Chapter 106

Peace, Love and Woe

"Really?" Trent asked, sinking a little further down the bathroom wall.

"Mm-hmm. That was the last time I saw him," Alyssa replied, cracking open the second bottle of vodka. Trent was finishing off the last few drops in the first. She wasn't sure how they'd wound up sitting on the floor of one of Adam and Tanya's numerous bathrooms, but she vaguely remembered a giggle fit having something to do with it. Trent had asked her to lock the door, so he was the one who'd made the decision to stay in here, but she couldn't remember if he'd had a reason for it.

"We wondered where he went that weekend," Trent said conversationally, draining the first bottle and tossing it in the bathroom's trashcan. He made it, despite the basket being fairly far away from where he was sprawled, half propped up against the wall. The bathroom was huge; the entire Dino Thunder team, including Hayley, could have slept on the floor with room to spare. "If Hayley knew, she wouldn't tell us."

"Hayley knew about Tommy and I—I think she knew, anyway. It's not like we didn't see other people," Alyssa added as if the two phrases were connected; Trent had to concentrate to follow her train of thought. "We didn't… hang out… at all when he was with that Maria girl, and a few months ago I dated a guy for, like… six weeks, maybe?"

"So off and on for like a year and a half, you said?"

"Mm-hmm." Alyssa took a gulp from the bottle and passed it to Trent. "It wasn't a thing. We were just… you know. Both Whites."

Those two words hung in the air for a long, unsettling second. Trent took a swig from the bottle of vodka, avoiding her gaze.

"And tiger teachers," Alyssa added hastily. "I mean and."

"What?"

"Tigers," Alyssa explained, pausing to hiccup. "We were white teachers and school tigers."

"Haha," Trent said, which sparked another giggle fit like the one they'd had when they'd stumbled into the bathroom.

They fell silent eventually, passing the bottle back and forth a few more times. "I haven't been drunk in a while," Trent confessed. "Not since I was like fifteen."

"Fifteen? How old are you?" Alyssa asked, frowning.

Trent figured there was only one safe way to answer that question at the moment. "Are you in love with Dr. O?"

"Tommy? Nah. Just fun."

Trent shuddered, then smiled. "I'm in love with Kira. She's like my sunrise."

"That's so sweet," Alyssa said, grinning.

"I always wax poetic when I'm drunk," Trent admitted. He sighed and handed the bottle to her. "Somehow, I always figured it would be Conner who got drunk on the bathroom floor at an ex-Ranger's mansion. But then, I thought it would be my mansion, not Tanya's."

"You've got a mansion?"

"Yeah. Do you?"

"Nah. I'm a tiger teacher." Alyssa shrugged. "It doesn't pay well."

"Yeah. Neither does being an artist."

"You're an artist?"

"No, but it's what I want to be."

"Are you going to get a beret?"
"Nah, no way. Wouldn't work with my hairstyle."

"Plus they look better in, you know, not white."

"Do you ever get, like, annoyed?"

"Sometimes," she replied. "About what?"

"White. Clothing. White clothing stains," Trent complained.

"Tell me about it. And it becomes transparent when wet."

"And it's so hard to keep white. You can't wash other colors with them."

"Yeah." Alyssa stretched a leg over to nudge him with one foot. "You're hogging the bottle."

"Sorry," Trent told her, sliding it across the tile to her. "You know, you're really easy to talk to. I bet Kira would like you."

"I'm a talkable likeative person," Alyssa agreed. "I—" She broke off as the house began to tremble, a distant boom echoing through the mansion. "Did you feel that?"

Trent nodded and shrugged. "Probably nothing. It's a party, you know."

"I can't believe you got us arrested," Taylor grumbled for the fourteenth time as Eric carefully came to a complete stop, but she was more weary than angry now.

"I can't believe you got us pulled over," Eric said sulkily, but he knew the battle was lost. Wes had not only gotten involved, but had taken Taylor's side; that Wes would risk stepping between Eric and Taylor at all meant Eric had to admit he maybe could have avoided scaring the officer if he'd put a little more thought into it.

"I can't believe one of those police officers stole my leftover chicken wings," Wes complained. "Seriously. Who does that?"

