Power Rangers Fan Fiction ❯ Bitter ❯ Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 

 

In…

 

Out…

 

Tommy forced his body into a series of spin-kicks, finally planting his raised foot and moving his arm to a block position before striking back with his other leg at an imagined foe.

 

His body flowed through the kata almost mindlessly; a blessing, as while he put himself through one of his most trying routines, echoes from the night before bounced around the inside of his head.

 

Where was his vaunted focus?

 

Gone - with her, just like it used to be… like it still was, he could admit when he was being honest with himself in the dark of night. Kimberly: one of his life's greatest mysteries. It haunted him, not knowing what had happened.

 

Now he knew… but there was no weight lifted off his shoulders.

 

In…

 

Out…

 

He couldn't master his thoughts, so he turned to mastering his body, his breathing - an illusion of composure when he was filled with anything but.

 

`Raped. She was nearly raped, and I wasn't there to stop it.' The Oliver guilt complex, nearly trademarked to hear his friends talk, was alive and well. `It wasn't my fault!'

 

Acknowledging it and believing it were two totally different things.

 

Trying to pull his thoughts away from that topic, Tommy tried to mesh his memories of his first love with what she had become. The almost Valley Girl-like persona she'd had when they first met had melted into a loving individual concerned about nearly everybody on an almost personal level. He could see that kindness in her eyes still, but it was tempered with horrors he could only imagine... things he didn't want to visualize her doing.

 

Like some of the high school students he taught, memories of the night before would not be contained, could not be silenced. Like Hayley finally drawing Kim's attention back from her tired friend and asking the question everybody had really wondered.

 

“You've told us a lot but haven't given us very many answers. Why would you send Tommy that awful letter?”

 

Kimberly stared at Hayley, again a look of confusion coming over her face, and Tommy suddenly realized his former girlfriend would have no idea who was questioning her. It seemed Haley thought of the same thing.

 

“Sorry, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Haley, Tommy's friend from college.”

 

Kim's eyes zeroed in on Tommy in a disbelieving stare. He couldn't hold her gaze.

 

“I didn't think Tommy would have talked about me all that much.”

 

“Don't worry. You're not that popular of a topic,” Hayley sniped back, drawing raised eyebrows from those who knew the redhead well; she hadn't often been one to lash out.

 

Kimberly raised her chin defiantly. “Good. It was meant to be that way.” She took a deep breath and finally admitted to her friends, “He would have killed you.”

 

Sesshoumaru - the demon Kimberly worked for (was enslaved by, really, to go by her description) - had threatened to kill them all if she ran or spread the secret of demon-kind. She'd described in vivid detail the way he killed the demon who tried to attack her that fateful night…

 

With a grunt, Tommy let loose with a lethal combination of kicks and punches, twisting away from where the rising sun sparkled off the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Sesshoumaru would have killed them? Kimberly firmly believed it. Kimberly - who'd seen Tommy rampage through downtown Angel Grove with the Dragonzord - didn't think for a second the rangers would have stood against the demon's assault.

 

“Rangers don't kill unless absolutely backed into a corner,” Kimberly asserted. “Sesshoumaru…. he'd kill you before you found yourself in the corner.”

 

So she'd shut herself away from everything she knew and loved. Quit gymnastics, broken up with him in the most heart-wrenching way possible.

 

His half-hearted follow-up attempts at romance with Kimberly's successor in pink had been a diversion, had been his first sexual experience, had been everything a red-blooded young man could ask for. And yet, it wasn't what he'd wanted… he'd wanted Kimberly.

 

Ready for the games… hardest letter I'll ever have to write… I've met somebody else… in some ways you're like a brother to me…

 

The words still mocked him late at night.

 

Tommy spun, letting out the bitterness that festered deep, deep within his heart - right next to, or perhaps a part of, his feelings for the first Pink Ranger. His arm rose for a blow; he was caught off-guard and landed on his ass when it ricocheted off a forearm he knew nearly as well as his own.

 

“You okay, Bro?” Jason's eyebrows were raised; a silent acknowledgement that he knew his friend was anything but fine.

