HARTLAND
By: KSuzie
Chapter Two: The Return of Calamity Kim
All things Power Rangers belong to Saban or Disney, everything else belongs to me.
2 AM: Two days after Thanksgiving 2007
Kim switched off the bathroom light and didn't bother walking around to her side of the double mattress. She took the two steps that bridged the tiny gap between the bathroom door and the edge of the bed in the miniature bedroom of their temporary house and crawled across the covers to collapse head first into her pillow with an exhausted moan.
"That bad?" Tommy asked, chuckling. He was propped up on his side of the small bed, the one with the only lamp, scanning through a portable computer clipboard in case anything new had happened in the galaxy while they were hidden away in the room of light. The room itself bent time, allowing the occupants to spend hours there, only to return a few minutes later, but it didn't hurt to check in case something major had happened.
Despite the heat of the previous day, the early morning hours just before dawn had cooled and he'd pulled on a faded black t-shirt and pair of old sweat pants from his Reefside days before crawling into bed. He knew he wasn't going to be able to go to sleep with dawn just a few hours away, but he figured he'd make the effort to lie beside her for a while.
"I over did it." She mumbled, still face down in the pillow. He didn't disagree with her, but didn't give her any sympathy either. He still didn't fully understand what it was she did for the Dimensional Guardians, but he knew he had a tendency to exhaust himself while working too.
Besides, it had been a busy few days. He had whisked her off only a brief seventeen hours before to elope at the courthouse, then the two had raced back to attend Billy's wedding and all the formalities associated with that. Only a day before that had been Thanksgiving; which had been a complete disaster. A few moments had been enjoyable, but the entire day had been marred by his Aunt's bad behavior at his family's dinner and Kim's massive blowout with her father. The day had been topped off with the news that her mother was pregnant again and Kim and her brother Michael had handled the news by silently draining their stepfather's stash of red wine.
"Billy looked the happiest I've seen him in a long time." He commented, but there was only a muffled, incoherent sound in response. "I think next year though, we should do what everyone else does and spend one holiday with my family and the other with yours." He said absently, eyes scrolling through different screens. "Having four or five Thanksgiving meals in one day just isn't doable."
Kim raised her head up with eyes that were already promising a massive hangover from lack of sleep and shot him a venomous look. "You think?" She asked sarcastically; she was tired and grouchy and not exactly in the mood to be amiable. That was exactly what she had suggested they do in the first place, but he hadn't wanted anything to do with rationing up family time. He'd insisted they squeeze in everybody, with disastrous results, and it was all she could do not to smack him for the comment now.
"You ok with your mom having another baby?" He asked, turning his head towards her. She hadn't said one word about it since they had left her mother's house Thanksgiving evening and he'd been too afraid to ask the previous day in case he ruined the mood.
"Oh sure…" She responded, head collapsing back into her pillow. But this time she turned and regarded him from beneath her tousled hair. "I'm thrilled to be almost thirty years older than my new baby brother or sister. Almost as thrilled as my mom appears to be at having another child."
He gave her an annoyed, but tolerant look. "You're mom isn't that old though; not like my mom. How old was she when she had you?"
"I was born about three weeks after her twentieth Birthday." She answered with a sigh.
"So she's forty-eight." He murmured absently, attention drawn to something on his clipboard's screen. "It's not unheard of."
"She's still my mother." Kim retorted back in a grumpy tone; she wanted to sleep, not discuss a topic that was going to get her mind going again. That was the problem with being married to someone who's mind was working a thousand miles an hour, twenty-four-seven. It's what made him a great Ranger, but it simply made her a tired spouse. "And it's still weird to think about." She added sleepily, yawning despite herself.
"When I was a kid, I had a friend in Arizona who was about six months younger than his uncle." He offered. "I always thought it was kinda cool that they took karate classes together."
Kim humphed loudly and turned her head away from him towards the window. "I'm scared of having kids." She murmured after a minute or two, which caught his attention.
"Scared of being pregnant or scared of raising them?" He asked cautiously. Kim had always managed to avoid discussing the idea of having children; other than telling him she'd been ordered to have them. He'd made it clear to her that he wanted them and was fine with accelerating the timetable; but she had only given him a frustrated look and refused to say more.
"God Tommy," She moaned, rolling back over on her back and staring at the ceiling. "I can barely manage to take care of myself. Half the time I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants and disaster is waiting for me at every turn. How the hell am I gonna be able to mother a child?"
"The same way everyone else does." He responded evenly. "One day at a time. And you're not alone sweetheart. I'm serious, I want this. My twin brother had his son four years ago and yes, it's been difficult for him as a single parent, but he's done a great job. Aaron's healthy and smart and a great kid"
Kim continued to stare at the ceiling, but something in the way her eyes shifted and mouth tightened caught his attention. "Our kids aren't likely to be normal." She muttered. "You realize that right? Between the pit on Muirantias and the morphanological energies we've been exposed to over the years…"
" Neither is David's son." He argued, interrupting her. "David developed special abilities under Sam's tutorage long before I ever became a Ranger. Aaron's got some of those same abilities. He's telekinetic and the older he gets he shows more and more other strange talents. David handles it as it comes and passes on Sam's teachings. I swear I'm not bragging," He couched, "But let's face it, I'm the far more reliable twin. If David can do it on his own, we can absolutely do it together."
