Chapter 18: Ranger Hunt

Cheetah Village, Valley of Avalar…

Dylan Foutler…

The night came and went rather quickly. A whole day of hiking through a swamp and fighting off apes had really sapped our collective energy and sleep had come as quickly as we could bundle up in our sleeping bags. It wasn't until I woke up that I realized packing four teenagers in a small tent wasn't the greatest way to spend eight hours. I felt so stiff I could have been passed off as a rather convincing cardboard standee. So I spent an embarrassing amount of time just staring up at the roof of our small tent, debating if I should chance horrible agony for the sake of getting up.

However that choice would be made for me as I heard the sounds of claws and paw pads running down the nylon tent. "Ancestors sake, how do you open this thing?" I heard the voice of Swiftfoot complain from outside the tent. The tent's door was opened with a zipper, something that I guess Dragon Realmers weren't familiar with. I'd better help the guy out before he starts trying to cut into it with his claws or something.

Forcing myself to my feet, I carefully stepped over my still sleeping friends to help zip open our tent. All the while I had to wonder why Swiftfoot was trying to wake us up? Did he have something he needed to talk to us about? Or was he acting as our "wake up call"? Well, only one way to find out. The tent door unzipped and I was met with the furry face of Swiftfoot, who seemed dumbfounded by modern Human Realms camping equipment. "What's up?" I asked.

Swiftfoot shook off his confusion, "I'm sorry to wake you, but there is a matter in which I need to discuss with you," he said.

I stepped out of the tent to see it was pretty early in the morning. The grass still wet from the morning dew and the sky a rather pleasing purple color. "As you know, I told Chief Prowlus of your arrival last night," Swiftfoot began to explain. "Well, this morning, this arrived by carrier hawk," he said as he produced some kind of letter from his cape before handing it to me.

The letter had already been opened, and was in that weird language this world seemed to use and I had no hope of reading myself. "Uhh… I… I can't read this," I said sheepishly.

Swiftfoot was clearly fighting back a laugh at the stupid human that couldn't read a simple letter. "I apologize, it's easy to forget that you don't hail from this realm," he said. "It's a letter from the Guardians of Warfang, apparently Prowlus had mentioned your arrival in his daily report to the Dragon City," he explained. "They are on their way here to collect you and bring you to Warfang," he said.

Wow, there was a lot to unpack here. One, who the hell uses "messenger hawks"? I guess pigeons aren't metal enough. Two, how fast are these things to where they can send messages to and from Avalar overnight? And three, who the hell are "The Guardians of Warfang" and why should I go anywhere with them?

I could hear Ignitus awkwardly clearing his throat, "The Guardian Dragons are a group of four dragon masters tasked with looking after and training young dragons in their respective elements," Ignitus explained. "I should know, I was one myself," he revealed. Oh… well alright then. "But I do not know why they would be coming here, I guess the war had left Warfang without an active governing body and The Guardians stepped into their place," he theorized.

But I still had some questions of my own. "Why are they coming to pick us up? We're trying to find a morpher, not talk politics or whatever," I asked.

Swiftfoot shrugged, "I don't know, perhaps they know something about your morpher that we don't?" he theorized. "We won't know for sure until they arrive, which shouldn't be for a while," he said.

I don't see what they could possibly know that we don't. We already know someone took it and that someone had zero interest in helping us with the fight against Malefor. Speaking of which, "Well we do know a bit about the morpher already," I said. Swiftfoot cocked his head to the side, signaling me to talk to him as we walked. "We were told it would be in Spyro's brother's tomb when we warped here, but… well… it seems someone else beat us to it," I began to explain. "Said someone actually intervened in an ape attack against us, but after that was settled we quickly found out he wasn't exactly on board with joining our cause," I explained.

"I see," said Swiftfoot, "What do you know of this person? Any idea where he might hail from?" he asked me.

I shook my head, "All I know is that he's taken to calling himself the "Defender of Avalar"," I explained.

