Disclaimer: The Power Rangers belong to Disney, Callisto belongs to Universal. The Nova's, K, the name Kaycea, the DG, Thomas and anything involving events that happened in K's world are creations of KSuzie's and belong to her. Everyone else belongs to me.
Author's Note: Welcome to the sequel for Legacy. This chapter is kind of like my "previously, on Power Rangers" chapter lol. Basically it's a review of everything that has happened in the previous fics, through Kim's eyes. I wanted to write this prologue chapter for those who haven't read either series in a while or for those who have never read either series. Hopefully this will have everyone all caught up and ready to move forward with the next chapter. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.
If you're interested in elaborations of the non cannon events, check out the two previous stories, Ranger Scrolls and Legacy. If you want to know more about K and the world she lives in, check out KSuzie's The Coins Series.
Much thanks to KSuzie for helping me bounce title ideas. Because you can't use the same one twice :P
Dark Inheritance
"Birthday Musings"
Kimberly Ann Hart lay in her bed, her boyfriend snoring soundly next to her. She had a lot on her mind at the moment. Most of it centered on what the morning would bring. For most, the morning meant Valentine's Day, a day of celebrating love, romance, and giving the one closest to you a cheesy card and chocolates.
For her it was something more. For her it meant her twenty-ninth birthday. It was odd to think about. What was sometimes even harder to wrap her mind around was the fact that she had passed the twenty-nine mark years ago. If her math was right, she was really just past seventy-three. Very few people were aware of that fact though. To most, she was turning twenty-nine in the morning.
She sighed as she rolled over. Things had changed so much in her life and she spent a lot of time wondering exactly how she got here. She supposed it started in her freshman year of high school. That was when Rita first attacked, and when she and her four best friends were picked by Zordon to become power rangers and defend the planet.
That one moment set her life on a journey that brought her to where she is today. She went from being an average high school student to a superhero. They fought many battles against Rita and her monsters. They even fought against an evil ranger. A ranger that they saved and brought back to the side of good. A ranger that went on to be one of the most feared and respected rangers in the galaxy. A ranger whom she was currently sharing her bed with.
Her relationship with Tommy was another story entirely. They started dating shortly after he became good again. So much happened to them and to the team after they had started dating. He lost his green ranger powers and eventually became the white ranger. Lord Zedd, who took over Rita's post as the evil doer trying to take over the world, banished Rita. That was the year that Jason, Zack and Trini took off for the peace conferences. They left the team in good hands though, leaving Rocky, Adam and Aisha to take their places as rangers.
That had been a hard adjustment for Kim. She was quite close to Jason, Zack and Trini. However, she and Aisha became best friends and she got to know Rocky and Adam well also. The new team was there for Rita's return and her marriage to Lord Zedd, something that he was tricked into doing although he did stay with his new bride to torture the rangers.
One of their methods of torture included bringing forth Ivan Ooze to destroy the rangers and Zordon. That had not worked out as planned for Zedd and Rita. Not only did Ivan trap the evil doers, but also he failed to destroy the team. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The rangers went to Phaedos, where Dulcea gave them Ninjetti powers and they sought out and obtained the Great Power. After they destroyed Ivan, they were better than ever.
That was at the start of their junior year. Everything seemed so perfect then. She had her friends in the rangers and the love of her life in Tommy. All of that changed with the arrivals of Coach Gunthar Schmidt and a new student at school from Australia, Katherine Hillard. Both changed her life in very different ways.
Kat's arrival in Angel Grove was first. She moved in and was placed under a spell by Rita, a spell that allowed her to turn into a white cat that Aisha ended up adopting. Between the little white cat that Aisha named P.C., and her and her friends getting to know Kat, Kat managed to weave her way into their lives.
Under Rita's spell, Kat was determined to destroy Kim and steal her boyfriend. She had almost succeeded at killing her. After Kat stole her power coin, Goldar kidnapped her so Zedd could drain her energy. If it weren't for Tommy that would have been the end of her right there. As it was, she was pretty wiped out from the experience.
It was not long after that that she leaned that Coach Schmidt, the world famous gymnastics coach, would be in Angel Grove. When she finally got to practice in front of him, he offered to train her for the Pan Global Games. It quickly became obvious that she could not put in the time needed to train for the games while being a ranger. One night she went to train late, alone, which in retrospect was a stupid thing to do, and fell off the balance beam.
