Chapter 38
I leaned against my locker at school and closed my eyes. I was so tired. I had seen Tommy earlier and it looked like he had only gotten a few hours of sleep or not at all. Last night while he had been guarding the house, I had tried to persuade him to get some rest while I took a turn on staying watch. He had refused, and I had gone back to bed without any argument, but I had lain awake. Straining my ears and my senses, my heart was pounding double time, I was so sure that Goldar was going to come back at any moment and finish me off. I kept jumping at the smallest of sounds sure that Goldar was in the house. In the back of my mind I thought of Kimberly, far away and safe from all of this, living a normal and carefree life. For her the only thing that she would worry about would be if she got to her next meet on time and weather or not she preformed well. A prickle of resentment made it self known to me, I let out a sigh. I shouldn't resent Kim besides I'm the one that brought this entire thing onto myself, no way to change that. No matter how many times I wish it were different. I heard footsteps approaching, cracking open one eye I saw Tommy heading toward me. Stopping he looked at me for a few moments, I looked up at him. He had hardly paid attention in class and the others had asked him why he hadn't called them, they would have come and helped. But Tommy, being our leader and all, I guess, was just trying to spare everyone the horror of seeing a brutal attack, right in the home of a ranger. That has never happened before, Kim told me that Zedd would usually attack at the park or in downtown or outside of Angel Grove, but in their own homes never. I felt a guilty twinge of satisfaction when Rocky, Billy, and Adam had a look of disbelief on their faces. Not even in your own homes are you safe. I thought with a bitter smile. Now they will probably double check locked doors even though it'll be use less, they will stay awake all night worrying if Zedd or the Tengu Warriors will appear and start attacking.
I turned my head away guiltily. I'm sorry. Tommy laid his hand on my shoulder.
"Hey, are you okay?" Not answering, I straighten up turned and began to limp out of the school and out onto the sidewalk. Tommy followed me and we continued to walk in silence. I wanted to forget everything, everything that was happening to me and my friends, I wanted to sleep for a long long time and wake up to a peaceful world, a world with no monsters or aliens, no fear. I wanted to wake up to a world where I wouldn't be in pain, where my friends wouldn't lose the people that they loved and cared about. But most of all I wanted for this war to be over, for all the pain, the misery and the fear, I WANTED ALL OF IT TO BE OVER!! But it will never be over, not until Zedd is and the rest of his army is killed and I intend to strike the first blow.
I thought that I would began my search for answers with Katherine, so I asked her to meet me at the Juice Bar after school the next day, which she did.
"Katherine, you told me, while in the dungeons, that you knew who we all were, that we were the Power Rangers, did you know about my powers as well?" I sipped at my coke and watched her as she nodded her head.
"Yes, Zedd told me all about them and what they were capable of doing."
"Did he ever mention to you how he found out about me and my powers in the first place?" Katherine thought for a few minutes, then she shook her head.
"No, sorry Amy. All he told me was that all of you were the Power Rangers and about your powers."
"Hmm." I closed my eyes briefly. Suddenly I thought of something.
"Katherine, do you remember if there was anyone else in the palace besides Zedd and his cronies?" After a few minutes of thinking, she nodded.
"There was this guy that watched while you...were...uh..." she began to look uncomfortable.
"Its okay. Any idea if you knew who this guy was? Did Lord Zedd introduce you to him?"
"No, he didn't. The guy just stayed in the shadows, I actually forgot about him." A guy who stayed in the shadows. Wonder if he was there the entire time I was there. But I didn't remember seeing anyone emerge from the shadows to approach me...though...I did sense him. Whoever this guy is...something prickled at the back of my mind but I couldn't figure out what it was. Okay, time to go for the big moment. Taking a deep breath, and thanking Katherine I got up and carrying my drink down to the exercise mat and waited a bit tensely for Tommy to finish with his exercise. It was always painful to dreg up memories of the horrible things that you once did, even if you had no control over your actions. But you couldn't help but still feel angry at the person for committing those acts. Right now my anger and resentment toward Katherine was fading and I was beginning to trust her. Anyway, Tommy saw that I wanted to talk to him, so, cutting his workout short, he grabbed a towel, wiped his face, slung it over his shoulder and came toward me.
"What's up?"
"Can I ask you a few questions about your st–time as the Green Ranger? The bad one?" Tommy glanced away briefly then looked at me and nodded. Sitting on a nearby bench, I took a deep breath then launched into my first question.
"How long did you work for Zedd before you were released from the spell?" Tommy blinked.
"I didn't work for Zedd, I worked for Rita, she was the one that placed the spell on me in the first place."
"Oh." I couldn't help but feel a wave of disappointment go through me.
"Why do you ask?"
"Well, I was hoping that you could answer a few questions. Hey, you worked closely with Goldar right?" Tommy thought for a minute. After giving me a weird look he shook his head.
"No, can't say we did. I was Rita's man, Goldar was the one that wore the rangers down and then I would come for the..." A shocked look came over his face.
"Tommy, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."
"I–I know...I know...can't believe that..." He shook his head, the shocked look fading. He cleared his throat.
"Why are you asking about my green ranger days?"
"Well, I just want to find out how Zedd found out about me in the first place, about my powers. So I thought that maybe you or Katherine must have heard something or were told something."
"No, at least I never heard anything about a half- alien with powers coming to Earth. I'm pretty sure that not even Goldar or Rita knew about you.."
"Is that so?" Then that means that only Zedd knew about me beforehand, and he must have spread the word to Goldar and the others. If that's the case then someone must have told him about me but who and when? And why did he attack me right after I turned 15 years old?
"Amy? You alright?" asked Tommy. I shook my head.
