Intercept

    Six months had passed since Christina's supposed death and Billy was still very protective of her. He was sitting with her in the juice bar when their communicators toned. They both looked around and Billy answered it. "What is it, Zordon?" he asked.
    "You and Christina must come to the command center immediately. The others are already here," Zordon's voice intoned. Billy and Christina went into the deserted hallway and transported out. In the command center, the others were clustered around the viewglobe when Billy and Christina materialized.
    "What's up?" Christina asked.
    "Goldar and a bunch of putties are in Angel Grove, but they're not doing anything. Goldar keeps calling for the Power Rangers to meet him in one of the old warehouses on the harbor front," Jason explained. Just then, they saw Goldar smash out some windows in the warehouse. "Okay, now he's doing something. It's morphin time!" The eight Rangers teleported to the harbor front.
    "All right, Goldar, we're here. What do you want?" Red Ranger called.
    "If you do not agree to serve the mighty Lord Zedd, this building shall be destroyed! It has been wired and connected to this timer. You have ten minutes to decide. I will return for your answer." Goldar disappeared in a rush of flames.
    The Rangers ran to check out the timer. Purple Ranger asked, "It's just an old warehouse that's been condemned for years. Why does it matter if it gets blown up?"
    Blue Ranger took a quick look inside a window. "Because there's enough plastic explosive, dynamite, and nitroglycerine in that building to level the entire harbor front."
    "Oh. Then someone needs to disconnect this." She checked out the timer. "Geez, someone on the moon knows what they're doing. Disconnecting it at the timer causes it to detonate. This needs to be disconnected at the explosive end."
    "I'll go," White Ranger volunteered.
    "No, not after what happened last time. I'll go," Blue Ranger said, entering the building before anyone could stop him.
    The Rangers stood outside the building, torn between whether they should go in after Blue Ranger or hope for the best. "He knows what he's doing," White Ranger murmured over and over like a mantra.
    Five minutes passed. Blue Ranger was still in the warehouse. Purple Ranger was preparing to go in after him when an explosion ripped through the warehouse, sending the Rangers flying. White Ranger landed and looked at the burning block. "No," she whispered. "It's too early. No!" She stood up and ran towards the flames.
    "Christina! Wait!" Purple Ranger called. "You can't go in there! You'll get killed!" 
    "I have to find Billy!"
    "No one could have survived an explosion that big!"
    White Ranger turned around to look at Purple Ranger. "I did," she replied calmly, then continued her run towards the building. Purple Ranger sighed and followed her.
    After several hours, the fire departments of Angel Grove, Stone Canyon, and Dry Creek had managed to get the warehouse fires under control. Only a few buildings described as "nws" still burned, among them the condemned warehouse. The Rangers were carefully searching the rubble for Billy. They had reached the center of the building when they heard a low moaning which quickly escalated into a high-pitched keening coming from the rear of the building. They ran to see what was causing it. What they found shocked them.
    White Ranger was collapsed on the floor clutching an object to her chest, rocking back and forth as she keened. Green Ranger carefully pried the object from her grasp. It was barely recognizable, badly shattered and covered in blood. A few clumps of blond-brown hair were caught in the seams of Blue Ranger's destroyed helmet.
    "Jamie, get Christina," Red Ranger choked out. "Let's get back to the command center."

    Back at the command center, Christina's keening had broken into deep, racking sobs. The others, after demorphing, had managed to demorph Christina.
    "She won't stop crying," Jamie fretted. "What should we do?"
    "Her grief is good for her, but she has other responsibilities. You will have to sedate her to keep her from causing herself harm," Zordon told Jamie. "In the med kit, there is a hypospray which should calm her."
    Jamie found the hypospray and administered it to Christina. Slowly, her sobs quieted and she sat up.
    "Christina, how are you feeling?" Jamie asked.
    "Hollow," Christina replied woodenly. She carefully stood up.
    "Chris, we have to act as if nothing has happened," Tommy said gently. "Other than us, nobody knows about Billy."
    Christina looked at Tommy. "Tommy, I'm not stupid. I know that, and it's killing me. I have to go. I have practice soon." She teleported out of the command center.

