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Chapter 11- Hurt

"Man, that was close." Tommy stood up having been successfully transported along with the rest of the rangers into the Astro megaship.

"Thanks guys. Great timing." Jason said, taking off his helmet and standing up, Kimberly instantly running to grip him in a tight squeeze.

"Aisha. Are you okay? Where did it go?" Rocky asked, still cradling Aisha in his arms.

"Rocky. Where did what go?" Billy asked.

"Oh my god. Aisha!" Kimberly screamed, watching Aisha struggling to breathe.

The rangers all turned around to look at Aisha. She was laid there, looking almost peaceful in Rocky's arms. Her eyes closed, her quick breathing the only sign of trouble, well, apart from that and a gash in her side, a deep gash. Blood now beginning to rapidly seep through her yellow dashiki, turning it orange.

"What happened!" Jason shouted, his hands wrapped around the back of his head in disbelief.

"I don't know. It happened really quickly." Rocky replied, still cradling the former yellow ranger in his blood-stained arms. "We were getting beamed up and out of nowhere, a sword came flying right at us. I couldn't, couldn't do, do anything." Rocky stared at Aisha's face through his visor, in total shock.

"What sword? Where is it now!" Tommy said, taking his helmet off, his eyes fraught with shock.

"I dunno." Rocky mumbled.

"Alpha, Billy, do something." Jason cried.

Alpha 7 moved from the megaship control panels as fast as he could, his blue and bronze metallic legs clinking away furiously. He got to Aisha and bent down to check her vitals.

"She still has a pulse, but it is very weak rangers. We need to get to one of your hospitals as fast as possible." Alpha said.

Billy joined Alpha and knelt down to examine the large, deep wound, now ever so evident around the rib area.

"She's in shock and she's losing a lot of blood. The wound appears to be very deep near to the diaphragm and it looks to be going deep into her chest. It doesn't look good. She does not have much time guys." The blue ranger mumbled, his eyes threatening to burst with tears. He tore off shirt and pressed it to her side. "Keep pressure on the wound Rocky. ROCKY?"

The blue zeo ranger was still rocking Aisha in his arms, his eyes glazed over inside his helmet, staring into the wall in front of him.

Kimberly gripped Jason's hand tightly and sobbed, Trini leaned onto her former leader, her body not being able to support her own weight from the shock of the scene in front of them all.

Tommy painfully fell to the floor onto his knees, Kat falling down with him, unable to process the current situation. The rangers were trying not to panic, they were in all honestly, trying not to lose control. They had never been in a situation like this before.

Andros knelt over the fallen Aisha and quickly stood up shaking his head. "I need to get us to Angel Grove hospital right now. There's nothing I can do for her here."

"Rocky. ROCKY!" Billy shouted, shaking his friend with his hands.

"Huh, what?" He snapped out of his trance and looked up at Billy, his glazed over, confused eyes not visible behind his navy blue helmet.

"Keep pressure on her wound. That is very important." He pointed to his shirt on Aisha's torso. The shirt was now completely red, having been pure white just seconds before. "You're okay though aren't you Rocky? Did you receive any damage?"

The floor under Rocky was soaking wet, his ranger suit sticking to his legs from the blood, her blood. Rocky shook his head to answer Billy's question and again became unresponsive, not answering to anyone. Billy knelt down once more and applied pressure to the wound near Aisha's rib cage.

Andros picked up speed on the Astro megaship, getting their aircraft back into the earth's atmosphere.

"Rocky? What, what happened?"

The rangers all turned to look at the source of the weak voice.

"Hey Aisha. Nothing. You just got hurt a little bit. We're going to look after you." Rocky found his voice, swaying Aisha gently in his arms, he replied to her.

"It hurts." Aisha's voice was now barely audible, and her eyes were fluttering, not being able to stay open. Billy and Rocky were the only ones to hear her voice now, it was so quiet and weak.

"We'll look after you girl. Don't worry about a thing. We're all here." Rocky said with a smile.

"Rock, they have a m, master." Aisha managed to squeak out.

"We Know. Gasket. Don't worry about-"

"N-n-not Ga-" Aisha's voice trailed away mid sentence. Her body becoming limp due to the frighteningly large amount of blood loss.

"Aisha?" Rocky whispered, his body frozen with evident shock and heartbreak.

Billy moved over and checked her pulse. "She is alive, but she isn't breathing." Billy applied more pressure to the wound, placing his hand top of Rocky's and pushing. "Someone, quickly administer CPR." Billy screamed, watching as Aisha's chest stopped moving up and down.

