A/N: This chapter was a bear to write and not just because the powers scene got rewritten like four times. I'm pretty sure this is one of the longest chapter of the story so far and I'm really excited to get into the interactions of the rangers.
"Hermes gazed up at the stars. 'My dear young cousin, if there's one thing I've learned over the eons, it's that you can't give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it. It doesn't matter if they hate you, or embarrass you, or simply don't appreciate your genius for inventing the Internet-" - Rick Riordan
"Oh good, they were able to get you all packs in time." Kim commented as she entered the teleportation room the next morning. There's a multicolored line of what looked like tactical backpacks. Her eyes rolled as she spotted her bag at the end of the line, along with the box she had asked for, more beaten up than the others and the colors inverted from the last time she had taken it so that it was now a deep pink color accented in black. She could see the Alpha team's fingerprints all over that. She felt a little better after a good long sleep, a little less like killing all of them was a viable option. After some time to think it all through, she realized that once they had saved the universe, she could go back to her life and they could go back to theirs. She wasn't eighteen years old, she knew that disappearing without a word hadn't been the right thing to do, but all of the people surrounding her had also let her go. With the technology at their fingertips they could have cast a net out as wide as a few solar systems. And with the other rangers they could have found her easily enough. So she could smile her way through this trip, do her job and go back to her life.
"Not that I don't love the well stocked gear bags but the last trip was only a few hours, these have us packed like we'll be gone for days." Aisha comments, looking at her with a curious gaze
"We like to be prepared. There's no telling what will happen and I'd rather we all have them than not." Kim shrugs, walking over to scoop up her bag and make sure it wasn't missing anything.
"Phadeos is where you guys got the ninja powers originally isn't it?" Katherine wonders, not directing her question at any one of the six in particular.
"Yeah it was. Dulcea connected us to the ninja spirits the first time, then we had to trek through the sacred jungle to actually reach the full power. I'm pretty sure the Crane powers only worked out of desperation. I assume the process is going to be similar this time around." Kim looks at the blonde woman with an unreadable expression, trying not to show any of the distaste she had for her. It was nowhere near the australian's fault that Tommy had broken up with Kim or that he immediately chased after her. Kim was well aware that it was childish of her to hold her accountable to it, but she figured she was allowed just a little bit of childishness.
"Is everyone ready and accounted for?" Tommy asks, picking up the only white bag of the bunch, smiling a little when he notices it's got a colored symbol for each of the powers he's held.
"Just one thing before we go." Kim says, earning an annoyed huff from her ex boyfriend. She rolled her eyes again and then opened the box, handing them out as she began talking. "These are dual purpose communicators and teleporters. They're modified from the standard issue version Council sanctioned rangers are given and I've had them encoded with clearance codes equal to mine. They're double encrypted to your individual DNA and Morphin signatures. The communicator has three functions, a one to one signal that will connect you to either just one of us or the main control room on this ship, a close loop function that will contact all twelve of us at once and then what's essentially a panic button mode. It will send your coordinates to the loop, the main control room on all outpost ships, Andros's personal communications line and the main communications hub for the Morphin Council. Telaporter works similar to the way ours used to, just let the guys up here know where you want to go and they punch the coordinates in. That second button is another panic button. Press it and it will automatically send you right back to this room. The packs also have a homing telaporter, so if for some reason we have to drop them and run, we can call them to us." She finishes her explanation with a cheeky smile and presses on the correct button, disappearing in a crackling column of pink light. Being surrounded by the color has her torn between nostalgia of playing 'race you there' with her old team, Tommy especially and sadness that her time as the black ranger was officially over. She had found herself again as the black ranger, become a leader and better fighter wearing that color. There was a silly sense of trepidation that going back to being the pink ranger would rob her of all the strides she had taken.
