Author's Note: Welcome to the endgame! Or the start of the endgame, at any rate. For those of you wondering about epilogues and stuff, have no fear: the last episode will have plenty of wrapping up. And aside from that, I do have ideas for post-series stuff (though nothing immediate) which I'll talk more about after the series has been wrapped up.

Now, enjoy:

The end for the United Alliance, when it came, was swift and brutal. Within hours of the Antipodes' plans being released to the public, whole worlds were talking about secession, and lines were being drawn between the fleets. Within a few days, numerous successor factions were making their bid for dominance against their rivals. Technically a central government still existed, though largely depopulated by numerous defections and suicides, but it was largely powerless and ineffective against the rising tide of rebellion. It was likely they'd vote themselves out of existence.

Numerous worlds were now independent, while others had remained with the numerous Alliance successor factions, either voluntarily or through conquest. These successors had names like 'Federation' or 'New Alliance', but often looked more like imperialist warlord fiefdoms than anything else. Even who controlled what fleets were fluid; numerous SPD fleets had remained uncommitted to choosing sides and were either running rogue or were still somewhat taking orders from the gutted central government, trying to maintain a semblance of order as civilization collapsed.

It was a strange thing, watching a society suffer an existential crisis. The Alliance had long since been held together by two pillars: the first was that the member worlds were stronger together against potential hostile threats—that pillar was now ground to dust as it had become apparent the government, on some level, had sold them out to said hostile threats. All of the wars, all of the bloodshed...all of it only so everyone could die later. The other pillar was the hard military force and power that the Alliance wielded which kept everyone in line—but the first Confederate war had proven their will wasn't absolute, and their actions had only served to make people angry.

As Machiavelli had once said, if you can't have both, it's better to be feared than loved, but you should always avoid being hated. Hatred had now won over fear.

So what did this mean for the former Confederacy? It meant the most bizarre and miraculous thing, really. SPD, all its fleets and armies and ranger units; they just...left. They packed up their bags and took off, to deal with more pressing matters back home. In a matter of days the occupation was over, as if it had never happened, leaving the burning wreck of what had once been the Confederation to fend for itself. Never the most put-together government, now that any central authority having been destroyed, there was only chaos. Some worlds that had held out under siege found themselves in a decent position, but those who had been subjugated now scrambled to assemble any sort of provisional government. Never mind the damage to the infrastructure from the war, occupation, and rebel insurgencies.

The Alliance and the Confederacy had gone to war, and in the end they had dealt the others' death blow.

Power Rangers Peacekeepers

Season 3

3.09: The Choices We Make

The Karovian colony of Itasas II was one of those who had fallen to the SPD advance. After the destruction of the Confederate Fleet they'd held on for a few weeks, but against such heavy pressure they'd never really stood a chance, and all too soon SPD forces broke through their siege. A mostly water world, it had actually been one of the numerous exile colonies created when the Karovians had temporarily fled their home colony of KO-35 near the end of the twentieth century. It had remained populated however, and soon the colony began to expand. Prior to the war, it had boasted a population of over a billion, with numerous glittering karovian cities scattered across its scattered island chains.

Today, many of those cities were in ruin; the rest were falling apart from lack of resources and the resultant power vacuum from SPD's withdrawal. They'd been attempting to rebuild, and in the past week had made some significant progress...but today the city of Kais was under attack.

The silver ranger made his way through the war-torn upper-level streets of the city's downtown, civilians fleeing for their lives in front of him as his small krybot army laid waste to everything around them. A pyramid building, already half-destroyed, was shot up by the robots. Several decorative pillars in a courtyard were obliterated. A karovian himself, Isdilian never really 'got' karovian asthetics. Odd tetris buildings? Useless columns? Pyramids? So much space wasting.

Oh well, it didn't matter. They'd all soon be a forgotten memory soon enough. He just had to draw out—ah, there they were.

Four rangers—red, blue, green, and black, rushed up through the escaping crowd, making sure to avoid the smoking rubble littering the road; the downed hover-cars and debris. They came to a stop a few yards away from Isdilian and his troops.

"...I thought sixth rangers were supposed to *start out* evil and then switch sides?" Trok asked him, the disgust obvious in his voice.

Sid cracked his knuckles, "I guess Izzy here didn't get the memo on ranger etiquette".

"You came" Isdilian said, half a statement of fact, half in relief, "I was hoping it'd be you who showed up".

Xolin glanced around at all the destruction, "...You did all this just to get our attention?!" she gasped.

"How many people did you kill!?" Nikki demanded to know.

The silver ranger took stock of the chaos, his robot soldiers waiting on his command. So much more practical than the SPD troops he'd commanded before. "Does it matter?" he asked, "Their fate is sealed one way or another".

"If you're trying to piss us off, it's working" the red ranger stated, "We've dismantled your boss's plans one by one. We're going to stop you, him, and whoever else you've got in your little club".

Xolin added, "Stand down and we won't kill you. It's a damn better deal than you've given anyone else here".

But the silver ranger was undeterred, "I've come with a proposition for you".

"Oh? And what would that be?" Nikki asked.

"We worked well together" Isdilian said, "I miss those days. Join me; you can come with me, you can see Sel. We can all be together again; Alpha has assured me he has a place for all of you".

Sid squinted in disbelief, "...Are you insane? You kill our friend, kidnap another, lay waste to entire city blocks, and you think we'll just join you?!"

"We're not going to let you kill the entire universe just for kicks" Nikki added, "And where would we go anyway? How would that benefit us?"

Isdilian grunted with annoyance, "You sound just like her. You're not killing a universe—you're saving one!"

Xolin shifted uncomfortably, looking at the silver ranger like he'd grown a second head "...The hell are you talking about?"

"Enough talk" Sid interrupted, "Take him down. Lethal force is fine with me".

"Hiyah!" the four rangers shouted before charging in. With another irritated grunt, Isdilian ordered his troops in, and the battle began. The blue ranger flung herself into a squad of krybots, tearing them apart with lightning-quick jabs. The green ranger took his hammer and slammed it into the broken asphalt, letting a shockwave of green energy radiate out into another group. Three more came up beside him, only to be taken down by a decloaking black ranger from behind.

The red ranger knocked aside a krybot that was in his way with a roundhouse, but it wasn't his target. There, ahead of him stood Isdilian. Taking a second krybot and throwing it to the ground, Sid turned to the silver ranger.

"Don't do it" Isdilian said, "Listen to me; don't be an idiot".

Sid summoned his ax, "It's a little late to be worrying about my well-being".

Reluctantly, Isdilian pulled the sword from his shield as Sid ran towards him, the latter issuing a war cry as they met. White and red energy met and exploded where they collided, their weapons clashing against the other.

"You're throwing away your chance to survive!" Isdilian continued to plead, "Think of your team! Do you really want them to-"

Sid cut him off, anger flashing in his voice, "NO! Don't you EVER! You have NO right! You lost that right the day you sold us out to the lowest bidder!"

Isdilian replied by pushing Sid away before slashing him twice. As the red ranger rolled back, the blue ranger flew in from the side, coming with with her lance like a spear. Weapons collided, then legs and arms as the two swung at each other, Isdilian blocking many of her attacks with his shield. "I did it for all our benefit! For all their benefit! My purpose, Sel's purpose, was to save the universe, and that's what we're going to do!"

"Save it?" Xolin asked in a mixture of bewilderment and contempt, "You're trying to reformat it! You'll kill countless trillions of people!"

"I'll SAVE countless trillions!" Isdilian corrected her.

"...What?" she asked, genuinely certain he was absolutely mad. Her moment of confusion cost her though, when he rammed his boot into her gut and sent her flying. He raised his sword into the air, allowing it to collect electrical energy before pointing it at Xolin's prone form.

SLAM! Trok's hammer came in from behind. He was absolutely livid, "You betray us, kill innocent people, try to kill us...and you say you're trying to help!? If you want to help, GIVE SEL BACK!"

Isdilian spun around to meet Trok, but his blade was intercepted by Sid's ax.

"...You're making a mistake!" the silver ranger pleaded, "I'm trying to save you! When the Shift happens-"

"When the Shift happens, everyone we've ever known will be dead" Sid said, matter-of-factly, "And we'll be just as trapped in our suits as the Antipodes are now. Right? How is that saving us? Why would you ever think we'd be okay with that?"

"It's over, Isdilian" Nikki said, knocking down the last krybot. The silver ranger glanced around; sure enough, he was now alone on the ruined street. And his bid had failed.

"...It wasn't supposed to be this way" he said, frustrated.

"Surrender; NOW" Sid demanded, "This is your last chance".

"No. It's not" replied the silver ranger, "This isn't over".

And just like that, Isdilian teleported away, leaving the rangers behind in a devastated downtown.

The rangers piled onto the Megaship's bridge a few minutes later, each of them a flurry of pent-up emotions. The planet below hovered on the lower left of the viewscreen as they pondered.

"...I'm really getting sick of these indecisive fights" Trok muttered as he moved over to one of the wall consoles and began to attempt to track Isdilian's movements, "Is a clear victory too much to ask for?"

"...Izzy seemed weaker than usual" Sid observed, "Like way weaker".

