A.N: You have no idea how sorry I am this took so long to get out. Things got crazy with my computer not hooking to the internet, finals, graduation, moving home and all that stuff. I'm going to try to get the last written chapter of this story typed and posted before I leave for DE for the summer but I'm not thinking thats going to happen. I have no idea if I'll be able to post this summer, that depends on things at work. Anyway, hope you enjoy this and if you don't hear from me for the next few months I'll be back in the fall, hopefully with a new story. I've got a few ideas and I'm pretty much done with this one, just one, maybe two more to go unless I get some ideas from you guys.

When Amanda walked into her house that night she was not alone. Jason and Nolan had both argued for going with her and it had taken a while but eventually she'd managed to dissuade Nolan from his course. He'd left pouting, but as Amanda had pointed out, his presence was unlikely to help. Her parents still didn't really like him so they'd already be snappish if he was around which would make it worse when she told them what had happened. She'd intended to attempt to dissuade Jason as well but one look at him implacable face cured her of that notion. He wore the look he'd perfected as the original Red Ranger, his battle ready toss-it-at-me-and-I'll-kick-your-ass face. She'd sent that look a few times as a child and knew she wasn't going to be able to convince him, so she didn't try. A wise Ranger knows how to pick their battles after all, so Jason went with her.

When they walked in Jason was greeted with surprise and delight. Though a frequent visitor with a standing invitation he'd been working a lot lately and hadn't been by a lot. The relaxed way in which he was greeted assured both Jason and Amanda that Tommy and Kim hadn't heard about the new Ranger yet. They would have been bombarded with questions, or at least anxious glances, if they knew there was a new Ranger. So with a silent glance they decided to hold their news until after dinner.

Adrian was also delighted to see his uncle Jason and spent most of dinner regaling him with takes about school. He'd started pre-k that year and so far he thought school was pretty much the coolest thing ever. Even JT seemed happy to see him if the wide smile he gave when Jason held him was any indication. Taylor arrived not long after Amanda and Jason and shortly after that the group sat down to dinner.

The meal was fairly rowdy with everyone talking and laughing and in general having a good time. Taylor told them all about some of the mishaps in her afternoon Tumblin' Tots class at the gymnastics center. Adrian, of course, told them about school. Tommy shared a story about his freshmen class and Kim had a few of her to share. If anyone noticed that neither Jason nor Amanda had anything to share they didn't say a word.

After dinner Amanda helped her mother clan up while Jason and Tommy talked down in the lab. Jason had a question about one of the modifications to the Dino-bikes and Tommy was showing him Hayley's notes on it. As soon as Amanda and Kim were finished with the dishes she practically pushed Kim towards the steps to the lab.

"Taylor," she hollered, "I have to talk to mom and ad for a bit in the lab. Can you keep an eye on the boys since you'll be the only one around?" She asked when her twin appeared.

"Sure. Did uncle Jason leave yet?"

"Nope, but he's involved so I need him down there as well."

"Alright. Preston's coming over to study but we can do that in the living room."

Amanda grinned at her sister. "To study huh? And how do a sophomore and a senior study together?"

Taylor shut her an identical grin. "Very carefully. IF you're nice I'll give you some pointers."

At which point Kim snapped out a partly scandalized, partly teasing "girls!" Both of them shot sheepish looks at their mother and she threw up her hands in exasperation. "Let's go Amanda. I have to put Adrian in the bath in an hour and JT should be getting hungry soon."

As soon as Kim's back was turned Amanda rolled her eyes at her sister and then followed her mother down the steps. Stopping to carefully close the door behind herself. If Preston was coming over to study it wouldn't do for him to overhear the sure to be heated discussion about to occur. Hell, her sister didn't need to hear it. She wasn't sure how Taylor would take the news and at the moment she was beyond not inclined to find out. It was bad enough she had to tell her parents, there was no way she was telling her twin.

When she turned the three adults were watching her with steady eyes. Though she noted Jason was carefully just out of reach of both Tommy and Kim. She swallowed a bit nervously and started. "Mom, dad. I have to tell you something and I want you to remember that this is not uncle Jason's fault." She pulled up her sleeve and flicked her wrist, causing her morpher to appear. "I'm a Ranger now."

"We need to teach you some tact." Jason said as he hastily backed away from Tommy who had turned on him with a positively murderous expression. "I'm sure there was a better way to tell them." His expression changed to one of panic as his back hit a wall.

"You think there was a better way to tell us?" Tommy growled. "What about the fact that she shouldn't be telling us? What part of 'you'll keep her out of the line of fire' was unclear Jason? I gave in and let her go out with Nolan when I'm not sure I like him, I gave in and let her work with you when I don't want her near anything Ranger-related, all I asked for in return was one freakin' thing. All I asked was that you keep her as far from the fighting as possible. And she comes home and tells me she's a Ranger? How is that keeping her from the fighting? Seems to me being a Ranger requires fighting, always did for me."

