Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers Megaforce. This story is fan-made.

Author's Note: This is not where the Megaforce series starts. If you want to read the series without getting lost, I suggest you read my stories in the order they appear:

No To Date Nights - The Party Night - Project Partners - Megaforce: Lives Behind The Masks - Prom Night - A Trip To Remember - First Meetings - Something She Loves – Protective Morans – Samurai In Harwood County – Rainy Days – Luck Had Nothing To Do With It – Ranger Support – Parents and Children – Hero Without The Spandex – Emma's Night – Emma's Mother – Bait And Switch – After Death – A Stormy Day – A Date For Tensou – A Mother's Advice – Mending Fences – Executioner Named Revenge –Those Three Words – On The Fourth Day – Babysitting – Tiger- A Fresh Start – On the Mountains – Looking Ahead – The Rangers' Recovery

When Gia woke up, she found herself in an empty room. There was nothing on the floor, nothing on the walls, no window to let some light in. There was only a door. Only a door and one chair.

On the chair, there was a man. When the man saw she was awake, he got up. Gia had been in this situation dozens of times before and remembered this time she had put herself here intentionally.

She had been in the hospital. After an attack from Vrak left her injured and burned, she was looking at a recovery in the hospital bed. Her mother had been by her side every day. Mrs. Goodall had stopped by for visits and brought treats with her to break up the monotony of the hospital food Gia was forced to eat. Emma was by her bedside constantly. Jake came for visits just as often as her mother did.

But today, the visits had been a little different. Today, Troy had showed up, begging for forgiveness he didn't need because he felt he was responsible for her injuries. Gia assured him he wasn't to blame, and they started talking afterwards. Their dreams came up. Troy explained a little more about his dreams to Gia: how he believed he was dreaming up moments of the lives of former Rangers, as well as seeing events that were going to occur in the future. He claimed he saw battles and a great war.

Gia, meanwhile, had dreams – nightmares – that focused only on events that had happened to her in the past. Her dreams were either forcing her to relive her horrible memories over and over again every night, or they played out different versions of one event. The latter, Troy had told her, was her guilt playing up.

The problem with her dreams, though, was that there was never an end. She would always wake up before there was any kind of resolution. It hurt and scared her every night. What hurt the most was when dreams of her father left her feeling sick, helpless, and horrible about herself. Her worst nightmares that involved him had her trapped in this very room where she was forced to listen to him yelling to her about how disappointed he was with her, how he blamed her for his death, and how she deserved to be mistreated by men like Cliff because of how shameful she was as a daughter and all the pain she had caused him in the months before his death. He'd scream at her, over and over again, until she woke up screaming for him to stop. And no matter who she told about her nightmares, they wouldn't stop.

Troy promised to help her. He promised to find a way to work with her to reach an end where she could hopefully apologize to her father and explain she never wanted him dead. She was hoping she could earn his forgiveness and that by doing so, her nightmares would finally stop.

The man, who she knew to be her father, got up from the chair and walked over to her. In her dreams, her back still hurt her, and her muscles were sore, but she could stand up. She could move around. However, as soon as she tried to get up to her feet, her father pushed her down.

"You disgust me," he seethed as he glared down hatefully at her.

"Dad, I'm…"

"You're what? Sorry? I'm dead because of you, and you're sorry? I try to help you, and you rip my heart out like I mean nothing to you?"

"It wasn't me…"

"Like hell it wasn't you!" her father screamed and pushed her down again. "I've given you everything. You're a fucking Power Ranger! You save everyone! You can't make it home in time to save me! Is that the thanks I get? My ungrateful, dirty, piece of shit daughter would rather be out saving complete strangers than her own father!"

"No, dad…"

"I should have let Cliff take you! If this is how you're going to treat the men in your life, you deserve nothing better than what you had with him! He put you in your place! He made sure you were doing everything you were supposed to be doing!"

"Dad…"

"Shut up!" he struck her across the cheek. He watched her fall to the ground and then she didn't get up. He knelt beside her and whispered in her ear, "You've got no one to blame for your pain but yourself. You've chosen this life. On day, it's going to catch up to you. One day, you're going to suffer for all the people you've hurt by being a selfish, ungrateful, dirty piece of shit."

"I'm sorry, dad," Gia sobbed into the cold, stone ground. Her father scoffed as he got up and stormed to the door.

"Sorry won't undo it," he said before slamming the door. Gia lay on the floor sobbing. She knew there was no point going after him. She had tried before, but the door was always locked and he would never come back.

"Gia!"

This time, it was Troy's voice, but he was too late. He fell down beside her and tried to help her up, but she pushed him away.

"You said you could help!" she screamed. "You said you'd be here!"

"I tried, Gia," he assured her as he tried to help her up, but she pushed him away. "This is my first time doing anything like this. I had no idea what I was doing."

"You said you'd be here! You said we could fix it!"

"I'll be here sooner next time," he promised her.

"No," Gia shook her head. "We're not doing this again."

"Gia, you're a wreck. Obviously this is eating you up. It's not going to stop until you face it…"

"Then I'll face it alone! Get away from me," she pushed him again and then got up and ran to the door. She tried to open it, but just like all the times before, it was locked.

"Push, Gia," Troy told her. Gia pushed the door and it opened, but when she stepped into the next room it caught fire suddenly. She tried to turn around, to run back to the other room where at least she was safe, but the door was gone. She let out another scream before everything was black.

