The Coins Series

by KSuzie

The Coins is my tribute to 15 years of Power Rangers. It draws on the Muirantian aspect of the movies, features Kim as a strong lead, and includes many standard pairings. Kim/Tommy.

21. Chapter 21 Always A Ranger

Power Rangers: The Coins Series

Chapter 21: Once A Ranger…

All things Power Rangers belong to Saban and Disney. All things Carri belong to KJ, with many thanks. Demonking belongs solely to Daniel White and Teeg and Rexo belong to KS & me. The premise of the Coin Series was inspired from a story written by Terry, Chris, Daniel, Brice, Katey and myself, but has seriously digressed since then and bears little resemblance to the original.

The Coin Series take place in an alternate dimension

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SPOILER ALERT: Some events in this chapter and the next after the ending of The Alternate and will elude to its outcome.

---

Tommy was in a funk. Despite the fact that the medical computer had cleared him, his chest hurt. It hurt to breath, it hurt to move, it hurt to think. It hurt to simply function. He didn't necessarily have the predisposition to sulk, but from time to time, like now, he allowed himself the luxury. His eyes bore down on the digital clock display on the small table. He'd give himself twenty more minutes and then force himself to snap out of it.

In just over an hour, he'd have to be the leader again. That was the role he'd always wanted, the one he was the best at, but for right now he simply wanted to curl up on the bed an brood. He didn't have a clue what he was going to tell the Red Assembly. Everything depended on either Jason or his wife returning successfully; and no one had heard anything from either of them. Even two Billys, working in unison in the Command Center, couldn't find them.

Jason had been gone for over six hours…and his wife more than three. With each cycle of digital seconds he was becoming more and more depressed by the realization that neither were likely coming back. The very thought constricted his chest so tightly he gasped for air and considered alerting one of the Billys that he was still having chest pain. But it wasn't his heart that was arresting, it was his soul.

He'd never thought twice about dying; not since he was a young teen. It was the price a warrior paid; the price a career Ranger paid. He'd given his life to the service of the Great Power and he knew it would use him until the very last second. Kim and Jason knew that too. They gave their lives as willingly as he did, but he didn't want it to be over yet. He wanted to roll back time forty-eight hours to when he'd been happy. He wanted his wife back.

His eyes drifted from the digital clock display to the LCD screen on the digital camera he'd found in her possessions. He stared at the photo displayed there. He'd taken it at Billy and Trini's wedding rehearsal. It was one of those photos that just sometimes happen; spontaneous, but gripping. Kim had turned just as he'd pressed the button. The look in her eyes had captured her perfectly.

She wasn't at all like the girl he'd dated in high school. It was almost like she was a completely different woman. A woman who simply shared the same name as the girl he'd once dated; maybe gone to the same school. He simultaneously adored this new woman and chaffed at her independence. Learning to work with her had been a challenge, but now he realized how much he'd come to depend on her. She was a sounding board, a partner, a friend, a lover. In just a matter of months, she'd become completely integral to his whole life; filling a place in him that he hadn't even realized was empty. He wanted her back.

His chest constricted again as a very real hopelessness fell upon him like a thick, smothering blanket. She had left him a very detailed account of exactly what was going on and what she and Jason had planed; too detailed.

Netau was dead…and he was glad. He tried very hard to disassociate himself from anger and hateful thoughts, but he was a soldier; sometimes it was impossible to fight and not hate. He'd grown to hate Netau with a passion that startled him. He hated him for everything he'd put Kim through, for everything he'd done to them on their journey into the past, for everything the world was going through now. Netau had called his wife a demon, yet he himself was corrupted beyond reason by the power he welded. It was the ultimate irony that, through Netau's destruction, he would obtain what years of plotting against her hadn't; the guardians would now reach out and destroy her for killing one of their own.

Tommy looked at the clock again. He had less than five minutes left to feel sorry for himself. Sorry that, even if his wife managed to come back, she was still lost to him. Sorry that their life together was simply not to be. They had tried twice to love each other… and twice they were doomed to separation. Twice his heart had been ripped out and left bleeding on the sidewalk because she'd had to go away. It was over…over with a finality that only death could bring; but he just didn't want it to be. His chest constricted again and he gasped, rolling over with the pain and breathing through it.

His dad had died of a massive heart attack. He had spoken to him on the phone only a few hours before; some sixth sense that things weren't right. But his dad had assured him that all was well and he felt fine; just tired. Reassured by his father's words, he'd gone on with his day, only to return home from class to be met by a teary eyed Kat. Tired, Tommy thought bitterly, it was now his turn to be tired.



Would that be how it was for him? He wondered silently. After all the close calls, after all the miracle last minute saves, would he just be walking down the hall and his heart simply give out? Well, he thought bitterly, it was certainly the right time for it to give out. Morbidly, he wondered if his wife and Zordon would be waiting for him; death was almost appealing right now.

He rolled back over and glanced at the clock. One minute past his pity party's scheduled ending. Damn, he thought bitterly to himself. He wasn't ready to give up moping just yet. Sighing heavily, he forced himself to work through the worst of the despair. It didn't quite work, but as he breathed through it, redirected and re-channeled his focus, he began to feel better; just tired. He could be tired later, he reassured himself. He had one last job to get done, one last role as leader, then he'd allow himself to rest.

He forced his mind to run through everything the various teams were trying to accomplish, the last reports handed him before Billy shooed him back to his quarters to recuperate from his ordeal. It was damn impressive what the Assembly had accomplished and he channeled all his thoughts into how proud he was of them. They would get through this. He forced his thoughts to focus on the determination of the Rangers who were giving it their all. The melancholy lifted and he closeted it in the back recesses of his mind. It could wait until after the last battle or after the evacuations; whichever came.

The problem now was deciding what to do. Where to go. He couldn't allow himself to think about Kim not returning with the Triad crystal. Instead, he focused his contingency plans on whether or not Jason returned. He knew what he was going to do and what he was going to say if Jason returned with the team of alternates and somehow managed to link the grids on Earth to the grids on Phaedos via Muirantias. What he didn't know was what he was going to say if his friend didn't return or returned without being able to link the grids.

So what did he tell the Reds if that happened? He asked himself angrily. Thank you for all your hard work and you're readiness to fight the good fight? Unfortunately, things just didn't work out so we're all gonna hunker down in our bunkers until the world ends and we can move someplace else? It was fucking bullshit answer and it was driving him crazy.

He sighed heavily as pain once again constricted his chest. He was going to have to tell Billy about the pain, he realized. Something wasn't right; the computer had obviously missed something. He forced himself upright and all but staggered to the door; right hand grasping his left arm tightly. Damn, he thought again as he hit the emergency button Billy had given him. Sliding to the floor, unable to breathe through the pain, he wondered where the hell his wife was; he wanted her back.

---

It took Kim a half an hour to get dressed. She was a little worried her mom would ask her what took so long, but instead, her mother seemed surprised that she'd gotten ready so quickly. Kim honestly couldn't remember the days when she'd take hours on her makeup and hair, but she was suddenly confronted by the vague recollection of it. It was like a distant memory that someone reminds you of; humorous and embarrassing at the same time.

For her part, Kim honestly didn't know what her teenage self had been thinking when picking out her wardrobe. She'd remembered the biker shorts, but that was more a memory of being pleased with herself that she'd discovered a solution to sundresses and putty fights. What she hadn't remembered was how tight everything was, how much midriff she'd shown, and how god-awful her taste in color and style had been. She remembered being the height of fashion and practicality; all the girls copied her. What she didn't remember was pairing army boots with pink socks and a sundress. What the hell had she been thinking? She'd had to dig and dig through her overstuffed closet just to come up with a simple pair of capris and pink tennis shoes.

Pulling her tiny little tank top down over pair of boobs that seemed much smaller and perkier to her, as well as donning a favorite and previously lost necklace, she declined her mother's offer of a late breakfast and bolted for the front door. She had to find a place to transport and make her way to Zordon; he'd know what her next step was. Bounding out the door and turning around the corner of the front walk to the driveway, she ran head first into Tommy, or rather, a very young, long haired version of Tommy.

She didn't have time to be startled. He umfed with the impact, his arms automatically circling around her to keep her from falling, then picked her up, swung her around, and pressed her against the garage door. Before she could utter a word, his mouth was on hers, claiming a kiss that literally sent her toes curling.

She'd forgotten about those kisses. The act itself, to her adult mind, was rather clumsy and sloppy, but god, the hormone rush they induced. There were no words in any language to describe the overpowering toxic rush of pure pheromone induced lust, unique to teenagers, that coursed through her. She relived it all now with the ecstatic pleasure of castaway who had been without water for days, only to stumble across the most beautiful lagoon he'd ever seen.

It was that exhilarating rush of hormones and pheromones that simply seemed to slip away from her in adulthood. It would return sometimes in little echoes, teasing reminders of times gone by, but now she was once again encompassed by the pure ecstasy of it all. She forgot Zordon and the discrepancies of the morning and melted into the kiss, pressing and moving her body against his in a way that would have shocked any onlookers, but felt so incredibly good that she couldn't stop herself. Every sense in her body was live-wired and she extrapolated every ounce of pleasure she could from the feel of him.

At his audible groan, she came up short, remembering where she was and what she was doing. Her husband's face flashed before her, bringing her sharply back into reality. Technically, she supposed she wasn't really cheating on him. Could one really cheat on a spouse with a younger version of that spouse? She clamped her lips shut and pushed him backward, pressing herself against the cold aluminum of the garage door.



"What's wrong?" He gasped, leaning instantly back in for more. The previous night at the lake had been incredible, but the way she moved against him this afternoon was unbearable. He wanted more and, ignoring her protest, leaned in and claimed her mouth again. This time, however, she wasn't having any of it and firmly pushed him away.

"I'm not your Kimberly." She said breathlessly, falling back on the reflexive phrase she'd used countless times in alternate worlds.

"What?" He asked, brought up cold by the directness and seriousness of her tone.

"I'm not your Kimberly." She repeated, still breathing heavily. "I'm not sure what's happened, whether I'm in an alternate universe or I've simply been superimposed over a younger version of myself, but time has been distorted and I need to get to Zordon before I do any lasting damage to the continuum timelines."

She looked up at him then, struck by the look on his face. It was that young, almost pouty look of total confusion that she never saw any more on the man he'd grown into. The corner of her mouth twitched at the sight. She'd forgotten that look; it was positively adorable.

"You're not Kim?" He asked slowly, forehead creasing as the information sunk in. She looked like Kim, felt like Kim, but she didn't sound like Kim. Superimposed? Time distorted? Kim didn't talk like that; Billy did.

"I'm Kim." She said reassuringly, lifting one hand to tuck a stray strand of his long hair behind his ear…god the hair… she'd thought it was so sexy at the time. "I'm just not your Kim."

"What happened to her?" He asked, concerned now.

"I don't know." Kim admitted. "If I'm reading the morphanological signatures correctly, I'm in my home dimension, but this is definitely not the right timeline." She said, shaking her head. "Maybe a wave of some sort rolled the continuum, I dunno, I can't tell for sure. It's as if I've somehow been blocked or cut off from the bulk of my power… but my innate talents appear to still be intact." She continued, more to herself than to him. Tommy stared at her again for so long that she laughed and at his utterly baffled look, adding, "It'll be alright Tommy. Stranger things than this have occurred in my career. Let's just get to the Power Chamber and see what Zordon has to say. He's still living on Earth, right?"

