Chapter 21

Promises, Promises

"Squad car sixteen do you copy?"

Lt. Stone leaned forward and picked up the walkie-talkie that rested on its holder. He shot a look into the rearview mirror as a deafening snore rocked through the car. With the walkie-talkie paused, almost pressed against his lips, she slowly turned around to see Bulk and Skull snoring loudly, heads resting against the windows, fogging them up with each release of noise.

Rolling his eyes, Lt. Stone leaned forward and laid his palm on the horn, immediately waking the two in the backseat. They jolted awake with a startled yell, smashing their heads into the ceiling with audible clangs. "No sleeping on the job!" He snapped at them.

Skull yawned, stretching his arms completely, wiggling his fingers in Bulk's face. Bulk pushed his hand away, rocketing it back into Skull's own face. He rubbed his nose, glaring over at Bulk before addressing Lt. Stone in a whine. "But nothing's happened all night!" He complained. "We've just been sitting in the parking lot, watching all the dorks and dweebs go to their stupid dance!"

"And get blinded by the photographers," Bulk added. He rubbed his fists in front of his eyes, as if trying to rub the dots away.

"Hey, I told you boys that you're not always going to have something exciting to watch when you go shadow me," Lt. Stone said. He tried to be as calm as possible. But having been in a car with Bulk and Skull for over three hours where they had done nothing but whine and complain and make noise the entire duration. "If you really want to join the junior police academy, this is one of the things you have to do."

Bulk slapped his hands against his legs. "So we're not in yet?"

"You'll know soon."

"Squad car sixteen, do you copy?"

Lt. Stone brought the walkie-talkie back to his face. "Squad sixteen, copy."

"Shots fired on the corner of Hightower and Kale. Ambulance on route."

"Any victims?"

"An unidentified female."

"I'm running security at the Angel Grove Prom."

"No other cars available."

"Copy. On route."

Lt. Stone replaced the walkie-talkie amongst the floor of the car and put on the sirens. He ignored the borderline squeals of excitement from his passengers in the backseat and turned on the car. He peeled out of the parking lot and drove like a maniac to reach the scene of the crime. When it came to shots being fired, in Angel Grove, it was taken with the utmost seriousness. Not only were the gangs fairly new to the area, if they wanted to be able to breakdown the violence that came along with it they had to catch the perpetrators sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately, because the shots had been fired in a bad party of the city, he knew there was a very low chance anyone was going to be caught for the crime. No one would squeal on a gang member without putting a target on their back. The person that had called in the incident was probably someone that lived nearby and wanted to stay anonymous. They knew what happened to those that got in the middle of it and were smart when wanting to stay out of it. However, it made things harder for him.

"When we get on scene you do everything I say," Lt. Stone said over his shoulder. "Don't touch anything and don't get in the way. We're going to an active crime scene."

"Whatever you say, boss," Skull agreed.

White knuckling the steering wheel, Lt. Stone reached the crime scene, pulling up to the side of the road so that the ambulance would still have space to arrive. Leaving the lights on, he put the car in Park and twisted the keys in the ignition. From his vantage point, he could see a figure in an orange dress lying on the ground. Giving Bulk and Skull the command to stay in the car, Lt. Stone climbed out and hurried over to the victim.

Her face was pale and her eyes were staring straight ahead, head resting on her right shoulder, hair fanned over her face. Her left hand was loosely resting on her arm. She was daze or in shock, he could see as she barely moved when he got closer. The puddle of blood under her had started to dry.

"Miss.," Lt. Stone said as he reached her. He gently kneeled down by her side and rested his hand on her shoulder. Her eyes moved towards him but she didn't otherwise respond to him. "My name is Lt. Stone; I'm here to help you. An ambulance is on the way." He leaned towards her. "I need you to tell me who did this to you."

She didn't respond.

Lt. Stone then started to look around, searching for some ID. She was in a prom dress, so there was a good chance she didn't actually have it on her. Licking his lips, he gently nudged the skirt to her dress aside; maybe it had fallen on the ground…? He quickly jerked his hand back, feeling something metal crash against his fingers when he reached her thigh. Was it a weapon? Was this a trap? Slowly bringing his right hand to his waist, he made sure his fingers were lightly lying over his pistol, and nudged the dress up even further. His eyes widened when he spotted something strapped to her thigh.