Nikki agreed, "If I had to guess, I'd say the Antipodes were already busy draining him regularly for their big machine. We probably caught him just after a session".

Xolin took a seat at navigation, her expression one of perplexment at what had just happened, "...Was it just me, or did he seem seriously unhinged? Like, more than normal?"

"Yeah. What was that about killing this universe to save it?" Trok asked, "I think he's gone off the deep end".

Nikki, having already taken a seat turned from her console to the others, "...Actually, if I had to guess, he probably means the Antipodes' home universe?"

Sid froze. Uh oh.

Trok and Xolin gave Nikki a look of bewilderment, "...What are you talking about?" Xolin asked.

Uh Oh.

Nikki gave them an equal expression of confusion. Weren't they all on the same page? "...Sid didn't tell you?"

A dangerous look flashed on Xolin's face as she glanced at Sid for a split second before returning to Nikki, "...Tell us what?"

...Oh, well. This was going to be fun.

"The reason the Antipodes are trying to convert our universe" Nikki said, "...Their universe is dying. Rather quickly, if Iota's logs are right. Some kind of vacuum metastability crisis, and this was the most compatible universe they could find on short notice".

Comprehension dawned for Xolin, "So if they don't succeed here..."

Nikki finished her train of thought for her, "...Everyone in their home universe dies. Probably horribly".

Xolin turned to Sid, who was currently bracing himself for the coming storm, "...Why didn't you tell us?" Confusion, exasperation. An undercurrent of anger and indignation that was quickly rising to the forefront.

"You didn't need to know" Sid replied, even though he knew this was not the answer they wanted to hear.

The triforian's eye twitched as she stood up. NOW she was angry, "Didn't need to know? The hell is that supposed to mean?!" She'd always heard that shit from her father, and from Iota, but to hear it from Sid was chilling.

"I didn't need us distracted!" Sid threw back at her, trying to find a way to defend himself, "Does knowing we're going to kill countless people really help? Are you really better off knowing now?!"

"I don't think it's your call to make!" Xolin argued as she approached Sid, "And yeah, I'd like to know what I'm up against so I can make my own trinity-damned choices instead of finding out ten years later that OH HEY OOPS I LET A BUNCH OF PEOPLE DIE. GOOD WORK TEAM!"

"And if you decided not to help?!" Sid demanded to know.

"I didn't say I wouldn't" she replied, almost hesitatingly, "I haven't said anything yet. I'm still in shock and more than a little angry!"

"And that's why I didn't tell you!" Sid said, "Because right now we can't afford distractions. Yeah, people are going to die, but we need to make sure it won't be our people".

Xolin's face contorted into one of contempt, "So you just decided for us what we're going to do. That's nice. Thanks, Sid. It makes me feel *so* much better" she prepared to storm out.

"Don't do this, Xol" Sid warned, moving to stop her.

She sneered as she brushed past him, "Yeah, whatever, Iota". Sid visibly flinched. She caught that, and actually felt a little bad that she'd felt good about it.

"...I'm not Iota" he growled with distaste, composing himself. Iota had only ever done anything to serve himself; he manipulated them and used them as tools. Sid...he'd only done this to protect them.

"Bullshit" she replied, "You kept knowledge from us so you could make the choice for us. That is *exactly* what he would have done!"

"I won't do it".

Xolin froze at Trok's quiet but determined voice. The other three rangers looked at him, as he was staring at the floor in distress, still seated in his chair.

"...Trok?" Xolin asked, the anger in her voice gone.

He reaffirmed his position, stronger than before, "...I won't do it".

"...We have to" Nikki said, "We don't have a-"

Trok shot up and wheeled on her, "That's a lie! We *always* have a choice! And I refuse to kill an entire universe! I won't!"

"...It's not that easy" Sid replied sadly, not even daring to keep his eyes on the horathean, "We don't know how to save their universe; we don't even know if we *can* save it. It's literally them or us".

Trok let out a bitter laugh, "So that's it then? We just become monsters ourselves? We just become the antipodes? I signed on to *HELP* people, not be the biggest monster in history!"

Nikki shook her head, "We're not invading their universe, it's not the same-"

"It IS the same thing!" Trok shouted, becoming more unhinged by the second, "Don't start with me about semantics! We're taking away their only chance of salvation and leaving them to die! That's genocide, plain and simple!"

"...If we don't, they kill *us*" Nikki said, remaining firm. She'd committed to this months ago.

The horathean gave her a look that was a mixture of rage and despair, "...And it's all about us, isn't it?" He didn't wait for a reply; Trok rushed out of the room before anyone could do anything.

"Trok!" Sid called after him, but Xolin kept him from following.

"...How long did you know?" she asked him in a low voice.

Sid didn't even meet her gaze as he quietly responded, "...When I was in prison, after we separated".

She gave him a glare of absolute disgust. "All this time? Gods damn you, Sid. We trusted you". Xolin stormed out, leaving only two rangers behind.

"...Why?" was all Nikki could ask him. A question of bewilderment, of absolute loss-of-words, hiding the guilt that she'd just set this all in motion just now.

Because he wanted to protect them. Because he didn't want to see them hurt. Because he didn't want them to leave. Because he'd been afraid, and the longer it had gone on, the easier it had become—and the harder it would have been to break. Sid looked up at her with a forlorn look, "...Because it's my job" he said, not even believing it himself. He walked out of the room as well.

Nikki slumped down into a chair, mentally trying to digest what had just happened.

"...Well, shit".

Isdilian stepped off his personal transport and onto the Antipode base's hanger bay. He was alone; his entire contingent of krybots had been destroyed by the rangers. Not that it mattered as they could always acquire more. Still, it felt...empty. Of course, that was probably amplified by the fact that the bay was devoid of activity. When SPD had worked here, this place had always been staffed. But now that they'd been replaced by krybots, none of the usual traffic happened anymore; no longer did anyone need logistics shipped in or did any personnel come and go. Only six living beings ever came aboard this place, and none of them needed much. So, when cargo wasn't being hauled in, the krybots were elsewhere, or offline

"They're not dead".

Alpha stood there expectantly with his arms folded. He wasn't amused.

"...You said if I could convert them to our cause, there wouldn't be any need for killing" the silver ranger responded.

"...And have you managed to convert them?" the red antipode demanded to know, even though he already knew.

Isdilian became hesitant, "Not...yet, but I'm sure that I can-"

"You had your chance, Isdilian. They have rejected your offer. It's time to neutralize them".

"I just need a little more time and I know that-"

Alpha wasn't budging an inch. The exact opposite really, as he walked up to Isdilian and stared him down, "Time is no longer a luxury we can afford, Omega-Theta". Ooh, his project code name. Isdilian knew he was in trouble, "In case you haven't noticed, your friends are building an army against us—fairly quickly I might add. In addition to that, your other won't last much longer. Our options for victory are slipping, fast. If you can't do the job, then I'll assign someone who can".

….Wait, his other? Isdilian's usually unflappable demeanor fell as panic surfaced, "...Sel? What's wrong? What do you mean won't last long?"

"...She was foolish. Her attempt at sabotage damaged her, fatally. She's still alive for now, but she's...degrading. We only have a short window of opportunity left" Alpha said, impassive.

His sister. His own sister, dying. "...Is there nothing we can do?"

"I'm afraid not" Alpha replied, "We're harvesting as much power from her while we can".

Isdilian almost asked to see her. But he knew she'd never accept his visit, not unless he brought the others with him. Not unless he could convince them.

"...Can you do your job?" Alpha asked the karovian who was currently in a state of shock. Isdilian's mind reeled at the implications. Sel was dying.

"...I..."

"Can you do your job?"

Taking a moment to compose himself, Isdilian nodded firmly, "...Yes. Yes I can".

Alpha nodded in return "Then I expect a report on your victory upon your next return. Your ship will be restocked and resupplied, and then I expect you out in the field, understood?"

"Yes, sir".

With one last nod, Alpha turned and left as a number of krybots came in with supplies. Isdilian let them go about their work as he contemplated all of this. He loved his sister. He cared for her, even if he wasn't always the best at showing it, even if she didn't appreciate it. To have her dying with no way to fix this...it was almost more than he could bare. Was this all for nothing? He dropped to his knees and issued a guttural scream as the tears came, the krybots paying him no mind as they worked.

He had to deal with the others. Time was no longer an asset. Failure was no longer an option. He WOULD get them to side with him, or else he'd make that choice for them. By any means necessary.

It was hard, focusing. Sel was kind of absent-minded to begin with, and this damned pain only made it worse. Which pain? The constant surge of power being forcibly drained from her, or her body slowly disintegrating? It didn't really matter, it just hurt. She'd considered giving up several times, having ALMOST achieved her goal, only to have it ripped away again. After all, wasn't it all futile? She was dying, soon there would be nothing left of her. Her eyes remained closed; she was too tired to open them anyway. So she sat there, in her dark little pod, awaiting death.

At some point she'd drifted off despite everything, because at some point she no longer felt like she was pinned to a pod chair, having her physical form ebb away. Sel opened her eyes, finding herself once again where she'd wanted to be: the room with the doors.