"Yeah." He answered slowly, forehead knotting even deeper to the point where she could almost see the echoes of the man he'd become.

"Then let's get going and see if we can get your Kim back." She said patiently, patting his shoulder as if he was a little boy who'd just lost his favorite toy.

He followed her numbly as they moved off to find a safe place to transport. It was too weird, even in the life of a Power Ranger. She looked like Kim, the voice sounded like Kim, but the words coming from her lips were wacky. She was acting strangely too; almost like…his mom. The comparison was like a jolt of cold water drowning out the last of any amorous intentions he may have had a few minutes before. He picked up his pace and closed the distance between them, pulling her back into an alcove between two houses . Hopefully Zordon would know what to do.

---

Carri paced the foyer of her so-called husband's Arizona mansion like a cat. It had taken three months and a lot of careful planning on her part, but she was now ready to make her move. She was ready to break free of her imprisonment to David Meyers and do something about what had happened to her.

She'd flown from Miami to Scottsdale on the excuse that she was going on another diet plan and cholonic purge and didn't want to be distracted. Once safely out of husband's line of sight, she'd immediately detoxed herself, cold turkey, from alcohol and whatever other drugs, prescription or non, that her body had been craving. It had taken over a week for the horrible pains wracking her to subside, but once they had, she'd instructed the staff to start feeding her the healthy and carefully balanced diet she'd followed before landing in this nightmare.

That was how she knew it was a nightmare, one that she was actually living, but a nightmare none-the-less. She knew the foods she needed, knew the martial arts exercises that earned her odd looks from the staff. She knew things she wouldn't know if this life was really hers. That and the fact she still had her Panther coin. Something had changed, the timeline was wrong, not her; she wasn't crazy. She couldn't be crazy; could she?

Bit by bit, as she increased her carbohydrate and protein intake, her skeletal body slowly filled itself out again and her muscle tone developed. Step by step she retrained her body until, nearly three months later, she was only now just able to resume the intense workouts she'd remembered doing in another lifetime.

All the while, she'd pounded the computer keyboard to try and find out what had happened and the exact position she now found herself in. She was, by no means, an expert on timelines and time waves, but that was the only explanation she could think of for what had happened. In this world, in this life, she'd never met Kimberly. Never gotten on the plane that had flown her away from David Myers and the life that was drowning her. She had, apparently, put her head down and done what her parents told her to; she'd gone through with the marriage to David in her junior year of college.



A time wave was the only explanation she could think of. One simple decision had changed everything. But why she still retained the memory of her alternate past, she didn't know. She could only assume her memory had been left intact so that she could fix things… but how did you fix something that no one but you knew was broken?

She'd tracked Kim down on the Internet, only to find her a happily married mother of two, living in Reefside, and selling oil paintings under the name: Kimberly Oliver. Upon calling the gallery, presumably to contract the artist to paint several murals in their Scottsdale house, it became painfully clear that Kimberly didn't have a clue who she was; not even when she used her maiden name of Hillard.

Kim had apparently never left Angel Grove for the Pan Games. According to her biography on the web and in news articles, she'd been an aspiring tier one gymnast until she'd married Tommy after her senior year in high school and started having kids. Carri could only assume that, if she and Tommy were both in Reefside, then they had both stayed with the Rangers and Tommy had founded his Dino Thunder team… but the rest simply gave her a headache. She needed help to sort it all it all out and the only help she knew to turn to wasn't around anymore. It was baffling and frustrating and she was seriously ready to spit nails.

To ice the cake, Rocky had apparently married Marie three years prior. She had been so devastated to read that particular piece of information, that she had shut down her computer, sinking into a deep depression, and hadn't logged back on to the Internet for nearly a week.

Two months into her self-imposed regime of proper diet and exercise, she'd set about removing the toxic appendages added to her body. Two months of feeling out her position had taught her that her husband controlled every aspect of her life. She had very few accounts in her name, less property in her name, and a stack of credit cards that were maxed out and only paid off when her husband felt like felt like giving her a little treat by extending her spending limits.

She'd had to play the role of a Barbie doll, pouting over the phone and telling him that she wasn't happy with herself and needed a little more surgical help to make it all better. It had worked, he'd transferred the funds she needed into her account and within days she'd gone under the knife, but to remove the silicon in her body, not add to it.

She wasn't necessarily happy with the results. She'd been far too stretched out by the implants to ever look like she had before. She was flatter and she was scarred, but at least she could throw a proper punch again and sleep on her stomach.

But now David was flying in to pay her a little attention and she was panicking. Why he would suddenly choose to fly out from New York after three months of practically ignoring her, she didn't know. Perhaps he was bored with his latest skirt or perhaps someone had tipped him off that his wife was remolding herself.

She had hoped to have a another week at least. Who was she kidding? She thought bitterly, she needed a few more months. She knew what she had to do, knew how to do it. She'd had three months to map it all out.

On a short weekend trip to presumably visit her mother before undergoing surgery again, but timed so that her husband was in London, she'd dismissed the staff for a day and tore their New York penthouse apart; tracking down and carefully studying all of David's records.

She didn't want any of it, but she was going to need money if she was going to survive in the world. She'd apparently been married to David for eight years, yet he controlled everything. She'd lose the most valuable of the holdings if she left him, unless she sued, but she didn't care. He could have the properties and the investments, but if she'd put up with him for eight years, then she felt she was at least entitled to some of the cash.

She didn't honestly expect he'd let her go that easily, so she planned to take with her at least enough to retain lawyers as well as set herself up in her own place. David had spread the accounts out all over the world and some of them, but not many, had her name a signer; at least, that she could find. She had already managed to obtain the account numbers and passwords she needed and, over the past month while she recovered from her surgery, she'd quietly opened parallel accounts with each of the banks. Using the online banking system, she'd set everything up so all she had to do was log on and make interbank transfers into accounts with her name only. It was legal, if sneaky, but she justified it by reminding herself that the monies in question were a tenth of what she'd found in accounts that she couldn't touch.

She growled as she paced. She sincerely doubted her husband was going to like the changes she made. She was a good twenty-five pounds heavier, but still ten less than she remembered being when she'd been a Ranger. Skin that had clung helplessly to her skeleton was now relaxing over building muscle tone. The boobs were gone, the lips slowly deflating. She'd cut the fried mass of waist length tresses into a short bob, and put as much dark brown color into burnt and straw-like remnants as they would hold. She was clear headed, in full strategic mode, and her temper was high.

She had to take a deep breath and calm down, draw on the acting skills she'd learned as her father's daughter, and get through this. If she had to bolt now, she'd still be fine. She doubted her dad and her brother would simply turn their backs on her, but she didn't want to be dependent on anyone. That had been the whole point of getting on that plane with Kim a decade ago; to make her own life the way she wanted it. True, the last few days before she'd left had been difficult, but it was her life, she'd chosen it, and she wanted it back.

She would find Kim, try and put together what had happened, and then she'd look up Rocky. He was married and as a Catholic she sincerely doubted he'd be inclined to simply drop everything and fly into her waiting arms. That part of her life was most likely over for good, and that thought pained her, but she had to at least try see him; even if he didn't remember her.

She stopped her pacing, head jerking sharply to stare out the lead glass paneled front doors as a black Mercedes pulled up and under the portico. She took a deep breath and steeled her shoulders as the familiar and well despised image of David Myers exited the car and straightened the sweater tied around his shoulders. Show-time…

---

Jason gasped for breath, the sweat pouring down his face as well as the rest of his body. Things were definitely not going well. Red putties were everywhere and they were ten times as difficult as the ones he'd faced before. Kemora had the alternate Kimberly and despite two rescue attempts they'd only managed to get close enough for a brief glimpse of her collapsed form.

Kemora was moving steadily forward, ever closer to the temple entrance. They had put everything they had into keeping her forces back and then, suddenly, after nearly six hours of fighting, the jungle was suddenly, deafeningly, quiet.

"I don't like this." The alternate Tommy said cautiously.

"Yeah, me neither." Jason muttered, looking around the deathly still jungle.

His eyes caught those of his own alternate and they exchanged mutual feelings of uncertainty and dread. Slowly, the two bands of Rangers edged closer to one another, coming steadily together in a large arc.

"This isn't right." Cole said, shaking his head and gaining Jason's attention. All of them were dirty and battered and Cole, de-morphed apparently for the final time, had simply discarded his torn and burnt shirt rather than deal with the frayed mess of it. "The animals have all disappeared. It's as if the whole island has suddenly run for cover."

"Let's get back inside the temple." Jason answered cautiously, taking several steps backward.

"Oh my god look!" Taylor exclaimed, drawing their attention. Like the rest of Wild Force, the former Wild Force yellow was de-morphed and covered in singe marks and burns from the unexpected heat of the volcanic red putties. She pointed upward at a large plum of ash rising from the mountain behind them.

"Shit." Jason growled as he spun around. "We're too late, Kemora's found a back entrance to the temple somewhere." He said as his eyes watched the plum of ash billow upwards.

"Let's move!" The alternate Tommy barked, charging backward toward the main temple entrance. As one, the Rangers turned and plowed through the dense foliage behind him.

---

"Technically, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you." Hayley said evenly, giving Tommy a candid look.

"Then why the pain?" Tommy growled back. He'd passed out. He never, ever passed out. The pain in his chest was more bearable now that he was hooked to the medical bed again, but the air seemed to simply refuse to enter his lungs.

"Tommy…" Hayley said with a frustrated sigh. "You've just been through an incredible ordeal. Not that I actually believe you would, but you've got to give your body time to recover from this round." She said earnestly. She wanted to remind him that he wasn't eighteen anymore, that he wasn't even twenty-five. He'd put his body through the wringer time and time again for over a decade and he was now paying the piper for it. But it wouldn't do much good, so she stayed silent.

"I don't have time to rest." He muttered, defensively.

"Then you aren't going to get better are you?" She replied with the same edge of frustration. When he didn't respond, simply glared at the ceiling, she sighed heavily again. "Right now, aside from some mild arrhythmia, there's nothing wrong with you, but if you push it…" She said, voice tightening to get his attention. "…then you could do some real damage."

Tommy still didn't look at her. Simply laid back on the medical table and glared at the ceiling, jaw muscles working and clenching as he thought through things. She wanted to smack him, or at least shake him around a little. She knew what this was really about.

"Look, miracles happen all the time around the Rangers." She offered encouragingly. She never liked his brooding side, but she liked even less the defeatist attitude he was giving her now. She understood the Kimberly factor, understood both she and Jason hadn't returned yet, but if there was one thing she did know, it was that you never underestimated the Rangers until you were absolutely certain it was over. She opened her mouth to say something along those lines, then stopped as Conner and a few Rangers she didn't know came barreling into the Command Center. She looked up to see what all the commotion was about, then caught her breath as Conner roared up to the second medical table and deposited Kira's limp form.

"You got her back?" Hayley asked incredulously. "How?"

"Who?" Tommy asked, sitting up and then going very still as he realized who they were bringing in.



The Command Center was suddenly a bustle of activity with two Billy's and Hayley and Dr. Manx all flying around the table trying to stabilize the former Dino Thunder yellow Ranger. Tommy disconnected himself and slid off the table, moving towards Conner, who had been pushed back to the sidelines.

"I don't know how the hell you did it." He told his former red, catching the boy's eyes. "But I'm impressed." He said seriously. Getting past Teeg, getting in, getting her out, he hadn't even included it into the equation.

