Author: Jadelyn Tate
Story: Begotten
Characters: RJ, Kim
Disclaimer: I own no one, the idea of RJ and Kim being siblings is all Tara's over at PRU's, I'm just expanding it into a fic.
Summery: A Shark. A Crane. A Wolf. And you thought your family had issues.
Author Notes: The song is "If I Forget" by Delta Goodrem.
Adam sighed, looking around. It hadn't really changed, though it was less….energized. He figured that was due to the rangers being inactive. Finally, he found what he assumed was a door. He swallowed, praying this worked, and opened it. On the other side was a green energy. Taking a deep breath, he stepped through.
"You sure you can't stay longer?" Theo asked his brother. "I'd like you to meet Kim."
"Kim?" Luan asked curiously and Theo smiled.
"She's our other Mentor, but she's not Pua Zhua," he replied. He paused. "Actually, she's RJ's sister."
"Where is she now?" Luan asked curiously. Theo winced.
"She kinda got kidnapped and turned evil," he admitted. At Luan's incredulous expression, Theo hurried on. "But RJ says she'll be back to herself in no time!"
"Uh huh," he murmured, looking skeptical.
"She wasn't evil," a voice said and the brothers turned to find Jason entering the Loft with RJ, Casey, Fran, Dom, and Lily right behind him.
Casey frowned. "I saw her with Dai Shi though," he argued. "She was all…Dai Shi-ized."
Jason paused, looking at Casey for a minute before he chuckled. "You have definitely spent too much time with Kimberly," he said. RJ nodded his agreement.
"You're starting to talk like her," the wolf master told his student. Casey rolled his eyes.
"Point is, according to what Adam told Tommy and Billy, Kim went undercover," Jason told them.
"She went WHAT?!" RJ yelped, looking horrified. Jason nodded.
"I agree," he said. "She didn't tell you guys cause she wanted your reactions to be authentic."
"I'm gonna kill her," RJ muttered darkly, Casey nodding his agreement.
"She told Adam though?" Fran asked sympathetically and Jason nodded, his mouth in a wry smile.
"She made her choice," he said. "Anyway, she told Adam you guys needed to know what was going on and since you don't have a handy dandy fly on the wall she…what?"
At the 'fly on the wall' comment, RJ, Casey, Theo, Lily, and Fran began laughing. Dom and Luan just shrugged. Jason finally just shook his head. "Anyway, she decided to get herself kidnapped and hope Dai Shi would follow in the tradition of the villains she had faced and try to turn her against you. Obviously, he went with the tradition."
"How do we know it didn't work though?" Dom asked. "She may be evil for real."
Jason shook his head, a small smile on his face. "Guardians cannot be corrupted by evil," he told him. "According to Tommy, that was the only good thing about being a Guardian as far as he was concerned."
RJ and Casey chuckled; they'd both heard about the original rangers' penchant for getting turned against his friends.
"Not only that, but Jadespring, Adam's spirit, told him that Kim had succeeded but was caught," he said. The rangers and civilians all straightened, even Luan. Absently amused by that, Jason continued. "Apparently, Dai Shi was planning on using the power he used to turn your masters against you on Kim. In order to avoid that, Kim teleported herself into the Heart of the Grid. Adam's going in to get her back."
"Why can't she just teleport herself back out?" Theo asked curiously. Jason smiled wryly.
"She's physically in the Heart and has no connection to the Mortal realm; without that connection, she can't leave the Grid," he explained.
"So she should be back soon?" RJ asked and Jason nodded.
"It'll depend on what Adam has to go through to get to her," he agreed. "But yes, she'll be back soon."
"Zordon, can I ask you something?" Kim asked.
"Certainly," he replied, smiling at her. Kim smiled back before biting her lip.
"Did you laugh at Tommy and I when we became mentors?"
The question, asked with a grin, surprised a laugh out of him. "I"ll admit it did amuse me, yes," he answered with a smile. Kim smirked.
"Thought so."
"I really don't like this place," Adam muttered as he stared around. He was standing in the Temple of Maligore, the fire burning merrily in the pit. "Why is this a subspace?"
He sighed when no one entered. "Great, no one's around. I should have known." He peered at the various exists. He'd come in through the entrance they had when they'd gone to save Kim, Jason, and the Liarians. The other entrance was across the pit. With a sigh, he walked around the lava pit and gingerly entered. Another energy wall stood at the end. Rolling his eyes, he walked through.
"I'm going to kill Kim," RJ murmured to himself as he and Lily worked in the kitchen.
"Right there with you, big brother," the yellow ranger replied without thought. Once she realized what she had said, Lily froze, her eyes wide. RJ blinked at his cub, looking startled.
"Big brother?" he asked and Lily shifted uncomfortably.
"Well…yeah," she finally answered. "You and Kim are our siblings, our big brother and big sister. Theo feels the same way."
"I didn't know that," RJ said, grabbing some dough. Lily shrugged.
"It's not too surprising if you think about it," she told him, going back to chopping onions. "I mean, Casey has even said Kim's his big sister and you're the big brother I never wanted."
RJ chuckled at her teasing tone. "Casey sees me as a brother?" he asked and Lily paused.
"Actually, I'm not sure how he feels about you," she confessed. "I know Fran, Theo, and Dom think of you as a brother but Casey's never said anything like that."
"Any idea why?" he asked and Lily shrugged.
"I don't know," she replied. "But he has decided that we're family, all of us. I think he's still trying to figure out what kind of family you are still."
"So you and Theo are family?" RJ asked, changing the subject. The yellow ranger blushed.
