#The constant stream of attacks and injuries makes each individual one seem less serious

[the-magpie-archives]

Can you imagine how weird it'd feel to have a bone taken by Jared Hopworth? Jon says to remove "something I wont miss", but truth be told we're all a bit more aware of our skeletons than we'd like to think.

Putting your hands on your hips, smoothing out your shirt, laying down, bending over- all of these things change at the loss of two ribs.

Can you imagine the feeling of tight, suspended flesh where bone used to be? Running your fingers over the gap like you might poke at where a missing tooth used to be.

That's the thing; Jon didn't just go through pain to save Daisy, he sacrificed a part of who he was, tore up his form, dragging himself ever further away from what he was when he was human.

Every action Jon took to save somebody took a piece of him, and every person he saved reprimanded him for sacrificing his humanity. Little do they know he tore it apart to protect theirs. Becoming less than human isn't something you can really do without help.

It's often seen with dementia patients that when they're taken from a place where they have memory hooks their condition deteriorates faster; similarly, when the body that housed your soul becomes unrecognisable, it makes sense that your humanity would deteriorate along with it.

Jon suffered greatly in falling away from his humanity, and the punishment he received for it pushed him down further.

[taikoturtle]

Ch. 3 - Trimberly fic, “Been There, Done that”

Read it on Ao3

Read Ch. 1

Read Ch. 2

Springing up out of her covers, Kimberly rolls over to Trini and starts gently shaking her shoulders.

“Trini, Trini wake up!”

“Mmnnggnhnng.”

“Trini, I swear if you don’t wake up this instant I’m going to slap you.”

Trini grumbles and pokes her head out sluggishly. “Kim, I love you and everything, but please leave me alone.”

“No, Trini get up. This is important.”

“So is sleep.”

“Trini, if you don’t wake up, someone’s going to die.”

Now that catches her attention.

“What’s wrong? Are we under attack?” Trini leans up from her sleeping bag with added urgency, halfway prepared to leap into a battle ready stance.

“No, nothing like that.” Kimberly shakes her head before scooting closer, dropping her voice into a low, serious tone. “I know this sounds crazy, but I’ve gone through this day twice before and I can prove it to you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Look,” Kimberly points at the entrance to their tent. “Any second now, Zack is going to come wake us up and shortly after that, Jason burns the potatoes he’s trying to cook.”

Trini snorts with disbelief. “How do you burn potatoes?”

Her question goes unanswered as the distinct sound of crunching leaves and twigs snapping underfoot gets louder and louder until Zack’s head pokes through the tent’s flap.

“Rise and shine everyone; rise and shine!”

They stare at him blankly before he realizes that they’re not actually asleep.

“Oh, you’re already up.” He smiles broadly. “Makes my job easier. C’mon, breakfast is almost ready.”

“Wait, Zack!” Kimberly calls out. “Don’t you uh, want to know what we did last night?”

She has to stall long enough for Jason to burn the potatoes to prove her point to Trini. If they go outside too early, they may interrupt him and she’ll never believe her.

Zack claps his hands excitedly and eyes them both. “Oh ho, what’s this? You girls did stuff last night? Did you do stuff… together? Because then Jason owes me-”

“No, Zack,” Trini growls dangerously, “We did not do anything like that. We just went stargazing and saw a shooting star, nothing more.”

“Oh. My bad.”

His reply is oddly muted and Kimberly doesn’t know why Trini seemed slightly offended by the implication that they did stuff last night, nor does she know why the sharp pang in her heart stings as much as it does.

“Jason, I think the potatoes are burning.”

Right on time.

Zack motions to the campfire and grins. “Looks like that’s my cue. Captain Hopeless needs me.”

He disappears back to join the boys and Trini gawks at Kimberly. “You were right. He burned the potatoes.”

“What’d I tell ya?”

They get dressed in a hurry as Kimberly explains the situation to Trini. She recounts the first day and how everything went wrong, starting with Zack slashing his leg from falling off that tree to the attack and to his… death. Then on to the next day where she saves Zack but at the cost of Billy’s life.

“No matter what I did, someone still died at the lake,” Kimberly groans in frustration.

“So you think the day is repeating itself until you get it right and nobody dies?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, what other reason could it be?”

“Okay, fair enough. Why are you telling me this now?” Trini asks as they exit the tent.

