"Any luck?" Billy asked Trini
"None, Tommy's parents say he went to some sort of camp, and I can't find Raquel's parents. Even her teacher doesn't know where she lives; she was surprised no one noticed before now. In fact there's no record of her family moving at all. No one seems suspicious of it either. It is very strange." Trini said "How about you?"
"Not much new. I've been researching both the sword of darkness and the dark dagger. They work similarly. Their forged from the same magic metal which means if one is destroyed the other is weakened in power." Billy said
"Well that could be useful." Trini said encouragingly.
Suddenly Kimberly ran in "Guys, I found Raquel's mom." She said excitedly "She lived only with her mom who is still back in Medow-ville."
"But that's 7 hours away. Why is Raquel here alone?" Billy asked
"I don't know, but it might be a lead. She could be there with Tommy." Kimberly said
"At any rate it might give us some useful information. Let's find the others and check it out." Trini suggested.
Raquel and Tommy fought back to back. It seemed like they'd been fighting forever. Goldar and Scorpina had sent wave after wave of putties and monsters. At first it had been easy, then they had tired, but now they had learned to work together as one mind.
"Switch!" Tommy barked and the two traded places still fighting.
"I'd say their doing better." Scorpina said with a smile.
"Those brats are getting stronger every second they spend in the dark dimension, but nothing makes up for the experience of a true warrior." Goldar growled "I don't think they'll ever have a ranger confrontation more successful than their last."
Raquel yelled up at them "It's not our fault! Those rangers have three times the power we do." She kicked back the last putty "It is an unfair battle situation."
"Raquel." Tommy hissed
"It is true they have superior fire power." Raquel hissed
"You forget your place, my friend." Tommy said.
Raquel struggled a minute then relented. "You are right Tommy. My place is to do as my Empress commands, no matter what it is. Please more putties."
Goldar laughed "If you really want more." The exercise began again
"How are they doing?" Rita asked as she appeared to Goldar and Scorpina.
"As you said, the more the rangers fight the stronger your darkness consumes them. Now they are not just bound into evil, but they are losing their past identities. They are not quite finished, but they shall be soon. Their pasts will seem to them like a dream, all the good parts anyway." Goldar said "They won't want to become good because it will seem the worst fate possible to them."
Rita smiled "Excellent."
"This is the place." Kimberly said "It looks so friendly." She commented as they walked up the path to a lovely looking three bedroom house in Medow-ville. It was a suburban neighborhood like out of a picture book. Small fences lined each house and well kept lawns were out front. The house was a clean shade of white with green trim and there were flowers of every hue blooming in a flower box by the window.
Zack rang the door bell and a woman in her mid forties came out. She had long dark hair and sad brown eyes. "May I help you children?"
"Yeah, we're looking for Raquel Rivera and Tommy Oliver, are they around?" Jason asked politely
The woman shook her head "I don't know anyone named Raquel and little Tommy moved a few months ago. His family moved to Angel Grove."
"But aren't you Mrs. Rivera; Raquel's mother?" Trini asked.
"I'm Ms. Rivera, but I have no children. Rivera is a common enough name you must be mistaken." The lady said sadly.
"Well thank you." Kimberly said they walked back "I don't believe it. I checked her school records."
"Perhaps if we investigated some other places in town we will retrieve the information we seek." Billy suggested.
They visited the school, but no one there had heard of Raquel either. They went to the karate school but no one even seemed to see someone when they pointed to her pictures on the wall.
"It is like no one remembers she ever existed." Trini said
"I wonder if she remembers them," Billy said "either way it's obviously a spell."
"Maybe if we could bring her here we could throw her off balance enough, that we could destroy the dark dagger. It would weaken Tommy's spell too." Jason said
"Yeah, and taking down Raquel first makes since. Tommy is the better fighter." Kimberly said looking up at the pictures of Tommy as top of the class for every year. "Raquel's second every time, and all these kids seem pretty good. Rita sure knows how to pick them."
"I wonder where they are." Zack said "I don't believe this camp story."
"None of us do." Jason said "I have a bad feeling about all of this."
Raquel and Tommy were out of putties again. Raquel's body trembled in anticipation of more putties, Tommy remained stoic. Bother rangers were lost in the moment. Raquel only had anger and a thirst to prove herself to her mistress. Tommy only had thoughts of how he longed to serve his empress. Suddenly Rita appeared to them "How do you two feel?"
