.:25:.

Sequestered

Bailey shook her head.

Could do nothing but shake her head. She looked around her room with a sense of detachment. A strange sort of detachment she'd felt when she first arrived at the AquaBase. Where she ad to get used to the constant pressure in her ears the further they went underwater. Getting used to hold…cold and unfeeling the room was compared to her room back in Angel Grove with the Cranstons.

Her room there had been a guest room at first, she shared it with her sister, then they ended up making it a room of their own. Posters and pictures everywhere. Where everything on their walls slowly managed to increase in volume, a sure sign they were there for the long haul, not leaving anytime soon. And then they moved to the AaquaBase where everything was sterile, white, and gray.

Her walls were white, the fixtures were gray, there was a blue cast over everything because of the water outside, and her bedspread was an equal blue that held the moniker for the AquaBase. A really big, stupid looking AB that she wondered if her father had any say in it. Or, whomever did have a say, she wondered if their ideas started out as creative and then were beaten down into conforming.

Just like everything that'd happened once she arrived at the AquaBase.

Avalon was right, Bailey thought. And having to admit that was a little harder than she thought it'd be. Her sister was wrong about a lot of things. She was wrong about the way she handled them being sent away by their father. She was wrong about joining the Vipers to help them out. She was wrong about avoiding the rangers for the first few months they were in Angel Grove. She was wrong for not letting their friends into their lives and help them sooner than later.

She was wrong for pushing away the new rangers that came in….

And yet Bailey sat back and took everything. Because she was the little sister, the youngest one, the one who didn't really understand life and what was going on. But she understood this. She understood that they'd just been demoted, fired, probably. Replaced by things not people. Replaced by a solution that wasn't going to work.

She was young, but smart. She noticed everything around her that other people didn't or otherwise thought she didn't notice. She could watch someone for a few minutes and get a good idea of what they were like, and how they reacted to certain stressors life threw their way.

It became clear to her, the way she'd been spoken to by her father and General McKnight, that they thought she was nothing but a nuisance. That she was little girl getting herself entangled in a big world who should be minding her own business.

"Bay?" Bailey lifted her chin and turned to see Avalon enter her room. "You okay?"

"Fine," Bailey replied. She shrugged. "I reckon as fine as I can be. We did just get benched." She shrugged again, folding her arms. "Dad didn't seem to be happy about it."

"Imagine if this happened with Zordon," Avalon pointed out. "If he'd benched us and replaced us with…some robots. A B-Team of rangers that couldn't do what we could."

"We've already seen the Psycho Rangers, Av, I don't need to think of what would happen then. Or, if someone else had gotten my Ankylosaurus Powers."

She remembered the trill of fear that'd ran through her when Zordon explained how anyone could get her powers. Good or Evil. But that they had to be able to handle the powers or else they were unable to get even a tiny ounce of power from it. She'd watched the rest of the rangers try to handle the powers but couldn't, finding herself as the one with the powers bestowed upon her.

It was a nice boost to her self-esteem, but the responsibility wasn't lost on her.

"Anyway, I came here to tell you that we only have a few more minutes before we have to go."

Bailey blinked at her sister in surprise. "Go?"

"You didn't stay long enough to get the rest of the news," Avalon explained. "Captain Mitchell spoke to Miss. Fairweather and…apparently…we're going to be sent away before we can get along. And be a team."

Bailey continued to stare at her sister. She tried to work out what it was she was saying. They were going to be sent away to be made a team. "Wait." She shook her head. "Does General McKnight know about this?"

"It sort of was his idea, Bay. Didn't you hear him?"

"No, I mean…" Bailey took in a breath, her eyebrows coming together. Something was itching in the back of her mind, working to determine what was bothering her about the situation. "Did General McKnight want us to find a way to come back as a team or was that just what he said. Dad never tried to fight back against him, but he didn't like it either—"

"—It's the government, Bay, when does anyone ever like everything they do?" Avalon pointed out. But then she looked pensive. "I don't know if General McKnight knows, but Captain Mitchell told Miss. Fairweather to tell us that we have only a few minutes before we'll be asked to leave."

"Unbelievable." Bailey shook her head. First their father wanted nothing to do with them, then the Titanium Ranger started to thrash them in every battle, and now they were being replaced by the robot rangers and were going to…what? Be taken away and shot to death? Removed permanently? Made to be watched and forced to get together until they get back and…become something that may not be possible. "I don't get it. I can usually understand dad's thought process but I don't get this." She looked to her sister. "Maybe he's up to something?"

"He's always up to something, but that doesn't mean there's going to be anything that'll be helpful to us."

Bailey sighed and shook her head once more. She didn't want to argue with her sister about that right now. Not especially when she was, probably, seconds away from breaking down if the lump in her throat meant anything. All that work she put into going to a new place, to wanting to rekindle her relationship with her father, leaning how to build a new morpher, it was all for nothing.

