[Ellen Brand]

Back on Earth, in the Power Chamber, things were a bit strained. Adam's disappearance had shaken up all of the Rangers. While they had all given a lot of thought to dying in battle, none of them had ever imagined that they might disappear without a trace, and none had ever thought that they might take a civilian with them.

..........To make matters worse, undeniable tension existed between Tommy and Billy. The two boys hadn't said more than a few words to each other in hours, and when they did talk to each other, they were cold and hostile. Their friends were extremely confused. Finally, matters came to a head.

..........Tommy leaped to his feet. "I can't just sit here and do nothing! I'm going back to the park. Maybe there's a clue to Adam's disappearance there."

..........Billy turned around, folding his arms over his chest and cocking one eyebrow at the other boy. "Oh, yes. Good idea, Tommy. And when Warpitor shows up, I suppose you'll just ask him what he did with Adam?"

.........."I can handle Warpitor just fine."

..........Billy laughed contemptuously. "Adam's twice the fighter you are, and look what happened to him. I wouldn't care if you did disappear, but you'd take the powers with you, and we need those."

.........."Adam's twice the fighter I am?" Tommy asked dangerously, advancing on the other boy. "You're a fine one to talk. You were always hopeless on the battlefield, Brainiac. All you were ever good for was the science stuff. That's the reason you walked away from the power, isn't it? You couldn't handle the fighting, so you passed it off to Tanya. The Power Chamber was nice and safe, and we spent all our time getting our butts kicked while you played with the computers. Now you want to be the big hero by finding Adam."

.........."Adam was the best friend I had on this team!" Billy yelled. By now the two boys were nose to nose. "God knows you were never one! It was always about you! Your powers, your feelings. You treated every other member of the team like we only existed to fight your petty little war! No wonder Kim left you. She wanted a man who treated her like a person, not a chess piece!"

..........Tommy's face darkened frighteningly, and he reached for Billy's collar. Before any blood could be spilled, though, Jason was there, grabbing the combatants and pulling them away from each other.

.........."That- is- enough!" Jason growled. "Both of you, calm down! You are not going to beat each other up in here!" He shoved Billy into Rocky's hold. "Let's take them to Lita," he suggested. "If anyone can get to the bottom of why they hate each other all of a sudden, she can."

..........Billy quit struggling against Rocky. "Lita?" he asked curiously. "Who's she?"

.........."You'll see, buddy," Rocky promised him. The four teleported out.



..........After they had hiked in silence for a while, Trevor finally decided to ask the questions that had been bothering him since they left the village. "What was all that about, the Black Morphin Power? And who or what is a Morphin Master?"

..........Green Ranger sighed. "The Morphin Grid is an ancient source of power that runs throughout the universe on a metaphysical plane. Its power can be good or evil, depending on which "side" of the grid you draw from. The Rangers drew from the light side of the grid through our coins to morph into our old forms. There never was a Purple Morphin Ranger because we never found the coin. Lord Zedd and Rita, who use evil magic, draw from the dark side of the grid."

.........."And the Machine Empire?"

.........."They don't draw from the grid at all. As machines, they have no connection with the metaphysical energies of this universe. They are apart from it, and draw their strengths from other things. For this reason, we need the Zeo Power, which does not draw on the Morphin Grid. You know the old Earth legends which state that magical power can be turned aside by cold iron? Well, that has its base in the fact that iron alone, of all things on Earth, possesses insulating properties that allow it to deflect Morphin energy. The Zeo Crystal is not magic, strictly speaking. It's a science of energy fields and circuits. That's why we don't need words to morph anymore. We still talk most of the time, simply because it's easier for us to morph if we have words to focus our energy. The words themselves no longer trigger the transformation, though.

.........."The Morphin Masters are those who have mastered the arts and techniques used in the service of their color. The different colors symbolize the different disciplines. Blue are scientists, Red are warriors, Yellow are healers, and so on. The Purple Rangers are sort of larcenous, but honorable. My color, Black, are artists and musicians. I would have been equally at home in Black or Yellow, but certain constraints made me the Black Ranger."

..........Trevor nodded. "That's what you meant about Black Morphin Power. But if you're a Zeo Ranger now, how do you still hold the Black Power?"

.........."The powers are not mutually exclusive. It's like studying both kung fu and karate. It's hard and time-consuming, but it can be done. Our Power Coins were destroyed in battle, destroying our ability to morph. The Power is still part of us however, and can not be taken away by evil. I am still Black Ranger inside, even though I cannot take on the outer form."