Dulcea is waiting when the pink light fades from around her, the blonde woman studying her intensely. "Have the others decided not to come?" She questions, head tilting
"They'll be along. I wasn't really looking for the big group arrival." Kim shrugs, deciding that pulling up the wall she had built for herself was going to be the best way to deal with this
"Do you remember what I told you?" Dulcea asks, eyes looking at the sky as she notices the colored streaked
"I don't need anyone else to soar. Stop looking at me as if I'm going to turn out the way your pink ranger did." Kim knows it's an unfair thing to say to the woman, but she isn't willing to listen to platitudes that tell her she needs anyone else to be strong again.
Duclea shakes her head, thinking not for the first time that it isn't Alosia Kimberly reminds her of at all, but her pig headed fiancé.
By the time the other lights have faded, Kim's pack has been dropped next to where she's standing in front of the altar.
"It is good to see you, old friends and new." Dulcea's smile was a mile wide now as she took in the eleven people in front of her.
"This place is beautiful." Tanya comments, looking around in awe. The others had told her stories about Phadeos but to see it in person was a whole different experience all together.
"We are a dwindling number but those of us that are still here do what we can to keep the ruins of the temple in the best condition possible." Dulcea explains as she leads them into the space that used to house the Altar of the Ancient Ninjette. The fire in the remnants of the altar is burning brightly even in the middle of the day.
"Dulcea if we were supposed to have these powers all along, why were we able to lose them in the first place?" Billy questions as he stands next to Kimberly with Adam on her other side
"When you first came to Phadeos it was just the six of you and you were desperate. The connection to your animal spirits was easy enough and I know that had any of you tried to connect to them, your spirits would have reached back. The power that you sought and gained was only a fraction of the true power. It could not be fully granted as your team was not fully together. Had you not lost the power as you thought of it, you would not have gained the teammates you did and you would not have moved forward enough to be strong enough to come back here together." Dulcea waited until all of them were circled around the altar, noting to herself that the six original ninja rangers had ordered themselves in the exact same way as when they had first come here.
"We'll have to go through the jungle again?" Adam guessed, gulping ever so slightly.
"Yes Adam. It is only once you reach the Monolith together that you will be able to claim the full power. You will encounter challenges on your journey but they will not be the same as before. Now close your eyes and look deep inside you." Dulcea watches, waiting for a moment as each begins to even out their breathing. Her hand reaches into the depression in the pedestal next to her and picks up a fistful of the glittering dust, blowing it into the direction of the flames and watching as the heat dances and jumps, obscuring the twelve adults for a few moments. When she can see them again, there are twelve Ninjettes standing before her. Along with the six baring new colors, the suits have changed. Where the gauntlets and bracers once matched the rangers color and was accented with gold, now the colors were reversed. The gauntlets were a bright gold and studded with decoration of the rangers colors, and the white sashes that belted the suits were now gold. All except for Jason, whose were silver to offset his golden suit. Dulcea gives them a few moments to reoriented the sleeves, watching in awe as they studied the coins, the changes to the suits and removed the hoods and masks.
"For the six of you who originally used the power, your animal spirits have not changed. You will always be the Falcon, the Crane, the Wolf, the Bear, the Frog and the Ape. And though you have grown as people, the traits that marked your connection to your animal spirits have not. Do not fear them, they are always what has made you strong." Dulcea picked up her staff and walked to the first of Zordon's chosen rangers.
"It makes sense now, why I could use the Gold Zeo powers and Billy couldn't." Jason says as she stands before him
"An astute observation. The Lion is the master of all land before him. Noble and brave Jason, you will be served well." She smiles at him, head inclining when Jason places both hands together and bows to her.
Dulcea moves one to her left and stops in front of the silver clad Trini. She looks from the woman to Jason and back again, as if understanding something just by looking at them. "The Lion has chosen a worthy partner. You are wise, intuitive and calm, Trini. The Owl could not have chosen better." the shorter woman goes near to blushing but it's hidden by her mask
Kathrine looks decidedly uncomfortable when Dulcea stops in front of her, the aqua dressed blonde fidgeting. "You feel as though you will have problems with these powers as you did with the Crane?" She questioned, her head tilted thoughtfully
Katherine tries desperately to look anywhere but over at any of the others. She had never told them. "It always felt like it was fighting me. Like it didn't want me,"
"These powers were not meant to be shared, Katherine. They are not like the others, you could not share them just as you could not share your heart with one of the others. Katherine you were not meant for wings. You are the Cheetah; swift and passionate." Katherine lifts up her head, taking in a deep breath.
