After Darkness Falls
"Rangers Reborn Part Two"
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.
Jason sat on the counter in the Power Chambers back room. He couldn't believe Billy had held onto the Zeo Crystal this long, or that he was even able to recharge it. It had been ages since he had held the power of the Gold Zeo Ranger. He kind of missed the simplicity of those days. Go to school, hang out, save the world, head home. There was no Muranthias in their lives, no one wanted him dead for being one of Maligore's children, and there was no friction between the teammates. He had noticed Kim trying her best to avoid Tommy, she didn't know what to tell him. He understood that, the two hadn't seen each other in nearly a decade. Not since they passed on their Turbo powers to T.J and Cassie. Of course, he hadn't been on the Turbo team, so he didn't know how well they worked together back then. They used to be such a great team during their Mighty Morphin' days, but he had a feeling that her Dear John letter may have put an end to that. He did know that she didn't like to talk about the letter, or her days as a Turbo ranger. Not even to him, her surrogate brother.
Jason watched as Billy pulled the Zeo Crystal out of the safe he kept it stored in. He had previously run it by Adam, who had passed his piece down to him. So Jason was to be the green Zeo ranger. He watched as Tommy took his old red ranger crystal, Rocky his blue, Carri the yellow, and Kim the pink. He reached out for his crystal and allowed it to become apart of him.
"Alright guys," Billy said as the rangers all flicked their wrists to summon their Zeonizers. "Try morphing, let's see how that goes." One by one the five rangers called out their respective Zeo number and connected the two Zeonizers, but nothing happened. "Well that's strange. Let me take a look at them, I'll see if I can figure out what went wrong." The five rangers all took their Zeonizers off and handed them to their friend.
"Couldn't we just find another power source?" Rocky asked, it wasn't that he wouldn't enjoy being the blue Zeo ranger again, it just seemed like there were simpler ways to get them powered.
Kim shook her head. "We don't have time for that. The only other power source that we know of is the Terra power, and Sarahna stole those. There's no telling what she did with them either." She looked Rocky square in the eye as she finished "So for now this is all we can do."
Tommy looked over at his former girlfriend. He couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her over the years. How had she changed from the sweet little girl he had fallen in love with, to the woman who stood before him now? She seemed more confident, like she was a leader now. "Kim's right." He said as he pushed himself off the wall. he couldn't believe he was agreeing with her, not after everything they had been through. All the argueing they did as Turbo rangers. "We don't know when this Sarahna will strike, or how she will strike. So we can't go off searching for a new power source. We don't even know if there is another."
Rocky knew they were right. This wasn't like when Ivan Ooze attacked and they knew, through Zordon and Alpha, about the Great Power on Phaedos. This time around they had no leads, and so all they could do was depend on Billy to figure out the bugs in the morphers.
"I think I've got it. I just need to calibrate the Zeonizers to be compatible with any residual power left over by other morphers." Billy said after carefully thinking about what may have caused the morhing malfuction. "You all have held other morphers, after these, right?" All the rangers nodded and Billy continued. "Alright, I just need to calibrate it to be compatible with the energies of your latest morphers. Could you tell what they were so I can get started?" He didn't mean to sound impatient, after all, he hadn't even given them a chance to answer. He just wanted to get this done so that there would be a full set of rangers there to stand in Sarahna's way.
"Well, my last morpher was the Turbo morpher." Rocky said, he wasn't ashamed to admit it. He had thought he'd be glad to leave this life behind, and he had been, up until he saw Carri at the podium. He'd never forget how he injured his back while practicing for a martial arts competition. He then handed the blue Turbo powers over to Justin Stewart until he recovered. After that he assumed the role of the blue Turbo ranger, until Dimitria had them pick successors. He figured that since Justin knew about them and had already held the power once, it was rightfully his. After that he went on to college and eventually met Dana after Carri left, opened his martial arts school and was now thinking of opening another.
"Mine was my BrachioMorpher of my Dino Thunder days." Tommy said proudly. He had been glad when the black Dino Gem chose him as the black ranger. He had never wanted to pass on the red Turbo powers to T.J, but he knew he had to. It was because of all the evil that Rita had him do that he still felt the need to redeem himself. When none of the original three gems chose him as a ranger, he felt as though maybe his ranger days truly were behind him. Until he found the black gem. Then he was certain that he would never be able to escape the power.