    Christina was having a hard time at rehearsal. She wasn't hitting the places with her usual precision and during the lifts, couldn't lock the position. The dance routine was a simple one, one that she and Johnny had performed hundreds of times. After class he confronted her.
    "Chrissy, what's wrong?" he asked. Christina looked up at him with her red-rimmed eyes. Johnny was the only person other than her family who was allowed to call her Chrissy. "You were off a few fractions the whole routine. You, the prima ballerina of the entire Academy, were off. What's going on?"
    "I just have a lot going on in my life right now," she replied, a new tear threatening to fall.
    "Don't give me the run-around, Chrissy. What happened, did someone important leave?"
    "You could say that," she replied, the tears starting to flow anew.
    Johnny sat down next to her and brushed the tears away gently. "Chrissy, it hurts to see you like this. Whoever it was, he was a real jerk for leaving you."
    "It wasn't voluntary," she whispered. Johnny took Christina into his arms and held her until she had finished crying.
    He then looked at her. "Chrissy, this is a lousy time for me to ask you a favor, but I have to. Would you mind keeping something for me?"
    She looked at him. "Johnny, last time you asked me to keep something for you, both of us nearly got killed."
    "It's nothing that dangerous. Here," Johnny handed her a bottle. "Just hold on to this for me, okay?"
    Christina looked at the label. "Johnny, you could get kicked out for having this on campus! Didn't you learn anything after that party last week?"
    Johnny had the dignity to look sheepish. "Yeah, well, I'm trying to kick the habit slowly. That's why I'm asking you to hold on to this, so I won't drink it. Jack Daniels has been a good friend for way too long."
    Christina slipped the quart of whiskey into her backpack. "All right, but only because you're really trying to quit," she agreed. "After this weekend, I'm not keeping any more liquor for you. Ask me to, and you'll get an empty bottle back."
    Johnny grinned at her. "I know, and that's why you're my best friend, Chrissy." He kissed her on the cheek. "I've gotta run. I'll see you on Monday, bright and early."

    Later that night, Christina was in her suite on campus. Katarina was gone for the weekend, on a camping trip with Rocky's family. Christina was alone with her grief. She had changed from her practice leotards into a pair of drawstring shorts and a sports bra. Johnny's whisky sat on her desk, next to the picture of her and Billy.
    She stared at that picture for a long time, an idea beginning to niggle in her mind. She tried to stop it, but it kept coming back. Aloud, she tried out the sentence for the first time: "Billy is dead."
    The words seemed to hang in the air, twisting themselves around into a knife blade of pain and loss digging into her gut. She knew that life would never be the same for her again.
    Christina stared at the bottle of alcohol for a few more minutes, then left the room. Katarina always left her door unlocked in case of emergency. In Christina's mind, this was an emergency. She opened the top drawer in Katarina's nightstand and retrieved a half-full bottle of prescription sleeping pills. She was a smart girl. She knew what would happen if alcohol and barbiturates were mixed.
    Back in her room, she opened the bottle of pills and shook two out. Holding them in the palm of her hand, she opened the bottle of whiskey and was about to swallow when her communicator toned. The little chime sounded like a siren in the quiet room.
    Feeling a little relieved, she put the pills down and answered the communicator.
    "Christina, Tommy's powers are very low. It would seem that the explosion drained a great deal of his powers. Do you feel that you could increase them now?" Zordon's voice came to her.
    "Where is he?" she asked, her voice slightly ragged.
    "He is in his room."
    "Let him know I'll be right over."

    Christina and Tommy sat silently in his room, arms locked while she increased his powers. He had tried to start a conversation a few times, tried to express his sympathy towards her, but each time, words had failed him. He looked at her now, seeing the utter loss and sorrow on her face and did the only thing he could think of. He kissed her.
    It was meant to be a gentle, momentary kiss to console her, a chaste kiss between friends. However, for a brief moment Christina kissed back. The gentle kiss deepened, became more to both of them. Christina clung to Tommy as a drowning swimmer clings to a floating branch. She began to cry softly and Tommy held her, tried to comfort her, to help her in her grief. They stayed this way for hours, Christina drawing strength from Tommy's support. In turn, she multiplied his powers and abilities far more that she ever had before.
    When her tears had finally subsided, she let go of Tommy, saying, "Thank you."
    "For what?"
    "For letting me cry on you. I was needing a shoulder about now."
    "My shoulder's always open for you." Neither of them mentioned the kiss. Christina transported back to her dorm room. The crying had worn her out. She fell into her bed without bothering to recap the open bottles and was asleep before the first crack of thunder sounded.

    "No!" Christina screamed, sitting bolt upright in her bed. She had just had a vivid dream of Billy, in an enclosed space, screaming in pain. She absently rubbed her forehead, trying to dispel a headache. She realized what she was doing and stopped, looking at her hand. Her headache was like the ones she received after prolonged telepathic use. Realizing this, she thought, Can it be? Could Billy still be alive?
    Tentatively, almost afraid to hope too much, she extended a tendril of mind-touch, searching for the familiar presence. When she found it, she quickly recoiled.
    <<Jamie!>> she mentally screamed.
    In her room, Jamie woke up with a start. "What?!?!" she screamed. In his surprise, Jason rolled over and fell out of the bed with an audible "thump".
    "What is it? Putties?" he asked, searching frantically for some type of covering.
    "No, it's just Christina."
    Grumbling "I got up for that?", he got back in bed.
    "Hush up. What is it, Christina?"
    <<Get over here. I've got something important to tell you.>>
    <<Can't it wait until morning? I'm kinda in the middle of something.>>
    <<I know. Tell Jason I said hi. No, it can't wait until morning.>>
    <<Fine, let me get dressed and I'll be right over.>> The connection was cut off and Jamie turned to Jason. "I have to go to Christina's. She says she has something important to tell me and it can't wait."
    Jason grunted in reply. Jamie grabbed her cutoff sweats and one of her dad's old hooded t-shirts and teleported out.