Bailey didn't work well with failure. Success was what she thrived on. Academically, technologically, scientifically, the point of all the experiments, failures, and retries were so there was a point of success. She was making progress with everything and it cam grinding to a halt. Where…where she wasn't sure what she was going to do next.

What would Av do? Bailey thought. She knew the answer to the question before the thought even crossed her mind. Avalon wouldn't kicked and screamed and demanded that they were able to stay as rangers. Demand her morpher back. Know there was something they could do. But this time around, it appeared that she was as defeated as the others.

And that was a scary thought.

Instead of speaking any further, Bailey packed her things together into one duffle bag, ready for the helicopters to take her back to Angel Grove, back to her mother, or wherever Captain Mitchell was going to send them. She hitched her bag over her shoulder and turned to leave, pausing only when she saw the desk that she had hidden the morpher she was building inside. It was in bits and pieces, tucked away where you'd have to know exactly what you were looking at to know what it was.

Part of her wanted to leave it behind, but another part, a bigger part, was telling her to take it with her. So she glanced at Avalon before going over to the desk and taking the pieces out. She started to tuck them into her bag, being careful so not to jostle the highly fragile materials, stopping only when Avalon shot out her hand and grasped her wrist.

"You can't lie to save your life and we're probably going to be searched when we leave, yeah?" Avalon remarked. "If there's anything that needs to be hidden, you know I can do that."

Bailey grinned up at her sister and placed the items into her bag before leaving her room. By the time she left, the rest of the rangers were already in the conference room, ready to be de-briefed before they were taken…to God knows where.

Joel and Kelsey looked annoyed as they sat in their seats, Chad sat with his eyes closed, probably meditating, while Carter and Dana looked as if they were ready for everything and anything that was going to come their way.

"This is a joke, man," Joel said, twisting left and right in his seat. He drummed his hands against his stomach. He glared at the ceiling as he went. "We're the ones who are supposed to be protecting the city! Not a bunch of robots that will short circuit in the rain!"

"Those robots were mad e with some of the best equipment money can buy," Dana said, a cold edge to her tone. She sat up straight, staring at the wall ahead of her. Shoulders rolled back and professional. "If they think it's the best idea to protect the city while we work out our problems, then it's what's best and we should respect that."

Avalon snorted loudly, rolling her eyes. "Of course 'Perfect Dana' would say that," She remarked

That got the pink ranger to break her façade and turned to her half-sister with an incredulous expression. "Excuse me? No one's ever said I was perfect."

"Well, you act like it."

''I do not—"

"—Oh, who cares?" Kelsey interrupted. She pouted, sliding lower in her seat. "We got replaced, that's the end of it! We're not rangers anymore! I got the message loud and clear, so why are they keeping us around?"

''It's normal procedure to be debriefed when being dismissed from cases like this," Carter replied, finally speaking up. Like Dana, he was sitting up straight with his hands folded on the tabletop. His eyes were downcast on his hands, fingertips fluttering. "To ensure we're not taking any Top Secret information, that we're not a risk to leaking anything to others who'd want it."

"Then I guess they shouldn't have thought of making it that our civilian identities were known," Joel snarked. He then grinned, reaching up to run his fingers over eth brim of his head. "Of course, that'd be pretty difficult either way. Everyone knows who I am."

"And everyone knows the kind of ego you have," Chad remarked, eyelashes fluttering as he opened his eyes. He let out a long breath. "There's more to life than attention and fame."

"Mmm, not much…" Joel shook his head.

"This is exactly why we're in the predicament we're in right now," Dana remarked as she stood. "Are you listening to yourselves?! You care more about the name of being a ranger and the notoriety it brings, but you don't care about what it really means to be a ranger! The hard work! The long nights. Putting everyone else before yourself. Worrying about the lives that are at stake. Not your own egos!"

"Dana's right," Carter agreed. He looked up at the rangers that crowded the table. "There's discipline in what we do as rangers. We train for it, have to understand what it means to in all areas of our life. We have to understand what we did wrong to become rangers again."

"Oh thanks, Dad," Joel said sarcastically. He exchanged a look with Kelsey before motioning between him and Dana. "I'm sure Mom would agree with you, too." Carter and Dana exchanged a glance. "Just admit that you two think you're better than the rest of us and get on with it."

Carter blinked. "Excuse me?"

Avalon shrugged and smirked. "I told you. Perfect."

Dana's cheeks flushed, her blue eyes flashed. "What do you know about anything?" She snapped back. "All you've done since you got here was tell us how we're doing everything wrong as a ranger. How we don't know what we're getting into. But if you just sat back and saw what Father was doing or us and for everyone here at the AquaBase, you'd have a little more respect."

"Respect for the bloke who decided to break up his family? That's not going to happen."

Dana's face turned even reader. She opened her mouth to say something, stopped, then turned away once Carter placed his hand on her shoulder. It was a quick touch, he immediately brought his hand away once it landed on her, as if he were burned. Joel, however, was quick to notice.

