Disclaimer:This is not Saban's work; surprisingly enough, it is down to the insanity of my brain. It is based on an actual dream that I had and set some time after the Wave and before Terra Venture. I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote this, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Catalyst

By Peregrine

He ran up to the building, looking up at it, frowning slightly. Yes … yes, this was the one. There ... the woman wearing the short-sleeved floral top walking out, calling to her little fair-haired son to hurry up. Yes … this was the place. Wide open doors – glass, commercial-looking doors. Run up the steps and look up to the clock on the wall … 8 minutes to two ... was that date on the display? was that a 7, something 7? No time to waste, carry on moving. There, yes some sort of policeman walking up on the left.

A flash of images --

No, he had tried the policeman before, and each time it had ended the same. Took too long to persuade him to listen. He ran straight inside looking around. Escalators … levels ... open areas packed with people. A strange logo, blue and white …

Don't waste time, don't waste time …

He ran, smashing the fire alarm as he hurtled down the stairs to his destination. Lift was too slow ... too slow. Run and jump, skid around the stairwell. People streaming out of the place … good … Into the pool area. Smell of chlorine, thump of his heart, squeak of his trainers on wet tiles. Which one was it …

Flash of images --

Third box on the wall, third … yes. Yank the box off the wall next to the pool, cracking open the casing. Someone else running toward him … familiar presence, male … can't pay attention now, got to STOP this. The bomb, got to stop the bomb.

Wires … lots of wires, very complex ... cut a wire, but which wire? Which wire?!

Flash of images --

Not the orange … explodes

Not the purple … explodes

Not the blue … explodes

Not the yellow … explodes

Two left. Red or green …? Green.

Snip the green wire... timer stops before the counter 23 when it usually explodes. Yes! He smiles and looks up finally at the other person to celebrate and …

White hot roaring pain and impact, crushing him … whirled away in fire and force ...

Billy shot awake with a strangled scream, sweating profusely with the dream fear. He grabbed a pad and pencil and hurriedly sketched the logo and wrote down the details that he had noticed from last time, before the sharpness of the dream images faded. His head felt raw and as if someone had scrubbed out the inside with a scourer, leaving him open and vulnerable somehow. This time the chill, the unease did not fade with the images as he moved. The prescient dread had settled into his bones and he shivered even though the sun was shining in through his window.

This was definitely it. He was definitely out of time. He got up and had a quick shower, trying to wash off the taint of premonition and padded out in his towel to get the newspaper. He glanced casually at the top as he picked it up from outside his door. What was today's date? The seventeenth.

An icy shudder swept up his spine and it was with a kind of shock he realised that he was gripping the paper hard enough to tear it.

The old arguments poured through his mind.

*Just a dream, too much … er … Chinese takeout last night … or perhaps not enough. Should never have watched that movie. Bad dream, okay, a nightmare. And what if it is real? Why should I do anything about it? Just because I see it over and over in my head doesn't mean that I am responsible for doing anything about it, does it? My Rangering days are over! I'm a respected researcher ... youngest ever too ... damn, you'd be out on your ear if they heard about this, off the Venture program. There will be a threat, won't there? They will get them out, won't they?*

What if they don't? his traitorous inner voice responded. See that in any of your dream visions , did you? Going to let innocents die? Like before?

"It's just a FEELING." He berated himself aloud and doggedly ate his cereal alone, switching on the portable TV in the kitchen area, hoping its sounds of normality would somehow dispel the lurking nightmare.

Halfway through watching the banal early TV with the weather forecast 'warm and sunny, continuing bright with good air quality', Billy got up and flicked on his PC, spooning the cornflakes into his mouth as he waited for it to boot up, hastily picking the escapee bits of cereal out of the keyboard before they could stick the keys together.

Mail flicked in and he successfully distracted himself for a while. Mail from work - who was in that early? He looked at his watch. Ah, not quite as early as he thought ... well, anyway … the mail ...

Will,

Doing anything good on your day off while your long-suffering colleagues carry the can, huh? So you 'knew' the air conditioning was gonna break, did you? Why else would you take the day off on a whim. Office goss says you sabotaged it with that "Cranston Effect" of yours. winks

Gotta hot date or something? The guys are stripping off here … and the gals were all agog that we might see you that way ... (not me of course. ahem) until I crushed their hopes saying you were on leave. You may well be lynched tomorrow. Chris says that it would be nice if you came back in with the solution to the mass propulsion gradient – he'll buy you a bagel. I told him was at least a ten donut bribe but he's a damn cheapskate.

chris I heard that! Get back to work!

Our master's voice …

Seeya tomorrow … I should forget the shirt … for your own good, that is … and shorts … shorts would be good. drools

Kathy

Billy chuckled to himself. Kathy was great. Behind all the banter lay a mind that had no equal in the realms of biospheres and environmental engineering. If someone was being pompous, she would pick up one of her stress toys and lob it at them from afar and only very occasionally hitting them.

He re-read the message again and frowned. A good question, why had he taken the day off? And why … why was he running an internet search on blue and white local business logos?

"Damn Eternal Falls water ! they said it couldn't but it MUST have been that … there's nothing else it could have been!" Billy cursed himself. "Never used to have this problem … never. Slept like a log. Didn't see things, hallucinations … and didn't sit alone talking to myself!"

He got up, irritated as a search page was loading in and dressed himself in blue jeans and a matching blue top. He somehow felt more in control when he did that, comforted by the colours. There was something very vulnerable about not being able to understand your own mind, or control it. What was worse was that everything he had seen had so far actually happened. Small things … large things … tornados, storms ... on Aquitar the toppling spire piercing the dome.

He shuddered, forcing back the pain that rose up from that memory. Coincidence, yes? Had to be, surely. So why didn't he dare seek out his friends if he was so sure of that? Why hadn't he told them he had come back? It had been a long time since Aquitar. God, he hated these dreams, they made him so depressed. But they had been getting worse and this one was the worst of all, and he didn't know why.

He sighed and made a strong coffee, glanced over at the PC screen and froze. He groaned as he could see from where he was sitting a white and blue blob he just KNEW would be the logo. Gently and deliberately he banged his head on the kitchen table three times and then with a sigh walked over to have his suspicions confirmed. Essences, Inc. had the exact blue and white design he had seen in the dream. He was sure the place was a mall or something.

"Why can't I be wrong?" Billy pleaded to the electronic display. "Can't you be something I've seen somewhere, picked up subliminally and put into a nightmare?"

But he had that icy cold sensation inside that he got when he saw something that made the dreams … the visions real. He grimaced. He'd never mentioned that sometimes it happened when he was awake, a weird merging of images where he could see both at the same time. Where he could be talking to someone and then an image flood, translucent across his sight as he carried on nodding and trying to talk seriously about mass ratio converters and feasibility potentials as a different scene rose up in his mind. He was too worried that the Aquitians might find that too bizarre, and could it be that the disaster at Quitaria had happened because of his cautiousness? He smoothed back his blond hair and sat disconsolately at the computer before deciding to pursue this thread of activity to a natural conclusion.

He rattled off a short search-and-find script for premises locations of that company, or investor locations and then wandered around anxiously, tidying up a few things, arguing with himself in his head. Why would these dreams be so bad? These were nearly the worst he experienced. Mind you, none of them had actually involved him getting blown to pieces at the end of each one. But he could avoid that by … just not going, couldn't he?

As the computer whirred and searched and names began listing on the screen, Billy tried to ignore it and continued compulsively tidying up his apartment as if by exerting some sort of control here he could control the totally alien feeling of not being able to understand the thoughts in his own head.

Last time it had come anywhere near this bad was the one about the Domes on Aquitar. Quitaria ... he could understand that … people he cared for were involved. He swallowed briefly against the pain and then stopped, scaring himself. What if … what if there was someone there he cared for, involved in this … could that be it?

There … that feeling. Was that a yes? Or just a … 'you're scaring yourself, don't be an idiot' feeling? It's not going to happen anyway, so why are you getting yourself in a state about it?

"I hate this!" Billy said, looking up at himself in the mirror, searching for some sign in his own face that would say that he was marked and different and could therefore believe these images were more than hallucinations of a mind descending slowly into psychosis. Nothing. Eyes a little tired and haunted, a few dark shadows there. No glimmer of mystic aura, no sparkle of glowing Power.

He checked his watch. *Quarter to 12 already?* He hadn't been using his avoidance techniques that long, had he? The place was spotless. Looked like he had.

He started scanning the names in the search, looking for something meaningful that might strike a chord, reaching to fiddle with glasses that he wasn't wearing out of nervous habit. He kept fighting the urge to walk away from the desk and turn his back on the whole thing, but somehow he just couldn't. Just in case.

His new mail icon blinked on and he jumped on it as a distraction.

Will

(of the mysterious hot date … so Angie on reception says …) Prove her scurrilous lies wrong and join us for lunch, if you can. Can you believe it … Chris is springing for lunch … Kelly's predictions that the end was nigh were correct!. Personally, I think it's because if we don't get out of here, his staff is going to consist of puddles of melted complex proteins all over the desks. He would have us believe it's his innate generosity, but somehow I don't believe him. Anyhoo … we're busting out at one and trying that place at the Jacob's Ladder Mall … sorry, 'Retail Complex'. It's a couple of blocks over from work. Never been there myself, but meant to be huge ... well, for this area at least … so don't miss the event of the millennium (Chris paying), otherwise we will spend all lunch time gossiping about you … like usual … hehehe …

Laters, boyo!

Kathy

P.S Okay, I will do some work …I don't just write emails!

Billy froze. "No …" Pieces seemed to fall into place. He looked back up the list. One of the retail outlets of Essences, Inc. … was in Jacob's Ladder Retail Complex.

"No …" he repeated, though his heart thumped in reaction. It was all falling into place, and strangely the fact that he had seen it made him feel oddly responsible. All of them, all his work colleagues … his friends. A different set of friends, but treasured nonetheless. He rattled off a brief email, saying he would be there and then he looked at his watch and swore … and leapt up, rummaged for some wire cutters from his tool box and ran for the door. He was going to be tight for time.

***

Jason looked at his watch. Half one and he STILL hadn't found a present for Trini. She would go all calm on him if he didn't come up with something for their 'anniversary'. It was a special type of calm reserved only for him, though she had another with which she could level an arguing room of diplomats. When she heard that he was due on another mission soon, oh man, was he ever in for some silent treatment!

He'd much rather do a hazardous night drop into hostile territory than face Trini when he told her that. He'd promised that he had done his last covert SEAL mission and would be doing training only – but there was always that last job that no-one else could do that was vital. If it weren't for their background as Power Rangers, he doubted that they would have lasted through the strain of him disappearing and rushing headlong into danger all the time they had been together. She had refused to get married, though, until she knew he was safe. He sighed.

*The size of this place!* He looked up and down the levels. There was such a thing as having too much choice. Jewellery was always a good idea as a present, something simple and elegant … hmm, on the second floor ... right. He passed a table of chattering adults, noting one woman who unashamedly looked him up and down and grinned at him. He winked back at her and unobtrusively fiddled with his engagement band, seeing her disappointment.

As he departed, rather enjoying the attention, he heard a roar of laughter from the table and smiled to himself as he rode an elevator down towards the second level.

Then it hit him …

Back of the neck prickled, an icy chill swept up his body, settling in the pit of his stomach. Heart began to race, and mouth dry with fear and urgency… Muscles pumping full of adrenaline, senses sharpening for danger ...

And he had no idea why.

But Jason had come to trust this sense; one of his team had started calling it his 'SpideySense'. He would get a sense of danger, a premonition, a feeling of wrongness, and it had developed over time. He could often tell the direction, the way out of things by his gut reaction. The trick was to go with it and let it flow and sense where the most danger lay and the path of least danger or most safety would become obvious. He had no idea why he had it. He assumed it was something to do with being a Power Ranger, but it was not something he could explain easily, so he didn't try any longer. Besides, none of the others seemed to have it and he was worried about being 'different' – though he had certainly found it useful. It was one reason why he had survived a record amount of covert missions … and his team, too. However, the feeling he was getting from walking in this mall was on an equivalent with a situation where they nearly hadn't made it back at all and most of them not in one piece. That mission had taken out the best part of a small town one way or another, a thought that made Jason shudder as he looked around at the glass-and-concrete building around him

"Oh man …" He gazed around, concern in his dark eyes, searching for something strange, someone behaving abnormally, focussing on the direction as his muscles shook with a need to fight or run.

***

Billy parked his car erratically and illegally and leapt out and ran, every stride drumming a feeling of déjà vu into his mind. His traitorous thoughts could not help but turn over and over again to the fact that never once in all the nightmares had he ever found the solution to stop the bomb from exploding. He thought he'd had it last time, but …

He ran up to the building. Yes … this was the place … there was the woman with the floral top … oh god, it was true! The pattern was there, even the warm slant of the sunlight was chillingly familiar and he slipped into the flow of the dream images.

***

Jason's heart thundered as he rode the escalator down another level, looking around … and saw a small blue-clad figure below sprint across, turning to look briefly towards him and then out of sight.

Moments later the fire alarms sounded and Jason kicked into overdrive. He ran down the escalator and jumped clear as soon as he could, instinctively cushioning the drop by settling into a battle crouch. He sprinted, taking the stairs, his own awareness burning now like a fire in him ... the danger was close, very close. He was jostled by people fleeing out of the exits and the ringing sound of the firebells clamouring urgently. He stopped briefly to help a teenager who had fallen up the stairs, still wearing a swimming costume and dripping water, and knew immediately, with a sure unshakeable gnosis, that that was the place he needed to reach.

He hurried, a sprint that paid no heed to limitations such as space or obstacles and he burst into the pool area, seeing a strangely familiar figure seemingly hunting around and then pulling an object from the wall.

A bomb.

Jason gaped. Who was that … wasn't that ...? But … when had he come back? But … and why here and now?

Billy knelt on the wet tiles of the swimming pool side, the bomb case open, the wires exposed, counter dropping down. That person was here. He looked up and froze, precious seconds trickling away.

"J-Jase?" No! His life maybe … not Jason's, too!

"Billy? Wha … What the hell are you doing trying to disarm a bomb?!"

Billy looked down at the wires. "Oh shit … red or green, time's nearly up, Jase … run … get out of here! I never found out which one it was! I ... cut the green and there was still an explosion !" He poised the cutters over the red wire … seconds to go …

Jason felt a sharp, desperate and very focussed fear. "If you cut the red, it will blow. Trust me."

He looked at Billy's green fear-filled eyes, Billy stared at Jason's dark gaze, locked by the eye contact and cut the green wire ... and the device did not explode. Still, the raging premonitionary burning filled Jason, and Billy felt a crescendo of despair as the last few seconds disappeared.

"There's a second bomb," they said in unison.

A millisecond later Jason, trusting the instinct that pointed the way to best safety, dove at Billy, carrying both of them into the pool as white fire exploded behind them.

