6:53 PM
Command Center
Aisha settles her hands on her hips and glares at Zordon. “Excuse me? The hell you mean, you sent Kat to Phaedos…”
Tommy stalks forward. “How could you do that? How could you just do that without asking me… without asking us…?”
“RANGERS.” Zordon hates the thought of them being angry with him. “IT WAS NECESSARY. KATHERINE’S HEALTH WAS DECLININING SO QUICKLY THAT EVEN THE CONTAINMENT UNIT WAS OF NO ASSISSTANCE.”
“We were only a comm. link away,” Billy whispers, overcome by a deep sense of disappointment in his mentor, “You could have reached us easily.”
“I AM SORRY.” Zordon is beginning to cringe. “BUT WE FELT IT WAS BEST. DULCEA’S PLATEAU WILL KEEP KATHERINE ALIVE UNTIL WE CAN SAVE HER.”
“Enough!” Adam’s sensible nature can only take so much. “Quit it! I don’t give a damn who did what or why! I just want to know what do we have to do now!”
“I’d like to know that myself,” Kim speaks, deceptively calm, as she comes to lay a hand on Adam’s trembling shoulder. Tommy narrows his eyes.
“I would like to answer that question.” Dulcea shimmers into being. Kimberly turns and tenses like a panther on prowl.
“Go ahead,” Rocky sneers, his reaction as cold as Kim’s.
“We must untangle what has been jumbled together,” Dulcea replies, cryptically.
Kim growls, “Tell us what you want or get the hell out.”
“You and Katherine must clear out the confused tendrils of the Power,” Dulcea replies calmly. “Parts of it are still connected to you and the Crane isn’t fully responding to Katherine.” Kim ponders the idea for a moment, closing her eyes.
“Didn’t you know?” Tommy bursts out, afraid he’ll have to lose one of the women he loves, never mind how he loves them.
“No.” Dulcea hangs her head, her guilt written on her face.
“Well, you should have.” Rocky doesn’t usually kick people when they’re down, but this time he’s making an exception.
“YES, WE SHOULD HAVE,” Zordon sighs.
“Enough.” Kim is eerily calm again. No one dares to breathe. “Does this mean that I have to go to Phaedos so that Kat and I can go on the Great Quest?” She is scared that Kat could never make the journey in her condition.
“Yes, Kimberly,” Dulcea confirms, “and Katherine should make it due to the burst of energy that the Plateau will give her. Also you may assist her in using the Power to fuel her.”
Kim eyes her suspiciously, then shrugs and nods. “I’m ready.” Dulcea smiles.
“Whoa, hold it right there!” Tommy spins in rage. “Are you saying that the rest of us have to sit here and do nothing?” There’s nothing that the great White Ranger hates more than inactivity in a crisis.
“Yes,” Dulcea limits her answer to a monosyllable. Adam fumes silently.
“This is going to be more dangerous than our trip?” Billy asserts more than asks.
“Yes.” Dulcea nods, her curls bouncing to cover her face for a moment. Tommy slams his palm into a console. Kim walks up to him, and tips his face so that she can look him in the eyes. Their eyes meet in a sort of primitive communication, fires blazing. She reaches up and kisses his lips fleetingly.
“I’ll be back and I will bring Kat back,” she vows, and everyone can see she means it, even if she has to move heaven and hell to do it. She removes her feather touch off his face and his eyes register the loss. “Go,” she orders roughly. The Rangers watch with a deepening sense of dread as she shimmers away in a cloud of softest pink.
~*~
Time Unknown
Dulcea’s Plateau
Phaedos
The sunlight pierces the cover of the trees. The flowers turn themselves towards it, parading their vibrant colors. The place is quiet, except for the soft sounds of birds cooing and crickets chirping. Kim emerges, her toes sinking lightly into the soft grass. She sweeps back her hair and looks around. Kat lies, curved gently into the fetal position. Her skin is rosy for the first time in days. Kim breathes out in relief.
“She is asleep,” Dulcea intones quietly.
Kim kneels down and lays a hand on Kat’s forehead. It is cool to the touch. “Do we wake her?” she wonders, not looking up.
“Soon,” Dulcea replies, watching the two young women in marvel. They could have been enemies, secretly or openly exchanging offences, barbs, causing pain. Yet, she sees a deep-seated vow to risk anything for the other, anything and everything. Whatever the bond was borne out of, whatever keeps it together, it is strong and enduring. Kimberly will gamble everything to see Katherine safe and whole. Katherine would have done the same. They are entangled forever now, the Power enfolding them together, connecting their souls in a way they never would have chosen but now can never deny. They do not know much of what lays ahead on this journey. It is far different from anything Kimberly experienced the first time and Katherine has no experience, however meager. Dulcea can see that Kimberly needs rest, yet she is reluctant to break the silence. She can see Kimberly’s response would come out of the need to protect Katherine, and she wishes no part in waking the sleeping rage. Kim settles next to Kat and caresses her glimmering hair carefully.
~*~
8:09 PM
DeSantos Residence
The Rangers felt a need to reach out to life. No place has more life than Rocky’s home. They are scattered around the plush living room. The DeSantos kids run through and around, their crazed laughter a balm on the tired tormented Ranger team.
