Now, on with the Story!
The Trip
Jason's POV
The ship is plum depressing right now, we've been here only a matter of minutes and I can already feel it seeping in around me. Rocky and Adam are upset that they have to leave their girlfriends and I can tell it is bothering Billy to have to leave Hayley behind as well, but he is handling it in his own way. He just isn't saying anything about it, to any of us. He doesn't want the condition of the ship to become any worse than it already is by him complaining about that problem. We have all been pulled away from the ones that we love before, but it is hurting us more this time than it ever has in the past. It just seems that there is so much more at risk this time.
Tommy and Kim are still upset about having to leave Angie behind, not that I blame them. It's their first time away from her and we all knew that they would be emotional when we left to do this mission. I just don't think that either of them had prepared themselves for something like this when they had to deal with a huge problem. We had all thought that this battle would have been on our terms, but it seems that Mesogogg has wizened up and pulled us to them without any other option available. We don't have a choice but to go, but the two of them are so worried that they might never see Angie again and I know that it hurts both of them to think about that possibility.
Some people have questions, but I know that it is hard to be the brave one to ask the first question in an atmosphere like this one. As much as I am worried about all of those people on this ship, I have to admit that I am more worried about Conner right now. He told me that he had just really admitted to himself that he felt something for Kira, what he felt, he wasn't sure about yet.
Kira and Trent broke up a few weeks ago and he had seen his chance. He just doesn't know how to deal with her being taken away from him like this. I told him what happened between me and Trini, although I don't know if it comforted him any. I don't really even know if he listened to me about it, he seems to be in another world. He's just worried that he will never be able to see her again, which is something that is hard to deal with, when there is so much left to be said. I don't know if he'll be able to deal with never saying all of this if something happens and I just pray that nothing does happen to cause him to lose his remaining composure.
"Damn it!" Conner yelled, while several people jumped from shock at the sudden noise that broke the deafening silence of the sleeping area of the ship. He then kicked a trashcan across the room and slammed his fist into the metal wall, splitting one of his knuckles, and managing to leave a nice dent in the steel plating from his frustration. A few years ago, he would not have been able to do that, but it felt good to be able to get his frustrations out and actually have some damage done. The other rangers, however, would have preferred he to take all of his aggressions out on the defenseless trash can, instead of the ship, which was bound to be much older than any of them truly knew. "Why them? Why her? Why couldn't they take someone else?"
"Conner, calm down. It's all going to be fine," Tommy said, as he stood up and walked across the room while the other rangers knew that the problems were just beginning if he did not manage to solve this quickly.
Conner's bad mood would spread to everyone else and they needed to find a way to stay positive while they were traveling there, as Billy and Tommy hated to admit that it did not look like it was going to be good for their fellow rangers. They knew what Lord Zedd and Rita could do and they were very hesitant to tell Conner about all of that. He knew enough to have an idea of what might happen to them while they were there, but from their experiences, they knew it was much worse than he imagined. He was already teetering on the verge of an emotional breakdown and all of the information that they knew might lead him to have one, if he was not suffering from one already.
"You don't know what it's like. You've never had anyone that you care about taken away from you like this," Conner said, as Jason grabbed Tommy as quickly as he could to keep him from slinging Conner against the wall and adding another dent to the metal paneling. This time, however, it would be causing a few injuries to the person as well as the wall. Tommy meant business when someone accused him of that type of ignorance.
They knew that Tommy had been teetering on the verge of insanity lately, due to all of the extra pressure he felt from becoming a father. They just hoped that he had not decided to take a dive into those murky waters right now. If he had, they were going to have to figure out a way to break Kim out of her sadness in order to be able to get Tommy to come back to the rational side of things, as he was not going to listen to any of them. Kim was the only one that would be able to talk him out of bodily harm to someone else when he got in that type of mood and it had always been something that they had known about him. It was just in the past that Kim had always been in the condition to do so.