She sighed heavily and scrunched her nose up, still facing the ceiling, as if she were evaluating that comment and how best to respond. "And when I'm called off at a moment's notice and you're called off at a moment's notice?" She asked, turning her head to look at him. "Face it, children are not conducive to Rangering. Ashley and Andros will tell you that first hand." She countered, turning her head back to the ceiling and rubbing her eyes and face. "And what if Jason's right? What if I produce another Maligore?"
"We take it one day at a time Beautiful." He answered and she turned her eyes again to see him regarding her seriously. She smiled thinly, dropping her eyes again uncertainly to the sheets of their bedding, and he reached out and took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. She didn't answer back and they were silent for a few minutes, holding hands and lost in their own thoughts for a while.
"So you feel like mess'n around?" He asked mischievously, wiggling his eyebrows comically when her eyes snapped up to meet his. In answer, she shot him a nasty look, pulled her hand away sharply and rolled over with a loud, exasperated groan; burying her head under her pillow firmly. "I take it that's a no…" He surmised.
5:07 AM
Tommy's head snapped up from behind his desk the minute the blue light began to shimmer through from the bedroom door. The tiny house they had moved into until the other was renovated had only two bedrooms, one of which he'd made into an office, and the doors of each room faced each other.
He simultaneously frowned and swallowed a jolt of alarm. He had security measures in place to keep anything from transporting in or out of his home without his permission and he'd just left his wife sleeping soundly only a few minutes before to download his work from the clipboard to his main computer.
In an instant, he bolted across the small floor space, through the doorway of his office, across the narrow hall, and stopped at the frame of the bedroom door. Blue and white light bathed the room in a soft glow, bouncing off the walls like pool water illuminated at night. His wife was sitting bolt upright in bed and there was a man he'd never seen before standing where the outside wall should have been.
"Just let me change." She told the man.
"You can't risk it." The man urged in a panicked tone, "You may have only seconds before the Equaline wave reaches you. You have to go back far enough in time to stop it."
"Ulysses…" Kim chided in a scolding tone. "You have to tell me what's waiting for me, where to start. I can't just…"
"There's not time!" The man all but shouted. "I'll try and rendezvous with you and explain on the other end. Hurry!"
"What's going on?" Tommy asked, overcoming his shock enough to speak. Strange events happened all the time in a Ranger's life, but you never really got used to them when they unexpectedly stared you in the face. His heart was pounding in his chest. Kim had just gotten back and he knew she was physically exhausted, he wasn't about to let her go off again without him.
"Tommy stay back!" Kim cried, spinning around. "It's too dangerous in here!"
"There's no time!" The man named Ulysses shouted. He reached out and physically grabbed Kim by her pajamas, tossing her head first and squealing her protest into the glowing blue wall. In an instant she disappeared.
"No!" Tommy shouted as the glowing wall began to collapse in on itself. Without another thought, he leapt forward, spring boarded off the mattress, and dived head first into the shrinking blue light.
Immediately, he realized his mistake. The tunnel of blue and white light began to destabilize as soon as he entered. He was bounced around as if caught in the vortex of a tornado. Each time he was slammed against the spinning walls of the tunnel, white energy crackled and shot through his body like a cattle prod and at every haphazard bounce he cried out in pain.
"Hold on!" He heard his wife's voice over the wind noise of the tube. "The portal wasn't created to support us both; it's destabilizing. Tommy, this is important. You've got to try and turn around feet first!" She urged.
Destabilizing, he thought as he was buffeted around, way to go Oliver, he chastised himself. Sometimes he honestly wished he had the ability to think occasionally before he did something stupid. Turning around was easier said than done. First of all, in just a few short seconds, he'd lost all sense of what was up and what was down. Second of all, it seemed as though the tunnel were narrowing and it hurt like hell every time he slammed into the side of it.
"Tommy, you've got to turn or you're going to land on your head when we reach the end!" Kim yelled. He still couldn't see her, but she sounded a bit closer. "I'm in front of you. Curl into a ball and spin one-eighty, with your feet towards my voice." She directed.
Tommy did as he was told and promptly slammed into the wall of the vortex again, crying out in pain as the energy of the tube shot through him. Uttering several choice swear words in several different languages, he forced his body to turn with his feet in the direction she'd indicated. Immediately after he did so, he felt her hand reach out and clasp his foot, then she seemed to climb up his body until they were face to face.
"You've done some stupid things in your life Thomas Oliver" She shouted above the storm noise of the vortex. "But this is the stupidest of them all! You could get us both killed in here!"
"It would help if I knew where here was!" He yelled back irritably, then cursed loudly again as they were both pummeled and tossed around again against the sides of the tunnel. "Is this normal?" He shouted, even though her head was tucked against his shoulder and they were clinging together for dear life.
"Don't let go!" She shouted back. "We're sliding through the crest of the Equaline wave!"
Tommy didn't know what and Equaline wave was, but he did know they were being shaken and tossed around as if a massive earthquake were going on outside the tube. He tightened his arms around his wife and pressed his head protectively against hers. "Where are we going?" He yelled as the buffeting seemed to go on forever.
