The Final Flight

sequel to Enter the Hawk by Setcheti

 

 

Disclaimer:  I don’t own the Power Rangers, they’re possessed by the evil that is Saban.  If they were mine the Purple Ranger would have been a reality and David Yost wouldn’t have gotten booted off the show in such a silly, badly written way.  Anyway, I wrote this series years ago when my son was still watching Power Rangers, but it was written on paper (remember when we all used to write on paper?) so most of it hasn’t made it to the word processor until now.

 Billy pulled off his helmet with a sigh and placed it carefully on top of his dresser, a tired smile ever so faintly curving his lips at how out of place it looked—about as out of place as he felt.  The handsome, muscular blonde stranger his mirror was reflecting had long since ceased to resemble the timid, nerdy Billy who belonged to this painfully neat and normal room; that clumsy, bespectacled boy was gone forever.  Billy readily admitted that he was no Clark Kent, able to maintain the facade of his old self and live a functional double life.  He hadn’t been comfortable with it in the beginning, and it was almost unbearable now.

 

Of course, his morphing problem was the factor that made the whole situation so much worse.  Over the relatively short time that Billy had been wielding the Hawk power, demorphing had gone from a troublesome twinge to excruciating torment—meaning that once he had morphed, he tended to stay that way for as long as he possibly could.  And since his “recovery time” after demorphing had become inconveniently lengthy, Zordon had no complaints about anything he chose to do while powered up; as a matter of fact, the powerful mentor of the Power Rangers spent much of Billy’s enforced downtime telling him about the laws and customs of different inhabited worlds and discussing interplanetary conceptions of justice, freedom, and vigilantism.

  

During his “uptime”, Billy spent long days “testing his limits” in the Command Center’s training room and even longer sleepless nights prowling the dark streets of Angel Grove.  For although Tommy had always been--and would always be--a  natural hero, it was Billy who was tasting the life of a true superhero.  He grinned at himself in the mirror, his strained face relaxing for a moment as he remembered seeing an ad for a new movie one night on his “rounds” and immediately wondering how that guy could do his job with five feet of cape billowing around him.  The “professional” spot-judgment had tickled him so much that he’d put a little picture of the guy up in his room, just to remind him; laughter, the easy, natural kind, was getting to be a rarity in Billy’s life.

 

A door slammed downstairs; his mother was home.  Billy’s tensed again, wishing for a fleeting moment that she would, just this once, come upstairs and into his room to check on him.  Neither of his parents had given any indication that they had noticed the massive changes taking place in their son’s life, and the mirror assured him again that at least some of the changes were strikingly obvious.  Tommy’s mother noticed it if he parted his on a different side, but his own…no, he wasn’t going to start that again.  There was less than no purpose to comparing Tommy’s mom to his own, they were like…well, they weren’t alike, that was the point.  Still, he wished that his parents would take a little interest, if only to comment on the absence of his glasses.

 

He debated about giving them another chance to notice by eating dinner at home tonight, but there was no way he could demorph now and be back on his feet in time—and besides, he had rounds to make.  Coward, his reflection accused him, and he sighed a rueful acknowledgment before settling his helmet firmly back into place.  “Time to get back to work,” he told the superhero in the mirror.  The superhero nodded his helmeted head and vanished in a flash of violet light.

 

 

Battles came and went in the life of a Power Ranger, one enemy merging into another in the seemingly endless struggle for dominance between Good and Evil.  Some days, Tommy had trouble just remembering who they were fighting and why. 

 

And some nights, he fought them all at once.

 

The insistent chime of his wrist communicator pulled him back from the edge of sleep, and he activated the tiny speaker with a mixture of irritation and…relief.  “I’m here, Zordon.”  Well, physically, anyway; it would be enough.

 

“Come to the Command Center at once,” the deep voice of the Power Rangers’ mentor intoned.  “We have…”

 

“A situation developing, I know,” Tommy groaned.  “I’ll be right there.”  He stretched, enjoying the softness of his bed for a second longer before rolling out of it and getting to his feet.  He was just swinging his arm up to morph when his mother’s voice interrupted him.

 

“In your pajamas, hon?” Eleanor asked.  Tommy turned around and saw her standing in his door, smiling at him.  “What kind of warrior goes into battle in an outfit like that?”

 

“A tired one,” he told her with a grin.  “Anyway, I was going to morph first.  You heard?”

 

“Always,” she told him.  “Be careful?”

 

“Always,” he replied, with a pang of conscience for lying to his mother.  Well, he did always try.  “I probably won’t be back tonight.  Don’t wait up.”

 

“Okay.”  She watched him morph into uniform and flash away, then turned back to her own room with a sigh.  She hated lying to her son.

 

 

 

 The briefing was almost over when the Purple Ranger teleported in beside the other six Rangers.  “Sorry I’m late,” he said.  “I’ve been listening in on a closed channel.”

 

“That’s okay, Billy,” Tommy said.  “Zordon told us where you were.  Did you get everyone out?”  The streamlined helmet dipped once, and Tommy nodded as well.  “I’m glad.”  Then he turned his attention back to the others.  “Okay, I want everyone to fan out and report back what you find—we don’t want another ‘surprise’ like last time.  Don’t engage any…thing yet, just check it out and make sure there aren’t any civilians in the area.  Head out!”

 

The others put on their helmets, and five flashes of colored light momentarily brightened the control room.  Tommy caught the Purple Ranger’s arm before he could follow.  “Oh no you don’t,” he said firmly.  “Now take that helmet off so I can see who I’m yelling at.”

 

With a sigh, Billy pulled off the helmet.  “You’re just afraid I’m making faces at you behind the visor.  I told you I only do that when you really deserve it.”

