Justin awoke to his roommate shaking him. He groaned. Afternoon naps were one of the best things about college, and Fred seemed to think he needed a full earthquake to wake up. "Come on, I was just having a good dream."

"I thought you might want to see this. They're about to interview Jason on the 6-o'clock."

Yeah, right, Justin thought, not bothering to look at the screen. There had been Ranger look-alikes for as long as the Rangers had been publicly known. Fred's voice was serious, but he was also a decent prankster. Justin put an arm over his eyes. Fred left him alone, but it sounded like he was turning the TV so Justin could see it better.

He was almost asleep again when he heard what was unmistakably Jason's voice. He sat up quickly and rubbed his eyes as the sounds came into focus.

"...refused to comment at that time," Jason was saying from the screen, "because I didn't want to say something I didn't mean. I was really upset."

"It was a very emotional time for all of us," said the interviewer, a pale man in a suit sitting across from him. "Speaking of which, we heard you went to see Ryan yesterday. Are you authorized to say anything about his condition?"

Jason looked pained. "I don't know, but there's not much to say. They already told reporters yesterday that he's still in a coma. It's amazing just how many flowers people keep sending in, though..." He stopped, glassy-eyed. Justin had never seen him like this before.

"Just in case he wakes up."

"Yeah."

"Some people are blaming the Hexagon for this incident, while others are saying that no one could have predicted how badly this went. Do you have anything to add to this discussion?"

Jason was quiet for a little while, gathering his thoughts.

"It's natural to want to blame the people in charge whenever something goes wrong," he said slowly. "People blamed my team whenever stronger monsters showed up. They said we didn't try hard enough. Of course, now they do nothing but sing our praises, because they know we were doing the best we could. Every season of war has its unexpected escalations. Generally, when the enemy ups the ante, the Rangers will lose a couple of battles, but then the Power will supply a boost of its own to counter it. This happened with my team, with the Space Rangers, even Time Force. Pretty much everybody." Some of the students' heads were nodding - the ones who had lived in California.

"So you don't think the Hexagon is responsible."

"It's hard to say. These things aren't simple. I'm sure Tommy takes responsibility for every casualty of that day, just like I did before he came around. They couldn't have predicted the attack, but they could have been better prepared, better organized, and he admits that. Like he said, they should have known all the details about the Rangers and zords under their command before deploying anyone. Just because the Wind Ninja zords can get anywhere quickly doesn't mean the Lightspeed zords can.

"But I want to draw your attention to something specific that Tommy said. He said not only that the Hexagon should have been prepared, but that it should have made sure that the Lightspeed zords could travel longer distances. He thinks they should be able to see into the future, predict the next move of enemies that they've never seen before, and never make a mistake. That's where I think the problem is. Nobody can do that, especially not a large organization dozens of miles away. The reason Power Rangers have been able to respond so quickly to threats in the past is because they lived where the threat was, and there was very little coordination to do."

"I see what you're saying," said the other man, "but I think the Hexagon would agree with you, actually. One of the stated goals was to station Rangers in all of the 10 biggest cities within five years."

"Yes, having the Rangers close by is a good thing. I heard that the Thunder Rangers also recently moved here, in case more monsters showed up."

"I'm having trouble seeing what the problem is, then."

"The problem with the Hexagon is not the individual things that it's trying to do. It's that it's trying to do all of them, under one man. It controls nearly all of the strongest power sources known to mankind. It's already possible for Rangers to abuse their power, but one Ranger, or one team, can do a lot less damage with that power than five teams working together. I trust Tommy's intentions one hundred percent, but if he were to be compromised, that could be the end of planet Earth right there. When you bind together all of our planet's security, it becomes only as strong as its weakest link. That's the reason I've been speaking out against the Hexagon. It's never been done this way before, and I don't think it's what Zordon would have wanted."

"This all sounds very similar to what the Thunder Rangers have said."

"Yes," said Jason, "I think they and I are pretty much in agreement. I support what they're doing all the way. They're helping people one step at a time, like all Rangers."

"Some of the Hexagon protesters are calling for the Thunder Rangers to actually fight the Wind Rangers. Do you have a comment on this?"

Jason rubbed his forehead, as if he had a headache. "I really, really hope it doesn't come to that. As you're probably aware, I've been on both sides of situations where a Ranger turned evil and fought other Rangers, and that was bad enough. In this situation, neither side is evil. We only want to fight people who are actively harming the Earth and its people, and right now the Hexagon isn't doing that. It's doing a lot of good. We lost… so many lives at San Juan, but let's not forget that if Lightspeed hadn't shown up, or if Wes and Eric hadn't been there, we could have lost thousands or millions more. I'm not calling for the Hexagon to be destroyed, only for its methods to change."

"Thank you for your time, Jason..."

Fred abruptly turned the TV off and left the room, not bothering to shut the door quietly. Justin realized he had been holding his breath, and he let it out. He didn't have to ask why Fred was upset. Fred was somehow related to Chad Lee (second cousins?), and didn't mind talking about it; lately he had argued with just about every student on their campus who blamed Lightspeed for San Juan. Now that a former Ranger had spoken up about the Hexagon's issues, maybe people would start believing him, but not because they respected the Rangers themselves.

Justin thought about Jason's words to him after Muranthias. They had sat at a table so they could see eye to eye. "Don't use your power for personal gain." Jason had said. "That means you never fight people with the Power, unless they're endangering other people. Save it for the monsters."

He absentmindedly felt for the key in his pocket. I promised to help if you need me, and I will, he thought. Just don't make me fight people. I don't think I can do it.


A/N: Someone asked for a Jason chapter, so I came up with this bit to tide them over. More Jason coming up three chapters from now.