She retreated to a cabin just after Christmas, and ended up staying there three weeks after school started. Her father seemed to understand. He called her in sick and picked up her homework. She began to realize what it was the Lady wanted of her. She spent one day in meditation, one day recovering, and one day doing schoolwork, trying to keep up as she learned about what it was she had to do. Not a lot of it made sense, but she also began to understand her mother a little, and her father began to understand, too, she felt, as he watched her go through what could best be explained as an intensive training period. And then, one day, as much a surprise to him as to her, it was over. She knew it was time, at least for now, to finish school.
She was glad when she got home, ready to turn in all her assignments and find her friends. She thought she saw Adam almost as soon as she got to school, but she hadn't gotten used to him in baggy clothes or in green, and whoever it was had wavy hair longer than Adam wore his. So she ignored him until she heard the familiar six-toned beep, and he turned to check out the hall. Yes, Adam, looking very different with long hair. She raised an eyebrow at him when he caught her eye, and he smiled brightly. Then he looked down cast as his communicator beeped again. Was he smiling because of her? she wondered.
"I'll be right here," she mouthed, and leaned casually against her locker. He nodded and ran out. Still nothing on the power thing, she thought, pretty certain he'd already teleported out of the area. She shrugged, trying not to let it bother her as it had before the break, then began digging in her locker for a novel she'd wanted to finish and had accidently left at the school over Christmas.
She'd just found the book when someone grabbed her in a hug from behind and spun her around to face the others. From the feel of the power, it was Rocky, and her inventory of her friends confirmed the suspicion. There was one more, a stocky, well built boy in black and gold, and one less. "Are you feeling okay?" Kat asked, reaching out to hug her.
"Much better, thank you. I don't even know what it was. Luckily, they'll work with you here, or I might have had to stay for summer school." She glanced shyly at Adam, who stood between Tommy and Tanya. He was smiling more than she'd ever seen him, and her heart leaped. Could it be because of her? "Where's Billy?"
Tanya laughed, and gave her a hug. "You and your questions. Let's meet after school - this is something we can't exactly discuss here."
Maggie chuckled. "Somehow, that doesn't surprise me."
They met after school, and that boy in black looked at her, a little wary. "Hi," she grinned. "I'm Maggie."
"Jason." He extended his hand; she shook it, then snatched her hand away and Looked at him. His aura had a touch of red in it, but the gold that was prominent flared and jumped around so much, she wondered that he could stand it. Other than that, he looked healthy enough. Although, with his aura that erratic, he wouldn't be for long.
"Let's go to the park," Tommy suggested, and they all headed in that direction.
"Bro, what are you going to tell her?" she heard Jason ask. Tommy laughed.
"Don't worry."
When they reached the park, and her clearing, they sat down in circle. "So, where's Billy?" Maggie asked. She was beginning to feel like a broken record player.
Tommy, grinning wildly, hooked a thumb at Jason. "What does he Look like?" he asked.
Maggie grinned. "A little bit red - Rocky got his power from you originally? - with lots of gold, but it's really jumpy, like...."
"How did you know that?" Jason demanded, interrupting her. Rocky grinned and nodded when she looked his way.
"I'm Wiccan. I read Auras."
"We looked just like that," Kat told him, and Rocky hit him in the shoulder.
"At least you got some sort of a warning," he said.
"So, are you going to tell me where Billy went?" Maggie asked, looking expectantly at Tommy.
The explanation, that Billy had been suffering side effects from the time distortion, surprised her. "He's where?" she asked in a whispered yell, which caused Rocky and Kat to break into giggles. Jason was still stunned, staring at her.
"Aquitar. That's what you missed during that time distortion, when you were down with the migraines. A whole different set of rangers, us as kids, and other fantastical monsters. Pretty weird," Tommy grinned.
"Like a whole 'nother planet?"
"Yes," Tanya grinned. "A whole different planet."
"Not fair! Can he get visitors?" She grinned and shook her head. "Man. Amazing. Trust me, I would rather have not had the migraines. They are not fun." She sighed. "So, what other changes are there?"
"None, really," Kat said with a smile that indicated otherwise.
"Well, that's good." Maggie leaned back on her hands. They separated a while after that, and Maggie was surprised to see that Adam and Tanya didn't go off together. Kat, after a short walk and talk with Tommy and Jason, returned to where she sat and smiled as she joined her on the ground.
"I thought you'd want to know. Tanya said something to Adam, I think. She's not interested in him any more."
"I wondered. Is he okay with it?"
"He seems to be." Kat shrugged, and leaned closer, even though they were alone. "I don't really understand humans much. It's so much easier for me." She leaned back, basking in the sunlight. "He worried about you a lot. Are you okay?"
Maggie sighed. "I wasn't really sick. I had to... find some things out, sort some things out. I guess I had to find out what I was getting myself into. Or rather, the Lady decided it was time I had more of a clue as to what I was getting myself into. I didn't mean to deceive you all." She shook her head. "It's really confusing, and I'm still going to be sorting it out in my head for a while."
"That bad, eh?"
"Oh, yeah. Remember that... spell I had just after I'd told you guys I knew who you were?" Kat nodded. "It has to do with that. And now that I know that, there's this urgency to get out.... I know She'll wait until I've graduated, but I don't know if I'll even be here for graduation. I'll have to see." She shrugged. And just after I get the good news.... It was almost enough to make her want to cry.
"What will you do then?"
"I don't know." Maggie laughed. "Not only are humans completely off their rockers, but Wicca are even worse." And I'm one of the really weird ones, she thought to herself.
"So, what are you going to do about Adam?"
