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Twice Chosen

It said a great deal about the chaotic state of my life right now that I was so unphased at the prospect of meeting Finnick Odair. I had never been one of those girls who went out of their way to collect his publicity material or make a big deal about anything with his picture, but I still at least kept up-to-date with his activities, even if I was starting to realise that everyone in Panem knew less about his daily life than the Capitol let us think. Glimmer's argument for how she at least suspected he had secrets and how he might have remained undercover so far made sense, but the idea that there was that level of resistance to the Capitol…

For a moment, I wondered how Gale would react to that particular revelation, but I pushed that thought down; there would be time to track down my family once the Green Ranger had been dealt with, but right now there were bigger priorities. Fortunately, since Glimmer had made contact with Finnick already, it wasn't hard for Alpha to identify a private signal we could use to communicate with him and arrange an in-person meeting in a suitably open location.

From what Alpha had explained, the ship's systems were still dealing with a great deal of wear and tear from centuries of 'neglect', so the teleport sequence wouldn't be efficient enough to send us directly into specific buildings yet, even if there was no problem sending us and the zords into larger open areas. The Victors could only go so far from their own Districts without attracting attention, but Finnick had assured us that he could contact other members of his network if he was able to meet with us directly. We had found a suitable area in a clearing in the forests a short distance from District Four, concealed enough that we wouldn't be seen by any Capitol patrols so long as we were discreet and nobody was actively looking for us there. Peeta had expressed concern about what would happen if the Green Ranger attacked somewhere else during this meeting, but Glimmer had simply observed that we'd deal with that when we had to, and Alpha assured us he'd let us know if that happened anyway.

When we arrived in the clearing a few moments ahead of schedule, I was surprised at how calm I felt even though I was about to face a situation I could never have imagined myself being in before now. I still couldn't believe that I was actually acting as a leader of a team of superheroes using alien technology to try and change the society I'd lived in all my life, when I'd spent so long resigned to the idea that the best I could do was keep my mother and Prim alive…

"We sure this is the right place?" Thresh asked, even as we all kept our helmets sealed. We might be prepared to trust Finnick and the other Victors we were about to talk with, but Zordon's rule against sharing our identities was still something we had to keep in mind.

"Finnick gave me the coordinates and I double-checked," Glimmer nodded at the Black Ranger. "We've just got to give him time; keep in mind we can get around a bit faster than most people."

"So long as we don't forget to still do some actual physical work," Peeta observed with a nod. "It'd be ironic if we get so used to going around by teleporting that we get out of shape for doing the more physical stuff…"

"Could that happen?" Liv asked,

"We're not going to get that out-of-shape if we beam around a bit," Glimmer shook her head, sounding amused at the idea before she held up a hand. I heard the sound of movement just as we all fell silent, and a moment later, Finnick Odair walked into the field from just behind Glimmer, carrying a large bag and wearing more practical clothing than the fancy suits he was usually shown in when making appearances.

"Hey," Finnick said, nodding around at the rest of the team before he turned his full attention on me. "So… Pink told me you're the leader?"

"That's how it works," I said, unsure if I should bother trying to disguise my voice. The helmet muffled enough of my voice that none of us sounded exactly like we usually did, and I was fairly sure most of our voices were only on record from the entrance interviews, but maybe I should make sure…

"Huh," Finnick said, looking around at the five of us with a smile. "So how did you even come to Panem anyway?"

"One of the things you don't need to know if we're going to do this," Glimmer put in, her arms folded and her body projecting a firm authority.

"I don't need to know where you came from?"

"Part of our duty as Rangers requires… an oath of secrecy," Peeta explained. "It's not that we don't want to tell you things, but our duty requires us to keep certain details to ourselves."

"I… see," Finnick said. His tone was curious, but there was something in his eyes that suggested he was at least willing to consider what we were saying.

"Anyway," Glimmer cut in, "in the end, all you need to know right now is that we're here to help get the current government out and put someone else in charge."

"And we're not taking power for ourselves," Peeta added, his tone clearly intended to reassure Finnick of our broader intentions. "We don't agree with what Snow and his followers are doing, but we won't rule in his place; we're just here to help Panem get better local leaders."

"OK…" Finnick said, opening the bag and taking out a large flat screen that put me in mind of the devices I'd seen the instructors use during the pre-Games training sessions. "Well, if you want to talk to us…"

Holding the device out in front of himself, Finnick pressed something on the side, and suddenly the device's screen displayed images of Finnick's face alongside three other former Victors. The sight of Beetee Latier wasn't a surprise, considering his technical expertise, and Johanna Mason being part of this group made sense when she'd been a famous rebel even during her own Games by going against expectations. However, I only just managed to hold back my shock when Haymitch was another figure on the screen. Seeing him looking particularly weary suddenly made me think again of how everyone back home must have spent the last few days thinking Peeta and I had died in the Games before our latest broadcast, but I pushed those thoughts down; we had to focus on the wider picture right now.

