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Twice Chosen

As tricky as it had been to get to the zords the first time Alpha revealed their existence to us, this second trip through the cave to their cavern went by far faster, even with the fact that we'd had to jump down through the pool to get back to the ship. Once we reached our destination, we each ran for the zord in our respective colours, moving so quickly that I was almost surprised when I actually found myself sitting in the control section of my own zord. As something blue and transparent slid between my seat and the metal framework surrounding it, two things leapt into my hands and I felt something latch on to the back of my armour, leaving me with a new sense of awareness of the large metal dinosaur that was suddenly my unique vehicle.

Mine…

I had never felt like I had truly owned anything before- my bow had been my father's, my clothes were almost all second-hand, and everything I'd owned in the Games had been provided by others even if it had been designed for me- but in that moment, I felt a sense of ownership of this zord that I had never felt for anything before.

Even if this giant red robot had once belonged to Zordon, it was mine now, and I knew I could always depend on it just as I knew I could depend on the team.

"This is so… wow!" Liv called out over a radio system as I commanded the Tyrannosaurus to take its first steps, the cavern around me shaking as Peeta, Liv and Thresh followed my example while Glimmer's own zord lifted up from its perch behind us.

"This is the coolest thing we have ever done…" Thresh breathed; I wouldn't be surprised if he was touching the metal around him as though trying to be sure it was all real.

"Let's go and kick that golden thing's ass!" Glimmer yelled out, as the metallic pterodactyl flew over our heads.

"Go go, Power Rangers!" Alpha called out from below, waving his arms and apparently pointing us onwards towards something. I wasn't sure if what happened next was just the teleportation we'd used earlier or if the zords were doing something different, but as soon as we reached the entrance to the cave I found myself leading the other four zords through a large field that was definitely nowhere near the mountain where we'd originally found the Power Coins.

"Is this Eleven, Black?" Liv asked.

"Some of the outlying fields, but yeah," Thresh said. "And do you have to-?"

"We probably shouldn't use names in the field in case anyone can pick up our transmissions, so let's stick with colour to keep it simple," Glimmer put in. "Sorry if the implications tick you off, but I agree with Blue; colours keeps it simple."

"…Fine," Thresh said, an edge to his tone that suggested he didn't like the idea even if he was willing to go with the title. "So where's-?"

"Right up ahead," Glimmer said, her tone as solemn as I'd ever heard. "Look."

Glancing up ahead, I felt a new sense of apprehension as I saw the large gold warrior standing in the middle of a mess of buildings that I guessed were the main houses of District Eleven. I appreciated that I had never seen Twelve from this kind of perspective, but even at a distance I could see houses that reminded me a great deal of my home District, except that there were far more fields around the central houses where everything back home ultimately 'led' to the mines. I could just see a particularly large fence on the outskirts of the fields, but as we ran I noticed various smaller walls dividing the place up further.

"What is all this?" Peeta asked as we hurried towards Goldar.

"Keeping the fields like this makes it harder for us to take food for ourselves," Thresh observed grimly. "Too many checkpoints for us to hide something from all of them."

Hearing that revelation delivered so matter-of-factly struck me as another example of the Capitol control Gale had always ranted about. It was easy enough to ignore how little we got to enjoy the results of our labours back in Twelve when we didn't often need coal anyway, but faced with the idea that Eleven never got to take their own food…

It marked something else for us to deal with once we turned our attention to the wider issues in Panem, but right now my focus was on Goldar as he smashed his way through the houses in the centre of this District.

"Red to… Command Centre," I said, adjusting the radio as we drew closer to the centre of the District. "How are things going for Rita?"

"Alpha's confirmed that they can't have found the Crystal yet!" Rue's voice called out in response. "We're still working on the exact location, but it's definitely in that District; the zords should be able to help you find where!"

"And Rita can't do that herself?" Peeta asked.

"She's only got her Coin; she doesn't have the technology to find the Crystal except by carrying out a random search," Rue confirmed. "Hold the line and we can still do this."

