Disclaimer: This is fic number six in my Candle in the Wind series. The song 'I'll Think of a Reason Later' is performed by Lee Ann Womack and belongs to MCA Records. This fic has one PG-13 scene (rated for adult situations), but the rest is just a good ole' PG. Word of warning, if any of the fics in this series are going to make me any enemies, it'll be this one. Hope you don't hold anything against me. The teens in this fic, including Angela, are owned by Saban Entertainment. The ChestKeepers concept comes from "The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby Doo."

I'll Think of a Reason Later
by Jeremy Ray Logsdon

"Inside her head may lay all the answers, for curing diseases from baldness to cancer," Angela sang at the top of her lungs as she cooked part of the breakfast for herself, Zack, and Adam.

"If you don't stop singing," Adam threatened, "I'm going to start. And believe me, no one wants to hear that."

"You really dislike country, huh?" Zack asked, elbowing the Green Chest Keeper in the ribs.

"I wouldn't say it's my least favorite thing," Adam remarked. "It's somewhere between getting a root canal and... getting a root canal with my hair on fire."

"Good morning, sunshine," Kimberly said cheerfully as she joined Angela at the stove. "Need some help?"

"You can cook the eggs," Angela said.

Adam looked at Zack beside him at the table and then at the two women cooking breakfast. "There's something somewhat sexist about this image," he decided.

"How are we going to tell them?" Trini asked.

"Who says we have to?" Tommy asked back.

"I'm pretty sure they know," Trini answered. "We, uh... Angela kind of beat on the wall at one point, remember?"

"I thought that was you," Tommy said quickly.

Trini raised her eyebrows as her only answer.

"How about we just tell them?" Tommy suggested. "We're adults. We're just sleeping together; we aren't breaking any laws."

"What do you mean, we're JUST sleeping together?" Trini asked, rolling away from Tommy and propping her head up on her fist. Tommy tried to read her expression, but her face was an expressionless mask.

"That's not what I meant, I SWEAR," he promised. "I care about you... a lot. You're one of my most very favorite people, I promise."

"Do you love me?" Trini asked.

"Trini, I've been dumped by two women I honestly thought I would be spending the rest of my life with," Tommy answered. "One of 'em called me a brother, for God's sake. I don't think I even know what love is."

"Just because they dumped you doesn't mean they didn't love you," Trini assured him. "It doesn't even mean that they don't love you now. It just means they... grew... differently."

"Thing is... I can understand why they both dumped me," Tommy said.

Trini turned toward him a bit, carefully so as to not expose herself blatantly to the man that already knew her quite exposed and quite blatant, and rested her cheek on her pillow. "Oh?" she asked.

"Kimberly... once she got out of Angel Grove, she saw more of the world," Tommy said. "She realized that not everything is as black and white as it was in Angel Grove. And when she came back, the first time... She saw too much of the Green Ranger in me. Rita changed me a lot, Trini. My parents just chalked it up to growing up, and I dunno, maybe it is, but I was a very light-hearted kid. Always laughing, always smiling... I was a lot like Jason, really. Turning evil changes people."

"I imagine it would," Trini agreed.

"So when I started dating Katherine, I was almost certain she would be the one," Tommy said. "She used to be evil, too. And she changed, I'm sure of it. But she changed in the opposite direction. She used to be very shy, very withdrawn... Because she was once evil, she made an even bigger effort to be warm, and outgoing... But she said whenever she was around me, no matter how hard she tried..."

"You reminded her of Rita," Trini finished.

"Yeah," Tommy said. "So I can't date girls that were never evil, because I scare them, and I can't date girls who used to be evil, because I make them scare themselves. Maybe I'm destined to be a bachelor for the rest of my life."

"At least you aren't feeling sorry for yourself," Trini said suddenly. Tommy turned to her in shock. He absolutely could NOT believe she had just said that. "Did it ever occur to you that Kimberly and Katherine are just TWO people out of three billion women on the earth? It isn't fair to you and it isn't fair to any you could conceivably be romantically linked with to try and categorize everybody on the planet into a Kimberly column and a Katherine column. There's a Trini column too, you know."

"Wow," Tommy said after a pause. "You've got a tough streak in you I've never seen before."

"I'm just not one for letting people feel sorry for themselves," Trini admitted. "And you never did answer my question."

