Back in Time

Chapter 20

Tommy woke up the next morning hearing his alarm going off. He felt Kira in his arms roll over and press her face into his chest, groaning as the alarm woke her too. He turned the alarm off and kissed Kira's head, wishing that they could spend all day in bed.

"It's too early." Kira grumbled, still feeling exhausted from the long fight the day before.

"We need to get to school." He replied, tiredness evident in his voice.

"Damn Mesagog. Make us fight a whole bloody army and he doesn't even have the decency to get the Tyrannodrones to destroy school." She muttered, making Tommy laugh as he got up. He saw that she was going to curl up and go back to sleep, so he grabbed the duvet and pulled it away from her. "Hey!"

"Come on Ptera. We can't be late to school." He laughed as she glared at him. She grumbled as she stood up and left the room, walking down the corridor to the spare room where all of her clothes were so she could get dressed.

When Tommy walked down the stairs later, he smirked at the sight of Kira sat at the table with a cup of coffee, another cup next to her. "I figured you'd be as tired as I feel, so I thought a coffee would help."

"Thank you." He said, kissing her lips as he sat next to her. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore and tired. Hopefully Mesagog will take the hit and give us a day while he makes more Tyrannodrones." She said with a bit of a laugh. "What about you? Heard anything from the original Rangers?"

"I thought I heard the phone ringing last night, but that could have been my imagination." He said, looking down at his mug. Kira put her hand on top of his, making him look up and giving her a small smile. "I told you, I don't think our trip back is going to change anything. You know about what happened when Jason came to the hospital after the Island exploded. I put everyone in danger."

"No you don't." She said. "Ok, maybe you did make a mistake and help create the Tyrannodrones, but you have also spent almost a year fighting them and trying to protect everyone from them. And Mesagog wasn't your fault. You don't put anyone in danger. You just happen to be around when the bad guys decide to take over the Earth. I know you're always saying the Morphin Grid Gods are out to get you, but maybe they just know that you are the right man to keep the world safe." He smiled and gave her a kiss, feeling thankful for having her in his life.

"What would I do without you?" He asked, making her smile and smirk at him.

"Be late all the time" She commented as she stood up. "Come on. We need to go." Tommy groaned and put his head on the table, making Kira laugh as she walked towards the door. "If you don't come with me, then I'll have to drive your Jeep." Before she could blink Tommy was up and rushing out the door, making her laugh as she picked up the briefcase he had left behind.

They got to school early and parted ways at the car park, no one around to see her getting out of his car and question what was going on. Kira knew that Hayley was going to do her best to find a way for Kira to be able to stay with him, but Kira had a feeling that they would just have to pretend that nothing had happened, and she wasn't staying at Tommy's house.

"Hey Kira." She looked up and saw Trent sat at one of the benches with a sketch book on his lap.

"Hey. You feeling as sore as me?" She asked, sitting on the table next to where his book was, making Trent roll his eyes. None of the rangers had understood Kira's preference to sit on tables instead of chairs, but they all knew better than to question it.

"And hating the fact that we have school." He said. "Why can't Mesagog be considerate and attack on weekends only?"

"Or do us a favour and destroy the school instead." Conner said as he walked up to them, soccer ball in hand and Ethan a few paces behind him.

"Conner, the bell hasn't rung and you're here? Are you ill?" Kira laughed, making Conner grimace.

"I couldn't sleep. Those drones messed up my back and I just couldn't stay in bed any longer." He said. "Hey, how's Dr O taking the memories not coming back?"

"Oh, I completely forgot to tell you, they came back." She said, making them share shocked looks. "There was a delay for some reason. We got my stuff from my parent's house and just finished putting it all away when he doubled over in pain and my gem let out some kind of energy. Turns out it was just unlocking the memories."

"I'd guess that the delay has something to do with the gem being unbonded when the memories were locked. Once we returned, it took it a while to get the energy and power needed." Ethan said. "Are they coming then?"

"I don't know. I don't think Dr O's heard from them." She said. "He doesn't think they'll come. But I guess we'll just have to wait and find out."

Xxx

Tommy sat at his desk and logged onto the computer, letting his emails load up as he set up for his first lesson. He sighed as he sat down in the chair behind the desk, giving himself a moment to just feel exhausted. He could remember meeting himself and the Dino Thunder rangers as a teenager and knew that this meant that his former teammates would also remember. He looked at his computer and nearly dropped the fossil he had picked up. He quickly opened the new email and scanned what it said, his eyes widening with every word.

Hey Tommy.

I'm guessing you know this, but the memories came back. Hurt like hell, but I never expected the process to be painless.

Anyway, what I'm emailing for is to tell you that it's time. I'm coming home. I'll be out of contact for a couple of days due to the journey, but I will be in Reefside before you know it. I'm sure the others will be there before me.

We'll talk when I arrive.

Billy.

Tommy wasn't sure whether to believe the email or not. Billy said he was coming home. The former blue ranger had been on Aquitar for a very long time, and Tommy couldn't even remember the last time he came back to Earth. He smiled at the thought of the former blue ranger coming home, and felt hope that the others would also be coming to Reefside, before he shook his head.

"None of the others care. If they did, I would have heard from them by now." He muttered, groaning when he heard the bell go. His body ached from the intense battle the previous day, and he wished more than anything that he could have just spent the entire day in bed with Kira watching movies, but of course he never got what he wanted. He watched as the students for his first lesson filed into the room, sighing as he pulled out his lesson notes and greeted the students.

By lunchtime, Tommy was ready to collapse and sleep for a week. Once the last student left the room, he slumped over the desk, resting his forehead against the top and closing his eyes. His muscles felt sore and tender, every movement hurting more and more.