"Wasn't me." Conner admitted numbly, still in shock himself that Kira was actually back and laying on the table before him. At his mentor's curious look, he pointed to the two Rangers who had brought her in. "I was just helping out at the other infirmary, they're filled to capacity in there with minor stuff. These two brought her in and I thought it would be better, considering, if she was in here instead."

Tommy looked over at the two unfamiliar Rangers and froze. They were still wearing pink shades of spandex, but their helmets had been removed. "You two?" He asked in astonishment. Before him were Bulk and Skull; in pink. It wasn't a gaping expression he had on his face, it wasn't really astonishment either, but whatever look he did have, sent both men edging backward away from him.

"Uhm…" Adam interjected, wheeling his chair forward. "I think we may have forgotten to mention one or two small details when we briefed you earlier." He admitted sheepishly. Actually, given the stress that had already been put on his heart, they'd purposely decided to omit the whole Bulk and Skull catastrophe until he'd recovered a bit more, but now that he knew...

"I don't want to know." Tommy said firmly. He whirled around and focused on his former student and the only female member of his Dino Thunder team. He stood there until he saw the green stabilization lights, then silently turned and walked back toward his quarters.

---

Karone landed the small ship on the rocky beach of Phaedos, taking several deep, calming breaths as she turned off the ships systems. This wasn't exactly her ideal choice, and possibly the most dangerous of all the options she'd considered, but she didn't know any other way to discover what had happened to the timeline.

She was a queen again, master of her own destiny and of the millions who served her, but she simply no longer wanted to be; it wasn't in her. She didn't want to return to that life, yet she saw no options elsewhere. Earth had been conquered. Her brother, the Astro team…Zane… all dead. She was the absolute authority of evil…and she hated herself. She knew her past life wasn't a dream, knew there had been an alternate ending, but how to find it? Thoughts of alternate realities and Kimberly's descriptions of how they worked had led her to Phaedos.

If Kimberly was dead, and she was fairly certain she was, then she would seek the woman who had trained her. This was not an easy task. The powers on Phaedos had been sought by evil beings before. If she survived her first encounter with the witch Dulcea, she'd be luckier than most…but if she didn't, she'd be dead like her brother and her friends. Considering she was the one to have supposedly killed them, death was not an unpleasant option to her.

She made it perhaps three steps from the ship when Dulcea found her. The witch was faster than she'd even anticipated and she was prostrate on the ground in a matter of seconds.

"Leave this place." Dulcea growled, staff held ominously close to her throat. "You and yours are not welcome here."

"I seek Kaycea, not the power on this planet." Karone said evenly.

"Who?" Dulcea asked, curious, but still cautious.

"Kaycea, a former student of yours; in my reality if not this one. She also goes by the name of Kimberly, student of Zordon. She specializes in interdimensional travel. Several months ago I was in my own alternate universe, suddenly I woke up here."

"And you just happened to wake up as the queen of all evil?" Dulcea growled jabbing her staff closer.

"Believe what you will." Karone said evenly. "Kill me if you will. This is not the not the reality I belong to and I have no idea of how to return to my home."

Dulcea paused and slowly stood back up, regarding the woman before her cautiously. She knew exactly who she was. She was either very brave or very stupid to have come un-armed to the Phaedosian shoreline. Still, oddly, she sensed no evil from the girl, only a veiled sense of hopelessness and sorrow.

"I want to go home." Karone said evenly. "Help me or kill me; I don't care which, I'm ready for both."

Dulcea backed away slowly, still regarding her carefully. "If you truly seek help," She said slowly, "Help will be given. However if you plan treachery, you will be destroyed."

"Like I said." Karone said evenly, standing up and facing the master warrior in front of her. "I'm ready for both."

---



Jason was re-living a nightmare, but it was from the ground, as helpless as the rest, as he watched Kemora drag a struggling Kimberly towards the pit. He couldn't let it happen, wouldn't let it happen, yet there was no time. There nothing he could do but watch as powerlessly as the others. The seconds ticked by like minutes in a macabre slow motion parody of a decade before. He heard the alternate Tommy scream for his Kim, saw the surge of countless red putties swarm forward and block each and every Ranger's attempt to rush forward and rescue the struggling girl, heard the roar of the pit, and could acutely feel the death that waited there at Kemora's hands.

His Kimberly wasn't in control of the pit any longer. He could already see the changes she had made on their last visit begin to shift and change as the walls melted from bright white limestone into a dark and foreboding dirty grey. He saw the eyes of the phoenix above him glow red, not in anger, but in dismay as the shift in power began to take hold. There was nothing he could do. He knew end of this scene, had relived it thousands of times in his darkest nightmares.

As helpless as the phoenix guardian above him, he felt the power shift, felt his link with Muirantias begin to fade. So this was what his Kim had felt a few months earlier, he mused silently as the scene played itself out before him. The loss of power, the loss of that life sustaining connection, the knowing you were becoming mortal again with each passing second. As the power began to retreat from his cells in earnest, he began to sway. With a growl that was born more of frustration and an unwillingness to give up than from pain, he dropped to his knees as his body began to die.

He heard Kemora's laugh, saw the surge of putties descend on what they perceived as a helpless victim, saw a few of the Rangers pivot and move to help him. All of this in the sluggish, blending colors of a slow motion dream. He watched in horror as Kemora raised the girl over the pit as if she were no more than a doll. He heard the alternate Tommy scream, heard the girl scream back, and then Kemora let go, sending her into the depth of the fires below.

He was never quite sure afterward exactly happened next, it simply did. From the shadows of the open entrance, a dark, cold form rushed forward. He heard the wolf-like growl, lethal and cruel. Saw Kemora attempt to enter the pit herself, only to be pushed backwards by the black shadow that descended upon her with a canine-like snarl. He heard Merrick scream something like "Zen-Aku", then saw him restrained by two of his teammates. He saw, clearly but briefly, the look of horror in the demon's eyes as she fell backward, away from the edge of the pit…

And then the light returned as easily as if someone had simply flipped a switch. The brightness was as disorienting as the darkness had been and affected all present in the same way. In a blink, he could suddenly feel the pit's fire coursing through his cells again as if its connection had never left him, could see the eyes of the phoenix above surge with power, saw the demon's artificial body dead and draining its fluids on the bright limestone, watched as the red putties simply crumbled to dust, and then heard the alternate Tommy scream again as he surged forward toward the pit's protective wall. Reflexively, he grabbed the man, spinning him around and slapping the panicked look from his face.

"Concentrate!" He screamed as his friend's double. "Concentrate on her with all your might, with all your heart. She has to know she can do this. That she can pull herself together and come back to you, she has to KNOW she can come back to you!"

The alternate Tommy stared at him numbly for several long, agonizing seconds, then closed his eyes and physically steeled his body.

"Once you connect with her, don't let her doubt herself. She can do this. Tell her she can do it, that you love her and are waiting for her; will her to do it." Jason coached, "Will her to come back to you."

The silence in the small chamber was deafening as all stopped and simply stared at the alternate Tommy's struggle to focus, to will the alternate Kimberly back from the pit, and, just as it had the last time, the phoenix released itself from its stone captivity and swooped down upon the room.

This time Jason didn't dive for cover, but the others did. He saw the living inferno plunge from its perch, circle the room and enter the pit, saw it lift the body of the girl, saw her rise within the flame and descend back to the limestone floor, saw the phoenix circle the room once more, heard it howl with exaltation and power, but then the lights became too bright and he closed his eyes. When he opened them, it was over.

Jason watched in a subdued tone from the sidelines as the alternate Kimberly's Tommy and other friends rushed forward in excitement. Watched as the Wild Force team slipped to the opposite side to investigate the demon's empty, artificial shell. Watched Cole push aside the vacant body and pick up something small and dark next to it. He alone in the room knew the magnitude of what had just happened.

He stepped forward and retrieved Lerigot's wand from where the demon had dropped it. Kemora was gone; not dead, but successfully banished again from Muirantias. But they hadn't won, his inability to protect the alternate Kimberly had created another K; a being exactly like he was. The Power have mercy on his soul, he'd done what he'd swore he'd never do… he'd continued the legacy of the pit.

---

"I swear," Conner said good-naturedly as the three former Dino Thunder Rangers gathered around Kira's sick bed, "If I heard him say one more time, 'It's not like she's just gonna fall down from the sky in front of us' I was gonna strangle him. Seriously…"

"He's been practically chanting it." Trent added with a groan and raised eyebrow. They were trying their best to cheer her up, but despite her smiles, she was far from her usual self. She was subdued, the light behind her eyes dimmed, and slow to banter with them. He couldn't blame her. Of the three boys surrounding her, only he knew what it was like to serve as an evil Ranger; the experience still haunted him.

"Hey," Ethan chimed in defensively, "Like, how many times has that worked for us in the past? Huh? It was totally worth a shot this time."



The three laughed and continued to joke back and forth, earning a small smile from their recovering friend before Hayley approached the group. She had allowed them into the Command Center, as if she really had a choice once the other two found out where she was, but the senior staff had a battle to prepare for in less than an hour and they were about to bring the young alternate team back from Lightspeed.

"Alright," She said, coming to a stop and placing a firm hand on both Ethan and Trent's shoulders, "I said five minutes and have tolerated ten. You two have assignments you need to finish and you," She added, looking specifically at Conner, "Have Assembly to get to."

The boys mumbled grudgingly, but began to move away from the med bed, calling back their good wishes and how pleased they were that their teammate was back as they went. Conner held back slightly, watching as his former teammates were escorted by Hayley through the portal to Billy's lab and the exit, earning him a curious look from Kira.

"What's assembly?" She asked quietly.

"Oh, uh…" He answered hesitantly, moving back up to the table, "It's just a meeting Dr. O wants me at."

"Oh." She replied, giving him a look that seemed to ask why he was still hanging around if he was supposed to be somewhere else.

"Look…" He started uncertainly. "I uhm, I just wanted to say…"

She raised an eyebrow at him as he fumbled. Conner wasn't usually the one who fumbled for words, in her experience he could talk himself out of just about anything; and usually did.

"I just wanted to say I'm really sorry." He finished, nodding his head a little and shuffling uncomfortably.

"For what?" She asked, frowning. She was tired. She'd never been this completely and totally bone weary in her whole life. It hurt to even remember to breath let alone try and think through what he was getting at.

"For uhm, for suggesting we go get coffee that morning and for…" He paused and looked anywhere but at his friend, "For not being a good enough red to keep them from taking you."

"You really are an idiot you know that?" She replied.

"Kira…"

"Oh come on, Xander and I were the only ones with active morphers." She answered impatiently, sounding more like her old self. "Of course we were gonna…"

"No…" Conner interrupted, still looking uncomfortable and hesitant. "You two weren't the only ones. I've been part of the Red Assembly, with an active morpher, almost since Dino Thunder wound up. Dr. O said I couldn't tell anyone, it's this like totally secret society of all the former Reds."

"And yet you're here, blabbing about it to me right now." She responded, giving him a sardonic look he knew well.

"Well, recently it hasn't exactly been so secret." He admitted.

"Oh, well… one of those." She said, rolling her eyes. "My dad belonged to one of those not-so-secret-secret societies. It came out at his divorce trial to my mom that they sat around every other Friday night, played cards, watched porn, and made weird noises with their armpits."

"Kira…" He said in a frustrated tone. "I had a morpher, so did Andros, we just didn't have time to use them. It all happened so fast…and then you were gone."

