Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

Chapter 10, In Which Boredom Reigns, A Mystery is Solved, and Green Makes Another Move

Zack was pacing, occasionally throwing a few punches at the air in front of him and grumbling as he did so.

Billy and Alpha were working on repairing the computers.

Kimberly and Trini were chatting quietly, occasionally helping out the two mechanically inclined individuals with simple tasks when asked.

Harry was concerned.

It had been half an hour since Zack and Kimberly had returned to the Command Center sans Jason, and Harry was concerned at the lack of concern the others were showing. They all seemed rather confident in Jason's ability to take care of himself, but Harry's instincts were telling him something was really wrong. It might have been paranoia, but with the situation with the Green Ranger as it was he felt a bit of paranoia was acceptable. The guy had broken into the Command Center already, who's to say he wouldn't be able to do something to one of the Rangers without being caught? Not to mention that he had already beaten Jason in their short fight the day before.

His musings were disturbed by Zack letting out a shout of frustration as he spun to face the others. "I can't take this anymore!"

"Woah…" Kimberly trailed off, giving Zack a wide eyed look before exchanging a glance with Trini.

"I mean, who the hell is this guy?" Zack started ranting, pacing again as he ran his hands over his close cropped hair. "He broke into the Command Center, but the only reason he could do that is because he has a Power Coin. Zordon never mentioned anything about a sixth Power Coin, much less that Rita had it. He fights like an expert martial artist. Heck, we could barely touch him when we fought yesterday! I just can't get it outta my head!"

"Yeah, Jason seemed aggravated by him too," Trini said slowly before gasping as a thought struck her. "Do you think he might have gone looking for him alone?"

Harry crossed his arms, leaning back against the side of one of the computers. "I doubt that," He said slowly, trying to think of a way to make his point. "Jason may be many things, but he's not stupid. Every fight I've seen him in since I got here he's been a team player, one hundred percent. It's rather out of character for him to have gone off alone… intentionally…"

Zack's pacing abruptly stopped once again and he spun to face Harry. "You think maybe Green got ahold of him? Do you think he might be in trouble?"

Harry shrugged. "I think… that this whole thing feels suspicious to me, knowing what I do of Jason's character."

The Rangers present exchanged several looks before Zack raised his communicator to his mouth. "Jason… Jason, its Zack, come in…" The communicator let off a short tone that had a decidedly negative sound to it, making Zack frown further. "Jason! Come on man, answer!"

Seeing Zack's lack of success, Billy walked quickly toward one of the intact consoles. "I'll see if I can get a lock on Jason's communicator…"

While Zack continued in his frantic attempts to call him and Billy started pressing buttons in a seemingly random order, the others waited silently. Once again, the Black Ranger was the first to break. "Dammit!" He cursed, throwing his hands up in the air. "Why won't he answer?"

Harry's brow furrowed as he resisted the urge to respond with a sarcastic comment. He was saved by Billy's answer. "I can't locate him anywhere in or around Angel Grove. And if he had teleported himself somewhere there would be a report in the computer logs, but there's nothing."

"Guys…" Kimberly said slowly. "I don't like this. What if something really did happen to him?"

The distressed Rangers started looking around nervously, searching to see if any of them had any idea. Harry exchanged a glance with Alpha, as well as he could considering the robot's lack of eyes, before sighing and standing up again. "For now, we really can't do much." He said, trying to project confidence in his voice. "I would suggest that we each try to stay occupied for now. Try to keep your mind off of things as best you can."

Zack rolled his eyes. "And how are we supposed to do that? There's not really a surplus of things to do around here if you can't fix a computer."

Harry gave the teen a wry look before pulling out his wand and concentrating. Giving his focus a wave, Harry conjured a large punching bag much like the ones Ernie had in the Youth Center. "You could try letting out some of your aggression on this if you'd like. I noticed that you and Jason do that most times you're at the Youth Center." With another wave, he sent the bag drifting off to one of the walls outside the ring of consoles and left it floating there a few feet off the ground. Then, struck by another thought, Harry waved his wand again and an image of the Green Ranger appeared on the bag.

