Pick Up the Pieces

The Angel Grove park finally took up its namesake. Shining with a heavenly glow in a world of rubble, the green grass was a welcoming sight.

Maya had fallen asleep under one of the trees, feeing the coolness of the ground beneath her, true as always to her wild nature. She woke to the feeling of Mike's hand on her arm, shaking her like a fairy.

"The mornings on Mirinoi are so much easier to wake to," she realized. "I could have slept for days."

He smiled down at her. "Leo agrees." His younger brother was walking behind them with a drunken step, rubbing his eyes.

"You look like you've been hit by a bus," Damon remarked.

"Thanks," Leo said, sticking out his tongue. He had a five-o-clock shadow forming and dark rings around his eyes from lack of sleep and alcohol. He could have passed for a street drug addict much more easily than a hero who had just fought within an inch of his life for a world that would never be able to thank him.

"Have one too many last night, man?" Kai said, slipping past Leo and Kendrix, who was standing next to him, making sure he didn't fall over from exhaustion.

"He'll be fine after a while," she promised. "Some of us didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night after what happened."

Maya raised her eyebrow. "I think I see the others coming."

Sure enough, several of the other Rangers were making the hill, bringing baskets of food and trying their hardest to put smiles on their now rested faces.

"Morning," Lucas called as he trudged by.

"Morning," Maya called, leaping up into the tree, trying not to catch the trail of her jean skirt and lace.

Trip had died his hair that morning, covering most of his green with brown, leaving only the two sides green and falling over his eyes. A bandanna covered the jewel in the middle of his forehead. It was clear that he was intending to make this day his first official day as a member of the 21st century.

Katie marched up, her boots replaced by sequined flip flops in a nice shade of maroon. She'd straightened her hair too, deciding that her curls could go if Trip had to change to fit in.

She heard Ethan whistle her direction to which she quickly replied to by kicking her shoe at him. She was too tired and in too much turmoil to appreciate his lame excuse at flirting with her.

Karone laughed at their antics, pulling Zhane over to the water, cupping her hands and letting it trickle over her head. She felt amazing, alive. For the first time in years she felt like there was something more to her existence that just herself, trying to fix her damages. She was more than the sum of her past and her present, she was more than Andros's sister, more than Zhane's wife. She mattered, she could give something back to the world she'd almost destroyed, she could give something because others were willing to work with her to make it a better place. She was not alone, she never would be.

Andros hugged her, giving her a kiss on the cheek, told her he was proud of her. Zhane nodded, feeling more amazed by Karone's strength than ever. She'd returned to Earth as a Ranger, never once looked back and felt like she was responsible, for the first time since she'd come back into their lives she'd gotten past Astronema, been just Karone.

Ashley joined them, creating a massive wall of love, of support, of calm contemplation of what it meant for them to be there, holding each other, being safe and knowing that the world would be too, for a little while.

TJ wrapped his arm around Cassie's waist and she leaned against him, feeling safe with him, her friend since the day she'd first come to Angel Grove, the day their lives had changed forever. She could barely remember the times when she'd just been a teen looking for her big break with her guitar. TJ likewise couldn't remember a day when the most important thing to him had been making the Angel Grove baseball team. Now they were years older, harder, and dealing with more death than they could have imagined. She'd lost a lover to the war, and now the world seemed too big for her to grasp.

The world was so much larger than this city of 175,000 souls.

But the world was beautiful; even razed and ruined, it was beautiful.

Carlos and Justin watched the water, feeling the waves roll over their sandaled feet. "I've missed being here with all of you, just being friends hanging out like little kids," Justin said.

The Hispanic man turned his head toward Justin, "You'll always be a little kid to us, Justin."

Justin smiled. "Yeah? Well that's okay I guess. Sometimes I wish I'd had more of a childhood."

"No kidding, man," Carlos said quietly. "You had it rough."

