Summary – In hopes of bringing Tommy's spirits back up Zedd offers him one of the treasures he's collected over the years.

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The Gems

Zedd

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Sulking. He's been on this ship with me for two weeks now and all he's done is sleep, pick at food I practically have to force upon him, and sulk. I must say it is getting more then a bit tiresome.

Looking up from the book I am currently trying to engross myself in, I watch as Thomas continues to flip channels on the TV in our sitting room in the most pitiful way humanly possible. "Nothing to your liking?"

Giving a shrug and finally settling on the all horror movie channel he curls up in his corner of the couch.

"Perhaps you should read a book. Or go spend some time in the training room." When this gets me no greater response than the question of television programming did, I close my own book and sit up a bit straighter. "Or perhaps we could go back to the bedroom and reconnect."

"I have a headache." Yes and you've had that headache ever since I saved you. Take some aspirin and get over it.

Deciding a more neutral approach is needed however if I wish to ever get my way I set my book down and move to stand behind him, fingers coasting through his hair to press firmly against his temples. Rubbing soothing circles in hopes to help at the very least relax him and help him become once again comfortable with me and my touching I feel a small shred of relief as his tense state slowly loosens up even if against his will.

"Better?"

"Feels nice." It'd be even nicer if you'd lie down on the bed and let me rub else where.

"Well what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't tend to you." Hoping that the use of the human term for what we are, or were all those years ago will aid in my endeavor, I'm slightly disappointed as only a shrug is given in response. Right than time to try a more direct approach. "You're too tense Thomas. Why don't you go lye down in bed and I'll give you a massage."

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Shaking his head and pulling away completely he is grinding on my patience.

"Why not?"

As he shrugs and resumes his channel surfing I decide that while I am all for giving the human time to recover from whatever ordeal he has gone through in my absence enough is enough.

Grabbing the remote and turning off the TV, I sit back down beside him forcing him to bring his focus back on myself. "Talk to me Thomas. Tell me what's wrong. Tell me what happened. I can't help you if you don't tell me what you need help with."

"Who said I needed help?"

Giving him a look which oddly enough gets no response other then one of his own right back, I finally use the last card I have. Pointing out the window into the starry space around us, I make my point clearly. "Either you talk or you hitchhike back to Earth."

Looking as if ready to call my bluff he remains silent for the stretch of five minutes before finally relenting be in angrily.

"I screwed up." Voice annoyed and posture once more tense and on edge, he is going to learn to lose this new found attitude very quickly or else see just how much of a temper I really have, evil or not. "Happy?"

"How did you screw up?" Narrowing my eyes but keeping my own voice level with effort, I wait for his elaboration, pleased when he seems to see a small hint of danger in my gaze and lowers his snide tone accordingly.

"I caused the beginning of next new wave of evil."

Rolling my eyes and assuming he's being overdramatically snotty once more, I shake my head. "Oh now come on. I'm sure it's not that bad. Now what did you really do? Run into money trouble? Get caught stealing? Make death threats to that moron Demetria? Piss off the wrong people?" Personally I'd place my money on the last one.

"I stole the technology from the Command Center, gave it to a scientist named Anton Mercer, he used it to create uncontrollable hybrids, then turned himself into a mutated dinosaur bent on world domination." …well then, that really is a fairly big mistake then isn't it. Man is Zordon going to be pissed about this one. "Oh and I also used it to help him pick lottery numbers."

"So I'm guessing you picked the wrong ones considering I found you near dead in the middle of the ocean."

Looking less amused than I'd hoped he turns heated eyes back onto me. "How can you joke about this? What I did was horrible. I broke every rule Zordon ever presented. I lied. I stole. I helped create the second generation of the Evil Alliance. I'm a horrible person."

"No you're a frustrating person." And I do mean that very literally considering the fact that while he will sleep in my bed with me any form of holding or fondling while there seems to be strictly forbidden these days. "With a severe guilt complex. You need to realize that not everything in the world is your fault Thomas. Sometimes shit happens and sitting around feeling sorry for yourself when it does is not going to solve anything. Tell me something, why did you steal the technology in the first place?"

Looking rather surprised by my quick cut to the chase, he slowly comes around answering with slight hesitation. "I wanted to help people." Yes, well next time try the Red Cross first.

"And?"

"And Mercer said that he knew how. He said that with the technology we'd cut years off of our research time and be able to develop a quick and precise cure for nearly any and all diseases." Diseases? How would Ranger technology aid in that? Perhaps seeing the lost look on my face he continues before I can interrupt. "The healing properties of the morphing powers also kept us from getting sick. We thought that maybe it could be taken a step further so that people who were already ill might be able to be cured."

