A/N: Chapter 16. The Rangers confront Mrs. Dumas for the first time at Mr. Scott's funeral ceremony.

A/N 2: I own nothing. Power Rangers once belonged to Saban, then they went to Disney and belong to Saban again. Anything San Antonio Spurs related belongs to them and the NBA.

Chapter 16 – One Heck of a Friday the 13th

Friday, August 13, 2004

Angel Grove Cemetery

3:30 p.m.

Angel Grove, CA

As they heard the priest give his final eulogy for James Michael Scott, a man that many of the group had known for their entire lives, they couldn't help but shudder.

They were still feeling the effects of what had happened just three days prior. No villain, then or previously, had ever gone out and murdered a person as callously as Adrianna Repulsa had just done. All of them knew why it had been done, it was a really smart move they had to admit but it didn't make it any easier to handle.

The only thing that made them feel any better was that Sam and David had apparently done something with Kimberly after she had gone to sleep the previous night, something not even Tommy was aware of. When Tommy had questioned what Sam and David had been up to, they had been very cryptic and said Tommy would understand when the time came.

As they watched Mr. Scott be lowered into the casket, all of the Rangers were visibly shaken, but most notably Kimberly, who was holding onto Tommy as tightly as she ever had.

Somewhere deep in those recesses of her heart where she didn't talk about, she knew she always needed Tommy; that's why she'd held onto that stuffed white tiger throughout her time at LSU and never had gotten rid of it. Now, with a man she'd gone to time and again when her own family had its problems dead and gone, she needed him again and he was being that protection for her.

For Tommy, who had been helped by Kimberly many times when trying to cope with how he became a Power Ranger in the first place, it was the least he could do for her.

Back in his Green Ranger days, those long, miserable days where he'd fought for his team and against the specter of how he became a Ranger, Kimberly had been his guiding light, his wings to fly. This was in large part why she had captivated the hearts of Tommy's San Antonio family immediately and she always knew it was a place she could go if worst came to worst.

Now, it was Tommy's turn to return the favor, to be the wings she needed to deal with what was coming. And he knew what, or rather who, was coming, with all her money and all her attorneys. It was set up perfectly to be a disaster spot for the entire team, unless Tommy could successfully return the favor from all those years ago and be Kimberly's wings to fly.

"The Scott family wishes to thank you all for coming on such short notice; the reception for this funeral will be held at 5:00 at the Angel Grove Baptist Church. May God Bless you all," the priest said as his final words and made his way to speak with the Scott family directly. Meanwhile, the rest of the Rangers and Hayley moved to form a shield around Kimberly and Tommy, including two new arrivals that looked familiar to Tommy, Kimberly, Adam, Tanya and Katherine.

"If you're wondering, yes, it's THEM, except one of them really goes by the name Divina now," Adam whispered to the group. "They're good; because of my enhanced Ninjetti powers was able to see into both their hearts, especially Divina's. I ran into them while with Tanya on tour in San Diego about a month ago. They can help us. Zordon called them in shortly after the Ninjetti powers came back to us.

As it turned out, Adam couldn't get another word in. Trouble had arrived, unfortunately for all.

"KIMBERLY ANN HART!" a voice screeched. Every single one of the Rangers and allies who had formed a shield around Kimberly cringed; even Sam Trueheart, who never seemed to get too high or too low, noticeably shuddered though he quickly recovered. He hadn't seen Caroline Dumas for more than five seconds and already disliked her intensely.

"Out of my way, all of you!" Kimberly's mother shoved Tanya aside as she strode into the circle towards her daughter, who was still being held by Tommy.

"How dare you!" Tanya snarled as she tried to pull herself to her feet, with Adam's help. "You come to a FUNERAL service, for a beloved person, and you make THIS scene? What kind of a woman are you?"

"Well for one, I'm better than all of you because I live in Paris, I have lots of money and I can do things none of you could ever dream about, especially you Tommy Oliver you San Antonio piece of scum," Caroline said.

"And this funeral is exactly why I'm here. I will NOT let my daughter be killed by evil aliens as a civilian! Say goodbye to my daughter, because this is the last day that you will EVER see her. I'm taking her with me back to France and there is nothing any of you can do to stop me."

Jason, who had heard the commotion and had rejoined the circle, had noticed that Sam's calm look had not changed and whispered to Sam, "How can you be so sure that everything will turn out OK with Kimberly's maniac mother here?"

"Because, Golden Eagle, David and I blessed Kimberly while she was asleep last night. Unless she came with good intentions, which she didn't, Mrs. Dumas cannot touch her," Sam said as he turned to where the woman was nearing her daughter and Tommy.

"If I were you, misguided woman, I would not lay a single hand on her," Sam said. "The spirits that guard this land are already unhappy with your behavior. You cannot lay a hand on her unless you have her best intentions at heart…which you don't."

