Disclaimer: The Nova rangers are property of KSuzie. Also any mentions of the alternate universe and the use of the alternate Kim or "K" comes from her fics and is her property as well.
Author's Notes: There are references to something that happens to Kim in the alternate universe that has changed her. I declined going into specifics as details will come out in KSuzie's "The Coins Series". I will explain it further for those of you not reading the Coins in my next chapter. Also if you're not reading the Coins, here's just a little bit of background to help with the last chapter and this chapter from events that happened in the Coins chapter 19. A Kim from an alternate universe traveled the universe of the Legacy rangers to ask for their help. This is a very powerful Kim, or K as the rangers were told to call her to avoid confusion. When she arrives in the Legacy universe the rangers are battling Callisto. To make quick work of the goddess so she could get the rangers help, she pretended to be Kemora and sent Callisto to the Island of Illusion. She then brings the rangers back to her world to help with the battle against Kemora (who they've previously fought in my Ranger Scrolls series) and Teeg and hopefully save their planet. This is what some of the references of the last two chapters have been to, and hopefully they make some sense now. If not feel free to email me with any questions.  

Power Rangers: Legacy
"Power Play"

The boys looked around the Command Chamber at each other. "We have to do something fast." Jason was quick to point out the obvious

"Yeah but what do we do? We have to figure out how to save the girls. And stop Callisto." Rocky said although he felt as though saving the girls was the most important of the two tasks

Tommy took a few deep breaths. "I don’t know what to do." he admitted. He hated that feeling and he hated even more admitting it to others, even if it was to rangers of similar status to his own. He always had answers, ideas on where to go next. But he had nothing now when it mattered most.

"We have to save the girls." Jason said. He couldn’t stand the thought of losing his two sisters like that. They had to do something and quickly. He refused to let them die out there.

"Right." Rocky agreed, glad that he wasn’t the only one who was concerned about that more than anything

Tommy nodded. They were right, saving the girls was a major priority. Although the red ranger in him wasn’t convinced it was the top priority. It was his heart that was telling him to pursue that first and worry about the rest of it later. "So how do we do it?"

Billy sighed as he looked over at the monitors. He had ideas, none of them solid but all worth a try. "I have an idea." he spoke as all eyes turned toward him. "The girls have been captured in the orb and taken away, but I’m still reading the residual energy of their Planetary Powers where the orb was."

"What does that mean?" Jason asked looking for clarification. He had never been able to understand Billy when he spoke of technology.

"It means that energy is attached to the orb, and if we’re lucky that energy left a trail to their location." Billy replied

"So we can track them?" Rocky asked feeling hopeful

"In theory, yes." Billy said. He hoped it would, they would concentrate better on the fight if he could find a solution to the situation with the girls. He was upset about his missing friends as well, but he could keep his head straighter about the situation as he wasn’t as emotionally attached as they were.

"So what are you waiting for? Go find them." Tommy said in an authoritative voice that would have made any other ranger move

"Finding the girls is important." Billy assured them. "But let’s not forget that there’s an angry goddess out there with the spawn of Lord Zedd and Rita who have surpassed your powers and can now destroy you and conquer Earth." he reminded them. Figuring out what to do about them was just as important if not more so than saving their teammates. He knew that they knew that and would realize that once they put things into perspective.

"We can try our powers again just to slow them down." Jason suggested. Billy was right, they needed to worry about saving the Earth. It was what the girls would want. "Or we can use our Ninjetti powers to throw them off track."

"As much as you want to fight, both sets of powers are insufficient and using either will get you killed. That’s not going to do anyone any good." Billy was quick to point out. It would be hard for his friends not to run out and fight, he knew the feeling too well and knew what they were thinking. But if they died there would be noone left to defend the planet and Rhianna and Callisto would take over.

Jason crossed his arms. That answer wasn’t helpful at all. "So what do you propose we do?" he questioned in a huff. If Billy was going to reject his ideas he had better have something in mind.

"I don’t know. I’m still working on something but it’s going to take a while, especially with the girls missing now." Billy said with a sigh. There was too much to do and sadly only one of him. He wished he could call the alternate Billy in to take on one of his tasks but he knew that wasn’t possible.

Tommy looked over at the others with a cold hard stare. Something had to be done to protect the planet and he was racking his brain to figure out what. Kim made the point before she disappeared that there were other ranger teams out there that were more powerful than their own that could stand up to the duo. There weren’t any other rangers on Earth that could help. The only other active team, the Overdrive team, was too busy with their own demons to fight.

That left them with nothing. Well nothing here anyway. The more Tommy thought about it the more he thought about how perhaps he was looking in the wrong place. There were other teams of rangers in the galaxy, some of which would be willing to help. Kim always told him that another powerful team of rangers was the Nova rangers. If he could bring them into help they could fight Callisto. After all she wouldn’t be prepared for them and that would give them a better chance.

"What if we could get another team to help us." Tommy suggested to the rest of the team

"You’d have to find a team that still has powers, powers that were strong enough to defeat their army." Jason was quick to point out. It was a good idea, but not if they were sending another team of rangers to an early grave.

"I was thinking about the Nova Rangers." Tommy said

Rocky and Jason looked at him curiously as they only knew about the Nova’s what they had heard from the girls. Billy shot him a look. "I’m not sure that the Nova’s would jump to help us." From what he had heard they had enough trouble of their own without the rangers of Earth adding to it.

"It’s worth a shot." Tommy replied. "Plus Elemi respects Kim, I’m sure he’d want to help her." The red Nova ranger’s respect was obvious in the conversations Tommy had stood in on over the last few weeks. Plus the Nova’s were highly concerned with the outcome of this battle, as they were on Callisto’s list as well.

Billy sighed. "It’s worth a shot." he said. It couldn’t hurt for him to ask Elemi, besides it wasn’t like he had any better ideas at the moment.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let’s contact them." Rocky said, excited that they could get something done

Tommy briefly looked at Jason who nodded with approval before turning toward Billy. "Open up communications with the Enzway."

A few button pushes later, the black screen in front of the rangers faded away to the face of a man in a red uniform. "Tommy." Elemi greeted the red Turbo ranger. He looked around for a moment and saw men there that he didn’t recognize and two member’s of the Turbo team missing. "Where’s Kim?" he questioned. She was the ranger he dealt with as she was the red Planetary ranger. It was certainly odd for the leader of the Turbo team to be contacting him on his own.

"She’s been captured. Callisto’s holding her in a containment orb." Tommy said simply, looking the other red square in the eyes

Elemi’s jaw tightened. If it was the orb he assumed it was, that wasn’t a good thing at all. "So what can we do to help? I assume that’s why you’ve contacted me, to ask for our help."

Tommy nodded. "Callisto’s managed to figure out a way to render our powers obsolete. The girls tried with the Planetary powers but they were both captured. We’re working on ideas but they could attack again at any time. We need help defending the planet." It was hard for Tommy to ask another team for help, but he knew he had to do it in order to save the world he lived on.

Elemi thought for a moment about what he wanted to do. He locked eyes with Tommy and held them there for a few seconds before he spoke. "Alright. We’ll be there as soon as we can."

"Thank you." Tommy replied, signaling to Billy to cut the communication. He turned back to the rest of the rangers. "That’s one problem taken care of. Billy can you get to work on the girls?" he asked turning toward the former ranger

"I’ve already started." he replied, hustling off into another room and leaving the three rangers standing there wondering what was going to happen next

Elemi watched as the screen in front of him faded back to black. He sighed as he turned toward his rangers. "Set a course for Earth. Maximum speed." he commanded as he went to sit in his chair

"Sir are you sure that’s a good idea?" Garan questioned. Not that he didn’t want to help the rangers of Earth, but they had their own bad guys to deal with

"We must help them." Elemi replied. Garan nodded at him and turned back to his work.

Elemi let out a sigh. He was well aware that they had their own battles to fight. But they had just issued a major blow to the demon they’d been chasing and he disappeared. They couldn’t find him and since there was a lull in the action he didn’t think it would hurt to go help the rangers of Earth. Besides if they stepped back for a few days they may have a better chance of refocusing and getting to him.

He had good reasons for wanting to go to Earth. His primary reason was Callisto and Rhianna. The Nova rangers had been part of the team in space that was thought to have destroyed them. Once they regrouped it made sense that they would go after Kim and Carri first. But once they destroyed them they’d certainly waste no time going after the Nova’s and Reiga 4, and Elemi wasn’t sure if they’d be able to stop them. If they could overpower the Planetary rangers, the galaxy was in trouble. It would be much easier for them to be stopped on Earth.

The second reason for helping was something that Elemi wasn’t going to discuss with anyone. The second reason for helping was the red Planetary ranger. As the red Nova ranger he worked closely with her for almost a year and still spoke with her trying to figure out how to bring balance to the universe. She was a strong warrior and a strong ranger, one of the best he’d ever seen. Before he met her he had never seen a female ranger in action, never served with one. He thought they were useless and that they didn’t belong on the battlefield. She had proved him wrong in more ways than one.

The more time he spent with her getting to know her as a ranger and a person the more attracted he became. It wasn’t long into his mission before he tried several times unsuccessfully to get her to marry him. She was perfect and they would be unstoppable together between his royal blood and her being one of the original rangers of Zordon. He tried to explain that to her but he quickly realized that she held more clout as one of Zordon’s rangers throughout the galaxy than she realized.

Eventually he gave up on his logic and tried to pursue her affections but never with any luck. It drove him wild. There were women throughout the galaxy willing to throw themselves at him yet he couldn’t win the heart of the one he wanted. Even after the mission ended her presence remained with him and he often thought of her. He loved and adored her and would do anything for her. She had reminded him of why be a Power Ranger and fight the good fight. Status and power seemed trivial now. He wanted her because he wanted to work with her because she was the most amazing being he’d ever met. He hadn’t given up on the idea that maybe she’d change her mind and want to be with him.

Of course none of that would happen if her world was destroyed and she died, which was a major reason that the Enzway was now barreling toward Earth and it’s crew preparing for battle. Elemi sat back in his seat, hoping that they could get there in time and were able to help.

Carri and Kim sat in the containment orb, oblivious to everything that was happening on Earth. Both spent the first part of their time in the orb using every power they could think of to try and get out, but none of them work working. They were continuing to try but they could feel themselves getting weaker and were now having to rest more.

Kim knew that it didn’t matter. She had heard of the orb from Dulcea, heard of it’s powers. She knew what it was doing to them and that it had no way out. She suspected Carri knew as well, although she hadn’t said anything about it. Both were at refusal to talk yet about what could happen. Neither were going to acknowledge this as the end and both wanted to stand strong.

It was to that end that Carri started to speak. "As soon as we get out of here we so deserve an afternoon on the beach." The silence in the orb had gotten unnerving and Carri was trying to lighten the mood. She was aware of what was going on as she could feel her energy, her life force being drained.

"That sounds nice." Kim replied giving her a smile. She wasn’t quite as weak as Carri, she could feel part of her body fighting it. The cells that had been transformed were fighting it but even they weren’t enough to stop the inevitable. Perhaps if she was completely transformed and had her full powers she could survive, but not like this.

Carri didn’t comment again and Kim’s thoughts drifted to how she got stronger than her friend in the first place. At the time she thought she was going to die, that it was her end. There were a lot of things she didn’t know when it happened. Hell there were still a lot of things she didn’t understand about what happened. The alternate Jason and Kim gave her some of their own wisdom and she was smart enough to have an idea what was going to happen, but that didn’t make her any less worried about her future.

Now she wished it would have been completed already as she might stand a chance in this bubble, she might be powerful enough to find her way out. Of course she was well aware that it was going to take a very long time to get an understanding of her abilities and to have the kind of power that would be able to get them out of this particular predicament.

Tommy worried about what was going to happen to her. About what would happen as her powers grew. Fortunately for her, her previous training with Dulcea would help her. She had learned so much in her time on Phaedos. Much like Carri, Kim hadn’t shared all the details of her training when she returned home. Carri was the only one who knew everything, and now sitting in the orb Kim found herself feeling guilty about not telling Tommy.

