A/N** I don't own the Power Rangers! :)

A Confession and a Choice

April 13th 2010

NATALIE

Natalie groaned at her alarm clock as it started chirping at 900. Shut up shut up shut up she thought as she finally turned it off. She got out of bed slowly, stretching out as she slowly woke up more. She grabbed a pair of comfortable capris and a tshirt and walked out of her townhouse to the the small backyard. She had started Tai Chi as a way to relieve stress when she was living in Texas, but was surprised at how much her balance, accuracy and most of all patience had improved when practicing martial arts. She had never fought in anything but sparring matches, but she hated to lose, and had a tendency to lost her temper when things weren't going her way as a preteen and teen learning the basics. She smiled while executing the slow movements thinking about her old friends that surprised her last night. She couldn't help but wonder, how did they really hear about her going to Angel Grove, it was a smaller town, but not THAT small. "Heard it through the grapevine" was such a vague answer, but Natalie tried not to dwell. She figured it really didn't matter how they heard, it was good to know they were still around, and she wouldn't be completely alone. As she balanced on one leg and started to perform a difficult move, her thoughts turned to Tommy, one of the new people in her old group of friends. He had a great smile, and she could tell from his body, the way he walked, even the intensity in his eyes that he was a martial artist. Come to think of it, all of them appeared to practice fighting of some type. As her thoughts turned once again to the boy with the intense eyes, Natalie lost her balance and tumbled to the ground. fantastic moves as usual she thought. She decided that was probably a sign she needed to call it for the day. By the time she showered, got dressed and ate lunch it was a little past 12. She finished packing up her stuff and looked around. The funished townhome she had rented was going to be missed, especially with the pathetic apartments she had seen in Angel Grove. It was almost 2 when she picked up her cell and called her best friend from childhood.

KIMBERLY

Kimberly's cell phone rang around 2. Finally she thought "Hello!" she answered. She was laying on the couch, her feet in Jason's lap. "About time you called! Are you on your way yet? The address is 1321 Great Lake Way. It should pop up on your GPS, see you soon!" Kim hung up her phone and smiled at her boyfriend.

"She's on the way?" Jason asked.

"Yep! I'm excited Jason, not just the whole ranger thing, she was such a big part of our lives, and now she is again" Kim babbled happily.

"I remember, you two were really attached at the hip, no one else could call you Kimber and no one else could call her Nattie, I made the mistake one time... I distinctly remember that being a bad day for me" Jason laughed at the memory of the two small girls tag teaming him in karate class, and how embarrassed he was that the beat him so badly. The two girls knew the meaning of teamwork long before anyone else grasped it.

Tommy walked in the door, in his workout clothes, slightly sweaty. "Hey Tommy how was the class?" Jason asked.

"Well for 8 year olds they aren't bad, most of them are just in the class because their parents made them but there are a few that show real promise" Tommy responded looking around the room for a sign of their house guest.

"She's not here yet, and I suggest if you'd like to not disgust her that you go shower before she gets here" Kim said. "and make sure there are clean sheets on the bed in the spare room, oh and towels in the bathroom"

"Yes ma'am" Tommy said, giving Kim a salute as she flipped him off. "So ladylike" he said as he walked up the stairs. He showered and then did everything Kim asked, not because she asked, but for Natalie.

"So Tommy's got it bad, and I'm going to kick in him in the balls if he hurts her" Kim said matter of factly to Jason.

"Ha, you're violent for such a little girl sweetie. Tommy wouldn't do anything to jeopardize the team, or his balls" Jason said, grabbing Kim's foot as she tried to swing one up to kick him in the arm.

"Let go right now Jason, I'm gonna get mad!" Kim said angrily as she struggled with Jason. When they settled down, she thought about Tommy's past "girlfriends". Kim didn't like calling them that, she preferred army of skanks. Tommy always got the gorgeous girl, but damn they were always bitches, dumb as rocks, or secretly evil monsters sent by Zedd to kill them. Natalie would be good for him, but I don't know if he'd be good for her Kim thought to herself. She grabbed her phone realizing that Natalie would be there soon and texted Trini letting her know that the others should come over.

ZACH

Zach, Billy, Trini, Adam, and Aiesha walked next door through the backyard, they had taken the fence down separating the two houses, making it easier to train and to go back and forth. They had an impressive training room in the command center, but sometimes it was nice to be outside, and informal. They walked in the back door, not bothering to knock and went into the living room. Kim and Jason were taking up the entire couch so Zach decided to go ahead and sit on Kim. She protested and moved over next to Jason so there was a seat next to her. The group talked for a few minutes, when the doorbell rang. Rocky and Tommy came downstairs quickly as Zach and Kim both went to the door. Kim knocked into Zach with her hip so that she beat him to the door and shot him a grin as she opened it. Natalie was there looking slightly nervous. "COME IN!" Kim announced cheerfully, making Natalie smile at her enthusiasm.