 

“Well, maybe I’m about to.”  Tommy took a deep breath.  “You look lousy, you know.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

“Stop being…that way!”  Billy jumped, but Tommy was fuming and didn’t care; it was either that or burst into tears at how worn and tired his friend looked.  “I’m worried about you, okay?  You’re pushing yourself too hard.”

 

Billy didn’t get angry.  He put a hand on the Red Ranger’s shoulder and shook him lightly.  “Like I have a choice?” he said gently.  “I know I don’t have to remind you how this all works, Tommy; you’ve done it twice already.”

 

Tommy shook his head.  “It wasn’t like this for me.  Not even with the Green Power.”

 

“I’m okay,” Billy reassured him.  He was lying and they both knew it, but the lie was all he had to offer—to utter the truth out loud would have decimated them both, and they had a battle to win.  He slipped back into the bantering tone that Tommy had just ordered him to drop, .  “And anyway, I’m not the one who spends all his spare time on the diagnostic bed in the corner.  Maybe you should start taking lessons from me, huh?”

 

His friend didn’t smile.  “I think I just did,” he replied softly.  He clapped Billy on the shoulder.  “Let’s get back to work.  We can talk about this…later.  Okay?”

 

“You bet,” Billy said, but the split-second of hesitation before he answered told Tommy more than he wanted to know.  Billy knew by his friend’s expression that he had given too much away, but he also knew that there wasn’t time now—even though there might not be in the future, either—to discuss it.  He put his helmet back on.  “Let’s go.”

 

Tommy followed suit.  “I’m right behind you.” 

 

 

 It was a big battle; Rita was pulling out all the stops in her quest to overrun Angel Grove.  There were two powerful monsters on the field of battle (and a third in hiding that they weren’t supposed to know about) and scores of putties just for annoyance value.  Early on in the battle Rita had tried to hinder the Power Rangers by transporting a handful of frightened children into the thick of things, but the Purple Ranger had swept them all to safety before the plan could work.  If he staggered a little after teleporting back, everyone was too busy to notice.

 

Tommy, Jason, and Cat had just finished off the second monster when a roar alerted them that the third had come out of hiding—or so they thought.  But instead of attacking, the third and largest monster wobbled out of the trees, turned in a confused circle, and fell down with a ground-shaking thump before disappearing into oblivion.  The Purple Ranger was standing behind it.  “It had…some sort of distance ray,” his voice said over the open channel.  “I…had to take it out…myself.  There wasn’t any time…”

 

Tommy felt a chill of fear run up his spine that had nothing to do with the ring of putties surrounding them.  “What kind of ray, Billy?”

 

The Purple Ranger appeared to be having trouble just staying upright, but he finally answered, “Some kind of…power disruptor…I think.  That’s what…it felt like.”  Then he crumpled to the ground.

 

Tanya and Adam reached him first, fighting off their own opponents to rush to his side.  To their horror, they could see the power lines in his suit flickering like live wires.  “I’ll say it was a power disruptor,” Adam said.  “This doesn’t look good.”

 

“I think we’d better get him powered down,” the Yellow Ranger suggested.  “Before something…blows.”  Her hand reached for the morphing sequencer on Billy’s wrist.

 

 “Wait!”  Tommy rushed over just in time to stop Tanya from pushing the button.  He hit the open channel on his own communicator frantically.  “Zordon,” he panted, “How long has it been?  Since Billy morphed, I mean, how long has it been?”

 

“Billy is at the end of his tolerance,” was the reply.  “He knew that this would be the last time.”

 

“How long?!”

 

There was a barely noticeable pause, but Tommy heard his own heart beat several times before Zordon spoke again.  “Nine days.”  Tommy felt the blood drain from his face, and behind him Jason groaned.  “The Hawk power is destabilizing and Billy is in grave danger, as are all of you.  Bring him back to the Command Center immediately, Rangers.”

 

“We’re on our way, Zordon,” Tommy answered.  He closed the channel with a shaking hand and took a deep breath.  “I’m going to need Jason to help me.  Can you guys finish this up without us?”

 

Cat nodded her head.  “We’ll be right behind you.”

 

“Good.  Careful now, Jason.”  The two of them carefully lifted the Purple Ranger up between them and vanished in a streak of red and gold.  The other four Rangers turned back to the job at hand with a vengeance.

 

 The first thing Cat said when she got back to the Command Center was, “Well?”

 

Jason shook his head and gestured to the far end of the large chamber, where the Rangers could see Tommy and Alpha working frantically at the diagnostic console.  “Zordon said for everyone to stay back,” he told them tiredly, rubbing a fresh bruise on his shoulder.  “The Purple Power seems to have some…explosive tendencies.”

 

Tanya pulled off her helmet, and beneath it her dark complexion was chalky with apprehension.  “Explosive?” she repeated hesitantly.  “You mean that if we disturb it, Billy could…”

 

“And take us and half the Command Center with him,” Jason filled in, not wanting to hear the word any more than she wanted to say it.  “That’s what they’re working on now.  Once that’s under control, then….well, I don’t know.  I don’t even think Zordon knows.”

 

“But there has to be something we can do!”  Rocky insisted, smacking a gloved fist into his palm.  “We can’t just sit around here in the corner and wait.”

 

Adam pulled up the closest stool and dropped onto it.  “I can,” he said.  “At least this time we’re in here and not outside.”

 

Tanya sat down next to him; Adam put his arm around her shoulders.  “Yeah,” she agreed.  “And I think that after what happened last time, we should be in here to help Tommy.”

 

“Right,” Cat said.  “He was all alone last time, and it was really hard on him.”

 

“He’s been alone every time, so far, and they’ve all been hard on him,” Jason corrected quietly, with a catch in his voice as the thought opened up a still-fresh wound.  Billy had raked him over the coals one day when Jason had been acting like an asshole about something, pinning him down and filling him in about Green Rangers and White Rangers and nightmares that don’t quit.  The Gold Ranger hadn’t been able to look anybody—especially Tommy—in the eye for three days after that, and he had no doubt that a thorough ass-kicking at the Purple Ranger’s hands would have been easier on him in the long run.  He also had no doubt that Billy knew that too.