With a short, perhaps somewhat bitter laugh, Zack nodded his thanks and made his way over to the punching bag. As the wizard watched, Zack hopped in place lightly, his body moving in a seemingly random, almost dancelike pattern before striking out unexpectedly with both fists and feet. The Command Center echoed with random bursts of dull thwumps as he let out his anger. Turning to the others, he noticed Billy had resumed his work with Alpha, a sort of urgency and worry now infusing his actions, while the girls had returned to their previous whispered conversation.

Deciding that he couldn't really add too much more to help them, Harry made his way back to his room, intent on finishing up with his cleaning. The damage to his furniture was nearly done, only his desk still had any marks that would prevent proper use. The deep gouges on the surface were proving to be just as resistant to his repair efforts as the others had, but he figured that ten minutes or so of concentration would finally restore the surface to its original condition.

As he focused on fighting the residual magics in the final damaged section of the transfigured piece of woodwork, a burned out gouge that had probably been hit by one of the magical bolts of electricity, Harry was caught off guard by a voice behind him. "Hey," Kimberly mumbled, almost bashfully, rather odd for the usually outgoing girl. "Thanks for that out there. Keeping us focused like that. Jason has sort of been the leader of our group since we first met as kids. He's always been a natural leader and I guess we're just kinda lost without him around."

Harry turned to face the Pink Ranger with a small smile. "It's no problem, Kimberly. I was happy to be able to help." When Kimberly didn't seem as if she was going to respond, Harry turned back to his desk, working his magic into and around the loose energies that had been left in the desk, trying to remove it so he could transfigure the section back to its proper shape.

"So everything looks better in here than it did before."

Harry fought back a sigh at Kimberly's awkward comment. "I've been working fairly hard on restoring it. I'm actually almost done with the damage. Then I'll need to take care of the debris from the wand components and the like." He waved absently toward the multitude of pieces of glass, wood, stone, and plant matter that he had moved to various spots along the walls. As it turned out, everything that broke was equally magically resistant so he couldn't just vanish the lot of it. It would have to be manually collected and disposed of if he wanted his room truly clean again.

"Um… I can work on that if you'd like." Kimberly offered with a smile. "There's not much for me to do right now. Trini's always been the only one of our group who could keep up with Billy even a little and Alpha has her helping with checking some of the repaired systems right now so…"

Harry gave her another small smile. "Sure Kimberly. I would appreciate the help." Focusing for a moment, Harry conjured a broom and dustpan along with a simple metal trash can. Nodding decisively, Kimberly took the cleaning implements and started sweeping.

Mere minutes later, Harry finished restoring his desk and spent a bit of time just observing the usually perky girl. Kimberly was diligently sweeping, almost too diligently truth be told. As if she was trying to avoid thinking about something that weighed heavily on her. Come to think of it, she had been somewhat down ever since she arrived at the Command Center…

After spending a moment trying to decide how to approach the topic, Harry decided to simply charge ahead like the Gryffindor he was. "Kimberly, I hope you don't mind me saying so, but you seem rather… off today. Certainly more down than the others are with our current Jason situation. Is there anything else bugging you?"

The girl paused in her cleaning for a moment before shrugging, not meeting his eyes. "Yeah, I'm doing aright I guess. I just had a bit of a hard day at school. I tried to get in touch with someone and it didn't really work out like I'd hoped."

Harry narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Kimberly's behavior. Her actions suggested more behind this than just 'someone' being angry. He decided to dig a bit further. "Do you wanna talk about it? I've been told many times in my life that it helps. Admittedly this was when I was trying to avoid talking about those very things, but the premise stands."

She finally looked at him, shooting him a small smile while unease drifted in her eyes. "Well, it's kinda… Tommy…"

Right. Her crush. The mystery man who fought Jason to a draw in the Youth Center's martial arts tournament. "I may not be the best person to talk to about relationships, but I'm willing to help as much as I can."

She looked rather unsure for a moment, but finally nodded. Returning her nod, Harry waved his wand and conjured a chair for her which she promptly took, sitting a few feet away and leaning forward slightly, wringing her hands as she stared at them blankly. "I talked to him at school yesterday. Bulk and Skull were harassing me as usual and he showed up and chased them off. I asked him if he wanted to hang out at the Youth Center after school and he agreed, but then never showed up."

