Disclaimer: Power Rangers is Saban's world, not mine. Title comes from the song "Here With Me" is by Dido and I don't own that either. So please don't sue the broke college student, there's nothing here of worth!

I apologize for the long time between postings, and that's one of the reasons why I have reposted the previous sections. That, and I've taken down the song lyrics originally posted in the beginning of each section.

Reviews and constructive criticism, as always, are greatly appreciated.

Here With Me Part Three

2003-2006 by Amie Martin

-- Aimee --

There's something to be said for the feeling an open road can give you. Sitting on the back of Jason's motorcycle, the wind whipping through my hair, I felt like I was flying. It was something I hadn't felt since the last time I danced, when the feel of the audience's eyes watching my every move produced an adrenaline high unlike any other.

I missed it terribly, all of it—the movement, the music, the endless hours of practice. Dancing had set me apart from Tommy, as martial arts had set him apart from me. I longed for that sense of individuality, that sheer hint of grace. On this motorcycle, I felt the same way again.

After leaving my car at Jason's apartment, we set off into the great unknown. Jason was being awfully secretive about our destination, and I was starting to get curious. I'd never remembered him to be the type to keep secrets, but then again, the last time I had seen him was at least three years ago. I didn't want to think about the possibility that he might have changed.

I couldn't believe my stroke of luck, or my powers of coincidence. Just as I was about to lose all hope, Jason had to go walk back into my life. My brother's high school best friend, who still frequented their old high school hangout... my luck couldn't get much better than that. Right now, Jason was my best lead in my search for Tommy, and by no means did I intend to let him get away.

And, beyond that, I wanted—no, I needed a friend. I had spent almost two years completely alone, and Jason had been in the right place at the right time, just when I needed him.

Still, Jason's silence now was starting to bother me; he was so willing to open up before. Leaning close to his ear, I asked, "So, Jase, where exactly are we going again?" I had to practically shout to make myself heard over the wind.

"You'll see soon enough." Jason, too, was shouting, his words muffled by the motorcycle helmet he wore. "Just relax and enjoy the scenery."

If I could have slumped down in my seat, on the back of the motorcycle, I would have. I was not the kind of person who was content just watching the scenery go by; I had a short attention span and became bored very easily. Besides, I had no idea where we were. Jason had brought me into the middle of the desert, and all I could see was sand for miles and miles.

For Jason's sake, I refrained from asking the perpetual childhood question, "Are we there yet?" He was the one controlling the motorcycle, after all, and distracting him would definitely not be a good thing. So I forced myself to sit quietly, trying not to think about our mystery destination.

Of course, in trying to avoid one subject, I naturally thought of another. The memories would always plague me, wherever I went, but the one that came to mind now wasn't painful, just a little bittersweet. It was one of my more recent memories of Tommy, and of Jason as well.

I was a few months shy of 17, a newly licensed driver in the state of California. Tommy was spending the weekend over our house, but his truck had broke down the day before and had to go in the shop. I remembered how Tommy came to me, with sad puppy-dog eyes, and I remembered my inability to say no...

-- Flashback—Three years before --

"AJ! AJ, where are you?" Tommy's voice echoed throughout the house, alongside the sound of his pounding footsteps.

"In the living room!" I shouted from where I lounged on the couch, turning the page in the book I was reading.

I looked up as he entered the room and plopped down on the couch beside me. Tommy's hair was pulled back in a slick ponytail; his eyes were liquid brown pools already pleading with me on his behalf. He wanted something and I knew it; depending on what it was, I might be willing to go along with it.

"So, AJ... what are you doing now?" Tommy rested his arm on the back of the couch, so he could wrap his arm around my shoulders if he wanted to.

"Homework." Making a face, I held up my book to show him. "I've got to finish this whole thing by Monday and I'm not even halfway through yet."

Tommy took the book from me and flipped through the pages, nodding as he did so. "I remember reading this book in high school," he said, handing the book back to me. "Of course, I don't remember much about what it's about, but I remember having to read it."

Laughing, I commented, "Some big brother you are. You can't even help me out the slightest bit."

"Hey, I never said I'd help you cheat on your homework. You're the one who put it off until the last minute."

"You weren't any better when you were in high school, dear brother." I smiled slyly. "Besides, helping me out would give you something to barter with."

His jaw dropped in an expression of surprise. "Me?" he sputtered. "Why would I need something to barter with, of all things?"

"Because you can't look me in the eye and tell me you don't want something from me." Closing my book, I crossed my arms across my chest and stared at Tommy. If anything could make my brother crack, staring would do it.

I held his gaze for nearly a minute, all of my attention focused on the brown pools of his eyes. Finally, Tommy looked away and grumbled, "I still don't know how you do that."

