Forever

Author's Note: After seventeen seasons, Power Rangers is ending.

Unless it hasn't. In which case, remember that it looked liked it was going to.

And really, didn't it deserve better, no matter what happened? It might not be the Sopranos, or The Wire, or Battlestar Galactica, or heck, even Justice League, and maybe far too many of us are way out of the target audience, and yeah, maybe it's always been about selling toys…but for all that, no one reading this story won't have anything but fond memories whenever they heard the trademark power rock tune. And quite frankly, considering the show fought through a terrible budget, less than optimal scripting and casting, a switchover to a company that was embarrassed by it, and whatever else comes to mind (I'm sure some people want to mention someone whose name rhymes with "Spruce Spalash"), to make it this far AND end(?) on as fine a note as RPM, is something.

But it deserved better. It deserved something that couldn't be hampered by budget issues, actors embarrassed or tired of this part of their lives, the ability to keep accents, or a company that doesn't know something good when they have it. And when it ends once and for all (if it does), it won't get the wrap-up it would have in a perfect world.

So I'm going to try and do something about it, before my initiative dies and this is abandoned like my other ideas. I won't hold this story hostage for reviews like some, or many idiots would, but I won't lie by saying they might help. Might.

Some might say this is like a certain video game. I say maybe, but maybe not. Some might say this idea is being told by other people as well. I say maybe, but maybe not. And maybe this isn't how RPM is going to end, but for the purpose of this final story, surely you'll allow me that one theory.

Maybe it's all ended. But in its own ways, the power will live forever.

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Prelude: The Final Countdown

Do you know what it's like to have an idea, and just be carried away by it? To be borne along by its energy, until you could swear it has a life of its own and it's just using you to craft it? To sometimes feel afraid, because you realize that part of you can't really grasp what you're making and exactly how it will work, until the energy finally settles down and aligns your synapses just right?

Maybe it's not for everyone, but for me, it was one of the two great blessings of my life. My mind, and all I crafted from it. It served me well for my other blessing.

My name is William Cranston, though I prefer Billy. Once upon a time, I was a Power Ranger.

My time as a Ranger…it was so many things. I learned and did so much, good and bad. I worked on devices and machines and theories beyond anything 'normal science' could have dreamed. I made friends, loyal allies, and found loved ones, all as close as family, if not closer. Even when I had to put the morpher down and stand on the sidelines, I had no regrets.

Being a Power Ranger made everything worth it.

It's over now. It has been for a while. But the legacy of what I helped create lives on. There were other Rangers. There would have been more, stretching perhaps to the end of time. Heck, even Tommy ended up joining another team several years down the line. I both admire and envy him that.

My life was quiet, on Aquitar, with Cestrisa and our family.

It was.

It's gone now.

I might never get it back.

We were the Power Rangers. We could do anything.

We did too much.

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Somewhere. Nowhere.

So close.

He'd been so close.

Of all the beings that had come before him, creatures that had crushed galaxies in their cruel grip or crossed over from other dimensions like something out of the author Lovecraft's fever dreams, he'd gone further than any of them. From humble beginnings, he'd reduced the planet Earth to a wasteland.

Only one city had been left.

And then, they had come.

The Rangers. Like they had so many times before.

He hadn't thought it would matter. Like all the rest.

They'd proven him wrong. He'd thrown everything he had a them, gradually at first, and eventually without mercy. They rose to each assault, each attempt to snuff them out, and beat it back. Just like their predecessors.

Then they'd gone even further.

And so Venjix, once the supposed lord and master of the planet Earth, now found himself in a vortex of swirling chronological energies, a shifting void beyond time and space. He'd crossed dimensions to have one final battle with his mortal enemies, and to stop them from snatching a victory from the jaws Venjix had seized the world in, a victory so terrible it even made Venjix's electronic soul feel fear.

She was trying to alter time. Undo what she'd done. Take everything he accomplished and reduce it to nothing.

In reality, this was a plan of incalculable danger. Attempting to forcibly alter the natural forces of the universe was something that would have given even Venjix pause.

Humans. They were so…irritating in not knowing their limits.

Despite all the efforts Venjix had made to remind them.

"So…had enough?" Ziggy wheezed, only his battered axe keeping him from collapsing in a heap. The other Rangers let Ziggy speak for them, their own armaments and uniforms scarred and damaged from the intense battle they'd waged. Venjix, however, bore his own scars, and that fact sent the closest thing to rage crackling through his mechanical body. It was impossible. This area of malleable time, the Vortex for lack of a better term, was about as hostile to organic life as you could get without going into hard vacuum. That fact alone should have doomed the Rangers. It had not. Neither had the furious assault he'd unleashed on them with the finest weapon of destruction he'd ever crafted: his current form. The Rangers kept fighting, protecting Dr. K, as she floated on a mechanical platform and furiously ran between the several computers set up upon it, her personal shield shimmering over her body as she did so.

"You will be the one whose limits are reached, Rangers!" Venjix retorted, as he drew his weapon up once more and charged.

The RPM Rangers met him. Blades clashed. Sparks flew. Explosions blasted across the strange semi-matter that the battle took place on, sometimes leaving a mark and sometimes vanishing into the ether.

Dr. K tried to block it all out, to go into the cold grip of the idea, to focus on the far more important things then the lives of a few people, especially now…but she couldn't. For all her efforts to deny it, deep down, between the people who did battle to protect her and allow her her final gamble, and the world, if she had to chose one…

…The world might not be enough.

She had to save it. She had to save them. She had to…

Watch, despite her.

And watch she did, as Venjix mustered and unleashed a devastating attack, only for the Rangers to fuse their personal arms and return fire. The shock wave of the blast nearly knocked Dr. K to her knees.

She should have gotten back to work. She was so close…and so was Venjix.

Instead, she waited, looking on the scene with wide eyes.

They were alive. Down, hurt, but alive.

However, so was Venjix.

"MAKER!" the robot bellowed, standing up. Dr. K found herself watching again, despite it all.

"…Do your Rangers not realize…what forces you are tampering with?" the malevolent AI hissed, his voice box damaged and expressing an odd crackle every several words. "This is not like…building a robotic mechanism! To attempt to forcibly alter time, PROPERLY, requires calculations even I would find daunting! Do it wrong…you risk erasing yourself, your world, perhaps your entire plane of existence! Do you really think…that THIS, and all it potentially entails…is the right thing to do? Do you honestly think it will WORK?"

Dr. K looked at her deepest regret, and tried to find an answer.

She didn't have to.

"Oh SHUT YOUR TRAP!" Flynn yelled, standing up. "Now you're gonna bust out logic on us? Keep dreaming!"

"If anyone can make this better, Dr. K can! Dr. K WILL! Besides, we're the good guys. We ALWAYS win!" Ziggy said.

