"Origins"

He played it through in his mind, he pulled out the weapon and fired, twice. He killed, twice. Before that day Joey had never killed a living being, not even an animal. Yet here he was having killed two sentient humanoid males. People. While his words with Rocky after the first two shots and before last had been simple, his thoughts were anything but. He had in searching for a quick answer to justify why he taken life he had simply copied the words of Jason.
"He's right" he had said "this is war."
War? Only a month earlier he had been a regular kid in high school, now he was ready to kill? Rocky had said from day one that that was against everything they should stand for and yet at the drop of a hat he had followed this new leader off the edge of the moral precipice. Was he right? Was Rocky right? Only in his unconscious mind lay the answer he would be satisfied with.

Joey Peterson sat up from the bed in the early hours, hearing the birds chirp on the outside and the hum of the energy of the Command Centre as it pulsed around him. He looked over in the darkened blue light, the window on the far side lighting Kimberly's sleeping features. He knew the deal, he was nothing to her. She had thanked him for saving her, seen the chance for a good fuck and taken it. He shook his head and decided to leave. He didn't want that conversation this morning.

As he stepped out of the room and closed the door quietly he turned and saw Rocky sitting on the sofa, a mug of coffee in hand.

"Your up early" Joey commented.

"As are you" Rocky looked up at him "have fun?"

"What? Oh yeah. Well she wasn't exactly playing hard to get, she made it to easy in fact. Thought I would leave before she woke up so as to not cause any...fuss" Joey sat on the other sofa and put his feet up on the small table at the centre of the lounge area.

"Well, from I'm told its something to do with the guy they lost. They were involved apparantly" Rocky said.

"Oh great, a pity fuck" Joey groaned.

"If it makes you feel any better Jason mentioned she has had more men than you have hot meals lately" Rocky added.

"I see. Speaking of Jason, he seems to warmed up to you after you had no choice but to put that guy down yesterday. You two getting along now?"

"Seems so" Rocky let out a breath "you weren't exactly putting up a fight about killing."
"Yeah...I just did what I had to man" Joey responded.

"What you had to? Joey we could have saved all of them if that had been just us, put them in the cell we set up downstairs for the others. Look Jason and I may be 'getting on' now but trust me I won't kill unless I have too. My question to you is; are you the same way?"

"Look" Joey sat up and placed his feet on the ground "I'll follow ya until the end of all this crazy shit we have found ourselves in but I will also do what I feel is right."
"And if it comes down to me or him?" Rocky looked over sternly.

"I don't know" Joey sighed.

***

Trini and Billy had awoken as the first rays of light had become golden. Trini now rode, perched above Billy and leaning down to kiss him as she let out cries of pleasure. They both panted heavily as they finished and she rolled over beside him.

"Big day today from what that Kaku was saying" Trini spoke, still breathing heavily.

"Yeah" Billy let out with a hard breath.
"You know as much as I want to know and as much as I am honoured to have been chosen for this, all I really care about it the fact that it brought me you" Trini turned and smiled at Billy.

He smiled back and kissed her, bringing his hand up to grab her head and deepen the kiss. They didn't have to say the words, they had known each other for a year now, their love had existed for nearly three months and they couldn't of been happier.
"We better get up" Trini spoke as their lips parted, her eyes still closed and feeling the moment.

***

Jason stood outside the Command Centre walls at the foot of Tommy's grave. A tombstone was as the head of it reading his name as only "Green Ranger" for security reasons. Above the engraved text was the symbol of the Great Dragon coin, the coin that had been destroyed along with his life in battle.

"I don't know man. When she came to me, I felt it. I have wanted her since the start but I just don't know. I don't want to dishonour you man, I know you loved her and I can tell she loved you. If you formed such a bond in such a short time maybe you were meant for each other" Jason spoke toward the gravestone "I dunno. And on top of that we got these new guys, they are nice enough but most of them just don't understand what we need to do to win this war. What we need to do to save this planet. Now our supplies and our energy are going toward keeping some of those alien bastards alive because the other leader Rocky didn't have enough guts to finish them. I'm sure they would each prefer to be dead than be our prisoners. We shook hands, even agreed to be partners but...I wish you were here Tommy. I know you would back me up dude."

Jason turned and began to walk back toward the Command Centre knowing that the others would be waiting.

***

As Jason walked into the main chamber he noticed the awkward glances being exchanged between the new guy Joey and Kimberly. Kimberly sat over with Trini and Billy looking shy and trying not to catch his eye line while at the same time Joey spoke quietly with Rocky. Even a deaf, blind and dumb guy would have noticed something was up as the group chatted amongst themselves. Jason walked over and up to where Zack was standing, looking over at the rest of the group.

"Whats going on?" Jason asked as he reached Zack.

