After Darkness Falls
"The Return"
Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, that is owned by Saban/Disney.
A/N: Carri and all things related to Carri, including the yellow panther ninjetti and Jason's green cougar ninjetti, belong to KJ with many thanks. This is a seperate story from all the others I've previously written. This story assumes that the movie is canon, not the Ninjor storyline, that after the Power Chamber was destroyed in Turbo and that it was later rebuilt after in Space and that Billy came back to Earth after Lost Galaxy and rebuilt it. It also assumes that Tanya was replaced on the Zeo team by Carri Hillard, KJ's own character (again thanks), and that Kimberly took over the Turbo powers after Kat made the decision to leave.
A month after returning to Earth Jason found himself eating his breakfast, still unemployed, where as Kim had gotten employed as a manager as a local florist shop due to her knowledge of plants she obtained throughout high school and college, and Carri was offered a job by her brother Josh to help him produce a film he was working on. Jason sighed, he'd been back a month and still had no job. He just couldn't find anything that jumped at him, Carri had got her brother to extend the offer to him, but he turned it down. Now he found himself regretting that decision. Every Monday through Friday he found himself searching, while on Saturdays and Sunday he just went out to have fun. Kim was probably going to move out in a few weeks, once she had enough money, and then it would just be him and Carri living in her house. He didn't know how much longer Carri was going to allow him to continue mooching off of her, not that she would just throw him out, but he knew she would get tired of it eventually.
After he finished eating he decided it was time to go out and start looking. He walked out to the garage and pulled his motorcycle out, everyday he thanked Carri for having it put in storage for him so that he wouldn't have to sell it before he left for space. As he rode down the road, listening to his engine roar, feeling the wind on his face, he began to think about how much he missed the old days when he was a teenage ranger. They weren't exactly the easiest of times, but they were some of the best times of his life. He had his friends, Kimberly, Billy, Trini, Zack, and later Tommy, Rocky, Cat, and Adam. Of course he would never forget the Peace Conferences, in a way he more proud of the good he did there than he was of his time as a ranger. As far as he knew Zack and Trini were still living in Switzerland. They did really seem to like it there.
As he arrived in town he pulled his bike over and proceeded to begin looking again on this Tuesday morning. The day dragged on, and still nothing really seemed to jump at him. He had been his own boss, the leader of the Terra Rangers so long, that he didn't think he could handle a job where he had to answer to someone. As he walked around the corner he spotted a building, rubbing his eyes and looking again to be sure he wasn't seeing things he read the name "Bulkmeier's". Last he had heard Bulk and Skull were running a little pool and bar. Now they had turned it into a full-fledged restaurant. "I guess a lot can happen in eight years." Jason said absently to himself as he headed for the door.
Upon entering the restaurant he had to admit that he was impressed. They had a full dining area, a back patio if you wanted to eat outside, and a window so that you could see into the kitchen. Standing in the front of the restaurant behind the podium was none other than Skull himself, dressed in a crimson red shirt and black pants. "Table for one?" Skull asked before actually looking up at the customer. "Jason!" He exclaimed after he took a good look at who he was about to seat. "How have you been? For that matter, where have you been? Last I heard you just dropped off the face of the Earth."
"You could say that." Jason said, looking up at the roof as though he could see the stars. "Anyway, I've been as good as can be expected. I take you've been good as well, I mean, look at this place. You and Bulk really outdid yourselves."
"Yeah, we do alright. Oh, let me take you to your seat." Skull said, quickly leading Jason to an open booth. "And what would you like to drink?"
"Just get me a glass of water, thanks."
"Be right back." And with that Skull was gone. Jason sat there, looking at the menu until Skull returned with his drink. "And what would you like to eat?"
Jason thought about that as he looked over the menu. Finally deciding he said "I'll have one of 'Bulk's Famous Burgers'."
"Great choice. It'll be out in a minute."
Well, Jason thought, it'd better take longer to cook than that.
Kim stood behind the register of the florist shop she worked in, Ballentine's Flowers. She was grateful that she was given the position of manager. She wasn't exactly used to taking orders from someone, and this way she only had to see the owner a few times a year, whenever he came from Oregon to check on the California store. Sighing, she propped herself against the back wall and began thinking about what she should try and buy first, a car, or a place to live. With a car she wouldn't haveto rely on Carri to give her a ride, but if she got a palce to live she could quit feeling like she was mooching. After careful consideration she decided on a car. It would save her money in the long run, save her bus or cab fare. With any luck she would be able to get a good used car after her fifth paycheck. The owner told her she'd be making around five-hundred dollars every week, being on a salary.
She stared at the clock, waiting for it to hit one o'clock so that she could go meet Carri for lunch. Of course she could leave early if she wanted, but since she was still new she didn't want to push it. "Two more minutes." She breathed, shoulders slumping as a customer walked in, until she realized who it was.
"So this is where you work. Sorry I haven't been able to actually stop by until now, Josh has been working me pretty hard." Carri said as she leaned against the counter in front of Kim. She was happy for her friend, Kim had always enjoyed Botany so this seemed like the perfect job for her. Well, Carri thought, second perfect. The first would be in fashion.