"I had nothing to do with it." Jason protested. "I locked the damn thing in a box which I locked into a safe in the locked room. If your daughter just found it in the main room in an unlocked box its not because of me."

Tommy glared at him a moment longer but he wasn't so angry that he couldn't hear the sincerity in Jason's voice. So he took a deep breath, tried to chain back most of his anger and turned to his daughter who was watching him with an unreadable expression and belligerent body posture. "What happened?"

"I don't know exactly. I was just wandering around looking for something to do. I was really restless because the team was out fighting and I was shut up inside. And I found this box I'd never seen before. So I opened it, I felt almost impelled to do it. Just like I felt impelled to grab the stone inside. It wasn't uncle Jason's fault dad. He didn't have anything to do with it."

"Except that if he hadn't been determined to have you working for him you wouldn't have been there in the first place."

"I don't think we can say that Dad. It felt fated really. I think even if I'd been here I would have found it. It was time for it to come into the picture. The time had come for the Green Ranger to enter the war and the stone wanted me."

"Damn it." Tommy muttered under his breath. Spinning he strode over to the punching bag in the corner. With short, angry jabs he began to work out his anger on the poor, defenseless punching bag.

Amanda watched him for a moment before turning to her mother who, aside from a few startled gasps, had been utterly silent. "Mom?" She said hesitantly.

Kim pulled her worried eyes from her husband's tense back to her daughter's tense face. "I'm not happy," she said reluctantly, knowing truth was best. "But I'm not surprised. Once you started working with Jason it was just a matter of time. And I'm not going to try to forbid you." She smiled a bit sadly. "That would be pointless. You always reminded me of you dad, and all of us originals really. You have the spirit of a Ranger. I may not be thrilled but I won't stop you."

Tommy made a strangled noise. They all looked at him in concern but it was not a noise of physical pain. "I can't do it," he forced out. "I want to. I want to at least say I'm okay with it, but I can't. I can't say I'm okay with my daughter risking her life everyday. It doesn't surprise me either, I doubt you'll find a former Ranger it would surprise, but I can't accept it." He looked at them with wild eyes. "Don't I get something for saving the world so many times? Why do I have to let my daughter do it as well?"

Kim crossed the room and wrapped her arms around him comfortingly. She had not words but actions were enough. Almost automatically his own arms rose to hold her and that motion seemed to break what little composure he had left. He buried his head in her hair and only the shaking of his shoulders betrayed the depth of his anguish. Jason gestured with his head and quietly he and Amanda left the basement, giving Tommy privacy to vent his sorrow over what he could not prevent.

"Well, that went well," Jason said once they'd closed the door again.

"Well?" Amanda's voice cracked with suppressed emotion. "Uncle Jason, I made my dad cry. My dad never cries, but I made him cry."

Taking her arm Jason drew her into Tommy's office and shut that door. "Sweetheart, you didn't make him cry. His own powerlessness, his inability to do anything is what's upsetting him. You're his daughter, he's supposed to protect you, but now you're protecting him. It's hard for him to take in, to process. It's the same problem I'm having, that Nolan is having, but its worse with your dad because that desire to protect is even stronger in him. Especially since he wasn't able to protect you for so long. Just give him time. He won't forbid you. Just try not to make it obvious in any way."

Amanda nodded and then went into his arms for a hard hug. "Thank you uncle Jason. I promise I won't let you down. You won't regret letting me on the team."

"I know I won't." He smiled ruefully. "You were born to be a Ranger."

:

That night Tommy had strange dreams. Disturbing dreams really. He was fighting with Rita and Zedd but for some reason Rita kept turning into Kim and Amanda, but most frequently Amanda. Every time that happened he'd stop fighting in horror, at which point Zedd would land him a good one with his staff. This happened over and over and it was starting to drive him a little nuts when suddenly it ceased and he found himself in a cavernous, dark room. The only light was an eerie green glow coming from what looked like computer screen at the far end. Confused and trying to figure out his location Tommy began to cross the large room. On his third step the lights suddenly snapped on to reveal a scene of carnage. Bodies lay strewn across the floor, seven in all, and they all bore faces he knew. Two of them he'd never met but had seen, a third he didn't like so much, but all the rest of them were close to him. His family literally and metaphorically. A body wearing Amanda's face lay in front of the other three as if protecting them while the other three, Jason, Zack and Kim, were jumbled as if they'd fallen as a group. Now he recognized his surroundings, he was in what Amanda affectionately called 'the Batcave,' the headquarters of the current Ranger team. He sank to his knees between the body of his daughter, lying alone, and the pile of those belonging to his friends. Bowing his head he battled with his rage and grief and tried to make it so neither was ruling him.

