Author's Note: First off for those of you not following KSuzie's "The Coin Series", what has been going on with Kim is that she was kidnapped by Kemora in the alternate dimension and thrown into the pit on Muirantias. She survives and is growing power's much like K's because of it. For further details on what's going on, head over to KSuzie's fanfiction.net page or her page here in the library and check out "The Coin Series".

Power Rangers: Legacy
"The Trouble With Pink"

Carri stumbled out of her bedroom a little earlier than she would’ve liked. She didn’t know what had gotten her out of bed that early. She supposed it had to do with the fact that she’d had a lot of early mornings when she was working. Although it had been a few weeks since she wrapped up her last show, some days her body still wanted to drag her up at an unruly hour. She gave up fighting it and elected to go have a cup of the coffee she’d smelled brewing.

"Morning." Carri greeted Kim, who was dressed and ready for work and trying to squeeze in some coffee before she left.

"Good morning." Kim replied, her voice chipper as Carri stood beside her and fixed her own cup of coffee. Kim watched as her best friend sauntered over toward the livingroom and collapsed on the couch, coffee in hand. Kim went over to join her so that she could catch a minute of Good Morning America before she took off.

Carri clicked the television on and to the channel of interest before clunking it down on the couch and stretching her free arm. She watched briefly as they talked about something of no interest to her. As she took a sip of her coffee Diane held up a book. Carri raised an eyebrow and turned toward Kim. Both girls looked curiously at the television screen.

"Today we are going to talk a little bit about Luke Kirk’s newest book." Diane said with a smile. "This science fiction novel has crossed over into the romance genre, been printed in over a dozen languages and sold millions of copies all in the little more than a month that it has been released. This book has taken Luke Kirk from a moderately successful writer to an all out writing phenomenon."

Kim groaned loudly as they’d both had more than enough over the last few weeks of what a success this book had become. Diane continued to talk as Carri reached in between the seat cushions to try and figure out where the remote ended up depositing itself.

"The reasons for the success of this book?" Diane went on. "Well unfortunately Luke Kirk couldn’t be here but we do have experts and fans to tell us why this is such a wonderful"

Diane was cut off mid-sentence as the screen went black. "Thank you." Kim muttered. "I guess we’ll get all our news from the papers."

The girls stood up with their coffee cups and headed over toward the kitchen table, where Kim had strewn the newspaper earlier. She hadn’t looked at it before, only tossed it down. She was the first of the two to start shifting through its pieces. One in particular caught her eye, and Kim pulled it out to show it to Carri.

The front picture of the entertainment section was an image of Luke Kirk’s book. Carri rolled her eyes as she pointed to the smaller image on the front page, indicating the story was inside. "I can’t believe that this stupid book has become such a success." Carri grumbled

"And we can’t get away from it." Kim added. The book had become quite the phenomenon over the last few weeks and every time she or Carri turned around it was thrown in their faces that their love lives were being read and dissected by every bookworm in America. And it made no difference to them that people didn’t know it was their love lives in particular that were under such scrutiny. They just died a thousand deaths every time something was said, meanwhile Jason stood beside them grinning like a little devil while trying to figure out what they and their boyfriends were currently up to.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t had been so popular. Both girls had dealt with people at work reading the book and discussing it amongst each other, making comments about the characters that they couldn’t help but take somewhat personally. Of course sometimes it was slightly satisfying. One afternoon Kim overheard Sandy telling one of her coworkers that the book was amazing and she wished she could be Kim’s character. Kim couldn’t help but smugly smile as she thought about how the woman that hates her basically wants to be her.

Carri once again found herself rolling her eyes over the matter. "Whatever." she said as she stacked the newspaper up and tossed it aside. It was a huge success which was good for Jason, and noone would ever know the characters in the book were based off of them, but she still couldn’t help letting the book drive her a little crazy. She paused for a moment glancing over at Kim. "Something big going on at work today?" she questioned as she couldn’t help but notice that her friend was more dressed up than usual.

"I have a huge presentation today about the campaign I’ve been working on. One of the other guys there and I are both going to present our ideas to Ashley and she’ll decided which one she wants to go with." Kim said as she grinned at her friend. She was more than a little excited. She had been preparing for this for weeks and she had what she thought was a killer idea.

"She’ll choose you. Rangers always stick together." Carri commented, although she was well aware of the fact that this was the business world and that ranger relationships didn’t necessarily outweigh making the best business decision.

Kim looked at her friend and rolled her eyes, declining to say anything directly about her comment. "I’m ready to do this so hopefully I’ll blow her away." She only had a few more points to work out that morning before she was ready for the afternoon’s big meeting. "What about you? Anything exciting going on today?"

Carri shrugged briefly before replying. "I’m having a late lunch with Matt. And I’m looking over some of the ideas for sites for the next set of shows all the while biting my nails waiting for an official yes or no on the renewal." The last episode of Traveling In Style had just aired and sometime within the next two weeks they would give her an official decision. As soon as she had word from the powers that be she was able start production again, which could be as early as the first week in September.

"Don’t stress about the show." Kim said as her friend nodded at her. She stopped for a moment and glanced down at her watch. "It’s time for me to be off to work. I have too much to do and I absolutely cannot be late."

Carri watched as Kim stood and placed her coffee cup in the sink. Giving her friend a quick goodbye she glanced over at her briefly as she grabbed her things and flew out the door in order to get ready for her important afternoon.

Callisto sat on the throne of the main room in the castle, not caring at the moment that it was technically Rhianna’s throne and that the daughter of Lord Zedd and Rita would be more than a little unhappy to find her in it. Of course Callisto never really cared if she was happy or not, only if she was on her side.

The goddess sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. This ultimate plan of hers was taking much longer than she’d ever anticipated. Things were stalling and she wasn’t happy. She had information she needed to obtain involving the whereabouts of pieces of a crystal, a crystal that once combined could be absorbed by someone giving them more power. Of course the power was only a side effect of the crystal. Once an evil being was able to absorb the crystal and bond with it, eventually learning how to harness its power, they would be ready for the ultimate evil power up. There was a delightfully evil gem, one well hidden from those who sought out its power. One that those who harnessed the power of the crystal could find. The gem would be enough to combine with one’s DNA and the crystal to make the most powerful, most evil being imaginable. One that could easily take out teams of rangers and planets without blinking.

The most depressing part about this whole plan was that Callisto was going to give these powers to Rhianna. Not that she minded, there were unfavorable consequences should she try and take the powers. The crystal, the first step in the whole process, was not meant for use by a goddess. In order to bond with her it would strip her of her immortality and powers, two things she had become quite fond of over the years. Not to mention that the last evil being that had attempted to use this power imploded while fighting against an ancient team of rangers.

His minions had grabbed the gem and put it back in its place, but they couldn’t get a hold of the pieces of crystal which shattered upon his demise. The rangers got a hold of them and hid them throughout the galaxy, never to be seen or spoke of again. This is where her troubles came in. She was frustrated as the information of the hidden locations of the crystal shards were nearly impossible to obtain. Cratus had been on a mission to find them, to find anyone who knew about them, but so far he had nothing to report that would be of any use to her. She was never known for her patience and now her frustration was reaching dangerous levels as day after day went by with nothing new coming in.

