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Twice Chosen
"You are satisfied that your new contacts will be useful allies in your current campaign?" Zordon asked as we stood around the ship's control room.
"Trust me, Victors have a lot of connections in Panem, and Finnick and Beetee are probably some of the best people we could talk with," Glimmer nodded reassuringly at the giant head. "Finnick's basically been one of the biggest celebrity Victors ever since he won his Games, and Beetee's got so much technical skill he's meant to have at least done some work on the Capitol's own systems over the last few years."
"He's that good?" Rue looked at Glimmer in surprise.
"More that nobody in the Capitol's really bothered to innovate anything for years, from what I've heard."
"Innovate?" the youngest ex-Tribute repeated in confusion.
"Basically most people in the Capitol are used to sticking with what works and don't worry about doing anything more," Liv explained as she smiled over at the young girl. "It's like how I mentioned most people in my group home back in Five just find something to specialise in and stuck with it. The Capitol's good at making things work as they are, but they don't think about the broader opportunities available to them. If something does the job, they don't bother changing it until they absolutely have to; there's a reason it took them a decade to do more for the Games than basically stick us all in an arena and watch us hit each other."
"Which is another reason to ensure that nobody learns of your true identities if you do not trust them completely," Zordon said, his tone grim but firm. "Should your people attempt to harness your powers for their own benefit, the results could be… difficult."
"In the sense of giving the Capitol access to the zords?" Thresh asked. "Yeah, that would suck."
"Could that happen?" Liv asked. "I mean, if we need our armour just to control them properly…"
"They could still reverse-engineer the zords and work things out with time," Alpha put in.
"It would also complicate things if other attackers came for this world," Zordon noted.
"It would?" Peeta asked. "How?"
"The exact circumstances of how this all came to pass has been lost in the records of ancient history, when the original Morphin Masters first harnessed the power of the Morphin Grid to use as a means of defending the weak from those who would seek greater power," Zordon explained. "All that I can say for certain is that, millennia in the past, the Grid was modified in a manner where any beings capable of controlling power equivalent to the Grid who seek power over any particular planet must first face that world's active Ranger team before they can achieve their goal."
"Always?" Liv asked. "They couldn't just… go to a different part of the planet? I mean, I get that the Crystal's here, but there's no way they could just try and… sneak in and take it that way?"
"The nature of the Grid ensures that any who seek to harm any world defended by Rangers, with the power and skill to use the Crystal in the first place, must defeat that world's Ranger team to claim that world," Zordon affirmed. "Save for exceptional circumstances, only one Ranger team may be active on a world at one time, and that team will be capable of defending that world from any and all threats until they or their enemy are permanently vanquished."
"So we're basically on constant standby in case something comes for the Crystal?" Thresh asked.
"Essentially yes," Zordon affirmed. "Some worlds have earned enough of a reputation to discourage potential enemies from coming after their targets for a prolonged period. You will have already made an impression in the relevant circles following your defeat of Rita, but this planet is so isolated and your own team is so new that it will take time to establish a proper reputation."
I was about to respond when an alarm blared from nearby, leaving us all to look anxiously over at where Alpha was standing close to the central orb. Even as we gathered around it, Alpha had adjusted the image to show the Green Ranger tearing his way through a new group of Peacekeepers while the large dragon-like zord moved towards a large stone wall.
"The dam?" Liv said in horror.
"He's in District Five?" Peeta looked at her in shock.
"Huh?" Rue looked curiously between the two.
"I grew up there, Rue; I know what my District looks like," Liv clarified before she turned to look at Zordon. "If he destroys the right dam, he could cripple the power of several Districts; we have to stop him!"
"Even if he targets your government?" Zordon asked.
"Even if he's trying to destroy the dam that provides power for the Capitol, he's not just going to affect the government; there are innocent people living there who need power!" Liv protested. "This isn't a war where he could justify collateral damage and people would be prepared for this kind of thing; he's just smashing things he doesn't like!"
"Precisely," Zordon said, a slight smile on his face that suggested to me he'd been testing Liv in some way before he shifted his gaze to address the rest of us. "Your zords shall be dispatched, but the priority should be to force the Dragonzord to withdraw before it can do further damage. The Green Ranger still controls it by remote, so it may be possible to confront him directly and make him stand down that way."
"And our zords are all back to working order, right?" Glimmer asked.
"Correct," Zordon confirmed.
"OK," I said, coming to a decision as I looked around at my team. "Glimmer, you take point and get the Dragonzord away from the dam, but… Peeta goes with you for back-up."
