Disclaimer: Teeg belongs to KSuzie. As well as a line or two of hers that I borrowed :)
Author's Note: Parts of this story are in reference to events that will be happening in KSuzie's "The Coin Series", chapter 19.

Power Rangers: Legacy
"The Tides Are Turning"

Carri snapped her cell phone shut and set it down on her desk before going to rub her temples. Tonight they were having a huge party at a club for her friends and coworkers celebrating the premiere of her new show. Making sure everything was going to get done for that was turning out to be a larger task than expected and it was giving her quite a headache.

She walked back into the bathroom and grabbed some aspirin before heading out into the kitchen for a glass of water. Quickly she tossed back her pills then leaned against the counter while she finished her drink. As she stood there, the side door opened and Kim walked through with her hands full of grocery bags.

Carri went to help grab bags from her friend and get them over to the table. She started pulling food out and setting it aside so they could put it away. To her surprise she pulled out a tabloid magazine. "I didn’t know you were into this crap." she said with a smile

Kim quickly jerked it out of her hands and made a face. "I’m not." she said defensively. "I mean, you know, not really."

"Then why waste your money?" Carri questioned raising an eyebrow

Kim sighed. She had been standing in the checkout line mindlessly flipping through the tabloid just to pass the time when she came across something that triggered old memories. She decided to bring the magazine home and was going to ask Carri’s opinion. She figured if she was going to ask anyway, she might as well do it now. She flipped the magazine open and passed it to Carri who looked at the article in question. The title read "Sex, Drugs and Hollywood Scandal" and had images of Hollywood men with various women. Her brother was one of the men featured with several different women.

"You guys broke up remember." she pointed out as she counted up the number of women in the photos. It didn’t surprise her that her brother would wiggle his way into a tabloid article like this. She seriously doubted he was as big of an asshole as the article was going to make him sound, but there was always some level of truth in the stories. "Besides if it makes you feel any better I’m sure some of these images are old. I doubt he’s had that many different dates since you guys split."

"I wanted you to see it. I’ve been wanting to ask for a while if you think your brother is that party boy." Kim asked anxiously awaiting the answer

"Honestly? Yeah he pretty much is. But seriously Kim why do you care? You don’t have any regrets do you?" Carri asked. She hoped that she didn’t. As far as she could tell Kim’s three weeks dating Tommy have been the most blissful three weeks that she’d had in a long time.

"No absolutely not." Kim assured her. Truthfully at times she felt uncertainty over the way things went down. Even though Josh had cheated, she had also slept with someone else while she was in a committed relationship. That wasn’t like her at all. Sometimes she found herself missing spending time with him and wondering what he was up to. They were still friends and she still cared about him. Not to mention it wasn’t like she fell out of love with him. She just didn’t see things working out. Part of the reason that she picked the tabloid to thumb through in the first place was to see if she could see what he had been up to.

Of course she’d never confess any of that to Carri. Besides it wasn’t like things weren’t working out with Tommy. She had no complaints about dating him, no regrets about choosing him over Josh. Tommy made her feel whole again, and now more than ever she felt as though she was destined to be with him. She tried to shake off the thoughts of the two men as she went to ask Carri the question that had been bothering her. "It’s just, well, when we were together I saw an article that had an image of us together beside an image of him with some wannabe actress. He swore that was an old picture but do you think..." Kim let her voice trail off. That was one fact that was sitting in the back of her head when she broke up with him.

"Do I think he cheated on you more than once?" Carri asked Kim’s question for her. Truthfully she wouldn’t put it past him. She was angry with him for admitting to sleeping with someone else when he was supposed to love Kim but she would’ve been surprised if that wasn’t the first time. She reamed him about it over the phone and he just apologized but he never tried to push it as an accident or a one time thing. "Honestly I don’t know but I wouldn’t be surprised."

Kim nodded her head. It really didn’t matter but that was one fact that had been bugging her for a long time. Carri’s response just gave her more of a reason to be happy that she had ended it with Josh and was back with Tommy now. She sighed and shook her head before quickly switching topics. "So how are things going with the party tonight?"

It was Carri’s turn to sigh. "I have been on the phone all day trying to make sure everything is right. It’s the premiere party, I want it to go off without a hitch."

"How did it all fall to you anyway?" Kim questioned. She was under the assumption that she had an assistant and other people under her that were more than qualified to take care of the event coordinating.

"Noone else could agree on what we should do. I knew what I wanted and since it’s my show and my party I figured I might as well do it myself to make sure it gets done like I want." Carri explained flashing her a smile. "Besides if you leave it up to five hundred different people who knows what you’re going to get."

Kim narrowed her eyes and smiled at her. Five hundred was quite an exaggeration as she had only a fraction of that even working for her. "Well I wouldn’t stress out over it. It’s not worth it. And I’m sure it’s going to be fine."

"It had better be." Carri replied as her phone went off. She glanced at the caller ID and debated on whether to answer it or throw the cell across the room out of frustration. Finally she crossed her arms and answered with a forceful "what?".

Kim tried not to let her friend see her amusement as she listened to her end of the conversation. It was a lot of Carri trying not to explode as she pointed out that the particular question had been answered and was not open for debate, as she had apparently told the caller multiple times before. She continued to put the groceries away as Carri took another call before hanging the phone up and tossing it on the table out of frustration.

"I’m going to need a lot more aspirin." she grumbled as she went to help Kim with the groceries

"Don’t worry. We are going to go tonight and we are going to have a blast and it’s going to all be worth it." Kim assured her smiling at her

"It had better be." Carri said smiling back after a moment as she continued to help Kim put things away.

Later that evening Jason found himself driving his SUV to pick up his date for Carri’s party. He smiled to himself as he thought about his date. Michelle Montgomery. One of the nicest girls he’d met in a long time. She fit well with him. Well as well as she could at the moment, he had yet to have to make up a lame excuse while taking off to save the world in front of her. But they shared a lot of the same interests and they got along well.

This was only their fifth date. This was a big one though, this was the one where he was going to introduce her to the rest of his friends. And although he wasn’t worried about Tommy and Rocky not liking her, he was worrying about Kim and Carri’s opinion. They were like his sisters, and as sisters they would look at her with a critical eye to make sure that she was worthy of him. He appreciated them looking out for him, but he hoped that they wouldn’t find one hundred things wrong with Michelle. He really liked her and really hoped that she would easily make friends with his ranger family.

It was fate that brought the two together. He still couldn’t believe his luck. They had met by chance at Jason’s publisher’s office two weeks ago. He had just dropped off the finalized copy of his novel and headed down the hall and to the elevator. When he arrived back in the main lobby, he received a cell phone call. He searched his pockets for his phone while he walked and never saw Michelle until he ran into her, knocking her papers everywhere.

He declined to answer the call and he immediately rushed to help her pick up her things. She was gorgeous and there was an obvious spark there so he didn’t hesitate to ask her out. The rest, as they say, was history.

Of course running into Michelle wasn’t the only good thing that happened that morning. He got a call from his publisher later that same evening. Much to his surprise, he had finished reading the book already. He absolutely loved it, telling Jason that it was probably his best work yet. The plan was to rush it into production to get it out as soon as possible.

Jason was quite proud of that, especially considering parts of the book had received massive rewrites in the four days between Tommy and Kim’s reunion and his turning the book in. Them getting back together had overflowed him with ideas for a romance aspect of his novel. His greatest science fiction work ever had a bit of everything in the story, and he owed a lot of that to his friends. The main villain of the new series was going to be based on Callisto, and he planned on using a lot of what happened to them when they were younger as well as stories Carri and Kim told him to move the plot along. This was the first time that he gave his heros a serious love life, which according to his publisher made the book quite compelling.

He was anxious for it to hit the shelves. He wanted to know how the public was going to view it. He poured a lot into the book to make it just the way he wanted it. He wanted it to be that book, the book that made him. Only time would tell, but it would drive him crazy sitting around and waiting until then.

Jason pulled into Michelle’s apartment complex and tried to push the thoughts of the potential success or failure of his book out of his mind. Tonight was the night to stand by Carri as she worried about her own success or failure, all the while enjoying another wonderful date with a wonderful woman.

Billy and Trini pulled into the small parking lot of a club that was located on the outskirts of Angel Grove. This was the location that Carri had chosen to host the nights party. It looked like an amazing place from the outside. It was a bit of a drive from their San Francisco home, but they both agreed that it would be worth it to go. Aside from ranger related functions, neither had seen much of their friends in a long time.

Billy got out of the car and went around to the passengers side to open the door for his wife. "Are you ready to party?" he asked smiling at her

"Absolutely." Trini replied back flashing her husband a smile. She was thrilled to attend Carri’s premiere party. She had never been to a Hollywood function, and although there weren’t any A-list stars there it was still a big deal to her.

Billy led her to the club where a small crowd was gathering outside whining about being let in to see what was going on. Billy chuckled to himself. Ausus Productions had rented out the entire club and unless you were on the invite list you weren’t getting in. They headed toward the front of a crowd, where a man who looked like the poster child for steroids was standing there holding a clipboard.