"...Figures" she muttered to herself as she got to her feet, her body in this state completely intact, "I can't do it when I try, but when I fall asleep..." she trailed off as she approached one of the doors. Sel pulled, with the usual effect of...no effect.

"...This can't be what you want" Sel said. She wasn't exactly sure who she was talking to really, she was just...frustrated, "They're going to kill everyone; everything. You can't be okay with this". God, maybe? Gods? Those spirits Trok sometimes referenced? The Grid itself?

...Did the Grid even have a consciousness?

"...What does it take to open you?" she asked the door, then looked about at all the other open doors, "I'm being used as a sieve for Morphin energy. I am housing the power of the universe. What does it take!?" She pounded the door in a fit of anger. It was short lived though; the rage she felt had been quenched by hopelessness.

It didn't matter. Nothing she did mattered; she'd been stopped at every turn. All she was was a tool.

"...Fine" she said as she sat down, "If you don't care what happens, why should I?" The xybrian bunched up her knees to her chin and wrapped her arms around them, becoming as small as possible. "...All I ever wanted was to go home. To have a chance to be me, to find out who I am. I didn't know that's what I wanted until just before it was ripped away. And now I'll never get that chance. I'll never get to see them again...and they'll all die anyway. And you don't care".

A beat.

"...I give up".

A light appeared behind her. Cautiously, refusing to hope, but still turning, she looked in its direction, finding that a door on the opposite side of the room had unlocked and now hung loosely. Beyond it, she saw light. The former yellow ranger stood up, cautiously walking to the door. Extending her arm, she felt the warm light of the Grid dance over her fingertips. Pulling her hand back, she took a deep steady breath, and walked through.

Upon storming out of the bridge, Trok had eventually made his way to the cargo bay that he had converted into his quasi-workshop when Tesas had been onboard. His head was swimming; a few hours ago they had been the unquestioned good guys and now...now he didn't now what to think. It wasn't supposed to be this way. It wasn't supposed to work like this.

The horathean had set himself at his desk, and was supposedly trying to get his newest device working (surrounded by all the failed prototypes that had never gone anywhere—the Battle Yacht was still dominating the room), but he couldn't even begin to focus on any of this. Spirits, what were they doing!?

There was no way out of this either. Either they died, or the Antipodes died. In either scenario, they were all monsters. Trok suddenly regretted ever joining this team. If he'd just stayed away, he could have just gone on with his life for however long that would have been, without having to worry about this.

He set the device down and put his head in his hands, his brain about to burst from the endless cycles of logic and emotion running through his mind.

"If it's any consolation, I don't like it either".

Nikki's voice. Trok didn't even bother to turn around, "Go away".

She almost did. The two of them had never really gotten along; too far apart on the practicality vs idealism spectrum, but they had gotten to at least leave the other be. Yet something inside her pushed Nikki to continue, "You can't just run away from this, Trok".

"Did you even look for another option before you decided to commit genocide?" he asked acidly.

Ouch. "...And what option would that be?" she bit back, a bit more forcefully than she'd intended, but she WAS on the defensive here. "Do you have some secret weapon to save the day?"

He hesitated slightly, "Not yet but-"

"Do you have any idea how to stop the death of a universe? Do you know how to reverse a false vacuum event in an antimatter universe?"

"Not...exactly-"

"I have all of Iota's files, all of his schemes and plans and everything the Antipodes tried. I ran the calculations myself. There is no other way. Believe me, I wish to god there was, but there's not".

The horathean let out an empty, almost hysterical laugh, "...That's easy for you to say. You don't like it? You wrote the book on it! Masked Rider Apollo, back when we met, then the Tenga refugees. You're the poster child for shoot first, ask questions later!"

Ouch. He wasn't wrong mind you, but it it still hurt to have it summed up so bluntly. "...I was right about Apollo" she said, then a bit less certainly added, "And you were right about the Tengas. That's how it goes, right? We can't always be right?" She hated this; it was like running everything through her mind when she'd first found out after the Megaship had been captured, desperately combing the files for any hope, anything at all, and finding none.

But Trok couldn't hear her. He was already moving on to the next step; "And just last week, we killed an entire Animarium world for our own benefit! Billions of years of history, an entire zord ecosystem just...gone. How does that make us any better than the Antipodes?!" he finally jumped out of his chair, turning to her. Tears were starting to form in his eyes, "I didn't want to be a monster!"

Nikki rubbed her arm absentmindedly, "...It's the Trolley dilemma" she said sadly, looking away.

"...What?" he asked.

"You're on a train that can't stop. Ahead of you is a fork in the road. If you continue on the path you're on, people die. If you switch tracks you can save them—at the cost of other people. The dilemma is all about ethics. Is it worse to let people die, or to actively intervene and kill others yourself?"

He glared at her, "You call out for them to get off the track".

"They can't hear you".

Trok was getting increasingly irate, "Then you get out there and stop the train yourself!"

"And then you die and everybody else does as well" Nikki countered.

"Then...then..." Trok fumbled for words, for an idea, but none came. Even though he KNEW if he just...thought a moment longer…

"You can't stop it Trok" Nikki added, "There is no third option, there is no last-minute win. You have to choose".

"That-that's not fair!" the horathean belted out.

She regarded him with a cool mixture of pity and remorse. How many times had she said that about life? That, sometimes no matter how hard you tried, you still came up short. "...No. No it's not".

The horathean gave her a hopeless look as the facts came crashing down around him, "...I can't do this" he said, shaking his head, "I just...I can't-"

"Yes. You can" she replied. He paused, giving her a chance to continue, "I know you can because...you're me. Or her. Whoever. When I was your age".

"...I find that hard to believe" he replied, though she saw the faintest glimmer of mirth in his eyes—the idea of 'naive little girl Nikki' tickled him.

Despite herself, she gave a small laugh herself, "It's true. She was your stereotypical pink ranger; the heart of the team. I was always there to make sure everyone was okay and working together. I believed in SPD, in being a hero, in doing what was right. I thought that if you just tried enough, if you were steadfast enough, you could always persevere. I guess that's why you pissed me off so much when I first met you; I couldn't stand being reminded of that".

"...What happened?" Trok asked, but quickly regretted his admittedly stupid question when he saw her expression flicker with sadness, "...Sorry".

"...What were you working on?" she asked him, changing the subject as she pointed to the device he'd left on the desk. Trok sat back down in his seat and grabbed the object as Nikki leaned over the side of his chair to get a better look.

Trok fondled the object, "...It's another project of mine. The Peacekeeper zord arsenal is fairly modular, so I was trying to go up another step since we can't use the Guardian Megazord without the Lights".

"...An Ultrazord?"

Trok nodded, "Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get it to work yet. Not enough of a power source, and honestly there's only so far I can push even a modular design. The zords simply weren't built for a super configuration".

"So it's a no-go?" she asked, a bit sadly. He nodded with a sigh as she looked out at all his other projects, "...Are these all no-gos?"

"Just don't have the resources I need" Trok said in defense.

She placed a hand on his shoulder, "...You ever thought about just focusing on one? You know, quality over quantity?"

Trok managed a small laugh despite it all, "...I don't think my mind works that way"

Her hand left his shoulder, "...I know. But Trok? The world doesn't work THAT way. If you're too concerned about getting everything done, sooner or later you get nothing done".

"Yeah, I guess" he said dejectedly, "...This isn't about projects, is it?" he asked, looking back at her as he cradled the device.

"...I'm just saying. Sometimes…sometimes you just can't save everyone. Sometimes you just have to choose and hope for the best. It doesn't make you a monster...god, I hope not, it just means that….I guess, we're not gods. We're just people, doing the best we can with a shitty situation". When Trok didn't respond, she added, "...What about Sel? Would you just leave her to die? What about Xolin? Sid?"

Trok gave her a horrified expression, as if she'd dare consider he'd ever do that. "...That's-"

"Not fair, I know" she said, quietly. The silence lingered on as neither could find anything else to say. Finally, Nikki gave in, exiting the room just as quickly as she had entered. Trok sat there for a bit, looking down at the device in his hands as despair closed in around him.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Three days. It had been three days since she'd blown up at Sid, and since then the Megaship had been a much colder place. Xolin hadn't been out of her room that much except to visit the food synthesizer and the simudeck, but she had noticed group activity was down even without her around. She and Sid weren't on speaking terms obviously, and the two hadn't seen much more than an accidental run-in at the synthatron yesterday. Trok was either in his room or hiding in his makeshift workshop downstairs doing trinity knew what. Nikki was...well, Nikki.

She was just so frustrated, and angry. Angry that Sid had hid such an important fact from her. Frustrated that she *was* so angry with him. Worried about the whole thing. Sick to her stomach over the obvious Sophie's Choice style dilemma that she'd just been saddled with.

Worried about how Trok was handling this.

She'd tried meditating, hadn't worked—too worked up. She'd tried blowing off some steam in the Simudeck—too preoccupied to enjoy it. She'd tried watching TV—just got bored. So now here she lay on her bed, perpendicular to it and staring at the ceiling in quiet contempt of the universe.

"Everyone to the bridge, now!"

She groaned at Sid's voice blaring over the comm; didn't he know she was very busy hating all of creation as intensely as she could?