    "Okay, I'm here. Now what is so important that you were compelled to drag me out of my boyfriend's arms at," she checked Christina's desk clock, "two in the morning?"
    "Billy's alive," Christina stated. Jamie sat down on the desk chair with a loud "flump".
    "There's no way. You saw the helmet. Hell, you found the helmet. What makes you think he's still alive?"
    Christina explained about the dream and the mind touch. When she finished, Jamie looked at her skeptically.
    "Are you sure it was Billy? You didn't accidentally cross universe boundaries and find Will?" Jamie finally noticed the open bottle of alcohol and the sleeping pills. "Chris, you haven't been...have you?"
    "No to both questions. It wasn't Will, and I haven't taken any of that. I know the difference between Will and Billy. It was Billy and he's in pain."
    "Okay, I believe you. Now, why did you call me here?"
    "Think about it, genius," Christina said, using one of Jamie's favorite expressions. "The building was rigged by Goldar. Billy went in. The building went boom. Billy's still alive. I have a telepathic dream of him in an enclosed area in pain. Three guesses as to where he is, and the first two don't count."
    "Daddy dearest's stronghold. Remember, Chris, my cognitive facilities aren't quite up to code at two in the morning."
    "Sorry. Now do you know why I called you here?"
    "Um, you want to go to Zedd's stronghold and get Billy out."
    "Now you're catching on."
    "And you need yours truly to get you there and help find him."
    "Your cognitive facilities are better at two A.M. that you thought."
    "Well, if we're going up there, we'd better morph."
    "Thanks." Christina flashed a grateful smile to Jamie. "It's morphin time!"

    "Can you get a lock on Billy's location?" Purple Ranger asked. White Ranger concentrated.
    "He's in the dungeon," she replied.
    "This way." The two started running. Fueled by excitement, White Ranger ran ahead of Purple Ranger. She rounded a corner and ran smack into Goldar.
    "Ah, White Ranger, you're right on time!" Goldar exclaimed. "Lord Zedd was right that the stimulus applied to Billy would initiate a psychic contact. You're coming with me," He growled, tossing White Ranger over his shoulder.
    "Put! Me! Down!" she exclaimed, accenting each word with a kick to Goldar's chest.
    "Ermph! No! Urk! Stop that!" Goldar exclaimed, carrying White Ranger away. Purple Ranger heard Goldar's muttered curses and followed him to the throne room. There, she saw Christina being locked into the iron manacles she usually found herself in.
    "What do want with me now, Zedd?" she gritted out through her teeth. "Can't you just leave me alone?"
    "My dear White Ranger, I want what I've always wanted. I want you to work with me."
    "No. How many times do I have to tell you that to make it sink in? I can not, will not work for evil!"
    "This time is different. I hold all the aces. You will work for me." With a wave of his arm, White Ranger could see Billy, restrained as she was, looking haggard and worn. "You see, if you do not, then I will kill him. No second thoughts on my part. I may be the one to wield the weapon, but his death will be on your conscience if you do not follow my orders."
    "You wouldn't," White Ranger whispered hoarsely. "Not even you..."
    "Oh, I beg to differ," Lord Zedd disagreed. "Now," he said. White Ranger saw two putties enter Billy's cell holding some type of wand. They tore his shirt along the sides and placed the wands against his bare flesh. White Ranger saw the electric sparks from the wands, saw Billy's body arch upward, his teeth gritted in pain. In her mind, she heard him calling for her.
    "All right. All right!! I'll do it, Zedd. Just stop hurting him!" she exclaimed. Under her helmet, tears were streaming down her cheeks. Zedd gestured and the putties stopped.
    "I knew you would come around," Zedd spoke. "Now, your first orders are this: Destroy the Power Rangers! If you fail, your precious Billy will pay the price."
    "I know," White Ranger whispered. Outside the throne room, Purple Ranger could hear the strife in White Ranger's voice. She turned to go find Billy and found herself staring at a gold chest plate.
    "Oops," she muttered.
    "Lady Jamie, you have been away from your father's dungeons too long!" Goldar smiled toothily at Purple Ranger. "I believe it's time you saw the improvements we've made!"

