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Chapter 30- Arrival of Secrets: Part II
Almost as on queue, five bright flashes of light appeared and then disappeared revealing five teenagers.
Jason, Zack, Aisha, Billy and a stranger stepped into the light.
"Hello guys" Jason said smiling.
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"J-Jason?" Tommy said dumbfounded.
The man in red gave Tommy a warm smile and nodded his head.
Tommy couldn't believe this, he hadn't seen Aisha and Billy in such a long time, and Jason and Zack even longer.
The stranger though, was unfamliar to Tommy; he had jet black hair that almost as long as Tommy's, and sharping piercing blue eyes.
As if Jason could read his mind he signaled to the stranger standing beside him
"This is Kellan German....he is.....a friend"
Tommy nodded politely to the stranger in white and looked to Aisha and Billy who were both grinning like the Cheshire cat.
Aisha came up and warmly embraced him, Adam and Rocky.
"It's so great to see to you three again" she said punching Rocky lightly in the shoulder.
Rocky smiled " Ha, you too Aisha...so you five are going to be helping us then?"
The five looked rather uncomfortable at this comment.
"Well" Zack began "Um....the six of us will be helping you"
Adam, Rocky, Tommy, Katherine and Tanya looked confused.
"I only count five" Adam said.
Jason bit his lip and ran a hand through his tousled hair.
"Err...that's because one of us isn't here right now"
"Kimberly" Katherine said softly like a mouse caught by a cat.
Jason looked to her,
"Yes....Kimberly isn't here yet."
Tommy just stood there frozen on hand on the control table and the other had been taken by Katherine.
No way is Kimberly is here.
No possible way.
However Katherine asked rather fiercely "Well, why isn't she he...Is she too afraid to show her face or something?"
Aisha, Jason, Zack, Kellan and Billy all turned their eyes to Katherine.
"There is something you need to know about her..." Aisha started but Katherine cut her off
"Her letter she sent to Tommy breaking his heart?"
Aisha looked ready to start an argument with her, but Jason put a hand on her shoulder.
He looked Katherine straight in the eye.
"We need to explain some things" he said calmly.
Aisha, Billy, Kellan and Zack all shared a dark look at this.
Jason continued.
"It is true Kimberly did write the letter to you Tommy" he said looking at him.
"But not for the reasons you think".
Tommy just stared at the man speaking before him.
Was he sticking up for Kimberly?
"Kimberly also sent me a letter" Jason said pulling out a crumpled piece of paper in his left jean pocket.
He set it quietly on the table and continued on keeping his voice steady.
"Not breaking up with me obviously, but breaking up our friendship. And straight away I knew that wasn't the Kimberly Hart I knew...so I wrote her five more letters, yet she never responded"
Jason looked now on the verge of tears, but fought them back.
"I called the school she had been attending in Florida, and they said, they hadn't seen her in two days, and that got me really spooked, so I went to Florida"
"I searched for her over seven hours, not one trace of her ever being there. Then I found a note in her dorm." He said taking out another piece of paper.
The contents of it said.
"I know who you are Pink Ranger"
Everybody sucked in a gasp at these words. Kimberly's identity had been revealed.
Jason set the paper down and looked back at the Rangers.
"Searching some more, I found two more notes, threatening to reveal who she was to the world. He said that if she didn't meet him at his house, he would go after her mom in Paris, Luckily for me, he left the address and I drove down there."
Now Zack clapped Jason on the shoulder.
"When I arrived there, I knew once away Kim was there, her car was parked in the driveway. I made my way around the house and got inside through the guys basement...and I found Kimberly"
He didn't look like he could go on with the rest of story, but he did his voice cracking.
"I'm not going to lie to you guys, she was pretty bad, bruised and pretty bloody. It seems.............." Jason bowed his head "he had been torturing her for our names"
The whole Zeo group looked absolutely shocked at this. Tommy felt his legs ready to give in at any moment.
Aisha wiped away a tear and Billy was also letting the tears roll down his face.
Jason gulped
"After I got Kimberly out of there, I drove to my Aunts, and let Kimberly start to heal there. I was going to take her to the hospital but I didn't want questions asked"
"When she woke, she slowly told me the whole story, about the letters, her capture and her torture."
Zack now broke in
"Kimberly knew someone was on too her, and intercepting her letters to and from us...she didn't want to give us away...so she wrote the letter to Tommy, knowing that if he knew she was happy, he wouldnt write back to her, which would allow him and the rest all to be safe."
Tommy collapsed into a chair, still staring at Zack who continued
"She sent Jason's letter hoping that he would too just let it go and not contact her anymore"
"She stopped writing to all of us, didn't she stop writing you guys too?" Zack inquired to Katherine, Adam and Rocky, who all shook their heads yes.
