Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dies irae illa vos solve in, Favilla, maledictus, erus, in flamas, eternum

The day of wrath that scatters you into ashes. The master cursed into eternal flames.

Pray for me now

. . .

They don’t say pray for us, the unit, the whole. They say pray for me. There is no hope for the whole. The whole is already lost. They are selfish where they were once better.

. . .

I’ll be your Idol

. . .

They were idols. Praised by their City, by the legendary rangers, by the world. Praised even when one of their own fell in the line of duty.

. . .

Keeping you in check (Uh), keeping you obsessed (Uh)
Play me on repeat, 끝없이 in your head
Anytime it hurts, play another verse
I can be your sanctuary

. . .

Ivan got voluntold into the second in command position. Someone had to keep Charlie in check without her partner. He never really acknowledged just how much Lu did to keep them all sane. He didn’t have the right words, or any words, for his team. He became obsessed with training, mainly with Charlie, anytime the pain got too much for either of them. It became their new sanctuary. No emotions, no thoughts, just burning muscle on repeat. Always dancing the line between true training and self destruction.

. . .

Know I'm the only one right now (Now)
I will love you more when it all burns down

More than power, more than gold

Yeah, you gave me your heart, now I'm here for your soul

. . .

Cliff was probably the most well adjusted of the team, next to Beevor. It sucks that it took Lu dying for him to understand his feelings for her. Not romantic, Charlie would kill him, but something deeper than best friends or siblings. The kind of bond you only get with people you go to war with. But he still can’t really talk to his team about anything real yet. Beevor tried once, two weeks after the funeral, but that didn’t go over well. Cliff is pretty sure if anyone tries to talk again, what semblance of functionality they’ve been able to scrape together will shatter. This isn’t what being a power ranger was supposed to be. They gave their all, and one of their own, for the mission. And it still isn’t enough. It’s never enough. This job, this organization, took their will, their fighting spirit, their souls.

. . .

I'm thе only one who'll love your sins
Feel the way my voice gets underneath your skin

Listen 'cause I'm preachin' to the choir
Can I get the mic' a little higher?
Gimme your desire
I can be the star you rely on

. . .

Charlie doesn’t know how to go any higher. She went all the way to the board of SPD supreme command and every legendary ranger she knows. The morphing grid is spread too thin. There are too many power rangers. It won’t be long now before the grid course corrects just like it did sixty-five million years ago. She’s just preaching to the choir though. The other rangers all agree with what she’s saying to her face. But they won’t change. The organizations half the ranger teams are associated with won’t change. They say things like, “if we don’t use the grid to defend people, what happens then? Who will protect the people the power rangers once did?” And Charlie doesn’t know, but her partner is dead. Her Aunt Trini is dead. So many other rangers are dead when it didn’t have to go that way. But it’s a sin to say that they died because of the grid failing them. Or an organization’s lack of safeguards. And her team is relying on her to protect them from both the grid’s and SPD’s faults. Everyone’s eyes are on her and what she’ll do next. She’s the star of SPD and the daughter of three legendary rangers. She can’t falter now. It was easy for Charlie to be the star with Lu behind her. Charlie was always ready with a classic red ranger rallying speech. She took every fault she found in her team and forced it into a strength to get them to climb higher. But Lu was her safety net that she relied on. Lu was the one to bring up the rear. The one who made sure they did not regress into bad habits. Lu was always the one who never doubted; in SPD, in the grid, in their team. And it was easy to believe her because everything always worked out. Until it didn’t.

. . .

내 황홀의 취해 you can't look away (Hey)
Don't you know I'm here to save you
Now we runnin' wild
Yeah, I'm all you need, I'ma be your idol

. . .

Charlie runs into a burning building alongside Cliff. The fire is just too hot for the average firefighter, and the scientists need saving. Cliff caught a beam before it could crush one woman and Charlie ushered everyone through a whole in the wall that she blasted open. They’re praised for their heroics. And the two of them look at each other, laugh at the praise, and forget for a moment that their world is still burning.

. . .