 

 Cat started to ask the obviously troubled Gold Ranger for an explanation, but decided that the time wasn’t right.  “Well, we’re all here now,” she said firmly.  “And if sitting in the corner is the best we can do, then we’ll do it as well as we can.”  She sat down beside Tanya and folded her arms across her chest.  “Get busy doing it, Rocky.”

 

The Green Ranger blushed and sat down, assuming an overly contrite expression.  “Yes ma’am.”

 

At the other end of the chamber, Tommy finished setting the parameters for the damping field and, taking a deep breath, flipped the final switch.  A yellow beam spread itself across the diagnostic table, pulsed for a moment, and then disappeared.  He checked the console’s readouts again and let the deep breath back out.  “Whew,” he said.  “Okay, that’s one down.  What’s next, Zor…”

 

The unthinkable happened; the face in the tank flickered out like a candle flame.  “NO!” Tommy cried out, and the other Rangers shot to their feet, fearing the worst.  “Not now!  Alpha…”

 

“We must be experiencing interstellar flux,” the little robot said worriedly, already hurrying toward the communications console.  “I will see if I can compensate…aye-yi-yi! But I’m not making any promises.”

 

“Jason, help Alpha!” Tommy called out.  To the others he said, “It’s all right, you can come over here; we managed to neutralize the external bioelectric reaction before…” His eyes strayed to the empty tank, then back to the readouts in front of him.  He thumped his fist against the console in frustration.

 

“Tommy,” Cat stammered, “What are we going to do?”

 

Tanya tried to be practical.  “Tommy, do you know what to do?” she asked.  When the Red Ranger did not respond, she turned to Alpha.  “Alpha?”

 

“No, Tanya, I do not, but I am trying to re-establish contact with Zordon,” the little robot said solemnly, and went back to his task.  Tanya looked hopefully at Jason, then turned back to the others with a shrug when he, too, shook his head.

 

 Adam was looking closely at Tommy, a worried frown creasing his normally pleasant face.  He was almost certain that his friend knew how to complete the task at hand, so something else must be wrong, something he wasn’t telling them.  “Tommy,” he ventured quietly, testing his theory, “What did Zordon say to you?  What’s different about this power conversion?”

 

There was a sudden, dead silence; even Jason and Alpha stopped what they were doing to look at the Red Ranger, who hadn’t yet raised his eyes from the console in front of him.  Finally he said, in a low, tortured voice, “He told me that if anything…that if our timing was off by just a fraction of an instant…”  He lifted his face then, the face of a man caught in a nightmare.  “Zordon said that he would have to manage the conversion process himself.”

 

 Hours passed.  The interstellar flux intensified past the point where it was even reasonable to attempt to contact Zordon, but Tommy ordered Alpha to keep trying anyway.  The Red Ranger himself paced the floor like a caged tiger, growing more and more agitated with every pass.  Billy had yet to regain consciousness, and the diagnostic sensors said that he was weakening steadily.  The other Rangers took turns sitting beside him, remaining morphed for safety’s sake.   And no one could think of anything else to do.

 

Not that they didn’t try.  “It’s too bad we don’t know anyone…a doctor or something, someone who could help,” Cat said.  “Someone we could trust.”

 

“But would even a doctor be able to help with…this?”  Tanya waved a hand at all of the high-tech equipment surrounding them.   “I mean, we’re used to it, but this would blow an outsider’s mind.”

 

“And who could we trust?” Rocky added.  “Even if we could find a doctor who could help, what’s to stop them from selling us out?  Hard Copy would pay big bucks for this story.”

 

Adam suddenly remembered something.  “Wait a minute,” he said slowly.  “We do know a doctor.  And I can guarantee that Dr. Mittington won’t sell us out.”  The others stared at him.  “Billy’s mom, guys,” he prodded.  “She works the emergency room at the hospital, and she’s supposed to be one of the best doctors in town.  I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before!”

 

The small storm of relief was cut short by the Gold Ranger.  “I do,” he growled.  Adam’s face turned red, and Jason hurried to explain.  “No, I didn’t mean it that way.  But I’ve known Billy ever since kindergarten, and his mom could care less.  She and his dad are both…”

 

“Self-involved,” Cat finished diplomatically, heading off the less accurate, more colorful description that she knew he was going to use.  “And there was just an attack; the hospital will be busy.  I doubt we could get her to come, even for Billy.  He’s just not a…priority in her life.”

 

Tommy exploded.  “Well maybe it’s time that he was!”  He had been getting more and more frustrated with his own inability to help his friend,  but as he listened to the others talk he found his anger focusing on Billy’s mother as though she were the obstacle in his path.  He was also cursing himself for not thinking of her sooner.  “I don’t care what she thinks about it; we need her here, she will come.”  He yanked on his helmet and growled, “I’ll be back…with help.”  And then he teleported out.

 

The Rangers all sat frozen for a moment, then Cat sprang to her feet and pulled on her helmet.  “I’m going for help,” she said.  “There’s no telling what he might do if someone isn’t there to stop him!”

 

Adam jumped up too and grabbed her arm before she could teleport.  “Cat, what are you going to do?  You can’t stop him!  He almost killed you last time!”

 

He felt her shudder at the reminder of that horrible day in Sprocket’s arena, but she shook her head.  “I may not be able to get through to him,” she said.  “But I know someone who can.”

 

 

When the Red Ranger stalked into the Angel Grove Community Hospital, everyone stopped in their tracks and stared at him; he ignored them.  “We need a doctor,” he growled, unaware that he was using the same rough tone he usually reserved for enemies met in battle.  “Where is Dr. Mittington?”