"You can't even begin to understand what she can and can't do," Summer said.

"Yeah! Dr. K…!"

"Is the smartest…!"

"We should know…!"

"And you don't!"

"Stupid!" Gem and Gemma added in their unique back and forth way.

"Are you so willing to stake your lives on it?" Venjix said.

"…Of course," Dillon said, like he was talking to a child.

"We know what it's like to live," Scott finished, as he gestured with his sword. "You don't even know where to start."

"I know this: this is YOUR END!" Venjix bellowed, and charged again. Once more, the Rangers charged in turn.

"GO DR. K! DO IT! WE'LL FIGHT!" Scott yelled. Dr. K stared for a moment, and then surged back up to her feet, stumbling over and rapidly typing at the computer before her while sounds of explosions, anger, and determination rang in her ears. She couldn't look any more. She had to do this…

So close…

…She really wanted a Twizzler right about then. When this was done, it was going on the top of…

Done. It was done. She'd properly aligned and calculated everything. Now for the catalyst. The universal language.

For a moment, as she crossed to the center of her platform and picked it up, the violin seemed to carry the weight of the world.

It did not stop her, as she propped it, placed her bow across the strings, and began to play.

The computers lit up around her, as Dr. K, using her instrument, began sending precise waves of quantum-based energy out across the Vortex, trying to reach across the threads of history and change the weave. To bring a dead world back to life.

And bring her and those who would sacrifice everything back to it.

She played like her life depended on it, and it did. She played despite the shifting, alien energies clawing at her mind, threatening her concentration and coordination. She played because she missed having good frozen yogurt. She played because, in a tiny part of her brain, she'd always wanted to hear the music of the spheres.

She played, reaching the crescendo…

A cold hand seized her wrist. The music stopped.

"Enough, Maker." Venjix managed to say despite half his face missing. Dr. K stared into his heartless gaze, seeing her hopes and dreams die in it. "You did well. Much better than I could calculate. But all good things must come to an end."

Dr. K had no words.

Dillon's actions spoke for him, as he rammed the broken Street Saber through Venjix's back.

"SO DO BAD THINGS!" Dillon yelled, as he smashed the agonizing Venjix away.

"DR. K!" Ziggy yelled from where he lay, unable to get up. Even Venjix, however, couldn't beat him enough to make him shut up. "DO IT! DO IT! WE BELIEVE IN YOU!"

Dr. K did not watch: she listened, as she raised the violin and began the last process, seizing the energy manipulation back and driving it forward to the climax.

"NO!" Venjix roared, raising a hand and trying to blast Dr. K. He got two Cloud Hatchets in the neck before he could, the blades snapping off as a yellow energy blast drove him backwards.

A hand seized his jaw, tearing it open as Scott reached behind Venjix, ripped the Engine Cell from his blade, and crammed it into Venjix's mouth.

"That's for Marcus, ASSHOLE."

Venjix's skull exploded as he fell to one knee. So close…so close…

But the music was playing him off.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

The manipulated chrono-energies consumed him, tearing his body apart and consigning it to oblivion, white devouring his form and all the Rangers beside him.

Dr. K played on, even as she vanished in the radiance.

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And found herself playing on a mountaintop. The music ground to a halt as she stopped in shock.

"…wow, Heaven looks a lot like Mt. Aster," a familiar Scottish accent said, as Dr. K turned around.

The RPM Rangers stood nearby, out of costume, and looking as stunned as she felt.

The sun was shining.

The sun was actually out, instead of covered in toxic clouds. Clouds that had always been overlooking a dead wasteland that was no longer there.

The world stretched out before the horizon before her.

"…We won." Ziggy said, speaking the words like he couldn't believe it.

There was a moment of silence.

"WE WON! WE SAVED THE WORLD!" Ziggy cried with far greater credence and joy, as he jumped into Dillon's arms. Dillon, still in the middle of being surprised, was nearly knocked over in the process.

The Rangers whooped, cheered, and celebrated, and for a moment Dr. K turned away, closed her eyes, and let out a long slow breath. She'd…no, they'd done it. They HAD saved the world, in the greatest way possible.

Who would have thought it?

There were other problems though. She'd have to figure out the exact nature of the chronological shift, and how she and her Rangers played into it. She might have inadvertently copied them onto a world where alternate versions of themselves existed, and if…

That was all the thought Dr. K got to do, as Gem and Gemma enveloped her in a joyful hug, and she realized that maybe, just maybe, thought could wait for now.

At least until Ziggy hugged her.

"YOU DID IT! YOU DIDITDOCTORK I KNEW…!" Ziggy said, actually picking Doctor K up off the ground.

"Ranger Series Green, I would highly suggest you lessen my elevation lest you cause strain and possible damage to your lumbar vertebrae," Dr. K said.

"Aw man, back on THIS again? Can't you ever cut me a break Dr. K?" Ziggy complained.

"Perhaps if you 'cut it out', Ranger Series Green," Dr. K said. Ziggy opened his mouth to protest again, only to find Dr. K's finger on it. "Though I will confess…I wouldn't have you any other way."

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The Hall Of Legends.

He'd seen many celebrations. It didn't make them any less satisfying.

"Another story with a happy ending," the Omega Ranger said, as he watched the RPM Rangers exalt over the miracle they'd accomplished. He'd have to send down a Grid Aspect for the RPM Rangers to record their memories in soon. No rush: there would be some time before the next team of Rangers rose to prominence, and…

…Wait.

The Omega Ranger's apparatus showed far more than any viewing technology…and he had picked up something else.

Something…off.

"…What is…?"

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The 31st Century.

"Problem, Cadet?"

The Time Force rookie jerked in his seat in surprise, before turning around and looking at the stern face of his commanding officer.

"Um, uh, no, Lieutenant Scotts. I was just looking at this…well I'm not sure if it's an anomaly, I'm not getting any readings…" Private Twinen said, looking back and forth between Jen Scotts and the computer screen he'd been staring at intently for some time now.

Jen chuckled inwardly to herself: the rookies were always so tense when she came around. Her reputation preceded her, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

"Yes rookie, we know. We've seen that 'anomaly' before," Jen said, leaning over and looking at the screen. "We can't figure out what it is either. It's some odd knot in the fabric of time, hanging around in the first half of the third millennium. I think it's been there since Time Force started. Nothing's ever come of it."

"It's not dangerous?"

"We've sent probes there, several times. They never found anything. Believe me, we've looked," Jen said. "Good for noticing it, but it's time to get back to work."

"…all right. If you say so, lieutenant." Private Twinen said, as Jen began heading back out of the monitoring station. If all she had to do was set a rookie straight, today would be a fine day.

Dull, but fine.

"…But I could have sworn…That didn't…" Private Twinen said. He assumed his superior officer knew what she was talking about, having prevented a great deal of chronological damage personally…but the energies readings that had briefly flickered across his screen…

…Was that really harmless?

