“Nightshadow, appear before me,” Rita screeched.

“Yes, my empress,” the monster said as he appeared almost out of nowhere. “I was just helping out with the rest of the repairs.” The castle was damaged pretty badly by the Joker’s explosion. Rita had been able to get a forcefield up at the last minute, so she survived.

“What are your capabilities?”

“I am almost completely invisible at night, hence the name,” Nightshadow said, “I can also shoot little darts, and when they hit, I can give the person, or person’s, really bad nightmares. The harder they try to fight the nightmares, the worse they become.”

“Good,” Rita said, “When darkness falls in Hawaii, I want you to go down and shoot each of the Lantern Rangers. In a few days, they’ll be begging us to let them join the side of evil.”

“Hmm, that was absolutely wonderful,” Kim said, “It’s been a while since I’ve eaten that much in just one sitting.”

“Yeah, well, with all of the new publicity, thanks to Superboy,” Alan said, “Big meals like this can be afforded around here.

“I’m just glad that you’re back in business,” Jason said. They all heard a bell ringing at the front desk. Everyone groaned.

“Jason, would you mind getting that?” Alan said, “I’ve got to go check on something.”

“Sure, Alan,” Jason said. He got up and headed for the front of the motel. Some men were standing there. “Can I help you?”

“We’re looking for Mr. Alan Scott,” one of the men said, “Who are you?”

“I’m his nephew, Jason,” Jason replied, “I’ll go try to find him for you, though. Who should I say is asking for him?”

“Tell him Austin Stark is here,” the man said.

“Will do,” Jason said. With a sarcastic salute, Jason went in search of his uncle.

“Hey, Alan,” Jason said when he finally found him. “Some guy named Austin Stark is here.”

“Oh, boy,” Alan said, “He’s the owner of that other hotel I was telling you about. He must think that my motel is still in trouble. I think I’ll go give him the surprise of a lifetime.” He walked towards the entrance. Jason followed him.

“Hello, Alan,” Stark said.

“Austin,” Alan said, with a nod of his head.

“I’m here to buy your motel,” Stark said.

“You can forget that,” Alan said, “In case you haven’t heard, we’re back in business. I’ve made enough to pay off my debt to the bank. You can forget about buying me out. I’ll never sell to you.”

“You’ll regret that,” Stark said. With a wave to his companions, they all left.

“Jerk,” Jason said.

A few hours later, the gang found themselves relaxing at the beach after sunset.

“Wow,” Zack said, “This vacation has just been totally awesome. I’m glad that Rita has taken some time off, or it would never be this relaxing.”

All of a sudden, Tommy felt a prick. “What was that? I felt something prick me.”

“Probably a bite,” Jason said, “There’s plenty of bugs around here.” Over the next ten minutes or so, the Rangers all feel the odd pricking.

“Sweet dreams, Rangers,” Rita said, cackling.

That night, Tommy was the first one to dream. In it, he was fighting a monster in the Dragonzord. “Come on, ugly,” he said, “Time to feel the power of the dragon. Dragonzord, warrior mode.” Nothing happened. Tommy blew a six toned melody on his dragon dagger, but the Dragonzord didn’t move. He tried the manual controls, but again nothing happened. He stood by helplessly as the Dragonzord was taken apart, piece by piece, by the monster

“No,” he cried out, sitting bolt upright. He could hear whimpering in the next room. He was through the door going between them in seconds.

In Kim’s nightmare, Tommy was evil and was attacking them all. “Tommy, no,” she said, “Don’t do this.”

“Too late, little Kimberly,” Tommy said, as his hands closed around her throat.

Tommy came into the room, to find Kim wriggling around, gasping for air. He went over and tried gently shaking her awake.

“Kim, wake up,” he said, “It’s only a dream.” Kim sat bolt upright, finally gulping air.

“Tommy?” she inquired.

“Yeah, Kim, it’s me,” Tommy said. Kim collapsed into her lovers arms, sobbing into his chest. “Sh, why don’t you tell me about it? That should help.”

“All right,” Kim said, as she stopped crying. “It was awful. You had turned evil and when I tried to talk you into rejoining us, you... you... killed me.”

“You know that I’d never do that,” Tommy said.

“I know,” Kim said, “But it seemed so real.”

“I know,” Tommy said, “I had a nightmare, too. Want to hear about it?” Kim nodded. “In my nightmare, I was in the Dragonzord, fighting a monster. When I tried to call upon warrior mode, nothing happened. When I tried calling upon its missiles, nothing happened. All I could do was sit and watch Dragonzord get torn apart by the monster. Then I woke up. I guess it isn’t even half as bad as yours.”

“It is to me, and to you obviously,” Kim said, taking his hands in hers.

“It was just so heartbreaking,” Tommy said, “I mean, I feel a real connection to the Dragonzord, as weird as that sounds.”

“Doesn’t sound weird at all,” Kim said, “I feel the same way about my Pterodactyl zord. The reason I didn’t dream about something like that about it was that you’re a lot more important to me.” There almost seemed to be hurt in her voice, and Tommy could guess why.

“Please don’t think that you aren’t a lot more important than me than the Dragonzord, because you are,” Tommy said, “I don’t know why I had a nightmare about it, rather than you.

