Legacy of Power

by hearden

When a team of superheroes from Angel Grove called the Power Rangers make news for defeating the evil sorceress Rita Repulsa, Kimberly Hart & Tommy Oliver pause their daily lives to answer the call of the extraordinary once more. Old meets new as the Rangers work together to figure out what could explain all this while a familiar threat looms beneath Angel Grove's surface.

10. Aftershock, Part II

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Kim groans and pushes herself into a sitting position, brushing the dirt off of the back of her shirt.

The others sit feet away from her, looking equally as tired. Billy's found a sizable log to uncomfortably sit on, Jason leans against a rock, Trini sits next to Billy, and Zack is sprawled across Trini's lap. Kim meets Trini's eyes for a second. It's impossible to read Trini's features and tell how she feels about being used as a pillow.

"What?" Trini shoots her a confused look.

"Nothing, 'm tired," Kim mutters in response.

"When's the food getting here?" Zack asks, picking his head up from Trini's lap, "Someone ask Siri."

"None of us have iPhones," Jason says.

"When's the food getting here?" Zack repeats, louder.

"Maybe," Trini suggests, finally taking initiative and pushing Zack's head away from her; he simply rolls off of the log and lets himself hit the ground with a soft thud, "You should ask Siri what grade you're gonna make on the test today if you don't start studying right now. "

There's a momentary pause, and the air stills.

Kim looks at Billy.

Billy looks at Kim then at Zack.

Zack blinks. His eyes widen then he scrambles to his feet, shouting, "Shit!" Hastily, he looks around and pats himself down as if his backpack will randomly appear inside of his jacket.

"Uh, your stuff's at home," Billy points out, helpfully, "I remember because I walked you home, and you said you were gonna go take a nap instead of study."

Amused, Kim giggles, and Zack frowns at her.

After a few seconds of watching him struggle, Trini grabs her backpack from next to her feet and holds it up to Zack, "Here, you can use my textbook."

Zack snatches the bag out of Trini's hands, almost panicking, and trudges over to a nearby tree to sit down and read, muttering to himself the entire time.

Trini waits until Zack is out of earshot before she looks Kim straight in the eye and says with a sly grin, "Bhavani just sent out an e-mail saying that she's moving the test to next Tuesday because of all the attacks yesterday."

Jason gapes at Trini, incredulously, "Why are you so evil? "

Chuckling, Trini waves a hand, "Eh, he'll be fine."

---

Kim hears Kimberly grumbling to Tommy long before she actually sees her come up the quarry trail. She also smells the coffee and donuts long before that.

"It's not Krispy Kreme," Kimberly says, apologetically, as she uses the log Billy and Trini are sitting on as a makeshift table, setting a large bag full of smaller bags of donuts on it, "But it'll do."

"It's Dunkin'," Zack mutters, frowning, coming up behind Kimberly and Tommy. Kim chuckles to herself at how Kimberly flinches. "Further proof that Rita's evil. She destroys Krispy Kreme, and we're left with…" He trails off and shakes his head.

Kimberly rolls her eyes and pulls out one of the smaller bags, peeking inside before handing it to Zack, "Here. Two Oreo-creme-filled. Tommy has the coffee traveler and cups."

Zack blinks, looks inside the bag, then gives her an abrupt hug, murmuring gleefully, "Ohhhh, I love you sooooo muchhhh."

"Gross, get off," Kimberly shrugs him off to go back to his studying by the tree then resumes handing out donuts to everyone else.

Kim ticks off each person as Kimberly gets to them, her brow furrowing at how eerily accurate Kimberly gets. Two chocolate frosted for Trini, two glazed for Jason, two bagels for Billy - "You knew," Billy says, smiling, and Kimberly only winks in response - and…

"Two strawberry frosted?" Kim asks in anticipation, raising her eyebrows.

"Don't forget the sprinkles," Kimberly hands her the last bag, and she grins, "I'm just glad you guys don't deviate when it comes to food."

"Oh, yeah?" Jason challenges, half of a donut already in his mouth, "What's my favorite food?"

"Sushi," Kimberly answers without missing a beat, "But watching you use chopsticks is hilariously bad."

"Damn… she's got me."

Kimberly nods over at where Zack is worriedly munching away at his donuts, an increasingly frustrated look on his face as he flips through the pages of Trini's textbook, "What's he doing?"

"He 'has' a test today that he hasn't studied for," Kim says, making air quotes with her fingers.

Kimberly mimics her action, "What do you mean 'has'?"

Trini chuckles under her breath, "It was moved, but we haven't told him yet."

"Wow," Tommy mutters, taking a sip of his coffee, "You're evil."

"Hey!" Trini calls out, catching Zack's attention, "Don't get crumbs on my book!"

He glares at her then shoves his entire last donut in his mouth.

"When're you gonna tell him?" Kimberly asks, raising an eyebrow.

Trini shrugs, "You know. Eventually."

"Uh-huh."

Trini stands as she finishes her last donut, brushing off crumbs off of her hands and jeans and nudges Kim with her shoe as she walks by, "Can we talk?" She nods over at ravine, secluded, private.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Kim nods, her stomach briefly turning even though she hasn't started eating yet. She scrambles to her feet and follows Trini to the edge of the ravine, making sure to take her donuts with her. Zack shoots her a curious look as she passes, but she shrugs it off. Kimberly's text had dragged all three boys back up top, which mean Kim hadn't had a moment alone to talk to Zack about her almost kiss with Trini.

Knowing him, he'd probably be transparently gleeful about it.

Hence the need for privacy.

Kim sits and lets her legs dangle over the ravine's edge, close enough to Trini for them to almost be touching but not enough to be actually touching.

Trini sighs but stays silent, and Kim tears off a piece of one of her donuts, wanting to fill the silence with something, even if it's the crinkling of her bag. She chews and swallows her anxiety into the pit of her stomach.

"There's a lot going on," Trini starts with a soft inhale, "So I just wanted to get this all out there before, I don't know, before a skeleton attacks us or something."

Kim snorts, "A skeleton? More like a fire alarm."

Trini chuckles and shrugs, "Or something."

"Yeah, alright. Shoot."

Trini fidgets with the hem of her beanie, adjusting it on her head, not making eye contact with Kim but rather looking up at the surrounding mountains. Kim respectfully doesn't look at her, either, and focuses on eating her donut until Trini breaks the silence.

"I like you, too," Trini says, slowly, and Kim closes her eyes to save herself from the disorienting wave of dizziness that overcomes her, "Kim?"

"Just let me keep my eyes closed," she murmurs, hating how she can't make her voice any louder than a whisper at the moment, "I'm fine, just…"

A hand slips over hers on the ground. Kim swears under her breath, her heart fluttering at Trini's low chuckle.

"That's not helping," Kim mutters but doesn't pull her hand away.

"Sorry, princess."

"So, what now?" she asks, waiting, aching.

Silence fills the air as the minutes tick by. Kim can't hear anything except the leaves rustling in the wind and rise and fall of Trini's breathing.

She holds hers and keeps her eyes closed, afraid of what she'll see if she opens them.

"I don't wanna rush into things," Trini says, shifting but keeping her hand on top of Kim's, "I- There's some stuff I have to deal with before… before, I don't know, anything happens with us, I guess. Personal stuff."

Kim's heart sinks, but at the same time, she hates herself for it.

She nods, wishing she could disappear into the void she's looking into, "Okay. Yeah. I get that. You're…"

Trini cuts in, a bit awkwardly, "Kim, look at me. Please."

Kim reluctantly opens her eyes and tenses as Trini moves her hand away.

"I know you like Zack and Jason and Billy, and that's okay," Trini says, "I just… I'm asking if you'd give me some time."

Kim clears her throat, making sure that the words'll come out right before she says them, "Look, that's okay, take all the time you need." She holds up her pinky, making sure not to use the arm that Jacob thoroughly abused, and gives Trini a small smile, "I promise I'll still be here."

Trini raises an eyebrow, "A pinky promise? Really?"

"You're not cold-hearted, are you?" she teases.

"Pfft, I don't know, I might be," Trini rolls her eyes but relents after a moment and links her pinky with Kim's, and Kim's chest rests easy with the small victory. "Although," she continues, glancing over at the tree where Zack is pretending like he isn't watching them from behind Trini's textbook, "You don't have to still be, you know, here. "

It's Kim's turn to raise her eyebrow, "You wouldn't get jealous?"

Trini snorts and pulls her hand away, "As if."

"You wouldn't mind ?" Kim rephrases, hesitantly.

Trini pauses then leans over a presses a quick kiss to Kim's cheek, almost too quick for Kim to fully register it until Trini is already getting to her feet and brushing imaginary dirt off of her jeans. "Nah," she shrugs, casually, as if she didn't just do that, "I wouldn't mind."

Kim reminds herself not to choke on air as Trini nonchalantly walks away.

---

Trini is pulled aside by Kimberly the moment she rejoins the others. One after another, it seems.

"Hey," Kimberly says, quietly.

"Hey." Trini shoves her hands into her pockets, sensing the air get more serious, as if it wasn't already. She can't tell if it's because her Serious Conversation™ quota has been met for the day (even though, technically, the day's just starting) or if it's because she's tired, but she's not ready for another heavy talk.

Especially because that seems to be a thing with Kimberly.

Maybe Kim, too.

Kimberly wrings her hands together, and Trini checks off a box in her head but says nothing, "I just wanted to say thank you again for last night."

"Don't mention it," Trini says, flatly.

Kimberly pauses, blinks, then nods, "Right. Literally don't mention it."

"Now, you're getting the memo."

"Cool, cool, cool." She seems to mull over her thoughts for a moment then holds up her pinky. "Promise I won't ruin your bad reputation," Kimberly jokes with a smile and wink.

Baffled, Trini glances over at where Kim is chatting with Zack and splitting a donut with him then back at Kimberly. "This is getting weird," she mutters, even as she begrudgingly seals the promise.

"What?"

"Nothing," Trini quickly says as she scuffs the bottom of her shoe against the ground and glances at Tommy, who's packing up the coffee et cetera, "Looks like it's time for us to go."

"Yeah," Kimberly murmurs, clearly off-put by the, uh, awkwardness, "I'll go get Kim and Zack."

"Yeah, you go do that."

---

Kimberly and Tommy drop them all off at their own houses, and Trini, against what's probably her best judgement, agrees to be picked up by Kim, which gives her about half an hour to shower and get ready. She turns the key to her front door and steps inside, immediately freezing at the sight of her parents and brothers at the dining table having breakfast.

"Uh," she fumbles, "Morning…?"

June scrapes her chair against the floor as she gets up; Trini winces, bracing herself for the barrage as her mom stomps toward her.

"You had us worried- We, we didn't know you were at a friend's- Something could have happened to you, Trini-"

She feels a Full Name Callout™ coming, so she abruptly cuts in before her mom gets the barrel rolling. "Mom- Mom, I can explain," Trini says, a bit weakly. Saying everything over the phone while her mom had been freaking the hell out hadn't been easy, and trying to pull that same lie on her mom in person… would be a bit harder.

June stops, and for a moment, Trini wonders if her mom's tranquil fury is the last thing she's ever gonna see.

Then, her mom yanks her into a hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay," June manages to sob, muffled into Trini's jacket.

Letting out a choked noise of surprise, Trini freezes, unsure of what to do, "Um." She catches her dad's gaze over her mom's shoulder. He makes a patting motion.

She awkwardly pats her mom on the back. "I'm… glad I'm okay, too?"

Wow, I'm horrible at this.

Her mom pulls away first, and Trini lets out a soft, almost inaudible, sigh of relief. "I, uh, I gotta get ready for school," she murmurs, jerking her thumb at the stairs.

"Do you need a ride?" her dad asks.

Trini shakes her head quickly, "No, I'm good. Kim's picking me up." She starts to make a beeline for the stairs before her mom can break down into tears or worse.

"Oh, also, you're grounded," June calls over her shoulder, surprisingly calmly, as Trini's foot hits the first step.

Worse.

One of her brothers "Oooooh"s. Trini rolls her eyes, turning around to face her mom, a snarky retort on the tip of her tongue, but stops at the sight of her mom just standing there in the middle of their dining room.

She sighs, "Yeah, okay."

"Two weeks."

"Alright."

"Home and school, and that's it," June continues, quietly, "And if you need to go to the library or someone else's house to work on a project, you ask both me and your father."

She almost snaps back that she gets it but holds the outburst underneath her tongue. "I understand," she says, nodding instead.

June goes back to the dining table, so Trini takes that as her cue of being dismissed.

Taking the steps two at a time, she jogs up to her room, closing the door behind her but not locking it. Trini goes to her wardrobe, shuffling through the clothes she has hung in there. Today feels like a flannel day.

She checks.

Kim still has her favorite one.

Trini almost reaches for her pocket to text Kim and ask if she'd washed it yet, but then she remembers. Phone. Trash. Lying.

Right.

Her hand is pulling a t-shirt off of its hanger when there's a soft knock on her door. She goes over and opens it a crack, peering through.

"Hey," her dad greets.

"Hi. Did you need something?"

He shakes his head, "No, I just wanted to say thanks for not, uh, getting your mom all riled up."

Trini nods, slightly, "Yeah. Figured it wasn't worth it."

"We've been through a lot these past couple of weeks," he agrees, "So, I'm glad you're alright after last night." He gives her a small smile then heads back downstairs.

Trini closes the door as he leaves and glances down at the Harwood County High t-shirt in her hand. "Yeah, we have been through a lot," she echoes. Walking past her wardrobe, she hangs the shirt back up and shoves it to the back, opting instead for one of her lesser-favorite flannels.

Hm.

Maybe green.

---

Hair still drying as she gets into the passenger side of Kim's BMW, Trini throws her backpack on the floor and adjusts the seat, sliding it forward a couple of inches before she puts her seatbelt on. Kim notices, holding back a snicker, and Trini rolls her eyes.

"Billy's got long legs," Kim states.

"Shut up."

Kim starts the car and pulls away from the curb, glancing at Trini's shirt, "No yellow today?"

"There's yellow."

"It's mostly green."

"They're yellow accents," Trini huffs.

Kim raises an eyebrow as she turns out of the neighborhood, "Oh, so, now you're the Yellow-Accented Ranger?"

Trini rolls her eyes yet again and crosses her arms haughtily over her chest. "I wanted to wear some flannel today," she mutters, indignantly.

Kim snorts, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel, "And you expect me to believe that you only have one yellow flannel shirt?"

"You have one," Trini counters, "And the others are in the laundry."

"Right, uh, I'm working on that," Kim murmurs, apologetically, scrunching her nose in a really adorable-

Nope.

Trini waves her hand, "Nah, you're fine. Just eventually, you know?"

"Alright, sure, in ten years."

"That's a bit too long, princess," she shakes her head.