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Time. When outside forces tried to tamper with it, strange things could occur. What would seem to be a natural order became tangled and confused, and what you would expect to have happened at one point, happened at another.

Unfortunately, some things will happen, and the precise time they occur means nothing.

Private Twinen HAD seen something off, in the time anomaly. He would never realize it was a reboot point of history, triggered by the RPM Ranger's actions, and that Time Force had never read anything strange from it because they'd instantly changed as it had.

Twinen never saw more then the slightest hint of what that reboot had done.

The Omega Ranger did, and as he realized just what it meant, the horror of it struck him to the core.

"No…!"

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The rough idea for what I created over the years came to me in a dream. In the dream, Rito went back in time and caused some severe inconveniences in the past, and the end result was that I turned into a goat.

Yes, dreams are quite idiosyncratic. The thought still occurred to me that while overt time travel might be preventable, a more subtle hand at work could cause potential catastrophe. For optimum safety, there should be an option.

That's how the machine started as. But as said, sometimes the idea goes farther and faster then you'd ever imagine.

It had been finished for about seven months : the remaining tasks were safety redundancies and the like. As for what it did…

I couldn't say. It had originated as an idea to protect against hostile time travel, but now…

Part of it was based on the instant transport technology Zordon developed to get us around. Another part dealt with the quantum physics of essentially manifesting something from nothing. Another part dealt with string theory, another part utilized math I had to invent as I went along…You can see why I say the idea sometimes has a life of it's own. In a strange way, I wasn't building the machine myself. The idea was.

The official name was the Empyrean Trigger. Mostly, I called it a name from some old comic books of mine, the Miracle Machine. Mostly because if I ever figured out precisely what it was supposed to do when it was turned on, it would be a miracle.

I've seen miracles happen.

I've also seen the exact opposite.

Even I never thought I'd see what happened that day.

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Somewhere, on the far edges of the universe.

Its official designation was TR-939495, a normal B-class star. Eventually, the process that had created it would cause it to explode into a supernova and then collapse.

That day was not supposed to have been today.

Things had changed.

The white mass of the super giant flared and abruptly exploded outward, an eruption of incalculable destructive energies. Supergiants did not lend themselves well to life, and hence the planets TR-939495 consumed and reduced to blackened cinders had no life on them. It did not make their destruction any less tragic, OR terrifying, as a portal opened in space and the Omega Ranger flew out on his personal transport platform.

He immediately felt the immense energies begin to hammer against his suit's protections, but he barely noticed. The supergiant had already reached its peak, and was beginning to contract into a black hole. The explosion of its death had been so quick there was still a massive amount of debris remaining of the destroyed planets: a normal supernova would have burned them to nothing.

This was not normal. The Omega Ranger was not an astrophysics expert, but he knew a star going supernova and collapsing took weeks, days, hours at the quickest. This was happening in MINUTES; the many villains the Rangers had faced would have been incapable of warping physics on the scale and speed this was happening, even the titans like Lord Zedd or Dark Specter.

This was something else. Something that had only existed in the worst doomsday calculations rangers had made throughout the years, events with odds in the same range of water spontaneously transforming into lead without outside interference. A thousand teams of rangers could supposedly come and go, and nothing like this would have happened.

The Rangers had been wrong. Their error, understandable as it was, may have just doomed them all.

If the Omega Ranger didn't have anything to say about it.

Tracking it wasn't difficult: even amongst the fierce storm of the star's death the unnatural read stood out. Getting there proved more hazardous, as the Omega Ranger flew through spinning asteroids and meteors, drawing closer to the emerging black hole. Several pieces of rubble had crashed together from the gravitational forces pulling on them, forming a chaotic patchwork planetoid that the Omega Ranger landed on.

The hand exploded from beneath the ground.

The Omega Ranger watched, speechless, as the form emerged, power crackling on its body. This was what had caused the impossible destruction.

Merely so it could be born.

"…Stop," the Omega Ranger said. Technically, nothing normal could have heard him: sound didn't carry in the vacuum of space.

The form did. Somehow, the Omega Ranger knew it would, as its body solidified. In a flash of light, cloaks draped themselves over it.

"It doesn't have to be this way!" the Omega Ranger said.

The form merely looked at the Omega Ranger, who drew his sword. He knew what he was facing. It would not slow him.

"I WON'T LET IT BE THIS WAY!"

The form did not make a single motion as the Omega Ranger charged, his sword exploding with radiant energy.

Not until the Omega Ranger swung.

He never saw it coming.

A moment later, the Omega Ranger crashed down to the ground a dozen feet away, his sword broken in half. He tried to rise up, and found his suit wouldn't listen to him. It was completely shut down.

The form lowered the hand it had struck with, even as it rose up and floated towards the Omega Ranger. The caretaker tried to fight to his feet as the shadow fell over him.

"Your way…"

The Omega Ranger heard the voice in his mind rather than his ears. The sound of the end.

"Is why I am."

The hand came down.

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The 31st Century.

It hadn't been a quiet day after all. To Jen's annoyance, the interruption came from a familiar source

"Lieutenant Scotts…"

"Yes, Private? Something else catch your eye about the tangle?"

"Uh no miss…I think we have a jump."

"What? Let me see," Jen said, as she looked over the cadet's shoulder while he called up his computer readings. She stared at them for several seconds, before pressing a few keys and studying the new information that came up.

"…Must be a computer error. Try and locate it cadet."

"What, miss?"

"It's a computer error."

"How do you know?" Private Twinen said. Jen sighed to herself: the fresh faces were always so eager.

"Cadet, the trace is far too faint for it to be a jump."

"Well yes but…can't people hide it or…"

"Cadet, do you know what time travel is like? You're forcibly plucking yourself out of your proper place in the timestream and forcing yourself down into a new area. It's not exactly natural, and it leaves a mark, no matter how advanced the timestream tech becomes or how hard you try to hide it." Jen said. "A trace that faint isn't possible: the science behind it essentially says you exist simultaneously at every part of the universe at the same time."

"…Oh." Private Twinen said.

"Where did it start and end anyway?"

"Uh…couldn't pinpoint the precise starting point. But it ended…"

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In the closing shadows of the second millennium.

It was an average day…for someone, she was sure. As it was for her, between the earthquake and the storm and the umbrella, Kimberly Ann Hart wasn't having a very average day.

Sighing in annoyance, Kimberly threw the ruined and useless umbrella in the trash bin, her clothes soaked and her hair an utter mess. She heard her shoes squish as she moved and made a face over the fact, wondering if her dad ever had days like this.

"Wish I could see him more often…" Kimberly thought out loud as she entered the combination to her locker. "Oh well, can't get much worse…"

She caught sight of him in her locker mirror a moment before he spoke.

