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Times Present, Times Past

Disclaimer: Come on, after all this time?!? You've GOT to be kidding me!

Note: Sorry for the long delay, but Real Life® has this nasty habit of getting into the way of my writing sometimes ... I know that I told a few people that I was going to finish this in a sequel, but ultimately decided to keep it as a single fic after all. sheepish grin Enjoy, I hope, please leave a comment or two in the feedback box on your way out, and see you next fic? DB, January 2004







Times Present, Times Past

Chapter 11: Homecoming









/Angel Grove, the Present /

"Man, how long is this going to take, anyway?" Tommy groused impatiently as he watched the Turbo Megazord fight with the giant-sized version of Divatox's latest monster. "There were at least four openings to defeat that thing so far, and TJ has taken none of 'em. What the hell does he think he's doing?"

"That's not fair, Tommy," Rocky protested, who had been just as intently observing the battle near the warehouse district. "You know as well as I do that things look different when you're actually inside that cockpit."

Tommy whirled to glare at him, but Rocky stood his ground, matching him stare for stare. "Don't give me that look," he said calmly. "I've piloted one of these things myself for a good long while, remember? It's more than just duking it out."

His former leader dearly wanted to argue the point, but couldn't; Rocky had been the one Ranger aside from him and Jason who had regularly been in command of their respective Megazords. He knew better than any of their friends what he was talking about.

"I guess," he muttered grudgingly.

"It's not going to take much longer," Adam soothed, reading the scanners. "Looks to me as if TJ is preparing for the final strike now ... and there it comes!"

All former Rangers looked at the screen, and indeed - the Turbo Rangers destroyed the monster in a spectacular display of sparks and exploding débris.

"Way to go!" Zack and Rocky cheered, high-fiving each other.

"It always amazes me how awesome this looks from the ground," Trini commented calmly.

"No kidding," Aisha agreed. "Totally different from when you're actually sitting in that thing."

"We usually had other things on our minds when we were the ones doing battle," Adam remarked. "No time to watch the fireworks."

"No lie," Kimberly agreed with a fond reminiscent smile. "I so used to envy you guys, when you got out your swords ... of course, once we had the Megatigerzord and it was my zord crashing into the monsters, it became something else."

Aisha grinned, her dark eyes sparkling with mischief. "Gee, worrying about fender benders or scratching the paint job?"

Amid their friends' laughter, Kim stuck out her tongue at the former Yellow Ranger. "As if!"

Billy smiled. "Actually, I do remember one instance when Alpha Five reprimanded me quite severely about damaging the protective coloring on my Wolfzord."

"Really? Wow," Rocky snickered gleefully. There was something inherently funny about the idea of Billy having gotten called on the carpet for lousy driving, as it were./ /"When was that?"

"Wish I'd been there," Aisha stage-whispered to Adam, who nodded amusedly.

"Right after we'd gotten the Ninjazords," Billy admitted somewhat sheepishly. "I wasn't used to having such an agile, easily manoeuvrable vehicle and it took me some time to be able to move within the city boundaries with an appropriate degree of precision."

"Really? You never told me about that," Tommy grumped, momentarily distracted. "Why didn't you?"

"Because quite frankly, the tongue-lashing I received from Zordon and Alpha was quite sufficient, thank you. I decided afterwards that I could forego another one by you."

Tommy opened his mouth to protest, then closed it again with a snap as he read the slightly challenging expression in the greenish eyes. Billy was right, he /would /have told him off to be more careful in no uncertain terms. Sure, it had been his right and privilege as team leader, but ...

Water under the bridge by now.

"Yeah well, just don't do it again," he muttered. Billy chuckled.

"That is highly unlikely, Tommy, but if the situation should ever arise again, I will," he replied. Unseen by the others - or so he thought - Billy crossed the fingers of his right hand behind a console, then nearly lost it when Kimberly tittered softly. He snuck a glance at the petite gymnast, and caught her wink. Luckily for both, Tommy let himself be diverted back to the viewing screen by Tanya, who had continued to monitor events in Angel Grove.

"They're done," she stated with some satisfaction, watching as the Rangers used the Megazord to clear some of the worst rubble so that rescue vehicles and ambulances could reach the scene. Fortunately, there had been only minor injuries, no fatalities. Warehouses destroyed in monster attacks could always be rebuilt; construction had become a booming industry since the days of Rita Repulsa.

"Any minute now, and they ought to be back."

"About time, too," Zack commented. "We wanna get this show on the road already!" His expansive gesture took in both portalcoms.

As if on cue, the Megazord marched off into the middle distance, and minutes later the Turbo team teleported into the Power Chamber. Trini watched with fascination as the adult-sized Blue Ranger not only lost his helmet and uniform, but virtually shrank back into the much shorter and slighter form of Justin Stewart. "This is fascinating," she breathed, awe in her voice. She'd undergone her own physical transformation when morphed, and while that had been considerably embarrassing, it had also been much less noticeable.

"That's one way of putting it," Rocky mumbled under his breath. "I for one find it pretty freaky!"

"And the tricks we could do as Ninja Rangers weren't?" Adam asked drily. His childhood friend grinned sheepishly.

"Yeah, well ..."

Before either could discuss the matter further, Justin approached Billy. His young face lacked his customary eagerness, even though his eyes sparkled with excitement. Overall, the boy's expression mirrored what everybody present was feeling: anticipation, relief, hope ... and an underlying fear that something else might go wrong, or delay them even further than the 150+ minutes the fight had lasted.

"I'm ready when you are, Billy," Justin said as calmly as possible and took his position next to one portalcom.

"Right," the first Blue Ranger nodded. Billy had already checked and readjusted the instruments for possible misalignments caused by shockwaves, and now had to fight the temptation to double-check everything yet again. He knew he'd been as accurate as humanly possible; more would not accomplish anything but further delay. Which neither they nor Jason and Kat wanted or needed. No more procrastination!

Billy did make sure, though, that the space in the Power Chamber was clear of people. It was.

