She woke up the following morning still on the chair with Kara and a smirking Sam towering over her.
"Comfy?" Sam grinned and Lena groaned at the girl, stretching out her limbs.
She headed home and snuck in her bedroom window seconds before Lex was knocking on her door telling her he had breakfast ready.
Lena quickly got changed, grabbed the toast Lex had made her with a grateful smile, and was out the door again.
She didn't see her team again until lunch, when she sat down beside Kara, everyone at the table laughing except Alex.
"What's so funny?" Lena asked, cracking open her lunch box.
"Alex has a crush," Barry sung, laughing when Alex swung for him across the table.
"Shut up, dude!"
"She made a complete fool of herself in front of the new transfer student," Kara giggle. "Got sulphuric acid all over the both of them, they had to go to the nurses office for a chemical scrub."
"It was an accident!" Alex defended, "It slipped out of my hands."
"Yeah, onto you and the pretty new girl." Sam smirked, laughing when Alex punched her arm.
"Who is she?" Lena asked with a little smile.
"Maggie Sawyer," Sam answered. "Transferred from Gotham."
"And Alex likes her," Barry teased and this time Alex managed to hit him upside the head.
"There she is," Kara said, making Alex perk up a little too quickly.
Lena merely smirked at her before turning to look where Kara was point.
Maggie was walking confidently toward the lunch line, dressed in a pair of skinny black jeans, combat boots and a tattered green bomber jacket. She was attractive, Lena could admit that.
"You have good taste, Danvers." Lena commented, turning back to her lunch.
"I don't have a crush on her," Alex defended, a little squeak escaping her lips while Sam stifled a laugh.
"Hey, Danvers," Maggie greeted with a little smile.
"Sawyer," Alex smiled a tight lip smile. "What's up?"
"I'm not great at science, I mean, I don't spill acid on people but I also can't wrap my head around a lot of it." Maggie was smirking at Alex, a smirk that was unmistakably flirtatious.
"Okay..?" Alex murmured and, god, Lena had expected Alex Danvers to be better at flirting than this.
"Can you maybe help me out with the lab report?"
"Oh," Alex said and Sam snickered, promoting Lena to kick her under the table, giving her a look that was telling her to behave. "Sure, yeah."
"How about after school?"
"Oh, I can't-" Alex glanced around the table.
"She can," Lena interrupted.
Alex glared at Lena. "What about what we do?"
"We can postpone it an hour, Alex." Lena assured.
Alex turned back to Maggie and nodded. "Sure, Sawyer, we can go to my place after school."
"Cool, see you then, Danvers." Maggie offered Alex a smile before waving at the table.
"Alex has a crush," Barry laughed and Alex merely huffed, flipping the boy off.
Everyone bar Alex headed to the mountain after school, Kara in Barry's car and Sam on the back of Lena's bike.
They stared training with the Putties that day, which meant the entire group was bloody and bruised by the time Alex finally arrived.
It wasn't long until Alex was in the same state.
They left a little dejection having fail, again, on the morphing grid.
"Hey," Lena nudged Kara's shoulder with her own, offering her a comforting little smile. "We're getting it, surely you can feel it, too."
"Yeah," Kara sighed, smiling back at Lena. "I do, it's just frustrating."
"I know," Lena squeezed Kara's hand and Kara stared at her with soft eyes and a ghost of a smile that made Lena's stomach flip.
Lena felt like her head had only just hit the pillow when she was being woke up again and was rushing out of the door for school.
She was so exhausted come lunch time that she didn't even register that there was a new addition to the table until they spoke directly to her.
"I didn't even see you there, Maggie." Lena said, offering her a smile.
"Jeez, Luthor, how burnt out are you?"
Lena let out a breathless little laugh. "Been a rough few weeks," Lena yawned. "How was studying yesterday? Alex didn't get anything dangerous on you again, I hope?"
Alex let up glaring at Sam (Lena figured Sam had probably invited Maggie to sit with them) to glare at Lena.
"Not this time, no." Maggie spared Alex a playful little smirk. "But she helped a lot, good brain on her that one."
Alex blushed, a full on rosy cheeks and hot ears blush which almost made Lena laugh.
"Yeah, that she does." Lena agreed, grinning at Alex.
Alex was uncharacteristically quiet that lunch, only speaking when spoken too, and a little more skittish than usual.
They laughed and joked on the way up the mountain, Barry and Sam (who seemed to have finally taken to the boy) teasing Alex while Alex tried to catch them.
