The Ones I Love
Part X: The Vocations
by MegaSilver

One last glimmer of the sun disappeared over the western horizon. Rita, Father Amori, Ashley and Andros stood to the east of Dimitra and Divatox and marvelled at the celestial incandescence accentuating the effect of the latter's flowing habit.

"Y-y-you survived, too?" exclaimed Rita.

Divatox nodded slowly and with uncharacteristically patient composure. "I've made the most incredible discovery in the last eight months." She turned slowly but deliberately to nod at her companion.

"Divatox is my sister," announced Dimitria. "We were twins, separated at birth. Divatox was kidnapped and sold on the black market to a bourgeois couple working in the private sector on one of Dark Specter's realms. As was Zedd. Originally he was Eltarian and a second cousin of Zordon's."

"And Karone," murmured Andros.

"Zordon spared us all because we had lost our childhoods," explained Divatox. "So long as we could have turned ourselves around with Dark Specter's influence broken, he couldn't think us a danger enough to merit the fate of the others."

Rita looked a bit confused. "But then… what about me?" She blinked a few times. "I'm… I'm not adopted! I look exactly like my mother!"

"Master Vile is not your father, though," advised Dimitria. "Your parents belonged to the nobility of the Dora system in the M-51 galaxy. Your mother never told you, but she lost her husband to an interplanetary extortion racket before you were born. Desperate and vengeful, she let her hatred overcome her and allied with Master Vile. In exchange for her help to conquer the Dora system, the last key to his domination of the galaxy, Master Vile married her and adopted you—and liquidated the entire petty criminal syndicate, as well as the participants' wives and children."

"So that's why my mother's gone," sighed Rita. "She chose evil after she had learned better." Her eyes looked sad, but no tears came to them.

"I'm afraid so."

Divatox spoke next. "Rita," she said, "I've found my home. I've found my sister and our parents. They've helped me get through everything and it's all happened so fast and I still don't understand it all, and I know you don't either… and I know you don't have the same support I do. But… listen. You don't need it to do what you're meant to do. You can't just give yourself up now."

"What I'm meant to do?" Rita appeared distressed. "How am I supposed to know what I was meant to do?"

Dimitria reached into the pocket dangling from a cord around her waist and pulled out two flawless red amulets. "This is what you are meant for," she asserted. "The war is over, but evil lives on. There will be—and already have been—more Rangers to fight more wars to stop the advance of the dark forces. With Zordon gone, someone must stand guard at the central conductor of the Morphing Grid on Earth. And there is no one alive in the universe, Rita, as experienced in surveillance or in the commanding of massive intergalactic energy forces as you."

Rita blinked rapidly. She felt as though she might faint. "I… I… I'm meant to take… Zordon's place?"

Chuckling, Divatox reached over and put a hand to her old colleague's shoulder. "Nothing worked out quite the way we'd thought, huh?"

Dimitria held the amulets out to Rita. "There is a hidden island in the Pacific containing a strongly guarded fortress. Everything is prepared for you. Zordon wanted you and Zedd, specifically, to have the fortress." She fiddled with the clasps and join the amulets together into one. "Now there will only one of you. But you are more than capable yourself. When you don this amulet, then, you will be transported to your destination."

Rita's mouth hung open, her lower lip trembling. "I-I'm less than unworthy," she said.

Father Amori stepped in. "Rita, if… if I may, I know nothing about… intergalactic energy forces. But if we wait to have proven ourselves worthy of accepting a burden or an honor before accepting it, we'll never do anything we haven't done before. Think of repentance. Think of Zedd, of you. These gifts are yours, not because you're worthy, but because you need them, and someone wants you to have them."

A pure stillness ensued, and for about two minutes nobody moved or said anything. There was no tension, no awkwardness: just a few moments of sheer awe.

Dimitria at last broke the silence. "Will you accept, Rita, for Zordon's sake?"

"I will," Rita whispered. "But I have something I need to do first."

"Take your time," Dimitria admonished. "The threat is no longer immediate. But should that ever change, know the forces of good everywhere in the universe are ready to come to your aid."