“I need your help keeping everyone safe,” Kimberly admits with anguish underlying her words like a tethered ghost. “…I can’t do it alone.”

The pair walk in silence up to the campfire and watch as Zack and Jason squabble over the potatoes while Billy carefully scrapes off the extra burnt parts, blissfully unaware of the fates that befell them in another time.

“I’m sorry,” Trini whispers quietly while observing the boys, “that you had to go through that.”

Shaking her head, Kimberly shrugs it off. “It’s fine.”

“Is it really?”

Zack’s body flashes in her mind.

Billy’s body flashes in her mind.

Blood running everywhere like a free flowing stream, how unnaturally pale they looked and how eerily still death really is. Each experience like a vivid nightmare and likely something Kimberly will never forget.

Trini’s always more attentive than she lets on though. Some find her enigmatic disposition intimidating, but Kimberly knows it’s her way of slipping into the background to silently observe. Despite only having been clued in on the past events just now, she notices the cumulative toll it’s taken on Kimberly and she sees the lasting emotional scars that the pain leaves behind.

She recognizes it’s a pain that none of them will truly understand.

“…One day it will be,” Kimberly responds shakily after nearly being consumed by her own treacherous thoughts. “As long as we get it right this time.”

Trini gazes up at her, unwavering. “I’m with you.”

The sincerity of her words hits Kimberly like a tidal wave, washing over every fibre of her being and filling her with a comforting, uplifting warmth. Her support has been what’s missing in all the past repeats, and it’s exactly what she needs because as much as she prides herself on being a strong individual, carrying such an arduous burden is no easy task. With Trini at her side, the day seems far less daunting and maybe - just maybe - this time, Kimberly can get it right.

Zack hands out the tin trays with the cooked sausages and charred potatoes to each of the squad members and they proceed to chow down hungrily. Kimberly pushes the uneaten food around on her plate absentmindedly, her eyes instead flickering from one person to the next. She wonders what’s going on in their mind and whether those thoughts change with each repeat. Probably not, judging by how Jason always burns the potatoes and Billy’s dialogue remains the same, but those small trivial musings help deflect against the relentless visions of their gruesome deaths.

After they finish up their meal and tidy up the campsite, they load up their bags in preparation for the nature walk and Kimberly can’t help but groan loudly because god, how many more times is she going to have to walk this beaten path? Kimberly isn’t exactly keen on exercise, and while a mile is no big deal, several miles repeated back to back to back is enough to drive her a little insane.

The boys are a little farther up ahead, chatting indistinctly about the latest videogames and strategies leaving Kimberly to safely discuss her plan of attack with Trini.

“They have razor sharp talons and are larger than Zack, but are pretty quick despite their size. There’s feathers all over their body and I’m pretty sure they had some kind of hardened chest plate, like armor or something.” Kimberly describes them as best she can from memory, but judging by the incredulous look Trini’s throwing her way, her efforts are weak at best.

“So these massive, super fast, Bird baddies came–”

“Can you not call them ‘bird baddies’?” Kimberly protests lightheartedly. “That sounds so lame.”

“Well we’ve got to call them something, and I like the alliteration of bird baddies over bird enemies, which, by the way, sounds ten times lamer.”

Kimberly takes a sip of her water and shrugs. “I didn’t exactly have time to come up with a cool name for them, okay? I was kind of preoccupied fighting for my life.”

“Fine, I guess you’re off the hook,” Trini jokes as she hops over a mossy tree trunk. “Anyways, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by a certain someone, the bird baddies just came out of nowhere?”

Kimberly stows her water bottle away and nods affirmatively. “Each time I was attacked on land first, so I’m guessing they must have circled from the surrounding forest. This time though, I was thinking I should search the perimeter first and have you keep an eye on Billy, that way the bird baddies won’t get the drop on us.”

Trini’s mouth tugs up into a smirk.

Kimberly purses her lips. “What’s so funny?”

“You called them bird baddies.”

Rolling her eyes, Kimberly stifles a grin of her own and gently shoves Trini’s shoulder. “Whatever. Just follow my plan and we’ll be golden.”

Trini salutes dramatically with a sparkle in her eyes. “Aye aye, captain.”

No matter what timeline Kimberly’s in or how many days she’s repeated, or who knows what’s up or down at this point, it’s an indisputable fact that Trini will always be charming and infinitely endearing. It’s like a constant law of the universe, with every successive scenario merely serving to reinforce said law, and without fail, Kimberly’s heart melts just a little bit more.

