Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Within two seconds of Tommy, Rocky, and Rin’s arrival in the Power Chamber, Tommy was being hugged by every current Power Ranger on Earth plus Alpha, David, and, to his joy, Jason. “Jase, my man!” he exclaimed over the many happy cheers. He high-fived his best friend over Trini and Kim's heads.

“He recovered this afternoon,” Tanya said as the group hug broke up.

“Had just long enough to get real worried about you,” Jason grinned. “Man, what took ya so long?”

“That’s a long story,” Tommy laughed. “And first, I gotta do something.”

“What’s that?”

“This!” he said as he lifted Kim high into the air and swung her around. She shrieked in surprise and delight. When he set her down, they kissed. Their friends whooped and cheered, excepting Tanya and Kat. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since they took me,” he told her.

“Me neither,” Kim replied.

“This is for you,” he said, and he handed her the purple crystal from his pocket. In the brighter light, he saw that tiny tongues of green played inside it, too. He found he wasn't surprised at all. Kim accepted it with wide eyes.

Tommy turned to Kat. “I’m really sorry about all this. I was angry and confused, I didn't know how to handle the situation, and I short-changed you both. You’re a wonderful, kind woman, and I do care about you a lot. I’ll cherish forever what we had together, but it’s always been Kim.”

Kat nodded, her eyes only a little bright from tears. “I know. Thanks.” Kat leaned in and pecked him gently on the cheek, and he returned with a warm hug.

“Billy,” Tommy said, surprising everyone by turning to him next, “we’ve all been insensitive to you since you gave up your place on the Team. You saw what needed to happen and did it selflessly, like a true hero. I know you’ve said you’re fine with it, but I never actually said I’m sorry.”

Billy stared at Tommy. “Thanks,” he said with deep surprise.

“And Moira,” Tommy concluded, “I was out of line with you. I understand better now what you were trying to tell me about Light and Darkness. You’re a lot wiser than I am. You and Jason have my blessing, if you want it.”

Moira smiled freely for once, and the effect reminded Tommy of Phiris herself. Jason wrapped an arm around her waist and grinned at his best friend. “Growing wise is never easy. I’ll take that blessing gladly,” Moira said.

Tommy smiled. He looked around at his friends happily. “It’s great to be home.”

He at last spotted the three identical Lord Treys, standing back from the crush of enthusiastic Terran teens with a slightly perplexed expression. He rushed to them. “Oh man, am I glad you’re still here!” he said. “I think I found your conjunction!”

The Treys stared at him. “What?” center Trey of Heart said.

“How?” left Trey of Wisdom gasped.

“When?” right Trey of Courage demanded.

Tommy handed center Trey the computer pad he’d received from the Lerani astronomers. “It might be nothing, but if it is what you need, it’s happening in about 9 hours.”

The Treys huddled around the pad immediately. They studied it intently for a long moment. All the Terran teens held their breaths. “Andeiron in Luxaqua and Parrok in Andromeda both have Ranger-protected worlds circling them. But I have never heard of the star in your galaxy,” left Trey said.

“That’s where our new friend Rin comes from. Most definitely Ranger-protected,” Tommy said. The Treys looked up at him in amazement.

“We must reach one of these worlds immediately!” right Trey said.

“Ha! — then you have to come with us!” Rocky said to him triumphantly.

“Come with where?” Tommy asked.

The other Rangers winced. “It's a long story,” Tanya said.

“Ssh, listen!” Billy hissed.

There was a discussion taking place between Rin and Zordon. Lord Naatam and Alpha were already listening eagerly as Rin recited the legend of the Founders of Ralen. Rin was finishing, and Zordon said, “THIS IS STUNNING NEWS. RIN, DO YOU OR YOUR PEOPLE WISH TO LEARN MORE OF YOUR HERITAGE?”

“Almost more than anything, sir,” Rin said. He was looking up at Zordon with reverence.

“BAIRN AND-” he made a complicated purring sound “-WHOM YOU CALL MSSIRINAO WERE BOTH KNOWN TO ME. ALMOST SIX THOUSAND YEARS AGO, THEY STOOD JUST WHERE YOU DO NOW.” Rin gave a startled noise and jumped one foot to the side as if afraid of dishonoring a sacred site. “YOU KNOW THE NAMES OF THEIR PLANETS, BUT DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING OF THE PLANETS THEMSELVES?”

“No, sir,” Rin said eagerly.

“AS MY STUDENTS AND GUESTS ARE EQUALLY CURIOUS,” Zordon said with a glance around the room suddenly filled with temporal-race eavesdroppers, “I WILL TELL YOU WHAT I CAN IN THEIR PRESENCE. FEL’HAR IS A RESPECTED MEMBER OF THE GREAT COALITION OF LIGHT WORLDS KNOWN AS THE ELTARIAN ALLIANCE. EVIL IS KNOWN AMONG THE FEL’HARI-” Rin made a disgusted face “-BUT THE GREAT MAJORITY OF THAT PEOPLE ARE GOOD AND WISE. SOMEDAY, YOU AND OTHER LERANI MAY TRAVEL TO THEIR TERRITORY IF YOU DESIRE, BUT DO NOT EXPECT THEM TO HAIL YOU AS BROTHERS.”

“That is understandable,” Rin said. He was grinning from ear to furry ear at the thought of seeing Fel’Har.

“THE HERITAGE OF BAIRN WILL HAVE FAR MORE IMPACT UPON THE FUTURE OF RALEN. ELTARE IS THE GREATEST OF ALL KNOWN WORLDS: WISEST, OLDEST, STRONGEST, AND MOST TRULY LIGHT. EVIL IS UNKNOWN TO ANYONE OF ELTARE’S BLOOD.”

“But... we have had evil walk among us,” Rin said uncertainly.

“VERY SELDOM, I WOULD GUESS.” Rin nodded. “LIKELY THIS RESULTS FROM YOUR FEL’HARI HERITAGE AND THE STRESS OF YOUR DIFFICULT LIVES. THAT IT IS SELDOM THAT ANY OF YOU TURNS TO EVIL UNDER SUCH HARSH CONDITIONS IS EVIDENCE OF YOUR RELATION TO MY WORLD.

“LET ME EXPLAIN THE IMPORTANCE OF THAT RELATIONSHIP. WE NOW STAND WITHIN THE SPACE AND TIME OF THE PRIMUS MENSURA, THE PRIME DIMENSION. IT CONTAINS EVERYTHING THAT YOU HAVE EVER SENSED, AND ALL BUT A VERY FEW PLANETS LIE WITHIN IT. ELTARE IS NOT ONE OF THOSE PLANETS.”

Rin looked stunned. “Eltarians are from a different... dimension?”

“WE ARE. THE DIMENSION OF ELTARE IS-” at these words, Naatam, Billy, and the Treys leaned in eagerly “-FAR SMALLER THAN THE PRIMUS MENSURA. IT CONTAINS ONLY ONE STAR AND FIVE PLANETS: ELTARE, INQUIRIS, ANSERIUS, SEGHTU, AND INTHIRATH. THOUGH INTELLIGENT LIFE EVOLVED ON EACH PLANET, NONE OF THE FIVE RACES HAD THE SPARK OF EVIL. WE WERE ABLE TO MATURE WITHOUT THE INTERRUPTIONS OF CRUELTY AND WAR CONSTANTLY PRESENT IN THE PRIMUS MENSURA. ELTARE GREW FIRST, A MILLION YEARS AHEAD OF THE OTHERS. WE LEARNED HOW TO TRAVEL THROUGH SPACE, AND WE SPREAD OURSELVES AND OUR WISDOM AMONGST THE RACES OF THE OTHER FOUR, BLENDING OUR BLOOD WITH THEIRS. EACH OF THEM GREW WISE AND STRONG AS WELL, THOUGH VERY DIFFERENT FROM US, AND THE FIVE WORLDS AIDED EACH OTHER IN ALL THINGS. WE DISCOVERED THAT THERE WERE OTHER DIMENSIONS LIKE OUR OWN. MOST WERE SMALLER EVEN THAN OUR OWN, AND ONLY A FEW WERE INHABITED LIKE OURS, BUT ONE WAS VAST BEYOND IMAGINING. IT WAS SO IMMENSE WE NAMED IT THE PRIME DIMENSION. WE LEARNED HOW TO BUILD PERMANENT GATEWAYS TO IT. AS WE BEGAN TO EXPLORE, WE DISCOVERED SOMETHING OF OURSELVES: ELTARIANS CAN THINK INDEPENDENTLY OF TIME.”

“I don’t understand,” Rin frowned.

Zordon smiled. “NOR WOULD I EXPECT YOU TO. IT WAS A PUZZLING CONCEPT TO US WHEN WE FIRST REALIZED IT. FOR ELTARIANS, AND, TO A LESSER EXTENT, ALL OTHER RACES OF OUR BLOODLINE, TIME IS NOT AS RESTRICTING AS IT IS FOR BEINGS FROM THIS DIMENSION. HAVE THE LERANI EVER HAD A PERSON WHO SEEMED WISER THAN ANY BEING COULD SENSIBLY BE?”

Rin’s jaw dropped. “Yes! Our wise woman Phiris knows impossible things, and she is never wrong. She advises the Lerani in all things -- and, thanks to Tommy, may do so for many years to come.” He gave a nigh-reverential nod toward the Zeos' leader.

Zordon sounded pleased: “YOUR ELTARIAN HERITAGE IS STRONG. PHIRIS IS WHAT WE CALL A MYSTIC. SHE WIELDS A TYPE OF MAGIC THAT NONE BUT ELTARIAN BLOOD CAN TOUCH. FOR HER, TIME AS IT EXISTS ON RALEN HAS LITTLE MEANING. WHEN SHE DESIRES TO, SHE CAN LOOK INTO THE FUTURE OR THE PAST OF ANY BEING IN WHOM THE BLOOD OF ELTARE IS NOT TOO STRONG. SHE WOULD KNOW LITTLE OF HER OWN FUTURE FOR THIS REASON. LIKEWISE, WE NEVER REALIZED OUR UNIQUE POWER UNTIL WE MET RACES OF THE PRIMUS MENSURA. IT IS AN ABILITY OF WHICH WE MUST BE VERY CAUTIOUS OR DESTROY THE DELICATE STRUCTURE OF TIME IN THE PRIME DIMENSION.

“YOU MUST CONSIDER CAREFULLY WITH YOUR PEOPLE THE COURSE OF YOUR FUTURE. ANY RACE OR PERSON WITH THE BLOOD OF ELTARE IS IN A SPECIAL POSITION. WE DO NOT ABIDE INTERFERENCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEMPORAL RACES, BUT THE LERANI ARE NOT WHOLLY TEMPORAL. IF YOUR PEOPLE DESIRE IT, WE WILL EMBRACE YOU AS OUR CHILDREN AND HELP YOU GROW INTO OUR SIBLINGS. IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE, WE CAN FOREVER REMOVE THE THREATS WHICH HAVE CLAIMED SO MANY LERANI LIVES, OR WE CAN MOVE ALL OF YOU TO A GENTLER WORLD WHERE YOU WILL BE FREE TO CREATE SCIENCE AND ART IN LEISURE.”

“I... I do not know what to say, Zordon sir,” Rin said. He looked overwhelmed. “I will return at once and consult with my people. But... I do not consider it likely, but if the Lerani wish none of your aid? If my people want nothing to do with you?”

“THEN YOU WILL NEVER HEAR OF US AGAIN.”

Rin nodded, looking satisfied. “I find I trust you as I seldom trust anyone. You would never be false, would you?”

“NO. IT IS NOT IN OUR NATURES, RIN.”

Rin smiled to be addressed as kin, and a deep sound rumbled faintly in his chest not unlike a purr. “I will return with my people’s reply.” He bowed to Zordon as if about to leave.

“WAIT,” Zordon said. Rin looked up, puzzled. “DO NOT RETURN HERE. WE ARE ABOUT TO DEPART ON A GREAT JOURNEY, AND WE WILL VISIT RALEN ON OUR WAY.”

“As you wish,” Rin said, bowed again, and teleported in a brilliant White streak.

“Um. We are?” Tommy asked.

Everyone looked suddenly solemn. Glances darted from one teen to the next. “Um... bro... there’s a Varox fleet big enough to conquer ten planets moving in on Earth,” Jason fielded the question reluctantly. “We’re leaving.”

“What? No we’re not!” Tommy cried. “We defend the Earth, we don’t abandon it!”

“I know, we want to, but we can’t!” Kim said. “Not from a fleet this size. We’ve spent the last eight and a half hours straight trying to come up with a way, but... there just isn’t one. All the Zords together couldn’t bring down even one of the ships, and there are five of them. It’s either die here for no reason, leave, or hand Trey and the Golden Power Staff over to them like they want and hope they go away. If Trey leaves with us, there’s a chance that the Varox won’t care about Earth anymore, and we can probably outrun them.”

Tommy looked at Zordon. “How much of a chance?”

“THE VAROX HAVE NO SPECIFIC INTEREST IN EARTH, ONLY IN THE GOLD RANGER. HOWEVER, THEY ARE SOMETIMES KNOWN TO DESTROY OR ENSLAVE WORLDS OUT OF SPITE. WE CANNOT PREDICT WITH CERTAINTY WHETHER THEY WILL PURSUE TREY OR STAY TO HARM EARTH.”

“We don’t have very long, children,” Naatam said. “Even my ship can’t make it out once the warships are in orbit.”

“But... our parents? Your brothers and sisters? We’re just supposed to leave everyone else behind?!” Tommy asked furiously.

“My craft cannot support more than twenty beings,” Naatam said. “And anyone who leaves is in greater danger than those who stay.” At least, that’s what he and Zordon had agreed to tell the teens.

“It’s just Rangers coming,” David said very quietly. He’d only barely taken the others’ offer, though he counted as a Ranger twice over now. Sam had ordered him to, saying that he’d much rather his son be far enough away to keep their people’s heritage alive than have his help defending the tribe “when” the Varox invaded, as Sam had worryingly put it. Despite his father’s wishes, he felt very guilty about abandoning his people.

Tommy stared around at them all, then dropped his head into his hand and ran his fingers back through his long hair. “Dammit,” Tommy said in quiet defeat. “This isn’t the ‘welcome home’ I was looking for.”

“We’re just glad you got back before we left,” Adam said quietly.

“Yeah,” Tommy sighed, “me too. Twenty, huh?” He looked around, counting heads. He frowned when he came up short by several. “Wait, where’s Ish?” The other Rangers exchanged grim glances that Tommy could hardly miss. “What?” he demanded.

“She’s coming and she's safe,” Billy said quickly. “The rest... it’s a long story. We’ll tell you in flight, okay?”

Grudgingly, Tommy agreed. He looked up at Zordon. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “Can you hide out in the Power Chamber?”

“I CANNOT. I HOPE TO COME WITH YOU.”

Tommy stared at him. “Come again?”

“Zordon thinks he can teach Naatam how to stop his life force from weakening temporarily, so we don’t have to leave him here,” Billy said. “That, erm, means I’ll be flying the ship.” He gulped nervously.

Tommy raised an eyebrow. “What did you say you got on that spacecraft piloting course on Aquitar?”

“The ninety-fourth percentile.”

“Right. That’s the one thing so far I’m not worried about,” Tommy said. He took a steadying breath and looked around the room. “So, it feels really weird to point this out, but… why’s most of my Team wearing the wrong colors?”

Rocky cracked up, and Moira’s expression turned impish with delight as she crossed her arms over an orange-and-green tank top and blue shorts.

“Long story,” Billy said, beaming for no reason Tommy could fathom.

“Zordon, we must begin soon,” Naatam said.

“AGREED,” Zordon said. “JASON, WOULD YOU DO IT?”

Jason balked. “I don’t... I...”

“PLEASE, JASON.”

Jason winced. Zordon had never pleaded with him before. He walked to a small panel set into the wall and withdrew an extra laser pistol from it.

“What are you-!” Tommy began.

“It’s okay,” Trini said quickly.

Jason aimed the laser pistol at Zordon’s time warp tube, looked away, and fired. With a sound like a bomb, the tube exploded. Shards of glass shot in all directions, though they were stopped from hitting anyone by Naatam and Kat’s fiery shields. The time warp tube was reduced to a bed of broken crystals, just as it had been after Ivan Ooze attacked the Command Center. On this bed of crystals lay the same humanlike man in long, dark blue robes whom some of the Rangers had seen there before, but instead of beaten and dying, he seemed unharmed. He was motionless as Finster’s tiny statue of him.

“Zordon?” Jason asked anxiously.

The man gasped in an immense lungful of air. He held up an arm across his eyes to shield against the bright light coming down on him from the broken upper half of the tube. After a brief moment, he sat up and pushed himself off of the bed of crystals to land solidly on his feet.

Zordon was a tall, pale man with finger-length, messy jet black hair. He looked only a few years older than the Rangers themselves. He seemed at once a mage and a warrior, his toned physique visible though the midnight blue silk robes. The Rangers who were not serving during Ivan Ooze’s attack were totally unprepared for his true appearance. Zordon looked nothing like the image in the time warp tube.

His featureless eyes, like two round onyx stones, looked all around the Power Chamber. When they came to rest on his students, Kim couldn’t hold herself back any longer. She ran to him and threw her arms around his middle. Zordon gasped, shocked by the sudden physical contact. Then he touched Kim’s silken brown hair tenderly. The rest of the Rangers allowed them a moment alone. Theirs had always been the strongest bond, perhaps because Kim’s own father had been absent for most of her life.

“Kimberly,” Zordon said softly. His voice was slightly rough — he’d only used it two partial days out of the last ten thousand years — but its rich, deep sound was pleasant. Kim hugged him tighter, and he hugged back. He'd been too wounded before, and time was too short, to touch any of them, and the contact was a boundless joy. Warm delight filled his face and made him look more human than they’d ever imagined him.

“Rangers,” Naatam said severely as the rest began to rush to him, “Power willing, there will be plenty of time for this later. If Zordon does not teach me the spell in time, he will die.”

Kim released Zordon and backed away, letting Naatam step in. The two master mages sank to the ground quickly and began signalling and muttering. The Rangers watched them closely, though not even Kat or Rita could make heads or tails of what they were doing. After ten minutes or so, Zordon paused.

“It’s starting,” Zordon said breathlessly. “Naatam, you must try now.”

“Then I will try,” Naatam said. His hands flew about one another as he muttered something in a language none of them knew. Billy promised himself for the dozenth time that he would find out why Ranger Powers didn’t translate unknown languages when mages were chanting. Everywhere Naatam moved his hands, the air was lit with fire that hung motionless in midair. Zordon sank to the ground, exhausted, even as he began to glow with red-orange light.

Suddenly, Zordon caught fire. All but one of the watching people screamed. “No, no, it’s all right!” Tommy tried to reassure them, though he didn’t know how he knew this himself. His reassurance barely contained his friends’ panic. Fortunately, in another moment, the flames went out, leaving no trace of themselves on Zordon or his clothes.

Naatam paused his chant long enough to say, “Someone check him!”

Immediately, Kim sank to the ground next to her mentor and shook his shoulder. “Zordon? Zordon, can you hear me?”

Zordon opened his eyes. He still looked thoroughly exhausted, but he smiled at her. His eyes closed again, and he relaxed as if asleep.

“He told me he’s fine,” Kim reported faintly, amazed by the telepathic contact.

“Time’s running out. Alpha,” Billy said, “teleport.”

Alpha waddled quickly to the teleportation console. Everyone within the Power Chamber vanished in a blaze of multicolored lights.

*****

“I must reiterate my displeasure with this entire plan,” center Trey said as soon as he had a mouth again. “If I were simply to surrender to the Varox, regardless of their attitude toward the Earth, you at least could escape in safety.”

“Taking you with is the only way Zordon and Naatam got us to agree to run,” Billy reminded his friend. Billy was taking the pilot’s seat. He pressed a complicated sequence of buttons, apparently to start the ship moving. “Besides, you’ve got a conjunction to catch now,” he added happily.

“That is true. Still-”

The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Alpha. His short arms were quite overloaded with the Golden Power Staff and the Zeo Crystal. Adam and Rocky took them from him quickly, to many high-pitched thanks, and vanished with them into the recesses of the ship.

“-if the Varox discover that I am aboard...” center Trey continued.

“How are they gonna know? I’m not gonna tell ‘em,” said a new voice.

A young African-American man with short, neat dreadlocks was sitting on a chair set into the shuttle’s wall. He stood and nodded to the Treys. “Zachary Taylor, pleased to meet you.”

“Trey, Lord of Triforia,” the three Treys replied, bowing in unison.

“Zack, my man!” Jase said with delight. He strode over to his childhood best friend. They clasped hands and hugged. By that time the rest of Zack’s former Teammates except Billy had surrounded him as well. They greeted each other by hugs (Zack lifted Kim off the ground entirely), then Jason, beaming, said, “Everybody, this is Zack Taylor. He's… well, he's the last of us to come home. Zack, these are Rita DeSantos, Moira Douglas, Kat Hillard, Tanya Sloan, and David Trueheart.”

“Man am I glad you guys kept writing to me or I’d never keep all that straight,” Zack grinned. He looked elated.

“And this is... well, his name’s really long, so we just call him Naatam,” Jason said.

“Rad hair,” Zack said, nodding at the fire-mage. Naatam was still chanting over Zordon, who now lay on a cot embedded in one wall. “How’d you manage it?”

“Practice,” the mage rumbled dramatically amid his chant.

“Long story. And you know Zordon, of course,” Jason added casually.

Zack choked and leaped out of his chair toward the cot. “That’s really him? Is he okay?”

“Fine,” Naatam said. “Sleeping.”

“Good. How come?”

“Long story,” Jason said. The other Terrans except Zack all broke up laughing. “Well it is! So what if we’ve got about five long stories already? Man, how’d it go at the Peace Conference?” he asked eagerly.

Zack laughed then. “You guys either have the worst or the best timing ever. I was just wrapping up my speech about the invasion, and they were about to find a nice padded room for me, when you teleported me up!”

“That oughta convince them,” Kim laughed.

“I’m just not sure of what,” Zack returned, grinning.

“At least someone has some warning,” Trini said worriedly.

“Yeah,” Zack sighed. A little of the bouncy happiness leaked out of him. He frowned suddenly. “Hey, where’s my main brain?”

“Flying the ship,” Tommy answered.

Zack gagged again. “He can do that?”

“He took a class when he was living on Aquitar,” Adam said as he and Rocky wandered over to join them, returned from the lower decks.

“Hey, how you doing!” Zack greeted his replacement, his grin back in place at the sight of the Stone Canyon teens. “Where’s Aisha?”

Everyone fell silent.

“Whoa, what’d I say?” Zack asked, startled.

“Can you start explaining now?” Tommy asked, frowning.

“Everybody hold on to something!” Billy yelled.

The ship rocked violently to one side. Fortunately, everyone had automatically done as Billy said and grabbed at something, so no one went tumbling. “What was that?!” Kim yelled.

“They spotted us,” Billy said. “Taking evasive action!”

Naatam let out a curse as the small spacecraft wheeled sharply around and then shot upward. Through the large windows at the front of the ship for the pilot’s use, the rest could see their familiar blue sky fade into a black, star-filled view. “Wow,” Tanya said softly.

“Awesome,” Rocky grinned. “Power Rangers in Space!”

“Rocky!” Various people pelted him with small objects.

“Oh,” Adam gulped. The others returned their attention to the “windshield.” Their small spaceship was leveling off, which was bringing into view two ships very different from theirs. Each was golden, but the hulls were all but filled with massive protrusions that looked very much like weapons. The teens knew the weapons were massive because the ships themselves were huge almost beyond imagining.

Zack whistled. “Those things are bigger than Serpentera!” he exclaimed.

“And they’re all after us,” Kim said darkly.

“Engaging hyperrush,” Billy announced. “In three... two...”

The ship rocked violently again.

“Or not!” Billy cried. “Re-initializing...”

“Billy, the shields can’t take much more of that,” Naatam warned.

“In three... two... one-”

The ship lurched forward. The stars turned from pinpoints of light to long streaks of bright white, yellow, blue, and red that slid rapidly past the windows. “Hyperrush engaged,” Billy said with deep relief. He sank back in the pilot’s chair for a sliver of a moment before sitting up again to check the instruments. “No sign of anyone on our rushtrail.”

“Is that good or bad?” Zack asked.

“Hard to pick,” Trini answered. “It means that those ships aren’t chasing us effectively, so we’re not going to get blown into tiny spaceship bits. They might've missed our rushtrail and be trying to trace us a slower way. But they might not be chasing us because they stayed to attack Earth.”

