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Twice Chosen

"Zordon!" I called out as we desperately scrambled towards Zordon's room in the ship, Thresh still cradling Rue's body in his arms. "We need-"

"Do something!" Thresh yelled bitterly up at the display of Zordon's face, holding out Rue as though he was presenting her to the original Red Ranger. "You've got all this shit; you've got to be able to save her!"

"I told you that you were not ready-" Zordon began.

"Oh, don't act like this is all our fault!" Glimmer cut him off indignantly. "You took us from some sick death match and expected us to become a team by just… training us to fight? We did our best in a stupid situation we could never have planned for; of course we fucked up!"

"…We were never going to be ready."

"Exactly-!" Glimmer began.

"No," I cut her off, suddenly feeling like a leader in a way I'd never felt before and equally wishing I'd never had to. "I… I should have realised that before all this happened… I was meant to be your leader, and I… I made a mistake…"

"I am sorry, Katniss," Zordon said, his voice lower and more solemn as he addressed me. "We were both reckless with our teams."

"We should never have done this…" Peeta said, looking at Rue's body where she now lay on the floor, looking even smaller than she had in life.

"It shouldn't be like this," Glimmer said with a bitter edge to her voice as she followed Peeta's gaze.

"It's worse when it's someone you know, isn't it?" Thresh observed, his past bitterness gone as he addressed the former District One resident. "Hell, you could just dismiss the bloodbath victims as idiots, but the kid-"

"I know!" Glimmer yelled as she turned and slammed Thresh against one of the pads where we had been trying to morph for the past week, shocking us all when we realised there were tears in her eyes. "You think I'm not beating myself up about this shit already? I already told you I was disgusted with myself for killing those kids like that, but this is… I liked the girl, OK?"

As though that admission had broken something in her, Glimmer suddenly released her grip on Thresh before she fell to the ground, squatting near one of the pads as she stared at Rue's body. "She knew all the shit that was out there and she still wanted to help… she believed in us when we hadn't even done anything…"

"She wanted to save our lives," Peeta smiled sadly as he looked at her small body. "How many of us could have seen that coming?"

"She was smart, too," Liv put in, a wistful expression on her face at the memory. "I've met smarter kids back in Five, but she had that… she wanted to know, and I've realised that's something not everyone has even if they're smart enough to do it…"

Something not everyone has…

I couldn't explain it even to myself, but those words suddenly resonated with me as I looked around the chamber at the rest of the could-have-been Rangers, each of us still wearing our dark suits and colour-coded hoods as we clutched our weapons.

I wasn't sure if I'd been telling myself that I was just stuck with these people because they'd happened to be in the area when I found the cave, but when I looked around this chamber, I was suddenly struck by the notion that this was my team in a way I'd never fully acknowledged before. Even if I still wasn't sure how they worked, and was still partly sure they must have made a mistake, I somehow knew all of a sudden that the Coins would never have shown themselves if Clove or Cato or Marvel or any of those other Tributes had been with us when we found that cave- when I thought about it, I was suddenly sure that any of the other Careers would have tried to kill the rest of us despite the mystery of the cave if they'd been here rather than Glimmer- but these other four… after all the time we'd spent training together…

"Before I was Reaped," I began, looking around at the others as I walked into the middle of the room, "there were only two people I knew I could trust in my life… and even then I could only trust them in different ways. I could trust my hunting partner to help me find food and I could trust my sister to help me prepare what I found and care for my mom and me… and I could trust them both to keep my secrets… but there was only so much I would let myself share with either of them. Then I met all of you… we ended up training together… I think we've all told each other things we'd never have told anyone else before this…"

I paused for a moment, once again feeling the weight of that statement, before I finished my sentence. "I know that this didn't work out because I pushed us to use the opportunity, and I don't blame you if you don't want me to stay the leader, but I want you all to know that I will always trust you all to have my back… because I know you know I'll have yours."

"…Yeah," Liv nodded at me, a slow expression of understanding and awe on her face as she looked at me. "We'd have your back… because you'd have ours."

"We all would," Peeta said firmly.

"To the end," Thresh affirmed, shooting a grim look at Rue's body before he looked back at me. "That bitch can't do something like that again."

"Or if she does, we'll be there to stop it," Glimmer nodded, crouching down to brush some hair away from Rue's face before she looked up at the others. "I get that you probably didn't… well, I know how Careers are probably seen by the rest of you, but you have to believe me… whatever we did before can't be important; all that matters… the only thing that matters now… is this team."

"We're there for each other," Peeta nodded. "That's more than we've ever had before."

"To the end of the line," Liv affirmed. "That's all that matters."

As soon as I nodded, something seemed to ripple across the wall displaying Zordon's face, and the glowing 'ball-thing' in the centre of the room shifted from its usual mix of colours into an intense shade of blue.

"Zordon!" Alpha said, eagerly indicating the ball. "Zordon! Look at the Grid! This is your time! Do you see it? The Grid is open, step through!"

"Wha- step through?" Thresh looked around in confusion.

"What is this?" Liv asked, as the ripple effect on the wall intensified.

"Yes," Zordon said. "I see it… I see it…."

"Zordon!" Alpha called out with increased urgency. "Get through!"

"Hey!" Thresh yelled, as the lights suddenly flared up and then died down.

