"Stupid," Jason muttered, pacing back and forth between the trees. "I can't believe—How didn't I see it? I should've—she just—mmm…"
He growled, continuing to mutter to himself agitatedly as he paced.
"It should've been obvious," he growled, shaking his head. "She almost—and he didn't—and now they just—agh!"
Whipping around, he lashed out at the closest object—which just happened to be a tree. His punch connected straight with the trunk, causing him to stumble backward in pain and shock.
"Ah!" he gasped, jerking away from the tree and pulling his hand close.
"Well, now," a familiar voice said from behind him. "That was—brilliant."
"Now is not the time, Trini," he snapped, turning to look at his wife as he slowly tried flexing his hand.
"I think it is," she said, walking over to him.
"I really don't want to talk right now," he growled, glaring at her.
"Fine," she said shortly. "Now let me see your hand."
"My hand is fine," he said.
"Mmm hmm," she said, taking his wrist anyways. "I'm sure it is—because you punch trees on a daily basis without ill effects. Jason, you don't have ranger strength anymore without being morphed. Though I'm fairly certain the tree would have won regardless."
He glowered at her, but didn't pull his hand away. Wincing as she probed gently, he shook his head.
"It's not going to work," he said.
"What's not?" she asked. "Your hand? I don't think you did quite that much damage to it."
"No," he snapped. "This. I don't want to talk."
"Then don't," she said.
"Stop it!" he exclaimed.
"Jason, I have to make sure your hand is alright," she said patiently, not looking up at him or letting go of his hand.
"I know what you're trying to do," he said. "You want me to come back and talk to them and forgive them because they didn't know what they were doing and they're sorry now. Sorry to burst that bubble, but it's not happening."
"Fine," she said, not arguing. "Then don't. Besides, they haven't actually apologized to anyone."
He looked down at her in surprise, expecting her to have argued with him.
"I don't think it's broken," she said, looking up at him now.
"What?" he frowned.
"Your hand," she said, raising an eyebrow. "I don't think it's broken. But we should probably get it x-rayed just in case."
"Trini, I'm not going to the emergency room right now," he groaned.
"No, you're not," she said. "You have a meeting to finish, first. Then we can take you to the emergency room."
"No I don't," he growled. "I told them we were done. The meeting is finished."
"And I told them it wasn't," Trini countered. "So now you have to go finish it."
Jason groaned, rubbing his uninjured hand over his face.
"What do I even say to them?" he muttered. "I can't—I can't talk to them."
"Well, you have to," she said, crossing her arms.
"Why?" he growled.
"Because you're not going to be happy until you do," she said. "Until you've fixed things with them."
"This isn't about me, Trini!" he snapped. "It's about Tommy!"
She rolled her eyes.
"Fine," she said. "Then because Tommy won't be happy until you do—and you can't tell me I'm wrong on that."
Jason opened his mouth to protest and then shut it.
"I should've just let Conner kill them when I had a chance," he muttered.
"That's still an option," Trini said, raising an eyebrow. "We can call them. I'm sure the four of them can come up with a variety of creative ways to deal with the entire team."
Jason took a deep breath, shaking his head.
"Tempting as that is," he sighed. "I can't deal with the four of them right now. I really can't. It's bad enough having Justin here…"
"Oh, thanks," someone interrupted from behind them.
Jason groaned.
"Speaking of," he muttered, turning to look at Justin. "What?"
"I need to tell you guys something," Justin said slowly, trying to judge how irritable Jason was at that particular moment.
"Can't it wait a few minutes?" Trini asked, glaring at him.
"Ummm… no," he said, shaking his head. "It can't. Because they're already gone."
Jason and Trini frowned, exchanging looks.
"Who's gone?" Jason asked.
"They are," said Justin, gesturing behind him. "Them. They're all gone."
"Justin, are cars are that way," Jason said, pointing behind him toward the hidden tunnel entrance that eventually led to Tommy's house. "And no one passed us."
"Not them them," Justin exclaimed in frustration. "The other them!"
Trini sighed.
"Justin, you aren't making any sense," she said. "And I've been translating Billy since high school."
He groaned.
"Mystic Force is gone!" he burst out.
Jason and Trini both looked at him in shock.
"What?" Jason growled.
"They're gone," Justin said again. "We were waiting for you to come back and they were a little ways away talking and then we turned back to check on them and they were all climbing on their bike things or whatever they came here in and taking off down the road toward town—well, most of them headed toward town. I don't know where the other three were heading."
"They were heading toward town?" Jason exclaimed.
"Yeah, why?" Justin asked.
Jason didn't answer immediately, taking off at a run toward where the rest of the rangers were waiting for him just outside the tree line.
"Jason, what's the problem?" Justin repeated, running after him with Trini.
"Briarwood is in the other direction," he growled.
"Ok," Justin said, frowning. "Your point?"
"Justin, Tommy lives in town," Trini said.
Justin's eyes widened and he picked up his speed, catching up to Jason as he started shouting for the others.
"Guys, we gotta go!" he shouted, waving for them to follow him. "Back to the tunnels. Let's move!"
For a brief moment, none of the rangers moved. Justin skidded to a temporary stop next to Jason. But the red ranger didn't give him a chance to collect himself because he was already bolting back the way they came.
"Move!" Jason shouted over his shoulder.
The rest of the rangers leapt into motion, following their leader without any further hesitation. Justin started to follow and then froze again.
"Blaster!" he exclaimed, bolting in the other direction.
"Justin!" Jason yelled.
"Just a second!" Justin responded.
Breaking the tree line again, he ran toward the parking lot waving his arms at his car and shouting as loudly as he could.
"Blaster!" he shouted. "Go find Lightning! I'll meet you there!"
Hearing the sound of Blaster beeping in acknowledgement, Justin spun and bolted back after the others. He had a lot of ground to cover to catch up to them. By the time he caught up, he was gasping for breath.
"I—need—to go—to the gym—more often," he panted, running alongside Rocky now. "Or run—with Tommy…"
Rocky laughed, shaking his head at the younger ranger.
"Keep running, kid," he said. "We're almost to the tunnel."
"If I die," Justin gasped. "Just—leave me—come back—later…"
Rocky snorted, nearly tripping over a tree root as he laughed at his young counterpart.
"Jason, what's going on?" Adam called as they approached the tunnel entrance. "Where did Mystic Force go?"
"They're heading for Tommy's house," Jason called over his shoulder, not slowing down.
"So?" Rocky said. "He's not even there."
"But Hayley and the babies are!" Aisha snapped, smacking Rocky on the arm.
He winced, but started running harder as he realized his wife was right.
"Tommy is there," Jason growled, panting himself. "He got home the day the babies were born—wasn't going to tell all of you 'til he had a chance to get himself settled with Hayley and the girls."
"Jason!" Kim exclaimed. "How could you?"
"Later!" he snapped. "Just run—we have to beat them there!"
Pushing themselves harder than most of them had in years, the rangers sprinted through the hidden doors and into the tunnel toward the Dino Thunder lab and Tommy and Hayley's house.
Pulling to a stop in front of the house, the rangers climbed off the bikes and looked around. They'd managed to make it to Tommy's with only on wrong turn. Now they paused, hesitating before approaching the house.
"Maybe this is a bad idea," Madison said nervously. "What if he really doesn't want to see us? We should leave and try calling first and then come back later."
"Nope," Vida said, grabbing her sister's hand and striding toward the door. "Come on, sis. We're already here so we may as well give it a shot."