Kim never answered. She never had time to. Without warning, a hole developed in the vortex and both were sucked out. Immediately, the dim, glowing light of the tunnel was replaced by a blinding white light, but before his eyes could adjust, he lost his hold on her and slammed into something hard and solid.
He made an umphing sound as he landed on his back, the wind knocking out of him, then cautiously felt around; to either side was a warm dusty surface. Slowly, he rolled over, groaning heavily as each muscle in his body protested the movement. An instant later he realized that Kim wasn't near him and shot upward to his knees, ignoring the pain shooting through his neck and shoulder, and blinking repeatedly to adjust his eyes to the bright light. Slowly, the colors around him came back into focus and he could see her lying not too far away.
He pulled himself up and jogged over to her, at first thinking she had just had the wind knocked out of her too, but on closer inspection, his heart sank as he spied the blood pooling around the side of her head under her hair. Forcing himself not to panic, he first checked her neck, shoulders, spine, and hips for broken bones. Her shoulder appeared dislocated, but nothing critical seemed broken or out of place. Turning her head gently, he saw the long gash, just above her ear, that was oozing blood and, after searching the ground around her, he also spied the rock which had caused it.
He cursed loudly, not knowing if she'd landed, as he had, on his back and then hit her head, or landed head first against the rock; either way, she could have suffered bad internal injuries. There was no way of knowing and, although she seemed to be breathing steadily enough, her pupils were dilated and he couldn't rouse her. He lowered her head gently back to the ground and cursed again, taking in his surroundings.
They were smack in the middle of a desert with nothing around them save rocks and a few scrub plants and cacti. To further complicate things, it was cold. That seemed to suggest that it was only early morning and it would get a lot warmer, but he just didn't know. He was barefoot, in a pair of his old sweats and a tee, and she was also barefoot and wearing a pair of light cotton pajamas with thin spaghetti straps; not exactly survival gear for the desert.
Unfortunately, other than the basic premises, he knew relatively nothing about interdimensional travel. They could be anywhere, any when, in the universe and he would have no idea how to tell the difference or get them back home again.
Kim was hurt and losing blood rapidly. He needed to get her help quickly, but there was nothing around them for as far as he could see except dirt, rocks, and scrub. Standing up and turning in a three-sixty motion didn't yield much more information, until he spotted a dark patch of mottled scrub and short trees not too far off to his right, directly below a rust colored rock formation. Rocks with foliage around them could possibly mean water and, at the very least, the short scrub trees might provide shade from the desert sun.
Picking Kimberly up didn't prove easy. Her wound gushed blood the moment her head was lifted and he immediately set her back down again. Using a tare in his sweatpants, he ripped off one leg at the knee and gently pulled and tugged the tube of fabric over her head, using the stretchy cuff as a tight bandage, then doubling the excess fabric up and over itself to be a little more absorbent. Sitting back a little and examining his work, he was actually rather proud of his ingenuity. The fabric itself was worn and old and the elastic gave way enough so that he didn't think it was too tight, but, as a bandage, it stayed in place all by itself and applied a good amount of pressure against the gash.
Picking her up again once more, he shifted her weight a little until her head lolled against his chest and he had a good grip on her. He had no idea how far away the rock formation actually was, but it was better than staying put and baking out in the desert sun. Kissing her bandaged forehead softly, he set off to find them some shelter and figure out how to get them out of the impossible predicament they were in.
Curtis frowned as he examined the footprints and blood on the desert floor, then raised his eyes to the clear blue sky; squinting from the glare of the bright winter sun. He was in the exact position of the anomaly, but he hadn't found what he'd been expecting to. His tracking skills were renowned in several counties and what the imprints in the rocky desert floor told him didn't sit well.
Before him in the dirt was evidence of at least one man, barefoot, nearly the size and weight of himself. Off to the side was the imprint of another, smaller person, who was obviously hurt and bleeding profusely. The man had picked the second one up and carried it off in a southeasterly direction; possibly looking for help or shelter. If the man had been from the area, he mused to himself, he would have known to go in the opposite direction, where he would have crossed several cattle ranches and eventually made his way to the only settlement close by. As it was, he was headed directly into Indian territory. Fortunately, the inhabitants of the reservation were on pretty good terms with the local citizens; but that didn't mean they'd take kindly to strangers.
He doubted he was dealing with anyone local though. The prints had simply appeared and then wandered off in one direction. There was no evidence at all that they'd originated from anywhere except that one spot; where the anomaly had flashed.
Standing up, he shook the remnants of the bloody sand from his fingers and wiped them on the leather chaps strapped to his legs. Walking with the gate of someone who'd spent years on horseback, he strode purposely back toward his mount and lifted himself easily into the high saddle.
"Looks like we've got ourselves a mystery on our hands Tiger." He muttered as he unwound the reins from the horn of the saddle. Beneath him the white horse snorted and pawed the dirt as if understanding. "Let's go boy," He urged, kicking the sides of the horse and steering it in the direction of the man's footprints. "Gee-up!"
Tommy knelt down and soaked the now bloody rag in the tiny trickle of water that bubbled in the shade of the rocks above. He wasn't entirely sure of the quality of the water, but it was better than nothing. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he remembered that running water was clean water. He wasn't sure, by the amount of mud he'd stirred up, if the tiny shallow brook could actually be considered running water, but it wasn't stagnant.
