Back at Ernie's, sipping a lemonade, it clicked. The Black Ranger had stood exactly as Adam had that day she'd found his back pack; the Red Ranger's stance had matched Rocky's. And the power she'd been feeling.... She nearly choked on her drink. Setting it carefully to the side, she pulled out a notebook, and listed the colors of the Power Rangers, then the auras of her friends. They fit. There was no variation, nothing different. And their watches, too, matched almost perfectly in color. In fact, it was almost as if the Power Rangers wore the colors of the auras on the outside. Her eyes widened, and she stood so suddenly that her chair fell over. Pale, she righted it, not even noticing the odd glances from the others in the juice bar, then gathered her books and ran.
Secrets is one thing, but this is amazing! she thought, walking home, completely forgetting that she was going to meet them later. I can't tell anyone. Should I tell them? She wrestled with the thought all the way home, and started her homework without being any closer to an answer.
The phone rang that evening, breaking her thoughts, and she answered it almost robotically. "Hello?" She was still struggling with what to do about her knowledge. She had nearly decided to perform a short ceremony and ask for help when the phone rang.
"Maggie? Are you okay?" Kat sounded worried. "We thought you were going to meet us."
"Oh, I was, wasn't I." She chuckled slightly. "I... got another look at one of Zedd's monsters, and it kinda threw me. I'm fine, just... I think I'm going to stay here this evening. Thanks for calling, I'll see you tomorrow."
"You're sure?"
"Yes, thanks." She was being short, and couldn't help it. It was such a shock!
"All right. Til then."
"Night, Kat." She hung up, feeling almost worse than she had on her way home. She took a deep breath and began to pull stuff she'd need out of the ash wood chest on her dresser. She was going to have to know what to do about this.
She didn't feel any better the next day. The answer she'd gotten was ambiguous, but she felt it was more her fault than anything; she couldn't concentrate on it, so the answer had gotten garbled. She'd finally just decided that she would tell them, and the answer to that thought had been much clearer. It hadn't made her feel any better; she hated the unknown like this!
Maggie managed to avoid them almost the whole day, which wasn't easy; AGHS was a small school. She only saw Adam long enough to give him the note she had meant to stick in his locker - his only because she knew that he knew where the clearing was. At least, that's what she told herself. His hand brushed hers, and she sighed. Yes, same taste. Just a little... personalized, a little... blacker. She could practically taste the color, now that she knew what it was. She felt the blood drain from her face as it sank in more concretely. The power was the same as his aura? Or was it the power that she was actually Seeing and Feeling?
"Is everything all right?" he asked as she stepped away from him, rubbing her arms. She suddenly felt chilled.
"I'm not sure," she said, and barely mustered a smile before she turned and walked out, fighting her instinct to run. He called after her once, but didn't pursue her, and she was glad. Once outside and out of his sight, she did run, racing across the park to the private clearing he had shown her, the one she had used just a week ago for her second ceremony here in Angel Grove. She sat in the center of it, spread her black skirt around her, closed her eyes, and waited, finding her center as she did so.
When they got there, she had finally reached that calm, and the butterflies in her stomach had settled a lot. Adam was the first person she saw when she opened her eyes, and they started up again, but for a perfectly normal, perfectly teenage reason. He WAS nice to look at.
"Is something wrong?" Tommy asked. By all reports, as White, he was the leader of the Rangers. She actually could believe that; she'd noticed how they all followed his lead. On the other hand, they were all leaders themselves, or on their way; Adam was still too shy, and Rocky was just a bit too... rambunctious. But that had changed even over the few weeks she'd known them.
Margery smiled, surprised and pleased to discover that the expression was genuine. "I think you'd better sit down, all of you." She waited until they did, then took a deep breath. "I know who you are."
Glances flew between them.
"What do you mean?" Billy asked.
"You are the most powerful, Billy. You've been in contact with the power longest, then Tommy. Adam, Aisha, and Rocky came to it all about the same time, and Kat is the newest." How could they not know about her?
The glances that flew were more panicked.
"Power? What power?" Kat asked.
"I don't know. Apparently, the one that makes the Power Rangers what they are." She squelched the frustration, wishing she knew the answer to that question.
Tommy sighed, and Margery echoed the sigh with relief. He, at least, was taking her seriously. "How did you know?"
Margery took a deep breath. "I read auras. Kat's is pink, which means compassionate, and Aisha's is yellow, which is idealistic. I could believe that. They fit both of you very well. Billy's aura is blue, which is believable, especially when Aisha is around. Then came Tommy. Your's is white, which is innocense. And your eyes wouldn't let me believe that. You have done things you aren't proud of. That tipped me off a little as well."
"Wait. Why when I'm around?" Aisha asked. Margery grinned, then looked at Billy.
