Part One

For the second time in twenty-four hours, Tommy was on the wrong end of the barrel. Somewhere between a breath and a skipped heartbeat, Tommy had stepped in front of Katherine, staring the Kimberly he thought he knew down. What the hell was she doing? What the hell was he doing? No matter how terrible his relationship was with Katherine, he couldn't allow her to be hurt.

"Kim," He tried softly, a hand sticking out to meditate the situation. "What are you doing?"

Kimberly's nostrils flared but she never once looked away from her target… Katherine. "Step aside, Tommy. I don't want to hurt you, but if I must…" Her grip tightened just a bit more, something she wasn't quite sure had even been possible.

Could she actually shoot him to get to Katherine? That was difficult. Kimberly Hart? No, never. Agent K? In a heartbeat. She wasn't quite sure who was standing in the room at the moment.

"Kim, put the gun down," Tommy tried again to no avail. "We can talk about this."

"Tommy," Katherine placed a trembling hand on Tommy's shoulder and used his body to shield herself from the view of the gun. "What's going on? What's she doing here? I'm scared."

His eyes were fixed on Kimberly and it took everything in him to hold the gaze. He wouldn't blink. He couldn't. None of it made sense. Kimberly and a gun. Agent K? What the fuck was going on? Was he in some altered reality? Was he being punk'd? Would Ashton Kutcher pop out from somewhere with his smug grin and a crooked Von Dutch hat telling him this was all a sick prank?

Just seeing Tommy and Katherine together made Kimberly's stomach turn. She could hardly look them in the eye when they were together in Muranthias… knowing what she knows now, it was worse.

"Don't listen to her, Tommy," Kimberly returned, and if he wasn't mistaken, there was a sheen over her eyes. Like something was forcing her to do this. "That's not Katherine."

He wasn't quite sure when he stopped breathing. Was it when he first saw Kimberly walk in? Was it when he saw the gun shining in her hand? Or could it possibly have been when she said that the woman he had spent the last year with was not entirely who she claimed to be?

"What?" He said, softly, and he felt the grip on his arm tighten.

"Nice to see you alive, Kat," Kimberly returned, her teeth baring. "Didn't you die outside of Syria three years ago?"

Almost as if he were a broken record, Tommy repeated, "What?"

"Don't listen to her, Tommy," Katherine sobbed. "She's crazy."

"I should have known when they couldn't piece your body back together," Kimberly's eyes narrowed.

He almost let himself believe it for a moment, but he knew better… at least, he thought he did. "What, no, no, no! She was in London dancing for the academy three years ago."

Kimberly allowed herself to flash a smile. Oh, the innocence. He's blind to the reality of the world around him… just like she always wanted for him.

"There was no academy, just like there were no pan globals," Kimberly shook her head and she could see the gears turning in Tommy's head. "I work for Promethea. We serve to protect the world, sometimes we journey even outside of our galaxy. The world isn't what you think, Tommy. She isn't who you think she is."

"Tommy, please don't let her do this," Katherine pleaded, but she was starting to feel him stray.

Tommy had been out of the game for too long to understand that the world wasn't anything but perfectly normal. He only knew three things to be absolutely true. One, he was marrying Katherine Hillard. Two, he was once a power ranger, but he gave all that up once upon a time. That life didn't belong to him anymore. That wasn't who he was. Three, there was something deep inside of him that made him believe every single word coming out of Kimberly's mouth.

"Are you insane?" Katherine growled, feeling herself stand a little taller.

"Thunder from down under?" Kimberly cocked her head. "You don't think I know what that is?'

"A strip club for women?" Tommy dared to say. Katherine was still securely behind him, but he felt himself inching away as the seconds ticked.

Kimberly almost laughed if it hadn't been so stupid. If only it were that simple.

"Have you really been out of the game that long, Tommy? Don't be so naive! Let me guess, you think the Hidden Jewel is just another strip club?" She shook her head, the grip on her gun aimed perfectly at Katherine, "The mob has mattress stores, we have strip clubs."