"We'll see about that, old-timer," Caroline snapped as she tried to grab Kimberly away from Tommy. As soon as she touched Kimberly's wrist, white and pink electricity shot through her body and she screeched in pain as she let go of Kimberly.

"Kimberly Ann WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Caroline screeched as distinct welts appeared all over her body. "Tell me why I shouldn't lobby for you to be put in jail altogether!"

"She didn't do anything to you," Tommy snapped. "Sam warned you but you wouldn't listen. The spirits that protect our land and keep it from getting run over by the aforementioned alien invaders are very unhappy with you and what you have tried to do."

"I guess I shouldn't be saying this because I'm a reformed villain from the past, but you human lady are the scum of the Earth. When I was here in 1997, I simply wanted to take over the world, it wasn't personal it was just business. You're going far beyond business and making this personal," Divina of Inquiris finally said, making her presence known for the first time. "Not only have you come to a solemn ceremony and been a disruptive force for everyone, but you come and threaten Kimberly and fling vulgarities at a funeral, and there are CHILDREN here! Even as a reformed villain I have respect for the dead…unlike you."

"Not only that, do you not know that money does not buy happiness?" the human form of Dimitria of Inquiris said. "Those of us here may not live a posh life like you do, but we still carry significant importance."

"Like I even care what you both have to say. And for the record, a wise man once said that whoever said money doesn't buy happiness doesn't know where to shop," Caroline snapped as she picked herself up and headed towards Kimberly again, but this time a wall of pink and white energy seared through her as she crashed to the ground again.

This time, she was even worse off. Not only were there multiple welts, but distinctive burns appeared all over her body; burns that would not heal quickly, no matter that Caroline Dumas with her expensive lifestyle could see the best doctors money could buy.

"We keep telling you, and you don't listen," David said. "I told you that Kimberly would sue you and get a restraining order against you if you came near her again, and you didn't listen to me, or your lawyers. And we told you the spirits that protect us would deal with you if you tried to forcibly take her, but you wouldn't listen either. Care to try us again?"

"Well, I guess if I can't forcibly take you, then I guess I'll see you in court, Kimberly Ann. I had a marriage all arranged for you when I got you to Paris but that may not even be good enough anymore," Caroline snapped as she prepared to leave, a statement that left Kimberly and everyone else in shock. "Remember that I have the best attorneys money can buy, so your friends will not save you."

"Going so soon?" David said as he stopped her before she could leave. "I believe you forgot that you were going to be served papers."

With that, David dropped a stack of papers into Caroline's hands.

"Consider yourself served, Mrs. Dumas, because if you come within 50 feet of Kimberly before we go to court, not only will the spirits of this world be angry with you, you are likely to end up in jail," David said. "And this is the lawsuit, as Kimberly is suing you for blackmail. You just made the biggest mistake of your life."

"We'll see about that," Caroline growled as she huffed her way out of sight, trying to lick her wounds.

With her out of sight, the reality and weight of the situation came crashing down on the Rangers. Now more than ever, they would need to stick together through this upcoming storm.

7:45 p.m.

The Oliver Home of Reefside

Reefside, CA

After all that had happened on this Friday, August 13, no one needed more alone time than the Power Rangers and all their allies, so they found the safest place they could be…Valencia Drive outside Reefside.

Though not everyone who wore a Ranger uniform or was associated with them was at the funeral, they all heard about what happened, so they knew that all the support they could give was needed. Thus, they took time away from their Friday night to get to Reefside if they could to gather and commiserate together.

That was, except Conner who had a Reefside Wave game that night and Rocky who was coaching the Angel Grove Heat team elsewhere.

Of all sitting in Tommy's home in the woods, no one was more shaken than Kimberly, even as Tommy continued to cradle her closely. Her world had literally come crashing down that afternoon.

She knew it would be bad when her mother showed up that afternoon, and she had been correct, but she had no idea how bad it would get.

To hear that her mother, a woman she was supposed to trust with her whole life, had an arranged marriage set up for her in Paris…she didn't know such things still existed…broke her heart completely and quite frankly, it scared her to death.

She still believed in having the freedom to choose who you wanted to be with for the rest of your life and that love shouldn't be artificial, and to see that her mother didn't believe in that at all had crumbled her instantly.

"Amiga, I am so sorry," Rosalina DeSantos said in her thick Mexican accent as she looked at Kimberly. "I heard the stories from Aisha's parents about how bad she was, but I had no idea until today. I can't believe arranged marriages still exist."

"She is trash and always has been trash. The black sheep of their family," Melissa Oliver said. "And she called MY son a San Antonio piece of scum? As a native San Antonian I take offense to that. I bet she wouldn't hate my town so much if she found out Tony Parker of the Spurs doesn't consider San Antonio a scum city."