Billy watched the surface of the water boil with fire above them as Jason carried them downwards, the flashing heat scalding until they were far enough down in the liquid. They were hit by a massive concussive force, softened by the surrounding water but enough to make Jason lose his grip on his friend and the pair tumble apart.

The ex-Gold Ranger looked up through the water and could see the distorted shapes and shadows of the building's structure coming down on top of them. The massive ceiling of concrete and reinforced steel had been torn apart by the explosion crawling up the central struts of the building. It began to collapse down over the pool and a deafening roar sounded through the water as it closed down like a granite tomb lid, sealing them in.

The light vanished. Trapped in darkness underwater, breath running out, Billy kicked upwards instinctively, panicking as he felt sharp metal dropping down inexorably on top of him, whichever way he swam. Something large and tangled and pushing him down, forcing him against the floor of the pool, slowly and inexorably piercing his leg … Jason, where was Jason?

He resisted the urge to scream in pain as that would mean the last of his precious air gone, striving to live a moment longer, just a moment, then another moment and so on. There was another thunderous roar through the water and Billy could feel the water suddenly swirling away from him.

Jason used his uncanny instinct like never before, but knowing where things were piercing silently through dark water didn't always mean you could avoid them. He finally took a hit to the head when he was not quite fast enough to twist away and was unconscious as the rush of water began sweeping him away. The floor of the swimming pool had cracked apart as the building infrastructure folded inwards, tearing the floor underneath them open into a yawning chasm.

Billy was fighting for his final breath as the metal strut seemed to move and the rush of water flowing away past him gave him incentive to hang on, to not gulp despite the burning in his lungs, to not inhale the dark waters. All that was in his mind was, what has happened to Jason? And in the midst of the drowning darkness…

Flash of images --

Jason drifting past, buffeted by débris within arm's reach through near-opaque waters …

For the first time ever since he had been troubled by these visions, Billy trusted them and reached out as his head cleared water into hot choking darkness. He gulped deeply, whooping in the acrid but breathable air and grabbed at the darkness, hooking onto the soft form drifting past. He gripped tightly as the weight pulled against him and then nearly yelled as the whole girder seemed to drop, missing the sharp pain in his immediate panic to stay alive. His fingers locked around Jason's wrist and he ignored everything else, focusing only on holding on. Jason would get them out of this, if he could just hang on, he would get them out of this and they would … whoa!

The building was collapsing downwards; the floor of the swimming pool dropped away completely, leaving in a thunderous roar of water and concrete avalanching into an abyss. All of a sudden there was nothing supporting the weight of Jason except Billy and he was pulled sharply down, the piece of metal acting as a grotesque hook as they swung over the midnight void.

Starbursts of pain appeared in front of Billy's eyes, glorious against the blackness and tentacles of metal cable 'thwipped' past, clanged and coiled all around him as the clatter of a multitude of concrete missiles twanged and clanged their way into the abyss below. The huge girder creaked and settled, spanning an unknowable drop and Billy remained hooked and entangled, dangling over that drop, desperately holding on to Jason, praying he was alright and that he could hold on long enough for them both.

***

Jason came around groaning, his head aching fiercely and with a throbbing sensation that he recognised as a head wound. He was also immediately aware of a deathgrip on his right arm and an alarming feeling of insecurity in the rest of his body as regards floors, or any type of support beneath him. He moved and immediately heard a gasp of ... surprise? Pain?

"Billy?" he called up, trying to recall what had happened. Water and blackness, searching for a way out and for Billy … there had been no-one else there, had there? It had to be him!

"Jase …" the familiar voice sounded strained. "Try not to move too much … please …" the request was more a plea than anything else. Jason gripped the arm tightly, feeling relieved that it was his old friend but also inherently insecure, dangling above a void. The air was thick with heat and acrid with the taste of an explosion and he coughed up the remnants of the water he had swallowed, trying to minimise his movements in the meantime.

Jason listened to the noises above him, focussing on his friend. Billy's breathing sounded wrong somehow. Jason shifted his grip and heard a near-gasp ... a hitch of breath.

"Billy, what's holding you up?" he said hoarsely, trying to get a more secure grip and flick water ... or blood from his face. He wasn't sure which, though he was sure he had some sort of head injury.

"A ... girder ... I think," the voice replied from above him.

There was something familiar about that tone; he remembered it from battles when Billy was trying to prove he could keep up and there was something wrong, or that he had taken a hit and didn't want to think himself important enough to bother with. Many was the time that after a battle was over they would then discover that the Blue Ranger had been in need of medical intervention and had ignored it. Billy had always been like that, more ready to suffer something in silence than make a 'fuss' over himself. All that aside, they had to get out of here, and that meant getting to a secure position one way or another.

He felt a perceptible loosening in Billy's grip and said aloud, "Billy, I've got to come up to the girder ... we've got to get out of here, and that means not dangling over certain death."

There was a pause. "O-Okay." Billy's voice had a semblance of calm, but even though he hadn't seen him in a long while Jason knew him well enough to know something was wrong. But even knowing that, there was no other way and his strange sense reinforced that, too.

He shifted and used his well-developed muscles to claw his way up his friend's body, reaching up and twisting the sodden cloth of his friend's clothes into his grip and swinging upwards.

"Jase ... hurry ..." Billy choked out. Jason twisted to hook his hand around the metal of the girder. Billy seemed to drop slightly, then gave a strangled low cry and a peculiar whimper which nearly caused Jason to lose his grip in his concern. He scrabbled briefly, the adrenalin surging wildly in response to the near miss until he hooked his hand over the metal. With a mighty heave he removed his weight from Billy, securing a position on the groaning steel girder, his muscles trembling slightly with exertion.

Billy felt sick with pain, the metal in his leg tearing deep and ripping when Jason pulled as he was inadvertently twisted sideways by his friend. There was no other way though, but despite his best intentions to be stoic he was feeling dizzy and nauseous and in the darkness tears of pain started from his eyes which he was glad his friend could not see. He became dimly aware of Jason speaking to him again.

"Billy? ... let's get you up here with me," Jason was saying.

. "... no ... no ... don't ..." he protested weakly, or maybe he just thought it … things were getting hazy.

But Jason was trying to move him anyway and he cried out again as he pivoted slightly on the penetrating metal.

"You're snagged on something,"Jason stated, stopping immediately as he felt resistance, his concern jumping a notch. He was used to dangerous situations and this had a bad feel to it – with or without that intuition of his. His fingers probed in the dark along Billy's body and down his leg, finding it tangled in steel cable. He probed underneath, found a sharp edge and ... a freezing sensation in his stomach accompanied the revelation – .it wasn't just pushing against Billy's thigh ... it was IN his leg.

"Oh man ... Billy ..." Jason gulped.

I hate it when one of mine gets hurt, he thought instinctively. "I need light ... I need light." At least I still have my emergency kits. Never go anywhere without them. Little known enemy bases, heavily defended stronghold … the Mall …

It would have been funny in any other situation but now. He found the miniature flashlight, panicking for a moment that it wasn't waterproof ... but of course it was ... they all were. Idiot, that's the point of them, he berated himself. The tiny light was dazzling in the darkness and Jason sucked in a restrained breath as the dark glistening of blood shimmered in the illuminating beam. Not good.

"Billy ... I'm going to have to ... get you off of that thing," Jason said clinically, trying to sound as if it was something he did every day.

"Mmmhuh." His long time friend managed a vague sound of assent.

Never did argue, did you, Billy? Always trusted every word I said, even when it was going to hurt you? If only you knew how rare that was …Jason steeled himself. "This is gonna hurt, little bro ..." he said, automatically slipping back into the frames of speech he used when they were younger.

He wedged his hands under Billy's right leg and pushed upwards, pushing hard, trying to ignore the muffled groans and cries in the meantime. It moved and Jason repositioned to support Billy and then pushed upwards again, grunting with effort. There was a sudden 'shlock' and a gush of warm liquid over his hand, the metallic smell of blood filling his nostrils. He pressed the heel of his palm against the wound and ripped off a strip of material, balled it into a pad and pressed it to Billy's thigh, ripped one strip more and tied it in place efficiently, betraying the fact he had done it before. Then he lifted him and settled him next to him on their precarious perch, gazing into the abyss, feeling the silent shudders under his arms.

"You okay?" Jason asked eventually when Billy seemed to have calmed down. A stupid question, but you had to start somewhere.

"F... Fine," Billy seemed to stutter. There was a lengthy silence, then an almost inaudible "Thankyou."

Jason laughed in amazement. "Did you just say 'thankyou'? Geez! Billy, if this had been one of my unit, the air would have been blue around now."

There was a strained chuckle. "Blue would have been apt …I'm glad you're here, Jase …" the voice was trusting. The girder creaked ominously and Jason paused for breath. The palpable sense of danger flowed around him. That familiar danger sensation he had come to associate with fire overshadowed him. A quivering sense showed him the inherent unstableness of the area around him. The steel of the girder rang with the percussion of the debris and vibrated with groans of strain.

Got to get off of this thing ... He flicked on the light briefly, seeing his own hands smeared with blood. They couldn't go up ... but they could go down, with the steel cables.

"Billy? You okay?" he asked, noticing his friend had been unusually quiet. Doesn't surprise me, he's been dangling on a hook and then yanked off .... and supported me. I'm not exactly a light weight, am I? And when I twisted ... He felt sick at the thought.

"Mmmfine." The reply was a little indistinct, but at least Billy was conscious.

"Billy, I'm going to try and get us out of here ... you can hold on up here, can't you?"

"... yes ..."

"Good." Jason reached for the steel cables and began trying to unravel the heavy sharp stuff. There was a massive tangle of the wiry length a little ways along the girder.

"Hold on, Billy. Don't move." Jason inched his way along the metal support and started pulling at the cable. He looped one free end in a secure knot ... easier said than done. The metal fibres cut into his hands. He heaved the tangled over into the darkness, hearing it disappear and immediately, to his sense there was a clear way of an exit away from the danger they were in. The sense of danger around them and above them was not lessening in the slightest, quite the opposite. He coughed. Smoke was thickening the air, tickling at his lungs. He half-choked and reasoned that if his sense told him there was a safer way, then they could take the chance of getting out that way, even not knowing how far down the drop was. Better than staying here, at least.

Now for Billy. "Billy, can you get over towards me?" he called out, then coughed.

There was a grunt and movement was telegraphed along the metal.

It seemed to take a long time for Billy's questing hand to find him in the darkness, but Jason grabbed hold of the fingers. "Good going … We're going to have to go down, Billy."

"Down ... down there?" Billy's voice trembled a little.

"Believe me, we stay here, this thing is coming down." Jason tore more of his top up and wrapped strips around his palms. "Fire above us, too. This building isn't going to be here much longer."

"Then is going down any safer?" Billy questioned the wisdom of going downwards if the building was going to collapse on top of them.

"Just trust me, Billy; I can't tell you how I know, but I know, okay?" Jason replied, working busily.

He could imagine the nod through the darkness, a familiar gesture and a holding of breath, too.

"Okay, what's wrong ?" Jason asked, testing the knot.

"How … Jase, you're going to have to leave me," Billy's voice said wearily. "I can't make it … not down there … not ... like this …" He sounded ready to be left behind, a disturbing harmonic to Jason's finely tuned leadership instincts.

"You think I'd leave you here, bro? You gotta tell me what you been up to." Jason was satisfied that the cable was tight. "You can hold onto me, right?"

"Hold on to … Jase, you can't carry me down there!" Billy exclaimed aghast. "We're not Rangers anymore!"

"Nope. Rangers never had to do boot camp drills, did they?" Jason replied. "Trust me, Billy … I'll get us down. Done this sorta thing many times. Take hold." He felt Billy's arms tentatively creep around his neck and encouraged him. "That's it, try and wrap your legs around me as much as possible, too." The left leg hooked around … the right hung limply.

"Hold tight …" Jason admonished once more and with a gasp of effort, lowered himself down into the midnight void beneath him.

They swayed in the blackness, Jason controlling their descent, his muscles burning with strain as they clambered down and down . The worst was trying not to cough as his lungs heaved for oxygen and found only smoke-tainted air. Billy's grip seemed to be loosening, though, and he stepped up the pace of their descent. How far had the floor fallen through, for crying out loud?

A metal scream above him flashed a wild alert to his survival sense.

Girder's gonna drop … how far are we up, anyway? He focussed downward, knowing he could survive the fall … and equally sure that he would not survive a girder collapse. He sprinted hand over hand a little closer to the ground and then, as his sense fired an acute warning, without telling Billy he let go of the cable and fell …

About 3 metres.

There was a cry of pain from Billy still clinging to him as they hit the rough ground and above them, the metal girder crumpled and snapped under the pressure of the collapsing walls. Jason paused, then picking a direction seemingly at random, rolled with his friend and froze as two heavy reinforced metal struts struck on either side of them in the pitch blackness, bouncing them into the air with their force of impact.

Jason lay covering Billy, breathing heavily as the adrenalin surge died down once again.

Eventually he paused, reaching out with his mind and felt a gap in the danger, the immediacy of their peril having faded.

He shifted, feeling the warm body underneath him move a little. "Billy?" He moved and there was a moan. "Sorry, bro."

They had to get out of here, they had to get away from the destruction folding towards them from above. The place of best safety, where was that? He questioned that instinct and very few options presented themselves, but at least there were options. He began dragging Billy across the rubble towards an unknown direction and found a waste grating under his seeking fingertips. Fingers linked in and pulled it free.

"Billy, c'mon, if we get out into the sewers, will we be fine?" he asked, trying to get his friend to stay with him and talk.

"Maybe ..." Billy responded finally. He was dizzy and lightheaded and his limbs felt heavy and unresponsive. "Better than here."

"Good - because there isn't anywhere else to go." Jason hauled him into the vent and they dropped chaotically further down into the service ducts that existed in a labyrinthine mass beneath every building ever erected.

Finally, finally they found a tunnel that was lit by the guttering flicker of interrupted electric lighting, but it was still illumination of sorts and welcome after the smothering darkness. And Jason groaned, too, as he settled down next to his friend. He had discovered that there was a grille at the end of the tunnel and they could go no further, not right now, and if he wasn't mistaken, for all his infamous hardheadedness he had a concussion of some description.

He propped Billy against the wall and lay back next to him, breathing deeply, trying to quell the nausea. It didn't help that his eyes strayed down; Billy's leg looked bad in the flickering light and for the first time he looked at his friend properly. He didn't seem that much different from when they had been Rangers together, not physically, but marked in his face and in his eyes when he turned to gaze at him were the imprints of experience livid with their own burning life.

Had he changed that much? Were his eyes touched that deeply with all that he had seen, or had something unimaginable laid its hand over Billy's life in the time he had been absent from them?