“Damn,” Tommy sighed.

“I am sorry,” center Trey said quietly.

“Don’t you dare,” Tanya said sharply. “We’ve been over this already. It’s not your fault.” The Treys all nodded unconvincingly.

“We’re on course to Ralen,” Billy announced. “ETA four hours.”

“So,” Tommy said immediately, “start on those long stories already!”

*****

By talking quickly and stopping all his and Zack’s interruptions, the Avians got through the first Varox invasion and the creation of the new Avian Rangers, and the Venusians got through their kidnapping and the daring rescue with still-mysterious consequences for Ish, within the first 2 hours of the trip.

“She’s in the hold, sedated. We don’t know what else to do ‘til we can figure out what that bastard did to her,” Adam said quietly. Several Rangers started in surprise to hear Adam swear, but none commented on it: after the initial shock, the word seemed quite appropriate even coming from Adam.

An odd impulse crept up along side Tommy. By now, Tommy was almost used to getting these little pointers from his Power, and he immediately followed the impulse. “Um, guys? While we’re filling each other in on the last few days, I have something I should tell you. I’m leaving the Rangers.”

There was sudden dead silence on the ship. Billy’s voice broke it with, “Computer, engage auto pilot.” The next second, the Owl Ranger was out of his chair and on the ground with the rest of the teens. “You wanna say that again?” he asked.

“I’m retiring,” Tommy said.

“Bro... why?” Jason asked, aghast. Tommy was the last person he could picture quitting the Team.

“I sorta got another offer. There’s this... a different state of being where you can be in tune with the Power itself. You can call on it to do all kinds of things. Like being a mage, but about a hundred times more powerful. People like that are called Masters of the Power. Hardly anyone can become one — you have to have some kind of natural talent, I dunno what exactly. But it turns out I’m one of those people. And I’m gonna go for it. Once I get through the training, I’ll be able to do so much good — help so many people. But I have to start really soon or I won’t be able to do it ever.”

David grinned. “So that’s what Sam meant.”

“What?” Tommy asked.

“I asked him once, after I turned twelve and he told me about you and... well, everything, why he hadn’t adopted you and raised you in the Tribe, too. All he’d say was that you were destined for a greater path.”

Tommy shook his head. “Man, someday I’m gonna find out where that guy gets his info,” he joked.

“I don’t doubt it,” David said. Tommy gave him a startled look.

“Where do you have to go? Who’s training you?” Trini asked.

“Kimberly,” Kat said quietly. Everyone but Tommy, Kim, and Naatam (as he was too focused on Zordon) stared at the Pink Zeo.

“You knew about this?” Rocky asked.

“Are you okay?” Tanya asked her “sister” worriedly.

“Actually, yeah, I’m fine,” Kat said, smiling a little. All the Rangers looked baffled. Even Kim and Tommy exchanged looks: they were very grateful that Kat had accepted Tommy’s choice so easily, and they guessed it might have to do with her talk with Zordon, but why was Kat smiling about it? “I’m not long for the Team myself.”

Now she had Naatam’s attention as well. His head snapped around to her, and he stopped chanting for a moment, then made a face and returned his attention unwillingly to Zordon.

“It’s a bit like Tommy’s situation, really,” Kat said. “Naatam said he’ll arrange me an apprenticeship as a fire mage, and I want to do it because I can do a lot more good that way. I have to travel to the mage's world, though, and probably stay for a few years. But I’m not leaving ‘til after Graduation,” she assured her Teammates.

“Well... geez, there goes the Team,” Tanya said worriedly.

Trini smiled and put a reassuring hand on the newest Yellow Ranger’s arm. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the Team is bigger than any five or six people. The Power Rangers go on without us.”

“Well said,” a familiar voice spoke.

All current and former Rangers of Earth scrambled to surround Zordon’s cot. Their mentor was watching them with half-lidded eyes, looking tired but very much alive. “I never meant for any of you to serve past your graduation from high school,” he said. “The toll upon your lives is so great already.”

“What toll?”

“No way!”

“We were happy to do it,” Jason said with perfect understanding.

Zordon smiled. “And I am grateful for that. Your bravery and enthusiasm have always made me proud. But you did not ask for this, and after such trials you must be free to explore all that life has to offer you. You can’t stay superheroes forever,” he smiled. They grinned back more eagerly than they might have at the words alone, deeply pleased to see Zordon both alive and smiling.

“If you think it’s best, sir,” Adam said deferentially. The rest of the Rangers nodded in agreement... save Moira, who looked unsettled.

A faint flush darkened Zordon’s pale cheeks, and he propped himself up on one elbow. “That’s quite enough for now, old friend,” he said to Naatam. “I’m overheating.”

“Any new spell takes getting the knack of it,” Naatam said blithely. He stood, and the sea of teenagers parted so that he could walk past them to the cockpit. After a moment, he said calmly, “Arriving at Ralen in 5 minutes.”

Distracted from his mentor despite himself, Billy exclaimed, “5 minutes? We were still hours away!”

“That’s because you were piloting it like an Aquitian ship,” Naatam said, not insultingly — but not remotely modestly, either.

Zordon lifted himself cautiously into a sitting position. All the teens watched on tenderhooks, ready to spring in if he needed help, but he seemed quite healthy now. He took a deep, long breath and smiled as he released it. “Excellent,” he said. “First order of business...” and he pushed off the cot and into the sea of Rangers, forming a massive group hug. He laughed. “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted this, Rangers,” he admitted. “I wish it had happened for some other reason, but...” he hugged them and breathed in deeply again.

“Returning to prime space... now,” Naatam said. “Oh, that’s a nice one!”

The Rangers who bothered to turn their eyes from Zordon caught a brief glimpse of a world covered in rich shades of blue-green foliage and deep sapphire water, like Earth but darker and more vibrant. The ship hung there before Ralen for a few seconds, then hurtled toward it. They sank quickly below the gray-white clouds and only slowed a few hundred feet above the surface to touch gently down in a wide, dewy plain. “By these charts, the point of conjunction should be just a mile or two from here,” Naatam told them once the ship was on solid ground.

The craft’s door whooshed open, and Naatam led the way outside. He looked around briefly, then stared straight at the brilliant sun just rising above the mountainous eastern horizon. “Ah, another yellow dwarf. They do take you to interesting places.”

“Wow, just look at this place,” Tanya said, looking wide-eyed around the flower-filled meadow.

“Beautiful,” David said.

“You haven’t seen the half of it,” Tommy grinned.

“It feels like Phaedos,” Kim said softly. She and Tommy exchanged a secretive smile.

“ACHOO!” Everyone turned to look at Rita, who was holding her nose in shock and dismay. “Oh, dis can’d be good,” she said through her closed nose.

“So, we need to find the conjunction point and we need to find the Ralen-ites-” Billy said after a moment.

“Lerani,” Tommy said.

“-to find out their decision about Eltare. So, we’ll need to divide up,” Billy concluded.

“Tommy, I would request your aid in finding the conjunction point,” left Trey said.

“Sure thing, if you think I can help,” Tommy said, hurrying to join the Treys. Kim and Jason drifted over to the Triforian Lord too, Kim leaving Zordon’s side reluctantly. Jason looked hopefully in Moira’s direction, but she appeared not to notice. Kat was quickly pulled away by Naatam for an in-depth discussion of her intentions. The pair disappeared into the ship.

“I’m afraid that only a small group should accompany me to the Lerani. It won’t do to intimidate them,” Zordon said apologetically, looking at the herd of teens still surrounding him. Most of them drifted away on his urging, and he set out across the field toward a trail with the remainder: Moira, Rocky, and Zack. The remaining Rangers paired up conspicuously: Billy and Trini went hand-in-hand to explore the meadow’s flower selection, and Adam and Tanya disappeared quickly toward some very climbable trees. David was about to follow Tommy’s expedition for lack of anything better to do when he found Rita at his side, smiling.

“Oh,” he said. “It’s you.”

She frowned. “Not the reaction I was hoping for.”

“We need to talk,” David said. Rita smiled tentatively.

“I’d say we do at that,” she said, sounding reassured.

“Somewhere private?”

Rita grinned and followed him away from the rest of their friends.

*****

“The thing is, Rita…” David tried to begin. He looked back at her and had to start over. He sat down in the grass, and she plopped down next to him eagerly. “I really care about you, Rita. I do. But when I said I’d be there whenever you needed me… that’s not what I meant.”

Rita stared at him. After a moment, she managed, “What isn’t what you meant?”

David couldn’t say it. He looked toward Adam and Tanya, whose feet were barely visible dangling down from a branch 12 feet up a tree at one end of the meadow.

“Oh,” Rita whispered. The Black Venusian deflated. “I’ve been too forward. This is emb… I should-” she made a move to get up, not looking at him.

“Rita, please, just listen a minute,” David begged. She hesitated. “I didn’t mean that because I can’t mean that. Rita, I’m engaged.”

“Eh, what?”

David sighed. “The shaman of our village has only ever come from my father’s – my adopted father’s line. 800 years, Rita. I’m only in Sam Trueheart’s family because he decided to take me in after our parents were killed. But from somewhere I’ve got the talent to follow him as tribe shaman… only I need to join Sam’s family first. I’ve got to marry Tessa, his blood daughter.”

“You’re going to marry someone because it is traditional?” Rita asked.

“Because this is what I have to do to become what I want to be.”

“Because your ‘father’ says so.”

“Pretty much,” David admitted quietly.

Rita tried to find the grass interesting but failed. Her chest felt horribly tight. She found herself asking, “Do you love her?”

“She’s my sister. I don’t even like her half the time.” The ridiculousness of the idea brought a brief smile to David’s face.

“And…” Rita hesitated a moment, wondering whether she dared ask, “…if you were not engaged?”

David was silent a moment. Rita caught a faintly calculating expression, then he shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just always been a fact that I’ll marry Tessa. I haven’t thought about it.”

“Yes you have.” She found the lie insulting.

David looked away. “What do you want me to say?”

“The truth!”

“Why? You think knowing I love you will make it easier?” Rita sucked in her breath at the word. “Fine. Yes. I love you. Singing birds on the hills, once in a dream love! If I could-” He pulled himself back sharply from that thought.

“You’d what?” Rita demanded softly.

“If I could I’d-” he said and kissed her.

His longing and passion spilled out into her through the touch of his lips. After a single, tiny, minuscule moment that couldn't have been longer than 5 minutes, David pulled away. There were tears in his eyes. The two stared at each other awkwardly. David trembled and blinked back the tears. “I wish-” he began.

“Forget tomorrow, just shut up and kiss me!” Rita hissed and pulled him to her.

*****

“Hey, look at this one,” Billy said. He pointed with one foot to a brilliant blue-purple flower. Trini knelt to admire it.

“We can’t go on pretending forever, you know,” she said casually.

“I know,” Billy said softly.

“We said we’d talk after the play ended.”

“But neither of us wants to. Can’t we just-”

“I told you-“ Trini stood “-it doesn’t work like that. For what it’s worth, I wish it did.”

“We can wait a little longer, though, can’t we?” Billy asked softly. “I love you so much...”

Trini hesitated, looking sadly at him, then dropped her gaze. “A little longer.”

*****

“How did we even get here? Do you remember?” Adam asked.

“Um, yeah – up the trunk.”

“I mean here here. Between the two of us. I can’t even remember what gave me the nerve to ask you out. I mean, I'd wanted to for months, but in the end it just spilled out.”

“Yeah, it was weird.” Tanya shivered. “I hate all this talk about graduation. I don’t want to think about it.”

“Why not? You have a dream job waiting for you. A recording contract…”

“In LA! I don’t want to be so far. I’d miss everyone every day. That’s no way to live.”

There was a moment of awkward silence that Tanya hadn’t expected. She looked across at her boyfriend, but he was staring down at the grass below. “You’re right, it’s not,” the Green Zeo said. “How about I go with you? Y'know… forever?”

“What do you…” Tanya gaped at him for so long that she had to grab at the tree trunk to balance herself again. “Adam, are you proposing to me?”

“I think so. If I’m not, I’d better do it soon, or someone else might just sweep you off your feet.” Adam gave her a shy smile.

In exchange he got fear and anger from the Yellow Ranger. “Don’t kid around! Adam! We’re seventeen. We don’t have anything in common. Our families couldn’t be more opposite; we’re from two completely different worlds. We can’t support ourselves, let alone a family. And you’re just saying this because we’re up here all alone in this damned romantic tree and you want me to kiss you.”

For once in his life, Adam looked confident. “We won’t be seventeen forever. We have plenty in common, including the biggest secret we’ll ever have. People have managed Baptist/Buddhist weddings before. My parents already love you. Recording contracts with top companies pay surprisingly well, and I hear martial artists are kinda popular as stunt doubles in LA. And I do want you to kiss me, but that’s not why I’m saying this. I’m saying this because I can imagine a life without you, and it’s not a life I want to live.”

Tanya sat there staring at her Teammate on the narrow branch, smiling at her, waiting with perfect patience to accept whatever answer she gave, and tried to wrap her head around what was happening. At last, she whispered, “Me neither,” and wrapped both her arms around him to kiss him.

Unfortunately, this left her without any arms to balance herself. By the time they noticed that they were falling, it was too late to do anything but try to land with a modicum of grace.

They failed.

*****

“Children,” Naatam sighed as he watched two Rangers plummet out of a tree and hit the ground giggling.

“Yeah, so?” Kat challenged, grinning.

Naatam shook his head without answering, then turned back to the Pink Zeo sitting in the co pilot’s chair. “I must know how serious you are about this. You may have to travel… frankly, further than your planet’s astronomers have mapped to find a teacher good enough to suit me. You must do whatever I say from the day of your graduation until you meet your teacher, and then do whatever your teacher says until that person chooses to release you as a full mage. Your life as an apprentice will be danger, exhaustion, rage, and fear, and you must rise above all of it. You must trust completely in us and in your own strength and talent. Can you promise me all that?”

“Yes,” Kat said, simply and with no hesitation.

Naatam leaned back against a wall and scrutinized her. “Whatever Zordon told you, it must’ve been good.”

Kat smiled enigmatically.

“Well, then. Welcome to the Fire,” Naatam said with a little smile like a dancing flame.

End Part 1

Chapter Text

“So, how do we find a village?” Moira asked Zordon.

Zordon took a deep, slow, exultant breath that brought a wide grin to his face. “Easy.”

The world suddenly clouded over with a pale gray mist, obscuring everything but Zordon, Moira, Zack, and Rocky. The next instant, the fog disappeared. The four now stood on a hill, looking down over a riverbank crowded with jungle-leaf-thatched tan brick huts. Past the opposite bank was a stunning vista of a vibrantly green and alive jungle world.

“Rad, man,” Zack grinned.

“Couldn’t’a said it better,” Rocky replied.

“Shall we?” Zordon said with a little, self-satisfied smile.

The four started down the hill. At the outskirts of the village, seven brightly-dressed Lerani came out to meet them.

“Best behavior, now,” Zordon said to the teens. [They’re going to try to kill us.]

“We bear greetings from our leaders to yours,” said a tall, brown-furred woman wearing flowing pants and tunic of thin blue leather. “We of the Jreenei Cabal have been asked to escort you to the village hall. If you would follow us.” She motioned vaguely toward her left.

“Certainly,” Zordon said pleasantly. Rocky, Zack, and Moira exchanged looks that asked if the others had heard what Zordon “said” to them. None were reassured to find that they had.

The seven mages led the way into the village. In a calm and cordial tone, Zordon said, “May I ask where we’re going?”

“White Ranger Rin asked that you wait in the village hall. He is currently occupied with a Thorondir Beast in Hanfel Village. In here, if you would,” the brown-furred woman said, opening the door of a large, rectangular hut. She went inside, and Zordon followed. The three Terran Rangers exchanged worried glances but followed Zordon’s lead. The other 6 Lerani came in after, the last turning to close the door. The door handle made the faint “click” sound of a lock falling into place.

“Any idea how long he’ll be?” Zordon asked casually.

“Awhile,” the woman said.

“Long enough,” added a gray-striped man with a faint growl.

Zordon smiled at him. He walked to the center of the room, closely followed by the three Rangers. The seven Lerani made a subtle ring around the room. “Tell me,” he said pleasantly, as though making light after-dinner conversation, “are there many mages on Ralen?”

“Not many,” said the brown woman.

Two of the six cupped their hands at their sides, and balls of flame-like energy sprang into them.

“Any blooded mages?” Zordon asked.

“What’s that?” the woman asked.

“Someone born to Dark magics, with the Power coursing through their veins just waiting to be called upon at any waking moment to form the most devastating spells ever designed. Someone slightly less powerful than a third of me,” Zordon replied.

Zordon extended his hands to each side. A dome of pearlescent energy sprang around himself and the three teens just as flame hurtled toward them. The fireballs hit his shield and melted into water which seeped into the ground harmlessly.

“Jana, what…!” one of the Lerani cried out fearfully.

“It’s just a fancy shield!” the brown woman hissed back. “Keep firing; it’ll give out!”

“Rather rude, don’t you think?” Zordon said lightly to Zack, Rocky, and Moira as more spells hurtled at them from all sides. The three didn’t answer, too busy staring in horror at the attackers. “Don’t worry,” Zordon said, his tone not flippant now but tender, “I’ll protect you. These mages are nothing – comparatively speaking.”

“Curse it, Jana, this isn’t working! Rin’s going to find out any second the Thorondir Beast’s a fake and-” said a calico young man.

“Shut up! He can’t be that strong!” Jana the brown-furred hissed.

“Oh yes he can,” Zordon replied, smirking.

In a fraction of a second, the little color there was in Zordon’s face fell away along with his smile. “Zordon?” Zack asked fearfully. His mentor looked down at him with wide, shocked eyes.

“Borrowed time. Forgot,” he said. He staggered, and the shield flickered and died. “I'm sorry,” Zordon whispered, and he slumped to the ground, unmoving.

*****

“Jase, are you all right?” Kim asked softly. Jason jumped, startled to find Kim walking beside him and startled that he hadn’t noticed her approach. Had he been brooding that hard?

“What? Yeah,” Jason said. His old friend gave him a highly skeptical Look. “I thought Moira would come.”

“Ah. We did sort of couple off, didn’t we?” Kim said, glancing ahead to Tommy with a gentle smile.

“Sometimes she’s so close I think she’s never going to pull away, and then.... I just wish I understood her. Ever.”

Kim laughed. “You do better than any of us, Jase.”

Her reassurance didn’t lighten him at all. “What do I do, Kim? Just give her space? Time?”

“Impatience isn’t going to help, that’s for sure,” she said lightly.

Jason walked a few steps in silence, but Kim could tell he hadn’t gotten out all he wanted to say. For once in their long and deep friendship, he seemed to be debating whether he could tell her something. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I love her. And I can’t even tell her.”

Kim winced. “Jase... I’m s-”

“Well gee, I think that might be the spot,” Tommy said with deep sarcasm. The two lagging behind rushed to catch up to Tommy and Trey. They found themselves standing on a small rise above a circle of meadow. In the very center of the meadow, there was a gold equilateral triangle etched into the ground.

“No one ever said the Power was subtle,” Kim chuckled. “Oh dear.”

“Nearly 3 hours remain,” left Trey said thoughtfully. “Good. This will require some preparation to ensure success.”

“I must take this opportunity to thank you for your generosity and your many sacrifices,” center Trey said.

“No sweat, man,” Jason grinned. “I mean, how many times did you save our lives?”

The Treys smiled and shook their heads. “You have risked more for me than my own actions on your behalf ever required. I must be favored by the Goddess Herself to have friends such as you. The thought that Zordon of Eltare is ris-”

“Oh god,” Tommy whispered. He staggered, weak from the force of the insight. “NO!”

“Tommy, what?”

“What is it?!”

Without a word of explanation, the Red Zeo Ranger turned and ran faster than any of them could match back to Naatam’s ship.

*****

“A likely place will be the Orrodin sector of Luxaqua galaxy, where-” Naatam was saying to Kat when someone yelled his name. Frowning, he stuck his head out of the ship’s door. “What in Prime Space…”

Tommy was racing toward him, flailing his arms wildly. Around the meadow, pairs of teens were emerging with confusion to stare at Tommy.

“Zordon! You have to go, now!” Tommy yelled, still running toward him. “Kat, go too! And Rita, where’s Rita?!”

“We haven’t seen her. Why?” Adam asked.

“Where?” Naatam asked.

Tommy skidded to a stop in front of Naatam. “210 miles, 452 feet…” Tommy scanned the horizon and pointed: “…that way. Can you do it?”

“Yes. Why?”

“NOW!” Tommy yelled. Naatam jolted back in shock and the next moment vanished in a rush of blue-white fire. Tommy stared at the spot, muttered, “Should’ve brought Kat,” and collapsed in a dead faint.

*****

A little over 210 miles away, Zordon hit the floor of the hut, and the shield protecting him, Moira, Zack, and Rocky from their would-be murderers flickered and vanished. The mages paused for a moment in surprise.

“I told you!” Jana laughed. She hurled a knot of blue fire at Moira, who hit the ground a fraction of a second ahead of the spell, with Rocky and Zack.

Magical energy whizzed in all directions over them. The Terrans knew it would take the mages only a moment to adjust their aim, and now they were lying prone in full view of all six. Rocky grabbed Zordon’s hand and tried to teleport, but nothing happened. Without the Power Chamber's system to route through, their communicators didn't work. The teens’ eyes met for a second, all three faces shining with fear.

In that second, Lord Naatam appeared in a burst of fire. “What on the Seven Moons of Omnicron-Janp is going on here?” he demanded.

The mages looked at each other, at Naatam, at each other again, and in unison threw their new fireballs at him instead. Naatam had a second to roll his eyes before the ten balls of sun-hot energy hit him… and did absolutely nothing. “Assassination. Well, that’s friendly of you,” Naatam sighed. With a small, annoyed gesture from him, a flame-patterned translucent shield sprang up around him, the three Terran Rangers, and Zordon.

Without sparing the Lerani another glance, Naatam sank to his knees at Zordon’s side to examine his friend. “Kirj! He’s fading fast! What Shade possessed him to burn through all the energy I gave him?!”

“He was protecting us,” Moira said in a small voice.

“You can help him, right? Like before?” Rocky asked.

“Not and keep the shield up so we don’t die!” Naatam snapped. The Lerani mages were now throwing bolts of lightning, misty balls glowing sickly colors, and other more complicated spells, so not even Naatam would survive if the shield dropped. “Pulling the energy that can shore up Zordon’s life force takes every bit of concentration I have. That boy was right; I should’ve brought Kat and made her hold the shield…”

Naatam put one hand on Zordon’s chest. It glowed faintly. A moment later, Zordon opened his eyes. “That’s all I can do, friend,” Naatam said grimly.

“Maybe… wasn’t such a good plan,” Zordon whispered. He smiled faintly.

"Oh, you think?" Naatam said hotly.

“Hold on. We’ll figure this out,” Rocky pleaded, taking Zordon’s hand. It was cold.

Zordon smiled faintly and shook his head. He drew in a deep, luxurious breath, then closed his eyes and relaxed all over as if unconscious… or…

“If we Morph-” Rocky started to ask, but Naatam was already shaking his head.

“Power won’t protect you from that much sorcery, especially from Light mages. Besides, Zordon and the rope-headed one can’t,” Naatam said. Zack blinked at him but didn’t try to explain dreadlocks, given the situation.

"Can't you knock them out at least?" Moira asked, loath to suggest killing them.

Naatam shook his head slightly. "Too many of them. Can't be sure of taking them out before they kill us."

“Teleport us?” Rocky asked.

“As unstable as he is? Could kill him.”

"Right then," Zack said as if reaching some decision. The former Black Ranger suppressed a tremble of anger, stuck his hands in his pockets, and stood. “Excuse me!" he said. "But what exactly is the point of all this?"

The mages stopped firing. A few glanced at each other incredulously.

"Isn't that obvious?" a short orange-striped female said. "We're stopping you aliens from taking over our planet!"

"Really?" Zack said, raising gently dubious eyebrows. "Seems to me like if you want people to leave you alone, you shouldn't kill their friends." He waited a moment, noted they were paying attention, then went on, “We don't need to interfere here, and we certainly aren't trying to take over. We'll be happy to go home and stay there if that’s what you need us to do. Just talk to us, okay?”

"We tried talking! Even the other mage cabals are on Rin's side, and they overruled us! We have to send them a message!"