"They're like children," Lena said, watching the trio dance around each other, Alex having more fun than she'd like to let on.
"Oh, please," Kara scoffed, "You'd be joining in if your weren't so exhausted."
"Why aren't you?" Lena challenge. "Joining in, I mean."
"Maybe I want to spend time with you?" Kara shrugged. "Maybe find out why you're so exhausted?"
"Aren't you?"
"Of course, but not to the extent you are." Kara's eyes were soft and swimming with worry. "Are you okay?"
"I will be when all of this is over." Lena assured.
"If we live," Kara said, and the joke was so morbid that Lena couldn't help but laugh.
"If we live," Lena agreed.
"And, maybe," Kara was suddenly coy, taking ahold of Lena's hand, playing with her fingers. Kara felt her heart beat spike. "When this is all over and if we live, we could, maybe-"
Kara didn't get the chance to finish because there was a loud grumble from beneath their feet, followed by the ground shaking and, suddenly the they were each being grabbed by large, blue men, lead by the alien that had attacked Sam.
"So these are the Power Rangers?" The alien grinned a down right evil grin. "They're so tiny."
Lena fought against the alien but it was useless, they were stronger than her.
"And you," the alien came to a stop in front of Lena, bending at the knees to look her in the eye. "The Red Ranger, the leader."
"What do you want?" Lena growled.
"Oh, we will get what we want soon, Little Ranger. Easily, since, apparently, none of you can morph."
"You're dead," Lena growled, tugging against the alien holding her. "You and your boss."
"I'm sure," the alien said in a condescending tone, his large hand swinging to make contact with Lena's face.
Lena's knees almost buckled with the force but she held strong, ignoring Kara's pleads for him to stop.
She forced a bloodied grin into her lips. "We'll be ready when he gets here, I promise you that."
The alien punched her again, and this time Lena's knees did give out, leaning her dangling in the aliens arms. He hit her again, then again, and Lena closed her eyes, waiting for another blow but it never came. When Lena opened her eyes the alien was standing in front of her, wide eyes, looking at Kara, sporting a full suit of yellow armour, holding the alien's fist in her hands.
"I said stop," Kara growled, giving the alien a punch of her own.
The group of aliens scampered off then, and Kara crouched down beside Lena. "What?" She asked when Lena just gawped at her
"You're- you morphed." Lena stammered, the amazement at Kara's suit of armour beating out the pain she was feeling.
Kara lifted her hands to her face. "I did."
The armour melted away, much to Lena's amazement.
"How did you do that?" Sam asked.
"I don't- I have no idea."
"Let's go to the morphing grid," Lena suggested, climbing to her feet, with some unneeded help from Kara.
"Are you okay?" Kara questioned softly, tentatively touching Lena's bruised face.
"I am," Lena assured.
They managed to morph on their second attempt, which was a good thing because when they left there was a group of Putties waiting for them.
"Well, let's do this." Lena sighed.
They were, surprisingly, untouchable as they fought off the Putties, each of them taking out monster after monster.
Then there was six of them, someone fighting alongside Lena in green armour.
The new addition too the group caused Lena to pause long enough too be knocked off of her feet by one of the minions, flying a few feet and skidding across the ground.
"Lena!" She heard Kara yell and she quickly got to her feet, trying her best too ignore the new Ranger helping them out.
The green ranger was gone come the end of the fight, leaving the group baffled and a little wound up.
"Who the fuck was that?" Alex growled, her armour falling away as they entered the ship.
"I don't know but she was a pretty great fighter." Kara commented, startling when Alex swung around to glare at her. "What? She helped us, I'm sorry for praising her a little."
"Guys," Lena announced, holding her hands up, catching the attention of her group. "This isn't the main issue right now."
"It isn't?" Sam frowned, sitting down on the stairs, resting her arms on her knees. "Another person running around with a coin, that's an issue."
"She's helping us," Kara said again, sitting alongside Sam.
"Exactly," Lena motioned too Kara, offering her a little smile that didn't go amiss too Alex. "This girl is helping us, but things are getting worse, Zedd will be here soon."
"Who's to say this girl won't turn on us after all of this?"
"No one, but for now she's on our side." Lena moved toward the wall just as Alpha shuffled toward her. "Zordon, Alpha, there's a sixth coin?"