"Jase ... you're hurt," Billy said softly, touching the blood on Jason's face, tracing it back to a nasty wound in the short dark hair. He took a strip of cloth and wiped away the worst from his friend's face as gently and deftly as he could. "You must rest …head wounds are tricky," he admonished.

Jason chuckled. "Billy ..." he shook his aching head slightly. "This so bizarre, here you are, treating me and talking as if there is nothing wrong with you. God, I remember that. The amount of times I chewed you out over that …"

Billy chuckled as well. "And Tommy did it, too … and Adam, Rocky, Trini, Kim, Zack …Kat … everyone, I believe, at some point or another."

There was a hint of sadness in his voice when he spoke of the others that Jason picked up on immediately.

"What? Okay, now is a good a time as any to talk. Neither of us can get up and walk away," Jason began. "So what's wrong with you? How long have you been back? Why didn't I know? What the hell were you doing trying to defuse an about-to-explode bomb? That'll do to start off with ."

Billy closed his eyes. "Jase, I ..."

"Bro, if you don't spill it …I'll deprive you of donuts for a week," Jason threatened.

There was a mild chuckle. "You don't even know that I eat them anymore," Billy responded.

"Bet you do ... sugar junkie …"

"Muscle-head," Billy retorted.

"Brainiac."

"Karate-klutz."

Jason chortled a little at that one. "The insults have to be true, remember?"

Billy gave a little shrug to indicate that his imagination was somewhat pressed by circumstances.

"And don't think you can get out of it that easily. I still want to know what's been happening." Jason shifted a little closer to his old friend.

Oh god, how could he tell Jason anything without sounding like a complete maniac? "There's nothing much," Billy said finally. "Nothing much to tell."

Jason studied him carefully. "If I believed that, I would be kicking your butt for not contacting me immediately when you came home. Last I heard, you were in blissful happiness with Cestria on Aquitar."

There was a sharp intake of breath. "Cestria ..." and the pain in Billy's voice was different and deeper than the physical strain of their ordeal.

"What happened, Billy?" Jason urged. "Come on , you used to tell me everything ... after a little poking and prodding. Things didn't work out?" he finished up gently.

"Cestria was killed," Billy replied in a tight, emotionless voice.

Jason felt that news like an impact, leaving him momentarily stunned. "Oh, man ... I'm sorry ... how?"

"It was my fault." Billy seemed to be teetering on the edge of breaking down.

"Oh man ..." Jason couldn't imagine Billy being responsible for anyone's death. Was that why he hadn't told anyone he'd come back?

"Tell me, bro ... all of it," he ordered. If they didn't make it out, then at least he could have helped him this way.

"There was a disaster on Aquitar," Billy began in a strained voice. "We had 'swum the waters' together ... been married for a year. I was ... I was setting up a trip to Sulis for us and she went to Quitaria to get some last minute things ... and the City Dome was pierced. A spire of rock shook free in an underwater quake and pierced the dome. It crumpled immediately. Aquitians can breathe underwater but they are also susceptible to water pressure. The entire city was lost. A few made it to escape pods ... Cestria wasn't one of them." The grief in his voice was barely suppressed.

"But ... how was it your fault?" Jason asked and then mentally kicked himself for being tactless.

"I can't ... can't tell you," Billy replied, shaking his head.

"Come on, man, you have to."

Billy shook his head again. "I ... I lost so much ... I can't afford to lose any more."

Jason frowned. "You mean us? Billy, we are your friends, we fought together, faced life and death together ... you think any of us would turn away from you, especially when you were hurting?"

"You might if you couldn't trust me," Billy said softly.

"Not trust you? Why on earth wouldn't any of us trust you?" Jason exclaimed with genuine surprise.

There was a pause before Billy admitted in a tone rich with resignation. "Because I don't trust myself anymore."

"Why?" Jason queried bluntly.

"Because I'm not in control of what goes on in my own mind any more …okay?" Billy said abruptly. He would never have spoken to Jason that way normally, but he was so sure of rejection that he was already starting to push his friend away.

Jason blanched. The thought of Billy mentally disturbed was frankly scary. He knew how much his friend had sacrificed so that he could be friends with all of them. Things could have been very different if Billy had ever decided to make a point of how much more intelligent he was than the others. He remembered a serious conversation they once had about what might happen if Billy was turned evil or captured. They hadn't spoken for days afterwards because Jason as the Red Ranger knew Billy would have to be eliminated as swiftly as possible and he had a very hard time dealing with that. In the end, Billy had made him promise to do it and that had been an end to the matter. But if he was …going insane …

"Tell me," Jason demanded again.

"I saw it ... I saw it happen in my dreams and yet I didn't stop it," Billy remembered in a broken voice. "Over and over I saw the spire fall, saw it pierce the Dome," Billy berated himself. "And yet ... I did nothing. I saw it as a dream ... a hallucination. I did nothing and countless of innocents died ... including Cestria."

The flickering light caught the glistening moisture on his cheek as he stared into space and continued.

"Jason, I see things ... strange things ... I don't know what they are, but they haunt my dreams, and now when I'm awake they are there, too. I don't know why ... I don't know why ... I don't know why I couldn't save her!" Billy buried his face in his hands and Jason, still reeling a little from shock, put his arm around him. Had his old time friend really lost it? Why had he come back then?

Because he had lost his love? Who else do you turn to when you are in pain but your family and friends ...

So why HADN'T he contacted them? If you thought you might be losing your mind ... would you? No ...

Is Billy dangerous? he asked that instinct of his and received a resounding 'no'. If anything, he showed up as an opposite, as a way of safety.

"Billy, it wasn't your fault," reassured Jason. "And you aren't dangerous to any of us."

Billy looked at him sharply. "How do you know, Jase? Huh? I don't even know!"

"Because I do," The ex-Ranger replied "Don't ask me how, but I know." he took a deep breath. "I have an instinct. I can't explain it, but it developed after I lost the Powers for the last time; I know if things and people are dangerous ... and you aren't. Was it only then?" Jason asked, distracting him.

Billy was watching him closely. "No. What do you mean about this instinct ... do you see things?"

Jason shook his head. "No. No, I feel them. Look, this may sound weird," he began. "But I feel it ... I feel where danger is and to a certain extent what it is and the best way out of it. That's why I knew where to find the bomb and when you suggested cutting the red wire, I knew that was very wrong." He gave his friend's shoulder a little squeeze. "You are not dangerous to me, Billy. I thought it was something that all the ex-Rangers might get, but I appeared to be the only one. I kept quiet about it. How about you?"

"I see things ... over and over. In dreams, mainly. They run through options," Billy replied. "I never did dream how to stop the place blowing up ... I always got killed ..." he shivered.

"You sounded the fire alarms, didn't you?" Jason said and then realised something. "You saved all those people and you went after the bomb, knowing that you were going to be killed?"

Billy looked at Jason for a long time. "I didn't at Quitaria, did I? There was a debt to be paid."

"Oh Billy ..." Jason felt his heart ache for his friend. "Could you have saved Quitaria?" he asked rhetorically.

"There must have been some way I could have," Billy insisted in a voice threaded with guilt. "If I had only ... oh Cestria ..." He wept mutely into his arms until Jason pulled him over against him to show him he didn't have to be alone with his loss.

There was a sense of release and relief in Billy's outburst. He hadn't let go of the guilt but, suddenly he had the knowledge that he could count on his friends not to see him as a crazed, mentally unstable individual …well, no more than usual. He nearly laughed at that and calmed down a bit, the pain from his leg starting to make itself VERY noticeable. In the silence that followed, he turned his mind to a few things to distract himself from the pain, both pains.

Eventually, his mind cleared of some of the clouds of self-doubt, Billy turned a mental corner and instead of looking for reasons why he might be insane began to look for reasons why this might be happening and so patently meaningful. Jason had something strange happen to him ... he had acquired an instinct.

And I have a curse ... Billy shifted. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and think logically for the first time in ages.

None of the other Rangers had it. Jason obviously knew this as a fact. So, did anything happen to them that did not happen to the others? His mind ran through various scenarios. It could be ... no ...

His breathing slowed and his head drooped forward with the effort of concentration and Jason began to worry.

"Billy ... hey ... you still with me?" Jason's voice was anxious.

There was a pause. "Jase ... can you remember the first time that this instinct worked for you?" Billy asked.

"Wha ... well ..." Jason considered, finding his thoughts a little fuzzy. "I think it was ... well, I remember not long after Trey got the Gold Powers back, I was walking down the road and I suddenly stopped and then ... jumped into someone's garden as a drunk driver screamed around the corner and crashed into a wall." He gave a rueful chuckle. "That at least is the first time I remember it clearly."

Billy looked up, shocked suddenly at how close Jason had been to death.

"The Gold Powers." Billy breathed. "I researched them after they proved incompatible. They were somewhat different to the other Powers."

"Well, the other Powers didn't try to kill us for a start." Jason's tone was wry.

"The Gold Powers actively bonded with the physical and energy levels," Billy said slowly. "It actually reacted with human physiology, trying to bring it up to speed. The Aquitians said it was my attempt to take the Gold Powers that triggered the aging as it tried to catalyse the cells in my body to accept the Gold …maybe it catalysed more than we thought. I never linked that with the dreams and the visions … but yes ... hypothetically, since the Triforians are a telepathic race, they have mental abilities which …"

Jason was quietly laughing beside him.

"What?" Billy asked, stopping his musing.

"Billy, you are the only guy I know who can baffle me when you have a hole in your leg." Jason felt more positive. "You're saying my instinct and your visions are part of the Gold Powers …but bro, I don't like to bring it up, but you didn't actually hold the Gold Powers …"

Billy shrugged. "They tried to merge with my body …tried to catalyse physical changes – contact enough, I guess."

"Then why the different abilities?!" Jason asked, confused.

"Because we are different people, I guess," Billy said thoughtfully. "Why did you take the Red and I the Blue? Different personality types."

It made a strange kind of sense, but that might have been the concussion talking. "That's all well and good, but does it actually help us?" Jason wondered.

"It helps me," Billy said quietly. "At least I know I can trust my judgement now ... and the visions are useful rather than just tormenting nightmares."

Jason felt a vibrating sensation in his pocket. "Ah man, I'm an idiot! " He fished out his damage-proof pager. "It's probably Trini, wondering where I am."

"You have a PAGER?" Billy let out an exhalation of hope.

"Text message capable, too." Jason admitted, grinning sheepishly.

Billy groaned and slumped against Jason in mock despair. "Then message ...Trini."

For the first time he noticed the ring on his friend's finger and with a note of wistfulness said, "And belated congratulations."

Jason looked up quickly from his industrious text messaging and said, "We would have told you, had we known you were here to tell. We are just engaged, but we still haven't resolved some issues about my profession yet."

"Trini doesn't like those she loves being in danger," Billy observed distantly.

"How do you know …blast …I can't spell ... what I do?" Jason asked as he fumbled over his text typing.

"Just because I didn't come and see you doesn't mean I didn't care." Billy said quietly, earning himself an appraising glance as Jason sent the first message to Trini.

***

Trini paced, watching the news report about the explosion at the Jacob's Ladder Mall. She didn't know why, but she had a desperate urge to check on Jason, and after arguing with herself for a while she activated Jason's pager, hoping he had remembered to put it on silent just in case he was somewhere where it might be embarrassing. Mind you, he looked sweet fumbling around for it sometimes. She allowed herself a faint, worried smile.

She waited and waited and there … a beep back and she sighed with relief. Until she read the message.

T – am in x-ploded mall. SOS. We r getting out. J+B

"No …oh no …" Trini sat down, suddenly feeling chilled for some reason. "After all that time on missions and you get blown up in Angel Grove?!" She felt a familiar cold knot of fear twist in her stomach.

She clenched her hands. "And who is 'B'?" She messaged back swiftly.

Am getting others – will find you. Be safe. luv T

Trini fought back her emotions and walked over to the phone, dialing a familiar number with trembling fingers.

"Hi …Kim ... look, I need a favour. Can you give me a lift?…I need to get to that building. Because Jason's in there. I know …" tears began to flow, though her voice remained calm. "Can you get the others? He might need our help. Meet you by the fountain in the plaza? Thanks, Kim ... yeah …I know he will. Too stubborn to kill …bye."

She put the phone down and looked around at the empty room. Jason should be here, should be making the place small with his sheer presence and physicality as he crept up on her and made her laugh, or surprised her with spontaneous gifts ... or as they stood on the apartment balcony, working through their respective katas in the dawn light in a comfortable silence before breakfast. Instead, the place was empty and the shadows full of dread, and she knew she needed life and love around her. Trini stayed in silence for a moment before getting ready to meet Kim and Tommy and picking the hands-free phone up to call her friends; now she needed them to stop the cold chill of fear settling into her bones.

***

The air was tinged with fire and drifting smoke in downtown Angel Grove as Trini, Kim and Tommy waited at the fountain. "Come ON, Tanya … ah …"

Three figures half-jogged towards them. "Jase really in that place?" Rocky asked without even greeting them.

"Rocky!" Tanya thumped him.

"What? I called Kat and Zack, too … they were closing the dance studio and coming right down," Rocky said, looking anxious.

Adam nodded. "We shut the dojo as soon as we heard. The stunt choreography can wait and Aisha is coming down as soon as she can from the University."

"I have to let someone know he's alive in there," Trini said, with a hint of desperation cracking her control.

"Poor Jase ..." Kim empathised with their lost friend. "I wouldn't want to be alone in something like that." She looked at the blazing heap of the building.

"He's not alone," Trini responded "That much I do know, but I think the pager has gone flat. I told him to change the batteries ... he never listens." Her voice quavered a little and Kim and Tanya surreptitiously moved in next to her as Kat and Zack arrived.

"Got here as soon as we could," Zack explained, helping Kat through the débris.

"Me too ." Aisha added, striding up with a lab coat slung over one arm.

They looked at each other grimly and there was a moment's silence as they pondered why they had gathered. Eventually Tommy broke the deadlock. "Come on … let's tell the rescue crews at least there is someone to rescue."

They threaded through the crowd towards the rescue co-ordination area. Next to it was the local news film crew and an update just going out as they tried to get across to the rescue centre.

"... The latest update on this terrible incident now points to this appalling destruction of property being the work of terrorist activists. A statement was delivered to the police in the last half hour, and to the media, that a group calling themselves the Terra-ists – a Human Purists breakaway group, have demanded the immediate shutdown of the Terra Venture project because it is ... quote 'An Abomination in the sight of God and Man, as man was given his place in the Universe and that place is here'…unquote." The attractive female presenter looked over her shoulder as there was a thump of débris falling a little too close for comfort. "The terrorist group have threatened to randomly bomb at least one building a day until the Terra Venture project is shut down. They also denied they were responsible for the alarm that enabled most of the people to evacuate without injury or fatality, stating their intention was to prove a point and there would be no bomb warnings as that would not persuade the authorities of their utter commitment to their goal. Currently we are trying to contact the Managing Director of the Terra Venture program for his opinion …"

"Terrorists? In Angel Grove?" Kat was astonished. Somehow that seemed much more unlikely than Rita's monsters or Power Rangers.