Harry hummed thoughtfully. He had never really had much of a romantic life, though that wasn't for lack of options. Being the Boy-Who-Lived certainly came with a level of fame and that fame came with several witches, and a few wizards, who were interested in relationships with him. He just hadn't been interested in anyone who only wanted him for his fame. It was the hazard of being famous, he supposed. Of course even with his limited knowledge, he knew that standing a girl up on the first meeting, even if it wasn't really a date per say, was generally bad form and liable to upset her.

Oblivious to Harry's ruminations, Kimberly continued. "That's actually why I wanted to go to school this morning. I wanted to talk to him again. Maybe see what happened. Only…"

She trailed off and Harry nodded encouragingly after a few moments. "Only… what?"

"He seemed really mad at me. He was ignoring me for the first part of it. Wouldn't even look at me when I was talking to him or when he responded. He was just… so cold… And then when he finally did look at me he was… angry… I tried to find out why and…"

Harry frowned thoughtfully. "I got it. That seems like a rather random reaction though. You said he helped you out yesterday?"

She nodded. "Yeah, and he was so sweet then. It's like his entire personality took a 180."

Harry gave another nod before his eyes widened slightly as things began to click together in his mind. Tommy was an expert martial artist, able to tie Jason in the tournament. He had agreed to meet with Kimberly after school the day before and had been generally nice to her. Then Zordon had sent Harry to investigate the site of a teleportation spell from Rita where he found Tommy's school bag. Now Tommy was acting cold and angry, almost completely the opposite from how he was acting before.

At the same time, the Green Ranger showed up later in the same day as the teleportation spell was detected. He was also an expert martial artist, able to match and then defeat Jason in morph. From the few words Harry had exchanged with him, Green was fanatically devoted to Rita, but seemed to have a rather vicious personality himself.

It was too much to be a coincidence.

Standing quickly, Harry grabbed Kimberly's attention with the urgent look on his face. "What's wrong, Harry?" she asked, confusion in her voice.

Harry just shook his head. "I just had a scary thought. Come on, I need to show you guys something."

Still confused and now a bit worried, Kimberly followed Harry out of his room. The wizard called everyone together before casting a summoning charm, bringing Tommy's school bag from its spot against one wall to his free hand where he caught the strap and set it down by his feet.

"What's up, Harry?" Zack asked, panting slightly from his workout but seemingly more relaxed than earlier. "And what's with the green bag?"

Harry looked over the four Rangers and the robot standing around him before gesturing to the bag. "Zordon sent me to Angel Grove yesterday just after you guys got out of school. Rita had used a rather powerful teleportation spell in an alley near your high school and he wanted me to see if there was any clue as to what happened. I found a few signs of a potential struggle and this bag."

"Ok…" Kimberly said slowly. "So what's the big deal?"

Harry crouched down and unzipped the bag as he continued speaking. "Later that afternoon, Green showed up here in the Command Center. This then lead into our battle with him last evening. Kimberly talked to Tommy yesterday and again today and told me he had a drastic personality change."

Trini shot Kimberly a sympathetic look. "Well maybe he was having a bad day."

Harry pulled out the math book he had looked at yesterday and opened the cover, showing the other Rangers Tommy's name. "I would be inclined to agree if this wasn't his bag."

Billy seemed to be the first to come to the same conclusion Harry did. "So your hypothesis is that Tommy is…"

"No way!" Kimberly interrupted, seemingly aghast at the idea.

"I'm telling you, it all fits." Harry insisted, seeing that Zack and Trini were speechless. "Both are skilled martial artists. Tommy's bag was found in an alleyway where Zordon detected a teleportation spell by Rita but Tommy was nowhere to be found. Then Green shows up and now Tommy is behaving drastically different from before the teleportation spell. I don't see any other conclusion here."

Billy nodded thoughtfully. "Your conclusion seems rather sound to me."