The only good thing that came from that was that in Kat's attempt to save her, she snapped out of Rita's spell. Kim forgave Kat, and while in the hospital decided to quit gymnastics for the rangers. It had been her lifelong dream but she was willing to give it up for the team, even after she performed so well that Coach Schmidt wanted her to return to Florida with him. After some encouragement from Kat and a little push from Zordon, Kim elected to give her power coin to Kat and work toward the Pan Globals.
It was a year and a half before the next Pan Global games took place in Florida. During that time, she had a lot to do. There were smaller competitions to worry about, training to go through, and schooling to keep up with. She desperately wanted to go home and see Tommy but every time she scheduled it, something would come up.
They exchanged letters constantly; it was their major form of communication. Between their duties and the time difference, it was rare that they talked on the phone. She knew a little about what was going on back home. She knew that the rangers had changed powers and that Rita and Zedd had left, but she did not know the details, as Tommy was too worried that they would be discovered to put them in a letter. She also knew what happened to Billy and that Aisha was gone, and her cousin that replaced her was gone as well.
She knew the team was five strong with the new yellow ranger, Adam, Rocky, and of course Kat and Tommy. She thought about the two of them all the time. She thought about how she was thousands of miles away while her boyfriend got to spend time with another woman, a woman with obvious interest in him. It bothered her that they were getting so close and that there was nothing she could do about it.
Finally, she decided that the best thing she could do for Tommy was break up with him. She was afraid they did not stand a chance. Letters were not coming as often as both got caught up in their daily activities. Phone calls were practically nonexistent, and she didn't think she would see him again, at least not until she was done with gymnastics, which she didn't know when that would be.
She did not want him cheating on her with Kat and feeling guilty about it. If they were that close, if he was falling in love with her, she didn't want to put him in that position. She was scared, worried, and lonely and that possessed her to write the stupidest letter of her life just after Thanksgiving that year. The letter that told Tommy that he was nothing more than her best friend, her brother, and that she had found someone else she loved.
That could not have been farther from the truth but she held that secret to herself for months. She felt horribly guilty afterward. It ate at her constantly. She couldn't believe she had done that to Tommy. She thought she was doing what was best but she still loved him, she always would. What if he was heartbroken? What if she ruined him as a person, as a ranger?
This guilt pushed her into making an unannounced trip to Angel Grove during her spring break the following year. They had been training so hard and she had already qualified for the Pan Globals. Coach Schmidt was giving her a few days off from gymnastics that coincided with her time off from her studies because of that. She hopped on the first plane to Angel Grove, not sure what day she was going to return. She supposed the length of her stay depended on how warm her welcome was.
Kim's first stop when she arrived was at the Youth Center. She was almost immediately filled in on what she missed. She met Carri Hillard, Rocky's girlfriend and the new yellow ranger, the girl that would eventually become her best friend. She learned about the rangers' new powers and new enemies. Plus she confirmed that she had done the right thing. Tommy was not sitting around crushed by her leaving him. He had, as she suspected, moved on with Kat.
She still loved Tommy and that was hard to swallow. However, she put a smile on her face and tried to concentrate on catching up with old friends and making new ones. It was nice to see most of the team that she had left behind, and see that Jason had returned. They hung out and had a fabulous time.
Kat offered her a spot in her house to stay while she was in town. Kim was thrilled; she didn't have access to too much money to spend for a hotel. Kat's hospitality was why she was there when everything changed. Both Cogs and Tengas attacked them in the house that night; birds she thought were long gone. The Tengas, sent out by the returning Rita and Zedd, captured Kat and started them on an adventure that stirred up a lot of old feelings.
Kim had gotten the opportunity to work with Tommy again, something that sent her heart fluttering more than she thought possible. She also had the opportunity to be a part of a ranger mission and temporarily hold the Pink Zeo powers. That reminded her of just how much she missed her days as a power ranger. It was hard to walk away from all that when her stay in Angel Grove was over and return to Florida for gymnastics.
She kept up with the team more than she had before. It was all she was thinking about. She would send letters to both Carri and Jason, eagerly waiting to hear back from them and see what was going on with everyone. She loved hearing from them, chatting with them, and making the rangers part of her life again. She even invited the entire team to come down to Florida to watch her compete in the Pan Globals.
