dance magic dance

"Holy shit," he gasps, practically lurching off the stool to wrap her up in his arms. She laughs freely into his chest and squeezes him as hard as she can, making him wheeze. It's the tightest hug he's been given in the last thirty years. He relishes it for a few moments, then pulls back. "What are you doing here?"

"C'mon, this is totally the place to be on a Tuesday night in LA," Kim teases, gesturing around the bar, which boasts two other patrons—one with permanent whiskey face—and the kind of lighting that missed "mood" and went straight to "Saw trap".

Sitting back on his stool, Tommy drinks her in. She left the shoulder-length bob and pink crop tops in 1999 and has opted for a stylish pixie cut and a flowy white jumpsuit that'd make any Cape Cod vodka aunt stew with envy. She has the same air about her that he sees in some moms on calls, like she hasn't slept for a decade but refuses to complain about it.

Her eyes are still the same, though: bright and warmer than they have any right to be, especially when looking at him. She's always exuded a special kind of empathy. It's what made him follow her around like a lost puppy after he got free of Rita, what made him think that if he just tried harder then he'd feel something deeper for her than friendship.

"Look at you," Kim says gleefully, looking him up and down. "You were always kinda muscley, but this is just… can you fit through doorways without turning sideways?"

He grins. "Can you meet the height requirements for rollercoasters without wearing wedges yet?"

Her cackle hasn't changed either. The other two patrons turn to look at her admiringly, and even Estefania comes over for introductions and Kim's drink order.

"This is Kim Hart," Tommy says, unable to disguise the pride and slight slurring in his voice. "My first friend and first girlfriend."

"And last girlfriend," Kim agrees.

"Not quite," he says with a grimace.

She makes a face and turns to Estefania. "Hoo, boy. I'm gonna need an extra splash of Cachaça in that caipirinha for this."

Kim's polished off her caipirinha and is chewing on the ice by the time he gives her the Reader's Digest rundown on his life after Angel Grove, and when he asks her what she's been doing for the last thirty years, she reaches into her purse and pulls out her phone. Estefania sets down another caipirinha when she turns it so he can see a picture of a tall, dark and handsome man rocking an insanely attractive mustache and beard combo. Two kids have plastered themselves to his sides, but only one has Kim's eyes.

"Ajeet and I have been married since 2011," she says. "And that's Seva and Baani."

"Holy shit, you're a mom," Tommy murmurs, pinching his fingers open to zoom in.

"And stepmom," she says proudly. "Seva's from Ajeet's first marriage, and I love that kid down to my bones."

He looks at the picture of her family and has to swallow down a terrible ache.

Kim tells him about the garden center she started in Astoria that exploded during the pandemic and hasn't slowed down since, and how she teaches gymnastics at the Loupakis Athletic Center in her town. Twelve of her students have gone on to compete nationally, and three went to the 2008 Olympics. She also volunteers with a few of the local environment non-profits whenever she has a free moment. In addition to the husband and the kids, she's got a German shepherd called Killer and a cockatiel called Bone Saw, because Baani is a bloodthirsty little hellion who should never be allowed to name anything.

It seems almost impossible to have such a full life after everything, but Kim always was the best of them.

Then she tells him about the others: Jason in Arizona, married with four kids, and running a successful sheet metal fabrication company; Zach, with two gold Olympic medals under his belt and coaching future champions alongside his longtime girlfriend; Billy and his husband both working on particle acceleration physics at CERN.

They've all somehow managed to shed their pasts like molts and move forward, finding ways to make the most of their time on the planet they nearly gave their lives to save. They're living.

And then, of course, there's Tommy: drinking alone on a Tuesday night.

"Explain to me again why you aren't trying to make things work with this Evan? Use small words. Actually, just draw a diagram on this." She hands him a napkin. "I'm a visual learner."

Tommy takes it, balls it up, and tosses it so it lightly bounces off her forehead. "You're not doing a very good job of living up to your last name."

"The only heart in this room is the one spinning above your head like you're a Looney Tunes character whenever you say his name," Kim snarks with a smile, which falls away with the suddenness of a winter sun. "C'mon, Tommy. It's obvious this guy is it."

Sighing, he turns back to watch Estefania slide over a glass of water with a pointed look. He takes it and tips it her way in a toast, then drains it in one go. "You know what he said when he found out that I'm from Angel Grove? That it must've been so cool to be there that day."

The way it makes Kim pause is a small victory that she snatches out of his hands by shrugging and saying, "To an outsider? It probably was cool. He basically watched toy action figures come to life and save the world."

"Jesus," he murmurs, then drops his head into his hands with a laugh. The beer in his belly makes his brain slosh around in his skull. "How are you so well-adjusted about it?"

Kim snorts, then licks the rim of her glass. "'Well-adjusted'? Tommy, I was fucked up for years after the battle."

"B-but you got out. You went to college," he points out, a little desperately. "Y-You got married, had kids. You've made a life for yourself. You found your way."

"I got kicked out of college my first week. Some stuck-up asshole made a crack about the Angel Grove clean-up crew and I…" With a sigh, Kim pauses to take a sip of her caipirinha, then stares into the glass like it holds something that might assuage the guilt in her voice. "Turns out colleges don't like it when you K.O. other students for no apparent reason. I-I was lost for a long time. That first year, I think I slept through the night a grand total of five times because I'd wake up screaming every time I closed my eyes. I couldn't eat—every time I tried, all I could see was Trini's jaw being blasted off her face. The others left. You left. I had no one who… who knew the truth. I didn't talk to anyone for months on end, not even my parents. And I didn't want to talk to anyone, because I felt like poison, like I'd infect and kill anyone who got close to me."