"Names." he said sternly glancing them both over

"Billy and Trini Cranston." Billy replied with confidence. Being the head of his lab and a company board member, he had gotten to go to some pretty exclusive events. But nothing quite like this. He had never been on an invite only list and it was kind of neat.

The man thumbed down his list and paused briefly when he came across the two people in question. He put checkmarks by their name then stepped aside, gesturing for them to enter. "Have a good evening." he said

"Thank you." Trini replied as Billy led them past the man who immediately went back to guarding the door

As they walked into the main room of the club the scene took their breath away. The place was huge, and was decked out in celebration of the premier. In the center along the wall was a giant flat screen television. Billy didn’t know that you could even find a tv that big, but apparently Carri had rented one.

They looked around and saw all the people who were affiliated with the show who were filing in. There weren’t that many non-show people there, only Carri’s friends. Each of her employees were allowed to bring one person with them because if she let everyone go wild the building would easily violate the fire safety code. Her employees brought one person each, and she brought all her friends.

Ausus Productions was paying to have the event catered, complete with non-alcoholic beverages. Carri had declined the open bar, figuring it would be best not to encourage her employees to get plastered then drive home. There was a bar in the club where people could buy their own drinks. Ausus Productions was covering her bar tab, and she had extended it to include her close circle of friends. She doubted they would drink that much, but she wanted to make sure they got something if they wanted it.

As Billy and Trini walked by the huge food table they caught a glimpse of their friends. They were more than excited to go talk to them. Billy hadn’t even seen them as rangers much lately. It had been a little more than two weeks since the alternate Kim had banished Callisto and there had been no word from the goddess since. Kim said it would take her a while to find her way back, and Billy was hoping that the peace would last a little longer. This had been the quietest two weeks they had seen since Callisto and Rhianna attacked Earth the first time.

Billy’s thoughts shifted to the fact that he hadn’t even been in the Command Chamber much lately. He had done all the work that he could, and until the bad guys made the next move he had no way of knowing where to go from there.

Trini pulled him out of his thoughts as she squeezed on his arm when they caught up to their friends. "Hey guys." Trini greeted enthusiastically

"Hey!" Kim replied quickly giving an old friend a hug. "How are you guys doing?"

"We’re good." Trini said looking over the foursome. "Where’s Jason?"

"Not here yet." Kim said giving her a mischievous smile. "He had to go pick up his date."

"Oh." Trini said playfully raising an eyebrow before she and Kim giggled like school girls. Here they were at a party with most of the original rangers and Jason was bringing a date... well it almost made her feel like high school all over again. She missed those times. When life wasn’t all work, work, work and she actually got to hang out with her friends. She let out a sigh and Kim flashed her a smile, and she immediately smiled back.

"So are you guys ready to see this? I hope it doesn’t suck." Carri said a sudden wave of nerves rushing over her. She didn’t know what she was more nervous about, the party going off well or the show. She had done what felt like a million news broadcasts and none of them sucked. But this was different. This was a television show, her television show, and the whole world would be watching. The last thing she wanted to do was suck.

Rocky put what he hoped was a reassuring arm around her. "It’s not going to suck. It’s going to be fabulous."

"And if it does suck we’ll all just get plastered and party so the night’s not a total waste." Tommy joked

Kim shot him a cruel look as Carri rolled her eyes. "Yeah and that makes me feel a lot better." she said heavy on the sarcasm as Tommy put his arms around Kim and pulled her into him

Tommy laughed at her. Billy chuckled as well before speaking. "Don’t worry it’s going to be fine and everyone is going to have a great time."

"Right." Carri agreed giving a somewhat smile. "Think positive." she added. And hopefully the night wouldn’t be a disaster. Carri took a deep breath and looked around the room. Soon she would either have a career or it would be over.

As the small group of former and present rangers were getting excited and nervous about the upcoming premiere, the final member of the team came strolling through the door with his girlfriend by his side. Jason put a hand on her back and gently led her down the stairs and toward the main room of the club.

"This is amazing." Michelle said as she looked around. "Thank you so much for bringing me." Being at the television premiere party blew her away. Jason assured her there wasn’t going to be any huge celebrities attending the party. But then again here she was with her boyfriend, whose best friend was getting ready to air her first show on a major cable network. That was celebrity enough for her.

"I’m just glad you could make it." Jason replied as they walked into the main room. And he truly was. He couldn’t wait to share her with everyone else. He was still holding his breath until he could hear the girls reactions, but he was convinced that they would like her. He wasn’t expecting them to all become best friends, but they would at least find her worthy of him.

They headed in to the main room and looked around. Michelle was amazed by what the production company did. When she was done looking around she turned to her boyfriend. "Where are your friends?"

Jason didn’t reply as he was just wondering that himself. Finally he spotted them. "There." he said pointing with one hand and grabbing her with the other. He led her through the crowed until he finally made his way to his group of friends. "Hey guys." Jason greeted

The rangers smiled and said hello to him before staring over at his girlfriend. "I’d like you all to meet my girlfriend, Michelle Montgomery." Jason said quickly to avoid the awkward looks from everyone. "And Michelle these are my friends, Billy, Trini, Carri, Rocky, Kim and Tommy."

"Nice to meet you all." Michelle said as everyone shook her hand and said hello

As Carri shook her hand she looked at her oddly. The woman standing in front of her looked so familiar but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. The odd look did not escape Michelle as she made a quick glance toward her boyfriend. They both hand the same thought, the worry that they didn’t like Michelle already.

"So how did you guys meet?" Kim asked trying to get the conversation rolling and figure out a little bit about Michelle at the same time.

"He literally ran me over at the building where I work." Michelle said smiling at the memory. "We both were walking through the lobby. He was going down from the doctor’s and I was going up to the law firm."

Jason flashed everyone a smile and nodded as Michelle started telling the story. He thought about how he would tell Kim and Carri privately that he had met his publisher in his office on the fourth floor, which was a floor above the lawyer’s office and two floors below the doctor. He told Michelle he had been at the doctor that day as he never told anyone that he was a novelist only an online investor. If he ever found the one, he’d eventually let her know the second biggest secret of his life.

Jason’s thoughts quickly shifted gears as he moved on to tell the rest of the story. "I got a call and I couldn’t find my phone. I was looking through my pockets for it and the next thing I knew her papers were flying everywhere."

"Jason helped me pick everything up then he asked me out. I couldn’t help but say yes. He was so adorable." Michelle finished giving that giddy school girl smile

"Aw." Carri said flashing her a quick smile. She didn’t care much about her cutsie love at first sight angle. She wanted to know everything there was to know about Michelle. Especially since she still thought she knew her from somewhere.

"So do you work for the law firm?" Kim asked smiling at Michelle and continuing asking question

"Yes I do." Michelle said flashing them a smile. "I’m a lawyer. I handle a lot of high end clients." Usually that was enough information to impress a date and his friends. It was hard to be accepted into someone’s circle, but it usually helped if they thought you were important.

Of course what she didn’t know was that she was facing a group of rangers, several of whom were VIP’s themselves. "Me too." Trini said to let her know that they were both of equal status. "I work for the EPA." Trini spent her first three years of college taking online classes while working in Switzerland. Through promoting world peace she also found other aspects of the world she cared about. When she came home to finish school she decided wanted to get into law and she wanted to help the world by helping the environment, and that was the best way she knew how to do it.

"You do?" Michelle said flashing her a smile. That didn’t work as well as she thought. Although maybe it would be best for her as she did fit in with his friends. "That’s great."

"Carri!" a female voice called from across the crowded room

Carri sighed. She’d recognize that heavily accented voice anywhere. She turned to her friends and smiled. "I’ll be back." she said as she went to greet her visitor

Inviting her cousin had not been Carri’s idea, it had been her fathers. He was basically the one who invited her, under the assumption that she was family and she should be there. Carri didn’t want to cause drama by uninviting her, and she didn’t want to tell her father no since he was the reason she was there. So she left it be and hoped that she could just avoid Kat for most of the night. Besides she was still her cousin and despite their differences Carri did still love her, so it was cool that she wanted to show up and support her.

"Hello." Carri said hoping to make the pleasantries quick so she could get back to socializing with her friends

"Hey." Kat replied surprising her with a hug

Carri stepped back startled for a moment as Kat hugged her then let her go. She looked around her cousin and noticed that she was all alone. "Where’s Chris?" she asked. Not that she actually wanted to see the man but she expected him to be Kat’s date for the evening.

"Oh he couldn’t make it." Kat said doing her best to flash a smile

"That’s to bad." Carri lied

Kat shrugged. "Yeah. You know. Work calls."

As Kat looked around the room Carri could tell she was upset about something. She figured it had to do with the fact that Chris had to work the night of her party and couldn’t make it. Kat used to always blab on about her hanging out with Chris more. For a half a second she thought about asking Kat why she was upset but decided not to push the issue. If it was something she wanted to talk about, she’d let her know.

"So the buffet is over there." Carri said as she gestured to the food. "There’s a bar over there but I’m sure you won’t want that. The show is going to start soon so if you need anything let me know."

