A/N The goal for this story is that i'll be updating just about every three days or so. As of right now it looks like there will be about two chapters until the rangers are all together again! Hope you're enjoying! As always reviews are greatly appreciated!
"The past beats inside me like a second heart."― John Banville
Reefside, California, Planet Earth-Sector Six
"Dr.O are you here?" Kira shouted into the living room of her old teacher's house, leading the group of Dino rangers inside.
"In the basement guys!' Tommy shouted up to them from where he was sitting at the computer working through a few kinks in the new wide range communication system.
"You know Dr.O there is actually more to your house than just the basement right?" Conner teased the older man
"Very funny Conner. Billy's been helping me with the widening the range on the lab's communicator so that way I can more easily contact teams like the space rangers. It's been acting up so I'm trying to fix it." After the Red mission and then the one where Adam helped the Overdrive Rangers, Tommy felt they needed a more efficient way to communicate then hoping they got each other on their cell phones. This system would not only ping any active communicators that the users bio signature was attached to as well as known cell phones. If it was done on the emergency frequency it would also be sent to a specific line at Blue Wolf Technologies.
"Do you want some help? I've been assisting Billy with some stuff since Justin is heading up the satellite lab in Boston." Ethan had been giddy when the original blue ranger had asked him to come onto the staff.
"That would be great Ethan. Haley's too busy with the Cybercafe to really help me with the more advanced tech this week." The dark haired man smiled at his former student, pointing to the chair to the right of him.
"You still want to spar?" Trent asked Conner with a raised brow, pointing to the mats in the far corner of the rebuilt lab.
"Hell yeah! I learned some new moves from Jason and Rocky that are going to put you on your ass man!" Conner jumped up, shoes kicked off with an inhuman speed.
Tommy couldn't help but smile as he listened to the two rangers banter, Kira interjecting that she got to face off with the winner. He had thought himself done with the Power after passing along the Red Lightning morpher to TJ. Even after the Red mission he hadn't ever thought he would find himself so involved with the Power Rangers. But then he had stumbled across the Dino Gems and all that changed. Tommy's initial idea would be that the gems would go to members of his old team, not even himself unless they had managed to find the white gem. He would do the tech stuff and monitor, a sort of Alpha/Zordon hybrid. But then the kids had found them and as much as it had scared him witless at first, the former black ranger was happy they had.
Tommy had always spent a lot of time with Zordon as a teenager, feeling that he needed more guidance because of his dark past. Even before his start as the evil green ranger he had been a less than model person. Adrift and looking for a place to belong. His parents hadn't adopted him till he was 13 and had put him into martial arts as a way for him to channel the anger and fighting that he had come to them always looking for. Before that his fighting style had been raw street tactics and a little bit of boxing he had learned in one of his foster homes. Zordon had become like a second father to him, helping to guide on the path of light and goodness.
Kim had been a big part of that too, even if he hated to admit it all these years later. When he had become the green ranger after breaking Rita's spell, the two had grown exceptionally close and she had been the one he confided his fears, his insecurities and his guilt in. The pink ranger had done so much into making Tommy believe he was the incredibly good man she saw him as. He'd never gotten a chance to thank her for it, let alone tell her how much her love and faith in him had carried him through every moment as a ranger and a lot of moments out of the uniform.
"Come on Dr.O, neither of these guys are a challenge." Kira called over to him, laughing at the offended noises her teammates let out in protest. Tommy laughed and wondered to himself if introducing Kira to the progenitors of her color hadn't been a terrible idea. The original eleven rangers had been over the moon to meet the Dino kids, teasing Tommy about taking on a new color and mentoring during the two groups first meeting. It had made him feel good, no matter how much he faked being annoyed about Jason and Zack telling stories about his early ranger days and Rocky and Adam telling the later ones. Tommy would like to think Zordon would have been proud of him, of them as a group and of Connor, Kira, Ethan and Trent.
Narkman, The Vica Galaxy- Sector Eight Four
"We are ready to proceed, Seeker." the High Priest of the Cult of Zedd, Pato Ixlithh told the villain who would, should the ritual accept him, become master of himself and the other acolytes in truth. Zathua Janrenk looked like a human teenager, his pale skin and boyish face were easily deceptive, something he used to his advantage often. Pato had seen many of the men who had taken on the title of Zedd before their transformations and this one never looked like much. He had been skeptical of him passing any of the trials at all when the boy had first found the temple. The High Priest had been very wrong and as he watched the would be Zedd as he stepped toward the pool of deep red liquid chest naked to display the carvings made into his arms and chest by the acolytes, he looked eerily sinister.
"See you on the other side" Zathua winked and then submerged himself in the pool, just barely able to hear the gathered acolytes beginning to chant, eyelids closing over his acid green eyes as he opened himself up to the Power. For a few moments he felt nothing, a spike of fear bolting through him that he would not be deemed worthy, and then suddenly he was overtaken by raw power. He screamed, screamed for so long that he thought his voice might give out on him completely.