"Like hell I don't. You don't know how many times that I nearly lost her, in this very situation, Conner and every time that happened, I blamed myself. Even if there was not a damn thing that I could have done to change what happened, believe me it is hell to have this happen to you. But damn it, you won't tell me that I don't know what it is like to have someone taken away from me. You've seen it happen to me before Conner. You should know better than to cross that line," Tommy said, as Conner stared at him before slowly moving closer, looking for a physical confrontation, which was something none of them wanted to see.
They were afraid for Conner, as they all knew that when Tommy was mad, he was never good at controlling how much strength he used against the other person. He had never hit Kimberly before, but they all knew that there were times when the furniture had endured his anger towards her. It had never faired too well and it was usually enough to make the both of them realize that they were fighting over something petty. Conner, however, would not be scared if Tommy broke a table it two. He didn't exactly know what that meant.
"Stop it! Both of you!" Kim yelled, as Tommy turned around to see that she was crying again and then hung his head in shame.
They were all stressed about one thing or another right now, but they knew that she had the most stress resting on her petite shoulders. She had to worry about Angie and Tommy. They all knew that he would not sit back and let something happen to anyone, if he could help it. But him fighting added stress to the one person that he could honestly say had been there, most of the time for him, and he didn't want to do that to her right now. She already had enough on her mind and she didn't need to be forced to worry about him as well. He knew that better than anyone else here.
"Yes ma'am," Conner said, as he stepped away from Tommy and then placed both hands over his face, trying to recompose himself, in some feeble way. He knew he was not going to be able to do it alone, but he just hoped that someone would be willing to help him. There had to be someone here who truly understood how he felt about this whole situation, although he knew there was a possibility that none of them did. "I just miss her."
"I know," Jason said, as he let go of Tommy, knowing that he was no longer going to hit anyone or anything for that matter. The look that he had gotten from Kim was enough to calm him down, so Conner was the only person left for Jason to worry about having to counsel for a few minutes. He knew he needed to be able to say whatever was on his mind, but Tommy was not the person that he needed to talk to about it right now. Tommy had too much going on that could possibly make his life change for the worst over the next few days. "Come on, me and you need to talk and I think that Tommy needs to still be able to calm down some."
"We've never been like this before," Trini said, as both Kim and Tommy were crying, although Tommy's crying was more out of frustration with himself than with anything else that was going on around them. He had not meant to lose his cool, but there were just some things that pushed him over the edge easily.
Being accused of not knowing what it was like to have someone stolen away from him was one of those things. When Conner accused him of not knowing what it was like to have someone taken away, he couldn't help but lose the little bit of remaining composure that he had. Conner knew about the times that Kim had been taken away and it just seemed that his stress blocked it from his memory. Although, they had all had that happen to them at one time or another in their lives. Conner just happened to have it happen at a time when so many other people were not in the mental state to handle it.
"I know," Billy said, as Rocky and Adam had been able to calm themselves down some, but they were still pretty bad. They had always been hyped up and ready to go and now they were all depressed, over one thing or another. They had so much to lose this time and the pressure of not getting it right was almost too much for them to bear. If they messed up, they might never be back to see the people that they loved again and they couldn't go on in life without them knowing how much they truly cared and being with them to prove it. "We just have a lot more going on right now, things that we have never had to deal with during a mission."
"This isn't normal for all of you? What's normal?" Ashley asked, as they looked at her wondering exactly what Tommy had and had not told them about the rangers' activities. Most other times they had not been under the pressure of defeating an old evil as well as a new one, but that was what they were faced with this time. It was something that they had never truly imagined coming back at them, but they knew that they were really the only ones that had the right to take care of this problem.