This caused Swiftfoot to stop in his tracks, "Defender of Avalar?" he questioned. "Sounds to me like this thief might be from our village," he theorized.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"There aren't many civilized folk in Avalar," said Swiftfoot. "That, and we had a run in with the apes during a supply run a little while ago," he added. "We were jumped by a band of ape bandits on the way back from Warfang, but before they could raid us a purple light attacked the apes, I had thought that it might have been the purple dragon, but now that you mention this "Defender of Avalar", it makes me wonder if it was your Purple Ranger," he explained.

That definitely fit with his MO, the guy must have fancied himself some kind of superhero defending travelers from roving bands of ape bandits. However, apparently there was a catch. "Problem is… I know a thousand cheetahs that could be the Purple Ranger, each one of us is a dedicated warrior devoted to defending our home," Swiftfoot explained. "And from how you describe him, I doubt he'll be all too willing to come forth," he said.

Yeah, and with The Guardians on their way to whisk us away to the Dragon City, we had a pretty tight time limit to find our Purple Ranger. "So, what do we do?" I asked.

"For now, keep quiet about it, I don't want to cause panic and mistrust among the tribe," said Swiftfoot. "I'll keep my eye out for your morpher, if I find out who has it I'll let you know," he explained.

I agreed, kicking up a fuss about it now would only make the Purple Ranger harder to find, or worse, cause him to turn tail and hide himself away until our time limit expired. Hopefully, Swiftfoot would weed out our Purple Ranger before then.

Meanwhile…

Elsewhere in the Village…

Zenith…

I didn't like having those other "rangers" in the village. No doubt they would inform my father and the other cheetahs about their encounter with me. I knew my father, he was smart, he would put two and two together eventually. I knew my only option was to keep an eye on them for now and hope they would move on eventually.

That wouldn't be hard, considering what an eyesore their tent was. It was this ugly, bright yellow things that stood out in the middle of the village like a sore thumb. I noticed one of them leave the tent, the green one. He stretched his limbs before strolling out of the tent with a pep in his step and an obnoxiously toothy smile on his face. I pegged this one as the upbeat, happy one. His athletic build made me think he might be a formidable fighter, something I needed to keep in mind should things go south and I end up having to fight them.

"Look Zenith, I know I sound like a broken record, but you should really consider just talking to them,"

My dragon spirit was once again making themselves a pain. I don't know why he was so insistent on me joining with these fools. Our goals conflicted with each other, they wanted to protect their world, I wanted to protect my village. I cannot do both. Besides, I didn't want to know these creatures.

"Suit yourself Zenith, but I still think it's worth at least trying to hear them out," said my Dragon Spirit. On that spirit, we did not agree. They had nothing to say that I wanted to hear.

"Sup man?"

Dammit! Thanks to my Dragon Spirit distracting me, the creature in green had decided to approach me. "Kinda noticed you standing there staring into space, you doing okay?" he asked me.

I had no time for this, "Nothing that concerns you ape," I spat.

The creature seemed taken aback by my tone. "Come on man, don't be like that, we're all friends here," he said.

"We are not friends," I snarled.

"Geeze, no need to be so hostile," the creature commented. You are really starting to annoy me ape, please leave before I claw your eyes out! "I'm Dean by the way," he introduced himself. As if I cared what this annoyance called himself.

"Zenith," I spat, if anything just to get this irritant to leave faster. "Go away please before I lose my patience," I added in hopes of speeding the process.

Suddenly the blue one emerged from the tent and noticed how annoyed his green friend was making me. "Dean, dude, I think this guy's about ten seconds from tearing you limb from limb," he said before turning to me, "You'll have to forgive Dean, he's the terminally friendly type," he explained.

Well, I'll say this much, liked him significantly more than his green cohort. Then again, that wasn't saying much. "Look, I have no interest in either of you, in fact, I look forward to whenever it is you decide to leave this village," I said before storming off. Ancestors… how does anyone tolerate these creatures?

Kevin Naton…

Well, isn't he a cuddly little kitty cat. Dude seemed to be overly aggressive even for a jungle cat. I don't know what his problem was but I was kinda glad he chose to leave instead of beating us within an inch of our lives.

