In Silence
By Didi

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters involved and probably never will so please do not sue me. I am merely borrowing their likeness for my own enjoyment.

Summary: Reflections on destiny.

Acknowledgment: To the Girl in the Red Jacket, for inspiring me. Thank you for your wonderful writings and have me striving to write better.


Trial By Fire
~~~~~~~~~~
I think bedtime has become my favorite time of the day. It used to be dawn, when everything was beautiful, fresh from a night's sleep. Now I dread the first light of day, when we must face new challenges that threaten our peaceful existence on earth. At bedtime I know that my part in keeping this harmony is done and I can sleep knowing that we've throttled another attempt to wipe us out.

I use to love crowds, lots of noise and happiness. Now I see the crowd as potential targets by our enemies, people to use against me and my weakness, my love of humanity and life. In the silence of the night, I don't have to worry about protecting others, just my heart and soul. In the silence, I'm safe from my conscious, from the cries of help. But sleep, that's another story.

The others look to me when we are in trouble. Somehow, I've been nominated as the leader, the head of this team. I guess in a way, I'm flattered that they think of me in such a light. They are my friends, people I trust the most and care about the most. Their opinion more than anyone else's matter to me. I won't let them down.

We are teenagers on this great big mission to save the world. It's scary once you've had a moment to really think of it. None of us really knew what we were in for when this all began. They were all kind of just thrown into the fray and damn if we weren't lucky to make it out alive as we did. A trial by fire, you might say. Damn did we ever get burned.

I remember seeing Trini and Kimberly's face the first time we came upon an innocent we couldn't save. It was our third time out together and.... Well, that's not really important anymore. I think we had all considered it a game up to that point. It never hit us that it was more than just a game we were dealing with. And that not just our lives are on the line here, billions of them are counting on our actions.

I will never forget the look on Trini's face. Kimberly cried, as I expected her to, but Trini didn't. She stood here, completely still with eyes that were colder than the Artic Winds. It didn't really hit me until much later that it was the look of death on her face. She died a little that day. And died a little more each time one fell and didn't get up.

Billy understood the risks and understood that we couldn't save them all. Zack, he hides behind a mask of coolness, mourning in private and then moving on. Kimberly cries freely and expresses her pains, sharing it with others to exercise the demons within. Me? I do what ever good leader does, I allow the others to talk it through with me, it helps me to work out my pain too. Trini, she works through her problems herself. She bottles it all up, allowing others to turn to her but never coming for help herself. She is strong, I think emotionally stronger than me.

We lost our innocence in those moments, but feel the joys of life when we've completed a mission. We may not have been born heroes, may not have been trained to do these difficult tasks, but we've done what we can. And that's all anyone can ask of us.

Those moments in the middle of a battle, when I have doubts, I turn to the others. They are my strength. We've gone through our trial by fire, we've earned our strips, we've done out duties, what more could the world ask of us. This is what the fates have decided: we are the Power Rangers.