They were all quiet for a moment. It had been a long day, and the arguing had tapered off by the time they hit California. Eric and Taylor were starting to get kind of depressed, and Wes really hoped they snapped out of it soon. Depressed people were depressing, and Wes didn't want to be tired, bored, hungry and sad.

"How much longer to Tanya's?" Wes asked desperately. He knew it had to be soon; they'd been off the interstate for a while.

"Should be coming up on the left," Eric replied.

"Right," Taylor corrected him. "It's on the right."

Eric opened his mouth to argue, thought better of it, and put on his turn signal to ease into the right lane. "Are you sure?"

"She's a Yellow. Of course I'm sure."

Wes winced. Please let it be soon, he prayed. He knew this phase. This happened a lot. They argued and argued and argued until one of them finally won or both of them finally lost, and then they got mournful. He had to get out of the car before the not-apologies. Not-apologizing itself was kind of interesting—it was amazing, really, how Eric and Taylor could make amends with each other while both managed to avoid admitting they were wrong—but Wes knew from experience that getting trapped in a small space with Eric and Taylor once they got past the not-apologies could scar a person for life. He was getting pretty good at retreating in time, though. Sometimes he escaped before the first kiss, and almost always before the hands started wandering.

Wes sighed and stared out the window. Eric was his closest friend, and Taylor was becoming close to him as well, but hanging around the two of them had its disadvantages. He missed Jen. Off-in-the-future-working-with-his-not-so-evil-twin Jen. Jen, whom he hardly ever got a chance to speak with, let alone see, anymore. Sometimes being in love really sucked.

Eric pulled into Tanya's driveway, but Wes was no longer excited to be out of the car. The long, trying day had taken a toll on him, and the fact that he didn't have anyone to not-apologize to was making him even more miserable. He was just starting to think that maybe he'd forego the party entirely and take a nap in the car when the crashing Megaship slid across the driveway not thirty feet in front of the hood of the SUV.

Jolted from his funk, Wes leaned forward to peer out the windshield, his jaw dropping as the spaceship went skidding across the front lawn. Eric, Taylor and Wes watched in stunned silence as it plowed through the landscaping and came to rest in the middle of the yard.

"Is… was that the Megaship?" Eric wondered aloud.

"I think so," Wes confirmed, still staring at it.

"Whoever's piloting it needs another trip to flight school," Taylor said.

A loud, shrieking alarm went off, making the three of them jump. Then, as one, they scrambled from the car.

"Take this," Eric called, tossing his Quantum Defender at Taylor. Taylor didn't argue, already moving towards the gate; she tucked the weapon into her waistband without a word. Eric knelt before the gate, lacing his fingers together. Taylor placed one foot in his hand and pushed off, grabbing the top of the gate and hauling herself over, landing safely on the other side and drawing the Quantum Defender back out of her pants, holding it up and at the ready. Wes went over the fence next, Eric following by kicking off the hood of the SUV to make it to the top and managing to flip himself over the gate in a far more spectacular fashion than Wes had. Wes rolled his eyes as Eric shot a glance at Taylor to see if she was suitably impressed, and the three of them rushed off across the lawn.

Tanya's front door flew open and they could hear concerned shouting from various Rangers—some familiar, some unfamiliar—as the partygoers also made a beeline for the Megaship. One, a tall kid in red, stopped dead at the sight of them and shouted, "Three people—one of them's armed!"

The large group of Rangers halted, save T.J., Carlos, Cassie and Justin, who continued towards the Megaship without pause. Taylor raised her hands in a gesture of surrender while still holding the Quantum Defender, and Wes and Eric did the same.

"Guys, it's us!" Wes called, knowing that the others probably couldn't see them very well; the crashing Megaship had taken out several of the lights that lined the driveway and power had been knocked out to the whole string, leaving Wes, Eric and Taylor backlit only by the headlights of the SUV.

"SORRY!" came another voice from the direction of the ship—Zhane, if Wes remembered correctly. "My bad! We got attacked by space pirates on the way here, knocked a few systems offline—"

"Are you okay?" Cassie demanded.

"I'm f—ugh! Can't… breathe… Cassie… let go… missed… you too…"

"Ashley!" Justin exclaimed.