"And ours are the Terra morphers." Jason said, speaking for Kim, Carri, and himself. He knew they probably wanted to answer themselves, but they needed to save every second they could. As he thought about how willing his old friends, Tommy and Rocky, were to pick the power back up he found himself wondering if they would have been chosen as two of the other Terra rangers. It would've been cool, but now he doubted he'd ever know. Just thinking about how easy it was for Sarahna to get her hands on the box was enough to make him angry.
Kim watched as Jason's eyes flashed a bit of red. She placed her hand on his shoulder and whispered "Calm down. Getting mad now isn't going to help." She knew why he was mad, it irked her too to think about how easily the box was stolen.
Jason felt himself begin to calm down. He knew she was right, getting angry wouldn't help him or anyone else. "Thanks." He replied.
The flash of red in Jason's eyes didn't go unnoticed by Tommy. He saw it, and he was going to find out what it was about. But he'd do it while they were alone, either that or try and get the information out of Kim or Carri. There was so much that ahd happened to three of them that he didn't know about, and he didn't like being left out.
"Alright," Billy said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. "I need to do a scan of each of you to be able to calibrate the morphers precisely. Who's first?"
Before Jason could speak up, Tommy beat him to it. "I'll go. Just tell me what to do." He caught the look his old friend gave him, but he couldn't help himself. It was the red inside him. He still felt like he was the leader, even though he knew that Jason had more experience in this department and that the team was rightfully his.
"Just stand there and I'll wave the scanner over you and then I'll scan the others and start the appropriate calibrations." Billy said as he reached back for his scanner and began the process. Tommy felt a slight tingle as Billy waved the scanner up and down, but it was nothing. Like static electricity, only smaller. After him went Jason, then Kim, Carri, and Rocky. "Okay, all done. Trini," Billy said, turning his head to face the woman he had had a crush on since middle school. "Can you give me a hand with the calibrations? I'd appreciate it."
Trini nodded "Sure, no problem." She immediately grabbed two of the rangers morphers to get started. She wasn't as good with technology as Billy, but she was still good in her own right.
"This will probably take an hour or so, so feel free to go home and get some rest." Billy told them, there was no need for them to stick around at the moment. "I'll contact you when we're through."
Jason stepped forward and said "That's fine. I don't have anywhere to be, so I can stick around." He really needed to get out and look for a job, but right now this was more important.
"Well, I've got to get some sleep. I have work in the morning." Kim said as she straightened up and said goodbye to everyone before teleporting out via the new communicators Billy had handed out the day before after the meeting.
"Same here. Later." Carri said as she too teleported out. Jason watched as the girls left, he figured that they probably wanted to get away from their ex's for a while.
Rocky was next to straighten up. "I can stay too. I can afford to close my school for a day." He had planned on staying anyway, he was just going to give the morning instructor the day off with pay. He hoped to maybe talk to Jason about what happened out in space.
"I'm going to go and pack a few things from my house in Reefside. But I'll come back afterwards." Tommy said as he too left, leaving Jason and Rocky alone as Billy and Trini departed for the lab down the hall.
Kim landed in her bedroom and plopped down on her bed. She grabbed one of her pillows and held it close to her. She had every single look that Tommy had thrown her way. Some were kind and caring, like they were back before she went to Florida, others...not so much. It was hard for her to pin him down now, she had been trying to for two days but she couldn't tell whether he hated her, loved her, or was simply indifferent towards her. She had wanted to tell him the truth about the letter she sent him, but she was unable to do so while serving on the Turbo team, then after they passed on the power they didn't see or hear from each other again until two-thousand and two. Even then they weren't on the best of terms, he had been cold and bitter towards her, even though she had helped him out. But now, now it was different. She wondered if he was just toying with her by giving her those looks, like he was trying to get revenge of some sort. "No." She muttered as she began to drift off. "Tommy wouldn't...he wouldn't do that..." A few seconds later she was gone, taken over by sleep.
Tommy was packing a few of his things into boxes and caught himself staring at an old photo of Kim when he heard a familiar red head say "Knock knock."
He sighed, he was expecting Hayley, but not so soon. "You're supposed to do that before you walk in." He replied, standing up and setting the photo down with the others he had found of former teammates.
"So," Hayley said, ignoring his comment, "you're moving back to Angel Grove huh?" She shouldn't be surprised, a new enemy, old friends, and especially Kimberly all come around and he jumps at the opportunity to enter the fight. She had heard the stories about her more times than she cared to count, whether they be from Tommy, or some of his old friends that she had met while they were college, she had heard them.