Uh, 빛이나는 fame, 계속 외쳐, I'm your idol
Thank you for the pain 'cause it got me going viral
Uh, yeah, 나지 않는 fever, makin' you a believer
나를 왜 넌 존재하는 아이돌
. . .

Rachel has always been popular with the public. She and Lu always handled talking to the crowds and the press together. It was “SPD Pink” that broke the news to the public that “SPD Purple” had fallen in battle and that there were no plans for a replacement at the time. Short, to the point, but no mention of the bright young woman under the helmet that was gone too soon. It still went viral. People made very cute, short tributes on all the usual socials. People cry over their fallen hero. But no one stops to ask if any of them are okay. They are on an untouchable pedestal. Superheroes separated from other celebrities by unfathomable power.

. . .

Don't let it show, keep it all inside
The pain and the shame, keep it outta sight
Your obsession feeds our connection
이 순간 give me all your attention

. . .

Beevor saw his team slowly imploding from avoidance. He saw their obsessions. Cliff with watching his teammates and the other cadets like a character study he wasn’t actually writing. Rachel with social media, an addiction she had before but exacerbated by recent events. Charlie and Ivan with training. Ivan was particularly good at faking it. He kept to his same training regiment and appeared to all other personnel to be functioning business as usual. Beevor was getting concerned about everyone else’s behavior. But they had all passed psych evaluation, twice, so his hands were tied. He knew what this helplessness felt like, but he wished he could have talked to Lu about this. About what to do when your team falls apart because someone died, but only the surface cracks are showing. Cracks that the world was not allowed to see.

. . .

You know I'm the only one who'll love your sins
Feel the way my voice gets underneath your skin

Listen 'cause I'm preachin' to the choir
Can I get the mic a little higher?
Gimme your desire
I can be the star you rely on

. . .

Gruumm had the perfect opportunity before him to ruin Doggie Cruger. Lying broken in his holding cell were the SPD Earth Rangers. The A-Squad, the best of the best defeated all thanks to their precious SPD no less. SPD played right into his hands, especially with the advanced operative he sent to Earth weeks ago. He could have just killed those pesky rangers, but death only hurts for so long. It dulls over time. Betrayal, however, burns for eons. And his newest pawns will burn with betrayal brighter than any star.

“So, what will it be Red Ranger?”

. . .

내 황홀의 취해, you can't look away (Yeah)
Don't you know I'm here to save you
Now we runnin' wild
Yeah, I'm all you need, I'ma be your idol

. . .

There is a hatred in the Red Ranger’s eyes, but Gruumm can tell it is not directed at him. She is starting down his every move across the room as he gives his proposal. He is being rather generous, providing them medical aid, resources, and housing. All they have to do is use their clearances to steal some data and then cover their tracks by any means necessary. Then, once Earth is conquered, they will be Gruumm’s enforcers and rulers of the planet while he goes on to conquer the rest of the galaxy. It’s almost too easy to manipulate their leader.

“We will serve you, Emperor Gruumm.”

. . .

Be your idol

Living in your mind now
Too late 'cause you're mine now
I'll make you free
When you're all part of me

. . .

“They’re not the—“

. . .

preaching to the choir
(Now) Can I get the mic a little higher?
Gimme your desire
Watch me set your world on fire
내 황홀의 취해, you can't look away
No one is coming to save you
Now we runnin' wild
You're down on your knees, I'ma be your idol

. . .

“You never really thought you stood a chance against us, did you? After all, you’re only B-Squad.”

“You’re second best.”

“Second rate.”

“And second choice.”

“You’re not even fit to shine our boots”

. . .

We are hunters. Voices strong.

Slaying demons with our song.

Fix the world and make it right,

when darkness finally meets the light.

. . . 

“You can’t do this! Were the A-Squad!”

“Looks like you’ve been demoted.”

. . .

Chapter Text

. . .

“I told you guys not to watch that movie.”

“Not helping, Sky.”

Syd is currently bawling her eyes out like somebody died after watching K-pop Demon Hunters with the rest of B-Squad and Boom. They were all in the communal room and the majority of C-Squad had watched the movie with them too. But they all high tailed it out of the room when Syd started crying, muttering apologies for suggesting the Netflix smash hit. Z is currently holding her roommate, trying to calm her down while glaring daggers at Sky.

