Chapter 52—Alpha/Omega: Last Day on Earth

Beth

Neither of us thought it was our last day on Earth, together. Neither of us knew that the brief happiness we shared in the eye of the hurricane was going to be swallowed up by the hellish hand of fate we'd been dealt. Ever since becoming a Ranger, I didn't think there'd ever be a time where Gabriel and I could be happy again. But Aaron had given me hope like a saving light. Even though he should have hated Gabriel. Even though he should have wanted him dead as much as Patrick wanted him dead. Despite everything Gabriel had done to Aaron, he still tried to help him.

And it worked.

I had Gabriel back. My Gabriel. And suddenly, we both seemed to realize we'd fallen in love in the middle of the ridiculous interplanetary war we'd become part of. It was like fate had realized we'd been its bitch for just a little too long; so it was repaying us for our patience.

But all good things come to an end.

And that's what scared the shit out of me. I was all about beginnings, and firsts, and that sort of thing. Everything coming to an end terrified me.

Gabriel had shown more courage than me, though. Even though he knew our time together was constrained, tense, and far from perfect, it never stopped him from trying to make it better. He worked tirelessly with Aaron, reliving memories and past atrocities every day on repeat, attempting to learn more about coming to grips with them. It honestly floored me: to see two men, the heirs of opposite, enemy races, trying to help one another. It was like a truce had been formed.

Of course, things were still tense. But Gabriel and I found ways to enjoy the time we had.

And then Messiah found a way to ruin it. As usual.

Using Grace against us was something I never thought was possible. And I felt like I had betrayed her more than ever by putting her in that situation. If I had never taken Gabriel from Messiah, Messiah would never have put her through that.

It was just so hard adapting to Gabriel being gone again. For once in almost five years, I had hope that we could have a normal life. So when the battlefield stilled and Gabriel appeared to sacrifice himself, I didn't want to believe it. I didn't think it was really happening. Even when he stepped to Messiah's side obediently and Grace was returned to normal. Even when Messiah stuck a needle into his shoulder, and his eyes lit up like stars.

There was just no way Gabriel could really just give up on everything we had.

So when he called my name, and came towards me, smiling—I believed him when he said he was okay. I believed him when he held me in his arms and kissed my forehead.

I believed him, even when he was draining the Alpha Morpher of his DNA.

Even as I dropped to the ground, zoning in and out of consciousness, I wanted to believe it wasn't happening. I wanted to believe we could spend all our time together in his little containment room. I wanted to believe we be like Patrick and Aaron, or Jay and Amy, or hell, even Matt and Grace.

But after a day—after that first torturous night of sleep—everything began to sink in.

Gabriel was now and forevermore The Angel.

He—The Angel—used my feelings for Gabriel and betrayed me to take his "soul" from the Morpher.

And shut it down.

And before I knew it, Gabriel was completely and totally gone. Any chance of Doc Ol's cure working was now gone. Now that the Angel Virus had become self-sustaining , Gabriel no longer existed. He—The Angel—just kept the name as a convenience. Just a mockery of the man I'd known and loved.

So even though I didn't want to believe it, his terrifying power forced me to. He had the ability to summon battle armor in the blink of an eye—like he was Morphing, only not. And he could grow to the size of a full-grown Zordian and adapt his armor to fit his environment. It was like he had control over matter. And we all found out the hard way when we tried to fight him with our Zordians.

But without my Morpher, I was forced to sit out. Doc told me that the Alpha Morpher would reactivate once it had time to charge. Luckily for us, The Angel hadn't had a lot of time to build up his strength. And Gabriel wasn't used to his new powers and body.

So he left. And we left.

Then, before any of us could really recover, we had to come to grips that this would be our last day on Earth.

We were teleporting across the galaxy and caught up in a hurricane of emotions and blurred realities. I honestly felt like I was living one big dream-nightmare-rollercoaster. And I longed to wake up.

—52—

I could see them, but I couldn't believe it. As I cowered beneath the super force field formed by my teammates, fearing for the end of my life, I saw hope on the horizon.

