Live Like You Were Dying

Title: Live Like You Were Dying
Author: kazeko
Show: Power Rangers
Rating: PG 13
Chapters: ?
Series: no, also no relation to "Children of the Gods"
Multipart: yes
Time: About a year after Power Rangers in Space, changing the Power Rangers timeline after that
Couple(s): Tommy/Kimberly, Jason/Kat, Tanya/Adam
Disclaimer: Saban and Disney own Power Rangers and they don't deserve it if they won't release MMPR on DVD!
Disclaimer 2: I own everything else, including characters, other planets, and the plot.

Chapter 7: Confessions of a Future Queen
Kimberly slowly opened her eyes, wondering where she was. The last thing she could remember was entering Dervalet's house and meeting his daughter Kapiire. Then three more men burst into the room . . . and everything went black. No, wait! Kimberly sat up, finding herself in a darkened bedroom, reaching for the strange watch on her wrist. It had beeped just before she lost consciousness. Now she could tell that it was offline, no longer able to respond to whatever voice had come through the watch. Who was that man, anyway? He sounded so familiar.

A baby's strident cry interrupted her thoughts, and the young gymnast slid out of bed, silently padding to the door. Forgotten warrior instincts kicked in as she silently opened the door and slid down the hallway, toward the sound. She stopped at a closed door at the other end of the hall, and it irised open when it sensed her, startling the brunette. A single crib sat in the room, a large bed, small table, and chair the only other furniture in the room. A strange black screen occupied part of one wall, blinking lights in the wall.

Kimberly only took a moment to examine the room before moving toward the crib, stopping at the edge and staring at the tiny baby lying there. The girl had brown hair and deep brown eyes, specks of green sparkling in their depth. She looked so much like Tommy that Kimberly felt tears fill her eyes. Tommy. Fragments of her life in Angel Grove filtered through the block she had erected so long ago as the petite brunette gently lifted the screaming infant, smiling as she silenced. "Hey," she whispered. "There's no need to cry, little one."

"I thought she would never shut up."

Kimberly pulled the baby closer to her breast as she looked up at Dervalet, the red-eyed man leaning casually against the doorframe. "Why doesn't her mother feed her? She's so young . . . she must still be breastfeeding."

"She is, but her mother is not here."

"Whose child is she? Is she Tommy's?"

"Of course she's Tommy's," Dervalet scoffed. Kimberly felt her heart freeze at the thought, and tears filled her eyes. "Look, can you keep her quiet or what?"

Kimberly narrowed her eyes, turning her pain to fury. "I don't know what you did to the poor thing's mother, but the only person qualified to take care of her is that woman. I can't do it and I certainly can't nurse her."

"That's where you're wrong. My Mage can cast a spell to make your body produce milk for the brat."

"Mage?" Kimberly nodded, remembering pieces of things. What he was telling her made a little sense, and she glanced at the babe. "If I can help, I will. Is that why you lured me here?"

"Something like that. Shana needs someone to take care of her, and you're as good a human as any to do the job." Dervalet pulled a small bottle out of his pocket and held it out. "Azaemer said that if you drink this and let the child nurse, your body will produce the milk she needs."

"What will you do to me if I refuse to be her wet nurse?"

Dervalet shrugged and placed the vial on the table. "No one will suffer but the child." He left, closing and locking the door behind him.

Kimberly sighed and glanced at the waiting child. "He tricked me, you know. He let me wake up when you did so I'd come here to take care of you." Shana giggled, and the woman smiled. "I wonder who your mother is, child. She must be pretty special to have won Tommy over like that. I can't remember . . . I wonder why I forgot him." She shook her head, banishing the thoughts and the memories, as she reached for the vial.

Kimberly watched Shana as she nursed peacefully, drowsily listening to the tiny sounds the infant made. She felt a strange warmth envelop her, filling her with power and strength, and she closed her brown eyes as Shana finished her meal.

