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Twice Chosen

"We just fought Rita."

"You what?" Peeta, Liv, Thresh and Rue said simultaneously as they looked at Glimmer and I as we stood outside the ship. Glimmer had taken a few moments once we returned to the ship to put her bags away in her cabin, but once that had been dealt with she'd quickly helped me gather the rest of the team in the pit, somehow managing to avoid Alpha and Zordon in the process, so we could tell them what had just happened.

"How did that even happen?" Liv asked, looking anxiously up at the ship. "Did she-?"

"As far as we know, she doesn't know exactly where we are," Glimmer replied. "She just got a chance to catch us off-guard when we were picking up a few things from my house-"

"You went to your house?" Rue asked. "Why do that now?"

"Because of all six of us, I think we can agree that I'm the one least likely to get a warm welcome home once this Rita shit's been dealt with."

Rue's shamed face made it clear that she understood what the older girl meant, which left me feeling all the sadder about the situation; the idea that we lived in a world where this kind of cynicism was still possible even in a girl as young as Rue…

"Anyway," I took up the story, "we got to Glimmer's house and out of it easily enough, but just as we were outside the District, Rita attacked."

"And she didn't kill you?"

When the rest of us shot Liv a sharp glare, she held up her hands in a defensive manner. "I'm not complaining that nobody's dead, but if this woman killed all of Zordon's team when she actually worked with them, why didn't she just tear you both apart?"

"She said she'd let us live if we helped her find the Zeo Crystal," Glimmer explained.

"We managed to get her to agree to give us a little time to try and find it at this end, but either way she made it clear that's all she wants," I said.

"Where is she now?" Peeta asked.

"She said she'd meet us at the dead ships, so we're thinking somewhere in District Four," Glimmer put in. "Still, if we can all go after her at once-"

"Is it worth it?"

"Worth it?" I looked at Thresh in surprise.

"Hey, I get that we have to fight her, but if she still doesn't know where the Crystal is, maybe we don't do this when she's the one who set up the meet and we can't even morph yet?" Thresh elaborated. "Maybe we should… I don't know, tell Zordon about this and get his imput?"

"He's got a point; we aren't even Power Rangers yet-"

"And the main reason Zordon wants us to morph is so that he could bring himself back to life."

I was surprised to realise that I'd just spoken, but when they turned their attention back on me I knew that I'd made the right call. If I was going to be the leader of this team, whether we'd activated our armour or not, I wasn't going to do that by keeping secrets.

"He's what?" Peeta looked at me in shock.

"I heard him and Alpha talking about it."

"Is… that possible?" Rue looked inquiringly over at Liv. "Zordon coming back, I mean?"

"Well… some of the files talk about how the first morph for any Ranger team involves drawing on excess energy and creating at least a minor tear in reality that could be theoretically harnessed by someone who knew what they were doing to do something big at least once, but it all sounded so complicated that I didn't really look into it much…" Liv shrugged apologetically as she realised we were all looking at her. "Hey, I'm trying to learn about a completely alien science here; it takes time to get it all together, you know!"

"Nobody's accusing you of anything, Liv; we just… we are where we are now, so all we can do is deal with it." I tried to sound reassuring as I addressed the would-be Blue Ranger before I looked at the rest of the team. "If we're doing this, we have to remember that Rita's just going to be expecting Glimmer and me. Like Glimmer said, she probably won't expect us to bring the rest of you, and hopefully she won't plan for us to go in armed anyway."

"Armed?" Thresh perked up at that news.

"Maybe we can't morph yet, but we do have an armoury," Glimmer grinned as she indicated the ship. "Alpha's down for the night and Zordon's stuck on a wall in one part of the ship, so if we're careful we can all grab a few suitable weapons, get the masks to get us into a good state of mind, and try and take the bitch down before she knows what she's up against."