They reach a stop sign, and Kim reaches for the aux cord, holding it out to Trini, "Wanna play something?"

Trini sighs and grabs the aux cord, waving it uselessly in the air, "That'd be a great idea if I had a phone. "

"Oh!" Kim laughs, grinning widely, "Right. Forgot about that. You regretting that decision?"

Trini frowns, "I try not to have regrets, so no, not really. But it's inconvenient so far."

Kim keeps smiling, and Trini finds that it's a little contagious, biting back one of her own, "That's okay, you can use mine." She pulls her phone out of her pocket and hands it to Trini, turning the wheel at the same time with her free hand in a way that makes Trini slightly anxious.

Trini takes the phone and taps it, the locked screen flashing on, "Password?"

"Magic word?" Kim teases.

"Really?" She types in a string of zeros, just for fun, and the phone vibrates with an error message. Well, that would've been too easy, and then she would've had to give Kim the talk about how some phones with dumb passwords just don't deserve to be protected.

"You shouldn't be so mean to me, I'm driving us to school," Kim mutters, pouting.

Trini pretends like she doesn't notice and rolls her eyes. "Please," she says, flatly, while typing in Kim's birthday.

Another error message.

She tries her own birthday and holds her breath.

Error.

Oh, thank God. That would've been… awkward.

"Try the day we became Rangers," Kim offers, a fond smile on her lips.

It takes no less than a second to remember the date, and she types in 0828, nodding to herself when the screen unlocks. Kim's home screen background is the selfie the Rangers had taken last week when they went to go see Suicide Squad. Billy's smile is the brightest and first she sees - mostly because he's the one with the longest arms. Optimal for group-selfie-taking.

Trini had been shoved to the front - where the shortest people usually stand, much to her chagrin when Jason had pointed that out.

"I have Spotify Premium," Kim comments.

"Of course, you do," Trini murmurs as she opens up the Spotify app and plugs the aux cord into the headphone jack. There's a bunch of playlists that she doesn't really want to scroll through because it feels a bit weirdly intimate to look at Kim's different music moods, so she clicks on Songs instead and presses play.

Trini drops the phone into one of the cupholders a little too loudly and intentionally as the first note of Girls Like Girls comes out of the car's speakers. She kinda wants to skip it since it's way too soon after their talk, but she also doesn't want to make things awkward.

Would it count as also making things awkward if she's actively trying to not make things awkward, though?

Kim doesn't notice Trini's hesitance and bops her head along to the song, acting out her own jam session, " Saw your face, heard your name, gotta get with you. "

Trini presses herself into her seat as much as she can without sinking to the floor.

Thankfully, they get to a main road soon enough and are swallowed up by the morning commute traffic, so Kim is busy keeping her eyes on the road. It gives Trini many, many opportunities to watch her sing without worrying about Kim looking at her for too long.

Try as she might, though, Trini can't resist good music, so she sings under her breath, " Don't tell me, tell me what I feel- "

Kim takes that exact moment to glance over at her and grin at her lips moving and nods encouragingly, " I'm real, and I don't feel like boys. "

Oh, God.

She's not going to survive another twenty minutes of this.

Trini shuts up immediately and crosses her arms, wishing that she'd grabbed a beanie from her wardrobe so she could pull it over her eyes right about now.

The brief instrumental solo hits right when Kim slows down for a stoplight, and Trini's stomach turns, knowing what's coming. Kim falls silent, no longer singing or tapping her fingers on steering wheel anymore. Trini shifts in her seat, desperately considering opening the door and running away right then, but she forces herself to stay put.

God, how long is this red light?

Hayley Kiyoko's voice keeps drifting out of the speakers.

"Isn't this why we came?"

She glances at Kim. They lock eyes.

"Tell me if you feel it, too."

Trini swallows, suddenly nauseous.

The car behind Kim's blares their horn at her, and both girls jump in their seats, quickly looking away.

"The light's green," Trini comments, uselessly.

"Right," Kim says, nodding to herself.

They drive the rest of the way with Kim's music still playing in the background, but neither of them sing along.

---

Trini's hand is already on the door handle before Kim fully pulls into an empty parking spot. She almost immediately hops out once Kim straightens out her parking, but the growl of an approaching vehicle stops her. A black motorcycle zooms down the row and sharply turns into the space where Trini would've been standing and parks, too neatly to have been the first time the rider had sped into the student lot.

Kim scoffs beside her, amused, "Show-off."

When Trini's sure it's safe to get out, she scrambles out of the car without saying a word in response to Kim. The biker removes her helmet and fixes her long, blonde hair. Trini recognizes her as Emily Jordan, one of the people who'd been in both Kim and Jason's social groups from the past year before, well, before they'd both gotten themselves kicked out of those.

Emily nods and smiles at her and Kim, who returns the greeting.

Trini just mumbles under her breath.

Jason's truck rolls by, thankfully cutting off any more interaction, and his driver's side window rolls down as he pokes his head out, frowning at Emily. "I was gonna take that spot," he pouts.

Zack and Billy wave through the backseat window at Trini, who finds that she has about as much enthusiasm in the morning as a rock. She doesn't wave back.

Emily glances around at the now-filled row and laughs, "You snooze, you lose, Jay. Gonna have to go to the back."

"It should be illegal that your bike takes up an entire space," he grumbles, driving away to find another spot further back in the lot.

Emily waves a goodbye at them then walks off towards the gym side entrance, lugging two backpacks on her shoulders.

"Wanna wait for the boys?" Kim asks.

"Sure," Trini responds, noncommittally, leaning against Kim's car.

"Do you know her?"

Trini follows Kim's eyes to Emily's motorcycle and shakes her head. She doesn't ask for it, but Kim takes her answer as an invitation to keep talking.

It makes sense that Kim rambles to fill the silence when she's anxious. Trini does the opposite, though.

"She's captain for varsity soccer. Her dad's the coach for varsity football, so she and Jason kinda know each other. I don't think they really hung out before we all became Rangers, though," Kim shrugs, not really looking at Trini as she speaks, "Like they knew each other, but he was too cool to really hang out with anyone else 'cept the football guys."

"That's stupid," Trini mutters, "I don't see the football team anywhere, do you?"

Kim chuckles, "Nope, just us screw-ups."

Against the faint buzzing in the back of her mind, she asks, curiously, hoping her voice is audible because she can hardly hear it in her ears, "How do you know her?"

"Uh," Kim tucks some strands of hair behind her ears, "We were friends kinda during sophomore year. I made it onto JV cheer, so I wasn't, like, you know, super popular. And Emily was… really nice." She punctuates the last part with a hesitant sigh, and Trini raises her eyebrows, intrigued, even as discomfort creeps into the pit of her stomach.

"Really nice, was she?" Trini comments, her mouth going dry.

"Yeah." Kim clears her throat. The sounds of Jason, Billy, and Zack talking cut the conversation short, and the boys weave between a row of parked cars to get to them.

"There's no parking 'til the seventh row," Jason grumbles, pouting at Kim's giggle, "Shut up."

The five of them go into the gym side entrance, easily mingling with the other students hanging around before first period starts. Trini keeps away from Kim, though, and when she sees the opportunity, says something about going to the restroom and disappears into the girls' restroom next to the gym.

Inside, the restroom is silent, although she can vaguely hear the sound of basketball practice going on in the gym through the walls. Trini checks that all of the stalls are empty then tosses her bag on the floor and leans against the far wall, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She really wishes she could fast forward to the end of this, even though she doesn't know what the end is… much less what "this" is. There's too much going on, and if she thinks about any one thing for too long, it starts to feel overwhelming.

Hell, she might even kill to be back in Harwood right now. Everything was much easier before Trini knew what it felt like to be on the other side of the glass, being a Ranger instead of watching them save the world.

Footsteps distantly sound out, coming closer and then into the entrance of the restroom, and Trini hastily pats her pockets down for her phone to act like she isn't freaking out in the middle of the girls' restroom. She grumbles the moment it occurs to her that she still doesn't have a phone.

The door creaks as it swings open and then Emily walks in, backpack over her shoulder, and Trini sighs to herself. Just her luck.

"Oh, hi, again."

"… Hey."

The sound of running water fills the air as Emily just washes her hands at one of the sinks and fixes her hair. Trini tries not to look at her, but without her phone, it's hard to really find anything else to look at in a restroom.

God, her mom was right. She is always on her phone.

"Uh, hey, wait," she clears her throat, just as Emily's making to leave, and gestures at the watch on her wrist, "My phone's dead. D'you know what time it is?"

"Yeah, sure," Emily pauses as she glances at her watch, "It's 7:03."

"Cool. Thanks."

Emily leaves, and Trini lets her head thump back against the wall. Twenty-two minutes until the first warning bell rings for class. She could do that. She could just wait it out in here for twenty-two more minutes.

---

Kim sits next to Zack, her knee brushing against his under the table. Across from them, Billy and Jason are completely and thankfully oblivious. Around them, the cafeteria is bustling with noise and bodies as more kids come in from the bus entrance.

She pointedly notices Trini's absence at the table and had chosen not to latch onto it - or tried not to latch onto it - when Trini had excused herself to go to the restroom minutes ago. She's just going to the restroom, Kim, she thinks to herself, Don't overthink it.

Kim cuts the waffle on her plate into pieces and munches on one, frowning to herself. But, a faint nagging tugs at the back of her mind, like there's something she's missing. It buzzes, brushing against her consciousness, like static on a radio station or…

She has a hard time swallowing past the dryness in her throat. Kim knows what her anxiety feels like, and this isn't it. And if this isn't it, then… Slowly, she glances at the boys, checking their faces for anything off. Zack raises an eyebrow at her when she looks at him, but besides that, his eager scarfing down of two bacon slices at the same time is absolutely normal. Billy multitasks, scrolling through his phone while he eats, and Jason's totally engrossed in his phone, not even touching his breakfast burrito.

"I've gotta go," Jason abruptly announces, shoving his phone into his pocket and putting his bag on.

"Go? Where?" Kim asks.

"Uh, tutoring," he says, getting out of his seat.

"Don't forget your-" Billy starts.

Jason grabs his unwrapped burrito and waves them goodbye, "Yep. Got it."

Then, he's gone, and Kim blinks, staring after his retreating form. But, the feeling in her head won't go away and doesn't dull in the slightest, even as Jason walks directly into C hall and disappears from sight.

It worries her so much that she can't help but blurt it out, "Trini's taking a long time, huh?"

Could've been smoother, Hart.

Billy shrugs, finishing off the rest of his food and putting his plastic fork down, "She said she was going to the restroom."

"Yeah, but," she bites down on her lower lip, "She was quiet in the car earlier. Like… quieter than usual."

"You think she's not doing okay?" Zack asks, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know," Kim mumbles with a sigh, shaking her head, "I mean… she's probably fine, and it's probably nothing."

"Why don't you go check on her?" Billy suggests.

Kim frowns, wringing her hands together, "I don't know if that's the best idea…"

His brow furrows, "Are you two fighting or something? You haven't been close the past couple of days."

Zack coughs beside her, and she lightly kicks him in the shin without looking away from Billy.

"I-I… no, Billy, we're not fighting," she says, slowly, not really sure what to call what the car thing earlier was, "I just don't think I should be the person to go check up on her."

Billy pauses for a moment, glances down at his finished plate, and nods to himself, "Okay. I'll go, then." He grabs his plate in one hand and his backpack from the floor in another and nods a goodbye to Kim and Zack, "I'll let you guys know if I find her."

Kim gives him a small, appreciative smile as he goes, "Thanks, Billy."

Once he's gone, Zack turns to her. "Okay, what gives, huh?" he demands, raising his eyebrows and throwing his hands up, "You told me earlier that you guys were good! I saw her kiss you on the cheek and everything! Can you guys not sit in a car for thirty minutes without miscommunicating yourselves into another mess? Come on! "

Kim frowns, ducking her head as she flushes red with embarrassment. That wasn't far from the truth. "Well, no, I mean, yes…? Wait. I don't know." She sighs and frustratedly runs a hand through her hair, "Trini just got all quiet after Emily parked next to us, and I said something."

"The blonde biker girl?"

"Yeah, her."

Zack looks at her, expectantly, "Well, what'd you say?"

Kim shrugs, fumbling with her words, "I-I-I don't know? I just said she was nice, but like, kinda in a tone?"

"A tone? Everything is in a tone, Kim, you're gonna have to be more specific than that."

"Like, I don't know, a tone that implied we had a history or whatever. Kinda." She falls silent, hoping that's the end of it, but Zack keeps looking at her, waiting, and she huffs, "I may or may not have asked her out sophomore year."

Zack lets out a low whistle, "Taking initiative. I approve."

"Shut up."

"So, she said yes-"

" No, Zack," Kim shakes her head, "She said no."

He blinks in surprise, "Someone said no to you, and you didn't freeze them to put on display in your ice castle?"

"Very funny," she rolls her eyes, "Emily had just moved here, so she told me she wasn't, you know, ready for a relationship."

"And that's it?"

"Yeah, that's it. I kinda shot up past her once I made varsity so we didn't really talk much after that, but I'd still see her around, make chit-chat, stuff like that."

Zack tilts his head, "You think Trini's jealous?"

Kim looks away, "I don't wanna answer that. She already told me she didn't have a problem with me and you, and I don't… I don't wanna be the cause of her hurting, if that's the case."

"Over an offhand comment? I feel like Trini can handle that," Zack shrugs, "I mean, maybe it's something else. She did 'lose' her phone this morning and yesterday was rough, so you know, maybe she's stressed."

"Yeah, maybe," Kim puts her head in her hands and sighs, trying to mentally distance herself from the buzzing in the back of her head, "I just hope she's okay."

---

Pausing at the slightly-ajar door to her dad's classroom, Emily peeks in through the little window, hesitant. She can hear voices inside, so maybe he's busy doing some morning tutoring.

She pulls back instantly, though, upon spotting Jason standing in front of her dad's desk, and presses herself against the wall, brow creasing. Jason wasn't one of her dad's students- Maybe he was thinking about getting back on the team?

She leans closer to the crack of the door, trying to listen but not risking another peek, lest her dad spots her.

"Have you talked to your parents about this?"

"Uh, no, not really," Jason's voice is unsteady, not something she's ever really heard from him before, "I don't really, um, know how to… start the conversation, I guess."

Edward's voice takes on a stern but gentle edge - one Emily knows much too well. It's a step below his parentally patronizing tone. "Jason, I'd be glad to help you out, but only if your parents are absolutely against it first. I'm not willing to go behind Sam's back until all other options have been exhausted."

Jason sighs, heavily, and Emily imagines him nodding in resignation, "Yeah, right, I understand."

"Alright, then. I'll see you around. Take care of yourself."

"Thanks. You too, Coach."

Emily takes a big step away from the door and tries her best to look as inconspicuous as possible, glancing at her shoes as the door swings wide open, narrowly missing her head. Well, if it would've hit, then it wouldn't really be anyone's fault but her own, right?

