Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When they first found the body lying among their fishing nets, the fishing boat had no reason to believe that they had made anything more than a disturbing but basically familiar discovery.

District Four might be one of the more pleasant Districts in Panem, but the right people weren't blind to the fact that the core problems of Panem remained here just as much as they could be found anywhere else. People could protest against the system and be arrested by Peacekeepers, they could run away and never be found, or they could kill themselves and their bodies only discovered some time later; so long as everyone else didn't follow their example, the Peacekeepers and the higher-ups didn't mind.

Drowning was an obvious option, considering District Four's close proximity to the ocean, but when this body was discovered in the nets it defied most of the obvious clues the boat crew had come to expect when making such a find. The skin was weathered and stretched so tightly against the figure's skeleton that it looked as though everything inside the body had long ago withered down into nothing, but there was no sign that the skin itself had been damaged in any way. The body as a whole appeared intact and a cursory inspection gave no indication that there were any bones broken, and there was no sign of weights or anything that might explain how this figure might have drowned itself. Something around the chest gave the impression that the figure had been female in life, but the legs were pressed so tightly to the chest that it was hard to be certain even of that, and there also seemed to be something in the figure's hand.

In any case, the body had been left in one of the ship's freezer bays as soon as it had been identified, in the hope that keeping it cool would make it easier for the relevant authorities to identify it later. Even with mandatory viewing now in session for most districts, key workers such as the crew were still expected to stick with their arranged schedules even after such a discovery, but the crew called ahead to alert the local Peacekeepers as soon as they were back on course for the shore.

Once they had landed, most of the crew left the ship to take the day's catch to the food processing plants, leaving the boat captain to show the assigned Peacekeeper to the body before he headed off for home himself. In situations like this, there was an unspoken understanding that Peacekeepers would deal with the bodies of these apparent suicides and everyone else would just act like they had never discovered the body.

The Peacekeeper didn't consider the issue particularly important when he first got on board the boat; based on what he'd heard in the crew's original report, he was expecting to find nothing more than another District resident having committed a particularly unconventional form of suicide at the worst. His initial thought upon examining the body was that it was in better shape than he had expected, but he soon became more suspicious when he realised that the body didn't entirely match what he'd been told. It was certainly withered, but the Peacekeeper was certain that he'd been told about an almost skeletal body, and this figure actually seemed to have a little muscle on it, even if clearly wasn't in the best shape…

Noticing a vague green glow tracing along the body's veins, the Peacekeeper turned his attention to tracing the source of the glow. It didn't take long for him to realise that the glow could be traced to a strange green gem surrounded by gold, clasped in the palm of the figure's hand, but before he could do more than pry the fingers away to take a closer look at it, he suddenly felt something grab him by the throat, forcing his helmet upwards. He tried to reach up and activate his helmet's radio, but the figure slammed his head into the ceiling before he could do more than move his arm.

When the boat crew came by the next day and found no trace of the body or the Peacekeeper, none of them thought much about it, assuming that the body had been taken by the Peacekeeper to deal with everything back at their headquarters. It would take months at best before anyone found the Peacekeeper's body in the ocean along the side of where the boat had been docked, and by that point nobody would understand the significance of that particular body in any case.

Had anyone been at the docks that night, someone might have seen a thin figure, clad in fragments of green armour, hurrying deeper into the district, a faint green glow in its hands and an almost feral edge to its manner as it took in its new surroundings.

The crew of the boat would never learn the significance of their role in those events, but in a matter of weeks, all of Panem would be changed by the events of that night.

Chapter Text

Even after watching the Games for years, it was still surprising to realise how much the Gamemakers edited when they were putting together the day's highlights, particularly this relatively early in the Games.

Seeing Peeta with the Career pack earlier had been a surprise, but I had already resolved to put that aside and focus on staying ahead of the Careers and gathering supplies until I had to confront anyone. Confronting them as I was wouldn't do any good, but after I'd managed to find some water and refresh myself, I felt more comfortable focusing on finding somewhere to rest for the night before I decided on a clearer plan. So far there hadn't been any trumpet calls since the girl from Eight had died after the Careers found her campfire, but I was hopeful that the other Tributes were doing something that would keep the Gamemakers engaged for a little while.

I was about to settle down for the night when I found my attention being drawn to a cliff-face a short walk away from my current location. For a moment I thought about just ignoring it, but the more I looked at the cliff, the more I began to consider the potential benefits it might offer. I'd been lucky to escape attention in the tree the night before, but after all the times I'd seen past Arenas offer such a variety of features, I wasn't going to overlook the possibility of finding a more secure place to rest for the night.

Making sure everything was in my bag and on my back, I headed up the hill towards the cliff-face, and soon found myself looking at a surprisingly deep cave in the shadows of a particular corner of the cliff. It was a surprise to find something this well-hidden in the arena, but I supposed it made sense for the Gamemakers to 'mix it up' a bit and give some of the non-Careers a potential base as well.

Walking cautiously into the cave, I was surprised to find that it was actually relatively deep; I didn't know where this cave was in relation to anything else, but this still seemed like an unexpected geographical detail in an Arena. I kept glancing back as I walked further into the cave, but while it wasn't that deep, it turned out to be surprisingly wide once I had walked through the entrance. Reaching out to carefully touch the wall nearest me, I moved carefully around the cave, feeling the rough rock against my fingertips-

My eyes widened in surprise as my fingers came in contact with a strange substance I didn't immediately recognise. I may not like the mines, but our schools still focused intensely on geological details such as the structure of rock formations, and this definitely didn't feel like anything I'd expected to find here. When I looked at the wall, I noticed a faint redness about it where my hand came in contact with the strange crystal, but it didn't feel particularly hot, and it seemed to be leading me to focus on a particular part in the middle of the wall.

As soon as the idea had occurred to me, I wondered where that particular thought had come from, but the more I thought about it the more it seemed as though there was something in this wall that was leadingme somewhere. I didn't feel as though I was being made to do anything, and I definitely still felt as though I could leave here if I wanted to, but there was definitely something in this cave that felt… I had no idea how to describe it, but-

"What the Hell is that?"

Spinning around in shock, I found myself looking in horror at two of the other Tributes standing at either side of the mouth of the cave. I immediately recognised the large figure of the District Eleven male tribute, whose name I remembered was Thresh, but it took me a moment to recognise the red-haired girl on the other side of the cave entrance as the District Five girl, and even then I couldn't immediately recall her name. Quick as a flash I pulled out the throwing knife Clove had tried to kill me with and held it defensively in front of myself; it wasn't the best weapon, but I had to at least try-

"Easy, easy!" Thresh held up his hands, the girl on the other side following his example.

"Easy?" I repeated, even as I kept the knife between me and them; the girl might be unarmed, but Thresh would have clearly been the bigger threat even without that curved sword at his side.

"We're not going to fight you," the girl said, looking at me with a tentative smile before her gaze shifted to the strange wall behind me. "I just… what is this place?"

"I… I don't know," I said, lowering my knife slightly even as I kept my gaze fixed on them both; they both seemed to share my cautious intrigue at this cave, but I wasn't going to drop my guard completely. "I was just checking out the cave, and…"

"Yeah… me too," the girl nodded, her sharp features putting me in mind of a curious fox as she looked over my shoulder. "Seriously, what is with this place?"

"…No idea," I conceded, turning back to look at the wall; I wasn't going to forget that we were currently adversaries, but if neither of them were going to attack me, this was early enough in the Games that I wasn't going to attack them either. "I thought it might just be a good place to use as a kind of base, but all this… it seems a bit too neat."

"Yeah, not like the Gamemakers to give a non-Career this kind of possible edge…" Thresh said, voice trailing off as he reached out a hand towards the wall. As soon as his fingers came in contact with it, unlike the red light it had produced when I touched it, the whole wall seemed to pulse with what I could only think of as a black light.

"What-?" the girl I was going to call 'Foxface' for the moment said, reaching out to touch the wall herself, only to be met with a strange blue glow in turn.

"That's pretty…" a voice said from behind us. Turning back, I was once again shocked to find Rue, the tiny District Eleven Tribute, standing cautiously at the door.

I inwardly cursed at this turn of events; I had no problem waiting to confront Thresh and 'Foxface' until after they did something to me, but I knew that I really didn't want to have to kill Rue.

"What're you doing here, little girl?" Thresh said, a defensive edge to his tone as he looked at her. He didn't look as though he was going to do anything to her, but at the same time, he seemed to be just as aware as I was that these Games could only end one way.

"I was… following her," Rue said, indicating me.

"Me?" I repeated in surprise.

"It… seemed like a good idea?" Rue shrugged uncertainly. "I would have gone with Thresh, but you went the other way, and…"

"You went for the woods rather than the fields, huh?" Thresh nodded at the youngest Tribute with a brief smile. "Good call; get lost and hide until you've got a plan."

"Thanks," Rue smiled back at him before she walked further into the cave to touch the strange wall herself. The four of us waited for a moment, but the crystal showed no sign of responding to her touch like it had the other two.

"Maybe it-?" I began as I placed my hand against the wall again, wondering if whatever powered this trick had run down, only to be met with a more intense version of the same red glow I'd noticed earlier. As though on cue, Foxface and Thresh moved forward to touch it again themselves, and the wall once again pulsed with the same inexplicable light show it had created earlier.

"OK, that's weird, right?" Thresh looked at me after the strange black light had faded from the wall.

"Definitely," I nodded at him before I glanced at Foxface. "Does this remind you of anything?"

"You're asking me?" The girl looked at me in a pointed manner.

"Well, you're from Five; I just thought you might have some idea about-"

"And you're from Twelve, but I'm not asking you what this wall's made of-"

"I don't know what it's made of, but I wondered if you might have an idea how it's doing that-"

Thresh cut us off when he slammed his sword into the centre of the wall, creating a deep crack in the crystalline structure. As he stepped back, he raised the weapon to prepare for another attack, but the crack seemed to expand rapidly up and down the wall before the crystal wall seemed to basically pop open, revealing five small glowing objects inside it.

Their colour was hard to make out in the dark cave, but it looked like each object was about the size of a hand, with a thick outer layer made of something that looked like gold, around a central crystal of some sort. Each crystal was a distinct colour from the other four, and also seemed to match up with the lighting pattern it had displayed so far; red, blue and black were clearly visible, but I could also see a yellow one and a colour I was going to tentatively identify as pink until I had a better idea.

"Did you-?" I began as I looked over at Thresh.

"No," he shook his head, looking uncertainly between the sword in his hand and the hole in the wall. "I just… it's like how we found this place; I just felt like I should do it."

"And what an interesting little guess that was," a taunting voice said from the cave entrance. "Look at this; four little outliers, all in one fascinating place…"

As we spun around, I cursed my lack of attention as I found Glimmer and Peeta standing at the cave entrance, Peeta standing slightly behind Glimmer with a sword held awkwardly in his hand while she stood in the middle of the cave entrance, an arrow aimed in our direction. My own experience with the bow made it clear that Glimmer wasn't truly comfortable with that weapon, but if she fired at this range she'd have to be completely useless not to hit anything, and even if Thresh, Foxface or I could get to her before she had her next arrow ready, Peeta was still in a position to-

My thoughts on the potential threat posed by the new arrivals were interrupted when the entire cave seemed to shake around us, just as the crystal wall pulsed once again. Glimmer lowered the bow in shock at the sight, but I didn't have the chance to think about taking advantage of it before the wall seemed to explode in a burst of multi-coloured light and something struck me in the back of the head. I grabbed the thing on instinct, and was surprised to find myself holding the red-centred object that had been in the wall before Thresh cracked it. Looking up, I saw that the other four objects had also struck one of the others; Thresh and Foxface were holding the black and blue objects respectively, while Glimmer had dropped her arrow and was looking in confusion at the pink object in her left hand even as she kept hold of the bow in her right, and Peeta was just staring at the yellow one as though he didn't know what to do with it.

"What the-?" he said, looking up at me as though looking for answers, before the crack on the wall suddenly seemed to expand down the wall to spread across the floor. The rest of our sudden group were able to quickly duck to either side of the cave before the crack could catch us, but Rue, whether frozen in fear or just unsure where to go, was caught in the middle of the cave, practically right in the path of the crack. Thresh and I were just moving to pull her to safety when the crack reached her and Rue fell through the ground, screaming in terror before we all heard a faint splash.

"Rue!" Thresh and I yelled, running up to the edge of the crack as soon as the ground around us had stopped shaking. Looking down, I was relieved to see that the little girl was still alive in the small pool of water below, paddling urgently as she looked up at us.

"Are you OK?" Foxface called down, joining Thresh and I crouching on either side of the crack.

"I'm fine!" Rue called up, even as she looked around herself in confusion. "Wh… where am I?"

"Some kind of underground water system, would be my guess," another voice put in. Looking up, I was surprised to see that Glimmer and Peeta had joined us in looking into the crack, Glimmer's bow slung over her shoulder and the Career looking into the newly-exposed lake with what seemed like genuine concern. "There were meant to be a few of these scattered around, although I'm not sure if the Games have ever used something like this before."

"Really?" Foxface looked at Glimmer, her curiosity apparently greater than her initial fear of the Career. "Never?"

"Well, we've obviously watched more than a few of the old Games back in the Academy, and this is… well, it's the kind of thing that would stand out," Glimmer observed. "I mean, that mass flooding in the Seventieth Games was the last time the ability to swim was a really big deal, and you wouldn't believe the rumours about that one-"

Not wanting to hear more about rumours in the Career districts, I secured my backpack and jumped into the crack; it wasn't that far down, the walls didn't seem that sheer, and Rue might need help getting out, whereas most of Twelve had at least been taught the basics of swimming in case of mine flooding or in case it came up in some future Game.

I only reminded myself of the fact that only one of us could get out of this when I hit the water, but even as I surfaced I didn't regret my decision. Maybe Rue would 'have' to die later on in the Games, but as long as I had a choice I wasn't going to leave a twelve-year-old girl to drown just because it was easier that way.

When I realised that I was surrounded by a strange red glow as I carefully positioned myself in the water alongside Rue, I didn't really need to glance at my jacket's inside pocket to realise that the glow had something to do with that strange thing Thresh had found in the walls.

What is going on here?

Chapter Text

I didn't have time to think any further about the cause of my sudden strange glow before more water struck me in the fact, and suddenly all four of the other Tributes who had found the cave were floating in the water around me.

"What-?" I began.

"Would you believe idle curiosity?" 'Foxface' said, smiling at me as she indicated the blue glow that was now surrounding her as she floated alongside the rest of us.

"Personally, I wasn't going to leave the kid down here," Thresh added, indicating Rue with a brief smile.

"And trust me, nobody wants to see a little kid drown," Glimmer put in with a pointed stare as she indicated Rue. "C'mon, when we're this early in the Game, that's just… well, it's petty cruelty, really."

"Right…" I said. I didn't entirely buy Glimmer's explanation, especially after what I'd glimpsed of her actions in the opening bloodbath, but on the other hand I wasn't going to question someone's motives when it wouldn't be that hard for her to drown all five of us if she was fast enough. "I don't suppose you have any idea what's going on with all this?"

"Me?" Glimmer looked back with exaggerated innocence that was definitely aided by the pink light around her. "Why should I know anything?"

"'Cause that Academy of yours probably makes you watch every single previous Game until you know them all backwards?" Thresh observed with a cool edge to his tone that was somehow reinforced by his own surrounding black light. "You expect us to believe that you wouldn't remember somethin' like this?"

"Well, when you put it like that… yeah, we've watched a lot of past Games back in the Academy, and they never had anything like this," Glimmer nodded affirmatively. "I mean, where's the point in setting up some glowing wall to lure a bunch of us into one place and then drop us all into some pit? It's got a good bit of suspense for the buildup, but after that it's just boring; there's a reason they try and avoid cold weather being an issue for the Games, and it's not just because it'd be a crime to make us girls wrap up warm."

"I'll… take your word for that," Foxface said, shooting an awkward glance at me which made it clear she wasn't sure how to feel about that observation even if she agreed that the source was likely reliable. "So… what do we do here?"

"Get to the edge-" Peeta began as he indicated the wall.

"Hold on… you all feel that, right?" I said, looking around at the others as I felt that same strange nagging itch that had brought me to the cave in the first place, now driving me downwards for some reason. "It's like… I don't know…"

I finally gave up on trying to explain it and just dived down under the water, trying to get past that strange sensation and find the source of it. For a moment as I swam down I strained to see anything, my eyes unused to the stinging water, before I felt my outstretched hand pass through something and into a dry area. Even more curious as to what was going on, I kicked my legs harder and soon felt the water vanish from around my head, opening my eyes to see that I was looking down into another cave, water beneath/above my head with no obvious way to hold it back.

I fought down an initial panic as I gave another powerful kick, adjusting my body as it reached the edge of whatever-this-was so that I fell out of the water and landed on my feet and hands rather than my face. As I quickly stood up, I looked up to see the other five coming down to join me, four of them glowing with that strange light and the fifth holding onto the black and yellow figures until they reached the bottom. I quickly moved to grab Rue, but the other four followed my own example, adjusting their descent through the water-ceiling so that they all basically landed on their feet.

"Whoa…" Foxface looked up at the water we'd just descended through, the ripples of our departure already vanishing like we were looking up at some kind of inverted lake. "Now that is cool!"

"OK," I turned to look at Glimmer and indicated the watery roof above us, "I feel safe assuming that isn't normal for the Games?"

"I… I don't think anyone could have done that," Glimmer nodded awkwardly, looking uncertainly at the ceiling of water before she turned back to face me. "I mean, force fields have been a thing for decades even outside the Games, but there's no way anyone would create something like that and stick it somewhere that… isolated."

"Something can be isolated out here?" Thresh looked at Glimmer with an incredulous stare. "I thought they literally covered these arenas with cameras?"

"Mostly they can pull it off, but in practice there's always a few obscure areas here and there that the Gamemakers don't realise they've missed until one of the Tributes finds it first," Glimmer shrugged. "It's not exactly something they advertise, and most of the time they can dispatch a drone or two to make up for it before anyone watching realises what's going down, but there's sometimes still a couple of minutes in the live broadcasts where they lose track of the Tributes until they can send something."

"So… there's a chance we're OK?" Rue asked; her tentative expression made me think of the times Prim would take my hand for comfort, except that Rue clearly wasn't sure she knew who to turn to in this situation. "I mean, that we're not being watched right now?"

"If anyone had found that stuff when this Arena was being set up, they'd have cordoned that cave off and be trying to work out what the Hell this was all about while keeping us away from here; Hell, they'd probably have tried to set up a whole new arena to study this place properly!"

"Has that ever happened?" Peeta asked, looking honestly curious at this new bit of trivia. "I mean, they only realise that something about an Arena doesn't work while they're building it… or even during the Games?"

"Comes and goes, according to rumours at the Academy," Glimmer shrugged. "Like I said, they use drones to help track us in case we accidentally find some area they didn't cover with suitable cameras, and that's worked out for the most part. Gamemakers always try and avoid repeating themselves and do some surveys for new future sites each year, and they keep pretty good records, but there's always the risk that some area will turn out to be a habitat for an endangered animal or something."

"People in the Capitol care about that kind of thing?" Foxface raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"I guess some people like the chance to get out for a few days and look at things in the wild," Glimmer shrugged. "Keep in mind I'm still only from One; just because the Capitol likes us more doesn't mean we go there a lot."

"Still a lot closer than-" Thresh began.

"OK!" I stepped forward, raising my hands as Thresh and Glimmer started to glare at each other. "Let's just… take a look at what else is down here before we try and get back up."

"You want us to look around here?" Peeta looked at me in surprise before indicating Glimmer. "With her?"

"Hey, we're all down here, lover-boy," Glimmer looked at Peeta with slightly exaggerated indignation.

"And how do we know you're not going to-?"

"What; start killing you all?" Glimmer looked at Peeta in exasperation. "I'm not some psycho nut, pal; I won't just start stabbing you all in the back because I feel like it."

"Aren't we meant to-?"

"Not like this," Glimmer cut Thresh off. "Even if I'm wrong about there being no cameras out here, there's no way anyone would think this was a good Games strategy; one Career and a bunch of randoms this early on?"

"Randoms?" Foxface repeated with a notable edge to her voice.

"I just meant that there's no way anyone involved in the Games could think sticking us together was an interesting idea this early on," Glimmer clarified, waving a hand at our small group. "I'm not saying any of you are going to be easy to take down, but we lost half the Tributes in the bloodbath and we've barely had a chance for anyone to show off yet. Seriously, putting us all together like this risks ending the Games too early, and that just takes away any chance for a good show-"

"OK!" I said, stepping forward as Thresh and Peeta looked at Glimmer in a particularly cold manner while Foxface moved to place a comforting hand on Rue's shoulder. "Can we just… stop that right now?"

"Just stop this?" Peeta looked at me in surprise.

"Look, I'm… well, it's like Glimmer said; nobody in the Games would do this to us on purpose, so isn't this worth exploring further?" I said, surprised at the words I was speaking even as I looked at the cavern beyond. "If whatever's going on here goes beyond the Games, I think we can all agree to at least a truce at least until we get out of here, don't you?"

"Sounds… good to me," Glimmer nodded, albeit with a suddenly tentative expression I couldn't explain.

"I can work with that," Foxface grinned.

"No problem here," Thresh nodded as Rue gave her own thumbs-up.

"…Fine," Peeta nodded, looking at me in a manner I couldn't entirely understand.

"Let's go," I said, indicating the cave beyond our strange inverted pool, trying to ignore the faint rumbling sensation from the cave around us. My small knife in my hand, I led the way, surprised to find how the rest of us fell into a pattern, Glimmer wiping down her bowstring and drawing a new arrow while Peeta and Thresh stood on either side of Rue and Foxface. As we rounded a corner, I led our strange new alliance into a surprisingly large cavern, about the size of the house I lived in back in Twelve, but my attention was more immediately drawn to the sight at the other end of the cave.

The rocks and the opening around us could have been formed by nature, but the large metal object at the opposite side of the cavern was clearly an artificial structure. Something was literally sticking out of the rock, with a formation that put me in mind of the hovercraft that had taken us to our 'departure points' before the Games began, but it looked as though whatever this thing was had been stuck in the cave for some time. There was a faint blue glow to the object, and as we drew closer, it became clear that there was far more it than the part close to the ground; I wasn't sure if I'd be surprised to find out that the mountain the cave was in was basically just a 'shell' for whatever this was.

"Holy crap-!" Glimmer began, slamming her hand against one of the lower rocks in awe, only to give us all something new to think about when the rock literally broke in half where she struck it.

"What the Hell?" Thresh looked at the rock in surprise before he looked at Glimmer. "Was there some strength-enhancing drug in the Cornucopia we didn't know about?"

"What?" Glimmer looked at him in confusion.

"I was watching the opening bloodbath; if you were tough enough to do that when this started, a couple of fights would have ended a bit quicker."

"That's… OK, point," Glimmer nodded in acknowledgement before she looked more earnestly at Thresh. "But I swear I didn't take anything like that!"

"You don't think…?" Peeta said, looking tentatively at the yellow thing in his hands.

"What?" Foxface looked at Peeta with a smile as she held up her own blue object. "You think that these things gave us-?"

She cut off her own question when she copied Glimmer's action and ended up breaking a chunk off another bit of rock with a nonchalant shove of her hand.

"OK…" Peeta said, moving towards the chunk of rock Glimmer had broken off. He put the yellow coin in his pocket before he bent down to pick up the rock, staring in awe as he effortlessly found himself holding the heavy stone above him when it had to be twice the size of his head. "Yeah, this shouldn't be this light."

"OW!" Rue yelled, prompting the rest of us to turn and see her rubbing her hand as she glared at the wall.

"Nothing happened?" Foxface looked sympathetically at the girl.

"Nothing happened," Rue nodded, looking sulkily at the rest of us with an expression that reminded me of Prim when I'd initially objected to Buttercup joining us in the house. "I guess it is just the coins."

"Coins?" Thresh repeated, taking the black object out of his pocket and studying it for a moment before he shrugged. "Yeah, 'coin' works, I guess."

"Coin?" I repeated, taking my own red object out and holding it up, only to jump back when something seemed to uncurl in the massive metal object above us. Walking up to what looked like a flight of stairs leading up to the new opening, I took a deep breath and placed my foot on the lowest step, and tried not to make my relief obvious when nothing happened.

"For what it's worth, there's no way the Capitol did this," Foxface put in, indicating the walls around us. "Geology wasn't a strong point of mine, but all this stuff… it looks like this thing's been here for so long that the rock's grown around it."

"Around it?" Thresh repeated. "How old would something have to be for that to happen?"

"Getting into millions," Foxface observed.

"Damn," Glimmer said as she stared at the ship. "This is really getting interesting…"

"Should we… really be doing this?" Peeta asked uncertainly.

"You're going to start asking a question like that now?" Glimmer looked at my fellow Twelve resident with an incredulous grin. "C'mon; we've come this far!"

Peeta could only look anxiously up at the open door, even as I found myself cautiously leading the way up into the ship. With the rest of the group behind me, the top of the stairs led to the middle of a strange circular platform, surprisingly pristine despite the apparent age of this ship, with various circles around the walls and four paths leading away from the platform. As the others joined me in the middle of this strange room, there was a faint beeping sound from somewhere above us before the very walls of the ship seemed to move around us, certain 'circles' opening to reveal further passages leading into other parts of this…

I was reluctant to call this a 'ship', but those things had definitely looked like engines for some kind of flying craft.

Even as the staircase we'd just come up sealed behind us, I tried to work out what could have created something like this; how could a flying ship of this size have been stuck down here for so long ago that the rock had grown around it like that…

"What was that?" Rue said, suddenly grabbing me by the leg as she looked towards one of the circles. Following her gaze, I saw a golden light as something appeared at the end of another corridor leading deeper into the ship. Lost for better ideas, I yelled urgently at the others before I ran off down a corridor opposite; whatever was down here, I had a strong feeling that we wouldn't want to meet it with only a few blades and a bow to defend ourselves with. As the other five followed my example, Thresh and Foxface pressed themselves up against one wall while Glimmer joined Peeta and me on the opposite side. Rue was just about to join us when something grabbed her and pulled her back along the corridor, the girl letting out a terrified scream-

"They're real!"

Chapter Text

Leaping out from around the corner to look at the source of that voice, I was sure that I wasn't the only one of our strange group to be confused at what we had just found. The figure that had grabbed Rue was barely as tall as Rue herself, with a squat body and long arms that put me in mind of the monkeys I'd seen in some of Prim's old nature books. However, until a monkey, this creature's body was made of red and grey metal, with its belly reminding me of the chain mail that some past tributes had used to protect themselves once ordered by suitable supporters. The most significant difference, however, was its large wide head, which was shaped like a thick silver disc that had two glowing yellow eyes on either side, along with what looked like a large crystal globe in the centre of its head.

Letting out a defiant yell, Thresh charged towards the creature with his blade raised, only for the thing to extend one of its arms and literally throw Thresh over itself like he weighed nothing. As Thresh flew down the corridor this thing had just emerged from, I took up a position standing defensively over Rue as Peeta, Foxface and Glimmer gathered behind me, Glimmer and I holding our weapons while Peeta and Foxface just tried to back us up.

"We will kill you," I said, trying to sound dramatic.

"Kill me?" the strange creature said with a certain light scepticism in its voice. "How?"

"There's six of us," Glimmer said, raising an arrow that even I knew wasn't likely to work on whatever this thing was.

"Six?" the robot repeated, looking over the five of us curiously before turning to the corridor where it had thrown Thresh, its head moving with a speed that made me think of surprise. "Six of you? But that's- Rita had hers on her when- ah, right; the little one's just a tag-along."

"…Tag-along?" Rue repeated, looking at the small thing in confusion.

"Look, never mind about us; what are you?" Foxface asked, waving her hand at the thing in confusion.

"I'm Alpha Five," the robot replied, looking back to see Thresh had gotten back to his feet. "Ah, good, you're up; feel free to stick with the others, just don't attack me again, could you?"

"What's an… Alpha Five?" Rue asked, as Thresh moved to cautiously join the rest of us.

"An alphormic lorcaid persona android."

"…That mean anything to you?" Thresh glanced at Foxface, clearly still a bit bitter about being thrown aside like that.

"I think I understood about half of those words, and I'm not entirely sure the other half even are words," Foxface clarified.

"Hold on; if you're Alpha Five, what happened to Alphas One through Four?" Glimmer added with a slight grin.

"Lost, destroyed, dismantled and replaced due to the need for an upgrade," the robot replied with a brief shrug before it spread its arms and seemed to be grinning at us. "But look at you all! Different colours, different kids… You're all so young-looking! I've been waiting for this for so long-!"

"Waiting?" I cut in, already uncertain what kind of answer I wanted to hear. "How… long have you been waiting?"

"What's the day?"

"…Monday?" Peeta said uncertainly, after a brief count on his fingers to confirm the date.

"Then… sixty-five million years," 'Alpha' replied.

I was relieved to see that the others looked just as shocked at that revelation as I was. The notion of a talking machine was enough of a stretch, but the idea that this thing had been around that long…

"How… how the Hell are you that old?" Glimmer asked, looking like she would have dropped her weapons if she had been less controlled. "But… were we even-?"

"You're alien, aren't you?" Foxface looked at Alpha with a tentative smile.

"Alien?" Peeta, Rue and I looked at the girl from Five in surprise.

"As in not from this planet," the other girl said, her smile broadening as she looked at the small robot and took the blue thing out of her pocket. "This ship… you're from another world, right? And so are these?"

"Bingo," Alpha 'nodded' at us before he cocked his head. "You're all so young looking… oh, that reminds me, I disabled those trackers in your arms when you entered the ship; hope I didn't do anything culturally insensitive, but-"

"Trackers?" all six of us yelled.

"Our trackers?" Glimmer looked at her forearm, in the same place where I had been injected with my own tracker on the way to the arena. "You shut them down?"

"Uh… yeah?" Alpha said uncertainly. "I apologise if that's breaking some kind of cultural rule I don't know about, but part of the rules are that nobody else can know what you are-"

"OK, let's just back up and talk about this for a few moments, right?" Foxface said urgently, her eyes flickering from Alpha to the rest of us as though trying to work out what she should take in next. "If you just shut the trackers down when we got inside, what about how long it took us to get down here? Could someone have detected us going into this cave in the first place?"

"Based on what I've detected about those trackers, as soon as you entered the pool, they wouldn't have been strong enough to transmit a signal," the robot explained. "Whoever was tracking you might have been aware that you were in this area, but the rocks would have at least hindered the signal until you met me, and I can confirm that I shut them down as soon as you got inside."

"Right…" Foxface nodded tentatively. "So… the trackers would have probably stopped telling anyone else where we were once we got into the caves… and now there's literally no way anyone else can know where we are?"

"No," Alpha said.

"In other words… everyone up there thinks we're dead?" Peeta asked.

"Probably assume we set off some kind of cave-in-" Thresh smirked.

"What the Hell?" Glimmer looked indignantly at Alpha. "You mean everyone up there thinks we died offscreen?"

"Offscreen?" I repeated, looking at Glimmer incredulously. I knew that Careers were more focused on the Games than other Districts, but the idea that she was that focused on it…

"Seriously?" Foxface studied Glimmer with an expression that matched my own. "We just discovered that aliens are real and you're still worried about the Games?"

"Hey, I'm a Career; we don't die 'offscreen'!" Glimmer protested. "We go out in a big dramatic showdown with our fellows, or at the very least we get taken down by someone who knows what they're doing; they seriously think I died in a cave?"

"…You get that you're not actually dead, One, right?" Thresh pointed out.

"That's not the point-!"

"No, the point is that… Alpha… hasn't been waiting around here for millions of years just for the sake of it," I interrupted, looking curiously at the strange robot. As much as I was suddenly worried about what my mother and Prim must be going through thinking that I was dead, we could focus on the implications of this twist in the Games once we'd established what was going on here. "So what did you bring us here for?"

"Turn around," Alpha said solemnly. I wasn't sure what to expect when I followed his suggestion, but was shocked to find that what had been the main chamber had suddenly become a larger enclosed area with five circular panels arranged around a strange glowing golden… thing in the centre of the room. The wall opposite the entrance had a strange pattern on it that vaguely reminded me of the chain mail I'd seen some Tributes receive as particularly expensive gifts, but as we approached the panels around the glowing thing in the middle, I could swear that they were starting to glow, as though somehow responding to our presence.

"So what do we do here?" Peeta asked, keeping his voice low as Alpha seemed to be examining something around each panel.

"Hit it and run the first chance we get," Thresh said grimly.

"…Shouldn't hurt, but let's see…" Alpha muttered, studying the glowing panels before he looked back at us. "OK, please step into the footprints- except for the tag-along, obviously."

"That's me, right?" Rue asked.

"Her name is Rue," Thresh and I said simultaneously.

"Right, sorry; as you can imagine, my people skills are… well, I haven't had much practice," Alpha 'shrugged', before he indicated the panels. "Anyway, if you could?"

I wasn't entirely surprised to find Peeta walking up to one of the panels himself; even if he was as aware of the possible consequences as I was, anything that got him out of the Games would be good news. He tentatively placed one foot on the panel only to pull back when his movement triggered a brief burst of yellow light in the same apparent colour as the object he'd found. Once the rest of us were sure that nothing else was going to happen, Glimmer, Thresh, Foxface and I moved around to the other panels, while Rue waited uncertainly beside Alpha.

On one level, I wasn't sure why I was going along with this, but at the same time, it seemed like such a small request, and Alpha had already passed up a chance to do any serious to Thresh even when he'd deliberately attacked the robot. Looking around, I saw Peeta and Foxface move to stand on the platforms, while Thresh and Glimmer took a moment to assess their panels before following their example. Taking a deep breath, I stepped onto the panel, and suddenly the wall behind us seemed to ripple as though it was a river standing on its side and someone had thrown a rock into it.

"It works!" Alpha yelled, running around the panels to stand near the wall as the rest of the room started to shake. "This is great; it's working! Zordon? Are you there, Zordon?"

I didn't even need to ask who or what Alpha was talking to, as I saw a face appear from the middle of the wall. It was hard to be certain, but from what I could tell the face looked like it was intended to represent a human, or at least something close enough to human that there weren't any obvious differences. The face and Alpha spoke in an unfamiliar language as the face seemed to be trying to look around itself, leaving the five of us to get off the panels and move back towards Rue. The face sounded slightly panicked, which didn't make me feel any better about the situation, but as far as I could tell Alpha was trying to reassure the face about something…

With the ship shaking around us, I decided that this wasn't the time to question that particular detail; we'd done whatever the robot had wanted us to do, so the priority now was to get away. Once again unaware that I had taken the lead until it had already started, I hurried towards the door to the room, only for it to slam shut before we could get out.

"Crap," Foxface muttered.

"Think we could-?" Thresh began as he raised his fists.

"Come forward, please!" Alpha's voice suddenly called over to us. Turning around, I saw the small robot was still standing in front of the now-still head, which appeared to be waiting at the other end of the room with a vaguely curious expression on its face.

"Do we have a choice?" Rue asked tentatively.

"I have a feeling he wouldn't have shut that door if we could just bash it down with… whatever new strength we just picked up, so I'm going to say we don't," Glimmer put in, before she looked over at me. "Shall we?"

"…Might as well," I nodded, walking cautiously forward as Alpha turned back to speak briefly with the face about something else.

"Look!" the little robot said, eagerly looking back at us. "It's Zordon!"

"And… who's 'Zordon'?" Foxface asked, even as she joined us in walking cautiously towards the other end of the room.

"Zordon… they don't know who you are," I vaguely heard Alpha say in a low voice before he turned back to us. "Come in, come in!"

"These are them?" the face that was apparently Zordon said, now speaking an intelligible language in a deep voice as it studied us. "They are so small… and six?"

"Yeah, the littlest one's basically a tag-along; I think she was just there when the other five found the coins," Alpha shrugged.

"Hey!" Rue glared indignantly at Alpha even as I suddenly realised she had taken my hand.

"We're not leaving her," I spoke up, surprising myself as I looked at the face. "Rue's staying with us."

"I see," the apparent 'Zordon' said, before he seemed to 'turn' to face Alpha. "You mean to tell me that the fate of the universe has been placed in the hands of these children?"

"The universe?" Foxface and Peeta yelled incredulously.

"Hold on; we're- you want us to save the universe?" Glimmer looked at the face in shock, waving her bow for emphasis. "What are- how did we get that job?"

"They're teenagers," Alpha explained as though that justified our reactions. "I ran a check; it's basically somewhere between infancy and full maturity."

"…Show me the coins," the face said, looking solemnly at us. Feeling almost obliged to respond, I took out the red 'coin' (this was no currency I'd ever seen before, but it looked kind of coin-like) and held it up, glancing around to see that the other four with coins were doing the same.

"The Morphing Grid is never wrong," Zordon said, a slight edge to his tone that I couldn't quite understand. "If the power coins have returned to the ship with these…"

"Teenager!" Alpha called out.

"With these teenagers," Zordon finished, "than these teenagers are the Power Rangers."

The solemn nature of those words was enough to halt my initial suspicion.

I didn't know what this situation had to do with us, but I was becoming increasingly sure that nothing here had anything to do with the Games.

I just had no idea if that was a good thing, a bad thing, or something else altogether…

Chapter Text

"Power Rangers?" Peeta repeated in confusion, breaking me out of my own current contemplation.

"Is that some Career thing?" Thresh looked over at Glimmer.

"Do I look like I know more about any of this crap than you do?" Glimmer protested. "Seriously, I'm not out to get you guys-!"

"This is the Games, One; you're all out to get me-"

"I don't think that really matters right now-!" Peeta tried to cut in.

"Hey!" Foxface yelled, waving her hands urgently as she indicated the strange golden energy cloud thing in the middle of the room. When I looked at it closely, there seemed to be a kind of spherical shape at the heart of the 'cloud', with gold and green energy 'leaking' from it as though it was damaged in some way, and it was just possible to see some kind of image in the middle of it. "Uh, question?"

"Yes?" Zordon and Alpha looked at her curiously.

"If I'm right, this sphere… it's talking about the history of those 'Power Rangers', right?" the small redhead asked, looking at the sphere with a thoughtful expression, which was currently showing five figures in some kind of armour. "They were a team that… protected life? And life was some kind of… bright light? Or a piece of light?"

"Yes," Zordon said, the giant head sounding approving of the other girl's assessment. "It is called the Zeo Crystal."

"I love this part," Alpha said, the sphere now showing a glowing crystal of some sort.

"And every planet in the universe that has life, has a piece of the Crystal buried inside it."

"Every planet?" Glimmer repeated in surprise, as the energy showed a round form that reminded me of an image of Earth I'd seen in an old geography book in school. "How does that work?"

"A story for another time," Zordon said solemnly.

"What's important is that, sixty-five million years ago, Zordon's team died defending Earth's fragment of the Crystal, not too far from here," Alpha cut in urgently.

"The coins have chosen you five," Zordon explained solemnly. "Now you must protect the Zeo Crystal and life on Earth."

"Because we're these… 'Power Rangers'?" Thresh said sceptically as he held up his own coin. "Just because 'the coins chose us'? You're seriously relying on these to pick your fighters?"

"The Power Coins are manifestations of the energy of the Morphing Grid, the energy that gave all Rangers their abilities," Zordon explained. "The Grid itself is what chooses the Rangers; the Coins are merely the Grid's power making itself known in our plane of existence-"

"OK, seriously, is this some kind of joke?" Glimmer cut in with an incredulous stare. "You want us to protect some magic rock that gave life to this planet with 'coins' that give us this freaky strength boost? I've been caught in an earthquake, I've got water in my boots, and I've got a goddamn wedgie from where-"

"More than we needed to know, Glim," Foxface cut her off with a teasing grin, before she looked at Zordon with a more respectful manner. "But… look, no offence, but she's got a point; you seriously want us to save this planet? Do you even know what we were doing when your coins dragged us into this cave?"

"What you were doing before does not matter," Zordon replied. "What matters is this."

There was a strange… I could only think of it as a pulse of energy, and suddenly I was floating in the air, the other five suspended around the room-

I was in my bed back in District Twelve, looking up at my ceiling before I stood up. Drawn by some unexplained instinct, I headed for the door, and found myself looking out at the main street of my home District, strangely deserted of people.

I was standing in the middle of the street, my house had vanished, and I heard a voice whispering an unfamiliar word, before I saw another figure at the other end of the street-

Some kind of dark cloud erupted from the other end of the street, tainted with green energy, and suddenly the figure was standing in front of me, revealing an older woman with dark hair and ragged black dress, faint lines on her skin like some Capitol make-up that hadn't worked out properly-

People were suddenly standing around me- not people, they were bald statues, reeling backwards from something- everything around me had turned grey and there was some kind of intense wind- there were screams from all around me- the woman was holding a golden staff topped with some kind of glowing green object-

The woman placed a hand on my chest and I suddenly felt as though I hadn't washed or eaten in days- I felt starved and my skin felt like it was about to come apart the next time I moved- I tried to get away from the woman, but the 'statues' around me collapsed into dust the moment I touched them as I staggered back-

I heard a terrified scream and found myself back in the chamber, but when I looked around to find the source of the scream, I was slightly relieved to find that it was only Rue, curled up in a corner; she might be afraid, but at least she wasn't hurt as far as I could see. I quickly ran over to give her a reassuring hug, even as the other four Tributes got back to their feet and staggered around the room in shock; I vaguely heard Alpha say something, but my priority right now was calming Rue rather than listening to the strange metal man.

"Wh… what the Hell was that?" Thresh glared up at the face on the wall.

"Why-why would you show us that… nightmare?" Peeta asked, actually looking like he was fighting the urge to fall over in terror as he leant against one of the panels.

"It's not a nightmare," Zordon replied. "If you do not take action, that will be the future,"

"Who… who was that woman?" Foxface asked, which at least suggested the others had seen what I'd seen.

"Her name is Rita Repulsa," Zordon answered. "She will create Goldar, a huge monster who will rip the crystal from the earth, and all life on your planet will die. With the Crystal, Rita will have the power to create and destroy worlds."

"So let me guess; you want us to kill this Rita woman first?" Glimmer asked, shaking her head with a grim smile. "Well, at least something hasn't changed…"

"She must be stopped," Zordon said firmly.

"When's she coming?" Foxface asked.

"She's already here," Alpha said, waving his arms as he spoke. "My best guess is that we have eleven months… sorry, days; eleven days."

I cursed under my breath at that news; as though getting into the Games hadn't been bad enough, now I had to deal with a threat like that?

"OK," Glimmer raised a hand. "If I'm following you, as we're Power Rangers… this is basically our ship now, right?"

"Essentially."

"So if I walk through that door right now, it'll open?"

"Yes, of course."

"Right," Glimmer turned around and walked through the now-open door despite Alpha's tentative protests. Thresh scowled briefly, but took Rue by the hand and followed Glimmer, with Peeta and Foxface exchanging uncertain glances before going after them. I took a deep breath and looked uncertainly between the door and the large face on the wall before I moved to follow them-

"Katniss," Zordon's voice said suddenly, "My Ranger team died defending the Crystal from Rita. That's why I'm in this wall."

"How do you know my name?" I looked sharply at the face and the robot; I wasn't going to question exactly how I was talking to a man who was apparently dead until I'd worked out what I was actually going to do about all this.

"Because it's you, Katniss Everdeen," Zordon said solemnly. "You are the leader. You are the Red Ranger."

"…What?" I looked at the wall in shock as I pulled the coin out of my pocket and held it up. "You mean I'm- just because this thing-?"

"Each Coin is attuned to particular personality types; blue for intelligence, black for raw power, yellow for balance and pink for compassion," Alpha put in.

"And… red for the leader?" I looked sceptically at the little robot even as I lowered my hand.

"Precisely," Alpha nodded.

"And you just accept that?" I asked, pocketing the coin and looking between the robot and the face. "You don't even know anything about us-!"

"As I previously mentioned, the energy of the morphing grid draws in and responds to particular people; there's a reason you and the others were the ones who found the coins," Alpha explained. "Each coin chose you, and here you are."

"But we can't just- we have families-!" I protested, even as I knew that argument was relatively weak when everyone else would basically believe we were dead already.

"I understand your concerns, Katniss," Zordon said. "I was chosen to become a Ranger when I was only somewhat older you, relatively speaking, but I had been raised in a culture that understood the duty and honour of such a calling… and have now been separated from my family for good because of that duty. The threat you now face in Rita…"

Despite only having a face to express himself, if Zordon had a body I was sure he would slumped down in a chair from the weight of what he was talking about. "She was once a Ranger herself, and even my friend, before she betrayed us in a quest for more power."

Turning around, I saw a figure in red armour in the middle of the golden cloud, before the scene shifted to show a female figure in green, standing in an authoritative manner that put me uncomfortably in mind of President Snow.

"She lost her way, and now she is just pure evil," Zordon finished. "I cannot explain what drove her to fall so far; all I can do is react and do my best to stop what she has become… which requires you all to take action."

"I… I'm sorry," I looked at the wall, struck by the pain on the giant expression even if I still felt uncertain about my own place in this mess.

"I already failed to stop her once," Zordon continued. "I regret that failure, but now, if you wish to protect your own families, you must bring back all of the Rangers and train your team to stop Rita… before she has the strength to find the Crystal."

"…Seriously?" I looked at Zordon incredulously, my sympathy forgotten in face of incredulity at this order. "I can barely take care of my mom and my sister, and now you want me to lead people to save the world?"

"The coin would not have chosen you if you were not capable of it-"

"I need more than just the insight of something I didn't even know existed before now-!"

"I recognise that I am putting a great deal on you all, but the fact is that there is no choice," Zordon cut me off, frustration in his voice before he seemed to calm himself. "I wish that we had the time for me to acknowledge your concerns and take them into account, but the fact remains that Rita will come whether you are willing to fight her or not; all you can do at this moment is choose if you meet her head-on or hide from your duty and let everything you know die."

As much as I hated to acknowledge it, Zordon had a point. If Rita was as dangerous as he suggested she was, she was going to come for the rest of Panem and that 'Zeo Crystal' thing he had told us about whether there was anyone ready to fight her or not. I might not like the idea of being forced into another fight, but at least this time around it was a fight where I appeared to have more options than just 'kill everyone else and be the last one standing' if I wanted to get out myself…

As I walked out of the ship, I was relieved to find the rest of the group still standing around the cave under the pool; whether they'd been waiting for me or were just all debating their next move, I didn't know, but at least it made it easier for me to talk with them now.

"Uh… glad you're all here?" I said at last, before I decided to bite the bullet and looked over at Foxface. "Please, don't… take this the wrong way, but… what is your name?"

"Olivia," the now-former Foxface said with a brief shrug. "But you can call me Liv."

"Liv?" Rue repeated.

"As in 'Livewire'," the redhead explained. "Parents were a bit old-fashioned when they chose my name, so I prefer Liv."

"It works," Thresh smiled briefly at her.

"Thanks," I nodded at the now-named Liv, before I turned to look around the cave with a solemn expression, still amazed that I was doing this to a group of people I had been preparing myself to kill less than an hour ago. "OK, I get that… well, none of us exactly knew each other before we found that cave, and we definitely weren't expecting anything like this to happen…"

"Damn straight we weren't expecting anything like this; let's just get out of this pool and-"

"And then what?" I cut Glimmer off. "We go back to just… trying to kill each other in the Games?"

"Hey, at least we know what we're doing there-!"

"And what about Alpha?" Rue asked, her expression suddenly tentative.

"Alpha?" Glimmer repeated incredulously. "Listen, kid, the little guy said he's been here for millions of years; I think he's old enough to take care of himself-"

"When nobody knew he was here to bother about," Peeta put in with a tentative expression on his face. "If we go out there, the moment the cameras see us, people are going to start wondering what happened to turn our trackers off, which means they'll come to this cave, which means they'll find Zordon and Alpha, which means…

"Which means all the stuff back there ends up in the Capitol's hands," Thresh finished, looking back at the ship with a sigh. "Damnit…"

"This just got complicated, didn't it?" Liv observed as she looked at Glimmer with a brief smile. "Wherever we came from, I think we're all agreed that letting anyone up there get their hands on this ship isn't a good thing?"

"And that's before you start wondering about how these Coins affected us," Peeta added as he held up his. "We've already seen that they made us stronger; what happens if someone realises what's happened and tries to… well, copy it?"

"Zordon said that the coins chose you; it sounded like nobody else can use them-" Rue put in.

"And you really think anyone up there's going to just accept that?" Thresh disdainfully indicated the ceiling as he pulled out his own. "I'm not even sure I'm happy about this; why do I get the black coin?"

"From what Zordon said, it's more of a… well, it's not just a racial thing," I said awkwardly; life in District Twelve was rough enough that skin colour was never a bit deal, but I recognised that it was still a delicate issue for some people. "He and Alpha explained that these coins are all drawn to certain… personality types or something like that; you got the black coin because you're the best of us in terms of raw power or something like that, just like… Liv… was chosen by the blue coin because she's the smartest."

"I am?" Liv grinned, looking at her coin with a new sense of appreciation. "Hey, how about that?"

"Yeah, yeah, we're colour-coded freaks; big whoop," Glimmer groaned. "Look, are we really going to believe that Rita crap?"

"Why not?" Rue asked, shivering slightly as she looked back at the ship. "And even if it's not… isn't it nicer down here than up there?"

"Nicer?" Glimmer looked at the little girl incredulously. "In some dark cave with a weird-looking robot and a face on the wall-?"

"That don't want me to die in the next couple of weeks."

"…Gotta admit, that's a point," Thresh nodded. "I mean, sounds like we'll be going up against some steep odds if the big Z's telling the truth, but at least we don't have to kill each other to last that long."

"Yeah, but… we're training to kill someone-"

"Who's willing to do all that… black cloud of death stuff to the whole planet," Liv cut Peeta off. "I'm not saying it's better, but we already know that there's more going on here than the Games; if Zordon and Alpha just wanted us dead, they could have just left things alone."

"Point…" Peeta nodded tentatively at Liv before looking back at me. "So… we're going to do this?"

"You're all free to do what you want," I said, deciding to just cut to the chase. "But as for me… I don't know if I could have won the Games or not, but right now, it looks like Rita is the only thing directly standing between me and getting back to my family… so if I have to fight her to do that, I'll be staying here. The rest of you… you can do what you want."

I'd never been in a situation like this before, but as I stood in that stone cavern and looked around at the five people I'd been planning to kill barely an hour ago, I was surprised to find myself smiling as they all tentatively nodded at me in agreement.

I didn't know if I was ready to actually lead these people into anything, but at least I knew I wouldn't be alone in… whatever Zordon wanted us to do.

Chapter Text

Clove

When six cannons went off in short order, Clove had been pleasantly surprised, even before she saw who it was.

The Capitol would probably complain about the lack of a good show, but Clove didn't have a problem with this turn of events; anything that made it easier for her to get home was good for her. She was idly curious who or what could have been responsible for six Tributes getting killed off so quickly, but that was something she could find out once she won the Games and could take a look at the recap.

Besides, she didn't think she had any reason to complain about a few mysterious deaths when at least half of those had been trouble if the Games had let them stay in play for much longer. The redhead from Five and the little girl from Eleven obviously wouldn't have been a problem, and as tough as the boy from Twelve was, they could all see that he didn't have the instinct to actually do any damage to them. On the other hand, Clove was willing to admit that she'd been worried about facing the big guy from Eleven if things had come down to the two of them, and the girl from Twelve had showed a good edge with the bow and arrow during training. Glimmer had been an obvious threat simply because she was from One, but Clove would have to admit that Eleven's guy and Twelve's girl gave the impression that they would have been an interesting match-up if things had come down to her and either of them.

As it was… unless she'd lost count, the only non-Career in play right now was that guy from Ten, and she vaguely recalled that he'd had a limp or something that would stop him just charging in. Four's girl was nothing special, she was fairly sure the guy from Three had some kind of plan so she just needed to keep an eye on him, and despite his name, Marvel wasn't coming across as anything special so far. She didn't particularly like the idea of fighting Cato after all the time they'd spent training together, but if it came down to the two of them…

Well, she'd do what she had to do to get back home.

Gale

Katniss was dead.

Every time Gale thought those words, he just wanted to hit something all over again. It was only his promise to Katniss that he'd take care of her family that stopped him trying to go out and attack the Peacekeepers with his bare hands if he couldn't get a weapon; anything that would let him vent the rage he felt at the Capitol that had condemned Katniss to death for 'crimes' that had been committed decades ago.

She had gone into a situation that she should never have been forced into because she wanted to protect her sister, and now she'd ended up dead in some stupid cave-in with a bunch of randoms. Her death hadn't even given her a chance to make some kind of 'statement'; she hadn't taken anyone out, and she hadn't been able to show anyone what someone from Twelve could really do…

He didn't know if he was angrier at Haymitch or Mellark; Mellark had just gone and basically stabbed Katniss in the back after all that talk about how he 'loved' her and then led that One girl right to her, and Haymitch had probably just kept on drinking rather than deal with any real business! The only good thing Mellark had done was die with the other five, and Gale still would have liked to kill him for what he'd done.

He just wanted something he could kill to vent over this whole situation; the Capitol had taken the most important thing in the world from him, and life went on as though this was just another day…

God, I hate those assholes.

Prim

Katniss was dead.

No matter how often Prim tried to take that fact in, it still prompted a fresh round of sobs from the little girl lying in her room, clutching her sister's pillow as Buttercup paced around the room.

She understood why Katniss had volunteered for her, but that just made it worse; even as she grieved for her sister, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was still glad it wasn't her who'd been in that arena…

She was a horrible, selfish person who hadn't deserved a sister as caring as Katniss… and now her sister was dead because she'd wanted to protect Prim… dead with four strangers and someone who'd tried to help them in a dark moment years ago…

Why did the Games have to go on after something so stupidly pointless?

Cinna

Cinna knew that it was an unfortunate attitude to take for any stylist, but he had genuinely liked Katniss Everdeen. He had requested District Twelve partially for the challenge of making something suitably distinctive for what many saw as the least impressive District, but he would admit to those he trusted that he had enjoyed the chance to work with Katniss. She had been honest in a manner that few Tributes were in his study of past Games, and he had appreciated her courage in volunteering for her sister from the beginning.

He might have been involved in attempts to find a suitable symbol for the rebellion, but right now, he preferred to focus on the tragedy that a promising young woman had been lost in such a manner before she could truly show Panem's public what she was capable of. He appreciated Thirteen's official goals, but he liked to consider the human cost as well; what good was it to rebel without a clear idea what you were fighting for?

He fought to give others a chance, and his only regret now was that he hadn't been able to give Katniss a better one…

President Snow

Six tributes in one moment…

They hadn't experienced loss on that scale since Beetee's little trick with an electric cable during the Fortieth Games, and on that occasion they'd at least had an interesting few days leading up to a suitably dramatic showdown.

Still, Snow couldn't object to the result in principle. As he'd observed to Seneca Crane during their earlier talk, the Games worked as a means of providing hope to the masses to keep them in line, but an accident like this could serve to reinforce the idea that the Districts were always destined to remain in line like the animals they were.

The Capitol was the only truly deserving victor in Panem; those who won the Games just got to share in the glory under the conditions he and others imposed upon them.

As frustrating as it was not to know how the cave-in had been caused, Snow could live with his ignorance if it ensured that he didn't have to put up with potentially troublesome Tributes. As much as he had tried to deny the idea to Seneca Crane, Katniss Everdeen had shown herself to be a potential threat to the system; if someone from an outlying District could earn such a score in the final assessment…

The remaining Tributes were all interesting, but none of them should particularly 'rock the boat'; the survivors from One, Four and Ten were nothing special, Three overestimated his understanding of the rules and his place in events, and the Twos were little more than the standard Career Tribute. As Doctor Gaul had observed so long ago, the important thing was to maintain control of the system; Katniss Everdeen had the potential to be significant, but now they were back to the stereotypical Tributes who didn't merit much attention.

With the Games back to the standard symbol of Panem's power, he could turn his attention to the question of those rumours he'd been hearing about someone stealing gold in some of the Districts. The murders in themselves weren't too significant so far, but he couldn't allow it to develop further in case certain people began to join the dots and express their dissatisfaction with the Capitol's ability to maintain order…

Chapter Text

"You need to follow the three rules to being a Power Ranger," Zordon explained as the six of us stood in front of the wall displaying his face once again. I wondered if the rest of the team felt just as solemn about this decision as I suddenly felt right now, but there was no time to ask that particular question when we were about to face a threat as big as Rita appeared to be. "You must never use your powers for personal gain. You must never escalate a fight, unless your enemy forces you to. And you must never reveal your identity, ever."

"OK," I nodded in solemn understanding.

"So there's no misunderstanding here, what defines 'personal gain' and 'escalating a fight' in this context?" Liv raised her hand.

"Deploying excess weapons against an opponent that you could handle with available tools, and using your powers for anything that goes beyond the mission to defend the Zeo Crystal from those who would abuse it," Zordon clarified.

"In other words, we can't just go all out against some guy the moment the fight starts?" Glimmer asked.

"OK, that's… something to keep in mind," I nodded, fighting down the brief disappointment I felt at the implications of that statement. Whether or not being a Ranger would be any use against the Capitol, regardless of how many times Gale had complained about the current system, I had no reason not to believe that Rita was the biggest threat right now.

"OK, that clears that up, but haven't we already broken the 'don't reveal the identity' bit considering that the kid's in the room?" Glimmer indicated where Rue was standing off to the side.

"That third rule predominately applies to less developed civilisations who require the services of a Ranger team before their people are ready to make contact with the wider universe," Zordon explained. "Even in that scenario, there are cases where non-Ranger natives have been made aware of the identities of the Ranger team, but only if they vow to keep the secret themselves."

"I will," Rue nodded earnestly up at Zordon. "I won't tell anyone about all this, I promise!"

"…Very well," Zordon said, seemingly 'nodding' back at Rue in turn before his gaze fixed on us. "The finer details of these rules shall be discussed once you have properly assumed your Ranger identity, and do this, you need to morph. Have any of you morphed before?"

"…No idea what that is, so I'm going to say no," Thresh shook his head, the rest of us following his example.

"OK, OK, let's step into the footprints, please," Alpha said, indicating the circular panels we'd stood in when we initially 'activated' the spaceship when we arrived, each now displaying basic holographic humanoids in the colour of one of the Power Coins.

"Standing in this circle, as a team, you can easily connect to the Morphin' Grid," Zordon explained, as the five of us walked up to the circle matching our colour while Rue stood uncertainly alongside Alpha. "Do you feel it?"

"Yeah they do," Alpha said, with a tone in his voice that sounded like he would have been grinning if he had the face for it.

"Uh… we're not," Peeta shook his head as he looked apologetically at Zordon.

"You need to morph to get your armour," Zordon said solemnly.

"Armour?" Thresh looked at the face with a grin. "We get armour?"

"I think it's… well, it's what those holograms earlier were about," Liv said, indicating the golden cloud in the middle of the room. "If I was reading what I saw in… that right, each Ranger gets armour matching their respective power coins; obviously we can't see the full details of it yet, but… yeah, it looked pretty cool."

"So I'll be going around kicking butt in pink armour?" Glimmer grinned. "Sounds neat-"

"But we need to… morph to get it?" Liv cut her off as she looked curiously back at Zordon. "How does that work? Is it somewhere in this ship?"

"Your armour is already inside you," Zordon explained. "You bring it out by connecting to each other, and to the Morphing Grid."

"OK… and how do we do that?" I asked.

"Bury your minds and focus," Zordon said, as the light of the central cloud began to glow more intensely and Zordon's voice became deeper. "The Power Rangers are a legion of warriors, sworn to protect life. You must become those warriors."

As the central glow increased, I held out my arms and saw the other four doing the same. For a moment, the glowing cloud seemed to spin as we stood around it, pulsing with strange energies I wasn't sure anyone on Earth had a term for right now…

The glow abruptly faded and the atmosphere of the room returned to normal, leaving the five of us looking awkwardly around the room at each other.

"Did it work?" Liv looked uncertainly at herself.

"Alpha Five, why didn't they morph?" Zordon asked.