.........."So why do you have two different Ranger colors?"

.........."The Zeo Powers use a different color symbolism than the Morphin Powers. I'm Green under Zeo philosophy and Black under Morphin."

.........."The way those people looked at you, it was as if you were- oh, what's the word? My younger son, Franklin, loves sword and sorcery novels. There's a special type of warrior- a paladin! They looked at you as if you were a holy knight, a paladin."

..........Green Ranger chuckled. "In a way, I suppose that's what I am. These people recognize the Power in their lives. To them, it's almost a religion, although that's not quite right. It's a principle, a philosophy, like Tao. It doesn't really have religious connotations. Its defenders are well respected. In return, we defend the weak and helpless, no matter where or who they may be."

..........Trevor was somewhat taken aback. He had not realized what a great responsibility being a Ranger was, or how conscious of it they were. He was beginning to suspect that he had sorely misjudged these teenagers.

.........."Come on," Green Ranger called, breaking into his thoughts. "A few more miles and we'll make camp for the night."



..........Lita Kino had been having an extremely quiet day. Unfortunately, she knew that it was not going to last. Ever since she had received the now-defunct Power Coin of the Green Ranger, she had been able to sense things that ordinarily would have been beyond her grasp. Today, she'd been picking up waves of nervousness and hostility. Because of these emanations, she had a feeling that the Power Rangers would be dropping in sometime that afternoon. For this reason, she sent Serena, her blond secretary, home early and waited for the bomb to drop. At about two o'clock, it did.

..........Jason and Rocky teleported into her office holding onto Tommy and a boy that Lita did not recognize. Lita immediately noticed that Jason and Rocky were keeping the two apart, as if they had been fighting.

.........."Hello, boys," Lita sighed. "What can I do for you today? Tommy, are you having any more problems with the Green Ranger?"

..........Billy's jaw dropped. He was even more astonished when Tommy did not deny knowing what she was talking about. The other boy simply shook his head.

.........."No, Lita. That hasn't been giving me any problems."

.........."Okay, Jason. Who's the blond, and why are you dropping these two in my lap?" Lita asked, cutting to the heart of the matter, as usual.

..........Jason smiled wryly. "This is Billy Cranston. You remember us telling you about him when we told you the history of the Power Rangers?" Lita nodded. "Well, we have a few problems, but only one you can help us with. Adam's disappeared, and unfortunately his dad went with him. One of Zedd's monsters warped them somewhere, and we're trying to find them. Billy came back from Aquitar to help in the search, but now he and Tommy are at each other's throats all the time. We were hoping maybe you could at least get them to understand each other well enough to work together."

..........Lita sighed. "I'll do what I can. You two go on. This may take a while. If I may offer a suggestion, somebody had better morph and tell Mrs. Park a good story about what happened to her husband and son."

..........Rocky nodded. "Good idea, Lita. I'll do that. You just get these two working together again, all right?" He and Jason teleported out. Lita turned back to her two young clients to find them glaring at each other fiercely. She sighed again. So much for a nice, quiet day.



..........Blue Ranger sighed to himself. He really hated this assignment, but with Tommy in therapy and Adam missing, he was next in line for command of the Rangers. Command of the Rangers indeed, he snorted to himself. Everybody knows that Jason's in charge now. But you're still stuck with the explanations. Sighing again, he rang the Park's doorbell.

.........."Yes?" Eileen Park asked, opening the door. At the sight of a Power Ranger standing on her doorstep, she gasped.

.........."Mrs. Park?" Blue Ranger asked. Wordlessly, Eileen nodded. "May I come in, ma'am?" She nodded again and stepped aside to let him pass. Inside, they went into the living room and sat down.

.........."First of all," Blue Ranger told her, "no one is dead. That's not what I'm here to say." He watched as relief swept over her in a visible wave. "But, I do have some bad news. Your husband and older son are missing. They were caught in a monster attack and sent somewhere else. We're doing everything in our power to find them, and I'm sure they'll be okay. The Green Ranger went with them, and if anyone can protect your family, he can."

..........She smiled wryly at him. "Thank you for coming. As bad as the news is, it's infinitely better than not knowing anything. Besides, Trevor's no slouch at protecting himself, either. I'm sure they'll be just fine."

