A/N: This oneshot can also be read as a companion piece to Moving On.
The loud squawking of his headset seemed to come from miles away. Privately, he had always thought that the volume on the thing would eventually leave him deaf in one ear. But today, it was like the headset was on mute. He could barely hear it. Perhaps he was already going deaf in that ear, just like he had joked to the rest of the crew that he would.
Perhaps he was going blind too, for the race track seemed to be a furious blur in front of him as he lapped it again and again. Maybe that's why Dimitria wanted him to retire from ranger duty.
He felt the resentment bubbling up in him again. He did not want to pass the torch on. What did the new rangers know about rangering anyway? They were just kids! How could they protect Earth from Divatox when they were still so young and clueless? He had absolutely no idea what Dimitria could have possibly thinking when she made that decision.
Spurred on by anger, he stomped harder on the accelerator.
"Tommy Oliver! Slow down at once!" His Uncle John's voice yelled into his right ear. "Are you trying to kill yourself?"
He held back a scowl as he eased his foot off the accelerator. The speed of this race car was nothing compared to what Lightning Cruiser was capable of. And he had driven Lightning Cruiser around just fine hadn't he?
Damn it, but he missed his turbo vehicle.
During his tenure as a ranger, he had lost more than his fair share of zords, and he missed them all dearly, but he had never had to relinquish one to another's hand before. It was probably why he had joined Uncle John's racing team immediately after getting kicked off the team – just so he could get away from Angel Grove and all the rangering memories. He did not want to have to run into piranatrons or any of the ugly monsters that Divatox would send out, only to have to retreat with the rest of the civilians when the newbies showed up in their ranger suits. Not when he knew he could take those idiots on and win.
Tommy's jaw clenched in frustration. All this dwelling on the past was not helping at all. If anything, it simply made him more agitated and furious. It made him want to storm back to Angel Grove and demand an explanation from Dimitria. Damn it.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, he refocused on the track ahead of him. It was a miracle he had not crashed, considering how distracted he was by his thoughts. He completed the last lap then pulled into the pits.
Getting out of the car, he took off his headset and tossed it to one of the guys, not bothering to see if the guy actually caught it. Uncle John came up to him, analysing his drive in succinct sentences. Tommy caught the reprimand hidden beneath Uncle John's words, but chose to ignore it, nodding his head without really hearing what was being said at all.
Unable to help himself, his thoughts wandered back to Angel Grove and the best friends he had left behind. He wondered how they were doing now. In his anger and resentment, he had also deliberately distanced himself from them, for they were yet another link to his rangering days. Recently, he had begun to regret that decision when even Kat, whom he had dumped when he had packed his bags to leave Angel Grove, gave up trying to keep in contact with him. It was his own fault for ignoring all their attempts at keeping in contact, whether it was via calls, letters or e-mails. Yet his pride would not allow him to reach out to them again. This was one heck of a dilemma.
He had not understood before, when Jason, Trini and Zack left for the Peace Conference and had not bothered keeping in touch, not even with Kimberly and Billy, whom they had known since childhood. He had thought he knew what losing the power was like; he was too naive. Losing the power was completely different from having the power stripped from you. He understood that now. And he understood now why rangers who have retired from active duty rarely kept in touch with their team. The memories hurt too much. They all needed time to heal.
Belatedly, he realised that Uncle John had asked him a question and was looking at him expectantly for an answer. Murmuring an excuse, he made for his trailer, leaving Uncle John standing next to the car with a look of extreme annoyance on his face.
Wearily, he wondered if the time would come when he could think of Power Rangers and not feel that now familiar anger and resentment, and can instead look back on his time as a Ranger proudly as fond memories.