A/N I own nothing apart from the plot and the characters I invent. Thank you to everyone and anyone who has read this story and added it to their alerts/favourites. I am kind of happy with myself for getting this up about a week after the last chapter, because as you all know it usually takes me ages to update. I hope you all had a good Christmas and and I also hope you all enjoy this chapter.

"What did you just say?" asked Tommy in disbelief. "So sorry, but it sounded like you said that you were going to see Dark Spectre."

"That is exactly what I said Tommy," said Karone. "And Tikilata is going to take me to him. So here you go." She handed the Wrath Staff to Tommy. "Hide it amongst the rangers. Shayla or somebody might know what to do to get the Dragon Sabre out and use it for good instead of evil."

Tommy stared at her. "You cannot go to Dark Spectre alone!" he hissed. "If he realises that you are not actually –"

"Yeah I know," Karone said quickly. "I am going to take the Psychos with me. Camille has to stay here though. Dark Spectre doesn't particularly like Dai Shi and she was allied with him, so it would be too dangerous for him to see her with me... and not just for her."

"I see... and what about me?" asked Tommy. "I could go with you."

"No, I can't leave Rita and Zedd alone for too long," she replied. "You know what they're like."

"Yeah, I suppose," agreed Tommy. "Just... keep in contact, OK? Don't go for more than three hours without contact with me, the rangers or Rita and Zedd. Otherwise we will assume something is wrong. Deal?"

"Deal," she said. "Just one thing though."

"What's that?" asked Tommy.

"Here's a tip for you," she said. "Never assume anything. It makes an ass out of you and me."

Tommy gave her a funny look. She sighed. "Spell assume."

"A-s-s," began Tommy.

"Ass," said Karone. "Continue."

"U," continued Tommy.

"You," repeated Karone.

"Ah," said Tommy, finally understanding what Karone had said.

"You can't spell," said Karone. "It's not a-s-s-u-a, it's a-s-s-u-m-e," she said.

"Not the letter," explained Tommy. "I said ah, as in 'ah, I get it'."

"Ah," said Karone. They both laughed.

"You be careful out there Your Majesty," said Tommy. "Can't have you going missing. Whatever would we do without you?"

"I dunno," said Karone. "Nothing, I suppose. You might just have to throw yourself off a cliff..."

"I wouldn't miss you that much," said Tommy. "Andros on the other hand..."

Karone laughed again and went over to join Tikilata. "We have to go now," she said. "C'mon Psycho Rangers, we are going to meet with Dark Spectre. See ya later Tommy."

"Bye Astronema," said Tommy. He and Camille waved and turned to go. "Remember," he continued as he was walking away. "Every three hours."

"I got it," said Karone. She and Tikilata then boarded the Astro Megaship again along with the Psycho Rangers. Once inside Karone gave DECA the orders to go to the coordinates that Tikilata typed in. They were off to see Dark Spectre, the grand monarch of evil.

Tommy and Camille headed down to the rangers cell with the Wrath Staff. When they got to the cell Tommy handed the Staff to Princess Shayla as Camille closed the cell door behind them again. She stood up from her seat when he handed it to her. "Is this... the Wrath Staff with the Dragon Sabre inside?" she asked.

"Yes," said Tommy. "Well, it's the one Karone brought back from her excursion."

"Where is Karone?" asked Andros. She would usually have come in with Tommy whenever they had found something or had news to tell.

"Did you bring the food I asked for?" asked Kimberly, cutting in. "This Bridge guy is getting out of control."

Tommy looked over to where Kim was standing. Bridge was sitting on the floor with his hands on his head, rocking back and forth. Sydney Drew, the pink SPD ranger, was trying to calm him down by talking to him and Z Delgado, the yellow SPD ranger, was sitting on the floor beside him trying to stop him from rocking back and forth. She was clearly closer to him than the other rangers were. Sky and Jack were watching on. They were thinking that Bridge was weird, but he had never been this weird before. At least not in front of them.

"Need toast..." mumbled Bridge. "Buttery toast..." He wiggled his fingers in front of his mouth when he said the word 'buttery'. Tommy just stared at him.

"So, did you?" asked Kim, interrupting Tommy's staring.

Tommy turned to look at her. He then turned to Camille. "Run to the kitchen and get lots of bread and lots of butter, as well as some pizza ingredients," he said. "Hurry!"

Camille nodded and ran out of the cell and up the corridor. She headed straight to the Dark Fortress' kitchen to get the necessary food.

"Now," said Tommy. "I have rather disturbing as well as interesting news."

"Oh?" asked Donna. "What is it?"

"Dark Spectre is back," Tommy explained. A few of the rangers looked at him with shocked expressions on their faces, others just stopped what they were doing and started thinking negative thoughts. It was true only a few of the rangers had had any experience with Dark Spectre's forces and plans, but everyone had heard of him. Everyone had heard of his plans and most of all, his accomplishments.

