Believing in Magic

by Vathara

A clash of magics throws Dr. Lita Kino into the Shadow Realm... can an ordinary human make it back to Angel Grove?

Believing in Magic

A/N: This story is set in the "Foreign xChange" crossover universe. Yu-Gi-Oh belongs to Kazuki Takahashi et al., Power Rangers and their various incarnations to Saban etc.; no infringement intended. Dr. Lita Kino, Jamie Zedden and Christina borrowed with permission from Ellen Brand's "Personality Conflicts" Power Rangers/multi-crossover universe. (Thanks!) Picture this as an AU (for PC) story set after the PC "Dark Mirror" trilogy, not long before "Foreign xChange".

~*~*~*~*~

Note to self, Dr. Lita Kino thought blearily, pushing herself up from a graceless sprawl on wet grass as she blinked away after-images of a massive magical explosion. Start taking alternate routes home. From the number of Tengas that just showed up, Rita's obviously figured out you live in the neighborhood. And Rangers or no Rangers, having a self-styled Empress of Evil know where you live falls nicely into the bad things category. Even when they don't have their winged henchmen throw Voids of Darkness at you....

Brushing damp leaves off her forest-green suit, the psychiatrist frowned. Her vision was still blurry, but this was not Angel Grove. Not unless they've added a cemetery I don't know about. Chilled, she tapped her green-and-white communicator. "Billy? Alpha?"

Static.

"I refuse to panic," Lita muttered. "Let's try teleport...."

No unmistakable skzrchh! No blurring of her already-shadowed surroundings. Nothing.

"Okay. Obviously they can't get a lock here." Probably because of magical interference from whatever last-ditch spell the Red Ranger had flung to block Goldar's Void. Tommy Oliver was one heck of a Zeo Ranger, but despite Zordon's training he still didn't know all the ins and outs of spell-casting. Especially when it came to facing down Rita's magic. Wizard power versus dark witchery could have unpredictable results. Lita squinted around lingering spots, bringing carved stone into focus. "So the first order of business is, where is here?"

Apparently somewhere the locals spoke English, judging by some of the names carved on marble. And Japanese, and Ancient Egyptian....

The brunette poked at white limestone, wondering if she'd mistaken the markings in the fading twilight. Green light threw them in sharper relief, but the carvings didn't change. "Hieroglyphs. Who has gravestones carved in hieroglyphs...." She paused with one finger on a carved lion, gaze slipping down to the source of emerald light. My pocket?

The Green Coin. Blazing like a star between her fingers, throwing back shadows with a sense of warmth against the growing chill. Glowing in a way she'd never seen in Angel Grove, even when Tommy had invoked its stored power to become the Green Ranger one last time.

"Earth just dropped low on the list of possible places." Lita scanned her emerald-lit surroundings, looking for any details she might have missed in the twilight. "Looks like this place goes on for miles." Maybe the whole dimension was a graveyard?

"Think positive," Lita muttered. "First thing you do when you're lost is stay put...."

Something tittered in the darkness, just out of sight.

"Right. Scratch that idea. So. Eenie, meenie, minie, moe.... Hey. Not bad." A glimpse between the tombstones promised trees and running water. And from what she remembered of wilderness survival, water meant more options.

"Just remember landmarks are usually farther away than they look," Lita reminded herself, working her way through the maze of carvings to come face to face with a fitted fieldstone wall that wouldn't have looked out of place around an ancient New England hermit's estate. Lifting the Coin to run light over the rough surface of the wall, she nodded. Yep. I can do this. She dropped alien metal back into her pocket. Dried her hands on her sleeves. And started climbing.

Wind howled. Dead leaves blew past her face, sharp stems curling near her eyes.

Lita ducked, scrabbled up faster. "Something doesn't want me getting out of here...."

No sound. No warning shadow caught her gaze. Just a prickle in her nerves, a sudden impulse to shift sideways-

Shing!

Dark metal sliced into stone.

Lita grabbed the top of the wall, pulled herself up and to the side as the scythe yanked free of rock. She caught a glimpse of a black robe floating in the wind, chill blue glows where eyes and mouth should have been-

Slash!

Blinding pain burst in her left shoulder. Clinging to consciousness, Lita kicked herself over the wall. Some kind of Reaper monster - might be bound to the graveyard....

The ground didn't hurt at all.

This is not good, the psychiatrist knew distantly. She could feel warm wetness soaking her side, turning the emerald light from her pocket into a frantic jade strobe. The scent of copper hung heavy in the air. "Help."

Green light halted. Gathered.

Burst free in an emerald streak across the sky, fading meteor-swift into the darkness.

Well, that did... something, Lita thought dizzily, clamping one hand over her shoulder to try and stem the hot flow. Zordon, I hope your kids just pulled something out of their bag of tricks. I'm in real trouble here.

Chuckling maliciously, a black robe floated over the graveyard wall.

"That's not fair," Lita objected thickly. "Damn it, I'm not dead yet!"

Dark metal lifted. Waved in the starlight, one lazy waggle before the final stroke-

And the unmistakable sense of magic burned down her nerves, starlight and darkness and pure power blasting from one outstretched hand.

An emerald staff parted the smoke left from the shattered Reaper, clearing the way for a tall figure in violet robes and armor. A pointed armored hat rested on lavender hair, shading worried sea-green eyes. One muscular hand reached down to her, the other holding his staff in obvious guard.

"Sorry," Lita grimaced. "Don't think I can get up." Things were starting to spin, and she was cold....

"You," her rescuer said, low voice lightened with surprise, "Are not my pharaoh."

~*~*~*~*~
Um. Lita snuggled deeper into downy blankets, luxuriating in the soft warmth next to her skin. The soft crackle of flames hinted at a fireplace, and a cheerful whistle and a scent of hot chocolate spoke of someone bustling about the hearth. Oh yeah. Much better....

Wait. Warm. Skin. Whistling...?

"Hi!" Wide blue eyes blinked into hers; a blonde in a cutely short pink and blue version of her rescuer's outfit, smiling like sunlight as she poured steaming cocoa into a mug. "You're a mortal, aren't you?"

"Ah," Lita said intelligently, noting that the Green Coin had been wrapped in a jade ribbon and tied to her wrist beside her communicator. It seemed to pulse warmly against her skin. They didn't take it, so they're probably not evil. Doesn't mean they couldn't hurt me by accident. White bandages held some sort of warm poultice on her shoulder. It still hurt dully, but an experimental flex of fingers at least promised all her nerves were once again in one piece. "Yes?"

"Goblin's Secret Remedy," the blonde informed her with a nod at the poultice, helping Lita hold ivory-silk sheets in place as she sat up against the pale blue pillows. "Don't worry, it works fine on mortals. Just a little slower." She pulled up a chair by the bed, held out the mug. "I'm Mana."

"Lita," Dr. Kino offered. She could see what was left of her bloody clothes bundled on a desk across the room, set respectfully next to a beaker, a rack of color-filled vials, and an open book by a stack of other tomes. The whole pile looked like nothing so much as one of Billy's research projects gone low-tech. "I take it you're not a mortal?"

"Of course not. I'm a Monster." Something in Mana's bubbly voice capitalized the word, made it a badge of pride. Monster. "If you don't know about Monsters, how'd you get into the Shadow Realm?"