Kimberly, though, still seemed to be in denial. "No… It… It can't be true…"

Trini stepped toward her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder as Harry repacked and closed Tommy's bag. Standing again, he rested a hand on her other shoulder and looked her in the eye. "It's very possible that I'm wrong Kimberly, but I don't think I am. Look at the bright side though. If he is the Green Ranger and he's acting so differently than before, then that probably means Rita has him under some kind of personality altering spell. Based on how fanatical he is toward her, I would imagine it's some kind of loyalty brainwashing."

"How is that a bright side?" Zack snarked, looking only slightly less upset than Kimberly.

Harry shot Zack a look. "Because, Zack, if he's under a spell, then we can break it."

Kimberly perked up instantly. "And when we do, he might join our side."

Trini smiled at Kimberly's reaction. "And then we'll have another Ranger to help us fight Rita."

Billy practically jumped in happiness. "Morphinominal! Our chances of success would increase exponentially with another Ranger on our side!"

Zack smirked. "Yeah, and Kimberly can get her date then too."

The blush that lit up Kimberly's face was one for the record books. Harry, being the second closest to her next to Trini, almost felt the heat her skin was letting off. Zack seemed inordinately proud of himself for finally getting through with his teasing, but before he could follow up with anything else, the alarms in the Command Center started going off.

"Ai yai yai yai yai!" Alpha sounded panicked as he walked to a control console and pressed a button. "Rangers, I'm bringing the alert up on the Viewing Globe."

Harry and the Rangers made their way over the short distance to the white orb mere moments before it flickered and changed. The image revealed was that of the Green Ranger, this time wielding a sword with a slight 'S' curve to it. The figure was laughing at something as he swung his weapon seemingly randomly.

"Looks like Green has a new toy," Zack commented.

"I concur," Billy responded. "He appears to be testing its capabilities."

"Yeah," Harry said slowly. "So if all he's doing is messing around with his new weapon, why did the alarm go off?"

Alpha was quick to provide an answer. "The computer is programmed to detect negative energies anywhere around Angel Grove. That sword is practically made of dark magics! In fact…" Alpha took a few steps closer to the Viewing Globe, leaning in close before practically jumping backward. "It's the Sword of Darkness! Ai yai yai!"

"What's the Sword of Darkness?" Kimberly asked, not taking her eyes off the image in the Globe.

"It is a magical sword of immense dark power," Alpha answered as he made his way back to the computers. "Long ago, Zordon was responsible for keeping it from the forces of evil, but Rita managed to steal it and has kept it hidden ever since. It seems as though she has decided to give it to the Green Ranger."

Zack stood with his arms crossed, eyeing the image in front of him. After a moment, he nodded and turned to face the others. "Guys, I think we need to go after him."

"What!" Kimberly's shout easily eclipsed the others, but their sentiments were nearly the same.

"No, think about it," Zack answered, his hands held up in a placating gesture. "He's got a new sword, yes, but he may not know what it can do yet. If this thing is so powerful, we'd be better off if we went after him now before he learns."

"But what about Jason?" Billy asked. "Should we head out without him? Can we?"

Zack looked him in the eyes with a sigh. "I don't think we have much choice this time, Billy. This may be our best chance to take him down. And if it is Tommy under there and we beat him, we can capture him and try to break Rita's spell."

This last comment was clearly aimed toward Kimberly as she immediately perked up slightly. The girl then nodded. "Alright, you've got my vote."

Billy looked uneasy, but nodded as well. "This is a rather opportune moment. It would be a mistake to let such an opportunity go to waste."

Trini looked around with a sigh, seeing that she would be outvoted regardless of her answer, nodded as well. "Alright, but remember that this guy is no pushover. We had a lot of trouble with him even before he got his sword."

"Yeah, but this time we'll know not to hold back." Zack was smiling now. "We can do this guys."

Harry had watched the byplay stoically. Now, seeing that the Rangers were all psyched up, or at least willing to go along with it, Harry sighed and waved his wand, conjuring up a long, hooded cloak that he quickly grabbed and put on.

"What's that for Harry?" Trini asked.