He'd ripped off and used the second leg of his sweat pants to change the bandage on Kim's head; soaking the first one in the water and trying to clean it as best he could, then laying it out to dry while the mud settled enough, and he got thirsty enough, to try and drink from it.
They couldn't stay where they were, he thought, sitting back against the rocks, but the short walk through the desert had proven to him that he wasn't going to be able to carry her very far. His bare feet were pricked and bleeding and full of cacti needles and it had been almost impossible to carry Kim up the low rise of rocks to get to the small oasis.
"I need help." He muttered to no one in particular, closing his eyes and silently willing the Great Power to assist him. In frustration, he put his face in his hands and rubbed his eyes with his fingers. His brother had learned a way to telekinetically heal cuts, but he just wasn't brave enough yet to try it out on his wife. There was more to it than simply sealing a gash; you had to will the dirt and debris and foreign objects out of the lesion. Besides, Kim's injury was more than a wound. It was deep and nasty looking and he was terrified the thin, broken white stuff poking out from under the skin was the bone of her skull. Despite moaning a little, she hadn't woken up and her breathing was becoming more and more shallow as the day went on. Crossing the gap between his rocky seat and where he'd laid her in the narrow strip of shade, he sat back down and took her hand; kissing it and holding it up to cheek.
His mind whirled a thousand miles an hour trying to figure out what to do next. He realized he was going to have to leave her and find help, but he didn't like that option; preferring to focus on finding a way to carry her with him. He needed shoes and looked around the tiny oasis, mentally checking off anything he could jury rig. There was a swatch of tall grass next to the brook that he could possibly mat up and tie to the bottom of his feet with the fabric from his shirt. There were enough small trees to make a litter, but nothing really to tie it together; unless he somehow utilized her pajamas. The sun was high in the sky now and it was much warmer, so he thought it might be better to travel at night when the exertion could keep him warm, but then he wouldn't be able to see where he was going.
As he sat next to her deciding what to do, he began to realize that the soft rhythmic sound he heard wasn't coming from the brook. Standing up and peering over the row of scrub lining the water, he realized that the clopping sound was a horse and he could just make out the image of it and its rider climbing the low rolling hillside toward them. Silently, he closed his eyes and raised his head in thanks; adding a second prayer that the rider was friendly. If he wasn't, Tommy had no qualms at all of relieving the man of his horse and taking his wife to safety.
Taking a deep breath, he readied himself, climbed a rather large rock for height, and began calling and waving toward the rider. In response, the horse seemed to pick up speed and move more quickly towards him, slowing down to a walk and pulling back just short; measuring Tommy just as cautiously as Tommy measured the stranger.
"I need help!" Tommy called from above and the rider moved in a bit closer. "My wife," Tommy called, "She's hurt. I need to get her to safety."
"What's your name stranger?" The man called, pulling up just under the rock and scanning the surrounding area as if expecting trouble.
"Tommy Oliver." Tommy answered, moving down the rocks a bit to get a little closer; himself still wary and cautiously keeping to the higher ground just in case.
But it wasn't the long rifle or the guns strapped against his thighs that held Tommy's interest; it was the man's face. He wasn't an exact double of Tommy, but he looked more like himself than he thought his twin brother David did. He had long hair that tumbled down the back of his worn red shirt, tucked back and held neatly from his face by an equally worn leather Stetson hat. Although he was darker in completion than Tommy, as if he spent a great deal of time outdoors in the sun, his hair and his eyes were lighter. Still, the resemblance was startling and left him wondering if he was looking at one of his alternates from another dimension. The stranger stared back at him, as if equally puzzled to see a duplicate of himself.
"And you are?" Tommy asked, regaining his wits a bit.
"Curtis Trueheart." The man answered easily with a slight western drawl, seeming to overcome his surprise as well. "Or Curtis Hart, take your pick. I'm known by both"
Tommy blinked twice at the man, stunned more by the name than the resemblance to himself. He had expected the man to say he had the same name, in which case he would know that he was an alternate and they were in an alternate dimension, but the man's last name was Trueheart, which was his brother's adopted family name, and Curtis Hart was the name of the founder of Hartland, Kimberly's family's homestead. Either they were in a warped alternate dimension, with an equally warped history, or they had fallen back through time. The man's words to Kimberly just before he'd tossed her into the portal came ringing back into his mind: You have only seconds before the Equaline wave reaches you. You have to go back far enough in time to stop it. If they had gone back in time, and the man in front of him, his living double in the past, was really Kim's great, great grandfather…she had some explaining to do.
"You said your wife needs help?" Curtis asked pointedly, taking in the other man's odd, torn clothing; not missing for an instant that he was dressed in black.
"She uh…fell and hit her head." Tommy explained, pointing to the rocks behind him. "I laid her down by the brook."
Curtis nodded and dismounted, rifle in hand, and keeping the man who looked so much like himself carefully in his sight in case it was a ruse. Always cautious, he never carried much of value with him when he traveled and always took care not to dress well enough to entice trouble, but he figured this was a legitimate rescue. He already knew the man's companion was bleeding and had to be carried. He was actually quite impressed the man in front of him made it as far as he did, considering his bare feet. He knew this spot well, it was one of the few places to refresh a canteen in-between Angel Grove and the Stone Canyon Indian Reservation.
