A/N Power Ranger Zeo Settings and Characters all belong to Haim Saban and Toei Company and the Fox. Any original characters and this story are copyright © 2011-2023 to Hopelessromanticgurl, all rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Mae-E helped co-write this story! She did an amazing job! Please help me thank her by leaving an awesome comment for this chapter!


After a few more days of restless sleep, Tommy was mentally and physically exhausted. By the time he went to bed that night he was out the second he closed his eyes.

The next morning Kimberly woke up and stretched and then snuggled into Tommy. It was a normal thing they had been doing. After waking up, they stayed in bed and just snuggled together. Tommy always wrapped his arms around her the second she snuggled him. This time was different. This time he didn't do anything.

"Wow, you're really out of it this morning." She said softly. She hugged him a little tighter, and still, nothing happened. She sat up and looked at him. It looked like he was sleeping peacefully. Then she giggled. Maybe he was only pretending to be asleep and then any moment now he'd jump up and tackle her back down and then tickle her to death. She waited and waited, but still, nothing happened. She frowned and shook him gently. "Tommy, this isn't funny anymore. Wake up."

Still, he didn't move. She shook him harder and spoke louder. "Tommy wake up! I'm not kidding anymore."

He remained sleeping.

Kimberly began to panic. Tears filled her eyes. She shook him even harder. "Tommy! Stop it! You're scaring me!" Usually, whenever Kimberly said those words, Tommy always stopped whatever he was doing. This time he continued to sleep.

"Tommy! Tommy! Tommy!" She started shrieking as tears streamed down her cheeks,

Seconds later she and Tommy were teleported to the main room. Kimberly didn't even notice. Tommy was on a medical bed, and she was next to him. She had to wake Tommy. He had to wake up. "Tommy! Tommy!" Her crane cried out louder than ever before, and even that didn't wake him up. Her crane used to be able to wake him from even the deepest of sleep. But not this time. Something was really wrong. Kimberly dropped to her knees and cried, and her crane was screaming out in agony right along with her.

Suddenly strong arms pulled her into a hug.

"Tommy!" She gasped. But when she turned to look, she realized it was only Jason. The others had arrived too.

"Jason!" Kimberly cried. "Something's wrong. He's not waking up."

"Shhh, I know. I know. It's ok. Zordon will help him. I promise. Shh. Take a deep breath." Jason soothed, as she curled into his side tucking herself into a little ball.

Kimberly calmed down and stopped crying after a few moments, "What's wrong with him?" She whimpered.

"Tommy is in a very deep sleep. So deep, in fact, I fear he may have slipped into a coma." Zordon explained.

"What? Why? How?" Kimberly asked.

"Do you really not know?" Tanya asked.

"Last I checked people don't randomly slip into comas," Kimberly answered.

Jason sighed softly. He had a pretty good idea he knew exactly how this happened. Now to get Kim to understand it.

"Kim I don't know what happened to you, or what horrors they made you live thru, but you can't keep running for this. It's not healthy for you or for him. Your so intertwined with each other that your refusing to deal with this is stopping him from doing the same," says Jason as he gently rubbed her back.

"What do you mean?" she asks .then looks back up at the table that she knew Tommy was laying on, cut off from the world, lost within his own mind. She thought back over the last few days, over how tired he been and how wound up and agitated he been and how strained and awkward things have been between them recently.

She looks back at Jason as his words repeat in her mind before everything clicks into place. "Oh my gosh, I've done this to him!" she chokes out as a look of panic stretches across her features.

Jason quickly says, "Heck no Kim!" mentally kicking himself for not realizing she was going to find a way to blame herself for this.

"What I'm trying to say Kim is that you've both been suffering, but you're not going to heal by trying to block the other out, you're too connected for that. Neither of you can do this alone, the only way either of you can truly heal and put this behind you is to do so together. Which means you have to be totally honest and open with each other. Trust that the other isn't going to turn on you regardless of what you share. The longer you try to fight alone against your demons the more your only fighting against each other. You need to fight together like you used to."