Meanwhile the rangers had been allowed to frolic down on Earth as if nothing of any danger was going on in the universe around them. It sickened her and she was more than a little ready to give them something to think about. To remind them that regardless of the fact that they had nothing overwhelming to throw at them yet, they were still there and still a force to be reckoned with.

As she thought about the rangers, Rhianna entered the room and shot a look in Callisto’s direction. She didn’t know what the goddess was doing there in her chair but she was bound to find out. "What’s going on?"

"I was just thinking." Callisto replied as she tapped her fingers against the arm of the chair

"Anything I need to be concerned with?" Rhianna asked. She was never sure when Callisto’s thinking was a good thing and when it wasn’t.

"Actually yes." Callisto replied. Regardless of how pointless it was, it was time to remind the rangers that they were there. "We need a monster. A good monster. We can send it to the surface with Goldar and the Cirranadrones."

"I can take care of that." Rhianna assured her. Although she wasn’t sure what she was going to send down. Callisto had seemingly been disappointed with all of her latest creations, starting with the SpongeBob monster that she reamed her about and ending with the wolf monster she had sent down a few days prior.

"And I’m not talking about your usual creations." Callisto quickly pointed out. She couldn’t stand to see another lame monster have its go at being ridiculed by the rangers before being smashed to pieces. "I want you to send something down that will really confuse the rangers, do some damage. I want them to remember that we are still a force to be afraid of."

"Alright." Rhianna said slowly as she tried to come up with something that would satisfy the goddess. The more she thought about it the more she thought about something she’d seen on Earth television that might be useful. Not a cartoon character, she had been well warned about the consequences of picking those. But something else, something that struck her as an object that would be evil enough and confusing enough to take on those rangers. "Give me ten minutes on the surface. Then I’ll be ready." Rhianna said and with a wave of her staff she was gone

Kim sat in her office, her papers strewn all over her desk much like they had been for the last several weeks. She was finalizing everything she needed for her presentation to Ashley. Nervously she was making last minute changes to make sure every detail was as perfect as she could get it.

She wasn’t sure what was making her so nervous about giving this presentation. It wasn’t that she was trying to impress one of the world’s fastest up and coming designers. Their ranger connection made talking to Ashley easy despite her status in the fashion industry. She supposed it had something to do with the fact that this was her first chance to prove to the world that she actually deserved this job. That Ashley’s decision to hire her wasn’t meaningless. Sure she had done some good work for Ashley since she’d been there, but this campaign was huge.

She hoped that her presentation was better than Shawn’s, that her ideas were better. He was two years younger than her but he had more experience and she hoped in the long run that it didn’t matter. She hoped that between her own knowledge of clothes, her experience in college and her internship she would have enough to give her the ability to nail this presentation and to become Ashley’s number one marketing employee.

There was really no reason for her to worry. For the last few weeks she had busted her ass to get this done and she was more than a little proud of what she came up with. Regardless of whether or not Ashley chose her she’d have to be a little impressed. Sighing Kim stopped and stretched, trying to get her mind off of her presentation for a moment so that she could clear her head and be completely ready for the upcoming meeting.

As she pushed the thoughts of her job out of her head, other things started floating in. The first of which was her plans for that evening. She was going to finish packing her things and Tommy would be by later to help her gather all her boxes so that she could move in with him. He had surprised her by asking her to move in three weeks ago and she had surprised herself by saying yes. Carri was pleased for her despite the fact that she was sad to see her roommate go. And there was a little bit of Kim that was sad at the thought of moving out. But moving in with Tommy, well it just felt right. Especially considering the fact that she was there more than she was at Carri’s anyway. She had promised Tommy she would move out as soon as she did her presentation. She wanted all of her focus to be on that and not packing.

Unfortunately although her focus had been mostly on her presentation, there had been other things on her mind as well. Kim was no longer human. Or at least not fully anyway. Her DNA had been tampered with and her cells completely converted to Muirantian cells. She had yet to see any of the major changes in her abilities, any of her serious Muirantian powers. She knew that it was only a matter of time before they surfaced and she was scared and hoped that it wouldn’t take long for her to be able to figure out how to control them. She knew it would take a while to figure out how to master them, even how to use them properly, but controlling them was going to be important.

Kim glanced back down at the work in front of her. Before she had a chance to try and pull her thoughts back to her task ahead, her communicator went off. Quickly she stood up and shut the door to her tiny office before answering her page. "Go ahead."

"You need to get down to the park now." Billy said without offering any further explanation

"On my way." Kim replied. With a sigh she stood and got ready to morph. Bad guys always had the worst timing as she needed to stay here with her presentation. Knowing there was nothing she could do about it, Kim prepared to morph and teleport down to the scene.

Kim was the final of the five rangers to teleport to the park, although she wasn’t far behind the others. When she arrived she found herself face to face with Goldar, Cirranadrones, and a monster that appeared to be a plastic children’s monster mold toy.

"Anybody know what this guy’s deal is?" Kim asked as she stood in battle stance ready to go

"Nope. But I give him about five minutes before it really doesn’t matter." Carri replied as she called for her daggers and watched as Jason called for his axe beside her

"Let’s go show him how it’s done." Jason said as he and Carri both went to charge at the monster. While they ran to attack Tommy drew his weapon and went after Goldar, leaving Kim and Rocky to deal with the Cirranadrones.

"Not so fast." Moldinator replied holding a big plastic hand up to stop them. The rangers weren’t intimidated by him and they jumped to attack, just as the monster opened up with a bright light and produced a clone of itself. The clone looked like a big, slimy jelly like monster and they had no idea what it could do.

It didn’t speak, only grunted as it stepped in front of Moldinator to absorb the two rangers attacks. Carri and Jason hit the slime monster head on with their weapons and were surprised to find that it had the ability to electrically shock them before throwing them back onto the battlefield.

Temporarily stunned and disoriented, the yellow and black rangers paused before pulling themselves back to their feet. "This isn’t good." Carri pointed out the obvious

"That’s an understatement." Jason replied as Moldinator glowed once more and produced a second slimy copy

Goldar glanced over from his fight with Tommy, quite proud of Rhianna’s creation. Moldinator was a product of a children’s monster mold making toy. The monster itself wasn’t very powerful. But it could create those slimy copies of itself, and Rhianna had given the copies the ability to have a quite electrifying power as the yellow and green rangers were quickly finding out firsthand. Goldar turned back to his moral enemy, who had yet to see the commotion with the monster, and continued the fight.

Rocky and Kim were surrounded by Cirranadrones and trying their hardest to take them out one by one. Both had already called on their weapons which was making the fight slightly easier. Kim found herself in the center of at least a dozen of Callisto’s creatures. Quickly she decided against a fair fight and levitated herself high above them. Levitation was something that had been much simpler and taken a lot less effort since her cells transformed.

Not wasting any time, Kim picked off Cirranadrones quickly as they found it nearly impossible to get to her. As she hovered high above them she glanced around the battlefield. Rocky and Tommy were for the most part handling their battles. What concerned her was seeing Jason and Carri facing off against four slime like monsters who were defending Moldinator and looked to be shocking them with every touch. She knew she needed to try and help them so she quickly used her arrows to stop the rest of the Cirranadrones before leaping forward and landing on the ground.

