A/N: Guess who's back!? I promise, I will finish my stories. Thank you to all who are sticking with me through the craziness of life. As always, please give a review if you take the time to read this!

Aquitian guards casually paced through the occupied Power Chamber, guarding the former base of the Zeo Rangers with a little concern for their surroundings. They were assigned a hidden base on a fallen planet. The grunts felt little urgency as the one sided war raged far away from them. They were simply warm bodies to protect a great, yet concealed treasure. Most felt they were wasted on such a bland assignment.

In an instant the everlasting calm and quiet came to an end.

A crescent blade flew through the crowd with horrifying grace, striking down the majority of the alien invaders. The survivors reacted with confusion as they looked for the source of their allies' killer, but the monster among them was too swift. A shadowy figure leaped into the remaining crowd. No one truly had time to react to the efficient flurry of strikes. Limbs were broken and necks were snapped in terrifying succession, until all that remained was a solitary figure standing amongst a pile of corpses. The lone warrior effortlessly caught the flying weapon as it returned.

Scorpina moved through the slaughtered warriors, approaching the main console of the Power Chamber. For years of her life this had been an unobtainable goal, a dream beyond her wildest imagination. Yet as she looked down at her one time endgame, she could only laugh to herself as she reached to manipulate the controls. She was here for the exact opposite of her original goal. She could see the faded out powers of the Zeo and Turbo Rangers, and the now independent structure of the original Rangers. Despite her brief crash course on manipulating these consoles, nothing was responding to any of her inputs. She frowned in confusion, and scanned the room briefly for anything that could clue her into what was happening, enemy or not. She knew she was short on time.

"Lami."

Scorpina froze at the call of the name she hadn't heard in over a millenia.

"Who's there!?" Scorpina demanded, the console forgotten. She turned to scan the room, but only saw bodies and darkness.

"A friend, at one time," the booming voice reminded her. "Then an enemy, and now a friend once again. Listen to me."

Scorpina lowered her defensive stance, having finally recognized the ancient voice. Of course it would be him, here in their home.

"Zordon."

"The power lives on," the ancient warrior spoke from nowhere. "Lend me your mortal form."

Scorpina turned to the controls, and listened to her ancient ally. "Can you return their power?"

The ghostly, booming chuckle that followed was only slightly unnerving. "I can free it."

Scorpina looked to her right hand as a brilliant ball of pure light formed in it. She held her arm outstretched from the raw energy as it pulsed, in awe of it for only a moment. It didn't take long for her to feel purpose and determination. With a loud, uncontrolled shout she slammed the orb into console. It dispersed on impact, and all the consoles in the forlorn chamber simultaneously burst into fiery explosions. Scorpina silently noted the few trails of brilliantly colored energy that scattered from the consoles, vanishing from sight quickly.

"Did it work!?" Scorpina demanded of her unseen help.

She was only answered with silence. Her heart pounded in her chest as she felt the pressure of every single passing second. There was no answer, and for the first time she felt alone in the Rangers' fallen headquarters. The lack of response was enough for her. She had other priorities, far greater than anything in this room. She turned and brought a hand to her earpiece as she walked away from the consoles.

"Goldar, if you can hear me, get out."

The sound of screaming from the cell block attracted the two guards. They had been assigned to watch over the four high value prisoners from the invasion of KO-35, and just as soon as they stepped away things had apparently gone south. TJ and Zane were in one cell, shouting across at Andros and Karone. The brother and sister were on the ground in the middle of a violent brawl. The guards panicked, as they knew that Vile wanted all the Rangers alive to witness his victory. If they killed themselves, it was on these poor wardens.

"You betrayed us!" Andros screamed as he threw another punch at his sister.

"You're the coward!" Karone shouted right back as she swung her own strike.

"Hey! Hey!" one of the guards shouted as he unlocked the door and ripped it open. "Cut it out!"

The guards stormed in and immediately tried to pull the fighting siblings from each other. Andros was hoisted to his feet by one guard, while the other tried to drag Karone backwards. The lackeys were completely stunned when Andros and Karone turned and immediately grabbed the invaders, bashing them violently into each other. They collapsed to the ground out cold, and the siblings could only smile.

"Nice work," Andros said as he reached down to pull the keys from their belts.

"You too," Karone said as she rubbed her jaw. "You didn't have to sell it that much, though."

"Just a little catharsis," Andros winked as he moved into the hall and unlocked TJ and Zhane's cell. "You're still my annoying little sister after all."