-Megaforce-

Troy snapped out of his dream first, gasping for breath as his head rose up from the bed. He looked around, saw he was in the hospital and let out a sigh. At least that was over with for now.

He felt his hand was still holding Gia's and saw she was still sleeping. He had been forced from the dream when she walked into the new room, but it seemed she was still inside. Suddenly, she let out a scream as her eyes shot open. Tears started flooding down her cheeks almost instantly. When she looked up and saw him, her anger grew.

"You lied!"

"Gia…"

"Get out!" Gia screamed and tried to find something to throw at him, but all she had was her tiger. She launched it at him with as much force as she could muster up. Fortunately, it wasn't much. The tiger hit him, sending him the message that it was time to go. He stood up, set the tiger back on the bed so she could reach it, and then walked to the door.

"I know what I'm doing now," he said. "I was slow this time, I know, but I've never been in someone else's dream before…"

"Get out!" she screamed at him again and was about to reach for the tiger. Troy knew he was no longer welcomed and ran before she could throw it.

Instead, she clutched it to her chest and doubled over, sobbing hysterically. Troy could hear her in the hallways. He leaned against the door to her room and clutched his head. He had hoped to be able to help her the first time, but it seemed her nightmares were worse than he expected. By the time he got to her she was already on the floor sobbing inconsolably. He was going to have to be faster next time if he wanted to help her.

If she would let him help her next time. She made it clear this was an experience she never wanted to repeat. He couldn't blame her, but he couldn't give up.

"Is that Gia?" he heard someone ask from down the hallway and turned to see it was Mrs. Moran. She looked dressed up, confirming what Emma said about Mrs. Moran going around town to drop off resumes. She had quit her job before Mr. Moran passed away so that Gia and Emma had at least one parent at home all the time that they could turn to when they needed help. Now that Mr. Moran was gone, there was only so long she and the girl could live comfortable before the bills needed to be paid, groceries needed to be bought and their post-secondary education needed to be paid for. Mrs. Moran was desperate to get some money rolling in.

Troy nodded his head, answering her question. She dropped the folder she was carrying, which scattered her leftover resumes all over the hospital hall and darted into the room. Troy decided now would be a good time to leave. He had seen the verbal abuse Mrs. Moran had given to Gosei after finding out her daughter had died and come back to life without his help. He never wanted to be on the receiving end of Mrs. Moran's protective side.

Even if it meant running away with his tail between his legs like a coward. At least he would live to see another day.

Inside the room, Mrs. Moran darted over to her daughter's side, pulled her up and held her softly in her arms as Gia cried. Mrs. Moran asked her what was wrong, but Gia couldn't control her sobs enough to get her words out. To console her, Mrs. Moran had to go with what she knew. She knew her daughter had been having nightmares lately about her death. She knew the nightmares scared her. She assumed this one was worse than the others before.

"You're safe now," she whispered in her daughter's ear as she hugged her. "You're safe. It's okay. I'm here. He's not going to hurt you again, I promise."

Gia clung to her mother and sobbed hysterically until her body couldn't take it anymore and she passed out. Mrs. Moran held her daughter for a few moments afterwards before setting her down gently in the bed and then taking a seat on the chair. She looked at her jacket. The shoulder, the arm, and the left breast were soaked with her daughter's tears. She took off the jacket and hung it over the back of the chair.

At that moment, Mrs. Goodall came in with a tin of cookies she had baked. She was about to announce the arrival of the treat when she got a sense of the mood in the room. She looked to Gia and then to Mrs. Moran.

"Is everything okay?"

Mrs. Moran shook her head, "I can't do this, Claire. Ten minutes. For ten minutes straight she was in hysterics."

"Over what?"

"I don't know. A nightmare, maybe. What if it's just getting worse, Claire? What if this is a sign?"

"What is a sign?"

Mrs. Moran pointed to her jacket, "I can't go back to work. I can't not be there for her…"

"I don't need to work," Mrs. Goodall said. "It won't be the same, but when you're at work, I can stay at home with the girls. I can…"

"I'd be a bad mother if I left her."

"You're not leaving her," Mrs. Goodall shook her head. She pulled over the second chair and sat beside her best friend. "Vanessa, I left my daughter. You going to work… doesn't even qualify. Someone's got to pay the bills. Someone's got to provide for her."

"What if this happens again and I can't get home?" Mrs. Moran asked. "This was so much easier when Joe was around. I could be there for the girls, you know? I was always there and there was always food on the table. I can't… I can't do both."

"A lot of single mothers figured it out."

"They don't have my daughter. They don't have our girls," Mrs. Moran shook her head. "She needs me, Claire. I need to be with her. I can't do that and…"

"I'll sell my house."

"Claire…"

"I'll talk to Emma," Mrs. Goodall said. "If she's alright with it, I'll sell my house and move in with you. We'll use the profit for whatever you need. And I'll go to work. We'll keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. And you can be at home with them all the time."

"Claire, I can't…"

"My daughter's involved in this too," Mrs. Goodall smiled. "I wouldn't be a good mother or person if I didn't do something to help. I've got money left over from vacations I would have taken had I not smartened up, and Jeff and I have been saving up for college for Emma. She's good to go. My vacation money can cover Gia."

"Your money for Gia? No, Claire…"

"Stay home with your daughter," Mrs. Goodall insisted with a smile. "Leave the finances up to me."

Mrs. Moran threw her arms around Mrs. Goodall. This time, it was her turn to cry.