"Thank you for that." Katherine's words are barely a murmur
Dulcea nods and moves on, standing in front of Zach who was grinning from ear to ear. "Ever one to blend into any environment seamlessly Zachary, you are the Chameleon; adaptable and persistent."
Tanya reaches out to grasp her boyfriend's hand and squeeze it before Duclea stops in front of her, the green clad woman grinning as she observes the purple and orange hands squeezing. "An interesting pairing. Though you left it behind, you can not shake the lesson you learned from your home. Bold and protective Tanya, you are the Scorpion."
The master warrior comes finally to the last of Zordon's chosen rangers, dressed in navy. "I am unsurprised to find that you and Billy share similar animals and colors. More lighthearted you are the Coyote, playful and inventive." Justin looked like Christmas had come early, eyes drifting over to Adam who was smiling brightly at the younger man.
"Thank you for your help Dulcea. Would it be alright if we spent some time here, to gather ourselves and get ready for the journey?" Tommy asked as Duclea stepped away from Justin
"Whenever you need sanctuary, this temple will be here to give it to you. I will leave you to your preparations." She was gone in a blink, leaving the twelve rangers standing in the silence of the temple.
"What now Tommy?" Katherine asked, looking at her ex-boyfriend and their defacto leader.
"I'd like to get a few rounds of sparring in. This power is different than anything I've ever felt. I want to try and get used to it before we head into an unknown." Jason spoke from where he was standing, knowing that his best friend was likely to go along with what he wanted. They had come a long way since their days as teenagers unable to work together. They were a seamless duo on a battlefield, able to work together and split the leadership role they had both been given by Zordon.
"Alright anyone who wants to spar meet by the alcove. At least two of us should go through the packs and check inventory so we have an idea." Tommy looks over at Kim, as if he's expecting her to choose that option instead. She rolls her eyes and walks over to the spot he had mentioned they're going to use as a sparring ring, stretching out in the center of it.
"Aisha is going to go through some of the abilities with me and Tanya since neither of us are used to it." Trini says, looking up from where she had been talking to the yellow and purple Rangers
"Adam and I will do inventory, I studied these powers a lot when I was helping Tommy create the Dino Morphers." Justin offers, not wanting to get in the middle of whatever shit show was about to happen within the sparring group.
Jason and Tommy nod in sync, the groups splitting off to do their own separate tasks.
"So something tells me Pinkie isn't moving from being first." Zach comments, eyes focusing on the pink clad woman who is stretching herself into a back walkover.
"I'll do it." Jason doesn't give anyone room to argue as his long strides put him closer to Kim. The shorter woman pops up, looking amused when she sees the gold clad man coming toward her. "You sure you wanna do this Jase? I don't know if you've got fire like that." Her tone is mocking, hand on her hip.
"You're good Kim, but I'm not the same fourteen year old who was scared to do anything but pull my punches with my little sister." Jason rolls his shoulders.
Kim cracks her knuckles and reminds him. "A lot has changed."
"Not that much." he counters, waiting for her to make the first move.
"Ninjette The Crane!" She calls, reactivating her powers.