The Ranger group forgot all about Wes, Eric and Taylor; most of them recognized Wes's voice and hurried toward the Megaship, leaving only a few clustered around the porch.

"Oh, my god," came an unfamiliar voice. "It's a real-live spaceship!"

"What's left of one, anyway," a girl said dryly.

"Geek heaven, Ethan. Maybe they've come to take you home," said the kid who'd spotted Wes and Eric and Taylor.

Eric and Taylor started jogging for the ship again, and Wes was about to follow when another voice called, "Wes?"

Wes froze in his tracks at the sound of her voice—Jen's voice. He tried to shake it off, to convince himself he'd imagined it—what would Jen be doing here, in the past, at a party, without a severe emergency to herald her arrival? He was just about to ignore it—it had to be another woman at the party with a similar voice or something—when he saw Eric and Taylor stop and turn to look at him, saw the recognition and surprise on their faces, too. Eric and Taylor looked out across the lawn, and Wes followed their gaze to the few stragglers clustered by the porch. Three were standing directly under the porch light—Hayley and a man and woman none of them knew—but the rest were in the shadows, making it impossible to tell who they were. A group of three was looking at the Megaship, but the four off to the side were facing Wes, Eric and Taylor. Wes squinted against the darkness, struggling to tell anything about them, to tell if it was really her, when one of the four broke away from the group and started racing across the lawn, shouting, "Guys! It's us!"

"Trip?" Eric called uncertainly.

"It's me! It's us! We're back, guys!"

Trip. If Trip was here… he hadn't imagined it. She was here.

The rest of the group followed as Trip rushed towards Wes, and soon they were close enough that he could make out their faces. He barely noticed as Trip flung his arms around him, his eyes fixed on Jen's smile. Trip released him and went to greet Eric, and Wes was shaken from his stupor by one of Katie's infamous bear hugs. He managed to smile at her as she dropped him in favor of Eric, and found Lucas in front of him. Lucas just smirked, clapped him on the shoulder and stepped out of the way of Jen.

They just stared at each other for a moment, grinning madly at each other. Dimly he was aware of things beyond her—the shouted greetings and excited questions, movement as people began moving back inside, the stench of smoke from the wreckage of the Megaship—but nothing else seemed to matter. Jen was back, unannounced and in plainclothes, without the hassle of gunfire and blast waves and other inconveniences that came with fighting to the death against a variety of bizarre evil creatures.

"Hi," Jen said, and the greeting was so anticlimactic it seemed out of place. Wes couldn't quite process it. "Hi," like everything else that wasn't Jen, meant nothing to him.

He wasn't sure which of them moved first, but suddenly they were both rushing towards one another. It hurt when they colliding, stumbling and nearly falling over as they clutched at each other. Wes clung to her, forgetting everything but her. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so incredible, so thrilled, Jen was here, and there was no threat, no imminent-save-the-world danger, just a damaged spaceship on the front lawn of a mansion crawling with Rangers. The world could wait. All that mattered was that Jen was here.

They stood in the middle of the driveway, holding each other tightly, for several minutes. Or it could have been hours. Or seconds. Time didn't seem to move, and Wes didn't want to move either, didn't want to ruin this moment.

Eventually, however, the present was soured—as always—by thoughts of the future. While there appeared to be no immediate threats lurking about, that didn't mean there wasn't a mission. Why else would they be here? But if they had come because of some force of evil or another, why hadn't he been warned? Why hadn't he been told they were coming, period? Why were they here? How long—?

A wave of horror washed over him, spoiling his elation. Were they leaving soon? Was he wasting his time with her?

Questions began to overwhelm him—How? What? When?—until finally he blurted out "Why?"

"Why what?" Jen asked without moving away.

Wes let his grip loosen, and Jen drew back slightly, albeit with extreme reluctance. They were alone on the front lawn now, and the sounds of the party were distant. "Why are you here?"

"We have a mission," Jen replied.

"Why wasn't I told?" Wes asked.

"A number of reasons, the main one being that you were on vacation with Eric and Taylor, and we weren't anxious to contact you around civilians. The High Aq told us it was important not to expose Taylor's identity to her parents."

