Author's note: As always apologies for the lack of paragraph breaks. No matter what I try the format on this site removes them. Anyway enjoy.

"A Different Perspective"

Two Months Ago…

Katherine Hillard was in her "morphed" Pink Thunder Ranger state, rolling forward to avoid a blast from a shot fired by one of the attacking Zedorian's. They were the remnants of a massive attack months prior and whether for orders, loyalty, honor or simply out of fear the stranded soldiers had begun skirmishes against human cities. The Earth was a different place now, humans knew they were not alone in the universe and they knew that that other civilization was doing its best to try and conquer them. Compared to what was to come the loss of life was minor but the fear was great and the paranoia at a fever pitch. Katherine's team had been charged with minding the farm while Zordon's original team was off in a joint military operation to find a third set of power coins. She was vehemently opposed to the deal Jason had made but her opinion didn't seem to matter, hell her team leader Rocky had loudly protested and even he was ignored. Instead she focused on doing her duty and protecting human lives.

A year ago Katherine had been a regular high school student but more and more that had changed to the point she barely got to go home anymore. Luckily just weeks before her recruitment she had finished school and used the excuse of a special job out of the city. Her father didn't like it but she had money saved up and it was her choice, she was 'an adult now.' If only they knew what she was really doing. 'It could be worse' she had told herself 'at least the alien bastards don't know who you are, hell the other teams families are dead because of it.' She knew that if that was her she could never be able live with herself. Either the other team was made of sterner stuff or they hid it very well.

Katherine just felt the heat of the blast as it missed her, finishing the roll onto her feet behind an abandoned vehicle her teammate Joseph was also using for cover. She backed her head up against it, lifting her blaster up the side of her head as she breathed heavily.

"How many left?" Joey asked her.

Katherine moved up over the bonnet and fired killing one and getting a glimpse of what lay ahead "about ten I think. Maybe eleven."

"Great. Where are the others?" Joey asked her.

"Adam is at the other end near the second on the right, Aisha is using the truck on the left and I haven't seen Rocky in a while" she replied and moved over shooting back again but missed before she went back down under cover, watching as Joey did the same.

"Why don't we just bring our Zord's here and step on them? Would make it a lot easier!" Joey remarked.

Katherine busted out laughing; she could not help herself in spite of their current situation. Joey quickly joined her and the two shared a moment of laughter then slowed and tried to get serious again.

"Well it would!" Joey added with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah but then it wouldn't be fun would it?" She smiled as she spoke in her thick Australian accent.

"Red Dragon to all Rangers" Rocky's voice came over their wrist communicators.

Katherine heard the others respond including Joey to her side before answering "Phoenix here."
"Alright, we have them surrounded. On my mark we charge them and finish this" Rocky instructed.

"Are we taking prisoners?" Came Adam's response.

"And take them where Adam? To Jason? To the army? No our esteemed self appointed leader made it quite clear."

It was a few moments before Adam finally responded "understood. Ready when you are Red Dragon."

Joey and Katherine looked over at each other and without saying a word understood each other immediately.

"Alright," Rocky spoke again "three two one mark!"

With that Joey and Katherine jumped up, vaulting over the car and raising their weapons as they charged.

Katherine crept up the steps of her house and over the porch to the front door, bringing her key up into the lock and turning it before slowly and deliberately creaking it open. It was late, very late to the point that it would be hard to explain this hour away with the job. As she entered the kitchen in the back of the house she turned and saw her farther sitting across from her at the breakfast bar, a mug of coffee by his right hand.

"You said you would be back for dinner" he said as she closed the door behind her.

"I said I might. Sorry Dad my bus got delayed" she replied apologetically.

He shuck his head with a sigh "why can't you just get a local job, we live in a bloody city after all!"

"Dad…"she rolled her eyes as she opened her bag and took her phone from it before walking forward and tossing it onto the table "how many times do I have to tell you? I can't get a job like this in the city. I am 19 Dad."