"Let's do it," he said with only a slight tremor of nervousness in his voice, subconsciously echoing Jason's way of calling the first Ranger team to duty. It seemed very appropriate, somehow.

"On my mark ... one - two - three!"

Two fingers threw two identical switches at precisely the same instant, and with a mechanical hum, the portalcoms hummed to life. Energy arced between the projector muzzles in a rainbow of light effects, connected, expanded ... and within a few seconds coalesced into a swirling, slightly oval vortex, about six feet in diameter, which was hovering just above the smooth floor.

"YES!!!"

Later, nobody could say who'd made the triumphant exclamation; but the elation on the former and current Rangers' faces was the same. There was maybe a minute or so of awed silence, until Kimberly broke it.

"That looks exactly like the time hole I fell through."

"And also like the one Billy created to get you back from 1880," Aisha confirmed.

"Way to go, Billy - again!" Rocky cheered.

"Yeah, you and Justin did a great job," Adam added, pride for his friends' accomplishment clearly audible in his quiet voice.

"I knew you'd come through, Billy," Trini smiled.

"Doesn't he always?" Tanya asked rhetorically.

"Sure. He's our main brain, after all," Zack grinned. "No offense, Justin!"

"None taken," the boy said. "Billy did most of the work; I just helped."

"Very capably," Billy interjected, feeling understandably pleased with his efforts and his friends' genuine praise. However, the good cheer of the moment was dashed by Tommy, who stood watching the shimmering circle intently. At the back of his mind, he made a mental note to thank Billy and everybody else who'd helped later; right now, he had other concerns.

"Okay, we got the time hole. What do we do now?"

Billy drew a deep breath. He hated having to say it, but somebody had to.

"Now ... we wait."

~*~

/Angel Grove, the Past /

Jason straightened from fastening the last of their portable supplies to the travois he'd constructed from material he'd salvaged from their shelter. Their camp was dismantled, the fire pit dead and the rocks circling it scattered in the area. Except for the flattened grass, a patch of burned earth and a few bits and pieces, there was hardly any sign left that Humans had lived here for over two years. Maybe he'd been a little paranoid about not leaving any traces of his and Kat's presence, but under no circumstances did he want to risk contaminating history. They'd packed all the irreplaceable things - knives etcetera, their plastic containers and whatnot - into Kat's picnic basket; that way, if it should be necessary in an emergency, they would only have to worry about one item to save.

As a further precaution, they'd both dressed in their (by now rather tattered) jeans and shoes; it felt decidedly uncomfortable after living for months in loosely-cut furs, but after talking it over both had felt that 'proper' clothing would offer them the best protection against whatever hazards they might encounter on their trek to Stone Canyon.

"What kind of dangers could we meet there or on the way that we haven't dealt with here?" Kat had wondered when he'd made the suggestion; she'd been more in favor of saving their clothes for cold weather conditions.

"It could be anything, really - bad terrain, snakes ... even encountering other people. If we do run into Indians or trappers or whatnot ...frankly, I'd rather be wearing pants and shoes than just my leathers," he'd replied.

"Oh. Right."

He was glad Kat had seen the sense in his proposal; it would be weird being fully dressed again, especially in the current heat, but a few itches and chafing in odd places would be worth it just in case. They'd packed their homemade clothing along with their covers; once they had established a new camp, comfort could be seen to again.

All that was left to do now was to fill some fresh water into their skins, and get underway. So, Jason wandered to the edge of the lake and bent to fill the leather containers. When he was done, he looked around for his companion. As he'd half expected, Kat had finished with her chores, too. However, her load was sitting by itself near a rock while she was approaching the boulder where they'd buried the baby. Even from several meters away, Jason could see her slender shoulders shaking. Sighing, he brushed his hair out of his eyes and joined her.

When he was just a couple of steps behind her, he could hear Kat's sobs. However, before he could find a word of comfort, she gulped and rubbed both hands across her face. Her whole body heaved with the deep breath she took to calm herself.

"I knew it wasn't going to be easy, moving away from here, but I hadn't expected it to be this hard to leave our baby," Kat murmured softly as he approached, her voice strained. Jason put a consoling hand on her shoulder for a moment.

"Yeah," he agreed quietly. "And I wouldn't go either if it weren't necessary." He joined her, looking down at the tiny grave, the mound already beginning to blend in with the surroundings. Jason had said his own farewell right after dawn, before he started packing, and vividly remembered the pang of near-unbearable sorrow he'd experienced. "But we'll come back here to visit one day."

Kat stayed silent for a few seconds, lost in memories and her grief. "Promise?" she asked at last in a very small voice.

"I promise," Jason replied solemnly. "One way or another, we won't abandon her."

Kat drew a shuddering breath, then resolutely squared her shoulders. "Thanks. I'll hold you to that."

He just nodded, then left after a last, lingering glance. Picking up the leather ropes he'd braided with Kat's help, he harnessed himself to the travois. Kat followed more slowly, but slung a makeshift rucksack with food over her shoulder and hefted the picnic basket.

"Ready when you are."

"Right. You lead, okay?"

"Sure." Kat knew it was her job to pick a path that would offer the least amount of obstacles for Jason, who would be too preoccupied with his load to blaze a trail as well. And it filled her with a quiet sense of satisfaction that she knew she /could /do so, that he trusted her to do her part. Determinedly, she walked off, away from the lake and the place they'd called home for so many months.

Almost inadvertently, their way led them across the meadow where they'd fallen through the time hole that fateful day. Kat could have chosen a more direct path, but a sad sense of nostalgia directed her feet towards the small cairn they'd erected to mark the spot. Gratefully, she noted that Jason didn't object, but stopped willingly enough behind her when she set down her supplies and touched the rocks.

"I suppose we should scatter these stones, too," she mused. "They do look just a touch too artificial, don't you think?"