"And you've been beating yourself up over it ever since?" She asked, slapping him weakly when he gave her a irritated look that seemed more pouty than anything else. Still, it was kind of nice to know the dumb lug had been concerned about her; there were very few on the planet she could say would even have noticed she'd gone missing. "Look," She said, fatigue and the overwhelming emotion of what she'd just been through creeping into her voice. "Don't worry about it ok? I'm back, I survived. It's over."

Conner gave her a measuring look that was far more like the red in him rather than the jock persona he cultivated. He didn't think it was over at all. Trent had never really recovered from his stint as an evil Ranger; remaining moody and brooding long after he had reformed and high school had ended. The problem was, he didn't know how to say what his gut was telling him needed to be said. He didn't know the words she needed to hear. He was spared any trouble of formulating them though when Hayley approached from behind, placing two firm and admonishing hands on his shoulders.

"Setup for the Red Assembly started thirty seconds ago." She chided. "You apparently have a demonstration you're supposed to be putting together for your team?"

Conner nodded and gave Kira one last long look before he turned. "Tell them I'm on my way." He muttered, heading toward the portal.

"As for you." Hayley said to Kira. "I'm told you need sleep."



"I don't think I'll be getting much sleep anytime soon." Kira answered frankly.

"Then I'll give you a little help." Hayley said gently. She turned and hit a series of buttons on the consol.

"Oh…no, really…" Kira began to protest. The last thing she wanted was a return to the nightmares that engulfed her each time she closed her eyes, but she was already beginning to feel the light floating feeling at the base of her head and by the time she had the last word out, she was already drifting off to sleep.

"Trust me." Hayley said as the girl closed her eyes. "You're the lucky one. Everyone here is going to want to sleep through the next few hours."

---

The young team of alternates looked around them awkwardly as they once again transported into the room K had brought them to earlier. None of them were really sure why they'd been hustled away and all but stored in a holding bay at Lightspeed, but none were complaining. Carter and Andros had given them a good briefing and they knew what was expected of them; besides, the Lightspeed Rescue base had been awesome. To realize that technology could be part of their Earth's future was exciting and they marveled at even the simplest of things.

The only caveat to their enthusiasm was the realization that Zordon didn't exist on this world. Thoughts of what could have happened to their mentor were unnerving at best to the young team. None of them, even the young Kim, really understood what an alternate universe really was. They understood it wasn't necessarily their future they were looking at, but they also understood it could be a possible future. To think of their own world destroyed by an evil invader's black towers, with no Zordon, with little hope left for the Rangers, was horrifying.

Still, as Rangers, they pulled together to understand what was expected of them and get the job done. They were one of possibly three teams with morphing power. K had left to find a power source strong enough to purge the grids, which would return morphing power to the other teams present, but that was a tenuous mission at best. They had to be prepared to be all this Earth had.

The young Kim felt the pressure of this mission more acutely than the others. She understood it had been her body Kemora had been occupying while visiting this Earth. She also understood that this Earth was about to suffer the same fate her own world had. She alone had survived that catastrophe. Even though her team had been very young and Earth's only defense at that time, they had had Zordon to help them; still they'd failed. Her world destroyed, Thomas had found her a place on a new world that needed her, a new team that needed to replace their Kimberly. A place where she had found a happiness that had been lost to her for a long time.

She had gotten her second chance, but what would happen to the world who's future she had help send spiraling out of control? Would it suffer the same fate as her home world? Was yet another planet doomed to die from what she had done while possessed by the demon Kemora? All this weighed heavily on her shoulders as they prepared for battle.

Urged by the older version of Billy to relax and wait for the assembly to come, they shifted uneasily again, then found seats where they could or wandered the small parameter of the bunker. The medical tables were still in use, but this time there was a different, smaller figure on them. Too nervous too simply sit, the young version of Kim wandered the parameter of the room until her eyes spied something of interest. Walking over, she tapped the glass of a large fish tank where two huge fantail goldfish wiggled and splashed to get her attention.

"Hey guys…" She crooned to them as they twisted and gyrated for her. "Who are you?"

"The fat round one is Alpha." An older version of Billy answered absently, startling her.

Turning, she watched him adjust a setting on the panel behind her, only then noticing that there were two older versions of Billy in the room. Alternates, she realized. Once again she marveled at K's abilities; wondering if those were powers she herself could develop. "And the other?" She asked.

"The long one with the big tail is Goldar." He answered, turning and coming up next to her.

"They're both long and fat." She responded with a twinkle in her eye and the older man's stern expression softened a bit.

"You can tell them apart better when they're hungry" He said. "Goldar gets very aggressive and she'll pick on Alpha and chase him around the tank."

"She?" Kim asked, a small grin twitching at the sides of her mouth.

"She." Billy firmly. "She's a brute that one. She'll even nip at your hand if you put it in the tank."

"I didn't know fish could have that much personality." She responded, taking a closer look at him. There was definitely a difference in the two men. Like identical twins, there were slight variances that set them apart. The resident Billy was the one before her, she realized. He frowned more and had deeper lines on his face that the other alternate. There was also a difference in the way the two felt; which she filed away for later reference. This one had a deeper resonance, as if he was heavier, or felt the weight of the Power heavier in his soul. She had no doubt the other one had known just as much adversity, but this one felt it more personally deep inside himself. She wondered at that; wondered at the future of her own Billy.



"Never underestimate a fish." He grumbled in response. "Even ones dumber than door knobs; like those two." He added, giving the tank a irritated look. She began to say something, then stopped as he looked curiously from the fish to her and back again.

"What is it?" She asked.

"They understand you're not Kimberly…uh…K." He said quietly, a deep frown on his face, "But they've also identified you as a similar or related species as K. Interesting… have you…"

"What have we here?" Tommy asked, rounding the corner from the living spaces and interrupting them. He was still tired, but sleeping was useless. He had to face facts, Jason wasn't coming back and that meant he also had to face the Red Assembly with a truth none of them wanted to hear. He had thought it simply another young Ranger talking to Billy next to the tank, there seemed to be so many of them lately, but as he drew closer, he realized that it was the other alternate; the younger one who Kemora had possessed when she had gone after his Kimberly the last time.

"Oh my…" He said quietly as he faced her; memories assaulting him as his eyes registered the adolescent features in front of him. She was painfully young. He didn't remember his Kim ever being that young, yet the eyes that turned up to meet his were far older and wiser than her childlike face. This was a girl who had seen far too much, far too early. "It's been a while." He said, for lack of anything better to say. "Do you remember me?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly, evaluating him, then she shook her head no.

"I was there when Thomas took you away; after Kemora left you." He said simply, referring to the incident where he had very nearly lost his Kim, where his whole world had once again turned on a dime, and her eyes widened as she realized what he was referring to.

"I have no memory of that time." She said simply, measuringly, and he realized with a start that she was lying to him. Why, he wasn't sure; perhaps Thomas had instructed her to do so.

He regarded her for a few moments until she shifted uncomfortably, then let his gaze leave her eyes. It was then that he saw the small pendant around her neck; a gold heart lined with pink stones. The sight of it nearly toppled him. It had been years since he had seen a similar trinket. His heart constricted and his eyes burned with tears he absolutely refused to shed. Unconsciously, he reached up and touched the suspended pink heart, lifting it gently from where it rested on her chest. At her slight gasp, he looked up to see the surprised look on her face.

"Sixtieth Birthday?" He asked simply, not quite able to keep the emotion out of his voice. He had forgotten about that little pink heart. He hadn't seen his Kimberly wear it since she left for Florida when they were kids and wondered what had become of it.

His heart ached for his wife with renewed longing, his chest burning with the memories the little girl in front of him generated, and he struggled to maintain the control he'd fought the last few hours to procure. He desperately wanted his wife back and fought with all his inner strength to bury the emotions deeply within him. Meeting her eyes again, she nodded slowly, regarding the older man in front of her warily. "You take good care of that." He said softly, and she nodded again.

Wordlessly, he lowered the pendant back down and let go of it; a sad but amused smile forming as he noticed his younger alternate make a protective appearance through the archway. He should really send them home, he thought to himself. There was nothing for them to do here now that…his thoughts stopped still as a red glow appeared in the Command Center beyond the archway.

---

Kimberly waved to the boys on the mat with a little grin and then moved over to a table to watch them. She had been trapped as her former self for a little over three months and it was seriously about to drive her insane.

The emotions of the past twelve weeks had both exhausted and terrified her. Zordon was as baffled as she by what had happened. The only explanation was an Equaline Wave, but how or where it had begun was a mystery. The only rationalization for the untraceable beginning was that the wave had already altered history to the point where it's origin no longer existed, but blended seamlessly with the new timeline it was creating. Without her Muirantian powers, she was effectively trapped where she was and, as the wave continued to progress through history, she would eventually lose all memory of her past life and melt into the current timeline.

She had fought furiously to prevent this from happening, but there was also a small part of her that wondered if, perhaps, it might not be better to let things be. Would it really be so bad to do things over again? To change things in her favor? To re-write history so that the most horrible events in her life never happened? To never leave Tommy, to grow up and grow old with him, was more than a little appealing.

The problem was, she was still a Ranger. The adult in her knew that all the experiences of her life had made her who she was. If she erased that, she would become a completely different person. Her human death by the fires in the Muirantian volcano had changed her forever, but the good she'd been able to do with the power it gave her had touched thousands of lives. All of that would be lost forever if the Equaline Wave was allowed to progress. It was complicated and frustrating and she was ready to pull her hair out, but in the meantime, she had to participate with this team and live her old life or things would begin to distort even more than they already were.

The problem was, she had absolutely nothing in common with the Rangers at this age, often fighting the urge to parent them instead of play with them. She also missed her husband terribly. The boy he had been simply couldn't compare to the man he'd become anymore than she could go 

back and recapture the little girl inside her. She missed their conversations, missed the interactions, missed the sex. She simply couldn't bring herself to indulge the younger version of the man she loved in that way. It felt wrong, like she was cheating on him, although she knew if she couldn't stop the Equaline Wave she might seriously distort things by not cultivating that relationship.

That was when she realized that she truly loved her husband, not because she was indulging herself and trying to recapture some youthful experience of lost love, but because she had fallen in love with him again as an adult for completely different reasons. For the past few months since they had hastily moved in and insanely married one another, she'd marveled at her behavior and wondered why she'd done it. The whole whirlwind affair had scared her senseless and she'd asked herself countless times what she thought she was doing.

She had always remained bitter about being forced to give him up and she wondered if she truly loved him or was simply trying to selfishly recapture something that had been taken from her. Now, faced again with the boy and their young relationship, she realized she hadn't been clinging to the memory of a past un-relinquished love, hadn't married him to soothe a past heartache of her youth, she had genuinely fallen in love with the man. He was a difficult adult, possessive and driving, but she honestly loved the relationship they had been building together. He stretched her to be more than she was, saw potential in her she was hesitant to acknowledge. He balanced her and filled a void that had been empty for eons; a void that could not be filled by the boy. It wasn't the child in her that clung to the grown up Tommy, it was the woman who saw in him a kindred spirit; a friend, a lover, a partner. He'd been right, she mused; as he usually was.

As she watched the boy in front of her now, she realized that the younger version also missed his counterpart. He missed his girlfriend as much as she missed her mate, watching her surreptitiously with almost mournful eyes. He hadn't been very happy to be cut off, she mused, and truth be told, neither was she, but it wasn't what she wanted anymore and if she could somehow impart an adult perspective into him, he might actually realize it too; not that that was actually going to happen. In the meantime, until she could return to her own time or began at last to forget about it, she had told him very sternly that she wasn't his Kimberly and he needed to respect that. He had pouted for a few weeks, but as the changes in her persona become more and more evident, had eventually, reluctantly, accepted the restriction from the young body she inhabited.

