Chapter Thirty-three

The Green Candle

The silence was oppressive. Tommy kept trying to think of things to say, because it seemed like the longer they stayed quiet, the less chance there was of starting a conversation. And he didn't want to be sitting in here, alone, in the dark, with Kimberly, for the next six hours, or however long it would take the RADBUG to run out of gas. Especially not since every time Billy went for more or less altitude, the two of them ended up crushed together to a somewhat painful point.

He knew he could ask her anything right now. They were alone, and once they got out of this trunk, his chance for a real talk was probably gone. He could ask her why. He could ask her any of the questions he'd wanted to ask her since winter of 1996.

But no way in hell was he that brave.

Give him a shark monster any day.

Besides, now was not the time to get into a fight, and he was about eighty-five percent certain that they'd have one when and if they did talk about it. Things were going reasonably well, and somehow, out on that mountain… it had been a profound experience. He'd felt like they were all six together for the first time since the day Jason, Trini and Zack had left. Not just when they'd been staring at the blank terrain that was their childhood, when he'd held Kimberly while she cried, but when they'd been chatting while sitting against the RADBUG, eating all those snacks Zack and Jason had bought, talking about everything and nothing. They had just picked up where they'd left off back in 1994. It was probably the best day he'd had in years. He wasn't going to ruin it now.

"So… read any good books lately?" Kimberly joked. He nearly jumped; the sound seemed so… sudden. Well, at least that saved him the trouble of coming up with an ice breaker.

"Not unless you count a manual on how to repair computer terminals," Tommy said.

"Why would you read something like that?" Kimberly asked, frowning.

"Well, my lab got totaled by an evil minion a few weeks back, remember? Zeltrax. Hayley—she's my… um, sort of like an Alpha/Billy/Trini—she's handling most of the computer repair, saving all the data we can, but she's had to work a lot lately—she owns the local teen hangout, and it's summer and everything—so I've been trying to get some of it done. It's a lot of work, though. But I've got most of the rubble cleaned out."

"Where exactly is this lab?" Kimberly asked.

"Beneath my house. It belonged to Anton Mercer, the guy who gave me a job during college and helped me search for the Dino Gems. But when he disappeared, his lawyers told me that the house went to me if anything happened to him, and Anton said there was no point in taking it back when he came back to Reefside."

"He gave you a whole house?"

"Well, he's incredibly rich," Tommy said. "He's Trent's father, think I mentioned that, but other than Trent he has no family, so he only has Trent to spend it on, and from what I understand Trent grew up so poor that he doesn't feel comfortable with overindulgence. Besides, when Anton came back, he was Mesogog—the head villain. So he wouldn't talk to me much, avoiding me when he could. I tried really hard to get a foot in his door, but he was having none of it. I asked things like 'What happened to you' and 'What are all our experiments doing trashing Reefside' and he kept skirting around them, so I asked if he wanted his house back, and he said there was no point in taking it back. I guess he knew I needed it."

"Don't teachers make fairly good money?"

"Well, it's not bad, especially considering that they have to pay me more because I have more than just a bachelor's degree, but I didn't get a job teaching until this year. Besides, I spend all the money I'm saving on rent for the taxes and the experiments, the ones that I did on my own, without Anton's funding. But that's not what I meant. See, he was the one who had the lab built, and after he found out about my past as a Ranger, he modified the underground lab with a lot of extra security and the escape tunnel and so on. That's how Zeltrax knew about it—Mesogog knew about everything Mercer did. But all that security, and a few modifications from Hayley, kept them out of there up until Zeltrax found the way in on his own."

"Ah."

And the silence returned. Damn.

"So… how does it feel to be a successful gymnast?" Tommy grimaced. That question was easily led back to things like "Since you ran off to be one and dumped me a few months later, I'd kind of like to know," but he had to pray that it didn't.

"Honestly? Not as good as I thought."

"But… you've won so many competitions and…"

"Yeah, I know. It's just… well. It's my dream. I've accomplished it. Now what?" She sighed. "Besides which, somewhere along the way I realized that what I really loved was being a Ranger, and helping people. And I'm never going to get to do that again."

Tommy chuckled. "Yeah, people never wind up becoming a Ranger again after they've given up the power. Ever."

