A/N: For those who really like Dimitria…I promise you, you won't like this. There weren't many characters I didn't like in Power Rangers but Dimitria is one of them. With that said, I present the following. Oh and I own nothing.

A/N 2: It's a "new era" as the last of Zordon's original Rangers are ushered out by Dimitria of Inquiris and four new Rangers are slated to take their places. But is this really a new era…or is it a diabolical conspiracy aimed at bringing down the Power Rangers? Remember folks…just like the title says, blood is thicker than water, always.

Chapter 1 – Life Isn't Fair

Some time after the powers were transferred

7:40 on a Friday night

Angel Grove Park

Somehow, life just wasn't fair for Justin Stewart.

It was true for everybody, in a sense, but it was especially true for young Justin after what he had just heard.

The thing was, he and the rest of his new teammates should have been celebrating a humongous victory as they had just destroyed Metallosaurus (the improved one) for good. Instead, he was wondering how life could get so cruel.

Flashback, a little while ago

Usually on a Friday night, Justin would go to the Power Chamber and check the security details in the Power Chamber, as well as check for any sort of technical issues that there might be.

However, tonight when he tried to enter, he found himself locked out.

It was a weird scenario, he thought, he was normally able to enter the Power Chamber any time he wanted as long as he had his Turbo Key and Morpher, which he had.

Suddenly, he stopped – there were voices talking which immediately raised his suspicions. Something was up and he wanted to know what it was. On whim decided to hit the play button on a little tiny recorder that he always kept with him.

What he heard next just about made his heart shatter in a million pieces. He somehow managed to keep his composure to listen to the conversation going on then he shut off the recorder and teleported out when he was finished.

End Flashback

Justin now knew he had a right to feel important – because he now knew the secret that had been well kept up until that point.

He knew of the conspiracy (and a conspiracy within a conspiracy as well) that was afoot, which could destroy the original team from the inside out. In fact, as it turned out, it already had.

That didn't make him feel any better about it though, especially not when he'd crept through the park earlier and saw one of his former team members, Tommy, yelling at his ex-girlfriend Kimberly. Once lovers, the two were now as far apart as could be and simply could not be counted on to work with each other.

Those two incidents fresh in his mind, he sat on a bench and cried himself a river of tears for what he had found out. The only good thing to come out of this was that Divatox and Dimitria would be away for a weekend with each other…girl bonding time if you will.

Sometimes, life just wasn't fair.

Meanwhile, not too far away, two young adults were walking hand in hand through the park, just happy to be back home.

They had taken their time figuring out that they were best when they were together and they'd both had their flirtations with other people, but in the end, these two Peace Conference members and former Power Rangers had figured out that they were meant for each other.

The young man known as Jason had been back in town for a while obviously. First, he had been in uniform once more for a brief while Trey had gathered enough strength to get his powers back. Then, there had been the whole Murianthias fiasco which had put every one of the team members involved on edge.

At the heart of it all was the fact that two other former lovers…and every one of the first Earth Rangers who had served under Zordon…had grown as far apart as could be. The Murianthias incident, while it had only made Kimberly evil for a short time, had awoken the anger and untapped aggression inside of her.

\No doubt, she could hold her own with the guys and didn't play like the nice, sweet valley girl anymore. Part of that made the team proud of Kimberly (even Tommy, for as much as the two hated each other), but it also scared the crap out of them too because if Kimberly lost it mentally she could hurt someone badly now. Even Jason's girlfriend, a master at kung fu, was scared to be around her still best friend.

Meanwhile, Trini Kwan had somehow been able to stay out of the line of fire. At the same time, she had worked hard to finish high school and being back home, was now taking psychology classes at UCLA (where Jason was also studying business). The two owned an apartment in town, where they lived when not in classes.

"Feel good to be back?" Jason asked his young girlfriend as they turned right on a path.

"Yeah, it's been a while," Trini said. "I remember the last time I was here was when we were getting ready to go off to Geneva. Adam, Aisha and Rocky had just become members of the family and we were back at Ernie's. My, how times have changed."

"Yeah and let me tell you, the villain these days…she's ugly," Jason said. "At least Rita was comical. Where in the world do they come up with these villains?"

"No clue, Jason," Trini said. "You know, I've been longing for…"

"You've been longing for this?" Jason said as he leaned closer, inches from Trini's face. As he was about to give Trini another of his soft kisses, he was suddenly interrupted by what appeared to be someone weeping nearby.

"Is…is that someone crying?" Trini said, her suspicions immediately rising as well.

"I think it is. Stay here and let me go check it out," Jason said. Trini nodded as Jason briskly walked not more than half a football field away to a park bench. Once he got to the park bench, he leaned closer to get a good look and much to his surprise, he saw Justin, his face stained with fresh tears and his face a bright red. It was obvious he had been crying for some time.

Something had obviously happened if he was crying this bad.

"Um, excuse me, is something wrong?" Jason said as he saw the boy momentarily lift his tear stained face. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"It's…it's nothing," Justin said as he continued to sob relentlessly. He knew who the man standing in front of him was…in fact he'd seen the man back at the Maligore fiasco but the girl with him made him stop before he said the magic word. "I don't think there's any way you could possibly help me. I've been caught in a horrible conspiracy and there's not a thing I can do about it."

Immediately, Jason's face turned stoic. He knew something Ranger related was up and Justin saw him whisper something to the girl next to him. He then saw the girl, dressed in a pale yellow halter, step forward.