"This is bad," said the Sentinel Knight. "This is really bad."

"It's actually worse than you think," said Tommy. "Karone has gone with a monster called Tikilata to meet with Dark Spectre." Most of the rangers gasped. Rocky was not listening well though and only caught a tiny bit of what Tommy just said.

"A tequila latte?" he said in disgust. "I'm all for taking risks and trying new things, but that drink sounds dangerous. It'll wake you up and then make you drunk..."

"He didn't say tequila latte dude, so don't worry," said Dustin, who hadn't been listening carefully either. "He said that Karone is away to kill a latte, which doesn't really make any sense."

Some of the rangers laughed at Rocky and Dustin and their lack of listening skills. Tommy just shook his head. "No guys, I said that Karone is away with a monster called Tikilata to meet Dark Spectre."

"What?" cried Rocky in disbelief. This time he had been listening. "This is really bad. What the hell was she thinking?"

"Precisely," said Tommy. "At least she took the Psychos with her for backup."

"What?" cried Andros. "That's worse!"

"Why?" asked Tommy.

"Because Dark Spectre might know that she used them to drain power from him whilst they were fighting us. She could be in big trouble. And what if this Tikilata guy is a fake? What if he works for the Dragon Dagger Society and this is all a huge big trap? What if –"

"Hey Andros!" shouted Zhane from the other side of the room.

"What?" asked a very panicked and worried Andros.

"Shut up!" said Zhane. "Your babbling and blathering and stupid negativity is not helping anybody. In fact, you are making things worse."

Andros nodded. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"We have to do something though," said Ashley, coming over to comfort Andros. "What if he turns her really evil again?"

"It won't come to that," said Tommy. "If she doesn't call every three hours to give us a report on what is happening, we go in. Her cell phone has a tracking device; just like the one you guys have and my own. We will know where she is and we will be able to save her."

"Are you sure?" asked Andros.

"Andros, don't make me say it again!" said Zhane.

"It wasn't negative or panicked Zhane," said Andros. "So you cannot tell me to shut up again."

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do!" yelled Zhane.

"Why don't you shut up yourself?" suggested Andros.

"I'm not the one that's driving everyone nuts with worried, panicked and negative comments," said Zhane. "I'm not the one reminding everyone of all the terrible things that could possibly happen to Karone. We are all aware of how dangerous this is, so you don't need to remind us!" Zhane was really angry and upset.

"Well at least I," began Andros.

"Enough!" yelled Shayla. "We cannot keep doing this! All of us have fought with another here; all of us have disagreed with someone in this cell since this mission began. But enough is enough. I will not tolerate it anymore."

"Sorry Princess Shayla," Zhane mumbled apologetically. He then walked over to his bunk and lay down on it. He wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone after the argument with his best friend.

"Yeah, me too..." said Andros. "I'm just really worried about my sister."

"Well, everything is alright now, I hope," said Donna. Andros looked like he was about to say something but she decided to cut him off. "Faith and hope are two wonderful things. You must have faith in Karone for her to do the right thing and not turn evil if she is faced with it – deep down everyone can manage to prevent it happening if they are aware of it early on – and you must hope for the best. That is all you can do at this minute in time."

Andros nodded in agreement. Donna was right; Andros had to hope for the best and have some faith in his sister.

"Sooo," said Tommy, breaking the silence. "Do you think you could find a way to either hide it or get that Dragon thing out of it?"

"We will analyse it and see what we can do," said Shayla. "But I can guarantee you that if anyone comes looking for this, they won't find it."

"Thank you," said Tommy as Camille came through the cell door carrying bags of food.

"OK," she said. "This one is full of bread and butter." At the mention of bread and butter, Bridge immediately leapt from his seat on the floor and grabbed the blue plastic bag from Camille. He was almost running to the toaster, ripping open the packaging on one of the loaves of bread. He slammed the bread into the toaster and slid down the thing at the side. He wrenched open the cutlery drawer and grabbed a knife and then opened the butter. He then stood watching the toaster with a hungry look on his face, mumbling "toast" again and again.

"Hey, did you ever hear the phrase 'a watched kettle never boils'?" Sky asked Bridge.

"Yeah," replied Bridge. "So it's a good thing this is a toaster; otherwise my toast would never be ready..."

"I forgot that his mind works differently to the rest of the human race..." Sky said to Jack. The two SPD rangers chuckled.

"I don't get why you said that," Dax, the blue Overdrive ranger, said. "Why say something about a kettle when there isn't one involved?"

"You don't take it literally," explained Syd. "He means that if Bridge stands watching the toaster and waiting for it to pop, it's going to seem like it takes longer."

"Well why didn't he just say that in the first place?" asked a confused Dustin.

