And A Teenager Shall Lead Them

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers or any of the characters used in this tale, with the exception of Karen.

Remember always that this is an alternate universe, very different from the one you know. In this universe a group known as the Psycho Rangers appeared and in two days succeeded in defeating the Astro Rangers. During their final battle in the center of Earth's Angel Grove Psycho Red slew Andros as he saved Ashley from Psycho Yellow, only for her to subsequently fall regardless of his heroism. Psycho Green mortally wounded Carlos and together Psycho Pink and Psycho Blue killed Zhane. Only T.J. and Cassie were able to evade certain death by teleporting away. Their Megaship was not able to escape Earth's orbit, however, as the enemy fleet had arrived simultaneously with the Psycho Ranger's assault. The ship disappeared and was never found.

With the Astro Rangers all but annihilated, Dark Specter and the cybernetically mentally altered Princess Astronema attacked the Earth, finally conquering the world. With their sovereignty established they constructed several gigantic factories to produce war materials and turned their attention to bringing the remainder of the galaxy under their dominance.

That was two years ago. The Psycho Rangers were soon called away to lead Dark Specter's armies against other planets and it's been many months since any of them have been seen on Earth. The Dark Fortress, too, has long since moved on and is currently believed to be orbiting the recently subjugated planet of Triforia. Ecliptor was named Regent of Earth and rules the planet in the name of his master. Humanity is kept in bondage by an occupation force of Quantrons, but while mankind's will to resist has been blunted by the tens of millions killed in the initial conquest, it has not been destroyed . . .

The hot sun beat down relentlessly on the auburn-haired adolescent. As he wiped the perspiration from his forehead for roughly the thousandth time and wearily adjusted his backpack, seventeen year-old Justin Stewart began to wonder if maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all.

His best guess was that the rebel camp was somewhere in these mountains, but with Lt. Stone dead there was no one to tell him exactly where to go or how to contact them. All he could do was trek endlessly across the lower areas of this rocky, inhospitable terrain, hoping against hope that his educated speculation was right and that he would be fortunate enough to stumble across some sign of the rebels.

As a plan it might be considered by some to be overly optimistic.

Still, given the circumstances, it was the best course of action his one hundred and fifty IQ brain had been able to devise, and he wasn't ready to give up on it yet. Squaring his shoulders and ignoring his fatigue he marched on, wending his way along the gap between the two vast piles of rock towering on either side of him.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

"It's almost four thirty and there's been no sign of anyone. It's time for us to go, Fred," the attractive, blond eighteen year-old girl told her companion.

"Ken and Sarah said Lt. Stone was gonna send his next group of recruits to the rendezvous today," the tall, dark-haired and backward cap-wearing teen argued.

"Maybe he changed his mind. Or maybe they did. Whatever happened, they're not here and we shouldn't be anymore either. It's been four hours, Fred. No one is coming."

"You're right," he conceded with a sigh. "Let's head back."

Fred Kelman couldn't resist lingering for one last moment, glancing down at the rendezvous point far below them. It was a little notch in the rocks, one completely exposed from their cliff top. Standard practice was to stay prone, just stick your head out over the edge and make sure the recruits looked okay and were alone before taking the trip down to meet them.

They wouldn't be doing that today and the realization left Fred more than a little dispirited. Bringing new people into the resistance was in its own way every bit as satisfying as participating in a strike at a Quantron barracks. Returning to camp from the rendezvous point empty-handed felt like failure and he loathed failing, at anything.

"You realize we're not even going to make it halfway back before nightfall," Karen commented conversationally to him as he got up and moved to her side.

The teenager shrugged, unconcerned.

"It won't kill us to spend a night away from camp. And they know it sometimes takes us more than a day to get back with the new recruits, so they won't be worried."

"I wasn't actually planning on sleeping on rock tonight."

"You could always use me as your pillow."

"In your dreams, Kelman!" she snapped back, but the blush on her face made Fred grin.

He let her take the lead on the way back, since she knew the route every bit as well as he did . . . and there was a better view from behind.

He was undeniably attracted to Karen: she was brave, pretty and certainly tough as nails. He thought she liked him too, but try as he might he hadn't managed to progress beyond the buddy stage with her. Even after all this time working side by side she still kept a distance between them, at least emotionally. What did he have to do to get through to her? Maybe an unmistakably romantic gesture was in order? Of course it was hard to send a girl flowers when you lived in a mountain range.