Dean however, was confused by this new sensation of meeting someone who didn't share his sunny disposition. "I don't get it, all I did was say hi to him," he said.

I placed a friendly hand on Dean's shoulder. "Dean, buddy, some people… aren't into the whole "friend" thing," I told him. "I think, in the future, we should avoid that guy… I like my blood inside my body, and I'm sure you do too," I said.

Dean shook his head, "I dunno, I think there was something oddly familiar about that guy," he said.

"Dude, they're cheetah men, they all kinda look the same," I said.

Dean turned to me, "Dude, not cool man," he said.

"I didn't mean it like that!" I protested.

"Uh huh, suuure you didn't," said Dean. "I'm telling you man, I think we've met that guy somewhere before," he said.

I just rolled my eyes, "Well, while you're pondering that, I'm going to see if I can score some breakfast," I said before excusing myself. But as I walked through the village, I couldn't help but think Dean might have been onto something. I could have sworn I've heard that cheetah's voice before. Bah, it's probably nothing…

Meanwhile…

General Grave…

Valley of Avalar…

I was always taught to pay attention to minor details when I was a kid, that a smart ape was a powerful one. The identity of the Purple Ranger had always eluded me, that suit of his always hiding what he truly was underneath. But I knew the growl of a cheetah when I heard one, and thanks to those deformed apes, I managed to hear it before I retreated. And where did cheetahs come from? The Cheetah Village in Avalar.

I could see it from where I stood, an attack on the village was always in the cards, but I could never find a good enough reason to risk my men on it until now. If that cheetah thought he was gonna play dress up and mess with our business, he'd better be prepared to deal with the consequences.

"General Grave,"

One of my men approached me, "What are your orders once we reach the village?" he asked me.

I let a sadistic grin creep up my face, "We burn it to the ground, and kill as many cheetahs as we can," I said. It was time we taught the Purple Ranger, and the rest of this stinkin' realm that the apes were not to be trifled with…

Meanwhile…

Back at the Village…

Jessica Fox…

Everyone had seemed to have awoken from their slumber before me, since I woke up to an empty tent. I was still trying to adjust to the idea that I was in a different world, surrounded by bipedal cat men.

I exited the tent to find the village was already well into it's morning routines. Some cheetahs were training their marksmanship, others were tending to gardens. There was a strange quaintness to the Avalar Cheetah Village. It looked like such a simple life these feline creatures led. I wish I could say the same for my own, but the life of a Power Ranger was anything but simple.

I hated to admit it, and I'd never say it to their faces. But the cheetahs were kind of weirdly adorable, what with their fuzzy faces, big round eyes, and pointy ears. They looked so soft and cuddly, but I wasn't about to try anything of the sort lest I lose a limb. If anything, their cuteness helped ease some of the weirdness they exuded. It was a surreal experience seeing anthropomorphic animals in the flesh.

"I'm assuming you're one of these fabled Power Rangers I've been hearing about?"

I turned to see a rather elderly looking cheetah standing behind me. His eyes were a hunter green color, his fur was orange in color, but heavily faded from age. He wore a red cape with gold trim that was fastened in place by a gold buckle with a paw print printed in it. He used a thick wooden cane to support himself. "Uh… yes sir," I said, kind of nervous he caught me gawking at his fellow villagers.

The cheetah laughed weakly, "Strange creatures, I've never seen ones that look quite like you," he said before realizing something. "Oh, forgive me, I am Chief Prowlus, you may have heard my name thrown around by the villagers," he introduced himself.

So this wasn't just some old man, he was the Chief! Now I felt even more embarrassed. "I… uh… I'm Jessica, the uh… yellow ranger,"I introduced myself, doing a little bow out of instinct.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Jessica," said Prowlus. "I have to say, I was quite surprised to learn Spyro was still around, most of us had thought him dead," he said. "How is the purple dragon these days?" he asked me.

"He's uh… he's fine," I said, "A little overprotective sometimes, but he means well," I added, doing my best to fight off my social anxieties so as to not humiliate myself in front of the Chief.