"Lead on." Cutis said casually, giving Tommy a measuring look and pointing with the end of his rifle towards the rocks above.
Tommy understood the gesture with the rifle all too well. In order to lead the man to Kim, he'd have to turn his back and climb back up the rocks. If there was trouble, the man wouldn't hesitate to shoot him in the back. He returned an equally deadly measuring look, conveying he wouldn't be taken down easily if it was the stranger who intended trouble, then carefully turned and climbed back up the hill, all the while using every sense he had in him to gauge the stranger's progress and counter attack if the man made a wrong move.
All was well though and they reach the crest of the hill with no problems on either end. Kim's body was lying in the shade where he'd left her and he moved to the side of her that would give him the best advantage to protect them both if the stranger made trouble.
Curtis didn't miss the man's actions. He already knew from his tracks across the desert that he moved swiftly and carefully; light on his feet despite the weight of his body and the body he carried. In person he noted the corded muscles of his exposed legs and arms. He moved fluidly and catlike, the way old Abraham moved when he exercised or practiced the strange drills from his homeland. But any reservations Curtis may have had about just who the man next to him was, melted when he recognized the figure laying underneath the rocky overhand.
"Lord Almighty." He swore, tossing his rifle into his left hand an reaching out to lift the strands of hair that had blown across her pale face. "If it ain't Miss Kimmee herself." He murmured softly. Turning to Tommy's surprised face, he asked. "What did you say your name was?"
"Tommy Oliver." He responded. "You know Kim?" He asked incredulously. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised. Kim hadn't told him half of what she really did for the guardians and most of what he did know he'd obtained from surreptitiously reading her diaries.
"Tommy…" He said softly to himself as if remembering something amusing.
"You know my wife?" Tommy asked again. If the man in front of him knew Kim, then there was a much better chance they weren't lost at all but had reached the destination they were sent to.
"Not many in these parts don't know Calamity Kim" Curtis responded with a grin.
Tommy reared back as if stunned. As a teenager, Kim had told him of her adventures after accidentally falling through a time portal into Angel Grove's past; of how she'd been named Calamity Kim. Years later, when attending a museum function, he'd actually stumbled across an exhibit that contained a reference to her along with a faded old photograph. She had also told him, he now remembered, that there had been a boy in Angel Grove's western past that had looked enough like him to be his double; he'd been called the white stranger.
He watched now as the man lowered his rifle to the rocky surface and began a careful examination of Kimberly; much the same way he had when they'd first fallen through the vortex. Satisfied that nothing was broken or out of place, he returned to look again at her dislocated shoulder and then her head wound. As he lifted the makeshift bandage, he took a moment to analyze the stretchy nature of the fabric, then tossed it aside and looked more closely at the injury itself.
"How long has she been out cold like this?" He asked, not looking around.
"Since we arrived." Tommy answered, watching him closely. He couldn't remember if Kim had told the man anything about the future or not, then remembered something Kim had told him about her family's founder; he'd been a Ranger…a very powerful one.
Curtis looked up at the sky and the position of the sun as if calculating something, then looked back at Tommy. "And she hasn't woken up since?"
Tommy shook his head. Kim had moaned and murmured occasionally, but for the most part had never regained consciousness.
"There's a piece of rock embedded in her skull." Curtis noted, rolling back on his knees and regarding Tommy seriously. "Whatever she hit when the vortex spit her out, she hit it hard."
Tommy blinked at the man's casual mention of the vortex, taking it as a further confirmation of the man's status as a fellow Ranger, but simply nodded.
"We got two choices." He said seriously. "We've got one horse with us. Angel Grove's about an hour, hour and a half, ride due west at full gallop. I can take her to Doc Cranston and he can see what he can do…or I can transport her directly to the Command Center."
Tommy blinked at the last words; they were like music to his ears. The Command Center. That meant Zordon. If they were in Angel Grove's past, that meant Zordon was alive. Emotion coursed through every fiber in his body; physically shaking him to the core. Zordon was still alive in this time zone. The questions he could ask, the advice he could seek, there was so much that had been left undone... he blinked, the Command Center also meant modern technology to help Kimberly. But something about the way the other man had said it gave him reason to pause; then he realized he had spoken in Eltaran.
"There's no option then but the second." He answered in the same language.
If it had been a test, he apparently passed it. Without asking, Curtis nodded his head, picked Kimberly up as if she were no more than a feather light rag doll, then stood up and walked closer. "You best hang on." He advised, then reached for something on his belt buckle and within seconds Tommy felt the familiar pull of Zordon's old transport beam.
"Ai yi yi!" The familiar voice of Alpha called as they reemerged in a room that was hauntingly familiar, yet distinctly different from the one Tommy remembered in his youth. It looked very much the same as it had when he was a teen, although several key pieces of instrumentation were missing. He couldn't remember if that was his faulty memory or if it was because they simply hadn't been invented yet, but it didn't really matter.
"Zordon," Curtis said, looking up at his Power Tube, "You were right, it was a time vortex. Miss Kimmee's back and she brought her husband with her this time…but she's hurt."
