Episode 8, Chapter 2 – April

The first thing April noticed was that she was naked.

Well, see-through might be more exact, so that she figured she must have looked like some odd nudist ghost or something. Instinctively she tried to cover herself with her arms, but since they, too, were transparent, there was really little point.

The second thing she noticed was that she was home – not her mom's new house in Cedar Grove, but the one her parents had shared back in Springfield for nearly her whole life. Two stories, family photos over the fireplace, a big-screen TV with a recliner and a couch – for the casual observer, this was the very image of a perfect, loving family. But April knew better. She knew why her mother always wore long sleeves and too much base, why certain nights were best spent studying at a friend's house, why her mother kept the house looking spotless to a level that would make a hospital look like a dive bar.

To April's horror, her elder sister Lynn stormed down the stairs. Again April tried to cover herself, but Lynn took no more notice of her than if she were some cleaning product Mother had forgotten to put up. They can't see me, April realized.

She looked closer at Lynn and realized that there was a sort of aura within her. April knew her sister: big personality, aggressive, short-tempered. She was a lot like Jess, now that April thought of it, which would explain why Lynn looked like a walking torch, as if someone had superimposed an image of her on top of a fireplace.

April's father stormed down the stairs after Lynn, and April, despite herself, ducked behind the couch. Father looked like a bomb had detonated under his skin. His skin was charred black, and his eyes blazed like Goldar's. As Father and Lynn began to argue in the den, April realized that she was watching a scene from her memory. She stepped away from the couch and looked back at where she had hidden. There, looking like a teardrop in human form, was April, aged ten.

It was the day Lynn had run away from home.

As soon as April realized this, the scene rippled, blurred, and reformed. She was still in the living room, but now Father sat in the recliner, looking the same as he had just a moment ago. The twins screamed playfully down the stairs and out the front door, the two of them shining with a pale glow as though moonlight would burst from their pores at any moment. Father bellowed after them, and as his voice echoed around the living room it revealed April, now about fifteen, sitting quietly on the couch with a book in her hands. Ocean water filled her from head to foot, but it was cold, dark, and unwelcoming.

April couldn't remember ever sitting there while her father was home. He had always made it clear that when he was home the others were to stay out of his way. April was no fool. She had always done exactly that.

Father turned back around in his chair and regarded the April on the couch. He slammed his fist into his armrest, and for a moment Goldar sat in Father's recliner. The arm of the recliner emitted a black mist that fell to the floor and began to cover the perfectly-vacuumed carpet. Whispers filled the room, and April realized that up until now she had not heard a single sound, making the whispers seem as loud as a stadium of crazed fans.

Then Goldar flashed back to Father, and his skin was a little more charred and the bomb within him a little more volatile.

The April on the couch formed a thick layer of ice on her water's surface, and she quickly scrambled off the couch and up the stairs. The scene in the living room froze, yet black mist continued to hiss forth from Father's recliner.

"Amazing, isn't it?"

April leapt away from the voice at her side and stood with her fists raised.

But standing before her was her old gymnastics coach, looking bright and cheery as always. April couldn't help but notice, however, that within her coach was a cloudy day.

"Coach Hart!" April gasped. "What… how are you here?"

Coach Hart spread her hands. "The same way your family is here. Tell me about what you just saw."

April had absolutely no idea what she had just seen.

"I could see… auras," she said carefully.

"Mm-hmm. You could see the person for who they really are. It's a rare gift to be given, even if only for a little while."

"I don't understand."

The scene around them shifted, and as they continued to talk, April and Coach Hart found themselves in the middle of various other scenes from April's past: birthday parties, dinners, holidays – every last one of them ruined by Father.

"No matter who your family is," explained Coach Hart, "they play an important role in who you are. So tell me: what's your family like? What do you see?"

April watched her parents in an argument. Father looked about ready to explode, both inside and out. Mother was made of little more than smoke: insubstantial and weak, like she might snuff out at any moment.

"My… father," winced April. Just the word, father, was harder for her to say than she had expected. "He's… like a bomb."