"Kimberly?"

Oh no, Tommy. Kimberly thought, screaming in her head over her bedraggled state for a second before she turned to face him.

"Tommy!"

"Little wet out there?" Tommy Oliver said, grinning.

"A LITTLE wet?! I'm a total wreck! Can you believe that I have to show Mr. Caplin my Pep Rally plans in ten min…utes-OH NO!" Kimberly sighed, looking at her battered papers. "It looks like something I drew when I was three!"

There was a pause.

Inside her mind, Kimberly felt a sudden bloom of confusion. She blinked as Tommy looked at her.

What was that?

"…I'm sure it'll be fine, Kim," Tommy said reassuringly.

Kimberly blinked. The feeling didn't go away. Something felt…off.

Well, if there was an attack, Zordon would surely get in touch with her. It was pretty much impossible to catch him off guard for long. Shrugging, she turned and closed her locker.

"Yeah…maybe…" Kimberly said. Apparently she didn't sound all that convincing, as Tommy put a hand on her shoulder, misreading her mild disorientation as concern over her float.

"Hey. Maybe I could walk you home after school."

Kimberly stood another moment, before tucking some hair behind her ear. It was probably nothing. Life had had more general strangeness for her since she'd become a Power Ranger.

"Well, you know, anything could happen…"

"I'll take my chances," Tommy replied.

Kimberly toyed with her hair some more.

"…Okay."

The ringing bell interrupted the moment.

"Bye!" Kimberly said, turning around, closing her locker, and heading off. She vaguely heard Tommy reply with his own farewell as he hurried off to class.

The rest of the school day didn't go by fast enough for Kimberly, who had been growing closer to her fellow Ranger over the last few weeks since he had joined them.

It was almost enough to drown out the feeling of apprehension in the back of her mind.

Until she was walking home with Tommy, and she realized it hadn't gone away.

In fact, if one had asked her about her day, leading up to Tommy and her walking through the park, she would have realized that she couldn't recall any of it.

"It all started…" Kimberly said as she and Tommy walked down the hiking trail. "…last night. I had this dream where Rita was my stepmother!"

"Ooh, creepy!"

"Totally! And ever since then, my day has been one huge nightmare!"

"Really? Like what?" Tommy said as the pair walked past a bench.

"Well I…and there…" Kimberly said, trailing off. Tommy immediately noticed the silence. He also noticed what lay behind it.

"What's wrong?"

"…Tommy…have you felt…odd today?"

"Odd? Uh…" Tommy said, as he briefly studied the clouds. "Like what?"

"It's really weird. It's like…today isn't going like it should, ya'know?"

Tommy looked at her strangely.

"Well I ju-EEP!" Kimberly said as she suddenly tripped over a pebble.

Tommy beat her gymnastics training to the punch, as he surged down and grabbed her.

"…Always there to save me," Kimberly muttered. Tommy grinned absently.

"That's…me…" Tommy said. "…Kim…about…the…"

Kimberly leaned forward a bit, her hand touching his shoulder before gripping it. Maybe…

Tommy snapped his head away from her, and she felt every muscle in his body go tense.

Something was wrong.

Tommy Oliver had realized it a few seconds after he'd caught Kimberly. He'd realized, as she spoke, how quiet it was.

Far, FAR too quiet. It was like all the background noise in the world had been cut off. Even the wind that had begun to blow made no sound.

Tommy saw the figure a few seconds later. Kimberly followed his gaze.

Her vision briefly lost focus, as she shook her head and looked once more, vaguely aware that Tommy had fallen into the combat stance he'd trained to perfection.

It wasn't a monster, at least in terms of what Kimberly had seen. The figure that slowly walked towards them seemed as human as them, dressed in a simple blue robe…

Wait…hadn't it been yellow before?

Kimberly's vision blurred again, a scratch of discomfort running across her brain. She was vaguely aware of Tommy making a small noise of malaise himself. She tried to look once more, only to get more of the same discomfort…

The figure wore red robes now. He carried a simple red staff. His face was covered by a simple, featureless red mask-green mask.

His whole outfit had shifted color.

The discomfort grew greater. After a moment, Kimberly realized why.

It literally hurt to look at him.

"Who are you?" Tommy said: if he was suffering the same discomfort Kimberly was, as it seemed, it didn't take the fierceness out of his voice…

It was then Kimberly saw it, as the figure slowly approached.

The grass was dying around him, instantly turning brown and then black with every step he took. He was leaving a scar of dead dust behind him.

"Thomas Oliver…"

The figure's voice, strangely, didn't hurt. What it did was alter in pitch and inflection for every single syllable it spoke. It would have been comical if the figure's presence had been anything but.

"…what…are…" Kimberly tried to get out.

"The balance," The figure said, as he continued his slow advance. "The balance must be struck once more."

"WHAT balance? What are you talking about?" Tommy said, his tension even greater than before. The figure had no reply.

A leaf, floating on the wind, brushed against it. A second later said leaf exploded into dust. A second later another spike of pain buried itself in Kimberly's head, causing her to stumble back a step.

This was not how it should be going. Zordon should have contacted them. They should have contacted the others. They should have fought, where were the Putties, this was all WRONG, why couldn't she THINK…

"Kimberly, go."

"…What?" Kimberly said.

"GO! TELEPORT!" Tommy yelled, putting himself between Kimberly and the approaching figure.

"Tommy we…"

"Get out of here. Tell Zordon! Hurry!" Tommy yelled, as he reached for his morpher. If he had to, he'd fight entirely at distance to…

The figure was no longer approaching. It was right in front of him.

Seizing his wrist.

Tommy instantly felt his whole arm go dead, like a puppet limb whose strings had been cut. It wasn't painful, in fact it wasn't anything.

It only made it worse.

"TOMMY!" Tommy heard Kimberly scream behind him. She'd been as blind to Tommy of the figure's movement: one moment he was closing in, and the next he was there. Stopping Tommy with a mere grip.

"This is unfortunate, I suppose," the figure said. "Fortuity, however, no longer matters."

"…you…you…" Tommy said.

Kimberly attacked as best she could, as she jerked around Tommy and lashed out with her foot, her brain telling her the few seconds it would take her to morph would take away any chance she had…

The figure looked at her.

Kimberly felt the terrible cold impact slam into her, and as her feet left the ground, she realized no matter what she would have done, she would have had no chance.

"Tommy…"

The cold consumed her, and as Tommy watched in wide-eyed terror, Kimberly Hart shattered like a snowflake, her body exploding into gray dust.

The worst part was not the rage and sorrow that blasted through Tommy Oliver's body as he watched Kimberly be blasted to atoms.

The worst part was a second later it was gone, along with all his strength. He fell to his knees.

The figure still held his wrist. The figure…was taking it. All of it.