 

“I’m Dr. Mittington,” a  blonde woman said, stepping out from behind the nurses’ station to frown at him.  “Just what is going on here? You can’t just barge in here and demand a doctor; we have procedures that must be followed.”  The fluorescent light glinted harshly off her glasses as she peered haughtily down her nose at him.  “And you people usually bring the casualties to us, anyway, not the other way around.  Explain yourself!”

 

Tommy strode across the tile to tower over her.  “I don’t have to explain myself to anyone,” he snarled, grabbing her arm.  “Least of all to you.  And if I say you’re needed, then you come with me no questions asked.  Understand?”

 

“Out of the question!” she snapped back angrily, trying unsuccessfully to free her arm.  “I have patients to attend to here, and I will not be threatened by some…some costumed bully!  I am not afraid of you!”

 

“You should be,” a soft voice said.  Tommy spun around, keeping a fierce grip on the doctor’s arm, and almost cried out with surprise when he saw his mother standing there in the door, breathing hard and looking sad and relieved at the same time.  “You don’t know what’s going on, Dr. Mittington, but I do,” she told the fuming doctor.  “You should be ashamed of yourself for not recognizing the Red Ranger’s behavior from what you see in your own emergency room.  One of the Power Rangers is seriously injured, possibly dying, and the others are frantic with concern—him especially, because he is their leader and feels responsible.  I’d say  you’re lucky he wants you all in one piece, Dr. Mittington, or I’m quite sure you wouldn’t be.”

 

Listening to his mother’s calm voice, Tommy felt some of his control seep back in a thin veneer over the roiling red rage he was feeling.  He forced himself to let go of the doctor’s arm and take a deep breath.  “She’s more right than I like to admit,” he said frankly.  “But I don’t have time to worry about that.  You’re coming with me to help my friend right now.”

 

Dr. Mittington rubbed her arm and glared at the Red Ranger.  “I don’t think…” she began, and then decided that she’d better start thinking, and quickly, when she heard what sounded like a low growl from deep in his throat.  “I’ll need equipment…”

 

He cut her off.  “We have all you need and then some, Doctor; we just need you there to use it.”  He caught her arm again, but more gently this time, and lifted his communicator.  Dr. Mittington shot the woman in the doorway a look of pure panic.

 

“Wait, Red Ranger,” Eleanor said, fighting a smile; it sounded like bad comic book dialogue in her own ears.  “Let me come with you; I might be able to help.”  Tommy didn’t answer, just motioned her over and barked an order into the tiny speaker on his wrist.  And then a red lightning bold snatched the three of them up and carried them away.

 

 

 

 The trip was a short one, almost instantaneous, and suddenly they were standing in the main room of the Command Center.  The two women were wide-eyed, for different reasons; the doctor because she was seeing something that she had never even dreamed of, and Eleanor because she was finally standing in the very place she had dreamed of seeing.  “This is incredible,” she breathed softly.  “I can’t believe I’m really here.”

 

 “Over here, Doctor,” the Red Ranger said gruffly; and they followed him past numerous blinking consoles and what looked like a large, empty fishtank to an alcove set off to the side of the main room.  And on the table in the middle of the alcove lay the still form of the Purple Ranger.  “There’s your patient, Dr. Mittington; now get to work.”

 

The doctor approached the table cautiously, wary of touching anything inadvertently in such a high-tech setting.  She recognized the silver Hawk uniform in front of her from numerous encounters in the emergency room at the hospital—the Purple Ranger had been showing up regularly for some months now, bringing in the late-night casualties of urban life—but this was the closest that she’d ever been to him.  “Can we move this…arch over the top?” she asked.  “Or is it doing something I’m not aware of?”

 

“It’s a monitoring arm,” said a cool voice at her shoulder, making her jump, and she saw that the Gold Ranger was looming over her.  Behind him, the other Rangers had appeared and were watching her closely—except for the pink one, who was talking off to one side with the woman from the hospital.  The Red Ranger stood behind a console near the head of the table, doing something to the controls.  He nodded at the Gold Ranger, who went to the arm and lifted it up and off.

 

To her surprise, the Purple Ranger still had his helmet on.  “What about the helmet?” she asked.  “I can’t examine…”

 

The Red Ranger had come back to the head of the table, standing beside the Gold Ranger with his arms folded across his chest.  “Try,” he said icily.  “The helmet stays on…for now.”

 

“If you’re worried about his identity, I assure you…”

 

“That’s part of it.  No.”

 

She sighed. “Can I at least take off the gloves?”  The red helmet dipped once in assent, and she carefully pulled off one dark purple glove to reveal a callused, light-skinned hand covered with fine blonde hair.  Okay, she thought, we’ve established sex and race, the two things I need to know least.  And well cared for nails, long supple fingers—no hard manual labor there, the calluses must be from…weight training?  Well, that could just be the suit.  She took his pulse, which was erratic, and checked his nail bed response, which seemed sluggish.  The limp hand was cold and clammy, and what she could hear of his breathing through the helmet seemed shallow and labored.  Touching the suit sent a tingling sensation through her fingers, but she ignored it and felt carefully for broken bones, wondering again if the suit was “built” so that the wearer didn’t have to be; all that she could feel was perfect, hard-sculpted muscle.  With a sigh she turned back to the waiting Rangers.  “He’s in shock, but beyond that I can’t tell.”  She appealed to the other woman.  “You said you could help?   I can’t make a diagnosis without more information.”

 

The woman opened her mouth to answer, but the Red Ranger waved her silent.  “We don’t have time,” he stated flatly, “for me to explain to you how someone becomes a Power Ranger or how the morphing process works - and even if we did, I’m not sure that I could.  But what it comes down to is that the power bonds to us bioelectrically at the cellular level; the purple Hawk power is highly unstable and B…the Purple Ranger’s body just can’t handle it any longer.”

