'TIL I COLLAPSE - PART NINE: FEELING BLUE (PG-13)
SEQUEL TO: ORDINARY WORLD

SUMMARY: Ethan reflects on what has happened in his life, and the real sadness and guilt for really being alone among his fellow ranger teammates.

DISCLAIMER: Power Rangers is not mine, just this story and those that I've posted on this site under this category. I need some reviews, so if you can bring out a friend or two, it would really help. I also do know that I own Mindshatter, Dinoshade and they cybots.

A/N: I figured it wouldn't hurt to get into the minds of our ranger pals. But, then again, that's just me. I hope you like it. Read on, it'll get better, I hope. Please tell me if you're getting bored. Or if you have any suggestion I could add into my story, all right? Hit me up whenever you can. I need the reviews.

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"No one knows me better than myself, but even I am still trying to find my place in this world. I would not want to give it all back, no, but it's crazy that so much has happened and I could understand what life is really about after all that I have been through." -Eclyptyk Neo
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Days later.

Another day of school had ended.

Thank God. Only one more day for this week and it is off to another weekend of relaxation. I hope. Ethan thought to himself as he got out of the car.

He walked into the cyber cafe, glad to call it a day. It was the only real place he could find peace. To be around other computer geeks that knew the difference between a megabyte and a computer pixel. He didn't want to say that none of his other friends were cool, they just still had some thing to understand and learn about him.

The cyber cafe was one place where he didn't have to worry about saving the world or making sure to get a set of dance moves down for a choreographed routine with the dance team.

But that was one thing that still surprised him. He never would have thought that they would put him on the dance team. Many of them had known him for nothing more than being a computer genius with no preference to dancing at all. But that's where it stopped. None of them knew about his crime-fighting days and that he was in fact a hip-hop dancer when he was younger.

"Hey, Ethan," Hayley had greeted him as he came in. "The usual?"

"Yeah, that would be great, Hayley," he smiled lightly as he moved toward one of the computer stations located in the corner.

He pulled out his own laptop, using the terminal to get the wireless internet access he needed to get his work done. Not that he really had much homework. He was glad that he had fairly easy classes that gave him the opportunity to finish most of his homework during class. He just could not believe that he was a senior.

He had been waiting for nearly eighteen years of his life to hear those great words, "Class of 2005, you are dismissed!"

He just could not wait to hear those words, turn that tassel and throw his graduation hat into the air in celebration with his friends.

His friends. A word he had taken to a new level in the last two years of his high school career. He found friends in the most unique places. He was after all a smart guy with a nagging in computer. And he had met such faces as an artist, a soccer player and an independent singer he would never dream about hanging around at all. But now, they were almost an inseparable bunch.

"Well, at least we were in the past," he said quietly realizing they had better things to do now. He didn't say he didn't either. He just felt slightly abandoned by them, though he would see Trent at the cafe during his working hours.

His science teacher, who he remembered was the new guy at Reefside High a year ago, had become one of his close friends, too. He could never picture being friends with a teacher, not that it was a bad thing. But for some people, it wasn't normal. He never would have thought though that he, out of all people, a guy with a degree in paleontology, was apart of a legacy that captured the hearts of millions of people around the world. He was a legend, though so many people didn't know how or why. He was a Power Ranger.

Ethan looked down at the bracelet around his wrist, a symbol of his own part in the legacy that was still being created. After all of his years of living in Reefside, he never would have thought that he would be apart of something so much bigger than him. He couldn't believe it the day he found that dino gem along with Kira and Conner, and he still couldn't believe it now. He was a Power Ranger. It was like a life long dream of his, and he never would have thought he would be capable of being apart of it. It was a feeling beyond words.

In the past two years, things had changed. They had changed big time. He had been apart of a team that protected the city of Reefside, if not the entire world, from destruction. He got to mess with a line of technology only so few got to see and got a chance to use weaponry well beyond his imagination. He had grown close to the line of rangers who began the legacy, and grew even closer to his own teammates. It was a journey of discovery and sacrifice.

He had to balance out saving the world with his school work. He had to learn the hard way that sometimes he had to keep his head on reality rather than on a new computer game. He couldn't tell the world who he really was, though there were some exceptions.

Hayley had dropped by with his usual order of a burger with a chocolate malt. "So, what's on the agenda for you today, Ethan? Any new games you outta be checking out?"

Ethan sighed as he pulled out a disk in his backpack. It had the mark of the DT symbol on it as he shook his head. "Actually, no. Dr. O gots me doing an assignment setting up a timeline of our adventures as a team just in case things go wrong in the lab."

Hayley raised an eyebrow with some confusion. "You'd actually risk doing it here? With all these people around?"

"Hey, it's me, Hayley. I know how to keep a low profile. Besides, I could clearly say I'm creating a new game for others to try out," he shrugged.

Hayley sighed reluctantly wishing the teen luck. She had figured he had it under control, but it was always hard to say when she was just as paranoid about the exposure as any of the other people/rangers were. She returned to the counter to serve a new line of customers.

Ethan didn't want to say that he felt rather mad about having so many people know who he really was, but there were some that he could make the exceptions about.

