Chapter Text
A/N: So it has been awhile since I really wrote anything. But after seeing the Power Rangers movie I felt the spark of creativity again. I should warn that this starts off a bit angst at first. But it gets better. Also this is my first attempt at slow burn so please forgive any major screw ups.
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Trini knew it was coming yet as always she was helpless to stop it. A quiet constricted whimper came forth even as her hands curled tight around her sodden bedsheets.
Trini tried to yell a warning to her friends but her voice died in her throat. She watched helplessly as Rita stepped forth from the shadows behind Jason. With a distinctive sharp *crack* the fallen ranger made her presence known as she snapped Jason’s neck.
Pale eyes, already devoid of life, stared fixedly at her. The silent accusation of ‘you caused this.’ A dagger to Trini’s gut. The body slumped to the ground almost in slow motion even as screams of terror filled the air from the remaining rangers.
Billy and Zack charged at Rita from either side. The woman easily slipped between the two of them and ended their lives with the ease of swatting a fly.
Now only she and Kim remained. The two girls shared a quick look and charged at the witch. Trini leading the charge with Kim backing her up.
Trini saw Rita grin sadistically as she ducked to avoid the blow. Trini’s cry of anger changed to a shrill shriek as Rita’s staff drove into her gut knocking the air from her lungs. Sharp daggers of pain lacerated the yellow ranger’s insides as ribs broke. Crashing onto her side Trini instinctively curled into a ball in an effort to cradle her body from further pain.
Though she couldn’t see it she heard the cry of “Trini!” that ended in a disgusting gurgle as blood flooded Kim’s mouth. She felt more than heard the impact as Kim’s body hit the wooden dock.
“Kim.” Trini tried to yell out. Her voice hoarse and weak. “Kim speak to me. It’s going to be okay.” Her eyes stung as tears followed an all too familiar trail down her face. Reaching a hand out she found Kim’s hand and gave it a squeeze of reassurance. But received nothing in return as the heat of life drained quickly from it.
“Well now…I must say I’m utterly disappointed.” The slow drawl of Rita’s voice masked the woman’s footsteps as she walked confidently to each of Trini’s fallen friends. “Zordon would cry if he knew how much of an utter disappointment of rangers you all were.”
Trying to stand Trini was forced back to the ground as Rita’s staff slammed against her back. She screamed louder than she thought possible. Then screamed again as Rita’s staff cut deeply into her back. Her legs kicked out wildly then went still.
“Don’t worry little ranger.” The icy breath of Rita’s whispering voice tickling Trini’s ear. You’re not going to die…yet.” Moving into Trini’s field of view the fallen ranger held up the five power coins that had once belong to Trini and her friends. “I want to make sure you have ample time to reflect on how your actions killed your friends. The only people that would have ever accepted you. And the only one that would have returned your affections someday.” The dry cackle set Trini’s hair on end even as she reflexively squeezed Kim’s hand tight enough that she could feel the bones beginning to crack.
Trini felt Kim’s blood soak into her shirt. She struggled to rise to her feet but found her legs unresponsive.
“Oh don’t try and stand. You’ll find that quite beyond yourself now. I made sure to sever your spine beyond what even your ranger healing could handle. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to find the Zeo crystal. I’ll leave you and your…lover.” The sarcastic scoff in the witch’s voice brought forth a fresh river of tears from Trini. “…alone for the moment. I know how much new couples enjoy their alone time.”
Rita’s cackling laugh was the last thing Trini heard as her vision faded to black.
Opening her eyes Trini sniffled and curled herself into as tiny a ball as possible. Trying to be strong she shoved her hand in her mouth as she openly sobbed.
It had been almost a month since they had defeated Rita. Yet like clockwork Trini found herself awakening night after night from a horrible nightmare. It wasn’t always the same. In some of them she was with her friends when they were pushed back into the crater containing the Zeo crystal. Fire and heat cooking her and the others alive in the metal zords. In others Rita would cut the team down in front of her when they went to confront her on the pier. In still others the train would hit the car they had fled mine security in and they would all be launched out of the vehicle. Their broken bodies littering the landscape like broken dolls as the life slowly ebbed from their veins.
Every time Trini clawed herself awake from her latest nightmare she’d found herself unable to fall back asleep. Mostly because of the terror of enduring the nightly torture once more. A month of little sleep was starting to affect her daily life.
Answers to questions that she normally knew off the top of her head she now struggled to remember. Activities she enjoyed like training with her friends and playing various videogames now left her angry and frustrated at the tiniest things. Resulting in her being grounded after she had thrown a game controller through her bedroom television after a particularly blatant incident of cheating by the A.I. during a game of Mario Party.
‘No one gets a fucking hidden star on their very first turn.’ Trini had mentally grumbled as her mother, with the help of her younger brothers, had unplugged Trini’s Wii U and taken it to hide somewhere Trini would not look.
It was the last day of school before summer break. Starting tomorrow Trini would be alone for the week. Her parents taking her younger brothers off on a much deserved vacation. One that Trini had been looking forward to, but had found herself grounded from attending thanks to the gaming incident, and some rather concerned phone calls from her teachers at school.
They had expressed concern when one of their more well behaved students, or at least better behaved than those who regularly blew up their lockers, shared friend’s nude pics with people, and thought putting a bull in a rival school’s locker room was a harmless prank. So when Trini’s grades started slipping due to her continual nightmares her teacher’s had reached out to her parent’s to see if everything was alright in Trini’s life.
It has not been a pleasant conversation. Her mother had yet again pulled out the cup and had started a rambling monologue about getting her into drug rehab before Trini even had time to leave the room. She had dealt with that problem like she had so many others. Namely locking the door to her room and escaping out her window to spend the rest of the day, or at least till her parents were asleep, as far away from home as possible.
After her terror had subsided Trini got dressed and exited the house as quietly as possible. Her parent’s would be leaving in the morning with her brother and would be gone for the next 7 days. Hopefully giving her plenty of time to get over these nightmares.
She didn’t know how she was going to pull it off. But she was bound and determined to get a decent night’s rest even if it killed her.
For the next several hours, until school started, Trini practiced down in The Pit. Fighting against the holographic putties in an effort to fight away her own demons.
By the end of it her clothes were wrecked. The sleeve on one side of her shirt had been torn clean off. Her jeans had a large tear down one side from hip to knee. Inwardly Trini was thankful that none of the others were around. Last thing she wanted was anyone seeing her like…
“Trini?” Kim’s familiar voice called at her from over by the entrance to The Pit. “What are you doing here?”