Chapter Text
To the casual onlooker, the mountains beyond Angel Grove city limits are simply backdrop to the sprawling SoCal metropolis. But to several teenagers with attitude, they are much more. The rocky terrain gives cover to the area's best kept secret—the home base for Earth's mightiest defenders:
The Power Rangers.
The year 1994, in a word, is wild. The past fourteen months have let the world get used to the idea of aliens, almost to the point of indifference. Perhaps the reassurance the Rangers provide is responsible for this nonchalance, Billy Cranston reasons.
The genius teen spends many an evening in the Command Center alongside Alpha 5, the trusted android assistant to the immortal Zordon of Eltar, the tube-trapped mentor to Billy and fellow teammates Zack, Kimberly, Trini, and Jason.
Oh, and Tommy, the now-former Green Ranger.
Billy stands over the one console bearing a screen he installed himself, his first systems upgrade since the communicators he invented a year earlier. His task? Analyzing the trace amounts of green energy left in the now-defunct Dragon Coin. It's consumed the Blue Ranger for the past two weeks, which is how long it's been since Tommy, again, departed.
"It's nearly eight in the evening." Alpha, thought to be dormant, crosses the platform to join his human friend. "You require a third meal at this hour, if I am not mistaken."
Billy glances over, chuckles. "That's usually the case. I am hungry, indeed, but I've recorded some interesting patterns." He scoops the coin off the console and points to the claw at center. "Patterns that could support my theory on how to reenergize Tommy's powers."
Alpha, while never short on commentary, is silent. Billy senses the hesitation but doesn't press the issue. Instead, he clears his throat, sets the coin down, and puts the screen to sleep.
"Dinner, yeah. I should."
The towering pale tube at the north wall sizzles as Zordon materializes into view. The Eltarian's face appears as solemn as his young pupil's. "We appreciate your efforts, truly."
Billy nods and forces the smallest smile in spite of his sadness—their sadness. Grieving someone who isn't dead feels weird and somehow worse, Kim confessed to the team days earlier. Pondering the what-ifs has proven torturous for all of them, leading Blue Ranger to the fruitless endeavor of exploring a path back for Tommy. Zordon and Alpha, however, are far too merciful to say a thing.
"Good night, you two," Billy says, preparing for teleport.
"Good night," Zordon says back. "And may the power pro—"
The alarms.
Night attacks are rare, but tonight has nothing to do with Lord Zedd, because the alarms stopped their wailing in three seconds flat, the first sign something else is up.
"Alpha?" Billy asks with eyes back on the consoles. "Did… did our perimeter shields just—"
"Open? Yes," Alpha finishes. "Nobody can do that, unless they have a power coin or—"
"Unless they're me," Zordon cuts in. "Or of me."
Before Billy can ask a follow-up, a column of white light begins to pour onto the platform. Thi isn't some teleport streak, he realizes. The stream is cold and steady with an angelic aura, like sunlight sourced directly from Heaven. A figure shimmers center-stream and starts to descend. He, or she, begins as a shadow and ends as a fully formed figure with twin white boots touching down with grace.
A stunned Billy steps forward, but Alpha is quick to catch his arm. "Don't. Wait."
The light fades and reveals what appears to be a Power Ranger—a White Power Ranger.
"Greetings to all."
It's a male voice. Strong, yet soft. Billy and Alpha look back in unison at Zordon, who is stone-faced. "Hello, Kiba."
A quiet ay-yi-yi leaves Alpha as he falls back to the console nearest the tube. Billy stays put, his eyes taking in all of the White Ranger: the black and gold chest plate, the strange emblem at center, the curved blade at his hip with an unusual headpiece on the hilt. It all belongs to—
"Kiba?" A bewildered Billy looks back. "Who is Kiba?"
"Kiba is," Zordon begins, then pauses. The tension in the Command Center is thicker than a hundred Pudgy Pigs. "Kiba is my son."
Kiba looks to Billy, then Alpha, then back to who evidently is his father. He says nothing and neither does Zordon. The weight of the silence proves too much for Billy, so he speaks, nervously so. "Sooo… hi! Welcome to the Command Center. My name is Billy. Billy Cranston."
A hand goes out to the visitor, but he does not take it. Kiba moves past and approaches the base of the tube, then proceeds to unsnap the fasteners of his helmet. Billy watches intently as Kiba does this, and when the disguise is fully off, his hair face drops. Zordon's son is diabolically, breathtakingly handsome.
"Whoa—I mean, oh! You're human!"
"Eltarian," Zordon and Kiba say in unison.
Billy, sensing the tension break, smiles hard.
"Eltarians are humanoid to be precise," Kiba explains, his focus still trained ahead. "Human-presenting but biologically Eltarian."
Billy nods while remaining stunned by their unexpected guest's appearance. Kiba is the storybook definition of princely: golden blonde hair that's not too short nor too long, piercing blue eyes with a heroic gaze, and a square jawline that could cut ice.
"You look… well," Kiba says quietly.
"No need to humor me, my son." Zordon's face shifts to somewhere more fragile and less guarded. "I've been stuck in this time warp for some time now, as I am sure you have heard. How… how are you?"