"The Shadow Realm?" Hmm. Good cocoa, even if her stomach was sinking. "I'm in another dimension?"

"Um-hmm." Mana pressed her hands together; spread them slowly apart, forming images of light and shadow between her palms. "That's the mortal realm. Where you came from." Familiar shapes of woods and cities were limned in gold. "And this is the Shadow Realm." Forests of night and walled fortresses were edged in a flash of silver, miniature dragons soaring through the sky.

"They're reflections," Lita realized. "This place is linked to Earth?" So how come I haven't heard of it before?

"Boy, you're fast!" Mana snapped her fingers, dispelling the image in a fall of glitter. "Have you run into magic before? Djet says most mortals don't anymore. Of course he's still trying to figure out how you fell through the cracks into the Graveyard; nobody's done that in millennia-"

"Whoa, whoa. Slow down," Lita said hurriedly. "Who's Djet?" A more pressing concern came to mind. "And is there anything I can wear?"

~*~*~*~*~
"Shelve," Djet said absently, not watching as four tomes lifted into the air and sought their spots in the towering ranks of bookcases. This last text promised to hold some of the information he sought... and the library tended itself quite well without his interference. Got rather tetchy when he did try to put books back himself, in fact, to the point of flinging bookends at him at odd moments.

As it was threatening to do right now; he saw a stone gargoyle quivering on the nearest shelf. "Don't look at me that way," Djet muttered, skimming pages. Hmm... coins, alien metal, the Great Power. An odd guest we have, indeed. "I said I wasn't going to put curses back in with counter-spells again, and I meant it." Seshet's quill and stars. Mana never seemed to have this problem....

A low whistle split the rustle of pages. "I've died and gone to book-fiends' heaven."

Mana chuckled. "No you haven't. This is the library. Djet!"

He glanced up at his apprentice's call, expecting to see a pale, petrified mortal by her side. For all her bravery escaping the Graveyard, the woman had to have realized how unearthly her situation truly was-

Well. Pale, yes; in a way that recalled his pharaoh's pallor in Yugi's form. But afraid... no. Wary, certainly, her stance in the green-and-gold tunic and trousers Mana had conjured showed that clear enough. Yet wood-brown hair spilled over her shoulders as she gave him a long, considering look, bright green eyes aware and interested, sparkling like her jacket of Luster Dragon scales.

He rose and bowed, as he'd seen his pharaoh's mortal allies do in this time. "I am Djet, known as the Dark Magician." He gestured toward Mana. "My apprentice, the Dark Magician Girl. You stand within the Royal Magical Library, in the Castle of Dark Illusions." He tossed lavender hair over his shoulder, offered a hand, palm up. "Might we know the name of our guest, Bearer of the Green Coin?"

She bowed back. Hesitated. "You know about the Green Coin?"

"Our texts hold ancient stories of those who visited Earth to fight great evils not of this world," Djet said frankly. "We know it is a creation of Light, not of Shadow, and an enemy to Darkness. And one who bears it of its own will, as you do, cannot be our enemy."

She weighed him a moment more. "Dr. Lita Kino," she said. "From Angel Grove, California, if that helps."

"It may." He went to the map wall, unrolled the rough papyrus sketch he'd been making of the modern world as the pharaoh told him of it. "It is on the island called America?"

"Continent," Lita corrected. "Mana said this... Shadow Realm is a reflection of Earth. Can't you just send me back through the Graveyard?"

"A reflection, yes," Djet admitted. "But the correspondence is not exact. In the Graveyard, especially; it is everywhere, and nowhere. It is simply the closest - layer, would you call it? - of our realm to yours." He shrugged. "To build a portal for you now, knowing as little as I do, is to risk dropping you in the midst of the great salt sea beyond Punt."

"The Pacific Ocean," Lita murmured. "Right. Not high on my list of places to go without a surfboard." She swayed suddenly. "Whoa."

"The Shadow Realm takes its toll on mortals." Djet summoned a sphere of emerald magic, whispered to it. The globe unraveled into a protective udjat of shadowy green energy, forked tongue flicking at him before it dove into the Green Coin. The alien metal's glow strengthened.

Lita fell back into a ready stance. "From what I remember of Egyptian history, cobras were supposed to be the good guys. So you've got two minutes to explain why you put a snake in my Coin."

"It's just energy," Mana crossed her arms, puzzled. "Do you want our Realm to suck out your magic? We'd never get you home if that happened!"

"The udjat-cobra wards pharaoh," Djet explained more levelly. "Your aura is not that of the living Horus, but it is akin. Enough so she will ward you against the Shadow Realm's drain if I ask." He smiled. "It is fortunate you bear this Coin and not one of its companions. From what I have read, of all the Coins of Light, its magic is closest to Shadow."

"Closest to Shadow." Green eyes widened. "Tommy!"

~*~*~*~*~
Purple and purple-red flashed on an Angel Grove walking trail. "Over here, Dad!"

Tommy Oliver felt a few knots of tension unravel as Jamie Zedden ushered her father toward the charred spot he, Adam, and Christina were gathered around. The rest of the Zeo Rangers were across town, chasing a bunch of Mondo's Cogs through Angel Grove's warehouse district. He ought to be with them, but it was his spell that had misfired. If they were going to find out what happened to Lita, he had to be here.

Tommy hid a wry smile. If anyone had told him a year ago that he'd be relieved to see the former Lord Zedd show up, he'd have dumped them on Angel Grove's best psychiatrist and hoped for the best.

Please be okay, Lita. If you're hurt because I screwed up with magic- He cut off that train of thought to face a man in his mid-forties, with sandy brown hair and eyes as hazel as his daughter's. She's alive. She's got to be. "Mr. Zedden. Thanks for coming."

"Do you have the Sword of Fire?" Christina asked. "If we could just find her-"

"Yes, but let's not rush into using it just yet. Jamie said Lita was caught in a spell blast?" Lawrence Zedden held out a hand toward the edge of the soot. Waited a moment, and relaxed. "She's not in there."

Tommy let out a subtle breath of relief. "You're sure?" He hadn't sensed her death, but - he still didn't always know exactly what he was sensing. And the Zarakin had lost most of his sensitivity along with his powers after renouncing evil.

"Her energy patterns are unmistakable," Larry said reassuringly. He drew the Sword of Fire from a sub-space pocket, concentrated on it a moment. "Not to mention the fact that the Green Coin ought to be there or slagged."

"And the analysis says it's not," Billy's voice came over their communicators. "We've got residue from your spell, and Rita's, and a lot of fried leaves."

"What was cast?" Zedden asked clinically.

"I'm not sure," Tommy admitted. "I was just trying to block Rita's spell."

"Which you did," Billy added. "According to Zordon, the Void of Darkness barely got a chance to open before you blasted it. There's no way it could have sucked Lita in."

"Then where is she?" Adam said practically. The Green Zeo Ranger listed off options just as his detective father would. "The Tengas didn't take her. She didn't teleport out of here. And she sure didn't walk out... sir?"

Down on one knee by the edge of the blast, Zedden was rubbing ashes through his fingers. Brought soot up for a very careful sniff. "It's been a long time...."

"How long?" Jamie asked. Not a casual question, given that her father had been around at least twenty millennia.

