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�That was the first day,� Madeline said as the official just shook his head. He could not believe what he was hearing, that these rangers had treated them like they were dirt. That they had told them to disobey direct government laws; it made absolutely no sense to him how they had even made it out of there alive. �They were all awesome.�

�Awesome? They tell a superior officer that he has to take orders from a Sergeant and that is awesome?� Fred Sanderson said as they looked over at him. They were sure that Madeline was the best one to answer that particular question. She had had to answer it before to some higher government officials and this man was nothing compared to them.

�There is something you need to understand about the rangers, they were not the military, even if the government hired them and told them that they had to work with military personnel they still did not have to obey the military system of order. They made sure of that before they even really looked for military members to be a part of the team. They had a system that they had perfected on their own, without any of our help and we benefitted from the fact that they knew what they were doing. We didn�t have a clue, but they could prepare us in ways that we never expected. I don�t think we ever met anything that we weren�t prepared for, on some level. Tell me, do you think their way is so horrible now?� Madeline asked as Fred barely shook his head and then looked down at the tape recorder. He knew that he was going to run out of tapes long before they stopped talking and he knew that his superiors would not accept that, so he was going to have to find some way to get some more, quickly. There was only a once in a life time chance to get all of this information out of the rangers.

�Was that real?� Madeline asked as she walked up next to Maddox the next day and he looked over at her with a smile on his face. He had definitely thought it was a dream last night when all of it occurred, but now that it had sunk in, he knew that it was the truth, that they had become rangers, whether they liked it or not they were going to have to learn to live with it. It was a new reality that they had never thought would come true.

�If it wasn�t real, then we both had one hell of a hallucination yesterday,� Maddox said as Madeline laughed. At least he was taking it about the same as she was and that was some comfort. The lieutenant on the other hand, might not be so nice about all of this. It had to be a blow to be told that a sergeant would be telling him what to do.

�Sergeants,� Lt. Williams said as he strode up to the two of them and they saluted as he stopped in front of them.

�You look like you weren�t hurt too bad,� Madeline said as Sam just shook his head. Tommy had given him a lot to think about and that was even worse than having to deal with injuries. He had never thought that the man would be right on so many things that would make it hard for him to sleep.

�More my ego than anything else,� Sam said as Madeline smiled and Maddox just looked over at him. He could not believe that Tommy had let him off that easy. He had seen more of the man than Madeline and knew enough about him to say that Sam was not telling the complete truth. �He made me see some things I didn�t want to.�

�At least it wasn�t too late for you to come around,� Madeline said as Sam just shook his head. He didn�t know how she could be this forgiving; he certainly was not this way about almost anything.

�I think Tommy would have beaten my ass for that one. By the way how do you know him?� Sam asked as Madeline looked between the two of them and saw they were anxious to find out the answer. It was obvious to all of them that he was the head of this PANEL and they wanted to know what they were dealing with.

�I walked into his dojo one day after class and asked if he had room for a beginner student. After that day, I�ve been going there three times a week in the mornings to get some of the stress out of my system. He�s been the person to keep me from losing my mind and I�m sure his wife appreciates me being there so much,� Madeline said with a smile as some of their classmates walked past them, they could not believe the three of them were together without killing each other.

�That�s nice. How many did you meet before they talked to you yesterday?� Sam asked as they began walking down the hill.

�More than you�ve met so far. I think that they wanted to run me by everyone, considering what they want me to do,� Madeline said as the others nodded. Both of them had only caught a glimpse of Tommy before as he stood on the sidelines and watched them spar. They had thought that he was just a scout for some of the other students. Little did they know what he was and what he would mean to them one day.

�Yeah, but what are they like?� Maddox asked as Madeline just shook her head. He had nothing to worry about, he was going to be well liked. Sam, on the other hand, had already had a very rocky start with them.

�Don�t worry, they are all nice people,� Madeline said as they nodded.

�When will we be meeting again?� Sam asked as Madeline shrugged her shoulders. They hadn�t been told anything last night, considering everything else that had happened.

