Chapter Eight

Tommy

The rest of the evening was filled with laughter and conversation.

Well, for the other Rangers. For Tommy, he decided to crawl into bed and try to block out the noise.

How did he get to this point? How did Kimberly?

Rolling over to lay on his back, Tommy stared up at the ceiling. Where was Kimberly right now? Was she safe now that she had the power of the Blue Amethyst Jewel?

He imagined finding her at this so-called fortress. He saw her running towards him with that big beautiful smile that he always loved to see.

Or would it be more of a cut and run deal where they would need to get out as fast as possible? Maybe a reunion would have to wait until they were safely gone.

Man, he missed her. It had been months since they had been together. It felt like longer with only phone calls and letters to keep up. He always kept a photo of the two of them in his locker at school as well as on his bedside table at home. There wasn't a day that went by that he didn't look at her face and wish…

Tommy wished that she would come back to California. He could see their whole lives ahead of them: graduating high school, going to college, getting married, having kids of their own… He just assumed that this would be the way the rest of his life panned out.

He never once imagined his life without Kimberly in it. Even after getting that stupid letter he was still in such denial. Thankfully, that was a lie he could forget about.

With that, Tommy fell into a deep sleep.

There was an earth shaking cry from across the fields. Tommy looked upinto the skies and balked at the sight.

In the distance, there was a long, floating machine that was moving in an undulating and fluid motion towards him. It released another long cry from its open and jagged toothed mouth.

It was a Zord, Tommy quickly realized.

It was massive and beautiful. The coloration was very unique: shimmering blue, pink, and purple wended around its body with several white patches along its blue eyes and its belly.

Tommy recognized it then – a killer whale.

And it was coming right at the farm.

When Tommy turned from the sight of the Orca Zord, he was filled with dismay to find the farm and fields on fire.

Coming from the mouth of the giant whale Zord were blasts of fire raining upon the landscape.

Tommy ran back to try and enter the farmhouse, but it was too late: the building was fully engulfed.

There were no cries from within and Tommy prayed everyone had gotten out alive. He didn't see a single soul around.

The ground beneath his feet began to shake.

Tommy ran around the back of the farmhouse and nearly fell to the ground looking up at the sky.

There were five gigantic Zords flying overhead: a dolphin, a manta ray, a sea lion, a shark, and an octopus.

Tommy's heartbeat ratcheted up a notch. Were these the older Rangers' Zords?

He looked back towards the direction of the killer whale and he was terrified to see Kimberly standing on the ground beneath the whale Zord.

"Kim!" he cried, "Kim, get away from there!"

She was watching him sadly, tears spilling over her cheeks. Before he could even begin running towards her, the killer whale doused Kimberly and the land beneath her in flames.

"KIM!"

Tommy startled himself awake. He was covered in sweat and the sheets of the bed were sticking to his body.

There was a series of quick footsteps and then the door to Tommy's room swung open. Still in the throes of his nightmare, Tommy didn't recognize the man at his door.

"Where's Kimberly?" Tommy demanded, struggling to detangle himself from his bedclothes. "Kim?"

"Alright, son, alright." the man said, stepping into the room. "A nightmare. That's all it was."

Tommy blinked and his heart slowed. "Falcon?"

"Yes. It's alright. You had a nightmare." the man repeated.

Tommy put his hands to his face and rubbed it vigorously. It had all seemed so real...so final.

"I saw the Zords." he said, dropping his hands to his lap.

"What?" Falcon asked. This was clearly not the response that he was expecting.

"The shark, the octopus, the sea lion, the ray, and the dolphin." Tommy replied. "I saw them in the sky. And they were facing off against a killer whale Zord coming from the mountains. Kimberly was on the ground...she was just standing there...and it burned her."

Tommy's hands were back to his face. The nightmare was so upsetting to him that he could have cried.

Falcon was silent in the doorway, his hand still resting on the doorknob. If Tommy had looked, he would have seen a very startled expression on the man's face.

"How...did you know about the Zords?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know. I looked up to the sky in my dream and they were just there."

"I need to talk with my fellow Rangers about this...the Zords have been out of commission for many years. No one but my team knows where they are located. Not even the Queen knows of their hiding place." Without another word, Falcon shut the door and was gone.

Tommy realized that he must have freaked out the guy, but he couldn't get the awful images of Kimberly out of his mind.

His time for sleep was through. Tommy pried the blankets away from his body and stood from the bed. Feeling the warm wooden floorboards beneath his feet seemed to steady him.

