A/N: Thank you so much for all of the positive reviews! I absolutely love reading them and I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the story! I will try to update a bit more often also!

(Billy)

"Today you use your weapons," Zordon told us once we reached the Pit and I clapped my hands together in an excited fashion. Jason looked back to all of us, struggling to keep his smile hidden.

"It's morphin' time," he said and fought the urge to smile.

Kim, Trini, and I laughed and Zack scoffed, rolling his eyes. "It doesn't sound cool when we're about to train. It just sounds cheesy."

Jason let out a little laugh, and we all morphed, feeling the armour cover by bodies, inch by inch. Their visors disappeared, as did mine. Jason's Power Sword materialized in his hand and Zack began laughing.

"Woah-hoh-hoh," he said, a large smile on his face. "Can I try using that?"

"You got your own thing," Jason said, none of us knowing what Zack's special weapon was yet. No one else had used their weapon yet and we were all a little curious to see what everyone else's weapons were. A large, black axe materialized in Zack's hand and he looked to Jason, flipping it in his hand and catching it easily by the handle. "You got an axe, that's pretty cool," I encouraged and Zack gave a modest shrug. A pink and white bow appeared in Kim's hands and all of us had the same, amazed reaction.

"Yo, that is awesome!" Zack exclaimed and we all went over to Kim, Zack looking over her shoulder and examining her bow.

"Where…" Trini asked, walking over and glancing at Kim's back, not seeing a quiver present. "Where are the arrows?" She gave a small shrug and Zack laughed a little. He set his axe down on the ground and grabbed the bow from her hands, looking to us.

"Maybe you just use it like this," Zack said and grabbed the upper limb with both hands and began to swing it down. Kim, Jason, and Trini laughed a little but, suddenly, Zack shouted out in pain and dropped the bow, backing up from it. "Ow!" He looked to his hands and shook them out.

"What happened?" I asked as Kim picked up her bow.

"It burned my hands!"

"You can not use each other's weapons," Zordon announced and we all looked up, towards the sound of his voice.

"Well, you coulda told me that before," Zack scoffed and Jason pointed to Zack's axe that was on the cave floor.

"I told you, you have your own thing."

A large, blue and white lance appeared in my right hand, with sharp spikes on both ends, and I gave a hoot.

"Woo!" I shouted.

"What is that?" Zack asked, looking to my weapon.

"It's a javelin," Kim answered.

"Actually, it's a lance," I told them and looked to Jason with excitement. "Jason, I got a lance, look!"

"I see it, Billy," Jason laughed, looking at my weapon. Two daggers formed in Trini's hands, one in each hand, and she twirled the one in her left hand, inspecting them.

"I got daggers!" She exclaimed.

"Isn't that Tommy's weapon?" Zack asked, looking over to Tommy.

Tommy sat against a rock nearby, simply watching us train with a frown on his face. His hands were tied together by special handcuffs as a precaution for today.

Four days since we found out Tommy is slowly being controlled by Rita and Zedd and it has only gotten worse. Four days ago, he stabbed Jason with his Dagger which wasn't a pretty sight, but it wasn't entirely life-threatening either. Jason was still complaining about his side being sore and sat out of training the day after he was stabbed, but was back to training the day after. Three days ago, however, Tommy attacked Trini out of the blue just as her and Zack got back with her change of clothes and also tried to attack Alpha. Two days ago, Tommy morphed involuntarily and, although he was fine and calm, he couldn't demorph, no matter how hard he tried for hours. And yesterday, Tommy nearly broke Zack's wrist and it took Jason, Trini, and Kim to pry him off. Today, right as we arrived for training, Zordon ordered us to bind Tommy's wrists and have two people constantly watch him, while the other three trained. We'd rotate, but during mine and Trini's watch earlier, Tommy began morphing and I reacted quickly by splashing an open bottle of water on him, not knowing if it would even work or not. He snapped out of it and seemed to be fine ever since, but we all knew that we couldn't just throw water on him and hope for the best.