It's such a familiar scenario that his jaw crackles with nausea and the phantom pain of what Trini must have felt in her final moments. If he pukes all over the bar, they're never going to let him back in. Or he'll make the Wall of Shame. He inhales slowly until it passes.

More than that, it fills him with so much guilt that he thinks he might collapse into himself like a dying star. Kimberly never should have gone through any of that alone. He wants to wring Jason's neck for abandoning her, but there's only one person to blame and it's the person who left them all first.

Apologizing won't do anything to change reality and she'd probably beat the shit out of him if he tried. "You're not. You're not poison, Kim, god. Me, on the other hand—"

"Tommy, how long are you going to keep throwing yourself into the Dark Dimension for things that weren't your fault?" Kim asks, the genuine curiosity in her voice at war with her annoyed expression. "You know, the only one who thinks you should be punished is you."

"I—what I did—what I almost did—" He can't get the words out, but she knows. She was there for most of it. He's sure Jason filled her in on the rest. "I'm the one who's poison."

Her gaze flattens. "You once told me it was like you were chained to a chair and forced to watch everything that happened on a big movie screen. She was piloting you like you were her very own Megazord."

It's such an unexpectedly hilarious way to look at it that he bursts out laughing. He manages to collect himself after a few moments, knuckling away tears that have nothing to do with humor. "So, how do you do it, Kim? What changed that let you… move on?"

"What changed? Nothing," she says simply. "I'm still traumatized, Tommy. We all are. We were child soldiers that stopped an alien invasion. But… time marches on, and I missed being part of something. People are better than no people, you know? I started talking to my parents again. I started getting out more and more; I started helping with the clean-up, made friends. One of them recommended me for a job with CREST in Astoria. That's where I met Ajeet."

Tommy thinks of the picture of the handsome man with the incredible beard and the contentment in his gaze. He lifts his glass to drain the rest of his beer. "Does he…"

"Know?" Kim finishes for him, then smiles. "He's my husband, Tommy. He's the person I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. He's the father of my kids. Of course he knows."

He chokes on a mouthful of Craftsman. "What the f—Kim."

"I still wake up screaming sometimes," she says quietly, wrinkling her nose at the beer dripping down his chin. She hands him a napkin. "I can't bring myself to stock daisies at the garden center because all I see is you putting Trini down on that hill. Sometimes Seva watches TikToks where people claim what happened in Angel Grove was a government conspiracy and it's all I can do to not find out where these people live and hunt them down like dogs. But I'm not alone in it. When it all gets too heavy for me to carry, Ajeet takes some of the weight. He makes it bearable."

Tommy stares at the little puddles of his beer on the bar. The memory of Evan all but shouting that the only thing Tommy was good for was sex is eaten by another memory: Evan, dappled with sunlight and covered in boils, looking at Tommy and declaring that people make life worth living.

People are better than no people.

His eyes grow hot. He clears his throat. "Why are you in LA, Kim?"

The sigh she heaves in response is so, so heavy. "There've been putty sightings here. Twelve in the last couple of months, four in the last week. The police are keeping it quiet, keeping it out of the papers, because monsters that grow out of the ground sound insane no matter who's describing them, but… it's escalating. Alpha's on it now."

It's like a weight that was just starting to lift off his shoulders drops back down with a few extra tons. Sucking in a shuddering gasp, Tommy folds his arms on the bar and lets his head fall into the dark cave they create.

"Oh god," he whimpers. "Oh god, she's back, isn't she?"

Kim doesn't say anything. He hears the clinking of the ice in her drink.

"So it was all for nothing. We gave everything—we sacrificed those years, w-we suffered things that I still don't have words to describe, we did everything Zordon told us to do, and I…"

A small, but strong hand is laid gently between his shoulder blades. "You suffered more than anyone."

"And it was all for nothing," he says again, lifting his head. His vision swims with tears. "She survived."

"We haven't… been able to confirm that, but I came to scope the city out," Kim says. "And I wanted to know what you knew."

He hangs his head, then turns to take in her grim expression. "I fought one a few months ago. I-I thought it was just… I thought it was just the one. Something that managed to escape that day. But if Alpha's sending you here… does that mean…?"

The last time Tommy saw Zordon, it was the day he left for the Army. He'd stormed into the Command Center as well as he could on a still-healing broken ankle, shoving a shrieking Alpha out of the way, and vowed to bomb the place into oblivion if Zordon so much as ever sent him a postcard. Trini's blood was still caked under his nails.

The contrition on that enormous, hovering face made Tommy want to tear the link that tethered Zordon to the chamber in two with his bare hands. He'd done it before.

Thank you for all you have done, Tommy, Zordon had said quietly.

Oh, no, Zordon, thank you for making us fight in your fucking war. God, you and Rita really are two sides of the same coin: I'm nothing but a puppet to you. Guess what? I'm cutting the strings for good, Tommy spat, and then walked out.

"Yeah. Zordon was the one who told me I'd find you here, actually," Kim admits. "He sends his regards."

Tommy snorts. "Yeah, I bet he does."

"And… we both thought you should have this."

She reaches into her purse and then places something on the bartop between them with a click. Her hand lifts and his heart stops beating.

The familiar glow of the green power coin is the brightest thing in the building.