Chapter-specific warnings: amnesia, car crash, character death (minor), classism, psychological horror, underage drinking.

Tommy flips on the light to the kitchen, running a hand through his hair and sighing. He can hear Kimberly's soft footsteps behind him, but he just wants a drink of water right now. As Tommy grabs a glass from one of the cabinets, Kimberly leans against the counter, playing with the fabric of his t-shirt on her; he can feel her eyes on him, concerned and aching. He holds the glass against the water dispenser.

"How are you doing?" he asks because Kimberly doesn't like the sound of silence too much.

"How are you doing?" she counters, quietly.

His back is to her. The water fills up the glass and then overflows.

"Tommy-" He pulls the glass back, dripping water onto the tile floor, and blinks, registering the mistake but not caring about it. Kimberly rips off a paper towel and bunches it up in her hands, coming up next to him and just gazing at him for a long moment. "Tommy," she repeats, softly, reaching out to brush her fingers against his neck. There'll be a bruise there later. Sometimes, they're gentle. Sometimes, they're not. She had been what he asked her to be, but there was the knowledge that that didn't always change things. He wishes it could be that easy - like the flip of a switch to turn his mind back on.

Kimberly dries where water had dripped onto the fridge door and the floor then tosses the towel in the trash. Tommy doesn't move. Frowning, she pries the glass from his hand and brings it to his lips, taking care not to tilt it too far. He drinks but asks himself why it matters.

She sets the glass down on the counter. "Where are you?" Kimberly's brow furrows. Her eyes are too deep, too caring. She couldn't possibly understand.

"I don't know," Tommy clears his throat, trying to make his voice work, but it just comes out as a hoarse whisper.

"Come on," Kimberly says, gently rubbing his arm, "Let's go lie down. If you still can't sleep, we can talk or just… sit there."

"Yeah, okay," Tommy nods and starts walking toward the guest bedroom as Kimberly grabs his glass of water to take with her. He hardly makes it five steps when something shudders through him, and his vision goes black.

"Tommy!"

The blaring of a car horn jolts Tommy from his… He blinks and rubs at his eyes, confused. A seatbelt across his torso stops him from moving. As he glances around, he quickly realizes that this isn't the Jeep and, much more, he's in the backseat not driving while the front seat and passenger seat are otherwise occupied.

Tommy squints at the man in the passenger seat. He hasn't seen that face or that salt-and-pepper hair in years; it almost feels weird to address his father out loud, "Dad…?"

"You're finally awake," his dad chuckles, "I was wondering when the traffic would wake you up."

"I-" Tommy's brow furrows, and he leans forward to get a good look at who's in the driver's seat. As expected, his mother is driving, but everything is all wrong. This sedan they're in is too new. Tommy runs his fingers along the seats; the last car his parents drove had been a sedan, but there's a sore absence of his dad's scuffed running shoes in the back. Tommy glances around the backseat. There's a plastic bag with some trash and food wrappers and a duffel bag sitting next to him. A road trip, maybe. He reaches over and brushes his fingers against the smooth polyester of a dark green jacket thrown on top of the duffel bag. There's a design printed on the back…

Tommy stares at the grandiose dragon taking up most of the space on the back of the jacket. He'd never owned a jacket like this before. "Hey, um, are we almost there?" he tries to ask casually, pulling the jacket onto his lap and patting the pockets for any kind of, well, he doesn't quite know what he's looking for.

"Almost," his mom replies, "We're about forty minutes out, right?"

"Mhm," his dad confirms, nodding, glancing out the window at the passing buildings, the outskirts of some city that Tommy hasn't caught the name of yet, "Harwood should be really beautiful this time of the year. Maybe we can check out the beaches at the end of the week."

His mom smiles, "That sounds like a wonderful idea, honey."

Tommy starts, "Did you just-"

A passing sign on the highway catches his eye and answers his question for him all the same.

Harwood County, 32 miles.

"No, that's not…" He trails off, gaping and at a loss for words.

"Not what, Tommy?" his mom asks, offhandedly.

Tommy clutches the green jacket in his hands, gazing at the dragon insignia on the back. "Not… right," he murmurs. The car lurches forward as the red light they've stopped at turns green. He doesn't understand-

Everything goes silent.

Stiffening, Tommy looks up, immediately noticing the absence of sound. He frowns, seeing that his parents and the cars around them have frozen, too, stuck in animation. "What…?" Glancing out the window, he spots what he's meant to see in this moment. An eighteen-wheeler is heading in their direction from the right of the intersection. The traffic lights on that side have already turned red, but Tommy knows. He doesn't know how he knows, but his gut just does. "No, no, no," he mutters, unbuckling his seatbelt and reaching for the door handle. The moment his hand touches the handle, the world resumes, startling him into banging his head on the roof of the car.

The car passes into the middle of the intersection.

He tries to yell, tries to stop it. "Look out!"

The world spirals, and his head smashes against the side window, shattering the glass around him. The Olivers' car flips once and goes skidding to a stop, other cars swerving around it to avoid causing worse of an accident, but Tommy is already outside, coughing and stumbling to his feet. He pats himself down. Physically, he feels fine, but he imagines he'd feel fine, anyway. This… this isn't real.

Tommy glances at the green jacket, still in his hand. "This isn't how it ended," he says, shaking his head in denial. His parents had died quietly - cancer and a heart attack, not a car crash.

"No, this isn't how it ends," a female voice softly responds, simultaneously right in his ear but far away. Whirling around, Tommy stumbles backward as the world around him melts and gives way to a thick mist. He struggles to see anything in it as day turns to darkness, much like the many times he'd been in Rita's dark dimension before. The hair on the back of his neck stands. Cold seeps into his bones. He's not alone here, wherever here is.

His first thought is Rita, but that doesn't feel right.

Freezing, he senses it before it happens, but he can't move out of the way.

In one swift movement, Tommy's back and stomach ignite in pain, and he gasps, a scream dying in his throat, as he looks down, recognizing the sharp, deadly edges of the Sword of Darkness, what Rita had once used to have power over him, protruding from his gut. He coughs, blood rising and dripping down his clothes.

" This, " the voice says, close enough to be standing right behind him, but he can't crane his neck around to see who it is, "is how it ends." The jacket is tugged out of his hand. Tommy can feel the strength draining from his body through the sword, so he just limply lets go of the jacket. Faintly, he hears the sound of polyester crinkling as the girl puts the jacket on, and it clicks.

"Tommie-" he starts, weakly, but his words drop off into a shout as the sword is abruptly yanked out, leaving a gaping hole. Heaving, Tommy collapses to his knees, trembling and trying to brace himself on the ground. If he had the strength to turn-

A shoe against his back shoves him down, and he yells, the pain of contact further agitating his wound. Struggling, Tommy rolls himself onto his back, grimacing with every movement he makes. He presses his palm to his stomach, trying to stem the flow of blood, but his effort makes no difference and his fingers come away slick and dark. "Tommie," he calls out, strained, but there's no answer. She's gone.

He jolts awake, cheek pressed against the soft pillow of the guest bed, sweat plastering his tank top to his skin. Kimberly is already at his side, sitting up in bed, and places a gentle hand on his shoulder. The lights are dimmed, but still, he can see the concern on her face.

"Hey," she says, softly, "You're okay."

Is he?

Tommy lifts his tank top, breathing out a sigh of relief at the absence of a bleeding wound. "Thanks for the shirt," he comments, absently, running the cotton between his fingers.

"Yeah," Kimberly chuckles, lightly, "I mean, you just… collapsed in the middle of the kitchen. I thought you should at least wake up comfortable."

He pushes himself into a sitting position against the headboard. "What- what time is it?"

Kimberly glances at her phone, "A little after four. You've only been out for a couple of hours."

"Only?" Tommy laughs a little, shrugging his shoulders to ease the tension in them.

"Well," Kimberly nudges him with her elbow, "You have been in a coma before."

"Sure, sure."

Clanking and clattering come from beyond the closed bedroom door. Tommy glances at the door then at Kimberly.

"Adam's making breakfast early since I kinda woke him up when you collapsed and he's been up ever since," she explains, reaching out to rub his arm, "What were you dreaming about just now? You seemed kinda restless."

"I don't know," he answers, honestly, "I saw things, but I couldn't understand what was going on…"

"Things like?" Kimberly presses.

"A… car crash," he sighs, "I was in a car with my parents, but that doesn't make sense. And, then, I was… somewhere else and I… I think Tommie was there."

"Tommie? Did you get a good look at her?"

He shakes his head, "No, no, I didn't see her, but I heard her voice. It just… Everything felt off." He touches his stomach again, and Kimberly's eyes follow the motion but she doesn't ask.

"Do you think it was a vision?"

"Been awhile since I picked up a vision from The Grid."

"Well, it'd make sense, given what's been happening lately… What do you think it means?"

Tommy puts his hand over Kimberly's. "I'm not gonna worry about it right now-"

"You collapsed. I think we should worry about it," Kimberly presses.

"Yeah, but I'm… I'm fine now," Tommy shrugs, "I mean, I feel… like myself again."

Kimberly stares at him for a moment, biting her lower lip in worry, "Fine. But only for now."

When Emily pulls up to the Angel Grove Overlook Trail parking lot, Jason is already standing at the curb, fidgeting with his red earbuds that aren't connected to anything. She locks her bike and goes up to him, "Hey, you ready to go?"

"Yeah, uh, do you happen to have one of those…" He gestures with his hands, but Emily has no idea what that's supposed to mean. "Those, um, thingies that connect earbuds."

"Oh, a splitter?" She shrugs her backpack off and rummages through the pockets, "Maybe… Why?"

"I forgot to charge my phone last night," he mutters, tugging at the collar of his t-shirt, "So it's at home charging, and I don't have anything to run to."

Emily finds the audio jack splitter at the bottom of her backpack along with her earbuds and readjusts her backpack back on her shoulders. "Running to nature isn't so bad. Sometimes it's good to pay attention to your surroundings," she says, taking the end of Jason's earbuds and plugging them in.

"Okay, but does anyone do that anymore?"

"Erm, no, not really."

"I hope you like good music," Jason teases as he untangles his earbuds.

Emily rolls her eyes. "Hope your knee doesn't slow us down," she says then starts jogging up the trail, laughing and taking his earbuds along.

"Hey!" Jason huffs and runs to catch up to her.

Emily knows these trails well enough that she can veer off of the easier, marked paths and still find her way back to the start, and Jason duly follows her without any protest. Three Fall Out Boyand two Bad Suns songs into their run is when they see the hole. It's not in their path, but a pile of displaced dirt on otherwise fairly even ground is hard to miss. The sky is starting to lighten up, so when Emily stops, she holds Jason back from yanking her earbuds out and motions to the hole. "What's that?"

"Uh," Jason glances at her, raising his eyebrows, "We're in the woods. It's…" He blanks on what kinds of animals dig holes but shrugs and takes his earbuds out, following her.

"No, but, look at this," Emily says, stepping closer to the hole. She waves Jason off when he holds out a hand to steady her, "Chill, it's fine. Look, it's digging up like something was coming out,but… this is a lot of dirt…" She takes her phone and turns on the flashlight. It's glaringly bright given how dark outside it still is. Jason glances around and crosses his arms.

Emily shines the flashlight down into the opening in the dirt. "That's too deep for just some nest. I mean, this is right next to a trail. Animals - I don't know what, but - don't burrow this close to us. Whatever dug this would've had to be as big as a-"

"Human?" Jason offers, chuckling. He nudges her shoulder, "Boo!"

Emily doesn't flinch but rolls her eyes and turns her flashlight off, getting back to her feet. "You're ridiculous."

"You know, I saw this Criminal Minds episode once where these hikers discovered a woman who was half-buried because they interrupted this serial killer dude from his next kill."

She stares at him, "And you thought that'd be appropriate to mention right now?"

He looks pointedly at the hole then back at her and pretends to hear something, cocking his head to the side, "Shit, did you hear that? The zombies are coming."

Emily smacks him in the arm, "Shut up. Come on, we should get going."

The house alarm briefly beeps as Emily walks through the front door and locks it behind her. She pauses as she toes her shoes off at the front and stares at Tommie, who is sitting at the kitchen island, hair still wet from the shower, sipping at a glass of orange juice.

"You're… awake?" she asks, blinking in surprise. She hadn't checked in on Tommie this morning when she left for her run, but her sister also hadn't come over last night which meant Emily hadn't gotten the chance to wake her up. "I didn't hear you come in last night."

Her sister shrugs. "I can wake up hours before school if I want to."