"Too much on my mind and too many questions. Listen Tommy I'll see you later."
"Right, well if you ever need to talk."
"I know who to go to." He called back to me.
"Hey, you going to talk to your parents?" I turned to him and gave a sigh.
"Actually, I'm not sure who to talk to, this seems so complicated. Maybe a good talking to mom and dad will help me straighten some things out." Tommy opened his mouth, then closed it. I gave him a wave and limped away with my drink in hand. I stopped at the computer lab, wanting to e-mail Kimberly first. It'll worry her if I'm not talking to the others and her, but I'm afraid of worrying her even more if I do talk with her and the others. In reality I wanted to solely talk to my parents, they've always helped me out in figuring stuff out, in their own way. But I had made a promise to Kim, to open up to my friends and try to stop living in the past. But guilt never goes away and talking to my parents eases it. I threw away my now empty drink and entered the lab, sitting down before a computer, I logged on and prepared to send an e-mail to Kim.
Yo sis! What's up! How's everything? Hope you're not too exhausted from all of your training to talk to your sister. Katherine and I are getting along well although it still is kinda weird waking up in a different room ya know? But I'm getting over it. And I'm still talking to my mom and dad every Friday, so there is no need to start nagging me Kim, I'm talking to the guys as well. Listen I've got a lot of stuff on my mind and about a dozen or so questions racing around there. And it all concerns about how Zedd found out about me and my powers and if someone told him or if he found out on his own. Maybe Zordon will give me some clues, yes I'm still calling him Zordon, it'll be a while before I call him dad, but not now, its just too weird.
I paused for a minute, that last part was true, I did feel a bit weird referring to Zordon as dad, that and having a new team mate that for all I know, didn't know that I was half-alien nor that our mentor was my real father, when I was still getting to trust that new team mate little by little. The others hadn't said anything to Katherine, my guess was that they were still a bit blown away that Zordon is a father and has a half Eltarian daughter. I continued to type
Well anyway, I think you'll be happy to know that even though I won't refer to Zordon as dad, he is certainly acting like one when it comes to me and Dex. But what can you do? Don't worry about my ranger problems Kim, I'll figure them out, until then get a good tan, send me picturesand some T-shirts or something. Tentomon says Hi by the way. Tommy sends his love and Rocky sends fake vomit. (Just kidding!) Enjoy having a peaceful life.
Your sister,
Amy.
I sent the e-mail with a sigh. Glad that I was communicating with Kim and the others, I got up and limped toward the door, as I got to the front door of the school, much to my surprise and delight Dex was there! He was leaning against the lockers looking up and down the hall, I called out to hm and began to limp rapidly toward him. He straighten up when he heard me and turning he smiled and waited until I reached him. After hugging and kissing each other, we went out the door down the stairs and onto the sidewalk. Dex told me that he had been worried about me and kept having the feeling that I was in danger. He asked me if anything out of the ordinary regarding Zedd had occurred. I shook my head.
"No nothing out of the ordinary. Even Dregon hasn't shown his face, I haven't seen hide nor hair of him." Something tingled at the back of my mind when I said the name, but I couldn't figure out what it was.I leaned against Dex's shoulder and swung his hand,
"Amy, when this is all over...I...I would like to take you to Edenio, so you can met my grandfather." I looked at him and nodded.
"You told me so much about him he seems like a really cool guy." Dex smiled.
"He is, I look forward to seeing him again."We continued to walk in silence, I was glad for the long walk. I wish that I could feel like this always. Safe and happy with no worries. I breathed in deeply. It was lucky that Dex was waiting for me after school. Waiting. Now that I think about it, Lord Zedd did seem to be waiting for me on that day, in fact all those times he stole my powers, he seemed to know exactly what to do. He knew how to extract them as if someone had taught him.I swallowed hard. I turned to Dex, who was busily looking around with a slight frown on his face.
"Dex?" He turned to me.
"Didn't you tell me this one time that Dregon can extract power and energy from a person?"
"Yeah. Why?" I began to tremble and soon we were surrounded by Goldar, Rito, Cyclopter and Double-Face. Dex and I saw them and were in combative stances with our backs pressed to each others.
"Because I think I just found out how Lord Zedd found out about me and my powers." Before either of us could transform we were both slammed with a large energy blast, I was ready for it and placed a shield before it really hit.
"Ecto Phase Activate! Masked Rider!" A horde of Tengus came up behind us Dex met them head on, meanwhile Goldar Rito, Cyclopter and Double-Face were firing a stream of energy at the shield trying to break it down. It was all I could do to stay focused, it was so powerful!
They're working together. My knees were shaking, I was giving in! They must have seen this because they put more power into their attacks! I slid back a few inches, I felt myself beginning to tire under the strain, my leg began to slowly bend. No! No! The others arrived but an insectivore and a monster were keeping them busy, even Ninjor was dueling with another insectivore! I have to morph. But I couldn't reach my morpher, even if I could I would have to break the shield. I can't keep this up!! I heard Dex cry out, it was my mistake to turn toward him. The shield went down. The Tengu Warriors all leapt back as Dex and I were engulfed in the blast. Both of us let out screams as we went flying through the air, we landedon the ground a foot from each other. I heard the others cry out and shout my name and their screams but all of my attention was on Dex. I managed to turn myself over onto my stomach and saw that he wasn't moving. He's not dead. He can't be!I began to crawl toward him.
"Dex? Dex! Are you okay?" I grunted as I struggled to reach him, I wanted him to get up, I wanted to tell me that he was okay, I wanted him to take me away from here. Tears were streaming down my eyes as I felt Goldar grab me and haul me roughly to my feet. You guys, Dex, I'm sorry. I wish you weren't involved in all of this. If only...if only I had never been born.