There was a strange quiet that hung within the Timeship as it soared toward its destination. The large aircraft was holding steady, calm in its westward flight as it soared across the pre-dawn twilight. The wind seemed with them, carrying them beneath a sea of stars toward the location Benson's of suggestion. A suggestion in assistance of K's request.
She had relented to their fussing, Doctor Mitchel's immediately insisting on a medical examination once they were sure that all was safe. The woman was nice, soft-spoken, and patient. Upon quickly surmising that K was well aware of the steps to her investigation, Mitchel had ceased explaining the necessity of her process before switching to more detailed explanations of her findings. K suspected that the Doctor, more than anything, simply appreciated having a patient who fully understood the intricacies of her practice.
Cleared of major injury, at least for the moment, K was excused from the medbay and descended the stairs to the loading ramp in the hope of finding Gem and Gemma. Both were asleep, leaning peacefully in pleasant leaning on each other's shoulders while held in place by the straps of their seats.
Not too far from them, Jen and Wes were bundled in each other's arms, not quite asleep, but nevertheless sitting in willful, tender appreciation of their company and the quiet. As if the only thing that mattered to either of them was simply the fact that at that moment, they were together. Jen's eyes were drifting closed, blissful relaxation overwhelming her as she fell deeper into her partner's embrace. Wes' eyes rested on her, smiling in soft and unwavering adoration as he pulled Jen closer still.
A well-earned rest from a job well done.
Feeling she was intruding, K made her way back up the stairs, uncertain where to go with all the others sleeping or fulfilling vital duties on the aircraft. Eventually, she made toward the Timeship's briefing room, finding Doctor Benson at the holotable and staring intently at the readouts. It felt strange, staring at the crater on the 3D display and realizing what it had once been. Her home.
No; her cell. A prison built and operated for only a single purpose; to keep her contained and prepare for the arrival of Venjix. And now it was gone, burned from the earth until nothing remained ruins and ash, buried beneath the tons of granite and rubble. Venjix had been hellbent on turning the earth into a wasteland of that very image, and instead, the lifeless crater stood as a testament to his failure.
"He's gone," Benson confirmed with a smile, nodding at the display of the crater. "That blast from the Chronoline practically atomized everything in its path. If any servers are left down there at all, there's nothing for them to connect to, and by now they'll all be shutting down as their power reserves run dry. Even if there is any other trace of Venjix left, it'll be starved before too long."
Even as he said it, K couldn't quite help but feel a twinge of sadness. At the demise of her creation, the life that she'd brought into being. Venjix could have been her greatest work, and instead, he had been destined to be nothing but a tool of destruction. Destruction unfurled because of her.
"I just…" K realized. "I can't believe how close it all came. I know the odds, the statistical likelihood of any success your mission had. For it to have pulled together at all is…"
"Hey," Benson assured her quietly. "Sometimes it's not about all the chances that could have failed, it's just about the one that works. Thomas Edison tried a thousand times to make a lightbulb but only needed to succeed once. Maybe there are hundreds of timelines out there where we failed; I know for sure there's one where we didn't show up at all. But what I do know is that in this timeline, we won. After that, the probabilities that said otherwise don't matter. That's the funny thing about humanity; we know that no matter how bad the odds, the fact that there are any at all means that we still have a chance."
K couldn't help but smile, a strange sentiment that she would normally have dismissed as childlike foolishness; an ignorant innocence blind to the realities of the world. But K supposed that had it not been for their bullish foolhardiness, their disregard for the statistical odds, and their leap of blind faith in fate, then she wouldn't even be there at all.
Not that they would've had to find her if she hadn't…
Her shoulders drooped, head lowering as it suddenly hit her, the shame rewashing over her as K realized just how close they'd cut it. At just how close she'd brought humanity to annihilation. But as she did, a warm hand gently touched her shoulder, and K looked up to see Benson smiling at her.
