Chapter 9: Man and Mentor
Jason was back at the command center, training in the pit to get his mind off of everything that was going on with his team. Kicking the putties and smashing them to pieces to take out his anger, destroying the rocky golems in order to work out his emotions in regards to Zack's rage, as well as Kimberly's attraction towards Tommy Oliver. The leader of the power rangers lost himself in the combat, blocking out his frustrations so he could think clearly, and form a plan on how to deal with their enemies.
"Jason, please come to my command chamber." Zordon's voice boomed throughout the entire headquarters. "I wish to talk to you about some important matters."
With a sigh, Jason de-morphed., and made is way up to Zordon's chamber. The wise old sage's face emerged from the wall, sliding around to face the young man.
"Zordon, you called?" Jason greeted him, politely but slightly blunt. "What is it you wanted to talk about?"
"I am concerned about the disharmony your rivalry with Zach is causing to the team." The mentor explained. "I wish to see this problem resolved, before it causes any further difficulty, for you and the other rangers."
"Oh man, if only it were that easy, Zordon." Jason sighed, shaking his head. "He just won't get over the fact that Trini has left the team. Zack really cared about her a lot, and he resents everyone just accepting Aisha on to the team. He's been taking it out on all of us, but especially on Aisha, and it's really not fair to her."
"That is extremely immature of him, but consider something, Jason." Zordon replied solemnly. "As you say, Zack cared about her a great deal. Perhaps he is afraid that you and the others are forgetting her?"
"Oh, I never thought about it from that angle." Jason realized. "To tell the truth, we haven't heard much from Trini since she left. Not mail, no messages, no texts." The red ranger shook his head. "You could even say she might've forgotten about us, as well."
"I figured this might be the case." Zordon admitted. "This reminds me of the situation with my own team, something that ultimately helped lead to our own downfall."
"What, is this about what happened to Rita?" The red ranger shuddered. "Don't tell me it was a situation like this, that caused her fall from grace?"
"No, but something very similar." Zordon explained wearily. "You see, Jason, Rita was originally a proud and strong Princess, a warrior woman from the planet Gamma Vile. Alpha and I were the first beings in existence, to accidentally discover the morphing grid during a voyage in space. coming up with a plan to protect the universe, I commissioned the great artificer Ninjor to forge the power coins for me. I sought only the greatest heroes to form the universe's first team of Power Rangers, and I traveled through space, and sought out only the most exceptional individuals."
"And Rita was one of the individuals you chose?" Jason asked in surprise. "Boy, she must have been very different back when you made her a ranger."
"Indeed! Her father, Master Vile, recommended either her or her brother, Rito Revolto, to me as Ranger candidates. But in the end, it was Rita who made the cut, becoming our green ranger. Cestria of Aqutiar was our yellow ranger, and Dulcea of Phaedos served as our Pink ranger. Ninjor took his place as the blue ranger, and Jera of Mirinoi was our black ranger. The six of us stood against all the evil of the universe, protecting life from all the great foes who threatened them."
"So, what happened?" Jason asked, his curiosity piqued. "How did Rita lose her way?"
"While we were out protecting another world, an evil monster- known to the denizens of this universe as Ivan Ooze- attacked Rita's home world. Ivan had been born from the primal ooze itself, on a world without a zeo crystal, and hated all else that lived" Zordon explained. "While her people fought valiantly, but Ivan's legion of Ooze Men overran Vile Gamma, stealign it's Zeo crystal, and killing her entire world. But even worse, Ivan raised Rito and Master Vile as his undead minions. Rita was distraught by this, and she wanted to lash out at Ooze in vengeance. I told her we needed a plan, and there was no reason to rush in since her people were already exterminated, but..."
"Let me guess, she went mad with grief, and betrayed the team?" Jason realized. "That's when she decided to come and attack earth?"
"That is correct, Jason. Rita selfishly put her own vengeance and grief ahead of both our team, and the well-being of the universe." Zordon admitted. "Her betrayal split our team apart. Ninjor simply returned his blue coin to me, and left the team. The rest of us followed Rita to earth, where we sought to stop the now-insane green ranger. Rita then planned to steal the crystal from a planet with no intelligent life at the time. But we knew that intelligent life would one day appear on this world, so we all gave our lives to stop her, Alpha using our ship's gravitational system to bring an asteroid crashing down upon Rita." Zordon closed his eyes. "We sank both her and her green Dragonzord deep into your world's oceans, where they slumbered for millions of years."
"And that's how you ended up where we found you." Jason shook his head. "Wasn't there anything you could have done to save Rita? I mean, she was your friend, after all."
"I fear there were more factors involved in her fall than just the loss of her world." Zordon's voice became tinged with regret. "Rita was... something of a loner among our. The others in our group, we each had someone. Dulcea and I were close, Cestria and Ninjor found companionship with one another, and Jira had a family back on Mirinoi. No one was there to comfort her when she lost her world... and I was too blind to see the way she was always looking at me."
Jason thought about everything that Zordon had told him, and pondered. He thought about Zack's anger, and Kimberly's feelings about Tommy Oliver. After thinking about all of this, Jason looked back up at his mentor, and nodded.
"Than you, Zordon." Jason replied, turning to leave. "I know exactly what I have to do."
"Glad to help you, Tommy." Zordon replied, receding back into the wall. "And may the power protect you."