"Over three thousand years." He stood, brushing off his knees. "We should get to the Power Chamber. If I'm right, Christina shouldn't be searching out in the open. Not for this."

~*~*~*~*~
...They say the Coins' powers are drawn not from the Shadows we know, but from Light alone, and so are shaped by its qualities rather than the caster's heart, Lita read, turning papyrus pages with pure fascination. Pharaoh has decreed the outsiders' power perilous, and not to be sought without permission of the Great House. For Light finds it difficult to slay, and for the good of the Two Lands enemies must be dealt with.

Yet they are of Light, and mean no harm. So long as they leave the Shadow Games be, they are not our enemies; so long as they do not interfere with our defense against the evils beyond the stars, we shall render them all aid.

Hear now the list of these Coins, that you may know them:

Red, who holds Tyrannosaurus, battle commander and furious fire.

Blue, wielder of Triceratops, creator and scribe.

Purple, Wyvern's kin, beloved of Isis for their cunning.

Green, Dragon's own soul, whose vengeance is swift and cold as Pharaoh's Game....

Glass rang softly against wood as Djet set down a beaker of shimmering azure powder. "An interesting tome, Lita Kino?"

"Amazing," the psychiatrist said honestly, stretching out in a chair by the lab fireplace. "Where I come from we know a lot about the Light and Dark sides of the Grid, but almost nothing about Shadow. Seeing the Dino Coins from the viewpoint of a Shadow mage - it's something I never expected." She gave him a rueful smile. "I wish I could borrow this. Zordon tells Tommy he shouldn't be afraid of his own magic, but he's a White Master. Green is... well, more shadowy."

"The Library would object." A lavender brow climbed. "Though Mana has had some luck with copying spells."

Lita caught an undertone of rueful humor. "Djet, are you telling me the Library doesn't like you?"

The Magician cleared his throat. "It bears a long memory, as libraries do. And I once was forced to battle a Blue Eyes White Dragon within its confines." Lavender locks shifted over his shoulders as he shrugged. "We were picking up shreds of papyrus for weeks."

Don't laugh. Don't laugh. A snicker slipped out before Lita could catch it. You've seen magical battles. Up to and including dragons. He may be shrugging it off now, but that wince means it must have been close. Still, the thought of all those books turned to confetti....

She coughed to cover the giggle. "So. Is a Blue Eyes White one of your pharaoh's enemies?"

"Not always." Dusting blue powder into a vial containing a thread of her shirt, Djet added three drops of lemon-yellow liquid and swirled the vial to mix them. "Though he is, and ever shall be, my opponent... once in a great while we have found ourselves battling together." The mix turned green, then scarlet, then finally luminescent white. "Ah."

Opponent but not enemy. Interesting. Lita's brow rose. "A way home?"

"A clarification of where to search for the way," Djet corrected. "As I thought, your home is a place of Light, while I know this castle to be a creation of our realm's Darkness. The correspondence is too distant to open a portal from here. Although...." He tilted the softly glowing vial, studying how liquid swirled and separated into golden-white with faint streaks of silver. "You have two homes? And the lesser of them is not so far from my pharaoh. Which almost allows it to be reached from here, as my castle is and ever shall be near him." Djet sighed. "Still. You are of Light. It would be safer to open a portal to your chosen home."

Lita glanced at the vial, studied Djet's face. "Your pharaoh's in Japan?"

A faint smile touched the Magician's lips. "Do you speak this tongue, my lady of Dragons?"

Curiouser and curiouser, Lita thought. "You speak Japanese." She'd thought that bow looked familiar.

"I know those languages my pharaoh speaks." A lavender brow flicked up. "However outlandish."

Oooh. Somebody's asking for it. But that implied his pharaoh also spoke good English. Which wasn't all that common in Japan, language programs aside. Puzzles inside puzzles...wait a second. He used "ou" in Japanese, which can mean anything from king on up - but in English, Djet definitely used "pharaoh". There's a pharaoh in Japan? How? Who?

Djet's head cocked toward the door. "Ah. Mana."

"Magic sense, or is your hearing that good?" Lita asked, curious.

"I know her aura," Djet admitted as his apprentice's footsteps pattered into hearing range. "Many Monsters have acute senses, but we are not so different from mortal mages in ability. He's willing?" Djet asked as Mana skipped into the lab.

"Yep!" Mana grinned, pushing her blue-and-pink hat back. "Soon as he heard you were going to see the Dark Witch. Said he's got to see this."

"Dark Witch?" Lita swallowed.

"Let not the name deceive you." Djet reassured her, storing the glowing vial in his robes. "She is of the Shadow Realm's Light, as we are of its Darkness. From her home in the Elf's Light a portal should be possible." Settling his armored hat over his hair, he held out a hand. "Shall we to the battlements then, Lita Kino?"

"The battlements?"

"Oh, you had so better be kidding," Lita muttered under her breath a few minutes later, eye to baleful red eye with the golden dragon perched on the obsidian tower wall. Far below dark forests spread to a starlit lake, white wolves howling in the distance. On her left hand forests blended into thorny wasteland, dark shadows prowling it with a menacing air.

Her gaze moved back to the menacing creature sniffing her; almost more wyvern than dragon, dark gold set with ruby scales, wings wide metallic sweeps with thumb-claws the length of her forearm. And Dark. Definitely Dark.

Which doesn't seem to mean evil here. Weird.

"Lita Kino, Curse of Dragon," Djet said courteously. "He'll bear us to Dark Witch's lair."

The dragon snorted. Sniffed at a pouch by Djet's side.

"Owoo?" A brown hairball with green claws blinked from the pouch.

"And this is Kuriboh." Smiling, Djet scratched brown fur, eliciting a purr. "We may need his defense, as well."

That little thing? Lita wondered. But then, a lot of Rangers didn't look that impressive either. "Defense against what?"

"The Dark Witch lives in the Light, with other creatures who share that opposing nature," the Magician informed her, smile lost. "Including-"

Oh, no. "The Blue Eyes White Dragon," Lita finished.

A spark of humor lit sea-green eyes. "Indeed."

~*~*~*~*~
"One more circle," Zedden instructed as Tommy drew another series of symbols around Christina with green fire. "Good."

"If you're trying to make me worried, you did that already," the White Zeo Ranger muttered, holding the Sword of Fire. "What are we up against?"

"I don't remember." The Zarakin shook his head. "That's what worries me. I should. Unless I'm under another spell...."

Lifting his finger from the circle, Tommy flinched. Maybe he'd been too quick to send Adam and Jamie off to help the others; though from the scene in the viewing globe, it'd looked like two more Rangers would have the situation mopped up in a matter of minutes.

But sometimes minutes is all it takes, Tommy thought. They'd both been under enough spells to last a lifetime.

"I suspect you are not," Zordon's voice surprised them. "No more than the rest of the galaxy."

"The whole galaxy's under a spell?" Tommy asked, wary.

"To do what?" Billy asked practically, fiddling with something he thought might latch onto Lita's signal if she truly were in another dimension.

"That would be complicated to explain." Even through the distortion of the warp tube, the White Morphin Master's face looked thoughtful. "And I may be mistaken."

Right, Tommy thought. And Rita's going to have a good hair day any minute now.