"Sounds good to me," Thresh nodded, flexing his shoulders in anticipation. "I saw this axe-thing in that armoury I've been itching to take for a spin…"

"Yeah…" Liv began, nodding tentatively. "I… if we're doing this, I think I saw a thing or two I'd like to try out myself…"

"Can I-?" Rue began, only to halt when I turned to look directly at her. For a moment, I was reminded of Prim all over again, asking to help me hunt without any real idea what would be involved in that mess…

But if this doesn't work out, she won't have anywhere to go.

It was a grim thought, but I couldn't ignore the facts. If we didn't beat Rita here and now, Rue would be in just as much trouble as the rest of Panem no matter where she was. Taking her to face Rita with us was a risk, but at least we could control how much danger she'd be in if we did it this way…

"Go and get yourself some kind of gun," I said at last to the only non-Ranger present.

"Gun?" Thresh looked at me with a pointed stare.

"If she's joining us in going after Rita, I'm not going to put her in the middle of it," I clarified. "Rue's quick and she has a good eye; we can find a good place for her to watch the fight and give her a weapon to do what she can at a distance."

As I looked at the large District Eleven resident, I could only hope that he could see that I wouldn't be making a suggestion like that unless I was legitimately sure that there wasn't a better way to guarantee Rue's safety. It seemed to pay off, because after a few moments, he nodded in acknowledgement at me and took Rue's hand before they headed into the ship, followed by Liv and Glimmer. I was about to follow them when I realised that Peeta was currently just standing in the middle of the pit, looking at me with clear uncertainty in his eyes.

"Do you have a problem?" I looked back at him.

"Should we… do this?" Peeta asked, a cautious tone in his voice as he spoke. "I mean, I get that you're angry at Zordon, but maybe-"

"I know you want to see the best in things, but we can't just wait around and hopewe're going to crack this morphing issue when we've failed to pull it off for the last few days," I replied grimly. "Rita is going to destroy everything to try and find the Zeo Crystal, we've only got a day or two before she's apparently going to really start trying to dig it up, and right now we have a narrow window of opportunity where we know she's going to be. If I was on a standard hunt where I knew a particular prey was only going to be in the area for a few minutes, I couldn't waste that opportunity; the stakes might be higher right now, but the principle is the same."

"We've been training to morph so that we can fight her-"

"And if we could morph, I'd be up for doing it that way, but right now what we have is what we've got so we have to do it," I said firmly. "I know it's a risk, but we either try this now or we lose track of Rita under she's found the Crystal on her own merits and maybe even has that… Goldar thing back on her side; it's not much of a choice, is it?"

Peeta still looked uncomfortable with my decision, but the grim nod he gave me at least assured me that he would be coming with us for this final stage.

We're never going to be a team of heroes, I mused grimly as I led Peeta up the ramp and towards the armoury, but at least we can save the planet from this one threat.

Even as we stood outside the docks, I had to remind myself that I couldn't show any sign that I didn't have confidence in this makeshift team as I held my sword-like weapon in my hands. I had wanted to find a bow, but Glimmer and Liv had each told me that the sword was a better fit for a leader, which left me trying to recall everything I'd been taught recently about hand-to-hand combat as I looked over the rest of our group. Rue had argued that it was best that she stick with us for the moment, on the understanding that she'd move out of harm's way once we actually found Rita, which meant that right now the six of us were armed, together, and ready to fight, all wearing dark leather and hoods in different colours (Rue was wearing a purple one she'd found somewhere that none of us could explain while the others all wore hoods matching their coins).

Teleporting out fortunately hadn't been that difficult, despite my initial concerns about how we could get access to the system without Zordon or Alpha to direct the outgoing 'transmission'. Liv had found the ship's teleportation network while she was studying the systems, so she had already prepared an interface in her room that allowed her to use it basically whenever we wanted. The system would still default to taking us back to the ship if we triggered it outside the ship, but the important thing was that we had made it to the docks that Rita had designated as our meeting spot without tipping off anyone we didn't want to know about this confrontation.