    "You will not escape this time!" Goldar crowed. "This cell has solid steel walls. The door is solid titanium and the lock is unpickable! This time, you're here to stay!" Goldar laughed a short, barking laugh, and left.
    Purple Ranger thought back to when she had been sick with Krahta. Jason had told her about a similar experience. Not thinking that Goldar would make the same mistake twice, she tried the door. This time, it was locked.
    "Well, maybe he isn't a total brain-loss," she laughed bitterly. She looked all around her cell trying to find a way out. Studying the doorjamb, she suddenly kicked out at it. With a tortured moan reminiscent of a dying cow, the latch gave out and the door swung open.
    "The door may have been titanium, but the latch was aluminum," she giggled. Stepping into the hallway, she saw no sign of Goldar, only a long line of doors like the one she had just kicked open. Knowing time was of the essence, she decided to use the quickest method to find Billy: she hauled off and bellowed his name. An answering moan told her his location. She ran in the direction of the moan, found Billy, and kicked the door open. He had mostly recovered from the electric shock. Purple Ranger absorbed the excess current still in him and used it to break his locks. She gave him the fifty-cent rundown of what had happened. Billy's face clouded with rage when Purple Ranger told him of Zedd's manipulations.
    "I'll kill him. I will kill him with my bare hands. Where's Christina now?" he asked.
    "Last I knew, throne room.." she started, Billy's rage scaring her.
    "Let's go."
    "But...but.." Purple Ranger tried to protest as she was dragged along behind him. Halfway to the throne room, they encountered Goldar.
    "What? How did you escape!" he demanded.
    "You need better latches," Purple Ranger said flippantly.
    "Where's Christina?" Billy asked, his eyes steely.
    Goldar recoiled a little. "The White Ranger is on Earth," he told them. "By now, she is destroying the rest of the Power Rangers."
    "You're lying," Billy gritted out, glaring at Goldar. "You're lying!" With all of his might, he pushed Goldar into the wall. Goldar hit hard and slumped to the ground. Purple Ranger half expected to see little birds appear out of nowhere and start flying around Goldar's head. They didn't appear, so she just shrugged and took off after Billy who was still headed for the throne room.

    On Earth, the other Rangers were battling the White Ranger. The fight wasn't going well because they knew Christina, she was their friend. They didn't want to hurt her. Green Ranger stepped out first. "Christina!" he called. "Why are you doing this? We're your friends!"
    "I know," White Ranger replied. "That's why this is going to hurt me so much. I'm sorry, Tommy," she whispered as she let out a psychic bolt that knocked him off his feet, unconscious.
    In turn, she did the same to Pink Ranger, Yellow Ranger, and Black Ranger.
    Red Ranger looked at her. "Christina, why are you doing this?" he asked her like everyone else had. "Is it because of Billy's death?"
    "Billy's not dead," she whispered. "And because he's not dead, I have no choice but this." She began to collect psychic energy, a bright white battle aura beginning to form around her.

    Purple Ranger and Billy raced into the throne room. "You're too late, Rangers. My White Ranger has already dispatched four Rangers. Now there is only the most troublesome, the Red Ranger, left!" Lord Zedd crowed.
    "Christina. Is not. Your. White Ranger!" Billy exploded, rushing into Zedd, who found himself lying in a dazed heap on the opposite side of the throne room.
    Shaking his head to clear it, he thought, This is the Blue Ranger? Very impressive.
    "Billy! Catch!" Purple Ranger called, tossing Billy his morpher. He morphed quickly.
    "Let's get back to Earth before Christina makes mincemeat out of your boyfriend," Blue Ranger said.
    "Good idea." In a flash, they were at the park.
    White Ranger was softly crying as she prepared to blast Red Ranger. "Please forgive me, Jason," she whispered, bringing her hands up for the strike. She was in the process of releasing the blast when she heard Blue Ranger's shout. With a cry of relief, she raised her hands skyward, redirecting the blast away from Earth. Physically and emotionally drained, she collapsed into Blue Ranger's waiting embrace.
    Red Ranger turned to Purple Ranger. "Do you always have to cut it so close?" he asked her.
    "It wouldn't be fun any other way."

    The next day, Christina and Billy were sitting in his lab. "I just fell apart when I thought you were dead," she confessed. "I missed you so much, that if Zordon hadn't contacted me that night when he did, I'd probably be dead myself right now."
    Billy held her closer. "I know what you were going through. When I thought you were gone, I locked myself in here for three days and did nothing but drink. I still can't look in the direction of alcohol without wincing."
    "Billy, let's make a pact. Whenever one of us gets captured, we let the other know right away so we don't go through this hell ever again."
    "Now that's a pact," he agreed. They sealed their pact with a kiss.

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