It looked like it had some sort of coin embedded in the front. Lt. Stone grasped it and gently unstrapped it from her thigh, bringing it closer to her. Maybe it was some sort of an ID, like a tag that runners would strap around their ankles. He brought it up to his face to study it in the streetlight. It was a coin, but nothing he had ever seen on it before. It looked like some sort of prehistoric creature. Looking closer he saw it was a dinosaur of some sort, but didn't recognize it enough. Then his eyes moved to the letters that rested over the top of the item, curving around the coin: power rangers.

Power Rangers?

Lt. Stone's eyes widened as the words sunk in. This was what made the person a power ranger. He was holding onto a power morpher…he was tending to a power ranger. All of a sudden he heard the car doors open behind him and he whirled around, moving the power morpher behind his back, watching as Bulk and Skull clambered out of the car and raced towards him.

"Hey!" He yelled. "I thought I told you to stay in the car!"

"We thought we could help you," Skull said, ignoring the Lieutenant's exasperation and his attempts to hide the power morpher behind his back. "You seem to be taking a long time to figure out who this person is. You've been standing by them for five minutes."

"I'm my job! Looking for suspects—"

"—There isn't anyone around," Bulk contradicted, looking around. He then noticed a group of prostitutes watching on the next street corner. They smiled and waved at them, blowing kisses towards the two boys. Bulk and Skull exchanged smirks, smoothing down their clothes. "Well, except them."

Skull had moved around Lt. Stone and was now kneeling over the female, pushing her hair out of her face, careful not to touch the blood or step in it. Lt. Stone turned back to bark at him, and then froze when all three of them recognized Avalon.

"Avalon?" Skull squeaked. He went pale and looked up at Bulk, who appeared just as stunned as he did.

Ignoring the fact they had just contaminated the crime scene, Lt. Stone grabbed her left arm and turned it over. The symbol of the Vipers faced them. Yes, it was Avalon Mitchell. As if burned, Lt. Stone dropped her arm; she allowed it to fall limply to her side. Tightening his grip around the power morpher, Lt. Stone heard when he heard the sound of sirens approaching.

"Bulk, Skull, go tell the paramedics what we've found out, that we know the identity of the victim," he explained, standing up. "Tell them the gun shot is in the shoulder and there doesn't appear to be an exit wound .Victim has lost about…about a pint of blood at the looks of it."

"Yes, sir!" Bulk and Skull saluted and hurried over to the paramedics as the ambulance pulled up beside his squad car and the back doors flew open.

Shoving the power morpher into his pocket, Lt. Stone hurried over to the group of prostitutes that continued to watch the scene unfold. They eyed him warily as he approached them. Nothing good came out of a meeting of prostitutes and the police. But this was an entirely different matter and he didn't care for the consequences.

"Lt. Stone." He flashed his badge before crossing his arms over his chest, trying to look as imposing as possible. "What can you tell me about what happened?"

Something was wrong.

Trini frowned as she lowered her arms from Billy's shoulders, halting their gentle sway. The soft, romantic music continued to play around them, hauntingly. Billy immediately looked at her with concern as she took a step back and brought a hand up to her head. There was a sudden, sharp pain that blasted through her skull. No…not her skull, her shoulder. Something was wrong with her shoulder.

"Trini, are you OK?" Billy asked. His arms were still around her waist, but they hung loosely as she stepped back, hoping he wasn't invading her personal space and that was why she had backed away from him.

"No," Trini said honestly. She continued to feel pain wash through her body. "Something's wrong." It was one of the few times she hated being able to; essentially, sense the aura of things that were close to her or around her. Being spiritual had really helped when it came to her style of martial arts and it made her close to her family as it was something important in her culture. Something she really enjoyed, but her abilities to understand the aura of other people around her was exhausting.