"Ai yi yi!" Alpha fussed as he approached form the side of the chamber. "Calamity Kim's come back to us Zordon! And just when we need her most too."
"She's hurt Alpha." Curtis told the robot patiently, lifting her ever so slightly to indicate she needed treatment. "I think there's a piece of rock still embedded in the wound on her head."
"Oh my…" Alpha fretted. "Curtis, please place her on the examination table. Wait, did you say she brought her husband with her?" He asked, turning around and leaning his metallic body ever so slightly to get a better look at the newcomer. "That's odd, no alarms sounded when he entered."
"Zordon, Alpha," Curtis said as he placed Kim on what looked to Tommy to be an absolutely ancient computer automated medical bed, "This is Miss Kimmee's husband, Tommy Oliver ."
"Welcome Tommy." Zordon's voice boomed from above him. "I am Zordon, an interdimensional being caught in a time warp."
Tommy felt his body actually begin to tremble as he stared up at the great mentor and friend that he had lost so long ago. His emotions threatened to overwhelm him and for a moment he couldn't speak; his eyes misted and his throat clenched. Remembering himself, he nodded politely in greeting, reminding himself firmly that he had to remember this wasn't his Zordon. It was a Zordon of Earth's past who had never known him.
"Zordon." He managed finally, smiling wistfully and managing another nod of greeting.
"I am very pleased to meet the husband of such a trusted and valued friend as our Kimberly." The great master continued. "She has spoken only briefly of her future friends and teammates and I now assume that you are among those who will fight with her in Earth's future to defend the safety and security of the galaxy."
Tommy grinned in earnest by the description. "Yes, yes I am." He managed, his eyes twinkling. It was strange to be introduced as Kim's husband. It felt good, but it was also a bit odd. This was his home turf, he was back where it had all begun for him, yet he was the stranger and she the comrade who had returned home to them. He glanced over and watched as Alpha ran his scans, praying she was alright.
"While it is never good to learn too much of one's own future." Zordon replied, drawing his attention back to his old friend and mentor. "I am pleased to know that the Power will continue to flourish for many years yet to come."
"We have our struggles." Tommy answered cryptically, not sure how much to say. "But the Power has remained with us."
"That is good to hear." Zordon said in a tone that brought many, many memories bubbling to the surface of his mind. "However, while you are here, in what you would consider to be Earth's past, I must warn you, as I have warned Kimberly, not to speak openly of what is to become our future if it can possibly be avoided."
"I understand Zordon. I'm not unfamiliar with the rules you're imposing."
In response, Zordon smiled knowingly down at him and he felt his heart clench. He had missed his old teacher more that anyone knew. He had been the only one besides Alpha and Lerigot to know that Zordon was going home and the only one Zordon had confided in that he didn't feel he'd ever return. His younger self had been sad at the time, but very proud and confident, perhaps too confident, to be handed the reins. He hadn't known though that the old wizard would actually die. He had always thought the great master would live forever, would always be there if he ever needed help; that there was time to learn the wisdom from him that he had to offer.
Zordon's death had crushed him. For the first time in his life he felt completely alone and totally helpless. The overwhelming burden of the mantle of leadership had fallen on him like a lead weight. That was when he'd cultivated the persona which made people wary of him. He didn't believe, as his wife did, that people were actually afraid of him. True, those who knew who he was would quickly scatter out of his way or cross the hall rather than confront him, but he'd needed that kind of aura. He was Earth's representative of the Power Rangers and there were Intergalactic leaders who sniffed at dealing with a human, let alone a human as young as he was. He didn't think the great master before him would approve, but he hadn't been able to figure out another way to command that kind of respect.
"I believe your arrival in this time period to be fortuitous Tommy." Zordon said, breaking into his thoughts. "I have sensed a dangerous disturbance in the morphin grid."
"What kind of disturbance?" Tommy asked, frowning and shifting instantly back into leader mode. Zordon didn't miss the shift and neither did Curtis. Tommy was instantly alert, his shoulders back, the aura of confident leadership surrounding him. Curtis had never seen a man snap from concerned husband and passive bystander to complete warrior mode that fast. This was a man not to be underestimated; who was more than just a simple Ranger.
"I was hoping that you would be able to tell me." Zordon responded, surprising him. "It has become a precedent of sorts," he continued, smiling gently, a soft humor set in his eyes, "That with the arrival of Calamity Kim, also comes the arrival of an answer to the mysteries we are facing."
Tommy wasn't sure if Zordon was teasing him, but it kind of felt that way. He wondered briefly just how many times Kimberly had been back to this time period. He knew only of the one adventure in high school, but he realized she'd been far more active in Earth's past than he'd assumed. The Zordon in front of him appeared to know her well; as did the man who had rescued him.
"Ai yi yi," Alpha cried, drawing his attention. "You were quite correct Curtis." Alpha said approvingly. "There is a tiny fragment right there."
Setting a hand held device, Alpha lowered it and pointed it toward her head. A blue light activated and a small tractor beam gently pulled a long, razor thin shaving of rock from the wound; making Tommy blanch. It didn't look small at all to him; it looked huge and he was very grateful that he hadn't tried his brother's trick of telepathically closing the injury on his own. Several other small pellets of debris also fell into the metal collection tray Alpha held out and Tommy winced in concern, stepping forward and placing a gentle hand on her bare foot.
