Thank you for reading! Here's the next chapter!
Jason Scott hopped out of the shower and quickly got dressed. He brushed his teeth and just ran some water through his short hair. He looked at the time and knew that he had to leave soon to be on time for work.
He walked out of the bathroom and frowned at the sight of his wife standing in front of the mirror and sucking her stomach in. He knew that she had self-esteem and weight issues in high school, but thought that she had grown out of it. He shook his head, knowing that people usually never "grow" out of their issues. Sure, they move past them, but they do usually stick with them.
"What are you doing?" Jason asked. He gave Kat a kiss and she ran her fingers through his dark, short hair.
"Oh, I'm just..."
"Don't psych yourself out, Kat. You're beautiful and you're not one of those sick-looking paper-thin models. Isn't that why that fashion lady chose you?"
"Yeah, I'm just...I don't know. Nervous, I guess."
"Well don't be. It'll be great. And you'll be fine." Jason gave her another kiss.
Kat grinned. "Oh, go do some doctor stuff."
Jason laughed. "I am. On my way to teach some young'ins right now."
He blew her a kiss as he walked out of the bedroom, grabbing his lucky scrub cap. Jason headed for his car and waved to her from his car. He headed for work and parked his car in its usual reserve spot and headed up to the locker room to change.
"Hey Eric, how's it going?" Jason asked, seeing his friend walk into the locker room. He was already in his scrubs and looked like he had been there all night. "Were you on call last night?"
Eric Myers nodded to Jason. He sat down next to Jason's locker and handed him a cup of coffee. "Fine, I guess. How's Kat? She had that model-thing today, huh?"
Jason nodded, pulling his shirt off. He pulled out his navy blue scrub shirt from his locker and pulled it over his head. "Kat's good. I think she's excited. I know she's pretty nervous, though. She told me not to call her because she didn't want to get embarrassed today."
Eric laughed. "What's so embarrassing about you calling her?"
Jason shrugged. "Who knows? But I know she's just nervous." The two of them walked out of the locker room, sipping their coffees. "Anything interesting last night?"
Eric nodded. "A firefighter, Carter Grayson, came in. He was injured in a fire and had some bigtime damage done to his lungs. And we had to do exploratory surgery on Lucas Kendall."
"What happened?" Jason thought back to when the famous racecar driver was brought in to the hospital. He was in the middle of a race and had a really bad crash on the track.
"His heart started working overtime and we found a small tear in the wall of his left ventricle."
"And?"
Eric shrugged. "It's me, Jason!" He laughed. "I worked my magic and Kendall's good as new. Or almost." He gave a cocky laugh as he and Jason approached the nurses' station and grabbed a couple of their folders. "Russell!" Eric barked.
A dark-haired intern turned at the sound of Eric's voice. "Yes, Dr. Myers?"
Eric shoved a few folders in the intern's arms. "Chart and check my post-ops."
"Yes, Sir."
Jason raised an eyebrow at Eric as they watched the intern sit at the nurses' station to start charting. "So nice to the interns, aren't you?"
Eric shrugged. "Why? They're baby doctors! Still learning."
Jason shook his head. "You're supposed to be teaching, Eric."
"I am! Russell scrubbed in with me on Kendall last night!"
Jason laughed. "Whatever. I've got rounds to do." He saw a short-haired intern standing near them. "Enrile. Watanabe. Rounds."
"I'll come with," said Eric.
"You should be taking a nap. Why are you still here, anyway? I would've thought with Taylor back in town, you would've been jumping off the wall, trying to go home."
Eric shook his head. "That's for tonight." He followed Jason and the interns. "Besides, you're stopping by Justin Stewart. That's my patient."
Jason rolled his eyes. "I'm stopping by Zack Taylor. We're taking a brain aneurysm out. He came in for a dislocated knee-"
"And is leaving with brain surgery?" Eric laughed. "How'd you manage that?"
"Myers. Scott." A voice called the two doctors.
