Amends

Chapter 5- Missing

A.N: Once again because of pesky timelines in DT, I'll be tweaking the time periods involved in this and next chapter. Between Wave Goodbye and Legacy of Power there were obviously three days, as Kira's gig was on Friday and the teens note that Tommy missed a whole day of school, which meant he would have been in Mesogog's hands for three days before the Rangers rescued him. To make things easier on all concerned my tweaked events are all going to take place the day after Kira's gig, as I'm lazy and for other reasons you'll probably see later in the next couple chaps.

Enjoy!

*

As the applause died down Kira went to take her seat with Conner and Ethan.

"Hey, that was great. You actually have some talent Kira, I'm surprised." Conner teased with a smirk, receiving a painful smack on the arm from the Yellow Ranger for his jibe. "Ow, I was kidding, I know you're good really! Waaay better than Avril!" He insisted, holding his hands up in defence.

That received a death glare but then Kira nodded. "Damn right." She said satisfied, and took a swig from the apple juice that Trent had just brought over for her.

"Well done Kira, that was amazing." He told her quietly.

"Thanks." She smiled shyly as he scurried off once more and Ethan and Conner exchanged looks.

"So where's Dr. O? Did he bail, something teacherly going on or more of the dinosaur variety?" Kira asked, keen to change the subject from her apparent crush.

"Actually, he never showed…" Ethan frowned, "Mr Blonde 2004 and I were pondering that a minute ago."

"Well, it's not like he's usually punctual by nature, I mean he arrives at class later than all of us some days." Conner commented, "Sometimes, I think he forgets where his room is. Comes from teaching such a dull subject I guess." He shrugged.

"No way, he said he wouldn't miss it. Even if he was as ditzy as Conner he wouldn't have blown it off." Kira said insistently.

"Are you sure joining the ranks of the crime fighters hasn't just made you a liiittle paranoid?" Ethan suggested.

"Maybe I guess, it's just he takes all our extra-curricular activities kinda seriously, I wouldn't have pegged Dr O as a no-show."

"Nice rhyme, now I see how you string together all those pretty ditties. Plus don't forget Dr. O is responsible for half of our 'extra curricular activities' or at least that Mesogog dude is." Conner laughed, Kira's response was merely to roll her eyes.

"Whatever, but if we don't hear from him tomorrow we assume something's up, agreed?"

"Agreed." Conner and Ethan nodded.

"C'mon then guys, I'm sure we have somewhere that's else to be." Conner suggested. "…Except for maybe you." He pointed at Ethan.

"Nah I'll go, gotta work on that assignment for Mrs Price's English class." Ethan sighed. Upon seeing Kira still look troubled he said,

"We'll try and contact Dr. O later, maybe he was just caught in traffic or something."

"Yeah I know." Kira smiled and stood grabbing her guitar case in the process, and she gave a small wave to Trent as they made to leave which he responded to with a nod.

"Jeeze, could you be anymore obvious?" Ethan whispered, and received another kick in the shins for it. "Oww! Quit that!"

"Why do girls always prefer the mysterious quiet type over the talented handsome footballer?" Conner tutted.

"I think your answer may lie in the quiet part, at least in your case." Ethan muttered as they departed the café.

There was a moment of silence before Conner responded.

"Heeey."

The other two merely rolled their eyes.

*

Kim checked the paper holding the address to Hayley's Cyberspace against the street sign, and satisfied she was in the right place crossed through the parking lot to the entrance. She looked through the window and saw the closed sign hanging there, but Tommy had said his friend owned it and they were supposed to meet there, so with a shrug she pushed the door open.

She scanned the place and found it empty. Then she heard someone cursing and saw a head of red hair bobbing about behind the counter. This, she supposed if the name was anything to go by, was Hayley.

"Bloody PhD grads blowing off appointments when I make other plans just to accommodate them, grr." 

"Uh, excuse me, Tommy Oliver wouldn't happen to be here would he?" Kim asked hesitantly, if the woman's grumbling was any indication it seemed the erstwhile green/white/red Ranger wasn't there.

"No, I'm afraid not. Decided not to show up when he was supposed to… which means I'm stuck here to clean and lock up when I thought I'd be free to go out." Hayley muttered the last part and popped her head up from behind the counter.