"Sweetheart if this is Ranger related then I need to know about it too. In the end we're all family," she said. "I'm Trini and I'm the first Yellow Ranger. You must be Justin and something horrible must have happened if you're crying like this."

"Oh god, it's awful," Justin said as he felt himself being pulled into a hug. "There's no way we can beat who we're up against…there's just no way. The Earth as we know it is doomed."

Trini was completely shocked to hear him say this. No Power Ranger ever backed down from a fight no matter how long the odds…either he was really ignorant about what his predecessors had overcome or the current team was up against a really dangerous opponent…or god forbid, opponents.

Jason himself was confused. Not only would he never back down from a fight, of the villains that have come through he feared Divatox the least. The pit on Murianthias didn't have anything to do with her…that was all Maligore.

"I know you're confused," Justin said. "Divatox by herself is not scary. Divatox allied with someone we're supposed to trust…I can't tell you how much I'm scared right now…and you should be too once the two of them find out you're in town."

"What do you mean, someone you're supposed to trust?" Trini said. "Are you telling me that there's a conspiracy…a mole in your group?"

"It's Dimitria…our so-called mentor…she's the half sister of Divatox and the two want to wipe us and Zordon's legacy out once and for all. She's selling us out and throwing us to the wolves, right when we NEED HER!" Justin said. "Somehow she conned Zordon into going home so she could replace him and destroy us. How is this fair?"

"Are you sure about this Justin?" Jason said. "Are you sure you're not mistaken?"

"I'm as sure as the day is long about this," Justin said as he suddenly pulled out a small device and placed it in Jason's hands. "I run background checks on the Power Chamber every Friday night and went to go do so again but found the door locked. This is a recorder that has every second of a conversation they had tonight on tape. I got locked out which actually was fortunate tonight."

"We can't play that in the park, dear," Trini said to Jason before he could press the button. Jason could only nod.

"And we won't," Jason said, suddenly turning to Justin. "You really shouldn't be out this late. You need to get home."

"Parents are out of town this weekend too, making this the worst weekend ever," Justin said. "At least around my adopted family I could crack a smile. Now, there's no one."

Jason and Trini looked at each other.

"Then you can come stay with us for the evening," Trini said. "Why don't you go home and shower and we'll be over to pick you up in about an hour."

Justin nodded and ran off through the park, as Jason and Trini headed for Jason's motorcycle.

About an hour later, Jason and Trini were on Jason's motorcycle again, about to pick up Justin, but any signs of happiness were gone as the both of them had heard the message that Justin had recorded. The Earth was indeed in grave danger unless a miracle occurred.

They could only feel sorrow and sadness for the boy at what he was going through. Someone who was supposed to be his friend, his mentor, his guiding light, was conspiring to not just bring him down, but bring down everything the Power Rangers stood for.

Justin had said that what he was going through wasn't fair – and it wasn't. Unfortunately, Zordon's prized champions had learned long ago that life just wasn't fair sometimes. It was something which had molded these warriors into fighting champions.

What made Jason and Trini's blood boil even more was a sinister plot within a sinister plot to break up the older Rangers so they could be easier to destroy.

Jason realized now that the fighting going on with two of the "big three" as Zordon's teens liked to call them wasn't totally their fault. It still was their fault, to some degree.

But the majority of blame lied with the sinister traitor which called the Power Chamber home.

They shuddered to think that the Chamber, which once housed so many memories, was home to such a sinister, vile woman now. Dimitria, the two elder former Rangers understood, wore pure white.

But there was nothing pure about the plot she and her sister were conspiring.

Jason and Trini felt bad for the current Rangers too. To their knowledge, Justin was the only one who knew about the conspiracy that was afoot. When they found out (and Jason knew they eventually would) they would be just as angry no doubt.

Just then, they saw Justin coming out of the house with the necessary things he would need for the evening.

"Nice ride," Justin said as he hopped on the back of the motorcycle. "You live close to here?"

"Yeah we do," Trini said, her face growing serious. "Justin, I know you feel sad right now but you just did all of us a remarkable service by getting that information. That was very clever of you to have that recorder with you."

"It doesn't feel like I did a good job when I know in my heart we can't beat Divatox and Dimitria by ourselves. It just isn't possible."

"I agree, you're not going to be able to beat them by yourselves. Together they could probably beat the five of you any time they wanted," Trini said as Jason suddenly took off on his motorcycle. "They are more experienced and more wise together than any evil that any Ranger team has faced. That's why we're going to help you any way we can. That's who we are and that's what we do. Powers or not we will do all we can."

As he drove the motorcycle to his apartment he knew that what Trini said was true. That Zordon's champions were dedicated to defending Earth's cause, though there were some obvious cracks in the foundation.

However, he also knew Trini was right that unless the originals somehow got powers back and were able to repair fragile relationships, then the Turbo team would be left to fend for themselves against Dimitria and Divatox which would almost certainly spell their impending doom. No situation that any of these Rangers had ever faced was quite like this one, no opponent who had faced them knew them as well as Dimitria did.

In fact, he had to admit that her plot within the plot had been a genius idea – that it had done exactly what it was designed to do and that was tear the foundation of the team from the inside out. It was a vile plot but it had worked.

The Earth was in a lot of trouble right now – and Jason more than anyone knew that it might take divine intervention to save it.

As he pulled up to his apartment – the statement by Justin was never more true that it was at the moment.

Life just wasn't fair.

TBC…