She could tell every time they were having a bad day, when they had a headache, a few hours before someone got sick, and even when they had just gotten hurt by stubbing their toe or hitting their elbow against something. This was different; this was something dangerous that made her feel cold all over despite the pain she continued to feel. Turning, her eyes moved over the Prom. Couples around them continued to sway to the music, lost in their own world, but Trini kept looking around the ballroom, trying to figure out what it was that had sent shivers of discomfort down her spine.

"What is it?" Billy asked, grabbing onto her arm as she tried to move away from him. "Tree, what's wrong?"

"I don't know," Trini admitted. She turned back to Billy, looking into his blue-green eyes, her own filled with fear. "I don't know. But I need to figure out what it is. Someone's hurt."

Billy nodded back and turned to find their friends, but found them coming their way. He felt his shoulders slump, dread rising through his body when he found that Avalon wasn't with them. "Oh no," he muttered.

"What happened?" Trini asked as soon as Tommy, Jason, and Kimberly reached their sides. "What's wrong?" She could see it in their faces, their body language; she could sense their discomfort and concern radiating off them in waves. "Where's Avalon?"

"We don't know," Tommy agreed. "We were going to ask you the same thing."

"Yeah," Kimberly agreed. "We haven't seen her for a while."

Jason's face was set in that same look of intense concern that showed up each and every time one of his friends was in danger. The same expression he got when he heard of the green candle and knew he had to sacrifice himself if he wanted to be sure that they could get their friend back. He, like Trini, knew there was something seriously wrong.

"She had gone out to get some air and I hadn't seen her after that," Jason said, crossing his arms.

Zack looked over as Billy moved his communicator up to his mouth to speak into it. "Don't bother, man, she's not answering on the communicator," he said.

Billy glanced at him. "I'm not calling her, I'm calling Bay. Maybe she's heard something from Zordon or something." He pressed the buttons on the side. "Don't forget the last time something like this happened, we couldn't hear our communicators over the music when Rita, Zedd,Goldar, and the Arieselle had come to attack."

"He's right," Tommy agreed. He then nodded at Billy "Go ahead, man."

The rangers all leaned in as Billy spoke into the communicator, "Bay, this is Billy. Have you heard anything about monsters attacking or anything that we may not have gotten word about?" He lowered the communicator and waited for the response, but got nothing. He tried again. "Bailey? Are you there?"

Trini shook her head. "No. I don't like that. Something's wrong."

"Don't panic, Trini." Kimberly moved to her best friend's side and put her arm around her shoulders. "We'll figure out what's going on. Don't give up hope."

"Is everything OK?" Angela pushed her way into the group. She looked annoyed as she turned to Zack. "I thought we were going to dance. I requested this song for us."

Trini moved forward and firmly grabbed onto Angela's wrist. "Have you seen Avalon recently? Like, within the past hour or so?"

Angela thought for a moment, slightly turning herself away from the rangers as she thought. "Uh, she went out to the patio to get some air, last I saw her." Jason nodded and motioned to Angela as he confirmed her agreement. "I haven't seen her since then."

"We'll go ask the chaperones," Kimberly said, looking at Trini who said, "Yeah, let's go." The pink and yellow rangers scurried across the ballroom and found Ms. Appleby standing by the doorway, talking to Mr. Caplan. "Hey, um, have you guys seen Avalon anywhere?" Trini asked them.

"Last we checked she went outside to get some air and we haven't seen her since then," Trini agreed.

Ms. Appleby and Mr. Caplan didn't seem concerned. "Maybe she's in the bathroom," Ms. Appleby suggested.

"She must be around here somewhere," Mr. Caplan agreed. "Not students from this prom are allowed into the other parts of the hotel. That has been exclusively said to each and every student at the start of the dance."

"Well, let's be honest here," Kimberly said. "Av's not really one that would follow the rules."

"I'm sure she's just lost somewhere on the dance floor." Ms. Appleby waved them off. She put her out her hands to usher them back to the guys, who were waiting for them. "Now why don't you go and—"she stopped short as a police officer walked over to the two Angel Grove high staff members. "Yes, may I help you?"

Another stab of pain flashed through Trini, but instead of it being from the pain she was sensing, it was from Kimberly, who had grabbed onto her arm, digging her nails into her skin. Trini could feel her anxiety move around her like a second skin, morphing to her body and tightening its hold on her.