"Where are your bags?" Jason asked her.

"In the car still, I was going to grab them after I made sure I had the right place" Natalie said with her hand on the knob.

"Oh no, that's what we keep the boys around for, we have catching up to do, Zach go get her bags!" Kim said shooting Zach a grin.

"Oh yes mistress! Right away!" Zach bowed at Kim as Billy and Tommy got up to go help him. The guys walked out to the car popped the trunk, and grabbed the suitcases. Adam was right, Tommy is tripping all over himself for Natalie. I figured someone with a personality and an IQ over 80 wasn't his type. Zach shared Kim's feelings about Tommy's past relationships. Tommy always ended up breaking it off with the girls when he realized there was nothing beyond a pretty face to them. He fell too hard too fast and ended up getting hurt. The guys walked back in and took the bags up to the guest room. When they came back downstairs Jason gave them a look, it was time to tell her.

NATALIE

"So, we have something to tell you, and you have to promise to not think we're crazy, or freak out, until you've heard everything. And you can't tell anyone." Jason said looking at Natalie. She stared at her friend and frowned. She remembered when they were as close as brother and sister, they had no secrets between them. Now 6 years later, he decides to open the conversation with one.

"Alright, so... you know the Power Rangers?" Jason began. Natalie raised her eyebrow, a signature expression of hers that used to drive her friends nuts, mostly because they couldn't do it. She nodded and waited for him to continue. "Right so... umm, we're kind of... them" he stopped and looked at her reaction. She looked at him for a second and then laughed.

"Ok yeah you're the Power Rangers..." She stood up and looked at him her eyes flashing with annoyance. She could never hide her feelings, her face betrayed her every time. They think I'm an idiot... She thought.

"We're serious Nattie, we can prove it" Kimberly said to her looking at the others and nodding. Natalie looked at her old best friend, wondering why they thought they should make something like this up. Then her expression changed from annoyance to shock as her friends pulled out the belt buckles on the Power Rangers uniforms, complete with the coins that the reporters on all the news station constantly spoke of.

"I'm not saying I believe you, because I don't think I do, but IF this is true, why are you telling me?" Natalie said, she had walked away from the group and had her back leaned against the back door. the group looked at Jason waiting for him to speak.

"Well Natalie, you're a ranger too... I mean you can be, the 10th ranger. There's these pieces of jewelry made of a really powerful metal, and you're the only one that can wear them, well wear one, see, one of them Lord Zedd has, and he's cursed it so if you wear it you do what he wants, and well, become evil. The metal makes you really really strong and fast, and it gives you other power too but we aren't sure what it would be it just depends on you I guess... but see if you become a ranger you'll have ranger power on top of the power of the adivantium, that's the metal the jewelry is made out of, you'll be able to help us defeat Zedd, and well, save the world" The normally well spoken Jason was tripping over his words as he tried to get them all out at once, trying to convince Natalie of her importance but without frightening her.

They're serious... There's no freaking way they can believe this Natalie stared at them trying to keep her face expressionless. She looked from person to person, first her old friends, then they new ones she had just met, when she met their eyes, she saw the pleading expression in their eyes, they needed her to believe them. When she looked at Tommy, she didn't see pleading, she saw the same determination from the night before, as if he knew she would believe them.

"Jason..." Natalie began, doing the best to keep her voice even "You're wrong, maybe you guys are the Power Rangers, and that's cool and all, but I'm not special, I'm not going to save the world, I'm not going to wear some crazy jewelry, and I'm definitely NOT ranger material. I'm sorry, you have the wrong person" She kept her eyes averted from them as she spoke.

"No, Natalie you ARE the one, we aren't wrong. We can't make you join us, but we know you are the one." Tommy spoke surprising Natalie with the certainty behind his voice. She tried to process everything that had just been thrown at her, and felt as if the walls were closing in on her as she tried to make sense of it.

"I... I need some air" She said as she opened the back door. She walked out closing it quickly behind her, making it apparent that she did not want company. She walked out to the the middle of the yard, wanting to get away from the house. She felt eyes on her from the windows but didn't care enough to look at them. She paced back and and forth focusing on her breathing, not wanting to lose it in front of what could very well be the saviors of the free world. Suddenly the sky went dark, Natalie looked up and then saw several gray creatures flying through the sky, straight for her. She recognized them from the news reports. Holy crap they are the power rangers she thought to herself as 4 of the gray creatures surrounded her. She looked at the house and realized that there was no one at the windows anymore, probably trying to give her privacy.