Carri turned to walk away when Kat stopped her. "Wait." Kat urged. She kept thinking about asking her cousin to hang out with her. She wanted to reconcile but she wasn’t sure where to start. They had been at such odds lately and she didn’t like it. Once upon a time they had been best friends and Kat missed that. The more she thought about it the more she thought a little shopping would do the trick. "I know you’ve got a lot to do tonight so you can’t hang around, but I was thinking tomorrow morning we could hang out. I need some help picking out stuff for the baby and you have a good eye for what’s stylish."

Carri let out a long sigh. The last thing she wanted to do was spend the morning ogling over baby stuff. She was inclined to say no chance in hell, but the more she thought about it the more she thought how it would make a lot of people happy if she would try to play nice with Kat. Besides as long as Kat didn’t discuss her wedding, it might not be totally awful. "Sure. We’ll go."

Kat smiled at her cousin. She was so thrilled to hear that. She had so much that she wanted to talk to her about and she couldn’t wait to get the opportunity to do it. "Great. I’ll call you around eight-thirty and we can figure out a place to meet."

"Great." Carri said as she turned to walk away again hoping that Kat wouldn’t stop her this time. She shook her head as she walked. She wasn’t completely sure what she had gotten herself into. She slowly headed back to the spot where her friends once were to find that Kim was the only one still there. "Where did everyone go?"

"Your man went with Trini and Billy to the buffet. Tommy went for a beer. And Jason and Michelle went off to look around." Kim explained quickly. She had stayed behind because she wanted to chat with Carri after everyone else left.

"So did I miss anything? Like do we know any more about Jase’s girlfriend?" Carri asked raising an eyebrow

Kim shrugged. "Not really. We asked a few general questions, she tried to give us answers she thought we wanted to hear. I think she’s nervous. I think she wants to impress us so we’ll like her."

"Are we that hard to get along with?" Carri asked with a grin

"As long as you’re not out for world domination, we’re cool." Kim joked in reply. "So what do you think about Michelle?" she asked. Kim wanted to see what her friend thought and if she agreed with her. She was sure Jason was going to ask their opinion as well.

"I donno. She seems nice enough. I just keep getting the feeling that I know her from somewhere." Carri said pausing to think for a few minutes. That girl was so familiar. Suddenly it hit her. How she knew Michelle Montgomery. "Oh.... my.... god...." Carri said her eyes getting wide

"What?" Kim questioned. She couldn’t imagine what she knew about Michelle that could be that jaw dropping.

"Michelle... is not Michelle... I mean she is now... but oh shit...." Carri said as everything was clicking together

"Carri seriously that is not explaining anything." Kim said making a face and crossing her arms over her chest

"We used to play baseball together." Carri said simply

"I thought you were the only girl on the team." Kim said tilting her head and looking at her friend curiously

Carri nodded as she replied. "I was."

"Oh shit." Kim said as this time her eyes got wide. "Are you sure? I mean absolutely sure?"

"Well I heard he was going to do it. And that girl looks a lot like him. Or at least what a woman him would look like." Carri said still trying to grasp what was going on

Kim let out some unintelligent babble as she freaked out for a moment. "We have to tell Jason." she said once she finally calmed down

"Tell Jason what?" Rocky asked as he walked up behind the girls, causing them both to jump

"Take a good look at Michelle." Carri said grabbing his arm and pulling him closer, pointing him toward the area were the duo stood off in the distance. "And tell me that’s not Michael Montgomery."

Rocky started at her for a moment. "Shit." he said simply once he realized his girlfriend was right. Michelle held a striking resemblance to Michael. Michael had played baseball with them and was a year younger. He was a good ball player, but he was always one of the more feminine players on the team. It wasn’t until years later when he ran into another one of the players that he heard that his teammate who always talked about embracing his feminine side finally did so by going through with the surgery. "So what are you going to do?"

"Tell Jason. We have to." Kim said. They felt as though they were obliged to let him in on the secret.

"Michelle should tell him." Rocky argued. Michael was nice and they were all friends in high school and he felt is though it was his secret to tell. Although considering the fact that he didn’t acknowledge his or Carri’s presence it made him think he would never tell. Which the more he thought about it the more he thought that it was really weird that Michelle did a really good job of acting like they’d never met before. He thought for a moment that Carri could be wrong but she looked almost just like him.

"You should tell him." Carri said looking over at her boyfriend. "Your both guys. He’ll listen."

"Your logic is faulty." Rocky quickly pointed out. "Besides you two are the ones he considers his sisters and I’d want to hear it from family."

"Then you should tell him." Kim said looking squarely at Carri. "You’re the one who speaks first thinks later. He won’t think much of it."

"He’s known you longer." Carri pointed out. She wasn’t sure why noone wanted to tell Jason about his girlfriend. Well she knew why she didn’t. He looked so happy with her. And she seemed nice. It would be one thing to tell the man that his new girlfriend was a bitch, it’s something totally different if you’re going to tell him that she used to be a man.

"Yes but"

"Sorry to interrupt." Mollie said as she walked up behind the group and cut Kim off. As Carri’s assistant she had been her right hand for planning this entire thing. So far it has gone off without a hitch. The show was about to start and Mollie would finally be able to relax some, but not until she got Carri in front of everyone. "It’s ten minutes until show time. Do you still want to say something?"

"Of course." Carri replied. She was surprised that time was flying by so fast. Quickly she excused herself from the group and walked up to the front of the room, grabbing a mic from one of her sound guy’s outstretched hands. "Thank you." she said flashing him a quick smile

"You’re good." he said as he turned the mic on and the sound up

"Good evening everyone." she spoke loud and clear, snapping all heads toward her. "Thank you all for coming out here tonight." At this point she had everyone’s undivided attention. "Tonight we are all here to see the premiere of Traveling In Style, which will be on in just moments on the television behind me. Before it gets started I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been working their assess off over the last few months to make this show a reality. I know things have been crazy but we’ve all stuck it out and done an amazing job."

She paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "Once this series is a summer smash we will be a well oiled machine and be prepared for our return in the winter." she said with more confidence than she felt. She hoped the network would continue the show. They had a few more weeks worth of work before they were finished with the summer episodes. Then the show would be on hiatus until final word came down from the network. If they were going to air the show in the winter, they would start filming again in mid-September. "We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us but for now let’s not worry about that. Tonight’s the night to celebrate what we’ve done and enjoy the final project."

As she finished her speech a man toward the front started clapping. Carri looked at him curiously for a moment before she handed the microphone off and ran down to throw her arms around him. "What are you doing here!" she exclaimed

The man warmly returned the hug. "Well as one of my company’s projects and our first joint project I couldn’t very well miss the premiere."

"Are mom and Josh here?" Carri asked as her father shook his head no. She found herself slightly disappointed but not surprised as her mom probably didn’t care and Josh’s breakup was still too fresh for him to want to return. "How long are you here for?"

"Just for tonight. I’m flying back on the jet after the party. I just wanted to come celebrate the premiere with the people who made it happen." He had never missed a party for one of his shows, and although this was Carri’s project and her company officially produced it, her company was a part of his and this show was their doing.

"Well come on, let’s go find the others before the show starts." Carri said grabbing her father by the arm and leading him off through the crowd. She led him up a few stairs and to the small area that had been set up specifically for her and her friends.

Her father greeted the ones he knew and was introduced to the ones he didn’t before sitting down beside his daughter. Everyone got comfortable curling up with their significant others as the opening credits started to roll and the show began.

Jason awoke the next morning in his bed with a slight headache. They had partied most of the night before and he had consumed one too many beers. At Carri’s insistence she drove him and Michelle home and he left his car at the club.

It was alright though, the party had been a great time. He was surprised at Jonathan Hillard’s arrival as the man barely made it out to California anymore. But Carri had been so excited to see that her father had come to support her show. Considering he didn’t show up for either of her graduations or state playoffs, it was nice to see him support something. He was always busy with work. Of course the argument could be made that this trip was work related.

The show itself had been amazing. Although the first episode had been on Angel Grove, they had put such a spin on the show he felt like he learned new things about the town he spent most of his life in. Everyone that had attended the party loved the show, but now it was up to what the rest of the world thought.

Everyone was in a good mood after the show was over and that’s when the drinks started flowing. The rangers sat around the table most of the night and laughed and carried on, while Carri ran back and forth between her friends and the other guests. Michelle seemed to loosen up a little and have a good time with his friends at that point which was really awesome.

Jason let out a sigh as his thoughts drifted back to Michelle. She couldn’t have come into his life at a more perfect time. Over the last year he hadn’t had any luck on the dating front. Then to see the alternate Jason still with Emily only reminded him all over again on how he couldn’t seem to have a working relationship. Her involvement with the rangers was more than likely what kept her from running into the arms of another man. He wasn’t sure how it came about, he wouldn’t have known how to get his Emily involved.

Those were the things that were swirling around in his mind the day he went to turn his book in, only hours after their return from the alternate universe. There were things that happened there that he prayed wouldn’t come to pass on this universe, a lot of it involving Teeg and her armies. They had enough to worry about with Callisto in their lives.

