Episode II
Truth and Lies
Chapter Nine
Kimberly gasped with a start as her eyelids snapped open, convulsions shooting up and down her body as if a wintery gust had blown over and through her. Instantly, she tightened her hold on her sheets and blankets, tugging them up to her jaw line. Sticky sweat trailed from her forehead down past her neck, gluing her pajamas to her skin, but she did not lift her hand to wipe off the sweat from her face. Instead, she lay there curled in a fetal position on the left side of her queen sized sleigh bed, dazed by shock, confusion… and terror.
A faint, remote fear grazed the hairs on the back of her neck, ever so slightly yet rough, as if the very air behind her had sprouted intangible, sharp fingernails, gently scraping the tops of the hairs on the back of her neck. The very sensation made her squirm. Yet she still did not sit up. She did not even look behind her, terrified at the phantom lurking beyond her gaze.
For a brief moment she did not remember where she was.
At first, darkness danced in front of her eyes in a haze among diluted reds and blues.
What's going on? she panicked, darting her eyes everywhere in front of here. "I can't see anything!"
Within half a moment however, the masses of red shrank into focus as the red digital numbers displayed on her alarm/radio clock upon her bedside table.
3:24am? Kimberly thought as she read the display. "What?" she breathed; her voice quivering as she shivered again. Wonder swung within her. It was not like her to wake up with a jolt in the middle of the night, let alone soaked in a cold sweat.
What am I doing up—why am I shivering? It's warm. Her thoughts echoed and overlapped in her mind. Is the window— did I leave one open?
Still trembling, she craned her neck, but both sets of windows in her bedroom were closed just like she had checked before turning in earlier that night. Not just that, but the room was complete deserted of people.
"Weird," she whispered, her voice steadier but not quite normal.
Kimberly sighed heavily. Not shivering as much now, she sat up, hugging her covers to her chest. The touch of them upon her skin gave her the illusion of comfort. Kimberly felt the source of her terror in the back of her mind, elusive and distant. Though she had never really experienced a night terror, Kimberly was fairly certain that she had just dreamt one. What scared her more was that she could not recall any of the details of it.
"Maybe it's better that way," she mused.
Absentmindedly running her index finger along the underside of her bare left ring finger, she swept her eyes around the entire room only to find again that no one else was with her or that anything was out of place.
That's odd, she thought. I could have sworn…
She then rested her gaze upon her left hand. Her eyes drooped at the sight of her naked hand. "I miss you," she murmured, thinking of her husband Jake who was off on a weeklong business trip. She drifted her gaze to her left, resting it upon a tiny prized and personal object in front of the alarm clock: her wedding ring, a thin silver band hosting a square diamond upon it. She reached over, grasped it, and held it in front of her. "But then it's probably good that you are out of town."
Kimberly was just letting herself getting too antsy because of what had occurred yesterday and the fact that she missed her husband, Jake.
Kimberly had grown into a stronger, more confident and independent woman during the past decade, more than when she was a power ranger, due to her training for the Pan Global Games and moving forward with her life beyond that.
Yet despite this, she could not deny that she wanted Jake to hold her in his arms, to offer assurance in her time of agony. The fact that she would have to keep all of this a secret from him was maddening. Jake was one of the kindest individuals she had ever met and would offer his help in anyway he could. That was what had first attracted Kimberly to him: his humanity. Unfortunately, due to Zordon's three rules and her promise to uphold them, she could not tell Jake anything.
Then I guess it's a good thing that you're gone for—
Just then, a frosty shiver erupted and rippled from her core thru her fingertips, hair, and toes. She buckled forward, her breath heaving.
What the—?
No matter how many times she tried to calm down, Kimberly's skin continued to crawl and refused to stop shuddering.
"Trini!"
The thought jumped into her mind out of the blue. And she went with it.
Kimberly did not waste time in pinpointing the source of the Extra Sensory information, not caring how she had discovered this information. All she needed to know was that Trini was in danger.
Snatching up her morpher from underneath her pillow, she launched out of her bedroom and down the hall toward the stairs without a single thought of putting on her robe.
Shivers rippled across Sean's cheeks and neck as he dug himself out of the moist dirt. His head felt as though it had been pummeled by a Viking's hammer swung by a gorilla. Sean's fatigue, coupled with Jason's onslaughts upon Trini's body and mind, had taken their toll on Sean.
He shook his head. Now was not the time to be down. He had work to do, and in order to do it, he had to be vigilant, not comatose.
As Trini shook with horror and disbelief, Jason appeared beside her, fully clothed in black—his hand resting upon her cheek. Kneeling down, he kissed her lips. I released your mind, he said, pulling away from her, But I never released you! His mental voice was cold and savage.
Stop talking! she whimpered in a trembling voice.