Jason and Eric turned at the sound of the voice. The two interns also stopped and waited. "Dr. Corbett. What can we do for you?" asked Jason.
"I actually need Eric for a consult."
Eric looked at Jason and made a face. "Guess you're free from me." He looked at Leo Corbett, the resident orthopaedic surgeon. "Do you need a baby doctor, too?"
Leo looked confused and shook his head. "What? No, I just need you for a consult."
Eric nodded. "Russell!" he barked. The intern looked at Eric. "Go with Dr. Scott and the other babies. I'll page you when I need you."
Nick Russell nodded and jumped up from his seat. He carefully closed the chart that he was working on and stood with the other interns. Jason smiled at the interns and gestured down the hall. "Let's go, guys." He headed into a patient's room.
"Hi Zack, how are we doing today?" he asked, smiling as he opened the door to Zack Taylor's room.
"Oh you know," Mr. Taylor answered, "trying to survive, one day at a time."
Jason grinned and winked at Zack. He motioned for the three interns to come in and report on Mr. Taylor's case. One by one, Drs. Enrile, Russell, and Watanabe answered a bunch of Jason's questions. Jason carefully watched Mr. Taylor as the interns spoke. He noticed that Mr. Taylor was barely listening and knew that he must've been scared to death. "So, are we ready, Zack?" Jason looked at him and tried to give him a reassuring smile.
Mr. Taylor looked up at the doctors and smiled. "Uh, I guess so. How much more ready do you need to be for brain surgery?"
Jason grinned and gently tapped a hand on the patient's shoulder. "Great. Dr. Enrile, get him prepped. I'll see you and Dr. Russell in OR2." He walked out of the patient's room, with Drs. Watanabe and Russell behind him. He instructed Dr. Watanabe to continue the rounds with Dr. Myers and gestured for Nick to follow him to the operating room to begin the lengthy process of scrubbing in.
"Thank you, Dr. Scott," Nick said, breathing a sigh of relief. They nodded to Dr. Watanabe as he met up with Eric and continued on to Justin Stewart.
Jason laughed. "After a night of being on-call with a cranky Dr. Myers, I figured you could use a break."
Nick didn't say anything, he just smiled at Jason and followed him.
About half an hour later, a surgical nurse helped Jason put his gloves on. The nurse helped adjust Jason's flashlight on his head and tightened it so that it wouldn't fall. He moved to face Zack and smiled at him. "You ready? Start counting down from 10." He nodded to the anesthesiaologist and looked around the room. "All right people. Let's get this aneurysm out of there."
Jason finished his surgery and headed to the side room to wash up. He instructed Dr. Enrile to stay near Zack and to page him when he wakes up. He headed to the surgical floor to find Eric and the two of them headed for the cafeteria. They looked around for a place to sit and quickly ate their lunch before heading back up to the surgical floor. Jason and Eric were standing at the nurses' station when Jason noticed Alyssa motioning to Jason. She pointed to the patient's bed that held Zack Taylor.
"I'll be back," said Jason. "My patient's awake, I think." He headed into the Zack's room. "Oh good, you're awake," Jason said, walking in to Zack's room. "Take your time, you don't need to speak right away." He held up his hands. "You're still coming back from major brain surgery. Good news, we were able to take out the anuerysm without any complications, but we would like to continue to observe you and if you feel any pain or discomfort, please let us know as soon as possible." Jason smiled and gestured to Alyssa. "Dr. Enrile over here will help you out with anything you need." He nodded to her before walking out and carefully closing the door.
"Everything good?" asked Eric.
Jason shrugged. "At the moment. I'm going to check back in about an hour or so."
"You want to head down to trauma and see if there's anything fun?"
Jason shrugged again. "I guess. I heard they're overstaffed today, though."
"Who cares?" said Eric. "It's you and me. They can't kick us out." Jason and Eric headed down to the trauma level. They heard a loud ambulance siren coming their way. "See, something fun," said Eric. The two of them ran out and met up with the ambulances.
"What happened?" Jason asked.