He thought about that the entire morning while he was in his publishers office, up until he ran into Michelle. She quickly made all those thoughts disappear and suddenly she was the only thing on his mind. He couldn’t believe his good fortune in finding her. It was too early to say for sure, but he thought she really had potential and he could see their relationship going to the next level.

Of course he still had to hear the opinions of his friends, well the girls, before he would say for sure. But they all seemed to get along so well the night before. He couldn’t imagine they would find anything wrong with her. He planned on trying to corner them both that afternoon before he took Michelle to dinner that night.

If he was planning on doing anything that day he would have to start by getting up and getting moving. He had a few things he needed to do for his publisher before he could catch up with the two female rangers.

Slowly Jason climbed out of bed and stretched. Now was a good a time as any to get up.

Some of the previous night’s party goers had gotten up earlier than others. Carri was one of them. She was never one to get out of bed early, but that particular night she couldn’t sleep. She stayed curled up in Rocky’s arms until the sun crept through the clouds. Slowly she pulled herself away from him and snuck out of bed, darting into her office and cranking up the computer.

She couldn’t wait to see the overnight’s. She had to know if anyone even watched the show. She wasn’t expecting to see any reviews that particular morning, those would be flowing in over the next few days. But numbers meant as much as good reviews did.

For a cable show the numbers had been good and Carri was quite pleased about that. She couldn’t help but be a little giddy throughout the morning. Rocky had gotten up and they had breakfast then took showers and were both off on their separate ways, him to work and her to meet Kat.

She wasn’t sure if she was ready to meet Kat, but seeing the numbers had put her in such a good mood even Kat couldn’t bring her down. As she pulled into the parking lot of Babies R’ Us and saw Kat standing out front surrounded by mothers with screaming infants who were entering the building, she changed her mind. This day could go bad.

Sighing she pulled into a parking space before jumping out to meet her cousin. "Hey." she greeted

"Hey!" Kat said excitedly as she greeted her with another hug. "I’m so glad we could hang out today. This is going to be so much fun." Kat couldn’t wait to spend the morning with her cousin. She wanted them to become friends again and she was determined to reconcile with Carri before the morning was up.

Carri wasn’t sure how much fun this was going to be but she smiled and nodded as Kat grabbed a cart and they headed into the store. "So what’s up?" Carri asked trying to break the silence that was settling over them

Kat noticed the silence as well and decided she didn’t want it lingering the entire time they were out. "I’m sorry about everything that happened. Between us."

"It’s ok." Carri said as they slowly walked down one of the aisles. Kat looked at her as though she wanted an apology in return. Carri still didn’t feel like she had anything to apologize for.

"Anyway I’m glad we can move past that." Kat continued figuring if she was going to hold out for an apology from Carri she was probably going to be waiting for a while. Kat still felt like Carri had things to be sorry for, but if they were going to make up pointing them out was not the solution. That would only irritate her and send her out the door angry. "I want to be best friends again. I miss that."

Carri didn’t reply. She wanted to try to be on solid ground with her cousin but best friends was not what she was looking for. She didn’t think they could be best friends again. They were so different at that point they may as well have lived on different planets. Not to mention she still didn’t agree with a lot of Kat’s choices in life, as she knew Kat didn’t agree with a lot of hers.

"It will be fun." Kat said feeling as though she was going to have to persuade her cousin to be best friends with her again. A changing table caught her eye and Kat squealed, changing the topic of conversation figuring she had all morning to work on Carri. "Look at that it would be so perfect in the nursery!" she exclaimed

"It’s nice." Carri agreed although she didn’t know a thing about the difference between one changing table and another. She could care less about baby stuff and yet she had been bombarded with people having babies lately. Of course some of them were in another reality. And some of them really got under her skin.

"I’m so excited about this baby Carri." Kat said gushing at the thought of her unborn child. "We have so much we have to do to get ready. You’ll have to help me. I have all these baby programs I want to get enrolled in. Baby Einstein, baby gym... it would be so cool if you could come to some of those."

Carri crinkled up her noise. It would be a cold day in hell before she stood around with a bunch of prissy mothers trying to shape children who had yet to figure which way was up. "I don’t know. I keep a pretty busy daytime schedule with the show and fighting evil and all." she said giving the response she thought would be least offensive

"That’s ok. Those programs are hard to keep up with. But maybe sometime you could check them out." Kat said. She couldn’t blame her cousin for not being able to attend every baby thing. It was going to be a lot and when you had a huge career it made a difference. "You can still come with me sometime to pick things out for the baby. There’s so many toys I want to get to help the baby’s growth. And clothes. You absolutely have to help picking out with clothes. I know how much you love clothes shopping." Kat said grinning at her cousin

"Yeah." Carri replied giving her the warmest, fakest smile she could muster. She loved clothes shopping for herself. And she liked helping Kim pick out outfits. But clothes shopping for babies was not her cup of tea.

"Oh and I’ve decided against formula. I’m going to breast-feed. I’ve heard that’s better for the baby." Kat said getting more excited by finally sharing some baby things with Carri. "And you should see the website I found to order diapers off of. They’re so much cheaper and they deliver them in twenty-four hours. This is going to be so great. We can share all this stuff together then you’ll be ready when you decide to have your own family."

Carri froze for a moment as they turned the corner toward another aisle. Now Kat had gone just plain crazy and she was going to switch the subject before she did or said something she’d regret. "So how did you enjoy the party last night?"

"It was fabulous." Kat said. She had a wonderful time and enjoyed the show. She hadn’t stayed and partied with the others but it was still a lot of fun. "It was great seeing Uncle Jon again. I was sad that Aunt Becky and Josh didn’t make it."

"Mom is.... mom." Carri said snorting as she finished speaking. She couldn’t see her mother wanting to waste the time to fly to California to see Carri’s show and spend time with her and her friends. "And Josh didn’t want to come down at the moment."

"Oh yeah he and Kim broke up." Kat said trying to convey disappointment she didn’t actually feel

"It’s alright. Josh has had a flavor of the week since then and Kim has more than moved on." Carri said dig she just took at Kat

"Oh that’s right. She’s back with Tommy." she replied dryly. "I saw them together at the party last night."

"Yes I suppose you did." Carri said and then it hit her. Kat wasn’t in a good mood the previous night. Carri had assumed it had to do with the fact that Chris couldn’t make it but now she was pretty sure it had to do with seeing her ex in the arms of the one woman she blamed for ruining their relationship among other things. Kat wasn’t one to admit it, but deep down Carri knew she held a grudge. Tommy never looked at Kat the same after he accidentally kissed Kim in Florida. And Kim and Carri became close while she and Kat drifted. Add in Kim’s perfect fit with the rangers and you have a whole list of reasons that Kat wasn’t fond of Kim. Carri wasn’t sure which of Kim’s relationships drove Kat more crazy, the one with Josh or the one with Tommy.

Kat made a face as she continued walking. She didn’t want Kim to have the opportunity to become a member of the family. But the last thing she wanted was to push her back into Tommy’s open arms. The two of them together disgusted her. Sometimes she thought about what would have happened if she and Tommy had their ever after. Not that she wasn’t madly in love with Chris, but there was still something about Tommy.

She supposed it never would have worked. Tommy has always been involved with the rangers and she was more than glad when that part of her life was over. But there were reasons they clicked the first time. If Kim hadn’t been in the back of his mind during their relationship, things would have turned out differently.

As Kat strolled down the next aisle she saw cribs lining the sales floor and quickly forgot about Kim and Tommy. "Oh Carri you have to help me pick out one of these." she said as she started rummaging through her purse. "I have pictures of what we were thinking about doing with the nursery and you can look at them so we can find one that will fit."

"Sounds like fun." Carri said rolling her eyes when Kat wasn’t looking. This was going to be a long morning.

Tommy stood in the kitchen of his tiny apartment putting the finishing touches on his breakfast in bed. He still couldn’t believe that he was with the angel that was in the other room sound asleep.

Regardless of how they got there, the fact was that they had made it back together. And the more he thought about it the more he realized they were meant to be. The way they connected on all levels was amazing. It felt like they had never been apart. In a way their four years apart made them closer than ever. Both had ended up on important ranger missions, and both were now highly revered throughout the galaxy. Because of that they were both now stronger individuals and even stronger together.

He loved her more than anything. On their first official date together he could hardly contain himself. Of course although dinner was their first date, they had plenty of coffee’s and lunches together in the days prior. Not to mention they had stood strong together during several talks to galactic leaders regarding the Callisto situation. The galaxy was on edge waiting to see if they could be the ones to finally end her reign of terror.

Carri had attended those meetings as a planetary ranger and had groaned and rolled her eyes at the closeness the duo shared, all the while giddy to see them together again. She wasn’t the only member of the ranger family who was excited that Tommy and Kim and found their way back together again. News of them reuniting spread like wildfire and they were getting calls from rangers they hadn’t talked to in ages. Kim spent hours on the phone one night talking to Aisha, sounding like a teenager all over again.