"Do I love you?" Tommy asked. Trini nodded, and Tommy sighed. "I don't know."

"I'd like an answer whenever you think you have one," Trini said. "I know we're doing more than screwing around, but I don't want this to be a 'just-because' kind of thing, or even some weird Jerry-Springer-best-friends relationship."

"How about my answer is, 'I think we might be, someday'?" Tommy asked.

"Then we'll have to talk about," Trini answered.

"Top o' the morning to you," Angela greeted as Trini meandered into the kitchen.

"And the rest of the day to yourself," Trini finished, gratefully taking a glass of orange juice from Angela. She smiled her thanks and sat down between Kimberly and Adam.

"So Kim, where we headed this time?" Zack asked.

"Dunno," she answered. She waited for a moment, and with no answer forthcoming, she said again, "Dunno."

"I wanna go someplace with snow," Angela said. "I'd love to get some skiing in."

"Angel Grove!" Kimberly suddenly blurted out. "We're going to Angel Grove."

"To get the demon?" Trini asked.

"Yeah," Kimberly said slowly, nodding even slower. "Angel Grove."

"What number is this, anyway?" Tommy asked as he entered the kitchen.

"Well," Angela said, "let's see. Australia, Brazil, D.C., here... Number five."

"I'll teleport us home after breakfast," Zack said.

"Not much point," Tommy commented. "It's like... midnight in Angel Grove."

"Maybe we can bag us a demon before dawn," Trini said hopefully. "If it's something simple."

"I'll check the book," Adam volunteered, standing up and excusing himself from the table.

"Why can't a demon be something cute, like a bunny rabbit, or a pup, or something," Kimberly muttered to herself.

"Geri Lyn back in D.C. was pretty cute," Zack commented innocently. Angela slapped him on the arm, prompting him to look up and ask an equally innocent, "What'd I say?"

"The book is pretty vague," Adam commented. "I think we're going up against a shape-shifter."

"What does it say exactly?" Angela asked.

Adam opened the book again and began to read on the magical pages that only his eyes could see. "The nameless demon : Blackness is the only form it keeps. It can masquerade as a force of good, a force of evil, or a force of neutrality, and his or her true identity is dependent solely on the form he or she has chosen. This is its true fighting power, as the demon cannot attack directly. He is a weak demon, but he can turn even the truest of Warriors against their own.

"Dean, what does that mean?"

"Do you people realize that it is 12:30 in the a.m. here?" Watson asked sleepily from the laptop open next to Adam.

"We're saving the world," Angela answered. "And superheroes can't sleep."

"We aren't really superheroes," Tommy said. "We're like... janitors, just cleaning up the mess we made."

"YOU made," Angela replied. "I'm a superhero, dang it!"

"Dean Watson?" Adam asked again.

"Hmm... Oh, yes. Well, essentially, Ahrens is a demon with a very persuasive nature," Angela's grandfather explained. "He could conceivably turn you against each other. When do you kids think you'll be showing up?"

"We'll be there in the morning," Angela said. "Your morning, not ours."

"Okay, see you then," he said, closing the communications channel from his end.

"Your grampa isn't a night owl, huh?" Tommy asked, looking at Angela.

"I hate time zones," Kimberly remarked after Zack had teleported them all back to Angel Grove with one of his ChestKeeper abilities. "It's 4 p.m. where we were, but it's just 8 a.m. here. And in a few hours, I'm gonna be ready to sleep."

"Just think of it as a nice, long nap this afternoon," Tommy said.

"Let's find this creep," Zack agreed. "I'm gonna go make rounds around town, see if I can scare anything up."

"I think I'll come with you," Trini said.

"Me too," Tommy said, just a bit too eagerly.

"I'm gonna use some of Grampa's equipment and see if I can find this thing from here," Angela announced. Pointing at Adam and Kimberly, she said, "You can help."

"You three can use any of the cars in my garage," Dean Maxwell offered. "Lupe, would you please show them out?"

"Certainly," one of his maids agreed. "Please follow me."

"C'mon, Scooby Gang," Angela said. "This way to the library."

"Cars just don't impress me much," Trini remarked. "It's a mode of transportation, not a status symbol."

"Dear God, it's a Lambhorgini," Tommy sighed.

"We are NOT taking the Lambhorgini," Zack insisted.

Tommy sighed and looked around. "Okay. Then we'll take the Red Corvette," he said, strolling confidently toward the car of choice.