"Does it terrify you?" he asked innocently, as if he had just inquired if his shirt had a stain. "It shouldn't be." You used to not care if I spoke like this. You said it was sensual during our honeymoon.
Trini flinched, tossing her head to the side and curling her body into a fetal position away from Jason.
So why are you scared now?
She stretched her mouth open almost to the point of dislocation but no sound came out. Yet in her mind, she was screaming louder than she had in her life. And all the while, Jason's smile grew as he watched her with triumphant eyes. A chuckle rumbled in his throat which grew into a booming laugh.
Trini clamped her hands on her ears, shaking her head in a vain attempt to block out the evil laughter. Though her hands muffled the sound, she heard it clearly in her head. Stop it! she pleaded. Stop! Finally, panic overriding her fear, she mustered the courage and bellowed, "Please, stop!"
Jason leaned over the edge of the bed. "Why?" he whispered above her right ear with confidence. "You wanted to know the truth…" He glared at her. "This is the truth!"
Trini shook her head from side to side. "You're not my husband!" she gasped.
Jason lifted his eyebrows. "Really?" he asked. Chuckling, he raised his left hand. "Then what's this?"
Trini buried her face into her pillow.
"Look at my hand," Jason commanded. "You already know what's on it."
"No!" she whined in a whisper.
"Look at me," Jason said, pouring his power forward.
Without wanting to, Trini spun around, raising herself on her elbows. Her eyelids shot into her skull when she saw the yin designed ring wrapped around Jason's left ring finger.
"This is wrong!" Trini raved. "It's not right. Why isn't this right?" she added, speaking to no one particular.
"You've been living in a dream, Trini," Jason said, his eyes clutching her face intensely, "One that I created for you." He flicked and pointed his right index finger at her chest. Trini fell backward as if hit by a sandbag. "And it's time you remember what I used to be and discover what I am now."
Meanwhile, down the hall in the living room, Zack began to stir on the couch upon hearing Jason's laugher. "What is that?" he murmured with closed eyes. "Is that Jason?" Suddenly, Trini's bellow ringed in his ear. "Wait a minute—that's Trini! Oh, shit!" With that he bounded towards the guest bedroom door, seized the door handle, and twisted his wrist. To his dissatisfaction, the door handle refused to turn. "Come on!" he snarled in frustration, smacking the door with his other hand. "Trini! Open the door! Are you alright?"
In the bedroom, Jason glanced at the door, sniggering as he turned to Trini with menacing eyes. "Understand?" he asked.
Trini quivered at the sight on her husband's face as he crossed over to her.
"Zack!" Kimberly called as she sprinted down the hall. "What's going on?"
"I heard Jason laughing inside there, and then Trini wailed something; I can't get the door opened!"
"WHAT?" Kimberly shouted and began banging on the door. "Trini? Are you alright? Trini, answer me!"
On the other side of it, Jason smirked, keeping the black triumph burning in his eyes as he stared relentlessly at his fallen prey. It did not matter that Kimberly, Zack, and Sean were trying to rescue Trini; he had accomplished what he had wanted to do for almost six years. This had been his plan from the beginning—once he had turned completely evil—was to shatter the core of the rangers: their hearts. By traumatizing Trini and Tommy, he had spread ripples of discord throughout the power ranger team, making them easy prey for his attacks. Even now, sensing the friction within his former friends, he swelled with elation. Even Sean was weak—weaker than he should be.
Interesting…
"Don't you have a key?" Zack exclaimed as Kimberly shook the door handle so violently, he thought she was going to rip it out of the door.
"No; and we don't have time to look for one!" Kimberly declared in a strong voice, stepping back. "We need to teleport in there!"
"I don't have my morpher," Zack gasped, having just reached behind his back.
"Go get it," Kimberly ordered. "I'll hold him off!"
Zack shot her an objecting look, but before he could say anything, Kimberly spoke. "I know what I'm doing; I can handle him."
"But Kim, we don't even know what he's capable of—" Zack argued.
"He and I were both on Muiranthius!" Kimberly overlapped with a snap. "Trust me. Now get moving!"
Kimberly, you only know a fraction of what I can do, Jason thought to himself with a smirk.
Baffled by the confidence in Kimberly's face and voice, Zack jogged down the hallway toward his duffle bag. He was not sure if Kimberly was being courageous or moronic. He hoped it was the former.
Kimberly faced the door, taking deep slow breaths. "Hold on, Trini," she said. I just need to hold him off for a few minutes. One. Two. Three.
Instantly she dematerialized into crackling static pink energy, but instead of shooting upward through her ceiling, her newly energized body stretched forward horizontally into a pink conduit, phasing through the door. Her column stretched out both ways vertically once she had past the threshold of the door.
"Congratulations," Jason said, crossing to corner at the foot of the bed. "It took me almost three days to learn how to teleport."