"Blue is the aura color that symbolizes attraction." Aisha looked at Billy who grinned back at her. She blushed and looked back at Margery.
"Then I came to Adam and Rocky. The first time I Looked at Rocky, you'd just lost your back pack, so I could understand that your aura was red. You were upset. The aura was just a little more vibrantly colored that I would have expected over a back pack. Then I checked you out again, yesterday after school. You were laughing, and your aura still said you was angry." She shook her head. "I couldn't believe it. I don't think I've ever seen you angry; at least, not as angry as your aura said you were. Then I Saw Adam. Your aura is black. And I haven't known you very long, but I still don't think there is a hateful bone in your body. You can't hate that much." She smiled at him, and his answering half smile made her stomach flutter worse than before. Great! It did not, however, distract her from the regret and guilt in his eyes. Odd. She had to force herself away from that puzzle, as much as it - and he - attracted her. "Not to mention, Billy, that you absolutely reek of power. That's why I fainted that first day. I was just glad that Rocky wasn't as strong as you are, or it might have happened again. That would have been embarrassing."
She paused. "Then, yesterday afternoon, I happened to catch sight of the Power Rangers. It took me a minute to realize that they wore your auras on the outside, or you their colors on the inside. Or, your auras are the physical manifestation of your powers. I can't tell." She took a deep breath. "Also, every time you do something as the Power Rangers, the power of it knocks me over."
"That's why you sounded so disturbed last night," Kat said in realization. "It really did throw you off, didn't it." Maggie nodded.
"But how do you know all of this stuff?" Rocky asked in some frustration.
"She's Wiccan," Billy stated, and looked at her with wise blue eyes that weren't foolish at all.
"Yes, I am." She smiled. "I thought I had stumbled onto a coven at first, but I didn't suspect 'galactic fighters for good'." Or so the papers had dubbed them.
"Wiccan?" Kat and Aisha spoke at the same time; Aisha's voice was curious, and Kat's bordered on panic.
"A kind of modern day witch or benevolent druid," Margery explained, wincing inwardly at how much like a dictionary it had come out.
"What will you do now?" Tommy asked, pulling her attention and the conversation back to the problem at hand.
"I won't tell Bulk and Skull." She spoke seriously. "I know how to keep secrets. And I understand if you find uncomfortable being around me. I decided to tell you because I want to remain your friend. I thought that if I were in your position, I'd rather know that someone knew my secret. I will understand now why you have to leave in the middle of conversations, and you don't have to make up excuses."
Glances flew again, and Tommy stood. "We need to talk about this." The others scrambled to their feet.
"Oh, go ahead. Do you want...." She paused. "With the 'old friend'?"
"Yes," Adam said.
"Oh. Um... I can start for home, then? Aisha has my phone number; one of you can call me." She stood in a smooth movement that surprised her. "If not I'll see you tomorrow maybe."
"Thank you," Aisha smiled, and touched her shoulder. Then, they all touched their watches, and disappeared. The backlash knocked her off her feet. Teleportation. Oh, why not? It certainly explained why Adam had disappeared so quickly the day he'd shown her this clearing. He wasn't that fast a runner.
"Well, that explains what that is all about," she muttered, picked herself up, and turned to go home. I've got to talk to Kat, she thought as she left the clearing. She sighed and started walking, feeling a little less sure of herself.
The next morning, she arrived at school without having slept. No one had called her the night before, and after midnight she'd given up and had spent the night doing homework, and in some cases, working ahead. She didn't go to her locker; she went straight to Ernie's for a juice. Therefore, she didn't see anyone until lunch, when Adam sat next to her at the table she had found at Ernie's. "Hi. Didn't see you this morning," he said.
She gave him a half smile, a fair copy of his own. "Nerves, I guess."
He nodded. "Sorry about last night. It was a long discussion." He looked decidedly uncomfortable.
"Really?" she asked.
He looked at her and smiled, but before she could even yell silently at the butterflies in her stomach, the others joined her.
"Sorry we didn't get a chance to talk to you last night," Tommy started. "We got in late." Margery nodded.
"Some of us got in trouble," Rocky added with a grimace, and winked at Maggie. It cheered her a little.
Tommy scowled at him, and continued. "We have had this kind of situation before, so we have some idea of how to handle it." He glanced over at Adam, Aisha and Rocky, then back to her. "Our friend is doing a..."
"Background check," Billy supplied when Tommy paused. "Although what it might mean if you aren't ...." He shook his head.
"What Billy means is, our friend has very high standards. You are right; I have been and done things I am ashamed of. But I am still a part of this group," Tommy said. "While you may never be, you know. Nothing can be done about that."