"Maybe because most of us have barely known each other more than a fortnight and we were training to fight each other for most of that?" Glimmer pointed out.

"You were?" Alpha looked at the District One girl with what I could actually tell was an expression of surprise despite the lack of an actual face to show it. "Huh; that could be a problem…"

"We don't have time for problems," Zordon cut in firmly. "If these teenagers cannot morph, they must train without armour."

"Without armour?" Alpha repeated, looking at the wall with a shocked tone to his voice. "Sir, that will be very painful-!"

"We have no choice," Zordon said, looking at Alpha firmly. "Take them down to the Pit."

Alpha lowered his head and let out a sound that I interpreted as a robotic sigh before he turned back to us. "Follow me; we're going to the Pit!"

"The Pit?" Peeta repeated anxiously. "What's the Pit?"

"Right here," Alpha said, briskly leading us out of the room and back down the stairs we'd entered the ship by, waving his arms around the underground cavern.

"This is 'the Pit'?" Glimmer said sceptically.

"It's nice, right?" Alpha smiled.

"Alpha Five," Zordon's voice boomed out from the ship, "begin the exercise."

"Sorry, guys," Alpha shrugged.

"What exercise?" Peeta asked, before a strange blue glow enveloped the field and glowing purple rocks began to move towards each other, culminating in a large figure appearing in the middle of the cavern. It was vaguely human in appearance, but it looked like nothing more than a collection of rocks that someone had piled on top of each other, as though an amateur artist had wanted to create some kind of statue but hadn't had any real idea how to put it together. There was a vague impression of a face in the middle of the creature's chest, and basic hands, but as far as I could tell this was just a lump of rock.

"What are we meant to do here?" Thresh asked, walking up towards the figure. "Do we just hit it or-?"

Thresh's question was interrupted when the figure suddenly raised one arm and hit him in the centre of the chest, throwing him back against the wall.

"Thresh!" Rue screamed in horror.

"Hey!" Peeta yelled, charging forward to slam his palm against the figure, only to stare in surprise when his 'slap' knocked the rock creature back a few feet towards one of the stone pillars in the pit.

"Nice," Liv nodded in approval at Peeta before she glanced at Alpha. "What is this thing; some kind of solid hologram?"

"That's right," Alpha nodded at the District Five resident. "For what it's worth, you're definitely living up to the blue; you grew up not knowing about any of this stuff and it's really coming together for you!"

"…Thanks?" Liv shrugged, clearly uncertain how to respond to that particular compliment.

"Solid hologram?" Glimmer repeated in surprise. "That's possible?"

"Don't the Capitol have that kind of technology?" Peeta looked at her curiously.

"That's just a basic invisible barrier; we're talking about something that looks this real- whoa!" Glimmer jumped back as a few more of the creatures appeared around us. A quick glance was enough to confirm that each creature was slightly different, the rocks in different patterns and put together in a slightly different way (I was fairly sure a couple of them had extra arms sticking out of their backs), but they were all flexing their arms in a manner that made it clear they were about to start a fight.

"What is this?" Thresh looked around the room in shock as he rubbed anxiously at his chest while walking up to join the rest of us. "What are these things?"

"Simulations of Rita's Putty army," Alpha explained. "You'll need to get past them to get to her, which is where your armour comes in. Since we're having… trouble reaching that point, for the moment you'll have to focus on training to fight as a team to reinforce your own bond with each other."

"By fighting these things?" Glimmer indicated the nearest 'putty'. "How long's this going to-?"

"We can work out a specific timeframe once we've worked out what you're capable of," Alpha shrugged. "Let's see what works."

We spent the next couple of hours struggling against the holographic 'putties', with Peeta, Liv, Glimmer, Thresh and I each facing off against a particular hologram as best as we could while Rue watched from her position sitting on the steps leading up to the ship. It didn't take long to confirm that Glimmer was the best hand-to-hand fighter amongst us, but I was surprised to find that Peeta could do a fair job himself with some moves I recognised from our school wrestling matches. Thresh could deliver a powerful punch when he managed to land a good blow on our opponents, but whenever I saw him fighting even I could tell that he didn't have any real technique to back up what he was doing, and Liv just focused on evading the putties' punches until she could get a chance to land the occasional blow herself. For my part, I managed to land a few good hits myself, but I already knew that I wasn't going to win any fights on my own this way; I was so used to using my bow and arrow that something in me just shied away from the thought of getting up close to whatever I was trying to 'attack'.

After a couple of hours of this 'training' had gone by, Alpha called it off and directed us all back inside the ship. I had a feeling even Liv wasn't sure how this design would actually work, but somehow the strange circles arrayed around the walls had rotated around to let us into different rooms. The latest rotation opened a path into a room that just consisted of a long table with a strange machine at the other end, but it was easily recognisable as some kind of dining area.

"Huh," Liv looked around the room with a thoughtful smile.

"What?" Glimmer looked back at the smaller girl. "It's just a dining room."

"Made by an alien species that came here millions of years ago and predated our own existence in our current form by at least a few millennia?" Liv pointed out as she indicated the area. "Do you even realise how… impossible that is? That at least two such different species have evolved to be so… similar?"

"It's not that much of a stretch, actually," Alpha put in from where he was now standing near the strange machine at the other end. "The Zeo Crystal fragments give life to all planets, so it influences the evolution of life on those planets to follow a certain pattern… OK, here you go!"

"What's this?" Rue looked in confusion at the strange bars that Alpha had placed on the table in front of each of us.

"Nutrition bar," Alpha shrugged. "It's basic in terms of taste, but it has all the aminos, vitamins and minerals that your bodies require to sustain yourselves."

"Ah," Peeta nodded in tentative understanding. He looked awkwardly at the bar in front of him for a moment before he cautiously raised it to his mouth and took a bite out of it. He chewed it thoughtfully for a while, until he swallowed and looked around the table. "Well… like he said, it doesn't taste great, but it's not terrible either."

"The computer may be able to work out something better-tasting later, but for the moment the priority was to get you something that you could eat," Alpha explained with a shrug. "I can work out something better once I've had a chance to calibrate the system for your species."

"Mmm," Glimmer said, uncertainly chewing her own bar before she looked back at Alpha. "On the topic of keeping us alive, are there rooms anywhere in this place we could use?"

"Rooms?"

"To sleep in," Thresh spoke up as he finished his own bar. "Can't speak for everyone here, but I'd like somewhere to crash for the night."

"Seconded," Glimmer raised her hand.

"Wouldn't be against that either," Liv said.

"I'll… I think I can sort something out for you," Alpha nodded, before he glanced over at Rue. "That said, since you're staying as well, I may have to put you with one of the others; this ship was designed based on the premise that only Power Rangers would be using it, and since you don't have a Coin you could just end up getting locked into your room…"

"She can stay with me," Thresh nodded, receiving a grateful smile from the little girl.

"OK, that helps," Alpha gave the two Eleven residents an understanding nod before he turned back to me. "I'll… show you to Zordon's old room-"

"Hold on; I don't-!"

"It's the way the ship's designed; each Ranger had their own private quarters synced to each coin, so you'll be taking your predecessor's rooms while you're staying here," Alpha explained. "For what it's worth, I cleared the rooms of their personal effects long ago; everything's in storage now, so there's nothing to worry about in that regard."

"Uh… great?" Peeta nodded at Alpha as I followed the robot out of the dining area. We paused in the central area for a moment as the ship's interior rotated again, and then he led me into a red-rimmed circle that revealed a basic room with a bed, a desk, and a cubicle.

"That's your… I believe the term is toiletry area?" Alpha explained as he noticed me looking at the cubicle. "You can clean up and dispose of your personal waste-"

"Gotcha," I cut the robot off, before I looked at him with a firmer manner. "Look, Alpha, I get that Rita is a problem, and I accept that I'm meant to… to lead these people, but… do you really think we can do this?"

"…Can I be honest with you?"

"Sure," I nodded.

"I don't know," Alpha shook his head. "You're determined, but you're not really coming together as a team right now…"

"That's not exactly our fault," I countered. "You have to… I mean, none of us had any idea there was even life on other planets a few days ago, and then I met over half of these people for the first time and had to spend the next week expecting at least half of them to try and kill me before this was all over!"

"…Right," Alpha nodded tentatively at me, with what I would have considered a solemn manner if he'd had a face that could show me any kind of expression.

"I want to do this, Alpha- I don't want my sister to get killed when Rita destroys the world- but I just… I don't know if I can bring these guys together," I said, unsure why I was bearing my soul to a robot but knowing that I had to tell this to somebody. "Glimmer's basically spent her life preparing to kill the rest of us, Peeta and I barely spoke back home, and I never even knew Thresh, Rue and Liv before the Games started; how am I meant to do this?"

"You're the Red Ranger, Katniss Everdeen," Alpha looked at me with surprising depth in his voice. "The coin wouldn't have chosen you if you couldn't do it."

I decided to just nod in silence at that statement as Alpha turned around and left the room, leaving me to sit on the bed and take the red coin out of my pocket.

Like I'd told Alpha, I didn't want Rita to destroy the world, but could I really bring Peeta, Liv, Glimmer and Thresh together as a team in time to pull it off?

Ten days of training to go and no way of knowing if we can pull it off…

Chapter Text

When the next day of training started, I had no idea what I was going to do about the problem Alpha and I had discussed last night. I appreciated the point he'd made about how that we weren't working out as a team at the moment, but when I'd never worked as a leader in anything more than leading the school in songs when I was little, it was hard to work out how to get this group to work together when we'd spent years thinking that we'd just regard each other as enemies if we got to this point.

The strangest part was trying to basically invert my old pattern of behaviour from the training sessions before the Games. When we were in the training halls, I'd often had to remind myself that Peeta and I were going to end up opponents when the Games started and would have to hide our true strengths from each other, but now I was in a position where I was fighting alongside four other people with the final goal of working together rather than fighting each other to the death. It was easy enough to work out how we could avoid basically hitting each other while we were training, particularly with the more obvious threat of the putties to focus on, but that was far from the same thing as working as an actual team in a fight.

The first couple of days of training were basically more of the same as we fell into a sort of 'routine', where we all tried to fight the putty holograms in the morning and afternoon, with a break for lunch and dinner after we tried and failed to morph all over again. Meals were particularly bland, as we only had the same protein bars to eat and some cups of water that I didn't want to think about the source of.

The fights with the putties were still painful, but as the struggle continued, it was easier to see how the others were improving in terms of combat ability. Thresh and Peeta still relied primarily on raw strength to take down their respective opponents, Thresh hitting the Putties he fought while Peeta tended to use wrestling moves to toss them around. Liv seemed to be taking some time actually trying to fight the putties, as so far she was relying more on avoiding their attacks and striking back when she found a suitable opening. Glimmer was the most obviously technically skilled fighter among us, often weaving around her designated opponent, but she occasionally attempted some kind of odd attack that I couldn't entirely understand, such as jamming her fingers at a point on the putty's body. When I managed to ask Liv about it the night of the second evening, she speculated that Glimmer was trying to attack nerve endings or something like that in the dummy, relying on her old training on instinct even if she had to consciously recognise that it wouldn't work on these opponents.

I thought about criticising her for that particular detail, but when I still found myself trying to go for my bow during a fight rather than relying on the current hand-to-hand, I could tentatively recognise why Glimmer was falling back on her own training. I'd basically taught myself how to use the bow with some help from my father before his death, so it made sense that Glimmer would find it harder to ignore her years of training in this situation.

It didn't make it easier to acknowledge just how many problems we were trying to overcome to make this work, but at least I was getting a better sense of what we were working with.

As we ate the next day, it struck me that none of us had actually talked much about our current situation beyond the fact that we'd agreed to go through with the training, but as soon as the thought occurred to me I had no idea how to take that idea any further. Making an impression during my interview with Caesar had been hard enough when he actually wanted to talk to me, but right now I wasn't sure if any of us were comfortable enough with the others to open up about anything. Thresh and Rue at least seemed to get along well enough, considering that she was staying in his room, but I still didn't know when Peeta had been telling the truth about his feelings where I was concerned, I wasn't sure what I could even talk to Liv about, and the more time we spent with Glimmer the clearer it was that none of us were even sure if we could trust her.

It wasn't like any of us even understood that much about how these coins worked; just because we were apparently a good 'fit' for each of these 'power coins' didn't mean we were automatically going to work well together…

Even as the other Rangers finished their food and left to return to the pit, I sat in silent contemplation, slowly chewing on my nutrition bar as I considered the problem. Even if I had my doubts about my ability to lead this team, I could appreciate that Zordon and Alpha weren't likely to accept the argument that they get someone else after the faith they had expressed in me, which meant that I had to work out some way to make this work…

"This isn't going very well."

"What?" I looked over at Peeta, surprised to see him still sitting at the other end of the table on the opposite side from me. "We're getting the hang of-"

"Fighting on our own," Peeta interrupted me. "We're meant to be a team, Katniss; how can we be part of a group if we're still not willing to trust each other?"

"We're not trying to kill each other right now; I think we can call that a victory," I countered.

"But is it enough?"

I didn't answer Peeta's question as I finished my current food bar, aware that he had a good point but with no idea what I could say in return. Even if I discounted Rue from the 'equation' since she wasn't part of this 'Ranger' dynamic, the five of us needed something we could use to help us bond as a team beyond the fight training, but when we had so little else we could actually do in this ship without giving away that we were still alive…

I smiled as I swallowed the last of my food bar and stood up, a new idea in mind.

"Tell the others I'm having some private training with Zordon," I looked apologetically at Peeta as I stood up.

"You're-?" Peeta began in confusion.

"Peeta," I shifted my expression to what I hoped was an authoritative glare as I looked at him, "if you ever had any real faith in me, have faith that I have a reason for doing this that will help us if it pays off."

When Peeta finally nodded at me in acceptance, I could only hope that my impulsive idea would be enough to at least break the ice. I might not have any clear idea how I was going to bring this team together in time to actually fight Rita, but if this worked out, there might be something that I could change about our currently exasperating situation.

"Katniss?" Alpha looked at me in surprise as I walked into the room to see him and Zordon. "What is it?"

"I need to go out."

"Go out?" Zordon repeated, looking at me with a frown. "You are needed-"

"Look, I'm sure Alpha's told you that I understand that what we're doing here is important, and I'm sorry that we're having so much trouble 'morphing' or whatever the term is, but the fact is that we're not getting anywhere training like this," I stared resolutely at the face in the wall. "If we're going to improve… well, I don't know if this is going to help, but I thought I could go out and get us some new food?"

"New food?" Alpha repeated curiously. "The machine-"

"I get that it's giving us what we need, but there's a difference between something that sustains us and something we actually like," I explained. "The nutrition bars are keeping us alive right now, but that's all you can really say about them. I was thinking that we might… well, we might be able to bond more if we had something good to eat, rather than just the same old thing."

"It is… worth consideration," Zordon conceded. "You know how to get food?"

"I hunted a lot back home," I replied, surprised at how easy it was to admit that to two relative strangers. "I know what to look for; I just need to go somewhere outside of the immediate area to do it."

"I understand," Zordon said, before he turned his attention to Alpha (on a strange level, I had to be impressed at how that projection system could show a shift of attention when Zordon had such a relatively limited presence). "Is the outward teleportation system working?"

"It should be now that the coins are back," Alpha nodded. "I spent some time scanning the area to confirm that the coins hadn't moved, but obviously I ended up taking in a lot of the wider local terrain in the process-"

"Hold on; can you just explain what you're talking about here?" I looked urgently between the talking wall and the strange little machine. "What's this 'outward teleportation system' you mentioned?"

"Oh, it's an emergency feature of the coins; if you're facing mortal peril, so long as you've got the power to spare to activate it, they'll automatically take you all somewhere you consider safe so that you'll be protected from serious harm," Alpha explained.

"…Really?" I looked sceptically at the little robot. "I thought you said Zordon's team died-"

"Facing a threat from another Ranger who could hit them so hard that the coins couldn't spare the energy to activate the system, especially not when they were using power while morphed," Alpha clarified. "The point is, we can teleport you out of the ship with relative ease so long as you choose an area you can be sure won't have anyone there who might see you arrive, and then all you need to do is trigger the coin by mental command and you can come back when you're ready."

"…Thanks," I said, deciding to just accept that I was getting what I had asked for. "I just need to grab a couple of things from our rooms-"

"Wait," Zordon's voice cut in. "If you intend to go outside without armour, you will require this."

I didn't have time to ask what he meant before I felt a layer of cloth settle around my head. Reaching up in surprise, I felt a strange hood and scarf, wrapped around my head and face so that only my eyes were visible, pulling the cloth just forward enough to confirm that it was made of a red material.

"The garb of the Ninjetti, the warriors who first harnessed the power of the Morphing Grid to become Power Rangers," Zordon explained as I looked back at the wall. "Until you can morph and properly harness your armour, if you intend to go out of the ship and use your powers, this will conceal your identity should you be discovered."

"…Thanks," I nodded, deciding to just accept the 'gift' in the spirit with which it was intended. "Once I get back, I can help you find a spot to drop me off…"

Walking through the forest an hour later, I could barely restrain the urge to laugh for joy. When I'd been so convinced that I'd never get the chance to do this a couple of weeks ago, it was frankly a relief to once again be doing something I knew how to do, out hunting in the forest for food for those I was close to.

Admittedly, right now I was hunting for food in the hope that it would give me an opportunity to get close to other people, but the basic principle was still the same. I'd managed to grab the bow and arrows from Glimmer's room, but I'd also picked up a bag to collect some firewood in case the ship didn't offer any means of cooking actual food, and a couple of knives from various packs in case I got the chance to do some work on skinning my catch before bringing it in.

Finding a few herbs and other plants that I could use as flavourings had been both the easy part and the hardest part of this particular excursion. Thanks to my father's training, I'd known where most of the good 'crops' were around District Twelve for years, whereas here I was starting from scratch and just had to hope that I had kept track of the conditions necessary to grow the relevant crops. I'd managed to find a few spices that could be used to add flavouring to anything I might bring back, but the challenge now lay in finding something that could give six people at least one decent meal. So far I'd spotted a few birds and rabbits, so I at least knew that I was in the right area to find game, but I was going to give myself another hour before I decided to just settle for whatever I could find out here. If I was going to work on bringing my team together, I was going to get us something good to eat-When I saw a deer off in the distance, I immediately froze, unsure if I should believe my good luck. It had been months since I'd seen a deer before that one I'd glimpsed on the day of my Reaping, and now, to see one here…

Moving with a speed and precision that somehow managed to surprise even me, I had notched, aimed and fired my arrow almost on automatic. As soon as the deer fell, I ran over to examine it, relieved to find that I'd caught it directly in the heart. I retrieved the arrow and prepared to pick up its body when the forest fell silent…

I suddenly knew what was about to happen.

Looking up from my position over the deer, I froze as I saw a disturbingly familiar sight; a small group of people in tattered clothes, running through the forest, a Capitol hovercraft almost directly above them.

It was just like that time I'd told Peeta about on our first day in the training centre; 'traitors' to the Capitol, destined to get caught and either be killed or made into Avoxes, and all I could do was-

No.

I hadn't been able to do anything last time, but I wasn't going to let myself hesitate now.

Maybe I wasn't able to morph yet, but I was still a Ranger… and even if this wasn't the big threat of Rita, that hovercraft was still going to threaten innocent people if I didn't do something.

I was moving so quickly I didn't even realise what I was doing as I tossed the dead deer into a bush, tossed my leather jacket over it (anything to make it less obvious that I'd been a Tribute) and scrambled up the nearest tree until I was near the top. I only vaguely registered the net launch from the hovercraft towards the fleeing group as I leapt from the tree and practically flew through the air until I hit the front windows feet-first. I didn't know if it was my enhanced strength or if this glass just wasn't that strong, but the whole screen shattered under my impact, my feet striking the pilot inside in the same motion. A couple of peacekeepers positioned inside the ship looked up in shock, but I just lashed out with my hands extended, trying to copy what Liv had identified as Glimmer's 'nerve strikes' at points on their shoulders.

As the peacekeepers fell backwards, I spun around and grabbed the control stick for the hovercraft before I shifted the ship into a downward descent; I doubted that I would be able to fly this thing anywhere, but a quick crash might be enough for what I had in mind. With the course set, I grabbed the three crew- it was almost disturbingly easy to pick them up like this- and ran further into the hovercraft, soon finding an open hatch that linked to the cable leading down to the net. Not entirely thinking about how I was doing this, I grabbed the cable in my hands and yanked it apart with one move, subsequently taking hold of the end with the net on it as I jumped out of the falling hovercraft. Even as I fell, I yanked the cable in my hand so that the net at the other end hit a large bush or low tree of some sort before I reached the ground myself, tossing the three peacekeepers I'd grabbed off to the side before I ran for the net. Taking only a moment to confirm that my Ninjetti mask was still in place, I reached up and pulled the net apart, smiling in relief when I saw that the people inside, while clearly shaken, showed no sign of being seriously hurt by what had happened.

"Go," I said, only just remembering to make my voice sound low; I hadn't spoken much when I was being filmed for the Games, but I didn't want to risk anyone recognising my voice if I could do something to avoid that. "And keep running."

I didn't know where they thought they could go from here, but the important thing was that the Capitol wouldn't have the chance to make them Avoxes. The group nodded uncertainly at me before they turned around and ran back into the forest, one of them looking uncertainly at me for a moment before he continued after the others.

Turning my attention back to the Peacekeepers, I was relieved to find that they all still seemed to be breathing and showed no sign of any serious injuries. Whatever they might have done, I wasn't ready to start killing people even if I was meant to keep this 'Ranger' thing secret. What mattered was that they wouldn't be getting up for the next few minutes, which would give me enough time to get the deer and teleport back to the ship without anyone here realising where I had gone.

Still… for the first time, I could kind of understand where Gale was coming from when he went off on his anti-Capitol rants; it felt good to save someone from the kind of punishments they could inflict…

Chapter Text

"Where were you?" Glimmer shot a pointed glare at me when the rest of the former Tributes walked into the ship, the now-former Career looking particularly bitter when she saw me waiting against the door leading to the dining area. "I thought the whole point of you having the red coin was that you were in charge of this little group we've got going on here?"

"I am," I nodded in acknowledgement, hoping that my planned 'joke' would go down well. "Which is why I decided that it was time to do something that every good authority figure should do and get you all something to eat."

"Something to eat?" Liv repeated curiously.

"Like what?" Thresh raised a pointed eyebrow. "A fancier protein bar?"

In response, I tapped my foot against the door, which opened to reveal Alpha standing at the other end of the table a smoking plate of meat in front of him with dishes and tools that were apparently some kind of cutlery arrayed along the table waiting for us to sit at them.

"I believe the term is 'ta-da'?" the robot said politely, spreading his arms to indicate the table before him.

"What is that?" Glimmer looked at the large plate of meat in surprise.

"Part of a deer I hunted down earlier," I explained, enjoying the chance to truly feel in control for a change as the other Rangers walked into the room.

"You got out?" Liv looked sharply at me.

"Turns out these coins can… teleport, right?" I looked at Alpha.

"It's part of an emergency protocol," Alpha explained. "The coins can teleport you to safety- in this case, they'd teleport you back to the ship- or we can configure it to send you out of the ship so long as you can guarantee a location where you won't be seen when you arrive."

"You're saying we can just leave this ship-?" Glimmer began.

"We can't exactly stay out there," Liv shifted her sharp glare from me to Glimmer. "Or are you forgetting that little issue where Rita's going to attack in a week or so if we aren't ready to fight her?"

"Exactly," Alpha nodded. "I recognise that you're all concerned about your families, and I apologise for my mistake in convincing the outside world that you're dead, but it's not safe for any of you to leave the ship full-time right now."

"But you let her-!"

"Because I had a good idea where to go and was prepared for the possibility that I'd be seen," I defended myself. "Like Alpha said, we can't just… nip out and visit our families when we've still got Rita to worry about; we have to focus on getting ready."

"She's right," Peeta nodded in agreement. "Trying to tell other people what's going on here just puts them at risk at best, but just going out to get food somewhere safe…"

"For what it's worth, I have to agree with One that being stuck here like this sucks, but on the other hand, Yellow makes a fair point," Thresh nodded, as he took a bite of the meat and then smiled at me in approval. "Hey, this is pretty good."

"I managed to find a few herbs and seasonings while I was out hunting," I explained, smiling as I took a bite of the meat myself. "I'm not an expert cook, but I know enough to put something good together."

"You can do that?" Rue looked curiously at me.

"I can confirm that she's very good at hunting," Peeta spoke up, giving me a brief smile. "Back home my father buys her squirrels; she always manages to hit them in the eye."

"Always?" Liv looked at me with new respect. "That can't be easy."

"I manage," I said with a cautious smile.

"And… is this everything?" Glimmer asked, even as she cautiously sat down at the other end of the table. "From what you got today, I mean?"

"No, just what I prepared for this evening with Alpha's help," I explained. "He showed me a kind of storage area in another part of the ship that we can use to keep the rest of it in good condition for the next few days; it's some kind of… high-tech fridge, I think?"

"You think?" Glimmer looked at me in surprise, pausing in the middle of cutting her steak.

"Well, it's not like I've seen what they look like back home," I countered defensively. "I live in the Seam; we don't have the means to power something like that."

"…It's that bad out there?" Glimmer asked, the normally confident-looking Career girl looking surprisingly vulnerable as she looked at me.

"You ever even bothered to ask what it's like in the outer Districts, One?" Thresh looked at Glimmer with a new edge of bitterness. "Believe me, I can buy that Red doesn't have her own fridge."

Glimmer just stared back at him in silence for a few moments, before she turned her attention back to the food. She gave me a brief smile of approval as she took her first bite, but it was soon clear that neither of us knew what to say after that particular topic, so it was easier to just say nothing.

"So… When did you start hunting?" Rue looked innocently at me after the silence became too awkward.

"…Maybe when I was around your age," I said, after looking thoughtfully around the table. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't have shared this information with a group of relative strangers, but considering that we would already be keeping our Ranger status secret from everyone else once we got out of here, adding a few more secrets couldn't hurt. "My dad died in a mining accident, and my mother… well, she didn't handle it well."

"Been there," Thresh said.

"You have?" Liv looked at him curiously.

"Just in the 'losing parents' sense," Thresh elaborated, suddenly looking awkwardly down at his plate. "My own parents… Mom died giving birth to Fray, and then Dad pretty much worked himself to death to keep her alive."

"Your sister?" Rue looked at Thresh with a sympathetic expression.

"She's still with Grandma back home," Thresh said, his awkward expression becoming grim. "Gran's great, but… y'know how it is; it's not the same."

"Right…" I nodded at him in understanding, suddenly wondering if Fray and Prim would get along and then trying not to think about the idea that they both thought their siblings were dead right now. I was already uncertain about this particular attempt to bond with the other Rangers, but I knew that I still had to give it a shot, even if I wasn't going to try and pressure them about anything they clearly didn't want to talk about. "How about the rest of you? I mean, I know about Peeta's family, but everyone else?"

"Maybe clear it up for the rest of us?" Glimmer asked as she looked at Peeta in a pointed manner.

"…Two brothers, one older, one younger, and my parents have a… strained relationship," Peeta said, looking down at his plate as he cut at his piece of meat.

"Strained?" Rue asked.

"His mother is… well, Gale and I have called her a witch," I said with a slight smile.

"Gale?" Glimmer repeated with a teasingly raised eyebrow. "Someone we should know?"

"Just a friend," I said briskly; even without Peeta as part of the current situation, bringing up Gale would invite all kinds of questions I wasn't ready to face.

"Just a-?"

"So how about you?" Peeta cut in as he looked over at Rue in a louder-than-normal voice that even I could tell was him trying to distract the rest from Glimmer's question. "What's your family like?"

"Uh… me, my parents, three sisters, and two brothers," Rue said, recognising the need to divert our current conversation. "I'm the oldest; I help out in the fields by climbing the orchard trees to get some of the harder-to-reach fruits-"

"You work?" Glimmer looked at Rue in surprise.

"We all do once we're old enough," Rue replied with a simple nonchalance. "It's the best way to keep up with the Capitol's demands."

Glimmer simply stared silently back at Rue at that statement, an expression on her face that I couldn't compare to anything I'd seen from the blonde Career before.

"So, Liv-" Peeta began, clearly trying to break the silence, only for the Blue Ranger to pick up her plate of meat and walk out of the dining area. Looking at her back, I could see a sense of tension in her shoulders that I wasn't used to seeing from the normally-friendly former resident of District Five, but she had soon vanished from the room before I could try and think of a way to talk to her.

"So eating alone's an option?" Glimmer asked, picking up the last of her own meat and walking out of the room. "That's me then."

For a moment Thresh and Rue looked uncertainly at Peeta and I, but then Thresh picked up his own plate and walked off, leaving Rue to look apologetically at me before she followed her District partner out of the dining area.

"…Do I put people off?" I looked uncertainly at Peeta, even as I recognised how fundamentally stupid it was to ask him this question.

"Huh?" Peeta looked at me in surprise.

"I mean, I asked everyone to face some really personal stuff, and all I did in turn was give them food; was that… did I push them too far?"

"I think… we're in a really weird situation right now, and you're trying to do something you're not used to doing," Peeta said, smiling at me in a tentative yet reassuring manner. "We all got into this thinking that only one of us was definitely going to come home, and adjusting to the idea that we all have a chance of living through this…"

"Even with Rita?"

"Even with Rita," Peeta nodded. "Maybe she killed… our predecessors… but that time she maybe had the advantage that she caught them by surprise; we're going into this knowing that we're up against her…"

"It's not much."

"It's the best we've got right now."

As Peeta and I sat in silence and finished our food, I briefly thought about mentioning my confrontation with the Capitol hovercraft, but decided that it would sound too much like I was trying to make some kind of point that even I didn't fully understand right now.

I appreciated that Rita had to be our priority, and I wasn't entirely sure about the implications of what that one act of defiance might mean for the future if the pilots talked about it once they got home… but if the Rangers were meant to protect life, maybe there could be a way to argue that there was more we could do in this kind of situation?

Maybe we didn't have to focus exclusively on Rita and defending the Zeo Crystal…

Chapter Text

When our training resumed the next morning, I had already promised myself not to bring up my private contemplation about what else we could do as Rangers until I was sure the rest of us were on the same page. Peeta's speech about how he didn't want the Capitol to change him into something he wasn't at least sounded like he would be open to the idea, but I had no clear idea how Thresh, Rue and Liv would feel about actually taking up arms against the Capitol, and as for Glimmer…

Frankly, Glimmer was the one of us I was most uncertain about in terms of her status as a Ranger. Zordon and Alpha might claim that the Pink coin chose its bearers because of their sense of compassion, but when I could still recall brief glimpses of Glimmer attacking other Tributes in the opening bloodbath it was hard to look at the blonde warrior and see anything other than a killer. I recognised that we had to work together right now, but whenever I was able to take a moment to see how the others were doing against the latest wave of holograms, Glimmer was clearly the one aiming for more lethal blows.

Thresh and Peeta were getting into a habit of using their own raw strength to throw the putties around, and Liv was ducking and weaving around her own opponents in a manner that reinforced my old thought of her as being like a fox. I was trying to find a way to take all of their own tricks into account while finding my own style, since I had a feeling I wasn't going to be able to use my usual bow against the putties or Rita, but it was hard to really feel comfortable getting up close to an enemy after years training myself to avoid people when I was in a tense situation. So far I was relying on dodging blows and launching a few quick kicks or punches when my opponent was over-extending itself, but I wasn't sure if I was getting better or if this system just had too much to do…

The sound of a growing roar of rage prompted me to look over at where Glimmer had forced her current adversary to the ground and was now practically raining punches down on its chest, her fists swinging with such speed that it was hard to know where they actually were and an expression of rage on her face that I had to admit I was surprised to see from the normally controlled Career. The rest of us ended up pausing our own efforts to watch as Glimmer delivered a devastating beat-down to the putty, culminating in a roar of rage as she slammed the palm of her hand into its chest with such force that it shattered the creature's main body.

"BAM!" the blonde Career yelled as she stood up, before looking indignantly at Alpha as she indicated the shattered putty at her feet before the hologram shut down. "There; we beat your stupid training thing!"

"This isn't just about training you to fight Rita's minions; this is about help you to unlock your armour-"

"Which we're clearly not going to do any time soon, so what's wrong with sending us out there to beat up this Rita bitch while she's still trying to get her act together?" Glimmer cut the small robot off. "Yeah, I get that she killed the last guys, but you said yourself she caught them off-guard and she's just gathering her energy right now; we rush her all at once-"

"And you're even more likely to get killed," Alpha cut her off. "Rita may have been basically in stasis after Zordon's sacrifice until now, but she's spent all that time drawing on the energy of the Green coin to sustain herself, which means that she still has her raw power and just doesn't have access to some of her other abilities. You're tapping the essential details of the power those coins can give you right now, but you need the armour to achieve your full potential."

"So we can hit things harder?" Thresh asked.

"And so that you can use the zords if Rita manages to summon Goldar, naturally."

"Zords?" Liv repeated in confusion. "What are zords?"

"The original name is… well, it's extremely hard to pronounce in your language, but 'zord' works as a means of expressing the same concept."

"In other words… we don't have a term for what these things are in English, so you named them after Zordon instead?" Peeta asked uncertainly. "Isn't that a bit… egocentric?"

"Zordon's name means 'strength'- among other concepts, naturally- in his native language; for ease of translation, I think 'zord' works for this context," Alpha explained, before he turned around and headed for a side tunnel under the ship off to the side of the cave. "Please follow me."

"To what?" Rue asked, even as she stood up to follow the small robot.

"You'll see," Alpha said, before he turned his head to look at the rest of us. "Seriously, you all need to see this."

After weaving through a few rocky pillars and other assorted formations in this strange cavern, we finally reached a tall stone wall made of the same layered rock formation that we had become familiar with over the last few days. Displaying remarkable agility for a robot with such a large head, Alpha rapidly made his way up the wall, leaving the rest of us to just do our best to follow him, Rue quickly receiving a piggy-back from Thresh to help her keep up.

"If you need proper incentive to morph, consider this inspiration," Alpha explained as he reached the top. "What you will find beyond this wall will forever change your life."

Once the rest of us had joined him at the top of the wall, it immediately became clear what he was talking about. We were now in an even larger cavern than the one where we'd originally found the ship, and that cavern was dominated by five objects that I could only think of as massive robots, even as I quickly told myself that these had to be the zords.

The most obvious thing about these large machines was that it was at least simple to work out which of us would control which zord. There was a large figure with what I could only think of as red armour covering its head and back that extended down to its tail, along with what looked like cannons around its upper body and powerful legs at its back. On the opposite side of the cavern was a squat black form with eight legs and three strange protrusions coming out of its front. On a cliff just behind the black form was a similar-looking figure with what looked like blue armour, a shield-like formation around its head and two horns coming from the shield with a smaller one at the front of its face. The two most distinctive forms, however, were a large yellow creature with four limbs and a head that made me think of Buttercup of all creatures, currently squatting between the red and black zords, and a slender pink form perched alongside the blue zord with two long, thin shapes sticking up from its back…

"Wait a- are those wings?" Glimmer looked sharply at Alpha with an eager grin spreading across her face as she indicated the machine at the top of the rocks. "That pink one's for me, right? And those wings work?"

"Of course they work," Alpha said. "Why wouldn't the Pterodactyl zord be capable of flight?"

"And none of the others… my zord can fly?" Glimmer's joyful smile seemed almost fixed to her face now. "OK, that's really cool!"

"And what about that one?" Thresh grinned at the large black zord. "Big guy's for me, right?"

"The Mastodon, yes," Alpha nodded at Thresh. "I appreciate that it's not quite accurate to the original species, but it was more structurally practical to give it and the Triceratops extra limbs to be sure they could support themselves-"

"Hold on…" Liv looked thoughtfully around the cavern before she turned back to Alpha. "This kind of history wasn't my strong point, but I thought that dinosaurs were all lizards; tigers and mammoths are mammals, aren't they?"

"The original Yellow and Black zords sustained serious damage when Rita turned on the other Rangers," Alpha explained with a shrug. "It took time for me to configure the ship to gather the relevant parts together and reconstruct those zords to rejoin the others in this cave, and by that point Earth's animals had evolved far enough that it made more sense to set the systems so that they could adapt to something more comparatively modern rather than try and recreate the originals."

"I can go with that," Liv nodded in understanding.

"And… we can use these?" Peeta looked between Alpha and the large yellow cat-like zord with his own eager smile. "They're ours?"

"They will be an extension of you, and their power is all but limitless," Alpha explained, before his tone became more solemn. "But you are not ready for this power yet. Once you can morph, your armour will make you one with your zords, but until then your control of them will be… inadequate."

"Inadequate?" I asked.

"Can you honestly tell me that you'd have the slightest idea how to control the Tyrannosaurus zord if you sat in it right now?"

"…No," I conceded as I looked up at the large red machine that was in some way mine. I barely knew how vehicles on Earth operated, and a giant robot like this was definitely outside even that limited experience.

"Exactly," Alpha nodded before he looked over at Glimmer. "And if you think I'd allow an unmorphed novice access to a flying machine, you have another thing coming, young lady."

"Young lady?" Glimmer repeated with a pointed stare.

"He is several million years old," Rue observed with a smile as she stood beside Thresh. "Aren't we all basically kids to him?"

"The point," Alpha cut in as Glimmer glared over at Rue, "is that the armour will provide you with instinctive knowledge of how to use the zords in the field that you wouldn't possess if you tried to go into action without it. You might be able to hold your own against Rita if you had to fight her without it, but without armour, you'll be short of most of your true advantages as a Power Ranger."

"…Fine," Glimmer nodded, staring longingly up at the pink plane-like zord perched up near the roof before she turned back to the rest of us. "So… let's keep doing this, I guess?"

"That's the spirit!" Alpha said, patting Glimmer and I encouragingly on the shoulders as we returned to the training pit. "I've got a good feeling about today now!"

I didn't want to kill Alpha's apparent good mood, but I had a strong feeling that he was exaggerating his faith to try and make us feel more optimistic about our chances.

Chapter Text

We still hadn't morphed by the following day, but I couldn't shake the feeling that we were at least making more progress as each day went by. We had all developed our own particular training style by this point, but it was still strangely fascinating to see how we had each formed our own particular way to deal with the Putty holograms.

Glimmer was still the one of us with the most obvious technical skill at hand-to-hand combat, but Peeta and Thresh were starting to rely on a bit more than the wrestling techniques they'd been using so far. It was hard to keep track of Liv when she kept moving around the battlefield so quickly, but I could see that she was so far managing to deal with the putties through an interesting balance of evading the putties and lashing out with some quick hits when they left themselves vulnerable.

It was hard to adjust to the idea that I was even able to get up close to potential enemies like this, when I was so used to staying away from the Peacekeepers and shooting arrows when I was out hunting, but I felt like I was finally getting used to my new strength, letting myself stand my ground and actually fight rather than try and stay away…

"You're doing that wrong."

"What?" I looked at Glimmer in surprise, realising that the blonde Career was standing just behind me.

"You're over-extending yourself," Glimmer explained, grabbing my arm and holding it out in front of me before I could object. "You're just telegraphing your moves if you keep jumping in like that; you need to let your opponent get in closer if you're going to make any kind of impact."

"I've been… taking them by surprise-" I began.

"Which works up until the moment when you missed some other enemy who might be able to alert your target to what you're doing," Glimmer elaborated. "You need to get used to getting up close; sometimes you're not going to have time to think about what you're doing in a fight and just have to focus on kicking their asses."

"…Good point," I conceded, letting another holographic putty appear in front of me before I leapt forward and kicked it in the chest. "How was that?"

"Good start, but-" Glimmer paused to leap forward and kick the rising putty in the chest herself. "You can't be afraid to kick the other guy when he's down if it means making sure he stays down."

"Blunt," Thresh observed, but in a manner that suggested he was trying to avoid passing judgement on Glimmer's words. When I looked around, I was surprised to see that Liv, Peeta and Thresh had stopped their own fights to watch my current training session.

"The priority in any fight is to win," Glimmer explained as she turned to face the Black Ranger before looking over at Peeta. "This isn't like some school wrestling match, Bread-boy; if we're going to win this, we're going to need to hit the other guy really hard and screw the rules."

"…I… guess that makes sense," Peeta nodded in acknowledgement, before he looked curiously at the blonde Career. "How do you… know all this?"

"I did train at the academy-"

"No, I get that's where you learnt all this, I meant… you're offering all this advice?" Peeta elaborated. "It's just that I got the impression that the pack was more…"

"Cut-throat?" Glimmer smiled at Peeta with what I was coming to recognise was a teasing grin, suddenly reminding me that Peeta had spent the first couple of days with her and the other Careers before we came together. "What, did you think our teamwork just consisted of not killing each other until we could kill you?"

Noting Peeta's bemused expression, Glimmer shrugged. "If you must know, we were keeping you on your toes."

"On his toes?" Rue repeated, looking curiously at Glimmer. "Why would you want to keep Peeta on his toes? I thought he was working with you?"

"For the moment; plan was that if we kept Yellow worried we'd turn on each other at a moment's notice, he'd be less inclined to try and provoke it himself."

"I… I'm sorry, but… Peeta?" I looked at the Pink Ranger incredulously. "You all seriously thought that he would attack you?"

"We all knew he was only there to try and buy you time, Red; you think any of us bought that he'd turn on you that quickly after his declaration in his interview?"

I decided not to answer that question, simply looking at Peeta in a manner that I hoped wouldn't give anyone else the wrong impression. Faced with a declaration like that, how could I say that I had believed his 'defection' when I first saw him with the pack…?

"Point is," Glimmer continued as she addressed the rest of us, "we all go into the arena knowing that only one of us will get out, but we also go in there knowing that we've got others to take down before we get that far. We all get a good grounding at the Academy, but a few on-site lessons aren't going to hurt our chances in the Arena, particularly if we're up against a tough cookie like Johanna Mason or someone pulls another Beetee on us."

"Yeah, he got those Careers good…" Thresh nodded in approval at the memory of the only games where multiple Careers had gone down so quickly; even the pro-Career Capitol often cited Beetee's victory as a highlight of past Games.

"HEY!"

"Liv?" I turned to look at the ship, surprised to see the former District Five resident standing in the door with a tentative grin on her face, suddenly ashamed to realise that I hadn't seen her leave the pit. "When did you-?"

"I've been alternating between training out here and seeing what I can find out about this ship with the kid and Alpha," Liv shrugged. "I just figured that if Blues are typically the smart ones of their teams, it's pretty much my responsibility to know a bit more about what we're working with in this ship beyond what machines keep us fed and where we sleep, right?"

"…Makes sense," I nodded at her in tentative understanding. "But… why are you telling us this?"

"Because I've just hacked the live feed from the Capitol announcing the winner of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games."

"Already?" Peeta looked at Liv in surprise. "It's barely been a week-!"

"Yeah, but when was the last time they lost half a dozen Tributes a couple of days after the bloodbath?" Glimmer pointed out, the smile on her face noticeably grimmer than when she'd been giving us strategy tips as she indicated the six of us. "Seriously, once we all got taken out of the picture, my old team would've just needed to find Eight's girl and Ten's guy before they started turning on each other-"

"Wasn't Three still out there?" Thresh asked, even as we walked into the ship after Liv.

"He asked to join the Career pack after the bloodbath because he had a few ideas that Marvel found interesting," Peeta put in. "He wasn't allowed to join in the hunts, but they… trusted him enough to guard the camp."

"More we thought he wouldn't do anything to jeopardise its safety," Glimmer put in. "He had some big idea about using the explosives around our platforms to protect the supplies; set them all up in a pattern that…"

"Let me guess; he'd only tell the rest of your group the safe path?" Thresh asked.

"I certainly didn't know anything about that," Peeta put in, his expression shifting as though he wasn't sure how to respond to that news.

"Like I said, we all knew you were only here to buy Red time; even if we didn't think you were going to kill us in our sleep, we weren't going to make it easy for you to steal supplies and go off to join her," Glimmer explained. "Marvel and Cato would probably have told you the basics if we'd gone back after finding this place, but with us gone, I can see people getting careless…"

She shook her head and turned back to Liv. "So who's the newest Victor for this screwed-up world of ours?"

"Clove."

"Shortie won?" Thresh looked at Liv in surprise. "Seriously?"

"Like small things can't be dangerous?" Rue said, folding her arms as she gave her District partner a teasing glare.

"Hey, I'm not being… size-ist, but when she'd be up against the big guys from One and Two, I think I'm allowed to assume she'd get her ass kicked-"

"Just follow me and you can see it for yourself," Liv cut Thresh off, eagerly indicating the ship behind her. "They were just about to start the recap when I left; if we hurry we should only miss the bloodbath at most."

With that offer made, our Ranger training was silently ended for the moment as we hurried into the ship, where Liv led us to one of the other side sections leading off the main entrance 'hub'. Just like the other rooms we'd found so far, this area seemed to be surprisingly well-suited for our current purposes, as a large screen on one wall was surrounded by a set of chairs so that we could sit around and watch whatever it was showing. By the time we arrived in the room, the screen was displaying how the opening bloodbath had concluded with the death of the boy I recognised as District Six's male tribute, his throat slit by Cato with a machete he'd grabbed from the cornucopia.

As the six of us settled in, I noticed Peeta making a clear effort not to look at the screen as it displayed his counterpart making his 'pitch' to the Careers that his claim to be in love with me was just for the sponsors and he'd help them track me down. I decided to focus on the fact that I had made enough of an impression that the offer of insight into my own methods actually inspired them to let him live, rather than question what that said about Peeta's alleged feelings for me, as the narrative continued.

With around half the Tributes dead in the bloodbath, I wasn't entirely surprised when the footage only briefly looked at the survivors from Eight and Ten as the girl tried to make a fire and the boy set up a basic camp under a tree. I was surprised to see how closely Rue had been following me after the bloodbath, but I chose not to bring it up even as Thresh looked at our 'extra' member with a slight smile.

After a few minutes skimming over our activities on that first night, the screen reached the point where Peeta and Glimmer went off to look for survivors while the other Careers followed the plan of the boy from Three, who introduced himself as Axel, and buried the mines around their food pile. When the time came for the other five future Rangers and myself to gather at the cave where we'd found the coins, I was relieved to find that Glimmer's guess had been correct about the lack of cameras in that area; they all saw us go into the cave, but the camera angle stopped anyone realising there was a cave there until I actually went into it. Caesar himself expressed regret that they'd missed seeing what had actually happened to the six of us after some kind of tremor shook the area, offering such ideas as Glimmer or Thresh striking some kind of natural fault line inside the cave to the tremor being part of a trap Liv had set up (although quite how she was meant to have done anything of the sort I had no idea).

While Cato caught the girl from Eight by surprise shortly afterwards when she started a fire that night, I had to admire how she'd managed to put the fire between him and her long enough to grab one of the flaming branches as a weapon. The actual fight had been brief, but she'd still managed to hit Cato in the side of the face with the flaming branch before Cato stabbed Eight's girl in the chest with his sword. He was left with a serious burn on his face and some kind of damage to his eye, but it was hard to tell how bad it was, even if his opponent was definitely dead.

"Could they sort that?" Rue looked curiously at Glimmer as the screen shifted back to the Career camp. "I mean, if he'd survived, would the Capitol doctors have been able to fix his eye?"

"Hard to say," Glimmer shrugged. "Obviously we're all warned not to actually lose anything, so as long as the eye's still in his head it's possible it could be fixed, but at the same time it's pretty much common sense not to put your eyes at risk when you're in a fight…"

When the footage jumped to the following morning, Clove and Marvel had gone off to hunt the missing boy from Ten, now identified as Flint, while Cato and Four's girl, Mara, remained on guard at the Cornucopia with Axel. There was no way to be sure how much time had gone by before the footage showed the search party returning to the camp, but eventually Flint attacked the camp directly; I guessed that he had concluded that as the only non-Career left, it was better to take a chance and go out on his own terms than stay away and get drawn in later when he'd be less able to put up a fight. He only had a couple of small axes and daggers, but he actually put up a pretty good fight despite the odds, practically taking Mara's head off with one of his axes and landing a good blow on Marvel before Cato was able to impale him with a spear from behind.

"Ouch," Thresh said, looking at the way Marvel's arm hung at his side after Flint's axe had struck him in the shoulder. "That limb isn't going to be doing anything any time soon."

"How do you know?" Peeta asked, as the recap returned to the cornucopia.

"Saw someone take a blow like that to the arm once when another guy attacked him with the farming equipment during a harvest," Thresh explained. "Poor guy was never able to work again; one of the few times I think the rest of Eleven agreed with what the Peacekeepers did to the idiot who started the fight-"

Rue suddenly screamed as Axel held up one hand and suddenly a series of explosions went off all around the field. Clove was able to jump onto the pile of supplies once the bombs started going off, but Marvel was blown off his feet and Cato… the only term for what had happened to him that I could think of was 'disintegrated', as his entire body seemed to explode into a red mist that dissipated as soon as the explosions had ended.

As though the end of the explosions was a cue, Axel moved towards Marvel as soon as the last bomb had gone off, only for the boy from One to roll around on the ground and strike his counterpart from Three with a desperate punch; clearly, even after being thrown like that, the trained Career wasn't going to go down easy. As the two boys fell to either side, I was suddenly struck by the sight of two knives striking them in the chests, the knives positioned at an angle that at least suggested they'd struck from above. My question was answered when the camera shifted to reveal Clove perched on top of the pile of supplies with a belt of throwing knives visible under her jacket. When the victory bell went off a few moments later, the only surprise was that it had taken Marvel and Axel that long to die; I could only assume that Clove didn't have a good angle when making her throw.

"And there we have it!" Caesar's voice said as the screen shifted back to Clove and Caesar in the studio. "One of the more abrupt Games in recent history, but none of us can deny that it came to a suitably dramatic conclusion."

"Definitely not," Clove put in, grinning at the screen in a cool manner that made me think of Rita. "Kind of regret I didn't get a chance to see what Eleven's guy and Twelve's girl could do in a clinch, but you can't have everything."

"Talking of the Lost Tributes, what about your lost alliance partners?"

"Glimmer and bread boy?" Clove smiled. "Trust me, we all knew he wouldn't betray his sweetheart like that; it was just a case of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, you know? He was tough enough to be a problem if he'd wanted to be, but we all knew he'd never really turn on her…"

"A sensible enough strategy," Caesar said; I noted that his tone seemed to at least be hinting at a sense of sympathy for Peeta, but decided not to analyse that. "And Glimmer?"

"Could've been tough, but like we saw, this year's pack wasn't that much to write home about," Clove shrugged. "I mean, Marvel was basically the punching bag for the outliers; how much of a threat could she have been?"

"A fair point, certainly," Caesar nodded. "Still, I suppose we have to give Axel credit for the originality of his own strategy; we haven't seen a takedown like that since Beetee's little trick."

"Yeah, I'll give the traitor that much credit," Clove said (I had to bite my tongue at the idea of her calling anyone a traitor when the Careers always turned on each other; she was just bitter because someone beat the Careers to it for a change). "Still, that's the thing about becoming a Victor; where's the point if you did it beating easy opponents?"

"And nobody can argue that you've earned this moment," Caesar nodded at her in approval before he assumed a more curious expression. "Out of curiosity, what would have been your strategy if Axel didn't have his explosives?"

"Wait for someone else to make a move and then start throwing my knives," Clove shrugged. "Would have been trickier if we hadn't lost six to that mini-earthquake, but when everyone else was more about hand-to-hand, long-range would've given me the edge I needed to take them down."

"Indeed," Caesar smiled at her and then settled back into his chair, once again looking curiously at Clove. "So, with your victory behind you and the crowning ceremony ahead, what's in your plans for after that?"

"…A garden."

"A garden?"

"Cato… he talked sometimes about wanting to see about growing things if he'd won his Games," Clove said, her tone surprisingly tender as she turned her head to her left, as though looking at something only she could see. "I mean, I'll be training at the Academy, of course, but apart from that… if he couldn't make it, I might at least try and see what I can do."

"You were… close?" Caesar said, actually looking truly regretful as he looked at Clove.

"I know it seems stupid now, but he and I…"

I was grateful when Glimmer reached forward and turned the screen off, and a brief glance around was enough to confirm that everyone else had been dealing with the same awkward discomfort about the whole question of how to feel about Clove's confessions.

"So… that's it," Liv said, breaking the silence as she looked around the room at the rest of us. "We're officially the 'Lost Tributes' of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games, and Clove's the winner."

"Lost Tributes…" Thresh repeated, before he smiled at us. "I kinda like it."

"Should…" Peeta looked awkwardly over at Glimmer, who I only now realised was sitting a short distance from the rest of us. "I mean, Marvel was…"

"A dick," Glimmer shrugged.

"Really?" Thresh looked at her with no clear trace of his usual hostility. "You volunteered together-"

"It's not like we all get told who's volunteering weeks in advance before the big day, you know," Glimmer cut him off. "The Academy helps pick out the cream of the crop, but that still leaves a few candidates at the end; some of us still like to give a sense of the final choice being random for the look of the thing."

"And Marvel was just… some guy to you?" I asked curiously. "I mean, if you were at the Academy together, and if you made it that far-"

"All I knew for sure about Marv was that the guy was good in a fight, but just because he could hold his own didn't mean he could do anything else," Glimmer said dismissively. "I saw enough of him in training to be sure that he'd be tough, don't get me wrong, but he'd have been screwed if he was fighting someone who could hold out against him for more than a few minutes."

"He'd fall for 'rope-a-dope'?"

"Rope-a-what?" Rue looked curiously at Peeta.

"It's a kind of fighting style I learned about when I was on the wrestling team back home," Peeta explained to the little girl. "You just let the stronger opponent wear himself out trying to hit you by dodging or deflecting his blows to you, then you hit him back once he's too tired to do the same to you."

"Yeah, Marv would have definitely bought that," Glimmer nodded at Peeta before she turned to me. "Don't get me wrong, I didn't think of him as a 'bad' guy, but he just… frankly, the name didn't work; the guy had nothing going for him in the Games no matter what he might have thought of himself."

"I never really knew Pryce."

"Your partner?" Rue looked at Liv in surprise.

"I mean, we never really knew each other even before the Games, and once we got on the train… well, we both knew only one of us would be coming home, so we didn't exactly get around to hanging out," Liv explained, looking down in shame as she indicated the four of us. "I mean, you all… you stayed together, and Glimmer and I can't even…"

She fell silent, but as I looked at the other five people sitting around me, I was struck by the thought that she had a point. Even when I'd been preparing myself for the idea that I'd have to kill Peeta in the end if I wanted to get out of the Games alive, I'd never been as… indifferent to him as Glimmer and Liv clearly had been to their District associates, and it was clear even to me that Thresh and Rue were close even if I had to wonder if that dated back to before the Reaping or was just something they'd formed on the way to the Capitol.

I suddenly wondered which of us had been lonelier; the four of us who had at least been able to tentatively find companionship with each other on our respective floors, or the two who'd taken care to live apart from the only other person who could understand their position because it was easier that way?

Even after getting out of the Games, I was finding new ways of looking at everything that I'd once taken for granted about the system Gale hated so much…

Chapter Text

Clove

The problem with going into the Games to show your family where to shove it was that you didn't always take the time to consider what to do with yourself after the fact.

It wasn't that Clove had volunteered expecting to die, but the knowledge that she didn't really have anyone waiting for her had a particular impact on what she might do with herself next. Her relationship with her parents had always been strained, considering that her father was often away in other Districts in his role as a Peacekeeper, and when her mother had never shown an interest in the Academy herself, she hadn't been able to properly understand Clove's own enthusiasm for attending it. When nothing else in Two had grabbed her interest, Clove had seized on the opportunities of the Academy as a chance to show people what she could really do in a public forum, as opposed to just becoming a masked Peacekeeper in some random District.

It was almost a shame that the Games had ended so abruptly; she didn't doubt that she could have beaten Eleven and Twelve's tributes, to say nothing of showing One's blonde what she was capable of, but it was hard to feel like she'd completely earned it when she hadn't needed to beat everyone in the Games to get here.

The only blessing that everything had ended so quickly was that at least she hadn't needed to… do anything to Cato. She hated that he'd suffered that kind of pain before his death when he'd taken that branch to his eye- she'd already promised herself that she wouldn't look into if that could have been fixed if he'd survived- but at least he'd died in a manner that meant she didn't have to do it herself.

After everything they'd meant to each other back in Two…

His death might have been shocking, but at least getting… blown up… was relatively quick…

The only problem was that she had no idea what she was going to do now.

It wasn't as though she'd gone into the Games planning to lose, but now that she had actually won, she had to face the knowledge that she had more money than she could ever realistically spend in a lifetime and no definite plans on what to spend it on. She'd been serious when she told Caesar that she intended to build herself a garden in Cato's memory, but when he'd been the only person she'd truly connected to in her time at the Academy…

She hadn't been able to stop herself hoping that, just this once, there'd be a way for both of them to go back instead of only one; maybe if she and Cato had made it clear they'd be loyal afterwards, or if they'd had more time to talk about the generations of Legacies they'd give future Games if they were both allowed to live…

Gale

When he watched the recap, what had hurt Gale the most was the way Katniss had just been dismissed like that.

"Would have liked to see what Twelve's girl could do in a clinch, but you can't have everything."

As though Katniss was so easily dismissed… as though she was just a minor obstacle that someone else had to step over to get what they truly wanted, like a rock that had to be dug up to make a road…

If it hadn't been for that stupid cave-in, he just knew Catnip would have won the Games; bread-boy would have been gutted like a fish as soon as the Careers didn't have a use for him, the girls from Eleven and Five could never have stopped her in a fight, Eleven's guy would have gone after the Careers first, and once the guy from Three used up his little bomb trick on the Careers, all Katniss would have to do is get up high and pick them off with that bow…

OK, so the blonde from One had the bow, but from what he'd seen of her in action, Gale doubted that Blondie had the slightest clue how to use that thing beyond 'point at the thing you want dead and pull back'; Katniss could have taken the weapon off her easily enough if she had the chance.

On one level, Gale knew that he was being irrational about this whole mess, but he couldn't help it; just the idea that Katniss Everdeen had died so far away from home, with nothing for company but a bunch of strangers who'd been trying to kill her…

He'd look after her mother and Prim as she wanted, but the first chance he got, Gale was going to do… something to the Capitol…

Haymitch

Another year gone, another pair of corpses for the Capitol.

And he'd really been hopeful about these last two; the girl had looked tough enough to cope with what she'd end up facing in the arena, and the guy had been personable enough that he'd make up for those issues while still able to hold his own if he had to…

Damn cave-in, Haymitch cursed as he downed another glass of alcohol.

If he was going to be leaving here tomorrow, he was going to take full advantage of access to the really good hooch before he returned to another lonely year in Twelve's Victor's Village…

Maybe something in the Quell rules will give us a bit of an edge for a change…

Snow

All in all, it had been a most successful Games as far as Snow was concerned.

Granted, the abrupt deaths of a quarter of the crop in one off-camera moment was somewhat off-putting, but considering Katniss's surprising show during training, it was probably for the best that she be eliminated in such a discreet manner. The Games had a long tradition of airing every noteworthy event that took place during these dramatic days, so the fact that there was no footage of her death in particular would reinforce the idea that she was nothing special.

As for their latest victor, Clove would make a useful subject for appointments; her small size would appeal to the less… publically tolerated tastes of some of his constituents, so long as her evident grief over the loss of her apparent partner in the Games didn't make her do anything too foolish.

With the Games resolved, Snow could see about diverting a bit more attention back into the matter of these gold thefts; One had suffered quite a few losses recently, even if enough had been taken from shops in Two and Four in particular that he was able to ensure that nobody was paying enough attention to the full picture to realise what was happening…

Of course, the question remains as to who would be bold enough to attempt something like this in the first place…

Chapter Text

When I looked back on that evening the next day, I had to concede that I should have known that our tentative moment of camaraderie as we watched the Games recap wouldn't last. I was fairly sure that we were past the point where any of us were concerned that Glimmer in particular was going to try and kill the rest of us at some point, but that didn't mean we could put aside years of 'conditioning' to consider each other anything more than the people we were stuck with right now. We were making progress with the training, and I got a distinct sense that we were developing a better sense of coordination in that we were avoiding getting in each other's way as we fought our respective Putty opponents, but even I knew that there was a world of difference between that and actually fighting as a team.

