The Ties That Bind

by Cmdr Crayfish

Personality Conflicts #36. Sometimes your past comes back to haunt you.

Disclaimer: I very emphatically do not own anyone in this story. Divvy up the shares between Saban Brands, Ellen Brand, and Jen Bigley. This is the 36th story in Personality Conflicts, following Hide and Seek, and is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for adult content. This is my first chapter as the sole author of PC, and I hope those of you still joining us will enjoy. It's hard following an author as beloved (and distinct) as Ellen, and while our writing styles are different, I have tried to include some of her characteristic quirks throughout as we ease the series more into my own.

(you'll know when we get there: I suck at the Douglas Adams/Terry Prachett "sarcastic omniscient narrator" style of writing she prefers)

Enormous thanks to PC super-fans Angel and Sean for their invaluable insights and editing prowess.

Author's note: We're going to do things a little different this time. I don't believe there is any way to possibly do this story in under fifty pages, and as such, instead of posting a single PC story a couple of times a year, I'm going break this story into about two chapters that I will post upon their completion. That means more story for you, and more breathing room for me.

I've also had some requests from long-time PC readers for a chapter recapping the entire original run of the series (and dramatis personae) before resuming with these. If enough people think a "Chapter 34.5" is warranted in addition to the TVTropes page's summary, I'll probably go back and do it. Let me know what you think.

The Ties That Bind

Tuesday, February 16th 1999

Darkonda had grown tired of waiting.

In his millennia of infiltration into the Council of Worlds, the Mephistan scientist had grown accustomed to playing the long con in everything he did. He'd set up proxies on innumerable worlds, programmed and conditioned sleeper agents, and even taken the occasional bounty hunting job again for the right (and steep) price.

Still, patience had stopped being a virtue in his eyes long ago. The bureaucratic realities of legitimate government caused so many loggerjams and miscommunication that it was often ten or more years before a time-sensitive project could be resumed. Freed of his life as a politician by Earth's Rangers and provided carte blanche with Dark Specter's considerable resources, he again knew the simple pleasure of hurried work. From here on Darkonda wanted swift action.

Though, he reflected as he made the finishing touches to his latest project, there was something to be said for choosing your moment.
The hiss over his shoulder alerted the scientist to the presence of what could only be Dark Specter. He turned and preemptively bowed. "My liege."

Looking up, he saw he was correct. The form was the coiled, serpentine body of a Ka'riithian soldier, but the liquid depths behind its eyes could only belong to the Grand Monarch of All Evil. "Rise, Darkonda. Ecliptor alerted me to the screaming emanating from this lab. Would you care to enlighten me?"

Darkonda's own delighted hiss came without thought. "Of course, master. With Jade's assistance I captured the former Silver Astro Ranger two days ago and subjected him to some basic mental conditioning. Nothing too strenuous, of course. A simple brain drain removed certain... cumbersome moral imperatives and allowed me to install hypnotic triggers for your later use. With your permission I was going to return him to the wild this afternoon."

Dark Specter's gaze moved to the device still sitting on the work table. "And the morpher?"

"One of my finest creations," Darkonda preened, "It was a blank already. The device had been modified to accept the morphing signature and power source from the true Silver Ranger's Digimorpher. I simply rerouted where it draws its signal and installed a focusing scarab and template of my own design. With a simple infusion of energy from the Sword of Darkness, you will have a sixth Neji Ranger at your disposal."

"Hardly what I want in a covert operative," the monarch noted.

Darkonda laughed. "Call it an insurance policy in the event of our detection. The replacement Astro Ranger has almost no fighting skills, and Earth's Rangers seem to keep him around as a pet. Should Zordon detect our actions, we'll have - pardon the expression - a serpent clutched tightly to their breast."

Dark Specter crossed his constrictor-like arms. "Supposing I agree, surely you had some idea what could be done with an infiltrator beyond simply funneling us information on Zordon's operating procedures."

"Ohh yes, sire," the Mephistan nodded. "If you will indulge me..."

---

With a ferocious cry Ecliptor cleaved his third training droid in half. Panting, he slumped against the wall of the simudeck as his rage subsided.
It was becoming madness aboard the Dark Fortress. Dark Specter was building a Ranger army to counter Zordon's and still they had no decisive victories to show for it. Responsive action was the dominion of the Council of Worlds, not the Alliance of Evil. They were, Ecliptor thought, conducting themselves like the good guys.

_No,_ he corrected himself, _the good guys are supposed to win._

So where did that leave him? As the Grand Monarch of All Evil's right hand, he served as Dark Specter's common sense more often than either would ever acknowledge. He had stayed the hand of his master through dozens of ill thought rages before they became ill conceived campaigns. What, then, did this gradual decline to illogic mean? In his bleakest thoughts, Ecliptor wondered if the ship's magic-repellant zithium hull had failed and the Earth's ley energies had begun twisting Dark Specter's mind as it had so many despots before him.

Still, if the shielding had failed he and Astronema had racked up countless hours more exposure to the planet's groundstar network than Dark Specter. Their minds would have been compromised first. Their doubting, worrying minds...

Ecliptor shook his head. To dwell on that possibility lay the path to madness. Illogical though it was, there was a method to what Dark Specter had planned for his Neji Rangers. Indefinite stalemate of the Power Rangers would inevitably leave them vulnerable when they began to slip. Fresh and strong Dark Reflections could hammer away at the thirty or so Rangers defending the planet by sheer attrition. To think anything less of Dark Specter was tantamount to breaking his vows. Vows that had held through rages which led Ecliptor to loosely reinterpret instructions from his dark lord that could have otherwise erupted the galaxies in civil war.

A heavy woosh interrupted the Kousekian's thoughts and the digital recreation of a factory surrounding the training droids dissolved to the plain green of the simudeck's holding pattern. Astronema appeared in the doorway, clad in her heavy melee armor. She took in the carnage cast about the training room. "Is this a bad time?"

Ecliptor composed himself. "No, princess. I needed to clear my mind."

She gave a long exhale. "You've certainly cleared something."

Shaking her head, she continued, "Neji Pink hasn't returned to the Dark Fortress in two days. If we haven't heard anything in by 1700 hours, I'm going to lead a search party before Dark Specter notices her absence. I thought you might know something."

A chill ran through Ecliptor's neural pathways. When he told their Pink Ranger to make herself scarce he would never have guessed she'd take his suggestion literally. Logically, Neji Pink only had a limited number of options available to her. If she had begun impersonating the Pink Astro Ranger, the matter would sort itself out. The Power Rangers would hunt her down or destroy her themselves, and with any luck Mara would have eliminated her double in the process. The actions of a desperate and fearful girl could prove advantageous. She was, he knew instinctively, too weak-willed to consider defection. That left only taking to ground and hoping she would not be detected as the most reasonable course of action.

"She departed for Angel Grove," he replied. "Have you begun sensor sweeps?"

Astronema nodded. "As soon as Neji Yellow reported the absence we scanned the entire planet and surrounding space twice. We've found nothing."

"Hhhhnn," he grunted. "She may have already been destroyed."

"Without engaging the Rangers? Our sensors would have detected her morphing on the 14th." Her voice lowered. "Ecliptor, could one of the other villains..."

Ecliptor shook his head to interject. "With our luck, perhaps she has been eliminated by a random element. There is no use speculating until we know for certain. I will join you on your search, princess."

"Thank you." Astronema bowed and kissed his cheek before departing again.

The crystalline warrior stared at the door after her departure and absently caressed his face. This was his fault, and his honor demanded nothing less than making it right again.

"Computer, load new training scenario in Simudeck 4, increase difficulty by 40%, and activate multiple training droids."

---

Alexandra Red Eagle fidgeted in her seat. The awkwardness of her situation was bearing down on her, and the continued courtesy of the Oliver family to her presence in their home was only making it worse. She had hoped when she arrived that Tommy would already be here just so she could get through the worst of this emotion as quickly as possible. Sam Trueheart, the tribal spiritual leader she had known all her life, had told her that today was the time of greatest ease for her to be reunited with Tommy and David. Was that why she'd waited until now? Had everything been about what would be the easiest? Fate, it seemed, had a different idea on how she would finally meet her sons.
Alex had always known that one day she would see her children again. Giving them up had been the hardest experience of her young life, but she knew that had she kept her sons that the darkness inside of their father would only trail behind them.

Not a week went by that Sam had not been in contact with her to share in the details of David's life, and somehow even before the brothers met the old medicine man had the resources at his disposal to keep her in the loop of Tommy's as well. She had never truly known pain until she was a party to the lives of her children without their knowledge. Still, unshackled from the threat of her former lover's return Alex had made the most of her life. A life that wouldn't be completed until her children were a part of it again.

Though she had never admitted it to anyone, there were dozens of times Alex had tried to approach her boys throughout their lives. Whenever she would get too close to either, Sam would appear from out of nowhere and calmly say this was not what the great spirit wanted for her. Any healthy skepticism of Sam's abilities could never stand up to such scrutiny. True of Heart simply KNEW things.

That was what her brought her here today, and what had carried her up the front stairs to the door... though if Sarah Oliver hadn't come outside to check on the mail it might have been hours more before Alex had found it in herself to actually knock. At least she had quickly explained who she was and what brought her here before the other woman had invited her inside. For all the months Alex had been rehearsing this encounter in her mind, she had never imagined the nerves that came. Alex, it seemed, hadn't begun to know what nausea was.

Mr. Oliver - Daniel, he had insisted - simply gave the nervous woman the time she'd needed after arriving. The Olivers excused Tommy's absence in-between the occasional question and refilling of her cup of tea, but otherwise left the ailing woman to take her time. Though he'd tried to dance around the issue in his own way, Alex made sure Daniel understood she was already aware their mutual son was the leader of the Power Rangers. It was at that point Alex became aware just how much skepticism and worry she was being regarded with by Tommy's adoptive siblings. Chelsea in particular seemed to be eyeing her up at every available moment.

A significantly more relaxed Daniel and Sarah both assured her this was due to a recent outbreak in evil doubles, but Alex didn't doubt there was already underlying emotion there. She was the interloper here, and the obvious bonds between the Olivers and their children spoke well of the life Tommy had known. So she fidgeted under Chelsea's withering gaze and Teddy's fleeting glances.

It was only fitting, after all, that her boys make her wait now.

---

For the past two days Mara Chan felt like she was in a petri dish being examined by everyone around her. Compared to the life of quiet neglect and occasional abuse she knew as the least of Dark Specter's Neji Rangers, the sterile disinterest the Earth's Power Rangers regarded her with was almost worse. Some had tried politeness - her double, Cassie, had even offered her some of 'their' favorite books and childhood toys. Mara hadn't had the heart to tell her that part of the nature of Dark Reflections was also that many of their tastes and interests were inverted.

Others, though... The seething anger in the eyes of Tasha Young and Rocky De Santos chilled Mara more than the cordial manner either addressed her with. It had been a relief for the Dark Reflection to know she was not allowed to leave the Power Chamber's premises. At least under Zordon's observation she felt safe, even if not exactly comfortable.

"Please hold still," Billy insisted.

Case in point, for the past three hours she had undergone rigorous and inconclusive medical examinations inside of some truly diabolical looking contraptions deep in the innermost bowels of the ancient facility. From the looks of confusion on the faces of her 'escorts' while she was taken there, it seemed like almost no one other than Billy had ever been here.

The young genius sighed as the bio-bed she had been strapped to automatically slid out from the immersive sensor tube. "Look, I had to do an MRI when I was a kid, and I know it's hard. Believe me, the kinds of tests they do on Aquitar are even worse. The sooner we can get a good reading on your Shadow physiology, the sooner you can get out of this lab."

"And the easier my job is," he added with a grunt as he called up the latest round of scans on the nearby console.

Billy... Billy was harder to get a read on. She couldn't tell if he was simply under too much stress to be polite, or whether he had genuine hatred for what she was. Mara knew he was the first of the Rangers to have ever met her kind years ago, but what empathic ability she possessed sensed an undercurrent of something more there.

"Do you mind my asking what you need all this for?" Mara finally asked. "I mean, TJ said you guys were going to try and turn me human..."

"We are," Billy nodded. "And that means I have to do this now, while you're still a Dark Reflection. You might be the only chance I'm going to get at deep-scanning a Morpheus demon. They're almost completely invisible to detection by any other means. Unfortunately, it's only the parts of you that are humanoid we're able to get any real data on and I'm not going to be able to recalibrate the shields until I know what a Shadow is supposed to look like."