In my mind, I could feel the emotions of my Zordian partner, Lyzabeta. And even though I could see her intimidatingly sleek yet imposing vehicular design—the golden turret framed by black metallic fixtures, the futuristically curved treads, and the alien nature of the frame of her tank body—I couldn't believe it was her.

The air stilled, the smoke of the damaged T-Runners dancing through the wind in black plumes and wisps, and the humming of the super force field the only thing in everyone's ears.

Until all of our voices coalesced into a surprised cry for our partners.

"LYZABETA!" was the only thing I could understand from our garbled screams.

But it didn't take Gabriel long to recover from his shock.

"ANNIHILATE THEM!" he roared, pointing his armored hand at us.

I could practically see the confusion in the T-Runner pilots. They didn't know whether to shoot us or shoot our Zordians.

And Amy capitalized on it.

"SCATTER!" she hollered.

Lots of yelling.

In seconds, our team of injured, exhausted Rangers exploded into scrambling individuals.

Matt immediately took to the skies, Grace phased through the ground beneath her feet like a ghost, Amy disappeared in a swirl of pink energy, and by the time I made my way by snaking on a moving piece of ground, I couldn't tell where the others had gone.

"Make your way to us."

I hadn't heard Lyzabeta's telepathic voice in so long that I had forgotten what it felt like. I had forgotten I talked to her all the time—updated her on my days and my problems and everything that happened in my life. I hadn't even noticed I missed her.

"On it!" I thought back to her.

I noticed my pulse slow, noticed my body relax, and noticed the adrenaline unclogging my mind. I felt safe.

"Thanks," I said softly to Lyz.

I felt the emotions of a smile from her, picturing her grinning face. Her grinning Eltarian face. Her real face.

With her sedative-like peace of mind slowing things down, I was able to come to grips with the past few days. With disabling hundreds of thousands of SPD soldiers—people I'd probably helped train during my time at SPD. I used the unforgiving grounds of Eltar to knock their bodies out cold, to trap their legs in mounds of dirt 3-times their body weight, and to pummel them within inches of their lives with solid stones. I was at war.

It was just harder than I'd imagined. On TV, in movies, and in music, taking someone's life seems so simple. It seems easy, or necessary. After all, these were "just" soldiers. Just troops who were easily replaced by three more. Messiah had no value for their lives. And it made it so hard for me to.

I burst through the ground in a cloud of dirt, leaping dozens of feet into the air. I landed on a plate above Lyzabeta's treads and patted her hull.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," I panted to her, not realizing how exhausted I was.

"I think I have somewhat of an understanding," she said back gently. "Hurry up and climb in—I don't want you getting blasted into oblivion."

I smirked behind my mouth guard and tele-jumped to her cockpit, feeling her presence melt into mine until we were one. The controls in front of me began to connect to my body—mainly to my forearms—and I felt the machinery of her body give way to the organic data beneath until she and I shared both body and mind.

This was our most basic form of BURST Linkup. It required less energy and allowed Lyz and I to control her tank form together. Without the delay of manual controls.

"Status report," Aaron's voice was suddenly booming over my commlink.

"Alpha Red, standing by," I reported, checking all my system readouts. "Lyz and I ready to go."

"Zeta and me, too," said Patrick.

I heard Matt, Grace, and Amy report their statuses before we prepared for actual combat.

The T-Runners seemed to be recovering, and Gabriel seemed to be looking for something.

"Where's the Mecha Squad?" I wondered.

"I sent them back to the palace. Without the DigiMech, they'll only get in the way," Aaron responded. "Now let's clean up these T-Runners, shall we?"

"Hell yeah!" Matt cried as he and Sofyetta, his helicopter-jet-like Zordian, banked to the right and gained altitude.

Lyz and I accelerated to attack speed, and Amy and Tonyxyn flew ahead to give aerial support. Frankilos was instructed to report to the palace and await further instruction, since he would at only a fraction of his power without Jay BURST Linking with him. So Aaron and Omega remained in "sports car mode" and substituted for our speeder class. Meanwhile, Zeta and Patrick used their starship mode to give Tonyxyn and Sofyetta more aerial cover. Amantanine and Grace sped off alongside Aaron and Omega, and I brought up the rear with Lyz.

