Legacy Of Power: At World's End
Part 3 – The Beginning
Chapter 11 – Preparations
Written By Pink-Green-White-4ever
Story Ideas By: Pink-Green-White-4ever and Marcus
Last Revised: August 29, 2007

Summary: The plans are beginning to be set in motion for the coming war.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Romance
Rating: T for now

AN: Okay, so I know it took me forever to get this chapter out, but I'm telling you now why – Chapter 13 ended up 28 pages, Chapter 15, which I just finished, is 29 almost 30 pages… do you see where I'm going with that? Not to mention, I just moved, I'm getting ready for my friend's wedding, and Mom is having surgery tomorrow, so things around here have been conspiring against me writing. I really am sorry.

Dedicated to: angel17712 and Enigmaforum for being a wonderful test audience, my sounding boards, and the best cheering section I could ask for! Love ya both!

"Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?" -- Mary Manin Morrissey --

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life." -- Richard Bach --

--

"So how are we all going to get back and forth?" Chad asked as the teams ate dinner, spread out in the library. They'd all been relatively silent when they'd returned, especially Shane and Billy who'd seen their lost loves on the other side. Hayley and the Dino Rangers were fairly humming with barely suppressed excitement, and the addition of Ninjor and Dimitria had left the Morphin, Zeo and Space teams excited, but thoughtful.

"Since we don't have the computers from the base, there's no way to teleport us back and forth," Rocky pointed out, sounding seriously disappointed.

"We've at least got the Galaxy Gliders," T.J. pointed to himself and the other Space Rangers.

"And we've got the Jet Jammers," Kai put in.

"The six of us can Ninja Streak, but too much of it will tire us out pretty fast," Cam added.

"We've got the Mystic Racers, so if we need to, the five of us can be on scene in a matter of minutes," Xander spoke up.

"And we can do the short distance transport spells," Vida reminded them.

Kim looked at Billy and saw him thinking intently about something. She recognized the look, it meant he had an idea, but she was surprised he wasn't sharing it. "Billy?"

The Blue Wolf Ranger looked up, startled, and then smiled gently at his little sister. "Yes Kim?"

"What are you thinking?"

A resigned look crossed his face. He'd forgotten that it was Kim, more than anyone, who'd become apt at reading his various expressions when they'd become Rangers. "It's just an idea, and it may not even work."

Kim, Aisha, Kat and Tanya all gave him a look that had him cringing. He knew the looks they were giving him; Trini had practically invented it during junior high when he used to get quiet instead of telling her what he was thinking. "Spill it, blue genius," Aisha demanded.

Billy rolled his eyes. "The computers in the lower chambers of the base are still active, and still working; that's why no one's ever found the base," Billy supplied, drawing the attention of al the other Rangers. "The power source isn't powerful or stable enough to use for multiple teleports, but if we route it through maybe the Astro Megaship and maybe the Lair at Tommy and Kim's, and add some extra power to it, we might have enough power to run it for the foreseeable future."

Dana cleared her throat then and waved to him. "What about the equipment and what not at Lightspeed? I'm sure we've got powerful enough stuff."

The Blue Ranger thought about it. "I'd need to see them, but that would definitely boost the power supply significantly."

The Pink Ranger nodded. "Let me call my father, I'm sure he and Angela can come up with something. I can get you clearance to all our equipment and resources."

"Billy, you can come home with me and Tommy, and then you can take my car," Kim told him. Tommy nodded from where he sat next to her. "That way, we're not tying you down while we take care of stuff before we come back here."

The Blue Ranger nodded. "I'll need to see the condition of the base before I can determine what we're going to need for the rest of it."

"I'll go with you," Aisha told him. "I took two weeks vacation, I've got time to help and there's no point in you doing it all yourself. Besides, aren't the ruins guarded?"

"Yes. Zordon set it up so that only those of us who'd been Rangers that served in it would have access to it should anything happen." Billy smiled his thanks at her.

"So until then, we just wait?" Zack asked.

Before anyone could respond, the alarms began going off. "Jason, Andros, Kim, Jen and Jack, come with me," Udonna ordered. The five rushed out after the White Ranger, leaving the others to wait.

--

The crystal ball in the main chamber showed the six the threat they faced. Vypra, Imperious, and General Nayzor along with some Battlings, Styxoids and Putrids were terrorizing a section of downtown Briarwood.