"Will she be alright Alpha?" He asked and Curtis looked up to regard him curiously, noticing the hand absently caressing her foot and the concern on the other man's face and voice.
He liked what he saw, he realized. There weren't many men he'd approve of for Miss Kimmee. He had a good notion that this one was powerful. He moved and spoke as if he was used to being obeyed and he had no doubt about his ability to fight, yet he showed no qualms about openly showing his concern and affection for her while she was hurt. In his experience, that was a rare combination.
"She'll be just fine Tommy." Alpha reassured, taking the tray and placing it off to the side. Adjusting the device again, he began the process of sealing the wound. "We have the best technology in the galaxy at our disposal," he announced proudly. "She'll simply need to stay here for a few hours while the computer deals with the swelling and monitors her for any changes, but then we'll be able to send her right back out there again in no time."
Tommy smiled indulgently, thinking again the medical bed looked positively archaic to him. To a normal person of the twenty-first century, the table might still look advanced, but considering the devices Billy had just installed in their home base…there was simply no comparison. The smile melted as he heard her moan softly and anxiety coursed through him again. Watching her pale form on a medical bed was all too close to the memory of sitting beside her helplessly as she lay dying after Kemora's attack; as well as the nightmares of losing her all together.
"I'm gonna head back then." Curtis said, drawing Tommy's attention. The two men locked eyes and Curtis nodded, acknowledging that he would stand aside and allow the other man to keep the vigil over her; something he would not have done for anyone else. "I'll be back in a few hours with the wagon and change of clothes for both of you. Unless," He added with a wicked grin, "You feel like arriving at the ranch in your black long johns."
It was nearly six anxious hours later that Kimberly began to stir in earnest and, although Alpha had assured him that she was completely out of danger and simply sleeping, Tommy breathed a massive sigh of relief when her finally eyes fluttered open. She smiled at the huge grin on his face, wondering what he was up to, then paused mid stretch as she realized they weren't in their bedroom.
"Where am I?" She asked, forehead knotting in concern. The pad beneath her was even harder than the tiny mattress they shared at home, if that were possible, and the lights were all wrong. She blinked hard, trying to more quickly adjust her sleepy eyes.
"Hey, stay still." He urged softly. "You landed on your head. You're on a medical bed in the old Command Center."
"I'm where?" She asked, trying to understand what he was talking about.
"Do you remember?" He asked, concerned and wondering if he should call Alpha back. He and Zordon had both gone to another part of the Command Center, leaving the main area with dimmed lights while she slept.
"No." She said, in a worried voice.
"What's the last thing you remember?" He asked anxiously, hand reaching out to take hers.
"Talking about having kids." She responded. "Then I rolled over and went to sleep."
Tommy breathed another huge sigh of relief and kissed the hand; closing his eyes and pressing his cheek against it in a gesture that made her realize how worried he'd been. He'd been nervous for a second that she might have lost her memory. The human brain was incredibly fragile; even the technology in their home time zone couldn't always repair it properly. Carefully, he went back over the details of everything that had happened since the blue light had filtered its way into his office and drawn his attention.
"An Equaline wave…" She murmured, brow knotted and lips thin. "That's not good at all.
"What's an Equaline wave?" He asked in return.
"A side effect of a massive adjustment in the space time continuum." She responded, and he could tell by her face that it wasn't a good kind of adjustment. "It throws the balance of power in the universe completely to hell. Both sides avoid them at all cost. They're unpredictable, impossible to control, and not easy at all to fix. Time never goes back the right way afterward; it always shifts and turns out differently."
"So what do you think Ulysses wanted you to do?"
"Stop it before it starts." She responded gravely. "If I can. That's really all you can do with an Equaline wave. Trouble is, I don't know what I'm looking for. It could be anything, anything at all. A minor event a thousand miles from here that seems unimportant or something major right in front of me. Are you sure he didn't say anything else? Ulysses traveling to the future…that's just…odd. He wouldn't do that. He follows the continuum rules very strictly."
"That's all I heard." He replied and silently agreed with the soft curse she uttered in response. "So…you've traveled to this time period before?" He asked.
"You know I have." She answered, rolling over and sitting up, then yawned and rubbed her eyes sleepily. "Wow, my head hurts." She muttered as the fingers moved from her eyes to her temples. He noticed that her fingers gently probed the now healed and cleaned area of her wound; indicating to him that it was still probably tender.
"I meant after you fell through by accident the first time."
"A few times." She answered vaguely, not meeting his eyes.
Inwardly he groaned; Kim not meeting his eyes was never a good thing. "And Curtis Hart…he's the founder of your grandfather's Ranch right?" He asked pointedly and she winced, anticipating where he was going and marveling once again that he could put things together so fast. "The one who built the house we're renovating?" He inquired and she nodded, trying to silently formulate in her aching head the answer to the question she knew was coming. "Yet the one who looks more like my twin brother than my actual twin brother."
"He's Tom's descendant." She confirmed. "From his third son that migrated up the coast into the Yukon Territory, then back down into San Francisco."
Tommy nodded in understanding. He'd been so excited as a teenager to learn that he might have had ancestor in Angel Grove's past; a missing link to where he'd come from. He'd been bitterly disappointed to learn that Kimberly's "white stranger" had been a descendant of his clone, but had still taken the time to track down Tom's decedents; just in case he might be able to draw a link to them.