Emily snorts and goes over to grab a glass of water from the fridge. "Sure," she says as she walks past where Tommie sits, "But it's still…" She checks her watch. "Like, six in the morning. Sleep well last night?"

Tommie smiles. "Actually, yes, I did! I had a great night's sleep."

The enthusiasm throws Emily off-guard because the most she's seen out of Tommie since she moved in is when Tommie is playfully roasting her, but she's glad that her sister is settling in better now. "That's awesome. See? I told you it'd just take some time getting used to."

"Yeah, yeah, I guess I owe you an apology, then," Tommie says, "I figured it'd take longer, like, a couple of months and since I'm turning eighteen in a few weeks, there wouldn't be any point in waiting."

Emily waves off the apology as she sits down across the island from Tommie. "It's fine. I get it. When Mum and Dad adopted me, I had some trouble with them, too, but we figured out how to all exist in each other's spaces together and they helped me grow into a better version of myself, so it all worked out in the end."

"Cool." Tommie takes another sip of her orange juice then nods at Emily. "How was your run?"

"Uh," Emily chuckles, "Weird… I guess?"

"How so?"

Emily drinks some water before she starts talking. "Um, okay, so, you've met Jason - well, he and I were running a trail up near the mountains, and halfway up the trail, we find this… hole?"

Tommie stares at her as if to ask why that matters. "You were in the woods. Animals live in the woods. Animals dig holes." Her sister says in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Yeah, sure, but this was, like, the size of… a person."

Tommie raises her eyebrows in interest. "Oh, my God, did you find a dead body?"

"No, no, no, nothing like that," Emily shakes her head, "It was just some empty hole, but it was too big to be something some animal dug, you know? Jason was joking with me and said it's the start of the zombie apocalypse or whatever."

Making a fake ooh-ing noise, Tommie wiggles her fingers at Emily. "They're coming to get you, Em."

"That's not the sound zombies make."

"How do you know that? Have you ever met a zombie?"

"They don't exist."

"Again, how do you know that?"

Emily rolls her eyes and finishes off her water, sticking the empty glass in the sink. "I'm gonna go take a quick shower. Don't go anywhere."

"I'm gonna take your bike to school and leave you here," Tommie teases.

Not much conversation is going on at their table in the cafeteria this morning, especially since the one who carries most of the random topics - being Zack - is off to the side getting quizzed by Trini for their history test later. The only relatively interesting thing to talk about this morning was the weird hole or whatever Jason had said he discovered earlier on his run with Emily, but everyone had glossed over it once Billy launched into a rational explanation over the many animals that could have dug that hole.

Kim looks up from her phone as Emily sits down next to her and Tommie sits down on Jason's other side, "Morning."

Tommie rubs her eyes and groans, "Ughhhh."

"Didn't sleep well?" Billy asks.

"No," she huffs, "I slept fine. I just don't wanna be here."

"Join the club," Emily mutters, crossing her arms on the table and putting her head on them, "Wake me up when graduation gets here."

Kim nudges Emily with her elbow, "Are you going to Beck's party tonight?"

Emily opens one eye then shuts it. "Yeah," she mumbles, "You guys?"

Kim looks at Jason for confirmation. "I think we're all going, yeah. Right?" He takes a bite of his breakfast burrito and nods. "What about you, Tommie?"

"Maybe," Tommie says with a shrug; she coughs into her fist, "I mean, if it's cool enough, I guess…" She chuckles when Emily kicks her under the table.

"Yeah, right, you wish you were cool," Emily says, "Alright, everyone be quiet. I'm taking a nap."

When the tardy bell for third period rings, Trini is already in her seat at the back of the room, and she can see Kim in the front. Tommie's seat in the corner of the back row, just two down from her, but the girl isn't there. Mrs. Whaley starts on a powerpoint and goes to turn the lights off for the projector, and that's when Tommie walks in, posture hunched and backpack slung over one shoulder. Kim straightens in her chair, which Trini, unfortunately, notices. Trini watches as Tommie quietly shuffles to the back and someone in the room snickers - because someonealways has to be that person when a student's late - and holds out a hand to stop her as she passes by.

"Hey, you good?" Trini asks, peering at Tommie's face against the backglow of the projector screen.

"Yeah," Tommie answers then coughs twice into the sleeve of her jacket, "I'm just tired." She goes and sits down at her seat, and Trini thinks nothing else of it.

As usual, Zack is waiting in front of their History classroom as Trini and Kim come from third period. Trini waits, pretending to impatiently tap her foot and check the nonexistent watch on her wrist as Kim kisses Zack goodbye.

"Good luck, babe," Kim says, patting his chest, "You, too, Trini."

"Thanks. He'll need it more than me."

Zack rolls his eyes but sighs, "I… can't even argue with that."

Kim walks away to her next class. Trini holds her fist out to Zack. "Ready to die?"

"Yep." Zack bumps her fist with his own, and they head into the classroom together.

Zedd's staff loudly thumps on the tiled floor when every step he and Rita take behind Tommie. The girl squares her shoulders and grumbles but doesn't turn around to glare at him, even though he knows she wants to. She doesn't have to voice her thought of if he has to do that aloud - he hears it, regardless, and growls in response. Her opinions and snark are insignificant, things that, over time, will be whittled away until all that is left is a perfect weapon.

Tommie veers off into the girls' bathroom, coughing a few times, and Zedd follows first, passing straight through the door even as it swings through his astral form. Zedd watches as Tommie checks all the stalls for other humans then checks her reflection in one of the mirrors. She splashes some water on her face and blinks.

"Feeling a bit weak?" he asks, his chuckle a low, taunting rumble.

Tommie coughs into her shirt and runs a hand over her face. "What's- what's going on?" she asks.

Rita taps the green power coin in the head of her scepter. It eerily buzzes in the air, and Tommie winces, holding a hand to her ear. "You're dead, Tommie," Rita explains, "Our magic is keeping you alive… at a cost."

"Well, make it stop," she scowls. She catches sight of Zedd's visor glowing red in the mirror and swallows, but he decides to let it pass. If only because she's already weak and he would get no satisfaction from crushing her windpipe when his and Rita's magic is already breaking down her body.

"Only time will change that," Zedd says, "Patience."

"And it will only get worse before it gets better," Rita adds, smiling too eagerly.

Tommie huffs, coughs into her sleeve, and storms out of the restroom.

Bhavani's test had been, well, not too bad, but Trini is trying not to think about it. The worst is over now, and apparently, the next worst is how bad the cafeteria hamburgers taste today. Trini sets hers back down on her tray.

She looks up as Emily sits down and rounds their number out to six, but the blonde is busy glancing around.

"Anyone seen Tommie?"

Trini spots her coming into the cafeteria since lunch is already fifteen minutes in and she's the last one arriving, backpack on her shoulder, looking even worse than two periods ago. "Uh, she's coming this way," Trini says.

Emily turns around and gets up but stops when Tommie holds out a hand then coughs into her jacket. "Whoa, are you okay?"

"No, no, I'm not," Tommie mutters, shaking her head, "Look, I think I'm coming down with, I don't know, with something, and I need you to take me home."

"Uh," Emily glances at Trini and the others then back at her sister, "Sure, yeah, but Dad's gonna have to sign us out first-"

"I already talked to him," Tommie says, "He's taking care of that at the front."

"Okay, uh, I'll go get the rest of my stuff." Emily grabs her backpack from the floor and slings it over her shoulder, "Sorry guys-"

A chorus of "No, you're fine" and wishes for Tommie to get better meets her in response as the two of them leave.

The table is quiet once Emily and Tommie are gone. Zack whistles, lowly, "Man, that must suck. Getting sick on the second day of school?"

Feeling restless and without much to do besides train while the kids went to school, Kimberly had taken Tommy down to the ship once she had made sure that he was okay to even get out of bed. Alpha hadn't needed much help around the ship, but he had given them some sort of device that was meant to be an energy scanner, very small and inconspicuous, to attach to the grill of Tommy's Jeep.

"There are these energy readings I've kept picking up on these past few days," Alpha had told them, "And I need to collect some more data from around the city-"

"And it'd be better if we drive around instead of you, right?" Kimberly had asked with a laugh.

"Yes, that would be better, indeed."

So, they had filled up on gas and started on their way. Kimberly sits in the passenger seat with the companion energy reader to Alpha's scanner, her eyes tracking their progress on the screen. Angel Grove was a big city, and there's no way they'd get through every sector of the map on the screen in just a day, but the coastal side of town is much smaller and easier to deal with. It's scenic, her and Tommy just driving down the beachfront, the sun shining and… If only everything could actually be okay.

Kimberly sighs as the reader in her hands beeps, signalling that it's finished picking up all it needs to from Reefside Street. The name is certainly odd, but Kimberly doesn't recognize any of the stores and buildings they've seen driving around, so she suspects that most of the coastal additions to this side of the city were made after she and her family moved away. And the name, then, probably came out of a place of remembrance or tribute. There's a certain kind of irony to that - the first city to be watched by the Power Rangers naming its newer streets after other powered cities.

"Turn left up here," Kimberly says, pointing just to make sure Tommy sees the stop sign turn. He catches her hand in the air with his and brings her knuckles to his lips. Kimberly raises her eyebrows. "Feeling better?"

"Definitely," he says, smiling, and she shakes her head at the wink he flashes her, "Must be all the fresh air."

By the time they get home, Tommie has only gotten worse with how she'd tried to hold her coughs in during the ride home and failing miserably. Emily turns off the house alarm when they get inside, keying in her parents' anniversary date as the code, and tosses her stuff on the ground.

"You should probably burn your jacket," Tommie says between coughs, disappearing into her bedroom but not closing the door.

"I think I'll be fine," Emily responds, "I've got a good immune system." She makes sure to lock the front door then moves her stuff into her bedroom and peeks into Tommie's, not seeing her sister but the bathroom door being open and the sounds of Tommie loudly coughing into the sink clues her in. "So, I'm guessing food is out of the question?"

Tommie groans and calls out, "Uh, I can have, like, one bite. Maybe. I don't know. Save it for later?"

Emily steps further into the bedroom. "What do you have? Cough? Sore throat?"

"Uh, cough, um-" She sneezes. Loudly. "Ow."

"Gesundheit."

"Thanks."

"Hold on." Emily heads for the medicine basket in the pantry, rummaging around until she finds a box of DayQuil pills and tears a pair out. She opens the fridge, staring at the water bottles for a second, deciding against that, and grabs a glass from the cabinets and fills it with water from the dispenser.

Returning to Tommie's room, she goes into the bathroom and lowers herself to where Tommie is miserably kneeling next to the toilet, "You haven't thrown up yet, have you?"

"No," Tommie mutters, sniffling, "But I feel like I wanna vomit my whole entire life up."

"Don't know what that'd look like, but please don't," Emily suggests, jokingly, then hands Tommie the glass and pills, "Here. Take these, drink that, and don't die while I go make you some soup."

"Mm," Tommie swallows the pills and takes a big gulp of water, ending in a cough, "What kind of soup?"

"Mum's 'special' chicken noodle that cures 'anything'," Emily says with a chuckle as she stands, making air quotes around special and anything.

"Yeah, I've heard that before. Does it really?"

"I mean," Emily shrugs and says in a mock impression of her mother, " If it's made with love, then yeah."

Tommie snorts, "Guess I'll just die, then."

"Fine, be ungrateful," Emily calls over her shoulder as she leaves.

With probably, possibly, the most anticipated part of her day leaving sick, Kim has had a pretty much uneventful rest of her school day. After Theatre, she gathers with the others out in the student parking lot. Jason is the last to arrive, walking out of the gym entrance with Beck.

Beck waves at them as he passes, "See you guys tonight!"

"Speaking of tonight," Kim starts as Jason walks up, "How's everyone getting there?" She motions at Jason with her phone, "You've got 'curfew'."

"Right, yeah," he scratches his head, "I was just gonna wait 'til a little after seven, lock myself in my bedroom, and teleport there. Like, down the street and walk it or something."

"Same," Trini adds, "My parents can't see anyone coming to pick me up. I'm still grounded for, uh, awhile."

"Teleporting sounds good," Kim nods, "I need to start cutting back on gas, anyway. And, I mean, no offense, but none of you guys tip well."

"We… don't tip you," Trini says, raising her eyebrows.

"I know."

Trini rolls her eyes.

"Do you have stuff to do?" Zack asks once he buckles himself in.

Kim glances at him, "You're gonna have to be more specific."

"Like now, before the party. Homework. Studying. Whatever."

"Not… really? Why?"

"Well, I was gonna go home and make some dinner for my mom, do some stuff around the house, and I wanted to know if you… wanted to… you know, meet her? Maybe?"