Prowlus nodded, "He's a good dragon, but I'd be lying if I said our first meeting was a positive one," said Prowlus, "The first time we spoke to one another, he was tied to that pole over there," he said, pointing to an old wooden pole not too far from our tent. "I was much younger back then, much angrier, I wanted nothing to do with Spyro or any dragons for that matter… he wound up saving one of my villagers… that and a few years had mellowed my spirit quite a bit," he said with a half hearted chortle. Memories of his younger days probably flooding his aged mind. "To this day I regret not trusting Hunter's judgment more… sometimes I wish he were still around… he was a lot better at keeping me in line than I ever liked to admit," he said before coming to some sort of realization, "Oh, but I doubt you want to listen to this old feline mewl about his lost youth, in a way I'm glad you four came here," he said.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"The one thing Hunter always used to tell me was that the purple dragon always brought hope with him, by extension… so do you," he said. "And hope is in such short supply these days, what with Spyro and Cynder's disappearance, and the dark armies still scurrying about underfoot," he explained.

Wait, Cynder? "Who's Cynder?" I asked.

Prowlus seemed quite surprised by the question. "You don't know who Cynder is?" he asked. "How odd that Spyro wouldn't have mentioned her," he commented. "Cynder was the one who helped Spyro seal Malefor all those years ago, they fell in love shortly afterwards," he explained. Aw… Spyro managed to find love while defeating Malefor, that's so sweet. But… Why wouldn't he mention her? Spyro didn't seem to be willing to mention much of his life before he met us, maybe something happened to her?

"He doesn't talk much about his life before meeting us," I explained.

"It's probably too painful for him," Prowlus theorized, "I can't imagine leaving everything behind like he did, he probably doesn't like to think about it," he said. "Not that I would know, we weren't exactly close, our relationship purely a professional one up until he vanished over a decade ago," he added with a strange hint of remorse in his voice.

I could see that, I tried to imagine how I'd feel if I were forced to leave everyone I loved behind to save the world. I don't think I'd like to think about it much either, especially if I had a significant other in my life. "Does anyone know what happened to her? Cynder I mean?" I asked.

Prowlus shook his head, "She vanished shortly after Spyro did," he said. "She's probably out there somewhere, still looking for him," he theorized. There was something so tragically romantic about that, someone vanishing in search of a lost lover. Oddly I thought about Dylan for a moment, but quickly shoved that thought aside.

"Swiftfoot told me you have suspicions that this Purple Ranger you seek might be one of my own?" he asked. I knew nothing about this, in fact this was the first time I had heard about this. But it did make sense, there was an oddly cat like shape to the Purple Ranger's helmet. "It wouldn't surprise me, with our problems with the apes, things have become desperate, supplies are difficult to transport, cheetahs have gone missing while out on hunts, I guess one of them got sick of losing their comrades and decided to take matters into their own hands," he theorized. "If there's anything you noticed about this cheetah, please, I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me," he asked me.

I thought about our encounter with the Purple Ranger, looking for anything that might be of use to Prowlus. "He sounded young, like he was our age," I said. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

Prowlus closed his eyes and nodded his head, "It's not that I don't appreciate what this young cheetah is doing, but if there's one thing I've learned over the course of my life, it's the importance of looking beyond the village, and considering the bigger picture," he told me. "This cheetah is wasting such power on only our village when he can do so much more," he said. "I'm old enough to have witnessed Malefor's evil first hand, I shudder at the thought of experiencing that horror again, that is why I find helping you Power Rangers so important… no world should have to go through what ours did," he said.

"Do you think we can convince him? The Purple Ranger I mean?" I asked.

Prowlus sighed, "If he's anything like I was during my younger years, convincing him won't be easy, some cheetahs are quite stubborn, set in their ways, but if there is good in the Purple Ranger, any at all, you should be able to reach it," he told me.

I sure hope so, I'd hate for all of this to be for nothing…

Meanwhile…

Dylan Foutler…

So far we haven't been able to find any clue as to the identity of our Purple Ranger. I'd been watching cheetah's wrists for morphers but so far all of them were clean. I really hope Swiftfoot was having better luck than I was. I noticed a young cheetah in purple marching towards me, he was keeping his arms hidden under his cape for some reason. Making me wonder if he was our Purple Ranger.