That had been a disaster. Not the games themselves, she actually walked away with quite a few medals. The ranger's visit was a disaster. Sure, she got to meet Adam's girlfriend, who had managed to make the trip, and she got to hang out with the other rangers that she was so close with. But Tommy… she was not able to keep her feelings to herself this time. Not when he came right out and asked her who it was she left him for.
She couldn't lie; she broke down and told Tommy the truth. That ended in a kiss, a kiss that changed everything. Tommy admitted that he still loved her, even though he was with Kat. She didn't blame him though for not rushing off to break up with the pink ranger. After all, she would continue to be in Florida, theoretically training for the next major worldwide competition. The distance was the main reason she wrote the letter, and that would not change.
That kiss changed both of them, it was all either could think about for months afterward. Kim constantly dreamed about Tommy, about being with Tommy. She supposed Tommy had the same thoughts about her, and she was confident in saying those thoughts were what led to Kat cheating on Tommy months later with the man she eventually married.
Kim did not learn about that until she returned home almost two months after their breakup, where Carri informed her of everything that happened in detail. Before then, the last update she had gotten was that Tommy and Kat were still together. She had several conversations about it with Carri at the end of the summer when the two girls ran into each other at a convention for female athletes.
That had not turned out quite as they had expected it. While they were busy relaxing, a vengeful Olympian goddess who went by the name Callisto was out kidnapping anyone who had ever held a morpher. Kim and Carri were the only ones free; however, Callisto blocked Carri's access to her powers leaving them basically helpless.
It was Dulcea who came to their rescue, by teleporting them to Phaedos. At least that was what Kim thought at the time. She wasn't completely sure Dulcea had that kind of power and now she wondered if the power had not pushed her to teleport them. After all, she teleported herself freely now wherever she wanted to go. That was due to her Muirantian powers but sometimes she wondered if they had not simply opened the gate, allowing her to do things that she had the potential for to start with.
No matter how they got there, they managed to make it to the Ninjetti temple ruins, where Dulcea gave them permanent Ninjetti powers. Kim was once again the Pink Crane Ninjetti and Carri became the Yellow Panther Ninjetti. They were able to save the others and hold Callisto off for the moment. Afterward, the current rangers were able to follow them back to Phaedos and get their own Ninjetti powers. All of the powers were permanent because of the quest they went on over spring break except for Kat's. Kat had to stay connected to the morphin grid to access her Ninjetti powers.
For Kim, receiving permanent Ninjetti powers had been the last push she needed toward abandoning another run at the Pan Global Games. She was leaning against it before she got the powers. She had been homesick and she had already accomplished her dream. She would have been ancient in the gymnastics world if she continued through the next set of games.
Once she was a Ninjetti, the rangers called on her once or twice and she remembered why she loved being a ranger and loved the friends she had in Angel Grove more than anything. One of her adventures did not involve her being called on by the others; they involved her being taken by the demon Kemora. Kemora was an evil Kim, sacrificed in the pit on Muirantias and never brought back to the side of good. She killed the rangers of her world and set off to do evil in others. She had to fight the demon off, and was lucky that Kemora did not take her body over and kill her as she had done to other Kimberly's on other worlds.
Odd as it sounded, that adventure made her say aloud what had been floating around in the back of her head. That she would never lead a normal life, that she was a ranger at heart and that the west coast was her home. She immediately applied to USC so she could go to college with the rest of the team. She could not have been happier to find out she got in. She flew to France that Christmas to go over everything with her mother, and by New Year's Eve she was back home where she belonged.
Billy had returned the same day as well, and the two of them, in desperate need for a place to live, signed up to be roommates with Jason and Carri. Carri hated her college dorm mate and was moving into a four-bedroom apartment that was designed for college students. Jason quickly agreed to join her, but Rocky and Tommy were content staying in the dorm together where it was cheaper, and Kat was friends with her roommate.
This left them with two rooms that the apartment complex would fill if they did not. Jason and Carri had been relieved when Kim and Billy agreed to sign contracts for their apartment as well. They panicked about sharing their apartment with non-rangers, to the point where Carri contemplated talking her dad into letting her buy the other two rooms out. She wasn't sure it would have gone over well with her dad but it was better having that argument than having who knows what as roommates and having to worry about rushing off for ranger duty.
That turned out to be the second best living arrangement she had ever been a part of. She did not get to see Billy as much as she thought she would between him working in the Power Chamber and the relationship he started with Trini that March. However, when she was not out doing her own dating, she spent all her free time with Jason and Carri.
