Chapter 25
To my dismay, and everybody else's, Divatox had not burned to a crisp in the last fight. I went back to the wreckage and looked around. But I didn't see a body or any charred remains. Pulling out my computer I preformed a scan on the entire area, thinking that she must have been thrown from her seat by the power of the two blasts....but my computer didn't find any trace of her anywhere. At first I thought that maybe her henchmen might have teleported down, searched and found her body and took off to bury her, it was possible. For a few hours everything was quiet. But it didn't last too long. Too bad though it was nice. That was until another Zord appeared out of nowhere and began to smash the buildings and nearly kill the people that were running away from its gigantic feet, at first I thought that Elgar had built this new Zord so that he could unleash his revenge on all of us. Not so. Divatox was indeed alive and driving the thing! Another thing that the rookies and I didn't expect was the appearance of another evil Zord! The first Zord that appeared was called, according to my scanner, Cat Zord. The second was called Shark Zord. There was another problem: the two Zords seemed more stronger than the Diva Zord. And if that weren't enough the Turbo Mega Zord and the Rescue Mega Zord hadn't had a lot of time to recover from the Diva Zord. It had been heavily damaged, I was hoping that there would be no retaliation from our enemies, I didn't think both Mega Zords could take another punch. Now while we had been fighting the Diva Zord I happened to notice some very weird energy signatures. After a few moments of trying to find out where these signature came from and why they seemed so familiar, the signature was small, so small that I nearly missed it the first time I scanned the Zord, finally I found out why the signature was so familiar. They were an exact copy of mine! A chill of horror went through me as the realization hit me! Goldar and Divatox had finally joined forces! I stared at the screen for a few minutes stunned. The first question that popped into my head was How long have they been in alliance? The second question was Why are they in alliance? I had thought for certain that Goldar thought that Divatox and her crew weren't worth even looking at, and whenever they met up it would turn into an all out brawl between the two armies! What changed? I leapt up and began to pace back and forth in front of the computer. If their alliance had started earlier in the war, why didn't I sense it? If Goldar had given Divatox and her army more power then why didn't Elgar or the Piranhatrons use it against the rookies? And what about Divatox's monsters-for-hire, most of them have been defeated by the rookies alone, without my help, if Goldar had given them some of his power then why didn't they use it against the rookies? Dimitria would have surely sensed the aura of power surrounding the monsters, the rookies would have voiced their worries at the Youth Center of the monsters....but they didn't! I thought for a minute remembering the last time there had been an alliance between two of my enemies. Both armies of Count Dregon and Lord Zedd's had attacked Dex and I, and both Cyclopter and Double-Face had helped Goldar and Rito in kidnaping me. From what my friends and Dex had told me Double Face and Cyclopter had both returned to the battle shortly after taking me to Zedd's palace. After they had found out that I had somehow returned from the dead, both Dregon and Zedd had been furious, taking it out on their own men, who in turn took it out on us. But, they did get something as a consolation prize, because Zedd's staff can only hold so much of my power, he gave a bit to his army and also to Count Dregon. It seems that Goldar is doing the same thing that Zedd had done. And this could give us a lot of trouble. I have to get the rookies ready, I just hope that they are up to it.
Fortunately the rookies were definitely up to the upcoming battle, what they weren't up to, was the amount of power that the two evil Zords had. And unfortunately we were not at full strength, the Turbo Mega Zord and the Rescue Mega Zord still needed some time to be fixed. I did my best to help out, with several Power Blasts and sword slashes, but it wasn't enough, at one time I even tried to get into one of the evil Zords and dismantle it from the inside but.....as soon as I had reached one of them, I was suddenly blasted back by a wave of power, energy and electricity. I flew a couple of hundred feet from the Zord and landed flat on my back, winded, my entire body throbbing with pain. My healing powers washed over me thankfully, I staggered to my feet and wasn't at all surprised to see Goldar and a horde of Tengu Warriors standing in front of me. What surprised me though was to see Goldar not taking part in the battle of the Zords, I was sure that he could have used Zedd's----his staff to make himself grow into Zord size. But knowing Goldar he would want to get his most hated enemy on the ground, alone, with no back up what so ever, not to mentioned tired and a bit low on power and energy. I had used most of it trying to help the rookies: creating shields, making the blasts that came from the enemy Zords turn back on them, levitating the Mega Zords up and out of the way of an on-coming attack, levitating the evil Zords and making them crash into each other and firing Power Blasts. So yeah I was a bit tired and needed a rest, but I knew that Goldar wasn't going to permit me to catch my breath. I pulled out my sword, ready for battle. My arm was shaking, my sword felt heavy and even though my healing powers had healed my body of pain, still in my mind, my body was screaming in protest as I powered up my sword and raced at Goldar all thought of the rookies and their plight forgotten as I punched, kicked, and slashed at the Tengu. Sending a Tengu flying with an uppercut to the chin, swopping down, grabbing its ankle and flinging it over my back, spinning and stomping hard on its stomach I leapt and spun in the air as several Tengu took flight to met up with me. My fist and leg shot out the last second just as they were about to land on me. Planting a face kick on a Tengu that sent it reeling, I grabbed another by the arm and flung it as hard as I could making it smash beak first into one of it's fellows, I caught another one with a swift and hard back punch followed with a high kick, another I grabbing, pulled back my head and preformed a face smash. The Tengu's beak cracked, it grabbed it and fell to the ground in pain. The other Tengu soon followed. I landed on the ground breathing hard, it was getting to be too much. I.....need.....to......rest. My knees shook, I struggled to stay on my feet, forcing myself to be ready for Goldar's attacks. Strangely enough he hadn't joined in the battle but had watched, now he walked toward me with a smirk on his face. I tried to keep my sword pointed at him but it sagged toward the ground. Goldar grinned wider as I had to use both of my hands to lift up the sword that felt like lead in my hands.