"Piled up like that, yeah," Jason agreed, wiping sweat off his forehead. The day was still very hot, not a breeze stirred the air, and his jeans and shirt were much thicker than he was used to by now. It was going to be a long, exhausting trip. "But I don't believe it'll do much harm if you just let them lie where they are; that way, we'll still have our marker. It just won't be as obvious."

Silently, Katherine brushed the top stones off; they fell to the ground with a clatter until only an irregular, untidy heap remained.

"We might as well not have bothered," she sighed. "Marking this place was a waste of time and effort for all the good it did. Nobody came looking for us in all this time, anyway."

"That doesn't mean our friends won't if they ever can," Jason said staunchly. "We don't know what has kept them from finding us until now, but I refuse to believe that they've given up on us."

"But ... over two years, Jason!"

"I know. Still, I know our friends, and so do you. They're too stubborn to stop searching, even if it takes another two years." Unspoken between them was Tommy's name - the most hard-headed and tenacious of all people they'd left behind.

"I guess. But what will happen now? We're moving away; what if they manage to find us tomorrow, or a few days or weeks from now, and we're not here anymore?"

Jason looked seriously into the worried blue eyes. "We talked about this already, Kat. It's just a chance we'll have to take. As soon as we've set up a new camp, we can work out a semi-regular schedule to check back here, but until then our priority is simply to stay alive."

"True, but ..."

The blonde never got around to finish voicing her concerns. She was interrupted by a sudden, noisy gust of air - not really wind, but it still rustled the deep grass and whipped the branches of the nearest trees violently.

Not more than three meters in front of them, the air began to shimmer in kaleidoscopic colors, whirling nauseatingly in a gradually expanding circle.

The two shared a shocked glance as they fought to stay upright. It may have been years, but both instantly recognized the phenomenon.

"Oh my God, a time hole!"

~*~



Angel Grove, the Present

"Nothing's happening. Billy, why-"

"I don't know, Tommy," the blond genius said patiently. He understood his former leader's frustration - waiting had never been Tommy's strong suit, after all - but really, the time hole had established only a scant four minutes ago. "They may just not be in the vicinity. Or may have some distance to cross to reach the anchor point. There are a myriad of reasons why Jason and Kat haven't made an appearance yet."

"But that other time, Kim came through almost immediately!"

Kimberly was tempted to roll her eyes. Tommy wasn't stupid, but when he was forced into inactivity and passiveness like this, sometimes logic and common sense! seemed to be beyond him. However, this was neither the time nor place to remind him of that.

"I was waiting for it to happen - the Zordon of 1888 told me you guys were working on something to get me back, remember? I was both in the right place /and /time when Billy made the connection."

Her voice was gently understanding, but even this very mild rebuke made Tommy blush.

"Yeah well, I just thought ..." he squirmed uncomfortably.

"That Jase and Kat would be just sitting there, waiting for us to rescue them? Don't be dense, man," Zack admonished. "If it had been just the four days for them that passed for us, maybe, but two years? Hardly."

"Can't we go looking for them?" Tommy wanted to know next, ignoring his friend's comment. Zack was perfectly right, there was no need to belabour the point ... and the others knew how he felt; they wouldn't hold it against him. He hoped. "Maybe I just ought to pop through, calling them or something ..."

He took a step forward, but Billy stopped him with a raised hand and an alarmed expression.

"No! Tommy, we can't go through from this end. The time hole is only stable enough for one transport - in either direction. Our energy reserves just aren't big enough to support any kind of back-and-forth movement. If you, or anyone else for that matter, used up the energy, we'd be right back where we started three days ago."

"What's more, we'd need even more power to transport three people instead of two," Justin chimed in. "As it is, we've calibrated the time hole just right for just Jason and Kat, based on the mass readings we took when they disappeared."

Tommy's shoulders sagged in disappointment. He'd truly hoped he could take some action at last that went beyond tightening nuts and bolts. He needed to /do /something, and to go looking for his missing friends in the past, to literally guide them home, had seemed like the perfect solution. But if Billy said it wasn't safe ... it probably wasn't. Although ... he felt a lightbulb switch on in his head. "What about sending them a message or something? Some noise-making thingy so they'd know to check the area?"

Billy shook his head slowly. "Justin and I considered this, but discarded the idea," he explained.

"Why?" Adam asked curiously. "I'm sure you had your reasons, but I think Tommy's idea makes sense." He smiled at the grateful look he received.

"I think I can make a guess," Trini ventured after some deliberation. "Two reasons - a), stability of the tunnel and energy expenditure would still be an issue, and b), what if there are other people around, after all? There shouldn't be, but if they /did /run into natives of that period ..."

"Or possible hostiles," Rocky added, sporting a worried frown.

"... it might cause even more trouble for Jason and Kat," Aisha realized. "And that could get /really /messy."

"Precisely," Billy agreed. "I'm sorry, but I have to strongly veto any direct interference from us."

Tommy sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Okay, okay, I get the picture," he muttered, sounding resigned. "So, how long do we wait?"

Billy traded a glance with Justin, who grimaced, then shrugged and made a 'you-tell-him' gesture. Inhaling deeply, the older Blue Ranger answered after a quick check of the timer set into a console.

"Another 8.3 minutes."

"What? Why not longer?" Tanya wondered. She looked to the area where the other four Turbo Rangers huddled in a group, watching interestedly, but not interfering with the friends' efforts. "Is it because of Divatox?"

"Not really," Justin replied for the team. "But it does have to do with energy expenditure. If they don't get back within the safety margin we've established, we'll have to shut the portalcoms down, recharge and try again tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Tommy's pained groan made everybody present wince. They were all aware of what that would mean for the castaways.

"We'll just have to wait," Trini murmured. "We still have seven minutes; that's much more for them. They'll make it."

Her unspoken thought was echoed by all.

We hope.

~*~



Angel Grove, the Past

Jason quickly freed himself from the harness he'd fixed to the travois and grabbed Kat's hand, pulling her towards him. They couldn't afford getting separated, and he vividly remembered the buffeting winds which had propelled them into the vortex the first time; he was not about to risk that happening again. Not without preparation, anyway. To that purpose, he dropped to the ground, drawing Kat down with him. Seated, they presented much less of a target for the forces building up only a few feet away from them.