Tommy put the finishing touches on the breakfast plates before walking them to the bedroom. When he entered Kim was still fast asleep so he set the trays aside and walked over to her, leaning in and kissing her on her neck. Kim groaned and smiled as Tommy kissed her again. Her eyes opened and she turned, meeting his lips with her own. "Good morning beautiful." Tommy greeted

"Hey." Kim said smiling as she draped her arms around his neck and pulled him in

Tommy let her draw him into her as they kissed passionately for a moment before Kim let him go. "I brought breakfast." he said simply

Kim sat up and looked over at the two trays sitting to the side. "Tommy you didn’t have to do that." she said delightfully as she looked at the food he brought over

"It was my pleasure." he replied placing a tray in front of her before climbing in beside her with his own food. "Enjoy."

"Thank you." Kim said as she took a gulp of her orange juice. It was so nice to be sitting in bed with Tommy having breakfast.

They had only been back together three weeks but it had been an amazing three weeks. They promised themselves they’d move slowly, but she had spent a good portion of the last two weeks spending the night at Tommy’s. Although neither of them spoke of it, she knew what influenced them.

Traveling to the other world they had seen a Tommy and Kim who were happily married and fighting evil together. Knowing what happened there made them realize more than ever that they were meant to make it work. That they could make it work, despite all that they had been through in their lives. They had gone on their first dinner date after they returned from that world. They felt a closeness that Kim hadn’t felt with anyone in a long time. Instead of ending the evening at the restaurant they ended it in Tommy’s bedroom.

Seeing the other world also made her fear what could happen to her and Tommy. It made her want to cling onto him a little tighter and hold on a little longer all the while praying that her alternate’s universe didn’t come back to haunt her. It was a tough time for the alternate Kim and she couldn’t imagine going through what she was forced to. Tommy chose that moment to look over at Kim and smile and it gave her the feeling that everything would be alright.

"How’s your breakfast?" Tommy asked as he slowly worked on his food

"Good." Kim replied, pulling her thoughts away from the alternate universe and back into her own.

Tommy nodded and smiled as he continued eating. Kim wasn’t the only one thinking about the alternate universe as it had crossed his mind several times as well. For the two worlds to be so similar and him and Kim to be married there, it made him want to fast forward this relationship. He knew it was hard to do that though. Everything was so fresh and new and exciting at the moment he wanted to keep her with him forever. But they had quite a different history than other Tommy’s and Kim’s and he knew that they would have to let things play out for a while.

"What do you want to do today?" Kim questioned as she took a sip of her orange juice

"I was thinking maybe," Tommy paused to lean in closer to Kim, "we could take a shower then go spend the afternoon out on the water." he finished nuzzling her and giving her a kiss

Kim grinned and looked over at Tommy. "That sounds like fun." she replied. She didn’t know of any better way to spend a lazy afternoon than out on the water with Tommy.

Tommy quickly finished the rest of his breakfast and put the tray aside. He looked over at Kim who still had food left on her plate. Leaning in closely to her he pulled the strap down of her top and kiss her shoulder, before working his way down her arm.

"Tommy I’m trying to eat." Kim scolded playfully

"So eat faster." he said as he took her hand and kissed her fingers

"It would help if I had two hands." she replied

Tommy made eye contact with her for a moment before grinning and giving back her hand. He glanced down at the imaginary watch on his wrist. "I’m timing you, you know."

"That’s great so you want me to choke on my breakfast." Kim said rolling her eyes all the while smiling at him. She quickly took a few more bites of her breakfast then pushed the tray aside. "Ok. I’m done. Are you happy now?"

"Yes." Tommy replied, pouncing on her and pulling her down to the bed. He kissed her passionately before slipping his arms under her top and slowly pulling it off. "I think we need to go take a shower now."

Kim squealed with delight as he scooped her up and brought her into the bathroom. She kissed him throughly as they slowly undressed each other before working their way into the shower.

On the other side of the country a blond figure appeared, angry and disoriented in the middle of the park. In a huff she walked over to a picnic bench and saw a newspaper sitting there. She picked it up to look at the title and date. It was a copy of the Miami Daily from that morning, dated June 10, 2007.

"Two weeks." she growled out of frustration. She created a fireball with her hand and turned to throw it at a nearby tree. She watched as the flames engulfed the tree and the few birds that had made it their home fled in fear of their lives.

Watching things burn usually made Callisto feel much better, but this wasn’t helping any. The only thing that would help her is if she could get her hands on that blasted Kemora and rip her limb from limb. She hoped the rangers had only banished her so she could have the fun in destroying them all.

She couldn’t believe that she had spent the last two weeks on the Island of Illusion listening to that blasted Quagmire. She had heard of the place before only she thought it had been destroyed by Rita years ago. Apparently Kemora was well aware of its continued existence.

Her two weeks there had given her a massive headache and all she wanted to do now was destroy something. She had trouble trying to figure out how get out of that hell. For two weeks she was followed around by hallucinations of the rangers, mostly Carri, both morphed and unmorphed. The illusions would attack and usually manage to do some damage but they were more of an annoyance than anything as she was a goddess. However the island interfered with her powers so instead of being able to destroy Carri she had to sit there and listen to her taunt her.

Between Carri taunting her and Quagmire pestering her, she would’ve gone crazy had she not been there already. Most of the hallucinations would disappear as quickly as they appeared. She had been there almost a week when Carri and Kim both showed up and wouldn’t leave her alone. Every where she turned the white and red rangers were there, waiting to pounce. She was beginning to think they were real and were there to destroy her. Three days of them attacking and taunting constantly was enough to put her in her own personal hell. She could feel her powers fading and feel herself fading before she remembered that she was a goddess. She started thinking about all the things she had done with her powers and all the things she would do once she got back to Earth.

Eventually she felt much better and Kim and Carri disappeared. Once they were gone she slowly started to be restored to her former self, powers and all. That didn’t stop Quagmire from following her around for the next four days as her powers were restored. In the midst of one of his rambling she regained the ability to make fire and promptly tested it on him. Satisfied she took out some more of the island while she thought about how to get out of there and get back to Earth.

Now more than anything all she wanted to do was go back to the palace and destroy those rangers. Once the tree finished burning to the ground she took off for the moon. Callisto arrived in her quarters and wasted no time hustling into the main throne room.

"There you are. I was beginning to worry." Rhianna said as she spun around and saw her enter

Callisto raised an eyebrow. Kemora made her, a goddess, disappear for two weeks and she was just now starting to worry. "I’ll get my revenge on Kemora."

"She left shortly after you did and she hasn’t been seen since. We think the rangers may have trapped her somewhere." Rhianna informed her. She had Goldar and Cratus trying to track Kemora but with no luck.

"She can’t hide from me forever." Callisto said simply as she glanced around the throne room. "How are our upgrades going?" she questioned hoping for some good news that day

"Better than expected." Rhianna replied hoping that she could please Callisto with her next bit of information. "They’re almost complete."

"They are?" the goddess asked, forgetting for a moment the hellish two weeks she spent on the Island of Illusion. "When will they be ready?"

"We will be ready to attack the rangers within the next two hours." Rhianna informed her. The upgrades had gone better than expected. They took longer to complete but it was alright as Rhianna didn’t think there was any way the rangers could get around them and defeat them. Their army would essentially render the Turbo powers useless.

"Good." Callisto said, smiling as she started to play with fire in her hands. "We need to discuss our strategy."

"Strategy?" Rhianna questioned, genuinely confused. "I thought we were just going to send the army down to destroy them."

"That takes all the fun out of it." Callisto replied as she allowed the flame in her hand to disappear. "No we’re going to let our armies go down there and beat them, strip them of their powers. Then we’ll go down with Cratus and Goldar and finish them off ourselves."

Rhianna smiled. She liked having Callisto around as she liked the way she thought. There was one question in the back of her mind. "What if we have to deal with the Planetary Rangers?"

Callisto paused and thought for a moment. This was actually something that her mind had crossed over several times before. She thought she had a solution to that as well. "I’ll take care of it." she said as she glanced over at Rhianna. "You stay here and make sure the upgrades get finished on schedule. I’m going to go get a present for the Planetary Rangers."

"Where are you going?" Rhianna asked, stopping the goddess from teleporting herself off

"To see an old friend." she replied as with a wave of her hand she was gone, leaving Rhianna in the palace to get their work done

Carri walked out of the last baby store rubbing her temples. She escaped any more torture by telling Kat she couldn’t stay for lunch or more shopping because she had work to do. What she really needed to do was take a few shots and collapse on the couch, grateful that the morning was over.

Spending time with her cousin wasn’t all that bad. It was the fact that they were shopping for baby stuff that made it bad. She was so tired about hearing about babies that she wanted to scream or strangle something. And it didn’t help that Kat spent the morning trying to be her best friend again. If she heard one more line about how they could be bestest friends again like nothing every happened, she probably was going to strangle something. And it would probably be tall, blonde and very fond of pink. They had grown older and apart and Kat would just have to come to accept that. Or Carri might have to kill her.

She sighed as she climbed into her car and started the engine. As she looked around she realized she was very close to Rocky’s Angel Grove school, where he was spending the afternoon. She figured she could drop by and maybe they could go have lunch together. Carri could tell him how she was going to do physical damage to her cousin and Rocky could remind her that Kat meant well even if she drove her crazy.