"We get that. Really," Zack said mildly. "But if you want our friends to leave, you can't kill us. That'll just make them even more committed to interfering — specifically, to kicking your asses ten ways from Sunday, whether you have Sundays here or not."

"So you say we should just let you go?" Jana, the apparent leader, sneered. "I'm shocked."

"Not at all," Zack said. "Just that we're more valuable to you alive."

The mages looked at him in a new light. “What on Ralen do you mean?” brown-furred Jana exclaimed.

"Zack," Naatam said tensely, “don’t tell them anything.”

Zack ignored him. "Every alien on your planet would do whatever you say to save his life," he said, pointing to Zordon. Naatam gave a frustrated sound that Zack ignored as well. "But kill him, or keep Naatam from healing him, and there's no way they'll leave peacefully. This is Zordon of Eltare. I can’t even name one out of every hundred worlds where his name’s the next-door thing to Holy. Killing him is declaring war on half the Light worlds in this dimension."

"Drop your shield," Jana, the leader, ordered.

"Not a chance!" Naatam growled.

"If you don't, he’s gonna die!" Rocky hissed.

"We vow not to harm you... immediately. We will try the boy's plan first. Now surrender before we change our minds!" Jana growled.

Naatam glared at Zack, but he dropped the shield. He immediately started muttering and motioning over Zordon's very still body. Moira, Zack, and Rocky all watched anxiously, hoping to pick out some sign that Naatam's spell was working. As they watched, three of the mages walked up behind them and bound their hands.

"Hey!" Moira protested, pulling loose and shoving back the one grabbing her. He finished binding her tightly and then struck her across the face, sending her to the ground with claw gouges in her cheek.

“Prisoners obey,” he growled.

*****

“Ohh, my head,” Tommy groaned as he woke. He blinked a few times before he could make out clearly that he was inside Naatam’s ship, surrounded by the other Rangers, David, and the Treys. His mind spun a moment before remembering why he was lying on his back on the floor with a crippling headache. “Zordon! Did Naatam go? Did it work?”

“No idea. We couldn’t exactly follow him,” Rita sighed.

“And he’s not back yet,” Tanya added worriedly.

“Why… how long was I out?”

“23 minutes,” David said with an anxious glance at his watch.

Tommy frowned. “Shouldn’t have taken that long…”

A faint beeping from the front of the ship made Billy spring to his feet and rush back into the pilot’s seat. “Incoming call,” he announced with confusion. He activated the small comm screen, and a brown-furred Lerani’s face sprang on to it.

[I will speak with your leader,] she growled.

“Okay,” Billy answered. He turned around in the chair and paused, suddenly clueless. He, Kimberly, and Tommy stared at each other. Who was “the” leader?

Tommy moved to stand up, but he sank immediately back to the ground, holding his head in pain. “I’ll go,” Kim said quietly, standing and hurrying to the front. She slipped into the pilot’s chair as Billy vacated it.

There was a flash of surprise and contempt on the Lerani woman’s face, but she straightened it out quickly to a fiercely serious expression. [We hold Zordon, the fire mage, two Power Rangers, and the talkative youth hostage.]

Kim forced her gasp of horror down. “What do you want?” she asked calmly.

[You must leave and never return. Within one hour, or we kill them.]

“We need more time. There’s a conjunc-” Kim tried to explain.

[No. Meet us one mile east of Torell Village in one hour with your space-travel machine. Delay and they all die.] Ignoring Kim’s protest, the Lerani ended the communication.

The assembled teens and Treys all sat in stunned silence for a moment.

“So, rescue?” Adam asked.

“Hell yes,” Jason said.

“Let’s get to work,” Kim said, joining the rest to plan.

*****

“Look, she wasn’t trying to bargain for time so they could rescue us, I promise,” Zack was still trying to explain some minutes later. The Lerani were largely ignoring his efforts, and Moira and Rocky were staying out of it entirely. Naatam was muttering over Zordon, two mages standing over him with spells in hand in case he should try anything. “Another friend of ours is sick, and to get well he needs to be here to catch a planetary alignment- okay, what’d I say?” Zack broke off, startled to find that suddenly all six Lerani were staring at him.

“They’re here for the alignment?” a tall tortoiseshell asked.

“And to open a peaceful dialogue with the Lerani people, but since you’ve established that that’s not going to happen — yes, they’re just here for the alignment.”

The mages looked at each other, trying to confer silently.

“Rin did not tell us this,” the brown-furred leader said to Zack.

“We didn’t know about the alignment when we asked to come. We only found out after he came back to Ralen,” Zack said. The mages looked at each other again, and then the two guarding Naatam broke off to join the other four in one corner. They started muttering very quietly. All three Terrans watched them tensely. Subtly to avoid attracting even the other teens’ attention, Moira shifted to put her feet under her.

At the same moment that seven brilliantly colored streaks of light landed all around the room, revealing Morphed Rangers with weapons drawn, and that two sparkling white streams of light touched down in the center of the room to reveal a Morphed White Ranger with white capelet and a stunningly beautiful young black-furred woman, Moira sprang to her feet and called, “It’s Morphin Time!”

“WHITE VENUSIAN RANGER POWER!”

Though Moira couldn't move her hands through the normal pattern, the Morph somehow happened perfectly. In the Morph, the White Venusian’s hands weren’t tied any longer, and she lost not a second drawing her laser pistol and aiming it, like her friends and White Ranger Rin, at the six clustered mages. Then, she, Rin, and about half of the Rangers of Earth cried, “Don’t move!”

The six mages were as startled as the two White Rangers and the other Terrans were to find ten rescuers confront them simultaneously. A few spells went off randomly in sheer surprise. The only one that hit absorbed into Orange Swan's costume harmlessly. There was a moment of shocked silence.

“Hey!” Zack said indignantly, crossing his arms, “I was negotiating here!”

“Sorry, Zack: we’re Power Rangers, not diplomats," Blue Owl said, weapon trained on Jana.

Two mages started forming balls of cracking energy. Both nascent spells were shot with Rangers’ laser weapons, and the balls exploded in the mages’ faces, propelling them backward into the wall of the hut. They slumped to the ground, unconscious.

“Anyone else?” the White Lerani Ranger growled.

With expressions of deep loathing, the remaining four mages raised their arms above their heads in the universal gesture of surrender. “Good,” Purple Crane said lightly. “Now what?”

The only person who’d appeared and not aimed a weapon at them spoke. “For your actions here, I place you under suspicion of Darkness,” Phiris said. The four conscious mages gave cries of horrified protest. “Silence!” she commanded, and they shrank away, looking deeply scared. “You will teleport yourselves to the Accusatory at once.”

“This isn’t fair!” a short, gray-furred male protested. “We’re not evil! You’re just trying to silence our voices!”

“It’s not your voices you used!” the White Lerani Ranger snapped back.

“I understand that you wish the greater universe to disappear from our lives. It is natural to be afraid. But threatening to murder creatures who never harmed you because your wishes are not those of your fellow Lerani is not the action of Light beings. Now, go!” Phiris commanded.

Two of the frightened mages knelt to touch their unconscious fellow conspirators, and the six vanished in flares of patterned light. Immediately, the White Lerani Ranger deMorphed, revealing a marmalade-patterned person wearing a white leather tunic and off-brown pants whom most of them recognized from that morning. Rin knelt next to Lord Naatam. “Will he live?” he asked anxiously.

Naatam paused the chant for a half second to say, “Yes.”

Rin gave a sigh of relief and stood again. The Terran Rangers deMorphed as well, and Moira and Kat, the nearest of the rescuers, quickly untied Zack and Rocky. Automatically, most of the teens clustered loosely around Zordon, watching Naatam work.

“We are deeply embarrassed by this, and we ask your forgiveness,” Phiris said. As the male Rangers continued to gape at her in helpless awe, Trini answered, “They aren’t evil, just scared like you said.”

“There is not usually a difference among Lerani between those who are and those who behave like evil creatures,” Rin said. “But we will judge the case with particular care.”

Rita gently reached up to Moira’s torn cheek to heal the claw marks. In the time it took Moira to whisper thanks, Phiris was standing over them. “You are their healer,” she stated.

“Yes?” Rita answered, startled.

“Please, come with me at once.” She extended her hand to Rita, who looked very doubtful. “It is a matter of a Ranger’s life.”

“Gala!” Tommy gasped, surging back to his feet excitedly. “She’s still alive?”

“Barely. Her spirit still fights, but we have no science to heal the wound which the wicked staff planted within her. Phiris believes that she can yet recover if your friend will consent to heal her,” Rin said.

Rita immediately placed her hand in Phiris’s. "Take me to her," she said, and they vanished in a swirl of gentle white light.

“Are you sure those mages are the only ones who don’t want us here?” Rocky asked. “’Cause, seriously, don’t wanna go through that again — next time we might not have a junior diplomat to save our asses.” Zack grinned at him.

“The debate was heated, but the Jreenei cabal was the only voting group which did not agree in the end,” Rin said. “I never imagined that they would attempt to force their opinion over all the rest of our people.”

Phiris returned in the same gentle swirl of light. Adam, who’d been about to respond to Rin, forgot what he’d been planning to say. Phiris spared him a tolerant smile that made him blush crimson before turning to receive the question she knew that Rin was about to ask.

“Could the girl help?” Rin asked her.

“Yes. The healer knew exactly what to do,” Phiris answered calmly.

“Knew? Then… she’s finished? Irss’galarre is healed?” Rin asked as if asking for a mountain of gold and all the tea in China. Phiris smiled. “Can I go to her?” At the mystic’s nod, Rin teleported in a streak of white without another glance at his visitors.

“It appears I shall take over the diplomatic duties for a while,” Phiris said with a small laugh.

“Great,” Rocky said dreamily. Kat elbowed him. “Hey!”

“He is healed now,” Phiris said to Naatam, indicating Zordon.

Naatam spared the beauty a trustless glare before returning his focus to Zordon. Almost at once, Zordon gave a faint moan and opened his eyes. The ancient fire mage looked at his friend, then at Phiris with wonder.

Zordon sat up, caught sight of Phiris, and blinked.

“I suggest you avoid a third use of that spell,” Phiris said.

“Why’s that?” Naatam asked suspiciously. Immediately afterward, a wave of exhaustion fell over him, and he had to prop himself up by one arm to keep from falling to the floor. Phiris smiled gently.

“I don’t believe we’ve been introduced, Zordon of Eltare,” she said, bowing to him, “my name is-”

“Phiris,” Zordon and Phiris said together. Delight sprang into her sea-blue eyes at the surprise. Zordon smiled at her as he stood. “My dear, you’re not the first mystic I’ve met.”

“I would consider it wise to address the Lerani people in one hour and twenty minutes,” Phiris went on without comment.

“Then that is certainly what I’ll do,” Zordon said, bowing to her in turn.

“And, of course, it would be best if you were the only alien to address the people before the conjunction,” Phiris said with a gentle, non-accusing look at the other foreigners clustered around the room.

“But-”

“No fair!”

“Awh!”

Zordon laughed. “Go on, I’m sure you’ll find something to occupy yourselves.”

“Right,” Tommy realized suddenly. “Guys, I think it’s time to Talk.”

The rest exchanged startled, then nervous looks. They’d all agreed at the time to Tommy’s idea to finally talk out all the gritty, painful things they’d never shared after “Into the Woods” ended, but now that the moment came...

“Talk about what?” Zack asked cheerfully.

End Part 2

Chapter Text

“Since this was my idea, I guess I’ll start,” Tommy began once everyone had settled comfortably in the grass near the ship and Zack had been filled in. “You never asked, not any of you, and I’m grateful for that... but you’ve got a right to know what I was before I came to Angel Grove.” He turned his back to them all and lifted his eternally long, always loose hair. At the edge of his hairline, a tiny red tattoo was revealed. “I guess you’d call it a gang sign,” he said, letting his hair fall and turning to face them, “but we weren’t like other LA gangs. They wasted time graffitiing, doing drugs, killing each other, getting caught by police. The police never even knew we existed. All they had was a string of unconnected, unsolved crimes.

“I don’t really know how I ended up in LA. I was born somewhere else, but I don’t know where. There was a car crash, and my parents...” Tommy shivered. “They died. The night of the accident's the first thing I can remember. My dad told me to run and hide. I think I was five. I grew up as a street rat, stealing what I could without getting noticed. I was eleven when I screwed up — picked the pocket of a girl named Angel. She looked like an easy mark: cute, well-dressed sixteen-year-old girl, I figured she came from some mansion in Beverly Hills. When she caught me, I had visions of police officers taking me away, of never seeing my friends or my streets again... and then she dragged me down an alley and criticized my technique! After yelling at me for ten minutes, she said I had potential and offered me membership. She vouched for me, taught me her role in the gang. She was — still is, I’m sure — a cat burglar. It was such a better life I never thought twice about what I had to do to get it. I learned martial arts, stealth, lockpicking, and five ways to kill a man before he can scream. I killed four times. Four more than I can ever forgive.” He closed his eyes so he couldn’t see their reactions, but whether from the first part of his story or the next was anybody’s guess.

“Three years in, a few months before Rita, Angel started changing our relationship. When I let her touch me, she just wanted more, and when I said no, she got violent. I started feeling like I didn’t have a choice but to let her do whatever she wanted to me. I’d learned enough of human nature the hard way to know I had to get out. So I did what I’d cursed my friends for doing years ago as a street rat: I turned myself in to an orphanage.” Tommy opened his eyes, though he pointedly avoided looking at anyone. “I didn’t give any details about our organization, but I still convinced them I was in real danger. They had me transferred to an orphanage outside the City in 24 hours. I expected to get harrassed by the new town’s PD ‘til I told them who I’d been running from, but... well, Angel Grove’s Finest suddenly had much bigger problems, thanks to Rita Repulssa.

“I started school for the first time at Stone Canyon High — man, was that ever not fun. Seven years of math to catch up on.” A sympathetic shudder went around the circle. “Then out of the blue, the Olivers show up asking to adopt.” They saw some vestige of the overwhelming shock he’d felt that day. “You know how often a family comes looking for a kid, let alone a teenager? Even people generous enough to adopt almost always want babies. I don’t know what possessed them, I really don’t.”

“Your indefinable allure?” Kim teased, doe eyes mischievous. Tommy stared at her tensely as if searching her for something unpleasant.

“Tommy,” Billy said gently, “thank you for trusting us with that. But you do know that none of that will change how we feel about you, at all, right?”

Tommy looked away. “Honestly... I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Then you’re a dumbass,” Rita said brightly. Tommy laughed a little, searched his friends’ faces, then laughed again with relief.

“Is that why Rita Repulssa and... everything hit you so hard?” Jason asked carefully. “Because you'd just been through all that with Angel?”

Tommy let out a long breath to ease the knot in his stomach. “Yeah, pretty much. Maybe Angel didn’t break me, but... she tried, and she got close.” His friends could see old shame at the edges of his eyes. “I always wondered, if I hadn’t let Angel hurt me so bad before I got out, would I have been able to fight back against Rita?”

“No,” Moira said. Everyone turned to her in surprise. “You, um, were a bit of an example in Theory of Magic classes,” she said, looking deeply embarrassed and surprised to be saying it. “At Queril Academy. You’re rather an anomaly, actually. It’s like a person with a naturally weak immune system, but where magic’s involved.” Her Scottish accent had thickened, whether from embarrassment or from thinking about the past they couldn’t tell. “It’s a highly rare genetic trait; it’s nothing to do with your personal experiences.”

“Thanks. That’s… actually really good to know,” Tommy said, looking at her with wonder. “You took a class called Theory of Magic?”

“Eighth grade,” Moira said, squirming a little more. “Along with Astrophysics, Fundamentals of Temporal Mechanics, Tactics, and Eltarian III. Oh, and Woodworking.”

The circle broke out laughing.

As the laughs died down, Rita said, “Can I go next?” and the laughter stopped at once. The rest stared at her, not because it wasn’t plausible that she had something gnawing at her in her past but simply because she’d given no indication that she’d have anything to say.

“Of course,” Tommy said, looking at her with curiosity.

Being generally a rather direct person and doubly so when nervous, Rita took a different tack than Tommy had and jumped right in: “I lied to you all. I was not an ordinary slave, and I know exactly why Scorpina trained me in magic. I was an overseer,” she said in a rush. Her dark eyes darted from one friend to the next, resting so briefly on each that they couldn’t tell whether she was taking in anything of their expressions at all. “Physical healing was just an introductory skill. She taught me that so I could learn mental healing, mental manipulation. I do not know whether she could work that magic herself, but she never did.” She shivered. Rocky reached out automatically to comfort her, but she shrugged his hand off. “Whenever a slave got out of line, rebellious, she brought the slave to me, and I changed that part of his mind. Made him less smart, less brave, less afraid — whatever she wanted.”

“Oh,” Moira said softly. “On Jalen and Isabella’s ship, when we were rescuing Adam. That’s what you did to me. You made me be less afraid.”

Pain shot through Rita’s face. “I violated you. It was reflex.” She looked disgusted.

“We would never have left that ship alive if you hadn’t,” Moira said quietly.

“That can’t make it okay,” Rita replied. No one disagreed. “What I did to you was only temporary, but what Scorpina had me do was permanent, as far as I know. I did not appreciate how wrong it was until four years ago. I was wandering the upper halls, and one of the slaves got up there. What he said to me... it reminded me of deeper concerns than those Scorpina beat into me.” She fingered the tiny golden crucifix that hung around her neck, a recent present from her mother. “I asked Scorpina to assign me some other duty. She beat me pretty badly... and then she left me on the lower decks.

“I don’t know who saved me. Most wanted to kill me themselves. Someone must have shielded me, because when I woke the next day, I was alone but no further hurt. Scorpina did not come for me for two more days, and in that time no one spoke anything but profanities to me or let me have anything to eat or drink, though they didn’t touch me either. It was just,” she said with an expression not quite a smile but somehow pleased.

“Just!? You were a child!” Kim said angrily. “You didn’t know what you were doing!”

“Thirteen, Kim. We all know teenagers are much more capable than people think,” Rita argued. “Fear for myself overrode my sense of responsibility to others. For years. Maybe it still does...” Rita’s voice dropped to a startling uncertainty. The Rangers had only seen it once before, when her magical abilities were frozen by the mage Celeste. David, though, had seen it both times he’d helped bring Rita through a crisis. She dared a subtle glance at him and saw sadness and sympathy but not surprise. She wasn’t quite surprised herself that he’d guessed some part of her secret.

“That’s ridiculous,” Jason said. “I’ve fought with you. You’ve never put someone else in the line of fire out of fear.”

“I have never been afraid in battle,” Rita said.

There was a pause. “Never?” Moira asked. It was certainly plausible that she wasn’t usually scared in battle — most were routine and easy to cope with after the shock of the first few wore off. But every once in awhile something would shake up the calm of any Ranger — a monster hitting too close to a phobia or coming too near seriously hurting someone. Everybody got rattled sometimes. When they tried to think of when they’d seen Rita shaken in the midst of battle, though, other than facing Celeste, nothing sprang to mind.

“The evil we see in battle can rarely scare me. Whatever it does to me, I do not feel threatened by it. I have survived some of the worst that evil can do. In one of those moments when I did feel threatened — when I first recognized Celeste — I hid behind Kim.”

“And when she threatened to hurt me a minute later?” Trini asked with a faint smile. Rita hesitated. “You ran in front of me. Terrified as I’ve ever seen you, you still protected your friends.”

“I... I guess so,” Rita said after a moment of frowning.

“Don’t doubt yourself. Not ever,” David said tenderly.

Rita looked up at him with longing in her dark eyes. A ripple of understanding ran around the circle. “What th- hermanita!?” Rocky exclaimed, staring between the two wide-eyed. The other Venusians, even Moira, broke into happy grins, and Tommy looked deeply pleased.

“Way to go, bro!” he extolled.

David stared back at Rita. Her expression of horror shifted on to his own face. “Sorry. I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t... I wasn’t going to-” He stopped his babbling and shifted to his feet to leave.

“Bro?” Tommy asked, standing too. “What’s wrong?”

Rita quietly hid her face in her hands.

“I... we can’t...” David said.

“Why not?” Billy was standing now, looking deeply confused and, to their surprise, angry. “Don’t you know you’re hurting her!”

David stared at the telepath blankly. Billy stared back, then staggered slightly. “Jesus,” he swore, “you’re hurting as much as she is...”

“It’s for the tribe. There’s no one else who can take over for Father. I can’t... I can’t marry an outsider and break the shaman’s line,” David struggled to explain it quickly.

Billy barely seemed to hear. He stepped toward David, pale face flushing with anger. “You can’t stop loving someone because you want to, because it’d make your life simple! You love who you love!” he yelled.

Dead silence followed. Billy yelling was weird enough. More than that, though, there was no reason the rest knew that Billy would get so angry over someone else’s love life. As each teen ran the calculation, eyes moved pair by pair from Billy or David to Trini.  Moira simply sat back and closed her eyes, looking unsurprised and mournful. Trini was staring at the grass, a perfectly calm expression on her face. “Excuse me,” she said quietly, stood with perfect, elegant grace, and walked quickly toward the shuttle.

Billy ran after her, cursing himself silently. He caught her arm to stop her. Though the Kung Fu black belt knew infinite ways of getting out of his grip, she simply stared at him coldly until he dropped his hand.

“I’m sorry, I...” Billy began, but, not knowing what he could possibly say to explain away his reaction, fell silent. Trini watched him a moment, then silently turned and walked toward the shuttle. “Trini, don’t, please!” he cried.

The Green Venusian stopped with one foot on the lowest step of the entranceway. “Why not?” she asked. Her tone was frigid.

“Because I found out something about you that you need to know.”

Trini looked at him in surprise, then wordlessly accompanied him back to the circle. Billy started quickly as if hoping to make them all forget what had just happened. “After the Varoxes’ first invasion, I did a lot of poking around when I had spare time, and... I think Zordon lied to us.”

The rest of the current and former Rangers of Earth stared at him in amazement at the very concept. “Why do you think that?” Adam asked.

“‘Cause I tested your DNA,” Billy answered, looking at Trini. For a moment, she only looked puzzled, then she drew in a low, long breath.

“I’m... I’m not...” she struggled to form the words.

“I don’t think so,” Billy interrupted to spare her the struggle. A palpable wave of shock ran through the circle. He winced and said, “Your DNA is almost a match to ours - 63% closer than chimpanzee.”

“What?” Trini gasped out a whisper.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner. I mean, I thought about telling you right away, of course, but I wanted to be able to tell you what it means, too. Where you come from,” he added, mumbling the uncomfortable words.

For a moment, Trini toyed with the idea of not asking, of telling him to forget whatever he’d learned because she didn’t want to know. The idea that she wasn't from Earth was stunning... but further ignorance wouldn’t make that go away. Trini took a deep breath for bravery and braced herself. “And?”

“And I don’t know,” Billy said. Trini deflated. “I ran the pattern through the main computer database, but nothing came up. I think...” he hesitated deeply “...I think it’s because Zordon took the information out. I’ve thought a lot about it, and there’s just no way he wouldn’t know you’re not Terran. He scanned each of us before he even brought us to the Command Center the first time. The scans for the rest of us are still in the databanks – for everyone who’s been a Ranger, actually, over the last ten thousand years – but not yours. And the computer shouldn’t be missing the information on an entire species. He doesn’t want us to know. Maybe it’s got something to do with the shadow Ninjetti’s attacks, I don’t know. Lily seemed to know something about you. I’ve got to believe he has a good reason for hiding it.”

“Did you ask him?” Trini asked.

Billy shook his head. “That’s your choice.”

Trini fell very quiet. Everyone else stared at her, marveling and waiting for her cue. At length, she stirred. “Thanks,” she said to the Blue Owl Ranger. “I’ll ask him.” She twitched as if to get up and leave again, but she didn’t.

“Oh. Oh oh!” Rita gasped. She gaped at Trini.

“What?” asked half the teens.

“That’s why I could heal you!” Rita said. She then sat back and grinned as though what she’d said had made perfect sense.

“Huh?” said about five different people.

“After Lily’s first attack. When you drowned? Kim said that you were dead-”

“She was dead,” Kim said quietly. It figured in plenty of her nightmares.

“-but you couldn’t be, because I could heal you. That must have something to do with you being a little different,” Rita theorized confidently. Trini gave a small, incredulous laugh at the phrase “a little different” but didn’t argue. No need to look gift acceptance in the mouth, she thought.