We were all extremely worried about Tommy hurting one of us, but Jason told us we shouldn't be worried. Tommy was our teammate and we were going to keep him with us at all times, as to not let Rita and Zedd get to him.

"Yeah, but you got two small ones. Tommy has a big one," I said back.

Kim began to tug a little at the string and an arrow appeared on the rest. However, she wasn't expecting it, and released the string before realizing the arrow had appeared and fired it near Jason's leg. He quickly caught it thanks to pure reflex and gave her a surprised look. He dropped the arrow and chuckled, shaking his head at her.

"You trying to take me out or something?" He joked and she chuckled back.

"I'm so sorry!" She quickly apologized after her small giggle. "I didn't know they just appeared when I pulled back."

Zack spoke up, changing the topic.

"Bring on the Putties!" He shouted, and five training Putties rose from the ground. He pushed past Kim and I, who were near the front of the team, and spun the axe in his hand. "I got first."

The four of us exchanged half-annoyed, half-amused glances before watching Zack swing his axe across the head of the closest Putty, ducking a punch from the second, and hitting that Putty directly in the stomach. I glanced over to Jason, who pursed his lips, impressed, as Zack easily seemed to be one with his weapon, just like how I already felt with mine even though I just now saw it. He received a blow from the third Putty and I winced a little at the sight, as it looked like it hurt. Zack recovered quickly, however, and hit the same Putty with his axe in an uppercut fashion, the Putty's head exploding on impact from the axe. Zack switched his grip to clutching the handle of the axe with both hands. By accident, it seemed, the bottom of his axe slid down a bit and a purple blast came from the bottom of his axe, colliding with the ground and sending the remaining two Putties flying; as well as Zack. We all watched as he flew back into a cave wall, sliding down and landing face first on the ground.

"Zack!" Jason shouted and we quickly ran over, even Tommy. Kim bent down, the rest of us staring in shock at Zack's motionless body.

"Zack?!" Kim shouted and shook him. "Zack?!" she repeated, more frantic.

"That…" Zack started to say, his voice slightly muffled from being face down. I breathed a sigh of relief that he was ok. "Was awesome!" he finished and pushed himself up, Kim standing up as well. Zack began to laugh and everyone else laughed back, including me, a bit nervous and forced as I wanted to ask Zack if he was ok. "Oh, man! That was like...that was like a cannon!"

"A cannon?" Trini asked with a scoff and Zack nodded eagerly.

"Like a...cosmic cannon!"

Everyone paused, looking at each other and trying to keep from laughing, before Kim finally broke. When she broke and burst out laughing, we all started laughing as well.

"That is a stupid name," she laughed and walked back over to where we were standing before. Zack gave Jason, Trini and I a confused look and Jason just shrugged, agreeing with Kim. Zack narrowed his eyes at Jason in a joking way and we walked back over to Kim. Zack slowly followed and Kim looked back to the rest of us. I inspected my lance as we headed over to her and looked up once she spoke.

"Let me show you guys how it's really done," she said and turned back to wear the Putties were to spawn. Tommy went back over to where he was sitting and I eyed him carefully.

"Oooooh," Zack said in a low voice sarcastically, putting his palms up and out. "We got a real badass over here, huh?"

"Oh, shut-" Kim began to say, but was interrupted by Zordon.

"Rangers, meet in the Command Center," Zordon told us and we all nodded, demorphing, our weapons disappearing with our suits. Since I was closest to Tommy, I helped him up and firmly held onto his arm while walking towards the Command Center.

"Billy, can I ask you something?" Tommy whispered, looking back briefly to the rest of the team, who were all trailing behind us. My nerves relaxed, as this was the real Tommy talking.

"Um, ok, yeah. Anything."

"Do you think Kim would wanna go out with me? Like...like on a date?" He asked and I opened my mouth, about to say something, but stopped. I believed that Kimberly was already with Jason, since the two were always so close and Zack told me that him and Trini saw them kiss. If they were together, they did keep it professional during training and around the team, though.

