Sorry it's taken so long. When I got to this chapter, I was at a total loss as to how to write in the mother-daughter aspect of this story. To keep away the flames that may come at me, I want to remind everyone that this story takes place between Wild force and Ninja storm. Up till now, theres always been two females on every team.
Kimberly peeked into the kid's room to see her daughter meditating. The newly reinstated pink ranger crept into the room to sit facing her baby girl and watched in interest.
From the many facial expressions her visage was displaying, she wasn't getting very far.
"Mom…I can tell you're in here." Terra said after a minute.
"That must mean that your mediation technique could use tweaking…or your're very distracted. Your mind isn't at peace and so your body isn't either. What's happened in the last year and a half shouldn't have a lot of effect on our relationship. You still can tell me what's on your mind."
Terra opened her eyes. "I just can't stay calm enough to focus on anything. I feel too hyped up to do any of the exercises Uncle Adam set up for me."
Kim chuckled softly and inched towards her daughter till they were touching. "Honey, you've just achieved your mantle. I know you're excited about it. Believe me, I understand completely."
Her daughter wasn't buying her explanation.
"Think about Sweetie. You have all that energy from your inherited Ninjetti power, then add to that the extra energy from the power coin. It's perfectly normal to feel like the Energizer Bunny."
Terra bit her lip. "What can we do about it? It's impossible to ignore it."
Kimberly smiled and kissed her forehead. "Well it seems to me we could use manless afternoon to burn it off."
"How? We can't leave the compound."
Kimberly pulled her baby girl into a hug. "Leave that to me. We don't have to leave the compound to burn off energy, come with me."
Grinning at her daughter, Kimberly pressed a button on her communicator.
"All girls report to the exercise room for some pillow talk."
"Mom, I cant burn off energy just by laying on a pillow. I need to run around."
"Honey, I thought you knew by now that power rangers do things differently from civilians. Just take my word for it, you'll find out soon enough."
Still not understanding, Terra got up and followed her mom out of the room and down to the exercise room. Amazingly, all the girls were already there. An of all of them Tanya was the only one not dressed in workout clothing. She sat comfortably in a very plush seat against the wall.
All the other girls including Ashley, Cassie, and Karone were there watching them come in. The space rangers and former evil princess were tending to the children. Terra immediately sensed the charged energy in the room.
Only then, did the youngest ranger realize that her mother was also in workout gear. She now stood in the middle of the mat and was still not quite sure what was going on. Since when was this considered pillow talk?
She was about to find out.
All the other women surrounded her on the mat…all watching her. Getting an odd feeling in her stomach, Terra went into a defensive stance. A moment later, Aisha attacked.
All the years hadn't softened the newly reinstated yellow Ninjetti. She started out slowly and as Terra began to step up her defense and even began to go on the attack. That was what Trini was waiting for, and then she jumped into the fight attacking the youngest ranger from behind. But terra sensed the attack coming and spun around and dropped to the ground. Then she began fighting both rangers at once. This fight went on for several minutes. All the while Kimberly was watching her daughter with a serious experssion…watching for any signs of her wearing down. When she saw it, she jumped into the fight and faced off against Trini, taking some heat off of her daughter and evening up the fight.
This was when Kat jumped in, attacking Terra and singling her out. By now, the only green ranger in the room had beads of sweat pouring down her face. Her workout top was drenched but she didn't back down. Now she and kat faced off and the others backed down and retreated to the edges of the mat.
Kat then brought out all of the moves the others had taught her and attacked her niece furiously. never for a moment letting up. After a few more minutes, at a silent cue from Kimberly, Kat let up and allowed Terra to take her down and pin her to the mat.
Terra sighed as Kat stopped struggling and then rolled off onto her back. Kimberly grinned at her daughter and sat down next to her with a fluffy pink towel. As all the others watched she sponged her daughter untill all the sweat was gone.
By then Kat had rolled off her back and sat with her legs folded underneath her. They all waited patiently as mother and daughter had a few minutes of silence.
Then when terra got up Kat grinned at her. "Good match."
Terra grinned at her and then at her mom. "Thanks I needed the workout. But I don't understand why you called this a Pillow Talk."
"This was just the first part of it. You were the energizer bunny and we all know that you wouldn't be able to sit still until you had burned off some energy. Now, after all of us shower, we can get on to the second phase of the pillow talk."
Kimberly got up from the mat and helped her daughter to her feet. "Come on, we can use the showers in the locker room."
When they came out 20 minutes later Terra noticed that the room had changed.
The mats had been put away and large puffy pillows were all laid out in a circle. All the women, even Tanya sat on the floor with her legs underneath her.
The space ranger girls even came over with the babies and all the mothers took their children back, Aisha already had Elena Rose in her arms and as Terra took her place in the circle, Zoey looked at her big sister and through their link, let her sister know what she wanted…and big sister caved in and took Zoey in her arms…and when that happened Zoey mumbled in baby talk and snuggled in her sisters arms…causing momma and all the other women in the room to sigh sappily.
When the moment was over, Kimberly cleared her throat. "Now we can have 'The Talk.'
Terra paled. "On no mom, not that talk in front of everyone!"
Kimberly grinned at her. "No honey, not that one…this is a whole other 'talk'; one that concerns all rangers.
Ranger romance surrounds us and since you and Tyler are our newest ranger couple…litterally this time. Maybe we should have 'the talk'. Trini said grinning at her. "Seeing as how that's how you and your brother were conceived."
Terra was caught off guard by her aunt's words…she looked at her mom inquisitively.
The pink Ninjetti sighed and then looked at her daughter. 'It's true. I guess since we're having the talk, I might as well tell you how you and TJ came about."
Terra was listening readily as her mother began.