"Yeah well…maybe a simple job would do for now. You're still young and I barely get to see you anymore. Your Mother was the same way you know, always working…" He stopped and looked over at the bag, seeing something that caught his eye.

"Dad…" she whined "I'm not like…what?"

"What's this?" He asked as he reached down into the bag and pulled out her morpher, the coin shining brightly in the overhead light.

"Something we dug up a couple of months ago, they let me keep it" She reached forward to take it from him "can I have it back please?"

He moved it away and continued examining it as Katherine was growing more and more nervous.

"The coin maybe Kitty but this device doesn't look like an old relic to me" he observed.

"It's one of our devices. It's what's keeping it together; we found it in lots of pieces. Now give it back before you press something and break it" she finally snatched it from him as he finally moved it back into reach.

"Looks expensive" he brought his bottom lip up in interest "what do the symbols mean?"
"How do I know" she brought the back pack around and placed it back inside "I don't do languages."

"Well it certainly does beat stacking shelves. You will have to show me some of the others things you lot find sometimes. Any of them go a local museum?"

"If we're lucky, we mostly find junk" she continued to lie, not looking him in the eye as she did so "anyway I better get to bed."
"You eaten?"
"Yeah."
"Oh ok then."

Katherine moved around the bar towards him and the two embraced in a hug.

"Night Dad" she said, kissing him on the check and picking her bag up as she left the room.

"Night Kitty Kat" he smiled as he watched her go and then decided he too should call it a night.

Katherine let out a sharp breath as she closed her bedroom door and threw the bag across the room onto her bed. 'That was too close. I hate lying to him' She thought to herself as she moved across the room, kicked her shoes off and fell back onto the bed with a sigh. She then frowned and turned over, taking the morpher from her bag again and opening it so as to remove the coin. She placed the morpher back into the bag and held up the coin in one hand, examining it herself in deep thought. All that she had been through because of that day she found this small little medallion. But then as she moved it in her hands a glimmer of pink light moved across her eyes and her mouth twisted into an a dark, sadistic smile.

7 Months ago…

Bandora sat amongst the darkness of her Serpentera living quarters. The ship bound for Earth in a plan her Emperor had declared 'Doomsday.' She was attired in her purple and black seamed nightwear. This mission was becoming more and more futile. At least under her command she had executed a brilliant plan, giving the sixth power coin to a worthy young man and using his power combined with her own to almost defeat the powered protectors of this small little world. But now Zedd was doing what he always did, marching in with marshal might. What didn't he understand? These 'Power Rangers' could not be defeated with these means, not with all the forces under his command. No they had to be smarter. Luckily on the former Mars base she had her ace in the hole, one she was most pleased she had thought of. Knowing that her hold on Thomas Oliver was not complete she had created a clone, a back up if you will. A second chance. All she had to do was take the power she had given the flawed original and give them to the clone; the coin would not even know the difference. But this Thomas Oliver would be programmed to be completely loyal to her and the Empire; this Green Ranger would be hers forever. She knew they would be in range of the red forth planet in the solar system soon and then she would have her second chance. Her chance to do what Zedd could not and in doing so perhaps even usurp him, declaring him incompetent and unfit to lead the Empire in his old age. But that was the final result, one that would require months of careful planning and execution. When she was done her family would have total power and Zedd would be nothing.
She moved the brush through her hair, watching her reflection as did so then stopping suddenly as her door chimed.

"What?" She called out in aggravation and turned as the door opened, the reflective bright light of the corridor filling the doorway.

"Many apologies my Lady, I have news from the Mars base" he saluted.

"Yes, what is it?" She replied sternly.

"Well as requested by the Lord we left a garrison on the base incase our enemies decided to try and take…"

"Get to the point man!" She cut him off.

"Well…they did. Most of the Garrison is missing or dead but a few did survive and have reported in…"
"What about the project in the lab?" She stood suddenly with a start.