While pondering his dating difficulties the adolescent ended up walking right into the object of his affections. With a grunt he actually knocked her over and fell on top of her, his weight and the weight of his backpack pinning her to the stone. Okay, this would definitely make an impression on her, albeit not the one he wanted.

"Get off me!" she hissed from beneath him, and he wasted no time in doing so.

"Sorry!" he cried as he scrambled to his feet.

"Shhh!" she urged him, pointing downward.

In the valley below them was another person, also wearing a backpack, with a sleeping bag attached to it. His light brown hair was arranged in a bowl cut and beneath his backpack his muscle shirt was royal blue. Blue jeans and dark blue sneakers completed his outfit. He was heading away from them, moving in the same direction they were going.

"Shit! Just what we needed!" Karen growled.

"What do you mean? Maybe that's a recruit from Stone!"

"Then why didn't he come to the rendezvous point? That's where they're supposed to go, and nobody has missed it yet. This guy could be anyone!"

"You think he's just roaming around these mountains for fun?"

"That's more likely than him being a recruit who go lost. And if isn't here to join us it would be a mistake to let him know we're here. Security, remember?"

"He's heading in the same direction we are," Fred argued. "Do you really think we can dodge him all the way back to camp?"

"What's your bright idea then? Go tell him everything?" Karen questioned sarcastically, her hands on her hips.

"We'll just approach him and pretend to be here for fun ourselves. We'll see what he says and go from there," Fred said.

Karen glared at him, but there was no real force behind it.

"Fine. You explain to T.J. that this was your idea," she stressed.

"T.J. will understand," Fred insisted, hoping he was right. After all, being spotted acting furtively would be a lot more suspicious than just going up to the guy and saying hello. This was the safest option open to them, right?

"Hide your laser pistol," Fred said, unbuckling his belt and stowing it, the holster and the weapon in his backpack. Karen did likewise.

"Hey!" Fred shouted down at the figure. The object of his greeting whirled around, saw them and began waving frantically.

Fred and Karen made their way to the far end of the valley and swung around to meet the man. No, not a man, he realized as they drew closer. It was an adolescent, looking about the same age as Fred, though about an inch taller then Fred's six one and even broader across the shoulders. He was beaming at them, seeming far happier to see them than a normal mountaineer would be. And there was something vaguely familiar about his face . . .

It wasn't until he was within half a dozen feet of the teen that Fred recognized him.

"Justin! Justin Stewart, right?"

"That's right," Justin answered warily, in a voice two octaves deeper than the last time Fred had heard him speak. "Who are you?"

"It's me, Fred Kelman."

The cautious expression switched to surprise.

"Fred?" he said disbelievingly.

"So does someone want to introduce me?" Karen asked pointedly from his side.

"Sorry, Kar. Justin, this is Karen Williams. Karen, this is Justin Stewart. He was another one of the kids my old sensei was training. We ran into each other a few times visiting Tommy."

During their brief encounters Justin had always seemed nice enough, though Fred had never found out for sure; it was hard to make pleasant conversation with someone you were jealous of. After he'd shown up Justin had seemed to claim the bulk of Tommy's attention. Fred's mentor had less and less time to spare for him. Justin had even gotten to hang out with Tommy at high school, being skipped ahead two grades because of his exceptional intelligence.

"I'm so glad I found you guys!" Justin said.

"Why? Were you getting lonely roaming around here by yourself?"

"I'm here to join your resistance group. You're members, aren't you?"

"Are you kidding? We're just spending a weekend in the mountains," Karen lied.

"So then you won't mind taking me back to your base camp, where your tent is?" Justin countered archly.

Fred and Karen traded quick glances.

"Why would you think you'd find resistance fighters here?" Karen demanded.

"Because Lieutenant Stone told me in advance that I should bring a good pair of shoes and plenty of water to the rendezvous point. That means he intended for me to do a lot of walking, and I assumed that meant into the mountains, especially since that would be one of the best places to hide. This is the mountain range closest to Angel Grove and it's not prohibitively far from the majority of rebel strikes in California. I guessed he was going to dispatch me to somewhere around here."

"What do you mean "going to"?' Fred inquired. "What are you doing here if Stone didn't send you?"

"He was supposed to tell me where to go today, me and maybe a few other people. Last nigh, though, the Quantrons came for him. I don't know what gave him away, but there was a full squad sent to arrest him. He still had a hand gun on him and he . . . he didn't let them take him alive," Justin finished grimly.