Rocky surprisingly, was the first to move. He took off his helmet and bent down to gently pinch Aisha's nose, place his lips on hers and blow oxygen into her lungs.

Again, and again, and again.

Billy checked for a pulse, and didn't find one. "Rocky," Billy looked at his friend and shook his head, with a look that practically said that it's finished.

"No!" Rocky shouted, once again blowing into Aisha's mouth and into her lungs, one after the other, until he began to taste blood in his own mouth.

Cough cough

"Aisha. Aisha!" Rocky shouted, the rest of the rangers watching on. Some crying, some in shock, some totally numb.

Aisha miraculously fluttered open one eye, she looked at Rocky and tried to speak, but the blood accumulating in her mouth wouldn't allow the words to come out clearly. The blue zeo ranger managed to make out his name through all the gurgling.

"Don't speak Aisha. You'll be fine baby girl. Just take it easy." Rocky said, watching as blood began to pour out of the former yellow ranger's mouth.

"Rocky. I-"

Aisha's eyes found Rocky's, accompanied by another series of gurgles.

"Hey, you'll be okay Aisha, don't worry." Rocky gave her a smile, "I love you, you know. I always have."

Rocky stared into Aisha's eyes, Aisha's vacant, expressionless, unresponsive eyes. "Aisha, Aisha? Hey, ninja bear?"

Billy left one hand on his soaked shirt, keeping pressure on the wound, and moved his other hand to her wrist. "There's no pulse."

Rocky moved to perform CPR again but was quickly stopped by Billy.

Kimberly and Trini collapsed onto Jason, their tears flooding out the howls from Katherine. Jason stood there in shock. His eyes wide open, silent tears dripping down his face.

Tommy was laid down on the floor, in disbelief of what was happening. His eyes immersed with tears, unable to observe the tragedy unfolding in front of their very eyes.

"No, Billy, Alpha, do something." Rocky begged, looking around at the original blue ranger and their loyal robot. "Do something!" He screamed. "Please."

"Rocky, I'm afraid we can't do anything." Alpha said, scanning Aisha's limp, blood-soaked body with a little device. "There's no life detected."

"No, no! I don't believe you!" He shouted, his eyes struggling to decide whether to cry or to glare with anger. "I don't believe you." He cried out, his eyes now finally, seeing the truth.

Billy mercilessly, closed Aisha's inanimate eyes, whilst Jason moved to place his arm around Rocky, who in turn began to sob, staring at Aisha, at the gaping hole in her torso, the blood all over him and the floor, realization hitting him hard in the chest just as the sword had hit Aisha.


The Moon

"Now I believe in you Silverback." Prince Gasket shouted, celebrating and dancing with his wife. "Your aim is as deadly as legend says. You never miss."

"Why Silverback? Why?" Scorpina begged, standing across from the beast with her hands on her hips.

"You really think we could let her escape? What kind of message would that show to the power rangers." Silverback scowled, his sword now back in his hand. "It would show weakness. She was our prisoner, how dare they steal her from under us. They need to take us seriously. I think they will do from now on.

Scorpina scoffed at the monsters words. "You kill their weakest and most vulnerable member? Doesn't that show weakness?" She asked.

"My dear Scorpina. Rita tried and failed. Zedd tried and failed. My father tried and failed." Gasket said, clenching his fist. "I tried and failed." He walked over to his two soldiers. "Today we have finally killed one of them pesky power rangers. Today is a great day. Today, is a day to rejoice."

"Killed their weakest one, who's not even a ranger anymore? Geez"

"Now you even sound like one of them." Silverback slowly walked over to Scorpina, towering over her. "You have come care for that human, haven't you?" The huge monster tilted his head and looked into Scorpina's eyes.

"Don't talk nonsense." Scorpina replied.

"It is the truth." The giant ape barked, "You may look like one of them in this temporary form of yours, but we all know what your true form is Scorpina. You are a monster like the rest of us. You best start acting like one."

Prince gasket moved in between his two soldiers before they imploded. "Come, my gallant warriors. Speak not of the reasons why. Today, we shall celebrate this joyous moment. Join us in the Palace for food, drink and dancing until my circuits fry." Prince gasket and Archerina linked arms and disappeared in a brilliant flash of pink and green.

"You killed her out of jealousy?" Scorpina asked as soon as their masters left.