Even with Gabriel's Titan technology powering their new Zords, SPD had no chance against our Zordians. They were human and they made mistakes, and they hesitated. We were bonded with ancient Eltarians who had long since transcended their flesh and blood bodies and now had their spirits of pure energy encased in a sort of living metal. There was no competition.

Except from Gabriel.

As each one of his T-Runners went offline, Gabriel grew stronger.

Finally, we discovered why.

"Since the T-Runners are powered by Titan technology, Gabriel can absorb that power when the T-Runners start to go offline," Doc Ol was saying over our commlinks.

"If you can take Gabriel out—even make him retreat—it'll shut down the Titan tech in the T-Runners," Hunter then said. "Without Gabriel, the Titan tech has no power source and will shut down."

"He's mine," Aaron interrupted. "You guys cover me, but don't—I repeat don't—take out those T-Runners. Just…keep them busy."

"You got it," Matt replied for all of us.

I saw Omega's sleek white form speed ahead into the distance where Gabriel was towering over all of us—watching the battle unfold. It wasn't like him to let others do his dirty work for him, but I guessed that if he was powering them, he didn't want to risk getting injured.

Too bad we figured his plan out.

Omega transformed in one fluid movement as her vehicular form took to the air and then dropped down on two strong legs. Sabers extended from her wrists, and the doors of her car mode had transformed into cannon-like wings. They reminded me somewhat of the Orion Radiance Ranger's wing-swords. I was starting to see a pattern.

As the minutes ticked by, I watched anxiously as Omega and Aaron went at it with Gabriel's Giant Titan mode. As much as I wanted to believe Omega had the upper hand, I knew it was only because five T-Runners were still online. If Gabriel were to gain more power, we'd be finished.

"We should go help Aaron," I finally said to Lyz.

"Omega can handle Gabriel," she said confidently, "but these T-Runners are getting stronger at a steady interval." She paused as brought up the a data table of her readings. "Every ten minutes we spend fighting them, their overall Morphtronic Unit Output increases by 10%. If we don't destroy them soon, they'll be more than just an obstacle."

"If we destroy them," Sofyetta spoke up, "Gabriel will absorb all the power they've gathered. Omega won't be able to beat him on her own."

"So we destroy the T-Runners and then back Aaron and Omega up," Grace now chimed in. "Sounds easy enough to me."

Now Zeta was coming through the commlinks, his strong voice silencing us all. "No. You don't know how the Titan technology works—I do. Those T-Runners are part of Gabriel. If they gain power at increments of 1% every minute, Gabriel will gain power equal to what they've accrued. That's just in addition to what they already have. Essentially, the T-Runners are making him more powerful. Once they're destroyed, he gets all their power back, plus some."

We were all quiet as we listened to the math.

It made sense, but it didn't.

"So wait," Matt finally said, "why even use the T-Runners in the first place? Wouldn't he have just as much power that way?"

"Gabriel's power doesn't increase on its own," I mumbled, suddenly getting Zeta's point. "The Angel is a virus. It can only grow by continual infection. Essentially, the virus is reproducing. And evolving."

We all fell silent.

"This was Cronus's master plan all along," Zeta muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. "To create a new race. One of his design. He wanted to play God."

The silence was almost deafening. The only thing we could hear were the faint shots coming from the T-Runners on the other side of the battlefield. And they were all grounded, since we'd taken out their fliers first.

"How can we stop him?" I asked, breaking the silence. "There has to be a way."

"Can't we form like, a Megazord or something?" Matt wondered hopefully.

"We've never attempted it," Lyz responded. "With so many different partners and so many different Zordians, I don't think it could work. I don't think we're ready for it."

"What do you mean?" Amy questioned.

"BURST Executing between me and you works fine," Tonyxyn answered his partner, "but BURST Executing between you and Lyz wouldn't work. Your biorhythms would have to match perfectly."

"What if we could, though?" Grace finally butted in, having been silent the whole time. "What if we could bond with each other's Zordians so that we could merge?"

"Even if it could work, we don't have time for that," Amantanine, Grace's motorcycle-form Zordian, replied.

It seemed our Zordians knew more about the risks than we did. They seemed dead-set on keeping the Megazord out of the question.