Parker, of course, was the French-raised point guard who a year earlier had become a basketball world champion with the Spurs, under Coach Greg Popovich's tutelage.

"Yeah and furthermore, what she did was so unlike Popovich; if she really wanted to ream Kimberly out she could have done it in a private moment away from everyone else. That was embarrassing," Josh Oliver said. "It's no wonder Kim doesn't trust her."

"She hasn't changed a bit in eight years," Katie Scott said, "and I used to call her a close friend. But ever since she realized her dream and moving to Paris, she's become worse than she used to be. Divina, or whatever your name is, you were exactly right when you said how wrong it was to come into a funeral ceremony and do the things that she did."

"I'm not perfect and Dimitria's not perfect; she followed Zordon and not all of the Rangers who were fighting at that time were cool with her, but we generally have an idea of what's right and what's wrong. You should at least respect the dead," Divina said, "Dimitria has said many times in the last six years that if she'd known what truly happened with Kimberly and Tommy then she wouldn't have acted the way she did."

"I admit that when I took over for Zordon that I was angry at both Kimberly and Tommy and didn't want anything to do with them, but there is no doubt Mrs. Dumas has crossed the line. If she really cared about family then she wouldn't have been such a disruptive force today," Dimitria said. "I regret every single one of my past actions and everyone here can rest assured I will help do everything I can to keep Kimberly here and eventually beat Adrianna."

"Speaking of her, how soon do you think she'll attack again?" Jason said as he turned and looked towards Rita, her husband and their two companions. "Do you think she'll come after more of us now?"

"I don't think it will be soon," Rita said. "She's smart enough to know that we've formed a wall around each other and they still have their four prisoners. Speaking of, Dr. Mercer, how in the world did you end up here safely?"

"Jen alerted Trey, that's why he was here when I ended up here two weeks ago," Anton said. "I'm telling you, man, that's a scary place."

"Sadly, we'll have to wait to get them out of there until we deal with Caroline," Adam said. "Couldn't we still scare her though? Make her worry about us taking away the things she cherishes most?"

"We certainly can," Dulcea said. "She without question cares about her family and the vast weaponry she possesses more than anything else. I would say threaten her family, but we'd just be stooping to her level. But if you start destroying her weaponry, then she's going to throw a fit."

"The Megaship is still intact, for the most part," Andros said. "Ashley and I have spies out in space; they haven't seen a wisp of Adrianna's forces at all in past months, aside from Goldar killing Mr. Scott."

"She's playing it close to the vest then. Trying to sucker us in, as I figured she would," Tommy said. "I think we can't go all the way in but we may be able to go halfway. Andros, take your team and go out there and see what you can find; test her defenses if you can. Take Dulcea with you as she knows more about Adrianna than anyone else."

"We'll see what we can find," Andros said as he and his team left with Dulcea.

"The rest of us need to batten down the hatches until we go to court," Tommy said. "David, how long do you think it will be before we have this trial?"

"Don't know. In the legal profession, things are very fluid. I do know that as Kimberly's lawyer, the second I know something all of you will be the first to know."

10:00 p.m.

It seemed like for the last several hours, Kimberly hadn't let go of Tommy; she'd held on to him tighter than she ever had as they laid together on the couch in Tommy's living room watching a movie.

For some guys, it might have been overkill. To Tommy, it was no problem at all because he had been just as upset as Kimberly was. It had taken all of his restraint and self-control that he could muster to not kick Mrs. Dumas' teeth down her throat…and for Tommy that would have been improving her looks.

After the conference two hours earlier, everyone had chosen to go home except for Kimberly; she stayed with Tommy and they both simply ordered pizza for the evening.

It had been a hard day for Kimberly, yet at the end, a very rewarding one. The threat of her mother…and eventually Adrianna…still loomed but she knew she had her friends if worst came to worst. And more importantly, she had her guiding light back; she knew now that he was either going to be her wings to fly or die trying.

"Are you OK?" Tommy asked.

"I am now although I'm still shaken," Kimberly said. "I never knew arranged marriages still existed, until today."

"Yeah, that's wrong. I know they still exist but that doesn't make them right," Tommy said. "You've always held the ideal that love shouldn't be artificial. An arranged marriage is the very definition of artificial."

"I can't imagine the thought of being without you again, especially since we've given ourselves a chance again. Please, don't let go of me," Kimberly softly said.

"I gotcha, Beautiful, I gotcha; whatever happens, we'll get through it," Tommy said. "It's been one heck of a Friday the 13th hasn't it?"

"Yeah, good or bad it's a day I'll never forget because I truly know I'll always have you, no matter what happens. I love you, Handsome," Kimberly said.

"I love you too, Beautiful; let's go to bed."

Review box is at the bottom. Please leave one if you wouldn't mind.