“I just thought you could bring back the dead,” Tanya said.

“Sorry to disappoint,” Rita replied with a little smile. “Magic only works to a certain-”

“Water,” Trini said.

Everyone turned to her. She was looking at the grass — and obviously not seeing it or anything else around her. “Water and darkness.” The strange look broke, and she shut her eyes and rocked back, grimacing. “Right. The cave.” Before anyone could ask, she began in a quiet, unrushed voice, “My parents don’t like to talk about their past, so what I know is still only pieces, but from what I gather they were in Saigon in 1975, when it fell. They were known allies of the US, but they couldn’t get seats on the American helicopters. They avoided the reeducation camps after the Fall by hiding, but it took them 6 years to find a way out of the country. That’s when I was born. I remember a cave — I think we were hiding there. It was dark, and there was a lake.... I think I remembered it when Lily was holding me in the fountain, but I forgot again until now.”

“They were actually there?” Zack asked, eyebrows arched so high they hid among his dreadlocks. “How come you never told us that?”

Trini shrugged. “We don’t talk about it at home, so it never occurred to me. I don’t really remember it.” She went back to staring through the grass, and everyone else stayed quiet in case she had another forgotten memory to dredge forward. After a minute or so, she looked up suddenly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to stop the conversation. Go on.”

“Are you sure?” Kim asked.

“Yes, please,” Trini nodded. “Say your piece.”

Kim drew back, startled. “How did-” she started to ask: she hadn’t said word one to Trini about her plans for the talk. Trini smiled softly.

“Kim, you’re a wonderful person, but you’re not subtle.”

“Oh. Well, mine’s pretty obvious: I quit competitive gymnastics,” Kim said.

“You did?” several people gasped.

Kim stared at them, surprised. “Come on. Duh. Coach Schmidt doesn’t give two-month vacations,” she said. “Honestly, I haven’t put much effort into training for a long time.”

“Why’s that?” Adam frowned.

“Um, Power Ranger?” Kim said.

“Oh. Right.”

“The world has the nasty knack of needing saving right in the middle of training sessions. And the world kinda comes first.”

“So that’s where I went wrong,” Zack said. The rest looked at him curiously, expecting a joking smile, but instead he looked nervous. “Well, if we’re sharing… You know how I was supposed to go on the Peace Tour with you, Trini?”

“Oh!” she exclaimed, sitting forward. “You never told me why you changed your mind.”

“Right. Well, um... and you know how I was trying to get over Angela in Geneva?” Zack asked Trini and Jason. The other two former Peace Conference members nodded; his unresolved feelings for his would-be girlfriend in Angel Grove had been a major part of his homesickness in the first few months, which had been worst for him out of the three. “I did.”

“Great,” Jason said.

“I mean, I really did. I mean, I started seeing someone. That’s why I didn’t want to go on the Tour.”

“Wow, who?” Trini asked happily as Jason goggled in surprise.

“Halley Evans, from England.”

Both Trini and Jason looked stunned. A moment later the reason seemed to become clear as Jason let out a delighted whoop and clapped Zack on the back. “Way to go, man!”

“When did you start dating?” Trini asked.

“We dated for the past year and five months,” Zack said.

“Dated? Did you break up?” Kim asked, looking crestfallen.

“No.” Zack looked at his sneakers. “We got engaged.”

“You what?!”

“Are you serious?”

“I didn’t want to say anything,” Zack said, looking nervous.

“Why?!” demanded Kim, Rocky, and Jason simultaneously.

“Well, I didn’t know what you guys’d say... I mean, we’re really young and all... I guess you could say my parents didn’t take it well.”

“We are not your parents,” Jason laughed. “You think we’re going to tell you you’re not responsible enough to get married? And how many times have you saved the world?”

Zack snorted. “Well there’s that.”

“Whatever you decide you’re ready for, we’re behind you,” Billy said kindly. Adam and Tanya exchanged secret smiles under cover of their friends' affirmations and, silently, their hands met.

“Now, what’s she like?” Kim demanded, eyes sparkling fiendishly.

“Drop-dead gorgeous,” Jason answered instantly. Trini reached across Tanya and Moira to swat him. “What? It’s true!”

“It’s disrespectful,” Trini said primly.

“When are you... Is there a date?”Rocky asked.

“Not exactly. We finished out our service on the Peace Summit last month. I’m all packed to move to London, but we don’t know exactly what that’ll look like yet. We don’t know how her audition at the Royal Ballet School went, so-” Zack stopped talking to blink at Kat, who’d gagged.

“She had an audition at the Royal Ballet School?” Kat said. She looked astounded. “God, she must be brilliant! It’s the top school in the whole of the UK,” the ballerina explained.

“She was supposed to hear back this weekend, but...” A rare shadow passed across Zack’s face, and he fell silent.

The gravity of their planet’s danger hit them anew. For all they knew, London had been blown up — or the whole planet. Everyone had left family and other loved ones behind, but the rest at least knew that their boyfriends and girlfriends, if any, were safe.

“I’m sorry, man,” Jason said quietly.

Zack shook his head. “Not your fault.”

“I know. I’m still sorry.”

“I wish we knew what’s happening,” Moira said quietly. The rest agreed.

“Of course! I can patch into a news broadcast on the ship,” Billy said, rushing to his feet.

“You can do that?” Tommy asked, startled.

“It’s easier than you might think. Zordon told me that while we were on Phaedos questing, Alpha kept getting news broadcasts from Angel Grove by accident instead of finding us. We’re farther out, obviously, but I might-”

Billy’s communicator went off. This was an everyday thing, but it was met with confusion as the other teens slowly realized both that the communicators hadn't been working since they arrived and that almost everyone who had one was already sitting there. Billy covered the communicator reflexively, though that didn’t mask the sound much, and he didn’t answer it. The look on his face reminded a few perceptive Zeos strongly of a time months ago, before they knew who the Gold Ranger was, when Billy had walked into the Juice Bar to meet with Tommy with the attitude of a rabbit about to bolt.

“Alpha?” Adam asked, hoping to reassure Billy that there wasn’t necessarily any need to panic. He wasn’t wholly surprised, though, when Billy shook his head.

“It’s not Alpha, or the Oligarchs, or Raymond.” He took a deep breath and a step back from the circle. “Since we’re coming clean, there’s something huge I should tell you. But it can’t leave here, not ever. Word gets out, people I love are gonna die. Not even Zordon, okay?”

Some nodded right away, but others didn’t. “Is it dangerous?” Tanya asked.

Billy winced. “No, and you’re gonna think it is. I... I guess I’m asking everyone to take my word on it.”

“And mine.”

Jason hadn’t moved an inch, so despite the very familiar voice it took the rest a second to realize who’d spoken. Everyone stared at him, but particularly Tommy and Moira. “What’s going on? What is this?” Tommy asked his best friend. The thought of Jason concealing something from him that wasn’t even safe to tell Zordon disturbed him.

“Jase, I didn’t mean to drag you in,” Billy said, looking stricken.

“You didn’t.” Jason stood and walked over to Billy. “It’s like you said: if we’re coming clean, then we’re coming clean. And if they’ve both got the guts to stand up and let everyone know about them, I’m gonna help. If anyone doesn’t feel comfortable promising to keep the secret, please, tell us now. I'm sure Trey could use some help with setup.”

“I’m in,” Moira agreed quietly, looking up at Jason with a closed expression. Jason glanced back at her but didn’t comment, keeping his worry to himself. In another minute, everyone had agreed.

Jason put a reassuring hand on Billy’s shoulder, and Billy raised his long-silent communicator to his lips. “All clear, Nate. We’re ready when you are.”

The message got no answer, but Billy didn’t seem to have expected one. “You know how I never sleep much since I graduated?” Billy asked the group at large. He got several admonishing nods. “And I kept leaving at weird times when you were trying to figure out who the Gold Ranger was? And how sometimes — before Aerodon, I mean — I’d be cold or stiff, almost like you were talking to a different person?”

“You were just having bad days, right?” Rocky asked with a shrug.

“Or overworked,” Kat said.

“Or upset with us about the Team,” Tommy frowned as he realized how many different theories they’d all silently held.

Moira spotted and pointed up to two streams of light in the sky, one white, the other tinged green. The two pale streams landed next to each other on Billy’s other side. The white stream turned into a very familiar-looking blond-haired young man the Zeos’ age, and the pale green stream became a vaguely familiar lithe boy of about fourteen with curly, shoulder-length chestnut brown hair.

“Guys, I’d like you to meet my friends Will and Nate.”

Into the stunned silence, the first to speak was Billy's twin. "Right. You didn't explain first, did you." His voice was Billy's, exactly, but the tone was foreign: sarcastic, bordering on contemptuous. Billy's friends had only heard it one other day.

"No way," Kim said incredulously.

"What?" Kat asked, nonplussed. "Who are they?"

"No. Really. No way," Kim continued, staring at Will. "We blew you up!"

Rocky, Adam, and Rita's eyes went wide -- the first two because they were there, the latter remembering Kim's story about Lord Zedd's nearly successful plot to destroy the Rangers by kidnapping Billy and replacing him with a double he created out of an art project. They all shifted subtly, readying to square off against Will if need be.

Will's mouth made a jagged line halfway between a smile and a snarl as Billy winced. "Yeah, you did. Hurt a lot. Didn't actually kill me, 'cause I had Billy’s freakin' communicator to teleport out with, but it still kinda ranks as the worst day of my life. Thanks so much for bringing it up." Will's hands curled into fists that reassured none of the Rangers.

"Translation, please, anybody?" Zack asked, hoping to diffuse the tension.

"Lord Zedd made a clone of Billy from an art project a couple years ago,” Kim explained in clipped tones. “He's totally evil. Tricked us into giving up our communicators, stole our Morphers… Billy, what were you th-"

"Ok, seriously guys -- show of hands for people still surprised when it turns out evil Rangers are under evil spells?" Will snapped.

"But Zedd freakin' made you -- you're not even human!" Rocky said. Billy flinched – and so did Trini.

"So what? You think I wanted to serve him just 'cause I used to be bronze?"

"Guys, please-" Jason tried.

"Well if you're one of his monsters-"

"Stop it!" Billy yelled. Everyone stopped in surprise, even Will himself. Billy took a breath to calm down before saying, "No, he's not evil anymore and, yes, we're going to explain everything, so why don't we all just sit down and give Tommy a chance to get a word in."

Everyone not named Cranston or Oliver blinked in confusion, then looked at Tommy. In the chaos of recognition and fear over Will, the second new arrival had been all but forgotten -- by everyone but Tommy. The Zeos' leader was staring, transfixed, at Nate. He hesitantly closed the distance between them.

"Who…. I don't…" Tommy tried.

"Just take my hand," the young teen said quietly. He held it out, confident as Tommy was uncertain. Tommy did, and in sync both closed their eyes and took a deep breath.

Tommy's eyes popped back open as his Power's insight hit him. "You're… human," he settled on at last.

Nate's face broke open in a wide grin, setting his chocolate-colored eyes sparkling with good humor. It was a look the rest recognized perfectly but hadn't seen on Tommy's face until he was years older. None of them had known Tommy at this boy's age, but now they looked even closer alike than brothers. "Just as human as you are," Nate said.

"All my life," Tommy said quietly, "I've felt like there was something I was supposed to remember. Something about my life that didn't add up." He hesitated. "That's you?"

Nate nodded. "Me... and the rest of our family."

The other teens held in their gasps, not wanting to break into the two's moment. "I have a family," Tommy said, surprised that what he meant to be a question turned into a statement instead. "A birth family, that cares about me and misses me."

"And... y'know... kinda all looks exactly like you. Just the guys, I mean," Nate added hastily, “'cause that'd be awkward.”

Tommy opened his mouth to respond but realized he wasn't sure how to. He closed it and tried again, "Right. My life is that weird." He stared again at Nate for a moment, then at David. "You didn't tell me."

"Hey, news to me," David said hastily, putting up his hands in surrender. "I don’t even remember our parents."

"And I'm not supposed to be telling you now," Nate answered. "Blame him," he added, pointing at Billy.

Tommy looked back and jumped a little, as if he'd forgotten the others were there. "Maybe," Billy said to Nate mildly, "you should start from the beginning?"

"Oh. Right," Nate said sheepishly.

Tommy and Nate found seats in the circle next to David. With a shy hesitancy that Tommy never displayed, Nate began, "Um, just so we're clear -- nobody's gonna... y'know, hurt Will or anything, right? 'Cause he's saved my life way too many times for that. Yours too."

Half the circle eyed Will warily, and he gave a glare that challenged every single one of them. "Will," Billy sighed, "back off." Will shot a sharper glare at Billy.

"Of course we won't. We're Power Rangers," Rita said, echoing Kim's own words to her days earlier.

Kim smiled wryly at the reminder. "Really confused Power Rangers, but Power Rangers."

"Good. So, the beginning..." Nate said. He let out a soft puff of anxious breath. "For me, that'd be when Tommy's clone decided to stay in 1700s Angel Grove in Massachussetts Colony. He was freed of magical control -- thanks to some of you guys, I guess-" Nate said with the awed expression of someone talking to figures from a history book "-and made a good life for himself. Part of what Zedd changed from the original gave him magic -- he was a warlock -- and he used that to do a lot of good for the people back then. Became a doctor. But eventually it came out that some of what he did was magic and, well, colonial America being what it was, he had to leave, fast. No one knows where he went. But his daughter stayed, grew up, had her own family, and as time passed and nothing else weird happened around the family, people forgot to be suspicious. We always kinda kept close to 'home,' and when Angel Grove uprooted to settle the new frontier in California, we went too. Stayed as quiet as we could to make sure we didn't scare the people around us again. There's still a good bit of magic in the family, plus it gets a little tricky when you look exactly like your great-grandfather. And grandfather, and father."

"Why, though?" Tommy asked desperately. "Why on Earth would you look so much like me?"

Nate winced a little. "Um... so you really don't have any pictures of your dad, then?"

Tommy shook his head, then his eyes went wide. "No way," he said.

"Let's not start that again," Jason muttered.

"A finite, localized temporal recursion," Billy said knowingly.

"A time loop," Trini added automatically. Billy smiled at her openly for a second before they remembered. Both looked away again. Will raised eyebrows at Billy but didn't ask.

"Um. I don't look like him," David said, raising a tentative hand. "I mean, not exactly."

"Yeah," Nate nodded. "Temporal loop sealed as soon as Tommy was born. Like, really as soon as Tommy was born. The universe has a great sense of irony."

"Wait a second," Rita said, lips twitching toward a smile. "Just a second. Are you seriously saying that Tommy is his own great-great-great- grandfather?"

"No, no -- his clone was," Nate said. He looked at the expressions around the circle. "That's not much less cliché, is it." Fifteen heads shook "no."

"It still doesn't explain what you have to do with Billy and..." Tanya hesitated, glancing at Zedd's former spy.

"Will," Billy supplied. "And that's more complicated."

"Seriously?" Rocky said, aghast.

Will laughed, but it held a bitter edge to it that Billy's laugh never did. "Only because you all assumed that keeping everything running in the Power Chamber and building new Zords and always inventing the right device to neutralize the Machine Empire's newest monster in the nick of time is a one-man job."

"We didn't give them much reason to doubt," Billy returned. Then, to the rest, "It didn't take long for the strain to catch up to me, really. Especially making the Zeo Zords. During finals. Then one day I found out I had help, if I wanted it. They introduced themselves outside the Juice Bar one day and asked if they could help. Since I was going a little insane trying to do everything and every analysis I could run said they weren't evil or lying... Well, it made it a lot easier." Billy looked down. "And it was selfish too. It was harder than I thought, being off the Team. That way I was still a part of something, just… not the same thing you all were."

His friends sat in silence for a long moment. The air was thick with unasked questions, and though Billy could probably hear every one of them, he didn’t say anything until someone spoke one aloud. "Why didn't you tell us?" Adam asked at last. The Mallard Ranger could say it with more curiosity than betrayal.

"They do not get to ask that after the greeting we got," Will said to Billy.

Billy sighed. "You did kinda answer that yourselves. It was too big a risk. Will's functionally just as human as all of us, but he’s still technically a construct of the Alliance of Evil and wouldn't have any rights under Eltarian law if it came down to it, and... well, Tommy, you really weren't ever supposed to know about Nate and the rest. It's part of making sure the temporal recursion seals properly."

The other Rangers looked to Tommy for his reaction. He looked thoughtful instead of upset. "No, I don't think I was," he said softly. "At least... not until I understood a few things. Now that I've started training as a Master, it's different, I think."

Billy and Nate gave relieved smiles, and Billy continued. "With everything changing anyway, it seemed like time you all knew. And besides," he said, "I could tell myself it was the only way to make sure you had the support you needed over and over again, but I still hated keeping it from you."

"He did," Will confirmed. "Big angst sessions. Pizza and ice cream. It was a thing."

"Tuesdays," Nate added. A few of the teens sniggered.

Billy found a twig to throw at his clone. Will batted it aside without even looking in its direction. "Predictable," he said, rolling his eyes at the Owl Ranger.

“So… how did Jason know?” Zack asked.

Billy blushed, which made Nate burst into sniggers. Will cast them a sardonic look and said almost primly, “He figured out something was wrong and followed Billy, and my dear original freaked and punched him out. After that, we sort of had to invite him to pizza.”

“No, really, what happened?” Rocky asked, grinning.

“That’s pretty much it,” Jason said.

“There was more to it than that,” Billy protested, blushing more.

“But you still throw a mean punch when you’re scared,” Jason smiled at him.

Before anyone could ask for more details: "Do you really think that Zordon wouldn't understand?" Kat asked.

Billy sighed. "I don't know. But there's a chance, and it's too big to take. I'm not even sure you all understand."

"But if you don't, we can disappear," Will took up the thought seamlessly with a resigned shrug. "Not really the same option if the Big Z's the one who's got a problem."

"So you were in the Power Chamber? Right under Zordon's nose?” Trini asked. They nodded. “And you don't think he knew?"

"So goes the working theory," Nate said.

"You do realize he's one of the most powerful mages who's ever lived, right?" Moira said.

"Working theory," Nate said, hands up in surrender. "Still don't wanna get flattened by Mister Blue-and-Mighty."

"Makes sense to me," Rita smiled.

There was a short pause among the group. "Anybody else?" Billy asked.

"Not me. I'm gonna take a week just to think through all of this," Kim said. "My head's spinning."

Various others nodded agreement. "Good. Then you guys are ready to hear the news from Earth?" Will asked.

"The... oh!" Billy went wide-eyed.

Will leaned back, a smug smile breaking over his face. He waited, utterly unswayed, until the first flood of questions had abated, then sat forward with a gleam in his blue-grey eyes. "You're really, honestly never going to believe it. I don't even know if it's worth it, me trying to tell you, what with me being just an evil construct and all-"

"Get on with it, already!" Jason said, also finding a twig to toss at him. Will caught it in midair -- again without looking -- crushed it into powder one-handed, and scowled smugly at the former Gold Ranger before continuing.

"Nobody -- and I mean nobody, even among the people on Earth who're in the know -- can figure out why they did it. And the Normals are just confused as hell. About an hour ago, five minutes before the deadline the Varox warships gave the UN to surrender the whole planet or have it vaporized, a massive fleet of really sleek spaceships just appeared out of thin air in orbit around the Earth." Will held up a hand to cut off all cries and protests. "They stayed for fifteen minutes, then the Varox ships turned tail. And freakin' ran away."

"Varox don't run away," Jason, Billy, and Moira protested almost in unison.

"Yeah. Unless an entire fleet of Eltarian cruisers pops into the timestream and tells them to."

Will's hand did nothing to silence the flood of shocked and ecstatic cries this time. "Then everyone's okay?" Tommy asked as it died down on its own.

For the first time a smile like one of Billy's spread Will’s lips. "Pretty much," he nodded. "They saved the day. Like they're some big bunch of interdimensional do-gooders or something."

"But Eltare doesn't do that. Not for primitive worlds like us. It's like their Prime Directive," Moira protested. "They don't ever interfere in a world's development any further than installing a protector like Zordon, and only then if there's a really good reason."

"Maybe Zordon called in some kind of favor," Jason grinned.

"Can’t be. He wouldn't just let us worry," Kat returned. "If he knew or even thought help might come from Eltare, he'd have told us."

Will shrugged. "Like I said. No idea why they did it. But they did. And then they left, too. And either they never bothered watching a scrap of Earth media or Eltarians have a wicked-unexpected sense of humor, 'cause the only thing they said to us was a message piped straight in to UN headquarters: 'Be not afraid. We come in peace.'"

The teens sat and blinked at that for a long moment. Then, as one, they burst out laughing.

"No way," Kim said again.

"That... seriously... can't have gone down... that way," Zack agreed around laughter.

"Please please please tell me they added an image of a little green man?" Rita said.

"Yeah, no. But every news media outlet in the world added it for them," Nate answered, grinning. "'Artists' concept' drawings everywhere. The entire planet's in an uproar."

"Wow. Unreal," Adam said softly.

"Too right," Tanya said.

"Hey guys..." Rita said, a mischievous grin on her face, "...anyone else really want to tune in to the Earth news right now?"

End Part 3

Chapter Text

Inside of five minutes, all eighteen teens were crammed very awkwardly inside the cockpit of Naatam's shuttle, watching "artists' concept" little green aliens march across the picture-in-picture of an Angel Grove news broadcast.

[Whether the message of peace is genuine, or whether either alien fleet will ever return, this reporter can only guess. However, one thing is certain:] Harry Telleman, senior K-Grove News Anchor, let a dramatic pause hang in the air before breaking into a warm news-reader smile, [no one's going to say Angel Grove's just making up the giant space aliens again!]

The teens dissolved in laughter, almost falling over one another with the combination of relief and amazement. Suddenly, though, Tommy pulled himself upright.

"Hey, guys..." he said.

Nate nodded as if he already knew exactly what Tommy was about to say. "Yeah, you're right. Will, we need to get back."

"Yeah, you do. How did you-" Tommy started, but Nate's sunshine-bright grin made him just trail off into awed silence.

"Showoff," Will rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Will," Nate said, already setting his communicator.

"Hey, hold on," Tommy said, putting a hand on Nate's arm. "Do I get to see you again?"

The fourteen-year-old hesitated palpably, weighing rules against rights, then looked up at Tommy. He shrugged. "If you want," he said shyly.

Tommy nodded. "Yeah. I really do."

"Catch you guys around?" Billy asked.

Will clapped him on the shoulder just enough to make him rock forward a little. "Not getting rid of us anytime soon, my fleshy four-eyed friend." Billy waited until Will was absorbed in setting his own communicator to muss his sandy-blond hair. "Hey!" Will cried, then just shook his head and teleported in a white streak along side the green-tinged white of Nate.

"Wow," Adam sighed again.

"You said it," David said.

"Said what?" a voice from the doorway broke in.

"Zordon!" several voices said together, joyously. They quickly made what little room could be made for their mentor to get a clear view of the ship's comm screen, still displaying little marching green men. He watched and listened for half a minute before he said anything, and well before then every one of his Chosen knew for certain that he had nothing to do with the Earth's salvation this time.

He turned to them at last, a little more pale than his usual very. "What has happened?"

"Near as we can tell," Billy half-lied smoothly, "a fleet of ships appeared and scared off the Varox before they could conquer Earth. The image on the news looked Eltarian."

Zordon's brows drew together tightly. He opened his mouth, on the point of telling them how impossible that was, and heard,

[And here, once again, from our very own NASADA research satellites, the aliens' spaceships. They appear to be a highly advanced-]

Zordon took one stricken look at the only slightly-grainy pictures and sank into the pilot's seat in front of the small screen. He started punching keys on the control panel below it so fast that not even Billy could track what he was doing. The K-Grove broadcast vanished.

"Zordon?" Kim asked tentatively. "What's going on?"

His fingers fumbled for a second before continuing their dizzying patterns. "Somebody's got a lot of explaining to do. NASADA leaked this. NASADA's not supposed to leak anything without my permission."

"Wait, what?" Jason said.

Zordon hesitated, his fingers pausing as well. "National Aeronautic and Space Administration, Dissemination Adjunct. The United States’ space exploration program was originally just called ‘NASA’ until I contacted them a year after their founding, almost 40 years ago. Their job is to learn, catalog, and record everything that's going on in the solar system for posterity -- and make sure things like a giant palace on the moon don't reach the general public until the people of the Earth are ready to handle it. The director of NASADA and I have a little chat whenever a new one's installed to make sure it stays that way. Someone," he frowned, "went behind my back."