"We usually are working on things, discussing plans and strategies for what we should be doing once we get there. There is just a tiny problem, our brains don't want to do that this time. It's trying to focus on what we are going to have to do in the near future, besides battle these damn creatures. We all thought that we would have more time to get things right and ready," Zack said, as he saw Aisha giving him sideways glances from across the room. She could tell there was more that he wanted to say about that subject, but for some reason, he had thought it would be better to wait. It made her wonder if what he had to say had to deal with her, but she was not about to ask him while everyone else was around. She knew that she was getting her hopes up again, but every sign pointed towards Zack maybe being able to move on to a committed, stable relationship.
"So no one is usually crying?" Charlie asked, as Kim was still crying and Tommy was now trying to rock her to sleep. He had stopped trying to get her to quit crying and just hoped that she was going to cry herself out sometime soon. He knew that tonight was probably not going to be the time to solve this problem, but they would solve it before they got off of this ship to fight. They had to do that.
"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but its usually not as bad as it is today. I guess you can say that our lives now have a lot more to do that doesn't include being a ranger," Trini said, as she stood up to go get some food for all of them, while getting out of a conversation that she was sure that she did not want to stay in. Things were bound to turn to questions about Kim and Tommy and it just wouldn't work out for her to have to hear it.
"I know that this sounds bad and I'm going to make a fool of myself if Tommy mentioned this earlier, but what are your names?" Aisha asked, as she knew that they were asking questions that they needed answered, but she'd at least like to act as if she had some personal relationship with them. Not as if she had just met them a few minutes ago, which was in fact what had happened, but they were rangers and that made them a little bit closer than most other people that she had just met.
"It's alright, we don't know your names, either. I'm Charlie and that's Ashley," Charlie said, as they looked down at their feet, wondering how they had gotten on board and them not known everyone's names.
It was sad that they were being that hurried to do all of this, but it was the only way that they could do this and not worry about what was going on. They were now worried since they were on the ship, but that was to be expected under the circumstances that they were dealing with right now.
"Well, we might want to introduce ourselves. I'm Billy; those two are Rocky and Adam. That's Aisha and Zack on that wall and Jason and Trini are the ones that left to try to calm down Conner," Billy said, as he looked over at Kim and Tommy and they nodded their heads that they should listen to what Billy had to say. He was the one that would be the most level headed right now, while everyone else was trying to get away from all of this, trying to think of other things besides what was really happening to them.
"I have another question. Why weren't the two of you on all of the ranger teams together? Did you break up or something?" Ashley asked, as Kim looked up at Tommy and then sighed.
They knew that there had been a chance that a question like this would come up, but they didn't think that Ashley or Charlie would ask about it so soon. It had taken the other rangers months to find the courage to ask that particular question. They were so bombarded right now with everything else that was going on around them, it was hard to believe that they had noticed that of all things. It seemed that they would notice something else besides them not being on ranger teams together. Of course, it always seemed that people had questions as to why they had not gotten married sooner or something like that when they first met them. It was bound to come up once someone saw those videos.
"We did, but we don't like to talk about it. That was a painful five years for the both of us," Tommy said as Kim nodded her head in agreement.
She didn't want to elaborate on it and have to tell them that she was the one that broke them up when they were younger. They wouldn't believe that and they really wouldn't believe it when she told them why. It would seem stupid and it ultimately was very stupid, but it was still hard to admit that she had put them through hell, just to get back together at the first chance they really had to do so.
"How come?" Charlie asked, as Kim and Tommy looked at each other and tried to figure out who should be the one to field that question. That was not something that they had exactly planned to have to talk about while they were on this trip and they just weren't going to do it. They might find time to do it later, but they couldn't think of how to even begin to explain it right now.
"That is something that it best left alone. We're trying to stay positive about things and we can never do that if we talk about why we broke up," Kim said, while Tommy wrapped both of his arms around her and hoped that she would go to sleep, from exhaustion.
Jason and Conner's Conversation
"So how do you really feel about her?" Jason asked, as he sat down on a crate that was on the outer deck. He wanted to give Conner plenty of room if he was to suddenly become violent, for any unknown reason.
