Disclaimer: I do not own any characters related to Power Rangers they are owned by Saban/Disney et. al

I do however own all things Tanzetti and reserve the right to reuse them as I please.

Punch, kick, block, block, swing, duck, punch…

Damn these boys are good, Marcy thought.

She'd insisted on taking on both Rocky and Tommy at the same time and she was starting to question the sanity of that choice. Rocky, she could handle, he was aggressive, but not as calculating as should be expected of someone of his skills. Tommy was frightening. She'd fought him alone and thought it wasn't easy. But she's still beaten him and decided she needed more of a challenge. Now she was in over her head.

Tommy was smart, and decisive, and with Rocky's raw power as a distraction she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep up. They'd gotten her on the floor twice already and it was only her warrior instincts that had saved her from annihilation.

But they had her again, one on each arm and she was trapped. She had a decision to make and only a split second to make it. If she took Tommy down first it would give Rocky the momentum he needed to swing her out and take her down. But Tommy would be quicker on the uptake, already anticipating her moves. He was the stronger opponent and she needed the time to react to him.

She took Rocky first, a low swing with her leg behind the knee. He tried to keep his grip on her arm, but she twisted away, using the momentum of his fall to break away. Then she turned her attention to Tommy. Tommy was a decisive fighter. Where Rocky would have used his larger size and strength to simply toss her around, Tommy would try to turn her advantage of speed and better flexibility against her by trapping her into a move she couldn't get out of.

He still had an iron grip on her arm and she went for his face first, but it was a feint and she tried to twist away when he ducked. It didn't work and he was using he grip to spin her to pin her against his chest. She'd anticipated this and was ready to dig her elbow into the weak spot just below his rib cage, using the momentum he created to drive the force of the blow. He doubled over and a second twist freed her from his grasp. She stepped back to regain her balance, then came around with a spin kick just as Tommy got his breath back, but she overreached, moving too fast before he's recovered. He didn't and she connected with the side of his face, knocking him to the ground.

"Tommy!"

Kimberly and Billy had been at the juice bar watching and Marcy now saw Tommy's girlfriend rushing across the room followed closely by her evil genius.

Rocky was at Tommy's side and Marcy knelt down next him.
"I'm so sorry," she said. "I got carried away. Are you alright?"

Tommy was sitting up with the aid of Rocky, a red bruise flowering on his cheek. "I'll be okay."

Marcy hooked an arm under one of Tommy's and Rocky took the other and they pulled him to his feet and walked him to a table. Ernie appeared with an ice pack and asked Tommy if he needed anything else. But Tommy waved him away, declaring he was fine no matter who protested.

"I'm sorry," Marcy said taking a seat next to Tommy. Kim took up a chair on the other side and started rubbing Tommy's shoulder in a soothing gesture. "I'm fighting in a ring. Don't stop until the bell rings."

The rest of the gang settled around the table, Billy next to Marcy, Rocky next to him, and Adam and Aisha, who'd been sparing in another part of the gym but had come over when Tommy fell squeezed in across the table.

Tommy shook his head. "It's fine. It happens. At least you didn't break anything."

Marcy smiled and an idea occurred to her. "I'll make it up to you."

She took Tommy's left hand, which had been resting on the table, the other hand busy holding the ice pack to his rapidly swelling cheek. She held the hand palm up and narrowed her eyes at it feeling the rush of power that came from contact with the leader of this strange team.

"You read palms now too?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah," Billy said from her other side. "She did it to me too. It's a total scam though. She didn't say anything I hadn't already told her."

"That's because you talk too much," Marcy chided. It was true, she hadn't revealed much when she'd done this to Billy, combining a novelty earth talent with a skill of her own people. But she'd learned a lot more than she thought possible.

And now, holding Tommy's hand she could see more about him as well. Her gift of empathy needed only a small contact to know surface emotions and thoughts, but a deeper understanding came from a more prolonged touch, given of course that the subject was open to her in the first place.

Tommy wasn't as open as Billy had been. Tommy was a naturally reserved person, and he wasn't acquainted with her on the intimate level Billy was, so she knew her discoveries would be limited, but they were no less fascinating. The first thing she noticed must have appeared on her face because he spoke up.

"What do you see?"

"You're aura is multicolored." It was true. While the others had only one color attached to their presence, Tommy had four, and they were not in spectral order, which was even more unusual. "I see four colors, green white, red, and black."

"What does that mean?"

Marcy shook her head. "I'm not sure. It's possible for an aura color to change as you grow older, and occasionally you'll find someone with two or three colors, but four, and in that order…" She shook her head again. "It could be that you're in some kind of flux, like your inner spirit is divided somehow. You're power comes from multiple sources."

