"Earthsiege" by Rain Fletcher, PG

[germankitty]

Fandom: Power Rangers (MMPR to Zeo, 1993-96)
Title: Earthsiege by Rain Fletcher (alternative link to fic, without illustrations)
Pairing/Character Focus: Billy Cranston (called "Mitchell" in that story; the canon last name was unknown at the time of writing)/Katherine Hillard (background Kimberly Hart/Tommy Oliver, others)
Author: Rain Fletcher (also on LJ as rainfletcher, but the account has been inactive since 2014)
What makes this a gem: "Earthsiege", written in 1998 or thereabouts, is widely considered one of THE classic stories in the fandom, created in the wake of general outrage when Billy got kicked off of the Ranger team with the introduction of the Zeo crystals and relegated to a supporting role -- quite literally. It's a great character study, dealing mainly with his frustration of not being able to fight the good fight anymore.

It's also a crossover with Voltron, more specifically the 3rd series, LionForce.

King Mondo's Machine Empire has joined forces with Voltron's archenemy, the witch Haggar, and is attacking Earth more ferociously than ever -- and it's bad news for the Rangers. With one Ranger as well as Zordon and Alpha temporarily out of commission, it is up to Billy to run things from the Command Center. Then a gigantic blue fighting machine crashes near their base -- one of Voltron's Lions. Billy manages to repair the Blue Lion and with her help goes off-planet to retrieve the rest of Voltron's parts.

With the Zeo team on the brink of physical and mental collapse, he decides to call back all the former Rangers -- Jason, Trini, Zack and Aisha -- to take over Earth's defenses until the threat is finally eliminated.

There are lots of space battles in this fic; all the lovely character developments are nicely offset with how a group of teenagers steps up to the plate and literally saves the planet, albeit with help from alien mecha. It's rather obvious in this fic that both "Voltron" and "Power Rangers" were created as entertaining vehicles to sell interconnective toys, but it's also the connective factor which makes this crossover work. There's some humor, some romance (Billy and Kat, the beginning of which is told in the prequel, "Snowbound" (same link as above on the Wayback Machine, and just click the "Home" button at the second and scroll down to the author's name) as well as a rather realistic depiction of how a protracted fight against alien forces might actually go down.

Every character gets their moment to shine, but for once it's not the obvious heros who stand in the spotlight. If you like Power Rangers for the fights and action coupled with character focus and good writing, "Earthsiege" is the fic for you -- and I think it's easy to see why it's become a classic. It's also a nice touch that the author has made the effort to include pictures from both shows (not at Paladar's, 2nd link); you may have to refresh the page at the Wayback Machine if you get broken links at first). :-)

come morning light by sephirothflame [t+]

[ideare]

Fandom: generation kill Title: come morning light Pairing/Character Focus: walt hasser/ray person; walt hasser Author: sephirothflame What makes this a gem: Ray is chosen as the Tribute from District 11. He's not the only one going through Hell. come morning light is a hunger games au that looks at the arena games from the point of view of someone who doesn’t get chosen at the reaping. we get to see the reality of those left behind — their guilt, their attempts at carrying on as if everything is normal, their anger at how such brutality has become normalized, and their frustration at being used for entertainment by the elite. i love walt and ray’s relationship in this; even in what little we hear from ray, there’s obviously a strong bond between the two. sephirothflame really captures walt’s fear and worry as he waits for ray to return home. so much so, that the reader is pulled along on an emotional ride: stressing out with walt, crying with walt, and trying not to be too hopeful as we all watch the games unfold from a distance.

over and over again by boo98 [m]

[knightspur]

Fandom: Seventeen
Title: over and over again
Pairing/Character Focus: Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Seokmin | DK
Author: butter
What makes this a gem: This is a great slow burn that manages to keep tension through the whole fic and takes an interesting twist on a soulmate au. I'm a sucker for childhood friends, and this fic manages to chart a whole lot of time in their relationship (11 years!!) without feeling like it's dragging on unnecessarily.