Tommy, for all his power, could barely lift his head to look.

"Balance," the figure said. "That is all."

And with another blast of silent wind, Tommy Oliver joined Kimberly in oblivion.

The figure lowered its hand, looking down at what it had wrought.

"Whatever it takes."

The wind began to howl like an agonized beast.

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They say nature abhors a vacuum.

They have no idea.

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Dr. K felt it before she heard it, a low buzzing in her teeth. The sounds of her triumphant Rangers abruptly faded away, as her whole consciousness realized what she was feeling.

What it meant.

"…No," Dr. K said in quiet, utter horror.

A moment later, the mountain began to shake. The RPM Rangers stopped celebrating.

"What's going on?" Scott said.

"No, no, NO!"

The mountain suddenly lurched like it had been struck by a giant hand, throwing the Rangers and Dr. K to the ground. In her peripheral vision, Dr. K saw the distant horizon buckle and crack open, the pleasant plains and forest collapsing into the shattering continental shelf.

Dr. K could hear her Rangers yelling, and possibly the faint sound of a transformation, but it all seemed very far away. She had been wrong. She hadn't manipulated the time stream correctly. Now the backlash of her actions was coming to bear, as the greater forces of the universe recoiled and destroyed anything in their path.

She'd destroyed the world. Again.

This time, it was all her fault…

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. K was not the only witness to doomsday, as Leo Corbett stared into the sky. Looking at the massive meteor as it came down towards them. Out of nowhere. Too late to stop.

Just like that, Terra Venture would die.

He wanted to save his people. He wanted to stop it.

He knew he couldn't.

All he could do was fall on his knees and scream.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dustin Brooks had no words as he pulled himself up from where he had fallen, barely aware of the dirt in his mouth. All he could see was the gigantic tidal wave filling the horizon, coming to wipe Blue Bay Harbor off the face of the Earth. What had happened? He'd just been biking, like any normal day…and then…no warning, no indication, no grand gesture or proclamation.

Suddenly, the whole world was falling down around his ears.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The world was screaming.

No, it was worse. Life itself was screaming. Something terrible was happening on the highest planes, and its cost was soul-crushing, as Princess Shayla stumbled from the heart of Animaria, looking in shocked terror at the crashing storm clouds above. She had to get the Rangers organized, this was..

Too late, far too late, as the king of all lightning bolts exploded from the seething black above, blowing a gigantic hole through the heart of Animaria and sending it falling to the Earth below.

The screams were no longer in Shayla's head: her voice had joined them.

Down below on terra firma, Cole Evans could only watch as everything he had fought to protect went crashing down.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The exploding computers hurled Jen into a wall, her shoulder wrenching painfully as she hit the floor. What on earth had just happened? What in all of TIME HAD JUST HAPPENED?!

"I DON'T THINK THIS IS AN ERROR MISS-ARRRRRGHHHHHHHH!" Private Twinen screamed as the wall suddenly collapsed on him. Terrible winds crashed through the Time Force headquarters, a hurricane from nowhere ripping the whole place apart.

Jen had seen it, the biggest time spike she'd ever witnessed. Someone had changed the past. Someone had changed the past without leaving the slightest indication that it was happening, and had changed something so big the whole universe was quaking over it: up and down the timeline disasters literally came out of thin air, further exacerbating the damage to the time stream. Even Frax's actions hadn't come close to the sheer destruction this change had caused.

It shouldn't have been this way. Timeline damage was, by it's nature, rippling and possible to contain before it reached this level. Jen had barely had time to recover seeing the chrono-spike and ordering a Code Black before the damage crashed into the future.

Too fast. Too much.

Something big had just emerged from the ether.

So big she'd could barely comprehend just what.

"…Wes," Jen whispered: the last thing she wanted to do in her final moments was agonize over just how big the force behind this had to be. Just why it had brought its crushing hand down on them.

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Across the cosmos, a silver protector fought to help his people escape from a sudden magnetic pole shift…

In a crumbling base, a canine leader tried to issue orders while his mind raged at the fact a volcano had suddenly exploded through the streets of his city…

A firestorm claimed a forest that no longer offered any protection…

A brave leader found his courage was nothing in the face of a cracking, imploding underwater base…

A punishing rain of hammering ice smashed through a mountain as an electronic heart surged with unnatural fear…

A mind wondered if his insurance would go up as ruptured gas mains exploded across the streets of his city on route to his restaurant…

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And on Aquitar, a voice screamed in Billy Cranston's head.

"BILLY WAKE UP!"

Billy did more than that: he nearly fell out of the small cot he had dozed off on. Another long night pondering his…

"BILLY, THE MACHINE! YOUR MACHINE! TURN IT ON!"

"What, who…why did…"

"NO TIME! ACTIVATE THE TRIGGER!"

Normally, Billy would have done the exact opposite of a strange voice suddenly yelling in his mind…except it wasn't yelling. It was…pleading, a soft, quiet if fierce desperation that Billy realized no villain he'd fought could convincingly fake.

"Who are…"

The jolt threw him violently to the ground, various random objects around his 'nap-room' promptly joining him on the floor. The jolt was followed by an even stronger one, like Aquitar was suffering an earthquake.

Except Billy knew the design of the planet's tectonic plates. Aquitar COULDN'T suffer earthquakes.

"HURRY!!"

Billy forced himself up and slammed the doorpad button: the door only made it halfway before it jammed in a shower of sparks. Billy said a word a lot of his friends would be surprised he knew and squeezed himself through the door: just how bad the situation was was now fully hitting him. If the planet was being affected on a level that it was activating such intense tremors in such a stable setup, the entire Aquitarian civilization could collapse. The death toll would be appalling.

"Cestria…" Billy said, briefly frozen in the hallway at the thought. She was close, he could…

"NO TIME!"

"But I can't…" Billy said, turning down the hallway…as the ceiling collapsed, blocking it off before Billy could go down it.

"Billy, listen to me. The only way to save them, and yourself, is your machine! This is why I had you build it! IT'S NEEDED! NOW! HURRY!!!!!!"

Part of Billy didn't want to listen: it wanted to fight through the wreckage and save what mattered most. The larger part however, knew that he couldn't. He'd been taught to see the bigger picture. His mentor, Zordon, had died for the sake of the bigger picture.

If he had to, he would as well.

His workshop wasn't far.

He also didn't have much time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe less than even he realized, as the figure stood among the blowing leaves in the forest where he had set all this in motion.

He could feel it, the incredible shift across time. The damage was horrendous…but that was the cost. The Rangers had brought this on themselves, and ignorance was not a strong enough excuse to stay his hand.

Whether what he had wrought would be enough was yet to be seen. The timeline was in chaos, and exactly how much of the damage would be reversed when it stabilized, even he couldn't tell. Once it had settled, he would assess things and, if needed, make further changes. The rest was…

…Wait.