The teens exchanged stunned looks. They'd all wondered why no one noticed Rita Repulssa's palace on the moon, the various spaceships that had appeared in orbit, or any of the other weird space phenomena their enemies had caused. With a few exceptions, such as Pyramidas's harried flight through Earth's atmosphere when Trey was being chased by a team of Varox bounty hunters (explained as "testing experimental aircraft"), nobody on Earth seemed to notice. Most of them had never considered that Zordon himself had something to do with it, and only one had actually known:

"And they broke all the rules," Moira finished for him.

The tiny viewscreen changed from blank to static and, a few keystrokes later, solidified into an image of an elegant room in tones of silver and cream. A medium-brown-skinned person in a lovely, shining robe of bright green quickly sat down, blocking the rest of the room from view.

[Greetings, Protector Solus Zordon,] the person said with a calm, polite smile, as if she'd been expecting him. Immediately, though, she gave a double-take. In guarded tones, she said, [Temporals?]

"Yes, no they're not leaving, standard precautions, and don't even think about quoting procedure to me right now," Zordon said defiantly. "I want to know who had the gall to interfere in my world without my permission, and I want to know it now."

The woman's calm and pleasant expression resumed. [The abruptness of the situation is understandably quite startling. Unfortunately, there was no Primus-safe opportunity to contact you, as it seems you yourself entered the timestream of the Primus Mensura conspicuously close to the point of your protectorate world's near demise at the hands of Varox Slavers. If you disapprove of the results of our... ah, 'gall'?... I'm certain that arrangements can be made for the Varox to resume their destruction of your protectorate.]

"I see," Zordon said, his polite tone much more clearly forced than hers. "That won't be necessary. I am, of course, quite grateful for the assistance. What I want to know is who, so I can ask them why."

[Of course,] the woman gave a thin, pleasant smile. [As to the latter, Protector Solus, I can answer your needs. It is generally presumed undesirable for a world to be destroyed as its status is being discussed within the Council.]

Over the years, the Power Rangers had heard a range of reactions from their mentor, but all his expressions were muddied to near-obscurity by the time warp tube distortion. They’d never imagined that Zordon could look flabbergasted. "Its what now?" he blurted, but he quickly cleared his throat and amended, "I was not informed that any matter concerning Earth had been brought before the Council of Worlds. Kindly. Elaborate." He somehow managed to make the polite request into an ultimatum.

The woman's professional pleasantness fractured for an instant around a gulp. [It was recently brought to the attention of the ERO that there are certain evolutionary developments within the Terran population which are of interest. While the matter is being discussed, it would be most counter-productive if-]

"Yes, yes," Zordon said impatiently, "you said that. Princeps Aurelia, then."

The woman looked at him with a carefully neutral expression.

"Now," Zordon growled, and the woman actually jumped. "Directly. If she wants me handled she can damned well do it herself!"

The woman swallowed. [Certainly, Protector Zordon.]

Her image faded out. While the screen was blank, Jason said quietly, "Remind me never to get you angry, sir."

Zordon glanced back at them briefly, and the anger in his face and body melted with a touch of embarrassment. "The ERO hasn't given me a straight answer in about seven thousand years. It wears on you after awhile."

"But it is good they sent those ships, right?" Rita asked, confused and a little upset. "I mean, we're not mad they saved the Earth..."

"No," Zordon admitted. "No, of course not. It's just how they did it. They could have stopped the Varox fleet before it reached Earth. It's not like they couldn't see it coming; it's what my people do. Handling it in orbit instead... It's going to be impossible to control the panic. More so because of what NASADA did, giving actual pictures of the Eltarian ships. Why the director would even think to hand over that kind of data..."

[As I'm sure you've already surmised, NASADA was acting on orders from the ERO directly,] came the familiar voice of Mrs. Walsh. She looked almost unrecognizably elegant, having turned in her dumpy floral dresses and wispy bun for a sweeping robe of Yellow and an intricately-braided updo. [And I assure you that if it had been both feasible and wise to cover up the confrontation that took place in their upper atmosphere, your Terrans would still be utterly unaware. As it stands now, Eltare is preparing to make you and them an offer -- one for which general acceptance of the existence of intelligent life beyond the Kuiper Belt was deemed necessary.]

"Deemed necessary by whom?" Zordon growled.

Aurelia Walsh sighed. In a resigned tone, she said, [Protector Zordon, I'm sorry that I stepped on your authority. It was an emergency situation in which we acted in what we judged to be the best interests of your protectorate. I don't regret any specific action taken, but it was not our right to make the decision without you, and for that I apologize. Is that sufficient?]

Zordon sat back in the chair. More of the tension left him, but his voice was still tight with suspicion when he said, "That depends on what the offer is."

Mrs. Walsh glanced past him pointedly. [As it's only been an hour since the Varox conquest was countered, the issue couldn't possibly be decided yet.]

"And while you're mucking through temporal bureaucracy, how, exactly, are the people of the Earth supposed to deal with sudden proof of alien life?" he demanded.

Mrs. Walsh gave a small smile. [Won't that be enlightening,] she said. [If there's nothing else for the moment, I'll leave you to prepare your statement for the Council on the Terran people, Protector Solus. There shouldn't be a pressing rush to submit it. The debates may not come before the Council proper for some ‘time.’ Princeps Aurelia out.]

The viewscreen image winked out.

Zordon stared at it a moment longer, then leaned back into the pilot's seat with a heavy sigh. "I. Hate. Politics," he muttered, to the amusement of several Rangers and especially Zack.

"What kind of an offer are they talking about?" Billy asked.

Zordon shook his head. "I'm sorry, Rangers. All I have are guesses. But we do know one thing now." He turned to look expectantly at his Rangers.

"They leaked information about the Eltarian ships on purpose, to see how people would react," Trini answered. Zordon nodded.

"Exactly. I don't understand why they would do it now, in particular, nor why it was so important to be worth bypassing me to accomplish. This will change a great many things, Rangers -- including how the world sees you."

They nodded in solemn agreement. "Think the world's ready for this?" Jason asked heavily.

"I dunno, bro," Tommy answered, frowning with equal worry. Second thought struck, though, and he smiled instead. "I sure didn't think I was ready to save the world -- until I had to be."

"You're right," Moira said, echoing the smile. "Most people don't realize a tenth of what teenagers are actually capable of. Maybe it'll be the same for Earth."

Zordon's lips quirked. "Did you just call our world a teenager?"

"Sure would explain some things," Zack mused. "All the mood swings."

"Hating how different parts of it look."

"Zits. What?" Rocky demanded. "Landfills!"

"Ugh!" Rita grumped at him while others chuckled.

"We're getting home soon, right?" Tanya asked worriedly.

"Definitely," Billy said. "As soon as we have Trey back together and the Zeo Crystal back in action, we're all set for Earth."

"Good. 'Cause even if we're out of villains to fight, I think the world could use the Power Rangers right now," Tanya said.

"Press conference time?" Kim realized.

"Hoo boy," Adam said, eyes going wide.

“International style,” Zack voiced Adam’s wide eyes.

"Right. Speaking of which..." Tommy said, turning around, "can I talk to you for a minute, bro?"

David nodded. "Of course."

The pair left, ignoring the curious or knowing looks from various Rangers and not noticing at all the stricken but acutely hopeful look on Rita's face. Most of the other Rangers followed the twins’ lead, wandering away from the shuttle with less serious topics in mind.

*****

"You're going to offer me the Power, aren't you," David said without preamble as soon as they were out of earshot of their friends.

Tommy blinked. "Uh. Yeah. I think you'd be a great addition to the Team, and I want someone I can trust completely to take my place."

David nodded. "Thank you. I can't.”

Tommy frowned. "The shaman stuff?"

A chuckle forced its way out of David as he looked at his twin incredulously. "Yeah, the 'shaman stuff.' I've kinda had a career path picked out for more than ten years already."

Tommy found a moss-covered fallen tree trunk to sit on, and David joined him. "So, here's the part I don't get," Tommy said. "Did you pick it out? Or Sam?"

"Maybe Dad pushed me toward his footsteps, but it's not like he'd have cast me out if I decided I wanted to be a… I dunno, a concert violinist or something. It's my calling." He frowned in thought a moment. "Maybe it's not so much that Dad chose me because I was his son. Maybe I'm his son because I'd already been chosen."

Tommy gave his brother a long, steady look. "I understand," he said at last. "I just thought it might be nice to get away from it for a little while. Do something else before you spend the rest of your life serving the tribe."

"Tommy," David said in a mild but deliberate tone, "if I'm gonna take any time off from training, it's going to be someplace relaxing, not trading ass-kickings with some of the nastiest creatures in the universe. Being a Power Ranger's not a summer vacation."

Tommy laughed. "That’s fair. Just one thing, then, bro?" he asked, standing with the thought of heading back to the shuttle.

"What's that?"

"When you take that vacation, bring Rita?"

David blanched. "That's really not a good idea, Tommy. I'm engaged."

Tommy stared at him for a long moment. “You’re….” He paused and considered, then sat down again. “Okay. You’re engaged. Could’ve told me that.”

“Sorry,” David acknowledged. “It happened way before we met. My dad arranged it. I’m ok with it.”

Tommy eyed him. "Uh-huh.”

David shifted uncomfortably. “I’ve always been okay with it,” he amended.

“Before Rita,” Tommy added. Reluctantly, David nodded.

“But I still have to go through with it. It’s important to the tribe, and Dad. If I don’t, I might never be able to follow him as tribe shaman.”

Tommy considered. “Okay. But what makes you think Sam's actually stupid enough to try to get in the way of true love?"

"True love?" David returned skeptically. "He'd never believe that."

"He will if it's true. Is it?"

David took a long moment to try to pick his words, but he ended up just sinking heavily back into the log. "Right now, I barely know which way is up. But... yeah. Maybe." He sat on that thought for a moment before adding, "But I can't give up the shaman's path. There isn't even anyone to take my place. Tessa doesn’t have the talent, she’s Sam’s only other child, and her kids couldn’t even start training until long after Sam’s dead. We’d lose thousands of years of knowledge. It'd be betraying our whole tribe."

"Talk to Sam," Tommy said. "Just talk. You'll work something out. Trust him, bro."

David tried to sort out his thoughts and failed. "Where's all this brotherly advice coming from suddenly?" he asked instead.

"Some of it's from the Power itself. But mostly," he said, grinning at David's alarm, "I'm just playing catch-up ball for the last seventeen years. Think about it," he said, and turned to walk back to their friends.

"Yeah," David said softly to his brother's retreating form, "I will."

*****

"Have you talked to him yet?" Rita asked Trini, motioning back to the entrance of the shuttle. Zordon was sitting on the steps of the small craft, eyes closed, simply soaking in the afternoon sun. He had hardly moved from his patch of sunlight in the twenty minutes since talking with Aurelia.

"I don't want to interrupt," Trini said. "He looks so happy."

"And you're nervous."

"And I'm really, really nervous," Trini agreed. She wrapped her arms around her as if for warmth, but the weather was just short of tropical. "I can't even imagine what he'll say. I can barely believe that he actually knows I'm not all... normal... and hasn't told me."

"But he doesn't," Rita said. Trini looked at her curiously. "De veras. He doesn't tell any of you everything, ever. We just saw him get how upset at his own people for letting the rest of the world find out the tiniest part of what's actually going on around them? And I would guess it's just the same reason: he's protecting you. Ten thousand years as a protector gets to be a habit."

"Maybe." Trini sighed and continued to watch Zordon, but she didn't move.

"Or you could go talk to Billy," Rita added brightly. "Say, what's going on between you two, anyway?"

Trini pushed herself up off the grass. "You’re so helpful.”

"Buena suerte!" Rita called after her.

As Trini walked to the shuttle doors, the nearest few teens suddenly decided to go walk around a bit. She shot them grateful smiles and asked, "Zordon?"

"Hmm?" he murmurred, eyes still closed.

Trini hesitated. "Is there something you want to tell me?" she settled on at last.

Eyes still closed, he drew in a deep breath and let it out again. "Trini Kwan, there are many things I would like to tell you and so many more I hope you will never need to know. Which among those I can, should, or must tell you is among the more complex riddles of my existence."

Trini waited, and after another long moment he opened his eyes and looked up at her. She saw disappointment and worry cross his face, one after another, and hoped she at least wasn't the cause of the first. "I see," he said. "Come with me."

He stood and walked into Lord Naatam's ship. Once she had followed him inside, he pressed a sequence on a nearby keypad, and the door slid shut. He muttered something under his breath, and suddenly the air around them sparked with invisible energy. "What was that?" Trini asked curiously.

"Something I'd hoped you would never be able to feel," Zordon said cryptically.

"Zordon..." Trini started, frustrated, but stopped herself. There was no point in pushing him.

"Just a ward," he said into the silence. "Well, a multi-dimensional ward barring all divination from this spacio-temporal locality, actually."

"It's that dangerous?" Trini asked.

"Yes."

He motioned to a nearby bench, and Trini followed him to it. "If I tell you this," he began, "everything changes. I've protected you this far, but I won't be able to anymore. You might not survive knowing."

Trini watched him steadily for a moment. The mixture of fear and love in his face reminded her of her own father the first time she asked his permission to go on a date: the knowing that if he gave her what she wanted, no matter what happened, he'd lose part of her forever. She put her smaller, darker hand over his. "It's okay. I'm ready," she said simply.

"I hope so," he said softly. He squeezed her hand, then released it to stand and start slowly pacing back and forth. "Billy ran a DNA test after all?" he asked. She nodded. "Then he’s told you you're not Terran."

Trini swallowed hard. Hearing it from Zordon made it so much more real than when Billy had said it. She nodded after a moment's panic.

"He's wrong."

"What?" she asked, startled.

"You're completely Terran. There isn't a speck in you of any other world's heritage. If there were, I couldn't have let you bear the Power in Earth's defense -- you'd be breaking Eltare's laws of non-interference in a developing world without even knowing."

"Then Billy's DNA test was wrong?" Trini asked, wishing Zordon had told her straight out.

"No." Zordon paced across the short hallway as Trini stared at him in confusion. "You're Terran, Trini. You're not entirely human." He took in a long, heavy breath. "It'll be easier to show you. Stand up, if you please."

Frowning, she did without question. He turned and led her downstairs to the ship's hold, which she discovered suddenly was much larger than it could reasonably be given the ship's small exterior. Lord Naatam's ship wasn't tiny, but a room the size of half a tennis court shouldn't fit in it anywhere. She blinked around the room a few times, trying to make it make sense. When she gave up and looked again at Zordon, he was in a ready stance. She had only a second of panic before he vowed, "I'd sooner die than hurt you. But this will help you understand."

"Sparring?" she said disbelievingly. “With you?”

He nodded. She took a deep, steadying breath, then nodded and slipped into a stance of her own. It went without saying that none of them had ever sparred with Zordon.

He moved, quick but blockable. She met the blow and returned with her own. They traded simple punches, his fists moving just barely slowly enough that she could meet them by focusing as hard as she ever had. The movements sped up, and she was suddenly jumping over a low leg sweep. She got her feet again and dodged the next set of blows. Though she knew he must not be going full-out, still she was elated: she was keeping up with Zordon!

"Good," he said. "Now focus."

Her mind spun a moment longer, then she began to release the concerns chasing her: why they were sparring, the secrets she was presumably about to learn about herself, the other Rangers' stunning revelations, and a mysterious alien named Cestria all got set down. She took another deep breath, and with it she released thought and let instinct come forward. She had trained in martial arts all her life. Her body knew what to do.

Blows came faster and in more complex combinations, and she returned in kind. Instead of speeding up, though, her breathing slowed. Without thinking or noticing, she began to fall into something akin to meditation while her body kept up the fight.

"What is the key to all success?"

The answer came. "Faith."

"Fight me and win."

Despite herself, she pulled out of the meditation a bit in startlement. She hadn’t considered winning, since he was so clearly holding himself back to match her skill. However, Zordon had always guided her well. She allowed herself a deep, slow breath, then plunged into the fight.

Blows came faster and faster. She couldn't keep conscious track of them; thinking made it impossible to counter them. Instead, she slipped further into that meditative space, her conscious mind stepping back from the details toward the essence of the fight. No matter how she fought, he was a little faster, just enough to avoid her. It was like fighting a river that slipped this way and that at her while most of its power was shut up safe behind a dam. She could try to assault the little, focused stream that flowed from the dam, but to win, she would have to scale the face of the dam and reach the source itself. That climb up the dam was impossible.

...but she didn't have to climb! She could go around! Dodging the focused little stream coming at her once more, she splashed her way to the riverbank and stepped out.

Mud squelched beneath her bare feet. The physical sensation startled her, but she pushed past surprise fast enough to stay with her meditation. Every blow they exchanged was a step up the hill, weaving between vines and bamboo thickets, walking and then running up the bank until, at last:

A wide, crystal clear pool met her, tranquil and unsuspecting. A pebble existed when she reached down for it. With a smile, she threw it across the surface. It skipped, sending ripples across the pool. The ripples spread across the water back to the shore and up into her, tossing her back into reality.

She took a step and nearly slipped. One of her feet – mudless feet that were resting on sandy-tan tiles in a room on Naatam's ship -- was in a small puddle. She wondered over that a moment before noticing that her other foot was planted on Zordon's prone chest. Her fist was a few inches from his face.

"Sorry," she said, lurching back off of him. "S-sorry."

"Perfectly all right," his low voice answered soothingly as he stood.

Was the world moving because she was stepping away from Zordon or because she was holding still? The strangest details stood out like they had spotlights on them: the puddle, the gentle, cool sound of water slipping down from her hair onto the deck, drops sparkling in the artificial light on her fists. The puddle of water on the floor of the shuttle was right where she guessed Zordon's feet had been when he'd slipped, just before she’d pinned him. She touched her hair in a daze. It was soaking wet.

“Where did all the water come from?” she said.

The world spun away. The jungle place rose over her sight again. She pulled away from it, now scared. When it faded, though it seemed only a second later, she found herself lying on a stiff bed in the shuttle, Zordon leaning over her. She had no idea how much time had really passed. “The water...” she whispered, eyes wide and scared.

"Ssh. Listen to my voice," he said, and it was so smooth and powerful and enveloping that she did despite her panic. "I'm going to count from ten down to one, and as I do, you'll rise
up toward the surface. When I reach one, you'll be back in the shuttle with me completely. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One."

At first she felt the power he was moving into his words, then the sensation faded – along with many others she was only just coming aware of. When he reached “one”, she gave a little shiver, then blinked eyes that opened onto a solid, tangible, normal – and somehow flat world.

She reached up to feel her hair immediately. It was cool but only as damp as if she'd taken a shower an hour ago. Her skin was dry. She thought about sitting up to check whether the puddle on the floor was still there, then she decided that lying down a little longer was a better idea.

“With me, Trini?” Zordon asked quietly.

“Yeah,” she said softly. She swallowed. “I made water.”

“You did.”

“And I kicked your ass.”

Zordon laughed: a loud, long, delighted laugh. “You did very well, Trini.”

“Zordon?”

“Yes?”

“What did I do very well?”

He laughed again, lightly. “I believe the Eltarian term would translate roughly to 'elemental invocation and displacement.' I have no idea what its practitioners call it.”

“Elemental... like Kat and Naatam?” Trini tried not to think of Celeste and wonder if all water- or ice-mages really were evil.

“Elemental mages have an affinity for a particular element, and they can create their element out of thin air, regardless of what surrounds them. Separate from the world around them. Does that sound right?”

She shook her head slowly. “No... no, it was part of the world. It was all part of the world. But... it wasn't this world.”

Zordon smiled and nodded, like he'd expected exactly that nonsensical answer. “Now, Trini, this could be very important. What world was it?”

The jungle images rose again, but this time blurred, as if fading impressions of a dream. She gathered the remaining sensations together and looked at them, puzzle pieces gathered up in her hands.

“Vietnam,” she said, suddenly, without premeditation or doubt. “It was the jungle we hid in until we could escape to America.” Confusion set in then. "Zordon, how...?" she asked, but she stopped. She wasn't sure whether the words she'd planned to say meant anything like what she actually wanted to know.

"By tapping into a part of you that's been buried deeply for a very long time," he answered the real question quietly. "I wasn't sure whether you could ever reach it -- and I strongly recommend against trying to again on your own."

Trini frowned. "Why? It was... I mean, it was hard to get back here, but the place wasn't dangerous. Just like... I was inside a metaphor of here." Confusion set in then. “But I don't remember Vietnam. I've tried to before, I just don't.”

“Isn't it amazing the lengths our own minds will go to to keep us safe?” Zordon mused. “For the first 17 years of my life, I thought I didn't have a Talent, the unique genetic power every Eltarian possesses, let alone magic. Your mind knows how dangerous awareness is, I expect.”

"I still don't understand. What am I, please?" she asked.

"Do you know the legends of Tien, the nature spirits in ancient Southeast Asian traditions?" She nodded. "And of kami, land spirits, orisha, genius loci -- fascinating how many religions of our world recognize some form of a being that is a manifestation of the land in one sense or another. The idea resonates throughout Terran cultures of a magical being rooted into our world at a specific place, often a specific natural object like a boulder or sacred grove."

"Or a pool in a cave," Trini finished, eyes wide. "I'm... a tien?"

"I believe a child of one. Your genetics tie you to your mother, but not your father." Trini nodded, unfazed; she'd realized years ago that adoption might be why her parents didn't talk about her early childhood. "On one level, you are exactly the same as your friends, in every way. But I also see a cord that stretches from you downward through physical and temporal space, rooting you more deeply than your friends. Unlike a nature spirit, this cord does not bind you to a specific sacred place, nor can you readily pull strength from such a place. That is what makes your true origin so dangerous.

"A Tien is literally a force of nature. Bound, but within those bounds, utterly without equal in power. You, Trini, carry the essence of that nature but none -- rather, it seems, little -- of its strength. Against one old and strong enough to hunt a Tien, you would be powerless."

"But why? Why did Lily come after me at all? Why would someone else?"

He looked sad. "Tien are one of few manifestations of magical energy on Terra. Most Terrans have very little connection to the Power, less so than most human species. That is why Terran mages are so uncommon that they’re considered children’s stories in many parts of Earth. Tien, however, are entirely real. They are not unique to Terra, but they are all but unheard of on worlds where many mortals can become mages. The magical energy of Earth concentrates into relatively few Tien. Though most such secrets are long forgotten, there were in Darker days many ways of using that potent energy. Spells and rituals of Black magic that only function if one can harvest it."

"Harvest..." Trini repeated. A sinking feeling filled her as the pieces started coming together. European fairytales began to meld with Vietnamese legends and create a picture she didn't like at all.

"Of course, these workings are usually impractical, because capturing a Tien in its place of power is all but impossible and finding one outside of its place extremely rare. Thus, most such rites died out ages ago. Those that remember any of them are very few – but such mages are also ancient and powerful to have survived Darkness so long. The only one you've met has just left Earth, and we will very likely never see her again."

"That's why witches have that reputation, then?" Trini asked quietly. "'Eye of newt' and all." A sick feeling swooped through her, which redoubled when Zordon nodded grimly. She looked away. It explained the patch of her hair that had been cut short during Lily’s attack.

"The first Light witches were those that rejected such workings and sought to destroy the knowledge. Repulssa is no longer a threat to you, and she never had the ability to see what you are. It only comes naturally to those of us who see the flow of time -- and among Eltarians you will never have cause to fear. You would, one day, know what you are, and so the truth shone out to me even before we met.

“Speaking of time, I believe we'll be needed shortly. But yes, ask me first,” he said a half second ahead of her protest.

“So now that I know, will everyone be able to tell?”

Zordon smiled. “No, hardly. Those with a deep-seated spiritual connection will – a Ninjetti master, a Protector spirit, likely even an Indian guru or Native American shaman,” he said. “In short, those who exist in perfect harmony with themselves and their land will feel a similar, stronger force within you. None of our enemies even approach such harmony.” He paused. She was looking down, and he could only guess at her reaction. "I'm sorry," he said. "I tried to protect you. I still will, whenever it's within my power. I just thought I'd be able to for longer."

"No. No, it's okay," she said. She looked up at last, and there was a warmth and confidence in her that ran deep. "I understand why you kept it from me, but that's not all you did. I don't know how it would be if I hadn't been a Power Ranger, but I've spent years facing down things more powerful than me. I'm pretty used to my life being in danger. This is just a new reason." She laid a hand on his tensed one. "You didn't just shelter me – you prepared me."

