Chapter 9: Stilted Conversations

"You know we still need to have that talk."

Weihan sighed and nodded, sinking back into the padded seat and biting into his burger. The past two hours had flown by, as they had been neck-deep in fixing the damage to the park. The new scars in the turf, Mondo grass, Aggies, and hedges were easy enough fixes; all they needed were a bit of turf resting, shaping, and pruning back. The harder stuff, the concrete scarring, damaged tree trunks, and, yes, the melted irrigation, would have to wait for a later time – or until the irrigation guy came around to bitch at him. Ethan had finally made it out, giving the damaged areas a thorough once-over and asking them how they were feeling. The Orange Ranger was careful to let Bri talk first, mirroring his responses to her moods and emotions.

Swallowing the bolus, he closed his eyes briefly and allowed the Power to wash over him. The injuries he had sustained in the fight had all but healed within seconds, only the raw exhaustion remained after the adrenaline bled away. For his part, their supervisor had taken the three attacks in somewhat stunned acceptance; telling them to take it easy and to take as many breaks as they wanted. Personally, he reckoned Ethan was allowing them to fix whatever they could, so that he could tell the Council that Skyways was on top of things. The fact that one of the other team leaders had called with somewhat dire news didn't help matters; though the news was only dire for the offsider in question. No, he mused internally, the only issues he needed to deal with were the conversation with Bri and…

"I still think I get top priority," the reporter shrugged, biting into her pie. "After all, I knew him in high school."

At this point, he was actively wishing for a fourth attack. Eliza McLaren, or as he had known her – Maddock, had stuck around after the battle – ostensibly to check up on the council gardeners and to get first-hand reports. Really, she was there to grill him on everything she had seen. She made herself scarce when Ethan had been around, ensuring her crew were all present and accounted for. After that, however, she had been hovering around him like a bee. It reminded him of the ways his ex-girlfriends had clung to him. AJ hadn't been one for the 'damsel cling' though. That had drawn him to her fast…and he needed to wrench his mind back into the present moment. His psychologist always said to keep his mind in the present moment. Maybe there was a way he could satisfy both of their concerns at once.

"OK, I think I get the gist of it," he sighed, feeling Shining Light chuckle in the back of his mind…and wasn't that a strange sensation. "Just fire off questions and I'll answer them, though, for the sake of my sanity, I'll answer Bri's question first."

His team leader flashed him a grateful smile, one he returned in a tired manner. He was not looking forward to this at all, but it needed to be done.

"OK," Bri began, flicking her tongue over her lips and noting, with a thrill of delight, how his eyes zeroed in on that movement. "Why did you do what you did earlier? Why did you think I would be all right with witnessing your death at the hands of an actual monster? Why are you always so self-sacrificing, like you don't care about what happens to you?"

"Because," he exhaled, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't then. The psychologist I saw after the AJ thing, he said to me that I need to see myself as a valuable person to everyone around me. That I always need to ask myself what value I can bring to their lives…but, the honest fact of the matter is that I, on some small level, see myself as a burden to everyone. That I'm just a weight around their necks and they would be much better with me…not around in one way or another."

He shifted uncomfortably, noticing how quiet both women were. He couldn't take those thoughts, feelings, and emotions away as they were a part of him. Sure, a part he was trying to diminish, but still part of his makeup. Weihan wondered if the other him he had written about had these doubts; it was something he doubted greatly. He had been written as an ideal version of who he wished he was in High School – popular, lucky in love, and important. He took another bite, rolling his shoulders in an attempt to get the creakiness out of them.

"However," he said, desperate to get the heaviness out of the air, "I know I'm not a burden. Hell, mum knew it before she passed, and she was the one that really pushed me to get off my ass and into work."

"And working has made you into such a better person." Bri smiled at him, placing a hand on his shoulder gently. A combination of being such an introverted person and trauma from what AJ put him through made Weihan uncomfortable with physical contact, though he was slowly getting over that. "I can't imagine working with someone else now; I honestly don't want to. You've made this job so much easier and, really, you bring so much to the table."