Real. This was real. Whatever that dream meant, he would figure it out later. Tommy walked to the door and pulled it open. He could hear the low voices of several people down the hallway. He followed the sounds to the Rangers sitting or standing around the dining room table. They all looked up at him when he approached.

Glen stood fast from his chair and walked over to Tommy, looking furious. "How did you know about the Zords? Are you working for them?" he challenged, getting up in Tommy's face.

Taking an automatic step backwards, Tommy frowned. "I don't know how I saw them. It was a dream, I swear it."

"Forgive Glen, Tommy." Mora said, sternly. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."

Glen grunted and turned his back on the group, walking away towards the kitchen.

"He's just gonna go cool off." Reese explained in a whisper to Tommy. "Don't worry about it."

Tommy didn't worry about it. He knew he didn't do anything wrong. "Look, I don't want to cause any more problems. I just want to find Kimberly and bring her home. I already agreed to work with you all. If my dream is any indication of anything it's that the killer whale Zord is not protecting Kim. So I need to find a way to fight that Zord. I know that means getting your Power Jewels back so that you can use your own Zords again."

The adults around Tommy watched him speak in various levels of awe.

"You're a smart kid, Tommy." Brandon said softly. "I'm not sure that I would have been able to decipher everything that quickly."

"I'm glad you're on our side." Reese said with a grin.

Tommy tried to smile back and failed.

Glen came back from the kitchen and sighed. "I'm sorry, Tommy. I was out of line. I'm just overprotective of my team and our Zords."

"Don't worry about it." Tommy replied. "I'm not sure how I would feel in your shoes, either."

Glen nodded, looking ashamed of himself.

After a beat, Tommy decided to propose a plan. "I don't want to wait any longer. I need to get to Torin and I think we should leave in the morning."

The older Rangers looked at each other.

"There's nothing to prepare here. Anything we need we can get on the road." Mora said with a shrug.

Falcon's face was the only one to look unsure.

"I know you only just got back to your family, Falcon." Glen said, "But the sooner we get to Torin, the sooner we can be back."

Falcon pursed his lips, nodding. "It'll be hard on Wren. And Anya. But they'll understand."

Tommy watched the older man. He wasn't sure how often Falcon could see his family, but from this reaction maybe it wasn't very often.

Being away from his own family was hard enough. Tommy tried to keep that in mind when speaking with Falcon in the future.

"We go over preparations in the morning." Falcon finally said. "We leave when we are ready to and not any sooner."

With that, Falcon walked from the room and towards the kitchen. The sound of the front door opening and closing reverberated around the corner.

The group was silent for a moment before Mora said, "We get some sleep now. If I know Falcon, and I do, he'll be ready at sunup."

Tommy nodded, said his goodnights, and made his way back to his room. He was still wired from his nightmare so he knew sleeping would be next to impossible. Yet, he would try. It sounded like this would be a long journey.

Tommy lay back in bed and looked up at the ceiling once more. Instead of the Kim of his dream, he imagined the photo on his nightstand at home. She was smiling, holding onto his arm.

This was his girl. That smile, that beautiful face… Tommy felt her in his arms again.

He'd carry this moment with him all the way to Torin.

Kimberly

Kimberly walked away from her trainees to get a moment alone. Finding a patch of evergreen trees, she made her way to the center so no one could see her from the training yard.

She was proud to note that most of the students were doing very well in their work. Some were more advanced than others, but she wasn't as concerned with them. That group could hold their own in a fight. It was the younger kids around her age that she worried about. Why had none of the more experienced fighters helped out the younger? Kim knew that she couldn't be the most experienced fighter on those training grounds.

Some of this just didn't add up.

But it didn't matter. Kimberly would do the job she was forced into and she would do it to the best of her abilities. And when everything was said and done, they would have to let her go. She would find a way to get back to her own world and she would move on. Maybe she would stay in Florida after all.

"Last I checked," a drawling voice said from behind Kim, "The training was closer to the fortress."

"Leave me alone, Rory." Kim responded without looking at him.

For once, he didn't respond with a snappy comment. Instead, he said, "I'm sorry again about what you saw in the viewing pool, Lady Hart."

It felt like a dagger to her stomach just remembering. She stayed still, though, trying to let it wash off of her.

"He doesn't deserve you." Rory said quietly.

Kimberly spun around and stated, "What do you want, Rory."