"Sometimes I still wake up and wonder why my mom died. Sometimes I still see my dad in his dark place, hear the door to the karate school close, feel the emptiness of the shelter." He sat down on the grass and twisted a dandelion around in his fingers. "But then I think of how lucky I am to be here, and there's no reason for regret."

Carlos nodded. "No regret."

It was time for them all to pick up the pieces of their lives. It was time to move on, to become stronger.

Justin nodded and took Carlos's shoulder. "I'm glad I met you, I'm glad that we're friends, Carlos. If anything amazing happened from being a Power Ranger, if anything was given back to us, it was the family I gained. You and the others mean more to me than you'll ever know.

Carlos took his forearm in his hand. "I do know, brother."

Rocky found Aisha sitting at one of the few picnic tables that was still standing. She had her head buried in her arms, but unlike when they used to nap in the park, she was shaking.

He sat down beside her and wrapped his arms around her. She looked up and buried her head in his chest. "I can't believe this is real," she groaned.

"It might be real, but it doesn't mean that you have to face it alone," he told her. "I'm still here."

Aisha nodded. "Yeah."

"You do know that I love you, right?" he asked after a minute. If only she could understand how much pain he'd been in when she'd decided to leave the rangers for Africa. She'd changed things forever.

"I think I've always known."

Rocky brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes. "You always were able to see right through me."

"What took you so long to say it?" she asked, sniffing away her tears.

He looked down for a moment. "I guess I always feared that you didn't see me that way. I didn't want to ruin our friendship. It means too much to me, Aisha. We've always had such f-ed up lives. I didn't want to lose the one thing that I knew is always there."

She nodded. "You always were a fool," she told him. "But an honest fool. I understand, Rocky. Really, I do. I've felt the same way. We both did this to ourselves. This is what happens when people are too afraid to take a chance. We end up at a point in our lives where everything crumbles and we're left wondering what there is to keep fighting for."

"I'm still fighting for you," he promised. "And that will never change."

"We failed, Rocky. We might have won the battle, but we lost. Innocent people had to die because we weren't strong enough to save them. Trini died because we couldn't find a better way."

"Don't quit now," he prodded. "We still have so much to live for. Live for me."

She touched his cheek with her chocolate colored hand. "I'm not going to quit living, but I'm not sure how to survive, you know? I feel like everything is just gone. Angel Grove is gone, Trini is gone, our hope..."

"There is always hope."

"I wish you'd told me this before the battle, that you felt this way. Just hearing it from you would have been enough to keep it alive for me."

"I'm sorry, Aisha. I really am. I didn't know how to be strong..."

She silenced him by covering his lips with her own She pulled away and stood up. "I've waited for years for that. I've tried so hard to overcome that feeling but it never went away. And now in the time when everything is gray you're hear giving me exactly what I wanted and it doesn't feel the way I've imagined."

Rocky sighed. "Right. I'll go." He stood up and turned his back to her.

"You always were there for me, Rocky. You always let me fly. You let me go live my life. That was courage."

He stopped and played with his watch, wondering what she would say next.

"Maybe now I'm ready to go home."

He turned back toward her and let her step into his embrace. "How do we make up for all those lost years?" he asked her.

She sighed. "You can't undo the past. You can't fix your mistakes. You just have to go on. Isn't that what we've always stood for?"

"Yeah."

"Get me through this, Rocky, and I'll be here for you. Together we'll manage." Together they'd pick up the pieces.

The shadow had lifted and the smoke had cleared from the air. But it still weighed on them all. And Jason felt it most.

He took slow and deliberate steps down the green way to the broken park benches and haggard faces. There was a grim determination written on his face. He wouldn't let himself fall any further. Emily held his hand, watching him intently to make sure he was still breathing, that he wasn't just going to collapse from shock and pain at any minute.

"You haven't said a word all morning, Jase," she probed.

"I don't want to talk right now," he told her forcibly. "I need to process first."

"Okay," she agreed, realizing it was pointless to fight him. He'd been a soldier with a pacifist's heart for too long. She couldn't beat him at his own game of peacemaking. He had to make his own peace now. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and let go of his hand. He continued walking without looking back. She knew he had to find Zack, Tommy, and Billy and work things out with them.