"Oh, hey," Jason pauses, giving her an odd look, "Were you waiting? Did you knock?"

"Uh, no, no, I didn't," Emily clears her throat, "I glanced inside and saw you were with my dad, so I just stood out here. Waited."

"Oh, okay," he seems to take that as a good enough answer, thankfully, already re-focused on unwrapping a breakfast burrito in his hands, "See you in class, then."

"Yeah, see you," she rubs the back of her neck and waits until his footsteps are far enough away to go inside Edward's classroom.

Her dad doesn't look away from his computer as she comes in, but she's still in his peripheral line of sight. Which gives way for his actual patronizing tone: "It's not polite to eavesdrop."

Shit.

She sighs, her shoulders sagging, and opens her mouth, uselessly, "I… didn't mean to?"

He looks unconvinced.

"Erm, is… Jason doing okay?" she asks, slowly, testing the waters with her toes.

"He's fine," Edward answers, easily, shaking his head at her, "It's not your business, Em."

"I- yeah, I know-" she sputters then gives up on trying to make an excuse, "Fine."

Her dad finally looks away from his computer and at her, "Was there something else you needed?"

Emily blinks and walks to his desk, reaching into her bag, pulling out a USB cable and brick, "Um, yeah, you left your charger at home."

"Mm, thanks." He takes it and tosses it into one of his desk drawers, giving her a stern glance, "No more lurking outside of classrooms, okay?"

She flashes him a cheeky smile, "Don't have to tell me twice."

"Apparently, I do."

---

Trini was not okay.

That's the first thing Billy could tell, walking into the girls' restroom near the gym. He pushes the door open with a loud creak that has Trini glancing up from the corner across the room. She sits with her knees to her chest, back pressed against the wall.

"Billy?"

He waves, meekly, "Hi."

Trini blinks and fixes him with a confused stare, "What're you doing in here?"

"I wanted to see if you were okay," Billy says, fiddling with the straps of his backpack, "See if you needed any company."

"Yeah, I'm fine," she says, a little too quickly.

He can tell she's lying and frowns, but he shrugs, anyway, and nods. "Okay," he concedes, turning to leave, deliberately turning around slowly so that she can stop him if she changes her mind.

She does.

"Billy, wait." Trini lets out a heavy sigh as Billy turns back around, looking at her, expectantly. "I don't wanna talk about it," she says, firmly, not leaving any room for any alternate suggestion. Her terms and conditions.

"Okay."

She glances at the door a bit hesitantly, "What if someone comes in?"

"Um," he furrows his brow and thinks for a second, "I can… put a sign on the door? I have notebook paper and tape in my backpack."

That gets a chuckle out of Trini, however brief, and she rolls her eyes, "Wow, putting up a fake sign? You're such a troublemaker, now, Billy."

"I'll take it down when we leave, of course."

"Of course."

He pulls his phone out and shoots off a quick text to Kim.

[BC 7:11 AM] I found Trini. She's okay.

"Okay," he says, putting his phone away and going over and setting his backpack down next to her, "Time to make this restroom 'Out of Order'." He gives her a smile, chuckling a bit.

She smiles back, reluctantly, after a moment.

---

For the entirety of first period, Kim avoids Mr. Jordan's eyes every time he passes her desk during the lecture of the day. Which is really easier said than done, considering how she sits in the smack-dab front row.

Curse my overachieving tendencies.

The bell to end class doesn't come quick enough, and she rushes out as fast as she can, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"If anyone has their paper for me, you can turn it in early!" follows her out the door, and she grumbles to herself, knowing full well that she probably won't be working on it until, like, Sunday.

Yeah, no, definitely Sunday. And she'll probably have to ask Billy for help - and company, of course.

Kim leaves C hall and crosses over to B hall, easily avoiding students heading the other way with a practiced agility and grace that, well, has been practiced. School's different without people moving out of the way for her, but then again, not having the other cheerleaders in a flock around her feels like a really, really good weight has been lifted off of her shoulders.

She enters her Sociology classroom with a handful of time before the warning and tardy bells ring and finds almost nobody in the room yet, save for Mr. Walker and a few students. One of which is Zack.

Zack nods at her from his seat in the back. He's sitting in an empty row, and Kim knows for a fact that nobody ever sits at the way back table with him. She glances at the front row, where some kids are already sitting with their notebooks out, ready for class, and her usual seat that she's always been particular about claiming because it gives her a good view of the projector screen…

Then strides purposefully to the back of the room.

Zack's cocky grin follows her the entire way and only widens when she approaches the empty chair next to him.

"Yes?" he asks, still smiling like an idiot.

Kim rolls her eyes, letting a hand drop down to the back of the chair. God, it's a good thing he's so cute. "Is anyone sitting here?" she asks, faking a sweetly innocent tone.

"Nope," he shakes his head and pops the 'p'.

She pulls the chair out and drops into it, tossing her bag onto the floor, matching his smug grin with one of her own.

Zack raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms, "Uh, did I say you could sit there, though?"

Kim laughs and leans in as the warning bell rings over the speakers, putting on her best - truly, her best because she's got many - sultry tone, "Oh, please, I sit where I want." She reaches over and squeezes his thigh for good measure, and he pouts.

"I hate you."

After the rest of the class comes in and the tardy bell rings, Kim settles into her seat and lazily takes notes when the lecture starts. She could be doing it diligently, but her left hand is in Zack's right underneath the table and it's affecting her ability to write fast.

Not write at all, of course, since she's right-handed, but using her chin to keep her notebook from sliding around the table isn't working out as well as she imagines it in her head.

"You know," Zack leans over and whispers, "I could let go." He's not taking notes whatsoever.

"I'll kill you if you do," she mutters back, completely serious.

"Wow, okay."

She hits the end of the page she's on and frowns, needing to turn to the next blank page, but only having one hand. Which means she has to put her pen down and then flip the page, and, God, maybe she should let go-

Zack reaches over with his free hand and flips the page for her.

"Aw, babe, thanks," she says, instinctively.

He grins, and she regrets it, immediately, scowling.

"You called me 'babe'," he points out with a shit-eating grin.

"I'll crush your hand," Kim threatens, going back to her notes.

Zack leans back in his seat and makes a noncommittal noise that sounds like he doesn't quite believe her, but Kim doesn't have the energy to follow through on the threat.

Plus, he just started rubbing his thumb against the back of her hand and she just fucking can't.

---

They walk out of Sociology still holding hands, and Kim pauses for a moment, glancing down at their interlocked fingers and back at the hallway full of students.

Zack senses her hesitance and quirks an eyebrow, "I can let go, if you want?"

Right. They're not, like, official yet or anything.

But, then again, when did the new Kimberly Hart - Kimberly Hart the Power Ranger - ever care about stupid shit like being "official"?

"I'll kill you if you do," she repeats, calmly, "But… where are we going?"

"Your class, duh," he practically has to drag her from her rooted spot before she gets run over by a string of students, "I'm nothing but a gentleman."

She chuckles and shakes her head, joking, "Keep this up, and I might actually start believing you on that front."

"Oh, come on," Zack bumps her shoulder with his own, "I'm full of surprises."

Yes, yes, he is.

Kim catches someone doing a double take at them and ducks her head, bashfully. "Bet someone's gonna ask us if we're dating by lunch," she mumbles.

Zack snorts but smiles at her, "Yeah, 'course, how did Kimberly Hart get her hands on such a gorgeous stud like the one and only Zack Taylor?"

"You ruined it."

It's only when they leave B hall and join the crowds of mingling students in the main hallway and turn towards D hall that Kim realizes what class she has next, and her heart sinks a fraction. She frowns, and Zack chooses that moment to glance at her.

"What's wrong?"

"Biology," she says, simply.

"Yeah… that's what you have next, right?" he asks, momentarily halting in case he somehow got what he knew of her schedule wrong.

"Biology with Trini, " Kim states with a huff.

He tugs on her hand, and they resume walking. "Oh, come on, you told me that she said she wouldn't mind," he says, pointedly.

"Well, yeah," she sputters, "But, maybe she was… lying! People do that, sometimes, you know."

"Yeah, but why would she do that?"

She shrugs, helplessly, "I don't know? I'm just… thinking of all my options here."

"They're all pretty negative options," Zack suggests, "Maybe she was just in a bad mood earlier, and maybe, hear me out, you shouldn't be such a pessimist because not everything is your fault. Groundbreaking, right?"

Kim glares at him as they enter D hall and stop in front of her classroom.

"We could always ask her," Zack says.

She gives him an incredulous look, "What? No! "

"Well, she's coming either way, so," Zack nods to somewhere over Kim's shoulder, and Kim immediately yanks her hand away from his, shoving her hands into her pockets as fast as she can.

"That's not very nice," Zack whispers, pouting at her.

She sticks her tongue out at him, not knowing how else to respond.

Trini just fucking appears next to them, causing Kim to visibly flinch. "What's not very nice?" she asks in a bored tone that suggests she might not actually care.

"Kim," Zack says, nodding, "She's mean."

"Shut up."

"See?" he gestures at her with the hand she was just holding a mere few seconds ago, "She's telling me to shut up."

Trini glances between them and shrugs, "I mean, I'm sure you deserved it."

He gapes at her, "Rude."

Kim shakes her head and pauses, wondering if she should actually say goodbye like she wants to with Trini there, now, then buries the thought in bottom of her mind because giving Zack a kiss on the cheek right in front of Trini would be good enough to mortify Kim to death.

"See you later," she nods at him then brushes past him and goes into the classroom.

---

When Kim's in the classroom and out of earshot, Zack holds out a hand and stops Trini as she's about to follow Kim in.

"Hold up."

She glares at him as the warning bell rings, "What? You're gonna be late."

He shakes his head, "I don't care. I need to talk to you about Kim."

The way she tenses when he says Kim's name is immediately noticeable, even if she tries to cover it up by crossing her arms and continuing to casually glare daggers at him in the way that only Trini could.

"You should try not looking so grumpy all the time," he suggests with a cheeky grin.

"Hard pass," she scowls even harder, if possible, "Hurry up, what about Kim?"

Zack rubs the back of his neck, taking a second to collect his thoughts. It'd been a little… well, kinda hurtful when Kim had just let go of his hand like that, but he's already over it. She's going through a lot, and apparently, being absolutely terrible at liking a girl is on that list as well.

"She's worried that you… mind, you know, her liking me or, like, me and her," he says, finally, sighing.

Trini raises an eyebrow then shrugs, so casually that Zack wonders if she even had to think about or process her answer, "Nah. I don't."

"No? 'Cause she said you were just, I don't know, kinda quiet in the car with her or whatever, and Billy went to check up on you earlier, so-"

"I'm fine, it's not about Kim," Trini interrupts, holding up a hand.

Zack nods, "Okay, cool cool cool."

"Go to class," she says, walking past him just as the tardy bell rings.

---

Kim straightens in her seat as the tardy bell rings, and Trini walks into the classroom just in time. The desks have been pushed together in pairs for partner work, and Kim sits at one of the pairs in the back area where Trini normally sits, her stuff already out in front of her. She locks eyes with Trini, kinda hoping the other girl wouldn't blatantly ignore the signal she was sending her.

Also kinda hoping that Trini didn't spend all that time outside of the classroom with Zack talking about how much of a mess Kim was.

Trini strolls over to the other desk next to Kim's with a slow nonchalance that has Kim wanting to bite the end of her pen in anxiety. She doesn't, though.

Trini slumps into her seat, dropping her backpack on the floor, looking at Kim's open textbook sitting on top of their desks, "What's this?"

"Today's just partner work," Kim explains, nodding at the chalkboard where the assigned page numbers are written, "So, I figured you and I could, uh, work together."

"Cool." Trini stares at her for a moment too long, and Kim shifts in her seat, feeling like she's being analyzed. "Zack talked to me," she says, finally.

Oh, no.

"I don't care about you guys being a thing," Trini mutters, sighing exasperatedly, "I already told you that this morning."

Oh, okay.

Kim breathes a sigh of relief that has Trini raising her eyebrows. "I just…" she fumbles, "I don't know, you just seemed off, and I didn't- I don't wanna hurt you."

"It's not you," she says, simply.

Kim nods, a little reluctantly, "Okay, okay. But… are you okay? Because I thought I felt…" She trails off and makes a motion to her head, referring to their Ranger… bond or whatever.

Trini pauses and gazes at her for a minute then looks down at Kim's textbook. "It's not you," she repeats, calmly, but in a tone that clearly says Kim won't get anything more out of the conversation if she keeps pushing.

"Okay. Got it."

"Besides," Trini says, casually, now copying one of the questions from the textbook into her notebook, "You guys are kinda cute together."

Kim coughs and blushes so hard she feels like she's going to implode.

---

Near the end of third period, Mr. Castillo announces that, for the next two weeks, the focus of the class will be on a group research project - done in pairs.

"Feel free to spend the last few minutes of class picking your partners and brainstorming ideas on what your project will be over," Mr. Castillo says, sitting back down at his desk, "That's all I have for you today. I'll send the rubric out tonight, so keep an eye on your e-mail and the student portal."

Jason's sliding into the vacant seat behind Emily the moment the kid sitting behind her gets up to find a partner.

Wow, God, desperate much?

She slowly turns around and raises an eyebrow at him, "How do you know I don't already have a partner?"

"Because… I'm sitting here," he shrugs.

"Uh-huh."

He waits for her to refuse.

Emily rolls her eyes and chuckles, "Fine, Scott, I'll do you the honour of being your partner."

Jason smiles, a little bit idiotically, if he were to guess what he looks like from the outside, "Cool."

The bell to end class rings, and the classroom erupts in louder noise as students start leaving. Jason gets up and quickly goes back to his seat to grab his bag and sling it over his shoulder. He goes back to Emily's desk and stands off to the side, waiting for her.

"I'm free this evening," he offers, "If you wanna get together and start brainstorming or whatever."

"Alright. I've got practice after school, though, so I can text you when I'm done. Your place or mine?" Emily asks, shrugging her jacket on and fixing her hair.

"Uh," Jason plays with his bag strap as he weighs the pros and cons of having her over at his house and decides against it, "Yours, I guess. Haven't been in awhile, so that'd be nice."

Emily chuckles and puts her backpack on, letting it hang off of one shoulder, "Yeah, my mum will probably talk you into staying for tea."

"I guess I could stay for dinner," Jason cracks a smile, "But I'm not a big fan of tea."

Emily sighs and rolls her eyes, "You're insufferable."

"Actually," he follows her as she leaves, "I've been told I'm pretty damn charming to be around."

Emily snorts and rolls her eyes, "Oh, who told you that? Your mum? Doesn't count."

"Totally counts," he mutters, indignantly and proudly.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that in the mirror."

---

Kim walks Trini to her next class.