..........Blue Ranger nodded, rising to his feet. "Thanks for understanding, ma'am. I promise you, we will find them." With that he left the house and teleported back to the Power Chamber, wondering as he did so how he would inform this woman if Adam and his dad didn't make it.



..........Sighing, Lita regarded her patient. "Okay, Tommy, Billy's outside, so we can talk freely. What's wrong with Billy that you seem so angry with him?"

..........Tommy began pacing around the room like a captive tiger. "He's so damn arrogant! He treats the rest of us like idiots, and he always has! First he talked like a major scientist, so that only Trini could understand him. Then when he "dumbed down" his speech, you could see how superior it made him feel. Everyone says how open he is, how nice and friendly. If he's so friendly, how come he graduated from high school and never paid us any attention again? He spent all his time in the Power Chamber, and we hardly ever saw him. Why? Because he didn't care about us at all.

.........."Plus, he's a coward. When the time came to get our new Zeo Powers, when we needed all the ability and experience we could muster, he backed out, and gave the power to a newbie, to Tanya! Don't get me wrong, she's great, she's worked out really well, but that doesn't change the fact that when we needed Billy, he turned and ran away with his tail between his legs. Then he has the nerve to whine about it! 'There used to be six of us,' but when he had the chance to be a Ranger again, he turned it down. Oh, he gave us a lame excuse about not being able to take the powers because of that explosion, but come on! 'Negative proton molecules?' Oh, please! I did pass Chemistry, thank you very much. Yet another instance of his superior attitude. He thinks we're too dumb to catch him in a lie. Then he decides to stay on Aquitar. Never mind that we needed him, he decided to stay where no one would shoot at him."

..........Lita regarded him with one eyebrow raised. "That's quite a list of grievances, Tommy. I see why you feel so hostile. You go outside, now, OK? I want to talk to Billy."



..........Staring up at the unfamiliar stars above them, Trevor Park sighed. "My wife is going to be having a cow over my whereabouts."

..........Green Ranger shook his head. "Time passes differently when you travel the dimensions. I think that time in this one is longer than time in ours. On our world, we probably won't be missing more than a day, if that. Besides, the Rangers will tell her what happened to you, and will reassure her that they'll bring you back. She'll be fine."

..........Trevor sighed. "I hope so. I hope I get to see her again. I've really got a great family- but you don't want to listen to an old man ramble on," he cut himself off.

..........Green Ranger chuckled. "Old? You're what, forty-five? That's hardly old. Besides, I'd like to hear about your family. You obviously love them very much."

..........Smiling slightly, Trevor nodded. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you. My wife is beautiful, smart, and tough- very tough. She had to be. Her father was a sulsa, which is the Korean equivalent of a ninja. He taught all of his children martial arts, and some of the things he had picked up from U.S. Marines who were in the area. She's accustomed to taking care of herself, and is deadly with almost any kind of weapon.

.........."My older boy, Adam, is the quiet, sensitive type. He doesn't let anyone push him around, though. He became interested in martial arts as a young boy, when he was picked on by the other kids. Now he's even teaching me a few things. Adam's smart, but he's so shy. Sometimes too shy for his own good. He'd known his current girlfriend for months before he asked her out. I don't understand him at all, but I'm very proud of him.

.........."My younger son is Franklin. His nose is always in a fantasy novel of some sort, unless he's taking kung fu from Adam. Franklin- nobody calls him Frank except Adam- he's the most knowledgeable authority on role-playing games in Angel Grove. He's a good kid, but sometimes his head gets stuck in the clouds.

.........."Anyway, that's my family. So what about you? Is there someone back home who'll miss you? Not to pry or anything."

..........Green Ranger laughed. "Oh yes. I have a family back home, and of course the Rangers will miss me. Still, we all knew this could happen, and we've all made arrangements to take care of things. If anything happens, my family will know what happened to me."

.........."Y'know," Trevor smiled, "I'm a very stubborn man. It's hard for me to admit when I'm wrong. I'll admit it now, though. I was wrong about you Rangers. If you were my son, I'd be very proud of you."

.........."Thank you, sir," Green Ranger replied gravely. "Your respect means a lot to me."

..........Trevor chuckled, but did not respond. Still, he wasn't very surprised. The kid reminded him a little of Adam, and Adam had always wanted and needed the respect of adults. The Green Ranger didn't seem to be much different. Thinking about this, Trevor lay back on his bedroll and stared up at the brilliant, alien night sky.