As soon as her feet hit the ground she made her way over toward her friends, who by now were being faced with five of the slime creatures. Quickly she put arrows into each of them, watching as the slime absorbed the arrow as though it was nothing. "That didn’t do much good." she observed as he two friends turned to see who shot the arrows off

"This is what we’ve been dealing with. You can’t touch them and weapons aren’t doing much good." Jason said, beyond irritated with the monsters they were facing. Jason had used his axe to fire blasts which had gotten absorbed and Carri had thrown a dagger at it, only to have to use her abilities to retrieve it without touching the slime monster when the dagger got stuck in its frame.

Suddenly Moldinator created yet another slime monster. "Shit." Carri cursed. "How many of these damn things do you think he can come up with?"

"What the hell?" Rocky asked coming up on the plethora of slime monsters that the other was facing

"That’s about where we are." Jason said as one of the slime monsters launched at the group. They all scattered and barely missed its advances, regrouping seconds later only to find that they’d gained another slime monster as well as another ranger.

"What’s going on?" Tommy asked as he joined the rest of his team after managing to send Goldar away

"Electric slime monsters." Kim said as the slime monsters started to surround them. She suddenly feared that this was exactly what they wanted. Get all the rangers together then close in on them. They couldn’t fight them and if the slime monsters attacked they could easily find themselves with more of an electric shock than they could handle. Kim levitated once more as she saw Moldinator spit out yet another slime creation. She cast a glance down at Tommy and the others who were in the center of a circle of fast moving slime monsters. Before she had a chance to formulate any kind of plan, they were all teleported.

"What’s going on?" Tommy asked as with a quick glance he realized Billy had teleported them back to the Command Chamber in the middle of the battle

"Those electric slime creatures can’t be stopped by our weapons. There was a good chance they would’ve killed you had they closed in on you like that." Billy said. He had been watching the battle and hadn’t been in the least happy about what he had seen. Things were not going well for his friends and from all the scans he was doing on the slime creatures the dynamic wasn’t going to change. "Before it got to that I wanted to bring you guys here to regroup."

"So if we can’t defeat the slime things, how do we get rid of them? I seriously doubt downtown Angel Grove wants a hoard of shocking slime molds taking over." Carri said. She didn’t like hearing that they couldn’t stop the slime creatures. She had experienced first hand what they were capable of and knew they had to be destroyed.

"The slime molds are all creations of Moldinator. Destroy him and the molds will follow." Billy explained. "The problem is the slime molds are protecting Moldinator."

Kim let out a long exasperated sigh. "That brings us back to the original problem. How do we take care of the slime molds?"

"They’re electric. Can’t we use that to our advantage somehow?" Jason questioned. While in battle he thought that there had to be a way to shock those stupid things back and get around them.

"That thought occurred to me as well." Billy replied. "If you can destroy their electric charge, that should essentially leave them as non functioning gooey slime balls. I’m not sure as the best course of action to achieve that. Perhaps dousing them with water or something along those lines would be enough to do the trick."

"So should we grab a couple of buckets and fill them up?" Rocky asked. He wasn’t thrilled with the slime monsters and was ready to make the battle end quickly.

Kim was half listening as she glanced back to the viewing screen and saw that Moldinator was spitting out more of his slime replicas. "We’re going to need a whole lot more than a few buckets."

Tommy stood beside her and crossed his arms over his chest. She was right, there were too many of them for them to be able to use a buckets of water to short them out. They needed to douse them. "Lightspeed rescue." he said suddenly as the idea came to him

"What can they do?" Jason questioned. He knew of the team, but as far as he was aware they had lost pretty much everything but their powers at the end of their last major battle.

"They’ve been rebuilding the last few years. Trying to continue to protect Mariner Bay." Tommy explained. He made it his business over the years to be well versed in the activities of ranger teams both past and present. He knew for a fact that Lightspeed had recreated a base and some of their zords in case they were ever needed. "They have a zord that would be perfect for this. It’s for putting fires out, but it could easily cover all of those slime creatures with water."

Kim nodded as that sounded like as good a plan as any. "Great. Let’s get a hold of Lightspeed. If they can stop the monsters, we’ll use the Power Cannon and put Moldinator down before he can do any more damage."

"I’ll contact Captain Mitchell." Tommy said as he quickly walked off

The rangers glanced over at the screen after Tommy left. Moldinator was creating slime monsters but at the moment they were all in a holding pattern around him, waiting for the rangers to come back down and attack. They could only hope that the slime monsters would stay away from the civilian population long enough for them to put their plan in motion.

It didn’t take long for Captain Mitchell to agree to help and send along Chad and the rebuilt Hydro Rescue Two. The moment he got there the rangers ran to rejoin the battle, only to find more than a dozen slime creatures surrounding Moldinator.

Tommy raised his communicator to his mouth. "Just keep them saturated. We’ll push our way through to Moldinator."

"Not a problem." Chad replied through his zord’s communications system. He was glad to come to Angel Grove and help out, it had been a while since he’d seen any ranger action.

Several of the slime monsters started to walk toward the rangers as the zord behind them sounded as though it was coming to life. Before the creatures could get too far, they found themselves doused with a cold wet blast. It only took a few seconds before sparks flew and the creatures stopped moving.

"This is our cue." Kim said as more creatures in front of them ceased to operate. The pink ranger wasted no time leading the charge past the giant balls of slime and toward the center where Moldinator was waiting for them.

"What have you done to them?" he roared as his major line of defense was diminished

"The same thing we’re about to do to you." Jason replied as the five rangers stood in formation and called for the Power Cannon

A few seconds later the weapon was in their hands and they wasted no time firing on the creature in front of them. He was easily destroyed, and as he fell his slime monsters exploded as well.

"Just great." Carri muttered as pieces of slime flew everywhere, one of which her in the arm

"At least they’re gone." Rocky replied as he watched the last of the slime pieces settle to the ground

The rangers were getting ready to return to their daily lives when much like every other monster they had faced, Moldinator grew. "Let’s get him before he can make some giant sized friends." Kim said as Tommy quickly called for the zords

They wasted no time bringing them to formation, standing strong as the Ninja Megazord. Unfortunately Moldinator was ready for them as he had already created a giant sized slime creature.

"This can’t be good." Rocky pointed out the obvious as the slime creature lunged at the zord. They tried to maneuver around it, but the slime creature got a hand on them and it was enough to shock the zord and overload it, temporarily shutting most of its systems down.

"I hope you have some good news for us." Tommy spoke quickly through the communications systems

"Moldinator can’t create the slime creatures nearly as fast now that he’s giant sized so you’ll only have the one to deal with for the moment." Billy said relaying the good news first. "It will only take a second to restore your power, however he can knock it right back out."

"So we need to stop him to get the zord running and take out Moldinator quickly." Kim summed up their situation as Billy agreed with her. She quickly switched the communications over to speak with Chad as the slime monster pushed the zord back, shocking it again and sending it to the ground. The rangers held on as they fell, and the moment they hit the ground Kim spoke. "See if you can stop him long enough for us to act."

