to lie to Tommy, but he was also reluctant to tell his friend about the pain. Tommy was already worried enough, and he also had his own problems to deal with. "Yeah," he said finally. "I woke up a few minutes ago."

"Man, I'm sorry," Tommy said. "You should have called me, Jase."

In spite of himself, Jason smiled. "Didn't think you'd be awake." He paused briefly. "Why are you awake, bro?"

"I haven't slept yet. I've been doing schoolwork, and it's taken a while to finish. And then I thought that maybe you would have been woken up by that nightmare." Tommy's voice radiated concern even over the communicator.

Once again, Jason took his time answering. As a Power Ranger, he was finding the amount of responsibility almost exhausting. Mr. Caplan was becoming suspicious of the group, helped along by them having to consistently run out of class. As a result, all of their schoolwork was suffering. Unfortunately, staying up till the early hours of the morning to complete assignments was becoming all too common.

"Maybe you should try counselling," Tommy suggested – though he didn't sound too hopeful – when Jason didn't speak.

Jason laughed softly, though there was no real humour in it. "When would I find the time?"

"I guess." There was a brief pause, and then Tommy asked, "Want me to come over?"

Jason glanced at his bedroom door. So far, his parents hadn't realised that anything was wrong. Though the pain was always bad, he never had the strength to cry out. However, if Tommy came round to the house, Jason wasn't sure he'd be able to keep his parents from finding out that something was wrong. "Think we could meet at the park?" he asked. "Can you leave the house all right?" He wouldn't have a problem leaving. Being a Power Ranger, he could teleport easily to the park. But since Tommy had lost those abilities, he would have to rely on being able to sneak out of the house.

"I'll be all right," Tommy replied. "It won't be the first time I've had to leave the house this late. See you in a few, bro."

"See ya." Jason slipped his clothes on, pressed a button on his morpher, and then teleported himself to the park.

Jason walked over to a bench in the middle of the park and sat down slowly. The cold night air was definitely helping to keep him awake, and he shivered, wishing he'd thought to bring a coat with him. If only his abilities included not feeling the cold...

Not knowing how long Tommy was going to be, Jason leaned back against the bench, and tilted his head to look up at the sky. He didn't expect Tommy to be very quick, so he just took advantage of the temporary break from the constant battles to be able to relax, and enjoy being outside in the quiet dark.

Jason didn't know how long he'd been sitting there for, but at some point, he became aware of the fact that Tommy had approached and was sitting on the bench next to him. Jason turned, and looked at his friend. "Hey... Thanks for coming here."

"If you need me, I'll come. I know you'd do the same for me." Tommy clasped Jason's forearm briefly. "Gonna tell me what the real problem is? If it was just nightmares, we'd be able to deal with them. What do you think's causing them?"

"I have no idea." Jason sighed, and rubbed at his eyes. "I thought maybe it was one of Rita's tricks, or Goldar's... Would be the sort of thing they'd do, you know? It'd amuse them to make me so tired I can't concentrate on being able to fight; on being the leader of the Power Rangers. I have responsibilities that I can't live up to if I can't sleep." He shook his head, wondering what things would have been like if they'd never met Zordon; if they'd never had to take on the Power Ranger abilities.

But there was no point in wondering about what could have been. He'd taken on those powers, along with the rest of the group. And even though he was so tired right now he could barely think straight, Jason didn't regret his decision. He never had.

"I don't know, Jase..." Tommy said, breaking into his thoughts. "If they were the ones responsible, don't you think they'd be gloating about it? It's not like them to stay out of it."

"I don't know, bro. I really don't." Jason looked at his friend. "I need to focus on something else for a while... What's new with you, Tommy?"

Tommy shrugged. "Well, a cousin is supposed to be coming to stay in the next couple of days. I'm not sure why it is. Maybe she wants to be where all the action is?" He shrugged. "I'm surprised we haven't got more people trying to find out the identity of the Power Rangers."

Jason's eyes slid over the far trees, and he paused, narrowing his eyes, as he thought he saw a man wearing an ornate mask over his face. Jason blinked, and the image was gone – leaving him unsure as to whether he'd even seen anything. But there was a strange sense of uneasiness that refused to leave him alone. He had the strangest feeling that things were about to change – drastically.

"Jase? Hey, Jason? Bro, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Jason blinked, and looked at Tommy. "What? Sorry, bro... I thought I saw something strange. Guess it was just my mind playing tricks on me."

"Jase..." Tommy didn't look too convinced. "Maybe you should talk to Zordon about it. Maybe he can help. He's been around a long time. Who knows? Maybe other Power Rangers have gone through something similar."

Something similar? Yeah, like waking up in absolute agony, feeling like they'd been stabbed in the chest? "Maybe," Jason said out loud. "If it gets any worse, I'll talk to him. But there's already enough to deal with, so I don't want to bother him over some weird dreams." Of course, there wasn't much worse it could get... maybe once he started showing scars.

"All right," Tommy said. "But if it gets worse, I'll tell Zordon... okay?"

Jason shrugged. "Sure. It's a deal. So are you ready to go home yet?" he asked.

Tommy looked like he was thinking about that for a moment, and then shook his head. "Nah. We should run for a while; let off some steam. And maybe we could even do some training, if you really need to let off some steam."

Jason smiled, though he felt kind of bad about having dragged Tommy out of his house. Even though he needed to be able to focus on other things than the dreams and the pain he'd been in, he didn't want to cause problems for his friend. "You sure?" he asked, standing up from the bench. "You're not a Power Ranger anymore."

"I wasn't a Power Ranger during our first fight, either," Tommy reminded him. "And we hit that at a draw. Want to see how well we do this time?"