"But—" Madison started to protest as Vida towed her after.
"Maddy, we've got to try," Nick said, propelling her from behind. "Come on."
Crowding onto the porch, the rangers stopped in front of the door. Taking a deep breath, Vida reached up to knock on the door. But before her knuckles touched, she froze.
"Maybe Maddy is right," she said slowly, pulling her hand back. "Maybe this isn't such a good—"
Nick didn't give her a chance to finish speaking. Reaching around her, he pounded on the door. Madison let out a small squeak of surprise as Vida quickly took a step back. Nick stayed where he was, waiting for someone to come to the door.
"Well, guess there's no changing our minds now," Chip said.
"We could always run for the bikes," Xander pointed out. "If we run fast enough they'll never catch us."
But before anyone could respond, the door opened to reveal an unshaven and rumpled looking Tommy. He stared at them in surprise and they stared back. For a moment, no one spoke. Then Tommy groaned, rubbing a hand over his tired face as he quickly glanced back over his shoulder.
"Great," he muttered, shaking his head. "Just great."
Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair as he looked at them.
"Ok, look," he said. "I know you're here to kill me, but can you wait just a little bit?"
They stared at him in shock, momentarily speechless.
"Just give me like—thirty—" he said, pausing as he frowned at his watch. "What time is it?—fifteen minutes. Give me fifteen minutes and then I don't care what you do. And can we do this outside? There's plenty of room in the backyard—"
"Tommy, we're not here to kill you!" Vida burst out.
Madison had started crying again, shaking her head as she tried to stammer out a protest to Tommy's accusation. Tommy frowned, scratching his head in confusion as he blinked at Vida.
"Then why are you here?" he asked after a moment. "Because last I knew you wanted me dead."
"We don't want you dead!" Madison cried, wringing her hands. "Tommy, we just—I want to—I…oh…"
"We're here to apologize," Nick said, saying what Madison was struggling to say. "What we did was wrong and—and we're sorry…"
Tommy's hand dropped to his side as he stared at Nick. No one said anything else for another moment. Then Tommy shook himself.
"Alright, that's it," he muttered. "I have officially lost it. I'm so tired I'm hallucinating…"
"Wait—what?" Chip said, frowning. "We're not hallucinations—are we?"
Madison rolled her eyes.
"No, we're not," she said. "Tommy, we aren't hallucinations."
"Yes you are," he said firmly. "You have to be because there is no logical reason for you to be here since all of you hate my guts."
Guilty looks flashed across all of the younger rangers' faces.
"And I'm pretty—actually, I'm sure he wants me dead," Tommy continued, pointing at Nick. "So I really don't know why I'm seeing you…Maybe this is my subconscious telling me—wait a minute…"
He frowned, looking around.
"Did I fall asleep?" he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "Did I actually—oh, that isn't good. They aren't here—or weren't here—yet… I need to wake up. How do you wake up from a dream? Pinching doesn't work…"
The Mystic Force rangers exchanged concerned looks as Tommy continued muttering to himself.
"Wait, no," he said, shaking his head. "Pinching yourself does work—other people pinching you doesn't—wake up!"
Tommy pinched himself on the arm in an attempt to wake himself up.
"Why isn't this working?" he mumbled, looking around again.
"Tommy, you're not asleep," Vida sighed as he pinched himself a second time.
"Oh good," he said, groaning as he put his face in his hands. "Then I really have lost it. This is just wonderful…Coffee. I need coffee. Maybe that'll wake me up."
Turning abruptly, he walked back into the house leaving them standing on the porch and the door wide open. The young rangers hesitated briefly and then followed him into the house.
"Tommy, wait!" Vida called. "You're not hallucinating!"
"I'm not listening!" he said, pausing and shaking his head. "You're not really here."
They hurried to catch up to him.
"Tommy, please," Madison pleaded. "We're really here—I promise."
He just groaned again, rubbing a hand across his face.
"I've really lost it," he muttered. "I've gone crazy…"
"Tommy," Vida said. "We're here. For real. We're not hallucinations."
He put his hands over his ears, shaking his head.
"La la la la," he said as he closed his eyes and kept his ears covered. "I can't hear you. You're not really here. This is all in my head and it needs to stop."
The rangers frowned, glancing at each other.
"Tommy, knock it off," Vida said. "You aren't a child."
"I'm still not listening," he repeated, refusing to look at her.
Glaring at him, Vida reached out and smacked him on the arm.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed in surprise, dropping his hand and rubbing the spot where she'd smacked him. "And now I'm feeling them. It just keeps getting worse… I've gotta pull myself together…"
"Tommy, we're real," Madison insisted. "You have to believe us."
He shook his head again.
"No I don't," he said, rubbing a hand across his face. "I don't have to believe you because there's no reason for any of you to be here…I guess I've just been hoping for it for so long now that I've conjured you in my mind…"
Tommy's comment finally made Madison lose it again. Bursting into tears, she flung her arms around him and hugged him tightly.
"I'm sorry!" she cried, sobbing into his shirt. "Please don't hate us…"
He grunted in surprise, looking down at her in shock.
"Oh boy," he said. "And now she's hugging me—very tightly. Umm…"
Not quite sure what to do, Tommy hesitantly reached to pat her on the head.
"Good hallucination," he said. "Now can you—mmm—let go?"
Madison just started crying harder as the others rolled their eyes.
"How do I make her stop?" he asked, looking up at them.
They just shrugged and he sighed as she continued to hug him tightly. The sound of movement came from down the hall and Tommy's office door burst open as Jason and the rest of the rangers piled out into the hallway. They stopped in surprise to see Mystic Force already in the house and Madison hanging on Tommy, crying.
"Now, what do I do—oh, that's just great. None of you are here. I'm not seeing any of you."
He'd seen the rest of his friends now and was shaking his head adamantly.
"Jason can't be here," he muttered. "He's in Angel Grove. This is Reefside. So he can't be here and neither can anyone else."
Jason frowned.
"Tommy, what are you talking about?" he asked.
"Nope," Tommy grumbled. "Not listening. None of you are real, you can't be here."
His gaze stopped on Billy and he stared in shock.
"And you live on another planet," he groaned. "I have really lost it. Ok, what should I do? Call the kids? No, too long. Hayley! "
Extracting himself from Madison's hug, he took a few steps back.
"Hayley!" he shouted again as he moved towards the stairs. "Hayley get down here, we have a problem. I'm losing my mind!"
As Tommy shouted, the sound of crying suddenly came from the other room. He grimaced, running a hand through his hair.
"Stupid," he muttered. "Just had to do it, didn't I?"
"Tommy!" Kat exclaimed, hurrying around the others. "You should know better."
She didn't pause when she reached him, walking straight past and heading toward the living room with Kim right on her heels. Tommy spun to watch them go and started to go after them.
"No, no, no, no, no," he said, shaking his head. "Hallucinations should not be touching my children. You are not allowed in there—"
Jason caught Tommy by the shoulder before he'd made it more than a couple of steps.
"Tommy, relax, bro," he said, spinning Tommy to face him. "They'll get the babies. You need to sleep—and stop calling us hallucinations."
"No," Tommy said shortly. "I have to take care of my babies because none of you should be here which means none of you are real and none of you should be touching them."
Tommy tried to pull away from Jason, but he wouldn't let go. But the crying in the living room had stopped now. Footsteps on the stairs announced Hayley moments before she came into sight.