She wasn’t sure what to tell him. He knew about her connection to her animal spirit, about her levitation abilities. He knew she was a trained fighter, but he didn’t realize she was a master warrior. Even if she told him that, he wouldn’t know what in all that encompassed. He didn’t even know the name she was given, Kaycea. Although he had heard it before as another name that the alternate Kim went by. He hadn’t asked her if she knew anything about it since, and she declined to offer up any information.

She supposed she should tell him more. She still loved him and he was still Turbo red, which gave him more of a right to know who he was fighting with. On the other hand she was afraid it would give him more reason to worry about her, if he knew exactly what she’d done and what she could already to do before the incident in the other dimension.

As she laid against the orb she couldn’t help but wonder why she was thinking of all this now. Perhaps it was the fear of her dying without telling Tommy all these things she would’ve let him know in time. Guilt started to rise again until the red in her took over. Tommy would find out when the time was right. After all she would survive this as she knew she had years of battles left to fight. This couldn’t possibly be the end.

As if reading her thoughts Carri pulled herself to her feet and looked around. "Let’s find a way out of here." she said with new determination. What good it was going to do she wasn’t sure, but she was damned if she wasn’t going to go down without some sort of a fight.

Callisto watched as the two girls stood and tried once again to escape from the orb. She didn’t know why they continued to try, she was almost positive that they knew it was hopeless. But she was glad that they did as it kept her amused.

She found herself enjoying watching their demise, especially since they couldn’t see her watching them. This was all part of her revenge. Callisto hadn’t felt anything but rage in centuries, and now here she stood with a genuine smile on her face. She was destroying Kim and Carri, and soon they would kill off the rest of their Turbo team. Rhianna would get her planet and she would be free to kill more of the meddlesome rangers.

It was exciting for her as there was so many possibilities. The most obvious choice would be to go after the Nova Rangers. Although part of her wanted to stay on Earth and take out the former Astro team for the headache they had caused her years ago. After all one of them was a Planetary ranger and she did want to destroy anyone with Planetary powers. She had yet to decide what to do with his girlfriend. Karone had been a ranger, one of those annoying hero’s destroying her kind. But as Astronema she had been deliciously evil and a good accomplice of hers. If she could bring Astronema back, the two could easily destroy rangers and rule the galaxy together. It might actually prove to be fun. Like the kind of fun she used to have when she was mortal. Murdering innocents, burning villages... it almost made her miss the old days.

She sparked a tiny flame on her finger and looked it over for a moment. In the old days she had to set her fires the old fashioned way. She had to admit, she didn’t think she could go back to a time when she didn’t have her powers. It was faster and she could do much more damage as the goddess she was allowed to become. Suddenly she found herself amused that the one who gave her these powers in order to distract and kill her is long since dead, and here she was still killing people and inflicting damage that her enemy fought so hard to stop.

With a glance back at the orb she saw the girls collapse at the bottom again. She doubted they would get back up and try again soon. Besides she needed to go figure out if they were ready to attack yet or not. As much fun as this was, it would be even more so once they destroyed their friends. With a wave of her hand she transported herself out of the web she put the orb in and back to the main throne room where she found Rhianna there waiting for her.

"Are we ready yet?" Callisto questioned the moment she arrived

Rhianna looked at the goddess, a bit startled by her entrance. "We will be soon. Things are going a bit slower than expected."

Callisto frowned. Patience was not one of her virtues. "What’s the hold up?"

"We’re making a powerful army. It’s much harder to crank out Cirranadrones than before. It took days to do it the first time." Rhianna said. Callisto hadn’t been around the first time but it wasn’t easy to get the more powerful Cirranadrones up and working. This time around it was going much faster, but it still wasn’t instant.

"Fine." Callisto said simply not wanting to discuss the topic further

"So are we going to attack again once they’re ready?" Rhianna questioned. She wanted to clarify the plan. Sometimes she was never quite sure where Callisto was going with things. Her ideas tended to be sporadic sounding, and she had a mind of her own. Goldar warned her not to trust the goddess, but she hadn’t led her wrong yet and she hoped that she would prove loyal in the end. Of course she was still a goddess which made her much more powerful and her age made her much wiser than Rhianna was. For all she knew Callisto was waiting to stab her in the back as soon as everything was said and done.

"Of course." Callisto said in a tone that suggested she was an idiot if she thought otherwise. "We still have three rangers left to kill. They will come running once they see us attack and they will be easy targets. After that, the world is yours."

"Mine." Rhianna said wistfully. She couldn’t wait to get her hands on Earth. There were so many things she wanted to do. "I want to wear the crown jewels of England." she said aloud, giddy as a schoolgirl.

Callisto cocked her head and looked at her. Sometimes she forgot that the person standing in front of her was still a young girl at heart, one that had been artificially aged. One who also sounded a lot like her mother as that was something she was once excited about doing once she conquered Earth.

"What do you want to do once we have Earth?" Rhianna asked looking at the goddess, who gave her a blank stare in return. "I mean you were a part of all this, I’m sure there’s something on Earth I can give you as thanks."

"I want the destruction of the rangers." she said simply. "And if it comes with death, mayhem and chaos, well that’s just a bonus." She’d love to be the cause of those pathetic little Earthlings running for their lives. But that would be saved for a rainy day as she had bigger fish to fry.

Callisto smiled as she took a seat and looked out over the Earth. Things were going better than she had hoped for. Soon she’d get the revenge that she’d been wanting for centuries.

The three males on the Turbo team stood in the Command Chamber. They hadn’t moved in almost three hours. They were waiting for some news from Billy, or the arrival of the Nova’s, or anything that said things were starting to look better for them.

Nothing was happening yet which left them alone with their thoughts. Each of the boys fretted about the future. As a red ranger Tommy started off worrying more about how they were going to defeat Callisto and Rhianna both this time and permanently. They needed to destroy them sooner rather than later before someone they loved got killed. Of course there wasn’t much they could do about it as they waited for Billy to get some answers for them. So Tommy was left to just think about it.

The more he thought about it the more he fretted that they may be too late. That someone they loved, someone he loved may be dead by noon tomorrow. That thought was too unbearable for him. After all they went through it just wasn’t fair. They’ve had two breakups and this last time they came back together stronger than ever. He never thought she’d give him another chance, that he’d let her give him another chance yet they were Tommy and Kim again, almost like nothing every happened.

From the moment he laid eyes on her as a freshman at Angel Grove High, he knew she was someone he could be with forever. She was so beautiful and kind and full of life. Of course it wasn’t long after their first encounter that the balance of good and evil started pulling them around, toying with their affections. Looking back, it seemed like the great battle was always there to pull them apart when they got close. The green ranger was just the start of their ups and downs.

Now it feels like the battle has tried to separate them twice in the last two weeks. He thought he was going to lose her in the battle to save the other dimension. She survived, but at what cost? She was going to go through things now that he didn’t understand, that he could never understand. That was if she survived this orb, the powers second great interference in their lives together as of late.

He feared that this really could be her end. Time was never on their side, but it was true this time more than ever. As a ranger he knew that the more time went by before hearing from Billy, the less of a chance they would have to get to them and rescue them before they died. By Billy’s calculations they had about fifteen hours before the girls were lost to them. He hoped that Billy didn’t overestimate, and that there wasn’t a point of no return that they didn’t know about. After all they were getting their life forces drained, and that was never a good thing.

Tommy let out a sigh as he leaned against a console, glancing briefly over at Rocky. The blue ranger had his arms crossed and a worrisome look on his face that had been there ever since Billy walked off. Rocky’s thoughts were similar to Tommy’s, although he hadn’t concerned himself as much with the future of the planet.

He was more concerned with his girlfriend’s safety than that of the planet. He loved her more than anything and he couldn’t bare to lose her, not like this. The more he thought about her the more the guilt started settling in. He worried that the last thing he might have done was get into a fight with her. Over Jessica of all people. He wished he could take all that back now, that he could tell her that it was stupid on his part, that he wasn’t thinking. He wished she could be here now to forgive him and let him hold her in his arms again. But she wasn’t, she was trapped and she was dying and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. And that was the worst feeling of all.

Jason sat behind Rocky and Tommy in a corner, watching there expressions, knowing what they were thinking as he was having some of the same thoughts himself. His sisters were out there somewhere dying. Yes they weren’t his blood sisters, but with all they’d been through over the last ten years it certainly felt like it. They were always there for each other through everything, and now there was the very real possibility that they could be lost to him forever. On top of that the entire world that they lived on could be lost. Fortunately Callisto and Rhianna hadn’t attacked yet as the Novas were still in route. He still found himself wanting to be the one to get out there and fight the good fight. But Billy was right, he wouldn’t be good to anyone dead.

He tried to think things through and find other angles, other ways they could stop the destruction ahead. As he was busy working through scenarios the doors opened and Billy finally stepped back through. "What took you so long?" Jason asked as he was the first to bounce up

"I have good news and bad news." Billy said ignoring Jason’s initial question. He knew everyone was on edge and he wanted to just pass the question over and leave it be.

"Good news first." Tommy said with authority as he stood up and stepped toward Billy. He wasn’t sure if he was ready for more bad news at the moment.

"The good news is the girls were easy to trace." Billy said. He had been right, it wasn’t hard to follow their energy signal. But once he found them he realized that Callisto was just taunting them. She probably expected him to find them knowing that he could never get to them.

"That’s great. How do we rescue them?" Rocky said feeling excited for the first time in hours

"That’s the bad news." Billy said glancing around at all three rangers. "She put the orb in some sort of tangled web of space and time. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get through it but I can’t come up with anything."

"So you’re saying there’s no way to reach the orb?" Tommy questioned as Billy shook his head in agreement. "That’s not acceptable." he growled. He was not going to give up, not now not when Kim’s life was at stake.

"Assuming that you could get into the castle and get to the web without getting yourself killed by one of their minions, it would take days to get through the web. I’ve examined it from every angle and it’s impossible for us to get through it before the orb works its course." Billy explained. It was hard to swallow, he knew it was. But they didn’t have the power or ability to maneuver it quickly and that was one harsh reality that he simply could not change. They could try to get through, but in the time it would take them the girls would be long since gone.

"Can’t we try? We have to try." Rocky said. He wasn’t about to give up that easily. They knew where they were, they could get to them. After all they were the power rangers.

"We could sneak in as Ninjetti’s. They wouldn’t be able to detect us unless they saw us. Then it’s easy. We get to the web and get to work. If we’re persistent we can get through it in time." Jason added as he stood firm next to Rocky. He agreed with the blue ranger’s sentiments and wasn’t about to give up on the female rangers.

"With what we know about getting through the web you may be able to get through a quarter of it before you’re out of time. That’s if they don’t find you and kill you first. We just don’t have the ability to get through it quickly." Billy warned. He admired Rocky and Jason’s persistence, but what they were talking about was impossible.

Tommy thought for a moment as Jason and Rocky continued to try to come up with ideas that were doomed from the start. Billy was right. They didn’t have the power or capability to move through something like that in enough time to rescue the girls. The more he thought about it, the more he thought they knew someone who did.

"Maybe we can get some help." Tommy spoke loudly enough to overshadow the heated debate that the other three were in the middle of

"What kind of help?" Jason questioned looking at him curiously

"Billy’s right. We can’t do it. But we do know someone who knows how to move through the constraints of space and time with ease." Tommy started off looking around at the other rangers. "Kim." he said simply

Jason shook his head no. "What are you talking about? If she could figure a way out I’m sure she would’ve done it by now."

"Not our Kim. K." he said using the name that they referred to the alternate Kim by

"You think she’s powerful enough to do it?" Rocky questioned feeling hopeful once more

Tommy nodded. Just from their brief encounter in the other dimension he could tell that K was powerful and very good at what she did. If anyone could break through and get to the orb before it was too late, it was her.

"Kim still has that communications crystal." Jason pointed out although he figured Tommy was well aware of that already

"I’ll go get the crystal and contact her. See if she’ll help." Tommy said. He watched as the others nodded at him before he hit the button on his communicator and teleported off.

Jason and Rocky stood in the Command Chamber anxiously waiting for word from Tommy. Almost a half an hour had passed with no news of whether or not K would be willing to help.

"He should’ve been back by now." Rocky pointed out. He was feeling the stress of the situation and didn’t think he could wait much longer to find out if she was going to lend them a hand.