Kimberly laughed. "Okay, maybe you're the wrong person to talk to about that."

"You think? Besides, Kim, it's not like being a Ranger is the only way to help people."

"Yeah. Maybe I just loved the automatic outfit thing too much. If only all my clothes would magically appear like the suit does."

Tommy cracked up. "Well, I don't know. Seems like they're getting more and more ceremonial. More arm waving, longer transformation calls. You should have seen Conner, Kira and Ethan morphing. Seemed like it took twenty minutes. Whereas Trent just pushed a button and said four words, they practically had a dance routine."

"I used to feel kind of silly during the morphing bit," Kimberly admitted. "Standing there, shouting 'Pterodactyl…' and don't even get me started on the Ninja Ranger morph. Now that was an involved morph."

Tommy nodded. "Yeah. And that suit… never liked it as much. Felt like I was wearing some sort of bed sheet. Not that the spandex stuff was utterly comfortable, but at least it wasn't billowing everywhere."

"No helmet to absorb the blows when you knocked your head, either," Kimberly said. "Mind you, I don't know why I'm complaining. It's the only power I have left, even if it's kind of weak."

"When was the last time you tried to use it?" Tommy asked.

"Right before I came here. Sometimes I can't help it. When I first left Angel Grove way back when, I used to morph into it every day, as if trying to assure myself it was still there. Now, not so much, but I do it a lot, probably more than I should."

"The Ninja abilities are based on our spirit animals, not our powers. You should have them forever."

"I suppose so. Do you ever try to use them?"

"I did, before I got my Dino Gem. Used to do it on occasion. There's something kind of sad about using the Ninja Powers, though… the fact that we don't have our coins anymore…" Kimberly nodded, and Tommy cleared his throat and continued. "I don't morph very often. Although ex-Rangers and Hayley tell me that a couple of times I've gotten smashed and gone running around the house in my Zeo suit, but personally I think they were lying. I usually only morph when I'm alone."

"Me too." She sighed. "What was it like, being a Ranger again?"

"I don't know. Sometimes it was great. And sometimes it was hell."

"Just like back in the day, huh?"

"Only worse. Because I'd thought I was through. I thought my time was over, and I'd moved on, and accepted it, and I'd really begun to believe it. You know, when I lost my Green Ranger powers the first time, I'd felt the same way. The power was gone. And it was devastating. Then I got them back, only I had to sit around waiting for it to end. And when it did, again with the devastating. But then I accepted it, and I moved on, and I was okay, and the next thing I know Zordon's asking me to be the White Ranger. I was elated, but I was disappointed too, because I felt I was just back on the merry-go-round."

"I never thought of it that way," Kimberly said quietly.

Tommy shrugged as best he could while lying in a cramped trunk, not that Kimberly could actually see him in the dark. "It wasn't so bad, really. It's just… as the White Ranger, it took me a while to get really secure. I knew my powers weren't temporary, but that's what I'd thought about the Green. By the time I felt secure, I lost them and went on to be a Zeo Ranger. Had to struggle with them for a while before I felt confident. I never lost them, and I gave up the Turbo powers… but when I did, I thought to myself, 'That's it, no more Ranger. Ever.' And I was oddly okay with it. I felt like I was finished." He laughed shortly. "I wasn't, of course. I went out on three separate missions with my Zeo powers. I had several freak accidents where I had to fight, like on the island right before it blew up. But each time I just went home afterwards, and knew that I still wasn't a Ranger. That I was still done. Yeah, I'd have to get back in the costume every so often, but it was like… like I was a character on a TV show, and my character got written off, but I still came back for the occasional guest appearance. Never for a full season. Until the Black Dino Gem. Then I was confused, and worried, and… I don't know. I'm exasperated, is what I am. I want the power to make up its mind about me. I don't want to keep swinging back and forth. It's like every time I get settled in my life, get okay with not being a Ranger, I end up morphing and running off into battle. And this time… this time it wasn't my friends, you know? It was my students. And I was the Zordon. It was weird, and at the same time it was great. …But mostly, it was weird."

"Must've been hard," Kimberly said softly.

Tommy shrugged again. "I don't know. I shouldn't be complaining. It's a gift."

