Disclaimer: Characters and situations are borrowed from BVE without permission but as they're not using them, do you suppose they'll mind? Ben Johnson is borrowed, with grateful thanks, from Ekat.

With very, very grateful thanks to Vanessa for once more beta'ing (on very short notice!) and also to Gamine (extremely glad you're better!) for also beta'ing. This is still for you, though!

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing; glad you guys are enjoying it so far.

~*~

Preparation

There was a lengthy and uncomfortable silence after Shayla's revelation. It was finally broken, typically, by Max.

"Well maybe they do have an army. We're the Power Rangers and Power Rangers never give up."

Sundry groans met that particular comment, notably from Danny, but it was a timely reminder.

"Max is right," Shayla agreed. "It will be difficult"

"But it was always going to be that," Alex finished.

"I think," she continued, "that now we know the full story, perhaps now is a chance for us to rest. I feel that they will not make their next move until daylight."

"The Mutorgs will move at night," Jen mused. "But never immediately after a battle. They need to...recharge."

"Sounds like a plan, then," Alex agreed.

~*~

Half an hour later, blankets were passed out and everyone made the best of the cramped situation.

Kimberly found herself leaning against Eric -- not a position she was about to complain about -- with Wes and Jen very close beside.

"So...you two are...?" began Wes.

Kimberly felt Eric's chest move as he chuckled. "No," came the sarcastic retort. "We're still not speaking to each other because I'm being an idiot."

"Well you said that not us," said Jen. "But I'm very glad to see you together."

"Same here," Wes agreed, still looking a little sheepish. "But," he added, "if you're both here, where's Alice?"

"Staying with Rocky and Aisha deSantos," Kimberly answered. "Because of what today was supposed to be, we'd arranged that anyway."

"Today?" Jen queried. "And why do you have the Quantum Morpher?"

"And what was with the stick?" Wes added.

"Tell you what," Eric answered. "We'll trade. You tell us what happened with the trial and what is with all this leather," Kimberly snickered, "and we'll tell you what's been going on while you've been away."

Kimberly watched as Wes and Jen exchanged looks. "Deal," Jen agreed. "You go first?"

Kimberly tilted her head until she could look up at Eric's face. "Where do you want to start?" she asked.

"With my birthday, I guess. That was pretty much when everything started." Eric gave a huff of humourless laughter. "One hell of a present -- having your house firebombed..."

Kimberly listened as Eric related the events of that horrendous week some five weeks ago. By the flickering firelight she could see Wes and Jen's expressions rapidly becoming more and more alarmed as the tale progressed.

"Eric I..." Wes eventually began as Eric finished.

"Are you..." But Jen couldn't finish her sentence either.

"You don't have to say anything," Eric replied, "and as for all right -- it's a relative term." Kimberly felt him shrug. "It forced me to face a lot of shit and I'm probably a better person for it. Hell," he added, "if I knew this would be the end result, I'd probably go through it all again."

"What, all of it?" Kimberly couldn't help but ask.

"Well...so I'd rather skip the hallucinations and shit," Eric admitted. "But most of it."

"And physically?" Wes asked. "How's your leg healed?"

"Fine," Eric answered, "so the doc told me this morning when he took the cast off. Today was supposed to be the first time I actually had a chance to do something with my fiancée that didn't involve sponge baths."

Kimberly giggled. "I didn't hear you complain about that."

"OK, that really is too much information," Wes complained.

"So how about you guys?" Kimberly asked.

"Ah yeah. The trial of the century," Jen replied, a little sarcastically. "It came out OK in the end but..." Jen shook her head.

Kimberly could see the shadows and fears still lurking in Jen's expression.

"And you should have seen the defence lawyer," Wes added. "God what an asshole!"

"Oh?" Eric enquired.

"He spent a week producing people who swore blind that Merle Askot was humanitarian of the millennium and a scientific klutz. Then when Jen took the stand, he tried to put her on trial."

"And that's legal in the future?" Kimberly queried. "Geez I'm glad this guy wasn't Dirk's attorney."

Jen smiled a little and shook her head. "No, it's not strictly legal -- and he got what was coming to him."

"Oh?"

Kimberly saw Wes smile proudly. "Pieter van Zyl -- the DA -- arranged for a demonstration in court to prove that Jen was Chrissy."

"How?" Eric asked.

"They did a memory recovery process." Jen grimaced. "It was not fun -- but... I'd go through it again in a heartbeat just to see the smug expression wiped off Carmen's face."

Kimberly grinned. "And you now remember Angel Grove?"

Jen nodded. "Not everything -- but...enough. More than enough to prove Askot did what we knew she did."

"Once that happened," Wes added, "that was it. Askot lost."

"Good," said Eric. "So how'd you end up after the Mutorgs?"

"We were the best people for the job, I guess," said Jen. "It needed to be a two-man team..."

"And Alex knows Jen and I work well together. Anything else would have been a potential risk."

Kimberly settled back against Eric's chest. "That makes sense," she agreed.

"Tired?" Eric asked.

"What can I say?" Kimberly answered. "It's been one hell of a day."

Eric gently tucked the blanket around her as he chuckled again. "Sure has."