"what do you mean? there nothing to fight here right now." Kim asks him.

"Hear me out on this, you need to look at all the things your fighting against in here, like you used to fight all those monsters years ago," he answers as he reached out and lightly tapped her forehead. "Find that pink warrior that I know is still in there somewhere and just let her Kick some serious butt on all those mental monsters. I don't mean to oversimplify the problem here, far from it actually. Maybe just a change of perspective, a way of seeing yourself as powerful as what you're facing. Besides you never been alone. You've always had all of us to back you up that hasn't changed. We will all be here for you no matter what." Jason answers.

"So what does that mean right now? how does that me, or help him right now? " Kim asks as she wipes her face with the back of her hand.

"Well if he is not able to be out here with us, then maybe just maybe he waiting for you to come in there and get him. You get to rescue him this time, I know its a switch but stranger things have happened," he says with a slight smirk.

"Yeah, but how? How do I reach him? I've tried my connection. It isn't strong enough." Kim sighed softly. "I don't know if I'm strong enough."

Aisha walked over and touched Kim's shoulder. "You're plenty strong enough. If you want to reach him, just do it the same way we reached you. Turn your connection all the way up, and push it as much as you can. You'll find your way inside his head, and then you can save him, the same way he saved you."

Kim stood up from her place on the floor and looked down upon Tommy sleeping soundly for the moment on the bed. "He's in there because of me. His nightmares will involve my...'him.' What if I get in there and I can't save him?"

"Your crane will help you, Kimberly. Trust it and let it guide you. Tommy's Falcon will be searching for her. So let them guide you both and help you both. For It's the only way," says Zordon.

Kimberly nods then inhales and exhales a deep breath. She climbs up on to the bed and curls up next to him. She leaned down and kissed Tommy on the forehead, then whispers, "Hang on handsome, I'm on my way." Then she pressed her forehead to his. She closed her eyes and let her Crane take full control of her mind.


When she opened her eyes, she saw that she was standing outside of what looked like an abandoned warehouse, heavy smoke poured from the upper windows, and the air hung heavy with the unmistakable scent of something burning. There was no doubt in her mind that it was the massive building itself that was burning, and that her mate was trapped somewhere within it. As if on cue the shrill, desperate cry of the falcon could be heard coming from within the structure.

"Just like Jason told me if ever there was a time to find my inner ranger it would be now," she said out loud to herself. She took a deep settling breath in and out, then charged into the building. She could feel his distress before she even crossed the threshold and only hoped he could hold on long enough for her to get to him. She tried to send as much calming energy as possible through the link in the hope that he knows that she was here and trying to get to him. As she disappeared through the door and down the first dark and smoked filled hall, she heard her crane's responding call.

As she rushed down the dark hallway, she could feel just how much stronger their connection was here. Like an internal compass guiding her through this labyrinth of corridors back to his side.

"TOMMY!" she cried out as the dim lights flickered overhead and the smoke seemed to obscure all details around her.

Before long she came to a door, she quickly jerked on the handle only to find it locked tight. She looked up at it to notice a small window with what looked like a sign under it. Squinting she could just make out the words, memory number... but the soot from the smoke obscured the seemingly random string of numbers. Raising up on her tiptoes she wiped at the window with her hand. Just being able to see into the now clearer window she saw what looked like a battle.

It did not take long to spot Tommy in his red suit in the midst of battle. His red suit shining brightly in the sunlight as he fought alongside the others. She gasps as she sees him come across the robot prince. Her shock only grows as she sees him continuing to strike his opponent long after the other has stopped putting up a resistance. She sees sparks start to come from his hand as he continues his onslaught. The fact that he only stops after the other rangers pull him off and away from the metal body as all the other cogs disappear.

"His hand, that what happened," she remarks to herself as she looks away from the door. Knowing that she not going to find what she seeks there. "Why wouldn't he tell me about that?" she asks herself.