Living with the two of them was living with her best friends, living with people who had been bonded as if they were siblings. She and Jason had always had that kind of relationship. Jason protected her like an older brother and she was disappointed to see him go. When he returned he bonded with Carri the same way he bonded with her.
Once Kim permanently returned, it was as though she never left. She and Jason were just as close as they were before, and she and Carri were friends, a bond that grew quickly once they started living together and turned into a bond closer than sisters. She supposed they were a lot alike, which is why they all got along so well. Of course there were also differences, some more obvious than others, but those were easily overlooked.
Her new life started in that year in that apartment, a college student who saw her best friends all the time and got to fill in with the rangers on occasion. Two months later that same year saw its first major change. She and Tommy were only able to play the "just friends" card for so long. As they both knew from the previous summer, they still had feelings for each other. That March he asked her out on a date, starting the second wave of their relationship.
Things continued at the same pace for a while with her bonds with her friends growing, especially the romantic one she shared with Tommy, until the power intervened in her life again and presented her with another morpher. This one was not come by easily. This one she had received when Kat had been captured, turning her Zeo Crystal over to Kim when the pink Ninjetti found her since Kat knew there was no way Kim could free her in time.
Kat had been right, she was taken away and brainwashed in an attempt to groom her to be evil. Days later, she returned and attacked her former friends, nearly killing Rocky in the process. After several excruciating battles, they were able to free her from the spell. Even though Kat was free, things never did go back to the way they were.
Unknown to anyone, even Carri, Kat had wanted to quit the rangers for her boyfriend. Not that she regretted being a ranger, but she felt as though it was time to move on. She never planned on asking Kim for her Zeo powers back. She knew Kim wanted to be a full time ranger again, and she knew it was the best choice for the team to let her get her wish.
The incident following Kat's decision to permanently leave the rangers left her relationship with the team strained at best. It was not the decision itself, but it was the aftermath and her argument with her cousin. Kat had slowly been pushing Carri out of her life ever since she met Chris. It wasn't intentional, but they had been drifting apart while Kim and Carri got closer.
During Kat and Carri's blow out, a lot of that came to light. By the end of it, Carri and Kat weren't speaking, and their relationship has not been the same since. These days on a good day, they could do lunch with each other and chat without one angering the other if they were lucky. They don't see eye to eye on anything, not commitment to the rangers, not the other's choices in life, and especially not Kim.
Kat never technically blamed Kim for anything that happened but it was obvious that she felt Kim was responsible for the end of her relationship with Tommy, since Tommy never stopped loving her. She also felt Kim was partially responsible for her rift with Carri as Kim had replaced Kat as Carri's closest friend. She was sure there was some sort of ranger related grudge in there too. Add all that up, and after Kat and Carri stopped speaking, what was left of Kim and Kat's friendship sort of disappeared as well.
Despite all the drama, after Kim got a morpher back it was one of the happiest times in her life. She got to be a ranger again, she was Zeo One. It was happy until Dark Specter entered the picture a few months later and destroyed their Power Chamber. Much to the girls protest, the boys stayed inside the building and fought until the end, leaving them in the desert watching helplessly as the place collapsed.
They thought the boys were dead and Zordon was gone. They thought all was hopeless until Andros, the Red Astro Ranger, appeared. He gave them Astro morphers and they assisted each other, and he filled them in on Zordon's capture and Dark Specter's plan to destroy the power forever. He agreed to help them search for the male rangers, whose remains were not in the Power Chamber.
Fortunately the guys were still alive and once they rescued them and returned to Earth, they were surprised to find Billy inside a building that stood where the Power Chamber once was. It was their new Command Chamber, and Billy was waiting to give them their new powers. Kim, Carri, Rocky, Jason and Tommy became the Ninja Zeo rangers on that day. They were responsible for staying on Earth and protecting the planet from the combined attacks of Zedd, Rita and Divatox.
Andros also had a mission. He was going to chase Astronema through the galaxy in an attempt to rescue Zordon before Dark Specter and Astronema were successful. For his mission the Ninja Zeo rangers recruited him a new team in Ashley, Cassie, Carlos and TJ, a team that eventually included Andros's best friend Zhane. This was the first time in history that they had two ranger teams running around protecting Earth at the same time.