Emily knew that he blamed himself for Trini's death. She knew that he felt like he should have gotten her out of that building. She also knew that the decision to sacrifice Angel Grove for the rest of the world was the hardest decision he'd ever faced. It would take him years, if not the rest of his life, to come to terms with that. He'd woken in the night screaming, seeing the faces of the children who had woken up to their last morning because they had failed to come up with another way to stop Evil from conquering Earth forever.

Jason kept fighting. He fought his emotions, his pain, he let it well up inside him until it was unbearable. She had gone through this with him before and had lost him because of it. He'd lost his Zeo powers and had become so angry inside that less than six months later he'd joined the military and she hadn't seen him again for years. By the time he'd come back into her life she'd barely recognized him, and they'd had to start over.

She was afraid of what he might become this time around, when innocent deaths and shattered friends were involved.

"He'll be all right," Kimberly told her, giving her a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I've known Jason a long time, and despite his stubbornness, there is a piece of him that is strong enough now to conquer his pain. He won't suffer forever, Emily. He has you now, and he'll always have the support of me and the rest of the Rangers."

Emily turned to face Kim and welcomed her relaxing embrace. "I just wish I knew how to make him realize it wasn't his fault."

"He knows it wasn't his fault. He just keeps doubting himself because that's how he grieves. He'll make it, Em. We all will."

Emily forced a smile. "How are you holding up?"

Kimberly forced back a tear from the corner of her eye that she'd been trying to conceal. "I'm alive."

"That's not what I meant."

Kimberly nodded. "I'll be okay after a while."

Emily realized that she was looking out at the water instead of facing Emily head-on.

"Is there something else, Kim?" Emily noted.

Kimberly snapped back. "Not right now," she said firmly. "There are more important things." She couldn't bear to think about her impending motherhood with all that had happened the day before. She was going to be burying her best friend soon. The battle was won, but the war was not over.

Emily understood. "I should let you go..."

Kimberly smiled halfheartedly and walked off to join Kat who was sitting with David, who had arrived in record time, a most disturbed look on her face.

"What is it, Kat?" she asked, noting the Aussie's teeth were dangerously close to biting through her lips.

"I've just never seen so much evil, felt it so strongly as I did yesterday. It shook me deeper than I can explain, Kim. Even when Rita had control of my mind I didn't feel as much evil around me as I felt here. It was overwhelming, like a great wave crashing down on me, and when I came up for air the world was different." She shook her head. "But maybe I'm just being silly. I'm not taking any of this very well..."

"I know what you felt because I felt it too. It was a penetration so deep it made your entire being feel...dirty." Kimberly sat beside Kat.

Katherine relaxed slightly. "I just keep seeing her face and I realize that I never really knew her. I talked with her briefly when we would get together, but I feel like she was gone before..."

"Trini was an amazing person, Kat. I know that she counted you as a friend, and that should mean something."

Kat tapped her foot anxiously on the grass. "I just don't understand..."

"We're not meant to understand, it just is. In the flashpoint there is no rhyme or reason for who dies. It was just her time and there was nothing we could have done to stop it. At least she died for something." Kimberly was rationalizing for herself as much as for Kat's benefit.

"Maybe someday we'll all get the chance to thank her properly," Kat hoped.

Kimberly leaned against Kat's shoulder and Kat leaned against David. The women didn't know what death had in store for any of them, but they knew that Trini had been blessed with a place of golden leaves and green fields, and someday in the future when their lives were lived and their time had also come, they would see her again.

Tanya watched Adam's feet so she wouldn't have to see how changed the world was. He still wore the same flat soled sneakers he'd wore the night he'd proposed to her three years before.

"I wish that I could turn back time, just this once," Adam said quietly. "But I know it doesn't work that way. We did what we were meant to do, and we have to live with the consequences."