"But first, you were our friend," Adam said, and the butterflies started their dance again. "We don't lose friends if we can help it. Just be aware that it could get hard to hold a conversation with one of us." Margery chuckled.
"If it's a choice between Zedd and not having a conversation, I'll choose to not have the conversation. His monsters scare me."
"They scare me," Kat said softly, grinning at her. "Then we beat them, and I sleep very well at night."
Margery grinned. "I hope I am never in your position." Then she Knew she would be, and paled. Instances went by in her Foresight, too fast to count and to know, but there they were. A werewolf, a vampire - cop? - and others she couldn't concentrate on.
"Maggie? Are you okay?" Aisha's voice broke the spell, and she gasped in a breath. She found herself clutching the table in some panic, and made herself let go. "What happened?"
"Oh, just something that happens sometimes." Her voice did not sound normal, but she wasn't surprised. Her telemetry was weak, at best, and these images had been overwhelming. For the first time. "I will be in your position. Only I get to fight the supernatural. And I may never sleep well at night again." The image of the werewolf's gaping jaws still held her spellbound, the image so clear when she usually could only see shadow. She had never been so scared by a vision. She reached out for anyone, any of them, and the now-familiar shock of the power, shaded in black, broke the last of the trance. She smiled at Adam and let his hand go. "Thanks." She got to her feet unsteadily. "I think I need to get outside. Excuse me a minute." She walked somewhat unsteadily out the door.
Finding a bench outside, she sank down gratefully, trying to put her thoughts in order. She would have to call Tabitha and see if she wanted to join her on this. She had always wanted adventure. Maggie focused on the large tree across the street, drawing in the strength, the permanency, and the calm it exuded until her breathing calmed. Feeling a little more steady, now, she got up and went back into the juice bar.
She cornered Kat after school the next day, just outside the school. The blonde looked at her warily. "I know what you are," Margery said quietly, looping her arm through Kat's and walking towards the park.
Kat looked at her with wide, frightened eyes. "I know you do."
Margery grinned, finally able to let her mirth show. "Do they know how ironic your name is?"
Kat blinked, startled. "Aisha does, and so does Kim. She's gone now."
"How did they find out?"
"I was ... a ..." She paused. "I was under a spell of evil and sabotaged ... them."
"Oh. So they think..."
She smiled. "They think it was Rita and Zedd's doing. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Rita and Zedd think it was them, too."
"Isn't that funny." They shared a smile. "Does this 'old friend' know?"
"Yes. He... had to, actually." She looked down. "The whole situation was horrid."
"I can imagine," Maggie said softly, then tried to find something a little less depressing for her friend to talk about. "I have a friend like you. I met her exactly the same way I met you."
"Reading her aura?"
"No. My locker was right by hers. She'll get a kick out of this." Margery paused. "If I tell her. She understands about secrets, too."
Kat laughed. "Yes, I imagine she does." She thought a minute. "I think I would like to meet your friend, if I could. It is rather lonely; there aren't many of us here."
"No, there aren't." Maggie grinned. "I'll write her tonight."
"What do you mean, moving?" Margery demanded three days later. "You promised! I'm a senior this year, you promised I'd be able to finish this year in one school! It's already been two, in three months!" She faced her father across the living room, furious. How could he do this to her?
"Maggie, I know I did. But this place is dangerous. There are fights in the streets, not just kids, but huge monsters!"
"No one is ever hurt," she shot back. Which was pretty amazing, considering. She made a mental note to thank the Lady that evening. "I just made a bunch of really good friends. There's even a guy I want to date!" Never mind that he was practically too shy to even look at her, but her father didn't need to know that. "And now you want me to just pick up and leave? This is it. You go, if you really want. I'm staying here." It rang true, truer than anything she'd ever said, and she blinked. Somehow, she was going to be able to stay. At least for a while. The werewolf wasn't here, nor the vampire, but for now, she was going to be able to stay.
"Date?" her father interrupted her thoughts. "There's someone here you want to date?"
Margery calmed herself down. "Yes. I have friends to go to the mall with, and a couple of guys to hang around, and yes, one I'd like to get to know better."
Her father laughed. "Really. You finally found someone you were interested in?"
Margery scowled. "And how long have we stayed in one place so I could get interested in someone?" she snapped. "Never mind, don't answer that. I have homework." She turned to walk away, then turned back, feeling rather like she'd picked on him a lot. "I'm sorry, Dad. I know it's hard. And thanks for letting us stay here."
He smiled at her. "I haven't said we are."
She smiled back. "I know. But I am." She started up the stairs, and actually made it to her room before she heard anything from her dad. "Maybe," she mused, pulled her calculus book out of her backpack, "maybe I should have put my foot down before. On the other hand, I wouldn't have moved here." She chuckled at the irony, and began to study.