"I’ll try." Chad replied as he turned the water on the giant slime creature. It hit his leg and shocked his leg, but the creature was too big for him to do any real damage. It turned its attention from the Megazord to the Rescue Zord, using it’s power to shock it as well.

"Now what?" Jason asked. This was not going well in the slightest and if they didn’t act soon they would be out a set of zords.

Carri thought for a moment. "I have an idea." she said as she realized how she could stop the single slime monster

"What are you going to do?" Rocky asked. He was never sure if her having a battle plan was a good thing or a bad thing. Sometimes she would do things that would make him hold his breath and pray.

She smiled at him from under her helmet. "Well you know. Do unto others." She said and without hesitation she jumped out of the Megazord and hit the ground, powering down as she did so. "Planetary rangers power up!" she yelled morphing into her other form

"What is she doing?" Tommy questioned not liking being left out of the loop

"I think I know." Kim replied as she smiled, opening communications back up with Billy. "Be ready to reboot the megazord." If she was right Carri was about to take out the slime monster in the same fashion he just disabled their megazord. She didn’t want to waste any time getting back to action and taking out Moldinator before he could create another giant slime monster.

A few seconds later a bolt of lighting came crashing through the sky, making direct contact with the slime monster. It was enough to overload and disable the creature, giving Billy a chance to get their zord back up and running. As soon as the creature stopped moving, the megazord roared back to life and the rangers wasted no time bringing it to its feet. They quickly called for their saber and slashed Moldinator, destroying him for good.

Moments after saying goodbye to Chad and thanking him for all his help, Jason found himself staring into his refrigerator. After a few seconds he reached in and grabbed a beer. Between everything that was floating around in his head and the hell of a battle they just had, he felt as though he needed it.

Popping the cap off, he took the beer and headed out to his small porch, sitting in a chair and enjoying an August afternoon while drinking. He tried hard to clear his mind of everything but it was nearly impossible. The battle was easy to forget. His book was making money so there was nothing to worry about there. What disturbed him was more of a who than anything.

It had been a while since he and Michelle had agreed to end their relationship. In all honesty it didn’t bother him that much. He liked her but it wasn’t meant to be, and it was probably better off that way. He had spent the time since their breakup going on a few dates here and there, but nothing turned out to be meaningful. Of course nothing was going to be meaningful until he could get her out of his mind.

Her. Emily. The woman that broke his heart all those years ago. The woman that as of late was invading his thoughts, his dreams, and wouldn’t let him be. So many things about his encounter with her in the alternate dimension haunted him. The way she looked in her ranger uniform, the way it clung to her body and accentuated her shape. The fact that she was even involved at all, that she and her Jason had made it yet he and his Emily had not.

He started thinking of her again, about their brief meeting in the command center. The way her hair draped over her shoulders, the way her blue eyes looked at him. He hadn’t been able to forget what it felt like for her to touch him, to kiss his cheek. The memory of her lips on his skin again drove him crazy.

But this was a different Emily, one that hadn’t slept with another man. Still it made him think of his own Emily and his time spent with her. How much he loved her in his youth, how much he trusted her and confided in her. They were perfect once and he found himself truly missing her after all these years, longing to hold her in his arms again.

Of course that was only a part of the story. She did still cheat on him. Part of him wanted her to burn in hell for that. For crushing his heart, ripping it out and tossing it aside as though it was worthless, as though he was worthless. But then again, it was still Emily. It had been a long time since she’d hurt him and he was spending most of his days thinking about her positively.

He had to wonder if he could forgive her. If he could get past the fact that he caught her in bed with another man. It certainly wasn’t something that would be easy to do. But that didn’t make it impossible. Jason shook his head as he continued to work on his beer. Once the last drop was gone he had made up his mind. Regardless of what happened, he had to see her, he had to see his Emily.

Grabbing the empty bottle he headed inside. He sat the bottle down and took a deep breath before teleporting himself to the Command Chamber. Looking around he was pleased to find that the hustle and bustle of the place had calmed down and everyone had left. He didn’t want anyone to know what he was doing up there, especially the girls as they’d probably kill him.

He slipped over to one of the consoles feeling as though he was about to do something incredibly illegal. He quickly entered the system and used the Command Chamber’s files to look her up. Over the years they had kept tabs on all the rangers and those who knew about them or were close to them. Of course it wasn’t for spying purposes, it was to make sure they knew where everyone was in case they needed to get a hold of someone quickly. Jason however was going to use it to spy on someone.

He typed in Emily’s name and her file quickly popped up. There was a more recent photo attached to it and Jason took a minute to stare at it before reading the file. She looked as beautiful as he remembered and it brought a smile to his face. He glanced down to see what she’d been up to since he last saw her. She had gotten her associates at Angel Grove College. That didn’t surprise him, she was well on her way to it when they broke up. She had gone on to UCLA and gotten a bachelors of science in nursing and had minored in biomedical research. Currently she was working at a medical research facility that was close to his home.

The file listed some of her personal life details. He couldn’t tell if she was dating or not, but she had never been married or had any kids. She appeared to be for the most part the same woman he’d fallen in love with all those years ago. He didn’t know what that meant but suddenly something became very clear to him. He had to see her.

Quickly he looked up the facility she worked for. Researchers usually left around six. Which meant if he showed up around six he had a chance of seeing her. He had no idea what he was going to do when he saw her but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that he would hop on his bike and go out there that evening, hoping for a glimpse of an old flame.

Kim returned to work once the battle ended, ignoring everything and continuing to go through her presentation to perfect it. It was more than a little frustrating to have had to deal with such a huge battle when she had an important presentation to do that afternoon. She felt behind on where she wanted to be and she was now scrambling to catch up.

She leaned back for a moment and took a deep breath, glancing briefly at the computer screen. She noticed the new emails, one of which was from Ashley. Quickly she opened it up, only to be horrified by its contents. The afternoon meeting had gotten moved up due to something important that had come up for Ashley that afternoon. They were now meeting in five minutes by Kim’s watch.

Scrambling Kim tried to throw everything together quickly. She was going to be late, and that was not a good start to her presentation. After grabbing everything she needed and throwing it in her arms, she glanced around her office one last time. Satisfied that she hadn’t forgotten anything, she flew out and ran toward the conference room.

When she arrived the meeting had already started and Shawn was just getting into his presentation. She flashed Ashley and apologetic smile before collapsing in her seat, her work getting plopped on the desk in front of her. The stress of the morning had caught up to her and she let out a long sigh before Shawn started speaking again.

Kim zoned out for the first few minutes. She was going over everything in her head. What she wanted to say, how she wanted to say it, what she wanted to show them. It would be very important that she got everything precisely right, especially after the entrance she just had. Finally feeling somewhat focused, she allowed herself to listen to Shawn’s presentation so she could see what she was up against.

As he droned on about what his plans were for the upcoming clothing line, Kim felt the strangest sense of familiarity. She turned her head slightly and looked at him, concentrating on what he was showing them and what he was saying. Suddenly everything made sense. There was a reason why what he was saying sounded so familiar. His presentation appeared to be based off of her presentation. The ideas and concepts she had created were flowing out of his mouth as if they were his own.