"You know this is a really bad idea, right?" Thresh looked at me even as he held his large axe in his hands, his eyes grim behind his black mask.

"Yeah, but we're all out of good ideas, so we're stuck with this one," Glimmer put in, experimentally twirling the long stick she held in her hands, clearly grinning under her pink head-covering. She also had a short sword at her side, but it was notably shorter than my weapon even if it was also longer than the three-pointed daggers Peeta had claimed for himself. Liv, for her part, had chosen a couple of long sticks with some kind of sharp points on each end; the two could join together into a single long weapon, but Liv preferred them this way.

"OK," I said, exchanging a final anxious look with the rest of the former Tributes. "Let's do this."

With that solemn statement, the five of us cautiously advanced towards the boathouses, moving through the docks briskly but carefully. There was no sign of anyone actually working out in the area where they left the older ships, so we all felt safe assuming that nobody in the District was particularly invested in this part of their territory, but I knew we also couldn't afford to let our guards down just yet.

We searched three of the larger abandoned boathouses and found nothing more than decaying crates and a couple of old ships, but when we came to the fourth boathouse down the pier, a brief glance through the door was enough to reveal a figure at the other end, illuminated by the moonlight on the sea, apparently crouching down as though waiting for something.

And nobody would be waiting here like that unless they were waiting for something in particular… and if this was some regular hook-up anyone living here could surely find somewhere nicer…

After exchanging anxious glances with the others, I waved at Rue to get somewhere else before I led the other four towards the figure, trusting that the little girl could find somewhere safe once again. For a few moments, as we cautiously advanced towards our target, I let myself imagine the possibilities if we could actually pull this off, if we might just be about to get the advantage over her, if we could finally do something right…

Then we gathered around the figure and I found myself looking at an older man tied to a chair with some kind of thick gag over his mouth, looking anxiously around at the rest of us.

"Uh… what the hell?" Thresh looked over at me.

"Let's get him out-" Peeta raised one of his daggers.

"Maybe we could stop and think-?" Glimmer began as she grabbed Peeta's arm, before something fell from the ceiling to crash into the man with such force that his chair shattered while the five of us were sent flying backwards.

"Right on time," Rita said mockingly as we got back to our feet, the woman in green armour looking dismissively at the five of us. "I was beginning to think-"

I would never know what prompted Peeta to take such a desperate action, but he dived towards Rita with his daggers outstretched, clearly intending to stab her, only to be grabbed and thrown to one side before he could get close. He hit the wall with such force that I heard it break under the weight of his body, but I tried to focus on something else as Glimmer's own attempted attack was easily parried with Rita's own staff. The former Green Ranger almost seemed to not even be paying attention as she deflected Liv's own attempt to attack her, knocking the would-be Blue Ranger into a corner of the hut.

I exchanged a glance with Thresh before the two of us tried to charge her ourselves, but Rita actually tossed her staff upwards and then slammed her hands into our chests, sending us flying back before we could reach her. Even as I hit the ground, I tried to keep an eye on Rita as Peeta charged forward to try again, only for Rita to put the end of her staff on the ground and spin herself mid-air to kick Peeta in the head. As her feet returned to the planks beneath her, Thresh somehow managed to grab her from behind, but Rita just grabbed his wrists and forced his arms open, hurling him back before Thresh could actually do anything to her. I had just managed to get back to my feet as he hit the wall, and tried to make sure that the others were back on their feet. Thresh had got to his feet in time to join us as we took up new positions, but before any of us could do anything more than get ready for a new fight, Rita swung her staff in a circle around herself, some kind of green energy erupted from it-

"Five little Rangers tied up like fish," Rita's mocking voice woke me up, revealing that I was tied down by some kind of rope, against a wooden wall that looked like the exterior of the boathouse where we'd just been fighting. I looked urgently around to confirm that the other four former Tributes were with me and still seemed to be alive, but we were all tied up with our weapons pinned to our sides.