"Huh?" Thresh looked at me in surprise. "Hey, the Mastodon hits harder-"
"Which is better as a combat strategy when we're not fighting next to something we don't want to get broken," Liv interrupted him.
"Oh," Thresh nodded in new understanding. "Right… be kind of stupid to stop him smashing the dam only to break it ourselves…"
"Don't worry about it; we're all learning something new," Liv pointed out, before turning to give me an approving smile. "Good idea, Katniss; I take it the three of us are going after Green directly?"
"Keep him busy on two fronts and he won't be able to focus properly on either," I nodded at her, glad that my idea made sense. The Megazord might be able to overpower a single zord, but I wasn't ready to use our full power against the Green Ranger until I knew he wasn't going to listen to us otherwise. "If we can get him off-balance, maybe we can find out who we're dealing with and how to talk him down."
"Talk him down?" Glimmer looked sceptically at me. "You get that this guy smashed up our zords last time we tried to stop him?"
"We just got out of a situation where we were basically trained for years to see each other as enemies, and we're all still here because we gave each other a chance not to be enemies," I said, surprising myself with my words even as I knew I meant them. "I'm not saying we don't fight him, but we have to give him a chance; if we can get him on the defensive, maybe he'll be willing to stop fighting and actually listen to us this time instead of ranting about how he hates the Capitol."
"You think that'll work?" Thresh said, echoing Glimmer's scepticism as he looked at me.
"I want to give him a chance," I clarified as I looked around the room. "We're all here because we trusted each other in that cave; we have to give the Green Ranger at least that kind of opportunity."
I was privately aware that I also wanted to talk to the Green Ranger about that 'Zedd' he had mentioned in our previous confrontation, but until I could be sure that was what he had been talking about I wasn't ready to share that detail with anyone else. The goal right now was to protect the dam and confront the Green Ranger before he could do any damage; we could try and find out more about his history once he wasn't trying to destroy the country.
I wondered if I should be impressed at how far I had come in terms of my ability to read situations and think about such complicated details, but I decided to focus on the present situation; the goal now had to be to stop the Green Ranger doing further damage.
"Let's morph," I said, indicating the pedestals in the control room.
With my ever-increasing experience of using the ship's transporter technology to go into action, I found it surprisingly easy to go from being teleported out of the ship to landing in District Five to face the Green Ranger, now standing surrounded by Peacekeepers in varying states of consciousness. The green figure had just turned around to face me before I dived into action, kicking him in the chest before Liv came in to strike him from the other side. Caught off-guard by the dual attacks, the Green Ranger didn't have time to properly fight back before Thresh grabbed his arms, pinning them behind his back.
"Hi there," I said, trying to project an air of confidence and hoping I didn't come across as the same kind of arrogant as some of the Careers in the Games. "Sorry to interrupt-"
"Interrupt?" Green yelled in outrage, even as the sound of clashing machines behind us confirmed that Glimmer and Peeta had started to attack his zord. "I'm trying to put the Capitol in their place; why are you against that?"
"Because interrupting the power supply from District Five is going to do more than just hurt the Capitol right now," Liv said, walking over to stand beside me as Thresh held the rogue Ranger back. "Do you really think you can just turn off the power for a while and that will change anything?"
"People won't be forced to listen to the Capitol's lies any more; that has to count for something!"
"Not if they're also worrying about how long they'll be deprived of power themselves," Liv countered, even as I tried to ignore the sound of metal smashing against metal behind me where Peeta and Glimmer fought with the Dragonzord. "Did you even stop to think about how many innocent people will be affected by what you're doing?"
"They support the Capitol; they're not innocent!"
"They don't have a choice; people are scared-!"
"And if I can get them to wake up and realise how they're being used that will all be over!" Green yelled indignantly, before a particularly loud blast from behind drew our attention. Looking back at the battle, I yelled in horror when I saw the Sabretooth Tiger with a smoking hole in its side, but was able to control myself when I saw that it was standing in front of the dam and the Dragonzord was being forced back by a new assault from the Pterodactyl-
A roar of rage from behind was barely enough of a warning for me to turn back around and deflect the latest blow from the Green Ranger, who had managed to break free of Thresh's grip when we were all distracted. His dagger now in his hand, the Green Ranger nearly stabbed me in the chest before I managed to summon my sword and deflect the blow, leaving us in a surprisingly close duel that left me struggling to stop my opponent stabbing me in the chest. I had expected my sword to give me the advantage since it offered the longer reach, but it was clear that the other Ranger had more experience with his dagger than I had with my sword. I could just keep him back as long as I focused on the fight, but I couldn't stop myself hearing the clash of metal on metal from behind as Peeta and Glimmer's zords continued to try and keep the Dragonzord at bay. Thresh and Liv tried to get in to attack the rogue Ranger themselves, but every time they attacked he just slashed out with the dagger to force them back before he continued to attack me.