Still, as we continued our training, I knew that we were making a degree of progress on the personal side of things as well as the practical. Rue spent a little time talking with each of us during brief lulls in training as one or more of us took a break to catch our breath, Liv could be seen chatting with Alpha on other moments when she wasn't joining us in the Pit, and I was actually more surprised to find that I wasn't particularly surprised when I realised that Glimmer had settled into a kind of 'combat instructor' role for the rest of us.

"Easy!" the former One resident said as she dodged Thresh's latest blow. "You're over-extending yourself, big guy."

"Over-extending?" Thresh repeated, standing back to glare at the blonde Career. "I'm just punching-"

"And committing yourself to it to such an extent that it makes it easier for people to get under your defences," Glimmer clarified. "You'd do a lot of damage if you made contact, I'll give you that, but you can't just hit the other guy really hard and hope that'll be enough every time-"

"I got this coin because I'm a damn powerhouse; I think I can handle myself-"

"It's not that simple, big guy; we learned that at the Academy," Glimmer cut him off with a firm stare. "We all had things we were comfortable with, but we were also encouraged to diversify in case we got caught out. I mean, I'm not saying that bow I brought in here's my best weapon, but I know enough to use it if I have even if I'd prefer a sword; you can't just rely on hitting stuff really hard-"

"We're not facing trained warriors right now; we're up against dumb-ass rocks-!" Thresh began, slamming a palm against a nearby rock pillar with such force that he knocked a chunk of it out and sent it flying towards Rue.

"LOOK OUT!" Peeta yelled, leaping forward to push Rue away from the oncoming chunk of rock-

His body suddenly glowed a brilliant yellow, and as we watched, my original District partner was suddenly in what could only be the armour we were all trying to achieve. The suit was made of a thick, plated armour in a dark shade of yellow with some kind of blue light glowing through the various joints, an open diamond shape in the centre of the chest displaying that blue light in full. A few parts of the armour were a silvery grey in colour, such as the upper arms and a portion of the chest, while the helmet had grey imitation lips on the lower half of the face and an all-black visor with two silver points on either side of it, along with an odd design around the top…

As I looked at it, my mind flashed back to our first glimpse of the zords, and I realised that I was actually looking at a mouth; the helmet was designed as though Peeta was looking out at us through the mouth of the animal that had inspired the basis for his zord.

Taking in the armour for the first time, I had to admit, despite my doubts when we'd initially seen the projections in the globe… I actually thought that this look might work.

"Whoa…" Peeta said, holding up his hands to stare at the armour.

"That's what we're trying to unlock?" Thresh looked it over with an approving grin. "Cool."

"How the Hell-?" Glimmer began as she reached out to grab Peeta's shoulder, only for it to suddenly recede from his body from the point where Glimmer had almost touched it. As though that moment of contact had been some kind of cue, the armour 'withdrew' and Peeta was suddenly standing in front of us in his usual clothing once again, looking down at himself with a slight smile.

"OK, so… what just happened?" Thresh looked around at the rest of us. "Did this guy just morph for a few seconds? That's not the only way this works, right?"

"And how did it even happen?" Liv asked, waving her arms uncertainly. "I thought the point of this training was to get us all… synced up so that we could morph as a group? If only one of us can do this-"

"Peeta Mellark acted in defence of one you consider one of your own," Alpha spoke up. When we all turned to look at him, I was relieved to see that I wasn't the only one of us who had been caught off-guard by the reminder that the little robot was watching our training sessions; he didn't always make his presence known during these sessions, so it was easy to get lost in what we were doing. "That's how he initiated the first morph; he acknowledged the bond you share outside of your lives as Rangers and acted to preserve that connection."

"Makes… sense…" Peeta said in tentative understanding.

"So… does that mean we need to be in actual danger to do this?" Liv looked uncertainly at Alpha.

"Not necessarily," the robot replied. "If nothing else, you saw yourselves that the fear-provoked transformation only lasted for a short while before Peeta couldn't sustain it; danger gives you a boost, but it won't let you hold the change. You need to achieve a sustainable bond to sustain the morph, and achieving that… well, let's just say there's a reason Rangers are normally chosen from designated trainees before we get to this kind of point-"

"Take the day off."

"I'm sorry, what?" Alpha's head seemed to spin around on his neck twice as he turned to look at me. "I tell you that you need to work on your bond with your team and you decide that now's a good time to take a day off?"

"We're not going to get anywhere if we're fixating on how we need to do anything," I observed, recalling my own frustrations when Haymitch told me that Peeta was better at getting people to like him during the early days of our own training without thinking to explore what I might be good at. "We know that we can morph now, so we should all… I think we need some time to think about that before we try to come together again tomorrow."

"That… all right, that's not actually a dumb idea," Alpha nodded at me in acknowledgement. "Reaffirm what you can do at the moment to remind yourself of what you can achieve on your own and get yourself psyched up to morph as a group tomorrow."

"…Whatever," Glimmer said, stepping back from the group as she looked at Alpha. "Do you have some kind of armoury on board that thing?"

"You mean weapons?" Alpha asked in surprise. "You realise your armour will provide-"

"But until then we need something to train with, so I take it there is something we can use for weapons before we can morph to get them?"

"…Fine," Alpha conceded as he indicated the ship's door. "If you'll meet me in there in a moment I can show you where you should go…"

As the others approached Alpha to make their own requests, I headed back into the ship, grabbing the Ninjetti hood from my quarters and pulling it before I grabbed my bow and arrows and headed back to Zordon's chamber.

"I hear that you are making progress-" Zordon began.

"And we all need a bit of time to remind ourselves of what we can do now before we start trying to do that," I cut him off before he could say any more.

"You have less than a week before Rita will-"

"And we've been pushing ourselves for the last few days trying to do something we've never done before; we know that we can do it now, so I think we deserve a bit of time doing things we know we're good at before we go back to that," I said, staring resolutely up at the large face. "I know we're not doing things the way you're used to, but that was your team and we're… well, we have to do things our way."

Zordon just glared at me for a moment, but finally let out a sigh and lowered his face with a resigned expression.

"I assume you wish to leave the ship yourself again?"

"Somewhere different, and… well, I understand the rules," I nodded, indicating my current mask. "I might get us some food, but I won't let myself be seen."

Zordon didn't respond verbally, but instead shifted his attention to another part of the chamber-

When I found myself standing in another forest, I sighed in frustration before I began to pace through the trees, my bow drawn and an arrow ready to fire if I found something suitable. My goal today wasn't outright hunting, but if the opportunity arose to get something good I'd be a fool not to take advantage of it.

Once I'd made sure that there was nothing around here that I needed to be concerned about, I slung the bow over my back and ran deeper into the forest. I'd never fully understood the idea of just jogging or running in the past, but right now I couldn't stop myself smiling in relief at the sensation of freedom I felt from being out in the woods once again, away from the pressures of life in the Districts, my time in the Games, my new responsibilities as a Ranger…

Responsibilities…

I slowed down as the thought occurred to me, my mood becoming more solemn as I considered that word.

As much as I wasn't sure I'd ever be comfortable fighting alongside the people I'd been expecting to kill barely a week ago, in the end it all came down to the same point; if I did nothing, ultimately Prim was going to die. Maybe Rita wouldn't actually kill her specifically if we couldn't stop her, but if the entire world was going to die if she claimed the Zeo Crystal, it wasn't like Prim would survive that any more than the rest of us.

I'd spent years risking my life and defying the Capitol's rules to keep Prim alive; at least this time I would be doing it to accomplish a more long-term goal than just getting Prim enough food for the next few days…

Trying to take my mind off the scale of what was still to come in my future, I paused during my run to take a few quick shots at relatively random targets along my path, such as distinctive knots in the nearby trees where it looked like branches had been broken off at some point in the past. Unfortunately, the shots were so easy that it soon started to feel like I wasn't even seriously training right now; I wasn't sure, but it seemed as if the red coin was enhancing my reflexes to the point where it was easier for me to make those shots. Slinging the bow back over my body and retrieving my arrows, I decided to focus on the run for a while, pushing myself to hurry along through the trees ahead of me.

I didn't know how long it took me to reach this point, but eventually I found myself at the top of a cliff. As soon as I reached the edge, I came to a stop so abrupt that it was almost as amazing as my initial burst of speed, letting me take in the awesome sight of the ocean in front of me.

It wasn't as though I'd literally never seen the ocean before, but there was obviously a difference between seeing it on television screens during those brief glimpses of District Four and seeing it like this. Standing here, on the edge of the country, with no signs of civilisation behind me and only wide open water in front of me, it was easy to imagine that I was back in the peaceful world that had existed before Panem was formed…

Were we ever at peace?

I appreciated that Zordon and his original team had come here to protect Earth, but the fact remained that even millions of years ago, Earth had been part of a conflict even before sentient life had actually evolved on the planet. I didn't know if there was ever a perfect past to aspire to or if the human race had just always been different kinds of awful to each other…

Can we change that?

The thought that came to me was unexpected, but the more I considered it, the more I actually liked the implications. I'd always turned down Gale's suggestions that we just run away from Twelve because there wasn't anything we could really do once we got away from the District, but now that I had the Red Power Coin and had seen everything else I could have once I was ready…

Is it personal gain if I'd be doing it to benefit other people and not just me?

Obviously I needed to actually morph before I could really think about any of that, but it left me with a few more things to think about regarding my future…

"Hey, Katniss!" Rue's voice called over at me as I walked into the ship, the little girl sitting casually beside Liv in the main control room, Alpha 'squatting' in a position behind them. "How was your time out?"

"…Fine, I guess," I said, looking at the girls in surprise; I hadn't properly considered the idea that other people would realise I'd left the ship. "Uh… sorry I didn't take-"

"Don't worry about it," Liv grinned as she indicated the central display unit and the robot behind her. "The others are enjoying their own in-house training regimes, and Alpha's been teaching us a bit more about how these systems work."

"You have?" I looked at Alpha in surprise.

"There's nothing wrong with expanding knowledge," Alpha replied with a tone in his voice that I chose to interpret as his equivalent of a smile. "After all, when you're out in the field, it's important that at least one of you can do something smart without me there to give you the details."

"…Right," I conceded, before looking back at Liv and Rue. "Anything interesting?"

"Well, it's taking a bit of time for the ship to translate everything into something we can read, but Alpha's helping us pick up the basics of a few of the more significant articles," Liv explained. "I have to admit, it's kind of cool to look at what else is out there."

"Did you know there's another planet with Rangers on it just a few light-years away from us?" Rue grinned.

"Really?" I looked at the two with new interest.

"Aquitar," Alpha explained. "It has a long-standing Ranger tradition dating back to around the time when Zordon's team were active; the native population are humanoid, but they're dependent on pure water to survive rather than air, although they can exist on land for shorter periods."

"So we can't just call them for help?" I asked, half-seriously.

"It wouldn't be practical," Alpha affirmed. "Quite apart from anything else, even after the treatments the oceans have undergone since your old war, the water here is nowhere near pure enough to sustain a group of Aquitarians for a prolonged period; dehydration would be as much of a risk for them if they came here as Rita would be."

"I wasn't seriously expecting that," I looked at the little robot, wanting to make sure he understood me as I took my power coin out of my pocket. "I know we're having… trouble right now, but I'm not going to just try and pass this situation on to someone else to solve. I'm still not sure if this coin made the right choice when it chose me, but if we're going to save this world from Rita, it has to be us who does it."

"I can get behind that," Liv nodded at me with an approving smile.

"Me too!" Rue grinned up at me before her smile faltered. "I mean, I know I'm not a Ranger or anything-"

"You're here," I cut the girl off with a reassuring grin. "Maybe you won't be joining us in the field once we get the hang of this, but you're here for us now; that's all that matters."

"Agreed," Alpha put in, nodding at us in confirmation. "Like I said, there is precedent for Rangers having associates who are aware of their identities even in cases where secret identities are required; so long as you don't tell anyone else about the Rangers' identities, I for one have no problem with you staying here."

"Plus, it's kind of cool having a research assistant," Liv grinned at the girl.

"I'm your assistant?"

"You're helping me make any kind of sense of this stuff," Liv observed, reaching over to give Rue a one-armed hug. "Trust me; you're helping."

Looking at the small girl who reminded me so much of Prim, I fought down the brief jealousy at the idea of her bonding with Liv; it wouldn't have been fair of me to use Rue as any kind of 'substitute' for Prim, and if she found someone she liked, who was I to object to her finding a friend?

It was a small moment, but if we could keep forming bonds like this…

Chapter Text

"This isn't working."

"Thank you for pointing that out," I said, cursing my bitter tone as I took in Peeta's initial sorrow at my bitter retort.

Despite my hopes that the time off yesterday would get us in a better mental place to attempt morphing today, once we started training the next day it was soon clear that we weren't making any particular progress. It wasn't as though we'd started arguing or anything, and everyone recognised that even Peeta didn't know how he'd pulled off that particular stunt, but we'd already spent most of the morning just fighting the latest wave of putties and hadn't made any progress on anything deeper. Rue had spent most of the day back in the ship looking over the computers, and Alpha had spent more time helping her than he had trying to motivate us.

It wasn't that I didn't appreciate Rue finding something she could do here even if she wasn't a Ranger- one of the things that made me so proud of Prim was that she already knew what she wanted to do with her life and was already comparatively good at it- but the idea that Alpha wasn't bothering to spend more time with us right now…

"Maybe… we need to spend time together?"

"What do you think we're doing?" I pointed out, indicating the cavern where the other three Rangers were practicing their own combat styles right now.

"That's just training, and… look, to be blunt, we already spent time doing that with the idea that we'd kill each other with what we were learning, so we've… maybe it left us with a certain idea about how things will work out because of this that we can't shake off," Peeta explained, a cautious expression on his face as though he was taking care to choose his words. "We need to do something that we've never done before… maybe something that we've never really done with anyone…"

"What are you thinking?" I looked at my last connection to District Twelve as he looked thoughtfully upwards. For the first time, I found myself appreciating Haymitch's point that Peeta was good at getting people to like him; if he had an idea that might help us connect as a team…

"I was talking with Alpha about the morphing experience after my close call yesterday, and he told me that part of this whole thing was something about how we have to 'shed our masks to wear our armour'," Peeta explained, shrugging helplessly as he took in the stare I gave him at that description. "Yeah, it sounds stupid, I know, but it got me thinking… maybe if we spent a bit of time talking outside of this arena…"

"We talk when we're eating-"

"I was thinking about something more… relaxed," Peeta looked at me with a thoughtful smile. "I just… do you go camping when you're out hunting?"

Once the idea had been put forward, I was surprised at easy it was to sell it to the others. I wasn't sure if it was just Peeta being that good at convincing people to go along with his ideas, or if everyone was as frustrated with being stuck here as I had been, but it only took a couple of hours after Peeta proposed the idea for the six of us to be sitting around a campfire in another wood I'd never seen before, roasting a freshly-killed deer on a spit I'd erected earlier. Zordon had been uncomfortable at the idea of us spending a night outside of the ship, but once Alpha had confirmed that he could send us somewhere far away from the traces of energy produced by Rita's coin, while maintaining a 'lock' on us in case something else came close to our position, the face in the wall had agreed with the request. We grabbed a few bottles of water from the ship's kitchen area- I didn't know precisely where the water came from, but at least it tasted fine- along with a few 'weapons' that could be adapted as tools, and then Alpha had sent us off just as requested.

Once we found ourselves in the woods, it was easy enough for us to sort out a makeshift campsite. We all recognised that actually sleeping out in the open was too dangerous, so we didn't need to set up a tent or any other kind of 'accommodation' for us to spend the night in, but we were able to use the axes to cut down some wood to make a fire and a few 'seats'.

Even the actual experience of preparing the meal had been kind of fun. Peeta and Liv had focused on getting the fire set up along with establishing a basic campsite, Rue had been able to help me find a few herbs around the woods to give the meat some extra seasoning, and Thresh and Glimmer had even volunteered to help me prepare it for cooking. I'd had to take sole responsibility for actually getting the meat because I was the only 'qualified' hunter, but once I came back with another good-sized deer Thresh and Glimmer had been willing to cut and prepare the meat according to my directions while I sat against a tree and had a rest after the hunt. Peeta and Liv had used the opportunity to get in a quick spar to exercise themselves while Rue spent time looking over a few notes that Liv must have given her, but eventually we were all sitting around the campfire once again, enjoying a well-cooked deer and the warmth of the outside world.

"…Good job," Thresh said at last, looking up at me as he finished his last bit of meat.

"Thanks," I replied with a tentative smile, my own food finished a few minutes earlier. "Like I said, I've… done a lot of cooking since my dad died."

"Didn't your mother help?" Rue asked.

"She…" I began, wanting to default to my usual lie before I reminded myself that there was no need for it right now. "She never really got over losing Dad."

"She's not allowed to grieve?"

"Not when it leaves her basically catatonic for months when she had me and Prim to look after," I responded to Thresh's query, a part of me surprised at how I was actually talking about this for a change. "I had to re-learn most of my dad's old hunting lessons basically from the ground up to provide for us before I was old enough to take out tesserae to give us more food, and even there were often days when it took everything I had just to find enough for Prim to eat…"

"At least you know that your mother cares about you," Peeta observed. "My mother… I'm never sure if she's that bothered about any of us."

"Katniss… said your mother was basically a witch?" Rue asked.

"She's…" Peeta began, before he sighed and looked around. "Let me put it this way; when my family came to see me after the Reaping, she said that at least this year District Twelve might have a shot at winning, and I knew she wasn't talking about me."

"She said that to your face?" Thresh looked at Peeta incredulously. "Damn, that's harsh…"

"She said that about her own son?" Rue's expression could best be described as bewildered as she looked at Peeta.

"Some people just… aren't good parents," Peeta shrugged as he looked at Rue. "Be grateful you had good ones."

Rue just nodded at that, even as the anxious expression on her face as she looked at Peeta once again reminded me of how Prim sometimes couldn't understand the things I had to do to stay out of trouble and get us food.

"Tough break," Thresh nodded at Peeta and me with a sense of sympathy.

"…Thanks," I said, wondering at the strange sense of relief I felt at the lack of judgement in his voice. "I mean, it's not that I don't understand that my parents cared about each other, but when Dad's loss drove her that far…"

"It's never easy for anyone," Thresh observed. "After my dad died, his savings helped Gran cope with having to take us on at first, but…"

"How old is your sister?" Peeta asked.

"Few years younger than me," Thresh clarified. "Fray's tough, and gran didn't get to her age by being weak, but it's still… I mean, I don't know what it's like in your District, but how long would you think a single grandmother can cope with a kid Fray's age on her own?"

Glimmer and Liv just sat in silence, but Peeta, Rue and I all nodded at Thresh in acknowledgement.

"I'm worried about my family," Rue put in.

"Why?" Peeta asked. "I mean, I get that you're worried about how they're coping if they think you're dead, but from what you've told us about them, they sound as though they're happy-"

"They are, but… well, like I said, I help them out a lot, and if they all think I'm dead…"

Rue trailed off, but the rest of us understood enough about life in our own Districts to guess what she was concerned about. Recalling how my mother had reacted to losing my father, I decided to just hold on to a private hope that it would be 'easier' for the parents to cope with losing one child when they had so many others to take care of, as opposed to how my mother had fallen apart when she just had Prim and I to look after.

"I've never had anybody to be there for me."

"Huh?" Peeta looked at Liv in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I live in a group home," Liv explained, her face lowered as though it was easier not to look at us while she spoke. "My mom died in an accident at the plant when I was about three, she had no living parents I could go to, and I never knew anything about my dad; I'm not even sure if he and my mom were in any kind of relationship or if it was just some sort of one-night-stand thing…"

"One-night-stand?" Rue asked.

The sheer innocence on her face as she asked that question made it clear that the girl didn't know what the term meant. I was suddenly reminded of how it had felt when Prim was old enough to ask if we could have another sibling after our father died, and my mother and I had tried to give her a suitable explanation for why that wouldn't work.

"It… just means that… you know that you need a mom and a dad to have kids?" Peeta said at last, once it was clear none of us were entirely comfortable at giving Rue the full details.

"Duh," Rue looked at him with a semi-teasing grin before she looked more seriously at him. "What does that have to do with standing for one night?"

"That's… not actually what that term means, Rue," Liv explained with an awkward smile at her unofficial research assistant. "'One-night-stand' basically means that my parents… made me… one night, and then my dad left, probably without even knowing my mum was pregnant."

"Oh," Rue said, the rest of us waiting in silence for her to process that detail until she looked more curiously at Liv. "But if you lived in a group home, doesn't that mean-?"

"Just having a bunch of people in the house doesn't mean that I really get along with them," the would-be Blue Ranger explained. "It wasn't that any of them were outright bullies, but I never really… I mean, when you feel like you're the smart one even by the standards of a stereotypically smart District, you tend to feel a bit out of place…"

"You were that smart?" Rue looked at Liv with a grin.

"And that was a bad thing?" Glimmer looked at the girl from Five with a curious expression.

"It is when I don't have a… specific interest," Liv clarified. "The whole point of our education is to find the area we can work best in; I just… dipped in and out of everything I could read about without ever just picking something and really committing to it…"

"How is that a problem?" Rue looked at Liv uncertainly. "I… you seem pretty smart to me… you've been so focused…"

"Yeah, when I'm learning about something totally new I can focus, but once I've learnt enough to satisfy my interest I just…" Liv trailed off with an awkward shrug. "I mean, I could do most jobs back home if I wanted, but I couldn't find anything where I could say 'I want to do this for the rest of my life' and commit to it."

"And then you ended up here, huh?" Thresh observed.

"Yeah…" Liv nodded in response, a solemn expression on her face even as she gave him a sympathetic smile that made it clear she understood what he meant. "I'm… I mean, I didn't come here wanting to die, but I didn't even really have a plan for how I'd even win the Games before… this… all happened. If I hadn't noticed Thresh and Katniss heading for the cave and become curious, I would have probably just ended up sneaking around, grabbing supplies where I could, just trying to outlast the rest of you until I had to fight someone…"

Her voice trailed off as she looked awkwardly at the rest of us with a tentative smile. "Probably a stupid plan, I know, but-"

"No, I… I can get that," Peeta said, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder. "It's… it's like I told Katniss before we went into the arena; I don't mind dying, I just don't want the Capitol to make me into something I'm not…"

Glimmer suddenly let out a scream and slammed her hands to the ground before she turned away, her fists clenched and her shoulders shaking from some suppressed emotion. For a moment, I wondered if I'd just missed something to prompt that kind of reaction, but a brief glance around was enough to confirm that the other four were just as confused about what she had done as I was.

"…Glimmer?" Liv asked at last, reaching out a hand towards the former Career's shoulder, only for Glimmer to slap it away.

"Back off!" the would-be Pink Ranger said bitterly.

"We… Glimmer, we need you if we're going to do this, and part of that means… we need to be there for you in turn," Peeta said, looking uncertainly at his initial 'ally'. "If I… said something wrong, I'm sorry-"

"Says the guy who actually got to do what he wanted to do in the Games!"

"…I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, you got to go into the Games with a clear plan to save the girl and screw worrying about if you were going to make it; bully for you, lover-boy," Glimmer said, her tone still bitter as she resolutely kept her back to the rest of us. "Everyone else here just entered the arena with the goal of not dying, but you had to be the goddamn noble idiot who's willing to get himself gutted if it means giving the girl a chance to go back…"

"I… I didn't ask Peeta to do that for me-" I began cautiously.

"I know that!" Glimmer stood up and turned to glare at me, her expression so hostile that the rest of us quickly got to our feet as well. "You want to know what my problem is? My problem is that I spent years as part of an academy that taught us that the best way we could help our District was by being the best warrior in the Games when we got here, and after all that effort I put into being better than everyone else out back home, I… I killed kids!"

The self-loathing in her voice as she spoke was such a surprise that I had to glance around at the rest of the group to confirm that they'd heard the same thing I had. All of us knew that Glimmer had killed some of the other Tributes in the opening bloodbath, but hearing her openly acknowledge that she actually felt guilty about that…

I had spent years in a situation where I could only trust Gale with my life, but from what Alpha had told us, we would have to trust each other if we were going to survive this, which meant that we couldn't keep secrets from each other.

"…The Academy trained us all to be the best of the best," Glimmer said at last, once it was clear that none of us were going to say anything after that particular proclamation. "I spent years training in everything to be at the top of my class; I can use basically every weapon they might give us in this arena even before we started getting all this freaky alien training, but then… the first time I actually used that training for real…"

"You killed kids," Thresh finished for her, his tone displaying no judgement as he looked at the girl he'd dismissively been calling 'One' just a few days ago.

"Yeah, kids," Glimmer repeated, a new level of self-loathing in her voice as she spoke. "All that training, all that practice, all that skill… and I used it to kill a bunch of kids while I was on an adrenaline rush to take out every possible threat around me… seriously, did I actually say threat? None of those kids even wanted to be there; I think the first girl just fell into me by accident, this guy was basically in my way and it was easier to stab him than shove him when I'd already grabbed the knife, and then I found some little shrimp trying to get away from the Cornucopia with a bag and hit her in the head with a fucking axe…"

She fell silent for a moment once again, the rest of us too shaken to even try and say anything else until we knew what else she would have to say, before she looked solemnly up at us once again. "And the worst part of it? I couldn't tell anyone how I felt when I first looked at those bodies because the rest of the Pack would have ganged up on the weakling, and I've had to spend the last few days just trying to get us all into good shape so we can take part in a fight that actually fucking matters and I still end up dreaming about those kids… I'm trying to save lives and I can't get those three faces out of my head… God, I think that first girl wasn't much older than the tag-along over there, and now…"

As Glimmer bent her head and began to sob into her knees, it was ironically Rue who was the first of us to move, standing up and walking over to give Glimmer's shoulders a cautious hug. As though she'd been waiting for the cue, Glimmer turned around and wrapped her arms around Rue, her head practically buried in the small girl's chest as she continued sobbing. The rest of us could only look awkwardly at each other for a moment before Peeta stood up and walked over to join Rue in giving Glimmer a hug, followed by myself and Liv. Thresh was the last to join our sudden huddle, but he took care to crouch down so that he was eye level with Glimmer as he reached past the rest of us to put a hand on one arm.

"Thanks."

"…For what?" Glimmer sniffed, turning away from Rue's chest to look tearfully at him.

"For showing us why Pink chose you for once."

"Oh yeah," Glimmer snorted with a disdainful sob, "because a compassionate person kills kids-"

"Maybe not, but she mourns them like this if she does," Peeta put in with a cautious smile at the blonde. "You… were caught up in the moment, Glimmer; it doesn't excuse it, but what you're going to do from now on does."

"What I'm going to do?"

"Save the world," Rue said, as we all stepped back from Glimmer to look at her with new understanding. "We're going to stop Rita so you don't have to do that again."

"Agreed," Liv said, as Peeta and Thresh nodded along with her. All I could do was give Glimmer a tentative smile that I hoped would show my support even as I had to wonder if we could go along with that particular promise.

It was good to see Glimmer showing such genuine humanity and concern for others, considering that I was used to the idea of the Careers just seeing the rest of us as their designated victims in the Games, and I suddenly knew that I'd never see her as 'just' a killer ever again, but the idea that we could make sure Glimmer wouldn't have to kill like that again…

Once again, I found myself thinking about what we could do for the world as Rangers after Rita had been dealt with, and it left me ever more intrigued at the possibilities if I could just present it to Zordon the right way…

"…Are we friends now?"

"Huh?" Thresh said, speaking the thoughts that I was sure were on all our minds as we looked at Rue after her last question.

"After… all that…" Rue waved a hand at the group of us around the fire. "Are we friends now… or are we just- you just- Power Rangers?"

It wasn't exactly a relief to realise that nobody else sitting around the fire knew how to answer that question any more than I did.

Chapter Text

Back at the ship the next morning, I didn't know if the camping experience had been as much of a success as Peeta in particular had been hoping it would be. We had spent a bit of time out around the fire after our initial talk, but it had been hard to find a good topic of conversation after we'd dealt with such difficult topics as our families and Glimmer's own guilt about her role in the bloodbath.

Frankly, it was Glimmer's revelation that had really affected me. Gale had always been eager to see the Careers as the 'villains' of the Games whenever he was talking about the system in the past, but after Glimmer's confession, I had to wonder if she was the only Career to have such issues with her methods. There were probably a few Careers out there who were as bad as Gale often thought they were, but at the same time, Glimmer proved that they could be more than just trained killers.

I'd spent a good amount of my spare time since this started trying to work out how Glimmer had qualified for the Pink coin given what Zordon had said about that coin looking for compassion, but after hearing Glimmer's speech… I was willing to believe that she had the potential for compassion that she just hadn't been able to explore before now. Like Peeta had pointed out, nobody could have mourned those deaths like Glimmer had if they didn't feel compassion on some level, and at least it seemed to have assured Thresh that he didn't have to worry about Glimmer turning on us any more. I could even see Peeta growing into his role as the one who apparently brought 'balance' to the team as he often found himself training against Thresh, the two testing their respective strengths and exploring their knowledge of unarmed combat. Liv had started receiving personal instruction in hand-to-hand fighting from Glimmer, and seemed to take to it very well from what I could see. Her movements still seemed stiff compared to Glimmer, as though she was trying to think about where everything should go when the fight started, but at least she was making progress compared to what she'd been like at the start.

The more I looked at the other Rangers fight, the more I felt that our camping experience had helped us both take a step forward and a step back. We had a better understanding of what made each of us tick, which at least assured me that we could trust each other to have our team's backs in a confrontation, but we couldn't find anything to talk about between these training sessions. It was as though we were all still trying to work out the answer to Rue's question and were trying to avoid doing anything that might force us to face up to the fact that we really were only friends because we were all Rangers together.

The thing that bothered me most was that I wasn't even sure what I wanted beyond saving the world, and even that was mainly because I wanted there to be somewhere safe for Prim to grow up. I'd spent so long just relying on Gale's friendship because I knew that we both needed each other, but when I started to think about it I found it harder than I'd expected to realise that I didn't really know anyone as anything more than… well, I guessed the best term would have been that I either had casual acquaintances or professional colleagues, if I was keeping the terms straight in my head.

I'd shared things with Gale because we had each needed to know why we went hunting so that we could trust each other, and I'd shared things with the other Rangers to help us bond, but was that a good way to form a friendship?

People are complicated…

Lost for anything more to do with myself, after a rough couple of hours sparring with Thresh and Glimmer, I left the rest of the team to keep practising as Rue watched while I set off for Zordon's chamber. If Alpha was there, I was hopeful that the little robot might be able to give me a few ideas about what I was doing wrong with my current training sessions; if he'd seen Zordon's old team, maybe he had some useful insight…

"…destroy Rita myself," I heard Zordon's voice saying as I approached the chamber, the door open to the rest of the ship and a frustrated edge to the ex-Ranger's voice. "There must be a way to free me from this wall."

"Yes, but the irony is that you need these Rangers to morph," Alpha replied, the robot at least sounding awkward at what he saying. "If they morph, you can harness that energy to regenerate your body and come back through."

I froze as I heard those words, unable to believe what Alpha had just said.

Zordon needed us to morph to… bring him back to life?

For a moment I was more focused on the idea that such a thing was possible, but then my shock shifted to rage as I realised the implications of that declaration.

"There's got to be another way!" Zordon yelled. "I can't-!"

"What, Zordon?" I called out as I walked into the chamber, glaring indignantly at the face on the wall that had just destroyed my tentative hope that I'd met an authority figure worth obeying. "You can't what? Wait for us stupid kids to morph so that you can come back to life? That's what all this has been about? You coming back?"

"This has only ever been about protecting the Crystal," Zordon countered. "Rita could be building Goldar as we speak-"

"Then do what you've been telling us to do and have faith in my team!" I protested, surprised at my own words even after I spoke them.

"You cannot stop Goldar as you are," Zordon responded (I refused to show the pain I felt at the idea that the first leader I'd let myself believe in had let me down). "She will have him dig up the Crystal and life on Earth will die."

"And you think we need you to stop that?" I spat bitterly back at him as I waved my hand at the face on the wall. "From what you've told us, you blew it last time and that's why you're here!"

"I died burying those coins… in the hope that they would find the next worthy Rangers-"

"And I'm sorry we disappointed you, but we're not trained for this; we're just doing our best!" I yelled, suddenly filled by a need to vent my anger at this being's assumptions and dismissals. "We don't need you telling us what we're doing wrong; we already know we're not perfect, but this team is doing the best we can here!"

"Katniss!" Zordon yelled as I turned to leave the chamber. "You need me out of this wall to help lead this team!"

"Your team died," I looked bitterly back at the wall. "And you're just as scared as we are."

"Uh… let's not say anything we can't take back-" Alpha began anxiously.

"You know what really hurts?" I stopped walking to look bitterly at the face on the wall, even as I shot a brief glare at Alpha to make it clear I was including him in this. "For a moment, I actually thought you'd be better than the Capitol, but you're both basically the same; the only difference is that I'm going to assume Rita's a genuine threat, so there's actually a reason for us to do this beyond helping you."

"You need me to defend the Crystal-!"

"You just want to be the one in control and you put kids at risk to do it," I cut Zordon off. "I get that being stuck like that probably isn't fun, but after you told us all that stuff about how it's a Ranger's duty to protect the Zeo Crystal, your priority's still about saving yourself first. Do you even care about the people we're trying to save here, or are you just focused on getting your body back?"

I wasn't sure where any of that was coming from, but as I stormed off back to my bedroom, it was all I could do to fight down the unexpected sting of tears.

After I'd saved those runaways from the hovercraft, I hadn't realised how much I'd been indulging the idea that we could somehow do more than just stop Rita once we had managed to morph, but it was clear that Zordon was ultimately more concerned with his own plans.

Why should he care about some primitive planet that's basically destroying itself; he's only doing this to stop Rita, not to help us…

With the end of the day drawing near, I turned away from the dining area and walked straight to my quarters, no longer feeling up to additional training after that revelation. We still had a day or two until Rita was a problem, and my hunts for food had given us more than enough additional training in other areas that it shouldn't matter if I missed one session in the Pit…

Chapter Text

The next morning, I wasn't sure how I should respond to everything I'd overheard. As much as I still resented the realisation that Zordon had manipulating us basically since the day we met, I equally couldn't ignore the fact that Rita was still a significant threat to everyone. I knew that we still had to focus on the training, but the thought that Zordon had us doing all this so that he could get his body back…

No matter what his ulterior motive might have been, that detail just got on my nerves at best.

Trying to think of something else, I focused my efforts on the current training regime, but I was surprised to find how easy it was to fight by now. I'd generally skimmed over hand-to-hand combat instructions during training for the Games, but I could only assume that some side-effect of the coins made it easier for me to pick up such skills now, as I was picking up new moves what felt like every few minutes and still had time to fume over Zordon.

On the brighter side, by this point the five of us seemed to have reached a point where we were basically part of a well-oiled fighting machine, leaping around from one area in the Pit to another to either take out our current opponents or help one of the others take down their own foe. Peeta and Thresh were still relying on raw strength in their combat strategy while Glimmer, Liv and I favoured speed in a fight, with Liv in particular focusing on avoiding any attempts to attack her directly and just striking back when she had the chance. Still, from what I could tell we all seemed to have reached a point where we were fairly aware of where we were and when another of us might need help on the battlefield.

I may have doubts about why Zordon had done this, but I couldn't deny that we had come a long way from the tentative alliance we'd formed when we first arrived. Even if I still wasn't sure if we were actually friends now as Rue had asked, I had a feeling that if something happened to drop all six of us back in the Games for some reason, all of us would refuse to fight each other for real…

As I finished my latest solo round against the constructs, I decided to take a rest and walked off to sit on the steps and watch the rest of the team training. Liv and Rue were getting another personal lesson from Glimmer, who seemed to have made it her goal to make sure they could handle themselves, while Peeta and Thresh were wrestling with a couple of new opponents.

It was a strange daily routine we'd settled into, but even if I still missed Gale and Prim, looking at these people…

"Katniss?"

Drawn out of my thoughts, I turned around to see Alpha looking at me from the door leading into the ship, in a manner that I could only think of as tentative despite his whole appearance doing little to actually express anything I could understand. Glancing back to confirm that nobody else had seen us, I stood up and walked up the stairs to join the small robot.

"Yes?" I said, keeping my voice low.

"Can… can we talk?"

"With Zordon?"

"I appreciate that you're angry, but you…" Alpha began, before he shook his head and looked more firmly at me. "Can you at least trust that we have reasons for doing things this way beyond you thinking that we're just being… elitist?"

I didn't answer him verbally, but nodded in acknowledgement of his question before I followed Alpha back to the main chamber.

"Katniss," Zordon looked at me, his tone significantly more gentle compared to his previous manner as I walked into the room.

"Zordon," I replied. If he was going to be polite, I would at least give him that much, even if I was determined to make it clear that I wasn't going to outright forgive his lie.

"I… apologise if I seemed… inconsiderate of your own efforts last night," Zordon said, still looking at me with a more solemn manner. "I did not intend to sound as though I am… I recognise that your team have come far when considering how swiftly you have been forced to adjust to your responsibilities as Rangers, but there is much you have not been told because I cannot share it with you…"

"Really?"

"When a Ranger team is assigned to an under-developed world such as this one, one of their purposes is to help this planet achieve its full potential… but only if it can reach that stage naturally."

"I see," I said, fighting to keep my expression neutral as I looked at Zordon's wall.

"If humanity had access to the resources in this ship right now, without any need to strive towards these accomplishments on their own merits, do you think that they would be capable of using them properly? Knowledge is only respected if it is earned; your species must be protected from itself as well as from Rita-"

"I get that," I cut him off, looking up at him with a more intense stare. "Believe me, we all realised from the start that letting the Capitol get control of the kind of technology you've got in here would be a very bad thing, and none of us want that, but this… if we're just left alone like this, we're never going to have the chance to strive for anything. The Districts can't do anything but keep working on everything the Capitol wants us to do, and the Capitol just want to party and be comfortable; they're never going to let any of us be more than this!"

"It is not the responsibility of a Ranger team to seek power on their planet-"

"We don't want power, we just want to… Snow shouldn't be in power!" I yelled, before I let out a brief scream and stormed out of the room, lost for anything else I could say right now.

It just made it more annoying that I couldn't even really feel as angry about Zordon's rejection as I wanted to. Even if I hated how he was basically avoiding any kind of responsibility for the situation on Earth, I could just about see that he was just going along with rules that had been placed on him by others, just as everyone in the Districts had to go along with the Capitol's orders.

I probably don't want to know what could happen if we ever did break those laws of Zordon's; at least he seems like he wants to keep us safe for the sake of our own safety… the Capitol just talks about how we 'need' them but never gives us a chance to do anything differently…

"Everything OK?"

"Glimmer?" I looked up at the would-be Pink Ranger, standing at the edge of the central corridor and looking curiously at me. "Where are-?"

"Blue and the midget are checking another database for some science stuff, and Yellow and Black are looking over the armoury for something new," Glimmer explained with a shrug, before she nodded curiously at me. "What happened in there?"

"Just… debating strategy," I replied, suddenly anxious about sharing anything about my current tension with Zordon with the rest of the team. When Rita was still a problem, we had to focus on dealing with her before anything else; if Zordon got his body back when we morphed, he could deal with justifying himself then. "Are you all right?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you've never gone looking for me like this before?"

Even I was surprised at my comparative level of insight with that comment, but it wasn't hard to realise that Glimmer had some reason for waiting to talk to me on my own. She was getting better at talking with the rest of the team, but there was still a line that she was taking her time to cross.

"…I want to go back home."

"What?" I looked at her in shock, unable to believe that I'd been so wrong about her. "You-"

"Let me finish," Glimmer said, a pained expression on her face that reminded me of the way she'd looked after her confession around the campfire. She let me nod in acknowledgement of her request before she continued. "I… look, maybe this sounds horrible, and you can think of it as an excuse if you want, but… however you look at this, once we beat Rita, I'm probably the only one here who can never go back to her District."

"You can't?" I looked at her uncertainly.

"Face facts, Red, the way everyone back home venerates the Careers, how are they going to react if I show up and reveal that I'm not actually dead?" Glimmer said, a bitter edge to her voice. "Everyone's going to love that you guys cheated the system if we can find the right way to sell it without telling anyone about the big giant head back there, but I'll be lucky if I'm not officially disowned by my parents the moment they learn I'm still alive."

"So… you go back now and you can get any of your old stuff before your parents start throwing it out?"

"Pretty much," Glimmer nodded. "So… shall we?"

The subsequent teleportation to the outskirts of District One was a bit riskier than my previous trips to the wilderness, but I was surprised to find myself so easily settling into a routine with Glimmer for this impromptu mission. Training with the other Rangers had been one thing, but that was basically an extension of what we had been doing in training prior to the Games. The idea that I was now going on an actual hunt with someone other than Gale… even if I knew there was a difference, it still felt strange.

Considering our new target, I had considered asking Alpha if he could send us straight to Glimmer's house, but both he and Glimmer had agreed that wasn't a good idea. The two of us had grabbed a couple of knives just to make sure that we were able to defend ourselves without drawing too much attention if anyone saw us wandering the streets. Just like when I went out on my own for my earlier hunts, we were provided with basic cloth masks, Glimmer's a distinctive pink where mine was red, but otherwise it was all up to our own stealth and discretion to avoid attracting any attention during this mission.

Once we had arrived on the outskirts of the District, I was surprised to find just a large stone wall rather than an electric fence. Glimmer was able to point out a few cameras that might have spotted us in particular areas, and from there it was easy to jump to near the top of the wall and then jump into the district itself. There was still a short distance between the walls and the nearest building, but Glimmer just paused to look at the large structure in front of us before she moved on. I took a moment to take in the large building, with multiple levels and some lights on in various windows, before I began to hurry after her. Fortunately, I was saved from asking my more immediate questions when I saw the elaborate writing above the gate on the other side of the building.

"Was that the Academy?" I indicated the large building behind us in surprise as I caught up with the Career. It was strange to be walking calmly through the streets of another District, even if it was dark and there was no sign of anyone else around, but I knew from when I left to go hunting in Twelve that running at any point would at least risk attracting attention. If we maintained a brisk walking pace, anyone looking at us from inside their houses would probably just think we had a weird dress sense even if they wouldn't realise who we were.

"It was a boarding school, so we basically stayed there full-time," Glimmer explained with a shrug as we settled into a brisk walking pace. "I went home for a few big public holidays and personal days like birthdays, but otherwise I've been there since I was seven."

"You start at seven?"

"It's just a normal school for the first few years," Glimmer clarified, as we walked through what looked to me like some kind of shopping district. "We only move into Career training in our early teens, and that's if we've shown we've got a knack for what they'll do there."

"So… if you're strong enough?" I asked cautiously.

"And that you've got the smarts and speed to pick up on new things," Glimmer clarified. I wasn't sure how to feel about the pride in Glimmer's voice as she spoke about that particular detail, but I decided not to question that right now. "Anyway, like I said, we stayed at the Academy full-time, but once I was Reaped, my stuff would have been taken out of my room and put in storage so that it can be sent back to my family if I was killed."

"What if you'd won?"

"It would all get moved to my place in the Victor's Village by the time I got back."

"That makes sense…" I nodded, intrigued at this 'behind-the-scenes' look at life in One despite myself. "What about everyone who isn't chosen?"

"Well, obviously some people just can't cut it in training and get shipped off back to the regular school eventually, but it's not like there's any shame in that; you only get called out if you couldn't cut it for some really warped reason or other, like…"

Glimmer trailed off, but when she turned her attention to a specific house on the current street, I decided not to push it. Now that my attention was on our surroundings, I noticed that the houses here, while more elaborately built than what I was used to from Twelve, were all relatively similar to each other, with simple white walls and triangular roofs. They were certainly better than the more basic housing in Twelve, where some homes were so simple I wouldn't have been surprised if a grandparent had built the house themselves. I half-expected Glimmer to go for the door, but instead she walked around to the back of the house and basically jumped up to grab a particular window, which she slid upwards and then climbed inside.

Not wanting to just stand around, I jumped up after her, glancing around inside to see a surprisingly Spartan if comfortable room. I was confused at first- my own room back in Twelve might be limited but I did have a few pictures and books my father had left me- but then I reminded myself that Glimmer had said she didn't stay in this room very often, and her parents probably didn't want to leave items commemorating their apparently dead daughter on display. Despite that thought, I wasn't sure if I was surprised or sad when Glimmer ignored the pictures and went straight for a closet, opening it to grab a large bag before she began to stuff various clothes into it. Wanting to at least try to feel useful, I tried opening a couple of drawers, but found nothing more intimate than coloured lace that I thought might be underwear before I quickly shut them in embarrassment.

"You know," Glimmer grinned over at me as I turned to see her putting what looked like a pair of daggers into her bag, "I never actually let anyone see those on me-"

"It was an accident!" I replied, only just remembering to keep my voice down so that nobody else in the house could hear me. "I just- I thought I might find- are you done?"

"…Pretty much," Glimmer looked around the room for a moment before she glanced back into the closet and nodded to herself. "Yeah, anything left here isn't really worth worrying about."

"You… don't even want a picture?"

"They're not going to want one of me once they know I ditched the Games; why should I want one of them?"

I knew that reading people wasn't my best skill, but even in the dark, I could see the tension and pain in Glimmer's eyes as she spoke. Even if she accepted the idea that she'd never see her family again on one level, on another…

I pushed the thought aside as Glimmer slung the bag over her shoulder and jumped out of the window. I thought about trying to close it behind us once I was out, but since the missing clothes would make it obvious that someone had been in anyway, I just jumped out after Glimmer and hurried after her. We moved more briskly this time as we headed back for the Academy and the wall behind it, even as a thought occurred to me.

"There's a gap… near the Academy?" I looked curiously at Glimmer once we were on the other side of the wall.

"Basically anyone living in the Academy itself is under so much observation they'd never be able to get out of the place without being spotted long before they got to the wall," the would-be Pink Ranger explained with a shrug as we settled into a more leisurely walk. "On top of that, anyone who did find out about the gap is either so… committed to everything that they'd never use it or they'd have to go so far that someone would spot them earlier."

"And even if they could get out, what are the odds anyone would know what to do?" I found myself reflecting, as I suddenly remembered Gale's old attempts to suggest we just leave Twelve and live outside of the District. I'd always been fairly sure the two of us could live like that, but Prim and my mother had been more of a question-mark…

I would never be sure if it was sheer bad luck or if she had been waiting for the right moment, but we had only just entered the forests around District One when I heard the sound of something coming towards us. I held up a hand to halt Glimmer as I tried to identify the source of the noise, but I didn't have time to come up with a true plan when something seemed to crash into me, pinning me to the ground with a hand on my chest. A yell from the other side was enough to confirm that Glimmer had been caught as well, but when I turned to look at our attacker I would have screamed if it wasn't for the pressure on my chest.

The face was harder to make out in the dark than it had been in the projection Zordon had shown us on our first day, but there was something in the figure's manner that was unmistakable. From what I could see in the moonlight, rather than the black dress she had been wearing in the projection, she was now wearing a more tattered version of that dress, with long blue nails and what looked like wires coming out of her body at odd intervals.

"Do you know who I am?" the woman asked, looking between us with a dark smirk on her face.

"…Rita?" I asked, feeling a need to speak up; if I was going to be the leader, I had to take responsibility in situations like this.

"Yes," Rita grinned mockingly at me before she turned her focus to Glimmer, one finger carefully stroking the cheek of the ex-One resident. "I was once just like you… so pretty, so innocent…"

"Hey!" Glimmer yelled, her body twisting in Rita's grip. I looked down to see Glimmer's knee strike Rita in the chest, but it only forced our attacker up by a couple of inches. In desperation, I grabbed a knife and tried to stab the rogue ex-Ranger, but the blade just seemed to skim over Rita's armour with nothing but a few small sparks.

"What a delightful failure," the alien woman grinned mockingly at us. "Are all the Rangers on Zordon's new team so young? Have you even morphed yet?"

"Bite me, bitch," Glimmer grunted. In response Rita got back to her feet and slammed us both against a pair of nearby trees, moving so quickly I wasn't sure if she even let go of our necks at any point.

"Trick question," the twisted ex-Ranger said, mockingly answering her own question as her thumbs stroked our throats. "If you could morph, we would be having a very different conversation…"

For some reason, she actually seemed to sniff the two of us, before she finally seemed to properly register our Ninjetti masks and studied us with a new grin. "Pink and Red? What a surprise… particularly you."

"Some rule against Reds being girls?" I retorted, trying to sound more confident than I felt as Rita's attention was now focused on me.

"More surprised that you could be any kind of leader," Rita retorted, before she smirked at us both. "You want your armour? I'll show you mine."

She stepped back with those words, but Glimmer and I could only tremble and watch as her eyes glowed green and spikes seemed to emerge from inside her body, before shards of green armour covered her chest and upper arms. I could just make out some kind of gold protrusions coming from her forehead above her eyes, but Glimmer suddenly brought my focus back to the matter at hand when she slammed her elbow into Rita's chin. The grip around my throat weakened enough that I was able to grab the arm and force it away from me, swiftly joining Glimmer in pinning Rita to the ground, each of us holding down one arm.

"No, please, you're hurting me!" Rita said, in a tone that even I could tell was sarcastic. "You are so strong…"

Glimmer looked at Rita in surprise at that statement, but that was enough for her to kick herself back onto her feet and throw us both off her arms. I felt something hit me in the back, but had only just realised that I'd hit another tree (we were doing a lot of damage to this forest) before Rita was once again in front of me, her forearm pinning me to the tree as she held Glimmer by the throat in her other hand.

"I'm just kidding," she said, initially dismissive before she gave us a twisted smile that I could almost consider an approving one if it had been delivered under any other circumstances. "You've got guts, girls; I could be impressed if we'd met elsewhere."

"You want to destroy our planet and you think we could have ever been friends?" I glared at her.

"Let me guess, Zordon told you that's what would happen?" Rita said mockingly before she shrugged. "To be fair, he's probably right-"

Glimmer let out an outraged scream as she tried to hit Rita again, only for Rita to throw the would-be Pink Ranger into another tree, face-first. For a moment after Glimmer had struck the tree and fallen to the ground I was concerned that she might be dead, but then I saw her gasping and realised that she had just been winded from the impact.

"Now then," Rita said, looking firmly at me, "where is the Zeo Crystal?"

"We don't know!" I yelled, lost for what I wanted to happen now but hoping desperately that the truth would be enough.

"Sadly, I believe you," Rita said, her tone low for a moment before she stepped back, leaving me to fall to the ground and crawl anxiously over to Glimmer. Despite my lack of experience in medical matters, a quick check was enough to assure me that Glimmer's ribs appeared to be fine, but I didn't have time to do more before Rita was standing above us, looking down with a cold glare.

"Tomorrow I will destroy this country of Panem," she said in an authoritative manner. "But in exchange for your lives… you will find out where that crystal is and you will come to me. We can have a little deal, my friends."

As she stepped away from us with a probing expression, I wished that I could come up with any kind of idea beyond the current concept suddenly buzzing through my brain.

Even I knew that what I was about to propose would be a ridiculous risk, but there was literally nothing better I could think of…

Chapter Text

"We just fought Rita."

"You what?" Peeta, Liv, Thresh and Rue said simultaneously as they looked at Glimmer and I as we stood outside the ship. Glimmer had taken a few moments once we returned to the ship to put her bags away in her cabin, but once that had been dealt with she'd quickly helped me gather the rest of the team in the pit, somehow managing to avoid Alpha and Zordon in the process, so we could tell them what had just happened.

"How did that even happen?" Liv asked, looking anxiously up at the ship. "Did she-?"

"As far as we know, she doesn't know exactly where we are," Glimmer replied. "She just got a chance to catch us off-guard when we were picking up a few things from my house-"

"You went to your house?" Rue asked. "Why do that now?"

"Because of all six of us, I think we can agree that I'm the one least likely to get a warm welcome home once this Rita shit's been dealt with."

Rue's shamed face made it clear that she understood what the older girl meant, which left me feeling all the sadder about the situation; the idea that we lived in a world where this kind of cynicism was still possible even in a girl as young as Rue…

"Anyway," I took up the story, "we got to Glimmer's house and out of it easily enough, but just as we were outside the District, Rita attacked."

"And she didn't kill you?"

When the rest of us shot Liv a sharp glare, she held up her hands in a defensive manner. "I'm not complaining that nobody's dead, but if this woman killed all of Zordon's team when she actually worked with them, why didn't she just tear you both apart?"

"She said she'd let us live if we helped her find the Zeo Crystal," Glimmer explained.

"We managed to get her to agree to give us a little time to try and find it at this end, but either way she made it clear that's all she wants," I said.

"Where is she now?" Peeta asked.

"She said she'd meet us at the dead ships, so we're thinking somewhere in District Four," Glimmer put in. "Still, if we can all go after her at once-"

"Is it worth it?"

"Worth it?" I looked at Thresh in surprise.

"Hey, I get that we have to fight her, but if she still doesn't know where the Crystal is, maybe we don't do this when she's the one who set up the meet and we can't even morph yet?" Thresh elaborated. "Maybe we should… I don't know, tell Zordon about this and get his imput?"

"He's got a point; we aren't even Power Rangers yet-"

"And the main reason Zordon wants us to morph is so that he could bring himself back to life."

I was surprised to realise that I'd just spoken, but when they turned their attention back on me I knew that I'd made the right call. If I was going to be the leader of this team, whether we'd activated our armour or not, I wasn't going to do that by keeping secrets.

"He's what?" Peeta looked at me in shock.

"I heard him and Alpha talking about it."

"Is… that possible?" Rue looked inquiringly over at Liv. "Zordon coming back, I mean?"

"Well… some of the files talk about how the first morph for any Ranger team involves drawing on excess energy and creating at least a minor tear in reality that could be theoretically harnessed by someone who knew what they were doing to do something big at least once, but it all sounded so complicated that I didn't really look into it much…" Liv shrugged apologetically as she realised we were all looking at her. "Hey, I'm trying to learn about a completely alien science here; it takes time to get it all together, you know!"

"Nobody's accusing you of anything, Liv; we just… we are where we are now, so all we can do is deal with it." I tried to sound reassuring as I addressed the would-be Blue Ranger before I looked at the rest of the team. "If we're doing this, we have to remember that Rita's just going to be expecting Glimmer and me. Like Glimmer said, she probably won't expect us to bring the rest of you, and hopefully she won't plan for us to go in armed anyway."

"Armed?" Thresh perked up at that news.

"Maybe we can't morph yet, but we do have an armoury," Glimmer grinned as she indicated the ship. "Alpha's down for the night and Zordon's stuck on a wall in one part of the ship, so if we're careful we can all grab a few suitable weapons, get the masks to get us into a good state of mind, and try and take the bitch down before she knows what she's up against."

"Sounds good to me," Thresh nodded, flexing his shoulders in anticipation. "I saw this axe-thing in that armoury I've been itching to take for a spin…"

"Yeah…" Liv began, nodding tentatively. "I… if we're doing this, I think I saw a thing or two I'd like to try out myself…"

"Can I-?" Rue began, only to halt when I turned to look directly at her. For a moment, I was reminded of Prim all over again, asking to help me hunt without any real idea what would be involved in that mess…

But if this doesn't work out, she won't have anywhere to go.

It was a grim thought, but I couldn't ignore the facts. If we didn't beat Rita here and now, Rue would be in just as much trouble as the rest of Panem no matter where she was. Taking her to face Rita with us was a risk, but at least we could control how much danger she'd be in if we did it this way…

"Go and get yourself some kind of gun," I said at last to the only non-Ranger present.

"Gun?" Thresh looked at me with a pointed stare.

"If she's joining us in going after Rita, I'm not going to put her in the middle of it," I clarified. "Rue's quick and she has a good eye; we can find a good place for her to watch the fight and give her a weapon to do what she can at a distance."

As I looked at the large District Eleven resident, I could only hope that he could see that I wouldn't be making a suggestion like that unless I was legitimately sure that there wasn't a better way to guarantee Rue's safety. It seemed to pay off, because after a few moments, he nodded in acknowledgement at me and took Rue's hand before they headed into the ship, followed by Liv and Glimmer. I was about to follow them when I realised that Peeta was currently just standing in the middle of the pit, looking at me with clear uncertainty in his eyes.

"Do you have a problem?" I looked back at him.

"Should we… do this?" Peeta asked, a cautious tone in his voice as he spoke. "I mean, I get that you're angry at Zordon, but maybe-"

"I know you want to see the best in things, but we can't just wait around and hopewe're going to crack this morphing issue when we've failed to pull it off for the last few days," I replied grimly. "Rita is going to destroy everything to try and find the Zeo Crystal, we've only got a day or two before she's apparently going to really start trying to dig it up, and right now we have a narrow window of opportunity where we know she's going to be. If I was on a standard hunt where I knew a particular prey was only going to be in the area for a few minutes, I couldn't waste that opportunity; the stakes might be higher right now, but the principle is the same."

"We've been training to morph so that we can fight her-"

"And if we could morph, I'd be up for doing it that way, but right now what we have is what we've got so we have to do it," I said firmly. "I know it's a risk, but we either try this now or we lose track of Rita under she's found the Crystal on her own merits and maybe even has that… Goldar thing back on her side; it's not much of a choice, is it?"

Peeta still looked uncomfortable with my decision, but the grim nod he gave me at least assured me that he would be coming with us for this final stage.

We're never going to be a team of heroes, I mused grimly as I led Peeta up the ramp and towards the armoury, but at least we can save the planet from this one threat.

Even as we stood outside the docks, I had to remind myself that I couldn't show any sign that I didn't have confidence in this makeshift team as I held my sword-like weapon in my hands. I had wanted to find a bow, but Glimmer and Liv had each told me that the sword was a better fit for a leader, which left me trying to recall everything I'd been taught recently about hand-to-hand combat as I looked over the rest of our group. Rue had argued that it was best that she stick with us for the moment, on the understanding that she'd move out of harm's way once we actually found Rita, which meant that right now the six of us were armed, together, and ready to fight, all wearing dark leather and hoods in different colours (Rue was wearing a purple one she'd found somewhere that none of us could explain while the others all wore hoods matching their coins).

Teleporting out fortunately hadn't been that difficult, despite my initial concerns about how we could get access to the system without Zordon or Alpha to direct the outgoing 'transmission'. Liv had found the ship's teleportation network while she was studying the systems, so she had already prepared an interface in her room that allowed her to use it basically whenever we wanted. The system would still default to taking us back to the ship if we triggered it outside the ship, but the important thing was that we had made it to the docks that Rita had designated as our meeting spot without tipping off anyone we didn't want to know about this confrontation.

"You know this is a really bad idea, right?" Thresh looked at me even as he held his large axe in his hands, his eyes grim behind his black mask.

"Yeah, but we're all out of good ideas, so we're stuck with this one," Glimmer put in, experimentally twirling the long stick she held in her hands, clearly grinning under her pink head-covering. She also had a short sword at her side, but it was notably shorter than my weapon even if it was also longer than the three-pointed daggers Peeta had claimed for himself. Liv, for her part, had chosen a couple of long sticks with some kind of sharp points on each end; the two could join together into a single long weapon, but Liv preferred them this way.

"OK," I said, exchanging a final anxious look with the rest of the former Tributes. "Let's do this."

With that solemn statement, the five of us cautiously advanced towards the boathouses, moving through the docks briskly but carefully. There was no sign of anyone actually working out in the area where they left the older ships, so we all felt safe assuming that nobody in the District was particularly invested in this part of their territory, but I knew we also couldn't afford to let our guards down just yet.

We searched three of the larger abandoned boathouses and found nothing more than decaying crates and a couple of old ships, but when we came to the fourth boathouse down the pier, a brief glance through the door was enough to reveal a figure at the other end, illuminated by the moonlight on the sea, apparently crouching down as though waiting for something.