"Gone Mam" the officer said nervously.

She looked away from him in anger and disappointment for a moment, seeing her plans crumble and fall apart before her eyes. Then finally looking back to him as he still stood in wait.

"Does the Emperor know?" She asked, her mind elsewhere.
"He has been informed" he seemed almost shocked she asked "but Mam…"
"Get out of here! Now!" She barely withheld her full rage under her voice.

"But my Lady the Garrison have reported they have a taken a prisoner."
"What?" She snapped her head back to look at him.

"From the 'Power Rangers' my Lady. As they retreated from the battle our remaining forces were able to disable and capture the pink one" the officer reported, pride now entering his voice.

"I see" her smile returned "that is different. Tell the Lord I need an audience with him and will be coming to his cabin a soon as I can."

"Yes Mam" the officer frowned but saluted before leaving the way he came.

"Interesting" Bandora spoke quietly to herself as she sat.

'This may turn out even better' she thought 'more difficult, but better'

It was not long before the shuttle from the former base had arrived delivering the soldiers and cargo. Commander Garrus who had been in charge of the garrison now walked personally beside the prisoner who was being lead by two of his remaining men, both battle hardened by the experience, and had the marks to show for it. The walk down the long corridors and up multiple elevators was long but finally they reached the labs where Bandora was waiting for them.

She looked up from her conversation with the ships Chief Medical Officer expectedly but her face soon changed into a frown.

"Who by the maelstrom is that?" Bandora cursed in anger.

"The prisoner Mam" Garrus replied in confusion "the Pink Ranger."
"That is not the Pink Ranger!" Bandora threw a device from the table before her and walked up to Katherine, placing a hand on her jaw.

"But my Lady we engaged the Power Rangers personally, we were barely able to evade capture ourselves. Many of my men are missing or dead" Garrus said with conviction.

"You're sure?" Bandora looked up at him in confusion, her frown still evident upon her face.

"Positive my Lady" he reached into his pocket and took out a power coin, handing it to Bandora "this is what gave her her power."

Bandora snatched the coin from his hand, bringing it close and playing with it in her hands.

"I know the identity, the face of the Pink Ranger. I had her as a prisoner myself! But this…" she studied it with a frown "this is a real power coin. But none that I have seen before."

"Excuse me" Katherine finally spoke "but what is a Power Ranger?"

"Where did you get this?" Bandora snapped back at her.

"I was given it by a great man. To fight your evil!"

"Oh please" Bandora rolled her eyes and paced away before turning back "Zordon is just a pathetic scientist and evil is a point of view."

"Zordon?" Katherine frowned in confusion herself now.

Bandora studied her reaction for a moment before speaking again, the truth dawning on her "you don't know Zordon do you? Someone else gave you this. There is another set of coins under another master."
"I have no idea what you're talking about you crazy bitch! If you going to kill me just do it!" Katherine finally snapped.

Garrus moved in to strike her in return but Bandora held up her hand to stop him.

"That will be all" she spoke, not taking her eyes from Katherine.

Garrus and his men looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and leaving the room as ordered. Bandora moved in now, looking upon Katherine like an interesting specimen in the lab.

"You have it all wrong my dear. I don't intend to kill you" she smiled now "I intend to use you."

"I had that coin with me a long time my Lord" Bandora spoke as she paced beside the Command Deck operations table, running her hand along its top "in that time I had many years to study it, learn about it. I was planning to use the coin itself as a tool to keep the Green Ranger under our control but never got the chance."
"But you can do the same with this coin?" Zedd watched her.

"Yes I believe I can my Lord" she looked across the table at him "I can taint it with the curse I used to capture the Green Ranger, stronger even."
"Forgive me if I do not trust your superstitious 'abilities'" Zedd mocked.