Tommy laughed a little at my expression. "I mean, not now," he said, misreading why I had the expression I did on my face. "Once this whole Rita thing blows over and I'm back to normal, I mean. She's super cute, though, and I wanna give it a shot. But you've known her longer than I have and know her better than I do, so...do you think she'd be interested?"

"Uh, well…" I said slowly in a low voice. "I think her and...and Jason are already...y'know…"

"They are?" Tommy asked, looking back again, a small frown on his face. "I was not aware."

"Yeah, well, Trini and Zack said they saw them kiss before...so…"

"Ah, ok," Tommy sighed and nodded to me, forcing a smile. "Thanks for letting me know before I asked her, Billy."

"Yeah," I stuttered out. "Yeah, no problem."

We reached the Command Center and Tommy sat down against a wall while the rest of us went to Zordon, looking up at him.

"What's up, Zordon?" Jason asked.

"Rita and Zedd are here," Zordon said with his usual bluntness and I quickly shot my head over to my team.

"What?" Zack scoffed.

"Sensors are going off the charts," Alpha sighed. "The only explanation as to how that can be is that both Rita and/or Zedd are within a few miles of Angel Grove."

"Ok," Jason said, pausing. "What-"

He was interrupted when we heard the familiar sound of armour materializing, as someone was morphing. We all looked over to Tommy and saw it was him.

"Oh no…" Kim muttered and the five of us quickly ran over.

"Zack, Kimberly-morph!" Jason shouted and looked to Tommy, holding his arms out. "Tommy, Tommy! Stop, demorph!"

Zack and Kim morphed and grabbed Tommy's shoulders, pinning him back down to the floor. He grunted and kicked his legs up aggressively, nearly hitting me in the face.

"Tommy, it's just us!" Trini said, pointing to her face and then mine. "Trini and Billy! We're your friends, Tommy!"

This was usually our routine when Tommy caused trouble. One or two of us would morph and restrain Tommy while the others would try and calm him down. We would plead with him for about a minute, and then he would calm down and we'd all breathe out a deep sigh of both relief and frustration, as the routine was tedious.

"Tommy, we-" I said, stepping up a bit but wobbled back, losing my balance when one of his feet hit my nose. I fell back on all fours and quickly stood back up, putting one hand under my nose and feeling blood trickle down.

"Tommy, relax!" Jason shouted and Tommy kicked his legs up again, Trini dodging the kick. After a few more moments of pleading, Tommy demorphed, as did Zack and Kim after him. Tommy ignored Zack and Kim still holding him down and looked to my nose.

"Billy!" he exclaimed, his eyes already begging for forgiveness. "I-I'm so sorry!"

"It's ok, really," I said, taking a Kleenex out of my pocket and wiping the blood off between my upper lip and nostrils before stuffing it in my nose.

"You good?" Kim asked and Tommy sighed, nodding. Zack and Kim exchanged a quick glance with each other before releasing Tommy, helping him sit up straight.

"It's never taken that long," Jason mumbled to us, talking about how it took us a while to get Tommy back. We all gave a slight nod and Jason looked to me. "Billy, you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm ok, I'm alright."

"Rita's perfecting her spell," Alpha said in a somber tone. Zack bit his lip angrily before stalking over to Zordon and motioned back to us.

"We can't keep doing this!" He yelled and we all looked to him before Jason gave Tommy one more glance.

"You sure you're good?" He asked and Tommy nodded. Jason then went over to Zack, as did the rest of us. "Can't keep doing what?" Jason hissed and Zack waved his hands towards us all, and then towards Tommy.

"This! Having to babysit Tommy and hold him down when he turns and hope for the best!" Zack yelled. "There's gotta be something we can do to stop the spell."

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do. All we can do is get to Rita and then we can break the influence, but we don't know where her and Zedd are. All we can do is wait for her to attack."

"So we just wait for her, while Tommy is around us?" Zack asked and sighed, pausing, and then continuing. "Look, this is just an idea, ok? But...what if we let Rita get to Tommy?"

"Wait, what?!" Jason quickly asked and Zack tilted his head, holding a hand out.

