The Mistake: From Five Different Perspectives

By: PernDragonrider

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers that honor goes to BVE (Buena Vista Entertainment), Toei, Saban Enterprises, Disney, and Ranger Productions. No money being made on this work of fiction based on the television series Power Rangers.

Author's Note:The idea for this tale came about when Panache issued a FIVE THINGS challenge. I DO realize this is choppy, but it's supposed to be choppy. It's written from Zack's Point of View as a rough draft for a writing assignment while at the Peace Initiative, a rough draft that he's reading years later. The timeline for this part is six years AFTER the episode – The Power Transfer, Part 2, and Zack finds his rough draft as he is cleaning out the attic of his and Trini's home. This is my offering for that challenge. I do hope that it meets the challenge. Many, many thanks to CamFan4Ever for the beta work on this chapter. As always, please read and review. Pern

The Mistake – Zachary "Zack" Taylor's Point of View

"Note to self," Zack thought as he climbed the ladder to access the attic in the small home he and Trini shared, "do not get on your wife's bad side when she's pregnant, Zack-man. Bad move and now you're stuck cleaning out the attic while Trini is out for the day with Kim and Kat. Checking account will be empty by nightfall."

Zack climbed up into the cramped space and looked around at all the boxes of junk he and Trini had stored up here. Right up front was their Christmas decorations, neatly packed and stored. However, behind all the neatly piled up boxes of decorations was a mish-mash of storage boxes, cardboard boxed, file cabinets, photo albums, and just plain junk. Zack sighed and started his clean-up chore by bringing down the Christmas decorations and neatly stacking them into the spare bedroom that would soon become the nursery.

Zack took anything that was Trini's, carried it down the ladder access hatch, and put the boxes into the living room in a very neat stack. He made sure to get everything that was hers out first and with the decorations removed, that left him room to go thru his things in the attic. "If I go through my stuff up here, then I won't have to haul it all down, go through it, and then haul it back up." He thought with a self-satisfied smile on his face, as he got comfortable on a small stool with trash bags ready on one side. On the other side was a stack of large, heavy-duty plastic storage bins with attached lids, a permanent marker for noting the contents, and in front of him was all of the things from the attic that were clearly marked as his stuff, and a few boxes that weren't marked for Trini, him, or them.

Zack continued going thru his boxes in the attic and didn't even notice when lunch time came and went. He was so engrossed in wondering, "Why the hell did I ever keep this", that he didn't notice the passage of time. He'd made good progress and after all his hard work he was down to three boxes of stuff that wasn't packed into two of the large bins and the unmarked boxes. He had four garbage bags, carefully dropped at the foot of the access ladder, and was thinking about taking a quick break for a bite to eat when he opened the next box and right on top was a stack of papers. The top paper, in faded bold ink, read as follows:

"Zack Taylor - Hands off, PRIVATE!"

Zack settled down to read, food forgotten, and this is what the second page of that stack of papers read:

Well this assignment sucks, royally! I'm supposed to write this paper, telling all the other delegates here what I gave up to come to this conference and jaw all day about world peace.

What I gave up, I can't tell anyone about, so how the heck am I supposed to write anything that will make sense to someone that isn't a Power Ranger? I can't tell them that and I can't think of anything I regret more.

Yeah I was tired of the constant monster attacks, constant fear for my life and lives of my best friends, but we were good together – all of us. I still, to this day, do not know what made me apply to be a delegate to this conference. Maybe it was one of Zedd's evil spells that Alpha and Zordon missed – who the heck knows, not me – that's for sure.

Anyway, what I gave up to come halfway around the world to sit with a bunch of teens from all over the globe and talk, incessantly, about world peace was an honor very, very, very few people of Earth will ever have.

I gave up the position of the Black Mighty Morphin Power Ranger to Adam Park and right about now – I'm really regretting making the biggest mistake of my life. I mean yeah not knowing if you'd be alive after Rita or Zedd's latest monster got through with us was bad, but the good side was knowing that Jason, Billy, Kimberly, and Trini would always be right there for me – just like I was right there for them.