"That's Vypra," Jen growled. "And General Nayzor." The Pink Ranger knew about them from her dealings with Lightspeed and Wild Force, and from the files Wes got from Andros plus the database back at Time Force Headquarters.

"And that's Imperious, right Udonna?" Andros asked, having remembered the report Zhane and Karone had put together about the Mystic Force team.

Udonna's face was tight with barely restrained anger. "Yes."

"So I take it Lightspeed, Wild Force and Mystic Force should go greet them then?" Jason announced. Through Tommy, he'd kept up to date on each of the other teams, and that included knowing their major opponents.

"And the rest of us will stay alert, just in case," Kim finished.

"I'll go tell the others," Jack told them before rushing from the room and heading down the hallway to the library.

--

"I don't see them!" Nick called out to the others.

"They could be hiding!" Madison reminded him.

"How are we going to communicate with the others?" Chip asked, motioning to the fact that they were in the air and no one else was.

"I think they're below us following us!" Vida pointed down. Looking over the sides of their Racers, the five saw the two yellow Humvees carrying the other two teams below. "They'll follow our lead."

"Let's set down!" Nick ordered. The five of them landed their Mystic Racers just as Chad and Carter parked the two Humvees.

"See anything up there?" Carter called out to them as the three teams grouped together.

"Not a thing," Xander told him. The Green Ranger then turned to see Taylor and Vida standing next to him. He couldn't help but admire Taylor's uniform and the difference it had from the other girls' with the feather-like attachments to her under arms. He also couldn't help but to tease her about it. "Nice outfit there, Taylor."

The Yellow Eagle Ranger tilted her head in his direction. "I'll take my wings over your sissy cap, or the weird armor you're wearing right now, any day," she shot back, referring to the old uniforms as well as the Mystic team's current uniforms.

"You know, Eric is going to take a chunk out of you if you keep hitting on his fiancée," Vida warned him, reminding the Green Ranger of Taylor's hot headed fiancé who was waiting back at Rootcore.

"Point taken," Xander cringed, not wanting to think about the Quantum Ranger and how he'd react to Xander's continual flirting with Taylor.

"Why am I not surprised that you Rangers could goof off when facing death? You've always been a cheeky lot," a voice suddenly called out.

Nick, Madison, Chip, Vida and Xander tensed. "And here I thought after the ass-whooping Daggeron dished out to you, that you'd stay dead," Vida called back just as Imperious showed himself.

"You always were too mouthy for your own good, Pink Witch," the mummy-man grumbled.

Vida titled her head at him. "I still don't like your attitude either," the Pink Ranger commented.

"Vida, quit egging him on," Nick snapped at her, his voice low.

"She wouldn't be the first to egg on an opponent," Alyssa commented, nudging Taylor, who glared at her teammate.

"Are we going to talk or fight?" Vypra hissed, appearing from thin air.

The Lightspeed team tensed. "How'd I know your ugly mug would show?" Joel griped turning his attention to the female demon he'd wished had stayed dead.

"Honestly, Joel, aren't you a little old to still be doing this?" Vypra sneered and taunted.

"Look who's talking," Joel responded. "Haven't you gotten your butt kicked enough times by us already? Did you really feel the need to come back and have your behind handed to you again?"

Vypra glared at him. "Enough!" Nayzor bellowed. "We end this now."

The Rangers braced for the fight. The group of Styxoids, Battlings, and Putrids suddenly popped up from the ground and surrounded the three teams of Rangers.

"Ready!" Carter asked.

"Ready!" the others responded.

"ATTACK!" Cole and Nick ordered in unison.

Danny, Max and Chip found themselves back to back, fighting the group of foot soldiers. Joel, Chad and Xander weren't far from them, almost fighting in perfect unison. Merrick and Cole had gone after Nayzor while Ryan and Carter were keeping Vypra busy. Dana, Alyssa, Taylor, Kelsey and Vida were employing their special abilities to take out a large part of the foot soldiers. Vida kept using her tornado power to toss the goons at Taylor and Alyssa who used their Yellow Eagle and White Tiger powers to set the goons up in the right spot for Dana and Kelsey to use their lasers on them, destroying them easily. Last but not least were Nick and Madison, who'd been left to face Imperious.