"Oh, uh," Kim glances down at her clothes then lets out a sigh of relief, throwing her head back against the headrest and chuckling, "Phew, thank God, I'm wearing clean clothes."

Zack laughs, "You're welcome."

"Thanks. Um…" She smiles at him and says, softly, "Yeah, I'd love to meet your mom."

[RJ 3:02 PM] How's Tommie doing? Dad told me he signed you two out because she was feeling sick?

[EJ 3:02 PM] doing alright. i made her some of your chicken noodle soup for her.

[EJ 3:02 PM] "some" = "a lot"

[EJ 3:02 PM] i overprepared. whoops.

[RJ 3:02 PM] More for later, then.

Emily sits up in bed as her screen starts flashing her mum's caller ID, and she taps the talk button, "Hello?"

"Can Tommie talk on the phone?"

"Yeah, I think so," Emily says, pinning the phone between her shoulder and ear as she scrambles off of her bed and pads into the hallway, "She hasn't been coughing as much as when we got home…" She comes up behind the sofa where Tommie is laying down and holds her phone out to her, "Here, Mum wants to check in on you."

Melody Mobile Home Park is small. As Kim pulls up in front of Zack's trailer, she glances around and thinks about what an apartment complex would look like sitting here. It feels out of place. Wrong.

She gets out of the car and follows Zack up the steps to his front door as he unlocks first the screen door and then the inner door.

"Ladies first," he says with a smile, moving aside to let her in.

Kim rolls her eyes and steps inside, instinctively toeing her shoes off as Zack closes the doors behind them. Inside, there's pieces of him all over the place - his history textbook and notes sprawled out on the coffee table on top of magazines and junk mail, a black jacket draped over a chair at the dining table that's squeezed into the corner of the kitchen, framed photos hanging on the living room wall of him and his mother and, noticeably, empty nails where other things would've hung.

She turns to tell him that she likes his home - how unmistakably Zack it feels the moment she walks in - and finds him staring at her. "What?" Kim asks, blinking. She automatically wipes a hand over her mouth. "Do I have something on my face?"

"I love you," Zack breathes.

"Oh."

She can see him mentally backtrack. "Um, I mean, no, you don't have anything on your face-"

"Zack!" Kim holds out a hand to stop him, and he pauses, waiting. "I love you, too," she says, softly.

"Oh, thank God," he sighs, "It was gonna be really awkward if you hadn't said it back - not that you have to - and then I'd taken you to meet my mom…"

Kim laughs and shakes her head. Zack takes her along by the arm down the only hallway. There's a door at the end that's the only one that's closed. Kim pauses when they reach it and nervously straightens her shirt out, fidgeting with the hem.

Zack looks at her, amused, "She does speak English."

"What if she doesn't like me?" Kim whispers.

"Oh, come on, everyone likes you." Well, that's not true. With that, he knocks lightly on the door and opens it, greeting his mom in Mandarin, Hi, Mom. How are you?

Kim lingers in the doorway, watching as Zack helps his mom sit up. They chat for a few seconds in only Mandarin until Zack motions at Kim and then both pairs of eyes are on her and she freezes.

"This is my girlfriend, Kim," Zack introduces, and, somehow, Kim forces her feet to move closer to his mom's bed.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you, Mrs. Taylor," she says, meekly shaking her hand.

Zack says something else in Mandarin that has Mrs. Taylor smiling brightly at Kim.

"What?" She glances at Zack, "What'd you say?"

He shrugs, "I said you're here to help me make dinner for tonight… if you wanna stay, of course."

Kim nods, "Yeah, I'd love to stay."

Cooking with Zack is enough to make Kim forget about all of her worries for a little while. He gets all the ingredients out to make a simple vegetable soup, enough to last a few days, and gets the rice cooker set up while Kim dices carrots and celery. They work in silence, the only sounds the knife against the cutting board and the rice cooker beeping the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when it starts and finishes cooking.

Kim doesn't know if this is the point where a crush and liking turns into love, but she keeps stealing glances at Zack humming to himself as he tidies up the living room and thinks Maybe.

"Have we met before?" she asks while sliding the last of the vegetables into the pot of bubbling chicken broth then turns around to look at Zack. He's staring at her.

"Uh, we're dating?"

"I- Sometimes, I just say whatever comes to mind," Kim explains.

"Oh, relatable."

"I meant… did we meet before? Like, at school?"

"Uh." Zack flips through a stack of mail, decides it's all junk, then tosses the stack into the trash can under the sink. "I tried out for decathlon freshman year. Didn't make it. And I saw you a couple of times when ISA was hosting Multicultural Week. You know, back when you were… an officer."

"Vice president," Kim corrects.

"Yeah," he smiles at her, "I always thought 'hey, that girl's pretty cute'-"

"Shut up."

"What? I'm serious. And then when you made varsity, I was like, 'Oh, now I'm way outta her league!'- Ow! " He rubs his arm and pouts at her.

"You just had to ruin it," Kim says, rolling her eyes.

Sometime after their dad had come home and gone into his home office and shut the door to grade papers, Tommie peeks into Emily's room to find her laying in bed watching Hulu on her laptop.

"What're you still doing here?"

"Erm… what d'you mean?" Emily pulls out her earbuds and raises her eyebrows.

Tommie pulls her phone out of her pocket and glances at it, coughing into her sleeve a little. "It's almost six-thirty and you're not getting ready?"

RIght. Beck's party. "I'm not going?" Emily waves a hand at Tommie, "You're sick. I'm not gonna go and just leave you here."

"I'm not five. Plus, Edward's home. Go. Have fun."

Emily doesn't move from her bed.

" Go before I wrestle you into some hot clothes."

That gets her moving. She chuckles as she gets out of bed, "Yeah, I'd like to see that while you cough all over me. I probably won't stay long, but don't watch tonight's episode without me, alright?"

Tommie makes a noncommittal noise in her throat, and Emily turns around from looking in her closet. "Promise me," she says in a slightly threatening tone.

"Ugh, fine. You're no fun."

Power Geeks™

[T 6:41 PM] uhhhhh j what's the address

[JS 6:41 PM] oh

[JS 6:41 PM] i knew there was something i forgot

[JS 6:42 PM] 2901 Lakewood Court

[JS 6:42 PM] i'm gonna wait for 7:05 bc ankle monitor

[JS 6:42 PM] u guys can wait for me…. or not, whatever u want

Jason can already hear the faint thrum of music with his superhuman hearing when he teleports into the bushes of the house across the street from Beck's. When he rounds the corner, he pauses at the sight of Billy, Trini, Kim, and Zack all standing at the curb. "Oh, hey," he says, dumbly, "You all waited."

"Well, yeah," Trini says, shrugging and scuffing her shoe on the ground, "We'd look kinda dumb going in individually. Don't get used to it."

Alright, he'll take that.

"Um, just so you guys know," Jason says, rubbing his neck as they cross the street, passing by some cars that are already parked against the curb of Beck's house, "The guy who's throwing this party - I, uh, we used to date."

"Oh, my God." He hears Kim mutter under her breath. "That makes so much sense."

"Is this a trap?" Zack asks, "Did you invite us so that you wouldn't have to awkwardly stand in a room with your ex?

"No!" Jason shoots him a look, "No, nothing like that. He actually invited you guys. It's not weird, we're not awkward exes, okay? I just wanted to put everything out on the table."

"You wouldn't be saying that unless you thought it was relevant, though," Billy points out, and, God, why does Billy always have to be right about everything?

"You know what? Just… forget I said anything." Jason sighs as they come up to the front door and lifts his hand to ring the doorbell. "Oh, I can't do this-" He makes a noise that nobody later can claim was a yelp then takes three steps back behind Billy.

"Oh, mighty fearless leader," Trini says, flatly, and rolls her eyes, "He'll lead us into death against evil space aliens, but high school? Gets him every time."

"Listen-"

She rings the doorbell and tugs him forward by the arm so that he's standing in front. Oh boy.

A few moments pass where Jason fidgets with the collar of his t-shirt then the door opens and Beck is standing there in a t-shirt with a cartoon waffle on it.

"'Waffles are just pancakes with abs'," Billy reads out loud.

"Yeah!" Beck says, laughing, "Come on in. There's, uh, drinks and snacks in the kitchen. Damo and Marty brought their Xboxes and there's… a Halo LAN party going on in the living room? I don't know, go wild. But, like, not too wild. Don't destroy my house. Please."

"No promises," Zack jokes as he brushes by Beck.

"Don't… say that."

Beck has a back porch that Trini finds herself lounging on with an unopened can of Sprite. Billy's out here, too, since Kim and Zack disappeared somewhere and she'd seen Jason nervously eyeing the football team crowded around the Xboxes in the living room. She taps the top of the can then gently pulls on the tab with a satisfying hiss.

Parties are boring, but she's here, anyway, because whatever. Trini doesn't have another test this week, and even if she's here to just relax in the backyard and have a couple of hours to chill, then that's better than chilling herself to boredom and death in her bedroom.

She glances over at Billy. She has no idea where he got it - probably better not to ask - but Billy has a little thing in his hands that he's tinkering with and showing off to some theatre kids who she doesn't know. Looks to be some robot of some sorts. It whirs when he winds up a little thing on its back, and Trini doesn't doubt that he probably built it out of scratch from, like, a pen or something.

The doorbell rings just as Kim passes by the front of the house, and she jumps, looking around for someone else to take responsibility, but she's the closest one. Sighing, Kim goes for the door and opens it, losing all semblance of coherent thought at Emily on the other side. "Uh, hi."

Emily looks at her a little oddly, "Oh, hey. Right house."

"Yeah, right house," Kim says, chuckling, "Beck's around here somewhere. Uh… Tommie doing okay?" Smooth.

"Mhm, she's feeling a little better." Emily walks into the house, straightening out her leather jacket, "I'm not really gonna stay for long. If I don't get home fast enough, she's gonna watch the new episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine without me."

Since Kim and the others had arrived, about a good dozen, close to two dozen, more kids from school had dropped by, too, so Emily disappears off into another room, leaving Kim to wander around. Zack reappears at her side right as she passes into the kitchen.

"Water?" he offers her a half-empty bottle.

"Yours?"

"Mhm."

Kim takes a sip and hands the bottle back to Zack. "I've got someone to talk to, so I'm gonna…" She just trails off as she spots Beck hanging with Shay near the snacks. Tapping Shay on the arm as she passes, Kim murmurs, "I gotta talk to you."

The girl glances after her, confused for a moment, then slips out from underneath her boyfriend's arm and follows Kim into the nearest empty room which turns out to be the Romans' home gym. Kim flips on the lights and settles against the door as Shay leans against a treadmill, silent, clearly expecting her to speak first.

Oh, now she definitely understands Jason's hesitance to just ring a freaking doorbell.

"Uh, how've you… been?"

"Fine…"

"Yeah? Congrats, you know, you and Beck-"

"Kim, seriously?" Shay crosses her arms.

"I- Alright, I'm sorry," Kim sputters, nervously, "About how I treated you. I know it's been, like, a long time, but it wasn't fair. You had every right to break up with me, and you don't have to forgive me, but I just wanted to get this off of my chest. A lot of things have been changing in my life recently, so I've had a lot of things to think over and think about fixing. And this is one of them."

Shay raises her eyebrows, "How long have you had it… on your chest?"

Kim fumbles, "Uh… five… minutes. I saw you and was, like, 'Oh, I should probably apologize.'"

Shay blinks.

"I mean, but I mean it."

"I forgive you," Shay sighs.

Kim furrows her brow. "Wait, what?"

"I forgive you," Shay repeats, walking over to the door. Kim moves aside to let her out. "You've changed."

"Okay, um, you're not wrong, " Kim says, "But, what… what makes you say that? Like, how do you… how are you sure?"

Shay looks at her a little incredulously then shakes her head. "The Kim I broke up with wouldn't have apologized," she says with a casual shrug.

The moment Rita and Zedd project into her bedroom, Tommie sits up in bed, attentively waiting for one of them to speak and muffling a few coughs into her hand. The girl looks no better than she had hours ago, but that won't last much longer. Rita won't admit it to him - he can hear her thoughts, anyway - but Zedd has done excellently with this girl. It makes Rita a little green with envy that she hasn't been cursed with the same kind of power to twist someone else's mind. A shame, but at least, she has this.

"We have a mission for you," Rita drawls, savoring every word. Everything is going well, and it's about to be perfect.

Tommie silently nods then gets up to lock her bedroom door.