"Let me go," she protested, trying at once to get free of his grasp and not be sucked into the time hole. "That's our way home!"

Jason tightened his hold on her arm. "We don't know that," he said reasonably, trying to remain calm even against the wild beating of his own heart. This was what they'd been waiting for so long! But he wouldn't let caution fall by the wayside, no matter how excited he might be at the prospect of rescue.

"But it's in the very same spot that we landed in," Kat cried, looking longingly towards the shimmering vortex. "It's got to be a connection to our time!"

He sighed. "What if it's not? Kat, I want to go home and be safe as much as you do, but we have to consider the possibility that going through that thing might land us in even deeper shit than we're in now."

That shut her up. Unhappily, Kat gave up her resistance. She considered the options as calmly as she could, with temptation right before her. "But it might not," she argued after a moment. "Jason, we've agreed that our situation here is pretty much hopeless; that's why we're moving away in the first place. We can't be sure that whatever we find in that valley near Stone Canyon will be better than here; does it really matter where we're going to take chances? Especially when one of the chances is the possibility of going home?"

"I guess not," Jason conceded. "But what if we get stranded even further in the past? Or in a period where we'll run into Indians, settlers or whatever who may be hostile?"

She stared at him in helpless frustration. The winds generated by the time hole tugged at the long braid hanging down her back, and ruffled Jason's longish curls. "I don't know," she whispered at last. "Oh God, Jase, what should we do?"

Jason shrugged, deliberately avoiding to look at the colourful phenomenon. "Haven't got a clue," he admitted. "The way I see it, we have three alternatives: wait and see if someone or something comes through - hopefully looking for us or letting us know it's safe to go through, ignore the thing and be on our way to Stone Canyon as planned, or take our chances and end up wherever. Whenever."

"Yeah," Kat agreed. She knew what she wanted to do, but this was a decision they had to make together, one way or another. Whichever course of action they'd take, it would be both of them or none. "What do you want to do?"

"The safe - the sensible - thing to do would be to ignore it," Jason said, not looking at Kat and momentarily side-stepping the question. "I mean, we kind of know how to deal with things here and now, and if - when - we find food, we know we can survive. But ..."

"But we haven't exactly led a safe or particularly sensible life the past few years, have we?" Kat smiled wryly, realizing that her companion was leaning towards the same decision as she. However, neither was quite ready to actually make the choice. "Becoming Rangers, fighting monsters on an almost daily basis, risking our lives anonymously, for hardly more than a generic thank-you by the public ..."

"Who complain about the property damage caused by the Rangers' fights in pretty much the same breath," Jason muttered with a shrug.

"That's not why we did it," Kat reminded him gently.

"I know, and it doesn't help us decide what to do here and now," he brought the discussion back on track. "Okay, so we agree we're not exactly as sane, safe or sensible as our folks would like to think we are," he sighed. "Does that mean we take one more risk, though - one that could give a whole new meaning to not-safe?"

Katherine gulped. This was it - crunch time. She took a deep breath.

"I want to."

Jason briefly closed his eyes, then snorted lightly with relief, smiling at her. "Me, too."

"Whew."

He chuckled, then squared his shoulders. The time hole was still hovering in the air, but he had an inexplicable gut feeling it wouldn't do so much longer. After all, the first one had come and gone almost faster than they could think.

"Yeah. Okay, then. Don't ask me why, but I don't think we have much time left." Jason blew a strand of hair out of his eyes. One decision - the most crucial one - made, they now needed to make a few others, fast. Where to start, though ... his glance fell on their bulkier belongings. There was no way he could drag the travois through the time hole, and he really didn't want to be strapped to it when they landed. /No telling what we'll encounter on the other side! /But there was no need to alarm Kat with these concerns yet.

"I kind of doubt we'll be able to take most of our large supplies along; what do you think we can absolutely not do without wherever we're going to end up?" was all he said.

That was easy; they already had packed their belongings along those lines for their trek. "Everything truly irreplaceable is in the picnic basket, including the weapons and tools we made," Kat said. Should they land in a time period not their own, she'd hate being without their furs, but that was something that could be dealt with somehow.

"It's also all the stuff we had with us when we got stranded here, right?" Everything except Kat's cardigan and silver star necklace, but those things would remain with Dorilene, no matter what.

"Uh huh."

"Great; that way we'll leave nothing not of this time behind. Let's do it, then." Jason got to his feet, giving Kat a helping hand. She stood as well, and both felt the air currents swirl around them much more strongly than before.

"It's as if the time hole is reaching out for us," she murmured, stooping to lift the picnic basket. She grasped the handle firmly in both hands as Jason draped an arm around Kat's shoulder, holding his crude spear in the other. The position was a bit awkward, but there was no way either one of them would risk getting separated. Cautiously, they took a couple of steps towards the vortex.

"Listen," he stopped suddenly, tapping her cheek so she would glance at him. When she did, she saw that his eyes were very dark and deadly serious. "Once we get through ... wherever we land, try to get to your feet as quickly as possible. With us deliberately going into that thing, hopefully we won't fall and be quite as groggy and disoriented like last time."

"No problem." His suggestion made eminent sense. But Jason continued.

"Also, I want you to get behind me right away."

"Why?" Kat protested, puzzled and just a tad indignant. " I don't need you to protect me; I can take care of myself!"

"Exactly," Jason nodded. "Which is why I want you at my back, to look out for dangers from behind."

"Oh. Okay." That, too, made sense. Mollified, Kat took a better grip on the basket. She still had a suspicion that Jason was somehow looking out for her, being slightly macho, but she was also gratified that he trusted her to guard his rear.

And a very nice rear it is, too! Impatiently, Kat chased the thought away. This was not the right time to be thinking of Jason that way. She fought down an involuntary blush, counting herself lucky that he was positioned halfway behind her and so couldn't see.