But then the pain and the screaming stopped and the power settled into his veins. He smiled as he lifted himself from the pool, knowing that inside it Zathua Janrenk had died and Lord Zedd had been reborn. He noticed as the waters fled from his skin that it was now the same deep garnet color of the waters. An interesting development.
"My Lord." Pato bowed low to him, reverence in his tone
"High Priest." Zedd acknowledged, his face split open in a smile and showing his newly pointed teeth. "Call the Warrior and the Tengu here. I have plans for both of them that will aide me in the return of my staff." He could feel that his new power was far greater than anything he had had before, but the Staff of Zedd was the key to unlocking all of the Power. He could not make his move on the Universe or the group of people proficiesed to be able to have the power to destroy the Cult for good without it.
"Right away my lord." Pato Ixlithh bowed again before all but running off to do as he was bid, an evil smile covering his face at the prospect of a Zedd who would finally bring about the total submission of the universe.
The Vietnamese Embassy, New York City, Planet Earth-Sector Six
Once she had gotten over the need to cry and Justin confirming that the video was actually real, her mind had turned to who exactly was going to be the first person she shared the information with. Jason, Tommy and even Billy were totally out of the question. She wanted to call Rocky, he and Kim had been close during their ranger days, but Rocky wouldn't be able to keep it from Jason or Tommy. He'd cite some Red Ranger code and how it was scared and he couldn't just keep that huge of a secret from them. She loved Katherine but there was no telling how the blonde woman would react to Kimberly. They were friends on the surface, but the former yellow ranger knew it was the ghost of Kim that had ended Tommy and Katherine's relationship both times they attempted it.
The only sensible option she realized was to go to the only person among the former rangers who could be counted on to be completely calm in any situation.
"I'm here to see Trini Scott." She told the woman at the reception desk three days after she had first seen the footage on television.
"Do you have an appointment?" The dark haired receptionist asked
"I don't, but she'll see me. If you could just tell her Aisha Campbell is here to see her please." She tried to look unassuming and pleasant, keeping a smile on her face
The receptionist looks skeptical but still picks up the phone and holds a short conversation in Vietnamese with whoever is on the other end of the line, and then directs her to wait in one of the chairs. Aisha thanks her and then finds a comfortable chair to sit and wait in, clutching her laptop bag.
When Trini walks over to her, there's genuine concern on her face as she looks at her replacement. "Something tells me you're not here just to say hi."
"I would have called but...well honestly I'm still a little all over the place. It's been a weird weekend." She admits, sheepish now that she's faced with her slightly crazy decision to just take off to New York.
"This related to our shared extracurricular?" Trini wonders, looking around out of habit
"More about a missing bird." Aisha shrugs and watched her predecessors eyes widen in shock
"Why don't we go to my office." Trini suggests, surprised to realize her palms are sweating
Aisha stands and follows the sliight woman through a set of double doors and then down three hallways before they enter the large office that has Trini's name posted outside in English and then Vietnamese under it. Aisha shuts the door behind them, sighing deeply as she sets her bag down and pulls out the piece of yellow technology.
"This was on the news Friday morning. I brought it to Justin to analyze that night. When I tried to find the article I downloaded it from or anything at all about it, Trini it was just gone. Like someone knew it might have been filmed and got rid of it." That had been the most weird and concerning part of this whole ridiculous weekend. She turned the computer to Trini, settling the cursor over the play button.
"Who would go through all that trouble? And what does this have to do with Kim?" Trini wonder's out loud, pressing play on the video.
She understands pretty quickly that the woman covered in a black leather looking ninja outfit is Kim. Trini had spent far too much of her life watching her best friend throw flips and incorporate it into martial arts once they became rangers. Relief blooms in her chest knowing that at least all this time she hasn't been dead or any of the equally terrible ideas she had come up with to explain where the original pink ranger had disappeared off to after the incident with the Turbo Rangers. What she doesn't understand is who would be able to get rid of something like this and why. Her first thought would be Billy, but had the original blue known they all would have.
He had never been able to keep a secret.
"Oh my god!" she exclaims as she watches Kimberly call on her ninja powers.
"My reaction exactly." Aisha confirms with a nod, dropping back into a chair.
Trini rubs her forehead, already able to feel the headache developing as she thinks about the logistics of sharing this information. She'll need to tell Jason first, alone and after she's put him in a food coma. She'll probably need to do the same for Zack, he could be incredibly hot headed when he wanted to be. Aisha could tell Rocky and Adam, she had known the two men the longest and would know how to talk to them. Tanya and Katherine were outliers that she didn't exactly know how to handle. Neither Aisha or herself had really served with either of them and to be honest they were friends, family even, but not incredibly close ones. Maybe she would leave it to Justin. Then of course there was Billy and Tommy.
Most people thought the group had started with Trini and Kim or Kim and Jason, but it had been Billy and Kim that had met each other first. Their parents were friends, Caroline and Maria both being pregnant around the same and their children born only a month apart from each other. He had taken the information of Kim's disappearance incredibly hard, even if he hadn't let anyone know about it. He wasn't prone to anger, not even during the most terrible of Rita and Zedd's plans but she wasn't entirely sure how he would take this news. Maybe she and Zack should go together and tell him.
