Author's Note: I'm also posting this chapter today to get this story caught up to my AO3. So there will be a third tonight. Day 2 was...Jason!

It was the chill in the air that caused Jason to roll over. Still half asleep, he groped for his blanket. His hand didn't find it though. Or his sheets. Or his mattress. The hard, cold stone that his hand found snapped him awake. Jason sat up, taking a few moments to gather himself as he took in his surroundings. When he did though, cold flooded his veins and his heart stopped. 'No. No. No. Oh, no!' Jason scrambled to his feet and spun around. "No, no, no!"

Jason was in Rita's Dark Dimension.

This pocket dimension had haunted his nightmares for weeks. It was exactly the same as when he'd last seen it. Dense fog covered the floor, completely obscuring his feet. The chill in the air made him cold down to his bones. Pushing against his rising panic, Jason pushed a button on his communicator. "Alpha! Zordon?! Anyone?!" Like last time, he couldn't reach anyone. "Ok, Ok, Jason. Calm down. Just calm down. Maybe… Maybe this is just another nightmare. Just a bad dream."

"This is no nightmare, Red Ranger," a gruff voice said from behind him.

Jason froze, fear wrapping itself around his chest. His balled his shaking hands into fists as he slowly turned. "Goldar," he snarled. "What am I doing here?!"

"Did you really think my queen would just let you get away with what you did, Red Ranger?" Goldar hefted his sword in his hand as he readjusted his grip. "You destroyed the Sword of Darkness, freeing her green ranger-"

"He's not her green ranger! Rita doesn't own Tommy!"

"That power coin came from Empress Rita. Those powers were hers! Now you'll pay for ruining all her plans and stealing the green ranger."

For better or for worse, as soon as Jason saw the sword coming at him, there was a shift in his mind. He often referred to it as putting on his mask. Usually it happened when he morphed, but he'd found it could slip on when he started fighting in his civilian form as well. The mask pushed all his fear to edges of his mind, letting him finally move to avoid the sword. He didn't have his morpher— despite usually sleeping with it under his pillow— but he was pretty sure it wouldn't work here anyways. Jason dodged left, then right. He pivoted on his heel to kick Goldar in the side. Unfortunately, this left him vulnerable though, and Goldar's sword scratched his leg.

"Ah!" Jason stumbled, but managed to stay on his feet. He glanced down at his leg. The pajama pant leg was torn from his knee down. Blood dripped down his leg. He tried to focus on the fight at hand. Without a weapon, the only thing he could really do was dodge every time Goldar attacked him. The ferocity of the attacks kept him from getting close enough to land more than a few blows here and there. No of them even seemed to phase Goldar. He kept coming at Jason again and again and again. Thankfully he avoided any serious injury, but it wasn't long before his shirt was cut to pieces. The formerly plain, white t-shirt was spotted with red from the cuts.

"Getting tired, Red Ranger?" Goldar asked with a laugh at how out of breath Jason was. "You're not so tough without that morpher, are you?"

"Think so?" Jason asked, putting up a much braver front than he felt. "Because I'm still standing and I don't even have a weapon." He dodged again, but a solid blow hit his back when he turned. It knocked the wind from his lungs, sending him to the ground. Jason landed on his hands and knees gasping for breath. While he was down, Goldar kicked him in the ribs. The blow was hard and knocked him on his back. Jason shouted in pain, putting his hand to his chest. Through the pain and ragged breathing, he saw a flash of metal and rolled to the side. The point of Goldar's sword stabbed the ground right where he'd just been.

Unfortunately, he'd been cornered next to the bars and had rolled closer to the Goldar. Jason tried to move away, but before he could get far, Goldar stomped on his ankle. "Gah…" Pain radiated up his leg as Jason kicked at Goldar. His eyes widened when he saw the sword raise again. Desperately, he threw himself to the side. "Ahh!" Sharp pain stopped his ankle from the way he twisted. Luckily, the movement threw Goldar off balance slightly, so Jason kicked him as hard as he could. Goldar stumbled back and Jason drew his legs in. He grit his teeth as he pushed himself to his feet balancing on his non-injured ankle.

