Disclaimer: Power Rangers belongs to Saban.
Prompt: pr_bingo on LJ – Unmorphed: Changing of the Guard
"1,2, 3 and pirouette!" Madam DuBois, the instructor for the class, exclaimed, clapping her hands in time to the counts, as she recited the exercise that all the dancers were supposed to be doing.
Katherine Hillard pirouetted automatically, the muscles on her body moving on auto-pilot. These exercises were almost like second nature to her now, seeing as how she has been doing them for hours on end on almost a daily basis. She tuned Madam DuBois's voice out as her thoughts turned to the e-mail that she had received from Tanya just this morning.
In the e-mail, Tanya had caught her up on her life (still trying to advance her singing career in New York; recently met a cute guy), and asked Kat to dish out the juicy details of the dancer that had asked her out on a date this coming Wednesday night. But what had her worried was Tanya's remark that Adam would be making a trip back to Angel Grove.
Out of all of them, Adam and Tommy had felt the loss of the Power the most. Possibly because both of them had held on to it for so long, the sudden and abrupt loss had hit them both extremely hard. Both had reacted in pretty much the same way – by packing their bags for parts unknown and leaving Angel Grove as soon as humanly possible.
Tanya had managed to keep up with Adam though sheer persistence, refusing to give up and lose touch with the person who had helped her the most when she came to Angel Grove as a young girl from Africa. From what she understood, Adam only ever made half-hearted attempts at replies, instead choosing to throw himself headlong into his burgeoning career as a stuntman. She had tried to do the same with Tommy. Even after he had dumped her, she had tried to remain friends with him, but so far he had ignored all her attempts.
She sighed in remembrance. The breakup had not come as a surprise to her. In fact, she had been expecting it, having sensed the distance Tommy had begun to put between the both of them. When she had gotten accepted into the Academy of Dance in London, she had made the decision to breakup with him, but had been unsure of how to bring it up. Because of this, she had felt ashamed at the feeling of relief that had gone through her when Tommy had initiated the breakup instead and had tried her hardest not to let it show on her face.
As much as she adored Tommy, somewhere deep in her heart she knew it would never have worked out. When they were Power Rangers, they had a shared secret that bound them. They had understood each other because they had both been under the control of evil before joining the side of good. But now that the common ground was gone, it had become increasingly difficult to connect with each other.
She understood Tommy's decision to distance himself from Angel Grove and his ranger past somewhat, just as she knew that he would never leave the fight against evil willingly. It seemed at the time that she was the only one who felt differently about the changing of the guard; she had felt it was time to move on.
Everyone, with the exception of young Justin, had graduated and by all outward appearances, were moving on with their lives. Yet, besides her, none of the others had applied for college. There was an unspoken worry that having to move away to the different colleges would make saving the world a lot more difficult. She had attempted to discuss the issue with Tanya, but was met with a quick change of subject every single time. Needless to say, attempts to bring the subject up with either Tommy or even Adam were futile.
Kat had felt like she was betraying the team simply for having these feelings, so she had kept them to herself, the guilt weighing heavily on her the whole time. So when Dimitria had them choose successors to pass their powers on, she had felt that heavy burden lifted from her heart. She knew that neither Tommy, Adam or Tanya wanted to pass the torch; she was the only one of them ready to move on with her life.
She had joined the ranger team after she had broken the spell Rita had cast on her and Kimberly, who was moving to Florida to train under Coach Schmidt, gave her the power coin. She had never felt right holding the Crane ninja powers as they were linked directly to Kimberly. When they had lost those powers and had to switch to the Zeo powers, she finally felt like she belonged, for she had made the journey to retrieve the crystal. Her Zeo crystal.
When Divatox had appeared and they had to upgrade their powers to Turbo, she had been rather reluctant. But by then, she had become weary of the constant fighting. Sure, she felt great that she was doing her part to keep her planet safe, but recently it had been more out of a sense of duty and responsibility than anything. She just wanted to go back to having a normal life, whatever that was, and not have to worry about monster attacks and making up excuses for her disappearances. She had been ready to move on. And she knew she was the only one.