"So you're going to tell me that nothing's going on between you two?" He asked with a toothy grin.

"Joel, leave them alone," Chad said with a sigh. He held up his hands, looking back and forth between the two sides of the table. "Guys, all this fighting isn't going to help. We're doing our best, but our best clearly isn't enough. We have to take responsibility for what's going on and see if there's a way we can improve."

"And what if they decide we can't be rangers again?" Kelsey demanded.

"Then we'll have to deal with that, too."

Shaking her head, Kelsey set her jaw. "No. No way. We were chosen for this for a reason. All of us were chosen."

"Not all of us," Dana murmured.

Bailey sucked in a sharp breath, turning her gaze to her sister. Avalon started to open her mouth once more, but stopped when Bailey glared at her. Raising her hands, Avalon made a show of stepping back. Stepping away from the conversation. She wasn't going to make a scene. Wasn't going to make a comeback.

Because, as far as Bailey knew, Avalon understood that all of the rangers were right. They were chosen for a reason, they needed the lesson of their actions had consequences, they deserved what was happening, but they also deserved a second chance. If there was a way to prove it, for what was going they needed to get on the same page fast.

Bailey wrung her hands on the strap of the bag that hung around her neck, wondering whether she should say something. Wondering if they any of them would listen. She hadn't been so insecure in her life, her previous ranger team were understanding, encouraging. This team…wasn't much of a team at all…

"I'm glad everyone has arrived on time," Captain Mitchell said, coming into the board room with two of his assistants. All eyes turned Captain Mitchell's way, though Bailey watched the assistants like a hawk as they started to peer through everyone's bags. "This debriefing shouldn't take long." He cleared his throat and brought his hands behind his back. "I've gotten the chance to get to know all of you since I've brought you here but I still haven't been able to really understand you. If I had, I would've known sooner that there are some of you who aren't ready for the responsibilities of being rangers."

"But we are ready," Kelsey blurted out. Captain Mitchell turned his stare toward her and she held up her hands. "I'm sorry! I know I'm speaking out of turn, but I have to say this. We are ready to be rangers. You just have to give us another chance. It's a learning curve, you threw a bunch of people who didn't know each other together to form a team—"

"—There have been other times where similar practices have been successful."

"Like?"

"The United States Military."

Kelsey's face blanched. She leaned back in her seat, covering her mouth with her hands. "Point taken."

"As I was saying, there are a plethora of reasons we felt it was a good idea to bring you all together; there's certain things you all bring to the table. But the only way you'll be able to work as a team, at the caliber that we expect of you, is to put your own egos aside and understand the goal. This has nothing to do with you, but with the city and the monsters that are putting everyone in danger on a daily basis." Captain Mitchell swept a stern glance around the room. "If you can't understand that, then we'll make sure you understand. So, until further notice, you'll be sequestered until you can put your problems aside and work together. And in that time, the Cyborg Rangers and General McKnight will be running Project Lightspeed."

Bailey's eyes nearly bugged out her head. Did that mean he was benched, too? She was so wrapped up in her thoughts she barely noticed when the assistants moved thoroughly through her bag. Av was right, if she hadn't had moved her things to her sister's bag, they would've been found.

"What does that mean for us?" Joel asked. His eyes flickered to the side, where Bailey's gaze followed to see Miss. Fairweather leaning against the doorframe, watching them with a combined sense of longing and detachment.

"It means you're not to come back until you get along. There's a facility you're going to be sent to where you'll have no choice but to become a team. You'll be tested on the skills you learn, some the same as what you've done here, others that will be the hardest things you've ever experienced. But at the end of the day, you'll be exactly where you need to be." Captain Mitchell nodded toward Miss. Fairweather, motioning for her to join them. "Miss. Fairweather will ensure you're prepared for where you're going to go."

And he left without a backwards glance.

"I'm sorry about this, I really am," Miss. Fairweather said, walking into the room. She took a breath, pressing her glasses up her nose. Lifted a clipboard under her arm that held a checklist. "I have to go through this, per regulation. I'll be checking for your understand of what's about to happen as well as ensuring you're leaving with everything you came with. So, first, I have to go through your bags."

Bailey chewed her lower lip, watching as the other rangers grabbed their bags to have her give another cursory look through. She waited until her father's assistant was close enough to whisper, "Miss. Fairweather, before we go, I have something I need to tell you."

Miss. Fairweather nodded back. "I have something I need to tell you, too."

A/N: Hi! Again. Okay, so I hadn't updated this story as much as I'd like, but that was mostly because I was unsure of how I wanted the story to go/how I wanted it to end. I had everything up to this point planned out, in essence, but needed to really work out how I was going to have the rest of the story work out to make sense for what I'm now writing in Strength In Numbers and Taking A Chance.

I hope you guys liked it and it was worth the wait.

Thanks to ChibiDawn23, RiveraJ88, Guest, and Megatronus666 for reviewing.