"I think you have a right to complain. Just because it's a blessing doesn't mean it doesn't have a downside. Even though it gives you things, it's still taking other things away, and you have every right to miss those things."

"Yeah." Tommy fought off a sigh. They were getting too close to the subject of them, and he didn't like it, didn't want it, not now, maybe not ever. "So you run a school in L.A.?"

"Yeah. It's doing really well. I need to stop trying to do so much on my own, though. I'm working myself to death. I've hired other instructors, but I'm still doing too much. I guess… you know, ever since I gave up my coin, I've been trying to stay as busy as possible."

"Me too. We all do, really. Every time I go visit Trini and Jason, I see her organize something during every lull in the conversation."

"Yeah. And Jason immediately goes for Mr. Introverted mode. I hate when he does that. He's far too internal when he doesn't have something to fight."

"Definitely. And Billy works himself to death. Zack can't seem to hold still, either."

"He never could. As a kid, he was so determined to keep playing. I remember being eight years old and thinking that Zack had some sort of health problem because by the time he'd finally take a break to go to the bathroom he was about to burst. He just couldn't be bothered to put life on pause, even when it was as simple as going to the bathroom." She paused thoughtfully. "You know, after all these years, I think Zack's probably the one who's changed the least."

"Yeah."

The silence returned, somehow heavier than it had been before.

"You know, I'm dying to hit the gym. I haven't worked out once since I got here. It's driving me crazy."

"Me too! What I wouldn't give for a balance beam and a treadmill."

"We should hit Ernie's again."

"Mm-hmm."

Damn. The lulls just kept coming.

"Uh… we should go on a snack run tonight. I brought some junk food, but Zack and Jason and Billy and I ate it all."

"Yeah, we should maybe hit a Wal-Mart or something. I forgot a few things, and I don't think I'll be able to get any of you to the mall until Thursday; it was the soonest I could get Billy in for his eye exam."

"Yeah, Wal-Mart would work. Billy will need some jeans and stuff until we get to the mall, too."

"He can't wear Wal-Mart jeans!"

"Kim, he's dressed like something out of a bad teen movie. A bad 90s teen movie."

"Well, yeah, but…"

"You can put a limit on him. Only enough Wal-Mart clothes to get through until the mall. Then he has to wear good clothes."

"…You wear Wal-Mart clothes, don't you."

"So does everyone who isn't you. Besides, I have four different color obsessions now. If I shopped exclusively at the mall, I'd be broke, and besides, I'm a teacher, so I'm broke enough as it is. But don't worry. I shop other places, too."

"Sure you do."

"I do!"

"Uh-huh. I believe you. Oh, speaking of you and fashion, do you have a hairdryer I can borrow? Trini packed really light, figuring I'd have mine, and Kira didn't bring one, either."

"I don't, actually. Mine disappeared during the move to Reefside, and… well… my hair was short by then, so…"

"What did happen to your hair?"

"Eh… it's not a very good story. More of a… more of a trauma than a story."

"So tell me."

"Well…"

"Come on. You can tell me. Besides, if you don't, I'll get the story out of Trini anyway."

"Eh…"

"Where Kira can overhear. Maybe Conner and Ethan and Trent, too."

"All right, fine, you win." He sighed. "Well… you see… it was back in college. I was working at this family-owned Italian restaurant—you know, pizza, pasta, that sort of thing. And they had gas stoves. So I was trying to light this stove, right, and—"

"Wait. You can cook now?"

"No. Which is part of why I lost my hair."

Flashback

"Damn it!" Loretta fairly screamed, thrown another burnt match down on the counter next to the gas stove.

"Shh! You know how Mr. Ditrapani feels about swearing around the customers," Tommy admonished as he walked into the kitchen. "I can hear you from the dining area."

"He's my dad. Doubt I'm getting fired," Loretta snapped.

"What's the problem?" Tommy asked, attempting to be diplomatic.

"My problem is Mario's off today and I'm trying to cook and I'm failing!"

"I thought you said you were a great cook."

"I am. On an electric stove. You know, the thing that normal people use? I can't get this stupid thing to light!"

Tommy looked at the knobs thoughtfully. "Don't you just turn it to 'lite?' That's what Hayley does."

"'That's what Hayley does,'" Loretta mimicked in a childish, whiny voice. "What does Tommy do? Let me guess—get a job at a pizza place so he doesn't starve to death?"