"Are you just walking with me because you wanna see Zack?" Trini abruptly asks after they leave Biology.

Kim trips and stumbles. Trini glances at her and chuckles. "I- No, I'm not," she mutters, "How dare you? We're friends. Can't I enjoy walking my own friends to class?"

"Oh, look, there's Zack."

"Where?" Kim whirls around, only to scowl when Trini laughs, a sound that she'd stop and appreciate more if doing so wouldn't get her run over in the middle of the hallway.

"God, this is so much fun."

"Why are you like this?"

Trini shrugs, "Because you make it too easy, duh."

They walk into B hall and go up a flight of stairs to get to Trini's History class. Kim spots Zack lounging outside the classroom door and smiles to herself, switching to a scowl when Trini fakes a groan, "Gross. Why're you so hetero?"

"That's biphobic."

"Whatever," Trini nods at Zack as they come up to him then disappears inside the classroom, "Just don't eat his face off. Or do. You'd be doing me a favor."

"Hey," Zack says, smiling at her.

"Hi," Kim bites her lower lip, finding his smile utterly contagious, and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.

Wow. She feels like if Kimberly were here right now, she'd be mockingly saying "Ugh, gross" in the same tone Kim always uses on her.

"Uh, sorry, I… let go of your hand earlier," she mumbles, "I… freaked out."

Zack scoffs, "No kidding. Your life is kinda a mess."

"If anyone else said that, I'd be really insulted."

"But, you aren't."

"But, I'm not."

"Because I'm me?" Zack asks, grinning hopefully.

Kim can't help but laugh, "Yeah, because you're you. And because you're helping me deal with my messy life."

"Of course," he says, fondly; her heart skips a beat, "I'm always here for you."

She smiles and leans up to kiss his cheek, "Thanks. Good luck on your test."

Zack groans, "Ugh, I'd almost forgotten about it. Thanks a lot."

"Oh, you'll do fine, I believe in you," Kim clears her throat and forces herself to not snicker as she leaves.

---

"Alright, class, for today, since the test was moved, we'll be looking at- Yes, Zack?"

Zack lowers his hand and tilts his head in confusion, "Uh, the test was moved?"

Ms. Bhavani pauses and nods, "Yes, I sent out an e-mail this morning around six o'clock or so. Did you not get it?"

"Um," he quickly pulls out his phone and refreshes his mail app, blinking when the e-mail with the subject line Test Moved to Tuesday pops up at the top, "Oh. Uh, I guess I did. Sorry."

"That's okay," Ms. Bhavani smiles, encouragingly, "At least you're already prepared for Tuesday, right?"

"Yep. Totally."

Bhavani goes back to introducing the lecture of the day, and Zack frowns, glancing a few seats over to where Trini is sitting. A smirk is on her face, but she isn't looking at him. He glares, having a feeling that she can definitely see him in her peripheral vision, and her smirk only grows wider.

---

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Zack drops his tray loudly down on the table, causing Jason to flinch.

Trini, sitting next to Jason, looks completely unfazed, though, and lazily looks at him, "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" he sits down across from her and next to Kim, frowning, and jabs a finger at Trini, accusatorily, "You know what's wrong. "

"Ohhh," Jason chuckles, catching on, "You found out your history test was moved?"

"Yeah!" Zack shakes his head as Trini and Jason share a fist bump. "Wait a second-" He turns to Kim, "Did you know?"

Kim grabs her water bottle and takes a long sip from it, shrugging helplessly.

Zack's eyes widen, "Oh, my God! You wished me good luck!"

She sets her water bottle back down, "Eh, consider it good luck for… next week? Preemptively wishing you good luck."

"That's not how that works!"

Zack desperately glances at Billy, sitting on Jason's left, "Billy, my man, tell me you didn't know."

Billy frowns in sympathy, "Sorry, Zack, I knew, too."

"Come on!" Zack pushes his tray away and buries his head in his hands, "Ugh, I trusted you guys. I feel so betrayed."

Kim rolls her eyes and stands up, grabbing her wallet from her bag. "Stop being so dramatic," she pats him on the back, "I'm gonna go get a soda. Do you want anything?"

"Honesty," comes Zack's muffled reply.

"Mm, they're fresh out. Sorry."

"Then, I don't want anything."

She's about to walk away when Jason raises a hand, "Uh, excuse me? Aren't you gonna ask if we want anything?" He gestures between him, Trini, and Billy.

Kim blinks. "Nope."

She walks away to the vending machines against the far wall of the cafeteria. Before she puts any change in, Kim jabs the button for a Dr. Pepper on the soda machine, making sure that it's still stocked. Damn thing took a dollar-fifty from her last week, only for it to be out of what she wanted.

"Hey, Kim." Emily walks up beside her and sticks a dollar into the snack machine, "Heard the chatter lately?"

"Mm," Kim feeds a six quarters into the soda machine and presses the Dr. Pepper button, waiting, "Is it that I'm dating Zack?"

"Are you?"

"Uhhh," Kim falters, "I don't know… we, um, haven't really talked about it."

"Well, you guys look cute together." Emily grabs her chip bag from the dispenser and gives Kim a curious look, "I would've thought you had a thing going on with Jason, though."

"Oh, um," she fakes a chuckle as she gets her soda can. Not entirely wrong, but… "He's not really my type." That was definitely a lie. Her type was, as it turns out, her teammates. But.

"Really? What's your type, then?"

Kim nonchalantly shrugs, having the answer ready, "Someone who can keep up with me." She nods goodbye to Emily then walks back to the Rangers' table.

"I miss anything?" she asks as she sits down, opening her Dr. Pepper with a satisfying hiss and taking a sip.

"Zack's still being dramatic," Trini mutters, rolling her eyes.

"And, for good reason," Zack grumbles, grabbing Kim's soda from her hand and taking a long sip of his own.

"Uh, excuse me," she pokes him in the side, "You said you didn't want anything. You can't just steal some of my soda like that."

"Yeah, I can," he mutters, indignantly, keeping it out of her grasp when she reaches for it, "You betrayed me."

"Oh, my God, stop being such a diva."

---

They all met up in the parking lot after seventh period to figure out who's driving whom home, and Zack immediately calls shotgun with Kim, no less than a moment after exiting school doors.

"Wow, babe, desperate to hold my hand much?" Kim casually retorts while preoccupied with her phone. She looks up to find three very, very intrigued faces looking back at her, of which Trini isn't one of them.

" Babe? " Jason asks, "Something you wanna tell us, Kim?"

Zack snuggles up next to Kim and wraps an arm around her waist, wiggling his eyebrows, "Oh, yeah, we're getting married, and Trini, you're my best man. Woman. Wingman… person. Best partner."

"Best partner kinda sounds confusing," Billy points out, "Double meanings."

"I'm working on it, Billy."

Kim shoves his arm away and scoffs, "Are you kidding me? If we were getting married, Trini would be my maid of honor."

"Guys, guys, there's an easy way to settle this," Trini chimes in. Everyone looks at her, expectantly, momentarily caught up in the temporary drama. "It's simple," she explains with a straight face, "I would say no to both of you because a wedding with you two would be a collective disaster, and I wouldn't want the responsibility of keeping that mess glued together."

Zack gapes at her while Kim rolls her eyes, "Wow, you're just hell bent on betraying me today, aren't you?"

"Oh, get over it already, you crybaby."

Zack crosses his arms, "I don't talk to traitors."

"Okay," Jason cuts in, holding up a hand, "Are you guys dating? 'Cause someone came up to me earlier asking, and I just figured it was some weird rumor."

"Uh, we'll, um, get back to you on that," Kim says, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, the same time as Zack shrugs, "We've held hands."

Trini snorts, "Wow, holding hands? Congrats. Is she gonna put a Valentine on your desk, too?"

Zack points a finger at her, "This is abuse, I hope you know that."

"Okay, well," Jason motions to the group, "Do any of you guys mind riding with Kim today? Because I've gotta stay behind." He jerks his thumb vaguely over his shoulder in the direction of the school.

Everyone shrugs at each other and nods.

"Alright, cool, I'm gonna take off, then, and, uh, congrats on being… not official?" Jason gives Kim and Zack two uncertain thumbs up as he walks away.

Kim blinks. "Anyone feel like he's acting weird?" she voices out loud.

"Jason's always weird," Zack says, leading the way to Kim's car.

---

Trini is the last to be dropped off, so she gets out and moves to the passenger seat after Zack leaves. She kinda wants to listen to music, but she's not dumb enough to will a repeat of this morning into existence. Anyway, as far as she can tell, Kim's content enough with driving in silence, so theoretically, Trini should be, too.

But, God, something about knowing that Kim is probably overanalyzing everything in her head right now just makes Trini want to clear the air up…

Curse her tendency to be a good person.

"I got grounded," she states, abruptly, into the silence.

Kim takes a moment to process that she's spoken and glances at her then back at the road, "Oh. For… the attack last night?"

Trini draws her mouth into a thin line and nods, "Yeah." She takes a deep breath and sighs, heavily, "My parents… have a lot to be worried about."

"Like?"

"We've moved around a bit," Trini says, looking out the window at the passing scenery of buildings and cars, "Things have… happened. My mom's right to be so worried about me, especially with it involves rock monsters and space aliens."

She glances at Kim, only to see her jaw clenched. Kim's hands are still loosely holding the steering wheel, not gripping, and her body is mostly relaxed, but her face tells a different story.

Trini decides not to voice aloud the thought that at least her mom cares enough to check up on her during a crisis, even if she didn't answer until hours later. Kim, apparently, is already thinking along the same lines.

Kim takes a moment then asks, "So, you're just bummed about being grounded?"

Trini shrugs, "I mean, I've been grounded before, so it's really whatever. It just got me… thinking about some stuff I've been through, so I've been distracted all day is all."

"Well," Kim says, slowly, looking over at her as they come to a stop sign, "You don't have to, of course, but if you ever wanna talk about some of that stuff, I'd be glad to listen."

"Noted," Trini mumbles, nodding and shifting in her seat, not liking how quickly serious the air got, "Thanks."

"Anything for you," Kim says, softly.

Trini bites the inside of her cheek as she tries not to latch onto those words.

---

Since her parents aren't usually home by the time school is over (and, especially recently, they've been home even later than their usual work hours), Kim's the one who's tasked with getting the mail everyday. After she parks her car in the driveway, she goes and checks the mailbox at the curb, opening it to find a small, brown box laying inside on top of some junk mail.

Kim doesn't think much of the box, figuring it's one of her parents', so she grabs everything and heads inside the house. She drops the pile of mail onto the coffee table, noting that yesterday's pile is well and gone. At least that's a sign her parents have been home since all the shit going on yesterday, even if she doesn't catch them anymore.

It's been a long ass day, considering that she's somehow powered through without any coffee, even, despite being awake the entire night and morning, and the cafeteria food was, somehow, worse than usual today, so Kim spends a couple of minutes throwing a sandwich together for herself. She plops down on the couch with her plate, eats, and spends a good hour flipping through TV channels and settling on a rerun of NCIS, if only for the tall glass of water that is Ziva David.

When she's finished eating, Kim goes and sets her plate in the sink before shifting through the mail. Most of it's junk - advertisements, coupons to restaurants that the Harts never go to, blah blah blah. There's a copy of this month's electric bill, so Kim sets that aside from the pile of junk mail.

She picks up the box, just meaning to glance at if it's for Mom or Dad, but her face scrunches up in confusion at the name on the box. Kimberly Hart.

Well, Kim doesn't remember ordering anything within the past couple of days.

She reads the address, and everything clicks into place.

Comfort Inn Suites
Greenfield Avenue
Angel Grove, CA 90050

Of course.

Kim pulls out her phone and sends a quick text.

[KH 4:13 PM] hey are you in your hotel room?

The reply bings back just as quickly.

[KO 4:13 PM] Yeah, why?

[KO 4:13 PM] Need something?

[KH 4:14 PM] your mail got dropped off at my house lmao.

[KO 4:14 PM] What mail…

[KO 4:14 PM] A box?

[KO 4:14 PM] Do. Not. Open that box.

She just can't resist the moment she reads Kimberly's text.

[KH 4:15 PM] open the box you said?

[KO 4:15 PM] DO NOT.

[KO 4:15 PM] Your parents won't recognize your corpse.

[KH 4:15 PM] when will you stop making empty promises lol?

[KH 4:15 PM] i'm heading over with your illegal things.

---

"You know, you didn't have to wait for me."

Jason glances up from his phone and squints against the sunlight, seeing Emily make her way up the bleachers to his seat. He shrugs like it's no problem, which it isn't. "I wanted to," he says, "Figured maybe we could go grab a bite to eat, a lil' something before going over to your place."

"I'd be down for that," Emily nods, playing with the hem of her jersey, "What's on the menu?"

"Something light. Like Starbucks- I mean, the Starbucks on Mariner Bay is closed, so… Java City? Or something."

"Alright, cool, lemme just hit the locker room, take a quick shower, get dressed, and then we'll be off, yeah?"

"Sounds good," Jason smiles to himself as he watches her go, "I'll just be waiting here."

---

The door to room 309 opens, and Kim cheekily smiles at Kimberly, who looks like she's been spending all day in bed, her hair slightly tousled, dressed in one of the hotel's complimentary robes.

"So, what's in the box?" she asks, curiously, a bright grin on her face.

Kimberly reaches for it, almost immediately, and Kim steps back, holding it out of Kimberly's grasp.

"None of your business," Kimberly mutters, a stern look forming on her features. Kim's gotten used to it pretty quickly. It's Kimberly's Mom Look™.

"Which means it's something you don't want me to know about," Kim says, her smile lighting up more, even if possible. She shakes the box, and the cringe on Kimberly's face is worth it all; something makes a small thumping sound inside the box as it's shaken around, "Ooh, sounds like it's good. What is it?"

Kimberly sighs and crosses her arms but stays silent, frowning.

"Oh, come on, you're not gonna make me guess, are you? You know I'm bad at guessing. We're bad at guessing."

"I'm not bad at guessing," Kimberly states, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, we are," Kim counters, ignoring the woman's second eyeroll, "Is it… something… explicit?"

Silence.

"Oh, my God, is it a sex toy?"

Kimberly actually blushes, and Kim groans, sticking her tongue out in disgust, "Oh, gross. " She practically tosses the box at Kimberly, who catches it easily then cracks up with amused laughter.

"It's not a sex toy," Kimberly says between giggles, leaning against the doorway for support, "It's a gift for Tommy. Although, I can't believe how well you fall for that stuff."

"Why didn't you become an actor so you could live far away from here and stop torturing me?"

Kimberly shrugs, smirking, "It just doesn't feel like home if I'm not embarrassing you."

"Shut up," Kim groans, but she returns Kimberly's smile with sincerity.