“Hey Jason, how far away is it?”

Billy’s question triggers Kimberly into action and she’s forced to shove her feelings to the wayside once more to address the situation at hand.

Between the combined efforts of her and Trini, they’re able to successfully talk Zack down from leaping up onto the precarious tree branch by instead daring him to give Trini a piggyback ride, effectively challenging his strength and endurance. It’s a deceptively simple tactic that works perfectly because Zack never turns down a challenge.

Kimberly watches fondly as he weaves and zig zags around the forest with Trini on his back and for a brief moment, she worries that maybe this could result in another moment of injury for either one of them, but as the forest thins out and the lake comes into view, those silly fears dissipate.

“Wow,” Billy exhales as he shields his eyes against the bright reflections to take in the entire scene.

“Wow is right.” Trini echoes his sentiments as she hops off of Zack’s back to drop her bag onto the ground.

“Last one there is a rotten egg!” Zack wastes no time in swiftly stripping his shirt off before chucking it to their pile of belongings and dashes towards the water at full speed with Jason trailing shortly behind him. Billy carefully unties his shoes and folds his clothes up into a tidy pile before venturing out towards the shallows.

Kimberly pulls her top up to reveal her own fuschia bikini top and for a second it gets caught on her hair; of course, leave it to her short hair to still somehow get tangled in fabric. It’s a wonder how her haircut continues to cause problems despite it being more easily manageable, yet here she is caught in her own damn shirt like a buffoon. The air is crisp and cool against her exposed skin and goosebumps riddle her arms, but after a few more seconds of struggling, she manages to shimmy it up and over.

Tossing her top aside, Kimberly starts, “Hey Trini, I think–”

She stops mid-sentence.

Trini’s eyes are wider than usual, her lips parted slightly, chest rising and falling at a shallow, rapid pace. She looks like she’s seen a ghost except her skin isn’t pale - in fact, it’s quite the opposite. There’s a deep rosy tint overtaking her cheeks and her gaze seems hyperfocused on Kimberly, but not Kimberly’s words.

She’s gawking.

Maybe it’s from the extra workouts at the gym that Kimberly forces upon herself outside of the demanding Power Ranger training sessions, but she knows her body is toned and relatively fit. The power coins already granted them heightened strength, but she figures it can’t hurt to at least try and maintain it through natural means. It’s just… with Trini staring so intently, Kimberly can’t help but feel a little self-conscious.

“T-Trini, hey uh. Earth to Trini.” Kimberly’s heart is racing and she wonders if Trini feels it too. “You there?”

Trini blinks a couple more times, as if still mesmerized, spellbound by powerful, invisible forces beyond her control, but then she suddenly shakes her head and her focus snaps back to Kimberly’s anxious face. “Yeah, no I’m fine. What?”

“The plan, Trini.”

“What plan?”

“Go keep an eye on Billy while I search around,” Kimberly slowly reminds her as she gestures towards him.

“Yeah, yeah, got it,” Trini mumbles her words hastily before undressing to reveal her swimsuit as well. “I’ll just be uh, going now.”

She scampers off like a frightened rabbit and makes a beeline to join Billy who’s already standing peacefully at the water’s edge. Kimberly suppresses a laugh because in their entire time together, that has to have been the first time she’s ever caught Trini just… staring like that. She looked so flustered - so absolutely bewildered - that in a way, Kimberly can’t help it when her confidence swells. Though she tries her best to hide it, keep it low key, Trini is positively stunning, so eliciting such a visceral reaction from her feels like an impressive god-like feat.

Retreating back to the trees, Kimberly skirts around the border where the clearing meets the forest. Every crunching twig and rustling bush grabs her attention. Her pulse spikes and her breathing draws quicker and quicker. She doesn’t even know which direction the birds might come from.

Hell, for all she knows, they swooped down from the sky.

“No,” she mutters to herself as she presses on past a few scraggly trees, “if they came from the sky then we would’ve spotted them.”

Kimberly leans against a tree and watches Trini chat with Billy in the shallow water. Their backs are to her, but judging by their posture Trini has probably figured out why Billy doesn’t go deeper into the lake. Jason and Zack are farther out in the distance floating on their backs, bobbing up and down in the water like buoys, relaxing without a care in the world.

And then it hits her. Literally.