Weihan nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat. Yes, he knew he wasn't the sum of his negative traits but life had a way of being just so…depressing. It was why he had come up with the idea of a 'Dark Power Rangers Universe' to begin with, even though later entries had made what he wrote down tame by comparison. On the other hand, he supposed he had come up with a worldwide apocalypse before RPM had, even if it was just by the thinnest of margins. He mentally shook his head, twisting his neck to relieve the stress the battles had put on the muscles.

"Thanks Bri," he smiled, absently reaching up with his left hand to stroke her fingertips, "though, even for me, this is too much of a depressing topic. Lize, what's your question?"

Eliza smiled at the old nickname and lightly cleared her throat. There was clearly a lot of love between them, even though she had heard that Weihan had sworn off all deep and meaningful connections after what happened with Rachelle…well, it wasn't her place to dredge up painful memories. The last thing she wanted was to offend him in some way.

"What did I see?" The words slipped out of her mouth. "In your crystal, were those…I mean, will I…ah, I don't know what I even mean anymore but you understand, right?"

Finishing the last of his food, the Orange Ranger nodded slowly. Carefully glancing around for curious tourists, prospective university students, and the odd homeless drunk, he summoned the Orange Ultra Crystal in a muted flash. The reporter held her breath as she peered at the polished surfaces closely. As the images swam into focus, Eliza's mouth dropped open slowly. She saw a pool being attacked by seven monsters, belatedly recalling it was the pool where the Year 10 swimming carnival had taken place. Sam and Ashley's faces flashed on the surface, fear and shock plastered on them. Her heart leapt into her throat as she saw a whip ensnare her doppelganger, along with two others, and disappear in a flash of fire.

In another image, she was in a cavernous area of some kind, metallic hulks draped in shadows, watching a bank of screens with her hands up to her mouth. She was able to see other people around her – Heather Collins, Sarah John, the late William, all while two orange and white machines lay in a pool of strangely bubbling silver. Finally, she saw herself at the head of a massive army of coloured and armoured warriors, crashing against a literal wall of the rocky beings she had seen recently. No, those couldn't be what she thought…but it was the only thing that made sense.

"Whatever you're thinking, it's the right answer." Weihan's tone was grave and Eliza blinked in surprise. She had never heard him sound so serious before, not even when Rachelle… "Out there in the universe, Multiverse, whatever, there is a world where everything mirrors the stories I've written. A world in which I became the Orange Ranger at the ripe age of twelve, which is pretty ironic if you think about it. A world that, in all honesty, has probably grown leaps and bounds from when I stopped writing to now. A world that, due to a twist of fate, touched this world and altered its destiny forever."

"The William Blue Attack?"

"Yes," he nodded, recalling all the information Shining Light had told him during their work. "Dream Weaver must have unconsciously utilised some dimensional power to call the two Rangers here. After his destruction, some of the residual magic was used to send them back to their world, which is a relief as I don't think their dimensional duplicates would have handled things as well in their place. I've sent off messages to both Emma and Liz, but I doubt I'll hear from them anytime soon; Liz is too busy at her job and Emma dropped off the grid ages ago."

As the two women nodded, he felt a trickle of fear and uncertainty worm into his mind. Barring the odd Bearer, there was a chance that many of the Rangers he had to recruit were around his age – high 30's and mid 40's. People who had families, careers, and actual lives outside of work. On the other hand, they could be like Bri; people with their lives ahead of them, with plans for what they wanted to achieve…gallivanting around the world or Universe as a Ranger possibly not in the cards for any of them. On the hypothetical third hand, he didn't want to be forcibly flung into a Bad Future and have to live out a planet-wide massacre. Shining Light had said that was off the table but…well, what if it wasn't?

Mentally shaking his head as Bri began to chat to Eliza, this time with more openness, he sighed under his breath. No, he would stick it out alone for as long as he could. He would only gather a team if he felt that he had absolutely no choice, no chance of surviving the fight alone, and only if someone he absolutely trusted with his life told him to. Or himself. He would listen to the advice of a Weihan who was a successful Ranger with a strong team, though the odds of that happening were less than zero. However, shelving that issue brought up another kettle of fish. He needed to know the full backstory of the Ultra Crystals; how they came to be, why they were made, and what their full powers were. There was only one place he had a feeling the answers would come.

The Ultra Cavern