Before he succeeded a noise made him look up. In front of him was a tall, lithe man wearing a face he remembered very well, a face he hadn't seen in 16 years. He gaped, and didn't realize that the room of carnage had been replaced with his own lab, the command center he'd built for the Dino Thunder team.

"Yes Tommy," the man chuckled. "It is I."

"Zordon," he breathed. "But how? You died."

"Yes, and I've not come back form the dead. But it was only my mortal body that went. My soul remains, as all do, mine is just more powerful than most because of my long connection to the Morphin' Grid. That connection still exists, its how I knew you were troubled tonight. What bothers you Falcon, what causes these dreams of horror?"

Tommy found himself pouring out not only the last 12 hours, 3 months, or even since Taylor had begun dating. Rather he found himself pouring out the last 16 years. He found himself telling regrets he didn't even know he had. He found it surprisingly easy to talk to the spirit of his old mentor, as easy as it had ever been to talk to him in the past, in the times when Tommy would sit in front of his energy tube and pour out his woes. Finally he ran out of things to say, his soul lay bare before the man who'd formed him, who'd made him who he was by the trust he had placed in him.

Zordon smiled sympathetically when he was finished. "Do you feel better Falcon? It is not wise to have so much pent up frustration in ones self."

Tommy blinked, surprised to find that he did feel better. "I do. But," his expression darkened a bit. "I still don't know what to do about Amanda."

"You must let her fly Falcon. She is strong, she has the power of both the Falcon and the Crane within her. I know it is difficult, it may have been many years since I let my children go on their first missions as Rangers but I still remember how difficult it was. But it must be done. Young Amanda is the next generation and their time has come."

"And if she gets hurt?"

"Then she'll pick herself back up again, just as you did. At least you will know why she is injured, unlike your parents, or those of your teammates, or her teammates. You won't have the worries they do that their child will be killed because they've gotten mixed up in something bad."

"True." Tommy's expression turned thoughtful. "I didn't consider that."

"Well do, for it is true." He started to fade. "My time here is up Falcon, but remember she needs to fly, but your support is also needed to make it a successful flight. Try, hard though it may be, to support her as she spreads her wings for this first flight." And then he was gone.

Tommy woke with the sense of peace he'd gotten during his talk with Zordon still lingering in his body and mind. He stared, unseeing, at the ceiling and thought about what Zordon had said and thought as well about the situation with Amanda now that he was no longer feeling as angry or helpless.

JT's demands to be fed were the next thing he was aware of. Feeling Kim stirring beside him he pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and told her to stay in bed. He padded down the hall to the next door on bare, noiseless feet and came to the crib where his wailing son lay. As soon as he picked him up JT quieted, he knew his breakfast would be soon. As he looked at his son Tommy knew what he had to do about the Amanda situation, he just wished it wasn't so hard.

:

That night after dinner Tommy waited until Taylor and Kim had left the kitchen before quietly asking Amanda to meet him in his office when she was done cleaning off the table. Amanda looked at him warily before agreeing. Tommy retreated to his office to pace while he waited for her. Amanda, in the meantime, took her own sweet time filling the dishwasher. As she did so she tried to marshal every argument she could think of in case her dad was going to try and back out of letting her be a Ranger. Finally, however, she couldn't put it off any longer. So she slipped into his office and shut the door before leaning on it.

"What's up?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about last night." Tommy paused and looked at the floor before speaking again, eyes still stuck to the floor. "I'm not going to say I'm sorry for how I reacted, because I'm not. I think I'm entitled to freak when learning my daughter is intimately involved in the one thing we've been protecting her from since before she was born. But," he looked up at this point, "I've been doing some thinking. And the thing is, I've got to trust you and the training I've given you. I've got to let you go. It just hurts because I'm not supposed to have to let you go for another couple of years. You're supposed to be in college first, not still in high school. You just got your license for crying out loud, but I have to let you go off and save the world. I'm not happy about it, but I won't stop you and I will support you. I'd rather know what you were doing and help you then have not the faintest clue what you're up to."

"Really?" Amanda was finding his complete about-face hard to process, understandable under the circumstances and given that she'd be told not to expect it by one of the people who knew him the best.

"Really. Look imp, I'm really sorry. Not necessarily about freaking out last night, but in general. I handled the whole thing with Nolan wrong from the beginning and I didn't have to freak as much last night. But I can't totally help it. I'm the dad, you're the little girl who's growing up way to fast. I'm sorry I can't be thrilled that you're going to risk your life everyday, but I gave you that life, its hard to stand by and watch you risk it."

"But you're willing to help?"

"Because then I'll know what's happening. As long as I'm in the loop, and you're at least willing to consider whatever advice I might pass you, then yes, I'm willing to help." 'And God help all of us if she gets hurt' he thought as she hugged him fiercely. 'There is no wrath like a former Ranger enraged.'

END