Rita's gut turns as Zedd brings their physical bodies down to earth and breaks the astral projection. Still takes some getting used to. She holds a clawed hand out for Tommie to take, "Come. We're going on a little trip."

Just down the street, far away from Beck Roman's house party, Vivian Bhavani does her laundry. She already has one load out, waiting in a hamper in her living room for her to multitask and skim through the tests from today. Currently, she's moving the second load to the dryer, piece by piece. The house is quiet. She has the TV playing a rerun of Law & Order from the other room. She lives alone. Nobody else is there.

Until somebody is.

Vivian stands up from picking a sock up off of the floor and comes face-to-face with a girl in a dark green jacket she doesn't recognize. Her heart does a quick pause, and she jumps, startled. She almost screams, too, but clamps a hand over her mouth just in time, not that it would've mattered whether she did or not.

Anyone else reacting to someone in their house who doesn't live in their house might have freaked out. But, the girl is here for a reason, and Vivian knows exactly who she is. They've never met, but she knows in her gut that it's too late.

"Tommie?" she asks, uncertainly, as if she would get an actual response.

Tommie lunges at her, and Vivian scrambles back, fumbling for the first thing she can get her hands on. She swings the bottle of laundry detergent at the girl, having dropped all pretenses the moment she was attacked, and connects a solid hit to the girl's head. Tommie stumbles and coughs, leaning on the opposite wall of the cramped laundry room for support. Vivian wastes no time and grabs the collar of Tommie's jacket and yanks her head down, slamming the dryer door against it once, twice-

A hand shoots out and stops her the third time. Then, a sickening creak as the dryer door is pulled off of its hinges. Shit. Vivian backs out of the room and goes sprawling as Tommie smacks her with the door. Her ears ring. Her jaw aches. If Tommie's strong enough to do that, then they're too late. She has to tell the others.

But, first, she has to survive.

Vivan crawls away, further into the living room, and tries to put some distance between Tommie and herself. She fumbles with the watch on her wrist that she's never, ever taken off and unclasps it, hurling it not at Tommie but underneath the couch. It beeps quietly the moment it leaves her wrist, but Tommie pays it no attention as she stalks out of the laundry room.

There's a flatscreen TV above her mantel. Obviously, too heavy and far up to use as a weapon. But, underneath her mantel is a series of decorative antiques, historical props that she's gathered over the years. Vivian grabs a life-sized crusader helmet and lunges to her feet, swinging for Tommie's head once again. Fool her once, shame on her. Fool her twice…

Tommie's hand comes up and stops the attack, and she rips the helmet out of Vivian's hand, tossing it across the carpeted floor.

Well, she tried.

Tommie raises a hand, her eyes briefly flashing green, and Vivian's world spins. She blinks and feels her feet leave the ground. She blinks again, and two figures are standing over Tommie's shoulders - Rita and…

"Oh, no," she whispers. Not that it matters. It's too late.

Zedd watches as the woman uselessly struggles. He can feel her life force in the air, slowly draining from her as Tommie feeds on it, using the magic he gave her.

"Tell me who the others are," he orders.

The woman's eyes droop as she weakens, but at that, she manages to shake her head.

He turns to Tommie. "Take it from her."

Tommie's eyes flash green again, and she visibly strains, her hand trembling as she holds the woman in place, then her eyes return to normal and she shakes her head. "I can't, my lord, I'm not strong enough," she says, pathetically. A weak mortal.

He senses Rita's anxiety and chooses to ignore it. Let her worry about if her plan really is going to work. Fear is a good tool to control others with.

"Must I do everything myself around here?" he mutters, tapping the edge of his staff against the woman's chest. Just one point of physical contact is enough to give him access, and he presses into the mental maze. It's different from when he had entered Tommie's mind - weak, vulnerable, scared. This woman - Vivian - is ready for him, trying desperately to think of anything and everything to distract him. History facts, basic arithmetic, trivial memories. Zedd brushes past them all with ease and, underneath all of the things she had buried it under thinking that he could never make it this far, he finds what he's looking for.

When Kim follows Shay out of the room, she pauses at a loud cheer from the front of the house. Someone loud and popular just arrived-

"Oh, no," Shay mutters under her breath, and Kim immediately knows who. She follows the other girl through the mass of tipsy teen bodies and comes out on the other side, face-to-face with her ex-boyfriend.

"Kim!" Ty Fleming greets her with a wide grin, and she kinda wants to punch his tooth out again already. At his side, avoiding her gaze, is Amanda, and behind Amanda, a couple of the other girls on varsity cheer.

Kim frowns. This is very, very bad.

Things have been quiet at the Angel Grove Sheriff's Station, not that Garrett is complaining. Quiet is good. Quiet means no trouble. The last time things weren't quiet, a bunch of people ended up dead, they lost an officer, and aliens attacked the city. He's ready for anything, but it'd be nice if anything could wait for, say, another week or two. If another Putty attack messes up where he gets his coffee again…

Garrett's watch beeps, and he looks up from the parking report he'd been filling out. For a moment, he just stares at the watch, not comprehending what it means, but then it clicks in his head, and he's on his feet, grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair.

"Hey, where are you going, Larson?" Hannah, the receptionist, calls after him.

"Break! I'll be right back!"

Rushing, he hops into his car and opens his glove compartment, feeling around for the second phone he keeps in there. The screen lights up as he unlocks it and pulls up the tracker app. "Where's the signal, where's the signal," he mutters, impatiently, tapping his foot on the floor of his car.

The screen loads.

Lakewood.

"Viv," he breathes, "Shit."

Trini knows something's wrong the moment she hears the noise level inside of the house increase. People yelling only means trouble, and this sounds like the life of the party just walked in, which can only mean… Trini's suspicions are confirmed when she reaches out and faintly feels a spike of irritation from Kim. She stands, draining the last of her Sprite and crushing it in her fist. "Come on, Billy," she says, catching the boy's attention before walking back into the house.

Billy glances at Trini then at the kids he was showing his little makeshift robot off to. "Uh, here you go, Myn," he says, handing the robot off to one of the theatre kids, "You can keep this." With that, he scrambles off after Trini.

"It's nice to see you again, Ty," Kim drawls in a fakely sweet tone. She bristles as someone comes up behind her, but it's just Zack, gently touching her back. There's a crowd forming around them. Kim can feel Billy and Trini come up on her other side without looking, which means Jason is somewhere around here, too.

She glances next to Zack and sees Beck and Shay, who probably don't want Ty and the cheer squad here, but there's nothing they can do about it.

"Yeah, nice to see you, too," Ty says, still smiling, "Been awhile, but we're just all here to have some fun, right? No hard feelings?"

Another hand is on her shoulder, and Kim turns to see Emily. "We should go," Emily murmurs, shooting Billy and Trini a worried glance. Her watch beeps quietly, and she presses a button on it that silences it. "I've gotta get home to Tommie-"

Kim ignores her. "Yeah, no hard feelings," she says, flatly, "Water under the bridge now." Amanda visibly flinches, and Kim meets her gaze.

"Ty, let's go," Amanda says, quietly, trying to tug her boyfriend away to another part of the party.

Kim knows him, though, just like Amanda knows him, and once she's got herself put on his shit list, there's no getting off of it. She tenses, waiting for the worst.

Ty looks at Zack. "So, you're the new boyfriend," he says and holds his hand out for Zack to shake, "Nice to meet you, man." To his credit, Zack doesn't shake Ty's hand. Kim can't help the little swell of smug pride she feels.

"Of course," Ty continues, "I have to say, I don't know how long that's gonna last…"

"Ty-" Amanda tries to interrupt.

Kim narrows her eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?" Zack puts a hand on her arm, holding her back, but she doesn't move.

Shrugging, Ty puts his hands in his pockets. "You know what I mean, Kim," he says, casually, "You're just… used to a certain lifestyle. Certain amount of money, things like-"

She punches him in the face before Zack can yank her back.

One knock. Two knocks.

"Viv!" Garrett sighs and glances around. It's past sunset. The neighborhood is pretty much quiet with a few lights on in some of the others houses. "Viv, open up!" Still nothing. Pressing his weight against the door, Garrett slams his shoulder against it over and over, feeling it begin to give way after the second push. "Alright…" He steps back and hypes himself up, bouncing on the soles of his feet. He can do this, he can do this.

The door flies open after he throws himself against it for the last time. Garrett stops and gasps at the sight of Vivian laying on the floor, motionless. The living room lights are on as well as the TV, creating a static white noise in the back of Garrett's mind as he steps further into the house, closing the door behind him. A laundry hamper sits next to the couch, still full of clothes. Somewhere, he can faintly hear Vivian's watch incessantly beeping.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," he mutters, going to check on Vivian, even though he obviously wouldn't be here if she was okay, then stops. His eyes catch on her living room wall and on the message scrawled on it in what couldn't be anything else but dried blood.

"Oh, God-" Garrett runs past Vivian's body to the bathroom and loses his early dinner in the toilet. It takes him a few minutes to compose himself, and once he does, he stumbles back out into the living room to get a better look at the message.

Consider this a sign of things to come.

Feeling sick but forcing the nausea down, Garrett swallows and goes over to Vivian's body, collapsing to his knees, feeling no pulse against her cold skin as expected. He fumbles with his second phone and calls the only number to call in a situation like this. While the line rings, he glances around, looking for Vivian's watch. The beeping grows louder as he gets closer to the couch, so he reaches underneath and pulls the watch out along with some lint and dust that he wipes on his pants.

Someone picks up on the other end, and a distorted seven-note tune is whistled at him. Garrett can't even bother with that right now. "Director, this is an emergency," he sighs, worriedly, "We have a situation."

"London," she greets, "What is it?"

Garrett glances at Vivian's body. There's no blood, no sign of cause of death, but there doesn't have to be. Not when it comes to their line of work. "Oxford's dead," he says, getting to his feet, "And there was a message." He pulls his phone away from his ear and takes a picture of the message on the wall, sending it to the Director's phone. "We're too late. They're here."

Heart racing in anxiety, he waits as there's just silence. Then, "I'll send people to clean it up. I'll let you know when to make it official. Our people get there before the Sheriff's Department, understood?" Cold. Efficient.

Get it together, Garrett.

"Yes, ma'am." The link clicks, and Garrett lets out a loud sigh. "How could we have missed it, Viv?" he asks with anticipatedly no response. Walking over to the fridge, Garrett taps the fridge display screen. Filter's on half, but it'd be replaced soon, anyway. He opens the fridge and grabs a water bottle, taking a sip from it.

His radio crackles on his shoulder. "415 physical - zzzh - 2901 Lakewood Court - nearby units respond."

Shit, that's just down the street. Garrett clicks his radio on, "724, nearby and responding." He hears 605 and 429 respond, too, but he's closer. He'll get there first.

Leaving everything else in Vivian's house untouched, Garrett gets in his car and does a U-turn to check up on 2901 Lakewood Court.

Vaguely, she feels hands on her arms and her shirt trying to pull her off of Ty, but Kim doesn't register who they are and she doesn't budge. Grabbing the collar of Ty's jacket, she drags him outside to the front yard, throwing the door open. She throws him onto the grass, fists clenched, chest heaving. Ty's nose is bleeding. He wipes at it with his hand.

"Still the meanest person I've ever met," he mutters as he gets up, and she lunges at him again. Kim doesn't even touch him, but Ty falls and scrambles away from her, yelling loudly about how crazy she is. There's a flash of pink metal out of the corner of her eye that Kim doesn't quite process, and then Trini is there, tugging her jacket off and firmly wrapping Kim up in it, hugging Kim in a way that doesn't let her move.

"Let me go, " she hisses.

Trini glares at her and says in just as low of a voice, "You almost morphed. Cool the fuck down."

Kim blinks, "What? No, I didn't-" She glances down at her fist, covered by Trini's yellow jacket from the crowd that followed her out to watch the fight. A thin, pink sheen flickers over her fingers and wrist. The moment she becomes aware of it, the armor dematerializes. Kim sighs and squirms under Trini's hard gaze, feeling a sinking disappointment settle in her stomach.

Someone shouts "Cops!" right before a marked car pulls up to the curb. A door opens and slams shut.

"Oh, shit," Kim mutters, flinching when a flashlight gets shined in her face.

Many of the kids at Beck Roman's house had gone scattering in different directions after the first Sheriff's car pulled up, but in the end, eleven students from Angel Grove High were thrown into holding at 8:03 PM on September 27th, 2016.

Garrett couldn't even focus on paperwork while knowing that, just a drive away, Apex agents were cleaning up Vivian's house and removing every trace of her double life before her death was to be revealed to the Sheriff's Department and local news stations. Still, he has to do his job and act like everything's normal. No distractions, no exceptions.

