The next morning, I rolled out of bed in the women's quarters. There was no sleep to rub out of my eyes as I had not slept the entire night. I just laid there, replaying my conversation with Tommy in my head. He had been right about his behavior. It was different now than it was with Rita in control. Before, he only had a one-track mind. His one goal in life was to kill us and destroy Zordon, something he almost accomplished. He had hesitated in the Megazord though when it was just him and me there. He had every chance to kill me at that moment but instead, he just teleported out of there. The same with last night. The original Green Ranger would have snapped me in half without a second thought. He had every opportunity to do it but instead, he confessed that he still wanted to be with me regardless of the spell. Which meant this was either an elaborate ploy to trick me into joining them, something I could believe.
Or Tommy was in there somewhere.
Everything from the way he looked to me to the tone in his voice told me he was battling himself internally. He had said the other side of him was forcing him to do this. Was that the real Tommy trying to break free? Or was he correct in saying that he was becoming the spell rather than it controlling him? Would that mean once it was complete, there would be no saving Tommy? That thought scared me to death. I couldn't imagine Tommy permanently becoming the dark version of himself. It was not the person he was supposed to be. Tommy is sweet, caring, gentle and passionate about everything he does. This Tommy was cold, cunning and only cared about himself. And me it seemed.
I changed from my pajamas into a pair of light grey leggings and a long pink tank top before venturing out into the Command Center. I could smell eggs and bacon, the smell coming from the kitchen area. Since we were spending so much time here, Trini had opted to buy groceries rather than us eating take out for every meal that we were missing. Walking towards the smell, I entered the kitchen area. It was a medium sized room that was set up much like a break room. On one side of the room, there were cabinets, a microwave, a fridge and a stove built into the counter top. Across from it, there was a long rectangular grey table set up. Chairs were positioned on either side of it. The entire room was decorated in hues of greys and blues, matching the rest of the living quarters here in the Command Center. Zack was standing in front of the stove, a large griddle pan placed on the stove in front of him. He was flipping pancakes on it while stirring scrambled eggs in another frying pan next to it. There was white pancake mix smeared all over the front of his black t-shirt and his basketball shorts. Behind him, Trini, Jason, Aisha and Rocky were sitting at the table. Each held a mug in their hand, drinking coffee more than likely. Everyone suddenly stopped talking when I entered the room. I smiled when I saw Rocky sitting at the table.
"Morning, Kim." He said, smiling at me. He was wearing a red t-shirt, basketball shorts matching it on the lower part of his body.
"Hey! Glad to see you up and moving. How are you feeling?" I asked, walking over to the coffee pot Jason had made Trini bring to the Command Center. I grabbed a white coffee mug and poured some of the warm liquid into it. It felt nice as I cupped the mug in my hand before heading to the table. I sat next to Trini who was next to Jason. Aisha and Rocky were sitting across from them.
"I'm good now. You, on the other hand, look like shit." He replied. I snorted, shaking my head.
"Thanks, Rocko." I took a sip of my coffee and let the warmth relax me. I leaned back in my chair and looked up. I realized all of them were staring at me. "What?" I asked.
"Aisha went to your quarters last night and you weren't there." Jason said, tapping his fingers on the table in front of him. "We looked for you around the Command Center, but you weren't here. You didn't answer your phone either." I shrugged, trying my best to act calm while my nerves were on edge.
"So? I went for a walk. That's all." I replied. Jason sighed, leaning back in his chair. His red muscle shirt rustled over his jeans as he did.
"Kim, we're just worried about you." Trini said, giving me a small smile as she placed her hand on mine. "We didn't know where you were. We thought something might have happened to you."
"I'm fine. Really. Just after everything that happened yesterday, I needed some air to breathe." Behind us, Zack walked over and set a stack of plates on the table. He placed a bundle of forks and knives next to them.
"So, you didn't go anywhere? You just went for a walk around the Command Center?" He asked, not looking at me.