"Maybe he’s having a hard time persuading her." Jason said with a shrug. Although K certainly did owe them a lot for what they did for her and he couldn’t imagine her not wanting to help them.

Rocky sighed. "I just wish they’d hurry up and"

He never finished his sentence as the alarms started blaring throughout the Command Chamber. They rushed to the controls and quickly pulled up the disturbance. "They’re back." Jason said crossing his arms over his chest as he could do nothing but watch the havoc they were creating on the surface.

"Where are the Nova’s?" Rocky questioned. They should’ve been there by now. They hadn’t let them know they had arrived and they didn’t appear to be jumping up to protect Earth.

"I don’t know." Jason replied as he watched citizens run for their lives. "But I’m going down as a Ninjetti. Try to throw them off."

"I’m going with you." Rocky said. He couldn’t stand by and watch all that was going on in their town without doing something about it. As they were getting ready to transform, he saw seven multicolored figures run out onto the scene. "Wait." he said as he stopped to look at them. "Those must be the Nova’s."

They were obviously a Power Ranger team, and not one from Earth as neither man recognized the uniforms. Which left only one plausible explanation, that the Nova’s had finally arrived.

"They’re good fighters." Jason pointed out. Tommy was right to call them, as even though the Cirranadrones and monster they sent down were tough the Nova’s appeared to be handling it.

"It seems as though their powers are holding up." Rocky added saying aloud what Jason had been thinking

"Yeah." Jason said absentmindedly. The more he thought about it the more he thought about how hard it was for them not to have powers that were strong enough. It left him with nothing to do but sit on the sidelines and he didn’t like that at all.

At least for the moment it seems as though Earth is in good hands. The Nova’s were fighting hard and Cirranadrones were disappearing. The red and green rangers were starting to take on Cratus and Goldar while the black and blue rangers were working on the monster. After a while the remainder of the Cirranadrones disappeared and the white, yellow and pink rangers went to help their comrades fight against the monster.

Much like anytime they’d ever fought the duo, after a while they could see Cratus and Goldar get angry and exchange words with the red and green rangers. After some lame attempts at parting blows, both took off. The red and green rangers went to join the rest of their team and using their combined powers, it wasn’t long before the took care of the monster.

The team of Nova rangers stood around for a moment before disappearing from view. A few seconds later they reappeared in front of the two Turbo rangers. Jason and Rocky spun to face them. "Thank you for coming to help us." Jason spoke to the red ranger

They watched as the rangers powered down and the leader spoke. "Callisto and Rhianna are just as great of enemies to us as they are to you." Elemi replied. "Where is Tommy?" he questioned feeling as though he should be dealing with the highest ranking ranger.

"Off on a mission." Jason replied declining to elaborate. He didn’t like the look the red ranger was giving him. Both he and Rocky were former reds and more than capable of being in charge in this situation. "I’m Jason, this is Rocky. We’re Turbo rangers."

"I’m Elemi." he replied as he gestured to the other rangers standing around him. "This is the Nova team. Garan, Jaxan, Aaron, Pryce, Xemmas and Kee."

"So what would you like us to do now?" Garan asked glancing at the two rangers of Earth standing before them

"We have to wait for their next move." Rocky replied. He didn’t like the idea of waiting anymore than the Nova rangers looked like they liked it. But all they were able to do was sit around and see what Callisto and Rhianna were going to do next.

Tommy arrived in the house that Kim shared with Carri. His first task was to find the communications crystal that K and left them with. It couldn’t have been too hard, after all how many places could Kim have stashed it in.

He started with the obvious location first, Kim’s room. He searched through doors and closets, the night tables and around the beds and came up empty. He went out and searched through the kitchen and the living room throughly before coming up with the same results. He sighed and looked around. The only two rooms left were Carri’s bedroom and the office.

He found himself feeling less intrusive about searching through Carri’s office first. Going through her bedroom was a last resort, although he knew she wouldn’t get angry if he did and frankly since Kim’s life was hanging in the balance he didn’t give a damn if she did get mad at him.

The red ranger walked into the office and started to look around. He went through the desk and the file cabinets and even glanced into the closet to look for the comm crystal. He was about to give up when something in the closet caught his eye.

It was well hidden, and to the untrained human eye it would never be seen. But to a master ranger like himself it couldn’t be missed. There was a safe hanging in the closet, one that had been masked by intergalactic magic to keep intruders away. But the way the light gleaming through the windows bent around it, there was no mistaking it was there.

As he approached the safe it sensed the power of his coin and it revealed himself. It was locked, but it wasn’t hard to figure out what kind of key it took. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his power coin, placing it in the center of the safe. The coin clicked into place and the safe popped open, reveling the contents inside.

At the forefront of the safe sat a box. One Tommy had heard of before but never seen in person. It was the box that held the Planetary Powers. Curiosity got the best of him as he wanted to look inside. But he knew of the box’s power and of the legend behind it, and knew that the only person it would open for was the woman whose life he was trying to save.

He pushed the box out of the way and found some other things in the safe. One of which was a small white pouch. He lifted it out and peaked inside. There staring back at him was the red communications crystal K left Kim with. Tommy let out a sigh of relief. It had taken more than a half an hour to find it but there it was. Now he could get the help he needed.

Tommy shut the safe and heard it lock as his coin fell out into his hands. He tucked it back into his pocket and walked away, the wall safe disappearing behind him. As he headed out into the living room he prayed he could get it to work. After all it was more meant for Kim to contact K, not him. But if there was ever a time for his connection to Kim to mean something, now was it.

He closed his eyes and tried to remember what K said about using the crystal to signal for her. He stood up and opened his eyes and there was nothing. A wave of disappointment fell over him as he thought of how he should try again. Upon taking a deep breath, a red glow appeared in front of him and K stood before him.

"It didn’t take you guys that long to need me." she pointed out upon arrival as she glanced over Tommy. She doubted they’d called her to reminisce, so needing her couldn’t be a good thing. And since she had given the crystal to Kim who wasn’t the one to call her, that really couldn’t be good.

"We’ve got a situation. And you’re the only one we know who might be able to help." Tommy said as he crossed his arms and looked her over. It was hard to stand here with her like this. She was Kim. Not his Kim, but still Kim. It reminded him of how much he needed and wanted his Kim, and how she was dying.

"Go on." Kim said waiting for him to get to the explanation

"Kim and Carri have been captured in some sort of containment orb. Their life force is draining. We know where they are but we can’t get to the orb because Callisto wrapped it in some sort of time space web." Tommy said quickly giving an explanation

Kim sighed. She could see the pain on Tommy’s face as he spoke about it. Orb’s like that were powerful and could kill quickly. If their goddess has them wrapped up then they were right to call her for help. "How much time do they have?" she questioned

"A little less than fourteen hours." Tommy replied

She nodded toward him. That should be enough time for her to get in and get the orb. "Where do you need me to go?"

"Billy has the exact location. We can get it from him in the Command Chamber." Tommy replied

She glanced over at him as he stood there looking at her. "What are we waiting for?"

Tommy watched as she teleported herself away before quickly teleporting out behind her.

Elemi sat in the main room of the Command Chamber finding himself getting more frustrated by the minute. He has yet to be able to do either of the things he set out to do. Callisto and Rhianna had yet to be defeated, and the rangers of Earth weren’t concerned with making any offensive battle plans. He didn’t like the idea of them surprising with an attack and the rangers having no official strategy to defeat them. He had given the rangers of Earth more credit as Kim was always on her toes working on the next step toward victory.

Kim was his second reason for rushing to Earth, and was the other thing that was being treated passively. They wouldn’t give him any details, only that they were working on it. If he was in charge he would have a team looking for the orb to bring it back. He couldn’t see her taken from this life like that. He wouldn’t let it happen.

He tried to think of anything he could do when a red glow appeared in the center of the room and melted away to the woman he loved. "Kim!" he exclaimed as he started to go toward her

She held a hand up to stop him. "I’m not who you think I am." she replied. She wished that Tommy had told her that the Nova rangers were here. She didn’t think this Kim had the same history with Elemi that she did but one look told her that the red Nova ranger was still fixated with her.

"Then who are you?" Elemi asked just as Tommy teleported in

"You can call me K." she said as she put her hand back down by her side. "I’m a Kim from another dimension."

"What are you doing here?" Elemi questioned looking at K curiously

"I asked her here to help." Tommy said with authority as he walked over and stood next to K. She was doing him a favor and he certainly didn’t want her to get drilled by Elemi.

Kim tried hard not to smile. It annoyed her when Tommy acted the macho red and tried to stand up for her and something’s never changed no matter what world you were on. "So what’s been going on here?" she asked trying to change topics and figure out why this team had asked for the assistance of the Nova Rangers

"There was an attack." Jason spoke up from the back. All eyes turned toward him. "Kim was right about other powers being strong enough. The Nova powers can combat Callisto and Rhianna. Billy’s still trying to work on getting our powers back."

Kim nodded. Things were starting to make sense. Their powers were gone and they had turned to the strongest team they could think of. If the time line’s were as similar as she thought they were, there would’ve been no other active teams on Earth that were free to help and they would have had to turn to a team from elsewhere in the galaxy.

"So where do we go from here?" Kee asked softly from the back

"Kim’s going to go rescue the others." Tommy said as he started to hand out orders. "The rest of us will wait and see what Callisto and Rhianna are going to do."

"We’ll wait from the Enzway." Elemi replied as he looked over at the red Turbo ranger. At least from his ship he could try and see if there was anything he could do. But he couldn’t wait around in this Command Chamber anymore. "We’ll keep an eye on Earth and return at the first sign of trouble." he assured them

"Fine." Tommy replied not in any mood to argue. The Nova team teleported out and he turned toward K. "Let’s go find Billy."

He and Kim walked off with Jason and Rocky close behind him. They headed into one of the surrounding labs and found him hard at work. Billy looked up when he heard them enter and smiled when he saw K standing with them. "Thank you for coming to help."

"Anytime." she said figuring it was the least she could do. "So where do I need to go?"

Billy walked over toward one of the panels and started searching through the database. He quickly puled up a loose map of the castle. Noone had been inside the castle to get the exact layout, but from satellite and infrared they had a slight idea. "As best we can tell the web that the orb is encased in is here." he said pointing toward a spot on the map. "Their defensive systems won’t allow direct teleportation without automatically alerting them of our presence, although you may be able to get through."

"I’ll play it safe." Kim replied. She didn’t want to risk tripping the alarms and making a huge battle of it when it would be easier to sneak in. "I can teleport there." she said as she pointed to a spot on the map. "And sneak in through there. It shouldn’t be too hard to get to them after that." she said as she traced her route with her finger

"I concur." Billy replied. That would be the easiest way for Kim to get through hopefully undetected. "Do you have enough time to get them out?"

"Let’s hope so." If Billy’s calculations were right she had approximately thirteen hours. That should be enough, but one could never be sure.

"Are you ready?" Tommy asked looking over at her

"As ready as I’m going to be." she replied as she transported herself to her spot just outside of the castle. She thought for a moment before she entered. If she was going to get caught, she certainly didn’t want to get caught as herself. She called for her Phaedosian staff and watched as it arrived in her hands, her body transforming into her leather outfit. She smiled to herself as she entered the castle. At least now any unplanned encounters with any goddesses would direct more anger towards Kemora and not herself.

Callisto stood in the throne room throwing fireball after fireball at what she considered useless Cirranadrones. She could see nothing past the rage in her heart and wanted desperately to destroy something.

"Callisto." Rhianna said, watching as the goddess stopped to hiss at her before continuing. "Destroying our army isn’t going to do any good."

Callisto spun around toward her, fireball in hand. "Sending them against those Nova Rangers isn’t going to do any good either." She replied with a half a mind to use the fireball to blow away the useless offspring of Rita and Zedd. After all she wasn’t coming into her powers as fast as she thought she would and that wasn’t doing Callisto a whole hell of a lot of good.

Goldar was quick to stand next to Rhianna, ready to protect her from Callisto’s wrath. "Perhaps we can create more Cirranadrones and more monsters. If we overwhelm those Nova rangers the Turbo’s will have to come and fight."