"That is unbelievable," Tommy murmured. "Terra Venture is no danger to anyone …" but then he was distracted by a woman raising her voice.

"No …no, you listen to me …'buddy'," her forceful tones cut through even all the noise and chaos. "I'm telling you there could be a good chance that a friend of ours is still inside there!"

"Lady," the rescue co-ordinator said wearily, "If that is the case, then I am sorry, but the chances of survival in a burning, collapsed building are remote."

"The name is Kathy Bishop, and I know all about probabilities of environment collapse survival, thank you very much. I damn well wrote the book." She leaned across the table. "And I am telling you that there is a chance he is alive…that people might be alive in there."

"She's right," Trini confirmed, stepping in. "There is definitely someone alive in there. My fiancé Jason Scott."

The other woman looked at her thankfully and with a slight flicker of recognition that seemed to pass in the urgency of making her point. "See… ?!"

"And how do you figure that?" the rescue co-ordinator asked patiently.

"He paged me," Trini replied calmly and Kathy crowed with delight at the simplicity of the argument.

"See? Now get off your ass and start looking for survivors!" the fiery woman demanded. "Will is too damn clever to get himself killed!"

The group of ex-Rangers looked at each other, a few half smiles appearing despite the dire situation.

"Alright! Alright!" The co-ordinator gave up. "We'll look, okay? But we are unable to get in there at the moment – the place is too dangerous. There is no guarantee they will remain safe though obviously we will try everything we can…"

There was an almighty "whumph" and the building actually dropped down a few storeys. Fiery débris started to rain down like the wrath of god.

"Back away!" ordered the co-ordinator. "I want a safety cordon of an additional 500 metres' perimeter set up. This place is coming down sometime soon and I don't want it to be on innocent bystanders, however well-meaning …" the rebuke, though indirect, was noticeable and a few of the people with Kathy began to lead her away.

"C'mon …let's leave them to it," one of the men said.

"Neil, you are kidding me!" Kathy retorted. "I'm not going anywhere until I am sure they are looking for him."

"Kathy ... you weren't sure he was coming to lunch, anyway," another intervened.

"He emailed ... he said he was, Chris, so he WAS, alright? I tried his phone … nothing …" Kathy replied fiercely. "Besides, he could be okay. She said her guy was alright." She indicated Trini.

"He was when he paged me," Trini confirmed, the two groups merging somewhat in their mutual concern. She looked back at the building that had just dropped and added in a small voice, "…I just hope he is now ."

***

"Billy ... Billy, wake up!" Jason hissed.

Flash of images --

Man standing in an office …briefcase of money … passing it over … shaking hands … explosives ... office … looked familiar …

The domes … the domes bursting like exploding eggs … one after another … people running with fire …familiar people …roiling firecloud rolling over them all ….stench of burning flesh making him gag …

"Billy!" Jason shook him and nearly yelped himself as his injured friend leapt a mile in shock and sat back panting with fear.

"Sorry, Jase …must have drifted ..."

"S'okay, bro … look, something going on, I can feel it, we HAVE to get out of this area." Jason said urgently.

Billy frowned. "I thought we were stuck here." He felt cold and shocky and fought an urge to shiver.

"We are," Jason admitted. "We have to get through that barrier …we have to, Billy ..." His eyes were vibrant with urgency, and Billy moved in response.

"Help me out here," he gasped as his leg protested the movement. "Get me to that grid …"

Jason unsteadily heaved Billy over to the confining grid, hearing the grunts of pain as he did so. Billy ran expert fingers over the mesh and frowned as he started seeking upwards for something.

Jason was feeling the danger growing inexorably …like a tidal wave poised to break. "Billy … please …" he begged, looking over into the darkness as if something was stalking them hungrily.

"It has an electric mechanism. Hold on." Billy popped it open and began fiddling with wires with trembling fingers as Jason's anxiety levels increased.

"No damn current, that's why," he announced. He reached up and yanked down the cable going to the flickering light.

"Wait," Jason said into the darkness.

"What?" Billy replied, not waiting as it happened.

"You're not giving this a silly name? A retransmogrifying polarity dohicky?" Jason asked, nearly on the verge of giggles with his lightheadedness and concussion.

Billy snorted. "I could call it … a switch, but the copyright is taken. So a Cranston Switch then ... which I will demonstrate …like …so …" there was a spark from the raw connection and the grid slid upwards. "A Cranston Switch never fails but only works once."

"Let's move." Jason ordered, trying to fight the laughter that was threatening when he could feel the danger crawling over his back and settling cold hands around his neck.

Billy tried to move and Jason went through first, practically dragging him. And still the danger persisted … a screaming crescendo of panic building higher and higher.

"Leave me!" Billy gasped out, barely conscious from the rough treatment as Jason's effort became more obviously frantic. "Go! Something's gonna happen, isn't it? Go … get clear …"

"Don't … be …" heave, tug and pull, "a bloody … idiot …" Jason braced and pulled. "You been eating junk food again, haven't you?"

"Jase ..." Billy's voice was weak and pleading, "I'll never forgive myself if you died when you shouldn't have."

Jason's response shot back sharp and uncompromising. "Well, if I die there's no way you'll be alive, so it's a bit useless to be worrying about it. Quit trying to die on me! The Billy I knew fought to live, not give me this martyr crap."

There was a rumble from above them and Jason's instinct spiked, sending a surge of adrenalin through his body.

"Jase ... go … please! I can't be responsible for more deaths, especially yours," Billy demanded weakly. His pleas fell on deaf ears. Jason was not going to leave a friend and team-mate behind, not for anything.

"Sorry, bro, this is going to be damn painful, but ..." Jason grabbed Billy's legs and tried to get a semi-sprint going as a deafening noise signalled the weight of the building punching down into the foundations.

The roar of sound echoed around him, the billowing, choking, blinding dust whirled down the tubes in a storm of white powdered snow-dust. Jason pushed his fatigued body to its limits, having to ignore the way Billy's limp form was banging into things, the way he was just having to crash through things, and then …

Plummeting downward into a foul stench and liquid …

…clipping the slick edge, losing his grip on his friend and thumping on his side into the stagnant water…and the danger instinct faded, quenched by the cooling waters of comparative safety, letting him drift into unconsciousness.

***

The group of friends sat disconsolately with their new acquaintances, sipping cups of coffee, waiting for news. Since they had arrived, seven hours had passed and the evening was drawing in and the light fading, but there was not one mention of leaving. There had been some bodies recovered from some of the rubble and débris, and each time Trini's face had been a mask of calm, only letting her emotions show in relief when she identified that it wasn't Jason. Each time she looked up to see that emotion mirrored in Kathy and the others' expressions. She realised that for everyone she ever heard about on a bulletin or a report – missing, lost, alone, killed, abducted … they were all the equivalent of Jason to someone. They all had people whose lives would be touched by their absence. Here they were, focussing all their thoughts on Jason, willing Jason to be safe and well and not caring what happened to anyone else. And there was Kathy and her friends doing the same for their friend. What if only one of them made it? What if neither of them made it?

She couldn't face that. Would she just walk away if they won and Kathy lost? Not care if her friend was killed because Jason was okay?

"I'm sure ... I'm sure your friend is fine," Trini spoke up suddenly to Kathy, startling her slightly. "Really." She smiled reassuringly.

Kathy sighed. "If only I hadn't sent that email. Stupid, stupid …" she berated herself. "First day off he takes since he started, and we have to drag him out."

"It wasn't your fault," one of the other women cut in hastily, having obviously heard Kathy take responsibility for this before during their vigil. "We all wanted him to come."

"He's lucky to have such good friends," Kim chipped in. He must be some guy to have his entire workforce turn out for him like this.

"You couldn't help but like him. I mean, he's so clever, but you wouldn't know it," the woman replied. "He never rubbed it in like some others I know." There were meaningful glances and several nodded, agreeing with her.

"Yeah, it was almost as if you were doing him a favour by talking to him," Kathy said softly. "And when you looked at his eyes and saw that pain …" she bit her lip. "Well, anyway, I know that he's too smart to get killed."

There was a chorus of agreement around her and the group tried to lift their spirits by reassuring her.

"Jason is too stubborn to be killed as well. Besides, he's used to this sort of thing," Trini remarked, unable to resist throwing her the same line of hope she had be given. "He's in the Navy. SEALs." That was the first time she had ever regarded Jason's profession as an advantage. A revelation in itself.

There was a murmur of appreciation from the others before it died down into silence. "In some ways we feel responsible." Kathy said slowly. "We are the Terra Venture team. Ironic really. If the fire alarm hadn't gone off and we had all been there, they wouldn't have had to threaten any other buildings. No word of a lie, the whole lot would have collapsed there and then."

The group shuddered at their near miss. "It's really nice to think that there is an expert at survival in there with Will," Chris said gratefully. "Makes things more hopeful."

And there was the second revelation for Trini. Everyone needed 'a Jason' to be there. All those missions – all those faceless people whom she just saw as taking Jason from her – Jason was their hope in the darkness.

She had been seeing her side only … worried about him only, not about them. It wasn't until now, when she was in the position to see another do the same, that she fully appreciated that for every successful mission he did, friends would hug their friends again, parents would have children back to love, fiancées, wives, partners have the other half of their souls restored to them that they thought lost forever.

She found suddenly she really cared about the fate not just of Jason, but of the other known to be lost in there, and found herself hoping that Jason was safe not just for her sake, but for the sake of the other man missing in there as well.

***

Jason groaned and then his nostrils twitched in disgust as a rank odour wormed its way into his consciousness. His head throbbed, the head wound burned like fire and his fingers pushed against thick cold ooze. He coughed, everywhere seeming to ache and protest. How long had he been out?

"Billy? Dammit, ugh ... Billy? " He felt around in the darkness, prodding for a body and found sodden material under his hands. "Oh man, there you are. Billy, you awake?"

Flash of images –

Domes bursting with fire, exploding ... people running ... people he knew, his friends ... fire chasing them, consuming them …seared flesh on bones …stench thick in the air, a wall of fire collapsing over him.

Pain …pain … REAL pain ...

"Arrgh … Jase , my leg …hands off of my leg!" Billy choked out, coming round to pressure on his right leg.

"Geez, sorry, man." Jason lifted his hand away quickly, embarrassed he had made such an error.

"Arggh, that doesn't feel any better!" Billy said tightly, gasping in pain. "You can put it back if you want." He gave a painful laugh and coughed at the smell. "You know, Jase, the standard of your rescues are really going downhill. I think I might change suppliers."

That raised a chuckle from his long-time friend. "You think this is bad, you ought to have smelt the Dark Dimension."

"But Jase, I pulled you OUT of there into a relatively sweet-smelling place," Billy pointed out half-seriously. "You seem to have got your wires crossed. You rescue me into a foul-smelling place."

"Perfectionist," Jason replied, hauling on Billy to get him upright. "I could just leave you here, you know, but I have no idea where we are," he confessed eventually, the anxiety evident in the tightness of his voice.

A hand found his in the darkness and squeezed tightly in gratitude, belying the banter of their words and Jason gripped back in reassurance and acceptance of that 'thank you without words' feeling. Sometimes it was as good to know that you were needed as it was to need someone yourself.

"No instinctive senses, then?" Billy asked hopefully as if the physical gesture had not occured.

"Nope. Immediate danger gone, and so is the sense." Jason answered and then thought about what he had just said. "Maybe I should rephrase that."

"No, you were right, all sense of any type long since gone." Billy chuckled and then couldn't stop. "Ow ... owow …"

Jason unfortunately had also started to laugh. "What did you do on your leave, Jase?" he said to himself, and then answered in a mock serious tone. "Well, guys, spent it being insulted in a sewer by one of my best friends …you ought to try it … best time ever."

Billy held onto his stomach trying not to shake his leg with the laughter. "Please, Jase … I feel sick …"

"In such a pleasant area? Can't think why. We'll probably find Rita and Zedd renting a condo down here, or something. Goldar as pool boy. Rito as … well, what the hell was Rito, anyway?" Jason said, also laughing.

"I always thought of him as a walking toast rack," Billy replied wryly and the pair of them wheezed with weak laughter until the hysterical relief at escaping such a close call drained away.

Jason eventually moved the pair of them out of the immediate sludge and paused for breath. He was going to run out of strength soon and once he crashed out, it would be difficult to start again. He was running out of inspiration. He looked at his companion and suddenly realised that he was with the person who always managed to supply an answer when they were Rangers. Remember the rules, Jason, in survival you make full use of the tools you have at your disposal, and that includes people, he reminded himself.

"Billy ... I really don't know which way is best to go at the moment," he admitted finally.

"You got a compass on you?" Billy asked after a moment's thought.

"Funnily enough, yes." He pulled out his special army knife that had a compass built in as well as numerous other gadgets. "How does that help?"

"The sewers have access points to the south of the building," Billy replied with effort. "That's where we will find manholes and exits."

Jason felt his jaw drop. "How the hell do you know that?" He was used to Billy coming up with answers, but inside knowledge of the sewer system was way out there on a bizarre information limb.

"We have to get extra pipes fitted for the waste from work, and Chris, the manager, had a stand up row with the plumbers, telling them it would save them time and us money if they fitted it to the east and linked into the main processing plant rather than looping south. But according to the guy, 'South is how they do it in Angel Grove'." Billy shrugged.

"South it is, then." Jason took a bearing and then heaved Billy upright. They could stand in this tunnel – if they actually managed to stand. They leaned heavily on each other, Billy feeling distinctly ill now and Jason not much better, but knowing they had to move on.

"You stink, you know that?" Jason said politely as Billy clung to him.

"Ewww de toilet," Billy quipped in-between gasps. The pain was shooting up his leg in a burst of agony every time he tried to put any weight on it. "Home, Jase! And don't spare the horses!"

"And you're babbling." the Navy SEAL frowned a little. He touched Billy's forehead briefly. It was most definitely hot to the touch

"Oh man ." Well, it shouldn't be a surprise, he'd be lucky to get away without an infection himself. "Let's move, bro ... and a one, and a two …"

The unsteady duo lurched down the slippery tunnel in a generally southerly direction.

***

Tommy was pacing up and down. "I hate this … just waiting," he muttered. It gnawed at him not being able to do anything.

"Join the club," Kim replied from where she was sitting with their new friends. "Pacing won't help."

"I wonder where they are?" Adam commented quietly, looking at the wrecked building.

"They must have been low down to escape the initial blast," Trini observed clinically and doggedly sticking to referring to their lost friends as being alive despite the odds. They had discussed this over and over, how their friends might possibly survive such a catastrophe.