At first Kim found herself getting very angry, wishing that she could unleash all the power she had at her disposal on the worthless man standing in front of her. The nerve of this man to break into her office and steal from the very project that was supposed to increase her status, help her to start to make a name for herself. It seemed as though he had managed not to get his sticky little fingers on some of her best ideas and project tweaks but it didn’t make any difference.

With a sigh she thought about all the times she’d teleported off to save the world and left pieces of her project lying around in the open. That started to make her angrier, the thought that while she was out saving the world, making it so Shawn could continue on with his existence here in Angel Grove, he was in her office stealing her ideas.

His presentation came to an end and Ashley and Sandy took a few notes as he sat down. Kim’s manager looked at her and smiled. "Alright Kim, it’s your turn."

As Kim sat there she crossed her arms over her chest, uncertain of whether or not she was going to kill someone or burst into tears. Either way she had to get out of that room quickly. "I don’t have anything." she mumbled

"Well." Sandy said simply, quite satisfied that she had been right all along. The most important presentation of Kim’s career so far and she had nothing. She definitely should not have been the candidate they should’ve hired for that position.

"Then I suppose this meeting is over." Ashley replied more than a little surprised by Kim’s statement. She knew that Kim understood the importance of this. What this could do for herself and for the company should she do well here. Ashley had high hopes for Kim after seeing some of her previous work and was now more than a little disappointed in her fellow ranger.

As the words left Ashley’s lips Kim stood and quickly crammed all her things into her arms. She could sense the glee from Sandy and the disappointment from Ashley and it was more than she could handle. She fled the room quickly, trying hard not to let the others see as a few stray tears fell down her face.

Ashley watched as she left. Something wasn’t right here and she was determined to figure out what it was.

Carri walked into Bulkmeier’s that afternoon and was surprised to be greeted by one of its owners who was standing around talking to the hostess. "Carri, hey, good to see you." Skull said smiling at an old high school acquaintance. He hadn’t seen her or some of her friends in years and it was nice that since they’ve all been back in town they made Bulkmeier’s their regular eatery.

"Hey." she replied smiling back at him. "I’m having lunch with Matt Drake. Have you seen him?"

"He’s over there." Skull replied pointing to an outside table. It was weird seeing Matt at the restaurant. Skull and Carri’s group of friends had been relatively social with each other through high school but Matt’s group of friends were on the opposite end of the spectrum. He and Bulk were a part of a group that were most known for their tendency to bully others and weren’t very popular among most of their peers. Matt on the other hand was part of an elite group of jocks, ones that girls swooned over and guys either loved them or hated them. Skull was part of the latter. So were, in fact, most of Carri’s friends as he was known for both his womanizing tendencies and his over inflated ego. Which is why he was surprised that she was friends with him. But there was no set of rules on who someone would and wouldn’t become friends with.

"Thanks." she said as she strolled past Skull and toward the back door. She slipped outside and made her way over to the table, ending by sliding into a seat across from her friend. "Hey." she greeted

"Hello." he replied without taking his nose out of the menu. "What’s good here?"

Carri shrugged. "I haven’t had anything I didn’t like." she said as she flagged down a waitress and ordered something to drink. "You know who owns this restaurant?" she questioned. He told her he’d never been there before, only briefly heard of it so she thought it would be fun for him to try it out.

"Bulk and Skull?" It was a guess, but an educated guess. The place was Bulkmeier’s and he’d seen Skull wondering the floor earlier. He glanced up as she nodded at him. He’d have to say he was surprised. They never struck him as the type who’d amount to anything. Of course he’d have to admit, he’d been told he’d never amount to anything and here he was a professional soccer player.

"Bulk knows what he’s doing when it comes to food." she commented as she briefly glanced over the menu. A few seconds later the waitress returned with her drink and set it down in front of her. She quickly took both of their orders, gathered up their menus and took off.

"It’s cool we could finally have lunch today." Matt commented. Since they’d ran into each other almost a month ago he’d tried to give her a call so they could hang out. They’d talked on the phone but between both their schedules they never could find time to visit.

"Yeah I’m glad. We can finally catch up." Carri agreed. They hadn’t talked about much with their phone conversations but now she’d have a chance to see what an old friend had been doing. "So what have you been up to? Besides the Galaxy of course."

"I lead a boring life." he mused smiling at her. "The last six years have been soccer, girls and parties."

Carri raised an eyebrow. Some people never changed. "Funny that’s how you lived your first twenty-two years."

"Yes but now I’m doing it all completely legally." he said with a laugh. He’d had more than one drunken party night before he turned twenty-one, but it wasn’t as much fun until he was old enough to not have to worry about getting caught.

"Seeing anyone in particular?" she asked. The last time she spoke with him he was still with his college girlfriend Crystal.

"Eh." Matt replied with a shrug. He had seen quite a few girls on and off but none of them were serious. "I’ve only had one long term relationship since Crystal and I broke up five years ago. It’s hard to keep a girlfriend when you’re always on the road."

"It’s hard not to cheat?" she questioned. She knew him better than almost anyone, and she knew he was a lot like her brother. He could be faithful, he wanted to be faithful, but throw a beautiful woman in his face and he’d be easily swayed.

"Something like that." he said with a small enough smile to let her know she was right. "What about you? Seeing anyone?"

"Rocky." she replied quickly

"Damn. That’s what? Eleven years?" Matt questioned genuinely surprised. He knew they were good together but he was surprised they’d gone that long without a serious commitment.

"Not really. We split for a while. I traveled the world for a few years. We got together when I got back." she replied hoping he wouldn’t ask for too many details. She didn’t know how much she would be able to make up and then remember what she said.

"I didn’t know you traveled. How was it?" he asked

"It was fun. I got to see some exotic places." she stared which wasn’t a lie. She had been to some quite exotic planets over the years. "I met interesting natives." Again, not a lie as she was fascinated by some of the people she met on other worlds. "But after four years of traveling I was worn out and more than ready to come back." she finished. Which was the truth as well.

"I’ve seen a lot of places over the years but I think it would be awesome to take time off just to travel wherever." Matt said. It was cool that she’d done that, and the more he thought about it the more he thought it would be fun to do himself. He smiled wickedly at her for a moment. "Did you screw any of the natives?"

"Matt!" Carri exclaimed swatting him on the shoulder. Of course she did have relations with a native of KO-35 but she certainly didn’t want to get into that with him. "I may have had one or two dates with guys while I was away."

"You screwed the natives." he said simply before laughing at her. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "You know I would have done it."

"That’s because you have no shame. If she looks good, you’ll do her." Carri was quick to point out

"And?" Matt asked grinning at her. Before she could come up with a reply the waitress came back and sat their food down in front of her

She rolled her eyes once more for good measure as the conversation temporarily lulled while the duo started on their lunch.

Ashley sat in her office waiting for Kim to join her. She had called her in almost immediately after returning that afternoon. She didn’t understand what had happened in that meeting, but she was absolutely going to find out. It wasn’t long before the door opened and Kim’s head popped in.