As her right-hand slips from the door, it hits something. Suddenly she hears the voices of Tommy and the other rangers. She turns back and realizes that she now hearing what happened at that moment, the fight that made her shut down. She hears Tommy angrily shout at Rocky about how he doesn't understand how he feels. How he felt every single thing that was done to Kim even when he wasn't actually there. How he suffered right along with her until she shut down blocking him out, which caused him to suffer even worse. She watched as he stormed off and the image went dark only to start over where she first saw it.

She backed away from the door and shook her head. "If he felt everything, I guess there really isn't anything we can hide from each other. I never realized our connection went that far, Jason was right about us...again. This is starting to become a nasty habit," she tells her self as she heads further down the hall. As she looked further down the hall, she noticed that she could just make out other doors through the smoke. I must be in his memory banks. She realized. She let the pull of the crane lead her down one hall then another. She stopped every so often to look into the windows, she saw his memories of getting the false letter, to her finding him at the youth center in her beaten and battered state, and of her telling him about what Kat did to her. She even saw moments she never knew happened, Like Tommy talking to Billy and Jason and Rocky about his anger over what had happened to her and not knowing what to do with it, his fear of losing her, and the guilt of not being able to stop it or stop things that seemed to keep happening to her even with him there. She also saw his nightmares and his simulations during training sessions.

She also found good memories mixed in with all of the pain and the anger that she was seeing and feeling in these memories. She lingered at the door that held the memory of their first time together. Smiling as she felt the love they were feeling among other things as she watched the memory play out thru the glass. This memory was the only experience, and evidence she had that proved physical means of love could be gentle and beautiful. That under the right conditions with the right person it didn't have to be a painful thing. That when willingly entered into it could be the most natural, incredible things that one can ever be blessed to experience. It was only when it was twisted and corrupted and forced that it became something ugly, and painful and cruel. While she had experienced both at the hands of both angels and monsters, it was only now after everything she had discovered here that was giving her the clarity needed to finally separate the two and truly start to understand the difference.

It was foolish of her to think that she could hide something so huge from him and deal with it on her own. Yet again Jason had been right, she and Tommy had only been tripping each other up by not talking to each other. If her surrogate brother ever found out just how right he had been, his ego would become as big as his former zord.

She shook her head and laughs and says to herself, "Can't have that now can we?"

She moved away from the door and continued on through this burning maze, she knew she was getting closer cause the smoke was getting thicker. She just hoped she got to him in time, the thought of losing him was too painful to consider. If she did get to him in time, she swore to herself that she would tell him everything, so that they can heal together. She was tired of keeping her walls up so high that she had to keep everyone out and attempt to pull together on her own especially when she didn't have to. Suddenly the walls and floors started to shake violently and the lights flicker wildly as the desperate and despondent cry of the falcon can be heard. The force of the cry, as well as the shaking of the ground under her feet, made it hard for her to keep her footing. Her crane instantly responded to the call with one of her own.

"HOLD ON TOMMY I'M COMING!" Kim screamed out, not sure if he could hear her where ever he was. With all her heart and soul she truly hoped he could.

As soon as she gets stable on her feet and the building stopped moving she took off running. She didn't have time to waste looking into windows she had to get to him, and it was clear he wasn't here. Besides this felt a little too much like snooping through his things and violating his privacy. With as connected as they are they have very little of that to start with, so if he doesn't choose to share it, then it's not right for her to look for it on her own. She loves him enough to respect him that way and the hope that he would feel the same if the roles were reversed. There was one connecting factor that she noticed in the memories she did see, something she never realized before being so lost in her own problems and feelings. That while he was totally devoted to helping taking care of her and to help her get better, never once did she see him do anything to take care of himself. She felt the anger and fear and pain and guilt in his memories and found with no proof that he has done anything to cope with it. This was just like when he first joined the team after they freed him from the spell. He was bottling everything up and not dealing with it until I made him. Except for this time she was too damaged to make him help himself, cause he too busy trying to help her and she been making it harder for him by trying to hide things from him.