"I've lived with guilt brought from my creations," he told her softly. "I know what it's like to watch something you worked so hard to build be used for nothing but destruction, no matter how well-meaning your plans were. But in doing that, I started to realize something important. I'm not responsible for the actions of others. That if someone is hellbent on twisting your work to serve their dark purposes, that's not on you."
Easy for him to say. His Digitizer technology may have been used by a madman, but he hadn't pressed the button that nearly doomed humanity. But just as she was about to retort, Benson cut her off.
"I know that might not feel enough, but I also know that you would have done everything in your power to rectify that mistake, no matter what it took." And as he said it, Benson slid the letter across the table, the very same piece of paper that he'd shown amidst the chaos of the base. Now, in the quiet of the hold, K at last had time to examine it, to stare at the words of pleading desperation that had been sent across time and space. "I know that the woman who sent that to me did so knowing full well the risks of messing with time. A woman who decided it didn't matter, who wouldn't rest until she'd rectified that mistake."
But the woman who sent that carried the world on her shoulders, whereas K had been thinking only of herself.
"I'm not that woman," K replied, looking away from the note as her shame only deepened.
"Yeah, you are," said Benson. "Maybe you just don't know it yet. Maybe now, you'll never have to. But I know that whatever happens from here, it'll be your choice. And no matter which one you make; you're going to love who you turn out to be."
"But how will I know?" K asked him, a shivering uncertainty trembling from her chest. "How will I know that I'm making the right choices?"
"You won't," Benson admitted. "The future's not set in stone, no one really knows what it will bring. All we can ever do is learn from our past and build a brighter future."
There was something about his voice, a warm certainty that made K almost believe it. A hopeful wonder that looked toward a brighter future. Her brighter future.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking," a voice suddenly announced over the Timeship's intercom. "This is just a friendly announcement to let you know that we will soon be beginning our descent. The local time is currently 6.30 a.m., and the weather is forecast for clear skies with no signs of apocalypse. We would like to ask that you now return your chairs to the upright position and stow any tray tables, and please enjoy the rest of your flight."
With a roll of his eyes, Benson shut off the display and gestured toward K. "Come on, you're going to want to see this."
It had seemed like such a sheepish request, barely a few hours ago as the Timeship had pulled away from the ruins of Area 51. The Rangers had been debating where best to touch down, to take stock and prepare to debrief. The entreaty had almost squeaked out of her, an involuntary exhale that drew all heads to stare in K's direction. But barely a moment later, Benson's face had lit up, insisting he knew the perfect place, and had immediately raced upstairs to give directions to the flight crew.
Now they descended the stairs, slight turbulence bouncing as they reentered the cargo deck to find that Greyson and Mason had also arrived.
"Hey," said Mason, nodding over to the small porthole. "Check this out."
K knew what she was seeing, she'd seen the still a thousand times from the monitor of her terminal down in her workstation at the Soup. But now, staring through the window, watching the Timeship descend from the wispy clouds, K couldn't help but gasp at the sight before her.
Mountains.
Their peaks and troughs sprawled outward, a rocky sea of beautiful imperfection whose climbing summits pierced the ascending clouds as they emerged from the shadows of the night. And then, as K's lips broke her stony façade, the sinking guilt vanishing as lightness overtook her chest, Greyson softly spoke beside her, motioning to another porthole as K eagerly rushed towards it.
To a view that she'd never before dared to dream of.
There it was, towering above the rest of the Sierra Nevada range like an Olympus before its subjects, was Mt Whitney, the mighty height of their destination. The highest peak in the entire range.
"It's so…!"
"…beautiful!"
K had been so awed by the sight that she hadn't even noticed Gem and Gemma appear behind her, let alone that they'd awakened. But just like her, all they could do was stare, their eyes widening at the sprawling landscape beneath them, far from the claustrophobic walls that until recently had been their entire world.