"Motocross accident," answered the EMT. "We've got another one in that one." He gestured to the approaching ambulance.
"Sir, I'm Dr. Scott and we'll do everything we can to take care of you." Jason looked around and saw Eric talking to the other patient. He started pulling the bed toward trauma, with the help of the EMT team. "Russell!" he yelled, seeing the intern hanging around.
"Yes, Dr. Scott?"
"Find Enrile and Watanabe. Get them down here, we'll probably need all the help we could get." Nick Russell nodded and ran toward the elevator. Jason pushed the bed into one area and pulled the curtain close. One of the residents took over Jason's patient. "His name's Hunter Bradley," said Jason, looking through the patient's wallet. "Get him to x-rays.". Dr. Kai Chen, the resident, nodded and pushed the bed away.
"Do you need help, Dr. Scott?" asked Nick Russell.
Jason shook his head. "Not at the moment. Find Dr. Myers and see if he needs help. It looked like his guy was worse off." Jason nearly laughed as he saw Nick's face fall.
"Are you sure you don't need help?"
Jason shook his head again. "Did you call Enrile and Watanabe?"
Nick nodded. "Cam's with Dr. Corbett and Alyssa's helping Dr. Myers."
Jason nodded. "Let's see if Dr. Myers or Dr. Corbett need help."
Nick nodded and followed Jason to one of the trauma rooms. "Dr. Myers, how's it going in here?" He saw Alyssa insert a chest tube.
"I've got it under control, Dr. Scott." Eric looked at Alyssa. "Take him to x-rays. And get an MRI, also. He's got a pretty big wound to his chest. Be careful, Dr. Enrile!" He looked at Nick. "Good, you're here. You could call Dustin Brooks' family. Page me when you get the labs back."
Jason walked out with Eric, passing by one of the desks. He stopped and asked about Hunter Bradley. He headed back up to the surgical floor with Eric when he found out that they had not gotten the labs back yet. They stopped at the nurse's station and were talking about the motocross accident when someone interrupted them. A nurse passed the x-rays to Eric, who pulled them out and was looking at it in the light.
"Hi, I'm sorry to interrupt, but..." came an unfamiliar voice.
Jason looked at a man in blue overalls and a blue striped shirt who stood before him. "Can I help you find anything? Or anyone?"
The man shook his head. "Um, I'm not exactly sure."
Jason looked at Eric. "Go ahead, Eric, I'll catch up. Russell, Enrile, and Watanabe should be down there already."
Eric nodded. "We can't do anything until we get the MRI back, anyway. But I'll see you later." Eric picked up his folder and headed off.
Jason turned his attention to the man standing before him. "So, who are you looking for?" He slid his elbow across the counter and accidently dropped his folder. The man bent down to help Jason pick it up. In the process, their hands brushed against each other and a strange image flashed in their minds. Jason jumped, not expecting it.
Jason was wearing black karate pants and a red tank top. He also had a red belt tied around his waist. He was going through slow, step-by-step instructions on a particular kata for a guy in a the white karate uniform and a blue tank top underneath.
"I'm just not good at this," the guy said, giving up.
"Billy, don't worry," Jason said. "Even I was a beginner once."
Jason stood up, fixing his papers. He never remembered teaching this guy martial arts back in high school. As far as Jason could remember, he only taught kids. Jason was surprised, but also felt a bit irritated and confused at what just happened. "I'm sorry, Sir," he said, "but I've really got somewhere to be." He turned to walk away.
"Wait, Jason. Don't you want to know more?"
Jason turned around and gave the guy an almost-dirty look. "Sir, my name is Dr. Scott. If you are looking for a patient, you can ask the nurses's station." He nodded before walking away. "You have a good day, Sir." He saw Eric sitting in one of his patient's rooms and joined him. "Hey, dude, that guy was weird. I don't think he even knew who he was looking for. He made me drop my chart and when he helped me pick it up...I saw some weird thing."
Eric looked at him, furrowing his brow. "Weird thing like what?"