Wes winced. "High Aq?"

"Oldest living resident of Earth," she explained. "He's a very high-ranking official. He got involved in this mission personally."

"Sounds important." Wes cleared his throat. "How long?"

"How long?"

"How long do you think it'll take?" he clarified. "I mean, I know it's not an easy thing to tell, but is it…?" Wes shook his head, trying to organize his thoughts. "You're here. At this party. Usually we work first, play later. Eric and I have been having a… hectic couple of days, yeah, but—if you guys are here on a mission, why are we hanging out at a party? Shouldn't we be doing something?"

"This party is part of it," Jen said.

Wes's eyes widened. "Because there's a bunch of Rangers here? Oh, wow, how serious is this mission?"

"It is because there's a bunch of Rangers—but not the way you're thinking," she said. "We're not here to recruit an army; if we had, I would… have been a bit more, um, professional. We're here collecting a small group of Rangers for the creation of an elite crime-fighting unit called Space Patrol Delta. By the year 3000, it will have evolved into Time Force."

Wes's eyebrows rose. "You're here to found your own company?" Jen nodded. "Wow. That…" His face lit up. "That sounds… time-consuming," he said hopefully.

She grinned. "It will be. Being here, at the party, is a chance to touch base with the ones we're recruiting, but… we're here to stay, Wes."

Wes's brain seemed to melt. "Stay?" he repeated hoarsely.

Jen nodded, smiling. "As far as I can tell, we're here forev—" She stopped in mid-word, looking momentarily horrified. "I… I mean… in-indefinitely. We're here… we were sent back permanently."

Wes stared at her. Permanently. He had never put much stock on permanence before, on the concept of things being meant to happen and unchangeable, but suddenly the idea of certainty was the greatest thing on Earth. For once, "the future," in regards to his relationship with Jen, didn't seem like such a bad thing.

The next thing he knew he was kissing her, like he had always meant to but had never managed to catch the moment. Kissed her with all the emotion and fervor he had always suppressed, knowing she must inevitably return to the future and leave him behind. Jen pressed herself as close to him as possible, returning the kiss just as eagerly, and suddenly it felt like the future was happening to him.

"Space pirates," T.J. commented, shaking his head. "You know you're a Power Ranger when."

"They came out of nowhere," Zhane complained. "Almost got us, too."

"I'm really sorry about the lawn, Tanya," Ashley said. "We'll replace it."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Tanya told her, waving a hand dismissively. "That's what I pay the gardeners for."

"I hated that hedge anyway," Adam added. "There's a family of raccoons living in it."

"Not anymore, they're not," Jason joked. "They're out shopping for real estate."

"Yeah," Zack chimed in, "they're all like, 'What the hell? These people can't have their friends park in the garage?'"

T.J. laughed. "That'll teach 'em."

Andros sighed and looked morosely up at the ship. "I'm worried the Astro Megaship Mark II might be finished."

"Finished?" T.J. asked, horrified. "Really?"

Andros nodded. "We'll have to get it to NASADA—somehow—but at this point I don't know if I can even get it in the air again."

Tanya shot Adam an alarmed look, but recovered quickly. "Hey… new lawn ornament," she joked. Andros didn't smile, and she sighed and went over to him, throwing an arm around his shoulders. "Come on, Andros. You can worry about that after tomorrow. For now, let's just enjoy the party—it's so rare we all get to hang out in the same place."

Andros nodded. "You're right. There isn't much I can do but enjoy the moment."

"Lightspeed can help," Carter offered. "We can get it towed to NASADA—we'll get someone out here first thing in the morning."

"Come on inside," Tanya urged Andros. "It's gonna be one heck of a party."

"Of course," Andros said. "Let me just check a few things, make sure the ship is stable. I'll catch up."

Andros disappeared back into the ship, and the others turned back towards the house just as Trip came up, one hand firmly clutched on Eric's forearm, Eric in turn dragging Taylor along behind them. "Hey guys, look who I found!" Trip exclaimed. "Wes, Eric and Taylor are here!"

"Hey—where's Wes?" Danny asked.

