A/N: Someone said that this was dark. Uh, yeah? Kinda meant it to be that. I do appreciate a lot some of the stuff people have said. I feel like this will be my masterpiece. Thanks for reading and enjoy further.

P.S. I'm trying to be as true to character as I can, but if I'm not, I'm sorry.

Jason's POV

I couldn't help but try and back out, now that it was here. I didn't know that I could face them, face their emotions and pain, knowing that I had caused it.

Kat was by my side, holding my hand, pouring strength into me. I thanked whatever powers had brought us together. I couldn't have done it without her.

I tried to breathe, tried to keep my throat from closing, trying to keep from crying. I didn't quite succeed.

This was the first time some of these people had met. The only one who knew each and everyone of the people there had been Tommy.

It was sad that the first meeting of the original twelve. . .no, it was ten now. It was sad that the remaining ten original Rangers, bound by so much, had to meet together for the first time around so sad a circumstance.

Sad? Heh. Tommy always said I had a gift for understatement.

Silence reigned when I walked in. I didn't know if it was because they looked to me now Tommy was gone, or because I disgusted them. I hoped it was the latter. I disgusted myself.

"Hey, everyone. I'm Jason Scott, for those of you who don't know me, original Red Ranger and Gold Zeo Ranger." Kat squeezed my hand. "This is my wife, Katherine, second Pink Morphin' Ranger, Pink Zeo Ranger, and Pink Turbo Ranger." It was so weird to say those things without the colors to back them up. Everyone was wearing very neutral colors, black foremost among them.

"I think we all know why we're here." Nods of agreement. Could I go on? I wanted Tommy to take over. He couldn't, ever again. I had to keep on. "Some of you don't know each other. We are bound together by two things; our shared trials as Power Rangers and our love of one man, Tommy Oliver." That had been good. My throat closed here. I stopped, trying to regain my voice. No one stepped up to help.

"I know all of us feel, in some way responsible for the manner of his death. I know I, for one, am totally shocked that he'd do such a thing, with all he had going on. What I didn't say on the phone was that there was a new Ranger team in Reefside, where Tommy was living. Those who know Tommy will guess that he was involved. I don't know how, but I rather suspect he was back in uniform."

Rocky, the young man I'd given the Red Ranger powers to when I'd gone to the Peace Conference, spoke up now. "Did he leave a note? Any kind of explanation that could answer the questions we all have?"

Kat replied for me, for which I was grateful. "Yes, Tommy left a note. It tells why he. . . chose to end his life." She stumbled, but recovered beautifully. "It doesn't say anything about the origins of this new team, or his part in it, but it suggests that Tommy was back in uniform, as Jason said."

"Where is the note?" Kimberly, Tommy's first girlfriend, asked. She looked awful. The news had been hardest on her; she still loved Tommy in many ways.

I couldn't stay standing, so I went over to her, to my little sister, and held her close.

Kat's POV

It was hard to see Kimberly like that. I'd known her before, and she'd always been so happy, so full of light. All gone now.

"We don't have it," I told her. There were some grumblings and the beginnings of a mutiny, but I held up my hand. They quieted, if only to hear what I had to say. "A young woman named Hayley, Tommy's best friend," more grumbles, "through college and assistant with this new team, has it. She felt, and I concur, that the Rangers Tommy was working with have the first right to seeing it."

"Will we get to see it?" Adam asked. I felt like a schoolteacher.

"I can't say for sure, Adam," I said. "I intend to try and get a hold of Hayley. Maybe she can answer some questions for us, though she might not. She's. . .angry."

"Why?" Adam spoke up again.

I bit my lip. "We're all in some way responsible for Tommy's death, except for Hayley and those Rangers. They were there for him. Hayley blames us, rightly, for Tommy's decision. Her anger is mostly directed toward Jason, as he was, apparently, the primary cause." I wanted to hit myself for saying such things, but Jason was nodding to what I said. He knew it was true, though I desperately wanted to deny it. "Perhaps she'll tell us something if he isn't here. She was amicable enough to me."

"What about the funeral?" Kimberly inquired, her lower lip quivering. She was trying to keep from crying, and my heart went out to her. I felt about the same.

"Hayley said she'll tell us, probably," I added quickly. "I'd understand if she wanted to leave us out. They were there for him, after all, and we weren't."

Adam's POV

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. We'd be kept out of Tommy's funeral? Hot rage swept through me. I knew the rage was trying to cover the pain and guilt. This Hayley girl, she was right. We were all to blame.