He passes by the cell where Ty Fleming, Amanda Clark, and Harper Gates are sitting to where the other eight kids are. Thankfully, there's a wall separating them otherwise he's sure that Kimberly Hart might have gone for Ty again. The first three already got their phone calls, so he's sure that there's about to be a few pairs of rich, snobby parents nagging the hell out of him in about half an hour. Joy.

All eight kids look up when Garrett stops in front of their cell. At the very least, Jason and Kim - the former, especially - would know how this goes. It doesn't seem relevant to mention that Jason should've gotten a check-up about an hour ago and shouldn't have even been at that party, but Garrett files that information away for later.

He holds up a finger. "Everyone gets one phone call. Who's up first?"

Jason catches Officer Larson glancing at him too long for his comfort and shifts his sitting position so that he has the leg with the ankle monitor on it tucked underneath him. It awkwardly digs into his thigh, but it's necessary. For some reason, nobody has called him out on being in huge fucking trouble for being here yet. Well, for now. He's counting his blessings.

Emily glances at all of them, hesitantly. Jason knows he can't make his phone call and neither can Trini since they're both supposed to be at home. Kim and Zack don't really have anyone to call, and Beck's parents are out of town, leaving Billy, Emily, and Shay. "I got this, you guys," Emily says, getting to her feet and following Officer Larson out of the cell, "Trust me."

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

"I'm sorry I got us into this," Kim speaks up. Jason looks at her. She and Zack have been having whatever silent conversation they've been having while holding hands.

"It's fine," Beck says, quietly, "I shouldn't have thrown the party in the first place, but nobody got hurt. That's what matters."

Trini snorts, which is the only other sound she's made all night. She's been uncharacteristically quiet, even by Trini standards.

Kim raises her eyebrows, "Nobody got hurt?"

Beck runs a hand through his hair. "Well," he says, slowly, "Nobody I care about."

That gets a few scattered chuckles throughout the cell, but all of them fall back into silence soon after. It's too weird, too uncomfortable to talk about anything. Jason's been in a cell before, of course, for days, but this is new for pretty much everyone else. It twists at his gut, and he tugs nervously at the collar of his t-shirt.

After a few minutes, Officer Larson comes back with Emily and unlocks the door for her to get back in the cell. He walks away for a moment to take a call on his phone. Emily mutters to the others, nervously wiping her hands on her jeans, "Alright, my parents are gonna come bail us out. Don't worry."

"Don't worry? " Shay starts, her voice cracking, "I gotta call my parents-" Jason can see that she's trembling, even if she's trying to hide it. Beck rubs her back and whispers something in her ear.

Sure enough, after an agonizing amount of time that is apparently only about forty-five minutes if Emily's watch is anything to go off of, Officer Larson comes up to their cell door again with Emily's parents in tow. Mrs. Jordan looks like she just came from work while, at least, Mr. Jordan is in a more casual shirt than the one Jason had seen him in passing this morning at school.

"Uh, hey, Coach," Beck mumbles, "Mrs. Jordan."

Jason clears his throat and tries to flatten himself against the wall.

"They're here to bail you out," Officer Larson says as he unlocks the door and leaves it open, "All of you."

Billy furrows his brow and glances at the others, receiving only the same confused looks in response.

"I'm sorry, sir, all of us?" Jason asks, raising his eyebrows.

Officer Larson nods, "Mhm, they already signed you out. Now get going."

"Told you," Emily murmurs as she brushes past him.

Still very confused, Jason follows everyone out of the station, keeping his head low in case someone randomly remembers that he's still got an ankle monitor underneath his jean leg, and ducks his head even further when he sees that Ty's parents and Amanda's parents are entering the station as they're leaving. In front of him, Kim coughs into her hand and hides behind Zack's frame.

Once he's hit by the fresh outside air, Jason breathes out a loud sigh of relief. "Not to sound ungrateful, but what- what just happened?"

"Emily called and asked us to bail you out," Mrs. Jordan says, clicking her car remote. An SUV parked in the front row beeps. "I can seat six, and Eddie can seat three."

"Bail us out? But… don't you need our parents to do that?" Billy asks. Mrs. Jordan glances at him but doesn't say anything.

It clicks for Jason, and he quietly shushes Billy.

Mr. Jordan goes to drop off Beck and Shay back at the Romans' house and get Emily's motorcycle while Mrs. Jordan drives the five of them and Emily back to her house.

"Are you gonna call our parents?" Kim asks, a little apprehensively as Mrs. Jordan unlocks the front door to let them in.

"You can call them yourselves," Rachel says, offhandedly, as she takes her shoes off, "When they come here to pick you kids up."

She isn't looking forward to that.

"Speaking of parents, Jason, don't you have a curfew?" Rachel asks. Her back is to him, so he glances, frantically, at Billy then at Kim.

"Uh, yeah, my ankle monitor's been going on the fritz lately… I think it's broken," he lies. Badly.

"Weird how machines do that," Billy adds. Oh, boy.

If Rachel can tell or even cares that Jason's ankle monitor should've called the Sheriff's Department on his ass like three hours ago, she doesn't show it.

Kim clears her throat and meekly waves upon seeing Tommie lounging on the couch.

"Uh, hey?" Tommie says, raising her eyebrows, "Nobody told me the party was coming home. I would've put out drinks."

Emily rolls her eyes and goes over to the couch, leaning down to whisper something to Tommie, who makes a face and grins at Kim. "Ooh," Tommie exclaims, intrigued, "How's the other guy look?"

Kim becomes aware of the Rangers staring at her and bashfully rubs her neck. "Wasn't my proudest moment," she mumbles. In hindsight, there probably were better ways to defend Zack's honor than getting in a fight with Ty again. And, technically, she hadn't known that Beck's neighbors had called the party in. That police response time had been fast as hell.

"How are you feeling?" Rachel asks Tommie, walking over to the couch and putting a hand on her daughter's forehead, "Better?"

"Yeah, actually," Tommie says, embarrassedly shying away from the physical touch and glancing at the five of them just standing next to the front door, "I got up and walked around the house a little bit. Stretched out. And your soup is amazing, by the way."

"Told you it cures everything," Emily says, messing up Tommie's hair as she walks by the couch on her way to her bedroom, "I'm gonna go lay down. Tommie, we need to watch the new episode later, like, after dinner."

"Also, you're grounded," Rachel calls after her.

"Yeah, that's fair."

Rachel walks over to the fridge and peers inside. "Who's coming to pick you guys up?"

Kim glances at the others. Definitely not their parents. "Uh…" She silently raises her eyebrows when Zack points at her. She mouths Me? at him, and he holds his hand to his chest, a little lower than her head. Oh, right. Other her. "A family friend."

Pulling out her phone, Kim dials Kimberly's number. Please pick up, please pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey! Hey, um, are you busy?" she says, quietly, into her phone, turning away so that Rachel can't fully hear what she's saying.

"No, not really. Why?"

"Uhhh, me and the others… we kinda need you to pick us up. Like, physically. In a car."

"Can't you teleport?"

"Uh, no. Not right now, no. The address is 1011 Brightwater Circle. Alright, bye, thanks!" She hangs up before Kimberly can ask any other questions.

"Hey, whoa, isn't this where you guys just were?" Kim looks up at Tommie's voice and follows her eyes to the TV. A breaking news bulletin flashes with the headline: MYSTERIOUS MURDER IN LAKEWOOD.

"Emily, come out here and take a look at this," Rachel calls then grabs the remote and turns the volume up.

Emily pads out to the living room, a smudged makeup wipe in her hand, "What's going on?"

"Just about an hour ago, at approximately 9:30 this evening, the Angel Grove Sheriff's Department received an anonymous tip about the house on 2889 Lakewood Court. When officers arrived on the scene, they found the owner of the house, Vivian Bhavani, deceased, and a message in what seems to be blood written on the wall-"

Kim looks at Trini and Zack first. Trini is almost unreadable, but her lips are pursed and her jaw is clenched. It's enough for Kim to see.

"That's- that's my History teacher," Zack gapes, "I just… I just took a test for her this morning. What the hell?"

Tommie whistles, lowly, "Damn, and you guys were just down the street…"

"I'm gonna…" Emily swallows and heads back into her bedroom, "I'm gonna call Beck and see if he's okay."

"Wait," Jason says, "What did they say the message was about?" But the news report has already moved onto the next story for the night.

" Consider this a sign of things to come, " Rachel answers.

"What?"

She holds her phone up, "News article."

Kim meets Jason's gaze then looks at the other Rangers. It's too serious to be just a local crime. A message in blood? Sounds like…

"Rita," Trini whispers under her breath so that only the five of them can hear.

Or, at least, someone else just as dangerous.

Kimberly knocks on the door to 1011 Brightwater Circle and rings the doorbell for good measure. This neighborhood is really nice, and the house she and Tommy had pulled up to is also really nice. Big windows that they would've been able to see straight into, if the blinds hadn't been pulled shut.

The door swings open, and a brunette woman looks between the two of them. "You must be the family friend," she says and holds her hand out, "Rachel."

Right. The lady in the picture Kim had sent them the other night. "Kimberly." As she shakes Rachel's hand, she catches a glimpse of the kids over Rachel's shoulder, just lounging in the living room. And one Tommie Oliver.

She shoots Tommy a look.

"Gabe," he says, catching sight of Tommie and stopping himself in time from saying his first name.

Rachel turns to say over her shoulder, "Kids, your ride's-" But they're already heading out the door.

"Thank you for letting them stay for a bit," Kimberly says, "Have a nice night."

"You, too."

The seven of them don't talk until they all pile into the Jeep, Kim on Zack's lap, Trini on Jason's, and Billy in the middle of the backseat. As Kimberly pulls out of the driveway, a sedan comes up to the curb and waits for her to leave before parking next to the SUV that's already there.

"Alright, so, what's all this about?" Kimberly asks.

"Uhhh, I… got into a fight," Kim answers, "There was a party, and I got into a fight. Andmaybegotarrested."

Kimberly stops the car at a stop sign leading out of the neighborhood. "Maybe it's my ears," she says, turning around in her seat to look at Kim, "But I could've sworn you said you got arrested. "

"Uhhh, nope, you heard right."

Blinking at the five of them, Kimberly just shakes her head and resumes driving. "You know what? I'm not even going to ask. I don't wanna know. I don't wanna know."

"Have you heard about the news?" Jason asks, changing the subject.

"You're gonna have to be more specific," Tommy replies, "There's a lot of news all the time."

"There's… been a murder."

"Oh, yeah, I was reading about that to Kimberly before we came to pick you up."

Trini leans forward and grumbles when the seatbelt abruptly stops, cutting into her shoulder. "Do you think it's Rita? 'Cause before Rita came, there were a bunch of murders, too, 'cept they were like… bloody."

"The article I was reading said there was no visible cause of death," Tommy says, "Which is weird, but… not if Rita or someone else is involved. Maybe it is her."

"Okay, but last time," Billy chimes in, "Rita was looking for gold, so she went around, like, tearing gold out of people's skulls-"

Kimberly winces. "Oh, gross."

"But this is clean. I mean, there's blood on the wall. You know what I mean."

Tommy glances at Kimberly, "Magic, probably."

"She might not be looking for gold this time," Kimberly says, "Might not have to tear out anyone's skull."

"Question is, then, what is she looking for? And how do we get there before she does?"

"Next time," Tommie complains, brushing her jeans off, "Give me a few hours for my dinner to digest before we go somewhere." She uncomfortably rubs her stomach and frowns.

Rita scowls. "You talk too much." It's a sign of something - she doesn't know what, but presumably, a perfectly mind-controlled minion wouldn't talk as much as this pathetic human does. Then again, all humans babble.

Tommie opens her mouth to talk back, but a low rumble from Zedd makes her think twice about that.

"Do you think she's ready?" Rita asks.

"She doesn't have a choice," Zedd answers. She doesn't want to think about what will happen if Tommie isn't ready.

"Do not fail me," Rita hisses as she removes the green power coin from on top of her scepter. The scepter instantly feels lighter in her hand, less alive, quieter without the buzz of its heart. She holds it out for Tommie to take.

Warily, Tommie eyes the coin then inches closer. Around them, the forest is dark and quiet, but Rita hears the ringing of the power coin as clear as day. Tommie closes her hand around the coin and pulls it close to her chest, her brow furrowing. The coin buzzes quietly, almost angrily, sensing someone else holding it - someone else who isn't its master. Tommie sharply inhales. Her eyes flash green, and the coin responds in kind, a bright, green glow peeking out from between her closed fingers.