"Get the hell out of my house!" Kimberly snarled, clutching her morpher behind her back.
"Kimberly, put your morpher down," Jason said. "You can't beat me now."
"And how would you know that?" Kimberly asked, recovering herself quickly.
"Because you've felt part of the power that's in me…" he began. He turned, staring her down while advancing toward her, "On Muiranthius after we were sacrificed."
"I remember, but I'm not like you," she declared, squeezing her morpher. "I'm a Power Ranger—something you forgot!"
Jason chuckled in response. "I didn't forget," he said simply, drifting his hand toward her shoulder. "How could I?" He added, resting his hand upon her shoulder.
Kimberly lost her composure for a second but grabbed it again. "It doesn't matter; you turned your back on what we stood for!"
"Did I? You sure about that?"
"You make me sick!" She slapped his arm away. "CRANE NINJETTI POWER!" Kimberly shouted in strength, her eyes blazing with courage. Instantly, waves of vibrant pink energy and beams of light shot out from her core and power coin, swirling around as they solidified into her Power Ranger outfit. "Now for the last time: get out of my house!"
"No!" Jason hissed, launching three simultaneous mini-fireballs from his palm like a cannon at her chest. She stumbled backward in a flurry of exploding sparks back towards the door, grabbing the doorframe for support, digging her feet into the ground.
"Is that… all you've got… Jason?" Kimberly demanded, in a breathy, but still powerful voice. The attack had winded her a bit. "You fought harder as a Power Ranger, or have you forgotten?
"I don't have amnesia, Kimberly," Jason said, striding towards her.
"I'm not… going anywhere!" she added as she pushed herself into a battle stance.
Before Kimberly could react, Jason seized the base of her helmet and slammed her head through the nearby dresser into the floor, cracking her helmet.
Pain flooded into Kimberly's head, numbing the rest of her body. She could not think. It hurt to open her eyes. The pain choked her senses, suffocating her.
"Stay… down!" Jason hissed.
Outside, Sean suppressed a shudder at Jason's violence upon Kimberly. Using his remote viewing, he saw Jason towering over Kimberly. Focusing on the negative space surrounding Jason's body, Sean funneled the rest of his ESP into his remote viewing, inspecting the shape, texture, and colors of Jason's aura. It was as black as midnight during a new moon in late December, with under layers of deepest, and clearest red. Unsurprising, Sean noted that Jason's aura was nine feet in diameter.
Immediately, he shot his gaze to Trini. She was panting almost to the point of hyperventilating with her heart was about to punch out of her chest. But what grieved Sean under the surface was that drops of blood were leaking from her uterus.
I am so sorry you experienced this, he thought to himself. However, now was not the time for remorse. He had a job to do.
Digging into his pocket, he withdrew a metallic silver watch-like bracelet from it. It was almost the same as Zordon's teams' communicators except the outer circumference of the "face" was lined with eight transparent buttons, with tiny lights underneath each one. Without looking at it, he pressed a specific button with his thumb. It glowed blue.
Billy was sleeping somewhat comfortably, when he heard a familiar six beep tune he had designed nine years ago. Blinking his eyes with a slight moan, he reached into his pocket and pulled out an identical communicator. Seeing Sean's button flashing, he pressed it. "Yes, Sean?" Billy said with a hint of a sigh, while running a hand through his hair. Waking up for the second time in one night did nothing to help his mode. However, he suppressed as much of it as he could.
"Billy," Sean's voice breathed thru the speaker.
At once, Billy's eyes shot wide open, all fatigue forgotten. Though he had known Sean for the past eight and a half years, he had never heard Sean speak like this. His voice was drained, long winded, and strained.
"What's wrong?" Billy asked. "What's going on?"
"Jason just raped Trini, and is about to kidnap her," Sean reported. "You must intervene!"
However Billy did not hear Sean's last statement. His brain had frozen upon hearing the words, "raped Trini." For several seconds he sat there dumbfounded. Did I just hear that? he thought. Tell me I did not just hear that!
"Billy!" Sean yelled, his voice straining under the effort.
At once, Billy was torn from his thoughts.
"Yes, what else did you say?" Billy stammered.
"Jason is about to kidnap Trini," Sean repeated. "I am too weak to face him again. Therefore, you must!"
Billy hesitated for two seconds, and then recovered. "I will do what I can," Billy said in a strong voice with faint echoes of anxiety. He removed his finger from his communicator and reached for his morpher in the back of his belt.
"Would you like some help?" Tommy asked from the hallway, before Billy could utter a simple thought response to what he was just about to do.
Billy spun his head around. "Yes, I would," he said.
"Then let's do it," Tommy said, lifting his morpher.
