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1. Billy had the fix for his aging problem. He’d had it for awhile. It was simple. He knew, logically, he should have just built the darn device, used it, and gone about his daily life fixing zords and tinkering around the Command Chamber. But he didn’t want that life. Not anymore. He was pretty sure he had never actually wanted it.
It was lonely. He felt used. Ignored. He knew they didn’t mean it, but he was worth more than that. The only person capable of changing his situation was himself. So that’s what he did.
It was easy to fool the viewing globe. The Aquitians had been more than willing to help while he remained on Earth, secretly, healed and well again. It was almost painful, how his friends just accepted his excuse and moved on without a proper goodbye. But it wouldn’t do to dwell on that. He had a job to do. A future to build.
Billy slung his duffel bag over his shoulder as the bus pulled away behind him. She was there waiting for him at the empty, desolate bus stop.
“I have two weeks to help you get set up. After that, I have to return to LA and Torchwood turns control over to you completely,” she said by way of greeting. Billy wrapped her in a big hug. It had been too long since he’d seen his best friend.
“Thanks, Trini. For all of this.”
“It’s your dream, Billy. I’m just here for the leg work.” Trini took his arm and led him to the van she had waiting outside the bus station. It was on the edge of an abandoned town. The few buildings that remained were crumbling. Billy planned to have them torn down. But most importantly, at the center of town, was a shining tall structure, newly built, that housed levels upon levels of labs. The town was in the middle of nowhere, out of sight and out of mind, but Torchwood had helped build up a series of towers and underground cables that meant it had the fastest networks in all of California. This would be Billy’s city. A city for technology and innovation. This was his future.
“Have you figured out what you’re going to call it?” She asked. Billy surveyed the land before him and looked at the group of alien scientists lounging in the back of the Torchwood van, his first employees and first co-habitants of this new vision of his.
“I was thinking Newtech City,” he replied. She squeezed his hand and for the first time in months, Billy smiled.
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2. Healing was going to be a slow process for Billy. He was de-aged, that wasn’t a problem. His body was taking to that quite nicely. If anything, he felt physically better than he had since before he’d even become a ranger in the first place.
Emotionally this whole business was much harder than he thought. It wasn’t necessarily the de-aging, he was slowly beginning to realize. Billy had been depressed for months and he hadn’t even known it. Passing his powers to Tanya had been the right thing to do, he knew that, but he had no idea the toll it would take on his mental state. Giving up those powers was one of the hardest things he’d ever done.
He was de-aged while still on Earth and the Aquitians had offered him a place in their research and technology department, but he knew he couldn’t do it. They were a kind people, but Billy never really had gotten over that fear of fish, however irrational it was. They offered him a small ship to take him anywhere he wanted to go instead. They’d even provided the cover story. His only responsibility was to select a destination.
He had initially been at a loss. The whole of space before him and not a clue where to go. It wasn’t the sort of dilemma he’d ever expected to face. But then he remembered. There was one place he could find healing. It was a place of beauty, peace, tranquility. They would take him in there, make him feel at home, and give him the time he needed to come to terms with his life as it stood.
Eltar. Billy had to go to Eltar. He had no way of contacting them, however. There was only one place to turn. He called Trini, one of the few people he could still call a friend. She worked for Torchwood now. She would know what to do.
And so he found himself on Eltar, a guest in the house of one of the most respected scientists on the whole planet. It wasn’t long before Zordon and Alpha 5 returned. Billy was immediately taken in and given full status as a family member. He spoke with Trini often, receiving news of Earth, of his father, of the few friends he had remaining. He saw a physician twice a week for both his mental and physical needs. Slowly, Billy was healing.
Billy was happy there, and they were happy to have him. He was doing good work. He was appreciated, respected. Loved. Finally he’d found a place to call home.
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3. Billy was angry. He was offended. He was horrified. Mostly he was just hurt. His friends, the people he’d fought with, lived with, loved, risked his life for. His friends had believed the cover story the Aquitians provided without question, without a second guess. Marry a fish. Honestly. Him, still afraid of fish, and he’d go live on a planet full of them to marry one? Nevermind the completely different culture surrounding love and marriage on Aquitar. But they had bought it. Believed it. Wished him well and went about their lives as if nothing had changed.
He wished his hand hadn’t been forced into it. He wished he could shake them and tell them what was really going on. But he couldn’t. He wasn’t allowed. Not even Jason. And of all people, Jason should have questioned what was happening.
Torchwood LA regulations were strict. Billy had to follow them to the letter. Recruitment into Torchwood required complete anonymity. That meant cutting ties with old friends. That meant leaving behind family and not getting to tell them where he was going or what he was doing. That meant his old life would have to be a distant memory.
He didn’t regret joining them, though. He’d been in contact with Trini ever since she left. It had taken nearly two years before she was able to tell him what she was doing. But then she had. He’d been so proud. And now it was his turn.