"Because sometimes it's nice to use a saying or a well-known phrase when you are trying to say something," explained Z. "For example, if I say 'far away hills are greener', I mean that you might want something more because someone else has it and you don't."

"Really?" asked Syd. "I thought it was 'the grass is always greener on the other side'."

"Well, it's the same thing really," said Z, shrugging.

"Yeah, like 'green with envy'," said Jack. "When you are envious, that means jealous, you don't actually turn green."

"It's green with evil in Tommy's case," said Jason. He chuckled. "Ouch!"

Tommy had thrown a rubber bouncy ball at Jason. "What?" he asked. "I thought it was quite good, actually. You were the green ranger when you were evil."

"Genius Jason," said Tommy. "Just genius."

"I brought tomatoes, cheese, pepperoni and other pizza stuff too," said Camille, holding up another of her blue plastic bags.

"Thank you very much," said Lily, taking the bag from her. "Come on Jungle Fury crew; we have got some pizzas to make!"

"What's in the third bag?" asked Tommy.

"Huh?" asked Camille. She had been surprised that the Jungle Fury rangers had forgiven her so easily. "Oh, the bag. I also brought tea bags, coffee granules, beer and sodas. Was that OK?"

"That is great!" said Wes. "I am in need of a good drink."

"I think we should have a party tonight!" said Rocky. "Bridge isn't crazy anymore, we're getting pizza and we have booze!"

"And we can use my iPod for music," said Dustin.

"Um, as long as it's not too loud," said Tommy. "Otherwise the rest of the Alliance will think something is up, and Rita and Zedd might get crazy thoughts about joining you for some fun."

"Don't worry," said Dustin.

"Yeah, it's all under control Dr. O," said Conner.

"Hey, if it gets quiet maybe you could come and join us Tommy," said Adam.

"We'll see," said Tommy. "We'll see."

Astro Megaship
"How much longer until we get there?" asked Karone.

"We should be there soon, my queen," replied Tikilata. "It's not much farther."

"OK," said Karone. They flew further across the galaxy until they came to the planet Dracos, home of the Dragon Dagger Society. "What are we doing here?" asked Karone, slightly worried that this was all a set up.

"Don't worry," said Tikilata. "We are not meeting with the Dragon Dagger Society. Dark Spectre decided to meet us here beside this planet because the Society had left their planet for the time being; something which Dark Spectre would also like to talk to you about."

"Yeah," said Karone. "They are getting really annoying now. They just won't leave me alone! They are in the Dark Fortress right now as we speak. Luckily Rita and Zedd can distract them quite easily."

"Yes," agreed Tikilata. "They were quite useful at that sort of thing."

Karone nodded and then looked out the window of the Megaship. At first she could see nothing beside the purple planet that was Dracos. Then Dark Spectre suddenly appeared. "Astronema!" said the Grand Monarch of Evil. "It has been too long, my Princess."

"I must say; you look ten times more evil than before," said Karone, quite truthfully. The evil monarch who looked like he could be made of lava and rock looked bigger, bulkier and more powerful than ever before.

"Why thank you," said Dark Spectre, taking Karone's statement as a compliment. "I must say, the blonde hair suits you. And I have been watching your moves, Astronema. You managed to capture all of the rangers! And Shayla, Donna and the Sentinel Knight too. I must say; I am very impressed."

"Well, the credit for the capture of all the rangers has to go to Tommy," said Karone. "He's an evil power ranger, you know. The very first one, in fact. He was Rita's green ranger back in the early nineties. Sure, he turned good after that but has come back to us at last. He was a ranger for so long that he knows everything. How it works, who is in charge, what meetings they have when there is trouble; everything! He is a very valuable informant and is a very capable fighter as well. We would be lost without him."

"Yes... I have heard about him before," said Dark Spectre. "Rita used to brag about him all the time, and then Zedd would say 'well now he's a good ranger – one of the best – and it's all your fault!' Ha!" Dark Spectre began to laugh, and Karone made a mental note to ask Tommy if he heard him on Earth because he was that loud.

"I am quite happy that he has joined our Alliance once again," continued Dark Spectre. "He was a formidable fighter, as you very well know. I must meet him myself sometime."

"So," said Karone. "What do you need me to do? I mean, you didn't just bring me all the way out here just to say hello."

"You are quite right Astronema," said Dark Spectre. "There is a slight problem which you are probably already aware of."

"Ah yes," said Karone. "The Dragon Dudes."

A/N So what did you all think of this chapter? Please let me know what you thought of it in a review. I would like to wish everyone a happy new year. Sorry but don't expect the next chapter up as soon as this one because I am going away to Scotland tomorrow and will not be back till next week and I am not taking my computer with me. So again; Happy New Year and please leave me a review telling me what you think. See you all next time!