�Hello, I�m surprised to see the three of you here,� Mrs. Dumas said as they looked at her. �We received this memo stating that all of you would be taken out of class immediately and will then be placed back in at an unspecified time.�

�Where are we to report then?� Maddox asked as Mrs. Dumas shrugged her shoulders and handed over the piece of paper and the three of them huddled around it. �Tommy?�

�He�s the only person that could manage something like this,� Madeline said as she read it, scanning for some sort of clue. He had to leave something there for them. �I have a hunch, let�s go.�

�Where are we going?� Maddox asked as she walked over to her car and he also jumped in. He had walked to work this morning and he was sure that wherever they were going would require a tiny drive.

�Get your car and follow me. You can�t exactly ride with us,� Madeline said as Sam barely nodded. He knew better than to second guess her right now.

�Where are we?� Sam asked as Madeline pulled up to her own house.

�Not important, let�s teleport when we get behind the house,� Madeline said as Maddox and Sam nodded and in a few seconds they were flying through the air.

�You know, I expected this to take a lot less time,� Tommy said with a smile as they landed in front of him. He had been there for about an hour and was getting very close to giving up on them showing up. �Of course you have to be tired and you�re units seem to have taken a very long time passing this down. You were supposed to be kicked out on your asses yesterday.�

�How�s your wife?� Madeline asked as she could see the bags under his eyes. She knew the signs of him being thoroughly exhausted and this was the worst that she had seen him in months, since the beginning of her pregnancy from what she could remember.

�She woke up at three o�clock throwing up and I finally got her back to sleep a couple of hours ago,� Tommy said as he looked at them. �Sit we need to talk. All of you are now being paid to do this. To the outside world you will still go to work every day, workout, buy groceries, but you will come here every day. This is now your job.�

�How old are you?� Sam asked as he looked like he was about the same age as them.

�Twenty eight, I turn twenty nine in a couple of months,� Tommy said as Sam managed to nod. He was only a couple of years younger than Tommy and he knew that their experience was so much different. They had already been battle tested before they were even twenty and they had been hardened by that in some ways. �But you�ll find out the entire truth about us soon enough, trust me you�ve got some Power Ranger history to learn.�

�The others?� Madeline asked as Tommy just shook his head.

�They are still in school, we can�t pull them out and yes you were in school too, but theirs is high school. The government told us that we had to have a ranger team, they understand that your job has drastically changed, but the kids still have to go to school. We did while we were in their shoes and we handled it just fine,� Tommy said as they nodded. They could definitely understand where they were coming from with that. They were kids and they couldn�t expect them to just give up their life. The military members, had already given up at certain bit of their life, so this was very believable for them to have to do this.

�Are they going to find out everything that we find out?� Sam asked as Tommy sat down at his desk and began pulling things up from his computer, knowing that he had a lot to look for. There was so much that they needed to be told and so much that he could show them, but there was a lot that he was going to have to have his wife there with him for.

�No, I�m going to show them the same video, but some of the situations and more emotionally charged things, you are only going to find out about. I can�t put my wife through talking about some of it over and over. She�s going to go through enough saying it one time,� Tommy said as Madeline nodded. She knew that Kimberly couldn�t do it, especially after being up for about four hours.

�When is she coming?� Madeline asked as Tommy looked down at his watch and then covered his face.

�Her alarm clock went off about fifteen minutes ago and since she hasn�t called me, I think she just went back to sleep and I don�t blame her. We�ll talk about some of the things that you will now be required to do first and hopefully by the time we�re done, she�ll be up to coming in,� Tommy said as the door slid open and Kim walked in carrying a bottle of sprite and crackers. �Maybe not...�

�Why�d you have to leave the damn alarm clock on?� Kim asked as he looked down at the floor and Madeline couldn�t help but laugh. She couldn�t tell if Kim was serious or not, but she had seen them fight before. It usually was something funny to watch.

�Sorry,� Tommy said as Kim sat down next to him and looked over at the older rangers.

�You�ll be forgiven, as long as you never do that again,� Kim said as Tommy nodded and just shook his head.

�You can go to the back room and sleep if you want,� Tommy said as Kim just shook her head no. She had already gotten herself up and taken a shower, so she was going to get through everything that was ahead of her today. She would get back at Tommy tonight when they were alone.

�What are we talking to them about today?� Kim asked as Tommy cringed and then handed her the sheet of paper that he had in his hands. She then placed her head in her hands and let out a disgruntled groan.