"It's kind of hard finding the demon in Angel Grove, huh?" Kimberly asked.

"Oh yeah," Angela said. The two girls were looking at a vibrational-energy map of Angel Grove. Each unusual energy pattern was marked with a color dot. Each of the ChestKeepers was on the map, as well as a group of five dots at the Youth Center Kim expected were the Power Rangers. What really made things complicated, however, was that places where numerous Ranger battles had taken place were also marked. The park was marked with dozens of dots, just from the residual energy of numerous fights. There was a really bright dot in the hallway of the Youth Center, where the Rangers had teleported and morphed hundreds of times. "Angel Grove is a very interesting town."

"So just how can we tell when we've got a demon?" Kimberly asked.

"In any other town, we just look for the colored dot," Angela answered. "Angel Grove is a pretty much isolated center of paranormal activity, so if we see something that's giving off supernatural vibrations not in Angel Grove... It's probably our demon. But here... No real way to... tell..." She paused as several colored dots appeared in the Park.

"You think that's it?" Kimberly asked.

"Only one way to find out," Angela said. She closed the laptop, shouted for Adam, and then the three of them took off running.

The six ChestKeepers met at the park, and promptly realized what the new dots were. "Those are just Piranhatrons," Tommy dismissed. The five morphed Turbo Rangers were fighting a particular vicious school of the fighters, but they were certainly holding their own against the creatures.

"Should we volunteer to help?" Adam asked.

"Let's not," Angela said. "We-" She paused as a ripple of light and air appeared before her.

"Whoa?" Zack asked sarcastically, stiffening up at the strange display of light before them.

Angela reached out her hand, only to have it gently pushed away. Then, amazingly, the ripples solidified and filled in with color, forming a strange, black armored Ranger. "Hey," Tommy greeted. "You must be the Phantom Ranger."

"You should stay back," Phantom suggested. "The fight is dangerous."

"We were just leaving," Zack said, narrowing his eyes as he stared at the Ranger. Phantom Ranger nodded once at them and then moved toward the fight, becoming invisible as he walked away.

"Let's keep looking," Kimberly told them. "We aren't going to find anything here."

"Yes, we are," Zack said slowly. In a lowered voice, he said, "That was our demon."

"Zack, are you SURE?" Tommy asked.

"I'm positive," Zack insisted. He looked at Tommy, understanding the young man's dilemma. Being a Ranger was important to all of the ChestKeepers, save for Angela. Accusing the Rangers' newest ally of being a demon wasn't something any of them were looking forward to doing. The fact that the demon had apparently taken the form of a Ranger made things even worse.

"How can you be sure?" Tommy asked.

"It's one of my abilities," Zack said. "I can tell when I'm looking at a demon."

"No chance of it being wrong?" Tommy pressed.

"No, not a chance," Zack told him.

Tommy sighed and lowered his head. "All right. I'll go find TJ and talk to him."

"Be careful not to accuse," Zack said. "Remember, the Dean said this guy can make us turn against each other." Tommy nodded and jogged off.

Zack stood up from the park bench, only to have the Phantom Ranger materialize before him. Zack looked at him for a moment, unsure of what to say or do. "Hey," he said after a few moments.

"I don't like you," Phantom Ranger growled in a low voice. Before Zack could give a reply, Pink Turbo Ranger stepped into view and smacked Zack in the chest with the flat of her palm, literally knocking off of his feet and sending him sailing backwards.

"Is he giving you a hard time?" Pink Turbo Ranger asked, gently stroking her AutoBlaster.

"Would you kill him for me?" Phantom asked.

"Anything for you," she said, touching a gloved hand gently to his helmet. She walked over to where Zack had fallen, only to find that the former Ranger was gone. "He isn't here," she said in a soft, pouty voice.

"I need you to do me another favor," Phantom said. "Quickly. Go tell your Ranger friends that there are some new bad guys in town."

"TJ!" Tommy shouted, running past the Youth Center. "TJ Andrews! Slow down!"

TJ turned slowly, a confused look on his face. The look changed into a smile as he realized Tommy was calling for him. "Hey Tommy!" TJ cried happily. "What are you doing here?"

"I have got a major story to tell you," Tommy said, "and some questions and favors to ask. Can we go somewhere and talk?"