"Why do I feel like I'm being interrogated?" I shot back, crossing my arms in front of me. "If you must know, I went for a walk outside. Where the fresh air is." I stood up, walking around the table towards the door way.
"We checked the computer. You teleported to Angel Grove Park." Jason responded, leaning forward on his elbows. I froze in the middle of the door. "It picked up on another power source as well. Kimmy, please tell me you didn't go meet Tommy. Alone. At night." Biting my lip, my shoulders sagged as I turned to face my friends.
"Well…" I trailed off.
"Jesus Christ, Kim!" Jason exclaimed, jumping to his feet. His chair flew backwards, falling. It bounced off the concrete floor. "Do you know how dangerously stupid that was of you?"
"Jason, calm down." Trini said, reaching out and grabbing his arm. He tugged it away, glaring at me.
"No! He could have kidnapped you. He could have killed you! You didn't tell anyone where you were going. If he had taken you to God knows where, we wouldn't have even known about it."
"It wasn't like that, Jason." I retorted, stepping towards the group. "He left me a note, asking me to meet him at the park. I only went because the note didn't sound like evil Tommy. It sounded more like our Tommy. It was something the old Tommy under Rita's spell couldn't even manage to pull off."
"Where did he leave you a note?" Aisha asked. I hesitated, not wanting them to panic. "Kim?"
"On my bed."
"On your bed?! That means he was here in the Command Center." Zack said, setting his spatula down. He shot Jason a look who nodded.
"We need to do an entire sweep of this place to make sure he didn't plant something." Rocky stated, standing as well. "There could be a bomb or a bug somewhere without us even knowing."
"Why didn't you tell one of us that Tommy had been here? You put everyone's lives at risk." Jason said. He was fuming now, the vein on the side of his neck throbbing to the point where I could see it.
"I didn't mean to put anyone at risk. I just thought if I met with Tommy, I could convince him to come back here to try and reverse the spell."
"Well? Did he?" Zack asked. I shook my head, looking at my hands.
"No. He told me that there was no way to reverse the spell. That it was becoming apart of him rather than just something controlling him. This thing is embedding in him." I replied. Jason swore under his breath, rubbing the back of his head.
"Rocky, you and Zack go find Alpha. Do a sweep of the whole place for anything. Aisha, find Billy and have him do some tests to see if there is anyway we could form the Megazord without Tyrannosaurus. I'm going to talk to Zordon to see if there is anything we can do about Tommy." Jason shot me a glare as he stormed out of the room. Zack and Rocky followed him, Aisha bringing up the rear. I sighed, feeling defeated. Never in my life had I ever seen Jason so mad and that fact it was because of me hurt even worse.
"Hey." Trini said, standing and walking over to me. Her purple sun dress flowed behind her as she walked. "He's only so upset because he's scared. He was worried about you last night. He thought for sure you had been taken by Rosita and Tommy."
"Trini, I didn't know what else to do. When I found the note, I figured I had no other choice. It was the only chance I had to talk to him. It's Tommy."
"I know, Kim. What else happened? No one else showed up?" I shook my head.
"No. It was just him. At least I think it was. He told me no one else knew he was coming to see me."
"Why did he want to see you so bad?" She asked. I took a deep breath, unsure of what to say.
"He asked me to join him on Rosita's army because the evil side of him couldn't stop the part of him that wants to be with me."
"Oh my god." She whispered. "Kim, you can't be considering it."
"I don't know. Of course I want to protect Earth against that evil witch. But I also want to protect Tommy. If I was there, I could try to get him away from it and save him."
"If he had enough control over his actions to come see you, he would have enough to ask for help." She said, frowning at me. "You need to promise me that you won't go after him again. It's too dangerous. He could be setting you up for a trap or worse."
"But Trini-."
"No buts, Kim. If I find out you went to see Tommy, I'm going to tell Jason."