She had done the recruiting. Pulled some strings, probably, and gotten him straight into the research division. He wouldn’t need field work. He could spend his time in the labs, analyzing alien technology, adapting it to Earth defenses, even creating new technology all on his own. The possibilities were endless and it was very exciting.
He’d been happy to go. But he’d expected a little resistance. A little prodding. Maybe even an “are you sure this is what you want” from the people he thought he knew. But honestly, he’d been a background figure for so long now, pulled out of storage when they needed something fixed, but otherwise ignored. It shouldn’t be surprising they took his computer-generated viewing globe word for it.
That’s why he was leaving, after all. Trini had seen right through it all and knew where he needed to be. And then she’d made it happen. He should focus on that. Focus on all the great things he was about to do.
He hopped on the train at the Stone Canyon station. He left Angel Grove behind. He was leaving his entire life behind. He was on to exciting adventures, new discoveries, and he’d get to do it with his best friend. This was the life Billy Cranston was meant to live. This was the life he wanted.
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4. Billy had expected his stay on Aquitar to be brief. They would heal him, he would go home, and everything would go back to normal. He should have known something would go wrong. Lately, in his life, something always went wrong.
The Aquitian waters had more than healed him. They continued to heal him. Over and over again, they restored his body to the youth it had once held. When Billy left the waters, however, the rapid aging process began once again.
There was no middle ground. The Eternal Falls could grant him immortality, so long as he remained their prisoner, or he could leave Aquitar and die within a matter of weeks, a husk of an old man long before his time. After all he had done, all he had accomplished, Billy’s life came down to one heart wrenching decision. He was lost either way.
He took a few weeks to decide, trapped by the pools of the Eternal Falls. It was no life to live. He called Cestro to him and made the announcement. He would leave Aquitar.
“I need a ship. Nothing big or modern. It can be small, old, a derelict. I just need something fit enough for travel,” he said, his Aquitian friends gathered around him.
“Anything you wish, Billy, but can’t we take you? We can transport you home much faster in our cruisers.” Delphine said. Billy smiled forlornly.
“I can’t go home. I would be an old man. Who would know me? Who would understand? I can’t see my father, my friends. They would watch me die. I won’t do that to them. I will take my last remaining days and I will explore, head for the furthest stars. I want my eyes to close viewing galaxies I’ve never seen before.” He was determined. They could not change his mind. A cover story was constructed and a ship located. He was soon ready.
In the end he contacted only Trini, his last true friend, to say goodbye. Tears were shed, but she understood. She wished him safe journeys and a peaceful end to his days. He wished her a long life of happiness and love.
Two months, six star systems, and a wealth of scientific discoveries later, Billy Cranston sighed his last breath on the bridge of a small ship, content and happy at the end of his days.
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5. Billy de-aged quickly. His return to himself was painless and easy. Leaving Earth, leaving Aquitar, it was all so… easy. All the same, to him, and that worried him. He needed to fix that. He needed to find himself, to ground himself once more.
Leaving behind the rangers was even easier than walking away from an entire planet, to feed them a lie so big it was almost unbelievable and then just leave. It was not what he expected, but that didn’t worry him. It merely cemented in his head what he needed to do. He had to leave them completely. To walk away from his life as a ranger, his life fighting the evils of the universe. It had cost him far too much of himself already. He had to abandon it all.
He had given so much of himself. He didn’t know who he was anymore, what he wanted out of life, what he could contribute. He was aimless, floating like dandelion seeds on the wind. He had no purpose. This what not who he was meant to be. This was not him. He didn’t like the depression he had settled into, the emotionless void he had accepted for himself. Something had to change.
Billy was tired. Exhausted way deep in his bones. He was done. It was time to go home. Truly home.
The Aquitians dropped him two blocks away in a field in the pitch black of night. He was filled with trepidation. It had been so long. Years, if he were really honest, since he’d even been completely present.
He’d called Trini ahead of time, asked her to make sure everything would be okay for his return. She had assured him he would be most welcome, that he could show up anytime. She was the only one who knew his plans.
The house still looked the same. Soft light glowed through the curtains of the living room. He could see the tv flickering. He climbed the concrete stairs, his hand trailing along the railing as he let memories flood him. So familiar. Nothing changed here. Nothing was different.
He knocked on the door. It opened slowly, a man older than he’d left stood framed by the light. He started to speak but his voice stuck like peanut butter in his throat.
“Billy?” the man asked. It was all Billy could do to nod, tears falling down his face. The man wrapped him in a tight embrace, pulling Billy’s head to rest on his shoulder. “Shh. Shh. It’s okay, Billy. You’re safe now.”
“I’m back, Dad.” Billy sobbed into his father’s shoulder, clinging tightly to the last thread he could find of the person he used to be. His dad led him inside, picking up his bag on the way. The door closed behind them, shutting out the dark of the night.
Billy was home.