"There's been a shooting…"

Trini could feel Kimberly start to sag next to her and did her best to hold her fainting friend up. Without waiting to hear the rest of the conversation, Trini and Kimberly turned and ran back to their friends. Kimberly tried to explain what was going on, but she couldn't catch her breath. Tommy reached out and steadied, her, recognizing that that she may faint as well.

"What's going on, Trini?" Zack demanded, seeing the expression on her face.

Trini tried to process the information that had slammed into her head. She tried to get the words out, but all she managed was, "…shooting."

"What?" Angela asked, her eyes widening. "What happened?"

Tommy immediately went into action, ignoring Zack's date. "Billy, you keep trying to reach Bailey. Zack, make sure that Angela doesn't spread this around as we don't know whether or not it's true right now. The rest of us, let's go." He turned and started to push his way to the front of the ballroom.

"What's going on, Zack?" Angela asked, grabbing onto the black ranger's arm.

Zack turned to her, helpless. His eyes immediately locked with Diggy's who was staring at him from across the room. When their eyes locked, Diggy smiled and lifted his glass of punch—which may have been spiked for all Zack knew—and nodded at him. Zack turned away. Did I do something to cause this?

"Zack?"

Zack noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and saw security starting to cover the main entrance to the ballroom, probably to keep any of the students from leaving. There were more cops there than before and from his vantage point he could see Ms. Appleby's and Mr. Caplan's stricken faces. Tommy must have noticed them for he directed the rangers to the other door, which wasn't being manned as tightly.

"I'm sorry." Without a backwards glance, Zack followed the rangers out the side door and through the hotel until they came to a fire exit.

"Bailey…Bay…" Billy continued to call her through the communicator but wasn't getting a response. He thought about calling his parents, who would be home with her that night. Had something happened to them? Had they been targeted throughout the whole thing? Apparently the High-Flyers knew where Avalon and Bailey lived when they had been in their apartment; nothing was to stop them from knowing where they currently lived. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to think, his mind cluttered with so many thoughts he couldn't keep them straight. "I'm not getting anything."

"We should go straight to the hospital," Jason instructed. "Getting a cab or anything…it might be hard to do tonight." Billy glanced at him he had always known Jason to become extremely short worded and stoic when it came to things he was opposed against. It was how he ran the rangers and was great for battle strategy. But when it came to the well-being of a friend, it just made Billy angry.

How hard was it so show a little bit of emotion? Some sort of fear or anxiety or something? That pinched expression on his face did nothing to make Billy believe that he really did feel anything and as much as he wanted to confront him about it, he knew he never would. He was never a confrontational person unless it was absolutely needed. It was one of his worries about being a ranger in the first place; fighting was one of his least favorite ways to solve a problem, especially with high intensity emotions involved. He was loyal, intelligent, smart, and would do anything to help his friends—which was admittedly his weak point—he wasn't going to make an enemy of them.

"Good idea," Tommy agreed. "But let's check with Zordon first, just in case." He brought his communicator up. "Zordon, come in."

"What seems to be troubling you, Tommy?"

"Have there been any monster attacks tonight? Any putties or Goldar or something like that?"

"My sensors don't indicate any monsters or putties around tonight."

"Alright, thanks." Tommy shook his head—his ponytail swinging—lowering his arm. "Alright, let's get to the hospital." He brought up his communicator once more, glanced at Kimberly when she sighed and said, "Oh, I hope she's OK," and they teleported away from the hotel in streaks of bright color.

When the rangers arrived at the hospital they raced inside, barely making it through the automatic doors as they slowly opened for them. Billy went up to the desk, trying to catch his breath. "Avalon Mitchell," he said. "We're here to see Avalon Mitchell. We think she was taken here."

The receptionist glanced at the rangers for a moment, eyebrows knitting together, before turning to her computer to look it over. She glanced at the computer screen for a few more seconds then slowly shook her head. "I'm sorry, there's no Avalon Mitchell here."