Kathy chewed on her lip. "What if they got out into ducts of the building or something?" she mused, grasping at straws, conveniently ignoring the minute chances and improbable required circumstances involved in this being a possibility.

"If they did … maybe it's worth getting the rescuers to check on them?" Zack suggested as it was now getting dark and they needed to do something before one of them cracked up and took the rest of them with them. It wouldn't take much, not right now.

"But where …? I mean, there must be masses of them," Rocky said, looking around. "Where would you start?"

The entire Terra Venture group chorused, "The south side of the building."

The group of ex-Rangers looked at them, astonished.

"Sorry, an in-joke," Chris explained. "We just happen to have knowledge of that fact."

"But worth mentioning nonetheless," Kathy said, leaping into action and staying near Trini. "Come on!"

The now familiar sound of Kathy haranguing the rescue co-ordinator went on for some time until the harassed man finally cracked. "Fine! Fine! Gene! Get up here and go with this group to look at the south side, will you? And try to stop them from doing themselves an injury in the process."

"Well, finally!" Kathy huffed and then smiled. "Thankyou," she said to the man genuinely as their token rescue worker joined them on their expedition.

***

"Jase …ugh … Jase …hold on a moment." Billy sagged a little, pulling against him.

"C'mon, we've got to keep going …" Jason replied forcefully , his vision blurring and shaking his head to clear it.

"No point," Billy informed him weakly.

"We're not having that again," Jason said tersely.

"No, Jase, I mean there is no point because there's a manhole here," Billy corrected. "Up you go …"

"I can't believe I just nearly did that," Jason muttered, kicking himself for stupidity. "Can you climb? I'm not leaving you here."

"Jason, don't be stupid," Billy replied exhaustedly, slumping again. He must have lost a lot of blood. "Just get up there and send down help."

"No … I never leave anyone behind," Jason replied adamantly, heaving Billy onto his back. "Famed for it, in fact. Together or not at all."

"United we stand," Billy mumbled incoherently.

"Yeah, little bro," Jason agreed worriedly, beginning the exhausting climb. He had to fight to move a rung at a time. He had to push himself to the limit and ignore the pains, the nausea, the dreadful dizziness that made the grip around steel fade in sensation under his hands, making him unsure whether he had a grip or not. The ladder seemed endless, his chest burned. Billy was a dead weight pulling him down, but he was getting there … getting there.

***

"This area is no better than around the front ... mind your heads, everyone!" Gene the rescue worker cautioned. The large group of people poked around industriously at various drains and manholes, but still they missed the sudden wobbling of the metal disc behind most of them. And the muffled cursing that went on underneath that same disc.

"Shit." Run out of strength at the final hurdle, Jase, oh yeah that would look good. Navy SEAL defeated by manhole cover. The exhausted ex-Ranger again pushed desperately against the obstacle.

An arm reached up from behind him as he tried once more, and between the two of them they managed to tilt the heavy metal item and slide it to one side. With a few scraped fingers as the casualty for their teamwork.

Jason gave a final pull-up over the edge of the manhole with Billy still clinging to him and collapsed half in, half out of the entrance, gulping the relatively sweet air of the outside. "We made it, Billy ..." he whispered to his friend as the ex-Ranger slid off of his back to the side of him.

"Never doubted you would," Billy murmured back, barely conscious now comparative safety had been reached.

The fresh air invigorated Jason and he managed to stand, yanking Billy upright, trying to support him as he turned to see a heart-stoppingly familiar form maybe twenty metres away.

"Hey," he called out, his voice cracking slightly. "Sorry I'm late for dinner … guess it's ruined, huh?"

The group of searchers froze.

Trini turned and saw, as if teleported in behind her, the unmistakable silhouette of Jason that she would recognise anywhere. He was supporting someone, who strangely also pulled faint threads of familiarity in her. She had to check, though, to confirm her instincts just in case it was a hallucination or a dream.

"Jase?"

"I'm not that late that you can't remember me, am I?" he responded in a deliberately light tone. He stumbled slightly, despite being keen to give the impression he was fine and Trini ran over towards him before the others could converge upon them.

Trini flung her arms around Jason, tears streaming down her face. "Oh Jase ... oh love …" her composure cracked and emotion poured out as she hugged him, ignoring the filth and stench, fingers touching with concern the clotted blood matting his dark hair, the bruises on his face. Noting the exhausted smile and bright eyes fixing her with a look of such incredible need just to be here with her, she ignored the slime and kissed him passionately, needing to reaffirm their mutual life together in close contact before the others gathered.

"Oh my god!" Kim gasped behind her, seeing the other semi-conscious figure. "No …it's not ... is it?" She looked at Tommy disbelievingly and then back again to the partially slumped person, features obscured as he hung his head limply forward.

Adam was there like a shot and gently lifted the begrimed head, having his own suspicions confirmed. "Billy? Oh my god, it is him. Guys, quick, it's Billy!" He looked at the others desperately, before cradling the prodigal ex-Ranger's head so the others could see.

"Will?" Kathy came running over. "Will! Guys, it's Will!" she called out triumphantly.

"Will is Billy? Our Billy?" Rocky said, confused. He was trying to absorb the fact that someone he thought was on a planet on the other side of the galaxy had just nearly been killed a few blocks from where he worked.

"Our Will may well be your Billy." Kathy paused, the flicker of recognition she had showed before when they first met springing into life. "You are that Trini? I'm so stupid! How many Trinis could there be?"

"I hate to interrupt," a weak, quiet voice came from the object of their discussion. "But ... pleased though I am to see you all ... I believe I'm going to pass out now." His right leg had totally given way and his head was spinning as crawling hallucinatory lights squirmed across his vision.

Kathy and Adam took hold of him from Jason's tired grip.

"You badly hurt, Billy?" Adam asked, worried now, helping to lay him down gently as the others gathered around, but refusing to let him go completely. He looked sick as he saw the saturated darkness glistening over most of Billy's right leg, concealed a little by the foul-smelling muck. He was hurt worse than Jason, Adam realised with an anxious shiver, he's lost a lot of blood and he's so warm. That's not good.

Kathy absently stroked the filthy hair off of their patient's hot feverish face. "You'll be fine now, really," she soothed, her gentle tone oddly different to the strident demands they had heard since they met her

Billy stared up with glazed eyes at all his friends past and present and spoke weakly, though it was obvious he was not sure if he was speaking or thinking. "I've missed you so much." He sighed wistfully before he drifted into complete unconsciousness, his slight frame going lax in Adam's arms.

Gene the rescue worker had gone to rustle up some hasty assistance and a group of paramedics jogged towards them. They dealt with Billy very swiftly and forced the still conscious Jason to lie down on another stretcher despite his protestations. Trini remained, clinging to his hand when they were carried away as Adam, Rocky, Kim and the others stood in astonishment, left to make their own way to the hospital.

"I can't believe it!" Tommy felt oddly guilty at not even having been able to be worried about Billy and then find him snatched from the jaws of death in front of them. "How could we not know he was back from Aq… Arkansas," he substituted hastily. "Why didn't he tell us?"

He felt somewhat defensive and it showed in his tone and many of the others seemed to feel the same. Adam looked frankly stunned, totally floored by the fact that Billy had been near death and he hadn't known. He could not reconcile the fact that one of his closest friends had been that close to death and he hadn't known and had not even had the opportunity to worry about him or care. A guilt settled on him as if there should have been some way that he would just have known and something he could do.

Kathy looked around. "He's talked about all of you a lot, now I know it was you he refered to," she said to the group. "All of you."

"But why didn't he tell us he was back?" Kat asked, glancing at the others to back her up.

Kathy shook her head. "I don't know …I do know he cares about all of you a great deal," she smiled. "He keeps a picture of all his friends in his drawer at work. I sometimes come in to find him just looking at it when he thinks no one is around."

"Then WHY?" Kim asked everyone there, friends old and new alike.

"You had better ask him," Kathy said gently, seeing how distressed they were at this turn of events. "Though I do know something hurt him terribly. You can see it in his eyes …some awful loss. He never talks about it, but it's there."

This statement caused some ashamed looks, and an uncomfortable silence settled across them all as they stood in the shadow of the explosion-blasted tower building, crumbling and destroyed.

"Guess we're just a little upset because it was such a shock to see him there." Aisha surprised herself by her voice breaking a little. "Getting the whole panic, and relief all at once … kinda shook me up at least." There were murmurs of agreement.

Adam turned, thinking deeply, wondering at his own feeling of resentment. He looked at the building that had changed so many of their assumptions and realised then that was the problem. Billy coming back like this had challenged their assumptions, their complacent conceptions that he was out of sight and out of mind, think of Billy and think that he is fine and happy on Aquitar and never bother to check if that is the case. A friend is fine until the moment you make contact with their life. Saving energy by not contacting, then you never know something is wrong. And something had been wrong, terribly bad for his friend and here he was, terribly ashamed because he hadn't known. What type of a best friend doesn't speak to their friend for years! And then has the gall to be resentful when they return and don't immediately beat a path to their door.

"I want to go and see him and Jase," Adam said suddenly. "I want to know they are both going to be all right and I want to know what happened and the reasons why."

It said much that none of the others had to ask to which 'reasons why' the Asian was referring, as they slowly and thoughtfully adjourned to the Hospital

***

Jason woke up from a fitful doze. Mmm, crisp clean sheets. Hospital sheets. Not so good but preferable to foul smelling ooze as something to wake up in contact with. Even better, a soft hand in his, squeezing tightly with concern. He turned his head, feeling the tightness of the bandage around his head wound and opened his eyes to Trini's face.

"Morning, love," he said softly, seeing her come alive at the sound of his voice.

"Jase ..." Trini stroked his hand gently and then launched into a familiar tirade. "You idiot! What were you doing? How did you manage to get inside an exploding building? Why is it always you?"

Jason twitched a smile. They had had this conversation a few times after missions had not gone so well and each time he answered the same.

"Just lucky, I guess."

"Why, you …" Trini leant over and kissed him with that same sense of a need for reassurance coming through to which Jason obliged in responding to the best of his ability.

Trini broke away, barely able to speak as she continued. "When I got that message ..." It was strange, but she felt herself closer to tears now than before when it had been actually happening.

"Hey … hey, I'm fine …" Jason captured her hand again and squeezed it reassuringly. "My head is too thick-skulled to take permanent harm." He said it lightly, trying to play down his injury.

Trini shook her head mutely in despair. "Oh Jase …" she sighed finally, having run out of words.

Jason looked at her, trying to apologise with his eyes, for something he knew he couldn't promise not to do again, not knowing which words would make it better or even if there were words in the world that ever could.

"Well …at least I won't have to tell you that I have to do another mission now," he said gently, knowing he was invalided out of the one he had been marked down for now.

Trini bit her lip slightly, half relieved at that, but in light of last night half upset for him. "It would have been alright," she admitted quietly.

"What?" Jason couldn't believe his ears. Trini had never backed down on this issue before!

"I said it would have been alright ... yesterday ... watching the hope in Kathy's face when she heard a trained survivalist professional was in there, possibly trying to save her friend's life ... I understood here ..." and she placed her hand over her heart, " ... what it is that you do, when you go on rescue missions." She sighed. "I would have wanted someone like you going after you ..."

Jason was astonished. "Really?"

Trini nodded slowly.

The former Ranger felt an immense burden suddenly lift from him. "Oh Trini … I … love you." He looked at her, pleased beyond measure she could understand what he felt when he went out there.

"I know," Trini answered gravely, then started to giggle slightly at Jason's expression. "And of course I love you … and yes ... to that question you asked me a year ago … finally ... yes."

Jason practically tried to leap out of bed to embrace her in his happiness. "Oh my Trini … my beautiful, wonderful Trini …" he kissed her again and drew back with a wonderful smile of happiness lighting up his slightly battered features.

Trini smiled radiantly back at him and tilted her head slightly. "Don't stop …I could get to like this."

****

Kim and Tommy sat watching the still sleeping Billy as Adam came in silently.

"Any change?" Adam asked quietly, looking at his old friend anxiously.

"No … he's still out. He keeps talking in his sleep ... about domes collapsing," Kim answered hesitantly. She looked at Tommy, her expression becoming serious. "And he called out to Cestria … but ..."

She stopped. The simple name had been called with such hopeless, tragic loss that she instinctively knew that Billy had lost her. It had brought tears to her eyes, and to her surprise, when she had looked at Tommy, his eyes were bright with unshed tears and he had reached for her hand as if to reassure himself he would never have to say anything in that tone himself. She was pretty sure that Billy was alone now; not through any choice of his own as the sound had been so full of need and loneliness that it had been all she could do not to wrap her arms around Billy and hug him close, unconscious or not, just to show him there was someone there for him.

Adam picked up on the nuances of the exchange. "Oh no …you think that something happened to her?"

Rocky suddenly popped open the door. "Guys … guys ... Jason's awake!"

Kim hesitated, looking at Billy's sleeping form and Tommy reassured her, as he got up, "The doctors said he should be out for most of the day, and maybe Jason can tell us what happened to him."

Adam still looked a little uncomfortable, gazed at Billy seemingly out for the forseeable future, then nodded and the group departed to meet the others at the newly awakened Jason's room.

***

"Lie back down!" Trini ordered, pushing her fiancé back against the pillow.

"I'm fine!" Jason protested as the others entered the room, chuckling at the scene of domestic bliss in front of them. "Guys, tell her I'm fine! Please!"

"Ooh no … you don't get us between a woman and her slave … oops, man," Aisha joked.

Jason finally acquiesced and sat up, resting in the hospital bed. "Thanks a lot," he said wryly to the sudden influx of people. "How's Billy? Is he okay?" he asked seriously, wanting more updates on his friend's condition than Trini had been able to provide.

"He's still out of it and is going to be for the rest of the day," Kim answered. "He seemed pretty delirious … talking about domes being destroyed and things. The doctors said he picked up an infection and there is a large amount of damage to his right leg, plus significant blood loss."

Jason blanched. "That's my fault," he muttered. "He was skewered on a damn piece of metal, grabbing hold of me dangling over a very long drop. I have no idea how long he was holding me, I was out of it, but I know I ripped his leg further when I climbed up him."

There were a few sick glances from the others. The very thought made them squirm.

"Okay…we want the full story," Tanya demanded. "Everything ... what happened yesterday, and if you know, why he didn't make contact with us? That's been bothering all of us, I think." Though it was Adam whom her glance found first.

Jason looked down. "Yes, I do know," he admitted quietly and sighed. "Okay, I'll tell you … all of it. But this means telling you a few things about me, too." He waited until they were all settled and then began in a soft, low voice the entire narrative of what had happened, all about his instinct, all about Billy's uncertainty of his own sanity and his insistence on his responsibility for Cestria's death … the whole long, soul-wrenching story.

***

Billy would have indeed have been out for the rest of the day had it not been for the persistence of dreams tearing at his unconsciousness.