Coach Hart nodded. "Mm-hmm. A domineering man and a worn out, submissive woman."

"He's abusive."

April almost felt relieved to say it. She had never named her father for what he really was, but there was no way around it. In the scene around them, a teenaged April marched right between her parents and pushed them apart. Water flowed from her arms and extinguished the flames that had risen within her father. A small fire began to kindle within her mother's breast.

"That never happened," April muttered.

"Not so directly," admitted Coach Hart, "but you are a spirit of water within a family of flames. What does that tell you about yourself?"

The scene shifted to a different house. April knew it from pictures: the place her parents lived in before she was born. Baby shower decorations littered the living room, which Mother was happily admiring. She was heavily pregnant with Lynn, and within her was a fire that surprised April.

"Water surrounded by fire?" asked April. "Makes me sound like an idiot."

Father returned from work with a friend from the office. Upon seeing the mess from the shower, Father told his friend something, and the friend left the house. April knew that look in his eye. She didn't want to watch what was about to happen, not when Mother looked so happy.

"I wouldn't say that," said Coach Hart.

"Then what would you say?" Father removed his jacket. "That I'm smart for letting my family walk all over me? That I'm brave for having never stood up to my father? You were right: my family has shaped me. They've made me weak." Father yanked Mother off the couch and gave her a hard slap across the cheek. "I saw what happened when Lynn or Mother tried to fight back, so I never did that." This time, Father used his fists. "I tried to keep the peace in the family, and look where it got me." Father left Mother a broken mess on the couch. Black mist covered most of the floor by now. April wondered if this had really happened, or if it was just another product of Zordon's sadistic "meditation". He had mentioned something about this place being contaminated by Rita; perhaps this was it.

Coach Hart crossed her arms and tapped her feet. "You done?"

"I… yes."

"Good. Now shut up and listen." Only Coach Hart could say that and be sweet about it. "You may not realize it, but you were the glue keeping your family together. You gave your mother and your sister hope that some good might yet come out of this family. You protected your little sisters, even when they didn't realize it. Without you, your family would have burned each other to ashes." The house around them burst into flames, and through the fire April could see five charred bodies on the floor. The image was almost too much for her to bear.

"You can be many things, April," Coach Hart continued. "That is the blessing and the curse of water." Now they stood atop the cliffs overlooking the lake. All of April's diving competitors stood around her, including Ewan, who looked more like a tornado in a Speedo than a human. On the observation cliff below them, April noticed a pillar of rock and a living constellation– Jack and Will, she realized – as well as a bonfire among the trees beyond that could only be Jess. It was so strange to see the other Rangers for what they were, yet each one made sense, as though April had known the true selves of each Ranger ever since she had first laid eyes on them.

"Diving, huh?" smiled Coach Hart. "Not a far cry from gymnastics. I bet the transition wasn't hard for you."

"No," April admitted. "I just used what you had taught me."

"Only you learned to land on your head instead of your feet." The two laughed as the first diver leapt from the cliff. The competition fast-forwarded around them. Compared to the scenes from home, this one was downright relaxing. April didn't even mind that she was naked anymore.

"So you're saying that I can be what I want to be," said April as time slowed down again and Ewan made his perfect dive.

"Absolutely," said Coach Hart. "None of the others have such limitless possibilities as you. Your Power chose you right: Harmony, able to get along with anyone, see anyone's point of view. And, hey, being able to manipulate anything liquid is pretty cool too, right?"

"Liquid? You mean, not just water?"

"Well, there needs to be some water in there, but yeah, pretty much!"

All hell broke loose around them. The sky went black, far blacker than it had in real life. Black mist rained all around them. Lightning struck, and earthquakes ripped the ground apart. Will fell off his cliff, and April knew that it was her time to go.

"Thanks for the help, Coach," she said.

Coach Hart beamed at her. "Any time, kiddo. You've got a long journey ahead of you. Don't lose yourself in the Dark Dimension."

"The what?"

But it was too late. April, guided by the April from just hours before, leapt from the cliff, twirled through the air, and plummeted through the dark mist.