The two teams ran their own separate missions for a while, including one involving Kim facing off against Kemora again on an alternate universe. This time she managed to trap Kemora, what she thought was for good. That had been the best thing she thought she had ever done, especially considering how many alternate Kim's that Kemora had killed on her quest for more power.
Running separate missions did not last long, as shortly after their semester ended Dark Specter was ready for the final phase of his plan and he tried to bring about Armageddon. That hadn't worked as well as Dark Specter had hoped, seeing as how he was killed and Astronema was calling herself queen. The queen had managed to strip the Ninja Zeo rangers of their powers and weaken the Astro Rangers.
It was Andros's heroics that saved them all. He had gone onto the ship to try to reach Astronema, who he had recently discovered to be his long lost sister Karone. He ended up finding Zordon, who encouraged him to destroy his tube, which would create what the rangers later called the Zordon wave. Kim had been devastated by her mentor's death. However, the result of the Zordon wave helped the rangers to see that it was for the best.
The wave spread throughout the galaxy, killing most of Dark Specter's evil forces and purifying the rest. Purifying meaning turned back to the side of good, something Kim did not think about too much until recently. Karone was the only former evil doer she had contact with, and from the moment she saw her happy reunion with her brother she forgot all about her past as Astronema.
That was the day Kim thought she was done with the power forever. She was still a Ninjetti, but her morphing abilities were gone and there was no one to fight anymore anyway. Evil did continue on, but there was always a new team with new rangers there to face it. They all got occasional updates from Billy about current ranger activity, but they were never a part of it.
That changed for Kim a few years later when she was dragged one final time onto a path that would lead to her more than likely permanent status with the rangers and intergalactic affairs. In December of 2001, Kim graduated college and moved to Arizona, where Tommy was a year into his masters in paleontology. He kept a busy schedule and she was bored most of the time, and even when she did get to see him they were usually hanging out with his new friend Hayley.
Tommy received his masters during her first spring in Arizona. Days later, he was starting to work for Anton Mercer while prepping for a fast paced PhD program. Kim loved Tommy and she was happy for him, but all of the sudden he had no time for her. That was why she decided to return to Angel Grove that fall to visit with her friends while Tommy worked.
That visit had not gone quite as planned as she heard from Delphine that Rita's still evil daughter Rhianna wanted to invade Earth and avenge her parent's death. Rhianna was born shortly before the final battle with Dark Specter, and at the time was right around twenty after having been artificially aged by a wizard. She was told that her parents were dead, not purified, and she was out for revenge.
Kim decided that her best course of action was to return with Delphine to Aquitar to help stop Rhianna. She was gone for four years and a lot changed in that time span. First off, after taking off on Tommy they were essentially broken up again. She always thought that was for the best in the end. It gave him the opportunity to stay focused on school and the rangers, including a red ranger mission that he ran shortly after her departure, and his Dino Thunder team that fought Mesogog almost two years after that.
The second thing that changed was who she was. She was no longer simply Kimberly Hart, Zordon's ranger, but she became Kimberly Hart, Dulcea's protégé. Delphine had sent Kim to Dulcea for help, and once there Dulcea helped by beginning her training. She learned a lot from her mentor while she was there, and she was still learning from her on occasion. Her training earned her the name Kaycea, a name she never used on Earth but a name that was intergalactically recognized her as someone who has been trained by Dulcea.
The other change was that she had gotten a red morpher, and not by her own choice, the morpher chose her. She was the Red Planetary Ranger, while Carri was white and Zhane was green. Kim had been more than a little surprised to run into the duo during her travels in space and realize they were all hunting the same thing. Carri had been looking for Callisto, who had been the one who had helped Rhianna age because she wanted Rhianna to work with her attacking Earth.
The three became rangers after they figured out where Callisto, Rhianna and their generals were holding up. They fought against them for a while before sending out an intergalactic communication looking for help. Several teams responded, including some they knew such as the Alien Rangers and some they did not such as the Nova's.
As the Red Planetary Ranger Kim became the leader of the operation. The final battle lasted days, and when the dust cleared, the rangers thought they were victorious. Kim thanked the rangers that came to help them and sent them home. Shortly after the others left, she and Carri returned to Earth for the first time in six years.
