"Please!" The alien begged Terrible. "Let me redeem myself!"
Terrible stood and walked around the alien. "Get up!" He ordered. The alien hurried to his feet, and the Master looked him over. "Why?"
"Huh?" He asked, shrinking away from Terrible.
Terrible groaned. "Why shouldn't I destroy you right now?"
"I could've destroyed the rangers last time! I..."
"Could've, would've, and should've, but you didn't do anything."
"Master, I wasn't destroyed, though. I was hit by the rangers in a way that would have destroyed most anyone else. Please, give me another chance!"
Terrible looked unimpressed, but pondered it. "Alright, Camel, I'll give you one last chance. If you survive without one of the rangers' heads on a stick, I will destroy you."
"Thank you, Master, you won't be disappointed!" Camel cheered.
~PRAA~
"He knew, Therese." Ally sniffed as she and her best friend sat outside near the pool. "He knows I like Keith."
"Ally, you couldn't have hid it forever. He was going to find out eventually." Therese rubbed circles into her back. "Either way, he wasn't the one who knew."
"What?" Ally looked up at Therese. "You didn't...?"
"No!" Therese shook her head. "Of course not. Darry told him."
Ally frowned. "How did he know?"
"Well, it's pretty obvious to everyone but Keith, and Frank, until yesterday." Therese admitted.
"Ugh, really?" Ally whined. She put her head in her hands and sat there. Therese looked back and saw Frank watching from inside. He looked broken up about the whole thing.
"Ally, do you want to talk to him about it?" Therese asked. "You're never gonna be friends again unless you do."
Ally sat up and nodded. "Please."
Therese stood and walked over to the door, opening it and gesturing for Frank to go outside. "Therese, I..."
"Go talk to her. She needs it." Therese cut him off.
Frank nodded and walked outside. He sat down on the chair next to Ally. "I'm sorry."
Ally shook her head and looked over at him. "No, I'm sorry. I used you to get rid of my feelings for Keith, but I couldn't, and I feel horrible."
Frank had a small smile. "It's okay. Sometimes, that person you love just doesn't love you back."
Ally looked at him sympathetically. "Frank." She said sadly.
"It's okay." Frank shook his head. "We'll always be best friends."
Ally smiled and leaned over to hug him. "Thank you." She whispered into his shoulder.
He nodded and smiled. "No problem."
Right then, the alarm went off. Frank pulled away. "Way to ruin a good moment." He muttered, making Ally giggle. They both stood and ran out.
~PRAA~
The rangers arrived on the scene morphed and immediately felt the deja vu.
"Is that acid?" Angie asked, seeing familiar erosion spots in the road, on cars, trees, and buildings.
"Oh my God." Ally pointed at the alien. "It's Camel."
"Everyone duck!" Keith ordered as Camel spit. Keith pulled the girls aside with him behind a car while the guys ducked behind another one across the way.
"This is some serious deja vu." Darry commented. He peered out from behind the car, and, realizing his mistake too soon, was hit it the face by Camel's spit, sending him flying back.
"Darry!" Angie screamed, causing Keith to grab her by the waist to hold her back when she tried to help the silver ranger.
"No! It's too dangerous!" Keith struggled against the gold ranger as she fought and cried out to go help Darry, who wasn't moving.
Meanwhile, Frank and Luke watched everything and tried to come up with a plan.
"Should we just go for it?" Luke asked.
Frank pursed his lips, and realizing that he didn't have a better plan, he nodded. "1..."
"2..."
"3!" They both popped out of their hiding place, pulled out their swords, and ran at Camel. Camel quickly spit at them. Luke evaded it as Frank put up a forcefield to protect himself. They could hear the others yelling at them as they brought down their swords, and they quickly found out why: Camel had moved and they hit each other... sort of. Frank struck Luke, but Luke hit Frank's forcefield, shattering it and throwing both boys to the ground in opposite directions.
"Guys!" Therese and Ally yelled together.
Ally turned to Keith. "Keith, what do we do?"
Keith looked around, finding the rangers near him staring at him for instructions. "We should fall back, but we need them." He gestured to the fallen guys. "I'll distract him, you retrieve them."