Flash of images –

Girders ... metal supports, looked familiar ... Massive supporting framework …support tower – something there. Several, no, a dozen or more devices out of sight. The central stalk …the engines, Engines …and above ...

Domes ... half a dozen on a platter … a city ... a city in a dome … like Quitaria, but no water ... and ...

His friends … all of them, old and new, walking around the domes laughing, when ...

Explosions ...

The support struts blown away, the dome platter impaling on the exploding engines, the domes bursting and exploding with fire, one by one engulfing his friends, sweeping to engulf him …and there … as he looked away from that tsunami of fire … the impossible whiteness as the engine cases cracked and a cataclysm of strange energies threatened to sweep across the city …

"No!" Billy shot awake, perspiring with fear and then shocked into silence by the pain from the injudicious movement of his leg. The images remained floating over his vision as he stared into space. His breathing calmed and he looked around at the empty room, its sterile atmosphere impinging on his vulnerable state of mind. No one here.

He inhaled sharply and lay back against the pillow, looking towards the door hopefully.

No-one.

The isolation crashed down on him ... so it had all been for Jason then, huh? Well, could he blame them? He had been the one to keep to himself, doubting himself, keeping them at arm's length.

Did they ever TRY to talk to you? Did they ever phone up his dad and say, Hey how is Billy getting on? Speak to ANYONE and try and see what had happened to him ... no, just drifted out of their lives without a final goodbye.

A lump appeared in his throat much to his own disgust, and his eyes burned with unshed tears. He lay back against the headrest and twisted his face away from the door, not wanting to see the lack of people wanting him awake and well. He was hurt. He was alone. So what else was new.?

***

There was a stunned silence at the end of Jason's recitation and more than a few ashamed looks.

"Is it just me…or does anyone else feel really bad about what they were thinking about Billy before?" Aisha asked quietly, wiping away a stray tear. There were murmurs of agreement from around the packed hospital room, punctuated by the odd sniffle.

"I just wish he had come to us," Adam said, still looking upset. "But ..."

"He was protecting us," Kim finished and sighed. "Oh Billy … and these visions he's been living with. I think when he is awake, we should all go and have a long talk with him, but the doctors say that won't be at least until late tonight at the very earliest."

A nurse popped her head around the door. "Visiting hours are over until this evening," she informed the group briskly. "You can come back then."

The group of ex-Rangers got up, grumbling good-naturedly, and began to file out of the room. "Have fun without me," Jason called after them.

"We will … we are visiting where Billy's working. Kathy insisted we see what he has been doing," Tanya replied, smiling again. "Up close and in detail instead of publicity shots on the news." She grinned. "I believe Billy has a definite fanclub at Terra Venture." She chuckled slightly and winked at Jason.

"Visiting hours between 6 and 9 tonight," the nurse said pointedly and ushered the group out of the hospital ward.

Jason lay back with a sigh, actually feeling quite tired for all his banter. Also, he was wondering why he had ever worried about telling any of the others about being 'different'. Maybe that was it ... he didn't want to be 'different' from them. Not on his own as it were. He could understand Billy's reluctance, especially being a lone human amongst aliens. He yawned and then his thoughts started to turn to Billy. Was he all right? Really? The guys weren't hiding anything from him, were they? I mean he had been pretty bad last night...The more he thought about it, the more amazing it was, men in his unit would have been swearing and cursing him, expecting him to save them, and in some ways he would have welcomed that familiarity rather than Billy's amazed gratitude. He fretted a while longer and then decided to just check if he was all right and resting comfortably as the others said.

Jason slipped out of bed and carefully exited the room, slipping on the dressing gown Trini had brought in along with some other vital supplies to cover the highly embarrassing hospital gown that revealed entirely too much. He made his way down the ward and asked an orderly which room Billy was in to have it pointed out.

Jason pushed open the door slowly and silently, not wanting to disturb his friend if he was sleeping. Billy's face was turned slightly away from the door and he paused on the threshold, watching him intently. He was going to step backwards when he noticed an infinitesimal shaking of Billy's shoulder and he stepped forward instinctively, crossing the room and laying a gentle hand on his friend's arm.

Billy jumped a mile at the unexpected contact and tried to hide his face briefly with his arm.

"Hey ... hey, bro …" Jason said gently. "Didn't expect you awake yet … no-one did," he added, wondering what was upsetting Billy so, for he obviously was upset. The hastily removed arm did nothing to disguise the red-rimmed eyes, though they were now dry.

"'m fine," Billy mumbled. "You should be resting." He cleared his throat almost embarrassedly. "You ... you've seen the others."

"Yeah ... yeah, they were in not long ago …" Jason began and realised that had been the wrong thing to say as he saw Billy stiffen. "What's up?"

"Nothing."

"Billy, don't be stupid."

"I said it's NOTHING," Billy replied forcefully and looked away.

"I told them what happened," Jason said suddenly, hoping to clear the air. "Everything."

Billy looked at him, his green eyes stricken. "Well, I guess that explains it, then," he muttered in a strained voice.

"Explains what?" Jason asked, frowning slightly.

"The overwhelming interest in my health," Billy remarked with a biting edge of sarcasm as he looked around the room.

"Oh, you think no-one cared? When did you wake up?" Jason cut in sharply.

"'Bout an hour ago," Billy mumbled quietly.

Jason was appalled. Waking up in hospital alone, not knowing that anyone cared if you were awake or not, then the certain knowledge they cared about another and were with him, not you.

"Oh man … they must have just come over to me then ... They took it in turns in sitting with you last night until you were declared out of danger … after that, the hospital has made them revert to visiting hours. They were told you would not wake until at least tonight, if not tomorrow, because of the severity of your injury."

Billy studied his face as if searching for a lie in Jason's words and then sank back against the pillow. "I'm sorry … I'm an idiot ... I just thought ..."

Jason smiled, ruffling the sandy blond hair "You're right, you are an idiot if you thought that! Billy, they were originally a little put out when they thought you just didn't contact us, but as soon as they knew the truth ..." he paused. "Let's just say we feel guilty for not being there for you, okay?"

Billy groaned. "There's no reason for that! That's not what I wanted."

"And what did you want?" Jason interrupted suddenly.

Billy paused, obviously overcoming an internal struggle. "I wanted my friends back. I didn't want to hurt anyone again, or have them hurt because of me." He looked at Jason with simple painful dignity. "I want my last chance."

"You got it, bro." Jason gently hugged him, feeling the tension begin to unknot beneath his arms. "And the others will come and grill you later … after they've been given the lowdown on what you do by your colleagues at Terra Venture," he laughed.

Terra Venture.

The words dropped like explosions into Billy's mind. The fiercest vision he had ever seen hit him point blank just as he was about to stutter a retort.

He seemed gripped in a seizure and his staring eyes flickered madly across scenes playing out in front of him.

Flash of Images –

Man with briefcase of money ... familiar man, the room was familiar … there ... there on the table, paper with a small familiar logo. The job accepted, the money taken … and the man smiling as he looked at ... a contract?

Jump scenes ... the metal supports again, the girders and the engines.

Terra Venture

The domes that would explode and the engine spike pushed up through it, and the unthinkable annihilation caused by the unforeseen breach in the drive engines. His friends there, being shown round, oh god, his friends there being shown round. That was happening NOW! Had to stop it … had to STOP this as the domes exploded and the fire consumed all of them and he was incinerated before a mushroom cloud rose over the crater that had been Angel Grove …

He snapped into awareness, struggling with mewling gasps to find Jason holding him down, worried by Billy's seeming seizure.

"Let me go … I've got to get there … the domes are going to come down. I've got to GET THERE!" He struggled against Jason's powerful grip.

Jason held him still. "That's all over with, Billy," he soothed gently. "Quitaria is gone ..." Frankly, he was worried – it scared him, seeing Billy zone out like that.

"No! No, Jase! You've got to HELP me … it's Terra VENTURE! " Billy practically yelled. "It's happening NOW!"

He pushed violently against his friend, but was still no match for him.

Jason hesitated.

Put your money where you mouth is, Jason ... do you believe him? Do you believe he can see images of the future?

But he's injured and hurt, possibly delirious and this talk of domes ... couldn't that be a flashback to when he lost Cestria?

And if you make him stay and he's right ...?

More to the point, if you make him stay and it is wrong, what will that do to him? Show him that everything he feared was correct? That all his friends think him mad, just want to humour him?

He needs to know even if it isn't true that you believe in him. Bottom line. You believe implicitly in your team ... can you do less for someone who stuck by you, saved your life and was your team for years? Even if he is wrong, you believe he is right.

"Okay ... okay … Calm down a minute …you can't help anyone if you hurt yourself thrashing around like that, will you?" Jason said practically.

Billy looked stunned. "You ... you'll help me?"

"What do you think? But we are not making a rescue dressed in paper gowns," Jason replied briskly, already planning the practicalities in his head. "Think of the fashion horror. Kim would have my hide."

Billy calmed down. "Or at least be able to see it." He slowed his breathing and became less gripped by helplessness now that Jason was on his side.

"Trini bought me a couple of changes of clothes … hold on … be back in a moment." Jason scooted quickly out of the room, hoping he wasn't doing something he would regret and that would hurt Billy more. The only consolation was that Billy would know he had support, and if he was wrong, then he would find it easier to deal with than otherwise. Emotional wounds were a lot more difficult to heal than physical ones.

His clothes would be baggy enough on Billy not to constrict the dressings, he thought, grabbing the pair of relatively loose trousers and T-shirt for him and slipping on the jeans and another top for himself.

He re-entered the room to find Billy trying to stand and obviously unable to really bear any weight on his injured leg. "Billy, you sure this isn't something I can do for you?" he asked, helping him dress as swiftly as possible. "You should stay safe here."

Billy looked up at him, the pain of knowledge in his eyes. "Jase, if I am right, there is nowhere in Angel Grove that's safe. I would rather be trying to see what I can do. Besides, the dream showed me there."

Jason paused and looked at his friend, a shiver rippling through his body.

And there it was, the awakening of his instinct. Burning louder than he had ever known, roaring in his stomach, his head triggering a rush of belief. "Oh man ... okay, let's move."

He grabbed hold of Billy and the pair of them made a comparatively speedy escape from the hospital, bluffing that they were outpatients who had just been in for a check-up and disappearing quickly as the nurse went to verify their story.

Outside into the sunny normal late afternoon. Jason flagged a taxi down and practically dragged Billy into the back seat. "Terra Venture site, as quickly as possible!" he gasped, catching his breath, and Billy pulled the door closed.

The driver looked a little surprised, but took off at a creditable speed.

"Can't you go faster?" Jason urged impatiently.

"Look … the streets are thick with cops," The taxi driver said. "After those bomb threats they are everywhere ... you wanna get pulled over for speeding?"

Jason forced himself to relax. "Sorry, man ... we're kinda in a hurry ..."

"I'll get you there as quick as I can, okay?" the cabby offered, a little placated. "Terrible thing, that bombing ... Didja hear two people made it out alive? Can you believe it?"

Jason twitched a grin despite their urgent mission. "Really?"

"Well, one of them was a Navy SEAL or something," the taxi driver prattled on as he drove and Billy fought his impatience as the Dome disc of Terra Venture began to loom into sight on the outskirts of Angel Grove.

***

"This place is MASSIVE!" Zack exclaimed as they walked through the domes. "I don't get it ... where did it come from?"

Kathy chuckled. "Officially or unofficially? Officially, we built all of it … unofficially, the major part of the superstructure was, er … a gift from an alien species." She looked at them and was surprised that they didn't seem surprised.

Rocky grinned. "Hey, we grew up here in Angel Grove. Power Rangers and weird aliens knocking the place down every day? Nothing like that would surprise us."

Kathy relaxed a little. "I guess that would make sense at that. It's an old colony biosphere. The Kerovans were not sure how to renovate it themselves as this technology became irrelevant once they had colonised. We are not even sure if they were the original owners and neither are they, but it is essentially designed to reach a habitable world, land and have a ready-established City from which the people can then expand outwards, as well as ecological stores and environments that are self-regulating and stable. The Forest Dome is nearly complete," she gestured as they entered the habitat. "We even have lakes set up in here."

Aisha was keenly interested and looked at the seemingly totally natural environments. "These are works of art!" she marvelled, looking around in wonder. "A self-regulating ecological system! Very impressive."

"Thank you." Kathy nodded, accepting the credit. "The Biosphere integrity is much of what I work on. Will has been working on the infrastructure of the entire place and the engines problem." She shook her head ruefully. "There is unfortunately a gap in the information we were given. We've been struggling to figure it out for a long time now. The propulsion team have been trying to work out why the engines won't fire. They seem complete from the schematics." She shrugged. "They just won't start for some reason. Will got dragged into that problem, otherwise he's just been fixing whatever problems come up on a daily basis."

"So what is it that Billy actually does again?" Tanya asked curiously.

"Basically everything and anything. I've never known a guy that seems to know so much about everything," Kathy said, her eyes aglow with obvious admiration.

That's Billy, alright." Tommy grinned as they travelled through a connecting tube. "What happens if they don't get it going?"

"Then the whole Terra Venture project is a flop," Kathy replied pragmatically. "Biggest bust since the Star Wars initiative. The Stanton Foundation has poured billions into this project. We 'brains' don't come cheap ... and neither do several million tonnes of raw material. Think the investors are getting antsy, though. They expected results before now, even though we performed miracles."

"Youch." Adam sympathised. "We had that with the dojo until I landed the stunt contracts and Rocky and I bought them out with our ... er, silent partner."

Kim grinned at them. "I don't see why you guys still think it is funny that I backed you and Tommy backed Kat and Zack."

Rocky shrugged. "Just bizarre, seeing Tommy backing a dance and choreography centre and YOU the martial arts school."

They all chuckled over that one and all of them looked around as a phone trilled, reaching for their mobiles. It turned out to be Chris's, and he answered it with an apologetic look to the others.

"What's that up there?" Trini pointed upwards to a large edifice that loomed in the distance.

"That's the 'bridge'... we'll go up later," Kathy promised.

"What's up, Chris?" Her manager had just finished the call on his mobile phone. And returned with a slight frown on his face.

"Emergency meeting in the City Dome. Bernard is issuing a royal decree, I think. I'm sorry about this, but if you'll just bear with us for ten minutes, we can finish the tour afterwards," Chris apologised.

The ex-Rangers exchanged glances and shrugs. "Sure. We'll wait," Tommy replied. "We don't want to be too late getting back for Jason and Billy, though."

" It won't take too long, I'm sure. Why don't you take a rest by the lake and we'll pick you up again after the announcement," Kathy suggested, shrewdly realising that the announcement may not be for just anyone to hear.

The group agreed and sat down on the shores of the lake to wait as their escort made their way hurriedly to the city dome.

***

Jason and Billy were dropped at the gate by the slightly speeding taxi. Jason fumbled around for his wallet and threw some money at the man, impatient to get on. He and Billy stood and stared at the mighty mushroom-shaped structure above them.