"You wanted to see me?" Kim asked. She knew what it was all about and she shouldn’t have been surprised that Ashley called for her.

"Yeah. Come have a seat." Ashley said gesturing to the chair in front of her. Kim walked over and sat down and the former yellow ranger flashed her a smile. "Something happened in that meeting room and I’d like to know what it was. I know you’ve been prepping for this for a long time and I can’t believe you’d have nothing to share."

Kim let out a long sigh. She was going to let Ashley in on everything. She had to, her job was at stake. "Shawn’s presentation? It was my ideas. Well some of them. He apparently didn’t steal some of the really good ones. But most of it was what I came up with reworded." Kim picked up a folder that she’d brought in with her and placed it on the desk in front of Ashley. "This is pretty much my presentation."

Ashley took a few minutes to look it over. A good percentage of it was a recycled version of the things that Shawn had presented to her in the conference room earlier. But a lot of it wasn’t, a lot of it was more complex and more innovative than what he gave her and quite frankly it made the campaign much better. She had to say that she was impressed with what Kim came up with. However that left her with a problem. One of her employees had stooped as low as to steal ideas from another one and that didn’t sit well with her.

"Although I do believe you, I still have to look into this officially." Ashley said after several moments of silence. "I will arrange a meeting later between the three of us and we will discuss it."

"Thank you." Kim replied letting out a sigh of relief. Maybe this day would end up getting better.

Ashley flashed her a smile. "So," she started closing the folder and putting it aside for the moment, "what else is going on? How’s Tommy?"

"Tommy’s good. We’re good." she said with a dreamy look on her face that suggested they were more than just good. "I’m moving out tonight. Going to live with him."

"So I’ve heard." Ashley said with an amused look on her face. Between being rangers together and students together she and Carri were still friends, despite the fact that she rarely got the chance to see her. She spoke to her on the phone often and it had come up that Kim and Tommy were coming along quite nicely, and that she was going to lose her roommate to Tommy. Both girls were happy for Kim as they enjoyed watching her romance with Tommy rediscover itself more passionately than it ever had been before. Carri chalked a lot of it up to the fact that right after they got back together they were taken to the alternate universe. With Kim almost dying, the alternate Kim and Tommy being married, and them seeing that little boy running around that looked exactly like Tommy they came home and their feelings for each other intensified.

Kim laughed. It was amazing how fast news flew around in the ranger community. Especially among friends. "Other than that nothing much else is happening. We’re still trying to figure out what Callisto and Rhianna are going to do next. You know how the waiting game is." she paused for a moment before continuing. "I’m Muirantian now. My cells have completely changed over."

Ashley nodded. It must be hard for Kim to be not completely human anymore. Then again sometimes that wasn’t such a bad thing. Her husband wasn’t all human, and neither were her two children. And as far as they were concerned nothing was wrong with them. Of course they didn’t have the abilities Kim was going to have, but she’d learn to adjust. She was a strong ranger.

"What about you?" Kim questioned not feeling in the mood for getting into details about Muirantian cells or powers. "How have things been going lately?"

"Everything’s great." she replied with a smile. "The kids are doing just fine. Andros is still doing a lot of interplanetary work." Andros worked hard to build relations with Earth and the other planets as he was well respected as the Astro red. He always hoped that one day Earth would be ready to accept that there were other planets, other life forms out there that they could have contact with and be friendly with. His goal was to make sure when Earth was ready the other planets wouldn’t shun them. It was important to him since he was from KO-35 and his children were half Kaoan. It was something good for him to be doing. It wasn’t close to a full time job and he stayed home most of the time with the kids, doing his work out of the highly technologically advanced room he’d set up for himself. On the rare occasion he’d have to travel he wasn’t gone long.

"That’s good. I think everything he’s doing will pay off." Kim said. It had to. One day the citizens of Earth would no longer be able to plug their ears and pretend they were the only ones out there that mattered. One day they’d be willing to invite other cultures in, and the groundwork Andros was laying was going to make that possible.

"I hope so." Ashley said absentmindedly. She thought for a moment as she glanced over at Kim’s folder. She did want to sit here and talk to her friend. But she also had a work dilemma to take care of and it was better that she handled it now so she could get the situation settled. "I’m going to look into this." Ashley said putting a hand on the folder. "I want to get this resolved. But we’ll chat later?"

"Absolutely." Kim replied with a smile. She stood from her seat and turned toward the door. "Thank you." she called out as she exited and headed back toward her office

That afternoon, Rocky pulled into the parking lot of his Stone Canyon school. He was arriving later than he’d wanted to as he’d gotten held up back home. He still had to stop in here for a bit before heading to his school in Los Angeles. Hopefully he could get through his two schools quickly as Carri was meeting him at the one in LA at six-thirty and they were going to a Dodgers game.

He walked to the front door of the school, hesitating before going in. He always hated having to come here to do work as Jessica was here. And every time he came in she hit on him. It seemed as though she made as many advances toward him in her two months here as she did in her few weeks in Angel Grove.

Slowly he opened the door and headed in. He saw the man he’d put in charge of this school in his absence standing over on one of the mats. He was going to go talk to him but he was stopped when he got with in earshot of the receptionist desk.

"Hey Rocky!" Jessica called out

He turned to look at her and she was smiling sweetly at him while waving. "Hey." he said simply to acknowledge her. "How long do you have to keep those on?" he questioned pointing toward the bandages on her nose. He knew she’d recently gone in for her final plastic surgery to correct the damage Carri had done all those months ago.

"Soon." she replied. "Then all that damage that bitch girlfriend of yours did will be behind me."

"Jessica." Rocky said in a warning tone. He couldn’t make her play nice but as her boss he could keep her from referring to his girlfriend as a bitch in his office.

"I’m sorry. I’m just still a little upset, that’s all." she replied making a face that was intended to gain sympathy. "I mean after all she did brutally attack me. I’m just surprised that they threw my lawsuit out of court."

Rocky opened his mouth to say something but used his better judgement to keep it closed. "I’ve got some business to attend to I’ll talk to you later." he finally said going in the direction he intended to go in the first place. Besides he had a date that night and he was damned if he’d let Jessica make him late.

"Wait!" she called out, getting him to stop. She wanted until he turned and looked at her then she gestured for him to come over there. He took a step closer and she continued to gesture until he was leaning on the counter. "I have something I have to tell you."

"What?" Rocky asked not really wanting to be bothered by her games at the moment

She stood up and leaned in close to him. Rocky resisted the urge to pull away from her as she spoke. "I’m just found out I’m pregnant." she whispered quickly before returning to her seat

It had been six months since they’d slept together but that didn’t keep the images of the alternate universe and a baby between that Rocky and Jessica floating through his head. Suddenly his legs felt weak and he wasn’t sure what feeling was more prevalent in his gut, nausea or panic. He quickly took several deep breaths and tried to calm his emotions. After all, it was impossible that it was his. Although the thought was enough to give him quite a scare. "Why are you telling me this?"

Jessica shrugged. "You know I do work for you. It may effect my work. I thought you should know."