And nobody would be waiting here like that unless they were waiting for something in particular… and if this was some regular hook-up anyone living here could surely find somewhere nicer…

After exchanging anxious glances with the others, I waved at Rue to get somewhere else before I led the other four towards the figure, trusting that the little girl could find somewhere safe once again. For a few moments, as we cautiously advanced towards our target, I let myself imagine the possibilities if we could actually pull this off, if we might just be about to get the advantage over her, if we could finally do something right…

Then we gathered around the figure and I found myself looking at an older man tied to a chair with some kind of thick gag over his mouth, looking anxiously around at the rest of us.

"Uh… what the hell?" Thresh looked over at me.

"Let's get him out-" Peeta raised one of his daggers.

"Maybe we could stop and think-?" Glimmer began as she grabbed Peeta's arm, before something fell from the ceiling to crash into the man with such force that his chair shattered while the five of us were sent flying backwards.

"Right on time," Rita said mockingly as we got back to our feet, the woman in green armour looking dismissively at the five of us. "I was beginning to think-"

I would never know what prompted Peeta to take such a desperate action, but he dived towards Rita with his daggers outstretched, clearly intending to stab her, only to be grabbed and thrown to one side before he could get close. He hit the wall with such force that I heard it break under the weight of his body, but I tried to focus on something else as Glimmer's own attempted attack was easily parried with Rita's own staff. The former Green Ranger almost seemed to not even be paying attention as she deflected Liv's own attempt to attack her, knocking the would-be Blue Ranger into a corner of the hut.

I exchanged a glance with Thresh before the two of us tried to charge her ourselves, but Rita actually tossed her staff upwards and then slammed her hands into our chests, sending us flying back before we could reach her. Even as I hit the ground, I tried to keep an eye on Rita as Peeta charged forward to try again, only for Rita to put the end of her staff on the ground and spin herself mid-air to kick Peeta in the head. As her feet returned to the planks beneath her, Thresh somehow managed to grab her from behind, but Rita just grabbed his wrists and forced his arms open, hurling him back before Thresh could actually do anything to her. I had just managed to get back to my feet as he hit the wall, and tried to make sure that the others were back on their feet. Thresh had got to his feet in time to join us as we took up new positions, but before any of us could do anything more than get ready for a new fight, Rita swung her staff in a circle around herself, some kind of green energy erupted from it-

"Five little Rangers tied up like fish," Rita's mocking voice woke me up, revealing that I was tied down by some kind of rope, against a wooden wall that looked like the exterior of the boathouse where we'd just been fighting. I looked urgently around to confirm that the other four former Tributes were with me and still seemed to be alive, but we were all tied up with our weapons pinned to our sides.

"I have to give you credit, Red," Rita's voice drew me back to her as she stood in front of me, "you're not as weak as I thought you were… even if you are as stupid."

"What do you want?" I glared at her, trying to ignore the situation.

"Look at you, trying to figure out my plan," Rita said mockingly, taking my chin in her hand. "I will just tell you; you've been led to your death, because I'm going to kill you… one by one… until you tell me where my Crystal is."

"We don't know-!" I began desperately.

"Oh, I already guessed that you don't know, Red, but one of you must have worked it out by now," the green-armoured woman said mockingly, before she turned to walk alongside the other four, tapping her fingers against their chests as we all struggled against our bonds. "Who could it be? Eeinie meenie mynie…"

"STOP!" another voice suddenly yelled, and I suddenly had the sense that I was sharing a strong emotion with the rest of this would-be team for the first time as I was struck with horror at the sound of that voice.

"A child?" Rita said, her tone even more mocking as she turned to look at where Rue was standing at the other end of the docks, brandishing her gun and trying to point it at Rita. "You brought a child to-?"

"I know where the Crystal is!" Rue cut her off urgently.

"DON'T-!" Liv began, an edge of desperation in her voice that I couldn't help but find horrifyingly familiar from all those times I'd tried to tell Prim not to do something dangerous.

Liv and Rue had been working together for a while… if they had found something about the Crystal…

"You do know something," Rita said, even as she waved a hand and left Liv with extra ropes over her mouth. "Where is it?"

"Y-you have to let them go!" Rue yelled, still brandishing her gun in her hands, a sense of desperation in her manner even as she fought to keep herself together. "We can- I'll- you just need to leave us alone!"

"Very well," Rita said, still staring at Rue in a manner that left me feeling extremely worried. "Where is it?"

"It's in District Eleven!" Rue said. "It's under the main fields; it might even be the reason that field does so well-"

"Thank you," Rita said, suddenly moving rapidly to grab the little girl by the throat. "And with that in mind, I'll give you this."

She twisted her hand and a loud snap filled the air.

"There's more fun killing the mascot first," Rita said as she nonchalantly dropped Rue's body to the ground and turned to look at the rest of us. "After all, you're not even a true team-"

"NO!" Thresh yelled, his anguished roar filling the air as the axe he still held in his hands-

I didn't know how, but the axe-handle seemed to fire some kind of energy blast that tore through the ropes around his chest. To Thresh's credit, even as he fell to the ground he let out an outraged roar as he adjusted his grip on the axe and used its unexpected new function to fire another energy blast at Rita. The shot didn't seem to do more than knock our enemy off-balance, but it must have broken her concentration or something, as the bonds holding the rest of us up suddenly seemed to relax their grip. Desperate for any chance of escape, I flexed my arms and felt the last of the bonds shatter before I ran towards Rue's fallen form, my fingers pressed against her neck as I heard the rest of the team gather around behind me…

Even before I touched her skin, I knew that this was pointless, and the way her head practically flopped over to the side as I made contact with her neck only reinforced it.

Rue was dead.

"No…" Thresh said, his own expression clearly sharing my grief as he looked at Rue's body, the others coming together around us. "This wasn't… she was meant to be safe…"

"The ship," Glimmer said, clutching her weapon as she looked urgently between Rue's body and Rita, who was already getting to her feet. "We need to get back to the ship."

"Just a moment…" Thresh said, his expression bitter as he adjusted his grip on his axe so that the blade was now the handle of a large gun with the handle as the barrel. Aiming it at Rita, he fired another energy blast at the woman who had just killed Rue, sending Rita flying even further back, before he turned back to the rest of us. "That should put her down for a bit; get us home."

I was grateful that nobody bothered to try and press the issue; after what Rita had just done to us, it was clear that none of us were in any kind of position to try and kill her right now. With that grim understanding, I triggered the emergency recall that would take us all back to the ship, suddenly wanting to be somewhere safe with people I could trust…

Chapter Text

"Zordon!" I called out as we desperately scrambled towards Zordon's room in the ship, Thresh still cradling Rue's body in his arms. "We need-"

"Do something!" Thresh yelled bitterly up at the display of Zordon's face, holding out Rue as though he was presenting her to the original Red Ranger. "You've got all this shit; you've got to be able to save her!"

"I told you that you were not ready-" Zordon began.

"Oh, don't act like this is all our fault!" Glimmer cut him off indignantly. "You took us from some sick death match and expected us to become a team by just… training us to fight? We did our best in a stupid situation we could never have planned for; of course we fucked up!"

"…We were never going to be ready."

"Exactly-!" Glimmer began.

"No," I cut her off, suddenly feeling like a leader in a way I'd never felt before and equally wishing I'd never had to. "I… I should have realised that before all this happened… I was meant to be your leader, and I… I made a mistake…"

"I am sorry, Katniss," Zordon said, his voice lower and more solemn as he addressed me. "We were both reckless with our teams."

"We should never have done this…" Peeta said, looking at Rue's body where she now lay on the floor, looking even smaller than she had in life.

"It shouldn't be like this," Glimmer said with a bitter edge to her voice as she followed Peeta's gaze.

"It's worse when it's someone you know, isn't it?" Thresh observed, his past bitterness gone as he addressed the former District One resident. "Hell, you could just dismiss the bloodbath victims as idiots, but the kid-"

"I know!" Glimmer yelled as she turned and slammed Thresh against one of the pads where we had been trying to morph for the past week, shocking us all when we realised there were tears in her eyes. "You think I'm not beating myself up about this shit already? I already told you I was disgusted with myself for killing those kids like that, but this is… I liked the girl, OK?"

As though that admission had broken something in her, Glimmer suddenly released her grip on Thresh before she fell to the ground, squatting near one of the pads as she stared at Rue's body. "She knew all the shit that was out there and she still wanted to help… she believed in us when we hadn't even done anything…"

"She wanted to save our lives," Peeta smiled sadly as he looked at her small body. "How many of us could have seen that coming?"

"She was smart, too," Liv put in, a wistful expression on her face at the memory. "I've met smarter kids back in Five, but she had that… she wanted to know, and I've realised that's something not everyone has even if they're smart enough to do it…"

Something not everyone has…

I couldn't explain it even to myself, but those words suddenly resonated with me as I looked around the chamber at the rest of the could-have-been Rangers, each of us still wearing our dark suits and colour-coded hoods as we clutched our weapons.

I wasn't sure if I'd been telling myself that I was just stuck with these people because they'd happened to be in the area when I found the cave, but when I looked around this chamber, I was suddenly struck by the notion that this was my team in a way I'd never fully acknowledged before. Even if I still wasn't sure how they worked, and was still partly sure they must have made a mistake, I somehow knew all of a sudden that the Coins would never have shown themselves if Clove or Cato or Marvel or any of those other Tributes had been with us when we found that cave- when I thought about it, I was suddenly sure that any of the other Careers would have tried to kill the rest of us despite the mystery of the cave if they'd been here rather than Glimmer- but these other four… after all the time we'd spent training together…

"Before I was Reaped," I began, looking around at the others as I walked into the middle of the room, "there were only two people I knew I could trust in my life… and even then I could only trust them in different ways. I could trust my hunting partner to help me find food and I could trust my sister to help me prepare what I found and care for my mom and me… and I could trust them both to keep my secrets… but there was only so much I would let myself share with either of them. Then I met all of you… we ended up training together… I think we've all told each other things we'd never have told anyone else before this…"

I paused for a moment, once again feeling the weight of that statement, before I finished my sentence. "I know that this didn't work out because I pushed us to use the opportunity, and I don't blame you if you don't want me to stay the leader, but I want you all to know that I will always trust you all to have my back… because I know you know I'll have yours."

"…Yeah," Liv nodded at me, a slow expression of understanding and awe on her face as she looked at me. "We'd have your back… because you'd have ours."

"We all would," Peeta said firmly.

"To the end," Thresh affirmed, shooting a grim look at Rue's body before he looked back at me. "That bitch can't do something like that again."

"Or if she does, we'll be there to stop it," Glimmer nodded, crouching down to brush some hair away from Rue's face before she looked up at the others. "I get that you probably didn't… well, I know how Careers are probably seen by the rest of you, but you have to believe me… whatever we did before can't be important; all that matters… the only thing that matters now… is this team."

"We're there for each other," Peeta nodded. "That's more than we've ever had before."

"To the end of the line," Liv affirmed. "That's all that matters."

As soon as I nodded, something seemed to ripple across the wall displaying Zordon's face, and the glowing 'ball-thing' in the centre of the room shifted from its usual mix of colours into an intense shade of blue.

"Zordon!" Alpha said, eagerly indicating the ball. "Zordon! Look at the Grid! This is your time! Do you see it? The Grid is open, step through!"

"Wha- step through?" Thresh looked around in confusion.

"What is this?" Liv asked, as the ripple effect on the wall intensified.

"Yes," Zordon said. "I see it… I see it…."

"Zordon!" Alpha called out with increased urgency. "Get through!"

"Hey!" Thresh yelled, as the lights suddenly flared up and then died down.

"What's happening?" Glimmer called out, as the light became so bright and rapid I almost thought I was standing in a thunderstorm without any rain.

"The Morphing Grid is open!" Alpha called out.

"What the Hell's going on?" Thresh yelled, just as Zordon let out a muffled roar and seemed to 'sink' below the boundaries of the wall. As his face vanished, the lights in the room dimmed and the wall… I could only think of it as 'pulsed', the substance moving slightly in a manner that made me think of an animal breathing without showing any clear sign of life.

"Zordon?" Alpha called out, which at least assured me he was as confused about all this as we were. "Master?"

"What… just happened?" Peeta looked at Alpha in confusion.

"He must have stepped through the Grid!" Alpha said with a new eagerness.

"And what does that mean in terms of where he went?" Liv looked urgently at the robot

"I don't know; this has never-!" Alpha began to say before the room lit up and Zordon's face emerged from the wall with a ripple of red energy, looking serenely around the room once again.

"Zordon, what?" the robot said, voicing our own confusion before any of us could do so. "Why didn't you step through? That was your only chance!"

"I know," Zordon replied, surprisingly content with the fact that he was staying in a wall. "But I had no choice… only one could come back."

"What?" I began, before I turned around to see something that I almost couldn't believe; Rue was now standing up, looking around us with a confused smile, rubbing her neck as though it had just been squeezed rather than outright broken a moment ago-

I didn't know when I let myself accept it, but I suddenly myself with my arms wrapped around Rue, followed by the rest of the team all gathering around us, each one practically scrambling to touch the little girl. I heard Rue let out a desperate squeak as someone squeezed her too hard (I was sure that wasn't me), but after a few moments I allowed myself to step back and walk back towards Zordon's wall, leaving the rest of the group to appreciate our miracle while I addressed the source.

"How… did you do that?" I asked at last, deciding to deal with the obvious question. "I mean, I… think I understand the whole 'one-time rift in the morphing grid' thing you told me about, but how could you use that to bring Rue back?"

"She has absorbed traces of morphing energy from witnessing your training sessions over the last few days," Zordon explained, an expression on his face that I tentatively identified as a smile. "It would not allow her to morph on her own, but it was enough for me to find her… essence… and draw it back to her body."

"Right…" I said, deciding to ignore the implications of that comment about Rue's essence and focus on the more immediate questions I had right now. "And… why did you do that for her?"

"Because you were right," Zordon said, his smile becoming even more solemn as he looked at me. "Your words reminded me that the true purpose of a Ranger team is not simply to defend the Zeo Crystal, but also to protect the worlds they inhabit. My team and I were assigned to a young world simply to protect the life that was developing on it, but you are a true part of this world and its culture. If my coin chose you as my successor, I can trust that you would not say life here is hard if you did not truly believe it."

"So… you mean-?" I began.

"The priority is Rita," Zordon cut me off, before he gave me another tentative smile. "But… like I said, the true duty of a Ranger is to protect life. Even when Rita has been dealt with… you are correct that there is something truly wrong with the society that exists here and now. Promise me that you will do nothing before Rita has been defeated and allow to talk about our possible plans after she has fallen… and we shall see."

Even as I told myself that it wasn't a guarantee he'd agree to help us, when I looked at the face on the wall, I felt a new sense of respect for this powerful figure. He might have been tempted by the chance to return to some kind of humanoid form when this all started, but when put on the spot, Zordon had willingly given that up all to save a little girl who realistically couldn't have meant that much to him personally… because she meant something to us.

"Thank you," I said at last, wishing I could think of something better to say. A part of me wanted to protest that we should be able to do everything we could against Snow's government straight away, but I reminded myself that Zordon was agreeing to do something that was at least as big an upheaval for him as becoming Rangers had been for us. He was right that Rita had to be the priority, and… in a strange way, even after he'd lied to me before, I trusted him to keep his word on this topic.

"So we're doing this?" Glimmer's voice broke through my thoughts. Turning back to the former resident of District One, I gave a cautious smile as I saw the other four Rangers looking at me, each one showing a sense of anticipation.

"OK, guys," I indicated the platforms we'd used in the past, giving them an encouraging smile. "I think it's Morphin' Time."

"Morphin' Time?" Glimmer repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"I like it," Rue grinned at me. I gave her a thankful grin in turn as we all walked over to the platforms, a new sense of purpose in our actions. As Rue moved to stand beside Alpha, the robot surprisingly placed an arm around her shoulders as he looked at the rest of us, the other Rangers and I now standing on the platforms where we had so often strained to make the final step to become real Rangers…

I couldn't explain what had changed, but as we took up our position and exchanged solemn nods, I knew this was going to work even before the central orb assumed a brilliant white glow once again. For a moment, I felt like I was straining against a powerful wind, an almost overwhelming force pressing against me that I couldn't see, the same think striking the rest of us, but then I felt something spreading across my body, a reddish form that initially made me think of some kind of scales enveloping my arms and tightening around my chest. I looked around to see the same effect spreading across the others, their own armours in their respective colours as the light flickered around us…

A final blinding flash filled the ship, and suddenly my vision was tinted with a new darkness as the five of us wore our armour for the first time, each of us tense and ready to face whatever awaited us outside.

For the first time, we were no longer Tributes; we were Power Rangers, and it was time to show the world what we could do.

Chapter Text

As the five of us walked out of the chamber and prepared to leave the ship, a part of my mind was truly fascinated to feel just how in sync we were all of a sudden. We'd fallen into a good pattern with our previous training sessions, but right here and now, with each of us in our armours for the first time, it really did feel like we'd become an actual team.

I obviously hadn't had time to look at myself in a mirror yet, but from what I could see of my own suit through my helmet, and by comparing it to the armour worn by the others, I was wearing a suit of thick red-and-silver armour with a black visor over my eyes, even if the visor itself was somehow clear enough that I could easily see through it. The suit was firm but surprisingly flexible as I walked, as though each step reinforced the idea that it could take punishment but wouldn't slow us down in the process.

Right now, however, we didn't have time to give the armour a more leisurely test when we were about to face a legitimate threat. Zordon wasn't sure if Rita had sensed the energy surge of the morph or just wanted to make sure the ship was destroyed now that she thought we were useless, but either way protecting our new headquarters just became our priority. With the Games over, the former arena was no longer under full-time observation, which meant that we didn't have to worry about being stealthy when we returned to the underground end of the chasm that had changed our lives just over a week ago. Facing the layer of water that had protected us from the rest of Panem since our arrival, I crouched down for a moment and then leapt forward. It was still disorientating to be diving through water like this, but I ignored that strange sensation in favour of grabbing the first Putty I found and forcing it back to the surface with me.

I don't think I even realised how fast I was going or how far I'd jumped until I found myself mid-air, still holding the first Putty I'd attacked in my hands, and I definitely wasn't expecting to realise that I'd just carried that Putty into the daylight in one jump. Once I realised that I was out in the sun once again, I threw the Putty in my arms towards the advancing wave of enemies, before falling back into the pool to join the other Rangers. Glimmer and Liv had already tossed each other into the next Putties they could find in a strange kind of underwater dance while Thresh and Peeta were following my example and forcing the Putties out of the water. Striking another Putty on the head, I broke it back down into ash with a few powerful punches before a quick glance confirmed that there was nothing else down here for us to fight.

The initial wave dealt with, we kicked off against the rock walls and leapt back up to the surface, where we found a new wave of Putties already assembling to face us. Once all five of us had left the chasm, Glimmer practically slid around the ground to knock over a few Putties standing in front of her while I leapt up to kick them in the heads. Thresh and Peeta charged their own foes with their own style of wrestling attacks, while Liv actually jumped up to walk over a few of their shoulders before diving back down to kick a couple of them away.

As I hit the ground once again, I managed to kick one of the Putties as I rolled over to get back to my feet, in time to see Peeta grab another Putty around the waist and slam it against the ground in a more violent version of some of the wrestling moves I'd seen him perform in the past. Thresh was just punching his opponents at the moment, but Glimmer did an interesting trick where she grabbed one Putty in her legs and forced it to the ground with a kind of aerial twisting motion.

I looked over in time to see Liv knock a couple of them over a nearby cliff, but when she paused to look over the edge, she had a new tension in her body language that I didn't like.

"Guys!" the Blue Ranger called over to us. "These things just keep coming!"

"What?" Peeta asked, before the question was answered as a new wave of Putties emerged from the cliff behind Liv. The former District Five resident managed to jump out of the way before of them could get their hands on her, but it was still clear that this was we were about to face even more opponents when we were still struggling to put down the first few Putties.

As the fight continued, it didn't take long for us to establish the scale of what we were up against. The Putties were basically as strong as the holograms we'd been fighting against in the pit- I wondered if Rita just made them stronger or if Zordon and Alpha had dialled the strength down to help us train- so we could hold our own in a straight fight, but the real problem was the sheer numbers facing us.

"There's too many of them!" Glimmer yelled as she kicked through the latest opponent, voicing my own opinion. "We need to hit them harder and faster so they can't keep doing this!"

"And how do we do that?" Thresh asked, even as he grabbed another one and squeezed it with such force that he literally broke it in half.

While I didn't like to admit defeat this early in our first fight, Thresh did raise a point; we couldn't keep up the pace against these numbers for long, and I wasn't keen on the idea of us bringing out a zord in case someone back in the Capitol noticed it…

"Hey guys!" a voice suddenly said from what appeared to be inside my helmet.

"Wh- Rue?" Thresh said, which at least confirmed that I wasn't the only one who'd heard that, the rest of the team reaching up to their ears. "How did you-?"

"Alpha let me access the radio so I could tell you something cool," Rue explained, as I ended up temporarily fighting back-to-back with Glimmer and Liv as we kicked our way through the surrounding opponents. "It's about those weapons you were… using against Rita before; Alpha tells me there're actually part of a… jestally system?"

"Gestalt?" Liv cut in with a new sense of enthusiasm, even if the term still confused me. "As in we can combine the weapons?"

"Combine?" Peeta said, even as he turned to throw another Putty away as it tried to charge us.

"Exactly!" Alpha's voice said. "I'm transmitting the instructions to your armour now; just follow them and things should be fine!"

I was about to ask what he meant when a brief display appeared in the left side of my helmet, and I suddenly found myself looking at some kind of display of the sword I'd been using earlier, along with brief flashes of how it would apparently fit with a series of other weapons. Just as I'd taken in that unexpected turn of events, the sword in question was suddenly in my hands, which I immediately used to avoid an oncoming putty attack by cutting the creature in half.

Looking around at the others, I noticed that Thresh was holding the gun/axe thing he'd used against Rita earlier, and Liv and Peeta were using the pointed sticks and daggers they'd chosen previously. However, I was surprised to see that Glimmer wasn't holding the staff she'd been using earlier. She was holding a long weapon, but rather than a staff, it looked like a strange kind of bow, which she swiftly used to fire what I could only describe as 'energy arrows' at a trio of nearby putties.

When I turned my attention back to the others, I saw each of them using their respective weapons to fight off the oncoming putties, ranging from Peeta stabbing them with his daggers to Liv flipping her opponents over with her pointed sticks. Even Glimmer was making a good impact with her new 'energy arrows', aiming and firing then with considerable speed, but while they were all making an impression, it was clear that we weren't going to win the fight this way.

Which is where the other instructions come in…

"Everyone!" I called out to the team, knocking back the Putty right in front of me and holding up my sword. "We need to bring them together!"

The rest of the team just looked over at my call and then seemed to understand what I was saying as they raised their own weapons. As instructions flashed across my visor, the other Rangers threw their weapons into the air, Thresh's axe in its gun form as Peeta and Liv's weapons attached to Glimmer's bow. Once the bow had attached itself to the end of the gun on Thresh's axe, I jumped up into the air and grabbed the assembled gun, putting my sword on top of the new 'gestalt' before I returned to the ground, the display on my helmet informing me that I was now holding the Power Blaster.

I was only just aware of the other four Rangers taking up position behind me as I aimed the new weapon at our approaching foes, five barrels held together by the bow and the power somehow reinforced and enhanced by the power of my sword. A blast of red energy emerged from the end of the weapon as I swept it across the battlefield in front of us, tearing through the advancing Putties.

With the initial wave destroyed, I led a charge along the field, sweeping the blaster from one side to the other, culminating in me leaning over the side of the cliff to strafe a wave of energy at the advancing Putties trying to climb up towards us. I only realised that the final Putty had been destroyed once the blaster stopped, as though there was something in the weapon that stopped the fight once it couldn't sense an enemy any more. Our enemies defeated, the team and I were left standing alone in the field where we had first come together.

"Wow…" Liv said, as I lowered the now-inactive blaster, the weapon collapsing back into its individual pieces and returning to the hands of the original owners on some kind of automatic system. "That… that was cool."

"Cool?" Glimmer grinned as she twirled the bow in her hands. "That was awesome!"

"Hell, yeah!" Thresh said, his arms out in front of him as he examined his shiny black armour. "Serious, this stuff kicks ass! If we'd had this before-"

"But we couldn't have had it before," Peeta put in, the helmet pulling back from his face to reveal a solemn expression as he looked over at the large figure in black armour. "Remember Zordon's rules, Thresh? We can't use this armour unless the other side escalates the battle to the point where we need it."

"Hey, guys?" Rue's voice suddenly came in over the helmet radio once again, her enthusiasm about the weapons replaced with apprehension. "I think we have a problem…"

"What is-?" I began, before we suddenly found ourselves all back in Zordon's chamber.

"Hey!" Liv looked sharply up at Zordon. "You could just do that?"

"It made more sense for you to confront the Putties directly in this instance; there will be other times when teleportation is more practical," Zordon explained. "In the meantime, please observe the viewing globe."

Turning to the glowing orb in the centre of the room, we saw what appeared to be a display of a large golden figure walking between distant mountains, making for an unclear destination. Even at this distance, the figure struck me as somewhat skeletal, its arms and legs giving the impression that they were half-formed given how thin they were. I was briefly reminded of a few records I'd seen of past Games where the victims had been burnt in some way, such as when Beetee had managed to electrocute most of his opponents in the final confrontation of his Games.

Of course, I was fairly sure that human bodies didn't have large things sticking out of their backs, but I would put that down to the fact that we were facing a monster rather than a regular creature. From what I remembered of my old biology lessons, it looked like those things could be wings stripped of their flesh and feathers, but the implications of a monster like that having wings wasn't exactly encouraging.

"Oh boy," Thresh said, his voice low as he took in the creature that could only be Goldar.

"That's… a lot of gold," Liv said anxiously, as the creature was shown walking past another mountain, reinforcing the scale of the monster we would almost certainly be about to face.

"What are the odds it's heading for District Eleven?" Glimmer put in. Even with my limited skill at reading people, it wasn't hard to guess that she meant that as a foregone observation.

"They're after the Crystal," Peeta said, before he turned to me. "So what now?"

"We need to get there before she finds it," I said, unable to hold back the smile as I looked at the others. "Which means it's time to take the Zords out for a test-drive."

"I can go with that," Thresh nodded.

"Count me in," Liv grinned, as Peeta gave me a supportive thumbs-up.

"You're letting me go for a flight?" Glimmer said with a grin so enthusiastic it was practically audible even under the helmet. "Let's do this!"

"We can get there in time?" I looked over at Zordon.

"Once you have activated the zords, Alpha and I shall initiate the teleportation sequence to send you to a suitable location to advance on Goldar while keeping the existence of the ship secret from your government," Zordon put in, looking solemnly at us. "Good luck, Rangers, and may the Power protect you."

"Thank you," I said, before I turned to lead the way out of the ship, the five of us heading for the cavern where Alpha had shown us the zords only days ago. A part of me wondered if a good leader should have told Glimmer to calm down at that point, but for the moment I was personally rather keen on the idea of getting to take the Tyrannosaurus Zord out for a run myself…

Chapter Text

As tricky as it had been to get to the zords the first time Alpha revealed their existence to us, this second trip through the cave to their cavern went by far faster, even with the fact that we'd had to jump down through the pool to get back to the ship. Once we reached our destination, we each ran for the zord in our respective colours, moving so quickly that I was almost surprised when I actually found myself sitting in the control section of my own zord. As something blue and transparent slid between my seat and the metal framework surrounding it, two things leapt into my hands and I felt something latch on to the back of my armour, leaving me with a new sense of awareness of the large metal dinosaur that was suddenly my unique vehicle.

Mine…

I had never felt like I had truly owned anything before- my bow had been my father's, my clothes were almost all second-hand, and everything I'd owned in the Games had been provided by others even if it had been designed for me- but in that moment, I felt a sense of ownership of this zord that I had never felt for anything before.

Even if this giant red robot had once belonged to Zordon, it was mine now, and I knew I could always depend on it just as I knew I could depend on the team.

"This is so… wow!" Liv called out over a radio system as I commanded the Tyrannosaurus to take its first steps, the cavern around me shaking as Peeta, Liv and Thresh followed my example while Glimmer's own zord lifted up from its perch behind us.

"This is the coolest thing we have ever done…" Thresh breathed; I wouldn't be surprised if he was touching the metal around him as though trying to be sure it was all real.

"Let's go and kick that golden thing's ass!" Glimmer yelled out, as the metallic pterodactyl flew over our heads.

"Go go, Power Rangers!" Alpha called out from below, waving his arms and apparently pointing us onwards towards something. I wasn't sure if what happened next was just the teleportation we'd used earlier or if the zords were doing something different, but as soon as we reached the entrance to the cave I found myself leading the other four zords through a large field that was definitely nowhere near the mountain where we'd originally found the Power Coins.

"Is this Eleven, Black?" Liv asked.

"Some of the outlying fields, but yeah," Thresh said. "And do you have to-?"

"We probably shouldn't use names in the field in case anyone can pick up our transmissions, so let's stick with colour to keep it simple," Glimmer put in. "Sorry if the implications tick you off, but I agree with Blue; colours keeps it simple."

"…Fine," Thresh said, an edge to his tone that suggested he didn't like the idea even if he was willing to go with the title. "So where's-?"

"Right up ahead," Glimmer said, her tone as solemn as I'd ever heard. "Look."

Glancing up ahead, I felt a new sense of apprehension as I saw the large gold warrior standing in the middle of a mess of buildings that I guessed were the main houses of District Eleven. I appreciated that I had never seen Twelve from this kind of perspective, but even at a distance I could see houses that reminded me a great deal of my home District, except that there were far more fields around the central houses where everything back home ultimately 'led' to the mines. I could just see a particularly large fence on the outskirts of the fields, but as we ran I noticed various smaller walls dividing the place up further.

"What is all this?" Peeta asked as we hurried towards Goldar.

"Keeping the fields like this makes it harder for us to take food for ourselves," Thresh observed grimly. "Too many checkpoints for us to hide something from all of them."

Hearing that revelation delivered so matter-of-factly struck me as another example of the Capitol control Gale had always ranted about. It was easy enough to ignore how little we got to enjoy the results of our labours back in Twelve when we didn't often need coal anyway, but faced with the idea that Eleven never got to take their own food…

It marked something else for us to deal with once we turned our attention to the wider issues in Panem, but right now my focus was on Goldar as he smashed his way through the houses in the centre of this District.

"Red to… Command Centre," I said, adjusting the radio as we drew closer to the centre of the District. "How are things going for Rita?"

"Alpha's confirmed that they can't have found the Crystal yet!" Rue's voice called out in response. "We're still working on the exact location, but it's definitely in that District; the zords should be able to help you find where!"

"And Rita can't do that herself?" Peeta asked.

"She's only got her Coin; she doesn't have the technology to find the Crystal except by carrying out a random search," Rue confirmed. "Hold the line and we can still do this."

"OK," I said, hoping that my impulsive plan would be enough. "Pink, Yellow, you find Rita and hold her off; Black, Blue, try and find where the Crystal is and… set up some kind of perimeter; I'm going straight for Goldar!"

I thought I heard Peeta call out something in protest, but I didn't let myself listen to it as I charged towards our main enemy. Rita might be the controlling force behind Goldar, but the large gold monster was the weapon she was actively using against us right now, which meant that taking Goldar down was the best way to stop the renegade Ranger.

"Red to Command Centre," I continued as I approached Goldar, suddenly struck by a question I wanted the answer to, "where did Rita get the gold to make this thing?"

"Checking…" Rue said, silence filling the cabin as I took up position in front of Goldar, my zord letting out a machine roar as it prepared for a fight. "Oh… it looks like Rita's been raiding various places for gold."

"She's been raiding for gold?" I repeated in surprise. "How does that work… and how do you know that?"

"The ship can access Panem's network discreetly enough so long as we don't try to change anything in it," Alpha explained. "As far as I can tell, there are all kinds of reports of shops or private homes being broken into all over your country, as well as a few deaths in cases where it looks like someone intercepted the thief-"

I was prevented from hearing more when Goldar struck the ground with a powerful punch that shattered the building and cracked the earth around it. My own advance was halted as the shards of rubble came together to form a new wave of putties that charged towards me, forcing me to slow down my own vehicle to avoid getting tripped up. For a few moments, I found myself commanding the zord to bite at the putties on its back or stomp the latest wave trying to climb the legs, but I was given a fresh reprieve when the Pterodactyl zord flew overhead, firing at my attackers with such precision that my own zord was left undamaged as the monsters fell away.

"Thanks!" I called back to my ally as I adjusted my own zord's weapons and fired at the advancing Putties. With the initial wave driven off by Glimmer, I was free to start firing at the next assault, simultaneously stamping my way along the street to shake off some of the remaining stone monsters. I was briefly aware of the stone cracking as my zord walked, but I wasn't going to worry about that. From what I could read of the zord's sensors, most of the humans in this area had already run away, so as long as I was careful not to hit the buildings the priority was to take care of our enemies. I heard a few roars and crashes from other streets, but a glance at a screen somehow confirmed for me that the other zords were keeping up a defensive perimeter (this instinctive knowledge was useful, but sometimes it could get really weird).

It only took a few moments for the immediate wave of Putties to be forced back, but then Glimmer let out a frustrated yell as I felt the ground shake. Looking at the apparent scanner, I was led to a violent tremor beside a source of power that I guessed had to be Goldar, and anything that kept him in one place couldn't be good.

"I think he's found the Crystal!" Liv called out, the blue Triceratops just visible over the top of a nearby street as it charged towards Goldar. "I'm going in!"

"Right behind you, Blue!" Thresh called out as the Black zord charged after the former Five resident. "Where's Yellow?"

"Just dealing with a few stragglers!" Peeta's voice called out. For a moment I couldn't see where he was, but then I noticed a few Putties being apparently thrown over the rooftops of another set of buildings and guessed that he was running along that way. With a new goal in mind, I turned the red zord around and charged after the other zords, heading for Goldar as he kept beating the ground. Once I got in close enough, I leapt up to land on Goldar's back, directing my zord to bite at one of the wing-like protrusions on his back. The figure briefly shook from another impact, but a quick check of the scanner assured me that it was an ally rather than a problem.

"Keep him off-balance, Yellow!" I called out over the radio, deciding not to question what had prompted Peeta in particular to come to my defence at this point. "We've got to-!"

My instructions were cut off as Goldar reached back and grabbed my zord by the tail, throwing me off down another street. I managed to get the zord back on its feet, but my attention was drawn to a figure in green a short way down the street.

"OK, Rangers," I instructed, once again feeling a sense of authority I'd never imagined would be mine, "everyone keep Goldar back; I'm going after Rita!"

I was vaguely aware of the rest of the team calling out something as I commanded the cockpit forcefield to 'open', but I ignored them as I leapt out of the zord and headed towards the ground. Instinctively twisting in the air as I fell, I hit the ground feet-first, allowing myself a brief smile at the sight of the impact crater made by my landing before I drew my sword and ran towards the green-armoured woman.

"Hey there, bitch," I said, recalling some of the bullies I'd dealt with during particularly rough days after my father's death as the evil Ranger turned to face me. "Surprised to see us?"

"You could say that," Rita replied, twirling her golden staff as she looked back at me. "I must admit, I thought that losing your little mascot would be more devastating to you then this; did she mean so little to you-?"

"She's fine, actually," I retorted, raising my sword as I enjoyed the look of surprise on Rita's face. "But you won't be."

Rita didn't have time to respond with words before I lashed out with my sword, barely managing to raise her staff to parry the attack. For the next few blows Rita was purely on the defensive as I hacked away at her, each of my blows being blocked by her staff, but then I kept up the pressure against the staff a bit longer than before until I could land a good kick on Rita's chest. It was a small victory on the face of it, but I followed that up with a blow that Rita only managed to deflect with her arm rather than her staff, producing significant sparks from the gauntlet on that arm. She managed to land a few blows on me in turn, but once I managed to find a combat style that let me focus on the staff, it wasn't hard to keep her off-balance. I still hadn't managed to land a blow on the exposed parts of her body, such as her upper arms, but if I could keep this up-

"Why are you even doing this?" Rita spat at me as her staff deflected my latest attack, the woman actually grabbing the end of my sword with her bare hands as she glared at me. "Do you honestly think this will ever change anything? You're fighting for a world that would send its children to their deaths-!"

"But that doesn't mean they can't be better," I said, simultaneously surprised and proud of my new conviction in my words. This woman had basically written off my entire planet as a lost cause even before we'd evolved as a species, but I wasn't going to let her dismiss human beings like that.

"You can't judge us by our leaders, Rita," I continued as I glared at my enemy. "People don't deserve to be condemned as failures because the people in charge make bad decisions-!"

There was a sudden burst of green and gold energy from behind me that sent both of us off-balance. As I found myself flying towards Rita, I somehow managed to twist my body so that I avoided being thrown against the staff that she had managed to point in my direction, but I still found myself falling to the ground alongside my enemy. Quickly rolling over on the ground, I looked back to see Goldar bent over the ground, one arm extended into a hole in front of the monstrosity, and…

I couldn't explain it, but there was something in its posture that made it clear to me that monster felt somehow satisfied in what it had just done.

"Well," Rita grinned as she looked over at me. "It would appear that the question of whether this world is worth saving just became somewhat 'academic'- assuming that even applies to an ill-educated little fool like yourself-"

Not giving her the chance to finish that rant, I slammed the side of my sword against her head and turned back to run towards my zord. Leaving Rita like that might be a risk, but if Goldar had reached the Crystal it was more important to be in the zord to fight the bigger monster.

"Red to Command Centre!" I called out once I was back in my cockpit. "Goldar's found the Crystal; what's our strategy?"

"Make sure he can't take the Crystal from its position!" Alpha replied promptly. "Right now all that's happened is the exposure of the Crystal; Rita can't do anything unless she channels it properly, and she needs to use Goldar as a filter if she's going to access its power without it destroying her."

"So she can't just jump into the Crystal and take it with her bare hands or she'll destroy herself?" Liv asked, as I moved the red zord forwards in preparation for the next stage of this fight.

"Pretty much," Alpha confirmed. "If you can force Goldar back from the Crystal, we can focus on stopping him from taking it; the Crystal will naturally protect itself once again if we can give it time…"

"On it!" Liv said, suddenly sounding like she was grinning as the Triceratops zord was suddenly standing between me and Goldar. I didn't have time to ask what she was about to do when a blue burst of energy suddenly erupted from the horned machine, knocking Goldar off-balance. Glimmer followed it up by bombarding Goldar with laser blasts as the Pterodactyl flew overhead, and then the Mastodon rammed Goldar from the side. Peeta attempted his own attack, but by that point Goldar was getting back to his feet and was able to throw the yellow cat-like zord off. The zord twisted in mid-air in a tricky manoeuvre so that it landed on its feet alongside the rest of us, but it was clear that Peeta's initial attack had failed.

As I took up position with the rest of the team, I glanced back to see that Rita was advancing towards Goldar, but it seemed as though the rest of the putties had vanished. I vaguely saw something flowing back towards Rita, but for the moment I wasn't going to question it if we only had to face a couple of foes rather than an army.

"Can you… feel that?" Peeta asked, even as the other zords fell into line alongside me.

"The crystal?" Liv asked.

"Maybe…" I nodded cautiously, aware of a sense of something from behind me even as I focused my attention on the threat in front of us. "But right now, we just have to hold the line."

"Got it!" Glimmer grinned as she settled her zord into position on the back of my own.

"Everyone, open fire!" I commanded, activating my zord's weapons and firing at the massive golden creature that was currently advancing towards us. The assault left Goldar staggering, but I knew that we couldn't afford to savour that moment as we held the line.

"I've got your back!" Thresh shouted, moving his zord closer to mine even as Goldar's blows sent the yellow zord back towards the edge of the pit behind us. I tried not to let myself think about the scale of what we were up against as Goldar started throwing actual fireballs at us; we were holding out so far, and all we had to do was keep standing…

"I'm burning…" Peeta called out, just as Goldar slammed its fists down against the Pterodactyl zord above me. My own zord didn't seem to have suffered much damage, but I didn't need to check the display screens to know that anything that could force the Tyrannosaurus down like that was bad. A sideways glance was all I needed to confirm that the other zords were being forced down too, and it looked like Goldar's new fireball attack was playing its part…

"I can't breathe!" Liv said, even as I saw lasers still firing from the Triceratops.

"This thing's crushing my wings!" Glimmer yelled, as I glanced up to see Goldar trying to turn the wings of Glimmer's zord back on itself.

"Guys!" Rue called out over the radio. "You're sliding back! Goldar's pushing you off-balance! He's going to-!"

"Come on, everyone," I said, lost for anything better to say as I tried to dig into the ground, praying that the others would be able to hold on. "We can fight back!"

"It's getting too hot…" Thresh protested, sounding like he was under an obvious strain already.

"I don't know how much longer I can do this…" Peeta put in, as his zord's head slammed against mine.

As I looked up at Goldar's 'face', the large gold figure forcing us further and further back into the pit behind us, I could vaguely hear Rita's laughter as her twisted creation pushed us to our fate. I didn't know if falling into that crystal would just kill us or do something else, but I was suddenly sure of one thing.

"No one dies alone," I said at last, feeling that resolution settle into my mind.

If we were going to escape the Games only to die here, we were going to die together trying to stop Rita taking the crystal, rather than let the Capitol win by pitting us against each other all over again.

"…I'm OK with it," Peeta said.

"Hold on," Thresh, Liv and Glimmer said simultaneously, as I heard claws dig into the ground beneath me.

Maybe this wasn't going to accomplish anything more than buying our world a few more moments of life, but if that was all I could do, I'd try and do it.

"Stay with us, Black!" Peeta called out, and I tried not to think about what might have happened to the only active Ranger from Eleven as our zords fell closer to the edge. With controls already straining against Goldar, all I could do was look up to where the Pterodactyl zord's cockpit was pressed against my own, reaching out a hand towards Glimmer in a gesture of sympathy that felt like all I could offer anyone right now…

"Thank you for being my friends," Liv's voice suddenly broke in through the heat and energy that now seemed to be filling everything around us.

"Hold on to each other," Glimmer said, a soft plea in her voice that once again supported why she had been chosen by the pink coin, before I felt the zords finally fall over the edge of the pit, into a brilliant burst of flame and energy… Flames blazed around us… I heard mechanical components shift around us as fire and energy seemed to explode around us…

Chapter Text

Even after it had happened, I wasn't sure how to explain what we'd just gone through. One moment I was sure that my new team and I would be burnt to death in our zords, as we fell into the pit that was the only thing stopping Goldar and Rita from claiming the Zeo Crystal, and the next… it was as though the energy that had just been exploding around us was suddenly pouring through us, channelling into my zord and expanding into something new. I couldn't be sure when it actually changed, but suddenly I went from falling down into the pit in my solo zord to sitting in a new style of cockpit, looking out at District Eleven from a higher position.

"We… we're alive," I said, almost unable to believe what had just happened as I tried to look around myself, somehow already sure that I wasn't the only survivor. "Everyone, we're alive!"

"What the… oh my God…" Peeta said, his voice low as he took in what had happened. I was aware of parts settling into place around me, but right now my main focus was on the sheer scale of what we were now in control of.

"OK, missing the wings, but this is cool!" Glimmer affirmed. I was able to look around and see what looked like similar cockpits to my own positioned around the shoulders and thighs of this new zord, but my focus soon turned to how to work this thing. As far as I could tell, my actual control room hadn't changed much, but as for what I was actually controlling now…

"We're all in one big… Megazord!" Liv laughed with joy as I felt the newly named 'Megazord' stand up, facing Goldar directly. I wasn't sure how, but I could suddenly 'sense' that it had adopted a combat pose of some sort, ready to resume the fight that Goldar had tried to end just moments ago.

"HOW?!" Rita screamed, her voice clear even across our current distance from Goldar, the giant titan having apparently stepped back as we emerged in our new form. As I felt parts of the Megazord settle into place, I watched as Goldar bent down to allow Rita to walk onto its hand, subsequently raising her up so that she could lie back down and be somehow absorbed into its chest. I could just make out a green glow from Goldar that I assumed signified that Rita had become part of our foe, but right now there were more immediate concerns to deal with.

"Time to put this bitch down," Thresh said, sounding like he was grinning over the radio. "Let's do this!"

"Everyone, let's go!" I said, as I commanded the Megazord to move forward, only to find the new vehicle falling towards the ground. I could hear the others calling out various "Nos" as we fell, but my immediate priority was ensuring that we didn't hit the ground so hard that we damaged our new vehicle. I was aware that at least one hand was out in front to catch us before we hit the ground, but I couldn't be sure if I'd done that on purpose or if someone else had been in control of that limb.

"That… might have been me," Liv said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it; we all need to learn how to do this," I said quickly, studying a new control sequence that had appeared to my left; this was no time to blame anyone for not knowing how to use something this complicated. "OK, if I'm reading this right, Pink and Yellow have the arms, and Blue and Black control the legs; I'm keeping the body in sync, so we all have to move together. Got it?"

"Got it!" the others replied all at once.

"I'll lift us!" Glimmer said, as the Megazord rose back to its feet once again. For some reason, Rita hadn't attacked while we were off-balance, but I had a feeling she just wanted to enjoy our suffering rather than there being any sense of fair play behind her actions.

"All together, up on three," I said, hoping this would become more natural just like our ability to drive the original zords had been as Goldar began to advance towards us. "One, two… three."

"We've got this; let's get this bitch!" I heard Glimmer yell as we charged towards Goldar. The golden titan grabbed the Megazord's upper body before I could order us to deliver a punch, but I managed to pass on an instruction to Thresh to catch us before we fell too far. As the Megazord's upper body moved forward, Peeta was able to lash out with a punch that sent Goldar back, knocking something from his head even if it still looked the same when the arm stopped blocking my view of our opponent.

"Let's go again!" I yelled, managing to lean back to avoid another blow from Goldar. "Pink, throw a hook!"

"On it!" Glimmer yelled, as the left arm delivered its own blow to our enemy. Regaining its balance, Goldar landed another couple of punches to the head and chest (I wondered why it wasn't aiming more directly at our control sections, but I wasn't going to complain about not being targeted by something this big), but we were able to follow that up with a powerful kick to Goldar's chest that forced it away from us.

"Nice one, Blue!" I called down to Liv once I confirmed which leg had delivered that kick. However, the good mood quickly faded when a long golden sword emerged from Goldar's right arm, leaving me with a renewed sense of apprehension about what was about to happen to us.

"Do we have anything for that?" Thresh asked. For a moment I was lost for how to respond, mind racing over everything we'd learnt about combat in training for the Games and to become Rangers, until an idea came to me.

"Remember the pit?" I said.

"Oh yeah," Thresh said in satisfaction.

"Does it make a difference if I say I never liked that part of the training?" Liv asked, as Goldar began to advance again.

"We don't have time," I said, preparing the Megazord for what was to come. "Ready?"

Once I received positive responses from the others, I set the Megazord in motion, dodging to the side so that Goldar's charge with its new weapon completely missed us, following up by grabbing Goldar around the waist beneath the wings. Whether Goldar could have attacked us from this position would never be answered, as I sent the instructions out for us to lift the golden warrior up off its feet, adjusting our subsequent fall to slam Goldar into the ground head-first. Turning over, I saw that Goldar was still intact, but it let out a loud groan of what I chose to interpret as its equivalent of pain as it tried to get up.

"Pull back on the arms!" I said, as a new 'instruction' suddenly appeared in my mind. "I think… this thing does have swords."

"We do?" Thresh and Liv said in surprise.

"And that's what the wings are for like this!" Glimmer said, sounding very satisfied as the Pterodactyl's wings separated from the zord's main body to settle into its hands. Now properly armed, I raised the weapons above the Megazord's head and rammed them down as Goldar tried to deliver another punch. The counter-attack penetrated Goldar's chest and left our opponent pinned to the ground, but I had just removed one sword to deliver another blow when Rita burst from Goldar's chest with a loud scream.

Unsure what I expected to hear but somehow certain I had to hear this, I withdrew the other sword and adjusted the Megazord's position so that the head was almost directly above Rita as she looked up at us.

"Look at me!" Rita said, her voice trembling but firm. "You think you've won anything? Others will come for the Crystal, and you're trying to protect a species that would let their own young slaughter each other for sport! I would be doing the universe a favour wiping you out and sparing you what is to come! What you have… it can't last! You know I'm right!"

"I don't know that," I retorted, refusing to give Rita any sense that she might have been right about anything. "What I do know is that, right now, you are the greatest threat to this planet, and what our civilisation has become is a matter for another day."

"You think you can change anything?"

"I think we're going to try," I retorted, hoping that I wasn't going to say anything that might give away our identities by 'accident' if someone was listening in. "And right now, you're going to give us your staff and your coin, so we can take you to Zordon and let him be the judge of what to do with you."

"Zordon?" Rita spat indignantly, almost seeming to gain strength as she glared at us. "Judge me? Never! No matter what Zordon says, I know… I am worthy!"

Letting out a load roar, Rita leapt off Goldar's fallen form, her staff raised as though she seriously thought she could attack the Megazord on her own. I wasn't sure if she would be able to do any damage given the size difference, but I wasn't prepared to find out. Triggering the appropriate command, I watched in satisfaction as the right arm rose to strike Rita with such force that she was sent hurtling into the sky, leaving us to look up after her in satisfaction at such a decisive final blow. As she flew away, Goldar's body seemed to 'blow up' below us, collapsing back into small golden fragments that scattered around the District or simply lay on the ground, until the monster that had almost destroyed us had basically fallen apart.

"Red?" Glimmer's voice cut in, as the Megazord stood up and returned our zords to its back. "Did you just… slap her?"

"It seemed like the right call," I said, finding myself unable to stop a smile on my face before I turned to look at the District spread out before us. From my current position in the Megazord cockpit, it was easy to see how it could become so natural to treat people as 'lesser' when you were looking down on them like this, even as I knew that I would never let myself do that…

"You know," Glimmer's voice continued, "if we leave now, everyone's going to think we're just some secret weapon the Capitol sent out…"

"And what about the Crystal?" I asked, suddenly wanting to be sure everyone remembered our original purpose. "If we leave now-"

"The Crystal has already begun re-sealing itself; by the time you return it will be hidden once again," Alpha's voice cut in over the radio. "I'll explain more once you're back at base, but in the meantime… Zordon gives you permission to do one thing to affirm that you're not working for the Capitol."

"There's the Peacekeeper building right over there," Thresh said, raising one arm of the zord to point at a large white structure up against the edge of the main houses. "Shall we?"

"Maybe we just hit it as we're going out?" Peeta put in. "We don't want to look like bullies who just stopped Rita so that we can attack Panem ourselves, but Pink's right that we also don't want to give anyone here reason to seriously think we're working for the Capitol…"

Nodding in agreement, I set the Megazord to walk past the building, but took care to swing one arm in a direction that ensured it would strike the Peacekeeper building as we walked by. It just knocked a corner of the building away, and a glance back was enough to satisfy me that we hadn't killed anyone, but it was clear that we'd made an impression even before we deliberately walked through part of the wall around the District.

"Think that's enough?" I asked the rest of the team as the Megazord paused on the outskirts of Eleven.

"Nobody in the Capitol would do that kind of damage, and we took care not to hit anything that wasn't official Capitol property; I think we'll be OK," Glimmer grinned. "We should probably follow this up soon by making sure they know what we're about, but this should give us more time to work out something before the Capitol can paint themselves as the big heroes."

Even with my limited interest in the bigger picture, I could understand Glimmer's point; if the Capitol needed more time to find some way to explain the Megazord, that gave us more time to make our own preparations.

We've defeated Rita, but that just leaves the more local monsters to deal with…

Chapter Text

Prim

Even while still reeling from the death of her sister, news of the events in District Eleven was impossible for Prim to miss. She'd basically been allowed to coast through school for the last few days, other students aware that she was 'dealing' with Katniss's loss as much as she could, but the broadcast of events in District Eleven were so significant that they were automatically mandatory viewing.

She'd watched the events out of obligation once the broadcast started, but even after it was all over, she had no idea what to think about any of it. Nobody seemed to know what those large things fighting in District Eleven had been, or even what they had been fighting about, but as far as Prim was concerned it didn't matter.

So some strange robot animals showed up to fight some other strange thing; it doesn't change the fact that Katniss is dead.

As far as Prim was concerned, without her sister, everything that happened in Panem just marked another day since her sister died because Prim hadn't been brave enough to reject Katniss's decision to volunteer for her…

Gale

The thing that frustrated Gale the most about the mysterious battle in District Eleven was that it all seemed so meaningless.

OK, he wasn't going to deny that there was a certain 'cool' factor in seeing some giant robots kick the crap out of that large gold whatever, but what had it all been for in the end? Nobody knew what the gold thing had been looking for, nobody had any idea where the multi-coloured robots had come from, and then they'd just… knocked against the Peacekeeper building and left.

If they were part of the Capitol, they'd never have done anything to damage Capitol property, but on the other hand they hadn't exactly done anything about the Capitol itself. They just showed up out of nowhere, fought that giant gold guy and the strange woman in green, and then walked off without giving anyone a real explanation. It was as though they just expected everyone to be grateful for them bothering to show up and then not even bother to explain themselves afterwards.

Damn Capitol all over again; they show up with some big gesture and expect us to just be happy we merit that kind of attention, so we won't think about how they ignore us the rest of the time…

If those people wanted to actually do some good, they should have outright destroyed the Peacekeeper base in Eleven instead of just bumping against it after beating the crap out of some big gold thing. Instead, all Gale could see was the latest Games making his own issues more personal as they resulted in him suffering an even more personal loss than he could have expected, and all he could do about it was fume in rage.

No matter how much he hated them, he just didn't have the power to do anything about the system that treated someone as remarkable as Katniss as a minor pawn. If he could just find the power to actually fight the Capitol himself…

Clove

Clove wasn't sure if other Victors had experienced anything like this kind of emotional turmoil after their own victories, but she could definitely say that none of them had experienced something this strange.

She recognised that it was a petty thing to be thinking about when she had lost Cato and won under frustrating circumstances, but the thing that most bothered her right now was that the attack on District Eleven had basically taken all the attention off her. One of the constants of the Hunger Games was that the Victor of the last games was the focus of Panem's attention for at least the next year, but now she had to face her victory being so closely associated with the mysterious saviours of District Eleven.

On one level, she was glad to have time to collect herself after everything she'd seen in the Games and everything she'd learnt about what was expected of her after that victory, but on the other hand, when nobody even seemed to know what that fight had been about in the first place…

Why did she have to be the one stuck with all this crap after her victory? As though losing Cato hadn't been enough of a gut-punch, the way President Snow had just casually told her about the 'appointments' she'd need to attend later… as though losing the person she'd actually wanted hadn't been bad enough?

Is a life of privilege really worth that kind of price?

She had always believed in the privilege of serving her District and coming home as a Victor, but she'd already lost one of the most important parts of her life, and now she was basically expected to sacrifice the rest of her dignity in the name of keeping some faceless politicians happy…

Snow

For the first time since he had become president, Snow had no idea what he was dealing with. The gold thefts had been a troubling matter for the last few days, but he had assumed that there was nothing more to the matter than an ambitious thief until the events of this morning.

Granted, he had no idea how the gold had been brought together to become the creature that had attacked District Eleven, but if the gold thefts had literally nothing to do with the giant golden 'golem' in question he would be very surprised. He had arranged for relevant scientists to analyse the footage to try and determine what that creature was and if there was any way for them to create their own version, but Snow was practical enough to realise that they knew far too little about what had just happened to try and recreate it. With something that powerful, even if they managed to copy its body, if they got anything wrong the Capitol would at the very least have another of those monsters to deal with, and even if it went right they couldn't predict how the party in control of that other machine would react to it.

As if all that wasn't frustrating enough, Snow couldn't even understand what had prompted that bizarre fight in the first place. Once the violence had died down, Snow had sent a team of scientists to investigate the area where the fight had taken place, but it didn't take them long to report back that they hadn't been able to find anything. The assigned experts had all agreed that there was a surprising lack of damage in the area where the five animal-themed robots had somehow merged into a single humanoid form (Snow would be very interested to know how they achieved that), but attempts to scan the area had turned up no trace of anything that might have been responsible for such an efficient clean-up.

Right now, the only thing Snow could be sure of about that fight was that neither party was affiliated with the Capitol, but that left too many questions about where either of them were from. Snow was inclined to consider that the five robots were at least ostensibly on Panem's side as they had focused on fighting the golden figure where the other party had committed wanton destruction, but that departing blow to the Peacekeeper building raised questions. They clearly had no loyalty to him, but at the same time anyone affiliated with District Thirteen would have made a more blatant attack then that…

Rita

She had endured millennia of unconsciousness at the bottom of the sea, but Rita was certain that she would trade in her current situation in a heartbeat even if it meant that she would be returned to her watery prison. Her Coin had kept her alive even as Zordon's meteor struck the ground and decimated her former leader, but her armour had been so damaged even she was amazed at how much of it had still been lost when she was 'rescued' from the ocean by the new life-forms.

She had traded a prison of non-awareness for a 'prison' of the vast emptiness of space, her coin separated from her in that final strike and her armour now down to its last dregs of power. She was fortunate that she had basically internalised most of her energy over the centuries she spent basically sustained only by her coin, giving her some dregs of power even after she had been separated from it, but this just meant that she wouldn't die straight away in her current state.

She was just going to drift through space, frozen and alone, mind aware but lacking the power to do anything about it, until she finally exhausted every last bit of energy…

Ah, a voice suddenly echoed in her mind. There you are… and there was me thinking your former partner took you with him when he called down that meteor.

If Rita's body hadn't already been frozen from the cold of space, it would have frozen when she heard that voice.

They had both known what the other wanted when Rita departed to claim the newest Zeo Crystal, but Rita had at least had hope that the power would be shared once she had claimed the crystal on her team's new assignment.

If he was still looking for her, that least suggested she still had value to him… but if she had kept him waiting for this long…

Come now, my dear, the voice said with a new edge to it. Even if you can't talk, you can still think back to me; be assured I'm open to hearing your excuses before I choose your punishment.

Of course… Lord Zedd, Rita responded, mentally crossing her fingers (a simple human gesture, but she could appreciate the sentiment) that he would accept this. I have to report that Zordon was able to survive the final attack when his assistant transferred his consciousness into the ship… and he has now assembled a new team of natives to defend the Crystal.

A local team, you say? Zedd responded, a contemplative edge to his tone. What can you tell me about this world?

Rita wasn't sure what Zedd might be planning, but if he was interested in Earth, at least that meant that she still had a chance of coming out of this alive…

Chapter Text

"So… nobody even knows the Crystal's there?" Liv looked at Zordon in surprise as we gathered in his chamber, looking at his projected face once again. "Even after Goldar broke open that pit?"

"Only Rangers and outsiders are ever aware of the exact location of the Crystals of their own worlds," Zordon explained. "It is the nature of the power of Zeo; if natives were able to tap the power of their own world's projection of the Crystal, the results would be… unpredictable."

"Some kind of environmental disaster?" the Blue Ranger asked.

"At the very least."

"Is that why Rita was trying to drain the power from our Crystal rather than just… take it from her own planet?"

"Indeed," Zordon nodded. "Those aware of Zeo Crystals can at least theoretically channel the power of each crystal if they are careful, but to deliberately attack your own planet's crystal would be complex at best and dangerous at worst."

"OK, so because the Crystal can protect itself from natives… that means we're the only people on this planet who can even see the damn thing?" Thresh asked incredulously.

"The forces of the Capitol would obviously be aware that something is there after the battle, but unless they deployed a suitably advanced research team in the moments after your defeat of Goldar they will be unable to find the Crystal," Zordon affirmed. "Even out in space, very few are ever made aware that the core purpose of all Rangers is to protect the Crystals on the planets they defend, although many are also called into action to defend against particular enemies that come to their worlds. Of those who know the existence of the Zeo Crystals, only Rangers ever know the exact connection between where a team is positioned on a planet and the location of that planet's Crystal."