"Okay, how do we defuse these bombs?" queried Jason, helping Billy over the tarmac to the most obvious building entrance.

"I don't think we can," Billy answered painfully. "Ahh ... ow ... get me to that door!" He tapped in a security code and dragged Jason in, staggering to an elevator. Billy typed in another code and leant against the wall, breathing hard, as they began speeding upwards. "Jase, there's too many of them. I saw at least a dozen. It must have taken all day to put them up there, but.." he frowned as pieces started to fall into place. "The only way that could happen was if there was someone on the inside allowing for this to happen."

"Then how do we STOP this!" Jason demanded fiercely.

"I don't know! Dammit, I just don't KNOW!" Billy snapped back, looking stretched to the limits. "I don't have ALL the answers all the time!"

"But you will," Jason said, his voice ringing with confidence. "You will."

The elevator went up and up, by far the longest ride Jason had ever taken before eventually disgorging its occupants.

"So where are we ... ah." Jason looked at the place that had the unmistakable look of a command chamber or a central area.

Billy limped to a console. "L4 recognise Cranston, William ... password Bluewolf. Full surveillance. Biodome scans. Under structure analysis. Scan for anomalies against original blueprints," he ordered, typing frantically.

Half a dozen different environments flicked into view, scanning through different angles.

"There ... I saw Trini ... there!" Jason pointed out, indicating the screen.

"Forest dome ... lock surveillance reference 7," Billy ordered. "There, what's going on there? Lock the City Dome central plaza."

"Jesus! What are they all doing there? The place is packed!" Jason exclaimed, looking at the crowd in the City Dome with horror.

"The main screen is active. Hold on ..." Billy piped in the feed so they could see that, too, and hear the announcement.

"... unfortunate circumstances that have led to this day. You should know that this is nothing personal and that no reflection on the team, but it is with deep regret that I must announce the termination of the Terra Venture project."

There was a sound of protestation from the assembled group. The man on the screen paused before adding "... and the termination of its staff."

"What?" Kathy didn't like the sound of that.

"Goodbye. I would sign you all off, but I have taken a more literal approach to the saying. 'you're fired'. Besides, I will profit even more from your tragic deaths from terrorist activity." The man gave a truly unpleasant smile and alarms went off everywhere.

"Warning, warning, biosphere integrity compromised ... level one containment measures in progress ... warning ... warning ... "

Billy fought desperately against the lockdown, cursing as his friends were sealed inside the dome.

He hit the console. "I can't shut down the containment in time. There's an encrypted top level firewall against it. There's only three people with that access ... and one hacker, which is me". He grimaced. "Only, it takes me at least 30 minutes to break their security if I ever need to do it. We don't have that amount of time. We need a different solution."

There was a beep from the computer and data flooded the screens.

"Scan complete. 13 anomalies found," the computer suddenly announced. A schematic showed their position and even Jason could tell there was no way they could defuse them all. If they had a day maybe ... but they had minutes at most.

"Billy?" Jason looked at him hopefully. Billy shook his head, still working frantically.

Jason glanced around and saw a PA system and clicked it on. "Guys ... guys, this is Jason. Billy and I are trying to stop this, but there appear to be bombs on the supports. Primed to blow."

The scientists listening in the city dome went very pale, realising more what this would mean than the ex-Rangers, but realistically it didn't need much more than the word "bomb" to get them into action.

"See if you can get out of the dome!" Jason said before turning to help his friend.

"Could this really destroy Angel Grove?" Jason asked worriedly as his instinct flared again, clamouring for him to run, leave, get far, far away.

"If the engines crack as I saw ... then ... that's a conservative estimate," Billy said calmly as his mind moved at a speed that was beyond the imagining of most people.

How to stop this? They could not remove the bombs from the supports and the dome.

So they needed to remove the dome from the bombs ... and that meant solving the problem that had plagued them for months in a few minutes. Getting the engines to fire ...

A familiar feeling crept over him as he leant over the console, his tiredness and pain starting to fade in the rush of frantic mental calculation.

Jason recognised that look. It was as if he had slipped backwards in time a good few years to the middle of a battle against Rita, Zedd or Mondo. It also meant that Billy had an idea.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked hopefully, hating the thought of being stuck here and the others, trapped, helpless to do anything.

"I'm going to need to get to the engine core through that door … but I think it's locked down ... can you get it open?" Billy responded absently.

"Sure ..." and Jason went to wrestle with the door as Billy wrestled against time and the difficult problem.

***

"There, if we get out here." Trini pointed to a barely noticeable gap in the infrastructure. "Hope you guys have been slimming," she added lightly, desperate to find Jason. What was he doing here? AND Billy? He wasn't even meant to be awake! They started wriggling through the gap and with a little heaving and pulling and a good covering of thick grease they emerged in the walkway area.

There was a loud roar and the ground shook, sending them stumbling.

"Move!" Tommy yelled and they ran towards the City Dome in a close group. They managed to unlock the hatch from the outside of the City Dome and crowded in to find the entire Terra Venture team trapped, having tried the exits already.

"What the hell is going on?" Aisha yelled as they sprinted up.

" Looks like the Powers that Be decided we were a lost cause, fabricated this whole terrorist scam to collect on some non-completion clause," Kathy said bitterly. "They have no idea what this place could do if it is destroyed!"

"Where are Billy and Jason?" Trini asked rapidly.

"Probably up on the bridge," Chris replied before turning to face in that direction. "Where we should be. Come on!"

***

"What was that?" Jason said, alarmed, as the place shook dramatically. He carried on hauling against the door, straining his muscles.

"A premature explosion," Billy replied, concentrating.

Jason snorted. "Man, I'm sorry."

"Jase, if we get out of this … I'll get you for that!" Billy replied, smiling slightly as he worked frantically. The lights flickered and Jason was able to yank the doors to the engine core open in the brief power outage, but the consoles started shorting out under Billys hands.

"Shit … ow!" Billy flinched away from the sparks, nearly toppling as he injudiciously stepped back on his injured leg.

"Billy … get away from the console! It could blow!" Jason warned, concerned.

Billy gave a short painful laugh. "You forget I have experience with console explosions."

As the words left his mouth, he froze.

"Billy?" Jason halted, wondering if he was having another seizure or something.

Console explosions, and antiprotons ... He was saturated in antimatter contained in magnetised pockets of the Power in his body ... antimatter meeting ordinary matter produced a high energy reaction, annihilating the matter, creating a high energy false vacuum ... Space abhorred that and would stretch and warp ... forming an antigravity field that could be maintained, it was just the antiprotons that were needed to catalyse the formation of the bubble … the tubes under Terra Venture were for an anti-gravity warp!

"So damn simple I missed it! Bloody negative bloody protons!!" Billy cursed violently.

"Missed what, Billy?" Jason asked as the former Ranger wheeled unsteadily towards him.

"Jase, get me to the engine core ... hurry!" Billy demanded, oblivious to the fact that the other ex-Rangers had nearly reached the bridge in their quest to find them.

Jason obliged, by neatly grabbing him in a fireman's lift and moving swiftly to the non-functioning engine core. The Core chamber was filled with rainbow magnetic fields shimmering uselessly.

Billy hit the Core entrance control button, programming a rapid sequence of commands into the control panel as the group of Terra Venture scientists pursued them. He had just completed the instructions when there was a massive explosion that threw him and Jason to the floor, and they both instinctively knew without the benefit of visions or mysterious senses what had occurred.

The supports had blown, the dome disc was beginning to impale on the engine strut.

Billy looked panicked and glanced at Jason, thought of the others and then his expression became calm.

"Jase, throw me in there … NOW!" Billy demanded forcefully.

Jason nearly hesitated and then trusted his instinct that showed this to be the lesser danger. He was also trusting Billy knew what he was doing; he lifted him and hurled him into the web of magnetic force.

Billy hung there, suspended as the fields moulded around him, and he began to twist and writhe as the negative protons, antiprotons were stripped from his body forcibly, surrounding him in an aura of electric blue fire as he twisted and groaned.

The metal structure tilted and Jason slid as the others clambered in.

"What the hell?" Tommy gasped, taking in the sight of Billy. The former Blue Ranger was floating in the heart of the Engine core, seemingly chained by rainbows, suspended in front of them and bleeding blue fire through his skin.

"Will? What are you doing?" Kathy yelled. "It's too late!"

"Fire … fire the engines … now …" Billy moaned. The blue particles were streaming from his leg as he floated in magnetic fields tuned to specific frequencies. Jason's expression looked stricken. What had he done? God, what had he done?

"No!" Kathy protested. "What good will that do?"

"Antiprotons ... Now!" Billy pleaded, struggling to speak.

It was Tommy who looked at the others solemnly, took a deep breath and thumped the large green start button to activate the ignition process.

An influx of accelerated protons streamed into the core, hitting the buffer of newly emerged antiprotons and producing a high energy reaction which ballooned space behind the core in a massive loop. This antigravity force was channelled under Terra Venture and at the same time a spike of energy flared forth to ignite the space engines. The Core chamber disappeared in a blaze of white-beyond-white light, consuming everything, including the suspended figure as the protective shield came up automatically, blocking their view.

"Oh Billy ..." Jason groaned, his heart aching as the core vanished from sight. "It's not fair... this wasn't meant to be the last chance … no …"

Kathy had tears in her eyes but turned again, still appreciating one fundemental problem that Billy had not solved in his drastic action. "Anyone know how to fly a city?" she asked in a level voice. "Otherwise all this will be for nothing." She wiped her eyes swiftly as they all stood there, shocked.

"Damn ... come on, guys!" Jason yelled. And they ran swiftly back to the bridge, looking for controls as Terra Venture rose majestically, slowly but erratically, above the rapidly diminishing Angel Grove and the burning wrecks of the massive metal supports.

"These controls seem familiar ..." Kat murmured, sitting down at a console. The others took up positions, and it clicked. It was like controlling one of the Megazords.

"We can do this!" Trini said, determined they would make this work. "We remember how … come on!"

The group slipped back into old habits, old memories flooding back whilst the Terra Venture team looked on, frankly amazed.

"How can they do that ...?" Neil whispered. "They shouldn't be able to do that!" He looked at a fellow consultant for verification.

"Hell, Neil, I'm not going to argue if they can bring this down in one piece." Mary said, shaking her head, noticing how they all moved together in almost perfect co-ordination.

"Mega …Terra Venture stabilised," Adam announced, barely catching himself. "We are high in the atmosphere. Jase, Tommy, steering is over to you."

The pair of them stood side by side at the main controls and could have been the same person, the way their hands flickered over the controls in perfect harmony. "Taking her back down." Tommy said aloud.

The leviathan of a spacefaring world banked slowly and began a carefully regulated descent back towards Angel Grove. Their expressions were grave, however, as they attended to their task. They could not forget what had just happened and already, now that the crisis was passing, the emotional shock was starting to seep in.

A minor alert tripped up and went unnoticed for a little while. Rocky frowned. "Guys … this is a new one for me?" he said anxiously, looking around for backup.

"Put it on the main display ..." Jason said in unison with Tommy.

A glowing message appeared in front of them .

Catalyst function obsolete Remove\Purge\Replace?

"Catalyst?" Tommy frowned "What catalyst?"

"Billy," Jason said shortly.

"Oh my god ..." Kathy reacted suddenly as if realising something. "Remove! Remove!" she said and took off to the engine room as the computer obeyed.

"What? What's she so excited about …?" Tanya asked. She had no desire to see the cremated remnants of her friend. She was trying hard not to think about it.

Trini looked around, her mind suddenly providing her with information. "Oh … maybe …catalysts are meant to not be affected by the reaction they trigger." She looked up at Jason, seeing a shift towards hope in his expression.

"Hold her in place ..." Jason took off to the engine room as well.

Kathy was at the console, frowning and working swiftly as she did so. A complex sequence was taking place, a magnetic bottle of force was being extruded from the Core chamber.

Kathy manipulated the controls and the shimmering rainbow egg of force popped, revealing its precious contents; the tightly curled form of Billy … seemingly intact.

"Billy?" Jason was perplexed. Surely he couldn't be alive?.Really? There had been the light and the reaction and the way the fields were twisting him …

Kathy was on her knees, checking for a pulse and signs of breathing. The ex-Ranger joined her as together they uncoiled Billy from his foetal position, pulling the injured leg out gently. However, that was what elicited a groan and a resurgence to consciousness and Jason's entire body seemed to relax. He hadn't killed him, he hadn't after all that.

Billy's eyes opened, looking a little glazed and moved his lips a couple of times before eventually saying aloud, "Did ... we make it?"

"Billy ... are you alright?" Jason asked immediately.

"Jase? I feel ... f …pretty damn terrible, actually," Billy admitted weakly. " My ... sight is blurry … the light ... I can't see very well. Everything feels twisted. It hurts ... a bit."

"That should pass," Kathy said soothingly. "Weren't quick enough shutting your eyes, were you?"

Billy shook his head slightly. He reached out with a hand, feeling for contact and Jason grabbed hold of him and pulled him into a hug.

"Don't you EVER ask me to do something like that again to you!" Jason demanded, holding him tight. "That was …" he ran out of words to describe what he felt and settled instead for continuing the bone-crushing hug.

"Easy … easy … I'm not going anywhere," Billy choked out.

"Damn right you're not. We only just got you back, and you seem to be doing your level best to get yourself killed," Jason reprimanded in a curiously warm tone. "Could there be a connection?"

"Pure coincidence." Billy was shaking a bit now, whether from shock, reaction or a side effect, Jason didn't know.

He looked at Kathy a little concernedly, and she smiled. "Bit of scrambling of nerve signals from the magnetic field," she whispered to reassure Jason.

"To go with the scrambled brain," Billy mumbled, closing his eyes, having heard the exchange. "I can't move yet …are we still airborne?"

"Well, we haven't hit the ground yet," Jason answered, relief still in his voice. "Mind you, Tommy is steering."

"This does not fill me with confidence," Billy replied, still shaking uncontrollably. "He ... he came off the track 5 times last season!"

Jason suddenly realised something. "They all think you are dead. They'll kill me! Can I move him?" he asked Kathy anxiously.

"Yes … be careful, though." She was looking thoughtful, as if thinking over a few things.

"Hup we go, Billy ..." Jason lifted his friend, who lacked the muscle responses to do little else than flop bonelessly in his arms.

"This is so undignified," Billy commented as Jason walked to the lift. "I feel like something out of a cheesy soap opera."

Kathy sniggered. "Can I yell "Oh god, he was too young to die?" she asked lightly.

"He is too young to die," Jason said fiercely, unconsciously tightening his grip.

They walked onto the Bridge and the others stopped and stared in horror at the tableau before them. Jason found himself inexplicably lost for words as he faced all of Billy's friends, past and present.