Kimberly opens the door wider and motions for Kim to come in, "I'm totally free if you wanna hang out since you're already here."

Kim walks into the hotel room and takes a seat at the kitchen counter, leaning on the countertop with her elbows and propping her chin up in her hands. "You gonna tell me what's inside the box?"

"Nope," Kimberly responds, popping the 'p' and chuckling, "It's a surprise."

Kim snorts, "Uh, yeah, for Tommy, not for me. What's the occasion?"

"Yeah, but it'd be nicer if everyone else saw it after Tommy, not before him. Kinda defeats the purpose, in my opinion," Kimberly feels around for an opening in the cracks of the box's shipping tape and adorable goes "aha!" when she finds one, then proceeds to tear the box open with her bare hands, no boxcutter required.

"Must be that Ranger strength," Kim teases.

"Oh, you know it. And, as for what it's for, in a couple of days, it'll be two years since Tommy proposed to me."

"Via parachute. Right."

Kimberly laughs, "What can I say? Being a Ranger just brings all this extra excitement into your life." She takes the box and goes to hide it, well, somewhere, supposedly somewhere good where Tommy won't find it, but considering they're staying in the same hotel room, that's probably hard.

But, then again, it's Tommy.

"D'you know anyone else who'd be willing to do a parachute proposal?" Kim calls after her, "'Cause, if you do, hook a girl up."

Kimberly reappears, empty-handed. "I don't know," she murmurs, smirking, "I'm pretty sure Zack would be up to it. Or maybe even Trini…"

Kim coughs into her hand, her ears heating up, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, please," Kimberly nudges Kim as she passes around the kitchen island, "I have eyes. And I used to be your age, too, once upon a time."

"Yeah, like sixty-five million years ago." She manages not to wilt under Kimberly's glare and laughs. "Speaking of which, where is Tommy?"

"Running an errand," Kimberly hums.

"Ah, cool. It would've sucked if he was here when I came over."

"Yep, that would've been unfortunate."

"So, uh," Kim traces her fingers along the surface of the counter, trying to find a way to phrase her words right, "You're no stranger to liking your teammates, right? I mean, obviously, you married Tommy."

"Yeah," Kimberly raises an eyebrow, "Where's this going?"

"Um, I don't know," Kim shrugs and taps her fingers on the counter, "I just wanted to know if you had any other… experience with that."

Kimberly laughs and shakes her head, biting her lower lip, "I'd say I probably had a little bit too much experience with that." At Kim's blank look, she goes on, "Being a Ranger is… hard. It's even harder when you wanna live a normal life, but if you're also keeping your identity a secret…"

"Then, it just flat out sucks," Kim concludes.

"Well, yeah, kinda. There's some teams in the past that have had public identities, so it's different for them, but it wasn't like that when I was a Ranger." Kimberly fondly chuckles to herself, "We actually missed a bit of class, having to ditch school to go fight a monster or something."

"Wow, so rebellious."

"The '90s were a different time, okay?" Kimberly tucks a strand of hair behind her ear then repeats the motion when it won't stay, "But, yeah, I've dated other Rangers before, mostly just people from the same couple of years that I was active. I could've, you know, broadened my horizons once more teams started getting added to the family, but…" She sighs, "Things happened, and life got in the way."

Kim doesn't have to ask to know what "things" happened.

"Plus, there's a certain kind of bond you have with your team, you know?"

"Oh, yeah," Kim nods in full understanding, "I know. I was actually gonna ask you about that…"

"Shoot."

"How'd you know Tommy was… you know, 'the one'?" She makes air quotes with her fingers, and Kimberly scoffs a bit.

"I wouldn't waste your time wondering about that," Kimberly says, shrugging, "I just know, but… maybe he's not always 'the one', you know? Maybe not in another universe - or many other universes out there. Maybe there doesn't always have to be any one person."

"Maybe it's a team," Kim mumbles, not knowing where that came from… but also knowing exactly where it came from.

Kimberly nods in agreement, "Yeah. Or many teams. One big family."

Kim stifles a yawn behind her hand. It meant to come out as clearing her throat, but her mind is drifting back to how comfortable her couch was about an hour ago and why she didn't choose to just nap right then.

"Sleepy?" Kimberly asks, raising an amused eyebrow.

"You try being a superhero and staying up all night fighting off a giant monster," she fully yawns this time, muffling it in her shirt sleeve.

"Oh, believe me, I've already had a few cups of coffee. I was just about to make another one, you want some?"

"Mm, hit me."

Kimberly laughs and goes over to the Keurig sitting in the corner of the kitchen, turning it on with a whir.

Kim keeps her eyes on Kimberly's back, watching her, "When'd the divorce happen?" There's a moment where Kimberly pauses as she reaches for a mug in the cabinet, but she resumes motion as fast as she'd stopped.

"I was fourteen," Kimberly says, with her back to Kim, but Kim doesn't detect anything strained in her voice, "My brother was about ten, I think? Same story as always. My dad was cheating on my mom, and you know, they started fighting. It was rough for awhile." Kimberly turns around as the coffee starts being brewed, her eyes meeting Kim's, "We moved houses across town, and it felt like Dad had just abandoned us." She wrings her hands together, frowning, "I was worried I wouldn't ever be able to have a stable home life after that, but… here I am. Granted, it took me a long time, but there were circumstances out of my control."

"Yeah, here you are," Kim echoes, giving her a brief smile.

The Keurig finishes brewing, and Kimberly grabs the mug, gently placing it in front of Kim. The aroma is enticing and instantly wakes her up, but Kim's made way too many mistakes before to know that she should let the coffee sit for a hot (ha) minute before even trying a sip.

"Thanks."

"No problem," Kimberly says, softly, "I know it seems hard right now, but you'll get through this. I'm right here with you."

---

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

With a strained grunt, Tommie hefts the last box of her things into the back of the moving truck, doing one last check that everything's there and in place. "Whew!" she huffs, takes her foster brother's hand in helping her down from the back of the truck, and jumps down to the ground, straightening her clothes out.

Reece claps her on the back, "You didn't forget anything in there, did you?"

Tommie pats her empty back pockets and sighs, heavily. "My phone," she grumbles.

"What would you do without me?" he calls out as she clambers back into the truck to look for her phone.

"I don't know," she responds, her voice echoing around the walls of the truck, "Die, probably… Can you give me a call?"

She waits for a moment in the silence, then, muffled, from inside the box she'd just set down, comes, "There's a room in a hotel in New York City…"

"Ugh, are you kidding me?" she mutters under her breath then calls out to Reece, "Hey, can you get the tape from my room? It should be… on the floor."

Reece chuckles, "Did you leave your phone in the box?"

"Yep."

"Is the box all taped up?"

Tommie huffs, exasperatedly, "Can you just get the tape, please? "

"Yeah, hold on a sec."

She taps her foot as she waits for Reece to reappear and easily catches the roll of packing tape he tosses at her. Tommie sets the tape down on top of another box as she reaches in her pocket for her knife and flicks it open, neatly cutting the box open and setting her knife down. The last of her books sit at the top, and she pushes them aside, blindly fumbling around for her phone. Her fingers brush against it near the bottom of the box, and she fishes it out, triumphantly waving it at Reece, who sarcastically claps.

"Congrats! Now, how many times is this, now?"

"Shut up," Tommie rolls her eyes as she makes sure to tuck her phone into her back pocket and grabs the tape, securing the box once again - phone-free, this time. She rejoins Reece outside of the truck and makes him hold the roll of tape.

He playfully bops her on the head with it. "Didn't you tell me you actually left your phone in there once?"

Tommie crosses her arms and frowns, "Whatever." She did, actually, but she wasn't about to repeat the story for her own embarrassment - leaving her phone in one of her suitcases when she moved from Boston to London was, most likely, one of her most regrettable mistakes.

"Alright, everything good?"

She pats her pockets- Then sighs and looks at Reece. He gives her a cheeky smile.

"Your knife's sitting on the floor."

"Maybe you should get it for me before I forget my entire self in there," she mutters, and he laughs, shrugging and hopping into the back of the truck. Tommie's a little bit tempted to pull the door close for fun, but she doubts she can get there faster than he can slip out.

Reece closes the truck door as he gets out and hands Tommie her knife back, "C'mon, the movers are still in there with Mom. You think there's still any food left?"

She pretends to think about it to stall for time then breaks into a run for the front door, "Race you!"

"Hey, cheater!"

---

"Has Castillo put up the rubric yet?"

Jason glances up from his phone and shakes his head, "Mm, not as far as I can tell. I haven't gotten any notifications yet."

Emily makes a noise of acknowledgement and breaks off another piece of her muffin and chews. Jason reaches over to grab a piece of his own, and she smacks his hand away. "What d'you think you're doing?"

He raises his eyebrows at her, "We're friends, aren't we? Friends share."

She rolls her eyes, "Yeah, sure, but we walked in here, and you immediately started complaining about how Java City isn't as good as Starbucks and that you weren't gonna get anything because you respect and love yourself."

"I do respect and love myself," Jason says, very, very seriously.

"And I'm glad you do," Emily puts up a finger to stop him as he reaches for her muffin again, "But, you decided you wanted to be picky, so."

He fixes her with a stare, "Don't make me use my secret weapon."

Emily snorts and flicks a crumb at him, "Yeah, and what's that?"

"My… handsome good looks and natural athleticism." It sounded better in his head.

"Hm," Emily squints at him then shrugs and breaks off a piece of her muffin and holds it out to him, "For the record, though, Kim's hotter than you, and your leg's messed up."

Jason pouts as he cherishes and munches on the small piece she'd given him, "My leg's fine." Still, he instinctively rubs his right knee out of habit, just talking about it. The truth is, it's not fully healed and sometimes still aches, but only very, very faintly (if he didn't know it existed, he wouldn't notice it, really).

"So, you're not arguing that Kim's hotter than you?"

"No, duh, she's hotter than me," Jason scoffs, "And I was doing pretty good before the accident. I mean, not to brag or anything, but…"

"But, our luck's run out now that you aren't on the team," Emily finishes for him, nodding in agreement. She pauses then tilts her head at him, "Do you ever think about going back?"

He had, but… he hasn't since becoming a Ranger. "Uh," he shakes his head and rubs the back of his neck, "I've thought about it once or twice, but honestly, that part of my life's over, Em. I've moved on."

She raises her eyebrows, "Is that why you're still swinging by my dad's classroom in the morning? Because he's not your coach anymore."

Jason tenses and clenches his jaw. He hadn't suspected that Emily had overheard anything from his conversation with her dad - at least, he hadn't until she mentioned it. "We're still… close," he says, not wanting to give anything away by his body language or tone - which he's now both ridiculously hyperaware of so he tries to keep his exact posture from right before he became aware, "He booted me, but you know, it's not like I have a grudge against him or anything. He just did what he had to do."

Chewing thoughtfully, Emily breaks off another chunk of her muffin and gives it to Jason, like an offering to keep him talking. He's not mean or cold enough to really mind the bribery. "What about the guys? D'you still talk to any of them?"

The first names that come to mind are Damo and Hawkeye, but since the night of their group Senior Prank, he hasn't said a word to them. Sees them in the hallway a lot, but he doesn't look at them and they don't look at him.

"No," he says, flatly, "But I haven't really seen Caboose around."

"Beck?" At Jason's confirming nod, Emily gazes at him for a long moment, and he shifts in his seat, "He's been pretty busy this semester. Is he the only one you'd wanna talk to?"

Jason fakes a frown and glances around, gesturing with his hand in a sweeping motion, "I don't see anyone else eager to rub elbows with me after I royally fucked everything up. Do you? There was a giant gold monster in town two weeks ago, and still, Marty looks at me like I ran over his dog every time I walk into Precal now."

"What about David or Clint- you know, Hawkeye? Thought you were close with them," she pauses then continues, "Okay, I just never asked 'cause I never thought to, but what's with the nicknames? Like, almost everyone on the team has one, and it's kinda hard to keep track of 'cause my dad just calls you guys by your actual names while everyone else… doesn't."

He purses his lips and decides to just skip over talking about Damo and Hawkeye, hoping she'd get the hint, "It's just a dumb thing we came up with when we were all in JV and we wanted the guys in varsity to think we were, you know, worthy or whatever. Cool enough."

Emily chuckles and raises her eyebrows in interest, "Okay. What was yours, then? I feel like everyone still calls you by your name."

Jason is silent for a minute, staring down at his hand as he traces a random pattern of lines onto the surface of the table with his thumb.

"Golden boy," he says, quietly.

---

Kim takes a sip of her coffee and looks at Kimberly, "Are you and your brother close?" She's always wondered what not being an only child was like, but she can't imagine herself having a younger brother, now. Technically, Zack and Billy could count since they're a couple months younger than her, but… that's weird.

Kimberly frowns, and immediately, Kim backtracks to save herself. "Oh, um, you don't have to answer that-"

"No, it's okay," Kimberly sighs and runs a hand through her hair, "We were close enough, I guess, when we were kids, and then, after the divorce…" She shrugs and drops her hands down to her side, looking achingly defeated.

Kim swallows and awkwardly looks away, not quite wanting to see Kimberly look so… vulnerable. It feels wrong, somehow.

But, Kimberly continues, despite the fact that Kim is very intensely studying the hotel room wallpaper now, "My mom remarried and ended up moving to France with my stepdad, and my brother went with them. I, uh, stayed here in the States and then, you know, moved to Florida to train for the Pan Globals and such. I ended up not seeing my family a lot, and once I graduated high school, things just kinda…"

"Happened?" Kim asks, her tone dry but not meaning to be sarcastic, just flat.

"Yeah."

"They tend to do that," Kim looks back at Kimberly and shrugs, "Sucks, right?"

"Absolutely," Kimberly chuckles, but it quickly dies out, "I got caught up in myself. I wasn't doing well, and I didn't want my family to see me like that. So, me and my brother ended up keeping in contact, but just barely, you know - birthday calls, Christmas cards, that kind of stuff." She frowns and wipes a hand over her face; Kim knows without asking that she's trying her best not to tear up.

"Does he live around here?"

Kimberly shakes her head and bites on her lower lip, "No, hasn't for awhile. We both liked traveling a lot, so I always found it kinda… I don't know, sadly amusing that we both kept moving further apart. He works for some marketing agency, and last I heard, he was living in London, I think." She sighs, "He's been too busy to come to the past couple of Thanksgivings, so maybe, uh, maybe this year's the charm."

Kim has no idea what to say to that, what there is to say to that, so she just takes another sip of her coffee and watches Kimberly do the same. After a few minutes of silence, she says, quietly, clearing her throat, "I'm- I've never really… thought about this before, but you know, I guess divorce just… makes you think about things that never occurred to you before, right?" She chuckles, darkly, but when Kimberly doesn't interject, she continues, "I'm scared that it won't work out. That-" She stops, unable to voice it aloud, and bores a hole into the countertop with her eyes. If she does, then- then it'll come into existence.