"You should really stop trying." he said as I looked into his eyes. I shook my head firmly.
"Never. I won't stop, not now, not ever, not until it's over." He grinned wider and approached me, he lifted up his hand. For a moment I thought that he was going to strike, I tried to summon enough energy to deflect or dodge whatever he was going to throw at me, but instead of striking, he merely placed his hand on the forehead of my helmet and gave a little nudge. I cried out, as I fell backward and landed on my butt on the ground. I looked up at him, my sword had flown from my hand and was laying a few feet away. Even if I could reach it, I didn't have the strength to lift it, much less defend myself from Goldar and his Tengu, who were now staggering to their feet and moving to stand beside Goldar. All of them grinned down at me and began to laugh.
"Stupid little girl." Goldar pointed upward toward the Zord battle. I looked up and felt my mouth drop open in horror. The rookies! The Mega Zords! I struggled to my feet but everything that I had, had been drained from me during the battle.
"It is already over." The Tengu and Goldar began to cackle as the Shark Zord and Cat Zord destroyed the two Mega Zords!
"No!" I shouted as I saw the rookies abandon ship and began to fall to the ground below, I struggled to concentrate, to cushion their fall, but for all the good that it did, it was like I didn't do anything at all. They plummeted to the ground, but thankfully they managed to cushion their fall by rolling. Coming to a stop a hundred yards or so from me, they staggered to their feet and watched in horror as the Mega Zords broke apart and fell. I was aware of two things as I watched the last line of defense for earth fall right before my horror filled eyes: Goldar laughing and everyone's screaming. Including my own.
All of us regrouped in the Power Chamber, the rookies continued to stare straight ahead, still too shocked to realize that A-6 had teleported them. I was still on my knees, disbelief and rage going through me. The Zords.....were gone. When I get my hands on Goldar....I don't care if a thousand Tengu and Divatox's army stand in front of me!
Dimitria and A-6 were staring at me. I looked up at the rookies. Justin wore a shocked and disbelieving look on his face, it was the same look that he wore when he found out that Tommy and I used to be agents of evil. TJ and the others wore looks of shock, disbelief and horror. I struggled to my feet and limped toward them to try and comfort them, but what could I say? That everything will be alright? Not likely. Not with those two Zords running around with the power that Goldar gave them. We have to face the facts here. With the Mega Zords we have no line of defense. I began to wish that my friends still had the power to morph into the Zeo Rangers, then we would call on the Zeo Zords.Despair washed over me, I was wishing for the impossible, my friends could no longer morph into Rangers, even though their successors and the earth needed them now. Anger rose within me. If I can morph why the hell can't they? Why did, whoever or whatever, gave me the power to morph once again into a Ranger, couldn't have done the same thing for my friends? Why? Is it because of who I am and the power that I have? This power that I've grown to despise but still use to protect and save the people that I love? Or is it because......
"Yo! Why are you here?" Snapped A-6. The rookies jumped and seemed surprised to see that I was there. I stayed silent, my only response was sheathing my sword, looking up at Dimitria and giving her a deep nod.
"It's okay, Alpha. She's cool. She helped us out a couple of times in battle." Said TJ.
"I know that." Snapped A-6.
"What I meant was what is she doing here?" I see that he hasn't changed a bit. I thought drily as looks of confusion passed on the rookies faces as they looked at me.
"Well, she is a Power Ranger, so she must have the same privileges as us." said Cassie. I nodded. For once she was on my side. They all turned to A-6 and asked about the Zords, how badly damaged they were, whether or not they would be up and running, ready for the next attack. They were hoping that the Zords could be salvaged and repaired, but A-6 and I knew better.