�You sure you don�t want that nap?� Tommy said as Kim managed to nod her head yes that she was sure about it all. She just wanted to explain everything and have it off her chest as soon as humanly possible.

�Let�s just get it over with. Our history, alone, is going to take until lunch,� Kim said as Tommy barely nodded. That was why he had wanted her to sleep in this morning. It would have been so much easier on the both of them if she had.

�Your history?� Sam asked as Kim ran her hand over her face and Tommy reached over and put his arm around her.

�Yes, you have a lot of things that you should know about me, actually about us before you begin working with us,� Tommy said as Kim nodded her head in agreement. They already had them jumping in blind, but they did not want them to be blind about when they dealt with the two of them.

�We�re the people that the government is the most worried about, even though they won�t say that to us. They are worried about a ranger turning against the earth and destroying us all. Guess what, we�ve both been that person and we�ve both come pretty damn close to doing just that. You have to trust me when I say that is not a pleasant thing,� Kim said as Madeline and Maddox just stared at them. They could not believe that the two of them even had an evil bone in their bodies. It just didn�t make any sense to them that the government would be the most worried about them.

�You�re kidding. The two of you couldn�t have been evil,� Madeline said as Kim shook her head that that was definitely not the story. She had been there and although she didn�t want to retell it to them, it was necessary. They needed to know what might happen to them if they let their guard down for too long.

�We�ve both had it happen a couple of times and there is no way to prevent it, believe me, we�ve done everything to try to keep it from happening, but it still does even with the best prevention in the world,� Tommy said as Kim stood up and walked away from them all. She did not want to reveal the last time that she had been evil, because it was way too recently and it cost them so much. �But we�ll get to the evil parts in a little while. First we have to start with our first ranger team.�

�First team? You�ve been on more than one?� Sam asked as Kim just looked at him. This man was going to press every nerve in her body and he could tell that he was doing that and she knew Tommy would not stand for that much longer.

�You think that they would pick people to mentor you that had only been on one damn team? You�re not that smart and stupid questions piss me off when I�ve got this much crap to deal with,� Kim said as Tommy pulled her down into a seat next to him and Sam just stared at her.

�You know, the two of you should probably stay away from each other for the next few days,� Tommy said as he looked at the side of Kim�s face, as she was taking in deep breaths trying to calm herself down without Tommy having to walk her outside and let her yell at him. �Just let us tell the story and feel free to ask questions that don�t seem redundant. You have to be a little bit smart around here because we just don�t have to time to answer every single question that you have.�

�So that means keep your mouth shut and run the questions past us first,� Madeline said as Sam just shook his head, but saw that Tommy was nodding his head in agreement. He did not want for his wife to go into premature labor because of all of this. It had been stressful enough over the past seven months and now things were starting to get worse.

�I guess I need to start,� Kim said as Tommy nodded. Although he knew exactly how the rangers had formed, she had been there in the beginning and had an insiders view of it all. �I�m one of the original five that became Power Rangers in September of 1992. Our town was attacked and Zordon brought us into the Command Center and asked us to become rangers. We did, although we had some reservations about it. We were fine, for the first few months.�

�Then I came along,� Tommy said as Kim barely nodded. It was the truth, but most people here would not understand the full meaning of that statement for several more hours.

�Yeah, you came along and we had to face our first challenge, an evil ranger,� Kim said and Tommy looked away from them. This was the time that he had hurt them the most as an evil ranger and he hated reliving it but it was part of the facts of life. �Rita Repulsa decided that he would be the perfect person to try to defeat the rangers and he almost did it, but we got him back.�

�Yeah and then I went through the trauma of losing my green ranger powers, twice and then I became the white ranger,� Tommy said as Kim barely was able to cover her face as she started to blush at the memory of what had happened on the day that he had come back as the white ranger. �I also became the leader of the rangers.�

�And then I was almost killed by an evil, soon to be, pink ranger...� Kim trailed off as Tommy looked over at her and managed to look away just in time. �She might come in some times and we don�t want to prejudice you against her.�

�Then I went through about three different teams and a funny thing happened after that...we went to Murthianthius,� Tommy said as Kim covered his mouth and they could see the edges of his mouth turn up. �That was when she first became evil.�

�That�s not really fair, Tommy. It�s not like I really wanted to do that, Divatox captured me to be a sacrifice and it didn�t really work correctly,� Kim said as Tommy nodded.