"What did you sense at the site?" Zordon asked.

"Magic canceling magic," Zedden reported. "Sradin witchery against Sradin wizardry; no surprise there. But..." he frowned. "There was a little... something left over. Something that felt human. Something that reminds me of three thousand years ago. And I don't know why." He skewered the warp tube with a look. "What happened three thousand years ago?"

"Evil was defeated. At great cost." Zordon looked pensive.

"That kind of describes every day, around here," Christina pointed out.

"It was not defeated by Rangers."

Tommy and Billy shared a glance. Something Zordon doesn't want to talk about, the blond inventor's look said.

Not good, Tommy's nod agreed. "Are these spells going to be enough, Zordon?"

"So long as you are cautious, I believe they will."

"Color me cautious," Christina murmured. Held the hilt between her clasped hands and closed her eyes to concentrate.

Fiery circles flared, green flames flexing between dark and light. Tommy tensed, ready to break his fellow Ranger out if any of those symbols turned completely dark. To his left he saw Billy had a hand on his Morphin Warrior's freeze pistol; on his right Zedden had picked up a stray bo staff and looked more than inclined to use it.

"Oh," Christina's soft voice came at last. "I've never looked here before...." Her eyes opened. "She's flying."

~*~*~*~*~
"Djet!" Lita glanced over her shoulder at the flock of birdfaced humanoids diving after them, looked forward again at the more pressing threat. "I hate to break it to you, but that wide flat thing coming up on us at terminal velocity is called the ground!"

The Magician's robed waist was tense in her grip, one wide hand holding tight to golden neck-spikes while the other cradled a tiny globe of purple lightning. "A moment more...."

"We haven't got a-" Her communicator toned. "Talk about lousy timing. Guys-"

"Rush Recklessly!"

"Eeeyyiii!" The landscape blurred around her, sky and ground and trees lit with dawn melding into one gold-and-green streak. Air cracked around Curse of Dragon's wings as he pulled up just short of the treetops, soaring straight as a bullet. Behind them, well behind them, Lita heard crashes and shrill, birdlike shrieks.

So much for the Birdfaces. Lita drew a breath of rushing air, noted that their speed was sinking back toward normal. Okay, so there was something important just a minute ago... right! Daring to relax her grip, she pressed the "transmit" button on her communicator. "Guys? Billy? Alpha?"

"Dr. Kino!" Relief rang through Billy's voice. "Are you okay? We just locked onto your signal, it's nowhere we've ever probed before."

Head him off before he gets technical, the psychiatrist thought. Which he would; Billy's first impulse under stress was to break things down into their scientific components, and from the sound of his voice, people back home had left stressed trailing in the dust hours ago and were neck and neck with panic. "Djet and Mana call it the Shadow Realm," Lita said matter-of-factly. Stay calm, keep them calm, and we'll all get out of this. You can freak out when you're home. "It's some sort of mystical counterpart to Earth; Djet says I fell through a part which is really close to our dimension. Right now we're trying to get to a place called Elf's Light that's supposed to correspond better to Angel Grove. If that makes any sense." She craned her head toward the growing dawn; light that seemed to increase more with direction than passing time. "I get the feeling physical locations don't mean quite the same thing here as on Earth."

"In the Shadow Realm, they do not," Zordon's distinctive voice came over the communicator. "Who is Djet?"

"The Dark Magician." Lita tried not to eye her rescuer too closely. She'd felt his muscles stiffen at Zordon's voice. He knows Zordon? But... Mana said it'd been millennia since someone fell through. Then again, Zordon had been around for millennia. And who knew how long Monsters lived. "I think the Green Coin got his attention. You should see what they've got on it in the library here."

"The Royal Magical Library survived?" Surprise echoed in Zordon's tone.

"Here, yes," Djet said, not turning from their windswept course over a brook flowing through silvery willows. His voice was chill, flinty. "As some few of us did, wizard. In our own way."

"Mahaado." True shock rang in Zordon's voice. "We could not interfere."

"That name is no longer mine. As you well know, if you recall anything of this Realm. Mortals do not survive here." Djet's tone was cool, and forthright, and clutched at Lita's heart. "As for your interference... that, you may discuss with pharaoh."

"Your pharaoh has been dead a very long time, Dark Magician," Zordon said gently. "I observed the blast. Nothing with the slightest hint of magic survived."

"You see, yet you do not see, wizard." Djet's lip curled slightly. "Mere death does not conquer a living Horus."

"Ah, could we get back to the bit about mortals not surviving?" Billy stuck in. "Lita?"

"I'm okay," she reassured her listeners; she could hear Tommy muttering something about portal building, and background sounds hinted there were at least a couple other people in the Power Chamber. No surprise; the Rangers took their unofficial support crew seriously. "Djet's been using his magic to shield me from the energy drain." Mortals don't survive. Djet and Mana were human? Lita eyed her communicator. "Interfere in what?"

"An event no longer recorded by the galaxy," Zordon said bluntly. "Dr. Kino has no part in this, Dark Magician."

"She is here, is she not? One who aids you, in my realm. Under my protection. The one place you and your Rangers cannot reach." Old anger iced Djet's tone as Curse of Dragon skimmed near a white cliff. "Unless you choose to allow that young wizard whose magic lingers on her to touch the Shadows. Which I know you will not."

Lita stiffened. Damned if I'm going to be an excuse for a fight... wait. Djet's voice was angry enough, muscles tense under her grip. But his posture didn't have the hard edge she knew meant revenge. He's pushing Zordon. Not for a fight. To see what he'll do.

"We are not your enemies," Zordon insisted.

"You were never our allies." Djet's tone turned cruel and thoughtful. "Though perhaps your young Shadow might be. Shall we visit him in dream? I know many a Fiend who would joy to make the trip."

Lita heard Tommy's stifled gasp, and saw red. That does it. "Billy, call back in an hour," she snarled. "I have a rock-hard head to pound." Punching the communicator off on Billy's startled squawk, she smacked the Magician's arm just below the armor. "You take one step near that kid, and I'll rip you apart. God! How could you? Do you have any idea how many people have messed with Tommy's head? He's been cursed, mind-controlled, turned against his best friends - I ought to have your liver for lunch!"

"I will not harm him."

"When I think of just how long it's taken me to get Tommy to admit he can be human without blowing people to bits-" Lita stopped in mid-rant. He sounds so tired. And I don't think it's from the spell. "Djet?"

"Your dragon cub." Quiet. Matter of fact. "He's in no danger from me or mine."

"So why make the threat?" Though Lita thought she knew. You want to hurt Zordon. Even if he says he's not your enemy, you want to make him doubt it. You got him where it hurts, you threatened his Ranger, and you know it. Old anger. Festered, and cold... and calculated to tie the Morphin Master into knots without lifting a finger. Houston, we have a Purple.

"Zordon told you he could not interfere," Djet stated. "Yet at times Zordon, and those like him, did interfere in our affairs. By making it clear they would not interfere." The Magician shrugged under her hands. "It cost us greatly."

And Zordon sounded shocked. Which means it's not just Djet's view of the situation. Something really bad happened. Lita nodded slowly. "Tell me."