Kiba doesn't answer. Instead, he lays a hand flat against his father's tube. The pressure produces a faint hum and hiss, which steadily grows as he pushes more firmly. The surrounding console and column lights begin to flicker, catching Alpha and Billy by surprise and causing them to step back.
"My son," Zordon says, firmly. "I understand you're upset with me, but—"
"That's an understatement," Kiba scoffs. He pulls his hand back, and the lights return to normal. "Do you have any idea…"
He trails off, unable to complete his sentence. Billy is moved by the raw emotion in Kiba's voice, as well as Zordon's—it's hurt and pain he's hearing, from both.
"I've crossed over a dozen systems to find you," Kiba continues with half the composure he started with. "For centuries, I've searched, far and wide. And every time I entered a new galaxy, I told myself—this is it. I will find him here. But all I found was trouble, Father. New enemies and new fights. I almost di… I…"
Kiba's voice is shaking. It's clear to Billy what he was going to say, and his heart breaks for him. Silence continues to fill the space before Zordon shifts his focus, which Kiba tracks to Billy and Alpha.
"Is this why you stayed, Father? For them?"
"Kiba, I never meant to abandon you—"
"Not so much a prison as much as a choice, huh?" The White Ranger zeroes in on Billy next. Billy tries to maintain eye contact but the staredown forces him to look elsewhere.
"And who are you to my father?" Kiba asks, reducing their distance to near zero.
"Um… the Blue one?"
"Blue one?" A galled Kiba spins back. "Father, the Blue one? You made this child the Blue Ranger?"
"Excuse you, but we look to be roughly the same age!"
"We are definitely not the same age!"
"Yes, Billy is the Blue Ranger," Zordon jumps in. "The other coins have also been assigned. To his friends."
"His friends?" Kiba laughs. "Okay. So that's how it works now."
"They're all great, seriously!" Billy says. "You'd like them… I think… I hope."
Kiba does not look convinced. At all. Billy reaches into his back pocket and produces his power coin bearing the Triceratops. The White Ranger stares at it for a moment, then shakes his head.
"I'm… I'm speechless."
"Technically, you're not, heh. Because you're talking." Billy's attempt at humor lands like Bulk inside a dumpster.
Kiba and his indignant stare turn away.
"I stayed to stop Rita, the Bandora Witch," Zordon continues. "Our two-millennia war ended in her imprisonment… and my own. But ten-millennia later—"
"Yes, yes, I've heard the story from others. She somehow escaped, and now Earth's survival depends on her capture." Kiba runs a hand through his messy blonde waves. "But is it true? The rumors? In my travels, I heard Rita's been banished once again, by your br—"
"Lord Zedd, yes," Zordon answers fast. Billy winces. "I am afraid he has returned."
Kiba's face shifts from sour anger to genuine worry.
"Oh dear, that's awful news indeed."
Billy winces again—because that wasn't Kiba. His eyes move to the blade at White Ranger's left hip. "It… talks? Your sword talks!"
"Saba, you've been quiet for some time," Kiba says, unsheathing the sentient weapon. "Did you have a good nap?"
"You know I don't nap—I transition into a meditative state."
The wide-eye curiosity on Billy's face catches Kiba off-guard as he approaches for a closer look. The blade's hilt is shaped like a visorless helmet atop a tiger's head, adorned with tiny red eyes and tiny white fangs that show whenever it speaks.
"Hello, Saba," Zordon says. "It is good to see you again."
"And you, Elite Commander Zordon."
Billy looks up from Saba. "Elite Commander?"
Zordon grimaces as Saba breaks from Kiba's grip and comes to hover between father and son. Billy again is mesmerized by what he is seeing.
"Master Kiba, if I may," Saba begins, gently. "Together we've scoured half the universe looking for your father, and today we have found him. And as I predicted, you find yourself hurt and disappointed, because your finished search did not close the wound. Am I correct?"
Kiba is silent, which answers for him.
"Take heed, child of Eltar," Saba continues. "A wound does not close because you found which was lost. It only closes when you understand why it was lost. The truth is you came here for a reason, so please… don't run. Stay. Stay for the truth."
Kiba looks over his shoulder at Billy and Alpha. Billy gives a perceptible smile in return.
"Though Zordon chose Billy and his friends, they chose to stay," Saba continues. "If you decide to stay here, to stay with him as you long-planned, it will be because you decided to—to close the wound and heal."
A visibly-fraught Kiba shifts his watery gaze to the floor, then back to his father who appears equally moved. Zordon closes his eyes, and Billy sees for the first time that his mentor could cry. Then, ever so gently, the gold emblem on White Ranger's chestplate starts to glow.
Billy's mouth goes agape as the Command Center begins to flood with White Light. It spills across the floor, over him, over Alpha, then climbs and consumes the entirety of Zordon's tube.
The chamber flashes pure white, and when it fades a second later, Kiba appears fully unmorphed, now wrapped in a fine princely garb. White, of course.
"The White Light has chosen," Saba proclaims, returning to his master's hand. "Now… let the healing begin."