He blinked, and she realized suddenly why he was looking down. He opened his mouth to speak, then seemed to change his mind. "Almost out of time," he said instead.

Trini nodded, trying to think. "So I shouldn't talk about this more than I need to, or try to get to that other place."

"For now, very much not. It will take some time yet before your nature is easy to read. Then, there will be no benefit to secrecy."

"But there's time still." She was quiet a moment, searching inside. "I should go back."

"To Vietnam?"

"If it's all going to be moot after awhile anyway... maybe there's something there that will help. And even if there isn't, I want to know who I am. All of who I am."

Zordon couldn't speak for a moment. Hardly for the first time but profoundly, he was struck by the courage and resilience of the sentients under his care. Here was one, perhaps fortified by experience but still not even considered an adult by her kin, faced with the knowledge that evil far beyond her power might at any time kidnap her to tear apart her body for Black rituals, and inside of twenty minutes she had overcome fear enough to return to curiosity and hope. Deep and abiding love filled him… and redoubled his sense of failure. How could he have allowed this terrible danger to come into the life of one so good and brave, one who had already sacrificed the last years of her childhood at his request?

Zordon blinked rapidly and looked away. “Well. I think that's our cue.”

There was a polite knock on the ship's door. “Zordon? Trini?” Kim's voice came through faintly. “It's almost time.”

Zordon rose to leave. Trini did as well, but she caught his arm lightly. He turned, and now she couldn't mistake the mistiness in his eyes. “You worry about us so much,” she said quietly. “But you've done more than anyone else could have to prepare us for what’s out here. It's okay. We'll be okay.”

Zordon smiled a smile made of tears. “I know,” he whispered, and she knew why he was crying.

“Good,” she answered, smiling too. Then, completely straight-faced, she added, “'Cause if you didn't, sir, you'd be a dumbass.”

His eyes popped out. Trini laughed and led the way back outside.

*****

"Well," was all Tommy managed.

"This is… unexpected," added right Trey in dismay.

The sleepy little clearing they'd visited a few hours ago had turned into a sea of excited fuzzy people. The golden triangle symbol on the ground was still entirely clear for several feet in each direction, but beyond that, the small field was absolutely packed. Everywhere, Lerani sat and watched the nothing happening in the triangle with deep reverence, talked in hushed and excited voices, or stood in small groups to sing soft, mewling songs. Tommy, Jason, and the Treys even spotted smaller, fuzzier, naked Lerani rushing through the crowd in leaps and pounces.

"What? You love a huge, really curious audience for sacred rituals," Jason said.

"I certainly do not," center Trey said, the three turning to their friend in alarm. They recognized the grin on his face belatedly.

"Ah," said right Trey.

"Humor," said left Trey.

"Don't worry, you'll survive," Tommy assured him.

"The ritual or Terran humor?" muttered left Trey.

Center Trey added, “These matters are not even talked about on Triforia, let alone with outsiders. To be performed publicly among complete strangers...”

“Man, don't worry,” Jason said seriously, clasping Trey of Heart's shoulder. “We'll be right here.”

Even Trey of Courage spared a small smile. “Thank you. The support of friends will be a great help,” Trey of Heart said.

“Then it's good you've got so many here,” Adam's voice came from behind them. They turned to see the rest of the teens coming up the hill, followed by Zordon and Lord Naatam. “Five minutes to go,” the Green Zeo added as he stepped up next to Jason and Tommy.

The new influx of people was too obvious to escape the notice of the Lerani below. A few heads swiveled to look at them, then more as a hush fell over the crowd. Within seconds, there were at least a thousand wary eyes on them.

“Unh,” all 3 Treys gave a soft, rather Terran groan.

Zordon stepped a pace in front and turned to the Triforian. "With your permission," he said.

“Please," they replied together with nearly-identical gratitude.

Zordon stepped forward. "People of Ralen!" he called, and all the eyes shifted to him. "Throughout your lives you have heard legends of far-off worlds hanging as jewels amidst the black of night. You know tales of your origins from those stars. Perhaps you have not believed, but still you have listened, and still you have honored the stars. Today, you learn why. My name is Zordon of Eltare," he paused to allow the sea of Lerani to gasp in astonishment, "and I come to you at the time of this great movement within your beloved stars so that you may once again remember your place among them.

“This is Trey, Gold Power Ranger and Lord of Triforia, a world of the star Gamma-Triune." Zordon indicated Trey, who tried valiantly to look pleased by the renewed interest in himself. Further gasps from the crowd at the end of Zordon’s sentence indicated that at least a good portion of the Lerani knew the name of Trey's star, which the Terran teens had never heard themselves. “Thanks to your bravery and generosity in this pivotal moment, he and his planet...”

"Wow," whispered Rocky as Zordon went on, "way to pull it off."

"Yeah, didn't think he could without the... y'know..." Zack said.

"Yeah," agreed Rocky.

"Without what?" Kat asked curiously.

"That boom that the tube gives his voice for speeches." At Kat's nonplussed expression, Rocky added uncertainly, "Y'know, when he's telling us about big monsters or doom or something and he gets all 'thou shalt listen'-y?"

"Oh! You mean Exposition Voice," the Swan Ranger said matter-of-factly.

The two boys blinked as, around them, several of their friends snorted with laughter.

"Shh!" Tommy hissed, turning from the crest of the hill and glaring.

"Sorry," the gigglers whispered back.

"Yeah, come on, guys, this is serious business," Tanya said, frowning. She held her frown solid as she went on, "Don't you know not to laugh when a silky wizard is talking astronomy to a sea of cat people?"

The barely-squashed bursts of laughter that answered her were met with glares from both Tommy and Jason this time.

“-and also the gratitude of these young heroes of Earth,” Zordon's voice cut effortlessly through the rising chaos behind him. He swept an arm back to acknowledge them, and every one had to shove their giggles aside instantly to look properly dignified and heroic.

“He did that on purpose,” Zack pouted out of the corner of his mouth.

“Well of course he did,” Moira answered, grinning, “he's from Eltare. They specialize in spoiling silliness.”

“Scientifically speaking,” added Rita promptly.

“Ssh,” Kim and Billy chorused quietly and with unhelpful alliteration.

“And now,” Zordon went on, “as the time of the Conjunction draws near, witness the ritual of these alien heroes and know what strange and thrilling beauty there is to be found in the exploration of your beloved stars.”

"Hey, that's a pretty good ending," Rita mused.

"That you're spoiling," Trini replied primly, "ssh."

At Zordon's direction, Lord Trey stepped forward down the hill, Jason and Tommy close behind him. The carpet of Lerani parted to let them pass, surrounded by whispers and soft purrs.

"Is it, like, some talent of Eltarians or something, to look that severe when someone's not
doing what they're supposed to?" Adam asked, catching a glare from the corner of Zordon's eye and thinking of Mrs. Walsh.

"Of course," Kat said lightly, "they practice in mirrors endlessly."

"Ssh!" Kim, Trini, and Billy squashed the new storm of giggles together.

"Lady Triune, we who bear Your Golden Light come in supplication..." Treys' voices rang out across the field and drifted up to them. As the Leranis' focus finally shifted away from them, those closest to him could swear they heard Zordon mutter,

"Teenagers."

*****

Meanwhile, in the meadow: "You sure about this, bro?" Tommy asked for about the twentieth time.

"Trey says it'll help the energy flow right if it's me. I gotta see it through. 'Sides..."

"Yeah, yeah," Tommy said with resignation, knowing the rest of the argument. He stopped a couple of steps from the golden triangle. The Treys took up positions at each point, and Jason, accepting the Golden Power Staff from Trey of Heart, stepped into the center. Tommy stuffed his hands into pockets so that they wouldn't show his nervousness. "If anything goes wrong," he completed Jason's sentence heavily, "I've got your back."

*****

Nearby, with a soft Purple glow, Irss'galarre reappeared next to Rin. Under cover of the crowd's approving, welcoming yowls, she told him softly, "All is prepared."

Rin nodded and let out his relief in a sigh. Even though their illustrious visitor had been confident that the Stellar Science Center could produce the high-energy beam needed for the aliens' reunification ritual, hearing it from the scientists themselves was rather more reassuring.

The moment of the conjunction was silent and would have been invisible if not for the Treys’ ritual. Only a few felt anything change when it began, and only Tommy among them was certain he wasn't imagining it. He tensed and hoped with any Power that might listen to him that what came next wouldn't be too much for Jason to handle.

*****

Far off on a hill, a round, domed building released a beam of pale green energy brilliant and thick as a dozen Rangers teleporting together. The beam surged above the jungle and high out of the atmosphere of Ralen. Far faster than normal light, it raced through space to Andeiron in Trey’s home galaxy, staying just long enough to puzzle anyone looking up at the sky at the right moment, and then bounded off the atmosphere toward Luxaqua. On the Aquitian colony world, its presence went entirely unnoticed; the planet's four sentient races went about their business contentedly far below the water's surface as the beam bounced off their outer atmosphere, too, and raced back to Ralen. There, rather than returning to its exact origin point, the beam was drawn to the triangle marking the conjunction point.

The beam hit the Golden Power Staff and Jason full-force. The former Gold Ranger gasped, and his friends couldn't tell whether the sound was from pain or surprise. Despite it, Jason held the Staff steady above him. The energy arced from the Staff out to the three Treys. In a blinding flash of Gold, the three disappeared, and a single Gold Ranger stood, Morphed, in front of Jason, Golden Power Staff in hand.

Gasps and then yowls filled the field, mixed with the cheers of their friends. While the Rangers were still cheering, the Lerani voices focused into a single, strangely beautiful mewling song sung with the reverence of a hymn. "Trey, you okay?" Tommy asked under cover of their music.

The grin on his face could be heard clearly through the helmet. "Yes. My Powers are completely restored! I am in your debt."

"Never," Tommy grinned back as Jason, behind the Gold Ranger, added a faint, "Don't mention it."

Tommy dodged around Gold to Jason then, looking his best friend up and down anxiously. Jason looked pale and also muddled, like someone just waking up from deep sleep. Tommy reached out to touch Jason's arm, thinking that contact might give him a better clue about Jason's condition.

A half inch from touching, a tiny lightning bolt of pale gold energy arced from Jason's arm up through Tommy's fingers. On instinct, Tommy pulled the energy in and then pushed it down toward the ground. There was a faint sparking of light around Tommy’s feet as it sank into the earth.

Jason shook his head as if to chase off a fly. "Bro?" Tommy asked anxiously.

Jason frowned and crossed his arms. "Seriously, Tommy, it was just an intergalactic beam of pure energy that used me as a conduit. What's there to worry about?"

Tommy glared and punched him on the arm. "Whatever."

Jason's dramatic frown broke into a grin, and he looped an arm around Tommy's shoulder. "Thanks, man."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Tommy mock-grumped as the two followed the restored Gold Ranger back to their friends.

End Part 4

Chapter Text

Most of the teens quickly focused all their attention on congratulating Jason, Tommy, and especially Trey on the successful ritual. Kat, though, couldn’t focus on the little celebration. She was feeling unsettled, and she had no idea why. All the many possible reasons that came to mind seemed clearly wrong. She wasn't worried about the conjunction and Trey's powers, finally; she wasn't stressed about Tommy and Kim, thanks to Zordon; she was nothing but excited to be on an alien world for the first time. She could be worried about the international press conference awaiting them at home, but that wasn’t it either. Something was gently, inexorably demanding her attention. It was something around the edges of the forest that began a few hunderd yards from the hilly plains they were standing in, she realized, and began to drift toward it. As she focused, she saw that there was a dark shape darting between the trees, never distinct.

"Hey, I need to check something out,” Kat said, only vaguely glancing over her shoulder to see if any of the other teens had heard. Most of them were focused utterly on Jason, Trey, and the ritual that was now wrapping up with a felinoid choral performance. Rocky had heard, though.

“Where you going?" the Hawk Ranger asked, walking up next to her. She pointed toward the patch of forest. "Uh... by yourself?"

Kat frowned at him, surprised. "What do you mean?"

"Wandering off alone into a forest on an alien planet full of monsters? Kinda sounds like the start of a sci-fi horror film.”

She drew a lick of flame into her hand and dismissed it again. "I can handle myself," she said.

"Sure. Just... keep your communicator close?" Rocky said, recognizing defeat.

"Yes, Mother," Kat teased before shifting her focus back to the trees. The dark shape, whatever it was, had vanished, but she'd find it again. Without another look back, she raced into the forest.

*****

There! The glistening black-brown shape was hiding behind that thicket. Perhaps sensing her attention, it bounded away. She gave chase. It was incredibly fast, and it could change directions practically mid-leap, but not for naught had she studied ballet since she was five. As she ran after it deeper into the woods, something that had been ignored for months – in some ways, for years – inside her woke up and began to sing for joy. It took all her grace, all her speed, to even keep the dark shape in sight, and that was exhilarating.

She caught up to it at last and pounced down on it – but pulled herself up short at the last second. "Not bad," said the unspeakably beautiful Lerani woman she’d nearly toppled over, "but I let you catch up."

Kat gasped in a couple of breaths before answering, "Why?"

Phiris smiled, and it was more beautiful and enigmatic than anything daVinci's muse had ever dreamed. "Because you need to hunt."

Kat stared and started to protest, but she instead she gave it thought. Why else had she gone tearing into an entirely hostile wood after some random shape? There was a longing in her that she'd never let play before, something Felicia had awoken in her that she’d shoved down as hard as she could since. Could it be safe to explore now? For the first time, she was with other beings whose souls held the passions of Fel'Har but were unequivocally good. They – Phiris – could she teach her what lay in that wonderful and terrifying corner of her soul that belonged to Felicia?

"I've been tracking it for an hour. Can you scent it?" Phiris went on as if Kat had answered aloud.

Kat shook her head. "Sorry, my nose doesn't work like that."

She inclined a delicate eyebrow. "Who told you that?" she asked lightly, then, again not waiting for an answer, she stood and took a long, slow breath. "This way."

Phiris sprang into action, bounding over a thicket with abandon. Kat rushed to follow her. The woods got thicker quickly, and Kat had great difficulty keeping up. She was grateful she'd at least put on leggings with her mini-dress today, so crashing through brambles didn't mean her legs got torn up -- much. The floral pink skirt of her dress kept catching on undergrowth and slowing her down enough that she was perfectly happy when a long thorn tore half of it off.

Despite all her ballet training, Kat couldn't move her legs dexterously or quickly enough to keep up with Phiris's bounding leaps. After much frustration and envy, she realized abruptly that she was going about it wrong. She couldn't follow Phiris's path, but that didn't mean she couldn't keep up. Darting her eyes around, she found a gap in the four-foot-tall bushes ahead just wide enough to slip through. A hanging vine ahead offered a way over the thorn-filled fallen log that Phiris had perched delicately on top of, and the massive plant with four-foot-wide leaves that blocked her next could be slipped under just fast enough to avoid the head-sized arachnean residents that converged on her.

Just as she caught up to Phiris, she saw a flash of blue ahead of the mystic. Every nerve in her body thrummed that they'd found their prey. Phiris swiped at the air the little blue creature had vacated, then she looked up and hissed. Kat looked up, too, and saw the terrier-sized blue blur climbing up a huge tree, spiralling around the thick, twisted trunk. Phiris scowled at it, then she leapt for the lowest branch. Kat didn't even slow down, but jumped from ground to boulder to loop her arms around a low, wide branch. She pulled herself up and saw another branch only 2 feet away at chest level. Looking up, she found more branches, these younger ones with smooth bark, spiralling up the tree at fairly regular intervals, each between waist and chest height higher than the previous branch. All the branches had extremely smooth, sometimes mossy bark, making jumping between them trickier. Phiris was on the branch three above hers and crouched, gauging the next jump uncertainly.

Kat's mouth quirked. "Right then. Time to pretend I'm a short, perky American.”

She tore the remains of her mini-dress's skirt into two strips and wrapped them tightly around her hands. Then, grasping the next branch, she let herself swing forward hard enough to send her all the way around the branch a few times, then let go to seize the next branch, higher up. Repeating her new uneven-bars routine, she beat Phiris herself to the target.

She'd expected the feathery, glistening blue creature to just jump back down and strand them up the tree, but it had gone to a "Y" in the tree and stopped. As she climbed to the top of the last branch to face it, it bristled and gave a thready, high whine that perhaps was meant to be threatening but was simply cute. Kat's hands twitched to catch it, to twist the life from its- and then her eyes glanced past it.

In a hollow in the massive tree, softly glowing, were three small, fuzzy blue rounds, eyes barely visible in the feathers, shrinking back against the edge of the hollow. They looked like her prey in glowing miniature. Kat looked from them back to the bristling, whining adult. *Oh, God,* she thought. "Phiris, don't!" she cried as the Lerani oracle caught up and reached clawed hands toward their prey. Phiris stopped and looked at her quizzically. "It's a mother," she explained, motioning to the interior of the trunk.

"Yes," Phiris said. "And?"

"The babies might die if we kill it."

"So?"

Confusion and anger swelled up in the Zeo Ranger. "So it's not right! Hunting is one thing, but killing a mother and leaving her children to die is wrong!"

Phiris held her disbelieving expression another moment, then it broke into a radiant smile. "And that," she said, "is very good to know, isn't it?"

"Wh... what?" Kat said, unable to adapt quite fast enough to this change.

"Though part of your soul revels in hunting and death, it will never be enough to overcome your morality."

Kat sat down on the branch hard. She wanted to believe that, but: "It almost was before," she protested.

"I doubt that," Phiris smiled, "or you would not have still held the question so close. Be at peace, soul of Light."

Kat slowly released a little knot of tension between her shoulders that she’d never noticed was there. “Th-“

A flood of hisses and trills above them interrupted Kat's thanks. They looked up to find that the mother was trying to contain one of her children and failing. The one slipped under her six legs and scuttled down to stare at Kat. "Well hello," Kat said.

It squeaked.

Kat blinked. "Did you know I was talking to you?"

It trilled in a high arc of sound. If she were to guess, she'd say it sounded delighted. Kat got a sinking feeling inside. "Oh, no, little one, I'm sure I'm interesting, but you'd better get back to your mum."

The mother gave a chittering hiss and tried again to scoot the little one back to the nest. It dodged and trilled at Kat again. "No. Absolutely not. Where I'm going there won't be any others of you. Where I'm going soon there won't even be any others of me.” It turned itself around in a little, hopping dance, and Kat giggled despite herself.

Phiris leaned in to whisper softly, "It knows that."

Kat glanced at her sharply. The tiny feathered creature, perhaps fearing it was losing her attention, chittered rapidly. Kat felt a rush of fire surge against her shoulder. Jumping, she turned to find a palm-sized ball of fire where the tiny creature had been. She had just enough time to panic that she'd set it on fire with an accidental spell before the fire died down to show the little creature, now gold-feathered and somehow smug. It hopped on to her shoulder, and she could feel its very hot body clearly but painlessly through the remnants of her dress.

There was nothing for it. Kat sighed and looked at its mother apologetically. "I'll take really good care of it, I promise."

The mother's face-feathers bunched and bristled. Little slivers like teeth peeked out among the feathers just under the eyes.

"Really. See?" Kat summoned a fireball about the same size as the baby whatever-it-was into her hand. The mother scuttled back, then forward, inclining what passed for a head among all the feathers to look at the fire. She looked back up at Kat's face, then turned and scuttled her other two children and herself back into the hollowed trunk, apparently content.

The little feathery ball nuzzled Kat's neck. "What is it?" she asked.

"A tling'el. It means ‘fire flier’," Phiris clarified.

Kat reached up a hand, still warm from the fireball, to stroke it, and it gave a thoroughly adorable coo. "My friends are going to flip over you," she told it affectionately.

*****

In a field below the shuttle and not far from the jungle Kat had vanished into, Tommy gave a deep sigh of relief as the Red Zeo Shard sank into him. He gripped Jason’s shoulder in thanks – Jason was holding the Zeo Crystal shards for them to receive – and stepped aside. Adam, Tanya, and Rocky came next, each passing their golden Avian Focus into Moira’s hands with murmured thanks, then stepping toward the Zeo Crystal shards held by Jason. Nearby, Billy watched them go with an expression that was difficult to read.

“Man does that feel better!” Rocky extolled. “No offense, Moira, the whole Avian thing was awesome, but this is way better.”

Adam swatted at him as several Rangers glanced nervously toward Moira. Far from looking wounded by his casual words about her dead Teammates’ Powers, Moira just gave a small, mysterious smile. “I understand. It’s home.”

“Now we can go after her?” Tanya half-asked Tommy. She looked wrathful and worried simultaneously. “Of all the idiotic things to need to save her from. Alien jungle full of monsters, seriously?!”

Tommy looked worried too, though not nearly as much. “Maybe. Let’s give it a few more minutes first. Billy, were you able to route the communicators through the Zeo Crystal to restore them to full power?” he called back to the Blue Owl Ranger.

“What? Oh. Yes,” Billy shook himself.

“There,” he said to Tanya. “If she’s in trouble, she can teleport out. And if she’s not back soon, we’ll follow her.” Tommy looked at the dense jungle and frowned despite himself. “Somehow.”

“You can just use your super-Power-powers to find her, right?” Adam suggested.

“Uh… yeah, I don’t think they work with Zeo Shards. I got nothing anymore.”

“Okay, that’s it!” Tanya started walking briskly toward the jungle.

As the Zeo Rangers followed to dissuade their Teammate from rushing in after Kat, Moira silently walked up beside Billy. “I knew you were the Owl weeks ago, you know,” she said quietly, making him jump.

“How?”

She smiled sadly. “Owls are silent. You never say a word when it hurts.”

Billy looked at her, then at the Zeos, who were presently disagreeing with one another using large arm gestures in the middle of the field near the jungle. Jason had joined in, still holding Kat’s Shard and gesticulating with it, probably without realizing. Of course Billy was glad the Zeos were back together – or would be back together, when Kat returned. But they’d left him so quickly… “I don’t blame them,” was all he said.

“Of course,” Moira replied, and he knew there was just as much she’d left unsaid.

Unwilling, he brought his hand to the small medallion hidden under his Blue t-shirt. “It’s time, then.”

Moira put her smaller hand on top of his, shifting as she did so to face him directly. “Is it?”

Billy’s breath caught in his chest – bringing on a coughing fit against the rich, wet Ralen air. As soon as he could talk again, he gasped, “Did you just offer me the Power?”

Moira didn’t hide the complex emotions she was feeling, but despite grief and concern she looked resolute. “It was taken from you once before. I won’t be the one to take it away again.”

Billy examined her expression carefully, but he saw no hint of insincerity. Besides, it would be a horrifically bad joke. His heart started thumping hard. He could be a Power Ranger again. “What would that mean?”

Moira took a deep breath, but then just shrugged and released it. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “But we’d figure it out. The point is, do you want this?”

The Owl focus under his fingers was hard and slightly cool, even through his shirt. Of course I want it! part of him screamed out. How can she even ask? He’d been okay stepping away from the Team once to make space for Tanya, but he’d thirsted for his old life more than he’d expected. He hadn’t said anything because there was nothing to be done, and because he never wanted Tanya to feel bad. When the Golden Power Staff rejected him, it had been so hard to walk away again – and to watch Jason have what he had only just admitted he wanted desperately. This would be the end of all of that pain. A happy ending at last.

But something else in him hesitated. The last few days had been amazing and healing in so many ways… and he wasn’t sure that that healing left him inclined to go back to being a Power Ranger. He looked up at the too-blue sky above him, and beyond it toward the stars he knew looked so thoroughly different from those on Earth. At night, one of those dots of light, fuzzy and faint, would be the Luxaqua galaxy. He’d already been further than any astronaut, but there were entire galaxies that were open to him to explore, if he asked. And there were no more villains to fight on Earth, at least for a little while. “I never meant for you to serve past graduation. You can’t stay superheroes forever.” But Billy had graduated months ago.

He looked back to find Moira waiting patiently. Gratitude overwhelmed him. “Thank you,” he said. “I don’t know if I can say how much this means to me.”

Moira smiled faintly. “But,” she said, making it not quite a question.

He nodded. “Yeah. But.” He reached behind his neck for the golden chain which didn’t exist until he reached for it. He pulled on it to bring out the Owl focus. He held it in both hands. It flashed Blue. “That was an amazing last run as a Power Ranger. I’ll always be grateful,” he said and handed it to Moira. It clinked against the other four she held in a way that sounded somehow friendly.

“Where are you going?” Moira asked.