Tanya realized that he'd grimaced as he spoke, still feeling the affects of his stitches and the local anesthetic.

She knew he'd have a scar on his chest from now on marking the place where the blade had caught him. If Aisha hadn't been there to keep him alive she knew he would not be walking beside her.

"We did the right thing, Adam. We let her go. It wouldn't have made any sense to keep her like that."

Adam knew she was right. "I just wish there had been another way..."

She put a finger over his lips. "Nothing would have changed." She kissed him lightly.

The wind had begun to pick up, creating a nice breeze that enticed them to let it take away their worries for a time and work toward facing the future.

"Having been through this makes me realize how lucky I am," he confided to her. "I wish I'd realized it sooner."

Tanya leaned back against a tree and pulled him closer to her. "I feel the same regret you do, Adam, but Trini wouldn't want us to feel this way. The world will go on because of what we did."

The ultimate sacrifice, he thought. All the paths they had walked had lead them to this one moment.

Conner stood up and walked to the edge of the water from his vantage point near his car. He picked up a fallen tree branch and began to make spirals in the water, watching his distorted reflection cast off into nothing. He ran his fingers through his dark hair and looked up at the opposite shore where he saw the remains of what had been a little girl's birthday party. The party favors were still littered along the lake bed and unopened presents lay in a neat pile next to one of the overturned benches.

"The world is still here, Kris," he murmured. "Even after all this destruction there is still something that remains."

Krista nodded and let him wrap his arm around her waist.

"I can see that little girl in her pink tutu waving her fairy princess wand and her mother watching nearby with a beaming expression as her daddy takes photos. I can see the little children playing with the games and laughing."

He turned away from the water and put a hand on her cheek. "Someday she'll come back for those presents. Tell me she'll come back, Kris."

Krista wrapped her hand over his. "She'll come back, Conner."

He tried to smile but he only ended up making a strange grimace that clearly displayed the cracks in his mask.

"I want to be strong," he told her. "But every time I tell myself that there is hope for rebuilding this place I remember how far gone it really is."

"Nothing is too far gone," she reminded him.

Z looked over at Danny. He'd been watching her all morning, standing under the tree with Kendall. She didn't know what to say to him. Every time she felt like going over, she got cold feet and decided to stay in the shelter of those she knew had her back.

"What are you thinking so hard about?" Sky asked her quietly, coming up behind her.

She turned and stared into the man's blue eyes. "Do you think Danny looks like me?" she asked quietly. "Cause I keep seeing myself in him, realizing how much he looks like my father, but I don't want to believe it."

Sky looked over at Danny, appraising his face. "You really want to know what I think?" He didn't want to hurt her.

"Yeah," she said. "I do."

"I think you need to talk to him."

She nodded. That's exactly what she'd expected from him. Her former teammate and commanding officer hardly ever provided a straight answer.

"You want me to come?" Sky asked, noticing her tense up. It was times like this when he always surprised her with an offer of companionship she didn't expect.

"No, I'll be okay."

She walked over to Danny and stopped in front of him.

"Elizabeth," he said with a start. "Can I help you?"

"You and I both know there's something you're not saying to me." She stood more firmly now, struggling with herself. "I'm not stupid," she said after a while. "I did just fine without you."

Kendall evaded the gaze of her partner's daughter, gave Danny a quick pat on the shoulder and walked away.

"I want you to know something..."

She closed her eyes. "What would that be?" She could barely stand to look at him. It was too difficult to see her own eyes looking back at her.

"It wasn't that I didn't love you."

"You might be my father," she told him with sincerity, ignoring his words, "but I'm letting you off the hook. I might have your genes, but I sure as hell don't need you. The fact that you thought you needed to lie to me is enough. I appreciate what you tried to do- but I found out anyway. I lived my life the best way I knew how, and I don't regret that. I want you to know that I turned out okay." She took Danny's shoulder and forced herself to look at him. "I don't blame you for anything, and I don't want your apology."