But I didn't buy it. We had no other choice. I wasn't about to back down to an impossibility. If Gabriel could do all these things, if I could do everything I'd done in my life (like overcoming amnesia), then why couldn't we do this?

Maybe that was why the Alpha Morpher let me continue to use it—because I was so damn stubborn. After all, when Gabriel took his "soul" (or really just the last of his DNA that was trapped inside the Morpher for encoding), the Alpha Morpher should have stopped responding to me. But it didn't. It held on to me for some reason. And once it was recharged, I took on the mantle of Red Ranger. By myself. No Gabriel. Just me.

I knew that it was up to me to carry on Gabriel's short legacy as the Red Ranger and to make sure I kept the universe safe. Even if it meant killing Gabriel.

"Let's follow Grace's plan, then," I said, glancing at Lyz's data chart once more. "The sooner we take them out, the less energy they can gather."

"Good idea," Patrick replied as he and Zeta swooped in from the air.

Amy and Matt followed suit, flanking him, and I rolled up to offer backing fire. I felt Lyz's body shake with every blast of her main forward turret, the bolts of energy flying high in an arch of crimson.

Several direct hits.

"3 T-Runners neutralized," Patrick reported as he scoped out the battlefield from above. "I'm gonna take another pass and see if I can't get the last two."

"Sounds good," I said, pushing Lyz into accelerator mode. "Amy, you hang back with Patrick just in case. Grace, Matt; you guys follow me to Aaron's position up ahead. We need to back him up before Gabriel absorbs all that energy."

"On it," they said together.

Lyz's treads transformed, two large tires deploying from each one.

"Ready for some 4-wheeling?" she laughed.

"Reminds me of my days in Phoenix," I said with a smirk.

Lyz gunned her engine, hurtling forward much faster than her treaded-tank mode would have allowed. As we approached, I could see Gabriel was already gaining power from the fallen T-Runners. Omega was hardly able to keep up with him, and it was all she could do to block his attacks.

"Ready to BURST Execute?" I asked Lyz, surveying the scene.

"Always."

It happened in seconds. It was so much more natural than any other time. When I opened my eyes again, Lyz and I were one.

She and I didn't hesitate to fire a few blasts at Gabriel, just to get his attention away from Omega. He looked up, scowling as he flapped his wings at us and unleashed a wave of energy.

We brought our arms up, shielding our body from the blazing energy. As soon as it passed, we retaliated with a barrage from our shoulder mounted chain guns.

That got his attention.

"You wanna play too?" Gabriel roared, turning to face us before he shot off in our direction.

Shit, Lyz and I cursed together.

We dove to the left, pulling a plasma grenade from our bandolier and tossing at right in Gabriel's path. As we hit the dirt and rolled away, I watched the explosion overtake Gabriel and send him flying through the sky. It was enough to get Omega clear, but I could tell she and Aaron were in bad shape.

"Are you okay?" we asked them.

"Aaron is exhausted," Omega replied for the Prince. "His vitals are running low. After sustaining the Eyr Orion for nearly an hour and recovering from the number the Cronus energy did on him, it's a wonder he's still alive." She took a few seconds before she added, "and I'm not in the best condition either…my auto-navigation and stabilizers are both offline."

Lyz and I were silent as we thought over a plan.

"Get him to the palace," Patrick's voice came through our commlinks. "If Gabriel catches you guys off guard, you're both in trouble."

"Beth, you can drive Omega to the bunker," Lyz said to me. "Omega can't transform without Aaron, and she's much faster than I am."

"What about you?" I asked her, surprised.

"Zeta and I will buy you time," Patrick answered for Lyz, "we'll keep him away from Lyz while we wait for you to get back."

"Alright," I agreed, initiating the Reverse BURST process.

Seconds later, I was in the cockpit of Lyz's tank mode.

I hopped out as Omega transformed into her sleek speedster-car form. Her driver door was open, and Aaron was just about passed out in the passenger seat. His Eyr Orion transformation had worn off, his brown hair sweaty and matted. His face was flushed and his eyes seemed to be dim and near lifeless. I had never seen him in such terrible shape.

"What a trooper," I said lightly to him, flooring Omega's gas and feeling her seatbelt automatically lock me in place.