Love does weird things to the calmest of people and Jason knew that and he did not want to be the recipient of any of the actions that Conner might wind up doing over the next few minutes. He didn't have the strength to hold the boy off and the last thing he needed was for Tommy to be mad at him because he got himself hurt trying to talk one of his rangers into the truth of what was going on in his mind.
"What do you mean?" Conner asked, as Jason looked at him with a look that told him he was not buying whatever type of crap that he was trying to sell him. Jason had been in that position before and he knew that the truth helped much more than lying about everything else that was going on, but he had to be willing to admit it to himself before he would admit it to anyone else. It had taken him years to do that and he could only hope that it would not take Conner that long to realize it. It might be too little too late by then. "I really don't know. It hurt when Trent was dating her, but I always felt that I held a special place in her heart, although they were dating. When they broke up, we started spending more time together and she's just such a good friend to me. I don't want to lose her. I don't know if I can stand to see that happen."
"Well, I spent ten years trying to just be friends and not tell the woman that I love, how much I loved her. I almost lost her because of my stupidity and I'd give anything to have understood what I was doing to myself earlier," Jason said, as he knew that if Kim and Tommy hadn't seen that vision, then he would have probably watched Trini and Billy get married a few months ago, instead of him being the groom. It would have torn him up, but to him it would have been fine, as long as Trini was happy with what was going in her life. "Don't make that type of mistake. It's not something that you want to have to deal with for the rest of your life."
"I don't love her," Conner said, as Jason shook his head and then sighed. Things were never as easy as they looked on the outside for all of them.
He had hoped that Conner would have already come to the conclusion that he loved her within himself, but he had not. That meant that Jason was going to have to break it to him the hard way and he just hoped that Conner would be receptive of the idea that he was going to plant in his brain. If he was not, then Jason might have to yell and scream to get his point across, but he had done worse things to people in worse situations.
"But it hurt you when Trent dated her? Now, if you don't mind my saying, that sounds like you want her to be more than friends with you. And your reaction down there sure as hell makes me believe that you have fallen hard for her. Don't try to talk yourself out of it. It's alright if you have fallen for a friend. Believe me, it is not as bad as you think it is. They already know the embarassing things about you," Jason said, as Conner looked at him and then started shaking his head. He didn't know how Jason had been able to figure it out, but that description fit him to a tee, no matter how much he tried to deny it.
"But she doesn't care about me like that and I don't think she ever will. We are just friends," Conner said, as Jason gave him a look that told him that he had some advice on that matter as well. Jason couldn't believe that this red ranger was having the problems that he had struggled with for years, but he hoped because of his experience that he could save Conner from some painful experiences.
"You'll never know until you take a step and tell her how you feel about her. She might just be shy and not willing to take that step on her own. A lot of girls still like it when the guy asks first, it's old fashioned, but it also shows that you are willing to put yourself out there. She'll be doing that if she decides to date you," Jason said, as Conner stared at him, dumfounded that he was so blunt about what he needed to do. If he had not known any better, he would have thought that he had been in this situation several times, but he had only been it once and the risk worked out for him. He just hoped that it was worth it to Conner to risk this type of injury.
"But what happens if she does not agree with me? I don't know if I can lose her completely. I don't want her to feel uncomfortable around me if she doesn't feel the same way about me," Conner asked, as that was what had caused him to not say anything to her so far. They had been spending most afternoons together and he had been trying to figure out what she was feeling for him, but he couldn't read her. He could tell if his friends liked someone, but he just couldn't figure this girl out, no matter how hard he tried to do so.
"Well, I can tell you this much, stop trying to figure the girl out. It won't help you any because everything that she does will make it seem like she doesn't feel the same about you. Girls, some times, enjoy playing hard to get. You just have to trust your judgement and pray a little bit. Things will work out in the end if you do that," Jason said as Conner stared out into space, trying to bring himself back to normal, somehow.
"How am I going to be able to stop thinking about her long enough to do what I have to do now? I just don't want anything to happen to her," Conner said, as Jason thought on it awhile.