A sudden thought stopped her in her tracks so quickly that she almost tripped and fell over. He must have felt her attack as well if he doesn't already know what happened to her, he smart enough to piece it together soon enough. She starts to tear up at that thought and everything else that starting to run through her head. Her body starts to shake as she starts to panic, but then she feels that sudden tug coming from within her and it reminds her why she here, so she takes a deep breath and nods "I can't fall apart now, he needs me. I need to be the pink he used to know right now, and with that, she starts running again.

After flying down several hallways, she had to slow down as the smoke started to make her lungs burn and running was no longer possible. From what little she could see of her environment she could tell that she was no longer in his memory banks. She had moved into another part of his mind, but what she didn't know. The heat in the building was getting stronger, as well as the smoke two sure signs she was getting closer to the source of the blaze. If what she was feeling through the link to the falcon was any indication, she would find Tommy in the same place as the heart of the fire.

As she worked her way down another hallway and around a corner, she saw something halfway down the hall in front of her that was most definitely out of place. When she got closer, she could see why one of the doors on the left-hand side of the hall was hanging open. Once she got to it, she could see that the door was not just merely open, but was warped and bowed in several places and was hanging partially off its hinges. Almost as if it had been subjected repeatedly to some great force and was now a mangled wreck. As she looked closer at the door, she saw that it was one of those really thick formidable doors like one would see on a bank vault. Oddly enough this is the only door she seen with such a multiple of now busted locks and security measures. Whatever had been kept behind this door was never meant to get out. She took a quick peek from the door to the room only to find it empty. The interior had been completely shredded and destroyed. From the look of all this, she wasn't sure if she should be relieved or afraid that whatever was in there is now roaming around free out here. She just prayed that whatever it was she didn't cross its path. That would be the last thing she needed was to have to fight one of his demons, she could barely deal with her own. Not wanting to think of what could have possibly been in there any longer she moves along further down the hall but now with a bit more trepidation.

She traveled down a few more empty smoke-filled hallways, blindly following the pull of the falcon's call, coughing more frequently as she goes. Not long after climbing two flights of steps and coming to a section of intersecting halls the whole building began to shake again. This time the shaking was a great deal more intense, and she starts to hear a creaking and groaning coming from the very walls and floors themselves. Suddenly something impacted her right side hard, knocking her clear off her feet! Immediately afterward there was a loud crashing sound and a massive dust cloud flew out in all directions. It takes a few moments for the dust to clear enough to be able to see anything, and to stop coughing, but once she does she can see a massive hole both above and below where she had just been standing. The ceiling had given way and fallen in hitting the floor with such force that it caused the floor to cave in and fall on the level below.

If it hadn't have been for whatever hit her, knocking her out of the way, she could have been seriously hurt maybe even killed. Wait, what did just hit her? She turned as she looks at her would be savior and is utterly shocked!

"Tommy!" she gasps loudly.

He smiles at her and says, "In the flesh. Kim."

She throws her arms around him and hugs him tight. In her joy to have found him, she almost missed the fact that while it was stiflingly hot where they were, he was almost ice cold.

She chuckles and shakes her head and says, "To think I came here to rescue you, and yet here we are, and you rescued me again."

"That's my job. protecting the pretty pink princess," he said as he swept hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear.

Something was slightly off in his tone, which reflected in his words making them not sound right. She also noticed how her crane was not rejoicing, even though she had Tommy in front of her. In fact, she was frantic as if trying to warn her of something, even if she couldn't figure out what. The most off-putting thing was his touch, where she normally thrilled and tingled when he made sweet and gentle gestures like this. Only this time it was just the opposite happened, the chill that ran through her was not a pleasant one. Something about it made her feel uncomfortable and threatened. She knew whatever she was missing was impotent, that the pieces were there in front of her, but she just couldn't put them together.