Keith stood and ran at Camel, tackling the alien to the ground as the girls dragged the guys away. Keith put his hands over Camel's mouth, and ended up crying out in pain when acid burned through his suit and into his hands. He quickly jumped up and followed the girls.
~PRAA~
"Ow!" Keith cried out as Ally cleaned his burns with anti-bacterial medicine.
"Sorry. I don't want you to get an infection." Ally apologized.
Keith shook his head. "It's cool." He then let a small smiled grace his lips. "You really care that much about me?"
Ally blushed. "It's not that important." She kept her head down.
"No, really." Keith touched her hand to stop when she was trying to find the bandages. "Do you?"
Ally looked into his emerald green eyes, and found herself admiring his handsomeness, then looked away hastily, and began bandaging his hands. She didn't miss the hurt and disappointed look that crossed his face.
"Does it still hurt?" She asked.
Keith snorted. "If you got acid on your hands, don't you think it would hurt?"
Ally giggled. "Yeah. Bad question, sorry."
"Don't be." Keith patted her on the shoulder, then walked to the middle of the room. "How are you guys feeling?" He asked the other guys, who were being cared for by Angie and Therese. Ally had tended to Frank before she had helped Keith.
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Darry asked, wincing as Angie tended to the burns on his face.
Keith shook his head, and turned to Luke. "How about you, Luke?"
Luke shrugged. "Like I just got hit in the shoulder with a sword and sprained my wrist hitting and shattering a forcefield."
"Okay then." Keith said, drawling out his words. "Should I even ask?" He looked to Frank.
"Well, I feel better than them for sure, but my head is pounding and my muscles ache."
"Fantastic." Keith muttered sarcastically.
"What are we going to do?" Angie asked, looking to Keith. "We're three rangers down and fighting an enemy who is obviously strong enough to survive what happened last time."
"I'm fine. I'll come to battle." Frank spoke up.
"No." Keith shook his head. "Stay here and get your rest. We can handle it."
"What's your battle plan?" A voice came from behind them. It was Ray; Ginger was standing behind him, looking at the rangers with concern.
"To be honest, we don't have one." Keith responded.
"I have a plan." Ray smirked.
~PRAA~
Terra came out of her room and sneaked away, but did something unexpected. She looked over the side of the ship to see what was happening.
I don't care! She convinced herself. They can rot in hell for all I care.
"What are you doing?" Veenom's voice made her jump. She put a hand over her heart and turned back to face him.
"What's wrong with you?" Terra demanded. "Don't ever do that again!" She then noticed the look in her eyes. "What are you doing, anyway?"
Veenom shrugged. "Plotting to do what?"
"Destroy the weakest link, and then you."
She raised an eyebrow. "Me?"
"Yeah, you." Veenom walked closer to her. "If I wanted, I could throw you off of this ship right now."
"So why don't you?" A voice came from behind them.
"Valcon." Veenom growled and turned back, his scythe glowing angrily.
"We never did get along, did we?" Valcon asked. "It's a shame. Well, not for me."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Veenom walked closer to him.
"Oh, nothing." Valcon smirked. "Just that you're just as pathetic back then as you are now." As Veenom advanced on him, he blasted him back, leaving him dead on the floor.
"Oh, what a way to go." Valcon shook his head. He looked at Terra. "Don't worry. You're safe for now, I mean, I can't kill you while I'm working with your uncle, can I? Oh well, I might as well get Lirx next."
"Valcon, is Veenom dead for good?" Terra asked, looking down at the alien's body.
Valcon stopped and stared at her for a moment. "I don't leave my jobs unfinished, unlike the rangers."
~PRAA~
Keith, Angie, Ally, and Therese ran back to battle.
"Rangers, it's so good to see you!" Camel cackled.
"Ready?"
"Ready!"
"Ancient Animals, Power up!"
"Power of the Velociraptor!"
"Power of the Saber-Tooth Tiger!"
"Power of the Pterodactyl!"
"Power of the Stegosaurus!"
Suddenly, just as Camel was about to spit, he was cut in half by Brodie and Nicole. The rangers gasped.
"What are you doing here?" Angie growled.