 

“How long has he ‘handled’ it?” the doctor queried.

 

“Six months,” the Red Ranger answered without hesitation, but she heard an almost imperceptible tremor in his voice.  “Almost seven.”  So you’ve been with him the whole time, Red Ranger?  And there were problems from the beginning…

“He collapsed in the middle of our last battle,” the Yellow Ranger put in.  “He got hit by a power destabilization ray.  But he didn’t demorph.”  …Although you think he should have; the power isn’t behaving normally or predictably…

“He hasn’t demorphed for ten days,” the Gold Ranger added.  “It…hurts him too much.”  …Some history here, too, if it hurts you that much to talk about it.  And the complications are cumulative, but he’s kept at it until it came to this.  Why?

“This will be the last time,” said the Red Ranger grimly.  “Zordon said so.”

 

…The last time?!  The doctor pounced on the reference to a higher authority.  “Zordon?  Why don’t I confer with him…”

 

The Red Ranger shook his head.  “If we could 'confer' with Zordon, we wouldn’t need you,” he told her.  “There’s too much interstellar flux right now, and we can’t keep his carrier wave in focus long enough to be any use.  So you’ll just have to do what you can.”  A touch of menace in his voice told her that it had better be enough.  “Now, what can we do to help you?”

 

 The blunt offer, made in a much friendlier tone of voice, surprised her; but Dr. Mittington took him at his word and got down to business.  “What I’m hearing sounds…complicated,” she said.  “And it apparently culminated in a total physical collapse.  I’ll need to know anything, everything that you know about this man if I’m going to help him.”  One of the Rangers, the green one, made the kind of choking noise usually associated with a teenager trying not to say something, and she focused in on him.  “That sounded like a start to me.  Out with it.”

 

The Green Ranger cleared his throat, embarrassed.  “Well, he’s not…I mean, he’s only a year older than me.  He’s nineteen.”

 

“Nineteen?  I would have thought…”  The doctor glanced back at her patient, frowning.  “Are you sure?”

 

Rocky tensed angrily, and Eleanor saw her son’s gloved hands clench.  She made a quick decision.  “Okay,  kids,” she said in her sternest Mom voice.  “This fencing match is not going to get us—or him—anywhere.   Helmets off, now.”  Startled, they started pulling them off; Tommy took his off last and frowned at his mother before returning his glare to the doctor. Eleanor ignored him.  “Barbara, you know me,” she said to the startled doctor.  “I’m Eleanor Oliver.  We’ve talked over the phone several times because your son stays at our house a lot with my son Tommy, the angry one in red.  And this is Cat, Adam, Tanya, Rocky, and Jason.”

 

 Dr. Mittington stared at Eleanor for a moment, and then looked at the unmasked Rangers; she was shocked to realize that they were all about the same age as her own son.  Three of the boys looked openly hostile, the other boy and the two girls were gazing at her with a mixture of pity and irritation, and all of them looked worried, frightened, and absolutely exhausted.  She looked back at Eleanor.  “I don’t see what bearing this has on the situation.  Am I missing something here?”

 

Eleanor saw Jason’s hand tighten on her son’s arm, holding him back from doing or saying God knows what.  “You certainly are,” she stated flatly. “The Power Rangers are a team, Dr. Mittington; they tend to be very protective of each other.”   Alpha had been carefully removing the Purple Ranger’s helmet, and Eleanor turned the other woman around to see.  “This is the “man” you didn’t recognize,” she said gently.  “Let me introduce you to your patient, the Purple Ranger.”

 

Shocked speechless, Barbara Mittington moved slowly forward and looked down into her son’s pale face, noticing with surprise the faint round outlines of contact lenses under his eyelids and wondering how she could have failed to notice that he didn’t wear glasses anymore, wondering when he had grown from the awkward little boy she remembered into this strong, handsome man who she didn’t even know.

 

 Eleanor, now standing beside her, gestured at the half-circle of costumed teenagers. “They’re all pretty upset about the way you treat your son,” she continued.  “Or should I say, the way you don’t treat him.  You’ve been so immersed in your own life that you never even noticed Billy was in trouble, you didn’t even recognize him when you saw him—and I know how often he shows up at the hospital so I know that you’ve seen the Purple Ranger before today, and even spoken to him a few times.”

 

Barbara looked at the other woman for a moment, feeling a sharp pang of jealousy.  She knew because he went to her, not to me, she thought.  I was too busy at the hospital, his father was too busy chasing graduate students, so Billy found someone else to talk to—his best friend’s mother.  How long has it been since he was home?  I don’t even remember the last time he ate supper with us… The thought suddenly popped into her head that she might have lost her chance to know her son at all, and her medical training was swept back to the forefront on a wave of purely maternal fear.  “We have to get his contacts out,” she said briskly.  “Do any of you…?”

 

“I’ve done it for him before,” the Red Ranger, Tommy, said quickly, and jumped around her do it.  Barbara watched the practiced way he handled the awkward task and shuddered, knowing how much practice there had to have been to make it into such a smooth routine.  Then she went back to the console with the little robot.  “Is…my son’s…physical condition as perfect as it looks?” she asked.  “Or does the suit…”

 

“Billy wouldn’t have worn it if it did,” Jason told her shortly.  “He spends lots of time working out.”

 

“Working out hard,” Rocky added, backed up by Adam’s nod.  “None of us can even keep up with his routines anymore, that’s how far beyond us he’s gone.”

 

“But he is tired,” the pretty blonde in pink, Cat, told her worriedly.  “All that he’s been through since…well…oh, but you wouldn’t know…” she blushed and looked away.

 

Barbara swallowed the lump in her throat and kept her voice level, somehow.   “I see,” she said.  “Would ‘severe and prolonged stress’ describe it, Cat?”  The girl nodded.   “We’ll sort out the…details later; right now the important thing is to establish a baseline that we can work from.  Tommy, I take it that you know him best?”