“You need to breathe, Syd.”

“It’s just not fair!”

Sky did warn them that this wasn’t the best movie for B-Squad to watch when they walked in on C-Squad and Boom queuing up the film. Both Syd and Bridge had pouted while Jack punched Sky in the shoulder and told him to relax. They had just saved the world. B-Squad deserve something fun. And hey, maybe Sky would like the songs if he gave them the chance.

It’s pretty clear now that only Sky saw any spoilers for the film even though it came out over two months ago. Rumi’s arc alone would be enough to trigger most of B-Squad, with her just begging for love an acceptance or death. But then there was Jinu and the rest Saja Boys.

“I can’t believe they just killed them after everything they went through together. I get Jinu’s sacrifice even if I don’t like it, but we actually saw Rumi questioning if all demons were bad. Like, why would they do that?”

Bridge is sort of in a state of shock over the film. It just does not make sense in his analytical mind. Plus, he’s getting rather overwhelmed by everyone’s emotions in the room. Syd’s cries dissolve into a few hiccups, and Bridge puts his head in his hands.

Jack lets out a big puff of a sigh as he looks around the room. He’s really not sure why everyone is so upset except for him and Z. Even Boom is a little misty eyed but is trying to hold it together. Sky has that constipated look on his face he gets when he’s feeling unwanted emotions too. Z turns to Jack with a “do something you idiot” look.

“They say it’s a mark of a good movie when it makes you feel something.”

“Yeah, I don’t think they wanted us to feel like this with the way they just brushed everything off and then went to a hot spring,” Bridge said with a dark chuckle, “and C-Squad obviously didn’t see it that way.”

“Cut them some slack, Bridge,” Sky looked at the wall, “it’s not their fault we’re a bunch of downers. I even liked some of the songs in it.”

Syd’s cries start up in full force again. Everyone glares at Sky as he raises his hands in surrender.

“No, no — this isn’t — it’s not his fault,” Syd gasped and tried to wipe some of the tears away, “it’s just — Lu — she would love these songs and — and I’m never going to get to sing them with her. She was always so good at the harmonies.”

And now Boom and Bridge are crying too, though not as loud as Syd. Sky coughed to stop the tears that sprang to his eyes. Jack and Z don’t know much about A-Squad’s fallen sixth ranger, but they know enough to recognize her name. The pair from the streets often forgot that their teammates used to be close to A-Squad before Lu died. They probably watched movies together just like this.

“She would absolutely be writing fanfics to fix that ending,” Bridge chuckled a bit lighter after a minute, “She was always a sucker for everyone lives AUs.”

Everyone chuckled a bit at that, but now they were all thinking about how the remaining members of A-Squad were in confinement cards below them.

“We um — we never really got to talk about A-Squad did we?” Jack leaned back in his seat.

“What’s there to talk about,” Sky stood up and went to lean against the wall, “they betrayed us, we arrested them, end of story. It’s not like we haven’t been through this before.”

The whole Dru scenario comes to mind immediately. Sky’s rival, his idol, his best friend that betrayed him for the same reason as A-Squad. Money, Power, being on the “winning” team.

“We looked up to all of them though. It’s different for us with A-Squad than it was for us with Dru,” Bridge said as he gestured to Syd and Boom, “Dru was your idol, not ours.”

Sky scoffed, opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it and kept his mouth shut.

“You know, I still remember the day A-Squad was promoted to active ranger duty,” Boom said with stars in his eyes, “I was in the command center when they morphed for the first time, all six of them. No one knew what color they would be. Their morphers were rushed after the Dino Fury Rangers sent out the alert that Lord Zedd was back. It was so hectic, but everyone was so excited for their colors. Even Ivan who was slightly irked that he was yellow.”