"Just...listen," Zack said, looking to all of us. "Alpha is making it sound like, eventually, Rita will perfect her spell and right now...Tommy is just a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode and really hurt us. We leave him alone, let him get caught while the spell still isn't perfect, draw her and Zedd out, and maybe Tommy can take them on from the inside while we help him from the outside. That way, Tommy can't be a danger to us anymore."

I was thoroughly surprised, as this idea was actually a pretty good one and the last person I would've thought to bring about a good idea was Zack. Kim and Trini seemed to be considering the idea, pursing their lips and nodding.

"If you go through with this plan, there is a chance that Tommy may be taken off of earth," Zordon said and we all looked to him with confused expressions. Jason, however, scowled.

"Absolutely not," he growled and Zack rolled his eyes.

"Jason-"

"No!" Jason shouted, cutting Zack off. "Tommy is not some bone to throw to Rita and Zedd or some sacrifice. He's our teammate, and we keep each other safe no matter what."

"Jason, this is probably the best possible outcome. Sure, Tommy will be in Rita's hands, but she won't hurt him. Her and Zedd need him," Trini said and I nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, they're gonna wanna keep Tommy alive,' I pointed out and Jason shook his head.

"How do you know that?" He asked in a quiet but firm voice. "We don't know what's going to happen to Tommy once we let Rita have him." Jason looked over to me and his brows slanted into a sad formation. "I'm not letting another Ranger die under my watch."

"It's Tommy being in danger or Tommy and the five of us in danger," Kim said and tried to appeal to Jason. "It's not that we don't care about Tommy, but it's one or it's all."

"I don't care if it was one or a hundred!" Jason hollered. "We don't abandon a team member. That's my final decision."

"Unfortunately," Tommy said, walking over to us slowly and looked to Jason. "It's not your decision." He then looked to the rest of us. "I know I have only been a Ranger for a week and I've hurt almost all of you and caused...so much stress, but I don't want to see any of my team get hurt and I know you guys care about me. Plus, it's Thanksgiving vacation so I won't have to miss any school while...hanging out," Tommy said, air-quoting. "With Rita."

"Of course, that's part of why we're doing this plan," Trini said with genuine sympathy and care, ignoring his joke. "We don't want to have to put you down if you fully turn when you're with us."

"Nobody's doing anything!" Jason yelled again. "I told you guys-I am not losing another one of you. We all had to watch Billy die and you remember how that felt." We were all silent and I looked to Trini, Kim, and Zack, all with extremely sad expressions. My death really hit them hard it seemed. "We were lucky; Billy was brought back. That won't happen again, though. If one of us dies from this point on, we're dead. There's no morphing grid energy to bring someone back again."

Everyone was silent again and Tommy gave a morbid scoff. "It's worth the risk. I'm in with this plan," he said and nodded to Zack, who nodded back. Jason scoffed back and rolled his eyes.

"Unbelievable," he muttered and headed for the exit of the Command Center.

"Jason!" Zack shouted and Jason turned back, throwing his hands up.

"You guys do whatever!" He yelled and then lowered his voice. "Let me know when you find Rita."

He left the Command Center and Trini looked to Kim. "You should probably go after him."

"Yeah," she sighed and excused herself, running through the exit to the Command Center and after Jason. We all stood in silence for one more time before Tommy held out his wrists.

"Mind taking these off? I gotta get out there," he said and I nodded, putting in a code to the cuffs. They dropped and clattered onto the metallic floor. Tommy stretched his arms out and brought his left wrist up, taking off his Communicator.

"Wait, wait, what're you doing?" Trini asked.

"If Rita finds me, I don't wanna give her easy access to the ship," Tommy said with a sly smile and I nodded back, agreeing with the idea.

"Zordon, um…" I started to ask. "What did you mean by Tommy might be 'taken off of earth?'"

"Rita and Zedd are from space, Billy. They are here in Angel Grove for Tommy first, and then they will most likely take him up to wherever they are hiding out near earth."

"So, I might be stranded in space?" Tommy asked nervously.

