An Important Conversation

Billy, Nancy, and Kim had gone off to assist the others in the junkyard, leaving Zack, Alpha 5, and Minh in the Command Centre.

"Pleasure to meet you." Alpha said, approaching Minh and extending his hand. "I am Alpha 5."

"I am Minh Kwan." The girl shrugged, shaking the robot's hand.

"I know. I was a friend of your mother's." Alpha said. "Ay, ay, ay… Trini was my dear friend."

"Wait. You knew my mom?" Minh asked.

"He did." Zack said, coming over to them. "In fact, Alpha 5 was there from the start. He was Zordon's assistant and tech advisor for some of Earth's earliest ranger teams. He was instrumental to our victories."

"Ay, ay, ay… You are making me blush, Zack!" Alpha said.

Minh giggled.

"Wait… ay, ay, ay…" Alpha wailed his arms, his sensors blinking rapidly. "I am detecting the yellow ranger energy signature from you."

"Wait… Minh, tell me you didn't." Zack shook his head before outstretching his hand. "Come on. Give it to me."

Minh sighed, handing the yellow morpher to her uncle. "Thanks a lot, Alpha."

"Ay, ay, ay…"

"Alpha, can we have the room please?" Zack asked curtly.

"No problem, Zack. My sensors are detecting a vibe." The robot said, walking over to the computer terminals on the other side of the base.

"If I thought this was going to get you in trouble, I never would have told you the truth!" Zack sighed in frustration. "But Billy-"

"What?" Minh asked sharply.

"He insisted. He thought it would be good for you. Closure and all that." The black ranger said before glaring at his ward. "But here we are, in a full-on crisis, and you are trying to play ranger!"

"What is so wrong with that?" Minh shouted. "I feel like I am saying the same things over and over again to you guys! You all and mom did the exact same thing! I am just following her example! Isn't that a good thing?"

She huffed, walking away from him.

"What do you think it means to be a ranger?" Zack asked from behind. "Kicking butt? Cute quips? Having fun? It is HARD!"

"I know." Minh said turning around. "But someone needs to dole out justice on the bad guys. Rita killed mom!"

Zack grimaced.

"She needs to go down!" Minh continued.

"But you don't need to be the one to take her down." Zack grunted.

"I am ready. I am happy to do it! Whatever it takes!" Minh said before pointing at the morpher in Zack's hands. "So why won't that thing let me morph?"

"Minh, we have told you before. The coins are sentient. They can see into who you are. They only lend you their power if they find you worthy." Zack said.

"So, I am unworthy?" Minh scoffed. "I am a good person!"

"I know that. We all know that." Zack said placatingly. "But what you are feeling, what you want, it is not justice. It is revenge! When we were your age, my mentor told us that only monsters seek revenge. That's what Robo Rita is doing now. We stopped her years ago and now, she wants to even the score and hurt us as much as she can. That's why she… she killed Trini."

"I know." Minh said exasperatedly.

"All our colours mean something in the grid. Do you know what yellow stands for?" Zack asked her.

Minh shrugged.

"Honour and integrity. Holding on to your beliefs, your morals and seeing the best in everyone." Zack said softly. "That's what your mom did till the very end."

"Holding on to revenge, all that hatred does you more harm than it does Rita. It eats you up from the inside. There is no honour in revenge."

"You guys destroy monsters and aliens every other day, and me wanting to avenge mom makes me a bad guy?" Minh asked sarcastically.

"We do so to defend innocents, because there is no other option left." He told her. "Our enemies are motivated by revenge and hatred. We are motivated by love and the desire to protect those we love from the horrors of the universe. That is what makes us heroes. A mission of revenge can never end well. That's not what we want for you."

"What about what I want?" Minh gulped. "Maybe, it's not your call."

"You wanna be a hero?" Zack pressed. "It is a selfless path. You don't do good expecting something good to happen to you. You do good because it is the right thing to do. You have to give up on things you want for the greater good and no one will ever know how much you sacrificed for them and the world! It is not easy!"

"I don't care if it is hard!" Minh protested.

"But I do!" Zack yelled at her. "And your mom did too! That is why she never told you she was a ranger! So that you can live a normal life and I don't want you to throw that away. You want to be a hero? Well then, you must set aside your ambition and your personal feelings! That's the only way that coin might work for you!"