"OK," I said, hoping that my impulsive plan would be enough. "Pink, Yellow, you find Rita and hold her off; Black, Blue, try and find where the Crystal is and… set up some kind of perimeter; I'm going straight for Goldar!"

I thought I heard Peeta call out something in protest, but I didn't let myself listen to it as I charged towards our main enemy. Rita might be the controlling force behind Goldar, but the large gold monster was the weapon she was actively using against us right now, which meant that taking Goldar down was the best way to stop the renegade Ranger.

"Red to Command Centre," I continued as I approached Goldar, suddenly struck by a question I wanted the answer to, "where did Rita get the gold to make this thing?"

"Checking…" Rue said, silence filling the cabin as I took up position in front of Goldar, my zord letting out a machine roar as it prepared for a fight. "Oh… it looks like Rita's been raiding various places for gold."

"She's been raiding for gold?" I repeated in surprise. "How does that work… and how do you know that?"

"The ship can access Panem's network discreetly enough so long as we don't try to change anything in it," Alpha explained. "As far as I can tell, there are all kinds of reports of shops or private homes being broken into all over your country, as well as a few deaths in cases where it looks like someone intercepted the thief-"

I was prevented from hearing more when Goldar struck the ground with a powerful punch that shattered the building and cracked the earth around it. My own advance was halted as the shards of rubble came together to form a new wave of putties that charged towards me, forcing me to slow down my own vehicle to avoid getting tripped up. For a few moments, I found myself commanding the zord to bite at the putties on its back or stomp the latest wave trying to climb the legs, but I was given a fresh reprieve when the Pterodactyl zord flew overhead, firing at my attackers with such precision that my own zord was left undamaged as the monsters fell away.

"Thanks!" I called back to my ally as I adjusted my own zord's weapons and fired at the advancing Putties. With the initial wave driven off by Glimmer, I was free to start firing at the next assault, simultaneously stamping my way along the street to shake off some of the remaining stone monsters. I was briefly aware of the stone cracking as my zord walked, but I wasn't going to worry about that. From what I could read of the zord's sensors, most of the humans in this area had already run away, so as long as I was careful not to hit the buildings the priority was to take care of our enemies. I heard a few roars and crashes from other streets, but a glance at a screen somehow confirmed for me that the other zords were keeping up a defensive perimeter (this instinctive knowledge was useful, but sometimes it could get really weird).

It only took a few moments for the immediate wave of Putties to be forced back, but then Glimmer let out a frustrated yell as I felt the ground shake. Looking at the apparent scanner, I was led to a violent tremor beside a source of power that I guessed had to be Goldar, and anything that kept him in one place couldn't be good.

"I think he's found the Crystal!" Liv called out, the blue Triceratops just visible over the top of a nearby street as it charged towards Goldar. "I'm going in!"

"Right behind you, Blue!" Thresh called out as the Black zord charged after the former Five resident. "Where's Yellow?"

"Just dealing with a few stragglers!" Peeta's voice called out. For a moment I couldn't see where he was, but then I noticed a few Putties being apparently thrown over the rooftops of another set of buildings and guessed that he was running along that way. With a new goal in mind, I turned the red zord around and charged after the other zords, heading for Goldar as he kept beating the ground. Once I got in close enough, I leapt up to land on Goldar's back, directing my zord to bite at one of the wing-like protrusions on his back. The figure briefly shook from another impact, but a quick check of the scanner assured me that it was an ally rather than a problem.

"Keep him off-balance, Yellow!" I called out over the radio, deciding not to question what had prompted Peeta in particular to come to my defence at this point. "We've got to-!"

My instructions were cut off as Goldar reached back and grabbed my zord by the tail, throwing me off down another street. I managed to get the zord back on its feet, but my attention was drawn to a figure in green a short way down the street.

"OK, Rangers," I instructed, once again feeling a sense of authority I'd never imagined would be mine, "everyone keep Goldar back; I'm going after Rita!"