"Like starting the legacy, and holding onto this secret for nearly twelve years of your life from your family," Ethan sighed. He had remembered a week or so before Christmas, Dr. O and Coach had told him and the others they were gonna spill their huge secret to the family. They had offered to be in the video to give their own insight on the legacy of the rangers. "I credit you, Dr. O. I don't know if I ever really could do it, even with as tempting as it is."

He had gotten used to being dissed by his older brother and sister for being a dork in keeping track of some of the Power Rangers that have come to pass. They just never could give him much respect once his heart had fell into computer gaming. They would have thought he would have stuck with dancing, or get involve with a sport, but not computers as a hobby. He just didn't want say it to their face that he did have more going on his life.

"You tell me that saving the world while maintaining good grades isn't hard," he sighed as he looked through the files he had complied on the DT team.

Time passed slow. He would peer over his shoulder a few times to see the new occupants in the room, or watch people leave. He was glad that a place like this still remained. Sometimes, it would beat going to the library to get some research done. The environment here felt more like a teen's domain rather than looking through age-old dusty books for answers.

And this was it. Only a semester had remained in his entire high school career. And if he had to compare his underclassmen years to the two years he had encountered regarding 30 story high monsters and discovering his high school principal was really an evil henchman and his science teacher was a living legend, he would have to say his junior and senior year would win over in a flash. So many times he wished he could have told his other friends, beyond the ranger circle, about his adventures, but didn't want to risk anything.

And that was it. Ever since he began his junior year at Reefside, his life had changed. It never would be the same again. And he never really could imagine living a normal life after that. After all he had been through.

Now, with hopes that he could hang up his suit, live 'the normal life' and get back to just focusing on grades, he couldn't. He huffed in anger as the memories of their first battle with their newest enemy played in his mind.

He remembered seeing Conner hit the ground after another grueling attack. Dr. O had went after him, but was stopped short by a dinosaur-like robot. Luckily, Conner had picked himself off the ground and joined the team to face their new challenger.

"I am Dinoshade," the robotic dinosaur had introduced himself. "And Power Rangers of Earth, you have met your match."

"I don't think so," the legendary ranger growled as he called upon his staff to create an energy orb. He fired it toward the robotic giant, but Dinoshade seemed to take it in like an energy boost for his own weapon system.

Ethan remembered that it fell silent as the cyborg took in the attack like it was nothing. Then Dinoshade raised his arms and a line of guns emerged from hidden compartments in his arms. He didn't hesitate to fire on him and the other rangers. And all Ethan could remember was that after that blow he could no longer hold his ranger powers together and demorphed. And he wasn't the only one. They all did as they felt the capital punishment of the blow. Dinoshade had barked out another insult, that had Ethan's blood racing.

But he couldn't do anything. He was weak, barely able to stand on his own two feet without feeling like he would fall to the ground again.

That's where he felt the loneliness. The loneliness for not having someone to comfort him like his ranger companions. When Coach had raced over to her husband's side, pulling him into a caring embrace he was glad that someone was there to hold him. He knew in the back of his mind that Conner would find comfort in Krista after the defeat. And as much as Trent and Kira had denied their relationship would get any farther, he knew they were getting more acquainted on a dating level. And he wasn't too sure what was going on with Hayley and the original blue ranger, his predecessor.

But with him, there was nothing. For those few days he had gotten to know Cassidy, he found they were nothing alike and that Devin really was a better fit for her. His attempts at the New Year's Eve Party was a failure, and as much as he said he wanted to stay a bachelor, it was hard to cope with when he saw love all around him.

He would talk to Adam, give him the head's up on the status of the team, and the original black ninja ranger had told him a few things, too, regarding love.

"Love could be a great thing," Adam had said on one of their chatting conversations on the net. "It is, once you find it, anyway. But there will always be one of you on the team that needs to keep his or her eyes peeled for anything that goes wrong. Don't underestimate that just because someone is in love, they still won't come to an aid of a friend. A real friend wouldn't leave you hanging."

Ethan knew he was right. He had been one of the only rangers who had worked alongside the Black DT Ranger for a good long time to see many bumps in the road. Ethan didn't want to say he wanted to have a girlfriend, it would be nice, but his social skills, especially with the ladies, was in need of a lot of work.

He looked back at the computer screen, pinpointing the main battles the DT team had faced in their years as rangers.

"This is it," he told himself as he created a profile for their newest enemy. "This could very well be one of the toughest battles we've ever come across as rangers. There is no turning back. There never was."

And that was it. He didn't know what to expect from this new threat. He only knew that he had a thing for cybernetic technology, spikes and horns, and deciding to kidnap the one guy that knew almost every weakness of the current ranger team. He didn't say that he was still completely trustworthy of Anton, him once being Mesogog, but he had looked at Trent and knew he was telling the truth about his father.

He could only hope that their future as rangers, and continuing the legacy, would not come to an end after the war with Mindshatter.

to be continued...

A/N: Not much. Sorta a trip down memory lane. And I had original thought about putting this into 1st POV, but decided not to. I am hoping to keep this entire story that way, but we'll just have to see. I hope I didn't bore you completely with this chapter. There is more to come in the following chapters. So, read on. Leave a review or two and come back for more. See you on the flip side. Isang diwa. Isang mahal. May the Powers Always Protect You.