"That's twisted."

"Welcome to the life of a ranger." Zack scoffed.

"I am sorry, Uncle Zack. I didn't want to shout at you but –"

"I know it is hard, Minh. At your age, losing what you have, you are stronger than all of us to withstand it." Zack said, placing his hands on Minh;s shoulder. "And you don't need to be a ranger to be a hero. To me, you already are one."

"Thanks, Uncle Zack." Minh sniffed. "I just… Rita running around after what she did to mom, it is just…"

"I know. We will stop her, Minh." He promised. "Just let go of this anger. Setting aside your emotions, your ambitions can be a good thing. Like me, making sure that you have a good life and a good home."

"It was worth giving up your career in Congress… for me?" Minh asked disbelievingly.

"You are absolutely worth it." Zack smiled, pressing their foreheads together as he embraced her.

Placing his arm around her shoulder, he led her towards the centre of the base, overlooking the giant cylinder in the centre.

"If you understand that, then you can understand how hard Uncle Billy is trying to fix what he thinks he set in motion." Zack said, pointing at the tube. "Zordon sacrificed himself for us long ago. You never met him. He was our mentor but almost, a father figure. Billy thought there was a chance he could still be alive, his energy and spirit scattered across the cosmos instead of him passing on. He did not expect his experiment would be like a beacon which drew Rita to Earth. But who are we kidding, Rita would have come after us either way. He blames himself for all this, for Trini's death."

"I don't blame him, I don't. Not for mom's death at least." Minh relented.

"But you do blame him for something." Zack countered. "That anger towards him didn't come from nowhere, kiddo."

"I am glad that you were there for me, Uncle Zack and there is no one else I want taking care of me, but Uncle Billy was going to marry my mom. He asked me for permission a few weeks before everything and after she was gone, he barely talked to me. He pushed me away and he was supposed to be stepfather!" Minh said grudgingly.

"I did not know he and Trini were…" Zack closed his eyes before sighing. "Minh, your mom, and Billy loved each other from the moment they laid their eyes on each other. The nature of their love had changed over the years but not how much they cared for each other. Your mom always protected Billy and was the only one who could understand and reach him at times."

"And Billy… He was always the first to help your mom through any problem she was going through." He admitted. "But Billy had a tough life. He lost his mom when he was young and he lost his dad to a monster attack when he was a few years older than you. His first real girlfriend was killed in the same attack that Zordon sacrificed himself to stop. And then your mom…"

"He lost everyone he loved." Minh said slowly.

"And I know he loves you very much and he doesn't want to lose you too." Zack said.

"I didn't know that's how he felt." Minh muttered softly.

"Just stay here while we execute our plan. Okay?" Zack pleaded.

She gave a small nod.

"And don't worry. We have saved the world before." Zack grinned at her flippantly as he moved to where Alpha was monitoring the putty crisis worldwide.


Billy placed his modulator on the giant magnet attached to the crane and inspected it with his scanner.

"Now it will really pack a punch!" He smirked. "Alright Kat! Lift her up."

Kat gave a thumbs up at his direction, from her seat inside the crane and pulled one of the levers down, lifting the arm of the crane tied to the magnet.

"So, uh, this thing is used to sort old scrap, huh?" Rocky asked Billy.

The blue ranger nodded.

"Well, Minotaur and Snizzard perfectly fit that definition." Kim snarked.

"All right! We are set." Billy motioned for Kat to stop and she paused the lever, before hopping out of the crane.

"Let's bait the trap!" Kat said.

"Everyone clear on the plan?" Billy asked.

They nodded.

"Right." He sighed, summoning his morpher. "It's Morphin Time!"

"Pink Ranger Power!"

"Blue Ranger Power!"

"Red Ranger Power!"

"Saffron Ranger Power!"

"Zeo Ranger One- Pink!"

"Zeo Ranger Two- Yellow!"

In a flash of grid energy, they morphed into their armour.

Billy grabbed the remote that would activate the magnet and glanced at the others.

"All right, we are set." Billy said. "They could be here any second, so look sharp."

"Always do." Rocky quipped as they waited for the inevitable arrival of their enemies.