A\N: The MMPR Movie was not set in the same canon as the TV show. Normally that's not important, but the movie team seemed just a bit more...professional than the TV show's, and I started playing with it in my mind. Enjoy.
It was bad enough when one member of a team wasn't qualified for their job, but it was worse when they knew it.
Kimberly asked, once. The scanning system Billy set up was a chore for any Ranger with spare time, and Kimberly had been doing her homework in the Command Center so Rocky could take a breather. Alpha had gone to find something, so Kimberly figured it was as good of a time as any and asked.
Zordon paused. "I am unsure what you are asking, Kimberly," he said slowly.
"I'm asking why me." Kimberly said, her eyes never leaving her math book. "I mean, okay, you picked teenagers instead of Marines, whatever. But even for a teenager..." She sighed. "I get kidnapped every five minutes. I can't handle fights without someone to back me up. Zordon, I'm five feet tall and ninety pounds. I'm a gymnast, not a fighter. So why would you put me on the only team standing between the United Alliance of Evil and the world?"
Zordon was silent. He was struggling with human culture and language, Kimberly knew. He'd learned as much as he could about every single Earth culture, for some reason, and English was one of the more difficult Earth languages, so she waited patiently.
"You have had many victories," Zordon pointed out. So, not struggling, Kimberly realized, or rather not struggling with English but with cheering her up. "You defeated many monsters and gave aid to many people."
"I'm the weak link." Kimberly bit back a bitter laugh, but it came out as a small, equally bitter smile. "Even Rita and Zedd know that." An image came to mind, of herself in a bad mimicry of Rita's dress, Zedd whispering seductive threats in her ear.
It hadn't come to anything. The others had found and rescued her before Zedd could do more than annoy her, and she'd even been a bit amused to pretend to be Rita, especially since that huge metal staff was essentially a weapon. But it had been the moment when she'd realized just how much of a joke she was. The supposedly-mighty Pink Ranger, unable to fight off some pathetic loser who wanted a date?
A normal girl could do that. Rangers had to be better.
"Ay-yi-yi, I hope not!" Alpha said, returning.
Kimberly could nearly see Zordon wince. She glanced sharply up from her book. "So I'm not the only one who's noticed."
Zordon sighed. "Kimberly...you are a good Ranger and a good friend. Is that not enough?"
"With six billion people hanging in the balance?" Kimberly sighed. "I wish it could be," she admitted, "But it's not."
Alpha and Zordon gave each other a glance. The only thing frusterating about talking to Alpha was that she couldn't read his glances, and Zordon's were nearly as bad, obscured by the hologram projected outside of his warp tube.
"Perhaps you should know." Zordon said slowly. "Kimberly, do you remember what I told you and the others, on the day you were made Rangers?"
"Evil witch, fight her, use Power Coins, these are your Zords..." Kimberly summarized, frowning. "Nothing comes to mind."
"I told you that you had been chosen by the Power." Zordon reminded her. "And that much is true. You were chosen. But...you were not chosen because of your skill, or heart, or any other quality. You were chosen because you had the right DNA."
Kimberly's ears perked up. This...well, honestly, it explained a lot. "Our DNA? Like, our genes?"
"Yes, exactly!" Alpha enthused. "You see, the Power is an energy that focuses through something, like your power coins. You'll learn more about it later in school, when you take more advanced physics, but that's the basic idea."
"There are two people, and two alone, who may hold the Power. You are the Secondary." Zordon explained.
"Secondary." Kimberly repeated the word. Second. Not good enough. "Who's the Primary?"
"It does not matter. Suffice to say she is unable to join the team for the sheer distance involved." Zordon brushed it off. Kimberly made a note of that for the future.
"We were very lucky to find you at all, Kimberly." Alpha offered. "Sometimes Ranger teams go without most colors because the people involved are so far away."
"My wife was a Pink Ranger," Zordon said quietly, "And I am glad to have another one on this team as well. You are correct, in that your skills are not naturally inclined to being a Ranger, but you have done well with what you have. Trust in the Power. You will do well long after I have gone."
Kimberly didn't reply. She was too busy staring at her textbook and thinking.
Of course, after that conversation she knew, more so than before. It became more and more obvious that she wasn't really one of the team. Not in the sense that her teammates ever excluded her or did anything but made her completely welcome-and she loved them right back, they were like a family by now-but she might as well have hade a bulls-eye painted on her costume. She had a hard time, some days, not just sitting down and giving up.
But in secret, she started searching.
They had all learned to read and write Eltarian by now, and even spoke a little of it, so Zordon let them into whatever files they liked. Kimberly began a search for the Pink Primary. She wasn't quite as fluent as the others, but it didn't stop her. When Ivan Ooze attacked, it only solidified her desires.
She was going to get someone killed. She had barely been able to keep the Megazord functional until Tommy showed up. No one else noticed, but she knew that she was a liability.
Finally she found her. Katherine Hillard, in Australia. Town name something Kimberly couldn't spell or pronounce. Zordon had been right, she wouldn't be a good Ranger if she was halfway across the globe from her teammates. There had to be some way to get her here, to America...
Kimberly wasn't a computer whiz, but Billy helped, quietly sympathetic and smart enough to know she was right. A few hacks and edits, and Katherine's parents were on their way to America, daughter in tow. Kimberly had even made sure Katherine would have a few extra opportunities, as a sort of gift. After all, she was giving Katherine a lot of burdens. A few scholarship offers would help lighten the load.
But then something went wrong.
Kimberly sensed it as soon as she met Katherine. She tried to stay upbeat, but the mission had changed-Katherine had been warped, and the magical reek of Rita's spellcraft clung to her like a rotting perfume. Kimberly had a mild aptitude for spellcraft herself, and while she had kept it quiet (it had nearly sent Tommy into a flashback once when Kimberly had broken an annoying curse), it would be within her capabilities to fix this. She hoped.
And then she wasn't able to do anything at all.
Luck was on her side. She didn't know it in the delusional haze of pink and voices and a soft finger with a hard fingernail stroking her cheek, but Katherine freed herself and Tommy had saved Kimberly, and it all came together perfectly.
Kimberly met Coach Gunther, and he dropped her, saying that she was good, but her mind was too valuable to waste. The world was starting to see the value of people who could team-build or cast spells, and two of those talents in one person? Anyone would be salivating over her. She had a better future outside of gymnastics, he said, and he wasn't going to encourage her to do something that would fizzle out at forty when she could live a long, happy, and very rich life doing something she still enjoyed.
It was disappointing. Gunther had been her excuse for leaving. But Kimberly managed to soup up a few fake documents, and Zordon accepted them.
The Power went to its first choice.
The immidiate aftermath was brutal. Kimberly nearly died, and her parents were convinced she'd been anorexic. Over time, she started to think, well, maybe she was, maybe the Power Rangers were someone else. Truth blurred.
She got a job as a spellcaster working for the FBI, where the monsters were safely within her fighting range. She made money. She moved on from Tommy and found a new boyfriend. She grew up and had children and retired.
Over time, no one ever really knew that the first Pink Ranger had been a liability. They forgot the jokes. But every so often, the Firebird or Pterodactyl would cry, and Kimberly would glance up, a faintly pink tinge to her eyes.