She looked at him a bit confused before saying, " You haven't called me that since I was actively in pink. I'm sure you're ready to get back outside of here." She went to get up but felt his arm around her stop her and hold her in place.

"No rush Kim we got time, and I like to show my appreciation for your coming to find me," he says as he leans down to Kiss her.

She turns her face away, and he ends up kissing her neck by her ear. "Not now Tommy, can't we wait till we are back out in the real world?" she asks him, to stop his trail down her neck. Which was making her flesh crawl in the worst way, and bring back memories she rather forget. Her Crane's distress got stronger, and she knew something was wrong here.

She looked back at him and said, " This place isn't safe, we really need to go."

Again she felt him hold her and stop her from getting up. Not in a harsh way but with just a little too much effort. "No, not yet. let's just take a few minutes to enjoy being together," he said to her trying to be kind, and yet it seems oddly strained.

"The ceiling and floor just caved in not mere feet from us, and the building is burning. This is not the time or place for this. Now please let's just go." She says with just a little bit more force in her voice.

It was then that she saw it, in his frustration at her refusal, his eyes flickered green. At that moment her blood felt like it turned to ice as everything clicked into place.

"Dragon!" she stammered in shock.

"Took you long enough to figure it out pinky! I forgot just how easy to fool you were. Pity I thought I could fool you long enough into being with me willingly. You were always so beautiful, I wanted to steal you and lock you away in my room at the moon place and claim you as my own. If Rita hadn't been so over-eager to defeat you and the other rangers, I would have," he says as he his free hand starts to roam over her body as he uses his body weight to hold her in place.

Kim starts to struggle as tears started to spill from her eyes. "No., please, stop," she begs him.

"Why should I, when I finally have you where I want you. In all those short pink outfits you used to wear, such a tease that made me burn so badly to touch you when I knew I couldn't," he responded as he kissed down her jawline to her ear. Mimicking everything that Tommy would do and how he had done it. Confusing her body, which was both responding and fighting at the same time.

"He might have had me locked away, but he couldn't hide the fact from me that he had you. Why stop at his good side, when you can have his dark side too? Just like him, I know what you like and how I promise I can make you scream in ecstasy! I can be so much better than he was you'll just lose your mind," he whispered into her ear. As he kissed down her neck till he got to that spot where he could feel her pulse and sucked and nipped at it in the way he knew she liked.

Kim was thrown back into a flashback of when the coach attacked her. The pain and the fear and the feeling of being powerless to stop what was happening. It was like she was suddenly reliving the whole experience all over again, which made it hard for her to breath.

Her chest started to burn, at first from lack of air, but then from something else. Something deep from inside, it joined with the tugging in her heart and seemed to whisper to her as it grew more powerful.

"You are not alone, you can do this, fight, and you can win!"

These words seemed to penetrate her flashbacks and blow them away like leaves caught in a fierce wind. Allowing clarity to start to break through into her consciousness like the first rays of sunlight after a nasty storm. Stoking the fires of her willpower making them stronger then they been in a long time. She suddenly started fighting against him, fighting with all she had within her, determined not to let it happen again, not when she had the power to stop it. She managed to bring up her knee and make contact with him causing him to stop and groan and hiss in pain.

"I didn't figure you for the type that liked it rough pinky. Not after all that happened, but if that how you want it I can be rough," he said to her in a bit of a harsher tone.

Suddenly a loud screeching sound is heard, and he stops, and his weight is gone from her as covers his ears. "Would you should those damn birds up!" he snaps at her.

Kim takes her chance and bucks him the rest of the way off of her and scrambles to her feet. The drops into a fighting stance and says, "Not a chance Dragon. Unlike you, Tommy would never hurt me. Nor would he try to force me into anything. I may not have been able to stop that metal monster in human clothing, but I damn well sure can stop you!"

"No, you can't, at least not by yourself. Broken little pinky can't even be in a room by herself, she has to be babysat every moment of the day. If she had just stayed where she belonged the big bad monster wouldn't have hurt her. You can't even make decisions correctly, how do you expect to stand a chance at beating me? There no one here to protect you this time. The longer you drag this out, the worse it's going to be when I eventually win," he taunts her.