Rita's skin tingles. She'll keep her armor if Tommie manages to morph, but nevertheless, it starts to feel a little suffocating on her skin without the power coin by her side. She shrugs her shoulders, nervously. Next to her, Zedd watches, silently, unmoving.

Tommie breathes heavier, hand trembling, brow furrowing. It's taking too long. She can't do it.

Gasping, Tommie drops the coin and frantically shakes her hand, cradling it close to her chest as she collapses to her knees. "I'm sorry," she laments, "I'm sorry, I can't do it, it burns. " She keeps mumbling pathetic excuses and apologies into the dirt, out of fear and shame, but Rita and Zedd both ignore her.

"She's not strong enough-" Rita starts but stops the moment she turns and sees Zedd's visor glowing red. "We need more time," she says, hesitantly, "Emperor."

Zedd growls and leans in close. Rita tries her best not to move backward out of instinct. It occurs to her just then that she can hear him breathing, the cold metal of his helmet only inches away from her face, but she can't feel his breath. There's a dark nothingness to greet her when she glances at the grill covering where his mouth would be. If he had one.

"You're lucky we have an abundance of that," he snarls in response. Zedd holds his hand out and summons something from his pocket dimension - a helmet of those warriors that humans called knights. Rita recognizes it as the one that now dead woman had used to attack Tommie, slightly dented from where Tommie's hand had stopped the impact. Zedd shoves the helmet at her, and she scrambles to not drop it.

"Make this live," he orders.

Rita looks at the helmet in disdain. He could just do it himself-

Zedd tilts his head at her.

"Fine," she grumbles, waving her scepter. The green power coin flies from where it lays on the ground and returns back to the head of her scepter. Tommie whines. "Get up, " Rita orders, "I hate groveling. I want you to watch this and see what a real servant is like."

Tommie scrambles to her feet, her eyes curious as Rita sets the helmet on the ground and steps back.

Aiming, Rita fires a blast of green energy at the helmet. A bright flash makes Tommie cover her eyes, but neither Rita nor Zedd look away. When the light clears, a knight stands, dull, metallic armor covering every inch of his body. There are two slits in the helmet where his eyes should be, but he has no eyes. In fact, the only sign that this isn't just an empty suit of armor is the faint, green glow from behind his chestplate, visible in the cracks between each piece of metal as he moves.

The knight kneels in front of Rita, head bowed, one hand on his knee, the other on the sword sheathed at his side. "Empress, Emperor," he greets.

Tommie crosses her arms and scowls.

"Rise," Zedd commands, "What is your name?"

"Page," the knight says, rising to his feet but still respectfully bowing his head, "As I am yours."

"Latin," Tommie mutters under her breath.

"Pardon?"

Tommie waves her hand, "Nothing… Carry on."

"What can you do, Page?" Rita asks. She hadn't thought of powers when bringing him to life - let the magic take care of itself, after all - but Zedd's patience with her is already running thin. This has to be good if she's going to stay useful.

Page looks at her scepter then at Zedd's staff and shakes his helmet. He turns to Tommie, "May I see your jacket?" He holds out a gloved hand.

Tommie glances at the three of them then slowly takes her jacket off and gives it to him. "Pretty polite for evil, aren't you?"

"I live by a code," he responds, bundling her jacket up.

"You've been alive for, like, two minutes."

Page, instead of giving her the satisfaction of a biting response, says, "This jacket… Your mother bought it for you… in a village named… Chicago."

Tommie tenses and drops her arms to her side, her fists clenching. "How do you know that?" she demands, angrily.

"It became your favorite after she and your father died in the crash," he continues then looks at Tommie, "You were alone after that, and this was all you had left of them-"

The metallic, green glint of Tommie's knife is unmistakable as she flicks it open and lunges for Page all in one move. She yelps in surprise, though, stopping quick in her attack. Rita smirks at the tip of Page's sword just inches from Tommie's neck, unwavering. As inhuman as her eyes are, she almost hadn't seen Page move.

"I read objects," Page says, sheathing his sword just as quickly and smoothly as he had drawn it, and hands the jacket back to Tommie who irritatedly yanks it back from him, "And people. I read where they have been, who they are… and then I take it from them."

Rita raises her eyebrows in interest. "You take it from them? Their history?"

Tommie takes a wary step back and puts her jacket back on, zipping it up to the collar.

"Yes," Page nods, "Do you have someone you wish for me to take from?"

Rita looks at Zedd, chuckling a little eagerly. Zedd doesn't have any semblance of facial expression, but even he looks… pleased. "Actually," she drawls, "I have five."

They're close to Kim's house when seven communicators beep at the same time. Glancing at Tommy in momentary surprise, Kimberly pulls off to the shoulder of the road and turns in her seat so that everyone can lean in as she presses the button on the side of her communicator. "Go for Kimberly. Everyone else is here, too."

"Rangers, there's trouble at the gully outside of the city - where Billy, Kim, and Zack were fighting the Putties last week."

"Trouble?" Jason asks, "What kind of trouble? More Putties?"

"A little… different than that," Alpha says, slowly, "It's best if you just see for yourselves. Kimberly and Tommy, you should head to the ship."

"We're on our way," Kimberly says then looks at the Rangers, "Alright, I'm gonna find a back road to drive through, and then the moment we're out of sight, you guys teleport."

It's way past the time she should be in bed when Trini teleports to the gully with the others. She tenses, ready for anything, but instead of seeing a crowd of Putties creating havoc, she sees the figure kneeling in the middle of the dirt clearing first.

"Guys," Trini says, nodding, "There."

They all turn, Jason instinctively stepping forward first. Everyone falls behind him in the shape of a V, Trini and Kim on either side of him. The figure is just… standing there. Trini squints, trying to see some kind of recognizable features in the darkness or something, but it's not like there are any street lamps around. Just the moon and that's not much lighting to go off of.

"Hey!" Jason calls out, "You lost, bud?"

The figure's head raises at that. Trini stiffens as they stand. Now, she can see more of a shape to the shadow as it walks toward them.

"What the hell is that?" Kim asks, "Is that a… sword?"

All five of them take a collective step back as the knight comes into clarity. Trini bumps into Billy, and he steadies her with two hands on her shoulders. She can't see any sign of human life in that suit of armor, not even the whites of eyes or the movement of breathing, but something else draws her attention.

"Jason," she murmurs, nudging him with her elbow, "See the space between each of his armor plates?" She points at the faint, green glow that's barely visible. "This isn't right."

"Oh, there's a straight-up knight standing in front of us, and that's the thing that tips you off with this not being right?" Zack whispers. Kim jabs him in the side.

The knight points at Jason. "Red Ranger," a male voice echoes out of the emptiness of his helmet, "I challenge you to a duel."

"Uh…" Jason blinks.

"You heard him," Billy whispers.

"Uh," he repeats, his armor slowly materializing on his body, "Okay, I guess."

Trini and the others follow suit as Jason summons his sword, but when she steps forward behind him, the knight holds up a hand.

" No. Just the Red Ranger."

Trini glances at Kim, who shrugs in response. "Fine," she mutters, "But we got his back." The knight doesn't seem to acknowledge her.

The comms in Trini's helmet crackle to life, and Kimberly's voice greets her. "Hey, what'd we miss?"

"Jason's… duelling a knight," Kim says, a little incredulously, "Or he's about to."

"Big, scary knight? Monster teeth?" Tommy asks.

"Nope. Just a knight. One sword. No claws. Or teeth."

"Huh."

Drawing his sword, the knight grips it with one hand, the other just resting on his sheath. He stands still, waiting for Jason to make the first move. Trini gulps, a bad feeling settling in the pit of her stomach.

Jason strikes, and the knight blocks it, but Trini doesn't even catch his sword moving. Then, Jason flies past them, skidding to a stop on the ground, coughing and clutching at his chest.

"Jason!" Kim and Billy rush to his side while Trini glances back at the knight. He's hardly moved, only shifting his feet to change his stance.

"Zack, get your axe out," Trini says.

"Already ahead of you," he replies, twirling it in his hand.

Trini concentrates and runs at the knight, brushing each of her hands against her thighs as she moves. The metal armor covering her skin shifts, forming itself into twin daggers that fit perfectly in her palms. The space the armor leaves is covered up instantly with new metal, not leaving a beat for her to miss. Trini pulls her arm back and throws the first dagger at the knight, but he easily dodges it and it clatters uselessly to the ground, feet away. She grips the other dagger tight in her hand and whirls, aiming the blade at the knight's helmet.

A gloved hand comes up and grasps her wrist, tightly, suddenly, stopping her attack. She struggles and only remembers that he has two hands at the last moment and yanks herself away, throwing herself at the knight and tackling him instead of away. The whistle of his sword only misses her by millimeters, and she counts all of her blessings as she slams her shoulder into his chest. He goes stumbling but recovers quickly. She's already retreated by the time he recovers, though, far out of reach of his sword.

Zack comes up behind him and swings his axe at the knight's neck.

It passes right under his helmet.

"Oh, shit," Zack mutters as the knight turns around.

"That tickles," the knight says, almost gleefully, then backhands Zack.

Zack hits the ground, groaning and pressing his helmet into the dirt.

Jason, Billy, and Kim come up beside Trini, all their weapons brandished except Kim who just cracks her knuckles. Or, well, clanks her gloved metal hands together.

"We're not duelling anymore," Jason says into his comms, "We're getting out butts handed to us by Sir Lancelot. Doesn't he have, like, a crusade to go fail?"

"That's not how any of that goes," Billy says, quietly.

"Whatever."

"Find his weakness," Kimberly offers, very, very helpfully, "Every monster has one."

"That's Page to you, peasant," the knight says, pointing his sword at Jason.

"What?"

"Page," the knight repeats, "That is my name."

"Like those boys that carry stuff around for real knights?" Kim asks, chuckling.

Page growls and points his sword at her, instead.

Trini sighs, "Oh, real smooth, Kim, you pissed him off."

"He's pissing me off."

"The green glow," Billy pipes up, abruptly, "Whatever's inside his chest. We gotta get to it. That's his weakness."

Well. Seems like the obvious way to go. Trini holds her hands out, and the discarded dagger on the ground zips past Page and back into her hand. "Alright, go time."

The four of them rush at Page just as Zack recovers, and he catches onto their plan fast enough, jumping on the knight and trying to restrain him from the back. Maybe it's the fact that they're just doing, but everything still goes wrong. Page flips Zack over his back, blocks Billy's lance with his sword, and dodges every punch Kim throws his way. He punches Jason in the stomach, sending him reeling. When Trini tries to lunge at him with her daggers again, he steps out of the way, using her own momentum against her and yanking her into a chokehold, his sword just millimeters away from her neck.

"Trini!" Jason freezes, holding a hand out as if to stop Page.

Breathing in carefully, Trini doesn't move, even though there's armor all over her body, including her neck. She doesn't doubt that his sword could probably decapitate her.

"You're afraid," Page says, his voice echoing around the hollow emptiness of his helmet. The arm that's keeping her hostage is pressed against her collarbone, his hand gripping her shoulder tightly.

"Shut up," she snaps, "You don't know what you're talking about. As if I'm afraid of a hunk of metal like you."

"I'm not what you're afraid of," he replies, "You're afraid that you won't be able to keep saving the world like the Power Rangers did." Trini's brow furrows as he keeps speaking. "They saved Harwood so many times, but if Angel Grove burns, it'll burn because of you."

Trini's blood runs cold, and a sharp pain jolts through her chest. She sees Kim tilt her head in confusion as the other four stare. They had heard that. Didn't know what it means, but they'dheard it, nonetheless.

"How-" she starts, but Page interrupts her.

"I know all there is to know about you. And, now, I think I'll take that page out of your history."

Before she can react, he steps back and releases her from the chokehold but grabs her by the neck, lifting her off of the ground.

The dark night sky blurs by too fast for Trini to register, but she vaguely hears Kim shout her name as Page hurls her across the clearing. She lands with a dull, harsh thud and feels the beginning of a headache coming on. Coughing, Trini pushes herself to her knees, blinking away disorientation and nausea as she recovers. Nasty fall. Wouldn't wanna go through that again.

A pair of hands on her shoulders help her up, and a girl's voice speaks to her. "Trini? Trini, can you hear me? Are you okay?"

She looks up at a figure clad in pink armor and immediately scrambles back, startled. "What? Who- who are you? What are you?"

The figure- Girl? Must be with the design of that armor. Unfortunate. The figure tilts her head, confused. "Trini, what are you talking about?"