Closing her eyes against the boys on the mats, she again allowed her thoughts to focus on the dangerous position she found herself in. Slowly, ever so slowly, her history as she knew it was being erased. Zordon still remembered her journeys into Angel Grove's past, but even as she struggled to find a way out of this timeline and back to her own, those memories were beginning to change, indicating everything she'd done with Thomas to stabilize her Earth's past was slowing being expunged.

The realization was terrifying. There were people depending on her; people she couldn't help as long as she was stuck in the past. The choice was clear. Although there was an appeal to allowing the wave to progress, allowing herself to change history and live a quiet life with Tommy, she had to put things back the way they were and face the fate that awaited her in her own time. She had lived a long and productive life; she could hold her head up and face the consequences of her actions. If she was lucky, perhaps she could make it back in time to say goodbye to him and tell him the realizations she'd come to; then again, that might only break his heart all over again.

She sighed heavily as her musings faded and she was brought back to the reality of the timeline in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied a familiar technique Adam and Tommy were trying out. It resembled a Phaedosian attack that Dulcea particularly favored for bipeds.

"What are you doing?" She asked, standing up and walking over to them.

"Dulcea used a series of moves I've never seen before." Tommy answered, still focused on Adam. "She had me flat on my back in less than a second. We were trying to figure it out, see if we could incorporate it against the Tengas."

"Oh." Kim answered quietly, kicking her shoes off and stepping onto the padded surface. "You're not doing it right." She said, taking the long straight Bo from a surprised Adam and getting the feel of its weight in her hand as she moved forward.

"What are you doing?" Tommy asked as she spun it a few times. He was in a rotten mood already today and really didn't have the patience for games. The girls didn't spar with them. It simply wasn't challenging and they weren't into it anyway… and they certainly never weighed in on technical issues.

"You want to learn or not?" Kim said absently, still twirling the wood Bo carelessly.

"Your funeral." Tommy said with a shrug. Yet another difference between his girlfriend and the being inhabiting her body, he thought bitterly. "What are you waiting for?" He asked, when she simply stood there.

"You." Kim answered as if it really didn't matter to her. "If you think you're strong enough to attack first." She added silkily. She'd done this same thing a thousand times with the younger students trying to prove their worth as Phaedosian warriors. It came as naturally to her as breathing and, it occurred to her, was yet another reason she had to go home. Her teenaged self would never have attempted to egg Tommy on; in ten years, her adult self wouldn't even do it.

He shrugged again, as if to say she asked for it, and in less than a second found himself flat on his back with a crack on his head; exactly as it had been on Phaedos.

"What the…?" He exclaimed, shaking his head of the ringing noise between his ears.

"Did I hurt you?" She asked in the same silky tone. When he simply stared at her with an incredulous look, she added, "I take it no. Next time I will." She said a little more firmly, adding, "Get up."



"Kim…"

"Do you want to learn it or not?" She replied, cutting him off with a sharp look. When he nodded his head, she added, "Then get up. We'll do this in slow motion."

For the next hour, she walked the boys through the attack and a series of counter defensive moves. They were fairly advanced techniques, but she went slowly and they caught on quickly. On their own, they'd be fine, but she simply didn't have the patience to go through the various counters Dulcea herself would use if they actually tried to go up against her again. Besides, those had taken her years to learn.

At the end of the hour, she called a halt to things and left them to keep practicing. Leaving the Youth Center behind her, she bypassed the shuttle and took off through the park instead. The mall could wait, she needed to think. She'd made it about half way through to the other side of the park when Tommy caught up with her.

"Hey!" He called, "Wait up a sec."

She turned silently and waited as he jogged up from behind.

"I just wanted to say… I mean, that was awesome back there. How did you..?"

"Skills from another life." She responded quietly, giving him a sad smile. She needed to find her way home. She didn't belong here and she knew it. She wouldn't rest, wouldn't accept defeat. She would put things back the way they needed to be. She wanted to go home to her husband.

"Well…" He said, still really not sure how to talk to this new Kim, "Thanks. I really appreciate it; the training I mean. You uhm, really kicked our butts." He added sheepishly.

"Hang in there." She answered with a grin, slapping his arm in a friendly gesture. "I guarantee it, another ten years and that won't happen." She said, thinking of the man he'd become. In just another decade, she'd never be able to toss him around the way she had this afternoon.

He regarded her curiously at those words. He missed her terribly, at least, he missed his Kimberly terribly. This new one was very similar, but also very different.

"How old are you?" He asked. "I mean, how old were you before you were sent back?"

"You really want to know?" She asked playfully, turning and walking down the path. He nodded and fell into step with her. "I'm not really sure." She admitted, giving him a mischievous look. "I lost count around two-hundred and forty-seven."

Tommy stopped, dead in his tracks, and she turned back to face him.

"No, you're teasing." He said, a hesitant, unbelieving smile on his face. "Humans don't live that long."

She folded her arms across her chest and gave him the saddest look he'd ever seen on her. After a moment she answered, "No, they're not supposed to. But sometimes it takes us that long to figure things out."

---

Tommy rushed through the archway just as the red glow faded, revealing the beat up Wild Force and alternate Turbo team. The cry of relief and jubilation coming from his chest was completely involuntary as he rushed forward and grabbed his Jason in a bear hug, slapping him across the back in relief and congratulations.

"You did it?" He half asked half declared, releasing the friend that was as close or closer to him than his own brother and slapping him in welcome once again.

"Sort of." Jason responded cryptically. He was so tired he was barely standing upright and Tommy immediately urged him to sit. The others, grateful to have returned, also sat or leaned on the countertops as the younger group of alternates moved to join their friends in the archway to allow space for the new comers.

"What's sort of ?" Tommy asked hesitantly, noticing for the first time how beaten up the group was and that Cole had apparently brought back some sort of baby animal that he was half cradling, half protecting in his arms.

"It's a long story." Jason said wearily. "Let's just say we had some technical difficulties. Kemora's still alive, if that's what you'd call it, but she's been banned from Muirantias; she's lost control of the pit."

Tommy's hand came down on his friend's shoulder, "That's the best news we've had all day." He said by way of congratulations.

"Is Kim back yet?" Jason asked gruffly, too tired to try and be social. "I have an issue I need to talk to her about."



Tommy froze, chest constricting. His hand fell away from his friend's shoulder and he straightened himself upward. "The girls didn't make it back." He said simply, surprised at the evenness in his voice. He hadn't thought he'd be able to actually vocalize the words. To say it, to hear it said, was to acknowledge a finality he'd been denying for hours.

"No." Jason responded, shaking his head. "Just give 'em a little more time. Kim didn't know exactly how long it would take. You still have a good hour or two past their scheduled return time."

"Jase," Tommy answered slowly, painfully. "There's no more time."

"Of course there is." Jason responded curtly, standing up from his chair. "We built an extra three hours into the safety net. The return times were only windows of opportunity, miss one, you catch another."

"Jase," Tommy said again, in the same sad but firm tone. "You and your team were gone over six hours. The final battle is about to begin. We thought you were lost too."

"Six hours?" Jason responded incredulously. "How is that possible? Kim set the crystals to return us in twenty minutes…forty at the latest." He said, shaking his head. He was so accustomed to her bending time that he never thought twice about it not working; it just did…always.

"If K doesn't exist anymore," The older alternate Billy suggested tentatively, "Then we might be able to assume that her ability to bend time no longer exists. The crystals she created returned you safely, but in real time."

"No." Jason said firmly, almost angrily. "I'd know, the pit would have resonated it…you'd know." He finished, giving Tommy an accusing look. "You knew the last time that she was still alive."

"I haven't felt her life force for hours." Tommy nearly whispered in a shaky, choking voice, swaying a bit with the enormity of what he was admitting. She was gone. He'd felt it the moment she'd begun to fade, as if she'd entered a long hallway, slowly moving away from him, and at its end, a door simply closed behind her. "She's gone."

There was complete and total silence in the Command Center as everyone watched the two friends stare at each other. Both alternate Tommy's moved closer to their girlfriends, intimately commiserating with the resident Tommy and his loss.

"No." Jason said finally, shaking his head and breaking the silence. "No." He growled again. "I just left the pit on Muirantias. Kim's definitely in control there. The phoenix detached itself…that thing is part of Kim's Phaedosian power coin…part Phaedosian crane spirit, part Muirantian fire…she controls it." He rationalized, omitting, because he simply couldn't stand the thought of losing her, that there was another Muirantian Kimberly now; someone who might just as easily have stepped into the shoes of his beloved friend.

"Maybe that part of her still lives." The older alternate Kimberly offered. When the others turned to her she added. "Maybe that part of her still goes on, even if the rest…" She let her sentence trail off. She had definitely felt K's prescience inside the pit. It had been a like gentle voice urging her to move past the pain and the terror, urging her toward the place where her Tommy was reaching out for her, helping her to hold on to him, to rebuild herself and find a way out.

"We could find out." The young alternate of Kimberly offered softly. The words had been barely audible, but in the silence of the room, they resonated. She looked uncertainly at the older, resident version of her Tommy. He seemed so incredibly sad. She understood all too well the kind of loss he was going through. Maybe she didn't understand the loss of his wife, she had only recently learned, with a shock, that the K had grown up and married her Tommy, but she understood the pain of losing someone you loved.

"How?" The resident Tommy asked, moving toward where she was standing in the archway. Unconsciously, she moved back a little behind her Tommy and the boy put a protective arm around her. She looked uncertainly at her boyfriend, then into the older version that belonged to K. He looked so tragic, so guardedly hopeful that maybe she had an answer he didn't.

"Thomas and Zordon both said I wasn't supposed to use those powers without them being with me." She whispered uncertainly, "But…"

"What powers?" The resident Jason asked, coming to stand next to his Tommy.

The young version of Kim looked uncertainly at her Tommy, who nodded encouragingly. Then she looked at her older alternate version as if asking if it was really ok. Her older self also nodded as well, so she turned her eyes back to K's Tommy.

"I wasn't supposed to live." She said simply, almost sheepishly, as if asking the older man to understand. "I don't really understand it, but Thomas says it's because Kemora possessed my body for so long…longer than anyone else. He says I have an in.." she paused as she struggled with the word. "…an innate…talent that most Kimberlys don't have, or very few have anyway. Something to do with time and dimensions. Something in my core makeup that activated with my first power coin and started growing stronger when Kemora took me over."

The older Tommy in front of her nodded encouragingly, as if he understood completely what she was talking about. She stole a glance at the other Kimberly present, but she was frowning, as if puzzling through something.

"Thomas said that part of what makes me different is what kept me alive through Kemora's possession. That I adapted somehow to her."

"Your body began processing her Muirantian energy." Jason said knowingly and the girl nodded.



Jason swung around and cursed audibly, startling everyone in the room. His fingers tore through his hair in frustration as he processed this new information. "Don't you see?" He growled bitterly, spinning back around and pointing a finger at the startled girl, "That's why he abandoned Kim and took off with the girl! He's started over. He knew the problems Kim was having with the moderators and when he saw the chance to simply begin again with another version, he cut his losses and ran." Jason spat with all the bitterness and grief inside him. "He's gonna sacrifice Kim to save his own ass and turn that poor girl into another K."