"And there are probably a few worlds without Crystals where other forms of life have developed, right?"

"Most astute," Zordon nodded at Liv.

"Well, life finds a way; if aliens exist, there have to be some that don't quite follow the 'rules' of evolution we're familiar with, right?"

"It is nevertheless an intelligent observation," our mentor seemed to 'nod' at Liv. "You are to be commended for your insight."

"Right…" Thresh nodded, his expression cautious even as he listened to our mentor's words.

"Getting back to that fight, how come you didn't mention the Megazord before the big moment?" Glimmer stepped forward to look curiously at the large face. "It might have been good to know what we could do-"

"I did not tell you because I did not believe it would be possible."

"Oh," I said, once again struck at the notion that we had been basically a desperate hope on Zordon's part more than a real choice-

"I did not believe it because so few teams before you have achieved the necessary communion with each other necessary to create a Megazord that quickly."

"You mean we beat your expectations?" Liv looked at Zordon with a new grin, and even I found myself fighting down the urge to smile.

"Be assured that you would have surpassed the expectations of many of my peers," Zordon affirmed with a smile. "Your names will be etched alongside the great Ranger teams of history that have come before you for your achievements on this day… and yet I feel that your team's next challenge shall be a more personal one."

"Right…" I said, stepping forward to address Zordon myself. "So, with Rita dealt with… are you ready to discuss what we do about the Capitol?"

"…That is a difficult question to answer," Zordon said after a thoughtful pause, turning his gaze to look directly at me, the size of his head making the gaze even more intense. "You must understand that as Power Rangers, you cannot use your power for personal gain or escalate any battle you become involved in. Keeping these rules in mind, under normal circumstances you would be forbidden from taking action to essentially stage a coup of your world's government."

"Even when our leaders are all pricks?" Glimmer asked.

"From what I have determined while studying local news, I… acknowledge… that this is a situation where exceptions must be made for the good of the innocent," Zordon responded. "However, the rules cannot simply be ignored whenever you disagree with them, or we become the very evil we have sworn as Rangers to oppose."

"We don't want to take charge ourselves; we just… we don't want the Capitol to continue ruling the way they are," Peeta said, looking around at the rest of us as he continued. "There has to be… we can agree on that, right?"

As I looked around the room, I was strangely proud to see the rest of the team nodding in agreement with Peeta's words, before I turned back to look at Zordon.

"Your lack of interest in such a goal is the main reason I am having this discussion," Zordon affirmed. "So long as you do not do this with the goal of taking power yourselves, you may act against the Capitol's forces, but I must ask that you adhere to these revised rules."

"Go ahead," I nodded in understanding at him, the rest of the team gathering behind me.

"Obviously your identities must remain secret, but so long as you make it clear to the public as soon as possible that you are not setting out to depose the Capitol and then position yourselves in its place, you are free to act against their soldiers and leaders," Zordon continued. "You may also use the Zords to aid you in attacking particular Capitol strongholds, but I will not tolerate you simply using them to attack the Capitol's ground forces."

"In other words, I can't just get into the Mastodon and start stomping on Peacekeepers?" Thresh asked.

"Quite," Zordon said, his gaze focusing on Thresh before he continued. "You may oppose the Peacekeepers in battle yourself, but you must avoid using your weapons against them; with your powers, even in your unmorphed states, you are sufficiently powerful to oppose most of them in direct combat."

"Does that mean you'd prefer it if we used those… Ninjetti outfits again?" I asked.

"Ninjetti?" Peeta looked at me.

"Like the masks we were wearing earlier," I explained as I looked around the room. "Apparently the Ninjetti were one of the first cultures to harness the powers we're using when we morph."

"Nice," Rue grinned.

"And to answer your question, Katniss," Zordon cut in, "Ninjetti would be preferable as a default combat style, but you are under no obligation to dress in any specific way when mounting your new campaign, so long as you do not disclose that you are the Power Rangers."

"Uh… not meaning to be nit-picky, but even if we do all that, we should also do something to suggest we're working with the Power Rangers," Liv raised her hand.

"We're working with- girl, we are the Power-" Thresh began.

"But we don't want to be living this way for the rest of our lives, right?" Liv cut him off. "If we want to have some kind of normal life once this is all over, part of that means we need to find some way to… well, bring ourselves back to life without making it clear that we're the ones in these suits, you know?"

"In other words, we need to do something to show that we're still alive as the lost Tributes of the last Hunger Games that also shows we're working with… well, us," I said, nodding cautious understanding of Liv's point. It would be a complicated story, but if we were careful about it, we might just be able to do it… and it could even help us win support if we could somehow show our faces during our planned campaign…

"What's so funny?" Rue asked, making me aware that I was laughing.

"Just… is this our lives now?" I said, bringing myself under control as I indicated my surroundings. "I was just a hunter a few weeks ago, and now I'm basically preparing to use alien technology to fight the whole country while trying to figure out a way to make it look like we're working with ourselves…"

"That is a very odd way to describe what we're doing," Rue commented, even as she smiled at me.

"Maybe, but we'll make it work," Peeta commented, an encouraging expression on his face as he looked at me.

"And we're only fighting the people who genuinely like Panem the way it is," Liv cut in. "So long as we make it clear just how much things suck for those who don't realise it and how we can help resist the Capitol, I think we have a good shot."

"Exactly," Glimmer nodded. "We've got the Girl on Fire here; that's got to earn us a few points."

"Wait a- are you saying-?" I looked between them both.

"You are the leader," Glimmer shrugged. "It's pretty much your job to take point."

"But that's- I'm not-"

"Hey, even if I didn't like you getting the attention during the interviews, I'm not going to ignore that you did a good job there," Glimmer pointed out.

"She's right," Liv nodded, smiling encouragingly at me. "You're a lot better at making an impression on people then you think; just… be yourself and say what you feel about things."

"Didn't the Academy teach you about… presentation?" I asked, stopping myself from using the phrase 'selling yourself'; I didn't want to make Glimmer think I thought she was that kind of girl.

"Yeah, we were told how to make ourselves appealing to sponsors, but that's not the same as what we're going for here," Glimmer pointed out. "The goal right now isn't to win sponsors and get people to pay money for our survival; we want people to stand behind us as we inspire a revolution, and frankly you've got the most appealing backstory."

"You do?" Alpha looked at me curiously. "Why is that?"

"You don't know already?" Thresh asked. "When you've got access to all this shit?"

"We did not wish to intrude on your privacy until you were ready to share it with us," Zordon put in. "Alpha accessed enough information to understand the context of the world we now inhabited after your presence reactivated him before the presence of the Power Coins allowed him to restore me to consciousness, but he would not access your private records without your consent."

"…Thanks," Liv nodded at Zordon and Alpha with a smile.

"Yeah," I followed her cue, before I took a breath. "And to answer your question… I joined the Games to save my sister."

"Your sister?" Alpha asked.

"It was her first time in the Reaping and she got chosen as Tribute, so I volunteered in her place."

"Ah," Alpha said, before he glanced back at Zordon. "Tributes can be chosen from any age between twelve and eighteen, but volunteers typically only happen in districts such as One and Two, where they have exclusive academies dedicated to training potential Victors."

"I see," Zordon nodded in new understanding before he looked at me. "That was a brave action, Katniss; you are to be commended for your courage."

"Thanks," I glanced back at him, surprised to find myself feeling touched at his compliment.

"But that's exactly why you have to be the one to do this," Peeta looked at her with a reassuring grin. "None of us made the same kind of impression that you did; we were all just part of the system, but you made a choice to save a life even before the Games started."

"That was just… anyone could have done that-"

"But the fact is that you're the one who did it," Liv cut me off, a solemn expression on her face as she looked at me. "You joined the Games to save people, Katniss; if any one of us can convince the people we're here to help, it's you."

"So long as you just do it," Glimmer cut in.

"What?"

"Like I said, we get by in the Academy because we know how to make a dramatic impression, but that's not what we need right now," Glimmer affirmed as she looked at me. "You need to tell everyone that we're here to stand up to the Capitol and the Rangers are going to help; they'd never believe it from the rest of us."

"'Specially not if it came from you," Thresh pointed out.

"…Harsh but fair," Glimmer nodded at him after a moment's thought, giving him a brief nod of acknowledgement before turning back to me. "We can film it for ourselves first if you're worried about screwing up a live broadcast, but trust me; we do a run-through with you being yourself and we'll definitely earn points."

Even when I was standing in the cavern where the zords rested when they weren't in use, I couldn't believe that I'd let myself get talked into this. The zords were all set to an automated system where they would make just enough movement to give the impression that the Rangers were in control, and Alpha had plans to splice in footage of us on our suits later if it seemed like it was needed, but for the moment the goal was to focus on the six of us outside of our armour.

"OK," Alpha said as he stood in front of us, apparently acting as the camera for our current broadcast. "Just go with what feels right, and I'll relay it back to the ship; we can decide what we do with it once it's done."

"That works," Liv grinned at the robot before she turned to me. "OK, just stand in the middle and keep the bow obvious; everything we can do to suggest that you're not the Red Ranger is a good thing right now."

"Shouldn't we hold some extra weapons if we're doing this?" Thresh asked.

"For the moment we should give the impression we've just been helping the Rangers by telling them what's going on here; we don't want to get people thinking too much about the idea of us in the field," Glimmer explained. "Red having a bow works because people back in Twelve know she's a hunter according to Yellow, but we want her to be our clear leader and not the Red Ranger, which means doing it this way."

"That… sounds complicated," Rue said.

"Which is why it's the kind of thing we cover at the Academy," Glimmer shrugged. "Not my favourite kind of course, but it's good to know."

I just nodded at Glimmer's words, fighting back my own thoughts on what she'd told us about the Academy's lessons so far. I could appreciate that the Academy at least gave people a choice about whether they wanted to go in for the path of becoming Careers or just intended to take a more conventional career path, but the idea of people teaching children Prim's age how to win the Games would never sit well with me…

"Let's do this," I said, turning to look at Alpha, wanting to get on with this before I lost my nerve again.

"Right," Alpha said, taking up a position in front of us as the rest of the team (when had I become so comfortable thinking of us like that?) gathered behind me. Alpha held up a hand, lowering his fingers to count down before he pointed at me to start.

"We," I said, hoping that I wasn't going to sound stupid, "are the lost Tributes of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games, and we are here to confirm that we are not dead."

"Yep," Glimmer grinned, stepping forward with a cool grin on her face. "And to confirm, you can consider the Games concluded, because none of us are killing each other."

"But to answer the obvious question, we're here because of the Power Rangers," Thresh added.

"They saved all of us and brought us to their base to talk with us about the world we lived in, and it didn't take long for all of us to decide that this didn't work," Peeta affirmed.

"The Rangers came here to protect us from things like that big golden guy who attacked District Eleven, but they're also going to help us deal with the people who've kept everyone in the Districts under their thumbs for the last seventy-plus years," Liv put in.

"I get that we're just kids, but is it really fair that we all have to pay for a rebellion that happened before most of us were even born?" Rue said.

"Exactly," I said, nodding in approval at Rue as I heard the zords moving behind us. "When my father died in a mining accident, my sister and I were left to fend for ourselves for months while our mother dealt with her own issues; shouldn't a good government be willing to do more to help us than give out food in exchange for more places in a death contest?"

"And if anyone thinks this is just a bunch of loser Districts complaining about being hard done by, I'd like to point out that I spent years training to be the best at the Academy, and when the time came… there was nothing worthwhile in that training," Glimmer cut in with a bitter glare. "All that training prepared me for was killing other kids who didn't even want to be there and still weren't ready to kill me in turn; they were only fighting because they wanted to stay alive, not because they wanted me dead."

"The Capitol lets the Games go on because it encourages the idea that we're each other's enemies, but the only enemy out there is the Capitol," Liv said firmly. "The Rangers want to help us change things, and you can help us do that; join us in standing with the Rangers as they topple the corrupt-"

Liv's speech was interrupted when there was a sudden blaring screech from the tunnel that led to the ship. As soon as we heard it, Alpha turned around and began to hurry back towards the ship, leaving the rest of us to run anxiously after him. Even when we weren't morphed, it was easy to jump down the rocks in the cavern and hurry back into the ship, making our way to Zordon's room.

"What's wrong?" Liv asked as we all came face-to-face with our strange new mentor.

"I have intercepted news broadcasts from various points in Panem," Zordon reported grimly. "The Peacekeeper facilities in Districts One, Two, Five and Six have just been attacked, and according to available data, the party claiming responsibility for these assaults is District Thirteen."

Chapter Text

"Thirteen?!" we all repeated incredulously.

"Is there some significance to that?" Alpha asked as he looked between us. "From what I found when I studied current news broadcasts, there are only twelve districts currently in existence-"

"Because Thirteen was meant to have been totally destroyed in the initial rebellion," Liv answered Alpha before he could finish his sentence. "It's the whole reason we even have the Hunger Games; they're meant to basically remind us that we chose to rebel against the Capitol and should be punished for it."

"That seems… warped," Alpha observed with a cautious shrug.

"That's Panem," Thresh shook his head as he gave a bitter snort. "At this point the government's biggest priority seems to be to make sure we all think of each other as the enemy on some level as though that's the only way to be sure we'll never do something like that again…"

"We can criticise the Capitol later; right now the priority has to be investigating what just happened here," I said, looking up at Zordon. "Firstly, what's the evidence that Thirteen were involved?"

"This message was transmitted shortly before the explosions took place," Zordon responded, before the strange golden glowing thing in the middle of the room shifted to display a figure standing in shadow, the room behind the figure dimly lit.

"Contrary to what you have been led to believe, District Thirteen is not dead," the figure said, its voice distorted by technology so that I couldn't even tell the gender of the speaker. "The time has come for Panem to throw off the shackles imposed by the Capitol and rise up against their corruption so that the Districts can rule themselves. The first blow has been struck; the people must rise up and fight back against the sins of your existing rulers."

"OK…" Thresh said, looking uncertainly around the rest of us once the video cut out. "So… if we assume that's real… what do we do about it?"

"We'll worry about that once we know more about what we're dealing with now," I said, surprising even myself with that moment of confidence. I wasn't ready to work out how we were going to pull that off, but if this team was going to save Panem there wasn't time to focus on that. "Since we know who's responsible for these attacks, can you show us what these attacks actually did?"

"Observe the central viewer," Zordon said. Turning to look at the mysterious golden substance in the centre of the room, we stared in silence as the golden glow shifted to display views of areas that must be the other Districts. I briefly glimpsed the Academy I'd seen in One before the view shifted to show a pile of rubble that must have been part of a building before some kind of explosion had been set off. I was aware that building design wasn't something I was familiar with, but it wasn't hard to tell that the destroyed buildings must have been of a considerable height before the explosions, and I was also certain that this was more than an accident. My knowledge of explosives might be limited, considering that I had no interest in going into the mines for work, but I doubted this could have been the result of any kind of accident. The damage seemed to be too great if this was just something in the building that had broken for some reason, and the fact that the display showed similar signs of destruction in four different places confirmed that this was no fluke accident.

"Holy- that's the Peacekeeper Centre!" Liv stared at one of the projections.

"Yours, huh?" Thresh glanced at the Blue Ranger before his attention returned to the glowing display. "Funny how they all look the same… guess Peacekeepers are one thing the Capitol's always willing to throw money at."

Taking another look at the displayed buildings as our point of view pulled back to reveal more of the surrounding area, I could see what Thresh meant. I hadn't thought about it before, since I never paid close attention to the other Districts' Reapings before now, but looking at all four of these buildings at once it was easy to see that they all shared a few similar features. Whatever had destroyed them all made it harder to see what each building had been like originally, but enough was left for me to spot the similarities in the design to the main Peacekeeper hub back in Twelve. When I saw people moving towards the damaged, burning structures, it was easier to confirm that these buildings were larger than the one I was familiar with, but adjusting for scale the overall design seemed much the same.

I was slightly surprised to see that in some cases the buildings didn't have the large square in front of them that I was used to seeing in front of Twelve's own Peacekeepers, but I guessed those were for more 'loyal' Districts which felt that they didn't need the same public displays as Twelve to maintain order. In all cases, the upper levels and the fronts of the buildings had been almost completely destroyed, but the rest of the building was still intact to varying degrees.

The real problem was that when the view was adjusted to show more of the surrounding buildings, it became clear that the explosion hadn't just attacked the Peacekeeper building, but had caused some damage to any buildings around it. I briefly reminded myself that most of the people living near a Peacekeeper building were more likely government officials or similarly high-ranking locals if Twelve was an example of the usual standard, but then I reminded myself that would mean Madge would have been at risk if this had happened back home and forced that particular thought out of my mind.

"Damn…" Thresh muttered as he looked at the damaged buildings before he turned his attention to Zordon. "What Districts have been hit?"

"From all reports, the targets are Districts One, Two, Five and Six."

"So the main Careers Districts, and the power and transportation centres," Glimmer observed. "Not a bad call; if someone wanted to destabilise Panem, those are definitely the best places to hit."

"Wouldn't Eleven have been a good call too?" Rue asked. "Or one of the other food districts?"

"Yeah, but if they tried to follow this up by actually attacking those Districts, then everyone would be blaming these attacks for costing the whole country food," Glimmer pointed out. "People can more easily adapt to a loss of power then a food shortage, particularly since it's still summer; if this attack took place in winter, we'd have people complaining about the cold, but right now a power loss is basically just annoying."

"Makes sense," Thresh nodded at the former Career. "Plus, factories and the like are easier to fix; if they destroyed the crops, we could be in real trouble if the harvest falls behind."

"OK, so that justifies the targets," I said, hoping I was thinking along the right lines. "So… what did these attacks actually do?"

"According to available news reports, the main fatalities in all four cases were the Peacekeepers themselves, but there have been civilian casualties of varying degrees in the surrounding buildings," Alpha put in from where he was studying some kind of display on one of the platforms we'd used to morph for the first time. "It would seem that the goal was to deliver a powerful blow to Peacekeeper operations in each District, but they weren't particularly concerned about keeping the damage contained."

"Is there anything stopping us from taking our zords to take a look?" I asked. "Maybe we could help with some of the clean-up?"

"…You're suggesting that we go to help the Capitol before we declare our intention to topple it?" Glimmer looked at me sceptically.

"I'm suggesting that we go in to help the innocent people caught in the crossfire of whatever's going on here and make sure that nobody's in danger if that building collapses further," I clarified. "If we're doing this to get rid of the current government, we can't just go out there hitting people; we need to show that we want to help."

"That's… that's actually good thinking," Peeta smiled at me. "Nice idea."

"Thanks," I smiled back at the boy in yellow, strangely touched that he approved of my plan before I looked around. "OK, so with those four Districts… Glimmer, Liv, do you want to go home?"

"That… might not be the best call," Glimmer said, her tone cautious even as she gave me a brief, grateful smile for the thought.

"Huh?" Peeta looked at her in surprise.

"I mean, if we're trying to act like we're strangers to Panem... I'm not saying we'd do it on purpose, but do we want to risk us doing something that only a local would know about?"

"She's right," Liv nodded with her own grim expression. "I mean, there's nobody there either of us particularly want to see again, but what if we end up talking with someone or going around the streets and do something that only a resident should know?"

"OK, so maybe you two just swap?" Thresh asked.

"No…" I began, hoping that I was on the right lines. "Liv can go to One, but Glimmer… we can't know where we might need a flying zord; you should keep yourself available in case we need you anywhere." I turned to look at Zordon. "You can basically teleport the zords anywhere they're needed, right?"

"We can," Zordon 'nodded' at me. "Of course, it would be best if Glimmer took her zord some distance from each District before we did so."

"Hide our abilities and give the impression the Pteradactyl's faster than it is, right?" Liv smiled in approval.

"I can work with that," Glimmer grinned. "So where do we send the rest of you?"

As the Tyrannosaurus paced down the streets of District Two, I was relieved to find that I was still concerned about the people around me as I walked. Two might have produced some of the more brutal Careers over the last few decades, but like I'd said to Rita in our rematch, it wasn't fair to condemn the people for what their government had done. I wasn't going to start thinking that everyone here was a victim, as Cato and Clove had clearly been far too keen to kill others for me to believe they'd been forced into anything, but it also wasn't fair to act as though everyone here was guilty.

Manoeuvring a large robot through the streets without damaging anything else was tricky, but I had soon made my way to the epicentre of the blast. From what records Alpha had shared with us as we made our way to the affected Districts, the primary target in all four Districts had been the Peacekeeper's main outpost for that District, but the explosions had damaged some of the surrounding buildings as well. I wasn't clear on the technical terms involved, but from what Alpha had been able to determine, the explosion had basically destroyed the equivalent of Peacekeeper central command and most of their main working sections while leaving their actual living areas further back relatively untouched.

The collateral damage varied in each District, which Liv guessed was because the same bomb had been used in all cases but the different sizes of their targets had changed the blast radius. The Peacekeeper facilities in One and Two had been grander but less well-defended, so Liv speculated that the explosion had been further away from anything else but the debris had scattered more easily, while the targets in Five and Six had been smaller but stronger until the explosion shattered the buildings and spread the rubble.

Frankly, I had to admit that I wasn't that interested in the technical details behind these bombs; I just had to focus on dealing with the aftermath. The question of how someone had managed to get these bombs into the buildings in the first place was something I would have to deal with later; right now the priority was making sure people were all right. As I reached the square close to the Peacekeeper building, I briefly wondered how I was going to find anyone in the mass of rubble, but then a thought occurred and I reached out to send a 'command' to the zord's main display screen. It took a moment to filter through the heat of the fires, but I soon confirmed that there were a few bodies lying amid the rubble of the further buildings that were still alive. Setting the Tyrannosaurus zord to move some of the larger pieces of rubble aside, I leapt out and headed for the pile, nodding briefly at the stunned residents of District Two gathered around the ruins as I began to haul the rubble away.

"What the- what are you doing here?"someone yelled out.

"Clearing the collateral damage," I said, continuing to move the debris aside as I spoke until I reached the first of the survivors. Still amazed at my new strength, I lifted the last couple of pieces of stone away and reached down to lift the first available survivor out of danger. I couldn't tell how serious the damage was, but since the person was still breathing I just carefully handed the victim over to someone else and continued my careful search. With my zord dumping chunks of rubble on the already-damaged Peacekeeper headquarters, I was able to swiftly search through the surrounding buildings, the zord alerting me if its systems detected further survivors. Some people tried to talk to me as I worked, but I was always able to get someone to safety and move on to the next pile before anyone could collect themselves enough to ask a clear question.

In a dark way, it was actually a relief when I was able to confirm that there weren't any more survivors deep within the rubble I'd been sorting through. The zord's sensors had been able to identify a few cooling bodies further in the piles, but from their condition I was satisfied that they were dead, and nobody needed my team to collect corpses. The immediate dangers dealt with, I turned around and gave a brief wave to the assembled civilians before I jumped upwards and returned to the cockpit.

I had just set the controls in motion to take the zord out of District Two when something suddenly blared over the radio, in a loud burst of static that I had never heard come from the device before. Turning my attention to the controls that were responsible for the system, I turned them on, already anticipating that I wasn't about to speak to Alpha or Zordon.

"Hello," I said, instinctively making my voice deeper as I addressed the person on the other end.

"Greetings," an unfamiliar female voice said in response. "I take it that I'm addressing the leader of the team responsible for confronting that monster in District Eleven?"

"You are," I replied, already resolved to give away nothing but the obvious as my zord left the District and continued to advance into the forests outside. "I am the Red Ranger, leader of the Power Rangers; who am I addressing?"

"I am President Alma Coin of District Thirteen," the unknown woman replied. "I apologise for accessing the communications systems of your remarkable machines like this, but it was deemed the best opportunity to talk with you about our mutual goals."

"And what 'mutual goals' would these be?" I asked.

"Our shared distaste for Panem's current political structure," the self-declared President Coin responded. "Judging from your assault on the Peacekeeper base in District Eleven, I trust I'm not wrong to assume you're unaffiliated with the Captiol's current government?"

"If you have the resources to make contact like this, you already know that my team are independent," I responded. That was admittedly a bit of a gamble, but I reasoned that anybody with the ability to access our radios should be aware that we had nothing to do with the Capitol.

"Excellent," the voice on the other end said. "Then can I assume we can rely on your help when Thirteen declares war?"

"I… was under the impression that District Thirteen had been destroyed?" I said, deciding to cover the most obvious question first even as I reminded myself to act as though I was an outsider. "Assuming you're telling the truth about your identity, how are you still here?"

"We were instructed to let everyone believe we were dead after the last rebellion ended," the woman replied. "By the time of the final engagement, District Thirteen had claimed control of a sizeable portion of Panem's nuclear stockpile. The existing leaders were able to use those weapons to negotiate a deal where Thirteen would secede from Panem and allow the rest of the country to believe we had been destroyed in exchange for the Capitol leaving us alone."

"…In other words, you abandoned the rebellion in favour of saving yourselves," I said, only realising how aggressive that might sound after I'd spoken the words.

"Many of us prefer to think of it as consolidating our assets to mount a more effective revolution later," the alleged president replied, her tone sounding surprisingly cordial despite my potential insult. "We have been making contact with various individuals in Panem who share our anger at what the Capitol has done to the other twelve districts, but it was only recently that we gathered enough power to mount an effective campaign against the Capitol. We were waiting for an opportunity to rally effective figures to represent us against Snow's own power, but your public demonstration serves as a suitable catalyst to make it clear to the other Districts that the Capitol is not as powerful as they believe."

"I… see," I said, already feeling uncomfortable at the facts being presented to me. I already knew that I wasn't comfortable dealing with politics, but I understood enough to feel that this situation wouldn't be good for us. "If you're asking us to serve as a public face for your movement… I'm saying no."

"Excuse me?" Alma Coin said, a new edge to her voice that increased my unease.

"I admire your technical staff for accessing our communications system, but you must understand that as Power Rangers, one of our core rules is to avoid getting involved in local affairs in the manner you describe," I said, hoping I wasn't revealing too much even as I reminded myself of Zordon's rules. "We were already planning to deal with the Capitol's control ourselves because we recognise that this way of life is not sustainable for any civilisation, but we have no intention of acting to assist an outright coup."

"You intend to take power yourselves?"

"Our intention is to destabilise the Capitol's grip on power until the people can take power for themselves," I corrected. "If you seek to remove the Capitol from power over the other twelve Districts, then we can at least consider each other allies, but if you just want to take charge yourself, then my team won't help you any further."

"That is… fair," Coin said, her tone suddenly far more conciliatory than it had been just moments ago. "I… apologise if I caused offence."

"Your apology is acknowledged," I said, already aware that I wasn't going to accept an apology from her just yet. "On that topic, if you want us to be your allies against the Capitol, you need to take more care in your future attacks."

"You object to our attacking the Peacekeepers?"

"I object to the fact that your bombs caused enough damage that civilians were caught in the blast," I corrected, looking out of the window to see the rubble still spread out over the square. "If you want to convince us that your goal is to help Panem, then don't do things that might kill the innocent people we're here to help; find ways to act that will only kill the people you know are guilty."

"This country has been caught in a cycle of control for decades; do you really think it's easy to find innocents-?"

"I think it shouldn't be hard to distinguish between the people who enjoy things the way they are and the people who just got stuck living in this world while the real enemy took control," I said, trying to recall a few of the stories I'd heard in the past depicting action heroes trying to sound tough. "So long as we both want President Snow and his government out of the picture, we are at least provisionally on the same side, but if you start to endanger innocents with your actions, be assured that we will… take a dimmer view of your activities."

"Is that a threat?"

"A warning not to forget what you say you're fighting for," I corrected her description, suddenly amazed at how easy this perspective was coming to me. "We'll… consider this an over-enthusiastic first strike and leave it at that on the understanding that this kind of thing will never happen again."

"And in return you will help us?"

"In return we will work together to remove the current government from power and set up something that favours the people," I clarified. Additional allies could be useful here, but I wasn't going to give this woman any sense that she was in charge of my team (and how had it become so easy to think of my former enemies as a team?). "You do your thing and we'll do ours; just take care not to cross the lines we discussed."

My statement made, I ended the call and turned my attention to the more important matter of taking another check around this bomb site. The immediate area had been cleared up, but there were still a few buildings further from the main explosion that might be worth a closer look…

And after that, this campaign against the Capitol is about to get complicated.

Chapter Text

"You turned them down?" Rue looked at me in surprise as the six of us stood with Alpha in front of Zordon.

"I made it clear to them that I wasn't going to agree to anything without getting some guarantees that they weren't going to continue with attacks that at least risk killing innocent people," I corrected her. "I get that we need allies if we're going to get rid of President Snow, but I'm not going to work with people who act like that kind of collateral damage is acceptable."

"A wise decision, Katniss," Zordon said. "As you observe, you require allies if you are going to topple the Capitol without setting yourselves up to replace it, but you must ensure that those allies will not simply repeat the errors of the current administration."

"Yeah," Thresh nodded. "Don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want us turning into another Capitol after all this."

"Another?" Rue looked at him curiously.

"Maybe some people decide when everything's over that they'd like to see some of the Capitol's kids in the arena instead of the District's?"

"What?" Peeta looked incredulously at Thresh. "You seriously-?"

"I wouldn't do it, but I can think of a few people I know who would," Thresh quickly clarified. "They'd probably say it would just be a one-off to make a point to the Capitol, but who's to say that's not how some people thought the Hunger Games would be at first?"

"The point is that we're not going to let that kind of thing happen," Liv said, stepping between Thresh and Peeta as they stared at each other with increasingly twisted expressions on their faces. "Whoever ends up in power when this is all over, one of our first conditions is that we won't allow the Games to continue."

"…Yeah," Glimmer nodded, her tone tentative even as she looked around the room. When she realised that the rest of us were looking at her, the former resident of District One folded her arms defensively. "Hey, I grew up being told it was an honour to fight for my district; forgive me if twelve years of lessons don't just go away overnight!"

"That's fair," I nodded at her, not wanting to get drawn into another inter-team argument before I turned back to Zordon and Alpha. "OK, so getting back to the call I got from Thirteen… how worried should we be that they were able to access the radio in my zord?"

"For what it's worth, you don't need to be concerned that they'll be able to intercept our own messages," Alpha said. "Transmitting to the zords is one thing as they have to be a bit open to let you talk with other people on this planet, but the ship's operating system is so alien that they'd never be able to break into its broadcasting system unless they were actually here and had a direct physical access port."

"That makes sense," Liv nodded.

"OK, we're keeping Thirteen out of the overall loop; does that mean we're not working with them at all?" Thresh asked.

"We pursue our own plans, but… keep the option for us to talk with Thirteen in the future," I said at last. "We can't take on the Capitol by ourselves, but like Peeta said, we don't want to just end up with someone else taking over for the Capitol once it's all been dealt with."

I was glad to see the rest of the team nod in agreement at my words. I might still be finding my way as a leader, but seeing them agree with my decision helped me feel as though I was making the right calls, and not just floundering around making plans to hit things.

"Right," I clapped my hands together, trying to sound like a professional organiser as I looked around the room. "Since we were interrupted when we were going to send that broadcast like we planned, would anyone be interested in trying that again?"

"So long as we also use it to announce our intent to kick some ass straight afterwards," Glimmer put in as she slammed her fist into the palm of her other hand. "Thirteen got everyone worked up, so now it's time to strike while everyone's already reeling."

"Uh… just so I'm clear, are we working with Thirteen, or not?" Rue raised a cautious hand.

"We're doing our thing and they're doing their thing; so long as we don't get confused and try for the same target at the same time, I think this'll work," Glimmer shrugged at our 'mascot' before turning back to me. "Shall we morph up and get back to the message?"

Standing back in the cavern in front of the zords, I smiled at the thought of our new second chance at striking a more subtle blow against the Capitol. I still wasn't sure if I would be comfortable speaking like this if people knew I was the Red Ranger, but I could certainly see myself trying to 'sponsor' my other identity. As before, Alpha was set up to act as the camera while we stood in front of the zords, the large animals moving under remote control to reinforce the idea that we were separate people. I was fairly sure that all of us were going to stick to the original 'script' we'd used for the first broadcast, but we had a few more details to address now as well.

"We are the lost tributes of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games," I began again (the statement felt overly dramatic, but it still worked), "and we are here to confirm that we are not dead."

"But the Games are still over," Glimmer cut in, leaning over to give the camera a cool stare. "Because we refuse to fight each other again."

"We were saved by the Power Rangers because they had to speak with someone to learn about the world we lived in, and once we were questioned by outsiders… well, it wasn't hard for us to realise that this way of life doesn't work," Peeta spoke up.

"The Rangers came to protect us from things like the golden monster that attacked District Eleven, but they're not going to leave us to live in fear of the Capitol any more," Liv put in.

"And the goal here isn't just to blow up what they don't like," Thresh put in. "Thirteen started this, but the Rangers aren't going to let that kind of thing go on any more."

"The Capitol don't have the right to continue their Games and act like they're allowed to keep blaming us for what our ancestors did," Peeta continued. "We've been forced to see each other as enemies for decades, but that has to stop now if we're going to move onward and actually heal as a society."

"I realise that we're just kids, but should we have to keep paying for a rebellion that happened before most of us were even born?" Rue said.

"Speaking from personal experience, they never cared about my family when my father died in a mining accident," I put in. "If the Capitol were the good leaders they claim to be, shouldn't they do more to help us than give out food in exchange for earning more places in a death contest?"

"And before anyone starts trying to claim that this is just the loser Districts complaining about the way they've been treated, I'll remind you all that I'm from One," Glimmer cut in with a bitter glare. "I was told that it was meant to be an honour to represent my District, but after all that training, what did I do with it? I killed a bunch of kids who didn't want to be there and weren't even seriously trying to kill me in turn; they just wanted to stay alive, that doesn't mean they wanted me dead!"

"The Capitol have spent the last few decades encouraging the Games to make us think of the other Districts as our enemies, but the Capitol is the only real enemy we have," Liv said, her tone just as firm as when we tried to make our previous recording. "The Rangers and Thirteen are going to help us all change things, but that doesn't mean we can't do things ourselves."

"So watch out, Snow," I said, raising my bow and moving a hand to my back as though I was preparing to draw an arrow. "You've kept us in chains for decades… and now it's time for us to strike back."

With that, Alpha cut the transmission and gave us a thumbs-up, his head tilted in a manner that I had come to recognise as his equivalent of a smile.

"Right," I said, turning to look at the others, "is everyone satisfied with our choice of targets?"

"You sure you can do this?" Glimmer looked at me. "I mean, we had reasons for not sending me and Blue to our Districts-"

"I have to know they're safe," I said, hoping I wasn't coming across as a hypocrite. "Besides, we've already been to other Districts as the Rangers, so now we have a reason to know what Peacekeeper headquarters looks like in each."

"Is it really going to be that simple?" Alpha asked. "You attack the main Peacekeeper facility in each District and that's it?"

"Obviously it's going to be trickier when we're dealing with the more loyal Districts, but Twelve doesn't have much going for it and it's pretty much an open secret that Four just goes along with everything because it's easier that way," Glimmer said. "If we can take down the Peacekeepers quickly enough, Finnick and a few other Victors should be able to help us get a good bit of influence with the rest of the District."

"Is that why you want to go to Four?" Rue asked.

"Well, I'm not going to lie and say I'm not looking forward to seeing the beach," Glimmer gave a teasing grin. "Hey, it's one of the things pretty much every Victor agrees is a great sight; as the one who's wanted to see it the longest, I think I'm pretty much entitled to at least one peek."

"Right…" I nodded, before I turned to address the others. "OK, so Liv and I go to Twelve, and the rest of you go to Four; hit the Peacekeeper base hard and fast right now, and there shouldn't be many people in there."

"Take away their power without hurting anyone; sounds like a good plan," Thresh nodded at me.

"I'll transmit the broadcast once you've left the cavern," Alpha nodded at us.

"Right," Glimmer nodded. "Get the right people worried about what we're going to do next and they won't be ready for us to make our next move."

"And what will you do after that?" Alpha asked.

"Check with Thirteen and see what feels right," I said with a firm nod. "We'll have established a presence and shown we have the power to back up our position; we can take it from there."

Chapter Text

Finnick Odair

After his long years trading in the secrets of the Capitol, Finnick had believed he'd long since passed the point where anything could surprise him. He was doing his part to gather information and prepare for the next rebellion once Thirteen felt they had a suitable catalyst, but he would admit to himself that he was mostly doing that for the chance to feel like he was doing something even if he doubted that a suitable catalyst would appear any time soon.

In any case, even in his wildest fantasies, he could safely say that he'd never expected to find that the chance for a more open rebellion would come in the form of giant robot animals fighting some kind of golden monster. The battle would have been impressive on its own, but privately Finnick had been particularly impressed at how the final human-sized robot had taken care to do such deliberate damage to the Peacekeeper building as they left the District.

As if that hadn't been enough of a shock, Finnick had been even more stunned when the subsequent bombings against various other Districts had been followed by the revelation that some of the Tributes in the last Games had done the impossible and actually survived what they'd been through. He was sure he wasn't the only one currently wondering exactly how and why the Rangers had chosen those six people to basically make contact with Earth, but further questions had been basically cut off when those giant robot animal things arrived in Districts Four and Twelve.

It had basically reinforced one of the ironies that not even some of the Victors were willing to discuss out of fear of what might happen. The Capitol's constant sense of paranoia about rebellions in the Districts would have been a lot easier to suppress if they would just treat the Districts better, rather than trying to enforce the Capitol's authority. Once the Rangers' robots had attacked the Peacekeeper bases in each District, it had been easy enough for the District residents to turn the tables against the scattered and disorganised forces that hadn't been in the building at the time.

The Rangers hadn't done anything serious to those Peacekeeper forces, and seemed content to leave that matter to the District residents once the main building had been destroyed, but they were definitely making their presence felt. The cat-like robot and the thing like a multi-legged elephant had spent some time touring the District as though searching for something, but the large pink winged thing had settled into position on top of the Academy. It hadn't done anything since then, but Finnick had more than a few people compare it to a bird watching its prey.

When so many other questions were facing the residents of District Four about what would happen next, Finnick was both surprised and not surprised when he received a call from the head of the Academy that the Pink Ranger was waiting to meet with him. He didn't like to think of himself as arrogant, even if the Capitol liked him to play up his confidence, but it was still strange to realise that one of Panem's mysterious defenders wanted to talk to him over anyone else. When he arrived at the Academy building, he was led to one of the staff meeting rooms, where the Pink Ranger was standing nonchalantly off to the side, arms folded and waiting patiently.

"Hello there," Finnick said, deciding to start with the usual charm and play it by ear. This close up, it was easy to see that the figure was female, but Finnick reminded himself that he still didn't know enough about what he was dealing with to say any more. "So what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"My associates and I have heard that you're the one to talk to if we want information," the Pink Ranger explained, tone nonchalant but the voice deep in a manner that made Finnick suspect she was lowering her voice.

"That depends," he said, hoping he wasn't about to get Annie or others in trouble by saying too much to a woman he knew basically nothing about (starting with if she actually was female, if the Rangers were actually aliens). "What kind of… information are you looking for?"

"Basically anything you have to tell us about District Thirteen."

Finnick thanked his long experience with the Capitol residents that he didn't express his reaction to that news.

Clove

The only thing that stopped Clove having a more serious breakdown was the knowledge that everyone else involved in the last Hunger Games had been fooled.

The moment that broadcast aired to reveal the six faces she'd last seen in the arena (four at the start and two during their brief alliance), Clove had fallen into such a blind rage that her father had only managed to stop her doing more damage after she'd already destroyed the television set. Her family had quickly spoken with the Capitol to confirm that her status as Victor still applied, considering that the six Tributes had essentially abandoned the Games and thus basically forfeited the chance of winning, but there was nothing she could actually do about it. The Capitol didn't even know where these 'Power Rangers' were, so there was no way anyone could punish them for interfering in the Games, and Clove doubted that she would get lucky enough to have a chance to go after them for interfering by herself.

The worst part was that even with this news, she ultimately still didn't have anyone to blame for the fact that Cato was dead. Even if these six had stayed in the Games and died like they should, there was no guarantee that one of them wouldn't have ultimately managed to get lucky and kill her or Cato before the end. Eleven's boy alone could obviously do some damage given his size, and both Twelves were a cut above the usual half-starved kids from that District. Clove didn't want to openly say that either of them could have beaten her, but it would at least drawn things out more. It was possible they could have taken out Three before he got to set off his own trap, or maybe Ten wouldn't have attacked like that until more of them had actually gone down…

She knew that there was no way the Capitol would have allowed her and Cato to survive, but the fact that six other people had survived what should have been her exclusive victory really got to Clove on so many levels.

Add in all this crap as these 'Power Rangers' started lashing out at Panem, and it was as though everything she had trained all her life to accomplish had just become irrelevant on what should have been the greatest year of her life.

Even after all that, the part that made her feel the most ashamed was the thought that she might just escape the worst parts of her new role. Clove wanted to believe it was all rumour and propaganda put out by the outer Districts who wanted to reinforce the idea that the Games were something to be feared rather than an opportunity for glory, but there was always that nagging part of her that wondered…

What if it was true?

She was still angry at the Rangers for taking away her glory, but if even half of those rumours were true…

Gale Hawthrone

What did it say about Gale's life that he couldn't get what he wanted even when it actually happened? He'd tried going out for a hunt to take his mind off things, but without Katniss's bow he couldn't find anything worth hunting at closer quarters, and he didn't have the patience right now to actually try sneaking up on anything.

He'd allowed himself to hope a bit when news trickled in of the attacks on Peacekeeper buildings in the other Districts, and he was definitely happy when he saw the broadcast revealing that Katniss was still alive, but ever since it seemed as though nothing was going right. He'd allowed himself a brief hope that the Rangers' broadcast meant that Katniss was coming back soon, but even after the Red and Blue Rangers' giant robots had shown up to trash the Peacekeeper base, it soon became clear that they weren't even interested in doing that much for the people they were allegedly here to 'help'.

He didn't know how they'd won Katniss over, but if all they were going to do was destroy a few buildings, Gale already knew they weren't going to do much. These 'Rangers' obviously had the power to completely destroy the Capitol directly, and they were wasting time by coming to the Districts and smashing empty buildings? If someone was going to come to Panem with those kind of powers, why couldn't they just see what the problem was and deal with the real problem? The Capitol had been in power for decades; it wasn't hard to see who the real enemy was…

Come to me…

Surprised at the voice, Gale looked around himself, but couldn't see anyone who might have spoken to him. Actually, when he took a moment to think about it, he realised that whatever voice he was 'hearing' had somehow managed to 'speak' to him without his ears actually hearing anything.

Follow my voice.

Looking back, Gale would like to say that he had resisted the urge to go along with that particular order, but it would have ultimately been a lie. He didn't know what the voice was talking about, but it was enough to grab his interest and head off in the indicated direction (he wasn't sure how he could tell what direction the voice was coming from, but he also knew this wasn't the time to think about things like that).

Gale wasn't sure how long he had been walking until the sensation became more focused, but he soon realised that there was definitely something out here drawing him towards a certain area of the forest. As far as he could recall there wasn't anything of particular note out here beyond a few open areas they'd used to set some traps, but there was also… now that he was thinking about it…

As soon as the idea came to him, Gale had focused his efforts on heading for the hillside where he had just remembered the location of a small cave. It wasn't much use for anything more than a place to shelter in heavy rain, or even store a few of their larger, less regularly-used weapons, but Gale had a sudden feeling there was something more there now…

When he approached the cave, Gale wasn't sure how to feel when that strange sensation in his head suddenly ceased, but he soon realised that it had actually become focused. Allowing his eyes to trace the source of what he was feeling, he found himself looking at a strange green gem surrounded by an elaborate gold design that he couldn't explain.

Staring at the strange green thing on the floor of the cave, Gale wondered what about this thing had made the voice so insistent he come here. It might fetch an interesting price for some Capitol collector, but it didn't look like it would be worth much to the kind of people he usually worked with…

Gale only realised that he'd picked it up when he felt a surge of power fill his body from the green coin… and what made him so sure it was a coin-?

Greetings, Gale Hawthorne.

"Who…?" Gale said, unable to release his grip on the coin despite his shock at the voice.

My name is Zedd, the voice said, a deep but confident tone to it as Gale once again 'heard' it in his head. And I have an offer to make to you…

Chapter Text

"So… you're telling us some people in One actively suspect Finnick Odair is working with some kind of resistance movement?" Peeta looked at Glimmer in barely contained shock.

"It was only ever one of those stupid rumours that everyone has about celebrities or big shots in the right circles," Glimmer shrugged as she leaned nonchalantly against her 'podium' in the main chamber. "The guy might be the official darling of the Capitol ever since his Games, but for people who want to know more about him than just that he looks good and got the most expensive Gift anyone ever sent in the Games, there's a few details that don't quite add up."

"Wouldn't people know that?" Rue asked.

"You've seen the Capitol, kid; how many people would bother to look that deeply?" Glimmer observed. "I mean, most of it would depend on the investigators thinking of the idea that anyone would want to act against the Capitol in the first place, so quite a few people just wouldn't think to look at things the right way."

"And you did?" Thresh raised his eyebrows as he looked sceptically at our Pink Ranger.

"A few friends would talk about some of the more… interesting rumours about his background," Glimmer said, shooting a glance at Rue that reminded me of how my mother and I would try and talk around certain topics in Prim's presence so that she wouldn't hear anything inappropriate. "I wasn't that into those kind of theories myself at the time, but what I heard got me thinking, and… well, there we go."

"It's unconventional, but frankly everything about this situation is unconventional, so I'm all for anything that gives us a chance to end this sooner rather than later," Alpha put in from his usual position in front of Zordon, giving Glimmer his equivalent of a thumbs up. "I've programmed the ship to let us know the moment Mr Odair tries to contact us on the frequency you gave him, but in the meantime, we should-"

An alarm suddenly blared through the ship, prompting all of us to move from relaxed to alert as we turned our attention to Alpha.

"What was that?" Liv asked, her body suddenly tense. "Did the Capitol do something?"

"Worse," Zordon's voice said, drawing our focus from Alpha to him. "I have detected a new surge in the Morphing Grid."

"A surge in- you mean like when we morphed?" Liv asked.

"Exactly like that," Zordon said. "And I was even able to identify the nature of the energy surge in question."

I was about to ask what he had detected when I registered the glow of the central orb, turning around to see whatever Zordon wanted to share with us. I was immediately shocked to see a large green machine in a similar style to our own five zords, attacking what I recognised from our recent excursions as District One.

"What the Hell?" Thresh yelled, reflecting my own shock as we looked at each other before turning back to Zordon.

"Is that-?" Peeta began.

"The personal zord of the Green Ranger," Zordon confirmed grimly. "The Dragon."

"Dragon?" I repeated before I turned back to look at the image in the orb. The exact size was hard to judge on a screen, but based on the surrounding buildings, it looked like this zord was a bit taller than my Tyrannosaurus, although that might be because it was standing straight upright where my zord always moved along bent over. The new zord was also slightly thinner, with large grey and gold wings extending from its back, what looked like rockets just where the wings joined the main body, and sharp claws on its hands.

"Hold on; dragon?" Liv looked at Alpha in confusion. "I thought these zords were meant to imitate the most powerful creatures on the target worlds that actually existed?"

"And dragons don't exist?" Peeta asked.

"They were just myths; they're cool, but they're not real!"

"The Green Power Coin has been separate from the other five since Rita turned against us," Alpha observed. "It's possible that other parties may have been able to influence how the Green zord rebuilt itself in a manner that we could not have predicted."

"But if Rita had… that, why did she need to use that gold guy?" Thresh asked, as the dragon on display continued to march through the District, striking at buildings with its claws, feet and tail.

"Rita saw Goldar as a manifestation of her own power, where the Green Zord was essentially just another hang-over from her time as a Ranger," Zordon explained. "The Green zord is particularly powerful, but that power is fundamentally based on its ability to come together as a team with the rest of you."

"So… if the green zord is out and active right now… does that mean Rita isn't the one in control of it?" Rue asked, voicing the question that I knew was on all our minds.

"It is at the very least unlikely-" Zordon began, before his attention seemed to shift. "There."

I didn't even have time to ask what had happened before the image in the orb shifted again and we were now looking at a figure in semi-familiar green armour. Where Rita's armour had given the impression that pieces of it had been torn away, this armour was completely intact, although the upper chest and shoulders were protected by some kind of additional golden armour rather than the whole suit being a single colour. The extra padding made it hard to be certain, but from the overall design I was fairly confident that the new Green Ranger was male rather than female, and was holding some kind of long green-and-silver dagger rather than Rita's staff.

"That's the new guy?" Thresh asked.

"Correct," Zordon confirmed, his tone grim as the view shifted to show how the new Green Ranger was standing on top of a high building to watch the Green Dragon advance through District One. "You must make contact and establish how he acquired the Green Coin before he does any further damage."

"Let me guess; Rita wielding that thing for so long means it's probably not as 'picky' about who picked it up as ours were?" Glimmer held up her own coin to reinforce her point.

"And that is before taking into account certain other questions that I always had about what happened to Rita…" Zordon mused.

"Like what?" Rue asked, before the orb's display showed the Green Dragon literally taking a bite out of a large tower.

"We can talk about that later; right now we have to get in there and stop that guy before he and the zord do any more damage to our reputations," I said, grimly pulling out my coin. "Is this person controlling the zord without actually being in it… I mean, could Rita do that?"

"She could," Zordon confirmed. "As with Goldar, the Green Zord possessed a limited independent intelligence that allowed it to operate on its own once it was given a suitable target."

"So it can't do everything by itself, but if Mr New Green gives the thing a clear goal it'll work towards that goal until it's told otherwise?" Liv asked.

"Correct."

"And for those of us who aren't geniuses?" Thresh put in.

"The Green Ranger could have just told the zord to destroy District One and it'll keep trying to do that any way it can until Green tells it to do something else."

"OK, so we should assume that's what he instructed the zord to do and take it from there," I said. "Glimmer and I will try and deal with the Dragon while the rest of you go after the Green Ranger; maybe we can take at least one of them down before anything serious happens."

"You're the boss," Glimmer grinned at me as the others pulled out their coins, clutching them in their hands before we all began to feel the armour surge over us…

Even with my 'orders' to the rest of the team, I was still slightly surprised to find myself released from the energy surge of teleportation to arrive in the cockpit of the Tyrannosaurus Zord, already facing the large Green Dragon. A check of the zord's sensors (I couldn't entirely explain how I just knew this stuff, but it seemed to get easier every time) confirmed that Peeta, Liv and Thresh were facing the new Green Ranger on the ground, which left Glimmer and I take on the zord.

"OK, Pink," I turned on the radio after confirming that the Pterodactyl was on the way, "hit it hard and drive it back, but be careful of collateral damage."

"Gotcha, Red," Glimmer's voice responded over the radio as the flying pink zord came into view, cannons firing pink energy at the new green zord as it turned to face us. The Dragon let out a loud roar and raised its claws to fire missiles from its fingers towards Glimmer's zord, the Pterodactyl forced to weave around the attack while I drew up close in the Tyrannosaurus. With guns useless at this close range, I spun around to strike the Dragon with the Tyrannosaurus's tail, sending it staggering back. I used the opportunity to look over at where Peeta, Liv and Thresh were trying to fight the Green Ranger, but even at this distance I could see that he had my teammates on edge. Liv seemed to be on the ground and Peeta had just been sent flying while Thresh was struggling against Green, the other Ranger holding some kind of weapon in his hands.

Unable to do anything about that, I turned my attention back to the Dragon as it regained its footing, the other zord spreading its wings. Not wanting to find out if this thing could actually fly, I fired my own weapons, striking the Dragon's wings, but even if it did damage I doubted that it would be enough to stop the zord. Grounded for the moment, the Dragon charged towards my own zord, leaving me with just enough time to raise the Tyrannosaurus's small arms and grab the other zord's own in my hands.

"NO!" a voice yelled out, followed by three panicked yells over the radio. I risked a look down and was shocked to see the Yellow, Blue and Black Rangers had fallen, but I didn't have time to wonder how that had happened before the Green Ranger leapt from the ground to the head of the Dragon zord. I was briefly impressed at the distance that our opponent had just jumped despite myself, but I had to focus on the main problem as the Green Ranger vanished inside the other zord. I prepared for the next attack, but even then I was taken off-guard when the green zord fired a new wave of missiles at the Pterodactyl as it flew overhead, rather than trying to attack my zord. Glimmer was able to evade the worst of the attack, but at least one missile grazed a wing, forcing the pink zord to fly off as the Dragon turned its full attention on me.

"You DARE attack me?" an unfamiliar voice called out over the radio, a deep male tone that I assumed was the Green Ranger.

"You're attacking innocent people-" I began, preparing my zord to fight the Dragon as I turned on my own radio.

"They serve the Capitol; none of them are innocent!" the apparent Green Ranger yelled back. I wasn't sure exactly where the cockpit was on this zord, but at least if I faced it directly I could feel like I was facing the man I was talking to. "They have the resources to stand up to the bastards in charge-!"

"They live more comfortably and get some training; that doesn't mean they know how to use it," I countered, following the Dragon's example as it began to pace carefully around the open square. "Any revolution needs the right kick-"

"And these people could have provided it, but they decided it was better for them to be comfortable and let everyone else suffer!" the Green Ranger retorted, the Dragon letting out a loud snarl. "We should teach them all a lesson-!"

"And if we start doing it that way, where does the violence stop?" I countered. I didn't know where some of this was coming from, but if I was meant to lead the other Rangers, I had to hope that I could do more than just beat people up. "We're all Power Rangers, which means we're here to protect people; you can't just decide you have the right to kill anyone you don't like-"

"If you won't use this power properly I'll just have to do it myself," the figure in green said indignantly, the Dragon letting out a low rumble that actually sounded like a real animal noise. "You focus on 'protecting' people; I'm here to actually make a difference to the world."

"But this isn't the way to do it-!" I began, before the Dragon spun around and fired some kind of energy blast from its mouth towards me. I just managed to manoeuvre my zord to avoid the worst of the blast, but I still took a glancing blow to the tail. Even worse, when I looked back I realised that the latest attack had struck the building behind me, which I was fairly sure from the design was the central Peacekeeper facility for this District.

"Funny how the ones who have the power are the ones who want to maintain the current peace," the Green Ranger said. "I thought you might be different, but Zedd was right; you don't have the strength to do what's needed."

"Zedd?" I asked, before the Dragon lashed out with a more powerful energy blast that sent my own zord flying off its feet. My hands instinctively moved across the controls in front of me as I tried to retake control of the powerful vehicle, but even as I felt the zord start to turn back into a better position, I realised that I wasn't going to get out of this. The Tyrannosaurus struck the Peacekeeper building behind me with such force that I felt it shatter around me even through the zord's heavy armour, sparks flying from the console as one panel basically exploded in my face. My helmet closed in time to protect me from any serious injury, but I could already tell that the red zord was down for the moment.

"And this is just the start," the Green Ranger announced again, an echo to his spoken words that suggested he was broadcasting this to people other than just me. "Panem can consider this the beginning of my war against the Capitol; they will pay for everything they've done, and everyone who gets in my way will get what they deserve."

"You can't do this; there are innocent people-!" I tried to protest, only for something to strike my zord again.

"Anyone innocent won't be in my way," the Green Ranger replied firmly. "And your team has a chance to realise what's important and join me; I won't be so forgiving next time."

With those words, the Dragon let out another roar, spread its wings, and flew up into the sky, only to turn and fly in the direction that I was suddenly sure was the location of the Academy.

"NO!" I yelled, desperately trying to get my zord back onto its feet. The Peacekeeper building was at least essentially a military target, but if the Green Ranger attacked the Academy-

"STOP!" I heard Glimmer scream as the Pterodactyl zord flew in again, the wing repaired and pink energy blasts firing at the Dragon. As the larger zord turned to aim its mouth at my team's flyer, I was briefly concerned that Glimmer was about to be hit by another energy blast, but then the dragon put on another burst of speed and flew off into the distance, leaving Glimmer to turn around and fly back towards us.

So much for making a good impression, I thought to myself as I slumped in my zord cockpit.

We'd just been basically taken apart by the Green Ranger, and our only claim to success was that we'd stopped him destroying the Academy, which wouldn't exactly help our public image when we couldn't properly explain how he fit in with the rest of the team…

Chapter Text

"OK," Thresh said, wincing as we sat around the main chamber, demorphed and rubbing our new collection of bruises. "That… could have gone better, right?"

"That's putting it mildly," Liv muttered as she flexed her shoulders. "Seriously, that guy nearly broke my arm when he grabbed me like that; how could he do all that with one coin… and how could he even transform in the first place?"

"Wouldn't he just-?" Rue began before her eyes widened. "But if you all needed to come together as a team to morph here…"

"How could some new guy just pick up Rita's coin and go green like that in the last couple of days on his own?" Liv nodded in approval at Rue before looking over at Zordon. "And on that topic, if being a team is such a big part of being a Ranger, how could Rita summon her armour on her own?"

"Her own corruption allowed her to morph by drawing on her own love of the power she possessed as a Ranger," Zordon replied with a grim tone to his voice.

"You mean… instead of drawing on the bond with the team, she drew on her own obsession with the Power Coin itself?"

"Pretty much," Alpha said. "We should probably assume a similar situation applies for the new guy; he's receiving some kind of external boost, but he still needed the right emotional kick to tap the power in the first place."

"External boost?" Peeta looked at the robot in shock. "As in… something's helping him? Something… not from Earth?"

"How else do you justify someone else from this planet acquiring the Green Coin and delivering such a serious beating to you all on his first attempt?" Zordon looked at Peeta in a pointed manner, made all the more intense by the size of his head. "Even with Alpha and I to guide you, it still took days for you to achieve the necessary unity to morph; no person native to this world could simply pick up the sixth coin and hold his own against you all on their first outing without assistance."

"Does that also explain why that dragon did so much damage to the rest of us?" Glimmer asked, shaking her head at the memory. "Seriously, that thing nearly shot down my zord and I'm still getting used to controlling that thing after all those training sessions…"

"Indeed," Zordon confirmed. "The ship's sensors can confirm that there is some form of remote energy being used to enhance the power of the Dragonzord and compensate for its pilot's inexperience, but I cannot trace that source at this time."

"You can't?" Liv looked anxiously at the large face. "I… take it that's not a good thing?"

"Anything capable of deflecting our analysis is also powerful enough to be a threat in its own right," Alpha observed grimly. "Add in how whatever we're looking for could still spare enough energy to basically restore the entire Green Ranger armour where Rita was restricted to what she was able to restore on her own, and we are definitely dealing with something ancient."

"Great," Glimmer groaned. "So now we have to deal with the evil green guy of unknown motive rather than the evil green girl who was just on a power trip, and we can probably assume he's going to get Thirteen on side soon enough."

"Thirteen?" Rue looked at Glimmer in surprise. "But I thought-?"

"They were working with us because we had the power; after that kind of display, do you really think that they'd work with us and our rules over the guy who's going after the Capitol on his own already?" Glimmer pointed out. "Trust me, I've trained with people like that back at the Academy; when you're making alliances, it's all about who's going to help you out most."

"And of course they're probably not going to be that fussed about this guy causing collateral damage given what they were doing earlier," Thresh muttered in exasperation. "Just when we think we've got one problem sorted, another one crops up…"

"We can still do this," Peeta said, looking over at me with a brief smile. "We just have to remember Haymitch's advice."

"That guy had advice?" Glimmer looked at Peeta in surprise.

"If we want to win, we have to get people to like you," Peeta observed with a shrug.

"…That works," the former One Tribute nodded.

"That works?" Liv looked at her in surprise.

"For most Tributes, the tricky part of the Games is maintaining resources, which means getting sponsors who'll send gifts because they want some specific Tribute to win," Glimmer explained. "Careers don't have to worry about that most of the time since we get the Cornucopia early on, but if other Tributes can get the attention of the relevant sponsors… well, things get interesting."

"Makes sense," Thresh nodded at Glimmer and Peeta before he turned to me. "So how do we do that in a non-Games sense?"

"Well…" I began, before something in the ship began to make a noise. "What's that?"