Callisto turned toward him and contemplated for a moment throwing the fireball at him. He had been around for ages and she knew for a fact that he really was useless. He had never destroyed a ranger and spent most of his time screwing up Lord Zedd and Rita’s orders before graveling at their feet. She started thinking about his words then slowly the size of the fireball shrank until she allowed it to disappear completely. "How long would it take to build an army like that?"

"A few hours." Rhianna said. She saw the anger in the goddess’s face and she quickly continued. "But the Nova’s won’t do anything, the men are still without powers and they can’t rescue their friends."

Callisto crossed her arms and glared at her. She had yet to decided if this was acceptable or not but she supposed she had no choice. "Alright. Start making monsters and Cirranadrones. But I want them to be the best. I will not accept failure in this battle. It should be an easy victory." At the very least they should be able to kill off the rest of the Turbo team. That would make her feel a little bit better.

She caught Cratus bow to her out of the corner of his eye as he scurried off. Goldar grunted and followed close behind while Rhianna grabbed her staff and joined them to help make monsters.

Callisto sighed and took a seat in the throne after they left. One would think revenge would be easier. She’d be damned if she went through all this for it to fall apart now. Of course it was quite possible that she’d be able to kill two birds with one stone. She could destroy those Turbo rangers and take out another major target in the Nova’s without having to work too hard for it. Then she could concentrate on other things. She smiled to herself as she thought how this might work out after all.

Kim worked her way through the corridors of the castle looking for the location of the web. Billy’s map hadn’t been precise, and she had come to some areas she wasn’t expecting. So far she hadn’t run into any trouble.

At one point she had heard someone and hid. It had been Goldar that walked past her, muttering something about hating to do Callisto’s bidding. Kim assumed that they were getting ready for the next battle. She had that on her side. As long as they were concentrating on battle, they wouldn’t be concentrating on looking for her.

She continue to weave around the castle trying her best to stay hidden as she came closer and closer to the spot in question. She finally approached the closed door that she assumed led to the room that the girls were being held in. Kim tiptoed over to the door and cracked it open, quickly slipping inside and shutting it behind her.

One look around was all she needed to tell where she was. The walls of the quarters screamed olympian goddess. They were always so full of themselves and wanted their surroundings to reflect that as they kept tributes to themselves and mementos of past conquest and victories. It was fitting that she had stashed the orb in her quarters. She wouldn’t have been surprised if the goddess was planning on keeping the orb with the two rangers lifeless bodies around as a prize.

It wasn’t hard to find access to the web that Callisto had created. Kim couldn’t help but be slightly impressed, she had done a good job at keeping intruders out. It would have taken the rangers days if not weeks to maneuver their way around and get to the orb. Luckily for them she had some experience moving through space and time. It was still going to take her a few hours to sort through it all and get in and out. With a sigh she got started on the project in front of her, hoping she could get to them on time.

Morning was rolling around and the three remaining Turbo rangers found themselves fighting sleep in the Command Center. Their bodies were all more than ready to shut down for some rest but their mind’s wouldn’t let them close their eyes. They wouldn’t be able to get any sleep until they were at peace, and there would be no peace until the situation at hand was resolved.

They were getting more than a little anxious. It was just past six in the morning, which meant they had less than six hours to rescue the girls. There had been no word from K since she left, and they weren’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. They assumed that had she been captured Callisto would have already come around to gloat. To make sure they knew that their only hope had failed and that the girls would die.

Strangely Callisto hadn’t been around at all since early that night. They hoped that was a good sign, but they could never be sure. Hopefully it meant that the Nova’s scared off their forces and that they weren’t going to attack again as long as they had that team watching their backs. Of course it could be the exact opposite. They could be planning something so evil it was beyond the rangers comprehension. Either way they wanted to know.

Rocky sighed rather loudly and the other two rangers turned toward him. "Do you think K’s alright?"

"Let’s hope so." Tommy replied. "If this web was as complex as Billy thought it was, it was still going to take her a few hours to get around it." He was trying to assure both his teammates and himself that everything was going to be ok. He had to admit that it was more than a little nerve racking. He had silently thought about how he wasn’t going to let Kim die. K had great power, she could manipulate time. He could as her to go back before the girls attacked and warn them not to do it.

That was what the lover in him was telling him to do. The ranger in him said it was a bad idea. That you can’t change the time line, that everything happens for a reason. That even though K had the ability to do that, she probably wouldn’t. She knew better than to manipulate time for his own selfish reasons. He knew what the consequences could be to their future if he did that, it would be the butterfly effect. He’d seen it before. He also had a feeling that there would be worse consequences for K from powers that he had yet to comprehend. At the same time he wanted to say to hell with it all to have his Kim back. He hoped more than anything that K would be successful and that it wouldn’t come down to that.

"She’s had six hours." Jason pointed out snapping Tommy out of his thoughts. "It can’t take much more than that, or we’re in trouble."

"I know." Tommy replied. As he looked around the room the alarms went off. The three rangers jumped up and headed over to see what the disturbance was.

"Shit." Jason said with feeling as they looked over the scene in the park. Goldar and Cratus were back, and they had brought with them a wave of Cirranadrones and several monsters. Not to mention Callisto and Rhianna had joined the fight.

"Is there anything we can do?" Rocky questioned. The question was more rhetorical as they all knew the answer to it. Their options were to stay put or die fighting. Neither option was satisfactory. They all stood there and glanced at one another as the Nova rangers arrived. They all were sharing a thought that noone cared to speak. If the Nova’s did poorly, if they needed help and Angel Grove was in trouble, worthy powers or not they were going to go fight.

They all stood together as the scene in front of them unfolded. The Nova’s spread their forces thin and started to attack. The monsters were strong and the forces of evil were coming at them from all directions. They were holding up alright for the moment but there was no telling how much longer they could do this. The rangers needed a solution and they needed it now.

Billy sat in his lab working on the new source of powers for the rangers. It was harder than he thought it was going to be and it had managed to give him quite a headache. He knew it would come to this eventually and he had slowly been working toward this as a possible solution. But with the attacks he had no choice, he had to go with this idea.

As he worked on the final calibrations he was starting to feel a tad bit nervous. He wished that he’d had a chance to test the morphers. He wasn’t even sure they were going to work. And if they did he could only hope that they had the projected effect. But with everything that had been going on, they were just going to have to take their morphers and go, all the while hoping for the best. He shouldn’t have been worried, the idea was solid in theory. But a theory was just that and it was never guaranteed to pan out right.

While he continued to put the finishing touches on the new morphers, he couldn’t help as his thoughts drifted around a little. He thought about how the last few weeks had been a whirlwind of activity. About how worlds had been in danger, rangers had been in danger, and he was right in the middle of it helping out. It almost made him wish that he could be a ranger again. He missed his ranger days. He did have his Ninjetti powers, but they weren’t the same. His body had been changed so drastically by his own machine that he would never be able to harness true morphin power again. He was lucky enough just to be alive at this point. If it weren’t for his friends on Aquitar he wouldn’t be here.

For a brief second he recalled his friends on Aquitar and let out a small laugh. He wouldn’t exactly call them his friends now. His ex-girlfriend was there. She was the biggest disaster of his life. The former Aquitarian rangers were there. They still communicated once in a while. But he would hardly call them friends. His grievances with them so many years ago had changed that friendship. After a year of working closely with them, helping them in all matters of science, they rewarded him by treating him like an old dog whose presence was becoming more of a nuisance than anything.

It turned out alright though. It drove him back to Earth, which was the best decision of his life. He got his wife Trini out of that. He also got the opportunity to work with the rangers again. And because of connections he made while on Aquitar, he was more up to date on intergalactic technology in his Command Chamber than the Aquitarians were. He was even slowly able to bring some of that intergalactic technology to Earth systems through his work as he infused what he knew with what they had.

As he put the final touches on the morphers, they came to life pulling him out of his thoughts and back to the situation at hand. Whether or not they were ready, it was time to put them into action. He scooped up the five morphers off the table and headed out of his lab, quickly making his way back to the main room where the rangers were hopefully still waiting for him.

When he entered the three male rangers turned toward him, and it was more than obvious what they were getting ready to do. "Wait!" Billy exclaimed. He watched as they each clinched their keys, ready to morph at a moments notice.

"The Nova’s need help. We’re going to give it to them. We can’t risk the planet." Tommy said. It was a simple decision to make. They each were aware that it would put their lives at risk and yet none of them cared about that. The most important thing was that the city wasn’t destroyed and that their world didn’t succumb to Callisto and Rhianna.

"Then you can help them with these." Billy said as he clanked the morphers down on the solid surface of the end of one of the control panels. "Your new morphers."

"New morphers?" Tommy questioned looking over them. They were definitely new yet they still looked vaguely familiar. "That’s not going to work. Zordon said"

"Zordon said that the morphing grid the coins were connected to was destroyed. And it was. These morphers are connected to a different grid, an older grid that holds more power." Billy explained. He knew they’d be skeptical, and they had every right to. There was no reason to believe that they could harness the full power of their power coins.

"Those power’s can’t stand up to their forces." Rocky said. Those were the first powers they ever used, and they’ve fought more difficult foes with different powers since then.

"The original powers are a strong set of powers. They certainly have the same capability that the Nova’s powers do. It took a lot of research but I finally found a grid that I could create morphers for, morphers that would utilize the powers of the coins much like the old ones did. In fact this grid is a stronger grid and it’s going to make your powers stronger than before." Billy told them. He wasn’t sure if they understood that this was the best, the only solution. And they were just going to have to trust him and cross their fingers that he was right.

"What about weapons and zords?" Jason questioned. If they were going to try to revive their old powers so be it. They just needed to figure out what they had and move on.

"I kept your old Ninja Zeo zords. I’ve been working on recalibrating them to work with your power coins, as well as upgrading their powers and abilities." Billy started. As their power coins were still connected to their animal spirits, it made more sense to keep the perfectly good old zords and reformat them to be their new zords. "As for weapons, you’ll have your old weapons. Well in a sense. As the white ranger, Tommy will regain control of Saba. Rocky will have the power sword and Jason the power axe. The sword, axe, daggers and bow will function similarly to what they did when you had them as Ninja Zeo rangers, only all influence of the Zeo crystal will have been removed. They’ll still have the same powers and abilities."

Billy let that sink in for a minute before he continued. "As there’s no blue ranger coin, there’s no power lance so you can’t combine the five weapons into one. But you can call on the power cannon." he finished as he picked up the morphers and handed them out. "You guys can put your coins in the morphers and head down to battle. I’m going to go work on your zords."

Tommy took his morpher first. His power coin slid easily into place. The look of the morphers differed slightly but the feel did not. Holding that in his hand gave him flashbacks of his youth as the power surged through his body. He looked at the others. It was time to do this. "It’s morphin time!" he yelled. "White ranger power!"

"Red ranger power!"

"Black ranger power!"

The three rangers were teleported immediately to the center of the action. Elemi looked at them curiously as he wasn’t sure what to think. He didn’t think the original power could be revived yet here they were.

"We thought you could use a hand." Tommy said with a smile as he grabbed Saba off his hip and jumped into the center of the action. It felt great to be on the surface doing some good instead of locked up in the Command Chamber watching the action.

Jason and Rocky were quick to follow suite, calling for their weapons and joining in on the action as well. The fight was still difficult as three rangers weren’t the ultimate solution, but it was certainly better than before.

Callisto looked on as three new warriors entered the scene. She was more than a little furious to see that they were wrapped in the uniforms of the original power. Long ago Astronema assured her that she was going to make those power coins even more useless than they already were. She assumed that she’d succeed. After all there hadn’t been a surge from a coin in ages.

That obviously wasn’t the case and the goddess’s anger rose until she started rapidly firing fireballs at anything that moved. Beings both good and evil were scattering to get out of the way before they were turned into nothing more than a pile of ash. Her warriors tried to steer clear of her fury but several of the Cirranadrones were lost in the flames. Just as she thought the mission couldn’t get any more screwed up, she was sent an alert signal from the castle. Someone was moving her orb out of the web.

In a fit of rage she let out a scream that had all warriors on the battlefield both good and evil turning to look at her. With a wave of her hand she was gone and in seconds she was standing in her quarters. "You." she spat as Kemora of all beings emerged with her orb

Kim turned, startled to see the goddess there. She quickly shifted her persona, smiling at the goddess with her staff in one hand and the orb in the other. "I can see I didn’t send you away long enough the last time. I’ll just have to try again."