She turned away and began walking back toward her real family, the people she loved. She closed the door between them. He was nothing more than just another teammate to her. He was just another ranger. He would never be her dad.

Side-by-side they all walked toward the center of the field of green, the last haven in Angel Grove. They could hear the wail of sirens as the people who had survived began to work on restructuring their lives. It was as if they'd just woken up from a terrible dream.

What would the world know of what had nearly cost everything? Nothing. The world would move on as if nothing had happened after a while. The story would move from the front page to obscurity and then melt away. The scars would form and the wound would all but heal.

And they would move on.

The love they'd all gained was stronger than the pain in their hearts, stronger than the fear in their minds.

Ronny smiled over at Ty. He was twirling a wilted dandelion flower in his hands.

"Hey," she said quietly. "What are you doing?"

He looked up and blushed. "Oh, I'm just admiring the flower."

Ronny nodded, "It's a beautiful flower, very yellow."

"Your color," he remarked. "You should have it."

She accepted it warmly. "Hey, Ty?"

"Yeah?" he asked, noting the change in her voice.

"So," she started hesitantly. "Since this is all over, does it mean you'll be leaving soon?"

He looked down at the grass. "I guess so."

Ronny nodded. "Oh."

Tyzonn put a hand on her shoulder. "Vella will be waiting for me."

Stop being stupid, Ronny, she told herself. She knew better than to let herself be upset again. Tyzonn had loved Vella long before she'd known him.

"I'll miss you," she told him.

He stepped closer to her. "I'll miss you too, Ronny. I always miss you when you're away. You are my friend."

Friend. That should have been enough for her. She'd thought it was just a crush at first, but since he'd gone away she'd felt this aching inside her she didn't know how to control.

"Tyzonn?"

"What is it, Ronny?"

"You told me that you'd take me there someday, to Mercuria."

He let his hand fall. "Of course I did."

"When?"

He paused for a moment. "I suppose you'll come for the wedding?"

A familiar pang hit her squarely in the heart. She was running out of time. He was mentioning marrying her more frequently. It seemed that he actually was going through with it.

"I was hoping..."

"You were hoping it would be the two of us."

She was surprised he'd read her that easily.

Ronny looked away, trying to bite back tears. "I want you to be happy with Vella. Believe me, there is nothing more important to me than seeing you happy."

"But what about you?" he asked her thoughtfully. "When do you get to be happy, Ronny?"

She hadn't really thought about that. She knew she had to let him go. Just friends.

"I'll be happy, Ty."

"I wish I could make you happy," he told her, wrapping his arms around her.

"You couldn't do that," she promised him. "I have to do that for myself." She broke away from him, from the intoxicating quicksilver eyes.

Tyzonn watched Ronny fight to look at him again. "I do care about you," he promised.

She looked back over her shoulder. "You are going to marry Vella. That is all there is to this story. It was over before it ever began. I've been dreaming." Ronny touched his cheek. "I'm sorry, Tyzonn. I hope that you can find a way to forgive me."

He caught her hand, "Forgive you? For what? Ronny..."

"I am so lucky to have you in my life, as a friend," she told him, kissing him on the cheek and feeling the ties break that connected her heart to his. It was time to move on. "I'll be okay." And with that she smiled and walked away.

"I just spoke with the mortuary," Zack said quietly. "They're severely overwhelmed right now, no thanks to us."

Billy shook Zack's shoulder. "Don't say that."

"We can bury Trini tomorrow."

It was as if a thousand pound wight had been dropped on all of them. The solace that the park had offered was banished the second the words were spoken with finality. She was really not coming back.

Carter took Dana's hand reflexively and she welcomed it. She knew what it was like to lose someone. They all did. It frightened her just how many of them had lost someone close to them. Each life was like a candle flame too easily snuffed out when the wick burned too low or the wind blew just right.

Ryan and Kelsey sat next to them, trying their best to stay composed. It was the same for everyone. No one could speak for the needle driven through their lips with unbreakable thread. The innumerable silence was all they had in this broken town of broken dreams and broken lives.