"I have to give you credit, Red," Rita's voice drew me back to her as she stood in front of me, "you're not as weak as I thought you were… even if you are as stupid."

"What do you want?" I glared at her, trying to ignore the situation.

"Look at you, trying to figure out my plan," Rita said mockingly, taking my chin in her hand. "I will just tell you; you've been led to your death, because I'm going to kill you… one by one… until you tell me where my Crystal is."

"We don't know-!" I began desperately.

"Oh, I already guessed that you don't know, Red, but one of you must have worked it out by now," the green-armoured woman said mockingly, before she turned to walk alongside the other four, tapping her fingers against their chests as we all struggled against our bonds. "Who could it be? Eeinie meenie mynie…"

"STOP!" another voice suddenly yelled, and I suddenly had the sense that I was sharing a strong emotion with the rest of this would-be team for the first time as I was struck with horror at the sound of that voice.

"A child?" Rita said, her tone even more mocking as she turned to look at where Rue was standing at the other end of the docks, brandishing her gun and trying to point it at Rita. "You brought a child to-?"

"I know where the Crystal is!" Rue cut her off urgently.

"DON'T-!" Liv began, an edge of desperation in her voice that I couldn't help but find horrifyingly familiar from all those times I'd tried to tell Prim not to do something dangerous.

Liv and Rue had been working together for a while… if they had found something about the Crystal…

"You do know something," Rita said, even as she waved a hand and left Liv with extra ropes over her mouth. "Where is it?"

"Y-you have to let them go!" Rue yelled, still brandishing her gun in her hands, a sense of desperation in her manner even as she fought to keep herself together. "We can- I'll- you just need to leave us alone!"

"Very well," Rita said, still staring at Rue in a manner that left me feeling extremely worried. "Where is it?"

"It's in District Eleven!" Rue said. "It's under the main fields; it might even be the reason that field does so well-"

"Thank you," Rita said, suddenly moving rapidly to grab the little girl by the throat. "And with that in mind, I'll give you this."

She twisted her hand and a loud snap filled the air.

"There's more fun killing the mascot first," Rita said as she nonchalantly dropped Rue's body to the ground and turned to look at the rest of us. "After all, you're not even a true team-"

"NO!" Thresh yelled, his anguished roar filling the air as the axe he still held in his hands-

I didn't know how, but the axe-handle seemed to fire some kind of energy blast that tore through the ropes around his chest. To Thresh's credit, even as he fell to the ground he let out an outraged roar as he adjusted his grip on the axe and used its unexpected new function to fire another energy blast at Rita. The shot didn't seem to do more than knock our enemy off-balance, but it must have broken her concentration or something, as the bonds holding the rest of us up suddenly seemed to relax their grip. Desperate for any chance of escape, I flexed my arms and felt the last of the bonds shatter before I ran towards Rue's fallen form, my fingers pressed against her neck as I heard the rest of the team gather around behind me…

Even before I touched her skin, I knew that this was pointless, and the way her head practically flopped over to the side as I made contact with her neck only reinforced it.

Rue was dead.

"No…" Thresh said, his own expression clearly sharing my grief as he looked at Rue's body, the others coming together around us. "This wasn't… she was meant to be safe…"

"The ship," Glimmer said, clutching her weapon as she looked urgently between Rue's body and Rita, who was already getting to her feet. "We need to get back to the ship."

"Just a moment…" Thresh said, his expression bitter as he adjusted his grip on his axe so that the blade was now the handle of a large gun with the handle as the barrel. Aiming it at Rita, he fired another energy blast at the woman who had just killed Rue, sending Rita flying even further back, before he turned back to the rest of us. "That should put her down for a bit; get us home."

I was grateful that nobody bothered to try and press the issue; after what Rita had just done to us, it was clear that none of us were in any kind of position to try and kill her right now. With that grim understanding, I triggered the emergency recall that would take us all back to the ship, suddenly wanting to be somewhere safe with people I could trust…