"Oh not to worry my Lord. As with Tommy I will also modify the coin with the same technology we used to control him but I will make sure between it and my spells the taint of the coin, the power within, will be absolute. So long as Katherine uses the coin, so long as she uses its power she will be ours to control."

"And what is to say she will not discover this?"

"I have already begun alterations to her mind by surgery and therapy to bury everything that has happened here and insert an alternate story of how she was able to evade us and return to the others. I will train her to be a deathly loyal subject and then bury that with the rest of her training deep in her mind until we call for it. In mean time I will insert suggestions for her subtly undermine missions, make mistakes at the right moment for our forces to gain a slight advantage and suggest to her team to become more open about her actions. Bringing them into the light and into the view of the other team. Hopefully they will merge into one force and then we can take them all out in one."

Zedd raises his head slowly for a moment thinking it over and looking to his military advisor beside him before finally speaking "Do it. How will you get her back?"

"She can be transported with our ground troops during the battle. In all likeliness we will defeat the Power Rangers today and she will help us take the second team, bringing their power to you. And in the unlikely event we fail this will be another play we can make in our next encounter, if the two teams have merged by then our victory then will be that much more inventible and complete."

"Then get to it" he tells her.

Bandora nods and bows with a smile before heading to leave.

"Bandora" he speaks again stopping her in her tracks "she will remember nothing?"
"Not until called for my Lord. I promise you" she replies.

Zedd does not reply but simply nods and watches her leave. He then turns back to the business at hand, the battle he knew would be sure to crush the defiant humans once and for all.

1 Day Ago…

Katherine moved across and sat on the hard Spartan bed of her new cabin on Eltar Station, she hated them and she hated this place. She wanted to go home and just be normal again but she knew that not only was that impossible but that she was needed. She knew this was all much larger than her. She had sworn an oath to protect this planet and in her heart a force more powerful than her wants and needs compelled her to fight the good fight. She was about to get a few hours rest before the battle when she heard a faint hissing sound in her ear. She frowned at first, confused and looking around to see where the noise was coming from. Then inside her skull a voice spoke and that stopped all confusion, her face changing to a vacant expression.

"Katherine my dear, we are a mere few hours away" Came Bandora's voice.

"Understood Empress" she replied.

"It is time. What is the Power Ranger's plan of attack?"

"My team will be the main line of defense on the planet. Jason's team will be meeting your fleet head on."
"All the good that will do them" Bandora laughed to herself "go on."

"And the new third team will move ahead towards the wormhole to hold off the Machine forces."

"Ah, Mondo is not looking for a full costly war my dear, he will retreat at the first sign of trouble but at least that leaves the new ones out of play and deals with those toasters. As for the others Jason's team will be slaughtered by out sheer numbers but we have a limited amount of landing or convertible craft. I am transferring a viral code our scientists have been working on into your processor. Use this on your teams Zords and soon after launch they will take you to our landing area, eject you and then head to a location where we can collect them for our own needs. You can then help us eliminate your team if need be" Bandora explained Katherine's orders.

"Understood. It shall be done my Queen."

"Good. See you soon dear."

With that the voice was silent and emotion returned to Katherine's face, but it was not the emotions or thoughts of before but the tactical, cold thoughts and emotions of her Zedorian aligned self. She reached up towards her right ear, placing two fingers deep into it. She fiddled around for a moment ignoring the blood as it poured down her neck. Finally she found what she was looking for and pulled hard, removing a small chip from her ear. Her data storage processor, practically undetectable. With that she cleaned herself up and headed out of the room. It had begun.

Hanger two was vast and seemingly empty as Katherine entered it. She moved across the bay towards the Pegasus Zord but stopped in her stride as Joey emerged from it, cleaning his soiled hands with a towel.

"Hey Kat" he seemed pleased to see her "what you doing down here?"
"I could ask you the same thing" she smiled back warmly, her real personality asserting itself.

"Ah working on a few last minute repairs to the old girl" he pointed back up the ramp.

