Timeline: This fic is set sometime between Proo and PRS; flashbacks take place early enough before PRS that there has been no Nighlok activity yet, and the main body of the fic is some months after that.
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Rise as One
Every Ranger on Earth heard the call.
The Rangers who were left, anyway. The invasion was quick and thorough and completely devastating. No one had any warning; not Earth's various alien allies, not Wes and Eric, nothing from Time Force or SPD. For all intents and purposes, Earth stood alone.
They fought back, of course. They were Earth's Rangers, after all. Even when their powers failed they fought. Even when every zord and vehicle they had simply stopped they fought. When their weapons and suits and armour vanished they fought with fists and feet and teeth and sticks and stones, desperate to take down just one more invader, to save just one more civilian, to stave off defeat for just one more heartbeat.
Between them, those Seconds and Sixths who were left standing forced their Reds to retreat. Tommy Oliver had to be dragged from the field by his teams; only the pleading of his fourth Yellow persuaded him in the end.
Those who had strongholds – in Mariner Bay, in San Angeles, in the academies of Blue Bay Harbour and Ocean Bluff – retreated to them, taking civilians and Rangers alike with them. But the water that protected against demons did not slow these invaders. The weapons and defenses of the Hartford Mansion did not hold. And shields against satellites could not hide the academies for long.
And then the call. The rangers were powerless now, but the call still echoed in their hearts and souls, sure and unmistakable. Every ranger still alive stood, and turned to look, and all as one they spoke three words.
We are coming.
They took the civilians they'd saved and the supplies they had, and all of them, every one, left their hiding places and travelled to a mountain range outside Angel Grove, to a world of tunnels and rooms and protections nothing could get through. And all of them, every one, wore or carried a useless morpher; some more than one.
And all of them, every one, was met by Tommy Oliver and welcomed to the New Command Center.
No team escaped unscathed. Every team lost someone. But together they are strong. Together they fight. And together, they will win.
Joel announced himself while he was still almost the length of the room away, but Dana didn't look up. He didn't question her, sliding down the wall to sit beside her, almost but not touching, and waited her out.
He'd never been patient before.
She sniffed finally, raising her head. Joel had mimicked her knees up posture, but more loosely, and she felt herself relax just looking at him.
"Wanna tell me?" he asked softly.
"It's stupid," she muttered.
"Join the club. I could get Ryan or Kelsey."
"Ryan's in class." She glanced around, picking up a sheet of paper and offering it to him. Joel skimmed it, frowned, and went back to the top to read it more closely. "Stupid thing to cry over, isn't it?"
"Where'd you get it?"
"One of Mia's kids wrote it. I guess it's cathartic? She wants to put it up in one of the common areas, but she wanted to check with a Ranger and I was the first one she saw."
"You don't want it up?"
"I don't know what I want. I'll ask..." she thought for a moment. "Adam, maybe."
"Yeah," Joel agreed, "or just tell Mia no. She's not gonna question you."
Dana scooted closer, laying her head on his shoulder and playing absently with the Lightspeed Rescue patch on his jacket. "I guess."
Anyone who could wore their team uniform, and anyone else wore their team emblem. Casey, Theo and Dom wore their training uniforms, and Camille wore the Pai Zhua logo. Rose and Spencer wore Operation Overdrive's emblem. Kelsey's red jacket had been too badly torn to be salvaged; she'd found something similar and drawn the Lightspeed logo on herself. Joel wore the Galaxy Rangers and Time Force emblems as well, to remember their joined battles; some other Rangers had followed suit, but most of them stuck to their own team.
"It's nearly dinner time," Joel murmured after a while. "Ryan will be looking for you." He leaned over to kiss her forehead lightly. "Want me to intercept him?"
"No," Dana said softly.
"Sure?"
"Yeah. It's fine. Thanks." She held out a hand for him to help her up.
Ryan had burnt out his voice screaming demon curses early in the First Attack, trying to cast spells that were never meant for human forms. He'd barely spoken since, almost never made a sound, and more often than not he was within arms' reach of Dana.
"On the plus side," she said, vaguely aware that she was answering a thought rather than a sentence, "He's a half decent nurse."
"Yeah, between him and the Fernandez kid it's practically a real hospital, right?"
"Artist's hands," Dana said with a faint smile. "Come on. Let's go."