He smiled sluggishly, his eyes unfocused.

"Get some rest, I'll get you to your parents."

"Thanks," he mumbled, raspy and faint.

It was weird to see Aaron so…human again.

52—

"Thank you for helping me get him to safety," Omega said some time later.

In our battle with the T-Runners, we'd gotten pretty far away from the palace, and Omega wasn't able to push herself to top speed without Aaron BURST Linked with her steering wheel. So it was taking us longer than expected to get Aaron to the underground bunker beneath the palace.

"Aaron's done so much for me," I said to her, "it feels good to be able to help him for a change."

"He cares a lot about you. You've always backed up his decisions as a leader, and inadvertently helped push him to achieve his destiny."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

She seemed to be thinking over her answer for a few seconds before she finally answered. "You are the Alpha Ranger—the beginning and initiator of the Cyber coding. Before the Delta White coding came to be, Alpha Red was intended to be the leader of the team, due to its user being a 'starter,' or 'go-getter.'"

"So why did it choose Gabriel?" I wondered. "I mean…he's not much of a 'go-getter.'"

Now Omega seemed to really be thinking, like she was seeing all sorts of flashbacks or reliving a moment from her past.

"Are you aware with the concept of Alpha and Omega?" she asked randomly.

"Um…vaguely. Alpha is the beginning, Omega is the end; right?"

"Precisely," she answered, "but the two, on a broader spectrum, are like Yin and Yang; life and death; light and dark. They are always opposites."

"Right…" I said slowly.

"What do you know of Cronus?"

"Just that he was the ruler of the Titans, your brother, and Zeta's rival. And, you know, all the general disfavored hype."

I sensed a smirk in her voice when she spoke again. "Indeed, Cronus was my brother. But he was not always Cronus. He was born Alpha. He was my husband."

"What?"

She remained silent.

"But…But I thought Cronus—um, Alpha—betrayed you and took all your powers so he could kill Zeta?"

"Alpha didn't betray me," she said solemnly. "Alpha was convinced that Zeta wouldn't allow our union—since I was a Seraph and Alpha was not." She sighed as she continued to grumble down the path to the Palace. "I knew Alpha was right, so I merged with him; Alpha and Omega became one."

She came to a stop and I realized we'd reached the palace. But I was speechless. Omega wasn't a victim. She wasn't an innocent bystander. She volunteered to help destroy her own brother.

And I wasn't even going to get started on the fact that she was in love with her other brother. Then again, I guess there weren't many other options at the beginning of time.

"Take him inside," Omega said gently. "I'll wait."

I nodded and heaved Aaron out the passenger seat. Especially in his weakened state, where he couldn't even move his legs.

I struggled to gather my powers and lifted a slab of rock from the stone path, then slid it under Aaron like a gurney.

Much better.

I quickly made my way through the ruined palace corridors, dodging the crumbling pillars and unstable flooring. I highly doubted the palace had seen a siege in quite some time.

But as I got closer to the bunker and let myself dwell on Omega's story, I began to realize why she'd given me this impromptu history lesson. Suddenly, the pieces started falling into place.

Gabriel was chosen by the Alpha Morpher because he was what was left of Alpha—or Cronus. Cronus was essentially Alpha and Omega, merged as one. When Cronus was imprisoned, Alpha was reborn in Gabriel as The Angel, and Omega became a Zordian.

It all made sense now.

I focused my mind and pulled Aaron along faster, arriving at the bunker in less than a few minutes. Several ELF troops escorted Aaron inside as soon as they saw us, then they took in my fatigued appearance.

"If I may, ma'am," one said to me, "can I ask what's happening out there?"

"Zeta and Patrick are trying to hold Gabriel off, but we're not sure we can take him—especially with Aaron and Omega out of commission, along with Jay and Frankilos."

The trooper frowned, but said nothing else.

"I'll be back," I said, "hopefully."

With that, I was gone, sprinting towards Omega with hundreds of questions in my head. Was I right about Gabriel and Alpha? If so, what did that mean for me? What did it mean for all of us? Could Omega stop Gabriel?

Before I knew it, I was skidding to halt near Omega's parked form.