Fred felt like he'd been slugged in the stomach. Lt. Stone had been their best recruiter; hell, he was the one who'd recruited Fred! His death was a tragedy, and a serious loss to the movement.

One more person he knew had fallen in the fight for freedom. One more crime to make the Quantrons, Regent Ecliptor and Dark Specter himself pay for! Their day of reckoning was coming and much sooner than they could guess.

Karen, too, had been recruited by Stone and seemed equally shaken by his death. Like Fred, she took refuge in anger, but directed it at a different target.

"And how do we know that what happened to Lt. Stone wasn't your fault?" she accused Justin.

"What? Why would it be my fault?"

"They were tipped off somehow. Maybe you messed up and drew attention his way."

"If I had don't you think they would have come for me too?" Justin countered.

"Maybe they did. Maybe you rolled over on Stone to save your own skin."

"If I was that much of a coward, why would I still have come here to try to join up?"

"Whoa, Karen! Don't you're going a little too far on no evidence?" Fred asked her pointedly.

"I'm not responsible for what happened to Lt. Stone," Justin declared, his face looking like it had been carved from granite. "Fred might not know me well enough to vouch for me, but T.J. Johnson does, and I'm betting he's part of your group."

"You know T.J.?" Fred asked in surprise. How did Justin know the Blue Ranger, their leader?

Justin gave a short, sharp nod. "I do, and he knows me."

"Excuse us for a minute," Fred said to the other boy, motioning Karen to one side with a jerk of his head. The two of them retreated about twenty feet from the teenager.

"I think we have to bring him in with us."

"I don't trust him!"

"Karen, sometimes I think you don't even trust me!" Fred offered in exasperation.

To his surprise she actually flinched at his words.

"I trust you, Fred," she said softly.

"Then trust me now. Justin was practically Tommy's little brother," he explained, surprised to feel a twinge of jealousy even now at that fact. "Tommy wouldn't have spent so much time with him if Justin wasn't a stand-up guy. And if he knows T.J. too, then doesn't that pretty much clinch it for you?"

She looked away and didn't reply.

"Plus he's a genius, Karen. We might be able to use him to help with Endgame," he assured her, hoping she wouldn't be annoyed by the mention of T.J.'s master plan. So far the exact details were known only to T.J., Cassie, Fred, Tom, and Martin, the officers of their group.

"Okay, let's take him to T.J," she gave in.

"Thank you," Fred said sincerely.

Together they walked back to the new recruit.

"Welcome to the resistance," Fred said, and for only the second time in their lives he and Justin shook hands.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

As they started toward what was presumably the resistance camp, Justin couldn't help marveling at this coincidence. Who would've though he'd encounter Fred Kelman here?

Back when they'd first met he'd been impressed by the other boy's obvious air of confidence and competence. It had been easy to imagine Fred leading the kids of Angel Grove to save their parents from Ivan Ooze's scheme, as Tommy had told him. Justin remembered wistfully how he'd desperately wanted to make friends with Fred, but had been too shy to do so. He'd been burned often when he tried to associate with his peers and hadn't been willing to risk rejection yet again. So he had ended up running into Fred a couple of times with Tommy and that was it. He'd never seen the other teen again, until now.

It was a lucky break that Fred was here today, judging by Karen's reaction. Gritting his teeth and accompanying her all the way back to wherever this camp was would clearly be a serious test of his self-control, but maybe Fred could make the experience less of an ordeal.

"So, Fred, what have you been up to these last few years?" Justin enquired of their trailblazer.

"Up until the Conquest I was just trying to get through Angel Grove High with good enough grades for college. Maybe you could have helped me with that, but by the time I got to high school you and Tommy were both gone."

"We had to move because of the new job my Dad got," Justin explained, bemused to hear an actual note of apology in his voice.

"Where did you move to?"

"A suburb a couple of miles outside of Los Angeles."

"If you live there how did you get recruited by Lieutentant Stone?" Karen snapped.

Argh! He was never going to make it to their destination without killing her!

"I don't live there anymore. I moved back to Angel Grove a little over two months ago."

"Did you come back with your parents?" Fred asked curiously.

"No. My mom died when I was eleven; my dad . . . my dad doesn't approve of what I'm doing."

So Justin had lost his mother too? Fred had never known that about him. Apparently the two of them had more in common than just Tommy Oliver and the martial arts.