"Thomas saved me!" The young version of Kim cried out in defense of her hero, frightened by the older Jason's outburst. "He would never…"

"Girly…" Jason said, moving back towards her and, for her sake, putting as much kindness as he could over the bitterness in his voice. "Thomas doesn't save anything but his own agenda."

Tommy, realizing the conversation was disintegrating, stepped forward and moved himself in-between his friend and the girl, holding up a hand towards her as she opened her mouth to argue while simultaneously placing the other hand on his friend's shoulder as a silent warning to stop. "Enough." He said simply. Turning to the girl he asked gently, "What powers did Kemora leave you with?"

"I don't know exactly." She admitted, still upset by the resident Jason's outburst and words. She and shifted to lean against her Tommy, as if trying to draw strength and security from him. "I only know I'm supposed to tell Zordon immediately when I discover something else I can do."

"But you think you might be able to locate Kim…I mean K?" Tommy asked in the same, gentle commanding voice he used to help his students work through things. The girl nodded at him, then looked up at her Tommy for assurance.

"I know…I mean, I can feel the other Kimberlys. I know where they are, how to find them." She admitted reluctantly, as if the talent was one to be ashamed of, as if it linked her to the demon and made her just as evil.

"Jesus Christ." The resident Jason swore angrily, only to be given a sharp look by the resident Tommy which clearly told him he need to stop and move back. He placed two hands up in front of him, as if acknowledging that he wasn't helping things, and backed away, trying with all his might to control the anger boiling within him. There was no way in hell he'd let Thomas have this girl, let him destroy her life they way he'd destroyed his Kim's. He still had the phoenix crystal. Somehow, someway, he'd learn to use it well enough to keep that monster away from her.

"Do you think you can use this power to find K?" Tommy asked the girl gently.

"I think so." She replied hesitantly. "I mean, I know they exist, the other Kims, and I know where they are, how to sort of create a map to get to them. I just don't have the power to actually reach them."

"Not yet anyway." The resident Jason growled from the sidelines and this time was given an admonishing look by just about everyone in the room.

"But you can find out if she's alive?" Tommy pressed. He didn't want to sound hopeful, but he couldn't help it. If Jason was right and she was still connected to Muirantias, and this girl could find her…

"She has a very definite feel to her." The girl answered. "I mean, everyone has a kind of aura, a feeling about them."

"K explained it to me as a different morphanological signature. A resonance, a difference in the way the Great Power moves within them." Tommy offered.

"Yes!" The girl answered excitedly. "That's exactly it. Some have stronger connections, some weaker, all of them feel it differently and that translates into….oh I dunno how to say it, it …feels… you can tell it's different for each of them, even though they're the same."

Tommy smiled warmly at the girl and walked forward, closing the distance between them. Taking both her hands in his, he asked earnestly, "Then will you try and find my Kim for me?"

As the young girl looked up into the serious face of the man before her, her heart melted for him. It was difficult to imagine her Tommy growing up to be like him. He was so stern and severe, nothing at all like the boy she was in love with; and she was, she admitted giddily to herself, in love with him. If the situation was reversed and it was her Tommy left alone to wonder about her fate, wouldn't she want K to help him?

"I can find her." She said confidently, "I can tell you if she's alive or at what point and where she stopped living, but I can't tell you how to get to her. I don't know the words to describe how I know where the other Kims are or were. I just know."

Tommy felt his shoulders drop in relief at the girl's words. He had begun to accept he might never know what had happened to his wife, but if the girl could tell for sure that she was gone, maybe he could begin to move through it.

It was the not knowing that was the worst. He knew that he couldn't feel her anymore, that the link between them had been broken, he could only assume that meant she was lost to him, but if Jason said she was still in control of the pit, did that mean she was truly gone? Part of him didn't want to know for sure, wanted to hold onto the hope that maybe, just maybe, she still survived, but another, bigger part of him knew he would never survive the wondering. One way or another, he needed to know. Squeezing the girl's hands gently, he closed his eyes, "Then use your powers to tell me." He said softly.



The girl looked hesitantly at her Tommy again, then, pulled her hands from the other Tommy and moved away from them. She had confided in her boyfriend what she could do, how much it frightened her, but he'd never actually seen her do it. Part of her was afraid to expose it. It was like admitting a dark and terrible secret. An addiction that she hadn't been able to conquer. She hated herself for wanting to explore this power, but she couldn't help it either. It was like breathing, it just happened. It wasn't just the living Kimberlys she could track down either. Sometimes, occasionally, she could feel the ghosts of the alternates Kemora had killed, including the traces of the Kimberly she had replaced; which is how she knew she could discover for sure what had happened to K.

But she'd only been able to call on this power when she was alone; not in a room full of people staring at her. She desperately hoped that she'd be able to pull it off now that she'd promised she could. Shaking off the worst of the nerves, she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on the specific signature that was K. Every Kimberly was connected, no matter how different they were, alive or dead, and she could still always find them when Thomas asked her to. She didn't know how she did it, realized the power she possessed was a fraction of the power Kemora had, but she still knew that she could do it.

"She's not on Muirantias." She said definitely, realizing as she said it that she was admitting she knew of the island, admitting her own tenuous associations to it. "Her connection is still there though." She added, noting silently that the other alternate Kimberly in the room also now seemed to have a connection to the pit. She would say no more than what she had though; she had given her word to Thomas never to speak of the island again. She did, however, understand what Jason meant by K being in control of the pit inside the new temple there. She sensed the same thing but knew, as he didn't, that it wasn't K herself that was in control, but K's link to her former coin.

The power within the pit had animated the coin, given it a life of its own that it would never have otherwise had outside of Kimberly; that it was never intended to have. K herself was no more than an resonance here. The same way a spirit animal was spirit or an echo of the Ranger, K had become an echo of the living breathing life force her coin had become. The prospect tweaked her curiosity, but it was not what she was searching for.

Turning her mind firmly away from the Muirantian temple and Muirantias itself, she searched again for any sign of the distinctive timbre that was K. What she found baffled her. She'd never experienced anything like it. The confusion showed plainly on her young face to those gathered around her in the tiny Command Center.

The harder she pushed forward toward the signature she knew was K, the further she was removed from it. It was like nothing she had ever encountered; with Thomas or without him. In one final hard push to move past the resilient barrier that was keeping her at bay, she willed herself to connect with K, only to be slammed backward by a force that both startled and terrified her. She opened her eyes with a distressed cry and fell backward, as if someone in the room had forcefully pushed her down while her eyes were closed.

Instantly, her young Tommy lunged forward, placing his arm around her and helping her sit up. "What happened?" He asked, the concern for her obvious.

"She's not dead." The young Kim said in a confused voice. "I don't know how to describe it, she's there…but not. It's like she's contained in something. Something's blocking her, keeping her apart from the rest of…" She stopped, not knowing the words to explain what she'd felt.

"Contained as in containment orb?" The older, resident Tommy asked her cautiously. His eyes met those of the resident Jason's and they exchanged wary glances.

"What's a containment orb?" The young Kim asked, looking back and forth between the two men.

"It's a type of force field that contains beings the continuum moderators can't control." Jason answered gloomily, ignoring the frowns and confused looks he generated from the others.

"You think the moderators caught up with her before she could reach the crystal?" Tommy asked. If she was in an orb, she wasn't dead. Kim would survive far longer than a normal human would; especially if she retained her connection to Muirantias. Perhaps, just maybe, there was hope.

"If they found her and put her in an orb," The resident Rocky interjected, surprising the others who hadn't seen him enter the Command Center, " Then they would have had to separate her from Carri and Karone."

"What's that got to do with it?" The resident Jason asked.

"It means," Rocky continued, walking further into the room until he was next to Tommy, "That's why the girls missed their return window. Carri would never, ever, let Kim be captured and then return without her. She and Karone are probably out searching for her right now, trying to get her back."

"He's right." The alternate Carri said, nodding her head when those in the room turned toward her. "It's what I would have done. I would have missed the time window and gone after Kim, especially if I knew she had the power to open another window back to this timeline once she was rescued."

"Carri?" The young alternate of Rocky asked, stepping forward to look more closely at the older woman. "Carri Hillard?" He asked again. "You're a Ranger?" He almost squeaked.



The woman turned and looked at the boy with a half stern, half amused look on her face. "In my world." She answered measuringly, remembering what K had said to the other Carri before they left about influencing the alternates. Then, turning to her own Rocky she murmured, "God, I forgot how skinny you were in high school."

The older, alternate Rocky gave her an amused, tolerant look, then swatted her butt in a half concealed affectionate gesture that no one in the room missed. The younger version gaped at the two, causing the resident version to grin. Meeting the resident Tommy's eyes, he exchanged a glance that said he was just as tortured by the missing girls as his friend was. "If she's lost," Rocky said firmly, referring to their Kimberly, "Carri will move mountains to find her."

---

Carri paused briefly as she pushed the gear shift of her small rental car into park in front of the Small Reefside art Gallery. This was it, her last shot at recapturing her lost life.

She had flown into LA two days ago, nearly a week after she had formally left her so-called husband. He'd been furious, as she predicted, but she figured it had more to do with the three million in cash she'd absconded with than her walking out…or possibly the letter to the IRS detailing his millions of dollars in shady dealings, both on and off shore; she wasn't quite sure which.

She'd spent the first night in LA before finally mustering the courage to drive to Angel Grove and track down Rocky. She'd found him at the park with a very pregnant Marie, playing wiffle ball with his two year old son. The sight had crushed her. From the sidelines, she'd watched him patiently try to teach the toddler how to use a bat for the better part of an hour, then simply walked away. It was the hardest thing she'd ever done in her life, but what else could she have done? She asked herself. She'd seen far too many women move in on her father to ever consider taking him from his children. Her heart was shattered, but any musings she might have harbored in the days before about taking him back were carefully packed away where they could be forgotten; or at least not acted upon.

The next night had been spent on the beach crying for all she had lost in her former life and plotting one last ditch effort to get it all back. As the sun rose and the beach illuminated, she picked herself up and headed back to her hotel room to clean up and pack. Within an hour, she was on the small coastal road that would take her up to Reefside and the gallery where she knew Kimberly worked.

Sitting in front of that gallery, however, her determination left her. What if she really was crazy? What if it was all some sort of a nightmare induced by drugs and alcohol? What if she needed medication to control hallucinations?

She closed her eyes against the thoughts and banged her head softly, but firmly against the steering wheel. If it was an illusion, she wouldn't know who Kimberly Heart-Oliver was. Her cousin Katherine had been killed in a diving accident before ever moving to Angel Grove. There was no connection that would have put the name Kimberly Heart into Carri's brain. Even if it was some sort of psychosomatic connection between the semi-famous gymnast and her imagination, she would never have known who Rocky DeSantos was; let alone Marie. Rocky was hardly famous, she could find very little at all about him on the web except for an advertisement and corporate records for his two karate schools.

Her eyes shifted to the passenger seat where the two most overwhelming pieces of evidence of her former life sat. Her gold panther power coin from Phaedos gleamed at her in the afternoon sun shining through the passenger window as if asking her what she was waiting for. Next to it was the TV remote that she had smashed against the wall when she found out Lizzie Banna had copied her television show; a remote that didn't match any television in any of her households. It still had the dings and white scratches where it had smashed into the drywall and broken apart.