She looks up at the sound of Kimberly sniffling and instantly regrets it, averting her gaze before it makes her- Kim presses her fingers into her eyes, and when that doesn't work, she rubs her eyes with her sleeve, dampening it with a few tears.

"I was afraid of that, too," Kimberly admits, laying it out in the air between them, "Tommy and I had a rough start when we first dated… and it just got worse with every relationship I ended. Some hurt me more than others, and…" She wipes her reddening eyes, but she's not fully crying yet. Kim's a little unfairly envious of that - of how long she's lived, how much this doesn't hurt her anymore because she has a good life. "I did most of the breaking up. I told myself I was protecting the people I loved from…"

"Being hurt," Kim manages to get out, almost choking on her own words. She doesn't look at Kimberly and clears her throat.

"Yeah." Kimberly reaches out, laying her hand on the counter, halfway between her and Kim, "I can't promise that it's not gonna be hard as hell and that you won't wake up some days wondering whether or not it's worth it, but…"

Kim stares at Kimberly for a moment but doesn't hesitate and reaches for Kimberly's hand, barely brushing their fingertips together.

A pink spark flickers between them, fizzling out into the silent understanding.

---

There's an SUV and a pickup truck in the driveway of Emily's house that aren't her dad's or her mom's, and the sight of them makes Jason hope that the owners of the cars aren't inside - or he hopes that he's wrong about who owns those cars, but… the license plates tell him otherwise. Emily's house keys jingle in her hand as she unlocks the front door and steps inside. Jason trails behind her then freezes the moment his shoes hit the welcome mat.

The football team's first string stares back at him from the Jordans' couch. There's a game on, but Jason finds that he doesn't really care who's playing.

Edward clears his throat and shifts uncomfortably in his armchair, "Hello, Jason."

"Hey, Coach," Jason murmurs back, fighting every urge he has to turn around and tell Emily that they'd be better off going to his place.

"We have a History project," Emily says, glancing at the football players, most of whom are already turning back to the TV, "Uh, I didn't know you were having the team over."

"Yeah, it was very last minute," Edward replies, "Just sort of happened."

"Oh, okay, um, well," Emily waves her hand toward her bedroom, "We'll be in my room."

Jason catches Damo quickly glancing over at him and clenches his jaw, hoping the look in his eyes is enough to make the other boy look away.

It is.

Emily briefly tugs on his sleeve, "Come on, Jason."

He follows her without another look at the crowd in the living room.

They pass by the open door of the guest bedroom, and Jason pauses for a moment, taking note of the light green walls. "You guys repainted the guest room," he comments, poking his head in, "Looks nice."

"Oh, yeah, that's gonna be my sister's room," Emily says without stopping.

He tilts his head, confused, but she's already disappeared inside her own room, so he has no choice but to follow her. "You have a sister? Since when?" Jason closes the door behind him and just kinda stands there, not really sure where he's allowed to step or stand or sit yet.

Emily throws her soccer gear in one corner and sets her backpack down by her desk. "Uh, about six months ago?" she thinks over the answer as she takes her jacket off and drapes it over her desk chair, "Yeah, that sounds about right. She's coming out of the foster system."

Seems to be a trend with the Jordans. Jason nods, "Cool. How old is she?"

He expects a really, really low number. Like… ten or something. "She turns eighteen next month."

Jason lets out a low whistle, "Whoa. That's… kinda old."

"Yeah, she's had a rough time bouncing around the system. I don't know if you know this, but people don't… really wanna adopt kids over fourteen, usually, so." Emily sits down at her desk and motions for him to take a seat on her bed instead of just awkwardly stand there. "Once kids hit eighteen, they kinda just 'age out' since they're legal." She makes air quotes with her fingers and shakes her head, a disappointed frown on her face.

Jason sits down on the edge of Emily's bed and shakes his head, "Oh, no, I didn't know that. Never really thought about it, I guess. What… what happens to them? After they, uh, age out?"

Emily huffs, "What d'you think happens? No home, no family, they're on their own."

"Shit, that's rough." He suddenly feels bad about ever resenting his dad and quietly stares at his hands in his lap. His power coin feels heavy in his jacket pocket, and he shoves his hands into his jacket pockets, his fingers brushing against it.

"Yeah," Emily murmurs, quietly. Jason decides not to ask any further, which seems all good as Emily pulls her laptop out of her backpack, bringing up the student portal.

"Rubric's up?"

"Mhm, yeah, Castillo put up a list of approved topics, too, so uh…" She takes her laptop with her and sits down next to him on the bed, "Let's figure out what we wanna spend two weeks with."

Jason grumbles and rolls his eyes, letting himself slump onto the bed, "Every time I hear two weeks, just… ugh." He squints at what he's guessing is a constellation on Emily's ceiling, "What are you?"

"What am I what?"

"Your ceiling."

She turns and looks at him, "You hardly make sense half of the time, you know that?"

He points at the stick-on constellation, and she follows his finger up to the ceiling, "Oh. Pisces."

Jason tries to think about what a Pisces is and isn't. Pearl's into that astrology stuff and tried to tell him about it a few times, but he's never really remembered anything she told him. "I'm a Libra," he comments, "Don't really know what that means, but my birthday's next month, too."

"What day?"

"20th."

Emily chuckles to herself, "My sister's birthday is on the 20th."

"Oh, nice."

Sitting back up, Jason peers at Emily's laptop as she scrolls through Mr. Castillo's approved topics. He likes history, honestly, but Jason's never been great at deadlines and "two weeks" just sounds like "this is future Jason's problem" to him, so.

"When's she coming?"

"My mom's gonna pick her up from the airport tomorrow. You'll probably get to meet her on Monday."

Jason nods, "Cool. I'm excited."

"Don't be. She's a nerd."

"I feel like I'm obligated to say 'you're a nerd' in a mocking tone," Jason mutters.

Emily closes her laptop and tosses it next to her pillows, "Well, I definitely don't feel like making any decisions right now, so… I'm waiting." She gives him a cheeky grin.

He clears his throat and rolls his eyes, " You're a nerd."

She laughs - laughs in a way that makes him smile without meaning to - at his delivery and shakes her head, getting up, "I'm gonna go check if the guys are gone, okay?"

They're not. Jason assumes she can't hear them with her door closed and all - with her human hearing and all - but he can still faintly hear the TV. "You don't have to do that," he says before she's to the door, "They're still out there. I didn't hear anyone's car leave."

Emily stops and raises her eyebrows at him, "Those are some good ears you have."

"The better to hear you with," he says, instinctively.

She snorts, "Creepy."

Emily crosses her arms and glances him over, "What if you just went out there? Sat down, had some pizza, watched the game?"

It's his turn to raises his eyebrows at her. "Yeah, right," Jason scoffs, "Like that's gonna happen."

"Why not?" she throws her hands up, "Because you're not on the team anymore? I thought you used to be friends with them."

The thought suddenly occurs to him that Emily has no idea what the full story is. He squints at her, "What d'you know about what happened? About my accident?"

She seems taken aback by the question and pauses, running a hand through her hair as she thinks, "Uh, I don't know, I heard about it from the news, saw people talking about it on Snapchat. You went and… tried to sneak a cow into Montgomery High, the cops came, you evaded arrest and led them on a, uh, very short car chase."

"Did you dad tell you anything?"

Emily sighs, "That he kicked you from the team. Or, well, it was decided that it was best for you to not be on it anymore. Why? What am I missing?"

Jason chuckles under his breath, "Like, everything, mostly." He feels restless, so he stands and starts pacing - energy and all, Jason's never been one for standing still, especially when he's about to get worked up, which he always is when this conversation comes up. "Okay, so, the 'official' story," he explains, his voice taking on a slightly mocking tone, using air quotes that make Emily raise her eyebrows, curiously, "Is that I, Jason Scott, decided to put a cow - his name is Beefcake, by the way, we're buds - in Montgomery High as a Senior Prank from, you know, Angel Grove to Montgomery, alone, and then, when cops responded to a break-in because of a silent alarm being triggered, I ran - by myself - from the cops and then, you know, crashed, fucked up my knee, and ruined Angel Grove's season. Or whatever."

Emily stares at him for a long moment, and he can see her piecing it together in her mind. "Who helped you, Jason?"

He shakes his head at her, "No one. Officially, I acted alone."

"Alright, fine," Emily huffs and rolls her eyes, " Hypothetically, then, if you were to do that all over again, with help this time, who would go with you?"

Jason sighs and looks down at the carpet, "Damo and Hawkeye."

"You didn't rat them out," she says, quietly, realizing.

He scowls, "There was nobody to rat out 'cause I acted alone." Then, "I was in jail for three days."

Emily stops and stares at him, opening her mouth but no words coming out. "Wait… what? You- you were in jail? "

"Yeah," he sighs, defeatedly, his shoulders sagging, "My dad didn't visit me. Nobody else did, either, 'cept my mom and my sister. But, I mean, nobody else knew."

"Holy shit," Emily whispers, her face still stuck on disbelief, still processing.

Yeah, holy shit was right. Jason runs a hand over his face, feeling an all-too familiar suffocating heat begin to burn in his stomach. Coming here had been a mistake- but he had no way of knowing that the team would be there- but he should've anticipated, should've been ready for anything-

He tugs at his jacket collar and takes a deep breath, forcing himself to stay steady. "I should go," he mumbles.

Emily peers at him, her features becoming concerned, "Do you want me to… get you some water?"

Shaking his head before she can leave and do just that, Jason waves his hand at her, "No, no, it's fine. I'm just… gonna go home."

Her hand is on his arm, touching him only briefly before quickly pulling away, as he reaches for the doorknob. "I'm sorry, Jason."

He breathes and feels a fire start to burn inside of him. "Yeah, I'm sorry, too."

---

Her dad had fished out one of her old phones and reactivated while she was at school. It was left on the kitchen counter with a note when Trini got home, after Kim had dropped her off, and she'd breathed a sigh of relief, quickly re-adding the Rangers and Kimberly and Tommy's contact info. That was, unfortunately, pretty much the only phone numbers she knew besides her mom and dad's.

Zack re-adds her to both group chats once she texts him, which is great and all, but… she's still grounded.

There's not much to do now that she's grounded. Trini, honestly, hasn't been grounded in over a year, and the feeling of absolute, crippling boredom and stir-crazed anxiety is already starting to settle in, shortly after she'd gone straight to her room and collapsed on her bed.

The opportunity to take a nap doesn't slip past her, though, and she easily passes out after sending a text off to her parents that she's home. At this point, her body is tired enough to just drop straight into sleep, but for whatever Ranger superpowered-ness, Trini doesn't entirely feel the effects of sleep deprivation in her mind. She's been up for over thirty hours by now. It's not like she hasn't pulled full all-nighters before, but normally, her body would've crashed in the middle of one of her classes.

She doesn't dream. It's not a deep enough sleep to dream, and it's not a deep enough sleep for her to not instantly wake up the moment something brushes against her consciousness.

Trini opens her eyes and blinks away the disorientation, staring at her ceiling, just laying there, listening for the reason why she'd just randomly woken up.

Vaguely, she can hear the sound of the living room TV through the floor, so her parents are home by now. Trini reaches for her phone on her bedside table and glances at the time.

6:29 PM.

She focuses on the feeling in her chest - hot but smothering, warm but too warm. Throwing the covers back doesn't do anything to change how she feels. Trini can feel the air hitting her legs, but it doesn't affect the heat inside. It's not the outside - it can't be. Her parents always keep the house at a relative 72 degrees. That's not enough to make her feel like a fire is about to burn her up from the inside out.

Her breathing quickens, spurred by the uncertainty of the suffocating sensation in her chest, and for a moment, she almost loses it, almost gives in to the hyperventilation, but at the last moment, it hits her.

This is a panic attack.

But it's not her panic attack.

She scrambles up from her bed and is changing back into her clothes almost immediately, discarding her pajamas onto her bed. Halfway through putting her shirt on, Trini stops at a knock on her door.

"Trini?" Her dad's voice floats through the door.

Shit. "Uh, yeah?"

"Are you going to come down for dinner?"

Shit, shit, shit. She pulls on her jacket and puts on a beanie while answering, "Um, can you put mine in the fridge for later? I'm… really tired, and I just wanna sleep right now." She cringes to herself, knowing that it's a shit excuse but desperately hoping that her dad would take it.

A moment passes.

"Alright, then. Goodnight." Her dad's footsteps recede down the stairs, and Trini waits until she can no longer hear him before she lets out a sigh of relief. She makes sure the door is locked tight before going on.

She grabs her phone and pulls up the Power Geeks™ group chat, even as she's sliding her window open and climbing out onto the roof.

[T 6:36 PM] um this is gonna sound rly weird but do u guys feel that

Trini jumps down to the driveway, making sure to keep away from any of the windows, in case her parents look outside.

Her phone beeps with a response that comes quicker than she expects it to.

[KH 6:36 PM] it

[KH 6:36 PM] feels like

[KH 6:36 PM] feels lik e a pnaic attck

The sensation in her chest tightens, spikes faster, but Trini forces it down with gritted teeth. She breaks into a run and leaves the vicinity of her house, not quite knowing where she's going but just knowing that she needs to be away from home first.

[T 6:37 PM] breathe

[KH 6:37 PM] im fkcing tyrin g

[KH 6:37 PM] who si it /? its nfo me

[ZT 6:37 PM] not me either

[ZT 6:37 PM] kim r u alone

[KH 6:37 PM] This is Kimberly. I'm with her.

Trini lets out a sigh of relief as she skids to a stop in a wooded area at the end of her neighborhood. That only leaves two people.

[T 6:37 PM] u got her?

[KH 6:37 PM] Yes. I'll take care of her.

[T 6:38 PM] k thx

[T 6:38 PM] billy? jason? r u guys ok

[BC 6:39 PM] I'm ok. It's not me.

Fuck.

[T 6:39 PM] jay where r u

[T 6:39 PM] jason im srry abt all the txts but we need 2 know where u r

[T 6:39 PM] count 2 four, breathe in, count 2 four, breathe out

It's an agonizing five minutes of her standing there, staring at her phone, waiting in dead silence as the tightening of her chest only increases in so very small but definitely noticeable increments. She fights it in her head, putting up steel walls and blocking the fear out. She does it so well that the buzzing of her own anxiety is nothing more than a soft whisper at the edge of her consciousness.

There's more important things to focus on. It keeps her going.

[JS 6:44 PM] im at th e entran ce to brihg t water i can tdrive

[T 6:44 PM] stay there ok? keep breathing

Billy doesn't drive. Kim's in no shape to drive.

She calls Zack. He picks up on the first ring.

"Are you good enough to go?"

His voice is grim, hoarse, much like how she imagines hers sounds as well. In the background, she can hear the whoosh and crackle as the wind interferes with the microphone and speakers."Yeah, I'm already headed there."