 

“Good guess,” the Red Ranger grunted.  “It looks like you’ve been paying attention—for a change.”  He settled himself on a stool near the head of the table and pushed his long, dark hair back from his face.  “Yes, I probably do; but we don’t have time for me to recount Billy’s every move for the past three or four years, so you’ll have to tell me exactly what you need to know.”

 

In spite of herself, Barbara was impressed by how collected the young leader remained in spite of the enormous amount of stress he was obviously under.  And this was Billy’s best friend?  She felt another pang of remorse for the time she’d wasted on “more important” things than getting to know her son.  “Okay,” she replied.  “I need to know exactly how worn out you think he is, and why.  And anything unrelated to the power destabilization that might be contributing stress.”

 

Tommy sighed.  “I know Billy’s had all he can take, but the rest of it…” He pushed at his hair again—a nervous mannerism, Barbara’s clinical mind noted.  “We don’t have time.  You’ll just have to go on what we already told you:  demorphing has gotten harder and harder on Billy, and it’s so bad now that he hasn’t done it in nine—well, ten days, now.  So, Doctor, you tell us; what’s going to happen when he gets hit with excruciating pain from demorphing along with unimaginable pain when the purple power completely destabilizes and rewrites the electromagnetic pattern of all his cells, on top of  him being completely exhausted from playing un-Caped Crusader every night when his nightmares won’t let him sleep?”

 

The doctor’s mouth fell open.  “What will happen?” she blurted out, horrified.  “My God, it will probably kill him!”

 

All the color left the young leader’s face; the other Rangers didn’t look much better.  Then the Red Ranger regained his composure.  “No,” he said finally.  “That option is unacceptable.”

 

“I agree,” Barbara told him, shocked by her own assessment.  “But I don’t know what else…the human body can only take so much!  He’ll burst a blood vessel, at the very least, probably more than one.  His heart will stop…”

 

“But we can control that!”  It was the Gold Ranger, Jason, sounding surprised.  He looked at the grim face of the Red Ranger.  “Tommy, the last time you…” he shot a sideways glance at Eleanor, but decided this was not the time for secrets.  “The last time you got hurt,” he continued.  “I helped Zordon and Alpha set up the control fields for the table; there’s a damping field to keep blood pressure down, and a special stimulus ray that kick-starts the autonomic control center in the brain.  They just have to be calibrated to the particular person…”

 

“I can do that,” Tommy interjected.  “But someone will have to help me decipher the data that the program needs.  Doctor?”

 

She looked dubious.  “And you know that this works?”

 

Tommy looked at his mother apologetically.   “Apparently so,” Eleanor said heavily, and saw her son wince.  “You can tell me later, Tommy,” she reassured him.  “You’re alive, and that’s all that matters.”

 

 

               

Once the data was in place, the Rangers felt hopeful for the first time since Zordon had disappeared.  “Now what?” Jason asked the others.  “I mean, should we initiate things ourselves, or just let nature…”

 

Behind them, Billy groaned.  In a flash Tommy had pushed past the others to stand at his side.  “Billy?” he said desperately.  “Billy!"

 

“Ooh, this was a bad one,” Billy muttered weakly.  “What day is it?”

 

“It’s tomorrow.  Billy…”

 

“Then I’m due on Aquitane…now.”  The Purple Ranger pushed himself up to his elbows with another painful groan, his eyes still shut.  “My contacts…”

 

“Billy, you haven’t demorphed.”

 

The pale blue eyes flew open, then squinted blindly against the painful onslaught of light.  “I haven’t…shit.”  He let himself flop back down and pressed both hands to his aching head.  “That’s nine…ten days straight, eleven or twelve by the time I get back.  This is not going to be fun…”

 

“You can’t go to Aquitane, Billy,” Tommy told him gently.  “This can’t drag on any longer; you’re going to have to demorph…one last time.”

 

Billy shook his head.  “No,” he sighed.  There was no anger in the refusal, just resignation and a weariness that made a lump settle in Tommy’s throat.  “No, Tommy; I want to do everything I can before…” he forced himself up again, focusing as best he could on his best friend’s face.  “This will probably be…the last time,” he whispered earnestly.  “I don’t want to end it thinking it was all for nothing, that there was more I could have done.  You understand, don’t you, Tommy?”

 

“Yeah,” Tommy replied softly.  “I understand—better than you do.”  He put his hands on Billy’s shoulders and gripped them reassuringly.  “You have done all you can, and it has meant something” he said, feeling tears sting his eyes.  “But this is it, Billy.  The end is…now.”

 

Billy scanned Tommy’s face and saw the truth that he’d known for eight of the last nine days reflected there.  “You knew.”  It wasn’t a question.

 

Tommy forced a smile.  “I knew that you knew…something I didn’t want to think about,” he said.    “So I didn’t.”

 

Billy gripped his arm.  “Airhead,” he said, smiling.  “Big dumb jock, just like always.”

 

“Klutz,” Tommy retorted.  “You never will learn how to do a throw.”

 

Billy’s expression tightened, as did his grip on his friend’s arm.  “Tommy,” he said seriously.  “You have to go to Aquitane for me.”  A bolt of pain shot through him and he gasped in spite of himself, falling back onto the table.  “Please,” he panted, “I was going to see her…one last time, to say goodbye.  Tell her I said…”

 

“I’ll tell her,” Tommy reassured him.  “I’ll tell her…that you’ll be late.  I’m sure she’ll understand.”

 

“Yeah,” Billy said, a shadow of his smile returning.  “I’m sure she will.”  He shut his eyes and took a deep breath.  “Okay, I’m ready.”