"The Zords are destroyed, there is no way to repair them, that alone will take years. What's worse is that thanks to that last battle some of the shields around the Power Chamber are now gone. We had to reroute the Power Chamber's power to the Zords to protect you guys and they overloaded."
"Well, can you bring them back on line?" asked Carlos. A-6 shook his head sadly.
"I can't. It was too much for the computer, all lines are down. I'm not sure if I can get them back online at all. Everything's down, even the teleportation system. It blew right after I used what was left of the reserve power to teleport all of you up here." My heart began to pound with fear. The Power Chamber is completely defenseless! I didn't even have enough strength to defend the Power Chamber and the rookies against both Goldar and Divatox. Just then Justin spoke and we all jumped, having forgotten that he was there.
"So its over? It can't be over, there is no way that it can be over! We're the Power Rangers! We're the good guys! Good guys are supposed to win every battle!" He had a wild look in his eyes. Anger broke out over me, I forgot all about the shock that the Power Chamber was now open to any and all attacks, Justin was acting like that whiny crybaby again! He wanted to think that nothing can hurt you because when you're a super hero, nothing can hurt you, nothing bad can happen to you. You're untouchable, you're invincible. IT WASN'T LIKE THAT AT ALL! I leapt up and grabbed Justin by the shoulders and began to shake him.
"Haven't you freaking learned anything by now? We tend to lose a few battles. A few battles!! But when we lose one battle, you start whining and crying. "We're supposed to be the good guys, nothing happens to the good guys" Here is a wake up call Justin! Things happen to the good guys!! We are made to suffer because of what we do! That's what makes us so strong! That makes our enemies fear us so much. It's our strength that makes us so powerful, they make us suffer because they think that they can make into who we once were! Weak little kids who had no freaking idea that what we see right now even existed, but they were wrong, they can never take away our strength because we remember everything that they have done to us and we use our hatred and anger and the pain that they gave us against them. Just like they use our weakness against us! Don't you understand the reason that Goldar chose you to kidnap and torture you? It's because of your weakness and innocence. Goldar stripped that away from you, he knew that you weren't strong enough to handle what he showed you. He knew that you saw the world as black and white, where the good guys always won and never lost, where your loved once aren't targeted for punishments, where the good guys, the heroes that you looked up to and admire can save everyone, but it's all blown away when you find out that your heros are the ones that let your loved ones die! It's all blown away when you find out that your heroes can make mistakes! It's all blown away when you find out that your heros are only freaking human!!!" Not even realizing what I was doing, I had thrown him onto the ground. I was standing over him, my entire body was shaking, everyone was staring at me, but I didn't care. The little punk had to know the truth, he had to grow up and get rid of that stupid fantasy and realize that sometimes everything wasn't going to turn out alright. Justin was staring up at me. No one spoke. Finally Carlos spoke.
"Amy?" Oops. I had completely forgotten that I never allowed myself to speak, now I turned back to the rookies, I stared at them for a few moments then I powered down. Shock and surprise were on all of their faces including Dimitria's. Justin had picked himself off the ground and was now standing in front of me.
"All this time? You're the one that would save us? You were the Yellow Zeo Ranger?" I stared down at him and looked around at the others. I stopped myself from laughing. It was hard to believe that they had never even figured it out, I mean didn't they recognize my fighting style, the color of the Power Blasts, my sword, the fact that the Yellow Ranger had a limp. I guess not. I nodded.
"Yeah, I'm the Yellow Zeo Ranger, listen I'll explain everything later. Te...uh A-6 where's the Blue Senturion? Why wasn't he at the battle helping us out?"
"Before I answer your questions, you answer a few of ours." He snapped. I gave a sigh, the feeling of irritation surfaced within me, I fought it down.
"Later, please A-6. Just answer a few of my questions." he was silent for a minute, TJ and the others were also silent. Apparently finding out that it had been I that saved them time and time again, the traitorous Ranger, the one that used to work for the forces of evil, helped them to win battles against Divatox and General Havoc had left them all speechless and stunned. A-6 turned to the controls and began to pull up the data.
"We sent the Blue Senturion to Edenio, someone had sent a message that they needed more help, we just got a message back of him. Edenio has fallen." I froze. I grabbed A-6 by the shoulders, spun him around and began to scream at him.
"IT'S NOT TRUE! IT'S NOT TRUE! IT CAN'T BE! MY MENTOR AND MY BEST FRIEND ARE UP THERE! HOW COULD IT FALL? HE TOLD ME THAT EVERYTHING WOULD BE ALRIGHT. HE PROMISED ME THAT HE WOULD CALL IF ANYTHING HAPPENED. WHY DIDN'T HE CALL? HE KNEW THAT THE OTHER RANGERS AND I WOULD GO TO HIS AID." I released A-6 and sank to my knees, tears were streaming down my eyes.