"Jen," Trip explained. Danny nodded, well aware of what that meant. "Ooh, ooh, Taylor—you have to meet the new girl!" He began hauling Eric in the direction of Conner, Kira and Ethan, who were still staring up at the wreckage of the Megaship. "This is Conner—he's the Red Dino Ranger—and this is Ethan! All the history books say he's going to be my friend! The ones I could find before we left, anyway. They didn't give us much time. More time than the first time we came through time, but—"

"You must be Kira," Taylor interrupted, extending her hand.

"Hey," Kira said, shaking Taylor's hand. "A lot of people say we've got tons in common."

"Really," Eric said, narrowing his eyes as he scrutinized Kira.

"This is Eric, my boyfriend," Taylor said.

"Hi. Um… my boyfriend's… has anyone seen Trent?" Kira asked, realizing for the first time that she hadn't seen him since he'd left the kitchen. Conner and Ethan shrugged at her, trying to follow Trip's steady stream of chatter. "Trent's the White on my team; we've been together for a while now… anyway, yeah. That's… Conner and Ethan, Red and Blue, and I'm Yellow. We're the new team."

"Not the ninja team, right?" Taylor asked. "We haven't met them yet."

"They're really hard to find," Eric added.

"No, we're the Dino team—but we have met them. Dustin's the Yellow on their team. What's your color?" she asked Eric. He was dressed in red and black, and she didn't want to guess one way or the other and insult him or seem like a total rookie, but she couldn't really recall the color of every Ranger she'd heard about.

"None. I'm the Quantum Ranger," he replied.

"Ah." Kira floundered; people had been saying she'd get along great with Taylor, but the small talk seemed a little forced and the only impression of them she was getting was that both Taylor and Eric had very intense gazes. After a moment, Eric started glancing around, seemingly disinterested in her, and Kira gave up on trying to find something to say and tried instead to find a way to politely make an exit.

"Hey, Taylor!" Tanya called, coming over with Adam. "About time you three made it to the party."

"Oh, hey, Adam, have you seen Trent?" Kira asked, hoping he could point her in Trent's direction and she could excuse herself.

"No," Adam said, looking confused. "Should I have seen Trent?"

"You were the one that called him out of the kitchen…" Kira reminded him.

"Oh. That. Yeah, um… not sure where he went." Adam glanced around the crowd. "Must be back inside."

"So, Tanya, did you take my advice about the hang gliders?" Taylor asked.

"Yep," Tanya replied. "Me and Adam got matching ones. They're in the garage."

"Hang gliders?" Kira asked eagerly.

"You like flying?" Taylor asked.

"I love it. My zord was a Pterodactyl."

"Eagle," Taylor said.

"Is it true you had wings on your suit?"

"Yeah—did you?"

"Uh-huh. I loved it. I miss flying," Kira said wistfully.

"I can fix that. Tanya—would you mind if Kira and I went and checked out the hang gliders?" Taylor asked.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Let's go," Taylor said, and the two headed for the garage. "Eric, you coming?"

"I think I'll hang out here," he said. "Can I have the Quantum Defender?" Taylor tossed it to him; he caught it and tucked it back in his waistband before turning to Tanya and Adam. "Been a long day—point me towards the beer?"

"Should you really be drinking?" Tanya teased. "I hear you had to take a field sobriety test in Arizona today."

Eric groaned. "Please?"

"Dining room," Adam told him, and Eric nodded gratefully at him before disappearing into the house. Adam smiled at Tanya. "So. We've got a spaceship in the middle of the front lawn and a house full of ex-Rangers. Where should I make the reservation?"

"What's that, now?"

"The reservation. For the hotel we're going to live in while we have the place rebuilt."

Tanya laughed. "Don't be silly, Adam."

"You think the house is going to survive this party intact?"

Tanya shook her head. "Nah. But you forgot about that place we bought in France."

End Notes: Yet another author's note where we apologize for the lack of updating. We're very ashamed, we promise—it's just that our lives are… well, more chaotic than this story. We hope to have it finished by August, though who knows if that's just an idle dream or not. Still, barring death or removal of enough fingers to prevent typing, we wholeheartedly plan to finish it; we've come a little too far to stop now. We still have plans to write sequels, too.