[Ellen Brand]

Three days later, the group met in the Youth Center before their trip. Actually, Jason, Tommy, and Rocky met there. Lita hadn't arrived yet.

.........."You up to this, Jase?" Tommy asked, concerned.

..........Jason nodded. "It's certainly better than waiting around for you guys to come back- or not."

.........."I know what you mean," Tommy laughed humorlessly. "Being helpless is not a fun feeling."

.........."'They also serve who stand and wait,'" Rocky interjected suddenly. "Milton. What?" he asked, as his two friends stared at him.

.........."Never mind," Tommy shook his head. He'd never understand how Rocky could be so out of it and still come up with the perfect quote for every occasion.

.........."Hey guys!" Lita called, waving to them from the door of the Youth Center. As she entered, she caught the attention of the three boys- and every male over age ten within eyeshot. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her green flannel shirt and blue jeans showed off an athletic figure.

.........."We ready to go?" she asked, crossing to where they stood.

.........."Yeah," Rocky told her. "Let's go load your gear into the Explorer and get going."

..........In the parking lot, Rocky and Jason quickly piled all of Lita's things into the back of Rocky's Ford Explorer. The truck, Lita noticed, was blue. It figures, she thought wryly. These kids appear to be psychologically drawn to their respective colors. I wonder if their parents notice their monochromatic wardrobe. Lita would have given a great deal to be able to see inside the Rangers' closets before and after they were tapped by Zordon.

..........The trip up was uneventful, for which Lita gave thanks. Tommy's friends had delicately warned her that her patient was a trouble magnet, a walking example of Murphy's Law. As Rocky had said, "Oliver's corollary to Murphy's Law reads, 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and will probably be loaded for bear.'" Lita didn't think that she could have handled a Cog attack in her present state of exhaustion.

..........The De Santos family cabin actually turned out to be a large farm-house style dwelling. "Rocky, are you sure that we can all fit in here?" Tommy asked.

.........."Tommy," Rocky puffed, pulling his duffel bag out of the back of the truck, "it wasn't an accident that my parents had eight kids. I could put the AGH football team up in here without significant crowding."

.........."Oh," Tommy managed, blushing almost the color his Ranger suit had been. To forestall further conversation, he grabbed his luggage and headed for the house. Suppressing giggles, the other three followed him.



..........After stowing their gear, Lita and Jason headed down to the library. She wanted to ask him some questions about the Green Ranger, to better understand him.

..........The library was a cozy room, its walls completely covered by bookshelves that were thickly stacked with well-worn books. "Well," Jason managed. "I guess we know where Rocky got his passion for literature from."

..........Lita nodded. Whoever the library had belonged to had certainly been in love with the printed word.

.........."So," Jason asked, sinking into a chair, "what exactly did you want to know?"

..........Lita sighed. "I'd like you to tell me about the Green Ranger, and about Tommy during that time period. Not the events, but your impressions and reactions to those two."

..........Jason exhaled in a long breath. "Well, let me see. My first impression of Tommy was during the fight at the Youth Center. We were scheduled to compete in an exhibition match at the local Martial Arts Expo. We sparred, and I realized pretty quickly that he was better than I was. That sort of threw me. I'd been the best in Angel Grove for so long that I didn't really know how to react to it. I tell my students that there's always someone better, but" he shrugged, "I guess I never thought that I'd meet them."

.........."The match was a tie, but we both knew that if it had been a real fight, he would have won. When I shook his hand, I could see that he knew it, and he wasn't stuck up about it or anything." Jason snorted. "I remember thinking that he would have made a good Ranger."

.........."When Kim told me about how he saved her from Bulk and Skull, I knew I liked him. Bulk's big enough to be intimidating, if you don't know how dumb he is, but Tommy stood up to him without a problem. Then, even though he was obviously trying to impress Kim, he didn't do anything but scare Bulk and Skull. He didn't have to prove how good he was by beating somebody weaker than he. I knew then that he was a good guy."

.........."Then the Green Ranger appeared, knocking us out of our Zords. I fought him, one on one, and he beat me! He was better than I was too! Then we had to run away from him, back to see how Alpha was. I was never so angry in my life. I hated running away, and I hated the Green Ranger for making it necessary."