The Neji Ranger sat up and stared at the scientist in naked confusion. "Why do you need to know about Shadows? Nyghtmayr is dead, and there can't be that many Minor Demons left..."

Billy returned her stare. His jaw moved silently for a moment, as though he wanted to speak but didn't know quite what to say. "You don't know. Zordon never told you?"

"Zordon hasn't really told me anything. I know what you mean, but Cassie didn't know anything about Shadows before my memories start, and I only know what our racial memories tell us and what Faran was able to get out of the Dark Fortress' data banks."

Billy shook his head. "My God. He is playing this one close to the vest. I'm sorry, Mara. I'll tell you more when I've got what I need here, I promise."

Punching a new sequence onto the keypad, the bed began to retract back into the recessed sensor tube. Mara groaned and slid back down.

---

Andros was not having a good couple of days.

Valentine's Day had been... an experience. His foster family had done their best to introduce him to the fundamentals, but lacking a romantic partner of his own he had not found Chelsea and Prince Trey's mooning over one another and constant declarations of their affection especially welcome. Nor did he enjoy the distant and aloof attitude cocked by Teddy, who had apparently been dumped by an alien princess of his acquaintance. The stars only knew where Tommy and Lilian had made off to. His foster parents, at least, had opted for a more subdued romanticism.

Andros would have welcomed any reprieve from the onslaught of human affection and pair-bonding, though he hoped these most recent events had not been the answer to his unspoken prayer. First Zhane had taken a terrible beating at the hands of Dark Specter's last monster and a coordinated attack by Astronema and Ecliptor, and then somewhere in the last 48 hours - he couldn't be sure exactly when - Chris Sterling, former auxiliary Silver Astro Ranger and their quasi-teammate, had vanished from the face of the planet.

Zhane, at least, was back on his feet in a matter of hours. While the memories of what had happened to the other Astro Guardians back on KO-35 and Zhane's own brush with death were something Andros knew he would always live with, it seemed that Zhane's own hedonistic personality had already rebounded from the incident and found a new set of distractions.

Chris was a bigger problem. As a non-active Power Ranger, none of their sensors had been permanently trained on the teen and it made combing through the Power Chamber's logs to sift out the passive scans of his communicator all but impossible.

TJ deduced something was wrong after his friend had canceled on a "guys day out" and hours of comm silence. Those fears were confirmed by a panicked phone call from Miriya Sterling, the boy's mother, early Monday morning. Chris had apparently suffered some sort of seizure, only to vanish from the hospital within hours. TJ had asked for some discretion before dumping this in the laps of their teammates, and Andros immediately volunteered to begin the process in tandem with DECA and had taken to the Astro Megaship's bridge. The other Astro Rangers had enough on their plates right now with the surprise the Blue Astro Ranger had left for them in the Power Chamber, and worrying about Chris until they had some idea what they were dealing with wouldn't help.

Frankly, it wouldn't be any good for Mara's safety if the others believed one of their own had been abducted at the same time as Neji Pink's capture by TJ.

With a sigh, Andros scanned the latest set of readings and prepared to continue his solitary vigil. The sensor banks had swept almost as far out as the system's gas giants with no sign of either Chris' communicator or bio signature. If Astro Silver II had gotten somewhere under his own power, there would have been a sign by now of how he'd left. The Mega Winger, the only Megazord presently keyed to the teen's biosigns, was in orbital dock at the moment undergoing service.

TJ's suspicions were right. The most reasonable assumption was that Chris had been abducted by one of the many villainous empires vying for Earth. Unfortunately, until they received a ransom there wasn't anything they could do.

What worried Andros the most was the fact Mrs. Sterling was been adamant she had spoken to Ashley over the phone upon Chris' hospitalization. While any of the villains could do a simple voice replacement with either a spell or technological trickery, if Neji Yellow was impersonating Ashley, then this represented a complete break from how Dark Specter had been using their evil doubles. Had they thrown an unsuspecting Neji Pink under the mass-transit vehicle to keep the Rangers distracted while the rest of them began assuming the identities of the originals? If so, then none of the Astro Rangers were safe. But if Chris was fraternizing with a Dark Reflection on his own time, and if Jade had an actual investment in his well-being...

DECA chimed, breaking him out of his reverie. "We have an incoming deep space distress signal. Civilian frequency. I place the point of origin in the Denomolos Belt."

He minimized the alert prompts the artificial intelligence had cued up on his console and resumed the planetary scan menu. "Alert Zordon. If something's wrong, one of the other teams can handle it. Refocus your attention on Earth, I want to recalibrate the sensors for adjacent pocket dimensions. The Power Chamber and Pyramidas might be too close..."

"Andros," DECA interrupted, "the signal is Kerovan."

The Red Astro Ranger gripped his console to keep upright. How long had he been waiting for this moment? How many nights had he wondered whether or not anyone else might still be alive? Much as he tried to deny it, the revival of Zhane had kindled the fires of something deep in Andros' stomach for the past several months.

First things first, he needed to make sure this wasn't a false alarm before anyone got their hopes up. The Kerovan Astro Patrol had licenced their subspace relays to several up and coming stellar agencies throughout the region. The Denomolos Belt was beyond the range of their usual trading partners, but that didn't mean someone in the boonies couldn't have gotten a hold of Kerovan technology.

"Can you confirm?" Andros asked DECA.

His console chirped an affirmative. "The personal identification code is on file."

The computer's voice softened as she continued. "Andros, it's Zem. All confirmation sequences pass. The authentication protocols predate yours."

"Onscreen," Andros muttered.

Zemt'hat. His half-brother and his role model growing up. The man who had led him into the Astro Patrol.

The face was unmistakable. The deep lines and bags from a lifetime of work he never shared; the dirt and grime from too much time in an inhospitable environment and too little concern to care. Zem never cared for comfort so long as he accomplished his mission. It was what made him one of their military's finest. "Someone, please respond. Our ship has been on this planet for weeks now. We're low on provisions, and no one has responded on any Kerovan frequencies. I am an operations specialist for the KO-35 Astro Patrol requesting any assistance"

"We are lucky the UAE has yet to respond to the signal," DECA observed. "All major interstellar agencies have shut down their search for Kerovan survivors. However, from what Ecliptor told Lord Trey last year-"

Andros winced. "That's enough, DECA. I know it's him. Open our comm line."

The young Ranger straightened himself uncomfortably and yanked his uniform shirt down. "This is the Astro Megaship. Andros, Red Astro Guardian of KO-35 responding. As acting Kerovan military commander - soldier, at ease."

The older man's nose flared and his eyes watered. "Yes, sir," Zem acknowledged. "By the stars. Andros, I'd hoped..."

"We are moving to your position now," DECA intoned over the channel to Zem. "I have taken the opportunity to page the Power Chamber as to our whereabouts," she added to Andros over the bridge's closed-circuit speakers.

"Zem... I don't know what to say," Andros forced through his choked throat, any attempt at formal military composure gone. "How did you escape? Where are the others? Daithi talked to Commander Kinwon before our last battle, and he said..."

A somber smile crossed his brother's face. "I was on a classified mission. I HAD to take this one. I was going to surprise you when I got back, little brother. The ship got attacked by one of General Havoc's slaver fleets, and the crew had to enter hypersleep while the computer repaired the life support. We only just limped into the system this last solar month, and IDRIS woke me up before she shut down completely. We didn't land pretty."

"Any landing you can walk away from," the Red Guardian absent-mindedly muttered, thinking of the missing friend he still needed to help when they returned. The ship lurched as it was propelled into hyperspace.

"Estimated time of arrival at Denomolos Belt within four galactic-standard days," DECA announced to the men. "Projected stable hyperrush velocity is 8.72."

"Andros, the ship's power cells are gone. I can't thaw anyone without the tubes fully powered and the cellular regenerators active. I know we're past critical on a few..." Zem exhaled sharply. "I'm sorry. I have so many questions I want to ask you too, but right now I have to be in military mindset or I would break completely. Please don't tell me anything about mom and dad until we've gotten everyone we can secure, all right?"

"Of course, Zem. We'll be there as soon as we can."

There could be dozens of people down there awaiting rescue. They couldn't let everything they had ever wanted just slip through their fingers, not when they were so close. Andros turned to the nearest sensor port. "What is our best possible speed?"

DECA considered. "Bypassing standard hyperspace routes and allowing for gravitational disturbances, while remaining within engine safety guidelines... 9.1. That would place us in the belt within three-"

"9.4, DECA."

The ship's voice deepened. "Andros, I remind you that the United Alliance of Evil maintained a keen interest in Kerovan refugees as recently as last year, something no other, friendly agency has. With the Megaship that far outside of operational capacity, should we lose the engines at any point within range of the signal we will be as vulnerable to attack as IDRIS was. You are not the only one of us newly mourning fallen comrades."

Andros leaned against the conn and sighed. Sapient command systems like DECA were a luxury across most of the Kerovan military. Mobile command units were almost exclusively the dominion of special operations. IDRIS had served with his brother for years across dozens of courier-class vessels and the occasional giant robot. She was the closest thing DECA had to a peer amongst their military.

DECA was right, there was no sense risking all of their lives in the vague hopes of saving a few. Zem knew that too, despite his optimism.

Andros sighed. "9.3. Hail Zordon and request remote access of the Delta Megaship. If anything comes after us, we've got some heavy artillery backing us up. If we have to, we can fly back to Earth conjoined in Megazord form. If he declines, we'll go at 9.1."

"That's going to be a lossy configuration for hyperspace," she observed with a brighter tone of voice. Andros knew she was already in the process of fulfilling his request.

"Delta-class are gunships. It can handle the power output." Turning back to the screen he could see Zem scribbling notes onto a datapad. "We'll be there in a couple days, Zem. Do whatever you have to to keep those people alive, okay?"

His brother nodded. "I'm working on it."

After a moment's consideration, Zem looked up again. "Andros... I love you."

Something else long dormant within the Red Astro Ranger stirred for the first time in years.

"I love you too."

---

This was already shaping up to be one of the longest days Tommy Oliver had been through in a long time.

It'd been hard enough to get called a way from the week off he'd planned with Lillian at Uncle John's chalet - managing their course schedules was a pain to begin with, and opportunities like this didn't present themselves very often even without a possible apocalypse on the docket - but seeing one of Dark Specter's Neji Rangers inside the Power Chamber brought back vivid memories of his own temporary confinement in the original Command Center as the evil Green Ranger.

It was an eclectic group Zordon had together for this, the fifth attempt to break the connections keeping Mara Chan, the Pink Neji Ranger, in her Shadow-made body and leave her permanently human. Off to the side Tommy saw his twin brother David Truheart and David's adopted father, the medicine man Sam. Further back, loitering in the doorway were Larry Zedden, his assistant Finster, Christina Collins, and Tommy's own Dark Reflection and other "twin" Tyler. At the center of the room his old friend Billy Cranston, TJ Carter, and the original Cassie Chan were gingerly removing and replacing bio-sensors all along the girl's exposed skin.

The three other people Tommy had expected to see - his best friend Jason, leader of the Morphin Warriors; Fred Kelman, leader of the Turbo Rangers; and Tommy's newest adopted sibling, Andros, the Red Astro Ranger - were not in attendance. Zordon had hastily informed the Red Zeo Ranger upon his arrival that while the other leaders were privy to what they were attempting to do here, each had bowed out for their own reasons. Tommy had a sneaking suspicion Fred, at least, was terrified of failing Mr. Bart's science class.

"Ay-yi-yi," Alpha 5 yelped as he emerged from through the service entrance with a large poster tube strapped across his back. Tommy had to fight back a laugh as the small 'droid struggled to support its weight. "Are you sure this is going to work, Billy?"

Billy wiped at his forehead as he positioned the final connection on Mara's neck. "Well, we know a healing ritual's not going to work. We know invoking The Power isn't going to work. A ceremonial banishment of the evil within her doesn't work. Our Ninjetti purification didn't work. I don't see another option than using the Sword of Light to DIRECTLY sever her connection."

Zordon rumbled from within his plasma tube. "Mara, I again caution you: we have no idea what a weapon calibrated to the Light Side of the Grid will do to your constitution. It is possible, however unlikely, that this may destroy you completely."