�I�m glad that it didn�t, otherwise you�d be dead and there�d be no us and I don�t know if I can really take that idea right now,� Tommy said as Kim nodded and he then felt her wrap her arms around him.

�Yeah, we might want to mention that we weren�t really talking to each other then as well,� Kim said as Tommy nodded and just shook his head.

�Don�t bring up the damn letter, I don�t want to think about it,� Tommy said as Kim laughed and then managed to pull out his wallet. �Kim, no...�

�I know you still keep the thing in your wallet,� Kim said as she began rifling through it and Tommy just shook his head. She was the one who wrote it, but she didn�t have a problem letting them see what all of this had done to them. �They need to know that there are some things that might happen to them that will scar them for life.�

�A letter?� Sam asked looking at Tommy and he then caught the glare from the both of them as Kim finally dug it out of his wallet a handed it over to Madeline.

�I owe him an ass whooping once I have the baby,� Kim said as Tommy looked over at her, knowing that she was dead serious and that Sam was not likely to think that she was serious.

�You can�t expect someone to do a complete three sixty overnight,� Tommy said as Kim just looked at him and he shrugged. �You certainly didn�t.�

�I can�t believe that you...both of you seem so happy together,� Madeline said as she casually handed the letter over to Maddox, who had been reading over her shoulder, but had not managed to finish it as quickly as she had.

�That�s hard to keep up when you live three thousand miles away from each other and you don�t talk to each other because there is always a battle or a monster or you�re wiped out from practicing all day. It�s not something that I�m proud of, but it is part of the stress of this job, that you need to realize will be here,� Kim said as Madeline nodded and Maddox then passed the letter onto Sam, staring at the two of them. He was afraid of what Sam might say to them, but he was more interested in figuring out what was going on with them.

�So, what did you do while you were evil?� Madeline asked, figuring that it would take Sam a little while to read the letter and come up with another question that might just get him killed before he ever had a chance to fight the monster that lay ahead of them.

�I didn�t come back to him. I was so frustrated and hurt that right then and there I made the decision that I wouldn�t come back to him. I pissed a lot of people off that day,� Kim said as Tommy nodded his head in agreement. �So, you don�t have a happy ending, yet.�

�And you still have a couple more teams for me to tell about,� Tommy said as Madeline�s mouth dropped open and Maddox just shook his head to try to make sure that he was hearing all of this correctly. It didn�t seem possible that someone could be on this many ranger teams and not be discovered until more than a decade later. �It�s just a mission to the moon and Dino Thunder.�

�A mission to the moon?� Madeline asked, semi-hysterically, as Maddox reached over and put his arm around her. �I don�t think you made the right decision.�

�You�re not the first person to say that, Madeline. He actually was the first one and let me tell you this much, we kinda know what we�re doing, so just trust us on our decisions for right now,� Kim said as Tommy nodded his head that it was true that he had not believed in himself when he was first a ranger.

�But you learn as you go along and trust me, you wouldn�t be here if you couldn�t handle it all, but let�s get back to those last two teams,� Tommy said as Maddox and Madeline nodded that he could go ahead. �The mission to the moon was to defeat the remnants of the Machine Empire about five years ago and then a couple of years back I found these gems and became a mentor and then a ranger on my final team.�

�That�s it? We don�t get the story of how the two of you happened to get back together after hating each other for so long?� Madeline asked as Kim looked over at Tommy, asking him permission to tell the story.

�The Machine Empire thought it would be funny to capture me, little did they know the wrath that they were going to have brought to them,� Kim said as Madeline nodded. She could imagine what Tommy would do when he found out that Kimberly had been captured by some maniacal creature. �I wasn�t exactly in great condition when they go to me.�

�That�s an understatement,� Jason said as he walked in and sat down on the other side of Kim. �I�ve never seen you look that bad.�

�It was just because I was there for a couple of weeks,� Kim said as Madeline�s eyes widened in shock. She had been sure that the rangers would not take a couple of weeks to find each other. It didn�t seem like something that they would be able to live with. �Not that they weren�t trying to get to me, but there were a lot of kinks that had to be worked out. Everything kinda started there, I wasn�t evil that time and I didn�t refuse any help, especially when I saw who my rescuers were when we got back to Earth.�

�You got to see them?� Madeline asked as Kim nodded her head yes.