Jason follows suit feeling the power thrum through him. Kim doesn't move from her spot, watching the man she used to consider an older brother. She hasn't even dropped into a defensive stance and the gold Ranger thinks that Kim could only look more bored if she was looking at her nails. He smirked behind his mask noting that for all the way she said things had changed she still opened with the same moves. Kim had spent all of their early ranger training by starting looking like she couldn't be less interested. Once he finally came at her, she would open by kicking out at him. There's nothing terrible at playing along so Jason kicks and then spins into a tornado kick, finding that instead of landing on his feet as expected, he's on his back with the pink clad woman popping up from the sweep she had used to take his legs out from under him. Kim wasted no time, her leg slamming down to hit his stomach. A hit that Jason just barely rolls away from, kipping himself up and putting his hands up defensively. His opponent comes at him with a barrage of attacks that keep him on the defensive. Everytime he goes to attack, Kim has a defense already planned.
"You haven't changed up your style much. Been what, at least ten years since that dumbass red only mission right? Have you trained at all with anyone who isn't this group?" She's standing across from him, arms crossed over her chest.
"Are we not up to your intergalactic standards anymore more Kim?" He sneered, anger bubbling under his skin.
"Not if this is what you fight like." She throws her body backwards, the point of her foot catching him beneath the chin and sending him flying backwards. In a flash step she's on him, a blur of pink that he throws out a desperate kick at, to put some distance between. She growls behind her mask and then again all he sees is a pink blur, gloved hand reaching out to grab her in an attempt to get her slowed down but he comes away with nothing but fabric. He lets out a growl of his own, tossing aside the pink fabric and deciding that it was time to switch tactics.
He had come to the army knowing how to fight intergalactic monsters but they had taught him a whole different way to approach his fighting. Grapples, pressure points and a dirtier base to his fighting. Jason lunges out, tackling Kim to the ground and placing his forearm over her neck.
"Yield." He commands her, thinking that there's no way she can manage to get out of this.
"No imagination Rex." Kim taunts, disappearing into the ground and popping back up behind him, her foot suddenly on the back of his neck "Yield!"
Jason had never been the best at keeping his temper all the way in check, especially not when it came to sparring with his teammates. Since the Maligore incident he had needed to learn how to control not only his temper but the left over enhanced strength. Maybe it was the way she deemed him and by extension their team less than. Maybe it was the way she kept herself distant and aloof, like they had deserved for her to abandon them. Maybe it was just his ego getting bruised by being so soundly beaten by her, but the first of Zordon's Chosen let go of the chain holding back all that rage. He twisted slightly, grabbing her ankle and using the enhanced strength to toss her to the ground, satisfied when she took a moment to struggle to get back up. When she does get to her feet the two of them both go on the attack; trading blows with a vicious ferocity that has the others starting to worry.
"That's enough Kim!" Tommy yelled, moving to step between them. Jason had been thrown to the ground by her using the laser strikes they were capable of and that was the last straw for the white Ranger.
"It's enough when I say it's enough." She sneered, kicking Tommy in the stomach to move him out of her way. Tommy stumbles backwards, unsettled by the matching looks he sees in their eyes as they come to the middle again. He'll never forget it as long as he lives, the way the pair of them had looked after coming out of the volcano, it haunts the most severe of his nightmares.
Trini comes running over from where she and the other two women had been practicing, looking up at him with a concerned expression.
"Jason Lee Scott!" The ebony haired woman yells, drawing her husband's attention. "That's enough." She instructs, tone holding back her tightly held rage.
Jason looks for a second like he's going to ignore her completely, his head shaking and holding up his hands "I yield." he tells their pink ranger, who halts at the words.
"Why don't we get everyone together and get going." Tommy suggests, eyes shooting concerned glances at his best friend.
"I'll go round everyone up." Kim offers, stepping away from the surrounding rangers gaping at her.
"Jase." Tommy calls, jerking his head over to the alcove behind where they had been fighting. The gold ranger jogs over after dropping a kiss on his wife's cheek. "What's up bro?"
"You okay? The end there, you looked like you went somewhere else." Tommy puts a comforting hand on the man who is for all intensive purposes, his brother, shoulder.