He was standing in the same uniform that she wore: black breeches, black tunic, and black boots. His hands were behind his back and his green eyes were serious as they watched her.

"I want to see you smile. Just once." he said, a small smile of his own playing on his lips.

"Yeah?" Kimberly asked, angrily, "Well, get used to disappointment."

Instead of insulting him, this seemed to make him smile wider. "See? You make me smile all the time."

Kim rolled her eyes. "Look, Your Highness, I'm not sure why you've picked up a particular interest in me, but it would be great if you would just leave me alone. I'm sure you have many other important things to worry about."

"She is exactly as I imagined, brother." a high voice said from well behind Rory.

Rory flinched. Actually flinched.

Kim stepped to the side to see around him, finding a girl that looked a bit older than Rory. She had long brown hair and the same electric green eyes as her brother.

"Lady Hart," Rory said stiffly, "This is my sister, Lina."

Lina walked forward to stand beside her brother. She was slightly shorter than he was and she was rail thin.

"Nice to meet you." Kimberly said, once again ignoring the royal titles and customs.

Lina's smile was so similar to Rory's that Kim wondered if they were twins.

"I'm here to bring you to my mother." Lina said, without preamble or hello. "Brother, she says to dismiss the...trainees for the day."

Rory's look to his sister was hard and filled with warning. Kimberly tried to care, but didn't. Whatever family drama was going on had nothing to do with her and she wasn't about to involve herself.

"Ok, let's go." Kimberly said, then she quickly walked past the two siblings so they needed to jog to catch up to her.

Rory separated from the two girls and made his way to the wooden platform at the fortress wall. Lina and Kimberly walked side by side back towards the south entrance to the fortress itself.

"You've left quite the impression on my brother." Lina said, giving Kimberly a sidelong glance.

Kimberly snorted. "Your brother is a lost puppy looking for something to play with." she responded, glancing back.

Lina's laugh was like a tinkling bell. "Poor Rory. I'm fairly certain you have his heart in that tiny palm of your hand."

Kimberly said nothing. Tiny palm? What the heck?

Lina was quiet after that, though Kim noticed the wry smile on her face.

As they walked through the crowded hallways of the lower part of the fortress, Kim watched as people gave Lina a wide berth. Clearly this girl had some sort of reputation that followed her around.

The two wound up back in the stone throne room, but this time there was only the Queen standing on the dais. Kimberly was surprised to find there weren't even any guards for the royal.

"Lady Hart." the Queen said with a wide smile. "Thank you for meeting me on such short notice."

As if I had any other choice, Kim thought grumpily.

The Queen went on, "I've decided that it is time for you to meet your new Ranger teammates."

That caught Kim off guard. "My...other teammates?"

The Queen nodded. "Send them in." she said to Lina.

The Princess gave a small curtsy before heading back to a wooden side door. Opening it wide, four people walked into the room. They were all around Kimberly's age and of varying heights. There were three boys and one girl, much like Kimberly's old team of Rangers. They all wore the same black uniform that Kim wore.

The four stopped several feet from the dais and then bowed to the Queen. Then, to her surprise, they turned and bowed to Kimberly, as well.

The Queen folded her hands before her and looked at the group of teenagers. She seemed very proud of them.

"Lady Hart," she finally said, "Your teammates will attend your forces training and then the five of you will train together later in the evenings. I want you all to know each other like the backs of your hands."

The four so-called Rangers murmured their assent. Kimberly said nothing.

"I'll leave you to introduce yourselves and to start getting to know each other." The Queen said happily, then nodded to Lina. The Queen followed her daughter out the main entrance and into the open halls.

The teenagers all looked at each other for a time before one of the boys stepped forward with a hand extended.

"Alan." he said, shaking Kimberly's hand when she placed it in his own. "I'm from New Hampshire."

Kimberly's jaw dropped so hard she thought it might hit the floor. "What?"

"You're not the only one trying to get home, believe me." he said fiercely, gripping her hand tighter.

Kimberly tore her eyes away from Alan's and looked at the others. There was a mixture of sadness and anger on their faces.

People taken from Earth like me… Kim thought, wildly.

"I just want to go home." the girl said, her voice thick with emotion. One of the other boys put an arm around her shoulders.

Kimberly was still floored by this turn of events. Four more kids like her just trying to get back home…

"Then let's work together." she told them, "I'll train you. And we'll work together."

Kimberly forced as much determination into her expression as possible. Alan took note and nodded in understanding.

They would work together. And they would escape together, too.