"How do you want to handle this?" Madison asked, clutching her Lion Staff in her hands.

"Every time he turns around, he needs to be facing one of us," Nick breathed, his grip on his staff tightening.

Maddy nodded and charged, Nick following her a second later. The pair worked in tandem to execute Nick's plan. At every turn, Imperious found himself faced with one of the Legend Warriors.

--

"How are they doing?" Lianbow asked. Most of the Rangers left at Rootcore had gathered in the main room around the crystal ball to monitor the fight.

"So far so good," Jason told him, knowing the older man was worried about the five younger Rangers, particularly since his son was among them.

"Damn!" Rocky cursed, wincing when Nick and Madison were thrown against the side of a nearby building. "That had to hurt like hell."

"I hate standing back and waiting," Conner hissed.

Kira put her hand on his arm and smiled up at him. "They can handle it; we have to trust they can handle this."

The Red Ranger stiffly nodded. "I know, but I want to help."

"We all do," Daggeron assured him, touching Conner's shoulder. "But we can't lay all our cards on the table, not yet."

--

Ryan smiled as he sent Vypra stumbling back with a roundhouse kick. Dana, Joel and Danny's groups had dispensed with the minor goons before joining the three fights already going on. He winced when Imperious sent the five Mystic Rangers flying through the air.

"Carter! Go help them! We can handle Vypra!" he yelled to his brother-in-law, who nodded and headed over to stop Imperious from striking the fallen Rangers.

"V-Lancer!" Carter yelled, swinging upward with his weapon to counter Imperious' fan attack.

"Pesky Ranger! You interfere where you're not wanted!"

"Rangers stick together," Carter told him. "And we take care of our own."

Imperious had no chance to reply as both Nayzor and Vypra were sent crashing into him. "RETREAT!"

"We shall meet again Rangers!" Vypra hissed in warning before the three suddenly disappeared.

The three teams gathered together and took stock of injuries. "Everyone okay?" Dana asked.

"Just a little banged up," Madison told her. "Otherwise, still breathing."

"Let's head back," Cole suggested. The seventeen Rangers headed to their vehicles and then headed back to Rootcore.

--

Clare, Udonna, Dana and Aisha tended to the Rangers with various bumps and bruises while Cole, Nick, Carter, Merrick and Ryan went to speak with the five leaders, the mentors, and the other Red Rangers in the library. Everyone else was left to try and unwind or to pack their stuff up if they were leaving in the morning.

"Well?" Jason finally asked.

Carter, Cole, Ryan, Merrick and Nick shared a look before Carter stepped up. "A hell of a lot tougher than before."

"That or we're out of practice," Merrick muttered darkly, drawing looks from several of the others.

"I'm going to go with the latter," Jason commented. "The only ones with recent fighting experience are the newbies."

Nick glared at the original Red Ranger. "I don't think a year's worth of fighting under our belts means you can justify using that term."

Jason turned his attention to Nick and let his eyes go dark. "When you've been doing this as long or as much as some of the rest of us, we'll discuss coming up with something else to call you. Until then, you five still have a lot to learn. The magic isn't always going to save you, nor will you always have a weapon to use. Daggeron and Lianbow have done a wonderful job training you, but some of these baddies don't use magic as their major defense, and if you don't develop some better fighting skills, you're going to get the shit knocked out of you or you're going to get killed."

"What about those of you who can't control magic?" Nick fired back.

Kim, sensing the fight was getting ready to explode, stepped in between them, a hand held up in each of their faces. "Most of us, while unable to actually perform magic the way you do, do have experience dealing with it." Jason smirked until the Pink Morphin Ranger shot him a dirty look. "I propose an idea."

"What is it, Kim?" Jen asked, smirking. There were very few women she knew who could effectively handle men, let alone Ranger men, and Red ones at that, as well as Kimberly just had. It spoke of the first Pink Ranger's experience and maturity.

"We train while we're here," Kim started. "Physical training and skills training; all of us have some sort of magic based abilities, at least on some level."

The suggestion was met with agreement and a healthy dose of surprise. "Are we all in agreement then?" Anubis asked. Everyone present nodded. "Leaders?" Jen, Andros, Jack and Jason nodded their approval.