Alpha bumbled over themself as Zordon appeared. "There is," Zordon said as Alpha continued to babble away, making his way over too Kara, who they seemed to have taking a liking too. Kara offered Alpha a little smile and patted their arm, which made Alpha sigh, sitting down beside Kara. "A green coin. It once belonged too Rita but she was weakened significantly in the blast that killed my team and I. She came back briefly but the new owner of the green coin helped take her out without much of a fuss."
"And who is the new owner of the coin?" Sam asked.
"That I don't know."
"Tell us more about Rita?" Barry requested.
So Zordon did, he told them of the fight that killed his team and wounded Rita, of how he buried the Coins but Rita's had been buried with her wherever she landed. Of how the new owner of the Coin used her Zord to throw Rita into space.
"What's a Zord?" Sam asked from her spot on the stairs.
"Zord are machines that will help you fight off anything that comes too Earth.
"How do we defeat Zedd?" Kara questioned.
"Oh, it's going to be hard." Alpha murmured, shaking his head. "He is very powerful. Very very powerful."
"Alpha is right, Zedd is a very powerful being. But together, you can defeat him." Zordon added.
The room fell silent, everyone mulling over Alpha's words more than Zordon's.
Lena pushed all of her doubts away, the anxiety brewing in her chest going ignored as she turned to the group, her shoulders squared and her jaw set. She had been thrown into this leadership role that she wasn't nearly ready for and giving the responsibility of protecting the fucking Earth, she had to at least pretend she knew what she was doing, or that she had some sort of control.
"Zordon is right." She said with an air of confidence that she hoped was convincing, because she certainly didn't believe it. "We've only been fighting together for a few weeks and we work fantastic together, with more practice we can do this."
"Your big plan is time?" Alex snapped. "We don't have time, Lena! There things are here. Now. Time is up."
"Alex," Kara warned softly.
"No," Alex squared her shoulders and levelled her eyes on Lena. "Tell us, oh leader, what is your plan?"
All eyes were on Lena then and Lena could feel the panic rise in her chest but she forced it down, she couldn't have a panic attack now, not in front of a team she was supposed to be leading into battle to saved the world. She could break down at home later.
"I don't have one," Lena admitted.
"What?" Alex gasped, making her way closer to Lena. "Our fair leader doesn't have a plan." Alex tilted her head to the left, a condescending smile on her lips. "Surprise, sur-fucking-prise."
"I'm fucking trying, Alex." Lena snapped, holding up her red coin. "Did you think I wanted this, too be the leader in the fight to save the planet! Well, I don't." Lena thrusted the coin at Alex's chest. "So fucking take it! You take the lead, you take control because I'm not good enough!"
The room fell silent again, Lena was panting, her eyes swimming with everything she had tried so hard too hide.
"That's not what I said," Alex looked almost remorseful.
"That's exactly what you said,"
"We're a team," Kara's voice cut through the tension as she stood up, commanding the room. "Sure, Lena is the leader but that doesn't mean she has to come up with the entire plan."
Lena felt a little bit of that weight chip away at Kara's words. "Zedd will destroy the Earth if we don't stop him. We need to come up with a plan, together, and maybe that plan is just to go out there and fight as hard as we fucking can, hope for the best, but we do it together." Lena spoke confidently.
"Ride or die," Sam murmured.
"Look," Lena sighed. "I get it, okay? We're teenagers, we should be out partying. Going to hockey games," Lena motioned to Sam before motioning to Barry. "Or chess meet ups, but we got these coins for a reason. Zordon said they chose us, we're doing this because we're the ones the coins thought worthy. It's going to be hard, we have to throw everything we have at this, we could get hurt. Fuck-" Lena laughed humourlessly, running her hand through her hair. "We could die, but at least we can show up in whatever afterlife there is or isn't and say we tried. We didn't run when the world needed us most."
"I'm in," Barry shrugged in a nonchalant way that had everyone looking at him with a frown. "What? We died when to Zeo Crystal is taken or we die fighting. I'm going down fighting."
"Me, too." Kara said.
"Yeah, I'm in." Sam added.
Lena looked at Alex, almost pleadingly. "I'm trying, Alex, but we are all in over her head here."
"I'm sorry," Alex sighed, holding Lena's coin out too her. "It chose you for a reason. I'm wound up, I took it out on you."
Lena nodded, accepting the coin with a tight lipped smile.
"Kiss," Barry whispered to her left, which prompted Lena to roll her eyes, flipping Barry off, noting the scowl on Kara's face but she didn't dwell on it, she didn't have time.
"Would you like me too show you to your Zords?"