"Yeah I mean, I don't know. There's this zone sometimes. It started during that first deployment you know? Think it's some kind of hangover from the whole Child of Maligore business." Jason shrugs it off
Tommy groans, wanting to scream instead because this is the kind of shit they're supposed to tell each other, dammit! The white clad man rubs his forehead. Sometimes he really wished Jason and Connor weren't so similar. "We'll have Billy and Justin check you two out once we're done here."
"We're ready to go guys!" Rocky shouts, drawing the two over to where the group is standing, most with their packs secured onto their backs.
"You're not going to leave without saying hello, are you now Pink Ranger? That's just bad form." Kim pivots and drops into a defensive stance, her bag falling from where it was on her arm, confusing the others around her. "You again." She sneers.
"Do you know me now Kimberly?" Zedd taunts, a boyish grin splitting his face.
"Don't know who you are kid, but we don't have time to chat with anymore of Kimmie's new friends." Jason quips, eyeing the boy confused.
"Now now Jason you can't really think I'm just going to let you all run off and get the one thing that can defeat me are you?" He wonders, the Staff of Zedd appearing in his hand out of thin air
"This is the new Zedd? He's just a kid!" Rocky protests
Zedd doesn't say anything, just shakes his head and slams the staff against the ground. Tengu appears, looking meaner and more fierce than even the ones Kim fought in Angel Grove.
"Go!" Dulcea commands as she materializes in front of the group, arm thrusting out in the direction of the ledge that overlooked the jungle. "He can not follow you into the Sacred Jungle." The Master Warrior turned, her staff already split into two pieces and ready to fight
"No we can't leave you." Kim protested, feet setting in a fighting stance. Even Dulcea, for all her fighting prowess, would be unable to hold off all of these adversaries on her own.
"My time has passed, Kimberly. You and your team must make it to the Monolith and claim your power. I will hold them off, you must go." Dulcea looks imploringly at her, kicking out at one of the Tengu that charges towards them.
"Firebird, come on!" It's Jason whose hand is tugging on the pink fabric of her uniform, his pack and hers thrown over his shoulder.
"I'm so sorry." the pink Ranger apologizes, looking at her one last time before turning and running towards the ledge, a sickening laugh and the sound of a choked off scream stopping her in her tracks just before she's about to launch herself off.
Kimberly turns over her shoulder, catching sight of white and yellow fabric out of the corner of her eye as she does. Time seems to slow and it feels like she is a teenager once again, watching the zords come apart at their seams. The spear tipped edge of the Staff of Zedd is protruding from Duclea's chest, covered in deep red blood. A scream lets out of her throat, body starting to dive forward, every instinct in her screaming to stay and fight only to be stopped by strong hands wrapped around her biceps.
"Kim there's nothing we can do." Billy's voice reminds her from her other side.
"We can't just leave her! We have to do something!" She protests, pulling against the arms holding her
"We are. We're doing what she told us. Now jump!" As much as she may want to punch him in his stupidly good looking face, Tommy had never led her wrong on a battlefield. Kim nodded, pulled her arms from their grasp and jumped backwards, twisting gracefully through the air to land on her feet.
"Run, as far into the jungle as you can!" She shouts at the others, looking up one more time before she pulls her pack from Jason's arm and takes off running, joining the blurs of color ahead of her.
They run for what seems like hours until they're in the deepest part of the jungle. Though it had been morning when they left the ship, it had been mid afternoon when they arrived on the planet, and now the sun was starting to get lower in the sky.
"Let's make camp, we could all use some rest and some food." Billy suggests, hands resting on his knees.
"There's tent's in the packs, we only got halfway through inventorying before all hell broke loose" Justin informs them.
"There's one in every pack. I wasn't sure." Kim starts, dropping her pack where she's standing
"You don't know enough about our lives to know if any of us are sleeping together." Jason snaps, glaring at her fiercely.
Kimberly let's out a frustrated noise and pulls open her pack, holding up the round object and pressing the two side buttons on it and tossing it to the ground, a pink tent popping out of it fully set up. "There's a firestarter kit in the bags and we should have enough food, coffee and water between the ration packs for two weeks."