"I lost my mom when I was six," Fred confided. "My Dad was pretty scared for me when I told him what I was going to do, but he supported me."

The memory of that support meant a lot to him, given that he hadn't seen his father since joining the resistance. A visit would be too risky, for both of them. Less than fifty miles separated them, but it might as well have been a thousand.

Yet it seemed he was still more fortunate than Justin or Karen. Justin's dad wasn't backing him, and both of Karen's parents had been killed in the Conquest.

Oh, shit! He hadn't even thought about how this conversation would make Karen feel! He threw a quick glance over his shoulder and saw her eyes were turned downward, her lips tightly pressed together. A quick change of subject seemed to be in order.

"Have you been keeping up with your martial arts training?"

Justin laughed at the question.

"You have no idea! Hey, maybe we can get a spar in later?"

"Sounds good," Fred agreed, hiding a smile of his own. He was a second degree black belt now and, aside from T.J. and Cassie, no one in their group could match him. In fact he had pretty much become the camp's de facto close combat instructor. The prospect of sparring against a new, presumably worthy opponent was an exciting one and he relished the thought of demonstrating to Justin exactly how good he was.

"From what I've heard of your attacks, though, you guys usually don't fight hand to hand."

"No, most of us have laser weapons," Fred allowed. "That was why we hit that first Quantron barracks in San Francisco. How have you heard about what we've done?"

"The official news doesn't report any resistance actions; they like to pretend you don't exist, but what you do still gets passed around by word of mouth," Justin explained. "Knowing you're out there and fighting back gives people hope. You've hit what, seven targets in the last year?"

"And the best is yet to come!" the dark-haired teen promised.

"Something big coming?" Justin asked.

"You have no idea," Fred threw his words back at him, grinning to take the sting out of it. "Let's just say you picked the right time to join up."

"When are we going to reach your base?" the seventeen year-old enquired.

"Not until tomorrow morning. We can't make it back to camp before nightfall and trying to navigate these mountains in the dark is just begging for a broken leg."

"Where are we going to sleep then?

"We'll stop at the flattest place we can find before nightfall. First, though, there are a couple of humps for us to get over. Mostly we just have to do a lot of scrambling around between the mountains, but there are two places where you're got to climb a rope to get to the proper elevation. That won't be a problem, right?"

"Hey, bring on the rope," Justin shot back.

When they reached the first steep area Fred put his backpack down and fished out the grappling hook. Whirling it around a couple of times he tossed it toward the top of the sheer wall they were currently facing. This time the hook caught on the hole which had been cut for it in the stone immediately.

Fred turned to smile smugly at Karen, who rewarded him with a slight quirk of her lips.

"About time you learned how to do that on the first try," she chided him, a decidedly teasing tone in her voice.

Making a face at her in reply the teenager tugged on the rope a couple of times to make sure it was secure, then began making his way upward. Rope-climbing had been bad enough in gym class, but doing it while wearing a backpack added a whole new layer of difficulty. Fred was pleased to note he was breathing only slightly harder than normal when he reached the top. Looking back over the edge he motioned for his companions to follow.

Justin came next, and Fred was impressed at the speed and evident ease of their new recruit's ascent. Karen followed, more slowly than either of them, but steadily and without a slip. Fred retrieved the grappling hook and rope, replacing them in his pack before the trio continued on their journey.

The second climb was also made without incident. They'd surmounted the last real obstacle between them and camp; they simply couldn't make it back in the time they had left before nightfall.

"Okay, this looks like a good place to step," Fred decided, looking around the fairly level area.

"Might as well," Karen agreed, dropping to a sitting position and stripping off her pack.

"You're sure we can't make it tonight?" Justin asked in a tone fraught with disappointment.

"Not a chance," Fred answered, shaking his head and following Karen's lead. "You'll just have to wait. In fact you'd better get used to doing a lot of that."

"What do you mean?"

"It isn't constant excitement and danger. We spend a lot of time just training and waiting for the next mission. T.J.'s in charge and he doesn't have us just striking out at random. Every place we hit is carefully scoped out and things are planned in as much detail as possible. We can't afford to mess up, not with how few we are and what's at stake."

T.J. had drilled that truth into all of their heads. No slip-ups, no mistakes, and if you did either, you fixed it as soon as you could.

"I can be patient when I have to be," Justin assured the other boy, dropping his own pack and sleeping bag. "Sound like T.J. is still doing a good job as leader."