Trini being gone had made it easier for him to focus, he had a goal at the end of that mission and that was to get her out alive, no matter what it took out of him. The thing was, when he let himself wallow in it, he was almost killed, but Kim and Tommy were looking out for him that day. If they had not been there, he would not have been able to pull himself out of it and there was a distinct possibility that he would not be sitting there today.
"I don't know if you can and I don't know if you'll really want to try to do that. Tommy might be able to give you some advice on this whole mess. I know that he has had to do it in the past and it took a lot out of him to deal with pushing the people that he loves out of his brain and heart. It hurt him to have to forget her, in order to be able to do his job. I couldn't but knowing that the more I did while I was fighting, the more likely that I would see her again kept me going. There is always something you can do to change to outcome of the mission," Jason said, as Trini walked outside and sat down in his lap with a smile on her face. She had been able to get out of the depression and it helped her mood, she only hoped that all of the others would be able to do the same.
"The two of you doing alright? You've been talking up here for awhile," Trini said, looking between Jason and Conner.
Trini saw that Conner was still trying to figure out some of the things that Jason had told him and she hoped that the boy would take his advice. He had been there and done that and he never wanted to do it again. He also didn't want to see anyone else go through that sort of problem. It was not worth the pain that someone felt to go through something like that on his or her own.
"Yeah, I should ask you the same thing though," Jason said rather pointedly, as he remembered Billy's remark about her earlier this evening. She had not exactly been herself lately, but he blamed it on the long hours that he was working in order to try to have a job to go home to when this was over.
"This is just stressful, Jason. You know how it is some times. I've been letting it get to me, big surprise," Trini said, as Conner stood up to try to clear his head of all the thoughts that were running through it.
He had heard about the ways that these things had tortured rangers in the past, although he had not heard all of the things, he was sure of that much. He was not sure that he was going to be able to last four days without knowing how she was doing or if she was even alive anymore. From what Tommy had said, they had never killed a ranger before, but there was a first time for everything and he hoped that this was not that time. He wanted her to be able to grow old and have a full life, with or without him there.
"Yeah I do and I know exactly what you mean," Jason said, watching Conner walk out of sight and he knew that it was not good what was going on in his head, but he hoped that Conner would be able to survive it all without too many emotional scars.
"Do you think that you got to him?" Trini asked, as she had to admit she was concerned about the boy. He was a nice kid and he didn't need to be this stressed out about anything, he just needed to worry about doing his job, although that did not seem to be the first thing on his priority list right now.
"I don't know. What's going on down there?" Jason asked, as Trini looked over at him. She was not sure that he wanted to hear about all of it. It was not bad, but it was definitely not what they had been hoping for when they boarded the ship.
"Tommy managed to get Kim to go to sleep, so now he's asleep, too. Aisha and Zack are talking about something. I'm not worried about any of them, they know how to deal with this mess that we are in. I'm just worried about the new kids. They don't have a clue what to expect and they were kinda thrown into all this mess," Trini said, as Jason nodded his head in agreement.
He had to admit that he had been worried when Kim and Tommy said they found new rangers to take their places on the Dino Ranger team. He had never expected it to be two of the kids from the dojo, although they did have plenty of karate experience, which would help them some.
Karate, however, was not what was going to win battles for them. They had to have a gut instinct about what to do and when to do it and he could only hope that, they had that skill buried deep within them. If not, it was going to be a long hard road for them over the next few days.
"They'll be alright. Tommy trusts them and it is a little bit too late to send them back home isn't it?" Jason asked with a smile, before he gave her a kiss.
Lord Zedd's Palace
"They've got to be coming after us. They wouldn't just leave us here to rot in this place," Kira said, as Trent and Ethan sunk down to the floor and were trying to think of some way out of this place, but they couldn't see how to do it. There were too many guards and the three of them could only depend on each other while they were in there and if they did something stupid, it could put all of them at risk.