"Aaron made it safely?" she asked me.

"He's with his parents now," I responded as I shut her driver door. "Are you ready to go?"

She didn't respond, only floored her accelerator and whipped us around in a concise U-turn.

"I'm guessing you have some questions from earlier."

I nodded. "Just a few."

"Be my guest."

"Did you know you'd become Cronus if you merged with Alpha? Did you know Alpha was planning on ruling the universe with your combined powers? Did you…did you know he was going to betray you?"

"I had no idea we'd become Cronus, but I knew we'd become something…more than what we currently were. And I most definitely had no idea of Alpha's greater ambitions. He remained in control, even after we became Cronus, and that was when he set out to destroy Zeta. I…didn't think he'd go through with it. I didn't think he'd betray me. At least, I hoped he wouldn't."

I chewed my lip as I listened. This was just like Gabriel and me.

"It is."

"What?" I demanded, confused.

"It is just like you and Gabriel."

"How did you…?"

"I'm not sure," she said, her voice confused. "I…I've never picked up on anyone's thoughts but Aaron's before."

Then, I started to really think.

"What if…what if you and BURST Executed?"

She remained silent, so I continued.

"I hold the Alpha Cyber Morpher—so what if Alpha and you, Omega, merged again? Would we be able to beat Gabriel?"

"I believe you may be on to something," she mumbled. "You…you are unique, Beth. You are both Alpha and Omega. Beginning and end."

"How is that even possible?" I wondered. "I thought you said I was just the initiator? How can I possibly be the starter and the finisher?"

"You were the beginning of Gabriel's destiny," she answered knowingly, "and the end."

—52—

Omega and I spun around furiously, dodging the blasts Gabriel was shelling out. Zeta and Patrick were just about down for the count, Zeta's technological wings broken and charred. His metallic armor was cracked and bleeding energy, and Patrick was barely conscious in his BURST chamber. The battle was not going in our favor.

Gabriel was purposely keeping Omega from getting close to Lyz, who couldn't transform without me linking up with her. Tonyxyn and Sofyetta were trying to pin Gabriel down from above, but their shots did little to no damage. It was a losing battle. And I knew this.

This was the end.

And then I heard Omega's voice in my head.

"The end is simply a new beginning. Alpha, Omega—opposites, but one in the same. From the two, one is born."

Something in the way she said it. Something about her voice, or her feelings, or her in general, was resonating with me. Somehow, I knew her words to be true. It was like I had just stumbled across the greatest epiphany of my life.

I felt the exhilaration of true inspiration and idea explode within me, felt Omega radiating with the same acceptance of her profound truths, and felt us begin to merge.

"BURST EXECUTE!"

Our voices were one. Our bodies were one. Her armor transformed standardly, but new pieces began to materialize out of thin air. But she and I—we—we both knew they'd come from the Morphing Grid. From the force that bonded us. From the energy of the universe.

From the constant push-pull of Alpha and Omega. Beginning and End. Life and Death. Light and Dark. Forever an infinite.

As Omega and I stared through our joined eyes at the battlefield, we could feel the combined force of our very beings change into something new.

"OMEGA—INFINITY ARCHANGEL MODE!"

Gabriel went still. The Zordians in the air and on the ground seemed to freeze. The laser blasts stopped, and the very planet itself nearly ceased to breathe.

The light shining off Omega's new transformation—our new transformation—was blinding to everyone but us. I could tell by the way everyone's forearms moved to their faces. But we looked straight at Gabriel. The combined form of Omega's love and my love. Our greatest friend, and our greatest enemy.

"As a Knight Class Zordian, we have access to more than enough new tactical information to at least force Gabriel to retreat," Omega said to me.

"Let's take him down."

The wing-like flaps of armor on our back extended as we hurtled off the ground at Gabriel. As we descended upon him and he recovered from his blindness, he jumped back and swiped at us. We dodged easily and slammed a fist into his gut several times, and then followed up with a sweep at his feet. As he fell forward, our knee caught his chin in a fierce strike before we backhanded him into a cliff face.

The stones crumbled around him, but with Omega merged with the Alpha Stone Ranger, she had the ability to control the way the fell. We had the ability.

