"What happened to the kids?" Kim asked as she woke up and looked around the room. She knew that she had passed out before whatever had happened, but now she found herself back in the hospital and Tommy was sitting in his chair. She could see that he looked like he was pissed at the world, but he did look calm enough that he would be able to tell her some answers before he had to go do a very long session of karate.
"Well, they're all right. They woke up a little while after their powers were taken from them by Hayley," Ben said as Tommy looked over at him, completely fed up with everything that he said. He had lost all of his patience when he had woken up in the Command Center, with Kim right beside him. He knew that they had somehow managed to survive, but he had hated to know what it had taken out of Kim to insure that they both lived. She could not keep sacrificing herself like this and he was eternally grateful that this had been the last battle otherwise, he was going to have to have a very long talk with her about this.
"Shut up," Tommy said as he glared over at Ben, who shied as far away from him as he could. He could feel the anger that was coming off Tommy and he knew that he needed to keep his distance from him for as long as he could. He felt that he had a beating coming to him, not that he didn't deserve it but he just thought that they might be able to find some sort of forgiveness for him. That day, however, was still a long way off from what he was able to tell. "The son of a bitch nearly killed us and you just calmly say that their powers are taken and that they're fine."
"Tommy," Kim muttered as she rolled over to her side to face him. She wanted to try to talk him down some, because she knew that she would not last very long. She was going to have to get some more rest before she was able to truly deal with the problem that was at hand. "We knew it wouldn't be easy, but it's done. Neither of us will ever have to worry about him again. We were warned in time to have a plan. It's all we could ask for right now."
"Don't you even take his side," Tommy said as Kim could feel the tension coming from him and she snapped. He had absolutely no reason to be mad at her and she was going to give him a piece of her mind. After the last few days she felt that she had the right to yell at him for saying something like that her.
"I'm not taking a side Tommy! But you know what I'm saying is true, we needed this and we got it just in time, even if he was doing it for the wrong reasons," Kim said as Ben sat down into one of the chairs. He certainly did not like the way that Kim sounded, but at least she was trying to keep Tommy from killing him right now, which he was sure was high on his to do list, probably right below making sure that Kim was all right.
"Don't get too comfortable, I still haven't decided whether or not to kick your ass," Tommy said as Kim sat up and looked between the two of them.
She did not want to have to diffuse the situation that was brewing. She didn't have the energy to talk Tommy out of anything that he was thinking about doing. He had been begging her to rest and take care of herself and she planned to do that right now. She knew that if she didn't there could be permanent damage done after her display of power and she just could risk that anymore. She knew that the life that was ahead of her was going to need her to have her body back to normal, as much as it could be. She hadn't even attempted to try to clear up her vision, so it was still as blurry as ever, but she hadn't taken off her glasses in days because of the headaches she had been getting.
"Tommy, Ben, you can go fight in the hall, beat each other to a pulp for all I care, but I need some rest," Kim said as Jason smiled. She was going to make them talk this out, one way or another.
"I say the Command Center," Tommy said grabbing Ben and teleporting out of the room.
"That is just wrong, Kim," Jason said as she rolled over to her side and closed her eyes.
"Go referee and make sure he doesn't kill him. I don't want to wake up to my husband being in jail for murder," Kim said as Jason looked over at her and then teleported away himself. Kim needed some time to grieve and Tommy needed to get some aggressions out of his system and hopefully they would be able to do that right now.
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"What the hell were you doing!" Tommy yelled as he threw Ben into the nearest wall. Jason then materialized in the middle of the room as Tommy firmly held him against the wall and looked over to see who was disturbing this little heart to heart. "What are you doing here?"
"To make sure that you don't kill him and go to jail. Kim at least had the sense to do that," Jason said as he sat down and Ben just stared at him. He had not thought that Kim would even consider sending someone else to make sure that he didn't die. Obviously, he had forgotten just how kind hearted she was, even when someone had treated her terribly. "Go on, I'm just here to referee."
"Look, I just wanted to be able to…at first I wanted her too, but…she became my friend and then Taylor left and I went back to my life. Then he came back, blackmailed me into helping him and…I'm not proud of what I did, but at least I'll admit I'm wrong," Ben said as Tommy threw him to the ground. He knew that he had to kinda hold himself back for a few moments or Jason would be restraining him, although Jason didn't look like he was going to do much of anything to stop him from actually killing Ben like he wanted to.
"You could have told her, she would have helped you, forgiven you, I don't know what else you could have wanted…but this was not a good way to pay her back for everything that she did for you," Tommy said as Jason laughed. He couldn't help but agree. He knew just how much Kim had sacrificed to guarantee that Ben would be able to work at her gym and even become a co-owner. He just hoped that Ben would remember all of that.
"You are supposed to…" Ben said as Jason just shook his head.
"Kim sent me, to keep him out of jail, not myself," Jason said as Ben's eyes widened and Trini suddenly landed in the room and jumped between the men and Ben. She knew that Jason had to be just as furious as Tommy and if he had it his way, Ben would be dead in a few minutes.
"Let me, Trini," Jason muttered as Trini shook her head no. She did not want to lose Jason to something that he would regret when he woke up in the morning. She knew that they both were mad, but they had to control themselves so that they would be able to give Kim a chance to forgive.
"The two of you wouldn't be alive if we didn't have sympathy on you, you'd be gone as well. So it is time that you returned the sympathy that we have always given you," Trini said as Tommy took a step back. As many times as he had been evil, he knew that it was true, but he didn't want to think about it. He didn't think that he could stand to be compared to him.
