Author: Jade
Story: Dark Wings
Pairings: Jason/Kim(/Tommy), Tommy/Kat
Disclaimer: I own no one.
Summary: Maligore's Children will have their revenge…
Author Notes: (grins)
Warnings:Torture, cursing, slash, death, war, etc, you know the drill by now.

"This is not good," Tommy muttered, flipping through his new log book.

After the third black out and a feeling that he'd just done something incredibly stupid, Tommy started getting paranoid. He became obsessed with keeping time, logging down where he was when and what he was doing. If his friends noticed anything off, they didn't say anything but Tommy had been evil too many times to not realize when something was up. Finally, he started noticing a pattern.

Every Thursday, without fail, he'd go buy fast food, and head down to the beach. A few hours later he'd return to his house feeling hungrier than ever and often with the feeling that he'd just taken a shower. He often felt extremely sore and spent and so he figured he kept getting attacked but couldn't remember them which didn't make a whole lot of sense. He was fairly certain he'd remember getting into a fight, swiss-cheese memory or not, which meant only one thing.

He'd been compromised somehow.

He'd been taking the notes for 3 weeks, and could recall the feeling of missed time twice before that so he figured he'd been compromised for about five weeks. Tommy hated admitting to anyone he'd been compromised, especially since he couldn't for the life of him figure out when it was. As far as he knew, he'd never been attacked outside of the random blitz and everyone kept on eye out on each other during those fights. Surely someone would have noticed if he'd been compromised during one of them.

Right?

"Damnit!" Hecate cursed, watching the magic flickering on the white rangers form. She was in her lab, watching her mole through a puddle of water in a stone basin. Waving a hand over the pool, it changed to show his face. The white ranger seemed resigned, annoyed, and worried. Another wave showed the magical rope that latched him to Maligore's fire.

It was fraying.

"Of course I couldn't get the ranger who's never been evil, the one no one will suspect—I get the one who's so obsessed with not being evil he can severe the rope without even realizing it," she muttered, annoyed. "I should have used a chain."

Even as she watched, the rope was fraying. Within a few hours the rope would break and he'd be good again—and she'd be in a lot of trouble with her Lord and Lady.

"I have to strengthen it. Turn it to chain," she murmured, moving so she was directly by the flame that sat encased in an enchanted glass box. The rope was still visible to her, leaving the living flame and floating out the door and across space. She scowled. The distance the rope had to go didn't help.

"Why couldn't they have just thrown the blasted ranger into Maligore's true flame when they had the chance? Then we wouldn't have this problem," she scowled. Setting herself, she reached out and grasped the rope. It was brittle to the touch; the smallest pressure could snap it. Taking a deep breath, she sent her magic out, gently, slowly, filling the link with her magic. As she traveled the length of the rope, she felt Khetala and Jareth approaching her body. Panicking, she put more power into the rope.

It snapped in her grasp.

"Woah," Tommy gasped, bending over and holding his stomach.

"Tommy!" Kat called, rushing over. They were in the Power Chamber where Tommy had just told the others his suspicions that he'd been compromised. Billy, Zack, and Trini hadn't seemed very surprised, though they were worried. They had admitted they suspected Jareth and Khetala would try something like that, both of them having had deep feelings for the original green ranger. Now, as all of Tommy's memories came back, he realized just how deep those feelings had actually went—particularly with Jason. Fighting back a blush, he stood.

"It's gone," he announced, still holding his stomach to stop it from revolting. The others looked at him oddly.

"Hecate was trying to strengthen the bond—it was fraying. She accidentally broke it instead," he explained, adding that he could feel and recognize the touch of her magic, just like he'd always be able to recognize Rita's. The rangers shifted uncomfortably, eyeing him warily. He frowned.

"I'm telling you the truth," he insisted. They exchanged glances.

"What do you remember?" Billy finally asked. Tommy blushed, avoiding Kat's eyes.

"Everything," he mumbled. Billy eyed him before understanding filled his eyes.

"I see," he said softly, coming over and gently laying a hand on Tommy's shoulder.

"We'll talk about it later. In private," he whispered. Tommy swallowed and nodded, looking down at his feet.

"I didn't tell them anything drastic—just how everyone is and what we're doing. I have no idea what their planning but we need to be careful…and I want it made known that if anything happens to Trini or I, Zack and Billy are in charge," he ordered, glancing at Trini who nodded in agreement.

"Get rid of the leaders—oldest trick in the book," she murmured and Tommy scowled.

"And unfortunately, I put it in their head," he grumbled. Trini gave him a wry smile.

"It probably already occurred to Jason—we learned about the tactics of war at the Peace Conference," she told him quietly. Everyone but Zack looked at her oddly.

"You learned about war tactics at a Peace Conference?" Rocky asked, confused. Zack smiled wryly.

"One of the instructors insisted that the best way to prevent war was to study everything about it," he shrugged, his expression saying that he didn't entirely get the logic either. Rocky and Aisha both snorted.

"So now what?" Adam asked quietly. The others looked at Tommy who sighed.

"Call Skull, tell him it's not paranoia when people actually are out to get you. And the rest of us…stay sharp," he ordered. The others nodded, Rocky smirking at the white rangers choice of words. Within minutes, everyone but Billy and Tommy had left. Alpha had gone to do some checkups on the zords, and Zordon was meditating. Tommy looked at the blue ranger and sighed.

"Did you know? About Jason, I mean?" he asked quietly. Billy swallowed.