"Easy. It's all a matter of identifying that puppy-dog look in your eyes and knowing exactly what it means." I allowed a briefest hint of a smile to grace my lips, because I knew I had Tommy right where I wanted him. "So, out with it. What do you want from me?"

"You can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, do you know that?" he commented, glancing sideways at me.

"It's a skill I'd like to say I've made into an art form. Come on, you still haven't told me. You know you want to."

Sighing, Tommy turned on the couch to face me. "You know that my truck broke down, right?" he began, smoothing a hand over his ponytail.

"Yes..."

"And I told Jase last week I'd spar with him today..."

"If you want to borrow my car, Tom, all you have to do is ask."

He held up a hand to silence me. "No, not just that. I want you to come with me. You know, test out that new driver's license of yours."

Looking at my brother quizzically, I asked, "And why is my presence so important at this spar? If I wanted to practice I could log in some extra hours in the dance studio."

"Because Jase wants to see you. Because I want to see if my impromptu driving lessons paid off. Because I want to spend some time with you." Tommy was grinning now, his eyes sparkling. "You don't think you're the only one who knows how to get what they want, do you?"

As hard as I tried, I couldn't force my brain to come up with a quick, witty response. Tommy was only one of a select few people who knew just how to back me into a corner and shut me up. I would have to admit defeat, and by no means would I ever want to do that, even to my own brother.

Just as hope was about to run out on me, fate intervened as Tommy's cell phone rang. "Give me a minute," he said to me, rising from the couch as he answered it.

I, for one, appreciated the reprieve. Not only was I saved from admitting defeat, but I was also given an opportunity to finish the chapter I was on. Tommy had all but convinced me to go, but I knew, at some point, I had to get a good chunk of my work done... even if I had to force myself to do it. Sighing, I opened my book and attempted to read.

My attempt to work, as brief and as small as it was, was interrupted by Tommy dropping his cell phone in my lap. "It's for you," he said, gesturing for me to answer it.

"Well, who is it?" Picking up the phone, I noted that the screen said, "Jason Cell." I looked up at Tommy curiously, confused.

"Go on," he urged. "Answer it. He's waiting."

Relenting, I put the phone to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, AJ! What's up?" Jason's voice sounded bright and cheery on the other end of the line.

"Nothing much, just trying to get some work done when I was so rudely interrupted." Glancing up, I glared at Tommy, who only shrugged. "What about you, Jase?"

"Oh, the usual. I'm sitting here at the Youth Center, waiting once again for your lazy brother..."

Giggling, I answered, "And we both know how lazy he can be. And forgetful, you can't deny that he's forgetful." The hurt expression on Tommy's face only made me laugh even harder.

"True, but it's part my fault too, because I forgot all about the little mishap with Tommy's truck." From the sound of his voice, I could imagine Jason shrugging. "I just told him—in a polite way, of course—that he better get his butt over here, or I'll consider this round to be forfeited."

"Tom will never let you get away with that."

"Exactly. That's why I want you to bring him down to the Youth Center to save his pride from being crushed forever."

At the mention of the Youth Center, my mind froze. I had too many memories there, good and bad, and I didn't particularly feel like facing my inner demons right then and there. My emotions, both my strength and my weakness, would wait for another day... "The Youth Center? Jase, I don't know..."

"You just have to drop him off out front." Jason's voice dropped a pitch. "Tommy doesn't know everything that happened to you there, but I do. I would never ask you to do something you didn't want to do. Besides, you know you want to come visit me."

Drawing a deep breath, I slowly let it go. "For you, Jase, I would do anything," I agreed, "but I'm not staying long, because I have a lot of work for school." It was an easy thing to say, far easier than admitting that I didn't want to go back to a place of bad memories, back to the place where my first boyfriend broke up with me.

Jason laughed lightly, which brightened my mood considerably. I needed that. "You're getting more and more like your brother every day, do you know that?"

"In some ways yes, in some ways no. Depends on when you talk to us." I looked up at Tommy and smiled, and he smiled back. "Tom and I will be there in about half an hour."

"Thanks, AJ. See you in a few."

"Later, Jase."

Hearing a click, the line went dead. Handing the phone back to my brother, I said, "You do realize that now, you owe me big time."

Shrugging, Tommy replied, "Maybe Jase knows something about your book..."

I threw a pillow at him, and it struck him square in the shoulder. "You can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, Tom."

"Only as much as you are."

-- End Flashback --

The motorcycle came to a stop, and only then did I break free of my reverie. Killing the engine, Jason swung off the bike with ease and took off his helmet, then gazing around as if familiarizing himself with the landscaping.

Doing the same, all I saw was sand, sand, and more sand. I could find nothing that made this place stand out from everything else we had already passed. "Jase," I began, climbing off the back of the motorcycle, "are we here?"