---

She gets to Brightwater before Zack does; her house is closer, only about ten minutes away by car, and she's running at, well, faster than that.

Jason's truck is at the entrance, like he'd said, just shy of the stop sign leading out of the neighborhood, pulled off to the curb, its hazard lights blinking. Trini approaches it, making sure to come from the front so that Jason can, at the very least, see her coming.

"Jason?" she calls out, and he must hear her because he looks up from leaning his head against the steering wheel and sees her through the windshield. His eyes are frightened, wild, and his chest and shoulders visibly shake as he breathes. Trini involuntarily thinks of a deer in headlights.

She swallows any reservations she has and goes over to his driver's side and taps very gently on the window. With a momentary struggle, he manages to roll the window down - but only partially. Whether that's intentional or not, Trini doesn't ask.

"Hey," she says, softly.

"Hi," Jason mutters, strained. His breathing is loud, rough.

Trini hears Zack come up behind her and sees Jason glance at him, but she doesn't take her eyes off of him, keeping her voice steady, despite how every breath she takes feels like it just feeds the smothering more, "Zack's here. We're here to help you, Jay. Can we… come inside?"

He looks away and thinks about his answer then looks back at her. "I can't- I can't drive," he says, instead.

"That's okay." Trini looks at Zack, her eyes asking a silent question that he answers with a nod. "Zack can drive for you."

"Okay," Jason nods to her and Zack and then to himself, "Okay."

"Jason." He looks at her as if suddenly remembering that she's there. "I'm gonna ask you to do something. Is that okay?"

He pauses then wordlessly nods, his chest still heaving.

"Can you move to the backseat?"

"Oh- okay, yeah." His movements are sluggish as he opens the door and stumbles out of the car. Trini and Zack both step back to give him space, but the moment he seems unsure about opening the back door, Trini takes a small step closer.

"Do you need help, Jase? Would you mind if I touched you?" Jason shakes his head after a moment, so Zack opens the back door for him and Trini guides him into the backseat, holding onto his arm in case he stumbles. He's trembling under her grip, but she steels herself and tries not to think about it.

Zack shuts the door as gently as possible, gets into the driver's seat, adjusting it to fit him, and turns off the hazard lights. His hand is on the gear stick; he glances at Trini and Jason, waiting.

"Jason?" Trini gently nudges him to get his attention.

"Hm?"

"Where do you wanna go?"

He thinks about it for a moment and lets out a shaky breath, "H-home. Please."

---

Thankfully, the Scotts' driveway is completely empty when Zack parks Jason's truck in it. They're well past his curfew mandated by the Sheriff's Department, but his parents don't know that he has a hacker friend who "fixed" his ankle monitor weeks ago, so they still trust him to be home on time.

At the front door, Jason's hands shake too hard to even hold his keys, causing them to rattle wildly, so Trini wordlessly pries them from his hands and unlocks the front door to the Scott house.

"I'm s-sorry," he mumbles as she guides him inside, her hand on his back, "You guys shouldn't be seeing me like- like this-"

On the drive to his house, she'd managed to get his breathing to plateau out, but now, she can tell he's starting to think again and his breaths become shallower. Trini's chest tightens, and she gently rubs his arm. "It's okay, Jason, nobody's judging you," she says, "We're here to help you."

He mutely nods and follows along as she helps him further into the house. She nods at Zack and whispers, "Get him a glass of water."

"Do you wanna go to your room?" Trini asks.

Jason frowns immediately and shakes his head one time too many, "N-no, no, no, I-I don't."

"Okay, that's okay. We'll just sit down in the kitchen. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's… that's fine."

They come into the kitchen, and Trini pulls out a chair for Jason at the dining table, pushing aside a stack of mail on it. "How are you feeling?"

He tugs at his jacket collar a little desperately and mutters, "It's hot. I'm- I'm on fire."

Trini pauses, remembering the feeling when she'd woken up earlier. Like being stuck in a building on fire. "You're not on fire, okay? Here, lemme help you take that off." She helps him take his jacket off and drapes it over the back of his chair then sits down in the chair next to him. "Is that better?"

Jason makes a vague noise of acknowledgement.

Zack finally finds the cabinet with the glasses and fills one up with tap water, setting it in front of Jason before sitting down on his other side, "Here, buddy."

"Thanks." He just stares at the glass, though, his breathing still slightly strained and shaking. "I've been awake for a- a very long time," he mumbles, finally, letting out a brief chuckle.

She gives his a small smile, "Yeah, you have. I think a nap would really help you out."

He nods in agreement with her.

"Do you think you can drink a little bit of water first? It'd help you cool down."

At the mention of cooling down, Jason's breath hitches, and he pulls at the fabric of his shirt, about to spiral again, but Zack puts a hand over his.

"Hey, you're not on fire," he reminds him, gently, "We're here."

"Okay." Jason picks up the glass and takes a hesitant sip then a longer one and nods, "Okay."

Zack glances at Trini, "I'm gonna go let the others know he's at home, alright?"

"Yeah, sure," she nods. Both of their phones have been on silent since getting in the car with Jason, and she'd taken Jason's away and silenced it as well shortly after he muttered about the notifications scaring him.

Zack pulls out his phone and disappears into another room.

Jason takes another sip of water, close to finishing half the glass. His hands are still shaking, but she can hear his breathing start to calm down.

She gives him a small, encouraging smile, "You're doing good."

He nods to himself as if to affirm the fact then looks at her, "Thanks… thanks for being here."

"Of course," Trini says, "We're a family."

---

Kimberly's phone bings with a new message, and she quickly silences it before it can disturb Kim can further. She freezes, waiting for the girl to wake up, but Kim doesn't stir and only snuggles closer into Kimberly's side, her arms around Kimberly's waist.

Sitting up in bed, she hasn't been able to feel her entire torso for almost an hour now, but it's a fair trade if it means Kim is comfortable.

The Ranger Bunch

[ZT 7:51 PM] j is ok

[ZT 7:51 PM] hes at his house

[ZT 7:51 PM] me & t are w/ him

[BC 7:51 PM] Okay, good. Thank you for letting us know, Zack.

A moment later, her phone screen lights up with Zack's caller ID, and she's glad that she silenced it.

"Hello?" she whispers, bringing the phone to her ear.

"Why're you whispering?"

"Because Kim's right next to me and she's sleeping."

"Aw, that's cute. So, she's okay?"

Kimberly snorts then pauses, waiting for Kim to stir. When the girl doesn't move, she continues, "Yeah, she's alright. She kind of… cried until she got exhausted and then fell asleep. On me. I haven't been able to move for awhile now."

There's a moment of silence before Zack speaks. "Have you ever seen this before? Like… do you know what this is? Zordon's told us before that we have, like, a bond with each other? But, I just thought he was speaking, you know… figuratively."

She does. "Yeah, you're all connected to each other. I mean, I don't know to what degree, but… most of the time, it's kinda just like a feeling, you know? You know when someone's in trouble or you just have a hunch." Kimberly chuckles, softly, "Or everyone craves smoothies at the same time."

It differs from team to team - why, she doesn't know, and she doesn't think she'll ever really figure it out. The Morphing Grid works in mysterious ways. But, Kimberly has definitely seen it before.

"Do you have any experience with it?" Zack asks, curiously.

She remembers the deafening silence after Trini had died - emptiness like a gunshot wound to the stomach, the silence that her entire team had caused, together, all cutting each other off. Silence that had left her shaken for years.

With her free hand, she pulls Kim a little closer, gently stroking her hair. The motion keeps her grounded, even if her hand starts prickling with numbness.

Kimberly clears her throat, very quietly, "Um, yeah, I've had some. Not with a panic attack, though."

"Okay. Uh, I'm gonna go make sure Jason gets some sleep. Thanks for helping Kim out."

"Yeah, of course, no problem. Thanks for keeping me updated."

---

Billy had been okay, but now, he was worried. Worried about Jason, worried about Kim, and as he ran all the way to the ship, worried about the possibilities of what had just occurred.

If they could react like this to Jason having a panic attack, then what did that mean when someone dies?

What did that mean when he died?

Billy's a little bit eased by the fact that it didn't mean the other four immediately keeled over as well, but… the question of symptoms unnerved him as he made his way across town, up the mountains, into the quarry, and down to the ship.

Working calms him. It always does.

He lands - not gracefully at all, still - in the cavern with a loud thump and grunts, sitting up to find Alpha scaling one of the cavern walls.

"Alpha?"

"Hello, Master Billy!" Alpha chirps.

"What're you doing?" Billy asks, standing up and dusting himself off.

Alpha rotates his entire head around to look at Billy, and Billy looks away, frowning, a bit disturbed by… that. Things that shouldn't be able to rotate their heads around 180 degrees: owls and, now, apparently, Alpha 5.

"I was checking up on some energy readings earlier, but I still haven't gotten very far with figuring out if it's trouble… so I went to go work on the elevator," Alpha says.

"Oh, okay, cool," Billy squints, "Why are you on the wall?"

"I'm measuring."

He doesn't see any measuring tape, so he figures whatever Alpha's using is in his head. Probably not in English, either. "How are the communicators coming along?"

"They're done!"

Billy blinks in surprise, "Oh, they're done? That was… fast."

Alpha hops down and motions for Billy to follow him to the ship, "I kept working on them for most of yesterday and today since I don't have to fight monsters like you, Master Billy. Or go to school."

"Yeah, that's fair."

The door to the ship slides open as Billy and Alpha approach it, and Alpha leads him down a series of hallways that Billy has already, thankfully, memorized. Everyone else still gets lost from time to time when going anywhere else that's not the main chamber or The Pit, but not Billy.

The workshop Alpha takes him into, Billy knows, is one of many - after all, this used to be a ship occupied by five, no, six Rangers - and rather sizable. There's several tables that, instead of having legs, are attached to the walls.

Billy briefly wonders if that makes them shelves? Or tables? Table-shelves? They're still tables, though?

He forgets those thoughts when he sees the communicators on a table - table-shelf - against the far wall and excitedly runs over to them, grinning.

"I took your advice about making them less inconspicuous since Kimberly's old one is not," Alpha says, proudly, "And I used those pictures you showed me of those… smartwatches?"

"Yeah, smartwatches," Billy nods, eyeing the communicators. They could easily be confused for actual smartwatches, pretty much. A round, digital watch face is framed by different colored metal links - red, yellow, black, blue, pink, and- "You made two others?" Another, darker pink one sits at the far end, away from the others, and next to it, a white one.

Alpha murmurs in confirmation, "Yes, for Kimberly and Tommy, if they're going to be here awhile. If they leave, of course, I can always just scrap them." He sighs, a little wearily, "There's a lotof scrap on this ship."

"I'd imagine so," Billy says, "It's not like you can really do much around here, stuck underneath the mountain and all. Lots of auxiliary systems going to waste." He picks up the blue communicator and examines its light weight in his hands then glances at Alpha, "Are these connected to our phones?"

Alpha shrugs, "They can be with some tweaking. Right now, they're just connected to the ship's communications relay and teleportation matrix, but you'd need to come up with something to connect your cell phones to them. It's definitely doable, though."

Billy flashes Alpha a smile, "Have you heard of Bluetooth?"

---

He and Alpha work for the good portion of an hour until something loudly beeps, distantly, in another hallway, and Alpha rushes off, leaving Billy to tinker and put the finishing touches on the communicators.

Alpha runs back into the workshop, rambling hastily, "Those energy readings are back, Master Billy!"

"Putty activity?" he asks, immediately setting the communicator in his hands back down on the table-shelf.

Alpha nods, "Here, come look. You'll get the coordinates to the other Rangers?"

Billy nods, trailing behind Alpha, already pulling his phone out, "Yeah, yeah, of course."

---

Trini's phone bings in her pocket, jolting her from the half-nap she'd been having in Jason's desk chair. She pulls it out and glances at it.

Power Geeks™

[BC 8:48 PM] Alpha detected some Putty activity.

Underneath were a set of coordinates that Trini vaguely recognizes as the docks.

Where the dead ships live.

She swallows the thought and purges it from her mind, getting up and going over to nudge Zack awake. He'd called dibs on Jason's bean bag chair in the corner, thinking that Trini would be more upset at having to nap in a desk chair than she actually was. "Hey," she says, nudging his foot again, "Hey, get up."

"Hm, wass' goin' on?" Zack stretches and grumbles.

"Putties."

That wakes him up, and he sits up straighter, blinking.

"Billy texted us with the coordinates," Trini says, walking over to Jason's bed, where he's still passed out, his chest heavily rising and falling. "Jay," she gently shakes him, "Hey, Jason, wake up."

He stirs, slightly, and rubs a hand over his eyes, looking at her, "Wha?"

"Putties."

Groggily, he pulls himself into a sitting position, taking in his surroundings, and instantly, Trini can see his brain remembering the past couple of hours. He pointedly avoids her gaze as he gets out of bed, "Alright, let's… let's go." He goes for his car keys sitting on his nightstand.

"Whoa," Zack stands and holds a hand out, "I'll drive, dude."

Jason pauses, "I can drive."

Zack pries the keys from Jason's hand, "I'll drive."

"I- Okay, fine," he concedes then heads for the door.

Trini and Zack follow him down the stairs and to the front door. The house is lit from the lights she and Zack turned on earlier, but eerily quiet. Trini knows that none of the Scotts have been home; she would've woken up if anyone else had come in. "Where's your family?" she asks as she follows Jason.

"Pearl's got this parent-teacher open house conference thing tonight," Jason says, grabbing his jacket from the kitchen table and shrugging it on, "I think my mom said they were gonna go to a drive-in after or something, too. There's, like, one across town showing, uhhhh, I have no idea."

Zack snorts, "That's helpful. They didn't invite you?"

Jason turns around as they get to his car and rolls his eyes, "I can't come." He points to where his jean leg is rumpled up and his ankle monitor sticks out, "I've got a date, remember?"

"Right."

Trini gets into the backseat, automatically, and Jason follows her, settling in next to her. He hasn't said anything about earlier, yet, but she can hear the words he wants to say through the absence of them.

Zack starts the car and pulls out of the driveway, starting down the neighborhood.

"Thanks for not crashing my truck," Jason says, chuckling.

"Ha, I can't do any worse than you did, right?" Zack flashes Jason a grin in the rearview mirror.

"Yeah, guess you can't."

They fall into a comfortable silence after that as Zack drives them to the docks. Trini settles into her seat, staring out the window, and when Jason wordlessly leans his head on her shoulder, she lets him.

---

Kim's phone vibrates and beeps in her pockets, bringing her back to the land of consciousness. Kimberly doesn't move as she stirs, opening her eyes and rubbing the sleepiness out of them.

"What…" she murmurs to herself.