"Kira, they are but it takes time. We may be here for days before they can make it," Ethan said as she glared over at him before the heard someone enter the holding area. They had been thrown in there after they were stripped of their morphers and everything else that could help them possibly get out of this place. They could only pray it was a guard and not someone that was sent there to torture them, as they had endured enough torture already.
"Yes, yes; I know to watch them. It's not like I haven't been around this place for the last year," Richard said, as Lord Zedd told him of past attempts rangers had made to get out of this place, not that he had never heard about it. Hell, he experienced it firsthand when Tommy was able to get out under his own doing a few years ago. "Jeez."
"They don't treat you the same, do they?" Kira asked, as she knew that there was not much more she could do at the time. She hoped he might give information to them, but it seemed like they were going to have no such luck. Ethan and Trent were just praying that he would not throw her across the room and then they would be forced to deal with an injured ranger, as well as a rather pissed off ranger.
"No, but what do you expect out of them? Goldar's the top man around here and Zeltrax is not too happy about that, but he has to deal with it. I'm still mostly human and so is Elsa, so we get stuck with the sorry jobs, like watching after the three of you," Richard said as Ethan and Trent watched as Kira continued to talk to him. She was interested in seeing what he had to say as they might could use it later on to get them some help later.
"They think mutants are better than humans," Kira stated, as Richard spun around and looked at her knowing that she was trying to push him to respond to that question, which he had been advised against. He was tempted to do that, so that all of them would know everything, but he still held some loyalty to Mesogogg, although it was not as much as it used to be. The monster was making mistakes left and right and he hoped that he would be able to find some way to get out of all of this alive.
"Yeah, they do, but you do not need to know anything about them or me," Richard said, as Kira backed up against the wall and sat down next to Ethan, who tried to be supportive of her attempt to find an insecurity in Richard, although they already knew of several. They just needed any sort of information at this point.
"Nice try, but I think we need to focus on not getting ourselves killed, for the time being. If it comes down to it, we'll seduce them to get out of here," Ethan muttered as Trent and Kira nodded their heads in agreement. They knew help was on the way, but they had not clue how long it would take for them to get to them. They could only hope that they would be able to hold out that long.
Back on the Ship
"It's nice to know that the two of them are able to sleep. I don't know if I will be able to," Adam said, as the rest of them were still struggling to try to even begin to become tired. They were worried something was going to attack them at any moment and they didn't want to have to deal with that type of bombardment.
"They probably haven't had a full nights sleep since Angie was born and as much as Kim cried, I'm sure that it made her sleepy," Aisha said, as she had heard from Rocky about how much sleep that they averaged each night and she didn't know how the two of them were surviving. Kim had always been one of those that could take it for a couple of days, but Tommy needed his eight hours of sleep every night. If he did not get that amount of sleep, then he had an attitude from hell the next day, at least from what they could remember happening in high school.
"Do you think that Kim is really back up to fighting against all of these monsters? She just had Angie a few weeks ago and that's not very long to bounce back to ranger status," Zack said as they looked over at Billy. Rocky might live in Reefside, but he didn't deal with the ranger work as often as Hayley did. They all knew that Hayley called Billy to tell him every thing that had happened, as he could help workout some of the kinks that occurred and so she could have an excuse to talk to him.
"Hayley seems to think so, but I'm still skeptical. She and Tommy have been the only ones keeping Goldar and Lord Zedd's creatures at bay. With the rest of us there, I'm not sure how she'll react," Billy said while Rocky and Aisha gave him an odd look. Why would them being there change anything with her?
"Why would it be different?" Rocky asked, as he was not following Billy on this one, not that it was a huge surprise that Billy had left him in the dust with his way of thinking.
"Tommy's depending on her out there and with the rest of us there, odd things could happen," Billy said, as Jason and Trini walked back into sight, not looking completely satisfied with their attempt to calm Conner.