"Zordon's ilk never approved of the Shadow Games." Wind rustled under their mount's wings like metallic leather. "Calling on our Realm... it is of Shadow, Lita. And the results, to the loser, are oft deadly." He peered into the sky, searching out each flying form in the distance. "But there was a danger beyond the stars. And the Games, and the strength and magic to play them, were our sole, true protection."

"The United Alliance of Evil?" Lita frowned, feeling Djet's silent laughter in her grasp. "What's so funny?"

"They did not seek to claim Earth. Not then. No, what we faced would not dare to strike at the likes of your White wizard." Djet sighed. "Yet our powers are of Shadow, and so can serve those of ill intent as well as good. And when one such arose against Pharaoh, with that threat looming...."

"You were fighting on two fronts." Ouch.

"And since we faced both dangers with Shadow, Light would not intervene." Djet looked into the distance, words almost lost in the wind. "I miss it, sometimes."

"Being human?"

She felt his sigh through her arms. "I chose not to journey on when I... when Mahaado died," Djet said quietly. "My pharaoh was in danger. My world was in danger. So I melded my ka and ba... my soul and my Shadow, that I might ever protect my pharaoh, and became the Dark Magician in truth." A deeper sigh. "I never meant for my apprentice to follow me. But in the last battle she took that path as well, so we might stand together against the true Darkness."

And you still feel guilty as hell for showing her how, Lita realized. "Did it work?"

He nodded. "The power was sealed, the Darkness defeated."

And Zordon couldn't help. Why? "But not destroyed."

"Darkness can never be truly destroyed," Djet acknowledged. "But with my pharaoh's willing sacrifice, it was banished from the world. For a time."

Willing sacrifice. Lita bit her lip. "He threw himself in the way, didn't he?"

"As did we all." Sea-green eyes were distant. "And no mortal with magic survived." A tired smile touched his face. "Worry not for your young wizard, brave lady. I would never call one under Light's protection into the Shadows." A hint of humor curved his lips. "Pharaoh would likely drag him back into your realm if any of us did!"

Something doesn't add up here, Lita thought. If nobody survived the battle - did his pharaoh become another Monster? No, wait a second - his pharaoh's in Japan. Which means.... "I'm a little confused," she admitted as their dragon dipped back into the treetops. "If your pharaoh could take Tommy back to Earth, why can't he take me?" She ducked her head against Djet's back as a spruce branch swept across the scales of her jacket. "And what's with the ground-hugging?"

"For the first, you are neither wizard, nor sorcerer, nor soul pharaoh has faced in mortal peril. He cannot feel you disturb the Shadow Realm, and I have had no chance to speak to him in dream," Djet said practically, eyes on the sky. "And for the second - Kuriboh, Multiply!"

One hairball became two, then dozens, then thousands - even as a torn-metal roar turned sky and trees and ground to blinding white-

Lightning. Lita drew in an ozone-laced breath, looked up at the magnificent beast soaring overhead. Silver-white, wings spread wide enough to frighten an F-18, eyes blue and raging as a storm-torn sky.

"Hang on!" Djet called over his shoulder.

Like I'm going to do anything else?

The next few minutes were a blur of wind and lightning. White claws swiped past a golden tail, clipped through the top of a hapless oak. Savage jaws snapped near Djet's shoulder as they powered through a tight turn. Lightning burst around them, held off only by the swarm of furry bodies.

"What did you do to make this dragon mad?" Lita shouted past the roar.

"If he were angry, we wouldn't be faring so well!" The Magician called back. And grinned. "Yami!"

Darkness deluged them. Their mount took a sudden, gut-wrenching plunge-

And they were free in sunlight once more. Lita twisted to look back, seeing lightning flicker and flash in the globe of night as if trapped in storm clouds. A frustrated roar shook the air.

Chuckling softly, Djet guided them to a touchdown in a sun-drenched clearing. "A good flight," he told the golden dragon, dismounting with a caress to the horned head. "And you, little friend." He smiled at the furball that had leapt to Lita's shoulder. "You did well, as always."

"Owoo!" Purring, Kuriboh nestled into her arms.

"Thanks a lot," Lita added, leaning against the Magician with a relieved smile. It was so good to be back on the ground. She looked up at the man who'd rescued her. Again. Without leaving a scratch on any of us, even the Blue Eyes. He might say he's not human anymore, but he's still a pretty good guy. And cute. Those are hard to find.... "Ah, Djet?"

The sea-green gaze met hers, wide and surprised. "Yes, Lita?"

"Your hat's on fire."

~*~*~*~*~
"Up, down. Up, down," Djet heard his companion growl behind him as they climbed the spiral stairs leading up to Dark Witch's treehouse. "Doesn't anybody in this dimension live on the ground?"

"Those of Earth and Rock, mostly," the Magician said absently, reaching out to touch the mossy bark of the massive tree. Light shimmered away from his fingertips, the tree alerting its dweller to her incoming visitors. As if she truly needed more warning, with Curse of Dragon perching in the boughs above them. "And no few Fiends. Yet with creatures such as the Sand Stone and the Muka Muka wandering beneath the land, those of us of calmer dispositions often choose to remain out of reach."

Lita looked to the ground below, evidently conjuring up a picture of the many dangers that might lurk under the Shadow Realm's seemingly solid earth. "Good call." She started climbing once more. "So how many former humans are there in this realm?"

"Here, ka and ba together? Very few." Djet thought a moment. "There is Mana, myself, Huya the Celtic Guardian... some few others. I believe the Blue Eyes contain a soul within them, yet they have not chosen to name it to me."

"That must get lonely."

"At times, it did," Djet admitted, answering the sympathy in her voice. "We were uncertain what had happened. We knew of the battle, and our parts in it... yet we did not know if we had truly succeeded. We prayed we had, and hoped; the Shadow Realm reflects Earth, after all, and so long as our realm was intact we had hope the battle was won. Yet until-" he hesitated.

"Until what?"

Djet shook his head. "Forgive me. There are things I may not speak of. Not until I know more of your time, and why Zordon's Rangers walk the Earth once more. A human team, no less."

"Long story short? Rita Repulsa got out of her dumpster on the Moon and there wasn't another Ranger team close enough to stop her before she did real damage," Lita said frankly. "Zordon bent a few rules and gave the coins to people he could trust. They've kept her busy, but Angel Grove just seems to keep attracting more bad guys as the years roll on. Lucky for us, we've gotten more Rangers, too."

"He gave a human the Green Coin?" Djet arched a skeptical brow. "It lacks its own power now, yet surely it was tied to that darkest shade of Light before it reached your hands."

"Okay, that's a little longer story," Lita admitted. "Rita got her hands on that one somehow, and gave it to Tommy along with a nasty bit of brainwashing magic... remind me to kick her somewhere painful if I ever get the chance." She stopped for a few breaths, hands gripping the polished wooden railing as she watched a flock of Dreamsprites flutter by. "I meant what I said. He's had enough people mess with his mind."

So speaks one who has felt the damage as a knife to her own heart, Djet thought. Yet she is neither Ranger, nor kin. The tie lies elsewhere. "You are a healer of minds, not of bodies?"

"We call it a psychiatrist. Yes." Lita leaned on the rail. "Did you have them in Egypt?"