"Tommy?" she exclaimed, rushing over to him. "Tommy, what's going on? Why are the girls—what are they all doing here?"
Hayley stopped in surprise next to her husband, looking at Jason and the rest of the rangers. She hadn't expected to see all of Tommy's friends there.
"Jason, what are you doing here?" she snapped. "I told you that you could use the lab for a meeting—not my house. And what on earth are they doing in my house?"
Hayley had just seen Mystic Force. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at them. All five of the young rangers took a step backward, putting themselves against the wall. The look on Hayley's face said that irritating her right now would be a really bad idea.
"I wasn't planning on being in the house," Jason answered. "It just—well, it just happened. We were using the lab for the tunnels to meet with them at the museum."
"So then why are you all here?" Hayley demanded.
"Because they took off," Jason growled, pointing at his sisters and their friends. "The goal was to catch them before they got in the house, but they had too big a head start."
Hayley took a deep breath and rubbed her forehead.
"Hayley, you shouldn't be talking to them," Tommy said, shaking his head. "They're not really here…"
She frowned, turning her attention back to Tommy.
"Tommy, what on earth are you talking about?" she asked.
"I'm seeing people who aren't here…" he mumbled. "No sleeping is really starting to get to me…"
"Sweetheart, they're really here," she sighed. "Even though I wish they weren't…"
"Nope," he said, shaking his head adamantly. "They can't be here. None of them live in Reefside—and Billy isn't even on earth. Oh, and all of them want me dead…"
He gestured behind him to Mystic Force.
"So none of them can be here," he continued, looking back at Hayley. "That's why I called you—we have a problem…"
"Tommy, you aren't hallucinating," Hayley said. "I can see them, too."
He groaned, rubbing a hand over his face.
"Oh, good," he said. "Hayley, you haven't gotten much more sleep than me. You're starting to see things, too…"
Hayley rolled her eyes.
"Tommy—" she started to say.
"You need to go back to bed," he interrupted, trying to direct her toward the stairs. "I shouldn't have woken you up. I'll be fine until the kids get here. Go back to sleep."
"Tommy! You aren't hallucinating!" she exclaimed, refusing to budge.
"He really has lost his mind," Zach muttered, shaking his head.
"Be quiet, Zach," Tanya said, glaring at him. "You're not helping."
"Yes I am," Tommy insisted. "And I have to go take the babies away from the hallucinations in the living room, so go to bed."
"I'm not going to bed!" Hayley protested. "Not until you go lay down or at least stop thinking you're hallucinating."
"Hayley is right, Tommy," Trini said. "You aren't hallucinating, but you should lay down…I know what it's like to not have sleep with one, but I can't imagine two newborns at one time."
"I can…" Aisha sighed. "It's not easy…"
Rocky nodded in agreement. Their first few weeks with their twins had been difficult, so they knew exactly how Tommy and Hayley were feeling. As the rangers tried to come up with something else to convince Tommy he wasn't hallucinating, Justin broke from the group and headed toward the kitchen.
"Justin, where are you going?" Jason frowned.
The younger ranger paused, glancing over his shoulder.
"To get a snack," he said.
"Why?" Jason asked, sounding like he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
Justin shrugged.
"You guys all know how stubborn he is," he answered, gesturing at Tommy. "This is kind of pointless. Sure, he'll come around eventually—maybe—but we may as well be comfortable. So I'm getting a snack."
Turning, he disappeared into the kitchen leaving Jason glaring at the empty doorway.
"Tommy?" Billy said, catching Tommy's attention.
The blue ranger had been standing quietly since they got in the house, watching Tommy closely. Tommy sighed as he turned to look at Billy, running a hand through his hair again.
"Yeah?" he said reluctantly.
"While it is understandable, given your current state of mind and body, that you would believe yourself to be experiencing a hallucination," Billy said. "It is actually quite impossible for such to be occurring at this juncture."
Tommy frowned, but didn't say anything.
"You are, at this moment, processing information you had no foreknowledge of," Billy continued. "Therefore it is impossible for you to be hallucinating it because, in order for you to do so, you would have required knowledge of what was happening before it happen in order to conjure some semblance of it in your subconscious. However, we were extremely cautious in reassuring ourselves that you had no knowledge of the occurrence of this meeting ahead of time as we did not wish you to concern yourself with it given that you were previously preoccupied with other commitments and events. So, since you could not have known of this meeting, you cannot have recreated a replica in your own mind."
Blinking, Tommy stared a Billy for a moment without saying a word.
"Ok," he said slowly. "Maybe I'm not hallucinating…"
"What?" Jason exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "So you won't believe the rest of us, but Billy says something and suddenly you don't think you're hallucinating anymore?"
"He didn't even say anything that made sense," Rocky added.
"Right," Tommy agreed. "I understood—well, none of that… and I can't hallucinate something I don't know."
"Exactly," Billy smiled.
Hayley was shaking her head.
"Yep," Justin agreed, wandering back out of the kitchen. "And that's exactly what Billy just told you."
Tommy turned to look at him and frowned.
"Justin, what are you eating?" he asked.
"Fried chicken," he answered. "It was in the fridge."
"But we haven't had chicken since I got home…" Tommy said slowly, looking to Hayley for confirmation.
Justin froze just before taking another bite. Hayley was looking at him in concern.
"Justin, that chicken's at least three weeks old…" she said.
Holding the chicken away from him now, Justin looked like he was about to be sick.
"Excuse me," he said, bolting for the kitchen.
With Justin gone again, Jason shook his head and looked at Tommy.
"Ok," he said. "Now that you don't think we're hallucinations anymore, will you please go get some sleep? We can handle things for a little while."
Tommy started to answer, but the front door flew open. Kira, Trent, Ethan, and Conner crowded into the house. Ethan and Conner were arguing, their attention completely focused on each other. Kira and Trent were following, shaking their heads.
"Sorry we're late, Dr. O," Kira said. "I couldn't get him off the computer."
She pointed at Ethan who didn't bother to stop the argument to acknowledge what Kira said.
"And then he decided it was a good idea to turn the system off in the middle of the game," she continued, gesturing at Conner. "Which just made everything take twice as long…"
"Would you just let it go?" Conner snapped at Ethan, stalking toward the living room without looking around. "We're here to babysit, not play video games."
Grumbling, Ethan followed him and the two boys disappeared into the living room.
"But we're here," Trent finished, shooting a look after his two teammates. "Umm… Dr. O? What's all over your shirt?"
There were several black marks streaked across his green shirt. Tommy looked down at himself, frowning at the stains.
"Aww…" he sighed. "I just put this on…"
"Is that mascara?" Kira asked, raising an eyebrow.
"She was crying…" he mumbled. "And this was a clean shirt…"
Trent and Kira exchanged confused looks, not entirely sure who he was talking about.
"Don't worry, Tommy," Aisha quickly reassured him. "I know how to get that stain out. Your shirt will be fine."
"K…" Tommy said, stifling a yawn.
"Dr. O, you can go get some sleep now," Trent said, looking at Tommy. "We'll keep an eye on things."
Tommy nodded and started to turn, but then he paused.
"Hey Trent?" he said, leaning closer to the young white ranger.
"Yeah Dr. O?" said Trent.
"You can see them, too, right?" Tommy asked, gesturing to the other rangers.
"Yes," Trent confirmed.
"Even him?" asked Tommy, pointing at Billy.
Trent frowned, following the direction he was pointing.
"Who?" he said. " Billy?"