“Lu — she actually ran through this door to find us and tell us that they morphed,” Syd said with a wistful smile, “She and Kat had been working around the clock to get those morphers ready and was so relieved when they worked. Then Rachel came in and demanded a shopping trip for a whole color coordinated wardrobe. They – none of them had any fashion sense, so I had to pick out everything in the right hues so it wouldn’t clash with their skin tones. It was probably the most fun I had when Rachel surprised the rest of their team with the outfits. I just – I just can’t wrap my head around why she —why any of them — would raise their blasters against us. Even though they said to our faces that we were only second best, and then we beat them, it just doesn’t seem like them.”

“But we really didn’t know them for the past year before they went MIA,” Sky started to pace, “When Lu died, they shut themselves off from everyone, barely even talked to each other or the commander. They stopped training with any of the lower squads and never left the base for anything other than emergencies. Plus, they were gone about a year too. People change.”

“Their energy, their colors didn’t really change though when they lost Lu,” Bridge stood up and went to stand in a handstand, “I mean yeah, they all had that same aura of sadness and anger around their colors, but we all had that and it was starting to fade — their colors didn’t start to change until about a week before they went MIA.”

“Changed how, Bridge?” Jack asked.

“Um so all our colors are pretty similar to our ranger colors, A-Squad too, and the Dino Thunder Rangers and I theorize it’s the same for any ranger though I do want to meet some of the rangers who have been multiple colors consistently to see if one color takes dominance or if they mix like—“

“Bridge.”

“Right, so their colors dulled like that last week before they went MIA. Like they were going grayscale. And then when they got back their colors were almost nonexistent. Like back, but not black like Cruger’s or the Black Dino Thunder Ranger. Like not black the color but the absence of color.”

“Have you run into anyone else with colors like that?” Z asked, “What do you think it means?”

“No, everyone usually has a color when I read them. The auras were all have, they are kinda like a visual representation for me of the persons will. So, the absence of color would mean the absence of will?”

“So, they lost their souls?” Sky raised an eyebrow.

“No, I don’t think so,” Bridge stood upright, “at least not literally, it’s not like when the Samurai Rangers had to deal with that. People without a soul usually end up in a coma before— well — but that’s not the case here. It just feels like a darkness, a void, I’ve never felt with any of our foes, not even Gruumm.”

“So, it’s possible that they weren’t acting on their own accord?” Syd asked hopefully.

“But if they were being mind controlled or something, they wouldn’t be able to morph without it breaking,” Sky said, “Our suits were specifically designed to prevent that.”

“Actually,” Boom cut in, “I don’t think they’ve done a full morph since they went MIA. Maybe even before that. We should go back through the mission logs and check.”

“A full morph?” Jack questioned, “They seemed pretty well morphed when they were kicking our butts.”

“No, Jack,” Bridge interjected, “I think Boom is right. A-Squad’s only been doing a quick morph, not the full morph with pulling out their morphers and saying their callsign. Has anyone even seen their morphers recently.”

Various negatives go across the room as it sinks in what this could mean.

“But if they were being mind controlled,” Z said, “wouldn’t our judgement scanners mark them as innocent?”

“Not if they can’t fight it at all,” Bridge said, “If they are under total control, especially with strategic autonomy which is what it looks like, then our scanners would still mark them as guilty. They would still believe themselves guilty of the crimes committed.”

“We need to go tell the commander, now,” Sky said.

. . .

Chapter Text

“You. Want us. To morph?”

Charlie and the rest of A-Squad laughed in the face of the Cruger and B-Squad. Cruger had brought them out of their containment cards and into the training simulator room. Kat had both the simulation room and the base on lockdown to prevent any A-Squad escape attempts. Just as a precaution, Omega and Nova were stationed outside the base in case anything happened.

Cruger had been skeptical about B-Squad’s hypothesis, but Kat had convinced him that the theory needed to be tested. So, they had all prepared the training simulation room to have A-Squad morph.

“You really can’t believe that we would willingly turn against SPD, can you?” Cliff chuckled darkly.

“We chose this,” Ivan crossed his arms, “What do you think morphing with that stupid callout will actually do?”

“Maybe turn you back into your normal selves,” Syd huffed, “This is nothing like you guys.”

“You never really knew us, princess,” Rachel sneered.