"What's happening?" Glimmer called out, as the light became so bright and rapid I almost thought I was standing in a thunderstorm without any rain.

"The Morphing Grid is open!" Alpha called out.

"What the Hell's going on?" Thresh yelled, just as Zordon let out a muffled roar and seemed to 'sink' below the boundaries of the wall. As his face vanished, the lights in the room dimmed and the wall… I could only think of it as 'pulsed', the substance moving slightly in a manner that made me think of an animal breathing without showing any clear sign of life.

"Zordon?" Alpha called out, which at least assured me he was as confused about all this as we were. "Master?"

"What… just happened?" Peeta looked at Alpha in confusion.

"He must have stepped through the Grid!" Alpha said with a new eagerness.

"And what does that mean in terms of where he went?" Liv looked urgently at the robot

"I don't know; this has never-!" Alpha began to say before the room lit up and Zordon's face emerged from the wall with a ripple of red energy, looking serenely around the room once again.

"Zordon, what?" the robot said, voicing our own confusion before any of us could do so. "Why didn't you step through? That was your only chance!"

"I know," Zordon replied, surprisingly content with the fact that he was staying in a wall. "But I had no choice… only one could come back."

"What?" I began, before I turned around to see something that I almost couldn't believe; Rue was now standing up, looking around us with a confused smile, rubbing her neck as though it had just been squeezed rather than outright broken a moment ago-

I didn't know when I let myself accept it, but I suddenly myself with my arms wrapped around Rue, followed by the rest of the team all gathering around us, each one practically scrambling to touch the little girl. I heard Rue let out a desperate squeak as someone squeezed her too hard (I was sure that wasn't me), but after a few moments I allowed myself to step back and walk back towards Zordon's wall, leaving the rest of the group to appreciate our miracle while I addressed the source.

"How… did you do that?" I asked at last, deciding to deal with the obvious question. "I mean, I… think I understand the whole 'one-time rift in the morphing grid' thing you told me about, but how could you use that to bring Rue back?"

"She has absorbed traces of morphing energy from witnessing your training sessions over the last few days," Zordon explained, an expression on his face that I tentatively identified as a smile. "It would not allow her to morph on her own, but it was enough for me to find her… essence… and draw it back to her body."

"Right…" I said, deciding to ignore the implications of that comment about Rue's essence and focus on the more immediate questions I had right now. "And… why did you do that for her?"

"Because you were right," Zordon said, his smile becoming even more solemn as he looked at me. "Your words reminded me that the true purpose of a Ranger team is not simply to defend the Zeo Crystal, but also to protect the worlds they inhabit. My team and I were assigned to a young world simply to protect the life that was developing on it, but you are a true part of this world and its culture. If my coin chose you as my successor, I can trust that you would not say life here is hard if you did not truly believe it."

"So… you mean-?" I began.

"The priority is Rita," Zordon cut me off, before he gave me another tentative smile. "But… like I said, the true duty of a Ranger is to protect life. Even when Rita has been dealt with… you are correct that there is something truly wrong with the society that exists here and now. Promise me that you will do nothing before Rita has been defeated and allow to talk about our possible plans after she has fallen… and we shall see."

Even as I told myself that it wasn't a guarantee he'd agree to help us, when I looked at the face on the wall, I felt a new sense of respect for this powerful figure. He might have been tempted by the chance to return to some kind of humanoid form when this all started, but when put on the spot, Zordon had willingly given that up all to save a little girl who realistically couldn't have meant that much to him personally… because she meant something to us.

"Thank you," I said at last, wishing I could think of something better to say. A part of me wanted to protest that we should be able to do everything we could against Snow's government straight away, but I reminded myself that Zordon was agreeing to do something that was at least as big an upheaval for him as becoming Rangers had been for us. He was right that Rita had to be the priority, and… in a strange way, even after he'd lied to me before, I trusted him to keep his word on this topic.

"So we're doing this?" Glimmer's voice broke through my thoughts. Turning back to the former resident of District One, I gave a cautious smile as I saw the other four Rangers looking at me, each one showing a sense of anticipation.

"OK, guys," I indicated the platforms we'd used in the past, giving them an encouraging smile. "I think it's Morphin' Time."

"Morphin' Time?" Glimmer repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"I like it," Rue grinned at me. I gave her a thankful grin in turn as we all walked over to the platforms, a new sense of purpose in our actions. As Rue moved to stand beside Alpha, the robot surprisingly placed an arm around her shoulders as he looked at the rest of us, the other Rangers and I now standing on the platforms where we had so often strained to make the final step to become real Rangers…

I couldn't explain what had changed, but as we took up our position and exchanged solemn nods, I knew this was going to work even before the central orb assumed a brilliant white glow once again. For a moment, I felt like I was straining against a powerful wind, an almost overwhelming force pressing against me that I couldn't see, the same think striking the rest of us, but then I felt something spreading across my body, a reddish form that initially made me think of some kind of scales enveloping my arms and tightening around my chest. I looked around to see the same effect spreading across the others, their own armours in their respective colours as the light flickered around us…

A final blinding flash filled the ship, and suddenly my vision was tinted with a new darkness as the five of us wore our armour for the first time, each of us tense and ready to face whatever awaited us outside.

For the first time, we were no longer Tributes; we were Power Rangers, and it was time to show the world what we could do.