Disclaimer: I own nothing but ideas. The characters on the other hand...

A/N: Aside from the Epilogue, this is the end of the story. There will be one more story in the "Ghost of Me" series, coming VERY soon. Thank you for staying with me for so long, I'm really excited to bring about a conclusion to this series of stories.

Whispers in the Dark - Chapter 15

Tommy woke up slowly, not recognizing where he was. He was in a bed, lined with metal railings, covered in white sheets. He looked down to see what he was wearing, and he realized he was in a hospital gown. He looked to his left, and he saw two familiar faces. Buffy was resting in the bed beside him, and Angel was sitting in the chair beside her. Suddenly, his thoughts began to flood with memories, realizing that his fiance was not sitting beside him. "Kim!"

He shot up, looking around, hoping what he remembered was a bad dream, but his future wife was nowhere to be found. The next person he saw was Harry, followed by Jason, Kat, and Rocky. "Where is she?" He asked.

"We don't know, Tommy," Harry confessed.

"What do you mean you don't know!" Tommy shouted, anger and desperation evidenced in his voice.

"We looked all over the place for a wizard named Loki, Trickster, Asgard... everything," Harry explained. "The only thing we found was in Norse Mythology. Apparently, this Loki is something of a god, if the myths are true. But where they come from... Asgard, it's a land where science and magic are one, and it's magic that I've never dealt with before, nor has anyone else that I know."

"Is there anyway we can get there?" Tommy asked.

"No," Harry said. The other ranger teens, Jason particularly, started to tear up. They knew the implications of what Harry was saying. Kim was gone forever. Unless Loki sent her back, they had no way of getting to her.

"It's... I can't..." Tommy began to sob. Harry and Jason were on opposite sides of him, putting their hands on his shoulders, trying to comfort him. But they couldn't imagine how he was feeling. Heck, they didn't know how they were getting through it, let alone how Tommy could be doing so. Jason began to openly sob as well, as did Kat. Even Harry teared up, feeling close to his former teammates from when they had battled Voldemort together. "What do I do?" He asked, choked by his tears.

"We pick up the pieces... together," Jason said in between tears of his own. The rangers and Harry stood silent for a long time, merely thinking, crying, and internally wrestling with the idea that there was no way of getting Kim back. Giles and the scoobies came in and out seeing how they were all doing, and offered their condolences. Cordelia was especially taking it hard, considering she was the one leading them out of the library.

Tommy had asked Giles if there was anyway they could interrogate the Mayor, but he had been killed by Tonks. He had tried to ascend prematurely, but Tonks was able to use a charm that destroyed the process, ultimately destroying Wilkins. Tommy's last ray of hope seemed to have dimmed at hearing the news. He should have been thankful, Wilkins could have destroyed a city, or even the world. Yet, his destruction gave him little hope of finding Kimberly.

As the day passed, both Buffy and Tommy were discharged from the hospital, citing that they were in stable condition and there was no chance of them relapsing. As they left the hospital, the two walked together down the hallway towards the exit, but the distance between them felt much larger. The emotions they both felt... Angel had left before she woke up, disappearing for good.

"I'm sorry about Kim," Buffy said, breaking the silence. "I'm sorry we couldn't protect her."

"I pledged to protect her," Tommy replied sadly. "It wasn't your responsibility... I failed her."

"There was nothing more you could do," Buffy stated firmly. "You were tortured, and then you went up against someone who was far more powerful than we could imagine. You heard Harry say that this Loki guy is a god."

"He's no god," Tommy said angrily. Buffy was taken aback by his sudden change of tone. "God wouldn't stand for this injustice, let alone be the cause of it." He paused, collecting his breath. "I'm going to find Loki. I'm going to find a way to win her back from him. And when I do, he's going to wish he never took Kim." Buffy was startled by his determination, and Tommy's words were the last spoken between them.

*Yellow Frog Arts and Athletics Complex*

"You're resigning?" Jason asked incredulously, looking at the papers Tommy had just handed his best friend. "You can't do this bro, you can't just leave because of Kim."

"That's exactly why I need to leave," Tommy responded. "This school was a dream revitalized when Kim and I got back together. Without her... my heart's not in it anymore."

"So your heart is only in it when a girl is involved?" Jason asked, getting more and more frustrated.

"It's not just some girl! But you wouldn't understand that!" Tommy yelled.

"Of course I understand it! You think you're the only one who loved Kim!" Jason shot back. "She was like my sister! I promised to protect her for life, and I failed at that just as much as you did." Jason calmed himself, trying to ease the tension between them. "You can't just let this destroy everything you've worked for. Your heart... as much as you loved her... your heart and passions shouldn't change based on whether you're with Kim or not. If she were here right now, she'd tell you to push on, to fight past the feelings."

"But she's not here!" Tommy erupted. "Do you have any idea what I've been through over the past couple weeks. I've had to call her parents, the rest of her family, our guests, our students... I've had to tell them that Kim is nowhere to be found... and that it's MY fault."

"It's not your faul..."