Trini and Adam both shouted in surprise and jumped back as the unconscious form of Zack was dumped unceremoniously in the middle of the Maxwells' Library in a flash of black energy. "What's he doing here?" Trini asked.

"He is the Teleporter," Angela remarked from the computer, reminding them of one of Zack's abilities.

"He's unconscious!" Adam cried, kneeling beside him. "What do you think knocked him out?"

"Kim?" Trini asked.

"His body must have been in danger," she said. "His ability must have worked while he was unconscious."

"Hey guys!" Tommy called as he walked into the room. "We've got an ally."

"TJ?" Adam asked as the red-clad youth followed Tommy into the room.

"I'm willing to help you take down Phantom," TJ said.

"I was close to being the dissenter," Tommy admitted, "but after I talked to TJ, it all made sense. Cassie has apparently been drooling over Phantom Ranger."

"What does that prove?" Kimberly asked.

"We've never even seen what he looks like," TJ said. "He's never once demorphed around us, he probably hasn't even talked with us more than ten minutes, total... And Cassie is not the type to flip out over someone she barely knows. She's got a free spirit in her, but not that free. She's pretty rational, really, and falling in love with a mysterious Power Ranger is about as irrational as you can get."

"How long has Phantom been around?" Trini asked.

"A little more than three weeks," TJ answered.

"That would put him at the right time to have come out of the Chest," Angela agreed.

"Then why is he fighting for good?" Adam asked. "In fact, the Book said he couldn't attack directly."

"ChestKeepers," Kimberly said. "He can't attack ChestKeepers directly. He-"

"Didn't he attack Zack?" Trini asked.

"No," Zack said. "The Pink Ranger did. Hurt, too." He rubbed his chest gingerly.

"By helping us fight Piranhatrons, he's gotten us on his side," TJ said. "Well, most of us."

"He's got four Turbo Rangers willing to protect him?" Angela asked.

"Three," Tommy said. "I can get Justin on our side. TJ, how about the others?"

"I don't know," TJ said. "Ashley is Cassie's best friend, and Carlos will probably do whatever Ashley tells him to."

"You two go get Justin," Angela suggested. "The rest of us will go see if we can find Phantom."

"You'll never find him," TJ said. "He only shows up when it's convenient for him." He frowned. It was obvious to all present that TJ did not care for Phantom Ranger. Tommy suspected it was mainly due to the fact that Phantom was occupying a place in Cassie's life that he wanted to be in.

"Then we have to make a plan," Angela said. "We need to draw Phantom out and get him in the Chest. When we do, his influence over Cassie will be broken." She glanced over at a clock on the desk and announced, "It's just now noon. Let's try and get him at darkfall. Now, let's make our plan."

Pink, blue, green, and yellow light streaked through the dark sky and materialized into four Turbo Rangers on one of the many walkways that traversed the park. "Piranhatrons!" the Blue Ranger cried, pointing. Indeed, dozens of the fish creatures were attacking the lone Red Ranger.

"We gotta help!" Pink Ranger cried. In unison, the four Rangers rushed to help.

The fight had just barely begun when a ripple of light appeared in the midst of the fight, immediately disposing of two Piranhatrons. However, rather than disappear in the usual splash of water, the two fallen creatures lay on the ground, seemingly dead.

"That really hurt," a Piranhatron hissed to the Red Ranger.

"NOW!" Red Ranger shouted.

Suddenly, Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster roared into view. Trini and Adam were in Storm Blaster, who was filled with three 'lifted' park benches. Behind the seat of Lightning Cruiser was the unmorphed TJ, and next to him, Kimberly. Trini spun around and pointed at the park benches. The three magically lifted into the air and hurled themselves across the small clearing, barreling for three of the Turbo Rangers. Cassie dove away, just narrowly missing one of the green benches, but Carlos and Ashley were trapped in the small, triangular enclosure Trini formed with her powers and the park benches. Adam's eyes narrowed in concentration, and the benches burst into harmless flames. The two trapped Rangers were perfectly safe but completely disoriented.

The ripple of energy that was Phantom turned into his solid form, and he looked about himself angrily. Several 'dead' Piranhatrons lay at his feet, and those that were still standing didn't appear nearly as energetic as they had previously. But before Phantom could really do anything, black light shot up from the ground in front of a Piranhatron, producing Zack with the Chest in his arms.