They sat there, all three of them huddled together for the rest of the flight, glued to the window in a hypnotic trance as the patterns of the mountains rolled by. And then, the Timeship lightly shook, a slight bump as gravity caught up to announce their landing. As their aircraft touched down on solid ground, a soft hand touched K's shoulder, breaking her from her trance as Benson warmly informed her.
It was time.
"Trust me," said Benson, "you don't want to miss this."
Beside her, Gem and Gemma's faces shone with a brightness K had never thought possible, even for them, and the pistons whirred as the exit ramp lowered at the far end of the deck. There was the soft clanking of feet on the stairs, Time Force Blue and Green descending from the cockpit to lean over the railing and watch. As she turned, K realized the others were upright too.
Dr. Mitchel had returned from the medbay, wheeling Myers out on a gurney so he too could witness the moment, smiling at them dopily in what K could only assume to be drug-induced bliss. Jen and Wes had also risen, standing hand in hand as they smiled at her with the warmth of beaming pride. On the other side of the hold, Greyson and Mason stood opposite their comrades, forming a guard of honor that guided the trio to their destination. Even the strange alien, Piggy, had emerged from the comforts of his provided bunk for the occasion, standing at the back of their hold and watching with weepy eyes.
The softness of the predawn light pushed itself inside as the ramp exposed the mountain air, and K could only stare at it. She could hear her every heartbeat, slow and plodding as Gem and Gemma stood beside her in equal anticipant anxiety. Amazed at the happy faces around them, disbelieving that the moment that they'd all long dreamt of was about to become reality. Their guardians all beamed as the three walked past, their faces battered, grazed, and teary but nonetheless overwhelmed with happiness as K, Gem, and Gemma took their final steps toward their freedom.
But as she reached the bottom of the ramp, staring at the threshold where the metal walkway met the earth, K stopped, a cold breath freezing her in her tracks as Gem and Gemma overtook her without thinking. They smiled as their shoes touched the dirt, sharing broad-faced grins that fell as they realized their companion was missing. But K could only stare at the open ramp, frozen in overwhelming trepidation.
What if… what if it wasn't what she'd hoped? What if she'd put everyone through all of that for something that could never live up to her expectations? What if she really did belong down in the dark?
But as K stood there, trembling with indecision, Benson strode down to stand next to her and offered up his arm. Behind him, the Rangers had moved to follow, watching with misty eyes and smiles.
"Beside you or behind you," Benson told her gently. "We're here for you."
Not an expectation, merely an offer.
Her one request seemed so selfish after everything they'd already done for her, and yet it had been fulfilled without complaint. With an almost eagerness to grant her wish. All of them were there for her, and K owed this final step to them. Blinking back the welling tears and breathing in the cold, thin air of the mountain altitude, K looked up at Benson and nodded. And then, as she turned back to the ramp, K saw Gem and Gemma standing at its foot, each looking at her hopefully with a hand outstretched.
"Come on, K," Gem encouraged her.
Gemma smiled in agreement. "We don't want to see it without you."
Slowly, as the mountain filled their lungs so greatly it seemed to lift her from her feet, K leaned forward and raised her hands to theirs. Forever linked, in hands, in friendship, in destiny; squeezing each other tight to steel their resolve.
And then K took her first step into the light.
It seemed so simple, over in the blink of an eye, a crunch as the uneven ground took K's weight and her shoe crunched into the dirt. Ever patient, Gem and Gemma guided her toward them, never letting go as K's best friends in the entire world began their journey to the summit. The three of them, out beneath the open sky, together.
The darkness of the night was fading, banished by the softness of the coming dawn. But still, be it the lightness of the air, the disorientation caused by the breeze, or the sheer overwhelming volume of the openness around her, K didn't know where to look. For the first time in her life, she had no idea of the answer. Grass, there was grass beneath her feet! Cushioning her steps as is filled the air with a glorious scent that she wished to breathe in and never exhale. All of it was so wonderful, marvelous, magnificent!