"You've always been a strong warrior, Red Ranger," Goldar said, not bothering to advance. "But not even you could take me on one leg."

"On one leg and with one arm, Goldar!" Jason desperately tried to think of a plan. The cage was only so big. He couldn't get out and there was no where to hide. All he could do was avoid getting killed.

"Let's test that shall we?"

Jason threw himself into a low dodge, meaning to roll back to his feet, but as soon as he put pressure on his bad ankle, his leg folded. "Gah!" Jason scrambled back with his hands. He kicked Goldar's sword to keep it from taking off his foot.

"How long can you keep going, Red Ranger?" Goldar asked, clearly amused. He watched Jason dragging himself to the other side of the space. "You have nowhere to run. Sooner or later, I'll get you."

"I just have to hold out until-"

"Until when? When Zordon finds you? How do you know that he even knows where you are?"

Jason faltered for a second. Admittedly, he'd just assumed Zordon and Alpha knew he was in danger. But without a way to contact them, he couldn't know for sure. He pushed the doubt aside. "Zordon knows everything! And he even if he doesn't know where I am, he would never stop looking for me!"

"If Zordon cared so much, he would've prevented Empress Rita from teleporting you here. Anyone can carry your morpher, Red Ranger. You're not special to him."

Jason felt his mask slipping, but stubbornly slammed it back into place. He rolled to the side again, then rolled toward Goldar. It took his opponent by surprise, giving Jason a chance. He propelled himself to his feet and managed to get his hands around the handle of Goldar's sword. He tried to wrestle it from Goldar's hands, but the surprise had worn off. Jason wasn't as strong as Goldar on a good day, morphed, without a twisted ankle. Trying to wrench the weapon from Goldar's hands was like trying to pull it from stone. Goldar shoved him off easily, then punched Jason in the face.

Pain exploded through his skull. Jason fell on his back, then quickly flipped over as blood poured from his nose. He glanced back as Goldar advanced slowly on him. Jason edged back, never taking his eyes off Goldar. Soon he felt the low level energy field around the cage and had to stop. His heart beat against his ribs as his breaths came unevenly. Blood from his nose trickled down over his lips and onto his chest. A cut on on his forehead— that was almost a beheading— dripped blood onto his eyebrow. Cuts all over his body pulled at his skin when he moved. No single cut bled too much, but there was enough that the pain and bleeding made it hard to move, let alone fight.

'Any time now,' he thought, growing more desperate by the second. 'Zordon will have Alpha teleport me back any second now.' His mask kept slipping, allowing the fear to start creeping back into his mind. Jason struggled to keep it in place. Even in desperate moments, this was admittedly easier when he was hidden behind the helmet. As Goldar moved closer, Jason unconsciously moved back, only to be zapped by the energy field around the cage. He fell forward. 'Come on, Alpha! Come on! Get me out of here!' Fear crept through him as Jason sat up, unwilling to give Goldar any satisfaction.

But nothing happened. No one teleported in between him and Goldar. The air didn't shimmer with the tell-tale signs of him teleporting away. Goldar advanced on him like a lion approaching a wounded zebra.

Jason swallowed and almost moved back again, but stopped himself just in time. 'I can't go back,' he thought. 'If I go to the side, I can only keep dodging.' Pain and fatigue told him that dodging would drain him of needed energy. 'I- I can't go anywhere.' There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

It was just him and Goldar. And only one of them wasn't injured and exhausted on the ground.

"Maybe if you beg me, I'll spare your pathetic life, Red Ranger," Goldar sneered.