Anyone in the water would be too preoccupied to notice, and every time Billy’s back was to the trees so of course he only had his peripherals to rely on. That being said, they couldn’t have come from the left or right; they came from directly behind where they dropped all of their belongings in a pile.

Kind of exactly where Kimberly’s standing now.

She hears the branches snap as she’s turning around. The moment she pulls a fast 180, the first bird is already tackling her to the ground, screeching bloody murder into her ears like a deafening siren.

“Kim!”

She hears Trini shout her name, but panic floods Kimberly’s body and she immediately roars back, “Stay with Billy!”

The bird has her pinned to the ground as it swipes at her face, thick black feathers engulfing her vision with obsidian chaos. Kimberly throws her arms up just in time to block the first flurry of slashes, but she’s punished with deep gashes ripping open along the length of her forearms. Pain explodes all over her body like a wildfire, searing her skin and eating her alive. She screams out in agony as blood gushes from the wounds, but adrenaline surges in her system and she manages to buck the bird off in a sudden jerking motion.

Turning the tides in an instant, Kimberly gets the upper hand by twisting around and swinging a solid punch directly at the enemy’s armorless, exposed throat. Airy, hoarse noises croak from the bird’s crushed windpipe like a broken instrument and Kimberly knows its days are numbered.

One down.

Warm liquid streams down her arms but she refuses to look at it because the moment she acknowledges just how bad it really is, there won’t be enough adrenaline in the world that can mask the true, uninhibited pain.

Jason and Zack are just barely out of the water and run headlong to face off against two more birds. Her eyes flick to the side and she spots Billy and Trini tag teaming a single bird. Billy isn’t the strongest at hand-to-hand combat, but Trini is, so they balance each other out perfectly. The bird is agile with lightning-quick reflexes but two against one is still better odds. Kimberly nearly heads towards Jason and Zack to help them out, but movement catches in the corner of her eye and her heart sinks.

Another bird emerges from the woods, headed straight for Trini.

“No…!”

Her feet dig deep as she kicks off the ground, dashing at full speed, frantic and fearful.

She has to make it. Not making it is simply not an option. Billy’s eyes widen as the second bird rears into view just beyond his field of vision, but he’s ducking and dodging the immediate threat right in front of him. Trini must’ve noticed the subtle shift in his expression–she pivots in place and prepares to brace herself for a sudden onslaught.

But the onslaught never comes.

Kimberly barrels in at full speed and hurls herself forward to intercept the charging bird. She manages to get a grip on one of its winged arms as she tackles it down and attempts to pull it to the ground with her, but the bird’s other free arm wildly swings down in an arcing motion. A sharp, stinging sensation shoots through her hand as the two hit the floor in a scrawling heap. Kimberly raises her arm, winding up for a devastating punch, but when she tries to clench her hand into a fist, she’s paralyzed with crippling pain. Hazarding a glance, she quickly sees why.

Oh.

Instead of a fist prepared to strike, she sees a hand.

A debilitated, injured hand covered in glistening crimson blood that’s missing its pinky and ring finger along with half of the middle finger.

No, there’s no way that’s her hand.

Except she wiggles her fingers, well, tries to wiggle her fingers, and sure enough the hand attempts to respond, but there’s just nothing to wiggle. Sheer horror floods throughout her body as it dawns on her that they were slashed clean off - that she’s fucking missing fingers now - and how she has this luckless bird to thank.

With all her might, she clenches her other hand and slams it into the enemy’s face. A sickening crunch crackles through the air as her fist fractures the bird’s beak on impact, its face smashing inward and compressing into a flattened, fleshy mess. Tiny tremors wrack its feathered body, twitching and spasming away the last signs of life, and with two enemies now dead, the others release an ear-piercing screech before taking to the sky.

Kimberly holds her hands out, palms facing up at her, and she stares unblinking and shocked at how they look distinctly different.

I don’t have a pinky anymore, she thinks, or a ring finger.

The adrenaline starts to fade, replaced with white hot pain rapidly blossoming all over her body and she remembers that oh yeah, I’m probably bleeding out too, judging from the long jagged gashes spanning the length of her forearms. The mounting pain becomes exponentially unbearable and the last thing Kimberly remembers is seeing Trini’s face before fading to black.

She wonders if this is what death is like.

Cold, dark, lonely, isolated.

She hates it, she despises the feeling, but she’s already resigned to the fact that there’s nothing left for her, that life is done and over. In the end, she fulfilled her ranger duty and kept everyone safe and that’s all that really matters.