"Father, are you crazy?! You put Shana in with her mother?!"

"Kapiire! She's not the brat's mother yet. Besides, no one else could do the job."

Kapiire grunted and crossed her arms over her chest. "Why can't we just kill the thing? Then we wouldn't have had to lure that stupid human here and waste a potion forcing her body to make milk."

"How many times do I have to explain this to you? If we kill Shana before Kimberly has to pass on her powers, then she'll give them to her husband or one of these humans. If we keep Shana alive until it's too late, then Kimberly's powers will be lost and we can kill the child and still get the throne."

Kapiire sighed as she ran a brush through her long black hair. "Still, I don't trust her. This is really not a good idea."

"I'll go check on them, if you'd like. I should feed Kimberly, anyway."

"Don't let that kid shock you again! Her lightning attacks are pretty powerful for only being a month old."

"I know." Dervalet rubbed the angry red line on his cheek as he headed for Shana's room.

He found Kimberly sound asleep, legs curled under her in the large chair, the baby sound asleep in her arms, one of Kimberly's breasts still bared. He wondered what it would be like to possess that woman, make Shana his child, and he grinned as he pushed the door further open.

Kimberly jumped at the noise, automatically closing her shirt and pulling the baby closer. "What are you doing here?" There was an edge to her voice that had not been there before, and Dervalet backed away. "Get away from us."

"Now look here! You're my prisoners and I won't have you talking to me like that! If you don't behave, I'll take her away from you." Ha! That should make the powerless human watch herself.

To Dervalet's shock, Kimberly stood up and hugged the baby closer, a strange light in her brown eyes. "You will not take her from me," she whispered, pale pink/silver light glowing from her slender frame. Lightning leapt from the baby, wrapping itself around her nursemaid and new protector. The baby giggled as the pair vanished, leaving a very shocked Shamiri in their wake.

"How could Shana's powers be compatible with that human?! Damn her!! Kapiire! The baby escaped!"

Tommy stared across the water, twirling a blade of grass between his fingers. The other humans stood in a loose circle around him, each in various levels of depression. The two Mages were further away, unwilling to return to Kimberly without her daughter. "How could we have missed her? We transported to where her communicator should have been, but she wasn't there."

"She's still alive," the older Jason consoled the ex-Rangers. "If she wasn't, we wouldn't be here discussing it."

Tommy turned to his older self, thinking a moment before he blurted out his question. "What's wrong with Kimberly? What was that power a few hours ago?"

"I can't tell you. It wouldn't change anything, anyway."

"Then what about our Kimberly? Why doesn't she remember any of her time as a Ranger?" Tommy stood at the hesitation in his future's eyes, smiling kindly. "Look, I know you don't want to destroy the future; you're here to make it better, right? If she can't or won't remember anything about the Power Rangers, how can she adjust to life as a Shamiri?"

"She won't very easily," Tommy admitted. "It took five years for her to fully relax and be able to accept the Queen's power."

"How long until you two got together?"

"Tommy, you have to understand that she was in a great deal of pain and very confused. To be honest, I didn't fare much better, what with the new worlds and the Power. We barely talked unless we had to until she got her powers."

"How long?"

Tommy sighed and hung his head, knowing that Jason would not help him. "Twenty years," he finally admitted.

"What?! It took you twenty years to speak to her? What was the matter with you?"

The white-robed Mage looked up, brown eyes sparkling fiercely. "There are things you don't know about what happened on Adamaren Prime! I can't tell you what took so long!"

"Yes you can! My Kimberly, the woman I love more than my life and even this planet, the woman I've saved and been saved by countless times has been captured by your enemy through no fault of her own and he wants to KILL her and all you can do is sit there and say that you won't tell me!! Your Kimberly is sick, and I want you to tell me what's wrong with her!!"

"She's dying!!"

Silence filled the small grove after Tommy's furious answer, the two Mages stepping back, shocked that Tommy had actually answered the question. "She's . . . what?"

TBC