"Oh. Well. Thank you for telling me." Rocky replied as professionally as he could. "Well I suppose congratulations are in order for you and the father." He was trying to figure out who the child’s father was. It would make him feel a little better.

Jessica shrugged. "Thanks I guess. But I’m really not sure who the daddy is." There were two guys she’d slept with at about the right time and either of them could be the father. Of course she was thinking about how much fun it would be to convince Rocky that he was drunk and they’d slept together while she worked in Angel Grove. It would break him and his girlfriend apart easily and he’d feel forced to stay with her. Of course all he’d have to do would be to order a paternity test to prove her wrong. But it would be fun just the same.

Rocky nodded. "I’m sure you’ll figure it out." With that he walked away. Carri was going to have a fit when she heard that Jessica was pregnant. But at least he could safely say beyond a shadow of a doubt that the child was not his.

 Miles away from the Angel Grove area two figures sat in a small command center of their own doing some work. One of the figures paused in his work to glance at his watch. "Hopefully we’ll have time to finish this before I have to leave." Tommy said

"Right. So you can pick up Kim." Hayley replied looking up from her work with a smile on her face. Despite the fact that they were doing some serious work there, Tommy had mentioned well more than once that he was going to help Kim gather her things and move into his apartment. Hayley couldn’t be happier for the two of them.

"Right." Tommy agreed as though it were the most absurd thing Hayley had ever said. He sighed and turned back to his work. He was working on a project, one he hadn’t told any of the other rangers about including Kimberly. He was hoping that this project would prove unnecessary but he couldn’t be sure.

He had spent a lot of time thinking about what he wanted to do and within the last month he finally decided to act. He had taken all the information Billy had secured from the alternate universe. He had everything he’d ever need to know about the towers. He also had all the information about Kemora he could get his hands on.

Taking all that information he went back to his home in Reefside and asked Hayley for her help. He wanted to use the information to create weapons and strategies, ones that would in theory be able to handle the towers successfully should they appear on Earth or to handle Kemora should they see her here again. It was a hard task and it had become a process of trial and error.

Eventually they spread out their efforts to include finding ways and weapons to fight against Callisto and Rhianna. After all, they were the real threats at the moment. There was no guarantee that Kemora would come back to their Earth again or that they’d ever see the towers. But as far as he was concerned it was better to be safe than sorry. Which is why he commissioned Hayley to help him. She was the only other person on the planet who knew how to create rangers and weapons and battle ideas at the same level Billy could. There were others who had helped rangers who could do that sort of thing, but both Hayley and Billy were above and beyond. And since he didn’t want to worry Billy with it, he’d only asked Hayley for help.

"I have some ideas. I think I may work on them this weekend." Hayley said. She was working hard to try and keep her home world from seeing any of the terror that Tommy had described from the place he’d visited or from the monsters that currently loomed high above them.

"That would be good." Tommy said nodding. He would feel bad that Hayley was spending a lot of time working on his projects if it weren’t for the fact Hayley loved doing it. Anything she could do in the command chamber tinkering with stuff was fun for her.

"Do you think," Hayley paused and looked over at him, "what are the chances that the towers will appear here?" It was a question that had been floating through her head ever since she’d started helping Tommy. He always seemed so determined that the towers would one day appear. The alternate Carri told him that those towers eventually showed up on every planet that Kemora visited. But could she have been exaggerating? Besides things have changed now after the battle they had on the alternate universe. Hayley let out a sigh. The more work she did with the information she had, the more that the thought of the towers appearing frightened her. She wanted to hear him say that there was a chance they’d never have to worry about it.

"Honestly?" Tommy asked surprised by her question. "I don’t know. There were so many similarities between our two worlds yet they had more than enough differences. We could face the destruction the towers bring soon or just as easily never. Or we could see them a hundred years from now." Where Kim would be forced to rally against them and save the planet without him there, he added silently.

"There are huge differences between the two worlds. After all the other rangers didn’t face Callisto and Rhianna. Maybe the towers won’t appear here. Should we just concentrate on them? And Kemora?" It was more likely to see Kemora again one day as she knew of this planet’s existence and she more than hated its Kimberly. It was only a matter of time before she could figure out how to get into another body, although she hoped it was much later rather than sooner. The more Kemora were to show up, the more she’d be afraid of seeing those towers appear.

"I want to be able to prevent those towers from ever appearing on our planet." Tommy replied. He had given it a lot of thought. Hayley was right, he didn’t know for sure and there was a chance that the towers wouldn’t appear there. But at the same time he didn’t think just having this information was enough. He wanted to be prepared to use it. Besides everyone was focused on Callisto and Rhianna, and Kemora they already knew a lot about. They were the only ones focusing on the towers.

Hayley was silent for a moment. Those were the last things she ever wanted to see there. "I agree." she replied before turning back to her work

The workday was winding down and Kim was getting anxious as she had yet to hear anything from Ashley. Finally her phone rang and Kim leaned over and hit the intercom button. "Hello?"

"Hey Kim. Can you meet me in my office?" Ashley questioned

"Be right there." Kim replied as she leaned in to lift the receiver up and place it back in its cradle. Kim took a deep breath. This had to be it, Ashley had to have come to some sort of conclusion. She stacked all her papers neatly on her desk before standing up and exiting the office. Closing the door behind her, she made her way to go see Ashley.

As she walked into the receptionist’s area she was told to go on in. Quickly she headed toward the office and pushed the door back, smiling at Ashley as she noticed Shawn was already there. "Kim, thank you. Have a seat." Ashley said gesturing to the empty chair beside Shawn

Kim stood tall and strode in with confidence, sitting in the chair next to Shawn glancing briefly in his direction before looking over at Ashley. She’d be damned if she’d let him think he got to her. She was Kimberly Heart, Phaedosian warrior, Muirantian, Red Planetary Ranger, and out of all the things in the universe she was not going to let this person get under her skin any more than he already had.

"Thank you both for coming to this meeting on such short notice." Ashley started. She had spent a lot of time trying to figure out how she wanted to handle this situation as she wasn’t sure what the right direction to proceed was. She still wasn’t sure what the right direction was yet here she sat, going through the motions. "I called you both here to discuss your presentations and campaign ideas."

Shawn beamed at her as he thought about his presentation and Kim’s lack there of. They were probably in the room so he could get a promotion and Kim could be fired. Or his assistant. She’d be a hot assistant.

"The ideas that were put in front of me were amazing." Ashley said, careful not to gaze directly at either of her employees

"Thank you." Shawn spoke, assuming Ashley was talking to him as he cut her off

"But," she continued on taking a long pause, "it wasn’t the ideas that were presented to me in the conference room, it’s what I saw later in my office that impressed me."

"What?" Shawn questioned more than a little upset. "We had deadlines to meet. Only one chance to present the material. How could you let her"

Ashley held up a hand to stop him mid sentence. She was not going to allow him to throw a fit right here in her office. Not yet anyway, not until she’d said all she needed to say. "Kim did come to my office later to present her ideas. And strangely they were the basis of your ideas only more in depth and with more creativity."