Carri pulled out of the small shopping center and drove the few blocks to Rocky’s school. She pulled in and parked beside his car before climbing out and heading in. She smiled as she approached the small receptionist’s desk. "Excuse me is Rocky...." Carri stopped short as the receptionist spun around. Her eyes narrowed and her jaw clinched. She was already ready to strangle something and she thought she knew what was going to be. "What the hell are you doing here?" she growled

"I work here. But you’re loitering. So you’ll have to leave now or I’m going to have to call the police." Jessica said as she smiled sweetly at Carri and reached for the receiver

Carri slammed her hand down on the phone so hard that several of the parents that were picking up their children turned to look at her. "I wouldn’t do that if I was you. Where’s Rocky?"

"He’s busy but you can leave him a message." Jessica replied. She was enjoying this more than she could have ever imagined. She knew Carri would eventually show her face in here. And she would be floored that she worked there. She was hoping that in time she could wiggle her way back into Rocky’s heart and he would toss that bitch like yesterday’s trash.

"Bullshit. You find him and tell him I need to talk to him now." she said fiercely with a deadly look in her eye. She was not in the mood to play games and Jessica had about three seconds before she got her nose broken again.

Jessica thought for a moment. There was a benefit to bringing Rocky out here right now. She could tell by the look in Carri’s eyes that she was going to fight something, and if she got Rocky to come out it would probably be him. "Fine. If that’s what it will take we’ll let him throw you out." she said as she reached for the receiver. Carri took her hand off of it and Jessica picked it up to dial Rocky’s office. A few seconds later he picked up. "You have a visitor." she said sweetly

Carri crossed her arms and glared at Jessica. At the moment she wasn’t sure what pissed her off more, the fact that Jessica looked so smug sitting behind that desk or the fact that she spoke in such a sweet, seductive tone to Rocky she knew that she was hitting on him again. Suddenly the door opened and Rocky poked his head out. Carri quickly turned her glare toward him. "What the hell is she doing here?" Carri repeated her original question

"Carri what are you doing here?" Rocky asked, looking around to see that people were starting to stare at him. He couldn’t believe she stopped by. She never stopped by. He was waiting for the right time to tell her about Jessica, only he hadn’t found the right time yet. And now here she was. And she knew. And it didn’t take an idiot to tell she was more than a little pissed.

"I was going to swing by and see if you wanted to go to lunch but I can see you probably already have a lunch date." she snapped as she dug her fingernails into her skin

Rocky grabbed her arm and started to pull her toward the back. "Can we talk about this in private?" he asked, although he wasn’t going to give her a chance to say no.

Reluctant at first, Carri let him drag her into his office. "Now answer my question." she growled once she was in the office and the door was shut

"She needed money. So I gave her a job." Rocky said trying to defend his actions

"She needed money? That bitch tried to sue me and you gave her a job? What the hell?" she asked as she could feel her anger rising

"She has one more plastic surgery to go, any modeling she was doing is over because of her nose, and it’s all my fault." Rocky replied. He felt incredibly guilty about everything. He should have never gone out with her in the first place and never strung her along. And he should’ve been up front with Carri that afternoon. He shouldn’t have let her punch Jessica. Now because of all his actions Jessica was out of work and as much as he didn’t like it, he needed a new receptionist and because of him she needed money so he hired her. He almost felt bad for her although he wasn’t sure if he could tell Carri that because he wasn’t sure that she’d understand.

"And what you’re supposed to save her? She got her nose broken because she was an idiot, or have you forgotten?" Carri snapped. Rocky started to speak and she cut him off. "And let’s not forget that she still loves you. That she’s going to spend the entire time hitting on you." Carri added. That was one thing that bugged her the most. When Jessica first spun around in that chair all she could picture was the alternate universe and the little baby that shared Jessica and Rocky’s DNA.

She realized that it was an alternate universe, but the similarities were there. The alternate Kim had said that all universes were different, but at the same time theirs were strikingly parallel. That had haunted Carri since they got back, the fear that Teeg could attack or something similar would happen to their world. Of course the fear that Rocky would get Jessica knocked up hadn’t crossed her mind until now. Until she saw her working there and realized that they had the opportunity. All she could think about was them screwing when her back was turned and then nine months later everyone’s lives would be over.

"I don’t love her. I love you." Rocky tried to point out quickly to get his girlfriend to calm down

Carri tried to stop thinking about babies as she rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah like that’s going to stop her from trying."

"Carri please." Rocky started as he reached out and touched her arm.

Before he could finish his thought Carri jerked away from him. "Just don’t." she snapped. "That bitch is here and she’s going to try her hardest to seduce you and regardless of how much you love me she’s going to be persistent all the way through until the day I walk in here to find you two screwing on your desk."

With that Carri tuned and stormed out of his office and stomped through the school with Rocky hot on her heels calling after her. He didn’t get a chance to stop her as Jessica grabbed him and Carri flew out the front door with a vengeance. "Let her cool down. There’s no point in chasing after her now, you might say something you’ll regret." Jessica said as she grabbed him by the arm. Or they might reconcile which would be even worse for her. It was best just to let her leave mad and stay mad.

"Yeah... yeah I guess so." Rocky agreed numbly. All he could think as he turned to go back into his office was that this was all his fault. He couldn’t believe he had managed to get himself into this mess.

Billy sat in his office going over some of his work. He had deadlines to meet and projects to finish, but the good news was they were all coming along quite nicely. That was why he made good money and was a highly regarded member of the company. All his projects came along well at met deadlines, and all of them were well above expectations.

His job was hard work but he could honestly say he enjoyed it. Not to mention he was good at it. Good enough that Trini would never have to work another day in her life if she didn’t want to. But she had a job that she loved too, and she made decent money doing it. She had a passion for the environment and fighting the fight for those creatures who couldn’t fight it for themselves. He admired that about her, and it only made him love her more.

Between the two of them they had more than enough to afford nice cars and a nice home, and have some left over. They both agreed to put the leftover money in savings, which they used on occasion for a vacation or to splurge on something fancy.

What Billy really wanted to do with their extra income was put it toward starting a family. That was the next step in their lives, one they had both talked about at length. That was easier said than done, as they both had been rangers on the original team. The morphin coins had been the only power designed to prevent pregnancy of the women who were connected to their energy. Unfortunately the energy of the coin would stay with someone long after they quit being a morphing ranger. They were able to have children as the effects of the coin were now sporadic and would eventually wear off, although it would take them longer to conceive than normal couples. Kat had gotten lucky in her pregnancy, and Billy suspected it was due to the fact that she hadn’t held a coin for long before they went over to using the Zeo Crystal.

Other powers hadn’t connected as much with the inner workings of the human body, so rangers like Ashley had more luck. Of course some powers were completely intertwined with humans such as the Dino Gems. It would be interesting to do a study on those rangers to see the effects of the gem on human DNA. He wasn’t sure what would happen when those rangers, especially Kira, decided to settle down and start a family.

Even if it took them years to conceive they wouldn’t give up. They were ready to start their own family, ready to pass on the Kwan-Cranston legacy. The thought of becoming a father overjoyed him and he hoped he could see it come to pass sooner rather than later. Of course if they were never able to have kids, that wouldn’t matter. He loved Trini more than anything and she was all that he needed to live his life.

Billy let out a sigh and tried to go back to getting his work done. His thoughts kept drifting around as he thought of his wife and his friends and how everything around him was falling into place once again. The one thing that finally pulled him back into reality was his phone alarm going off.

Glancing down at it he saw that it was an emergency signal coming from the Command Chamber. Quickly he made sure the office was locked before he teleported himself up. He ran to the controls and tried to cue up the disturbance. As he looked at the scene in front of him he cursed under his breath.

After weeks of near in activity, Cratus, Goldar, a monster and a small army of Cirranadrones were now attacking the surface. He was afraid that this could only mean one thing, and it wasn’t good. He rushed over to the control panel and started paging the rangers so that they could hurry and get out to the action.

Tommy and Kim found themselves on a rented motorboat floating around lazily in the middle of the ocean. There was noone to be seen for what felt miles as the only other two boats that had been out there had gone in already. That suited them just fine as it left them all alone to soak up the sun and spend time together.

Kim popped open a soda from the small cooler they had brought. "So Dr. Oliver." she started as she went to sit in his lap. "Now that you’ve got me out here what do you want to do with me?"

Tommy pulled her in and gave her a kiss, his heart racing as he thought about that morning’s shower and all the things he could do to her. "Why don’t we strip you down and get you some sun." he said tugging on the tank top and shorts she had worn over her bikini. He had to try and keep from taking her right there as you never knew when a boat with kids was going to pull up.

Kim stood and smiled at him, grabbing the bottom of her shirt and pulling it up a little. "You just want me to strip for you." she teased. In reality it was a good idea, she could use a nice relaxing afternoon laying out in the sun. That was the idea of the trip. Tommy had brought some work to look over as he wasn’t much for the sunbathing, but the duo planned to do some relaxing and swimming and enjoying each other’s company.