 

Tommy pushed his sweat-curled hair back. “Aw, man. I can't believe you caught me like that.” He took Jason's hand and was tugged to his feet. Wiping the wet sand from his gi trousers, he let his breath go back to normal.

 

Jason was silent and waited for Tommy to meet his eyes again. The look on his face said it all.

 

Tommy tried to force a smirk and faltered, looking out over the ocean. “I'm…” another run of his hand through his hair - a sure sign of stress and upset. “Yeah, Jase,” he said on an exhale. “I'm good.”

 

“Spar with me?”

 

Tommy accepted the invitation with a bit of hesitation. He had no reason to say no; they hadn't gotten on the mats together in months, and while both kept physically fit, nothing matched the adrenaline rush of pushing himself and his friend to the limits. Sand would work well enough as a padding, and it was early enough that nobody would call the cops on a “fistfight” that was anything but.

 

But… sparring was also their way of letting go, of facing facts. It was how Tommy came to accept Jason's leaving high school to go to Switzerland, had been where Jason admitted for the first time he was attracted to Trini and where Tommy had made a similar acknowledgment about Kimberly.

 

Sparring, to them, was more of a chance to connect than drinking a beer and watching a game over hot wings. It was… brotherly.

 

The two bowed, and for a few minutes, the only sounds were seagulls, surf, and the smack of flesh on flesh as Tommy let Jason warm up slowly. Then Jason began to press the offensive, and Tommy knew the discussion was coming.

 

He ducked, lashed out with a leg that brought Jason to his ass on the sand. One point, Tommy.

 

Jason kicked back up to his feet in a smooth movement, on the offense again. Tommy backed away, tried to duck right to swing a fist into Jason's side but was blocked.

 

“So, Kimberly looks good.”

 

Tommy's response was a grunt; like in the old days, his mind wandered at the thought of Kimberly, and Jason was able to bring his buddy to the ground. One point, Jason.

 

“You know, for fighting demons and stuff.”

 

Tommy's renewed assault was brutal and Jason clamped his lips closed to avoid a mouthful of sand as the ground rushed up to meet him. Two points, Tommy.

 

A kick and a block; a flip and a twist with a flat-handed jab to the ribs. The two traded blows back and forth, moving up and down the stretch of beach. Tommy was oblivious to the occasional onlooker, losing himself in the fight, and letting - as always - his guilt and anger fuel him.

 

There was a good reason Rita Repulsa had chosen the brooding, loner new kid to be her evil green Ranger.

 

“God damn it,” Tommy finally exploded, falling into a routine they'd established their freshman year of high school. “I don't know what to think anymore!”

 

`Ah, so that's it.' Jason had wondered how his best friend would handle these revelations. They were answers that he'd sought for years… but not ones he'd expected nor wanted to hear. Ever loyal, Jason jumped to Kimberly's defense. “She did it to protect us.”

 

“But who was protecting her?” The question was fired rapidly, on the heels of a kick flip that almost sent Jason tumbling.

 

The man in red pants righted himself and charged forward, using his sparring partner's backward momentum to throw him off-balance. “Her new friends? Her `co-workers'? Either way, bro, she didn't need protecting. She was a Ranger and you know that.”

 

“I should have been there for her. Why didn't she ask us - me - for help? Or Zordon?”

 

Jason bent backward, twisting to the side as Tommy took advantage and swiped his feet out from under him again. They'd lost count of points; it didn't matter. It wasn't about wins or losses.

 

At least, not any more than usual.

 

“Zordon knew,” Jason said through a wheeze; that lost fall had knocked the wind out of him. “You heard her.”

 

Tommy leaned forward, hands on his knees, and panted. They'd gone at it harder than usual. He grumbled an acknowledgment, diverting his eyes. It rankled to know that their mentor… the man with all the answers, the one who knew just about everything… had known the truth, had been sworn to secrecy and kept that oath to his death.