"Oh Billy …" Kim's voice sounded choked up.

"Kim?" Billy queried weakly, seeking her voice, still unable to see.

There was a momentary pause as the realisation sank in and then a veritable stampede launched, before all of them converged on their friend, wanting to touch him, to hug him, just to prove he was alive.

Billy smiled, still unable to see them properly, and eventually said, "Um ... if you are all saying 'you're alive' to me … who's flying Terra Venture?"

"Oops!" Rocky exclaimed and they hurried back to their posts, this time smiling.

Jason sat, refusing to relinquish Billy quite yet. "You sure you're all right, bro?" he asked quietly, still feeling the shakes under his arms.

"Ye ... yes" Billy said. "No-one was hurt, were they? I still can't see more than interesting blobs of light. I didn't w- want anyone hurt."

"They are all fine, and all your work colleagues, too," Jason reassured him.

"Then what about Bernard Howard?" Billy asked, shivering. "He'll know by know that his plan didn't work."

"Geez ... of course ... I'm just going to put you down and talk with the others," Jason replied, laying him out on the floor and providing him with his top as a pillow. After getting him comfortable, Jason got up and addressed the others.

"Guys, Billy just pointed out that the evil villain of this industrial sabotage has likely discovered that Terra Venture has made a miraculous escape. We need to stop him before he tries anything else … and get Billy back in hospital."

"I heard that!" Billy said from across the room.

"Stop eavesdropping," Jason chastised him. "Bad habit …so ... where would this guy go?"

"What would he do, more to the point? He didn't seem overly concerned about lives," Adam asked worriedly. "Is there any way he might still finish off Terra Venture?"

Chris was thinking rapidly. "The database at the research offices. We lose that, we are working in the dark ... that could take the project out of business."

"That's right!" Kathy exclaimed. "We lose the data, we might just have to shut down ... though now we have a working energy system and antigravity ..." she still seemed amazed by that. She turned sharply. "How did that happen, anyway? There is no way that Will could have had antiprotons inside of him ... matter cannot exist in the same area as antimatter! It just doesn't! It's against the laws of physics!"

Billy suppressed a snort, hearing that last phrase repeated in his head in a Scottish accent. Then he grimaced where he was lying on the floor. Kathy and the others were way too intelligent to accept a half-hearted explanation. She wouldn't leave it alone, he was sure.

"And..." Kathy continued, looking around piercingly. "How do all of you ... martial artists ... dancers, diplomatic liaison, world class gymnast to name but a few, know how to fly a city ship as if you've been practising for years? Hmm?"

There were some worried glances between the ex-Rangers. Tommy prepared to lie on their behalf, stammering out a feeble excuse that frankly cut no ice with the Terra Venture team.

"We are not stupid, you know," Neil pointed out as Tommy blundered through an explanation.

"Tell them," Billy said from his vantage point on the floor. "Not like there isn't a precedent, is there? Not after Carlos and the others."

"You sure?" Tommy asked worriedly, fighting against that fundamental precept that Zordon had tasked them with.

"Yes." Billy still stared upwards blindly. "They are smart enough to put most of it together, anyway. Trust me."

Tommy sighed. "Okay ... truth time. We were ... the Power Rangers," he confessed as everyone coughed, looked away and busily flew the city towards the offices of Terra Venture, leaving him essentially to it.

"But you were not the ones revealed?" Kathy said, perplexed. "We saw who they were."

"We ... Zack, Billy, Trini, Kim and I were the original team " Jason supplied. Kathy looked across at Billy sharply. "Then Tommy ... then Aisha, Adam and Rocky ... then Kat and Tanya, swapping in ..."

"The antiprotons?" Kathy queried in a still disbelieving tone

Tommy spoke up once again. "There was a crisis. The Command Centre exploded ... and Billy threw himself in front of a morphin' console to protect us. Apparently it bombarded him with negative protons." Tommy still looked troubled at the memory, seeing Billy's unmoving form lying on the ground in his memories

"They were encapsulated by residuals of the Blue Power in my system, like tiny sealed magnetic bubbles in my body. It was ... uncomfortable." Billy supplied the additional information, aware he hadn't shared all this information with the others.

"I bet ... all it needed was one vesicle to break down and … walking timebomb," Kathy scoffed bluntly.

"I know," Billy said flatly, unable to see the looks of horror on the faces of his friends, but imagining their expression. "One reason I didn't stay. Especially when I started degenerating so rapidly."

"You and I," Kim said aghast to Billy, "are going to have a SERIOUS talk when this is over."

"Speaking of which ..." Kat replied, cutting in. "We're here."

Tommy and Jason snapped into action. "This guy is likely to be dangerous. We will need a guide in there."

"I'll do it." Kathy said immediately before the others could say a word.

"I've 'parked' it so the rim is butted up against the roof... it's still a fair drop, though," Kat informed them from across the room.

"Who has abseiling experience? Tommy and Adam, I know you have ... and Kim." Jason grinned at that, remembering a particularly disastrous but amusing weekend when he had tried to teach them.

Aisha put up a hand. "I have, too. Ninja, remember?" she smiled.

"Right ... we'll go after this guy with Kathy, you look after Billy and this place, huh?" Tommy said, he and Jason swapping in and out of the leadership role fluidly

"Just be careful, or I may have to kill you myself," Trini warned, going over to sit with Billy as Jason and the others left.

They rappelled off the edge of the Dome platter onto the rooftop, Jason making it look like second nature even with his passenger of Kathy clinging to his back.

"Where would he be?" Tommy asked urgently as they unclipped.

"The main databanks ... he would have to destroy them physically to be sure there was no chance of data recovery," Kathy said thoughtfully. "They are on the eleventh floor."

The group moved out silently and scurried down the building carefully, adrenalin pumping. They didn't have the Power to shield them any longer, so they were more wary of the danger to them. Jason took point, using his sense with more confidence than ever before and signalled them into frozen statues as they found the room and registered danger inside. There was the sound of sloshing and a smell of petrol or lighter fluid …some volatile liquid seeping out through the door.

The group crept in the entrance, seeing a man in a business suit placing full canisters of fuel next to computers, servers and data storage towers. He had unscrewed a canister and was preparing to slosh it around haphazardly over the carpet and a data bank he had obviously tried attacking with a baseball bat. Jason prepared to sneak up on the guy … should be easy enough … and … instinct spike.

"Stop right there!" a strident voice called out behind him.

Jason hissed. "Kathy ...!"

The man turned. "What the hell are you doing here?" he spat at them venomously. "Couldn't just die, could you? Do you know how much I stood to gain? And still will get if you just get the hell out of here? Fifty million just for me ... if they think it is goddamn terrorists. Couldn't you all just DIE? Goddam brainiacs."

"You destroyed an entire building for that? You kill people for money? You intended to kill our entire group for that?!" Kathy yelled vehemently.

"Oh, keep your precious 'for the good of all mankind' morality," Bernard sneered at them. "That line might be the Stanton Foundations propaganda, but they are in it for the money as much as anyone. They will have more profit from adapted tech than Microsoft! Especially now you seem to have suddenly got the thing working. I knew you were holding out on us ... If you had just delivered a month ago, then no one need have died!" He sighed and turned. "Well, I guess that you will just all have to be some hapless terrorists that got caught in the explosion …of their own fire. "

A gun appeared almost magically in his hand and Jason groaned as the barrel tracked across them. Abruptly he noticed Aisha had slipped like a shadow around to the side of the man.

Ninja move, damn handy sometimes, must get her to teach me that ... he smiled to himself when Aisha swept out at the man's feet and he staggered backwards as Jason leapt for him, forcing the gun upwards and away from the others.

The open canister sloshed flammable liquid all over them both, Tommy swore and leapt, knocking Jason out of the way as the man fired. The spark from the muzzleblast ignited the fuel all over the gun and livid flames flared on the gun and then pounced onto the man hungrily.

He screamed, dropping the flaming gun near one of the other fuel containers, beating at the fire, setting his own hands alight, blistering and burning as he careened aimlessly around the room.

Jason's instinct spiked. "Kim, Kathy … move the fuel away!! Now!"

The ex-Rangers jumped to it as Tommy pulled Jason away when he tried to run unthinkingly towards the flames to help.

"Stay clear, you're covered in fuel ... uggh ..." The former Ranger wrinkled his nose in disgust.

The man still screamed, the nauseating smell of burning flesh filling the air as he writhed, screaming in pain. Aisha desperately tried to beat out the flames but amazingly the man managed to run from his additional 'tormentor' and straight into the damaged data bank.. The bank shorted out, electrocuting the man in a flurry of sparks and he collapsed just as the fire alarms triggered and dry powder extinguisher automatically flooded the place.

Adam turned the body over, nearly gagging as he saw the face, blistered beyond recognition. "He's dead," he announced sadly, having still optimistically searched for a pulse. Kim and Kathy returned, looking sick as Aisha smothered all remaining signs of fire with a hand-held powder extinguisher.

"All those deaths ... just for money," Jason said, disgusted "Billy hurt for one man's greed …" He sighed, shaking his head, unable to believe that the man had not been able to see the true worth of the project.

There was a wail of sirens from outside as the police and fire engines appeared, summoned by the automatic alarms. "Let's tell the others we're okay," Jason suggested and Kim obligingly pulled out a miniature mobile phone. She shrugged as she saw the few looks she was given around the room.

"Hey …I helped advertise it …got to support my own product, and if you had carried the one I gave you, you would not have had any trouble yesterday," she scolded, trying to lift the atmosphere of death that hung thick in the room.

Jason groaned. "But Kim, it's pink! A Navy SEAL with a pink mobile?"

The others smiled a little despite themselves.

"Hey, only guy tough enough to stop 'em laughing," Kim shrugged. "Hi Kat ..." she spoke into the phone and arched an eyebrow at Jason questioningly.

"Just tell them it's all over and to get Billy to a hospital as soon as possible." There was the sound of approaching sirens and the clatter of people approaching up the stairs. The ex-Ranger sighed again. "We are going to be a while, I think," Jason added wearily as the authorities finally arrived.

***

Billy woke again in hospital, this time to a very crowded room. All his friends had attempted to cram in there, and it had reached the stage of people sitting on each other's laps just to fit in. At least that was what they maintained when he challenged them on it shortly after waking. Billy lay, still a little shaky, but a lot of his muscle control coming back and his vision returned except for the odd lingering rainbow shimmer. His leg was immobilised in dressings and painful, but not unbearably so, and all in all he felt, despite all this, better than he had since Cestria had been killed.

The others filled him in on what had happened and he took most of it in, but was still a little dazed at suddenly finding that acceptance he had longed for ... even before he had found Cestria and then lost her. He listened and nodded and laughed with them all, treasuring each moment, realising there was nothing that he needed more than this right now. From this closeness, he might once again learn to trust himself – and in trusting himself open up his heart to another. Someday.

Eventually most of them left, their departure obviously occasioned by some prearranged signal that Billy thought he must have missed, leaving him alone with Trini.

"Well, that was subtle," Billy commented, looking around at the suddenly deserted room.

Trini laughed and patted his arm gently. "There was a time, Billy, when you wouldn't have noticed."

"I've changed," Billy said wryly.

"Yes. Yes, you have," Trini answered him seriously. She pushed back a stray lock of hair from his forehead absently. "We all wanted to get a few things clear, and I got elected to say them." She regarded him with serious dark eyes. Billy returned the look evenly and nodded his assent for her to continue.

"Never ever push us away again. Let us make the decision that you are dangerous, or whatever," she said firmly. "We are adults, too."

"Even Rocky?" Billy asked, to cover his swelling emotion.

Trini smiled. "Even Rocky. Billy, we care about you …and if you need help, we want first call on giving it, alright?"

Billy nodded obediently, smiling a familiar half smile.

Trini took a deep breath. "Try not to ask Jason to do something that would hurt you again or kill you? Or any of us, for that matter. We're not ready to lose you, Billy. We never will be. When you lose someone it hurts, as you well know, and frankly the more of that we can avoid, the better. We want you safe and with us. Okay?"

"Okay," Billy responded with a tremor in his voice and Trini squeezed his hand gently in reassurance.

"And I wanted to know …" Trini paused, choosing her words carefully. "How you felt about Jason and I ... It's funny, but I really need to know you are all right with this, because there was a time when I know that you … cared about me ... but ..."

"Trini, you don't have to explain it to me," Billy said softly. "You love him, don't you?"

She nodded slowly, watching his face carefully.

"And he loves you." Billy shrugged as if saying that was an end to the matter. "I used to know what that felt like ... and maybe now, if I can let go of the guilt, I can remember the good memories of Cestria and I." His expression bordered on barely concealed sorrow as he said this.

"She wouldn't have wanted you to be alone," Trini whispered gently, watching her old friend with great compassion.

"But I'm not any more, am I?" Billy replied into the silence that followed. He smiled. "Or at least I'm only as alone as I want to be."

"Hopefully you don't want too much of that now ... now you know we trust you," Trini said. "And I have much to thank you for. Because of you I have realised that what Jason does is part of the reason I love him, not an obstacle to loving him. I still worry, but now I know that he has a degree of protection in this ability, I feel safe enough to agree to what he wants."

Billy nodded. "I'm glad for you both," he commented with genuine affection for her and Jason. "So – when's the wedding?" he asked with a sense of contentment creeping into the empty places in his heart left by Cestria and their lost future.

"We were thinking June next year ..." Trini's face lit up with uncharacteristic excitement.

Billy chuckled knowingly. "Do I get to give the bride one kiss before the groom returns?"

Trini nodded, knowing this was Billy's farewell to a teenage crush. She lowered her head towards him, smiling at her found again friend as he lifted himself to kiss her.

Billy very gently touched his lips to Trini's soft cheek and …

Flash of images –

He was standing in a hospital with Trini, who was wearing a radiant smile, holding a newborn in her arms, kissing Jason …who was wearing dress uniform. There was someone at his side, but he was watching Kim and Trini in bridesmaids' attire holding a bridal veil … and all of the others milling around, dressed in tuxedos and suits … and the name on the new-born's arm band. William Thomas Scott.

Billy opened his eyes and chuckled to himself, unable to stop, finally accepting the gift from the catalyst of the Gold Powers as something good.

"What?" Trini asked, concerned. "Did you see something? What?"

"It's going to be a very eventful wedding day …" Billy replied, laughing to himself. "Very eventful indeed!"

The End.

Authors Note:- Hope you liked it. Should it interest anyone the antigravity explanation is based on fact. There are such things as anti-protons – however the moment they come into contact with ordinary matter they annihilate each other. I took liberties with the Power to explain why Billy was still around. But a high energy false vacuum of space does cause an apparent ballooning of space and a local alteration of the gravitational constant. (in theory). Anyway if you want to know more, I read that in various physics texts, including "The Whole She-bang". Read it if you doubt this! Otherwise I just hope you enjoyed this!