Disclaimer: Once again, the author is borrowing Saban''s characters without permission. Hope he doesn''t mind too much, but since I''m making no money off of this.... Anyway, this story follows "Til Death" and "Falcon Daughter," and while it tries to stick with TV continuity as much as possible, it totally ignores the conclusion of the Space Ranger run for the convenience of my Muse. Sorry, all you power-purists out there. Thanks to Willow and Rob for all their input, proofing and general putting up with me. : ) CR January 1999

Dark Ladybreakby Cheryl Roberts

Prologue:

"At last."

Blue eyes, diamond hard and cold as the dark side of the moon, narrowed as the viewing globe flickered to life, revealing a beautiful day in Angel Grove Park.  The focus tightened on one individual in particular: a young woman with fawn brown eyes, caramel colored hair and a very concerned expression.

The Dark Lady's sibilant hiss echoed throughout the chamber as she watched her prey.  It had taken no small amount of energy to recreate the powerful observation device she had smashed in the wake of the Mercyte debacle, but it was a necessity for keeping track of her despised rival in the past.  Kimberly Hart meandered through the park, her mind seemingly a million miles away.

"All alone are we, Kimmie?" The ebony-garbed sorceress sneered, her hand caressing the crystalline orb lovingly as her quarry paused alongside a familiar pond, "and so absorbed with your thoughts that your guard is down.  Finally, I can finish this once and for all!"

Her gaze never left the globe as she began casting her spell.  Space and time began to spin, swirling about and folding in on themselves.  Shrill laughter echoed in the deepest reaches of the enchantress' head; she paid it no mind, her attention absorbed by the arcane energies she had summoned.  Still, she spared a wry thought.

They say, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

* * *

One:

Kim walked aimlessly through the park.  She had had no particular destination in mind when she had set out from the Med-center; she just needed some air.  However, she was unsurprised to find herself on the path alongside the pond.  Somehow, she always wound up there whenever it came to thoughts of her relationship with Tommy.

After all, this is where it all started with an innocent kiss.

To be honest, she'd been surprised when he had proposed to her in his parent's bathtub instead of out here.

Her tumultuous thoughts ebbed for a moment as she gazed on the antique diamond ring encircling her left finger.  Her heart still bubbled over with happiness at the thought that she and Tommy were going to be married in a few months.  A little over a year ago she had barely entertained the hope that she'd ever see him again.

Has it really been a year?

This time last summer, she had been living on the run, pursued by the Mercytes, lethal robot assassins, never knowing if she'd see another day.  Coming home to Angel Grove had been a sign of her surrender.  She had fully expected to die.  She hadn't counted on running into Tommy again --and certainly not on being reunited romantically.  That had been beyond her wildest dreams.

The months since those hectic days and their triumphant last stand had been the most uneventful Kim had known since she first accepted her Power Coin --that is, after recovering from a hit-and-run with a drunk driver and learning the truth about Tommy's biological parents and the reasons he and his brother David had been separated.  Tommy had returned to racing with his uncle, and she had enrolled again at Angel Grove High to finally finish high school.

In January, Tommy had decided to sign on with John for one more season since Kim had several months of school left.  He wanted the money for their wedding and to open a dojo as he had always wanted.  He'd been on the road off and on ever since.  For Kim, graduation had come and gone; she'd just started a part-time job working for Rocky at his karate school --the man could teach martial arts but keeping the books was another matter!

Things had been going along so smoothly ... almost too perfectly, and Kim was starting to feel edgy.  For well over a year, someone had been trying to kill her; granted, destroying the time hole had probably put a serious crimp in her antagonist's plans, but she knew he or she would strike again.  She had been waiting for the hammer to fall, and it finally had, but not quite the way she had been expecting.

I'm pregnant!

Kim found a nearby bench and slowly sank into the seat, her knees feeling suddenly weak.  The doctor put it at just about twelve weeks ... Tommy's surprise visit at the end of February.