Sean's thumb slid off his communicator as he slumped back onto the damp wall. "Thank you…" he said in voice indistinguishable from his breath, forcing his eyes to remain open. I have to keep it together, he thought. Stay focused… maintain balance.
He breathed in deeply, gathering his exhaustion into his lungs, and then exhaling it along with his breath. He repeated this four more times. As the semi-clarity washed over his mind, he felt Kimberly, assessing her injuries. She was alive. Sean sighed with relief. However, as soon as he discovered this, he thought of something else.
Where is Zack? he thought as he psychically hunted for the new Silver Ranger.
Not in the room… so he is outside… down the hallway… in the living room—There!
Zack was feverishly rifling through his duffle bag, cursing and muttering under his breath.
What are you looking for Zack? Sean asked himself. And the solution came to him: his morpher!
After Trini had gone to bed, Zack had placed his morpher in his luggage, still indecisive on to whether he wanted to be a power ranger.
Unfortunately, just as Sean surmised what Zack was looking for, Zack had found it and was lifting it in front of his chest, about to cry out, "It's morphin' time".
"No!" Sean exhaled. Out of all of the dangers this day had brought to him and the others, Zack morphing was second only to Jason's power.
Zack! Sean screamed into the silver ranger's mind.
"Whoa!" Zack exclaimed, rebounding into the sofa, and falling off the edge to the floor. Recovering his footing, he darted his awestruck face in all directions. "Sean, was that you?" he added, still panicky. Having a telepath shouting in one's mind when that person was not expecting it was, to say the least, a bit disturbing. And there was also the fact that Zack had not known Sean was a telepath.
Yes, Sean replied softer but still keeping his sense of urgency.
"Wow, this is new," Zack sighed, trying to recover his thoughts. "I didn't think this was possible."
I can imagine. Listen, you must not morph to fight Jason.
"What!" Zack exclaimed, outraged more than confused. "Kimberly and Trini are inside there with that psycho and you want me to not help them!? What kind of power ranger are you?"
A wiser one than you are right now, Sean replied. Though stung by Zack's accusations, Sean masked his hurt perfectly.
Unconvinced, Zack snorted. "Why should I trust you?" he asked with a snarl behind his voice.
There is no time to convince you, Sean continued. Billy is on the way—I believe bringing reinforcements. Trust him as you once did. Let him deal with this.
"He'll need help," Zack protested.
This is what I trained Billy for the past eight and a half years for, Sean said, his mental voice growing in strength and foundation. He is more capable than you are to handle this
"That's not going to stop me from helping," Zack muttered storming out the room.
Trini could die if you go in there, Zack.
With that final statement, Zack halted.
"What!" Zack spat. "What did you just say?"
You heard me… I need your help… more than she does. Sean's voice began to weaken.
"Sean?" Zack asked. "What?"
I am outside … the …guest bedroom window… Please, help me…
"Sean, are you alright? Say something!"
Don't… fight… Jas—
"Hello?" Zack asked, waiting to hear something. "Are you there?"
And the faintest of whispers drifted to his mind in response. Za—
Immediately, Zack bolted out of the room.
Jason strutted towards Trini, his hand floating toward hers. Trini recoiled, shuddering with stretched open eyes at the smile on her husband's face.
"How's that empathy of yours?" he whispered, lowering his hand.
"Don't touch her!" growled a female voice from behind.
Jason turned his head. Kimberly staggered to her feet, grasping the doorframe for support.
"Lie down, Kim," Jason said. "Lie down."
"Nnnno!" she stuttered, her wound throbbing more as her vision spun.
"Kim, you can barely stand—"
"Don't… call me that!" she spat, glaring serrated daggers at the supreme Monarch of Evil. "I—won't—let you—take her!"
Jason sighed, impressed, but slightly annoyed, though he didn't show it. In the time it took one to blink, Jason summoned and hurled a fireball twice the size of a bowling ball at Kimberly.
Kimberly threw up her arms defiantly to shield her face. She screamed as the force from the fireball hurled her through the door, crashing onto the hardwood hallway floor, still morphed.
For a few moments, Jason stared at her, his eyebrows raised in amazement.
Just then, two pairs of multicolored energy columns descended into the room.
Torn from his thoughts, Jason masked them with a smirk as the columns materialized into a morphed Billy, Tommy, Rocky, and Adam. Jason addressed each one of them in turn.
"Out of eight rangers, only five come to help," Jason smirked. "Imagine what would have happened if I had sent down a real attack."
"As if a rape wasn't a real attack?" Rocky retorted.
"This wasn't an attack," Jason added, meeting glances with Rocky. With an enormous grin on his face, Jason vanished in a bonfire of flames, leaving the others in state of baffled confusion.
Authors note: This is the final chapter. I hope you enjoyed the episode. Next episode will be called "Husband and Wife".