"We had priests who were skilled in soothing the heart," Djet nodded. "Though if you have healed a heart twisted by vile magic, you have more skill than the school counselor pharaoh has spoken of."

"Well, I have a lot more training...." Lita's words trailed off. "Oh, no."

"What is it?" He scanned the area, alert to danger, sensing no more magic than the small creatures below and the bright pulse of the Witch and her current visitor. Moonlight Maiden... Dark Witch asked for your aid? He hid a wince. Truly, the Maiden of the Moonlight did know more of magic not of their planet than most; given that Lita was tied to Zordon's wizardry, her aid would likely be invaluable to open the portal. But it would cost him. The Maiden thought any friendship with creatures of the Dark ill-advised at best. Not all dangers here are of magic.

Lita groaned. "Please, Djet. Please tell me your pharaoh's not a Japanese high school student?"

Djet blinked. How did she know? It seemed he knew less of Earth than he'd thought. Pharaoh had not said such annoying people were found nowhere else. "Is there a danger?"

"Only to my sanity," Lita muttered, turning back to the climb with gritted determination. "I just hope he's not my cousin's latest attempt at a boyfriend. That would really be too weird."

"Unlikely," Djet said firmly. "I have the measure of your aura now. Kin of yours should not be so different."

"You're sure?"

"I know those auras my pharaoh is close to," Djet nodded. "Unless your cousin's name is Tea?"

Lita let out a relieved breath. "Thank god, no." She glanced at him, curious. "He has a girlfriend?"

"After a fashion." Djet chuckled, thinking of Yami's frustrated late-night grumbles about his young Light. Why doesn't he just kiss her? Was the pharaoh's most frequent complaint. "Young ones. Still blind to certain truths until they trip over them. Now there is a facet of human life I do not miss."

"Sometimes being a teenager sucks," Lita agreed. "So, is he after everyone but Tea, or just clueless in general?"

"The latter," Djet said after a moment's thought. "He loves her dearly, yet he does not see that someone might feel the same for him. And it seems not to occur to him that his feelings might run deeper than pure care for a dear friend."

"Ah, the old innocence ploy."

Djet coughed into his hand as they reached the upper landing, thinking of certain of Yugi's magazines he'd seen Yami study with great interest. "Not entirely innocent, no. Yet she has always been his friend."

"Makes it tricky to push things forward," Lita acknowledged, nodding to the tiny fairies clustered in the branches above them. "Have you talked with him about it?"

"I?" A new, and not entirely pleasant thought. "I'd not thought of it," Djet admitted, stepping forward to knock. With reason, the Magician told himself silently. Yami valued his hikari's innocence, however much it might frustrate him. Still... perhaps a light touch on the subject would help? Malik had already used Tea against Yugi once; and what the Rod's wielder could deduce, other enemies would discover as well.

A brush of knuckles on carved wood, and the door swung open.

~*~*~*~*~
"This place," Lita muttered under her breath, scanning the treehouse's carved-wood and stained glass interior, filled with vibrant tapestries, potted greenery, and a crackling fire-pit set in a man-sized ring of quartz crystals, "Is definitely bigger on the inside than the outside."

"A perceptive mortal." A quiet laugh, and two creatures that might have stepped out of those tapestries moved into clear view. Both were female, with broad feathered wings, yet there the similarities ended. The white-winged Monster on Lita's right was slender and sober, pointed ears poking through reddish-brown hair, long dress as stern and set as her frown.

The sky-feathered Monster to her left was still smiling, long fay ears twitching in violet hair, gold dress clearly short enough to let her fight with the red-hafted spear leaning near the fire-pit. "You said she was smart, Djet. You didn't say she was lovely too. I should have invited Harpie's Brother; he'd be stunned to see a mortal who matched his sisters for looks."

The stern one sniffed, rubbing a marble of moonlight between her fingers. "And then their Brother would try to impress her, and your associate-" Her voice dripped scorn, "-would blast him into scattered red feathers."

Was that a blush under the pointed hat? My, my, we have a temper, Lita thought, amused. A riled Purple was a scary sight.

"It's not as if he wouldn't deserve it." The fay Monster's smile slipped slightly. "If you don't want to help-"

"I mean to aid Light today. Unlike your... acquaintance."

You don't like Djet either, Lita realized, studying the white-winged Monster without being obvious. And Dark and Light are opponents here. Which makes me wonder why you're doing this. What's in it for you?

"Dark Witch," Djet said with a courteous nod to the friendlier Monster. "Maiden of the Moonlight." He gave the cool Monster a shallower nod; ally to reluctant ally. "Will you aid us in returning Dr. Kino home?"

"It shouldn't be too hard," Dark Witch began. "She has a tie to the mortal realm, yes? If we form a circle, and balance out the Light and Dark... Mana said she just found Witch's Apprentice, they should be here soon-"

Lita barely listened to the spellcasters' discussion, wary attention focused on the Monster circling her way. Amber eyes bored into hers, measuring, testing. "A mortal allied to Light, with dragons in your soul." Thin lips smiled without humor; not at all human. "How useful."

What the heck-

Elegant nails slashed her arm as Lita dodged. Thank magic for enhanced reflexes, the psychiatrist thought, feeling the sting of just-grazed skin. "You missed, lady!"

"I think not." The Maiden dangled a torn emerald ribbon, gold glinting between her fingers. "You'll make a very strong Monster."

Lita swallowed, feeling the absent weight on her wrist, the sudden chill and dark as shadows swept in, no longer held at bay. Oh, hell. "Djet!"

"Fire, with a hint of volcano ash - Isis and Hathor!"

"Maiden!" Dark Witch yelped; a blur of blue-violet and gold as Lita's knees gave way and the mortal hit the floor. "What did you do?"

"Aided Light. And gained us a valuable ally." Amused interest lightened that cool voice. "My, my. Who'd have thought the transformation would strike so swiftly?"

It burns, Lita thought dizzily, voice choked to a moan, curled on herself against the biting pain. Something twinged in her back, her joints; as if flesh and bone bent out of their proper form. Help....

"Yield up the Coin." The Magician's voice was low, and dark, and dangerous as Jamie in a flaming fury. "Now."

"Still so human," the Maiden mused, feathers rustling toward the door. "It's not as if you should care, Dark Magician. Though perhaps you do, at that; another of Light to our side, one you can't cozen as you do the little Witch-"

"Diffusion Wave-Motion!"

The blast shattered the world.

Crack. Crackle. Clatter.

"I fear I've ruined your front steps, Witch."

"Don't worry about it." Above the crackle of charred wood, Dark Witch sounded thoroughly ticked off. "See if I invite her over for drinks anytime soon."

The voices were thin, distant; drowned by the roar in Lita's ears as she huddled in a pain-wracked knot on the floor. A roar within her ears, as something woke and writhed and twisted-

And familiar metal touched her skin, muffling the roar to a bone-deep growl.

"I should have suspected." Djet's voice was heavy with guilt as he cradled her in his arms. Gentle fingers knotted torn ribbon together, fastening the Green Coin about her throat this time. "The tomes hinted at this, but we did not know in truth... the Coin is a transformer. Its power may protect you from our realm, yet its influence makes you even more vulnerable to melding with your Shadow."