"I don't know. I don't know if I should do anything about him. I mean, he has his own destiny; I can't really expect him to wait for mine to finish with me."
Kat tilted her head, cat-like. "He couldn't go with you?"
Maggie smiled. "We're talking werewolves just about eating my face off. I can risk me, but not him. Besides, he has responsibilities here."
"Werewolves?" Kat's eyes widened. "You're kidding."
"Nope. That's the impression I got, anyway. It might have been a real wolf, but I don't think so." She grinned. "There's a vampire, too, and a few other things I don't really want to recognize. It wasn't pretty."
"You were pale. I imagine it wasn't." She smiled.
Maggie laughed suddenly. "Wait a minute. You're a were-cat, and you doubt the existence of werewolves?"
"No, I don't doubt them, I just... didn't think they really did exist."
"That's the same thing, Kat," Maggie grinned.
She shrugged, then nudged Maggie. "So?" she asked, bringing the conversation back to Adam.
Maggie sighed. "Like I said, he has responsibilities here. Besides, I can't ask him to abandon you guys - I can't imagine it's easy to find a replacement."
"I don't know," Kat mused. "I haven't had to, yet." She looked at Maggie, eyes sparkling. "Do you like pink?"
Maggie's eyes widened. "No, no, you look smashing in it, and my plate is so full already, but thank you." She stumbled over the words. The thought of doing what they did made her stomach twist painfully.
Kat laughed, and Maggie could only imagine what her face looked like. "That wasn't nice," she said, relaxing after a minute.
"No, but I had fun." Kat chuckled, then turned semi-serious. "So, about Adam...."
"What about Adam?" he asked, and both girls jumped.
Maggie looked up at him, squinting in the bright sunlight, and wondered how he'd managed to sneak up on both of them. "Kat tells me you and Tanya are.... apart."
His face fell slightly, and he nodded. "Well, if we were ever together, we aren't now." He shrugged. "Mind if I join you?"
Kat grinned. "I have to go. I promised Tommy I'd meet him at the juice bar, where he's likely trying to beat Jason to a pulp. Talk to you later?"
"Definitely," Maggie told her, and the leggy blonde stood and jogged off across the park. Adam plopped down in her place. The whole group seemed to conspire to leave her alone with him.
Maybe it was just her imagination.
"What were you talking about?"
Maggie grinned. "You and Tanya. And what I'm going to do after Graduation." Or before, she added mentally.
"So, what are you going to do?"
"I have no idea. Buy a car, for sure." She leaned back, basking in the sun much the way Kat had just minutes before. "What about you?"
"I'm looking around for something to do. I don't know what, yet, but I'll find something."
"I can't wait to hear about it," she murmured.
"Why? You leaving?" Maggie couldn't identify the tone in his voice.
"I don't know. Maybe." She looked at him, then sighed. She couldn't lie to him, to any of them, really, but definitely not to him. She couldn't have said why. "Yes. I don't know where I'm going, or how long I'll be gone, or even how soon. I don't think I'll be walking with you guys."
"At graduation?" He sounded disappointed. She shook her head. "Why?"
"She's getting impatient. She needs help, now, and I'm the one She wants."
He nodded. "This has something to do with that day in the juice center, right? Just after you told us you knew who we were." She nodded. "What did you see?"
"A lot of really scary stuff." She shook her head. "Nothing I want to think about now. I'm going to have to soon enough." And I don't want to risk the chance you'll want to come with me.
He didn't respond to that, either her words or her thoughts, and they sat in a companionable silence, basking in the sunlight.
Strangely enough, she never saw evidence that Tanya had broken up with Adam. They seemed to be together every time she saw them. Adam looked happy enough, which made Maggie happy for him. It also made her avoid them a lot more, because more often than not she had the impression that he wasn't happy at all.
Jason was a riot, once he got used to the fact that she knew they were Rangers, and even commented once it was nice not to have to make up an excuse to take off. More than once she'd distracted his girlfriend, Emily, while he and the others had to take off and fight. It still bothered her that she couldn't track them, she'd gotten used to being able to do that, but she managed to get over it. And having someone else around who was newer than she was a nice extra.
It wasn't long after her return when Jason got sick. Emily seemed to take it hardest. Maggie wasn't there when he staggered into the Youth Center and collapsed, but it didn't surprise her at all. She'd seen it coming. Although she never got an explanation of where those Gold powers had come from; they didn't taste quite the same as her other friends. Then he lost them, and went back to being normal, or at least as normal as the former Power Rangers ever seemed to get: Maggie never knew what he Looked like after that. He just wasn't around much.
Graduation loomed ever closer, and Maggie began to feel the urgency to get ready to leave. She found a good car, a used green Jeep Grand Cherokee with a black interior that was in excellent condition, and began to plan what had to go with her. Every time Kat saw the Cherokee she'd burst into hysterics. Maggie understood why, but didn't comment; she did, however, blush every time Kat started laughing, and pretty soon she had Rocky grinning at her knowingly every time she drove the thing. Adam never said a word, maybe because he was rarely around, but he couldn't have missed it. Tanya simply scowled whenever the topic came up, but eventually she, too, saw the humor in the situation. It was enough to drive Maggie batty. At the same time, she was grateful for such good friends.
She found that she had some free time, and she spent a lot of it studying up on supernatural occurrences and other weird stuff, anything she could get her hands on; her friends were involved in the Little Angels Haven shelter/orphanage, and raising money for it. The guys were involved in a tournament, and the girls were there to mentor the children. Then two things happened at the same time. The urgency to leave became overwhelming, and she couldn't find her friends.