"Hey Kim." Justin calls, drawing the attention of the slight woman. It's well past dark now and they've got a fire roaring in the center of the semicircle of tents that have been set up. Adam, Rocky and Zack had found some logs to set around it for makeshift seats. Kim had powered down with the rest of them and changed out of the uniform she had left the ship in, leaving herself in a dark pink tank top. "What's that symbol stand for? It's all over everything; both your uniforms, your tent and pack." He pointed to the golden sunburst crest that was plastered on the side of her tent. She sighed heavily, pulled an old AG High hoodie out of her bag and sat on one of the rocks closer to the group.
"It's the crest of the Royal House of Eltar." She told them softly.
"Why is it your personal badge?" Adam questioned, remembering the acidic shut down the Captain that replaced her as black ranger had given them.
Kim looks slightly confused, training her gaze on Billy. "You haven't told them?"
"Told them what?" Billy looked just as confused, brow raised at her.
Kim sighed again, rubbing her forehead. "How much do you know about who Zordon was before he was well, Zordon?" She questions, wishing not for the first time since this day started that she had something to drink.
"Not much. It was..he had been kidnapped by Dark Specter by the time I was fully healed and then he was gone. I know that he was a ranger but not much else." now the blue ranger shrugs at her, wondering what this has to do with the crest.
"Before he was Zordon the way we all know him, he was Zordon of Eltar, oldest son of King Zeltron and Queen Marskaha. He was betrothed to the younger princess from Phadeos."
"So what happened that caused Rita to put him in a tube?" Rocky wonders, now looking intensely at the pink ranger.
"The Power happened of course. Zordon led a team of rangers, things went pear shaped and he ended up in an interdimensional trap. What was left of his team scattered to different places, mostly for safety from my understanding. They left all but the green power coin with him to one day be passed on." Kim bites her lip, waiting for the next round of questions
"Do you know who else was part of his team?" for the first time Jason's tone isn't filled with anger.
"Yeah, and so do you guys. We know all the players for this specific tragedy and trust me once you figure it out you feel pretty damn dumb for not knowning." Kim smiled just a little
"Ninjor, he was their blue wasn't he?" Billy guesses, remembering how Zordon had explained that he had been responsible for the creation of the power coins.
"He was. After what happened to Zordon, who had been their white ranger and leader, Ninjor was afraid of exactly what happened with Zedd happening, since there was a large enough group of people who knew he had been the ones to essentially create his team's powers. He went into hiding at the temple and gave Zordon the map to find him just in case." Kimberly had never been more grateful for that decision, as Ninjor had been the one to disentangle her lifeforce from her power coin when it was stolen.
"Dulcea and Dimitria were the pink and yellow right?" Aisha questioned, thinking of the concern the Master Warrior had shown when they mentioned something happened to Zordon and the fact the woman from Inquiris had come to help after Zordon's departure.
"Right people, wrong colors Mamma Bear." Kim risks using the nickname, hoping that the other woman will see it as her attempt at reaching out. "Dulcea was the team's green ranger and Dimitria was the black ranger."
"Wait so if Dulcea was the green ranger, how did Rita end up with the coin that she gave me?" Tommy's looking at her with that inquisitive gaze her always used to get before he went off on a binge of research to answer his question.
"And now we have arrived at the tragedy. Their red ranger was Zordon's youngest sibling, his brother Zandred. Their pink was Zordon's fiance and soulmate, Dulcea's younger sister Aloisa. And their yellow was Desma, Dimitria's twin sister. Zandred was interested in anything he could get his hands on when it came to history and legend about the Power. Desma was kidnapped by a group of space pirates. She didn't have her morpher or her coin and when she was turned evil, it severed her connection to the yellow coin. We all knew her better as Divatox. Aloisa, even though she had been raised by the warrior culture of Phadeos, she was more interested in the magic of the Grid. Somehow she attracted the attention of Master Vile and he turned her into Rita with some serious brainwashing. I don't know how the others ended up with the pink coin, especially not since she made sure to get away with at least one." Kim looks around the fire, wondering if maybe telling this story wasn't a good idea in the first place. Maybe she should have just cut to the important parts of why she used the crest as a personal badge.
