Jason raised his brows in wary surprise.
"There's more?" he asked, eyes widening as his hand tightened around Tommy's discreetly.
Jamie slowly nodded and cleared his throat. There was no easy way to inform them of how bad a cluster fuck he was embroiled in other than to just have out with it. He gave a nervous chuckle.
"In hindsight, coming here to talk appears to have been the better option so you have time to process what I'm about to tell you. Just showing up would probably have been disastrous," he began.
His leg bounced rapidly up and down, knowing this was going to go over like a brick wall.
"Speaking of that psychotic asshole, Drakkon…" Jamie started, his hand moving back to fidget with his glasses.
Tommy swiftly stood and pointed a finger at the older man.
"No, don't even say it. Please! He's dead! That's it! Final!" he yelled, almost pleading with Jamie and the universe to make it so. "There's no way!"
Kimberly stared hard at Jamie's timid expression, his teeth digging into his lower lip hard enough to draw blood. She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her big brother. Her cheek pressed against his as she whispered in his ear.
"He's alive, isn't he? It would figure that he'd be rude enough to not stay dead," she murmured gently.
Jamie's arms moved to return her embrace and he squeezed his eyes shut.
"I'm going to assume from how everything else is going that he knows you're alive as well?"
Jamie pulled back, nodding his head.
"Oh, he's very aware of my existence. In fact, I think he's probably right that the universe sees fit to throw us together. I wasn't aware that he had any link to this cosmic hound that keeps trying to kill me."
Billy placed a small monitor on the table to show Jamie the energy signatures and explain their differences.
"That's also how we found you. Or how we found a new Ranger," he explained, pointing to the small jagged line depicting Jamie's powers. "It appears safe to say that you two have interacted if he knows you're here."
Now Jamie laughed, the absurdity of the whole fucking situation like a damned joke. Or deranged nightmare. The others looked at him in concern.
"That's the understatement of the century, kiddo," he gasped, trying to gather himself back to normalcy. "He's at my house right now."
Skull pipped up, shaking his head sadly.
"Boy, Jamie, you weren't kidding when you said everything was going to shit. How's fuckface doing lately?" he quipped. "Doesn't sound like he's planning to return to our planet, I hope."
"Better yet," Tommy snapped, "why isn't he in some maximum-security prison? How the hell did he end up with you in your home?"
Jason nodded nervously. He wasn't eager to run into the evil former Ranger again.
"You didn't kill him because?" he asked, brows raised.
Jamie sighed.
"Because I need him alive. And he's with me because I couldn't risk him hurting other people where he was at. Believe me, I fucking hate it. He and Red have already had a 'go round' and now I'm the one with a sore neck and bruised jaw."
With that preamble, Jamie went into the details of his and Drakkon's reunion in the store, the drastic physical changes that the tyrant had suffered, his violent, aggressive behavior in the care facility, the strange Latin ranting. Everything leading up to him bringing the asshole back with him and the doctor carefully deconstructing his chart.
"And that's how he and I became 'roomies'," Jamie grumbled. "If you had seen him in there like I did, there's no way I could have left him there."
Billy asked an important question.
"Did he tell you what happened with his coin? He apparently had it while floating out in space. What about what happened to it after? This signature isn't an exact match, just a close copy. So I don't think it's the actual Black Dragon coin doing this."
Jamie shook his head.
"I asked and just got the run around. But I'm sure he either has it or knows where it is. I tossed his room before they packed up his belongings. No luck," he answered. "Besides Red, that coin was one of his most prized possessions."
Kimberly growled in disbelief.
"Does he really have something wrong with his brain? Or is he just fucking with everyone again?"
Jamie turned sad eyes towards the Ranger Slayer.
"I asked the doctor the same thing. No such luck. I have copies of the scans and records from his chart. His brain looks like Swiss cheese. Plus I personally witnessed his episodes when he was lashing out and screaming in Latin. I do know enough from Red's time with him that I can tell 99.9% of the time if he's being truthful or if he's full of shit. This was real," he responded glumly.
Skull whistled and threaded his fingers behind his head as he leaned back in his chair.
"Wow. So the asshole is even crazier than when we last seen him? That sucks, but I'm loving the missing legs and shit bag," he mused.
"That's not the only thing that's different about him. It's eerie. Since I've brought him home, he hasn't had an episode. He's taking the new medications Dr. Waters prescribed but I don't think that's all of it. He hasn't been on it long enough, I don't think."
Jamie described to the group how Drakkon, now David, had crying spells, his attempts to connect with Jamie like a normal person, his desire to do things differently.
"Not that he hasn't aggravated or provoked me at all. He did enough that Red came out for a tussle. We had a knock down, drag out fight in front of the doctor and my friend, Mark. Apparently, he was trying to demonstrate to Dr. Waters that I had an 'issue' with my personality," he sighed, his hand again moving to rub the back of his aching neck.
"Dr. Waters thinks that his reappearance is what triggered Red to come out again. Because I never had problems until he showed up. The doctor had as a condition of my taking David with me that he could follow up with us, specifically me and my health. Obviously, David would never cooperate with medical care."
Jamie huffed.
"So I got to embarrass myself in front of Dr. Waters and Mark by flipping shit and transforming into someone else, shifting back into Red. Which I have no memory of doing. Mark said that Red talked to him and the doc, not that he was too happy about it. He really wanted to tear David up more than anything."
Skull leaned forward nervously, hating to ask but feeling it necessary.
"I know you said you won't just randomly harm us. But what about Red? Does he plan to make an appearance? Because I'm a little worried how he might feel about me," he admitted.
Jamie stared at the man thoughtfully for a moment.
"Dr. Waters said that Red was 'the protector', that his role was to take care of me and Jason. I'm the 'caretaker, living normal daily life, to keep us functional. I'm still processing all of this myself, but when I'm morphed into the Fox Ranger, I feel like we are integrated. Today was the first time, Red's ever spoken directly to me. He didn't think coming clean was a good idea, that it would just cause things to be worse. I've told him that you are Jason's friends and want to help us."
Jamie slumped back in his chair, his gaze going towards the door where he could make out daylight in the outside world.
"I have to get back soon. He was asleep when I left but I hate having him there alone to get up to who knows what. His behavior was off this morning before I left. After we caught Jasper and came back…" he started.
Jason cut in.
"Jasper?"
"My goat," he muttered. "She got loose, and he actually went out in the rain and helped me bring her back. Usually he's in a wheelchair but don't let that fool you. He still gets around very well. When we got back, his strength was zapped to the point he was falling asleep as I was getting him changed and into bed. That shouldn't have caused that kind of fatigue."
He looked over at Billy.
"Maybe you can see what you think about what's going on with him?"
Billy glanced towards Tommy and Jason, who both appeared to hate the idea of seeing Drakkon again.
"I think we need to, guys," the Blue Ranger told his teammates. "As much as I don't relish the idea either, I think we need to properly assess what Jamie's talking about."