Now what? she wondered.  What were they going to do?  She was supposed to work and start school at AGU in the Fall.  Tommy wouldn't be home for good until late November/early December.  They weren't supposed to be married until just before Christmas!

Kim buried her face in her hands, feeling lightheaded.  She was going to have a baby!  The thought didn't scare her as it once would have.  She and Tommy were only nineteen --pretty young to be parents-- but there were times when Kim's spirit felt as old as Zordon!  There was so much to consider ... to do ....  How was she going to tell their folks?  Well, Tommy's parents wouldn't be a problem; Jan had figured out she was pregnant before she had any inkling.  She had even made the doctor's appointment for the pregnancy test.  Besides, his folks had been so great already; they'd do whatever they could to help out, but her mother ... ooh, that was one phone call Kim wasn't looking forward to.  On the one hand, her mom would be thrilled to be a grandmother; on the other, she'd be worried about how it looked for her daughter to have a child out of wedlock.  Sometimes her mom could be so old fashioned....

Kim felt another wave of dizziness hit her.  She shook her head, trying to clear it; that only made her nauseous.

Oh, tell me this isn't morning sickness!

Kim finally pinpointed her greatest anxiety as what to tell Tommy.  He'd be thrilled without a doubt --he'd talked often enough about having his own family.  But what would knowing he was going to be a father do to his racing career?  He'd want to come and be with her --watch the baby grow.  He'd probably want to get married right away, but they really needed the money from his driving --now more than ever.  If he gave that up, he'd never be able to start his own school.  She didn't want Tommy to sacrifice his dream.

We should have been more careful.

Kim was so wrapped up in her concerns that she failed to notice that everything in the park had become silent and motionless --until too late.

"What the...?" she gasped, jumping to her feet as a prickling along the back of her neck --reminiscent of the feeling she used to get just prior to a Mercyte attack-- alerted her to the danger.  She was poised, ready to defend herself (at least she hadn't let her fighting skills atrophy), but she was mindful of the life within her, depending on her.

However, when the attack came, it wasn't an assault.  The world around her seemed to blur and spin, folding in on a tiny black hole in the center of the vortex her reality had become, and she felt herself inexorably drawn towards the eye of the maelstrom.

"Noooooo!"

* * *

Nothingness.

Then, the darkness began to swirl counterclockwise.  Kim felt herself falling.  The sensation was not unlike the time she had been sucked into a timehole.  This time, however, she was ready.  As reality began to unfold and re-form once again, the former Pink Ranger braced herself for whatever danger awaited her.  Even so, she wasn't quite prepared for what met her.

It was an airy chamber but one clearly in ruins, as fragments of mortar and stone strewn about the floor and crumbling columns and pitted walls attested.  It was difficult to see in the dim lighting, but there looked to be a dais upon which a throne, perhaps, had once rested.  Whatever had occupied the center of the chamber, it had long since been reduced to rubble.

Although Kim had never been in this chamber before, it had an unshakable sense of familiarity about it --like she should know it.  She strained every faculty at her command, trying to pierce the gloom in ways her eyes could not.  She could detect nothing but the cold and silence.  For the moment, she was utterly alone.

Then, she set about inspecting her more immediate surroundings.  She stood upon a circular base, the perimeter of which glowed with a pink light.  There was no evidence of any other sort of restraint ... which meant there was more to the base than met the eye.  Cautiously, Kim moved her arms, keeping them close as she reached into her pockets; although, she estimated she at least had sufficient space between herself and the inner edge of the illuminated perimeter to allow limited movement.  She found a penny in one pocket, and she tossed it away from her.  The coin impacted against a force field, the contact sending coruscating ripples of light and energy swirling about her.  She closed her eyes against the brilliant display; when the snapping and crackling ceased, she opened her eyes again.  Of the penny, there was no sign.