Hope was overshadowed again. It would be so hard to move on.

"Is there anything we can do?" Mack asked.

"Give them some space," Rose told him.

"I can't believe this is the end." Will whispered. "The freaking morphing grid is screwed."

Dax nodded, feeling the emptiness where his link had once been.

"This really is it." Mack said with finality.

"Our Power still exists," Nick told them. "Inside us." For the first time, he was the hope when everyone else was falling apart. It was a strange exhilarating feeling.

"But we'll never be the same," Xander added.

"It's like we've just grown up," Vida said with a drone. "Childhood's end."

"I wouldn't have traded our time for the world," Chip declared.

Madison nodded. Daggeron remained silent as well.

"I'm sorry," Sky told them all. "I didn't realize..."

"We didn't realize this is what happened," Bridge continued.

"They didn't tell us... we weren't meant to know," Sydney consoled.

"If we had known we would have tried..." Z started.

"Don't say it," Jack told her.

Kira sighed. "We did what we had to do."

"We're still alive," added Conner.

"And we managed to keep the world safe," Ethan said, looking over at Trent's latest drawing. He was working diligently on it. It was a picture of them. All of them. Each and every face was in incredible detail. No one would ever know that they had been the faces behind the helmets. It was better that way.

"Tori?" Hunter asked, realizing that she was standing off by herself.

She looked up and flicked back her hair. "Blake and I had a fight last night," she told him. "I told him I couldn't go on the way we have. I told him it wasn't enough any more." She had a tear threatening to fall down her nose.

Hunter wrapped his arms around her. "What did he say."

"He said he'd quit Factory Blue for me."

Hunter tried to sustain his shock. Factory Blue was his brother's life, it was everything to him, or so he'd thought. "That's what you wanted?"

"Yes, but now I feel so guilty."

Tori accepted his firm grasp around her wrist. "It's about time he sacrificed for you, Tori."

She sighed. "I just..."

"The relationship wasn't working out with him leaving all the time. It happens. Don't feel like you were the villain."

She gave in to her tears. "I just need him to be there. He's never there, Hunter."

"I know I'm never there," Blake said from behind her.

Hunter let her go awkwardly.

Tori turned around.

"I was using you. I was expecting exactly what you said. Love when it was convenient for me. I never once thought about what you wanted. I just called in my resignation at the end of the cycle. Tori..." He stepped forward and took her in his arms. "I want to be here now. We could have died out there, and I don't want to give up what time I have left with you."

Hunter backed away and went to find Shane, Dustin and Cam. He could see that familiar look in Blake's eyes that meant he was about to kiss Tori and he didn't want to intrude.

"I just can't make it stop," Dustin said quietly, turning to Kelly. "The voices of those we've lost are ringing in my ears again." He hated being vulnerable. He hated feeling like the one who always broke down.

Kelly took his hand. "You're free now, Dustin. Don't let it weigh you down anymore." She had to hold him together, had to be his support right now.

Shane and Cam stood with their arms crossed, trying not to make everyone else feel like they were invading any personal conversations.

"Come on, guys," Hunter called. "I think we're all going to be heading off in a while. We'll be back tomorrow anyhow."

"What about the 'reconstruction'."

Hunter looked over at Cam. "Is anything anyone says right now going to make you feel better, Cam?"

Cameron looked down. "No."

"Then I don't think we need to stick around. We'll all be together again for the funeral."

Shane agreed silently and handed Hunter a necklace from his pocket.

"You found it," Hunter said with wide eyes. "How'd you..."

Shane messed with some change in his pocket. "I saw you drop it and I went back for it last night."

Hunter squinted his eyes. "Why'd you do that for me?"

"Just don't lose it again, man. I know that thing means a lot to you." Shane couldn't place when Hunter had even inherited the necklace, but since he'd noticed it he had never seen Hunter without it. He even wore it to the beach.

"Right," Hunter said with a sigh. He tied it back in place around his neck and didn't mention it again. The world went still around him.