"Another transmission from District Thirteen to the Tyrannosaurus zord," Alpha said, walking over to a nearby console. "Just give me a moment to reroute it through the ship's networks- they'll still read our return transmission as coming from the zord rather than the ship and they won't be able to trace where it actually is- and…"

He fell silent and pointed at me in a manner I chose to interpret as a cue that I could talk.

"President Coin?" I said, keeping my tone polite even as I gave the rest of the team a warning glance that I hoped they'd interpret as a desire for them to stay silent.

"Hello," the leader of District Thirteen replied, her tone cool. "I apologise for getting back in touch so quickly, but my colleagues and I need to know where your green associate came from."

"We're… looking into that," I said, aware of how inadequate that was as any kind of explanation in this situation.

"So he isn't part of your team?"

"It's… a long story," I decided. "You need to be clear that his actions don't represent our intentions for Panem."

"Wherever he came from, see that you deal with him swiftly," President Coin said. "The sooner he's out of the picture, the better for all of us."

"All of us?" I repeated in surprise, even as the others looked around the room in a manner that made it clear this development was just as unexpected for them as it was for me. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I thought you'd have liked the idea of someone else tearing through Peacekeepers for you?"

"Not when he's showing remarkably little interest in being discreet and selective about his targets," Coin clarified with a grim edge to her voice. "Whatever our feelings about the Capitol, we do want something to be intact afterwards; your green comrade was clearly-"

"He is not our comrade," I cut Coin off, wanting to be sure she understood that point in particular. "The situation is… complicated, but you need to understand that the Green Ranger is a renegade who we intend to deal with ourselves."

"That's good to know," Coin responded. "Of course, it also reinforces my point."

"If he's not with us you can't be sure he'll work with you either?"

"Quite," Coin confirmed. "Whatever my thoughts about your methods, you are at least willing to talk with us. Your green associate clearly has no loyalty to the Capitol, but if he has no loyalty to you either, he cannot be relied on."

"Thanks," I said, choosing to consider that observation at least a backhanded compliment even if Coin probably viewed it as a condemnation of our methods.

"Do you require any assistance?"

"You'll be informed if there's anything you can do, but for the moment make plans for a more coordinated attack against the Capitol once we've dealt with the Green Ranger ourselves," I said. "And remember; no collateral damage."

"Of course," Coin replied, an edge to her voice that made me feel as though I could genuinely see her cool smile even when I didn't know what she looked like yet. "Although-"

The transmission suddenly terminated as another alarm blared through the ship.

"What's that?" Liv asked.

"The Green Ranger has mounted a new attack," Zordon reported, his tone grim.

"And let me guess, we're not in any shape to go after him right now?" Thresh observed with a frustrated groan.

"Correct," Zordon looked down at us with a clearer sense of regret on his face. "The Tyrannosaurus and Pterodactyl zords are already undergoing repair, but if they were to engage the Dragonzord in battle at this time, they would suffer far more significant damage that we may not be able to repair."

"Didn't you talk about how you'd already fixed our zords when they were blown up by Rita in the first place?" Peeta indicated himself and Thresh.

"Over a period of several thousand years," Alpha pointed out. "Granted, that was while I was operating in a dormant state on low power, but we still only have so much power right now: I can't be sure how much energy I could devote to repairing your zords while keeping the others available."

"In other words, there's only so much damage any of our equipment can take at a time before it would become impossible for you to fix?" Liv asked.

"Which means that we're not in shape to take on this bastard right now…" Glimmer groaned bitterly.

"For the moment," Zordon said. "Alpha and I are working on restoring the ship to a working order that would allow us to assist you more effectively, but even once the zords are repaired, it will take time to reach that level."

"And facing an evil Ranger when we're already vulnerable won't help you do that, huh?" Glimmer groaned in frustration. "It's never easy, is it…"

"But maybe we can still do something about this mess," Liv put in, looking over at Glimmer. "You're sure that Finnick Odair would be willing to help us independent of District Thirteen?"

"He seemed… well, it's complicated, but I definitely got the impression things with him and Thirteen weren't that close even if he knew anything about them," Glimmer confirmed. "He didn't say anything to me outright at the time, but if I'm interpreting his actions the right way…"

"We can work with that," I said resolutely.

"And what about President Coin?" Peeta said.

"If it comes up, we'll just say that we had to focus on repairing our own equipment and putting together a plan to stop Green," I said. "Even if we're working with Coin, that doesn't mean she has to know everything we're doing right now; the priority right now is to ensure damage control for our reputation with people we can trust."

It felt strange to be thinking about people I hadn't actually met as people I could trust, but after going through the trauma of the Hunger Games, I already felt a certain connection with other Victors as people who would understand some of what we'd been through, even if I was already decided that we couldn't tell them who we were.

Even if the tales and rumours Glimmer had heard about what Finnick were an exaggeration, given his popularity with the Capitol, he had to know something that we could use to improve our own reputations right now…

Chapter Text

It said a great deal about the chaotic state of my life right now that I was so unphased at the prospect of meeting Finnick Odair. I had never been one of those girls who went out of their way to collect his publicity material or make a big deal about anything with his picture, but I still at least kept up-to-date with his activities, even if I was starting to realise that everyone in Panem knew less about his daily life than the Capitol let us think. Glimmer's argument for how she at least suspected he had secrets and how he might have remained undercover so far made sense, but the idea that there was that level of resistance to the Capitol…

For a moment, I wondered how Gale would react to that particular revelation, but I pushed that thought down; there would be time to track down my family once the Green Ranger had been dealt with, but right now there were bigger priorities. Fortunately, since Glimmer had made contact with Finnick already, it wasn't hard for Alpha to identify a private signal we could use to communicate with him and arrange an in-person meeting in a suitably open location.

From what Alpha had explained, the ship's systems were still dealing with a great deal of wear and tear from centuries of 'neglect', so the teleport sequence wouldn't be efficient enough to send us directly into specific buildings yet, even if there was no problem sending us and the zords into larger open areas. The Victors could only go so far from their own Districts without attracting attention, but Finnick had assured us that he could contact other members of his network if he was able to meet with us directly. We had found a suitable area in a clearing in the forests a short distance from District Four, concealed enough that we wouldn't be seen by any Capitol patrols so long as we were discreet and nobody was actively looking for us there. Peeta had expressed concern about what would happen if the Green Ranger attacked somewhere else during this meeting, but Glimmer had simply observed that we'd deal with that when we had to, and Alpha assured us he'd let us know if that happened anyway.

When we arrived in the clearing a few moments ahead of schedule, I was surprised at how calm I felt even though I was about to face a situation I could never have imagined myself being in before now. I still couldn't believe that I was actually acting as a leader of a team of superheroes using alien technology to try and change the society I'd lived in all my life, when I'd spent so long resigned to the idea that the best I could do was keep my mother and Prim alive…

"We sure this is the right place?" Thresh asked, even as we all kept our helmets sealed. We might be prepared to trust Finnick and the other Victors we were about to talk with, but Zordon's rule against sharing our identities was still something we had to keep in mind.

"Finnick gave me the coordinates and I double-checked," Glimmer nodded at the Black Ranger. "We've just got to give him time; keep in mind we can get around a bit faster than most people."

"So long as we don't forget to still do some actual physical work," Peeta observed with a nod. "It'd be ironic if we get so used to going around by teleporting that we get out of shape for doing the more physical stuff…"

"Could that happen?" Liv asked,

"We're not going to get that out-of-shape if we beam around a bit," Glimmer shook her head, sounding amused at the idea before she held up a hand. I heard the sound of movement just as we all fell silent, and a moment later, Finnick Odair walked into the field from just behind Glimmer, carrying a large bag and wearing more practical clothing than the fancy suits he was usually shown in when making appearances.

"Hey," Finnick said, nodding around at the rest of the team before he turned his full attention on me. "So… Pink told me you're the leader?"

"That's how it works," I said, unsure if I should bother trying to disguise my voice. The helmet muffled enough of my voice that none of us sounded exactly like we usually did, and I was fairly sure most of our voices were only on record from the entrance interviews, but maybe I should make sure…

"Huh," Finnick said, looking around at the five of us with a smile. "So how did you even come to Panem anyway?"

"One of the things you don't need to know if we're going to do this," Glimmer put in, her arms folded and her body projecting a firm authority.

"I don't need to know where you came from?"

"Part of our duty as Rangers requires… an oath of secrecy," Peeta explained. "It's not that we don't want to tell you things, but our duty requires us to keep certain details to ourselves."

"I… see," Finnick said. His tone was curious, but there was something in his eyes that suggested he was at least willing to consider what we were saying.

"Anyway," Glimmer cut in, "in the end, all you need to know right now is that we're here to help get the current government out and put someone else in charge."

"And we're not taking power for ourselves," Peeta added, his tone clearly intended to reassure Finnick of our broader intentions. "We don't agree with what Snow and his followers are doing, but we won't rule in his place; we're just here to help Panem get better local leaders."

"OK…" Finnick said, opening the bag and taking out a large flat screen that put me in mind of the devices I'd seen the instructors use during the pre-Games training sessions. "Well, if you want to talk to us…"

Holding the device out in front of himself, Finnick pressed something on the side, and suddenly the device's screen displayed images of Finnick's face alongside three other former Victors. The sight of Beetee Latier wasn't a surprise, considering his technical expertise, and Johanna Mason being part of this group made sense when she'd been a famous rebel even during her own Games by going against expectations. However, I only just managed to hold back my shock when Haymitch was another figure on the screen. Seeing him looking particularly weary suddenly made me think again of how everyone back home must have spent the last few days thinking Peeta and I had died in the Games before our latest broadcast, but I pushed those thoughts down; we had to focus on the wider picture right now.

"So," Haymitch said, looking at us with a surprising amount of focus given how he had almost certainly been drinking earlier, "you're the guys who screwed up the latest Games?"

"We like to think of it as saving people from a situation they should never have been in," Peeta responded, deliberately lowering his voice. "We're officially here to defend your planet from potential outside enemies-"

"Outside enemies?" Johanna cut in. "You're telling us that alien invasions are a thing?"

"Not on the scale you're probably thinking," Liv said, even as I hoped we weren't lying. "You can consider us part of an elite group of warriors charged with protecting certain planets from certain threats."

"Such as?" Beetee asked.

"It's safest if you don't know," Liv said.

"What?" Johanna asked. "Why you're protecting this planet, or what you're protecting it from?"

"Both have to be secret," I nodded.

"And that's supposed to make us trust you?"

"It's supposed to help you understand what we will and won't do," I said. "Our team have our own specific responsibilities, and normally we would keep out of local politics, but we have decided that the situation in your country is one that can't be allowed to continue if we're going to do our duty."

"In other words, you're offering to help us mount our resistance so that you can do your other job?" Beetee asked.

"Pretty much," Peeta confirmed.

"And thank you for admitting that there's a resistance," Thresh said with a brief nod.

"Oh, very smart," Johanna said critically. "Again, we're supposed to trust any of this when one of your guys is tearing through the districts in one of those giant robots?"

"Green is a rogue element and we're trying to deal with that on our end," Glimmer said. "What we need from you right now is to do what you can to make people aware that he's not part of our core team; we're working on stopping him, and then we'll get back to the issue of toppling the Capitol."

"You basically want us to tell people not to be worried about how they're stuck in the middle of some… superhuman alien grudge match?"

"It's… a bit more complicated than that," Liv said tentatively. "We're… fairly sure some other party is influencing Green to fight against the rest of us, so we're working on finding a way to deal with him, but…"

"But you haven't got it yet, huh?"

"The important thing is that we need you to let people know that we aren't the threat here," I cut in before Johanna could say more. "We want to help you all, but for this to work, you need to have faith in us that we are here to help while Green is just… he's trying to smash everything because he's angry."

"You believe he's dangerous?" Beetee asked.

"Isn't he just angry at the Capitol?" Johanna asked. "He only really trashed Two…"

"He smashed through an entire District just because he could; does that sound like the kind of person you want to trust with any kind of power?" I said. "I understand that you all you're your own issues with the Capitol, but you have to all agree that there are still some good people in there; it's not like everyone is equally guilty of forcing you all into the Games."

"Nobody's exactly stopped it-"

"But there's a difference between malicious intent and accepting the status quo," Glimmer cut in. "Considering what your president is rumoured to do to people he doesn't like, it's not like we can expect everything to just ignore the risks of standing up to him if we can't show you all that there are people willing to take those risks first."

"The point," I said, wanting to remind everyone of our main purpose here, "is that while we want to help your people get a better government installed, we need to prioritise stopping Green before he does more damage and hurts more innocent people."

"Can you do it?" Beetee asked.

"Nobody else can," Peeta said. "Like Red said, we need you to do what you can to let people know that the time for revolution is coming; once Green is under control, we'll be there to help."

"And we should trust that you won't be storming the Districts in big robots yourselves?" Johanna asked.

"We'll be there to help you fight the Capitol's soldiers, but we won't use the zords unless we have to," Peeta said. "One of our rules is to avoid escalating a battle; deploying the zords against human forces would count as such an escalation."

"Zords?" Beetee asked.

"The proper name for what you call 'big robots'," Liv explained. "Actually, their original name doesn't translate well into your dialect, but 'zord' covers the key concepts well enough."

"I see," Beetee said, looking thoughtfully at us through the screen before he nodded. "Very well."

"'Very well'?" Johanna repeated with a sceptical tone. "You can't mean you're going along with this?"

"If it is a choice between doing the same thing we have always done and trying something new, I for one favour something new," Beetee said. "The Rangers are an unorthodox addition to the situation, but aren't most of us here because we did something different?"

"…Point," Johanna said, looking grimly at us. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Just give us a chance to prove we're trustworthy," Peeta nodded at her. "And feel free to let us know if there's something we do that you don't like."

"You'll let us talk again?" Finnick asked.

"The frequency we used to get in touch with you in the first place is still good," Liv nodded at him. "We'll let you know if anything changes at our end, and you can let us know if anything happens out here that might affect us; agreed?"

"Agreed," Beetee nodded.

"Sounds good," Haymitch affirmed, Finnick giving his own thumbs-up in support.

"…Fine," Johanna conceded, even as she seemed more bitter about it. "Talk to you soon?"

"Hopefully with better news," I said, before I stepped back and indicated to the rest of the team. With that cue, we placed our hands on our waists and teleported away, while I just had time to glimpse the surprise on Finnick's face as we vanished.

We had at least made an impression on the Victors, but now the question was whether we would have time to track down the Green Ranger before he did so much damage that he basically destroyed our own reputations…

Chapter Text

"You are satisfied that your new contacts will be useful allies in your current campaign?" Zordon asked as we stood around the ship's control room.

"Trust me, Victors have a lot of connections in Panem, and Finnick and Beetee are probably some of the best people we could talk with," Glimmer nodded reassuringly at the giant head. "Finnick's basically been one of the biggest celebrity Victors ever since he won his Games, and Beetee's got so much technical skill he's meant to have at least done some work on the Capitol's own systems over the last few years."

"He's that good?" Rue looked at Glimmer in surprise.

"More that nobody in the Capitol's really bothered to innovate anything for years, from what I've heard."

"Innovate?" the youngest ex-Tribute repeated in confusion.

"Basically most people in the Capitol are used to sticking with what works and don't worry about doing anything more," Liv explained as she smiled over at the young girl. "It's like how I mentioned most people in my group home back in Five just find something to specialise in and stuck with it. The Capitol's good at making things work as they are, but they don't think about the broader opportunities available to them. If something does the job, they don't bother changing it until they absolutely have to; there's a reason it took them a decade to do more for the Games than basically stick us all in an arena and watch us hit each other."

"Which is another reason to ensure that nobody learns of your true identities if you do not trust them completely," Zordon said, his tone grim but firm. "Should your people attempt to harness your powers for their own benefit, the results could be… difficult."

"In the sense of giving the Capitol access to the zords?" Thresh asked. "Yeah, that would suck."

"Could that happen?" Liv asked. "I mean, if we need our armour just to control them properly…"

"They could still reverse-engineer the zords and work things out with time," Alpha put in.

"It would also complicate things if other attackers came for this world," Zordon noted.

"It would?" Peeta asked. "How?"

"The exact circumstances of how this all came to pass has been lost in the records of ancient history, when the original Morphin Masters first harnessed the power of the Morphin Grid to use as a means of defending the weak from those who would seek greater power," Zordon explained. "All that I can say for certain is that, millennia in the past, the Grid was modified in a manner where any beings capable of controlling power equivalent to the Grid who seek power over any particular planet must first face that world's active Ranger team before they can achieve their goal."

"Always?" Liv asked. "They couldn't just… go to a different part of the planet? I mean, I get that the Crystal's here, but there's no way they could just try and… sneak in and take it that way?"

"The nature of the Grid ensures that any who seek to harm any world defended by Rangers, with the power and skill to use the Crystal in the first place, must defeat that world's Ranger team to claim that world," Zordon affirmed. "Save for exceptional circumstances, only one Ranger team may be active on a world at one time, and that team will be capable of defending that world from any and all threats until they or their enemy are permanently vanquished."

"So we're basically on constant standby in case something comes for the Crystal?" Thresh asked.

"Essentially yes," Zordon affirmed. "Some worlds have earned enough of a reputation to discourage potential enemies from coming after their targets for a prolonged period. You will have already made an impression in the relevant circles following your defeat of Rita, but this planet is so isolated and your own team is so new that it will take time to establish a proper reputation."

I was about to respond when an alarm blared from nearby, leaving us all to look anxiously over at where Alpha was standing close to the central orb. Even as we gathered around it, Alpha had adjusted the image to show the Green Ranger tearing his way through a new group of Peacekeepers while the large dragon-like zord moved towards a large stone wall.

"The dam?" Liv said in horror.

"He's in District Five?" Peeta looked at her in shock.

"Huh?" Rue looked curiously between the two.

"I grew up there, Rue; I know what my District looks like," Liv clarified before she turned to look at Zordon. "If he destroys the right dam, he could cripple the power of several Districts; we have to stop him!"

"Even if he targets your government?" Zordon asked.

"Even if he's trying to destroy the dam that provides power for the Capitol, he's not just going to affect the government; there are innocent people living there who need power!" Liv protested. "This isn't a war where he could justify collateral damage and people would be prepared for this kind of thing; he's just smashing things he doesn't like!"

"Precisely," Zordon said, a slight smile on his face that suggested to me he'd been testing Liv in some way before he shifted his gaze to address the rest of us. "Your zords shall be dispatched, but the priority should be to force the Dragonzord to withdraw before it can do further damage. The Green Ranger still controls it by remote, so it may be possible to confront him directly and make him stand down that way."

"And our zords are all back to working order, right?" Glimmer asked.

"Correct," Zordon confirmed.

"OK," I said, coming to a decision as I looked around at my team. "Glimmer, you take point and get the Dragonzord away from the dam, but… Peeta goes with you for back-up."

"Huh?" Thresh looked at me in surprise. "Hey, the Mastodon hits harder-"

"Which is better as a combat strategy when we're not fighting next to something we don't want to get broken," Liv interrupted him.

"Oh," Thresh nodded in new understanding. "Right… be kind of stupid to stop him smashing the dam only to break it ourselves…"

"Don't worry about it; we're all learning something new," Liv pointed out, before turning to give me an approving smile. "Good idea, Katniss; I take it the three of us are going after Green directly?"

"Keep him busy on two fronts and he won't be able to focus properly on either," I nodded at her, glad that my idea made sense. The Megazord might be able to overpower a single zord, but I wasn't ready to use our full power against the Green Ranger until I knew he wasn't going to listen to us otherwise. "If we can get him off-balance, maybe we can find out who we're dealing with and how to talk him down."

"Talk him down?" Glimmer looked sceptically at me. "You get that this guy smashed up our zords last time we tried to stop him?"

"We just got out of a situation where we were basically trained for years to see each other as enemies, and we're all still here because we gave each other a chance not to be enemies," I said, surprising myself with my words even as I knew I meant them. "I'm not saying we don't fight him, but we have to give him a chance; if we can get him on the defensive, maybe he'll be willing to stop fighting and actually listen to us this time instead of ranting about how he hates the Capitol."

"You think that'll work?" Thresh said, echoing Glimmer's scepticism as he looked at me.

"I want to give him a chance," I clarified as I looked around the room. "We're all here because we trusted each other in that cave; we have to give the Green Ranger at least that kind of opportunity."

I was privately aware that I also wanted to talk to the Green Ranger about that 'Zedd' he had mentioned in our previous confrontation, but until I could be sure that was what he had been talking about I wasn't ready to share that detail with anyone else. The goal right now was to protect the dam and confront the Green Ranger before he could do any damage; we could try and find out more about his history once he wasn't trying to destroy the country.

I wondered if I should be impressed at how far I had come in terms of my ability to read situations and think about such complicated details, but I decided to focus on the present situation; the goal now had to be to stop the Green Ranger doing further damage.

"Let's morph," I said, indicating the pedestals in the control room.

With my ever-increasing experience of using the ship's transporter technology to go into action, I found it surprisingly easy to go from being teleported out of the ship to landing in District Five to face the Green Ranger, now standing surrounded by Peacekeepers in varying states of consciousness. The green figure had just turned around to face me before I dived into action, kicking him in the chest before Liv came in to strike him from the other side. Caught off-guard by the dual attacks, the Green Ranger didn't have time to properly fight back before Thresh grabbed his arms, pinning them behind his back.

"Hi there," I said, trying to project an air of confidence and hoping I didn't come across as the same kind of arrogant as some of the Careers in the Games. "Sorry to interrupt-"

"Interrupt?" Green yelled in outrage, even as the sound of clashing machines behind us confirmed that Glimmer and Peeta had started to attack his zord. "I'm trying to put the Capitol in their place; why are you against that?"

"Because interrupting the power supply from District Five is going to do more than just hurt the Capitol right now," Liv said, walking over to stand beside me as Thresh held the rogue Ranger back. "Do you really think you can just turn off the power for a while and that will change anything?"

"People won't be forced to listen to the Capitol's lies any more; that has to count for something!"

"Not if they're also worrying about how long they'll be deprived of power themselves," Liv countered, even as I tried to ignore the sound of metal smashing against metal behind me where Peeta and Glimmer fought with the Dragonzord. "Did you even stop to think about how many innocent people will be affected by what you're doing?"

"They support the Capitol; they're not innocent!"

"They don't have a choice; people are scared-!"

"And if I can get them to wake up and realise how they're being used that will all be over!" Green yelled indignantly, before a particularly loud blast from behind drew our attention. Looking back at the battle, I yelled in horror when I saw the Sabretooth Tiger with a smoking hole in its side, but was able to control myself when I saw that it was standing in front of the dam and the Dragonzord was being forced back by a new assault from the Pterodactyl-

A roar of rage from behind was barely enough of a warning for me to turn back around and deflect the latest blow from the Green Ranger, who had managed to break free of Thresh's grip when we were all distracted. His dagger now in his hand, the Green Ranger nearly stabbed me in the chest before I managed to summon my sword and deflect the blow, leaving us in a surprisingly close duel that left me struggling to stop my opponent stabbing me in the chest. I had expected my sword to give me the advantage since it offered the longer reach, but it was clear that the other Ranger had more experience with his dagger than I had with my sword. I could just keep him back as long as I focused on the fight, but I couldn't stop myself hearing the clash of metal on metal from behind as Peeta and Glimmer's zords continued to try and keep the Dragonzord at bay. Thresh and Liv tried to get in to attack the rogue Ranger themselves, but every time they attacked he just slashed out with the dagger to force them back before he continued to attack me.

"Don't you understand?" he yelled in disgust as he kept on slashing away at me. "The Capitol have to go-!"

"And we're not against that part of the plan; we're against the part where innocent people get hurt-!" I tried to protest as our blades were suddenly locked in a manner that I remembered seeing in videos of past Games.

"SHUT UP!" the Green Ranger roared, leaping backwards as he kicked me under the chin. The impact was so fierce that I was sent flying backwards, and it was only when I hit the ground that I realised that the impact had triggered my visor to withdraw. I raised my hands to shield my face as I got back up- nobody was sure how many cameras were in each Districts and I didn't want to risk any of them seeing me- but I noticed the Green Ranger looking at me in shock before the visor snapped back into place.

"…Catnip?" he said at last.

"What-?" I began, before I reminded myself that only one person in the world actually called me that on a regular basis. "Gale? That's you?"

I only realised that the Green Ranger- Gale- had spoken those same words before he ran forward to give me a disturbingly enthusiastic hug, our previous argument apparently forgotten. Thresh and Liv almost moved in to grab him from behind, but I waved them back urgently; if this really was Gale, I might just have a chance to talk him down if we left him alone.

"It's you!" the Green- Gale!- yelled, stepping back even as he kept his hands on my shoulders, the visor down but his tone making it clear that he was grinning. "I can't believe- I mean, I knew you were alive, but this? You're a Ranger! That's…"

His voice trailed off and he stepped back, his head tilted as he looked at me with a more probing manner that only became more intense when he heard the Pteradactyl fire a new wave of energy blasts at his own zord.

"You're fighting me," he said, joy replaced by a bitter edge I was more used to hearing from Gale when he was talking about the Capitol (Why hadn't I recognised his voice before?). "Call them off."

"I can't do that," I said, only realising that I was tightening my grip on my sword when I felt the handle in my hand. "You'll destroy the dam-"

"I'm hurting the Capitol; that's a good thing-!"

"You're hurting innocent people," I cut him off, not liking what I had to say even as I knew that I couldn't do anything else. "You can't do this, Gale; stand down-"

"NO!" Gale yelled, charging for me again only for Thresh to slam into him from the side, forcing him down before he could reach me; evidently my order to stay back was ignored when Gale was obviously about to attack me again. The sound of another explosion from the zord battle prompted me to look that way, but I was relieved to see that it was the Dragonzord rather than the Tiger or the Pterodactyl. All three zords were still fighting, but the dam was still intact and the Dragonzord's left arm looked like it had been broken; if we could keep up the pressure-

"Enough!" Gale yelled, forcing himself upwards with such force that Thresh lost his grip on the Green Ranger. He spun around to slash at Liv as she tried to attack him from behind, knocking the Blue Ranger to the ground, before he turned to point the dagger at me. "You… you betrayed me?"

"Betrayed?" I repeated, shaken at the new hostility in his voice. "Gale, I just wanted you to stop-"

"You're helping them?" my old hunting partner spat in outrage. "After everything they've done?"

"The Capitol's leaders are the problem; that doesn't mean you can just-!"

"The Capitol have kept us all down for decades, Catnip; how can you defend them?"

"I'm not- this isn't- Gale, it's not like that-" I tried to protest.

"You sold out," Gale said, contempt practically dripping from his voice as he looked at me. "You're trying to protect the people who killed your dad… you bitch!"

I was so enraged by the implications of Gale's statement that I lashed out at him with my sword before I could stop myself, but the way he parried the blow so easily hurt on more levels than I was ready to face right then. For a moment I was torn between attacking Gale in a rage and backing away in horror at what I'd done, but then Gale settled the matter by stepping back and giving me a look of cold contempt.

"We'll settle this another day," he said firmly. "Once Lord Zedd arrives, you'll understand what has to be done."

"Zedd?" I asked, remembering when he'd mentioned that name in our earlier fight. "Who-?"

Gale didn't even give me a chance to finish my question before he teleported away. I glanced back in time to see the Dragonzord letting out its own roar, one arm damaged and the tip of its tail broken off, before it vanished as well. To my relief, the dam was still intact, but I felt that these people were going to have several questions about what was going on once they had time to process what had just happened.

And they don't even know just who's behind that helmet, I reflected, fighting down the sense of horror I felt at this latest revelation.

If I have to… can I fight Gale?

Chapter Text

"So you know who's under the Green Ranger's helmet?" Thresh looked at me in surprise as we stood around the ship's control room, our helmets off but the armour still on.

"I… thought I knew him," I said, struck by the painful memory of everything my old friend had said to me the moment he realised it was me under that helmet. "Gale… I always knew he didn't like the Games, but I never thought he'd go that far…"

"Smashing up buildings and putting innocent people at risk?" Glimmer observed, a particularly grim expression on her face. "Yeah, that's a bit of a jump from just complaining about things."

"But it's just… how could he do all that?" I shook my head in frustration. "He was always more about traps and snares when we hunted together; this kind of full-on attack…"

"It's not like he had the power to do this kind of thing before," Thresh pointed out. "I mean, if we didn't have to work hard to even turn our armour on… would we have done anything else?"

"I wouldn't just… go out and start smashing everything!" Peeta protested.

"Yeah, but face facts, Twelve; you and the kid are the nice ones on the team," Glimmer pointed out.

"They're the nice ones?" Liv looked at Glimmer with an expression I could only think of as uncertain indignation. "I'm… nice, right?"

"Yeah, but you're also the smart one; if you wanted to hurt people, you'd have a better idea of where to go to do the most damage with the least amount of fuss," Glimmer observed.

"That's…" Liv began, before she sighed and nodded. "OK, that's… probably fair."

"Really?" Rue looked curiously at her for a moment, before she shook her head and gave Liv a cautious smile. "I… probably don't want to know what you could do if you chose to do what Green's doing, right?"

"Probably not," Liv gave her a nod. "But for what it's worth, I wouldn't do any of that even if I hadn't met any of you guys."

"Which is a good thing when we've got Green causing all this crap right now," Glimmer put in, before she turned to look at me. "And on that topic, is this going to be a problem for you?"

"What?" I looked incredulously at Glimmer, understanding her question even if I couldn't believe she felt she had to ask it. "How can you- I fought him-!"

"When you didn't know who he was," the former One resident cut me off. "You were defending yourself when Green attacked you after the big reveal, but what are you going to do next time you have to face this guy?"

"Fight him," I said, walking over to stand in front of my former adversary and current teammate. "Gale's been my friend back home, but that doesn't mean I'll… he can't be allowed to keep attacking the Capitol like that."

"You're sure?" Glimmer asked, her arms folded as she looked at me.

"I'm sure," I nodded at her. For a moment I thought about pointing out how she had been in a similar position at the start of all this, considering how she had basically turned against her own District, but I reminded myself that wasn't fair. From everything Glimmer had told us so far, she'd only had a sense of loyalty to her district in a more abstract sense, but the rest of us had all made it clear we had people we wanted to get back to when this was over.

"Whatever Gale was to me…" I decided to say at last, taking a cautious breath as I looked around the control room at the others. "I can't just let him go around threatening innocent people and smashing their homes. If he can do all this… he's not my friend any more; he's a threat that I have to stop."

I was grateful when the rest of the team just nodded at me in understanding without saying anything that might have meant I'd need to say more. Peeta gave me a sympathetic glance that suggested he had some idea of how significant it was for me to even talk about going against Gale, but he kept it to himself.

"Talking about Gale changing, that reminds me," I turned to look at Zordon. "When I was fighting Gale, he mentioned someone… it sounded like this guy might have something to do with Gale even having the coin in the first place…"

"You thinking he didn't just pick the coin up after Rita lost it?" Thresh put in.

"I mean, he didn't exactly give me details, but the way he was talking about this guy… he didn't say anything straight out, but it sounded like Gale had been taking cues from someone," I shook my head as I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to think back on what Gale had said. "He mentioned something about how he'd been told we wouldn't have the strength to do what Gale and this other guy felt had to be done… I think he called this person 'Zedd'…"

"Zedd?" Zordon and Alpha said simultaneously.

"You telling us you know about this guy?" Thresh asked.

"Indeed," Zordon nodded grimly at him. "Zedd was initially one of the Morphin Masters back on Eltar."

"I… take it that's bad?" Peeta looked at them uncertainly.

"Very bad," Zordon nodded grimly.

"Morphin Masters?" Liv asked, before she clicked her fingers. "You mentioned that before; they're the ones who… originally harnessed the power of the Morphing Grid so that… people can morph in the first place, right? And Eltar's your home planet?"

"Correct on both counts, Liv," Zordon confirmed. "Zedd was not one of the original Masters, but he was the heir to the role of the Green Morphin Master, some time before my original team was assigned to protect this world."

"Just to check," Peeta raised his hand, "if there's a Green Morphin Master, does that mean there's also a Yellow one?"

"And the others?" Liv asked. "Blue, Red, and the rest of us?"

"It has been a long time since I met the Masters, but yes, their heirs doubtless still exist," Zordon affirmed. "The Morphin Masters have many duties, but their most significant role is to serve as essentially the physical manifestation of their aspect of the Morphin Grid, helping to enhance or take power from the currently active Rangers of their colour as required."

"As required?" Liv repeated.

"The Power Coins are the means by which my team were granted our powers, but there are other means of drawing on the power of the Grid. It is the responsibility of the Morphin Masters to confirm that all such methods are safe, capable of taking power from the Grid at a reasonable level and in a manner that will not conflict with another known method."

"Another known method?" Glimmer asked. "What does that mean?"

"Each method of accessing the power of the Morphin Grid is different," Zordon explained. "Just as you draw on the power of your world's ancient animals, another world may draw on its own contemporary creatures, or other cultures draw on mythological creatures that may have never existed. Some advanced civilisations are capable of essentially tapping the Grid directly, using technology alone without the need for an avatar to filter the power."

"That's…" Liv began, only to trail off and give him an awkward grin as she shrugged. "I feel like I should have a better word than 'Wow', but… you get what I mean, right?"

"Indeed," Zordon said, giving the Blue Ranger an approving smile before he continued. "The important thing is that no two methods of accessing the Grid should be alike. Even if two different teams are drawing on essentially the same animal as an avatar, the armour and zord of each Ranger should be different to avoid creating conflict in the Grid."

"Uh… sorry if I'm missing something, but if it's possible to tap this power through technology, why use the animal avatar thing in the first place?" Thresh asked. "I mean, it looks cool, but if there's other ways to do it…"

"The use of avatars provides greater variety in how the power will be channelled," Zordon explained, before he gave a slight smile. "Plus, it was felt by many of the original Masters that when our duty is to fight for the lives of the planets we protect, it would be symbolically appropriate to allow the life on those planets to have some role in their defence."

"I… think I can see that," Peeta nodded thoughtfully.

"OK, not that all that wasn't fascinating, but you said that these Master guys can also take power from Rangers?" Glimmer cut in with an urgent wave of her hand. "Are you saying that this 'Green Morphin Master' guy could have taken Rita's power coin from her?"

"It would have required her to be taken directly to the Morphin Masters to stand trial and confirm that she had broken the rules, and even then it is unlikely we could have done that with Rita," Zordon explained. "By this point her long period of being bonded to the Coin had fundamentally altered its nature due to her own power; separating the two against their will would not have been easy."

"Which is another clue that this Zedd guy is behind this, right?" Liv asked. "If he's the Green Morphin Master-"

"He was the Green Morphin Master once," Zordon interrupted. "Zedd was officially stripped of his position before my mission to Earth after he was somehow corrupted and turned to evil by the power of Master Vile."

"Master Vile?" I asked, hoping that I didn't look as out of my depth as I felt right now.

"An agent of Dark Spectre, one of the more primal manifestations of the dark aspects of the Morphin Grid," Zordon explained. "Dark Spectre himself cannot exist in our realm, but he has empowered various agents to act on his behalf and create conditions suitable to permit him to operate in this world."

"One of which is this Master Vile guy?" Thresh asked. "Should we be worried?"

"Vile is powerful, but at last report he is content to remain in his own galaxy and rule his established territory," Zordon explained. "However, when Zedd was part of a mission to attempt to vanquish Vile, Vile was able to play on Zedd's own personal faults and corrupt him to serve Dark Spectre. The other Morphin Masters were able to limit Zedd's access to the Morphin Grid to ensure that he could no longer control the powers of the Green Rangers to the same extent as before, but he would theoretically possess power over a coin that had been corrupted by its user's free will."

"So… he couldn't just go out and turn any random Green Ranger evil?" Glimmer asked.

"Not on his own, although he would be able to act once a Green Ranger fell on their own," Zordon confirmed. "In any case, after a battle with the other Morphin Masters, including his replacement as the official Green Morphin Master, Zedd was defeated and sealed in a pocket dimension."

"Sealed?" I asked. "Wouldn't it have been safer to kill him?"

"Killing a Morphin Master is no simple task, Katniss," Zordon explained. "The sheer power he possessed meant that destroying his physical body would unleash a wave of energy that could have done serious damage within the blast radius, and said blast radius…"

"I take it we're talking about something more than just a big boom?" Thresh asked.

"Theoretically the power of a slain Morphin Master could destroy most of a solar system."

"…Yeah, we definitely want to avoid that," Liv nodded. "So how did anyone stop this guy?"

"He was sealed in a pocket dimension, but the sheer power he possessed meant that it was still considered likely that he could escape in the future," Zordon explained. "All subsequent Rangers were made aware of his existence, and warned of the possibility of his return."

"Hold on; you were this worried about a guy who got banished before you even came to this planet?" Thresh asked. "I get that you guys aren't human, but if we're talking that far back… wouldn't he have died of old age by now?"

"Banishing his essence did not necessarily mean killing him," Zordon explained. "In theory the dimension he was banished to would have been capable of sustaining him until the end of his natural lifespan, but if Zedd can master his internal energies…"

"He could preserve some part of his… essence… and stay alive?" Liv asked.

"For a given value of 'alive', but he would be conscious and able to make plans, yes," Zordon confirmed. "Should he have gained enough power to reach out across the dimensional barrier, particularly if he could find a suitable conduit that would link him back to this universe…"

"Such as a corrupt Green Ranger?" Liv asked.

"And when we defeated Rita…" I began cautiously, hoping I'd understood this whole situation. "If he still has the power of the Green Morphin Master, Zedd could have enough influence over her corrupted coin to basically take it from her after her defeat and… found some way to give it to Gale?"

"I cannot say when he would have made contact with Rita, but it appears safe to assume he did so at some point."

"And now Zedd's telling Gale what he wants to hear about his current vendetta so that he can draw on Gale's use of Rita's old coin?" Peeta put in.

"Indeed," Zordon said grimly. "If Rita or Gale were able to gain access to a suitable power source, whether they are aware of it or not, Zedd would be able to use the Green coin as a conduit to channel that power to himself. While his body is almost certainly gone by this point, if he has been able to maintain his essence, and with Rita having already corrupted the Green coin…"

"We're in big trouble," Glimmer said simply.

"Just to check, if Gale has the coin now, what does that mean for Rita?" Peeta asked.

"The most likely explanation is that Zedd left her to drift in space for her failure while he chose a local operative to act on his behalf," Zordon explained. "With Earth's isolation and your relative inexperience, he would conclude that it is easier to acquire the power of the Zeo Crystal here than seek an additional power source elsewhere."

"And better to hit us with a local opponent who has a better understanding of the situation and a new way of doing things than trust that someone we've already beaten can do a better job second time around?" Glimmer asked.

"That is the most likely explanation for the change," Zordon conceded.

"OK, so what's our best move now?" I asked. "Is there a way to get the Coin away from Gale?"

"Couldn't we call on those… Morphin Masters for help?" Rue asked. "I mean, if they control the Power Coins…?"

"It is a fair question, but we do not have the means to do so," Zordon explained. "After all the millennia since my team first came to this planet, I no longer know where the Morphin Masters are or how to locate them, and could not send us all there with your friend even if I could do so."

"And the Green coin being… corrupted is another problem, right?" Liv put in.

"If we were relying on the Morphin Masters, certainly," Zordon explained. "With the essence of the Green Coin having been corrupted by its long time with Rita, it would have only been possible for Gale to wield its power if he was in a… suitably negative state of mind."

"He's angry at the Capitol and blames everyone in it for the Hunger Games and everything wrong in Panem; he's definitely in a negative state of mind," I nodded at Zordon.

"Then we must operate on the premise that Gale's mind has been corrupted by the Green Coin and he will be unable to move past his rage to use the coin as part of your team," Zordon said, his tone grim. "I am sorry, Katniss, but if your friend chose to become this… by now, he has essentially fallen too far to simply come back to us."

"I…" I began, before I shook my head and nodded. "I understand."

It hurt to say those words, as though it was a rejection of Gale, but I had to face the facts of the situation. If I was to lead this team as the Red Ranger, I couldn't let my memory of what Gale had been overcloud the reality of what he had become now.

"So that's it?" Peeta asked. "We've lost the Green Coin and Gale?"

"Essentially yes," Zordon replied, before he gave us all a slight smile. "However, there may be another option."

"Another option?" Peeta asked.

"In cases where morphers were corrupted in the past but a suitably pure Ranger could be found to use them once they were separated from their original wielder, it is possible to purify the morpher using the Sword of Light."

"Sword of Light?" Glimmer raised an eyebrow. "Bit melodramatic, isn't it?"

"I did not name it," Zordon said with a defensive tone before he continued. "In any case, once Alpha and I can access the relevant networks through the ship, we will be able to identify the last prior location of the Sword of Light, at which point we will have enough power to send some of you to retrieve the Sword and bring it back here while the rest of you choose a suitable candidate for the new Green Ranger."

"Choose?" Peeta looked at Zordon in surprise. "But we already have Rue-"

"Which Rue is a fine ally, she is regrettably not a suitable candidate to wield the power of the Green Ranger," Zordon said, looking apologetically at the young girl before he addressed the rest of the team. "The role of the Green Ranger requires a balance of strength and semi-independence, and while Rue is a compassionate ally she lacks the resolve to use this power properly."

"Oh," Rue said, shrugging slightly despite the saddened expression on her face.

"Hey," Peeta walked over to crouch down beside Rue and give her a brief hug. "You know… even if you're not a Ranger, you're still our friend, right?"

"I second that," Glimmer put in, Thresh giving Rue a thumbs-up as Liv and I gave the girl comforting smiles.

"OK," I said as I turned to look back at Zordon. "So if I've got this all straight, you and Alpha need to find out where the Sword of Light is… some of us go to find that while the rest of us stay here to find a good candidate for the new Green Ranger… and then we need to fight Gale and use the Sword to transfer the coin from him to our new candidate?"

"But if we can purify the Coin-" Peeta began.

"Gale has already proven susceptible to the most negative aspects of power," Zordon cut him off. "It is possible to purge him and the coin from Zedd's influence, but if they were brought back together…"

"Gale would just end up defaulting back to his current attitude, huh?" Glimmer asked.

"He may be more reasonable, but he would ultimately still focus on his current goal of destroying the Capitol rather than working with you," Zordon affirmed. "Now that he believes he must use the power of the Coin to destroy his enemies, he will be unable to abandon that idea so long as he retains the Coin."

"In other words, he's got to go cold turkey if he's gonna get over it," Thresh nodded.

"A good way to explain it," Zordon confirmed.

"Well," Liv clapped her hands together as she looked over at Alpha, "if we need to find this Sword, what do we need to make this work and when do we start putting it all together?"

Chapter Text

Gale Hawthorne

How dare she… Gale fumed as he sat in the cave that had become his new home since he became the Green Ranger. She knows what the Capitol have done… she lost her father because of them… and she's defending them?

He wanted to believe that Katniss had just fallen in with a bad group and would realise the truth of the situation, but she'd been going out as the Red Ranger for a few days already and hadn't done anything to actually go after the Capitol. Smashing up a few Peacekeeper bases at least showed she hadn't lost touch with who she was, but if she really cared she'd have been going after the Capitol itself, not dealing with more of its slaves…

But isn't everyone the Capitol's slave right now, Gale?

Yeah… Gale nodded in acknowledgement of his mentor's words. We're all stuck serving their whims… but Katniss is a Ranger; she should have realised-

Too many Rangers adhere to a code that does nothing but convince them they need to serve, Zedd's voice whispered inside Gale's head. You and I recognise that we have the power to rule… which makes it only right that we take that power from our enemies.

Yeah, Gale thought, clenching his fists as he stared out of the cave at the forests of Panem. They'll go down… everyone who's kept us down will lose their power… Katniss will make her team realise the truth once I convince her…

Rue

Rue didn't want to admit it out loud to anyone else, but she was starting to feel increasingly uncomfortable about her own role with the Power Rangers.

It felt childish to say it, when she thought about everything else she had been dealing with over the last few weeks. She had gone from being trapped in the Hunger Games and certain that she would be lucky to live out the next few days once she entered the arena to becoming affiliated with heroes like she had never imagined could exist in the real world. The other former Tributes had never done anything but make her feel welcome even before… what had happened with Rita (she still wasn't sure if she actually remembered anything during… that time…), but the thought of someone else coming into the group…

She understood why Zordon had said she couldn't take the green coin for herself, but it was hard to shake the idea that there was still a difference between being an associate of the Power Rangers and being a Ranger herself. She and the others had all come into this team as part of the same shared experience; if they had to recruit someone else, what guarantee did they have that the new person would go along with the existing dynamic? Rue wasn't even sure how they had all come to agree that Katniss was the leader because she was the Red Ranger, beyond Zordon explaining that was apparently how it worked, but they couldn't guarantee that someone else would just understand that dynamic.

They needed to give the Green Coin to someone so that it didn't end up falling into the wrong hands, but Rue wasn't sure who that could be. She couldn't think of anyone back in her own District she was close enough to that she would trust them with this kind of power, it seemed like Katniss was doubting her own judgement of any possible candidates when her old friend was the reason they were looking for a new Ranger in the first place…

If old friends were out, and obviously strangers weren't an option, Rue wasn't sure who was left as a possible candidate…

Alma Coin

As much as she had appreciated his way of doing things at first, Alma Coin had to face the facts; whatever her initial hopes had been for the Green Ranger, he was rapidly proving himself to be more trouble than she could afford to deal with. The other Rangers might be more cautious and hesitant about their approach in waging war against the Capitol, but at this point the goal should be to make the Capitol look bad and make the alternatives look better. All the Green Ranger was doing right now was making everyone feel terrified at what he might do next; nobody had any faith that he would actually be better if he ended up defeating Snow's government.

The problem was that she didn't know what else she could do about this situation. She had been trying to contact the other Rangers for their own information, but she had to concede that they had no reason to keep in touch with her about something that they probably considered a purely internal matter.

Coin hated this loss of control, but at the same time she knew that she had to face the facts. Whatever tentative plans she had been making to strike back against the Capitol, the appearance of the Power Rangers had ruined any hope of finding someone she could use as a rallying point for a more conventional revolution. At this point, whoever had the allegiance of the Rangers was essentially guaranteed to be the one who won this not-quite-declared war. They might be fighting against the Capitol already, but Coin knew she only had the superficial loyalty of the Rangers at best.

Who this team were, why they had saved the Tributes in the Games, why they had chosen now to get involved in events in Panem… Coin didn't know, and all she could do was try and keep the situation under some form of control. The Rangers had changed the rules by introducing new elements and provoking her and Snow to take action, but if even the Red Ranger objected to the current Green, maybe Coin could offer them an alternative candidate for that green suit of armour. If the other Rangers were desperate enough, they may not even realise that Coin's recommended candidate would be more loyal to her than the other Rangers…

Coriolanus Snow

The only satisfying thing about Snow's state of confusion was that he was fairly sure no other President could have coped with this current situation any better than he was. Not only had Tributes somehow survived the Hunger Games, but now there were elements in play in Panem that nobody had ever experienced before.

He had briefly considered that these 'Rangers' were some new strike force created and deployed by District Thirteen to break their current détente, but he had pushed that idea down soon enough. He didn't doubt that Thirteen were making their own plans for some form of future rebellion, but if they had control of the kind of power demonstrated by these new players they would have actually attacked the Capitol openly.

On the bright side, from everything he had seen of the Rangers so far, there was another way he could deal with this situation. The original five Rangers had made a dramatic impression so far, but with the addition of their green associate, they had compromised their original image and created an opportunity for him to use his own experience against them.

Snow had no idea how such strange outsiders had formed such a flawed view of human civilisation, but he would make it clear to the rest of Panem that the mystery of the Rangers could not be trusted, even before the Green Ranger's current actions were taken into account.

Chapter Text

"You're sure that we can do this?" Liv looked anxiously at Alpha as she stood beside him while the robot examined the control panel. "I mean… OK, you're still fine, but the rest of this ship…"

"The engines are basically ruined unless we can get the parts, but the rest of the actual hardware is still good," Alpha affirmed as his hands moved over the controls, the rest of us watching. "Assuming we can access the networks, finding the Sword of Light should be straightforward enough; given its importance it's one of those artefacts that we always know the location of."

"And it's going to just be… lying around somewhere?" Peeta asked.

"Obviously actually retrieving the Sword will be more complicated than just going off and picking it up," Alpha explained with a shrug. "The Grid takes steps to keep these things secure so not just anybody can use them, but actually accessing them is simple enough if you know what you're looking for."

"OK, so even with all that, you're both sure it's still easier than us trying to find those Morphin Masters?" Thresh asked.

"The Masters take active steps to stay hidden to prevent others doing to them what Vile did to Zedd, and Alpha and I have essentially been gone for so long that the modern Masters would be unaware of our continued existence," Zordon explained. "Even if we knew of their current location, the Masters and their associates would actively hide from what would appear to be a potential attack using outdated access codes, but the Sword of Light will at least allow us to find its location."

"How does that-?" Glimmer began.

"I… think I get it," Liv cut in, looking thoughtfully at Zordon. "It's like… passwords on a computer system, right? Some systems won't let you log in using old passwords, but others will at least let you view the databases even if you can't do anything with that access?"

"As good an analogy as any," Zordon affirmed. "Even when we have found the Sword's location, certain protocols will remain that must be taken into account if we are to retrieve the Sword for our own use."

"What does that mean in this case?" Liv asked.

"Most specifically," Zordon responded, "in any situation where the Sword of Light is required, whatever Ranger team wishes to use the Sword next, their Red Ranger must be the one to retrieve it."

I was grateful that I was only in the presence of the other Rangers and Rue when I practically stumbled over my own feet at that declaration.

"Me?" I looked up at Zordon in shock once I'd regained my balance. "I- I'm going to- I have to-?"

"You must leave Earth to retrieve the Sword of Light and affirm your acceptance of your duties as the Red Ranger of your world."

Leave Earth…

Every time I thought that I had faced the limits of what I had been expected to do, it felt like the world came up with something new to hit me with. Leaving District Twelve for the Games would have been daunting even if I hadn't been all but certain I was going off to my death, I'd already visited more Districts than any non-Victor ever expected to see, and now I was being told I'd have to leave the planet?

"So… how does that work?" Glimmer cut in. "Do I need to give her a lift?"

"While the Pterodactyl is capable of space flight, it would not be capable of such a long trip as this is likely to be in any reasonable time frame," Zordon informed Glimmer. "Alpha and I will be able to draw on the energy of the Zeo Crystal to boost the teleporter to send you away once we have identified where you need to go, and the Sword will enable you to return afterwards."

"…Right," I said, nodding in acknowledgement even as I fought down my own fear.

I'd only joined the Games to save Prim, and now I was basically expected to represent my whole planet while retrieving some legendary weapon…

Damn you, Gale, I suddenly thought, clenching my fists as I thought about my former hunting partner. In that moment, I hated Gale for forcing me to deal with even more responsibilities when I was already struggling with a situation that was apparently complicated even by usual Ranger standards.

"Hey!" Alpha said, looking back at us with a shocked tone to his words. "Your President is making a statement about us!"

"What?" Thresh and Liv looked at the robot in shock.

"Get that on the… viewing globe thing!" Glimmer waved an impatient hand at the glowing object in the centre of the room.

"Of course," Alpha said, reaching over to adjust the controls on another panel.

"-when they first appeared, I will admit that I was just as intrigued by their existence as I am sure the rest of you were," President Snow said as his image appeared in the globe, wearing a dark red suit with a blue shirt underneath it, the usual rose on his lapel. "Regrettably, while they initially appeared to be our saviours when confronting the golden monster that threatened District Eleven, their actions since then have proven that they seek only violence rather than to truly help anyone."

"We what?" Liv stared at the image incredulously.

"Panem has lived in peace since the Dark Days because all of the Districts respect the law and order of the Capitol," Snow continued. "Whoever these Power Rangers are, they reject the system that has kept us safe and stable for decades in the name of pursuing their own agenda and seeking further violence. They have lashed out at the people-"

"We need to morph," I turned to address the rest of the team, even as I waved Rue to the side.

"Katniss, you cannot-" Zordon began.

"I'm not going to just charge off and attack Snow, Zordon, but we can't let him say this stuff about us without responding."

"OK, that's more justified," Alpha nodded as he looked up at Zordon.

"She's right," Peeta said firmly, moving to stand beside me. "If the Power Rangers are going to do anything to change Panem… we have to do more than show up and hit monsters or smash things."

It was things like that which reminded me why I had begun to think somewhat fondly of Peeta before he made everything complicated during the interview. Even when we were dealing with dangerous situations, he had a way about himself that made it seem that he just genuinely wanted things to be better rather than accept the world was as bad as so many people believed it was.

As the five of us moved into position, I tried to ignore Snow's voice as he continued to talk about how the Capital served as the 'heart' of Panem and was supplied by the Districts in an ancient contract. Even if Gale's current actions were extreme, I was fairly sure that the Capitol's only real purpose right now was as a symbol that nobody was prepared to stand up to. They might have wanted us all to believe that we needed them, but I couldn't think of anything they did for us beyond send out Peacekeepers and organise the Games.

I couldn't do anything as just one Tribute in the Hunger Games, but as the armour of the Red Ranger formed around me, I was prepared to do something I would never have thought I was capable of before I found my way to that cave.

"We're ready," I said, as I turned to look at Alpha. "Can you set up a signal that lets me broadcast to Panem and talk with Snow?"

"I can do that," Alpha seemed to grin at me (as much as it was possible when he didn't have a face to grin with) as he turned to Zordon. "Shall we?"

"It is an unconventional way of doing things, but this is an unconventional team," Zordon said with a grin. "Go ahead."

"On it!" Alpha said, reaching over to adjust a few controls on the side of the central globe.

"It is the duty of all citizens of Panem to report any sightings of these criminals-" Snow was saying, before Alpha pointed at me.

"Criminal, President Snow?" I cut in, hoping that this particular gambit wasn't going to backfire horribly on me. I was relieved when Snow stopped talking as soon as I spoke, clearly aware of my own presence in this conversation, but I couldn't show that relief as I focused on making my statement. "Is it criminal to want to give people a chance at a better life?"

"You have said yourself that you are alien to this world, my friend-"

"Friend?" I repeated, not bothering to hide the mocking edge to my voice. "Believe me, President Snow, we are not friends; I could never be friendly towards someone who would do the things you have done."

"All I have done is to secure peace in Panem-"

"When you have to threaten people on a semi-regular basis, you don't have peace; you have control," I said, unsure if I was going to say this properly but determined to get it all out there. "And if the only way you can maintain any kind of control here is to threaten people, you clearly know that you're going to lose that power because the only reason you have such authority is because you keep people too afraid to act against you."

"I do only what is necessary to prevent further revolution that would put the people of Panem at risk," Snow retorted, his whole manner cool and collected even as I challenged him in a way I couldn't remember anyone confronting him in any of his previous televised appearances. "I have the respect of the people-"

"You have the fear of the people," I cut him off, refusing to let him finish his next wave of lies. "The Districts have been kept under your power for decades because you won't accept that you don't need to threaten everyone else. If you were a truly good leader- if the Capitol as a whole were actually good leaders- you could lead through example and make this country better, but clearly all you want to do is keep everyone under your thumb."

"The world is a harsh place that requires a firm hand to control it-"

"It can be better if you give it a chance," I retorted. "We believe in what the world can be, but you clearly gave up on the human race a long time ago."

"Are the people expected to just believe that outsiders such as yourselves have our best interests at heart?" Snow said, his tone cool despite the harsh gleam in his eyes. "You come to our country, revealing nothing about yourself before you interrupt a long-standing tradition-"

"Just because something has been that way for decades doesn't mean that it always has to be that way," Liv spoke up, stepping forward to make her own contribution to this conversation. "We rescued the tributes from the Games because we thought it wasn't fair for children to be condemned for the sins of their ancestors, and we're going to end the Games because it's not fair for anyone to be forced to suffer like that."

"And that's not alien morality; it's just common sense," Thresh observed, his tone making it clear that he was smirking under his helmet.

"Do you feel that you have the right to offer us your moral perspective on anything?" Snow responded. "When one of your own is mounting assaults on our people and your own actions have focused on attacking the society we have built?"

"OK, first off, we are only attacking your own symbols of power," Thresh put in with a dismissive shrug. "You don't get to complain about us smashing up the place where your soldiers stay when they spend most of their time oppressing people who are just trying to survive."

"And at least we try not to kill anyone when we're going out like that," Glimmer added, her arms folded as she glared at the globe displaying Snow's image. "If the only way you can enforce authority is making people afraid of you, you're not good leaders; at least Red cares about the rest of us as more than mindless soldiers."

"Oh, and for the record, the power of the Green Ranger has fallen into the wrong hands," I said, deciding that I could at least share this even if I wasn't going to give him any more specific details. "We are taking steps to restore that power to one who is worthy of it, and once that has been dealt with…"

I turned my gaze to the globe directly, hoping that the intensity of my scare came across properly despite my eyes being covered. "We will be dealing with you, President Snow, and everyone who has spent so long living in the lap of luxury just to keep the common people down."

"Maybe you tell yourself that this was done to punish the Districts for their rebellion, but at what point did that stop being an excuse?" Peeta put in, stepping in alongside me. "There are few people alive now who were present during that rebellion; eventually you have to let it all go, or everything becomes pointless."

"Humanity needs the authority of the Capitol to avoid a repeat of our past near-destruction-"

"Humanity needs to be given a chance to be free of your oppression and realise it won't repeat its old mistakes," I said resolutely. "The Green Ranger will not be a threat to Panem once we've dealt with the current holder of the power and chosen a new bearer, and after that, we will not rest until your oppression of the people of Panem has ended and this society is free to rebuild without your influence."

"You believe that you have the right to dictate what is best for this society?"

"We believe that you don't have that right," Glimmer shrugged. "We're just here to give humanity the chance to have some freedom; once we've kicked you off your throne it's up to the people who they put in charge, since we can be fairly sure they won't put someone like you in that kind of position again."

"So enjoy yourself for the next few days, because once we've dealt with the current Green you're next," Thresh said, folding his arms and sounding like he was grinning under the helmet.

"You cannot do this," Snow said, and I wondered if I would have admired his sense of self-control if I didn't hate everything he stood for. "Panem needs-"

"You had almost seventy-five years to treat the people of Panem the way they 'need' to be treated," I cut him off. "If you wanted to remain in power, you should have done something to show us that you deserved to have that kind of power, rather than treat everyone like they're always going to be criminals because of something that happened basically before everyone alive today was even born. We will be coming for you, President Snow, and once we're through with you… then we'll see what the people really want."

It might have been an overly melodramatic way of doing things, but I was determined to make an impression and affirm that we were dedicated to our current mission. With that last statement made, I waved a hand at Alpha and he cut off the transmission, leaving me to turn and smile at the rest of the team as our helmets opened.

"Good job," Peeta smiled at me.

"We made a good impression, anyway," Thresh nodded as he looked around the room. "Now we just need to keep that up."

"Pretty sure we both have faith in your ability to pull that off," Alpha put in, his voice again giving the strange impression that he was 'smiling' even when he didn't have a face that could do that.

"Agreed," Zordon put in, a more obvious expression of approval on his face. "And I can confirm that we have just identified the current location of the Sword of Light."

"Already?" Thresh asked.

"Tracking the Sword is not a challenge with my level of access," Zordon observed with a smile, before he looked more seriously at me. "If you are to retrieve the Sword, Katniss, it may be advisable to bring other Rangers with you to assist you if anything comes up at the other end."

"Comes up?" Glimmer asked. "There's going to be a problem?"

"It would be advisable to make sure," Zordon said. "Other Rangers should recognise Katniss Everdeen's status and authority as Earth's Red Ranger, but given the nature of the Sword and the interest it would attract, we must be prepared for all possibilities."

"But we still need someone here in case anything comes up, and we need to choose someone to be the new Green Ranger…" Peeta said thoughtfully.

"Which is why you should stay."

"Me?" Peeta looked at me in surprise. "Katniss-"

"You get people in a way that… well, that I'm not sure the rest of us do," I said, looking apologetically around at the rest of the team for a moment before I looked back at my original partner in the Games. "If we have to analyse someone's motives and determine if they can be trusted, you're the best candidate for doing that."