We? Who the hell is we? Promethea? What's with the secrets? Everyone in his life has been whispering for the last several years and he's never felt more out of place.

He remained silent, slowly staring at the weapon in Kimberly's hand.

"Haven't you noticed anything different since you've been back together?" Kimberly tried desperately. "Don't you get it? This isn't Katherine. Kat was my partner… this," she gestured to the woman behind him, "is just a poor imitation of the real thing."

Kimberly was right. There was something off about Katherine since they had gotten back together. She wasn't the mature and soft-spoken woman he once knew and admired. She had changed. She was cold, bitter, and controlling. He couldn't even speak to her most days because she would blow up on him for any little thing that he did wrong. If he wasn't spending all his free time with her, she would hunt him down and demand his attention. It was too much for him at times, he was drowning. She blamed it on her migraine but how many migraines could she have within a day? It was constant. The Katherine from his teenage years was always patient and understanding with him. Their relationship hadn't been perfect either, but he had a real affection for her. This wasn't who he was marrying and if Kimberly was telling the truth, that Katherine was long dead.

Tommy pulled away far enough to spin around and take a good, hard look at Katherine. Her expression had darkened. There was no fear like he had imagined, there was a thrill.

It was then that Katherine's image began to break, like cracks on a porcelain doll. Her piercing blue eyes were browning, creases forming at the corners. The once clear complexion was rotting. The long luscious blond locks of hair were graying, morphing into a matted nest atop her head, taking the image of some unshapely horns.

Her migraine.

While Tommy hadn't laid eyes on the fallen Empress in years, he recognized her as soon as he saw her.

Rita.

What was that saying they say when you're about to meet your doom? Your life flashes before your eyes.

That couldn't have been an even more accurate statement for Tommy. When he saw a blade materialize in Rita's hand and pierce the skin on his right bicep, he swore his life was over. It wasn't until he felt the heat from several rounds rush right past him and into the space witch that he realized he still had all of his senses.

Rita's disgustingly long nails wrapped around Tommy as she held him like a life preserver.

His weird day had only gotten weirder, but nothing really surprised him anymore. Weirder things could have happened and he would have shrugged it off.

There were many questions, the main one asking how it was even possible that Rita was even alive and back on earth. What was Rita plotting? However, none of that could be asked before a group of fifteen or so people burst into the suite at Caesar's Palace and surrounded Tommy. It was like the swat team storming in to meet their objective… and that objective was clinging to him with all that she could. Weapons were drawn on him and Rita and it took Kimberly's signal for them to back off of him.

It hadn't been until that moment that he realized that the rounds to Rita's chest came from Kimberly. Her eyes were frozen, hard, but hiding unshed tears. She had taken the risk of trusting her hand to not miss. Just like she had done thousands of times, her fingers hit the trigger and the round spiraled from her barrel into the chest of the Moons worst tenant.

Rita fell to the ground just like anyone with that many bullets to the chest would. Her eyes went wide and opened just the same, like a fish out of water that was gasping for air. Blood trickled out of her in a purple ooze, reminding him that although she looked almost human, she certainly was not. But unlike the goddess she proclaimed herself to be, she was just as mortal as the rest of the universe. No amount of space magic could change that.

The team from Promethea moved in quickly and gathered Rita up. She was still alive. For how long? It wasn't important.

When he turned to find Kimberly, he realized she was already gone. She'd left him with more questions than answers and he was more than determined to get them.

At thirteen hundred hours, the life that Tommy Oliver knew came to an end. He was no longer the retired ranger that lived a boring life. He was thrust into a life where secrets lived within the walls. Where strip clubs and mattress stores were no longer just strip clubs and mattress stores.

The paramedics from Promethea had managed to patch Tommy up rather quickly. Just as he suspected, the injury to his right arm was minor. Rita couldn't even move fast enough to do any damage to him. He'd gotten worse wounds on the battlefield, but it had been so long. Luckily for him, he'd recover quickly and move on. He sat on the floor of the ambulance that had patched him up. Jason and the rest of the guys, along with a few people from Promethea, had driven over to where the wedding was to take place and explain why the bride and groom were not showing up. He wasn't quite sure what they would say. They couldn't exactly tell them the truth, could they? Katherine's parents would be gutted. They were good people and didn't deserve to have been taken advantage by Rita like that.