It was eight in the morning by the time Tommy managed to climb through his bedroom window. His entire body was sore and aching – but it was a good kind of ache; one which came from having trained hard.

Tommy and Jason had been training all night. Tommy would have been happy to skip class and continue, but Jason had seemed fairly worn out by morning. Tommy just hoped that his friend took his advice and got some rest; even if he had to skip out on school to do so. If need be, Tommy would cover for Jason – even though that really wasn't the most responsible thing for him to do.

Tommy grabbed a towel from the airing cupboard on his way to the bathroom to have a shower. He could hear voices coming from downstairs; but no raised voices, so it seemed his parents hadn't noticed his absence. Looked like he wasn't going to have to worry about explaining that he'd spent the night at Jason's.

As he stepped into the shower, Tommy's growling stomach made him realise he was going to have to eat soon. He'd skipped out on food last night in order to complete his assignment, and was beginning to feel it now.

The warm water felt incredible as it cascaded over Tommy's tired body. He closed his eyes, and let it run over his face, chasing away the remaining pain from the bruises Jason had landed. They might be best friends, but Tommy had a healthy respect for Jason's fighting abilities – and especially even more so now. He'd clearly needed to let off steam – but despite the training, it had been an evenly matched fight.

But since Tommy had offered to do the same thing next time Jason had the nightmare, one of them was bound to win soon.

Tommy came down the stairs – towel flung around his shoulders – just in time to see his parents about to leave. "Hey mom, dad. Are you going to work now?"

Mrs. Oliver nodded, and put an arm around Tommy's shoulders, squeezing lightly. "Your cousin's in the kitchen having some breakfast. She arrived while you were sleeping," she said. "There's food on the table for you. We'll see you this evening, all right?"

"What time did you go to sleep last night?" Mr. Oliver asked seriously.

Tommy shrugged. "Didn't look at the time. But I managed to finish my assignment." He smiled, and took a step back from his parents. "Have fun at work. Bye." He waited while his parents said goodbye and left the house, and then stepped through into the kitchen.

Sitting at the table was a teenage girl – probably about Tommy's age – eating scrambled eggs on toast. Her black hair was tied back in a braid – down to below her waist – with some strands escaping from it. When she looked up at Tommy, she smiled – but there was a tired look in her dark eyes, and a black smudge on one pale cheek. "Hi. You must be Tommy. I'm Madison Greene."

"Nice to meet you." Tommy took a seat opposite his cousin, and started eating his own food. "So what brings you to Angel Grove?"

Madison studied Tommy for a few moments, and then lowered her eyelashes. "A fortune teller told me I was going to meet a tall, dark handsome man here. The man of my dreams." She smiled. "I figured it might be worth a try."

Tommy stared at her, not sure if she was serious or not. "You came to Angel Grove because you were told you'd find a boyfriend here," he repeated in disbelief, and shook his head. His parents had never told him that his cousin wasn't exactly sane. Then again, maybe they didn't know why she'd come here.

"That's right." Madison smiled briefly. "Oh, I'm gonna be going to high school with you while I'm staying here. I would have preferred to just be on vacation, but my parents insisted I still had to do schoolwork even while I'm here." She rolled her eyes. "Parents, huh?"

Tommy shrugged, and finished his breakfast. He then picked up his plate and put it in the sink. "How long are you staying here for?" he asked, turning round and leaning his back against the side.

"Until I find what I'm looking for."

"A boyfriend?" Madison looked like she was serious about it... but Tommy couldn't believe someone would just move to a completely different town because a fortune teller told her that she'd find a boyfriend there.

"Yeah." Madison picked up her own plate, and dropped it into the sink. "So what's Angel Grove like? I mean, I know that it's home to the Power Rangers, but everyone knows that. What's there to do here?"

"Actually, my friend Billy has a theory about the Power Rangers," Tommy said, making a mental note to apologise to Billy later. "He doesn't think they're human at all. Under those masks, he thinks they're aliens." It wasn't the best new rumour to start; but Tommy wanted to do his part to ensure that the identity of the Power Rangers remained secret.

"Well, that's an interesting theory," Madison commented as she walked over to the front door. "But I think they're human. I also think they're media-and-power-hungry. I mean, come on. They go around wearing masks. And practically everyone knows who they are."

Tommy unlocked the front door and stepped outside, holding it open for Madison. "I don't know. If they were media-hungry, then wouldn't they have let slip some clue to their identity by now? Besides, they've been protecting Angel Grove from the monsters sent to attack it."

"Yeah... just don't let slip to my parents about the whole monsters thing. I told them it was going to be safe here." Madison glanced towards the end of the path, and slowed her steps. "Is that one of your friends?"

Tommy followed the direction of Madison's gaze, and frowned when he saw Jason standing there. He sped up his steps a little. "I thought you were going to stay home sick," he said to his friend, once he was close enough not to have to shout.

"I'm feeling better now," Jason replied. "I think that what you did really helped. Thanks, bro." He glanced at Madison, who was giving him a slow once-over. "Is this your cousin who you said was coming to stay?"

"Hi – I'm Madison." Madison spoke before Tommy had the chance to. She extended a hand to Jason, who took it and gave a light shake. "I'm coming to the same high school as, well, you guys." She glanced at Tommy. "You both go to the same high school, right?"

Tommy nodded. "You'll meet some more of my friends there. And there are things to do. There's the movie theatre, and the youth centre... That's where most of us go to hang out. I'll take you there after class today, if you like."

"Sounds good to me." Madison smiled.

Jason's communicator went off. Jason and Tommy exchanged glances, and then Jason said, "I've got to go. See you later, Tommy... Madison." He went off at a run.

Tommy watched his friend go, wishing that he hadn't lost his Power Ranger abilities and could fight alongside his friends.