"Here!" he cried, pushing the Chest into the fish creature's arms.

The Red Ranger took Phantom by surprise, grabbing the armored Ranger in a literal bear-hug.

"TJ!" Pink Ranger shouted. "What are you doing?!"

"Cassie, no!" Blue Ranger yelled. As the Pink Ranger ran for Red Ranger and Phantom, Blue leapt and tackled Pink, knocking her to the ground.

Phantom Ranger drove his elbows back into Red's stomach, attempting to break his hold. Red Ranger grunted, but did his best to hold tight. "Do something!" Red yelled.

The Piranhatron holding the Chest dropped to the ground, seemingly winded. But then, with the Chest propped up on one knee, it opened the wooden lid and pointed the box in Phantom's direction. White light streamed out of the Chest, engulfing Phantom and Red Ranger.

"NO!" Phantom bellowed, spinning out of Red Ranger's arms as the Chest pulled on him. One arm transformed into a black, armored claw, and he lashed out, scraping across Red Ranger's armored chest. Phantom stretched out as he was pulled closer to the Chest, and then, in a bright flash of light, he was gone. The Piranhatron sagged to the ground, shutting the Chest with a thud. The other Piranhatrons disappeared in faint, blue flashes, and the only one remaining turned into a weary, battered, and bloody Angela.

"Angela!" Red Ranger shouted, demorphing and revealing himself to be Tommy.

"Adam, put the fire out!" Kimberly cried, gesturing to the still entrapped Green and Yellow Rangers. Before he could, Trini threw the benches away from them with a flick of her wrist, freeing the Rangers and leaving them none the worse for wear. Adam extinguished the flames with his mind, and he and Trini hurried over to Carlos and Ashley to explain what had just happened.

"What's wrong?" Zack asked frantically, hurrying to Angela's side.

"Are you okay?" Justin asked Cassie, helping her to her feet.

"Angela, answer me!" Zack pleaded.

The Blue ChestKeeper looked like she should have; she had just taken a literal beating from the majority of the Power Rangers. Both eyes were blacked, bruises were everywhere, several bleeding marks dotted her arms and legs, and Zack thought her left arm might be broken. "Angela?" Zack asked. She slowly opened her eyes, revealing the whites to be horribly blood-shot.

"Let me see her," Kimberly demanded, rushing to Angela's side. She knelt beside her friend and gently laid a hand on her forehead.

"Kim?" Tommy asked.

"Shh," Kimberly hushed. She closed her eyes, concentrating. Then, pink light welled up within her. She glowed as though she were about to teleport. But instead, the light flowed down her arms and into Angela's body, where it turned blue. Angela was overwhelmed with the blue light, and as it faded, her wounds went with it. "Angela, are you okay?" Kimberly asked eagerly.

"Yeah," Angela said slowly, sitting up. She smiled and looked directly at Kimberly. "I think we know who the Doctor is, too."

"Thanks for the Morphers, man," Tommy said gratefully, handing them back to TJ.

"Anytime," TJ answered, although gratefully taking them back.

"Could somebody please explain what is going on?" Cassie asked impatiently.

"And that's the whole story," Tommy finished.

"He was using me," Cassie muttered softly. "I feel so... used."

"It could have happened to anyone," Kimberly assured her.

"Sorry about the fire thing," Adam apologized to Carlos and Ashley. "We had to make sure you, uhm..."

"Didn't get in the way?" Carlos asked with a chuckle.

"Something like that," Adam said, a bit red-faced.

"Guys, what say we get home?" Kimberly asked. "We're gonna need our rest. We have to go to the Yukon tomorrow morning." Several groans of protest among the ChestKeepers was voiced.

"Why can't these demons go to Hawaii?" Tommy complained.

"At least I'll get to ski," Angela remarked.

"I think going home is a good idea," Cassie sighed, standing up and brushing grass off of her legs. The others followed suit, all preparing to leave. "I need to think for a while."

"Uhm, do you mind if I walk you?" TJ asked hopefully, hopping up beside her.

"Sure," she said with a smile. "That'd be nice."

Kimberly waited in the park as the various groups walked off in various directions. She kept her gaze on TJ and Cassie, though, in particular.

"She'll be okay," Kimberly said to herself with a wide smile. Still grinning, she hurried to catch up with the other ChestKeepers.

I'll Think of a Reason Later

The End... for now