But he noticed me looking at him and shot me a nasty death glare. "You got something to say to me ape?" he asked. Okay, the use of the word "ape", I'm pretty sure that's a Dragon Realm slur for humans, thus I found it a bit offensive.

"Geeze man, who stepped in your cornflakes this morning?" I commented.

The cheetah approached me, getting right up in my face. "Let's just say I've had more than enough of you "Power Rangers"," he snarled.

"Why? What'd we ever do to you?" I asked.

"Dunno… guess I just don't like primates," he said.

"Zenith?"

Both of us turned to see Swiftfoot approaching. "Is there a problem here?" he asked us.

The cheetah glared at me, "No father, none at all," he said rather ominously.

Wait, this guy was Swiftfoot's son? I guess it makes sense, their fur and eyes were similar, and they both wore purple. But I kinda wish Swiftfoot's son would have inherited at least a little bit of his father's class.

Swiftfoot turned to Zenith, "Son, if you don't mind, the Red Ranger and I have things we need to discuss," he said. Zenith sneered and shot me a dirty look before leaving. Swiftfoot turned to me with a sigh, "He's a good kid, I promise," he said. Uh-huh, I'll mark that under "doubtful". "I'm sorry to say, I haven't made much progress on uncovering the identity of your Purple Ranger," he said.

I lowered my head, "Me neither," I said. I then noticed Zenith suddenly stopped, his ears perking up as if something we said caught his attention.

"Do you remember any more details about the Purple Ranger that might help us?" Swiftfoot asked me.

I thought back to our encounter with the Purple Ranger, dissecting the memory for anything useful to our search. "He sounded young, late teens if I were to ballpark it," I said. I chanced another look at Zenith, instantly noticing him tense up. That theory about him being our guy was starting to look pretty convincing right now.

Swiftfoot noticed me staring at his son. "No, it's not Zenith," he said rather aggressively. I turned to him. "I know my son, he wouldn't hide something like that from me," he said.

I had to tread very carefully here, if I ticked Swiftfoot off by accusing his son it would make finding the Purple Ranger very difficult. "He's one of the only ones I haven't seen the wrists of, he's hiding them under his cape," I pointed out.

Swiftfoot shook his head, "It's... not... him," he said.

Before this could get any worse, we suddenly heard a distant cry coming from the distance, it was only after a while that we could make it out.

"They're coming! The apes! They're headed for the village!"

Swiftfoot and I dropped our little conversation to go check out what was going on. We soon found a cheetah carrying an injured cheetah through the entrance. Swiftfoot instantly rushed to help carry the injured feline. "Talk to me Kovo, what happened?" he asked the other cheetah.

"We were out scouting the river when an army of apes attacked us, Korin was severely injured during the attack but we managed to escape," he explained. "But not before we overheard their plans to attack the village directly," he added. A chorus of shocked gasps sounded from the village coupled by hushed murmurs.

"Are you sure, Kovo?" asked Swiftfoot, "The apes have never been known for subtlety, but they've never been so bold as to attack our village directly," he said.

"I'm certain," said Kovo, "They said something about retaliation for the Purple Ranger's interference in their raids," he explained. I quickly looked to Zenith, who had a shocked expression on his face.

Things were getting out of hand and I wasn't about to keep playing this stupid cat and mouse game with him. I quickly stormed up to Zenith who didn't see me coming in time to stop me from grabbing his right wrist. "Hey! What are you doing?!" protested the cheetah before I held his wrist up high for everyone to see, and lo and behold. He had it on him, the Purple Dragon Morpher.

Gotcha.

Everyone looked in disbelief as they saw Zenith had the morpher this whole time. Some were angry, others were confused. "Care to explain… Purple Ranger?" I asked him. Zenith shot me a death glare as everyone waited for his response.

Zenith wrenched his wrist free, "Fine! I admit it! I'm the Purple Ranger!" he snapped. More gasps and murmurs sounded from the crowd.

