Alright guys, we're nearing the end, sadly. I think there's probably only about maybe 3 or4 chapters left. It's been really fun and you guys have all been AMAZING. And that's why I think I'm going to start a brand new fic when I'm done with this one. So, at this point I think it's a good time to get some ideas and suggestions from all of you for the next story. Obviously I'm a Tommy and Kimberly fan, so please keep it that way. Thanks for the reviews last time, I'm glad I made you all sweat it. Please enjoy and review!
Tommy stared down at the once bright and beautiful face of his one true love. In all of his life he had never seen a sight quite like it, but now it hardly resembled the face he remembered. Kimberly lay limp in his arms; her hair tangled and disheveled, her skin as pale as snow. Tommy pressed his fingers to her neck praying for a pulse, but he couldn't feel one. His hand was shaking violently as the chuckles coming from Lord Zedd's direction proved to be too distracting. Finally, Tommy realized the devastating reality of the situation, Kimberly was gone. Immediately he collapsed over her small body with tears filling his eyes, and his chest heaving in despair.
"What's the matter Tommy," began Zedd, "did you lose something?"
Tommy had heard him but he didn't care to respond. Nothing mattered right now, not even Lord Zedd. What was the point anyway, for all Tommy cared the world could have ended right then and there and it wouldn't have mattered to him one bit. He continued to weep into the woman, his head was nestled in her neck and his arms engulfed her relentlessly. Pain had taken over his body, he couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he couldn't even think. He was stunned.
Lord Zedd continued to mock his archrival with unyielding satisfaction, "I know you blame me Tommy. But, let me let you in on a little secret, she did this to herself. I gave her one simple mission and the imbecile couldn't even accomplish that. She was dead weight Tommy."
Soon feeling began to come back into Tommy's bones and in his head. Lord Zedd had struck a bad cord, yanking Tommy back to reality.
"Why did you do this?" he pleaded weakly. He knew that Zedd deserved a roundhouse kick straight to the head, and Tommy would have been happy to give it to him. But, that would have meant that he would have had to let Kimberly go, and he didn't want to do that, not yet, not ever.
"Well, Kimberly was given orders to destroy you, I told her I didn't care how she did it just as long as the job was done," answered Lord Zedd from across the forest. "But, sadly she was unsuccessful in that mission, but at least she succeeded in steeling your dino gem, which by the way she ultimately destroyed."
Tommy registered what Zedd had just said, his dino gem destroyed? That couldn't be, what about the Rangers? What about Mesogog? What about the destruction of Lord Zedd and Rita? The temporary powers just weren't going to last long enough to hold them all off.
"I figured," continued Lord Zedd, "that I had basically already defeated you. Sure you have your pathetic bunch of teenagers and your team of has-beens, but that's child's play for me. No Tommy, it just wasn't enough to know that shortly your end would come. I still wasn't satisfied; I wanted to see you suffer before I got rid of you forever. But then a brilliant idea sparked in my wicked little head. What if I didn't destroy you? What if I let you live?"
Tommy broke away from Kimberly and stared up at Lord Zedd curious of what he was getting at.
"Answer me this Tommy," said Zedd, "what's worse than a fallen ranger?"
Tommy didn't respond, but tightened his grip on Kimberly instead.
"I'll tell you what's worse," said Zedd answering his own question, "a powerless ranger with nothing to live for." Lord Zedd was overcome with laughter. "No revenge is sweeter than watching you suffer for the rest of your days like you have made me suffer for the past decade! So here's you payback Tommy Oliver," Lord Zedd gestured towards the mass resting in Tommy's arms, "isn't she beautiful! Ha, ha, ha…"
Tommy couldn't handle it anymore, his will was gone, his spirit demolished, Lord Zedd had won, and he was right, Tommy had nothing to live for. Once again he collapsed into Kimberly, hoping to hear a heart beat or a breath, but he heard neither. Instead he heard something else faintly enter his ear.
"Tommy," said the whisper, "don't you dare move."
Tommy froze as the warm air tickled his earlobe. He couldn't believe it, was he hearing things? Was he imagining things?
"Tommy," the voice continued, "reach down the front of my dress and into my bra, now."
Tommy was definitely stunned this time, he highly doubted that this was the appropriate time for such things. But he felt Kimberly's shoulders tighten in an effort to nudge him along. So, slowly Tommy pulled Kimberly too his chest, facing her back towards Lord Zedd who was too busy celebrating to notice the hidden connection. Carefully Tommy followed Kimberly's instructions as he eased his right hand down the front of her silk dress. He considered just how ironic it was that the first time he got down Kimberly's shirt he would have preferred to have not done it at all. Something felt really wrong about feeling up Kimberly when just seconds ago he was mourning her loss.
Kimberly was also uncomfortable with the situation. She had been fortunate that Lord Zedd's blast back on Serpentera II had done nothing but shock her. The black dino gem must have shielded her from the blow, for she was not hurt. She was also lucky that Goldar was so incompetent and had failed to search her thoroughly, actually she was more than lucky for that one. After she realized Zedd had assumed he had finished her off she decided the best option was to actually play dead. And that's exactly what she had done up to this point. She thought Tommy would have surely blown her cover right away, but his body was shaking so fiercely he couldn't distinguish her breaths from his.