 

“Yeah, well no one else is, so you’ll just have to wait,” Jason said, coming up to put a comforting hand on Tommy’s shoulder—he could almost see the Red Ranger shaking.  “You know, that kind of nerdy guy that used to be here would have a fit if we didn’t make sure everything was calibrated just right.  Whatever happened to that guy, anyway?”

 

“I think he left right after that really arrogant bully did…you know the one.”

 

Tommy left the two of them talking and went back to the group at the console.  His mother and Cat each tried to put an arm around him, but he gently put them off.  “Later,” he said, wiping irritably at his eyes.  “Right now, I have to stay strong.”  He looked at the woman who he’d thought he hated and found that he felt nothing but pity for her at that moment; in her eyes he saw that she knew what she’d lost, and that it might be to late to get it back.  “Barbara,” he said quietly.

 

He was addressing her as an equal, and she saw that anger had been replaced by compassion in his dark, red-rimmed eyes.

 

“We’ll double-check everything,” he told her, “while you talk to Billy.”  She nodded and started to turn away, but his voice stopped her.  “And, Barbara?”  She looked back.  “He knows,” Tommy said simply.

 

 The doctor nodded again.  “Thank you, Tommy.”

 

 

“Tommy!” Jason shouted.  “Something’s happening!”

 

They all ran to the table.  Billy’s face was chalk white and twisted with pain, and the power lines in his suit were glowing brightly.   “Dammit!” Tommy swore.  He lunged for the diagnostic console.  “Just hold out a few more minutes, Billy.  Jason, were you able to get Zordon?”

 

“Destab…happen…any second,” came the broken transmission.  “…Billy….grave danger…”

 

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Tommy muttered under his breath.

 

“We’ve lost the carrier wave completely, Tommy!” Jason cried.  He thumped his fist against the unresponsive communications console.  “What now?”

 

Barbara had moved to stand next to her son.  She touched his arm.  “Billy?”

 

“Mom?”  The Purple Ranger forced his eyes open to look up at her in disbelief.   “You’re here?  But…how?  Why?”

 

“You needed me,” his mother replied.  Her eyes filled with tears and then overflowed.  “Oh, Billy, I’m so sorry…”

 

“It’s okay…mom,” he managed, fighting the expanding waves of pain to stay with her.  “I understood.  I always…knew…you loved me.”

 

Suddenly a massive spasm shook his body, and Billy screamed.  “It’s happening!”  Tommy shouted.  “Everyone get back!”  Then, disobeying his own order, Tommy rushed to his friend’s side and deactivated his morphing sequencer just as a powerful violet shockwave exploded from Billy’s body and tore through the room.

 

And then, there was silence.  Slowly, seven people picked themselves up off the floor and stared at each other with frightened eyes before looking across the room.  Billy was still on the table and apparently still in one piece, looking strangely out of place in his street clothes; Barbara ran to his side with the others at her heels.  It took only a second’s observation to confirm her fears.  “His heart’s stopped,” she cried.  “Tommy…”

 

But the diagnostic console was empty; it was then that they noticed the too-still figure of the Red Ranger crumpled against the far wall.  “Jason, hurry,” Barbara said, motioning him toward the console while the others hurried to their fallen leader.  “If we don’t get him back now, we don’t…”

 

“I know,” Jason said grimly.  “We don’t get him back at all. Tommy had this set…okay, Dr. Mittington, stand back.”  A sharp, narrow beam of blue-white light shot down from above the head of the table.

 

Barbara saw her son’s chest heave.  “Shut it off!  He’s breathing…”  She hurried back to Billy’s side and quickly looked him over again, then looked at Jason and smiled tremulously.  “I think…he’s going to be okay.  Now we just have to let him rest, get over the shock of all this…”

 

But she was talking to air.  “Eleanor,” Jason said, and sprinted across the floor.  “How bad…”

 

“I don’t know,” Eleanor said softly, stroking her son’s hair, her face almost as pale as his.  Tommy’s head was pillowed in Cat’s lap; a lump on his temple was swelling visibly.  “I just don’t know.”

 

“I think he’s coming to,” Cat said.  Tommy twitched and muttered something—it sounded like “Ouch”—and Cat gently patted his cheek with a trembling hand.  “Tommy,” she said.  “Tommy, please wake up.”

 

Tommy’s eyes flew open.  “Billy,” he said breathlessly, and tried to sit up.  Cat and his mother held him down and he looked at them in a panic.  “Is he…”

 

“He’s just fine,” Barbara said, coming into his line of sight.  Her eyes widened at the sight of the lump.  “Maybe better than you, Red Ranger.  Don’t move.”  She shooed the other Rangers away and knelt on the other side of him, looked at his head, and then looked hard into each of his eyes.  “Do you feel nauseous, Tommy?”  He nodded gingerly, and she sighed.  “You have a concussion, I think.”

 

“Next time I’ll wear my helmet.”

 

“Very funny.” Against his weak protests, and with a little help from Eleanor and Cat, Barbara checked Tommy over thoroughly.  “You’re going to be all right…in about three or four days,” she told him.  “You have two cracked ribs and a lot of bruises, and you could probably use some R&R.  Or do superheroes get R&R these days?”

 

“Not often,” Cat said wistfully.  “That’s usually when everything falls apart—the minute we try to take a break from being Power Rangers and act like normal people.”

 

Tommy frowned up at her.  “We are normal people,” he said.  “Now help me up; I promised Billy that I’d call Aquitane and tell…them he wasn’t coming.”

 

“Oh, that’s normal,” Cat responded.  She saw Barbara’s raised eyebrow and said, “Aquitane is…a long way from here, but fairly close as far as other inhabited planets go.  Billy is a kind of go-between for their planet and ours—sort of like an ambassador, I think.  He spends a lot of time there.”

