Twist Of Fate

“So . . . Blue Ranger,” Zedd said, his mouth still open. “This is a surprise. You haven’t changed. And I mean that. you haven’t changed.”

“Not a bit.” Rita blinked and tilted her head. “And I certainly never expected to see you again. Last I heard, you’d left the Rangers and fallen in love with some fish girl, or some such.” She said.

“Something like that at any rate,“ Billy nodded. “And I’m sorry just to drop in here,” he said, and gritted his teeth as the cramping in his abdomen grew worse. “but I really have no choice. Not . . . not anymore,” he grabbed at his abdomen and doubled over as the pain shot throughout his entire body. Pain contorted his face, and he wrapped his arms around himself, as he finally gave in to his agony. “Please. Rita, Zedd, I’m begging you. I . . . I need you to . . .help me.”

Rita and Zedd looked at one another, and they both felt their hearts constrict. The energy that filled them, remembered Billy with fondness, love even, though they knew that they had all been mortal enemies. They knew that if they went to him, if they helped him, their cozy, uncomplicated lives would be changed forever.

Green, agonized eyes gazed up at them, and a tear that he obviously, desperately, tried to stop trickled down his face, and they sighed as they looked at one another. Wordlessly, they descended to him and placed their arms around him. He all but collapsed into their steadying embrace, and they helped him into the house. They laid him on the couch, drew the curtains, and Rita sighed as she gently wiped the pained tears from his cheeks.

“You are very warm,” she said, and Billy nodded.

“It . . . Happens. There . . . There’s a medicine in my . . . Cloak.”

Zedd reached into the folds of Billy’s cape, pulled out one of the packets of powder, and pursed his lips.

“Hmm,” he said, almost neutrally as he examined it. “I haven’t seen this in a long time.”

“So, you . . . Know what it . . . is for,” Billy gasped and arched his back as pain shot from his abdomen to his back, then throughout his body.

“Yes,” Zedd nodded, and opened the package. “and it’s a sorcery powder that’s not normally associated with either humans or males.”

“I know,” Billy nodded weakly, and tried to sit up, but couldn‘t, and Rita gently lifted his head, and Zedd poured the powder into his mouth.

Billy’s body trembled, and his breath lengthened and deepened as the pain subsided. “Thank you,” he whispered, and Rita indicated his cloak.

“Do you know what you are going through?” she asked, as for some reason, she stroked his hair, and to her surprise, he turned his head to the coolness of her hand, and the surrealism of the situation, as well as the outright bizarreness, escaped none of them.

“I . . . I was not informed of all of it,” he answered. “but I know the . . . basics.”

“So, if I may hazard a guess,” Zedd said, as he felt the same inexplicable tenderness toward Billy that Rita had felt, and he knelt by Billy’s side. “this,” he indicated Billy’s body. “Was not a choice.”

Billy smiled at him sadly. “Does Frigidica ever really give people a choice?”

“Never to my knowledge,” Rita said. “but you aren’t normally her type . . . although she has been known to have certain . . . exotic tastes every now and then.”

Billy‘s eyes slid shut, and he inhaled deeply. “When Zordon’s energy destroyed, or saved, however one wants to look at it, Dark Specter’s forces, there were some that were so intrinsically evil they couldn’t be changed, nor could they be destroyed, at least not completely -- weakened, yes, but not destroyed. Also, since the forces of Evil really were defeating all the forces of Good, they didn’t leave much behind on any front, so . . .”

“So there isn’t much choice in receptacles,” Zedd said, and Billy nodded.

“Right,” he answered weakly.

“May I examine you?” Rita asked, and Billy’s eyes opened wide with fear and his entire body trembled.

“I will not hurt you,” she said. “Zordon’s energy will not allow us to hurt you. But someone needs to see if . . . Well, see to your health.”

Slowly, his hands shaking, Billy unbuttoned the magnetic buttons on his cloak and pulled it open. Her eyes opened in surprise, and she exchanged a quick glance with her husband.

“You are very far along,” she said, as she lifted Billy’s blousy shirt and gently probed his large, round abdomen, and he swallowed as he nodded. She moved her hand over him, and he fought the tremors that passed through him as she gently lifted his legs, and bent them at the knees.

“The further along I became, the more lax the security became. They didn’t think I’d be able to escape in this condition,” he answered, and his voice wavered, as he fixed his eyes firmly on the ceiling. They knew they would get no more information from him than that, and Rita looked pointedly at Billy’s body, then her husband, who started, almost guiltily.

“Oh!“ he exclaimed quietly, and then nodded. “I’ll go get my staff, my dear. Be right back,” Zedd said as he dropped a kiss on Rita’s cheek, and left the room. Billy’s eyes followed him fearfully, and his entire body tightened up as she reached between his legs.

“We understand why you don’t have a lot of trust for us, Blue Ranger,” she said softly, and continued to place her hand where it had to go, and he squeezed his eyes shut as she gently probed him. “But, even though you really had little choice, you did come to us for help. Help you knew only we could give,” Billy stifled a sharp cry, and sweat dripped down his face as she finished her exam.

She wiped her fingers on a towel that mysteriously appeared in her hand, and dropped it to the floor as she covered him back up. “And you are smart enough to know that only through our sorcery, can we be allowed to give you that help. I can do the physical examination, but Zedd is really the best one to do the rest.”

“And speaking of . . . of what you had to do,” Billy swallowed. ‘What did you find out?”

“Well, I’d say you’re going to give birth within a few weeks at the absolute most, days at the least. You are very soft and flexible, but in order to be accurate, we need Zedd to do what he needs to before we can say anything for certain.”

“However, Blue Ranger -- Billy,” she ran a light finger through his hair, and sighed as she suddenly took both his hands in hers and gently pressed them together. “I swear to you, even as Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, as evil as we were then, we would not have hurt anyone in the way you have been hurt.”