They both bowed "Evil," Tommy said "and ready to serve you empress, if that is your wish."
"Very soon we will begin your greatest battle ever, but first I want to send you two on a test." Rita said "Are you ready?"
"Yes empress." Tommy said "Tell us what to do and we will do it."
"Go back to Medow-ville and confront the power rangers. I want to see how evil you two are. Tear up the place." Rita yelled
"As you command," They said and teleported out.
"Zords would be the quickest way to tear up this pathetic town." Raquel said
"Agreed," Tommy said "I'll go this way you go that way."
They went off. Tommy's larger Dragon Zord started to knock down town hall and stated smashing buildings down everywhere. "I never liked the way that building looked anyway. I like wide open spaces." He laughed.
Raquel was down by the school. "You kids will be so happy! School's out! Middle school is going down now. You should have given me an A in math when you had the chance Miss. Jenkins."
The team suddenly got a signal from Zordon "The Red and Green ranger are on a rampage at Medow-ville."
"Why would they smash their home town?" Kimberly asked
"It is just as I feared. Rita is testing their loyalty by having them destroy their pasts. I fear Rita believed that the rangers were hesitant in your last encounter." Zordon said
"But her spell makes them evil already," Jason said "how hesitant could they be?"
"Yes, but even the most evil being in the galaxy has something they care about. Rita wants to remove any of these cares that might be against her own evil will." Zordon said
"And their home would be something they might care about," Trini said "we have to stop them or they'll regret this for the rest of their lives."
"It's morphing time." Jason yelled. The team split up. Jason and Kimberly went to fight Tommy. Billy, Zack and Trini went to fight Raquel.
"Tommy you don't want to do this!" Jason yelled
"I was hoping you would show up." Tommy said "Now I can prove to my empress that I am indeed worthy to be her green ranger."
A fight started and Tommy actually was holding his own. "Is it just me or is he stronger?" Kimberly yelled.
"Not stronger, better prepared." Tommy yelled.
At the same time Raquel was in the midst of battle too. She was losing however. "Give it up Raquel. You can't beat us three against one."
"When you lack mite, use your brain to fight." Raquel laughed she ejected from her Zord and started running through the city. The others demorphed too. "We have to catch up!" Zack said they saw three bikes lying in the wreckage unscathed. "Let's borrow those. I have an idea."
Soon the three were peddling after Raquel and quickly gaining ground. Suddenly Raquel turned a corner and into an alley. They couldn't find her anywhere till she jumped down on them from a fire escape knocking Zack out on her way down. "Evil will prevail today."
"Listen Raquel, this is your town. I don't know what kind of twisted spell Rita put it under, but surely you still care about this place." Trini said "Don't you remember your friends here."
"I only care about my empress' wishes, and as for friends I have none. I have my alley Green Ranger. This pathetic town means nothing to me, just as I now mean nothing to it." Raquel laughed.
She continued to fight the rangers fiercely. "She's gotten good." Trini said "We have to pull Zack out of here before she hurts him more."
"Alpha, Zack's injured," Billy said
"Affirmative, I'm teleporting him now." Alpha said. Zack was gone.
"And then there were two." Raquel laughed running at them. They dodged, but Raquel hit the wall instead feet first. She flipped up onto the fire escape then to the top of the building. "Tyranasouraousrex!" She yelled and her Zord came running in, knocked over the small apartment complex. It kept going as Raquel jumped in.
"We've got to help the people!" Trini yelled.
"Affirmative," Billy said running to their aid.
"That's right rangers rescue the people. I'm going to knock this town flat, and I know just the way to prove my loyalty to my queen." Raquel muttered, as she headed away from the business district and to the suburbs.
Kimberly pleaded with Tommy "I know you aren't like this Tommy. You're not one of Rita's evil creations."
"You exploited a weakness I no longer have," Tommy yelled "my empress has removed all my weaknesses. I have fought them all off in her dark dimension, and they are shadows in the darkness now. There is nothing left but strength and loyalty." He knocked his Zord into Kimberly's causing it to fall.
"I have no idea what that means," Jason said "but we've got too move this fight away from here. Let's go."
Tommy didn't follow them. "I know just the way to prove my loyalty to my empress." He marched his Zord to the suburban side of the city.