Harry merely gestured to the Viewing Globe. "There's really no telling what kind of area he's in right now, but it looks decidedly less remote than last time." Indeed it was that the image of Green was swinging his sword around in a clearly well maintained, grassy area, a cliff of some sort a short distance behind him with water visible beyond that. "If I'm going to join you guys this time, I'll need some way to disguise myself from any bystanders who might be able to recognize me in the future."

This only seemed to make Zack even more excited. "You see guys! With Harry and his magic on our side there's no way we can lose this! You ready?"

The other three nodded, apparently catching his enthusiasm themselves. Harry merely gave a grim smile before casting an obscuring charm on his hood, hiding his face in permanent shadow. With a few more spells to ensure the hood wouldn't come off, Harry counted himself ready. He just hoped that this enthusiasm didn't lead to them biting off more than they could chew.

-MR-

The four morphed Rangers teleported down in an area on the outskirts of Angel Grove. Shortly after their arrival, Harry appeared with a soft pop of displaced air before taking a look around.

The area was thankfully clear of people, though the fact that its only modern type feature seemed to be a paved walking trail some distance behind them was probably the reason for that. The grass was otherwise well cared for and he noticed a few trees a short distance away from the far side of the paved path. In the other direction, the cliff edge he saw in the Viewing Globe was easily noticeable as was the water of a bay, a harbor and the rest of Angel Grove proper visible on the far side. To either side, the cliff continued around, sloping down gradually in some places and abruptly in others, eventually coming together at a rocky beach that followed the coastline out of sight.

Green was rather easy to notice. He was standing almost calmly between the Rangers and the cliff edge, having stopped his practice the moment the Rangers had teleported in. Once Harry appeared, he started laughing darkly. "I knew you would all show up sooner or later. Where's the Red Ranger? Too afraid to face me again?"

"We're more than enough to handle you, pal!" Zack fired back, stepping up to the front of their group.

"And you're hardly one to be mocking us when I distinctly remember knocking you around rather nicely when last we met." Harry followed, idly spinning his wand around in his hand.

Green's entire stance shifted. Harry could almost feel the change in the air as the Green Ranger's helmeted head turned to face him fully. "Yes, you may have won our last bout, but my Empress has given me a new tool with which to defeat you and the Power Rangers. Behold, the Sword of Darkness!" As he spoke, Green thrust the curved weapon into the air, causing a loud boom of thunder as green lightning sprouted from the sword and arced menacingly into the sky above them.

"Fine words and a nice toy." Harry responded, maintaining his outwardly easygoing stance even as he tensed in preparation. "But can you back it up?"

Green spun the sword in one hand before taking a fighting stance. "Why don't you come over here and find out? Or better yet, I'll show you!" Without further comment, Green began a headlong charge toward Harry and the Rangers, the Sword of Darkness held out to one side.

"Come on guys!" Zack shouted, getting an immediate affirmative from the others before they ran to meet Green head on, blade blasters in hand in their blade configuration.

Harry sighed a bit at Zack's rather direct approach, but readied himself to support the Rangers. There was no way he was going to try and get close to Green on his own. The evil Ranger could already easily defeat him up close, but he was an even bigger danger to the wizard with that sword.

Harry's first opportunity came rather quickly. The four Rangers had charged Green with their blades, which were easily parried as they passed him but resulted in Rita's devoted servant surrounded by the four. Green was not easily cowed though, as he shifted his stance closer to Billy and swung the Sword of Darkness faster than the Ranger was able to react.

Just before his strike hit, however, a chain sprung from the ground and secured itself around the outstretched arm holding the sword, effectively stopping the strike cold. Green jerked his arm a few times before Billy finally reacted, striking Green across his golden shield and staggering him slightly.

Acting quickly, Trini, Kimberly, and Zack moved in and made their own attacks, finally knocking Green to the ground with a quick kick from the Black Ranger, making him roll closer to where the chain was rooted to the ground. In an attempt to finish the battle quickly, Harry flicked his wand and transfigured three more chains into existence around the downed Ranger before animating them to restrain his other limbs. In the meantime the other Rangers, led by Zack, regrouped between Harry and the Green Ranger, brandishing their blade blasters as they took fighting stances again.