"Don't you understand?" he yelled in disgust as he kept on slashing away at me. "The Capitol have to go-!"
"And we're not against that part of the plan; we're against the part where innocent people get hurt-!" I tried to protest as our blades were suddenly locked in a manner that I remembered seeing in videos of past Games.
"SHUT UP!" the Green Ranger roared, leaping backwards as he kicked me under the chin. The impact was so fierce that I was sent flying backwards, and it was only when I hit the ground that I realised that the impact had triggered my visor to withdraw. I raised my hands to shield my face as I got back up- nobody was sure how many cameras were in each Districts and I didn't want to risk any of them seeing me- but I noticed the Green Ranger looking at me in shock before the visor snapped back into place.
"…Catnip?" he said at last.
"What-?" I began, before I reminded myself that only one person in the world actually called me that on a regular basis. "Gale? That's you?"
I only realised that the Green Ranger- Gale- had spoken those same words before he ran forward to give me a disturbingly enthusiastic hug, our previous argument apparently forgotten. Thresh and Liv almost moved in to grab him from behind, but I waved them back urgently; if this really was Gale, I might just have a chance to talk him down if we left him alone.
"It's you!" the Green- Gale!- yelled, stepping back even as he kept his hands on my shoulders, the visor down but his tone making it clear that he was grinning. "I can't believe- I mean, I knew you were alive, but this? You're a Ranger! That's…"
His voice trailed off and he stepped back, his head tilted as he looked at me with a more probing manner that only became more intense when he heard the Pteradactyl fire a new wave of energy blasts at his own zord.
"You're fighting me," he said, joy replaced by a bitter edge I was more used to hearing from Gale when he was talking about the Capitol (Why hadn't I recognised his voice before?). "Call them off."
"I can't do that," I said, only realising that I was tightening my grip on my sword when I felt the handle in my hand. "You'll destroy the dam-"
"I'm hurting the Capitol; that's a good thing-!"
"You're hurting innocent people," I cut him off, not liking what I had to say even as I knew that I couldn't do anything else. "You can't do this, Gale; stand down-"
"NO!" Gale yelled, charging for me again only for Thresh to slam into him from the side, forcing him down before he could reach me; evidently my order to stay back was ignored when Gale was obviously about to attack me again. The sound of another explosion from the zord battle prompted me to look that way, but I was relieved to see that it was the Dragonzord rather than the Tiger or the Pterodactyl. All three zords were still fighting, but the dam was still intact and the Dragonzord's left arm looked like it had been broken; if we could keep up the pressure-
"Enough!" Gale yelled, forcing himself upwards with such force that Thresh lost his grip on the Green Ranger. He spun around to slash at Liv as she tried to attack him from behind, knocking the Blue Ranger to the ground, before he turned to point the dagger at me. "You… you betrayed me?"
"Betrayed?" I repeated, shaken at the new hostility in his voice. "Gale, I just wanted you to stop-"
"You're helping them?" my old hunting partner spat in outrage. "After everything they've done?"
"The Capitol's leaders are the problem; that doesn't mean you can just-!"
"The Capitol have kept us all down for decades, Catnip; how can you defend them?"
"I'm not- this isn't- Gale, it's not like that-" I tried to protest.
"You sold out," Gale said, contempt practically dripping from his voice as he looked at me. "You're trying to protect the people who killed your dad… you bitch!"
I was so enraged by the implications of Gale's statement that I lashed out at him with my sword before I could stop myself, but the way he parried the blow so easily hurt on more levels than I was ready to face right then. For a moment I was torn between attacking Gale in a rage and backing away in horror at what I'd done, but then Gale settled the matter by stepping back and giving me a look of cold contempt.
"We'll settle this another day," he said firmly. "Once Lord Zedd arrives, you'll understand what has to be done."
"Zedd?" I asked, remembering when he'd mentioned that name in our earlier fight. "Who-?"
Gale didn't even give me a chance to finish my question before he teleported away. I glanced back in time to see the Dragonzord letting out its own roar, one arm damaged and the tip of its tail broken off, before it vanished as well. To my relief, the dam was still intact, but I felt that these people were going to have several questions about what was going on once they had time to process what had just happened.
And they don't even know just who's behind that helmet, I reflected, fighting down the sense of horror I felt at this latest revelation.
If I have to… can I fight Gale?