There is silence for a few moments before she replies, "You're wrong, I'm not alone, and I never have been. While I have been broken, it doesn't mean I can never be fixed, because what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. As I see it, its time for me to start playing a more active roll in my repairs. That starts right here with me kicking your butt!"

"Bring it on pinky! This is going to be fun," he says with a smug smirk unfazed by her bold statement.

He drops into his fighting stance, as they start to circle each other. After a few moments, he makes the first move on her which she dodges, barely. She counters with a one-two combo which he blocks and counters with his own which she also blocks. She makes a quick jab that makes contact with his nose making him bleed and wiping the smug look off his face.

He wipes his face with his hand and when he pulls away and sees the blood on his fingers. He looks back up at her, and she can see his eyes flash green.

"I'm done playing around with you pinky, I'm going to make you pay for this, then I'm going to make you squeal like a little pink piglet!" He snarls at her, then charges at her.

The onslaught of punches and kicks come at her fast and furious. More finding their place then she would have liked, but she manages to land a few of her own, for in his anger he is getting sloppy. She knew she could use this to her advantage because in the back of her head she could hear the boys warning her against just this very thing in their training sessions. After blocking a hit and dodging another, he managed to sweep her legs out from under her. She hit the ground hard, but from where landed she could see that the hole in the floor was only a few feet behind him. If she could only distract him long enough, one good kick would send him right through it. Almost instantly it clicked in her mind what she had to do, Playing possum she laid still as if she been knocked out from the fall.

He let out an evil laugh as he looked down at her. "That was too easy, and now I'm really going to enjoy this."

"My thoughts exactly!" retorts Kim as she quickly moves and kicks out contacting with his solar plexus before he can react.

Knocking the wind out of him Kim quickly scrambles to her feet and throwing a one-two combo at him while he still winded knocking him back towards the hole. With one last quick kick at her unprepared opponent, she knocked him off balance and backward through the hole. There was short almost animalist howl of rage before a loud thud, then silence. She creeps close enough to look over the edge and sees him sprawled out on top of the broken pile of concrete below. She couldn't tell if he was dead or just out cold, but she wasn't going to stick around to find out. She had a rescue to complete, her falcon was counting on her. Besides she didn't think Dragon would be quite that easy to kill, she just got lucky this time. She wanted to be as far from here as she could when and if he came to, cause he was going to be pissed when he did. With that thought in mind, and a small amount of self-satisfaction she left the side of the hole and allows herself to be lead by her connection to her mate.

After an hour of twisting halls and stairwells that had ever-rising temperatures and smoke so dense she could feel the build-up of soot on her skin, she Finally came to a large room where she could hear the fire crackling away. As she ventured deeper into the room, she saw large pillars supporting the ceiling, narrow pathways that lead to a large round platform, and underneath it, all fire crackled away wildly. Hanging from a chain, high in the center of the room, just off to the side of the round platform was a cage. Within that cage, looking much worse for wear was Tommy!

He was arguing with some person wearing a black hooded cloak. As she crept closer and hid behind one of the pillars she heard the hooded figure taunt and torment him with the worst lies, playing on his every fear and hot-button he could.

"What good is it doing you being a ranger? When you can save the world but not that one person that matters, the person that needs it the most? Why would she bother to stay with someone who can't protect her? When she realizes how worthless you are she going to leave you, for someone who can actually protect her. Just like all the others in this life, they see you for who you are and leave." the hooded figure shouts at him harshly.

"That's not true. Kim will not leave me she loves me. She loved me enough to come find me when she needed me. I can protect her along with the other rangers with me," Tommy fired back.

"Liar! If she loved you so much, she never would have left the first time. As far as your ability to protect her, she never would have been taken from under your nose if you could protect her. Nor would she be ambushed and betrayed by one of your own, who went undetected for too long. If you could protect her, you would have gotten her back long before they had the chance to violate her so viciously that it broke her completely. You know what he did to her, is why she can't bear to be touched," The hooded figure spat at him.