"You didn't hear?" Zack replied.

"No" Jason smiled "what?"
"Miss 'sleep with everyone cause my boyfriends dead' brought it a little close to home last night. Fucked that new guy Joey."

Jason looked over at him, his lip quivering as he felt his heart drop. It hit home, it hurt. He began to simmer with feelings of anger and rejection. 'Why him? Why not me?' he asked himself. He realised at that moment that he had deep feelings for her, far more than he had previously thought and she had just taken those feelings and tore them to pieces before his eyes.

"Oh really" Jason said through gritted teeth.

Zack turned to Jason and in a moment of looking at his friends face he knew what was wrong. He was about to speak when Master Kaku entered and spoke to the group.

"Good morning Warriors" He spoke "I won't keep you waiting any longer for the answers you seek. Know that I have not spoken this to anyone but Zordon since I awoke."

They all nodded and gathered around, each of them eager to have their questions finally answered. Jason kept his feelings in check and too came in to have his own questions finally answered.

"Okay. Lets start with who you are and where our coins come from" Rocky was first to speak.

"Indeed Rocky, straight to point. Good. I am not of your world but as with Zordon came to this planet from another" Kaku spoke.

"Your an alien?" Aisha said in shock.
"Yes Aisha my dear. Our race were based in science, we explored the galaxy. We went by many names to other cultures but most commonly we were called 'the watchers.' We roamed the planets and checked in on our colonies and allies from time to time. Every so often we came across a new planet. That is what occurred with my vessel ten thousand of your years ago. We came across your planet and landed to conduct geological surveys. We surveyed three areas, divided into three teams. We used what we called 'battle armour' which were designed to activate on call. It is said that humanoids only use a faction of their bodies abilities, the armour was designed to tap into that and enhance it. The armour gave us enhanced strength, vision, agility and combat abilities. Programmed by its creators back on our core world, it was standard military weaponry for our race you see, were various forms of combat that the user would automatically know how to use upon activation. They were brought to life with controls similar to your 'morphers' and their code was imprinted on the medallions you now have. Originally they were generic suits of no animal design.

We were surveying the planet in this manner, using the armour only to defend ourselves against hostile creatures and humans, when a far more hostile race arrived. They proclaimed themselves to be the Gorma Empire and that they would take this planet and us as prizes. We knew your planet could not defend itself so we fought back. The war lasted for nearly twenty of your years as we battled the Gorma in skirmish after skirmish, campaign after campaign. Finally we realised we were becoming to old and to tired to continue using the power. Most of us had been nearly thirty in your age terms when we arrived and the decision to stay and help defend your planet had been a long and costly one, and the blockade in your solar system meant we could not escape or go for reinforcements. We were alone, we fought for both your planet and our own lives. We were reaching middle age and while the suit was designed to enhance it we knew it could only go so far, soon our reflexes were not what they once were. We lost nearly half of our squad by the time we came to the decision to give our armour and our technology to the humans. A friends of mine ,Barza, who served as the head Red Warrior protested that your people were not ready to discover such things. Indeed you weren't. After much deliberation we realised that the only way to give your ancestors the powers we possessed was to be spiritual about it. Your people were very spiritual, paranoid and primitive and we knew that we had to appeal to their faith as their minds were not yet at the level of understanding to except aliens and technology of this kind. Three of us took the three sets of medallions to three lands. I went to the land known now as China, Barza to Japan and Momochi to Africa. We each met with what appeared the strongest civilisation or tribe of the area and gave the power to whomever it responded to. We designed the coins to draw on their myths, the animals and their legends. Our research on the planet uncovered the bones of extinct creatures that been dead for millions of years, Barza being ever the archaeologist redesigned his set to be based on the fossils we had found. He formed five warrior tribes and gave a coin to each, later he gave one the sixth. The Zyu Warriors were formed. I drew on mythical creatures I read about in books during my time in china for the first five of my coins, using the striking memory of seeing a Siberian tiger for the sixth. Those were my Dai Warriors. Finally Momochi based his off of the modern creatures and created the Kaku Warriors. And no they were not named after me, it was something to do with a translation to Ninja."

"What about the Zords?" Billy spoke up.

"For them we designed them based on the creatures we had used in our design of the coins and armour. For material we used our landed ship and its replication technology. We knew that they would need weapons in their battle, we designed them with the same technology as our armour. The user could call upon a weapon at will from thin air just like they could with the personnel weapons. Our head scientist and engineer, both former Blue Warriors designed and built them. As they finished each they became obsessed with improving it and making the next. The final one they delivered, the Shogun Zords, was beyond anything any of us had seen" Kaku took a breath "using these weapons the three tribes of warriors defeated the Gorma and drove them from this world, never to return. Barza had been killed during the battles and we were unable to stop the Zyu as they buried their Zords in temples and sent their coins up into space using technology Barza had given them. We had told them the power was of the gods and they stated that they had returned it to them. That is obviously how Zordon came across them on his world many thousands of years later. How they got to another galaxy I do not know. I do know that myself and Momochi helped the humans build a temple telling of the war and placed the third set of coins inside with the other scriptures and artifacts. We buried the Zords in similar temples should they ever be needed again but as we used the last remains of our ship to live the rest of our years I kept my set of medallions, coins, with me.