"Well, you look dead." Tommy lifted his head and saw Kira and Conner stood in the doorway.

"I don't even have the energy to threaten you today, Conner." Tommy said as the two walked into the room. Kira jumped up and sat on the table in front of his desk as Conner pulled a chair out and sat down. "What are you two doing in here anyway?"

"We were hoping we could hide in here with you." Kira said. "The football team's trying to get Conner to join a match and Cassidy keeps trying to interview me for something." Tommy laughed and nodded.

"You can hide in here. Just wake me up before the bell." He said. "Oh, and I've had an email from Billy. He's going to be here in a couple of days."

"Billy? He's coming?" Conner asked, excitement written on his face.

"Yeah. It may take him a few days to get here from Aquitar." Tommy said, making the teenagers nod. Tommy had already told them that the former blue ranger had been living on another planet for a number of years.

"What about the others?" Kira asked, worried that Billy's email would get his hopes up, only for him to be let down.

"I still haven't heard from them." He said, making Kira gave him a small smile. They ate their lunches with some small chatter, trying to gather whatever energy their tired bodies had left before they all groaned as the bell went.

"At least we have you now. Go easy on us will you Dr O?" Conner mumbled as the two moved to their normal seats in Tommy's classroom.

"I'll think about it." He laughed as the rest of the class started piling into the room. Tommy handed a worksheet out and told them to answer the questions in silence, using their textbooks to find the answers. He sat back at his desk and completed some of his work on his laptop, quietly willing the day away. Before the end of the lesson, the ground begun to shake, causing alarm in the room. Tommy looked over at where the other rangers were and saw them all looking shocked, holding onto various breakable items on the desks to prevent them from falling and breaking.

"What's going on?" Someone called. By now, everything in the room was shaking, with many students having to stand up as their stools threatened to fall over.

"Everyone under the tables, now!" Tommy ordered, quickly moving around his desk and joining the other rangers under their desk so that he could keep an eye on the whole room.

"Dr O, what is going on?" Trent asked, flinching as a glass beaker fell off the table and broke behind him.

"I don't know." He replied. As suddenly as the shaking began, it stopped and the room became still. Everyone slowly came out from under the tables and looked around, seeing how everything had been knocked over.

"Watch out for broken glass." Tommy said, moving to the window and looking out.

"Attention students." They all looked up as Principle Randall's voice came over the PA system. "The shaking you have all just felt is due to a monster attack not far from here. Please all head straight to the gym and stay there until further notice."

"Quickly and calmly head to the gym." Tommy said, himself and the other rangers making sure they were behind everyone else and shutting the door behind the last pupil, leaving the 5 of them in the room.

"Another monster? Can't Mesagog give us a day off?" Ethan groaned.

"I'm still sore from yesterday." Kira said.

"Come on guys. You know we have to go." Conner said. "You ready?"

"Ready." They all replied, although none of them had as much energy as they usually did.

"Dino Thunder, Power up! Ha!" "White ranger, Dino power."

The 5 morphed rangers ran towards where they could hear the monster destroying what was left of Reefside. "Damn, looks like there's more to clean up now." Ethan commented as they jumped over debris blocking the street. They saw the monster near Hayley's Cyberspace and all froze, a laugh leaving Kira as they looked at the monster.

"What is that?" She asked, laughter evident in her voice. The monster looked like a combination of a lot of creatures, and seemed to be all brute strength and no brains.

"I'm gonna guess that Mesagog is pissed." Tommy said.

"Let's just make this quick." Conner said. They quickly jumped into the fight and very quickly defeated the monster, which didn't even attempt to hit them. They all waited for a few minutes after defeating it, only to all share looks when Mesagog didn't revive it and make it bigger.

"Normally I'd question it, but today I'm just glad that it's over." Ethan said.

"So, anyone else think that was Mesagog's version of a hissy fit?" Kira asked, sitting down on a large piece of debris behind her.

"Yep. At least that should be it for today. Let's get back to the school." Tommy said, making Kira groan.

"No! I want to sleep!" She whined, making them all laugh. Tommy walked over and grabbed her legs, swinging her over his shoulder. "Hey!" She cried.

"Come on you lot." Tommy said, walking away with Kira still over his shoulder. Conner, Ethan and Trent followed, laughing at Kira as she protested to being carried. The rangers disappeared around a corner, just as a red SUV pulled up in front of the Cyberspace. 3 adults got out and looked around, shock on all of their faces.

"What happened here?" Trini asked, looking at the rubble all around.

"Have you being living under a rock or something?" They turned around and saw a red-haired woman walking out of the café. "I thought everyone knew what happened."

"We're not from here." Zach said.

"Well, Mesagog sent down an army of Tyrannodrones. The power rangers were delayed, and defeated almost all of them, but not before half of the town got destroyed." She said, before looking at Jason, her eyes narrowing. "But you'd know all about that, wouldn't you Jason." Trini and Zach looked at Jason in shock.

"Hi Hayley." Jason replied, a small smile forming on his face. "I know we didn't have the best of introductions last time, but can we try again?" Hayley crossed her arms, not answering the question. "Ok. This is Trini and Zach."

"Yellow and Black rangers. I know." She said, making Zach frown.

"How do you know that?" He asked as Trini's eyes flashed with recognition.

"You're Hayley. Ethan said you're the team's tech wizard." She said, making Zach nod as he remembered hearing about Hayley in 1994.

"That I am. Tommy is busy. They've just faced Mesagog's temper tantrum and are probably heading back to the school before anyone notices they're missing." She said, her temper lessoning. "Why don't you wait in here and get a drink. They normally come here after school, and will probably be in need of a milkshake today." They nodded and walked into the café, the former rangers trying to ignore their nervousness in seeing their former teammate again.