"Temporarily, yeah. And thnaks for agreeing to keep and eye on things around here for me. I appreciate it." He said as he went back to packing.
"No problem. I'm only doing because you have a great computer." She said with a smile.
"I know." Tommy said with a laugh as he picked up the box he had been working on getting packed. "Can you do me one more favor? Help me load these boxes onto the Jeep?" Hayley shrugged adn went to grab the other box.
"Thanks." Tommy said after they set the two boxes down.
"Don't mention it. Is that all you're taking?" She asked, looking down at his two boxes.
"Well yeah, it's just clothes. I don't really need to take anything else. I can just get it while I'm down there."
Hayley held back the smile that was trying to form on her face and instead asked "So what about your job? What have you got planned for that?"
"Well, I have enough money to where I can afford an apartment for at least a year, and Anton agreed to take for me while I'm gone. He understands why I have to go." He knew why she was so curious, it was because every now and then he regressed to that forgetful teenager he used to be. He'd gotten better at not forgetting about stuff, but he did slip up everyonce in a while.
"Well, alright then. I guess I'll see you whenever. You take care of yourself. I don't want to have to drive all the down to Angel Grove just to attend your funeral, understand?"
Tommy couldn't help but laugh at that remark. "Yeah, and don't worry, I will." After giving each other a hug and saying goodbye once more, Tommy hopped in his Jeep and headed back for Angel Grove, the town where he spent almost all of his years as a Ranger.
Jason and Rocky sat alone in the back room of the Power Chamber, it had been about half an hour since everyone left, and neither one had said a word. Jason couldn't help but wonder if Rocky was sore at him about Carri going into space with him. He couldn't blame him if he was, he probably would be too. But he needed to know if he was, so that he could at least try and clear the air with him before they had to enter battle together. "Rocky," he started, "I need to know, are you upset about Carri going into space with me? I didn't force her, she made the decision herself."
Rocky turned to face his comrade, he wasn't sure how to answer that question. In a way he was mad, but at the same time he wasn't. He couldn't help but feel a little jealous about her going off with Jason, and leaving him alone for all those years. Finally, he sighed and said "Yes, and no. Yes, I'm a little mad about her leaving me alone to go into space. Well, I suppose hurt is a better way to put it. But no, I'm not mad at you. I know you had nothing to do with her decision. Now, I want you to answer me this, did Carri ever see anyone else while you were out there?" He couldn't help himself, he wanted to know, but at the same time he didn't. He wasn't sure how it would affect him if she had.
Jason knew that question might come up sooner or later, and he was prepared to answer as best he could. "To be honest, I'm not sure. I mean, there was a four year period where we were apart while training. If she met someone during that time she didn't tell me about it. But I can vouch for her after we met back up, she didn't even think about another person like that after we started travelling together again, or even after we ran into Kim. So, you'd have to ask her." He hoped tha answer would suffice, and that he wouldn't haveto answer anymore questions like that.
"No." Rocky said, nodding his head. "No it's okay. If she didn't tell you then I doubt she did meet anyone. She usually tells you everything. Thank you." He hated admitting that he wasn't her top confidant, but he understood why she usually went to Jason first. It was understandable. At least he knew Jason was being honest with him, but that just made it worse. Carri hadn't even thought of another man, and here he was dating a girl who couldn't even hold a candle to Carri.
Jason wanted to change the subject, he didn't want to leave it an awkward silence, but he also didn't want to talk about his and Carri's relationship. Then he remembered hearing Rocky say he ahd a school. "Hey, what kind of school do you run?"
Rocky was a little taken back by the sudden change of subject, but he realized that Jason was probably uncomfortable talking about it. "A Martial Arts school. I started it after college. What about you? What kind of job do you do, and what about Carri?" Suddenly he found himself very curious, he knew that Kim worked in a flower shop, but he had no idea what Jason and Carri did.
"Well Carri's working as a producer for her brother at the moment. As for me, I'm still unemployed." He admitted "Nothing just seems to really grab my attention. Accounting, fast food, retail, none of it." It was true, he hadn't found anything that appealed to him, nothing he could really see himself doing for a long while.
Hearing that gave Rocky an idea, and after thinking it over carefully, he decided to go for it. "Hey, since you haven't found a job yet, would you like to work at my school? Until I get the second one opened?" He paused before further expaining. "The instructor I have now lives in Stone Canyon, which is where I'm going to open the next one. So if you were to accept I could transfer him there after it opens and you could work the afternoon classes while I take over the morning classes for him. What do you say?"
