Disclaimer: I own nothing. Power Ranger characters belong to Saban. The song 'My Way Out' belongs to David Usher.

Edited to add: Another songfic where the lyrcis have been removed. The song it was is listed above.

My Way Out

It was a beautiful sunset. The sky was stained red, with painted stroke of pink and orange, blue waves laced with gold sparkles danced towards the sandy stretch of shore. It was the type of sunset you read about in romance novels, the type of sunset that is made for strolling couples and heartbreaking epiphanies and tearful reunions.

Jason did not see what was before him.

He often came to the beach to think. Sometimes he would sit for hours just staring out over the water he was not really seeing. It was really just the change of scenery that he craved, the idea of the beach that he craved. When he got there he found the same thing he did every time he ended up there, sitting and looking for a face he knew he would not see.

But he still came. The shred of hope and optimism left in him that had somehow managed to survive latched onto the area and what it symbolized. He knew, knew, he would not have the story book ending but maybe if he watched enough with eyes that did not take the scene in they would start to get through. And maybe, just maybe, if those happy ever after endings started being processed in his shuttered, broken heart he would be able to get rid of the pain long enough to start to rebuild.

It had been seven months since he had driven out of Angel Grove. He could remember every second of the long car ride to what would be his new home. He could still see every stretch of dark highway that seemed to drag on for endless miles.

Jason dreamed about that car ride sometimes.

It was always the same dream. He would be driving along that darkened, barren road, his headlights the only pair to be seen. The drive could be hours or seconds, the length seemed to be the only part that changed, but it always seemed too long. Anything that took him away from the only place he had ever consider his home was too far away. He would see the road end in the distance, the weathered asphalt trailing over the edge of the canyon Stone Canyon was named for. He did not stop the car, did not slow down or pull to the side, he just kept going. He wanted to keep going and he did. He went right off the edge, into the blazing sunset that seemed to come from the bottom of the canyon itself. And for an instant before the car started to plummet to the ground below he would see Tommy, his Tommy reaching out to him, there to save him. Only he by the time Tommy appeared it was too late. He was too far away.

Then Jason would wake up, sweating, shivering and very alone in the bed of his small, empty apartment.

After a few nights of the dream Jason had reached the end of his rope. He had nothing left to deal with things like that. It needed to stop.

It took about a week but he finally hit upon the solution. If he physically exhausted himself to the point of collapse he could manage a sleepless night. It was costing him though. He had lost a lot of weight, which was not good because he never felt like eating anymore and had to force himself to go out and grab something he only ever half finished. He never got enough sleep and was always tired. The bags under his eyes that had been there when he arrived were much more pronounced. He was worn down to nearly nothing but he kept running for hours or ran through at least dozen katas before letting himself go to bed to keep the dream from reappearing.

He had no strength left to deal with it.

There was another dream Jason remembered

It was of lazy days in a "wholesome", loving small town. Caring parents he knew loved him. Friendships with bonds so thick it was joked not even the Power Sword could cut through them. A lover he trusted with everything that was him. A life where he had not needed to exhaust himself to be able to sleep, where he did not live in a lonely apartment, where he was not just another anonymous person in a bit, scary world, a life where he did not feel emotional scars so deep he did not know how to even start healing them, a life where he felt whole.

Once upon a time it may have been real but now it was little more than a fond dream that stung when you pricked yourself by venturing too far towards more recent events.

Jason was not sure which dream he hated more. The one his unconscious mind came up with to torture him with or the dream that had once been his reality. He could not fully escape either and together they were wearing him down like sand wears down a piece of glass in the ocean. Only he doubted whatever was left of him would resemble a beautiful, smooth piece of sea glass in the end. In his mind his sharp, ugly edges would never go away only get thinner and more brittle until finally he shattered completely.

Or until there was simply nothing left.

Jason sighed as he got up, dusting the sand off his pants as he did. He turned and walked to his car without so much as a glance back at the masterpiece Mother Nature had painted across her sky canvas. He never took in that great beauty, all he saw when he sat there staring was a face, one he could never forget, not even if he pretended to try to.

When Jason's head hit the pillow that night his hair was wet from a hasty shower after doing so many push-ups in his living room his eyes could barely be forced open and his muscles burned. He was asleep before he could reach down and pull the covers up over himself.

But before dawn peeked her rosy face over the horizon Tommy was reaching out to for Jason as he flew off a cliff into the blinding sunset.