 

Tommy's blood ran cold. Did Kimberly know about that? She had to have felt it, when the Red Space Ranger smashed Zordon's time warp, unleashing a purifying wave of particles through the galaxy. Every Ranger intimately connected to Zordon through the Morphin' Grid had felt it… she would have been no different.

 

He was shocked by the way his heart clenched; not the familiar feeling of loss even so many years later when he thought of Zordon, but at the thought of Kimberly grieving alone. That death had brought the Rangers back together again. Billy had teleported back from Aquitar. Katherine had flown in from London, where she had been studying ballet. Even Justin, Rocky's successor, who had been just a boy when he became a Ranger, had come from MIT to mourn.

 

Kimberly had been conspicuous in her absence.

 

It was the first time Tommy had thought that perhaps Kimberly's disappearance was more than what it appeared to be.

 

And wasn't the last time he shoved such thoughts into the recesses of his mind, hoping his Swiss cheese-like memory would discard it with everything else.

 

Kimberly, he'd learned through the years, was like the Power: something he'd never forget, something he'd never escape - a part of him.

 

“Bro?”

 

Tommy was jerked from his thoughts by Jason, who'd clambered to his feet. “Huh?”

 

“I said, `do you wanna go get some food?' Rock was just down here, said Trini and `Sha are making breakfast.” Jason's look was one of understanding; Tommy still wasn't sure what he was feeling, and Jason accepted that.

 

“I'll be up in a moment. Gonna stretch out first, cool down a bit.”

 

Emerald eyes watched the man in red walk into the building. What should have been mere specks were perfectly clear to demon senses. Shippou narrowed his sight on the man left on the beach. A white whirlwind of power circled him; his aura seethed with streaks of green, black and red.

 

Shippou studied the man's whirling aura carefully. Tommy was agitated, confused; Shippou wished he was closer so he could scent the human's emotions. Was Tommy angry? Sad? Preparing to lash out at Kimberly?

 

Shippou knew that letting Tommy go had been one of the most painful things Kim had experienced and the one thing she wished she could undo. Well, Tommy was here now, apparently single… and it appeared Kimberly's obligations to the Demon Lord were wrapping up.

 

A wicked, foxy grin spread over the demon's face.

 

 

OoO**OoO**OoO

 

 

The silence of the night in Japan was so different from what he was used to in Miami.

 

Kohaku closed his eyes as he sliced his finger, swiping the blood across a large, flat stone. Centuries of sunlight, rain and winds had eaten away at what was once an intricate stone carving; now, the rock that anchored his ancestral home's barrier was little more than a boulder, crumbling to sand.

 

Had Sango not given him a picture of what to look for, the young man would have passed his ancestral home without a second glance. As it was, picking the landmarks out through the dark had nearly led to broken bones. At the least, Kohaku wondered if his shins would ever be the same.

 

The smeared blood disappeared as the enchantment recognized him as a descendant of the city's many headmen; diluted though his blood had become over the ages. Like a computer monitor warming up, the dilapidated structures flickered and solidified, appearing out of thin air.

 

'Whoever laid the sealing spell must have been powerful,' Kohaku mused. 'Probably a descendant of Midoriko herself.'

 

Clutching his flashlight tightly, the young man clambered over fallen trees and scattered rocks and past the ditch that marked where a tall, wooden wall once stood proudly. His eyes swept the area for traps as he made his way toward the back of the ruins; it was not uncommon, his sister had informed him, for other slayers to protect their original city with clever pitfalls and other types of obstacles. Every so often, a descendant of the slayers, with no knowledge of their history, would be kidnapped by a rogue demon and brought to the area. If they got lucky and found the remains, their luck was sucked dry as the traps made short work of the presumptuous creature.

 

Kohaku's ruminations kept him occupied until he reached the vault. Hidden in one of the village's many caves, this was the only piece of the future to find a home in a city captured in time. Setting the flashlight on the ground, he tapped out the password quickly; at the same time, the hair on his neck began to stand on end.

 

Somebody was watching him; somebody had managed to follow him through the barrier before it solidified again.