Jason thought that over for a moment. He did miss teaching Martial Arts classes. He and Tommy used to do it all the time in the Youth Center, and it was a lot of fun. Now he being offered the chance to do it again, and at least with Rocky as his boss he could leave at a moments notice for a ranger battle and not get fired. "You've got yourself an instructor." Jason said as he held his hand out and shook hands with Rocky. By that time Billy and Trini were just arriving back in the room from finishing the calibrations.
Sarahna sat in her throne, which once belonged to Lord Zedd, the self proclaimed "Ruler of all that is Evil." She was pretty bored, she had sent Cairus to find either someone who could make monsters, or a staff similar to Zedds which could make monsters. Until he returned all she could do was sit there and amuse herself by torturing the Courtadrones. Pieces of them lay everywhere where she ahd either blasted them apart, or ripped them apart. Sighing, she decided it was time for her to go and have some fun down on Earth. Checking to make sure that the Terra box was still laying next to the throne she stood to depart. She wished she could get that infernal box open, but only a chosen one could do it. Obviously the power didn't deem her worthy. Which was fine with her, she didn't want to be deemed worthy of anything by the forces of good. "You!" She shouted, pointing at the only Courtadrone she hadn't killed, "Go and gather around seven more Courtadrones and meet back here." The Courtadrone nodded nervously and rushed off, returning a minute later with seven more. Smiling, Sarahna snapped her fingers and in a flash of black lightning she and the Courtadrones were gone.
Billy had called all the rangers back, waking Kim and Carri from their naps, and catching Tommy about halfway to Angel Grove. He had pulled his Jeep over at a rest station and teleported from there. Billy had finished the calibrations that were needed to morph, and just in time too as Sarahna appeared on the screen. "Everything should be ready. This'll be their first test since being recalibrated, hopefully that'll be enough." The original blue ranger said, he did the best that he could, if they still couldn't morph then they were going to have to try something else, if they even had enything else.
"It's Morphin' Time!" Jason shouted out, and they each connected their Zeonizers and morphed correctly this time. Though there were some changes to the suits. Tommy red Zeo suit was now crimson red, the gold bands with black, were now black with gold, and the white parts were now grey. Jason's suit was so dark that it was almost black with a green sheen, and his gold bands remained the same, while his boots and gloves were also grey. Rocky's suit was now a darker shade of blue, he also bore the inverted band colors, and had grey boots and gloves. Carri's suit was now white, rather then yellow, and she too had the inverted band and her boots and gloves were pure black instead of grey. Kim's suit was darker, more akin to red than pink, and she too had the inverted bands and black boots.
"Whoa!" Carri said, noticing the changes in their suits. She wanted to go on about them, but duty called and they all teleported off to the battlefield.
Sarahna was walking the streets of Angel Grove, her Caourtadrones following behind her, she was blowing up every car in sight, and shattering some windows as she passed. She enjoyed Earth, there were so many things and people to toy with. One man was running for his life and she caught sight of him, holding her fingers in the shape of a gun she aimed them at him and said "Bang." Laughing as he stopped dead in his tracks and fell over with a hole through his chest. It was almost perfect, all she needed now was for Jason to show up so she could capture him.
As if reading her thoughts, Jason and the other four rangers appeared before her. "So, that's Sarahna?" Rocky half questioned, half stated. He saw Kim nod, acknowledging that he was right.
Sarahna stared at the group of rangers. They looked like the Zeo rangers she had read about, but there was something different about them now. "Oh goodie, Jason, you brought me new playthings!" She said with a twisted laugh and smile.
"I don't think so!" Jason said, stepping forward to reveal himself to her. "We're here to stop you!"
She giggled at that statement. "You? Stop me? Oh please, you couldn't do that in Vega, what makes you think you can now?" She looked from the red ranger, to the pink ranger before continuing. "I mean, sure, you have two more rangers on your side. Whoop-dee-doo. Like they'll make a difference." Smiling, she threw her hand up and back, and threw a ball of lightning at them, scattering them.
As the rangers jumped to avoid her lightning ball, she went after the green ranger and began hurtling more lightning balls at him. Jason dodged all of them, and even drew his Zeo sword and deflected one back at her. Sarahna jumped out of the way of her own attack and watched as it blew apart one of her Courtadrones. "You'll pay for that!" She growled as she landed and jumped again to kick him. He caught her foot and threw her to the ground. Enraged, Sarahna vanished in a bolt of green lightning.