"Ready when you are," she said, grateful that her voice at least sounded normal enough.

Jason briefly squeezed her shoulder. "As ready as I'll ever be," he agreed. "On three?"

"Right."

The two went closer to the time hole. Already they could feel the insistent tug of the forces swirling within and around. It would be very easy to just fall into it, to give in to the pull of forces beyond their control. Both braced themselves physically and mentally, tamping down on visceral panic. All it would take now was one last step.

Although he spoke very quietly, Jason's deep voice rang as loud as any shout in Kat's ears as he started to count.

"One ... two ... three!"

As one, they lifted their feet and moved forward, to vanish instantly in the coruscating opening.

Behind them, the time hole collapsed and disappeared, leaving the grass slightly trampled and the abandoned travois as the only sign that Jason and Katherine had ever lived there.

~*~



Angel Grove, the Present

The atmosphere in the Power Chamber was strained as the nine friends and the Turbo Rangers waited. Zack, who was standing next to Rocky, murmured once about the tension they all felt being thick enough to cut with his Power Axe, but got no more than a wry nod in return. Everybody was watching the cleared space in the middle, hoping to see ... well, anything. Nobody dared look directly at Tommy, whose whole demeanour radiated extreme stress as the seconds ticked by. Only Kimberly's doe-brown eyes swept over to her ex-boyfriend now and again, darkening with concern each time.

Billy had to force himself not to fiddle with the controls or check the various readouts yet again; he knew there was nothing to adjust. Even Alpha Six was immobile in one out-of-the-way corner for once, thankfully not irritating anyone with comments. The Rangers seemed the least involved; while they certainly sympathized with their predecessors, they weren't as closely concerned with Jason and Kat's fate as the others. Ashley and Carlos kept an unobtrusive eye on the outside scanners, ready to take action should Divatox decide to attack the city again.

The only person present who seemed completely untouched was Dimitria, but if one knew what to look for it would be apparent that she, too, was waiting for a resolution one way or the other. As mentor of a Ranger team, she naturally felt responsible for the missing, especially since Katherine had briefly served under her aegis. It was only due to her superior powers of observation - and because her warp tube was intricately connected to all systems within the Power Chamber - that she spotted the minute changes in energy levels first.

"Rangers, will you take a look at the chronoton readout?" she requested quietly. At almost the same instant, a tiny light on both portalcoms began to blink, slowly at first, then gaining a more frantic pace as the color changed from a mild yellow to glaring red.

Fourteen heads snapped up; fourteen pairs of eyes darted around the room, seeking out dials and gauges, screens and consoles. Galvanized into action, Billy and Justin jumped to their computers.

"Oh my God, something's happening," Kim yelped. "Billy, what's going on?"

"The portalcoms are being activated," he replied tersely, fingers flying on the controls. "Somebody, or something, has entered the time hole."

"What do you mean, some/thing/?" Tommy queried, feeling his pulse skyrocket as he tried not to bounce on his feet with nerves. "It's gotta be Jase and Kat, right?"

"I hope so, Tommy," his genius friend said distractedly.

"You /hope/?!?"

Trini gulped. Dreading Tommy's reaction, she prayed he wouldn't lose it completely when she voiced what nobody had dared mention out loud yet. Only to her had Billy privately hinted at a complication neither wanted to happen. "There's the remote possibility that some animal just might have stumbled into it ..."

Tommy paled and swayed, the implications becoming clear almost instantly, but he complied without argument. "No," he whispered. "Not that ... not when we're so close ..."

"Well, in any case we'd better take some precautions," TJ interjected. "We can't compromise the Power Chamber's security." Quickly, he assigned positions to everybody. Zack, Adam, Trini and Tanya stood ready to either pull Jason and Kat out of range of the vortex (or to shove back whatever else might appear), Kim and Aisha were hovering near a medical tray just in case, Rocky and Tommy being backup for everything else while TJ, Carlos, Ashley and Cassie morphed quietly and drew their weapons. All this took less than a minute, during which the two portalcoms hummed to life, strange energies arcing from one to the other until they met and merged, blossoming out into the roundish, dizzyingly swirling vortex they remembered seeing when their friends disappeared.

"We're going to find out who or what's coming one way or another right now," Justin announced, his boyish voice unusually grim. "Make way and stand guard, everybody - incoming!"

~*~



There was nothing to feel, see, hear, just dizziness and darkness as Jason and Kat entered the time hole. A sense of disorientation was almost a given, as was the hollowness in their stomachs as they ... fell? Whirled? Tumbled? ... to wherever and whenever they were travelling, but as soon as their senses righted themselves, both reacted with instincts honed by two years of living on the edge.

The first thing to return was equilibrium; as soon as Jason felt himself upright and his feet hit the ground, he fell into a defensive fighting stance. Movement in the air told him that Kat was indeed following his suggestion and taking up a position at his back while dropping their picnic basket between them for safekeeping. He still could neither see nor hear, so when hands reached for his arms, he tried to block what might well be an attempt at capture or worse. However, the touch seemed vaguely familiar; shaking his head, he tried to clear both eyes and ears to determine who it was tugging him away from his position. He opened his mouth to call out for Kat, but was surprised to hear a male voice shout out in shock and pain, followed by the dull thud of a body hitting the floor.

"Kat!" he tried to shout, but all that came out was a hoarse croak.

*



Zack and Adam reached out for one of the figures materializing out of the colourfully swirling vortex. Adrenaline surged as they realized it was a dark-haired male and a blonde female with some kind of squarish object between them, but before they could determine identities or utter a single sound, the woman lashed out with a strong shove and powerful karate kick, dislodging their hands.

"Argh!" Zack yelled, mightily surprised as the unexpected attack connected solidly with his gut and sent him a couple of feet backwards, making him stumble against a computer console where he then slid to the floor, groaning in pain. Adam had fared only a little better, and both stared in utter amazement at the wild, almost feral look on the woman's face - especially combined with her aggressive stance that signalled definite combat readiness. Both Kat and Jason looked not like their usual selves, but like ferocious, /dangerous /warriors.