"Like some sort of memory...or maybe it was a dream. Cuz I don't remember ever teaching that guy martial arts."
Eric raised an eyebrow. "Weird," he commented.
Jason nodded. "I wonder-"
"What?"
"I'm not exactly sure. I wonder what it was, though." Jason and Eric were quiet for a few moments, thinking about what happened to Jason. "I'm gonna go check on one of my patients, Mr. Taylor. I'll be back." Eric nodded as Jason walked into Zack Taylor's room.
"Mr. Taylor, is everything still feeling okay?" Jason asked, walking in.
Mr. Taylor grinned at Jason. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
Jason laughed in return. "I'm the doctor," he teased. "I'm supposed to be the one asking the questions." He approached the bed and sat on it. "So, how is everything?"
"Everything's great," answered Mr. Taylor. "Just great. Almost perfect, I would say."
"That's good to hear," replied Jason. "And what would make it perfect?" Mr. Taylor sat up, leaning towards Jason. "No, Mr. Taylor!" exclaimed Jason. "You just got out of brain surgery. Don't overexert yourself."
"I'm fine, Jason!" Mr. Taylor exclaimed, waving his arms around. "And I'll be fine."
Jason briefly looked at him, wondering why the patient called him by his first name. He settled for trying to check the patient's vitals. He held Mr. Taylor's face in place and abruptly let go of it. Another strange memory flashed in his mind.
He, an Asian teenage girl, a short, dark-haired petite girl, the same man that he had seen earlier, and his patient, Zack Taylor, were walking into a dark place.
"Why is it so dark in here?" Zack Taylor asked. "Where's Ernie?"
The lights came on and everyone yelled out, "Surprise! Happy birthday, Zack!"
"Happy birthday!" Jason exclaimed, along with the others.
"Aw, man," Zack said, as he turned and hugged everyone. "Oh, this is so cool, you guys! Thanks," he said, giving the girls another hug. "Hey, what's that noise?" he asked, looking around.
A heavier-set man ran forward. "Oh no, not again!" he exclaimed. "I thought this thing was fixed!" The guy in overalls ran over to help him.
"Let's party, everyone!" Jason exclaimed, leaning forward to give Zack a high five. The two of them grinned as they ran off to enjoy the party.
Mr. Taylor grinned up at Jason. "I know you saw that, too," he said.
Jason shook his head, trying to get the images out of his head. He ignored what the patient said and again tried to grab hold of his face to check his eyes. Again, a sudden image filled his mind. It was of him and the patient, sparring at an unusual place.
Jason kicked at Zack, who ducked to dodge the kick. He spun and threw a kick of his own.
"Good job, Zack," Jason said, smiling. "You've gotten really good.
"I've got to go," Jason said suddenly.
"Jason?" He heard Mr. Taylor call after him as he rushed from the room. The only thing that ran through Jason's mind was that he needed to get some air, cuz obviously something was up with him. He nearly knocked over a man who was walking in. Jason saw another strange image flash in his mind and shook it off.
He didn't turn to see who the man was or what happened, he just hurried away faster. "Eric!" he called.
Eric turned from Nick and instructed him to go somewhere. Either way, Nick hurried away, holding a chart. "What's up, Jason?" he asked. The two of them started walking back to the nurses' station.
"It happened again," he said, frantically.
"That dream, memory-flash thing?"
Jason nodded. "Yeah. This time with Zack Taylor, my patient that had the brain aneurysm. And also when I passed by some guy in the hallway."
Eric furrowed his brow. "Do you think you should get a CT scan or something? Get it checked out? Hallucinations, you know..."
Jason bit his lip. "It's not a hallucination, though...it was more like...a memory. Like I saw something. Cuz I still saw that other guy standing before me. Zack Taylor over there. And then that other guy."
"What happens when this occurs?"
"It's like...I accidently touch them or they accidently touch me and..."
Eric put his hand on Jason's shoulder. Nothing happened. "I don't know what to tell you, Jason...I guess we'll just watch it. Do you think you should call Kat?"