"How do you know my name? " Trini glances down at her hands, seeing similar armor to the girl's on her arms. "What the fuck?" The moment she tries to flex her fingers, the armor disappears, and she pats her clothes down, blinking in surprise. "Where- where'd it go?"

"Guys! Guys, we have a problem!" Trini looks up, attention diverted as the girl shouts to… to the others. Three other figures - the guys - in red, black, and blue attack a…

"This is too weird," she mutters under her breath.

The knight fends off the other armored figures way too easily, and all three of them retreat, putting some distance between them and the knight. The red one looks at the pink one. "What's wrong?" he asks.

The leader, Trini thinks, The red one's always the leader.

The pink one puts a hand to her helmet, where her ear would be, and talks to the red one, but Trini has the feeling that she's talking to someone else in that helmet, too. "Trini doesn'trecognize us. And she's demorphed on her own. I-I don't know what happened, but the monster did something to her."

"Alpha, get her out of here," the red one orders, "If she can't stay morphed, she needs to get to safety, and we'll handle that later. First, we gotta deal with Lancelot here."

"Uh," Trini says, and then her vision gets swallowed up by a bright flash of yellow light.

She lands against a cold, metal floor on the flat of her back, groaning and clutching her head against a wave of dizziness.

"Trini, are you okay?" A woman's voice asks, hesitantly, and she glimpses at hands hovering near her but not touching her, and she quickly scrambles away as she had before.

"Next person to touch me loses their hands," she says, a little bit too loudly, not really knowing what she could even use to do that since she doesn't have a fucking machete on her, but the brunette woman backs off, anyway. Good. "Where-" Trini glances around. She can hardly even comprehend what she's looking at. "Would someone tell me what the fuck is going on?"

A man with short hair standing next to the woman clears his throat. "That's… a long story," he says, quietly.

"Well, give me the short version," she responds, flatly.

"You're a Power Ranger," the woman offers.

Trini's first instinct is to scoff. She stands, leaning against a metal pillar, keeping some distance between her and the two people. "That's ridiculous," she mutters, "I'm not a Power Ranger. I think I'd know- And, besides, the Power Rangers are…" She trails off, thinking about the figures clad in armor that she'd seen. They hadn't looked like Power Rangers. "Well, they don't look like that. "

The woman furrows her brow, curiously, and wrings her hands together. "What do they look like, then?"

It sounds like a dumb question. She must not be from around here. Everyone knows what the Power Rangers look like. Trini humors her, anyway, "They don't wear armor for one. It's more like… I don't know, spandex? Or something. Bulletproof spandex. The colors were right, though. Red, black, blue, pink, and, uh…" She glances down at her hand, clenching it into a fist. The armor doesn't reappear. "Where's the robot?"

The man frowns. "Robot?"

Something that sounds like claws skittering against metal follows his words, and then a- Trini clamps a hand over her mouth and gasps into her fingers. "What the hell is that?"

"Oh, no, Trini," the… thing says, sadly.

"Alpha 5," the man answers as if that means anything to her, "You said… robot."

" That's a robot?" Could robots even look sad? It looks so… weird and not at all made out of solid, hard edges like she's used to seeing. Weird, wiggly arms. Round head like some kind of flying saucer. It blinks at her.

Trying her best not to hyperventilate, Trini shakes her head, "No, no, that's not what I meant. The robot I'm talking about - he's black and gold and silver and a lot taller. Like, the size of a person. There's, like, some kind of animal on his chest-" She gestures as if to help her description along.

"Robo Knight," the man says, suddenly, his eyes widening in realization.

"Uh, sure, yeah, if that's what he's called."

The woman has a look on her face, almost close to pity, and Trini doesn't like it one bit. "What year is it?" she asks, "Just making sure."

The answer comes without Trini thinking twice about it. "2013."

Sighing, the woman hangs her head and closes her eyes as if the next part pains her to ask. It confuses the hell out of Trini. "And… where did you say you live again?"

"I didn't," Trini answers; she hadn't even told them her name, but somehow, they knew, anyway, "I live in Harwood County… Why? Where am I now? Where are we?"

"Angel Grove."

Trini frowns. That's… "That's hours away. What the hell? How did I get here?"

The woman worriedly glances at the man, and Trini can see an answer on the tip of her tongue and in her anxious body language, but she doesn't get the satisfaction of an answer because the… robot tilts his head as if hearing something then rushes off down one of the many hallways leading away from the chamber they're in. After looking at each other then at Trini, the man and woman run off after the robot, too.

"Stay here," the man says, "Don't move."

"Uh…" Well, she's definitely not going to listen to that. Trini turns around and takes in her surroundings. There's a bunch of hallways, one of which the man, woman, and robot disappeared down, and in the middle of the room, a glowing ball of light surrounded by five… whatever those things are. They look kinda like platforms, but Trini has no idea what they're for.

And a door.

She takes the steps up to the door and examines it, looking for a handle. Nope, no handle. Warily, she raises her hand and knocks on it. The metal echoes when her knuckles hit it, but it doesn't open. "Uh, hello?" she calls out, not really expecting an answer.

"Hello, Trini," a voice booms out at her.

Trini whirls around and presses herself against the door, her heart racing in her chest. A… God, what other weird shit is hiding around here? She blinks at the floating head on the opposite wall. It looks like one of those PinArt things she used to play with as a kid.

"How- how do you know my name?" she asks, reluctantly. Maybe someone will actually give her an answer for once. A real answer.

"You are a Power Ranger," the head says as if that explains everything, "A protector of the city of Angel Grove and the world."

"Okay… Cool." Not a real answer. "Am I in a spaceship? Is this a spaceship?"

"Yes."

"Oh, alright, cool." This is gonna be one hell of a dream to tell Summer about when she wakes up. Absolutely wild. "And you said I'm… a Power Ranger? Let me guess, the yellow one, right?"

"Correct."

"And you are…"

"I am Zordon of Eltar. I am your advisor of sorts. I used to be a Power Ranger as well, but the mantle has since been passed to you and your friends."

"My… friends. Right." Must be those other four she'd seen. Not that she knows them. "If I'm a Power Ranger, then how come I'm not out there fighting that… thing? It kinda looked like the others were getting their asses kicked."

"There have been… complications," Zordon says, slowly, "You're in danger, and it's not safe for you to be out in the field."

Trini furrows her brow and steps away from the door. "What kind of danger?" she asks, curiously.

"We believe that the knight you saw has taken some of your more recent memories."

Okay. Well. Okay. Trini closes her eyes against another wave of dizziness and takes a deep breath. Weird direction for her dream to take, but whatever. Just roll with it. "Alright, uh, how recent? That woman asked me what year it is. Why? What year is it? What's today?"

"It is September 27th, 2016."

Trini's breath is knocked out of her lungs, and she stumbles, holding onto the railing of one of the platforms for support. "What? Three- three years? I don't-" She looks at Zordon, "My family-"

"Your family is safe," Zordon answers before she finishes the question, sensing her anxiety.

She keeps thinking. "The… the Power Rangers. The ones I know. Did they… did they win?"

The ball of light in the middle of the room flickers with images that she recognizes as the Rangers she'd known when she lived in Harwood. The suits she recognizes are mixed with something else - other Rangers in some big battle that faintly tugs at her mind, but it ultimately doesn't ring a bell for her.

"Yes," Zordon says, finally, as the ball of light goes back to its neutral state, "Those Rangers won. And, now, the Power is with you."

She still stares at him as if she doesn't believe him.

"Reach inside your pocket."

"Uh…" Trini obliges, patting her pockets down. She pulls out a cell phone that doesn't look familiar and some kind of coin. A yellow crystal sits in the middle of the coin, surrounded by a ring of rustic, golden metal. "This is… mine?" she asks, holding it up to the light.

Zordon nods. If that was supposed to be a nod. She's not sure how a head in a wall can nod.

Okay, way too weird.

Right when she's thinking about how absolutely ridiculous this dream of hers is and how she's definitely not watching any more sci-fi movies before bed anymore, another question occurs to her.

"Wait… if this is 2016 and I live in Angel Grove, where- what happened to Summer Landsdown?"

Zordon pauses, possibly not knowing who she's talking about, and Trini keeps her eye on the ball of light in the middle of the chamber. It seems to be some sort of… viewing thing. She waits, expectantly.

Then, a last wave of dizziness slams into her, and the next thing she sees is black.

Without Trini on the field, there's only four of them to fight Page, and Kim has to say that she doesn't like those odds at all. Four against one doesn't seem like a fair fight, really, but as they've already seen, a fair fight would get them all wrecked in seconds. At this point, she's just hoping that they'll wear the knight down before they get worn down.

Surprisingly, it seems to be working. They rush him at all sides, changing directions and attacks, then retreat and go at it again. The guy - if he's even a guy at all - only has one sword and one body. Well, Kim's not sure if he has a body, but he has to get tired. Everyone gets tired, right?

"Alright," she huffs for the millionth time they've put some distance between them and Page. It must be some kind of chivalric code or whatever, but Page never presses on whenever they back off. Not that Kim's complaining. "I think this is it, you guys. We've got this."

If she says it enough times, she'll believe it.

"You've got this," Kimberly says, reassuringly.

"How's Trini?" Jason asks.

"Uh… she's okay."

"Are her memories back?"

"Well. No."

Kim cuts in, "Are they gonna come back if we kill this guy?"

"Probably."

"Probably? Probably? What happens if you're wrong? "

"Okay," Tommy interrupts, "Every time a monster does something, it's always been reversed when the monster's blown up."

"Well," Kim says, hoping she doesn't sound too absolutely panicked, "What if this is the first time that doesn't happen?"

"Then… we'll deal with that bridge when we get there."

Really reassuring.

"Okay, let's go," Jason nods, "For Trini."

He and Billy rush at Page first, distracting the knight by keeping him busy with their sword and lance. They trade a few strikes, and when Jason and Billy step away, Zack is there to take their place, catching the blade of Page's sword with his edge of his axe. He twists his wrist, and the sword goes flying out of the knight's hand, landing in the dirt feet away from Kim.

Jason and Billy are quick to pounce on Page, holding his arms behind his back and keeping themselves away from his gloved hands. Zack grabs Page's chestplate, wrestling with it and yanking it off after some resistance. He throws it aside, revealing black nothingness that's only offset by a dimly glowing green ball of energy. It sparks angrily at being exposed to the open air. Zack jumps back to avoid the sparks hitting him.

"Kim, now! Your bow!" Jason shouts.

Her brain buzzing with anxiety that she knows isn't hers, Kim shakes her head and grabs Page's sword from the ground instead. She grips it in both of her hands and lunges, driving the blade right into the green ball of energy.

Light swallows up her vision, and she feels the heat of the explosion, even through her armor, as she's thrown flat on her back. When her ears stop ringing, Kim sits up and partially demorphs, her helmet disappearing. She rubs at her forehead. "Did… did we get him?" she asks, weakly.

"Yep," Jason calls out, "I think so."

Kim looks around the clearing. Besides Jason, Billy, and Zack, all recovering from being thrown to the ground as well, she's alone. Page is nowhere to be seen.

There's the ruins of an old palace on the moon that Zedd had taken to after he… so kindly rescued her from drifting forever in the hollow vastness of space. A dark energy perpetually resides around it, and certain evil charms that Rita can't trace the source of hide it from mortal eyes. When she walks the hallways, she can sense the residual energies of the ones who walked these halls before her. Evil, too, but ultimately too weak to conquer the Earth.

Well, not her. Not this her, at least, and not this Lord Zedd.

An angry shout comes from the throne room, and Rita sighs to herself. She might have to amend that statement. Turning on her heel, she makes her way back to the throne room.

"What seems to be the problem, my lord?" she asks, forcing the most polite tone she can muster.

"Your knight, " he snarls, getting up from the throne in the middle of the room, slamming his staff down on the ground. The stone underneath his feet cracks just a little bit. "Your knightfailed. "

"Well, then," she taps into his pocket dimension and withdraws an object, the size of what humans would call a grenade, "Why don't we use one of these? I've always wanted to see it in action."

Zedd growls and waves his hand, making the grenade disappear from her hand. "No," he says, irritatedly, "You obviously have never had the experience of making a monster before. Those don't grow on trees, as those pathetic mortals say. I wouldn't just make any monster grow. What's the point of making a monster grow that has already failed? A waste of resources."

Rita frowns. It's not her fault, but she can't help but see it as a personal attack on her ability to make a proper monster.

"It is your fault," Zedd mutters, "It's a good thing that buying time is exactly what we need."