"My job." Brodie suddenly pushed her into a wall. "What did you think?" Ally ran up behind him and slashed him with her sword. He gritted his teeth and cried out in pain. He wasn't morphed, and neither was Nicole. They're morphers, like the rest of their team, were stolen by someone. The only guesses were Veenom and Valcon.
"Not so tough now, huh?" Ally taunted.
"I still have my powers and my weapons." Brodie retorted as he kicked her away and threw Angie into her.
Meanwhile, Keith was done with the battle. He was tired of it already. The rangers had never really faced two battles in one day, nor were they ready for this.
Keith saw Therese getting thrown away and came up behind Nicole, shoving the dagger into her back, and severing her spine. He took it out and smiled and the girl writhed in pain for a minute before laying motionless on the ground, dead.
He then ran up to Brodie and pushed the girls out of the way as he stabbed Brodie in the large vein in his leg, then took his dagger away and watched him cry out and bleed quickly.
The girls watched this in horror and disgust. They were speechless. That was the most heartless thing they had ever seen their leader do.
"Keith, what did you just do?" Therese was the first one to find her voice.
"What are you talking about?" Keith asked as the four demorphed. "I just saved our lives."
"What about them?" Therese gestured to the dead Nicole and the dying Brodie. "They're students, they're classmates, and they have lives. We could've saved them, but you killed them, and now we're gonna have to kill the rest of them because of it."
Keith stared at her as if she were crazy. "Do you not understand any of this? They would've killed us! It's our job to protect the innocent and destroy those who harm them."
"Yeah, the aliens! Not humans." Therese reasoned.
"Therese, I know you want to do what you think is right, but we're talking about the fate of the world here, so we can't do what we think is right, we have to do what will save the world."
"What about the curse?" Angie asked.
"Curse?" This had the other three look at her, along with the others at AAUO, watching from surveillance cameras.
"You know, kill the half-human/half-animali to break the curse on us and our families?" The others stared at her. "Okay, I guess you don't know. Well, the curse was placed on us by the Animali when an Animali broke away and had kids with someone else's parents. After she and her human husband were killed and one of the kids was placed into one of our families, especially since it was destiny for us to become rangers, the curse was place on all of us, include the staff at AAUO."
"Do they know?" Keith asked. "Do they know who the kid is?"
"Keith, she said kids." Ally input. "There were two?"
"There are two, but one of them is full animali and the other isn't. And, to answer your question, Keith, everyone at AAUO knows about the curse, except you guys. Well, Darry knows, but the five of you don't."
"Who are the kids?" Keith asked.
Angie sighed. "One is Riana Genevieve, the full animali, and the other is..." She trailed off.
"Well?" Keith asked.
"You're not going to like it." Angie told him. "But, it's Elijah."
Keith blinked at her in shock. "You're joking right?" Angie shook her head. "I.. I have to kill my brother?" Tears pricked the corner of his eyes. "But, I..."
"I'm sorry." Angie felt her heart drop as she looked at the red ranger. "I really am. If only there was another way, but there isn't."
Keith sank to his knees. "It's not fair!" He hit the ground with his fists. He looked up at them. "I can't do it."
"Keith, he wouldn't be in coma today if it wasn't for his Animali side."
Keith wiped away his tears and stood up. "What do you mean?"
"He was going to go into a coma sooner or later. His Animali side is coming out, and until you knew, he was trying to hide it."
"How do you know so much?" Keith inquired, looking at her suspiciously.
"I know your father." Angie admitted. "My parents were good friends with him until everything happened. After you moved, I came to talk to him, and he knows everything."
Keith was shocked. "My father knows everything?"
"All of our parents do, or did." Angie bit her lip. She hated to talk about everything.
"So, is my brother gonna wake up now, or what?" Keith asked.
Angie shrugged. "Not right away, but sometime soon."
You shocked yet? Just wait for the finale coming up in two more chapters!
Next Time On Power Rangers Ancient Animals: Keith struggles to come to terms with what he might have to do while the other rangers study for the final tests of the year. Also, as four more evil rangers are killed, along with Lirx, Terrible begins to suspect something is going on.