I was vaguely aware of the rest of the team calling out something as I commanded the cockpit forcefield to 'open', but I ignored them as I leapt out of the zord and headed towards the ground. Instinctively twisting in the air as I fell, I hit the ground feet-first, allowing myself a brief smile at the sight of the impact crater made by my landing before I drew my sword and ran towards the green-armoured woman.

"Hey there, bitch," I said, recalling some of the bullies I'd dealt with during particularly rough days after my father's death as the evil Ranger turned to face me. "Surprised to see us?"

"You could say that," Rita replied, twirling her golden staff as she looked back at me. "I must admit, I thought that losing your little mascot would be more devastating to you then this; did she mean so little to you-?"

"She's fine, actually," I retorted, raising my sword as I enjoyed the look of surprise on Rita's face. "But you won't be."

Rita didn't have time to respond with words before I lashed out with my sword, barely managing to raise her staff to parry the attack. For the next few blows Rita was purely on the defensive as I hacked away at her, each of my blows being blocked by her staff, but then I kept up the pressure against the staff a bit longer than before until I could land a good kick on Rita's chest. It was a small victory on the face of it, but I followed that up with a blow that Rita only managed to deflect with her arm rather than her staff, producing significant sparks from the gauntlet on that arm. She managed to land a few blows on me in turn, but once I managed to find a combat style that let me focus on the staff, it wasn't hard to keep her off-balance. I still hadn't managed to land a blow on the exposed parts of her body, such as her upper arms, but if I could keep this up-

"Why are you even doing this?" Rita spat at me as her staff deflected my latest attack, the woman actually grabbing the end of my sword with her bare hands as she glared at me. "Do you honestly think this will ever change anything? You're fighting for a world that would send its children to their deaths-!"

"But that doesn't mean they can't be better," I said, simultaneously surprised and proud of my new conviction in my words. This woman had basically written off my entire planet as a lost cause even before we'd evolved as a species, but I wasn't going to let her dismiss human beings like that.

"You can't judge us by our leaders, Rita," I continued as I glared at my enemy. "People don't deserve to be condemned as failures because the people in charge make bad decisions-!"

There was a sudden burst of green and gold energy from behind me that sent both of us off-balance. As I found myself flying towards Rita, I somehow managed to twist my body so that I avoided being thrown against the staff that she had managed to point in my direction, but I still found myself falling to the ground alongside my enemy. Quickly rolling over on the ground, I looked back to see Goldar bent over the ground, one arm extended into a hole in front of the monstrosity, and…

I couldn't explain it, but there was something in its posture that made it clear to me that monster felt somehow satisfied in what it had just done.

"Well," Rita grinned as she looked over at me. "It would appear that the question of whether this world is worth saving just became somewhat 'academic'- assuming that even applies to an ill-educated little fool like yourself-"

Not giving her the chance to finish that rant, I slammed the side of my sword against her head and turned back to run towards my zord. Leaving Rita like that might be a risk, but if Goldar had reached the Crystal it was more important to be in the zord to fight the bigger monster.

"Red to Command Centre!" I called out once I was back in my cockpit. "Goldar's found the Crystal; what's our strategy?"

"Make sure he can't take the Crystal from its position!" Alpha replied promptly. "Right now all that's happened is the exposure of the Crystal; Rita can't do anything unless she channels it properly, and she needs to use Goldar as a filter if she's going to access its power without it destroying her."

"So she can't just jump into the Crystal and take it with her bare hands or she'll destroy herself?" Liv asked, as I moved the red zord forwards in preparation for the next stage of this fight.

"Pretty much," Alpha confirmed. "If you can force Goldar back from the Crystal, we can focus on stopping him from taking it; the Crystal will naturally protect itself once again if we can give it time…"

"On it!" Liv said, suddenly sounding like she was grinning as the Triceratops zord was suddenly standing between me and Goldar. I didn't have time to ask what she was about to do when a blue burst of energy suddenly erupted from the horned machine, knocking Goldar off-balance. Glimmer followed it up by bombarding Goldar with laser blasts as the Pterodactyl flew overhead, and then the Mastodon rammed Goldar from the side. Peeta attempted his own attack, but by that point Goldar was getting back to his feet and was able to throw the yellow cat-like zord off. The zord twisted in mid-air in a tricky manoeuvre so that it landed on its feet alongside the rest of us, but it was clear that Peeta's initial attack had failed.