Conner was having so much trouble with Kira being pulled away from him that he just didn't know what to think or do. It didn't matter that she would probably be fine, even if she was a little battered, he just knew that he had somehow let her down by not doing something. Yeah Dr. O held the best advice, as he knew how it felt to be in this situation time and time again, but he couldn't talk to him. He had enough on his mind right now without having to worry about his problems as well. He didn't matter as much as Kim did, from what he knew and Conner got the feeling that everyone else on the ship felt the same way when they went to talk to Dr. O, especially if Kim was in a bad mood.
"Conner still up there?" Billy asked, as he knew that he could have walked into the kitchen without them knowing. He was worried about the boy, but he knew that he was strong. He just hoped that he was strong enough to deal with this huge problem that was facing them right now.
"Yeah, he's pretty bad. I didn't know that he felt that way. I don't even know if Tommy knew about it until a few minutes ago," Jason said as they heard someone let out a yelp before then saw Adam jumping around, clutching his right foot.
"Damn, what's with the mouse traps?" Adam asked, as he had remembered them seeing a mouse or two last time they had been on the ship, although Aisha and Trini had been the only ones to break down because of the incident. Kim had been asleep when they had seen the mouse, but they still didn't know if she would have had the same reaction. She did teach and classrooms at school were known for having rats all over them.
"I'm not dealing with hearing anyone scream because of a mouse running out in the middle of the night. Just walk around the mouse traps. They are in the corners," Zack said, as Jason and Billy got this glint in their eyes, which he was sure was not a good thing for him.
"Well, what about your fear of bugs?" Jason teased as Billy and Trini joined in on the joke. They could remember very well the day that he had battled a spider, although he said he was over his fear of bugs, they could still play a good joke on him with a couple of plastic spiders and a cockroach or two.
"You're scared of bugs?" Ashley asked, as he looked over at her and then shook his head. They sure were not making themselves look as fearless as these kids expected, although they were getting the idea that they were just normal people with exceptional powers.
"Yes, I am. You can't tell me that you aren't though. We all have things that we fear," Zack said with a smile, as Charlie began to laugh, which caused Ashley to promptly smack him.
"Sorry, I couldn't help but remember the spider at the dojo," Charlie said as he continued to laugh and Rocky joined in on the joke.
"The thing was huge and I wouldn't have even gone in there if it wasn't for Dr. O forgetting our class," Ashley said, as Rocky shook his head, knowing that he had no choice but to explain the real reason behind Tommy missing classes.
They wouldn't be able to tell anyone else, but they would at least know the truth about why it had happened and they would possibly cut him some slack when he got back. No, there probably wouldn't be any more missions, but he did have to shut down the Command Center, which happened to be a huge job to undertake.
"He doesn't really forget your classes. He just has things come up. I'm sure that you can figure out what they are now," Rocky said, as he could see that they could now understand where he had been all of the times that he had forgotten about the schedule or ran in late or had to leave early.
"Hey, we saw that video yesterday, but it never explained what happened to Zordon. Is he still around?" Ashley asked, as she felt she needed to try to find out some more about their background. All she knew was that they were the first rangers and had been on at least two teams together, if not more.
"Zordon was our mentor. He died in order to defeat many evils for us, but there are some still left out there that he was unable to defeat. We are here to finish what he started. It's our job," Billy said, as the others nodded their heads in agreement. They couldn't really talk about it without becoming very emotional, but Billy had no tears left in him today, none of them did. They had all dealt with saying good-bye to people they loved and that zapped them more than anything else could right now.
"How did you deal with that?" Ashley asked, as it seemed they were going to avoid answering that question, but they were surprised when Tommy spoke up to answer the question. They had all thought that he had gone to sleep before Kim had.
"You don't. It just get a little bit easier and you forget more, until the day that it is thrown back at you. I thought I had left all of it behind, until she came back into my life," Tommy said tilting his head towards Kim, who was lightly snoring some against his chest and he couldn't help but gently chuckle at the sound. "I couldn't leave it, it was the truth for me and my life. Doing things like this, has become my life, no matter what I try to do to change it. I will always be a ranger, even when I no longer have powers to protect me from harm."