Okaaay, Kim mused.  She'd be fine if she didn't make any expansive gestures or lose her balance.  With the limits of her mobility determined, she slowly turned around to see what else there was to see of her prison.  There was nothing remarkable save an open balcony behind her.  When Kim saw the panorama beyond the balustrade, her knees went weak.  There, set against a diamond-flecked backdrop of blackest velvet hung the brilliant blue orb of the earth.

"Omigod!"

Now Kim knew where she was and why she thought it so familiar: Rita and Zedd's palace on the moon!  Though she had never been there herself, Tommy and Kat had described the lunar citadel --especially the throne room-- well enough.  Her next question was when was she.  Was she in the present and Rita and Zedd had nabbed her?  However, she thought Mondo had sent the pair packing.  Was she in the past, like the time she would up in Angel Grove circa 1880?  Or was she in the future and in the hands of whoever sent the Mercyte after her?  She thought the latter most likely.

Kim contemplated her options, which, admittedly, were few.  If she was in the future, it was highly unlikely that the current Rangers would be able to find her.  Most probably, no one even knew she was missing yet.  Pretty much, she was on her own.  Her best bet was to just wait and see.  Her captor was bound to come out and gloat sooner or later, and she couldn't afford to do anything rash with the baby to consider.  The thought chilled Kim to the bone, and she prayed her jailer didn't know about the baby.

"Hello, Kimberly, and welcome to my humble home."

Kim glanced around, trying to pinpoint where the voice had come from.  It sounded familiar ... feminine but not shrill or raspy like Rita's voice or husky and haughty like Divatox's.  Cold, emotionless, but not robotic....

"Why don't you make yourself comfortable.  After all, you won't be leaving here alive."

Laughter followed, dark and sinister, and yet the blackness of it didn't ring quite true as if it was affected or forced ... or the person behind the tones hadn't laughed at anything in a very, very long time.  Kim didn't find it very reassuring.

Then, off to her left, she detected movement in the shadows, a fluid motion like the flutter of cloth.  Kim debated with herself whether or not she should say anything and play her captor's cat and mouse game.  She made certain to keep her eyes on that flicker of movement at all times.

"What?  No cries to Tommy to save you?" the figure in the darkness mocked.  Kim stifled a snort that seemed to say, 'as if!'  Her damsel-in-distress days (such as they had been) were long since gone --thanks to the woman lurking in the shadows-- and even if she was so inclined to yell for help, even her old self would have recognized the futility of such a thing.  She was on the moon, for pity sakes!

"Little Kimmie, trying so hard to be brave," the woman continued to taunt, her intonation of 'Kimmie' setting Kim's teeth on edge.  She hated being called that!  "Your precious Tommy would be so proud.  He'll be so distraught when they find your body all over Angel Grove Park.  I'll be sure to let him know you died well."

She was slated for a horrible death.  Well, she'd been expecting death at the very least.  Thankfully, it didn't sound as if Tommy was in any danger.

"What's the matter, Kimmie?  Cat got your tongue?" her captor sneered.  Kim could detect an edge of frustration in the woman's voice.  Obviously, she wasn't playing the game properly.

"Who are you?" Kim asked, careful to keep her tone neutral, betraying nothing --not fear, anger, or excessive curiosity.  She'd play along --there was no sense in antagonizing her abductor-- but she'd do it on her own terms.

"I am the woman who destroyed Rita Repulsa.  My name strikes terror in the hearts of beings all across the cosmos.  I am the Dark Lady, but you may call me 'mistress.'"

Yeah, right.

"Why do you want me dead?"

"Be careful, Kimmie; curiosity killed the cat."

"I thought that was the whole point anyway."

"Ah, you're a lot more fun like this --the sharp-tongued, savvy warrior-- than the sappy, sweet, All-American valley girl shop-a-holic who turned her back on her friends and teammates ... who ripped her boyfriend's heart to shreds yet bewitched him so that he was incapable of loving anyone else!"

