Chapter Six

"I have much to explain. Much I should have explained years ago," Billy continued and Tommy felt Kimberly stumble back in to him. He quickly steadied her and then looked back at the screen. Billy had just said that like they were discussing the weather- not like he was revealing a critical piece of information about himself that they had never known. "Have you heard the legend of Atlantis?"

"Time out. Stop. Go back to the not human bit," Kim interjected and he chuckled. He actually chuckled. Tommy had not chuckled in months and while this might not be the best time to laugh- it was all that he could do at the moment. At any moment- he was expecting now to wake up and find out that all of this was a dream. The last four months was just a twenty minute nap that had gone terribly wrong.

"Explaining Atlantis will explain the not human bit," Billy said and his eyes again focused on the screen. If he was a gambler, he would bet that this was something Billy had hoped they would never find out. He had hoped that this secret could stay a secret. "Atlantis wasn't a human civilization. Or at least it was not a completely human civilization. There was a species known as guardians and we all lived in Atlantis. We lived in Atlantis until the Power Rangers came to destroy us. I was a child then- but they wiped out all of the guardians. All of the guardians except me…and my brother."

Silence filled the Command Center- Billy's brother. Billy's brother had done all of this to the rangers. He had come after them and so completely annihilated the rangers that it was only the two of them left. How was this possible? How had they never known any of this before?

"I thought the Power Rangers were worth saving- my brother did not. Shortly after the Power Rangers destroyed the guardians, they were destroyed. They had stepped over too many lines. They were no longer the defenders of Earth- they had become something else. Something much more sinister, something that was not worth saving. They thought that getting rid of the guardians would protect them, but it just assured that they would die as well. My brother and I have lived all these centuries for the purpose of protecting the world from the Power Rangers ever doing the same thing again. It is part of why I positioned myself to be one of the rangers- if rangers were to come in to being again- I would make sure that this group of rangers did not repeat the mistakes of the past. And you didn't."

"But things have been changing. I had to leave Earth for a legitimate disease that can happen to guardians- the Aquitarians are the only ones that could help me. After I left, I still watched. The last few ranger teams- they have started to drift. They have started to drift in the ways that the previous teams did and the Atlantis code was activated. I felt it, but I knew that I could not go against my brother. I knew that I could not stop him. I did not know that he would do this. I did not know that he would come after all of the rangers. He knows about all of you, except one of you. He never knew about Kimberly. I never told him about you."

Kimberly and Tommy exchanged a glance and he watched her face crumple. She had only been saved because Billy had never told him that she existed. It was not because she was a public figure- it was because Billy had decided for some reason that he did not need to know she existed. She was safe in the world and she could go back to it tonight, if she so chose.

"I knew that you would leave the ranger world, I knew it from the beginning. It didn't seem worthwhile to add you to the 'just in case' list. And Tommy- you were special from the beginning as well. Neither of us could infiltrate your life the way that we could the others- your mind was always protected from us. I'm pretty sure that's because of Kimberly, but we were so young when the rest of the guardians died that we never learned about why people could be impervious to our abilities. The rangers destroyed any of the knowledge that could have explained it. I vaguely remember something about people and true love- but I have no details- all of those details would just be lost."

"How do we survive?" Tommy asked as he recovered his voice first. The shock was still rippling through him, but he was able to focus enough to remember why they were even reaching out to Billy. They were reaching out to him because they hoped to survive.

"I am not sure that you do. I was too young to understand what technology the rangers used to destroy the guardians, but it's not something that I've ever run in to since then and I've looked. I've searched all the inhabited worlds that I can find and I still have not found that technology- without it- we are pretty much invincible," Billy stated and Tommy closed his eyes. This was bad. This was much worse than what he had imagined it might be. "I never thought he would go after all rangers. I just thought he would go after rangers that lost their way. I'm sorry. They were my friends too."

AN: Happy Thanksgiving! On holiday weeks between now and the new year- I'll be giving you two chapters a week- hope you enjoy!