Becoming a Monster. Lita swallowed, throat raw. "It hurts," she croaked. Bone and muscle and skin, like she'd tumbled down three hundred feet of rock-laced cliff. Especially her shoulders. And her face... she raised her hand, fearful of what she'd find.

"Sa, sa...." Djet caught her fingers before she could touch skin, brushing his own across tear-wet cheeks in their place. "Shh."

It doesn't feel right. Lita sat up in his arms, trying to catch a glimpse of anything reflective. Trying not to shiver at the soft crackling sound as Djet traced fingertips across cheekbones and eyebrows, nose and ears. Something falling into his hands... god, are those scales?

"A memory of our realm." Djet held out a glittering palm-full of opalescence, scales no larger than strawberry seeds. "A perilous place for mortals."

"Dragon scales?" she whispered, shaking inside.

"Dragon, or dragon-kin," Djet said softly, dusting them into her jacket pocket. "What your Shadow would be, in this realm." He held her close, warm against the shivers of shock. "We must send you home, Lita. Soon."

~*~*~*~*~
"So how much faster does time move there?" Tommy demanded, pacing the floor. Christina had picked up a surge of panic and pain from Lita just moments ago, and he wanted nothing more than to take every last one of the Rangers now gathered behind him and stomp the hell out of whatever had hurt her.

"Much of what was once known about the Shadow Realm has been lost." Zordon's expression looked troubled, even through the distortion of the warp tube. "I cannot say."

Tommy's caramel-colored eyes narrowed. "Can't? Or won't?"

"Easy, Tommy. We'll get her back." Billy's hands flew over the communicator console, tying in the filter he'd devised to pick up Lita's signal from that uncanny dimension. Light from his glasses fell on his blue shirt, spots moving as he glanced across the settings. "Setting up the call... now."

"Billy?" Lita's voice was steady, but worn.

Billy's blond brows jumped up; he traded a dark look with Tommy. "Dr. Kino, are you all right?"

She sighed. "I'll live. Just get me out of here."

"As to that, we have a difficulty here," Djet's voice came over the communicator, almost as tired. "We need another spellcaster to balance the circle, and there is no one else of Light here I trust. At least, none we could reach in time," he finished softly.

"In time for what?" Tommy pounced.

"Let's just say, hanging around this place isn't doing me any favors," Lita said raggedly. "Zordon, I've heard Djet's side of the story, and when I get there I'm going to want yours. Right now all I want to know is, can you help Tommy link up with a witch, a fairy, and a magician?"

"You trust him?" Tommy asked, before Zordon could answer. "He's part of the Dark in that dimension."

"Believe me, Tommy, I just got firsthand proof that Light doesn't always mean friendly here. Can you do it?"

"It can be done," Zordon said thoughtfully. "What do you require?"

"First," Djet said briskly, "We need a paced-off circle...."

Good thing this room's big enough, Tommy thought as the Rangers cleared a space in the Power Chamber. Nobody wanted to be out of sight when their friend came home. After all, this could still be a trap.

But Djet's instructions were clear, crisp, and to the point, none drawing so much as a twitch from Zordon. Or, maybe more importantly, from Larry Zedden. Never thought I'd be glad to have someone who knew Dark magic inside and out on my side. Tommy shot a grateful look Zedden's way, using a spark of green fire to light the last of four white candles around the perimeter of the chalked circle. "Let's do this."

~*~*~*~*~
"The crossing will not be easy. For either of us." Staff in hand, Djet wrapped his left arm around Lita. She stood straight and staunch as ever, but he could still feel her tremble against him. A fearful thing, to know your own magic can turn against you, Djet thought, troubled. I pray your friends are as steadfast as they seem, Lita. You will need them. "I will ward you as much as I can."

"Just get me home in one piece, that's all I ask." Lita shifted her weight, glancing around their completed circle. Witch's Apprentice held the north, broom in hand and red hair spilling over her pale blue wings. Mana faced her from the south, violet Sword of Deep-Seated in her grasp, Dark balancing Dark. Spear resting against her shoulder and pentacle of clear crystals beside her, Dark Witch held the west, Light barring to way to shadows that might seize on a mortal soul.

Yet Lita's gaze lingered on that last, empty spot where a spellcaster should have stood. "Are you sure about this? I don't know what magical background you're working from, but most of the ones I know wouldn't put Tommy in the east."

"Mortal magic is best tied to the rising sun. Especially if Light is invoked," Djet assured her. "Ready?"

Three heads nodded. Lita muttered a few Japanese words he wasn't familiar with under her breath, and tapped her communicator. "Okay, now."

Three powers joined his; Djet held them from the center of the circle, wove Dark and Light and Dark together. Reached out and away from the Shadow Realm, searching for that lone, bright mortal magic seeking the lady in his arms....

There!

It struck like a hammer-blow; like being caught at the bottom of a waterfall, the water's force pulling and pounding with unthinking fury. Djet had one breath to think, Gods, she did say he was young-

But in another life he had trained the power that would become Pharaoh. He would not yield now.

Hold the Light at bay. Shake it into attention, as he would a fractious dragon on the wing. Sliver it, three bright threads reaching out to those Monsters holding the circle, while the main force cracked the last barriers between this Realm and Earth....

Purple mist swirled up, and they were elsewhere.

Hold. And reach. And hold....

Violet fog slowly ebbed around them, clearing to reveal... well. Djet arched a brow at the colorful horde of swords, pistols, and other, less identifiable weapons aimed his way. What auras weren't angry were ragged with concern, and all of them were blinding. I believe this is what Seth's incarnation might call a "target-rich environment".

Or as Yugi's impulsive friend Joey would put it, he was seriously outnumbered.

Well. Millennia in the Shadows had not worn away all memories of Pharaoh's court. Djet let Lita loose, removed his helmet so lavender hair fell free. Drew in a breath of this realm's air, tasting a hint of desert, and... circuitry? Yes; he might not be able to see much past the Rangers' flaring magic, but this chamber was definitely laced with the aliens' technology. "It would seem you were well missed."

"Hi, guys." Lita stepped out of the circle into a swarm of hugs and questions. "Oh man, you would not believe how glad I am to be home...."

She'll be well, then. Djet sighed, prepared to release his hold on this world-

"Mahaado."

Djet stiffened, hearing a voice he'd once thought lost as Egypt. "I have told you-"

"Yet it was Mahaado I knew of, before the cataclysm," Zordon said bluntly. "And it is he I would ask if my Ranger has taken harm from your spell."

Anger dimmed, quenched by the honest concern in the White wizard's voice. "No," Djet said softly, facing the tall, dark-haired teen that held the circle with such grim determination. Light and Dark, blended into Shadow; sa, he has reason to fear. "That is why I came, instead of another. A mortal cannot leave the Shadow Realm unaided... but my spirit is already bound to Pharaoh. The Shadows that cling to me will seek no other mage as host." Djet stepped outside the circle, feeling the odd resonance of ground truly of Earth's realm. It's been so long. Even in Pharaoh's Duels, rarely do I have the chance to stand on mortal ground. "Release the spell, young Ranger. I can find my own way home, and you need no more of Shadow than you have already touched."

"Tommy," the Ranger allowed. Green fire died away. "What are you, anyway? You feel human, and yet - you're not."