"She tricked her sister, pretending she was still Aloisa?" Kat wonders, thinking of the plan Rita had given her
"If it had only been that kind." Kim snorts, standing up now to try and get a little more room to breath. "Rita as she was now showed up and out and out fought her sister. The fight ended up leading them into the temple and since she couldn't beat Dulcea in a fight, she got close enough and ripped the coin out of her morpher. Their powers, they were connected even more tightly to their lifeforce than ours were. The Power back lashed out and leveled the temple, but it also saved her life."
"Context clues say that Zordon's brother turned out to be our Zedd." Jason looks like he's going to be sick and Kim wants to reach out and hug him
"Zandred is the real life curiosity that killed the cat. Like I said he was incredibly interested in the history and legends of The Power. He had been reading about the Cult of Zedd for a long time and was tempted by the power he had read about. Like Rita I have no idea how they got the red coin from him, but he became Zedd and the rest is pretty much history." Kim shrugs, hands running through her hair
"That Zandred and the one from the meeting with the Morphin Council?" Trini trails off, eyes wide as saucers.
"Tiger Tiger burning bright and always right.. After the Z Wave, those three went back to being who they had been before. Aloisa became the Mystic Mother and for reasoning passing any understanding or interest of mine, they stayed married." Again she goes back to when they were close as sisters, reaching out to her.
"Not that all of this wasn't fascinating but what does it have to do with my original question?" Justin cuts in, Kim giving a small little start.
"Oh right shit sorry. Got a little off track. Like I mentioned the powers were tied into their life force and they gave them to Zordon to pass on. Zordon chose all of us. Because of that..the known universe basically considers us..well, his kids." She rubs the back of her neck, sure she looks as awkward as she feels.
"And you're what..the new Queen of Eltar?" Zack is sneering again and Kim wonders how she never noticed before how good the orange ranger was at it.
"No they have one of those. Her name is Zelriana and she's Zordon's middle sibling. We're considered royalty of the blood and the jury is out on if there would be support for one of us challenging her for the throne. Andros thinks if it was me, Tommy or Jason it might work. Kenale was firmly of the position that none of us would get very far."
"And Kenale would know." Tommy sniped, remembering him introducing himself as the white ranger on Kim's old team.
"Considering he's from Eltar yeah." Kim stops pacing, rolling her eyes at her ex-boyfriend in the process and decides she's had enough storytelling and team bonding for the night. "I'm going to sleep." She declares, disappearing into her tent.
"You just can't help yourselves can you." Aisha hisses, glaring at Tommy, Zack and Jason
"What did I do?" Jason protests, meeting the matching glare his wife is giving him
"We were finally getting somewhere." Trini stands up in a huff, eyes locking onto the yellow tent Aisha had set up for herself. "Aisha can I bunk with you?"
The yellow ranger nods, shooting Rocky a slightly apologetic look. "This is never going to work if you guys keep sniping at each other." She reminds them.
'Tell her that!" Jason doesn't care that he sounds like a five year old, he knows he's right.
The silver ranger sighs, shoving her hands into the pockets of the sweatshirt that had been in her pack. "She's obviously got a reason for the way she's acting and for the fact that she left. So let's just...give her a chance to come to us about it instead of pushing her even farther away."
Trini and Aisha disappear into their tent, leaving the weight of their words on the others. The others don't spend much more time sitting around the fire, stacking it with a few more logs so it would burn through the night.
Billy can't imagine what good reason Kim would ever have for the things she's done and the way she's been acting since they got the band back together. She hadn't even apologized to them! He can't fathom why that means they should be considerate of her. He lays his head down and closes his eyes, trying his best to calm his breathing and let go of this perverse anger. He hates that he's started to grow used to having it as company.