"Yeah. We've always known Jason was bi, but no one ever really thought it mattered before since he barely dated. He always said dating came second to saving the world and he wouldn't do that to his partner. I know he entertained the idea of dating Trini for a time but I always knew that he was more attracted to Kim…and you," he told him. Tommy ran a hand over his face, rubbing his eyes.

"He never said anything," he admitted. Billy smiled wryly.

"Part of that was because he had no idea how you would react. There is a huge difference with being okay with your best friend being bi and that same best friend having a crush on you. He didn't want to destroy your friendship," he pointed out. Tommy frowned.

"Actually, I meant his attraction to Kim. I knew he was attracted to me—we got a wee bit too drunk one night and he admitted as much," he told the blue ranger, who blushed.

"Oh."

Tommy took a deep breath, not looking at the recently semi-outed guy. "And out of all of the guys I know, I always knew Jason would be the one I'd probably date if it came to that."

Billy blinked. "Seriously?" he asked, startled. Tommy nodded, smiling wryly.

"I think that's why the thing with Kim and Jason and I…I was so open to it," he replied, not entirely sure how he felt about it. Billy blinked again.

"Wait, Jason and Kim? Together?" he squeaked. Tommy glanced at him and snorted—the blue rangers cheeks were bright red.

"Oh yeah," he answered, his mind flashing back to images of flesh on flesh. Shaking his head hard to get rid of the images, he glanced at the blue ranger and barely stopped himself from snickering; Billy's expression was pensive as he gazed without actually seeing anything.

"How would that work?" he murmured, causing Tommy to stare at him. "I mean, I know the logistics but…"

His voice trailed off and he came back to the present to find Tommy eyeing him with amusement. He turned bright red again before mumbling something about the zords and fled. Tommy stared after him, his expression thoughtful.

When Jason, Zack, and Trini had left for the Peace Conference, Tommy had discovered the true hardships of being a leader—particularly with three new rangers. After a two hour long conversation with Jason over the phone, Tommy had approached Billy and asked if the blue ranger wanted to go and hang out at Tommy's house that night. Billy had been surprised but nevertheless agreed.

Despite the initial uneasiness on both their parts, they had learned more about each that night then they had the entire year they'd known each other. They had talked about things Tommy couldn't talk with Kim, Rocky, Adam, or Aisha about; his worries about the chemistry of the team, the danger they all got into, how his relationship with Kim was affecting everyone. In turn, Billy had shared his fears, his ideas, his observations, and his worry he'd never find someone to love.

After the success of that night, Tommy made plans to have one night a week with his teammates. It had worked so well that Billy began doing the same thing, spending one-on-one time with Kim, Rocky, Adam, and Aisha. Within a few weeks, they all had worked it so they all had one-on-one time at least once a month and once a week they all did something as a group—mostly they watched movies but occasionally they'd go to the beach, have a BBQ in the park, or some other random thing. It had helped them stave off several blow-ups, not to mention strengthened their friendships.

As the team changed, with first Kim leaving and then Aisha, the one-on-one nights had slowly changed. Instead of everyone meeting with everyone else, they'd paired off, especially when they turned Zeo. Tanya and Kat would spend a night a week just hanging out, while Adam and Rocky did the same. Tommy had continued his meetings with Billy up until Jason had returned. Then, he was ashamed to realize, they'd stopped. Tommy had become so obsessed with having Jason back, he'd ignored the blue ranger.

"No wonder he left," he muttered to himself. Setting his face, Tommy headed down to the zord bay. Once he found the blue ranger under the Ape Zord, holding a sandwich, Tommy plopped down beside him.

"Let's go play some pool tomorrow night and you can tell me how you and Rocky are doing." Tommy suggested. Billy stared at him, surprised. Slowly, the shock wore off and his eyes filled with realization. With a twinkle in his eyes, Billy smiled at him.

"You're on."

End Notes: Thanks toBlackCrimsonLight,CoolDiva,Keraven,hewhoreaps,angelrei06,JeremyShane,skysgirlforever, and PinkRangerV for the reviews!

As for the threesome….(shrugs) Love is love, no matter who its with. And honestly, after me killing Justin, are ya'll really that surprised? This fic isn't called Dark Wings because it's all bunnies and rainbows.

Now, I have a quick request for all the reviewers before we get to my news: Please, when/if you review, don't mention anything about JF or OO. I've seen the eps, I know what happens, but not everyone does. I dislike getting spoiled and tend to get upset when spoilers are placed in fairly open locations. For people who read the reviews to see if they should read a fic (like I tend to do), posting such /news in reviews kinda upsets people. Also? IMO, reviews should be about the fic in question, not random stuff about the season. So….please, if it's not about the fic, do not mention it.

(sighs)

Ya'll are gonna hate me.

I've decided, once again, to put the Legacy series on the back burner. I've been working on it for close to three years now with very few chapter fics in between. Most of the time I wrote one shots and such and that helped, at first. But now, honestly, it's driving me crazy. I have to force myself to write and...that's not good. As a good friend told me, "Don't try and force it. It'll hurt the fic." and I don't want to (hurt it, that is). Legacy was my first serious fic and it means a lot to me and if I screw it up, I'm not gonna be happy.

So, until further notice, there will be no more chapters of Birthright or any fics in thatuniverse. It is officially on hiatus.

Again, I apologize, but I have to work on other stuff for a while or I'm gonna go nuts.

Finally, for those of you like me…Have a good (and SAFE) Spring Break!