�It�s kinda hard to keep a former ranger in the dark, I recognized a lot of the uniforms and by that I knew who some of them were or could hazard a guess at the very least,� Kim said as Madeline nodded.

�We all started a lot of healing that day,� Jason said as Kim nodded and looked down at her lap as Tommy took in a deep breath.

�I had made a promise to myself that if I ever saw her again, that I would try, I wouldn�t be an asshole and not tell her the truth. I didn�t think I�d ever see her in that situation again, but it happened,� Tommy said as he reached over for her hand and gently took it in his own and felt her shaking.

�We just decided to try to be friends,� Kim said as Jason smiled and Tommy began shaking from the laughter he was holding in. �That lasted all of two weeks.�

�Two weeks?� Sam asked as Kim and Tommy looked over at him. They were going to put a stop to the insinuation that they saw flaring up in his eyes. Just because it was what he would do, it was not what they would do at all.

�We weren�t having sex after two weeks, but we certainly weren�t just friends anymore either,� Kim said as Sam just nodded and then Tommy looked at the new rangers in front of them.

�I know that this isn�t a lot of ranger stuff, it�s more personal, but you need to know us. You need to know what makes us tick and why we get pissed off when people say certain things. There will come a time when none of this will be important, but for the next few weeks, this history is what will get you through being with us. The other rangers have a similar history, maybe not as many ups and downs, but they still have felt some hurt as well. We�re human, we make mistakes, but we do know what we�re doing. We wouldn�t be alive if we didn�t,� Tommy said as they all nodded, although Sam was finding it very hard to do that right now.

�Is there a reason that she�s my mentor?� Sam asked as Tommy nodded and Kim placed another cracker in her mouth.

�That letter has a lot to do with it. She knows how hard it is to change and let some things go,� Tommy said as Sam just shook his head.

�I�m surprised that you took her back,� Sam said as Jason and Tommy, both, pushed Kim back into her seat and held her there.

�You jackass,� Madeline said as she looked over at him and Maddox quickly grabbed Sam�s arm as he had drawn back to hit Madeline. �You know, you can be hurt by someone and still love them, actually you can love them more than anyone else in the world. Sometimes you push someone away to protect them, I guess that�s something you don�t understand.�

�You don�t do that to protect someone,� Sam said as Tommy looked over at Kim and she nodded that he could go ahead.

�Actually it is, she was so convinced that I was unhappy with her, that she cut me free. Yeah, it hurt the both of us, but when that is what you think is the best, it�s different than dumping someone for the hell of it,� Tommy said as Kim managed to stand up and then walked away from the group and Jason followed her. �Jason and I have some things that we are going to talk with everyone about at about four. Madeline, I want you and Maddox to work together on sparring after lunch. Sam, you�re with me.�

�How long do we have for lunch?� Madeline asked as Tommy looked down at his watch and then thought about it for a few seconds.

�Be back by one and be on the mats by one thirty,� Tommy said as they all nodded and then got up to exit the room. �You okay?�

�Yeah, I�ll be fine, Tommy,� Kim said as she took in a shaky breath and he put his arms around her in a comforting hug.

�How�s little one doing?� Tommy asked as she looked up at him and smiled.

�Little one has settled down some. I don�t feel like my stomach is doing somersaults anymore, so that�s a good sign,� Kim said as she looked over at Jason, who was just shaking his head.

�Trini is bringing lunch by, so I hope that you�re hungry,� Jason said as Kim gulped and managed to nod. �She�ll let you eat your crackers if it�s all you can keep down.�

�That�s nice to know,� Kim said as the doors closed behind the rangers and they stepped out into the middle of Angel Grove. They didn�t have a clue where they were or why this place had been chosen to house them, but they knew better than to ask about it right now.

�Quite an interesting first day among the rangers,� Fred said as Madeline managed to nod. They knew that there was still so much to tell, but they also knew that they had been sitting here for far too long and needed to be able to get up and walk around some.

�Yeah, that was the first of many interesting days,� Maddox said as Madeline stretched against him and he smiled over at her. He had a lot to be happy about with his ranger career and one of those things was sitting next to him right now.

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