"I knew it!" sounded the voice of Dean, "I knew I heard your voice somewhere before!" he said. Suddenly Zenith found himself surrounded by all four Power Rangers with a lot of explaining to do!

However, our reactions were far from the most angry. Out of nowhere I found myself violently shoved aside by an absolutely livid Swiftfoot. "THIS WHOLE TIME!?" he practically screamed at his son. "It was you this whole time we've been trying to help the Power Rangers find that morpher, only to learn it was on your wrist?! How could you Zenith?" he scolded his son.

Zenith at first said nothing, just looking off to the side as his father yelled at him, before finally responding. "The village needs me, father, far more than these four do!" he said.

Swiftfoot was beside himself, "It was you, this whole time… picking fights with ape bandits… and now they're coming here to kill us all in retaliation," he said. "Of all the careless, selfish things I've ever heard! That morpher was made to save worlds! Not pick on bandits!" he lectured Zenith.

"What was I supposed to do father?!" Zenith snapped back. "They were killing our people! Taking vital supplies from us! I found that morpher and I finally had the power to do something about it! So I did!" he yelled. "I thought you'd be happy?!" he said.

"Happy?" Swiftfoot questioned. "Malefor could be laying waste to countless innocents as we speak, and the one thing that can help the Power Rangers stop him is instead being used by my own cub to serve his own selfish ends!" he scolded Zenith. "I raised you better than this! What would your mother think?!" he said.

"Don't bring mother into this!" Zenith snapped. "I did this for us! For our people! How is that selfish?!" he asked.

"Because you chose to help a small village, when you could have helped everyone!" said Swiftfoot. "The Red Ranger told me he suspected you, but I didn't want to believe him! I didn't want to believe my own son would be so selfish as to forsake an entire realm." he growled.

All four of us rangers just sort of stood there awkwardly as Swiftfoot argued with his son over his decision to use a morpher so powerful Spyro decided to trash it out of fear of it literally killing people, and decided, ya know what? This would be great for beating up apes!

But saying that, I couldn't really blame Zenith for trying to use the morpher to help his people. I probably would have done the same thing if I were in his shoes.

But I guess Zenith had had enough of arguing with his father and decided to turn the eye of ire to me. "You! This is all your fault!" he accused us. "You just had to go snooping around didn't you?! I told you not to follow me and you did it anyway!" he scolded us.

"Dude, we need that morpher to beat Malefor!" I said. "Forgive us for not being very eager to give up on that!" I protested.

Zenith suddenly pulled out a very familiar looking saber from under his cloak. "You want this morpher, ape?" he said, "Come and take it!" he challenged us before jamming the gem in it's crossguard into his morpher.

"Dragon's Roar! Ranger Form! Aether!"

The cheetahs were all shocked and amazed as they watched Zenith transform into the Purple Ranger. However, said awe didn't last as Zenith soon doubled over in pain as the Aether energy began to wreak havoc on his body. Swiftfoot was horrified as he watched his son struggle to contain the power of his morpher. "Zeniths stop this! This power is clearly too much for your body to handle!" Swiftfoot pleaded with his son.

Zenith turned to his father, "Be silent!" he snarled before he soon managed to somehow contain his power before turning to me. "Come Red Ranger, come and take this morpher back if you can," he challenged me.

Dean looked to me, "Dylan, you can't seriously be considering taking him up on that," he pleaded. But I knew better, the look in his eyes as he morphed told me all I needed to know, that he wasn't budging on this and I needed to do some convincing.

"Dragon's Roar! Ranger Form! Fire!"

Everyone in the village stood in awe as I transformed into the Red Ranger. Me and Zenith were probably the first Power Rangers they've ever seen in full costume. "Don't be stupid about this Zenith, we're out to protect your people along with everyone else in both realms," I said.

However Zenith was unconvinced. "Lies! You only care about your own realm!" he accused me as we began to circle each other. "You don't get it! None of you get it! Someone has to take a stand against the apes! And that someone is me!" he said as he readied his saber.