As I took up position with the rest of the team, I glanced back to see that Rita was advancing towards Goldar, but it seemed as though the rest of the putties had vanished. I vaguely saw something flowing back towards Rita, but for the moment I wasn't going to question it if we only had to face a couple of foes rather than an army.

"Can you… feel that?" Peeta asked, even as the other zords fell into line alongside me.

"The crystal?" Liv asked.

"Maybe…" I nodded cautiously, aware of a sense of something from behind me even as I focused my attention on the threat in front of us. "But right now, we just have to hold the line."

"Got it!" Glimmer grinned as she settled her zord into position on the back of my own.

"Everyone, open fire!" I commanded, activating my zord's weapons and firing at the massive golden creature that was currently advancing towards us. The assault left Goldar staggering, but I knew that we couldn't afford to savour that moment as we held the line.

"I've got your back!" Thresh shouted, moving his zord closer to mine even as Goldar's blows sent the yellow zord back towards the edge of the pit behind us. I tried not to let myself think about the scale of what we were up against as Goldar started throwing actual fireballs at us; we were holding out so far, and all we had to do was keep standing…

"I'm burning…" Peeta called out, just as Goldar slammed its fists down against the Pterodactyl zord above me. My own zord didn't seem to have suffered much damage, but I didn't need to check the display screens to know that anything that could force the Tyrannosaurus down like that was bad. A sideways glance was all I needed to confirm that the other zords were being forced down too, and it looked like Goldar's new fireball attack was playing its part…

"I can't breathe!" Liv said, even as I saw lasers still firing from the Triceratops.

"This thing's crushing my wings!" Glimmer yelled, as I glanced up to see Goldar trying to turn the wings of Glimmer's zord back on itself.

"Guys!" Rue called out over the radio. "You're sliding back! Goldar's pushing you off-balance! He's going to-!"

"Come on, everyone," I said, lost for anything better to say as I tried to dig into the ground, praying that the others would be able to hold on. "We can fight back!"

"It's getting too hot…" Thresh protested, sounding like he was under an obvious strain already.

"I don't know how much longer I can do this…" Peeta put in, as his zord's head slammed against mine.

As I looked up at Goldar's 'face', the large gold figure forcing us further and further back into the pit behind us, I could vaguely hear Rita's laughter as her twisted creation pushed us to our fate. I didn't know if falling into that crystal would just kill us or do something else, but I was suddenly sure of one thing.

"No one dies alone," I said at last, feeling that resolution settle into my mind.

If we were going to escape the Games only to die here, we were going to die together trying to stop Rita taking the crystal, rather than let the Capitol win by pitting us against each other all over again.

"…I'm OK with it," Peeta said.

"Hold on," Thresh, Liv and Glimmer said simultaneously, as I heard claws dig into the ground beneath me.

Maybe this wasn't going to accomplish anything more than buying our world a few more moments of life, but if that was all I could do, I'd try and do it.

"Stay with us, Black!" Peeta called out, and I tried not to think about what might have happened to the only active Ranger from Eleven as our zords fell closer to the edge. With controls already straining against Goldar, all I could do was look up to where the Pterodactyl zord's cockpit was pressed against my own, reaching out a hand towards Glimmer in a gesture of sympathy that felt like all I could offer anyone right now…

"Thank you for being my friends," Liv's voice suddenly broke in through the heat and energy that now seemed to be filling everything around us.

"Hold on to each other," Glimmer said, a soft plea in her voice that once again supported why she had been chosen by the pink coin, before I felt the zords finally fall over the edge of the pit, into a brilliant burst of flame and energy… Flames blazed around us… I heard mechanical components shift around us as fire and energy seemed to explode around us…