"Sorry to vent, just a little annoyed." She said apologetically. Her eyes remained on Kim a little longer and more scrutinizing than the former Ranger took to be normal, but she didn't question it.

"Oh, no problem, I guess I'll get out of your way then…Unless you need some help here?" Kim offered, seeing as how the woman looked rather frazzled and had been inconvenienced by Tommy's flakiness, and she supposed she had nothing better to do.

"Thanks, that's very kind of you. Only if you're sure you've nothing else to be doing."

"Well, looks like my 'date' blew me off so I'm free as a bird." Kim laughed lightly, not sure if she caught a frown cross the woman's face. If it was it was gone quickly and the redhead smiled gratefully.

"Then sure, I appreciate it. I'm Hayley by the way." She held out a hand.

"Kimberly." There was that scrutinizing look again but this time it was accompanied by an explanation.

"Ah so you're Kimberly. I thought so." Kim didn't quite know how to take that one.

"I sure am." She said with some confusion.

"Sorry, Tommy probably mentioned that I owned this place. We're old friends, met in grad school, but I take it you're an older one. I've heard a lot about you over the years."

"Nothing bad I hope." Kim said cheerily.

"It varied, good with the bad." Hayley said with a small smile.

"To be expected I guess. So where can I help you out?" Kim said, eager to change the subject from her and Tommy's torrid past.

"Oh if you could just help stack the rest of the chairs, means the cleaners can give it a good vacuum later." Hayley said waving her hands towards the tables as she got her cloth and cleaning liquid back out to wipe the surfaces.

After a while of stacking and cleaning in silence Kim attempted to make talk.

"So… you're Australian huh?" She said conversationally, for lack of a better starter topic.

"Looks that way. Moved to New Zealand when I was ten though, came over here when I was seventeen, but I take trips back out there over the holidays." Hayley explained as she began to turn off the coffee machines.

"Huh." Kim said by way of acknowledgement,

*Australian* She thought *Just like-*

"Just like Kat, right." Hayley said before Kim could finish thinking it.

Kim looked wide eyed at her. "How did you-"

"It's what I do." Hayley said simply by way of explanation, which Kim didn't think explained a thing. She stuck the final chair up onto a table and brushed her hair out of her face with the back of her hand.

"Right. Well, this has been interesting, I better go and track down Mr.- I mean, Dr. Oliver- never gonna get over that. It was nice to meet you."

"You too." Hayley nodded with a smile as Kim made her exit.

*Well that was sure weird. God Tommy I know your memory is bad but I didn't think you'd forget about me entirely, not even a call…* She remembered fondly their first real date when Tommy had been an hour behind on his time so wasn't ready, because his watch and stopped, so she'd had to wait while he changed. It wasn't like him to forget an appointment completely, merely some mistake or problem caused him to be late or miss it. He had always valued others too much to blow them off completely.

*Can he have changed so much?* She wondered. *I don't think so, I'm gonna call his house.* She grabbed her cell phone and searched her phone book for his name. When it wasn't there she frowned, sure Jason had put it in there a few weeks ago. Looking more carefully she found what must've been it under Call me 'Loverboy'

She shook her head at the level of maturity Jason demonstrated these days, taking the double meaning of the name, that she should call it when she saw it, and that she should call Tommy loverboy. She rolled her eyes and pressed the green button.

After an eternity of ringing it was picked up.

"Hi this is Tommy-"

"Hey Tommy its Kim where were-"

"I'm not here right now, please leave your name and number, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for calling."

"Grr!" Kim exclaimed as she heard the beep. "Tommy its Kim, you didn't show at Hayley's today, it's now seven forty-five, I was wondering what's up. If you wanna catch up call me at the hotel or on my cell, I hope everything's okay. Well, see ya."

She hung up and stared at the cell for a moment, thinking it stranger and stranger that she hadn't heard from him.

*Well, it's no need to panic, maybe he chickened out. If I don't hear back from him then it's time to worry, for now I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.*

"I just hope you're okay Tommy." She murmured, as she walked past his black jeep without a glance.

*

"I will have both!" Mesogog snarled, glaring at a large white gem on the table in front of him, and if sheer intensity of a gaze was enough to crack stone, the contents that were eluding him would certainly be his now.