Green was far too adaptable to be caught so easily though. He easily tossed the Sword or Darkness into the air with a flick of his right wrist before snatching it with his left hand and using it to sever the chain lashing at that limb. With a quick tuck and roll, he flipped himself backwards over his head and onto his feet, avoiding the chains heading for his legs, and cut the chain already holding his right arm free as he stood.

"A valiant attempt, wizard," Green taunted as he grasped the chain now hanging from his arm and began twirling it. "But ultimately futile. Without the Red Ranger here, none of you stand a chance against me!"

Green once more moved too quickly for the other Rangers to react. He moved so quickly his form appeared to blur only to appear an instant later in front of the assembled Rangers standing five feet in front of Harry. With a small grunt of effort, he swung the chain forward, smashing it into Kimberly's left arm and knocking her into Billy, making him stumble before they both fell. Then he pivoted, slashing Zack across his torso with the Sword of Darkness and sending him to the ground in a shower of sparks and with a black scorch mark on his chest. Finishing his spin, He lashed out with the chain, letting the excess that was coiled around his arm go loose as he did, and wrapped it around Trini's neck with the momentum. Laughing once more, Green jerked on the chain, pulling the choking Yellow Ranger toward him as he prepared his weapon.

Harry narrowed his eyes before sending a tripping jinx at Trini, making her fall flat to the ground and narrowly avoiding Green's slice. Once she was out of his line of fire, Harry unleashed a flurry of offenses hexes and jinxes, much like he had the day before. This time, however, Green was at least partially prepared.

Swinging his sword before him, Green managed to deflect the spells he couldn't simple dodge, either sending them to the area around him or outright sending them back toward Harry, forcing the wizard to dodge or shield against his own spells. When a deflected bludgeoning curse smashed into Billy just after he managed to stand again and knocked him to the ground Harry nearly snarled.

Green's laughter only got louder. "You see, wizard? You cannot hope to defeat me. I am the Green Ranger! Loyal servant of Empress Rita! I shall lead her forces to victory over you, the Power Rangers, and then all of the Earth! The Power will be hers to do with as she wishes and then nothing will be able to stop her!"

At this point Trini, having long since rolled out of the way and returned to her feet, took a flying leap and landed a powerful double kick right to Green's back, making the evil Ranger fall to the ground with a curse. Harry sent a few piercing and blasting spells at his downed form, only for him to quickly roll out of the way and regain his feet as the Rangers regrouped around Harry again around 15 feet away.

Green sank further into his fighting stance, brandishing his sword in his left hand while twirling the chain he had purloined in his right, waiting for the Rangers to make a move.

"Man…" Zack panted, keeping a wary eye on Green. "We just can't make any headway here."

"I know," Kimberly said with a nod. "Every time we get close he takes us down like it's nothing."

"If he really is Tommy, we know that he's already a superior martial artist." Billy said thoughtfully. "It only makes sense that having a Power Coin would make him even better still."

"And it probably doesn't help that Rita gave him a further boost with her magic and Harry's old wand." Trini added, sounding glum.

"Yeah…" Zack said slowly before perking up. "Harry, couldn't you do something like that for us? Like use your magic to super power us so we can better fight against this guy?"

Harry frowned from within his hood's shadows. "Not exactly. Not with an unstable wand. And most definitely not the time to talk about it now." With a quick snap of his wrist, Harry launched a wide area banisher toward Green who had leapt at the group after apparently losing his patience.

As the Ranger tumbled, he lost hold on the chain which Harry quickly animated and sent toward him again. As the other Rangers charged toward their foe once more, Green easily bisected the chain with his weapon, once more breaking the spell animating it, before tearing through the four Rangers with his superior combat prowess.

Harry growled to himself as he searched for an opening. This wasn't working out very well. The Rangers weren't good enough to match Green's skills and Harry couldn't use the same technique he had against him before because of how intermixed the group was. Even not considering the Sword of Darkness being able to deflect his spells, the chances of hitting an ally were too high to start rapid firing destructive magics around. This was apparently something that Green had figured into his new approach as he now seemed to be taking extra care to always have his sword or another Ranger between Harry and himself whenever possible.

Harry would just have to try and work around that.

