Disclaimer: I don't own PR, I just wish I did.

"OOF!"

Conner went down hard, and lay on his back for a few minutes, breathing heavily. With a loud groan, he pulled himself to a seated position, then stood up without a second groan. "I'm okay," he mumbled.

"Good," Jason said, and watched, marveling inwardly, as Conner went into a ready stance.

Immediately the older man launched himself at the younger, flying into a series of kicks that Conner ducked, evaded, or blocked. Conner was a quick learner--the hook kick that had landed him on the dirt a few minutes earlier was skillfully avoided. Jason nodded his approval.

The two had been sparring in the woods behind the cave entrance to the lair for about an hour now. There had been a training session this afternoon, and Jason had taught some basic katas to the trio. But Ethan and Kira had left long ago, and Conner remained, eager to learn.

This had been going on for two weeks now. Jason only asked the kids' attendance a couple nights a week, but Conner was there as often as his schedule would allow. And he was working hard, too. Jason was incredibly impressed by Conner's headway and dedication. Furthermore, he was beginning to see a little bit of the old Conner emerging again. Not the egotistical version, but the Conner that smiled and joked. Jason only hoped that whatever it was bringing this out would work its magic on the other two Rangers. It wouldn't be the same team that Tommy had known, but Jason hated seeing these facsimile Rangers, merely shadows of their former selves. He knew all too well the intensity of this lifestyle, and the need to have a perpetual good mood to balance it out.

The psychological benefits aside, Jason could see marked improvement in his team's performance in the field. They were harder, better, faster, stronger. They were also very good at controlling their added powers from the gems--something that Jason had learned about from Conner on accident. Jason was beginning to get the distinct impression that there were many things about the team prior to Jason's arrival that the Rangers and Hayley were keeping secret.

Jason's watch beeped. The out-of-time alarm, he was grateful to notice, not the Reefside-is-in-danger alarm. "I guess we're out of time then," he said, and he and Conner bowed to each other. Jason grinned once the formalities were over and slapped Conner on the shoulder. "I've been teaching martial arts for a long time now, and I've never seen anyone learn as quickly as you," he praised the teen.

Conner nodded thoughtfully. "It's sort of like soccer. I mean, you have to be quick on your feet and you have to be always thinking ahead."

"Yeah, but you have that super-speed thing working for you," Jason said. The two of them headed back to the hidden cave entrance, where Jason put in a request to Hayley that they be let in. It could only be opened from the inside, and Jason had Hayley manning the controls on the days that he had lessons with the kids, in case of emergency.

"It's a pretty cool power to have, but I think Dr. O.'s power was cooler. Invisibility would be pretty awesome..."

Jason frowned, confused. "Tommy had a power?"

Conner's eyes widened with the look that suggested he'd said too much. "Um..." He tried to relax his face and his posture, but it was too late.

"Why on earth would Tommy have a power?" Jason mused, more to himself than to Conner. "Did he expose himself to the rocks so much that they rubbed off on him?"

"That must be it," Conner hedged weakly.

Suddenly, all the pieces fit. Tommy's propensity to wear black, something that Jason had written off to age and better fashion sense. The black Jeep that Jason had inherited. The fact that the kids were unable to call the Zords on their own without Jason's written command of the Brachio Zord.

He stopped dead at the entrance to the lair. The puzzle was rapidly coming together in his mind, and the gears in his brain were so busy with that application that he had temporarily neglected his motor functions. "There was another Ranger."

"Uh…"

Jason pushed past Conner as though the teenager wasn't there. He stalked up to Hayley, gazing idly at the console. "Why can't the Rangers control any of the auxiliary Zords?" he demanded.

She cocked an eyebrow. "Only the three main Zords are combined with the Dino Gem power," she said. "The auxiliaries are set up on a command system that you have to access from the main computer. Tommy rigged it that way when he designed the eggs back in the day. It's a backup system."

"That makes sense, but if the Brachio Zord is being used as a holding bay, why isn't it accessible to the Rangers? It would make more sense for it to be accessible in the field, rather than from the main line."

"It originally was," Hayley said, looking uncomfortable.

"What aren't you telling me, Hayley?" Jason demanded, even though he'd already figured it out. "Was Tommy a Ranger?"

"Tommy was the Black Ranger," Hayley admitted with a deep sigh. "Mesogog kidnapped him awhile ago, hoping to use Tommy's knowledge to tap into the powers of one of the Gems he'd found. But Tommy awakened the Gem's power, and it bonded to him. I already had my suspicions about the black Gem, so I had a morpher made up by the time the Rangers rescued him."

"Why did you guys neglect to mention this?"

"There was little point. We still have the Gem, so Mesogog isn't a threat--not that it matters, they choose who they bond to. Brachio can still be operated from here, so having an extra person out in the field isn't necessary."

Jason sat down. "I can't believe Tommy never told me."

"He probably didn't want you to worry," Hayley offered, patting his arm.

"So that's how he died," Jason said. "In the field."

Hayley looked away, tears brimming in her eyes. "It was an ambush. Zeltrax has had a long history of hating Tommy for no apparent reason, and since the Brachio Zord isn't intended for battle, Tommy's usually on the ground during the height of any major conflicts, so he goes into hand-to-hand a lot with Zeltrax. But it was an ambush…Mesogog came down during the attack, and used that weird mind power of his to scramble with Tommy's brain just enough that he was too disoriented to fight, and then Elsa and Zeltrax double teamed him." Her voice caught at that. "Don't bring this up around the kids. They're doing so well now, they're finally getting better...I'm worried that they might blame themselves."

Jason nodded. He had heard Conner leave long ago, and knew that Ethan and Kira wouldn't set foot in the lair for the rest of the evening, if they could help it. He requested that Hayley bring up any files that they had about Tommy's third color change, and long after she left, he watched video footage and read the recorded stats that had been compiled.

Though Jason had been the very first leader of the Power Rangers, he had long ago come to terms with the fact that Tommy Oliver had been the most prominent face of the Rangers, the strongest Ranger, the most dedicated, and quite possibly the best ever. Seeing Tommy's long legacy of accomplishments reduced to a file of statistics made Jason feel both more powerful at what he had produced and what he had inherited, and yet somehow insignificant.