Chapter Thirteen

Melissa struggled to free herself from her bindings as she lay under the life-force extractor. It was slowly extracting her powers from the Dino Gem, which was making her weaker and less able to struggle to get free.

"I don't see what the point of this is." Elsa said. "She's just one human, what can she do?"

"You're a fool! Can't you see that she's wearing the green Dino Gem?" Zeltrax asked. "She can be a great use to us."

"But, this is boring! Can't we at least have some fun with her?"

"What did you have in mind?"

Elsa gave an evil smile as she walked over to the life-force extractor. "If we can't have the White Ranger on our side, who says we can't still have a ranger?"

"What is your plan, Elsa?" A menacing voice asked from behind them. Lord Mesogog had moved silently into the room and walked up to his lackeys. Elsa stammered when she saw her master standing there. "Well?" He asked, waiting for her to answer.

"I-I was thinking, my Lord, that if we reconfigure the life-force extractor, we could make our own evil ranger. All we need is your approval, sir."

Mesogog stared at the two of them for only a second, before he turned his attention to Melissa. He approached her with what only could be considered a grin and ran a clawed hand through her hair. "I suppose it has its promises… The Green Ranger, my one and only queen…" He trailed off as he considered it. He cackled in approval.

"I'd rather die than join you, Mesogog!" Melissa said as the extractor was turned off.

"That can be arranged, but, for now… Elsa, continue with your idea. I cannot wait to meet my own evil Power Ranger."

Tommy entered Melissa's room and turned on the light. He wasn't looking for anything in particular. He just felt so terrible about how he'd acted when he'd found out that the gem chose her. He couldn't believe how angry he was at her. But, he knew it wasn't her fault. The gem chose her. There was nothing that he could do about that. Thinking back to it, he wished that he could take it all back. She was a great ranger; one of the best. She could handle this responsibility. The question was, though, whether or not it could handle her.

He and the others were delayed from rescuing Melissa because Hayley was cooking something up to help. This only made Tommy more on edge and made him hope that they weren't already too late.

He scanned her room, from the way she made the bed to the way she lined all of her small belongings on the dresser. His eyes rested on a framed photo she had set on the bedside table, next to her laptop.

He smiled as he picked up the photo and looked at it. It was a picture that was taken of him, Melissa, and the others at Ernie's. It was taken just before she had become the Green Ranger.

He set the photo down and carefully studied her other belongings. He was so intent on memorizing everything that he didn't even notice Kira, Ethan, and Conner enter the room.

"Dr. O.?" Ethan asked. Tommy turned his attention to his students, trying to show a brave face for them. "We were wondering what happened to Mel after your fight with Zedd."

"Yeah, it still doesn't make sense why you were mad at her…" Conner said.

"Can you tell us?" Kira asked as she and the other two took seats on her bed.

Tommy nodded as he took a seat next to the bed. "Okay."

(A.N.: Again, this was originally as if Tommy was telling the story, but I changed it again.)

When they arrived back at the Command Center, the others were still there. They let out a loud cheer and hugged the three who had returned.

Kimberly and Tommy took off their helmets, but Melissa still stood there with hers on. She didn't know how the others would react to seeing her face behind the helmet. But, she figured that they would have to find out sooner or later.

When she took off her helmet, the others were still smiling and each gave her a hug. They were happy that it was her and not someone they didn't know. It was better to have friends on the team, than a complete stranger. Team work just seemed easier when friends were nearby.

"Welcome to the team." Aisha said.

"I'm glad it's you." Rocky said.

"I guess, now you have no excuse for missing out on studying." Billy pointed out.

"It's good to have the old you back." Adam said.

"I'm glad to be back." She said, trying to take a step toward him to hug him, but her legs collapsed from underneath her. Adam and Rocky quickly caught her and tried to help her back up.

"Mel, are you okay?" Kimberly asked.

Melissa shook her head to clear it. "Yeah… I just feel… weird." It was strange. Just a few seconds ago, she elt as though she was the strongest woman in the world. Now, it felt as if she was copletely drained.