“And you definitely don’t know us now,” Beevor snarked.

“Just humor us then,” Sky huffed, “And you can go back to your containment cards to await trial for treason and mass destruction.”

“Or you can just send us back now,” Charlie sighed, “I’d rather die than say that call sign again.”

“That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?” Z chimed in.

“Your precious SPD killed my wife!” Charlie shouted, “and sent the rest of us to our deaths more times than I can count. So no, I don’t think it’s extreme. Like Ivan said, we chose this.”

“And to think we spared you brats because you don’t know any better,” Ivan said, “I guess you really are as ignorant as we thought.”

“Spared us? But—“ Bridge was cut off.

“If we had been fighting to kill you, B-Squad, you would be dead. And we would not be in prison,” Rachel chuckled, “Do you honestly think we were dumb enough to monologue and give you time to regroup?”

“Then why spare us?” Jack asked, “If you really blamed SPD for sending you on suicide missions, why not get your revenge?”

“Because you were never our fight,” Cliff said.

“Plus, it’s a fool’s errand to go after anyone ordained by the grid itself,” Beevor shrugged, “probably would have ended up with another casualty.”

“Ordained?” Z questioned.

“Come on, Commander,” Rachel glared, “You never told them the origins of their powers? Why they were all made a team so easily? All the red tape that was just cut through for them, when that same red tape hung us?”

“He did tell us, when we met the kid who would become our sixth ranger,” Sky said.

“And it wasn’t easy being a team, not at the beginning,” Syd continued.

“Oh please, do you think two total strangers can work together that seamlessly with three others who had years of training on them, within a year no less, without divine intervention?” Ivan raised an eyebrow.

“You all were meant to be a team,” Charlie said, “you weren’t the first Earth Rangers chosen by the grid itself, but you’ll likely be the last”

“What do you mean by that?” Jack asked stepping forward.

“The morphing grid is maintained by the balance of good and evil struggling against one another. There is just too much good, too many rangers, and the grid is course correcting again. Just like it did eons ago,” Charlie gestured to the rest of her team, “We just chose to get ahead of it.”

“And almost every other ranger team on earth, before you six, was either a chosen of a chosen or a scientist hijacked their way into the grid for them,” Beevor stated plainly.

“Chosens of a chosen were generally more favored by the grid, but you guys? You’re on a whole other level not seen in twenty years,” Cliff said, “not only were you given powers from the grid at birth, but Lu hand crafted your morphers to match your grid energy, even if Kat had to put the final touches on them.”

“Who were the other teams like us, then?” Z asked.

“We are not going to give you a total history lesson here,” Rachel interjected, “just send us back to containment and you can go do your own research.”

“We can’t do that until you do a full morph,” Sky crossed his arms, “If you really did choose this for yourselves, then it doesn’t really matter if you morph or not. Just get on with it. And then you can go right back to resenting our guts.”

There was a long lull in the conversation where A-Squad sized up their replacements. B-Squad was on edge, but the other rangers could tell there was a hopeful aura about them.

“You will really make us stand here until we do it, won’t you,” Ivan ran his left hand through his hair.

A-Squad all turned to Charlie then. It was ultimately her decision, as she had to start the callouts. They all sat there in silence for ten minutes as Charlie glared daggers at B-Squad.

“Ugh! Fine! Whatever gets us back in confinement and consoles your consciences faster,” Charlie snapped pulling up her morpher, “A-Squad! Ready?”

“Ready!”

“SPD Emergency!”

And in a flash of light that looked more akin to B-Squad’s morph than A-Squad’s quick morph, the A-Squad rangers donned their suits.

A small explosion appeared behind A-Squad as they finished the full morph. B-Squad waited with bated breath to see if their theory was correct.

One by one each member of A-Squad took off their helmets. Cliff and Beevor appeared dazed. Rachel and Ivan’s eyes were tired. But all eyes turned to Charlie as she removed her helmet last. She shook out her braid like she always would and tucked her helmet under her left arm. Charlie’s eyes were colder than any of them had every soon before.

“I warned you.”

Quicker than B-Squad or Cruger could react, a blast went off.