"So," Haymitch said, looking at us with a surprising amount of focus given how he had almost certainly been drinking earlier, "you're the guys who screwed up the latest Games?"

"We like to think of it as saving people from a situation they should never have been in," Peeta responded, deliberately lowering his voice. "We're officially here to defend your planet from potential outside enemies-"

"Outside enemies?" Johanna cut in. "You're telling us that alien invasions are a thing?"

"Not on the scale you're probably thinking," Liv said, even as I hoped we weren't lying. "You can consider us part of an elite group of warriors charged with protecting certain planets from certain threats."

"Such as?" Beetee asked.

"It's safest if you don't know," Liv said.

"What?" Johanna asked. "Why you're protecting this planet, or what you're protecting it from?"

"Both have to be secret," I nodded.

"And that's supposed to make us trust you?"

"It's supposed to help you understand what we will and won't do," I said. "Our team have our own specific responsibilities, and normally we would keep out of local politics, but we have decided that the situation in your country is one that can't be allowed to continue if we're going to do our duty."

"In other words, you're offering to help us mount our resistance so that you can do your other job?" Beetee asked.

"Pretty much," Peeta confirmed.

"And thank you for admitting that there's a resistance," Thresh said with a brief nod.

"Oh, very smart," Johanna said critically. "Again, we're supposed to trust any of this when one of your guys is tearing through the districts in one of those giant robots?"

"Green is a rogue element and we're trying to deal with that on our end," Glimmer said. "What we need from you right now is to do what you can to make people aware that he's not part of our core team; we're working on stopping him, and then we'll get back to the issue of toppling the Capitol."

"You basically want us to tell people not to be worried about how they're stuck in the middle of some… superhuman alien grudge match?"

"It's… a bit more complicated than that," Liv said tentatively. "We're… fairly sure some other party is influencing Green to fight against the rest of us, so we're working on finding a way to deal with him, but…"

"But you haven't got it yet, huh?"

"The important thing is that we need you to let people know that we aren't the threat here," I cut in before Johanna could say more. "We want to help you all, but for this to work, you need to have faith in us that we are here to help while Green is just… he's trying to smash everything because he's angry."

"You believe he's dangerous?" Beetee asked.

"Isn't he just angry at the Capitol?" Johanna asked. "He only really trashed Two…"

"He smashed through an entire District just because he could; does that sound like the kind of person you want to trust with any kind of power?" I said. "I understand that you all you're your own issues with the Capitol, but you have to all agree that there are still some good people in there; it's not like everyone is equally guilty of forcing you all into the Games."

"Nobody's exactly stopped it-"

"But there's a difference between malicious intent and accepting the status quo," Glimmer cut in. "Considering what your president is rumoured to do to people he doesn't like, it's not like we can expect everything to just ignore the risks of standing up to him if we can't show you all that there are people willing to take those risks first."

"The point," I said, wanting to remind everyone of our main purpose here, "is that while we want to help your people get a better government installed, we need to prioritise stopping Green before he does more damage and hurts more innocent people."

"Can you do it?" Beetee asked.

"Nobody else can," Peeta said. "Like Red said, we need you to do what you can to let people know that the time for revolution is coming; once Green is under control, we'll be there to help."

"And we should trust that you won't be storming the Districts in big robots yourselves?" Johanna asked.

"We'll be there to help you fight the Capitol's soldiers, but we won't use the zords unless we have to," Peeta said. "One of our rules is to avoid escalating a battle; deploying the zords against human forces would count as such an escalation."

"Zords?" Beetee asked.

"The proper name for what you call 'big robots'," Liv explained. "Actually, their original name doesn't translate well into your dialect, but 'zord' covers the key concepts well enough."

"I see," Beetee said, looking thoughtfully at us through the screen before he nodded. "Very well."

"'Very well'?" Johanna repeated with a sceptical tone. "You can't mean you're going along with this?"

"If it is a choice between doing the same thing we have always done and trying something new, I for one favour something new," Beetee said. "The Rangers are an unorthodox addition to the situation, but aren't most of us here because we did something different?"

"…Point," Johanna said, looking grimly at us. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Just give us a chance to prove we're trustworthy," Peeta nodded at her. "And feel free to let us know if there's something we do that you don't like."

"You'll let us talk again?" Finnick asked.

"The frequency we used to get in touch with you in the first place is still good," Liv nodded at him. "We'll let you know if anything changes at our end, and you can let us know if anything happens out here that might affect us; agreed?"

"Agreed," Beetee nodded.

"Sounds good," Haymitch affirmed, Finnick giving his own thumbs-up in support.

"…Fine," Johanna conceded, even as she seemed more bitter about it. "Talk to you soon?"

"Hopefully with better news," I said, before I stepped back and indicated to the rest of the team. With that cue, we placed our hands on our waists and teleported away, while I just had time to glimpse the surprise on Finnick's face as we vanished.

We had at least made an impression on the Victors, but now the question was whether we would have time to track down the Green Ranger before he did so much damage that he basically destroyed our own reputations…