The Neji Ranger squeezed TJ's hand tightly. "I'm no worse off for trying. I can't live like this. Besides... At least you got one of the Neji Crystals out of this, right?"

Tommy could almost admire that kind of pragmatism. It was easy to see that Mara was truly repentant, just like Kat when she'd shrugged off her own evil spell and saved Kimberly's life. Still...

Out of the corner of his eye Tommy could see Tyler struggling not to bite his lip. His clone was thinking the same thing he was: maybe the destruction of the demon lord Nyghtmayr turning both Tyler and his wife Terry human had been a fluke or a miracle.

"Unless one of you has another suggestion?" Billy asked the audience. A long silence greeted him.

Christina finally shrugged and made her way beside her boyfriend. "Some combination of them might also work, but I don't see any other way to know for sure. Alpha, please give me the Sword."

"No."

Everyone turned to look at the firm voice of Larry Zedden. The former warlord strode purposefully to Alpha and removed the ornately decorated weapon from its cheap, makeshift holster. Even after all this time, Alpha still seemed skittish in the man's presence. "Christina, you may be a White Grid user, but this is more than just a healing. We are surgically removing the evil from Mara's entire being with the sword. There is no one here more qualified than myself."

"I'm forced to agree with Larry. Lord Zedd owed his very survival to his mastery of the Morphing Grid and its darkest arts. Even if I still possessed my body, I do not believe any of us know better what must be done to save Mara," Zordon said to his many charges before returning his gaze to the human. "Larry, you know the risks you also face in attempting this. You will be handling a live conduit to the Light Side of the Grid. You could be gambling with your very soul."

Larry shook his head. "I don't think the backlash will kill me. At worst it might activate a useless Morphin Warrior ability in me. I've never been anchored to the Light Grid, and I still have a physical body. The risks of being absorbed by the Grid are miniscule."

One of the hardest things Tommy had learned when he became leader of the Power Rangers was that oftentimes Zordon had entire conversations that assumed a burden of information the teams he was addressing simply didn't possess. At first Tommy had ravenously absorbed every scrap of information Zordon provided and tried to give himself context for it, but within a few years that had fallen to the wayside. Zordon knew more than any of their brains could ever hold, and after seeing their mentor hold his own in galactic court, Tommy was quite assured that Zordon's notorious omission of pertinent details served an invaluable legal distinction as well.

Still, there were moments when Tommy's entire idea of the world could be upset with just a turn of phrase from their mentor. A quickly shared glance with Christina confirmed that she didn't know the Grid could eat your soul either.

Larry took a broad stance and braced the golden longsword against the floor. "Everyone should get clear. This thing is incredibly powerful, and I don't want someone else getting caught in the backlash."

The assorted Rangers and support staff along the periphery of the base pressed themselves back further in response. TJ lingered the longest at the Dark Reflection's side.

"Be careful," he stressed.

Mara smiled and gave the worried teen's hand another squeeze. "I wouldn't be here if I was careful."

As the Blue Astro Ranger cleared his line of sight, Larry hoisted the weapon aloft and began to mutter in a strange and melodic tongue. The gems set within the Sword of Light's blade began to shine with an unnatural light. Tommy was enthralled; the sword had never responded to him in such a manner during the transfer of the original Power Coins, and Zordon had never needed another Ranger to handle the later power transfers like that. From the looks in Finster and Sam's eyes, the spell being cast was impressive to them as well.

A torrent of light erupted from the gems, flashing in each of the colors of the Grid spectrum as they struck Mara all along her body. White, Pink, Red, Purple, Black, Blue, Green, and Yellow beams pulsated and shifted rapidly from one color to another. The girl screamed and fell to her knees in obvious agony as the bombardment continued. Cassie and Christina physically restrained an agitated TJ to keep him from returning to her.

Mara's skin seemed to bubble and boil as if she was made of clay in some approximation of the human form. Her cries of anguish nearly drowned out the constant thrum of the energized sword. Finally the teenaged girl in front of them was replaced with a liquid black creature with piercing red eyes.

"PLEASE STOP," the Shadow-Mara screamed. "THIS HURTS SO MUCH!"

The weapon was lowered and an exhausted Larry Zedden slumped forward, barely catching his weight on the still-crackling blade of the bastard sword. Tommy cleared the distance between them in seconds and helped his old enemy back upright. Behind him Tommy could hear the others do the same for Mara. "Larry?"

"This won't work," he wheezed. "I severed the connection from the remains of the Mirror, and it kept reasserting itself. I could see the web of energy knitting itself back together. The Nejis were created together at once. We either have to change all of them at the same time or wait until there's no one left but Mara and try again."

"Do you believe the Sword of Darkness' presence in her creation may be impeding this process?" Zordon asked.

Larry shook his head. "I flushed everything out of her. You saw what happened. We can't try this again without the other Nejis captured or destroyed. I won't be a party to a young girl's murder."

"Then we're going to have to kill the other Nejis," Tommy said emphatically. Everyone else in the Power Chamber turned to look at him. "Come on, guys. Dark Specter has strung us along for months. Hit one of us with a Neji Ranger attack, then send in a monster to draw out another team. Hit us with the Nejis and a monster so we have to split our forces. Send the Nejis down when another villain has an attack in progress. We're all getting toyed with here."

"Mara deserves a life of her own," Tyler added.

"How long before Dark Specter tries replacing us with one of them?" Cassie asked. "They're going to figure out she's missing before long, and they're going to go after us."

Tommy saw TJ wince at the thought while blotting at Mara's bloody nose with a handkerchief. As second-in-command of the Astro Rangers and still a relative newcomer, the idea must have been horrifying to consider. If only he knew.

The Red Zeo Ranger knelt in front of the shaking young woman. "Mara, do you think we can save any of your teammates too?"

The Dark Reflection seemed to consider. "I don't know about Rob. He's not as bad as Faran or Jake, but he's still pretty vicious. Jade's just kind of slutty, so we all leave her alone. I've never seen her do anything cruel outside of battle."

"We'll do what we can to capture Rob and Jade," Tommy said with a heavy sigh. "I want a plan of action by tonight. Alpha, leave a message with the other Red Rangers. We're going to have to take care of this soon, and I want their input."

"We're not executioners, Tommy," TJ observed.

"The hell you're not," Tyler shot back. "The Rangers kill sentient lifeforms constantly. You're soldiers in a war. You might not think that a monster you destroy is alive, but I bet someone like Finster classifies them differently."

As much as Tommy wanted to endorse his brother's proclamation, it was likely poor taste to reaffirm the deeply held beliefs of your own clone. Their point had to stand on its own merits and not because they kept parroting one another.

Zordon nodded. "Tyler is correct. The Council of Worlds and IGPF classify artificially engineered or conjured biological entities as living creatures and destroyed monsters as casualties of war. Though rarely used today, many races have created benevolent artificial lifeforms through the use of magic. The Council's criteria for technological life, however, is much more stringent."

"The monsters you destroy are irredeemably evil," Tyler continued, "or else they'd have tried to defect. But don't tell me that they aren't alive. When it matters, the Rangers kill."

"We have to do something," Tommy continued, "and if Jade or Rob are willing to be turned human we have to offer them the opportunity, but this has gone on for too long. We've just accepted the Neji Rangers as a presence in our lives for months, and we've never pressed the attack when they've started it. How much destruction could have been avoided? How much damage have they done to our name as the Power Rangers?"

A glance across the room told Tommy his words had swayed most of them in attendance. The firm set to TJ's jaw, however, told a different story.

"I'm not killing someone just because they're evil. How many Tengas have you killed, Tommy? How many Pirhanatrons? How many things that bleed or had a mother?" TJ asked. "I'll destroy Quantrons, DECA has told me how limited their programming is compared to a real artificial intelligence, and a ten-story tall monster is a threat that has to be eliminated, but a human... maybe I'm a specist for it, but I don't want to see us cross that line. We have a code of conduct for a reason. The things we destroy can get resurrected in minutes."

Tommy's mind turned to the Tenga he had destroyed when he first activated his magical abilities. For a long time Tommy had told himself that his disgust was due to the unchecked nature of his mage abilities and that it had nothing to do with the killing of a living being. He was almost beginning to believe that version of history now.

Tommy slowly exhaled. It wouldn't do his argument any good to get defensive. "There are points where diplomacy fails, TJ. It's like Zordon is always saying: we're not the cops. This is about an enemy combatant."

"Would you kill Goldar if you had him at your mercy?" TJ asked simply. "Would you kill Goldar if it broke an evil spell on someone else?"

"That isn't fair," Tommy snapped. TJ had no right to make this sound so mercenary. He'd never had to face the kinds of stakes the others had. "Goldar may be evil, but we know he's capable of more. Skull's told us as much. We know he feels love and loyalty. Goldar isn't-"

"How many thousands of atrocities do you think Goldar is directly responsible for?" TJ continued with an ice-cold stare. "Can we redeem him? Do we kill human monsters, Tommy? Because we have the address for Karl Ziktor, and Grimlord is legally responsible for hundreds of deaths. Do we kill him, even without his powers? There isn't a person alive in Crossworld who doesn't want Ziktor dead, and they don't even know who he really is. I'm not going to say what I think is the most correct course of action, but I'm not prepared to dig into a trench and shoot Rygog in the head just because he's exposed."

As much as Tommy wanted to rise to the bait he saw there, a bigger part of him accepted TJ was right. They were soldiers, not an execution squad.

Tommy sighed. "Yeah, I see your point. I just... I'm sick of this, y'know? The Neji Rangers SHOULD have been a main concern for us, and we let it get to this point. We just put up with it, like a TEAM of evil Rangers wasn't an issue. Every damn time they went out there making a mockery of us, we should have finished it."

"Tommy," Zordon boomed. "Perhaps you are too emotionally invested in this matter. Neither yourself nor Katherine can be truly objective on the subject of evil Rangers. While I endorse the elimination of the Neji Rangers in the abstract, TJ makes some very cogent points. This is a matter of discussion to take up with your fellow Red Rangers, as well as your own teams."

"I- I..." he stammered. This wasn't fair. This was not about his feelings on evil Rangers, this was pragmatism. Even if the moral thing to do was to capture the Neji Rangers, they had been irresponsible to ever let the situation deteriorate to this point. The world as they knew it was months away from total destruction, and they were pissing it away on meaningless conflicts when the real focus was the Shadows. Tommy saw that same desperate fear and need to plan for the future in Billy's eyes almost every time he saw him. To think even Zordon didn't understand that...

The six-tone chime of his communicator interrupted Tommy's thoughts. Curious who he knew that would interrupt a meeting for this and even more grateful for the reprive, he raised a hand to the others and answered the page. "Hello?"

"Tommy," Sarah Oliver's voice rang out, "Is your brother with you?"

"Uh, yeah Mom. Dave and Ty are both here."

"Tyler too? Oh, I wasn't expecting that. We have a guest here who would like to speak with all three of you. Am I interrupting anything important?"

Looking back and forth from TJ to Zordon, Tommy's gaze returned to the communicator. "No, I think we're about done here."

A more sure-footed Larry patted the Red Zeo Ranger on the shoulder. "It'll do you boys some good to entertain a guest. There's more to life than just the fate of the world."

Tommy couldn't help but smile in spite of his mood. Never in a million years would he have imagined that sort of avuncular emotion was possible in Lord Zedd.

"I will notify you when the other Red Rangers are available, Tommy," Zordon intoned.

As petulant as he felt to do it, Tommy avoided his mentor's gaze or acknowledging what he had said. If the people he trusted most thought so little of his motivations, then he had no reason not to live down to their expectations.

"You guys got anything better to do?" he asked his brothers.

Tyler shook his head and pushed the small (nonprescription) glasses he now wore back up his nose. "Haven't had to work on a commission in a couple of days. Just trying my hand at some die-cutting this week."

Sam interjected before his son could speak. "There is nothing David needs to do right now that could not be tended to later."

"Are you sure, Dad? I mean-"

Sam gave his son a knowing glance. "Go with your brothers."

Tommy loved his biological twin, but there were still times he was astounded how deep Dave's reverence for - not to mention deference to - his father ran. The life of a medicine man and tribal leader was not an easy one, and sometimes when he let his hair down Dave had told the Zeos just how extensively he had been trained to take Sam's place since before he had even learned how to walk, but even then... Tommy could not imagine gladly surrendering so much of your will to another. Jamie, on the other hand, seemed positively enthralled at the idea.