 

“Which is why I have to contact them,” Tommy insisted, pushing himself up into a sitting position.  “Now.”  Brushing off their restraining hands, he climbed to his feet and stood shakily, holding onto the table edge for balance.  “See, I’m okay, just a little beat up; I’ve been worse, believe me.”  He walked carefully over to look at Billy, then headed toward Alpha 5 and the communications console.  “Any luck yet, Jason?” he asked.

 

Jason, who had been trying to help the little robot locate Zordon, shook his head and gave the Red Ranger a questioning look.  “Didn’t I just hear someone tell you not to get up?”

 

“I’m okay,” Tommy replied.  And then proceeded to collapse where he stood.

 

Rocky and Adam caught their leader before he hit the floor.  “Uh-huh,” Jason said calmly.  “We can see that.”

 

Eleanor, Barbara, and Cat were at their side in an instant.  The doctor peered under one thick-lashed eyelid and shook her head.  “He needs to be in the hospital,” she told them.  “But how…”

 

Jason grinned at her and put his helmet back on.  “One of the advantages to being a superhero,” he said, scooping Tommy up in his arms as easily as if he’d been a child, “is super strength.”

 

Tommy’s mother looked worried.  “Jason…” she began.

 

The Gold Ranger nodded reassuringly.  “I’ll be back to get you, Eleanor—just as soon as I can without arousing any suspicion.  I’m going to tell them that we found him being attacked by a wandering putty patrol, and that they hit him on the head before we could stop them.  Then I’ll offer to go find his mother.”  The gold light flashed, and they were gone.

 

Cat put her arm around Eleanor’s shoulders.  “He’ll be okay.”

 

Eleanor nodded, looking into nothing and seeing…the future.  “This time,” she said slowly.  “This time.”

 

 

 

Billy came awake but did not open his eyes, smiling a little to himself because he felt so comfortable and relaxed.  He was about to drift off again when someone called his name; his eyelids fluttered open, and he found himself looking up at his mother.  “Mom?” he muttered sleepily.  “What? Did I oversleep?”

 

“Not at all,” his mother reassured him.  “You slept just long enough.  Billy, do you remember…anything?”

 

“Hmm?”  He thought hard and shook his head, puzzled—and then his surroundings registered on his sluggish brain and the memory came back in a rush.  He sat bolt upright, oblivious to his aching head, and looked around in amazement.  “I…I can’t believe I made it,” he whispered.  “I thought for sure…”

 

“So did we,” Jason told him, grinning.

 

“When you’re up to it,” Rocky said, with a sidelong glance at Dr. Mittington, “Do we have some stories to tell you!”

 

“It was close…more than once,” Tanya added more soberly.  “If you ever do this to us again, I think we’ll have to kill you ourselves.”

 

“I’m sure Tommy will take care of that all by himself,” Billy replied with a smile.  “Right, T…” The smile disappeared as he realized that his best friend wasn’t in his expected place, and his blue eyes darkened with concern.  “What happened?” he asked tightly.  “Where is he?”

 

“Tommy is…in the hospital, Billy,” Cat stammered.  She put a hand on his arm, looking up into his eyes and silently pleading with him not to overreact.  “When the power destabilized, he…was in the way.”

 

Billy started to clamber down off the table; six pairs of hands reached out to stop him.  “I’m going,” he said, but to his chagrin he was too weak and dizzy to resist his friends.  His shoulders sagged.  “But I’ve got to,” he said plaintively.  “I put him there!”

 

“You’re not going anywhere,” Jason told him.  “Or you’ll be sharing a room with him—and then there’ll be talk.”  He sighed and shook his head reprovingly.  “I think you two are spending too much time together,” he told Billy.  “You’re starting to act alike; this is exactly what Tommy did.  And you did not put him there.”  Jason allowed himself a rather wicked grin.  “I did.”

 

Billy’s eyes widened, and Cat hurried to explain.  “Jason carried him, Billy,” she said, giving the Gold Ranger a reproving look.  “Tommy hit his head, and he tried to get up too fast…and he passed out.  Jason took him to the hospital just to be safe. He’s okay, really.”

 

“No, he isn’t,” Billy said wearily, but his smile was starting to come back.  “He’s stupid, just like I am; maybe if you rub it in hard enough, Jason, he’ll think twice before he’s stupid again.”

 

“You’re not stupid, Billy,” Adam said in his quiet, serious way.  “You just did what you had to do.”

 

“And we’re proud of you,” Tanya added warmly.  “It takes a lot of courage to face…what you did without falling apart; you kept your cool right up to the end.”

 

Billy lay back down, frowning.  “It was an act,” he said softly.  “I was scared to death.”

 

“You should get an Oscar, then,” Rocky observed.  “You fooled me.”

 

Adam punched his arm.  “Like that’s a challenge.”

 

Rocky punched him back, not very hard.  “You should know,” he retorted.  Then he got serious.  “I managed to get through to Aquitane,” he told Billy, and was rewarded with a loud sigh of relief and a big smile.  Wish I had a girlfriend, Rocky thought enviously.  “They were worried sick when you didn’t show up,” he continued.  “And when they couldn’t make contact with Zordon either, they were all ready to send the Aquitarian Rangers over here to find out what was going on.”  He shook his head admiringly.  “I don’t know exactly what it is that you do for the Aquitarians, man,” he said, “but whatever it is, you are some kind of important over there.  They insisted on talking to your mom to get her “professional” opinion of how you were, and then they made us promise to let them know immediately if anything else happened.”

 

Billy looked at his mother and cocked a questioning eyebrow.  She laughed.  “I was a little surprised,” she told him.

 

“I’ll bet,” he muttered sleepily.  “Several times, at least.”

 

“Pleasantly,” she assured him, leaning over to kiss his cheek; he was too far gone to be embarrassed.  “Now get some more rest.  You need it.”

 

“Um-hmm.” And Billy went back to sleep.