"Not jealousy." Silverback replied, taking a few steps back.

"Then what? Why not kill their leaders, Jason and Tommy?"

Silverback placed his sword back in its sheath. "You know why. Gasket wants to slowly destroy them. Shatter their minds, spirits and souls. You think he would be happy if I killed one of them?"

Scorpina pondered this for a few seconds and then shook her head.

"There's your answer. It wasn't jealousy. It was to send them a message. They are not in control, we are. And now with that prisoner gone, maybe you will start acting like the warrior I know you are."

"You have no right to have any say in my life. The last time I checked, I was the one who saved you from that Jason killing you." Scorpina said sternly, turning her back and walking away.

"And I have just saved you." Silverback replied, quietly, just so she could hear. "Consider the debt, repaid."

"This isn't over, Silverback." Scorpina growled, picking up her pace walking off, leaving the giant Persifcan warrior stood alone, a smile etched on his inhuman, hideous face. His sword, the sword that changed the face of the landscape of evil versus good, safely in its sheath behind the behemoths hairy back. Not a sign of blood, not a sign of the damage it had just caused. Damage that would last a lifetime.


Earth

"What do we do with the body?" Tommy asked, now demorphed like everyone else. His face as pale as parchment.

"Body? She has a name!" Rocky snarled. Sat on the floor in a world of hurt, next to Aisha's body, which had now been covered with a blanket from the megaship bedrooms, and the area around her cleaned to the best of Alpha's ability.

"You're right bro. What do we do with Aisha?" Tommy asked, Kat resting her head on his shoulder as they leant up against a wall.

"I dunno man. We've never been in this situation. We can't just take her to a hospital. They'll ask too many questions and if they do an autopsy, we're screwed." Jason replied, Kimberly clinging on to him, her face bright red and eyes swollen like they had been attacked by bees.

"Sorry to disturb you but, Adam, Zack and Tanya are outside." Andros revealed. The astro megaship had landed where it had been earlier and again was in cloaking mode.

"I'll go bring them." Tommy said.

"Okay, thanks Tommy." Jason responded.

"May I offer a suggestion?" Andros said. He continued once everyone nodded their heads. "Well, from what I understand, Aisha's family history had been altered when she chose to stay in Africa. She basically doesn't exist here on earth to be honest. So we don't need to contact any authorities, and we don't need to contact her parents and since we're her family, we should have a private funeral."

"But how do we get that done. We can't just turn up with her at a mortician." Jason said.

"We won't really require that service. If we go to K035, I can arrange a funeral for her there without any interference." Andros explained.

"Will she be okay on your home planet though? The atmosphere and environment are similar to earth's, right? If not identical?" Said Billy, still quivering.

"Yes, that is correct. The atmosphere is 99 percent the same as earth. We can get to KO35 in a few minutes if we use the mega accelerator."

"Can we just stop talking about her like this. Please just, just for a minute." Rocky said, his head between his knees, still quietly sobbing.

"Of course." Billy reacted, wiping away a tear.

"Yes, sorry." Andros added.

"Rock."

Rocky looked up to see a face he needed to see badly right now. "Adam." Rocky stood up and ran to his friend, who wrapped his as arms around him.

"Baby." Trini ran to Zack as fast as she could, beginning to cry once again.

Tanya and Adam were consoling Rocky, who was now crying loudly. "I couldn't do anything Adam. I couldn't save her man. I couldn't."

"It's not your fault Rocky." Adam replied, patting his friend's back.

"It is, I should've saved her. I should've taken it, not her!" he said through gritted teeth.

Adam eyed the blanket in the middle of the room with Aisha's body underneath his. He felt a giant lump in his throat that he swallowed with some difficulty, but he tried to be strong for his friend in this moment, though it was proving very difficult. "There was nothing you could have done. From what you told me on the phone, there was nothing anyone could have done."

"I should have tried." Rocky cried into his friend's shoulder.

"You did. I know you would have tried your best. Sometimes, things are out of our control bro. Even as power rangers."

"Fuck the power rangers. We wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for that." Rocky said, instantly knowing he was stepping a little too far, he pulled away and looked at his best friend. "I, I just need to get out of here."

"Rocky, we have cabins here that are basically, bedrooms, go take a breather and a little break and we can take it from there" Andros said, offering his friend a hug. "Come on, I'll take you."

"Okay, thanks Andros." Rocky hugged him back and said a quick goodbye to everyone and left with Andros, Adam and Tanya to one of the cabins.