 

For a moment, he was torn between confronting the intruder and slipping into the vault. If he did the former, he risked his follower gaining access to the slayers' library of information; the lock was disengaging as he pondered the possibilities. The information in the wrong hands could be deadly to the human race. He would be the first to admit he was not the strongest slayer... against the wrong opponent, he could be torn to shreds and who knew how long it would be before another descendant would find his remains - provided his predator left them there, untouched?

 

If he slipped into the vault, how was he to know when his watcher would disappear? He could get the information simply to be beheaded on the way out. There was a back way, but he wouldn't know the layout and it'd be treacherous in the dark…

 

'Damn!'

 

Kohaku was pulled from his debate by a snarl; whirling on his foot, he was barely able to bring his wakizashi up to block a blow. He was thankful he'd brought the smaller sword; he was too close to the wall to utilize his chain scythe.

 

"Filthy human!"

 

Kohaku cringed as he heard the lock click open; the wolf demon would have heard it clear as day. He centered himself in the middle of the corridor, resolving to keep the demon at bay or die trying.

 

Either seemed somewhat likely.

 

The demon - a young woman, it appeared - let out a howl, blue eyes sparkling unnaturally in the fake light. Kohaku cringed as the noise echoed off the wall painfully; he wondered how the demon could handle it with its better hearing. He evaded a slash of the demon's claws, swinging his sword in below to rake across her ribs. She muffled a whimper and he thought she might be young, on her first mission, like him.

 

"Stay back!" Kohaku ordered, following up with another sweep of his blade, this time angling back when halfway through the swing, spinning in a tight circle. Having misjudged the distance, he hissed through clenched teeth as the sword clanged against the iron door, sending sparks flying and reverberations up through his arm.

 

The demon snickered. "Too big to play here? Let me help - I'll remove an arm or two!"

 

Kohaku found his jaw clenched too tight to respond, unwillingly switching sword arms as his right continued to tingle, much like it had fallen asleep and then slammed against something solid. Thanking InuYasha mentally for drilling him on both hands, he ducked in low and stabbed at one of the wolf's vulnerable calves.

 

"I don't think so!" The female let out a bark of laughter, leaping up - to slam her head against the roof of the cave, hitting the ground with a muffled curse as bits of rock fell around her.

 

Kohaku bit down on the impulse to check if she was okay; he was a warrior today, not a doctor. Instead, he took another defensive position in front of the door. "Get out," he demanded. "Get out, and tell nobody of what you've seen or the slayers will find you!"

 

He cursed his rusty, American-accented Japanese as the wolf tilted her head in confusion. "Get out!" he repeated, this time following up with a jab toward her abdomen.

 

Gaining her feet with the speed possessed by all wolf demons, she snarled. "I'll be back, slayer!" With a whirlwind that nearly brought Kohaku to his knees coughing, she disappeared back out of the cave.

 

Kohaku sighed. There was no way to know if she'd lie in wait outside or not. He hadn't exactly made a good showing of himself as a slayer; she'd probably see him as an easy target when they were both in the open. Punching in the code once again, he slipped into the iron-walled library and locked the door. He'd take the back way out, and hope she didn't scent him.

 

 

OoO**OoO**OoO

 

 

“You're not focusing.”

 

“You're not helping.”

 

“I shouldn't have to help.”

 

“Um, yeah? You should? Aren't you supposed to be my teacher in this?”

 

“Kim, you've been meditating with me for years. You can center yourself without me holding your hand.”

 

Kimberly's posture slumped and her eyes opened, meeting the understanding look Miroku was gracing her with. “You were talking to me and distracting me,” she pouted petulantly. “It wasn't helping.”

 

Miroku lifted an eyebrow and Kim shifted under his knowing gaze. At a loss of what to do, she rose and sought a bottle of water from the mini-fridge in the corner of Miroku's study.

 

Silence reigned, filled with unanswered questions. Trying to escape the inevitable, Kim wandered to the window and opened the blinds. “Think Sango will be back soon?”

 

“She has been gone quite a while, hasn't she?” Miroku's response was nonchalant; it was clear he was less worried about Sango and more interested in discussing the events of the night before.