"Thank you."

"And thank you," Dimitria added, turning toward the priest and the two Power Rangers, "for helping her. Zordon would be most grateful himself. And do tell the other Rangers so."

"We will," Andros promised, a hopeful confidence in his voice—a hopeful confidence that perhaps these terrible rifts might yet be healed.

"And you…" Dimitria cast a curious glance on Father Amori. "Can it be possible that one possess such wise words as do you to speak to the deepest disquietudes of the human heart?"

Father Amori seemed more than a little surprised by that. "I, uh… well… it's my job!" He grinned a bit.

"How can this be?" exclaimed Dimitria. "A specialized vocation in the deepest psychology of moral division? How is it possible that after all my travels I have only just now come across such a thing in the entire universe? If I send an inquirer after me, will you agree to grant an interview to be circulated amongst our people?"

Father Amori felt ecstatic. "I'd be most delighted!"

The next morning, outside the tiny chapel shrine to Our Lady of the Palms on the outskirts of Angel Grove and surrounded by the seven Space/Honorary Rangers as well as the two Inquirians, Rita knelt as Father Amori wiped the last bit of Holy Water away from her forehead with a cotton swab.

"I'll go away with an… indelible mark?" Rita asked.

Father Amori smiled and nodded. "Indelible. For all time."

"Means you're one of us," added Carlos, "whether you like it or not."

Rita stood up and shrugged. "I don't suppose I have much of a choice, do I?"

Father Amori cocked his head. "You always have a choice."

"I choose to succeed Zordon, then," said Rita, "… if, that is, I fulfil everything I'm supposed to do."

Father Amori shook his head. "Not as you should, but as you are able."

Rita rolled her eyes. "Do you have a response for everything?"

"It's been suggested."

Rita took a step away from the crowd and pulled the amulet out from her pocket. She gazed into it and took a deep breath, then exhaled and looked upon the eight Terrans and two Inquirians watching her. "Thank you," she said. "All of you. I don't know what more to say."

"You don't have to say anything more," Andros assured her.

"I promise I'll watch over all of you like the good mother I never was," Rita added, chuckling.

With that, she fastened the clasp around her neck—and vanished.

"Now I'm afraid it's our turn to go," said Dimitria.

"It was great to see you again," said T.J.

"It was a pleasure to see you all, too."

"And Divatox!" exclaimed Cassie. "Seriously, you look great."

Divatox laughed right out loud. "Oh!" was all she could say.

Karone approached her old comrade-cum-rival, a soft smile on her lips. "You'll do great."

Divatox sighed and raised her eyebrows. "Let's hope."

"Hey…" Karone lowered her voice a bit. "They don't know yet—but Zhane and I are getting married on the second of September of next year. Would you… maybe be a witness?"

Divatox gasped. "Me? Are you crazy?"

"No!" whispered Karone. "I really want you to be there!"

Divatox covered her mouth, but her eyes betrayed her dumbfounded delight. "I'll try; I really will!"

"September the second!"

"I'll remember!"

Karone and Zhane had finally agreed to marry—and set the date—just the night before.

Meanwhile, Andros and Ashley would be marrying on June 17. So far, however, only Ashley's parents knew—Andros had asked permission—, and they had planned to make the announcement the day after Christmas. So one can imagine the shock they were in for at what was about to ensue:

The Rangers chatted amongst themselves and Ashley with Father Amori as they trekked at a casual pace back to their cars. Zhane, however, dashed ahead to grab some glasses and two bottles of Moët & Chandon from the storage compartment of his Silver Cycle.

"Zhane, what are you doing?" asked Andros when the others reached the cars.

Karone dashed up to Zhane's side and grabbed his arm.

"Everyone!" Zhane called. When he had caught everyone's attention, he began twisting open the cap on one of the Champagne bottles. "I'd like to announce… that Karone and I are getting married!"

At that news, Andros literally lost consciousness—and would have hit the ground, had T.J., Carlos and Father Amori not caught him in time.

TO BE CONTINUED…