As Kim lifted her staff Callisto maneuvered behind her, fireball in hand. Kim spun around and saw the goddess standing there with her fireball too close to her face for comfort. "I won’t be taken that easily again." she growled before smiling sweetly at Kim. "This day may turn out alright after all. I get to watch them die and I get to take out my revenge on you without searching for you." Kemora irritated her to no end and for her to be standing here in front of her with her orb, well she was lucky she hadn’t already thrown a fireball in her face. "Now give me the orb and I’ll make it quick and painless for you."

"No." Kim said sharply as she took her staff and used it to push some distance in between them

"Tell me what would you want with two dying rangers?" Callisto asked as curiosity got the best of her. She couldn’t imagine what pleasure Kemora would have in taking them.

"I need a new body and the power this Kimberly has is ripe for the taking. She’ll be perfect for me." Kim replied smiling as her eyes glowed red

Callisto laughed for a moment before moving quickly. "Too bad they’re not yours." she said as with a swift kick the orb flew out of Kim’s hand and onto the floor

Kim quickly used her staff to attack Callisto, sending her flying backwards before she could reach the orb. The goddess moved just as Kim fired an energy burst with her staff, barely missing her. Callisto used her power to slam Kim against the wall then made a move for the orb. Kim pulled herself to her feet and rushed to get there before she did. As Callisto dove for her treasure, it was teleported off in a flash of light. Kim and Callisto looked at each other, both surprised at what just happened. Kim didn’t waste any time teleporting herself out and back to the Command Chamber.

She looked over at Billy as she sent her staff away and transformed back into her normal attire. "How did you get the orb?"

"I had set the scanners to search the castle while I was working. You showed up on the scanners, along with Callisto and the orb. I figured it best to teleport the orb out. I wasn’t worried about tripping the sensors." he said with a smile as he took the orb and set it down, running scans on it. "Now I don’t suppose you know how to get them out of there."

"The same way they got in." Kim said as she lifted the orb off the table. She held it high above her head and with a surge of power she slammed it to the ground. The orb disintegrated and laying on the floor were the pink and yellow rangers.

"Help me get them to the med beds." Billy said. Kim nodded her head yes and the duo lifted the girls up and got them situated. Billy quickly hooked them up to medical equipment and stood back while it ran it’s initial checks on them.

A few seconds later the results came in. Their life signs were weak but there. They could still be saved which was exactly what Billy intended on doing. He hooked them up to several different machines and started programing them, allowing them to do their work. As they ran their course he headed out to the main room and checked on the fight.

"They’re not doing so well." Kim pointed out as she walked into the room behind Billy and observed the fight

"They’re doing much better than before." Billy promised her. They at least had a chance to win now. They were still on pins and needles but the small army had yet to break into the city and that was a good thing.

"They’ll do better once the girls join them." Kim said absentmindedly

Billy turned toward her. He hadn’t even thought about giving the girls morphers yet. "I don’t know if they can. They’re going to be weak for a while."

"The power will revive them, at least for a little while." Kim reminded him

"It will be risky. What if they get hurt?" Billy asked. Too many blows and they wouldn’t be strong enough to stand up and fight anymore, not after what they just went through.

"Do you think they care? They’re adults, it’s their choice and once they find out what’s going on they’re going to jump right back onto that battlefield." Kim knew that she would fight the good fight until it killed her. It almost did. And she knew Carri, well her Carri, and she knew that she was in it until the end as well. Neither would think twice about jumping into the fight no matter how weak they were.

"Maybe." Billy said still unsure if that was the right idea

Kim chuckled softly. "If you don’t give them morphers to join the team, they’ll just take their Planetary powers and go out on their own."

Billy smiled and nodded. She was right. He’d have to let them know what was going on and give them the chance to join the ranger team with their new powers. He scooped up the remaining two morphers and stuck them in his pocket. He turned his attention back toward the fight. K was right. They were going to need two full teams to defeat the army that stood before them.

With a sigh he turned and headed back to the infirmary to see how the girls were doing. One glance told him that their life signs were picking back up. He looked from one bed to the other and saw that they were slowly regaining consciousness. Kim’s eyes were the first to flutter open and she started to focus in on the figure standing in front of her. "Billy?" she questioned smiling over at him. "You saved us?"

"She did." Billy replied with a smile pointing back at K

"Thank you." Kim said as she tried to sit up

"Careful." Billy warned as she struggled to get situated among the maze of machines. "You’re not going to be at full strength for a while so you’ll have to go slow."

"I’m ok." Kim assured him. Billy went over to her and helped her sit up while getting some of his equipment out of the way. Looking next to her she saw Carri starting to stir.

"We made it?" she questioned with disbelief as she opened her eyes and tried to look around. Being stuck in that orb she really thought it was going to be the end.

"We were rescued." Kim said as she pointed toward K

"Oh." Carri said as she slowly propped herself up on her elbows and looked at K. "Thanks."

"Anytime." she replied flashing Carri a smile

"Where is everybody?" Carri questioned as Billy came over to help her up and finish removing all of her medical equipment

"In battle. Callisto and Rhianna attacked full force." Billy said nonchalantly. He was hoping that they wouldn’t want to rush right out and help. As Carri jumped to her feet with her hand on the medical bed to steady herself, he realized he should know better.

"Without powers? Whatever." she said with a shrug. "It doesn’t matter. I’m in. I’ve got some goddess ass to kick."

"Me too." Kim quickly agreed jumping down as well

"Noone said they were fighting without powers." Billy said with a smile as he tossed them each a morpher

The girls looked them over. Both knew exactly what they were, one from her own use of the older model and one from seeing something similar in the Power Chamber. "That’s impossible we don’t have a grid." Carri was quick to point out

Carri didn’t notice as Kim tensed up for a brief moment, the oddest sensation flowing through her. "We do have a grid." she said looking down at the morpher in her hand. "I can feel it. I felt it. For a second." she continued glancing briefly at K who nodded at her

"So", Carri started pulling her coin out of her pocket and tucking it neatly into the center of the morpher "If these things work what are we waiting for?"

Kim nodded as she couldn’t agree more. "It’s morphin time!" she yelled as both girls thrust their morphers into action

"Pink ranger power!"

"Yellow ranger power!"

"Be careful." Billy tried to warn but it was too late as the pink and yellow streaks were already on their way to battle. He walked into another lab so he could continue to work on their zords and weapons in case they needed them.

K followed close behind him. As the door shut and Billy sat down she spoke. "As much as I’d like to stay and say goodbye to everyone, I should probably get out of here before Callisto figures out exactly what happened. I’d like to keep her thinking that I’m Kemora."

Billy chuckled. "I don’t blame you." he replied as he stood and turned to face her. "Thank you for all your help. I don’t know what we would’ve done without you."

"It was my pleasure." K replied flashing him a smile. "Tell Kim if she ever needs me again not to be afraid to call." She added. God knows she still felt like she still owed her with what happened on her home world. With a red glow K was gone and Billy sat down in his chair and turned back toward his work.

The morphed pink and yellow rangers arrived on the scene feeling refreshed and invigorated from a combination of the new powers and the power boost. They quickly surveyed the battlefield. Both were surprised by the Nova’s presence, however the more Kim thought about it the more she thought that it made sense for Tommy to contact them.

Neither dwelled on it long as they both called for their weapons before separating and running into battle. Kim, seeing that the Cirranadrones were amply covered went to the one area where they looked like they needed help, the monster battle. Rocky and Jason were trying to take on three monsters which wasn’t going so well, as the third monster kept escaping to attack the Nova’s who were fighting against the Cirranadrones.

Leaping high into the air she shot streams of arrows at the third monster, sending it backwards and landing with a thud next to its two friends. Kim landed in between Jason and Rocky, who looked over at her in amazement. "Kim? You’re alive?" Jason questioned. That was the best news he’d heard all day.

"And ready to kick some monster ass." she added as she stared down Rhianna’s newest strange set of creations

"And Carri?" Rocky asked the excitement showing through in his voice

Kim took her bow and waved it in the general direction of the rest of the action. "She’s over there somewhere."

"So which of these creeps do you want?" Jason asked as both of the male rangers suddenly felt rejuvenated

"I’ll stick with Stay Puft Cat." Kim said referencing the monster she zapped earlier. She was amused by it as someone in the palace had been watching too much TV and had decided on a cross between the Ghostbuster’s Stay Puft marshmallow man and Alice’s Cheshire cat.

The trio raised their weapons and ran to attack the monsters while their friends were doing much of the same across the battlefield.

While Kim had run toward the monsters, Carri had taken a different direction. Power daggers in hand she initially ran toward the spot where Rhianna stood, which was in between the battles that the red rangers were facing. Goldar had immediately ran to attack Tommy with a decade’s worth of pent up anger, while Elemi ran to attack Cratus. The two were holding their own and Carri thought she’d take out some frustration on the one of the heads of the operation. As she clicked her daggers together another figure appeared beside Rhianna, one Carri would much rather take her frustrations out on.

The moment Callisto was solidly on the ground she was hit by a rather nasty attack and thrown back, courtesy of the yellow ranger. She started to stand up and saw the yellow ranger hovering over her.

"Sorry to disappoint Calli but you just can’t get rid of me that easily." she said and with a swift kick to the chin she sent a surprised goddess flying back and onto the ground once more

Callisto banged her fist on the ground out of frustration. Not only were Kim and Carri not dead but they were here fighting with new powers that weren’t supposed to exist. If that wasn’t bad enough it was Kemora who rescued them for her own selfish purposes which allowed the rangers to teleport the orb to safety. Kemora, the witch that had sent her to the Island of Illusion to begin with. Before she could even fathom getting her revenge Kemora had disappeared off of her sensors.

The day had quickly turned into a total loss. "I wouldn’t be so confidant if I was you." Callisto said as she stood. "Until next time." she hissed as with a wave of her hand she was gone

Carri turned toward Rhianna, who upon noticing her comrade’s departure took off as well. "Easy enough." she said as she ran toward the Nova’s in an effort to finish off the rest of the Cirranadrones, which had become much easier now that all three monsters were occupied.

The monsters were finding the rangers to be a handful as they ducked and dodged their attacks all the while firing off powerful ones of their own. If that wasn’t bad enough the three were taking turns blasting each other’s monster when it wasn’t looking.

Of course one ranger wasn’t enough to defeat a single monster and the battle was looking to be never ending. Kim blasted her monster and rolled off, ending several feet away with her pistol in one hand and her bow in the other. Quickly she put the pistol back in it’s holster and pulled the bow up to fire. As she did she caught someone beside her out of the corner of her eye.

"A marshmallow cat?" Carri asked as she arrived next to her friend, fresh from finishing off the Cirranadrones

The arrows left Kim’s bow before she turned toward her friend. "I like to call him Stay Puft Cat." she said as the arrows made contact with him. Looking around she saw that the majority of the Nova team was now running to join the monster fight.

"Gotcha. So how do we melt Stay Puft Cat?" Carri asked wanting to end this sooner rather than later. As she spoke the three monsters grouped together and the rest of the rangers grouped around them.

"How about we hit them with everything we’ve got?" Tommy suggested as he and Elemi ran in to join their battle. Goldar and Cratus had finally given up and disappeared, leaving them only the three monsters to defeat.

Elemi nodded in agreement. "With our combined powers it should be enough to blow them to pieces."

The two reds quickly took their spot at the front of the group. The teams of rangers pulled out every weapon they had in their possession and on their leader’s command they fired at the trio of monsters. As predicted they couldn’t stand up to that kind of firepower and they all exploded. From high above the moon Rhianna raised her staff to make her monsters grow. Unfortunately as Rhianna was still a novice, the remains of the three monsters merged into one as they grew to tower above the city.

"So is this the Stay Puft Fuzzy Scarecrow Golden Horse Cat?" Carri questioned trying to combine the three previous monsters into one

Jason rolled his eyes at her from under his helmet. "Whatever it is, we need to make short work of it."

Billy’s voice rang through Tommy’s communicator loud and clear. "Guys I have a set of Ninja Zords for you to use."

"We’re on it." Tommy replied. The Nova’s stepped back to allow the rangers of Earth to finish the battle as Tommy called for their new Ninja Zords.