Trini wakes to Kim gently tapping her on the cheek, and she unceremoniously smacks the other girl's hand away. "Get off me, " she groans, pulling herself into a sitting position. She rubs at her eyes and glances at the Rangers, Kimberly, Tommy, and, Alpha 5 crowding around her. "Can you guys give me some space?"

"Crazy girl's back," Zack says with a grin.

"Do you remember who we are?" Kim asks, softly, her eyebrows raising in concern.

"I really wish I didn't," Trini deadpans.

"Yep," Jason confirms with a chuckle, "That's her, alright."

There's a quiet sigh of relief from everyone else in the room that makes Trini's gut twist. She looks at Kimberly. "What happened?"

Kimberly frowns, "Do you… not remember?"

She doesn't respond and just waits.

"Uh," Kim takes over for Kimberly, "Well, there was, like, a knight. Which I guess belonged to Rita. Maybe. And he… took some of your memories. You didn't… remember any of us."

"Huh," is all Trini says, "Well, that's one heck of a fever dream."

"But, you're back, now," Billy says, excitedly clapping. He smiles at her, and Trini smiles back.

"I think you kids deserve some rest," Tommy says, patting Zack on the back, "Especially after… maybe getting arrested."

Kim coughs into her fist.

"Yeah, definitely," Jason nods, "I'm exhausted. See you guys later." One by one, Jason and Billy teleport out.

"Hey," Kimberly says, motioning at Kim, "I need to talk to you for a sec. Later, though. Text me when you can."

"Uh… okay, sure." Kim gives Trini a small smile before she gets up and takes Zack's hand then the two of them teleport out together in a black and pink flash, leaving Trini with Kimberly and Tommy.

Kimberly tilts her head, curiously. "You don't remember anything from the past, like, hour or so? Anything you said when your memories were gone? Nothing about… where you're from… what year it is… nothing like that?"

Trini purses her lips and shakes her head, "Nope."

As late as it is, somehow, her dad isn't home, so Kim doesn't hold back from making noise and talking to Zack as she brushes her teeth and gets ready for bed. He's lounging on her bed with her laptop in his lap, waiting for her so they can watch something on Hulu before going to sleep.

"Long day, huh?" she asks, leaning against the doorframe of her bathroom, her toothbrush half in her mouth.

"Yeah," Zack sighs, "Really long day."

"Did you mean it?"

"Hm?"

She pauses her brushing and takes her toothbrush out of her mouth so that he can hear her more clearly. "Did you mean it when you said you love me?"

Zack blinks at her, "I- Yeah, of course I meant it, Kim. What… why would you ask that?"

"I… I just wanted to make sure," she says, quietly, then turns to rinse her mouth out in the sink. When she's done in the bathroom, she turns the light off and sits down on her bed, grabbing her phone.

"I love you," Zack says, bumping her shoulder with his.

She can't stop the dumb, idiotic smile that comes. Doesn't want to, anyway. "I love you, too," Kim mumbles.

"Oh, yeah, I'd hope so," he smirks, "I mean, you defended my honor tonight. What girl can I say has done that for me?"

"Shut up." She leans over and gives him a kiss on the cheek. "I'm glad I got to defend your honor. Less glad about getting arrested, but, you know, technicalities."

Kim taps on her phone screen and pulls up her text conversation with Kimberly.

[KH 11:43 PM] hey what'd you wanna talk about?

"Speaking of getting arrested," Zack says, casually, "What the hell is up with Emily's parents?"

Kim raises her eyebrows.

"They bribed that cop," he whispers, conspiratorially, as if they're not the only two in her house or in her bedroom, "You know that we're minors, Kim, only our parents can pick us up from jail."

"I mean… we would've been in a ton of trouble if they hadn't done that," Kim says, pointedly, "Especially since Jason's got his ankle monitor and Trini's grounded, you know."

Zack whistles, lowly, under his breath, "Sure, but I'm just… I have mixed feelings. It just seems… I don't know, I don't like it. You shouldn't be able to do that, no matter how much money you have."

Kim doesn't really know what to say in response to that. On one hand… yeah. On the other hand… she's glad she didn't have to face her dad and hear about how this "rebellion" is because of the divorce and how she's lashing out and whatever.

"Yeah, I guess," she says, instead.

[KO 11:45 PM] Hey.

[KO 11:45 PM] Just something I noticed while you guys were fighting that knight… You never drew your bow. Is there a problem with it? Because, if so, it's probably best to let Alpha know before it becomes a problem during battle or something.

Kim freezes, her heart twisting. Her thumb hovers over the send button, and she forces herself to tap it before she can back out.

[KH 11:46 PM] there's no problem.

Setting her phone face down on her nightstand too quickly as if it'd burn her hand if she holds it for too long, Kim takes a deep breath and turns to Zack, who hadn't noticed her brief anxiety. "What d'you wanna watch?" she asks, snuggling into his side.

Boston, Massachusetts

Trini tells herself that this is definitely using her powers for personal gain, which goes against pretty much every superhero comic thing she's ever had a pop culture brush against, but she's had a long ass fucking day. She deserves this. Maybe just a little bit. Maybe just tonight.

This neighborhood that she's in is quiet. Like most other neighborhoods ever. But, there's a light on in a top window of a two-story house where a girl with dirty blonde hair is hunched over a spread of her laptop and notes on her desk. Trini shifts, readjusting her sitting position on the tree that's across the street from the house she's watching. She desperately wants to know if, underneath those notes and that laptop, is an old photograph taped to the wooden surface of the desk. She wants to jump down from this tree, walk across the street, climb into that window, and ask, Why did we never talk about what happened to us?

Do you still have the same nightmares?

Have you moved on?

Shaking her head, Trini sighs to herself and presses the button on her communicator, vanishing in a flash of yellow light.

Rachel stirs awake to the sound of clattering. Stilling and straining her ears, she listens for confirmation that comes from an unmistakable inhale. Getting off of the sofa, she peers into the darkness of the kitchen but doesn't see anyone. Figures. The house is starting to get old, anyway. Padding to the kitchen, she presses the switch on the wall and turns on the lights-

"Holy shit- Tommie! " Heart racing in her chest, Rachel breathes out a sigh of relief and stares at her daughter, "What… what're you doing? "

Tommie, standing still with a cabinet open behind her and a plate in her hands, purses her lips, "What are you doing?"

"I was working late," Rachel says, groggily, motioning at the coffee table in the living room where her papers and closed laptop are scattered. She would'ved stayed at the office if… well, if Emily hadn't called earlier.

"Uh, I was… hungry," Tommie says, sheepishly. She turns and puts the plate back up, recreating the clattering sound Rachel had woken up to. "But, uh, you know, I can just go-"

"No, stop," Rachel says, rubbing a hand over her eyes. Tommie pauses, glancing at the floor and hunching her shoulders. "Um… here, I'll make you something."

Tommie shakes her head, "No, it's okay, I can just wait 'til morning-"

"Tommie," she interrupts, firmly, "This is your home. If you're hungry, then you're hungry. I'm not gonna stop you from eating."

A minute passes, and Rachel's sure that Tommie is going to just walk away, which she'd be fine with because adopting Emily, at first, had been a lot of this same push-and-pull and learning how to live together, but then, Tommie nods to herself in acceptance and takes a seat at the counter.

After about half an hour of silence and no elaboration from Kim on what she'd meant by "there's no problem," Kimberly gives up and throws her head against her pillow, groaning loudly.

"What's up?" Tommy asks, looking up from his laptop. He looks so serious with his glasses, but he's just playing a game of Words with Friends with Adam… who is in the other room.

"Kim didn't use her bow in that battle earlier," she says, half-muffled, "I think she's scared."

"Scared of?"

Kimberly shrugs, "I don't know, but I think she made a conscious decision to avoid using it. And that's an issue." Among many other issues they have that they're not discussing. Tommie, for one, has been a taboo word between them since getting home from the ship. There hadn't been a hint of recognition in the girl's eyes when Kimberly and Tommy had shown up at that house. Not that any recognition would've explained Tommy's vision, anyway.

"Yeah, I guess so," he sighs, "But it's an issue we can deal with tomorrow. Like other things. Other… developments. Have you texted the group chat yet?"

"Nope. I'm about to, though."

Kimberly taps her phone screen and pulls up the all-encompassing Ranger group chat on Skype, the only platform that can really handle a group chat that has over a hundred of them in one space. Less can be said for conference calls, though.

Kimberly Oliver Angel Grove, we have a problem. (link attachment)

Kimberly Oliver Rita's back, and she's killed. Or, well, SOMEONE has killed a teacher.

Mike Parry damnnnn, message in blood? that's some next-level shit

Lauren Shiba Mike, go to sleep.

Lauren Shiba Are you guys gonna need some help?

Kimberly Oliver I think we're fine.

Rocky DeSantos Never fear, I'm here!

Kimberly Oliver Rocky, what does that mean…

Kimberly Oliver Rocky.

Kimberly Oliver ?

As the group chat keeps going off with messages that don't involve her, Kimberly glances at Tommy. He's got Skype open in a window on his laptop. "Don't tell me he means what I think he means," she starts.

"I think we should probably start prepping the couch," Tommy finishes for her.

This time, they appear in the ruins of the Krispy Kreme, still bordered off by yellow caution tape. Rita can feel the electricity in the air, the raw power of the Zeo Crystal that's so close yet so far. Tommie hunches her shoulders together, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket.

"I just ate again, " she mutters, "What's with you and teleporting right after my meals?"

This time, Rita just scowls and snaps her fingers. A spark of green energy zips from her fingers and crackles in Tommie's face, causing her to flinch. "Silence." Zedd isn't here, still fuming on the moon about her abject failure, so Rita's patience is already wearing thin. "Your knife," she says, holding a hand out, "Give it to me."

Tommie narrows her eyes at her but obeys, reaching into her pocket and pulling it out. She flicks it open and hands it to Rita, blade pointing down. Rita examines the knife in her palm then waves her scepter at it. There's gold still in the area, remnants of Goldar that she can sense if she concentrates hard enough. It's those remnants that Rita focuses on as the metal of the knife transforms in her hand, changing into something familiar but different.

Rita presents the result to Tommie. The knife itself is longer, now, another shape entirely. The green blade now has an edge of silver around it, accented by slivers of living gold that she had tugged from the depths of the ground. Her failure born into something new, something, hopefully, more successful.

Intrigued, Tommie takes it and holds it in her hand, testing out the grip and feeling the new weight. "What'd you turn it into?"

"A dagger," Rita answers, simply.

"Why?"

She smiles, all teeth, "We're going to use it to call an old friend."

Lauren surprises him after the sun has long set and it's coming around again soon while he's standing in his driveway, packing bags into the trunk of his sedan. "Hey," she says, casually, and Rocky bangs his head on the trunk.

"Lauren-" He gapes at her then glances around, "Where'd you-"

She points at the back of his house, "Teleported."

He stares at her.

"Going somewhere?" she asks, nodding at his car and putting her hands in her pocket like it's casual, like this is casual, like they're not superheroes or something.

"Well," Rocky huffs, closing the trunk as he finishes, "I'm sure you heard the news."

Of course. She responded in the group chat. "I have." Her notifications have pretty much been muted for Skype, but important things still catch her attention. And this… is pretty important.

Rocky shrugs, "There's a need for me, so I'm going."

Lauren nods, "Cool, cool." Then, she drops the other shoe, the reason why she's here, "I'm coming with you."

Stopping on his way back inside, Rocky turns around and raises his eyebrows at her, "You're gonna what?"

She shrugs like it's nothing. "I'm coming with you," she repeats.

"It's… better to have fewer Rangers in the city," Rocky starts, slowly, and she can see him try to deter her in the look in his eyes, but she can also see that he knows his attempts are futile, "I think four's a good, round number. You know, besides the kids."

"Sure, that's fair," Lauren says in a light tone that betrays how much she isn't going to budge on this, "But all of your bases aren't covered. You're putting yourself in the school, presumably, but you need someone on the inside inside. I can make that happen."

He looks at her in disbelief.

"Cam and Hayley can help me make it happen," she amends.

"You're really not gonna let this go, are you?"

Lauren chuckles, "What can I say? I'm a Red."

Rocky shakes his head and puts his hands on his hips in a sort-of-but-failing stern, disapproving dad manner, "Alright, and what're you gonna tell Mia, then? She's gonna wanna come along if she knows you're getting involved."

She doesn't say anything, but her sigh and glance at 1) the engagement ring on her hand and 2) the ground tell Rocky everything he needs to know.

"I'm leaving in the morning," he says, finally relenting, "Five sharp. It takes about an hour to get to Angel Grove, and I wanna get there before the school day starts."

"Five sharp," she repeats, "I'll go get packed."