The two young men fell in beside Tommy and the three dissolved into red, green, and white streaks.

---

The body of the young man called Zhane hadn't moved from his position for something like ten hours now.

Zhane, still feeling more like himself at the time, had slipped onboard the Delta Megaship over a day earlier using a truly ancient override command issued to senior-most members of the Kerovan military. Zhane himself was not one of those illustrious men and women, but he had known who among them were the most predisposed to late night gambling and who required anonymous "favors" of a quasi-legal nature. He had made it a point not to abuse this access code while aboard the Astro Megaship, as he was never certain quite when DECA was going to notice he was doing it.

The Delta Megaship, on the other hand, contained no sentient computer core and thus was a different story. Upon arrival there was no digital signature to register the presence of anyone teleported onboard for five seconds after its input.

Zhane had simply meant to use this for an evening of carousing with his anonymous lady caller who pointedly denied any direct inquiries as to whether or not she was Astronema. Once the tryst was over (and once he had formally ejected her through that selfsame unregistered teleportation sequence) he had fully intended to return to his adopted homeworld and go about his business.

That part, unlike Astronema, hadn't quite materialized. The young man had stiffened at the teleportation console within the jump bay and began to wander throughout the ship. After ten minutes of trying to place increasingly ludicrous orders with the synthetron and after giving up on the inert nutrient replicator, he made his way into the engine room. To his befuddlement, half of the doors refused to open when he stepped in front of them and would only respond when he initiated the manual release switches. It was like the ship was starting to ignore his presence aboard.

Things felt better in the engineering deck. The constant hum of the engines and the high-pitched white noise produced as the artificial gravity of the deck plates struggled to cancel out the vibrations soothed him. The Star Trek producers had never gotten this part right, Zhane realized. How many times had he held a much littler Aurora in his lap and tried to point out how the Next Generation sound engineers had both created distinct engine sounds for the various warp speeds and also kept using them inconsistently?

And it was there, cross-legged in various places across the engine room of the Delta Megaship, that Zhane lost himself to memories that weren't his own. Memories so deep and engrossing, as a brainwashed Chris Sterling struggled to escape his torture in whatever happy place he could find, that Zhane's training in the Astro Patrol had not recognized the feel nor the sounds of the ship lurching into a high hyperrush velocity. It was there that DECA, remote-controlling the ship's vital systems through subspace, failed to recognize anyone was onboard.

The modern intergalactic life sciences sensor network was a marvel of technological engineering. Brochures and unscrupulous retailers throughout the known universe touted it as a seamless blend of form and function; able to locate a lifeform not only by their individual bio rhythms (which, after all, could be modified outside of their normal operating parameters through medical intervention or death) but also by identifying their etheric body - quite literally, the unique signature of their soul.

Unfortunately, the sensor network installed into the Delta Megaship which served as the peripheral vision of its sub-sapient operating system had not been attenuated for the circumstances which had now befell its intended subject - indeed, in recorded history there had not been a team of Rangers stupid enough to have attempted them. In sharing a single set of powers for months, Zhane and Chris had their etheric bodies woven together through the same connection to the Morphin Grid.

There were many ways for a Power Ranger and other associated vigilantes (law-abiding and otherwise) to access the Grid. The most common system, directly forging a conduit between the user and their respective Grid frequency such as a Power Coin, was not always the safest. For one, there was no latitude on color adjustments. A Red user could not safely access a Blue Power Coin without a same-color interface somewhere in the middle. In dire emergencies or a critical loss of transforming power, this could sometimes prove a fatal design flaw.

Earth's Turbo and (now) Astro Rangers presented different compromises to this design: while the individual Turbo Keys accessed the Grid directly, it was a series of binding spells created by the mage Lerigot connected to his own Golden Key that actually generated the Ranger powers. In the case of the Astro Rangers, the Astro Megaship's Mega Accelerator functioned as a mobile conduit to the Grid from which the ship's systems derived almost all of their operating power. The Astro or Digimorpher in question would then select an available connection to utilize for its own power supply upon activation.

It was this redundancy which had first allowed Andros to piggyback a second user atop the signal funneled into the critically injured Zhane while in hypersleep. The ship's systems had grown so accustomed to keeping the conduit to Zhane open at all times that there was always some excess power available for use. DECA had assured Andros of that before Chris was ever chosen. The vaunted "three minutes of power" were only a fraction of the excess energies available to the Silver Astro Ranger should the Megaship undergo crucial systems failure.

Unfortunately, these powers did not correspond to any one color, frequency, or spectrum of the Grid itself. The assigned "Silver Guardian" conduit was simply whatever power the Megaship had allocated to that user at the time. For years Zhane had absorbed disparate Grid energies while his body mended cell by cell, and for months the two young men had been buffeted by a single connection of blended power together. Even with the Earthen teen disconnected from the Silver Astro powers, their souls were bound on a fundamental level and capable of rendering gross physical change to one another through their now-shared Grid signature.

Put simply, the Morphin Grid itself now considered them a single person in two bodies.

It was therefore unavoidable DECA could also no longer detect the presence of the second surviving Kerovan Ranger inside of the ship, even if its internal systems were designed for a sophistication of sensor comparable to what she was accustomed. She had been unable to notice a single discrepancy in the months of analyzing Zhane since his emergence from cryo-sleep for just this reason. With the Silver Astro Ranger sitting in near-catatonia as the effects of a mind control spell worked their way into his counterpart, there would be no reason for her to dedicate any of her higher functions to analyzing a lone camera feed from the second Megaship's engine room.

This oversight would prove responsible for more than one death in the days ahead.

---

Tommy didn't usually bring his brothers over to his family's house. Dave was always welcomed warmly by his parents, but it didn't take a psychic to feel the awkwardness coming off the entire Oliver clan when Tyler came around. Rather than feel that rejection for himself, Ty had been resigned to a quiet life of his own without a lot of reminders of their mutual childhood. Tommy honestly didn't know how his clone did it, and maybe that was one of their points of divergence.

Then again, Tyler had charmed his way into a machinist job for their Uncle John at Angel Grove Racing Technologies as a "distant cousin" on Daniel Oliver's side, so it wasn't like Ty didn't have some connection to the past.

"Hey Mom," he said with a smile as the three materialized in the small sitting room adjacent from the main living room. There was no sense dragging his frustration with the other Rangers back home with him. The house smelled like cookies, and that meant they had guests. Maybe Great-Grandma Deckard had passed away. They'd need Tyler for that.

Sarah gave a wan smile. "Thank you all for coming."

To their great surprise, Mrs. Oliver hugged each of the boys. "Tommy, please promise me no matter what happens that you won't make a scene. I don't want you to say something you will regret years from now."

"Um, okay Mom."

Sarah quietly led the trio into the living room. Sitting across from Chelsea and Teddy a sunken, ashen Native American woman was nursing a cup of tea. It was clear that despite her still considerable poise, this woman was on her very last legs.

The moment Tommy saw her he knew who she had to be. The heavy shape of her nose, the worry of her brow, the way she held herself up despite the pain crippling her. He didn't even have to hear the voice some part of him would remember from in-utero to know this woman's identity.

"Oh my god," each of the boys whispered.

In spite of her discomfort, the woman swiftly rose to her feet and crossed the floor to the brothers. "David. Thomas. And you must be my 'youngest,' Tyler. Sam's told me about you. I..." She swallowed. "This must be so hard for you boys. I'm sorry. My name is Alex. I'm..."

Ty was the first of the three to pull her into an embrace. Their mother returned it instantly.

"You're Alex Red Eagle," David said with a start. "The civil rights attorney. Dad has worked with you before. The southwestern tribal alliance hired you as a lawyer. I've seen you in town with the Crane sisters."

The tears streaming down Tommy's face came as a complete surprise to him.

Alex blinked away her own tears and motioned for the others to join Tyler in the embrace. David haltingly moved into the hug, but Tommy held back.

"I've waited so long to see you again. I never wanted it to be like this."

Something dark inside of Tommy wanted to scream despite his jubilance. This woman was dying, and only now did she want anything to do with him and his brothers? Giving someone your genes didn't make you a parent. If all Alex wanted was some peace of mind before passing, then Tommy didn't know if his already frayed emotions could handle it.

It was only Tommy's promise to his mother that stayed his tongue. Sarah was right. To say anything harsh right now would weigh on his soul forever. No matter how she had hurt him or his brothers, she was an innocent. He owed that much to her as a Power Ranger, even if he didn't want to as a man.

"What happened?" Tommy finally asked. "After your met our father, after you put us up for adoption? Why didn't Sam tell us about you?"

"Dad refused to talk about you," Dave interjected, "Why?"

Alex sighed and began to cough heavily. A wary Chelsea helped her return to her seat. "I've been waiting to tell you this story for as long as you've been alive.

"When I met your father, he seemed like the most cultured man in the world. He knew things about people and about society that made everything look so easy for a naive little teenaged girl. I didn't see a smooth-talking Lothario, I saw a mentor and a lover. I didn't hear a tenth-grade interpretation of the will to power and a rudimentary guide to objectivism, I just heard a man who I could debate with for the rest of my life. I thought we would keep each other sharp. Then after he'd made sure to get me pregnant, he left. I was nothing to him but an incubator. I felt like the biggest fool in the world.

"My parents said they would support me, but my dad already worked two jobs and my mother was tempting on the weekend. What would supporting newborn twins have done to them? When Sam told me who your father was, he said you had to be taken away. Sam insisted to me that I would be the first person Vile would follow to locate you boys. You don't know how hard that was for me. Sam knew the only way for any of us to make good on our lives and for you to be safe was if you found other families. He told me you had great destinies ahead of you, and that both of you would save the world in your own ways.

"What your father did, what your father believed... Knowing what Vile was, it lit a fire under me. I shifted my focus to civil law. If I couldn't be a mother, I would be the best citizen I could be. David, it killed me when I would see you. You can't imagine. I'd have traded all the good I did to have been a part of your lives. Sam never gloated about the gift he had gotten in you, but I saw the pride in his eyes every time he told me about your life. Tommy, when I found out you were the Green Ranger, when I'd learned about the things your own sister had forced you to do..."

It was at that moment the onus of Tommy's anger fully transitioned to Sam Trueheart.

"It meant so much to me to learn you were the White Ranger and that you'd been made leader," Alex continued. "Your life had so much hardship in it. Never having any contact with the same social circles only made it worse, at least I knew how David was doing. You deserved that reward for all you had to endure. When you became a Ranger I saw how much you threw yourself into it. Being a Power Ranger is your life's work. You've redeemed all of our sins and more. After you boys were reunited..."

Alex gave a wistful shake of her head. "I guess I thought things were going to be okay. I had a job I loved, a job that replaced the ache I had inside. I didn't need a partner or a family, I had a calling. You deserved better than me. You had your families. When Vile sensed your powers awakening and you destroyed him, I thought that would be the end. I thought your lives would be at peace, and when enough time had passed, when you had started lives with families of your own, we'd finally have this conversation. I thought I'd be a part of my grandchildren's lives, at least. I could look back on a long life well-lived, even with regrets.

"I was getting a routine checkup for insurance a month later when they saw the growth on my pancreas. The oncologists said it was a rare type that could be removed with surgery, but the growths kept recurring. Finally they started telling me to put my affairs in order. I knew what that meant. In September, after that last diagnosis, Sam took me on a vision quest. He said that if I waited any longer I would not have the strength to do what was needed of me."

Tommy barely heard her. Sam knew he was the Green Ranger years before they'd really met - time travel notwithstanding. Sam knew who Master Vile was the entire time. Sam was dictating the terms they'd meet their biological mother on. Sam even knew about their relationship to Rita. This was shit Zordon hadn't known, and it was something they'd desperately needed to. Zordon had a reason for what he concealed from his charges. What the hell gave Sam the right to play god with their lives like this?

"Don't blame Sam," Alex continued as her eyes locked onto Tommy's, "Everything that has happened in our lives has been a gift from him. When my vision was over he told me all that he'd seen during his own boyhood quest that had led him to us.

"In my vision the great spirit showed me an immense shadow fall over the world and engulf everything in its path. The darkness devoured the heart of the Earth, and its soul was destroyed in front of me. All that we had sacrificed in these lives would be for nothing. And then, like nothing had ever happened, the world was whole again. The spirit showed me the roles we each had to play in preventing this calamity. The soul of the planet and every living thing on it will die unless we follow its will."