..........

..........Sighing, Lita regarded the boy before her. She'd already managed to coax his life story out of him, and it had not been the nicest story she'd ever been told. Billy had been a child prodigy all of his life, learning to talk, count, and write at an early age. Although Hank Cranston had loved Billy very much, he had never understood his only child very well. The only person who had understood the young Billy Cranston at all was his mother, Rachel. However, Billy had lost his mother in a traffic accident when he was nine. That had been extremely traumatic for the young boy, causing him to retreat into an over-scientific, impersonal shell. He had remained there until Trini Kwan had found him and introduced him to Jason, Zack, and Kimberly. The rest of the story Lita had already known, although it was interesting to hear it from Billy's point of view.

..........Now, this teen-age genius was pacing around her office as if stopping would cause a nuclear explosion. What is it with these kids? Lita wondered. I don't think I've seen a single one keep still for more than ten minutes at a stretch. Aloud, she requested, "Tell me why you're so hostile to Tommy. I don't really understand it."

..........Billy turned towards her, brushing his bangs out of his eyes. "Because he's an arrogant, controlling jerk! He always has to be the center of everyone's attention. When he first joined the team, sure I felt sorry for him, just like everyone else. Then I began to notice something. He was always at the center of the action. Spells, power loss, whatever happened, happened to him. If he wasn't getting the worst of it from one of Rita's plans, he could always go into a good guilt trip. At first, I was glad not to be the Ranger charity case anymore, but it got to be really annoying. He was always showing off, hot dogging, and all anybody ever said was 'Tommy, what about your powers?'

.........."Then there was Kimberly. Sure, I had a crush on her; I think we all did. Still, I never really had a chance, and I knew it. That's why Trini and I went out. We were friends, and she liked me. It wasn't anything more than that, and we liked it that way. Kimberly- Kimberly was something else. As pretty as I thought she was, it was always worship from afar. Then Tommy came. First, I thought he'd be really good for Kim, but it seemed like all he did was use her as a shoulder to cry on about his powers. Just another attention getting device. He certainly didn't waste any time taking up with Heather Thompson and then with Kat.

.........."When Jason left, Tommy took charge of the team. Kim and I'd been there longer, but he sort of shoved us aside, just two more grunts in his private war. All we are to him is chessmen, pawns in a game between him and whoever's our enemy this time around," Billy laughed bitterly.

.........."Then, when I gave my powers up to Tanya, I suddenly ceased to exist. 'Good ol' Billy, stuck in the Power Chamber all day.' God forbid anyone should try to talk to me or anything."

.........."Billy," Lita asked hesitantly, "about the Gold Powers. I'm not a chemist or anything, but even I know that there's no such thing as 'negative proton molecules.' What happened?"

..........Billy looked at his feet. "I- my body did repel the Gold Powers, I wasn't lying about that. I just made up an excuse because I couldn't tell them the truth. The truth was, I was aging even then. It wasn't visible yet, but I could feel it, and something in my body rejected the Gold Powers as a defensive measure. I didn't understand that part; I simply thought it was a side effect of the aging process. Later, I found out about the detrimental effect that the Powers had on human biology, although I was on Aquitar at the time. Zordon called and kept me informed. I was glad to hear about Jason's recovery, though."

..........Lita nodded. "Well, I think that's a fairly good session. Tommy, would you come back in, please?" she called, raising her voice slightly. At her call, Tommy entered and took a seat in one chair, while Billy sat in the other. Once they were seated, Lita rose to her feet to address them, and realized with some amusement that she was about to start pacing herself. Apparently, the Rangers' habits were catching.

.........."All right. Normally I wouldn't discuss one patient with another, but this is an emergency, and it's necessary, so patient confidentiality has just been tossed out the window in this case. First off, Tommy, you've done some things that you probably shouldn't have in running the Power Rangers."

..........Tommy shrugged. "I know I've made mistakes, but I'd like to think that I'm getting better at it." Billy snorted in reply, and Lita held up a hand before the bloodshed could begin.

.........."That is enough out of both of you for the time being. Now that we've established that Tommy has occasionally put his foot in it, let's move on to the roots of your mutual hostility, which have little to do with anyone's actions, but rather your pre-set re actions to certain conditions.