"He promised that everything would be alright. He promised that....that he.....could hold his own....that he would be safe....he promised..." I shut my eyes, unable to bear the thought, the mere idea, that my mentor, my father.....oh god! My worst fear! Dad was in trouble and I was too far away to help him.....just like mom. Through the grief that overwhelmed me a thought made itself known in the back of my mind. I didn't feel Dad die. I opened my eyes and stared straight ahead not really paying attention as the rookies all gathered around A-6 and began to ask questions. When mom died I felt it, in my heart.....but.....I didn't feel dad's.....he must still be alive!!! Relief swept through me.
"Zordon is still alive." I proclaimed as I climbed to my feet and limped over to the others, they turned toward me.
"How do you know?" asked Cassie.
"Because I would have felt it if he died. A-6, is there anything more to the message that the Blue Senturion sent? The whereabouts of the other Alpha unit that was with him? Alpha 5?" I was on pins and needles as A-6 turned back to the controls and looked at the message. Dimitria looked down at me.
"You and Zordon are close." It was a statement. I nodded feeling no surprise that she was able to talk in statements and not questions.
"He's the one that choose me to be the Yellow Ranger." A-6 had just finished telling me that Tentomon was alright, he had been damaged but not too much. Dad had shoved him out of the way of fire. I breathed a sigh of relief, silently thankful that my best friend was alright. But it was short lived when I began to realize that King Lexian and his people were now at the mercy of Count Dregon and his army. I've got to tell Dex. He'll probably want to travel to Edenio as fast as possible. Before I could make a move however, Dimitria said something. I looked up at her, surprised. She was leaving earth to go and aid everyone on Edenio. Instantly I asked if I could go with her.
"Please Dimitria, I want to help the people of Edenio. Some of them I know, they are the allies of the Power Rangers. Please allow me to come with you. Please?" She looked down at me for a moment. Before she could say anything however Justin spoke up.
"We need your help here! What about Divatox and Goldar? You can just leave us!" I turned and stared at him, anger flowed through me.I was about to yell at him, when I remembered my promise to Tommy and the others that I would protect the rookies from Goldar. I stopped, struggling on what to do. If I left I could see for myself that dad and Tentomon were alright and that the Edenites were all safe, I would be able to, for the first time, fight side by side with my father, against Dregon's army. I would also make sure that Dex's people were all safe.....but if I left....the rookies would be at the mercy of both Divatox and Goldar, I glanced at Justin. He was still terrified of the Tengu Warriors and more so of Goldar. In the state that all of them were in, they could easily be beaten then who would protect the Earth and Angel Grove? My friends? The two things that I love the most and I have to make a decision between them? Was this how dad felt when he had to choose between the desire to locating me and mom to staying on Eltar and helping to rebuild everything? I was still hesitating.
"Any day now!" snapped A-6. Ignoring him I turned to face Dimitria.
"I'll stay." Even though I said it matter of factly I was miserable, more than anything I wanted to see my dad and my best friend....but I made a promise and Amy Karmer always keeps her promises. We wished her luck and a safe journey, I wanted to scream out: Take me with you. But I stayed silent.
No sooner had she vanished from the tube, the alarm rang. We looked at it, then we all turned as we all heard a great thumping noise coming from the doors that led into the Power Chamber. It became louder and louder and more harder, it sounded like whatever it was....it was many and it was trying to get in. I stepped forward and pulled my sword from it's sheath, ready to do battle with what I thought that was trying to break down the Power Chamber door. If I die in here, I promise that I'll take a few Tengu Warriors with me and maybe even Goldar. Justin sidled more closer to TJ and the others as they continued to stare at the door as it finally gave away, and Piranhatrons streamed in. My eyes widen in surprise as my body instinctively crouched and sprang, going on the attack. Piranhatrons? What the hell? What are they doing here? How did they—? A picture suddenly popped into my mind of Goldar and Rito appearing in the Command Center and stealing the Zeo Crystal. Oh no! He must have told Divatox the location of the Power Chamber since it's in the exact location of the Command Center. That's why he gave her some of his power. He knew that all three Zord attacks would weaken the rookies big time, so that they would have to revert to use the energy of the Power Chamber for the Zords, and since the three Zords were extra powerful that caused the Power Chamber to drain all of its own power. Which made the rookies.....sitting ducks. Gotta protect them. I thought as I slashed at and every Piranhatron that was within reach of my sword, two of them grabbed my arms. Twisting my wrist around I stabbed the one on my right, it keeled over, twirling my sword I sliced the chest of the other one, it fell at my feet. I leaped over it and ran to go help TJ and the others, who had all morphed and were all fighting for their lives