Chapter 02

Kimberly lay on her cot, her mind reeling. TJ had been quiet for a bit, her revelation and the fact that she slammed his face into the bars shortly afterwards seemed to have convinced him to leave her alone for a bit. Focus, Kimberly, she told herself. You have to focus. Her eyes scanned the cell, but her mind just kept going back. Back to that deep, dark place that she never wanted to think about again.

"Hello, Kimberly," a gruff, familiar voice called out to her. She stiffened, and slowly turned to face who she knew would be coming. His face might have a few scars on it, courtesy of their final battle with the Machines, but she could still remember it laughing back in Ernie's Juice Bar.

"Hello, Rocky," she replied coldy.

"When my men told me that had captured the Mighty, Morphin, Pink Power Ranger, I just couldn't believe it," General Rocky DeSantos remarked dryly, sitting down across from her outside her cell, propping his feet up on the table. "All this time, we've been searching for you. Turns out you just have to get sloppy, get spotted on a traffic cam when you're too caught up in the excitement of your wedding day, and poof! We finally take down two of America's Most Wanted."

"Fuck you," Kim hissed. "You started all of this. You, and Billy. How could you? We were Rangers you son of a…"

"Rangers," Rocky scoffed. "What was that even supposed to mean? Huh?"

"It meant we stood for something," she told him, clutching the bed sheets until her knuckles were white.

"And what would that be, hmm? Being a pretty pink power princess? Please, grow up. You should know better than that by now."

"What the hell are you talking about?" the former Pink Ranger demanded.

"Oh for Christ sakes, we were fucking used, Kimberly!" Rocky shouted, flipping the table over in anger. "Dragged out of school, against our will, hopped up on some mystical energy and adrenaline, sent off to fight some ridiculous intergalactic war? And for what?"

"For saving the human race," Kim cried incredulously. "Rita, Zedd, Mondo, they would've destroyed the Earth if it wasn't for us."

"Maybe the world wouldn't have needed saving without us, hmm? Did you ever think of that, pinky? Hell, Rita was only there to target us because of what Zordon did to her all those eons ago. Zedd only showed up because of Rita. And Mondo… for god sakes, we spent a fucking year fighting those machines. I lost my fucking eye," he pointed at the artificial eye in his right socket, masterfully crafted by Mechanoid technology, barely indistinguishable from a natural, organic on, "and so much more in the fight against Mondo and the Machines. And why? Their technology is a godsend. What Billy and I are doing, it will literally save the human race. And then there will be no more battles, or monsters, or other destruction, because the world will finally, finally, be at peace. Thanks to the technology of the Machines."

Kimberly stared at him, dumbstruck. It was one thing to see the speeches on TV, but now, in person, in front of her… he really meant it. The passion, the conviction that what he was doing was absolutely right. For the briefest of moments, Kimberly wonders if he is right, but then she sees the blood again.

"You speak about peace, yet you murder your friends," she growled. "You have killed, every last one of us. Power Rangers, heroes, you fucking friends, we trusted you and you fucking betrayed us! You slaughtered us!" She reached through the bars, grasping towards Rocky, trying to lay her hands on the bastard, but he was just out of reach. "I swear, I will never rest until you pay for everyone's deaths."

Rocky sighed. "Fair enough, Pink Ranger. But let me tell you how this is actually going to go. You are going to rot in this cell, with the monotony of your life broken up only by the daily arrival of one of my top interrogators. This guy is really good at what he does, he considers torture to be more of an art form than just mere violence. Every day, he will do things to you that will make you beg for death, but you will be kept alive. You will be kept alive until you tell me where Tanya Sloan and Tommy Oliver are. Then, once I have them, I will allow you to go to your husband." With a nasty smirk, Rocky turned around and walked away. Kimberly slowly slid to the ground, curling up in a ball.

"How could this have happened?" she whispered, tears coming again. "How…? How…? How…?" It was several minutes later, when TJ interrupted her, that she realized she had kept muttering that same word, over and over again.

"Yeah, uh, that does seem to be the big question here," he remarked, sitting down near the bars not far from where Kimberly was. "Like, seriously, you are a Power Ranger, right?" She stared at him through tear-filled eyes, and nodded. "Then come on! It's Morphin' Time, right? Bust out those moves and get us the hell out of here."

Kimberly wiped the tears from her eyes and shook her head. "I can't. Our powers, they're gone. We were helpless to try and stop this, to stop from being betrayed by our own."

"You mean that dude?" TJ asked. "He was a Power Ranger too?" He whistled. "Damn, I used to think you dudes were, like, the best. Incorruptible. I mean, what the hell happened to you all?"

Kim sighed. "That is a very, very long story."

TJ shrugged. "I think we have the time."

End of Chapter 02