"What do you mean, "still"?" Fred asked curiously.

Justin hesitated, then said, "T.J. was kind of the leader of our social group."

Fred glanced toward Karen, who seemed equally interested, but before either of them could say another word Justin spoke again.

"Speaking of training, you ready for that spar, Fred?"

"Here? We're on solid rock!"

"It's flat enough, though, and you were just saying how important training is. We won't do full contact."

"Okay, fine, you're on!"

ΩΩΩΩΩ

Karen watched knowingly as the two males stretched out. They could pretend this was a friendly spar all they wanted, but she knew boys and was very familiar with their testosterone-induced competitiveness. There would be pride on the line in this fight and both of them would be giving it everything they had.

As they finished and faced each other Justin pulled off his royal blue muscle shirt to reveal the genuine muscles underneath. Karen was stunned by how well-built he was; his physique was almost at the bodybuilder level!

Fred, too, seemed taken aback for a second, but drew in a deep breath and mastered himself at once. The sly grin on Justin face suggested he'd been hoping to intimidate or unnerve his opponent, but if so he'd miscalculated. With slow, exaggerated deliberateness, Fred took off his backwards cap and theatrically placed it down on the rocky ledge beside him.

The sarcastic mockery in his gesture was clear and Karen had to bite her lip hard to keep from laughing. That was Fred all over! In the entire time she'd known him she'd never seen him panic or even get seriously rattled, one of the reasons he was practically T.J.'s right hand.

And it was one of the many things she liked about him.

She could be more than friends with Fred. It wouldn't be hard; in fact it would be downright easy, much easier than always pulling away from him when they got too close.

No, the hard part wasn't starting a relationship with him; the hard part would be seeing that relationship end.

Before the Conquest she'd never had anyone close to her die. The sudden shock of losing both of her parents at the same time had nearly broken her. For months she'd alternated between numbness and crushing sorrow. She might have eventually considered suicide, if her slowly growing rage at what had happened hadn't proven stronger than her grief.

Resistance had been the only option for her and she likely would have gotten herself killed in a fruitless, furious attack on some random patrol group of Quantrons if Lt. Stone hadn't offered her a better way. She and Fred had been in the same group and though they hadn't exchanged two words with each other at school somehow, in the struggle to adjust to living as rebels in a cave, they'd become friends.

What stopped her from going further was the simple reason that she didn't think she could deal with another loss. If she and Fred did start dating and something happened to him . . . She couldn't risk putting herself through that again.

Not even for Fred.

The two bowed and slipped smoothly into their stances. Each moved with the fluid, coordinated grace of a true martial artist and this, along with their height gave them an almost disturbing similarity. They circled each other slowly, their eyes weighing and assessing their opponent.

It didn't surprise her in the least when Fred made the first move, lashing out with a front snap kick to the knee which Justin barely blocked. Fred followed up with a punch aimed at the face and an attempted strike to the groin with his knee which had his opponent dancing backward.

Fred pushed his advantage and the two exchanged a series of whip-quick strikes and kicks. Fred had been instructing her in karate for the last year, but the level of expertise displayed here was far beyond her. It was like watching Fred and T.J. spar.

Fred nimbly leapt over a leg sweep and almost landed a pulled kick to his adversary's abs. Next he kicked for his foe's face, but Justin twisted his head out of the way and with his left hand caught Fred's outstretched leg. Then his right fist rocketed forward and stopped a quarter of an inch from Fred's throat. That seemed to signal the end of the match to both of them. Justin released Fred's ankle and taking a few steps back they bowed to each other.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

"Good match," Fred panted as he scooped up his cap. Although inwardly disappointed that he hadn't managed the clear victory he'd been hoping for, he had held his own and confirmed the high skill level of their new recruit. With T.J. so busy running everything and Cassie gone on her long-term scouting assignment, it would be nice to have Justin around to spar against.

"You've been training with T.J., right?" Justin inquired, and Fred nodded.

"I could tell by your technique," the other teen explained, a satisfied expression on his face as he turned to put his shirt back on.

"You know T.J. well enough to recognize his style?"

"Definitely."

How on Earth had Justin ever managed to spend so much time with guys years older than he was? Yeah, he'd been in high school with them, but T.J. had been what then? A junior? A senior? Upperclassmen didn't generally hang out with freshmen. Of course Justin had shared a devotion to karate with Tommy and T.J., but then so had he, and it sure hadn't made any difference in his case! What was so special about Justin?