Carri got a job as a producer and television host from her father, where she was working for him under Ausus Productions, her own company. Kim eventually found a job working in marketing for Ashley Hammond, who since her ranger days had become quite the famous designer. Kim and Carri found themselves living together and enjoying the quiet life, which did not last long at all.
Six weeks after their return, during a lunch with Jason, they were greeted by Callisto and Rhianna, who were not as destroyed as they thought they were. They quickly met with Billy who called a meeting of as many people who had been rangers over the last ten years that he could gather. Kim had been surprised at the number of former rangers that showed up at the meeting, and even more surprised at who volunteered to help them.
By the end of the day, they had a team of five that included herself, Carri, and Jason, plus Rocky and Tommy, the two boys who were the former boyfriends to the two female rangers who had spent the last four years in space. They had no clue how it was going to work out as they went to Eltar to gather the Turbo powers together. Their first mission had been awkward, but they had managed to get things done.
A few days later the new Turbo females decided it was time to set things right with their ex's. Carri and Rocky ended up in bed together that first afternoon. Kim had been jealous, Tommy was extremely hurt with her leaving him again and as a result, their relationship was nothing more than being good friends. After their discussion, Tommy quickly moved on with another woman.
Kim surprised herself by moving on as well with someone she met when she was younger. Someone that Carri knew all too well, her brother Josh. Kim and Josh's relationship was intense. He spoiled her, the sex was amazing, and they got along pretty well. Carri disapproved of her brother having a relationship with the girl she considered her sister.
In a twisted sort of way, Carri was the reason she and Josh broke up. It was Carri who first found out that Tommy still loved Kim and pushed him to get closer to her. It was Carri that helped to fill her brother's head with all the reasons why it was hard to date a ranger. And it was Carri who set her up alone with Tommy at Tommy's parent's beach house the night that she cheated on Josh with him.
All that said, Kim did not stay mad at Carri for long. After all, she still loved Tommy and she remembered why after their first night together. Even though she had fallen in love with Josh in their weeks together, she knew he was a playboy among other things and it would never work out between them in the long term. That was what pushed her toward her decision to dump him and go back to Tommy, who she had been with ever since.
Of course, there was more going on during the time she dated Josh than their relationship. Callisto and Rhianna were getting harder and harder to fight against. They kept upgrading their army, and the rangers in turn had to keep trying to upgrade their powers. Shortly after Tommy and Kim got back together, Callisto was on the brink of doing something major.
Callisto's plans were placed on hold when K showed up. K was her, or at least a Kim from another dimension. A Kim who is also known as Kaycea, another master warrior trained under Dulcea. The difference was that K was sacrificed in Maligore's pit on Muirantias, much like Kemora had been. Only where Kemora was consumed by evil, K was brought back to good with some help from her Tommy, and she and her Muirantian twin Jason developed powers over the years that they learned to cope with and use for good.
K showed up on their world dressed as Kemora, banishing Callisto to the Island of Illusion while sending Goldar and Rhianna running because she had intimidated them. After she revealed herself as K she then asked the rangers, including Billy, for their help in stopping Teeg and Kemora from taking over her world. Kim felt somewhat responsible for Kemora and she was the first to jump on board, but the others quickly followed.
Their first mission there changed Kim's life forever. They were teleported by K, along with the alternate Jason, to Muirantias to stop Kemora and close her off from the pit, where she was trying to regain her power. It was not long upon their arrival that Kim was mistaken for K and captured. Once Kemora realized she was not K, but a Kim with power who had yet to be in the pit, she made the decision to toss her in herself and claim her body, connecting herself to the pit and making her unstoppable.
Kemora did toss her into the pit on Muirantias, but fortunately for her the other rangers arrived in time to stop Kemora from joining her. They were not in time to save her though. She died in that pit, becoming reborn as a Muirantian, a being exactly like K and her Jason. From the moment she was brought out of that pit, her cells started mutating until the last of her old DNA was replaced and she was fully Muirantian. Her trip into the pit meant that she would one day have great powers, that she would live longer than her friends would, and that she was a demon spawn of Maligore, a fact that made everything different for her.
Of course, she didn't start to notice the changes for a while. They returned from Muirantias and finished the fight against Teeg before getting sent home, with Kim getting some words of advice from K and Jason before leaving. She felt a little different the first two weeks, but didn't really notice it until Callisto returned with an improved army, one the Turbo rangers could not stop.