"I thought you were asleep," Aisha said with a laugh as Tommy shook his head, but did not move away from Kim. He knew better than to do that if he wanted her to stay asleep.
"I've learned how to get Kim to sleep if she's tired and I'm not ready to go to sleep. I act like I'm asleep and she'll go to sleep. It sounds stupid, but it works and I'm not going to change things until it stops working," Tommy said as Kim rolled closer to him and he stifled back another laugh, as he knew she would be mortified that her friends were hearing her snore and mumble things every once in awhile.
"We won't wake her, will we?" Trini asked as Tommy merely looked at her and then answered the question that Trini had posed to him.
"Angie didn't wake her up last night. She's been exhausted lately. I think the late night feedings and battles are finally getting to her," Tommy said before he closed his eyes, to actually try to get some sleep now.
"We better turn in for the night," Jason said, as he could tell Trini was tired and they needed all of the rest they could get over the next few days. Once the battles started, he knew that there was no guarantee that they would get any sleep until it was over and it might take several days for them to defeat the monsters.
"What about Conner?" Ashley asked, as he was sure to get cold out there sometime tonight.
"He'll be fine. He has a lot to think about and I'm sure that he'll come down here eventually. He just wants to get away from everyone," Jason said, as he and Trini bunked down next to each other and immediately fell asleep due to exhaustion.
Conner's Thoughts
"Man, it's cold out here," Conner muttered to no one in particular as he walked around the outside of their ship, trying to sort all of his thoughts out. He couldn't understand why he had fallen for Kira, but he knew that he had and he knew that there was no way to change it. "Why in the hell did this happen?"
'Conner, don't blame yourself,' Kira's voice said in the back of his mind.
"Who's that? Who's there?" Conner asked, as he looked around and saw no one. Great, his mind had decided to start playing cruel tricks on him, this was not something that he needed right now. "This is great. I've lost the woman I love and my two best friends. Now my mind is playing tricks on me."
'Listen to me, Conner. I don't know how you can hear me, but you've got to trust me here. We're fine, just get to me, damn it,' Kira's voice rang inside of his head as he ran as quickly as he could to the other side of the ship, trying to escape what was happening around him.
"Please, don't play with me like this Kira. I can't deal with knowing that you're not alright!" Conner screamed into the spaces as he began to shake, uncontrollably. "I love you! Don't let them hurt her!"
"Conner, wake up!" Ashley yelled, as she had heard him screaming downstairs and she was obviously the lightest sleeper of the group. She didn't want to deal with hearing him continue to have nightmares and she only hoped that it would calm down quickly.
"Oh God no," Conner said as he gave Ashley a hug and stayed like that as he cried against her.
"Conner, it's alright, everything's fine. Nothing has happened," Ashley said, as he looked up at her, scared to fall back to sleep. He couldn't deal with having another dream about Kira and he didn't know what he would do if that happened.
"They're playing with my mind," Conner said, as he looked at her and realized she was only wearing a sports bra and a pair of shorts. It didn't affect him in anyway, but he was sure that he would catch hell from Charlie if he happened to wake up anytime soon. "You better go back downstairs, Charlie wouldn't want me to see you like this."
"You shouldn't suffer alone, Conner. We need you, come on downstairs with me," Ashley pleaded.
"No, I just need to stay away from everyone. I don't want to bring everyone else down," Conner said as Ashley looked over at the boy who had still not moved away from her and then slowly let go of him, knowing that he had the right to refuse the offer.
"Alright, but you're not the only person this has ever happened to and they'll help you get through this," Ashley said, as she turned to go back downstairs, but she was stopped by Conner.
"I'm coming, hold up," Conner said as he scrambled to his feet and followed her. He didn't have to deal with this alone and now that he knew that for sure, he'd be all right.