"Hey now." Tommy said sitting up and grabbing her waist, pulling her back down to him and giving her a kiss. "Are you really going to strip in front of everybody?"

Kim tossed her head back and let out a laugh. "It was your suggestion remember." she pointed out squeezing him lightly and kissing him throughly in return.

"I guess it was." Tommy replied with a laugh of his own as he put his arms around her and kissed her. For a moment they were lost in each other’s embraces. They paused and pulled apart and were both brought back to reality. "Let’s do some of that relaxing we wanted to do."

Kim nodded and let Tommy glide her off of his lap and next to him. As she went to pull her shirt off, their communicators chirped. She declined to remove the shirt as she sighed and scooted in next to Tommy.

One glance at his girlfriend and Tommy knew that the romance of the previous moment was gone and that they had both slipped into ranger mode. "Go ahead." Tommy spoke into the communicator

Billy’s voice came through loud and clear. "Guys you need to get into the city now. They’ve launched a huge attack. This could be serious so be careful."

"Alright. We’re on our way." Tommy replied. He and Kim stood and looked around, and once they were satisfied that there was noone anywhere close to them they looked at each other and nodded. "Shift into turbo!"Tommy yelled as they quickly morphed and teleported to the scene.

On the beach miles away from Tommy and Kim’s romantic moment laid a certain pissed off yellow ranger. Carri left her boyfriend’s school and drove around for a while. To angry to do anything, she went to the one place she knew she could close her eyes and think for a while, and hopefully calm down.

Laying on the beach and feeling the warmth of the sun on her face was certainly helping. Being in the sand far away from the scene of the crime gave her a chance to think things through. She understood that Rocky had a good heart and wanted to help people. She was still having trouble understanding him wanting to help Jessica.

After the visit to the alternate universe she hoped he would have decided that he needed to stay away from the little tramp. That he would know that Jessica was only trouble, and that there was the possibility that one day Carri would be the bitter yellow ranger whose boyfriend had a child with a woman she despised. Instead she goes to visit him to find them working together.

Following her morning with Kat that was the last thing she needed to see. She still had a lot of bent up anger from her day. Jessica was nothing more than icing on the cake. Of course regardless of whether or not she had spent the morning with Kat, she still wouldn’t have been pleased to run into Jessica at Rocky’s school.

Carri let out a long sigh as she thought about the days when Jessica was nothing more than an annoyance on her radar, the little high school girl who wanted the big college boyfriend and to hang out with his big college friends. Things had changed so much since college and most of it had been for the better, but that was one of the things about college she missed. Now Jessica was old enough to hit on her boyfriend and actually had a prior relationship with him. Carri surprised herself by smiling as she thought about how at least now she could hit the bitch without worrying about being brought up on assaulting a minor charges.

She wasn’t sure what she was going to do with the whole situation. The more she thought about it the less angry she was with Rocky and the more she wanted to just go kick the crap out of Jessica and be done with it. Jessica would probably love to fight her. She probably thought her three karate classes made her better than Carri, and Carri would love to prove her wrong.

As her mind was focused on the situation at hand her communicator went off. Slowly she lifted her hand up and went to answer it. "What’s up?"

"Cratus and Goldar have launched a major attack in the city. You need to get over there right away." Billy quickly informed her

"Got it." she replied as she sat up and dusted the sand off. She thought about how her day just couldn’t get any better as she stood up and went to look for a secure place to morph. Although she did have a lot of bent up anger and an overwhelming need to beat the crap out of something. Since it wasn’t going to be Jessica, good old Goldie would just have to do.

She found a spot where she was completely hidden, and being more than ready to jump into the action she morphed. "Shift into turbo!" she cried as she disappeared in a flash of yellow light

Jason walked out of his publisher’s office with a smile on his face. He had spent the last hour looking over the first copy of his book to make sure everything was alright, and working on picking the cover. There were so many options for good cover art he was having trouble choosing just one. Finally he picked the one he felt most captured the book and would capture the attention of readers wondering through the bookstore.

He also chose the summary that he would want to appear on the book as well as decided to go with the general semi-true biography of Luke Kirk that would appear on the book. There was always a random male picture of the author that looked somewhat like Jason but not close enough for people to mistake Jason for Luke Kirk. His biography stretched the truth of his life somewhat. Instead of spending most of his life in Angel Grove, he was born and raised in Sacramento. Instead of graduating from USC, he went to college at UCLA. Some facts, such as him growing up with both parents and a younger sister and him never being married were the complete truths. The rest of it he maneuvered around so that noone could suspect Jason as the author of the books.

The only part that was left was to get production rolling and start marketing the new book. As far as Jason was concerned, his involvement was finished and he was just waiting for the book to hit the shelves. They would show him any marketing campaigns they wanted to do and he would just agree to it, as marketing wasn’t his strong point. Besides they took a cut of the profits to market the book and he always let them handle everything.

Of course the waiting game was the worst part of the entire process. But he would grin and bear it as he didn’t have many other options. Besides, now that he was done with the book he had more time to spend with his friends and his new girlfriend. And more time for saving the world.

He needed to give the girls a call and get them together so that he could talk to them both. As he walked through the lobby and toward the exit of his publisher’s building, he reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out his cell phone, quickly dialing Carri’s number. It rang twice before his communicator went off, and Jason snapped the phone shut before ducking into a janitor’s closet.

"Go ahead." he said pulling the communicator toward his mouth

"You need to go join the others. Cratus and Goldar have launched an attack." Billy spoke quickly

"On my way." Jason replied. Satisfied that noone was watching the janitor’s closet, he quickly morphed. "Shift into turbo!" he yelled before teleporting to the scene

Rocky had been sitting in his office behind closed doors ever since Carri stormed out of his school. He had tried more than once to call her, but her phone kept going straight to voicemail indicating that she more than likely turned it off. That didn’t stop him from leaving several messages, most of which were apologizing profusely and begging her to just call him back.

Eventually he gave up on the phone calls. He knew Carri well enough to know that she would make contact with him when she was good and ready, if she was ever good and ready. That didn’t help him at all as he sat in his office on edge. He was trying to finish the paperwork he started before Carri arrived at his school but he just couldn’t concentrate on it.

All he could think about was how angry she had gotten with him. He loved her and only her and he thought she knew that. But he also knew Carri and Jessica’s history, and he could see how Carri could fly off the edge upon seeing Jessica working for him. In a way Carri was right. He was well aware that Jessica still loved him, and would probably spend most of her time hitting on him. He hoped that after he showed absolutely no interest in Jessica she would eventually give up. Of course after what he went through in college he should probably know better.

As he sat there staring mindlessly at the papers he heard a knock on his door. "Come in." he called. He was hoping it was Carri coming back to try and work things out.

The door opened and it was the opposite of who he wanted to see. "Hey." Jessica greeted as she walked through and shut the door behind her. "How are you doing?" she asked as she leaned against the door and pushed her chest out.

Rocky glanced up from his desk for a brief moment. This was the last thing he needed. "I’m fine." he replied not wanting to get into a discussion with her about his problems

"I’m sorry about what happened out there. She just went crazy." Jessica said sympathetically while batting her eyelashes

"It’s not your fault." Rocky replied. At least not completely. He was pretty sure Jessica knew which buttons of Carri’s to push and tried to push all of them.

Jessica’s heel’s clicked against the floor as she walked over to Rocky’s desk, putting a hand on his arm. "If you need anything just let me know." she said trying to make eye contact before giving him a hug.

Rocky was taken back by the gesture as he was surprised she’d try to move in this fast. "Thanks." he replied gently pushing her away. As she sat down on his desk he thought about how he should just throw her out of his office. If it wasn’t for the fact that he didn’t want to make any more drama at work he probably would.

"You want me to look at any of this?" Jessica asked, gesturing to his paperwork and flashing him a smile

Besides the fact that she wouldn’t know what she was doing, he didn’t want her any more involved in his business than the simple task of receptionist. Before he could utter an answer, his communicator went off. He had never been so happy to hear it chirp in his life. "Oh I need to get this call. Will you excuse me?" Rocky said giving her a half smile

"Of course. I’ll be out here working if you need me." she said as she left Rocky’s office

The blue ranger jumped up and locked the door behind her before answering his communicator. "Go ahead."

"You need to join the others immediately." Billy spoke

"Got it." Rocky replied. After double checking to make sure that the door was locked he quickly teleported and arrived on the scene.

Rocky was the final ranger to get there, and he made it just in time to jump in on the action. "Metallic armor, power up!" Tommy yelled right as Rocky joined the formation

"If you think that will help you then you’re sadly mistaken." Cratus replied with a smile on his face as he gave the signal to attack

"We’ll see about that." Tommy replied as they quickly split up

Cratus and Goldar stayed back as they were only there to oversee the operation at the moment. With the duo not in the fight, Tommy, Kim and Carri ran after the monster while Jason and Rocky decided to try and make quick work of the Cirranadrones.

It didn’t take long for the rangers to discover that they would be making quick work of noone. After a few moments of battle the rangers found themselves laying on the ground in pain, having been thrown around as though their powers didn’t even exist. Slowly they pulled themselves to their feet and regrouped.