"Then whose is it?" Tommy asked seriously. Jason didn't know how to respond, while Tommy continued to stir in his anger. "I can't look at this place... I can't look at you and Kat, or anyone else involved with the rangers without the memories of her. I need to get away."

"Then take a sabbatical, something," Jason pleaded.

"I accepted a scholarship from Cal – Berkeley," Tommy admitted sheepishly.

"What?" Jason said, absolutely befuddled. "Scholarship for what?"

"It's an accelerated Doctorate program for paleontology, funded by someone named Anton Mercer, an expert in the field."

"What... how?"

"Because I'm a former ranger, they want to use my experience with the dinozords, and in return train me in the field."

"But why would you do this?"

"Because maybe I can use it to get new powers," he said sharply. "Maybe I can find a way to re-access our old powers, enhance them, find a way to get to Kim."

"And what if you don't?" Jason asked.

"Then I don't," Tommy admitted. "But I need to try... I need to see if I can do it. I need to see if I can bring her back. I was pledging myself to be her husband. To die for my bride. I may have never gotten to the altar, but I'm willing to give my life for her sake."

"Why not just ask Harry if there are other options?" Jason asked.

"They've all ready seemed to have given up. I'm not ready to do so." Jason still looked flustered. "Look... if you're concerned about finding teachers and the funds to pay them, I've all ready made some calls, and I wired my house savings to you the business' account."

"What?"

"They're paying me to get my College Education, and right now I don't have a bride to share a home with... it's my parting gift to you."

"Will we hear from you?" Jason asked as Tommy started to leave.

"You can always get in touch," he said, lifting up his wrist displaying his old silver communicator. "I re-wired it so you could get in contact me on a certain radio frequency. If you need me... you know how to get a hold of me."

"Good luck bro," Jason said, saying good-bye to his best friend.

*Angel Grove Lake*

The next day, Tommy showed up at the lake in his jeep, and got out to overlook the lake which had held so many memories for him. It was so different as he looked out at the lake. Forget the fact that for the first time in his life, his hair was spiked rather than long. It was the feeling of determination and purpose. He looked out at the lake once before when he had lost Kim. But at that point, it was merely due to a break up. It had been hard and out of left field, but it was nothing like it was now. A tear slid down his face as he remembered back to the night he proposed Kimberly.

"Kimberly, this place has meant a lot to us. I still remember the first day when I tried to ask you out. This was the site where I lost my powers. The site where we first started dating, where we shared our first kiss, the site where you decided to give up your powers to pursue your dreams, and the site where I once lost hope in our romance. This place, for us, represents the reality of life. It has its joys and its sorrows, its pains and its pleasures. I know that life now isn't a fairy tale, but it's a journey which has its extreme highs and extreme lows. Kimberly Anne Hart, I want to experience that journey with you by my side, as my wife. Will you marry me?"

"Thomas James Oliver, I have been waiting SO long for you to officially ask me this!"

"So I take it that it's a yes?"

"You better believe it!"

Tommy brought himself out of his memory, remembering what he said about the lake, being the representation of the reality of life. "Maybe you're gone forever," he said to himself. "But I won't stop searching until I know for sure, Beautiful." He stared at the lake for what seemed like forever, until he heard the sound of thunder in the distance. He looked to the skies to see the menacing clouds closing in on him, and finally chose to walk back to his car, which was loaded with all his belongings, and drove off to a new life. A life away from Angel Grove, a life oriented to gaining whatever knowledge he could to find Kimberly.

*S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, undisclosed location*

Billy Cranston sat behind his workstation, running what appeared to be vitals of an object. He looked past the his computer and gazed upon said object: a cube which shined a brilliant blue color.

"How's the progress?" A voice said from behind him. Billy turned to find Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., behind him.

"This power source is like nothing I've ever seen," he commented. "I was able to source it to one of the old morphers we had, and it had more energy running it than what the morphing grid could put out 100 times over. We could create a team of rangers, and they would be more powerful than ever before."

"Do you have people in mind that could be a part of your ranger team?" Fury asked.

"I do... but it would take a lot of time to create rangers that could run on this power source. Part of the problem is it's fairly unstable."

"How long before you could stabilize the powers to suit one ranger?"

"Honestly... it could take anywhere from weeks to years," Billy confessed.

"Ok... well, let's take our time, then," Fury replied. "Do you have a design?"

"As a matter of fact, here's my prototype of the pink ranger," Billy replied. Suddenly, without either of their knowledge, Loki appeared behind them. However, he could not be seen or heard by any of them. He looked on as Billy pulled up the file of the Ranger design.

"Well... looks like we've got the right man for the job... this design looks great, Billy," Fury said.

"Yes, Billy," Loki said to himself, no one hearing him. "This design looks very promising."

"Billy, what are some of the things we can do when the cube is hooked up to the suit?" Fury asked.

"Well... if my calculations are right... it would become the greatest manned weapon we have in human history," Billy answered.

"Excellent," Loki's smile gleamed wickedly, and then disappeared from the room.

"Excellent," Fury said, with a smile.

To Be Continued...

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review!

- Googz333