Tommy nodded.
"Yeah, I can see him, too," Trent assured him.
"Ok, good," Tommy nodded.
Turning, he headed toward the living room.
"Oh, and make sure they don't kill me while I'm sleeping," he yawned, gesturing to his left as he disappeared into the living room.
Kira and Trent both frowned, turning to see who he had been talking about. Seeing the Mystic Force rangers still standing there, they both froze in shock. But their shock quickly turned to anger as they glared at the other rangers.
"Umm… guys?" Kat said, coming out of the living room. "Tommy just fell face first onto the couch. Is he ok?"
Hayley sighed and started to head toward the living room. But Kim came walking out before she could get to the doorway.
"He's snoring," she said in amusement. "So he's fine."
"Oh, good," Hayley said. "I'm—I'm going to go get him a blanket. And a clean shirt. I think there might be one more in one of the boxes upstairs…"
Still muttering to herself, Hayley headed back upstairs.
"What happened to the babies?" Aisha asked, looking at Kim and Kat.
"Conner and Ethan took them," Kim pouted, crossing her arms.
"Because we're the babysitters," Conner said in a sing-song voice, coming out of the living room. "Right?"
He was responding to Kim's comment, but had continued cooing at the baby he was holding at the same time. Ethan was following him, holding the other tiny little girl. With Trent's attention still fixed on Mystic Force, Kira whipped around to Ethan and Conner. Looking at the older rangers, neither of the boys had seen Mystic Force further down the hall yet.
"Conner, give Kat the baby," Kira said, not wanting him to still be holding the newborn when he saw the other team.
He frowned at her.
"Why?" he asked.
"Just give her the baby," Kira repeated.
Ethan, who had glanced around in concern when he heard the tone in Kira's voice, saw Mystic Force and froze.
"Dude, give her the baby," he said, carefully handing the one he was holding over to Kim. "Now."
Conner turned around to see what was going on and saw the Mystic Force rangers watching the four of them in surprise. His eyes narrowed. Turning briefly, he handed the child he was holding over to Kat and spun back to face Mystic Force.
"What are you five doing here?" he growled, stalking toward them.
"Get out of here with them," Kira hissed to Kat and Kim before moving to join the boys.
The two women didn't hesitate. Spinning, they retreated toward Tommy's office with the babies. Justin poked his head out of the kitchen to see what was going on, leaning against the doorframe to watch. No one else moved, not quite sure what to do about the two younger teams as they faced off.
"What are you doing here?" Conner demanded again, moving right up to Nick. "You have no right to be here."
Mystic Force was shocked to see the four of them there, let alone see the reaction they were getting.
"We're here to see Tommy," Nick finally answered, fighting the urge to reach for his wand as Conner pushed the limits of personal space. "What are you doing here?"
"What we're supposed to be doing," Kira snapped. "Didn't you get the hint when I didn't answer you? You're not welcome here."
Vida was staring at Kira in surprise.
"Wait, so you purposefully ignored my calls?" she asked.
Kira crossed her arms.
"What do you think?" she scoffed. "After what all of you pulled I had no reason to answer."
"And now all of you are going to leave," Conner growled. "So out!"
Nick shook his head, refusing to move.
"We aren't going anywhere," he said. "Not until we get a chance to talk to Tommy."
"You have no right to talk to him!" Conner snarled. "And if you don't stay away from him, you're going to regret it. No one hurts my team—ever. And if you touch him again you're not going to know what hit you. Those magic sticks of yours won't help you in a fair fight against us."
Now Mystic Force was really confused.
"Wait a minute," Vida said, frowning. "Your team? What team?"
"This one," Conner snapped, gesturing behind him. "You almost killed Dr. O once, I won't give you the chance to do it again. So, last chance—leave."
"What are you so touchy about?" Nick snapped back, crossing his arms. "You have no idea what's going on."
"You're the ones who have no idea what's going on," Trent growled. "If you had a clue, you wouldn't be here. I may have done a lot of things I regret before I gave my loyalty to my team, but even I never did what you five did."
Conner nodded, getting in Nick's face now. Nick was force to take a few steps back—either that or let Conner run into him. Slowly, step by step, Conner started back them down the hall as he ripped into them.
"You want to know what's going on?" Conner snarled. "The five of you ganged up on an unarmed, and unprepared, ranger who trusted you with his life. You betrayed him without hesitation, without thought, and without questioning if what you were doing was right. It's one thing to act on instinct, but instinct doesn't tell you to try and kill someone without having an actual reason. And Dr. O never would have used magic if the five of you hadn't forced him. None of you deserve to be called rangers."
As Conner paused to take a breath, Chip, who had been studying the four facing him, suddenly gasped, his eyes widening.
"You're Dino Thunder!" he exclaimed. "The four of you are rangers!"
"Duh," Ethan scoffed. "What? Did you think we just liked hanging out around our high school science teacher just because?"
"Yeah, we're Dino Thunder," Conner snapped. "And we told you to stay away from here. We warned you what would happen if you set foot on our turf—"
Conner froze, cutting off as he stared at Nick. Slowly, a smirk spread across his face.
"You're on our turf," he repeated, taking another step toward the other red ranger. "And you used special powers on one of us first. Your turn."
Jason's eyes widened as he realized, too late, his mistake.
"Conner, no!" he exclaimed, jumping forward to try and grab the younger red.
But it was too late. In a blur of red and a quick breeze, Conner and Nick both vanished. Jason's hand closed on thin air.
"You know you had no chance of catching him, right?" Ethan commented as Jason groaned in frustration.
"Stupid kid," Jason muttered in response as he looked around. "Just can't let me handle this…"
"You're the one who brought them here," Kira said. "Or at least that's what I'm assuming from the looks around the room."
"Oh, he brought them," Justin said, crossing his arms. "You just weren't supposed to find out. I would have told you, but Jason made me promise I wouldn't or I wasn't allowed to come…And some of us don't break our promises."
He glared at Mystic Force as he finished speaking.
"We haven't broken any promises," Xander protested, still in shock over Nick's sudden disappearance.
"And where's Nick?" Madison cried. "What did you do to him?"
"Oh, you've broken plenty of things," Ethan said, shooting a look at Xander. "And we haven't done anything to Nick—yet."
"Ethan," Jason growled.
Ethan just smirked.
"Well, we haven't," he said. "Conner, maybe. But we'll have to wait until he—well, they—gets back to find out."
Jason groaned, rubbing a hand over his face.
"The four of you are going to be the death of me," he muttered. "Sometimes I don't know who irritates me more—you four or Wild Force."
"Ouch," Ethan said, clapping a hand over his heart as he feigned pain. "That one hurts."
"Would someone answer us?" Vida demanded, getting angry now. "What did you do with Nick?"
"What is going on down here?" Hayley demanded, coming back down the stairs and interrupting before someone could answer Vida. "Tommy is sleeping, and I couldn't even find another shirt for him."
She paused, frowning as she looked around.
"Where are my babies?" she asked slowly. "And where are Conner and Nick?"
"Kim and Kat have the babies in the office," Kira quickly assured her. "And Conner took Nick."
Hayley took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"I will be right back," she said shortly. "No one move."
She disappeared into the living room for a moment with the blanket she was carrying. When she came back, her arms were empty.
"Now," she said, regarding the group with her hands on her hips. "Where are Conner and Nick?"
"We don't know," Xander snapped. "They won't tell us what they did with him."