"This is what they’ve been looking for." Kim said clutching her sides as she stood beside her boyfriend. It was only a matter of time before the forces of evil found the solution that could destroy them all.

"Don’t give up guys." Tommy ordered trying to hid the pain he was feeling. Although he spoke the words to his team he knew he didn’t have to. They would rather die fighting than give up.

"How cute red ranger." Goldar snarled. This was the moment he had been waiting for since the moment he first came to Earth with Rita on that faithful day almost fourteen years ago. The opportunity to rid the world of the power rangers. "What are you waiting for?" he asked eying the monster as both the monster and Cirranadrones circled the ranger team.

The rangers watched as the monster unveiled some sort of weapon and pointed it at them. They had mere seconds to brace themselves for the attack only seconds were not enough. The weapon fired in their direction and they flew back upon impact, not able to do anything as the metallic armor slowly disappeared from their suits.

Before they could stand and compose themselves they were covered in Cirranadrones. They tried to fight back but without much luck. The Cirranadrones were quicker, faster and stronger than ever before and were able to deflect the Turbo rangers abilities like it was nothing. The harder the rangers fought the harder the Cirranadrones fought, until eventually the monster jumped in and started firing his weapon at them.

The first shot was powerful enough to disable the metallic armor, and the second shot was proving powerful enough to cause them to power down. One by one the rangers took hits, and one by one they were civilians standing in the middle of a group of monsters.

"We have to teleport back." Carri said. She wasn’t ready to admit defeat, but even she wasn’t stupid enough to stand around and challenge these odds.

Tommy glanced over at her. Like it or not, he agreed. "She’s right. Let’s get back and see what Billy has." Hopefully he could give them some sort of answer, anything at this point would help.

Goldar and Cratus watched as the rangers went to teleport off. "Going so soon?" he questioned as they disappeared. He smiled as the last flashes of multicolored light were gone. It was time to alert Callisto and Rhianna and start phase two of their plan.

The rangers appeared in the Command Center feeling defeated and slightly panicked. "Billy I hope you have some ideas for us." Jason said as the last of the teleportation beam disappeared and the former ranger came into focus.

"I’ve been working on something but it’s not completely ready." Billy said. They moved faster than he had anticipated. He had an idea on how to increase the rangers ability in battle but he hadn’t put it all together yet. He had to wait and see what the evil forces were doing before he could finish his work with any certainty. Now he would have to rush the rest of his plans through, but even then he wouldn’t be ready for a while.

"How long is it going to take?" Tommy questioned stepping forward in front of the group

"If I can get it done fast...," Billy said his voice trailing of as he paused to think, "a few hours at best."

"Billy we don’t have hours." Kim reminded him, her thoughts drifting to the army that they had left in the city. "They’re going to destroy everything and we have to be able to stop them."

"What choice to we have?" Rocky questioned. He didn’t want to see Angel Grove get destroyed any more than they did but they’d get killed if they went back out there. "It’s not like we can defeat them like this and if something happens to us, they’ll be noone left to save the world."

"Rocky’s right." Billy agreed. It was more than stupid for them to try and rush off into battle. "Besides they seem to be in some sort of holding pattern at the moment. If they stay like that long enough I may be able to get this done. But even when I finish there’s no guarantee this is going to work."

"So you go do what you need to do and we’ll work on plan B." Kim said looking over and making eye contact with Billy. Billy nodded and took off in a rush, hoping he could defeat the odds and get this done before it was too late.

"Any ideas on plan B?" Jason questioned once Billy was gone. He first looked at Kim then glanced over at Tommy. Both stood there with their arms crossed in front of their chest looking as though they were trying to think hard about the situation at hand.

Before either could think of a response the alarms went off. Carri walked over to the console and keyed up the disturbance. The same army as before was there, only this time they had been joined by two others. "She’s back." Carri said simply, anger rising as she watched Callisto torch a car, setting off explosions of several other cars nearby. The alternate Kim had said she would eventually come back, and Carri should have known from the attack that she finally returned. She turned toward Kim and locked eyes with her. "I know what plan B is."

Kim simply nodded in response. It was time for the red and white rangers to make an appearance. "Let’s do it."

"Wait, do what?" Tommy asked stopping the girls before they could morph

"We’ll go down as planetary rangers and try to defeat them." Kim said. It was the best plan she could think off, probably because it was the only plan she could think of.

"You saw what they did to our powers. What makes you think you’re going to fare any better?" Tommy questioned. He was not in the slightest thrilled with Kim’s idea.

"Tommy there are powers out there that are much stronger than the Turbo powers." Kim quickly pointed out. "And our Planetary powers happen to quite possibly be the strongest. We’re not asking your permission to go, we’re going." she told him the red ranger in her showing through

She looked over at Carri and nodded, and before Jason or Rocky could make a protest of their own the two girls morphed. "Planetary rangers power up!" Kim cried out as they quickly returned to the surface

Callisto smiled smugly at the two rangers as they arrived. She was more than hoping they’d show up. "It’s good to see you again." she said giving them a look

"Too bad we can’t say the same for you." Carri replied as she and Kim started to attack the Cirranadrones

Both girls found the fight to be easier as Planetary Rangers. They were working hard to defeat the Cirranadrones at the start of the fight. They both called on their weapons and powered them up before running through the Cirranadrones like they were nothing.

Callisto finally decided she was tired of watching them fight. It was time to put her plan into action. She stepped to the front of the group, pushing the monster out of the way of the blast the girls had aimed toward him and ducking to avoid it herself. She reared her hand back and threw several fireballs at the girls, each of them missing.

They did do what she wanted them to do as the two female rangers regrouped and charged at her, weapons in hand. Both thought something was odd as Callisto stood there calmly, waiting for them to attack. When they were close enough the goddess reached behind her back and pulled something out, slamming it to the ground. For a brief second the girls were blinded by a flash of light, then they disappeared.

Callisto smiled satisfactorily as she went to pick up the orb she had thrown. She grabbed it with both hands and pulled it close, getting a good look at the unmorphed rangers who were now trapped inside. This orb was magical, and it was made specifically to interfere with planetary powers. It would trap any Planetary rangers nearby and keep them from morphing again. The best part was that the orb would drain them of their life energy slowly and painfully.

"So now what?" Rhianna questioned as she walked up toward Callisto and looked at the two rangers in the orb. She had to admit, it was more than a little satisfying seeing them there.

"Now for the fun part. We get to watch the show." she said, amused by the duo yelling and screaming at her but getting nowhere

"What about the others?" Rhianna asked. There were still three more rangers to destroy. They had gotten the two most important ones, but she wouldn’t let the others slide that easily.

Callisto glanced around the battlefield. All that was left of their earlier creations was the monster. She tilted her head toward Rhianna and smiled. "We’ll go quickly make some more Cirranadrones. Then we can take them all out in style."

She was in such a good mood that she didn’t mind waiting a little while to take out the rest of the rangers. Their powers were useless and they wouldn’t be able to stop them. But they would be so upset about the girls and the fact that they were destroying the city that they would certainly try.

Rhianna nodded. She wanted to attack now but she trusted Callisto. After all the goddess had gotten her this far. Besides Cirranadrones were easy to make and they would be back down to the surface shortly. With a wave of her staff the group of evil doers were transported back to the palace.

"What.... what the hell just happened?" Rocky asked, his chest tightening as he watched the girls disappear and the army leave

"I don’t know." Tommy said stunned as well. He couldn’t believe that he stood there without any answers the one time he needed them the most. He had to get to the girls, he had to save Kim and he didn’t even know where to start.

"That orb Callisto was holding, I think she trapped them in it." Jason said as he continued to view the scene even though everyone was long gone by then. He couldn’t believe that one minute they were there and kicking ass, and the next they were gone.

"She did." Billy agreed as he walked back into the main room. He had viewed the action from a small screen back in his lab. He had seen the orb and thought he knew what it was. After doing some quick research he found that unfortunately he was right.

"So how do we save them?" Rocky asked. If Billy knew what happened maybe they could get them back quickly.

"The orb was believed to only be a myth." Billy started as he walked over to the console and pulled up some information. Details on the orb popped up and Billy continued speaking. "The orb was created by an evil sorcerer. It was designed to trap the Planetary rangers and demorph them. Once inside the orb, the magic would be able to prevent them from morphing and breaking out."

"So can we find the orb and get them out?" Jason asked hopeful that they could come up with an easy solution to that problem.

"In theory yes. But very few knew of the orb’s existence, let alone have seen it." Billy pointed out

"That’s ok. As long as they’re alright for now we’ll deal with it." Tommy said. He felt a little better knowing that they should be able to fix that situation.

"Well..." Billy said letting his voice trail off. The three concerned male rangers turned to look at him. The tone of his voice was not very reassuring and they wanted to know why. Billy let out a heavy sigh before he spoke again. "The orb was also designed to drain the life force of any rangers trapped inside of it. By my calculations we have until about lunchtime tomorrow to find them or there won’t be anyone left to save."

The End

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