"Then I'll stay too," Glimmer said, stepping forward to shoot Peeta a brief glance. "No offence, but you can be a bit too… trusting at times."

"Trusting?"

"You seriously thought we wouldn't just kill you so long as Red was still in play; you underestimated just how far you could push us before you'd get on our nerves."

"…Fair enough," Peeta conceded, giving Glimmer an uncomfortable look.

"Hey, I'm not going to do that to you now; I'm just saying that the Twos in particular were all for stabbing you the moment you became more trouble than you were worth."

Peeta just gave her an awkward nod of acknowledgement, clearly lost on how to properly react to that declaration, before he looked at me. "Is that-?"

"That's fine," I nodded at him in assurance, hoping we both understood the question I was intending to answer before I looked over at Liv and Thresh. "Besides, if I'm going to another planet, I think taking our resident genius and our current powerhouse is probably a good call."

"It is a good plan, Katniss," Zordon said.

"A trip to another planet?" Liv grinned at me. "Count me in!"

"Guess I can come along," Thresh said, even as an eager gleam in his eyes showed he was just as keen about this idea as Liv was.

"OK, so that's sorted." I turned to look at Zordon. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"You will find the Sword on the distant planet of Mirinoi."

Chapter Text

Teleportation was one aspect of being a Ranger that I wasn't sure I'd ever properly understand. Liv and Alpha had explained some of the details to us, but all that stuff about matter being converted to energy and transmitted as though it was a message was very much over my head. I just hoped that I understood enough of what was happening to be sure that it was safe to rely on this system to send us all the way to another planet. Alpha had assured us that the whole experience would be relatively quick, so we should apparently only need to be away from Earth for a few hours depending on how long it took us to deal with things at this end, but the prospect of visiting another planet…

I was privately glad that we had to be morphed to travel this particular distance. If I was going to another planet, I didn't want to seem like I didn't trust anyone, but I also wanted to be ready for anything as soon as possible if something came up. After the strange sense of teleportation ceased- following a more drawn-out version of the strange sensation I had felt in the past- I found myself standing in a large forest with reddish trees (the leaves and wood were a reddish tint even if they still seemed to be mainly green), under a sky in a strange shade of purple.

"Wow," Liv said from behind me, prompting me to look back to see how the other two had coped. The Blue Ranger was staring around us with a clear sense of awe even with the helmet over her face, while Thresh had his arms folded and was in a more defensive stance.

"Is… everything OK?" I asked, looking cautiously at the former District Five resident.

"Huh?" Liv looked at me before she gave me a reassuring smile. "Oh yeah, there's nothing to worry about; I checked with Alpha and this planet's well within a range where we can live here. I'd be cautious if we're offered anything to eat or drink, and there's a few things in the atmosphere that might be difficult if we were here for a longer while without the suits, but right now we're good."

"How long is-?" Thresh began.

"We'll worry about that if we have to worry about it," I cut Thresh off, deciding to keep our focus on the matter at hand. "Where do we find the Sword of Light?"

"Uh…" Liv raised her arms and slid her fingers over something on her left wrist, which created some kind of holographic display. "That way."

"Hey, where did-?" Thresh began.

"One benefit of being the smart Ranger is that I get some of the gadgets," Liv explained as she turned the map off and gave us an apologetic shrug. "Alpha's been giving me a few pointers, but I just never had a reason to use some of the extras until now."

"But you would have mentioned them if we needed them before now, right?" I gave her a pointed look.

"Of course," Liv nodded at me, before she waved her hand forward. "Anyway, if we go this way for a bit, we should see some form of civilisation soon enough."

With nothing better to say right now, I followed Liv's direction and walked along in the direction indicated, Thresh and Liv falling into position behind me. I was still amazed that I had fallen into this kind of leadership position so easily, even when there was no actual reason for the rest of the team to have any kind of 'respect' for my authority, but I was just as surprised to find that I was coming to like it. I'd struggled to cope with the responsibility of holding our home together after the mining accident, but right now…

Maybe it was because I was now in charge of a team of capable people who could handle themselves if things went wrong, but I didn't actually mind being the leader in this situation. I'd had to take responsibility back home so that I wouldn't be separated from my sister, but right now I was just coordinating our next course of action. I understood that they were facing a serious situation, but we had time to deal with it and we could afford to enjoy the experience. Taking in a new planet was an unconventional experience, but at least it all seemed safe, and we didn't have to face anything dangerous right away.

When we stepped out of the forest and found ourselves looking down on a large circular structure, I was amazed to see what had to be the city we had come here to visit. There was something in the design that made me think of the concept of the Capitol and the Districts, with the Capitol in the centre and the Districts around it, except that this city did it literally, with one large circle in the centre and six smaller circles around the edges linked by larger paths. The buildings themselves made me think of the Capitol itself, with several tall structures at the centre of the circle and becoming smaller as they reached the edge, but in this case the buildings were made of metal rather than stone.

"Very impressive," Liv nodded as she stood beside me.

"Big," Thresh conceded, even if he sounded more casual about it all. "So that's where this Sword is?"

"Probably," Liv confirmed as she held up the display on her forearm. "It's somewhere in there according to this thing, anyway."

"OK then," I nodded at my two teammates. "Keep alert but keep your helmets up; if Zordon was right about the reputation Rangers have on other worlds, we want to make it clear we're here on…"

"Just say 'business'," Liv finished for me with an approving nod as she indicated the city before us. "Let's go."

Just as we started to walk towards the city, there was a strange crackle of green energy and we were suddenly surrounded by strange grey creatures with limbs that seemed to be somehow segmented, long sharp blades extended over their hands, and some kind of segmented face with multiple eyes.

Liv, Thresh and I immediately shifted into a defensive stance, but our attention was soon drawn to a more distinctive figure who seemed to be the leader of this group. The creature's torso was shaped in a manner that made me think of a human woman, but the body was covered in what I could only describe as armoured scales, like it was some larger reptilian Mutt that the Capitol had created for the Games. The head seemed to have large 'eyes' that made me think of a fly, even if its mouth still seemed human, and thick strands hanging down its back that made me think of hair even if they were clearly something more solid.

"Greetings," the green thing said, with a surprisingly female voice despite a gargling edge to its voice that made me think of someone talking through water. "I take it you have just come to Mirinoi?"

"You… could say that," I said, looking carefully at the grey creatures around us while also keeping my attention on the green female.

"Excellent," the creature said, its face twisting in what could be a grin if it was just human. "Then you can assist me in dealing with the Rangers of this planet."

"And why should we do that?" Thresh glared at the creature.

"Because you are far from your home planet and cannot hope to defeat my own forces," the creature said, indicating the bladed grey creatures around us. "You cannot hope to defeat us-"

Pulling out my sword, I slashed out at the nearest creature before any of them could react to my movement, sending it flying backwards as Thresh and Liv drew their own weapons.

"I get that I'm new, but I'm fairly sure that if you want to destroy the local Rangers you're not the good guy here," I said, the three of us raising our weapons as we glared around at our new enemies. "So back off, or this gets ugly."

The green creature let out a loud screech and charged towards me, leaving me to deflect its attack with my sword while Liv and Thresh dived into the group of bladed creatures around us. Even with my own limited experience at fighting, it was clear that this thing was a very experienced fighter, but I was able to hold my own anyway, deflecting its rapid attacks with my sword and forcing it back. I was suddenly reminded of something Glimmer had told me about how inexperienced foes could be unpredictable, as this monster never managed to actually touch me, but I wasn't sure if I was keeping this opponent at bay or if this thing was just toying with me-

A kick to my stomach sent me staggering back, desperately trying to parry the next blow before I found myself with a large green hand on my throat, the creature's human/insect-like face practically pressed against my helmet.

"You had a chance to help me," the creature said as it tightened its grip on my hand. "And now you will-"

"Back off, Trakeena!" another voice called out, followed by a large blast of golden energy striking my attacker on the side and sending it flying away from me with such force that I was almost pulled along myself before it released its grip.

Turning around, I couldn't stop myself from staring in shock at the sight of six new Rangers standing before me, weapons raised as they took in the fight before them. Their own armour seemed similar to the armour of my own team, but I soon noticed a slightly different animal motif to the helmets, and their chests had a strange white-and-black pattern where we had a large blue glow on our own suits. Five of the Rangers were in similar armour to my own team, in red, yellow, blue, pink and green armours with black-and-white patterns on their chests, but the sixth figure had black armour and a large gold design on the chest, as well as gold bands around his arms (I would assume the figure was male just to keep things simple until I knew otherwise).

"You?" the creature who was apparently named Trakeena yelled indignantly. "How did you-?"

I cut Trakeena off by using her distraction to kick her in the chest myself, forcing her further back just as an energy blast skimmed past her head. I glanced to the side to confirm that Thresh had been the one who fired that shot as he drove back his own attackers, but he soon fired another shot that managed to hit its target and send Trakeena flying towards the new arrivals. The red and black Rangers slashed out at Trakeena with their own swords as she flew forwards, sending her flying backwards again in time for Liv to turn around and bat their monster away with her own weapon. As the green creature hit the ground, the six new arrivals ran up to force the grey creatures back while Liv and Thresh joined me in standing over Trakeena, our weapons all pointing at her.

"Do you want to push this?" I said, unsure why I was making that kind of threat even as I enjoyed the sense of power for a change. "We're not going to help you-"

Trakeena let out a frustrated roar and lashed out at us both with a desperate swipe of her claws, knocking the weapons out of our hands. The three of us leapt to retrieve our lost weapons, but by the time that we had grabbed them and turned around again, the insect-woman had vanished, leaving only a few of the grey creatures that were easily put down by the other Rangers before we even got there.

"That was… quick," Liv glanced over at Thresh and I. "She didn't really stick around, did she?"

"Probably didn't have that much of a plan to use us for anything," Thresh shrugged. "It's not like we told anyone we were coming earlier; she probably just took a chance and bailed when she could see it wouldn't work."

There was a sudden sound from behind us that made me think of some kind of howling noise. I turned around to see the other Ranger team looking at us with a sense of curiosity about their manner, the Yellow Ranger standing in front of the others as she (her armour was designed in a manner that suggested a female body) said something in a language I couldn't understand.

"Uh… what was that?" I said uncertainly. The other Rangers looked at each other for a moment before the Red Ranger stepped forward and said something else, even if it was still incomprehensible to me.

"Sorry, but we… don't speak that," Liv said as she stepped forward, waving her hands and gesturing apologetically at the faceplate around our mouths. "This is… we're new here…"

After the other Rangers exchanged glances with each other, the Green Ranger stepped forward and held up his hands to press a couple of his fingers against his forehead. I exchanged glances with Liv and Thresh, but then there was what I could only describe as a strange pulse of energy from his helmet.

"Sorry about that," the Green Ranger said, his words now suddenly understandable. "We didn't realise how far you'd come from."

"Huh?" Thresh looked at him in surprise. "How did you do that?"

"It's part of my telepathic abilities," the Green Ranger explained. "I'm essentially projecting our words into our minds so that we can all understand each other."

"Telepathic?" Thresh repeated.

"It means he can read the minds and thoughts of others without anyone needing to speak to him directly," Liv explained, looking at the Green Ranger with an approving nod. "Neat."

"Thanks."

"So," I said, now that we could understand what everyone was saying, "I take it you know what that green thing was?"

"Trakeena," the Red Ranger explained. "She's committed to destroying our city because we were responsible for the death of her father."

"How?" Liv asked. "I mean, if you don't mind me asking-"

"He was trying to claim our city's main power core as part of a collection of powerful artefacts and potential weapons he's assembled, and we killed him in self-defence," the Blue Ranger shrugged. "Trakeena's been trying to continue his mission of collecting artefacts and using them as weapons, but her focus is on destroying us in revenge for his death."

"I see," I nodded at the other Rangers in acknowledgement. "Sorry we didn't do anything to her."

"We'll deal with her eventually," the Black Ranger said with a cool shrug. "Trakeena's main weakness is that she sometimes acts on impulse rather than any kind of plan; she'll keep making mistakes and we'll find her eventually."

"OK…" Liv said. Her tone was uncertain, but I chose not to worry about the situation that much; as much as I sympathised with the plight of this new team of Rangers, we had our own problems to deal with already.

"Anyway," I said, hoping that I wasn't about to do something accidentally insulting as I stepped forward and held out my hand, "I'm the Red Ranger of the planet Earth; my name is Katniss, and these are my teammates, Liv and Thresh."

"Andros," the Red Ranger stepped forward to shake my hand, before he stepped back to indicate the others. "This is my sister Karone, and these are our teammates, Maya, Tyzonn, Trip and Trey."

"Good to meet you all," I nodded at them.

"If we're going to talk, can we do this out of armour?" the Yellow Ranger (Maya, if I remembered the Red Ranger's introduction correctly) said.

"That might not be-" I began.

"We can do it for a little while," Liv cut me off, before she reached up and turned off her armour, looking at the other Rangers with a careful smile. "I'm not sure we're a good fit for your atmosphere, but we can manage without the armour for a bit, anyway."

Following her cue, and hoping I'd understood Liv's explanation correctly, I powered down myself, with Thresh doing the same at basically the same time as the other Rangers.

As the Rangers demorphed, I fought down to the urge to jump as I took in their respective appearances. Where Rita had looked somewhat human apart from those ridges around her face, this group of Rangers was far more obviously non-human, with a greater variety of alien features compared to the rest of us.

Of the six, Andros and Karone looked basically human, apart from Andros having hair that seemed to be a natural two-tone mix of dark and light, although they also had very pronounced ridges along their foreheads just above their purple eyes, and I noticed an extra finger on each hand under their dark leathers. Maya put me in mind of a dog-mutt, with a short snout instead of a mouth and fur all over her exposed skin, although her body proportions seemed to be otherwise human in a manner that I noticed drew Thresh's attention under her tight yellow dress. Tyzonn's features were silver in colour and seemed to be constantly shifting slightly as I watched, as though his face couldn't settle on one form, and even his size seemed to shift slightly under the dark blue jacket he wore. Trip actually seemed to have a massive diamond on most of his head, and I even thought I could see his brain through it, although most of his skin was a light green that seemed to be made up of small scales even if he also wore an orange jacket and black trousers over a green shirt. The really weird one was Trey, whose head seemed to have three faces on it, each face getting the chance to turn so that it was facing me and the others at some point as though each face had its own personal awareness, although his outfit was a simple black with gold trim that made me think of Cinna.

Their armour might share a similar pattern to ours, but not only were these people very clearly not humans, aside from Andros and Karone they didn't even seem to be the same species as each other.

"Whoa," Thresh said, voicing my own thoughts. "And I thought we had a diverse group…"

"To be fair, we're very diverse even by Ranger standards," Andros said with a friendly smile before he looked curiously at us. "We can cover that later; the important thing right now is why are you all here?"

"Trip doesn't know that already?" Liv asked.

"I try not to read the minds of known allies unless it's an emergency," Trip explained. "I'm just translating right now; I don't want to go deeper without your permission."

"We're 'known allies'?" Thresh said in surprise. "You just met us-"

"You're Rangers," Maya smiled, which somehow managed to seem friendly even with her sharp teeth. "That's all we need to know."

"…Thanks," I nodded at her before I turned to Andros. "We came here for the Sword of Light."

"The Sword of Light?" Andros repeated. "Why?"

"Long story short?" Liv took up the explanation. "The Green Power Coin for our team has fallen into the hands of a guy with serious issues against our planet's government and innocent people are getting hurt. We were told that we could use the Sword of Light to purify the Green Coin so that we can pass it on to someone more suitable and make sure the current wielder can't keep trying to hurt people with it."

"I see," Andros nodded, before he looked at me with a curious smile. "And will you be keeping custody of the Sword after you've used it?"

"No," I shook my head, having already discussed this with Zordon and Alpha. "Our world is… going through a difficult period right now; we can't be sure that the Sword would be safe there long-term."

"What kind of difficulties?" Karone asked.

"It's a whole thing involving our planet's leaders being arrogant dicks who think they have the right to control everything and have been forcing our people's kids to fight to the death for decades," Thresh gave a grim shrug. "We're dealing with it, but we'd rather not have responsibility for an artefact like that when we're basically staging a revolution at the same time."

"Revolution?" Trey repeated.

"We're all in agreement that we won't take power once it's over, but when our planet's been like this for the last few decades it was decided that we needed to take more affirmative action than usual," Liv explained. "We discussed it with our mentor and we all agreed what we could and couldn't do in this situation."

"Huh," Tyzonn nodded in acknowledgement, glancing over at the other Rangers before the others exchanged a nod and looked back at us. "All right then; I'll be coming back with you to take the Sword back once you're done with it."

"That works," I smiled at him, before I looked back at the city. "So shall we get on with this?"

Chapter Text

As Liv had predicted, she, Thresh and I had to don our armour once again as we reached the outskirts of the city that had been identified as Terra Venture, as we were troubled by a greater need to cough and a shortness of breath after walking for only a few minutes. After that, the other Rangers morphed as well, although in their case I guessed that the purpose was to avoid drawing attention to their civilian identities hanging out with us. We moved briskly down the hill and soon found ourselves walking through the city we had previously only seen at a distance, allowing us to take it all in at a more gradual rate.

The further into the city we went, the more I found myself feeling ashamed to think about how little my own culture had accomplished since the last war. History had never been my strong point, but obviously District Twelve hadn't advanced that far over the last few decades, as aside from the Victor's Village most of our homes just met the bare minimum of what we needed to stay alive. From what I'd seen of District One and the Capitol, even the most well-off locations in the Capitol hadn't bothered to do much to improve on our standard buildings beyond what people had built before the wars. This place showed some large buildings similar to what was in the Capitol, although they were made of metal rather than stone, but there were various other buildings as well, including elaborate domed structures, buildings that rose to the sky in in complex spirals, and a few short buildings that included signs on the side that gave the impression there was more underground than what she was seeing.

"It's the challenge of bringing so many species together," Trip put in as he noticed where I was looking. "Our city leaders take pride in accommodating the needs and interests of all citizens, but that does mean taking care that certain cultural issues are taken into account."

"Meaning…?" I asked uncertainly.

"Some species are just more comfortable underground rather than building upwards," Maya put in. "It helps that those species are skilled diggers on their own, so nobody's put to any trouble they wouldn't be invested in themselves, but it made it tricky to set it up so the look works."

"And… why's that important?" Liv asked, looking around the streets as we kept walking. I was trying not to draw too much attention to my interest in case people started making fun of the inexperienced Power Rangers, but the sheer variety of aliens around us was… I didn't want to feel like they made me uncomfortable after the way I'd felt out of place in the Capitol, when I at least had no reason to think these people didn't respect us as Rangers, but it was still unnerving.

"Terra Venture's whole purpose is to promote intergalactic peace," Andros explained, indicating the city around us with a proud tone to his voice. "We have to accommodate all kinds of different species with different living requirements."

"Intergalactic?" Thresh asked, even if he was clearly as impressed by the implications of that term as I was.

"The planet Mirinoi is located at a point basically exactly between at least four space empires," Karone took up the explanation. "The colony of Terra Venture was established here so that the various races in those empires could come together and interact directly, rather than remaining at a distance and never truly communicating with each other."

"So… you all hang out and you all basically realise how you can get along, so your people back on your home planets realise they can do the same?" Liv asked.

"An oversimplification, but yes," Trey affirmed. "I serve as one of the main representatives of the peace process, as my father is the king of Triforia."

"Triforia?" Liv asked.

"My civilisation is one of the first to achieve a level of mastery over the Morphing Grid, and my family have a long-established tradition of serving as Rangers-"

"Hold on; you're a prince because you're a Ranger?" Liv cut in.

"Prince?" I repeated, vaguely recalling the term from history even if I couldn't remember the context. "Isn't that… you mean that your father's kind of like a president?"

"Basically Trey is more like the child of the equivalent of a president, and there's a whole thing about how a prince's family have been in charge for years because they proved themselves in the past; we can get into that later," Liv said, before she turned back to Trey. "But seriously, how does that work? Zordon told us that we explicitly couldn't use our powers to become leaders back on our world…"

"Which is just as it should be," Trey nodded in understanding, and I only now realised that only the central face was talking as he spoke to us. "My father rules our planet and as long as I act as a Ranger one of my brothers will serve as my father's heir if anything should happen to him. It is a long-standing tradition for one of the royal family to serve our people as a Ranger, but that duty comes out of the desire to protect and serve our people; our status as royalty is completely independent of our history as Rangers."

"OK," I nodded in acknowledgement. It still sounded a bit questionable to me based on Zordon's previous warnings, but if it worked for Trey's people I didn't want to make things difficult by asking awkward questions. "So… where are we going?"

"Here," Trip said, as we stopped in front of a large building with a symbol like a lightning bolt on top of it. "This is our base."

"Your base is this public?" Thresh asked.

"Nobody can enter the facility without a link to the Morphing Grid or clear permission from an active Ranger," Trip affirmed. "It's a good way to make sure people know where to contact the Rangers if we're needed, but we all maintain other lives and duties in other parts of the city. Trey's family ties to the Rangers are known, but his presence is relatively discreet and there are others from Triforia who come here to facilitate the peace process."

"So people think that you just work with the Rangers?" Liv grinned as we walked up to the main entrance. Tyzonn reached over to wave the hilt of his sword against a panel next to the front door, which lit up just before the door opened.

"Your sword is your power source?" Liv asked in surprise once our group was inside the building.

"The Quasar Sabers were left in stones until the time came when true wielders could claim them in defence of this part of the galaxy," Karone explained, even as we continued to walk along the corridors.

"Swords in stones to choose the ones who will wield power?" Liv looked at Karone curiously. "That's… it rings a bell… something I heard back home…"

"You probably did hear something like that," Karone smiled at my team's Blue Ranger. "You'll find that's one of the mysteries of the Zeo Crystals. Just as they influence the pattern of evolution on the worlds where they bring life, some tales and myths reach out across the Morphing Grid to leave echoes across other civilisations even without them ever coming into contact."

"Which is one reason we all have a concept of swords, huh?" Thresh put in. "I mean, I kinda assumed our weapons changed to fit something we knew like our zords were modified to fit something local, but if you know about swords…"

"Swords are certainly weapons that have a… historical significance to a wide range of cultures, certainly," Trip nodded at the Black Ranger as we walked into a large chamber with various weapons and objects arranged around it. Even with my limited experience, I could see echoes of Ranger technology in some of the weapons, such as a bow and axe that put me in mind of Glimmer and Thresh's designated weapons when we were morphed. However, even with all these other weapons around the room, it wasn't hard to confirm which was the Sword of Light; the largest weapon in the room hung suspended in the middle of the room, a blade of solid gold covered with jewels in a range of colours such as red, yellow, blue, green, pink, white and even some kind of black gem.

"Nice," Thresh said as he studied the sword, clearly having come to the same conclusion I had.

"Yeah, that's it," Tyzonn nodded at him. "It's mostly useful for the power it possesses rather than as a weapon in itself, so it's not often used in combat, but it's a powerful asset to those who know its full potential."

"And on that topic, what do you need the Sword of Light for, exactly?" Karone asked, the Pink Ranger looking at us in a very pointed manner. "I mean, you said your team's Green coin was corrupted, but do you have a new candidate in mind?"

"The rest of our team are working on that," I said.

"And you can't just purify the coin and give it back to its current wielder?"

"The guy using it now has… a lot of issues that precede him becoming the Green Ranger," I said, unsure how much I should share about our team's history even if I knew I wasn't going to go into detail about my own history with Gale. "He wouldn't be a good fit even if we could deal with his main issues; we need the Sword of Light if we're going to take the Coin back and put it in… more stable hands."

"How did the coin even get corrupted?" Maya asked.

"Long story that… well, it's probably not our place to say," Liv shrugged. "The point is that we have a plan to deal with this, but we need the Sword if we're going to get the job done."

"A challenging situation," Andros said.

"Which certainly justifies your need for the Sword," Karone added.

"Which is why I will accompany you back to assist you in this effort," Trey put in.

"Huh?" Thresh looked at the Gold Ranger in surprise. "I thought Tyzonn said he was gonna come back with us?"

"I am," Tyzonn nodded at us. "But from what you've told us about the current situation, it seems as though Trey's services would be useful to you at this time."

"Your 'services'?" Liv looked at Trey curiously. "What does that mean?"

"If you need them, you'll see when we get to your planet," Trey replied with a brief smile on all three of his faces, before he adopted a more curious expression. "And on that topic, what can we expect from your people in terms of how they will react to our presence?"

"In a nutshell, be careful," Liv said. "We've basically been fighting against our planet's existing government even before we had to deal with Green going psycho on us, and we're trying to keep up a balance of doing damage to stop our leaders without crossing the line and do something that might put innocents at risk."

"You're fighting your government?" Maya asked.

"They've been… to say they don't deserve power is an understatement," Liv said firmly. "We actually met because we were forced into a contest where we were all expected to kill each other for the amusement of others because of a failed revolution that happened at least three generations before any of us were born; is that the kind of thing a good government does?"

"…Yeah, that's the kind of situation where we can't just ask you to stay out of it all," Andros nodded, giving us a sympathetic smile before he looked at me. "And you're sure you can adhere to the rules?"

"We have no intention of taking power once the government has been dealt with," I nodded back at my fellow Red, suddenly wishing I could ask him for more help even as I also knew my current campaign was the kind of situation where not even another Red Ranger could truly understand me. "We're going to make sure our current leaders are no longer in power, and then we'll… well, we'll still be available if anything comes to our planet for the Zeo Crystal, but we're not going to take charge."

"You'll let someone else take power?" Trip asked.

"We'll step in to make sure nobody's going to repeat the last administration's mistakes, but we won't be candidates ourselves," Liv said firmly.

"…We believe you," Andros said after receiving a brief nod from Trip. The purple-eyed Red Ranger walked over to place a reassuring hand on my shoulder for a moment, before he stepped back to look over at Tyzonn and Trey. "You'd better get going; the sooner this is all dealt with, the better for them."

"We appreciate that," I said, as I joined Liv and Thresh in walking over to the Sword of Light. Reaching out, I was expecting to touch a barrier of some kind around the Sword, but was surprised when my hand passed right through the material surrounding the weapon. I quickly adjusted my arm to reach up and grab it by the hilt, taking the Sword out with surprising ease.

"Wow…" I said, taking a couple of practise swings with the weapon. "It's so light…"

"Only if you have a good reason to want it," Tyzonn noted with a smile. "Believe me, if you weren't here to take the Sword for a good reason, you'd never be able to carry it like that."

"One of those cases where you can only carry the sword if you're worthy to wield it, huh?" Liv seemed to be grinning under her helmet as she turned to look at me. "You just keep surprising everyone, huh?"

"I'm surprising myself these days," I smiled, before I looked over at the local Rangers. "We teleported over here; can you get us back to our planet?"

"We can focus our base's energy and transfer your grid access tools back to your planet of origin," Trip nodded at me, walking over to a control console that seemed to have just appeared against one wall of the room.

"Grid access-?" Thresh began.

"Our Power Coins," Liv clarified, indicating the belt where her own coin was on display before she looked over at Trip. "Out of curiosity, is this one of those… automatic bits of knowledge we get from being a Ranger, or do we have to learn how to do that kind of thing?"

"A bit of both," Trip shrugged. "The instinctive knowledge provided by the Grid makes it easier, but each of us have our own expertise; if you're the team's science expert, you have the opportunity to learn, but you still need to work at it."

"Hold on; you're the science guy?" Thresh looked at Trip in surprise. "I thought blue was-"

"That may apply according to the rules defining your own access to the Grid, but keep in mind that we access the Grid in a different way," Trip pointed out. "Blue may be your team's genius, but Green is ours."

"But Red is always the leader?" I looked over at Andros.

"One of the most consistent rules of the Grid," Andros nodded in confirmation. "There have been rare exceptions, but it required very particular circumstances."

"I see," I said, briefly considering and disregarding the idea of asking about those details. If the only way for a Red to not be the leader required 'very particular circumstances', I wasn't going to try and find what kind of loophole that might involve when my team had more than enough problems to face right now. "Well… let's go."

As Tyzonn and Trey walked over to join my own teammates, Trip gave the five of us a thumbs-up (and how that gesture meant the same thing across planets was another mystery to me) before he turned back to finish adjusting the controls.

“We’ll be back soon,” Tyzonn said, he and Trey waving their swords in a strange manner before the increasingly familiar surge of energy hit us-

We were back in the ship that had become our new home, the strange shifting sensation fading once again as I registered Peeta and Glimmer standing alongside Alpha in front of the wall that usually displayed Zordon, Trey and Tyzonn now transformed into their own Ranger armour. However, the thing that I hadn’t been expecting to see was the figure standing between the other two morphed Rangers, looking at the five of us with obvious surprise. .

“Johanna Mason?” I said, unsure who I was addressing with that question.

"That's me," Seven's most famous (and most recent) Victor said as she gave me a brief nod. "I'm told you all think I'd look good in green?"

Chapter Text

"Well… yeah, I guess that's the case here," I said, nodding in cautious response to Johanna's comment before I turned to look at Peeta and Glimmer. "Blue, Black, you deal with the introductions; Yellow, Pink, we… need to talk."

I didn't want to give the impression that there was any disagreement in the team about what was going on, but if we were about to bring one of the most notoriously violent Victors onto the team in Gale's place I wanted to be sure we weren't making a mistake. The fact that Zordon hadn't appeared at least suggested to me that Johanna hadn't been filled in on everything yet, but I wanted to be sure of the situation before I shared anything more with her. Having led Peeta and Glimmer to the door of the main meeting room, the three of us stepped outside and the door closed behind us.

"OK," I looked between my original District teammate and our team's Career, "first question; where's Rue?"

"Taking a break in our quarters," Glimmer indicated the door to the room in question. "We didn't want Johanna to meet anyone when we weren't wearing armour until she had your approval to join the team."

"…Thanks," I said, still surprised at these moments when the others were so open about wanting my approval before I focused on the more immediate matter. "OK, when we've all agreed that we can't let Gale keep the Green coin because of his issues, what exactly prompted you to choose Johanna Mason as a candidate?"

"Well," Peeta began, his whole manner reflecting a new sense of caution as he addressed me, "we… started out with the idea that we should focus on Victors to get someone who we knew could hold their own in a fight…"

"Sensible," I conceded.

"So," Glimmer took up the explanation, "from there we had to knock off some of the Victors who can't actually fight any more- seriously, Six's last few Victors are just constantly high these days- and then cross off some of the others if we basically felt that we couldn't work with them."

"Why?"

"Either they're too old and wouldn't take you seriously as a leader, or you just wouldn't like them," Glimmer said. "I mean, I think we can agree Cashmere and Gloss wouldn't really click with the team."

"Yeah…" I nodded, recalling the notorious brother-sister Victors from District One as I looked at Glimmer. "I mean… well, no offence-"

"I get it; Careers get a rep even before they become Victors and they're more often the pro-Cap guys after the fact," Glimmer nodded at me in understanding. "One reason we went for Johanna; she's not exactly vocal about it, but she's also never exactly been in favour with the Capitol."

"And that was before we spoke with her about all this…" Peeta said with a slight shrug. "I mean, we haven't explicitly told her why we want her to be the Green Ranger or where all our gear came from, but she knows that we're fighting the Capitol and only the Capitol."

"So she accepts that we're not going to go on a wild rampage against the innocent like what Gale's doing?"

"She actually said she wouldn't do that," Peeta smiled. "She commented that Snow already took away so many people she loved, and she wouldn't let herself put other people through that if they didn't deserve it."

"You're sure she meant that?"

"I… think so," Peeta conceded. "It's your call, of course… and obviously I just met her… but-"

"Then let's get on with it," I said, my mind made up. Turning back to the door, I walked resolutely back into the control room, Peeta and Glimmer just behind me. Johanna was standing in cautious silence on the other side of the room from Liv, Thresh, Tyzonn and Trey, as though none of them were sure what to say in this situation even if none of them outright objected to Johanna's presence.

"All good?" Johanna asked, looking curiously at me.

"…Yeah," I said, nodding in acknowledgement at the previous Victor. "OK, my… associates… have explained why they brought you here, but I need to ask what you know about this situation."

"I get that you've all got some freaky ideas about taking down the Capitol with your weird armour and giant robots," Johanna said, waving her hand at the ship around her. "I also get that the current Green guy's basically gone a bit kill-crazy and doesn't care about collateral damage?"

"And that is the main problem," Trey said with a pointed nod. "A Ranger should care about collateral damage; we are here to stop those who would seek the power of the Zeo Crystal, but that doesn't give us the right to forget that we're also here to protect the innocent."

"I can get behind that," Johanna said. The actual words were said in a fairly blunt manner, but there was a tentative smile on her face that made me think she was a bit more interested in that part of the argument than she would let herself say out loud.

"So," I looked at the District Seven Victor with a firm gaze, "can you confirm that you won't do what the current Green Ranger is doing if we gave you that chance?"

"Cutting to the heart of things, aren't you?" Johanna said, even as her slight smile suggested she wasn't that concerned about it.

"We have to be sure we're not just creating a new kind of problem," I said, pausing before I decided to get to the heart of the matter. "My colleague told me that you… that Snow took away your family; I'm… sorry about that-"

"Did you kill them?"

"No, of course not-"

"Then don't apologise," Johanna said, before she gave me a firm stare. "What I want to know right now is if you mean it when you say you'll give me a chance to hit that bastard back."

"Only if you promise that you will only attack known enemies," I responded, hoping I gave off the right sense of authority as I looked at the older girl. "We might not be able to keep everyone safe, but we won't deliberately attack those whose only crime is living in territory controlled by the Capitol."

"Don't hit them unless they hit me first?" Johanna said, a brief smile on her face. "Given what you guys can take in those suits, I can go with that."

"…What do you think?" I said, turning back to the seemingly blank wall behind me.

"I agree," Zordon said, the large head appearing in front of us. I couldn't stop myself smiling as Johanna jumped back in shock, but to her credit she soon calmed herself as she looked at the large face. "Johanna Mason?"

"That's… that's me," the District Seven Victor said, tensing herself up as she looked back at him. "So… who are you?"

"I am Zordon," Zordon responded, giving his equivalent of a nod. "I have guided the Rangers of Earth since they received their powers, and if you will adhere to the rules, we would all be proud to have you join their ranks."

"What rules?"

"Never use your powers for personal gain, never escalate a fight unless your enemy forces you to do so, and never reveal your identity to others."

"I can do that," Johanna nodded at Zordon, before turning back to look at me. "So does that mean-?"

In response, I adjusted my helmet to open my visor and reveal my face, the other Rangers following my example. To Johanna's credit, her only reaction to learning our true identities was a brief widening of her eyes, before she settled her gaze on me.

"So," she said with a slight smile, "you guys weren't just 'saved' by the Rangers, huh?"

"It seemed like a good way to tell everyone we were alive without breaking the rule about having secret identities," Peeta shrugged awkwardly at her.

"So where's the kid?"

"Rue?" Glimmer answered. "She's in another room; we only had five coins at first, and she wasn't a good fit to be Green, but we weren't going to kick her out because she was a tagalong."

"Makes sense," Johanna nodded at the Pink Ranger before indicating Trey and Tyzonn. "So who are they?"

"Rangers from another world here to help us transfer the Green coin from its current bearer to you," Zordon explained.

"Another world?" Johanna repeated, looking at the other two with a new sense of surprise. "So… you're aliens?"

In response, Trey reached up and removed his helmet, revealing his three distinct faces as he looked at Johanna.

"…Yeah, that's definitely not human," Johanna nodded, before she held up her hands defensively. "No offence meant; sure you're probably a perfectly nice guy… guys?"

"My faces have our own perspectives, but we consider ourselves a singular individual," Trey explained as he placed his helmet back on. "My own Ranger team consists of assorted races banded together to assist in protecting a new colony world intended to promote galactic peace."

"Sounds neat," Johanna gave an acknowledging nod. "I take it that's why you're not sticking around?"

"We're only here to supervise the use of the Sword of Light to facilitate the power transfer-" Tyzonn began, before an alarm began to blare throughout the base.

"And it's time for you all to act," Alpha said, indicating the central globe as it displayed the Dragon mounting another attack. "If you can take down the Dragon, that should overwhelm the Green Ranger's link to the coin long enough for you to use the Sword of Light."

"OK," Tyzonn nodded at the other Rangers as he tightened his hold on the Sword. "So you all take down the zord, and the new girl and I can take out the rogue."

"Just you?" Thresh looked at Tyzonn in surprise.

"If you're getting into a zord fight, Trey will provide a useful edge," Tyzonn said, sounding amused at his own words. "Trust me; this is the best way."

"Agreed," Zordon affirmed.

"You know?" Peeta looked at Zordon in surprise. "What Trey can… what they're talking about?"

"I have access to a range of intergalactic databases, which includes records on the zords possessed by the Rangers of Mirinoi," Zordon said. "Trust each other and you will prevail."

"You should probably wear these," Alpha put in, passing Johanna a green Ninjetti costume. "Whatever happens, we can't let anyone see you with the Rangers."

"OK," I smiled at the rest of the team, "Trey will join us taking on the Dragon; Johanna and Tyzonn can join us once she's changed."

"A fine plan," Zordon nodded, as Trey moved to join the rest of us as we gathered in the middle of the room. "Good luck, and may the Power protect you."

"Back to action?" Peeta looked at me as our helmets snapped closed once more.

"Let's go," I grinned, before I nodded at Zordon. "Send us out there."

When we arrived in the middle of the latest District under attack, the smile vanished from under my helmet as I saw Gale, watching with pride as the Dragonzord lashed out at the Academy I had only briefly glimpsed during my previous visit with Glimmer. Evidently his previous attack on District One had only been postponed rather than halted by our previous attack, although I wondered if he had been provoked by the revelation that Glimmer was one of the Rangers.

"That was quicker than I'd expected," Gale noted, his tone far colder than anything I'd heard from him before as he turned to face us, his gaze soon focusing on Glimmer. "I thought taking action against your home would draw attention…"

"What; so you can make it clear that you're against us?" Glimmer countered, her tone cool despite the tension in her shoulders. "Pretty sure you already did that when you kept fighting even after your friend asked you to stop."

"I don't listen to traitors-"

"The only traitor here is you," Trey stepped forward, raising his own weapon of a strange staff with a six-pointed symbol on its end. "You are defying the purpose and duties of a Ranger by attacking the innocent-"

"They are not innocent!" Gale yelled as he stepped towards us, only for Thresh to pull out his axe and hit him in the side of the head with the flat of the main weapon.

"There's always someone innocent," the Black Ranger said, moving to stand over my old friend with a harder tone to his voice. "If you can't see that, Gold's right; you're the problem."

"When I'm the only one who's willing to do what has to be done right now?" Gale countered as he got back to his feet, raising his dagger in a threatening manner. "You can't stop me from punishing these monsters!"

"You're really going to use that to attack us?" Liv looked at Gale in shock as the Dragon turned to face us. "Isn't that a bit… overkill?"

"If you're not going to help me-!"

"We're not going to help you hurt innocent people; that doesn't mean we're not going to help you stop the Capitol!" I cut Gale off, shifting into a defensive stance. "Stand down and let us take that coin before-!"

I was only just able to draw my sword before Gale lunged towards me, leaving me to parry the attack and knock Gale back before Thresh shifted the axe into its gun form and fired a blast that sent him flying. The Dragon let out a roar and continued to advance towards my team, prompting an urgent glance between us before we all nodded and sent the signal to Alpha to send in the zords.

"Trey?" I glanced over at our visitor as he looked at our approaching zords. "I don't mean to sound-"

"Never escalate a battle, remember?" Trey smiled at me. "Test what you can do and I'll step in once I'm sure you need me."

"Fair enough," Peeta said, before he looked back at me. "Let's go."

Decision made, I led the rest of my team in leaping towards our zords, settling into our cockpits as we turned our attention on the Dragon. Glimmer fired a few quick blasts from her zord to start the attack while Peeta, Liv and Thresh took up position surrounding the large green robot, leaving me to move the Tyrannosaurus zord to face my old friend.

"I don't want to do this, Green," I said, turning on the radio to address the other zord. "You still have a chance to-"

When the Dragon let out an enraged roar and swung its tail, destroying part of the Academy with an easy blow, I knew that there wasn't time to try and talk Gale down before more damage was done. Transmitting a signal to the others, I fired energy blasts from my zord's cannons before Liv and Thresh charged the Dragon from either side, sending it spinning before the Sabretooth Tiger pounced on its back. The Dragon crashed to the ground, allowing Peeta's zord to slash at its back while the other two zords moved over and began to stamp on its wings and tail. With Glimmer flying overhead, I allowed myself a moment to hope that we could pull this off, but then the Dragon's wings suddenly flexed and the other three zords were sent essentially flying off, each zord crashing into the battered buildings nearby. I was only just able to keep my own zord on its feet as the Dragon fired some kind of energy attack from its mouth, before a new attack from the Pterodactyl forced the green zord back.

"Rangers of Earth," Trey's voice said over the radio as the rest of my team got back to their feet. "I have confirmed that the Dragon and the Green Ranger are drawing power from an external source to further boost their own energies."

"In other words, a bit too powerful for us to take on with our usual resources?" Liv asked.

"Exactly," Trey affirmed, before another screen on my display activated, this one displaying the five zords and a sixth, larger form I didn't recognise. "It's time for me to step in."

"Step in?" I asked, before the radio shifted and Trey's voice echoed around the area.

"Green Ranger of Earth!" the alien Gold Ranger declared, somehow standing in front of me and staring up at the robotic Dragon. "I give you this final chance to stand down, before things get very unpleasant for you."

"These people deserve to die-!" Gale began.

"Maybe they're guilty of doing nothing, but you don't have the right to make that kind of decision about an entire country!" I cut in, a part of me still wanting to give Gale the chance to stand down and be the friend he had been for so many years. "We're not asking you to stop fighting them, we're asking you to focus on-"

"They did nothing for decades; they deserve this!" Gale yelled, the Dragon letting out a roar as though it was supporting its master's rage.

"Then you deserve this," Trey replied, his tone resigned but firm as he raised his strange staff. "I call upon the power of Pyramidas!"

With that command, a golden beam emerged from his staff and burst into the sky, which suddenly became filled with dark clouds before an even darker form descended from the clouds to touch the ground. This new form seemed to be as wide as the Academy behind it, but the blackness covering it swiftly seemed to 'fall' away, revealing a large golden pyramid that made me think of a cornucopia design that had been featured in a few desert-themed arenas in past Games.

"Wow…" Peeta said over the radio, echoing my own thoughts as Trey leapt from the ground towards the pyramid.

"Do you think that is going to stop me?" Gale yelled, the Dragon apparently deciding to ignore us as it turned to face the new zord. "I'll trash that pyramid like these animals!"

"Maybe your master's power boost could let you pull that off, but I doubt he gave you the power to compensate for this," Trey countered, as the display screen I'd noted earlier lit up, this time showing our zords and Trey's initiating a new combination. "Rangers of Earth, prepare for Pyramidas Ultrazord sequence!"

"Ultrazord?" Liv repeated, even if her tone failed to hide her eager grin at the term.

"Oh, hell yeah!" Thresh grinned as the five zords rapidly moved towards Pyramidas, which had extended a long platform out of its lower half as a couple of panels seemed to open up on the point at the top. The Mastodon and Triceratops zords settled into position at the front of the extended portion of Pyramidas while I found my own zord taking up a position just behind them, the upper body bent over and extending out between the other two zords with the cannons sticking out of my shoulders. The Sabretooth Tiger was squatting behind me, essentially lying on my zord's tail with its front legs reaching up towards my cannons, while the Pterodactyl perched on the top of the pyramid with the weapons pointing forwards.

"Do you think that's going to change anything?" Gale said, as the Dragon roared at us once again. "You couldn't beat me alone-!"

"But now we channel the power of Pyramidas through all five of these other zords," Trey affirmed, as I saw my zord's energy levels being boosted further. "That's what makes a team of Rangers so powerful, Green; when we come together, we can more than equal any challenge."

"And you drove us to this," I said, still refusing to let myself say Gale's name over the radio as I reached over to activate the weapons. "Everyone, lock on and fire everything!"

I couldn't let myself feel satisfaction as I watched Gale's zord being bombarded by energy blasts from our own weapons, the gold-charged energies sending the Dragon staggering as its armour cracked. Finally, the barrage drove the zord to the ground, sparking off a series of small explosions as the Dragon's eyes dimmed.

"NO!" Gale yelled in outrage.

"He's weakened now," Trey said over the radio. "I'll call Tyzonn and your friend; the rest of you go for it!"

"On it," I said, jumping from the zord cockpit to hit the ground in front of Gale, the rest of my team falling into position alongside me.

"How could you-?" Gale glared at me.

"You're the one who started hurting people," I countered firmly. "We gave you a chance to stop-"

"They all have to pay-!"

"And the right people will pay," Peeta said, stepping forward to hold out a hand to Gale in a gesture that I wished I could believe would be reciprocated. "If you help us stop the Capitol without hurting the innocent-"

"None of them are innocent!" Gale yelled, diving towards me in outrage, only to be deflected away when I drew my sword and forced him back. The rest of the team drew their own weapons and moved to attack Gale, Glimmer and Thresh firing a couple of blasts from their weapons before Peeta and Liv moved in to deliver their own blows. I was just wondering if I should attempt some other move when two new figures arrived on the scene, the one in blue armour holding a golden sword while the figure in green cloth stood slightly back. Gale just had time to turn around before the Sword of Light was suddenly rammed through his body, prompting a shocked yell from my old hunting partner as he stared at the blade in his chest. I was briefly horrified at the idea that I was about to witness Gale's death, before I realised that the sword had basically passed through his body without actually damaging the armour or with any sign of blood on the protruding blade.

"Huh," Liv said with a smile as she looked at the impalement before turning to Tyzonn. "I guess that's why it's the Sword of Light?"

"Quite," Tyzonn said with a nod, even as his helmet continued to stare in Gale's direction. "When required, the Sword of Light is an intangible weapon, allowing me to draw the power from the target into the Sword without causing them physical harm."

"Nice," Thresh said, glancing around the battlefield at the currently still zords before he looked back at Tyzonn and Trey. "So shall we finish this back at the base?"

In response, Trey raised his staff, and the zords, including the Dragon and Pyramidas, all flew off into the open air and vanished, before I felt the teleportation energies envelop us once again.

Chapter Text

As we arrived back in the ship, for a moment, as I looked at Gale standing in the middle of the room, I allowed myself to imagine what might have been if we had been able to bring Gale over to our side and this was him being introduced to the team as a whole. The thought didn't last long due to Gale's outraged expression as his helmet popped open, even without the Sword of Light still sticking through his chest, but I felt that I could allow myself at least a moment of wishful thinking before we had to focus on the task at hand.

With the initial shock of the teleportation finished, Thresh and Peeta moved to hold Gale's arms down, Glimmer pinning his legs before Tyzonn reached over to grab the Sword of Light, speaking in some strange language I didn't recognise as he waved Johanna over to stand beside him. Once Johanna had taken up position beside him, Tyzonn waved her over to place her hand on the Sword's hilt before he stepped aside, allowing Gale's coin to fly up from his belt to land in Johanna's hand. The lights in Gale's armour dimmed before Tyzonn directed Johanna to place her other hand on the hilt of the Sword, stepping back as green energy began to flow from Gale to Johanna.

"What the- no!" Gale yelled, straining against the grip on his arms as he glared up at Johanna. "You can't- that's mine-!"

"Nope," Johanna said, tightening her grip on the Sword. "That's mine now."

"Who the- you can't-!" Gale protested.

"Hey, you're the reason we had to do this in the first place, Mister Green," Glimmer glared at him. "We could have brought you onto the team, but you're the one who decided it was easier to just smash everything you didn't like."

"But you can't!" Gale glared. "This is my coin; Katnip and I are partners-!"

"We were," I cut him off, opening my helmet to properly stare at him. "When you chose to work for Lord Zedd and attack innocent people just because of where they live… you abandoned any right to call yourself my friend."

"Because you're too good for me now that you're… that?" Gale tried to wave a hand at me despite his current immobilised state, only to stare in horror as the armour around his fingers fell away, the fallen pieces of armour basically collapsing into dust before they even reached the ground. "What the…?"

"You retain your armour at present only because your body still holds a portion of the power you received from Lord Zedd," Zordon explained, prompting Gale to look up at his face in shocked confusion. "You can no longer wield that power as a Ranger; once the transfer has completed, Johanna Mason will be the new wielder of the Green Power Coin."

"No…" Gale said, staring at his still-pinned limbs as his other hand was left exposed to the open air, the armour around his arms suddenly hanging loose. "You… you can't do this… we have to stop the Capitol…"

"But we don't do that by threatening the innocent," Peeta cut him off firmly. "There have to be lines we won't cross, or we just become as bad as the people we're fighting."

"Which is why I'm joining up and you're getting kicked to the curb," Johanna added, flexing her fingers around the Sword as she looked down at Gale. "Sorry to be blunt, but you don't get to keep that kind of power if you're just going to keep kicking innocent people down."

"I'm attacking the Capitol-!"

"Which still includes innocent people," Thresh affirmed, adjusting his grip on Gale's arm when my friend tried to move his arm. "I don't like everyone in the Capitol, but I'm not going to condemn them all as monsters just 'cause it's easy."

"They have treated us like slaves for decades-!"

"And we have to be better than them, or where was the point in winning this?" Peeta said, glaring resolutely at my old friend. "If you start killing, you're no better than the people you're killing-"

"They've been killing us for years!" Gale yelled, still struggling desperately against the others before his gaze focused on me again. "Catnip, you can't- you know what the Capitol are like-!"

"I do," I nodded solemnly at Gale as the armour around his limbs began to fall away, the Sword of Light glowing with new intensity as more of his power was funnelled from Gale to the Coin. "But I also know that just makes it more important that we don't become them in turn."

A part of me was still amazed that I was capable of thinking like this, but I knew that I was right. If we were going to act as Rangers and stop the Capitol, we couldn't let ourselves become as ruthless as the Capitol had been after the original rebellion. I might not understand how to make people like me, but I knew that I wanted to remain someone who Prim could actually like, and turning myself into the new President Snow was not the way to do that.

"I'm not like them; I'm only hurting-!"

"You're hurting people because of where they live," Peeta said resolutely, tightening his grip on Gale's now-unarmoured arm. "How is that any different from what the Capitol have done to us?"

"Because-!" Gale began, before the last of his armour fell away, only for a burst of green light to emerge from his body, knocking most of us off our feet; Johanna only stayed standing because she was keeping hold of the Sword of Light in Gale's chest. As I stood back up, I wondered for a moment if that had been part of the ritual, but the way Tyzonn and Trey looked anxiously at each other as they got back to their feet confirmed that something very bad had just happened. Looking up, I saw that Gale was now standing up, and while Johanna was keeping a tight hold on the Sword in his chest, there was a new sense of confidence and control in Gale's stance, as well as his eyes suddenly glowing with a dark green energy.

"So," Gale said, only for his voice to have become deeper and more echoy as he stood in the middle of the chamber, "these are the Rangers who would defend this world?"

"Gale?" I asked, already knowing that I was dealing with someone else.

"Oh, he's been my faithful agent, but I'm certainly not him," Gale's body said, his head turning to look at Zordon's image on the wall. "So Zordon of Eltar still lives?"

"As do you… Zedd," Zordon replied with a grim nod.

The moment Zordon spoke the name, I wanted to reject the idea, but I also knew that it was the only explanation that made sense. I didn't know how it was possible, but after everything else that had happened since Prim had been Reaped, the idea that someone was basically talking through Gale was just another impossible thing to deal with.

"Zedd?" Thresh repeated in shock, beating me to responding to this latest twist. "As in that Green Master guy?"

"Always gratifying to know that my reputation has preceded me," 'Gale' said, inclining his head in acknowledgement of Thresh's words before he looked at Johanna as she stood opposite him. "So you will be the new bearer of my coin?"

"No," I spoke up, stepping forward to place a hand on Johanna's shoulder before she could show any sense of fear. "We're curing the Green coin of your taint; she's not going to have anything to do with you apart from the colour."

"Very thorough, aren't you?" 'Zedd' said through Gale, smirking as he looked at me before he turned his attention to Zordon. "But if you think a few newly-trained Rangers and a purified Coin are going to be enough to stop me from claiming the Zeo Crystal of this world, you underestimate my own power."

"When you've been stuck in some kind of prison dimension for the last few millennia and you're literally a shadow of your former self?" Liv countered with a smirk, even as she was clearly tense while talking to my old partner's body. "Yeah, I think we've got a shot."

"Maybe you did have a shot before you gave me access to this," Zedd said, indicating the Sword in his chest with a satisfied grin.

"Gave you access?" Peeta repeated.

"Oh no…" Trey said, a sense of horror in his voice as he looked at the Sword before his eyes shifted to Gale's face. "You're draining energy from the Sword…"

"He can do that?" I looked sharply at Trey.

"With a suitably powerful link to the Green Coin and enough focus on Gale at the right moment…" Alpha shook his head, a dejected tone in his voice. "It would have required key timing, but it was possible."

"And you couldn't have prepared for that?" Glimmer asked.

"Do you prepare for every small thing that might go wrong?" Alpha pointed out. "We had to prioritise getting the Green coin away from that guy!"

"Oh, I'll concede that this particular link won't get me to full power, but it will be enough for my current purposes," Zedd affirmed, still grinning in satisfaction. "And while I prepare my arsenal, you can deal with my little menagerie…"

"Menag-?" Peeta began, before Zedd raised Gale's hands and fired some strange burst of energy towards the ceiling of the ship, which subsequently split into various smaller bursts and spread out into different directions. As though that was a cue, the light faded from Gale's eyes and he collapsed to the ground, leaving the rest of us to look uncertainly at each other.

"So… that happened," Peeta said, evidently feeling a need to say something after what had just taken place.

"That happened?" Alpha looked urgently over at him. "Zedd has just made contact with us and made it clear he's coming to Earth; that deserves a bigger reaction than that!"

"I… get that it's a problem, but… can't we just hit him with Pyramidas again?" Peeta asked, waving a hand over at our two alien Rangers.

"Oh yeah," Glimmer grinned over at Trey. "With that thing-"

"We can't stay."

"Excuse me?" Glimmer's expression shifted to glare at the Gold Ranger. "We've got some psycho coming for our planet who used to be basically in charge of every Green Ranger out there; that feels like something-"

"That's the part you don't seem to understand right now," Tyzonn explained, his tone regretful as he looked around the chamber before his gaze settled on me. "A fundamental law of the existence of Power Rangers is that once a team is active on a certain planet, that team must take point in defending that world from threats to the Zeo Crystal and similar adversaries."

"And that means that we can't ask you for help?" Glimmer asked, waving a hand at Gale's unconscious body. "You already helped us stop this prick-!"

"A rogue Ranger is one of the rare cases where it is justified for another team to assist the team of another planet," Tyzonn explained. "If the enemy of one Ranger team attacks another team's assigned world, those Ranger teams are allowed to team up to stop their joint enemies, but if two Ranger teams are active on the same planet long-term, it risks causing an… imbalance in the Grid."

"Imbalance?" Johanna asked, looking uncertainly at the now-glowing coin in her hand as she clearly wondered what she had gotten herself into. "And what's this Grid stuff about?"

"The Morphing Grid is the energy that gives all Power Rangers their powers," Zordon explained for Johanna. "Just as the presence of a Zeo Crystal influences life to develop in a certain way on certain worlds, the Morphing Grid allows individuals to channel its power in a range of different ways, whether through morphers such as your power coins or our enemies manipulating its energy in other ways… but it can only work if both sides adhere to the rules of the Grid."

"I thought the whole point of criminals was that they broke the rules?" Peeta pointed out.

"Those who oppose the Rangers obviously are willing to break the rules, but they also know what rules can be outright broken and which merely bent," Tyzonn explained. "Those individuals seeking to conquer worlds may bend the rules in various ways, such as by forming a brief alliance with others in the right circumstances, but they never pursue such plans beyond a certain point. Likewise, while we can assist you in purging the Green coin of Zedd's influence, we cannot actively assist you against Zedd or it creates the risk that the subsequent imbalance in the Grid as two distinct teams of Rangers operating on one world will lead to other planets being left vulnerable to other influences."

"So… are we talking about some kind of… imbalance in some kind of cosmic scale?" Liv asked uncertainly. "Like… if there were two teams of Rangers here for some reason… for longer than just to deal with one specific thing, I mean… Ranger teams on other worlds would become weaker?"

"That is one possibility," Trey nodded at the Blue Ranger. "There are other ways in which this imbalance could manifest itself, certainly, but that is the most obvious."

"OK," I nodded in cautious understanding. "The end result is… you can't help us against Zedd when he comes here without risking making things worse somewhere else?"

"Yes," Trey turned to me, regret clear in his body language even with the helmet concealing his faces. "But be assured that from what we have seen, you have acquitted yourselves well as Rangers so far; I do not deny that Zedd will be a challenge, but Tyzonn and I have faith that you will hold your own."

"…Thanks," I said, wondering if I should say more. From what they had just told me, coming here just to help us get the Green coin away from Gale could have been a risk, but the fact that they had taken that risk to help us… well, it was more than most people in this country had done for us before.

"So what do we do with the old Green?" Thresh put in, indicating the unconscious Gale. "I mean, if he knows all this stuff-"

"He doesn't," Alpha cut in, holding one hand over Gale's head as some kind of light emerged from his palm.

"He doesn't?" Glimmer repeated. "He doesn't what?"

"Know about 'all this stuff'," Alpha clarified, the light still playing over Gale. "I'm not sure if it was a deliberate act or just a fluke that worked out in our favour, but when Zedd departed Gale's body, he also disrupted the neural connections in Gale's brain responsible for memory, particularly the parts related to Gale's memories of the last few weeks."

"He screwed up Gale's memory?" Liv looked at Alpha with a cautious smile. "So… he's not going to remember any of us?"

"But his memory is fine, right?" I asked. "I mean, he hasn't… forgotten the rest of his life?"

"From what I can tell, basically anything since he found the Green coin will be a blur at best unless someone explicitly tries to remind him of what he was doing during that time, and if we send him back to his home and nobody else knew he had the Coin in the first place what are the odds of that?" Alpha observed with a shrug and that strange way of holding his head that suggested a smile as he stepped back from Gale. "You'll have to be careful if any of you meet him again, but so long as you don't explicitly discuss what Gale did as the Green Ranger I don't think he'll ever remember what he did to us."

"Good," I said, glad I wouldn't have to worry about Gale keeping my new secret.

It didn't do anything about my shifted opinion of him- how could I just forgive what he'd done with the Green coin, even if he didn't remember doing it any more?- but at least I knew he wouldn't be a problem either.

"OK," Johanna looked around the room with a slight smile as she held up her coin. "So if the old Green isn't an issue any more, are we still doing this?"

"Do you… still want to do this?" Peeta asked her uncertainly. "I mean… if Zedd's coming here, you'll be on the front lines…"

"Hey, if this guy's as bad as he sounds, I'm probably screwed if you can't stop him anyway, so I might as well take point in trying to kick his ass," Johanna noted before she turned to me. "If you'll have me, Red?"

"You're in," I smiled, holding out my hand to shake hers, glad to have some good news.

It was a small victory in the grand scheme of things, even without the fact that we'd unintentionally powered up an even greater enemy, but at least we had our new sixth Ranger now…

Chapter Text

When we had taken so long trying to harness our Power Coins when faced with the imminent threat of Rita, I wondered if the existing team should feel uncomfortable when Johanna managed to morph in a matter of minutes after receiving the coin. Liv in particular speculated that part of it was just us being the first people to receive our coins after millennia of inactivity where the Green coin had been active already, coupled with the fact that the coin had been altered to fight on its own rather than automatically working as part of a team.

In the end, the important thing was that we were now a team of six rather than five, and could focus on preparing for what was coming up, both in terms of the threat we would likely be facing from Zedd and the continued challenges we would face in our campaign against Snow and his men.

"So," Johanna looked around the chamber with a critical expression, "not saying I'm against the idea of taking on President Snow and a psychotic ancient evil alien, but are we sure we're going to face this Zedd guy?"