"My lord, the prisoner." Zeltrax announced and Mesogog turned with a hiss of satisfaction as Tommy was brought struggling into the room, restrained by several Tyrannodrones.

"Finally! Tie him to the life-force extractor now!" Mesogog commanded and the former leader of the Power Rangers was led to a chair and restrained tightly, not for the lack of struggling on his behalf.

"What do you want with me bone head?" Tommy demanded, not too happy with the words 'life-force extractor' used in relation to him.

Mesogog let out a sinister hiss at his insolence but did not acknowledge it directly. "Of course, how rude of me not to explain." Mesogog turned his beady eyes onto the teacher with a look of enjoyment.

"My senses tell me…this stone encases a power source that will be most…useful to me. Alas, my efforts to retrieve this power source so far have been…less than successful. That's where you come in."

"Sorry Mesogog, I'm not in the habit of helping psycho megalomaniacs in their schemes." Tommy said defiantly.

Mesogog drew uncomfortably close to his face, eyes glittering in malice.

"Really Dr. Oliver, from what I've heard of your past, that's not entirely true now… is it?" Tommy gritted his teeth but maintained eye contact, finally looking away at the satisfaction in the monster's gaze.

Using his Green Ranger history against him was not a weapon Tommy had expected Mesogog to wield, but he couldn't say it surprised him.

"I know you know what's inside this stone, and you're going to help me get it out…or you will not like the consequences." Tommy looked up to see the vicious looking aforementioned extractor crackling with contained energy, as if it were desperate to unleash itself upon him. He looked back up into Mesogog's eyes unwaveringly, but offered no further comment.

"Very well, as you are…somewhat reluctant to help me unleash the contents of the stone, there is something else you may be of use to me for,"

"I make a mean fajita, but I doubt it'd be to your tastes." Tommy quipped, his eyes steely.

"Such humour, I doubt you will be in any state to make jokes…once I'm finished with you." The creature threatened darkly. "In any case…. We have recently uncovered another power source in the area. It is untainted and pure. We have yet to have identified the vessel for this power… it has proved difficult to…keep track of. I suspect it is in the guise…of a human carrier. Perhaps you would care to enlighten us on what you know of this unique power, as it can only be another of your…experiments or plots."

"I don't know what you're talking about Mesogog, and even if I did I wouldn't be telling you anything."

"And I thought you were supposed to be intelligent. Then perhaps we…can enlighten you." He said with what passed for a smile on his misshapen face. Turning to Elsa, who was standing in front of a computer display wall, he nodded and she began to type in a code to recall previous information to display.

Up on the screen was a large overhead map of Reefside forest and somewhere in the centre of the woodland area, at precisely 6.32 a light began to blink. The light moved through the large forest towards the north western edge where it stayed for a moment. All the while the clock at the bottom of the map to display the real-time this was occurring in was ticking off. At 6.54 the light abruptly cut off.

"This was the area our automatic scanning system was monitoring at the time. By the time we were able to mobilise our Tyrannodrones to investigate and were close to discovery, your pitiful Power Rangers were there to destroy them. And…for some…strange reason, we were unable to get a visual representation of the source. Almost as if…someone were, protecting it. Does that…jog your memory perhaps, Dr Oliver?" Mesogog said with a calculating hiss.

Tommy searched his memory and his eyes widened as he made the connection.

6.30 was the time the Tyrannodrones had appeared in the woods, in that area searching for something. He had alerted the Rangers and they couldn't have arrived at the scene any later than 6.40, if that. The battle was over by 6.48 he would estimate. The Tyrannodrones had targeted Kimberly… the Rangers had just got in the way. If what Mesogog was implying was true, there was some Power Source that Mesogog wanted, in Kim.

Mesogog was staring intently at Tommy throughout this and he saw something dawn on the former Ranger. Finally Tommy looked back to him.

"Well?" The being coaxed, with an impatient tone.

"…I have no idea what you're talking about." Tommy said slowly, maintaining eye contact.

"Grh, insolent fool! We will find out what is in that stone, and who you are protecting that carries that power! And you will dearly regret angering me."

"Empty threats don't interest me Mesogog, if you harm me, you'll never get the information you want." Tommy called his bluff.