In truth she'd been dreading this—the inevitable moment they'd all be called together again for another mission. The last thing she wanted to deal with right now was...well, everyone really while she figured this all out, but especially Sid and his...Sid-ness. She really was angry at him. After all this time; all they'd been through, and his first reaction was to start lying to them? She knew full well she had a poor sense of self worth, and this didn't help!

Xolin noticed as she stepped onto the bridge that she was the last to do so—Sid was standing ahead on the captain's chair on alert, Nikki was near him, and Trok was leaning on one of the consoles just behind the captain's seat. "What does our glorious god-king want now?" she grumbled...Then she saw what they were looking at on the viewscreen.

Sid glanced back at her, then back at the screen as he ignored her jab, "Alright, we're all here. The hell's this about, Izzy?"

The karovian, speaking from some sort of warehouse, sneered as he counted stock of all four rangers, "Good. Very good. Now, listen up. I'm sure by now Trok and Nikki have traced my signal to Korac II. It's a nice little world, very rural, very scenic. It's a very popular place for science teams; lots of variables that created some very unique flora and fauna".

"The point, Izzy?" Sid stressed, having no time for games.

Isdilian growled at the sound of his unwelcome nickname, "My point is this" he moved away from the camera, revealing a group of scientists from various Confederate worlds being held on the floor bound and at gunpoint by a fairly large contingent of krybots. The scientists looked, for obvious reasons, distressed and worried. Isdilian turned back to the camera, "I have these scientists with me. I am going to kill them, one by one, every six hours until you show up and face me".

Trok gasped. Nikki and Xolin switched between expressions of shock and anger. Sid gritted his teeth, "Are you insane?"

"They're going to die when the Antipodes complete their project anyway, what difference does it make if it's a few weeks early?" Isdilian asked, "I'm not the bad guy here, Sid. I want you to come home".

"...Come home?" Xolin asked him with disdain, "How many times do we have to tell you we're not interested in helping the Antipodes destroy everything?"

Isdilian glared at her with quiet fury, "...Six hours" he said, gritting his teeth at having decided not to get goaded into an argument, "Be here. Surrender. If you don't, people start dying and it's on your hands. And don't bother trying to teleport them up; I've had the entire complex put under a dampening field". He cut the link, the viewscreen returning to that of a starfield image.

For a split second the rangers stood there, dumbstruck, before they burst into a flurry of activity, their earlier arguments and hangups forgotten. Sid turned to Trok, "How soon can we get to the Korac system?"

"Five and a half hours at maximum hyperrush".

"Xol?" Sid asked, turning to the triforian as he took a seat.

Xolin was already plotting a course before he'd even asked her, "Done".

"Looks like you're going to get your rematch after all, Trok" Sid said with determination, gripping his armrests. He didn't see Trok's look of worry and disgust. "Punch it".

The Megaship wheeled about, turning towards its destination as its engines primed. A moment later, it was gone.

The second it arrived in orbit over the orange and blue planet, four pulses of light shot out of the Megaship's launchbay towards the surface—one red, one blue, one green, and one a dark violet verging on black. As the lights hit the planet's atmosphere, the energy evaporated, leaving four rangers and their skycycles rocketing towards the science station compound below.

Korac II was very...reddish-orange. The plant-life here was distinctly alien; a hodgepodge of tall, stick-like deep-red ferns and orangeish, bulbous plantlife whose leaves would inflate into sacks. The science outpost sat on the dividing line between two biomes; between the cliffs of the inland, and the marshy maze of the river delta. It was comprised of several prefabricated buildings with a dirt road between them; nothing fancy, but serviceable for a small operation.

...Also two automated defense turrets, because of course why not. The rangers easily evaded the civilian-level defenses, Sid and Xolin blowing them both apart with their skycycle's weapons as they swooped in. They didn't bother to park their vehicles; the rangers jumped right off near the entrance to the main structure and allowed the cycles to return to the ship.

In front of the door, as the rangers discovered, stood Isdilian and a squad of his krybots.

"Twenty-six minutes to spare" the red ranger said, "We beat your stupid time-limit, now let the scientists go!"

"I didn't say I'd let them go. I said I wouldn't kill them" the silver ranger replied, "Now I suggest you surrender. Demorph, throw down your morphers, and don't resist".

"We've got a better idea" Xolin said, "How about we don't, kick your ass, and save the scientists ourselves?"

Isdilian growled, "Why can't you ever just do what's good for you? I'm *trying* to save you!"

"We'll take that under advisement" Sid replied. With that the four rangers threw themselves into the fray.

She was pretty sure she was lost.

It wasn't a particularly fun place to be lost, either. Sel found herself wandering through what she could only describe as a haunted forest—dead, twisted trees that were so overgrown they blotted out the sky, marshy, wet dirt where you couldn't move two steps without stepping into another puddle, and wild, overgrown undergrowth.

Hooray.

And, right on cue, she thought she heard something rustling in the grass. Assuming a fighting stance, she gave a frantic sweep of the area for the origin of the sound. Nothing. Just the wind?

Hah, no. She'd seen enough of Sid and Trok's movies to know that it was *never* just the wind.

...A growl. Behind her!

She spun back around, where she'd been before. Nothing. Another rustle of the undergrowth came from her right. Then another sound, at her eight o'clock. She had a bad feeling—there was more than one.

Well, crap.

The first attack came from her left. A wolf-like monster...thing came at her, much of its flesh having rotted off. She almost didn't catch it in time, being focused on another spot. The xybrian barely spun out of the way, landing on the ground on her side. She scrambled back up, just in time to avoid the monster's next attack-oh good, and here came its partner. The other wolf attacked and Sel gave it a nice, solid kick to its mouth. Quickly grabbing a fallen branch, she swung at the first attacking wolf—unaware that its companion was rebounding. Its weight crashed into her from the side, sending her flying into a tree. Her body crashed into its trunk and she crumbled to the ground in a heap, as third wolf emerged. They began to converge on her.

At first she struggled to get up; she had to. If she didn't, they were going to kill her, and she still had to...had...to…

What did she have to do?

She'd come here, to the dreamlands, to find a way back to her friends, to warn them. But she didn't even know where they were. She didn't know how to reach them; she'd only ever been here once before, and that had been under extraordinary circumstances, and then she'd had someone to guide her.

Sel literally had no idea what she was doing.

Futile. It was all futile. She didn't even get here under her own power; she'd given up and then...she'd found her way here. Nothing she did mattered.

...Why *not* let the wolves do her in?

Wait, what?!

No, no, there was sound reasoning here. Certainly, this was only her astral form (of a sort), but it WAS the representative to her connection to the Morphing Grid. If she died here, she didn't know if her body back in the real world would perish as well, but she was pretty sure her connection to the grid would probably be compromised. And without her, well...so much for converting the entire universe, huh?

She could end it, right here and now. End the Antipodes' ambitions in one simple move. It would be her last act, but it would in the end be the only act she could possibly make.

She could die.

And what of the others? Of Sid, and Xolin, and Trok? She'd give anything to see them again. But...it was not meant to be. It would be best if she stopped fooling herself otherwise.

And so Sel stopped struggling. She stopped trying to get up. Instead she laid back down and deliberately closed her eyes, awaiting the end. She hoped the end of her sad story would allow the others to live.

There was the sounds of a scuffle—and she was pretty sure she hadn't been eaten yet. Sel opened her eyes, and to her surprise found an elderly man in a ceremonial robe fighting the wolves off with his staff. He had pretty good moves for an older person; slamming aside one wolf with the stick before spinning around and blocking another wolf's jaw before forcing it away and then delivering a blow to the head. The last wolf came at him—wait, did he have green hair? The last wolf went down just as easily as the first two. The trio whimpered and scampered into the forest as the man turned to Sel.

Wait. She knew him!

"...Elder Sesh" she breathed, now in a sitting position.

The man who had unofficially taken her under his wing way back when she had first visited Xybria when this had first begun offered his hand, "As a friendly warning, shadow wolves were an intelligent species. Playing dead is not a viable strategy".

None of this made any sense, "...How are you here?" Sel asked as she grabbed his hand and rose to her feet.

"I am exactly where I need to be" the man responded cryptically. He waved off in the direction Sel had been walking before this happened, "Shall we go? I believe we have much to talk about".

"Uh...lead the way. I guess" Sel replied, following in step behind the older man.

Despite the apparent haphazard and gung-ho actions of the rangers, they really did have a plan. After all, for all they knew, Isdilian had taken the last few days to charge back up; they didn't even know if they could beat him conventionally right now. So while to the untrained eye it looked like they were just trying to force their way through the krybot swarm, in truth they were maneuvering Isdilian right where they wanted him.

Trok and Nikki focused on the krybots, tossing them about easily. Sid and Xolin, as the team's best fighters, took on Isdilian directly. Red and blue met silver, launching at him and grabbing him by the arms as they pulled him away from the entrance. The silver ranger landed in the complex's central dirt road, turning about to face his two foes.

"Any words of wisdom before we kick your ass?" Sid asked him.

"Your confidence is always quite annoying" Isdilian grunted before striking at them. Sid leaped overhead, evading the strike as Xolin met his limbs with her own, the two parrying the other's attacks. From behind Sid came in with a kick, the silver ranger blocked, catching Sid by the leg and tossing him aside. He dodged Xolin's next attack, before charging up his hand like an energy blade and cut into her with a wide slice. The blue ranger fell back.