Jason curled his hands into a fist as he began again
"When I was sure Kim was ok, I went back to his house, but he wasn't there.....I had never felt so angry"
Adam spoke for the first time "Kimberly, I mean how did he torture her?"
Jason knew what Adam was trying to get at
"Not sexually, more of emotional and physically......" he broke of there not wanting to go any further.
Jason looked at Tommy now "Kimberly never stopped loving you Tommy, she just loved you enough to let you go to save your life and all of ours"
Aisha stood up and looked at the other five a blaze in her eyes
"Every single one of us in this room owes Kimberly our lives, she never gave in to that creep, never gave any of our names, we owe her and so do the future rangers."
"Aisha is right" Zordon said speaking for the very first time.
Everyone turned to him.
"Kimberly showed great strength, courage and compassion in what she has done; I also owe her my life, for if this man did get your names, he also would have eventually got mine."
Dulcia smiled "Kimberly is a true Power Ranger; I honor your choice for her Zordon"
Zordon nodded at Dulcia and continued to the rangers
"She has also saved your families.....I'm sure this man would have wanted to play games, threatening you rangers with your families, I have known others like this"
"Ayi Ayi Ayi...Poor Kimberly" Alpha broke in sadly.
Billy patted the robot on the shoulder
"Don't worry Alpha Kim is strong"
Jason smiled sadly "Yes ...yes she damn well is"
Tommy had been listening to the others in silence, each word slicing him like a sharp knife.
Kim had been tortured because of ...them...because of ...him.....
He never felt to empty and repulsed in his life.
Jason picking up the look on Tommy's face...
"Tommy, she doesn't blame any of us for what happened"
Tommy looked at Jason, who let a tear slide down his cheek.
"W...where is she Jason?" he asked, his voice soft.
Jason gave Tommy a sympathetic look
"She will be here soon; she had to get some things sorted out before we receive our powers again"
Dulcia at this time walked up to the rangers.
"They are ready, when you are Rangers"
Kellan, who hadn't spoken once, said...
"We won't be ready until our entire group is ready" of course meaning Kimberly.
If Tommy wasn't so wasted away and in shock, he would have probably felt a prickle of jealousy at his words,
But all he could think about was Kimberly.
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For once in some time, Kimberly actually felt at home, as she strolled around the lake, letting the slight breeze brush against her face.
So many things had changed since she left Angel Grove,
For one, they had put a new swing set at the park, finally fixed the sidewalk cracks and cut down the trees surrounding the picnic tables.
Most of all what had changed since she left….
Was her.
She could never forgive herself for what she had done to all of her friends.
Most of all Tommy.
She would never forgive herself for sending that letter to him, it was the hardest thing she eve had to do. And that was saying a lot seeing as she spent two years as Angel Groves's crime fighter.
And plus, now he had Katherine.
She couldn't help but feel a little resentment and jealousy towards her, even though the letter she had wrote Tommy wasn't Kat's fault.
This is what she wanted him to do wasn't it?
In case she had died, he would have moved on and his life spared.
Well he did move on and he was alive.
So why was she feeling all these emotions?
"C'mon Kimberly pull it together" she said to herself, stopping at the end of the lake, staring into the sunset.
She had to concentrate on the problems that really mattered and Tommy and Katherine was not one that could interfere with the others.
Her communicator went off, breaking her of her thoughts.
"Well" she thought "Time to face the music"
And disappeared as a pink streak of light.
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Tommy paced up and down the command center trying to sort out the mess of thoughts in his brains.
"Tommy" Adam said stopping him "Stop pacing, your making me dizzy"
Tommy gave Adam a sad smile
"Sorry…I was just thinking about stuff"
Adam clapped a hand on his shoulder
"I don't blame you, we all feel bad about what happened, but like Jason said, she doesn't blame us"
Tommy raised an eyebrow
"How did you know I was thinking about Kimberly?"
Adam smiled "You always have that look when your thinking about her" he said in a low voice.
Tommy grinned a little, then it disappeared as Kellan approached them.
"Erm…..I really haven't been properly introduced really" Kellan started..
"Im Kellan..well ha..Obvisously…I'm one of Zacks friends, and …." He didn't know how to tell Tommy the next part……
But Tommy guessed it "You're the new White Ranger aren't you?"
Kellan looked surprised "Uh….yea…how did you know?"
Tommy surveyed him for a moment, then answered
"You're the only one who is wearing white."
Kellan looked a little sheepish for a second, then covered it up with a rather cocky look.
"Yea…..white clothing, white ranger…..I get it"
Before Tommy had a chance to answer him back, they were distracted by a pink light streak erupting in the middle of them, each stepping back a few feet from it.
The light slowly faded away, revealing to be Kimberly.
Every ranger turned and looked at her.
"Oh my " she thought.