"Ah, but that is where you are wrong…Tommy. Once I turn this extractor on, your energy, and everything that's in your head will belong to me. I can keep your very essence in a jar, take out whatever information is of use to me, and discard the rest. Not that that will matter to you at the time, your body will be nothing… but a mindless shell, a vessel if you will. Though I doubt anyone who knows you would be able to tell the difference. Sss sss ssss." He gave a hissing laugh and Tommy narrowed his eyes, unconsciously shivering at the threat, everyone he cared about would be in danger if Mesogog got a hold of his mind, not to mention all the other Ranger teams, and the world.

"Ready to talk?" Mesogog offered a final time.

"Never." Tommy snarled.

"Have it your way." Mesogog shrugged as he turned on the machine. "Why are they always so stubborn?" He tutted as he walked past the gem to stand by the side of the machine for a front row view.

Tommy's eyes widened as he watched the drill begin to gather power and his eyes flicked back to the sinister villain whose twisted mockery of a mouth was open in anticipation.

*C'mon Rangers, time to prove my trust in you is well founded. Or we're all in trouble.*

*

Now, when we skipped to Tommy's view we skipped to the day after the gig, we can just say Tommy was in Mesogog's fortress all that night but didn't actually come before him until the next morning as that must have been something similar to what happened in the show's timeline, as it can't take three days for that small interrogation in LoP and for the extractor to warm up, so Tommy must've been left on his own in some cell or something before he was taken in to see Mesogog. I'm just lazy so don't want or need to draw it out that long! I hope this chapter answered some of your questions and it probably gave you some extra ones too!

Also, (as I'm sure if I didn't mention this I'd have some smart ass telling me anyways hehe) I'm aware that Hayley is really from New Zealand rather than Australia, but as the accents are semi-similar and her accent seems to fluctuate between those two and a kinda English American thing (I'm so articulate at this time of night huh?) I'm just using that as a plot point, to serve as an example to Kim at Hayley's talent for information lol. So I thought I'd clarify that I'm not a moron, just an opportunist!

Now to the review responses.

C2- Kim is a girl after my own heart I fear, should go to shopaholics anonymous! I figured it was a Kim thing to say after all, Kat said that Kim gave a new meaning to shopaholic, and she has always been conscious of her looks around Tommy so it works methinks! I agree Tommy is the type to still be nervous, I think at heart he's still a shy guy even under all the teacher/ex-ranger confidence. Thanks for reviewing!

Yami Kero- Thanks for the compliments! The only explanation for my good memory of Tommy history is that I have far too much free time on my hands and if I don't know it I'm prepared to look it all up! Plus I have been watching PR ever since it started so I suppose I have a head start on some newer viewers/writers lol. Yeah let me know when your fic is up and I'll be sure to check it out, it's nice to take breaks from the writing to read some good stories! Thanks for the review.

JTrevizo- *adopts adoring fangirl look* And speaking of reading good stories, I do adore your Always a Ranger series, and pretty much all your T/K stuff so I was flattered that you took the time to review! Yep I stand by my wall-punching Tommy too, I'm trying to keep the tension between them as any break-up is hard enough especially how Kim did it, but they are still ex-rangers and used to be best friends so I'm trying not to take it into the realms of over-the-top bitterness. I'll be interested as to your opinion of their talk when I actually get round to posting it, as you're quite the dab hand at the post-letter reconciliation talk now! Thanks for reviewing!

And thanks to all who come to read and thanks even more to those who review, it's a pain in the butt I know but I really do appreciate them all and they really encourage me to write and update all the faster! The last couple chapters were pretty weak in my opinion so I apologise for that, and I can tell you all the chapter you're waiting for is chapter 7 if you're anticipating 'The Talk' (though I must warn you its about triple the length of most normal chapters, I may consider splitting it into two separate chapters to make it easier to bear, I don't want to pile it on you but would you be happy with just one real long one?)

I will aim to update every Friday so that you know when to expect new chapters, but as everyone's eager to get to the dreaded talk, I may post chapter 6 on Wednesday and chapter 7 on Friday or Saturday if anyone would prefer that? Let me know, and I'll hopefully see you at the reviews page and next week!

Thanks for reading, catch ya on the flipside!