"Sword of Flame!" I called, summoning my own weapon. "I don't want to fight you Zenith," I said.

"Well I very much want to fight you!" replied Zenith before he launched into his attack. I had barely enough time to block his slashes. "I wanted to wait you out until you finally left, but it seems I have to take matters into my own paws!" he snarled as our swords clashed.

I tried to catch him off guard with a leg sweep, but he jumped over it and scored a hard flying roundhouse to my head, sending me spiraling to the ground. "Get up! I'm not done with you yet!" Zenith snarled.

I quickly got back to my feet. "This is ridiculous! We shouldn't be fighting! We're on the same side!" I said before Zenith tried to catch me off guard with a few slash attacks, I blocked a few but he eventually managed to tag me across the chest with his blade.

"Like hell we are!" Zenith protested. "You want me to forsake my people for your stupid world!" he said.

"Malefor is a threat to both worlds, Zenith!" I said. "If we don't stop him now, he'll just end up destroying your people anyway!" I explained before being forced to dodge a horizontal slash from Zenith's saber and managing to counter with a roundhouse to the side of his head, causing him to stumble a bit. "Don't be an idiot! If you don't help us, you're going to lose a lot more than your village!" I said as I deflected another slash only to be kicked in the gut by Zenith.

It was clear Zenith had the upper hand here, his combat experience coupled with the sheer raw power of the Purple Dragon Morpher was going to get the better of me eventually. My only chance was to try to convince him to do the right thing and stand down. "Look Zenith, I get it, you want to protect your people, and I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't have done the same if I were you," I began to explain. "But you've gotta look at the bigger picture here! If Malefor isn't stopped, it won't matter if you stop the apes because he'll just destroy your village along with everything else!" I pleaded with him.

I noticed Zenith begin to struggle a bit, his Aether power surging through his body, "Shut up Dragon Spirit! He's not right! He's LYING!" he screamed. Wait… Zenith has a Dragon Spirit? How is that even possible? Spyro used his own magic to power that morpher, and he was alive and well back in the Dragon Temple!

But I wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, his Dragon Spirit was on my side here. "Zenith listen to me! I know what it's like to be afraid for those you love, to want to do whatever it takes to protect them, but we're Power Rangers, our duty is to the world both of them, not just our little pieces of them," I said. "All you're doing by fighting me is wasting precious time and mana, I know you're not a bad person, I know somewhere deep inside you is a noble Power Ranger who can do so much good for both realms! Please! Stand down and listen to reason!" I pleaded with him.

Zenith cried out in frustration. His mind was conflicted, I could tell. "Shut up! Just SHUT UP!" he screamed as Aether crackled and sparked from his body. The Aether was starting to hurt him! Oh god… he might die!

"Zenith! Your power is tearing your body apart!" I said, "We can help you control it! But you've gotta stop fighting me before it kills you!" I begged him.

Swiftfoot finally decided he had seen enough and rushed to his son's aid. "Zenith please! The Red Ranger is right! I won't watch my son die because he's too stubborn to see the truth!" he pleaded with him before embracing his son in a tight hug. "Please son! You're smarter than this! Don't let your power destroy you!" he pleaded.

The Aether began to die down, "I don't want to abandon my village father," he said with a weak sob.

"You aren't abandoning anything by joining the other rangers," said Swiftfoot, "They need you, and you need them," he said. "The Red Ranger said they can help you control this power, if you won't join them to save their world, at least do it to save yourself! This power, it's too much for you, please… see reason..." he begged his son.

Zenith lowered his head, "Father… I'm… I'm sorry," he said.

But before more could be said, the village gates suddenly flew open, revealing an army of apes behind them, led by none other than General Grave. "I'm sorry, are we interrupting something?" asked Grave with a dry laugh.

The ape stepped forward, "Men… kill them all… leave nothing standing," he ordered his men.

A/N: Uh-Oh! Looks like this little discussion is going to have to be tabled for now!

This chapter took a lot longer than I wanted it to, mainly because I decided to rewrite it due to not liking the direction I took it in. I want to make sure you guys get the absolute best out of me.