Red struck again, coming down as blue rolled away with an arm chop. Isdilian blocked, then returned the favor with two strikes from his blade arm. Sid fell and the two rangers regrouped.

"When the hell did he get blade attacks?!" Sid gasped.

"Yeah, you don't like it when things are hidden from you, huh?" Xolin shot back.

"Can we not do this now?" he snapped at her.

The two didn't have many more time to spare as Isdilian launched himself at them, both arms now charged up and ready to strike.

Trok and Nikki had drawn their sidearms and were now in the process of disposing of the krybots, switching their weapons between sword and gun mode at will. Most of the krybots didn't stand much of a chance against two veteran rangers and they fell easy.

...The resident bluehead commander however, was another story. Its wrist blaster caught the two rangers off-guard while they were fighting, and while Nikki barely managed to evade, Trok was hit dead-on. The black ranger swung in, firing with her blaster before switching to sword mode and attacking at close range. The bluehead draw its own sword and the two clashed—briefly, as Nikki was still a far better fighter than an above-average grunt soldier robot. It also didn't help that Trok had entrapped it within the confines of his hammer-mace, binding it within chains. Charging up her sword, Nikki brought it down, cutting through her foe like butter.

The two ranger surveyed the remains of the battlefield. Krybot husks littered the ground and lay draped over railings and other low-laying objects of the outpost, each of them sparking and sputtering. Trok gave Nikki a nod towards the main building. She nodded back, and together the two moved inside. They knew they had to hurry; the longer Sid and Xolin had to keep Isdilian occupied with just the two of them, the worse things would be. They had to rescue the science team as quickly as possible.

Only a few of Isdilian's krybots had remained inside, just to keep the scientists under guard. With just a few quick movements, the black and green rangers had disposed of them as well.

The interior of the building was pretty much like the exterior; pre-fabricated. While not a military operation, everything was still very same-y. White chairs, white tables, very basic and modular furniture all around. It was evidently the central work station for the group, as the room (and the one beyond it) was full of computer consoles and sensor equipment—though a number of them had been knocked over or smashed. The scientists, about seven of them—two humans, an aquitian, three edenoites, and a rock golem person—sat in the middle of the floor, bound together.

The despondent scientists stirred at the arrival of the two rangers—first with confusion over what was happening as the scuffle with the krybots broke out, then with joy as they realized the new arrivals were likely friendly.

"Oh, thank god you've come" one of the humans, a female, said as Trok quickly cut through their bindings. Nikki remained at the door, on alert just in case. "They were going to kill us".

"Don't worry, you're going to be alright" said Trok as he freed them. It was second nature, helping people. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that he shouldn't be here, that this wasn't right. By being here, he was implicitly endorsing the genocide of an entire other universe. Yet...he couldn't let these people die too.

Focus on the immediate was what he told himself. Do good now.

"Where's the silver ranger?" the aquitian, a male, asked worriedly.

Nikki replied as she glanced out a window, "Don't worry, the rest of our team is keeping him busy. As soon as we're out of here, we're going to lead you outside the teleporter jamming zone and get you to our ship. Then we're going to deal with your captor".

"Done" said Trok, cutting the last scientist loose, "Come on, we gotta go".

Well, Izzy had certainly powered up again since the last time they'd met. Sid again evaded Isdilian's attack, rolling away from his foe as he took up a fighting stance upon recovery. They'd successfully led Isdilian away from the base and into a thicket of those weird alien treets, but those twin energy blades on his arms were not to be trifled with—if the black marks on Sid's suit were anything to go by, anyway.

Still, something felt...off.

Xolin blocked Izzy's attacks with her lance, before jamming her boot in his midsection while using said lance as a launching-point. She spun about, landing a second boot in his face. The silver ranger stepped back and she pressed her attack—only to be cut down again by the arm blades.

Sid caught her, "I'm starting to hate those things" she grunted.

"Does any of this feel off to you?" Sid asked her.

They hadn't made up; Xolin was still pissed in several different ways and Sid was still doubling down, but in combat at least none of that mattered at all. They still trusted each other enough to do their job.

She nodded as they watched Isdilian circle them, waiting for his next opening, "...A bit. He hasn't used his sword and shield at all".

"Or his Morphing Grid powers. And I'm not sure when his suit was upgraded for energy blades".

The two contemplated the situation. Sid wanted to try something, "I've got an idea, if you're willing".

"'If I'm willing?' she asked with bemusement.

"We can argue as much as we want later, but I need you to trust me on this" he told her. He wasn't Iota, he refused to be Iota. He was better than Iota.

She fought down the desire to throw out another snippy one-liner at him; this was important. She could tell in his voice. Xolin nodded, "Do it".

The two rangers rushed the other. Sid's ax met Isdilian's energy blades, energy crackling as each tried to push the other back.

"NOW!" Sid commanded.

The blue ranger leaped over the red ranger, using him for a springboard before he fell back, allowing her to strike with her feet. She flipped back from her hit, allowing Sid to grasp her boots, pushing her forward for a second attack. Her powered-up lance struck Isdilian dead-on, and as he sparked and burned, his suit vanished—though notably not with the standard demorph effect.

...Nor was it Isdilian underneath, but a battered and bruised krybot orangehead. Both rangers gasped as they realized they'd been played.

"A holographic illusion" Sid said with a sinking feeling, "...He lured us here".

Xolin was on the same page as him, "Trok and Nikki...We have to get back to the others, *now*!"

"Right with you there!" Sid declared, powering up his ax. The red ranger jumped into the air, coming down like a tornado as he cut through the damaged robot and broke it in two. The two rangers didn't even wait for the krybot's remains to explode as they raced back to the science outpost, hoping that they weren't too late.

Trok didn't even see the hit coming as he turned around, leading everyone towards the exit of the building. But suddenly the green ranger's chest exploded; Nikki shouted a warning, but it was already too late. The scientists screamed at the sudden violence. Trok tried to fight back, but suddenly found himself being flipped over onto his back. Nikki tensed as she saw his attacker.

A cloaking device. Isdilian had kept one of her damned cloaking devices when he betrayed them. The silver ranger had materialized and thrown Trok across the room with his sword. The black ranger attempted to counter with her sidearm blade, but Isdilian countered it easily and struck her directly. With her dispatched, Isdilian placed his foot over Trok's chest and pointed his sword at the horathean's chest, an effective threat to keep him from moving. Nikki attempted to intervene, but stopped when Isdilian threatened to stab Trok right here and now. The black ranger clenched her fists, still in a half-crouch.

"Do I have your attention?" he asked her.

"...How?" she asked. She'd seen him go off with Sid and Xolin.

He shrugged, "Decoys. Now, throw down your morpher or I kill him".

"Really?" she asked him, "Your big plan to get us to join you is to kill us?"

Frustrated anger flooded through Isdilian, "My orders are to neutralize you. I am trying my best, but I cannot leave here without you, one way or another" he jabbed the end of the sword closer to Trok's body, "Now surrender!"

"You really want to try that on me?" she asked him, "Remember I'm the team pragmatist".

The silver ranger called her bluff, "And yet, you haven't budged an inch. Throw down your morpher. No more delays".

For a second Nikki debated going through with attacking, but in the end she knew Isdilian was right—she couldn't go through with it; she'd never forgive herself if it cost Trok his life. Not after knowing the others for so long—and something in his voice told her he was desperate enough to do it. Silently cursing herself for her own inadequacies, she prepared to demorph.

But Isdilian had made a mistake. He'd focused too much of his attention on Nikki, not imagining that Trok wouldn't risk attacking himself. If the situation had been reversed of course, Trok wouldn't have dared move, but if Trok was only risking himself? Well, that was different.

With one quick movement, the green ranger drew his sidearm blaster and fired a steady stream of laserfire at the silver ranger. Isdilian's suit sparked as he stepped back in a mixture of shock and pain, allowing Trok to scramble to his feet as Nikki rushed over to him to help him up. Taking the opportunity, the two of them quickly herded the frightened scientists out of the building, giving them a wider room to maneuver. Isdilian quickly followed.

Isdilian roared at them, enraged that they'd beaten his scheme—AGAIN. "Why?! Why can't you ever just do as I say!? Why do you have to fight me every single step!? I was your leader! I was your commander! I have Sel! I'm your only hope at salvation! Why fight me?!"

"Because you're wrong" Sid's voice called out. Isdilian cocked his head to see the other two rangers running towards their little group. Great, just great. Isdilian's entire plan had just gone up in smoke; a platoon of krybots, gone. His hostages, gone. The element of surprise, gone. And he had nothing to show for it but being outflanked.

Sel was dying. There was nothing he could do. Nothing except fight.

"...But I'm *not*" he tried to reason, "If you stop the Antipodes, you sentence an entire universe to die".

"And if we help you, we kill this one" Sid replied, "Everything we've ever known, everyone we've ever loved. Why on earth would you ever think we would do that?" It was exactly what Sel had told him when they'd fought, exactly what she'd predicted.