She had tucked it away in her pocket before she left, she remembered with an aching heart, because she knew that, if she didn't return, he would keep the television the remote belonged to. Leaving him behind with a fifty odd inch flat screen television and no remote to power it had seemed the most evil revenge she could take on him for having a baby with Jessica. At least, at the time it had seemed evil, now it was just a beat up reminder that he was gone and could never be part of her life.

Carri took a long, shaking breath and buried her face in her hands. She had another life she belonged to, she had to hold on to that knowledge. Inside the art gallery was the only woman who might know how to send her back. Steeling herself, she grabbed the power coin, opened the car door, and got out.

The gallery itself was smaller than she thought it would be, but, then again, Tommy was nothing if not economical. The room was tastefully decorated with a small sofa and coffee table off to one side, a counter to the other.

"Can I help you?" A familiar voice asked. Looking up, Carri watched Kim emerge from a back room and walk around the small counter. There was absolutely no recognition in her face when her eyes met Carri's.

"I really hope so." Carri replied, holding out her panther coin.

She watched as Kim looked down at the coin, watched with all-consuming relief as recognition rolled across her face. She looked up and met Carri's eyes warily, her body moving slightly into the familiar ready-like stance, which meant she was shifting into Ranger mode.

"What do you want?" Kim asked her carefully.

"I want to go home." Carri replied. "I want my life back."



---

Kat sighed heavily as she sat down behind the infirmary's counter, eyes curiously watching Malek and Cassie slip quietly together, hand in hand, out the door.

"When did that happen?" She asked Ashley, who was feeding her daughter a bottle in the other chair. The day had been long and hard, and filled with everything from childbirth to splinters. One thing was certain, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that, if she couldn't be a professional dancer, she had been right to choose teaching over nursing. She was exhausted and would be very grateful when her shift ended in another half an hour.

"I think just now." Ashley responded with a mischievous gleam and the two exchanged mutually amused looks over the new lovers.

"I'm happy for her." Kat answered, leaning back in her chair and surveying the now empty room to see if she'd missed anything that needed doing. "It's been a long time coming her way."

"How are things between you and Chris?" Ashley asked, removing the empty bottle from her daughter's mouth and placing the half sleeping infant on her shoulder to burp her.

"Fine." Kat answered, shrugging slightly.

"You sure?" Ashley pressed. The scene between them had been heated and Kat hadn't said one word about her fiancé all day.

"He doesn't understand." Kat answered simply. "How can he understand Ashley? He knows nothing of this world, I don't want him to know anything about this world. He thinks I'm hiding something from him and he's right; I am."

"Kat…" Ashley began tentatively, then paused. She had known Kat for a long time; all through college, all through her breakup with Tommy, all through her relationship with Chris. Still, she wasn't sure if she really wanted to say what had been bugging her since Kat's engagement. "Are you sure?" She asked cautiously, "Are you sure you want to go through with things? With Chris I mean?"

Kat bristled slightly and swiveled her chair a bit in the opposite direction, but bit back the terse reply that had nearly crossed her lips. "I know you and the others don't like him very much." She said instead. "He doesn't like my high school and college friends either."

"It's not that we don't like him." Ashley said softly, "It's just that…" She paused as her daughter gave a mighty burp more appropriate for a sailor than a baby, then settled into a deep sleep against her shoulder. "It's just that we all want you to be sure this is right for you. You're still part of the Rangers…"

"I'm not." Kat said firmly, eyes flashing. "Tommy made damn sure of that."

"Tommy was scared for you." Ashley said in a low, but firm voice. "Andros said as much. He said Tommy wanted desperately to protect you from what he couldn't pull away from. He fretted constantly that he was going to bring trouble home and, without your powers, you might be hurt or killed." She said. Then, when Kat didn't respond, she added, "Tommy's old school Kat. Civilians are shut out and kept in the dark for their own protection. It never meant you weren't still part of our society."

"It ruined our relationship." Kat said quietly and Ashley nodded in both understanding and commiseration.

The half of the time Andros told her what he was up to she was worried sick, the half of the time he didn't tell her she was furious with him. It was a double edged sword being married to an active Ranger; especially if he was a lifer with no intention of giving it up.

"Chris is a good man." Kat added firmly. "Why doesn't anyone want to give him credit for that?"

"Maybe because he dropped out of college to pursue a carrier in the golf shop at Angel Grove Country Club?" Ashley asked sarcastically, although she really hadn't meant it to come out sounding so mean. "We're worried about you Kat." Ashley soothed, reaching out to put a supportive hand on her friend's arm. "Andros and I are anyway; Cassie too. We don't want to see you struggle."

"I'm not struggling." Kat said defensively. At Ashley's skeptical look she added, "He's loyal and he's caring and he adores me. I never have to wonder where he is or who he's with. He spontaneously brings me flowers and is constantly doing little things to make me smile. He comes from a great family…"

"He's also perpetually broke." Ashley said frankly, getting to the crux of her aversion to Kat's fiancé. He was lazy and passive and more than willing to let Kat take care of him the rest of his life.

"He's not broke." Kat said quietly.

"Kat…" Ashley started to argue, but Kat shook her head and held up her hand.

"He doesn't like me talking about it." She said in a confidential tone. At her friend's frown, she leaned a little closer. "His dad is retired now, has been since before I even met Chris, but before he was some sort of top executive at a really prestigious corporation. He's worth more than my uncle, Carri's dad. Chris is their only child and will be the sole beneficiary when his father passes. Money's not a problem, his parents take care of him."

"Then why are you two always so short?" Ashley asked.

"Because it's doled out in a monthly allowance that his parents control." Kat said reluctantly, fiddling absently with a piece of paper. "He doesn't work because he knows his parents will pay off his bills every month."

"If that's the case, why are you two living in a small townhouse pinching pennies?" Ashley retorted. She'd been privy to far too many of Kat's fretting over money to believe the little weasel in wire glasses, as her husband privately referred to Kat's fiancé, was worth millions.

"Because I hate the idea of being dependent on them for money; going begging to them every month." Kat said honestly. "And because at first Chris's parents didn't like me very much." She said with a frown, as if remembering something unpleasant. "Oh they do now," She clarified. "I adore Chris's mom and she loves me to death too, but at first they thought maybe I only liked him for his dad's money, so they cut him off for a while to let him get a taste of the real world…even now they only pay his half of the bills. But the point is that Chris didn't leave me Ash, he told his parents to stick it, he loved me and he didn't care if he lost all his inheritance over me. Does that sound like a bad person to you? He stood up for me because he loved me, he was even willing to live for nearly two years without mommy and daddy bailing him out every month. But that's all in the past. Eventually they warmed up to me and everything is fine now. His mother even gave him this ring to give to me."

"He still didn't go out and get a job Kat."

"Because he knew he didn't have to." Kat defended. "He's his parents only child, he's never had to work or take life seriously." She said, and at Ashley's skeptical look she added. "Look, I know the situation, I know he'd rather play than work, that he doesn't take life nearly as seriously as I do, that I'm going to be the one taking care of him and managing everything, but I've accepted that role. I know what I'm getting into and I know what I'm getting in return. He's a good man Ashley. Yes, he has his faults, but everyone does. So he's spoiled and hasn't had to work very hard at surviving, his good points outweigh his not so good ones."

"So you're marrying him for his money?" Ashley asked incredulously.

"No, of course not." Kat argued. "I'm marrying him because I truly love him. I want to be with him, he's a good friend, a good person. He'll make a great husband and a wonderful father someday. As angry as we get at each other sometimes, we complete each other… that and the sex is bloody awesome."

The last statement was so un-Kat-like that Ashley laughed out loud, wakening her daughter. The two friends giggled together like teenagers while Ashley rocked and lulled her baby back to sleep before a comfortable silence descended upon the two in the now quiet infirmary.

"Chris doesn't like the secrecy." Kat finally said at last.

"What secrecy?" Ashley asked, her mind having wandered during the lull in the conversation.

"Every time we get together with my high school or college friends." Kat explained. "They all seem to be superficially polite to him, then they drift off into their little circles and exclude him. He feels like they're all in some secret snobby society that he can't be part of; like he's intruding if he tries."

"He can't be part of it Kat." Ashley said simply.

"I know." Kat said sadly. "And believe me, the bigger part of me is very glad for that. I don't want him part of this, I want that part of my life separate. But sometimes, like now, I wish I could explain it to him. Let him know that the person I am today is because of what I went through as a Ranger. Let him know the vows and oaths I've taken to protect this world, that Carri didn't rope me into this, I was a Ranger long before she was. I'm so proud of what I accomplished in my tenure, but I can't share any of that with him. I want so desperately to explain to him I have to go back and serve now because I owe the Rangers so very much. I owe them for making me what I am, preparing me to be a leader, the one who gets things done, the one who hangs in there and wants to make the world a better place."

"He already knows." A voice said from the doorway. Startled, both women turned to see Kat's fiancé standing in the doorway.

---

Carri woke to an overly bright light. It was painfully intense and she groaned her protest, placing both hands over her eyes and trying to roll away. The problem was, she couldn't move away from it. Everywhere she turned, the light followed her.

"Hey," Kim's voice rang loudly in her ears. "Sleeping Beauty." The voice admonished, and Carri felt herself roughly shaken. "Time to wake up and face the limelight."

Carri groaned again and turned toward the direction the voice had come. Her eyes cracked open unwillingly to let a little more of the brightness in, but to her surprise, the lights outside her eyelids were much dimmer than when she had them closed.

"What the hell?" She mumbled, genuinely confused. The last thing she remembered was arguing with Oliver about how to get her back to Phaedos. They'd set her up in their tiny guest room and called it a night and she'd gratefully fallen asleep to the sound of rain pelting the windows outside.

"That's exactly what I said." Another voice groaned from the other side of her.

It was Karone's voice and if Karone was there…she wasn't in Reefside anymore. Opening her eyes a little more, she saw Kim's familiar face, but it was her Kim, not the artist and mom to two kids and a small pack of smelly dogs. A little distance away, she spied Karone's seated form leaning heavily against a stone wall; blond head pressed against the palms of her hands as if she too were trying to shake off some sort of deep sleep.

"What happened?" Carri asked.

"I'm not sure." Kim answered, eyes glowing red and looking around her as if she might glean something from their bland, gothic stone chamber surroundings. "But I will say that- that was the most peculiar quest I've ever been dumped into the middle of."

"Quest?" Carri asked, coming fully awake. They'd been on a quest for the Triad crystal, why the hell hadn't she remembered that? "It was all a fucking dream?" She nearly shrieked. All the stress, all the heartache, all the tears, it had all been in her head? She was going to fucking strangle that little Chinese cartoon…

"Oh no, it was real." Kim answered, standing up and cutting off Carri's line of thought.

She'd recovered more quickly than the other two, possibly because her Muirantian powers were not only back, but somehow quadrupled. She'd also thought it was a dream, until she'd felt the little pink heart pendent around her neck. It was the necklace Tommy had given her for her sixteenth Birthday; the one she'd lost somehow on Divatox's ship on the first journey to Muirantias. She'd worn it every day since discovering it in her younger self's jewelry box and it had apparently come forward with her when she'd somehow been transported back to her own timeline. She had no memory of how she'd gotten back into the room. She'd fallen asleep in Zordon's Power Chamber while experimenting with a few illicit remnants of Zedd's old Rock of Time.