Tommy's head fell to his hand as he wiped at it roughly. How could he just move on after this mess?

Coming up from behind him, Kimberly took a deep breath of confidence and released a soft, "Hey."

Tommy didn't turn to look at her. The image of the Kimberly he thought he knew would be erased once he saw her again. He needed to hold on to that moment for a second longer.

"Hi," He returned.

The second came and went and he longed for the simplicity of his previous life. Kimberly knew she had to explain herself and hope he understood, but that was a conversation she had been long dreading. She couldn't slip away unnoticed anymore. He deserved to know everything.

Braving the storm, Tommy turned to her. He found her looking just a tiny bit smaller in front of him. Her secrets had been spilled over, but there was still so much more that he needed to know.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?"

He made a little room for her beside him, giving her the open invitation.

Still, neither made an attempt to speak first. Tommy didn't really know what to say, although he had a lot to ask. Kimberly wasn't quite sure where to begin.

"Agent K?" He said softly, staring straight ahead. He watched her head dip a little from the corner of his eye. "Who are you?"

She shrugged. Unsure of how to answer that question exactly. "Whoever they tell me to be. I'm an agent of Promethea and I've been one for eight years."

"I'm confused," He said, shaking his head. Who the hell was Promethea?

"There was no Gunther Schmidt," She sighed. "I mean, there is, but it wasn't who we saw at Angel Grove all of those years ago. That was actually Mike from HR."

He made the face that an art major would have when they would be asked to do a lecture on Quantum mechanics.

"Right," She nodded, suddenly remembering that he didn't know what she was talking about. "I was recruited by Grace Sterling to join Promethea."

"What's Promethea? The CIA?"

"No," She revealed a small smile, "we're way above their pay-grade."

When he didn't say more, she elaborated, "They're a secret government organization that deals with more shit than you can ever imagine. Mike took me to their headquarters outside San Fransisco and told me everything. The Pan Globals was a lie to get me to leave Angel Grove." She paused for a moment. "There was no other guy, Tommy. I had to let you go if I was really going to go undercover. I couldn't have any personal relationships."

His head locked on the only thing he ever wanted to hear. There was no other guy.

"So you chose a job over me?" Why did that sting more?

"Over you?" She was almost offended. "If you think that I didn't spend the last eight years thinking about you then you never knew me at all. I did this for you."

How could this possibly be for him?

"Don't you get it?" She felt the tears sting at the back of her eye. "Promethea ripped me away from my life, promising me a gymnastics career and a future. Those were lies. I gave everything up to pursue a broken dream. They turned me into a trained assassin that could take a group of men with my pinky."

When he saw the tears slip down her cheeks, he wanted to take her in his arms. He wanted to be the one to console her this time, not Jason, but he thought against it. He wasn't quite sure he could control himself around her if he touched her.

"They gave me no choice. After I completed the academy they told me I had to let you go. If I really wanted to go under, that is. What else could I say? Where was I to go after I gave Kat my power coin? There was no gymnastics career waiting for me in Florida. Nobody wanted me there. It was all a lie so that I could join… that's why you couldn't find me there." She slapped the tears off her face, "No one ever told me you went looking for me."

"Then why would you join?" That was the one thing he didn't quite understand. She said she had no one but that wasn't true. He was there. Zordon was there. "You say they forced your hand, why would you want to work for someone like that? Zordon would have taken you back in!"

"Zordon?" She snorted. "Tommy, Zordon wasn't any better. He lied just like everyone else. Did you know we weren't Earth's first rangers? Did you know that Grace Sterling was the original Red ranger and she lost her team on a failed mission? Did you know that your team up with everyone on the moon was organized by Promethea?"