With the Turbo powers useless Kim and Carri attacked her as Planetary rangers, something that got them both encased in an orb that was meant to kill them slowly. It wore Carri down much faster than her. That was one of the first examples of how her Muirantian cells were taking over.
While they were in the orb, the remaining rangers called the Novas in for an assist with Callisto while Tommy contacted K to rescue them. K managed to get to the orb in time, and while the Nova's were fighting, Billy was able to resurrect the old Power Coins and connect them to an ancient, stronger grid that made the coins more powerful. Once Billy was ready, the rest of the team was able to utilize the coins to get back into the battle. They won that fight, and things started to calm down a bit for a while, at least where the rangers were concerned.
Her Muirantian powers were a different story. Shortly after the incident in the orb, she could really feel how her cells had changed. She never got headaches any more. Her allergies disappeared. Scars from battles past were gone. Every muscle and joint she had ever injured as a ranger or gymnast felt like new again. Kim felt better than she had in years.
It was not long after this revelation that her powers started to develop. One afternoon she sneezed and flung herself through to the past. After a few sneezes and a few trips around the timeline, she ended up on Phaedos with Dulcea. That was the best thing for her as Dulcea taught her how to access her powers, and showed her how her powers now flowed through her Phaedosian staff.
She also got her started learning on how to control her powers, and she gave her a crystal that allowed her to return to her home world while she practiced. She had scratched the surface of what she could do and she was excited to dive into it when she got home. The major ability that had started to develop the most, the one that she was eager to work on, was inner teleportation ability. It was a long process, one that took her a while to be able to do accurately.
While she spent her time practicing, several things went on in the evil world around her. The first was that the galaxy was becoming aware of the fact that the Red Planetary Ranger was developing Muirantian powers. That was something she would knew they would figure out at some point. The second thing that happened was that Callisto went after the four hidden pieces of the Shadow Crystal. If the pieces were brought back together and absorbed by the owner, they would bring that person great power.
Fortunately for the rangers, they were able to get to three of the pieces of the crystal leaving Callisto with only one. What they did not know was that one was enough to give powers to Rhianna. Not long after they thought they had avoided that problem, Rhianna appeared with the power of one of the shards. Of course, her powers were new to her and they were not completely under her control yet so they were able to defeat her the first time. It took her a while for her to train with her powers and work on her new powers before they saw her again.
During the same period of time, Kim was continuing to work with her own powers. She had gotten a hold of the teleportation power. It was powerful and dangerous and it gave her a wild rush but she could do it. She was able to go anywhere, through space, time, and even other dimensions as long as she was aware of the dimension in question. She had other abilities she could feel brewing that she wanted to practice, to play with. This was why she started taking off in her spare time, spending years on other worlds exploring her Muirantian powers and returning with not much time passing on her own world.
Although she was still nothing more than a novice, her powers were growing, enough for her to become firmly planted on the DG, or Dimensional Guardian's, radar. Their first piece of business with her was to have Thomas trick her into helping them. Thomas was an older man who was an alternate Tommy who had led a hard life and was spending the rest of it working for the DG, fixing all the damage Kemora had done on other worlds. Thomas sent her to another world, Carri accidentally tagging along, and left her clueless as to what was going on.
Finally Thomas revealed himself, and told her that the DG wanted her to stop Kemora before she became too powerful and reconnected with the pit. Kim was able to banish Kemora from the young Kimberly's body and sent her spirit back to floating around K's home dimension. That was her first time working for the DG, and it was not going to be her last. Although she was initially defiant about working for them, Thomas's warning stuck with her. They wanted to control her since she was Muirantian and could choose to be good or evil. If she chose not to cooperate with them, they could and would kill her. As much as she was reluctant to jump on board, she knew that the next time they came calling she would oblige. She would rather do their bidding and be allowed to live.
It was not long after her first official encounter with Thomas and the DG that Rhianna returned; ready to show them her powers. Only she had more than just the one shard of the Shadow crystal at her disposal. She had mastered those powers and she had added a gem to her inventory, a gem that was created to enhance her powers and make her more deadly. They were fortunate that right before their first battle with her, they were finally able to trap Callisto in a containment orb, with help from K. K trapped Callisto and Kim hid the orb somewhere she prayed it would never be found. Somewhere the goddess should remain for the rest of eternity, unable to do damage to her and her friends.