“Aquitar,” he admitted aloud for the first time, though it came with a pang of guilt. “You?”

“Home too,” she said, and he looked at her in confusion for the moment it took him to realize she was right. “Scotland. Search out my mother’s family there. I’ve only stayed away this long out of fear. Good a place as any to wait for the next evil thing to show itself.”

“You’re not staying?” Billy asked, deciding at the last second he didn’t quite dare add, ‘with Jason.’

Moira seemed to hear it. “I can’t. At least not yet. You’ll let me tell him?”

Billy nodded. “Just like I’ll tell her.”

She sighed, her mouth caught between a false smile and a genuine frown. “Would’ve been nice for it to work out more like the fairytales.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. A thought struck him. “But maybe it’s only the first Midnight.”

He got one of her rare broad smiles. “Maybe.”

*****

Halfway across the field from them, Tanya broke away from the cluster of present-and-former Zeo Rangers the instant she saw Orange clothes among the trees. She stalked across the field of wildflowers toward the jungle’s edge, arms crossed. “Are you crazy?!” she yelled when she was in the remotest possible hearing distance. “Are you actually crazy?!?”

Kat waited several more steps until she didn’t quite need to shout. “Phiris, my Teammate Tanya. Tanya, you remember Phiris,” Kat said with blithe politeness.

“And don't think that just 'cause you brought some super important official alien person that you're not getting an earful!” Tanya continued.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Kat said with utter seriousness of expression.

As the other Zeos watched Tanya’s tirade with stunned or wincing expressions, Adam sighed dreamily. “I'm gonna marry that girl,” he breathed.

Rocky, beside him, fell off the log he’d been sitting on. “You're WHAT!?!”

“Um,” Adam said, his cheeks instantly burning red, “nothing? Nothing!”

Across the field, Tanya let out a shriek that brought the teens still lounging near the shuttle hurrying down the slight rise to see what was happening. It appeared that Tanya was fending off a floating, hissing ball of fire. Kat's hands wrapped around it, though, and it turned out to be simply a feathery creature.

“What th...” Billy said, wide-eyed.

“That's really, really... really cute!” Kim squeed.

“If you don't like your hair being not on fire,” Rita said, looking at her leader with alarm. The words came out a bit muffled and were immediately followed by a trio of sneezes. “Oh no.”

“You're what?!” Rocky repeated at Adam.

Tommy emerged from the shuttle where Zordon and Naatam still were, where he’d run off to a few minutes before. The Red Zeo blinked at the scene across the field – waving arms, flying feather balls, and, well, Phiris – but pulled his attention away to hand Rita a box of Kleenex.

Rita took two instantly. “Oh God, danks! Where did you find dem?” She blew her nose loudly.

“Didn't. Magic. What's...?” Tommy asked, pointing toward Tanya, Kat, and Phiris.

“Just a sisterly moment,” Kim said as she slid her arm around his waist.

“You can use magic to make kleenexes?” Rita gasped, then sneezed again.

“Can we talk?” Moira asked Jason quietly.

“Um. Okay,” Jason said as his heart leapt into his throat.

“Well, no. Zordon can, though,” Tommy answered Rita.

“Awwh! Zordon made me kleenexes!” Rita said as if it were the sweetest deed in human history.

The Yellow Zeo and Orange Swan Rangers were finally returning to the group. “So are we ready to go home or what?” Tanya scowled.

“Uh, you got a little something...” Zack pointed to the spot above Tanya's head, where the golden feathered sphere was now sitting.

“Yeah. I know,” Tanya said. She took a breath and then glared up at it ineffectually.

The group started walking back toward the shuttle. “It's just nesting, I expect,” Kat said, her straight face starting to fracture at last. “Nothing to worry about.”

“No,” Phiris said, drawing all eyes to her.

“No what?” Trini blinked at her.

“You are not prepared to depart,” she said. “In the first part, two of your number have gone.” The Rangers looked around them and confirmed that Moira and Jason had vanished.

“Well that's just-” Tanya started to fume.

“In the second part,” Phiris added, “Zordon has asked a favor of me in return for one granted us. I would have it viewed not as recompense for your aid to Irss’galarre but as a hope for continued friendship between our leaders of the Power and, in time, perhaps between our worlds. Would you kindly show me to your Teammate Ishala?”

The shock ran around the whole group. “You can help her?” three of them asked at once.

“Yeah, this way!” Tommy said, though he tripped over his own feet in his hurry to escort Phiris.

“Thank you,” Phiris said graciously as he straightened, making the embarrassing stumble seem nothing but a dignified pause. “Does she have a bondmate?”

They looked at one another in confusion. “Is that, like, a best friend?” Kim asked.

Phiris considered. “Perhaps. A bondmate is one whose soul is tied to her own. They whose journeys forever intertwine.”

Kim thought about it, and Adam and Rocky glanced at each other. As all three hesitated, Tanya handed off the tling’el to Kat and stepped forward. “I think that's me,” she said quietly. “We changed each other's lives completely. Even sort of traded lives.”

Phiris smiled. “If you are prepared, you may aid me in reaching Ishala. The journey will not be easy or without risk to you.”

Tanya nodded. “I understand,” she said simply. Phiris motioned to her to join them, and Tommy led the way for both of them. He held the door open as the two passed inside, then turned to his friends with a curious expression.

“This is one of those really-don't-interrupt kinds of things, I think,” he told them, nodded half to himself, and passed through.

*****

“What do I do?” Tanya asked as they walked down the steps to the ship's hold.

“I will guide you to enter her mind at the place in her thoughts where she is trapped. Tommy, you may accompany her if you wish, but do not interfere unless you are certain it is your place to do so. This journey is for her bondmate; we are but aides to Tanya.”

“Got it,” Tommy nodded.

They reached the lower area of Naatam’s ship, where a small sleeping alcove had been converted into a holding cell by adding a force field across the entrance. They could see Ish inside, her limbs in the disarray of deep sleep. Phiris signalled to them to stop. She closed her eyes, and the two Rangers did the same after a moment. Almost at once, they both felt a swirling disorientation. Each kept their eyes closed for another few moments, but that made the spinning seem to get worse. At last, they couldn’t hold them closed longer.

*****

When they opened their eyes, they were in the Youth Center. It looked like an average afterschool afternoon, pleasantly full but not quite overcrowded with teens. Ernie was wiping out a glass behind the counter and chatting with some people they knew vaguely from school.

“Okay, this is less intimidating than I was expecting,” Tanya said warily.

“Somehow doesn’t make me feel any better,” Tommy frowned.

If Phiris found her alien surroundings confusing, she didn’t show it. “Ishala should be present here, somewhere.”

“Um… maybe we split up?” Tanya proposed.

“Unwise. This realm exists only while Ishala believes it does. If she ceases it, we must be close together to ensure that I can guide you back safely,” Phiris said. “By focusing on Ishala, you should be able to find her,” she added to Tanya.

Tanya took a breath to settle her nerves. “Glad you’ve done this before,” she said.

Phiris gave a smile made of starlight. “Not at all.” Both Terrans turned to look at her in alarm. “You should focus, Tanya.”

After sharing an incredulous look with Tommy, Tanya tried to follow Phiris’s advice. While she did, Tommy looked around. He frowned suddenly.

“Something is out of place?” Phiris asked quietly.

“Yeah, that,” he said. He pointed to the large windows that normally let sunlight in to the lower level of the Juice Bar. Instead, they showed a storm outside: cloud cover thick enough to blot out most of the daylight; rain pounding down in sheets of water; even, as he watched, a flash of lightning. It was a storm more violent than anything Celeste had summoned. No sound or sign of it reached inside the Juice Bar, though. “We don’t get storms like that in Angel Grove – where this building is in real life. Is that, uh… bad?”

“There,” Tanya said quietly, opening her eyes. She waved the others to follow, then she went charging down the short flight of stairs to the lower level Gym area. The three had to dodge several small packs of laughing teens and almost lost sight of one another, but they made it to a small round table tucked into a corner of the Gym level next to the Juice Bar wall. Ish was sitting there, sipping a smoothie in a rainbow swirl of colors.

“Hi guys! Sit down,” she invited cheerily.

Tommy and Tanya looked to Phiris for advice, and Phiris looked to Tanya instead, smiling. Tanya gave a huffing sigh and sat down, and the other two did the same.

“What’s new?” Ish asked in the same effervescent tone. She glanced at Tommy and Phiris but didn’t react to either of them, well proving to Tommy’s thinking, at least, that she wasn’t really seeing them. Who could see Phiris and not react?

Tanya tried to glance up at Phiris once more for advice, but none seemed forthcoming. “Um… we’ve been… well, looking for you.”

Ish’s brow furrowed while her smile stayed, creating a pained look. “I’ve been right here,” she said.

“Aaand that’s great!” Tanya said bracingly. “So let’s go home, then.”

The smile broke like thin china. “Are you crazy?” Ish hissed. “Don’t you see that storm? I’m not going out in that.”

Tanya looked at the windows and frowned, noticing it for the first time. Rather than comment on the improbability of such a storm, though, she said confidently, “It’s just some rain, we’ll be okay.”

A rumble of thunder sounded faintly inside the Juice Bar, the first sounds of the storm they’d heard. Ish shrank further back against the wall of the Youth Center. “No way. No way. It only stays outside because we ignore it. Forget about it, I’m not going.”

Lightning struck outside, and Ish winced as if it had hit her. Tanya looked out the windows again. “Ish… what is the storm?”

Ish looked at her in terror at the question. “I don’t know. I don’t remember. Stop asking me!” One of the Youth Center lights flickered above them. She shrank further back into her corner – further than she should have been able to. Her body was starting to melt into the walls. Sensing danger, Tanya grabbed her hand.

“Hey,” she said sharply. “Hey, it’s me. We’ve been through worse than this. Haven’t we?”

Ish looked doubtful. Outside, the rumble of thunder sounded just a little like soft laughter. She stole a glance at it, then winced and closed her eyes. She didn’t pull her hand out of Tanya’s, though. “We have?”

“Yes,” Tanya said firmly. “Remember the lioness?”

Ish peeked an eye open. “The lioness?”

“Yeah. When we were seven. Remember?”

Tommy, meanwhile, had been watching the storm. Within the rain, he thought he saw something large and dark moving. “What is…” he whispered to Phiris, but she held up a hand for silence.

“I was out late,” Ish said.

Tanya nodded. “Looking for secretary bird feathers.”

“And the sun set.”

“But we got through it. Right?” Tanya pressed.

The shape in the window grew more clear: like a towering, moving tree, but black and with two long, trunklike legs. It was stepping through the rain from across the street, its leaf-filled lower branches flapping like an immense black coat. “Uh, Tanya-“ Tommy started, but the Yellow Zeo waved him off herself this time.

Ish’s eyes strayed toward the window. Tanya squeezed her hand to pull her focus back. “Right?” Tanya pressed.

“Hold on to Tanya,” Phiris said to Tommy as she put a furred hand on Tanya’s shoulder. He did the same. Almost the next instant, as the giant figure leaned down to peer in through the Youth Center windows, the whole scene dissolved away around them.

“Right,” came the echoes of Ish’s whisper into the nothingness around them.

*****

Moira led Jason to a tree near the ship, not too far away, as she was sure they’d have their privacy regardless. None of their friends would interrupt. She leaned back against the tree and looked across at Jason. Though she’d had so many words she’d thought of to say, she couldn’t think how to start.

Jason’s mouth had gone dry. “Is this the part where you break up with me?” he asked. Moira winced, and immediately he regretted it. The wince told him everything, and suddenly he’d so much rather have had a few moments longer.

“You’ve changed my life,” Moira said. Jason nodded disconsolately, not looking at her. She took a deep breath, then a step forward to lift his chin gently up to meet her gaze. “You’ve changed my life,” she repeated. “I didn’t think anybody could reach me where I was. I was so far gone that I hoped no one could. And you came in there and got me, pulled me out. I have no idea how. I’m so grateful. Everything else aside, please remember that.” Jason still looked like a wounded puppy. “Please?” she asked, a little note of desperation leaking into her voice.

He took a shuddering breath. “Okay,” he said at last. “I’ll remember.”

“I know you love me,” she said, and he winced even as he blushed. “I think I love you too.”

He gaped at her. “Then why-!” he started to exclaim.

“Because I just got my life back,” Moira said. She sighed at his pain and confusion. “Jason, where I was… it doesn’t count as living. For more than a year, it’s like…” She cast about for a moment for a useful metaphor. “Like I was underwater, deep enough the pressure was crushing me, and now I’ve finally come up for air. I… I don’t know how to explain…” She took a slow breath. “I don’t know what comes next. Some moments I’m terrified of what’s ahead, others I’m bursting at the seams wanting to do everything all at once. I know I’m staying in this fight, whatever Zordon says about getting too old. I know my Team’s not staying in Angel Grove, not with Kim leaving. I don’t even know if we’ll stay together. And the only reason I’d stay there is you.”

“You could anyway,” Jason said. “Or… or I could go with you…”

Moira smiled the small, sad smile he’d come to know so well. “No,” she said gently. “I can’t base my life around someone else, not yet, not even a little bit. We’d never know if I’d stayed for me or for you. And if you follow me, I’ll never learn to stand on my own because I know I can just lean on you. Dulcea taught me that. Maybe- no,” she cut herself off.

“Maybe what?” Jason asked.

She shook her head. “I want to say something about maybe when we’re older, but it would be so unfair to you. You don’t owe me anything like that.”

“I don’t care. This isn’t about owing.”

She bit her lip. “Don’t stop living waiting for me. Please.”

Jason caught the edge of fear in the faint creases around her eyes. “Okay,” he said. “I won’t. But… you love me too? You think?”

Moira’s lips trembled in a smile he thought at first was sad but realized was actually nervous. “I think so,” she said very quietly, and shyly. It was one of those brief moments when she looked younger than the rest of them.

He smiled back. He could say it at last. “I love you,” he said, and he was surprised how easily it came out. “I don’t think there’s anything that will make me stop loving you. But if you have to go, then I’ll just… do whatever it is I do next, and hope.” Worry creased her brows. “But not stop living,” he answered it, and the crease vanished into a smile. A wave of grief crashed over him suddenly, but he rode it, staying above the pain for now.

“Are you glad you did it all?” Moira asked very quietly. “Knowing how it came out?”

Anger, disappointment, sadness broiled in him. He took a deep breath to make them settle down. “I didn’t help you because I wanted something from you. So, yes. Always.”

Tears sprang into her eyes. He realized he hadn’t seen any there since Aerodon. Reflexively, he brushed the first tear away just before it could fall down her cheek. She caught his hand as it fell back toward his side and just held it. Their hands were both warm and slightly sweaty in the tropical air. For a second, he thought they would finally kiss.

“Thank you,” she said once more, then she released his hand and walked away.

Jason stood beneath the tree alone, rising above the waves of emotion and sinking under again. He knew he had time to just sit with his wounds.

Moira would make his excuses.

*****

The world that whirled into existence around Ish, Tanya, Phiris, and Tommy was painted all in shades of brown and blue. A sapphire sky outlined nearly-black trees with slender, tall trunks and high, umbrella-like canopies, and the ground beneath them was a dusty deep brown. Behind them, the western sky still shone with sunset reds and oranges verging into greens. Immediately around them was a prickly-edged bush, and all four of them were crouching in it. Even in the dim light, Tommy could see that Tanya and Ish had changed: they were children now, perhaps 7 or 8 years old. Both their clothes had changed to the fine yellow-and-orange African cloth that Tanya had worn when he’d first met her, as kids back in time.

“Oh no,” Ish’s child voice rang shrilly in the darkness. “Oh no, no, no, why did I do that? Why did we come here??”

“It’s okay,” Tanya’s young voice said quickly. “We’re here because you don’t have to hide. Remember? If you got through this, you can get through anything. Right?”

“Right,” Ish said, her voice sounding a little more relaxed. “If I got through this, I can get through anything. Okay. Okay, let’s do this.”

“That’s the spirit,” Tanya said cheerfully. There was a sound like she’d clapped Ish on the back, then Tommy felt Tanya’s small hand in his. It was slick with sweat. He squeezed it, confused but knowing better than to ask aloud. He saw the glitter of fear in her eyes when she turned to look up at him.

He might not have any particular new instincts to guide him now, but he could guess that this was a memory Tanya and Ish both had from childhood. He knew that there were at least a few memories from Tanya’s life that had passed on to Ish when she traded places with Tanya in the past. If it was true, then this memory was originally Tanya’s… and was probably as terrifying for Tanya as it was for Ish. “You can get through anything,” he echoed quietly. She hesitated, then nodded, a little steadied by her leader’s words. As she turned back toward Ish, he tried desperately not to think about all the lion-related possibilities of what was about to happen.

Phiris tapped his shoulder. “What is a lioness?” she whispered.

A low growl echoed around them. In the almost-vanished light, it seemed to come from everywhere. Tanya and Ish gasped in sync and flattened their bodies into the bush. Tommy did likewise, while Phiris crouched, low to the ground and ready to spring.

Tanya and Ish moved as silently as they could, reaching for identical bags around their shoulders. “Flint, where are you…” Ish whispered so quietly only Tanya could hear. A second growl sounded, louder and closer.

Ish pulled out flint from her bag as Tanya found steel in hers. They sprang up to their feet, striking the two objects together and yelling at full volume. The sparks that flew from the flint and steel were brilliant in the darkness and briefly illuminated a vast, tan-furred quadruped as she sprinted away into the savannah night.

The two girls dropped their tools and hugged one another, crying in terror and relief. Tommy stared after the retreating lioness with his heart beating frantically in his chest and swore softly.

“Ah!” Phiris said in a satisfied tone, “a lioness. Excellent.”

Tommy looked at her incredulously. She returned the stare with elegant, toothy satisfaction. “That is not a house pet.”

He felt his cheeks flush. “Ah, um, Rin and Gala told you about that?”

“If I got through this,” Tanya panted,

“I can get through anything,” Ish finished. “Are you okay? That was the worst experience of my whole life…”

“I’m okay,” Tanya said, “but, Ish, it wasn’t the worst. Was it?”

Ish looked warily at Tanya. “Is that why you came? To make me go back there? To him?” Ish seemed very small and frightened, and a little angry, as if she was really the child they appeared to be and Tanya had sprung broccoli on her.

Tanya’s heart wrenched. “No, no. I’m not here to make you go anywhere.”

Ish crossed her short arms in front of her chest. “Good!”

“But if you need to go back there to be able to come home, I’ll go with you.”

Ish’s breath caught visibly in her chest, then started coming hard, in short, panicked bursts. “But I don’t want to. I can’t! I can’t go-“

Tanya grabbed her arm and held her eyes fiercely. “You can get through anything,” she said.

“But he’ll hurt us,” Ish whispered.

“Ish, he’s gone. He can’t hurt anyone.” Ish simply stared at Tanya blankly, uncomprehending. Tanya looked around desperately at Tommy and Phiris. Nothing was working!

“You got this,” Tommy said to both African girls.

Ish was starting to shy away into the underbrush. Tanya looked at her more deeply. She was missing something here – what? What wasn’t she seeing? Ish’s eyes were still round with fear… and guilt? Tanya realized at last what was holding Ish back: “I don’t care if he hurts me. You’re worth it.”

The panicked breathing began to ease. “Are you sure?” Ish whispered.

“Hell yes. I’m with you, Ishala!” Tanya said fiercely. She took Ish’s hand and clasped it firmly in her own, bracing against the grip to pull them both to their feet.

*****
The flower Billy handed Trini was a soft green with elongated petals, more like a cluster of soft leaves than an Earth flower. She smelled it: the fragrance was unfamiliar but reminded her a bit of cinnamon crossed with lilacs.

“Do you like it?” Billy asked nervously.

Trini’s look in reply communicated plainly that Billy had never worried about that before and, thus, that she knew his nervousness was nothing to do with the flower.

“Well, it’s that I’m not completely sure that’s a flower. There was this other one that looked more fancy, but there were a lot of dead insects around it, so I thought we shouldn’t risk it.”

Despite the subject before them, Trini broke up into a laugh. “Thanks.” She put the probably-a-flower behind her ear and tried not to think of it as the last one.

“Do you want the whole story?” Billy asked quietly.

There was a hard question. Trini desperately didn’t want to know about Cestria on one hand and wanted to know everything on the other. “Short version?” she compromised.

Billy nodded. “I went to Aquitar initially to help them defeat a nasty plot of Hydro Hog’s. I went back a few months later to get their help on a side project I was working on. That was the visit when Cestro told me I had telepowers and offered to start training me. I also met her.”

Trini looked down and couldn’t help but wince. This was finally happening…

“Cestria is Cestro’s niece. She’s the Keeper of the Eternal Falls, which is one of the most important jobs on the planet. The Falls are the Aquitian fountain of youth, but actually real. The Aquitians can use the waters to become young again whenever they want. She protects and gives out the waters.”

“So,” Trini said softly, to Billy’s immense relief, as he’d run out of simple, objective things to tell Trini about Cestria, “this was all before I came home.”

“Yeah.” Billy shifted on his mossy-rock seat, trying to avoid it still, but he knew he had to actually say it for both their sakes. “I didn’t think about her at all at first. I’ve wanted this – you – for so long. A lot of times I wished I could just forget about her.” He kicked himself inwardly: he still hadn’t said it.

Trini took in a deep breath and reached out for Billy’s hand. For a moment, he was too surprised to take it, then he did, eagerly. Suddenly, at last, the right words began spilling out of him. “I just don’t want to lose you, Trini. I don’t know what I’d be without you in my life. I’ve loved being this kind of close with you, it’s been some of the happiest times in my life even with everything else we’ve been through this summer, but I guess it’s not… not…. I just can’t stand the thought of being enemies over this, or you not wanting to speak to me again, or anything that means we don’t care about each other anymore. There has to be some way forward. Right?” he asked.

Trini looked up, and he saw the tears in her new-healed eyes blink back. “I want that too,” she said quietly. Billy let out a long-held breath. “But I don’t know how. I’m angry. You were already in love with her and you never told me. So I don’t know if this – this we waited so long for – was even real.”

“It was,” Billy said, wounded. “It felt real to me.”

“Did it?” Trini pursued. “I think back on it, and… I don’t know.”

Billy pushed back his hurt to try to grasp what she was saying. His intellect filled it in quickly. “Everything feels a little distant the other side of Aerodon,” he agreed. “But I promise, what we had feels as real to me now as Cestria does.”

It took them both a beat to realize exactly what he’d said, then it flooded them both with grief. “What we had,” Trini echoed quietly. She closed her eyes, and Billy knew they were filling up with tears again. None fell, though, and she didn’t let out a single note of pain. Billy hoped desperately that one day she’d be willing to cry in front of him again. “I don’t know how to be friends again,” she said softly. “But I don’t like being angry with you. So I’ll try.”

“Take time if you need it,” Billy said quickly. “Anytime you’re ready, I will be too.”

At least she let him see the anger in her eyes. “You won’t be too busy with Cestria?”

“Never. I promise.”

She let out her own long-held breath. “I trust you. I don’t know how else to live. But please, keep that promise.” In the silence between them, he heard ‘or I won’t trust you again.’

“I will,” he vowed.

She took a couple of stabilizing breaths. “Are you going back to Aquitar?”

“Soon as the Power Chamber is up and running.” He paused. “You could help them out a lot there, if you wanted to.”

Trini smiled a little. “Thanks, but no. I’m going to Vietnam.”

“Vietnam?” Billy repeated, confused, but it only took him a second. “Oh! Zordon, and you, and – what did he tell you? What did you find out?”

She looked at him a long moment. Technically, she could just tell him all the exciting new discoveries, like she would have before. “I can’t,” she said instead. “Not yet. I need time.”

“Right,” Billy said. A few beats fell. He realized that he still hadn’t said it. “I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.” She stood. “Safe journey.”

“You too,” he said. “I lo-“

“Don’t,” she cut him off, her voice a growl. “Ever.” She turned to leave.

The rejection caught him like a knife in the ribs. He floundered, his talented brain rushing into overdrive for what he could possibly say so that it – they – didn’t end with that. Trini waited, he hoped because she didn’t want it to end that way either, but he knew she wasn’t going to help him find the words.

“Power protect you,” he found at last.

The glitter in her eyes told him he’d chosen good ones. “Power protect you,” she echoed, then left.