Momochi feared the Gorma would return and after many years of continued nagging he convinced me to use the last remaining cyro-pod to freeze myself in a tomb below the surface, rigged with a proximity alarm that would go off when the sensors we left online detected energy based weaponry or non human craft. That is how I awoke and stand before you today, its amazing how the pod held up for as many years as it did but here I am. As with before I knew the coins needed to respond to someone so I travelled the world until one of them reacted, I would then leave that coin for its chosen host to find and soon the team here today was assembled. There is more but I'm sure I have covered most of it and you can figure the rest out for yourself. Now if you will excuse me."

With that Master Kaku bowed and waked away, retiring to comfort of his arranged room. The Rangers merely looked at each other in disbelief, a silence overcame them as they took in his words.

"Well" sighed Jason "now we know."

***

The original five watched as the five Thunder Rangers departed to go back to their lives, something they could never go back to again. As each passed Alpha he handed them a morpher and a communicator.

"The ones you have work but these are far more effective" He told Adam as he questioned why they needed new morphers.

Jason picked up Rocky's from the panel Alpha had put them on and handed it to Rocky himself as he passed toward the transporter platform. The other four already having dissolved away, back to reality. Rocky nodded to Jason as he took it.

"Thanks bro" Rocky said.

Jason however didn't let go and pulled Rocky in closer, his grip still tight on the device.

"You still don't trust me do you?" Jason asked.

"And you don't trust me do you Jason?" Rocky stared back.

The others looked on as after a few silent moments Jason let go of the morpher and let Rocky depart. Rocky stepped up the steps and onto the platform, looking back at Jason as he did. Alpha pressed the commands and soon Rocky was gone in a shimmer of red light.

Jason looked on after him. They had to work together but Jason knew that behind his back Rocky was still not one of his team. He wondered if he ever would be.

***

The five of them walked back into the main chamber, chatter between some of them sounding as they walked the corridor. Jason remained silent and made sure he stayed far away from Kim. By now she had noticed that he was avoiding her and had decided to keep her own distance.

As they entered and walked their way to the centre, following Alpha's lead, suddenly the alarms were sounding and the very walls around them were shaking. Kimberly screamed as beside her one of the energy cylinders became dislodged and crashed into the railing before them. They fell back, the glass smashed and sparks flew from the downed object.

"What the hells going on?" Jason called out.

"Shields were down for repairs following the last of Zedd's assault" Zordon responded, his image flickering "my sensors indicate that the weaponry is not energy based."
"What?" cried Zack.

"It's not Zedd" Jason gulped.

"I apologise Rangers, we must have been found and monitored, perhaps for some time. I thought we had sufficient down time and ordered repairs on the shield" Zordon's voice echoed.

"You mean the fucking military found this place, watched it and then as soon as they got chance moved in!" Trini said.

"Correct. The must of detected the shield was down and ordered a strike" Zordon told them.

"Great!" exclaimed Kimberly.

Jason ducked under the fallen tube, the others followed and they ran down the walkway and onto the centre platform.

"We better get out of here" Jason said, trying to stay calm.

"Agreed. I will transfer to Site B. Alpha five and yourselves can rendezvous with......there.....Alpha........no...location" Zordon was beginning to break up.

"Understood Zordon" Alpha responded and began pressing a code into the computer panels "transferring you to Site B now."

The Rangers looked up as Zordon's face finally faded out and in a flash of code was gone.

"Did you do it?" Billy asked, holding onto the railing as he fell back from another impact.

"Affirmative" Alpha replied.

"Right. Lets get to this 'Site B'" Jason said to them all and turned toward the exit"Alpha..."
Before Jason could say anything else the doors on all sides were being pried open and marines began filing in, large guns raised and pointed their way. The black clad military moved in from all sides toward the main platform like predators assembling on their prey.

"Keep your hands were we can see them!" Shouted one.

The Rangers all raised their hands in surrender. Jason moved his left hand down toward his belt, toward his morpher.

"Keep them up!" The marine shouted in his face and gestured at him with his gun.

Jason had no choice, with a look of annoyance on his face he raised his hand as the marines reached them the took them under arrest. Of all the things they thought it would come down to, being taken in by their own military was not one of them.