"Really, I never did understand why men insist on calling vehicles females" she shook her head.

"Oh don't worry" she smiled broadly as he stepped down "you haven't got any competition."

"I didn't mean…Joey look you're not the only one who needs to get a few things prepared with their Zord for the battle so if you will excuse me…"

She walked forward but stopped as he put out his arm in her way, then got close, very close.

"We could die in a few hours" he spoke softly.

"That's always been the case" she tried to ignore him but could not help feeling a rush of emotion as she stared straight back into his cobalt eyes.

"Yeah but this time it's practically certain according to baldy" he grinned but then his expression changed dramatically as he grew serious "Katherine…look I'm really not very good at this serious shit but I heard you…well…"
"Liked you?"

"Uh…yeah" his face grew red.

"I do. And you like me? I mean if you and Kimberly."
"Kimberly? Kat that was a stupid one night thing. It's not like that with you…"
"Really?"
"Yeah…" he lowered his head.

She reached down, lifting him back up by his chin and then slowly moved in, their lips meeting. The kiss seemed to last forever as the two embraced it, everything else so distant. Suddenly though Katherine's eyes shot open and she pulled back away from him, her other side getting the better of her.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Joey looked distraught after her.

"Nothing. It's nothing really. I just have some things to do" she looked up and swiftly began walking toward her Zord "good night Joey."

"Night" he said, trying to hide the heartbreak and disappointment in his voice.

He then let out a breath and walked towards the door, leaving her alone as it appeared she wanted it.

Once inside her cockpit Katherine watched him go, seeing a last glimpse off him as the turbolift doors came to. She shuck it off, swallowing the lump in her throat and attending to her work. One by one she would do the same to every Thunder Zord and then her team's fates would be sealed, Joey's fate would be sealed. As she worked inside the panel, moving wires and attaching the processor tears dripped down her face and fell onto her lap. She moved her hand up with a sharp breath, wiping them away. She had to ignore it; she had a job to do.

Today…

Melbourne, Australia. The second most populous city in Australia. Above the city centre its fearful people look on as Zedorian fighters pass in mass overhead, Zedorian troops lining the streets. The occupation was shift and fast and soon many will see it as a way of life. No one dare complain about the end of civil rights, privacy laws and many other restrictions. Penalty for such is death as is many things.

Among the suburbs of the great city two figures walk in stride. One is Bandora, the other Katherine in her armor but with her helmet at her side. Katherine stops, looking out upon the city, seeing the destruction of yesterdays attack and the force of the dark cloud now hanging over it.

"Is this really necessary?" She asks softly.

"Until your people learn the way of Imperial law yes" Bandora responds, stopping with annoyance "come along."

Katherine hesitates but then follows, finally stopping at a house Katherine knows very well.

"Home" she speaks as she reaches the porch steps.

"Yes" Bandora nods.

"Why have you brought me here?" Katherine turns sharply toward her.

"Because I sensed your hesitation before you killed the Blue Thunder Ranger, because I felt your emotions of guilt and conflicted regret afterwards."
"Can you blame me?"
"Yes! Those are signed of weakness, signs that your loyalty to me and the Emperor are not as absolute as they should be."
"Oh but I am…"
"That is why you are here Katherine. The prove your loyalty" Bandora watches her for a moment as realization reaches Katherine's face "yes. I want you to mask, go in there and kill your farther."

Katherine turns, beginning to climb the steps but stopping and looking back. Her face showing her conflicting thoughts and emotions.

"That is an order Katherine. I am giving you an order. Do it!"

Katherine hesitates still for a moment until all emotion suddenly disappears from her face. She nods, lifting the helmet and placing it upon her head, turning and entering the house.

Bandora stands in the front garden, waiting with indifference. Then there is a loud sound of blaster fire followed by a man's dreadful final cry. Bandora turns her head, looking back out upon the city. No emotion, no care on her face. Only that of satisfaction.