*



"YES!!!"

"Jase!"

"Kat!"

"It's them!"

"Oh my God, we did it!"

There was a cacophony of excited voices, all shouting over each other as the waiting Rangers and friends confirmed the identities of the new arrivals all at once. The general hubbub was drowned out at once, though, by two barked-out commands from the resident geniuses.

"Get them away from the time hole!" Justin's boyish voice rose to its highest level as he tried to be heard over the din.

"Justin, shut off the portalcom, NOW!" Billy was no less loud as he frantically threw switches, disabling the energy flow step by careful step and yet as fast as possible. He didn't wait to check if his assistant heard him; it was vital that the vortex should be closed right away lest a rogue remnant of energy threatened to swallow their friends again. To his relief, the Blue Ranger seemed to have heard him, as the twitching arc of energy gave a last polychrome flare, then sizzled out as the portalcoms were shut down with a faint mechanical whine.

~*~

Only when the last indicator had gone dark, though, and there was no longer even the hint of power-flow vibration, did Billy allow himself to relax and turned around to welcome the castaways home.

To his consternation, he found near-pandemonium in the Power Chamber.

Jason was facing him, holding a long, sharpened staff ready to thrust/throw, while Kat was looking the other way, arms raised in a classic defence/attack position. It had been she who'd somehow managed to throw Zack off - quite a surprise, since she'd never been very aggressive before.



I would have expected such a move from Jason or Tommy, but not Katherine!

However, Billy could understand why she'd fought the sudden touch; both time travellers were obviously still somewhat disoriented, and Jason was enough of a fighter and leader to consider the possibility of an attack once they'd emerged from their trip through time. He also noted the sling fastened to Jason's belt, the bow and arrows slung across his back ... it made eminent sense that they'd bring weapons, given their likely situation in the past and that they probably had had no way of verifying that the time hole would indeed transport them back where they belonged.

The others were standing frozen in their places, plainly shocked by the unexpected attack as well as their friends' rather unkempt appearance. They had both lost weight, which made them look both fierce and haggard at the same time. Their clothes were ragged and torn in places; Kat's hair, even braided, hung almost down to her waist and Jason was also long-haired and bearded. This, more than anything else, brought home the fact that they had indeed spent considerably longer than a few days trapped in the past. It was something they'd barely accepted intellectually, but what it /meant /hadn't sunk in until this instant. Somehow, it hadn't seemed quite real ... but it was. Very much so, and it wouldn't be easily dealt with. In the background, the Turbo Rangers lowered their blasters and demorphed.

~*~



"Kat?" Jason tried again, relieved to find that his voice obeyed him once more. He was still woozy and couldn't see straight, but senses and instincts honed by two years of living in the wild told him that they were most definitely not in the park. Instead, they had emerged in some kind of structure to find themselves surrounded by people - quite a largish group, too. There was no way they could defeat them all, although they would both give it their best shot, he knew. He hoped that whoever was circling them wouldn't be hostile, would maybe even help them ... once he'd made sure Kat was all right. "Are you okay?"

She didn't answer immediately. Jason tensed, hefting his spear in preparation to defend her, but was stopped mid-motion by a familiar voice coming from his left.

"Jase! Kat! You're back!"

Both returnees froze.

Jason shook his head as if to clear it, and Kat turned slowly, focussing in the direction of that voice. It was one she'd longed for in almost-forgotten dreams, had hoped to hear again for endless months ... and yet felt nothing of the ecstatic delight she'd expected when imagining this scenario.

"T-tommy?" she stammered, not quite trusting her slowly-recovering senses. "What ... where ..."

"Right here, Kitten," Tommy murmured hoarsely, and slowly went to her side. When her blue eyes met his in obvious confusion, he reached out with shaking fingers and gently touched her cheek. "We got you back home. You're safe now."

"I ... oh my God ... Tommy ..." With a sob, her strength left her and she nearly fell against him, only to be caught in a fervent embrace.

"God, I missed you," he breathed into her hair. "I was so afraid for you ..."

His only answer was a choked cry, and the slender body in his arms began to shake with more sobs. "No, no, please don't," he begged. "I've got you, I'm not letting you go ever again ... please don't cry!" When Kat at last lifted her tear-stained face from his shoulder, he tried to stem the flow the only way he could think of.

~*~



Jason's eyes cleared just at the instant when Kat's sobs were muffled by Tommy's kiss. To his still somewhat befuddled mind, it looked as if she was responding with total abandon, melting into the arms holding her. He felt as if he'd been sucker-punched, all breath leaving him at once so that his knees almost buckled with the sudden loss of tension.

What did you expect? You're back. With your friends and loved ones. And she's always loved him ...

His train of thought was momentarily derailed as the others at last swarmed around him, exclaiming in relief and joy, taking his weapons away from him, the girls hugging him from all sides, the men pounding his back painfully. Everybody was there, from Zack and Trini to Billy and the Turbo Rangers. It was gratifying, yes, but at the same time almost too much. Jason just stood in the midst of the happy mêlée, not resisting his friends' touches, but his eyes remained fixed on the reunited couple ... who seemed oblivious to everything else happening around them. He paled, and his eyes darkened and began to burn with a strange inner flame.

The only one to notice was Kimberly, who after her first joyous reaction had taken a step backwards. For one thing, as the smallest she didn't want to be crushed by the others' happy onrush, and for another ... she found it hard to remain close to Tommy and not try to yank Katherine from his arms in a fit of anger.

I don't have that right! Not anymore!

To distract herself from the unwelcome sight of Kat and Tommy locked in a deep kiss - she really should have expected it, she knew, but somehow hadn't - she focussed on Jason, one of her oldest and dearest friends. She knew him as well as her very own brother, and what she could read in his expression sent a chill of pity down her spine.

Because she was 100% sure that, were she to look into a mirror right this minute, her own eyes would hold exactly the same degree of hurt and jealousy she recognized in the midnight depths.