"I'm just trying to h—" Tommy began hotly.

"Don't listen to her," interrupted Anthony, Mr. Ditrapani's eldest son, who was currently washing dishes. He had a knack for pinning down every single personality trait in anyone who came into contact with him. "She always gets rude when she's upset. You can tell when she's about to cry, because she tries to slug you."

"I'm gonna slug you in a minute," Loretta growled, her lip quivering.

"Give me the matches," Tommy said more patiently, used to both the temperamental Loretta and the philosophical Anthony by now. "Let me see if I can do it."

Leaning close to the stove like he'd seen Hayley do, he made sure the gas was on, then struck a match and held it close to the burner. Blue flamed whooshed to life.

Orange flame whooshed to Tommy's ponytail.

"ACK!"

Tommy whipped his head back on pure instinct, grabbing at his head. A still-wet spot of alcohol from when he'd spilled a customer's drink on his shirt came into contact with the dwindling ponytail as the stench of burning hair filled the room; the next thing he knew, his entire arm was on fire.

Screaming incoherently, Tommy leaped away from the stove, just in time to miss the dishpan of water Anthony lobbed his way; most of it splashed harmlessly against Tommy's leg, which had yet to catch fire (thankfully, now it wouldn't). Loretta dove backwards out of Tommy's way as his hair was burned away, right up to the hair tie that held his previously-long hair at the back of his neck. The tie dropped off, landed on the fiery shoulder, and was set ablaze before falling down towards his dry pants leg.

In about three seconds, Tommy was going to be on fire from head to foot.

Thankfully, his fellow pizzeria employees were out to save his life.

Loretta, now backed into a corner, grabbed the closest liquid-like item she could find—cold tomato sauce that she'd been planning to prepare once she got the stove lit. She seized the whole pot of it and heaved.

Anthony, not backed into a corner, was now out of dishwater, but he didn't think he'd have time to fill a bucket. So, with a battle cry worthy of any do-gooder, he grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall and cut loose.

The tomato sauce hit Tommy just a moment before the freezing cold chemical, thick red gunk splattering all over his back and down half of his flaming arm. No one got a chance to see if it did the trick, because Anthony began dousing Tommy in icy carbon dioxide.

Anthony ran the extinguisher until it was emptied; extinguishers, contrary to popular belief, only work once, and once they stop they're useless. So Anthony would later blame this action on extensive knowledge of how extinguishers work, while in reality he was just so shocked and terrified that he didn't have the wherewithal to stop. He continued to spray, while Tommy's scream became a high-pitched screech of shock as the cold blasted away the fire and seeped through his uniform, chilling him to the bone.

Finally, the extinguisher ran empty.

Tommy was no longer on fire.

He was, however, covered in red gunk, white gunk, and freezing his ass off.

There was utter silence in the kitchen. All three of them struggled to wrap their heads around this phenomenon and failed miserably.

At last, Tommy spoke.

"Am I bald?" he whimpered.

"N-no," Loretta stammered, dropping the saucepan with a clatter.

"I caught fire," Tommy said blankly.

"We fixed it," Anthony offered, wide-eyed and shaking.

The kitchen doors swung open, admitting a furious Mr. Ditrapani. "What the devil are you people doing? I can hear screaming all the way in the…" Mr. Ditrapani got a good look at the kitchen—the white spray clinging to everything, the sauce splattered everywhere, the dirty water all over the floor, and the three traumatized employees. "Good heavens…"

Loretta looked at him.

Anthony looked at him.

"Hi," Tommy said through now-chattering teeth.

"Tommy caught fire," Loretta explained.

"We put him out," Anthony added.

Tommy bent down and picked up his hair tie, which was damp with tomato sauce and dishwater; it had landed in the puddle Anthony created with his first attempt to extinguish Tommy.

"I have to go," Tommy said dazedly. Dripping with cold, congealing liquid, Tommy staggered out of the restaurant.

End Flashback

"You can stop laughing now."

"Hahahahaha…"

"Really, you can."

"HA!"

"It's not that funny."

"HAHAHA!"

"…It gets worse."

Kimberly struggled to control herself. "It… ha! It does? HAHA!"

