Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers. I simply write this for fun.
Ghostwriter: Thanks and I'm sorry this chapter took so long to get out, but I went back and added a prologue and I also made some small changes to the previous chapters.
Grey17: Since your review, I have gone back over the previous chapter and tried to make things clearer. I have also added a prologue and that will hopefully explain were the story originates from, if not sorry, there is only so much I can do. I hope this chapter will be better and thank you for the constructive criticism.
SailorEclipse-Blackout: Thank you and I'm going to try to keep it up!
Now, on with the story!
"Billy, what powers are you talking about? Hello, Billy, " Kim said, waving her arms in front of his face, trying to get his attention. Billy had immediately gone to rummage through his bag once they had teleported back to the command center and had not listened to any of them. It seemed that he had something that was going to help them ten-fold, if he could only find it.
"These," Billy said, holding up eight crystals, as the ninth one dropped to the ground, but did not shatter as most of them had expected it to do. "Zordon left them with me and I have only now realized what they can do. They will act as an energy charge for every morpher here. How could I be so stupid as to not realize that?"
"Which means we can boost our energies on demand?" Jason asked, as he looked around at the food he had been gathering for their trip. He had taken this job, upon their arrival in the command center, as he knew he would be no good at helping Billy anymore. Billy was in a zone of his own now and there was not much else that they could do, as he was going to do everything in his own way. "That'll be awesome."
"What can we do?" Adam asked Tommy, as most of the other leaders seemed preoccupied at the moment and he was definitely the most approachable as going up to Jason or Billy seemed to be a death wish.
"Start loading all of our equipment," Tommy said, as he looked around at some machines they would be taking with them, as Billy thought they were needed. He didn't agree with half of it, but he didn't want to mention to Billy that he might possibly be too prepared for the worst. "And I would definitely make sure that the food supply is more than adequate. Trini probably won't be fed for the whole time she is there."
"Alright," Rocky said and Adam and he started doing as they had been told, by a ranger who would truly know about that type of capture.
"Billy, how about you let Jason and I do the conversions?" Kim asked, noticing Billy had dropped one gem repeatedly.
"No, I need to keep my mind busy. I have to have something to focus on or I'll break down," Billy said, continuing to struggle with the yellow gem.
"How about I do that one, then?" Kim asked, putting a hand over Billy's trembling one to get his full attention.
"Alright," Billy said, handing it over, although that was really the last thing he wanted to do at the moment. "I've never told her."
"You'll get the chance to, I promise," Kim said and wiped away a silent tear.
Trini had always been there for her, through the breakup and everything else, and just the thought of not being able to see her again, was enough to send her into sobs. She had decided that she had to be strong, because Billy would be doing enough of that for all of them.
Their journey, to the planet Asoriotan, was going to take them four long days; in which they knew irreparable damage could be done to Trini. They all had agreed, before the left, each would have a guard night to patrol and keep the vessel safe.
Kim and Tommy's Shift"It's becoming depressing down there," Kim said, pulling on a white sweater of Tommy's to try to keep the cold out that so desperately wanted to attack her on the upper deck of their ship. The mood of the ship had changed drastically since they first boarded, most had been semi-excited, but now they were becoming worried, about Trini and some other problems they had learned of in the short time they had been on the ship.
"Yeah, it is," Tommy said, putting his arm around her and smiling at how she looked in his sweater. It had been a long time since he had seen this sweater, and he wondered how often she had worn it over all of these years, as it had gone to her with Florida, not that he had cared back then. It just surprised him that it had not been thrown away once they had broken up. At least he knew that she had still cared, even if she didn't show it in a normal way. "You warm enough?"
"I'm fine, Tommy. I'm just worried about Billy; the poor guy is really bent out of shape over this. I didn't realize that Trini meant so much to him," Kim said, looking up at Tommy, to see that he had a far away look in his eyes. She was about to ask him what he was thinking about when, he decided to speak.
"I'd be the same way if they'd taken you away. I've been the exact same way before. I can sympathize with how he feels," Tommy said and realized the magnitude these words carried with them, in more than one way. Although they had made up, they weren't dating each other, now Tommy knew that before, and even now it was love he had felt for Kim. He just wished he hadn't taken so damn long to realize it and for the two of them to talk about it.
"That's nice to know," Kim said with a smile, she could only hope that this was the beginning of Tommy forgiving her. After everything, they had been through, she was willing to settle for friends, just to have him back in her life. She knew that he might never want her to be his significant other again, but she could live with that.
"What really made you come back here?" Tommy asked, having the sudden urge to know the whole truth. He knew that the rangers was not the whole story. If Jason had had to threaten her it had to be much more than just saving the Earth, although that was a huge task to put in front of them.