 

Kimberly wasn't biting.

 

“Kohaku's been gone a long freakin' time, too. It's pretty crappy of him not to call and let us know he's okay.”

 

Miroku rolled his eyes, silently waiting for Kimberly to turn around.

 

She stamped her foot. “Say something!”

 

He shook his head. “What is there to say that you aren't already thinking?” He saw the flash of fear in her eyes and wondered at it. “I understand that you haven't seen them in a long time… but why are you so upset about it? I would think you'd be happy to see them, to reconcile.”

 

Kimberly chewed on her bottom lip; a nervous habit Miroku had thought she'd outgrown in the years they'd spent together. He was about to push her again when she finally met his eyes. “He's different,” she all but whispered. “They all are. And I am. I totally don't fit in with them anymore.”

 

The idea was so ludicrous that Miroku found himself speechless for a moment. She stared at him, obviously hoping he would say or do something to make everything okay again… like Jason had always done, like Tommy had done once he joined the team, even before they'd gotten together.

 

Miroku almost grinned ruefully. It was ridiculous how he knew almost more about Kimberly's love life nearly a decade ago than he did about his own relationship now.

 

“You did notice that Tommy couldn't take his eyes off you for a moment? He was hanging his head, but every time you were looking away…” Miroku trailed off, encouraged by the glimmer of hope in her eyes. “It's not like he was wearing a ring. And if he had a girlfriend, wouldn't she be with him on this trip?”

 

“What are the odds that they'd show up now of all times?” Kimberly asked, grasping a chance to change the topic. “I mean, when we're so close.”

 

“Close to what?”

 

“The final showdown.” At Miroku's dubious look, she elaborated, “I know it's coming… and like, soon. Don't ask me how I know. It's a Ranger thing; after a while, you just… know, ya know?”

 

Miroku shook his head. He didn't know, but he did trust her. Her instincts - be them in battle, in shopping, or in dealing with friends - were reliable 99-percent of the time.

 

He just hoped this prediction didn't fall into that final one percent.

 

 

OoO**OoO**OoO

 

 

“Girl, I don't even know what to think anymore!” Aisha laughed as her friend bobbed her head in agreement. They strolled down the beach happily - checking out scantily-clad, delicious men in the surf and just generally enjoying the beautiful weather.

 

And, of course, gossiping about the latest Kimberly/Tommy news.

 

The couple had been a staple in the Power Rangers' lives. They were the fairy-tale romance, the proof that there was a Happily Ever After. A white knight and his pink princess. Two people so tightly entwined mentally that they seemed to read each other's mind… and, quite often, entwined physically so that it was difficult to realize where one ended and the other began.

 

And, once they'd gotten their ninja powers, they'd had another connection - a connection of soul, the nearly irrefutable proof that the two belonged together: the Lord of the Skies and his lady. It'd nearly killed Kim to hand over those powers to Katherine. Of course, the accident beforehand had been just as bad. And Lord Zedd draining her of her life force had also nearly killed the girl.

 

“'Sha?”

 

Aisha was pulled from her musings by Tanya's concerned look; she waved it off. “I'm fine.” She wasn't sure Tanya would understand. Outside of the “Muranthias incident,” Tanya had never seen Kim and Tommy together. And Katherine had been with Tommy at the time. Sure, her girl had been around for the break-up letter, and to see Tommy so upset had obviously shown they were close, but…

 

“Whatcha thinkin' about that's got you so tense, girlfriend? I know it ain't your man. And none of the guys here are enough to have you speechless!”

 

Aisha laughed, conceding the point. “You're right. I just… I wonder. I've always wondered where my girl was, and never did anything to hunt her down. I-I guess I'm feeling guilty, you know?”

 

“There wasn't anything you could have done,” Tanya pointed out sensibly. “First off, you were in frickin' Africa. Not exactly easy to hop on a plane and visit Miami. Not to mention that it sounds like Kim probably would've pushed you away, anyway. It's what she did with us; well, with the guys, anyway. I know even Katherine wrote her after the letter and Kim never wrote back.”