We clapped our hands together, and the boulders magnetized to Gabriel's body, crushing him under their weight. With one hand still extended toward him, we used a free hand to withdraw our mightiest weapon.

The Eternity Edge.

A wave of energy burst forth from Gabriel's temporary tomb as he spread his wings angrily. Luckily for us, Patrick and Zeta had already weakened him up. This fight would be over soon.

"You really think you can stop me?" he roared.

Omega and I stared back. "Do you really think we can't?"

He growled as he formed a saber with an armored feather plate. He jumped forward with a huge thrust, but our lithe form was too quick for him, and we easily sidestepped his petty attack. We struck him in the face with the cross-guard of the Eternity Edge, and then kicked him backward. Fruitlessly, he swung again, but we parried with the Eternity Edge effortlessly. As he continued to swing angrily—uncontrollably—Omega and I began to feel sorry for him. We began to pity him.

But we did not give in.

Finally, we swung at him—one quick, but savage slash. Right across his chest, from shoulder to hip. We heard the gnarly scraping of our blade on his armor, saw the sparks spring forth angrily, and heard the cry of shock and agony escape Gabriel's lips.

Again, we sliced.

And again.

Until Gabriel was barely able to crawl. Until he could barely lift his head.

"It's over," we said to him, eyes calculating his feeble power output. "You've lost."

He coughed, pushing himself up with one arm. "N-no," he groaned, "you…you can't have this much power. You can't!"

"We do."

He stared up at us hopelessly. Helplessly.

And as much as we tried to fight the urge to see Gabriel or Alpha's eyes in the cold ones that had replaced them, we couldn't fight the feelings of remorse and guilt creeping over us.

And then, he began to vanish. His whole body was covered in a green light that seemed to suck him up into the stars.

A teleportation beam.

He was retreating.

—52—

"I just don't get how you were able to merge with Omega and beat Gabriel," Aaron was saying as the medics continued to stitch him up.

He barely winced when they pulled sharp pieces of gravel from his arms.

"I…I dunno," I said for about the tenth time. "We just…we were on the same wavelength. What she said made sense to me. But it was like it set off this half-though, half-solved enigma in my head that just pieced itself together. It was honestly like a eureka moment."

"Zeta says that makes sense," Patrick told us. I assumed he was relaying our conversation to the Zordian Kaiser to keep them updated, since they were being tended to in a larger portion of the bunker. "Zordians can bond with humans from the most basic of feelings—whether it's anger, joy, or sadness. In this case, it was something like revelation."

"No," I said, correcting him gently, "it was…it was more like…I dunno. It was an understanding between Omega and me. She got me because she's been through the same thing as me. So even though we were opposites in lots of ways, we were the same in a bunch of others. I can only explain it as an Alpha-Omega thing."

"Whatever it is, I'm just glad it worked," Matt said positively. "I don't think we would've made it out of there if it hadn't."

"We'd have been dead if the Zordians hadn't shown up," Grace muttered.

"Speaking of which," Aaron said slowly, standing and showing off all his various bandages and stitches, "how did they get here?"

"Zeta wouldn't tell me," Patrick said, confused.

"Neither would Sofyetta or Amantanine," Grace added on, sharing the same confused look as her band mate.

We all looked to one another.

"Wait," Aaron said slowly, piecing everything together. "No, no, no, no, NO!"

He sprinted out the room, making his way to the main Command Center of the bunker. The others and I barely hesitated before we followed him.

By the time we got to the Command Center, Aaron was on his knees, defeated. I had never seen him cry before, but his face was bright red and unmistakably tearstained. Several of the palaces Elite Guard looked uncomfortably guilty, like they'd just been the bearers of bad news.

"What's wrong?" Patrick demanded, his concern obvious.

Grace, Matt, and I looked on anxiously.

"Dyn," Aaron responded through sobs, "he…he teleported them here."

"How?" I wondered.

"Dyr Hunter used the Dyr Orion," one of the guards said. "The strain was too much for his heart, though."

"Is he…?"

Patrick's question hung in the air for several seconds before anyone bothered to respond.

"No."