The world was alive, and she was in it!
And then Gem and Gemma, gasped, tugging at K's sleeve as they steered her attention and pointed ecstatically at the horizon.
"Look!"
"Over there!"
K had never thought she ever would see it, that the best she could ever do was the mockery of imagination she tried to conjure whenever she closed her eyes. And yet, here it was, rising before her.
The Sun.
At first, she had to squint, K's vision narrowing as the tiny spec emerged from the wall of the mountains in the distance. But then it began to grow, ascending in graceful flight, a golden dome emerging between the peaks in all its splendor. Bright beams stretched out across the valley, bursting from the confines as they reached between the summits like they'd found the cracks in their cocoon, hatching from their chrysalis to see the world with fresh eyes. Like it was ready to spread its wings and fly.
It was more beautiful than she could have ever possibly imagined. As it climbed from the east, K surrendered to her catharsis, stumbling in wonderous awe as if called to worship the magnificent radiance. She'd been so amazed that she almost forgot to breathe, a mystifying exhale gasping from K's lungs as she continued her unflinching admiration. As the stunning spheroid of luminous plasma continued its ascent, the shape of the dawn slowly vanished beneath a blur as the tears burst from their dams and flowed forth.
Her hands were clutching Gem and Gemma's tightly, they too squeezing back as, at last, K surrendered to urging. She yanked them closer, throwing her arms to squeeze them close as her two friends relinquished to their tears and accepted. And at last, as the three of them stared in awe at the golden warms that rose above them, they sunk to their knees in cathartic acceptance. As the mountain air filled with sounds of their grateful, joyous sobbing, they squeezed each other tight, wailing with relieved delight as they basked in the warmth that kissed their skin.
No more walls.
No more bunkers.
No more lies.
Just the three of them; Gem, Gemma, and K, out in the open air, on top of the world and reveling in the dawning of a new day.
Free to choose their destiny for themselves.
A/N:
It feels strange, in a way, to be writing a note at the end of this chapter. In many ways, I don't know what to say, hoping really that everything I tried to do speaks for itself within the fic. I can't remember the exact moment I decided I needed to write this, but I know that it came from a desire to fill a hole. A hole in canon, explaining how the different Power Rangers timelines diverged between the mainline and RPM's apocalypse. A hole in my own writing, where fifteen years ago I'd given a tokenistic explanation to help justify a big Ranger Teamup, one that left me wondering when I revisited it last year. But in my end, I could never shake the image of a little girl, standing on the precipice, staring down a leap of faith while a man on the other side begged her to trust him and jump. From there came everything else a chance to write two of my all-time favorite PR characters, K and Jen, and a chance to bring two of my favorite series together. It's absolutely wild to me that I'm here now, posting the final chapter for you all to read.
For those who have been reading as I uploaded, I cannot thank you enough. Your comments and PMs meant the world to me, and even though I still can't see many of you (stats are still down as of this posting) I'm still amazed that there are people in this tiny corner of the internet excited for the next chapter in the story. Now that we're at the end, I'd love to know what you all thought. Was it the ending you were expecting? Was there anything in there that caught you by surprise? Were you just happy that K got what she'd always dreamed of in the end? Whatever your thoughts, I'd just love to hear from you in the reviews to know what everyone thinks.
For those who are wondering what's next, I'll be taking a short break. It's summer break on my side of the world, and it's a good chance to catch up on the writing and editing backlog that's been slowly growing on my laptop like a fungus. But have no fear, the next installment is already on its way, and I plan to post the opening chapters of my next Power Rangers fic on January 30. If you're looking for something to read in the meantime, I can wholeheartedly recommend the series that came before this, Power Rangers: Data Squad, if you haven't checked out already. If you're keen to see the next fic when it arrives, feel free to follow my author page for updates.
But other than that, thank you all so much again for following along, and look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, may the power protect you all.