"What?" Billy immediately felt his heart start to race. "There must be some mistake." Behind him he could hear his friends' gasps of breath, trying to compose themselves. It would've been funny, seeing a group of teenagers that had obviously come from their prom come bursting inside a hotel, gasping for air. But his fear was keeping him from laughing. He was sure he was moments away from passing out as well.

"She has to be here," Jason added. "Brought in a few hours ago."

"I can check again," The receptionist said. Once again, she shook her head. "No, there's no—"

"Tommy?"

The rangers turned and saw Bailey standing at the other end of the hallway, obviously having come from the elevator as the doors was closing behind her. Mr. Cranston was standing behind her. Bailey's cheeks and nose were rose, tears falling down her cheeks. The rangers hurried over to them and Tommy bent down and grabbed Bailey in his arms, standing up straight as he hugged her. Bailey started to cry again, pressing her face against the white ranger's shoulders and neck. Tommy gently patted her on the back as Billy addressed his father, "is she here? Is she OK?" He could hear his voice mixing in with the other's as questions bombarded his father.

David held up his hands, trying to calm them down. "Whoa! Whoa! Yes, she's here! She was brought in a few hours ago. She's fine. Bailey and I just came down here so she could calm down a little."

"What happened?" Jason asked.

Kimberly's hands were pressed together, thumbs resting against her bottom lip. "Is she going to be OK?"

"That really depends on what you definition of 'OK' is," David replied. He noticed the stricken expression on his son's face and quickly replied, "She was shot in the shoulder. The doctors were hoping there would be any permanent damage and it looks like there hasn't been any. It'll be a few months before its healed back the way it was, she's going to be in a sling for a while, and she should be out of the hospital within a couple of weeks."

A wave of relieved sighs moved around the group. Trini, almost immediately, felt the pain slide out of her body after hearing the news.

"Can we see her?" Jason asked. He took a deep breath after it caught in his throat.

"Yes, you can."

David turned on his heel and started to walk back to the elevator. Trini smoothed her hair back out of her face and tilted her head to the side, resting it on Billy's shoulder as they followed him. Hearing Billy mutter something, she lifted her head and looked at him. "What?"

"Why wouldn't she be put in the system?" He repeated. "We asked them to check twice and they said there was no one by her name here."

"You asked under the wrong name," Bailey murmured, still resting her cheek against Tommy's shoulder. She looked like a little kid that was being carried to bed after having fallen asleep on the couch. If it wasn't for her red eyes and the tears that continued to fall, it would've been cute.

Trini and Billy exchanged glances but they knew it wasn't time to ask.

The rangers boarded the elevator and rode it up to the correct floor. Once they stepped out and arrived at her room, Lacey stepped out the door, her arms wrapped around herself. She went over to the rangers and gave Billy a kiss on the cheek and a hug. "Everything's going to be OK."

"Can we see her?" Kimberly asked.

"You may, but she's talking to Lt. Stone," Lacey replied.

The rangers wasted no time in getting into the room. As Billy passed his parents, he could hear them whispering quietly.

"—I know…I explained that, I had to explain absolutely everything and how we've taken them in..." Lacey shook her head. "There's a chance they could both lose their legal rights to their daughters. A really good chance."

"What's going to happen then?"

"The Lieutenant says they'd go into the foster system then, but because they're not legal…"

The rest was lost to Billy as he entered the hospital room. Lt. Stone had been sitting in a chair by the bed, leaning close to Avalon, his hand over hers. When the rangers walked in he glanced at them and leaned back, removing his hand and stood up. Tommy lowered Bailey to the ground and she went over to her sister's bed, carefully climbing on top and laying next to her.

"Hey," Av whispered to her sister—whether it was from exhaustion or the pain killers she had more than likely been given the didn't know. "Don't cry anymore. I'm out. I'm really out now."

"I know," Bailey whimpered, giving a tiny smile. Avalon turned her head and rested her forehead against her sister's, keeping her eyes on her.

Billy looked at the orange ranger as she lay in bed. Her hair and makeup for the prom hadn't been changed, but she was now in a hospital gown, her right shoulder bandaged down to her elbow, arm up in a sling around her neck.

