"That is suicide Tommy and I will not let you do it," Kat said as she stood up and faced off with the man that she had dated all those years ago. The discussion had gone from bad to worse in the last few hours and nothing seemed as if it would work. Sending the new rangers in was dangerous, sending Tommy in had deadly consequences, sending an old ranger in was not going to be any better. Tommy had finally had enough and decided that he would go in, which had caused another round to arguing to erupt. They could not risk their most experienced ranger on something like this, they all knew that.
"What other choice do I have Katherine? My children know something is wrong, maybe they don't understand it, but they know that this is not the normal 'mama is gone', they know…I can't see that in Wyatt's eyes again," Tommy said as they all looked over at him, rather uncomfortable with what he was saying. In the past, they would have talked Tommy out of it and figured out a safer way, but now there were children involved and they couldn't take what this was doing to them. Wyatt and Chloe didn't deserve to go through all of this, just because their parents were Power Rangers. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Not this, you can do something else, we can do something else to bring her back to us. You just have to give us some time," Kat said as Tommy looked into her eyes and she saw the deep sorrow held in his and took in a ragged breath. She hated seeing anyone like this, but Tommy was the hardest person to see like this, he was such a strong person, but losing Kim was something he could not live with. The threat of taking his children had caused him to become a ranger again, Kim had gone to keep them from suffering a worse fate, but Tommy couldn't live without her. They all knew that.
"You have any better ideas? Any one?" Tommy asked as they all fell silent. None of them wanted him to do this, none of them wanted for him to risk his life in this way. They knew there was a chance that Griffin was bluffing about what he would do to Tommy if he came, but they also knew that there was a very real chance that he was not and that meant Tommy would die doing this.
"You said that you'd send your rangers, just yesterday," Billy said as Tommy looked over at him and glared.
"They don't even get along enough to be able to handle me, how do you think they would work together if they were to have to handle something like this? It's better if you just let me go, she's my wife, I'll bring her back, if it's the last thing I do," Tommy said as they all took in a collective breath.
"She doesn't want for Chloe and Wyatt to grow up without a father," Jason said as Tommy looked over at him and he rolled his eyes.
"This is not why all of you are fighting me on this, we all know that. You are more concerned about if I live and I am more worried about whether or not she will live through this, it's my choice and I want…no I need, to go after her. I couldn't live with myself if she never came back because I didn't do something," Tommy said as Billy loosened his tie and barely nodded before the multi-colored ranger rose to his feet and walked out of the conference room.
"Why did you let him go?" Kat challenged as she looked over at her husband and he gave her a half smile. "He's going to get himself killed."
"No, he won't and I let him go, because I will be damned if someone was to tell me that I couldn't go after you if you were taken, he has to do this and we have to understand that," Billy said as they all looked over at him. He was the only other person that had ever been close enough to have to deal with something like this and he had been very lucky. Katherine had been given back before he even knew she had been captured, Tommy had never been that lucky.
"Griffin, can you let me stand up, my back is killing me," Kim said as she looked over at the man that had her strapped to the table and he shook his head no. "Come on, I want to get back to my children in one piece, I'm not going to do anything."
"I don't trust you to keep your word to that. You're a ranger, you know how to fight and you take advantage of any chance that I might give you," Griffin said as Kim tried to stretch but it was useless. She was in enough pain to know that even if she was rescued soon, she would not be able to help them any. She prayed that Tommy would not come, because she knew just how serious Griffin was about killing him and that was not something she wanted to deal with.
"You're right, but I'm currently unable to move more than a couple of centimeters without my back having a spasm," Kim said as he looked over at her and noticed the true discomfort on her face. He did not want to feel sorry for her, he couldn't feel sorry for her if he was going to continue this scheme. All of the preparations had been carefully laid out and now all he had to do was execute everything. The fact that his informants had been found so quickly did bother him, they weren't supposed to be discovered. Now his plan hinged on what Tommy did and whether or not he'd risk his life for his wife.
"Five minutes," Griffin relented as he released the straps and Kim slowly sat up and stretched out her back. She knew she was pushing her luck just to get to have some freedom to move. She was not going to do anything stupid to get herself locked back down. The more that she could get him to trust her, the easier it would be to do what she had planned. She just had to be patient and allow him to fall into a false hope that she had really given up.
"Thank you," Kim said as she stood up and bent over to stretch out her back. Neither of her children had been good to her and had weighed over 8 pounds each, with Chloe weighing almost nine. Tommy had been so good during the pregnancies to help her and he still could tell when she would have pains from that. They hadn't talked about whether or not to add a third child, but she knew that day might not come if things here didn't turn out good. "Is there a bathroom?"
"You're serious?" Griffin asked as Kim nodded her head. "What is it with women and having to go to the bathroom?"
"I've been here for almost a day, be glad that I was able to hold it that long," Kim said as he barely nodded and then led her to the corridor that surrounded that inner chamber. Kim quietly memorized every detail of the building, trying to get a sense of where the exit to the outside was. She could not sense anything odd or even protected here, which meant that Griffin was just as cocky as he had been when he attempted to steal the gems from them. He didn't think that he could be beaten.
"Hello Jackson," Griffin said as Kim looked up at the man in shock. She could have sworn it was Tommy, but maybe she was already starting to go crazy from being strapped to a table for such an extended period of time.
"Griffin," Tommy said as Kim's eyes widened and she ducked as she felt the man next to her be thrown down the hallway.
"You came," Kim whispered as she held his face in her hands and she tried to regulate her breathing. "You came."
"What choice did I have? Come on, we've got to get out of here," Tommy said as she looked over at Griffin as he stood up and threw out a force field that knocked him unconscious, but she was sure that he would live and that they would have to fight him again.
"Tommy, I'm not really up to running," Kim confessed as he was dragging her along and he looked back to see the pained expression on her face.
"It's not very far until where we can teleport out, just hold out a little bit longer," Tommy said as the sirens sounded and he sped up, holding fiercely to her hand. If she did not get out of this place, he wouldn't get out of it either.
"Go, the kids need one of us there," Kim said as he turned back to face her and skidded to a stop before scooping her up and running again. "Tommy!"
"We've got to get out of here," Tommy repeated and she barely nodded as he ran and she saw the area that he must be aiming for and now there were several guards standing in the way. "Can you make another force field?"
"I can manage," Kim said as she brought her hands up and then threw out the force field and the guards went flying in different directions. As they reached the open air, she felt the familiar sensation of being teleported and smiled as she held on tighter to her husband. She couldn't believe that he had actually managed it and that he was not even injured.