"How can you tell?" Carri fired back. "It's all mashed up in my head. Last thing I remember I was arguing with your stupid husband over how I came into possession of one of Ninjor's power coins. I kept telling him it was Dulcea who had given it to me…and he didn't even know who she was! Can you imagine? Who the hell is Ninjor?"

"A coin master Zordon used to work with." Kim responded, turning to walk the perimeter of the room. "Dulcea was one of his students. He actually pre-dates her by several millennia."

"Yeah well…" Carri continued to rant, simply because she couldn't stop herself. "Oliver was a frek'n race car driver Kim."

"Who was?" Karone asked, lifting her face out of her hands.

"Her husband." Carri said, pointing at Kim. "What the hell was that about? This is the same guy who's all anal about seatbelts and who actually drives twenty-five miles an hour through school zones…the whole school zone….sign to frek'n sign"

"Tommy raced his uncle's cars for two years right after he graduated high school." Kim answered, still looking around the stone room with her Muirantian vision for any sign of an exist.

"He did?" Carri asked, scrunching up her eyes to see Kim nodding at her. Her head hurt worse than the hangover she'd woken up with on her first night in the alternate reality and she wondered briefly if she was going to throw up.

"He was actually really good at it." Kim said in the same absent tone, still walking around the room. "And he loved it."

"So what happened?" Carri asked, curious now.

"He had a choice." Kim said, stopping to look at her. "His teacher, Anton Mercer, got him into a fast paced PhD program. He had to decide what to do. Racing cars was fun, but really expensive, and he thought the PhD and a chance to work one on one with Mercer would be more beneficial to his other work with the Rangers."

Carri thought hard about the choices they had all made and the consequences they had generated. One little introduction to Kimberly ten years ago had completely changed her life. Without that simple introduction, she'd become a totally different person. Looking up, she noticed Karone staring at her.

"What?" She asked, an acidic edge in her voice.

"Nice hair." Karone drolled from the opposite wall.

"Huh?" Carri asked, hand reaching up to her head. Her long, silky hair was gone and in its place was the straw-like bob she'd cropped it into. "Oh my god…It was real? It wasn't a dream?"

In response Karone held up a gold Phaedosian power coin. "Dulcea said the only way back to my timeline was through the Temple. I got a spirit animal to help guide me."

"Lemme guess," Carri fired off without thinking. "The snake?"

Karone's eyes narrowed and she shot the other woman an sour look. "Mongoose." She answered simply.

"Same dif." Carri groaned, pulling herself up into a sitting position. She winced as something in her back pocket cut into her backside, reaching around, she pulled the little remote out of her back pocket and simply stared at it.

"Oh let me guess, while the rest of us were trapped in alternate realities fighting for our lives, you got to sit back and watch a freak'n soap opera marathon." Karone spat.

Carri reared up, eyes blazing and ready to tell her exactly what road to hell she could take when the walls simply began to move around them. The stone slid back as easily as a curtain being drawn, exposing a blinding white light.

"I think we've reached the end of our quest." Kim observed quietly.

---

Tommy's eyes scanned the packed Assembly room, finally meeting Jason's and ending in a significant look between the two friends. Tommy had essentially nixed Jason and Kim's plan to purge the grids by one or the other sacrificing their life-force. It simply wasn't worth it. He understood why they were willing to do it, would have offered to do it himself, but the facts remained that they were facing the end of a planet, not an end to their society.

The Rangers job was now not to save a planet, but save the population of that planet. Thanks to Andros's efforts, they had a place to go. A whole new life in another galaxy was waiting for them. Jason's powers would be better served helping in the evacuations to come and in protecting the young alternate Kim from Thomas. New grids could be utilized on the new planet, the old ones could simply be shut down after Teeg left to insure they didn't fall into the wrong hands.

As the room quieted and the last of the Rangers found their seats, Tommy's eyes surveyed the assembled Rangers once again. It was truly awe inspiring to him to know that ten short years before there had been only five young Rangers to defend Earth against the forces of evil. His eyes found the young alternates of that team and he marveled at their youth; knowing as he did so that they were already veterans themselves. He turned and found the other alternate team, morphed in their Turbo uniforms to protect their identities as alternates, and wondered what they thought of the large gathering. He wondered if they were as astounded as he was that a simple decade had seen the Ranger forces grow so exponentially. He thought briefly of Zordon and what his old master would have thought of an entire room full of Power Rangers. He would have said no force in the universe could stop them, Tommy mused silently.

"I want to thank all of you for joining the Assembly here this afternoon." He began, feeling all eyes riveted on him. "I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of all of you. You have come together, from separate teams, from separate backgrounds, with separate agendas, and in a simple forty-eight hours have merged together and combined your talents more effectively than any megazord."

Tommy paused and again took in the assembly, thinking of his wife and how she had simply marched in an begun giving orders. He thought of how the Rangers jumped to the challenges she offered them.

"Your efforts have not been in vain." He said, squaring his shoulders and preparing himself for what had to be said. "At this juncture, Teeg's forces have begun to maneuver into position for their final attack. Most, if not all, of the population is sheltered and Andros's efforts have secured us a place to take them. Jason and the Wild Force team, along with some new friends, have defeated the demon Kemora and kept her from obtaining enough power to be of any threat to us in this final fight. And even now our friends on Eltar, Aquitar, Rheiga, and elsewhere, are racing to our aide."

He paused and closed his eyes, gathering all his strength for what he had to say next. "Unfortunately," He added in a surprisingly calm and even voice, "Kimberly, Carri, and Karone, failed to return from their mission to procure a power source strong enough to purge the grid system of Teeg's contaminates." He paused and let the significance of his words set in and there was a slight murmuring from the crowd. "Their fate," Tommy continued, "As of now, is uncertain. However, the fact remains that we have only cleared one grid and it's unstable at best."

He paused again and inhaled deeply. "We have a decision before us that needs to be made as a group. We are all Rangers here, all leaders. We must now decide among us what is more important; our world or our people. There is a way to purge the grids without the power source Kim was seeking, but it would require the life energy of one of our own. Jason has volunteered to sacrifice himself for that cause, as I'm sure many of you would too, but I've vetoed that idea. Although we, as Rangers, will all willingly lay down our lives in the fight against evil, I don't believe we should needlessly do so if there are other options are open to us."



"Can't we give Kimberly and the others more time?" Carter asked, and a few other reds supported and echoed his question, surprising him with how popular his wife seemed to have become with them.

"Teeg has begun the process of opening the towers." Billy responded from the front of the room near Jason. "We're effectively out of time."

"What about the Equaline Wave?" Wesley asked. "Timeforce needs Kim's help. They've almost…"

The room began to erupt into multiple conversations until Tommy raised his hands and they quieted down again. "Inside each of those towers," Tommy began in a resonating voice that cut short the last remnants of conversation, "Is a fully functioning megazord." Tommy said with a look that he hoped told them the overwhelming odds they were now facing.

Again the room erupted, but Tommy controlled it. As the room once again grew silent, he added, "We have the manpower, we have the talent, we have the will to fight this battle, what we don't have is grid power. If we resist, Teeg will instruct each of those megazords to combine into one giant ultra-zord that will have more than enough power to incinerate the Earth. All will perish." He paused and regarded them again, but this time only silence met him. "Without the grids, we don't have the morphing power necessary to stop those megazords from combining. What we need to decide now is…"

"The grids are clear!" Hayley all but screamed as she burst into the Assembly room. "The grids are clear!"

All heads turned in her direction to see her fly down the steps from the entrance, followed closely by a man who Tommy vaguely recognized as a scientist from Lightspeed. She plowed into him, grabbing both his arms and spinning him around three-sixty in an effort to come to a stop, oblivious to the dozens of eyes on her.

"Don't ask me how." She rambled, shaking her head at his wide-eyed look and gasping for air as she skidded to a halt. "It was like a light switch, one cleared and then it was like a cascade effect. They just started purging themselves."

"Oh yee of little faith." Carri called in a saucy voice from the doorway, causing every head in the room to turn in her direction.

Any sound Tommy might have made at the sight of the three girls standing at the top of the stairs, morphed except for their helmets, was drowned out by Rocky's loud whoop, which impressively continued as he all but ran across the seated rows of Rangers in an effort to reach them. He didn't stop his exclamation until reached her and grabbed her up in the biggest bear hug he could manage around her bulky armor. She leaned into him silently, armored arms linking around his neck as tightly as she dared, hardly believing she was really back in her own time and dimension.

"What happened to your hair?" He nearly sobbed, fingers digging into the short strands.

"Don't ask." She grumbled, pulling his head down to kiss him.

The other two exchanged patient smiles behind her back before quickly moving down the stairs themselves; Karone to her brother and Kim into Tommy's waiting arms.

"It's good to see you off that bed." She murmured as the tight hug went on longer than was technically appropriate. Neither of them cared and both knew those in the assembly watching didn't either. A group of lost Rangers had come home; all knew the world could wait a little while their teammates welcomed them back.

"It's good to see you period." He growled into her hair. He kissed her forehead, cheek, and neck half a dozen times before kissing her exactly how he'd sworn he would if he ever got the chance again. Another miracle save, he thought dimly through the overpowering emotions assaulting him. However long it lasted, he had her back for just a little while longer.

Overwhelmed and exhilarated, it took him a few minutes to become aware of her uniform. It was big and bulky and dwarfed her…and it was red.

"Red." He said simply, still holding onto her with shaking arms, but stepping back a fraction of an inch in order to take the new armor in. It was like nothing he'd ever seen on a Ranger. The core spandex was a deep shade of red, almost as deep as his new Zeo uniform, but it sparkled as if it contained cranberry colored metallic dust. There was a thick muted, steel colored shield around her shoulders and chest plate as well as other thick metal accent shields from her forearms up to her elbows and at her hips, thighs and boots. How she moved in all that armor, he hadn't a clue and the random thought occurred to him that, if that was her new standard issue, he'd hate to see the battlizer.

"It suits you." He grinned, avoiding the comment that she kind of reminded him of Lord Zedd.

"Primus is into over-kill." She responded cryptically. "I hate it…but it works."

Securing a protective hold around her waist, he laughed soundlessly, tears threatening his eyes, then turned to look for the other two. The assembly had broken up a little until the Zeos had sufficiently welcomed their girls home, but he could still see them through the crowd. There was, he noticed, not one skirt among the three of them.

Karone looked like a thick gold statue; gold accent shields, similar to Kimberly's, blending almost chameleon like into gold sparkling spandex. Carri on the other hand, was a dark contrast to the other two. Her shield armor was a thick , shiny black metal covering what looked like sparkling purple spandex.

"Purple?" He asked quietly into Kim's ear, head jerking in Carri's direction.

"Black." Kim responded firmly, eyes warning him to listen to her. "Definitely black. Don't let her hear you call her the purple Ranger; she'll slap you."

Tommy's eyes turned back to hers and he grinned at the twinkle he saw there. "God it's good to have you home." He told her in a voice dripping with more emotion than she'd heard from him in a long time. The twinkle faded from her eyes, replaced by an echoing sadness that told him her return wasn't forever. "I don't care for how long." He said, voicing what she wouldn't.

She began to speak, but was interrupted by Jason, who was just as adamant to have a chance to welcome her back as her husband had been. Jason was followed by Billy and then by Cole and then by more Rangers than she could keep track of. For one brief moment at the dawn of the greatest battle the Earth and its Rangers had ever seen, the Red Assembly celebrated the return of its own. For a few simple seconds, time stood still and allowed them one brief reprieve to renew their spirits, refresh their souls, and prepare for the carnage to come.