Still, was that any reason for trying to keep us away? For trying to stop us from saying goodbye? We had been Tommy's family for at least three years.

It was hard to believe he was gone. He'd been there, with us, through so much. There was so much about Tommy Oliver we still didn't know. Now we'd never get to.

There was quiet talk amongst us. I chose not to participate, instead trying to stop myself from demanding where to find this Hayley girl and beating some sense into her. That would be just stupid.

"Do you think we'll get to say goodbye?" I heard Rocky ask next to me.

"Affirmative," Billy replied. "I don't think this Hayley would seriously deny us, even in her anger. The worst I think she'd do is keep Jason away. Besides, I think she realizes that we didn't know Tommy's history, that he'd do something like this. I think it'll all work out."

"How can it?" Rocky wondered aloud. "Tommy's gone. How can things work out when he's not here to force things into their places?"

Even Billy, genius that he was, had no answer for that. None of us did.

Kim's POV

I heard Rocky and Billy's conversation as though from a great distance. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just heard it. I was too far gone in grief to really try and stop it.

The answer to Rocky's question was that it wouldn't work out, of course. Tommy had long been a source of strength for every Ranger team ever connected with him. Believe me, that meant every team but one, I think.

There had been that Red Ranger mission Jason had told me about, when Tommy led a lot of Red Rangers to the moon to take out Serpentera and what was left of the Machine Empire. Afterwards, the Rangers were bound to tell their teams about the legendary Tommy Oliver. He'd been that since he'd left the Command Center, or whatever, after he'd passed on the Turbo Power. Every team had, somehow or other, at least heard of him.

I don't think he ever knew that. When this got around, this would be a blow to every Ranger still living.

That was quite a few.

I'd knew I'd like to think well of this Hayley person, that she'd have a forgiving nature near Tommy's. It wasn't likely. No one was as forgiving as Tommy. He'd probably forgiven us all already, anyway. Hayley wouldn't be able to do that.

Hell, I couldn't forgive us. I couldn't blame her for not.

I hoped Tommy had found his way to Heaven. He deserved to be there, never mind that he'd chosen suicide. We'd practically forced it on him. Not his fault. Nothing had been, though he always seemed to take the responsibility for it.

I missed him already, even though I hadn't seen him in years. He'd always just been there with a presence we'd all taken for granted.

Gone now. What did we do now, without our darling leader?

Billy's POV

To say I was any less shocked than the others would be a lie. I hadn't been part of 'Ignoring Tommy' week because I'd been out of the country, working on an experiment with a research team. No one could have gotten a hold of me, so maybe I was part of it, unwittingly.

I considered Rocky's concerns, and didn't see any reason for them to be plausible. Tommy had a way of choosing people to be with. I didn't know Hayley, but whoever she was, she had to be a good person. She would tell us.

She might not extend that courtesy to Jason.

I don't think that if it had been anyone but Jason that Tommy would have chosen the course he did. Jason had been a brother to him. From what I'd gathered, Jason had turned on all that, on all the love and friendship between them.

I understood, at least in part. Jason's daughter had died, and he needed someone to blame. I still haven't figured out why he chose Tommy, though the others seem to be in agreement in the sense that it was logical. I'd have to find out. Maybe Tommy's note would shed some light for me.

The note. I agreed that Tommy's Rangers – I think that was how we were all referring to them, at least in our minds – had first priority on the 'need to read' list. They were probably teenagers, like we had all been. They wouldn't understand. They might even try to get rid of the Power, now Tommy was gone.

I hoped not. Tommy would kill them, were he around.

Tommy back in uniform. That was quite a concept to grasp. As far as I'd been able to discern from the infrequent communication, Tommy had been working on a major in paleontology, and had gotten a fantastic opportunity from one of the world's foremost paleontologists. How that had led to his return to Ranger-dom is something I can't quite figure out.

Maybe Hayley can shed some light on that.

Maybe, maybe, maybe. Whatever happened to you, Billy?

This was outside my experience, outside any of our experience. When my beloved Trini had died in that accident, it hadn't been deliberate. It hadn't been her fault, either. This death, the second death the Rangers have had to deal with, was deliberate. It was debatable as to whether it was Tommy's fault or not. Privately, I thought not. Tommy would only do this as a last resort, or at least that was the Tommy I knew. I hadn't seen him in a very long time, so I didn't know how much he'd changed.

There was one certain thing amidst all these uncertainties.

I was not looking forward to meeting Tommy's young team. Who knew what their reactions to us would be, knowing what they had to know?