"Jason!" She yelled as one of the creatures lunged at her. when it grabbed her arm, she swept her leg around to cause it to fall. She was amazed at the strength of it, they didn't seem to have much in the way of intelligence, but they were as strong as two men. The back door burst open as two putties grabbed Natalie's arm. As a third came at her she flipped herself kicking it straight in the chest. She pulled her arms in front of her knocking the two creatures together, making them let go of her. She was suddenly surrounded by the 9 rangers, all in fighting stance.

"Go inside, we'll take care of them!" Kim yelled to Natalie as she launched toward one of them. Natalie walked backwards towards the door not wanting to turn her back on the creatures. Suddenly there was a giant hairy arm on her shoulder. She was stunned for a moment realizing none of the rangers noticed her. One of the new people she met was closest to her, she racked her brain, yelling "ROCKY!" hoping she had his name right but didn't really care right then.

"It's too late pretty girl, Lord Zedd requests your presence" The thing behind her growled, she turned and looked up into the face of something that looked like a nightmare she had as a kid. A monkeyish looking creature in gold armor, standing well over 6 feet tall. She struggled against him, but it was even stronger than the gray creatures, and all she seemed to accomplish was pissing it off as it dug it's claws into her shoulder and reached for her neck with her other hand. Suddenly Rocky was next to her grabbing the thing, it knocked him off and into the wall of the house. Natalie felt the blood dripping down her back from her shoulder, and bent down and rotated forcing the thing's arm to twist. She kicked it in the stomach and to her surprise, and it's it flew into the glass window. The other rangers were there in a flash, Rocky had recovered quickly. Natalie looked around, and saw that the gray creatures were gone, defeated by the rangers. The thing realized that it was outnumbered and looked at Natalie. "I'll be back for you pretty girl" he snarled before disappearing.

The rangers looked at each other making sure they weren't injured, Rocky insisted to the others that he was ok. Meanwhile Natalie had walked a few steps away from them. She took off her top shirt, wincing in pain as she pulled it over her head. She looked at her white spaghetti strap shirt, the left side where the thing had dug its claws into her was bloody, and her shoulder looked like, well a giant claw had been dug into her.

"Shit Natalie!" Tommy was beside her quickly, he took the top shirt she had taken off and placed pressure on the wound trying to get the bleeding to stop. Her arms had bruises beginning to develop from the creatures that grabbed her. She looked at the others, realizing their powers must keep them from being injured to easily, or perhaps, to heal quickly. She started to get dizzy, exhausted mentally and physically from the fight, and grabbed Tommy's shirt as she felt herself stumble. He immediately picked her up and carried her cradled in his arms as Jason and Kim opened the door and helped him lay her on the couch. Billy and Trini brought a first aid kit and applied bandages and antiseptic to her cut shoulder. Well... now they know I'm not ranger material she thought to herself.

"You were amazing!" Rocky said. "You kicked those putties asses, you did more damage than we did, we just finished them off for you, and you got Goldar!" The rest of the team murmured agreements.

"No, I wasn't amazing, If you weren't there..." Natalie said looking at Rocky like he had lost his mind.

"Most humans would have been done with one putty, you took on four, with no powers. When you have powers, you'll be unstoppable." Jason said excitedly.

"IF you want powers" Billy said gently. "We are friends regardless, we will not judge you negatively for choosing to not take them"

Natalie looked at the nine faces, the people who saved her life, the ones who believed she could be as great as them. She took a deep breath and said "I want them. If you think I should, I want to join you."

The cheers of excitement and happiness made Natalie jump, then wince in pain as she moved her shoulder. The rangers quieted down quickly.

"Well what are we waiting for, let's take her to the command center, Zordon can give her the power coin, I wonder what animal she'll be. Alpha can fix her shoulder up too." Aiesha said happily. The rest nodded and looked at her.

"Ready?" Jason asked her.

She looked at all of them one more time before nodding, Jason took one hand and Trini took the other, suddenly she was flying through the air...

ZEDD

Lord Zedd was livid. "What do you mean you couldn't keep her there, All you had to do was hold her for 2 more minutes and I could have brought her back here, it wasn't even the rangers that stopped you, it was her! She's only a human right now, you pathetic waste of space!"

Goldar hung his head in shame. "I under estimated her, it won't happen again."

"It won't happen again, because I'm taking care of it now, If we can't bring her up here, I'll go to her." Zedd said.