"After that rant he gave us?" Glimmer looked over at the new Ranger with a raised eyebrow. "Sounds like he's pretty committed to going after us if you ask me."

"But a guy like that… doesn't he have other enemies he'd like to focus on first?" Peeta suggested, looking thoughtfully over at Zordon. "You said that he was imprisoned by the Morphin Masters, and there must be other planets that he has some more active issue with; we're only relevant to him because he was drawing on the Green Coin…"

"Are you saying you want someone else to have to deal with Zedd?" I looked at Peeta in surprise.

"I'm not saying that I want to just… pass the problem on to someone else, but I mean… it doesn't make sense for him to come to us…" Peeta began awkwardly.

"Unfortunately, your planet's lack of prior contact with Zedd is exactly why he would come here first," Zordon cut in.

"Let me guess; because nobody here apart from us would be ready to face the bastard in a fight?" Glimmer groaned in frustration.

"Quite," Zordon said grimly. "Do not take this as a lack of faith in your own skills. Your defeat of Rita was a great achievement for your first outing, but even experienced Rangers would fear to face a foe of Zedd's power directly, and you are far from experienced."

"And if he's coming here, we can probably assume he's working on regaining some power already?" Liv asked. "He just said the Sword of Light gave him a boost to get out, but… well, that doesn't mean he'll be back to full strength straight away, right?"

"Unfortunately, there are many ways Zedd could gain power without putting himself at risk of confronting other Rangers before he came here," Zordon explained. "Like all Morphin Masters, Zedd had his own secrets and experiments that have remained undiscovered to this day, and we must prepare for the risk that he will harness at least one of these before he reaches Earth."

"So what are our options?" I looked up at Zordon. "Is there anything we can do before he gets here?"

"Firstly, we must prepare for-" Zordon began, before an alert blared through the ship.

"What the Hell?" Johanna jumped as she looked at the rest of us. "Is that normal?"

"No," Liv affirmed as she looked at Alpha. "What's wrong?"

"Oh dear…" Alpha said, as he turned his attention to the glowing orb in the centre of the room. As we turned to follow his gaze, for a moment I wasn't sure what we were looking at until I saw a field of what I recognised as cows running in a panic from something.

"Is that District Ten?" Peeta asked before I could voice the question.

"Geographically, it matches the location you gave me," Alpha confirmed. "The problem is what else is there."

A though in response to Alpha's statement, the screen shifted to display a humanoid figure walking after the cows, but this thing was clearly not human. While it was wearing a long dark robe that covered most of its features, the long snakes extending from the sleeves of the robe in place of hands made it clear it was far from human.

"OK, that looks disturbing," Johanna said, before she glanced over at Zordon and Alpha. "You guys know anything?"

"The scans suggest that the base creature originates from this planet, but there are elements of genetic modification even without Zedd's influence," Alpha said, something sparking in the glass orb that made up his head. "I can't identify the exact original species beyond that it's some kind of snake, but the final result is poisonous and highly dangerous…"

"So we have to be careful not to get bitten by that thing?" Thresh suggested.

"Always a good call when dealing with snakes," Glimmer noted with a brief smile before she looked at Alpha. "Any indication that thing could get through our armour?"

"It could deliver a few good blows, but as far as I can tell, it won't be able to penetrate your armour if it just bit you once," Alpha answered after a quick glance at the central orb, prompting a couple of strange glows that I guessed would mean something to the robot. "You wouldn't want to let it keep biting you, but your armour can cope with an occasional attack for a time…"

"Look, we have to stop this thing; this isn't the time to talk!" Peeta said urgently.

"Right," I nodded at him before I looked over at Johanna. "Are you ready? You get that-"

"People will probably think I'm still the old guy; I get that," Johanna flexed her shoulders in anticipation. "I'm used to people having a certain view of me; at least now I can do more about changing it."

"Then let's go," I nodded at the newest member of the team before I looked up at Zordon. "Send us there."

"Good luck, Rangers," Zordon nodded at us as we stepped into position around the room. For a moment, we felt the increasingly familiar surge of energy as the armour enveloped us, followed by the simultaneous surge of teleportation.

As we appeared in an open field, I allowed myself a moment to register the scale of this new District- the fields seemed of a similar size to Eleven, but more open as they relied on cattle rather than plants- before the physical presence of our current enemy took up all my attention. The creature didn't seem to be that much larger than the average human being, but the black robe it was wearing reinforced the dramatic impression it was apparently trying to make, even without its serpentine arms.

"Ah, the Rangers," the creature said, its voice somehow managing to create a sound that I could only think of as a loud hiss. "I suppose it was inevitable you would show up…"

"You know about us?" Thresh asked, as he and the rest of the team drew our weapons, only peripherally aware that other people were running away from the fight around us. "I thought you were just created recently?"

"My master provided me with everything I could need to know to oppose you and fulfil his will," the creature said with a cool hiss, chuckling as its arms flexed in a manner that no arms were meant to bend. "Do you truly believe that you can hope to prevail in conflict with a former Morphin Master when you are all such amateurs yourselves?"

"Says the guy who was basically born yesterday?" Johanna countered, spinning her dagger in her hand as she looked at the serpent in the strange robe.

"Some things are dangerous on surprisingly short notice," the creature observed, raising its arms in a manner that made it clear it was about to fight. "Allow me to demonstrate…"

With that ominous declaration, the creature lashed out with its arms towards my team and I, its limbs extending out as though they were ropes or some kind of grabber rather than regular limbs. Thresh and I were able to parry the attacks with our own weapons, but Glimmer wasn't able to get her bow up in time and the rest of the team didn't have large enough weapons to deflect the attacks from hitting them directly. Peeta was able to stay on his feet, and Johanna's golden 'armour' provided some additional protection, but Liv and Glimmer were each sent flying backwards, followed closely by our enemy literally leaping over the rest of us to land on top of the two fallen Rangers.

As the serpentine creature tightened its grip on the Blue and Pink Rangers, the rest of us ran over just in time to see two snake-like mouths at the end of its limbs, coiled around our friends' necks and lashing out at their helmets as though the snakes were trying to break the visors. Thresh stepped forward and struck the monster in the face with his axe, knocking it back and loosening its grip around Glimmer and Liv. The grasp was still tight enough that the other two were hauled back and up at first, but Peeta and Johanna lashed out at the extended limbs with their own daggers, forcing the monster to release its grip on our teammates.

I vaguely registered Johanna moving to help Liv and Glimmer back to their feet, but I focused my efforts on confronting the monster as I drew my sword, Peeta and Thresh joining me as we charged at the creature. As I lashed out with my sword, I was shocked when the monster managed to bend backwards to completely avoid the blow, followed by a blow to my back that sent me tumbling into the creature. I felt its limbs coil around me as it began to squeeze, but then I felt something strike the coils and the grip relaxed enough for me to force my way out.

"Are you-?" Peeta asked, grabbing me by the arm and helping me away as Thresh charged at the monster himself.

"I'm fine," I said, turning to see Thresh only just force the creature's arms off him as he struggled with the monster. "Keep going; we have to keep him off-balance!"

"Got it!" Peeta said, spinning his own daggers in his hands as he resumed the attack on the monster, Thresh stepping back to allow the rest of the team to mount their own attack. For a moment I felt as though we were taking control of the fight, forcing the creature back and away from the cattle at the other end of the field-

"Get down!" an unfamiliar voice called from behind me. Spinning around, I was shocked to see a group of Peacekeepers standing on the edge of the field, their weapons raised and clearly pointing at us as well as the snake-thing.

"Wait-!" Peeta began, before Glimmer crashed into him from behind and forced him to the ground, Thresh doing the same for Liv while Johanna and I ducked down just as the Peacekeepers opened fire. Looking up, I was relieved to see that the snake creature was at least aware that bullets were being fired at it, but the actual shots weren't making any real impression on the creature. I wasn't sure if it was just too strong for standard bullets or if it was something else, but either way, these people were clearly never going to stop the monster that way.

On the other hand, they are keeping it distracted…

I hated that the thought had crossed my mind, but as the barrage of bullets kept our enemy distracted while still forcing it away from the new arrivals, I knew that we weren't going to have a better shot than this.

"All right, Rangers!" I said, raising my sword and hoping Johanna picked up on our plan. "Remember that first wave of Putties; it's time to bring them together!"

"Right!" the other four original Rangers said, drawing their own weapons and quickly following the same pattern we'd used the last time we assembled this weapon. With our serpentine foe distracted, it was easy for us to stick our individual weapons together once again, followed by Johanna jumping over on instinct to place her dagger in the barrel of the cannon that was usually Thresh's axe.

"You think that'll do anything?" Thresh looked at the older District Seven resident with a tone that suggested he was smiling under his helmet.

"Feels right," Johanna grinned, moving to stand behind me as I aimed the Power Blaster at the snake-monster.

"Hey, Snakey!" Glimmer called out, prompting the monster to turn in our direction. "Bite this!"

With that declaration, I fired the Blaster at our enemy, Johanna's dagger rushing out ahead of the blast to literally fly through the monster in a surge of green energy. The dagger returned to Johanna's hand as the energy from the rest of our weapons enveloped the monster, which could only let out a strangled, agonised hiss before it fell to the ground and exploded in a burst of strange red lightning. The Power Blaster separated back into our individual weapons as the explosion faded, leaving only a pile of ash where the snake-creature had been moments ago.

"What was-?" Peeta began.

"The energy of the Morphing Grid used to create that monster returning to the Grid upon its destruction," Liv answered, moving forward to take a brief look at the pile of ash before she turned back to us with a contemplating shrug. "At least I think that's what it was; it matched a few descriptions I read in the ship's files, anyway…"

"What the Hell is this?" one of the Peacekeepers said, walking towards us as he waved his gun at Johanna in particular. "One minute you're fighting the one in green and now-?"

"Different Green Ranger," Johanna pointed out, waving a hand at her chest; the armour didn't make it obvious, but if someone was paying attention they could at least see that she had more up top. "I was brought in to replace the last guy; trust me, I'm not a fan of his crap any more than you were."

"The Green Ranger who was a threat has been dealt with," I said, feeling a need to take responsibility for my team as I stepped forward. "The new Green Ranger is on our side-"

"And we're just meant to accept that?" another Peacekeeper cut in, brandishing his weapon in an indignant manner. "You're all just going around doing whatever you want-"

"Our only goal is to protect the innocent, and that means dealing with the way the Capitol treats people," Peeta cut in, walking forward to stand beside me (I was glad that he didn't try and take my hand; the last thing we needed was to start rumours that any Rangers were 'paired up'). "We are not going around smashing things."

"And… what about that snake thing?" another voice said. Turning around, I fought down the urge to smile as I saw a few more non-Peacekeeper residents of this District gathering at the edge of the fields, likely curious about the source of the earlier explosion. "It was… that was…"

"A monster created by the one responsible for the evil Green Ranger," I said, hoping that this partial truth would be enough; even if I didn't know much about politics, I knew that I didn't want to keep lying to people like the Capitol did. "We dealt with that threat, and we'll deal with any others that come up… just as we'll also deal with the Capitol."

"That's-!" one of the other Peacekeepers began, before a quick glance at the rest of the team confirmed that they had all come to the same conclusion as me and triggered the teleportation to take us away from the field.

"OK," Thresh said, our visors opening as we reappeared in Zordon's chamber, "that… could have gone worse, but I'm not the only one thinking there's more to this mess than one snake-guy, right?"

"We can pretty much agree that the guy was something to do with Zedd?" Glimmer looked up at Zordon.

"Most likely," Zordon affirmed. "Zedd had a particular talent for converting objects into warriors with the power of the Grid; it was a reflection of how Green represented unconventional power and skill along his branch of the Grid."

"…Hold on a minute," Liv said, looking apprehensively at Zordon. "Before Zedd stopped using Gale… he fired some kind of energy burst up at the ceiling… And he said something about his 'menagerie'…"

"You think the snake was part of that menagerie he was talking about?" Johanna observed as she looked curiously at the former resident of District Five.

"And you think those energy bursts were how he created that thing?" Thresh asked.

"Well… he was powerful, right?" Liv shrugged tentatively. "If he could send out his energy like that… I'm not saying I can work out how he might have done something like that, but that doesn't mean it's impossible…"

"But… if that's the case…" Peeta began, his tone cautious as he looked around the room. "That blast from Zedd split into… how many?"

"Five," Alpha answered Peeta's question, looking grimly around the room. "Zedd released five separate bursts of energy."

"So… Zedd created four other monsters on top of that thing?"

"Something tells me we should assume the worst," Johanna observed grimly, before she glanced over at me. "So we're going to have to hunt these other four down, huh?"

"You've seen what that snake thing could do; do you want to take the chance that the others are any better?" I responded, a part of me still surprised at how easily I fell into this kind of role since I claimed the red coin. "Maybe we can… use tracking them down as training to prepare for facing Zedd?"

"That is a workable strategy in the circumstances, Katniss," Zordon smiled in approval at me. "Alpha and I shall explore other possible methods of opposing Zedd as much as we can before he arrives, but you shall be expected to train and prepare for his assault with your available resources as well."

"Good thing we've got a lot to do, then," Glimmer flexed her shoulders as she looked at me. "Or are you forgetting Snow's still a problem?"

"No," I nodded in acknowledgement. "Believe me, dealing with the Capitol is still important; Zedd's just the bigger problem right now."

"And we can't guarantee Coin will play ball either," Liv observed. "We have at least a similar goal now, but if she thinks we're going to support her afterwards…"

"Coin?" Johanna asked.

"Right, we didn't mention that yet…" Peeta looked awkwardly over at Johanna. "Sorry; we let Zedd take priority and forgot to mention some of our more local issues…"

As my original District partner spoke with our newest Ranger, I could only hope that whatever else Zedd had created to challenge us wouldn't keep us so busy that we ended up being unprepared for the bigger threat.

Chapter Text

Prim

Prim had no idea what her sister was doing these days, and every day it seemed as though the world just became even more complicated. The news that Katniss and others were alive was at least a better outcome for the Hunger Games than she could have expected, but she wasn't clear why Katniss and her new friends (Katniss wouldn't have been that comfortable talking with people if they weren't her friends) weren't coming home already. The Rangers had been doing a lot of damage to the Capitol's forces, even if most of that was because of the Green Ranger they'd been fighting… and Prim didn't even know what to think of that whole situation.

Her mother, her teachers and her friends' parents were all just as confused as she and her friends, so at least she was fairly sure nobody was doing that thing where everybody felt that the children were too young to understand what was going on, but that just meant that she knew nobody could help her find the answers. The latest news broadcasts she'd seen seemed to confirm that there was a new Green Ranger who was on their team, so that seemed like good news, but Prim wondered how the Rangers had managed to choose someone else for that kind of responsibility.

And then there was everything with Gale right now; after he'd spent the last few days going missing for some reason he hadn't shared with anyone, he was back at his home, and didn't even seem to know what he'd been up to himself. Gale had at least apologised to her for leaving like that and made it clear he wouldn't have abandoned her on his own, but Prim knew that he mainly did that because he wanted to keep his promise to Katniss rather than being seriously concerned about Prim herself.

Ever since Katniss had been reaped, it felt like Prim's world was changing in ways she couldn't understand, and those changes just kept getting bigger and bigger…

Finnick Odair

As much as Finnick wanted to feel hopeful about the future with the Rangers involved, he wasn't sure how to cope with the recent turn of events. He was fully prepared to acknowledge that they probably weren't responsible for whatever had brought in this new monster he'd heard about from the recent battle in District Ten, but at the same time he couldn't ignore that the world had become a lot more complicated since the Rangers made an appearance.

The thing that interested Finnick the most right now, however, was the appearance of the new Green Ranger. He appreciated that he had no clear evidence for his own theory about the new player's identity, but the fact that Johanna Mason had suddenly become even harder to reach at the same time as the Rangers got a new Green Ranger who was clearly female…

Maybe other people wouldn't make the leap, but he liked to think he was one of the few people who knew Johanna well enough to see why she might have joined the team despite her apparent personal issues.

He might not know exactly how the Rangers had gotten their powers and where these rumoured monsters had come from, but whatever their wider agenda was, his meeting with the Ranger at least left him with a sense that he could trust them. He might only have theories about who they were under those helmets, but he would admit that he'd only been giving advice to Thirteen so far because they were at least potentially better than the Capitol. When the Rangers assured him that they didn't want to take power themselves, something told him that they were honest.

He wasn't sure what they were going to do after the Capitol had been dealt with, but Finnick could appreciate people who expressed opposition to a corrupt regime and didn't want to take power themselves afterwards…

Alma Coin

Coin was unsure how she should feel about the recent turn of events. She had been quick to acknowledge that the Green Ranger's destructive rampage against the Capitol didn't help her District's efforts to present themselves as worthy successors to the Capitol's power, and she could at least appreciate that it was better for the Rangers to be working together as a united front, but that still left her facing the frustrating questions about her erstwhile 'allies'. She had no way of knowing who they had chosen to become the new Green Ranger, and that particular shift at least assured her that they had taken the initial threat seriously it also made it clear that she had no real 'control' over the Rangers.

Even if a part of her was relieved that she didn't have to put her people at risk confronting the Capitol, she also knew that they couldn't rely on the Rangers doing things the way they should be done. If District Thirteen was going to take power later they had to do something to show they were actually better than the existing rulers, but so far the Rangers were the only ones doing the work. Add in these rumours about how there were other monsters showing up around Panem in the last few days, and the Rangers' presence had very clearly thrown off her existing plans even if she knew that she couldn't actually do anything about that.

Her own forces could at least continue their current plans to stage some form of coup in Panem, but if this was going to work, she had to be seen actively doing something. The Rangers would almost certainly reject any claim that she had anything to do with their activities, and right now people were more interested in these reports of monsters showing up around Panem than anything anyone else might do, so striking a target now wouldn't do any good. She had to get back in contact with them and work out some way to coordinate their efforts again without making it obvious that she was trying to take charge again, but that would depend on the Rangers sharing more about whatever they were currently dealing with…

Coriolanus Snow

A part of Snow appreciated the unconventional chaos of the last few weeks since the conclusion of the Hunger Games. The routine of the Games at least allowed him a degree of predictability where he didn't have to worry about anything more than enjoying the spectacle with the rest of the rabble most of the time, but ever since the Power Rangers had made their debut he had to deal with the pleasure of something unexpected and the challenge of a threat he couldn't predict.

He would have liked to dismiss them as naïve children who simply didn't understand the realities of the world, but while he was fairly sure they were young, they were also powerful enough that they were a significant threat to his regime. He couldn't hope to control them without knowing more about who they were and how they had such powers in the first place, and he couldn't afford to try and turn public opinion against them when the Rangers were clearly needed to face the latest monsters coming out of nowhere. As much as Snow would have liked to blame the Rangers for these new threats, there was no sense blaming his enemies when he didn't have an alternate means of fighting such threats available. His attempt to compromise the Rangers' public image had fallen apart now that the Green Ranger was clearly now on their side, particularly when it was obviously a woman in that suit rather than the original male Ranger, so he had no way to compromise the public's faith in the Rangers without putting everything he'd built at risk.

For the moment, his only plan was to keep an eye on the Rangers, monitor their actions, and wait for the moment when he could regain control of the situation. The Rangers were powerful, but they were fundamentally impulsive who clearly cared more about 'doing the right thing', which meant they would inevitably make a mistake somewhere along the line and give him the chance to reinforce how his own authority was what was best for Panem.

Unfortunately, if Snow wished to ensure that he was able to justify his own power once that took place, he had to find some way to determine what the Rangers were currently dealing with in the first place. These latest monsters were obviously a threat, but even with all the other changes that had taken place in Panem recently, he doubted that such creatures showing up so shortly after the Rangers was a pure coincidence. There was some underlying plan behind this recent development that he had to determine, but the real question was if he would work that plan out before the Rangers had made too great an impression on the public for him to preserve the status quo…

Chapter Text

The subsequent trip to District Seven was in many ways a perfect summary of what our lives were like right now; an opportunity to see a new part of Panem that had to be put aside for later because of the bigger problem facing us. With the snake-creature to set a precedent, Zordon and Alpha had spent the last few hours running additional scans while my team tried to get some rest, but the best they had been able to do so far was confirm that there was something in this district that generated energy similar to the last creature. They couldn't specifically confirm what kind of creature it would be or what we might be up against, but at least it was located in the woods around the district rather than the central residential area.

The fact that we were doing this already morphed meant that we couldn't consider this a simple sightseeing trip, but I knew I wasn't the only one who wished we could have spent some time visiting the District. With our new focus on dealing with the threat of Zedd's monsters, we had all agreed that we couldn't afford to continue our campaign against the Capitol until the monsters were stopped, but we still regretted that shift of focus.

"So… how long do we do this?" Thresh asked after we had been walking through the forest for a couple of hours. "I mean, at what point do we just-?"

"Stop hunting?" I looked over at Thresh. "Unfortunately that's not an option right now."

"Weren't there nights when you… came back without finding anything?" Peeta asked, his tone uncertain as though he didn't want to seem rude.

"That's because I couldn't even be sure there was anything out there that would be worth catching," I said, hoping Peeta understood I wasn't angry at him for questioning my abilities. "Right now, we know there's a threat out here, and we know it's going to be hunting us in turn."

"Yeah, if Zedd wants us out of the picture he probably gave these things some kind of 'Ranger sense' so they know where we are," Glimmer noted grimly.

"Uh… as long as we're here-" Peeta looked over at Johanna.

"If you're about to suggest a reunion, don't bother," Johanna shook her head. "Everyone I'd be interested in hanging out back here with got killed a long time ago."

"Killed?" Glimmer repeated.

"Made the mistake of telling Snow where he could stick it when we wanted me to be available for 'appointments' after my Victory Tour."

"Appointments?"

"Do you think Finnick Odair got his rep by choice?" Johanna looked at Glimmer with such a scathing look that it didn't seem to matter that they were both wearing helmets.

"His rep?" Peeta asked, even as we kept walking. "Like… how he might have contacts with District Thirteen?"

"More like why he's got to act like such a man-whore for the public," Johanna corrected bitterly.

"Why he's- hold on, you're saying-?" Glimmer began, before she shook her head. "I thought that was him just getting information-!"

"More like he took advantage of what the system makes him do to get people to tell him stuff in exchange for screwing him senseless," Johanna responded, giving the former District One resident a bitter shrug. "Not sure if he went along with it to get the secrets for Thirteen in the first place or Thirteen approached him with the idea after it started; obviously it's not the kind of thing you can just drop into conversation."

"Wait a- you're saying the Capitol prostitutes Victors?" Liv looked at Johanna in shock.

"You think they're above that?"

"I- look, I never thought they were good even before this, but on that kind of scale…?"

"Pretty much only gets confirmed once you're attending your first meeting with Snow after winning the Games," Johanna responded with a bitter shrug. "I was high on my win and told Snow where he could shove it, and he had half my family killed before my Tour in freak accidents and made it more explicit when I told him where he could shove it at the end of the Tour."

"Oh," I said, once again in a situation where I felt the need to acknowledge what I'd been told but wasn't sure what I could say to acknowledge my teammate's pain. The idea that she had lost her family was tragic, but the idea that she had lost it basically because of her own mistake…

"Your fault…"

"What was that?" Peeta looked up, which at least assured me I wasn't the only one who'd heard that particular voice.

"You killed us…"

"You abandoned us…"

"Why haven't you come home?"

"Prim?" I couldn't stop myself calling out, looking anxiously around the forest for some sign of my sister. I knew on one level that there was no way Prim could actually be here- the Capitol still didn't know the lost Tributes were also the Rangers and I didn't think Zedd could have found out enough about us to take Prim hostage- but years of looking after her weren't easy to ignore. Almost acting on instinct, I found myself running towards the last place where I had heard the voice, only to find myself struck by a strange wind effect and thrown into a nearby tree.

"Foolish," a deeper voice said, before there was a sound like something hurling through the air past me. I ducked to the side and looked around, but couldn't see anything obvious at first, only to curse as I realised that I couldn't see the rest of the team either.

"Crap," I swore to myself, quickly taking in my footsteps to retrace my route back to where I'd parted with the rest of the team. Even with my tracking experience, it took a few moments to get back to where I'd come from, and then I was faced with the confusing task of working out which path to follow first. I could just about see the traces of my presence where I'd run off through the trees, but the rest of the team had made their own impact on the surroundings as they ran, and now I wasn't sure who had gone where or who I should try to find first…

I was suddenly saved from trying to work out the answer to that question when I heard a roar of rage and something large and covered in what looked like feathers crashed through the trees in front of me, followed by a figure in green with a roar of rage.

"SHUT UP!" Johanna yelled, slamming her fists into the bird-like figure on the ground. It took me a moment to register that the green dagger had been in her hand when she stabbed the creature, and that was only because the dagger was now stuck in the ground and the creature had moved rapidly away.

"That thing is… fast," I said, feeling a need to make some kind of observation even if it felt like stating the obvious.

"No shit, Red," Johanna noted as she got to her feet, glaring at the dagger as though it had offended her by missing. "Seriously, none of my shots even touched that thing; I think I only got in close because it got cocky."

"So it's fast, but… not very strong?" I looked tentatively at the older Victor.

"Seems that way."

"OK," I nodded, looking around the clearing and noting the signs of the other Rangers. "You go that way, I'll go this way, and we meet in the middle; we need to get everyone together to try and corner this thing."

Johanna gave a nod and ran off in one direction, clearly following the faint path left by two of the other Rangers, leaving me to hurry in the other direction. I wasn't sure who we'd find either way, but the sooner we found them all the sooner we could get back together as a team. It didn't take long for me to find Thresh standing in a clearing, angrily swinging his axe as he looked around himself, yelling in frustration as the feathered form of Zedd's latest monster zipped past him with its trademark speed, occasionally talking in the voice of an old woman.

"Leave him alone!" I cut in, jumping forward and slashing with my sword as the monster charged past where I was standing. I knew as I struck out that my weapon wasn't going to do any serious damage, but the creature clearly moved away from its initial route. Once again I caught a glimpse of features before the creature had vanished into the trees, leaving me to look at Thresh.

"Are you all right?" I asked the Black Ranger.

"Just… that thing…" Thresh began, waving a hand in the direction that the monster had fled.

"It sounded like someone you know, right?" I nodded in understanding at him. "It was my sister for me."

"Feathery thing that sounds like people," Thresh observed, as we began to move briskly through the woods. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Let's wait and see," I said, recalling old hunting advice about not making assumptions too early. I could guess what Thresh was hinting at, but until we had confronted this thing directly I didn't want to start guessing what it was. So far this thing was fast, but I was starting to wonder if it was staying on the move because it would have had more trouble actually taking our attacks…

"SHUT UP!" I heard a familiar voice yell from up ahead, followed by the sight of a pink blast of energy firing in our direction. Thresh and I ducked down before the blast could strike us, and a glance up ahead confirmed that Glimmer was firing her bow at something that was moving rapidly around her, accompanied by taunting comments in various voices.

"Traitor…"

"You abandoned your family…"

"You'll never go home…"

With no better ideas for dealing with this situation, I repeated my previous attack and jumped forward, lashing out with my sword to strike where I thought the creature was about to appear. Like with Thresh, I was able to strike the creature as it passed by in front of me, but it fled before I could properly follow up on that particular attack. Glimmer still rapidly assessed her surroundings with the bow drawn, but at least she was no longer trying to shoot at anyone when she couldn't see our main enemy.

"Pink?" I called out after she kept frantically checking around herself, only to calm down as she finally properly registered that the enemy had gone.

"R… Red?" she said, looking at me with a slight tremor in her shoulders. "That… that was…"

"This thing seems to like playing games." I gave her a reassuring nod. "We should just focus on finding the others-"

"Or maybe I can find you," another voice said, this one putting me in mind of a strange mix of my mother and Prim. Looking upwards for the source of the voice, I saw what looked like a long-legged bird flying through the trees above us, but the way it was brushing past the treetops made it clear that it was fairly close to the ground.

"It's-!" Glimmer began, only for Thresh to grab her and pull her aside while I jumped backwards as the monster crashed to the ground in front of us. As Thresh and Glimmer got to their feet, I took in the monster in front of us, realising that what I'd assumed were just long legs was actually a fully humanoid torso, covered in vivid green and blue plumage. It had human-like arms at its side, but it also had a large beak in the middle of its face, and a pair of large wings emerging from its back, spread out in a manner that made it look like it was wearing a large helmet or strange cloak, based on some of the more unusual outfits I'd seen in past Tribute Parades.

"OK," Thresh said after the three of us had stared in stunned silence at the monster. "That's… different."

"Obviously," the creature said, its voice somehow simultaneously deep and melodious, making me think of some of the Capitol's more overweight singers.

"And what do we call you?" Glimmer asked, her bow in her hands and ready to fire.

"Mockingjabber, at your service," the bird-creature said, tilting its head in a mocking bow and a malicious gleam in its eyes.

"Mockingjabber?" Glimmer repeated with a mocking edge to her voice. "Little on the nose, isn't it?"

"I serve my Lord Zedd's mission to undermine you; my title is essentially irrelevant," the bird-thing countered, raising its clawed hands as it glared at us. "A shame that my influence didn't have more of an impact, but there's nothing wrong with getting to the point."

"As in attacking us directly?" I asked, drawing my sword as I glared at the enemy. "You have to know that isn't going to be that much of a problem for us."

"Do you truly think your efforts will ever be enough to match my Lord's power?" Mockingjabber asked, fluffing his wings with a mocking smirk. "You cannot even strike me; how would you overpower my master?"

"No idea," I admitted, raising my sword as I glared at the monster under my helmet. "But I do know that you won't be around to find out how we deal with him."

Mockingjabber was swiftly knocked off its feet when something struck the creature in the leg, sending it to its knees as Johanna, Peeta and Liv emerged from the trees behind the monster. I swiftly noticed that only one of Liv's lances was still in her hand, while the other was sticking out of Mockingjabber's leg, having hit him while he was focused on my group. The monster wasn't defeated yet, but I was certain that it wasn't going to be as fast as it had been before now, which meant we had a shot.

"GO!" I called out, leaping forward with my sword drawn, slashing at the creature's chest. Mockingjabber was still able to raise a wing to deflect my attack as he tossed the lance out of its leg, but that just left it open for Thresh to hit the monster under the wing while it was focused on me, the axe digging into its side. Peeta leapt onto the creature's back and began desperately stabbing at the thing's chest with his daggers, while Glimmer kept her bow drawn as she waited for a good shot at the monster. Johanna had her own longer dagger ready in case she had her own shot, and Liv's reassembled lance was raised and her back tense as she waited for her cue. When Mockingjabber threw Peeta off with a sudden beat of its wings, the Yellow Ranger's absence gave Liv the opportunity to jump forward and rammed her lance into the creature's chest, practically hauling the monster over her head and slamming it head-first into the ground.

"Move!" Glimmer called out, firing an arrow practically at the same moment as Liv leapt to safety. Mockingjabber was sent flying back as the energy arrow struck it, followed by Johanna jumping forward and stabbing down at the bird-monster's throat with her dagger. Mockingjabber was able to raise its arm and stop the dagger striking a more vital organ, but there was still a nasty gash in its arm even as it threw Johanna away. I almost didn't realise what I was doing as I lunged forward before my sword was impaled through Mockingjabber's chest, leaving the creature staring at the weapon now inside it for a moment before it fell back, blue energy crackling from the wound.

"It's going to blow!" Liv yelled as I pulled my sword out of the wound, the crackling escalating.

"Everybody run!" Johanna called out, as she ran further into the woods, the rest of us close behind. We had only made it a short distance before the anticipated explosion occurred, shaking the surrounding trees as we were sent to the ground from the force of the shockwaves. Turning back to look at the explosion, I wasn't sure if I should be shocked or impressed to see the relatively contained but still significant blast radius Mockingjabber had left after its destruction. A few trees closest to the centre of the blast had small fires on some protruding branches, but overall the actual area seemed to be relatively undamaged.

"More of that 'released morphing grid energy' stuff you mentioned?" Thresh glanced at Liv.

"Pretty much," Liv nodded. "According to the files Alpha showed me, most of the energy used to create monsters like that would be channelled back into the Grid once it was destroyed. There'd be some physical effects on this side, obviously, but otherwise everything should be safely released back to the Morphing Grid."

"Good to know," Johanna put in. "The last thing we need is being accused of… suicide bombing or something like that."

"We should get moving," Peeta said, indicating off to the side, where I only just realised I could hear people coming through the trees. "The last thing we need is more awkward questions."

I nodded in acknowledgement, even as I hoped we could deal with these monsters soon; I was aware that we still had to try and keep up our campaign against the Capitol, but with Thirteen keeping up the pressure on some of the outer Districts it was up to us to focus on Zedd's monsters.

Another reason to stop him, I mused as we teleported away from the woods. Once we've dealt with Zedd, Snow can be our focus once again.

Chapter Text

"OK," I looked around at the other Rangers as we stood in the middle of Zordon's chamber, "so we're fairly sure we're going to be facing five monsters created by Zedd, and we've already dealt with two of them. Does anyone have… well…"

I trailed off as I realised that I wasn't entirely sure how I actually wanted to finish that sentence. As much as I was coming to accept the notion that I was the Rangers' leader, there were still moments when I realised how little I actually knew about being even a friend to anyone never mind taking a position of authority.

"For what it's worth," Glimmer put in, "the two creatures we've dealt with so far have basically been related to the Games in some way, so I'm thinking that theme's going to continue."

"Theme?" Peeta looked at the former Career in confusion. "Relating to the Games?"

"The snake-guy looked like the snakes they've used in some past Games, and I think we can all agree Mockingjabber was meant to be a rip-off of jabberjays," Glimmer elaborated. "In other words, both creatures that were used for the Games; if Zedd knew anything about us, he probably made those things monsters for us to fight for a reason."

"Makes… sense," Thresh nodded cautiously. "So… what are we going to have to deal with?"

"No way to be sure," Glimmer shrugged. "I mean, there's been a lot of crap in the Games over the decades; Zedd's got a lot to hit us with even if he just sticks to our own Games."

"There weren't any snakes-" Rue began.

"We didn't find any snakes; that's not the same thing," Glimmer corrected the young girl with an apologetic shrug.

"And even if the monsters were focused on our Games, we'd have no way to know what order he'd have sent these things after us anyway," Liv observed with a shake of her head.

"Is that something Zedd did before?" Peeta looked curiously at Zordon.

"He was certainly reported to have enjoyed targeting his enemies by playing on their personal weaknesses," Zordon conceded with a gesture that seemed his equivalent of a nod. "Unfortunately, while Zedd required outside stimuli to come up with certain plans of attack, he was relatively imaginative about how to use those notions when he chose."

"So there's no way to be sure what he'll hit us with?" Thresh groaned.

"You must also keep in mind that Zedd was active millennia ago and I never faced him directly," Zordon observed with a defensive tone.

"We get that," Rue smiled reassuringly at our mentor. "We're all dealing with difficult situations…"

There was a sudden alert from the central display, prompting Alpha to hurry over and examine a few controls.

"Ay yi yi yi…" he said, his voice low as he studied the results.

"What's wrong?" Johanna asked.

"The sensors have detected Zedd's latest monster is almost directly above us."

"Above?" Glimmer looked at Alpha in shock.

"As in it's in the old Arena?" Liv cut in, a new sense of fear on her face as she looked up at the ceiling. "The place where we all almost died?"

"We've fought a crazy alien warrior who actually did kill one of us; I think we can deal with unpleasant associations," Thresh said, even as he shot an apologetic glance over at Rue.

"And we should probably take care of that problem before whatever this is finds its way down here," I noted.

"A sensible concern," Zordon noted. "The ship's defences are significant, but if Zedd identified our exact location, a sustained assault would be a challenge we couldn't overcome."

"Talking of finding our locations-" Liv began.

"All surveillance of this area ceased when the last Tribute standing was taken away," Alpha assured us with a warm tone to his voice. "If you can deal with this problem soon enough, you should avoid attracting too much attention to us, and I can keep an eye on the surveillance systems to turn off any cameras if someone tries to turn them on from outside."

"Then let's go," I said, moving to take up position on the panels around the room. "Morph and head on up."

With that command given, we were soon morphed and leaping up through the water-filled cave that had led us to the ship less than a month ago, the day that our lives had changed in ways beyond what even the Games would have done for us. For a moment, as I stood back in the cave where we had first discovered the original five power coins, I wondered what would have happened if we had just never found that cave, but swiftly realised there was no point thinking about that. In any version of what might have happened next, at least five of us would have had to die before any one of us could go back to our families, and life in Panem would have continued like it always had.

Meeting Zordon and Alpha might have left us facing new challenges, but I also knew that I wouldn't want to sacrifice the bonds I'd formed with my team just to have an easier life. What happened with Gale was a blow, but when he had been so focused on hurting the Capitol that I wasn't sure if he'd ever truly wanted to help people… even if it felt a bit like a betrayal of what we'd had before, I wouldn't sacrifice what I had with the team now if it meant having Gale back. Gale and I had been friends who could have each other's back, but by now I felt that Peeta and Liv and the others got me in a way I'd never really known before.

In a strange way, being able to walk through the arena that we'd been hunted in before felt like it was a nice way to erase the memories of what we'd been through before now. Without the pressure of the Games to worry about, it was possible to just appreciate the arena as somewhere to explore, rather than a killing field where we'd have to fight each other. I knew that we had to find the monster and stop anyone finding out the ship was located nearby, but at least I could walk around with friends without having to think about how I might need to kill them later.

"Hey, Green?" Thresh asked.

"Mmm?"

"Just wondered," the Black Ranger elaborated, indicating the forest around us. "Now that we're back here, I was thinking… as the one who had the outside look from the start, could you settle something?"

"Depends," the Green Ranger shrugged even as she kept walking. "What is it?"

"If this Ranger stuff hadn't happened, who were most people betting on to win?"

"What?" Peeta looked at Thresh in surprise. "You're actually-?"

"Hey, I get that it's morbid, but… c'mon, nobody wonders who everyone outside was rooting for?" Thresh pointed out, a small smile somehow audible even under his helmet. "I mean, I get that Rue probably wasn't in the running given her age, but the rest of us… we could have done OK, right?"

"Honestly?" Johanna responded with a cool shrug. "Most people I knew were betting on Red."

"Hey!" Glimmer looked over at Johanna in what I hoped was exaggerated indignation. "I was a Career-!"

"Who hadn't really done anything special," our new Green Ranger pointed out, clearly amused at the indignation in the voice of our Pink Ranger. "Your score was basically average, you weren't shown doing anything flashy in training, and you just stuck with the pack until you and Yellow were lost on your hunt; Red made more of an impact because of those archery skills."

"Guessing I stood out because of my size?" Thresh asked, seemingly unconcerned about the question.

"You were up there for the obvious reasons, anyway," Johanna nodded at him before looking at Liv and Peeta. "Wasn't enough time for anyone to show a serious opinion of Blue, but Yellow was losing points for joining up with the Careers even if some people thought he was trying some kind of angle."

"That's fair," Peeta shrugged, surprisingly nonchalant at the notion. "I didn't really think I was going to win anyway."

"Seriously?" Johanna looked at him, surprise clear in her voice. "You're big enough-"

"He already told us that his mother didn't think of him as a serious contender," Liv nodded, looking apologetically at my fellow Twelve resident before she looked back at Johanna. "I guess that I probably wasn't ranking very high either, right?"

"Like I said, nobody had really seen you do much of anything to have an opinion," Johanna shrugged. "No offence meant, but did you have a strategy?"

"None taken," Liv said, although there was a tension in her shoulders that made it clear she recognised that wouldn't have been a viable plan. "Mostly I was just planning to steal food, stay on the move, and wait for something to come up; I was pretty much just winging it…"

"I get it," Johanna nodded at the other girl. "Hell, I only came up with my plan when I was actually in the arena."

"Really?" Glimmer looked at her in surprise. "You kicked that much ass when you were improvising?"

"I mean, making myself look weak until I was ready to fight back was a strategy I'd thought about the moment I got Reaped, but I only decided to do it when I knew what I'd be dealing with," Johanna explained. "If we'd been in a desert arena I might have tried to stick with the Careers to use their resources early on, just as an example."

"Could that have worked?" Liv looked over at Glimmer. Even as we kept walking and searching for our newest enemy, part of me was amazed that we had reached this point, past suspicions ended in favour of casual questions about topics that would have been unthinkable to ask people from outside our District in the past.

"One of those strategies that depends on a Game-by-Game basis, but looking back… well, the Careers back in those Games weren't some of our best," Glimmer put in. "They might have been tempted to go with having… well, a few of them might enjoy the offer of having a general dogsbody hanging around."

"Like you and the others treated me?" Peeta asked.

"Not exactly; with Red as a possible threat, you might have actually been useful," Glimmer noted. "I'm talking about Careers getting off on ordering someone around when that person knows they'll get killed anyway."

"Someone would do that?" I looked at her in surprise.

"One thing you learn at the Academy is that it's surprising what some people will do to stay alive for any length of time," Glimmer noted, her tone unusually grim. "It's one of those semi-unofficial classes, really; how to basically trick some of the more challenging non-Careers into essentially betraying their other potential allies to keep themselves alive that bit longer."

"'Eat my friends, but just give me one more second of sweet sweet life', huh?"

"Huh?" Thresh looked at Liv.

"Quote from an old movie I found while I was browsing the old networks back home," the Blue Ranger explained, sounding amused at the memory of whatever she was talking about. "The character was what people thought of as a kind of loveable coward; he at least acted like he was willing to sell out his friends to this army of monsters so that he could stay alive for a few more moments."

"Sounds like a jerk," I noted.

"He was more amusing when you saw him in more detail, and something else killed those monsters before anyone could accept the deal anyway," Liv said with a smile. "My point is that the Careers were basically enjoying the chance to manipulate Peeta because they thought he was the kind of person who'd act like that."

"Betray Katniss just so I'd live a little longer?" Peeta looked sceptically at Liv.

"We could have bought it," Glimmer noted, before a large dog-like creature leapt on Glimmer from the side and sent her flying. As the creature leapt after the tossed Pink Ranger, Liv summoned her weapon and rushed forward, flipping the dog-thing away from Glimmer and sending it into a tree.

"Our latest monster?" Thresh asked, drawing and aiming his cannon-axe at the creature.

"Do you see anything else that fits the bill?" Johanna asked, drawing her own dagger as the rest of us took up our own defensive positions facing the creature. The mutt was already back on its feet, confirming my initial assessment of it as a dog-like creature with a human face that glared at us with a twisted intelligence. I was briefly reminded of Maya, but I swiftly realised that wasn’t a fair comparison; Maya made her dog-like state look somewhat elegant, where this thing was more obviously a brute, with a shorter snout and more feral-looking eyes than the Yellow Ranger of Mirinoi.

"Ugly looking thing, aren't-?" Johanna began.

"Oh my God…" Liv cut in, moving forward to stare in horror at the figure, holding out her lance as though to hold the rest of us back. "Pryce?"

"Pryce?" Glimmer glanced over at the Blue Ranger. "Who-?"

"He was my District partner!" Liv clarified, glaring over at the former Career. "Were you even paying attention during the Reapings?"

"Hey, there were a lot of people to keep track of; I wasn't exactly-" Glimmer began, before the creature jumped forwards, lashing out with a swing of its arm that sent Liv and Glimmer flying before they could turn to deflect the attack. As the creature let out a feral roar, Johanna leapt forward and grabbed the monster's arms, straining against it for a moment before she ducked down and literally threw the mutt-Pryce over her head. As Johanna scrambled out of the way, Thresh moved forward and struck down with his axe, only for the mutt-Pryce to move to the side before Thresh could make contact. The blow grazed the monster's side, but didn't inflict any serious damage, even if it was left panting heavily as it glared at us.

"Is… could that kind of thing happen?" I looked over at Glimmer, a part of me uncertain if I wanted to know the answer. "Would the Gamemakers…?"

"Using dead Tributes as Mutts?" Glimmer finished for me with a shrug. "Some debate about if they'd actually use the corpses or if the mutts would just look like the dead Tributes, but these things have showed up in the final rounds a few times, yeah… don't you watch the Games?"

"Not to the final rounds!" Liv protested indignantly as the mutt-Pryce's growls increased. "Most of us would have stopped watching once we knew our Tributes didn't make it!"

"Question is if this version is the real guy…" Thresh muttered, adjusting his grip on his axe-cannon as he stared at the creature, reading for any attempted attack.

"Alpha?" Liv raised one hand to her helmet even as her other kept a tight grip on her lance.

"Yes?" Alpha's voice said over our radio network.

"Can you… look, this might sound a bit weird, but I think this monster was… he was kind of a friend of mine before he… got killed," Liv explained. "If there's… I get that it's a long shot, but if it's possible…"

"Running a check now…" Alpha reported, the creature growling as it faced us even as it didn't seem like it was going to attack us directly just yet.

"Alpha…" I said, my sword raised even as I wondered what we would do if Alpha could offer any kind of good news.

"Scan complete," Alpha said. "Unfortunately, while this individual was definitely once human, and was subject to an intense energy burst to turn him into this current state, whatever changed him in that manner involved extensive genetic manipulation, and that's without the fact that what I'm getting of his brainwaves are a complete mess."

"You can read his brain?" Peeta asked, shifting his grip on his daggers as mutt-Pryce's growls increased, clearly ready for a new attack.

"More like get an approximate idea of how he's thinking from a long-range scan," Alpha clarified. "From what I can determine, the brainwaves are too low to indicate true consciousness, so while this thing may have some memory of what he was before this happened, he wouldn't be able to understand those memories properly-"

The mutt-Pryce cut it off by letting out a roar and charging towards Peeta, who just managed to raise his daggers in time to force the creature back with a slashing motion. The mutt-Pryce jumped back, blood trickling from a wound on its forearm where Peeta had wounded it, but the way it glared at the man in yellow was very concerning.

"NO!" Liv said, stepping forward and opening her helmet, holding her weapon to the side as she looked desperately at the mutt. "Pryce, it's me! It's Liv! From home?"

"What the Hell-?" Thresh began.

"Just… let me try this!" Liv hissed, waving Thresh back with her empty hand as she looked urgently at her former District partner. "Come on, Pryce, don't you remember? The dam, the power plant, that stupid solar plant Snow named after himself?"

"Can't you-?" Peeta began.

"I never really spoke with him before the train, and that's not a good bonding moment!" Liv cut him off, even as the mutt continued to growl at her. "Look, I get that this is… awkward, but isn't there anything in there? We're the smart District, don't let yourself be-!"

As though provoked by some cue, the mutt roared and charged at Liv, forcing her to dive to the side as her helmet sealed shut once again. Glimmer drew her bow and fired an arrow before the mutt could turn back to attack Liv again, sending the creature flying into another tree.

"I'm trying to-!" Liv protested as she looked at Glimmer.

"Wish I could support the enthusiasm, but the idea's too risky right now," Glimmer said with a brief shrug. "We've got to stop this thing drawing attention to the ship, and Alpha said there's nothing left of him in there-"

"Couldn't we try?" Liv said, just before the mutt-Pryce charged at Thresh, knocking the axe out of his hands as its paw-like claws grabbed at his arms. The two were too close for Glimmer to try and shoot the mutt without risking hitting Thresh, and for the moment there was still a chance that he might be able to fight the creature off himself, so I waved an arm to indicate that the rest of us should take up positions around the fighters. I tried not to wince as the mutt-Pryce literally tried to bite at Thresh's face, the Black Ranger and the monster that had once been a Tribute circling each other for a few horrific moments, until Thresh managed to force his knee between the mutt's legs. The force of the impact made it relax its grip long enough for Liv to stick out her lance and pull the creature away from Thresh, followed by Johanna stepping forward to slash at it with her own weapon.

"HEY!" Liv yelled at the Green Ranger as the mutt-Pryce let out a howl of pain and staggered back. "We can still-!"

"Get the intent, but we don't have the time to try and make it work!" Johanna cut the Blue Ranger off. "We're still fighting for our lives here-!"

Further arguments were cut short as the mutt got back to its feet and seemed to dig its claws into its own stomach. I briefly wondered if some part of Pryce was trying to help us, but that idea was proven wrong when there was a sudden explosion and suddenly we were all looking up at a monster at least the size of Rita's Goldar creation in our first major battle.

"…Yeah, I don't think we're getting Pryce back from this," Peeta said, looking up at the roaring giant mutt above us.

"I…" Liv began, before she sighed and nodded. "OK… let's do this."

"Alpha?" I activated the radio link.

"Zords en route!" Alpha confirmed, just before the familiar roars filled the air. Turning around, I smiled at the increasingly familiar sight of our five zords charging towards us, now joined by the Dragonzord for the first time as a sign of how our team was already expanding.

"Bring it together!" I called out as I leapt up into my zord's control cabin, quickly setting up the Megazord sequence. A part of me was surprised that the mutt-Pryce didn't attack us while we were coming together, but I wasn't going to question that kind of luck when so many other things had been going against us. In a few moments, we had assembled the Megazord and were ready for a fight, the Dragonzord alongside us as we stared at the mutt-Pryce.

"So how do we do this?" Johanna asked, apparently in the Dragonzord's control cabin.

"Just focus on the goal and let the zord do the work," Liv cut in. "The suit's interface should compensate for your ignorance of the fine details; the important thing is that you keep your mind on the fight."

"I can do that," Johanna said, before the Dragonzord let out a roar and fired a series of small missiles at the mutt-Pryce. "OK, that's cool."

"Just keep it up and watch out," I said. "Remember, you're on a team now-"

"I won't shoot you, Red," Johanna replied as she marched forward to bat at the mutt-Pryce with the Dragonzord's arms. "Let's just deal with this thing."

"Are you sure you can do this?" Peeta asked as we prepared for our own attack. "If we do this-"

"Alpha," Liv cut Peeta off, "can you confirm there's no way to get Pryce back from this?"

"His DNA was already twisted around after Zedd turned him into this state and his brainwaves were a mess, and that's before he grew," Alpha responded. "I'm sorry to be blunt, but considering how he was probably dead before this happened to him, and add in how we're dealing with explicit genetic manipulation… saving him might have been an option if we were just dealing with one or the other, but after everything he's been through, whoever this person was before, he's not coming back from this."

"OK," Liv said resolutely. "It's a mercy kill; let's do it."

"Let's go!" Glimmer affirmed, as the Megazord charged towards the now-dazed hound-mutt. The first punch grazed against the creature's head, clearly still off-balance from the Dragonzord's initial attack, but the giant mutt regained its balance in time to deflect our next attack. The Dragonzord charged forward and swept its tail at the enemy, only for the mutt to jump over the attack and then vault over the Dragonzord's shoulders towards us. Peeta and Glimmer were just able to intercept the attack and stop the mutt actually hitting us, but it managed to avoid our attempted counter-attack.

The next few moments consisted of a few desperate attempts to strike at the mutt-Pryce, but it was soon clear that no matter what we tried, our enemy was always just a step ahead. Either it was able to dodge our more powerful blows before they could make contact, or it was able to just take our lesser blows without any serious damage. At one point I tried to pull back so that Johanna could get in another attack, but the mutt-Pryce was careful to stay close to us, clearly recognising that Johanna didn't dare risk going all out when we might risk hitting each other.

"This isn't working!" Peeta called out as the mutt-Pryce parried another blow. "We need to try something new!"

"Like what?" Glimmer asked. "Swords aren't going to make a difference if we can't hit this thing, and this guy's a slippery customer!"

"Rangers!" Alpha cut in over the radio link. "There may be a way to deal with this creature!"

"What?" I asked, watching warily as the Dragonzord moved back while the mutt-Pryce bared its teeth at us, keeping a careful eye on the two zords on either side.

"If you combine the Megazord with the Dragonzord, the new combination may have enough raw power that it can channel into its subsequent attacks to put this monster down for good," Alpha said. "The MegaDragonzord is only intended for use in particular emergencies, but I'm confident this qualifies."

"Hold on; we can combine with the Dragonzord?" Liv said from her own control section. "That sounds… wow!"

"I'll give it a shot if you all will," Johanna cut in from her zord.

"Let's do it," I nodded. "Distract the mutt and let's go!"

With that command, Johanna fired a new series of missiles at the mutt-Pryce, forcing it to leap backwards to evade the blast. With the area between our two zords clear for the moment, the Dragonzord leapt up with surprising grace, followed by the zord literally opening up so that its main body seemingly split in two. With its head the only part of its body still in one piece, the Dragonzord rotated in mid-air and positioned itself to descend on top of the Megazord as I sent a command to Glimmer and Peeta to hold out our arms, the Dragonzord settling on top of us like a cloak or suit of armour. The Dragonzord's tail slotted into a new position on our back, making me think of some kind of bigger missile, but the main thing I noticed was a new range of weapons systems coming online as we faced the mutt-Pryce.

"Whoa," Thresh said, before I could ask if the others were receiving the same input I was getting now. "Can you guys… I mean, this is a lot of firepower…"

"But will it work?" Peeta asked uncertainly as the mutt growled at us. "We were already having trouble hitting that thing…"

"That was just with missiles," Johanna noted. "If I'm reading these things right, we've got a few new options now."

"Let's do it," I said, adjusting the new Megazord- the MegaDragonzord felt right for a name, I thought- so that it was facing the mutt-Pryce directly. "Everyone, lock target and fire!"

I wasn't sure if I was uniquely in control or if I was just part of the process, but as I gave that command, there was a large glow at the front of the MegaDragonzord as a mass of energy was channelled from the parts that had previously been the Dragonzord's feet to gather in front of the central glass-like shape just below my own control section (I wasn't sure what the name of it was and this wasn't the time to worry about that). As the mutt-Pryce charged towards us, I triggered the attack and a massive wave of energy erupted from the MegaDragonzord, enveloping the mutt-Pryce before it could get away from the attack. The creature let out an agonised howl that left me thinking of the time I'd shot a wolf that had been about to kill Gale during a previous hunt, and then it fell to the ground as the beam cut off, followed by a sudden explosion that faded into nothing just as suddenly as it had appeared.

"…OK," I said, looking around my control cockpit out of habit as I spoke to the rest of the team. "That… well, we tested a new combo; that's good, right?"

"…Yeah," Liv said, although the tone didn't reflect the enthusiasm I'd come to expect from the former Five resident when we discovered some other new feature of our powers and technology. "That was… yeah, this is cool."

Even with my limited people skills, I realised that the best thing to do now was get everyone and the zords back to the ship; Liv in particular needed a bit of time to think about what we'd just had to do, even if we'd taken every possible step to confirm that there was no other way to stop that mutt and save Pryce from whatever he had become.

Just another reason that these people need to pay for what they've done, I mused, no longer bothering to work out if I was referring to Zedd or the Capitol with that thought. At this point, the only difference between them was that Zedd had done more on a larger scale and hadn't done much to us yet; from everything Zordon had told us about him, Zedd and Snow each had to be stopped for different reasons.

Chapter Text

Lord Zedd

The closer he got to Earth, the more frustrated Zedd became with everything he was picking up from his creations. He had been prepared to acknowledge that any team that could defeat Rita when she still had the green coin would be a problem, but he had harboured hopes that their local Green Ranger would be a problem, even before he had to unleash his own wave of monsters to try and keep them busy.

He was aware that the monsters probably weren't his best work, considering that he had been out of practice after millennia of isolation, but he would have expected to have news of at least one casualty by now. The concept that such a relatively isolated planet could mount such an effective resistance to his own plans… frankly, it was at the very least insulting to his own efforts.

If he was going to mount an effective counter-attack on Earth, he needed a new insight into the planet… and fortunately, at least one of his creations may offer just that opportunity if he could make contact.

It might be a risk, but when he was faced with at least a couple of further weeks of travel before he reached his destination, taking additional action would at least give him something more to do than wait and stew in his own frustrations until he could get to that benighted planet.

They may be surprisingly effective Rangers so far, but his former patsy had given him some interesting information about that world. In a civilisation that seemed determined to keep itself down, he could probably find some way to use that situation in his favour…

Rue

The hardest part of being associated with the Rangers these days was that she couldn't join them in the field.

It wasn't as though Rue liked the idea of fighting- she'd basically forced herself to focus on the other opportunities of being chosen as a Tribute to stop herself thinking about the idea that she'd be expected to fight to kill someone if she wanted to get home- and she appreciated that Zordon had reasons for not making her the Green Ranger, but it still felt so frustrating to just be left behind on the ship and watch them fight. She didn't even want to bring it up to anyone else as it just made her feel selfish, when she'd found great friends and been given a chance to be part of something that nobody else in Panem could ever know, but watching from the outside as the rest of her friends worked to defend and reshape their world…

She would do what she could to help the others, but she wanted to feel like she was helping the others do something that would matter. Right now, even if she appreciated that Alpha hadn't meant it as a bad thing, she still felt like the tagalong kid who'd just wandered into the ship because she was following Katniss.

She just wanted some kind of chance to feel like she could actually do something to help, instead of feeling like she was just… here…

Caesar Flickerman

Over his years as the host of the Hunger Games and other related news broadcasts, Caesar had been quick to learn that there would always be certain things he was expected to keep from the public. These might depend on whether the government simply didn't want to share the full details with people, or simply hadn't decided how they wanted to present it to the Districts, but ultimately Caesar knew his role and was happy to do his part in keeping the peace.

The problem with this current situation was that nobody seemed to know what the problem actually was. He could appreciate that the Power Rangers had their own strange agenda that seemed to be elusive to everyone else, but he was used to knowing things that even the general public didn't know. As President Snow had pointed out, these mysterious Power Rangers seemed to alternate between protecting the common people of Panem from monsters and attacking the Districts on their own, with no clear rhyme or reason, to say nothing of how they had interfered with the last Hunger Games. Caesar could appreciate the wisdom in the Capitol keeping the extent of the Rangers' less public activities secret until they knew more about the true agenda of these multicoloured heroes, but it was still a strange feeling to be in a position where he didn't know something.

Ultimately, Caesar was fairly sure he was the one who was most keen to learn what the Rangers were actually up to, if only because he wanted to once again have all the facts as opposed to being left in the dark. He enjoyed his role in giving people the facts of the matter, but right now he frankly knew only what everyone else knew, and he was determined to change that soon.

Coriolanus Snow

The only true relief about the Power Rangers' activities recently was that it was at least increasingly easy to keep it contained. Snow was only aware of so much of what they had been through so far because they weren't exactly discreet, but at the same time they had more recently been operating a relatively significant distance away from populated areas. He only knew that they had still been active because he had access to more information than most, but he was aware that the general population still believed that the Rangers were out there even without concrete proof.

At this point, the only way he was going to deal with the Rangers for good was to publicly defeat them in some way that disproved the idea that they were any kind of hero, but the challenge lay in finding a way to pull that off. Frankly, the world was getting far too complicated for him to rely on the old tricks, but he could also recognise that he was too set in his ways for him to change his approach that easily. If he was going to adapt to the current chaos, he needed to gain new insight into his current enemies and the origin of those monsters…

The only excuse Snow would give himself later for not noticing how things had suddenly changed was that it was hardly a common occurrence to realise that plants were growing inside a building at a faster rate. By the time he registered how his office's roses had undergone accelerated growth, the plants were already gathered around his desk, forming into a distinctly humanoid appearance on the side opposite him.

Snow thought about trying to escape his office, but in a world where men and women in multicoloured armour fought beings made of living gold, he had a feeling that if these plants had come to kill him they would have done it already. With that view in mind, he simply sat in silence as the plant-humanoid gathered itself in front of him, forming a vague face with wide eyes and a mouth of sharp thorns in place of teeth.

"President Snow?" the plant-thing said, with a voice that seemed to be both male and female at the same time.

"Yes," Snow replied, his tone cool as he looked at the creature. "And you are?"

"I represent one who has experience of dealing with Power Rangers," the plant-thing responded. "And should you wish to remove them and a few other annoyances from your life, I have a proposition to offer that I am sure will be of considerable interest."

"Indeed?" Snow raised an eyebrow.

He wasn't one to accept another's word blindly, but any individual with the power to do something like this…

At the very least, it would be worth hearing what this person had to say.