Hayley raised an eyebrow and Xander backed down a little. With him quiet again, she looked expectantly at the three remaining Dino Thunder rangers.
"Conner took off with Nick," Trent said.
"Which he shouldn't have done," Jason muttered.
"Jason, you did say that if they set foot in Reefside that they were fair game," Kira pointed out. "This is Reefside."
"Yes, but—" Jason started to argue.
"She has a point," Hayley said. "You told them Reefside was theirs—and I won't let you go back on your word now, even if you tried. Now does anyone have any idea where Conner took him?"
"Probably the raptor pen," Ethan grinned. "We haven't fed them today—or yesterday."
Madison, Vida, Chip, and Xander looked at each other with wide eyes at the mention of the raptors, despite the fact that they didn't know for sure what they were.
"Guys, you can't do that," Hayley scolded. "They need to be fed or they're going to break out and get themselves into trouble—or cause someone else a whole lot of trouble. You're supposed to be responsible for them while you're home, remember?"
"Sorry, Hayley," all three of them mumbled, ducking their heads.
She sighed, but let it go.
"Just—just don't tell Tommy," she said, shaking her head. "Ok?"
"Got it," Ethan grinned. "Wait—about not feeding them or using Nick as bait?"
Madison gasped, hand flying to her mouth, but Hayley just rolled her eyes.
"Both," she said. "At least for now. We can probably tell him about using Nick as bait later—much, much later…"
"I think we can handle that," Kira said.
"Good," Hayley sighed. "Now, I'm going to check on my babies. Please try to not wake Tommy up… he needs sleep desperately."
They nodded as she turned and headed down the hall toward the office.
"Please inform me of any injuries," she said over her shoulder. "More specifically any serious injuries."
"We will," Trent assured her.
She kept walking, not looking back at them.
"You need to tell us what is going on right now," Xander demanded, drawing Dino Thunder's attention again. "Where is he?"
"Oh, relax," Ethan snorted. "He'll be fine—mostly. We think."
Madison was pale, looking around the room in the hopes that someone was going to tell her nothing was happening to Nick.
"Bring him back!" Vida demanded, hovering next to her sister. "You have no right to do this!"
"We have every right," Kira countered, crossing her arms. "Just ask Jason."
Xander whipped around to Jason.
"Shouldn't you be stopping this?" he snapped. "You're the one who says you're in charge of the rangers."
Ethan snorted as Trent and Kira exchanged amused looks.
"I am," Jason growled. "They're—they're a special case due to their mentor. But that's not my concern right now. None of you are even supposed to be here!"
"We wouldn't be if you hadn't invited us to Reefside!" Xander countered. "Nick was right all along. This was a trap. You wanted to get us here so you didn't have to take the blame for anything."
"Oh no," Jason said, shaking his head. "You are not blaming me for this. I chose Reefside because it's in the middle and I had contacts for creating a safe and private place to meet. They knew nothing about this until the five of you decided to show up here!"
Xander started to argue again, but Jason cut him off.
"Don't argue," Jason snapped. "I purposefully left their entire team out of the loop to make sure they wouldn't have a chance to do anything. You were never supposed to come here and, had they found out, by the time they discovered you had been here you would have been long gone."
"Unless they tried something stupid," Justin muttered, shaking his head.
Kira, Trent, and Ethan were all glaring at Jason.
"We should have been told," Kira said.
"Don't start with me," Jason said, shaking his head. "This meeting had nothing to do wit—"
"If you say it had nothing to do with us I swear I'm going to plant a virus in your computer," Ethan interrupted. "Because if it involves Dr. O, it involves us."
Jason glared at him, but didn't argue. Turning back to Mystic Force, he opened his mouth to continue reprimanding them when the back door flew open again and the red blur returned. Conner deposited Nick on the floor next to his four teammates, grinning as he skidded to a stop next to his own.
"So, what did I miss?" he asked, glancing around.
His teammates just shrugged in response. Mystic Force, on the other hand, was momentarily focused on Nick. The red ranger was on his knees, doubled over with his arms wrapped around his middle as he gasped for air. Madison dropped down next to him, talking quietly as she tried to figure out what was wrong. Turning on Dino Thunder, the other three placed themselves between Nick and Madison and the other team.
"We went out to the—" he started to continue.
"What did you do to him?" Xander demanded, interrupting as he glared at Conner.
Turning to look at him, Conner raised an eyebrow.
"I took him to meet Spot," he said. "Why?"
"Called it!" Ethan grinned, punching the air.
"He's barely breathing!" Vida snapped, gesturing behind her. "What did you do?"
The smile slipped from Conner's face as he took a deep breath.
"Look," he said. "We had some things to discuss—we discussed them. That's all you need to know."
"Hurting him is not having a discussion," Chip countered.
"And I didn't hurt him," Conner responded. "He'll be fine—eventually."
"If you don't tell us what you did to him right now," Xander growled. "Then I am going to—,"
"Going to what?" Kira asked, cutting him off. "I'd be very careful with that answer, if I were you."
"She's right, Xander," Jason said, crossing his arms. "We are still in Reefside—and you're still in our presence."
The other rangers with Jason were tense, waiting to see how things were going to unfold.
"We have a right to defend ourselves!" Xander exclaimed. "And they attacked us first. What? Do they get special treatment because they know Tommy?"
"No one gives us special treatment," Conner snapped. "Actually, they expect more from us because of our mentor."
"And you're failing," Vida snapped back. "How dare you kidnap and attack him like that! He was here to apologize—we all are—and you just threw that back in his face like it was nothing."
"I didn't attack him!" Conner exclaimed. "And you have no reason to accuse me of it. I told you, we had a discussion red to red. If he wants to tell you what it was about, then that's his choice—I personally don't think you need to know."
"He can't tell us!" Madison cried, glaring up at Conner as she supported Nick who was slowly starting to breathe normally. "He can barely get air right now!"
"And it's not because of me," Conner said shortly. "Well, mostly. But I didn't attack him."
"Then tell us what happened," Chip said.
Conner shook his head, crossing his arms.
"What did you do?" Xander demanded, stepping up and getting in Conner's face.
His hand was hovering next to his pocket now, making it clear he was fighting the urge to draw his wand. Behind him, Nick tried to say something but couldn't get it out. Madison turned her attention back to him, talking quietly.
"Back off," Conner warned, not backing down. "Because you're in way over your head."
"Why?" Xander asked. "Because you have at least three times our number with all of them here? We can take you all."
Conner scoffed as the rest of his team rolled their eyes. A few of the older rangers started to say something, but Conner cut them off.
"Stay out of this," he said shortly, glancing back at Jason and the others. "I don't want to be rude, but this is our issue now."
They looked to Jason, who reluctantly nodded.
"He's right," he muttered. "Xander's challenging him, not us. We can't step in until the wands come out—or someone actually gets hurt."
Nodding in satisfaction, Conner turned back to Xander.
"We don't need them to take you down," Conner growled, glaring at the green ranger. "You guys have nothing on us. You have no idea what you're up against."
"You sure about that?" Chip smirked. "I've studied all of the past ranger teams—I know how you fight."
"It's one thing to study it," Trent said quietly. "It's another to face it in person—you sure you want to go down this road again? You still don't have the whole story."
"You attacked Nick," Vida retorted. "What else is there to know? According to your Code, we have every right to retaliate."
"Except I didn't attack him!" Conner snapped. "Get your facts straight before you make accusations."