Getting placed under evil spells, fighting to keep out town, world, safe, trying to keep my grades up, and having to lie to everyone that didn't know I was a Ranger, was tough, very tough; but we all managed, somehow.

Fighting off Tommy was even worse and I thought Jason had to be crazy when he asked someone that just minutes before had been trying to kill us – to join us, but Jase was right, as always, we needed him and he needed us. Go figure.

What I left behind? I left four good friends, teammates, fighting with three people we'd only just met. Three people we know nothing about except that Zedd tried turning them evil and we saved them. Billy nearly died trying to keep our secret, but he HAD to take his helmet off and Adam, Rocky, and Aisha were brought in and sworn to secrecy. I left behind two of my best friends in the world, two people that were by my side since childhood, to come here. I left them, alone, to keep me safe.

I left behind a great honor. I left behind a huge mistake. I left behind the best friends, best mentor, best teammates; I ran away. I ran from Zedd's evil because it was getting to be too much to hide my fears from everyone and be the 'clown' all the time. Being a Ranger was great, but it started getting to me. Especially the people we couldn't get there in time to help.

The others don't know that I went to the hospital to see those we couldn't get to safety. I went because I felt responsible for what happened to them – even if I didn't cause the monster to step on their house, their workplace, their car, or however they'd gotten hurt during our battles. I think that's why I left. The guilt of not being able to save everyone was starting to get to me. I don't know. It's nearly a year since I've left and like Trini and Jason both, we all three crave news from home and dread getting it at the same time.

I left behind a big responsibility that was making me into someone I didn't like. That's why I left. I left, like a coward, the first chance I got. I sure hope that Tommy, Kim, and Billy will forgive me one day. I know Zordon has, he told me so, in a letter after we got here. Trini and Jason got a letter from him too, but we don't talk about them with each other. Back home we were three friends, closer than family, that fought together, laughed together, loved together, and did almost everything else together. Here – here we're three sulky near-strangers that hardly speak with each other except for things related to the conference. It's as if without Zordon and the others – we aren't whole.

That's what I left to come here. I left the best part of myself with Adam Park when I gave him my powers and walked away. I left my fighter's spirit, my do-gooder heart, and my joyful soul back in Angel Grove. I left the best of me with them so that the guilt I carried wouldn't taint them. I'm still the clown, still the joker, still love music and dance; but I've grown up being a Ranger. I look at the people around me laughing and saying that the reports of monster attacks aren't real and are some media trick to get viewers. My fists clench, my heart races, my teeth grind together in anger, and I have force myself from screaming out, "It is real! I lived it! I fought against those 'media tricks' for a year before the guilt of the lost lives we couldn't save had me running away like a coward!"

I can never tell them that and writing this rough draft for this damnable paper has made me realize that I'm not the hero I thought I was. I'm nothing more than a human with a heart and soul that's torn in two.

Where I want to be is back in the Command Center, calling for the powers of the Mastodon, and joining my family as we ALL fight to keep this world safe from the evils of the galaxy. Where I am is sitting in the library of a building in Geneva, Switzerland, pouring my heart out into a paper that no one, other than another Ranger, can ever read.

"Keep your identities a secret, never escalate a battle unless forced to, and never use your Powers for personal gain." Those are the rules a Ranger lives by, daily.

I could use my morpher and PROVE to the disbelievers here that Power Ranger and the monsters we fought are real, but then that would break two of the rules of a being a Ranger. I would have revealed my secret and used the power for personal gain, satisfaction mostly, but on top of that I would have done a much more heinous thing. I would place the life of a fellow ranger into mortal danger.

Not Jason, Trini, Tommy, Kimberly, or Billy's life, but the life of the man I entrusted my powers to, Adam Park. We didn't exactly transfer the powers to our replacements when we left. It was more like our Powers were cloned and while Jason, Trini, and I can still morph – we have no need too – and know, deep inside, that Morphin would cause those holding our 'cloned' powers to unexpectedly lose their powers when we did.

I will NEVER take the chance that Adam will become a casualty of the unknown, to the world at large, war between Good and Evil that's being waged in Angel Grove. My life would be worthless if that happened because I was a selfish bastard and took powers, that keep him safe, just to prove to the uncaring masses here what they hear isn't mass hysteria nor media hype for ratings. It's real, it's happening as I write this, and to anyone that disbelieves – I have tale I can tell you about my hometown. A small place on the west coast of the United States of America called, Angel Grove.