"Very funny," Karone said with a touch of annoyance.

"Adorable," TJ bluntly said to get them back on track. "We're out, but we're still in an occupied base. Now what?"

"Now we need to get back to the Megaship, and find Trey," Andros said. "There's got to be somewhere we link up with everyone."

"We can't do anything in here," Zhane reminded them. "Let's get to the ship, and worry about everything else when we're airborne."

"That's enough of a plan for me," TJ nodded.

Zhane and Karone briefly held hands and smiled while Andros and TJ claimed the weapons off the unconscious guards. They locked the cell behind them, and the four of them made their way into the base, and hopefully towards their freedom.

Goldar grunted as he parried another sword strike, moving backwards as he did. He had been forced on the defensive since the arrival of the remaining Aquitan Rangers. At least, the Rangers that were still alive. What a pleasure to be a beneficiary of his former foes' killing sprees for once. If only they knew to appreciate the reversal as well. In time they would. For the moment, he refused to show the slightest bit of weakness in his triumphant return to battle.

"Surrender!" Aurico demanded as Tideus and Cestro lined up on either side of him. All three held their swords ready to strike. "We may find use for your life if you give up now!"

"You and your weapons are no match for me!" Goldar cackled as he brandished his two armaments.

The three Aquitan Rangers leaped forward at once, and Goldar was quick to meet them. Between his two blades he intercepted Aurico and Tideus's strikes, and with his armor he took the brunt of Cestro's strike. A swift kick punted the Blue Aquitar Ranger away, but allowed the Red and Yellow Rangers the time to close the gap. Aurico's sword was devastating against even his strong armor, but even forced to a kneel from the sudden counter attack Goldar was able to deflect the incoming attack from at least Tideus. The Yellow Ranger looked shocked to see Goldar parry his attack, but Goldar merely responded with a powerful headbutt.

While Tideus stumbled away Aurico lunged forward, desperate to make contact with the golden monster. Goldar was quick to rise to his feet, swinging his sword upwards as he did. The Red Alien Ranger screamed in pain at the impact, and was thrown backwards to the ground. Before the golden monster could continue his assault, Cestro leaped in behind Goldar and delivered three powerful slashes of his own. He tried to keep the barrage going longer, but Goldar violently spun and and swung the Dragon Dagger to catch the side of Cestro's helmet. The Blue Alien Ranger was repelled, but he'd achieved his goal.

Goldar realized then that the three Rangers had him surrounded now. He let out a low growl as he tried to move his eyes between them, turning his body as he needed. One was always out of sight. The Rangers held their weapons ready, when they heard some sort of static from Goldar. Cestro squinted to see the beast was wearing an earpiece of sorts. Someone had said something, and Goldar's expression had returned to a cocky one.

The remaining Alien Rangers watched as Goldar raised the Dragon Dagger to his lips and played one of the familiar tunes. Aurico and Tideus recognized that there were only two real tunes that anyone ever played across that instrument, but Cestro knew better. The Blue Alien Ranger was a researcher, and studied the various parts of Ranger powers. He stood alone with the late Billy Cranston as one of the only two to recognize the subtleties of the different inflections played on the weapon that never used it themselves. So he recognized that Goldar was playing a tune of retreat. Sure enough, the Dragonzord began to plow through Serpents behind them, making a break for the ocean.

"You can't escape!" Cestro shouted, cueing his allies into what was happening.

"Fools!" Goldar cackled. "The one thing the Rangers could never prevent was me living to fight another day."

"You're in the deadliest warzone seen in the past thousand years," Tideus reminded him with a scoff. "You try to run from, we'll cut you down. We all know you're losing this fight. You fly away from us, you'll be shot down by our snipers or our Zord army. We have air support and ground troops covering every inch of this city for at least a hundred m-"

Goldar vanished in a puff of golden smoke.

"…Find him!" Aurico screamed as he realized what had happened after a short delay. He quickly tapped the side of his helmet to transmit to the entire invading army. "Find him! Find Goldar! Goldar is in this city and I want him brought to the command ship!"

The three Rangers listened to the exploding chatter over their helmet's radios. They stood beside each other as they watched the Dragonzord force its way through their fleet, and descend into the depths of the ocean. It wouldn't be safe there forever, but for the time being they had no means to mount an aquatic assault. They would have to call for specialized units from their homeworld. Once those units arrived, they would be unstoppable by anything else in the known universe in their terrain.

Aurico clenched his fist. Would they arrive before Goldar revealed what he had been doing here?