"In September," Tommy drawled. "You saw all this in September. After the Blue Senturion got here."

His family stared at him in open confusion. Tommy pressed on. "Alex, do you know what your vision meant? I mean, do you-"

Alex nodded. "I know the Shadow Empire will try and destroy the world, Tommy. I know they've already succeeded once and we have all been given a second chance. It's only because of what has happened because of the changes that we can succeed."

Tommy hated time travel. Paradoxes were the sort of thing Billy or Justin calculated for fun. How could you be destined to change the timeline? What did any of this mean for themselves in that doomed reality Rocky had ended up in? Tommy still didn't understand why no one else on Earth remembered the Alien Rangers besides them, and Cestro had tried to explain that for almost ten minutes in vain.

"Tommy?" Chelsea asked with a note of urgency in her voice.

The leader of the Zeo Rangers sighed. "Zordon said we're allowed to tell people of our own recourse. The Blue Senturion didn't come from the Intergalactic Police Force to support Daystar. He was sent from the future, after the Shadows conquered the Earth."

Daniel took a steadying breath. "How long do we have?"

"May. Their invasion force is already here, though. We don't know why they waited so long, but so far nothing has implied they pushed up the time table. Billy's been working nonstop on anti-Shadow defenses for the bases."

Tommy's assembled family stewed and stammered over this information.

"How could you not tell Trey?" Chelsea finally asked. "Does Andros even know? My God, what about Jason? Does Lillian know?"

Tommy shook his head. "Zordon felt it prudent to keep this information on a need to know basis. It's mostly stayed between the Morphin Warriors and the Zeo Rangers, but Justin and Tasha found out from Rocky. If he had told all of the Red Rangers, this would have had to be reported back to the IGPF by Daystar. Daystar Hunter of the Angel Grove PD can know her partner is a robot from an apocalyptic future, but Daystar Diathan has a duty to the Intergalactic Police Force. Her knowledge of what the Blue Senturion is has to be compartmentalized."

Chelsea's continence darkened. "And Trey isn't technically affiliated with the rest of your team. He's supreme commander of the Triforian military on loan to Zordon, just like Andros is for KO-35."

"We can't let the Council of Worlds find out about the Shadows, Chelse. We especially can't let the Alliance of Evil find out. They'd have the planet destroyed rather than let the Morpheus demons get a foothold in our universe.

"That doesn't make any sense," Tyler drawled. "The Shadow Empire is a criminal syndicate. They wanted control and influence. The Shadows didn't MATTER, the Minor Demons were the real threats: they made the universal conquest schemes. The empire is acting like they're part of Nyghtmayr's pantheon now."

The thought hung over nearly everyone present. It was Sarah who finally drew the group back to the more immediate concern. "Alex, what can we can do to make you more comfortable right now?"

The haggard woman folded her hands over her lap. "I can't ask any of you for more than you've already given me."

Sarah placed her own hands atop Alex's and smiled. "You aren't asking. I am."

The smaller woman bit her lip. "Thank you."

Without turning to look back to her family, Sarah continued, "I know Tommy has the week off from class. It would do both of you some good to finally make memories of your own together. Tyler, David?"

Tyler nodded. "I've got the time. I'd love for you to meet my wife, Alex. She's kind of an orphan too."

"Dave?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, yeah, I'm available for anything you want us to do." David brushed a strand of hair from his face and tried to dismiss his brother's worry. "I'm sorry, I just need to call dad. This is all a lot to take in."

Tommy felt a clench in his jaw and tried not to grind his teeth at the mere thought of Sam. "Yeah, man. Yeah it is."

"Well, then it's settled," Sarah said. "I know the boys will be happy to work around your schedule."

Alex chuckled. "The days are just packed, as you can imagine."

"Just let us know. Whatever it is you've wanted to do all these years and never got around to doing, whatever the boys want to share with you, we'll help you make it happen. I know Zordon won't mind using the teleportation system for something like this."

"Let me go talk to Lil," Tommy sighed. "I left her at the chalet a couple hours ago."

"Of course," Sarah begged him off before Alex could say anything. "Go right ahead. We'll all be here waiting when you're through."

The jovially icy tone to her voice brooked absolutely no resistence from anyone. It was times like this that reminded Tommy why Sarah Oliver always got her way.

---

One of the downsides of being a professional Evil Space Alien, Goldar had come to understand, was the uncertainty of where your next paycheck was coming from.

Sure, joining a military alliance or trade union like the United Alliance of Evil had its obvious advantages - not the least of which was extreme lenience in the face of continued failures in your post. Non-vital appendages were almost always the first chopped off. Not to mention the scale wages in addition to whatever board was provided by the individual empires.

Still, it never hurt to keep your interests diversified. Goldar's own major was actually in laser cannon service and repair, and until recently it was not a specialty he'd needed to call upon.

The current alliance between the unified Machine Empire and what remained of Lord Zedd's holdings still managed to keep the Titan off-guard. Mechanized versions of creatures from Finster's monster grimorie, clay-built golems of what had been designed as robotic war machines... Even Rito had picked up the unnatural quality in the air around the lunar palace.

The skeleton mutant gave a percussive thwack to the laser housing unit mounted onto the shoulder of an Incisorator resculpt. Some sort of zombiemaster hippo, Goldar believed. The first use of his supposed technical expertise in millennium.

"Y'think it'll work now?"

Goldar snarled. "I think it would have worked as soon as I replaced the cooling unit."

"Aw man, Goldy," Rito groused. "I'm getting really sick of being couped up in the castle! We've been preppin' and preppin' these guys, but we never get to do nothin'!"

"That, my good man, is the cost of innovation," Gasket announced as he breezed into the armory. "We have let ourselves become complacent with an ever-diminished sense of worth in the conquest of Earth. With our new soldiers outfitted with technologies drawing upon both of our fields of expertise, that should no longer be a problem."

Goldar didn't mind the new king of the Machine Empire so much. He'd had to deal with a lot worse from imperial types in his years under Lord Zedd and his various regional dictators. Even Rita wasn't really that bad once you got inside of her circle of trust - rampagingly incompetent as a ruler and overly concerned with emotional validation, sure, but an excellent sorceress who left important decisions to her top generals.
Gasket was pushy to be sure, and loved the sound of his own voice while going off about how fiendishly clever his latest scheme was, but the Machine King had repeatedly shown Goldar his military acumen was not to be trifled with.

"I have something for you boys," Gasket added. He flipped a small, sparkling piece of metal towards the twosome. Goldar snatched the trinket from the air and examined it.

The Purple Wyvern Dino Coin. The last of the original Power Coins created by Ninjor.

"See what you can do with that, would you?"

"You have to be kidding me," Goldar groaned. "This thing doesn't work without the rest of the set! It got sealed away with Rita twice, and by the time she was out again we destroyed the Rangers' original powers."

"Just the same, you hold in your hands a live conduit to the Morphing Grid created by one of the only surviving members of the original Morphin Masters. Even if you can't recreate the Purple Ranger powers, this would provide an incredible power source for Hippopostumous. The Grid is the distilled essence of LIFE, Goldar. It is a power not one member of the Machine Empire has ever held. If we are to pool our resources, the Wervyn Coin represents a crucial step towards the future."

The Titan sighed. While he wasn't one for Rita's usual occult theatricality, he couldn't help but think they were tinkering with something they really shouldn't. "I'll get right on that. I guess."

"Good man!" Gasket exclaimed with a thwack on Goldar's back. Goldar's wings retracted instinctively at the icy cold touch.

"I just want to get down there and hit somebody," Rito sniffled.

"I think I have just the solution to your problem," Gasket said with a wave of his hand. Behind him emerged an armored manta ray with a jet fighter's helmet and aerial styling all along its swept-wing fins. "Stealth Manta is fully operational and awaiting a field test against the Rangers."

"Stealth Manta?" Rito asked as he circled the creature in examination. "Sounds like a Mega Man X villain."

"I'm quite certain I have no idea to what you are referring."

"Just so we're clear," Goldar sighed. "You want me to install an active Grid tap into a monster designed to revive destroyed footsoldiers. My... liege, you know that Cogs and Putties don't leave a big enough impression in the normal bio-field for this to have any effect on its abilities. If you want this thing to revive other monsters, we're going to need to outfit it with some clay."

Gasket grinned. "I'm not expecting miracles, Goldar. Well, not of that sort. Just some unexpected surprises. Let Hippopostumous use it for a battle or two and then remove it before protracted field use. The research we'll get from the experiment is worth the investment."

The two monsters nervously eyed each other up. Rito muscled his way between them and grabbed his friend's arm. "C'mon, Goldy. I want to get in on this action! Say yes, and we can go down there right now and tear some stuff up!"

Goldar harumphed. "It's still a machine monster."

"Not one of Klank's. The design of Stealth Manta was originally developed by Porto last year. The schematics were... Shall we say, appropriated by an outside party in the pirate clans. He was fabricated through the monstermatic just this morning."

The desperation behind stealing someone else's work was not beneath Rita's current modus operandi. If Divatox caused any trouble in the heat of battle, it only further disabused anyone of believing they were working in collusion with the Machine Empire.

"Alright," Goldar said after some consideration. "After we take the manta out for a spin I'll get right on modifying the hippo. Again."

"Thank you. I trust you will proceed with all due alacrity."

The monsters and mutants all stared at the Machine King.

Gasket sighed. "Get back soon."

Rito chopped off a salute. "You got it, dude!"

---

"Chris?"

The young man stared at the far wall of what Jade guessed were now his quarters. She wasn't certain how often a deep cover infiltrator would find use of quarters aboard the Dark Fortress, but she also wasn't the poor Quantron unit-commander assigned to such trivialities.

She had stayed with the boy ever since a gleeful Darkonda ushered Dark Specter out of his dungeon of horrors and to the small single-unit room where he'd been keeping Chris after his "reconditioning." What a crock. Jade knew for a fact Chris had been subjected to at least two mind control spells in addition to the typical neural reconditioning program used by the Alliance for brainwashing. Whatever Darkonda was planning, it ran deeper than just a Neji Ranger of his own. Not to mention what Jade imagined was deep scientific curiosity as to why the teen was proving so resilient to the spells.

It hadn't been hard to piece together what had happened on their impromptu "date" once she returned to the Dark Fortress. Chris' seizure corresponded almost exactly to when Astronema had attacked the true Silver Astro Ranger. The psychic link between Chris and Zhane had to still be in effect. If anything, it was getting worse.

What was happening inside of his head? Was anything happening at all? By the Darkness, what was happening to Zhane?

"Man," Chris finally said, "this place has really nice sound baffling. We're what, two levels above the main engineering deck? You don't hear the engines, you don't hear the hyperspatial shielding, nothing. The Mega Winger sounds okay as long as you stay in the cockpit, but the cargo deck is a nightmare. I used to fly in some crates for Kinwon, but I never thought my own Zord..."

Jade bit her lip as he continued to blather. This was bad. The breezy deflection and esoterica flowing out of his mouth wasn't anything like the Chris she remembered. It was like he didn't care who she was or what she had to say so long as he had someone to talk at. Every time she'd ever met Zhane in battle he was showboating. What was supposed to happen when you put someone in a psychic link under an evil spell?

Dark Specter's personal records had extensive notes warning himself never to compound one spell with another, and never to stagger Grid effects atop each other. It seemed however he had ascended to his current near-godhood, he'd had to get there the old-fashioned way.
Darkonda was going to want to send Chris down to Earth like this. The Rangers would know something was wrong, and then they'd... then what would they do? It was obvious DECA had no idea what was happening or she'd have told them months ago. Would Zordon? Was Chris going to be declared insane and locked up? Was this even flowing both ways? Zhane seemed to be nattering about his history on KO-35 in the sensor logs from Sunday. Was he remembering anything of a life with the Sterlings? For that matter, was Neji Silver even lucid enough to follow his initial orders from Darkonda?

So what? What was she going to do about it. Was there anything she even could do? This situation wasn't going to help her any. Chris was the only person she could talk to who she didn't think would rat her out or kill her. Booking passage to some far-off alien world on a backwater like Earth wasn't going to be easy as it was. The increased scrutiny if she ran from the Alliance and from Zordon's forces meant the safest place for her was probably to defect to one of the other UAE members attacking Earth. Dark Specter wouldn't start civil war just to get one poor little Neji Ranger back. She'd still fundamentally be in his service, after all.