.........."Tommy, you've been doing a lot of reacting rather than acting. From the time that Rita gave you your powers, much of what you've done has been in reaction to something else." Tommy shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He'd had his psyche picked apart by Dr. Lita Kino before, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Helpful, yes, and often needed, but having the faults and failings that you didn't even admit to yourself spread out in the open was not an enjoyable proposition.

.........."First, there was your almost excessive nobility, self-sacrifice,- and guilt, all a reaction to what Rita did to you. I will admit, Billy, that his guilt was rather excessive, and he does seem to be accident-prone, but I don't think he does it on purpose. Trouble just has a way of finding him.

.........."Then, Tommy, there was your behavior as White Ranger. You were reacting to two things: 1. A desire to distance yourself from the taint of the Green Powers and 2. A desperate need to prove that the trust Zordon placed in you was not mistaken. In your zeal to prove yourself, though, you alienated parts of your team.

.........."Finally, when Billy lost his powers, you reacted again, and again it was in a pattern set by your previous experiences. Your own power loss made you uncomfortable with Billy, who was suddenly in the same boat. When Jason's turn came, you had less of a problem because your relationship with Jason was not already strained, the way your relationship with Billy was."

..........Lita turned to Billy, who was watching her in fascination. "Billy, you haven't exactly been blameless in this regard either. Your patterns run much deeper than Tommy's, stemming from a lifetime of loss. You seem to have lost everyone and everything that you care about. You lost your mother at age nine. You repeatedly lost your chances to have a normal life, first with your incredible intellect, then with your mother's death, then with becoming a Ranger. Kimberly, you lost her to Tommy and then to Florida. Jason, Trini, and Zack, the people who helped bring you out of your shell, they went to Switzerland. You lost your Ranger powers, and then your chance to get them back. That's a lot of loss, and as a result, you have a tendency to resent anyone you can blame your losses on. Tommy has been the beneficiary of a few of your losses, and you've therefore shifted the blame onto him.

.........."Ironically, this conflict really seems to stem from one of the oldest stories there is. Two men, one woman. Two instances, actually. Both of you, of course, were in love with Kimberly, although I don't think it would have worked out for either of you. Billy, you even admitted yourself that you were in love with an idealized image of Kimberly, not the real person. As for you, Tommy, you latched onto Kimberly at a very vulnerable time in your life. You needed somebody to love, and Kimberly was there. I'm not saying that your feelings weren't real, but that they weren't based on something that would allow you to stay together. That's probably why she broke up with you."

..........Tommy considered this, and finally nodded in reply. "Lita," he asked thoughtfully. "You talked about two instances. What was the other one?"

.........."Why, Katherine," she replied, puzzled. "Didn't you know?"

..........Tommy looked over at Billy who was looking a little sheepish. "Is this true, man?"

..........Billy nodded. "Yeah. Once again, it was the 'love her from afar' syndrome. As usual, she decided on you."

..........Tommy thought about that for a second, and then to everyone's astonishment, he began to laugh. He laughed long and hard, until he almost fell out of his chair. "Oh, that's rich," he gasped, holding onto the arms of his chair for balance. "That's great! That's just..." he dissolved into helpless giggles again.

.........."Tommy, what are you talking about?" Billy asked, confused.

.........."It happened again, man! Kat- Kat broke up with me a few weeks ago. She's dating David now!"

.........."Your brother?" Billy was incredulous. Tommy simply nodded, unable to speak. Suddenly Billy had joined him, both laughing so hard that Lita thought one or both of them was going to have a heart attack.

.........."You're right, Tommy," Billy managed, once he had caught his breath. "That's just great. Cosmic joke of the year. Listen, you weren't planning on dating Cestria, by any chance, were you?"

.........."Nope, not- my type," Tommy gasped between giggles.

.........."Good. I don't think I could go through this again. My sides wouldn't stand it." Woozily, the two boys stood.

.........."Listen, Billy, I'm still a little ticked off at you, but I know I have no reason to be, and I'm sorry. It's going to take me a while to work through this, but I think we can work together." Tommy extended his hand. "Friends?"

..........Billy looked at him a moment and then smiled. "Forever," he replied, shaking Tommy's hand.

.........."Well," Lita smiled, looking them over. "I'd say your problem is half-solved. It'll take some time for you to work through your feelings, but right now, I'd say you two should get to the Power Chamber. Adam needs you."

..........Tommy nodded. "Good idea, Lita. Thanks." They teleported out, and Lita turned back to her paperwork.

.........."And I thought private practice was going to be boring," she chuckled.