With a short twist, Harry apparated to the other side of the group battle, landing a few feet away from the cliff at the edge of the bluff they were fighting on. Waving his wand frantically, Harry started casting a quick barrage of encumbering spells, hoping to catch Green off guard with his new position but not wanting to fire anything too destructive for fear of hitting one of his allies.

The tactic worked, if only briefly, as the first spell hitting him and being dispelled by his latent defenses was enough to redirect the Green Ranger to Harry's new location. This allowed him to adjust his position, once more putting living obstacles between himself and the wizard.

So Harry apparated again.

This cycle repeated several times. Harry would apparate to Green's blind spot, hit him with a spell or two of a generally encumbering nature, and then Green would shift his position, triggering the entire process all over again.

Finally, Harry caught a break when Green grew overconfident, managing to strike all four of the attacking Power Rangers with a single spinning strike with the Sword of Darkness. This attack left the Rangers on the ground with fresh scorch marks on their suits, but it also left Green without his shields. Harry took advantage of this with a smirk. "Reducto!" The red curse flew through the air and smashed into Green's chest with force, sending him flying away from Harry's current position and closer to the edge of the cliff in a shower of sparks.

The Rangers slowly climbed to their feet, fatigue wearing on them, but determination surging on strong in their hearts and minds as Harry jogged up near them. Green, using the Sword of Darkness as a crutch, slowly climbed to his own feet. "I will admit…" he panted as he glared. "The five of you make an impressive team. I may outmatch any one of you individually, but the wizard more than makes up for any flaws in your close combat forms. With his new focus, I dare say that you could potentially defeat me… if the Red Ranger was here as well…" He chuckled darkly when the other Rangers gave a short start at his comment.

"You know, that's the second time you've brought him up," Harry commented evenly through his own heavy breathing. "If I were the suspicious type I might think you knew something about his disappearance…"

Green's chuckle turned into a deep laugh. "Did it really take you all this long to figure it out?"

"So you do have Jason!" Zack shouted, anger evident in his voice.

"Yes," Green drawled, once more brandishing his sword in front of him. "I extended an invitation to him to join my Empress Rita at her palace. He, of course, could not refuse such a generous offer…"

Kimberly, it seemed, couldn't hold her curiosity any further. "Tommy, why are you doing this?!"

The Green Ranger froze for a moment before his helmeted face turned toward hers. "So…" he drawled. "You've figured out who I am as well."

"Yes, Tommy," Kimberly pleaded, taking a step forward. "Please, let us help you. We know that Rita has you under some kind of spell. We can break it. You don't have to do this."

Tommy's stance relaxed, his sword pointing to the ground at his feet as his head dropped as well. After a moment, his shoulders began shaking slightly. A barely noticeable movement at first that gradually grew to become more easily visible. Then his laughter picked up, deeper and more ominous than before. "You idealistic fools!" He roared at them clenching his free hand into a fight fist. "You all hope that everything will work out happily, but there is no happy ending here. Not for you. My only goal, my only dream, is to forever serve my Empress. And I can best do that by destroying you all here and now!"

Without any further hesitation, Tommy charged them again, catching all five of his opponents off guard at the abruptness of his action. Within moments, Zack and Billy, the two closest to him, were rolling across the ground after a vicious pair of strikes from the Sword of Darkness. Trini and Kimberly made a valiant attempt at fighting him off, each of them throwing high kicks at opposite sides of his head, but he merely blocked them with his forearms before flinging his arms out, throwing the two girls off balance, and then knocked them aside with a pair of his own kicks.

This left Harry standing a mere five feet away from the furious form of the Green Ranger.

Harry blinked.

Tommy charged the last few steps between them in moments, barely giving Harry a chance to dodge under his vicious sword strike before planting a straight kick right into his chest. Harry went flying back several feet before hitting the ground and sliding to a halt around twenty feet away from the evil Ranger.

Slowly, gingerly, Harry climbed back to his feet, his free hand clutching at his sore and most likely bruised chest. "Yes, your teamwork is rather good as it is." Tommy spoke as he slowly walked toward Harry, seemingly unconcerned with the Power Rangers climbing to their own feet behind and around him. "But I'm better."

-MR-

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Tenstar12