“I didn’t think that,” Kim said. Tommy just simply looked at her. “All right, I did think that for a second.”

“I love you, Kim,” Tommy said, “I guess I don’t really say it a lot, but I do.”

“And I love you too, Tommy,” Kim said, “Can you stay in here tonight?”

“Sure,” Tommy said. He crawled into bed behind her. She snuggled back into his arms, reached up and turned off the light. Neither had nightmares the rest of the night, though they had plenty of other... interesting dreams.

Jason was in the Command Center. All of a sudden, it was being rocked by explosions.

“Alpha, try to teleport the Rangers out,” Zordon commanded.

“No,” Kim said, “We won’t leave you.”

“Ay yi yi,” Alpha said, “We can’t do anything. Rita has blocked our teleportation signals.” Just then, the whole place blew up. Jason sat bolt upright, drenched with sweat.

“Hi, Angela,” Zack said. Angela walked up to him and handed him a piece of paper. “What’s this?”

“A restraining order,” Angela said, “Saying that you’ll keep twenty feet away from me from now on.” With that, she walked away, and Zack sat bolt upright, drenched in sweat.

Billy and Trini were fighting a monster all by themselves. The others were unconscious around them. Billy took a terrible blow and the monster disappeared. Trini ran over to him and took off Billy’s helmet, but it was too late. Billy was dead.

Trini took a terrible blow. The monster disappeared and Billy went running over to her. He gathered her in his arms and teleported to the Command Center. Zordon scanned her.

“I’m sorry, Billy,” Zordon said, “But she’s dead.” Billy starts sobbing and...

Billy sits bolt upright in his bed. He hears a whimpering coming from Trini’s room. Seeing that the adjoining door is open, he goes through it. He finds her at the foot of her bed, curled up in the fetal position.

He gathers her into his arms, gently picks her up, and puts her back into her bed. He crawls into bed behind her and wraps his arms around her. She snuggles closer to him, and he falls asleep quickly. Neither has any more nightmares.

Trini woke the next morning to find herself wrapped up in strong arms. She almost panicked for a minute before realizing that they were Billy’s. She turned around to face him, reached out, and gently touched his face.

Despite her best efforts to the opposite, Billy awoke. “Good morning, sunshine,” he said, playfully using his pet name for her. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Trini said, “Why are you in here?”

“You had a bad dream last night, and I didn’t think you should be left alone,” Billy said.

“Thank you,” Trini said. She noticed that the only thing she had on was a night shirt and some underwear. “Given my state of undress, did anything happen? Did you do anything?”

“No,” Billy said.

“Well then,” Trini said, as she slipped the shirt over her head. “I should reward you, for being such a gentleman.” With that, she gave him a long, deep kiss.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Billy, I’ve never been as sure about anything in my life,” Trini said. She kissed him again and he returned the kiss.

“Brr, it’s cold,” Kim said.

“Just the usual morning chill,” Alan said, “How’d you guys sleep last night?”

“Good,” Tommy said. They had agreed not to let on to Alan about their nightmares, since most of them revolved around them being Rangers.

“I wonder where Billy and Trini are,” Zack said.

“We’re right here,” Trini said, as she led Billy into the dining room. They sat down and started eating.

“How’d you two sleep last night?” Alan asked.

“Great,” Billy said. Alan believed him, but the other Rangers could tell that he and Trini had nightmares, too.

The gang headed to the beach later. They were all talking about their nightmares the night before.

“It can’t be a coincidence,” Billy said, “I mean, all of us having dreams at the same time?”

“You’re right, Ranger.” The Rangers spun around at the voice, to find Nightshadow standing right behind them. There were putties, too.

The Rangers saw that they were clear to morph. “It’s morphin’ time.”

“Dragonzord.

“Mastadon.”

“Pterodactyl.”

“Triceratops.”

“Saber Tooth Tiger.”

“Tyrannosaurus.” They morphed and tore into the putties.

“Come get some, Rangers,” Nightshadow said. The Rangers set into fighting the monster.

After they were getting their butts kicked, Zack decided that it was enough. “Speed gear,” he called. His boots and gauntlets were activated and he came at Nightshadow, hitting it with lightning fast punches and kicks.

“Cannon,” Tommy said, calling upon his hand held cannon. He blasted the monster to pieces.

“I don’t think so,” Rita said, “Magic wand, make my monster grow.” She threw the wand to Earth, where it hit Nightshadow and made the monster grow.

“We need Dinozord power now.”

Tommy called his dragon dagger and blew the haunting melody to call upon the Dragonzord. “Dragonzord, warrior mode,” he called once it came out of the sea. It converted into the fierce looking warrior.

Meanwhile, the other Rangers were already in Megazord battle mode, and were getting their heads handed to them by Nightshadow. Tommy and the Dragonzord leapt into battle. He distracted Nightshadow, while the others took a breather.

“Power sword,” Jason called. A sword fell out of nowhere. The Megazord caught it. “Power up.” The sword charged with energy and they slashed Nightshadow with it. Nightshadow was instantly destroyed.

Later, not one of the Rangers had nightmares, with Nightshadow destroyed.

The End... for now

To be continued in
“Dying Green”