"Hey," Kimberly says, plainly, moving her arm to let Kim sit up. A pink spark fizzles out between them as Kim pulls away from closely snuggling her, as she'd been doing for...

"Hey… how long have I been asleep?"

Kimberly checks her phone, "About two hours."

"Felt like an eternity."

"Yeah," Kimberly mutters, dryly, putting some pressure onto her stomach with her hand, trying to force some sensation back into it, "Not like you haven't had your arm draped over me like a dead weight for two hours."

Tommy snickers to himself from where he's sitting at the kitchen island, and Kim flinches, surprised to find him there.

"Oh, you're back."

"Uh-huh," he says, clicking away at his laptop, "You snore."

"No, I don't," Kim mutters, indignantly, getting out of the bed.

"Yeah, you do," Kimberly counters, "You were breathing right next to me. There was definitely snoring."

Kim rolls her eyes and pulls her phone out, checking her notifications, "Aw, shit."

Kimberly raises her eyebrows, amused, "What?"

"Should've checked my phone first," she mutters, grabbing her jacket from the couch, "Putties down by the docks."

"Do you need a ride?" Tommy asks.

"Nah, I drove here, I've got it," she pauses, glancing at Kimberly, "Uh, thanks for… earlier. Sorry I can't, you know-" She motions to her phone.

Kimberly waves a hand and shakes her head, "Yeah, no, 'thank you' is good enough. I'm glad I could help. Just go."

"Okay, cool, cool. See you guys later." She's out the door - not in a flash, but almost as fast.

---

The five of them, morphed, stride, cautiously, down the docks, their footsteps uncannily quiet against the wooden planks despite, well, how heavy their armor is. The night is dark, and the only sound in the air is their breathing and the water as it laps against the pier.

"I swear these things are never going away," Kim mutters, wearily, "Anybody find anything yet?"

"Not so far. Maybe it's not a false alarm," Jason says, walking ahead of her. She glances at his back; his shoulders are a bit tense. After this, they all need to talk. And maybe hug. A lot. Kim knows she could definitely use it.

From behind her, Zack calls out, "Okay, so, this is weird… "

They all turn around. Zack holds up a green… container? It looks to Kim like one of those weird glowy test containers that she's seen in movies where shady shit's involved. A deformed hand sits inside of the container, suspended in an clear, green solution - one that Kim realizes with a sinking sensation in her stomach is a Putty's hand.

"High school science project?" Kim jokes, uneasily.

"It's a trap," Billy says, abruptly.

A light flips on, and they're bathed in a bright spotlight. Kim cringes, holding a hand over her visor to stop the disorientation. When she drops her hand and lets her eyes adjust, she sees that they're surrounded.

The barrel of an assault rifle is pointed directly at her, and in a circle of identically dressed soldiers, others are also pointing guns at her teammates.

"Oh, boy," Billy squeaks.

"You're right," a woman's voice calls out, and Kim looks for the source as a woman steps out from behind one of the soldiers. She's cleanly dressed in a military jacket and a sharp, green button-up shirt and slacks - the leader, Kim guesses, of course. "This is a trap," the woman says, "But, these are the lengths you have to go to meet the Power Rangers."

"These guys have a lot of guns," Zack mutters, bitterly, "Why don't we have guns?"

Jason stares at the woman. "Who are you?" he demands, firmly, "What do you want?" His fists are clenched at his sides, and if Kim hadn't known, she wouldn't have been able to guess where he was mentally, just hours ago.

Billy tenses up next to Kim. "We can take them, man. Just say the word."

Kim doubts that. A little bit. They have no idea if their armor is bulletproof, and she isn't in the mood to find out tonight.

"No. No. Say no words. We're not here for a fight. Least not yet. These boys are mostly to make a point," the woman says, quickly, but unerringly calmly, "My name is Melanie Sheer, and I work for Apex."

The name means nothing to her.

But, Billy shifts from foot to foot. "Oh, man," he whispers to the others, "I've heard of them. Dark web stuff. Scary."

Jason stays stock still. "So, what's your message?" he asks, raising his chin. Fearless. But, still just a kid in armor like the rest of them.

Melanie crosses her arms, "The American government applauds and appreciates your efforts… so far. However, we don't like aliens fighting our battles for us without oversight. "

Aliens? Kim almost scoffs but manages to keep her mouth shut.

The gun pointed at her doesn't waver.

"Well," Jason's voice hardens, and Kim imagines that his jaw is clenched, eyes cold, "We don't work for you. And pointing a bunch of guns at us isn't going to change that."

Melanie shrugs, "Maybe. Maybe not."

She snaps her fingers. The spotlight shining on the Rangers flickers, and the soldiers melt back into the shadows, disappearing instantly.

How… how the fuck?

"Keep fighting the good fight, Rangers. But, the minute you step out of line, I'll be back… and I'll have bigger toys next time." Melanie turns to go then pauses, calling over her shoulder, "You can keep the hand, by the way. I've got your old friends to keep me busy. So until you screw up, remember… I'll be watching."

The spotlight cuts out, plunging them into darkness.

---

"Never seen anything like it," Kimberly mutters, shaking her head.

They're all back in the ship after having called Kimberly and Tommy to meet them there.

"I mean," Kim runs a hand through her hair, sighing, "It's… there have been Rangers for, like, decades, right? You guys are saying you've never had trouble with the government before?"

Tommy shrugs, "We've openly worked with NASADA before. They're military, but they've always been really, really cooperative. As far as I know… the U.S. government is an ally of the Power Rangers."

Trini scoffs and raises her eyebrows, "Doesn't seem like it anymore. Those guns pointed in our faces were real. "

Kimberly and Tommy both look equally disturbed and upset, their postures tense. Kim pays special attention to how Kimberly is ever so slightly leaning her body towards Tommy's and how he's tilted just a little bit toward her so that his taller frame protects her.

She suddenly realizes that she's gonna miss seeing that if they leave.

"Are you guys staying?" Kim asks, quietly.

Everyone looks at the couple, who glance at each other. They don't say anything, but Kim assumes that they're having their silent, married, telepathic conversation that contains multitudes with the slightest of eye contact. Or something.

Finally, they look back at the Rangers.

"Yeah," Kimberly says, nodding, "We're staying."

Kim's shoulders lose their tension, and she lets out a sigh of relief that Kimberly tilts her head at, smirking.

"Knew you'd miss me."

"You have no proof."

Billy clears his throat and grins, "If you guys are staying, then I have a surprise for everyone." He turns to walk away then turns back and says, "Don't go anywhere."

Zack chuckles, "Wasn't planning on it, buddy."

Just as quickly as he runs out of the chamber, Billy is back, holding in his hands seven… smartwatches?

Kim gives him a blank look that the other Rangers mirror, but Kimberly squeals. Actually squeals.

"They're communicators!" Billy exclaims, gleefully, "So that we can talk to Zordon and Alpha and also teleport. I took the same design of the one Kimberly had and upgraded to look more, um, modern."

"Inconspicuous," Kimberly says, shaking her head and chuckling.

"Well, yeah, that, too." He hands each one out to the respective Ranger.

Kim examines the communicator, letting her wrist get used to the cool metal as it presses against her skin when she latches it close. "How'd you get our wrist sizes, Billy?" she asks, raising her eyebrows. It fits… oddly perfectly.

"Oh, uh, Alpha has sensors in his head."

Right. That definitely explains it all.

Billy goes over to Kimberly and Tommy with the last two in his hand - dark pink and white. Kimberly fights to contain the grin on her face while Tommy looks only slightly less exuberant as Kimberly does - but Kim assumes that's just because he's not as absolutely expressive as his wife.

"Holy crap," Kimberly whispers as she latches hers onto her left wrist. She does a little hop and grins at Tommy, and Kim mentally curses not having Snapchat ready to go on her phone.

"Oh, I also have your old one," Billy says, reaching into his pocket and pulling it out, "Here, thanks for letting me look at it."

"Yeah, no problem," Kimberly takes her old communicator and puts it in her pocket but forgets it almost immediately, caught up in, well, basically a new toy, "This is… so cool."

"It's so not '90s," Tommy quips, which earns him an elbow in the side that he takes with a chuckle.

"Um," Tommy glances at Alpha and Billy, "Zordon told us that the teleportation matrix in this ship is for… Eltarian physiology, though, or, well, you know, not human. Did you guys find a way around that?"

Billy pauses. "Theo...retically… yes."

A chorus of " What? " causes him to flinch and pout.

"Theoretically? Dude, so you're saying you don't know if it works for us?" Zack asks, throwing his hands in the air, "What happens when we try it, then?"

"Maybe you'll accidentally teleport yourself away from me. I'm thinking… Saturn," Trini mutters, getting a hearty laugh out of Jason.

Zack wags a threatening finger at her.

Billy rubs the back of his neck, sheepishly, "I was hoping this could be our test run."

"Oh, so," Kim gestures to the room, "Someone has to step up and be a guinea pig, then?" She immediately puts her finger on her nose. Trini and Jason immediately follow her lead, and Zack scrambles to do the same.

Billy glances at his teammates and then, uncertainly, puts his finger on his nose.

Kimberly rolls her eyes, "Wow, you guys are wimps." Still, she shoots Tommy a reluctant glance.

"It's alright," Tommy says, reassuringly, looking at the white communicator on his wrist, "If we accidentally end up in the middle of nowhere, at least I'll be in the middle of nowhere with you."

Kim lets out a distraught noise, "You can't say that right before you teleport away! God, I'm gonna feel so guilty if you die, then."

Kimberly laughs and shakes her head, "Good." Then, to Billy, "Okay, so, how do these work?"

"Oh," he points, "There's a button on the side, just like yours. I kept that function simple because it didn't really make any sense to change it."

"Alright," Kimberly takes a deep breath, "Okay, uh, here goes. We're gonna try to teleport…" She trails off, unsure.

"Let's try the medbay," Tommy suggests.

"Yeah, okay. Medbay, it is."

They both press the buttons on their communicators, and the Rangers blink as the two disappear in two identical flashes of white light.

A moment passes.

"You think they're okay?" Jason asks.

Down one of the hallways leading to the medbay, Kimberly screams.

"Oh, shit," Kim breaks out into a run in the direction of the scream, the others and Alpha following behind her. She skids to a stop in the medbay…

Where Kimberly and Tommy burst out into laughter, leaning against the wall and each other at the look of absolute horror on Kim and the other Rangers' faces.

Kimberly opens her mouth to say something but then loses it all over again, giggling wildly.

Kim sighs and rolls her eyes, "You guys are the absolute worst."

---

"This is really nice," Adam says with a low, appreciative whistle, examining the communicator while Kimberly sips at a coffee mug and leans back on his couch.

Naturally, after she and Tommy had left the ship, they'd immediately gone over to Adam's house to share the news. And rub his face in their cool new toys.

"Yeah," Kimberly nods in agreement, her wrist already feeling bare while Adam's holding her communicator. She busies her hands with a blank piece of paper from a notepad sitting on his coffee table as she talks, folding it back and forth. "It's pretty cool, and Billy told us that he got it to have Bluetooth capabilities, too, so it basically is a smartwatch, just with… bonus capabilities."

"Being a Power Ranger is a real money-saver," Tommy jokes, leaning his head against Kimberly's shoulder.

"Do you guys know where you're gonna be staying, then?" Adam asks, turning the communicator over in his hands, still entranced by it, "I mean, you can't rent out that hotel room forever."

"Technically," Kimberly murmurs, "I can, but that's a waste of my money."

"Right. Because you're rich."

"You bet I am. But, actually, we were thinking about staying with you," she says, slowly, like a suggestion when it's really a you-have-no-choice-we're-already-here-and-it's-already-been-decided kind of tone.

Adam glances up at her and scowls, "Do I have a choice or has the decision already been made since you guys are already here?"

Kimberly smiles, and Adam huffs. But, he's just kidding around. She knows for a fact that his guest room is painfully empty and can easily fit two occupants.

She finishes folding the piece of paper in her hands and offers it to him, grinning cheekily, "Here. As a present for your generosity in letting us crash with you."

It was an origami frog.

Adam snatches it out of her hands and gets up from his seat, grumbling, "I literally hate you." He walks away, disappearing down the hallway, but not before putting the little origami frog on top of the fireplace mantel.

"I bet you literally don't," Tommy calls out after him. When he's out of earshot, he says to Kimberly, reassuringly, "He literally doesn't."

"Oh, I know," she takes another sip of her coffee.

"I don't think you should be drinking that when you haven't napped all day. Or yesterday, either."

"Oh, I know that, too."

Adam walks back into the room, carrying a black shoebox.

"What's in the box?" Kimberly asks, nodding at it.

He squints at her, "I'm clearly about to show you… How many cups of coffee have you had?"

"Five and a half," Tommy mutters, shaking his head.

Kimberly drains the rest of the mug and sets it down on the coffee table with a proud smile. "Six," she amends.

Adam blinks at her. "Okay, anyway, I was thinking that this could be useful for you guys." He takes the lid off of the shoebox and pulls out-

Kimberly flinches and presses herself closer to Tommy. "Adam," she says, slowly, "That's a gun."

"It's not loaded."

"It's still a gun. Why do you have a gun? We're superheroes. "

He sighs and puts the gun - wow, guns really did look bigger in person… definitely a lot more dangerous-looking than they did on crime shows - back into the shoebox, "We're retired, Kim. If I get mugged at gunpoint, am I gonna risk my secret identity and morph just to stop someone from robbing me?"

"You could hi-yah the gun out of his hands," Tommy suggests with a sarcastic smile, a hint of drowsiness seeping into his tone.

"Try that and tell me how well it works," Adam says, dryly.

"Okay, well, we both have our powers, Adam, we're fine," Kimberly says, shrugging.

Adam crosses his arms, "Tommy does. You know, Mr. Every Color Under the Rainbow."

"That's nowhere close to true, and you know that," Tommy mutters, pouting.

"Yeah, well, Kim, you only have one set of powers," Adam says, pointedly, "And you can't use them because we can't risk finding out what happens if you morph while Kim still has her powers. Therefore…"

"Therefore…" Kimberly echoes, "I've never used an actual gun, though. I'm assuming it's not anything like a Blade Blaster. Or a bow."

Tommy chuckles, "Would be a lot easier if that was how it worked."

Adam shrugs. "I can teach you." He throws in a wink for good measure, and she bites her lower lip, smiling. "Okay, so… here's the plan. You guys can crash here for tonight then go check out of your hotel tomorrow, and, uh…"

"Become permanent residents of your house, never pay rent, and never leave?" Tommy chimes in.

"Yeah, that." Adam holds his hand out to them, palm down, and Kimberly's thrown back to decades before - a younger, different time, all six of them, huddled together in the Command Center, celebrating after one of many victories.

Tommy puts his hand on top of Adam's, and they both look at her.

Kimberly grins as she puts her hand in the pile as well.

"Alright, boys, we're back in the game."