"Not exactly…" she murmured. RJ smiled.
"Kim and I tried avoiding talking about this but I think you two should at least try," he told her. Her blush deepened as he continued. "Having regrets is the worse thing about getting older so try not to. Have regrets, I mean."
"Maybe," she murmured and RJ smiled. From the other side of the kitchen doorway, Dom looked down before glancing over at Fran.
"No regrets," he murmured.
"So you chose Adam?" Zordon asked and Kim nodded.
"Yeah, I did," she replied, blushing. Zordon chuckled.
"The Crane and the Frog," he murmured. Kim smirked.
"Yeah, I know," she agreed.
"I think he'd be good for you," he told her with a smile.
"So you approve?" she asked hopefully and he tilted his head.
"Does my approval mean that much to you?" he asked gently and she nodded, looking down.
"I'm talking with my dad now and we're working on it, but there's still this really big rift between us," she admitted. "You were kinda the one who took his place in my heart during high school."
"Yes, Kimberly, I approve of Adam," he told her seriously and her eyes lit up. "But I think you need to lay everything on the table with your father once you get out of here."
"I'm going backwards," Adam realized, looking around the Power Chamber. The uniforms in glass caught his eye and he smiled at the pink and black uniforms. Shaking away the memories, he moved to the entrance. The doors opened to reveal a black wall of energy instead of green.
"That's different," he said, moving forward. Stepping through the wall, he hoped he would find Kim soon. He was getting tired.
"Hey Casey," Fran greeted the red ranger. Casey looked up at her from where he was sitting on Kim's bed. "Everyone's worried about you."
"I'm okay," he said, picking at the pink pillow. "I just miss Kim."
Fran smiled softly and moved to sit across from him. "I miss her too," she told him. "She's like the big sister I always wanted."
"All my sister's are younger," Casey told her, his voice soft. "It's been nice to have a big one to look out for me instead of the other way around."
"I miss her too," Dom said from the doorway. He stepped inside and closed the door. Fran smiled at him and he smiled back. "I never had a sister before her."
"Kim's great that way, isn't she?" Casey asked as Dom moved over to the desk and began looking through the CD's.
"She really is," Fran agreed. The three were silent before Dom tilted his head and pulled a CD out.
"Hey, look at this," he said, handing the CD to Casey. On it was the words "If I Forget" and a date.
"This was the day before she went undercover," Casey said, frowning at the title. He opened the case and put the CD in the player by the bed.
"If I Forget, take one," Kim's voice said. As the first lyrics came out, Casey, Fran, and Dom all smiled.
"You're a million miles away,
Your voice, it speaks so painfully,
The path is never easy,
You gotta do what you've gotta do, I know,
In life we have to compromise,
The chaos of our choices,
And through every endeavor,
I think of us forever,
So remember.
"If I forget to say I love you,
It doesn't mean that I don't,
If I forget to say I miss you,
It doesn't mean that I,
It doesn't mean that I don't.
"So much pressure haunts you now,
Tell me we can climb this too,
AND Don't give up ON what we have,
Cause I don't wanna live my life,
Without you,
Without you.
"If I forget to say I love you,
It doesn't mean that I don't,
If I forget to say I miss you,
It doesn't mean that I,
It doesn't mean that I don't,
It doesn't mean that I don't,
It doesn't mean that I don't,
It doesn't mean that I don't.
"If I forget to say I love you,
It doesn't mean that I don't,
If I forget to say I miss you,
It doesn't mean that I,
It doesn't mean that I don't,
It doesn't mean that I don't,
It doesn't mean that I don't
"Good job," Zordon said as they looked on the three students listening to Kim's song. Kimberly smiled, feeling happy she'd been able to push Dom's thoughts to look at her CD's. Zordon had offered to show her what her students were up to when Kim had expressed worry over them. Kim smiled.
"I love those kids."
"They miss you," a familiar voice said from the doorway. Kim twirled around to find Adam standing there, a small smile on his face as he looked between Kim and Zordon. Zordon's eyes twinkled as Kim dashed forward and into the Frog's arms.
"You're finally here," she murmured into his chest as his arms came up around her. He nodded, eyes still on Zordon.
"Yeah, took me a while," he agreed. "I had to go though a couple subspaces to get here," he told her.
"Ahhh, yes, I apologize, I should have been more attentive to when you would arrive," Zordon said apologetically. Adam gently disentangled himself from Kim to walk up and hug the old man. Kim smiled as Zordon chuckled and hugged the man back.
"I figured you'd be here," Adam said once he stepped back. "Alpha told me some things about the Grid that never made it to books and I knew you'd probably be here."
"Its good to see you, Adam," Zordon said, smiling. Adam smiled back, tears in his eyes. Zordon looked up, a pleased expression on his face.
"You should go," he said. "The Shark Rangers has been broken from the power of Rinsien."
"That was quick," Adam commented. "I just got into the grid."
"Time moves differently here," Zordon told him. "Even the scene we just saw was a day ago."
Kim stared at them a few minutes before sighing. "I don't want to leave."
"Kim…?" Adam asked, worried and confused.
"Kimberly, you must," Zordon told her knowingly. "You must live for me."
Kim swallowed. "That's not fair," she whispered and he sighed. He stepped forward and hugged her.
"I will always be with you, my Pterodactyl," he murmured. "And come visit once you've finished your battle."
"I can do that?" she asked, leaning back to stare at him. He nodded, his eyes twinkling.
"Nothing is impossible for a Guardian."
