Some of you, from way back, may recognize this story. I AM NOT STEALING IT. I long ago forgot my password on here and made a new account. So yes, this is the original author.. if you can call me that lol I'm just a bored person.. Goddess Achlys.

Hope you all still like this. I did some edits, rewrote a little, and will be slowly revising everything and updating hopefully. For those new to it, it is a bit AU.. the space rangers form in addition to the former team instead of replacing them.. yet anyway.

-Achlys aka His Devil

She kicked the stone wall.

'Great. Just GREAT! I come back, try and fix things, and it's right along with Zedd and Rita!' She leaned back against the cool stone and sunk to the ground. 'And on top of that I get captured.'

Her black shorts were now covered with patches of dust and her grey t-shirt had a rip through the bottom. She could only imagine how dirty she must look after a fight with putties and tengas alone and hours in this stupid dungeon.

Kim sighed, taking her hair out its ponytail and letting it fall. She put her head on her knees.

'I'm not a ranger anymore, what do they want with me?'

'Revenge,' her mind answered the question on its own.

"I just wanted to fix things.." Kim whispered on the verge of tears.

'At least Jayde is safe,' she soothed mentally, not willing to say her name aloud in hopes her enemies here hadn't known about her.

Jayde Lyn, her daughter, was staying with Adam for a while she tried to patch things up with everyone. He had been the only one to keep up contact after her infamous letter; that and he had arrived when she was pregnant so it only made sense. Adam actually surprised her at her apartment and five minutes later she went into labor, so he was there coaching her as she gave birth to her precious little girl.

Kim pushed herself up from the couch at the sound of a knock on the door. Her large stomach made it so difficult to even stand up sometimes. Luckily everyone around here knew she was expecting any day now and watched out for her. She walked slowly over, though it was probably as fast as she could manage in her condition.

The knock came again, either unsure or impatient.

"Ok, ok, I'm coming. How fast do you expect me to walk for being..." Her speech faded off in shock to see Adam standing there. "Pregnant." She whispered the end of her sentence.

"Kimberly??" The black ranger asked in pure astonishment.

"Uh, I um," she stumbled through the words but finally composed herself and managed to hug her long time friend. "Adam, wow hi. What brings you here?"

"I..we.. spring break. I'm on call," he flashed his communicator, "but with the space rangers there too I figured I'd come visit since you've been returning my letters. Kim, what happened to you?" He blurted out the last part in a less than polite manner.

"It's a long story. But where's my head, come in come in." She gestured him into the cozy apartment and made her way to the kitchen. "Coffee is good right?"

"Yeah..that's fine." His voice revealing he was still quite stunned.

"Cream, no sugar, right?"

"You got it." Adam smiled. Kim beamed with a flash of pride at having remembered, almost like she wasn't completely detached from everyone. Almost. Then she turned around to pour the drinks while Adam settled, slightly uneasy, on the couch.

"So Kim... you will tell me right?" He asked, checking if she would act like nothing was wrong or open up to him like she had in her letters. 'Obviously not open enough!'

"You kind of caught me red handed here frog prince, I don't have much choice." She giggled and made her way over with two mugs of steaming coffee. She set down the cups on the coffee table but suddenly cringed, her face in a mix of pain and shock.

"Oh my god..." She choked out and looked at Adam with panicked eyes. He jumped up and grabbed her shoulders.

"Kim, Kimmy what's wrong?"

"My...my water broke. Adam would be so kind as to call the hospital? The number is on the phone there." She tried to remain calm, closing her eyes and breathing deeply.

Adam hurried to the phone and dialed the number designated on a sticky note. After a minute of giving information, as much as he knew anyway, to the desk nurse and casting worried glances towards Kim, he hung up the phone.

"Ok, they said they have a room ready and to get there as soon as possible."

"O-ok, come on then. Would you mind driving me? Here's my keys." Kim tossed him her car keys off the coffee table, which he caught and then helped her to it.

10 hours later a little after 12 am

"Congratulations Mister and Misses Hart, you have a healthy baby girl." The doctor announced, re-entering Kim's hospital room where she lay, recovering from exhaustion on the bed, and Adam was sitting next to her. They exchanged confused glances at the 'mister and misses' comment but decided not to argue.

"The nurses will bring her in as soon as she's cleaned up." He continued with a smile and then walked out.

"Adam..." Kim turned to the young man who held her hand. "I can never thank you enough for being with me through this. I thought I was going to do it alone but I'm really glad I didn't have to."

"What are friends for?" He blushed back and pushed a strand of hair from her face.

"You're one of the best friends I could ever hope for." She paused. "What's your favorite girls' name?"

He looked at her in confusion. "Probably Jayde, why?"

"And your mother's name?"

"Lyn," he answered quickly. "But Kim what does that have to do with-"

"Sounds like a beautiful name to me, Jayde Lyn Hart." She cut him off and smiled at the floored look that appeared on the young Korean's face for the third time that day. She was definitely going to owe him dinner, no, a year of dinners, for putting him through all that.

"One more thing froggy..." Kim started.