*****

The room Tanya, Ish, Tommy, and Phiris landed in was beautiful. Light from bronze sconces in the walls shone richly against deep red velvet wallpaper. The furniture echoed the velvet and bronze theming. There were two chairs facing one another, a desk, a few small tables in corners bearing veiled lamps, delicate golden boxes, or porcelain vases. As a whole, the room looked like something from a 17th century European manor house. It was elegant, refined, and lovely.

Phiris dropped into a defensive crouch, ears pricking back against the sides of her head. Tommy slipped into a defensive stance as well without really thinking about it and started looking in every direction to find out why. Tanya, her martial training far less ingrained than theirs, just went wide-eyed and voiced, “Why does I feel like this place is gonna eat me?”

“Bad bad bad bad bad bad,” Ish moaned quietly. Her arms folded in around herself. “I only come back here if I’m bad, so I was bad, why was I bad…”

Tanya gripped her shoulders. “You weren’t bad. That’s not why we’re here. We’re going to take on whatever’s stopping you from coming home.”

Ish’s giggle was high and insane. “Take on?! You can’t stop him. No one can stop him! He wasn’t, but now he is, and there’s no going back! He-“

“Is dead everywhere but here. So let’s fix that, all right?” Tanya said. Ish’s eyes filled with terror. “He can’t hurt you ever again.”

The light in the room dimmed by half, but the shadows lengthened inexplicably. A voice echoed from the walls, deeper and more resonant than in real life but recognizable as Jalen’s: “Now, whoever told you that?”

Ropes burst out of one of the elegant velvet chairs, wrapped around each of Ish’s limbs, and yanked her across the room to tie her to the chair. She screamed and flailed, but the ropes didn’t give an inch.

At first just a shimmer in the air, Jalen gained substance with each step he took toward Ish. Tommy stepped between them automatically, eyes blazing with fury.

“No!” Phiris hissed.

Jalen simply passed through Tommy as if the Red Zeo weren’t there at all. Behind him, Ish gave a fresh scream of terror and despair. It seemed she could see Tommy now – and he’d just made her even more frightened.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to…” she sobbed to Jalen as the dead villain calmly pulled up the other chair close to hers.

“Ishala, he’s not real, you can fight him!” Tanya called out, but her voice shook with fear. This was all happening too fast…

Jalen put his hands on Ish’s knees, slipping just a fraction of an inch beneath the hem of her sundress. She writhed, her eyes shining with terror… and then she calmed, clearly unwilling, under his touch. She stared at him as if she could look nowhere else. As the other three watched in horror, her appearance changed again from her usual blow-out ponytail and perky orange clothes to curve-hugging black with long, flowing spiral braids.

“You are mine.” His whisper echoed off the walls. “You have always been mine, and you always will be. There is no escape.”

“Liar!” Tanya cried. She dodged around Jalen, grabbed Ish’s arm, and pulled as hard as she could.

Ish came free – and as she did, Tanya took her place, bound and helpless in front of Jalen.

“NO!” Ish screamed. She stumbled away in horror. Tommy looked to Phiris, desperately hoping she’d ok him to interfere, but the mystic shook her head sharply no.

“There’s a way out,” Tanya gasped even as Jalen’s touch started to pull her under. “Find it… please…” Jalen’s hands slipped up Tanya’s shorts to her hips, and Tanya’s eyes rolled back in her head.

The walls echoed with his laughter as he stood, towering over Tanya more than he ever could have in life. He touched her, and where he touched her clothes, they began to change. Though the Yellow Zeo didn’t seem conscious, moans of mingled pain and pleasure escaped her lips.

“No, Tanya, no! Why!” Ish cried. “Why did you make us come here?!”

Tommy stepped toward her then. He couldn’t stop this physically, maybe, but he could help Ish calm down at least. “Ish, you can stop this. This place – it’s just in your head. Change it!”

“She cannot admit that,” Phiris countered. “Her mind will defend its existence until she no longer seeks refuge here.”

Tommy groaned instead of snapping at Phiris like he wanted to. So many things he really wished she’d explained before they started! He thought desperately. Behind him, Tanya gave a strangled sound of pain, and it took a monumental effort to not turn from Ish to look at his Teammate.

“Ssh, ssh, it’ll only hurt for a minute…” Jalen’s voice cooed, comforting and gloating.

Ish’s gaze was riveted on them, her eyes going more and more wild. This was only getting worse.

He tried again. “Aisha,” Tommy said in his best leader voice, and her eyes flickered from Jalen and Tanya up to him. He gently touched her hands and waited for her to accept his touch, then gripped them firmly. “When this happened before,” he said, “you were alone. Now it’s happening to Tanya, but she’s not alone. She has you.” He paused to see if Ish was listening. She seemed to be. “What did you want someone to do, right now?” he asked.

A flicker of defiance in her eyes, but it died almost instantly into a shudder. “But, no. He’s too strong. Nobody could…”

“Could what?” Tommy pursued.

Her eyes were round with fear, but she still whispered, “Stop him.”

A smile spread slowly across Tommy’s face. “Aisha Campbell,” he said, “go kick his ass.”

“But I-“

“Yes you can.”

“But-“

Tanya screamed. Ish shivered down to her toes, but when she opened her eyes, her normal fiery determination shone in them at last. Tommy let go of her hands, promising, “Right here if you need me.”

Ish nodded and walked past Tommy. She tossed her hair behind her shoulders, and as she did, it turned from the intricate spiral curls she’d worn as Jalen’s puppet into equally long extensions identical to those she’d worn off and on as Yellow Ranger.

“Hey Ugly!” she called out.

Jalen turned slowly toward her. His expression was incredulity mixed with promises of pain. Tommy, turning at last, saw that Tanya looked almost as far gone as Ish had been when she’d last been awake in the real world: her appearance was sculpted to Jalen’s liking just like Ish’s, and her eyes were mostly vacant. The only sign of resistance he could see in his Teammate was a vague fear that still shone in her eyes. When Jalen’s attention drifted from her, Tanya wilted in the chair as far as the bonds would let her. Tommy hoped desperately that she’d be okay after this was over.

“Yeah, you!” Ish said before Jalen could speak. “You get your hands off my friend!”

Jalen stood, silently, slowly, and walked toward Ish. He looked calm, but he wasn’t exuding the predatory swagger he typically had – perhaps from anger, perhaps something else. It took a lot of will for Tommy to resist striking when Jalen passed within inches of him, but he kept his clenched fists at his sides. As Jalen closed the distance between him and Ish, he raised one hand and rubbed his fingertips together suggestively. He reached out toward Ish’s cheek.

She kicked him in the stomach.

He staggered back, expression blank with surprise. “That’s far enough, you creep!” Ish cried. “You don’t touch me or anyone else again!”

Surprise left his eyes, to be replaced with flat anger. “Mine,” he growled, and brought his hand into a fist. He slammed the fist earthward, but nothing happened to Ish; instead, Tanya bowed toward the ground with a small cry. Ish only darted her eyes to Tanya and then back to Jalen.

“That all you got?” Ish taunted. To Tommy’s astonishment, a familiar sassy smile spread across her face. “You know, I think I finally got you figured out,” she went on. “You do all this bullshit because you can’t win if it’s a fair fight.”

She and Jalen dropped into defensive stances at the same moment and started circling. Tommy, now in the middle, backed out immediately to stand next to Tanya. He gulped: Jalen had been leagues beyond any of them in hand-to-hand combat. Would it be different here?

Phiris caught his gaze and nodded to Tanya. Tommy let out the breath he’d been holding as he rushed to kneel next to the Yellow Zeo. “Hey – hey Tanya, you still with us?” he whispered.

She shuddered but lifted her eyes to his after a moment. The glaze in her eyes broke as tears fell down her cheeks. She had a haunted, despairing look that he knew too well. It was the fear that had almost eaten him alive just after Rita and Zedd captured him the last time: like she wasn’t sure she could survive this again. He was confused – Jalen hadn’t hurt her before, right? He wracked his brain. Right – Tanya had been tortured by Aerodon for weeks before the rest were captured. Maybe she was reliving it like he had relived his own pains.

“You can get through anything,” Tommy echoed softly. “Look,” he added, and pointed. Tanya dragged her eyes up to where Ish was engaging with Jalen.

Ish’s first flurry of blows were mostly deflected, but her last kick caught him in the shins, shifting his balance off for a second and forcing him to reorient. He launched a counter-attack that Ish dodged – until he grabbed her wrist. Tanya gasped in fear, and Tommy tensed. Would she be subdued by his touch again?

“Aw hell no!” Ish cried. “Ninjetti! The Bear!”

In a flash, Ish had traded in the Jessica Rabbit ensemble for her orange Ninjetti costume. She sprang into the offensive, showering Jalen with blow after blow. Jalen reacted with speed and skill more like a Putty than a regular monster, let alone a villain. In a few seconds, he was on the ground under her foot.

“And stay down!” orange growled at him. The next second, he turned gray and flew apart like Zedd’s Putties. Orange staggered a moment but recovered her balance quickly. She rushed to Tanya.

A touch from her gloved hands dissolved the bonds holding Tanya down. The Yellow Zeo jumped to her feet and wrapped both arms around orange, who hugged back just as fiercely. Both started sobbing.

“I knew you could,” Tanya gasped.

Ish laughed around tears. “How?”

“’Cause I met you,” Tanya laughed too, “dummy.”

“It’s time,” Phiris said quietly. Tommy spotted why as soon as Phiris said it: the walls around them were becoming oddly blurred, as if they were part of a still-wet painting that someone had dragged a dry brush through. The effect was starting to spread from the walls across the floor toward them.

Tanya pulled one hand away to wipe aside her tears. “I gotta go,” she said. “You coming?”

The question hung in the air for a long moment as the two women looked at one another.

“Yeah,” Ish said at last, “okay.” She flicked another sassy smile. “Not like I got anything better to do.”

Tanya laughed and pulled her bondmate close. The world around them swirled.

“Hold on to them!” Phiris called out to Tommy as she put a furry hand on Tanya’s arm. Tommy did the same with Ish just as their surroundings vanished.

End Part 5

Chapter Text

Some time earlier, outside Naatam’s shuttle, the late afternoon sun had brought long golden rays of light and vast swarms of biting insects. Most of the teens had retreated to the shuttle while they waited for Tommy, Tanya, and Phiris to emerge, hopefully with a healed Ish. A few were still out, either enjoying the alien junglescape or avoiding their friends a little longer. One had just given up on the outdoor option.

“Nope! Bad idea! I’m done!” Zack cried as he jogged back toward the shuttle ahead of Kim, his hiking partner. He discarded the fallen branch he’d used as a walking staff after hitting at the insect swarm trailing after them one more time. “Hi Zordon bye Zordon!” he called as he raced up the shuttle steps where Zordon was sitting and vanished inside without a glance at the Eltarian man.

Zordon watched him go, his face filled with bemusement. Kim followed at a more leisurely pace, though with frequent brushing off of insects trying to bite her. As she got within a few feet of the shuttle, the bugs turned and left abruptly, and she found herself wondering if Billy had managed to invent a bug-repelling device.

“Hi,” she said, stopping in front of Zordon.

“It’s been half a day,” he said, “and you’re already used to me being like this, aren’t you.”

Kim smiled. “Well, also the bugs are really itchy.”

He laughed just the way she’d hoped he would, deep and from his belly.

“Could I, um, just…” Kim tried to ask, but she stumbled to a halt mid-way through.

“Of course,” Zordon said warmly.

Kim found a spot to sit on the stair below Zordon, on the silky folds of the robes pooling between his legs. She leaned her head back against his stomach. Zordon shut his eyes to more fully feel the touch. He put one hand lightly on her shoulder, not holding or hugging, just becoming a little closer to her. It was the nearest to real contentment he’d felt for a very long time.

Kim, though, couldn’t sink into the moment. She found that with her last distraction – the hike – gone, her mind was swirling. *What happens when we get home? Will Zordon be trapped again? My Team’s falling apart, isn’t it? Is Ish really going to be okay, or will she end up like Moira? Or worse? This worked out great for me and Tommy, but what about Kat, and Trini and Billy, and Jason and-*

“Ssh,” Zordon said, gently touching her strawberry blond hair. She was about to ask why he was shushing her when she hadn’t said anything out loud, then she remembered that her mentor was a telepath. “I could answer those,” he said. “All of them.”

Kim blinked. “You could?”

“Yes.” He let a few beats fall. “Or we could just sit here in the sun together. Your choice.”

“You’d tell me all that?” Kim asked.

“If you need me to.”

She considered. The Lerani sunlight fell warmly on her as she did. She felt the soft warmth of Zordon’s chest under her head, too, and his arm and legs brushing hers. The air was thick but intriguingly fragrant, and it carried to them the distant sounds of what sounded like several million Lerani birds. She snuggled back into Zordon and gave a contented sigh. “Let’s just sit.”

Zordon smiled into the sunlight. “Okay.”

They sat.

After a small, tranquil eternity, Zordon said, “Congratulations, by the way.”

“Congratulations?”

“Well. You’re the first Terran in history to lead a team of Power Rangers without a mentor’s help.”

Kim had so thoroughly never thought of it that way that she couldn’t do much but blink. Zordon laughed gently at her stunned thoughts. “Hadn’t you noticed?” he asked mildly.

“But it wasn’t… It sounds all noble like that. It was just to try to keep me and Tommy together,” Kim admitted uncomfortably. She tilted her head back to look up at him, sure she’d see disapproval.

He just smiled slightly. “Hmm, was it? I would think that would be quite an irresponsible use of a Master’s Power, to send projections of himself backward in time just to ensure he and his high school girlfriend lived happily ever after.”

“You knew?” she shrieked, twisting fully around to gape at him. “You knew this whole time?!” A bit of her, though, wondered as she said it whether she’d ever just start assuming that Zordon knew all the secrets ahead of time.

“Actually, I didn’t,” Zordon smiled. “That night, after Evelyn left for Eltare, I noticed a temporal intrusion in your home. I could not observe the events directly, but all the tests I ran on the intruder showed it as benign. I didn’t know the cause because I couldn’t foresee one of my own Chosen becoming a Master of the Power; I’m entirely too close to you for me or any other Eltarian to see something that profound. But now, well, it seems quite obvious.” He considered. “Given it’s Tommy, I expect he’ll need you to point it out to him so that he can close the temporal loop.” Kim giggled.

He spotted doubt lingering amid her cheerful smiles. “Ah, Kimberly,” he said gently, “there’s no need for guilt. Yes, it’s true: two years ago you made a childish decision to follow your first romance despite all possible consequences. That doesn’t mean it was the wrong choice.”

She frowned. “Doesn’t it?”

“Look at what happened because of it: more than a half-dozen villains who were out of my Rangers’ reach, as well as Zedd and Repulssa and the whole of the Machine Empire, no longer threaten the Earth. Two young women deeply wounded by evil are healed beyond any skill or magic I could have offered them. An entire race of my kin have been found and are about to be saved from desperate and short lives on a hostile world. And a new era is beginning for the Earth. I can’t know for certain, but I do believe none of that would have happened if not for your so-called childish decision.”

Kim glowed, then frowned. “But I thought you didn’t like what Mrs. Walsh did,” Kim pointed out.

“No, not at all – but for entirely selfish reasons,” Zordon said with a wry smile. Kim just blinked at him – Zordon, selfish? He sighed. “I’ve watched you grow for ten thousand years. That entire time, I knew pieces of what was to come in your history both beautiful and terrible, and it was not my place to stop or aid any of them. I also knew that near the dawn of the eleventh millennium since my first Team’s arrival, your paths would cross with Eltarians enough that we could no longer see your futures. It’s hard for any father to see his children grow up.” He let her see his sadness as he said, “I fear you won’t need me much longer. You’ve been my whole life. I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Tears sprang into Kim’s eyes when he called himself their father. Several half-formed better responses flitted across her thoughts, but the one that felt entirely selfish and silly slipped out of her lips instead: “I miss my dad.”

Zordon didn’t seem to find it silly. He just held her. She leaned her head against his arm and let a little of the deep pain of her father’s absence slip away into his embrace.

“Don’t go,” she whispered. The thought of Zordon leaving hurt too much.

“I won’t. Not yet,” he answered. “And if the time comes to leave Earth, I’ll never leave you, Kimberly.”

Something tight in her eased. Kim hesitated to say the next words, since they crossed boundaries that would have seemed impossible to cross a week ago. She felt his chest heave beneath her with a gasp as he heard them anyway, and it drove her forward. “I love you, Zordon.”

“Thank you,” he said softly, and his voice carried immense gratitude. “I love you too.” She felt his own hesitation then. “Ah, this may seem strange, but… may I braid your hair?”

Kim turned around to blink at him. “Um, I guess? Why?” she asked with a giggle.

“Thank you,” he smiled. He began twisting the strands of her hair with surprising dexterity and delicacy. Kim thought about asking the question again, guessing he’d answer if she did. The light of the alien sunset gently warmed her skin. She turned to look across the Lerani treetops instead.

“So… I was led all along? By what?” Kim thought about it. “God?” she asked.

Zordon wrinkled his nose in distaste. “I’d rather you call it the Power, please.”

Kim turned to look at him and laughed in surprise at his wrinkled nose. He tugged the ends of her hair to remind her to face forward, and, smiling, she did.

For another long time, they sat, Zordon’s fingers twining through her hair. The sun dipped below the trees, throwing shades of red, yellow, and pink fire across the white clouds. Where the golds, oranges, and greens of the sunset faded into the rich blues and blacks of coming night, in just a few places, Kim saw a thin brush of Purple.

“That’s me,” she said softly. “Connecting them all.”

“Yes,” Zordon agreed. “Now ssh.”

*****

When they awoke, Tommy, Phiris, and Tanya were lying on the shuttle floor just outside Ish’s holding cell. All four sat up slowly, reorienting to the real world with difficulty.

“Ish!” Tanya beamed when she saw the Venusian sitting up. Her smile flickered. Ish looked exactly as she had before, down to her altered hair and vacant eyes. “Ish? Are you all right?”

Ish blinked, then turned to look at Tanya. She rolled her eyes, and both other Terrans let out sighs of relief. “No I am not all right! I’m locked up, I need new clothes yesterday, and I’m starving!”

Tommy sprang to his feet and unlocked the cell. “Man, is it good to have you home.”

Ish flicked her gaze past Tommy to Tanya. “Home is complicated, but I’m glad to be… um…” Her brow furrowed with confusion. “Where are we?”

*****

The joy and relief that night aboard Lord Naatam’s ship was immense. Ish was the center of jubilation for the Rangers, but their celebration made plenty of space for Trey – rather more than the reserved Lord was prepared for – and, of course, Zordon. They all stayed up together until the teens couldn’t overcome their exhaustion anymore, and then the teens went to sleep, all curled near one another in two corners of the ship, two Teams one last time. Billy thought about staying up late to talk with Zordon or help pilot the ship, but Adam, Tommy, and Jason all protested that he had to join them instead. He was too pleased by that to resist, so he fell asleep next to the Zeos and Trey. Zordon and Naatam stayed up through the night talking, and what they said was known only to them.

The ship flew through the night across the vast blackness, carrying them further than anyone else from their world had traveled, though not as far as some of them had gone before. In the morning, they were at Triforia. They said farewell to Trey and pointedly refused every time he said he was in their debts. “Y’know, on Earth, we just call it being friends,” Rocky said at last, drawing a laugh from everyone, even Trey.

Returning to Earth orbit meant more goodbyes. After so many hugs and promises to stay in touch better this time, Zack teleported back to Geneva to begin cleaning up the diplomatic ruckus he’d started. David went next, claiming eagerness to get back to the reservation and help post-invasion cleanup. Tommy was clearly unwilling to let his twin leave just yet, but: “I’ll see you soon. Promise,” David said. Only the most perceptive of the teens caught him glancing over Tommy’s shoulder at Rita as he said it.

Lord Naatam cruised his shuttle into the lower atmosphere above California, not bothering to obscure it from satellites – “Not any point now, is there?” he said lightly, smiling at Zordon’s disapproval. Apparently he wasn’t the sentimental type: by way of farewell, he simply said a cheerful, “Power protect you and all that, now get off my ship!”

The remaining people, and one android, teleported together to a particular spot in the mountains above Angel Grove. Before the final parting of ways, there was one last task to do together as defenders of the Earth.

*****

“To be a Power Ranger,” Tommy said, facing his successor, “is to be the first line of defense for our planet from all that wants to kill or enslave us. It means facing down creatures from your weirdest nightmares, knowing that if they get past you, someone innocent will get hurt. The worst kind of evil will test you over and over, trying to break you or make you join them, and you’ll be tempted to, because evil is easy and being a Power Ranger is the hardest job you’ll ever have. It takes courage, compassion, dedication, and perfect trust in your Team to always have your back.

“Being a Power Ranger doesn’t always end well. And even if it does, once it’s over, there’s no going back to the life you had. I didn’t get a choice, and even though I don’t regret it, I need you to be able to choose freely knowing what could happen. So, now that you know what being a Ranger means, what’s your dec-“

“I’m in!” Ashley erupted in glee.

Tommy’s serious expression broke into incredulity, and Ashley clapped her hands over her mouth. Every one of the watching teens – all the current Power Rangers serving on Earth plus Jason and Billy, who were watching from the sidelines next to Alpha and Zordon – burst out laughing. “Sorry!” she said through her fingers, then lowered them to go on, “So so sorry, it’s just… I can be a Power Ranger! Of course I’m going to say yes! If you’re sure?”

Tommy sighed, let go of the disappointment of his dramatic speech being ruined, and then smiled at Ashley. “You stood up to help us in our darkest hour, when you didn’t have to – when we tried to make you go but really needed you to stay. A lot of people are alive today because you risked your life then.”

Ashley’s eyes widened, but she pushed past her first inclination to deny it. Instead, she took a deep breath and stood a little taller before him.

He flashed a grin. “Besides - find me another person who’d be half as enthusiastic as you.”

Ashley didn’t miss a beat: “I’d rather just take the Zeonizers, if ya don’t mind,” she quoted.

The teens around them laughed again, and even Alpha gave a mechanical little “Heh heh heh.” Tommy took a deep breath, then nodded. “Are you ready?” he asked Ashley.

The laughing grin eased into a resolved smile. “Ready,” she said.

Moira stepped up to them to facilitate the transfer. As she did, realization struck several of the watching youths: Moira, who, despite the gravity her battle scars had brought her, was actually the youngest of them, was the same age as Ashley. The Power was moving on, slowly, to younger heroes. “Put out your hands,” the White Venusian said.

Both Ashley and Tommy did so, Tommy’s suddenly each holding one half of his Zeonizers. Ashley felt the pull of a quiet instinct inside her. Obeying, she put her hands over Tommy’s, on top of the Zeonizers. Moira put one hand above and below their four and focused. The space between her hands filled with a White light that radiated out like a tiny star. It drew a startled gasp and “Wow!” from Ashley.

The Rangers exchanged glances full of smiles. They all knew the light show was nothing compared to what was coming.

The White light was overcome by Red. After just a moment, the lights vanished. Tommy, who had been through the physical and emotional shock of losing the Power more times than any of them, just shut his eyes and took an unsteady step back – and was unsurprised to find Jason’s hand on his arm as soon as he did. Ashley, by contrast, stayed right where she was, turning her hands over, examining the spots where her new Zeonizers had just vanished.

Tanya elbowed Adam. “Hey! Oh, right, um. Ashley? You okay?” Adam asked before he completely missed his cue as the Zeos’ new leader.

“I… I just…” Ashley stammered uncharacteristically. “Yeah. I’m… so much more than okay.” One beat fell, then her eyes drew wide and terrified. “Oh God, what have I done? What if I screw up? I’m only a blue belt, what if I can’t fight well enough? What if I’m no good at this!?!”

Adam smiled. Self-doubt he knew how to handle. “Then we’ve got your back.”

“All of us,” Jason added. He looked around at all of his friends, and each shifted slightly into a circle, recognizing the cue.

Jason put one hand into the center, followed in order by Trini, Billy, Kimberly, Tommy, Moira, Rocky, Adam, Aisha, Kat, Tanya, Rita, and, finally realizing what she was supposed to do, Ashley.

Just as Jason was ready to sound the call, another hand joined on top. They all looked at it, then up to Zordon’s face. His life-force wouldn’t last much longer in this dimension, but he’d insisted on staying with them for this.

“Just this once, if it’s quite all right,” he rumbled. They answered him with a chorus of excited grins.

Jason dropped his hand on the bottom by an inch, cuing the rest. As one, they crouched low, then sprang up into the air, hands arcing high over their heads, and cried,

“POWER RANGERS!”

The End
(and Beginning)
of an Era