Tommy looks like he just been struck by a physical blow. She could feel his pain and his guilt raging in him so strongly, and she knew without a doubt at that moment that he knew. Somehow the hooded figure knew as well and was browbeating him with it. Just then the entire building shook violently as the most despondent and anguished cry of the falcon could be heard. Being so close, the pain in that cry brought Kim to her knees and left her gasping.

Who the hell was that under the hood? It couldn't be Dragon, he should still be out cold several floors down. Who else could it be those? The person under the hood sounded just like him, even though being inside of Tommy's mind that doesn't really mean all that much. Other than Dragon who could be so cruel to Tommy? Does it really matter in the long run? She came here to save Tommy, so what does it matter who the person was, she still had to deal with him. After fighting with Dragon, while fighting off the flashbacks that he caused, this should be a lot easier. She couldn't quit now too much was at stake, Tommy was counting on her, he just didn't know it yet.

As soon as she caught her breath and could find her feet she stood up and stepped out from behind the Pillar. She shouted out at both of them getting their attention, "You're wrong! I would never leave him, not again. I Love him, In fact, I love him so much I came here to get him, which means rescuing him from you."

At the sound of her voice, they both turned to see her standing at the other end of the room. The look of utter disbelief mixed with hope etched itself across Tommy's face as her name fell from his lips in almost a whisper.

"How dare you grab my falcon and hold him here against his will. How dare you bombard him with your twisted lies in attempts to destroy him. As one very pissed off crane, I have come for my mate, and if that means I have to go through you to do so then so be it!" Shouted an enraged Kim.

The anger at everything that had happened, both here and outside of here, at all they had both suffered just flooded her so intensely that she started to glow pink. She then charged up the pathway that lead up to the hooded figure that stood directly in front of the cage that held Tommy in a blaze of light. Like a shooting star.

She moved with such ferocity that the hooded figure barely had time to react. In fact, the defensive action was all he had the chance for, as she left him no room for anything else.

It seemed that even the fire around them seemed to dim as Kim fought with the hooded figure. Almost as if it was being sucked into the wake of the fearsome storm that was Kim in action. All of the rage over everything that had happened to her that she didn't realize had been building in her, was released with explosive force at that moment.

Tommy watched from the cage in shock, even in the heat of battle during her time as a ranger he never saw Kim fight so viciously against an opponent. Whoever was under that hood was in deep trouble, having to deal with a pissed off Kim. He almost felt sorry for him. Seeing his crane was a welcome sight, it gave him hope, not just for him and the current situation, but for Kim as well. Hope that she is starting to fight her way back from that dark place she seemed to have fallen into that even he was having trouble reaching. He wanted to help her with his, but he knew it was important that she did this on her own.

Whoever was under that hood it was quite clear that it wasn't Dragon, just from the fighting style alone. Both Kim and Tommy could tell that this person didn't have the same skill level. The fight didn't last for too long for Kim was just too formidable a force to be reckoned with. She managed to grab hold of the back of the hood and yank it away revealing the face beneath. All at once the flames went out all around them as Kim stared into the face of what seemed to be an 8-year-old Tommy. She was dumbfounded at what she saw. A minute ago, he was a full-grown threat, and now he was a pint-sized child.

"You're going to leave us, everyone leaves us. Nobody ever wants us!" shouts the little boy. His voice breaking with emotion as he starts sobbing.

At seeing this, all the rage immediately drains out of Kim, As a wave of sympathy crashes over her and squeezes her heart. On instinct, she reaches out and pulls him into a hug.

"I'm not going anywhere, I promise. I love you, and everything is going to be okay. It will be rough for a while, but it will be okay," she tells him as he cries into her chest. She holds him close as he sobs, then says " I wouldn't have come down here if I didn't love you. It won't be that easy to get rid of me, You're stuck with me long term."