Jade rubbed her temples. Unless that avenue was closed to her already. Mara had to be with the Rangers. Astronema wouldn't have been so hell-bent on rounding up the wayward Neji unless she'd hauled off and gotten herself captured somehow. That stupid girl. There was no way to get her or Chris to safety now. Jade did not want to cross paths with Dark Specter when he got wind of this.

"NEJI RANGERS REPORT TO THE BRIDGE."

Jade sighed at the intercom's second and third blasts. "Great."

Concentrating, the world around her dissolved into the ship's main hallway. Her shadowporting abilities were getting better. With a fluffing of her cleavage and a tousling of her hair, Jade sauntered through the door and onto the Dark Fortress' bridge. To Jade's great surprise, the only other people there were Jake and Rob.

Dark Specter leaned forward in his throne. "Half. Half of your number come at my call. I see even an inch of slack was too much for you Nejis."
The doors behind her whooshed open again and Jade saw a winded Darkonda breeze past. "A thousand apologies, m'lord. I've run into some... Technical setbacks on Neji Silver. I should have everything straightened out momentarily. Until then-"

This was her chance. "Darkonda requested Faran and Mara's assistance with keeping the, ah... project running smoothly. Friendly faces have been known to help with uncooperative subjects during the conditioning process."

The stifled snarl was Jade's guarantee she had trapped Darkonda within a lie sufficient to get her own ass out of the fire before the truth was uncovered. Not to mix her metaphors. "Quite right. Jade has been nothing but a jewel in all of this."

Dark Specter's ire was deflected with a harumph. "My armies are not your personal property to use as you see fit. You had IMPLIED the neural programming process was completed, Darkonda."

Darkonda positively glowed under his master's scorn. Jade completely understood how he'd survived in the political arena so long. "If one were to be so bold, Dark Specter, one could argue you merely INFERRED that I was done..."

The monarch gave a low chuckle. "You don't change, Darkonda. You may go. Bring my other Rangers to me when you are actually through with the assignment. Now, irrespective of the intrusion - Neji Rangers, present arms!"

Rob, Jade, and Jake produced the necklaces with their Neji Crystals and held them aloft. Space warped and twisted between Dark Specter's hands and the Sword of Darkness materialized. Pointing the ancient weapon towards the three, the ancient warlord loosened a stream of concentrated evil into each of their morphing talismans.

Jade felt sick to her stomach. Though she'd never admit it to the others and could barely acknowledge it herself, their twice-weekly rechargings had begun to take their toll on her. Even the thought of morphing again after this many days without made the bile in her begin to churn. Rob seemed almost numb to the process - she'd kept a close eye on Neji Black to see how far from the Carlos tree he had fallen - and Jake seemed to be on the verge of orgasmic delight each time.

Jade wasn't blind to what was happening to her. She was getting "realer." Even now she could see nuance in her personality not present in the other four members of her team. Nuance, she felt immodestly, was not even present in her memories of being Ashley. The thought of going soft and losing any of her considerable skill at self-preservation in the name of pure altruism, however, was just as sickening as losing herself to the abyss. All of which fueled her need to run far away from all of this before she was just another statistic in an unwinnable war.

The recharging finally complete, Dark Specter gingerly placed the weapon against his throne. Jade knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this process was draining for him, even though he never showed it overtly. It appeared this sort of mastery of the ancient weapon was only just within his skill level. She'd filed this away to use for an opportune moment should one arise. She was good at that.

"You are dismisssssssed," his Ka'riithian form hissed. Dark Specter always masked his few vulnerabilities with a show of force or an absolute declaration. That too she'd filed away.

"Neji Silver?" Rob asked as the three filtered out together. "They copied Zhane?"

Jake shrugged. "Don't care. I just wondered where Mara got off to. Gonna have to give that girl a piece of my mind when she's done."

Jade snorted. "Don't be too generous. You still need some of it to breathe."

His hand shot for her throat and she grabbed it by the wrist. Jade smirked. "Don't touch the merchandise unless you're finally ready to pay for it. Think you got the dinero, Jacob?"

Jake wrenched his arm away and stalked off. Nejis Black and Yellow could hear him continuing to mutter profanities directed towards her. Assertions as to her sexual proclivities seemed to factor most into them.

Rob shook his head. "He's gonna kill you eventually."

Jade's smirk widened. There was no sentiment in what he'd said, as if he'd just told her what the synthetron's menu for the day was. That was the Roberto she knew. "So you say."

"It seems to me in our line of work you'd be better off not making the most dangerous people you know angrier."

"What a great friend you are."

"There you go," Rob sighed. "There aren't friends in our line of work, Jade. There don't need to be more enemies than the ones we already have."

Her teammate closed his eyes, bunched his hands and awkwardly teleported away to avoid running into Jake's tantrum. A second later Jade found herself choked and pinned to the wall for real. The Neji found herself staring down the fierce glare of Darkonda. "I don't know what game you're playing, but it stops here."

His face started to dissolve into black spots. Jade wheezed and the Mephsitan loosened his grip. "Dark Specter was gonna kill all of us if we didn't explain why Mara and Faran weren't here, and why Chris is catatonic. So you can either go to Dark Specter and tell him yourself, or you can help us find the others!"

"Chris is what?" Darkonda released the girl. "Faran is actually assisting me with a project as we speak, you weren't mistaken about that. If Mara fell down a manhole and got killed, no harm done. Go ahead and look for your little lost puppy. But Neji Silver..."

Jade shook her head while rubbing her throat. "Dammit, don't you get it? He has a psychic link to Zhane! Something went wrong with their powers when they were both the Silver Ranger. Your project isn't going to work. You have to break the spells on him!"

The scientist's eyes glowed an even more sickening shade of yellow. "You don't say. And why would I do that?"

Jade pulled herself up to her full height. "You wanted a weapon and an infiltrator. It's not going to work. You send him back to the Rangers like this and they'll have your hide."

"Orrrrrrrr," Darkonda drawled, "I could continue to experiment on his empty little head and see what secrets I can find. I might end up with TWO Silver Rangers at my disposal. In fact, with this boy as my voodoo doll, I could have full control over the true Silver Astro Ranger without the slightest suspicious behavior on Zhane's part. Without a shred of unaccounted for time. Now tell me, Jade... Why would any of us ever want to let an opportunity like that go? It's not like I couldn't just give the modified morpher to some other poor chump."

Dammit. DAMMIT, how could she have not seen that? Making Chris disposable was the simplest play. She should have realized...

Jade grimaced. Darkonda cackled with sadistic glee. "It looks like I was mistaken on just who was whose dog. I'm disappointed in you. I look forward to hearing what Dark Specter has to say on the matter."

With a click of his tongue and a spin on his heel, Darkonda traipsed down the hallway ahead of her. After a moment to consider something, he raised a finger upwards. "You know, Jade, I'm a reasonable fellow. I can forget all of this if you'll just indulge me this one thing."

The Yellow Neji Ranger bit her lip. Whatever Faustian arrangement Darkonda was going to make her agree to, it would only keep her tied down to this space station for even longer.

"I'm listening."

---

Lillian had continued to shuffle her tarot deck through the entire conversation Tommy'd had with her upon his return to the mountains. Both his discussion with TJ as well as the turmoil with Alex and his own family. Tommy couldn't be sure whether the tactile sensation was a source of comfort for his girlfriend or whether she simply wanted to inflict a passive form of water torture on him through the incessant riffling noise.

"Why did you even bring that thing?" he sighed.

She shrugged, which was no small thing considering her hands never stopped moving. "I trust my instincts. I thought you might like a reading when I started to pack. Besides, it takes years to break in a deck. I've finally got these cards where I want them. It's a pity I can't say the same for my boyfriend."

That was a warning shot if ever he'd seen one.

"I don't want to do this, Lil. I mean, I feel terrible she's dying but... She's not my mom. My mom is my mom. If Dave or Ty want to spend this time with her, good for them! They both need mothers. What do I need Alex for, exactly? Why is my mom so gung-ho about my spending time with her?"

"It could just be guilt. Has anybody in your mom's family died of cancer?"

Tommy shook his head. "The Rushes have a lot of heart disease problems, not cancer."

"Maybe she just doesn't want to see a good person suffer," Lillian offered. She finally let the deck slide out of her hand to toy with one of the bangs she had been growing out. "What is it you want out of all this, exactly?"

That took some thinking.

"I guess I want her to just leave me alone. I like the life I have now. Some woman I never knew upsetting all that, especially now with the Shadows... When are we ever going to have normalcy again? Do I want to stare down the end of the world mourning a woman whose entire role in my life as an individual was just to die? What kind of closure is that?"

Lillian nodded. "So tell her that. If she's anything like you, she'll understand. Your mom seems like she's the one pushing all of you together."

"She is," Tommy agreed. "I guess I see why she's doing it. All Alex has in this world is her job. She deserves someone there with her. I dunno, what do you think I should do?"

The Black Zeo Ranger laughed and took a sip of her cider. "I think I know better than to answer a question as loaded as that one."

"I mean it, Lil."

Lillian bit her lip. "I don't have a lot of memories of my parents. That car accident happened when I was still pretty young. I remember them being there and then I remember Park and my grandparents being there. I can't even remember how I processed Parker taking their place. I just knew they were gone, and I remember missing them. I tried to make deals to get them back, but nothing ever listened. If you're asking me what I'd do, Tommy... I'd give almost anything to have another week with my parents, even if I knew I had to stick them right back in the ground again."

Tommy sighed. Maybe his orphaned girlfriend was the wrong person to ask. "I don't see how anything good is going to come from this."

"Not for you, not right now, maybe. You can't tell me you don't see the good that'll come for Alex in this. She's lived the last twenty years in anguish. The least you can do for the woman is let her die with some dignity."

"And now I get the straight answer," Tommy chuckled.

"By making me talk about my parents. You dastardly man, you." Lillian leaned forward to softly kiss him. "I think we can let them wait a little bit longer."

"I don't doubt it. We have all the time in the world."

---

"I'm pooped," Rosa DeSantos sighed as she slumped into her stool at the Youth Center.

Taking a moment to look up from his current English assignment, Fred Kelman grunted his agreement. "I thought high school was going to be easy. I think Justin ruined the bell curve for the rest of us."

It was a well-known fact that under Principal Henry Kaplan Angel Grove High unofficially maintained two separate academic pedigrees to bolster the school's stats. The "jock" track fed the Angel Grove Tigers, Wildcats, and Lions in the pro leagues with almost insultingly simple requirements and class assignments. The "nerd" track fed Angel Grove's industrial manufacturing and scientific companies with collegiate-level coursework.

Unfortunately for Kaplan, due to certain school board statutes and a general desire not to break the law any more than they needed to by many of the teachers, tasks were shuffled willy-nilly and classes were structured on arbitrary lines rather than actual acedemic merit. AGHS was well-known as the school with no remedial classes; where on any given day even the most advanced student might be given remedial classwork.

More unfortunate still for the Turbo Rangers, as this year the five of them had nearly all heavy academic materials to decipher in every single class. A far cry from Laurel Applebee's highly-lauded annual "Question Marks: Why Do We Need Them?" assignment.

"I wish Mr. Bart had stayed turned into a monster," Fred continued with a grumble. "I shouldn't need to use Billy's lab to solve problems in high school science classes!"

"Wilton is who got turned into a monster," Franklin Park observed from the other side of his friend. "Bart got abducted by the Machine Empire at the same time as Rocky's ex-girlfriend."

"Wilton's a pussycat," Tasha Young groaned from the opposite end of the counter. "I would kill to get him or Applebee."

"It's not that bad, you guys," Justin Stewart opined. "Sure, it's a little more challenging than what we had last year, but that's normal. Besides, it gives us a chance to have study group more!"

"I was IMing with Drew last night," Fred continued as though his friends hadn't spoken, "And he said Charterville High is boring. The classes are dull. Not difficult. The Crustaceans never attack, the teachers are unremarkable, and even the bullies are gone. It sounded like heaven."

The five teen heroes stopped to reflect on a high school not beset by alien invaders. With an appropriate sense of timing, their communicators chimed.

"Ernie, could you please-" Frank began with a gesture towards their schoolwork.

The ever-present proprietor of the juice bar dismissed the inarticulate concern with a wave of his hand. "Go. I'll keep an eye on everything for you guys."

