Given that Oliver was the youngest of the chosen, Samara couldn’t fault him for being unable to put this situation together on his own. They were simple questions she was more than capable of answering, but the fact that the questions were asked in such a mixed order did not do favors for her. This role—assisting John—had its upsides, but playing 20 questions wasn’t one of them. Her jaw tensed and she forced a smile, “Oliver, you don’t know if you can trust us, that’s the idea,” she said. Samara returned her ID card to her back pocket. It seems that it had gone ignored, or worse, no one was willing to believe that this wasn’t a plot to expose them. “You’re taking a risk and so are we—I just did.”
Maybe it was hard to miss somehow, but there was no secret-keeping on their side of things. John was explaining everything relevant to the situation at hand and that included his old role within Galatec, leaving room for questions. Thankfully sparing her from a headache, John had handled the other question that he could comfortably answer, and left those that were not productive behind. He brought up footage, footage that she helped compile with glee, of Power Rangers from the past that stood together against overwhelming odds. From Mighty Morphin’ and onward, the clips compiled just before the second Dinosaur-related team was crafted from a past mentor and a legendary ranger. Sadly, no one seemed to appreciate the effort, and they didn’t appear to find any inspiration or courage from the videos linked to them. Samara didn’t blame them after John put up that horrible autopsy video, one she had seen too many times already, but at least the other footage was pretty cool.
Jonah had spoken next and put things together pretty quickly. Her eyes narrowed slightly as he went on, and it took every ounce of her strength not to cut him off for even considering that John was a liar. She had worked with this man for too long to doubt his interest in ending Galatec. There may have been some intelligence behind that shoddy effort to assert some form of dominance over them, but Samara was not willing to humor the attitude. All that mattered was that he would fight against Galatec. His reasons were his own.
As expected, he ended up agreeing to do this just as Tommy had.
With that rant over, Clementine’s panic was still active. She grabbed Jonah by his collar and seemed far too frantic to find self-control all on her own. After sinking to her knees, Clementine had begun to mutter to herself about the fate she was going to find if she returned. Jonah wasn’t the shining example of what it would mean to be a Power Ranger, but he was right about one thing: There would be questioning, very intense questioning, about where they vanished to and what they saw. Galatec may choose to believe them, and they may get to return to their lives, but that was the best case scenario. It didn’t sound like the greatest outcome they could hope for, but Clementine was already losing herself in fear of the consequences should she return.
Samara sighed and held up a hand to John that told him to let her handle Clementine. The assistant approached Clementine and knelt down so that they were at the same eye level. There was a pity in her eyes that wasn’t there before. “Clementine, down here in the dirt is where you already are. You just don’t see it yet,” Samara said. “You don’t mine that ore like everyone else but believe me when I say that you’re just a warm body that has enough sense to do what they tell you to. At the end of the day, that is all you are to them, and that is all you’ll ever be.”
Clementine was one of the two she didn’t want to involve in this. She was crumbling under pressure before she was even put in a position that placed her in danger. If this was going to be a constant for her—dropping onto her knees and seeking forgiveness from her Galatec overlords—then Samara may preemptively decide to return her and let her talk her way out of what happened. It wasn’t out of spite; as said earlier, if they don’t wish to fight not only for themselves but for others too, they can be returned elsewhere and try to get back to their mediocre, submissive lives.
“I’ve shown you my identification. John has agreed to mentor all of you and get you where you need to be to fight these people. Both of us have slaved to give humanity a fighting chance against Galatec, and we took a risk with the four of you. So yeah,” Samara glanced at Jonah for a moment, then faced Clementine again. “Sorry we didn’t get your consent. You didn’t get to ask mommy and daddy for permission to help save the world. But we are desperate, our options are few, and at the end of the day John put his faith in you, even when I was in doubt. He sees what you are capable of, and he chose you—no one else came before you—he chose YOU—” Samara lightly poked Clementine's forehead, “—to give us our world, and our freedom back.”
Samara returned to her feet, then extended a hand for Clementine to take if she chose to. “We’re going to help you face them every step of the way, but I refuse to help you walk when you’re happy crawling. Make a choice Clem,” Samara glanced at Oliver,”and that goes for you, too. Say the word and I get you out of this. Don’t trust us. Go back to scraping out a living at their heels.”
Unlike John, Samara was not willing to let this self-pity continue before it became a serious problem. Clementine was killing any morale John and herself hoped to build by sinking so pitifully. This couldn’t be the path for everyone, but if Clementine was wavering at this stage she would only let others down who would be counting on her.
“Or, join us, and create the hope you’re looking for.”
Samara would only hold her hand out for several seconds longer. Regardless if Clementine had considered anything she had said, or chose to stay in the dirt and moan about how life was so hard for her, the assistant would return to her computer and prep the RDS for a return trip should they want to walk away. Otherwise, she would return to combing the mines for Michael with the radar, who she hoped would add some much-needed strength to this shaky, incomplete team. Until addressed personally, there was nothing more she had to say. John could take it from there.