 

Aisha shrugged. She'd lived with Kim for a while when Kim's mother remarried and moved to Paris. They'd been like siblings… wasn't there anything she could have done?

 

“Don't blame yourself,” Tanya advised. “You can't change the past, anyway. And you know Tommy's beating himself up enough for all of us.”

 

`Sha grinned. Of course he was. It was what Tommy did. He put the weight of the world on his shoulders - as muscular as they were, they couldn't hold the Earth.

 

The two lapsed into an easy-going silence, appreciating the sparkle of the ocean and the possibility of the renewal of a long-lapsed friendship (or, for Tanya, a chance to get to know the woman everybody had obviously adored).

 

It was no wonder they were caught off-guard.

 

“Ah, two of the yellow brats!”

 

Tanya let out a little shriek as a bird with a human face swooped down, nearly taking her head off her shoulders. She and Aisha hit the ground rolling, instinctively coming up in defensive postures. Taking a quick look around, Tanya realized the other people on the beach were being pecked at by a flock of normal-looking birds, chasing them away.

 

“The two of you will be a kick-ass donation to Kouga! I may even get a shard from the deal!” As the last of the beach-goers took off screaming, the bird shifted into a more human-esque form, though still retaining enough of his bird-like features to appear similar to creatures they'd battled as Rangers.

 

A quick look reassured the girls that the other was on the same page. They were gonna kick some ass - to hell with taking names.

 

“Looks like somebody needs to lay off the hair gel,” Aisha shot at the bird-man, motioning to the feathery spikes that stood up atop his head. A little bit of childish, snarky banter was par for the course for Rangers: posturing, mocking, letting the creature know that it didn't intimidate them.

 

The bird-man (`A demon, like the one the boys saw,' Tanya's mind helpfully suggested) ignored the comment, moving forward in a run that was more like floating over the sand. Hands tipped in lethal talons reached out in a sweep, catching Tanya by her hair and slicing a chunk off.

 

“Oh no, you didn't!” she gasped as a couple braids hit the ground. She saw red. “Hi-yah!” A foot to the knee saw her break free - more out of the demon's surprise than actually causing him pain, she noted ruefully.

 

Aisha had sprung at him, only to hit the sand with a muffled thud as he moved faster than the eye could see. It was all she could do to roll out of the way as he leapt down toward her, face contorting disgustingly as a beak sprouted where his nose and mouth had been.

 

Tanya shouted again, gaining Aisha's attention; the birds had begun to dive-bomb the smaller woman, keeping her on her toes and hard-pressed to keep her balance in the shifting sands. Distracted, Aisha moved too slowly to avoid a diving bird and caught talons raking across her upper back. She let out a hiss, dropping to avoid a follow-up attack and kicking out with her back feet at the bird demon, apparently the leader.

 

“Girl, I know you didn't forget your zeonizers,” Aisha shouted over the screeching melee. “Cuz I ain't got my Ninja coin on me!”

 

Tanya frowned, though pride sparkled in her dark eyes as she nailed one of the birds in the beak. “I packed them just fine! They're… they're up in the bedroom,” she managed to choke out between deep breaths.

 

“FOX FIRE!”

 

Teal bursts of fire turned into a wall of it, protectively circling the girls. The demon let out a screech of anger, only to be rained on by more of the burning mystical power.

 

“Are you girls okay?” A seagull landed beside them, transforming into a red-haired man with three long, luxurious tails poking out from above his ass. It was only when he turned his head that they realized this was Shippou… obviously not disguised as a human any longer.

 

Aisha and Tanya nodded, somewhat speechless at the amount of anger in his eyes - turning them as hard as gemstones.

 

“You know the edicts!” Shippou accused, pointing a clawed finger at the bird demon, who was anxiously patting the fire from his smoking feathers. “You'll be lucky if Lord Sesshoumaru doesn't show up to personally kick your ass from here to the freakin' moon!”

 

The bird hissed. “The time of Lord Sesshoumaru is ending! Demons will rise again!”