"The road ends here," he said, turning to face me. "We hike up there--" Jason pointed to a steep hill to his left "—and then we'll be there." He smiled at me. "It's not as far as it looks."

"It's not the walk I'm worried about." I gestured to the desert around us. "What's going on here, Jase? What's so important that you have to drag me into the middle of nowhere in order to tell me?"

His brow furrowed, as if he was deep in thought. A moment passed before he answered. "It's not what I have to tell you, exactly," he said slowly, "but rather what I have to show you. You won't believe me if you don't see it."

"I trust you, Jase. I know that you would never lie to me." I moved closer to him, laying my hand on his shoulder. "Whatever you tell me, I'll believe you."

"Let's hope you feel that way once I've told you." He laughed, low and cynically, so unlike the Jason I remembered. "Come on, AJ. Let's go."

Meekly, I followed Jason as we began to climb the steep incline. Almost immediately, I found myself cursing the clothes I wore; the leather was unbearable in the desert sun and the boots weren't made for hiking. I could have complained to Jason, but my curiosity had gotten the best of me, and I had no choice but to continue on. From his silence, I figured he'd rather be left in peace.

While we walked, I though back to our conversation at the Surf Spot and Jason's reaction to Tommy's golden coin. I had no idea what the footprint on it symbolized, or even why my brother had it in the first place. It had been by a stroke of luck that I found the coin at all, at the bottom of a box in the back corner of Dad's attic. From what I was able to tell, all of the items in the box were from Tommy's days at Angel Grove High—a worn football jersey, ticket stubs from concerts and plays, that sort of thing. I had been looking for old childhood photographs at the time, but quickly found Tommy's abandoned items to be far more interesting. Short attention span, indeed.

While I couldn't unravel the mystery behind the coin, I did know that it must have some importance, or Tommy would have never kept it. It was one of the many things I planned to ask him once I found him, out of sheer curiosity more than anything else. Until then, I liked to think that the coin brought me good luck, that by carrying it on me I was one step closer to finding my brother.

Jason's reaction to the coin, however, threw me off guard. I had thought of the coin as a mere trinket, something with emotional value to one person but very little to someone else. But the way Jason's eyes grew wide at the same moment he saw the coin told me it meant something more. Right after, he suggested this crazy trip out into the desert. I would have to be pretty stupid not to think there might be a connection between the two. But until Jason told be what this was all about, I wasn't about to assume anything.

"Aimee, we're here."

Looking up, I was Jason standing on a rise a few feet ahead of me, staring at something below him. The look on his face was one of reverence, respect, and remembered pain. Cautiously, I moved to stand beside him, afraid of what I might see.

Below us were the scattered remains of a building, its once-tall stone walls smashed into large chunks and slabs, forming piles upon piles of rock. The stones were decorated with thick dark blast marks, blemishing their smooth surface. Electronic equipment was strewn amongst the debris, frayed wiring here, a display there. This place had been huge, and it would have had to take a massive explosion to bring it to this sorry state of ruin.

The part of me that was still four years old wanted to play hide and seek among the crevices, wanted to explore it all as if this place was some big secret only Jason and I knew. It almost made me believe that a small glimmer of my childhood still existed, kept in check only by my forced maturity.

Slowly, without realizing what I was doing, I made my way down the embankment and into the ruins. I couldn't resist that urge to explore; I had to see the damage firsthand, to ensure that it was tangible and real. After a few minutes, I heard Jason's feet moving to join me.

"What happened here, Jase?" I asked quietly, picking up a discarded piece of equipment. Sand had eroded away most of the vital pieces; it would never work again. "What was this place?"

"The Command Center," he said, gritting his teeth together.

"Command Center? What, was this some sort of military base or something?" Only the military could have used this much equipment; I couldn't think of a plausible reason why it would all be here, in the outskirts of Angel Grove.

Chuckling sadly, Jason answered, "We weren't a branch of the military, AJ. We were... something else entirely."

Startled, I rose from my crouching position and turned to face him. "What do you mean, 'we?' Jase, you were here, you know what this was—you have to tell me!"

Jason put his hands on my shoulders and tilted my head up so my eyes met his. "If I tell you this, you have to swear that you'll never tell anyone about this place or what I'm going to tell you."

"Jase--"

His hands squeezed my shoulders. "Just promise me, Aimee-Jean."

"I promise," I whispered.

His eyes bored into mine, the dark brown of his irises filling my scope of vision. "We were the Power Rangers, Aimee. Chosen by Zordon as protectors of the planet."

My voice eluded me, my thoughts tangled up in spider webs upon hearing his words. "What?"

"It's true, every word of it," Jason continued. "Kim was the Pink Ranger, and Trini was the Yellow... Zack was black, and Billy was blue... and I was the Red Ranger, the leader of them all." He finally broke my gaze and stared off into the distance. "It seems like it was so long ago."