"If you didn't attack him," Xander said, jabbing a finger at Conner. "Then why can't he move? Tell us the truth."
"I just did," Conner said, eyes narrowed as he stepped closer to Xander, forcing him backward. "You don't need to know anything else."
Coughing as he tried to take steady breaths, Nick made an attempt to climb to his feet to rein in his team and tell them to calm down. But as he stood, he grimaced, leaning over on his knees. Madison scrambled up to make sure he didn't fall.
"See!" Vida exclaimed. "You hurt him."
"And we aren't going to just let you get away with it," Xander said. "Maybe you let things like that slip, but we don't. No one hurts our teammates and just walks away."
All four of the Dino Thunder rangers froze for a minute in shock at what Xander had just said, staring at him. Jason grimaced, tensing as he and the others prepared for the explosion.
"No," Conner said, shaking his head as he advanced on Xander. "You don't get to say that. You have no right to say that!"
"I have every right when you attack my teammate!" Xander snapped, pushing Conner backward by the shoulder.
He hadn't pushed Conner hard, but it was enough to make the other ranger stumble back a few steps.
"Enough!" Conner snarled as Kira, Ethan, and Trent tensed next to him. "Last chance—knock it off or get out before we do something to you that you're going to regret later. I am done playing nice!"
Jason, deciding this had gone far enough, was about to step in and stop the fight when Tommy came stumbling out of the living room.
"What happened?" he asked, arms up and ready to fight. "Who's fighting?"
Conner didn't immediately back down from his stand-off with Xander, but he didn't move any closer, either, as all of them looked to Tommy. He was ready for a fight, his Dino morpher out and the key in his hand. The shouting had woken him out of a dead sleep and, hearing his students shouting, his sleep deprived brain had jumped straight to them being in trouble and in need of back up. Chip stared at the morpher with wide eyes.
"You're the black Dino Thunder ranger!" he exclaimed in surprise.
"Duh," Ethan muttered, shaking his head. "What part of him being on our team didn't you get earlier?"
Chip shrugged sheepishly as Tommy continued to eye Mystic Force warily.
"It's ok, Dr. O," Trent quickly reassured him, putting his hands up as he stepped toward their mentor. "Conner may be ready to kill Xander, but we don't need to go that far. He can do that without morphing. So put that away."
Tommy frowned, slowly putting the morpher away as he glanced anxiously around. Deciding making Tommy feel better was more important than being the last to back down, Conner turned his back on Xander and walked away to stand next to Tommy, leaving the green ranger glaring after him. Down the hall, the office door burst open and Hayley came storming out.
"And now we're dead," Ethan muttered as she stalked toward them.
Tommy, who had been rubbing a hand across his tired face, jumped and looked around at Mystic Force.
"Not them, Dr. O," Kira sighed. "Hayley…"
"Oh," he said, nodding as he leaned against the doorframe. "Ok."
"I thought I told you to be quiet!" Hayley hissed as she walked through the group of rangers in her way. "You're going to wake up—oh, great."
She'd finally seen Tommy standing in the doorway of the living room. Kim and Kat, who had followed her out of the office, joined the group with the babies still cuddled in their arms. Hayley rounded on the two younger teams.
"See what you did?" she demanded, glaring at all of them.
"Hey, they started it," Conner protested. "They're questioning my actions and calling us bad teammates because we didn't go kill them when they hurt Dr. O."
"He attacked Nick!" Xander retorted.
Hayley took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Guys, stop," Nick coughed, finally managing to get words out. "He didn't—he didn't hurt me…"
He paused, trying to take a deep breath and failing as he coughed again.
"Then what's wrong?" Madison asked.
Conner rolled his eyes.
"He got headbutted in the stomach by a raptor," he said. "And then he wasn't quite ready to move as fast as I did. I told you—he just needed a few minutes."
Nick nodded, shooting Conner a grateful look for finally explaining. Tommy was frowning as he looked at Conner. But the younger ranger just grinned, shrugging in response to his mentor's look.
"So all of this is because the four of you thought he hurt Nick?" Hayley snapped, clearly not happy. "Why didn't someone just say something? Tommy was finally asleep. And he needs sleep. With the babies and everything else he hasn't been sleeping and it's starting to get to him and all of you yelling and keeping him up isn't helping things!"
"Hayley, we tried—" Ethan started to say.
"I just want all of you to be quiet!" she exclaimed. "Is that too hard to ask? Just a few hours of quiet so he can sleep before he continues to try and do everything all by himself instead of asking for help. And we can't even have either of our parents come help because we're both too tired to completely watch what we're saying and the last thing we need is to let something slip about the rangers because we don't know what we're saying. I love my babies, but all of you are making this so much more difficult right now!"
She paused, taking a breath to continue her agitated rant. But before she could say anything, Tommy, who had been staring with a frown on his face, spoke.
"Jason," he said, looking at his friend. "You're bleeding…"
"What?" Jason said, following Tommy's gaze. "Aww man…"
The knuckles on his hand, the one he had punched the tree with, were all scraped up from the incident. They were also still bleeding. So focused on what was happening with his sisters and their team, along with Dino Thunder, he had momentarily forgotten about the injured hand. Grimacing, he pulled his hand in closer, trying to keep from getting blood anywhere else.
"What did you do?" Hayley exclaimed, walking over to Jason and grabbing him by the wrist so she could take a closer look at his hand.
"He punched a tree," Trini said, crossing her arms as she glared at her husband.
Hayley rolled her eyes, gently prodding Jason's hand to check for any breaks. He winced.
"Will one of you get the first aid kit?" Hayley asked, glancing over her shoulder at the four Dino rangers.
"Got it, Hayley," Conner said.
He darted away, returning a moment later with the first aid kit.
"Lucky for you it doesn't appear to be broken," Hayley said shortly as she dug through the kit. "But we'll have to x-ray it before you leave to make sure."
"I'm fine," Jason protested as she started cleaning up his hand.
"Mmm hmm…" Hayley said. "And you're a moron. What on earth made you think that punching the tree would be a good idea?"
"I didn't—I don't know…" he mumbled, deciding arguing was a bad idea.
Shaking her head and continuing to mutter to herself, Hayley quickly cleaned and bandaged his hand.
"That will be fine for now," she said. "Please try not to punch anything else while you're here."
Reaching to pick up the first aid kit, she frowned when she spotted something on the carpet. It was blood that had dripped from Jason's hand before anyone noticed.
"You got blood on my carpet!" she exclaimed, glaring at Jason.
"Aw…" he muttered. "I'm sorry, Hayley. I'll get it—"
"Now I have to clean that!" Hayley cried, bursting into tears. "Isn't it bad enough that I'm days behind in laundry and dishes and everything else because I'm too tired to get it all done? Now I have to clean up after you because you're getting blood on my carpet!"
Everyone was looking at Hayley in surprise as she continued to cry. Except Tommy. He immediately reached out to comfort her, pulling her into a hug. Clutching his shirt, she sobbed into his chest as he rubbed her back.
"It's ok," he mumbled. "We're alright…"
"But it's going to stain!" she wailed.
Too tired to think of anything else, Tommy continued to rub her back and mumbled softly to her as she cried. Frowning, Conner glanced around and caught sight of Kim and Kat. Darting over, he carefully took the baby from Kat and walked over to Hayley and Tommy.
"Hayley?" he said, waiting for her to glance at him.
She turned to look at him briefly and he gently handed the baby to her. Hugging the little girl tightly, she turned back to bury her face in Tommy's chest again as her sobs slowly subsided. When Conner turned around everyone, except his team, was looking at him in surprise.