A sharp inhale went up around the table and she saw everyone stiffen just slightly. Her use of the word power instead of spirit or strength had set off an alarm. But this confirmed her suspicions. The colors were attached to their powers, and from the vibes she was getting from Tommy, he knew the source of the first two colors she'd named.

"I wonder what that means," Tommy said casually, but his voice was strained. She'd touched a nerve and she knew it. She needed to give some comfort, something that would seem like it was in a different direction and ease the tension a little bit.

"Probably that your meant to play multiple roles in your life," she said. "Some people are meant to be leaders, others followers, but many can be both."

She looked down at his palm again. "You're fate line breaks at the heart line. That indicates a major change in your life, most likely in your career."

"That's my future?"

Marcy shrugged. "Sometimes the lines are the past. You know your palm lines change as you grow older. Have you had a major change in your life experience lately?"

Tommy's face didn't change, but she felt his reaction in his emotions. A power shift, something he hadn't expected. She concentrated hard, trying to see the truth, but she couldn't reach it. Tommy was guarding his secrets well. Marcy decided to let it go. She'd promised herself she wouldn't go after their secrets, this was supposed to be about cheering Tommy up after all, not satisfying her own curiosity.

"You're Native American decent, right?"

"Yeah," Tommy said. "But I was adopted."

Marcy nodded as if this was significant, which it wasn't. "Native Americans usually believe heavily in past lives and spirits. Do you know what anything about exactly which tribe you come from?"

Tommy shook his head. "They just said my birth mother was listed as Native American on her medical records. I've never met anyone from my biological family."

"Hmm.." she said thoughtfully playing the scene out. She dropped his hand. "That's too bad, it would have been interesting."

"Does it make a difference?" This question came from Adam and Marcy turned her attention across the table.

"It's more a matter of interpretation," she said. "Some cultures look at things differently than others, but for the most part, the end meaning is the same. Palmistry isn't just about lines on your hand, or even about the future, it's about reading person as a whole. Sometimes knowing where you've been is the best indicator of where you're going." She threw a glance at Tommy. "And then sometimes it isn't."

She let the silence hang in the air a bit. Billy broke it first with a scoff. "It's superstitious nonsense."

Marcy laughed at that and patted his hand. "It's all in fun."

A rhythmic beeping broke the laughter. Marcy had heard it before; it came from the watch-like bracelets each of them wore. Every time the chime sounded they all froze. Tommy held his expression, keeping his smile even though his eyes flickered in panic. The others tried to follow his example, some better than others.

"It's getting late," Tommy said. "I have some stuff to take care of…studying."

"Yeah," Rocky said. "I'm coming with you. We got that big test tomorrow."

The chorus went up and Marcy played along. Only Billy didn't move. When she looked over her shoulder at him, his eyes were on Tommy.

"You should go with them," Marcy said, playing the part she'd committed herself to.

Billy looked at her in shock but regained himself quickly. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," she said. "If they need to study you should help them. I need to get home anyway."

She leaned in and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Call me when you're done."

He nodded and mumbled a goodbye, then followed after the others. Marcy sat at the table alone for several minutes thinking. She knew good and well that that alarm meant something, something that had to do with their powers. She hadn't put together what yet, and the truth was, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know. What would she do if she did find out? Would she tell Billy her own secrets? Her own past? Would she take up the mantle of warrior again for him?

She realized she'd been finger the crystal hidden beneath her shirt. It had been ten years since she'd touched its power, and that time she had intended to die with it. Had she been spared for this? To help this color coded team of mystery?

For a brief second she closed her fist around the crystal, balling the fabric of her shirt in around it. She could find out. All it would take was the simple thought. To reach out with the power and concentrate on Billy, and the crystal would take her to him, wherever he was. She could reveal everything then, open her burden onto him and his friends and take theirs in return.

No.

She dropped the crystal with a sudden jerk. It was too risky. What if others detected her? There were other evil powers at work on this planet. If they found out about her power, her crystals, she'd be putting herself at risk. She could only access so much power alone, without the other Tanzetti warriors for fight with her, to share the combined power, her own powers were limited. She couldn't take that risk, especially not now.

Whatever secrets Billy carried, whatever mission he was on, it wasn't hers to interfere in. Her power was useless to him and if it did bring down danger on her, there was a good chance he and his friends would be at risk as well. She wouldn't do that to him. Their secrets were more important than ever.

One day, she thought. One day I'll be able to tell him. One day when he's free of his own burdens.

She really hoped that day would come.