The first yellow ranger wanted even less to do with having to tell Tommy. He could never be counted on to have a rational reaction when Kim was involved. Maybe once Jason calmed down after being told the news he could be the one to tell the former white ranger. They were best friends and would feel the same way about it for different reasons.
"Alright let's lay out how we're going to start telling everyone. Justin knows not to tell anyone else right?" She asks, sitting down behind her desk to rifle through the top draw in search of a thumb drive
"He wanted zero part of dealing with big brother rangers reactions." Aisha replied with a chuckle, pulling aspirin out of the laptop bag and offering three of the pills out to the woman opposite her.
Trini nodded and began to lay out the plan she had formed that would hopefully get everyone informed with the most minimal casualties possible. What everyone would do with that information was a whole different monster she was ready to consider just yet. Part of her thanked Zordon that none of them knew where she was, the brief moment where she conjured up an image of her husband and male best friends running off to chase the first pink ranger down making her shudder.
Gratha, The Pavo Zagreus Galaxy- Sector Eighty Seven
"Are you sure there's something here Control?" Kim asked, thankful for the built in communicator that allowed her to speak into her helmet and connect with the main control room back on the ship.
"The alarm was tripped by the system, not manually ma'am." Lieutenant Khek told her with a slightly frustrated tone to his voice
"Well I'm not seeing anything for miles beyond a settlement a few clicks west of here. Whatever it was that tripped the alarm, it's not here anymore." Kim knew she was grumbling, but she hated when things like this happened.
"Control received. Are you heading back now?" Khek questioned
"I'm going to do one final sweep of the area and teleport back. I'll inform you before I do." The black lightning ranger scanned the landscape around her, deciding to do a quick look around the village in case whatever had set the scanners off went that way.
"Are you going to the village?" a voice asked from behind her, startling Kimberly.
She turned on her heel, glad that the helmet made it so he wasn't able to see the reaction on her face. The boy the voice came from had skin that was a deep red with a marking that looked like burned stone on the lower right part of his face. Curled around his eye was a symbol, one that looked oddly familiar, she just couldn't put her finger on why. His eyes were striking, a bright acid green that looked off putting when paired with the red tone. He looked young, barely older than six or seventeen she thought.
"Where did you come from?" Kimberly asked, curious as she hadn't seen him walking near her
"Oh here and there." His tone was playful, almost teasing as he took a bite of the fruit that was in his left hand.
"Do you live in the village?" She wondered, hoping he might be able to tell her what was going on
"No, but you shouldn't go there. Something evil happened there." He takes another bite of his fruit, his smile making her a little nervous
"Exactly why the Galactic Council sent me here." Kimberly's tone is sarcastic without her even noticing "You stay here, I'll go check it out." The former pink ranger turns and starts to walk away, intending to approach the village on foot so as to get a better assessment of what's going on.
"I wouldn't go there pink ranger." the boy calls out, stopping her dead in her tracks.
A lot of people knew Zordon's original pink ranger worked for the Galactic Council. Not many knew exactly which color or team she was actually part of. Anyone who may have known that the black lightning ranger, Earth's original pink ranger, and the Lady Crane were all the same person were not standing behind her. Kimberly whipped around, fists raised.
"How did you find out?" She questioned, tone dripping with acid
The boy fully smiles now, showing the pointed teeth. "Oh come now Kimberly, we're old friends." his tone is chiding, even going so far as to wag a finger at her
"I think I'd remember a kid like you." she snarks back at him, head turning over her shoulder to look at the village
"Don't go looking you won't like what you find." Zedd smiles at the ranger, knowing that it will be impossible for her to ignore taking the bait.
Kimberly rolls her eyes and decides to say screw going on foot, resting her hands on the belt of her uniform and teleporting into the direct center of the village.
The boy, whoever he was, had been right.
There was no monster there, but something evil had happened here. Kimberly had seen a lot since becoming a ranger, but nothing matched the carnage in front of her. Not one of the villagers had been spared, all of their bodies lying maimed on the ground. When she looked down, blood was running like a twisted river past her boot covered feet.
"I told you you wouldn't like what you found pink ranger." The boy was suddenly there, finishing the last bite of his fruit and smiling among the terrible scene.
"Did you do this?" her voice shook with rage, vision clouding just a slight bit red as she stared at the red skinned boy. Her bow was in her hand without having to call out for it, knocking an arrow before she really knew what she was doing.
"Now where is the fun in telling you that?" The boy let out a laugh, a musical thing that made Kim sick with rage.
She let the black arrow fly but the boy was suddenly gone as quickly as he had appeared. She waited as minutes ticked by and he never reappeared before calling back up to the ship.
"Control I've got a mass casualties situation, I'm going to need a team down here." She could deal with figuring out the who of the boy later, her priority right now had to be the villagers he had killed, making sure that they were buried according to their traditions and properly sent off. There would be time for her to peel herself out of her uniform, curl up in the corner of a blistering hot shower and cry for these people who had been innocent later. She would cry for the fact she had not been able to save them, that in all likely hood the boy had killed them to draw her out.
And then she would find him and destroy him, just like all the other evil she had come up against before.