"You may be there for a short time or a long time, we don't know, but Alpha is working on updating the Communicators programming as we speak to be able to teleport to the location of your Coin. And if for some reason he can't accomplish that, we will just have to wait until you return to earth with Rita and Zedd when they come for the Crystal. They won't come back for it without you, Tommy. You are the only chance they will really have against the other Rangers."

"Ok…" Tommy said with a sigh and nod, seeming reassured.

(Kimberly)

"Jason!" I shouted, jogging through the final exit of the ship and reaching the outside, a slight drizzle taking place. Jason was walking down the mild slope and I ran up to him. "Jason!" I said again and grabbed his arm, pulling back and stopping him. He bit his inner lip and turned around to face me, shooting daggers at me with his expression. "Let's talk, ok?" I asked, my voice a bit shaky and nervous.

"How could you do that, Kim?" He asked harshly. "How could you just agree to throw Tommy into the fire like that? Especially after what happened with Billy? You seemed to really care when he died, but don't care about Tommy"

"Hey, that is not fair," I quickly said defensively, shaking my head. "I obviously care about Tommy, Jason! I'd rather have him alive in Rita's possession for a short time than us having to hurt him, possibly kill him, if he attacked us again to defend ourselves."

Jason exhaled an angry breath and lowered his voice again. "You don't know what it was like for me to see Billy die after it was my call to go after Rita. His death was my fault and I had never felt so...so…" he said, his voice breaking a little as he searched for the right word. "Guilty and...and disgusted. I'm not making the same mistake with Tommy. I never want to feel that way again."

"So this is about you, then?" I asked in a severe tone and Jason looked at me, shocked.

"You think I wanna make this about me?" He asked, hurt. He shook his head and sucked his lips in. "I don't need to hear this right now," he looked to me and shook his head again, pointing at me. "Especially from you." He started to walk back down the hill.

"You don't need to hear what, exactly? The truth?!" I shouted and he stopped, not turning around to face me, however. I slowly walked up to him and talked in a quiet, soft voice. "I am so sorry you felt that way after Billy died, Jason. I am and I would never want you to feel that guilt ever again." I paused and wanted him to look up at me, but he kept facing forward. "But this isn't about you or me, or Zack or Billy or Trini or any of us. This is about Tommy and about helping him. You see the way he looked while we were training this week and how guilty he looks after he attacks us. That same guilt you felt, he feels too. But, along with that, he's watched over and was tied up today like some kind of animal." I felt my own voice beginning to tighten as my voice cracked. "Billy threw water on him today like he was scolding a dog. That is what Tommy is when he is kept around us right now. An animal that we have to watch and make sure he won't have an outburst that could come at any moment. He wants to end this Tommy and he didn't even hesitate when Zack suggested the plan today." I walked up to Jason, who was still not facing me, and wrapped my arms around his stomach. I brushed my hand over his side, feeling the faint outline of the bandage over his knife wound. I got up on my toes and rested my chin on his shoulder. "This is for Tommy, not us," I whispered and hugged Jason tighter, feeling him silently sigh through my hands on his chest. He turned around and avoided eye contact at first, unintentionally telling me that he felt bad and in the wrong.

"I just don't want another Ranger's blood on my hands," he said in a small voice, looking to the ground. I put my hand up to his cheek, my fingers behind his head and my thumb above his ear, and he looked up to me.

"I know, I know," I said softly. Jason's eyes met mine and I quickly kissed him and then broke the kiss after a few seconds.

"Kim...I don't have a good feeling about this plan," he said quietly and I gave him a sympathetic look. Of course I was no huge fan of the idea either, but it was the best option we had for Tommy.

"I don't either," I answered with honesty. I don't think any of us had a good feeling about this plan. But, as we all agreed, it was the best plan we had with the least amount of risk. "But this is an easy plan to execute that doesn't have many cons." I gave him a hug and held him tight, lowering my voice. "I love you," I heard myself say without control. I quickly became worried, as it slipped out and was not the appropriate time to tell him. Not to mention him and I have only been officially together for just under three weeks.

However, to me, it felt like we had been together for well over three years.

My worries diminished hastily when I heard his response, a smile on his face.

"I love you, too."