Beside them, Wes and Jen both started to settle down for the night. In good company, comfortable and exhausted, Kimberly found herself rapidly drifting off to sleep.

Distantly, she heard Eric suddenly squeak. "Hey -- you never said what was with the leather!"

"Eric," came the response from Wes, "when in post-apocalyptic Rome, do as the post-apocalyptic Romans do."

"And go to sleep," Jen added.

Good idea, Kimberly decided and finally relaxed into sleep.

~*~

Alex couldn't help but feel a pang of envy as he watched Wes and Jen caught up with Eric and Kimberly. It was hard to credit just how different Eric, in particular, was as compared to the man he'd been five weeks earlier. His own words of more than a week ago came back to him: Everyone's moved on. Everyone but me.

"Penny for them?" Katie asked, unfolding a blanket and draping it around his shoulders as well as her own.

Alex smiled a little, switching his attention from the past to a possible future. "Just thinking it's time for me to finally move on, too."

Katie gave him a scrutinising look. "And just what does that mean?"

"Well it's not going to involve Deregovian Brandy, that's for damn sure," he replied, smiling again as the look of relief passed across Katie's face.

"So what are you planning?" she pressed.

"I'm going to leave Time Force...take a few months to figure out who Alex Collins is when you strip away the bullshit."

"And then what?"

"I don't know," Alex admitted, "but...would you be willing to find out with me?"

Katie offered him a smile. "I'd love to."

~*~

Ben looked around the temple and quickly realised that everyone else was either asleep or close to it. Which was considerably better than he was currently managing. He was too keyed up to sleep.

For the first time since joining the Silver Guardians, Ben knew he had been given the whole story and in some ways, he wished he was out of this particular loop. How could Eric, Wes and Jen stand this on a regular basis? Knowing the fate of the world was on your shoulders?

"Hey."

Ben started at the voice. Looking round, he found Taylor standing behind him.

"Not sleepy?" she asked.

Ben shook his head. "No."

"May I?" Taylor asked, gesturing to the empty space beside him.

He shrugged. "Sure."

Taylor sat down beside him. "Thanks...I... I owe you an apology."

Ben blinked. "What for?"

"For being a bitch," she answered.

Ben smiled at her. "It's OK. Guess you weren't having a good day."

She smiled back. "Understatement of the decade."

"And I could have been nicer about it all," Ben admitted. He held out a hand. "Friends?"

Taylor accepted the proffered hand. "Friends."

~*~

As the sun rose over the Animarium, the whole temple was a bustle with people moving around, getting ready for the day ahead.

With his status as only just out of plaster, and after a night spent sleeping on hard cobblestones, Eric wisely chose a seat out of the way of the general flow and observed events.

In one corner of the temple, Jen and Alyssa were giving Kimberly a few quick refresher tips for fighting. Eric felt that should have been him but knew there was little chance of him being able to manage something that active. In another corner, the self-dubbed tech heads -- Lucas, Trip, Danny and Max -- were going over the layout of Rancho Diablo control room. Alex had assigned them the task of keeping the reactor shut down and the Mutorgs -- and whatever minions Master Org might have supplied -- out of the control room.

In a third corner, Eric could see Ben, Taylor, Wes, Cole, Merrick and Alex discussing the best possible methods for getting the Mutorgs away from Rancho Diablo so that the plastique could be used without any fear of causing the same effect as they were trying to prevent. Katie and Nadira both appeared from somewhere and joined that group.

"You wish you could help," observed Shayla, sitting down beside him.

"I feel useless," Eric admitted.

Shayla opened her mouth to reply, but Ben beat her to it: "Boss get your lazy ass over here!"

"Huh?" Eric blinked.

"It seems," said Shayla softly, "that perhaps others do not consider you useless."

~*~

Kimberly watched as Eric slowly crossed the temple to join Alex's strategy discussions and sighed in relief.

"Earth to Kim?" said Jen waving a hand in front of her face.

Kimberly started. "I'm sorry -- what?"

Jen just smiled. "Eric'll be OK."

"I know that."

"And now he's doing something..." Alyssa began with a smile.

"I'm sorry." Kimberly looked apologetic. "I haven't been with it so far, have I?" Neither Jen nor Alyssa said anything -- and said it loudly. "I'm sorry."

Jen took pity on her. "You're doing fine," she said.

"Considering you're not a martial artist," Alyssa added, "and you've not done this in..."

"A long time," Kimberly supplied, not even sure she wanted to work out the exact time period.

"And considering you've been distracted," Alyssa continued, nodding, "I would hate to have ever been on the wrong end of you when you were the Pink Ranger."

"Thanks -- I think."

~*~

Shayla looked around the complex, even as Eric had been doing half an hour earlier. There was an air of purpose hanging over the temple ruins that made Shayla smile. The task ahead of them might be impossible but no-one was prepared to give up.

Unbidden as ever, a vision came. The power plant. Orgs. Master Org himself was there. Putrids. The trio of Mutorgs...

She wasn't even aware of swaying until she felt hands steadying her. Blinking, she found herself once more being steadied by Merrick while everyone else was grouped around her.

"Princess?" asked Cole.

"It is begun."

TO BE CONTINUED...