"She stole from me?" Shawn questioned knowing full well he was the one who had plagiarized off of his coworker

"I wouldn’t say that." Ashley said sweetly. "I did some poking around while you both were out of your offices. I found Kim’s initial notes and drawings and I found copies of her initial work in your office." she finished looking directly at Shawn. It made sense why he hadn’t copied everything of Kim’s. He only had her original notes. She had added and changed things since then.

"I... I don’t know how they got there." Shawn said trying to defend himself

"I would think it happened when you stole them from her office, copied them, and took them as your own." Ashley said trying not to lose her temper over his actions. "Which means that Kim will be in charge of this project and I’m going with her ideas, and Shawn, you’re fired. You have until the end of the day today to clear your things out."

Shawn stood and in a moment of frustration pushed his chair with force against Ashley’s desk before storming out of her office. Kim let out a sigh of relief as the door shut behind him. "Thank you."

"Your welcome." Ashley replied. The truth was she never liked him in the first place. He was Sandy’s choice to hire and Ashley always thought he did too much ass kissing and not enough actual working. "So, I believe you have a clothing line campaign to get started on."

"Of course." Kim replied as she stood with a smile and exited the office. Things were definitely starting to look better for her.

Jason pulled up on his motorcycle toward the front of Emily’s office building. He came close enough that he could see her, but made sure to stay out of sight so she wouldn’t notice him unless she was looking. He turned the key and silenced his bike as he glared through the visor of his helmet hoping to catch a glimpse of her.

The minutes passed slowly and ticked closer and closer to six. He glanced at his watch and watched the seconds count down until it was six exactly. It was her time to go home. Any minute she’d be walking out the main door and to her car. He was finally going to get to see her.

As he waited to get a glimpse of a woman he once loved a thought occurred to him. What the hell was he doing out there? They broke up. She chose to love another man over him. Here he was searching her out years later. And for what?

Suddenly she walked out of the front door and he knew his answer. Because after all she put him through she was the only woman in his lifetime that he ever truly loved, ever confided in, and here she was walking out of the door looking as beautiful as ever. She was just as he remembered her except that her hair was a shade or two darker now much like the other Emily’s had been.

Jason gripped his handlebars and thought briefly about going to say something to her as she stopped to talk to a colleague. He shook his head to himself. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t know what to say, not after all these years. He’d settle for looking at her from a distance, no matter how much watching her body move as her blue eyes sparkled and her hair fell around her face made him ache for her.

Emily continued to stand out there and talk and Jason continued to watch her. Part of him thought this was wrong, watching her like that. Thinking for a moment, he started to logic out watching Emily. He was just checking up on an old acquaintance. One who had a run in with Callisto, a goddess who’d already proven the ability to hold grudges for hundreds of years. The others didn’t have time to be concerned with Emily. But she worked close to where he lived, and he could drive by here on his way home to check on her, make sure she was ok. Yes, that was what he’d have to do. Continue to check on her from afar to monitor her safety. The fact that his heart was racing and his mind was full of x rated thoughts had nothing to do with it.

He had no plans on letting her know he was there. What good would it do? Open old wounds? Ruin his fantasies? He didn’t want to do that, he wanted nothing more than to continue to monitor her and make sure she was alright. It was what a good power ranger should do. Anyway it sounded much better than the truth, a truth he wasn’t going to admit to at the moment. The truth that he wanted to see her because deep down he still had feelings for her. That she still made his heart flutter like she did ten years ago. But that, that he was going to keep hidden.

He continued to watch as the conversation wound down and Emily made her way over toward a gold Toyota Camry. Pulling the keys out of her pocket she hit the button for the locks and climbed in. The car started and sat for a moment before its reverse lights came on and she backed out of her space. Jason stayed put until he watched her car pull out of the lot and take off.

Once he was satisfied that he would be out of her view, he cranked his motorcycle back up and headed home.

Kim sat on her bed as she worked on boxing up the rest of her things. Well it wasn’t exactly her bed, it belonged to Carri, who had been kind enough to let her use it the last few months without ever asking for anything in return. It would be weird not being Carri’s roommate, they shared everything together. Although she had been spending so much time with Tommy lately neither girl was likely to be able to tell the difference.

She kind of wished that Carri was there that night instead of off at a baseball game. She wanted to talk to her about things, about her day and some of her new abilities. Not that Carri could help her with her abilities but she wouldn’t freak out as much about her concerns as Tommy would. Of course on the other had it was kind of nice that Carri wasn’t around and Tommy hadn’t arrived yet as it gave her time to sit around the room and think.

Quickly thoughts of her day strolled back in and took over. Today had been one of those days that you’d like to start from scratch and see if you could do it a little better. She’d been on an emotional roller coaster between Jason’s book coverage to the monster fight to her day at work. At least the day was over and now she could just concentrate on getting moved out with Tommy.

She smiled to herself as she thought about Tommy. He was going to be there shortly to help her get everything packed in their two cars and get it over to his place. She couldn’t believe how much stuff she’d accumulated in the short months she had been back, and she was continuing to fill boxes. A portion of it she blamed Carri for, and her insistence that shopping sprees can improve the worst of moods. She’d have to give her credit, she was right. Carri would either drag her to the mall or to the beach to make her feel better. And once she’d even gotten her to the mall to buy a bathing suit so she could drag her to the beach in new fashions. Of course their excursions were nothing like what they were in college, but they still had fun.

Kim chuckled. That wouldn’t change no matter who she lived with. Although it would be a lot harder to drag Kim out of Tommy’s apartment. For a moment she got giddy thinking to herself about how she was going to live with Tommy. Sure she’d roomed with him after college, but things were different then. He was always so busy and their lives were taking two completely different paths. Now although they both had careers, both of their lives were focused on the same ranger related goal. Their ranger goals would eventually differ since she was a Muirantian now, but she believed that they’d be able to work together this time. A lot had changed since she left for her quest all those years ago.

Some things hadn’t changed. The way she loved Tommy hadn’t changed. As she jumped up off the bed and started to pull things out from underneath it to pack, she started to think about their relationship over the years. It was a wonderful teenage relationship in high school. She could vividly remember their first time spent together as if it were yesterday. Then when she moved home to attend college and they started back up it became the basis of their adult relationship.

Things between them were amazing when they were in college. They were both more mature than most of the kids on campus, something that as much as she hated to admit it she owed Rita for. They were both ready to have an adult relationship in every aspect and she loved every minute of it. The romantic things he did for her, the way he touched her, it still brought chills down her spine. Although they’d both changed over the years there was no denying that level of romance was still there but even more so.

She was excited to see where the future took them. She’d seen where it took K. She’d seen her marriage with her Tommy. She and K followed similar paths and she hoped hers would one day lead to that kind of commitment with her Tommy. But not now, she wasn’t quite sure they were ready for it now.

Reaching under the bed she grabbed a hold of something that was buried deep. Thoughts of Tommy still danced around her mind as she pulled the object hard causing it to come flying out from under the bed. With it came plenty of dust floating around in the air. The dust surrounded Kim and started to tickle her nose. Not being able to standing it anymore she reared back and let out a sneeze. Then as if her day hadn’t been bad enough already, a portal opened from within her and she disappeared.

The End

Legacy
Power Rangers Fanfics
Home