The venom behind those words startled Kim.  That's not what happened!  She hadn't turned her back on her friends; they had urged her to follow her dream.  Everything else that happened had been done to protect Tommy, but she was not likely to convince the Dark Lady of that.  During her outburst, the woman had drifted closer; Kim could see pale hands clenched in tight fists at her side.  Whoever the Dark Lady was, the vendetta against her stemmed from her relationship with Tommy.  But who would care so intensely about that?

"Why do I want you dead?  Because you made me what I am!  You're the reason I exist!  If it hadn't been for you, he would have loved me, and she wouldn't have been able to get her claws into me again!" the black-robed sorceress shrieked, and Kim felt an ice cold band wrap itself around her heart.  She had a horrible feeling she knew the face hidden in the shadows, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out how....

"But I have the power to change all that," the Dark Lady hissed, taking another step closer.  "I will change it, and then none of this will have ever happened.  I will have the life I should have lived!"

"I--I don't understand," Kim responded, her facade faltering for the first time.

"Poor Kimberly, I wish it didn't have to be this way," the shrouded figure mocked, and Kim's blood ran cold.  Now she knew where she'd heard that voice!  When Zedd had imprisoned her while draining her powers ... she remembered someone coming into the chamber ... standing over her.  At the time, she passed it off as a dream ... a hallucination.  Her visitor had used those same words in that same tone.  "You don't have to understand; all you have to do it die."

"Oh, God.  Kat?" Kim gasped, her heart sinking as the woman at last stepped fully into the dim light.  Though swathed all in black, pale gold hair cascaded down, flowing to the floor like a river of silk.  Porcelain complected, as perfect as a mask set with bejeweled eyes, was her face.  She was as beautiful and graceful as Kim remembered but as cold as the deepest reaches of space.

"Katherine Hillard died centuries ago; I am the Dark Lady," the statuesque woman intoned frigidly.  Kim had the sense that she had struck a nerve.

"What happened to you?" Kim continued.  She tried to recall how long ago Tommy had heard from their friend.  She was supposed to be studying ballet in London.

"Do you really care?" the Dark Lady sneered.

Of course I care; you're my friend! Kim wanted to shout, but she knew this Kat wouldn't believe her.  This Kat hated her, wanted her dead.  Trying to reach her with kindness wasn't going to work --at least at this juncture.

"Would you believe me if I said I did?"  Kim's words and tone were calculated to rankle.

"No."

"Then I guess I'm as good as dead," Kim declared nonchalantly.  She had to goad Kat into revealing more.  "I can't move out of this force field without being fried.  I have no powers, and Tommy and the Rangers don't even know I'm missing.  You seem to have all the cards."

"I don't know what you're playing at, Kimmie, but it won't work.  Somehow, devoid of powers and Rangers to help you, you survived my Mercytes.  The sooner you're dead, the better."

"Makes sense," Kim agreed, "but how satisfying will my death be for you?  You've been plotting my death for a long time, I imagine.  If you kill me now, I'll go to my grave never knowing what crime I committed; I'll die believing I'm innocent of any wrong doing.

"You know me, Kat, well enough to know that I don't like causing my friends pain.  I'd die before I hurt a friend; can you imagine how horrible I'd feel if I really was responsible for you turning to evil?"

Kat's face was expressionless, save for her eyes, which narrowed in suspicion.  She seemed to consider Kim's argument.  Then, a chilling smile curved her pale lips.

"Yes, I would like to look in your eyes and see therein the horrible realization of what you've done just before I rip your heart out," Kat hissed maliciously.

Kim suppressed a sigh of relief.  She had never been more grateful for Trini's lectures on trying to out-think an opponent than she was at this moment.

Kat paced before Kim's restraining pedestal, looking pensive.

"When did this begin?" she queried rhetorically.  Kim wisely remained silent.  "Was it before graduation when I realized Tommy was still --impossibly-- in love with you?  Was it when he and I split up just before I left for England?  Or was it when I came home for my first visit?  Ah yes, that's when it was ... the summer I came home....