"I didn't know what to do," Tommy said with a sigh. "I was in shock. So I did what I always did in a crisis back then—I went to see Hayley."

"Oh, g—hahaha!—god, what did—ha!—she s-s-say hahaha?"

"Well, the trouble with going to Hayley for advice just then… was that she happened to be in class."

Flashback

"So Beowulf defeated Grendel alone, using no weapons, as weapons were useless against the monster. What is the symbolism in the ineffectiveness of weapons?"

Hayley sighed as none of her classmates raised their hands. She'd been so busy taking all the math and science classes she could that she'd forgotten English, and so now she was stuck spending her time reading stories she'd memorized by the age of eight. Trouble was, no one else seemed to have a grasp of metaphors in literature, and the professor refused to move on to the next subject until someone took a stab at the current one. So Hayley had to come off like the geeky overachiever just to keep from sobbing with boredom. She stuck her hand up.

"Hayley?" the professor said, disappointed but unsurprised that she was the only one to respond.

"It symbolizes that you can't fight evil with evil. Only when you rely on yourself and your inner strength, and not outside influences, can you overcome all odds and—"

The classroom door opened.

Hayley broke off in horror.

Tommy came in, his shoes squelching as if full of liquid—which they very well might have been, as the rest of him was covered in globs of something red and smelly. He wore a thoroughly traumatized expression and was clutching something in one hand. He paused just inside the doorway, and haunted eyes scanned the room before resting on Hayley in the back.

The class stared at the first interesting thing ever to enter their English class, mouths agape at the poor, stunned, singed mess that was Tommy. Several people nudged their sleeping neighbors urgently.

Tommy held up the item in his hand—the hair tie—between two fingers. More sauce dripped from it onto the floor as he looked straight at her.

"Hayley," he said in a dazed, pathetic voice, "I had a problem."

"Tommy?" Hayley said faintly.

"My hair," Tommy whimpered. For a moment, Hayley feared he would burst into tears.

"Is this your, um…" The professor floundered for a label to describe Tommy that wasn't "Bad Horror Movie Monster." "Um… your… do you know him, Hayley?"

"He's my, uh, my roommate," Hayley said absently.

Tommy suddenly sank to his knees in between two desks (the students sitting in them scooted as far from him as they could get, their desks slamming against those in the next aisle). "My hair's gone!" he wailed.

Hayley began to gather up her belongings as quickly as possible. Tommy had had several freak accidents in her presence before. However, she'd never once seen him look so pitiful.

"My HAIR!" Tommy howled, holding the ruined hair tie up to the sky like some male romantic lead whose girl has just died and now finds it necessary to shout at the gods and the sky and look all sad and pained. Then he fell forward with a wet plopping sound, flat onto his face along the aisle.

"Professor, I think I have to go," Hayley said calmly, shaking her head as she stood up and slid her arms into her book bag straps. "I'll come by during office hours for the homework."

"No, no, you just… take all the time you need," he said, edging towards the side of the class away from Tommy. "I'll… give you an extension. Yeah."

"Thank you." Hayley walked over to the area near Tommy's head, crouched down and began rolling up her sleeves. "Come on, Tommy. I need you to pull it together. I can't fix this from the classroom floor."

"Hair," Tommy croaked. "Fire. Job. Tomato. Water. Anthony. Bwoosh. Hair."

Sighing, Hayley simply went to his feet, pushed up a pants leg, and grabbed hold of his relatively clean ankle. "Come on, tough guy," she said, and dragged him out of the room.

End Flashback

"Okay, now you can stop laughing. Really. Come on. Come on! Stop the laughing, Kim. It's really not that funny!"

"I can just see this little trail of tomato sauce!" Kimberly choked out.

"So could half the college. There was actually a bit of panic about it. People thought it was blood at first. It even made the local paper."

Kimberly dissolved into giggles. Between her shaking against his side and the rocking of the car, Tommy was starting to feel kind of queasy.

"So is that it, then?" Kimberly asked a good ten minutes later, after the silent phase of laughter, and the crying phase of laughter, and just about every other phase of laughter had finally run itself out.

"Mostly."

"Define 'mostly.'"