"And worry her over nothing? No thanks. She's already stressed enough about this modeling-thing."
"Dr. Scott?" Alyssa's voice interrupted their conversation. She frantically walked over to Jason and Eric. "Um...Mr. Taylor is missing from his room."
"You lost a patient?" Jason asked, angrily.
Alyssa's eyes widened. She gestured to the patient's room. "There's a guy in there. That one in all green. I think he had something to do with why Mr. Taylor's missing." Eric and Jason followed her gaze and walked after her toward the room.
"I think that's the guy who I ran into earlier," Jason whispered.
"The one after Zack Taylor?" asked Eric. "In the hallway?"
Jason nodded. "That's the one, I think. But what's he doing here?" Jason and Eric followed Alyssa into the patient's room. "What have you done with my patient?" asked Jason, with an accusatory tone in his voice.
"Nothing," said the guy said. He stood up to face the three of them. "I didn't do anything to Zack."
Jason looked at the other two doctors. He nodded for them to leave. "Enrile, go check on my other post-ops. Eric, I'll be okay."
"You sure? I could call security," said Eric. He narrowed his eyes at this guy.
Jason nodded. "I'll be fine, Eric. Go ahead. I'll catch up later." Eric nodded, walking out and carefully closed the door.
"Jason..." started Tommy. "I don't know where to begin..."
"I remember you from earlier," replied Jason. "What was that? Why is it happening?"
The guy didn't say anything. He put his hand on Jason's shoulder and a memory flashed through their minds. Jason was helping this guy. He had called him "Tommy" in the dream, memory, or whatever this was. He was asking this guy for help, but for what? And who was Rita? Jason took a step back from this Tommy guy, pushing aside his arm. He shook his head and stormed out of the room.
"Eric, it happened again!" he said, frustrated. Jason threw his hands up.
"What? Now, he's got to have something to do with this. Is today the first time this ever happened?"
"Yeah."
Eric glared accusingly at Tommy through the window. "I'll take care of it, then." He walked into the patient's room to face the guy.
Jason moved so he could see what was going on in the room. They exchanged some conversation and Jason saw the Tommy guy place his hand on Eric's shoulder like he had done a few minutes earlier to Jason. Jason wondered if Eric could feel or see anything. He saw Eric look at the guy in surprise. He grinned and nodded to the guy and looked out the window at Jason. He gave a semi-nod to Jason and said something else to the guy. He clapped a hand on the guy's shoulder and walked out the door.
"What happened?" Jason asked. "Why'd you..."
Eric sighed. He looked at Jason and smiled. "That guy...that's Tommy Oliver. Your best friend."
Jason furrowed his brow. "No, I don't know who the heck he is. You're my best friend. I've known you since we were at school together."
Eric nodded. "You've known Tommy since high school. The first time you and I met was during that red ranger mission."
"Red ranger mission?"
Eric nodded again. "The Machine Empire? Serpentera? Do you remember any of that?"
Jason shook his head. "What are you talking about, Eric?"
"Look, those things that you're feeling, those things that you've been seeing. They happened. They really happened. You were a Power Ranger. The red ranger. The original red ranger."
Jason shook his head again. "Eric, don't tell me that they've got you..."
"No, they haven't." He looked around. "I have to go."
"Where?"
Eric shrugged. "It's been a pleasure knowing you, Jason."
"Why does it sound like we won't see each other?"
"It's not my time to move on, yet." He turned to leave. "Nor is it my group to move on with."
"Where are you going?"
"I have to find my friend. Wes Collins."
"Who?"
Eric just nodded at Jason. He placed the binder that he was holding on the counter and walked off, pulling his white coat off. He turned and gave one last smile to Jason before walking away. Jason stood there, awestruck at what just happened. He couldn't believe what just happened and thought that he had to be dreaming.
"I know you're confused and you probably have a lot of questions, but if you come with me, I promise everything will make sense."