"Thanks Ernie!" Rosa squeaked as Fred threw down their change and the five rushed over to the Youth Center locker room.

"What's up, Zordon?" Tasha asked into her watch.

"Rangers, Rita has sent down her latest monster to attack fisherman's wharf. In addition, Rito and Goldar have been deployed with a combination of Putties and Tengas," boomed the voice of their mentor through the tinny speakers. "With the Astro Rangers currently at reduced capacity, you will be our primary line of defense against this assault."

"Two monsters in a month? Putties? Man, Rita must be sculpting up a storm without a monstermatic," Frank muttered.

"Do you think it's a Bulbasaur this time or did Nintendo legal shut her down?" Fred jibed.

"This latest attack is no laughing matter. The Stealth Manta has advanced cloaking technology and a mach-speed attack when in aerial mode. Be careful, Power Rangers, and may the Power protect you."

The five checked that the coast was clear before spacing out enough to morph without smacking one another in the face. As they had learned the hard way.

"Shift into Turbo!"

---

The Turbo Rangers materialized in the midst of a frenzied evacuation. Fisherman's wharf lacked the city's requisite subterranean monster shelters, and as such hundreds of panicked boaters, tourists, and fish mongers raced out of the district's narrow alleyways.

In the distance Red Turbo could see Stealth Manta bombarding the boardwalk with some kind of sonic disruptor. Rito giddily clapped as huge chunks of the woodwork exploded around them.

"I thought there was something fishy going on here!" he cried.

The rest of his team fell out of their group pose and turned to stare at him.

"Really," Yellow intoned. "That's the pun."

"Fred, you're not even trying," Blue agreed.

"Hey, it's the Little Rascals!" Rito shouted. "Now the fun is underway!"

With a delighted whoop, the mutant tore through the crowds and leapt towards the teenage heroes. Pink and Blue narrowly missed Rito's tackle-punch, but found themselves restrained from behind by Putties.

Rolling to the side, Green and Red withdrew their Auto-Blasters and laid down defensive fire. Standing, the two moved back to back and spun in a defensive wheel.

"This is new!" Green yelled over the din of the still-more frenzied evacuees.

Mixed in among the usual assortment of Tengas and striped "classic" Putties were variants Fred and Frank had only ever seen in archival news footage from six years earlier. The jagged "rocky" Putties, the ball-handed Putties, and the terrifying sword-handed Putties were all in attendance.

"Tell me about it," Red muttered.

With an ear-splitting wail, Stealth Manta turned his sonic weapon on the teens. The Rangers each gave a silent scream as they dropped to their knees and clutched at their heads. The ground beneath their feet shook at his assault. Casting a momentary glance around despite the pain, Fred saw the last of the human stragglers had dispersed.

Goldar gave a throat-slice "kill" gesture to the monster and the manta ray stopped. The Titan placed a foot against Red Turbo's chest and shoved him onto his back.

"It's been far too long since I've had the pleasure, Red Ranger," Goldar sneered in a voice just barely audible underneath the ringing in Fred's ears. "A pity that pleasure is wasted on a whelp like yourself."

A shower of sparks erupted from the center of the mutant's armor, causing him to stagger backwards in pain.

"Pleasure's all mine!" Pink Turbo exclaimed as she loosened another blast of concussive energy from her Wind Fire into the Putties restraining the rest of her teammates. Dematerializing the beam-caster bow back into subspace, Rosa flung her Auto-Blaster into the waiting hands of Yellow Turbo. Unholstering her own blaster as well, Tasha nailed the monster twice before it could fire on the team again.

Her triumph was short-lived, however, as a "blade" Putty proceeded to slice through one of the guns and a "ball" Putty laid her out with a tremendous haymaker.

"Tasha!" Green yelled as something whizzed by him, knocking the Ranger off his balance yet again. It took Frank a moment to realize Stealth Manta hadn't fired again, but rather than the Tengas were dive-bombing them.

"THIS IS NEW!" Red echoed back across the battlefield.

Surveying the swooping footsoldiers with an appreciative eye, Goldar unfurled his wings and joined them. With a slow, steady flap keeping him in place, Goldar turned his gaze to the battlefield.

With his commander no longer in his line of sight, Stealth Manta reconfigured his blaster and loosed a narrow stream of sonic energy directly into the chest of Blue Turbo. The Ranger, distracted by the Tenga he had been grappling with, barely had time to register what had happened before both he and the henchman were propelled across the street and flung into the water.

"JUSTIN!" the remaining three conscious Rangers cried.

Raising a paw to his eyes, Goldar rained a barrage of optical blasts down on Fred, Rosa, and Franklin. Green Turbo tried to place himself in the way of Pink and was rewarded with a violent demorphing. Frank collapsed to the ground in a pile. A second later Goldar landed next to him.

"I take it back," the Titan chuckled, "You kids were still some sport after all."

With a ferocity that took even Fred by surprise, Red Turbo charged. He twisted his wrist to summon his Lightning Sword while he also started to unsheath his Turbo Sword, but before either weapon could make clear the air Goldar had backhanded the teen and sent him hurling towards Rito.

The skeleton mutant snatched Red Turbo from the air, spinning him twice like he was a baseball being wound up, before hammering him down in a ferocious powerslam. Fred too demorphed.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW AWESOME THIS FEELS!" Rito howled.

Surveying the scene around her between exchanging blows with Putties and Tengas, Rosa realized the situation was going to turn lethal if they stayed any longer.

"Alpha," she yelled into her communicator, "Get us the HELL OUT OF HERE NOW!"

---

The Turbos had rematerialized in the Power Chamber in various states of duress. Blue Turbo had literally fallen out of midair in the midst of swimming back to land. Tasha, Franklin and Fred each groggily rose to their feet as Rosa tossed her helmet aside and joined Alpha at the main control console.

"Since when did Rita's monsters start eating their wheaties?" Fred asked no one in particular.

"Scratch that," Tasha added with a shake of her head to clear the ringing in her ears. "Since when did Goldar and Rito put up a fight like that?"

"The monster's gone already," Rosa noted. "And now Rito and Goldar are leaving with the grunts."

Her teammates turned to the viewing globe to watch as both events played out.

"Ay-yi-yi, all they wanted to do was draw the Rangers out into a conflict!"

Zordon's jaw tightened. "It appears Rita is committing forces and then withdrawing them before casualties can mount. This is worrying. I have only seen her do this at her times of greatest confidence."

Alpha seemed to shiver. "She did this with the evil Green Ranger as well."

"She's toying with us," Franklin grumbled.

"Ten of us couldn't have held the line, Zordon," observed Blue Turbo as he unclasped his helmet. "This was as bad as Shadowborg. At least the Crustaceans never sent their generals."

The sage nodded. "As much was apparent, Justin. We may need to commit greater numbers of Power Rangers to the next conflict with this monster. Until then, I recommend you return to your studies. Your normal lives take priority."

Alpha tsked and waved a finger. "Just a moment, Zordon! First I want to make sure the Rangers haven't sustained any serious injuries from that fight."

The 'droid toddled off to the bio-bed to procure a medical scanner. Taking stock of their surroundings, the Turbo teens finally noticed Billy and TJ sequestered off in the far corner over the secondary bio-bed. Laying atop the bed covered with only a long white sheet was a sickly looking Mara Chan.

"Oh geez," Fred slapped his head in realization. "Mara. I didn't even think to ask after class got out, you guys. How are things going?"

TJ barely gave the Turbos a cursory glance before returning to the girl. "She's stable. I guess that's the best we can hope for right now."

The young genius looked up at the still-younger Rangers. "Are you guys okay?"

After completing his final round of scans on Tasha, Alpha gave a thumbs up in the affirmative. "Everything checks out."

"Emotionally," Franklin drawled, "That's another story."

"We got humiliated out there," Rosa spat. "I want another crack at that fishmonger."

Crossing the room, Fred tried to avoid the sight of naked flesh creeping up at the sides of the sheets. He was a Power Ranger, not some idiot teenager. He could show the same clinical detachment his fellow Rangers were showing. "What happened to her?"

Billy affixed another sensor patch to Mara's carthoid artery. "Larry tried to use the Sword of Light to turn her completely human. She was shifting back into Shadow form for almost an hour."

"We nearly lost her twice," TJ mumbled. His fingers traced the back of her arm.

Billy tapped at the controls on the bed's wing-scanner. "We're just lucky the sword didn't do any permanent damage. She's back to human form again. No organ damage we can detect."

Mara shifted again and the shapes distending her sheet moved accordingly. Fred slowly backed away and . "I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I mean, you know..."

"It's fine," Mara breathed. "I know what you mean, Fred. It really means a lot to me that you guys care."

"You're a Power Ranger," Billy said with emphasis. "It doesn't matter how you came into this world, we'll look out for you."

The Pink Neji Ranger gave a broad smile.

Returning to the rest of his teammates, Tasha gave Fred an affectionate thwack on the back and a predatory smile. "Very smooth, Romeo."

"Do you have any advice, Zordon?" Justin asked.

"Keep your wits about you, Rangers. An attack may come at any time. These are the actions of a strong, confident Rita Repulsa."

---

It's said you don't know what you've got until it's gone. Still more true was the fact that the grass is always greener on the other side. The Machine Empire was structured along somewhat unique lines compared to many other villainous empires throughout the known galaxies. Rather than use their generals in a field capacity, generals were left to maintain garrisons, govern over the Empire's civilian populations, and coordinate monster patrols throughout previously conquered territories. Emperor Camshaft, the original sovereign of the Royal House of Gadgetry, had decreed it so. The experience and tactical expertise of general-class units was not to be squandered in the conquest of new and uncertain territories when their greater use was elsewhere.

As neither he nor his wife had much experience in the use of generals in an active support role on the field, Gasket had feverishly calculated the innumerable ways the presence of Rito and Goldar could be used to their advantage in the New Alliance. Ancient, idle fantasies on what he would do should he ever recapture a lost garrison were now being formulated and pressed into use. Most of the organic empires simply did not see the true value in the presence of field generals. Pressing an advantage while you had it in no way violated the UAE's escalation code - it simply was not "the way things were done."

Archerina was more proud of her husband than she could ever remember feeling in thousands of years of marriage. Gasket was a tactical genius, and it was to the loss of both their fathers it had not been recognized sooner. His acumen alone should have smoothed over any... difficulties raised by their courtship. Still, the short-sightedness of her father and father-in-law had served them well. The last day had seen the somewhat wan and withdrawn Rita returning to something like her usual bombastic self, and Archerina credited much of that to the ever-increasing operational capacity of their soldiers. The Machine Queen had been thrilled to engage the space witch in a political discourse on the articles of confederation she had provisionally drafted for their formal military alliance.

To contemplate the shape of a universe where the two main factions of the Machine Empire - rended apart ever since the tragic Skybase "accident" which had killed King Wingnut and Mondo's elder siblings, and divided the military and civilian populations between the older but illegitimate Aradon and the younger but legitimate Mondo - were again as one thrilled Archerina. Contemplating a universe after the collapse of the Alliance of Evil was almost more than she could bear.

Despite her flirtatious pleasure-bot body - she was of the same model line as her mother and grandmother before her - Archerina possessed a shrewd political mind, and it was this quality that first caught Gasket's attention when the two had met at a doomed political dinner between their fathers. Mondo and Aradon could not be in the same room for more than a few minutes before one veiled comment from Mondo over the purity of the imperial oil-line resulted in an outright brawl.

The two had slipped away during the fracas and spent blissful hours in one another's company discussing any and all matters that crossed their minds. Gasket's offer to marry her to end the feud between their fathers had seemed like the most romantic gesture imaginable. Upon their parents' mutual refusal to even consider such a thing and his immediate offer to elope, Archerina realized the true depth of Gasket's feelings for her and his gesture magnified a thousandfold. No matter how little she had Gasket had had over the years, they were together. Together, they were unstoppable.

The Machine Queen smiled as she pulled away from the Repulsascope. The Rangers had run away from the conflict like a turbo-tiger in the night.

"I'm sorry," Archerina asked, turning back to face the lunar palace's chamber of command. "Where was I?"

"You were still ranting about your idea of a villain utopia," Rita replied from the throne with a good-natured grumble. "Then you got distracted by your husband's tactical prowess. And MY telescope."