Was he in the Truman Show? Has everything in his life been orchestrated by something and he was just a fucking pawn on a chessboard?

"Has everything in my life been a lie?" He buried his hands in his hair. "What's been real?"

"This is real," she took his hand in hers, "The way we feel about each other. We… I can't lie about that. You're the only real thing in my life."

He shook his head. That's what he thought too, but she lied. She'd been lying to him the entire time.

"I needed to stop your wedding.. by any means necessary. That was my mission. I didn't realize I stilled love you."

The knot formed in his throat and he hoped for a noose. He decided to deafen himself to her last words, although his heart listened.

"What were you doing at the club?"

"I have assignments, Tommy," Her head dropped, as if that would make her feel any better. "I'm sorry you had to see that, but some very powerful people go to these clubs. I do what I have to do."

He knew what that meant and a part of him wanted to put his fist through a wall. His arm flexed to suppress the twitch.

"And Jerry?"

"He's just a prick," She scowled, her mind drifting to the large man that made her miserable life just a little more miserable. "He's not part of anything. When I told you everything yesterday, you promised to help me get out. That's why we took the money and gave it to him. It would buy me enough time to go into hiding, but then everything went to shit. "

A part of that made sense… kind of, but what really got to him was why this whole thing was happening and he knew nothing about it. How was that even possible? He had served the longest out of anyone and he was the one left in the dark.

"Why you and Kat?"

"It wasn't just us. Andros and Cassie, Jen, Carter, Karone… Billy. He knows of Promethea, he works closely with the Tech, but he doesn't know about me or any of the other agents…" She sighed, knowing her next words might hurt him. "Jason knows."

Jason was his brother, so the sting of betrayal hurt more. They talked about everything, there were no secrets there, at least he thought there weren't. This just further proved that he knew nothing of anyone. Everyone had been keeping secrets from him.

"Why not me?"

The million-dollar question.

"They really considered it, but you've already given so much of your life. I voted against it. I didn't want you to live the life that I do. You deserve to have a normal life after everything you've done for the world. If they wanted you, you wouldn't have a choice. I did everything I could to keep you safe. But you went on their radar once you got together with Kat."

He swallowed the bile that was threatening to come up. The life that he used to live seemed like a distant memory. In all honesty, he hoped there was a sign that told him to walk away from Katherine and Kimberly had been it. The Katherine that he thought he knew was long dead. She never went back looking for him. For that, he mourned the death of the nineteen-year-old girl he cared for and raised a glass to the woman she became. She gave her life for the greater good and that was something to be admired. The fact that Rita took advantage of that was truly sick.

"Did you know?"

He was drifting from her, shutting down the world around him because the only thing that was safe was his own thoughts. Life made sense in there and he wanted to live in that reality. She questioned if he would ever forgive her. Would she forgive him if the roles were reversed? Maybe not so easily.

"I knew as much as Grace told me. Nothing else was relevant. I didn't know you were with Kat, but Promethea knew. I would have done anything to save you from the hurt. If I had known it was Kat from the beginning, I would have stopped it. "

"And I'm guessing none of that answers why Rita was back."

She didn't reply. Hell, she didn't even have the answer to that, but she didn't need to.

His eyes closed. When she reached for him, he did everything to not pull away. Kimberly was intuitive and when she sensed the distance, she had her answer.

"There's so much that goes on that you don't know.. and you know who takes care of it? Me! To keep you and everyone else on this planet safe. To make you believe that the earth is always spinning the way it's supposed to. But it's over. You were my final mission. And now you're safe.. I'm done."

And with that, she slipped her wedding band off of her finger, and slowly slid it across the floor of the ambulance.

He faced her once again and he knew what it meant. It was goodbye— goodbye for then, goodbye for now, goodbye for good.

When he watched her get up, he begged himself to say something, but he didn't. She disappeared into the crowd, something he realized she was quite good at. How many times had she been within reach and he didn't see her?

He lived without her before and he would have to do that again… And he had to be okay with that.

Author note: Part two is up now. Enjoy :)