"The fact that Earth would be destroyed if I didn't," Kim said and winked, letting him know that she didn't want to continue with this right now. Her emotions were running way too strong for her to be able to go into the whole story without breaking down and all of them needed to stay as together as they could right now. "Zordon made it pretty clear that this was necessary and that I couldn't skip out on it, even if I really wanted to do that."
"So, it didn't have anything to do with me?" Tommy asked, becoming slightly depressed.
"You know I can't say that in front of them, even though the thought of seeing you kept my ass on the plane," Kim said, sighing. Well, there was the other thing of Jason dragging her to Reefside, but Kim didn't think it would be best to mention that to Tommy right now. She was sure that he knew what Jason had done, but he didn't want to admit to it either. "I've missed all of this too much."
"The power or everything else?" Tommy asked, having a thought of what her answer might be. Even after five years, he still knew her all too well, which did scare her some.
"Both, but that's not abnormal in this business, is it?" Kim asked, wondering if he felt the same.
"So, I've missed this too. Who hasn't?" Tommy asked, with a bitter smile, as he saw it reflected in her face as well. "We've all given up too much to not want out lives like this again. Hell, this is our life."
"Yeah and if we fail, what's going to happen?" Kim asked, becoming truly worried about this, as she only trusted talking to Tommy about it. She had never been on a mission without Zordon backing her before now and this was the riskiest thing they had ever done. They were completely on their own this time and that did not make her comfortable at all.
"It's never happened before and I don't intend for it to happen now," Tommy said, confidently, although he did feel the same worry as she did at the moment. There was no one left to stop Nicarni-Aso and if they did not succeed then that would mean that the Earth would be destroyed. "We'll save her, if it's the last thing I do."
"Same here," Kim said, "he's got it bad, doesn't he?"
"Not as bad as I do," Tommy said and smiled. "I'm going to sound selfish, but I really don't care about that right now. I'm glad that they didn't take you away from me again. I don't think I would be able to have the same amount of composure as Billy. "
"So, you do sound a little, actually really selfish, but I understand that," Kim said. "I just wouldn't mention that when Billy's around."
"I know better than that," Tommy said and they sat down on some old crates.
"You should," Jason said, walking up to them and taking a seat on the deck.
"What are you doing walking around at this time of night?" Tommy asked, having assumed that all of the other rangers had gone to sleep a few hours before.
"I couldn't sleep, I was thinking about things back home. There's a lot I have to do when we get back," Jason said with a sigh.
"What do you have to do?" Kim asked, grabbing Tommy's hand and this time Tommy did not take it away, as she had made the first move. "You didn't leave someone to come here, did you?"
"Yeah, I did. Your best friend, to be exact," Jason said and Tommy immediately realized who Jason was talking about.
"So, she's move on. Thank God, I can get on with my life without worrying about her," Tommy said.
"I didn't say that, I'm just saying we're friends now. I'm still not sure if she is over you and I'm not sure if I feel anything more than friendship," Jason said, then nodded towards Tommy and Kim's intertwined hands. "I guess she'll have to get used to that again."
"She knew that this was how it would probably be," Tommy said, thinking back on Kat's last conversation with him. She had made it very clear that she thought Tommy had been a fool to not go chase after Kim and she was right. He had been a fool and he should have taken her advice to go after Kim then, but he had thought it would be a useless cause. "She'd have been a fool to do what she did and not realize it."
"Would you mind clueing me in on who you are talking about?" Kim asked, becoming rather aggravated. This other girl seemed to be someone they should all know, but for the life of her she did not have a clue who it was.
"Katherine," Jason said and watched Kim's face turn to an odd shade of red. He had seen the pink ranger blow a gasket before and was praying she wasn't in the mood to fight, he didn't have the strength left to do so now.
"How do you know her?" Kim asked, feeling her face burn, but managing to keep herself calm. Kat had never been her favorite person, but she had also helped save her life, so she couldn't complain all too much.
"We met after she broke up with Tommy and we became friends. I can't guarantee that Katherine is over Tommy, but I know that I have fallen hard, for someone," Jason said, with a sad smile. "And I'm in the same boat as Billy, I haven't told her yet."
"I'm happy for you," Tommy said, with a smile. "I just hope that she feels the same."
"Me too," Jason said, thinking about his friend and what his confession might do to the whole ranger team. It could possibly destroy the friendship he had with all of them, but life was too precious to waste and he had found that out too late. "So when are the two of you going to start dating again?"
"It'll be awhile Jason, I have the feeling that I have to gain Tommy's trust back," Kim said, looking up at Tommy, who did not seem to completely agree with her.