Except death never takes her.

Kimberly’s eyelids are heavy and clumsy as she slowly blinks awake. The blankets are thick and weighty against her chest. There’s tubes and monitors and the faint beeping of her heart and everything’s twenty times louder than it should be thanks to the massive headache throbbing against her temples, but hey, she’s not dead so that’s definitely something.

Her eyes scan the room and she realizes she’s in the infirmary at the Command Center. Thankfully none of the other beds are occupied, so either nobody was hurt, or someone was hurt so bad that no amount of medicine could save them. She sincerely hopes it’s the case of the former, but she can’t know for sure.

The last thing she remembers is seeing Trini’s distressed face before everything went dark. She thought it would be the last thing she’d ever see, which honestly wouldn’t have been such a bad thing at all, but in the quiet, dimly-lit room Kimberly finally notices the tiny figure slumped over on the side of her bed near her waist.

“Trini?” Kimberly croaks out, her voice raspy and guttural. She tries to reach out, but agony shoots through her body like lightning and she hisses in pain.

It’s enough though. Her gasp rouses Trini from her slumped position and recognition lights up her face like christmas and she chokes out in happiness. Lurching forward, Trini throws her arms around Kimberly and hugs her tight.

Kimberly’s body ignites like needles jabbing in all directions, but Trini is hugging her and that’s more than enough reason to help her endure the pain.

“What happened?”

Trini doesn’t move at first, still hugging her tighter than she’s ever hugged her before. Her limbs are shaking and her breathing comes in erratic tiny sniffles. “I th-thought I was going to lose you.”

“Is everyone okay?” Kimberly asks. She has to know that her efforts were worth it.

“Yeah,” Trini replies as she pulls back to breathe. “Nobody died.”

“How long was I out for?”

“Just a couple hours,” Trini says. “We brought you to the Command Center as soon as we could.”

Kimberly’s eyes follow down the length of her arms, passing over the thick sterile dressings until they rest at her heavily bandaged hand. It’s her dominant hand unfortunately, so she’ll have some new things to get used to, but it was worth it. It was a fair trade in her book.

The mattress dips down, pulling her away from her thoughts and Trini maneuvers her way under the blankets to join Kimberly in her bed. It’s a tight, snug fit for the two of them, but they make it work. Trini wraps her arm loosely around Kimberly’s stomach, making sure to not place too much weight on her arms and after the other girl doesn’t complain or protest the movement, she relaxes into her side, her head resting gently on Kimberly’s shoulder.

“You did it,” Trini whispers. “You saved everyone.”

Kimberly hums in agreement. It was sloppy that’s for sure, but Trini’s right–she did save everyone. It came at a cost, but it was a price she’d gladly pay a thousand times over. No more deaths, no more stress, no more what ifs. She finally achieved what she set out to do.

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” Kimberly says appreciatively. “Really, thank you.”

Trini shifts in place and turns just enough to face Kimberly. Her eyes are red and puffy and shimmering like a glistening lake, but they’re deep and intricately profound, hiding layers of pent up emotions and unspoken sentiments. But right now there’s a storm raging within her eyes as she studies Kimberly up close, words dancing at the tip of her tongue.

“I… Kimberly… I uh…” Trini’s biting her lip, as if she has more to say. A part of Kimberly feels like she knows what comes next, anticipating the following admission, or even an action that she thinks she’s finally ready for, but Trini’s brow upturns anxiously and fear surfaces to the forefront. “Jason said we’ll go back to camp tomorrow morning after you’re rested.”

The words spill out of Trini’s mouth and before Kimberly can even react, Trini swiftly breaks eye contact and instead nestles into her side. Kimberly can’t tell if it’s disappointment or fatigue, or some stupid mixture in between, but her body grows heavy and consciousness becomes a chore so she stops fighting the inevitable.

“Goodnight Trini.”

//

It was a great night.

It was a fantastic night.

Exhaustion makes sleep seem ten times better. When Kimberly wakes, she feels amazingly well-rested.

In fact, maybe a little… too well-rested.

No.

No.

No.

She’s in a pink tent. She’s in her sleeping bag. She clenches her hands and they feel perfectly fine. She hears the twigs snapping underfoot and she wants nothing more than to scream at the top of her lungs because what the fuck.

“Rise and shine everyone; rise and shine!”