Jason turned and saw that the Tommy guy had approached him while he was standing there. He looked at him for a long time and on a whim, he placed a hand on Tommy's shoulder. Jason didn't say anything as another memory flashed through their minds.
Tommy was walking toward a spaceship in the NASADA space carrier. He was being followed by six other red rangers who were all willing to travel to the moon to stop the remains of the Machine Empire. Tommy was trying to hide it, but his heart was breaking because he thought one other ranger, his best friend, would be meeting them there.
"Oh, wait," said Cole Evans, the newest red ranger at the time. "Wasn't there another red ranger, here on Earth?"
Everyone stopped dead in their tracks. Tommy didn't even turn around to face them. "I was hoping he'd show up," Tommy said sadly. He turned to look at the other reds. "I guess he couldn't make it. We have to go on without him."
Cole's ears perked as he heard something approach the hangar. "Guys!" he exclaimed, running out. Everyone ran out after him. Tommy preferred to walk. He narrowed his eyes, seeing a figure on a motorcycle ride toward them. The rangers all lined up in a straight line, with Cole at one end and Tommy at the other.
The newcomer got off his motorcycle and pulled his helmet off. He set it on the seat and turned to face the row of red rangers, smiling.
Tommy grinned, nodding his head. "Jason," he simply said.
"You guys weren't gonna do this without me, were you?" Jason teased, still smiling. He walked up to Cole and looked at him up and down. "You must be the new guy."
Cole nervously wiped his hands on his pants and stuck it out for Jason to shake. "Hi!" he said, excitedly. "I'm Cole."
Tommy looked at Eric to his side and the two of them rolled their eyes. He nearly laughed out loud when Jason ignored Cole's hand and just tapped him on the shoulder.
"Good," Jason said, walking down the line of red rangers. "I recognize some of you guys," he said, nodding to each one of them as he approached them. "But some of you, more than others." Jason stopped in front of his best friend.
"I was starting to wonder if you would show up at all," Tommy joked.
"You didn't think I was gonna let you do this without the original red ranger, did you?" Jason asked, grinning.
Tommy's grin matched Jason's and the two of them raised their hands to give each other a high five, clasping it together. In that one moment, anybody and everybody could see the love and the trust that the two had for each other.
"Okay," Jason said. "I'll come with you." He paused. "But, only because I have no idea what's going on and I think you're the only one who could help me.
"That's okay. We've gotta start somewhere, right?"
"I know your name's Tommy. And we're supposed to be best friends. But..."
"It's okay, Jason. It'll come to you. As long as you let it." Tommy headed toward the elevators. "Let's go."
"Where are we going?"
"We've got to meet up with everyone else."
"Okay." Jason sped up to keep up with Tommy. They had arrived on the ground level and were quickly walking out. "Who's everyone else?"
"Well...you remember Zack, right?"
"Zack Taylor."
Tommy looked at Jason and smiled. "You only know his last name because he was your 'patient'."
"Yeah, that's true."
"Well...there's Zack, Billy, Trini, Katherine-"
"Wait, Katherine, my wife?"
Tommy nodded. "The very one."
"She knows about this?" he asked, incredulously.
Tommy nodded again. "She was the pink ranger. And there's also Adam, Tanya, Rocky...and Kim."
Jason noted how Tommy's voice changed when he said Kim's name. "Who's Kim?"
Tommy looked at Jason with a trace of sadness in his eyes. "Kimberly grew up with you. She was, in all accounts, your 'little sister'. At least that's what you always said." He stopped at his Jeep and gestured for Jason to sit in the passenger's seat. "Hey," he said, getting into the driver's seat. "You have to let it come to you. It will. I know it will. It already has. It's already started. You just have to embrace it and let it come to you."
"So, where are we going?" Jason noticed that they had gotten off the highway and seemed to be driving in a desert.
"We're meeting up with everyone."
"In the middle of nowhere?"
Tommy shook his head. "Not in the middle of nowhere."
Jason saw a large structure seemingly appear out of nowhere. "Whoa, what is that?" It was brown and blended into the sand and rocks that surrounded it.
