Seven days before Christmas

Tommy was sitting at the table cradling a cup of coffee while trying hard not to jar the sleeping baby that was perched on his shoulder, when the phone rung, causing him to groan. He had been up half the night with JayJay, who had decided that he didn't like sleeping, and he wasn't ready to be civil to anybody over the phone, for crying out loud it was seven in the morning.

"What do you want?" He growled.

"Woah," a female voice called out in shock through the phone, "someone needs a monster to fight."

"Karone?" Tommy said shocked, "what's wrong, you usually call Andros, not me."

"I know, but there's something strange happening here on Mirinoi," Andros's younger sister insisted, "there have been some reports that a skeleton man has been spotted lurking in the jungle."

"Rito?" Tommy asked, surprise, no one had seen or heard of Rita's little brother since before the invasion, he had always assumed that he had been destroyed, "Are you sure Karone?"

"I think so, Rito's the only skeleton man I can think of," Karone explained.

"Kim and I will be there as soon as we can," Tommy explained, "it will take a while because Kim doesn't like leaving JayJay when he is so young."

"But you will come right?"

"Yeah, Ronny's here, and she knows how to take care of the younger kids, and she can keep up with Schuyler. Even I can't do that."

"Can't do what?" a sleepy voice asked in confusion as Ronny entered the room, large dark bags under her eyes.

"If I knew you were pulling an all-nighter, I would have had you help with JayJay, he's teething and is not happy about it."

"Tommy I think you forgot that you're on the phone with me." Karone reminded him, it was a common fact that the leader of the power rangers would sometimes forget he was on the phone with someone if someone else enters the room which has lead Jason and his teammates to overhear things they didn't need to overhear between him and Kim.

"Right, Karone, we will get there as soon as Kim's up. Unless the planet is on the verge of destruction, in which case I can wake her up, nothing short of that is worth waking a sleep-deprived pink ranger." Tommy quickly said goodbye and hung up, before looking at his daughter, who was pouring herself a cup of coffee, "Your mother and I have to go to Mirinoi, can you watch the kids?"

Ronny looked at her father in disbelief, "I'm headed to San Angeles as soon as I'm awake enough to drive, Mack and Mr. Hartford are missing and I need to help find them before Christmas. I have to be home in time for Christmas Nick and Kira are going to be home, we are all going to be home. I don't want to be the one that ruins it."

"It won't matter, there is no way your mother and I can get back on time."

"What about if you take a wormhole?"

"We still only have a week until Christmas."

"It won't be much of a holiday if you guys are gone," Ronny pointed out, sliding into a chair.

"I know," Tommy looked across the table at Ronny, "Can you stay long enough for Mama to get here, we need to leave as soon as we can if we want to get to Mirinoi and back."

...

Tommy rubbed his eyes, boy, was he tired, as he put in the coordinates into the computer, "This was not what I had planned for my Christmas break," he confessed.

"You picked the wrong hobby if that's the case," Kim said, leaning over him to double-check the coordinates, "This is typical for power rangers, especially us."

"I don't remember getting ask, 'Do you want to be a power ranger?'."

"You aren't exactly known for your memory," Kim smirked, pressing a kiss on his cheek.

"And you, my dear," Tommy added, "Have Mom's Brain."

"What?" Kim demanded, looking at her husband in confusion.

"Rita never gave me an option." Tommy reminded Kim, his voice rough with emotion, he didn't like thinking about his evil green ranger days, and he definitely does not like talking about it.

Kim groaned, "Tommy, I'm..."

"Hey, at least I get to tease you for once," Tommy stated as he hit the enter button, the autopilot will take care of navigating for them. Even with it navigating for them it would take them a couple of days to reach Mirinoi, "Let's see, two days there, two days back, seven days 'til Christmas, that gives us two days on Mirinoi to find Rito."

"If it is Rito," Kim muttered, "This isn't the first false alarm we responded to."

"But we never had it confirmed that he was destroyed with the rest of the villains, and so we need to keep an eye out for him."

"I know, I just don't like leaving the kids with someone that..." Kim trailed off, "What if they are attacked or something, we won't be there to protect them."

Tommy laughed, "The Triplets have learned to control their powers by now, they know how to activate the emergency lockdown mode and Ethan and Trent are home for the holidays. We need to have faith that they know what to do, they aren't much younger than Justin was when he became a power ranger."

"I am not ready for them to become power rangers yet," Kim confessed.

"They will eventually become rangers, with the influence we have on them, as well as the influence of their older siblings and our friends, all they really need is a monster to fight."

"And a morpher," Tommy insisted, "It's too dangerous to try to use power from the morphin' grid without a morpher."

"Unless they're us," Kim added softly, "Right."

... Five Days before Christmas...

Kim stepped out of the rocketship and groaned, stretching, the ultra jet might have been built with comfort in mind but that didn't mean that being cooped up in it for two days straight while it went three times the speed of sound was fun.