 

“Yeah, if you're stupid,” Shippou shot back, a long sword materializing in his hand. “Get your feathery ass out of here or take me on, demon on demon. There's no honor in an unfair fight,” he added with a hint of a sneer.

 

The bird scoffed, though feathers had begun to appear on his shrinking body. “Honor is for human-lovers like you; we have only a need for power.” He took to the sky, the remaining members of his flock coming to flank him as he flew away, adding over his shoulder, “Don't think we won't be back! The colored freaks will be ours, and our power will grow again!”

 

Shippou let his guard down slowly, sniffing the wind and twitching pointed ears for any signs of a new attack. After a few moments, his features shifted to those they'd seen when they first met in the elevator; his tails disappeared and ears rounded as claws shrank.

 

As he changed, the blue fire encircling them melted away, leaving the sand around them completely untouched.

 

“That was amazing,” Aisha said honestly. “Thanks for the save. I mean, we had it under control and all, but it was cool of you to help.”

 

He shook his head. “Why didn't you morph? At least the guys had the sense to get some armor on!”

 

Tanya scowled. “I didn't exactly expect to be required to re-don my uniform, if you know what I mean! I'm in a different line of business now, thank you very much!”

 

Shippou leveled a stern look at them. “You know the dangers here now, we told you about them last night. And you didn't think to bring whatever makes you a Ranger?”

 

“I didn't think they were comin' after us,” Aisha shot back. “You said they were looking for parts of a rock!”

 

Tanya blinked. “Wait - didn't the demon say something about us being yellow? How would he know?” She glared over at Shippou, “I don't think I like our secret being, ya know, less than secret.”

 

The fox demon shrugged. “It's in your aura. You guys are extremely powerful, you know… part of the Power, I guess. Anyway, most super-natural beings like demons can see auras, and a human's is usually a bunch of different colors. You guys have almost solid-colored ones… except for the few of you who changed colors.”

 

Aisha muffled a snort. “So Tommy's is like every other human's? Since he's been nearly every Ranger color known to mankind?”

 

For once, Shippou wasn't the light-hearted guy they'd known him as previously. “His is mostly white, with hints of his other affiliations. But that makes him the largest target… he has the most power in his body. And I don't know why… but Kouga wants it.”

 

He motioned back to the building, a long ways down the beach. “Come on, I'll walk you back. I think you guys should start keeping any power-thingy you guys have on you at all times. Until we figure out why, you should consider yourselves a target.”

 

“Like that's anything new,” Tanya muttered to Aisha as they strode up the sand.

 

It seemed as thought for a Ranger, things never changed.

 

 

OoO**OoO**OoO

 

 

Kagome sighed, mulling over the tiny glass vial of pink-tinged shards. Purple swirls, like smoke, seeped in occasionally, only to be overwhelmed by white fog.

 

The endless battle between right and wrong, good and evil, past and present… all represented in the pieces of a broken soul. Well, souls.

 

She absently wondered if Midoriko's soul had split into each of the shards that had flown around the world when she overcame the jewel. Did it pain the ancient priestess? Could the woman feel pain? Did the darkness creeping into the shards she held signify they were losing the battle?

 

Kouga was strong, and lately had only been bestowing shards on his strongest and most trusted companions. Kagome had always prided herself on being optimistic, but what good could they really do?

 

A hand drifted over her protruding stomach. Her brother-in-law had been angry - well, that was putting it lightly. He'd been pissed to find his most valuable miko out of commission for all intents and purposes. There was no use putting the child in danger; InuYasha's youkai instincts wouldn't allow it.

 

The shattering of the jewel… Sesshoumaru saving and subsequently “kidnapping” Kimberly… the pregnancy…

 

“Change,” she muttered, finally wrenching her eyes away from the shards and laying a small barrier over the jar. “It all comes down to change.”

 

 

 

Disclaimers:

Anything from Power Rangers (and their affiliates) belongs to Saban and Disney. I don't have permission to use and abuse them as I plan on doing.

 

I don't own InuYasha and Company either. The “real” InuYasha belongs to the genius of Rumiko Takahashi (and Viz and all those other companies involved).