"But we never did anything like this, not voluntarily," Tommy said as Trini just looked at him.
"You know that Kim will forgive him once she has calmed down some from the miscarriage. She couldn't live with herself if she didn't forgive him, considering how much she has done in the past that had to be forgiven," Trini said, rather pointedly as Tommy just shook his head as he walked away, so that he would be at a safe distance to pace without doing any damage.
"She never did anything like this, she never almost killed me," Tommy said as Jason and Trini both looked over at Tommy. They all knew that wasn't the truth, but Tommy didn't want to have to deal with comparing Ben to Kim right now. "Murianthius was different, she couldn't help that, so don't even bring it up."
"I know that you could have helped this, but it is the same in some ways," Trini said as Tommy gave her a skeptical look. "Wouldn't you want to salvage what you could when you were sure that they would reveal a betrayal?"
"Why not just tell the truth? Look at everything that Kim put herself through and she still came straight to me and told me the truth, not some screwed up, half ass version to make me just like her and still have some doubts about her sincerity. She came clean," Tommy said as they all just shook their heads. It was going to be hard to get through to him, not that they were going to really try to do that right now.
"Because you knew some of what she was doing and she knew nothing of what I did. I didn't want to lose her as a friend, I couldn't afford it," Ben said as Tommy just shook his head. "I'm not asking you to trust me or forgive me, but just to stand me."
"I just need a beer, a couple of cigarettes and a very long time with a punching bag," Tommy said as Jason and Trini looked over at him, the cigarettes were definitely something he had never talked about before. "I don't smoke often, actually I've only ever smoked when I am completely and utterly pissed off and that describes exactly what I am right now."
"I think that that is the one thing that I can understand," Trini said as Tommy looked over at her, slightly surprised that she would even slightly agree with any of it. She was supposed to be the voice of reason right now with two slightly insane men.
"I'm not even going to ask," Tommy said as Ben stood up and started towards the exit.
"You're not going anywhere," Trini said as Ben looked over at her. Did all of the rangers have it out for him? "You're going to have to talk to the others and since Kim is getting out of the hospital in about an hour, we'll just do it at their home."
"Okay," Ben said, as he knew it was foolish to disagree, although it might even more foolish to agree to go along with whatever was going on here. There was no way that all of this was going to work out well for him, but oh well, he didn't have much of a choice. He was either going to go voluntarily or they were going to drag him there.
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"You know this actually has a lot of room for an apartment over a gymnastics center," Kat said, to try to keep the conversation polite and away from anything too serious. She was sure that things were not going to be good in the next few minutes.
"I want to go to sleep," Kim said as Tommy just nodded as she walked over to their bedroom and closed the door.
"I don't really get why we are here," Conner said as Tommy looked over at Ben and the young rangers looked at their older counterparts, hoping that they would be able help them out, somehow.
"You want to explain yourself or do you want me to say something?" Tommy asked as Ben just looked around. He knew that the rangers might get hostile, but it would not be like that when they were in the Command Center. With Kim so close by, he knew that they wouldn't do anything too drastic.
"I'll explain myself," Ben said, as he was sure that he had no choice, if he even wanted to have a chance at not being hated by everyone in the room. "I have been working with Mesogogg for the past several months to try to bring down the rangers and it began several years ago, when I truly agreed with his thinking. I'm not proud of any of it, but if I don't tell you the truth, then I have absolutely no hope."
"You did what?" Conner asked as he absolutely could not believe this. This man worked with Kimberly and had been working against her the entire time. He was having a hard time swallowing all of this without becoming a mad man.
"How could you do such a thing?" Aisha asked as Ben just shook his head. He was sure that he would not be able to answer that well enough for them, no matter what he said they would be able to think of a way that he could have gotten out of it.
"I made a mistake, what more do you want from me? I can't go back and change everything that happened; I never knew that he would do what he did to her. If I had known I would have gotten her out, somehow," Ben said as he felt the older rangers glare and the younger rangers' confusion.
"You need to leave or hell will be nothing compared to us," Rocky said, speaking for everyone, as they barely nodded their agreement and Ben walked away towards the door, knowing that this was the best way to make an exit.
"I see your point, I'm gone," Ben said as the others looked between each other. Kim technically should be the one to throw him out of her life, but right now they needed him to be gone, they needed to be able to do some things that had nothing to do with him and keep him away for as long as they could. When Kim was ready, she'd bring him back, but she was not that ready right now.
"You know that doesn't feel nearly as good as it should," Kira said as the older rangers watched as Tommy stopped on his way back to his room.
"It shouldn't feel good, it's sad that he felt he had no choice. One day we'll be able to trust him again, but I'm not exactly sure when that will be," Tommy said as he looked around at all of them. He was honestly eager to get back to Kim. She needed him much more than he needed to be out here discussing issues with all of them. "Can I go?"
"Yeah, we'll let ourselves out," Jason said as Tommy barely nodded as he continued towards his room. "Guys, let's talk about everything more in the morning. We all need to calm down some, but the Command Center will still be open if you ever need anything and right now, we definitely need some time to deal with it all."
"I don't see how this is going to help us," Conner said as Kira just put both of her arms around him and he looked down at her.
"It helps us put things in perspective, about what our life is likely to be like from here on out. I think we just need to go home, it's the only thing that hasn't changed for us so far," Kira said as Conner merely nodded and they all continued out. Their lives as rangers had come to a sudden stop, their team no longer existed. Their network was completely gone, but they had learned that even when they got blindsided by the worst in life, it came out all right in the end.