A\N: A companion piece to Sacrifice. Also, my headcanon. I named the fic for Shinedown's song, because...well...have you heard it? Holy cow, talk about the Ultimate Theme of All Rangers Ever. XD On another note: Holy (CENSORED BY HIGH COMMAND) I hate formatting. Y u no translate from Google Docs, FFN? Y?

Rangers gained a lot.

When they left behind their old lives, they entered something new. The Galactic Ranger Corps was admired everywhere; while local police forces still existed, the Ranger Corps were the heroes of the galaxy, bringing peace and justice to all.

The public celebrations and recruitments and occasional endorsements were the focus of the dreams of many children. The real-world fieldwork was dangerous, glamorous, and, for anyone who watched it firsthand, living proof of exactly why the Power Rangers were needed.

Everyone needed superheroes.

Of course, a society with only heroes and no balances tended to turn into a fascist society. So it was recognized, if not widely than at least by key positions, that Rangers had to gain as much as they gave. They needed stability. Community. Purpose.

When a recruit came to Home One, they gave up a lot. That was never questioned.

But they gained a lot, too.

*PR*PR*PR*

When a recruit came to Home One, they gave up their culture. They also entered a new one.

When a recruit came to the office, they were given a mental health screening, basic medical exam, and finally the recruiter sat them down and asked if they really were sure about this. Then the recruit was taken aside and changed into the cadet uniform, gave their civilian clothes to a tearful family member, said goodbye, and went to the barracks.

The barracks were standard. The cadets usually expected that. What they didn't expect, especially the Shades, was to wear a uniform of either black, white, or gray. In the outside world, you just didn't mention your 'allegiance'.

Then the drill sergeant came in.

After a few days of hell, you started forgetting the colors of the uniforms. That wasn't a Shade, that was just Li'ssra, she can toss people over the wall; that wasn't a Lightsider, that was Zeke, he needs someone to translate occasionally because his Daemon is nonexistant; and that wasn't a Darksider, that was Mara, she already spoke Abomination eagerly.

The language was something that you noticed when the drill sergeant opened his, her, or its mouth. It was a mix of Eltarian, Daemon, and Tallian, the three major galactic languages, and it was hell to pick up on at first. But then you started using it more and more. Eventually you learned enough of each language to be fluent in it.

After the first few weeks, you learned other languages as well. Everyone on Home One is a polygot. Language is culture, as your teachers emphasized. Teaching you as much as possible means you're the best Ranger possible. You start speaking your favorite language, treating it like an Earther would astrology; it's always amazing to meet someone else who uses the same language.

The training is harsh, designed to maximize a cadet. But finally a cadet reaches the second level.

By this point, over half of the recruits have dropped out. There's no penalty. The Ranger Corps needs volunteers, not conscripts. The dropouts are just given free passage to whatever planet they like and enough money to start over. They don't even have to go home. By this point, 'home' is meaningless anyway.

Once you reach second level, there are no more drop-outs, because you either quit then or sign a contract stating that you won't drop out. So that's when the older cadets have the initiation. It's spectacularly stupid and ridiculously scatological, but you feel a sense of safety and companionship.

You're in this for life now. And everyone knows it.

Second-level cadets get something new: Time off. For the first time, a cadet can experience the culture of the ship. Everyone wears the uniforms; everyone speaks Abomination; but you see the Primaries and Secondaries who live on Home One, and the average civilian children and relatives they have, and how they make the space station self-reliant and beautiful. Children produce masterpieces here. Supposedly there's no money, but an economy has sprung up, and cadets almost always make a few throwaway trinkets that gullible tourists (because everyone wants to see Home One and the astounding world of a Primary or Secondary) buy. Exchanging money isn't a problem either. You just have to hide it from the instructors, since it's against regulations for you to sell anything High Command hasn't approved after that incident with the fruit shakes that poisoned everyone, including the cadet who'd posed for the advertisement.

A cadet with spare time can see art to rival the classics, hear music that makes grown beings weep, and even study under these masters for a few hours. And they can meet the Power Rangers.

It's nerve-wracking at first, bumping into a Power Ranger, especially one the Color you think you are. What do you say? But the Rangers are pretty used to this and just grin and bound off.

Later you meet Rangers a few times and even talk with them. You start hearing about duty, and honor, and missions gone right or wrong. You re-learn how important it is to don the armor and serve the Power. Your hero-worship of the Rangers transforms into something more, a deep respect and prayers that you can fill those shoes.

When the day comes, you're not ready.

Of course not. No one ever is for their adulthood ritual. You were initiated into this culture with the knowledge of an infant; now you're a polygot, a diplomat, a warrior, a thousand things. Now you can't imagine a better world than this space station, where languages are tossed around like candy and everything is beautiful. You can't imagine better friends than the team you're graduating with.

The Rangers give up a lot. But they gain culture in return.

Most Rangers consider it a fair trade.

*PR*PR*PR*

When you take up the morpher, your team becomes your family.

Of course there's the initial 'where the hell do we put this person' that happens during your second-level cadet years, and the many deep, intense, short-lived friendships you make, but when you finally take the oath to protect and serve...

