Chapter Seven
Shock. That was all that I felt as I stared at the screen. Tommy seemed to be processing this better than I was- or at the very least he seemed to be able to accept the craziness that we had to call reality. Billy was not human. Billy had never been human. Billy had joined the rangers to keep an eye on us and make sure we did not follow the path of the rangers before us. Billy had never told his brother about me. That was why I was safe. But Tommy- Tommy was far from being safe and we both knew that now. We both knew that he had saved Tommy for last. Why had he saved Tommy for last?
Somewhere in the last few minutes Tommy must have ended the transmission with Billy- I hope that he at least ranted at him that this was an extremely unfair thing to do to all of us. It was even worse that none of us had ever been warned that there was a being that would kill us if we got out of line. But what does 'out of line' even mean anymore? Were the new rangers reckless? Bloodthirsty? Posted on social media too much? What line did they cross that started his brother on this vendetta? Or did they even cross a line? Was this more because of what the rangers had cost Billy and his brother?
"It looks like we have more research to do," Tommy muttered and I watched as he pulled out a lap top. Where had that come from? Something on my face must have given away my confusion, as he added. "Modernized way to search through the archives- that panel is a mess."
"You print- I read?" I offered and Tommy barely nodded. Somehow the both of us had careers where research was paramount. Funnily enough, research might be the only thing that saved us now- the two rangers that were notably crappy at research as teens were now researching for their lives. At least we had learned the skills that might save us.
His demeanor was grave and I watched as he began the search. How many times had he done something similar? How many times had he sat here, alone, trying to figure out what was coming after the other rangers? I couldn't blame him for not calling Billy. It made perfect sense to not put him in more danger than was absolutely necessary. Apparently, Billy had never been in danger and the fact that we were researching meant he must not have offered to come back to Earth and take care of his brother for us. Even if he could solve this, he must not have wanted to kill his brother.
Hours slipped by. One of us would go make coffee and bring it back for the other. The other would go make a meal and bring out the leftovers. We highlighted. We read. We poured through information hoping that there was some key piece that would tell us how the guardians had destroyed all those years ago. It felt like there was nothing. It felt like the archives did not go back far enough to cover what happened to the guardians. And why the rangers had seen them as a threat and not an ally. What had changed with those rangers to make them forsake their oaths to protect the Earth?
"We might as well be looking for how to time travel," Tommy muttered as he pushed away the lap top and I highlighted another sentence. As far as I could tell, we were somewhere around the beginning of the knowledge that the Command Center held on Power Ranger history. And he was right. It would be easier to find a way to time travel and prevent all of this from happening based on the papers littered around us. We had actually travelled back in time, so it seemed like that knowledge just existed. "There's nothing about guardians."
"Maybe we have to look somewhere besides the Command Center- surely something of that magnitude will have some evidence in the historical timeline," I provided and he shook his head.
"You heard Billy, the Power Rangers destroyed everything from that time that had to do with guardians. Whatever they are, we know that they're powerful. What his brother…what he did…Jason is no push over and neither is Zack. I think we've gotten as much help as Billy can or will provide on this- at least he confirmed that the Command Center is impenetrable by his brother. The only reason he was ever able to come in to the Command Center was because he had not intended to harm them. For some reason- the Command Center was programmed to keep guardians out. And I have no idea why they would do that," Tommy rambled and I just nodded. None of this made sense, but maybe we had been looking at the wrong things. Maybe we should be researching something else, some sort of weapon that we could use. But using a weapon didn't seem right. Nothing seemed right about leaving Billy with no other family, with none of his kind. "What are you thinking?"
"Maybe- we don't go after Billy's brother. Maybe- we show him the compassion that the Power Rangers did not show the guardians and the compassion that he has not shown us. Maybe there is a way to get this resolved without any more deaths- on either side," I mused and Tommy shook his head. I had been afraid that he would not be able to walk away from revenge. I had hoped that he would be able to move past this and see that killing Billy's brother was not the only option. "Are you sure we should go down this road?"
"What other road do we have to go down? We won't survive as long as his brother is alive. I won't survive," Tommy muttered and I wound my arms around him. He sounded defeated, but he also sounded like he wanted to live. At least he wanted to live.