For several long moments, she stood there and held the little boy as he cried. She spoke soothingly to him as she held him close, assuring him that everything is going to be alright. She didn't even notice the soft white light that started to blend into dull pink glow she still gave off. It worked slowly up around them like a summer sunrise enveloping them in warmth. She closed her eyes and allowed the peace that came with the warmth of the light fill her. once she opened her eyes, she noticed the boy was gone as was any other threat leaving just Tommy stuck in his cage above her.

She looked up at him and with a smirk says "So you just planning to hang around or what?"

He looked at her and shook his head. "No I'm waiting for this incredible woman clad in pink to finish rescuing me," he responded to her.

"Of course you are. So tell me what's it like being on the other side of this for once? Since its normally the other way around?" she asked him.

"A little strange, but I could get used to this," he answered with a grin.

"Sure you could," she remarked as she rolled her eyes.

She raised her hand up to the cage, and even though it was a foot or two out of her reach, above her the pink glow stretched out from her hand bridged the gap. It made the whole cage glow as it slowly started to move down towards her. Once it finally touched down on the ground, the door swings open. He crawled out, and Kim helped him to his feet.

He hugs her tight and tells her, " I was so worried Kim, I didn't know how I was going to get back to you. I knew you had to be panicking/."

" I was, but it was pointed out to me that maybe this time I had to save you," she tells him.

"Who shared this bit of wisdom with you?" he asked her.

"Jason did, and he was right. He was right about a few things, but don't tell him, it will inflate his ego to Megazord size."' she answers.

Tommy laughs hardily at this, before agreeing. His laughter was so infectious that even Kim couldn't help but join in,

After a few moments, she calms and says to him, "I take it everything that happened has stirred up some old childhood fears. Some that took hold of you once you were too tired to hold them off any longer."

"Yeah I guess so," he says sheepishly.

"Why did you let it get this bad?" she asks him.

He sighs deeply before speaking, " I didn't mean to, I figured that only one of us could be broken at a time, so I wanted to help you more than anything."

"That's why you ended up breaking your hand, isn't it? You spent so much time and energy taking care of me you weren't taking care of you. You realize the only way you can take of me is to take care of your self-right? We are far too connected to not work together going forward. If I learned anything on this trip through your mind, its that the more we keep secrets from each other, the more we are just spinning our wheels. As painful as its going to be we are going to have to talk to each other if we ever want a chance at healing." She says as she looks deep into his eyes, with the most serious expression on her own face.

He nods before saying, "I promise once we get out of here, from now on we talk about everything," then looks at her at her astounded and just shakes his head. "I know he got loose during all this, I'm just amazed you managed to slip through without encountering him."

"Him? you mean Dragon?" she asks

He nods.

"Oh I ran into him, well if you want to get technical about it, he ran into me, Literally. I managed to Kick his ass though. Only after the S. O. B. triggered the worst flashbacks ever. I managed to fight through them so I could fight him. It wasn't easy, but there was something very important on the line that was worth fighting for." she tells him with a tiny hint of pride in her voice.

He looks at her totally shocked. Then starts to sputter, " Kim, my gosh, are you... did he... what happened?" As he starts to check her over to see if she was okay.

"I'm fine, well not totally fine I'm quite sore in a few places from the fight, but I'm better than I've been in a while. He tired, pretending to be you, at the time. He jealous that I've been with you and not him, he doesn't like that he missed out. I saw through the ruse pretty quick and stopped him. Besides my crane and your falcon were protecting me." she answers.

He hugs her tightly as he lets what she said wash over him.

"I know we have a lot to talk about once we get out of here, but for now, no more secrets?" she asked.

" No more secrets." he agreed with her.

"Are you to leave now? rejoin the living?" she asks him.

"Yeah, I am, as long as you come with me," he tells her.

"Always handsome!" she responds then leans up to kiss him. As their lips touch a white light envelopes them both and the strange little room disappears.


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