Disclaimer: I own nothing anyone recognises.
Feedback: Much appreciated.
AN: While his character won't be appearing in this storyline for obvious reasons, in acknowledgement of his long term as the 'face' of the Power Rangers franchise, I wish to take this moment to pay respects to the memory of the recently-deceased Jason David Frank. RIP to Tommy Oliver, the Ranger of many colours who took what was intended as a brief role and became the face of a franchise in reality and Earth's greatest Ranger in-narrative.
Twice Chosen
Prim
Even while still reeling from the death of her sister, news of the events in District Eleven was impossible for Prim to miss. She'd basically been allowed to coast through school for the last few days, other students aware that she was 'dealing' with Katniss's loss as much as she could, but the broadcast of events in District Eleven were so significant that they were automatically mandatory viewing.
She'd watched the events out of obligation once the broadcast started, but even after it was all over, she had no idea what to think about any of it. Nobody seemed to know what those large things fighting in District Eleven had been, or even what they had been fighting about, but as far as Prim was concerned it didn't matter.
So some strange robot animals showed up to fight some other strange thing; it doesn't change the fact that Katniss is dead.
As far as Prim was concerned, without her sister, everything that happened in Panem just marked another day since her sister died because Prim hadn't been brave enough to reject Katniss's decision to volunteer for her…
Gale
The thing that frustrated Gale the most about the mysterious battle in District Eleven was that it all seemed so meaningless.
OK, he wasn't going to deny that there was a certain 'cool' factor in seeing some giant robots kick the crap out of that large gold whatever, but what had it all been for in the end? Nobody knew what the gold thing had been looking for, nobody had any idea where the multi-coloured robots had come from, and then they'd just… knocked against the Peacekeeper building and left.
If they were part of the Capitol, they'd never have done anything to damage Capitol property, but on the other hand they hadn't exactly done anything about the Capitol itself. They just showed up out of nowhere, fought that giant gold guy and the strange woman in green, and then walked off without giving anyone a real explanation. It was as though they just expected everyone to be grateful for them bothering to show up and then not even bother to explain themselves afterwards.
Damn Capitol all over again; they show up with some big gesture and expect us to just be happy we merit that kind of attention, so we won't think about how they ignore us the rest of the time…
If those people wanted to actually do some good, they should have outright destroyed the Peacekeeper base in Eleven instead of just bumping against it after beating the crap out of some big gold thing. Instead, all Gale could see was the latest Games making his own issues more personal as they resulted in him suffering an even more personal loss than he could have expected, and all he could do about it was fume in rage.
No matter how much he hated them, he just didn't have the power to do anything about the system that treated someone as remarkable as Katniss as a minor pawn. If he could just find the power to actually fight the Capitol himself…
Clove
Clove wasn't sure if other Victors had experienced anything like this kind of emotional turmoil after their own victories, but she could definitely say that none of them had experienced something this strange.
She recognised that it was a petty thing to be thinking about when she had lost Cato and won under frustrating circumstances, but the thing that most bothered her right now was that the attack on District Eleven had basically taken all the attention off her. One of the constants of the Hunger Games was that the Victor of the last games was the focus of Panem's attention for at least the next year, but now she had to face her victory being so closely associated with the mysterious saviours of District Eleven.
On one level, she was glad to have time to collect herself after everything she'd seen in the Games and everything she'd learnt about what was expected of her after that victory, but on the other hand, when nobody even seemed to know what that fight had been about in the first place…
Why did she have to be the one stuck with all this crap after her victory? As though losing Cato hadn't been enough of a gut-punch, the way President Snow had just casually told her about the 'appointments' she'd need to attend later… as though losing the person she'd actually wanted hadn't been bad enough?
Is a life of privilege really worth that kind of price?
She had always believed in the privilege of serving her District and coming home as a Victor, but she'd already lost one of the most important parts of her life, and now she was basically expected to sacrifice the rest of her dignity in the name of keeping some faceless politicians happy…
Snow
For the first time since he had become president, Snow had no idea what he was dealing with. The gold thefts had been a troubling matter for the last few days, but he had assumed that there was nothing more to the matter than an ambitious thief until the events of this morning.
Granted, he had no idea how the gold had been brought together to become the creature that had attacked District Eleven, but if the gold thefts had literally nothing to do with the giant golden 'golem' in question he would be very surprised. He had arranged for relevant scientists to analyse the footage to try and determine what that creature was and if there was any way for them to create their own version, but Snow was practical enough to realise that they knew far too little about what had just happened to try and recreate it. With something that powerful, even if they managed to copy its body, if they got anything wrong the Capitol would at the very least have another of those monsters to deal with, and even if it went right they couldn't predict how the party in control of that other machine would react to it.
As if all that wasn't frustrating enough, Snow couldn't even understand what had prompted that bizarre fight in the first place. Once the violence had died down, Snow had sent a team of scientists to investigate the area where the fight had taken place, but it didn't take them long to report back that they hadn't been able to find anything. The assigned experts had all agreed that there was a surprising lack of damage in the area where the five animal-themed robots had somehow merged into a single humanoid form (Snow would be very interested to know how they achieved that), but attempts to scan the area had turned up no trace of anything that might have been responsible for such an efficient clean-up.
Right now, the only thing Snow could be sure of about that fight was that neither party was affiliated with the Capitol, but that left too many questions about where either of them were from. Snow was inclined to consider that the five robots were at least ostensibly on Panem's side as they had focused on fighting the golden figure where the other party had committed wanton destruction, but that departing blow to the Peacekeeper building raised questions. They clearly had no loyalty to him, but at the same time anyone affiliated with District Thirteen would have made a more blatant attack then that…
Rita
She had endured millennia of unconsciousness at the bottom of the sea, but Rita was certain that she would trade in her current situation in a heartbeat even if it meant that she would be returned to her watery prison. Her Coin had kept her alive even as Zordon's meteor struck the ground and decimated her former leader, but her armour had been so damaged even she was amazed at how much of it had still been lost when she was 'rescued' from the ocean by the new life-forms.
She had traded a prison of non-awareness for a 'prison' of the vast emptiness of space, her coin separated from her in that final strike and her armour now down to its last dregs of power. She was fortunate that she had basically internalised most of her energy over the centuries she spent basically sustained only by her coin, giving her some dregs of power even after she had been separated from it, but this just meant that she wouldn't die straight away in her current state.
She was just going to drift through space, frozen and alone, mind aware but lacking the power to do anything about it, until she finally exhausted every last bit of energy…
Ah, a voice suddenly echoed in her mind. There you are… and there was me thinking your former partner took you with him when he called down that meteor.
If Rita's body hadn't already been frozen from the cold of space, it would have frozen when she heard that voice.
They had both known what the other wanted when Rita departed to claim the newest Zeo Crystal, but Rita had at least had hope that the power would be shared once she had claimed the crystal on her team's new assignment.
If he was still looking for her, that least suggested she still had value to him… but if she had kept him waiting for this long…
Come now, my dear, the voice said with a new edge to it. Even if you can't talk, you can still think back to me; be assured I'm open to hearing your excuses before I choose your punishment.
Of course… Lord Zedd, Rita responded, mentally crossing her fingers (a simple human gesture, but she could appreciate the sentiment) that he would accept this. I have to report that Zordon was able to survive the final attack when his assistant transferred his consciousness into the ship… and he has now assembled a new team of natives to defend the Crystal.
A local team, you say? Zedd responded, a contemplative edge to his tone. What can you tell me about this world?
Rita wasn't sure what Zedd might be planning, but if he was interested in Earth, at least that meant that she still had a chance of coming out of this alive…