As the zords barreled toward them and they each jumped into their cockpits, they quickly realized Billy was right. Not much had changed about them since the last time they’d used them. They were definitely upgraded, and removed of any connection they had to the old zeo zords. They seemed a bit flashier than they remembered, but as they got into the fight they quickly realized they operated with more force than before and that was the most important thing.

The rangers briefly tested out the powers of their individual zords before combining to create the megazord, which Rhianna’s hodgepodge of a monster stood no chance against. One swipe of the megazord’s saber brought the monster down for good. With the monster defeated and Callisto and Rhianna’s army gone, it was time to return to the Command Chamber.

The rangers arrived back in their Command Chamber where the Nova’s were already powered down and waiting for them. As they teleported in they powered down as well and found themselves staring at the Nova rangers.

Kim was the first to step forward. "Thank you from all of us for all you’ve done here." she said doing the best to be the diplomatic red ranger. She knew with Elemi standing there in front of her that was going to be hard. He had fallen for her during their time in space together. It had been more than a little awkward as for a while he tried to pursue her solely based on the power they would have as a couple. But as he watched her, learned from her, she could see him change to someone who cared less about power and more about the greater good. He started to pursue her affections more romantically. Although Kim enjoyed his company and appreciated his efforts, she continually turned him down all the while he continued to hold her on a pedestal.

Elemi nodded before stepping out to meet her. "Of course. We’re just grateful that Earth is save and you’re alive." he said before embracing her in a hug

Kim shouldn’t have been surprised by his gesture. She put her arms around him for a moment, then he squeezed her a little harder and lingered a little longer than he should have. As he let her go, he grabbed her arms, gliding his hands down them until her hands were in his. "Anytime you need help don’t hesitate to call."

"We won’t Elemi. Thank you again." she said flashing him a smile. The moment was more than a little awkward.

She hadn’t been the only one who thought the moment was weird as Tommy’s eyes had been shooting daggers into the other red from the moment he embraced Kim. Jealousy got the best of him as he crossed his arms across his chest and went to stand by his girlfriend. "Let’s not keep them from getting back to their own battles." he said with a hard smile across his face

"Of course not." Kim added smiling back as Elemi dropped her hands

He looked from one red ranger to the other. Kim wasn’t acting like her usual confidant self while Tommy looked like he was going to physically maul him. Why he didn’t know, but what he did know was the man was right. They had their own demon to chase and they really should get back to him. Besides it was obvious that this wasn’t going to turn out the way he’d hoped for. Elemi went back to stand with his other rangers before they teleported out, leaving the new team with Billy standing in the Command Chamber.

"We’re glad you’re alright." Jason said, ignoring the interaction that just took place while making a mental note to ask Kim about it later

"There’s no side effects or anything?" Rocky questioned as he put an arm on his girlfriend, momentarily resisting the urge to hold her tightly and never let her go

Carri pulled her thoughts away from her amusement of Elemi’s continued attempts to pursue Kim and to the man standing in front of her. "I’m a little tired."

"Me too." Kim chimed in

"You both had your life energy drained. You need to get some rest before you’ll be one hundred percent again." Billy pointed out. If they’d listen, he’d order them both home and to bed.

"I think I’m just going to go home and curl up in the bed for a little while." Kim said making eye contact with Carri, who nodded

"We’ll take you girls home." Tommy said gesturing to himself and Rocky. He wanted just to hold Kim in private for a little while and he had a feeling Rocky was thinking the same thing.

"Ok." Kim agreed

"Call me when you’re up to it." Jason said smiling over at the girls who smiled back. As they teleported out he thought about how excited he was to have his sisters back in one piece. And now that they had new powers, life would get back to normal.

Callisto fell back into one of her fireball throwing rants in the main throne room, hitting any Cirranadrone she could get in her sights. At this point she didn’t care about wasting the army, she wasn’t planning on making a quick turn around attack. Weeks worth of preparations were wasted and now they would have to start from scratch. Until they could get something else together it would be back to sending Cratus and Goldar down with the Cirranadrones and a monster in an attempt to thwart the rangers.

"Callisto if I may." Cratus said. The goddess stopped for a moment and turned toward him. "We will attack again and we will defeat them."

"The way things are going that isn’t as easy as you make it sound." Callisto was quick to point out

"Those rangers have just been lucky. However their luck is bound to change and we will be right there to capitalize when it does." he told her. He was desperately trying to change the goddess’s mood.

Callisto cocked her head and regarded him curiously for a moment. He was right. That was one of the reasons she kept him around. He was loyal, a good soldier, and he even had good ideas on occasion. Of course that didn’t keep her from being angry about the day’s losses. "I’ll be back." she said and with a wave of her hand she was off, leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces of her rampage

Carri sat down on her bed and resisted the urge to collapse into it and fall asleep as Rocky stood beside her. She remembered the fight they’d had before all this happened, although it seemed like eons ago now. She was still hurt, but it almost didn’t seem important anymore. When she was in the orb she really thought she was going to die, and more than anything she wanted to be with Rocky one last time.

Rocky glanced over at her and cautiously sat down on the bed next to his girlfriend, putting some space in between them as he wasn’t sure how she felt about him. He reached out and placed a hand on her knee as he spoke. "I was so worried about you. I thought we were going to lose you. If it hadn’t been for K...." he let his voice trail off as he paused and shook his head. "I love you and I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you."

She placed her hand on top of his, gently worming her fingers underneath his and turning his hand over. She cupped her hand fully in his before giving it a little squeeze. "When I was trapped in the orb I wasn’t as afraid of dying as I was of never seeing you again." she said softly. "I suppose I owe K a thank you basket or something." she said flashing him a small smile

He looked up at her and smiled back. He almost didn’t want to ruin the moment but he knew what was in the back of his mind and what he was certain was floating around in the back of hers. It had to be said and he wanted to approach it first. After all, it was his fault. "I’m sorry." he said quickly making eye contact with her. She sighed and dropped his hands. She knew it had to be discussed and she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say. She didn’t have to worry about it at the moment as he continued. "I wasn’t thinking. I should’ve told you I hired Jessica. I thought... God I don’t know what I thought. I thought I could help her. It’s my fault she’s in this mess in the first place. I couldn’t see her down and out like that. Stephanie moved to Europe with her boyfriend. She has noone, no income.... I felt bad."

Carri took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. Her boyfriend had a big heart, it was something she always knew about him, something she loved about him. She wished he could’ve just slammed the door in that bitch’s face but she knew it wasn’t in his nature. "I know why you feel like you want to help Jessica, I do." she assured him. "But all I could think about when I saw her sitting behind that desk was the alternate Carri and Rocky and his baby. Our worlds are so close to each other it’s hard not to be afraid of that."

That was something Rocky had thought about too when they returned from the alternate universe. He had hired Jessica prior to their adventure, and the thought that they might have a fling never occurred to him. Not that he thought about it now, but several times he had seen her and had an image of the baby floating around in his mind. "I hired her before we left. But you don’t have to worry. I don’t want to have a baby with her. I don’t want to have an affair with her. I don’t love her, I never did. I wouldn’t turn to her, I wouldn’t let her seduce me. I have everything I need in a relationship right here with you."

Several times the thought of the baby led him to think about Carri and how he wanted to marry her and have kids with her. She’s the only woman in the world that would make him think about having a family of his own after spending most of his life helping raise six younger siblings. He wanted to tell her how he felt, that seeing all the people with the kids around him made him think about starting a family with her. He’d settle down now if he could. But he knew that as much as she loved him she wasn’t keen on the idea of having kids, not now anyway.

"It’s not that I don’t trust you, that I think you’d do something with Jessica behind my back. It’s that I don’t trust her." Carri said emphasizing the her and giving him a murderous look

Rocky was quick to scoop up her hands in his and scoot closer toward her. "You’ll never have to worry about her. She can make as many moves as she want but I have to give in for her to get anywhere. I can promise you that you’ll never have to worry about me like that."

"It’s still difficult. You’re going to see her everyday and she’s going to spend every waking moment trying to sabotage us." Carri pointed out. That girl was going to be in their business well more than Carri would like, it didn’t take a genius to figure that out. It was bad enough having her lingering around through college.

"I was thinking about that." Rocky said as he flashed her a smile. "The secretary of my Stone Canyon school is an old friend of mine and Adam’s. She lives near Angel Grove and would love to transfer and work at that school. If I could get Jessica to go to Stone Canyon, it would work out. She’d still have a job and I wouldn’t have to see her everyday."

That wasn’t a bad idea as Carri wouldn’t have to worry about what Jessica was plotting as much. "I like it. But she’ll never go for it. The whole reason she works there is for you."

"She’ll go for it. She knows I occasionally go out to the Stone Canyon school. And I’ll offer her a small raise to make the transfer. She needs money more than she needs me. She may be obsessed but she’s not stupid." Rocky said looking over at his girlfriend

"Ok." she said simply. Hopefully he was right and she’d take the opportunity. She’d love for him to fire her but she knew that would never happen.

"Ok?" he repeated and she nodded. "So does that mean we’re ok?"

She looked at him and smiled. "Yeah. We’re ok."

He released her hands and cupped her face, pulling her in for a passionate kiss that she eagerly returned. The kiss ended and he draped his arms around her and pulled her into him as she nestled her head into his chest. He put his chin on the top of her head, content with never letting go.

"Rocky?" she spoke after a few minutes

"Yeah?" he questioned as he ran his hand up and down her back

"As much as I love being here, I really do need to get some rest." she said. Her exhaustion from the previous night’s events was overwhelming and more than anything she wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep.

"I know." he replied as he leaned in and kissed her on the head. "You want some company?" It had been a long night for him as well. He wasn’t planning on going into work until around lunchtime with left him with a few hours to try and catch up on some sleep.

"I’d love some." she said as she gently pushed away from him and gave him a smile. She stood and threw her clothes off, grabbing something out of the drawer to sleep in.

Rocky stripped down to his boxers as she climbed into bed. Once she was settled he climbed in next to her and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close as they both drifted asleep.

Rocky and Carri were oblivious to everything that was going on not far from them in the bedroom Kim stayed in. Kim wanted to go back to the house to get rest, and she was quick to arrive and change and sit down on the bed. She was more than anxious to go to sleep, but she also wanted to talk to Tommy.

Tommy sat down and put his arms around his girlfriend. "I’m so glad you’re back." he said as they hugged and he released her. He was glad he didn’t have to search for a plan B, and that everything turned out alright. He just got her back into his life romantically and he wasn’t going to let Callisto end it.

"I was worried for a while." she admitted. "I’m just glad K could help. And the Nova’s." She was glad that Callisto and Rhianna didn’t win while she was out of commission. That weighed heavily on her mind for a while as she sat in the orb. Carri lost consciousness before she did and that left her a lot of time to think about it.

"It was great." Tommy said thinking carefully of his next question. He wanted to say what the hell was going on, but given what Kim had just been through he didn’t find it appropriate. Instead he carefully formulated his question hoping that Kim would think it was more curiosity than anger and jealousy. "Speaking of the Nova’s, what’s up between you and Elemi? He acted.... out of character around you. It was odd."

Kim suppressed the urge to smile as Tommy’s jealousy came through. "Elemi has been interested in me ever since we first worked together." she replied flashing Tommy a smile. "He tried to get me to date him, even marry him a few times. To which I of course said no. Every time. That hasn’t stopped him from trying though."

Tommy raised an eyebrow. "Great so now whenever we talk to him or need his help I have to worry about him hitting on you?"

Kim shrugged. There was always something about Elemi, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough for her to want to have a relationship with him. So now she just resorted to trying to ignore his advances. Carri got a kick out of it. She thought Elemi was alright but not Kim’s type. Kim was lonely and her friend had kept her straight, or else she might have ended up jumping into bed with him regardless of whether or not she wanted a relationship. Now that the two girls were back on Earth it had been somewhat of a joke. They would speak with Elemi and leave the Command Chamber, only to return home and carry on about all the things he said that were specifically meant to turn Kim’s head toward him.

Tommy never picked up on it before although he probably would now. One would have had to know that Elemi was chasing after her to pick up on the hits he was dropping. "Don’t worry about it. I am the one thing in this world that the red Nova ranger wants and can’t have and I think it drives him nuts."