"That is where we spent the better part of our lives. The most meaningful times of our lives." He looked over at Jason. "When we were teenagers." He pulled up to the side and slowed down, seeing four teenagers that Jason didn't recognize. "What are you guys doing here?" Tommy asked, stepping out of his Jeep.
Jason jumped out as well and stood next to Tommy. "Who are they?" he asked, taking in the teenagers standing before him.
"These are my rangers," said Tommy, proudly. "That's Conner." The tall one with dark blonde hair, who wore all red, smiled at him. "Kira." A short, long-haired, blonde girl dressed in yellow and black waved. "Ethan." An African-American boy who wore all blue grinned. "And Trent." A Hispanic teenager with long, shaggy hair that fell right above his eyes smiled. He was wearing all white.
"We just wanted to say bye," Kira said.
"And hope that you have a good life," added Ethan.
"I have," said Tommy. "And I will." He hugged each of them and watched them as they left. Jason watched him in wonder. He guessed that Tommy was close to these kids. Tommy gestured to the structure next to them. "I'm going inside. Come in whenever you're ready. You should head up through there, though." He was about to walk away when he saw how Jason wasn't moving. "You okay, Bro?"
"Come on, Tommy!" came a voice. Jason looked over and saw a short, petite woman that he recognized from one of his earlier memories. "Jason!" she exclaimed, excitedly. She ran and gave him a hug, thrusting him into another memory.
"Kim," Jason said, wiping his face.. The two of them were standing in a dark, wet room. They knew that they had just been taken captive, but they didn't know by whom.
"Yeah?" she replied, looking around.
"I think we're in some major trouble here."
"I'd say." She exhaled loudly. "Wish we could morph," she added, with a giggle.
Jason faced a door and tried to push it. "It doesn't look like there's any way out."
She let go of Jason and took Tommy's hand. Tommy pointed in the direction that he had instructed Jason to go through. "Whenever you're ready, Bro. We'll be waiting."
"All of us," the woman said, grinning. The two of them disappeared into the building, holding hands.
Jason stared after them, more confused than ever. He took his time and walked around the perimeter of the building. It was an odd-looking structure, almost like a fortress. He walked in through where Tommy had told him to go through and saw an array of strange-looking computers and a large, lighted-up tube. Jason slowly walked around the small room and stopped in front of a strange-looking cloudy globe thing.
"Are we that easily forgotten?" came a booming voice from behind him.
Jason turned and was startled by a large head floating in the middle of the lighted-up tube. "Uh...n-nn-n-no?" he stammered.
In a flash of light, the tube was no longer lit up and a body appeared in front of him. A tall, bald, broad-shouldered man stood before Jason and embraced him in his arms. A memory overcame Jason as he hugged the tall man in return.
Jason was standing in front of the viewing globe in the familiar place. He was infuriated and shaking with anger at Lord Zedd and Goldar for kidnapping his friends. He had seen four different candles-pink, blue, yellow, and black-and knew that Lord Zedd put them there to further taunt Jason since Jason felt responsible for Tommy losing his powers.
"Red ranger," boomed Zordon. "Come, stand before me."
Jason slowly turned and faced Zordon.
"Jason, a true leader is always faced with tough decisions. He must control his emotions and act based on who has the greatest need."
"Jason, you made the right decision when you left Tommy's candle," reassured Alpha in his robotic voice.
"The other rangers needed you then," added Zordon. "As they need you now. You must face another tough decision. If you enter Zedd's dimension, your powers could also be lost."
"It's a risk I'm willing to take to save my friends, Zordon." he said, determination evident in his voice.
"You have made a fine leader, red ranger," Zordon said.
Jason broke down in the man's arms. "Zordon," he said, tears running down his face. He threw his arms around him and hugged him tight. "I...I don't know how I could have ever forgotten. I don't..."
"It's okay, Jason," boomed Zordon. He smiled as he leaned back from Jason. "Come, we must meet up with the others."
Next: Everyone reunites!