"What happened to their universe is a tragedy beyond comprehension" Nikki chimed in, "But we can't let the people here suffer in their stead".

"We're not gods" Sid added, "And we're not going to let you pull off this twisted Sin Eater scheme". Trok didn't say anything, but at the same time he didn't object. Xolin remained impassive.

Isdilian watched them form up around him. Frustration, anger, rage. Loss, despair.

Fine. They would fight.

Channeling his emotions, Isdilian tapped into the Morphing Grid, summoning as much power as he could. Normally power would flood back into him gradually, but if needed to he could force it—though he'd been warned the consequences would be dire. Was that what was happening to Sel? It didn't matter; he would show his former teammates power. Morphing energy surged through his body, an aura building around him as he utilized his newfound strength. The wind picked up, energy rippled through the air. Isdilian pulled his sword from his shield.

"If you won't come with me peacefully, then I will make you come with me in pieces!"

"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" Sid shouted as everyone bolted. A cascading wave of power rushed out in all directions, knocking everyone back as the silver ranger launched himself at his foes. They went down in rapid succession; Sid first, parrying the first blow before being overwhelmed by the next two. Then Trok, then Xolin, then Nikki. Sid rebounded, but it was clear they were outmatched.

"Hey, Izzy!" Nikki mocked as she got back up. Her taunt caught the silver ranger's attention, "Phantom Mode". Form-fitting armor materialized around Nikki's suit; black in color with violet energy lines cutting across. She assumed a stance.

"Let's go".

The atmosphere had changed dramatically with just a few steps. No longer were they lost within the haunted forest, instead Sel found herself on a grassy hill, bathed in warm sunlight. It was very odd seeing a friendly face after all this time. She'd only actually met Sesh once, but they'd kept in contact during her stay on the Megaship.

"...Where are we?" she asked, staring out at distant mountains.

"Another place, another time" the elder xybrian said, "Its name is likely forgotten to time. Its star may no longer even exist".

"...But you know it?" she asked him.

The old man chuckled, "I know many places. Not by name, not by what they were originally, but by what I found their memory as here".

She was still perplexed by his appearance here, "...How did you know about this? About the dreamlands?"

"Is that what you call it?" Sesh asked with bemusement, "I am old, Sel. When I was younger I served as an acolyte to our people, and I traveled, and I meditated, and I learned things. I sometimes come here to relax, or to learn".

"Learn what?"

Sesh contemplated his answer for a moment, "...Our people are telepathic. Some might confuse this for clairvoyance, but we simply have a knack for predicting what people might do from the knowledge they unconsciously share with us. Together, we form a sort of hivemind, a telepathic link where every xybrian is part of a greater whole. In this way, we aren't really separate, but part of a greater whole. Likewise, here in the afterimages, the forgotten memories of what was, it's clear the entire universe is this way. We are all one thing, shattered though we might be" he regarded her, "Even if we seem like those we love are out of reach, in a way they never left".

All she could think about was Sid, Xolin, Trok. How long it had been. How many months.

"...I wouldn't know" she said glumly, "I was never able to connect with the hivemind".

Sesh nodded sadly, then sat down in the grass, "That is correct. But you were a much different person then, and I've heard your telepathic abilities have manifested since then".

"Pfft. Barely" she groaned, plopping down beside him, "...They kind of came and went at random. Then...stuff happened". Her grid powers had overtaken her, and nothing else had really mattered.

"It's like a muscle you don't use. If you've never really been around our people, or trained it in any way, then it falls by the wayside. Besides, you're not an average xybrian, are you?"

"...No" she admitted, "How much do you know?"

"Only what your team managed to leak. I'm not a scientist".

"...My team?" Sel asked in surprise, "They're still fighting then!" Hope surged.

"Indeed!" the old man replied in affirmation, "They've been looking for you, doing everything they can to disrupt the Antipodes' plans. Word is they're building an armada".

Holy shit. The only news bits she'd ever gotten had been filtered through Alpha and Isdilian's conversations with her—she'd never imagined the others were turning the tables. Leaking enemy schemes? Building armadas? Yet her face dropped when she realized that while they were looking for her, they would not find her in time.

"...Why the long face?" Sesh asked her, "I would think this was happy news".

She began idly playing with the blades of grass at her side. Anything to distract her, "I..." How to explain this? "...Bad things have happened, Elder. The Antipodes, their plans...there's not much of me left. I won't be around much longer".

"You seem fine to me now".

True, but this wasn't the real her, "...Yeah but this is my...astral form, or whatever. Dream form. It's not real".

"Seems real enough to me" the old man said, "Who's to say what's real? Is reality the place we came from, or is it here, and our reality is but a facet of a much deeper plane?"

Waitwhat? "Um..." Sel actually wasn't sure how to respond to that particular detour.

"We xybrians believe that when one of us dies, the memories we've imparted are spread across our telepathic link. In essence, we don't die, not truly. As long as our collective memory remembers, we persist. Our physical form is just a shell, a vessel we inhabit for a short time".

A nice sentiment, but it didn't help Sel at all, not least of all because as had been pointed out, she wasn't your typical xybrian. "...I don't want to die" she admitted, her voice tiny and scared as the enormity of their discussion fell on her. It had been one thing when she'd been dealing with it or ignoring it on her own terms, but now that she was openly having this discussion...even Sesh's option didn't leave her with much comfort even if she WAS part of the hivemind. "I don't...I don't want to just be memories, or an afterthought. I don't want to die. I want to go home. I didn't want any of this". Tears began to form as she ran her fingers through her hair, putting her head down in her knees.

"And yet when I found you, you were ready to end it".

Her head shot back up, "...How did you..."

"I'm old, Sel, and I'm not a fool". As she rested her head again, he continued, "Why?"

She slumped over on her side, still curled up in a ball, "...Nothing matters. I tried to fight. I gave everything I had. It wasn't enough. Everything I try to do, it just...it doesn't matter. And I thought that, if the end is coming, then at least maybe...I could face it on my own terms, if nothing else".

"The second hardest lesson in life is that you can fail. You can do everything right, and still come up short".

She nodded numbly, "...Yeah".

"The hardest is that you have to get up again".

She squeezed into an even tighter ball, "What's the point?"

The elder xybrian regarded the girl for a moment. Like this, she seemed even younger than she already was; just a frightened child. "...When I was young, I wanted to be a lawyer. My father had been a lawyer, and his father had been too. It was expected, and more than that, I wanted it. My entire schooling had centered around it. So you can imagine my disappointment when I failed my exams".

"...What did you do?"

"I tried again, and again, and again".

"...Did you pass?"

The man laughed, "Hah, no. If I had, I wouldn't be here, with you now. But that's the thing about life, you never know what's going to happen next. You could fail at one thing, only to have something completely different happen. I failed my exams, and somehow ended up as a member of xybria's Elder Council".

She couldn't help but be infected a bit by his enthusiasm. Yet, that quickly faltered when she realized his story didn't really apply to here, "...But I don't have other options. I'm going to die".

"Are you dead now?"

"Well, no but-"

"Then you are still alive. Yet you would throw your life away".

She sat up, looking him right in the eye. Fear was evident, but also now irritation as she found him talking in circles, "But what's the point?"

He gave a half-smile, "The point, my dear child, is that your friends are looking for you. And while you think you're being selfless, trying to save them by removing yourself from the picture, in truth do you think they'd be happy you were gone?"

"But I'm going to die *anyway*" she stressed, annoyed.

"It's a strange sort of comfort, knowing what's going to happen, isn't it?" he asked her, "It's not a good end, in fact it's terrifying. But it's reassuring to know that there's no surprises. So you resign yourself, to reassure yourself. Because the alternative would be to try again, and that's even scarier, isn't it?"

"...What?"

"Hope can be the scariest thing of all" Sesh clarified, "If you give yourself hope and then fail anyway, it's all the more devastating. But if you give up on hope and let fate have its way, then you feel you can lessen that blow".

"...Is that so bad?" she asked him, "Hope only works when you've got a chance. Why should I set myself up on purpose?"

"You are here now" he said, with that even tone of voice that was quickly driving her up the wall, as if he wasn't even listening to her, and instead responding with the same five options like he was a doll and she'd pulled his string, "That is enough of a chance".

Sel shot to her feet, frustration at his lack of consideration towards her fueling her anger, "No, it's *not*! Why won't you listen to me?! I'm DYING. My body is literally giving out and there's nothing I can do! I'm strapped in a pod, being used as a battery so some assholes can kill the universe, and I can't do anything about it!" the existing tears began to run as she finally broke, "I can't! I can't do it! I came in here to find my friends and I can't even do that right! Nothing works, I can't..."

Elder Sesh stood up as she sobbed. "It's not fair..." she said, before he embraced her in a hug, "It's not fair..."

"No. No it's not" he said with complete sincerity as she cried into his shoulder, "Yet I believe you can rise to the occasion" he pulled her away gently, locking eyes with her, "You say you have no chance, that nothing you can do can prevent what is to come. Yet I know for a fact that you are a conscious representation of the Morphing Grid, with all that entails. I know for a fact that your friends are some of the most resourceful and intelligent people I have ever met. And most of all, I know that you are a brave young woman, a hero who has risked her life for others more times than either of us can count, and who despite everything life has thrown at her, will get up again and again, because that is who she is. I believe you will find a way, even if you don't".