"Yet all those kids are supposedly…" He began, but she shushed him.
"Don't talk about it." She scolded. "Even here. It's not safe and you put the Zordon of our past in danger if he overhears you…which he does. He knows everything that goes on in here."
"So basically," He said, changing directions and formulating his question another way. "Your ancestor is a descendent of…" and he left it hanging. They both knew what he was talking about. Her grandfather was the descendent of a child of his alternate in another dimension; a child of either an alternate Kat or an alternate Kimberly.
"No." She answered, shaking her head firmly and really wishing he hadn't as her headache increased its intensity. "There was blip."
"A blip…" He repeated sternly, not willing to let her off that easily.
"Curtis was married twice." She explained, "Or will be married twice depending on what year we landed in."
"1887." He provided and she nodded, mentally reviewing her knowledge of the time span.
"Then he should be getting married again fairly quickly." She murmured. "Anyway his first wife was a young Indian girl who's name meant Twilight. I honestly don't know much about her. There are no historical records and Curtis doesn't speak about her much other than to say they were really young; he was only about fifteen himself." She paused and Tommy had the distinct impression she was leaving something major out of the equation. "The only thing I know for sure is that, after she died, I know the that there was a sister of hers raising two boys with the last name of Trueheart alongside her own up on the reservation."
She paused again, thinking, and when she didn't continue, he prodded, "And the blip that concerns you is…"
"Oh…" She answered, blinking in surprise as if she'd lost her train of thought. "Uhm, the second wife also came with two children. The funny thing is, there are no records that they weren't his kids and no one in the Hart family ever spoke about an adoption or her having another husband. There was a fire that wiped out most of Angel Grove in 1890, and took almost all the written records with it, and the two children themselves grew up apparently never knowing they'd been adopted."
"How did you find out then?" He asked.
"Zordon." She answered. "When I came back the first time and looked into the genealogy of everybody to see what happened to them, I realized Curtis was Junior's father. Junior Hart was my grandfather's father. I guess I freaked out…well, that's putting it mildly." She laughed, giving him a look that indicated she'd completely overreacted. "Zordon told me the truth, that Curtis's wife had been married before and had two children by that husband. I guess I shouldn't have been so disturbed by it. I mean, there's multiple, multiple generations between us and Tom's children…more than two hundred years."
"It would still have been bizarre." He added, and she grinned at him in understanding. To be both an ancestor and a descendant at once wouldn't be a good anomaly at all.
"You're awake!" Curtis's voice rang through the chamber and she turned with a huge, enthusiastic grin.
"Curtis!" She squealed, sliding down off the bed and throwing her arms around the man.
"I'm glad to see you up and about Miss Kimmee." He murmured as he returned the embrace, then let her go with a little self conscious push backward; she was another man's wife now and he wasn't exactly sure how that husband would react to him hugging her. Glancing up cautiously, he was relieved to see the man seemed indulgently amused. Miss Kimmee was like family to him and it would be hard to keep from showing her affection if her husband forbade it; besides, it had been a tough afternoon and he'd needed the hug.
"What's wrong?" Kim asked, drawing both his attention and Tommy's.
"It's nothing." He murmured, surprised she'd picked up on his mood, yet not really surprised at all considering just who she was. "I'm thrilled to bits your back and you're alright. I just had some sad news when got back to the ranch. That's what delayed me, I'm sorry."
Kim shook her head. "I just woke up a few minutes ago." She answered dismissively. "What's happened?"
"Nothing much in the grand scheme of the universe." He replied in his typical way of saying it wasn't anything that required the attention of the Rangers yet was important to him personally. "You remember my neighbor's wife Caroline Carson?" He asked.
Kim nodded and suppressed a grin. Of course she knew who Caroline was. Curtis had had a massive crush on his married neighbor for years; although he'd never admit to it. If it was 1887, then that meant her husband would soon meet a tragic end and Curtis would waste no time in attaching himself to the pretty widow. Caroline, unfortunately, didn't care much for Calamity Kim at all, but Kim found it more amusing than irritating. The woman was her blood relative; her true ancestor. She fully expected him to say that the husband keeping them apart was dead, but those were not the words that followed.
"Her little son passed this morning." He explained. "Shocked all of us to the core. Miss Alicia's all distraught, she can't hardly talk for bawling over the boy. He wasn't even two years old yet."
Kim froze, a deep hollowness forming in the pit of her stomach and the color draining from her face so quickly that both men stepped forward at once to catch her if she feinted. Tommy was quicker and Curtis stepped back before he collided with him; allowing the man to be the first to reach his wife.
"What is it?" Tommy asked, frowning as deeply as Curtis; both of them worried it might have something to do with her head injury.
"Her son?" Kim asked breathily, and Curtis frowned at her tone. It was about as close to panicked as he'd ever heard from her.
"The only one she's got." He answered. "Little Frank Junior."
"Oh my God." Kim breathed, this time literally collapsing with her back against Tommy. Both men shot each other concerned looks as Tommy's arms came around her.
"What is it Beautiful?" He asked softly, arms tightening around her as he felt her trembling.
"Junior…" She answered.