"It's okay, I understand." Kim said as she clocked out for lunch. "So, where shall we go?"
"I don't know. There's so many new places here now. Hey did you hear that Bulk and Skull own and operate a restaurant now?" Carri asked, turning to look at her friend.
Kim's head jerked back with surprise. She never thought that they'd really amount to anything, they didn't make it as Jr. Policemen, or detectives, or even as scientists, which she knew that wouldn't work out for them. "No, I didn't. Think we should go there, maybe see how it is?"
Carri smiled and said "I already called and had Skull set up a table."
Jason watched as Skull brought his food to him, it looked delicious and he couldn't wait to dig in. "Oh, Jason," Skull said as he set his food down "Carri called and aasked me to set up a table for her and Kimberly, would you like them to join you?"
"Yes, of course. Thank you." Jason said, he hadn't seen much of Carri since they got back. She was usually working long hours at the studio, gone before he woke up and back after he went to sleep. It would be nice to see her again.
A few minutes later, just as he was finishing his burger, Skull lead the two ladies to his table. Jason watched as they made their way through the restaurant. Carri dressed in a silver, almost white, blouse and khacki pants, while Kim was dressed in a red shirt and blue jeans. "Jason!" both girls exclaimed when they saw him.
"We didn't know you'd be here." Kim said as she took her seat.
"Yeah, if we had known we'd have gone somewhere else." Carri said jokingly as she smiled at Jason. The man was like a second brother to her, and she treated him as such.
"Then get out of my booth." Jason joked back, offering the basket of rolls to the two girls. Each of them took one and ordered their drinks. "Oh, Skull, tell Bulk that the burger was the best I've ever had."
"He'll be glad to hear that, again." Skull laughed as he walked off to get the girls drinks.
"So?" Kim asked as she stared at her Murathian twin. Everytime she thought of that day it sent chills up her spine. She and Jason had been captured by the space pirate Divatox to be used as sacrifices to her fiance Maligore. Unfortunately the Turbo rangers were too late and they were sacrificed in the pit. They ahd only been down there for a moment, but to her it felt like an eternity, and she was sure it was the same for him. She felt as though her flesh had been ripped from her bones and regenerated. In fact, she knew that was what happened. When they were finally brought out of the pit they had been infected with Maligores evil, and Kim had tried to kill the man she loved, Tommy, and his then girlfriend Kat. Luckily Lerigot had been able to purge her of the evil, and she saw that Jason was close to killing Tommy, but thankfully he had been cured as well. She didn't like to talk about it, and in fact Jason was the only she ever did talk about it to.
"So what?" Jason asked, he had an idea of whta she meant, but he wanted to be sure.
"So, has anything caught your attention yet?" Carri asked, asking what Kim wanted to know. She wasn't going to upset if he hadn't, she knew how tough it was for him to take orders after so long, he had proved that in the alternate dimension.
Jason thought about whether or not he should answer that truthfully or not before speaking. "No." He said, deciding to be honest. "No, it hasn't."
Kim and Carri thanked Skull for their drinks and placed their orders before Kim said "Don't worry, something will grab your attention sooner or later."
"Yeah, maybe." Jason said as he finished his glass of water. "What about you?" He asked Carri, "How's your job going?" He knew how Kim's was going, he heard about every night after she got home.
"Uh, good. I guess. Josh has me doing a lot of work, and well, yeah." She said with a laugh. "It's actually very exhausting, you wouldn't think it would be, but it is. Mentally anyway."
The three friends sat there for the next hour, filling each other in on what all was going on and eating their food before Kim and Carri had to go to back to work. As they all said their goodbyes Jason headed back for his bike a few blocks away.
Deep in space, a ship was making it's way towards Earth's moon. Aboard this ship was someone seeking revenge, revenge on the Terra Rangers. Sarahna sat in her throne pondering what she would do to Jason's comrades, should she tear them apart limb by limb? Or maybe destroy everything they care about first? She decided it would be more fun to destroy everything first. Then maybe she could kill his friends, and capture him to accomplish her endgame. "Soon..." she said as her general, Cairus, landed her ship safely on the moon.
"Lady Sarahna," Cairus said in his deep, gravelly voice.
"What is it?" Sarahna asked as she glared down at her general. He was just about the ugliest thing she had ever seen, his head resembled a fox's but with red scales, while his body looked like a humans. He wore black armor and carried a sword at his side.
"It seems that the atmospheric barrier that Rita Repulsa set up seventeen years ago is still present here on the moon, at least around her old palace." Cairus notified her.
"Okay, well then why are you just sitting there? Get to work on restoring the palace to what it once was, in fact, make it better!" she growled.
"Right away My Lady!" Cairus said with a bow as he left the ship, followed by an army of Courtadrones.
Yes, Sarahna thought, soon Jason. Very soon you will be begging me to kill you, and I'll be all too happy to oblige. After you've suffered that it is. As the thought crossed ehr mind she began to laugh maniacally, with her laugh echoing throughout the ship, and even giving Cairus chills.