"What?" he said. "Babies are a kind of a natural anti-depressant."
"Wow," Ethan smirked. "He knows a big word."
Conner glared at him, but Ethan just continued to grin. Trini rolled her eyes. Walking over to the tired couple, she placed a hand on Tommy's shoulder.
"Tommy?" she said gently. "Why don't you two go get some sleep?"
"But the babies…" he mumbled in protest, looking at her over Hayley's head.
"We'll take care of them," Trini reassured him. "You still need to take care of yourself, you know."
Tommy nodded in agreement, stifling a yawn. Hayley nodded wearily, too, but didn't move from where she was leaning against her husband.
"Hayley, go," Trini said, reaching to take the baby from her. "We'll be just fine down here. Won't we, sweetie?"
She smiled at the tiny little girl in her arms. Hayley smiled faintly, nodding.
"Go on," Trini said, shooing them toward the stairs. "Upstairs for both of you this time."
Yawning, Hayley nodded and she and Tommy headed toward the stairs. But as Hayley headed up the stairs, Tommy paused and looked down at himself.
"What's wrong, bro?" Jason asked.
"I don't have another shirt," Tommy sighed, turning around as he ran a hand through his hair. "This was my last clean shirt…"
Zach snorted.
"It would have to be," he said. "You've regressed all the way back to green."
Tommy glared at him, but didn't bother responding as he started heading away from the stairs.
"And just where do you think you're going?" Kat asked, intercepting him.
"Gotta do laundry…" he muttered. "Don't have any more clean clothes…"
She started shaking her head and pushing him back toward the stairs.
"Nope," she said firmly. "You get up those stairs and to your bed right this instant. I will handle the laundry. And if I see you down here anytime in the next couple of hours I'm going to drag you back to your bed and lock you in the room—you need to sleep, too."
He frowned, but didn't protest as she shoved him up the first few stairs. Tommy as too tired to argue. Continuing to stumble up the stairs, he didn't turn back around as Kat went back to the others triumphantly.
"So you have the laundry, Kat?" Trini asked.
"Yes," Kat nodded.
"Good," Trini said. "And the rest of us are going to do some cleaning, too. Let's surprise Tommy and Hayley with a clean house when they wake up. That way they can both relax for a little while."
Everyone nodded, liking the idea. Except Mystic Force. Exchanging glances, the newest team started to head for the door. Now that Tommy was gone, they didn't feel like they should be there anymore. Jason, seeing them going, spun.
"Where are you five going?" he growled. "Stop right there."
They stopped in their tracks, looking back at him.
"We're leaving," Vida said. "It's not like you want us here anyways."
A look of hurt flashed quickly across Jason's face, but his sister didn't notice.
"So we're going to get out of the way," she continued.
"You're not going anywhere," Trini said firmly, walking over to them. "You're the reason we're here, so now you're going to all stay and help."
Taking Nick by the arm, she pulled him back toward the group. The rest of the team followed, not wanting to leave him by himself.
"Now," Trini said, letting go of Nick as she looked around at the group. "Kat is taking care of laundry, but she'll need help sorting and getting it all done. Who do you want to help, Kat?"
Kat started to point at Madison, but Trini discreetly shook her head and glanced at Jason. Kat paused, studying the young rangers.
"I'll just take him," Kat said, pointing at Xander. "They need supervision right now anyways to make sure they don't take off, so we can just split them up among us."
Xander looked at her in surprise, but stepped hesitantly forward when Trini beckoned.
"Umm… I don't think you want his help…" Madison said slowly.
"And why not?" Kat asked. "He's perfectly capable of at least carrying baskets for me."
"Because the last time we let him touch anyone's laundry he turned it all pink," Nick snorted. "And not just Vida's stuff—we mean everything."
"Oh," Kat said, eying Xander again. "Well—then I'll take Chip instead. You can do laundry correctly, right?"
He nodded and she smiled.
"Then let's go," she said.
She turned and left, Trini shooing Chip after her as he glanced over his shoulder at his teammates. Nick just shrugged, so Chip went along with it and followed Kat to the laundry room. Trini turned back to the rest of the group to start passing out the rest of the assignments.
"Aisha and Tanya," she said. "You two take the kitchen. I'm pretty sure the fridge needs to be cleaned—as do the dishes…"
The two other yellow rangers nodded and headed toward the kitchen, already discussing the best way to tackle the assignment.
"Adam and Rocky, can you start by emptying all of the trash cans in the house and get it outside?" Trini asked. "Make sure to get the lab, too."
"On it," Adam nodded. "Let's go, Rocky."
The two men headed for the kitchen, planning to start there.
"Ethan," Trini started to say.
"I'll take him," he grinned, pointing at Xander. "We're going to go feed the raptors before they get too hungry and get out."
Xander paled, but Trini nodded.
"Go ahead," she said.
Still grinning, Ethan grabbed Xander and towed him after him toward the back door. Nick watched them go sympathetically, rubbing his stomach and wincing. It still hurt.
"Ok," Trini said, glancing around at who was left. "Kira and Trent, you're on babysitting duty for now. So take her."
She handed over the little girl in her arms to Kira. Trent took the other baby from Kim and the two headed off to get the babies settled in the living room for a little while. Conner looked disappointed, but didn't protest.
"Kim and Billy," Trini continued. "You're on dusting and sweeping all of the rooms you can."
"They should vacuum, too," Zach suggested.
"Which would wake up Tommy and Hayley," Trini said drily, her hands on her hips. "Which defeats the purpose of sending them upstairs."
"Oh, right," Zach mumbled. "Ignore me. Bad idea."
Rolling her eyes, Trini moved on.
"Now that we've established that noise is a bad thing," she said. "Zach, why don't you take Nick and go catch up on some of the yard work? Rocky and Adam can come help when they're done with the trash."
"I can handle that," Zach grinned. "Let's go, rookie."
Nick took a deep breath, only wincing a little now.
"Alright," he said. "Where do we start?"
Zach smiled and started going over what they needed to check on as they headed out the backdoor.
"Now Conner and Justin," Trini said. "I need the two of you to go around the house and put anything that is in the wrong place back where it belongs. I know you can do it quickly and accurately, Conner, since you spend so much time here and Justin can follow your lead. Make sure you're quiet if you go upstairs."
"Got it, Trini," Conner grinned. "The house'll be clean in no time."
The two young men bounced off, talking excitedly but quietly.
"And I will clean that," Trini said, pointing at the blood on the carpet.
Jason frowned, glancing around. It was just the four of them—him, Trini, Madison and Vida—and Trini hadn't given them anything to do.
"Trini, you forgot us," he said, looking at her expectantly.
"Oh, right," she said. "The three of you shoo—go outside. I want you out of my way."
"What?" Jason said.
"Go," she repeated. "You'll just be in the way here, so outside the three of you go."
Jason glowered at her, but she just raised an eyebrow and nodded toward his sisters. Sighing, he relented.
"Alright," he muttered. "Come on."
Looking at his sisters, he jerked his head toward the door. Glancing at each other, they reluctantly followed him down the hall and out of the house. Nodding in satisfaction, Trini went to find supplies to clean the blood out of the carpet. Outside, Jason walked a few yards from the house before stopping and the girls followed. On the far side of the yard they could see Zach and Nick pulling a few things out of the shed. For a few moments, none of them said anything. Vida was pointedly looking at anything but her brother, while Madison couldn't take her eyes off of him. Biting her lip, she kept acting as though she was going to say something but couldn't figure out what. Jason stood with his arms crossed, staring off toward the trees.