"Well, Hayley dragged me into the elevator, took me to the ground floor, rolled me into the grass outside, and went to one of the dorms where our friend Smitty was working the front desk. He let her borrow one of those carts people use to move their luggage in and out—you know, flat piece of wood on wheels with a big handle. Hayley got me onto it, wheeled me down the street for about two miles to our house, dumped me in the front yard and hosed me off. By then, I was a bit more coherent."

"Oh, my god…" Kimberly moaned, chuckling a few times; her system couldn't take much more laughing.

"Then I had to take off my ruined work uniform, towel off, and go take a hot shower before I got hypothermia. After that, Hayley trimmed what was left of my hair." Tommy smiled slightly, thinking of that first terrifying glimpse in the mirror. It hadn't looked bad, but he was utterly mortified just the same. He'd called work right then and there, with Hayley standing behind him holding the scissors and wearing a sympathetic (and rather amused, but still, she was trying) smile. He could still remember the conversation with his boss.

"It's me, Tommy."

"Tommy! You all right?"

"I'm fine."

"Good to hear it. You gave us a scare, walking off like that."

"I'm fine." He paused. "I'm never ever coming back."

"Yeah, we figured as much."

"I've kept my hair short ever since," Tommy said. "I liked it, once I got used to it. Besides, I don't think I could take another incident like that again."

"That was the best story ever," Kimberly said, clutching her side. "Oh, god… I needed that."

"Glad I could amuse you," Tommy said dryly.

"I'm sorry. It's just… come on. Even you have to admit it was funny."

"No, I don't have to admit it." He sighed. "But it was."

Kimberly giggled. "Oh, man, I haven't laughed that hard in years." She poked him in the side. "You should grow it back out though. I liked it long."

"I'm kind of a science teacher now," Tommy said, glad she couldn't see the embarrassment on his face. "Long hair is a bit… unprofessional."

"What, and spiky hair isn't?"

"Well… still."

"Got any more stories like that?"

"No. I haven't set myself on fire since then."

"Ah." Sensing another silence coming on, Kimberly quickly added, "So… um… tell me more about this Hayley girl. She's the only friend of yours I've heard about so far."

Tommy blinked, wondering if this was some sort of attempt to see if there really was anything romantic going on between him and Hayley. "Well… I've been working so hard these past few years, I didn't have time to make any more. I met her my first day of college. She just sort of… adopted me. She was only a sophomore, but she somehow managed to know everything about the college process already. She's like that. Anyway, we became really close friends. My only other good friend in college was Smitty, and… well… that didn't go so well."

"He became an evil guy, right?"

"Yeah. He stopped talking to me in 2001, after I beat him out for the job at Mercer Industries. After the island Mercer and I were working on blew up—"

"Wait. How did that happen?"

"Oh, we were working on all these paleontology experiments, and Anton Mercer experimented on himself, and ended up becoming a split-personality evil guy, Mesogog. So he used all the experiments to try to kill me and I escaped just in time to see the island explode. Anyway, a few months after that, Smitty was injured, only to be turned into an evil cyborg by Mesogog."

"And, what, you only made two friends in all these years?"

"Well, I lost touch with most of my dorm buddies when I moved off-campus, and I lost touch with just about everyone else when I transferred to Reefside, so I could work on my doctorate and work with Anton at the same time, and I was too busy to mingle while doing all that. I just got the degree last spring. It's mostly been just me and Hayley and the Ranger crew for the past year, though now I'm spending a bit more time with Anton and Randall."

"Randall?"

"Oh, she was Mesogog's other evil minion. Elsa. She's also the principal at my school. Unfortunately."

"You don't like her?"

"Oh, it's not that, it's just… well, she's really strict, and things are kind of weird between us. She knows I'm a Ranger and I've saved her life and… it's just really odd. Doesn't help that we got into a huge fight on the school lawn the day her secret identity was revealed, and I was the one who had to explain to the school board that she was possessed by an evil villain." He paused. "Now that was a weird day."

"You sound like you've been having a really strange life, Tommy."

"I have. Even before I became the Black Ranger. It's just… one thing after the other." Tommy shrugged. "How about you? The weirdness haunting you much?"

"Not really, no. Things have been pretty quiet." She sighed. "A little too quiet. What I wouldn't give for some nice, exciting weirdness."

Tommy smiled vaguely. "Be careful what you wish for."