“Angelina,” Theresa DeSantos calls to her youngest. “Get off Aisha now.” The ten year old has settled in Aisha’s lap, pulling on her long braids and the older girl hugs her close.
“It’s alright.” Aisha smiles. “I like her here.”
A ball flies through the room, narrowly missing an antique vase. Tommy catches it, without a second glance, and stands up to catch the whirlwind that is chasing after it. “Ramon,” he scolds gently, “you would not want to buy a replacement for the vase so try and leave it intact.” The boy grins and squirms away. Tommy smiles and shakes his head. He looks down on the ball. “Anyone up for a game of catch?” The eagerness he sees in his friends’ eyes mirrors his own. Forget, they want to forget.
“Last one to the backyard is a Tenga,” Rocky cries out, already in full sprint. The yard is covered in cars, dolls, balls, little Lego pieces and other various toys. Angelina jumps to clear it away, officially the neat freak in the family. Rocky’s siblings slowly come out, wanting to join in. As the gang spreads out, they pull in the kids; Sandra, Ramon, Angelina, Vivian, Catelyn, Jon. The ball cuts through the air and they let everything else go. Nothing exists except them and the ball and the air and the laughter. All those dark thoughts sail into the stars, maybe to remind their missing friends that they are not alone.
~*~
Time Unknown
Dulcea’s Plateau
Phaedos
But alone they are, separated even from each other.
Kim watches the sun inch through the brilliant sky. Kat sleeps still, sighing inaudibly. Dulcea sits, meditating, drawing in the energy. Finally the sun disappears and with it goes any softness left in Kim’s face. The beginning of the end nears and she can feel it. The stars winkle into the dark scratchy wool of the sky.
“It is time,” Dulcea rises effortlessly. Kim wraps her delicate fingers around the sleeping girl’s shoulder and shakes it.
Kat blinks her eyes lazily. “Huh? Where am I?”
“Phaedos.” Kim’s answer is short and Kat seems to understand what it means. The lithe, tall blonde rises and stretches, her graceful limbs moving precisely.
“What now?” Kim asks, the rage bubbling up again along with the fear.
“A kata,” Dulcea responds and begins to move into it. The other two follow. They rise onto their toes, then sink down, their efforts invisible, their arms flowing in unison. The space around them seems to close in like a bubble. A rich yellow beam shoots from the ground and falls apart into dots and swirls around them. An angry red joins it. Then a deep blue, a mute green, a bursting black, color after color flows out, creating a cocoon around them, blocking all sight, all sound, even all smell. Dulcea leaves them as the final color soars out, a pink like they have never seen, composed of all the shades they can think of, all the shades they can name. It runs a bridge between them and they keep moving, flowing, flooding, their limbs flashing, their minds empty of everything but the colors that threaten to overwhelm them, to absorb them. The colors spin faster and faster, and so do Kim and Kat. They seem to blend together, a tornado of shade and feeling. It’s a primitive dance that pulls them in, that pulses with every bit of their beings. Around and around and around. Suddenly, colors burst apart in a brilliant explosion. Kat dives out. Kim flips swiftly.
Then the colors are gone and there are just the two young women, glistening with sweat, dressed in Dulcea’s manner, a bikini top, a bottom covered with a type of loin cloth, soft suede boots, all colored wildly, as if the swirling lights nestled themselves in their attire. They stand, breathing heavily, their eyes still glazed over with the Power of the experience. Dulcea nods.
“You are ready,” she speaks decisively. They nod, yet their faces show no reaction. It is as if she had not really spoken. The trees at the far edge of the plateau sweep away to reveal a path. Dulcea gestures to it. They don’t bother responding, but their movements inexorably bring them closer and closer to their destiny, which is yet covered by leaves and grass. Finally, they step onto the path, together, and the branches swing behind them to cover them from Dulcea’s view. She sighs, “May the Power protect them.”
~*~
10:32 PM
Cranston Residence
The Rangers played ball until they could barely breathe, until their only thoughts were of laughter and childhood. Theresa stuffed them silly, then, sensing their need to stay together, let them go. They walked into Billy’s house a few minutes before and sprawled their warmly tired bodies over the carpet. Their closeness gives them comfort. Billy raises his arm and presses play on his CD player. Thumping notes of rock music burst out of the speakers. It lulls them into a daze and soon they are asleep, despite the early hour, despite the very high volume of the base. Peace is only found in the arms of Morpheus, and even then only when he is at peace himself. Tonight, he is at peace.
~*~
Time Unknown
The Path
Phaedos
When the foliage closes behind the two Pink Rangers, they forge on without a single glance back. Their flat-heeled boots move soundlessly over the little rocks and the brittle twigs. Kimberly gazes into the distance. Thick walls of greenery lock them into the path, which seems to stretch forever. She glances over to Kat, whose face is tense and focused. Suddenly, she feels the ground give under her feet. She screams and her arms flail above her head. Kat reacts at the last possible moment, catching Kim’s hands in her own. The trees, bushes and grass are all gone. They are now at the edge of a cliff, surrounded by rock and stone, and Kim hangs precariously miles above any ground.