Kimberly felt incredibly awkward as Tommy's hands roamed space between the soft fabric of her dress and her chest. And she had to stay as still as a board if she was going to pull this one off, but it was nearly impossible! She could tell by the hesitance of his hand that he also was not comfortable with the situation and she was half expecting him burst out in a million apologies.
But, Tommy's fingers finally found the treasure he had been searching for. The cool rigid stone came as a surprise to Tommy since Lord Zedd had said it had been destroyed. Tommy quickly retrieved the gem and Kimberly immediately came to life for Lord Zedd to see, just as Tommy raised the gem chanted, "Dino thunder power up, ha!"
Kira opened her clenched eyes slowly as her muscles tightened. She was more than shocked to find herself suspended in mid air. The fog was still too thick to see the ground below her or anything around her, so the only place to look was up. That's when she realized that she wasn't floating in mid air, but someone was holding her up by the hood of her sweatshirt. Unable to see who it was that had come to her rescue, Kira was just thankful that the person was pulling her up and in no time she would be safely resting on her own two feet. But when she finally felt the grainy soil under her, she was ready to take her chances at the bottom of the drop.
As Kira looked up to greet her savior, she let out her ear piercing ptera scream, knocking the gold beast to the ground. He was by far the scariest monster she had ever encountered and just as luck would have it she of course had to encounter him alone. Or maybe not. As Kira stood up she realized that she was not alone, there was someone else lying on the ground not too far from her, it was Jason. He was obviously recovering from a hit that was no doubt launched by Goldar. Kira rushed to his side and helped him up before the monster had a chance to recover.
"Jason!" she said pulling him up with all of her might.
Jason rose swiftly and lightly shoved the young girl behind him, "Stay back Kira," he ordered taking a karate stance.
"I don't understand," she began paying no attention to his orders, "what's going on? Where's Dr. O?"
"I have no idea," answered Jason not taking his eyes off Goldar. "The fog is being generated by Lord Zedd. My guess is that he wanted to get Tommy alone, and he was successful. This forest is littered with monsters, right now I suggest you and I just focus on staying alive."
"Sure, no problem," answered Kira sarcastically, as she too took a fighting stance, "that won't be so hard, especially without my powers. Please tell me you have yours."
Jason shook his head and then lunged at Goldar, "No, the power coins and the dino gems don't work in the fog, they only make us fish bate!" He began battling Goldar, and soon Kira joined in.
"What!" she yelled, "Are you telling me that you're the one that stole my bracelet?" she kicked Goldar in the back causing him to lunge forward as Jason's foot met his chest.
"Yeah," replied Jason, "trust me, it was for your own good."
Kira rolled her eyes but was quickly stunned when Goldar's fist met her stomach, bringing her to the ground. "Oomf," she said landing hard.
Jason immediately came to her aid, but was also hit and tossed to the ground. He immediately sprang up and pulled Kira up with no effort using just one arm. He dragged her behind him as the couple approached the drop off with Goldar following close behind.
"On three!" declared Jason clenching Kira's hand so tight that there was no way she was getting loose.
"Are you insane!" she demanded coming to a halt behind him. "We have no idea what's down there!"
Jason looked her in the eye and gave her a reassuring grin gesturing behind him. "It can't be much worse than what's up here."
Kira looked behind her noticing the gold ape was only yards behind them. "Good point," she said closing her eyes and bracing for impact.
But Jason never counted to three; he just pulled the girl with him as the two embarked upon the free fall.
Trent stared out into the fog for a few moments pondering the possibilities.
"Kira," he yelled into the fog, "Kira!"
He heard no response, so he took the first step down from the porch and embarked upon the second when he nearly stumbled down the rest of the way. Catching his balance Trent squatted down on the second step and spotted the culprit, it was a very familiar looking bracelet. Picking it up Trent immediately knew whose it was. And he burst through the back door and scaled across the kitchen into the living room faster than he ever thought possible.
"Something's wrong," he announced holding up Kira's bracelet for everyone to see.
"Where'd you get that?" questioned Haley immediately.
"Outside on the porch steps," replied Trent quickly, "Kira wasn't making up stories, the fog out back is so thick I couldn't even see the steps until I tripped on the bracelet."
"But where's Kira?" asked Conner with intense concern that shocked everybody.
"I don't know," responded Trent, ignoring Conner's obvious enthusiasm for the girl that he shared his affections with. "Her, Dr. O, and Jason are nowhere to be found."
Everyone swiftly rose from their seats and within seconds flooded the porch in amazement.
"Let's go," said Conner hastily as he approached the steps.
"Wait a minute," said Billy, "I think there's more to this fog than we think."
"Like what," asked Ethan, preparing to follow his friend into the unknown.
"I don't know," replied Billy, "but we can't be getting ahead of ourselves here, obviously it's not safe or else we probably would have heard from the others by now."
"Billy's right," confirmed Haley. "Try and contact Tommy with your bracelet, Conner."
Conner raised his wrist to his mouth, "Dr. O," he called. But there was no signal.
Aisha repeated the motion with her communicator and all she picked up was a failed signal.
"I think this is serious guys," said Kat, obviously worried.
"Well, we can't just stand here," said Zack stepping up and joining Conner and Ethan at the end of the porch.
"This goes against all of my best judgement," began Billy, "but something tells me that we don't have time to investigate this fog. I think the other's need us, and I mean now."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Dino thunder power up, ha," yelled Conner in unison with Billy who yelled, "It's morphin time!"