Tommy and Rocky found themselves having some difficulty getting their group of Courtadrones to stay down. "Guys!" Jason called out and he jumped into the fray and began throwing punches of his own. Aim for below their chins, right here!" Jason said as he punched one along the bottom of its jaw and dismantled it. "That's the easiest way to do it, assuming you can make contact." After sharing that information, the Courtadrones went down a little easier until they were all gone and the rangers teleported back to the Power Chamber.
Up on the moon Sarahna was infuriated, not only had Jason embarrassed her infront of her troops, but he had also destroyed them. She would be grateful when Cairus returned with the ability to make monsters. It would make taking them down a whole lot easier. Until then though, she would be patient. She didn't want to suffer another defeat like the one handed to her today. As she went and sat back in her throne she picked up the Terra box and said "Soon. Soon I will have you opened, and Zordon's greatest power will be mine. Along with the son of Maligore!" She laughed maniacally as she thought about it. Once she had that, the universe would be hers.
As they entered the Power Chamber and powered down, Carri was the first to comment. "I think we did pretty good. Too bad Cairus wasn't there, I'd like to send his scaley fox butt packing too."
"One thing at a time." Tommy said, looking out over the team. "Yes, today was a victory, but we all know that it's never over that easily." He wanted to add more, but was cut short by Carri.
"Lighten up Tommy. We won today, yes. We all know its not over, if was that easy to defeat Sarahna then she wouldn't be here. We get it. Can I just go home and go back to sleep? It's getting late." She looked at he watch, which read ten till ten. "I have to be up at five. See ya!" She called as she teleported out in a streak of white light.
"I suppose I need to get back to my Jeep before someone attempts to tow it for whatver reason." Tommy said, teleporting out in a streak of crimson red.
"I'd better go notify Mr. Yost that the school will be closed tomorrow." Rocky said, but before he could teleport out Kim spoke up.
"Why, exactly, are you closing your school tomorrow?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. Jason, Billy, and Trini turned to look at him too.
Rocky hadn't felt this much pressure in a while. "I, uh, well, I..." he let his voice trail off.
"You want to try and catch Carri for lunch or something, right?" Jason asked. He could tell he was right by the look that crossed Rocky's face. "Look, if Kim can keep her mouth shut, ow," he said as she smacked in the same spot that Carri had the before. "Then I'll tell Carri to meet me and Kim at Bulkmeier's, once I have a time from her, I'll contact you and let you know. After she gets there me and Kim will say we have to go. Alright?"
Rocky nodded in agreement and thnaked him before leaving in a streak of blue. "Well that was nice of you." Kim remarked, she hadn't known Jason as the romantic type since his break up with Emily. "Why'd you do it?"
Jason smiled as he was about to give her the news. "It's the least I can do to repay him for the job he gave me." It wa true, Jason felt as though he owed Rocky one, and this was the perfect way to repay him.
"You mean he offered you the job of instructor?" She asked in excitement. She couldn't believe that she'd forgotten to mention it to him, but she was glad he found out either way.
"Yeah, how'd you know what it was for?" Jason asked, as far as he knew she shouldn't know.
Kim realized what she said, after she said it. "Oh, well," she replied, "he stopped by the shop a few days ago, the day after your walk, and I was really sleepy, so I guess I kind of forgot to mention it. Sorry."
Jason gave her a hard look, but he knew it wasn't he fault. If he hadn't gotten so angry then they wouldn't have stayed up all night that night. "It's alright. What do you say we go home and get some sleep our selves?" Kim nodded in agreement and together they teleported off in green and red streaks, leaving Billy and Trini behind in the Power Chamber.
Billy turned back to the computer to start a new project. "You can head on home too, Trini. I'm going to stay and start on a new weapon for the rangers." Really he wished that she would stay, but he knew she had her own life and was married. She had flown in from Switzerland for the meeting using her husbands private jet, and she was headed back the next day, but she offered to teleport from Switzerland to the Power Chamber to help him out when he needed it.
"No, that's okay. I think I'll stay and help out for at least another hour." She said, flashing a smile at the former blue ranger. Never one to argue with her company, Billy motioned her over and began to explain his plans for the weapon to her, and told her what he needed in his lab and asked her to get it while he got started setting things up. Trini wound up staying the night, even falling asleep at one point from exhaustion, and Billy couldn't help but smile at how cute she looked as she slept.