He could sense it. It had tried to hide itself amongst what he had done, but it had not succeeded.

A counter-measure.

"…So, you are going to raise an opposition. And you can, hmmm." The figure said. "I'm not really surprised."

The figure raised his staff.

"It won't matter."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The workshop door surprisingly didn't jam. Instead, Billy tripped over a bench that had been thrown across the room, banging his knees and shin. He ignored the pain, scrambling up and quickly flipping the several switches on various parts of the mechanism.

"Wait, YOU inspired this?" Billy said out loud.

"Yes! Hurry!"

"What is it going to DO?" Billy said, as he opened a safe with a handprint and withdrew a modified Aquitar-Morpher, which he inserted into part of the room-filling mechanism to serve as a key.

"Save us all. Save everything."

"Who's doing this? Zedd? Specter? Some new villain I never heard of?"

"No…it's…it's…oh no."

The force shockwave blew Billy across the room. He crashed into a length of computers that ran part of his device and bounced off, sparks shooting off the wall and burning the back of his neck.

He was no longer alone.

"Do not interfere," The figure said. Billy looked at the figure, his shifting colors and voice, before the same spike of pain that Tommy and Kimberly had suffered drilled into his head.

It didn't prevent him from standing up, taking two steps to the left, and opening a concealed panel that contained a potent blaster, as he aimed at the figure and opened fire.

The shots blinked out of existence before they hit the target, and with a brief gesture Billy no longer had the weapon. It flew into the figure's hand, and a second later crumpled to dust.

"Stubborn. Seems to be a shared trait," the figure said. "It is still without a point."

"I disagree," Billy said, having flipped several more switches as the figure spoke. The machine hummed around them as Billy lunged for the master switched.

He stopped, frozen, in his tracks.

"I still speak the truth," the figure said, approaching the immobile former Ranger. "The balance will be struck."

His hand reached out.

"No matter what-"

"NO!"

The nearby wall exploded with the cry, as Delphine flew in, her blade slashing across the figure's form. Billy found he could move again, as he collapsed in a heap.

"DO IT WILLIAM! SWIFTLY!' Delphine yelled, and dashed at the figure in a flash of white.

Her sword passed through him this time. A second later, he had her by the throat.

"Enough."

Delphine was silent as the gray oblivion erupted across her form, consuming the white of her uniform before she shattered into dust.

"This is what must be done. This is the will of the universe. All else pales in comparison," the figure said, as he turned towards Billy…

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The world was breaking apart. So was Dr. K's heart, as she scrambled on her knees across all the destruction. How could she have been so foolish…what had she done…what had she done…

She should have stayed alone.

She was…alone.

No Rangers left.

Nothing but the blood on her hands.

Literally, as she staggered through a choking dust cloud and found her hands plunging into something wet and sticky. She looked at her bloody palms in shock before her eyes turned to the source of it.

Ziggy Grover. So flippant. So aggravating. So…very precious.

He lay before her, his chest crushed by a rock, his eyes frozen in his final moments of surprise. She'd failed him. Failed them all.

"…no…no no no no…Ziggy…!"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Billy hadn't gone far.

Just to the master switch.

"My disagreement stands."

With one swift motion, the Empyrean Trigger was pulled.

"NO," The figure said, raising a hand.

Once again, a brilliant radiance was born, bright enough to consume even the figure.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"ZIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!" Dr. K screamed to the voiceless, collapsing heavens.

BLINK.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"DR. K! IS THAT-!"

BLINK.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The escape pods are-!"

BLINK.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

BLINK.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Zordonwecan'tIwon'tdamnyouallthisisn'tagoodthingIwillsaveyouwecan'tneverthiscan'thappenWE'RETHEPOWERRANGERS."

BLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINKBLINK.

"I am the power. I will protect you."

Then there was silence.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere. Everywhere.

"ZIGGY! ZIGGY!" Dr. K screamed, surging up. She found herself in a pair of arms.

"Whoa, whoa, Dr. K. Calm down. Calm down. It's me. It's Flynn. No need to raise a caterwaul. Calm down," Flynn said, trying to comfort the clearly shattered scientist.

"Huh…wuh…Ziggy…Flynn?"

"Yeah."

"…What happened?"

"I dunno Doc, but if this is the afterlife, I have to say it's not quite what I expected." Flynn said, looking around. The two were in an expansive room, larger then it appeared at first glance: screens and computers filled its corners and lined its walls, pipes built within the structure connecting to other areas within the room. Within the center of it, amongst more complex computers, was a large empty tube, which may or may not have been the source of the light source that illuminated the room. Behind Flynn and Dr. K were six other tubes, smaller in size, and currently occupied.

By costumes. Familiar looking costumes.

"…Doc, did you have a secret lab with prototype outfits or something?" Flynn asked, as he helped the petite woman to her feet, both of them still looking at the white and gold outfit in front of them.

"Ranger Series Blue, had I any workable prototypes, I would have brought them to…the vortex…where…I wish I knew…"

Flynn was about to reply when the small blaster pistol was pressed against his head.

"Hello," Jen said in a low tone that verged on a growl. "I would like some answers. You seem like as good a place as any to start."

A second later, Jen had her own blaster pointing at her head.

"Sorry Jen, but I recall this is the best way to get something through your head," Carter Grayson said. "Drop it and calm down."

"Carter…what…no. It might be a trick. You put YOUR gun down if you're Carter!"

"Ah, pardon the interruption my good people, but while you discuss the finer points of who is who, you wouldn't mind movin' that blaster a wee bit to the left now, would ye?" Flynn said.

"That sounds like a good idea," a new voice said, and everyone turned to look at the speaker, who waved. "Hi! I'm Bridge!"

"If I wanted your name, I'd give it to you." Jen said.

"Oh, yes, I can see the strength you emit. But uh, you see…I can also tell by that that while you're stubborn and bull-headed, you're not cold or stupid. So I know you're not going to actually shoot that nice Irish man there, so why don't you just…"

"Irish? Hey! Ah'm-!" was all Flynn got out before another figure loomed out of the shadows and grabbed Jen's wrist, giving it a quick twist that caused her to drop her firearm. She yelped and whirled away from the figure, as Flynn turned to give thanks…and found himself lacking words as he discovered he was looking at a humanoid dog-person. Carter seemed equally surprised.

"Very nice distraction, Carson. Your next assignment is to tell me why you're wearing Cadet Tate's uniform," Anubis Cruger said, retrieving Jen's firearm from the ground.

"Well sir as you recall that happened when Jack left and Sky was promoted so I got promoted too and I now wonder why the girls didn't get promoted they helped us defeat A-Squad which is why there is no more A-Squad and you should really know this Cruger sir and wasn't a tornado ripping up SPD headquarters and you all seem very confused and come to think of it I am confused too…"

"How's this for clarity?" came a new voice, as a sword came down from the shadows behind Bridge and placed itself on his shoulder.