You glance around at the other bedroom doors, make a mental note to either create or add your name to the chore list, and go to bed.

But then you wake up and someone's got to cook breakfast. And someone tries, and things explode, and you try to clean it up and laugh and...

You trained to fight evildoers, not be sappy, but something new emerges in your psyche. A sense of...homecoming. You and your team, however many and in whatever colors, seem to slot into a place in your heart that you didn't even know you had (unless you're Daemon or Garr!kla't, in which case you reserved that spot for your birth family and are now wondering if you took a blow to the head or something, this is weird).

Your next assignment comes a few hours later. On the way there, you talk endlessly about everything. Music, favorite language, hobbies. Even if you don't like it, you're fascinated by it, because they like it, and what they like, you want to know.

And then someone gets hurt.

Maybe you. Maybe not. But whoever's hurt, the team flocks around them, and when the cause is completely f-ing destroyed, they will not leave the injured member's side.

Ever.

(High Command issues a memo stating that, while it completely understands the urge, you still may not swear even when on the battlefield, because you are supposed to be an inspiration. Especially to small children.)

Things move back to normal, but 'normal' now means you laugh at stupid jokes and confess that, yeah, you've never had a date before and watch Tommy Oliver, Power Ranger of Earth together. It means you fight out how the cooking and dishes are going to get done with rock-paper-scissors.

The transition from 'team' to 'family' takes less than a week.

It's a closer family than any you've ever had. You're stronger than blood. You share everything and grow in everything. And in every battle, you know exactly who has your back.

You've got theirs, too.

*PR*PR*PR*

Becoming a Ranger gives you an education beyond most scholars' wildest dreams.

Of course, you meet new people and see new sights and all of that, but the real treasure lies in the neutrality of the Ranger Corps. On that station, if you say you're from the Council of Light or the Dark Court, you're going to get met with an '...um, yay?', or the linguistic equivalent.

And that's gotten noticed.

Historians, librarians, and anthropologists from across the galaxy have taken this golden opportunity to stuff the Rangers' library with every masterpiece, every original, and every banned document they can get their hands on. If it exists, the Ranger Corps has it, hidden in their vaults and copied into their network so the originals can remain safe from air and light, all too often the nemesis of written words.

So whenever a cadet, second-level cadet, Ranger, or even Primary or Secondary has free time, they can go in the library and find knowledge that wouldn't even be acknowledged in any other part of the galaxy.

A child of the Dark Court, if they are a Ranger, will learn about the meset-goeg, the terrifying boogieman of Eltarian traditions. A child of the Council will hear a lullaby written by a Daemon, crooning the names of various forms the child will someday shapeshift into.

And placed at the front of the library, in a display magnified several times the size of the real book, is a tome that begins with words everyone living on Home One now knows:

We are Shade. We are memory.

Though no one else remembers, we do. When Light claims Dark began this war; when Dark returns that Light first fought; we remember the truth. And this is what we know: This war began when Eltar, believing in their own superiority, attacked Tallia to bring them to the Light. In retaliation, Tallia and the Daemon destroyed Eltar, scattering the Eltarian race across the galaxy.

Thus was the Power born.

The survivors of Eltar began to create a balance between magic and science. They called the warriors who would fight with this Power Rangers, but the first attempts died as soon as the morphers were activated.

In a long-forgotten battle, Zordon of Eltar, who worked on the Power Rangers, had taken Zedd ch'Arria, Prince of Tallia, as a slave. As was custom then, they hid their true nature from anyone, but neither had met a Shade before. Slowly, they grew into friendship, even brotherhood.

Together, the Shades built the first true morphers, and the Power Rangers were born.

At first, of course, no one even knew the title, because no one was particularly interested in the ostentatious and annoying display that didn't involve the latest pop star. But then Zedd ch'Arria showed up. Followed by Zordon. Followed by the loss of the docking bay and the entirety of Home One being treated to the sight of the original White and Green Rangers morphing and saving the station from being torn apart by the vacuum of space.

Two seconds later, it had hit the holonet.

Calming down that nightmare took just about every skill High Command possessed, especially when Zedd ch'Arria decided to go on record a) reciting the opening lines of the document that had started the entire mess, speaking from a Shade's perspective on exactly how correct it was and b) informing them all, in his own perspective, that why, yes, he was the original Green Ranger, and he was also, according to this paper crown, King of Burger King, so anyone who had a problem with it could kiss his a-.

(High Command Red issued a memo stating that if anyone wanted to apply, they were creating an official position for issuing memos about watching language.)

But after that, quite a lot of people suddenly took an interest in the library.

Now a Ranger can almost be expected to have read the classics, studied with masters, and seen things that take the breath away. The Ranger Corps has become the ultimate place of learning in the galaxy.

Becoming a Ranger gives you an education unlike any other.

*PR*PR*PR*

Ultimately, the point of being a Ranger isn't what you get or give.

A Ranger is many things. Diplomat, healer, warrior. A life-changer, for good or ill. Their actions affect the entire universe, and rightly so.

These are the people everyone can count on to be heroes.

And a Ranger, at the end of the day, is a hero.