"Hey Ava," Billy greeted her, getting her attention. He moved to her side and leaned down, gently giving her a hug. Avalon brought up her left arm and wrapped it around Billy's shoulders, holding onto him. The grip tightened as the seconds passed until she finally removed the grip to give the other rangers a hug. Billy watched, his eyebrows twitching slightly when he saw how gently Jason hugged her, but didn't question it.

Now wasn't the time.

"Hey guys," She said. She gave a sheepish smile. "I know I promised I wouldn't make this dance so dramatic but I guess I couldn't help myself, yeah?"

Kimberly and Trini laughed quietly.

"You really did a number on yourself this time, Kid," Zack said.

"I know, right? You'd think I'd learn by now, mate." This time, Billy joined the laughter with the others. "But it'll take a lot more than this to put me down."

Trini tilted her head to the side, wiping a tear on her cheek. "What about school and stuff? How are you going to manage that?"

"Thankfully I'll have a two week vacation," Avalon said. Bailey made a sound and the orange ranger half smiled. "But I'm going to keep up with my homework of course." She gently moved the fingertips on her right hand and winced, her eyes immediately closing and her body slightly lifting off the bed. "I'm left handed anyway, so it's not a big deal."

"What's going to happen now?" Jason asked. He was standing across from Billy, staying by her head on the other side of the bed. Billy could see his jaw clenched so hard that veins were popping out of his neck. It must have been painful, Billy noted. Having that much pressure being put in one place, especially if he was still holding back.

Avalon shook her head.

"Chase Blackburn is in custody as well as a bunch of the High-Flyers," Lt. Stone explained in a serious, straight forward tone. The rangers turned to them, noticing Bulk and Skull in the room for the first time. Skull still looked pale and Bulk did his best not to look the rangers in the eye for more than a few seconds. "He has confessed to being the one that has shot you and will more than likely spend the rest of his life in prison."

"What about the others?" Avalon murmured. The news hadn't seemed to affect her, she kept a steady gaze on the police officer and Bulk and Skull. "Summer and Skye?"

Lt. Stone was silent for a long moment. Finally, he clasped his hands together, resting the in front of him, as if he blocking his private parts during a basketball game. "Unfortunately, they have gotten away…we don't know where they are."

"You don't know where they are?" Trini repeated indignantly.

"What does that mean for Avalon and Bailey?" Kimberly demanded.

"Yeah, are they in any more danger?" Tommy asked. "Will they try to come back for them?"

"And what about Summer and Skye?" Zack broke in. "We can't just let them get away like that. I know they had something to do with it too!" His voice cracked with the effort, hands shaking with fury. He had given the drugs to those guys at the prom, so he could help Skye. All so Skye could just turn around and hurt one of his friends.

All of the rangers started to speak at once. Only Avalon and Bailey were quiet, sitting in Avalon's bed, watching the pandemonium around them. Bulk and Skull did their best to defend their potential future boss, trying to talk over the rangers, but the sound just kept getting louder and louder.

"HOLD IT!" Lt. Stone finally shouted.

The silence after his outburst was deafening.

He watched everyone around the room, holding up his hands to keep them from crying out any further. He cleared his throat. "What I was trying to say was that we got a full confession from Chase, saying he was the one that had fired the gun and that he had intentionally tried to hit Avalon, which he did. We do not have Skye and Summer in our custody as we do not know where they are. But we're doing our best to find them and take them in because they know something else we don't." He turned back to Avalon and pressed a hand to her knee. "When you get better we need you to come into the station for a statement and we'll go from there."

Avalon nodded.

Lt. Stone nodded back and motioned for Bulk and Skull to follow him out of the room. He paused at the door and turned back to the rangers. "I know you're worried for your friend. We're going to do everything in our power to make sure these people are caught. You have my word." He nodded to the group and walked out of the room.

Avalon spoke up. "Well, that was eventful."

A light, tense laugh ripped through the rangers.

"Avie?" Jason got her attention. He nodded towards the door. "When we were downstairs we were asking for your information…but they said there was no one here under that name."

"Did you ask for 'Avalon Mitchell'?" She asked and at the nods she replied, "That's because Avalon's my middle name."