"Maybe a little bit," Tommy said, "but I'm sure that you are already close to being forgiven."
"That's not fair, I feel like I should have to do more," Kim said, as she saw Jason smile at her being her usual self. "I know that I put you through hell and it doesn't seem fair that you can forgive me this easily."
"Just keep this up and you'll be fine. I don't want you to get the bright idea about saving me and get yourself killed. I will never forgive myself if that happens," Tommy said, taking a serious tone with her as he thought that thought might have flown through her mind lately.
"Alright," Kim said, looking down at her feet.
"This is what I've been waiting for, for a long time," Jason said, with a smile still lingering, although his eyes did not glitter like they usually did when he was happy. "But the two of you had too much pride for this to happen sooner, didn't you?"
"Maybe," Kim said with a smile and Jason looked at Kim with raised eyebrows. "Okay, so I did have too much pride, but I didn't want to come back and mess up Tommy's life anymore than I already have."
"You might have about three years ago, but that was the last time I thought I had gotten over you. Kat made me realize that I would never get over you and that's when I started writing letters again," Tommy said, looking at her. "Crazy, isn't it? I get my heart broken twice, but I somehow figure out who I truly love."
"Yeah, but it took me five years without you to get all of my shit straight and see how much I screwed up," Kim said, becoming angry with herself.
"It didn't take you that long," Jason said standing up and taking a seat on the other side of Kim, trying to keep her from becoming any more angry at herself, which was always a possibility with her. "I remember you calling and telling me that you had made the biggest mistake of your life only six months later."
"I talked to you and most of the other Power Rangers about it, but I hadn't talked to Tommy since before I wrote that stupid letter," Kim said, avoiding eye contact with Tommy.
"It's funny how we both wasted all of this time and now we're almost like we used to be," Tommy said, with a laugh. "I've been thinking a lot about Angel Grove lately."
"So have I, but the place is just where all of those memories occurred," Kim said, leaning on Tommy's shoulder.
"I'm going back downstairs," Jason announced and stood up rather suddenly, he did not want to sit and reminise about what had once been their lives. He was doing enough of that on his own without having their memories come in as well. "Don't do anything you might regret in the morning, alright?"
"We won't," Tommy promised with a look of displeasure in his eyes.
"Good," Jason said. "Have a good rest of the night."
"Where are you living now, Tommy?" Kim asked, curious as to why he was thinking about Angel Grove. She had always assumed that he had stayed in Angel Grove over all of these years and having no contact with him, didn't give her any reason to not believe it, as none of the others told her anything about him.
"In Reefside, I've been working at the high school for almost a year now," Tommy said.
"You enjoy it?" Kim asked, slightly shocked at his choice of profession and now understanding his earlier statement about why his hair was so short now. He didn't think he would be making a good impression with shoulder length hair, even though Kim was quite sure some of his students wouldn't have minded one bit, namely the female ones.
"Yeah, I do. Now, do you understand how my hair went along with my job? I couldn't exactly have shoulder lenght hair and be a respectable high school teacher. I'd have too many students throwing themselves at me, although cutting the hair didn't exactly stop that from happening," Tommy said, laughing to himself about Kim's remark from two days ago.
"Yeah, I really do, but how did you get away for this long?" Kim asked, forgetting about teachers having the summer off, even though she had chosen the profession herself.
"It's summer break, so I don't have to work for at least two months," Tommy explained with a smile that made Kim's heart melt. "That is the best part about teaching. Did you ever go to college?"
"Yeah and I think it's funny that we choose to both major in education," Kim said and Tommy quickly snatched his head down to look at Kim. "Except I got mine in elementary educationl, high school kids would run all over me if I taught them. I tend to be too nice to them."
"Do you need a job?" Tommy asked, wondering to himself what it would be like to have Kim as a co-worker.
"I will if I decide to stay here, which I think I will, then of course I will need a job. Do they have any openings?" Kim asked, noticing Tommy's extreme interest in this subject. She had the tiniest inclination that he would be more than happy to have her stay.
"I really don't know about anything at the elementary school, but you won't have to get a job right away, if you wanted to come live with me," Tommy offered.
"Tommy, I couldn't do that. I just got back and it's just too much to ask you to do right now," Kim said, thankful, but still having some of her stubbornness left in her.
"You don't have to, but I'm just offering, since I know how hard it is to get a job in this business," Tommy said, giving Kim's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"I'll think about it, Tommy, but I'm not making any promises," Kim said.
"Alright, I'll take a maybe over a flat out no any day," Tommy said with a smile and they sat there in silence for the rest of the night.
AN: I hope you like this chapter. It's been so long since I have written that I got anxious to get this chapter out. Feel free to review, good or bad. Thanks for reading!