Then the battle came and Rhianna hit them hard. They were lucky they did not die on the battlefield that day. Billy yanked them away against their will, only to tell them about a weapon they could not use. It was a powerful weapon, one that would separate Rhianna's powers for an undetermined amount of time, making her vulnerable. The only problem was that it would also completely drain their five coins. They would need a sixth coin to make it work, and the blue coin was toast.
Kim knew that creating coins was possible, and that K dabbled in it some. She knew she might be able to do it. When she went to Dulcea for help, the warrior said that the only person who would be able to assist her would be Ninjor, the ancient coin master that made the rangers original dinosaur coins. She went looking for him, and upon finding his temple, it took a lot of persuading to get him to agree to help her. However, he did and they made a blue coin that they took to Adam, asking the former ranger to help.
Adam returned with Kim and they were able to join the fight and use their weapon, which halted Rhianna in her tracks and gave the rangers a small victory. It was about a month later that they heard from her again. Now Kim knew the delay in attacks was because she was lost and confused and dating Skull of all things. She had lost Callisto's influence, Goldar was purified, and Cratus took off looking for Callisto. It was not until Cratus returned that Rhianna attacked again. At the time, Kim thought her disappearance was because she was recharging her powers while plotting on how to kill them.
It was good that there was a lull in the action. It gave the newly purified Goldar the chance to hunt down Rita, or Mystic Mother as she goes by now, and tell her that her daughter was alive and evil. Mystic Mother wanted to save her daughter, and she sought out Kim's help, promising that she would help Kim develop her powers as a sorceress if Kim would help her free her daughter from the crystal and turn away from evil. Kim agreed, and from then on, she started working with Mystic Mother.
It was the day before Thanksgiving when Rhianna finally attacked again. That battle did not start well. Rhianna managed to destroy the weapon that they could use to temporarily separate her powers from her. The battle was difficult, made even worse when Cratus got to their morphin grid and destroyed part of it, cutting the coins off from the source of their power. Kim had to leave the battle to find Mystic Mother, and upon their return they worked quickly to separate the crystal shard and the gem from Rhianna. After that, it was just a matter of turning her good, and with an unlikely aid from Skull they were able to pull her out of evil's grasp. Rhianna purified the rest of her army, and that battle was over.
Since then Kim had been keeping herself busy with working for Ashley, with Tommy, with the rangers, and with her powers, although they had not had an enemy to fight. Tommy was keeping himself busy, working part time at Angel Grove High, doing his research, staying in ranger affairs, and working on doing what needed to get done to get a house with her in Angel Grove. That was the normal day-to-day activities that kept her excited.
The not so normal activities started with her helping Billy trying to rebuild the grid so the rangers would be able to morph for future attacks. They weren't stupid, they knew there were others out there waiting to fight them. Fixing it was a slow and steady process. While she was in the Command Chamber she also talked to other teams, some of which she went to see in person on occasion.
Her biggest not normal activity was working on her powers. She had already borrowed a lot of time to help them develop. Now she was borrowing time to go work with Ninjor, who was teaching her how to make coins. She recently made her first coin, although it was not stable enough to link to a grid and even if it was the morph would be a complete disaster. However, it was a start. She was also borrowing time to go work with Mystic Mother, who was continuing to help her with her sorcery skills. Not to mention she still borrowed time on occasion to go off by herself and work on her skills.
The borrowed time was the reason why she was just over seventy-three. Assuming, of course, she kept track correctly. The path that she started on as a freshman in high school led her to this point, the point where she was Muirantian and already much older than her friends. Yet tomorrow her friends would ignore that fact. Tomorrow her friends were going to pretend that they did not know that she had probably already crossed twenty-nine a long time ago. Tomorrow her friends were going to treat her as everyone else would. As a human adult celebrating her twenty-ninth birthday.
She closed her eyes and smiled. She had accepted what she had become, what the future was going to bring her. Nevertheless, it was always nice to be treated normally, if only for a little while. Now she needed to try to get some sleep so she didn't look like she had spent the previous night lying awake contemplating everything that had happened up to her birthday. Carri would not leave her alone if she showed up to her party looking like something the cat dragged in.
That thought made her chuckle as she adjusted to a more comfortable position under the covers. She opened her eyes and glanced briefly toward Tommy, making sure none of her shuffling waked him. Satisfied she closed her eyes once more, this time drifting off into a deep sleep as the hours ticked away until her birthday officially began.