Fighting back another spark of the old jealousy Fred sat down and pulled his backpack over to him.

"I don't know about you, but that was enough exercise to make me hungry."

"Fred, you're always hungry," Karen cracked, and he happily threw himself into a different kind of sparring.

"Hey, I'm still a growing boy!"

"Yeah, growing in width!" she snorted.

"Are you saying you only love me for my body?" Fred asked plaintively, smirking when Karen began to sputter out a denial.

That match he'd definitely won, even if he hadn't played fair.

Justin had proven his intelligence again in his choice of rations. Though dried beef jerky had little to recommend itself in terms of taste, it had a long shelf life and there was enough of it that Fred would have sworn the total mass constituted an entire cow.

"You came prepared," he noted approvingly as he bit into his own dinner.

"I didn't know how long I'd have to be out here, so I brought as much food and water as I could carry," the brown-haired teen explained. "What's that you guys are eating?"

"MREs, meals packets from the military. We managed to cart a bunch of them in here in backpacks when one of the veterans who joined us said he knew where we could find a supply."

It had been a trip fraught with risk. Most of the nation's military bases had been destroyed in the Conquest, the rest abandoned and off-limits. Going near them was grounds for summary execution, since it was assumed that any visitors were looking for weapons.

Firearms of any kind had been strictly forbidden to humans. Many of those who had previously owned guns did secretly retain them, but dared not use them. After the United States military had been defeated there had still been widespread civilian resistance, quelled only through the massive aerial bombardment of any centers of rebellion by Quantron fighter craft. Since then most of those who had dared to fight back had been exterminated; the only reason their own rebel camp remained was because it was so well hidden.

"So that's how you guys got your food?"

"A lot of it. Regular supply runs in would be too risky, so we've got to have stuff that keeps well. For the most part we only leave camp to go on a raid or to bring new recruits in."

"Want to tell me about some of those raids?" Justin asked eagerly.

"Sure, I can tell you about the ones I went on."

"And then I'll tell you how they really happened," Karen put in.

Childishly sticking his tongue out at her, Fred began relating his stories.

The sun had long since gone down by the time he finished. Justin had been a good audience, listening intently, and Karen had only had to chime in a few times.

Fred shivered a little, and not from the cold. Relating the story of their most recent strike, the one at the Silicon Valley processor center two months ago, made him relive it and it wasn't an experience he enjoyed repeating.

Silicon Valley had been the best evidence yet of the wisdom of T.J.'s precautions. If their advance scouts hadn't tumbled onto the explosives being installed into the facility before they went in, they would have lost everyone.

Subsequent reports from other potential targets had shown that this wasn't a one time thing, but a pattern. All of the places in California that they would be tempted to hit were being secretly fitted with enough explosives to demolish a city block. Each one of the facilities could be rebuilt, but a rebel team lost could not, nor could those innocents living nearby who would be caught in the blast.

Fortunately Cassie had reported that no such measure had yet been put in place at her site, which made sense; the building Cassie was evaluating was not expendable.

Quantron fighter activity had also increased markedly, not in combat situations, but in terms of scouting. They'd probably photographed every inch of California by now, not that it had done them any good.

"Well, that's it for me," Karen admitted with a yawn. "I'm turning in."

Going about a dozen feet away from them, she took a blanket from her backpack, laid it on the ground and folded it over herself, using her balled-up jacket as a pillow.

"Try to keep it down, guys," she called back to them.

"We will," Fred promised.

"It sounds like you've done a lot, Fred," Justin concluded quietly, his gaze locked on the other adolescent.

"I do what I can, but it's the Blue and Pink Rangers who make sure we come out on top," Fred pointed out, though he couldn't help feeling pleased by the acknowledgement.

"Why hasn't the Pink Ranger been on the last couple of strikes then?"

"She's been working on something else," Fred hedged. Cassie's whereabouts were as secret as any other aspect of the Endgame plan, and it was T.J.'s decision as to who was let in on that operation. This was basic security, in case any of them were captured and interrogated on a raid.

Not that any of them intended to be; Stone's response was the rule if at all possible. Fred recognized the necessity of it, but that didn't keep from wanting to vomit at the thought. Going down in battle was one thing; going by your own hand was something else again.

So far nobody had been taken alive, though if the worst happened and one of them was captured they did have a contingency plan for evacuation. Whether it would work or not was another matter entirely, but so far there had been no need to have to find out.