"I thought Lilly was your middle name," Jason contradicted her.

"It is," Avalon agreed. She shifted on her bed a little. "My name is…" she paused then let out a deep breath. "My real name is Cadence. Cadence Avalon Lilly Mitchell, but I go by Avalon."

"Oh." Kimberly smiled. "Cadence. I like that."

Zack stayed silent. His hands continued to shake at his hands. How could they all just sit there and act like nothing happened? He thought as he watched the rangers move to Avalon's side and start to comfort her, changing the subject and giving her suggestions for what she could do with only one working arm at the moment. How can they sit there and act like nothing happened? He turned away, trying to keep his temper at bay. They can do what they want, but I'm not going to let him get away with this.

He had an idea of how to get rid of Skye once and for all. All he had to do was wait for the perfect time, but until that moment came, he just had to wait.

A sliver of light was starting to form on the horizon; Avalon could see it through the window of her hospital room. She had watched the phases of the night. She couldn't sleep. Not only did she not like being in the hospital, but she knew that everything was out there now. The doctors and police knew that she and Bailey weren't American citizens; they knew their parents had left them in America, and Lt. Stone knew she was a power ranger. He had been telling her how he had found her power morpher on her when he had come onto the scene.

"And I thought about it for a while, thinking about what you and the other rangers have been doing for all of the citizens of Angel Grove and…I want to thank you for all of the work you've done," Lt. Stone said.

"You're welcome," Avalon whispered.

"And I wanted to give this back to you," Lt. Stone continued. He reached into the pocket of his pants and took out her morpher, passing it over to Avalon. She turned her hand over and accepted it as it was placed in her hand. He tightened his grip over it, hiding it from view as Bulk and Skull came back into the room.

"Your coffee, sir," Bulk murmured, handing it to his boss.

"Thank you." Lt. Stone took it in his left hand and placed it on the floor. He hadn't wanted a coffee; he just wanted to get them out of the room. "I want you to know that your secret's safe with me. And I'll be there for backup if you ever need it."

Avalon had nodded and slid the power morpher under the covers of her bed when the rangers had come back in. Now she laid in the dark of the hospital room, thinking about what Lt. Stone had said to her, Bailey's worried face, her worried friends, David and Lacey, Zordon and Alpha…

Everything had built up and finally released. First, a few tears started to fall down Avalon's cheeks and before she knew it, her lower jaw was quivering and her whole body was shuddering as she cried, bringing a hand up to her face to wipe away each tear as it fell.

But she continued to cry and whether it was from happiness or utter exhaustion she didn't know, but she continued to cry until she couldn't cry anymore.

She was out and that was all that mattered.

A/N: Once again, thanks so much for the ideas for this chapter and the last one from xoXMountainGirlXox and Shorty22133. I LOVED the ideas they gave me since I had gotten closer to his arc of the story (even as far back as when this story first started). Thank you so much for all of the help you guys have given me.

Yes, Avalon is finally out of the Vipers. She's officially 100% out. So (for the most part) that story arc for her is over. Now, is the gang 100% gone…maybe. ;). A fun fact for this chapter is that if I were to re-write the entire Avalon series (one last time), I would have it that Avalon wouldn't have become the orange ranger until after she got out of the Vipers. It would make more sense to me to have her first story show more of her in the gang as well as the gang members with the rangers and how that would work in with the rangers being rangers and then the second story being where she becomes the orange ranger. Especially because I think I may have focused on the aspect of her being a ranger a little bit too much, but that's just me.

Now that the arc is over, I can focus on the other rangers a bit more than I already have been. That being said, Bulk and Skull are going to appear more from here on out. If you don't already, please follow me on twitter: AvalonAvenue

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks to I love power rangers7135, Guest, heartpunker123, Son of Whitebeard, Ashley, brankel1, Bigby the Big Bad Wolf, ZoeyBoey224, TerraHart, and Rose Specktor for reviewing.

~Avalon

Review Replies

Guest: Honestly, I don't know how you got that impression as this story and the one that comes before it is quite obviously Billy/Trini. But I apologize if I mislead you in any way.