"It is a very admirable idea, Thomas." Admirable and even in theory workable with the right research and precautions. Perhaps I should mention this to Zordon before he attempts to kill the boy.

"Stupid idea. It didn't work. Our lab tests failed ninety percent of the time. Mercer just wouldn't give up though. When we lost our grants he invested his own money into the projects and we went to work on a private lab he had built off the coast. I should have stopped it then. I knew he was getting unhealthy with how obsessed he was becoming, but I thought eventually he'd see it wasn't working and give it a rest."

Already knowing exactly where this is going, I urge him on. "He didn't though."

"No, he…he thought maybe the problem was with our lab specimens. He said since the healing agents were designed for humans that they would fail no matter what animal we used, so he started testing on…" Trailing off and looking down at his lap, he shakes his head.

"On?"

"Me." Right then, the human dies.

"That's why I had such a fit at you about the shots. He was making me sick, putting something in my food I guess, I never really found out for certain, but he told me it was the climate of the island. Said I was over worked and probably allergic to some of the plant life around us. So he started giving me shots to 'help'. Only they just made it worse. I was pretty ill by the time I figured it out and by then it was too late to do anything about it aside destroy it all."

"What did you do?"

"Blew up the compound. The labs, the island, all at the bottom of the ocean by now." Well then never let it be said the boy isn't effective in his endeavors.

"And Mercer?"

"He's not Mercer anymore. I saw him, just before I decided to blow it. Apparently the shots he was giving me were nothing compared to what he had in the works. I don't know what he injected into himself but when it was done with him he looked like he'd been genetically spliced with a horned gecko." Interesting, but not exactly what I was interested in. Personally I don't care what he looks like as he won't have a head by the time I'm done with him.

"Did he get away?"

"Almost sure of it." Good to know. Hate to put a vendetta out against a man who is already among the deceased.

"There's just one more thing I need to know. How did he even know you had access to such technology?"

Guilty expression once more taking place over of his aggressive one he answers almost too softly for me to hear. "I told him."

"You told him." This should be good. "Care to tell me why exactly you told such a thing to a clearly unstable human?"

"You had been gone for eight years and I had just learned of Zordon's supposed death. Takes a long time for news to travel here I guess. I wasn't doing well. One night I'd really just had enough. We were staying at a hotel for one of our digs and I'd gone down to the bar and had a few drinks. He joined me and I don't know what happened. I just started talking about you and then Zordon and then you again… I don't know." Oh sure blame me, I finally try to do something nice for someone, someone I still hate by the way and it turns around and bites me in the ass. Nice.

"Wow. Well then, I must say you're right, you did indeed screw up. Okay than." Handing back the remote and retrieving my book, I sit back down on my end of the sofa opening it back up to the page I was on.

Watching me closely and finally speaking his response is more or less what I had been expecting. "That's it? That's all you're going to say?"

"What would you like me to say Thomas? You're twenty eight years old, an adult by human standards. You told me once that you would make your own choices in life and do as you pleased. You did. You fucked up, pardon my language, and now you're sulking about it. Not exactly the wisest choices in my opinion but they are yours to make."

Looking torn between a fresh bout of rage and breaking down into miserable sobs at my harsh but accurate words he finally settles for neither instead pressing me further for more helpful or kind advice. "Well if they were your choices then what would you do about them? How would you fix them?" Bingo.

Barely containing a satisfied smile as he is finally getting it, I lower my book and answer calmly. "I'd get off my ass, retrieve the technology I'd lost, and put it to good use stopping the new big bad I had helped create. But then that's just me."

"I don't have my powers anymore. Even with the technology I wouldn't be able to synthetically create a new set." Is that all? Honestly why must humans complicate everything.

"That's all you need to do as I said?" Getting a small nod of agreeance I stand and move to the large wooden chest in the corner of the room near the fish tank.

Opening it up and beginning to dig through the contents I grumble about finding a better way to organize my treasures. Gold, jewelry, data files for the morphing grid, priceless documents, jeweled weapons, ah ha! Removing the small leather pouch and letting the lid slam shut I toss the find to the curious human with casual ease. "Here don't say I never did anything for you."

Opening up the bag cautiously and pouring out the three gems into his hand, he studies them closely no doubt feeling the tingle of power radiating off of them. "What are these?"

"You know the power that makes your morphers work? This is it, in raw form. They can be melted down into coins, sharpened into smaller crystals and locked into morphers, or in rare cases used in raw form, though that isn't done often as the power is usually to great for most species if not dulled down by a morpher. Side effects may occur."

"How, how did you get these?" Looking at me still in wonder over the gift but also suspicious now, he really needs to relax more.

"Stole them from Zordon." Smiling in satisfaction at his stunned expression I give a shrug. "Like I said, I owed him one."

To be continued…..