"We're sorry!" Madison finally burst out, starting to cry again as she threw her arms around her brother.
Jason looked down at her in surprise as she buried her face against him, hugging him tightly and sobbing. Then he looked up at Vida.
"She's really been stuck on this today, hasn't she?" he asked, not quite sure how he wanted to react.
Vida nodded, finally looking up at him.
"It's been a—an emotional day," she said hesitantly, eying her brother.
"You're telling me," he muttered, glancing down at Madison again.
She was still sobbing and apologizing.
"We were so wrong," she cried, holding tightly to his shirt. "We disappointed you and—and hurt you and Tommy and everyone else… and we did—didn't listen…we're horrible sisters and I know you—you hate us but we're so sorry…"
Vida was nodding solemnly in agreement, staring at the ground again.
"Maddy," Jason said, shaking his head as he tried to get her to look up at him. "Maddy, please stop crying."
She kept sobbing and continued to apologize over and over again. Jason sighed.
"Maddy, no," he said firmly. "I don't hate you—either of you. I've never hated you."
She finally looked up at him, tears streaming down her face.
"But we almost kill—I almost killed Tommy," she sobbed. "How can you not hate me?"
He took a deep breath and wrapped his arms around his little sister, hugging her back.
"I've never hated you," he said again. "You both drive me crazy—sometimes more than others—and I hate some of the things you've done, but I never have and never will hate you. I promise."
"Even after everything we did wrong?" Vida asked quietly, still standing a few feet away.
"Even after all of that," he said. "Come here."
She hesitated for a moment and then hurried over to hug him. After a moment she let go, stepping back a little. Madison continued to lean on Jason, clinging to him as though afraid he would walk away again.
"Can you ever forgive us?" Madison asked, trying not to sound too hopeful as she looked up at Jason. "I know we messed up big time, but…"
She trailed off as Jason sighed.
"Hey," he said. "I think that if I can forgive Tommy for nearly killing me—and then invite him to join the team without a second thought—that I can forgive the two of you."
The twins looked at each other in surprise.
"You invited him to fight with you?" Vida said, looking at Jason.
He nodded.
"Of course," he said. "He was meant to be with us, even if he did have a bit of a rough start. And I've never regretted that decision. We've had our moments, but he's always been my best friend. And you two are always going to be my little sisters—even if I do want to kill you sometimes."
They both smiled faintly.
"The bigger question is," he said, looking between the two of them. "Can you two ever forgive me?"
They frowned.
"For what?" Vida asked.
"Well, I didn't exactly help the situation," Jason said. "Keeping information from you, yelling at you when I should have been more patient—all the things Tommy has been on my case about since the whole thing blew up. Man does he stick to something once he's on it… stubborn…"
"You did keep a lot from us," Madison said.
"I know…" he sighed. "That was never my intention. I just—I wanted to give you a chance to figure things out. And then everything fell apart so quickly…"
"We know…" Vida mumbled.
He shook his head.
"You two aren't little kids anymore," he said seriously. "You've got to think about what you're doing, especially as rangers. That kind of power is a big responsibility and when you mess up there are big consequences. And now that you've sworn to the Code, you risk a lot more to yourselves than just a few bruises if you lose the fight."
"What do you mean?" Madison asked hesitantly.
"We aren't kidding when we say that to break the Code means risking losing the protection of the Power," he said. "If you break from it badly enough, you just won't be rangers anymore. You'll be stripped of your powers and be left with no way to defend yourselves—and I don't want that to happen to you. So you've got to keep your heads on straight no matter what happens."
They both nodded fervently.
"We'll try," they promised.
"Good," he said. "Because I don't want to have to come rescue you the next time you do something stupid."
"Hey, we can take care of ourselves, big brother," Vida said, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, well, I'm always going to be your overprotective big brother," he said, reaching over to ruffle her hair. "I know I can't protect you from everything, but I can still do things like chase away the boyfriends I don't like."
Vida smacked his hand away as she shot a look at Madison. Her twin stared back with wide eyes, shaking her head.
"Speaking of boyfriends," Vida said, grinning.
Jason frowned.
"You have a boyfriend?" he asked.
Vida snorted.
"Not me," she said. "But sis does."
Madison groaned, her face turning red as she ducked her head.
"Who is it?" Jason asked. "Do I know them?"
Vida nodded, still grinning.
"It's not Xander or Chip, is it?" Jason sighed. "I know you've known them since you were little, but still…"
"Nope, not them," Vida said.
"Then—no," Jason said, shaking his head. "No. You can't mean—"
"Yep," Vida smirked. "He likes red."
Growling, Jason whipped around. Zach and Nick were still in sight across the yard. He started stalking toward them.
"Jason, no!" Madison exclaimed, throwing her arms around him again. "No, you can't."
He tried to pull away, but she dug her heels in to make it more difficult. However, Jason was stronger than her and it didn't slow him down much.
"Nick, run!" Madison shouted.
Nick's head whipped up and around to look at her. Seeing her trying to stop Jason, he froze for a brief moment and then bolted for the woods. Laughing, Zach took off after him.
"Come back, rookie!" he laughed, trying to catch Nick. "You can't hide from big brother forever!"
Vida was nearly doubled over in laughter now.
"Jason, you can't kill him!" Madison protested as Jason glared after Nick.
"I'm not going to kill him," Jason growled. "I just want to talk. And if I string him up in a tree while I'm talking is anyone really going to notice?"
"Jason!" she exclaimed.
"Fine," he muttered, turning back toward the house. "I won't string him up."
Relaxing a little, Madison let go. Jason was still grumbling, shooting looks over his shoulder toward the woods. Then he stopped, looking at the house now as a smirk spread across his face.
"I wonder what Tommy will say when he hears about this," he said, grinning at his sisters. "I think I'm going to go tell him—he'll help me talk to Nick."
The girls exchanged looks.
"But you can't," Vida pointed out. "He's sleeping."
"And Trini will kill you if you wake him up," Madison added. "Or Kat. Or, well, any of the other rangers, really…"
Jason shrugged.
"I don't think he'll mind," he said. "He'd want to know right away so he has a chance to get his say in."
"Well, I'm going to go tell Trini," Madison announced, starting to back toward the house. "She'll stop you from waking Tommy up and she'll stop you from doing anything to Nick."
Grinning, she spun to dart toward the house. But Jason was right behind her and, with his longer legs and stride, he quickly caught her. Catching her around the waist, he scooped her up off the ground as she squeaked in surprise and protest.
"Let me go!" she demanded, squirming in his grasp. "V, help!"
Vida was watching them with an amused look on her face.
"Not a chance," she said, shaking her head.
As Jason chuckled, Madison continued to struggle to get away, prying at his hands and kicking. She finally managed to land a hard kick to his shin and he winced, nearly dropping her. Vida snorted, laughing at the look on his face.
"Oh, so you think that's funny?" he growled, turning toward her with Madison still tightly in his grasp. "Get over here."
Vida's eyes widened and she started backing away.
"No!" Vida exclaimed. "Jason—no! Don't you dare!"
But he just grinned at her and shifted Madison into a better position without letting go. As Jason tossed Madison up on his shoulder, Vida bolted away. He took off after her, Madison holding on for dear life as her twin ran for hers.