"You drive a man nuts? Imagine that." Tommy said as he smiled at her and gently brushed his fingers against her cheek. He didn’t worry about her and Elemi. That didn’t mean he was going to like the Nova red showing interest in his girlfriend, but that would be dealt with another day. Today he was just glad to have her back here with him.

Kim put a hand to her face and held his fingers there for a moment. "Tommy Oliver." she scolded as she made a face and crinkled up her nose

He took his thumb and released it from under her hand, moving it over and running it along the top of her nose watching as her face relaxed. "You’re cute when you’re angry."

She released her hand and put both of her hands on her hips and glared at him, causing him to drop his own hand and laugh. The moment he was off guard she pounced on him, sending him flat on his back with her sitting on top of him. "Am I still cute when I’m angry?"

"Of course." he said as he swiftly put his hands on her hips and pulled her down toward him. She immediately pressed her lips against his and started kissing him, first on the mouth and then moving down the side of his face toward his neck. He rubbed his hands along her body, enjoying every moment of it.

After a few minutes went by he grabbed her tightly and swung her around. It was his turn to kiss her all over. He could feel her hands in places that he longed for them to be. As her hands wondered up his back he paused and regarded her face for a moment. He brushed the loose strands of hair out of the way and looked into her eyes.

As much as he wanted this moment to continue on to other things, he could see the exhaustion in her face. He loved her too much to try and push her body too far after what happened last night and what she was going through. He leaned down and kissed her lips briefly at first before going back for a longer embrace. Then he sat up and moved over before helping her sit up as well.

"You need to get some sleep. How about we continue this later?" he suggested although the anticipation of a night with Kim was going to make it hard to concentrate on the research he had to work on that day

"Later it is then." Kim replied. She wasn’t willing to give up the moment but he was right. Like it or not, she needed to recover first.

Tommy pulled the covers back for her and she climbed into them. He kissed her on the forehead and ran his fingers through his hair before leaving. As much as he wanted to crawl in bed with her and get some much needed sleep of his own he had work to be done and a deadline that afternoon that he had to address. He left her laying there, her eyes slowly closing as he teleported out of her room and back to his house.

Jason arrived at his house early that morning. He supposed he should go to sleep but he was too wired up to so instead he started a pot of coffee. As he waited for it to brew he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and went to stick it in the charger.

Once it was plugged in he hit the button and watched as it whirled back to life. It had died shortly after the whole mess had begun the previous day and it had been very low on his priority list. As it reconnected with the network it beeped at him, flashing that he had three new messages. Quickly he picked up the phone so that he could cycle through them and see what he missed.

After the messages ended he deleted them all and put the phone down on the table with a sigh. All three messages had been from the same person, Michelle. He had completely forgotten that he’d promised to take her to dinner last night. He was so worried about Kim and Carri that it slipped his mind. Hopefully he could find a way to make it up to her that day.

Here he was back to making excuses for his missed dates again. It had been a long time since he really had to try. He wasn’t sure what he could tell her, and he didn’t think that "family emergency" would be enough now that he was an adult. He thought about stretching the truth, saying that Kim and Carri were in trouble and that he had to help him out, but he didn’t think that would go over well with his new girlfriend.

Which left him with one option. He had to make up something random and hopefully believable. This would be the first test of their new relationship. The first chance to see if they could even go for the long haul. After all if she couldn’t trust him and accept that things happened in his life that he couldn’t control, maybe they weren’t meant to be together.

It was a lot to ask in a woman, to have faith in him and trust that nothing’s going on, especially this early in the relationship. Emily had been the only woman to ever put her trust in him like that, and even that wore thin after a while. Jason sighed as Emily crossed his mind again. He had allowed himself to go years without thinking of her, and ever since they returned from the alternate universe she started slipping back into his thoughts. The more he thought about it the more he thought about how that was the best relationship he’d ever had. He was never certain what led to it’s demise. He wasn’t even a ranger any more when it ended. He always thought if they broke up that would’ve been the nail in the coffin but that wasn’t the case.

He was taking more hours in college and working hard to get good grades and graduate at the time. Without rangering standing in their way, the five former rangers were starting to get involved with other activities and they were having a good time. They were even getting a chance to hang out with the Astro Rangers some as Ashley transferred to USC for their fashion design program after getting her associates back home, and Carri’s friend helped Carlos to get a soccer scholarship to the school.

Perhaps it was the fact that he didn’t go home as much. After all Emily was starting to take college classes of her own. They always wanted to make plans to see each other but between her working and going to school and everything he was doing they never had a chance. Some weekends he would go home and she wouldn’t be able to see him even though he was in her neighborhood. Some weekends she would tell him not to even bother.

He supposed he should’ve suspected something was up then. But he continued to live his life oblivious to what was going on in Angel Grove. He would talk to her on the phone and they would profess their love for one another. He spent his weekends with his girls as Tommy was always busy with school and Rocky was starting to work extra so that he could get his karate school opened right after graduation.

They had a lot of fun hanging around together and with their other friends but it wasn’t the same as they weren’t his girls in the same sense Emily was. As weekends went by with Emily not having spare time to see her boyfriend, Jason found himself in a funk. The girls couldn’t stand it and they tried their hardest to cheer him up until finally they convinced them to go surprise her. Kim pointed out that as hard as she was working she would love to see him. Carri convinced him to bring flowers and chocolates, that he’d have the most romantic weekend of his life if he surprised her like that.

The following Friday night he drove down to Angel Grove. He first went to the juice bar where Ernie told him that Emily had the night off. He stopped by the store and picked up flowers and chocolates before heading over to her apartment. Her car was there which meant she was there, and he was excited about seeing her. He had a key and he was just going to bust in and surprise her but there was no need as the door was unlocked.

Quickly he slipped in and headed toward her room. When he flung her door open he saw her naked and with another man. She tried to explain but he didn’t want to hear it. After a few choice words he stormed out of her apartment and back towards his car, throwing her gifts in the trash on the way out. She tried calling him as he jumped into his car and tore off, but he didn’t want to hear her excuses. As mad as he was he was lucky that he made it back to LA in one piece.

He found himself almost relieved to see that the girls were there when he got there. It was hard but they helped him get past Emily. She was the only woman he had ever opened up to like that and it seemed like she’d easily ripped his heart out and stomped on it. The girls had listened to her lame excuses on his voicemail and relayed them to him but he didn’t care. Nothing would make up for it.

In all honesty that was the last serious relationship he’d had and the last one he wanted. He wasn’t sure it was worth it and he wanted to make sure the girl was right before he committed to her. He thought he could make it work with Michelle but he’d have to wait and see. After today he’d have a good idea on whether or not they could be together.

Jason sighed as he stood and went to grab himself a cup of coffee. He might as well wake himself up and go figure out something to do.

Around four that afternoon Carri started stirring. She was feeling much better and was ready to climb out of bed and enjoy an nice hot shower. Rolling over she was somewhat surprised to find herself alone, although she supposed she shouldn’t be. Laying where her boyfriend once slept was a note on the pillow.

She picked it up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before glancing it over. It was what she expected it to say, that he had gotten up to go to work and that he’d call her later. She supposed she had work of her own she should be doing. Sleeping all day did not make the production of her show go any faster and she knew she’d make up for her day of recovery over the next few days.

Flopping the covers off of her she sat up and stretched before slowly swinging her feet over the edge. She stood up and shuffled her way into the bathroom closing the door behind her. As Carri was jumping into the shower, Kim was stepping out feeling rejuvenated as she got dressed and ready for the day.

As she quickly got dressed her first thoughts were the same as those of her friend. That she wasted a good working day in bed and that she was going to be paying for it the rest of the week. Not to mention Sandy would never let her hear the end of it. She didn’t show up for work, nor did she bother to call and say she wasn’t showing up for work.

She supposed Billy could give her a fake doctor’s note. An emergency hospital trip or something. But then again it wasn’t really Sandy’s opinion that mattered and she wasn’t sure why she cared so much about it. She was just going to tell Ashley the truth, if she didn’t know already, and promise to make it up in the upcoming days. She doubted that the former yellow ranger would fire her for not calling while she was recuperating from almost dying the previous night in defense of the planet.

Kim took one final glance of herself in the mirror before opening the door and walking through the house. She bypassed the livingroom and went straight for the kitchen and the coffee maker, putting on a pot for herself and Carri. While she waited for it to brew, she wondered into the livingroom and curled up on the couch, making herself comfortable as she clicked the tv on and started surfing through channels.

The four o’clock hour was full of afternoon drama’s, and Kim finally found herself settling on an episode of While You Were Out that involved garden redecoration. She started watching the fountains and the flowers they were bringing in but it didn’t take long for her mind to drift away to other things.

It started with her time spent in the orb. So many things crossed her mind while she was stuck in there dwindling down to nothing. Strangely the least of which was the fear of death. She had a lot of fears sitting in the orb but they were more important than death. She feared that she failed as a red and that Callisto and Rhianna would be able to take over Earth in her absence. Not that the others weren’t strong rangers, but without their powers she didn’t think they were going to stop them.

Stopping Rhianna was what drove her to leave the planet all those years ago. She felt that the spawn of Rita and Zedd was her responsibility, that her attacking Earth was her responsibility. She needed to see that through to the end, she was going to see that through to the end. She felt as though it was her purpose in life, although perhaps not her greatest purpose as the adventure in the alternate universe shifted where she thought her life was going.

Another thing she had a lot of time to think about in the orb was her relationship with Tommy. She loved him more than anything, and she could see herself having a future with him. After being in the alternate universe she knew it was possible. After all they’d been through together they more than deserved it. Sitting in there she thought of him and she missed him. She wanted him to be standing strong beside her and it was a difficult thought that he might never be there with her again.

Of course there was one thing that stood between them, and that was the truth of all that happened to her while she was away. She wanted to tell him all about Phaedos, she just wasn’t sure if he was ready to hear it yet. His reaction to what happened in the alternate universe had been less than favorable. That was different from her being a master warrior, but she knew he’d have the same reaction. He knew she’d been through a lot but he still thought of her as his Kim, the former gymnast and bubbly pink ranger he fell in love with the first time. She was still that Kim, but now she was so much more. She could tell that it was hard for Tommy to swallow, the course of action that her life was now taking. Eventually she would tell him about what her time on Phaedos meant, but she would have to ease into it.

"You made coffee?" Carri asked as she walked into the livingroom and pulled Kim out of her thoughts

"Yeah." Kim replied. She had forgotten all about it once she was lost in her thoughts but as Carri headed into the kitchen Kim stood up and joined her. The two girls fixed themselves cups of coffee and walked over to the table to sit.

With a sigh Carri glanced over at her cell phone. She picked it up and saw that she had several missed calls and several messages to go with them. Taking a sip of her coffee she dialed into her voice mail and listened to them. Most of them were from work saying that they needed her for this and that. Those she saved so she could remember what needed to be done.

One message caused her to shriek with excitement as she slammed her phone shut and took off. Kim watched curiously as her friend reemerged with her laptop in hand and sat it down on the table letting it boot up. "What’s that all about?"

"The reviews are in." Carri said grinning at her. "Dad left me a message. He sent several to my email. He said he was proud of me and for me to call him later."

"Proud? That has to be a good thing." Kim replied smiling back at her friend. With the attacks and their capture Kim had almost forgotten about the show premier they had attended just two nights ago.

"Let’s hope so." she replied. Carri was silent as her computer finished booting up and she maneuvered her way into her inbox. She scanned down until she found the letter from her father and quickly opened it up. She put her feet in her chair and pulled her knees into her chest as she nervously scrolled through. After a few minutes a slow smile spread across her face. "They like it." she said simply at first. "I mean they really like it." she repeated with a little more enthusiasm

"Congratulations." Kim said as she leaned over to give her friend a hug. As Carri let her go she passed over her computer and let Kim read for herself. She had to admit, she was impressed with what her friend had put together and the fact that it seemed to be loved so far was amazing.

"I can’t believe." Carri started, stopping when her phone rang. She glanced down at the caller ID and saw Kat’s name across the screen. Tapping her fingers on the table she debated whether or not to answer. But Kat had left several messages for her and she had to talk to her eventually. Quickly she picked up the phone and greeted her cousin. "Hey. Sorry I haven’t called you back. Ranger emergency." She declined elaborating that she and Kim had been most of the emergency.