"Alpha…" Zordon spoke up.

"Already on it, Zordon." The robot spoke up, pulling out a small energy scanner. He slowly ran it over her. The outcome wasn't what they expected. "Hm…"

"What is it Alpha?" Tommy asked.

"Her body is very weak… but why, I don't know."

"We destroyed the staff that Zedd used, Zordon, how can she be weak?" Kimberly asked. "I mean, her powers returned to her and everything."

Zordon paused before answering. He had to think of a way to say this. "Zedd had been extracting Melissa's powers very slowly from the gem, because he knew that if he did it too quickly that his body wouldn't be able to handle it. That is what has happened to Melissa. Her body wants to accept the power, yet it is still too weak from it being taken away from her, that it can't do it as quickly as it had before."

"Is there anything that we can do?" Aisha asked.

"Well, there is one thing." Billy said as he thought quietly to himself. He was the brains of this outfit and he knew just about as much as Alpha and Zordon, so his idea would most likely work. "But, I'm not sure of what the outcome would be."

"What is your idea?" Melissa asked as she rested on the floor after she had told Adam and Rocky to just leave her there.

"We can reincorporate your powers back to you, just like the way that Zordon had given them to you the first time." The Blue Ranger said.

"How?" Tommy asked.

"To do what Billy is speaking of is very dangerous. There is no telling whether or not Melissa's body will accept the powers again." Alpha said.

"But how?" Tommy asked again.

"He means that they'll have to extract the rest of my powers to let my body rest. Then, when it is ready again, they'll return to me." Melissa spoke up.

"Well, why don't we do that?" Rocky asked.

"Alpha's right. It's very dangerous." She said again.

"How dangerous?" Adam asked as he knelt down next to her.

"It could kill me."

The Ranger's eyes went wide as they heard her say that. They couldn't believe that Billy or Alpha would even consider doing something like that.

"We can't let you do that." Tommy said.

"It's not up to you to decide, Tommy. I have to make this decision on my own." Melissa said.

"But, Mel, if it'll kill you, then you can't do it." Kimberly said.

"It's not for sure whether or not it will kill me… it's only a chance… a chance that I'm going to have to make."

Tommy snapped back into reality as he looked at his students. He felt as though he could begin to cry, but he didn't.

"So, she went through with it?" Conner asked.

"Yeah."

"What happened?" Ethan asked.

"It didn't work… Her body wouldn't accept the powers again. But, it wasn't because it couldn't. It was willing to accept them again, but it was as if something was telling it that it shouldn't. Like she was meant for something greater to come along."

"She was, though, wasn't she? I mean, she became the Green Dino Thunder Ranger." Kira point out.

"That's not it… I can't explain it though."

"So, what happened to the gem's powers?" Ethan asked.

"She gave them to Zordon and Alpha."

"But, I thought they would only work for her." Conner said.

"Only she could activate the powers, but after that, they could be used for anything… But, she did have to help. With Alpha's help, she was able to incorporate them into the Morphin' Grid. That way, her powers were dispersed between all of us and the Command Center."

"So, what happened to her, after that?" Kira asked.

Tommy was going to answer, but Hayley's voice made him think otherwise.

"I think that's going to have to wait." She said, from the doorway. "Come on, there's something I have to show you."

Tommy nodded and let the other out of the room and back down to the lab. His eyes set on five very small, gold beads that were sitting on one of the roll-away tables he had stocked to help him with his research. He gave them, then Hayley, a puzzled look. "What are they?"

"They are small upgrades to the Dino Morphers… I got the idea for them when I watched your video diary."

"So, what are they?" Conner asked as he saw Tommy smile widely.

"They're teleporting chips." The Black Ranger said.

"Precisely." Hayley said, for a moment sound like Billy.

And so the story continues. Please read and review. I'm still going to try to update once or twice a week, but there's no telling with my schedule. But, I promise that I'll try.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Don't hesitate!