Sel wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that; she simply stared at him in awe for a moment, until she felt a presence. Looking back towards the haunted forest that hadn't been there a moment ago, she saw a very familiar girl a fair few years younger than her. Andromeda said nothing, but smiled and beckoned Sel to follow her.

"I believe your friend means to guide you" Sesh told Sel as he let her go. He had a wry half-smile on his face, "You should probably follow her".

Sel switched between Sesh and Andromeda, her mind still processing all of this. "I..." Hope, huh? Despite her best attempts to squash it, Sel felt it trickling into her soul again. Sesh hadn't been wrong—all things considered, she WAS a part of the Grid, and her friends DID know what they were doing. She might not have been fully confident in herself, but if everyone else did, well…

She wiped her tears, giving Sesh a worn-out but still the best determined face (and a little sheepish) she could give him, "...Thank you". She still had a lot of questions about how and why, but that wasn't important right now.

He nodded with a smile, "Thank me by ensuring that there's a tomorrow".

She couldn't help but laugh at that, nodding in affirmation and offering one last quick hug. Then, turning towards Andromeda, she headed towards the phantom form of her one-time friend. The girl vanished as Sel got close, but somehow she knew Andromeda hadn't abandoned her. Sel looked back at Elder Sesh one more time, then descended into the shadow of the forest. She raised her fist to her field of vision and squeezed it as if she was promising herself. With a flash of yellow energy, she transformed into the yellow ranger.

Isdilian was a whirlwind of destruction, striking through each ranger as if they weren't even there. Even Nikki, powered up, was having a hard time trying to be anything more than a practice dummy. He was angry and hurt, frustrated that all his plans had gone to waste. He'd tried everything; he'd tried diplomacy, he'd tried forcing them, he'd tried commanding them. Nothing worked! Why wouldn't they see?! Why wouldn't they see he was trying to save them!?

And yet Sel's words rung in his head, the same words Sid and Nikki had said to him: why would they join him when their loved ones would die? So selfish of them; Isdilian couldn't save *everyone*!

"I gave you chance after chance!" he yelled, his powers strong enough to begin picking up dust as he struck each of them in turn, "I'm trying to save your lives and all you give me in response is this!" his blade cut into Trok's suit as he turned to block Xolin's next assault. "This would have been so much easier if I'd stuck to Alpha's directives and done my job, but then you made me care about you!" Blue and silver clashed, blue on the defensive as her lance held silver's sword at bay, "Alpha wanted me to kill you! I convinced him to give you a chance, and you're throwing it away!"

Knocking Xolin's lance away, he slashed across her body as Sid and Nikki swung in from the sides.

"I did this all for you!" he cried out, knocking Sid aside as he focused on Nikki and her energy wristblades, "Everything! Everything I did, I did for you! Why can't you understand that?!"

Nikki dodged with her jetpack, but it wasn't enough. She tumbled to the ground, but before he could get another hit in, Sid's ax met with Isdilian's sword.

"...For us?" Sid exclaimed, "You killed Anthren! You kidnapped Sel to be a living battery against her will!" he pulled Isdilian's sword back away from Nikki, "You don't get to say you did this for us! You think you love us, but you don't".

"That's not true!" Isdilian crowed as he struck Sid down, "Despite everything, I do! Despite all the crap you've made me do, I *do*!"

"...Made you do?!" Xolin spat out, having returned to the fight. The two clashed, "No one 'made' you do anything! You did this yourself! None of this was needed! You're the one who betrayed us, you're the one who killed Anthren, you're the one who planned to kill innocent people just to draw us out!"

Sid joined in, forcing Isdilian to fight both at once, "You don't get to be the victim!" Sid added, his ax blocked by Isdilian's shield. He struck again, "You don't get to be the victim after you carved a bloody swath through a karovian city!"

Frustration continued to bubble over for Isdilian. Too much...too much! "...Sacrifices...sacrifices must be made for the greater good!" with a powerful burst of energy, both rangers were knocked back.

"Who's good?!" Nikki demanded to know as she flew in, actually managing to get a decent hit in, "Our good? Or Alpha's?!"

"Both!" Isdilian countered, "It can be both!"

"No it can't!" she yelled back, even as he knocked her back. She ducked, dodged, then went on a counter-offensive only to be struck again.

"It can!"

"No, it can't" Trok said. Every ranger paused mid-attack as the green ranger stood there, looking down at his boots. This battle had been raging, and Trok had been busy discussing this with himself, discussing what Nikki had said to him with himself. He wasn't happy; this was a betrayal of what he believed in. It was a dirtying of his hands, a blemishing of his soul.

But it *was* necessary.

Trok looked up directly at Isdilian, having steeled himself and having made his choice, "You can't have it both ways. Sometimes you just have to make your choice, or you lose everything". He activated his morpher, "Battlizer".

The armor appeared and wrapped itself around the green ranger. As the transformation finished, Trok assumed a pose, "And you DID make your choice. I think you're just regretting it".

The silver ranger regarded the powered up green ranger, "...The only thing I regret is letting you worm your way in to my feelings" he growled before charging at Trok, "Alpha created me! Gave me purpose!" Isdilian's aura grew stronger as he summoned even more power, deflecting Trok's artillery barrage as he closed in. He and Trok met in battle, "I was given a mission to save their universe, and I WILL carry it out!" The two struggled, until Trok was blasted backwards by a beam of pure morphing energy. Isdilian readied another attack, to which Trok evaded by igniting his boots and flying out its path. Isdilian attempted to follow, swinging his beam of light around in pursuit. The science base never stood a chance.

Seeing a chance, Sid bullrushed Isdilian, landing right in his abdomen. The silver ranger grabbed red and, after struggling for a moment, threw him aside before delivering a powered-up kick that sent Sid flying. Nikki and Xolin closed in from either side, but Isdilian extended his sword into a laser whip of blinding white power, striking both of them before going after Trok who was now on an intercept course.

"Ignorant children!" Isdilian screamed, lashing out at all of them. Trok narrowly evaded, crashing into the dirt as Isdilian created an electrical storm overhead, "I gave you reprieve after reprieve! I gave you chance after chance, and you squander it like spoiled children!" The electrical strikes came down both from above and from his own weapons, hitting each ranger. Sparks flew, explosions erupted, and the rangers collapsed onto the ground, their suits smoking and charred.

"You..." Sid struggled to move, "You never cared about us. You think you do, but you only care about your ideal of us, the concept that you can 'have' and put in your little box. You don't care about the Antipodes' universe, you've never even been there. You only care about the mission. You only care about yourself. You call us spoiled and selfish, but look in the mirror! You've done all this, and for what? So daddy will love you?"

Isdilian's outward rage seemed to be replaced by calm—the kind of calm that masks inner rage. The silver ranger deliberately made his way over to the fallen red ranger, putting his sword back in the shield. He picked Sid up by the neck.

"...So, what now?" Sid asked him with contempt, "You...you going to kill me? Do you 'love' me that much? How many more do you have to kill?"

Everything in Isdilian's mind was a mess of confusion. Everything the rangers had said, everything Sel had said, everything he'd held to be true. None of it made sense.

"...Put him down, Izzy" Xolin said weakly, having managed to get up with Nikki's help, the latter supporting the former, "It doesn't have to end like this". Izzy. The name Sid had originally chosen in light mocking, then as a term of endearment, even if Isdilian had never really liked it. Then...then it had become a term of hatred when everything had gone south.

"Please" Trok added, his armor scarred, "Just...put him down".

Time stood still as the silver ranger considered his options. And for a moment, it looked like he was going to give in. Fate however, made the choice for him. Isdilian's suit crackled with ambient energy as Isdilian began to scream in pain. He dropped both Sid and his weapon as he stumbled backwards, and then dropped to his knees. No one dared touch him, taken off-guard by the sudden reversal. Isdilian doubled over, his ranger suit fading in and out as the Morphing Grid overload took its toll on his body. The other four backed away as the power intensified.

And then, his back arched and contorted in abject agony, Isdilian looked to the sky, the orifices of his mouth glowing with eerie power as he channeled that power into the sky with a thunderous boom, the clouds that had been growing only further cascading from the influx of energy. A shockwave emanated out in all directions, blowing dirt everywhere before the storm finally faded.

Isdilian, again the silver ranger, his breath shallow and his body shaky didn't resist as Trok dared to help him up.

"...You used too much grid energy, didn't you?" he asked Isdilian.

The silver ranger looked at his hand—one of his fingers was just...gone. His breath catching, he looked down and saw that his body was...no. NO! It was evaporating! He was evaporating! Parts of him were gone. His body was literally burning up.

Just like Sel.

In a fit of utter fear, he pushed Trok away, stumbling but ultimately managing to keep his balance. He wanted...he didn't know what he wanted. He wanted Sel to be safe, but that was impossible. He wanted the rangers to...what? What did he want? He didn't want to die, that was for sure, but he was dying, his mission unfulfilled. He was a failure. He'd failed Alpha, he'd failed his people.

"NO!" he screamed in despair as particles evaporated into the air.