Leo smirked as he watched them stumble around for a second, before getting feeling back in their legs, "So glad you can make it," he said, trying to stifle his laugh. It wasn't worth getting the Heart of the Power Ranger mad at him, he already saw her angry once, when the red rangers went to the moon together, and he did not want to be on the receiving end of that.

"Hi Leo," Kim nodded, "Where are the others, and where is this Skeleton Man?"

Leo frowned straight to business, no trading news or insults, was she really a power ranger?

"She doesn't like leaving our children with a non-ranger for very long," Tommy explained, clapping his hand on the younger red ranger's shoulder, "So let's get this done with before she makes us all miserable, you only have to deal with her once or twice a year, I put up with her daily."

Kim shook her head, giving Kendrix, who was standing next to her a look, "Sounds like someone is asking to sleep on the couch tonight."

"Kendrix is that way too," Leo stated in front of Kendrix and Kim, "If it wasn't for Karone and Maya I doubt that we will ever have date nights."

Kim looked at Kendrix with amusement, "Boys," she said, "They pretend that we are the ones that are overprotective, yet they are worse than we are."

"Especially with Kaya," Kendrix confessed, "I feat that Leo is going to go crazy once she starts bringing home the boys."

"I think that the only thing that stopped Connor from mysteriously disappearing was the fact that he was one of us."

"Come on Maya has been scouting around the last known sighting of Rito," Leo said, "What are you going to do with him if it is him?"

"Mystic doesn't want us to hurt Rito if at all possible," Tommy said, "That's why we are here, we can decide if he's still a threat or not."

"I doubt it," Kim said, "With Rita Mystic Mother now, he doesn't have anyone to give him instructions and Rito is just a foot soldier."

...Three days 'til Christmas...

Kim and Tommy followed Maya through the woods, she had the advantage of living on Mirinoi most of her life and knew the woods like the back of her hand, something that the other rangers respected her for.

"His camp is in the clearing over there," she whispered pointing to a group of trees, "We figured that you would want to deal with this yourself, you have more experience with Rito than we do."

Kim sniffed the air and wrinkled her nose, "It's Rito alright I can smell the stench from here."

"Well," Maya said with a soft smile, "I guess I'll wish you good luck and get out of the way, I don't have my saber so I don't have powers at the moment."

Kim and Tommy crept forward until they could see the camp. A tent was set up in the center of the clearing next to a campfire, and next to the campfire, sitting on a log was a skeleton man, roasting a fish on a stick.

"Rito," Kim called out softly, using a tone of voice she usually reserved for young children. Tommy bit back the urge to stand up and start shouting at Rito. Kim wanted to try things her way before they tried things his way.

Rito jumped up, twirling around, looking, no doubt, for the source of the voice, "Who's there?" he demanded.

Kim stepped out into the clearing, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you, Rito."

"How do you know my name?" Rito asked, shocked.

"You don't recognize me?" Kim asked, sending a concerned thought to Tommy as she did.

Rito scrutinized the woman in front of him, Caramel colored hair, done up in a loose braid, soft doe colored eyes, filled with worry and concern but with a hint of power and strength in there too. She was wearing a light pink sweater, and held herself with pride and confidence, "You're a power ranger!" he gasped out, peddling backward.

Tommy felt Kim cringe more than see it, Kim hadn't wanted to spook Rito, and now he was heading straight towards him, At least we aren't going to lose him, he thought towards Kim.

Rito froze in his tracks, he had spotted Tommy, "I'm surrounded," he cried out, then he studied Tommy, "If your hair was a little longer you would look like that red ranger I use to fight," he commented.

Can I please knock him out? Tommy pleaded.

No, we promised his sister that we won't hurt him unless absolutely necessary," Kim reminded him, before adding out loud, "Don't worry Rito, Tommy won't hurt you."

"Tommy," Rito said, "That's the same name as the Leader of the..." he trailed off as realization hit him, "You're the Power Couple!"

"Wow," Tommy said, "He's smarter then I remember, I thought we were going to have to tell him who we were."

"I'm surprised that he recognized you before he recognized me," Kim confessed, "I didn't think that I changed that much."

Tommy glanced at the ground, forcing himself not to think what he was thinking loud enough for Kim to hear.

"You aren't as thin as you use to be," Rito said, unaware of how dangerous that statement could be.

However, Kim just shrugged, "I gave birth to five children, three of them on the same day, I know that I'm not the same size as I was when I was in high school."

"So why are you here?" Rito asked, returning to his campfire, "You still mad at me for what happened when you were teens?"

"No," Kim said, sweet as ever, "Your sister is worried about you, that's all."

"She is?" Rito asked, "I didn't think that Rita cared."

"I don't think that Rita did care," Tommy pointed out, "But your sister is going by the name of Mystic Mother now and she does care."

"She wants us to bring you home, she and Zedd has a nice place now."