.........."When I wound up in the Dark Dimension, first fighting Goldar and then the Green Ranger, I learned a lot about him. First off, he let me get to my feet before he attacked me, not out of honor, but because there was no challenge in attacking an opponent who couldn't fight back. We fought, and I learned why he was better than I. He never lost his temper. I have a problem with fighting with my head instead of my heart, and he took advantage of that.

.........."When the Green Ranger knocked me to the ground and got ready to run me through with his sword, I was more frightened than I have ever been in my life. Rita's monsters, even Goldar, didn't seem exactly real. Oh, sure, I always knew that I could die, but this was when I really knew it. After I got home that night, I made out my will."

..........Lita leaned forward. "You have a will?" she asked. She didn't know why that surprised her. These kids were so responsible, so unnaturally mature, that wills seemed exactly right somehow.

.........."Yeah," Jason nodded. "We all do. You see, when you become a Ranger, it takes a while to sink in that you might not win. Sooner or later, though, every Ranger has an experience where they wind up staring Death in the face, where the consequences of losing are brought home to them. In this fight, the stakes aren't just your pride, or even your life. If you fail as a Ranger, you die, and everyone and everything that you care about goes with you.

.........."Tommy calls it "the test," but I think Zack put it best. We were up late one night, talking, and I brought this subject up. Zack calls it the "baptism of fire." The name sort of stuck."

.........."Interesting," Lita murmured. "Has Tommy undergone this process?"

.........."Oh, yeah. It was his time as Rita's Green Ranger. Being on the giving end of this stuff showed him quite quickly what awaited him if he lost. Tommy doesn't even have the luxury of knowing he'll die. If Tommy loses a battle, Mondo or Zedd will take him and turn him evil again. He'd rather die than return to what he was."

.........."How would you describe Tommy's behavior as one of Zordon's Rangers?"

.........."Driven. He wants so badly to prove that he's a good guy, and the sad thing is that no one doubts that anymore. Look at the current team. They almost treat Tommy like a god, or at least a figure out of myth. Without Billy, I'm the only one who remembers him as he was, a haunted, driven man. He says that he's put it behind him, but I know he hasn't. I can still see it in his eyes.

.........."Everybody approaches this fight differently. Rocky sees it as the ultimate high. It's not that he doesn't understand the seriousness of his situation, it's just that he's addicted to the adrenaline rush. For Tanya, this is her only way to fit in. She took Aisha's place because it was the right thing to do, but when the whole thing started, she was completely out of her element. The fiasco with Shawn didn't help either." Jason smiled slightly. "You know, Rocky told me once that Adam had threatened to rip Shawn's lungs out if he did anything to hurt Tanya. When Shawn broke up with Tanya because she wouldn't help him cheat on the test, Rocky thought that AGH had just lost a baseball player. Everything worked out, though.

.........."Kat's motives in this are more complex. First, she wants to keep Rita and Zedd from doing to anyone else what they did to her. Second, she wants to prove herself worthy of Tommy's affection. This is the only way she knows to compete with the ghost of Kimberly.

.........."Adam maybe the only one who simply wants to do what's right. He has no hidden motives, and he knows that this isn't a game. Wait- scratch that. He has one hidden motive. Adam's dad is a Detective with the AGPD, Homicide Division. Detective Park thinks the Power Rangers are a menace, putting the city in as much danger as the monsters. Deep down, I think Adam wants to prove to his dad that the Power Rangers are the good guys. He wants his father to be proud of him.

.........."As for Tommy, he sees this as a personal contest, him against evil. He's determined not to let evil win, no matter what the cost to himself. He's prepared to sacrifice himself to destroy the enemy, but he'd never give up his friends."

..........Lita smiled at him. "You know, Jason, you'd make a great psychoanalyst. Ever think about majoring in Psych?"

..........He grinned back at her. "No, I'm gonna take business courses at Crossworld City Community College and open my own dojo."

..........Lita shook her head. She had no doubt that he could do it.