"A villain utopia is a contradiction in terms," Archerina chided. "I just want to see a universe where a monolithic construct like the Alliance of Evil is removed from the equation. Aggressive expansionism only works when there are checks and balances placed by other forces expanding. I call it 'the democracy of tyranny.' Dark Specter is a superpredator hanging over the universe. Even UAE membership itself is lorded over the smaller regional warlords. We afford protection to Count Dregon and Nefaria, even without their holdings on Edenoi, yet Magistrate Xartha's assets are fair game for one of us to plunder."

Rita blanched. "Oh ew. You want the Xarthian Empire? Sister, you can have them. A bunch of evil lawyers doesn't appeal to me at all."
Archerina laughed. "That isn't what I meant, and you know it. If what four different empires what to do with the same chunk of land aren't mutually exclusive, it's in their best interests to work together to keep out those with conflicting interests. Democratic tyranny. Don't screw over somebody else just because it's expected of a villain."

"I think," Rita said with all the patience of a parent trying to explain quantum physics to a small child, "What you want is better accomplished by taking over the Council of Worlds rather than the UAE."

"Or petitioning the Council for membership," Archerina added.

The Empress of Evil stared at her associate in open shock. "You're kidding me."

Archerina shrugged. "Why? As an agency, the ESAC meets nine out of ten qualifications necessary for membership into the Council. The only reason they don't reform their policies and petition themselves is because their members are holding out for the Alliance of Evil's carrot."
Rita couldn't help but laugh as she slid further back into Zedd's old throne. "The Evil Space Alien Coalition is a joke. For the most part they've only "conquered" their own words."

Archerina's smile broadened. "Precisely my point. They are the legitimate governments of their respective planets. Many were duly elected, or conquered the previous planetary governments through non-hostile means. Merely reforming some of their policies would grant them a voice in the Council. Why don't they take it, other than their attachment to the philosophy of evil?"

The space witch massaged her temples. It was plain to see she was fighting off one of her chronic migraines. "You didn't have General Longnose as your military history professor. If we're all equal, then we're useless. No one attains their dreams by compromising for the dreams of others. You just wind up with a lot of disappointed people."

"We can reform the Council from the inside through an ever-louder voice, just as we will reform the Alliance. What is it you want most from Earth, Rita? Proof you don't need your father's resources? A larger place at the Alliance's table? Access to the leylines? A means to restore your god's physical form?"

Rita considered this. "Giving Lokar back his body comes after finally destroying Zordon. Before Zedd, I wanted to establish a beachhead in this galaxy for my part of his empire and for my religion. After that I just wanted power. Power enough to be happy. Now... Now I don't really have anything other than revenge. Do you know I haven't prayed in months? Me, a sorceress. I just haven't had it in me anymore."
Archerina caressed her friend's shoulder. Rita choked back a sob. "I have all that's left of Zeddy's empire, and I don't even want it. The thing that I married him for in the first place. I'm just so tired. I want this to be over. I can't think beyond killing Zordon and destroying the Rangers anymore. I don't even know what I'm going to do after I've gotten my revenge. What's WRONG with me? I never used to be this way."

Archerina knew more than she was willing to share with her friend. The reality nexuses that permeated the Earth twisted the minds and souls of even the most evil organic lifeforms. It rendered them grotesque mockeries of themselves by exaggerating their emotions and reprioritizing their motives. It even worked on the forces of good; certainly the Rangers with their disgusting levels of civic interest demonstrated that. The Machine Empire had known the truth for millions of years. From the zithium hull plating and interdimensional shielding of the Dark Fortress, it was a safe bet Dark Specter knew it now too.

Keeping Rita functional meant redirecting the inclination towards guilt and recrimination that now fueled her. Cartoonish evil was little better than unbearable grief, but it was a start towards rehabilitating her to something like a normal emotional balance.

"I can't think beyond tomorrow anymore," Rita continued, "And here you are with plans stretching out over thousands of years."

"Just shy of a hundred thousand, according to my latest calculations," Archerina noted.

Rita gave a rueful laugh. "Sometimes I forget you machines have a lifespan that makes my people seem like a dayspring race. We must look like Earthers to you."

Archerina shook her head. "We can die just the same as anyone. Just because I can live exponentially longer than you doesn't mean I will. I've never met anyone from the Machine Empire as long-lived as some of the elder Morphin Masters. And as I was saying, what you want from the Earth is not mutually exclusive from what we want."

"The Morphin Engines," Rita acknowledged. "I never once doubted it's what Mondo wanted with Earth. Why he broke away from the UAE for a year. Dark Specter thought the same. It's why he sent Zeddy and I to stop him."

Across a chain of ten galaxies, the ancestors of the original Morphin Masters had buried twenty devices of unspeakable power within the hearts of planetary bodies already rich with natural Grid energies. When activated in sequence, the engines could do what no other devices known to exist could: open a sustained, permanent conduit into the very heart of the Morphing Grid.

Archerina nodded. "From the reports we've received from the generals who have remained loyal to Gasket, seven of the engines are currently online and operable. Mondo had captured sixteen total within the past century. My father's intelligence network hadn't suspected a thing. From what we can gather, neither had the Alliance of Evil's. Not until the push for Earth."

"Mondo wanted to make himself a god," Rita said. It wasn't a question. "Dark Specter couldn't take the chance he might have competition."

Archerina nodded again. "From all the private notes we've collected since capturing the Skybases? Yes."

A horrified look crossed Rita's face. "What do you and Gasket want?"

A small part of Archerina relished the confused terror on the old witch's face. No matter how well you thought you knew them, organic life was still terrified of artificial. Archerina was expected to take Lokar, the espoused "Ultimate Evil," again walking the universe without flinching, but to imagine a pair of automatons might wish to pull themselves up the level of the gods was horrifying.

The greater part knew that was the last thing her friend needed to deal with. "To establish a Grid connection within each and every member of the Machine Empire. Our people don't have souls in the same fashion you do, Rita. We lack etheric bodies. If our personality components are destroyed, our spirits discorporate within weeks. Cold steel repels the Morphing Grid unless a sufficient amount of energy is funneled into it. If we could divest even a portion of the Engines into overcoming that hurdle, our society would never know true death."

Rita gave a sharp exhale despite herself. "I'm... sorry. That's rude."

"Biological life is wired to exclude kin that seem unnatural or 'wrong' to their eyes. Even the most sophisticated artificial life falls somewhere in that aesthetic."

"Still," Rita noted, "I should be better than that. I'm a witch. I specialize in golems. Just... hearing you have plans that will continue on long after I'm dead? I thought this was a simple alliance between our empires to claim the Earth. What you want is so far beyond anything I've ever been a party to."

"Party? Aw shucks," boomed Rito's voice as he stormed into the throne room. "I'd protest but... if you want to reward the triumphant heroes of the hour, go right ahead!"

"I am uncertain that roughing up a group of 13-year-olds constitutes heroism by any measure," Archerina replied in sotto voice.

"Aw, whatever. Where's my cake?"

---

The hand clenched tighter around Billy's throat.

"Tell me what I need to know, Mr. Cranston, and you may go free."

Billy wheezed.

The man staring him down glared. Tall and well-built, dressed immaculately and topped with piercing green eyes and a head of ink-black hair with an intense widow's peak, this man looked more like a vampire than anyone Billy could ever remember seeing in real life before. Including actual vampires.

"Tell me where the Turbos are," the man insisted. "And all of this can be over. You have been to their base. You know its whereabouts. WHERE IS THE CITADEL?"

"You can kill me if you want, Raven. I'm not betraying my friends."

The cruelty of the man's smile was like a slap in the face.

"Kill you? Mr. Cranston, you're a science experiment to me. If you won't give me the location of the Turbo Heroes, then we'll have to make use of those esoteric power signatures you've been giving off since your arrival in our universe. Castor, Pollux, take him to the lab."

Raven's twin thugs locked Billy's arms in place and unceremoniously hauled him out of the businessman's office.

Wait. Something about this was wrong.

"Shouldn't have pissed off the boss," one of the goons laughed in a snooty, sing-song voice.

"Dere's one ting even I know, it's not'ta get in da way of Adrian Raven," added his double.

Adrian Raven. That was the name of an action figure he'd helped Tommy track down for Teddy years ago. The main enemy of... no, that couldn't be. The Turbo Heroes were fictional characters. That was an adaptation of a Japanese superhero franchise, brought over to cash in on the fame of the original Power Rangers. The only Turbos Billy knew were Fred's Turbo Rangers.

"My friends will find me," Billy snapped. "If not the Turbos, my friends in my own reality."

The first goon continued to laugh. "Oh yes, I am terrified."

What in the world was he doing here? Why was he acting like he was *supposed* to be stranded here?

---

A soft hand on his shoulder roused Billy. Looking up from the operations console of the bio-bed (when had he fallen asleep?), the young genius was surprised to see the concerned face of Finster staring down at him. Taking a quick glance around, Billy remembered that TJ had escorted the bed's former occupant back to his quarters to be monitored.

"Oh, hey. Sorry, I've just been so busy with Mara..."

"Yes, I thought you might be."

The older man handed him a thick binder filled with notes in a variety of languages. Leafing through it, Billy saw the passages in English were highlighted with a marker and translations were affixed to some of the more abstract notes by post-it.

"Finster, what is this?" Billy asked.

"My analysis on a Shadowling we captured many years ago. While Lord Zedd was spearheading the attacks against Earth, I was in my lab working on a number of projects. I was able to sever its connection to the others and much of its control over its own abilities. I used it to create my dream device - the one we used to make the Artistmole."

Flipping through the collection, Billy was amazed at the detailed analysis and physiological breakdown on the creature. He had no doubts Finster had killed the demon in the process of doing this. No wonder - research this invasive came at a cost.

Billy gave a rueful laugh. "I guess I see why you never used that again."

Finster smiled. "I had only intended to help Rita develop better theme monsters. Focusing on the neuroses of a single Ranger is a poor way to attack an entire team. When Zedd asked that I use it to harness nightmares I became concerned the Shadows or any of the many Morpheus cults might detect what I was doing. Just summoning Artistmole into a clay body like a normal monster took a lot of power from it. My research required I keep the Shadowling alive for as long as possible."

One diagram showed how Shadows seemed to keep their neural clusters spaced out throughout their bodies in lieu of one single brain. That explained a lot. Finster was able to sever most of its connections through surgically implanted magic-repellant zithium shrapnel.

Billy's gaze went to Zordon's inert plasma tube. Clearly their mentor had gone to sleep or 'entered a meditative state' or whatever it was people in timewarps did.

"Finster, this constitutes a war crime, doesn't it?"

"Officially, it's an act of war. The UAE has never been at war with the Shadow Empire, despite multiple incursions into our territories for espionage purposes. The pirate clans have a very provisional trade alliance with them. My curiosity got the better of me. I caught it in a trap I had placed for lunar bats, and severing its connection to the collective was important before our operational state was reported back to the Empire."

Billy exhaled slowly. Just having this research in his hands made him complicit in atrocities performed in the name of science. If Tommy or Jason had gotten these papers, they would have fought against their better judgment and reported Finster to Zordon and Daystar. Ally or not, Finster went beyond simply following the orders of his masters while in the service of the Alliance. Even Christina would have reported this to the authorities.

Could he do that to Larry and Leslie Zedden? Could he do that to Jamie?

No, Billy realized. The one he couldn't do that to was Finster. The old man knew that. They both already knew the stakes in dealing with the invasion of Earth. The Rangers were already at war with the Shadows, and any advantage they had needed to be pressed to its fullest advantage. Even if this couldn't be used to heal Mara, they could better defend their base and protect those they loved when the invasion came.

"Then it's a good thing no one will ever know you did it, huh?" Billy replied.

Finster's smile warmed. "Thank you, Billy."

After the sorceror's departure back to the Zedden household something itched at the back of Billy's mind. Dreams. Artistmole. What had he been dreaming about again?

Billy queued up the television programming guide in the Viewing Globe controls. Justin and Tasha had hacked into the satellite network of the base and started digitally recording programs from broadcast signals some months ago. Alpha had found the subterfuge almost immediately, but had left the code in since it was such an innocent use of their sophisticated equipment. Certainly Billy had never thought of it four years ago when he was still living in the base.

Just as he thought. Twenty episodes of Turbo Heroes were currently logged in local memory. Transferring the data to the console in his personal quarters, Billy made his way out of the main chamber.

"I'm sorry, Mara," Billy muttered. "There's something I need to do."

TO BE CONTINUED