A few days after discovering Bulkmeier's, Jason found himself walking around the city, checking out some old and new places for a possible job. As he exited the motorcycle shop he was found himself confronted with a small army of Courtadrones. As he stared at the black and blue robots he couldn't help but feel as though he had brought the battle home, assuming that Sarahna had survived and followed him to Earth. Instinctively he engaged the Courtadrones in battle, doing what he could without morphing.
He ducked under a punch thrown by one of them, and kicked aother in the stomach, effectively sending it crashing into another. He continued to hold his own against them, until she appeared and they stopped. He turned to face Sarahna. He was glad that all the civilians had fled to safety, he was now free to morph. Flicking his wrist he revealed his black morpher with silver trim on on it. Throwing his arm up and pressing his fingers against the morpher he called out "Black Ice Power!" In a flash of black he was replaced by the Black Terra Ranger.
"Well, now thats more like it." Sarahna said with a twisted smile on her face. She couldn't wait to kill everything and everyone he cared about, but she would be patient. She just using this as a hello visit.
Jason stared at the woman through his visor. She had long, blond hair flowing over her shoulder, she wore a white piece of armor that wrapped around her torso and black pants with white boots. He noticed her blue eyes staring back at him. "I thought we killed you." He growled at her.
"Well, no one ever said you were too bright Jasey." She said with a big smile on her face. "Fact is, I'm kind of glad you won that little war." She slowly reached back and pulled her twin knives out of their sheaths. "It allowed me to follow you here and now it'll allow me to kill everyone you've ever known right before your eyes. Oh how I can't wait to hear the screams of agony." She said as she thrust her knives at him, cutting both of his arms as they went by.
Jason felt the sharp sting of her blades cut through his suit and into his arms as they went by, it didn't both him too much, he had dealt with much worse stuff than that in his life. "Is that all you got?"
"For now." She said sweetly. "The destruction will begin soon, and then, you'll be begging me to spare your life." She continued smiling and called her knives back to her, slinging his blood off of them before disappearing with her Courtadrones.
Yeah, we'll see about that, Jason thought as he powered down. "I suppose I'd better inform Kim and Carri about this..."
Cairus was surprised at how easy it was to break into the rangers house. He would have thought that they would have better security than that, but then again, he told himself, they did think this was all over. He rummaged through the house searching for the box that contianed the other Terra morphers when it him, the black ranger was charged with protecting the box, so it would make sense for it to be hidden in his room.
After searching through Jason's room for the box, Cairus was about to give up hope when he stepped on a loose floorbard. Lifting the board up he saw what appeared to be the box in question. "Oh how Sarahan will be pleased!" He said happily as he lifted the box up and vanishe with it.
After calling the other two Terra rangers together, Jason filled in his two comrades about what had happened in town earlier that day. He went on to explain that they needed additional help, that the three of them alone weren't enough like they had thought.
The more he thought about it the more in enraged him, he should have done a thorough search for her body. Kim looked over at him and saw his eyes begin to flash red. She sighed, this happened everytime he grew angry. She could at least control the flash in her eyes.
"Jason, calm down." Kim said in a soothing voice. "We're all responsible for this, not just you. We all thought she was dead."
"Yeah, listen to Kimberly. She's right Jason." Carri said, patting his arm. "Listen, I'm going to go grab the box with the rest of the morphers in it, from there we'll decide what to do." Kim and Jason nodded as Carri went to fetch the box.
"Kim, I'm sorry. I should have made sure she was dead. In all my years as a ranger one thing I've learned is to never assume that you've won. You want to make sure that you have, and now because of my mistake I've put everyone in danger. You, Carri, everyone!" He shouted as he placed his head into his hands.
As Kim continued to try and get him to calm down, Carri came abck downstairs empty handed. "Uh, guys. I'm afraid I have some bad news. It's the box, it's missing..."
Jason looked up in disbelief, a mixed look of fear and anger spread across his face. "Cairus." He growled "He wasn't there this afternoon, it had to have been him. Damn it, if I had known that this might happen I would have gone and talked to Billy, or Andros and had them put up a secure barrier to keep them out! Damn!"
Carri looked walked over to him, patting him on the back and telling him to remember what he learned, to focus and not lose his temper. A few minutes later he had calmed down and kept himself from breaking the coffee table. "I'm going for a walk." He said, and before either girl could comment he teleported out.
Kim and Carri looked at each other with scared looks on their faces. "I'm really worried about him. I've never seen him so angry before." Kim said, it was true. She had known Jason since childhood and he had never once been this angry. Not even when he blamed himself for the loss of Tommy's powers.
"I know, me too." Carri said. Both girls just sighed and continued to sit there on the couch, intent on waiting up for him.
Meanwhile on the moon Sarahna was overjoyed with Carus' success. She hadn't thought that he'd be able to pull it off, but here it was, the Terra Morpher box. Now all she had to do was get her hands on the other three, either by destroying them or stealing them. She smiled, this was beginning to look like a very pleasing conquest. It wouldn't be long before the Earth and the rest of the universe trembled at her feet.