Oh no. Poor Jason!

~*~



The excited babble of voices petered out at last when the friends realized Jason wasn't reacting to any of their comments; in instinctive silent agreement, they'd given the reunited couple a few moments of precious privacy. One by one, they fell back from the unmoving figure, following his gaze to Tommy and Kat, who were just now separating at last. Kat buried her face against Tommy's shoulder once more, trying to regain her composure, while he beamed at his best friend happily and reached out with one hand.

"Welcome home, Bro! It's good to have you back!"

Tommy wasn't sure what kind of reaction he'd expected, but it certainly wasn't the one he got.

Instead of clasping his hand and giving him a friendly grin in return, Jason glared at him in what could only be called cold fury. Not even when he'd emerged from Maligore's lava pit had he looked quite like this. Tommy stiffened and caught his breath in sudden dread. What's wong?

"Jase? Bro?"

The use of his familiar nickname, as much as the sound of Tommy's voice, succeeded in breaking Jason out of his paralysis. Barely controlling his temper, he took a step forward, glowering at Tommy.

"What the Hell took you so long?!?"

Completely taken aback, Tommy couldn't gather his wits right away. "Huh?"

"Do you have any idea what you put us through?" Jason grated. At the back of his mind he knew it was unfair to single out Tommy like this, to direct all his so-long-suppressed anger and frustration at his best friend, but he couldn't help himself. Not while Tommy was still holding Kat tightly in his arms. "Two years, Tommy! You left us there for over two years, to go through Hell all by ourselves ... we had no shelter, no food, nobody to help us ... but you just took your own sweet time, didn't you!"

"We didn't," Tommy protested automatically, stung by the implication that there had been evil intent in the length of time they'd needed. "Not on purpose, anyway. We /all /tried really hard to get you back ...only, it took longer than we thought it would ..."

"Well, maybe you should have put in a little more effort," Jason sneered, not really in the mood to listen to what he thought were just excuses.

"That's hardly fair, Jason." Kimberly was the first to find her voice, even though she was as stunned as the others by this unexpected attack. "You wouldn't be saying that if you had seen how much Tommy worried about the two of you!"

"Or how hard Billy and Justin worked to find and retrieve you," Trini added quietly. "Really, Jason, be fair."

The anger left Jason as quickly as it had overtaken him. He visibly deflated.

"Yeah, well, you try and survive like we had to for all these months, not knowing whether anybody was even looking for us, or if we could ever go back at all," he muttered, sounding immeasurably weary.

Billy swallowed hard. It was painfully obvious that neither Jason nor Kat had any idea that in the present the passage of time had been much shorter. They would need to be told, and right away at best. He briefly scanned his friends' faces, but nobody stepped forward to volunteer. Sighing, Billy did what he had to.

"Jason ... you weren't gone for two years," he said softly, but firmly.

The dark eyes swept towards him. "What?!?"

Billy cleared his throat awkwardly under that intense gaze. "I regret to inform you that in this time - now, the present - only a little over four days have passed."

The silence following Billy's words filled the Power Chamber as everybody instinctively held their breaths, to wait for a reaction from their friends. Jason blanched slightly, his suddenly pasty skin in sharp contrast to his bearded cheeks. He shook his head incredulously, unable to process this bit of information.

"What?" he repeated numbly. "Four ... four /days/? But ..."

Trini touched Jason's arm compassionately. "We know, Jason. We were just as surprised when we realized that time was passing at a different rate for you and us. If we had known from the start ..."

"We just assumed that it was the same," Adam added quietly. "After all, Kim was gone for the same period that was passing here when she got stuck in 1880."

"How ... when did you find out?" Jason asked, still dazed. A few feet away, Kat stiffened and lifted her tear-stained face from Tommy's shoulder, to stare at Billy.

"Only a few hours ago, unfortunately. After ... what was it again?" Adam replied.

"Ninety-three hours and something," Aisha recalled. "Actually, you have Rocky to thank for the clue that enabled Billy and Justin to figure things out."

"I ... see," Jason mumbled, trying to reconcile the concept in his mind, knowing as he did how long he and Kat had been marooned in the past. "Thanks, I guess."

"Don't mention it, man," Rocky shrugged. "I just wish it had been sooner for you guys."

"What exactly are you saying, Billy?" Kat spoke up unexpectedly, detaching herself from her boyfriend's hold and stepping closer. Her soft voice was hoarse from crying, and held a note of near-despair. Jason understood only too well what she must be feeling.

If they'd figured things out sooner, maybe our baby would still be alive ...if they'd found out sooner, we might never have gotten together at all.

He couldn't say which was worse.

Billy found it even harder to meet the blue eyes than it had been not to quail under Jason's demanding gaze.

"There was a significant discrepancy between passage of time in the past and in the present," he explained as gently as he could. "Which means that for every day we spent here, roughly seven months passed for you. I'm sorry."

"No," Kat whispered brokenly. "It can't be ..." She closed her eyes and touched her forehead, moaning as if she was suddenly hit by a migraine.

Tommy solicitously draped an arm around her waist. "Unfortunately, it's the truth," he said. "But you're safely back now, and that's all that counts, right? You can forget everything that's happened to you and go back to the way things were before that time hole sucked you in."

"Forget?" Kat repeated numbly.

"Yeah." Tommy pressed a comforting kiss to her cheek. "Nothing's changed. Everything's back to normal."

He was as surprised as their friends when she only laughed - a short, bitter sound that sounded perilously close to hysteria.

"What's wrong, Kat?" Tanya asked, concerned at her best friend's uncharacteristic reaction. She'd expected doubts, even anger maybe, but not ... this. "Aren't you glad that you're back where you started?"

"Yeah, you practically have lost no time at all," Zack said without thinking, then winced at his own unintentional pun. A few of the others glared reproachfully at him. This was hardly the time for jokes of any kind. "Sorry. I didn't really mean that," he muttered, embarrassed.