"I have one question," Rocky started. The others looked at him expectantly. "Kim, isn't your and Tommy's wedding in a month?"

All the color drained from Kimberly's face. "Nice going Rocky!" Jason hissed, moving to stand in front of Kimberly. "Kim, look at me."

Jason almost wished he hadn't insisted she look up at him. The tears welling in her eyes magnified the fear that radiated from the doe-brown depths ten times. "Jase…"

Her quietly uttered response broke all their hearts. Jen moved forward to take Kim's hand, smiling sadly when her pink teammate squeezed hard. "We'll do everything we can to make sure nothing happens."

"After everything we've been through, to even think something could happen scares me," Kim admitted, looking over to Jen who nodded.

"I know, ten years overdue," Jason murmured, pulling her into a hug. He closed his eyes and bit down on his lip to control his feelings of over-protectiveness when he felt her tremble. When he opened his eyes, Rocky was nodding toward the other room, causing Jason to nod once. The Morphin Red Ranger quickly left the library. Less than five minutes later, Tommy came flying in the room, Rocky hot on his heels.

The look Jason gave him spoke volumes. "What happened?" Tommy asked, bringing his hand up to rub down Kimberly's back.

"Someone forgot your wedding is the middle of next month," Jason quietly told him.

Tommy's eyes closed and he blew out an unsteady breath before pulling Kim into his arms. "Beautiful?" Tommy murmured in her ear, feeling her tremble and shake in his arms as she moved to bury her face against his chest. "Listen to me, they don't know about our wedding. There's no way they'll be able to interfere, I promise."

Kim stepped back and looked up at him, a fierce look on her face. "Don't make promises you can't keep," she cried before turning and fleeing the room.

The White Ranger shook his head and turned to Jason. "Don't worry, Tommy, I'll get the others," Jason assured him before the White Ranger took off after Kimberly.

--

Maddy noticed the quietness of her boyfriend. His eyes kept darting to Kimberly, who was unnaturally quiet and barely moving. "Want to talk about it?" she whispered, leaning against his shoulder.

The Red Mystic Ranger turned his blue-green eyes on his girlfriend and sighed. "I've been so selfish lately."

The Blue Mystic Ranger looked startled by his comment. "What do you mean?"

"I've been complaining the last couple of weeks about this whole situation, and how I don't want to deal with it. You guys have been telling me we're not alone, and today, Kimberly drilled that point home."

Maddy gave him a confused look. "I don't think I understand what you're getting at."

"Partially because of being a Ranger, and I'm sure there are other factors too, it's taken her and Tommy over ten years to get back together," he started. "Jason mentioned they'd dated during their original tenure as Rangers, but had broken up, but he didn't go into detail. She's worried now that something's going to happen at their wedding next month."

Her face softened as she realized Nick had a soft spot for the original Pink Ranger. Lifting a hand, she caressed his cheek and smiled. "Then we'll make sure nothing goes wrong."

Nick leaned their foreheads together. "For the first time since this started, I'm ready to fight."

"With that positive attitude, we're sure to win," she grinned at him.

Across the room, Wes and Jen sat leaning against each other on the floor. "Tired?" Wes asked in a whisper, his mouth just inches away from his wife's ear.

"A little. I'm more anxious to get home and have this over with than anything."

Wes nodded. "Too bad we don't know when either of those is going to happen."

"She's so sad," Jen pointed to where Kimberly was curled against Tommy's side with Aisha resting her head in Kim's lap. Rocky, Adam, Billy, Justin and Zack sat on the floor in front of the couch, while Jason sat on the armrest next to Tommy and Kat and Tanya sat on the other side of Kimberly, Kat's arm wrapped around both her teammates' waists.

"If all this had gone on around our wedding, I'd feel the same way," Wes told her, his voice serious.

"I want it to go off without a hitch," Jen spoke up, her eyes searching his.

Wes smiled at his wife and nodded. "We all do," Lucas broke in, causing Wes and Jen to turn to look at him. "And we're all going to fight to make sure it happens."

"Besides, with this many Rangers in one place, who'd think to attack?" Katie asked.

"That or we're just asking for trouble," Eric muttered, causing Trip to wince and nod.

"We'll be on guard," Carter put in, the Lightspeed team moving closer to Time Force. "It'll be one wedding to remember."