"Yeah?" He looked at her suspiciously but also with concern. His mind was reeling on what else there could possibly be to this now insane spring break trip he'd decided on.

"If I tell you the whole story, do you swear on Zordon's life never to tell anyone without my permission?"

'Wow, this must be really important for that kind of promise' Adam contemplated. He finally nodded and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Alright Kimmy, I swear it."

'What a day that had been...' Kim mused in her cell.

She smiled to herself. 'And he never did tell.' Though sometimes maybe it would have been easier if he had slipped and everything had gotten out in the open all at once. Then she wouldn't have had to come back now, wouldn't have gotten captured again, wouldn't... But no, she couldn't have handle that, she was sure of it. She still didn't think she could but time kept passing and it just wasn't fair to anyone. She shouldn't have been so selfish. Besides, Adam was far too sweet to let himself slip and do that to her.

Her smile faded as she looked around herself for the millionth time and sighed.

'I'll never be able to thank him, or explain the letter to Tommy, or tell him I love him and about the baby. Baby...I'll never hold Jayde again...' The thoughts floated around her head, repeating and changing so quickly.

'Poor Jayde, my little midnight baby... NO! Come on Kim, you're a former ranger... you can do this!' She snapped herself out of the depression and began to search again for a way out in every inch of the cell.

After what seemed to be hours of searching she had found...nothing. Well, except a tiny window about thirty feet up the sleak, stone wall that she had decided when she saw it the first time was impossible to climb to.

You can reach it child. A soothing voice sounded in her head.

"What the heck?" Were the first words out of her mouth as she spun around searching for its source.

Calm yourself. I'm here within you.

'Who are you?' She asked suspiciously in her mind as she sat on the dusty floor of the dungeon trying to concentrate on this bizarre event. If she had finally lost it and started hallucinating, she may as well be sitting down before it got worse.

You do seem to have forgotten your path. I am the Crane, child, and I have missed you so.

Kim's jaw dropped, but she kept her responses in her head to draw less attention to herself here. 'Bu-but Kat took the Crane powers.' She kept justifying that the seemingly clean water she'd been drinking was tainted and she really was losing it. There was no way she still had any powers.

'Katherine may have wielded the power as you strayed from your path but I am once again free to you. You are the Crane, you fought for the Ninjetti power. I'm here to help you reach those you care about.'

Before Kim could counter with another explanation of what the voice might be or why it was clearly wrong, the Crane spoke one word sternly and strongly, causing it to ring in her ears.

MORPH!

Deciding that she really had nothing to lose and to just play along with her delusions, Kim stood up and dusted herself off. Following the command she took her usual morphing position and called out the words that seemed to be honey to her tongue.

"Crane Ninja Power!"

She felt a wave of familiarity rush over her and through her. Her eyes fluttered closed for a minute and when she opened them again she was clad in her pink ninjetti suit once again.

"It's good to be home." Kim murmured as she looked down at her suit, her gloved fingers brushing over the gold coin on her chest. A tear nearly formed in her eye with how much she'd missed this. It was inside of her, who she was, and she had left it for far too long…

The loud creeking of the dungeon door caused her head to snap up. Two figures made their way roughly down the ancient stairs leading to the many cells doors.

"Let's go you pathetic creature!" She heard Goldar taunt as he shoved the cloaked figure down a few steps. Kim backed away from her metal door and into the shadows.

"Power down," she whispered and was instantly back to her original, but still dirty, clothing. A few seconds later her door was flung open, smashing into the wall behind it but doing little damage.

"You two can keep each other company while Rita and Zedd decide what to do with you both. Enjoy your time left!" Golder threw the other into the cell as he laughed his grunting overly confident laugh and slammed the door shut again.

Kim heard the door lock as she looked to where the mysterious, cloaked person... well it looked like a person... had hit the wall.

It groaned as it slammed into the solid stone, indicating that it was male.

'Just what I need,' she thought sarcastically to herself. 'If he's not friendly then I can hold my own but maybe, if he, or it,' she shuddered, hoping her first instinct that it was actually human was right, 'is good then we can figure something out together.'

Kimberly slowly made her way to where the figure lay. He seemed to make no effort of getting up. She gasped as she saw blood on his cloak and mixing with the dust on the ground. It made a brown, red paste that grossed Kim out. She knelt down beside his head in the dim light, gently lifting it into her lap to show she was friendly. He moaned and brought a hand to his head, pushing off the hood that concealed his slightly battered face so he could breathe a little freer.

"IT'S YOU!" She cried in complete surprise. It was the last person she had expected to see here and one who she had desperately wanted to talk to. Unfortunately she was now speechless. She ran a hand softly over his cheek, noticing a cut on his lip and above his eye.

"It...it can't be..." His eyes cracked open, though it seemed to cause him pain. As did talking yet he whispered again. "Kimberly, is it you?"

"Yeah," she let tears of both happiness and sadness fall as she gave a faint smile. "It's me."

"I thought...that I'd never se- see you again." He smiled weakly and passed out.

"I'm here." She soothed his hair carefully. "I'm here."