"You have no idea what I've lost," Kat murmured, not looking at anyone. Especially not at Jason or Tommy. How could she ever explain to either young man what this revelation meant for her? She'd lost hope of being rescued - basically lost faith in Tommy; that's why she had turned to Jason in the first place. Then, in consequence, the two of them had lost their child ... something that hurt too much to think about.

"Try thinking as if your stay in the past hasn't happened," Rocky suggested, in an attempt at being helpful. "After all, like Tommy said, nothing here and now has changed ..." He trailed off when he saw Kat was starting to tremble as she rounded on him.

"Nothing's happened? Are you saying that the past two years don't exist, or only in my mind?"

"Well, yeah," he replied, feeling suddenly awkward. Like Tanya, he had expected a very different reaction, not so much bitterness. "Don't they?"

Kat started to sob again. She couldn't deal with this, not now. Not with everybody watching her, and Jason being so ominously silent. He was standing only a couple of meters away from her, but it might as well have been miles. /We were so close ... he always could comfort me when I needed it ... /But it wasn't Jason who was touching her, who was looking at her with concern. It was Tommy - her boyfriend. The man she loved. The one whom she'd been pining for for months.

So why do I want Jason /to hold me again ... to kiss away my pain? /

Kat had no answer for herself, and she was too confused and disoriented to deal with her emotional turmoil. Suddenly, all she wanted was ... Mum ...Mum will make things all right ... Deep in her heart, she knew it was a childish, vain hope, but all of a sudden it seemed like the one thing she wanted above all.

"Just ... just get me out of here," she murmured through her tears. "I want to go home ..."

"Of course," Tommy readily agreed. "Your folks will be glad to see you again. Teej?"

The Red Turbo Ranger nodded. "Sure thing, Tommy. Cassie, what did you arrange with the Hillards?"

The pretty Asian stepped forward. "I can teleport Kat directly into their back yard," she answered. "I just have to give them a call to expect us."

"I've found a way to connect the Power Chamber's comm. system with regular phone lines," Justin explained. "It'll look like it's a satellite-routed cell phone call."

"Good. Do it," TJ ordered his team mates. "Tommy, you want to come along?"

"Yeah, sure," his predecessor said. Tommy also wanted to speak to Jason, to know how his best friend had fared and to thank him for looking out for Kat, but surely he'd understand that the blonde dancer needed him more right now - that she was too overcome to wait much longer until she was reunited with her parents. He and Jason could have a long talk later. He slipped an arm around Kat's waist again, noting her exhaustion in the way she leaned against him, and glanced towards the Pink Ranger. "Anytime you're ready, Cass."

She morphed without much fanfare and joined the couple. "Right. See you guys later!" And in a flash of pink and white, the threesome teleported out.

"I just hope she remembers to deal with the press," Carlos muttered. "Teleporting into the yard is okay, but she better tell them what we set up, or Kat and her family won't be able to stir from the house."

"Press?" Jason asked, distracting himself from his dark thoughts. He was torn between wanting to learn exactly what had happened in their absence, wanting to go with Katherine and the sudden desire to see his own parents again. He knew they must've been frantic with worry. "How did reporters get into this? And why - how - do Kat's folks know about the Rangers' involvement?"

Kimberly sighed. "Yeah, well, unfortunately, that time hole caught you guys in full view of half of Angel Grove," she explained. "There was no way we could keep it under wraps, with so many witnesses. Someone had called the police, too, and that creep Boswell showed up with a camera. We all decided that before the people in the city got hysterical the Rangers had better give an explanation."

"We also contacted your families and gave them as much reassurance as we could," TJ added. "It wasn't much, but ... it seemed to give them some hope at least, to know that the Power Rangers were on the job."

"I guess it would, at that," Jason admitted. Having led the Rangers himself, he could easily follow TJ's reasoning. Damage control. Right. "Thanks, man. For everything." He would find time later, when he had all the facts, to express his gratitude to the team and their mentor more thoroughly. Right now, it was hard to keep up a leader's mindset - not when he was feeling as if someone had put him through an emotional and physical wringer.

"Anytime, Jason," TJ replied. "You'd have done the same."

"Yeah ..."

"To get back to the reporters, though," Aisha chimed in, "they've been staking out both your houses right from the start. After we located you, we had to make some kind of arrangement to get them off our collective backs."

"What do you mean?" Jason asked, too exhausted suddenly to take everything in.

The former Yellow Ranger grimaced. "Well ... I know it's probably not what you want, but ... they waylaid us after we'd talked to your folks. The reporters knew we were friends, so ... anyway, the only way Kim and I could get them to back off was by promising that you'd give a press conference in two days' time, to answer all their questions."

"Great," Jason groaned.

"I know, and we're sorry, Jase," Kimberly added unhappily. "We, um, we also had to agree on your behalf that you would appear on the Harvey Garvey show - but at least we managed that as an exclusive, so hopefully you'll be done with the whole thing after that."

It all was too much. Way too much. He'd not only lost two years of his life, but apparently also the woman he'd shared those two years with. Would he also lose his best friend if Tommy ever found out about that/? /Only time would tell ... and time was something they suddenly had plenty of again. If only he wasn't so totally /sick /of everything to do with time - past, present, or whatnot! Jason sighed wearily.

"Whatever. Just take me home, okay?"

"Right."

"If you have no objection, I'd like to accompany you, Jason," Billy said quietly. Grateful for his old friend's support, Jason nodded.

"Okay."

He straightened as Billy and TJ, morphed into the Red Ranger's uniform, flanked him. His parents would be shocked enough at his changed appearance as it was, and he suspected he could use Billy's help in dealing with the situation. Already, being surrounded by a group of people was putting extra strain on his frayed nerves, and Jason had an uneasy feeling things would get worse before they got better.

If they ever will.

Tommy's words of minutes ago came back to him as the teleportation beam engulfed them. /'Nothing's changed. Everything's back to normal.' /Only, somehow, it felt as if everything had changed. And he didn't know whether things would ever be 'normal' again.











To Be Continued ...