"What? Leo?" Carter said.

"Hey Carter. Been a while. Now, I agree with the gun girl. I'd like some answers please," Leo said.

"The testosterone in this room is approaching overload," Dr. K commented.

"What's THAT supposed to mean?" Jen retorted.

"It means, violent white uniform girl, that everyone should just calm down," came yet another new voice, as Robert "RJ" James glided into the room, gesturing downward with his palms. For a moment, Dr. K idly wondered where everyone was coming from.

"…Who are YOU?" Leo, Bridge, Carter, Jen, and Flynn all asked at roughly the same time and fashion. RJ winced.

"Ow, I feel so alone."

"Hey! He's right! COOL IT! Now's not a time to be turning on each other!" came (surprise surprise) a new voice. However, much to her shock, Dr. K found she recognized the speaker.

"…Zachary Taylor?"

"It's Zack miss. Just…Zack…hold on. How do you know my name?" Zack said.

"…You are Zachary Taylor, Ranger Series Black of the Generation 1 Rangers, helmed by the alien Zordon of Eltar, wielder of the Mammoth Power Coin?"

"…Uh yes?" Zack said.

"…I think I may have a rough idea of what's happened…maybe." Dr. K said.

A loud blast near the gathered Rangers cut off her remaining sentence.

"I don't care for answers, I just require a door. Right now!" said a figure in horned armor holding a shotgun-like weapon.

"Whoa man!" Zack said, backing up a bit.

"I reiterate, chill. Listening, it's a good thing," RJ said. Several of the other Rangers had begun reaching for their morphers, before a confused cry cut them all off.

"Mike?!" Leo said, rushing forward. "I don't understand, how did you get the Magna Defender's powers back?"

"I do not know what you mean, Red Ranger!" the Magna Defender growled, looking down at the human. "If this is some trick of yours to stop me from getting my vengeance, I will destroy you!"

"Hey wait! Nobody's destroyin' anybody!" Flynn said, putting himself in front of Doctor K.

"I will not be detained from my goal! SCORPIUS MUST DIE!" the Magna Defender yelled: Carter and Cruger had clearly decided going for their blasters was probably the better option, as they slowly did so, watching the tense figure. "AND YOU ARE ALL IN MY WAY!"

"Motro Unios!"

Some green light abruptly struck the Defender from behind, and he suddenly went slack, collapsing onto the floor.

"Sorry all. Seemed like the best option. Could have been messy," Xander Bly said as he stepped up from behind the Magna Defender. He wasn't alone.

"Yeah, what got in HIS coffee?" Charlie 'Chip' Thorn added.

"He shouldn't be like this, something's wrong…" Leo said, kneeling by the entity that was possessing his brother. "…Wait, who are you?"

"ENOUGH!"

Everyone turned around at the command, looking at the person standing in front of the main central tube.

"I don't want this to keep going in circles!" Jason Lee Scott said. "Everyone, calm down."

"…Jason Lee Scott," Dr. K said.

"You know that guy too?" Flynn said.

"…Jason. Well, I suppose it's good you're here. Good to see you," Leo said. Jason looked at him for a moment.

"…Do I know you?"

"…Well yeah, we fought the Machine Empire together! Remember? Venjix?"

"VENJIX?!" Flynn and Doctor K said at the same time, looking at Leo.

"Yeah, Venjix! The Machine Empire general guy!" came, once more, another new voice, as Cole Evans appeared from whatever place everyone else had come from and headed to Jason. "It's an honor to see you again, sir!"

Jason looked at Cole's offered hand, a touch bewildered, though he eventually took it.

"Did you call me to help with some mess? I could really use some help, things are bad…"

"Look, to be honest, I can't really say who you are…" Jason said. "That seems to be…hey!"

Despite the confusion, Dr. K had noticed more and more people were still showing up in the room. Jason's eyes had focused on two more new ones.

"Adam! Rocky! Good, you're here! Who else is…guys?" Jason said, looking at the two Rangers.

"…You're Jason right?" Adam Park said.

"Oh yeah! The original Red Ranger! I remember!" Rocky DeSantos said.

"Original? What?" Zack said, back to being confused and wondering, in the back of his head, why Jason was wearing black.

"Yeah, you know," Rocky said. "You guys had to leave to a peace conference, we replaced you, our powers got destroyed, then we got reborn as the Zeo Rangers…"

"Zeo Rangers?" Adam and Zack asked at the same time.

"Replaced?" Zack added.

"Oy, know anythin' that's going on here?" Xander asked Flynn.

"Wish I did," Flynn replied. Xander looked at him a moment.

"You're Irish?"

"Irish? No! Ah'm-!"

"JASONLEESCOTT!" a sudden cry sounded off, as Chip rushed up to meet the Ranger. "You're here! You're real! Well of course you're real, real as can be, but I mean you're really you! The original Mighty Morphin' Red Ranger!" Chip geeked out.

"What, no love for the brotha'?" Zack asked. Dr. K held her head in pain. There were too many voices, too many thoughts, too many people, she could swear even MORE people had joined the room, and she could swear one of them appeared to be some sort of flickering ghost, and they were all talking at once, confusion reigning…

"HEY! QUIET!" Jason thundered. He'd seen something he hadn't noticed before, as he headed over to a figure crumbled behind a computer and helped them up.

"Urggggggrrrrrrr…" Billy groaned.

"Billy!"

"Billy? Oh man, are you hurt…man?" Zack said, heading over to Jason, noticing Rocky and Adam doing so as well. "Hey, careful guys."

"What? He's our friend too!"

"He is?"

"William Cranston?" Cruger said.

"Cranston? Isn't there a new recruit by that name, Cruger sir?" Bridge said.

"Yes…I believe this is his father. Except it's too young to be his father. I knew it, this mess involves time travel. I never liked time travel," Cruger said.

"Hey, watch it." Jen said.

"Billy Cranston? This has to be…but how…" Dr. K said.

"…Guys?" Billy murmured.

"Yeah Billy it's us. You all right?"

"…Delphine…Cestria…Aquitar…what…what happened…"

"You ever feel like you're left out of the loop?" Xander asked Chip.

"Every day at school."

"That's because you wear a cape, mate," Xander said. "And who are YOU?"

"Hi, I'm TJ. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to add to the confusion," Theodore Johnson said.

"Oh lord. Does anyone ELSE want to fall out of the sky?" Flynn complained.

A rough second later, Zhane and Mackenzie Hartford literally fell out of the sky. On top of Flynn and Xander.

"BLOODY HELL!" Flynn yelled, and the room erupted in renewed confusion…

The light on the central tube ignited, finally bringing a more permanent silence to the room.