"Isn't it risky not to have her there? I mean, it's the presence of the Rangers that's fueling the resistance, right?"

That question Fred had to give some thought to.

"It does mean a lot, especially to those of us from Angel Grove. And it's given us huge advantages in fighting back! If we lost both of them or even one it would be a catastrophe, but we wouldn't stop fighting."

"We'll never stop."

"You sound like a Power Ranger yourself," Justin commented.

At this Fred couldn't keep from bursting out laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"It's just that one of Tommy's friends, Aisha, told me once that I was in line to be a Power Ranger someday. That was right after the Rangers had beaten Ivan Ooze. I knew she was just trying to be nice, but for years afterwards I couldn't help hoping . . ." Fred shrugged.

"Anyway, thanks for the compliment, Justin."

That was when he realized that his new recruit was staring at him in what he could only describe as slack-jawed amazement.

"Aisha really told you that?"

"Yeah, why?"

ΩΩΩΩΩ

Justin continued to look at Fred without speaking for a moment, his mind racing. He'd never questioned Zordon's acceptance of him as a Ranger; he'd been too amazed and thankful at his dazzling good fortune to question anything about what had happened that day.

Given this new information, though, he had to wonder if Zordon's willingness to make him a Ranger in spite of how much younger he was than the others stemmed from the fact that Zordon had already been considering someone his age for Rangerhood.

Could it be? If he hadn't overheard the truth while hiding under Rocky's bed, would he and Fred be sitting in each other's places now? The implications of that were almost too much to take in.

"Justin, what's wrong?" Fred demanded, his tone concerned and intensely curious.

To his own shock Justin decided to let Fred in on a little of the truth.

"Fred, Aisha was the Yellow Ranger before the Turbo one, just like I was the Blue Ranger before T.J. When she told you that I don't think she was just trying to be nice."

Seeing Fred's wide-eyed reaction to the news brought a smirk to Justin's face.

"You-you were a Power Ranger?" he managed to gasp out.

With a twist of his wrist Justin revealed his morpher. Fred hesitantly reached out to touch it and Justin steeled himself and allowed the other boy to do so.

Fred swallowed twice, his complexion pale. He'd seen T.J.'s morpher and Cassie's. This one looked a little different, but then it probably would if Justin hadn't been an Astro Ranger.

"So you were a Turbo Ranger?" he guessed.

His answer was a nod.

"And so was Aisha," Fred muttered. "Wait a minute, does that mean Tommy was a Ranger?"

"He was the Red Turbo Ranger."

Tommy Oliver had been not just a Power Ranger, but the leader of the Power Rangers!

"That's why he was always spending so much time with you! It's because you were both Rangers!" Fred concluded, the revelation loosening something within him.

"How did it happen? What was it like, being a Ranger? You've got to tell me!"

"Do you remember when Rocky hurt his back, right before that big match?" Justin began, and he related the rise of Maligore.

Fred pressed for more when the tale was done, but the hour had grown late enough that Justin refused.

"It's time to get to sleep."

"You think I can sleep after this? A third Ranger! Do you know what this means?" Fred inquired incredulously.

"I do. And you'd better try to get to sleep anyway; I'm going to want to be up early tomorrow to meet up with T.J."

"It's less than an hour to the camp from here. I'll have you to him before you know it," Fred promised.

"Great! I've been wanting to see him again for a long time," Justin confessed.

"You will soon. And Justin, thank you for telling me all of this. Everyone is going to go nuts when they realize we've added a new Ranger!"

"You're welcome," the former Turbo Ranger replied.

Like Karen, Fred spread a blanket on the ground and used his backpack for a pillow, while Justin wiggled into his brand-new sleeping bag. As he began to drop off he shuddered at how terribly close he might have come to missing out on all he had gained. Ye despite that he still couldn't help feeling a bit of sympathy for the boy stretched out ten feet from him. It was certainly too bad for Fred that he had never become a Ranger!

That was when the idea hit him out of the blue, a thought so startling he almost sat bolt upright. It was an undeniably crazy notion, surely evidence that he wasn't thinking straight, but was it realistically possible?

He forced himself to consider it carefully from every angle, evaluating the feasibility in light of objections, technological and logistical obstacles, and the difficulty involved in securing Fred's participation. It would take a lot of luck and trouble on his part, no question of that, but it could work and he wanted to try it, for more than one reason.

Perhaps it wasn't too late for Fred to become a Ranger.