What am I, indeed? "I am a Monster." A creature with no place in your world, as she dare not stay in mine. Djet forced a smile. "One with a fondness for Greens. Fortunate for your healer."

"You may be bound to the magical form of your spirit, Mahaado, yet I sense your soul is still mortal," Zordon said thoughtfully. "You completed the spell to meld with your soul-beast before life had left your body?"

Djet's fingers clenched on his staff. "What I did, or did not, is none of your concern, wizard." He stalked toward the giant warp tube, gazing on the distorted face with cold fury. "The Two Lands were not your concern when I lived; do not pretend they have become so now."

Zordon frowned. "You came to Dr. Kino's aid-"

Leave her out of this, wizard. "Her aura is not unlike Pharaoh's, and you know I am bound to defend him," Djet cut in. "And why should that sway you? You of Light have taken our aid before; and never, never did you let it corrupt you into returning the favor."

"I stand watch against dangers from beyond this world, Dark Magician," Zordon said firmly. "Rangers are not allowed to interfere in strictly internal disputes. No matter how just the cause."

"And yet, the dead are dead," Djet said softly. "No matter how just the cause." He shook his head slowly. Enough. Pharaoh would be first to say the dead are dead, and we must look to the living. "Have your Rangers examine Lita for any lingering traces of Shadow magic. I did not know your Coins left the bearer vulnerable to transformation, and one who is not my ally used that to her peril." He stepped back, one hand lifting to summon Shadow.

"Wait a second!" Lita was scribbling furiously on a notepad; she tore lined yellow paper free, offered it. "This is my phone number here, and my family's in Japan - you know what a phone is?"

Djet took the mortal artifact, curious. "That device which bears voices, like a scrying spell?" Numbers scrawled across the paper, with odd dashes and curves around them. What is it Yugi says, when he picks up that odd plastic shape? "Moshi moshi?"

A blue-clad blond stiffened. "Wait a second. Isn't that what you say-"

"To answer the phone in Japanese," Tommy finished. "Yeah. Lita?"

"Long story," the psychiatrist admitted. "Can you get this to your pharaoh? You never even told me his name."

"It may take some time. But I can try." Djet met her smile with his own. "And Lita... those who know of him call him Yami."

Shadows swept around him, and the mortal realm was gone.

~*~*~*~*~
Bed. Thank goodness. Lita tumbled into the cotton sheets, burying her face in the pillow. She'd left a note for her secretary Serena Kyle to clear her schedule for the morning; she'd been poked, prodded, and mystically probed to the point that it felt like her hair was sore, and she was not getting up before noon.

But at least she'd gotten some answers.

"Okay." Lita had tapped her foot on the Power Chamber floor, blinking away late-night exhaustion as Billy helped Alpha put away the last scanners. The little robot had ay-yi-yied with every sweep of the medical instruments, even though she was clear of Shadows. "You've had time to get your story straight, Zordon. Talk."

Hard to tell through the tube's distortion, but she thought Zordon sighed. "Long ago in ancient times, a sacred game was played of both spirit and mind," the wizard recited. "Seven Items hold the mystery; Puzzle, Eye, Necklace, Ring, Rod, Scale, and the Key."

"And?" Tommy asked pointedly.

"Little more is known," the Morphin Master admitted. "In that last battle over three thousand years ago, a brave pharaoh shattered his soul to seal away the Shadow Games. His spell wiped all traces of their presence from the galaxy, and almost all memory of their very existence." Zordon frowned. "Hieroglyphs were rewritten. Monuments destroyed. Even the tiniest fragment of papyrus alluding to them vanished, as if it had never been."

"Djet's pharaoh," Lita realized.

"Yes." Zordon looked sad, and vaguely guilty. "What little I remember of that time hints at a great turmoil in the land of Egypt, of dark magic turning friend against friend and kin against kin. It would have been difficult to determine who was truly working for Darkness, who had been taken by spell, and who was only of Shadow. As the pharaoh was," he addressed the remaining Rangers. "Not of Shadow and Light, as you are, Tommy. Mahaado's pharaoh was wholly of Shadow. As all his line was; Shadow magic was their heritage, and they embraced it fully."

Shadow magic is human magic, Lita thought now, staring into the darkness of her bedroom. Not alien. Not from either side of the Grid. Just... Shadow.

And if Djet was right, there was a mage who could use it. A pharaoh, who had somehow survived the darkness and the centuries and even the sacrifice of his own soul. To end up in Japan, of all places. How on earth did he manage that?

And he's a teenager, Lita thought fuzzily, drifting off. I should call Tokyo, see if anybody's noticed anything weird that wasn't connected to my cousin....

"Lita?"

The psychiatrist's eyes snapped open. Still in my room, but everything looks fuzzy. Not good. "Djet?"

"Easy." The Dark Magician held up empty hands in a gesture of peace, emerald staff leaning casually against nothing. "You're dreaming."

I'm... oh boy. "This better not be one of those frustration dreams," Lita growled, swatting at a broad palm.

Her hand touched warm skin. "What the heck?"

"I told you we could walk in dreams." Djet folded his fingers around hers. "I came to see if you were well?"

"Not bad," Lita admitted. Nice hands. Warm hands. Hard to believe they weren't quite human. "Still pretty shaken. What'd you do to the Maiden, anyway?"

"Before or after I blasted her through Dark Witch's stairs?" Humor danced in sea-green eyes. "Well, after I returned to the Shadows, I might have had Mana whisper what happened in a Blue Eyes' ear. They're proud of what they are, and the thought of any dragon-kin taking form against her will-" he shrugged, a subtle smile playing over his face.

"You fight dirty," Lita snickered. "So... you can just walk into my dreams anytime?"

"This time, yes, as you did not know how to call me," Djet acknowledged, sitting beside her on the mattress. "But I promise I will knock before venturing here again. I only thought...." His gaze slid aside, suddenly shy. "You watch over them, as I watch over Yami. They can tell you of their worries, even if you cannot always share their battles."

I guess we would have that in common, even if Purples didn't like to look after Greens, Lita thought. "You want someone to talk to?" She looked up at him, curious. "What about Mana? Or Huya?"

"We are friends. But they are no more mortal than I," Djet said softly. "And Pharaoh's difficulties are mortal as much as magical. More often, truly." He spread his hands, shrugged. "If I visited, from time to time... would you mind?"

"No. I wouldn't mind." Sure beats long-distance bills. "Djet, you know Yami's name. Why didn't Zordon?" Lita drew on what she knew of magic through months of close encounters. "Was it because you were closer to the spell?"

"No. No one knows Yami's name. Not even Pharaoh himself. The spell took - everything." Djet shook his head. "It is my Pharaoh's hikari who calls him that. Perhaps it will be his name, in time."

He doesn't even know his own... oh man. "His Light?" Which sort of made sense, as Yami meant darkness. But what kind of person would a Shadow mage call Light, with such obvious affection?

"Yugi." The room seemed to waver, and Djet stood. "The waking world calls you, Lita."

"Wait!" Just a minute more? Please? "Why did you go through all that? Just to get me home?" Lita hesitated. "Because my aura's like Yami's?"

"That only called me to your side." Through the growing mist she saw Djet hesitate. Step near. Reach out, warm fingers brushing back her dark hair.

And woke with the tingle of lips on her cheek.