"What...what's happening to him?!" Sid asked as he stood up.

"...His body. It's burning up" Trok said, in a bit of shock, horrified at what he was watching, "He's used too much grid energy, his body wasn't built for that!"

"Is...is that what's going to happen to Sel?" Xolin asked, equally horrified.

Sel. They were worried about Sel. If they were worried about Sel, they should have come with him. This was their fault! All their fault! Rage consumed Isdilian, "You don't get to talk about her!" he exclaimed, charging up again, "This is your fault! ALL YOUR FAULT!" If he was going to die, then he'd take everyone else with him.

Summoning as much power as he could, he unleashed another flurry of attacks, and in their current state the rangers couldn't do much to even slow him down as he kicked their asses. He was a humanoid maelstrom, cutting into them so quickly and so effortlessly they might have not even been there. Sid went down first, followed by Nikki who's Phantom Mode finally shut down from the sheer amount of damage that it had suffered.

Trok attempted to open fire with the battlizer, but Isdilian closed to gap too quickly and struck him down. Xolin attacked from the side with her lance, but he tore it from her grasp before striking her with it—repeatedly. He then turned back to Trok. The green ranger struck first, but as he was already exhausted, Isdilian quickly gained the upper hand.

"Don't do this!" Trok exclaimed, just before another blow deactivated the battlizer. Isdilian grabbed him and struck him repeatedly with his powered up fist, both to the head and the gut. He released the green ranger, and then unleashed a burst of electrical energy on his hapless foe. Trok tumbled backwards, finally demorphing in a heap on the ground.

Isdilian staggered towards him, the blinding pain nearly overwhelming even as he forced more energy into him. "No...no more..." He WOULD carry out Alpha's orders. He WOULD succeed at his purpose. He drew his sidearm sword. He aimed. Lighting flashed. Thunder roiled.

He swung down at Trok.

He stopped. Isdilian's eyes went wide in shock as the sound of impact hit his back side. Pain rippled through the point of impact...and out the front. Looking down, he saw the chest of his suit sparking and shorting out as the blade of Xolin's sidearm clearly stuck out of it. The blue ranger herself seemed just as shocked and appalled at the sudden turn of events, and pulled her blade out as if that would somehow undo what had just happened.

Isdilian managed to turn around to get a good look at his subduer. Xolin was in shock, not quite processing everything and about a step away from having a meltdown. The silver ranger suit sparked and spurted more and more, until it finally just gave out and Isdilian demorphed. From there he quickly collapsed, Xolin managing to catch him after throwing her sword aside and also demorphing. She landed on her knees, trying to understand what she'd done.

"Trinity..." she whispered in horror, "I...I didn't mean..." Trok, clutching his chest in pain, pulled himself up to a semi-seating position via a group of rocks he'd landed next to. Sid and Nikki rushed over, demorphing in the process.

Isdilian, his body beginning to evaporate faster now, managed to lock his gaze at his killer. He breathed only shallow breaths, and couldn't maintain focus for long, "It...it wasn't supposed to...be this...way..."

He was gone.

His body disintegrated in her arms, flaking away into the aether as his form returned to the Morphing Grid. The four surviving rangers just stayed there, unmoving as each tried to process what had just happened.

It began to rain.

The main command center of the Antipodes was silent as the feed to the battle went dead. Isdilian was gone. One of their two primary conduits was dead. And with him went the plan. A scheme years in the making, up in smoke.

"...Idiot" Delta managed to whisper as the implications set in.

Alpha was silent. He stared aimlessly at the central pillar of the room that contained the energy collected thus far.

Beta tried to rationalize this, grasping at straws as she went, "...It's...it's fine. We've still got that other conduit relic from Eltar. We can-"

"The Eltar relic was supposed to replace the girl" Epsilon reminded her, her voice dead as all hope had been extinguished, "She won't last much longer".

"Then it's over" Beta said, in a half question, "Everything we did...it was all for nothing?"

Epsilon didn't have an answer for her. Alpha, however, finally spoke; "...If we used the girl and the relic now, what would our chances of success be?"

"I..." Epsilon was supposed to crunch numbers *now*?! She was barely holding it together as she was. Still though, "I don't...ballpark figure, maybe? Forty percent, on a good day. But I'd need a few days to jury-rig a new setup. And...if it fails, the results could be disastrous".

"How?" asked Beta.

Epsilon was blunt in her assessment, "As in, that black hole outside could get much bigger. Infinitely bigger".

"If we lose, then we lose" Alpha said, his voice distant and unreadable. He didn't even bother looking at them as they argued, instead sitting at his desk and watching the Morphing Grid energy dance in the column, "But if we win...this is all we have. Epsilon, do what you have to. All of our resources are at your disposal".

"I...yes, sir" she replied. Epsilon walked out to tend to her shattered emotions, leaving just three.

"...What about us?" Beta asked Alpha.

Finally Alpha turned to the blue and green Antipodes, "Kill them".

The two of them bowed slightly, "...Yes, sir" Beta said before they took their leave. Alpha turned back to the energy column, and then to a small picture frame on his desk of a young schoolgirl; a daughter he was now certain he would never see again. All because of them. All because they couldn't just lay down and die.

Rage consumed him.

Everything was wrong. Trok's hands were dirty; he couldn't find a way to feel clean again. He knew there was no way out; the only alternative was that THIS universe died, and by not acting, he was indirectly endorsing that fate. He was a butcher either way.

Yet that didn't matter right now. He stood outside of Xolin's room, despondent. She hadn't come out since they'd been back, and hadn't said anything since the battle at all—she'd come here directly and shut her door. And at the end of it all, it had been his fault; if he'd not been in the way, Xolin wouldn't have felt the need to defend him. She wouldn't have had to kill Isdilian.

"...Xol?" he asked pleadingly, "Can...can we talk? Please?"

Silence.

He placed his hand on the door, leaning against it gently. She wouldn't even talk to him. "...It's not fair" he whispered to himself, before turning around and sliding to the ground and huddling against the door, "If...if you want to talk, I'm here".

More silence. It was deafening; more than anything, Trok just wanted to talk to someone; anyone. He was ready to explode. But no one wanted to talk, because of the horror.

Isdilian was dead; at their hand. Sel was probably dying horribly. The team, this family, had been broken...violated by its own members. And it would never be quite whole ever again.

Everything was wrong.

Nikki scoured Iota's old database for the thousanth time for everything, anything that could help them end this nightmare. But like always, she found nothing—everything they'd tried, everything they'd imagined had come up short. Converting this universe had been the Antipodes' final gambit.

She did this for two reasons: one, because she was spurred on by her confrontation with Trok, and two because it kept her from thinking about...well, everything else. She couldn't think about that. Not now.

Everything was wrong.

The workbay was silent, save for Sid's breathing and the hum of the holographic map of the universe he'd activated that filled a good chunk of the room as of present. He'd been checking the same status update for over an hour. Ostensibly he was narrowing down the search parameters for where the Antipode base could possibly be; he'd sent numerous scouts out from numerous factions in an effort to track down the location. But even with all the files they'd stolen from Zeta's base, even knowing that the Antipode base would light up like a Christmas tree even from a distance because of the sheer amount of power it would have to store...space was still huge. Hundreds of galaxies. Hundreds of trillions of stars. There was no way to cover it all.

The latest update stated that an Aquitian scoutship hadn't found anything in the Vika Galaxy. Another dead end. So many dead ends.

She'd called him Iota.

Sid shook the thought from his mind. There had to be something they were missing something…

He'd manipulated them, just like Iota. He'd taken their agency from them.

No. NO! Not now. Sid focused, despite how tired he was. ESPECIALLY because of how tired he was. Because if he fell asleep now, he knew he'd have The Dream.

Fire and smoke and ash and ruin and oh god their bodies STOP IT.

She'd killed Isdilian. They'd killed Isdilian. Isdilian, one of their own, was dead. Nothing would bring him back, and no matter how much Sid tried to distract himself that fact was inescapable. A fundamental law of rangerdom had been breached; they'd murdered one of their own. Killed him. Watched his body decay into nothing. Regardless of anything, this was a sin that could not be undone. It didn't matter how necessary or right it had been, they were still wrong.

Fire and smoke and ash and ruin and bodies and alarms and fire and smoke and ash and this all could have been avoided if he hadn't been such an idiot. It was just like before, and again people had paid for it. Xolin...god, poor Xolin. And Trok. And Nikki, for a second time. And Sel, wherever she was, if she was even still alive. It had been his job to protect them and what had he done?!

THIS WAS HIS FAULT.

Rage overtook Sid as he bolted from his seat, grabbing the portable holo-generator and throwing it, the map vanishing as the device smashed against the wall. Then he turned and swept everything off the next table. That not being enough, he roared as he grabbed the table and tossed it into the first.

His strength spent, his rage converted into tears as he let one last pitiful kick to the tables go, before sliding to the ground and clutched his head in his hands. He was a monster. Sid Drake was a monster, and he never should have come aboard this ship. He never should have let this happen. He'd KNOWN this would have been the result, that he would have messed up somehow, and here they were, broken and shattered.

Sid Drake was a monster. And so Sid Drake wept.

Everything was wrong.

To Be Continued...