We looked up to see a man in an important-looking green cloak. The armor underneath was sleek and polished, bearing the royal crest of the Eltarian family. His eyes were the same as Hunters—a mystical blue that was both frightening and alluring. His short cropped blond hair framed his angular, strong face, and his tall and intimidating stature screamed authority. It demanded respect.

It was Zordon.

"Dyrdyn," Aaron mumbled sadly, standing to meet his grandfather's eyes, "what happened? Where is Dyn?"

"He's resting," Zordon said, his voice echoing like he was stuck in a tunnel, "but he has entered the cycle of Rejuvynashyn."

Aaron's face seemed to go tight and fearful while the rest of us looked on apprehensively.

"Rejuvynashyn is a natural part of the royal Eltarian life cycle in which the body converts itself to pure energy and attempts to reanimate itself," Zordon pressed on, noting our confused looks. "However, Hunter is much too young to undergo the phase properly, and it is unknown how long it will take for his body to rematerialize."

"So wait," I ventured, still somewhat lost, "his body is just energy right now?"

"Not yet," Zordon said, "but it will be within the next month."

"Month?" Matt practically shouted. "Dude, how long does this thing last?"

Zordon's eyes swiveled to Matt's as he responded, emotionless. "When undergone by someone my age, approximately 10 years."

We were all silent.

"And how long will it take for someone Hunter's age?" Patrick wondered.

"It could be anywhere from 10 years…to 100 years. There's no way to be sure."

—52—

I stood idly in the viewing deck above the Zordian repair center, watching as hundreds of Eltarian medics scurried about to tend to the Zordians' wounds. Even though I knew she was too tired to probably talk, all I wanted to do was talk with Lyz. To tell her how afraid I was of all the power that had been at my fingertips when I merged with Omega. I wanted to tell her about how terrified I was that I was going to kill Gabriel. That I wouldn't be able to stop myself from ending the life of the man I loved. Even if he had become a genocidal maniac.

"Hey."

I turned around and came face-to-face with Amy. Her eyes were tired and puffy, and I could tell she'd been crying. I knew she had been terrified Jay was going to die today. Even though he was quite okay. Even though he just needed a day or so of rest. I knew how she felt, though. And I knew it couldn't have been easy for her to focus on the battle with Gabriel when Jay was lying in some strange medical facility hundreds of meters underground in the palace's bunker.

"Hey," I said back, my voice sympathetic, "you okay?"

She nodded, sniffing. "Yeah, just…just tired. You?"

"Same," I laughed nervously. "How's Jay?"

She rolled her eyes. "Much better. He's already complaining about how he missed the best part of the fight."

I giggled, pushing my hair behind my ear. "He would."

"Tell me about it," she said, smiling. "I hear we're gonna be training with each other's Zordians?"

"Yeah, Zordon thinks it may be the only way we'll have a chance against SPD. I mean, you saw how much power I had when Omega and I BURST Executed. Imagine if we could all do that with each other's Zordians."

She shrugged. "Yeah…that's a lot of power."

She seemed uncomfortable with the prospect, not unlike I had been.

"Melissa told me what happened," I said quietly.

Her eyes widened as she looked at me.

"I know how you feel," I said, before she could argue or offer any excuses. "And…I know it doesn't make it any easier to hear that we all struggled with not killing the SPD troops. But…we don't have much of a choice."

"You didn't see me, Beth," she said, looking up at me with red, teary eyes. "I could have knocked them all out with a concussion wave of telekinesis. I could have…I could have broken all their blasters. I could have spared them." She looked away and down at the Zordian med bay. "But I killed them."

I had no words to comfort her. I didn't know how to justify what she'd done. What we all might have done. Especially because none of us were stopping to make sure the soldiers were still breathing when we were done kicking their asses. We had no idea what kind of damage we might have done. What kind of long-lasting scars our victims would have.

Even if we made it through the war—even if we won—it wouldn't feel like a victory. We would go home, back to Earth, to angry families. We'd return to our home planet as murderers, not heroes. And suddenly, I felt so far away from the rest of humanity. From Earth.

And as the planet I had called home seemed to die in my heart and fade in my mind, all I could do was remember my last day on Earth with Gabriel. Yesterday, but a million years ago.