"It happened after a particularly harrowing accident. You remember how we told you kids that at some point in our ranger carrear all of us except for your aunt Aisha were either tuned evil or had evil clones?
Terra nodded.
"Well, this time it was your aunt Kat that was turned evil. This was before she was a ranger…she was sent to steal a power coin from one of us. And by the way, you never leave your power coin unprotected….ever. But anyway, that was the mistake I made. I left it in my book bag while all of us went for a swim…"
Terra was immersed in the story. She could never immagine her mother being so vulnerable…not when she was a ranger.
"Your dad who was just my boyfriend at the time and the leader of the rangers marched straight in to Lord Zedd's lair and single handedly fought, Zedd and then carried me to saftely. Your Uncle Billy was able to detach me from my power coin and save my life. That was when your father and I realized how close we came to being separated forever. We escaped to his cabin later that night and well, our teenaged hormones got the better of us and before we knew what was going on we had….made love and sometime between that night and the next school day, you two were conceived. I didn't know till after I left that I was pregnant with you two."
Terra bit her lip. "Did you regret …making love?"
Kimberly grinned. "No…not in all that time did I ever regret what we did. Sure we should have waited to be married first, but the first time I held you and your brother in my arms…I knew it was all worth it."
"I didn't know love was so powerful." Terra said in a voice of awe.
"Believe it Terra. Love is the most powerful force on earth."
"Wars have been fought over it. Love overcomes all fear." Aisha replied. "It's even saved us on the battle field."
Terra looked at her aunt Aisha. "How?"
"It all started when my grandma came for a visit…."
When the tale was finished, Terra said. "So the necklace saved the day?"
"No, honey., the necklace was just a piece of jewelry. It was only a visual reminder of the love already inside me. There was a moment when the Hate Master almost got to me…but I looked down at the necklace and was reminded of what grandma had said. It helped me overcome the evil spell the monster was trying to cast on me. Love overcomes all. Hate, fear, evil and even the laws of logic."
"But cant it also hurt you?"
"No, not love itself. It can be a motivation but not the cause itself."
Terra sighed. "It's all so confusing!"
Kimberly smiled at her daughter. "Unfortunately, love is something that you're gonna have to figure out on our own. It's one of those things that you grow to understand as you gt older. You're just coming into your 'womanhood'. changes will start happening to you and will probably have growing pains and then hormones will start to take over your brain and if your not careful you'll end up like your father and I did."
Terra blushed prettily. "But Tyler and I aren't like that."
Tanya grinned at her niece. "Trust me honey. Tyler noticed you early…apparently at your Aunt Trini and Uncle Jason's wedding. He hasn't stopped talking about you since."
"He's only just turning 11 and he's already got the hero complex." She added a moment later.
"Hero complex?"
"Yes, baby." Kimberly answered. "Since the dawn of time, men have been born with a built in need to rescue damsels in distress…the need to be the knight in shining armor ready to ride in with weapons blazing to slay the monster and ride away with the girl into the setting sun."
"I'ts why during that first lesson that Tyler was defeated so easily. He was so focused on protecting you that he didn't watch his own back…and my husband took him down without breaking a sweat." Ashley said speaking up for the first time.
"Its why we're on the team too honey. In all the time that rangers have existed, there has never been a team that didn't have at least one girl in it."
"It is?"
"Yes Terra, a lot of times the men can become overwhelmed with that hero complex and may do something that could get them hurt or killed. They need us to balance them out and stop them if necessary. We can be quite the force to be reckoned with. And its not because we're better fighters, but because we have the extra space in our heads to think clearly and reason things out."
"But can't we be just as bad?"
Trini grinned at her. "That's why there's always two women to a team. In case one freaks out, there's always another to keep her out of trouble."
"But what about me. I'm the only girl in the trio."
Kimberly looked at her. "Only in your trio. But you're not fighting the hybrid alone. Remember that we'll be taking most of the heat. Your team is only meant to serve as backup. Grifforzor is only after your father and I."
"But didn't the message say that he was after dad?"
Kimberly nodded. "Yes it did. But your father and I are one in spirit. That's what it means to be married. We were single people before…we took vows at the wedding…that's what the unity candle was meant to show. We came together and became one body. When that moron threatened your father, he also threatened me. And that was a very bad idea."
"And when they threatened them, they threatened the rest of us." Aisha said. "As the saying goes. You got one you've got us all.
"Its why we were all hoping to give birth before he attacks. The more rangers there are fighting, the better chance of ending this before it gets deadly. Tanya added.
Terra nodded. She had so much to learn!
Later that night…on Terra Venture
Kai looked at his monitor and was immediately on his feet. He pressed a button on the consol.
"Kai to Leo!"
"Leo here, what's going on?"
The blue galaxy ranger pressed a few more buttons…then his eyes widened.
"We've got an unknown space craft coming out of the wormhole."
"What's the trajectory?"
"It's heading towards…Earth."
Leo swore under breath. "You're sure of this?"
Kai took one more look. "100 percent. That can only be the hybrid warlord. He's gonna make it to Earth's atmosphere in less then 48 hours."
Leo was quiet for another moment. Then he took on a commanding tone. "Sound the alert and then round up the others. We're heading for Mirinoi."
Kai nodded again. "Consider it done." Then he punched in the code that connected him to the bridge of the mega ship.
Andros answered. "Is it time?"
Kai took a deep breath. "Yes. Prepare for battle. You have a day and a half before the ship arrives. I suggest you circle the wagons now and then get any lose ends tied up. We're heading your way as soon as we can to give backup."
Andros' voice was grim. Understood. "See you guys soon. Over and out."
So, what did all of you think about this chapter? Reviews will keep me writing more and updating more often. you know what to do!