Dillon waited by the car. The others had long since left for the garage and he made sure to get regular updates from Dr. K. Ziggy was still in the park. He hadn't moved, actually, from the last place he'd stopped. So Dillon waited. And waited some more. After an hour and a half, and just as the sun was beginning to set, he saw him. Ziggy trudged to the car and climbed into the passenger seat. His eyes were red and there were streaks through the dirt on his cheeks. He didn't say a word and Dillon didn't prompt it. He just walked around to the other side and started to drive home.
"Why'd you lie? Mama lies. People who love you don't lie to you," he finally asked, looking down at his hands. If Dillon didn't have super human hearing, he's not sure he would have heard it at all.
"Would you have believed the truth? You didn't know where you were, didn't recognize us, you didn't trust us at all. We do love you, Ziggy, but we had to keep you safe." Ziggy sighed deeply and stared out the window.
"So I didn't get hit on the head and my mama isn't out there somewhere waiting for me. So what really happened?" he asked. Dillon took a deep breath. It wouldn't do any good to lie anymore, so he told him the whole thing. He told him how it was fifteen years into the future for all Ziggy knew. He told him about the weapon, about the testing, about the molecular rewrite. Ziggy poked at his stomach at that part, but otherwise remained quiet. Dillon told him about what a good guy he was, how he was happy, how he didn't want to be a ranger at first but really rose to the challenge. He told Ziggy how he was glad to know him, but that he missed his best friend very much.
"Were you just bein' nice to me 'till I could grow up again?" Ziggy looked at him, finally, and he glanced down into the tear-streaked face. It was a lot to put on a little kid. Dillon shook his head.
"No, we're nice to you because we're your friends. We care about you no matter what size you are." Ziggy nodded and turned away again. He pressed his face against the window and watched the buildings fly by.
"Do I help people? Do I chase their monsters away?" Ziggy asked quietly.
"You helped a lot of people for a long time before you became a Power Ranger. You keep people safe, you always have," he answered. Ziggy smiled a little at that, but he didn't ask any more questions.
Everyone was waiting for them when they pulled into the garage. Even Dr. K was out of her lab, the little gun that started it all in her hands. Summer clutched the bear she had given Ziggy and, when he got out of the car, ran over to hug him. When he didn't hug back, she pulled back and looked at him, searching his face.
"I'm not a baby." He started to walk towards Dr. K but stopped and thought for a minute. He walked back to Summer and took the bear from her hands. Clutching it tight, and looking rather more like the baby he insisted he wasn't, he approached Dr. K. Her eyes widened and she actually took a step back.
"I think I'd like to go home now, please," he said, looking up at her with wide, expectant eyes. She opened her mouth and Dillon could tell she was about to start a tirade on how he wouldn't actually be going home, how it wasn't as if time travel was involved, and he'd actually just cease to exist rather than go back fifteen years to his mother. Dillon stopped her before she could start.
"Is it ready yet, Doc? That's all he wants to know." She nodded.
"It's untested, but it's as ready as it will ever be." She beckoned them into the lab and they all crowded behind her computers. Ziggy stood alone in the middle of the open room.
"We reversed the polarities," Gem said, rubbing his eyes. They'd been working round the clock and all three looked about ready to collapse.
"It should revert him back to the exact molecular state from the time of the accident." Gemma said. "He probably won't remember any of this anymore than he did when he first woke up." They all nodded. Nobody really understood it, but it was easier to go along with it.
"Wait!" Dillon wasn't sure what he was stopping exactly. They hadn't even started yet, but he wanted to make something very clear to the little boy who would soon disappear completely. He walked over and knelt in front of Ziggy. He straightened the little green shirt, brushed the hair out of his face, and then sighed.
"You'll be okay, right?" Ziggy smiled, the first real smile that evening.
"All I ever wanted was somebody to love me." He reached out and wrapped his little arms around Dillon's neck. Dillon squeezed him back and smiled. There was his Ziggy, the best friend he knew and loved. He'd missed him.
"You have people who love you. We're right here. And you know you'll find us, right?" Ziggy pulled back and nodded. Dillon left him standing alone in the middle of the room and trotted back to the others. Summer had tears in her eyes again but she was smiling. Scott ruffled his hair.
"Dillon, I didn't know you were such a big softie," he said. Dillon grimaced.
"Can we just get on with it?" he asked, looking at Dr. K. She nodded and fired the gun three times off to the side. She checked the readings and then handed it to Ziggy.
"Point it toward that corner and just push this button, okay?" He nodded, aimed, and when Dr. K was safely out of the way, fired. The force knocked him back and he dropped the bear, but a blue light emanated from the back of the gun and froze him mid-air. They watched as it pulsed and vibrated until it finally popped, the gun clattering to the floor. Ziggy landed with a loud thump next to it, unconscious, and fully grown.