"That’s ok." Kat said softly

"So what’s up?" Carri asked. It was unusual for her cousin to call that much and she sounded rather down on the phone which worried Carri.

Kat let out a heavy sigh. "The other night, when you asked where Chris was and I said working late.... I lied. We had a fight before I left. I needed to cool down so I went without him."

"What happened?" Carri questioned although she wasn’t sure she cared much about their bickering. She didn’t like the man to begin with and she wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn’t the first time they argued about something.

"He quit his job." Kat said quietly as she absentmindedly fumbled with the fabric on her shirt, trying not to let herself get to upset

"At the golf course?" Carri asked hoping that the man had enough sense to keep his job as a trainer which made decent money and quit his play job that he did part time for the employee perks

"No." Kat replied before she burst into tears. God she wished he would’ve quit that job. It wouldn’t have been a big deal. It wasn’t like the golf job payed a lot, he just did it for fun.

"Shit." Carri said with feeling as she worked hard to hold back the giant I told you so that quickly formed on her lips. She knew he was a loser and not marriage material. Now with the baby on the way he didn’t have a job. At least not one that counted. "So what are you guys going to do?"

"I don’t know. It’s hard. We’ve lost that income and I’ve lost my insurance through his company. I don’t know what to do. The baby’s on the way and we don’t have the money for the medical expenses and we can’t afford insurance on our own with him not working." Kat managed to spit out in between sobs

"Don’t you have insurance?" Carri questioned

"I’m a full time dance teacher at a small studio. They don’t exactly offer insurance." Kat replied like it was the most absurd question ever asked

Kat’s attitude worked Carri’s nerves and she was having a hard time controlling what she really wanted to say. She didn’t take much care in her next question and it came out a little more harsh than she intended. "So are you going to leave Chris?"

"What?" Kat questioned surprised that her cousin even asked something like that. "Of course not I still love him. And I am having his child." She was mad at Chris, that was certain. But he had his reasons for quitting his job, and regardless of whether or not Kat agreed with them as his wife she’d stand by him. He promised to look for a new job but she doubted it would come in time for her to get insurance and money for the birth.

"Well I’m just saying. I mean he is," Carri paused as Kim smacked her leg. She had been listening to the conversation and from the look on Carri’s face she was about to say something that was inappropriate given the circumstances. "He did quit his job and leave you high and dry. So I was just wondering that’s all." Carri finished glancing over at Kim. So maybe he is a loser and a douche and you should have never married him was not an appropriate response but it was the one she wanted to give and if it weren’t for Kim stopping her she would have.

"Well." Kat said her voice trailing off as she paused. Perhaps confiding in Carri was a mistake. After all she hated the man more than anyone and he just made the ultimate screw up. But Kat desperately wanted them to be friends again and to that end she didn’t want to keep it a secret. "I just wanted you to know what was going on." she said breathing deeply so she wouldn’t start crying all over again

"Oh. Well thanks for calling." Carri said ready to end the conversation before she started to say what was on her mind

"You’re welcome." Kat replied with a sigh. She supposed it was hard for her to use Carri as a shoulder to lean on. After all it would be hard for her cousin to understand where she was coming from. Living comfortably paycheck to paycheck, trying to save pennies when they could in case of emergency and not having enough when a real crisis came around. Carri had her own wealth she was starting to accumulate and had that of her parents, and not having money when she needed it had never been a concern of hers.

"If you need me call." Carri told her. And she did mean it, she wanted Kat to be able to talk to her about things. Of course she also wanted Kat to be able to handle her brutal opinion about things which she knew she had trouble with. "So I’ll talk to you later?"

"Yeah." Kat replied before saying goodbye

Carri said goodbye as well before hanging up the phone and turning toward Kim. "I cannot believe that her loser of a husband quit his job while she was pregnant."

"She dug herself this hole and is content on staying in it, so all you can do is keep your mouth shut and support her." Kim replied. Despite their grievances over the past few years she felt bad for Kat. It wasn’t a good spot to be in for anyone.

Carri crossed her arms and gave Kim a look and Kim smiled at her. She knew that keeping her mouth shut was not her friend’s style and it was a huge feat that she managed to do it this time. "Didn’t your mother ever teach you that if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all?" Kim teased

"Apparently you haven’t spent much time with my mother." Carri replied with a smile as she dropped her arms and went back to her cup of coffee. She would try and support Kat as long as she only had encounters with her on good days. If Kat tried to look for sympathy when Carri was already in a foul mood she wouldn’t hesitate to let her know what she really thought.

As the girls enjoyed their coffee Carri’s phone rang again. This time it was Jason’s name strewn across the caller ID. "You’re a popular person this morning." Kim commented as Carri flipped her phone open and put it on speaker

"Morning Jase." Carri said as she placed the phone in between herself and Kim

"Morning? You do realize it’s getting close to five at night." Jason was quick to tease her knowing that she had probably just gotten done resting

"Some of us spent the night in the orb and the daytime sleeping so it’s morning." Kim chimed in to alert Jason of her presence

"I guess I’ll let you slide this time." Jason said, happy to hear that both of his girls were on the phone with him. "Anyway I was calling to see if you wanted to grab your boys and meet me down at Bulkmeier’s in about an hour for dinner."

"That sounds fabulous." Kim said as the mention of food reminded her of how hungry she was

"Count me in." Carri added. It would be fun to have dinner with her friends after the whirlwind of the last twenty-four hours.

"Great. So I’ll see you at Bulkmeier’s at six?" Jason questioned

"See ya at six." Kim confirmed their dinner plans. The three echoed goodbyes and Carri snapped her phone shut.

"So I suppose we should go call the guys and get ready for dinner?" she questioned looking over at Kim, who nodded in agreement.

The two girls quickly made phone calls to their boyfriends before heading off into their bedrooms to finish getting ready.

Just before six Jason sat alone at the bar in Bulkmeier’s, waiting for his girlfriend and his friends to arrive. He was happy that Michelle agreed to come, he was afraid that she wasn’t going to speak to him again after missing dinner last night. He had given her an excuse. It was a rather lame excuse, but it was still an excuse. And she was timid about believing it, about believing him.

It had gotten him to formulate doubts that this relationship was going to work at all. His involvement with the rangers caused him to demand a lot from a woman and if he was forced to chose between his commitment to saving the world and a girlfriend, he’d pick the rangers every time. She wasn’t happy with his disappearance for the night or his sudden unavailability at the time of their date. He had told her it was his job that had taken him away that night. And he knew that if she couldn’t accept the fact that his job might interfere with his schedule that there would be no hope for them.

With a sigh he reached over and took a gulp of his beer. Turning toward the door he saw Kim and Carri enter and he gave them a quick wave. The girls made their way over toward him and smiled as they all said their hello’s.

"So are your guys coming?" Jason questioned noticing the absence of their dates

"Rocky had to stay at work until six so he’ll be a few minutes late." Carri replied

Kim looked over at Jason and grinned. "I told Tommy six so..." she said with a shrug

Jason laughed. Some things never changed. "So then six fifteen?"

"Something like that." Kim replied

"If you girls want to grab some beers," he said pointing to the bar behind them, "we can head over to the table." Jason turned back toward the bartender and flagged him down so they could get the girls some drinks.

Kim and Carri ordered and they each took a few gulps of their beverages as Jason led them off toward their table. As they sat their drinks down they heard someone call Jason’s name. Turning around they saw Michelle coming their way with someone behind her. Kim elbowed Carri who turned toward her with a fake smile. They had almost forgotten about the incident with Jason’s girlfriend and neither had the chance to say anything to him.

Michelle walked up to Jason and the person from behind her stepped forward. "I hope you don’t mind but I brought my sister with me." she said as she flashed Jason a smile. She was still angry about the night before and she figured if she brought her sister she could at least keep her sane.

"That’s not a problem." he replied as he extended his hand out to the woman he’d never met. "I’m Jason." he said as he glanced back and forth between the two

"Melinda." the other woman replied taking his hand and shaking it

"I didn’t know you had a twin." Jason said as he looked between the two. They were strikingly similar in appearance but there was something that separated Melinda that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

"There are a lot of things about me you don’t know." Michelle replied flashing him a smile. "These are Jason’s friends, Kim and Carri." Michelle said gesturing to the two

Melinda reached out and shook Kim’s hand before turning to shake Carri’s. "Carri and I go way back." she said as she shook her hand

Carri held the other woman’s hand in hers for a moment as she regarded her curiously. Suddenly it hit her. Michelle was Michelle and Melinda was, "Michael?" she questioned out loud

"It’s Melinda now but yes." she replied

"We played together and I never knew you had a twin." Carri said. She was starting to feel a little light headed between the life force drain, starting on beer without eating since the previous day’s breakfast and the information that was rushing toward her head.

"Yeah she went to charter school. She came to a few games but I don’t know if you ever met her." Melinda replied letting Carri’s hand go

Carri continued to look at the two women curiously. It was all becoming a lot to process for the state she was in and without warning she fell to the floor. "Carri?" Jason questioned as he and Kim quickly went to her side

They pulled her up and into a chair as her eyes opened and the world came back into focus. "What happened?"

"You fainted." Jason replied. It bothered him some and he hoped she was alright. It wasn’t like her to faint.

"I did?" she questioned in surprise as Jason and Kim nodded. "I can’t believe I fainted. I guess with everything that happened and then I thought that... I mean it was just... well... never mind let’s just sit." Carri was flustered that she fainted and she was flustered about the Melinda/Michelle situation and embarrassed about thinking that it was Michelle who was Michael. She wasn’t about to admit to any of that, at least not here in front of them.

"Well," Jason started spinning her chair around to face the table. "You’re sitting." He didn’t know what that was all about but he certainly didn’t want her to get up again only to faint again.

Kim quickly sat down beside her friend as Jason, Michelle and Melinda went to sit on the other side of the table. "So did you guys here? Carri’s show got great reviews." Kim said quickly trying to direct attention off of her friend’s fainting and on to something else

"Really?" Jason questioned as she smiled and nodded at him. "Carri that’s great. You were on pins and needles waiting for those reviews."

"Yeah. Dad sent them to me today. I’m excited. There’s hope for us yet." she said momentarily forgetting the fainting and getting giddy about her show

"I got a chance to see the premiere. It was fabulous." Melinda told her

Carri smiled at her. "Thank you."

"Hey guys." Rocky said coming up behind them and putting his arms on his girlfriend’s shoulders, giving her a kiss on the cheek before sitting down next to her.

He got a chorus of hello’s in reply but one of them stood out. "Hey Rocky long time no see." Melinda greeted, glad to see another one of her former teammates

Rocky looked at her curiously for a moment. He glanced briefly at Carri then back to Michelle and Melinda. "It’s been what, ten years since we were playing together?"

"That sounds about right." Melinda replied with a smile. "Things have changed a bit since then. I go by Melinda now."

"Well Melinda it’s good to see you." Rocky said smiling over at her as he leaned back in his chair and put an arm around his girlfriend

"Sorry I’m late." Tommy said as he walked up to the table and slid into the seat next to Kim, putting an arm around her and pulling her in close to him. He smiled as she leaned up and gave him a quick kiss. She had been all he could think about all day, and as much fun as dinner with his friends was he couldn’t wait to take off and get her home alone with him.

"It’s ok we haven’t ordered yet." Kim replied skipping the obvious you’re always late joke. "This is Michelle’s sister Melinda." she said doing a quick introduction

"Nice to meet you." Tommy replied extending his hand over the table

"You too." she said as she shook his outstretched hand

"So what do you guys think? Are we ready to get something to eat?" Rocky questioned as he looked around the table

"Absolutely I’m starving." Carri said as not eating quickly caught up to her

The rangers of the group laughed as Carri was not usually the one of them to jump on the food. Jason looked around the crowded room and saw their waitress on the other side. He smiled at her and gave her a wave and she held up a finger indicating that she’d be there momentarily. The group leaned back and started talking, the rangers enjoying a relaxing night that they’d earned, able to momentarily take their mind’s off of the previous struggle and the battles that lay ahead.

The End

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