"…Zordon?" Jason said.

"Not precisely, Rangers," the figure said as it…as she lowered down in the light. Zack's eyes widened.

"…Trini?" Zack said. The figure smiled slightly.

"No Rangers. I have no absolute form. All of you see me as someone different. Someone who is, or was, important to you."

"…well that explains why Gemma was floating down in the light," Flynn said.

"I did think that was beyond her," Dr. K said.

"…You." Billy said, as he finally got back to his feet. "You were the voice I heard in my head. You helped me build the Empyrean Trigger."

"Yes…I did," the figure said. "I had hoped to be here when you all arrived…but circumstances have damaged the process. I arrived last…and many of you…did not arrive at all. But there will be time for that later. I must provide greetings. And introductions."

"…Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi, is it possible?" came the last new voice. On any other day, Flynn would have found the robot who had abruptly shown up strange. "Are you…"

"Yes Alpha 5. I am," the woman said. "Let me speak, and I will explain. First, I will greet, and introduce. Jason Lee Scott."

"Uh, hey there," Jason said.

"Zachary Taylor."

"Yo all!"

"Adam Park."

"…Hi."

"Rocky DeSantos."

"I'm rather confused right now."

"Theodore Jay Jarvis Johnson."

"Hey there all! And it's TJ, please."

"Zhane of KO-35."

"My head hurts, I honestly can't remember if I have a last name."

"Leo Corbett. And the spirit warrior who inhabits his brother, known as the Magna Defender, though he does not seem…appreciative of greetings."

"This…isn't going to be permanent, is it?" Leo said, hovering around the still-downed Magna Defender.

"Carter Grayson."

"Hey. I'm ready to help with whatever needs done."

"Jen Scotts."

"I want to know what's going on already!"

"Cole Evans."

"Happy to help…we're going to be able to save Animaria aren't we?"

"Waldo "Dustin" Brooks."

"Hmmm…what? I'm not napping? Who are all of you?"

"Ethan James."

"Hey…I recognize most of you!"

"Trent Fernedez."

"Oh god Trent, I didn't see you! I…oh please tell me you remember me! I don't need…!"

"Relax Ethan, I remember you," Trent replied.

"Oh thank Tolkien!"

"To my regret."

"Oh come on!"

"Bridge Carson."

"Hi Ethan! Trent!"

"Who's he?" Ethan asked.

"Heck if I know."

"Xander Bly and Charles Thorn."

"Oy, why'd we get mentioned together?!"

"Maybe she's getting impatient."

"Mackenzie Hartford."

"Look, since we all seem to be on the same side…just to break the ice, I am an android. Just…you know, putting that out there. Unlike my dad."

"Robert James."

"Hey hey, my name is RJ. R.J."

"Hey man you stole my gig!" TJ said.

"I do not know good sir, based on overheard comments I am yet unsure who came first."

"Flynn McAllistair."

"Why are we all talkin' one at a time?"

"I think it was to be polite, young man," Cruger said.

"So…no one is the slightest bit confused that I'm a humanoid robot?" Mack said. There were a chorus of replies from across the room, including 'Seen it before', 'Big deal', and 'Not as uncommon as you'd think.' "…I don't know if I'm happy or sad."

"No…seriously dudes, what's going on?" Dustin asked no one in particular.

"First off, bro, don't call me dude," Zack said. "Second, wait for the glowing Angela…wasn't she Trini earlier? Anyway, wait for her to tell us."

"You are all united in a single cause. Past or present, you are all Power Rangers," the female figure said. "With you are allies, teachers, and mentors…as best that could be done. Dr. K, the creator of the Racing Performance Machines, who brought power to Rangers in the darkest of times."

"…What's the Racing Performance Machines?"

"That's what RPM stands for, Ranger Series Blue." Dr. K said tersely.

"Ach, we're back to the Ranger Series thing!"

"Anubis Cruger, valiant warrior and commander of Space Patrol Delta."

"Hello. I think I'm starting to understand what's going on."

"Ninjor, creator of the original Power Coins. I apologize for your…altered state."

"My body's status means nothing: my heart is all that matters, and it has not changed!" The strange, ghostly figure Dr. K had seen earlier said. "I will lend my aid to these assembled Rangers, in any way possible!"

"Alpha 5. Right arm of Zordon of Eltar, creator of the Ranger legacy."

"Aiyiyiyiyiyi, caught unprepared for this, I'm so embarrassed…"

"And Billy Cranston. The man who built the device that saved you all and brought you here. The man who granted me form and the ability to act."

"Who…what are you?" Billy asked.

"Why didn't I wonder that…" Flynn muttered to himself, as the woman smiled.

"I…am Sentai. I am the soul of what you call the universal morphing grid." Sentai said. "All of you draw your power from me. In a way…you are all my children."

The Rangers were silent. For the most part.

"…Well, it's not creepy to hear Madison say that or anything. Right Chip?" Xander said.

"…It sounds kind of nice coming from Vida," Chip said after a second.

Dr. K waited a few more seconds, and then braced herself and stepped forward.

"Did I do this?"

The assembled Rangers looked at her.

"All of us, brought together across time. You clearly wanted to save us. Is it because…of what I did?"

"…Unfortunately, Dr. K, it is. It is NOT, however, for the reason you think," Sentai said. "I wish I could have met you under better circumstances. I wish…all of you had been here. But it…but HE has seen otherwise."

"Who's he? Why ARE we here?" Jason asked.

"…He is Entropy, Jason." Sentai said. "He seeks to take all you have done, and scour it from the face of existence. The worst part is, he is technically right."

Silence reigned.

"But…we're the good guys." Flynn said.

"That, Flynn, is the heart of the problem. That, I am afraid, has led you here. The greatest challenge you will ever face."

"…I really need a smoothie."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From outside, the building was very familiar. Familiar to several faces, as it seemed a fusion of several fortresses and commander centers that had, at one point, served the Power Rangers.

Outside it, Entropy stood, staff over one shoulder. He regarded the building, and what lay within. Feeling the changes the being inside had wrought.

"…Very well. If that is how it must be done."

Entropy turned and walked away. The gauntlet had been thrown down. He would answer it, and crush the hand that wielded it.

The balance would be struck.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've never been…the strongest Ranger. I've never been the most confident.

I know what's happened.

Reality is dying. Everything is being destroyed. And as we were to find out, we were what caused it.

I would think…that there would be no hope…but I am a Ranger. I look around me, and I see Rangers. I look around me, and I see hope. If there is anything in all of time and space that can save the universe from itself, it is us.

We are the Power Rangers.

Let what may come come.


I believe there is a trend to show a 'preview' of the story. I'll keep it brief.

I AM ENTROPY.

I AM THE FATE OF ALL THINGS.

I WILL NOT BE DENIED.