A place where a being from another world, Eltar, resides inside an interdimensional time warp and speaks to those he's chosen to protect our world as a giant floating head. A place where a small robot, by the name of Alpha 5, does for Zordon of Eltar what he physically can't. A place where an evil space witch named Rita Repulsa attacked over a year ago. A place where I became more than a teenager worried about school work, grades, dances, dates, and being popular. A place where my heart still yearns to be, but I know that my hometown and our world are in good hands. It's in the hands of the Power Rangers – my friends – always been and always will be.

That's me, Zack Taylor, former Power Ranger and delegate to the Teen Peace Initiative in this beautiful city of Geneva. I left, but I still fight – in my own way – for world peace and maybe, someday, intergalactic peace where evil beings like Rita and Lord Zedd will no longer be a threat and people from other worlds can freely come to Earth and we can go there to visit them, peacefully.

Now to write this freaking paper without putting all of this into it and finding a way to lie through my teeth about what I gave up to come to the Initiative. Oh well, one lie always leads to another and another and another – at least that's what my mom always told me. I've lied to people for over a year about being a Power Ranger so lying to keep the fact that I was a Power Ranger a secret shouldn't be too hard.

Just gonna print this out and tuck it into a safe place. There's some stuff in here that I can use for this assignment, but this copy will NEVER see the light of day. Unless Tri or Jase wants to read it over and even then – I don't expect they'll ask.

Zack looked up from the paper at an unexpected noise and jumped when Trini called his name.

"Zack, what are you still doing in the attic? Aren't you done YET? Adam and Tanya are coming over for dinner tonight." Trini called up into the still open attic access.

"I'm coming right down, Tri, love." Zack answered, forcing a happy tone into his voice. "I guess I got sidetracked going through all this old junk up here." Zack poked his head through the opening and smiled down at his wife. "I was just going through the last box. I won't be long."

"You are a lousy liar, Zachary Taylor." Trini said with an understanding tone and a smiled gracing her lovely face. "You found something that distracted you up there, now give – what was it?"

Zack sighed and then smiled down at his wife. "Okay, okay. I found my old rough draft for that 'what we left behind' assignment during the conference. I got distracted reading it over and you know what, love?"

"You'd not change anything that happened, if you could." Trini said with a small loving smile. "I feel the same way, Zack. Sometimes it's just that it's time for a change. No matter how much we miss what was left behind, the future calls."

"You're right, love." Zack said as he put away the last of his belongings and quickly cleaned up. "Attic is cleaned out now. There's plenty of room to story mementos for the baby. I'll just put the Christmas decorations back up and take out the trash." Zack said coming down the ladder.

He was surprised when he reached the bottom and Trini wrapped him up in a loving hug and gave him a kiss. "I love you, Zack. That assignment was when I finally admitted it to myself. So I'm not sorry about going to the conference or finally getting you to see me as more than your lifelong friend."

Zack returned the hug and the kiss to his wife and smiled. "I'm not either, Tri. I'm no longer sorry about leaving or about finally realizing that you were my one. I love you and I can't wait to be a daddy to our little boy or girl. Although, I find out he or she becomes a Ranger, all bets are off because I might just whip out my morpher and join them."

"I just might do that too, Zack." Trini told him and without knowing it, both of them sent up a silent prayer to God and the Powers that their child would never have to fight, but if they did have to fight, they'd be ready. With two ex-Power Rangers as parents, this child would be ready if the power called.

Trini and Zack both chuckled happily, simultaneously, as they released each other from their hug and started to put away the mess from cleaning out their attic. They both looked forward to the arrival of their good friends for dinner and the eventual arrival of their first child.

XXXXXThe EndXXXXX

A/N 2:I realize that this was longer than the one I did for Trini, but it's just the way if flowed for me. I hope to have captured Zack's essence in this third part of my 'five things' offering. Please leave a review and let me know what you think.

May the Power Protect You!

Pern.