She had seen the hidden resentment in Tommy's eyes as he made his little speech to TJ, the jaw clenched in anger as he turned away and turned his back on the mentor, who had guided him for so long, but seemed almost relieved that he was finally free of the Power.
She had seen the disappointment in the curve of Tanya's back, as she passed the torch on to Ashley; the steadying breath she took as she stepped back after she was done.
Even in Adam, who could conceal his emotions better than anyone she knew, she could see the hurt deep in his brown eyes and the stiff way he carried himself.
It was this understanding that had kept her from berating them for simply leaving after the ceremony concluded, that kept her from showing that pang of regret in her chest when she saw Justin gazing after them with a mixture of sadness and confusion on his young face even as the rest of his new teammates bonded as they made their way into the Power Chamber carrying their helmets. Instead, she had pasted the brightest smile on her face she could manage and congratulated them before Justin pulled her aside and asked the question she knew he had been holding in since the former Rangers left.
"Why aren't they staying around to help?"
Kat knew Justin was sad to see the them leave and was confused by their rather callous treatment of simply passing the torch on and leaving the new Rangers to fend for themselves when before, they had patiently and unfailingly guided and trained him until they were sure that he could hold his own in battle as a Ranger when he had first received the Blue Turbo Ranger powers. She had not made any excuses for them, the boy was too sharp and smart for that, but instead gently told him that the others needed time to recover from the power loss, and even though Justin did not question her further she could tell he was not satisfied by the answer she had given.
It has been a year since the changing of the guard, and despite Tanya having accepted the fact and moved on with her life, neither guy seemed inclined to do the same. Tommy drove his race cars with a recklessness that had already resulted in several near misses with death, and yet he persisted like the hounds of hell, that Kat knew were his memories as a Ranger, were after him. Adam was the same; he often took on the most dangerous stunts, quickly earning himself a daredevil moniker amongst the stuntmen he worked with, and had already landed himself in the hospital more than once for his efforts.
Men. They could be so annoying hardheaded and dense sometimes. Kat would have liked to smack some sense into them and perhaps out of the depression that they refused to come out of since they had been forced to pass the torch, but unfortunately, she was stuck in London, halfway around the world. Perhaps she could enlist Tanya or maybe even Kim to help her out? After all, it was more than past time for them to reconcile themselves to losing the Power. None of their predecessors had moped for this long after passing the torch.
It worried her that Adam was finally returning to Angel Grove since the changing of the guard. She had no idea how he would react to the memories that she knew would come flooding back, and hoped that he would not do anything foolish. The level-headed and sensible Adam whom she had known seemed to have vanished with the Power loss.
She could shoot an e-mail to Rocky, the only one of them still living in Angel Grove, asking him to keep an eye out for Adam, although she knew that he would without her asking. Adam was still his best friend after all, even if he did his best to avoid and ignore all Rocky's attempts to care. Rocky could be remarkably persistent when he chose to exert himself. He also knew Adam better than any of them.
Yes, she should definitely do that. Besides, she had yet to reply to his last e-mail –
"Katherine!" screeched Madam DuBois, "What was that? I said like a butterfly, not a cow! Look at you! I want to moo!"
Startled out of her thoughts, Kat cast a glance over the rest of the class, some of whom were adverting their faces so Madam DuBois would not catch them snickering. Pulling her mind back to the present, she executed a perfect jete under the hot glare of Madam DuBois's eyes.
The glare faded to be replaced by satisfaction. "Like that, ma cherie. I suspected you could dance."
Turning back to the rest of the class, Madam DuBois clapped her hands twice. "Positions!"
Swallowing a grin, Kat slid smoothly into the next position, making a mental note to shoot that e-mail off to Rocky before casting all thoughts of her friends to the back of her mind and focusing on Madam DuBois's voice.