Jason explained to Tommy and Zack about the plan that Andros put forward. "So, what do you think?"

Tommy scratched his chin and pondered the proposition. "You know what, I think it may be the best option." Tommy leant up against a wall. "I mean, going back to earth with a dead body is a very bad idea. There will be an investigation and everything. So I think it's a good option."

"How about we morph and take her to the hospital?" Zack suggested.

Jason shook his head, "She will just end up as a Jane doe and get cremated."

"Well, Rocky thinks it's a good idea. He said that Aisha would've liked that. She was always fascinated with seeing different planets." Andros said, having taken Rocky to the megaship's synthatron, where Rocky was eating instead of laying down in the cabins.

"Well, that's settled then. I'll go confirm with Rocky and we can get on with this." Jason said, glancing at Aisha's body and fighting the urge not to cry.

Rocky agreed with the plan and the rangers were taken to KO35 by Andros. The rangers, though in a unthinkable amount of hurt, were astounded by how beautiful and earthlike KO35 was. It was in a different solar system, the Korova system, there were plenty of green trees and new types of flowers that were scattered around Andros's homeland. They even saw a stunning river on their way to the cemetery where the Korovians buried their dead just like humans from earth, but unlike earth, their cemeteries were very colorful, lots of green grass, flowers and colorful tombstones for each person. This helped them somewhat feel a little better about the task ahead.

As Aisha's body was prepared for the burial, Rocky's violent rage and hate for those responsible for this, was diminished due to the agonizing sorrow he felt for his friend.

Andros had asked someone to prepare a grave for Aisha, but Rocky thought that Aisha deserved better. "I want to do this right." Were his first words on the planet, so Rocky, bad back and all, dug the grave himself with some help from the other rangers and tools from the planets cemetery workers.

Aisha was cleaned up and placed inside a beautiful, luxurious coffin, not too different from the ones on earth and she was laid to rest in the grave that rocky and the rangers had dug.

The power rangers were all very emotional and shook from the days events, but they each gave her a fitting send off. Each ranger said their piece about Aisha, talking about their own relationship with their deceased friend and what she contributed to their lives.

It was a very difficult and surreal moment for everyone, but Rocky found it especially difficult, yet he just managed to get through it with the support of his friends. It was his turn to say his speech about his friend.

"I met Aisha Campbell for the first time in middle school. There she was, sat in her chair as me and Adam walked into the classroom for the first class. She was friendly from the get go. Not only was she friendly and kind to everyone, but she was smart, so wise beyond her years and she had a great sense of humor. We became friends that morning, and we remained friends until, until her last day." Rocky wiped away a tear, Adam placed his arm around his friend's shoulder.

"I should've told you this back then Aisha. It didn't take you long to win over my heart. I loved you from the moment I saw you that morning. I never stopped loving you. You were the most fierce, loyal and positive person I have ever met. Once you set out to do something, you didn't stop until you achieved your goal. You became a power ranger, and not only did you save Angel Grove many times, but you saved the people in your village in Africa, but you also saved me. You, along with Adam helped me become a better person, without you, I would not be who I am today." Rocky clamped his eyes shut and fought off tears threatening to be unleashed.

"I will miss you girl, you have no idea how much I will miss you. Even when you were in Africa, I came across tough situations and I always thought, what would Aisha do? I will continue to do that for the rest of my life. Living without you will be difficult. I don't know how I will do it. But I will try my darn hardest because I know you would never give up. You will always be my hero, my ninja bear. I will never forget you, for as long as I live, I will never forget you or stop loving you. Rest now my angel. You deserve it." Rocky finished, streams of tears flowing down his face as her coffin was lowered into the ground. His friends all embraced him, each ranger clinging on to each other, wiping away each other's tears and providing support that they desperately needed.

Andros then took the rangers back to earth in what was a very quiet, yet short, journey. Before Andros said goodbye to Rocky. He told him that he could visit Aisha any time he wanted, he would take him to K035 in the Astro megaship and that K035 was now his home as well as Aisha's.

The power rangers reluctantly said their goodbyes and made their short trips home from the Angel Grove mountains. Each ranger understanding that their lives would be changed after today. Each ranger knowing that evil was definitely back and they would have to face it at some point. Each ranger striving for revenge, but no one wanted it more than the blue zeo ranger. Rocky de Santos was determined to get revenge for Aisha's premature death.

This was a difficult chapter to write.

Peace out

RedDragon