'Somehow I doubt that,' Jason thought stubbornly. He wiped blood from his lips and took a breath. The mask stayed on by a frayed string as Goldar kept advancing. Jason tried to come up with a strategy, but the pain was hard to think through. Then he saw the flash of metal when Goldar raised the sword above him. Just like that, the string snapped and the mask slipped. Panic flooded Jason, freezing him in place. All he could do was close his eyes and raised one of his arms in defense. He tensed, anticipating the sharp pain when the sword hit him; but instead felt the air around him shift suddenly from cold to warm. His stomach flipped with a falling sensation, which disappeared a few seconds later.

"Jason?!" somene yelled in shock.

Jason felt a hand on his shoulder and pulled away, scrambling on his hands. The blood had dripped into his eyes by now, obscuring his vision. "Get away!"

"Jason, dude, chill," a calming voice said. "It's me, Zack."

"…Zack?" Jason's heart kept hammering in his chest.

"Yeah, man. Hang on." Zack carefully, and gently, wiped the blood from Jason's eyes with a scrap of cloth torn from his own shirt. Jason flinched back when the cloth touched him, but let it clean away the blood. When it was gone, he blinked several times. Zack was crouched in front of him, Tommy just behind him with his arm still outreached. Behind Tommy, Billy, Trini, and Kim looked on in worry. "You with us, Jace?"

Jason licked his lips, almost grounded by the sharp tang of his own blood. "Z-Zack?"

"It's ok, man. You're safe. You're in the command center."

Jason look around. It was definitely the command center. He looked back at Zack. "You- You guys found me."

"It took Alpha a while, even with Billy helping him," Trini said.

"We worked as fast as we could," Billy added. "Thankfully, I knew you sleep with your communicator on so we could use that to track you. Even if you didn't have your morpher."

"You- You guys found me…" Jason took a deep breath, then felt something loosen in his chest. He almost collapsed on his face, but Zack was there to catch him.

"Take it easy man, you're bleeding. A lot."

"Aye, aye, aye!" Alpha cried. "Are you seriously hurt, Jason?"

"No," Jason reassured him, using Zack's steady shoulders to keep himself upright. "I think most of the cuts are superficial."

Tommy raised his eyebrows. "Bro, your nose is bleeding a lot for not being seriously hurt," he said.

"…It might be broken."

"What happened?" Kim asked.

Jason cast his eyes down, hoping to hide his fear. "Rita managed to transport me to her Dark Dimension. I guess she took me freeing Tommy from her spell personally. Goldar was there and well…" His explanation was followed by silence.

"You did commendably, Jason," Zordon told him. "Your determination and quick thinking in a crisis is exactly why I picked you to lead the team. Despite not having your morpher, you bested Goldar long enough to survive. Well done."

"Let's get you some first aid cleaned up," Zach said. "Tommy, want to help me?"

"No, I don't need help." Now that he was physically safe, Jason found the mental strength to put the mask back in place. He couldn't even explain why, but the thought of his friends, his team, seeing him like this made him anxious. And Jason was too exhausted to deal with it. It was so much easier to just put the mask back on and care for himself. God knows he'd patched himself up at home enough times. (And god help him if his parents ever found the first aid kit hidden under his bed.)

"Jason," Trini said, "you should really-"

"I said I don't need help." Jason tried to project some authority in his voice, now a master at differentiating between a tone giving an order and an authoritative one. "Thanks for sa- finding me, but you guys should go home. Go back to bed. We have school in the morning." Which would be hell, sitting in those uncomfortable desks all day if all of his wounds weren't healed. Ignoring the worried looks his friends gave him, Jason teleported out of the command center.

When his feet touched down his bedroom, he sighed in relief. He carefully limped over to his light switch and flicked the light on. Jason waited a moment by his bedroom door to make sure he didn't hear anything weird. It was silent. His parent were still fast asleep; completely unaware of what had just happened. Nodding to himself, Jason limped back over to his bed. The mask finally came off and Jason collapsed. He sat against the foot of his bed, bent over with his head between his knees. All the terror from before was finally released.

Jason sat there on the floor, alone, finally allowing himself to be afraid. Knowing that now it was just a matter of time until he had to put the mask on again.

And again. And again. And again.