"Jase, that's insane." My voice was barely a whisper.

He laughed. "Of course. That's what the five of us said too, in the beginning. But as soon as the attacks started coming, we all realized what we had to do."

The five of us... "Wait, weren't there six Rangers?" I asked, my voice growing stronger. "I remember something about a Green Ranger, and a White one too..."

"It started out with five. The sixth guy joined later." Jason looked at me again, he gaze more intense than before. "The Green Ranger later became the White Ranger, as his original powers had been too unstable and unreliable in battle. Aimee... he's your brother. Tommy was the Green Ranger."

"No." I jerked away from Jason's touch; I couldn't stand to look at him. "It can't be true. He would have told me if it was true."

"He wanted to, Aimee, very much." He spoke quietly, almost pleading with me to understand. "But he couldn't—none of us could. We were bound by a code of secrecy."

I shook my head. "I know all of Tom's secrets. At least, I used to."

"This was the one secret he kept from you, and only because he had to. Think about it, AJ. How many times did he break off plans with you, telling you that something had unexpectedly come up? I'm willing to bet you that almost every time was due to a monster attack."

To be honest, I had never looked at the situation like that before, and I had to admit that Jason had a point. Tommy never cancelled on me until he moved to Angel Grove... "Okay, so it could be true, but I'm still not convinced."

"Okay, then. Do you still have the golden coin?"

Nodding, I pulled the coin from my jacket pocket. "I still don't see what this trinket has to do with anything."

Smiling, Jason opened his hand, producing a second coin the same size as mine. I took it from him to examine the two side by side. Whereas my coin—Tommy's coin—had a footprint, Jason's coin was imprinted with the head of a roaring dinosaur, what I thought was a tyrannosaurus. While it was clear that the two coins were quite similar, I couldn't figure out the connection between the two.

"They're the power coins that gave us the ability to morph," Jason supplied, answering my unspoken question. "My power was the tyrannosaurus, the Red Ranger. Tommy had the Dragonzord, for the Green Ranger."

"Dragonzord... I like the name. It sounds powerful, but at the same time, it's... unique." I handed the coin back to Jason, noticing how he was grinning from ear to ear. "What? What's so funny?"

It was the first genuine laugh I heard from him since our arrival at the ruins. "Tommy said you would like it; he said it fit your personality more. He was happier as the White Ranger, I think—the Tigerzord."

"I think so, too. When he first moved to Angel Grove, right after the divorce, it was a rough time for both of us." I started wandering around the ruins, indulging in my urge to explore just the tiniest bit. "So, this place was like your base of operations?"

He fell in step beside me, and I found his presence warming instead of intimidating. My newfound knowledge of his life as a Power Ranger hadn't changed my view of him at all, and for that I was grateful. "It was, for a long time," Jason explained, "well past the time I retired from being a Ranger. The Turbo Rangers had to face the space pirate Divatox and--"

Before Jason could even finish his sentence, a loud explosion went off behind me, the sound assaulting my eardrums. Acting on instinct, I ducked, my hands flying to my ears to block out the noise. Jason wrapped his arms around me and pulled me beneath a large slab of rock, which I thought was once part of the Command Center's outer wall. We crouched there for a second, his body shielding mine from the outside world.

"That's not some sort of residual blast, is it?" I asked, already guessing at the answer.

"No. We're under an attack of some kind." Jason shook his head. "Stay here while I go and investigate."

I grabbed his arm, holding him where he was. "I don't think so, Jase. Where you go, I go. There's no reason for you to treat me like a little kid."

"Big brother complex, remember? Besides, I've been doing martial arts my entire life, and your training as a dancer won't do you much good out here. And I don't want to find Tommy and be the one who tells him that I let you get hurt."

"Whatever. I'm still coming with you." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flicker of movement up on the ridge where Jason and I had first stood. Pointing, I asked, "Jase, do you see that?"

Five creatures appeared at the top of the ridge, the likes of which I'd never seen before. For all I knew they could be human; they had what seemed to be normal arms and legs. But their faces were covered with what seemed to be a deformed human skull, painted a shade of silvery black. Whether the skull was real or just a mask, I couldn't tell. Two of the five held long, thin poles with blades attached to his end, and I didn't doubt that they were very skilled with the weapons.

"We're in deep shit, AJ," Jason cursed under his breath. "Are you sure you still want to do this?"

I thought about it for a moment. Jason was right when he said that I was technically a dancer, and I knew there was a good chance I was going to get my ass kicked. I didn't even want to think about what would happen if I got hit with one of those poles. But even though Tommy was the karate master and former Power Ranger, he wasn't the only Oliver who knew how to fight.

"Yeah," I told Jason, forcing confidence into my voice. "Let's do this."